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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c18153fd9080ca4938eb1e311c2e644","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1c3695c5-5f95-4173-b16c-c6976716aba7/retrieve","id":"-1504569634"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a28707e-4e56-4d81-aa45-67a9174dd80c","pagecount":"46","content":"In addition to the focus countries, regional engagement and a series of virtual events and stakeholder interviews have been synthesised into the knowledge series. We would like to thank the time and expertise from stakeholders for interviews, workshops, regional events and sharing their insights towards this important project.This section provides a brief analysis of the history, progress and key bottlenecks related to the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative within Senegal. It also provides an overview of key institutions responsible for coordinating and implementing GGW-related activities within the focus country.The GGW in Senegal is 545 km long, 15 km wide and involves three regions: Louga, Matam and Tambacounda. The population affected by this project is 322 221 inhabitants.Senegal was one of the first countries where the GGW was operationalised, starting with the creation of the Senegalese National Agency of the Great Green Wall (ANGMV) in 2008, through the leadership of former President Abdoulaye Wade. In 2014 the GGW initiative was ratified.According to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the implementation of the GGW initiative can be attributed to institutional continuity between 2005 and 2012, and the active participation of scientific, institutional, research and academic partners, such as the Cheick Anta Diop Dakar University (UCAD), the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), the Institut Senegalais de Recherche Agricole, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture (ILRI, 2022).In 2019, Haidar El Ali was appointed Director General of the Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the GGW (ASERGMV). The Agency was by decree merged with two other structures, extending its portfolio to also cover eco-villages and reforestation (Savadogo, personal communication, 2022). As such, the newly created ASERGMV is a \"super structure\", based in Dakar, that operates under the technical supervision of the Minister of Forestry and the financial supervision of the Finance Ministry. It implements and overseas all sustainable land management (SLM) interventions nation-wide.ASERGMV now has three departments:1. The management of the GGW;2. The management of ecovillages; and,The management of reforestation.The Agency's core mandate is to continue to re-green the GGW area and to reforest the whole of Senegal. The 2020 GGW Global Report (UNFCCD, 2020) indicates that Senegal had restored a total area of 119 202 hectares (ha), as of 2019, broken down as follows: 72 452 ha reforested area, 33 500 under Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) and 13 205 km of windbreaks. These achievements required the production of 18 million seedlings/plants and resulted in the creation of 1 396 jobs.Total funding allocated to the GGW in Senegal, as of 2019, amounted to US$18.3 million of international funding (UNFCCD 2020). The domestic funding allocated to the GGW is not reported in the 2020 report.The ASERGMV's general mandate is to intensify reforestation, develop ecovillages and implement the GGW. This mandate includes mobilizing actors to implement and maintain reforestation activities, create green jobs, ensure access to renewable energy in ecovillages and support sound water management as well as sustainable funding sources for these eco-villages.The national strategy for the GGW focuses on:• Local appropriation -implementing GGW with and for local communities, through local authorities;• Development partnerships; and • Job creation for youth and women and poverty eradication (African Union 2022).The ASERGMV includes a Surveillance Council (which include a representative from the Presidency, representatives from the Ministries of Finances, Community Development, Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Wellbeing, Youth, and a representative from the Union of Associations of the Locally Elected Officials) who meet on a quarterly basis.The ASERGMV Director General is nominated by the Minister of Forestry and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the decisions made by the Surveillance Council.In 2020, the Agency signed a framework agreement with the Programme for the Inclusive and Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Senegal (PDIDAS). Partnership agreements to support implementation were also signed with the Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances, which represents more than 7 600 sports and cultural associations in Senegal. Partnership agreements were also signed with numerous cities in the Louga, Thiès, Casamance and Tambacounda regions, as well as with CorpsAfrica (which has placed 20 volunteers in 10 regions in support of establishing Tolou Keur, i.e. 'circular gardens'), and with Fabrimétal in Dakar (which has developed a tree nursery near its factory, from where it distributes saplings free of charge for reforestation and sponsors the Tolou Keur of Belvédère).On the ground, 2 000 water and forestry agents are responsible for supporting the implementation of the programme in the field. These agents supervise the 7 000 young people recruited by the agency for GGW activities.All actors are represented within the national GGW multi-stakeholder consultation frameworks, including state structures, NGOs, civil society organisations, the private and parastatal sectors and research institutions. The modus operandi of these consultation frameworks at different levels is described below:• At the local level (local authorities/communes), meetings are held on a quarterly basis. The Agency signs territorial plans with monitoring and implementation mechanisms, validates the plans, and provides guidance and recommendations. Issues emerging from these local meetings are fed into the regional meetings (Diop, personal communication, 2022). To promote coordination the Agency has brought together all the mayors of the GGW intervention zone and established performance contracts. In addition, the Agency has recently set up a schedule of conditions between the communities (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• At the regional level, meetings are held every six months. The results of these meetings are consolidated in a follow-up report that is used to inform the annual national meeting (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• At the national level, an annual meeting is convened during which the work plan and budget for the coming year are validated. The ASERGMV submits an annual report to the Pan-African Agency of the GGW (PA-GGW). The technical committee of national GGW experts (focal points) meets once a year to prepare for the annual Council of Ministers of the Environment and the Conference of Heads of State (Diop, personal communication, 2022).Meetings with the PA-GGW and its implementation partners happen in an informal manner -meetings are organised on an ad hoc basis and this informal arrangement has proved functional (Boëte, personal communication, 2022).In March 2021, a Presidential Council on GGW met to discuss the development of a national coalition to implement GGW. This meeting resulted in 10 recommendations, including the creation of consultation frameworks at the national, regional and local level.The national consultation framework will gather actors across all relevant ministries, as well as civil society, to leverage the GGW for resilient socioeconomic development. In addition, local planning contracts will be signed with all 17 local authorities in order to increase local communities' participation in the GGW, with technical, financial and operational support provided by the Government of Senegal (AU, 2022).In March 2021, Oumar Abdoulaye Ba was appointed the Director General of the ASERGMV. He has been described by his peers as very dynamic and pro-active. Since his arrival, ASERGMV has been revitalised, with more partnerships and better visibility in the field. Upon taking office, the Director General took European Union and US ambassadors to the GGW field sites to sensitize them to the project.The Director General is reportedly reviewing the Agency's organisational chart and is actively putting the ASERGMV on a highly technological pathway (Ba, personal communication, 2022). This technological focus is apparent in the strategic orientation of the Agency , as captured by the UNCDD (2002). The Great Green Wall Accelerator's briefing note underlines Senegal's focus on the \"promotion of the green economy, articulated around the strengthening of SMEs and their economic environment\" (GGW Pillar 1: Investment in farms, value chains, local markets, exports), as well as on the \"development of techniques and technologies for reforestation and integrated and sustainable management of ecosystems\" (GGW Pillar 2: Land restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems). With regards to the GGW Pillar 3 (Climate resilient infrastructures and access to renewable energy), Senegal's priority is to \"develop techniques and technologies that are resilient to climate change both in the field of agro-sylvo-pastoral and fishing production (food security), in access to alternative energy (energy security) and in the prevention of risks and disasters\". This is illustrated for instance by the purchase of solar powered digging machinery (Ba, personal communication, 2022). Under GGW Pillar 4 (Frameworks for effective governance, sustainability, stability and security), Senegal's reported main intent is to \" improv(e) the institutional and economic environment of the programme intervention area\". Lastly, in terms of the Agency's capacity building priority (GGW Pillar 5) Senegal seeks to \"develop capacity building activities for the various stakeholders for the effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of the programme\" (UNCCD, 2022:25).Among the new partnerships engaged in by the Agency, notable is the partnership with the Moroccan Office Cherifien des Phosphates. Through this partnership, ASERGMV has acquired new equipment such a solar-powered shovel tractor to plant trees (Ba, personal communication, 2022).The ASERGMV, under the leadership of the new Director General, embarked on a new 'Integrator' programme for the GGW. This programme is providing support for the development of a new fiveyear strategic plan for the ASERGMV.One of the challenges highlighted by national GGW stakeholders was that many of the programmes had limited impact at ground level. Sufficient studies have been done on the biophysical context for land restoration in Senegal, but the funds are not reaching the communities. Generally, the sense was that an adequate skills base was in place, but the costs of land restoration processes was a barrier. That being said, new skills development may be required as ASERGMV ratchets up its use of modern technologies, for example, training on the piloting of drones.A key issue plaguing the progress of the GGW, as related by the GGW Director in Senegal, Colonel Diop, is the lack of adequate and systematic information sharing. This challenge will be addressed by a new communications department withinASERGMV.There is also further work to be done in terms of the analysis of degraded lands in Senegal. It has been suggested that the Institute of Soil Science needs to strengthen the technical capacity of its teams to support accurate assessment of the total amount of degraded land by type of degradation and to assess all the land restoration interventions that are being carried out. This would allow stakeholders to better understand the status of national land restoration efforts, identify good practice, and assess progress against stated policy objectives (Sow, personal communication, 2022).The ASERGMV is currently working to translate into a national programme the PA-GGW Decennial Priority Investment Plan (DPIP) Critical bottlenecks flagged with regards to researchinclude:• Technical expertise in restoration is not matched by strong research on the socio-economic dimensions of restoration, which might constitute one of the main stumbling blocks to the longterm sustainability of interventions;• Critical research topics concerning water stress and water management are not adequately addressed;• The lack of coordination in the research undertaken around the GGW;• The lack of a central repository where all the research linked to the GGW in Senegal could be housed;• Research is often top down and not fed back to the community level;• The lack of research funding to support Senegalese researchers. Research organisations such as the Observatoire Homme-Milieu could increase their research production if more funding was allocated to support PHD and Master candidates;• Research grants are allocated for short time periods (2-3 years), whereas the monitoring of restoration takes place over long time periods (i.e. 10 years); and,• There are gaps in the mapping of stakeholders on the ground and facilitation of information flow to synergise initiatives.Senegal's needs around consolidating platforms is ambiguous. Colonel Diop, the GGW-A Director, has argued that there are already adequate consultation frameworks and that the focus should lie in strengthening these platforms rather than creating new ones. He further underlined that those platforms set up by international NGOs are not sustainable.Others also argue that existing platform structures, especially those that seek to integrate SLM efforts, need additional support. The multi-stakeholder, inter-ministerial platform called the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management is a case in point. This platform was originally launched under the Terra Africa platform and administered by the World Bank. It was then formally adopted as a ministerial framework in 2014, with support from the EU. This framework brings together different actors working on SLM, in an attempt to integrate interventions related to the GGW. The framework includes a portfolio of projects and is intended to be a framework for dialogue and investment in SLM. However, this framework is not very active.The actors want a formalisation of this organisational structure, which is one of the objectives of the Riposte project. For a while the committee sought formal recognition from the Presidency, then from the office of the Prime Minister. In October 2022, all the stakeholders involved in the platform met and decided that the platform would fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, and a committee was established to support further activities. The committee drafted a technical note addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture in support of the institutionalisation of this structure. Strategic partners were also requested to support this initiative (Sow, personal communication, 2022). Engagement with various stakeholders in the 1. The Decennial Priority Investment Plan (DPIP) will be a reference framework for planning and technical and financial execution of the activities and financial resources required for their implementation. The national consultation framework initiated by the National Agency of Senegal is focused on fostering a national coalition to gather actors across all Ministries, as well as civil society, to leverage GGW for resilient, socio-economic development. This is reflected in the above mentioned effort by the Agency to establish local planning contracts with 17 local authorities in order to increase local communities' participation in the GGW, with technical, financial and operational support provided by the Government of Senegal (AU 2022).Prior to the establishment of the GGW national coalition in early 2022, stakeholders underlined that there was a dire lack of inclusion and information sharing with many relevant actors. However, all key stakeholders were included in the establishment of the national coalition and the activities of the coalition itself may well serve to address these concerns. Going forward, there is a need to ensure the systematic inclusion and information sharing with all actors (including non-state actors) relevant to the GGW (Mbaye, personal communication, 2022). At a national level, a priority should be to support formalising the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management (Sow, personal communication, 2022).There doesn't seem to be a system of clear data and evidence organisation related to the GGW ambitions and this lack of a centralised system was flagged as problematic by the GGW Accelerator. The ASEGMV website is out of date and, in the words of the Director, information is not shared adequately, which gives a poor reflection of the work Senegal is doing and undermines its relationships with other governmental entities, the donor community and non-state actors (Diop, personal communication, 2022).At the national level, each entity has its own data. The research identified several initiatives involved in centralising data linked to SLM and climate change on existing platforms:  • The National Council for Food Security has developed a Land Resource Information System (SIRT) to use modern information and communication technologies to provide information on the specific resourcesbiophysical, social and economic -of each of the defined territories. It is also a tool for integrating this knowledge for better decision-making in support of enhanced food security and resilience.• A database of reforestation and GGW initiatives and actors is listed on a Google Maps database.The latest updates to the map date back to 2021 and speak of the tree planting the Agency supported in some areas.There are several climate information services (CIS) available in Senegal:•  Two additional platforms with a focus on climate change adaptation will be developed for Senegal by ClimBer through the Governance for Resilience (G4R) project, which will be rolled out in 2022-2025. These are:• The Early Warning, Early Action, Early Finance (AWARE) platform that will be used as trigger mechanism to manage the response to floods and droughts, developing standard operating procedures with the relevant stakeholder coalitions. The purpose is not to duplicate data but to co-create locally-owned specific datasets for Senegal, reflecting the needs of disaster risk management stakeholders in Senegal (ClimBer 2022).• The ClimAdapt-Gov dashboard aims at empowering farmers, communities and policy planners to help community or provincial level organisations assess different resilience strategies at their scale, using simple resilience assessment indicators that could monitor if the portfolio of adaptation options they chose is right for their community and if there is resilience impact (ClimBer, 2022).The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is a global network aiming to document, share, and apply SLM knowledge. The network establishes an innovative space for sharing and scaling good practices to address land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. This facilitates local, national, regional and global knowledge sharing and analysis of which good practices work where, how and why, and their costs and benefits. The WOCAT Global SLM Database has been officially recognised by the UNCCD as the primary recommended global database for SLM best practice. The best practice adopted by the GGW are profiled on the WOCCAT database.Through the support of the TerrAfrica Leveraging Fund, TerrAfrica's Regional SLM Knowledge Base has been established. It contains tools, documents, and practical information to assist in sustainable land and water management upscaling at national, regional and continental level. Senegal is in the process of creating a country-specific information system based on this system. One of the main tools of the TerrAfrica platform is the Country SLM Investment Framework (CSIF), which aims to provide guidance on the design and implementation of SLM investment frameworks at national level. The Green Alliance for Reforestation is a non-state initiative developing platforms based on satellite imagery. This is an interactive platform where large international NGOs can create awareness around their initiatives. This NGO database does not include state programmes and activities.The key needs related to institutional strengthening in Senegal include:• The development of a robust M&E system: This is an issue the GGW Accelerator is seeking to address. It is worth noting that the Ministry of Environment is implementing a monitoring system to inform the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Senegal, with support from the French Development Agency (ClimBer, 2022). This M&E system should be integrated into the GGW system.• Senegal needs to build capacity of the various stakeholders for the effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of programmes, as identified in the GGW results framework (UNFCCD 2022a:26).• The Land Degradation Assessment (2008)   developed a baseline scenario of land degradation for Senegal and subsequently set the country's restoration targets. However, since then there has been no inventory update. Capacity building is required on the use of improved methodologies and tools to carry out such an update (Sow, personal communication, 2022).• Optimising information sharing between stakeholders through online collaboration (identifying the right tools and methodologies).• There is a need to build a strong community base to support the sustainability of national GGW activities and reduce implementation costs.There is also a need to undertake more rigorous evaluation of the success rate of tree planting programmes (ILRI, 2022).2 Bottlenecks for GGW's implementation • Support the formalisation of the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management.• All the codes that deal with the same resources should be merged under a common heading and addressed under relevant categories.• The inconsistency of public policies is reflected by a poor harmonisation between regulations on decentralization, land use planning, mining operations (mining code), forestry code, agriculture, pastoral development strategies and land laws, which maintain the different resource managers and management in a siloed sectoral vision.• What is lacking in the policy framework is a process/law articulating the synergies between different forms of land use. The Forestry Code, the Water Code and the Agro-Pastoral Law need to be synergized through a focus on development, taking the drivers of degradation into account.• Weak communication and lack of information sharing are highlighted by the GGW Director as critical bottlenecks.• According to Col Diop, these shortcomings will be remedied with the new communication department of the ASERGMV• A global study on the contribution of NGOs in reforestation and addressing desertification would be required (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• The image of the Agency is poor in relation to donors. Information is not up to date or transparent (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• Ecosystem restoration is not only focused on recovering the ecological function of degraded ecosystems; it also involves changes in land management. Large scale agro-industrial development still features strongly in Senegal (despite strong emphasis on supporting an agroecology transition) which is contradictory to the recommended land management practices linked to restoration.• Despite the fact that some key documents support agroforestry, for example: • ANR and agroforestry should be adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the MEDD, as essential elements of agricultural extension to achieve real impact on agricultural productivity and resilience.• This could form part of a possible revision of the Agro-pastoral Orientation Law.• In the Ferlo region pressures on silvo-pastoral resources are already exacerbated by climate change, competition for land, and competition between users. In this context, reforestation of plots to which access is prohibited seems to be an additional factor in the fragmentation of the pastoral space and the immediate removal of resources without compensation (Goffner et al 2022).• Scope for mainstreaming land restoration into the Plan for an Emerging Senegal.Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the country• Incomplete decentralization processes limit the effectiveness of local institutions (including those overseeing land management) to support national land restoration initiatives. Senegal is slightly in advance, with their decentralization law completed, however the transfer of financial resources from the state to the local government remains challenging.• The decentralization reforms undertaken in Senegal in 1996 and 1998 conferred various prerogatives on rural communities in the management of natural resources.• All prerogatives are held by the local government, but natural resource management issues are often neglected in favour of other sectors and issues (health, education, etc.).• Weak capacity of local authorities in terms of intellectual and technical skills.• Competences transferred without commensurate transfer of resources.• Establish legislative and regulatory frameworks supportive of local initiatives.• The Senegalese land tenure system is characterized by a plurality of norms that is manifested by the coexistence of customary law (widely applied by local communities) and modern land legislation• There is no formal recognition in the forestry legislation that farmers have an exclusive right to the trees resulting from ANR on their fields• There is a need to put up fences before reforestation efforts commence.• Support land tenure security mechanisms developed in collaboration with local authorities that will ensure that local actors, especially women, and investors benefit from the added value generated by their interventions.• The lack of a coherent policy framework results in failures to take advantage of synergies between projects related to land restoration. This leads to an inefficient use of time and resources and ultimately undermines the effectiveness of interventions (Sow, personal communication, 2022).• There is a need to strengthen the coherence of action at the level of the governorates and prefects, whose mission is to promote community dialogue; there is a lot of duplication in the field and a lack of coordination of actions -it is necessary to harmonize this and allow for efficiency of actions (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• Local populations perceive GGW projects such market gardens or large scale SLM as a government environmental project with a \"top-down\" logic disconnected from local realities• A tendency has prevailed to implement the GGW with a \"one size fits all\" approach, whereas each and every socio-ecosystem along the GGW route is unique, with its own characteristics and dynamics, calling for adapting and aligning actions implemented accordingly. \"This alignment requires in-depth knowledge of each socio-ecosystem, as a condition for success and acceptance of future actions. However, the time required for diagnosis, analysis and consultation is often considered incompatible with the urgency felt by decision-makers and GGW implementers.\" (Goffrey et al 2022).• There are reports that the protocol for planting is so strict that other potential partners are precluded from being incorporated into the GGW. 2• The implementation of each project is to be preceded by a grounded consultation and co-design with each community, with a greater focus on political ecology.Exclusion of farmers • The GGW is problematic by design -the chosen location is essentially a pastoral axis, hence the importance of consulting the herders -this implies a strong capacity building and engagement of communities in designing interventions (Ka, personal communication, 2022).• Lack of effective inclusion of a wide range of key actors, e.g. producer organisation are the grassroots of the GGW. The options advocated by producer organisations are often very close to the objectives of the GGW; they should be an integral part of the implementation of the GGW (Garreau, personal communication, 2022).• The proposed 10 recommendations brought forward by the UNFCCC (2021) to improve the work of the national coalition address these concerns.• Put in place practical mechanisms for planning dialogue and action at the local and national levels, especially focusing on producer organisations. This would allow for getting closer to producers' organisations and to associating them with the GGW, taking into consideration their natural resource management strategies (UNFCCC, 2021).• Elevate the GGW as a tool for improving the livelihood of populations to the highest political level.• The solution is to work through the farmers' organisations, so that the communities and other stakeholders carry the project. The CNCR is present in the 14 regions, it includes grassroots farmers' organisations.Participation by the CNCR could allow better implementation and sustainability of the project.• A study on the mobilization of non-state stakeholders of the GGW found that the implementation of the initiative was top down, technocratic and non-inclusive. Greater involvement of CSOs and research actors in the dynamics of the GGW should be encouraged via a support programme for the field actors of the GGW (UNFCCC, 2021).• Failing to introduce these actors in projects will result in the risk that \"the projects presented (lack) territorial anchorage\". Funding partners should be encouraged to set up dedicated funding programmes for these actors (UNFCCC, 2022:14).• Set up multi-stakeholder, multi-sector dialogue mechanisms around the objectives of the GGW• Involve local authorities in project management and the implementation of the GGW projects• For better connections between GGW actors, harness existing opportunities and knowledge through the creation of a GGW multi-stakeholder hub.• Establish practical, simple and clear criteria and procedures for engagement.• Integrate the greatest number of actors through a system of recognition of different levels of commitment of actors and actions (UNFCCD 2022).• National coalitions should enable the establishment of MoU between ministries and decentralized institutions, municipalities and cities, so that states can request dedicated funding for GGW municipal plans (UNFCCD 2022).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the country• The populations that benefit from the land restoration measures must be able to take over from the state services. However often the lack of ownership and co-design of interventions with the local populations, as well as other factors such as access to resources and the absence of land tenure rights, are all factors inhibiting the buy in form local beneficiary populations.• Lack of genuine support from pastoral communities.• The humanitarian approach to implementing market gardens compromises their long-term sustainability. For instance, the \"Food for Work\" programme consist of providing women's groups with food aid; it is conditional on their participation in the farm plot. But most development initiatives do not yield high economic returns. This poor productive and financial performance might condemn them to remain dependent on programmes such as the GGW and actors such as the World Food Programme. This is the major ambiguity of the GGW gardens which, in attempting to promote tools for the fight against poverty, adopt the institutionalized practices of humanitarian aid.• Given that this is their environment, rather than talking about a lack of ownership, we should talk about a lack of project continuity at the GGW level (Ka, personal communication, 2022).• Implementation of GGW projects rely on existing instruments of territorial governance and shared resource management, such as pastoral units, borehole management committees and communal councils. The GGW would thus be catalytic to consultation processes and to consolidate decision-making and management bodies at the intermunicipal level for SLM.• Farmers and farmer organisations lack technical capacity.• Supporting their technical staff is an action that the Accelerator should consider (UNCCD 2022). There are only a small number of NGOs with the required expertise on these issues.• Entry points identified by the GGW Accelerator: \"In West Africa, the ROPPA network took the lead in January 2020 in the so-called West African initiative on agroecology and is a good entry point. (...) Farmerto-farmer exchanges have proven to be a powerful tool for scaling up agroecological techniques.\"• While there is mention of gender equity and inclusion of women, youth and other groups in situations of vulnerability in the policy documents, there is a lack of coordinated planning and activities able to address the root causes of inequalities. Most of the actions relate to solving the current needs of these groups, but there is less focus on changing their status through addressing their strategic needs.• Land restoration is extremely costly.• Insufficient logistics given the isolation of reforestation areas.• ASGGMR has embarked on a hightech drive to increase the pace at which activities are deployed on the ground (modern machinery, etc.).• Many land restoration targets and commitments rely heavily on funding from external donors. The GGW was expected to receive financial support from the government, local authorities and villagers, while these entities, particularly at the local level, have limited capacities for resources mobilization.• The main obstacle to the mobilization of resources is the positioning of national agencies. These agencies are under the direction of their country's Ministry of the Environment. However, the financial partners all dialogue at the level of each country with one interlocutor: the Ministry of Finance and Planning.• \"There is a need to communicate about the opportunities available, not only to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, but also to the sectoral ministries that prepare projects for the government budget\" (UNFCC 2021:5).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the countryWater scarcity • The GGW operates in water constrained environments, with deep aquifers (230 m) compounded by climate change (delayed arrival of long rains).• There is tremendous pressure from pastoralist communities on government to drill boreholes for their livestock. The Agency promised many boreholes -the most challenging area is the Ferlo region.• There is a high mortality of seedlings -approximately half the seedlings are lost before planting or at planting due to water constraints, cattle roaming and fire damage (ICLEI, 2022).Freshly transplanted trees need extra water due to the lack of moisture in the soil.• The agency is planning on multiplying boreholes in the region. It has acquired highly technological equipment. It is important to verify whether there is enough water to irrigate newly restored land. This has long term consequences on the use of underground water.• The water stress issue has implications from a gender perspective -women are forced to allocate significant time to collecting and transporting water.• Alternatives to and better management of water points/ponds.• Studies required on the replenishment of underground water given the high intensity of boreholes being created.• Some actors contend that uncertainty remains in terms of the most optimal species, whereas some maintain that the optimal species are known but that improvements could be done in terms of the management of these species.• Different use of space by several actors e.g. pastoralists and farmers.• Livestock wandering in reforested plots leads to inter-community conflicts. Incidents of open provocation by pastoralists have been reported, with livestock keepers walking their herds through the GGW perimeter at night during the season when pastures are abundant (i.e when there is no scarcity of feed); this has been construed as a sign of provocation towards the GGW (Ouedraogo, personal communication, 2022).• Maintenance of measures to guard against external attacks (firewalls, fences, etc.).• \"In Senegal, the government introduced the concept of pastoral units (PUs) in the 1980s around water points with the objective to sustainably manage resources and spaces for the benefit of local populations and the community of transhumant pastoralists. Despite their apparent success, PUs have been implemented in a top-down manner and have failed to invest in or empower pastoral communities to manage the PUs. Once management plans are established, the PUs are often left without supervision, capacity building programmes or monitoring and as a result, management plans are rarely implemented. Where pastoral unit management bodies exist, they are often politicized and heavily influenced by local chiefs.\"• The PRM approach can assist in overcoming these shortcomingit is embedded in local land use practices with the community, building on customary management and governance norms. PRM can help bring a greater degree of community participation by including women and youth and in managing activities and interventions contributing to the GGW, where the mainly top-down approach to date has excluded communities and, in some situations, has created conflict with them.• The GGW does not go through protected forest areas but through silvo-pastoral areas, and one of the important challenges to be taken into account in planning human developments in the area is the sharp increase in the number of farms in the western zone. At the time, the law prohibited the development of crops in this area, but the agricultural sector is progressing, and livestock numbers in this area is increasing.In the northern part, there are important hydro-agricultural developments that favour crop production; in this sense, the government responds to the needs of the population, particularly in terms of agriculture, but the ecological aspect does not figure sufficiently in the planning.• The theme of water usage should be rethought within a framework of resource management, which calls for a revision of the Silvo-pastoral Law (2004), in order to accommodate these new dynamics (Ndiaye, personal communication, 2022).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the countryLacking M&E system • There is no systematic way of tracking and reporting on the progress made towards achieving SLM that addresses and meet the GGW goals (regionally applicable). This was underlines by Colonel Diop as the 'weakest link'. He says that 'we are aware of the gaps and problems, but the reality is that most people only see the money and the very large amounts. When the US$1.7 billion is announced, there is a rush, there is no excitement about the impact and results' (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• Lack of reliable monitoring and evaluation system for strong reporting on the achievements of the GGW. In policy documents, emphasis is put on reports, making it difficult to trace and verify the interventions' results.• Obsolete datasets for tracking land degradation and impact of interventions. The 2008 land degradation assessment gives a baseline scenario of land degradation. This dataset is outdated and mid-term inventory of degradation is required.• Improve M&E by setting up a system accessible to all actors that centralises all knowledge for innovations in the field.• Undertake a mid-term appraisal of the status of land degradation in Senegal. • Explore the possibility of a \"GGW\" label which actors can used depending on their level of contributions to the GGW.• The evaluation of the effectiveness of investments related to the fight against land degradation should be inseparable from the inventory of global investments made at the level of the concerned sectors of activity (agriculture, livestock, water, etc.). However, in the absence of analytical accounting, it is difficult to know the real share of the total amount of investments that have had a positive impact on actions to combat land degradation.• A review of the Sahelian GGW reveals a \"predominance of ecological studies in the GGW literature and a concentration of studies in certain geographies of interest, such as northern Senegal\" (Bruckmann et al, 2022).• Redress this research bias by supporting research focusing on socio-economic and other aspects of GGW implementation, as well as addressing geographic bias.• Research funding is often allocated for short (2-3 year) time frames, which is deemed highly insufficient to capture the outcome of reforestation projects, taking social dynamics into account -these research time frames need to be expanded to a 10-year period (Mbaye, personal communication, 2022).• Set up a mechanism to centralise all scientific and technical information and innovation and to easily disseminate findings, strengthen knowledge exchange, and promote valorisation of research findings.• Often research outcomes are not fed back to the level of community-based organisations that could benefit from these research findings.• As above -promote the establishment of observatories. Under the MEDD, the key departments are:• The Directorate of Water, Forests, Hunting, and Soil Conservation (DEFCCS), which helps implement GGW activities on the ground  The Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the GGW falls under the Presidency.Local authorities are the custodians of local land management and access to resources (tenure, land use, etc.). They are responsible for local development planning and are equipped with legal tools adapted to this responsibility. Local government entities (\"collectivités territoriales\") further play a role in institutionalizing rural participation in national policy commitments; help form federations of elected local authorities; and support public forums to debate national policies that affect rural populations. These institutions also play an important role in developing models of natural resource management and in informing rural populations of their rights and the roles and powers of their elected representatives.The Association of Mayors of Senegal plays a role in training municipal councils on policy frameworks (especially around decentralisation functions) and on their rights as local representatives and the means by which they can defend, exercise and develop these rights.The Agency for National Statistics and Demographics (ANSD) centralizes and disseminates statistical data produced by the national statistical system. The Agency is also responsible for monitoring international technical cooperation on statistics. In this capacity, it represents Senegal in subregional, regional and international meetings relating to matters within its competence and monitors the activities of international organisations in the field of statistics. At the request of the government and public and private entities, the Agency may undertake research on statistical, economic and social issues.The National Agricultural and Rural Advisory Agency (ANCAR) manages agricultural and rural advisory services throughout Senegal. It develops a decentralized agricultural advisory system, working for the producer organizations through a participatory approach based on partnership. It has set up the Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Africa (SAIDA) platform.The National Food Security Council (CNSA) was created in 1998. The Executive Secretariat of the National Food Security Council (SECNSA) was created within the CNSA. Its function is to inform all decisions in the field of food security and resilience, to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the food security and resilience policies and programmes, to participate in the mobilization of financial resources for the national food security and resilience system; and to facilitate consultation, synergy and ensure complementarity between actors involved in the implementation of food security and resilience projects and programmes. This Council is responsible for providing food insecurity early warnings, with two important meetings every year where all food security actors gather to analyse and map the food security situation for Senegal.• The AfDB has in 2021 pledged US$6.5 billion in support of the GGW. It is involved in the recently launched Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme.• The West African Development Bank (BOAD)   announced that between 2024 and 2034, the \"100 Million Trees\" project will bring together the efforts of eight West African countries mobilised against desertification. This major reforestation operation will cover the entire West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zone, as part of the GGW. • The European Investment Bank funds several environmental projects in Senegal.• Green Climate fund (GCF) funds a number • The ASERGMV has signed a framework agreement with the Programme for the Inclusive and Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Senegal (PDIDAS), a programme initiated in 2014 with funding from the World bank and the GEF and another specific agreement for the implementation of the following activities:• The demarcation and signposting of eight classified forests in the Saint-Louis region.• The construction of three nurseries, two in the Saint-Louis region and one in the Louga region.• The production of 800 000 seedlings of a dozen species.• Capacity building of actors grouped in Intervillages Association (AIV).• The establishment of 40 000 ha of land degradation defences.• The development of nine development and management plans (PAG).• These activities will, among other things, contribute to the increase of the vegetation cover rate, the management of biodiversity and the development of income-generating activities in the regions of Saint-Louis and Louga.• The OPEC Fund for International Development contributed financially to the Agricultural Development and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme -Phase II (PADAER-II).• As France relaunched the GGW initiative at the One Planet Summit in January 2021, by announcing the creation of the GGW Accelerator, the French Development Agency (FDA) naturally features as one of the primary development partners, especially in Senegal. The FDA positions itself as a key strategic partner of the GGW Accelerator.• The EU supports several land restoration and agro-ecologically focused projects. See the EU funded project database for further details. Amongst the EU-funded projects is Regreening Africa.• The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group is involved in the recently launched Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme.• USAID funds the Feed the Future Senegal Agricultural Policy and Reform Support Project (PSS).• The Canadian (Quebec) Union des producteurs agricoles du Québec (UPADI) has been working with the CNCR on SLM projects country wide.• The Moroccan Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCO) features among key partners to the Agency, providing modern equipment to improve planting.• GIZ supports land tenure security among the rural population and is very involved with developing a sustainable electricity supply through the deployment of renewable energy and the promotion of energy efficiency measures. A project on \"climate-friendly cooking\" in Senegal is underway (2020-24).   Local and international NGOs working on land restoration, climate change and land management include:• The Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances which accounts for more than 7 600 sports and cultural associations.• Fabrimétal has developed a tree nursery near its factory, from which it provides saplings free of change in support of reforestation, as well as sponsoring the the Tolou Keur (\"circular gardens) of Belvédère. 3• IUCN is a membership union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It has recently called for bringing back the focus on the wetlands and water issues within the GGW. A biodiversity status assessment of the GGW was undertaken in 2017 \"Biodiversity and the GGW: Managing nature for sustainable development in the Sahel\".• Oxfam is involved in the Regreening Africa project and support small scale agricultural projects in Senegal.• CARE is involved in the Regreening Africa project.• Catholic Relief Services are involved in the Regreening Africa project.• The Pierre Rabhi Endowment fund supports associations with agroecological work in Senegal.• SOS SAHEL is a French NGO currently active in 11 countries in the Sahel, from Senegal to Djibouti. It helps rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa to guarantee their food security and nutritional quality in a sustainable manner that respects their environment. The NGO has been actively involved in the GGW. It has taken part in identifying GGW champions and has, together with the 1t.org platform 4 , which is hosted by the World Economic Forum, formed a partnership to support the GGW. This initiative is focused on encouraging the establishment of partnerships around landscape restoration, supporting and strengthening the visibility of Sahelian eco-preneurs, and attracting investment for restoration in the Sahel.• Sahel Eco has signed a partnership agreement with the Pan-African Agency for Food Security to strengthen collaboration between governments and civil society actors. It also runs the GGW Partners' Platform.• The NGO Elevage Sans Frontières has supported several livestock projects in Senegal.• Entrepreneurs Without Borders (OZG) is implementing agroforestry projects in Senegal.• World Vision has committed with ministries and national networks to institutionalise ANR and other sustainable land use practices.• The Association for the Promotion of Agroforestry and Forestry (APAF) is a peasant organisation that supports the application of agroforestry techniques.• Reforest'Action plants trees to restore soils depleted by decades of groundnut cultivation.Planted by and for the local farmers, the trees protect their fields and secure their crops.• WeForest is a Belgium NGO which supports local governance frameworks in the GGW project areas. In Senegal, Weforest is involved in rehabilitating mangroves. It was involved in a reforestation project of 1 000 ha in the silvopastoral zone of Ferlo, a three-year pilot project with a view to scaling up over 10 years (Neyra, personal communication, 2022).• The \"Sukyo Mahikari\" association has been working alongside the Forestry Service on a voluntary basis on large-scale actions, notably through group of young people from different countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, to participate in the building of the GGW programme (GGW Action Plan 2011).• University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) has been involved in GGW activities through reforestation activities, as well as providing medical care and literacy training, in particular to women's groups and youth associations, as a contribution to the building of the GGW by students and teachers with the support of the competent services (GGW Action Plan 2011).• Union Nationale des Exploitants Forestiers du Sénégal (National Union of Forest Users) (UNCEFS), has also been active in the field assisting the GGW. • Agrécole Afrique uses an approach based on agroecology, on the social economy of solidarity and the development of innovations to help the population in a situation of poverty to become aware of this situation of vulnerability, to organize and mobilize themselves to better produce while respecting the environment, the earth and the health of people and animals, all in a participatory and responsible management.• ENDA Pronat is a preeminent NGO in Senegal.It is a member of the international network Enda Tiers Monde, of the Senegalese National Federation for Organic Agriculture (FENAB) and leads the Avaclim research in Senegal. ENDA Pronat sits on the Cadre de Réflexion et d'Action sur le Foncier au Sénégal (land tenure think tank in Senegal -CRAFS), the multistakeholder task force for the promotion of agroecology in Senegal (TaFAé), and the national Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO) steering committee. The NGO is secretary of the Dynamique National pour la Transition Agroécologique au Sénégal (DyTAES), focal point of the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (COPAGEN) at the national level and also of the sub-regional and international networks COPAGEN, and participates in the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).• The National Partnership for Senegal's Water (Partenariat National de l'Eau du Sénégal -PNES) is an association working in the field of integrated water resource management.• The Platform of European NGOs in Senegal is a network of NGOs that was formed with the objective of creating synergies and establishing new partnerships. It aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the participation of its members in the economic, social and cultural development of Senegal. It seeks to promote dialogue between the different civil society actors in Senegal.Total Energies Foundation has in 2018 partnered with the Téssékéré International Human and Environment Observatory, which is working in Senegal to promote the sharing of experiences between states and raise awareness of the project among local communities.The Jokalante platform combines feedback mechanisms, IVR systems, voice services, SMS, social media and data collection tools. Through local community radios, a dynamic web platform and dedicated agents, Jokalante creates linkages with the rural population. Jokalante works with ANACIM (a climate information institution) to scale the distribution of this information.MLouma is a company specialized in the digitalization of agriculture; with the support of several partners (ICCO, USAID, UNCDF, ICRISAT, ANACIM, ORANGE, OCP, MEDA), mLouma has in recent years developed a range of tools that address the problems of producers based on specifications developed by international organisations. Assists the agency in the planification of the activities and the formulation of some indicators. Gives orientations in order to inform all decisions in the field of food security and resilience, to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of food security and resilience policies and programmes, to participate in the mobilization of financial resources for the national food security and resilience system; to facilitate consultation and complementarity.To be involved in GGW to foster synergy and ensure complementarity between actors involved in the implementation of food security and resilience projects and programmes.Identify synergy and ensure complementarity in the fields of food security and resilience, access to funding opportunities.The Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site implementation of restoration.ONCAV (Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances) which counts more than 7600 Sports and Cultural Associations in SenegalPartner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities.Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site implementation of restoration.Partner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities and developed a tree nursery.Resources to pursue nursery/tree planting activities.On site implementation of restoration.Has been working alongside the forestry service on a voluntary basis on large-scale actions.Resources to pursue restoration activities.Participation in the building of the GGW programme. Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site diffusion of agroforestry techniques.Reforest'Action Plants trees in agroforestry initiatives.Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site diffusion of agroforestry techniques.Partners with the PPSZ in researching social dynamics and setting up local governance frameworks in the GGW project areas.To be part of the Alliance.On site diffusion of agro-forestry techniques.Partner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities -has placed 20 volunteers in 10 regions for Tolou Keur and with Fabrimétal in Dakar.Not known.Availing volunteers to project sites.This network brings together different associations of farmers, fishermen, foresters, breeders, women's organisations, the youth college, 32 national peasant federations in all.In each federation there are hundreds of organisations; some are structured by region or by association (there are 38 associations that cover specific localities).It launched the National family farming Observatory and in 2015 it drove the launch of the National Observatory for land tenure.Inclusion in GGW Alliance.Works in projects that seek to promote a community-based natural resource management approach to GGW projects.Best placed organisation to make linkages with farmer sat ground level and ensure participatory approach to GGW activities.These include cooperatives, associations, unions, federations, confederations, foundations and foundations and unions.The CNOP and its member organisations, FENAFER, FENAJER, AOPP (at the national and regional levels) feature among the key professional agricultural organisations.Being included in co-design, to have farmers benefit GGW, knowledge shared.Enhanced, participatory, sustained implementation of GGW and lasting legacy. The success of the GWI essentially rests on producers as the contributors to restoration and the gate keepers of restored areas.The GTPs set up by ANACIM at the department level gather all relevant sectors concerned by the preparedness and monitoring of the winter cropping season to guide farmers with their decisionmaking.Expansion and use of the network to benefit farmers on the ground. National Platform on DV and Land Governance (COPIL DV/ GF)Ensures dialogue on land governance, the development of national consensus, the preparation of action plans for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines, and the monitoring and evaluation of land governance in Senegal.Application of provisions in decentralisation law.Platform aimed at addressing land tenure issues can be leveraged by GGW to address localised land tenure in the context of projects being implemented.Land tenure thinking and action tank in Senegal (CRAFS)CRAFS in 2017 called onto the President to finalise the land reform process.Application of provisions in decentralisation law.Multi-actors Task force for the promotion of agroecology in Senegal) (TaFAé)A group of actors, born from a desire to think and act together between farmers' organisations, researchers, NGOs, institutions in order to promote agroecology in Senegal.Greater uptake of agroecology.Platform can be used to engage actors to promote/ learn about agroecology fr GGW projects.Dynamique Nationale pour la Transition Agroécologique au Sénégal (DyTAES)Network that brings together umbrella organisations of producers, consumers, NGOs and Senegalese and international research institutions, networks of Senegalese and West African civil society organisations, a network of local elected officials.Greater uptake of agroecology.It plays a key role in fostering a transition towards agroecology. A good platform to engage on how to deepen agroecology uptake in context of GGW.National framework of the Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO)Coordination and information platform composed of farmers' organisations, research institutes/universities, international NGOs and social movements. It aims to promote and support an agroecological transition in West Africa.Greater uptake of agroe-cology.It seeks to facilitate inter-sectoral cooperation through a series of concrete and concerted actions in favour of agroecology, while providing greater visibility to the agroecological movement in West Africa.Green Climate Fund (GCF) Funds a number of regional projects of which Senegal is part, such as the Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme, Inclusive Green Financing Initiative (IGREENFIN I), both projects focusing on the GGW.Direct support to GGW projects.Funding.Stakeholder & Contact Person Phone, Email, Website, Address Role Specific role of the stakeholder related to GGWGlobal Environment Fund (GEF) GEF funds multiple SLM and climate resilience projects including.Direct support to GGW projects.Funding.European Investment bank Funds several environmental projects in Senegal.Status of support/ interest in GGW unknown.Has been earmarked to fund projects for the GGW .African Development Bank (ADB)In 2021 pledged US$6.5 billion in sup-port of the GGW.Direct support to the GGW.Consultations were held within the framework of the support project for the implementation of the GGW on the initiative of the ADB (pillar III of the transition support facility).World Bank World Bank's IDA is the main funder of the livestock climate finance in Senegal. It finances activities of the Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel to mitigate and adapt to climate change through sustainable landscape management, improved animal health and veterinary drug control, improved livestock value chains.Vision for the Sahel: mobilize financial resources to protect a fragile environment, and help the countries restore the living conditions of populations, particularly live-stock herders.Funding -In 2021 the World Bank announced it would invest US$5 billion to help restore African dry-lands.Was earmarked to fund projects for the GGW (discussion held in 2022). Will fund the \"100 million trees\" project 2024 and 2034 (cover the GGW area).Direct investment in GGW.Funding.European Union Supports several land restoration, agro-ecologically focused projects.Fostering an agroecological transition in the Sahel.Funding.Canadian (Quebec) Union des producteurs agricoles du Québec (UPADI)Has been working with the CNCR on SLM projects country wide.Funding & technical supports involved with on some SLM project in GGW.French Development Agency (AFD)Hélène JulienSupporting regional projects focused on the agroecological transition, resolving transboundary issues in the context of the GGW. + funds \"Programmeme d'Appui à la Transition Agroécologique\" (PATAE). The French Development Agency puts itself forward as a key strategic partner of the GGW Accelerator.Fundingenhancing AE dimension of projects. The GEF, through UNEP, has committed to supporting the APGMV Member States in establishing their baseline situation.Being part of GGW Alliance.Direct support to GGW, technical support.GGW project funding.Involved in several programmes related to climate change resilience and agricultural development.Being part of GGW Alliance.GGW project funding. Although not always strictly located within the GGW intervention zones, a number of transboundary programmes and projects exist to support the implementation of the GGW initiative at the regional level. The GGW in Senegal overlaps with a number of these global and regional restoration initiatives.In as much as an attempt was made here to classify projects according to a main theme, the reality is that many projects linked to the GGW have a multisectoral focus.The • The demarcation and signposting of eight classified forests in the region of Saint-Louis in order to avoid any encroachment by the populations and the agro-industrialists installed in the zone;• The construction of three nurseries, two in the Saint-Louis region and one in the Louga region;• The production of 800 000 seedlings of about 10 species;• Capacity building of actors grouped in the Intervillages Association;• The establishment of 40 000 ha of land degradation defences; and The project seeks to promote the social and occupational inclusion of youth in family farms and profitable ventures that will create income and decent, sustainable jobs in agro-silvo-pastoral and fisheries value chains. The project will benefit 150 000 rural young people. Among this group, 45 000 young people (50% of whom will be female) will be integrated into or receive support to start up a sustainable profitable activity in the agro-silvopastoral and fisheries value chains. The project will be implemented across four agroecological zones in Senegal: the Niayes region, the groundnut basin, the silvopastoral zone and lower and middle Casamance (not GGW areas). Recent research by ILRI found that, of the total amount of climate funding allocated for the livestock in Senegal between 2015 and 2022, only 39% was allocated to the livestock sector as the main target, the remaining of 61% was allocated to the agricultural sector, with a component for the livestock sector (2022b:46). Most of this was World Bank funding (95%) for phases 1 and 2 of the Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel, and a small contribution from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the NGO Elevage Sans Frontières.Strengthening Agricultural Adaptation (SAGA) funded by the Government of Quebec and implemented by FAO and a range of partners on the ground focuses on reinforcing adaptation planning for food security and nutrition in Senegal which has increasingly suffered from climate change impacts.Through training and community-based participatory approaches, the project has reached more than 1300 beneficiaries and is implementing a broad range of initiatives from gender-sensitive Farmer Field Schools, market gardens, agroforestry and rainwater harvesting to beekeeping activities and the production of energy-efficient vegetable charcoal.The programme is proving catalytic in adopting a \"new\" approach to GGW projects, that are far more community based. The CNCR was recently involved in the conception of the project. 3. Specific strategies for building climate change resilience are refined and piloted in agropastoral systems and scaled up, including the optimal use of genetic resources as well as dryland farming in the three agroecological zones targeted by the project.The project was subject of a Good Practice Brief: Strengthening Climate Resilience through People-centred Approaches which highlights how the resilience of people to climate change was enhanced by the project by building the capacity of communities and women through two innovative, people-centred approaches, namely the Farmer Field Schools and Dimitra Clubs.The Down to Earth: Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC) is part of a partnership between the United Nations and sub-national governments for fostering climate friendly development at the subnational level. This partnership is a collaborative effort involving UNDP, UNEP and 8 associations of regions.CASSECS 2019-2023 -The CASSECS project is an ongoing project, funded by the EU, on the impact of livestock on climate change in CILSS countries.The overall objective of the project is to provide the CILSS countries with emission factors and reference data that will enable them to better establish the seasonal and annual carbon balance of agro-silvopastoral ecosystems and thus correctly fulfil their commitments in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Among the project objectives are a focus on training and strengthening the skills of the technical services of the CILLS member states, local and international NGOs and livestock breeders' associations. Fair carbon: a research project still at the final stage of conception, to be funded by the EU and being led by IRD and involving the PPZS, with a possible start in 2023. The project will focus on assessing soil carbon in the GGW area.Senegal is signatory to the three Rio Conventions for biological diversity, climate change and the fight against desertification, as well as a number of other agreements and commitments reflected below:• The Bonn Challenge 5 .• The New York Declaration on Forests 6 .• The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) 7 launched in 2015.• The UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030.• The African Resilient Landscapes Initiative 8 .• The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) 9 .Senegal has also adhered to international conventions on the elimination of specific ozone depleting substances (for example the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment) and has set national targets, and instruments to reach the elimination objectives. ","tokenCount":"9987"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4193e5ad16b6006d1e1fcfaef5e4bf12","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6d25e988-55e7-49ac-b10f-20865556c0eb/content","id":"-626354467"},"keywords":["alternative oxidase (AOX)","carbon balance","photosynthesis","respiration","yield potential"],"sieverID":"034493b2-7076-4260-bf50-a70e1bcee0e2","pagecount":"18","content":"The rate with which crop yields per hectare increase each year is plateauing at the same time that human population growth and other factors increase food demand. Increasing yield potential (Y p ) of crops is vital to address these challenges. In this review, we explore a component of Y p that has yet to be optimisedthat being improvements in the efficiency with which light energy is converted into biomass (ϵ c ) via modifications to CO 2 fixed per unit quantum of light (α), efficiency of respiratory ATP production (ϵ prod ) and efficiency of ATP use (ϵ use ). For α, targets include changes in photoprotective machinery, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase kinetics and photorespiratory pathways. There is also potential for ϵ prod to be increased via targeted changes to the expression of the alternative oxidase and mitochondrial uncoupling pathways. Similarly, there are possibilities to improve ϵ use via changes to the ATP costs of phloem loading, nutrient uptake, futile cycles and/or protein/membrane turnover. Recently developed high-throughput measurements of respiration can serve as a proxy for the cumulative energy cost of these processes. There are thus exciting opportunities to use our growing knowledge of factors influencing the efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration to create a step-change in yield potential of globally important crops.Anthropogenic carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution have led to sustained global warming, with 2020 tying 2016 as the hottest year on record, at 1.25°C above preindustrial times (Voosen, 2021). How climate change affects our natural and managed systems is of major concern, particularly the effect of warming on major agricultural crop production. To keep pace with increasing crop demand for human and animal consumptionwhich will potentially double between 2010 and 2050 (van Dijk et al., 2021) and to minimise the demand for arable land, grain yields per hectare need to increase by 2.4% each year. Yet, for the period 1989-2008, actual annual increases fell markedly short of this figure, being 1.6%, 1.0%, 0.9% and 1.3% for maize, rice, wheat and soybean, respectively (Ray et al., 2013). Therefore, it is imperative that we improve major crop yields (Smith, 2013). This goal can be achieved through increasing both yield resilience in suboptimal 60 New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 conditions (Munns & Gilliham, 2015;Rivero et al., 2022) and yield potential, discussed herein.To date, increases in crop yields have been driven by Green Revolution cultivarsthat lent themselves to more intensive irrigation, fertilisation and mechanisationand continued selective breeding (Tilman, 1998;Crespo-Herrera et al., 2018). These strategies doubled wheat yield and tripled that of maize between 1961 and 2000outcomes that were achieved with only a 30% increase in cultivated land area (World Bank, 2007;Hazell, 2009). Global wheat production grew from 222 Mt in 1961 to 585 Mt in 2000 and then to 735 Mt as of 2018. However, in recent years, yield per hectare has plateaued and further investment in the current strategies may be ineffective at further boosting yield (Tester & Langridge, 2010;Mózner et al., 2012;Iizumi et al., 2017). To avoid farming more land and using more fertilisers, it is essential that new pathways are found to boost crop yields. Improving yield potential (Y p ) is one such opportunity.Breaking Y p into components allows assessment of targeted multiplicative improvements. Y p is the product of several underlying components:where Q is the cumulative incident solar radiation (MJ m −2 ) throughout the growing season; ϵ p is the partitioning efficiency (commonly referred to as harvest index), the proportion of biomass allocated to harvested product; ϵ i is the efficiency with which the plant intercepts/absorbs radiation; and ϵ c is the efficiency with which the intercepted radiation is converted into biomass (Monteith, 1977;Long et al., 2015) (see Box 1 for a mathematical expansion of ϵ c , and Fig. 1 for examples of factors that influence each underlying component of Y p ). In theory, an increase in any of these factors would increase overall Y p . However, not every term of the equation holds promise for a significant improvement in future years (Loomis & Amthor, 1999). Both ϵ p and ϵ i have improved greatly since the Green Revolution through selective breeding, approaching 0.6 and 0.8-0.9, respectively (Zhu et al., 2010). Increasing crop yields throughout the second half of the 20 th century came with a concomitant increase in harvest index, attributable to biomass allocation patterns and dwarf genes that resulted in shorter stems that could support more grain (Sinclair, 1998). Meanwhile, because higher ϵ i increases the amount of incident solar radiation available for photosynthesis, improvements in canopy architecture and responses to light have been targets for selection. In many field-grown crops, plants with leaves perpendicular to incoming light will intercept most of the solar radiation at the uppermost layer of the canopy, shading lower levels and preventing them from achieving light-saturated levels of photosynthesis (Campbell & Ogren, 1990;Ort & Long, 2003). Structuring canopies such that leaves higher in the canopy arrange themselves at steeper angles allows for deeper penetration of solar radiation, potentially doubling ϵ i at peak irradiance or low latitudes. Through selective breeding during the Green Revolution, ϵ i was increased through reductions in plant stature and lodging.By comparison, there are still many untapped opportunities for improvements in the underlying factors that influence the efficiency with which solar radiation is converted into biomass (i.e. ϵ c ). Currently, the maximum observed value of ϵ c lies at c. 0.024, yet the ϵ c for C 3 crops has a theoretical maximum efficiency of 0.046-0.051 (Monteith, 1977;Long et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2010). Given this gap, ϵ c values could be strategically targeted as they provide one of the best options for future improvement (Fig. 2). To enable this, opportunities to increase the efficiency of the biochemical processes underpinning ϵ c urgently need to be identified and prioritised.Steps to improve the efficiency of net photosynthetic CO 2 fixation One way of improving ϵ c is to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis (Eqn B3). But how might this be achieved? Ultimately, improvements are needed in the ability of plants to convert absorbed light energy into products (ATP and NADPH) needed to drive CO 2 fixation by ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase (Rubisco) and in minimising carbon loss through processes such as photorespiration, while protecting the system from photoinhibition. Here, we discuss attributes that influence the efficiency of photosynthesis and strategies being employed to improve net photosynthesis.The variable nature of light availability across space and time in the plant canopy requires consideration of biochemical responses to these fluctuations. Incoming solar radiation above saturating rates can cause photooxidative damage to light-harvesting complexes (Havaux & Niyogi, 1999;Baroli & Niyogi, 2000). Photoprotective mechanisms can decrease the quantum yield of photosystem II, accounting for c. 15% decrease in daily canopy carbon uptake, and even higher values under stress conditions (Long et al., 1994;Zhu et al., 2004). Photosynthetic induction, the ramp-up of photosynthetic activity after exposure to light, can delay a leaf from reaching optimal photosynthetic rates under given conditions on the scale of minutes (Retkute et al., 2015;Soleh et al., 2017). Modulating these responses could improve net photosynthetic performance in certain situations (Murchie & Niyogi, 2011). The issue of induction is related to canopy structure because lower canopy layers are more reliant on intermittent light interception for photosynthesis. For example, total canopy photosynthesis could increase up to 17% with increased light penetration to the lower canopy in rice (Burgess et al., 2016). Additionally, the delay of photosynthetic induction ramping up to full capacity can cause a > 20% loss of potential carbon assimilation in wheat (Taylor & Long, 2017), which could potentially be ameliorated through overexpression or amino acid substitutions in Rubisco activase (Yamori et al., 2012;Carmo-Silva & Salvucci, 2013). Because leaf N is not necessarily distributed to maximise photosynthesis, optimising nitrogen distribution throughout the canopy is another strategy for increased photosynthesis, particularly at key growth stages (Johnson et al., 2010;Moreau et al., 2012). Potential strategies to improve induction of photosynthesis include speeding up the rate at which proteins are activated in the photosynthetic electron transport system, increasing carbon fixation capacity via increases in concentrations in Rubisco and Rubisco activase, and improving CO 2 supply via increases in stomatal and mesophyll conductance (Yamori, 2021). Increasing nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) relaxation under fluctuating light conditions could also be beneficial, in order to increase the efficiency of light energy use under light-limiting conditions (Yamori, 2021). A recent example is the study by De Souza et al. (2022) for soybean; they reported that the overexpression of genes linked to NPQ relaxation (AtVDE, AtPsbS and AtZEP) improved photosynthetic efficiency of soybean under fluctuating light over 2 yr in field trials. Yield may also be improved, as shown by the 24% higher soybean yields of five independent transgenic lines at the Urbana site in 2020. While further work is needed across multiple sites and years, the work of De Souza et al. (2022) does highlight opportunities to improve yield potential via targeting photosynthetic properties such as NPQ relaxation.Another approach to improve photosynthesis is via targeting the biochemical properties of Rubisco. As a central protein in the Calvin cycle, Rubisco's biochemical properties play a large role in defining photosynthetic performance. Variations in Rubisco's Currently, the maximum observed value of ϵ c lies c. 0.024 (Monteith, 1977). Yet, the ϵ c for C 3 crops has a theoretical efficiency of 0.046-0.051 (Long et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2010). With current ϵ c values being only half of their theoretical maximum, there is clearly scope for improvement. Here, improvements in the efficiency of biochemical processes underpinning ϵ c are urgently needed. To understand ways of improving ϵ c , we can mathematically consider which factors contribute to variation in ϵ c . One way of achieving this is to define ϵ c according to:where ϵ c (and thus the biomass produced per joule of light absorbed) is the product of how much CO 2 is fixed by photosynthesis per joule of light, multiplied by the amount of plant mass per unit of CO 2 fixed by photosynthesis. Eqn B2 shows that ϵ c could be improved through targeting aspects of photosynthetic biochemistry to improve the amount of CO 2 fixed per unit quantum of light. Put another way:It also shows that ϵ c can be improved via changes in the efficiency with which plants accumulate biomass per unit of CO 2 fixed:Bringing Eqns B3 and B4 together, we see that ϵ c is related to α and ϵ biosynthesis according to:where ϵ biosynthesis is dependent on the efficiency of ATP production (hereon termed ϵ prod ; i.e. how much substrate must be consumed for a certain ATP yield) and the efficiency of ATP use (ϵ use ), with the latter being the ATP yield necessary to drive processes of biosynthesis, transport and cellular maintenance. Bringing these factors together, we see that:and therefore:These equations thus show that improvements in ϵ c could be achieved through α, ϵ prod and ϵ use . In subsequent sections, we discuss strategies available for improvement in these components of ϵ c .New structure, catalytic activity and interactions with other proteins (such as Rubisco activase) present both opportunities and limitations for engineering improvements in photosynthesis (Whitney et al., 2011;Conlan & Whitney, 2018). Collaborations such as the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency project (https://ripe. illinois.edu/) highlight the role of strategies such as introducing novel Rubisco types (Prins et al., 2016), selecting for shorter photosynthetic induction (Acevedo-Siaca et al., 2020) and improving stomatal CO 2 response of mesophyll conductance of CO 2 (Bailey-Serres et al., 2019). Hyperspectral reflectance has also shown promising correlations to related traits, such as the maximum catalytic activity of Rubisco (V cmax ) and maximum rate of photosynthetic electron transport (J max ) (Silva-Perez et al., 2018;Fu et al., 2020). Focusing on such traits, and using emerging highthroughput, nondestructive methods of quantifying photosynthetic traits, provides opportunities to breed for increased α and through it, improve ϵ c .Another route to improving the efficiency of net photosynthesis is via modifications to photorespirationthe pathway through which the oxygenation reaction by Rubisco consumes RuBP to form 3-Fig. 1 Logic flow of improvements to the carbon economy of plants in order to increase yield potential. Minimising the ratio of respiration to either photosynthesis (R : P) or growth (R : RGR) increases the amount of photo assimilate available for yield (yellow). This goal can be achieved in two ways (green): by shrinking the numerator (decreased mitochondrial CO 2 loss) or by increasing the denominator (more CO 2 uptake). To date, increases in yield potential have been in part due to improvements in ϵ i (violet). Further improvements will require improving ϵ c through modifying the photorespiratory pathway (α; orange), increased ϵ prod (blue) or increased ϵ use (red). AOX, alternative oxidase; COX, cytochrome c oxidase; SWEET, Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter; UQ, ubiquinone pool.Fig. 2 Theoretical efficiencies of yield potential factors. Yield potential can be improved by increasing any of its factors -ϵ i , ϵ c and ϵ p . However, only ϵ c shows appreciable difference between its observed and theoretical efficiency and therefore stands as the best target for improvement. Energy remaining after ϵ c processes is in the form of biomass, and a doubling would hypothetically flow downstream and double energy remaining during ϵ p , that is yield. Q, incoming solar radiation for growing season.Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.comPGA and 2-phosphoglycolate (2PG), the latter being converted to glycolate. The 2PG inhibits triose-phosphate isomerase and disrupts the Calvin cycle, emphasising the need not only to minimise Rubisco oxygenation, but also to efficiently metabolise 2PG once produced. This is achieved, in part, via the export of glycolate to the peroxisome where it is converted to glyoxylate and then glycine (resulting in the release of H 2 O 2 ), with glycine being exported to mitochondria where it is decarboxylated by glycine decarboxylase (GDC) to yield serine, NH 3 , NAD(H) and CO 2 .Together, these reactions mean that photorespiration reduces the efficiency of net photosynthesis (and thus α and ϵ c ). Because of this, minimising Rubisco oxygenation and associated rates of photorespiratory CO 2 release are potential targets for improving yield potential. Importantly, any strategy to modify photorespiration needs to regulate the production and metabolism of toxic intermediates, the loss of nitrogen as volatile NH 3 , and also consider the current role of photorespiration in wider amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism (Novitskaya et al., 2002;Abadie & Tcherkez, 2019).From a carbon metabolism perspective, photorespiration represents an energetically expensive process, either as an opportunity cost during Rubisco oxygenation (every O 2 bound to Rubisco represents a potential CO 2 that did not bind), or as CO 2 release during glycine decarboxylation. Rubisco oxygenation will be influenced by the relative specificity of Rubisco (S c/o ), leaf temperature and the intercellular and intracellular concentrations of CO 2 (Parry et al., 2013), with the subsequent rate of photorespiratory CO 2 release varying depending on which metabolic intermediates are shuttled to other pathways (Peterhansel et al., 2010;Busch, 2020). Reassimilation of photorespiratory CO 2 by Rubisco will also influence the extent to which photorespiration reduces α and ϵ c (Sage & Sage, 2009).Because of its potential to reduce the efficiency of net photosynthesis, many researchers have investigated the effect of mutations to different points in the photorespiratory pathway over the past 30 yr. These studies have revealed a wide range of 'photorespiratory phenotypes' that vary depending on the site of disruption to photorespiratory pathway and the environmental conditions in which plants are grown (e.g. see table 2 in Timm & Bauwe (2013) for a list of mutants and associated phenotypes). In many cases, knockout of key steps in the photorespiratory pathway is deleterious and potentially lethal. For example, in Arabidopsis thaliana, the most severe phenotypes show conditional lethality in GDC double knockout mutants (gldp1 × gldp2) and serine hydroxymethyltransferase double knockout mutants (shm1 × sh-m2) (Engel et al., 2007(Engel et al., , 2011)). Other deletions result in a milder photorespiratory phenotype because of functional redundancy with other members in the gene family (Timm & Bauwe, 2013) and/or because of the plasticity of phenotypic response in photorespiratory mutants (Peterhansel et al., 2013;Walker et al., 2016). In any case, the available mutant studies highlight that fully knocking out the entire photorespiratory pathway is not a viable strategy and that photorespiratory modifications (to reduce photorespiratory CO 2 release) must consider reducing flux through the pathway, while regulating production and metabolism of toxic intermediates.A range of studies provide examples of how modifications of photorespiration can increase biomass production (see Fig. 3), including: increasing CO 2 concentration around Rubisco (to reduce the rate of oxygenation) based on the modelled introduction of cyanobacterial carboxysomes; changing associations between chloroplasts and mitochondria; and engineering photorespiratory bypasses (Sage & Sage, 2009;Price et al., 2013;Xin et al., 2015;Betti et al., 2016;Batista-Silva et al., 2020). One example is the expression of CO 2 permeable aquaporins to improve membrane CO 2 conductance (Groszmann et al., 2017;Zhao et al., 2017;Ermakova et al., 2021) and reabsorb emitted CO 2 in the chloroplast. Another example of the latter is recent work by South et al. (2019) who detail three alternative photorespiratory pathways (APs) in Nicotiana tabacum, two of which led to increased biomass and one which increased light-use efficiency. AP1 plants (with Escherichia coli glycolate oxidase genes targeted to the chloroplast) exhibited a 13% increase in plant dry mass. AP3 plants (with replaced malate synthase and glycolate oxidase) exhibited an 18% increase in the absence of an RNAi construct that reduced PLGG1 expression and 24% biomass increase with the RNAi constructas well as increased glyoxylate and pyruvate, increased photosynthetic rate, increased chloroplastic CO 2 concentration and decreased serine and glycerate. These findings highlight the potential and viability of modifications to the photorespiratory pathway to improve plant growth.Net photosynthesis determines the upper bounds of the plant carbon budget; however, understanding the fate of fixed carbon is just as important to ultimately improving Y p . Photoassimilate from the Calvin cycle is stored or exported to sink tissues, where it can be respired to produce ATP, carbon skeletons and reductants. Between 30 and 60% of daily fixed carbon ends up being respired (Amthor et al., 2019). The ultimate goal is to improve the efficiency of ATP synthesis and use, reducing the proportion of daily fixed carbon that is respired and improving yield through enhanced ϵ c . This could be accomplished through improvements in ϵ biosynthesis (Eqns B4 and B6). Knowing that respiration is a key component in determining available carbon for growth in a plant's carbon budget, we first explore the components of ϵ biosynthesis (i.e. processes that influence the efficiency of ATP production and consumption).To improve ϵ biosynthesis , one option is to consider ϵ prodthe efficiency with which ATP and other respiratory products are made (Eqn B7). During oxidative phosphorylation, high-energy electrons generated during glycolysis and from the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle are transported through a series of complexes along the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) to the terminal electron acceptor, oxygen. The flow of electrons through Complexes I (NAD(H) dehydrogenase), III (cytochrome bc 1 complex) and IV (cytochrome c oxidase, COX) is coupled to the pumping of protons across the IMM to create the electrochemical gradient that drives generation of ATP by Complex V (ATP synthase). Importantly, the plant IMM also contains rotenone-resistant dehydrogenases (alternative DHs) that reduce the ubiquinone pool without utilising Complex I (Rasmusson et al., 2004) and the cyanideresistant alternative oxidase (AOX) that diverts the flow of electrons from the ubiquinone pool directly to O 2 (McIntosh, 1994;Vanlerberghe & McIntosh, 1997;Berthold et al., 2000). The alternative DHs and AOX pathway reduce the efficiency of ATP production per mol substrate because electrons bypass either Complex I, or both Complex III/IV, respectively, resulting in a decrease in the number of protons pumped across the membrane such that the amount of ATP per unit of CO 2 released and/or O 2 consumed decreases. Similarly, dissipation of the electrochemical gradient also occurs when protons are transported through the IMM-located uncoupling proteins (UCPs) or mechanosensitive ion channels and results in reduced ATP yield, with energy being dissipated as heat (Sweetlove et al., 2006;Lee et al., 2016). Because of this, ϵ prod has the potential to be inversely related to engagement of the AOX pathway and/or other nonphosphorylating/uncoupling pathways (Fig. 4). While we lack examples of where engagement of these pathways are linked to changes in ϵ prod , low activity of them couldin theorycontribute to increased ϵ prod and ultimately Y p .One challenge for improving ϵ prod through targeting the AOX and/or other nonphosphorylating/uncoupling pathways is the fact that nonphosphorylating and uncoupling pathways broadly increase stress resistance. For example, AOX transcripts increase under stressed conditions such as the presence of inhibitors of mitochondrial electron transport chain (Saisho et al., 1997;Polidoros et al., 2005), chilling temperatures (Djajanegara et al., 2002) and oxidative stress (Yukioka et al., 1998). Loss of AOX makes plants susceptible to stress (Giraud et al., 2008;Demircan et al., 2020), and overexpression can improve plant stress tolerance (Dahal et al., 2015;Gong et al., 2020). Changes in UCP and NDH expression have similar effects (Taylor et al., 2005;Arcuri et al., 2021). Increases in the abundance of nonphosphorylating and uncoupling pathways enable plants to maintain flux through glycolysis and the TCA cycle under conditions of low ATP demand (i.e. enabling flexibility in the ATP yield and depending on demand). This flexibility comes with the trade-off of decreased efficiency in ATP production, and a decrease in ϵ prod means that more assimilated carbon must be consumed to produce ATP. However, suboptimal ATP yield is counteracted by increased stress tolerance and blunt excision of these pathways may do more harm than good, as the aforementioned mutant phenotypes show.Assuming in specific scenarios that changes in ϵ prod could help increase ϵ biosynthesis , how might future studies incorporate screens for genotypic variability in ϵ prod into breeding strategies? One approach is to quantify the relative engagement of these pathways in vivo. In the case of terminal oxidases, COX and AOX exhibit differential isotope discrimination when consuming O 2 (Guy et al., 1987;Cheah et al., 2014). When placed in a closed system, the ratios of 16 O and 18 O change through time; when coupled to measurements of overall O 2 uptake, rates of COX and AOX can be calculated. While such an approach could be used to screen divergent genotypes of crops, the method is currently low throughput and requires sustained use of high-sensitivity mass spectrometers; thus, as currently available, the oxygen isotope discrimination method is unlikely to provide the rapid screening required by the crop breeding industry. Similarly, we lack methods to rapidly screen for variability in in vivo proton translocation via uncoupling pathways or the use of alternative NDHs. Thus, new approaches will need to be developed that enable in vivo rates through any or all of these alternative pathways in high-throughput measurements as part of screens of diverse germplasm. An alternative approach could be to employ a synthetic biology approach to modify their engagement. For example, Amthor et al. (2019) suggested engineering a light-specific AOX to replace constitutive expression, minimising AOX flux in the dark and improving ϵ prod . A dual-track approachusing screens of diversity panels and a synthetic biology approachwould allow us to take advantage of natural variation in engagement of alternative pathways and engineered variation. Finally, further efforts need to be made to adapt the genetically-encoded biosensors developed for live monitoring of photosynthetic redox and energy status in chloroplasts (Müller-Schüssele et al., 2021) to the monitoring of respiratory energetics in mitochondria.Improvements to ϵ biosynthesis can also be accomplished through changes to the efficiency by which respiratory energy is used (i.e.ϵ use ) for biosynthetic, maintenance and active transport. Cellular respiration not only provides the energy required for metabolic reactions, but also creates the carbon skeletons necessary for biosynthesis and regulates the cellular redox environment in which these reactions to take place (Plaxton & Podestá, 2006;Millar et al., 2011;O'Leary et al., 2019). Changes in the efficiency of processes that use products of respiration can thus influence ϵ use , with consequences for ϵ biosynthesis , ϵ c and Y p .Biosynthesis costs of plant tissues are generally invariant Could ϵ use be improved via screening for variation in the energy costs of synthesising new tissues? The energy demand associated with biosynthesis depends on two factors: (1) the ATP costs of making individual chemical constituents; and (2) the relative abundance of individual chemicals in plant tissues (De Vries et al., 1983;Lambers & Rychter, 1989). Beyond acquisition (described later), minerals have no construction cost, and organic acids, total nonstructural carbon and total structural carbon are relatively cheap to produce (0.91, 1.09 and 1.22 g glucose g −1 dry mass, respectively). Meanwhile, the costs of synthesis are higher for lignin, protein, soluble phenolics and lipids (2.12, 2.48, 2.60 and 3.03 g glucose g −1 , respectively), and key components of energy organelles. Theoretically, differences in the chemical makeup of different tissues could mean that some tissues are cheaper to produce than others. However, in studies that have quantified the construction costs of plant tissues in a range of contrasting plant species, relatively minor differences have been observed. For example, Poorter & Villar (1994) found only small differences in the construction costs for different functional types: a 6% difference between herbaceous and woody plants (1.45 to 1.54 g glucose g −1 , respectively) and a 4% difference between deciduous angiosperms and evergreens (1.52 and 1.58 g glucose g −1 , respectively). Additionally, environmental-limiting conditions ((CO 2 ), light and nutrients) have a minimal impact (≤10%) on construction costs. Underpinning the uniformity of construction costs is the fact that there are often trade-offs in the abundance of energetically expensive compounds. For example, fast-growing species are protein-rich, whereas slow-growing species contain high concentrations of lignin, with both compounds being energetically expensive to construct (Poorter & Villar, 1994), with there being a general trade-off between inexpensive and expensive constituents in both slow-and fast-growing species (Lambers et al., 2008). Given these observations, targeting the efficiency of biosynthesis is unlikely to be the best strategy for improving ϵ use . Rather, improvements are likely to come through a focus on the efficiency with which respiratory energy is used by processes of cellular maintenance and/or ion transport.Improvements through targeting the energy costs of maintenance processes Perhaps of greater significance in determining whether a particular plant has low or high ϵ use are the energy costs associated with maintenance of mature tissues (e.g. protein turnover and maintenance of solute gradients across membranes), which can consume 30-60% of daily fixed carbon (Penning de Vries, 1975;Amthor, 2000), with high costs being associated with slow growth rates (Lambers et al., 2008). More recently, Amthor et al. (2019) outlined the opportunity to reduce energy costs of maintenance processes, including decreasing protein and membrane turnover, relocating and/or rescheduling metabolic activities, suppressing futile cycles in metabolism and reducing ion transport costs. As such, there is potential for ϵ use to be improved through screening for variation in the energy costs of these processes and/or genetic manipulation of the underlying components of each process (Jacoby et al., 2016;Amthor et al., 2019).Plants employ a diverse assortment of proteins for daily growth, metabolism and function, as well as in response to dynamic stimuli. The plant proteome is responsive to abiotic and developmental factors as well as carbon and nitrogen economy (Kosová et al., 2011). Total protein content in a plant is not constant and changes in response to environmental factors such as salinity (Doganlar et al., 2010;Jouyban, 2012), drought (Akhzari & Pessarakli, 2016) and heat stress (Giri et al., 2017) to name a few. Protein abundance depends on the rate of protein synthesis (k s ) and degradation (k d ) (Li et al., 2017;Ross et al., 2021). As Li et al. (2017) note, these two processes are often combined to loosely define protein turnover, the process by which degradation of existing proteins and replacement with newly synthesised proteins modify the proteome. For a given time period, Ross et al. (2021) define total protein produced simply as the integral of k s , whereas total protein degraded is expressed as an exponential decay function, with k d as the rate constant. By relating protein abundance to rates, the authors find that k d controls turnover under steady-state conditions, including after changes in k s , as only k d controls protein half-lives (see Ross et al., 2021).What do we know about the relationship between protein turnover and its associated ATP costs? Reflecting the factors mentioned earlier, it is clear that plants have evolved a complex system to regulate protein synthesis and degradation, allowing metabolism to dynamically adjust to changes in the type and abundance of proteins needed in different environments and growth stages (Vierstra, 2009;Marshall & Vierstra, 2018). Protein synthesis can be controlled at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional and translational levels, whereas degradation is dependent on post-translational regulation related to protein location and function, local environment and protein-protein interactions (Hinkson & Elias, 2011;Nelson & Millar, 2015;Huang et al., 2020). The balance between synthesis and degradation dictates maintenance costs of protein turnover, either through differences in specific ATP cost of turnover or the absolute amount of turnover occurring.While protein turnover can help plants adjust to new environments, it is energetically expensive. Each day, c. 6% of all proteins are replaced, with 6-10 mol ATP being consumed per mol peptide bonds undergoing turnover and 0.9-1.6 CO 2 per amino acid (Noguchi et al., 2001;Nelson et al., 2014;Ishihara et al., 2015). Bouma et al. (1994) estimated that protein turnover in bean leaves accounted for 17-21% of darkened mature leaf respiration (c. 2.3 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 ). In a review of previous research, Noguchi et al. (2001) reported that protein turnover consumes 3.5-60% of total ATP produced. In their own experiment, Noguchi et al. (2001) found protein turnover consumed 15.9-23.8% and 40.8-61.3% of total ATP produced in shaded and sunlit leaves, respectively. Quigg & Beardall (2003) reported that the proportion of maintenance respiration is attributable to protein turnover in higher plants, ranging from Dactylis glomerata roots (7%) to Hordeum vulgare full-grown leaves (30-60%). In wheat, protein turnover consumes approximately a third of total respiratory energy (Zagda ńska, 1995). In Arabidopsis, 25-40% of ATP is used for protein turnover, depending on the age and growth rate of leaves, and this overall cost has been broken down to specific costs of maintaining different kinds of cellular organelles, metabolic pathways and enzymes (Li et al., 2017). Specific proteins also play disproportionately large roles in turnover costs. For example, thiazole synthase (THI4) turnover can account for 2-10% of total maintenance respiration (Amthor et al., 2019). Thus, while there is clearly considerable variability in the estimated ATP costs associated with protein turnover, what is clear is that reducing the costs of turnover could be a target for improving ϵ use , particularly when designing plants for future, warmer climates. This is because turnover costs are likely to increase under conditions of environmental stress (e.g. heat, salinity and hypoxia) that accelerate the turnover of proteins, thereby consuming more of the ATP budget (Hachiya et al., 2007;Edwards et al., 2012).Bearing in mind the goal of maximising ϵ use , are there correlations between whole-plant growth and protein turnover? In Arabidopsis, larger (higher growth rate and rosette biomass) accessions reduced ribosome abundance at night, whereas smaller accessions maintained end-of-day levels of ribosomes (Ishihara  , 2017). Smaller accessions also had rates of protein synthesis up to 30% higher than the estimated rate required for growth, and up to 25% of the observed difference in relative growth rate could be tied to increased ATP costs of protein turnover. Gibon et al. (2009) found a tight correlation between growth, starch metabolism and protein content in Arabidopsis grown under different photoperiods, although they observed protein amount, not turnover rate. There are currently few studies in this space, but it should be considered a priority for further study, considering the substantial proportion of ATP use devoted to protein turnover.Other substantive energy demands are phospholipid membrane turnover (c. 0.7 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 ) (Penning de Vries, 1975) and maintenance of ion gradients within cells; for the latter, Penning de Vries (1975) estimated that the total cost of maintaining intracellular ion gradients was c. 4.6 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 in some leaves, that is over 50% of respiratory rate. Lipids (a large part of membrane composition) are expensive to produce, costing nearly 3 g of glucose to produce 1 g of lipid (De Vries et al., 1974) To our knowledge, little work exists on the specific construction costs or turnover rates of plant membranes. Prior studies show that wholeplant cell membranes can be fully turned over in 200 min (Warren & Glick, 1968;Steer, 1988). However, Hao & Maxfield (2000) found membrane turnover rates as low as 5-10 min in Chinese hamster ovarian cells. This large difference between very distinct cell types suggests more work remains to address gaps in how membrane turnover is supported by maintenance respiration. Similarly, considering protein turnover, improved measurement techniques will allow for fine-resolution, context-specific descriptions of synthesis and degradation rates, k s and k d , respectively (Nelson et al., 2014;Ross et al., 2021), across the multitude of subcellular and ambient environments experienced, allowing greater specificity of turnover characterisation. Variation in energy demands associated with maintenance can, therefore, have a substantive impact on ϵ use of leaves. From the context of increasing ϵ use and ultimately Y p , minimising the energy costs associated with protein turnover, while maintaining adequate function, would present an opportunity to decrease the maintenance respiration costs incurred (Amthor et al., 2019).Lowering the energy costs of phloem loading A further factor that influences the demand for respiratory ATP is nocturnal carbohydrate export from mature leaves. Once synthesised in photosynthetic source leaves, sucrose (Suc), the main assimilate in most seed plants, needs to be loaded into the phloem for translocation towards nonphotosynthetic sink organs where Suc is unloaded. This source-to-sink allocation of assimilate plays critical roles in determining how biomass is translated into crop yield (Ruan, 2014;Fernie et al., 2020). Opportunities exist to increase source-to-sink phloem translocation efficiency with no or little additional ATP cost as elaborated later.In most species, phloem loading takes place either via the apoplast across plasma membranes or via the symplast through plasmodesmata (PD) at the interface of phloem parenchyma and the companion cell-sieve element (CC-SE) complex in developed leaves. The latter pathway also includes Suc moving from mesophyll and bundle sheath cells through PD into specialised CCs called intermediary cells, where Suc is synthesised into a raffinose family oligosaccharide for loading into the SE, the socalled polymer trap model. This pathway has been observed in Cucurbita genus and some trees (Fu et al., 2011;Zhang & Turgeon, 2018). In apoplasmic phloem loading, the uptake of Suc into CCs is typically mediated by H + -Suc symporters energised by plasma membrane-bound ATPase, while efflux of Suc from phloem parenchyma is facilitated by the energy-independent clade III Sugars will Eventually be Exported transporter (SWEET). Knockout of clade III SWEETs significantly reduced phloem loading, leading to a severe growth phenotype in a range of species such as Arabidopsis (Chen et al., 2012) and maize (Bezrutczyk et al., 2018). These findings indicate a major role of SWEETs in controlling Suc efflux for subsequent uptake into the CC-SE. It is therefore plausible that enhancing Suc efflux by increasing clade III SWEET expression or activity could improve phloem loading of Suc with no direct energy cost (and thus improve ϵ use ).In parallel to apoplasmic loading, Suc may also be loaded into CC-SE symplasmically via PD (Braun et al., 2014;Bezrutczyk et al., 2018). In this case, phloem loading may be improved through increasing PD conductance by modifying sterol homeostasis or callose turnover or other PD-associated proteins (Zhang et al., 2017;Fernie et al., 2020). To this end, β-1,3 glucan synthase and β-1,3 glucanase are the two enzymes synthesising and degrading callose, respectively (Ruan, 2007;Zhang et al., 2017). Thus, the knockout of η-1,3 glucan synthase could block callose synthesis at the PD neck region, while overexpressing β-1,3 glucanase could degrade callose at the PD neck region. Such changes would have the effect of 'opening up' or increasing PD conductance for symplasmic loading (potentially increasing ϵ use ).The SWEETs also play an important role in unloading of Suc into sinks. Interestingly, clade III SWEETs could be bound and inactivated by SP6A, a homologue of FT and phloem-mobile tuberigen in potato tubers, which switches the apoplasmic unloading route into symplasmic unloading, triggering tubulisation (Abelenda et al., 2019). This shows potential to optimise phloem unloading for yield gain such as tuber formation via manipulating SWEET activity. On the contrary, PD appears to impose major restrictions on the delivery of assimilates to meristematic sinks such as shoot or root apex and ovules (Ruan, 2012). In this context, computational modelling has identified inefficient delivery of carbon as a cause of floral and seed abortion on the secondary and tertiary branches of rice panicles (Seki et al., 2015), likely due to low PD conductance in those highorder branches (Fernie et al., 2020). Collectively, the above analyses indicate potential scope and avenues for improving phloem loading and unloading for growth and yield gain in an energy-efficient manner, with positive implications for ϵ use .Reducing the energy costs associated with root nutrient uptake Uptake of nutrients from the soil into roots is another major energy cost, with 50-60% of root respiratory ATP being used to support ion uptake (Poorter et al., 1991). Importantly, the specific energy costs of ion uptake differ among species adapted to contrasting environments, with more respiratory ATP being needed to take up a given amount of nitrate in inherently slow- growing species than their fast-growing counterparts, when plants are provided with high nutrient supply (Poorter et al., 1991). The differences in the specific costs of ion uptake reflect the fact that: (1) there is an efflux of ions (e.g. nitrate) from roots, resulting in a reduction in the net rate of ion uptake; and (2) the extent of efflux is relatively greater in inherently slow-growing species than in fastgrowing species (Scheurwater et al., 1998(Scheurwater et al., , 1999)). Such differences suggest that we may be able to increase ϵ use via understanding the mechanistic basis for these differences.Roots collect water and nutrients from the surrounding soil matrix, not only through bulk flow passive transport but also through active transport facilitated by transporter proteins. Active transport impacts ϵ use by using ATP to transport nutrients across membranes, against a concentration gradient, to be assimilated by roots or transported to shoots (Xu et al., 2012). In the case of nitrate, this movement is undertaken by nitrate transporter 1 (NRT1)/peptide transporter gene superfamily (NPF) that encodes transporters throughout the plant that allow its movement from root to shoot and ultimately nitrate reduction (Campbell, 1999;Plett et al., 2010;Zhang et al., 2020). However, as outlined earlier, nitrogen efflux from roots is common (Segonzac et al., 2007;Xu et al., 2012) and can contribute to high rates of respiration in slower growing plants as the ratio of nitrate influx to net nitrate uptake increases (Scheurwater et al., 1998). Ideally, ϵ use would be maximised through maintaining high rates of net nitrate uptake and assimilation per ATP used. This could be achieved through increased influx, decreased efflux or more rapid translocation to the shoot. Strategies including suppressed expression of nitrate efflux transporters such as NAXT1 (Segonzac et al., 2007) or other anion channels (Teakle & Tyerman, 2010;Wege et al., 2017), targeted overexpression of influx transporters with high NO À 3 selectivity (Fan et al., 2016), increasing structural barriers to impede leakage in roots such as suberised hypodermal or endodermal layers (Barberon, 2017) and relocation of nitrate assimilation from roots to shoots have been proposed to increase biomass gains from lower respiration rates (Amthor et al., 2019). Microbiome interactions, for example with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, also aid with nutrient uptake and growth promotion (Pascale et al., 2020). Griffiths et al. (2021) studied hydroponically-grown Zea mays and found genotypic variation in specific root ion uptake rates, which were heritable and positively correlated with specific root respiration rates. Variation between two rice subspecies in their NRT1.1B transporter showed increased nitrate uptake and transport to shoots, as well as upregulation expression of root and shoot nitrate reductase genes (Hu et al., 2015). As Griffiths & York (2020) point out, the extent of genetic variation in transporter traits such as energy costs of active transport is not yet well-characterised. Thus, variations in uptake kinetics exist and present another target for improved ϵ use .The earlier sections have shown that there is potential for variability in both ϵ prod and ϵ use to occur in nature, with consequences for ϵ biosynthesis and ϵ c . Amthor et al. (2019) estimated that a 10% reduction in the energy costs of maintenance could increase biomass accumulation by 6%, and a 20% maintenance respiration reduction could lead to gains up to 14%. This provides a rationale for screening genotypic variability in ϵ prod and/or ϵ use and therefore possibly identifying genotypes with improved yield. However, to be useful, such an approach needs an array of high-throughput methods capable of large-scale phenotyping of ϵ prod (e.g. rapid assays of nonphosphorylating or uncoupling pathway engagement) and/or ϵ use (e.g. measurements of the ratio of net to gross nitrate uptake and associated rates of root respiratory ATP production). However, such high-throughput tools are not available.Consequently, we need to consider new ways of assessing variation in ϵ biosynthesis . Here, one option is to screen for variation in the relationship between plant respiration and photosynthesis (i.e. what fraction of daily fixed carbon is respired rather than conserved in plant biomass). Another is to look for variability in the relationship between respiration and relative growth rate (i.e. screen for genotypes that achieve high growth rates while also having low rates of respiration).What evidence is there that rates of plant respiration vary among genotypes that differ in productivity? Here, insights can be drawn from the eco-physiology literature which has shown that inherently fast-growing species respire a lower fraction of daily fixed carbon than their slow-growing counterparts (Poorter et al., 1990;Lambers & Poorter, 1992;Loveys et al., 2002). Rates of whole-plant respiration are also relatively similar among species that differ markedly in relative growth rates, with high growth rates of some species being achieved without concomitant proportional increases in respiration rates. Such studies point to variation in ϵ biosynthesis being an outcome of evolution, with ϵ biosynthesis being highest in fast-growing species adapted to resource-rich, favourable habitats, and lowest in species adapted to resource-poor, unfavourable habitats.Further evidence of the possible link between ϵ biosynthesis , biomass accumulation and yield comes from the work done on Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass) in the 1980s. In a series of papers by Wilson, Jones and Robson, up to 13% increases in biomass accumulation and up to 40% increases in annual yield (in repeated years) were observed in plants grown under highdensity conditions and selected for lower rates of mature leaf respiration (Wilson, 1975(Wilson, , 1982;;Robson, 1982a,b;Wilson & Jones, 1982). In Wilson (1982), slow-respiring and fast-respiring progeny were produced by pair-crossing parents within either a slow-or fast-respiring cultivar. Additionally, progeny with low rates of mature leaf respiration were found to have higher net assimilation rate, relative growth rate, dry weight at harvest and leaf area index. Another study comparing selected fast-and slowrespiring ryegrass cultivars found the slow-respiring cultivar to have higher shoot and root mass at each harvest point (Day et al., 1985). More recently, selection across multiple generations of lines with low respiration rates has been shown to be associated with higher yields in canola (Hauben et al., 2009). Thus, there is some evidence that screening for variability in plant respiration rates may enable genotypes with higher ϵ c to be identified, with future work needing to use screens to ultimately identify what genes are responsible for variability in ϵ biosynthesis .Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.comThe link between respiration, growth and yield is not, however, always consistent. For example, in perennial ryegrass, the relationship between low rates of mature leaf respiration and improved biomass accumulation disappeared when plants were grown in lowdensity swards (Kraus et al., 1993), a result that was supported by a later study (Kraus & Lambers, 2001). Similarly, there is evidence that the growth of pea plants is linked to the efficiency of the respiratory system in some studies (Musgrave et al., 1986) but not others (Obenland et al., 1988). Thus, future efforts to explore the link between respiration, growth and yield will need to ensure that this relationship holds over a wide range of industry-relevant planting regimes.One of the challenges facing work designed to link respiratory rates to photosynthesis, biomass accumulation and yield is the need to screen large numbers of plants for variability in traits of interest and to establish the genetic basis of variability in ϵ biosynthesis . In the past, assays of photosynthesis and respiration were painstakingly slow, limiting our ability to screen large numbers of plants. Similarly, growth analysis required repeated destructive harvesting of plants. However, in recent years, methods have been developed that enable each of these parameters to be quantified in high throughput. Growth analyses are now possible using light detection and ranging technology to quantify aboveground biomass in field experiments (Jimenez-Berni et al., 2018;Furbank et al., 2019;Walter et al., 2019;Jin et al., 2020). For respiration, a breakthrough was the development of a high-throughput, robotic fluorophore method for measuring respiratory O 2 uptake (Scafaro et al., 2017). This method has provided the opportunity to screen hundreds of plant samples per day and has revealed that there is substantial variation in leaf respiration rates among genotypes of individual species, both in wheat (Scafaro et al., 2017) and Arabidopsis (O'Leary et al., 2017). Subsequent work has also shown that we can use hyperspectral reflectance signatures to predict variability in leaf respiration rates of laboratory and field-grown wheat (Coast et al., 2019), further increasing our ability to screen respiration rates in field trials; similarly, hyperspectral reflectance can be used to predict photosynthetic capacity in wheat (Silva-Perez et al., 2018). There is now an opportunity to use these methods to screen diversity panels and recombinant inbred line populations for variations in leaf respiration, photosynthesis and growth, and to identify quantitative trait loci for traits associated with high ϵ biosynthesis .To fully exploit the potential for screens of variability in respiration rates to be used in strategies to improve ϵ biosynthesis , consideration needs to be given, not just to screening variations in leaf respiration (R leaf ), but also R stem and R root . An understanding of the fraction of whole-plant biomass allocated to leaves (LMF), stems (SMF) and roots (RMF), with rates of whole-plant respiration (R total ) being calculated according to:The challenge going forward will be developing high throughput, (ideally) nondestructive ways of estimating stem and root respiration, and the patterns of biomass allocation above and belowground.How would a warmer world temperature affect ϵ c ?Given that the world is warming, it is important to understand how rising temperatures affect ϵ c . Noting that ϵ c ¼ α  ϵ prod  ϵ use (Eqn B7), any temperature-dependent change in the factors and processes previously discussed would likewise influence ϵ c . On a short-term timescale, increasing temperature past the photosynthetic optimum will decrease photosynthetic efficiency by decreased Rubisco carboxylation, damage thylakoid membranes and induce changes to vapour pressure deficit that result in stomatal closure (Mathur et al., 2014;Dusenge et al., 2019). At the same time, respiration, along with photorespiration and reactive oxygen species, is stimulated by increasing temperatures (Tjoelker et al., 2001;Mundim et al., 2020). Importantly, the initial imposition of heat likely results in an increasing proportion of respiratory ATP being used to support maintenance processes instead of growth (Gibon et al., 2009;Scafaro et al., 2021). Rapid increases in temperature result in membranes becoming more fluid and therefore leaky (Allakhverdiev et al., 2008), decreasing ϵ use as a result of more ATP being needed to maintain ion gradients across membranes and decreasing ϵ prod as protons leak across the IMM (Divakaruni & Brand, 2011). Heat also increases the rate of protein turnover and associated demand for respiratory ATP, lowering ϵ use . More severe temperature increases can denature proteins, deactivating enzymes and elevating the cost of maintenance chaperone and heat shock proteins, further lowering ϵ use (Wang et al., 2004). Such factorscombined with knowledge of the mechanisms via which plants adjust membrane fluidity (via alterations in the degree of saturation of fatty acids) and stabilise proteins (e.g. via synthesis of heat shock proteins), as well as thermally acclimate photosynthesis and respiration (Smith & Keenan, 2020) will need to be considered in work targeting higher ϵ c in crops developed to cope with more frequent and severe heat waves.Considering abiotic stress more broadly, the complex, interacting nature of many of the components affecting energy efficiency in plants requires a multivariate investigative approach. Screening for trait variation in ϵ prod and ϵ use and isolation of genetic candidates via GWAS or QTLwhile being an approach that can enhance classical breeding approachesis complicated by the high degree of environmental sensitivity of ϵ prod -and ϵ use -related traits (O'Leary et al., 2019;Scafaro et al., 2021). As such, the experimental design used to screen trait ϵ prod and ϵ use variation needs to be done in ways that enable the roles of genetics and adverse environments to be clearly identified.A further option to improve ϵ prod and ϵ use is to combine the above trait screens with additional approaches that harness the potential of genetic engineering. For example, modern genetic engineering techniques will permit the introduction of low-cost alleles that maintain stress responsiveness by targeting modifications to specific tissues only under permissive conditions, or by editing regulatory elements of promoters to better tune expression under such  (Smith et al., 2011), while knockout of AtNDB2 lead to susceptibility to environmental stress (Sweetman et al., 2019). Therefore, a strategy for improvement will need to be tissue specific or timed to avoid these detriments. Alternative oxidase pathway Flux through AOX does not pump protons into IMM Replace constitutive AOX isoform with a diel-scheduled isoform (such as with a light-specific promoter region) to increase ϵ prod at night (Amthor et al., 2019). ϵ use Growth Construction costs Expensive constituents (lignin, protein, lipids) cost > 2 g glucose g -1 to construct Employ Fourier transform (near-) infrared spectroscopy for high-throughput screening for variation of chemical composition in tissues (Collins et al., 2014).Membrane composition Lipids in membranes are expensive to synthesise and leaky membranes can reduce efficiency of cellular processesEngineer DNA nanostructures to mimic transmembrane proteins, regulate liposomes, modify membrane morphology and mediate membrane interface chemistry (Feng et al., 2021).Slowing protein turnover may translate to higher growth rate and biomass (Jacoby et al., 2016), for example by modifying synthesis of THI4, a high-turnover protein (Hanson et al., 2018).Inefficient energy use with no net gain in useful productMinimising enzymatic sucrose degradation and resynthesis (especially that paired with active transport), or F6P/F16BP cycling under specific developmental or stress conditions (Amthor et al., 2019).Active transport costs ATP Upregulate SWEET/SUC/WAKL proteins to increase phloem loading, biomass and yield (Xu et al., 2020).Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.com conditions (Zhang et al., 2018). The generation of a range of cisregulatory element edits provides the opportunity to produce a wide range of expression levels of endogenous genes, producing a broader range of potential trait variation than can be seen in natural populations (Rodriguez-Leal et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2021). Because of this, trait stacking (i.e. incorporation of multiple genetic modifications into a single variety of a crop) via transgenesis has enormous potential to speed up the process of crop improvement compared with approaches that relay on traditional breeding approaches. Trait stacking has proven successful in improving crop resistance/tolerance to biotic stresses (Dormatey et al., 2020) where a binary responseimmune or susceptiblecan be easily assessed; with improvements in high-throughput phenotyping methods, the same is likely to be true for assessing the outcomes of stacking of traits that contribute to improved ϵ c . While 'trait stacking' will not always deliver overall positive outcomes for plant metabolism and biomass accumulationwith balance between positive vs negative likely to depend on developmental stage, environment and management practicesthere is clearly potential to create crop lines with marked improvements in ϵ c through exploring the effect of multiple changes in energy-related traits.As outlined earlier, annual increases in crop production are well behind that needed to meet future global demand for food, with new ways needed to improve yield potential (Y p ). Our review has highlighted opportunities to increase Y p using a range of approachessummarised in Table 1 that target photosynthesis and respiration to improve the efficiency with which light energy is converted into biomass (ϵ c ). For photosynthesis, this includes changes in the properties of Rubisco and photosynthetic induction rates to increase carbon fixation (Table 1). Minimising photorespiratory carbon loss through metabolic engineering to increase carboxylation rates while still allowing oxygenation at a reduced but viable rate also shows promise (Table 1). Similarly, reducing the percentage of daily fixed carbon that is released through respiration could improve ϵ biosynthesiswith there being potential to improve the efficiency of ATP synthesis (i.e. ϵ prod ) and/or ATP use (i.e. ϵ use ) to improve ϵ c (Table 1). When such changes are brought together through a 'trait stacking' approach, there is potential to create additive or even multiplicative improvements to ϵ c , and through it, a step change in Y p . Key to exploiting the potential to improve yields through increases in efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration will be the development of high-throughput assays that quantify components of ϵ c . We suggest prioritising high-throughput and digital phenotyping of these components through hyperspectral and automated fluorophore systems and associated growth. The ability to phenotype variation in the balance between respiration, photosynthesis and growth across many plants would provide opportunities to exploit genetic variation in α and ϵ biosynthesisand through them ϵ c and Y p . Collectively, a focus on these strategies will inform breeding programmes targeting the increases in annual yield necessary to keep pace with increasing demand for food, reduce the amount of land used for agriculture, limit the demand for inorganic fertilisers and restrict greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector.","tokenCount":"9122"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"95f23df9307f8eeecbf5d2263bbbcda8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43ff8ee7-bb7f-4f17-ae00-271145325531/retrieve","id":"122789945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f23150b8-64b9-4b7b-819d-c54857f63a00","pagecount":"10","content":"• Contested hegemony: peasantry and nation-state formation processes in Latin America 10 .• Agency: relationship between producer families, private companies and the state (from field schools and farm plans to Heirs of Tradition).• Power dynamics within families, youth livestock producers as a discrete social group 1,2,4,6,7,9,11,12,13 .• Participation in educational projects, as well as in rural household economies.The origins of \"Heirs of Tradition\", (2012-2020)• Alquería's program and the company's importance in Colombia's dairy sector. • Pilot initiative in Meta, Colombia, one of the most affected regions due to the presence of armed actors and illicit crops. • Objetive: to tackle the low rates of schooling amongst producers, and the need for a technification of livestock farms to increase their productivity and, in turn, the quality of life of families. • Initial field activities were centered on two major fronts: ECAS or field schools (Escuelas de Campo) and the Plan Finca (farm plan), an educational initiative that introduces tools to facilitate the planning and improvement of farms (Alquería's suppliers) 15 .The role of young participants • Objective: that \"young farmers from different parts of the country be trained on livestock practices at no cost and enhance their knowledge and skills on management of soil, animals, and the environment\".• Address generational transfer, critical issue in the livestock sector in Colombia and Latin America at large 3,5,8,14,16,17 .• Duration: two years. It awards the title of Livestock Production Technologist.• The first 18 months students receive their training at SENA educational centers, and the last 6 are spent in practical on-the-job experience.• 2020-2021, partnership with the Alliance Bioversity International-CIAT (environment, productivity, socioeconomics)The program at a glance (students, dissagregated)  Assessing the impact achieved (qualitatively)• Interviewing former and present participants on their perceptions of the program, and exploring if they continued a career in the livestock sector or maintain their bonds with the company.• Bridging and facing gender disparities (not central to the project from its inception, yet critical in terms of equality, and generational transfer).• Maintaining the program for educational purposes (that can and will benefit the company), in addition to the improvement of milk quality and farm management.\"I was able to gain vital knowledge and tools to grow professionally, as a farmer and as a family member. Yet, overcoming gender stereotyping was one of the hardest parts, as many employers (producers, managers) could not stand the fact of being somewhat \"trained\" by a woman.\"• Closer, deeper relationships with producers and their families, getting to know their needs and ways of life• COVID contingency: rethink educational initiatives when circumstances deepen existing gaps (gender inequity, access to technology and information, remote learning, etc).• Build on past and present testimonies to strenghten the program onwards: listening To young farmers, amplifying their concerns and including their feedback. In sum, contesting hegemonic relationships, as historiographical readings on rural Latin America suggest.","tokenCount":"472"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5a3dd2fd9ff119e24029ff7bc75f9f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/396f66ca-003a-467b-80c5-879eeb43f33d/retrieve","id":"-1624170991"},"keywords":["gender equality","social equality","women's empowerment","food systems","climate change","resilience"],"sieverID":"ddd33538-46cd-4513-afed-ea1fcaf6d298","pagecount":"12","content":"The CGIAR Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) Impact Platform is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors (www.cgiar.org/funders) and in particular wishes to thank the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for supporting this work (https://www.fao.org/home/en).These evidence-based papers address key themes important for gender and social equality, and women's empowerment in agriculture and food systems. They each discuss: • current status and emerging thinking • the theme's relevance for transformative change toward more inclusive food systems • the evolution of equality in agriculture and food systems over the past 10 years in low-and middle-income countries • what has proved effective to ease structural constraints, and promote equality and empowerment • specific suggestions about interventions, programs and policies that can help make agriculture and food systems more inclusive.COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Felix Clay/Duckrabbit/WorldFish. Weeding maize, Mongu, Western Zambia.Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) is CGIAR's impact platform designed to put gender equality at the forefront of global agricultural research for development. The Platform is transforming the way gender research is done, both within and beyond CGIAR, to kick-start a process of genuine change toward greater gender equality and better lives for smallholder farmers everywhere. gender.cgiar.org.The working paper has gone through a process of nonblinded peer review by two reviewers external to the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform, and has also been reviewed by the FAO team working on the 2023 FAO report on the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations nor of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform.Elizabeth Bryan, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), e.bryan@cgiar.org (Corresponding author)Glossary of terms in gender equality in agri-food systems workAdaptation (to climate change) for human systems refers to the process of adjusting to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities (IPCC 2018). The options, strategies and measures for adaptation can be categorized as structural, institutional, ecological or behavioral (IPCC 2018).Adaptive capacity is the ability of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities or to respond to consequences (IPCC 2018;MEA 2005).Agroforestry ''is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same landmanagement units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components. Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecology-based natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. In particular, agroforestry is crucial to smallholder farmers and other rural people because it can enhance their food supply, income and health. Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural and environmental benefits\" (FAO 2015).Aquaculture, or farming in water, ''is the aquatic equivalent of agriculture, or farming on land. Defined broadly, agriculture includes farming both animals (animal husbandry) and plants (agronomy, horticulture and forestry in part). Similarly, aquaculture covers the farming of both animals (including crustaceans, finfish and molluscs) and plants (including seaweeds and freshwater macrophytes). While agriculture is predominantly based on use of freshwater, aquaculture occurs in both inland (freshwater) and coastal (brackish water, seawater) areas\" (FAO n.d.a).Aspirations are defined as forward-looking goals or targets (Locke and Latham 2002) and as orientations toward a desired future, where such futures may be individual or collective projects, more immediate or longer term, and pertain to imaginations, affect as well as material practices (Huijsmans, Ansell and Froerer 2021).Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a framework that is used to promote coordinated efforts to achieve three objectives (pillars): (1) increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, (2) adapting and building resilience to climate change at multiple scales, and (3) mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture (Lipper et al. 2014). CSA provides a basis to evaluate alternative strategies and approaches to address climate change across the three pillars. It is often criticized for its lack of attention to political and equity dimensions.Crop productivity or yield is the output of either a particular crop or all crops produced on a unit of land. It is usually presented in physical weight (kilograms) per hectare.Endowment effects are the component of the gender productivity gap that is accounted for or explained by farmer characteristics and the unequal access to production inputs.Empowerment is the process by which people who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability. It encompasses three dimensions: resources (economic, human and social preconditions), agency (power-related processes), and achievements (well-being outcomes) (Kabeer 1999).Social empowerment entails receiving recognition in one's community.Economic empowerment entails generating income and purchasing of assets.Exposure and sensitivity to climate shocks and stressors are properties of a system, community or individual that are dependent on the interaction between the characteristics of the system (e.g., livelihood characteristics) and on the attributes of the climate stimulus (severity, duration, scale, etc.) (Smit and Wandel 2006).Fisheries refers to the capture of aquatic organisms in marine, coastal and inland areas, as well as their processing, marketing and distribution.Forest: \"Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.\" (FAO 2022)Gender differences arise from the socially constructed relationship between women and men (Oakley 1972;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Sex differences, on the other hand, are biological and innate. The roles that women and men play in society show similarities and differences across classes and societies. Since the definition of men's and women's roles is specific to time and place, gender divisions are not as simple as 'ticking a box' (Moser 1989;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Gender differences affect the distribution of resources between women and men and are shaped by ideological, religious, ethnic, economic and social determinants (Moser 1989;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Being socially rather than innately determined, this distribution can be changed through conscious social action, including public policy.Gender gaps in productivity refer to either within-household or between-household differences in productivity between women and men. Broadly, two types of gender-based farming practices exist: individual and joint production units (farms). Intrahousehold gender productivity differences involve individual farms wherein plots are distinguished by the sex (female and male) of the plot owner or manager or decision-maker, usually wife and husband who are part of the same household; interhousehold gender gaps involve productivity differences (at plot or household level) between joint farms wherein households are distinguished by the sex of the household head or farm decision-maker in the household. Interhousehold gaps also involve productivity differences between households (joint farms irrespective of the gender of household head).Conditional gender productivity gap refers, in this report, to gendered productivity gaps reported after factoring in the gendered differences in access to and control over key agricultural resources such as land, agricultural inputs (fertilizer, improved seeds, plot area, climatic conditions, etc.).Unconditional gender productivity gap refers to reported gender difference in productivity after taking into consideration the gendered differences in access to and use of key agricultural resources such as land and inputs (inorganic fertilizer, improved seeds, etc.).Structural effects are the component of the gender productivity gap which is residual or unexplained by the observable factors and is due to unequal returns to production factors.Gender integration refers to the process of applying strategies in policy and program planning, assessment, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation to consider gender norms and to compensate for gender-based inequalities (Catacutan and Naz 2015;Njuki et al. 2013).Along the gender integration continuum, gender-blind programs are programs that ignore gender, gender differences and gender relations. Gender-accommodating programs acknowledge gender, gender differences and gender relations. They seek to ensure that women benefit but do not necessarily attempt to reduce gender inequality or address the gendered systems that contribute to the differences and inequalities. Gender-responsive/ gender-sensitive programs acknowledge gender differences in barriers and outcomes related to specific program objectives that aim to address gender inequalities in the local context through program design and implementation. Gender-transformative programs (such as gender-transformative approaches below) seek to address structural barriers and transform gender relations to promote gender equality (USAID 2017; ICO 2022).Gender-transformative approaches actively strive to examine, question and change rigid gender norms and imbalances of power. They encourage critical awareness among women and men of gender roles and norms, promote the position of women, challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between women and men, and/or address the unequal power relationships between women and others in the community (Rottach, Schuler and Hardee 2009).The ultimate goal of gender-transformative approaches is to catalyze gendertransformative change whereby norms and other structural barriers to gender equality are removed and more equal power relationships emerge.Hazard refers to the potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems and environmental resources (IPCC 2018).Institutions, as commonly defined in economic and political sciences, are the \"rules of the game\" of a society or, in other words, the rules, norms and conventions that people devise to guide, constrain or enable human interaction and behaviors. Institutions can be established formally, through rules such as statute law, common law, regulations and the enforcement mechanisms of these, or informally, through more informal conventions, normative or selfimposed rules of behavior, traditions and their enforcement mechanisms (North 1990;IPCC 2022). From a post-institutionalist perspective, institutions are defined as \"regularised patterns of behavior that are made and remade through people's practices but emerge from underlying structures and sets of 'rules in use'\" (Leach, Mearns and Scoones 1999, 237).Discriminatory social institutions are formal and informal laws, social norms and practices that restrict or exclude women and consequently curtail their access to rights, justice, resources and empowerment opportunities (OECD 2018). They consist of both formal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, codes of conduct/ norms) and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). They influence decisions, choices, and behaviors of groups, communities and individuals (OECD 2018).Social norm is a rule of behavior that individuals prefer to conform to if they believe that most people in their reference network (i.e., people whose behaviors and beliefs matter to their own behavior) conform to it (empirical expectations) and most people in their reference network believe they ought to conform to it (normative expectations) (Bicchieri 2006). Social norms can be held in place, at least in part, by anticipation of positive and negative sanctions (Cislaghi and Heise 2018).Gender norms are a subset of social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men and governing behaviors and practices in a particular social context and at a particular time in a given group or society. They are informal, deeply entrenched and widely held beliefs about gender roles, power relations and standards or expectations that people tend to internalize and learn early in life. They are embedded in formal and informal institutions, nested in the mind and produced and reproduced through social interaction. Gender norms play a role in shaping women and men's (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self. They sustain a hierarchy of power and privilege that typically favours what is considered male or masculine over that which is female or feminine, reinforcing a systemic inequality that undermines the rights of women and girls and restricts opportunity for women, men and gender minorities to express their authentic selves (Cislaghi and Heise 2020; UNICEF 2020).Laws: Rules of conduct formally recognized as binding or enforceable by an established authority. Laws relating to gender issues include personal property and inheritance laws and laws prohibiting gender-based violence, sexual harassment and discrimination (Markel and Jones 2014).Livestock are ''domesticated terrestrial animals that are raised to provide a diverse array of goods and services such as traction, meat, milk, eggs, hides, fibres and feathers. The term livestock systems embraces all aspects of the supply and use of livestock commodities, including the distribution and abundance of livestock, the different production systems in which they are raised, estimates of consumption and production now and in the future, the people engaged in livestock production and the benefits and impacts of keeping livestock.\" (FAO n.d.b).Mitigation (of climate change) refers to a human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases (IPCC 2018). Mitigation measures are technologies, processes or practices that contribute to mitigation, such as renewable energy technologies, afforestation and soil carbon sequestration.Policies are statements by a government of what it intends to do or not to do, including laws, regulations, decisions or orders. Markel and Jones (2014) note that policies differ from laws in that they do not have legal standing; however, they govern the management, decisions and actions of institutions.Relations are the expectations and cooperative or negotiation dynamics embedded within relationships between people in the home, market, community, groups and organizations (Hillenbrand, Karim and Wu 2015).Resilience, broadly defined, is the capacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event, trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation (IPCC 2018). Most definitions of human resilience focus on the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to act upon a set of capacities to mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and maintains or improves well-being outcomes, such as food security (Frankenberger et al. 2014;Mercy Corps 2016;USAID 2012USAID , 2017)).Resilience capacities include absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities. These are subject to gender and other social distinctions as well as the intersection of these identities, including those related to age, class, caste, ethnicity, marital status and sexual identity (Béné et al. 2014;Djoudi et al. 2016).Responses to climate change are broadly defined to include adaptation, mitigation, climate-smart or climate-resilient approaches. They can also be categorized in several different ways as coping, risk management, adaptive and transformative responses (Bryan et al. 2017;Theis, Bryan and Ringler 2019). Coping responses are usually short-term, ex post responses to experienced shocks or stresses and include actions like selling assets or changing consumption patterns and, at larger scales, humanitarian interventions (Corbett 1988;Dercon 2002). While coping responses may aim to maintain well-being at pre-shock levels, they are often associated with a deterioration in well-being, such as poorer diets and increased indebtedness. Risk management strategies, like diversifying production or livelihood activities, and adaptive responses, like adopting new agronomic practices, tend to be proactive and aimed at avoiding or minimizing harmful impacts of shocks and stresses over the medium to long term (Jost et al. 2016;Corcoran-Nantes and Roy 2018;Lawson et al. 2020). Transformative responses aim to change the fundamental attributes of a system or context to improve well-being outcomes, such as actions that directly address underlying social inequalities (McOmber, Audia and Crowley 2019;Carr 2020).Role models are defined as individuals who inspire people to make similar choices or adopt a similar set of values and to achieve comparable results (Madhavan and Crowell 2014;Porter and Serra 2020).Structural constraints on equality (by gender and other sources of social differentiation) are features of the institutional or normative environments (at any of multiple scales) that tend to restrain women from exerting agency and achieving their full potential.Technical efficiency is the effectiveness with which a given set of inputs is used to produce an output. A farm is said to be technically efficient if it is producing the maximum output from the minimum quantity of inputs, such as labor, capital and technology.Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts, including exposure and sensitivity to climate hazards and adaptive capacity (Adger 2006;IPCC 2018;Smit and Wandel 2006).Generating ","tokenCount":"2674"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"131e8adf9eeb86aa22579e50b27be8ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2eff9f55-00ef-49ec-b6d4-f12ae91d5d54/retrieve","id":"-519941518"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a9191a75-cdc1-4a65-918b-51c098a709e9","pagecount":"11","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Innovation Platforms as an approach to foster agricultural innovation Linking small scale farmers to markets using value chain approaches has become an important element of many agricultural developing interventions in developing countries.Traditional interventions normally focus on farm productivity to ensure food security among households and their capacity to market the surplus.Innovation Platforms (IPs) target a wide range of farmers, those who are still ensuring food security and those already participating in the market.Agricultural cooperatives often target farmers who are already engaged in growing cash crops and ensure that farmers maintain access to critical farm inputs, market farm products, strengthen farmers' bargaining power and improve income opportunities.There is a need for supporting the IPs which embrace a cooperative societies' approach. Such support would help to avoid certain pitfalls (see: the Bubaare IP Case Summary) and encourage the IPs trying to adopt the enhanced cooperative society's model to generate wider benefits.The role of an IP is to facilitate and strengthen interaction and collaboration in networks of farmers, extension officers, policy makers, researchers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development donors, the private sector and other stakeholder groups.The nature of agricultural innovation can be both technological (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT), agricultural inputs or machinery) and institutional (market approaches, modes of organization, policies and new rules).IPs aim at stimulating continuous involvement of stakeholders in describing and explaining complex agricultural problems and in exploring, implementing and monitoring agricultural innovations to deal with these problems.• They can provide various insights about the biophysical, technological and institutional dimensions of the problem.• They understand what type of innovations are economically, socially, culturally and politically viable.• Stakeholder groups become aware of their fundamental interdependencies and the need for action to address their constraints and reach their objectives.• Stakeholder groups are more likely to support and promote specific innovations in which they have been part of the decision making or development process.IPs provide opportunities for exchange of knowledge and learning, negotiations and dealing with power dynamics. They can contribute to strengthening the capacity to innovate across stakeholder groups which means the individuals, collectives or networks will be more capable of continuously shaping and adapting to change. This is because they collectively posses a varying degree of resourcefulness in assets, time, knowledge, dialogue, experimentation and persistence. The higher the capacity the better their ability to react proactively, flexibly and creatively to challenges and opportunities.• Continuously identify and prioritise problems and opportunities • Take risks, experiment with social and technical options, and assess the trade-offs that arise from these • Mobilize resources and form effective support coalitions around promising options • Link with others in order to access, share and process relevant information and knowledge • Collaborate and coordinate with others and achieve effective action.IPs can function on different levels ranging from the community or village level to the administrative or spatial levels, and these depend on their specific objectives such as:• Enhancing the capacity to innovate.• Supporting the scaling of successful local innovations.• Facilitation of national policy development and implementation.• Interconnected IPs may be required to strengthen the development and implementation of coherent intervention strategies across different levels.• The involvement of local producers, regional processors, distributors and retailers as well as certification bodies may be required.IPs have the potential to perform robust agricultural research, development and policy strategies. Their impact depends on the quality of platform organization and facilitation, communication within the IP, stakeholder representation and institutional embedding. Learning from the successful and effective IP case studies is essential to promoting best practices and role modelling the most effective approaches.The SSA CP is a research program developed, funded and implemented by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). It was implemented between 2008-2010 and employed the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) approach, which is an innovation-based research approach involving many stakeholders and innovative partnerships.SSA CP altogether formed 12 IPs in the region, four in each participating countries: Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The IPs formed around chosen value chains such as sorghum, potatoes or beans, which were selected by all stakeholders. Thanks to adopting the IAR4D innovation approach they were able to address most categories of agricultural problems at the same time.In Uganda problems such as poor management and political interference led to near-collapse of the cooperative sector. The case study of Bubaare IP demonstrates how the registration of the IP as a cooperative society has opened market opportunities for its members. The Bubaare IP was established with a focus on the development of the sorghum value chain. As a result, they managed to increase the production of sorghum grain, most of which is purchased by the Huntex Ltd to process it for producing Mamera. The members are also able to process and pack sorghum flour and they even managed to introduce it into supermarkets. Over the years the IP has introduced other value chains such as potato and honey. Members of the IP are welcome to have other enterprises. The registration of the Bubaare IP cooperative society has created opportunities for a large number of smallholder farmers to participate in various market activities. The other IPs in southwestern Uganda are in the process of registering as cooperative societies after they observed the achievements of the Bubaare IP cooperative society. This case presents how the registration of the Bubaare IP as a cooperative society has opened opportunities for a large number of smallholder farmers to participate in market activities. The model also empowered the farmers into innovations and product diversification, favoured women farmers who responded in large numbers to take advantage of the benefits offered.The Bubaare IP was formed in the Bubaare sub-country of Kabale District in southwest Uganda in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site by the SSA CP.The Bubaare IP decided to focus on sorghum as the enterprise because every household in Bubaare grows a traditional sorghum variety. This plant has been used for generations to produce porridge and weaning food for babies and is a traditionally and culturally important crop.The crop, however, brings low yields and the process of producing it is tedious hence making it unprofitable. Locally processed products such as the weaning food for babies last only about three days.The IP decided to pursue value addition as the key driver of sorghum value chain development. The IP, led by an executive committee, set out to form a strategy for increasing production and value addition through improved processing and creation of market linkages.Since the establishment of the Bubaare IP in 2009 a number of innovations have been generated to support the development of the sorghum value chain and to link farmers to the market:1 Improved farming practices Before looking for market opportunities it was necessary to raise the quantity and the quality of sorghum produced by the local farmers. The two local wild varieties of sorghum mature in seven months and are harvested once a year. With support from SSA CP members of the IP were introduced to improved agronomic practices such as correct plant spacing.Kabale Zonal Agricultural Research Institute, which was one of the partner institutions, developed varieties of sorghum that mature in shorter time and have higher yields. As a result, currently about 50 percent of the IP members have adopted the recommended spacing for sorghum by planting in lines instead of broadcasting. They also apply fertilizers to improve yields.With a help from the Department of Food Science and Technology at Makerere University, the IP members/farmers produce two types of sorghum flour -unmalted sorghum for food and malted sorghum for porridge, which will soon be launched in supermarkets around the country.In order to enhance the development of the sorghum value chain from production to marketing, the community wanted to revise their Natural Resource Management byelaws. They realized that the existing byelaws were poorly implemented and inadequately enforced and that there was a lack of review procedures to maintain the relevance of the existing byelaws and to formulate new ones.The IP members mobilized their respective parishes and villages to begin the process of reviewing and formulating the byelaws. They were finally approved and implemented in several parishes and used to protect gardens and guide marketing procedures.The IP negotiated with one of the IP stakeholders, Huntex Ltd -a food processing company, to process and pack sorghum produced by the member farmers into a non-alcoholic beverage, Mamera. It has a shelf life of six months, which is much longer than the drink original sold in local supermarkets with the shelf life of only two weeks. The Mamera drink has now two varieties: sweetened with honey and unsweetened, and its new packaging makes it both attractive and hygienic.It became necessary to include other enterprises which the IP farmers were involved in and these included honey and Irish potato. The IP members also purchased equipment to produce and pack potato crisps and they will soon be launching it on the market.The IP purchased a computer which helps them research the market. The IP members have also been introduced into savings mobilization and a credit by a partner institution -Agriculture Innovation Systems Brokerage Association. Now the IP savings are kept with financial institutions such as Crane Bank, Muchahi Savings and Credit Cooperative.Your Key Takeaways:The Main Achievements of the Bubaare IP • Improvement of farming practices such as correct plant spacing and fertilizing • Development of a variety of sorghum that matures in shorter time and have higher yields • Revision of the existing byelaws and formulation of new ones to support the development of the sorghum value chain, protect the gardens and guide marketing procedures • One of the IP stakeholders, a food processing company Huntex Ltd, agrees to process sorghum into a non-alcoholic beverage Mamera and give it a much longer shelf life and an attractive packaging • Local farmers (the IP members) produce sorghum flour while the IP stakeholder company produces the Mamera beverage• The IP introduces other value chains such as honey and Irish potato. They also purchase equipment to produce potato chips and will soon launch them on the market • The IP purchases a computer to allow the members to research the market • The IP members are introduced into savings mobilization and a credit, and their savings are now kept with financial institutions.The Bubaare IP Success Factors• The political stability in the country provided a supportive environment for the private sector to develop • The local governments (district and sub-country) have given support to the IP activities • The government has pursued a conductive macro economic policy environment and a decentralized form of governance. This, in turn, supports innovativeness to the point that specific localities are able to deal with development challenges.• The sub-country administration provided the venue for the IP meetings as well as security for the IP property• The identified stakeholders to join the IP were suitable to address the challenges of the community • The following institutions contributed to the above developments: Huntex Ltd, KAZARDI, KDLG, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry (MTTI), NGOs.Why the Bubaare IP registered as a Cooperative SocietyThe Bubaare IP was initially registered as an association, which allowed the members to operate within the district, get into ventures and interactions. The development partners gave them a grant of 30,000 USD for the expansion of sorghum production and the processing it into larger quantities of Mamera. The IP decided to loan the funds to Huntex Ltd to expand their premises and purchase the required equipment to process and package Mamera.As advised by one of the major IP stakeholders, through the District Commercial Office, at this point they needed to be formally registered beyond the level of an association. This would allow them to sue and to be sued in courts of law in case of a breach of contract by the IP or Huntex Ltd.The process of registration was initiated by the District Commercial Office and after the meetings with IP members during which the implications of such registration were explained, the IP was finally registered as Bubaare Innovation Platform Multipurpose Cooperative Society in 2013. It became the first among the 36 IAR4D-driven IPs in Sub Saharan Africa to register as a cooperative society.Outcomes and the impact of the Bubaare IP registration as a cooperative society 1 Infrastructural development• The sub-country authority donated a piece of land for future developments and let the IP use a store for bulking and storing sorghum• The registration of the IP cooperative society has given them a new status • The society has decided to embark on the construction of a new building to house their office, a community bank, a potato processing unit, sorghum milling, packaging facility and a computer room• The premises at Huntex Ltd. have also been expanded and more equipment purchased to process larger quantities of sorghum having the capacity to produce 2,000 litres of Mamera from 250 kg of per day. The previous capacity was 50 litres from 13 kg per day.2 Increased formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and a membership in the society• Since the registration of the IP cooperative society, there has been more Self Help Groups formed and joining the IP to take advantage of the benefits. Total membership has risen from 32 in 2009 to 1121 in 2014.• After becoming a cooperative society the new plans provided incentives for more farmers to join. The plans included signing a contract with Huntex Ltd to purchase more of the farmers' sorghum, hence ensuring the market for it. As a result more farmers have joined since then.• More women farmers joined the IP than men farmers most likely due to the fact that the crop is commonly grown by women. After the registration, the number of women farmers doubled with more of them taking leadership positions.3 Increased access to small affordable loansThe society was able to internally generate funds from its members to create a start-up capital for loaning to the groups. Individuals or an entire group may borrow funds to grow crops, to store sorghum which is later sold when the market price is favourable or for other enterprises. In general, the affordable loans have opened up more market activities among the IP member groups and individuals.The IP cooperative society enabled member farmers to obtain short-term small and affordable loans, which was a big incentive for farmers and especially for women farmers to form Self Help Groups and to join the IP.Since they joined all the SHGs have been able to get a loan.Small affordable loans are available to a wide range of socio-economic groups of farmers, who can use the loans for a variety of enterprises and to market their products outside the cooperative. The IP cooperative society has overcome the challenge, which prevented women and poorer farmers from joining a conventional cooperative society and receiving a loan. Also, under normal circumstances women would not own items that could be used as security and would not have any formal identification. As a result, the IP encouraged more socio-economic diversity in membership and impact across different socio-economic groups.4 Improved supply of good sorghum grain to Huntex Ltd.The supply of sorghum grain to Huntex Ltd has improved. Since signing the contract both the society and the Huntex Ltd have been able to meet their obligations.The registration has increased the demand for training in savings, lending, marketing and processing. KDLG in partnership with Makarere University contracted Durosh Empowerment Consult Ltd to train the Self Help Groups. Altogether 32 Groups were trained by the end of 2014 and were given a free savings kit each. Women members were entrusted with the responsibility of counting the group's savings every time the group meets to collect their savings.6 The quality standards of the product are set to improve• The Bubaare IP cooperative society has linked with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to obtain the S&Q marks for quality certification.• The Department of Food Science and Technology at Makerere University has trained IP members to process high quality flour and introduced the use of new equipment such as food weighing machines, sealers and food grade bags.• The Department has also analysed the nutrient content of sorghum and produced a label for the sorghum flour packets. Such standard certification procedures enable access to affluent but previously inaccessible markets in Kampala, a city eight hours away from Kabale.• The society is pursuing the patenting of Mamera.• The new status of the IP enables it to pursue the development of other value chains, which has already gained interest of organizations such as National Organic Agriculture Movement in Uganda.• There is need for the IP leaders and partners to internalize regulations of the new society to assist members to operate within these regulations. • It is not clear how membership will be sustainably motivated as unlike in a conventional society members of an IP cooperative society do not receive yearly bonuses related to their shares. The contribution of shares by member SHGs and the potential bonuses have not yet been worked out. • As the society continues to expand it might be necessary to employ professionals to run a society as a business entity as conventional societies do.IP cooperative as a business entity:• An IP cooperative is a business with full legal rights, which give it the credibility, recognition and more opportunities for support from development partners, to attract other credible partnerships both within and outside the country. • It has possibilities to engage new development partners while still owning the cooperative.• It can engage the services of a consultancy company, a new processor, an input provider and much more as new innovations develop. • It can also provide several services itself. It may operate a SACCO to provide loans to its members, establish a bulking store for farmers' produce, operate a processing plant.Development partners with resources to make investments should be encouraged to participate in an IP in order to support private sector engagement with small farmers. In the Bubaare case, Huntex Ltd did not have the incentive funds to expand its plant for processing sorghum. With the development partners of the IP funds were made available for the expansion of the premises and purchasing equipment for processing large quantities of sorghum under a contract.Public sector institutions such as Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry are instrumental in supporting the registration process of IPs. Local governments should be aware of the concept of an IP to help interpret regulations of the cooperative movement that could be used in the new proposed model of cooperative society and help to facilitate IPs requiring the same registration but with diversity of activities. Such support will enhance the transfer of already observed impact of an IP cooperative society across the entire sub-sector in Uganda.The Bubaare IP, which was the first to register as a multipurpose cooperative society, is still adapting itself to operating both as an IP and a cooperative society.The IP multipurpose cooperative society created in Bubaare is a new model of cooperative society and is a key factor of their success because:• It creates wider impact in the community with less transaction and monitoring costs than a conventional primary society.• The IP is comprised of Self Help Groups as members. Each group has 20-30 individuals who due to a lack of relevant society in the area or a lack of resources to buy shares to join a conventional society would not have been able to join any. Thanks to the new IP cooperative society model it is now possible.• The group members monitor each other's recovery of the acquired loan, which in turn reduces the cost of monitoring. • The individual members of SHG each produce commodities of their choice at the scale they can manage, which enables the IP society to produce variety of products from a very large number of small farmers. These farmers would not have been targeted by a conventional society.• The IP society is part of a wider IP of which partners and private sectors are stakeholders but not necessarily members of the cooperative society. This enables long term support from partners such as research institutions, private sector or farmers. The IP remains open to wide membership while it still owns its cooperative society.","tokenCount":"3399"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a44433c7d22328ab78a7db796513f2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cb4cbb96-8bed-46d3-a082-248e9067a293/content","id":"-2036063523"},"keywords":["maize","multiple-hybrid population","heterosis","heterotic groups","combining ability"],"sieverID":"41b42a4f-300e-4ef0-8448-0692bfbb8d51","pagecount":"16","content":"Combining Ability and Heterosis in Maize efficiency by using both temperate and tropical maize to broaden genetic basis. Large sets of parental lines with available genotypic information can be shared and used in worldwide hybrid breeding programs through an open-source breeding strategy. Potential applications of the reported results in developing hybrid maize breeding strategies were also discussed.Understanding combining ability and heterosis among diverse maize germplasm resources is important for breeding hybrid maize (Zea mays L.). Using 28 temperate and 23 tropical maize inbreds that represent different ecotypes and worldwide diversity of maize germplasm, we first developed a large-scale multiple-hybrid population (MHP) with 724 hybrids, which could be divided into three subsets, 325 temperate diallel hybrids and 136 tropical diallel hybrids generated in Griffing IV, and 263 temperate by tropical hybrids generated in NCD II. All the parental lines and hybrids were evaluated for 11 traits in replicated tests across two locations and three years. Several widely used inbreds showed strong general combining ability (GCA), and their derived hybrids showed strong specific combining ability (SCA). Heterosis is a quantifiable, traitdependent and environment-specific phenotype, and the response of parental lines and their hybrids to environments resulted in various levels of heterosis. For all the tested traits except plant height and hundred grain weight (HGW), NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids showed higher average heterosis than the temperate and tropical diallel hybrids, with higher hybrid performance for ear length, ear diameter, and HGW. Tropical maize germplasm can be used to improve the yield potential for temperate lines. Grain number per row and grain number per ear were two most important traits that determined yield heterosis, which can be used as direct selection criteria for yield heterosis. The hybrids from heterotic groups, Reid × SPT, Reid × LRC, SPT × PA, and Lancaster × LRC, contributed highly significant positive SCA effects and strong heterosis to yield-related traits, and the heterotic patterns identified in this study were potentially useful for commercial maize breeding. Heterosis was more significantly and positively correlated with SCA than GCA, indicating that SCA can be used in heterosis prediction to develop potential hybrids in commercial maize breeding. The results of the present study not only contribute to developing breeding strategies, but also improve targeted breedingMaize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops for staple food, livestock feed, edible oil, and biofuel (Mackay, 2009). Its cradle is in America's tropical and subtropical areas, subsequently generating a variety of ecotypes and diverse germplasm through a process of evolution and domestication. Compared to temperate maize, those developed in tropical and subtropical zones usually have more diverse genetic variation with resistance to diseases and pests, flourishing roots, toughness stalk, lodging resistance, drought tolerance, and higher levels of heterosis in their hybrids with temperate inbreds (Vasal et al., 1992). The phenomenon of heterosis or hybrid vigor was perceived by Darwin (1876) and described as hybrid F1 offspring exhibiting phenotypic superiority than both parents (East, 1908;Shull, 1908). In plants, heterosis could be attributed to the interaction among multiple loci, depending on hybrids and traits (Schnable and Springer, 2013), as shown in the magnitude and ratio of heterosis for biomass (Li et al., 2001), flowering related traits (Krieger et al., 2010), yield (Luo et al., 2001), and resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses (Miller et al., 2015).Utilization of heterosis is of great importance for agricultural production and one of the most successful examples in crops is from maize (Duvick, 2001). Breeding practice indicates that the performance of parents per se is not consistent with the hybrid performance. Excellent hybrid varieties are not necessarily derived from elite parents. Therefore, breeders should judge a parental line by its potential to produce superior hybrids, not only by its performance per se (Riedelsheimer et al., 2012). To identify the parental lines with great potential in making hybrids, combining ability has been estimated and used to select desirable parents and thus their hybrids. Two types of genetic parameters, GCA and SCA, have been used, which may be primarily caused by additive and non-additive gene actions, respectively (Sprague and Tatum, 1942). GCA for an inbred line is measured as the average performance for all the hybrids produced with that inbred line as the common parent, and SCA for a specific cross or hybrid is measured by the deviation of the hybrid performance from what can be predicted by the parental GCA (Sprague and Tatum, 1942). In generally, GCA evaluation is performed at early generations or breeding stages in order to save time and money in hybrid breeding, particularly in hybrid maize breeding (Sprague, 1946). The relative contribution of GCA and SCA effects to hybrid performance depends on traits and hybrids, and in some cases, for example, aflatoxin and grain yield (GY) (Meseka et al., 2018), GCA effects are more important than SCA effects. Evaluating GCA is inevitably a cumbersome and time-consuming task, becoming one of the major constraints in hybrid breeding programs.To breed ideal hybrids with high GY (Yong et al., 2019), good quality (Machida et al., 2010) and strong resistance to biotic (Sibiya et al., 2013) and abiotic stresses (Makumbi et al., 2018), heterosis and combining ability have been analyzed for available germplasm with limited numbers of parental lines. Heterosis and combining ability are usually estimated by populations derived from special genetic designs, such as diallel (Griffing, 1956) and the NCD II (North Carolina design II) (Comstock and Robinson, 1948), which are two most powerful genetic designs for combining ability analysis and have been applied extensively. Using an NCD II with 6 × 18 parents, the combining ability analysis indicated that at least one parent with higher GCA is required for producing a hybrid cross with high SCA for nitrogen use efficiency (Cui et al., 2014). Heterotic grouping among 378 hybrids derived from diallel crosses of 28 early inbreds was evaluated for their tolerance to Striga hermonthica, indicating that grouping based on SCA and GCA was the most effective in classifying early maturing maize inbreds for tropical maize breeding programs (Akinwale et al., 2014). Therefore, the better understanding of the genetic basis of heterosis and combining ability we can get, the more effective maize improvement programs and hybrid performance prediction can be achieved (Dhillon and Singh, 1977). However, only limited numbers of parents and their hybrids have been used so far, with a few of exceptions that over 100 hybrids were used (Akinwale et al., 2014). The population for a hybrid crop with a large number of hybrids generated from mating designs can be simply called as multiple-hybrid population (MHP) (Wang et al., 2017). Using a specific mating design or a combination of multiple designs, large-scale MHPs can be produced for more effective analyses of combining ability and heterosis. Diverse germplasm from different ecotypes, including temperate and tropical maize, should have been used for identifying genetic variation for both basic research and commercial breeding. So far, very few analyses of combining ability and heterosis have been performed using the hybrids between different ecotypes in maize (Fan et al., 2016). Considering great genetic diversity existing in tropical maize germplasm that could contribute to further genetic improvement, more studies are required by using between-ecotype hybrids. Therefore, large-scale analysis of heterosis and combining ability using diverse germplasm resources will improve our understanding of hybrid performance significantly, thus contributing to increased genetic gain in maize hybrid breeding.Here we report a large-scale analysis of combining ability and heterosis using an MHP consisting of 724 hybrids derived from 28 temperate and 23 tropical maize inbred lines. Our objective was to measure heterosis in both intra-and between-ecotype hybrids, estimate GCA and SCA effects and compare combining ability and heterosis across ecotypes and environments. Our results will facilitate our future maize breeding through improved combining ability analysis, defined heterotic patterns and broaden genetic basis using different maize ecotypes. The largescale phenotypic data, combining with high-density genotypes, which can be shared and used in worldwide hybrid breeding programs through open-source breeding strategy, will provide a great opportunity for whole genome prediction of heterosis and hybrid performance.A maize MHP was developed by using diallel and NCD II mating designs consisting of 28 temperate and 23 tropical inbred lines, representing a broad selection of breeding germplasm from temperate and tropical regions (Wang et al., 2017). The 724 hybrids were developed, which were divided into three subsets, 325 temperate hybrids derived in Griffing IV involving 26 parental lines, 136 tropical diallel hybrids involving 17 parental lines, and 263 NCD II hybrids generated between 13 temperate and 21 tropical parental lines. Among the 28 temperate inbred lines, 15 were from China and 13 were from United States, which included six heterotic groups, Reid, SPT, LRC, Lancaster, PA, and PB (Wang et al., 2017). Among the 15 Chinese temperate lines, six are common testers, including Ye478, HZ4, Dan340, Mo17, Tie7922, and Qi319, which have been widely used in Chinese maize breeding programs. The rest nine Chinese temperate inbreds have been also playing a very important role in hybrid breeding across maize zones in China. The 23 tropical lines have been widely used as parents across worldwide breeding programs in China and CIMMYT, three of which, Jiao51, Chuan29 Female, and 18-599, are from China.The temperate diallel hybrids, NCD II hybrids and their parental inbred lines were phenotyped in 3 years (2013)(2014)(2015) and two locations, Shunyi, Beijing (116.6 • E, 40.2 • N) and Xinxiang, Henan (113.8 • E, 35.1 • N) in randomized block design with two replications. The tropical diallel hybrids were phenotyped in Jinghong, Yunnan (100.8 • E, 22.0 • N) in 2014 and Sanya, Hainan (109.2 • E, 18.4 • N) in 2015. In each replication, each entry was planted with two 4-m rows with 25 cm between plants and 60 cm between rows. Thinning was done at the fifth leaf stage to maintain a density of 66,600 plants/ha. Traditional agronomical practices for local maize production were adopted in each trial to manage the experimental plots.Eleven traits of agronomic importance for hybrid performance were investigated. Two flowering related traits, days to silk (DTS) and days to anthesis (DTA) were scored. At harvesting stage, plant height (PH) and ear height (EH) were measured and seven yield-related traits, including ear length (EL), ear diameter (ED), row number (RN), grain number per row (GNPR), grain number per ear (GNPE), hundred grain weight (HGW) and grain weight per plant (GWPP), were measured after the harvested ears were air-dried. PH and EH were measured as the average height from ground to the top of the tassel and from ground to the node of the ear, respectively, each with five consecutive plants after excluding the edge ones. DTS and DTA were measured as the number of days from sowing to 50% silk and 50% anthesis, respectively. EL, ED, and RN were measured as the length from the ear bottom to tip, the diameter in the ear middle, and RN per ear, respectively. HGW was estimated with three samples of 100 kernels randomly selected from the total kernels and measured to give the average.(1) SCA and GCA effects were calculated as described by Sprague and Tatum (1942) and Griffing (1956):where g i and g j are the GCA effects for i-th and j-th lines, respectively; s ij is the SCA effect for ij-th hybrid; y ij is the trait value of ij-th hybrid; ȳi. is the average of the hybrids among i-th line crossed with a series of parents; ȳi.. is the overall mean.The genetic variances of GCA and SCA effects were obtained in a joint linear mixed model analysis of MHP over all tested environments by following Riedelsheimer et al. (2012):where y ijkl is the phenotypic observation for the i-th environment, µ is the overall mean, L i is the i-th fixed environment effect, b j(i) is the effect of j-th block within the i-th environment, gca k and gca l are the random GCA effects of the k-th female and the l-th male, sca kl is the random SCA effects of the k-th and the l-th parents, L × gca ik and L × gca il are the random GCA by environment interaction effects, L × sca ikl is the random SCA by location interaction effect, and e ijkl is the random error.GCA/(GCA + SCA) ratio was calculated using the equation modified from Baker (1978) by Hung and Holland (2012):where σ 2 GCA is the variance of GCA effects derived from the mean square of GCA and σ 2 SCA is the variance of SCA effects derived from the mean square of SCA. Since the total genetic variance among F1 hybrids is equal to twice the GCA component plus the SCA component, the closer this ratio is to unity, the greater the proportion of a specific hybrid's performance can be predicted based on GCA alone (Baker, 1978).(2) Heterosis was estimated based on two criteria, mid-parent heterosis (MPH) and high-parent heterosis (HPH), using the following formulae:where F1 is the mean performance of F1 hybrids, MP is the parental mean, and HP is higher parent values for all tested traits.(3) Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for phenotypic performance was performed based on combined data and linear mixed model by following Hallauer et al. (2010):where y ijkl is the i-th phenotypic observation for the j-th year, kth environment, and l-th block, µ is the overall mean, v i is the effect of i-th cross, y j is the effect of j-th year, s k is the effect of k-th environment, (vy) ij is the interaction effect between i-th cross and j-th year, (vs) ik is the interaction effect between i-th cross and k-th environment, (ys) jk is the interaction effect between j-th year and k-th environment, (vys) ijk is the interaction effect among i-th cross, j-th year, and k-th environment, r l(jk) is the effect of l-th block within j-th year and k-th environment, and e ijkl is the error. The genetic effect v i is considered as fixed effect while all other effects as random.Broad sense heritability (H 2 ) was calculated for each trait by following Knapp et al. (1985):where σ 2 G is genotypic variance of the hybrids, σ 2 GL is genotype × environment interaction variance, σ 2 E is error variance, L is the number of environments and R is the number of replications per location.The ANOVA was performed to evaluate the effects of genotype (G), environment (E), and the interaction (G × E) using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS R . 1 Best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were used to estimate phenotypic traits across multiple environments based on a linear model (Brown et al., 2011). Calculation of GCA, SCA, MPH and HPH were conducted based on the BLUP value for each trait. The correlation coefficients were assessed by the \"cor.test\" function in R, and the significance of the correlation coefficient was tested with t-test.Phenotypic performance across environments and years with tested traits for inbreds and hybrids is shown in Table 1. Significant genotype effects were found for all measured traits (P < 0.01), indicating significant genetic variation among parental lines and hybrids (Supplementary Table 1). For the temperate diallel and NCD II hybrids, environment and year had significant effects on all traits except DTS and DTA, and genotype by environment effect was significant for all traits except RN. Significant genotype by year interaction (P < 0.01) were also found for all traits but PH and HGW. Therefore, the phenotypic performance of inbreds and hybrids was significantly affected by genotype, environment and genotype by environment interaction (Supplementary Table 1). Highly significant GCA and SCA effects were found for all tested traits (Table 2). Significant GCA × E and SCA × E interaction effects were revealed for all the traits but RN. GCA/(GCA + SCA) ratios indicate that the tested traits were predominantly controlled by additive gene effects. Broad-sense heritability estimated was high (0.77-0.93) for all traits except GWPP (0.59), suggesting that phenotypic variation observed in flowering time and yield-related traits was highly inheritable (Table 2). GCA effects were highly variable across the traits (Supplementary Table 2). In the temperate diallel, 13 temperate inbreds showed negative GCA effects for PH and EH, suggesting that these inbreds had genetic potential for reducing plant and EHs. Two inbreds, P11 (HZ1) and P22 (Qi319), showed positive GCA effects for GNPE, HGW, and GWPP. P26 (Zheng58) exhibited positive GCA effects for HGW and GWPP but negative effects for PH and EH, indicating its value in increasing GY and deceasing plant sizes. The line P2 (AS6103) showed negative effects on PH, EH and flowering related traits, with stress tolerance at early flowering stages. P19 (PH4CV) and P20 (PH6WC) had positive effects on yield traits. For 28 temperate inbred lines, American inbred lines had desirable GCA effects on HGW and GWPP, while Chinese ones had desirable GCA effects on other yield-related traits with shorter plant and EHs. For tropical parental lines, CIMMYT inbred lines had much better GCA and performance than Chinese lines. P38 (TR0415), P41 (622016-ZCN-2), P43 (CML312SR), and P48 (DTMA227B) contributed to shorter plant and EHs. P38 (TR0415), P43 (CML312SR), and P45 (CML330) contributed to early flowering. P39 (TR0423), P40 (18-599), P46 (CML504), and P50 (TR0582) contributed to higher yield-related traits. In the NCD II, temperate inbred lines had desirable GCA effects on EL, ED, HGW, DTT, and DTS, while tropical ones had more favorable effects on EH, RN, GNPR, GNPE, and GWPP. Several widely used inbreds showed higher desirable GCA effects, and SCA analysis demonstrates that the hybrids with elite materials as parents have been identified as combinations with higher desirable SCA effects (Supplementary Table 3). As shown in Figure 1 for the hybrids from different heterotic groups, the hybrids from LRC × PA showed the lowest SCA effects on PH, EH, GNPR, and GNPE but the highest SCA effects on DTS and DTA. PA × PB hybrids had the lowest SCA effects on yield-related traits, including ED, HGW, and GWPP. Reid × LRC hybrids had the highest SCA effects on PH, EH, and RN. Reid × SPT and Lan × PB hybrids had the lowest SCA effects on flowering related traits than the hybrids derived from other heterotic groups. There was no significant difference found in SCA effects for the hybrids between tropical and temperate groups. From the aforementioned analysis, Reid × SPT, Reid × PB, Reid × LRC, and SPT × PA had favorable SCA effects for yield-related traits, while Reid × SPT and Lan × PB had lower SCA effects for flowering related traits.Significant MPH and HPH were observed for all the tested traits (Tables 3, 4). Two flowering related traits, DTS and DTA, exhibited negative heterosis, while others exhibited positive heterosis. For all the tested traits except HGW, a higher level of heterosis was observed in NCD II hybrids than in temperate and tropical diallel hybrids, indicating a higher level of heterosis in between-ecotype hybrids. NCD II hybrids showed a higher level of negative heterosis for flowering related traits, indicating that compared to tropical by tropical hybrids, NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids, with shorten growth period and improved stress tolerance, have advantages allowing them to be planted in temperate conditions. Overall, NCD II hybrids showed high levels of heterosis for EH and yield-related traits, indicating that temperate by tropical hybrids showed obviously stronger heterosis than intra-ecotype hybrids. Temperate diallel hybrids showed the lowest level of heterosis on flowering related traits, illustrating that they flowered earlier than other hybrids. The result revealed that tropical hybrids showed stronger heterosis on vegetative traits, while between-ecotype hybrids, i.e., temperate by tropical hybrids, showed a higher level of yieldrelated heterosis.The correlation of heterosis among traits varied greatly (Figure 2). MPH showed highly significant correlation (0.87) between two flowering traits, DTS and DTA. Conversely, the correlations of the flowering traits with other traits were lower than 0.30. Yield-related traits exhibited highly significant MPH  correlation with each other except HGW. A very similar trend was observed for HPH (Figure 2). Highly significant correlation was observed between MPH and HPH for all the tested traits, and the correlation for yield-related traits was higher than 0.77 (Table 5). Thus, observed heterosis largely depends on the genotype and could be correlated with related traits. Heterosis per se (MPH and HPH) can be treated as a phenotypic trait and used for genome selection and heterosis prediction.In temperate diallel hybrids and NCD II hybrids, significantly different levels of MPH were observed between two environments, Shunyi and Xinxiang, for all tested traits except ED, GNPR, and HGW (Figure 3A). Significantly different levels of HPH were also observed for all tested traits except GNPR and HGW (Figure 3B). Parents, hybrids and their combined effects contributed to the varied heterosis levels across environments. The response of maize parents and their hybrids to environmental factors may result in different levels of heterosis. We used the coefficient of variation (CV) to evaluate the stability of parents and their hybrids across the two environments. For 8 of the 11 traits, parents exhibited significantly higher CVs than hybrids (Supplementary Figure 1), indicating that for these traits the unstable heterosis across environments was driven more significantly by unstable parental lines. The rest three traits, including GNPR, HGW, and GWPP, did not exhibit significantly different CVs between hybrids and parents. These results indicate that a great variability existed in hybrids and parental lines across environments for all tested traits, and hybrids were more stable than parental lines. From the above results, environmental variables affect heterosis and hybrid performance greatly when maize hybrids and inbred lines respond differently to environmental stimuli.We evaluated the average levels of heterosis across heterotic groups for the tested traits (Figures 4, 5). The Reid × LRC  hybrids showed higher MPH for PH, but higher HPH for RN. The Lancaster × LRC hybrids had higher MPH for EH, and GNPE. The SPT × LRC hybrids had higher MPH for RN. Therefore, LRC group can be used to increase heterosis for yield-related traits. Both Reid × PA and Reid × PB hybrids had lower MPH and HPH for yield-related traits. SPT × LRC and Reid × SPT hybrids had lower MPH for DTS and DTA. Nonsignificant difference was found in MPH for DTA, EL, HGW, GNPR, and GWPP, or in HPH for EL, ED, HGW, DTA, GNPE, GNPR, and GWPP, among heterotic groups. Tropical × Lancaster, tropical × SPT, tropical × LRC hybrids showed higher MPH for GNPR, GNPE, and GWPP, but higher HPH for HGW, GNPE, and GWPP. Therefore, the hybrids from specific heterotic groups tended to exhibit specific trait advantages. For example, LRC group showed favorable heterosis for yield-related traits, while LRC, SPT and Lancaster groups had lower heterosis for flowering related traits.Yield was evaluated based on GWPP. The tested hybrids showed significant MPH and HPH for both yield and six yield-related traits (Tables 3, 4). GWPP in temperate diallel hybrids showed 141.30% (MPH) and 116.21% (HPH) on average over parental lines. Moreover, the hybrids showed significantly higher yieldcomponent traits than both parents. The means and ranges of seven yield-related traits in three subset populations were shown in Supplementary Figure 4. The result indicates that apparent heterosis for yield-related traits was observed in the three types of populations. The average performance of hybrids in the temperate diallel was higher than that in the NCD II and tropical diallel hybrids for ED, RN, GNPR, GNPE, while the performance in NCD II was higher than that in other two populations for EL, ED, and HGW. Temperate × tropical hybrids exhibited better yield performance and heterosis than within-ecotype hybrids for most of yield-related traits. Maize yield is determined by GNPR, GNPE, RN, and HGW. Improvement of GNPE related traits is an effective way for breeding yield heterosis. As GNPE is the multiplication of GNPR and RN, in-depth analysis of the traits related to GNPE has important theoretical and practical impacts on hybrid breeding. However, GNPR and RN are two traits that interact with each other, and GNPE is determined by both GNPR and RN. MPH showed highly significant correlation between GNPR and GNPE (0.95), between GNPE and RN (0.75) and between RN and GNPR (0.55) (Figure 2). GNPR and GNPE were two most important traits which determine yield heterosis.Heterosis for GNPR and GNPE in the temperate diallel was 58.80 and 77.18%, respectively. Heterosis for RN and HGW (13.39 and 12.14%, respectively), was relatively low, even with negative effects (Supplementary Figures 2, 3). When compared across years and locations, heterosis for GY and yield-related traits were varied significantly. Correlation analysis of heterosis between the two environments, Shunyi and Xinxiang, indicates that heterosis for yield-related traits was significantly affected by environments.The correlation of heterosis between Shunyi and Xinxiang was more significant for GNPR and GNPE than for RN and HGW (Supplementary Figures 2, 3). As heterosis for RN and HGW was relatively low (Tables 3, 4), no steadily MPH or HPH across the environments was observed. When these observations are considered together, yield heterosis can be largely explained by two major yield-related components, GNPE and GNPR, which in most cases have to offset the negative effects of RN and HGW. By examining the top 5% hybrids ranked by MPH and HPH of GWPP and four representative commercial hybrids from China, Xianyu335 (P19 × P20), Zhengdan958 (P21 × P26), Yedan13 (P10 × P16), Ludan981 (P06 × P22) (Figure 6), significant yield heterosis (MHP and HPH) was observed in all the selected hybrids, and GNPE was a major contributor to yield heterosis. GNPR was also an important determinant for yield heterosis in most hybrids. In contrast, no consistent heterosis (MPH and HPH) across environments or hybrids was observed for RN and HGW. Thus, the results suggest that both MPH and HPH for GNPE and GNPR were highly stable or consistent across these high-yielding and commercial hybrids, whereas those for RN and HGW were case-dependent.Simple linear correlation coefficients were used to reveal the relationship among MPH, HPH, GCA, SCA, and F1 hybrid performance (Table 5). MPH was highly significantly correlated with SCA, and also positively correlated with GCA for all tested traits expect PH, EH, and ED. HPH was positively correlated with the sum of parental GCAs for all the tested traits except EH, DTA, ED, and GWPP. Hybrid performance showed stronger correlation with the sum of parental GCAs than with hybrid SCA. The strong correlation between heterosis (both MPH and HPH) and SCA suggests that SCA could be used to predict hybrid performance and heterosis. In contrast, no significant correlation was found between heterosis and GCA for most tested traits. The correlation of hybrid performance with SCA was higher than that with heterosis (MPH and HPH) for PH, EH, DTA, DTS, ED, and GWPP. We found that both MPH and HPH were significantly correlated with SCA, while their correlation with the sum of parental GCAs was not consistent across the tested traits. Meanwhile, we also found that both SCA and the sum of parental GCAs were highly significantly correlated with hybrid performance, and SCA was highly significantly correlated with heterosis (MPH and HPH).Combining ability and heterosis among maize lines and correlation between combining ability, heterosis and hybrid performance provide important insights for developing breeding strategies, defining heterotic groups, and predicting hybrid performance. Complex trait dissection and crop improvement for combining ability and heterosis need to use diverse germplasm resources and large populations. Although required phenotypic variability exists in diverse maize germplasm, most researches have been using relatively small sets of inbred lines (Fan et al., 2014;Badu-Apraku et al., 2015), largely due to the fact that the number of hybrids that can be produced increases exponentially with the increase of parental lines. The MHP used in this study, consisting of 724 hybrids, was developed with Griffing IV diallel and NCD II designs using temperate and tropical elite maize inbreds as parental lines, which is suitable for combining ability and heterosis analysis and can be used for breeding different ecotypes by taking the advantages of different maize germplasm resources. Both diallel and NCD II designs can provide detailed genetic information, including dominance-recessiveness relationships and genetic interactions.In this study, an MHP could be used to reveal useful information about combining ability, heterosis, hybrid performance and genotype × environment interaction.On the other hand, the parental lines, which have been genotyped using 55K SNP markers and resequencing (Wang et al., 2017), can be shared with international collaborators. By inferring hybrid genotypes from their parental lines, various sets of MHPs can be developed for a specific target environment or research purpose, by sharing the 51 parental lines, from which any set of hybrids, up to 1275, can be generated. If the number of parental lines increases to 200, which is manageable for many breeding programs, up to 19,900 potential hybrids can be generated to meet the requirement of worldwide breeding programs. The genotyped parental lines can be used worldwide as proposed for open-source breeding programs (Xu et al., 2017(Xu et al., , 2020)).A full understanding of genetic basis of heterosis and combining ability remains elusive (Birchler, 2015), which, however, does not affect the vital role heterosis and combining ability play in maize breeding. Combining heterosis in different traits such as yield-related traits and stress tolerance could improve gain yield (Fujimoto et al., 2018). As shown in the present study, heterosis varied across environments as maize hybrids and inbred lines responded differently to environmental stimuli. Although heterosis was greatly affected by environmental variables, it is a quantifiable, trait-specific phenotype. In the temperate maize with six heterotic groups, the hybrids from different heterotic groups tended to exhibit trait-specific advantages. To be commercially advantageous, a hybrid should outperform its parents with respect to agronomic traits, especially the traits related to GY. Normally, GY heterosis is an important indicator of yield potential. In the present study, we demonstrated that heterosis was contributed mainly by two outperformed yield components, GNPE and GNPR. Moreover, heterosis was compromised in few cases by the negative effects of other component traits, RN and HGW. Therefore, GNPE and GNPR can be used as direct selection criteria for yield heterosis. Based on our analysis, nine elite inbred lines, HZ1, PH4CV, PH6WC, Qi319, Zheng58, TR0423, 18-599, CML504, and TR0582, had highly significant positive GCA effects for yield-related traits, which should have contributed to the improved hybrid yield. Six inbred lines, AS6103, PH4CV, PH6WC, TR0415, CML312SR, and CML330, manifested negative GCA effects for DTS and DTA, responsible for early flowering. The hybrids between heterotic groups exhibited various levels of dominance across traits, which were inconsistent among identified heterotic loci. In the elite maize hybrid Yuyu22 (Zong3 × Yu87-1), 13 heterotic loci were identified, including three for GY, seven for EL, one for RN and two for HGW (Tang et al., 2010). Several QTL were identified for seedling weight (SW), number of kernels per plant (NK), and GY in a cross between two elite inbred lines, B73 and H99 (Frascaroli et al., 2007). Using the elite maize hybrid Zhengdan958 (Zheng58 × Chang7-2), 38 heterotic loci for ear-related traits were identified, suggesting that the combination of heterotic loci in tested hybrids was genotype-dependent (Li et al., 2017). In another report, 156 QTL, 28 pairs of epistatic loci, and 10 QTL × environment interaction regions were identified, and the inheritance of yieldrelated traits and their MPH in Reid (PA) × Tem-tropic I (PB) hybrids with improved heterotic pattern is trait-dependent (Yi et al., 2019). The hybrids from different heterotic groups, Reid × SPT, Reid × LRC, SPT × PA, and Lancaster × LRC, showed highly significant positive SCA effect and heterosis. Considering combining ability (GCA and SCA), performance and heterosis together will help identify the hybrid combinations with comparative advantages for maize breeding. P05 × P21 (Lancaster × SPT), P07 × P21 (Reid × SPT), P32 × P23 (Tropical × SPT), P37 × P21 (Tropical × SPT), P39 × P21 (Tropical × SPT), P45 × P27 (Tropical × LRC), and P51 × P26 (Tropical × PA) contributed a highly significant positive SCA effect to GWPP and relatively high yield, MPH and HPH (Supplementary Table 3). As a result, these hybrids could   be used in breeding for high yielding and wide-adaptability. Consequently, elite inbred lines with improved combining ability and associated heterotic patterns could be explored for efficient hybrid breeding.Introduction of exotic and diverse germplasms into breeding programs is of great importance in broadening genetic variation and thus improving breeding efficiency. Tropical maize germplasm, which come from the location of maize origin, host rich genetic diversity that can be used for temperate maize breeding. With the development of molecular markers and high-efficient genotyping technologies, researches have been introgressing favorable alleles from tropical into temperate maize, as shown in GY, grain moisture content and lodging resistance (Lewis and Goodman, 2003) and resistance to maize lethal necrosis disease (Gowda et al., 2015). Introgression of temperate maize germplasm into tropical lines did not disrupt the existing heterotic groups, because the introgressed lines remained genetically inclined towards the original heterotic groups from which they were derived (Musundire et al., 2019). In the present study, we observed higher average heterosis in NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids than that for within-ecotype hybrids for all yield-related traits except HGW, with higher hybrid performance for EL, ED, and HGW. Introgression of favorable genes and alleles from tropical maize germplasm can be explored to broaden the genetic basis of temperate maize, improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, optimize heterotic patterns, and develop improved temperate-tropical hybrids (Teixeira et al., 2015). Thus, large-scale analysis of combining ability and heterosis can facilitate improving targeted breeding efficiency using different ecotypes by broadening the genetic base of commercial hybrids.","tokenCount":"5585"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86fa85a7dbd6bd3517ce37421c3270bb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/38d9ee9a-3d80-421e-9b8f-a186250b124b/retrieve","id":"-888643527"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b88feed9-8eb0-4c66-9897-f391330abefa","pagecount":"23","content":"AICCRA-Ghana focuses on br idging the gap between research insti tutes that develop improved t echnologies and organizations that pr omote the adoption of developed technologies for the purpose of enhancing the resilience of t he countrys's agr iculture and food systems in the face of climate change while improving livelihoods of of farmers. AICCRA -Ghana mutualizes existing expertise to strengthen the t echnical, instit utional, and human capacity needed to move CGIAR innovat ions off the she lf and achieve impacts i n the country. The project will specifically launch a \"O ne -health platform for climate -driven pests and diseases\". It is an advanced climate -informed One -health innovation that builds on CGIAR's track records in this area, framing the nexus of the crop, li vestock, soil, and water health for improved human and ecosyste m health, food safe ty and nutrition, and climate change as a complex public health issue. The project is anchored to CGI AR's mult i -stakeholder platform of the Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF ) hosted by IITA's station in Benin, West Africa. AICCRA -Ghana will use the CGIAR's Scaling Readiness Tool to undertake assessments of CSA options for accelerated upt ake of innovat ions. NFCS and innovation platforms including the private sector, Nour ishing Africa network, and farmer s will be capacitate d towards identi fication, promotion and implementation of suitable CIS and bestbet CSA and One -health innovations. Media and mass -campaign awareness will be launched while developing business models and engag ing champion wome nand youth-led enter prises. Pilot sites will be identified and training provided t o farmers for successful implement ation of One -health and CSA technologies.Building community resilience to climate risk through demonstration plots is a priority in sub-Saharan Africa, where the agricultural system is mainly rainfed and underdeveloped due to multiple underlying causes, such as limited access to information, improved seeds/inputs, modern production practices, and technologies. The use of demonstration plots serve as a platform to promote validated climatesmart and One health technologies. Under the current project, demonstration plots were used to provide training on good production practices of the various AICCRA-Ghana value chains. Thirty-one (31) demonstration plots were established across eighteen (18) communities in four agroecologies (Coastal savannah, Transition, Guniea savannah, and Sudan savannah) of Ghana. The value chains piloted were maize (13 pilots), yam (6 pilots), cowpea (8 pilots), and sweet potato (4 pilots). These value chains were chosen because of their socio-economic importance in Ghana. Maize and cowpea technologies constituted 42 and 26% of the number of demonstration plots established, respectively.Twenty-one field days were organized to introduce beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the project intervention communities to the various technologies the project demonstrated (i.e climate-smart seeds, One health innovations, and good agronomic practices). A total of one thousand one hundred and thirteen (1113) people directly participated in the field days. Four hundred and fifty-nine of the participants, representing 41% were female. While farmers from intervention communities expressed gratituted to the project, farmers from other communities that participated in the field days have requested for the project to extend the demonstrations to their communities. Generally, participants expressed their satisfaction and willingness to adopt these new technologies and incorporate them into their farming business next year and beyond.Food security is a major development challenge in Africa. Demand for food has been growing rapidly and will continue to do so in the conceivable future, exceeding 3% per year through 2025 (Ademola Braimoh, 2020). However, food production does not meet the pace of food demand. Multiple factors such as climate variability, pests and diseases, poor soil fertility, and low adoption of improved agronomic practices owing to inadequate access to information limit the pr oductivity of crop production. These challenges are not peculiar to isolated communities but are also major characteristics of communities selected to benefit from AICCRA project intervention. A major step towards the scaling up of CSA technologies is through the establishment of demonstration plots across communities to showcase community-specific technologies.Demonstration plots enable beneficiaries to observe improved technologies and their associated benefits as well as interact with researchers, extension staff , and other actors towards technology adoption.The study was undertaken in ten districts in six regions of Ghana including Central (Cape Coast and Komenda, Edina Equafo, Abirem District), Bono East (Kintampo North, Kintampo South, and Techiman North Districts), Northern (Tolon Districts), Upper East (Kassena Nankana and Bongo Districts), Upper West (Jirapa and Lawra Districts). Pilots/demonstration plots were established in twenty-two (22) communities in four of the six agroecological zones of the country ( Figure 1). The agroecological zones include the Coastal savannah, Transition Zone, Guinea, and Sudan Savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. Crop production in the transition zone is mainly rainfed and farmers remain vulnerable to climate change manifested in unpredictable rainfall patterns and elevated temperatures. The area is associated with low rainfall caused by drought stress, low soil fertility, and inappropriate seeds. The soil in the savannah area is fragile and liable to dry out rapidly due to free drainage. Guinea and Sudan Savanna Zones are characterized by a single rainfall season lasting from May to October with an average annual rainfall of about 700-1000 mm (MoFA, 2020). The area is characterized by short dry spells of three to five weeks which sometimes result in serious crop damage or complete failure. Rainfall is the main determining environmental element of the Sudan and Guinea Savanna zones. The vegetation is dominated by relatively short trees with grass, shrub and scrub undergrowth. The soils of Sudan and Guinea Savanna are mainly Ochrosols and Groundwater Laterites (SARI, 1996). The soils generally have a low organic matter that imparts a low fertility status to the soil (SARI, 1996). The Coastal Savannah area has an average annual rainfall of about 920 mm with bi-modal rainy seasons. The Agroecology is characterized by high population density and grassland savanna vegetation. The vegetation is grass interspersed with shrubs and, at times, residues of crops cultivated during the previous crop season.Five value chains namely maize, yam, cowpea, sweet potato, and tomatoes were piloted. These crops were prioritised and chosen by stakeholders in various intervention communities due to their socioeconomic importance in Ghana. They are regarded as food security crops as well as gender-friendly crops as they are highly consumed by households and produced in all the agro-ecologies in Ghana. The value chains were also selected due to their high potential to improve household nutritional food security. The matrix of the regions, districts, communities, selected value chains, and a number of pilots are shown below (Table 1). A total of thirty-one (31) demonstration plots were established in eighteen (18) communities across the four agro-ecologies (Fig. 1; Table 1) to test the different technologies under the various value chains (Table 2). Majority (42.0%) of the demonstration fields exhibited maize technologies four fields representing 12.9% of exhibited technologies on sweet potato weevil management technology (Figure 2).   Thirteen (13) stress-tolerant maize varieties and hybrid demonstration plots were established (Figure 2). Certified seeds of each of the maize variety (Table 3) tested in demonstration plots was sourced from CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi and CSIR-Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, Tamale.Local varieties popularly cultivated by farmers in each community was tested along side. Seeds of local varieties were obtained from community agrochemical dealers. The plot size per treatment was 20m x 20m for each variety and the demonstrations were rainfed. All recommended activites such as nutrient, pest and weed management practices were carried out with farmers. To facilitate technology transfer, farmers were invited at various stages of the season to inspect demonstration fields (figure 3). Generally across all locations, it was observed that maize varieties introduced by the project outyielded local varieties (Figure 4). Mean grain yield of 4868 and 4841 kg were recorded by Opeaburo and Suhudoo respectively (Table 5). This was followed closely by Denbea and Abotem. Although Denbea and Abotem are early maturing compared to Opeaburo, they produced comparable maize grain yield.In all the communities, the local check produced the lowest grain, which ranged between 38 to 62% less compared with the other varieties tested. The highest yield of Suhudoo, Opeaburo, and Denbea, Abotem were observed in Dahyia, Offuman, Dompoase, and Adiemmra respectively.  Across the various intervention communities, farmers appreciated, selected and expressed their preference for the maize varieties introduced by the project to local varieties. This was because they found them to be early maturing and tolerated stress better than the prefered local variety. With respect to the improved varieties however, farmers ranked Suhudoo and Denbea as the most preferred variety (Table 4) and requested the project to facilitate the provision and supply of seeds for cultivation in their farms. Their preference for Suhudoo and Denbea was based on the fact that these varieties, produced good yield, were early maturing, drought tolerant and biofortified. Demonstration fields were established (Figure 5) in ten AICCRA intervention communities to promote four cowpea varieties with various characteristics (Table 5). These were planted alongside locally preferred farmer varieties. Certified seeds of the four cowpea varieties were sourced from CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi and CSIR-Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, Tamale whilst the local variety was obtained from input dealers in each community. Each cowpea variety was planted on a plot size of 20 m x 20 m (400 m 2 ) and the demonstrations were established under rainfed conditions. The highest average cowpea seed yield of 1919kg was recorded by Nketewade (Table 6). This was followed closely by Padi-tuya, Zamzam, and Kirkhouse. In all the communities, the local check produced the lowest grain, which ranged between 40 to 52% less compared with the other varieties that were tested.  The aim of the demonstration was to introduce farmers to ecological friendly low cost technologies to manage sweet potato weevils. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention, an orange-flesh sweet potato variety susceptible to the sweet potato weevil was selected and vines obtained from farmers in the various intervention communities. Four demonstration fields in the Central Region were established (Table 1; Figure 6). Sweet potato vines of 20-30cm were cut from healthy parents showing no signs of insect damage and symptoms of viral attack and planted on ridges. Two technologies were exhibited along side farmer practices (Table 7). The plot size per treatment was 20 m x 20 m (40 m 2 ) for each treatment. The demonstrations was rainfed and harvesting of sweet potato was done 12 weeks after planting of vines. Across the communities, it was observed that tubers harvested from CS One Health plots were generally larger and cleaner than tubers from farmer practiced plots (Figure 7). The highest average tuber number and weight per plant was recorded at Dompose. This was observed in plots where sweet potato vines were treated in crude neem extract, soil amended with 40 g neem powder and onion used as border plants. On the contrary the lowest tuber number and weight was recorded at Cape Coast under farmer practice treatment (Table 8). While no incidence of damage tubers were observed in neem+ onion border treatment at Dompoase, 46.7% of harvested tubers in the farmer practice at CapeCoast were damaged and unmarketable. Using neem leaf powder amendment and onion as border plants showed positive effect on weevil infestation. It was realized at all locations that, applying neem leaf powder amendment plus onion border resulted in higher tuber weight and numbers compared with sole neem powder amendment and farmer practice. However, at all locations, the two CS-One health intervention practices demonstrated resulted in higher tuber numbers,weight and low incidence and severity of weevil infestation than the farmers' practice.   9) with farmer practices in yam production. For the the bundle CSA-One health practice, yam minisettes (50g) were treated with a cocktail of insecticides and fungicide before planting. At planting, 40g neem leaf powder was applied per stand on the rideges as soil ammendment. For the farmer practice, the conventional means of cultivating yam was followed.Generally for all locations, raised mounds (~1m high) were constructed, seed yam of approximately 250-300g was used with no form of seed treatments or soil amendment practice followed. At every location, the two technologies (Bundle CSA-One Health and Farmer) were set at 5m apart for easy monitoring and comparism. Each practice occupied a land size of 300m 2 (20m x 15m). An average of 14 ridges and 150 mounds were constructed on bundle CSA One Health and farmer practice plots respectively. An average of 45 plants were planted per ridge. Famers expressed delight about the number tubers harvested (Figure 9) from the size of land utilized for the demonstrations. It was however more thrilling as more tubers were harvested from bundle CSA One Health plots than farmer practice plots in all the communities (Figure 10) although the number of ridges constructed were less than the number of mounds formed on farmer plots. The total number of tubers harvested from bundle CSA-One Health plot was about 30% more than farmer practice plots.Similarly, higher tuber weights were recorded in majority (67%) of the bundle CSA One Health plots compared to farmer pratices plots except in Adiemra and Tanoboase where, tuber weight from farmer practice plots were higher than bundle CSA One health plots (Figure 11). Treating seed yam coupled with the application of neem leaves powder resulted in lower incidences of nematodes infestation as well as activity of yam beetles damage. As high as 84 and 44.5 % tubers from farmer plots showed varied symptoms nematodes infestation and arthropod pest damage respectively (Figure 12-13). A total of twenty-one field days were organized in the AICCRA intervention communities to showcase the potential of the various varieties (Figure 14). One thousand one hundred and thirteen (1113) participants were reached directly through the field days. Also, four hundred and fifty-nine participants, representing 41% were female. During the field days, participants were introduced to various technologies (i.e climate-smart seeds and good agronomic practices). The capacities of participants were also strengthened on best production practices and post-harvest handling technologies.Discussions were also organized around current challenges and opportunities with regard to access and cost of climate-smart seeds. Participants also assessed the technology to indicate their preferences.  This document has provided summary of demonstration activities successfully organised to transfer different adoptable bundled CSA One Health technologies to small scale resource poor farmers in 22 communities in 6 regions of Ghana. In all the piloting activities, farmers were engaged in all stages of implementation such as the planning process, site selection, land preparation, field establishment and maintenance and harvesting. The farmers had the opportunity of meeting and interacting directly with researchers and other stakeholders. Results and observations from the demonstrations have clearly shown that the adoption and utilization of improved technologies have the potential to increase productivity and improve livelihood of farmers. All the 1113 farmers reached out to, through the various field days confidently attested to the fact that using technologies introduced by the project can help build resilience against both biotic and abiotic conditions. The stress tolerant maize and dual purpose cowpea varieties tested did not not only prove to be tolerant to major stresses such as striga, pest and diseases and drought in the communities but also outyielded all farmer preferred and popular varieties in each locality. Similarly, application of one health technologies such as application of neem leaves powder improved tuber health quality of both yam and sweet potato. More interesting, the use of onion Demonstration pilots are effective means of scaling up technologies. Engaging farmers and letting them own the process ensured full participation and success of the activities. Again for technology to be accepted, it should be readily available and the beneficiaries will need to easily relate to. Neem leaves from which neem leaves powder was prepared was found and accessible in all the communities making it easier for beneficiaries to appreciate it. To reap the full benefit of the demonstration activities, seeds of maize and cowpea varieties should be accessible to farmers in the community to facilitate adoption of the technologies promoted. ","tokenCount":"2660"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da0edf04ee2e81d469bebcaa7cd4813b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/940ebaa6-613b-49e0-8096-171b37428b25/retrieve","id":"1739516356"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"415556e1-4de3-4c84-96dc-2a7e18d878b5","pagecount":"17","content":"The discovery and use of genetic markers associated with carotenoid levels can help to exploit the genetic potential of maize for provitamin A accumulation more effectively. Provitamin A carotenoids are classes of carotenoids that are precursors of vitamin A, an essential micronutrient in humans. Vitamin A deficiency is a global public health problem affecting millions of people, especially in developing countries. Maize is one of the most important staple crops targeted for provitamin A biofortification to help alleviate vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of maize endosperm carotenoids was conducted using a panel of 130 diverse yellow maize tropical inbred lines genotyped with Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) SNP markers. Numerous significant association signals co-localizing with the known carotenoid biosynthesis genes crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 were identified. The GWAS confirmed previously reported large effects of the two major carotenoid biosynthesis genes lcyE and crtRB1. In addition, significant novel associations were detected for several transcription factors (e.g., RING zinc finger domain and HLH DNA-binding domain super family proteins) that may be involved in regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in maize. When the GWAS was re-conducted by including the major effects of lcyE and crtRB1 genes as covariates, a SNP in a gene coding for an auxin response factor 20 transcription factor was identified which displayed an association with b-carotene and provitamin A levels. Our study provides a foundation for design and implementation of genomics-assisted selection strategies for provitamin A maize breeding in tropical regions, and advances efforts toward identification of additional genes (and allelic variants) involved in the regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in plants.Carotenoids are diverse organic pigments that are naturally found in plants and other organisms (Cazzonelli 2011;Moran and Jarvik 2010). The b-ionone ring(s) containing carotenoids, known as provitamin A carotenoids (e.g., b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene), are precursors of the essential micronutrient vitamin A in humans (Fraser and Bramley 2004;West and Darnton-Hill 2008). However, humans cannot synthesize vitamin A de novo, and therefore need to obtain the nutrient from dietary sources either as preformed vitamin A (retinol) from animal-based foods (e.g., liver, whole milk, and egg), and/ or as precursors of vitamin A from colored vegetables and fruits (e.g., carrots, dark green leaves and papaya) in the form of provitamin A carotenoids (West and Darnton-Hill 2008).Vitamin A deficiency is a global public health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 190 million pre-school children and 19 million pregnant women worldwide were vitamin A deficient (in the period [1995][1996][1997][1998][1999][2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005] with a prevalence rate of 33 and 15%, respectively, based on low serum retinol content (,0.7 mmol/ liter) (World Health Organization 2009). Almost half a million children lose their sight every year due to xerophtalmia caused by vitamin A deficiency, the leading cause of preventable blindness (Sherwin et al. 2012). Millions of child deaths annually are attributed to vitamin A deficiency coupled with other undernutrition problems (Black et al. 2003).Genetic improvement of staple crops for improved nutritional quality (e.g., enhanced level of micronutrients) has been termed biofortification and is a promising approach for reducing vitamin A and other micronutrient deficiencies in human populations. Maize represents a significant proportion of the total calorie intake of people in many African countries, accounting for 30% of the per-capita calorie consumption in Eastern and Southern Africa, even reaching as high as 56% in some of the southern African countries (FAO, 2011). The biofortification of maize with higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids could play a significant role in reducing vitamin A deficiency in regions where maize is a major staple crop (Wurtzel et al. 2012;Burt et al. 2011;Meyers et al. 2014). While breeding lines of maize that can accumulate up to 26 mg/g b-carotene (and 30 mg/g of provitamin A carotenoids) in the endosperm have been reported (Pixley et al. 2013), commonly cultivated maize varieties contain low levels of provitamin A carotenoids ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 mg/g (Harjes et al. 2008).Understanding the genetic variation, genes and regulatory mechanisms controlling maize endosperm carotenoid levels is important for biofortification of maize with high levels of provitamin A carotenoids. Genome wide association study (GWAS) approaches are a powerful approach for ascribing gene-phenotype relationships (Huang and Han 2014;Yu and Buckler 2006;Zhu et al. 2008), while genotyping by sequencing (GBS) is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) based genotyping approach that has dramatically facilitated large-scale genomewide marker development and GWA studies in crop species (Chia et al. 2012;Davey et al. 2011;Elshire et al. 2011;Varshney et al. 2014).A number of GWA studies have identified loci controlling agronomic traits such as plant height, yield and yield components, flowering time and plant architecture in a range of crops, including barley (Pasam et al. 2012), tomato (Shirasawa et al. 2013), wheat (Edae et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2014), and maize (Thornsberry et al. 2001;Wang et al. 2012). GWA studies have also identified loci associated with grain quality traits including oil content in maize (Li et al. 2013), protein contents in wheat (Edae et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2014) and essential micronutrients such as a-tocopherol (vitamin E) and b-carotene in maize (Harjes et al. 2008;Li et al. 2012;Lipka et al. 2013;Yan et al. 2010). In particular, two key carotenoid biosynthesis genes, namely LCYE and crtRB1 (HYD3), have been found to be significantly associated with accumulation of provitamin A carotenoids in maize endosperm (Harjes et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2010). Different allelic variants of these genes can affect the flux of substrates through the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway leading to synthesis of higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids (e.g., b-carotene). The total provitamin A carotenoid proportion in maize endosperm is affected by the level of total carotenoids accumulated in the endosperm which is a function of substrate flux into the carotenoid pathway and downstream catabolic steps involving degradation of carotenoids (Rodríguez-Concepción 2010;Vallabhaneni et al. 2010) There have been only a few GWA studies for carotenoid composition and content in maize endosperm to date (Owens et al. 2014;Suwarno et al. 2015). In our study, we have used a GBS-based GWA approach to identify loci associated with carotenoid content and composition of maize endosperm. Uniquely, our study used a collection of genetically diverse yellow maize inbred lines (with a mixed genetic background of both tropical and temperate germplasm) developed by the maize breeding program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In addition, we factored in the effect of already identified provitamin A alleles as covariates to detect additional association signals. Our findings contribute to ongoing efforts to identify allelic variants that can be used for genomic selection to develop maize lines with higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids.A panel of 130 diverse yellow maize inbred lines previously described in Azmach et al. (2013) was employed for the GWAS. This panel had inbred lines with kernel colors ranging from light yellow to dark orange. White maize lines were not included, since our focus was to investigate the genetic variability underlying composition and content of the various carotenoids in maize endosperm. We did not investigate the variation between white and yellow lines, which is largely determined by a mutation in the psy1 locus (Palaisa et al. 2003). This maize germplasm panel was composed of inbred lines developed by IITA from eight bi-parental crosses, four broad based populations, and 28 backcrosses of tropical inbred lines, involving five temperate lines as donors of high b-carotene alleles (Azmach et al. 2013). The inbred lines were considered to represent the allelic diversity underlying the variation in carotenoid composition and content in both the temperate and tropical maize gene pools, since each line contained both tropical and temperate maize germplasm in its genetic background.Field trial evaluation of the maize inbred lines was performed at IITA's research station, Ibadan, Nigeria (7°29911.99$N, 3°5492.88$E, altitude 190 m above sea level) for two seasons, in 2010 and 2011. The trial was arranged in (10,13) alpha-lattice design with two replications. Each line was planted in a 5 m row plot, with 0.75 m spacing between rows and 0.25 m within each row. The fields were managed as per the recommended agronomic practices (Menkir et al. 2008) which included fertilization at the rates of 60 kg N, 60 kg P, and 60 kg K ha 1 at the time of sowing, with an additional 60 kg N ha 1 applied as top dressing 4 wk later; plus weed control using Primextra and Gramazone herbicides applied as pre-emergence herbicides each at 5 liter ha 1 . Subsequent manual weeding was done to keep the trials weed-free. The environmental conditions during the first season were as follows: Total rainfall of 310 mm (supplemented with irrigation); temperature ranged from 19.4 to 33.8°with average 27.7°; relative humidity ranged 28-97% with average 67%; and solar radiation ranged from 19.4 to 21.2 MJ/m 2 /d. During the second season the total rainfall was 1022.5 mm; the temperature ranged from 21.7 to 32.4°with average 25.8°; the relative humidity ranged from 40 to 97% with average 78%; and the solar radiation was from 15.2 to 20.2 MJ/m 2 /d. The dominant soil type of the trial site is Ferric Lixisols (FAO 1991), which is a sandy loam soil, moderately drained with a PH of 6.2.Seed samples for carotenoid analysis were generated by controlled self-pollination of all plants in each plot. The self-pollination protocol employed consisted of covering the shoots with shoot bags before emergence of the silks to avoid cross pollination, once the shoots were ready for pollination, the tassels were bagged with pollination bags a day before pollination. The next day fresh pollen was collected and applied on the silks of the same plant using the pollination bags, after which the shoots were covered with the same bag used for self-pollination. The shoots remained bagged until harvesting. The ears of each self-pollinated maize line in each plot were harvested, dried under ambient temperature with minimal exposure to direct sunlight, and separately shelled. Samples of 100 kernels were used from each seed lot for carotenoid analysis.The carotenoids from kernel samples of each of the 130 maize inbred lines were extracted and quantified with HPLC at the University of Wisconsin, USA. The extraction protocol used was the method of Howe and Tanumihardjo (2006) for carotenoid analysis of dried maize kernels, as previously described in Azmach et al. (2013). Extraction was performed using finely ground 0.5 g samples of each inbred line's kernels. The internal standard consisted of 200 ml of b-Apo-8'-carotenal (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), which was added at the beginning of the analysis for calibrating losses of carotenoids during extraction and the entire work-flow process. Fifty microliter aliquots of each extract were injected into the HPLC system (Waters Corporation, Milford, MA). The gradient was applied for 30 min from 70% solvent A:30% solvent B, to 40% solvent A:60% solvent B. Each carotenoid type was quantified based on calibrations using its respective external standard. Total carotenoid content was calculated as the sum of concentrations of a-carotene, lutein, b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin. Provitamin A was calculated by summing the concentrations of b-carotene, and half concentrations of each of b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene, since b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene can provide only one molecule of retinol each as opposed to two molecules of retinol for b-carotene (US Institute of Medicine 2001). Other derived carotenoid traits were also calculated as indicated in Harjes et al. (2008), Yan et al. (2010): i.e., ratio of carotenoids in b to a branch of the carotenoid pathway, ratio of b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin and ratio of b-carotene to all carotenoids (b-carotene + a-carotene + lutein + zeaxanthin + b-cryptoxanthin). The data for the ratio traits were transformed using natural logarithm (log e ) before being subjected to statistical analysis to correct for the non-normal distribution of the data. All carotenoid concentrations were measured in microgram/gram dry weight (DW). BLUEs (best linear unbiased estimates) calculated for each trait based on the two season carotenoid data were used in the GWAS. BLUEs were calculated using the GLM option of TASSEL software version 4 (Bradbury et al. 2007) with a statistical model Y = Xb + e, where Y is matrix of the dependent or response variables, i.e., each carotenoid type; X is the design matrix; b is vector of fixed effect parameters, and e is vector of the random errors that are assumed to be normally distributed and independent of the other variances.Genome wide SNP marker generation using GBS DNA samples were isolated from freeze-dried leaf samples of each inbred line using Qiagen DNeasy plant mini kit following the protocol supplied with the product. DNA samples were quantified using a NanoDrop 2000 Spectrophotometer. Samples having at least 10 ng/ml DNA each were prepared and sent to the Genome Diversity Facility (GDF), formerly Institute for Genomic Diversity (IGD), Cornel University, USA, for GBS genotyping. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) libraries were prepared, analyzed and sequenced at GDF, according to Elshire et al. (2011). SNP calling from the sequenced GBS library was also performed at GDF using the GBS production pipeline (Version: 3.0.134), an extension of the Java program TASSEL (Bradbury et al. 2007;Glaubitz et al. 2014) which used aligned short reads of GBS (tags). The GBS pipeline options used for calling SNPs consisted of: 0.1 minimum locus coverage, 1 • 10 6 maximum number of SNPs per chromosome, duplicate SNPs above 0.05 mismatch rate were not merged, and 0.8 cutoff frequency between heterozygote vs. homozygote calls. Tags were aligned to the reference genome B73 refgen_v2 (Schnable et al. 2009).The GBS pipeline generated a data set containing a total of 619,596 unfiltered SNPs. This SNP dataset had a total of 51% missing data points possibly caused by biological presence-absence of sequences between the reference and each test genome, or errors introduced in the GBS procedures (Glaubitz et al. 2014;Poland and Rife 2012). The dataset was further filtered in TASSEL 4 on the basis of missing data proportion and minor allele frequency (MAF) cutoff thresholds (Bradbury et al. 2007). The cutoff thresholds used to filter the dataset for the GWAS allowed only those SNPs showing a maximum of 20% missing data, and 1% minimum MAF (MMAF). This resulted in a dataset of 109,937 SNPs. The diversity and genome-wide Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) analysis were performed using datasets obtained by filtering with criteria of no missing data points and 1 and 10% MAFs which resulted in 3532 and 1658 genome-wide SNPs, respectively. SNP data summary and basic diversity parameters were calculated using TASSEL 4 (Bradbury et al. 2007) and PowerMarker 3.25 (Liu and Muse 2005) softwares.The two commonly used measures of LD are Lewontin's D and the squared pairwise correlation coefficient R 2 (Chen et al. 2006;Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). Although D' is a good measure of recombination history, it is severely affected with reduced sample size. R 2 summarizes both recombination and mutation history (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). In our study, LD was estimated using R 2 , since it helps detect LD with minimal error despite small sample size and low MAF (Khatkar et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2009). In addition R 2 is a more relevant measure of LD for conducting association analysis between genotype and traits (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003).To determine the degree of resolution achieved in the association analysis (Yu and Buckler 2006), both genome and chromosome wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) were estimated using the squared allele frequency correlation coefficient (R 2 ) for all possible pairs of SNPs in a dataset. For genome-wide LD, SNP datasets of the 10 maize chromosomes were combined and filtered with cutoff threshold of no missing data and 10% MMAFs yielding 1658 SNPs typed across all inbred lines. On the other hand, LD estimation within each chromosome was performed using the SNP data of each chromosome filtered at 10% maximum missing data per marker and 10% MMAFs. Missing data in all the SNP datasets used for chromosome wide LD analysis were not imputed. The software used to estimate LD was TASSEL 3 (Bradbury et al. 2007), which uses permutation tests to determine the P-values for each pairwise correlation. LD estimate significance levels were considered at a = 0.001 (Pasam et al. 2012). Genome-wide and chromosome wide rate of LD decays were estimated by plotting localized regression curves (LOESS) of the R 2 values vs. the corresponding physical distances between the SNP pairs, followed by observation of the intersection point between the fitted LOESS curve and a critical R 2 values (Cleveland and Devlin 1988;Breseghello and Sorrells 2006). Two background critical R 2 values for estimating LD decays within and across chromosomes were considered in the present study to offer comparison. The first baseline critical R 2 was determined by taking the parametric 95 percentile of distribution of R 2 values for unlinked SNPs, taking SNPs on different chromosomes and SNPs beyond 50 Mbp apart on the same chromosome as unlinked (Breseghello and Sorrells 2006;Pasam et al. 2012). The second baseline R 2 value was 0.2, an arbitrary value often used to describe LD decay (Zhu et al. 2008). Scatter plots and fitted smooth curves for estimating LD decay were plotted using a base scatter plot function of R version 3.0.3, \"scatter.smooth\" (R Core Team 2014). The function plots and adds a smooth curve to a scatter plot computed according to LOESS (R Core Team 2014). LD patterns of all SNPs significantly associated with carotenoids and local LD patterns in regions surrounding significant genes were visualized using LD plots generated with HaploView (Barrett et al. 2005).Associations between genome-wide SNPs and carotenoid content was identified using the R (R Core Team 2014) package GAPIT (Genetic Association and Prediction Integrated Tools) (Lipka et al. 2012(Lipka et al. , 2013)). GAPIT package uses a unified mixed linear model (MLM) to calculate genome-wide association between traits and large number of markers by employing methodologies that maximize statistical power, provide high prediction accuracy, and run in a computationally efficient manner (Kang et al. 2010;Lipka et al. 2012Lipka et al. , 2013;;Yu et al. 2006;Zhang et al. 2010). A unified MLM incorporates both population structure (Q) and relative kinship (K) inferred from marker data into the GWAS to control for the confounding effect of Q and K and thus minimize spurious associations due to both type I and type II errors (Yu et al. 2006). Since the panel used in this study was composed of groups of inbred lines that were extracted from many backcrosses and single crosses involving diverse parental germplasm, multiple level relative kinship and non-random population structure was expected. Thus, the unified MLM model was applied to compute accurate associations. The analysis was executed mainly with the default settings of the software which automatically calculated both K and Q using the entire SNP marker data. The default setting implements VanRaden's algorithm option (VanRaden 2008) to calculate the K matrix, and uses principal component analysis (PCA) to define Q. It applies optimum compression levels using default kinship clustering and grouping values \"average\" and \"mean,\" respectively. The model selection option was used to estimate the optimum number of principal components (PC) covariates using Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) (Schwarz 1978).n Table 1   The variation explained for a trait by the model and a particular SNP in question were determined using the likelihood R 2 statistics calculated in GAPIT. SNP data used for GWAS was filtered in TASSEL 4 with maximum missing data of 20% and MMAF of 1%. Missing data were imputed automatically within GAPIT using the conservative option of \"major allele,\" which replaces missing data points with the major allele of the SNP. Different significance cut-off thresholds were used to assess the effect of the SNPs on carotenoids. The statistical significances of the SNPs were evaluated at 5 and 1% critical thresholds of the false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted P-values (Benjamini and Hochberg 1995) and the Bonferroni procedure was used to control the experimentwise type I error rate at both a = 0.05 and a = 0.01. FDR values generated with the GWAS result in GAPIT were used.Variations in carotenoid content and composition of the association panel caused by allelic variants in the two genes, lcyE (Harjes et al. 2008) and crtRB1 (Yan et al. 2010) were accounted for by including marker score data of the three allele-specific markers of each gene as covariates. These marker data were scored in the same inbred line panel used in the current study to validate the allele specific markers by Azmach et al. (2013). To incorporate these markers into the GWAS the six allele specific marker data were first transformed to principal components. Components explaining the largest proportion of the variation were then included as covariates in the unified mixed model for calculating the second GWA using GAPIT.The genotype and phenotype data for this GWAS population are available in Supplemental Material, File S1 (hapmap file containing GBS generated SNP data for the 130 maize inbred lines, filtered with maximum of 20% missing data and 1% minimum allele frequency) and File S2 (an excel file containing BLUEs of carotenoid contents for the 130 maize inbred lines).The carotenoid composition and content of maize lines used for this GWA study has been described in Azmach et al. (2013). The panel displayed considerable diversity in carotenoid profile. The ranges of least square means of the carotenoid concentrations (over two growing seasons) are presented in Table S3 in File S3 (can also be referred in detail in Azmach et al. (2013)). The BLUEs of the carotenoids are available in File S1. The concentration of a-carotene was low across the inbred lines, with poor repeatability, and hence a-carotene was not included in the GWA study.The summary of the 110 k SNP data set used for the GWAS and its diversity parameters are presented in Table 1. The average missing data for this data set was 10%. SNP distribution across the genome was not uniform but attained significant coverage (Figure S1). The MAF displayed a uniform distribution across the 10 maize chromosomes n Table 3  (average = 0.13-0.14, median = 0.06-0.8). The rare allele frequencies (,0.05) represented the largest proportion of the MAFs (Figure S2).The average inbreeding coefficient (f) estimates per locus ranged from below zero to one, while the genome-wide mean f was 0.82. a Representative significant SNPs selected based on their positions and approximate LD decay. Significant SNPs were selected at FDR 1%, except for chromosome 8 SNPs associated with lutein -which were selected only at Bonferroni 1%. For zeaxanthin and total provitamin A the threshold was set at 5% FDR to be able to detect significant SNPs. Some SNPs may appear two to four times as they were associated with multiple related traits. and f had more or less uniform values across the chromosomes. The genome-wide polymorphic information content (PIC) of the SNPs ranged from 0.02 to 0.38, while the average was 0.18. PIC is one of the diversity parameters that is used to measure the informativeness of genetic markers. A large proportion (.40%) of SNPs used for diversity analyses in this study had PIC values higher than 0.2, suggesting informativeness of the GBS generated SNPs for the association study.The Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) suggested the population structure calculated (based on PCA) had only a small contribution to the variation in carotenoid profile of the panel (Table S2 in File S3). The kinship heat map indicated a low level of overall relatedness in the panel (Figure S3). The genome-wide extent of LD estimate was 0.83 Mbp at baseline R 2 = 0.2 and 0.65 Mbp at R 2 = 0.25 (Figure S4, Supplemental Information in File S3, and Table 1). There was heterogeneous distribution of LD decay across the genome, as was evident from the pattern of LD heat-map generated using the same SNP dataset (Figure 1).Of the 110 k SNPs tested, 386 unique significant SNPs were detected at 5% FDR (Table 2). At this significance threshold, at least two significant SNPs were identified on each of the 10 chromosomes. The number of significant SNPs declined to 168 at 1% FDR correction rate, discarding all the significant SNPs on chromosomes 1, 5 and 7. Application of the conservative multiple comparison correction term, the Bonferroni test, at 5 and 1% levels further reduced the number of significant SNPs to 81 and 32, respectively. The vast majority of significant SNPs were found on chromosome 8 followed by chromosome 10, which were mainly associated with lutein and b-branch carotenoids, respectively. Except for significant SNPs on chromosome 6 and 9, the average MAFs of the significant SNPs at FDR 1 and 5% were above 10%. Only 5% of the significant SNPs at FDR 1% had their MAFs below 10% (Figure 1). The number of significant SNPs in relation to each carotenoid across each chromosome is summarized in Table 3. The allelic variants and effects selected for the most significant SNPs in the GWAS are indicated in Table 4, while the associated candidate protein coding genes along with their genomic positions are listed in Table 5. Figure 2 illustrates the GWAS result for each carotenoid trait, complemented by Figure S5 which summarizes the association using the lowest P-values attained at 5% FDR threshold. The strongest association was detected for lutein content. At the significance level of 1% FDR, a total of 129 SNPs distributed on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9 were associated with lutein levels, with the largest fraction of SNPs (.90%) located on chromosome 8. The most significant SNPs associated with this carotenoid scored the lowest of all the P-value (SNPs S8_138938983 and S8_138938949, P = 9.81E212). The model containing each of these SNPs explained 53% of the variation in accumulation of this carotenoid. The majority of significant SNPs that survived the stringent significance threshold of 1% Bonferroni were also associated with lutein (27 SNPs on chromosome 8). Many of these SNPs were also associated with the ratio of ato b-branch carotenoids at FDR 5%. The second most significant association was detected for the ratio of b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin derived carotenoid trait. Twenty six SNPs were associated with this derived trait at FDR 1%, the most significant SNP (S10_136007578) scoring P-value of 6.75E210 and R 2 of 60%.Using the Bonferroni approach to adjust the family-wise type I error rate at a = 0.01, 13 SNPs on chromosome 10 were associated with carotenoids of the b branch and some of the derived ratio traits (b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin, b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin and/or b-carotene to zeaxanthin). The ratio of a to b branch carotenoid was significantly affected by 10 SNPs on chromosome 8 at FDR 5%, the most significant SNPs in the group accounting for 33 and 36% of the variations in the derived trait, respectively. These SNPs were also significantly associated with lutein.Associations with zeaxanthin (12 SNPs) and provitamin A (3 SNPs) could only be detected when relaxing the significance cutoff threshold to 5% FDR. The variances explained by the model involving the most significant SNPs were 33% for zeaxanthin (SNP S10_136840488, P = 5.53E207) and 51% for provitamin A (SNP S10_134601800, P = 6.39E207). These SNPs were also associated with b-carotene and its derived ratio traits.The genomic locations of significant SNPs were investigated to identify what protein-coding genes the SNPs were located in or adjacent to, zooming in based on SNP data retrieved from online databases for maize genome (http://www.maizegdb.org/ and http://ensembl.gramene.org/ Zea_mays/). The list of all annotated genes, including those encoding uncharacterized proteins, within circa 0.8 Mb of the most significant SNPs are presented in Table S4 in File S3. Here only those candidate genes the closest to the most significant SNPs listed in Table 5 are described.The most significant SNP in the association signal for lutein content 16 Mbp on chromosome 8 (SNP S8_16743428, P-value = 8.65E209) was located within a putative gene GRMZM2G143211 (Figure 3a). This gene model contains a WD domain and displays sequence similarity to the yeast autophagy 18 (AtATG18) gene class in Arabidopsis thaliana. Two additional significant SNPs (S8_16444572 and S8_16444587) in this region were located within another candidate gene GRMZM2G380414, which encodes a protein called Ultraviolet-B-repressible which is likely involved in photosynthesis. The association peak between 110 and 144 Mbp on the same chromosome for the same trait contained three highly significant SNPs, namely S8_111289041 (P-value = 5.82E209); S8_124434722 (P-value = 3.97E210), and S8_138938949/S8_138938983 (P-value = 9.81E212) that were in strong LD to one another, with R 2 value ranging from 0.31 to 0.67 (Figure 4). These SNPs were located within three different protein-coding putative genes GRMZM2G333079, GRMZM2G330693 and GRMZM2G463133, respectively with the first and third genes having some evidence of expression in maize endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011). The two SNPs, S8_138938949 and S8_138938983, are 50 kb distal from one of the major carotenoid biosynthesis genes, lcyE. Pairwise LD among these highly significant SNPs on chromosome 8 varied from R 2 = 0.23 to 0.67 (Figure 4).On chromosome 10, the strong association peak surrounding the 138 Mbp region for b-carotene (Figure 2 and Figure 3b) contained two closely spaced and significant SNPs S10_136007575 and S10_136007578, P = 6.75E210. These SNPs are the closest significant SNPs to the major candidate gene of carotenoid crtRB1 (40 kb distal), but are physically located within a putative RING zinc finger domain protein coding gene, GRMZM2G397684 (Figure 3b). The other significant SNPs in this region were S10_134650981 (P-value = 1.99E208) and S10_139877594 (Pvalue = 5.12E208), residing within candidate genes GRMZM2G018314 and GRMZM2G080516, respectively. The latter encodes an AP2-EREBP transcription factor which is expressed in maize seed endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011). LD among the peak SNPs on chromosome 10 ranged from 0 between SNPs S10_134650981 and S10_139877594, to 1, between SNPs S10_136007575 and S10_136007578 (Figure 4).A smallbut significant SNP association was detected on the short arm of chromosome 2 coinciding with a gene involved in the conversion of carotenoids to abscisic acid, namely zeaxanthin epoxidase 1 (ZEP1, GRMZM2G127139). Two of the six SNPs that were significantly associated with total carotenoids at FDR 5% (S2_44448438, P = 1.11E206) and S2_44448432 P = 1.11E206) were physically located within the ZEP1 gene (Figure 3c). However, the most significant SNP, S2_44473758, P = 1.78E207, was located circa 33 kb downstream of the ZEP1 gene within another protein-coding gene GRMZM2G062559 that encodes an uncharacterized protein. All of these SNPs were in high LD forming a haplotype block (Figure 4) when considered without the non-significant SNPs in the region. We consider that the significant effect most likely arises from ZEP1 (or some of these SNPs could be linked with regulatory regions or control elements). The other SNP on the same chromosome around position 139 Mbp that showed a strong association with total carotenoid (S2_139644276, P-value = 2.53E207) was located in a putative gene GRMZM2G066213 (Figure 3c).Strong and extensive pairwise LD was observed among the significant SNPs selected at 1% FDR (Figure 5a and Table 6). Seventy percent of the pairwise comparison among the SNPs led to statistically significant LD (P , 0.001) of which 21% was comprised of inter-chromosomal correlations. LD for within chromosome Figure 5 LD plots of significant SNPs and LD blocks surrounding the genes lcyE, crtRB1 and ZEP1. (a) LD plot of all significant SNPs selected at FDR 1%. Labels 2, 3, 4, 8 and 10 refer to the chromosomes of the SNPs that reached significance at this threshold; (b) an LD block on chromosome 2 surrounding the gene ZEP1; (c) an LD block on chromosome 8 surrounding the gene lcyE; (d) an LD block on chromosome 10 comprising the gene crtRB1; (e) LD plots that included non-significant SNPs in regions +/2 of crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 where significant associations were detected. Haplotype blocks were defined with the option of confidence interval (Gabriel et al. 2002). Green highlighted SNPs are the closest SNPs to the carotenoid genes indicated, with the most significant ones enclosed with oval shapes. The grayscale shading pattern of LD plot reflects the strength of linkage as it increases from the lightest to the darkest shaded cells paralleling the range of no LD (R 2 = 0%) to absolute LD (R 2 = 100%). Plots generated using HaploView software (Barrett et al. 2005).comparisons ranged from 0.37 to 1, both on chromosome 3, with genome-wide average of 0.42. For inter-chromosomal comparisons, LD ranged from 0.18 in chromosome 10 to 0.5 in chromosome 3, with a genome-wide average of 0.25. Significant SNPs on chromosomes 3 and 4 displayed strong inter-chromosomal LD with those on chromosome 8, but was negligible for SNPs on chromosome 10. The confidence interval algorithm deployed in HaploView software generated 11 haplotype blocks based on LD of the significant SNPs on chromosome 8, five blocks for those on chromosome 10 and one block for those on chromosome 2. Haplotype blocks were identified for each of the three carotenoid genes crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 when analyzing the significant SNPs in regions surrounding their corresponding genomic locations. Further analysis of LD for regions comprising these three genes, with the inclusion of non-significant SNPs revealed heterogeneous LD. This suggests that the LD among the significant SNPs residing in regions of these major genes could be functional, rather than tight genetic linkage occurring as a result of long range average LD decay in the association panel.GWA re-calculated with the allele specific markers of crtRB1 and lcyE included as covariates GWA was re-calculated by incorporating the allele specific markers of the two genes lcyE and crtRB1 as additional fixed effect covariates in the MLM model. As expected, the number of SNPs significantly associated with the traits in this analysis was drastically reduced from 386 in the previous analysis to 38 SNPs (excluding the four SNPs significant at 10% FDR), at a cut-off threshold of 5% FDR (Table 7). Numerous SNPs on chromosome 8 and 10 previously associated with lutein and b-carotene (plus its derived traits) became statistically non-significant, even at a lower significance threshold of 10% FDR (Figure 6 and Table 7). Using this approach, chromosome 10 was devoid of significant SNPs, and only two SNPs on chromosome 8 (SNP S8_138938949 and S8_138938983) were strongly associated with lutein (P-value = 7.66E208; R 2 = 0.53). These SNPs were also the most significant SNPs in the initial GWAS result. The SNPs were physically located within a putative gene GRMZM2G463133 encoding an HLH binding domain protein. Since these two SNPs were in high LD with SNPs in the lcyE region (Figure 5c), it is possible that the significant effect arises from linkage to this known carotenoid biosynthesis gene. However, functional studies would be required to unequivocally ascribe the significant effect to these SNPs.On the other hand, the re-run GWAS detected new significant associations on chromosome 5 for b-carotene and provitamin A. In particular, SNPs S5_78384689 and S5_78427240 were associated with provitamin A at 5% FDR (P-value = 1.81E207; R 2 = 68) and one of these SNPs S5_78384689, was associated with b-carotene at 10% FDR (P-value= 7.08E207; R 2 0 = 81). The SNP S5_78384689 lay within an auxin-response factor 20 gene (GRMZM2G102845, 5:78,381,834-78,389,884, Table 5). In addition, seven SNPs on chromosome 2 were significantly associated with zeaxanthin content at FDR 1% (Table 7). Three of the zeaxanthin associated SNPs (44,473,748, S2_44473758, and S2_44473801) were located within the gene ZEP1 while the other two were located 23 kb upstream of the ZEP1 gene.Genome-wide and candidate-gene based association studies are powerful approaches to identify nucleotide variants that functionally underlie important agronomic and nutritional traits. Such nucleotide variants can be harnessed in breeding programs to develop improved cultivars through marker-or genomics-assisted selection (Babu et al. 2013;Hamblin et al. 2011). Association mapping using large population sizes and high marker densities can be used for successful and reliable prediction of LD and associations between alleles and target phenotypes (Yu and Buckler 2006;Khatkar et al. 2008;Zhu et al. 2008).As a major staple crop, maize has been the focus of both candidate gene and GWA studies for a number of agriculturally and nutritionally significant phenotypes (Cook et al. 2012;Li et al. 2012Li et al. , 2013;;Lipka et al. 2013;Yan et al. 2010;Yu and Buckler 2006). In our GWA study, we have used a panel of 130 diverse and partially related inbred lines of maize where we have used genome-wide GBS to generate a highly-dense SNP map for association analyses. Our use of inbred lines combining the genomes of both temperate and tropical maize germplasm has allowed us to capture small to large effect carotenoid allelic variants that are present in the two gene pools within IITA's maize breeding program.Despite its predisposition to large levels of missing data (Heslot et al. 2013), GBS generates large number of SNPs with dense coverage and potentially less ascertainment bias, which is ideal for consistent GWAS (Crossa et al. 2013;Elshire et al. 2011). The SNP data set used in our GWA study had acceptable level of missing data of only 10% (which was predicted with conservative imputation criteria in GAPIT genetic analysis software to allow reliable genome-wide associations). A minimum MAF criteria of 1% was used to filter out potential spurious SNPs stemming from sequencing error (Glaubitz et al. 2014).The frequency of minor alleles is an important factor that can affect the accuracy of LD analysis and GWAS especially when using small samples (Tabangin et al. 2009;Yan et al. 2009). The filtered data set had a large proportion of MAFs distributed uniformly across the genome, frequencies ranging between 1 and 5% accounting for the largest proportion. However, the MAFs of the vast majority of the significant SNPs were above 10% which might be indicative of the positive detection power of the GWAS as the biasness associated with rare alleles when using small sized samples for association mapping was eliminated (Schnable et al. 2009). This could suggest that alleles associated with carotenoid content and composition may be segregating in our panel at frequencies higher than 10% (Hamblin et al. 2011).The average genome-wide LD decay in our study was estimated at circa. 830 kbp at a background critical R 2 = 0.2. Previous studies in maize reported LD extent to be ,1000 bp for maize landraces, .2000 bp for diverse breeding lines, and 100 kb for commercial elite inbred lines (Yu and Buckler 2006). Although it can lack the power for high precision mapping, a mapping panel with persistent LD can be considered ideal, if low-resolution mapping is targeted (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). The long range LD in this panel was expected since such extensive LD is characteristics of advanced maize inbred lines that have experienced strong recent selection (Yu and Buckler 2006). Also, small populations are prone to genetic drift leading to loss of rare alleles and increased LD (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). Nonetheless, there was considerable localized variation in LD structure across the genome suggesting that the map-ping resolution also vary. The extensive LD in our study could lead to the identification of SNPs in genes that are either causal or contributory to the carotenoid phenotype, or which act as linked markers associated with the carotenoid phenotype.The two MLM GWAS models we employed detected a number of small to large effect known carotenoid biosynthesis genes, as well as several putative genes encoding characterized or uncharacterized proteins. The first MLM GWAS considered population structure (Q) and relative kinship (K) only, while the second incorporated the allele specific markers of lcyE and crtRB1 major carotenoid genes as additional fixed effect covariates. The identification of known carotenoid biosynthesis genes in our study indicates that our study had sufficient power to identify causal or contributory genes.The vast majority of highly significant hits in the first GWAS were on chromosome 8 associated with lutein, followed by chromosome   4, and Table 5). The large effects of these genes on carotenoids within the maize panel used in our study were expected, as the markers designed to detect the allelic variants of these genes were previously confirmed (Harjes et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2010) to have significant impact in the same mapping panel (Azmach et al. 2013), indicating the successful introgression of the favorable alleles of these two genes into the tropical yellow maize genetic background. While the most significant SNP (P = 9.81E212; Table 4 and Table 5) on chromosome 8 was located 49 kb downstream of the lcyE gene, another significant SNP (SNP: S8_138888278, P = 3.19E28) was detected within the gene 1 kb upstream of the 39indel functional polymorphism that was previously reported by Harjes et al. (2008). Despite no SNP was found within the gene crtRB1, the closest SNPs (S10_136007575 and S10_136007578) significantly associated with b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin ratio (P-value = 6.75E210) and other ratio involving b-carotene were located 50 kb upstream of this gene.The inclusion of the allele-specific marker information for lcyE and crtRB1 as additional fixed effect covariate allowed to control for the large effects of the two genes. Using this approach, 10% of the significant SNPs detected at 5% FDR in the first GWAS survived the correction for the allele specific markers. The two most significant SNPs on chromosome 8 detected in the first GWAS still displayed a strong association with lutein levels, which could be due to a stronger LD of the SNPs with larger-effect functional polymorphisms in the 39TE untranslated region of lcyE not captured with the present genotyping and possibly different from the polymorphisms previously described by Harjes et al. (2008). This could explain the relatively low effect of the known allele-specific markers of lcyE in our previous marker validation study (Azmach et al. 2013), although the strongest association was still detected in this gene region in our GWA study.The controlling of the effects of lcyE and crtRB1 in the GWAS including marker covariates led to the detection of significant associations for zeaxanthin levels on chromosome 2 at 1% FDR. The significant SNPs co-localized with a known downstream carotenoid biosynthesis gene ZEP1 (chromosome 2: 44,440,449,237). These SNPs were detected in the first MLM GWAS, but they were then significantly associated with total carotenoid content at a 5% FDR. In the GWAS without covariates, zeaxanthin was significantly affected by SNPs only from the large association signal detected on chromosome 10. This could suggest that increases or decreases in the rate of conversion of b-carotene to zeaxanthin through b-cryptoxanthin may be more pronounced than that of decreases in the rate of conversion of zeaxanthin to violaxanthin by ZEP1 in the maize inbred line panel used in our study. This would provide a reason for the greater impact of crtRB1 on the level of zeaxanthin than ZEP 1. This could be interpreted as a scenario where reduced function of crtRB1 leads to accumulation of b-carotene at the expense of zeaxanthin synthesis, reflecting the larger effect of crtRB1 on the concentration of zeaxanthin.Indeed, recent association studies have reported similar associations of SNPs within the gene ZEP1 with zeaxanthin content (Owens et al. 2014;Suwarno 2012). In addition a small effect QTL underlying kernel color close to the gene ZEP1 has also been reported and suggested as a target for allele mining by Chandler et al. (2013). This locus can therefore be considered as one of the loci potentially contributing to the variation in total carotenoid in the mapping panel used in this study and can be the next target gene for allele mining. Allele-combinations of ZEP1 and other genes in the biosynthesis pathway can be used in breeding programs to increase accumulation of provitamin A and total carotenoid in maize endosperm.Our GWAS including marker covariates also identified an association between SNPs on chromosome 5 and provitamin A at 5% FDR and b-carotene at 10% FDR. These SNPs were co-localized with a gene encoding an auxin-response factor 20 (arf20) protein (5:78,381,834-78,389,884). Auxin-response factors are transcription factors that target auxin response DNA elements (AuxRE) in the promoters of auxinregulated genes (Li et al. 2016). The key enzymes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis in cereals are well known and have been previously reviewed; e.g., figure 1 in Zhai et al. (2016). This family of transcription factors is known to have a role in conditioning carotenoid biosynthesis through coordinated regulation of transcription of genes involved in the pathway (Meier et al. 2011). As the ARF20 gene is highly expressed in the maize endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011), the gene may constitute a novel target for further unraveling of the regulatory mechanism of carotenoid biosynthesis in maize endosperm.Using a panel of IITA's tropical maize inbred lines that incorporated high b-carotene alleles introgressed from a temperate maize germplasm, our study detected SNPs co-localizing with known major and small effect carotenoid biosynthesis genes, demonstrating the detection power of our GWA analyses. In addition, a number of associations were detected for novel candidate genes encoding transcription factors, which might have roles in regulation of the carotenoid biosynthesis in maize endosperm. As our study is based on IITA's tropical maize breeding program, it can contribute to transitioning of the maize biofortification efforts of the breeding program toward molecular-marker assisted approaches. Our findings pave the way for additional allele mining efforts and greater understanding of the genes involved in regulation of expression of carotenoid biosynthesis genes, which is necessary to further exploit the genetic potential of maize in accumulating provitamin A in maize endosperm.","tokenCount":"7474"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77efea2d443c4bd1356f4a3e7316ec39","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2dc7f60-68b1-4ad3-afa5-14c5ac443fad/retrieve","id":"713993260"},"keywords":["TSBF-CIAT's achievements and reflections","2002-2005. Cali","CO : Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT); Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Institute","2006. 95 p. --(CIAT publication no. 350) ISBN 978-958-694-088-7 AGROVOC descriptors in English: 1. Soil fertility. 2. Soil management. 3. Cropping systems. 4. Soil biology. 5. Soil organic matter. 6. Genetic resources. 7. Land management. 8. Socioeconomic environment. 9. Water management. 10. Capacity building. 11. Sustainability. 12. Organization AGRIS subject category: P35 Soil fertility / Fertilidad del suelo LC classification: S 596 .7 P7"],"sieverID":"3199f4f6-310e-4bb5-b8a2-2d0c171b38b3","pagecount":"101","content":"CIAT encourages wide dissemination of its printed and electronic publications for maximum public benefit. Thus, in most cases colleagues working in research and development should feel free to use CIAT materials for noncommercial purposes. However, the Center prohibits modification of these materials, and we expect to receive due credit. Though CIAT prepares its publications with considerable care, the Center does not guarantee their accuracy and completeness.The Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) was founded in 1984 to develop capacity for soil biology as a research discipline in the tropical regions, and to conduct research on the role of soil biology in maintaining or improving soil fertility and combating environmental degradation, on the premise that biological management of soil fertility is an essential component of sustainable agricultural development.In 1997, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, or Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical) created a soils team in Latin America to focus on identification of strategic principles, concepts and methods for protecting and improving soil quality through the efficient and sustainable use of soil, water and nutrient resources in crop-pasture-fallow systems in tropical savannas and hillsides agroecosystems.In December 2001, an agreement between CIAT and the TSBF Programme led to the latter's becoming an institute of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT). Today, the Institute operates as an integral part of the CIAT research programme, and the TSBF Director reports to the CIAT Director General. TSBF-CIAT staff are located in two major target areas in the tropics (Africa and Latin America), with the directorate housed on the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) campus in Nairobi, Kenya.The 2005-2010 TSBF-CIAT strategy is aligned with the Millennium Development goal: \"to help create an expanded vision of development that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development.\" The strategy also encompasses the CGIAR's agricultural and environment mission: \"to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation in developing countries through research, partnerships, capacity building and policy support, promoting sustainable agricultural development based on environmental sound management of natural resources.\" The strategy is also aligned with CIAT's three Development Challenges: (1) Enhancing and Sharing the Benefits of Agrobiodiversity, (2) Improving the Management of Agroecosystems in the Tropics and (3) Enhancing Rural Innovation.TSBF-CIAT's programme goals are: to strengthen national and international capacity to manage tropical ecosystems sustainably for human well-being, with a particular focus on soil, biodiversity and primary production; to reduce hunger and poverty in the tropics through scientific research leading to new technology and knowledge; and to ensure environmental sustainability through research on the biology and fertility of tropical soils, targeted interventions, building scientific capability and contributions to policy. However, successful resource management and sustainable agricultural productivity need to go still further, into the realms of markets, health and policies. The central hypothesis is that natural resource management (NRM) research will have more leverage if the apparent gaps between investment in the natural resource base and income generation can be bridged. Therefore, TSBF-CIAT's new strategy has been to take ISFM an additional step forward by addressing the full chain of interactions from resources to production systems to markets and polices-the \"Resource to Consumption\" (R-to-C) framework [547]. Under this framework, investment in soil fertility management represents a key entry point to agricultural productivity growth, and a necessary condition for obtaining positive net returns to other types of farm investments.TSBF-CIAT is pursuing the following three objectives under our new strategy:• To improve the livelihoods of people reliant on agriculture by developing profitable, socially-acceptable and resilient agricultural production systems based on ISFM.• To develop sustainable land management (SLM) practices in tropical areas while reversing land degradation.• To build the human and social capital of all TSBF-CIAT stakeholders for research and management on the sustainable use of tropical soils.To achieve these objectives, all of TSBF-CIAT's work can be conceptualized using seven strategic pillars:1. Improving fertilizer efficiency and developing soil and water management practices.2. Improved germplasm as an entry point for managing soil fertility.3. Managing the genetic resources of soil for enhanced productivity and plant health.4. Understanding farm level social dynamics.5. Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and health.6. NRM strategies to move from plot to landscape scales.7. Strengthening scientific and institutional capacity of partners for ISFM.The following sections present the background, achievements, gaps, and potential opportunities and challenges for the research of TSBF-CIAT over the period 2002-2005 and are reviewed with reference to citations of work published (or in progress). With few exceptions, the panels found the quality of the staff and of the research at CIAT to be high. The major substantive recommendations were: to more tightly focus the research program; to attain greater integration of that program; and to improve lines of authority and responsibility. Specific recommendations made by the review team and responses by TSBF-CIAT staff are given in Annex 1 and the TSBF-CIAT staff are listed in Annex 2.1. Improving fertilizer efficiency and developing soil and water management practicesThe technical backbone of ISFM advocates the integration of mineral and organic sources of nutrients, thereby using locally available sources of inputs and maximising their use efficiency. TSBF-CIAT has embraced ISFM research to reverse land degradation and improve the livelihoods of people reliant on agriculture. What is needed is to break the cycle between poverty and land degradation in SSA by employing strategies that empower farmers economically and promoting sustainable agricultural intensification using efficient, effective and affordable plant nutrients.Such affordable management systems should be accessible to the poor, small-scale producers and the approach should be holistic and dynamic in order to foster both technical and institutional change.Nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies are widespread in all SSA agro-ecosystems, with 80% of the soils deficient in P despite the availability of phosphate rocks in many parts of the continent. The main research highlights on soil characterization in the recent years have been on soil fertility gradients within farms [59,72,74,116,120]. While these studies have shown strong relationships between households' social categories, their production of organic materials, and the intensity with which inputs are applied to \"homefields\" or \"outfields\", variance of soil fertility status within farms is much greater than that observed between farms. For example, in Western Kenya, 58% of the variance in soil organic C was due to variability within farm compared to only 9% for variability between farms [74]. Total N decreased in all sites with distance to the homestead (from 1.30 to 1.06 g/kg), as did Olsen-P (from 10.5 to 2.3 mg/kg). Grain yields in the no-input control plots followed the decrease in soil fertility status with distance to the homestead (from 2.59 to 1.59 t/ha). In the NPK treatments, however, this difference between field types disappeared (from 3.43 to 3.98 t/ha), indicating that N and P are the major limiting nutrients in the target areas [116]. In another study in the drylands of Niger, West Africa, variation of soil C at farm level ranged from 0.1% to 3.2% from the bush fields to the homestead. The fertilizer use efficiency increased with increasing soil C, indicating the need to improve soil with organic amendment in order to increase the fertilizer use efficiency [287].Similar soil constraints (soil acidity, aluminium toxicity, P and N deficiencies) are the major chemical constraints together with soil compaction and erosion as physical constraints for crop-livestock production in tropical savannas of Latin America. In acid savanna soils of Colombia, deep-rooted tropical pastures enhanced soil quality by improving the size and stability of soil aggregates when compared with soils under mono-cropping. Increasing intensity of production systems resulted in improved soil physical conditions but decreased soil organic matter (SOM) and macrofauna populations with the exception of agropastoral systems evaluated where an overall soil improvement was observed [122,220,236].Several studies addressed the dynamics of N, P and C in the soils across the different agro-environments and sustainability indicators were determined from longterm soil fertility management trials [8,220,236]. The rate of decline of soil C has been determined and the importance of the fine fraction in the protection of soil organic carbon assessed. The use of vertical tillage and agropastoral treatments contributed to the build-up of an arable layer in low fertility savanna soils of the Llanos of Colombia as indicated by improved soil physical properties and nutrient availability [55,517,518]. Influence of contrasting agropastoral systems and related P fertilizer inputs on size of P fractions in soil and their isotopic exchangeability were determined in acid savannas of Colombia and the results showed that organic P dynamics are important when soil P reserves are limited [211]. Recent work has shown that additions of charcoal to low fertility, acid Oxisols increases soil pH, cation exchange capacity, BNF and availability of various soil nutrients and result in a net increase in crop and plant yield. Another significant achievement was that the nitrification inhibition activity of accessions of Brachiaria humidicola was similar to the commercial apomictic cultivar indicating the possibility for genetic regulation of this important trait to improve nitrogen use efficiency in crop-livestock systems [318].The quality of organic inputs and their interaction with mineral fertilizers have been the main focus [161,162,175]. A decision tree for selecting organic inputs for nitrogen management have been developed based on their N, lignin and polyphenol contents [51], as has one on manure use in southern Africa [39]. Fertilizer equivalency values of organic materials have been determined and it was found that organic leaves of Tithonia, Senna and Tephrosia had fertilizer equivalencies near 100% [82]. Decision guides have been developed in response to on-farm adaptive research that translate into simple assessments of resource quality to be used by extension agents and farmers, which have been tested with community-based learning activities [112]. Combining organic and mineral inputs has been observed to sometimes result in added benefits in terms of extra crop yield, compared with sole applications of organic and mineral inputs at equivalent rates [78]. In some cases, these benefits were the result of improved soil moisture conditions or reduced wind erosion after application of organic inputs [11,78,80,89]. In other cases, however, mechanisms underlying the creation of positive interactions were not understood.Except for a few phosphate rocks (e.g. Tahoua in Niger, Tilemsi in Mali and Mijingu in Tanzania), most of the phosphate rocks in Africa are low in reactivity and not suitable for direct application. Field work indicated that the P use efficiency from the unreactive rocks can double when phosphate rock was combined with the micro-dose technology.The dry mixture of 25% of P as water soluble P and 75% of P as phosphate rocks gave yields comparable to the use of 100% water soluble P [330].Research on the micro-dose application of fertilizers has focused on evaluating and promoting point or hill application of 4 kg P/ha at planting time of millet and sorghum [233,330]. The combination of strategic hill application of fertilizer with complementary institutional and market linkages, through an inventory credit system (\"Warrantage\") offers a good opportunity to improve crop productivity and farmers' incomes [233].The considerable research invested in water harvesting techniques (e.g. the zaï, stone bunds, contours, tied ridges, etc.) frequently neglects the role of soil nutrients, which in many cases are the most limiting factors. Our research in nutrient and water harvesting in Western, Southern and Eastern Africa has clearly indicated that application of nutrients greatly increased the water use efficiency [100]. In Ethiopia, extremely eroded farm plots were not responding to direct application of organic biomass, however, use of \"zai\" (small ditches to trap water and nutrients) increased yields up to 450% in comparison to the control [120].Given the successes of conservation agriculture in Latin America and elsewhere, AfNet has established network field trials of various conservation agriculture options in 12 sites in East and West Africa. Crop yield was lower with no-till than with tillage practice in continuous cereal, intercropping and rotation systems. There was no difference in maize yield between no-till and tillage practices when crop residue was added in the no-till in Western Kenya. In Burkina Faso, even with crop residue, no-till had lower yields compared to tillage practice and this is attributed to the crusting nature of these soils. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the reduced labour in the no-till, it is likely that the no-till could be more profitable.The concept of \"building up an arable layer\" of improved soil quality addresses the physical and chemical constraints of acid savanna soils, using corrective tillage, amendments, and fertilizers, and deep-rooting plants in rotational systems to recover water and nutrients from the subsoil. Such arable layer technologies lay a foundation for implementing no-tillage systems on infertile tropical soils; research in close collaboration with CORPOICA and other partners in the Llanos of Colombia show the concept is both technically feasible and economically attractive to farmers [5]. Long-term field experiments are testing the effects of grain legumes, green manures, intercrops and leys as possible components that could increase the stability of systems involving annual crops. No-till treatments have consistently provided lower bulk density, higher total porosity, and significantly higher maize yields than the minimum tillage system. Maize yields on native savanna soils were also markedly lower than in the rest of the treatments, indicating the need for improved soil conditions in subsoil layers for root growth of maize [55,94,303,404].• Increase fertilizers' use efficiencies in order to make them more profitable.• Contribute to the development of the local fertilizer sector through feasibility studies (e.g. on the use of the indigenous phosphate rocks).• Investigate and quantify fertilizers' effects on global change, green house gas (GHG) emissions, water quality, deforestation and land degradation, interactions with pest and diseases and carbon sequestration.• Use decision support tools to improve fertilizer use efficiency (e.g. NuMaSS expert system). Field trials conducted in Nicaragua and Honduras have shown that farmers can optimise fertilizer use when they take into account previous crop management, crop and soil characteristics, expected yields and resources available.• For the concept on building an arable layer to be functional, more attention needs to be given to the driving forces behind farmer decision making and the existing policies for intensifying agriculture on infertile savanna lands.The traditional starting point for soil fertility management is developing options that improve nutrient availability (i.e. the supply of nutrients). Whilst the research that TSBF-CIAT has conducted along this logic has added much to our knowledge of these processes, it is increasingly recognised that investments in soil fertility can only realise their potential in the presence of plants that are able to incorporate nutrients in their biomass (i.e. with sufficient demand for those nutrients). For example, given the soil acidity and soil physical constraints in tropical savannas, CIAT researchers realized that selection and development of acid tolerant crop and forage germplasm was the logical way to manage low fertility acid soils and to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation. In close collaboration with rice, beans, forages and other CGIAR commodity programs and regional partners, significant research for development efforts were made to introduce, test and disseminate productive and adapted germplasm. Finally, it should be noted that due to the short-term benefits associated with improved varieties, targeting better soil fertility management in integration with such varieties usually results in immediate interest from farming communities. Consequently, the integration of resilient germplasm is a full component of the ISFM research for development paradigm.These improved crop and forage germplasm options interact with rural livelihoods and soil fertility management in a number of ways:(1) through direct improvement of the natural resource base (soil fertility, soil and water retention), e.g. by integration of legumes in existing cropping systems and dual purpose live barriers, (2) through enabling crop production under conditions where local germplasm produces little yield, e.g. by integration of acid-tolerant varieties on soils with low pH, novel crop rotation system, (3) through generation of cash income that maybe re-invested in soil management, and (4) through provision of nutrient-dense (biofortified) edible components that can substantially enhance the health status of people engaged in agriculture with obvious consequence on the availability of labour.The original mandate of TSBF in Africa before joining CIAT focussed on the management of organic inputs, rather than their production per se, the latter being the mandate of the institutes that are engaged in breeding activities. These activities culminated in the development of the Organic Resource Database, the Decision Support System for Organic N Management, and initiatives aimed at validating these concepts [39,51,81,82,120]. While validating the above concepts with farmers, it became apparent that most organic inputs available at the farm level are of medium or low quality and that the total amount of organic resources available was insufficient to sustain or increase production. The mandate of TSBF-CIAT therefore broadened to include activities aimed at producing organic resources, such as the integration of N-fixing legumes, among them, Mucuna and other cover crops [28,29,43,155], cereal-legume rotations, (e.g. cowpea-sorghum in West Africa [97,123], maize and soybean in southern Africa [156]).Through these activities, it also became apparent that not all legumes grow equally well across all plots within a farm and that farmer interest in certain legumes was driven by issues far beyond soil fertility improvement in itself. Niches can be identified at the farm and landscape scale where specific production options can be optimized, applied and evaluated [1,13,43,112,142,143,150,151,154,155,156,183]. In Latin America, fertilizer availability is greater and emphasis on biomass production is lower, except when used to improve soil fertility in planted fallow systems. Short-term planted fallows on volcanic ash soils in the Andean hillsides restored soil fertility by enhancing nutrient recycling through the provision of SOM. Field and greenhouse studies indicated that a significant diversity exists in decomposition and nutrient release patterns of several organic materials and highlighted the value of screening new farming system components to achieve efficient nutrient cycling [19,20]. In Vitro Dry Matter Digestibility (IVDMD) was identified as a quality parameter of plant materials that significantly correlated to nutrient release rates [19,76,77] and can be easily and cheaply used to assess forage quality in animal nutrition studies to predict decomposition and N release. Studies on the impact of improved fallows on soil fertility also indicated that Tithonia diversifolia slash/mulch system has the greatest potential to improve SOM, nutrient availability, and P cycling because of its ability to accumulate high amounts of biomass and nutrients [6] possibly due to strong symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [8,56,68,220]. The Calliandra calothyrsus slash/mulch fallow system proved to be the most resilient as it produced similar amounts of biomass independent of initial level of soil fertility and was thus a candidate for wider testing as a potential source of nutrient additions to the soil and to generate fuelwood for resource-poor rural communities.Specific constraints to crop production can halt the utilisation of other nutrients that are not in short supply. Germplasm that is adapted to adverse biotic and abiotic stresses have been evaluated in various regions-e.g. new Lablab accessions [43], aluminium-resistant beans and Brachiaria grasses [40,60,117,209,220,316], drought tolerant crop and forage options [2,3,229,447,448], herbicide-resistant maize for striga control, dual purpose soybean varieties [64,125], tissue culture bananas inoculated with specific arbuscal-mycorrhizal fungi [104], and acid soil adapted crop and forage options to the tropical savannas of Latin America [168,317]. New drought tolerant beans, upland rice for hillsides and early maturing soybeans are currently under testing in novel rotational systems hillsides of Nicaragua [122]. Genetic variability was found among accessions of Brachiaria humidicola regarding the nitrification inhibition activity of root exudates [149].Situating improved germplasm within a full context of economic, socio-cultural, and policy conditions has developed within TSBF-CIAT to the point that research on how to link improved germplasm is now a full-fledged strategic pillar of its own (cf.2005-2010 Strategic Document and the discussion of \"Linking farmers to markets, nutrition, and health\" below). Whilst this is a new area, initial research has shown that linking germplasm demand to markets can greatly facilitate and guide research on technology choices and soil fertility constraints. Examples include the marketoriented evaluation, adaptation, integration of dual-purpose soybean in cropping systems in Kenya and Uganda [125,126], and the evaluation of cowpea, sugar bean and soybean varieties linked to market types and market demand in Zimbabwe [137,154]. Other activities have successfully developed and linked improved NRM with export markets though smallholder farmers producing for certified organic markets in Europe [286]. In Latin American hillsides, the approach has been to combine improved soil fertility management (high fertility trenches) with market oriented high value crops. Net income increased by several fold in prototypes developed in San Dionisio, Nicaragua [122].This theme is also a new research priority, but initial progress has focussed on understanding the implications of changing production priorities at the farm level on household food (energy and protein) security and their implication on nutrient balances and household income [4,154].Developing more profitable and resilient production systems in the coming years will require the application of the knowledge and understanding of nutrient management processes in the following areas:• Managing biomass:(i) Quantification of the multiple benefits of organic inputs for specific environments;(ii) Quantification of the long term impact of organic resource quality on the quantity and quality of the SOM pool; (iii) Use of drought tolerant germplasm for increasing dry season feed supply and coping with climate change; (iv) Further evaluation of organic resource production options with farming communities in relation to their current and future priorities and constraints.• Germplasm that is adapted to low fertility conditions:(i) Quantification of the overall contribution of improved germplasm to the sustainability and profitability of the systems and to rural livelihoods as a whole using simulation modelling tools and trade-off analysis (e.g. DSSAT, NUANCES, IMPACT, APSIM); (ii) Drought tolerance will be an increasingly important trait in new germplasm together with resistance to major biotic constraints.• Linking improved germplasm to markets:Evaluating and quantifying the soil-based implications of the market-led hypothesis (e.g. does inclusion of improved germplasm result in better soil management practices or does it merely enhance nutrient mining? Does the increased income from market sales lead to increased investment in agriculture and NRM? Is it feasible to produce high value crops without investing in IPM+INM?)• Linking improved germplasm to nutrition:(i) Evaluating relationships between soil fertility status, soil management practices, and the post-harvest and nutritional quality of the produce (especially for the much advocated bio-fortified germplasm (e.g. Zn and Fe-dense beans) promoted by the HarvestPlus challenge program);(ii) Investigating the linkages between improving access to high-quality (i.e. nutrient dense) diets and improved health status and labour availability at the household level.Soil microbiology is facing a number of challenges in the new century. There are societal demands for more information on sustainable resource management in forestry, rangelands, and intensive agriculture, and on maintaining biological diversity in those ecosystems. Below-ground biodiversity (BGBD) is dramatically reduced when forests are converted to agricultural land, and when agricultural land use is intensified. Reduced BGBD may decrease agricultural productivity and reduce the \"resilience\" of agricultural systems, which then become more vulnerable to adverse climatic events, erosion, pests, diseases, and other threats. Sustainable management of BGBD will enhance the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems and, at the same time, help conserve soil genetic resources for bioprospecting. The recognition of global climate change as a research priority raises many questions about the role of SOM and macro and micro-organisms in C cycling and the production and consumption of radiative gases. While there has been great progress in molecular biology and in the procedural aspects of genetic engineering, the problem is much more one of \"what to do\" rather than \"how to do it\".The urgency to slow down BGBD losses and better assess the potential uses of soil biodiversity in ecosystem management and bio-prospecting underpin the \"Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity\" (CSM-BGBD) Project. During the first phase, an inventory of soil organisms (from micro-organisms through macro-fauna, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, insects, worms, and other invertebrates), has been carried out in the seven participating countries (Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda) [164]. This inventory has identified and described many new species-e.g. 11 belowground biota groups were recorded in Lampung, Indonesia: 53 ant genera, 59 beetle families/subfamilies, 37 termite species, 10 earthworm species, 44 collembolla species, 113 nematodes genera, 26 arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi/ AMF morphospecies, 9 plant pathogenic fungi genera, 4 lignin degrading fungi genera, 7 cellulose degrading fungi genera and 228 legume nodulating bacteria isolates. In some cases, these organisms may ultimately be useful to society (e.g. as inoculums for improving yields). For example, the inoculation of soil with earthworms for improving the formation of soil aggregates has been tested with promising results [200].According to the importance of the soybean activities within TSBF-CIAT and the presence of a new staff soil microbiologist in TSBF-CIAT, some new activities have started on the utilization of rhizobial inoculums for improving plant growth. A soil Microbiology Laboratory has been set up in TSBF-CIAT (Kenya) where it is possible to isolate and cultivate rhizobial strains in both solid and liquid culture. Ongoing projects on both grain and tree legumes require the capacity to characterize the indigenous rhizobia present in the nodules harvested in the field. In the absence of indigenous strains capable of nodulating the host plant, we need to inoculate with selected rhizobia. Interesting results were obtained in the field with tree legumes [24,36,66]. With banana production, initial work has shown that it is possible to significantly increase the growth of banana plants produced in vitro (tissue culture) by inoculation with well-identified arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) isolates.The combination of soil fertility and pest and disease management approaches provides a unique opportunity to exploit synergies allowing better control of these limitations to crop productivity [376].Organic matter management can benefit soil biota (e.g. through erosion protection, nutrient cycling, control of pathogens) but can have complex impacts on the balance between the populations of harmful and beneficial organisms. Work studying pathogens, microregulators and microsymbionts during cultivation of common bean in soils infested with pathogenic fungi has shown that despite the relatively limited time of green manure treatments, application of 6 t/ha of Calliandra houstoniana biomass to root-rot infested soil significantly reduced incidence (about 15%) and simultaneously increased yield (about 10%) in rootrot susceptible bean variety (A70) compared to control plots [519].However, while application of Tithonia diversifolia reduced the root-rot incidence by close to 30%, it also reduced yield significantly.Further studies are in progress to understand the interactions among soil fertility, soil biota (pathogenic and beneficial), and crop yield.Soil structure influences multiple dimensions of soil fertility such as erosion, infiltration, drainage, water holding capacity and aeration, as well as nutrient and carbon cycling and biological activity. Earthworms, ants and termites constitute the soil macrofauna with greatest effects on soil structure while AMF, soil bacteria and plant roots have received increased attention in recent years as key determinants in soil aggregate formation and stabilization in the 'aggregate dynamic model'. This model directly links aggregate formation and breakdown in soils to the turnover of particulate organic matter (POM) as mediated by microbial and macrofauna activity proposes that in tropical soils several biological processes lead to the formation of \"biological macroaggregates\" through the activity of fungi and bacteria, plant roots and macrofauna (e.g. earthworms). Earthworms have pronounced effects on soil structure as a consequence of their burrowing activities as well as their ingestion of soil and production of biogenic structures or casts. Several studies have shown a strong relationship between AMF hyphal length and water stable aggregation in different soil types. Our studies in Colombia [144] have developed a bioassay in which we confirmed this relationship in volcanic-ash soils for a mixed inoculum.On going studies have focused on the functional diversity of three AMF genera (Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus) in the production of external hyphae and soil aggregation [392].A key question when trying to link soil organisms with their soil structure modification function is the need to define the origin of different types of aggregates found in soils and their temporal and spatial dynamics. Recent studies have developed a visual method to separate soil aggregates that is sensitive to land use change [152]. Additionally, the use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) on visually separated soil aggregates in this study has also shown the capacity to link such biogenic structures to the organisms that produced them. This is a major step forward that will allow exploring the relative importance of soil organisms in soil structure modification as well as the study of their temporal and spatial dynamics as affected by land use change along intensification gradients.The \"Quesungual\" slash and mulch agroforestry system of southern Honduras presents an opportunity for studying the effects of trees on soil macrofauna dynamics in time and space [436]. While at a broad scale soil macrofauna communities are highly variable, preliminary results found positive associations between tree distribution (and tree management, such as pruning), the distribution of leaf litter, and the distribution of ant and earthworm activity. This has important implications for farm management, as it shows that farmers do not have to increase the density of large trees (which compete with crops for sunlight, water and nutrients) in order to increase litter cover and soil fauna activity.In the seven CSM-BGBD project countries, the response of BGBD to different land use intensities varied from forest land to agricultural land. For example, the richness and abundance of ants, beetles and termites decreased with increasing land use intensification in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the abundance and biomass of earthworms were not affected by land use change, although intensification tended to reduce the individual earthworm size. \"Exotic\" earthworm species thrived in agricultural land, whereas \"native\" species were encountered only in forest. The ecological importance of exotic vs. native earthworms was unclear and will be studied in the second phase of the BGBD project. Nematode abundance was not affected by land use change although its richness decreased. Intensification reduced the AMF spore numbers but did not affect the richness of other fungi [164].Building the capacity of partners in soil microbiology, linking soil biology and broader ISFM research (including integration with social science research), and improving communication and collaboration between partners in multi-site research.• Linking the management of SOM and soil functions (ecosystem services) to either direct or indirect manipulation or control of soil organisms (e.g. CSM-BGBD, WOTRO, and MICROBES projects).• Investigating the effects of climate change on land use and the soil's genetic resources (e.g. the effect of extreme oscillations in rainfall and temperature on nutrient cycling and biologically moderated carbon sequestration).• Initiating new research on the biology of dryland soils, including microsymbionts in dryland agroforestry systems (Gum Arabic) and the effects of climate change on dryland production systems.• Improve understanding and opportunities for biological farming within the framework of ISFM.From its beginnings, TSBF-CIAT has been known for leading edge biophysical research in soil fertility management. Its contributions to understanding the sociocultural and gender dynamics of soil fertility have been more modest, but TSBF has been committed from its inception to including social sciences in its research agenda [446]. Pioneering work where social scientists took the lead in research addressed the dynamics of agrarian and land-use change [21], the gendered nature of ISFM decision-making [176], the role of social institutions mediating farmers' access to resources [520,521,523] and the interaction of local and scientific knowledge on soil fertility management [227,228].The growth of TSBF-CIAT and its expanding research agenda confronts the broader problem of a lack of social science research capacity (in our partner NARES as well as within CIAT) able to contend with NRM issues. Efforts to build rigorous social research capacity within AfNet, MIS, and within the partnerships of research projects are on-going but require sufficient resources and the support of multidisciplinary \"champions\" from outside the social sciences.Work addressing the existing knowledge base of local communities has been led by both social and biophysical scientists, in Latin America and Africa [7,43,93,112,153,159]. These activities have served both to investigate and value local knowledge and to provide forums for studying the dynamics of the interaction between scientists and farmers. For example, understanding local soil management units has provided a logic for developing land-use plans [46] and for sampling soil biota [148,436,528]. On studying the dynamics of the interaction between local knowledge(s) and that of outsiders, the Strengthening \"Folk Ecology\" project in Western Kenya has tested and studied a community-based methodology with local partners and community groups [112]. Particular attention has been paid to how knowledge is generated, shared, and withheld within social networks [216]. This approach uses on-going dialogue between scientists and farmers to build a \"dynamic expertise\" on soil fertility management that shares the strengths of disparate knowledge bases. Key outputs include: documenting ecological knowledge (including local indicators of soil quality and of ecosystem change); and empowering communities to continue conducting and evaluating ISFM experiments without the presence of a project.This body of research was started by Simon Carter and Eve Crowley, through their work on land use change and the role of off-farm income and social institutions in farming livelihoods and the sustainability of the soils in Western Kenya. The research explored the dynamics of special micro-niches on the farm high in soil fertility. The gender dynamics of land and livelihoods were researched further, with focus on the changing nature of the gender division of labour, land tenure and social relations [176]. This work further nuanced understandings of labour availability, the increasing demands to generate cash incomes and farmers' priorities and constraints. It also demonstrated how land tenure played a key role in determining how resources (especially soil fertility inputs) are invested in the special micro-niches high in soil fertility.Another area of innovation has been in the area of methodologies. This has been carried out through the use of ethnographic work, the collection of personal narratives, participatory photography, on-farm experimentation, household typologies, social-network and diffusion mapping [28,72,133,406,424]. Many of the experiences of the Strengthening \"Folk Ecology\" project have been compiled as a Manual of Interactive Techniques [529], intended to serve not as a template for others to follow but to provide situated examples of how certain efforts at engaging researchers or farmers in experimentation succeeded or failed. Most recently, social scientific programming is including a special fund (the \"Sikana fund\", in memory of the late Patrick Sikana who first proposed the idea), equal to 5%-10% of total project funds that will give farmers the opportunity to decide for themselves how to invest the funds. How farmers choose to apply the funds will itself be part of the research process, and shed further light on their constraints and priorities, as well as the social dynamics (including the negotiated and contested nature of decision making).Interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that social scientific research priorities and hypotheses inform and influence the broader bodies of biophysical research (and vice versa). Such co-learning can be immensely rewarding when it succeeds but must such efforts should not \"drown out\" social scientific research in it own right, which be carried out in conjunction and at the same time as this service provision role [214]. Examples of the positive influence of social scientific ideas within interdisciplinary projects include: (i) the analysis of the role of both social differentiation and local knowledge bases in the generation and maintenance of soil fertility gradients [72,74,133]; (ii) social scientific research in aspects of BGBD in all seven countries; (iii) plot to landscape level research (different scales, farm characterization and household characterization to target technologies) in Ethiopian highlands focusing on strengthening bylaws and collective action schemes for soil and water management [159]; (iv) research on the formation, restructuring, and scaling up processes of farmer field schools in Uganda and Kenya [43,196].• Social science in the lead role:(i) Gender and land tenure (expanding on past research, as well as contributing to work spear-headed by IDRC);(ii) Rural-urban linkages, resource flows and dynamics of vulnerability; (iii) Special micro-niches (soil fertility gradients);(iv) Relationship between indigenous and scientific knowledge; (iii) Approaches and knowledge required for scaling out of technologies (e.g. how up-scalable are ISFM technologies and the farmer-scientist interactions).• Documenting and show-casing the institutional memory of the Institute in terms of social science (a \"social sciences symposium\", interactions with the Anthro-No-Apology network-e.g. edited volume \"Beyond the Biophysical\" [166]).• Developing other partnerships (e.g. with ERI, Latin America, AHI, AfNet) through NGOs, extensions, farmers groups, local-level partnerships.In the past, increasing agricultural production occupied the central position in all agricultural development efforts. This emphasis held land as the most important factor of production and explains why agricultural productivity (yield) was commonly expressed in terms of output per unit area. Little attention was given to the productivity of the other traditional factors of production such as labour and capital.In the last few years this focus has changed in TSBF-CIAT, as the research for development paradigm has evolved and as it has been increasingly recognized that increased production alone cannot solve the multiple problems of smallholderfarmers. There is now strong research focus on improving their general livelihood dimensions (income, improved well-being, reduced vulnerability, improved food security, more sustainable use of natural resources, more access to external inputs, etc.). Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and health is an important entry point for improving livelihoods and address the fact that intensification of agricultural production cannot be sustained without linking farmers to input and output markets. Production has also been constrained through (i) unorganized marketing structures, whose conduct and performance has badly affected farmers' access to farm inputs and profitable agricultural production (ii) low value-addition (processing, grading, bulking, inspection, certification, standardization, branding, etc.) along the market chain has also reduced the profit potentials of farmers' agricultural production. Poor nutrition and health have also been linked with both inadequate farm labour availability and low factor (including labour) productivity, especially with the advent of HIV/AIDS pandemic. All these explain the need to link farmers to input and output markets, nutrition and health. Improvements in technology, with no change in the product that is to be consumed locally or traded, will not be sufficient to radically alter this situation. High value crops offer a solution to this problem.Whilst the majority of TSBF-CIAT's research outcomes have concentrated on production constraints, this strategic pillar of our research focus has only gained momentum in the last 2 years. Previous work in this area has been through support to broader CIAT-Africa research activities through their ERI program under the Rural Innovation Institute and has focused on the market-led hypothesis that tests whether increased incomes leads to increased investments in NRM [64,283,285].Soybean: Results (unpublished) of the inventory data aimed at understanding why many past efforts to promote soybean (a well-known versatile crop) in the farming systems of Kenya led to limited success and impact on soybean development implicated: (i) low productivity, (ii) lack of know-how on soybean processing and utilization, and (iii) lack of markets. Following this understanding, we have developed an action plan and strategy to address problems of low productivity through farmer-led screening and participatory evaluation of improved promiscuous dual-purpose varieties obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. Farmer evaluation of eight dual-purpose soybean varieties tested in five locations in western Kenya identified varieties best suited to each environment and community. Only one variety (SB19) was ranked amongst the top four selected in each of the five locations. Some of the remaining varieties were only selected in specific locations.With respect to lack of knowhow on soybean processing and utilization and lack of market for soybean, we developed a \"three-tier approach\", for comprehensive soybean processing and market development in Kenya. The first tier is on household-level soybean market development centred on training on various processing methods for household food consumption. The second tier is a community-level soybean market development centred on soymilk production. A two-price scenario (pessimistic and optimistic price scenarios) analysis of soymilk production shows that this value addition leads to 4 to 14 times (US$1946-7069) more net returns than if the soybean is sold as grains without any further processing. The third tier improves on earlier work [433] on value addition, emphasizing the training of stakeholders on processing soybean into products with good market potential.Although gum Arabic has a strong market potential, there are significant differences in the level of organization of its market (cf. Fagg and Allison, 2004). The contribution of TSBF-CIAT is the link to the effect of some microbiological interventions such as rhizobia inoculation and mycorrhiza symbioses on the survival and yield of the acacia trees producing gum Arabic.Results from 2-year on-farm trials in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger showed that average grain yields of millet and sorghum were greater by 44%-120%, while farmers' incomes increased 52%-134% when using hill application of fertilizer than with the earlier recommended fertilizer broadcasting methods and farmers' practice. Farmers using the \"Warrantage\" inventory credit system realized substantial net profits: revenue obtained from the micro-dose treatment was greater than that from the recommended practice (3x greater for millet, 2.5x greater for sorghum) [233].The strategy in Latin America has been to work closely with other CIAT projects such as the Agro-enterprise project to identify most suitable crop-oriented options Selected crops (tomato and green pepper) were planted in Yorito, Honduras, and San Dionisio, Nicaragua, in high fertility trenches with combined organic and inorganic inputs [122]. Recent results showed a significant increase in gross income compared to traditional maize-bean rotations.An area of increasing interest for market linkages is through organic and Fair-Trade certification of production to take advantage of premium prices paid by exporters. Whilst it is recognized that this is a niche market that can not be entered into by all farmers, its potential as a growth market is huge and in turn this will impact on many more farmers: in Uganda expansion is around 20% a year, with 46,000 farmers currently certified. Examples from pilot sites in Uganda and Mozambique have shown how this approach has enabled farmers to access new market information (e.g. prices, quantities, quality) and new research products (e.g. disease resistant germplasm, variety evaluation for export, investing in natural resources and soil fertility) on critical aspects of production and how they have used this new information to develop competitive and profitable export organic agroenterprises. Building farmers' capacities to learn about biological and ecological complexity using participatory approaches and involving farmers in experimentation is a critical success strategy for empowering farmers to be able to learn and to innovate [286,291].• Understanding and scaling up knowledge and methods to other crops and systems (e.g. the \"three-tier\" approach with soybean, the micro-dosing and \"warrantage\" revolving credit system).• Quantifying the following relationships:(i) between good market access and soil fertility improvement;(ii) between HIV/AIDS and nutrition and HIV/AIDS and the consumption of soybean products;(iii) between soil fertility status and nutrition and between soil fertility status and postharvest quality of produce;(iv) between fertilizer use/soil fertility and food quality; (v) between bio-fortification and food quality.• Ensuring the sustainability of the institutional linkages for promoting crops.• Linking TSBF-CIAT activities with other regional and global initiatives.• Linking productivity resulting from the manipulation of the biodiversity under the BGBD and Microbes projects with markets.• Develop strategic alliances with the private sector to warrant economically beneficial prices and provide inputs for small farmers.• Address trade agreements (CAFTA for Central America and TLC for Colombia) and diversification of current cropping systems with the introduction of high value crops under user friendly IPM and ISFM strategies.5. Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and healthLand and resource degradation encompasses a complex of soil and water loss, nutrient depletion, depleted forest resources, scarce and inefficient water use, declining livestock contributions to the systems and infrastructure limiting access to markets. Up to very recently R4D actors did not also realize the need for developing various technological options for various landscape scenarios and the non-linear scaling relationships of different processes from plot to watersheds and from farmer to communities and vice versa. Plot and farm level interventions are typically less influenced by externalities (e.g. the need for collective decision and management of resources) than cross-boundary issues. Furthermore, the economic conditions and policy environment have not provided the necessary incentives for communities to make long term investments in better management of their resources to arrest this degradation scenario at plot, farm and landscape scales.Farm and landscape characterization tools and models for targeting technologies in various farm niches have been tested and validated in both Africa and Latin America. Work with farmer research committees (FRC) in the highlands of East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda) has used scenario analyses to identify and characterize NRM constraints, landscape positions and production options, which can then be used to target suitable technologies and solutions [4,28,29,118,120]. Such interventions began rather conservatively with a focus on crop varieties but with ongoing support from modelling and scenario analysis FRCs have broadened to more complex issues, such as soil and water conservation with elephant grass contour strips, and farmer experiments with herbaceous and agroforestry legumes for fodder in improved dairy production, soil fertility and mixing early-and latematuring maize varieties opened a niche for a legume relay [118]. Modelling in Ethiopia has also shown how the current risk of food insecurity and erosion could be reversed (while still satisfying household food and cash requirements) by reallocating land from low biomass producing cereal-dominated cropping to high biomass producing perennial food and cash crops [4,119]. A decision guide which combined biophysical and socio-economic determinants was developed and validated to facilitate the identification of social and biophysical niches for the integration and landscape level adoption of legumes [182].In the Colombian Andes, farm and landscape characterization was involved in the identification and classification of local knowledge about soils and their management [46]. The characterization of land-use distribution facilitated uncertainty analysis and risk management by local farmers (e.g. Potrerillo microwatershed of Cauca) [411,477]). In the Amazon region, characterization and modelling tools have quantified the impacts of land-use change on soil C to enhance plant productivity and C sequestration in soils in areas where slash and burn is still 6. NRM strategies to move from plot to landscape scales a common management practice [30]. Preliminary results from the Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS) in Honduras indicated that soil losses under QSMAS of different ages (2, 5 and >10 years) were less than 2 Mg/ha in 14 weeks in comparison to the 30 Mg/ha soil losses observed in the traditional slash and burn control treatments [264]. Finally, application of these tools to the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela has shown that intensification of agriculture, livestock and forestry in the region in the next 2 decades could result in a net increase of 160 Tg of C in the soil stocks, demonstrating the high potential of the region for providing environmental services [221].In hilly landscapes soils and nutrients are washed away by run-off following heavy rains, particularly before crop establishment, and a strategy was tested to trap nutrients that could be otherwise lost. In farms where there is a tree cover and/or where the homestead is surrounded by perennial food and fiber crops at the head of the slope, nutrient loss in the outfields was successfully reduced by fast growing fallow crops (e.g. Vetch) while in farms where there was no vegetation at the head of the slope, nutrient could be trapped by fast growing multipurpose legumes and other herbaceous shrubs planted as a hedge at the lowest end and the middle of the slope following conservation ditches. Cut-and-carrying of this biomass can then effectively recycle nutrients to the original plots [8,19,181].Work with partners and community-based organizations has highlighted the complexity of ways in which local and external factors can facilitate or impede collective action for ISFM [170,213,214,323]. There are no general principles that obtain everywhere under all conditions, but generally working with existing institutions and networks is preferable to creating new structures. ISFM knowledge in many communities is treated as a privileged resource not to be shared indiscriminately, which means that scientists seeking to promote new technologies need to provide settings that validate both the new knowledge itself and existing knowledge [7], as well reinforcing the positive value of knowledge dissemination within multiple social networks [424]. Some farm-level activities provoked interfarmer boundary conflicts (e.g. construction of soil bunds), which demand a process of collective management and negotiation to build the confidence needed to address higher-scale community issues. In Ethiopia, this scheme was used not only to organize labour and encourage the communities to put bunds, trees, waterways, etc. across the landscape, but also to develop and strengthen bylaws to help manage collective benefits [159].Work in the seven countries of the CSM-BGBD project (Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda) has used comparative sampling with landscape level systematic grids to begin establishing and testing the relationships between land management intensity and BGBD [164]. The rich database (biophysical, biological and socio-economic) has data collected that transcends scales and can be ordered according to plot and landscape attributes that target differentiated beneficiaries some at plot level and others at landscape level. These experiences show the dependence of farmers on common land (e.g. BGBD project experience in India and Mexico where portions of community of land is set aside for shared interests such as for water catchments and other ecological and social needs). From this experience, lessons will be learnt on how to address land-uses that require communal participation and conservation at the landscape level.The project \"Payment for Ecosystem Services\" (financed by the Water and Food Challenge Program-WFCP) is applying a methodology for integrated watershed analysis in pilot watersheds of Colombia and Peru [113]. Scenario analyses of economic payments for ecosystem services determined the cost of each ton of reduced sediment. In the Miskiyacu micro-watershed, for example, it was calculated that only 2 months of payments were required to cover the cost of promoting coffee under shade in the prioritized area [443]. A multi-criteria optimization model permits ex ante analysis of multiple land-use options, calculating the socioeconomic and environmental costs of changes in land use and technology under different spatial and temporal scenarios. This approach is being applied with stakeholders in analysing the five pilot Andean watersheds (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), to support the identification of land use alternatives and management practices that internalize externalities [173].One of the key elements in devising payments or compensation schemes for environmental services is through knowledge about the environmental service itself and the changes or modifications this is facing [443]. This is the case for the water quality of Fuquene Lake in Cundinamarca, Colombia, which is eutrophying with nutrients from urban and agricultural activities. Research with multiple partners is clarifying the origin and quantities of pollutants, using standard monitoring and modelling techniques as well as the use of stable isotopes [113,173,440,442,443].To accelerate interpretation of soil quality, NIRS analysis methods have been validated for different agro-ecosystems in both Colombia and Kenya [69,72,83,152]. The calibration of different NIRS signatures with soil chemical and biological properties show the high potential of NIRS for evaluating soil quality in large areas, rapidly, reliably and economically, thereby facilitating decision-making with respect to soil management and conservation.• Addressing soil fertility and carbon-sequestration and GHG emissions at higher scales (e.g. new project to rehabilitate degraded lands through silvopastoral systems and reforestation with native timber species in the Caribbean savannas of Colombia under the Biocarbon Fund).• Erosion and water management at higher level (addressing conflicts because of erosion and deposition, Upstream down stream conflicts).• Under what conditions will the landscape level interventions work and under which conditions will it not work (e.g. fragmented land ownership across watersheds makes it difficult to consolidate landscape level activities and interventions).• Convincing farmers to invest in collective action at landscape level using crossboundary technologies and interventions.• Building the case for farmers and communities to participate in BGBD conservation at landscape, regional and global levels (based on BGBD processes and expected benefits).• Trade-offs between economic considerations and environmental concerns (i.e. degradation/regeneration) for selected interventions (e.g. growing Eucalyptus spp.) on the landscape vs. the economic benefits presented by presence of the trees.Most African countries allocate less than 2% of GDP for agricultural research and the annual growth in agricultural research spending since 1990 has continued to decline.This situation is similar in Latin America, except in Brazil. Most NARES in both SSA and Latin America have therefore suffered a dramatic reduction in human and financial resources. Tertiary education has also not been spared the erosion caused by decades of underinvestment, loss of staff incentives and failure to recruit replacements for an ageing cadre of professors. Education programmes in agriculture, forestry and environment delivered to most scientists use dated, narrowly defined, and specialized perspectives that do not produce scientists with the scope and analytical skills and techniques needed to solve real development issues.TSBF-CIAT established its AfNet in 1988 to exploit the advantages of networking as a means of building the capacity of African institutions to conduct interdisciplinary ISFM research at regional and international levels. The Consortium for the Integrated Management of Fragile Soils (MIS) in Central America was likewise formed in 1998 with the participation of 19 institutions that embraces the full spectrum of research, education and development. These two networks are adopting participatory and gender perspectives in research, technology testing and adaptation in addition to conducting process research. Partnerships, collaboration and multidisciplinary approaches are enabling a holistic and comprehensive problem and opportunity analysis, taking into account different stakeholder perspectives and socio-economic limitations to solutions. Both networks are increasingly adopting a market-oriented approach in order to diversify production systems and support ISFM through increased farmer income.A range of network trials are being implemented in over 100 sites across SSA. Implementation of the trials is undertaken by scientists and partners from NARES. Such network trials cover all aspects of the ISFM research agenda and contribute significantly to the strategic understanding of how specific management options perform, as influenced by agro-ecological conditions. Research activities include management of mineral and organic inputs, the integration of legumes in cropping systems, biological nitrogen fixation, BGBD, conservation agriculture and soil and water conservation. The research highlights from these trials have been presented in previous sections of this report.In the case of MIS, partners developed a common logical framework that put emphasis on three aspects: (1) collection and synthesis and of available information • In Africa a total of 101 MSc and PhD students have been trained during the period.• In Latin America, a total of 64 BSc, MSc and PhD students have been trained.• An innovative initiative between AfNet and the International Foundation for Science (IFS) has helped young MSc and PhD graduates throughout SSA to develop project proposals for IFS funding on TSBF-CIAT's major research and development themes. At present about 20 researchers have received the grants and this effort will be further strengthened. The Below-Ground Biodiversity Program (BGBD) has also organized a range of international training workshops on: \"Ecology and taxonomy of termites and ants\", \"Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and Ectomycorrhiza (ecology, taxonomy and methods of inventory)\", \"Ecology and taxonomy of earthworms\", \"Nematodes\", and a training course on \"Molecular techniques for BGBD\".Training courses organized by MIS include: soil quality indicators, water quality, SWAT modelling, nutrient management (NuMaSS), desertification processes, and field monitoring systems on land degradation. Eight soil-plant-water laboratories from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua made initial steps to develop a sub-network to foster quality control and information comparison/exchange on analytical procedures for nutrient management recommendations. Twelve field days were organized in Cauca and three training courses were organized in the Colombian Llanos.Numerous projects have addressed the challenges of building farmers' capacity for improved soil fertility management. For example, the exchange of ISFM knowledge within farmer field school and farmer research groups in East Africa has been facilitated and studied in diverse settings, including with farmers' own 7. Strengthening scientific and institutional capacity of partners... evaluation of the learning process [29,43,112,119,406]. The \"Payment for Environmental Services\" project of the WFCP has used training courses held in the conservation agriculture pilot site in Fuquene and subsequent courses at the extrapolation sites to build skills and capacity in farmer groups and partner organizations (development agencies, NGOs). Finally, in developing the guide for integrating local and technical indicators of soil quality, Latin American and East African universities, NGOs, and local communities participated in the process, exchanging information and updating the knowledge base [93].• Restructuring AfNet under the umbrella of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), managed by TSBF-CIAT, to accommodate the growing membership. Multidisciplinary, regional research teams will coordinate and facilitate research in three regions (East Africa, West and Central Africa and Southern Africa). Interdisciplinary country-level proposals will be developed to further strengthen the country and regional teams.• MIS is concentrating on developing proposals where the role of the Consortium as the key component for capacity building could be sold (e.g. Quesungual Agroforestry System and NuMaSS projects). Partners are now leading the consortium (e.g. the Executive committee is now driven by experienced researchers from Honduras and Nicaragua).• Institutionalizing capacity in universities and other training institutions. AfNet members in selected universities will develop and implement curricula on soil biology and fertility.• Implementing the \"T-shaped skills\" approach to capacity building (specialization within a context of broad multidisciplinary ability), using multi-disciplinary and participatory research approaches, increased integration of training with field experiments/practice (\"Learning by doing\"), with follow-up activities after training to assess impact.• The networks will play a major role in the advocacy of the problem of soil fertility depletion and the role policy makers need to play to redress the situation. 2. Further strengthen research in TSBF on practical strategies and decision support tools for integrated water and nutrient management, including organic and mineral nutrient sources. Add such components to the existing organic resources DSS/database and include social science aspects in the decision-making process and tools to better understand actionable management strategies, their knowledge requirements, and economics.Agreed. At the moment, TSBF is undertaking research to address the water and nutrient issues within the newly funded project from SDC-Switzerland under the Water and Food Challenge Program (WFCP). Efforts for the next 3 years will be intensified to build the capacity of TSBF and its partners in the application of decision support tools. Linkages with the BP2 Decision Support Project of CIAT could be an important resource. Efforts are being made to build the capacity of TSBF-CIAT and its collaborators in the application of decision support tools including the role of water in the interaction between the organic and inorganic inputs on crop productivity especially in semi-arid areas in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).3. Improve linkages with the private sector to improve access to fertilizer and develop recommendations for its use that are of mutual benefit to all stakeholders involved. TSBF should become the lead institution for providing scientific information to the industry on realistic markets. These will incorporate: data on soils and cropping systems, optimal fertilizer formulations for balanced crop nutrition, fertilizer packaging and information content provided to farmers, practical ISFM concepts, the decision support tools needed for their implementation, and socio-economic research on needs for fertilizer marketing infrastructure, integration with local knowledge to enhance adoption, economic benefits for farmers, and societal costs as a whole. Seek collaboration with BP-2 on developing a joint digital soil mapping project for the SSA region, which could include non-destructive soil measurement methods such as VNIR-DRS.Agreed. TSBF-CIAT soil research is based on the ISFM model and the in-built concepts and integrates local communities and their 'real worlds'. In this regard, TSBF will continue to simplify soil classification in terminologies and farming aspects that farmers easily identify with. TSBF-CIAT is already assembling soil characteristics spatial datasets, spatial climatic datasets, spatial altitude datasets in East Africa with emphasis to Kenya with a view to combining the datasets to aid in decision support for areas most suitable for soybean cultivation in Kenya. These datasets are available and will be shared with BP-2 and other CIAT projects to aid in decision making for other crops and germplasm and for formulating research agenda. TSBF-CIAT in collaboration with ICRAF is already having projects that are going to use VNIR-DRS spectroscopy in soil characteristics mapping and developing markers for other soil attributes that are not yet characterized to aid TSBF-CIAT in technology up-scaling and out-scaling. Agreed. Yes indeed there are already lessons learnt from the soil fertility gradient research in TSBF-CIAT with results that have generic attributes that can aid in formulating cropping generic decision rules that can be applied to new areas with minimal validation as inputs to the ISFM approach. Further on this, work by TSBF-CIAT at the farm and the landscape levels have already been initiated in new project proposals one to SSA Challenge Program for the lake Kivu pilot learning site including Rwanda, Uganda and East DRC. Plans to scale up results of this pilot learning site to the other two sites (i.e. in West Africa and Southern Africa) are being discussed with FARA. The other project is with WFCP in which collective action on watersheds and larger landscapes are emphasized. Collaboration with PE-3, BP-2 and ERI will strengthen the understanding of landscape level interactions that will aid in the development of most appropriate impact pathways for land use decisions as well as for quantifying the impact magnitudes. emphasis on improving crop adaptation to soil acidity and other abiotic stresses.Agreed. CIAT intends to maintain a small Latin American soils research capacity supported mostly with regional funding sources while attempting to reinvigorate this line of research with a view to tapping funds to expand this work in the future.  14. CIAT needs to ensure that the administrative support systems allow TSBF to operate as an institute. Likewise, we recommend the inclusion of the CIAT Regional Coordinator for Africa as an ex oficio participant in the annual scientist evaluation and project development process so that he/she is fully informed and can contribute to team development, as well as linkages with other CIAT programs and potential donors. The Regional Coordinator should not have a staff evaluation authority for TSBF scientists.Partly agreed. There has been for some time an established exchange of visit from the administrative staff of CIAT-HQ to improve the financial management of TSBF-CIAT in Nairobi and the TSBF-CIAT administration staff periodically visit CIAT-HQ to familiarize with administrative and financial issues. There is an ongoing daily exchange of financial information through electronic means. Nonetheless, considerable effort remains to be made to further improve these systems. As for information exchange with the Regional Coordinator for Africa, besides ongoing information between the RCA and the Director of TSBF, there is also an annual joint meeting between CIAT Africa and TSBF-CIAT to coordinate implementation of joint projects. There are ongoing joint projects and new projects are being developed to integrate both CIAT and TSBF-CIAT research portfolios. Reporting relations are reviewed annually and will be modified as needed. 15. Decision Support Tools are an important component of crop, soil fertility and nutrient management research and extension. TSBF should ensure that some of its strategic research includes high-quality field studies and data collection that would allow to validate and further improve processbased DST such as crop simulation or more complete agroe-cosystem simulation models. Understanding of prediction uncertainties must be a key component of such research. • FTE = full time equivalent (person-years).• Senior staff time FTE = SS + SRF + VS time allocations to the each project.• Grant funding per senior staff FTE = includes restricted core, special projects and Challenge Programs.• Refereed journal publications per FTE senior staff = all journal articles published from the project (numbers provided by projects).• Senior staff journal publications track record = based on all refereed journal papers published by each SS, SRF or VS during 2002-2005/6(derived from CVs provided; only includes SS, SRF and VS with more than 2 years work in the project, also counting papers they have published from other work outside the projects reviewed here).* PE-1 = numbers are not fully correct because outputs from five SS with voluntary participation in PE-1 are included, whereas those SS have no official resources (inputs) allocated. A pro-forma FTE of 0.3/yr was included for this in the analysis, but this does not reflect the true contributions and still results in inflated estimates of students/FTE/yr and publications/FTE/yr. Senior staff journal publication track record is a better measure of scientific quality and directly comparable with the other projects. ","tokenCount":"10650"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"695059b0655b7f998880efcaf10e1cf4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c08d74ae-fd5c-4236-b5a3-224ae0e50f97/retrieve","id":"1059150777"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d8d5bf2a-2361-4c93-8345-7dcac89741f8","pagecount":"7","content":"The cMonic food-deficit situation in the province resulta in a cycle of poverty leading to hunger, and hunger leading to even greater poverty, which is very difficult to reverse. Because of its remoteness, very few assístance agencies are abre to work in the province.In response lO the food deficit in the region, FOCUS is implementing a relief programo The program has included the distribution of 10,000 tons of food aid to 250,000 people over the last years. Food rations were provided for every household in about half of the province. In sorne dístricta, food was provided in a food-for-work programo FOCUS ís able to carry out ¡ls activíties in Badakshan for several reasons: FOCUS is affiliated with the Aga Khan Development Network, wruch has been active in Tajikistan and Pakistan on the northem and southem borders of Badakshan. During the last three years, good working relationships bave been established with localleaders and wíth international organizations. A participatory model for rehabilitation comprising situation assessment, health, food assistance, village organization, agriculture, physical infrastructure, education, and economic initiatives is being considered.Only 2% of eastern Badakshan is suitable for agriculture, and its soil quality is ofien poor and deficient in nutrients. A large portion of the agriculture is based on irrígation from rivers and torrents. Extensive systems of irrígation ehanne1s have been developed by the communities over centuries, bringing water long distances along tbe mountainsides. Tbere is also a considerable amount of farrning tbat depends on moisture from rainfall and melting snow, which ís less productive.Tbe general constraínts on crop and livestock production in tbe area include the followíng:• lack of access to good, pure seed for cereal crops• lack andlor cost of inputs such as fertilizers and plant-protection materials• diseases, pests, and weeds• lack of írrígation water and the state of tbe water system• remoteness of markets and lack of transport facilities• lack of agricultural and livestock services• taxes (generally as a part of their crop yield)• displacement of technical staff and farrners and destruction of institutionsIn all formal and informal agricultural surveys, the farrners' priorities have always been fertilizers and good seed of improved varieties. Most farrners are aware of tbe possibilities of increasing their production through these inputs, especially fertilizers. The soH is generally very shallow and lacks sufficient nutrients to support intensive crop production. Witb shortages of fuel, especially firewood, most of tbe available animal dung is used for cooking and for heating in winter. Tbe population of trees remaining is barely sufficient for watershed purposes and needs to be replenished. Lack of sufficíent fodder for feeding livestock during the winter also limits tbe amount of animal dung available for the household. Small amounts of fertílizers are sometimes available in the markets but are usually of poor quality and very costly. Mos! farrners lack resources at planting time and have to pay hígh ínterest to borrow money for purchasing small amounts offertilízer against the expected harvest.Tbe attitude of farrners towards weeds ís ratber tolerant, as many are abo seen as serving a useful purpose. At a certain level, weeds in tbe wheat are considered to improve the quality oftbe straw as fodder. Tbe presence of sorne wild rye is saíd to improve the quality ofbread. Wild mustard is harvested separately by tbe women and processed for lamp and cooking oí!. Sorne families consume plants of edible specíes weeded in tbe fields, such as Chenopodium spp.Wheat is a staple food in all the cornmunities of eastern Badakshan and is grown on botb irrígated and rain-fed land. Altitude and snow cover tends to dictate whether wheat is sown as a spring or an autumn crop. Wakhan, Ishkashem, Zebak, and southern Sheghnan grow mostly spring wheat, whíle nortbern Sheghnan and Darwaz grow winter wheat.Overall, wheat yields per hectare vary from 0.5 to 2.0 tons under itrigation and from 0.3 to 0.7 tons in rain-fed areas. Tbe yields vary enormously with location, altitude, soil quality, the availabilíty of farrnyard manure (chemical fertilizer in tbe area is a rarity), susceptibílity to fungal diseases such as rust and smut, pests such as locusts, weeds, and the gene tic origin and purity of the seed planted.Little or no íntroduction of ímproved varieties had taken place in eastern Badakshan prior lO 1979. AfghanAid has recently estahlished demonstration plots of ímproved varietíes from the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) as part of an integrated development program in Badakhshan, including the districts ofIshkashem and Zebak Almost all farmers grow a number landraces tbat are onocal origin and of very mixed appearance, ofien heavily infested wilh weeds, particularly wild wheat, wild oats and mU5tard. Sorkhak, an indigenous red-grained wheat, 15 generally planted in Ihe autumn, while safidak, an amber/light-grained wheat, is planted in the spring. A few farmers have par! oftheír fields under seed from other districts, inc1uding from Pakistan and Tajikistan. Sorne ofthis is of ímproved origín but by now very mixed wilh other varieties and weeds.In Darwaz, different types of wheat are cultivated wilh different lengths of straw, sorne wilh awns and sorne awnless. Winter-wheat types c1early owe their origin to Russian varieties and to the facultative varieties introduced elsewhere in the province under various United Nation and aid programs. Local cultivars are almost exclusive1y sown on rain-fed land. .Seed security (farmers' access to adequate, good-quality seed oftbe desired type at Ihe right time) is the first defense for food security (the access by all people at all times to enough food to maintaín an active and healthy life). This is especially true for war-torn Afghanistan in general and for neglected Badakhshan in particular. As recognized at the World Food Surnmit held in Rome (F AO  1996), poverty and impoverishment precondition people to a state of vulnerability-vulnerable to life-cycle hunger, vulnerable to seasonal hunger, and vulnerable to the impact of disaster. Thís also, describes the state of food security today in eastern Badakshan,The loss of access lo seeds and food are ofien interconnected. While seeds are crucial to agricultural recovery, human energy í5 equally important. Seed reHef is being viewed as an integral par! of the emergency package. There are several examples from other parts of tbe world that show that tbe action taken to restore seed security quickly afier disaster is an effective way to help restore food security in an area. During Ihe 1991192 drought in Soutbern Africa, an emergency seed-production project,jointly coordinated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and tbe International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), was highly successful compared to tbe projects in which seed was imported. Their success was due to the distribution of better-quality adapted varieties. The Seeds ofHope initiative helped rebuild domestic food security through the rehabilítation of seed security following tbe civil war in Rwanda in 1994. Adapted varieties and landraces were assembled and multiplied in neighboring countries and reintroduced into Rwanda.The seed program aims to ensure avaílability of the right kínd of seed in tbe right place. Adapted varieties are obtaíned from similar agroclimatic conditions in Tajikistan and delivered across the Panj River lo severa! distribution points. Transportation within Afghanistan i5 mostly by volunteers, by donkeys made avaílable by the cornmunities for tbis purpose. This helps to keep the costs of introducing tbe varieties to a minimum. The amounts being distributed have been mínimized to enable the local seed-production and -distribution systems to continue functioning smoothly.Early in spring ofthis year, seeds ofhígh-yielding varieties ofwheat, maíze, otber cereals, potatoes, and vegetables appropriate to the agroecological conditions of the area were introduced through on-farm, fanner-managed observation sites in the target districts. Al! the villages in the Wakhan, Ishkashem, Zebak, Sheghnan, and Darwaz districts are participating. The farmers are selected through village committees, traditionally known as shuras. Attempts are being made to involve as many differen! farmers as possible by restricting the distribution of only one kind of crop commodity to each participating farmer.lnitially, for each kind of erop, varieties that are widely adapted and available in sufficien! quantity are being introduced. Ihis will be followed by varieties and landraces witb superior traits 5uch as higher yield, better adaptability, improved disease and pest resistance and stress tolerance, and more consumer acceptability. In future, dífferent kinds oflentils, forages, fiuit and timber trees, and herbs of medicinal value will also be íntroduced ínto the farmíng systems. It ís expected tbat the introductíon of useful germplasm will be repeated every growíng season whenever new potentíal rnaterials are available and tbe farmers-through their village eommíttees-are in favor of it.Rather tban replacing existing germplasrn, the goal is to increase the range of germplasrn available on-fann. This will contribute to enhancing on-farm genetie diversity arnong and within different erop specles.The ernphasis is on fanner and communíty ernpowerment. Participating fanners and theír neíghbors wiUjudge the usefulness oftbe rnaterials being introduced and tbeir subsequent rnultiplication and distribution. Fanner-to-farrner seed exchange forms tbe basis oftbe local seed system in the region. It is a part ofthe local culture tbat anyone with seed of irnproved varieties is obliged to share the seed produced at the first harvest with his extended family. Such acts of cooperatíon reinforce family ties witb distant blood relatives. In sorne cases, extra amounts of seed will be distributed on credit if tbe dernand for tbe varieties introduced cannot be met by tbe local seed systems. Credít systerns in wruch fanners pay for tbe inputs al harvest are also being used for supplying fertilizers.These activities will be gradually transformed into participatory breeding, allowing tbe cornrnunity to gain full control over the type and ｾ ｭ ｯ ｵ ｮ ｴ ＠ of varieties being produced and exchanged witb tbeir neighbors. Participation in tbe management and decision rnaking for seed security by the farming community will contribute to reestablishing local food security and peace in the area.Maize is one ofthe tbree most important cereal crops in the world. Global annual maize production nowexceeds 550 million toos. Oflhat, approximately 100 millíon tons are used directly for human food (CIMMYT 1999). Maíze is growíng in importance in Asia, primarily as a feed for animals. Nevertheless, there are significant areas of Ihe regíon where maíze is still the dominan! cereal in the human dieto In Nepal, for example, ofthe 1.4 míllíon toos produced annually, it is estimated thal 86% ís used directly as human food (CIMMYT 1999). The development ofhybrids ís one ofthe maín reasons for the phenomenal advances in maize productivity tbroughout !he world in Ihe past few decades. In mosl developed countries, the area planted lo hybrids approaches 100% of allland planted to como Growth in the use ofhybrids has been impressive in areas ofthe developing world as well. For example, 60% and 46% ofthe area planted to maíze is sown lo hybrids in Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. 80th within Asia and globally, there is a significant negative correlation between the percent utilization of maize for human food and the use of improved varieties (CIMMYT 1999). Ihis can partial1y be explained by the fact that subsistence farmers have limited cash and are reluctant to pay the premium price associated with improved seeds, particularly hybrid seed, which must be purchased each year. Single-cross hybrid seed in Asia costs on average US $3.12 per kg, in comparison to US $0.69 per kg for open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) (Gerpacio 1999). The development ofOPV s for areas of the world where maize is grown as a subsistenee erop makes good sense. Compared to hybrids, OPV seed is more readily produced, it can be made available to farmers at a lower cost, and ít can be generated by farmers themselves. Nevertheless, in large areas of the world where maize is a subsistence food erop, a large percentage ofthe area is no! planted to improved varieties (OPVs or hybrids) even though modern varieties with excellent adaptation are available from both the public and private sectors. The poor adoption of improved maize varieties can be attributed to many factors, primary among whieh may be the lack ofviable seed enterprises.Other factors, such as the varieties' lacking the eharacteristics that are important to farmers, also constrain adoption. Farmers in Nepal for example, prefer the-tr own varieties because they are ear-Iier, have better husk cover and culinary characteristies than improved OPVs. In order to improve adoption of modem varietíes, there is a need for greater farmer input ¡nto the development of genotypes that take these preferences into account. Thls paper discusses issues relative to developing and providing improved maize genotypes to farmers and describes a get111plasm-improvement scheme adopted by the National Maíze Research Program in Nepal to ensure that the products they develop are better targeted to the requirements of farmers.Maize is cross-pollinated under normal cireumstances. Therefore, a crop or plot of a desrred genotype must be earefully managed if the seed it produces is to be genetieally pureo Furthermore, in relatíon to participatory approaches lo plant breedíng it means that seed of genotypes !hat are tested or demonstrated in farmers' fields in a typical small plot are likely to be contaminated or genetically altered through the inflow of foreign pollen. Saved seed will, therefore, not produce a phenotype idcntícal to tbat observed the previous season. In a varietal-improvement program, be it through informal farmer selection or through a forrnally organized plant-breeding program, success is determined by the abílity of the breeder to find desirable charaeteristics and fix them in the population so that they can be expressed in subsequent generations. For traits that do not exist or that have little expression in an otherwÍse desirable populatíon, eonventional breedíng programs have a substantial competitive advantage over farmer-Ied approaches. In order to find favorable alleles for stress toleranee, for example, many thousands oflines and populatíons might need to be sereened in order to identif'y a few genotypes with the desired characteristics. Similarly, for alleles tbat are found in a very low frequency in a population, breeding techniques that inc\\ude selfing and extensive testing with reeombination of best lines can be used to increase their expression relatívely quickIy.Developing OPVs through conventional methods requires both time and land resourees. As an example, the following steps are required to develop a superior experimental variety using full-sibs developed from an improved population (which itself may have been improved through many cycles of selectíon). First, 250 full-sib progenies are generated by hand-pollinatíon. Ihese are tested in up to six locations, including sites where a stress of interest is presento Next, eight to 10","tokenCount":"2391"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e810cf528126f873853a7c2b940f044e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/260d28e5-dcdf-494e-b8ac-ced1bf5b0b2f/retrieve","id":"909429838"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95149e1c-ae4e-4e8d-8bdd-f8521ba72dd2","pagecount":"1","content":"The African Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) comprise three research for-development projects for West Africa, East and Southern Africa, and the Ethiopian highland supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future Initiative. Africa RISING in East and Southern Africa is being implemented in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.Tanzania and Malawi and soon, Zambia Tanzania Project sites:The project is being implemented in Babati and Kiteto districts in Manyara region of northern Tanzania and Kongwa district in Dodoma region, central Tanzania (Figure 1). The action sites were selected to acknowledge agroecological differences, allow appropriate targeting of technologies and strategies, and complement the development efforts of another USAID-supported program, the Tanzania Staples Value Chain (NAFAKA) project.The key constraints to agricultural productivity identified in these areas include poor soil fertility, limited access to improved seeds, climate variability, pest and disease infestations, low mechanization, weak linkages between research/extension and farmers, insufficient knowledge about healthy human nutrition, inadequate agroprocessing, and poor markets. For livestock, the challenges include in availability of improved breeds and better pasture and fodder species, overstocking, pests and diseases, conflicts between livestock keepers and farmers, and wildlife -livestock conflict among others. Africa RISING will, through a participatory approach, prioritize the challenges to address over time, allowing the sequencing and targeting of technologies to continually enhance farm-level outcomes.Through participatory action research, the project is identifying and pretesting the best management practices for integrating crops, livestock and land management, and linking farming and marketing practices to nutrition and health. These will then be widely disseminated by development partners for scaling up and wider adoption in the project area and beyond to significantly impact on food security, nutrition, farm incomes, and environmental sustainability. These practices comprise of single technologies or varied combinations of: Africa RISING aims to enhance farmers' knowledge and support intensification to increase productivity in maizelegume farming systems, beginning with integrating technologies that address soil and land degradation.The research in Malawi is coordinated by Michigan State University and builds on its past successes of promoting legume-diversified farming systems in northern Malawi through participatory action research using 'mother-baby' adaptive trials as platforms for knowledge dissemination.Mother trials: The researchers set up 'mother trials' on lead farmers' fields that demonstrate an array of existing technologies and technology combinations for sustainable intensification. These are:• Intensified grain legume production as sole crops in rotation with cereals or using various maize/legume intercropping options, and a unique intercropping of two grain legumes based on their complementary growth characteristics and plant architecture. This 'doubleup legume' technology hinges on pigeon pea's unique growth habit compared to the potential under-storey companion crops (groundnut, soybean, cowpea, beans), which ensures enhanced soil fertility benefits and grain for better nutrition. • Soil fertility and soil health management through application of organic, inorganic, or a mixture of both fertilizers, use of cover crops and short fallow rotation with green manure. Adaptive baby trials: Members of the farmers' groups involved in setting up the mother trials select their preferred Africa RISING Research Action Sites (sections) in Malawi options and set up 'baby trials' for experimentation on their farms. Livestock integration and intensification: While the livestock density in Malawi is very low, the project is exploring options for enhancing productivity across the interventions sites among the farmers who own livestock.Katete, Chipata, Lundazi districts in Eastern Province Challenges: low soil fertility conditions, frequent droughts, farmers can only make limited use of high yielding varieties and inorganic fertilizer, lack of capital and assets to invest in improved production methods.  \"Through this project we want to increase the productivity of smallholder farms while paying careful attention to avoid any negative environmental impacts and also address some of the challenges we are currently facing due to climate change. We want to use science to bring about a Green Revolution but avoid the negative consequences that are often overlooked.\"USAID Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor Africa","tokenCount":"654"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"48c64b19e56b842302a092b8989f8e57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/274d8ed0-358e-49e9-89da-327c1b29ede9/retrieve","id":"-1901966257"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c47ad130-1a60-4473-bd94-e8134f56e6b1","pagecount":"22","content":"Annex 2 v Characterisation of crop-livestock production system and potential for improving productivity through improved feeding in Rubavu district, western province, RwandaThe study was conducted in Kanyundo cell in Rubavu District in Western Province of Rwanda. The main objective was to characterize the crop-livestock farming system using the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST). Data was collected using focus group discussions (FGD) and individual interviews with farmers. The FGD was carried out with 16 participants (9 female). Farmers in Rubavu District practice zero grazing; they use a cut-and-carry system with forage from their farms or roadsides. The key issue is inadequate capital to construct cowsheds where animals could be tethered during feeding. Feed scarcity is a major issue and the quality of feedstuff (forage/pasture) is generally low. This is due to lack of knowledge on cultivating suitable forage and sub-optimal management, conservation and use of locally available feed resources (crop residues and all other resources). The problems mentioned by farmers may be used as entry points for further interventions in Kanyundo cell of Mudende sector.Livestock is an important part of the farming systems and other socioeconomic activities in Rwanda. Extensive, semiintensive and intensive systems of livestock farming are all practiced within the country. However, the availability of sufficient and quality feed resources in Rubavu District varies greatly throughout the year, depending on climatic conditions, particularly rainfall and the length of growing season. In addition, the limited farming land, limited use of byproducts in animal feeding, insufficient and non-controlled commercial feeds lower the level of animal production (MINAGRI 2012).The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was used to characterise livestock production systems and locally available feed resources in Rubavu District. Kanyundo cell, Mudende sector of Rubavu District of Rwanda was selected in order to identify farming system constraints for livestock production, assess feed resources and propose suitable interventions in the district. The survey was conducted in cooperation with farmers affiliated with the Rwanda Dairy Development Project (RDDP) in collaboration with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).The survey was conducted in Kanyundo cell, Rubavu District in Western Province of Rwanda located at an altitude of 1,780 meters above sea level. The total population of Rubavu District is 403,662 (about 208,673 are female) (Republic of Rwanda 2017). Rubavu District is densely populated with 1,039 inhabitant/km 2 and Kanyundo cell has 835 households. Data was collected using focus group discussion and individual interviews with selected farmers. Selection criteria included involvement in the crop-livestock farming system, landholding capacity, milk production zone, cattle population density and availability of feed resources. The focus group discussion was done with 16 representative participants (9 female) while individual interviews were administered to nine farmers representing each of the three farm sizes (small, medium and large) in Kanyundo, Muyange, Rubavu, Rebero, Nyamirama and Mugongo villages. Small farms were defined as farmlands with less than 0.5 ha of land, medium farms are between 0.5 and 1.0 ha and large farms had above 1 ha of land. The geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude and elevation) of the site were recorded using GPS. The assessment was conducted in February 2019. The information from the focus group was summarized and data from individual interviews were processed through the FEAST software (https://www.ilri.org/ feast).Figure 2: Group discussion with selected farmersThe majority (45%) of farmers in Kanyundo cell own medium landholdings used mainly for crop cultivation (Table 1). About 30% of the households had less than 0.5 ha land. The average number of household members is six. Cropping seasonsGenerally, in Rwanda, there are three agricultural seasons that correspond to the rainfall patterns. The first season is from September-December, the second season is from January-June and the third season is from July to mid-September (Table 2). The dominant food and fodder crops grown in Kanyundo cell are potato, maize, common beans and cowpea. The average area of land used for each of these crops is shown in Figure 3. Farmers in this area have small areas of land to cultivate and potatoes are the main crop grown in the area while maize is mainly grown in rotation with potato as a dual-purpose crop to provide green maize for food and green stover for livestock. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) is the only fodder crop grown in the area. A relatively large area is allocated to Napier by large farmers whereas medium and small landholding farmers grow it on limited border areas surrounding crop lands. Apart from Napier grass, some farmers revealed that they grow maize and harvest it at \"milk\" stage for animal feeding. Most farmers rely on collected fodder, Napier grass and crop residues for animal feed.In Kanyundo, farmers keep different types of livestock such as cattle and goats and the majority of farmers raise improved cattle (crossbreed of Friesian) as shown in Figure 4. The main reason for raising cattle is milk, manure and income generation.Animals are raised in different systems that involve stall feeding in poor cowsheds and open grazing. Farmers use maize stover, bean haulms and vegetable waste as livestock feed when they are available mainly after harvest. Farmers do not offer supplement feeds to their animals and storing of crop residues for feeding during time of scarcity is not common in the area.  The average daily labour cost ranged from FRw1,000-1,200 1 for most households. The activities are shared based on gender, whereby ploughing, manure transportation, cowshed cleaning, seeding, harvesting water, weeding and sowing are dedicated to women. The activities mainly done by men are milking, manure application, drug application, bush clearing and cut and carry of forage.The income of farmers is derived from various sources (Figure 5). Food crops account for 37% followed by off-farm business (27%), labour (23%) and livestock (13%). Diseases affecting animals are mastitis, anaplasmosis and East Coast fever (ECF). The services provided by different veterinary service providers are drugs, vaccines and artificial insemination (AI). These services are provided by government animal resource officers and private veterinarians. The amounts paid for these services range from FRw5,000-10,000 for treatment while AI service costs FRw3000. Vaccines cost FRw300. Most households use artificial insemination (62.5%) while bull service is also used (37.5%).The top two feed resources that contribute to dry matter (DM), metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) content of dairy cattle feeding in Rubavu District are cultivated and collected fodder. In terms of DM, cultivated fodder contributes about 54% while collected fodder accounts for 40% (Figure 6A). The primary ME source for dairy cattle in the district is also cultivated fodder, contributing to 54% of the ME intake in smallholder dairy cattle (Figure 6B). About 62% of crude protein is supplied by cultivated fodder (Figure 6C). Farmers purchase small amounts of feeds throughout the year but the contribution is generally insignificant. Grazing does not contribute as most smallholder dairy farmers adopt a zero grazing system. The dominant purchased feed types by most households are maize thinnings, green maize stover and dry residues. The average amount purchased for green maize is estimated to be around 67 kg per year per household while the corresponding figure for crop residues is around 9 kg (Figure 7).Cropping 37%Labour 23%Figure 7: Average quantities of feed purchased per household over the yearFigure 8 shows rainfall pattern and the corresponding availability of different feed resources for smallholder dairy farmers in Rubavu District. According to the information collected from farmers, the highest rainfall occurs in March and November. During that period, farmers have full access to green forage and the chance to increase milk production. The months with the lowest rainfall are July and August, during which farmers face critical feed shortage in both quantity and quality to feed their animals. Green forage is the dominant feed source throughout the year. Crop residues, which include dried maize stover, green maize biomass and potato haulms are also important feed sources used by smallholder dairy farmers for a period of seven months. Due to the extremely small pieces of land used for cultivation, the primary source of feed for livestock is fodder collected from field margins, weeds and thinnings. Rainwater harvesting techniques are applied in the area to increase water availability from June-August.   The main challenges faced by farmers in Kanyundo cell are lack of standard cowshed, quality feed, water shortage, low quality of improved breeds and low milk price (Table 3). The first set of challenges mentioned by farmers was lack of cowshed (due to the expansion of cultivation land that limited land for building cowshed), conflict between farmers, low capital and the tradition of farmers in keeping their animals inside the living quarters. The second set of main problems mentioned included shortage of feed due to lack of skills and knowledge in conservation of forage and crop residues to be used in dry season and lack of enough land for cultivation of both food crops and forages. Water shortage observed during dry seasons was put in third place. Most farmers lack knowledge of rainwater harvesting technologies, and river and tap water sources are limited in the surveyed area. Lack of improved dairy cattle genetic supply is also among the challenges smallholder farmers face in Rubavu District.  In Rubavu District, Kanyundo cell, land used for cultivated fodder is reducing mainly due to increasing human population and encroachment on land reserved for growing food crops for livestock. This leads to a decrease in animal production. The potential intervention to curb this problem is intercropping grasses with other crops. Most farmers rely on collected fodder to feed their livestock and this needs to be improved by integrating suitable perennial cultivated forages into the cropping system, particularly in niches that are not used for cropping, such as ditches and terraces. Farmers can also overcome feed problems by plating annual forage crops such as oats, maize, sorghum and vetch.The farmers in the surveyed area do not use concentrates, which leads to a reduction in milk production and overall performance. Thus, there is need to support and motivate farmers to enable them to buy concentrates. However, low milk prices are a disincentive for farmers to invest in purchasing supplementary feed. Table 4 shows the potential of different interventions in relation to their capacity to solve specific feed challenges and relevance to smallholder dairy commodity. The characterisation of the crop-livestock farming system was conducted in Kanyundo cell, Rubavu District located in Western Province of Rwanda, where the farming systems is dominated by crop and livestock mixed subsistence farming.Based on the survey findings, households rely on cropping as their major source of income. Most households use collected fodder for feeding their animals and do not frequently purchase concentrate feeds. The milk production is constrained by:• inefficient production related to poor housing, breeds, diseases and water scarcity• weak genetic improvement extension system with low conception rate in the areaTo mitigate these constraints, different interventions are recommended:• Improve cut and carry systems (cut from cultivated fodder field under rainfed) and intercropping legumes with crops• Support farmers to establish associations that enable them to buy processed feed in bulk.• Promote cultivated forages which can adopt to the environment in western zones• Increase the use of crop residues, e.g. maize drying on the fields to be used and conserved for animal feed mainly in the dry season• Improve the efficiency of AI service by supporting private investment in AI• Support local milk processing and install milk feeding programs at school and village levels and advocate to increase milk price. ","tokenCount":"1891"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b619a7c6311b8a9c449b9ba3ecbc9a24","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b713999-6b5b-4033-b825-ced4024eda39/retrieve","id":"-925520701"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b78c7a19-189c-46e9-adf7-1d156e3c13c9","pagecount":"37","content":"To the Board of Governors of International Water Management InstituteWe have audited the accompanying statement of the financial position of International Water Management Institute as at 3 1'' December 2005 and the related statement of activities, changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, together with the accounting policies and notes as set out on pages 3 to 24.The institute's management is responsible for preparing and presenting these financial statements in accordance with the recommendations made in the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research(CGIAR) financial Guidelines series No.2 CGIAR Accounting policies and Reporting practices manual (revised March 2004).0ur responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements, based on our audit.We conducted our audit in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing, which require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about weather the said financial statements are free . from material misstatement. An audit includes examining, 'on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the said financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by the institute's management, evaluating the overall presentation of thehancial statements, and determining whether the said financial statements are prepared' and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Guidelines. We have obtained all the information and explanations which to the best of our knowledge and belief were necessary for the purposes of our audit. We therefore believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.In our opinion, so far as appears from our examination, the institute maintained proper books of account for the year ended 31\" December>2005, and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us, the said financial position and related statements of activities, changes in net assets, cash flows and the accounting policies and notes thereto, which are in agreement with said books and have been prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR financial Guidelines Series No 2-CGIAR Accounting polices and Reporting Practices manual(revised March 2004) and give a true and fair view of the Institute's state of affairs as at 31\" December 2005 and of its activities and cash flows for the year then ended. Supplementary information on pages 25 to 35 are not a required part of the financial statements and have not been subjected to audit procedures applied in the audihof the financial statements.  The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below:1The financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Financial Guidelines Series, N0.2: Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (March 2004).The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention.Transactions denominated in currencies other than reporting currency, US Dollars, are translated to US Dollars at the rates of exchange prevailing at the beginning of the month in which the transaction took place.Monetary assets and liabilities expressed in currencies other than US Dollars are translated to US Dollars at the rates of exchange prevailing at the balance sheet date. Non-monetary items denominated in foreign currency which are carried at cost is reported using the exchange rate at the date of the transaction.All exchange gains or losses resulting from such translations are treated as other revenues and support or other losses and expenses in the statement of activities.3 Revenue Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits during the period arising in the course of the ordinary activities of a Center where those inflow result in increase in net assets.Grants to the Centre may be categorized as either unrestricted or restricted.Unrestricted Grants Unrestricted grants refer to the revenue arising from the unconditional transfer of cash and other resources to the Center. Unrestricted grants are recognized as income for the year in which they have been pledged.Restricted Grants Restricted grants refer to the revenue arising from a transfer of resources to the Center in return for past or future compliance relating to the activities of the Center.Accounting Policies (contd..)Restricted grants as well as conditional promises to give grants are recognized as revenue only upon or until the conditions relating to its operating activities have been substantially met or the donor has explicitly waived the conditions.Revenue includes only the gross inflow received and receivable by the Center on its own account.Gross inflow of economic benefits include amounts collected on behalf of the principal and which do not result in an increase in the net assets are treated as \"Agency Transactions\" and are not recognized as revenue. Revenue is treated as the amount of any commission or management fee received.When the outcome of a transaction involving the rendering of services can be measured reliably, revenue associated with the transaction is recognized by reference to the stage of completion of the transaction at the balance sheet date.When the outcome of the transaction cannot be estimated reliably, revenue should be recognized only to the extent of the expenses recognized that are recoverable.Cash grants are recorded at the face value of the cash received or the US dollar equivalent.Grants in kind are recorded at the fair value of the assets (or services) received or promised, or fair value of the liabilities satisfied.Other Revenues Other revenues and gains are recognized in the period in which they are earned.Expenses Expenses are recognized when a decrease in future economic benefits related to a decrease in an asset or an increase in a liability has arisen that can be measured reliably.The Centre is exempt from income tax under the provisions of Section 8 of the Inland Revenue Act No28 of 1979 of Sri Lanka. The Centre is also exempt from USA (United States of America) tax under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States of America, as an organization described in Section 501 (c)(3).Accounting Policies (Contd..) 7 Inventories Inventories are valued at the lower of acquisition cost or net realizable value and charged when used. The acquisition cost includes the purchase price plus cost of freight, insurance and handling charges. Cost is determined by the First In First Out (FIFO) method.Provision is made where necessary for obsolete, slow moving and defective items.All individual tangible assets of US$ 500 or over in cost with an estimated useful life beyond one year are treated as fixed assets and designated property, plant and equipment. These are stated at cost. The cost of an item comprises its purchase price and all other incidental cost in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use.Property, plant and equipment acquired through the use of grants restricted for a certain project should be recorded as assets. Such assets are depreciated at a rate of 100% and the depreciation expense charged directly to the appropriate restricted project.Depreciation is recognized for all property, plant and equipment owned by the Center based on the full acquisition cost of the property, plant and equipment, net of salvage value.The straight-line method of depreciation is applied consistently from period to period unless altered circumstances justifL a change.The principal annual rates used for this purpose are:Heavy-duty equipment When property, plant and equipment are sold, the cost as well as the accumulated depreciation is removed from the books; any gain or loss from the sale is charged as other gains or losses.Depreciation of required assets is charged in the month the asset was placed in operation and is continued until the asset is fully depreciated or its use was discontinued.Accounting Policies (contd..) 8Subsequent expenditure relating to property, plant and equipment that has already been recognized are only added to the carrying amount of the asset when the expenditure improves the condition of the net asset beyond its original assessed standards of performance. All other subsequent expenditure are recognized as an expense in the period in which it is incurred.The initial lease agreement with IWMI and Government of Sri Lanka is for 25 years commencing from 1990. IWMI has the right to negotiate for extension of the lease period under the lease agreement upon the expiry of the current lease.Leasehold property and improvements thereon are amortised over the lease period or if shorter, the useful economic life of the property or improvement concerned.Receivables are stated at the amounts they are estimated to realize.When an Accounts Receivable -Donor, was deemed doubtful of collection, a provision is made based on past experiences and on continuing review of receivable aging reports and other relevant factors.Terminal Benefits (a) Severance and Gratuity.In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members are entitled to terminal benefits referred to as \"Severance\" on the completion of 3 full years of continuous service. Provision is made for \"Severance\" payable for all international staff members..Provision is made in the financial statements for gratuity benefits payable under the Centre's personnel policies to the nationally recruited staff. Nationally recruited staff qualify for gratuity on the completion of 5 years continuous service with the Centre. It is the policy of the Centre to recognize the liability for such benefits payable from the date of employment.Accounting Policies (contd..) (b) Repatriation In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members are entitled to repatriation benefits on the completion of contract period. Provision is made for repatriation payable for all international staff members based on the estimated cost of air fare, relocation charges, and fieight charges. purposes, such as a reserve for the future acquisition of property and equipment. Post balance sheet events No events have occurred since the balance sheet date which would require adjustment to or disclosure in the financial statements.Comparative figures Certain comparative figures have been reclassified to conform to the presentation of the current year. ","tokenCount":"1616"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8bec953c430471112ddea520954ff7f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/afcc7bbb-f43f-4acf-891c-44d4a0f3b458/retrieve","id":"188154066"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"220fe5c1-f914-4a84-a9d7-2bc1a95685f6","pagecount":"280","content":"This document, prepared under the overall leadership of Mark Rosegrant with Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Maximo Torero, has benefited enormously from a range of written and oral comments at different stages of the writing process. The feedback on the initial concept note from anonymous external reviewers from other CGIAR centers and academic institutions was critical to the restructuring of the document and the writers' efforts to clarify their research programs. The comments from the e-consultation stimulated new thoughts, many of which are incorporated in the proposal. In addition, the diverse participants at the Addis Ababa meeting (researchers, donors, NGO representatives, government officials, and businesspeople) provided excellent feedback in different sessions. Several people also provided additional written comments on the full document that were particularly helpful: David Spielman and Ewa Sobczynska of IFPRI and Victor Manyong and colleagues at IITA. Pascale Sabbagh was instrumental in drafting the January, May, and October revisions of the document, and Susan Buzzelli contributed ideas and editing on key sections.The September document was compiled and edited by Deborah Rubin and Cristina Manfre (Cultural Practice LLC), the January submission was edited by Mary Jane Banks, the May submission benefited from the input of Rajul Pandya-Lorch and was edited by Heidi Fritschel, and the October submission was edited by Steve Williams and Heidi Fritschel.Last but not least, special appreciation is due to Nancy White, Owner of Full Circle Associates (http://www.fullcirc.com/about/) and her global support team-Simone Staiger, Stephan Dorn, David Shepard, and Alex White-who offered technical support to e-consultation participants in the discussion and solved technological glitches. Nancy's facilitation of the e-consultation and in Addis Ababa not only depicted the discussions that occurred colorfully and creatively, but also showed how the visual representation of ideas can support clearer thinking.Table 2.1-How CRP2 subthemes contribute to the system-level outcomes of the CGIAR ..      The Comparative Advantage of CRP2 CRP2 will for the first time bring together analysis of policies and institutions related to food security, poverty, and sustainable agriculture from across the CGIAR. It will combine research expertise in both the social and the biophysical sciences at key CGIAR centers to find ways to enhance agricultural productivity while reducing rural poverty and improving outcomes for the environment.The CGIAR and its partners are well placed to provide the research laid out in CRP2. Although many institutions work on issues related to policies, institutions, and markets in developing countries, the CGIAR has a comparative advantage based on its specific mandate related to the intersection of food security, poverty, and sustainable agriculture; its focus on research-based capacity building in the public, private, civil society, and academic sectors; its institutional and political independence; its scale (large enough to generate an intellectual critical mass but nimble enough to flexibly adjust to emerging needs); its recognized research capabilities; and its large network for data collection in developing countries.Other institutions possess some of these characteristics, but the combination of all of them is unique to the CGIAR.The program will be a platform of excellence, drawing on expertise not only within the CGIAR system, but also in many other research and development organizations and agencies worldwide. The challenges facing the rural poor are large and complex. As one of the largest research programs focused on food policy for the rural poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, CRP2 will be well positioned to identify solutions for improving policies, institutions, and markets in ways that will improve the lives of millions of rural poor people.The CGIAR seeks to achieve four system-level outcomes: (1) reduced rural poverty; (2) increased food security; (3) improved nutrition and health; and (4) more sustainable management of natural resources. CRP2 will contribute to all four of these outcomes, with an emphasis on the first two, through activities related to three overall themes: Effective Policies and Strategic Investments (Theme 1): This theme will improve policy options at the global, regional, and country levels by modeling scenarios of future trends, analyzing how best to allocate public resources for research and investment, and strengthening governments' capacity to design and carry out policies and investments that will increase agricultural productivity and enhance rural incomes. Inclusive Governance and Institutions (Theme 2): This theme will examine the scope for policy, institutional, and governance reforms and contribute to effective and equitable access to rural services, property rights, collective action, and assets by studying existing systems and testing institutional innovations in these areas. Linking Small Producers to Markets (Theme 3): This theme will increase the competitiveness of markets to benefit producers and consumers and offer greater income opportunities by integrating small-scale producers into upgraded value chains.These themes, which were determined after an analysis of development challenges in different types of countries and a priority-setting consultation with key stakeholders, are interlinked (see Figure 1). Policies set the enabling environment for effective agricultural growth; institutions structure the delivery of goods and services and the context for action; and markets organize the relationships among valuechain actors, including smallholder producers. Given these linkages, working across the themes will allow CRP2 researchers to address key challenges and opportunities related to policies, institutions, and markets.The CRP2 team developed current research areas and priorities through a participatory process and an analysis of the major development challenges and strategies for each type of region. Research priorities among activities and regions will be further developed and adjusted at the beginning of the program implementation phase. The team will organize participatory priority-setting workshops, applying a multicriteria scoring approach, and complement these consultations with a modeling approach that uses quantitative ex ante assessment tools. These activities will result in a ranking of priority research areas and regions aimed at optimizing CRP2's contribution to the system-level outcomes.CRP2 will help achieve CGIAR system-level outcomes through three main impact pathways (see Figure 2):1. Informing and enriching research and bolstering the capacity of research communities 2. Influencing policy development and implementation by major development agencies 3. Providing policy recommendations for policymakers and decisionmakers at the global, national, and local levels One foundational element is common to all three impact pathways: the contribution of research (under all three themes) to improved knowledge and analysis of development processes.Impact pathway 1 shows how social science information feeds back into CGIAR and non-CGIAR research. This feedback loop will continually bolster the Consortium's capacity to produce ambitious, cutting-edge research that leads to long-term improvements for the poor. Impact pathway 2 reflects the potential for CGIAR-generated research to influence the international development and implementation community, including global and international agencies, donors, and implementers, such as governments and civil society organizations. Impact pathway 3 shows how social science research can influence government policy. The body of research-based evidence and analysis generated by CRP2 will provide concrete evidence of policy options that policymakers can use to craft reform policies aimed at achieving the desired outcomes.High-quality research outputs alone are not enough to achieve impact; they must also be taken up and used. In addition to the three impact pathways described above, the CRP2 strategy to ensure that outputs are translated into outcomes includes the following components: partnerships, to link research to on-the-ground implementation and widen CRP2's influence;  capacity strengthening, to enhance the capacity of partners who will translate research results into on-the-ground impacts;  communication, to produce different outputs that will ensure research dissemination and influence; and  specific outreach strategies to be developed by each subtheme. All these components aim to build bridges to users, going beyond the basic question of \"what is produced?\" to address the broader issue of \"who is being reached?\". This process starts at the inception of the research, when intended users of the research can help identify the relevant questions and priorities. Some of these users will become partners in the research itself, such as when policymakers or NGOs participate in action research or when CRP research evaluates the impact of particular programs. Application of best practice methods and publication in peerreviewed outlets will help ensure the legitimacy of the findings. Also needed, however, are broader forms of outreach, including policy briefs, web-based dissemination, media outreach, and presentations at in-country and international forums. IFPRI's Country Strategy Support Programs (CSSPs), by helping researchers stay close to the issues and facilitating the delivery of results in the developing world, are a promising vehicle for enhancing the impact of CRP2 at the country and local level.CRP2 will include a monitoring framework to report on program activities, track progress, and take corrective actions when needed. Monitoring will be based on indicators and metrics for all outputs and outcomes. Evaluations will assess the achievement of outcomes and the translation of outcomes into impact. The main outputs, outcomes, and impacts of CRP2 research are described in the performance indicators matrix in Annex 1.Research in the three overall themes will be managed at the subtheme level. Within the broad focus of each subtheme (described in the following sections), the specific development challenges, problems, opportunities, and required strategies vary depending on the characteristics of the different countries and regions. Because developing countries face a great variety of challenges and opportunities, approaches to improving policies, institutions, and markets must be country and context specific.To reflect this heterogeneity, the activities in each research theme and subtheme are specified in more detail based on a country typology. Drawing on the World Development Report 2008(WDR 2008), we have identified three types of countries or major subnational regions-agriculture-based, transforming, and urbanized-based on the main characteristics of countries' agricultural development. Following from this typology, we have determined the key development challenges, approaches, and strategies for each type of country. Based on this assessment, we have specified the key CRP2 research areas at a more detailed level and categorized them by subtheme for each type of country or region. The detailed research areas are shown in Table 3.1.Policies provide the enabling environment in which development actions occur and investment choices play out. This first theme of CRP2 analyzes which policies and investments might be better formulated to improve food security and accelerate agricultural income growth and, of equal relevance, how. It also evaluates key growth, equity, and sustainability tradeoffs associated with alternative development strategies and scenarios that provide the broader context in which policies and investments are formulated.Theme 1 consists of 4 subthemes aimed at addressing the key policy gaps identified above. Subtheme 1.1 (Foresight and Strategic Scenarios) focuses on designing scenarios reflecting emerging challenges, modeling the consequences of these scenarios, and using the outputs of the modeling to inform policy research, thereby improving existing agricultural policy and investment decisions. The Foresight program will work closely with the GCARD process. The three other subthemes center on policy analysis, with a global objective of enabling smallholders, the rural poor, and other vulnerable groups to participate in income-generating and asset-building growth. Research under Subtheme 1.2 (Macroeconomic, Trade, and Investment Policies) is designed to correct underinvestment and policy and market distortions in the agricultural sector relative to other sectors. Subtheme 1.3 (Production and Technology Policies) will strive to facilitate participation of smallholders, female farmers, rural laborers, and vulnerable groups in agricultural productivity growth and sustainable resource use. Subtheme 1.4 (Social Protection Policies) plans to increase poor people's access to safety nets, food assistance, and cash transfers to reduce their vulnerability to risks.For new policy ideas to be translated into changes on the ground, two conditions need to be met: (1) policy ideas must be formulated into policies; and (2) policies must be adequately implemented.Subtheme 2.1 (Policy Processes) will study research-policy linkages and policy implementation processes in order to increase the likelihood that science-and evidence-based policy options will be adopted into progressive reforms.One major obstacle to policy implementation arises from the failure of governments and markets to provide rural services and infrastructure. Subtheme 2.2 (Governance of Rural Services) will address this issue by identifying governance arrangements suitable for providing critical rural services and for supporting effective and equitable farmer organizations, resource user groups, and producer groups.Tenure security and capacity for collective action are prerequisites for reducing poverty and enabling more effective management of common pool resources and environmental services. Moreover, agricultural policy processes often suffer from the lack of voice of smallholder farmers and women, who make up so much of the agricultural labor force in developing countries. How can sound arrangements for property rights and collective action be achieved, and how can small-scale producers be empowered to increase their voice in policy decisions and to gain access to investment and market opportunities? These are the questions that Subtheme 2.3 (Collective Action and Property Rights) will strive to address.Translating increased productivity and incomes into sustainable rural development requires ensuring that poor people are able to accumulate the tangible and intangible assets that will allow them to generate sustainable livelihoods. Such changes often go beyond single policies and require appropriate institutional structures. To address this challenge, Subtheme 2.4 (Institutions to Strengthen the Assets of the Poor) will focus on creating enabling institutions for the poor.Establishing competitive and efficient markets is a central challenge of achieving economic growth. Millions of low-income people participate in agricultural value chains as producers, small-scale traders, processors, retailers, and consumers. Improving the performance of value chains therefore stands to benefit large numbers of people. This theme identifies key constraints and opportunities in value chains; evaluates options for upgrading value chains; and provides tools, strategies, and policy approaches for achieving development change that is pro-poor, sustainable, and gender sensitive. Subtheme 3.1 (Innovations across the Value Chain) will look into how to make commodity markets function better for the poor through value-chain innovations in five key areas: reducing transaction costs, managing risk, building social capital, enabling collective action, and redressing missing markets. Subtheme 3.2 (Impact of Upgrading Value Chains) will develop a comprehensive strategy for assessing the impact of interventions designed to upgrade value chains across different CRPs. It will identify appropriate indicators and methods for monitoring the performance of projects, evaluating their effectiveness, and assessing their impact on the poor and other target groups, including women.For the CGIAR to deliver on its mission-achieving sustainable and positive change for those who need it most-its approaches to agricultural research and development must engage, empower, and invest in women, not only to correct gender inequities, but also to achieve more effective development. CRP2 will ensure that gender issues are not only integrated into each of the research themes, but also that critical gender issues become a focus of R&D in their own right. In CRP2, experiences with gender analysis under individual projects will be collected, compared, and contrasted to uncover broader lessons on gender integration in its research.Poverty and hunger remain enormous problems. Nearly 1 billion people in the world go hungry, and more than 1 billion live on just $1.25 a day; Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for the largest shares of these people. Despite global efforts to overcome these problems, one of the most promising tools for promoting development and reducing poverty-pro-poor, sustainable agricultural growth-has been underexploited. Seventy-five percent of the poor in developing countries live in rural areas, and the majority of them depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Evidence shows that agricultural growth reduces poverty by twice the rate of growth in nonagricultural sectors (World Bank 2007;Diao et al. 2007). Improving agricultural productivity is also critical to achieving most of the targets specified under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Rosegrant et al. 2006). Agriculture is central in the lives of poor people, and any strategy for cutting poverty and hunger must center on rapid agricultural growth.Growth in agriculture, however, has been slowing. During the past two decades, a slowdown in investments in agricultural research and development (R&D) and rural infrastructure has contributed to a decline in crop yield growth in much of the world. Equally important, lack of enabling policy environments, poor governance, weak institutions, and inadequate markets for small producers have held back agricultural growth (World Bank 2007). These developments have gradually tightened global food markets over the past decade. Now, with lower food stocks and reduced excess capacity, the global food system is exposed to greater price volatility and trade instability when exogenous supply shocks occur, as seen in the food price spike of 2007 and 2008 and in the current run-up in prices as of early 2011. The food price spikes (as well as sharply rising energy prices and the financial crisis) have affected all countries in differing ways, but developing countries, and especially poor and vulnerable producers and consumers, have generally fared the worst. Poor people in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America still spend 50-70 percent of their income on food, so price spikes and fluctuations hit them hard. Higher food prices could in principle give farmers an opportunity to raise their incomes, but they often lack the inputs, technologies, markets, and financial and credit services they need to exploit this opportunity. And, in any case, most farmers in developing countries are currently net purchasers of food.Prospects for future food security remain serious. After declining slowly for decades through the mid-2000s, food prices appear likely to keep on climbing. Maize, rice, and wheat prices are projected to rise by 21-61 percent, and beef, pork, and poultry prices by 17-40 percent by 2050 according to IAASTD's reference projections (Rosegrant et al. 2009a). Under conditions of more severe climate change, price increases could be even larger (Nelson et al. 2010). Rising prices will dampen food demand of poor consumers and lead to relatively slow growth in calorie consumption. If current policies and investments continue-that is, under business as usual-the number of malnourished children in the group of developing-countries will decline only slowly, from about 146 million in 2000 to 99 million by 2050, with one-third of malnourished children in Sub-Saharan Africa (Rosegrant et al. 2009a). This poor progress on food security does not come close to meeting the targets set out in the MDGs (Rosegrant et al. 2006).Yet a combination of improvements in agricultural policies, accelerated investments, and market reforms can change this situation markedly. Scenarios of alternative futures suggest that concerted action could lead to real improvement in food security. These scenarios estimate that policy reforms and high agricultural investments-including more and more efficient agricultural research, expanded irrigation, enhanced natural resource management with more efficient water use, investments in rural roads, and improved marketing and communications-could reduce the number of malnourished children in 2050 by 30-40 percent, compared with business-as-usual, depending on assumptions about climate change (Rosegrant et al. 2009a(Rosegrant et al. , 2009b)).In the coming decades, challenges to agricultural growth and food security will be driven by factors on both the demand side and the supply side (see Box 1.1). On the demand side, rapid economic growth and urbanization in much of the developing world is expected to raise demand for meat, maize, and soybeans for livestock feed, and higher-value commodities such as fruits and vegetables. Improved economic growth in Africa will likely strengthen demand for staples, such as rice and wheat. At the same time, growth in cereal and meat consumption will be much slower in developed countries. These trends will lead to an extraordinary increase in the importance of developing countries in global food markets.On the supply side, resource constraints will be a key challenge. Water scarcity due to competition from other sectors, changes in the volume and pattern of rainfall, and declining water tables and quality will play a particularly important role. Farmers who rely on irrigation and who live in waterscarce areas-where gross domestic product (GDP) is rising and population is expanding rapidly-will be most affected. By 2050, key water-scarce agricultural regions in China, India, Central and West Asia, and North Africa will likely need to produce more food with virtually no increase in water for agriculture because of little increase in supply and significant transfers of water from agriculture to other uses and sectors. Land and water resources will also come under pressure, as food production increasingly competes with urban and industrial expansion, biofuel crop production, and demand for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation and carbon sequestration practices. Although some GHG-reducing strategies such as minimum tillage will create win-win synergies with continued crop yield growth, other strategies, including reduced fertilizer use and shifts to carbon farming, may have trade-offs with food production. Emerging energy scarcity also poses new challenges and opportunities for sustainable and equitable agricultural productivity growth. In the longer run, demands for ecosystem conservation and biodiversity will also compete with food for agricultural land and water resources. Because of the decline in the availability of water and land that can be profitably brought under cultivation, expanding cultivated area will make only a limited contribution to future food production growth (Evans 2009), except in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The burden of meeting future cereal demand and achieving Income and population growth  Urbanization  Biofuels and links to energy markets  Climate policy related to emissions, mitigation, and carbon sequestration Supply Side  Science and technology policy  Investment in agricultural research and complementary public services  Macroeconomic, trade, and sectoral policies, farming systems management, and governance reform  Value chains and markets  Climate variability and change  Water and land scarcity and quality, rising energy prices  Nonmarket ecosystem services, such as biodiversity levels and its feedbacks sustainable agricultural productivity growth thus rests on crop yield growth, which will need to provide 90 percent or more of future growth (Rosegrant et al. 2009a).Two separate but related strategies are required to achieve sustainable crop yield growth that reduces poverty and improves food security. The first is the development of new agricultural technologies. As noted in the CGIAR's Strategy and Results Framework (SRF), \"If poverty and hunger are to be eradicated, substantial investments must be made in agricultural research and innovation as well as in agricultural development\" (CGIAR 2011). Because demand for new technologies will always exceed available resources, it will be important to carefully assess and prioritize appropriate agricultural and rural investments.But investments in agricultural R&D alone are not enough. Improved technologies will not lead to the necessary yield growth without appropriate policies, extension, and other services to disseminate the technologies; property rights and collective action institutions to enable smallholders to adopt technologies; and well-functioning markets to provide farmers with inputs and incentives for increased production. Thus, the second strategy centers on carefully crafted policies, institutions, and markets that ensure that these technologies are adopted and benefit the poor. Indeed, sound policies, institutions, and markets go beyond technologies to contribute to the food security and incomes of the rural poor in a whole range of ways. This is the focus of CRP2, \"Policies, Institutions, and Markets to Strengthen Food Security and Incomes for the Rural Poor.\"Current policies, institutions, and markets suffer from some important gaps and failures, including the following: Neglect of emerging challenges: Development policies often fail to anticipate and address the emerging challenges of rising energy prices, climate change, natural resource scarcity, and agrobiodiversity loss. Neglect of smallholders: Policies that support agricultural productivity and marketing tend to favor large-scale farmers while failing to address the needs of smallholders, women farmers, and other vulnerable groups, and they often do not provide adequate risk protection for the rural poor. Few policies are in place to support producers' organizations, resource users groups, producers groups, and other actors who are essential for building effective smallholder-oriented value chains. Narrow focus on agriculture: Agricultural policies tend to overlook important macroeconomic conditions and environmental implications of policy implementation, with large costs to agricultural and economic development. Underinvestment and market distortion: Market and governance failures result in underinvestment and policy and market distortions in the agricultural sector, especially with regard to R&D and the pricing of inputs and natural resources. Weak institutions and infrastructure: Current policies are often ineffectively implemented because of weak institutions and are not sufficiently supported by infrastructure and agricultural service provision owing to market and government failures.Solving these problems will be critical to fostering the positive change in policies, governance arrangements, and market systems that will allow agriculture to fully contribute to poverty reduction and development.It is precisely here that CRP2 can make a critical contribution. CRP2 research will clarify how to overcome these gaps and failures so that policies, institutions, and markets can be used most effectively to reduce poverty and improve food security, health, nutrition, and sustainability: Policies: Policies should be designed to sustainably increase land, labor, and water productivity and to promote appropriate, gender-differentiated technology adoption (Quisumbing 2003). They should support the marketing of agricultural inputs and outputs, especially for small producers (Rosegrant et al. 2009b).Targeted social protection policies to increase poor people's access to safety nets, food assistance, and cash transfers (Evans 2009) will also be needed, as an alternative to subsidies (which drain government's budgets) or price controls (which reduce farmers' incentives to produce). Governance and institutions: Inclusive and enabling governance and institutions are needed to foster policy implementation, promote technology adoption, and provide services, as well as ensure that benefits are translated into long-term asset building (Birner, Quisumbing, and Ahmed 2010;World Bank and IFPRI 2010). The CGIAR's Social Science Stripe Review notes: \"Just as agricultural technologies and NRM practices are deeply embedded in the farming systems in which they are found, so are those farming systems equally embedded in agroecological processes and economic, political, and social structures that fundamentally shape their evolution and performance (Conway et al. 2006). In many of the settings of greatest interest to the CGIAR-areas with the highest rates of poverty, malnutrition and resource degradation-these broader structures limit the speed and extent of adoption of improved technologies, practices and policies\" (CGIAR Science Council 2009). Markets: Effective markets benefit both producers and consumers and offer greater income opportunities by integrating small-scale producers into upgraded value chains.Within these major challenges, the specific development challenges, problems, opportunities, and required strategies vary depending on the characteristics of countries and regions. In order to adapt the research areas to the country types, we have utilized the typology developed by the World Development Report (2008). As shown in Table 3.1 in Section 3, this typology divides countries or major subnational regions into three broad types based on the main characteristics of agricultural development. These three types are agriculture-based, transforming, and urbanized. Table 3.1 therefore specifies the main CRP2 research areas for each subtheme according to these country types.Improving agricultural productivity and translating agricultural gains into food and nutrition security also requires addressing the gender gap. The 2011 FAO State of Food and Agriculture report highlights that women almost everywhere \"face more severe constraints than men in accessing productive resources, markets, and services\" (FAO 2011). This gender gap in assets constrains agricultural productivity growth. There is strong evidence that men and women do not use income or assets in the same ways and that increasing the resources under the control of women is likely to do more to increase the nutritional status and health of children (Quisumbing 2003). The 2009 Global Hunger Index (IFPRI 2009) shows a significant correlation with the gender inequality index. CRP2 will thus consider ways to address the gender gap in assets; ensure that agricultural technologies, extension, and other services address the needs of women producers and consumers; and make markets accessible to women.Under business as usual, projected growth in agricultural productivity in the next two decades is unlikely to meet effective demand for food. Small agricultural producers face enormous challenges, but they also have great potential to feed the world-if they can get access to the inputs, technologies, markets, and public services they need. The adoption of evidence-based policies, inclusive institutions, and equitable markets-based on sound and innovative research focused on the complex agricultural development process-can help achieve this goal. The purpose of CRP2, \"Policies, Institutions, and Markets to Strengthen Food Security and Incomes for the Rural Poor,\" is to address this challenge by producing a body of knowledge to support appropriate policies, institutions, and markets for pro-poor agricultural growth.The CGIAR and its partners are well placed to provide the necessary research. Many institutions work on issues related to policies, institutions, and markets in developing countries. Therefore, it is important to clarify the comparative advantage that CRP2 organizations have to work on those issues. This comparative advantage is based on several factors.First, the CGIAR institutions have a specific mandate to focus on the intersection of food security, poverty, and sustainable agriculture. Other international organizations have mandates on development, macroeconomic, trade, and microeconomic issues, but their focus-in terms of sectors and topics-is more general. Second, the activities of CRP2 are centered on research and knowledge-based capacity building in the public, private, civil society, and academic sectors. Other organizations that may use loans and financing of technical assistance do not focus on research and knowledge generation, and sometimes interact only with certain actors within the public, private, civil society, and academic realms. Third, the CGIAR organizations have the advantages of institutional and political independence. This feature allows the CGIAR Consortium to be seen as an \"honest broker\" that can tackle different problems without a priori institutional points of view and without being constrained by political decisionmaking processes. Fourth, the CGIAR organizations operate at a large enough scale to generate an intellectual critical mass but are not so large that they are hampered by cumbersome organizational arrangements. Therefore, these organizations can be relatively flexible and agile in responding to new intellectual and policy challenges in ways that larger organizations with more constraining political structures of decisionmaking may not be able to replicate. Fifth, the CGIAR organizations are widely recognized as centers of high-quality research and development that apply novel approaches and instruments and possess large networks of data collection in developing countries. Whereas other institutions may show some of the above traits, the combination of all of them is unique to the CGIAR institutions.Further analysis of the CGIAR's comparative advantage with respect to alternative suppliers for each research area is provided in Section 4 and in Annex 5. Please note that most alternative suppliers are also, by design, partners in CRP2. Rather than \"alternative suppliers,\" we prefer to think of most of these as joint suppliers of joint products.The CGIAR seeks to achieve four system-level outcomes (SLOs): (1) reduced rural poverty; (2) increased food security; (3) improved nutrition and health; and (4) more sustainable management of natural resources. This section describes how CRP2 will contribute to these outcomes while addressing the major challenges described in Section 1.As previously noted, there are many constraints to meeting the SLOs. The CGIAR's Strategy and Results Framework notes: \"Multiple and interacting constraints imply the need for multiple interventions, with the objective that a subset of critical interventions release further investment by poor households as a pathway out of poverty. Such complementary interventions to productivity-enhancing technologies include organizational innovations for access to input and output markets, insurance, microcredit, enhanced property rights, especially for women, and safety nets\" (CGIAR 2011). CRP2 is designed to facilitate these complementary interventions by providing knowledge and tools to support a policy, institutional, and market environment in which agriculture and directly related sectors fully contribute to rural poverty reduction, food security, nutrition, and sustainable rural development.Besides directly contributing to the SLOs, CRP2 will have synergies with other CRPs and with the work of national agricultural research system(s) (NARS[s]) and other organizations involved in agricultural research for development (AR4D). CRP2 will inform priorities for appropriate investment by the public and private sector, including producers themselves. It will facilitate the creation of environments that ensure that appropriate technologies are developed and adopted. And it will ensure that small-scale producers and poor consumers benefit from increases in agricultural production through better access to markets.Many areas of research have the potential to contribute to delivering on the SLOs. After extensive priority-setting and consultation with key stakeholders, we have grouped the components of CRP2 into three interlinked themes to optimize the delivery of solutions to the problems detailed in Section 1: Effective Policies and Strategic Investments (Theme 1): This theme will improve policy options at the global, regional, and country levels by using models and scenarios; analyzing how best to allocate public resources for research and investment; and strengthening capacity for formulating and implementing policies and investments designed to increase agricultural productivity and enhance rural incomes. Inclusive Governance and Institutions (Theme 2): This theme will examine the scope for institutional and governance reforms and contribute to effective and equitable access to rural services, property rights, collective action, and assets by studying existing systems and testing institutional innovations in these areas. Linking Small Producers to Markets (Theme 3): This theme will increase the competitiveness of markets to benefit producers and consumers and offer greater income opportunities by integrating small-scale producers into upgraded value chains.The third section of Annex 1 (performance indicator matrix) provides the detailed contributions of each of these themes to the SLOs.Policies set the enabling environment for effective agricultural growth; institutions structure the delivery of goods and services and the context for action; and markets organize the relationships among value-chain actors, including smallholder producers. Therefore, each of these research themes provides a critical entry point to addressing the challenges identified in Section 1. Working across the three themes will allow us to address several of the market failures and research gaps laid out in Section 1. Figure 2.1 illustrates the linkages between themes and the overall integration across themes. For example: Theme 1 identifies needed technology policies, investments, and safety nets, thus contributing to Theme 2. Theme 1 identifies macroeconomic conditions, investments, and technology policies to improve inclusive markets for smallholders, thus contributing to Theme 3. Theme 2 analyses how producer groups and control over assets can help smallscale producers participate in value chains, thus contributing to Theme 3 (see Figure 2.1 for more examples).Because of these links among the themes, research is needed in all three areas to contribute to an environment in which pro-poor, sustainable agricultural growth can thrive. Reforming policies or institutions without linking small producers to markets, for example, could risk leaving smallholders behind. Strengthening markets without reforming macroeconomic policies could doom market-building efforts to failure. Research on strategic scenarios will identify emerging challenges and their implications for agricultural policy and investment (P&I). These scenarios will inform research on what policies can best provide an enabling framework for agricultural and rural development in a dynamic and changing world. Research on macroeconomic, trade, and investment policies; agricultural production and technology policies; and social protection policies will make it possible for smallholders, the rural poor, and other vulnerable groups to participate in growth that generates income and builds assets. Effective policies can correct state and market failures-for example, by helping to internalize the cost of environmental externalities and by factoring overall economic and trade policies into the development of agricultural support policies.Theme 2 investigates governance and institutional arrangements that are needed for critical policy reforms and institutional changes to be adopted and implemented. This research will be carried out within four subthemes: Policy Processes (Subtheme 2.1) Research on policy processes will examine policy and implementation processes and policyresearch linkages. Research on governance of rural services will analyze alternative reform options that are helpful to the agricultural sector and to smallholders and address critical implementation issues for delivering rural services. Research on institutions that support collective action and property rights and strengthen the assets of the poor will deal with the interface between policies, on the one hand, and people's responses, on the other. Theme 2 will interact closely with actors and institutions, analyzing their institutional incentives and reform options and helping strengthen their capacity and coordination.Theme 3 identifies constraints and opportunities in value chains, evaluates options for upgrades, and provides tools and strategies for development change that is pro-poor, sustainable, and gender sensitive. Theme 3 has two subthemes: Innovations across the Value Chain (Subtheme 3.1) The Impact of Upgrading Value Chains (Subtheme 3.2)Research on innovations across the value chain will seek to foster opportunities for smallholder farmers by, for example, revealing ways to reduce transaction costs and improving value-chain outcomes for smallholders. To evaluate option for upgrading value chains, Subtheme 3.2 will examine both upgrades that apply to a number of commodities and upgrades that are commodity specific (this work will be done in collaboration with commodity-specific CRPs). This theme will thus contribute to relieving market failures related to investment in value chains for smallholder agriculture.Of course, there are complementarities among the different subthemes. In the example of Theme 2, policy processes will affect governance of rural services and property rights reform; rural services may rely on collective action approaches for provision of water or extension; and collective action and property rights will affect the accumulation of social capital and other tangible assets. These four subthemes will therefore regularly share information and approaches.The outputs of each theme will lead to a range of intermediate outcomes that, collectively, will contribute to the CGIAR's four SLOs, and particularly to rural poverty reduction and increased food security. To be as specific as possible, we are providing this information by subtheme in Table 2.1, while Annex 1 (performance indicators matrix) provides the detailed contributions of the overall themes to the SLOs. Some work will cut across all themes in CRP2. The strategic gender research, as well as attention to key gender issues in each theme of CRP2, will ensure that strategies are identified to overcome gender disparities. Partnerships, policy communications, and capacity-strengthening activities are also crosscutting. These activities are linked to and embedded in the research agenda, in addition to being key elements of achieving impact in the follow-up to the research.Although CRP2 research will be conducted at different levels, from the local to the national, regional, and global levels, all of it will contribute to the production of international public goods (IPGs). Innovative global models will simulate different scenarios on how regions and countries could be affected by critical drivers of change and could develop strategies to respond to these changes and optimize investments. Comparative analysis across research sites and projects will ensure that the research carried out in particular countries and even localities contributes to IPGs, as recommended by the CGIAR Social Science Stripe Review (CGIAR Science Council 2009). As much as possible, we will design research to be comparable across sites. In other cases, we will study particular innovations or \"outliers\" to identify lessons applicable to other regions. As estimated in Rosegrant et al. (2009b) and as noted in the CGIAR's SRF (2011), CRP2 is expected to have several measurable impacts on the poor. Ex ante analysis of the impacts of policy research can be undertaken using simulation and scenarios analysis. Estimates of the impacts of strategic foresight and technology policies and investments that are given in this proposal are derived from the background paper prepared for the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (Rosegrant et al. 2009b) and from additional simulations utilizing the IMPACT model. In Rosegrant et al. (2009b), a series of agricultural investment and policy scenarios were designed and implemented using  The positive impact of gender equality on poverty reduction has been well documented (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2002;World Bank 2007). A recent study estimates that countries that are off track on meeting MDG 3 on gender parity are likely to lose an average of 0.4 percentage points in annual economic growth between 2005 and 2015 (Abu-Ghaida and Klasen 2004). Therefore, improved governance and policy processes that reduce gender disparities through reductions in the gender asset gap and increases in women's involvement in decisionmaking processes will be a crucial component of further efforts to reduce poverty.Section 1 presents a description of key development challenges related to agriculture and rural development and Section 4 provides a detailed description of the research themes and subthemes. Given the constraints of the proposal format, this material is presented at a relatively general level. To better reflect the heterogeneity in the relative importance of problems and opportunities across regions, Table 3.1 provides a typology of countries or major subnational regions in terms of characteristics, development challenges, approach/strategy, and CRP2 research areas.The three types of countries or major subnational regions listed in this table (agriculture-based, transforming, and urbanized) are based on the main characteristics of countries' agricultural development and are drawn from the World Development Report (WDR 2008). Following from this typology and based on our own analysis and other literature referenced in the table, we have identified the key development challenges (column 2 of the table) and development approaches and strategies (column 3) for each type. This analysis has led us to determine CRP2 research areas-at a more detailed level and categorized by subtheme-for each country/region type (column 4).It should be noted that some research areas cut across the different types of countries or subnational regions. For example, Subtheme 1.1 on Foresight and Strategic Scenarios is a global activity, designed to capture how global drivers and scenarios influence countries throughout the world while capturing the interconnections of agricultural markets and the global externalities of climate change. Although global in nature, the analysis allows for assessment of highly disaggregated and spatially explicit subnational productivity and natural resource impacts of drivers of global change. As can be seen in Table 3.1, other research areas also cut across two or more country/region types.At this early stage, the typology outlined in Table 3.1 does not fully capture the complexity of some large countries in which significant differences are found across regions. For example, in the rapidly transforming countries of Brazil, China, and India, some regions have lagged behind in agricultural development, such as western China, northeast Brazil, and eastern India. Relatively higher levels of poverty and food insecurity persist in these regions (Pingali 2010). The research areas for these regions are similar to those for the agriculture-based countries.Research priorities across types of countries and regions will be further developed during the participatory priority-setting process that will be established during the project implementation phase (see below).  (regional, global) and trade reform in terms of economic (macro and micro) effects -Identifying multiple pathways for the rural poor to move out of poverty traps and policy options needed to promote sustainable rural employment -Improving macro, trade, and agricultural sectoral policies in both agriculture and nonagriculture for broad-based rural growth -Prioritizing and sequencing public investment and improving its efficiency -Crafting policies to mitigate excessive volatility and its impacts through the role of trade and trade policies in managing price fluctuations in agricultural markets Subtheme 1.3 -Crafting policies that facilitate access to improved crop cultivars and animal breeds -Improving legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks on improved cultivars and breeds, including seed systems, NUSs, and international collaboration -Improving policy research capacity and cross-country knowledge sharing -Crafting policies that sustainably increase productivity along the land-water-energyfood nexus -Evaluating policies on improving access to resource-efficient and multifunctional technologies, focusing on appropriate technologies -Crafting policies that enable adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices -Strengthening analytical capacity on systems-based and impact analysis -Evaluating impacts of alternative extension approaches on women and men -Reform export taxation of agriculture and remove barriers to regional trade -Evaluating the joint impacts of social protection and smallholder interventions -Making innovative institutional arrangements for the provision of weather and health insurance Subtheme 2.1 -Building capacity for policy analysis to support evidence-based policy-making -Political economy of institutional reforms to empower smallholders and women, especially devolution policies -Including women and poor in community and local government political processes -Determining factors that facilitate or limit the uptake of policy research findings Subtheme 2.2 -Innovating institutional arrangements to provide rural services and infrastructure, especially in situations where government capacity is low -Crafting governance reform strategies to address governance challenges of public and other organizations in the agricultural sector -Focusing on most binding constraints in rural services (which may differ across agriculture-based economies) Subtheme 2.3 -Crafting land tenure reforms and other strategies to strengthen property rights of smallholders, pastoralists, fishers, indigenous peoples, women, and the poor -Crafting strategies for improving collective action and tenure security for effective management of common-pool resources and environmental services -Ensuring that benefits of land-based investments are shared with local residents and land users -Identifying effective collective action strategies for small-scale producers and rural poor to gain access to market opportunities Subtheme 2.4 -Understanding the roles of assets of women and men in pathways from poverty -Identifying improved institutional arrangements for asset accumulation by poor women and men -Utilizing risk management in protecting assets -Evaluating agricultural and other programs and policies to strengthen assets of the poor Subtheme 3.1 -Identifying opportunities for smallholders to benefit from rising demand for highvalue commodities and gain access to the available retail structures, including modern retail chains -Upgrading value chains by removing constraints to participation and enhancing benefits from participation -Improving institutional designs for collective action among smallholders and through contract farming Subtheme 3.2 -Crafting policies for creating an environment for willing buyers and enabling sustainable linkages between capable farmers and willing buyers -Utilizing best practices to upgrade value chains and increasing the adoption of best practices through the knowledge clearinghouse -Improving sectoral policies for broad-based rural growth -Identifying more effective international trade policies (regional and global) and institutional setting needed to support inclusion of poor countries in trade negotiations -Examining the impacts and interactions of national macroeconomic policies with agricultural, climate change, and biofuel policies -Assessing the macro and micro effects of FDI, including foreign investment in land, on the agricultural sector, particularly on the smallholder agriculture and rural households -Identifying excessive price volatility in global food markets and the most vulnerable groups that will be negatively affected by price volatility, and promoting policies to mitigate such shocks and impacts Subtheme 1.3 -Crafting policies that facilitate access to improved crop cultivars and animal breeds -Improving legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks on improved cultivars and breeds, with a focus on market-led growth -Crafting policies that sustainably increase productivity along the land-water-energyfood nexus -Evaluating polices on improving access to resource-efficient and multifunctional technologies, focusing on advanced farm management systems -Assessing potential impacts of advanced science applications on food security -Evaluating impacts of alternative extension approaches on women and men -Crafting policies that diversify rural incomes sustainably -Analyzing the role of public and private sectors in rural income diversification -Evaluating the impact of sustainability standards on efficiency and equity organizations, commodity-specific organizations) in agricultural policy processes -Identifying factors that facilitate or limit the uptake of policy research findings Subtheme 2.2 -Making reforms of rural services to allow for increasing private sector participation -Strengthening governance of public sector services that are required for high-value and export crops (e.g., food safety regulation) -Improving the investment climate for private sector service providers Subtheme 2.3 -Identifying ways to strengthen property rights of women and small-scale producers so that they benefit from rising land values -Crafting strategies for improving collective action and tenure security for effective provision of environmental services -Identifying effective collective action strategies for rural poor to gain access to market opportunities Subtheme 2.4 -Mapping asset portfolios of women and men and role in empowerment, poverty reduction -Crafting policy reforms and institutional arrangements to allow asset accumulation for women and men -Utilizing risk management and insurance in protecting assets Subtheme 3.1 -Identifying strategies to target vulnerable groups to increase their access to inputs and dynamic markets (small-scale, vulnerable, or female-headed farm households) -Promoting rural innovation and provision of information to communities on inputs, technologies, and resource management systems through the public, private, and civil society sectors -Prioritizing post-harvest and hard infrastructure needed to improve competitiveness of producers and to address standards required by dynamic markets -Improving institutional design on horizontal coordination (rural producer associations) and vertical coordination (contract farming) Subtheme 3.2 -Improving small farmers' access to financial markets and insurance mechanisms -Identifying policies for creating environments for willing buyers and enabling sustainable linkages between capable farmers and willing buyers -Increasing the adoption of best practices through the knowledge clearinghouse and collaborative partnerships c) Urbanized greater specialization or diversification -Making policies and investments required to promote equitable economic development -Investigating the endogenous policy and political processes and identifying policies that can be implemented to benefit the poor -Identifying and mitigating the effects on the poor of excessive price volatility in global food markets -Investigating the mechanism through which international migration and remittances affect poor household income, rural development and agriculture Subtheme 1.3 -Crafting policies to sustainably increase agricultural productivity along the land-waterenergy-food nexus -Assessing technology and policy solutions to reducing adverse impacts of sustainable renewable energy on food security -Assessing potential impacts of advanced science applications on food security -Crafting policies that diversify rural incomes sustainably -Evaluating impacts of sustainability standards on efficiency and equity -Determining policy processes involved in establishing social protection policies in rural areas Subtheme 2.2 -Crafting governance reforms that promote transformation of agricultural and rural service providers (e.g., reduction of the state involvement to essential functions in support of devolving functions to farmers' organizations and the private sector) -Promoting of social protection services and services that facilitate exit from agriculture Subtheme 2.3 -Improving collective action and empowerment of women, small-scale producers Subtheme 2.4 -Identify how migration, rural-urban linkages, and structural transformation affect poor women's and men's abilities to acquire and protect different forms of assets -Strengthening the assets of the poor, especially human capital -Utilizing risk management and insurance in protecting assets Subtheme 3.1 -Making innovations in contract farming and linking farmer associations to dynamic export markets -Prioritizing post-harvest and hard infrastructure needed to improve competitiveness of producers and as to address standards required by dynamic markets -Crafting policy incentives to facilitate the participation of the private sector in delivery systems of inputs -Improving small farmers' access to financial markets and insurance mechanisms Subtheme 3.2 -Crafting policies for creating an environments for willing buyers and the enabling sustainable linkages between capable farmers and willing buyers, and for upgrading value chains to promote south-south cooperation and learning -Increasing the adoption of best practices through the knowledge clearinghouse and collaborative partnershipsTypological criteria for improved selection of IFPRI Short-term priorities will be based on commitments in the existing research pipeline. As anticipated in the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (CGIAR 2011), a core of research consists of contracted and funded research already underway across partner CGIAR centers. The need to complete and finalize these existing projects, which represent about two-thirds of CRP2's first-year budget, makes them a priority. Our prioritization of research activities in Section 4 also takes into account uncertainties in initial funding levels. We would accommodate funding restrictions by changing the phasing and scaling of new subthemes and activities, rather than by eliminating a subtheme. We would also scale down the level of ambition across the themes (for example, we would work in fewer countries and decrease the number of cases and study sites), whereas greater investment would allow a finer scale of research.In the longer term, the strategic priorities of each theme and subtheme will increasingly be aligned with the outcomes of a systematic priority-setting process aimed at refining the typology presented in Table 3.1 to point out the most efficient ways of delivering on the SLOs. In terms of regional prioritization, a global priority at the CRP level will be given to Africa and South Asia; more refined regional priorities, by subtheme and activity, will be laid out within the frame of this priority-setting process.Our philosophy is that strategic research projects should be defined not only from the top down, but also from the bottom up. Therefore, the first component of the CRP2 priority-setting process is based on a participatory approach.The research activities described in Section 4 were developed during a preliminary phase of this participatory process, based on an extensive expert e-consultation that involved more than 200 participants (June 28-July 14, 2010); on a face-to-face consultation with more than 50 participants (August 17-19, 2010, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia); and on continuing interactions with writing teams throughout the proposal development process. These intense discussions have led to the identification of a number of priorities, including the science-technology-practice link; gender; multistakeholder partnerships; regional specificities; enabling institutions; farmer costs; and many other factors, all of which are reflected in the prioritization of proposed new activities.The second phase of the participatory approach will start in November 2011. This more elaborate process will include consultation with the following stakeholders: End users or beneficiaries: These key groups include farmers, farmers' organizations, extension services, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and national, regional, and multilateral organizations.  Researchers: Inputs from those who carry out the research are essential, including partners within the CGIAR, NARs, and universities.  Senior policymakers and decisionmakers: These groups have responsibility for final decisions.  Disciplinary experts: These experts identify relevant research parameters and provide data.  Donors: In addition to funding, donors bring insight and expertise to the table and are important stakeholders in using research findings and scaling up their application.Two main sets of criteria will be used to establish policy research priorities for CRP2: 1. the potential benefits of the research in terms of contributing to the SLOs (for instance, the potential for research results to engender socioeconomic equity; to answer scientific problems related to income enhancement, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability; and to strengthen institutions, etc.); and 2. the likely costs/barriers related to research development (such as investments required, lag time of adoption, risk that research is not successful, etc.).The participatory priority-setting process will use a multicriteria scoring method: participants will assign a weight coefficient to the different criteria belonging to the two categories described above, and assign a score to each of these criteria for each of the research alternatives. The scores for the different criteria will then be aggregated and rigorously discussed by participant groups in order to obtain an overall assessment of each research alternative. Regional prioritization exercises will be conducted using the same method.At this point, five regional priority-setting workshops are envisaged, one for each of the following regions: (1) South Asia; (2) Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific; (3) Central and West Asia and North Africa; (4) Sub-Saharan Africa; and (5) Latin America and the Caribbean. These will be followed by a global priority-setting workshop. The aim of the regional workshops will be to assess priorities among themes and subthemes within one region. The aim of the global workshop will be to assess priorities among the different regions and to finalize the priority-setting exercise at the subtheme level. Expert working groups will then be held for each theme, to pursue prioritization at the activity level. Guidelines will be developed for translating priorities into funding allocation. In some cases, priorities may translate into phasing of research components over time. The phasing of the research also includes an opportunistic component and therefore will not be determined entirely in the initial priority-setting process.If possible, the priority-setting sessions will be held in tandem with existing events in order to reduce the costs. The first regional workshop is currently being planned (Alexandria, Egypt, November 28-29, 2011, within the frame of the Conference on Setting Priorities for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in the Arab World). The other regional priority-setting exercises will be planned in due course and will take place in the first months of 2012.The second component of CRP2 priority-setting will consist of modeling approaches. Ex ante and ex post quantitative analysis will provide estimates of economic, poverty, and environmental benefits per dollar of investment in the different research areas, and these estimates will serve as inputs into the priority-setting process. The ex ante assessment tools that will be used for this exercise are reviewed in detail in the description of Subtheme 1.1. To assess progress against goals, ex post impact assessment will be employed when CRP2 research becomes more mature.Once CRP2 is formally established, the combined participatory and modeling approaches will  guide initial collective priority-setting,  guide periodic revision of CRP2's overall strategy and approach, including rolling three-year annual planning processes, and  closely link to the program monitoring and evaluation approaches described later in this section, as a basis for dynamic adaptation to the changing environments of CRP2.Producing high-quality research is not enough; to achieve the strategic objectives of the CGIAR, CPR2 must also ensure that those outputs are used by a range of key stakeholders, whose actions will, in turn, have an impact on improving the lives of millions of poor people. Ensuring impact of policy and institutional research is particularly challenging. Strong and sustained engagement at the country level (e.g., through Country Strategy Support Programs) has been shown to increase uptake of the findings. However, creating international public goods also calls for sharing information internationally, and creating multiplier effects of the research requires strengthening the capacity of a range of partners to undertake similar research, adapted to their particular conditions. Thus, CRP2 has developed a strategy that involves multiple impact pathways.Although each research theme will have specific types of impact (as discussed in detail below), the impact of CRP2 on the SLOs can be broken down into three main impact pathways (see Figure 3.1): Improved knowledge about what works in agricultural development will inform individuals and units involved in policy research (such as the CGIAR, other agricultural research organizations, regional economic bodies, ministries of agriculture, and academic research institutions in both developed and developing countries), enabling them to  acquire a deeper understanding of the complex problems linked with agricultural development processes;  identify constraints and targets for research; and  plan research work and set research priorities.This feedback loop will continuously enrich research and bolster the Consortium's capacity to produce ambitious, cutting-edge research leading to long-term improvements for the poor. It will also enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall impact of agricultural research outside the CGIAR system. For example, strategic foresight models or improved gender analysis will provide guidance for priority-setting in agricultural research to meet the needs of women and men in responding to changing conditions. 1Impact pathway 2 reflects the potential for CGIAR-generated research to influence the international development and implementation community, including donors and implementers, such as governments and civil-society organizations and global and international agencies, among which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and regional agricultural forums, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). This pathway builds on CRP2's direct involvement in the implementation or evaluation of programs led by international, national, nongovernmental, and producer and women's organizations, as well as CRP2's outreach to such organizations with research findings. Donor policies and civil society initiatives are formed using a combination of different elements, including sound research and a sense of \"how development works\"-both of which the CGIAR is equipped to take a lead in providing. Donors, implementers, and producer organizations are thus a highly important audience for CRP2 research.Impact pathway 3 represents the way in which social science research can influence government policy. CGIAR research has already had significant impacts on policies, which in turn have resulted in higher agricultural growth, more food production, and reduced poverty in many countries (see Box 3.1). The body of research-based evidence and analysis generated by CRP2 will provide further concrete evidence of policy options that policymakers can use to craft reform policies aimed at achieving the desired outcomes. The targets of this pathway are not only policymakers, but also the policy analysts and specialists who support decisionmakers. We will go beyond the traditional agricultural sector to work with ministries of finance, trade, women's affairs, environment, and others, as needed.As it pursues impact pathway 3, CRP2 will focus on the CGIAR's fundamental role-conducting and disseminating research and supplying policy information to policymakers. In some cases, working closely with policymakers can help improve our understanding of the policy process and implementation constraints, which can be synthesized to generate international public goods. In general, however, we believe that the CRP should rely on a network of partners to help implement the more action-and policyoriented tasks and translate CGIAR research into on-the-ground action. For example, close ties to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process can help disseminate research findings to policymakers in numerous African countries. Advocacy can be considered \"extension for policymakers,\" and many other organizations have extensive expertise in this activity. CRP2 will thus pass advocacy activities on to partners better qualified for it. Identifying partners qualified to implement CRP2 research on the ground will be an essential component of CRP2's initial research design.These three pathways may have different time lags in achieving impact, with impact pathways 1 and 2 taking longer than impact pathway 3. However, for researchers to be able to respond to short-term requests, they must draw on longer-term research results, as the example of responses to the food price crisis has shown (see Box 3.2). Therefore, as described in Section 4, CRP2 resources and programs will focus on achieving both shorter-term goals/quick impact and longer-terms goals along these pathways.CGIAR research has significantly affected policies in a number of countries, including Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam.IFPRI's study of the rice sector in Vietnam provided original insights on aspects such as trade flows, marketing channels and margins, costs of production of paddy, price differentials within and outside the country, and transport costs. This research showed that relaxing rice export quotas and internal trade restrictions on rice would not adversely affect regional disparities and food security and would have benefits for farm prices and poverty. These findings \"changed the level of dialogue in Vietnam\" (Ryan 1999, 19) and led to the relaxation of the country's rice export quotas and internal trade restrictions. The most conservative estimate of IFPRI's contribution to Vietnam is a present value of $45 million, yielding a benefit-cost ratio of 56. For the more optimistic scenario, the present value increases to $91 million and the benefitcost ratio to 114-to-1 when calculated to 2000. The present value of the two policy changes without attribution is estimated at $222 million up to 2000, rising to almost $1 billion if policies remain in place until 2020 (Ryan 1999).IFPRI's evaluation of the Food for Education Program (FFE) in Bangladesh led policymakers to begin the program one year earlier than they might have without the IFPRI input. This program, which reached 2.1 million students in 17,811 schools, created total benefits estimated at $248 million. Capacity building and policy research guided the conception, evaluation, and targeting of the initiative starting in the early 1990s. Based upon the total cost of the IFPRI-FFE research program of US$151,000, the internal rate of return on this research investment ranges from 64 to 96 percent if all the other benefits are added to this (Ryan 2004).Other examples of the impacts of policy research and advocacy by CGIAR centers include research and advocacy aimed at decriminalizing the marketing of milk by small-scale vendors in Kenya. The results of this effort created benefits for producers and consumers worth an estimated $44-$283 million. Another example is research on improved policies on pesticides in the Philippines. This work started in the late 1980s and involved the regulation of highly toxic products used on rice and the training of rural health officers; it has resulted so far in benefits valued at $117 million (Renkow and Byerlee 2011).Partnerships are a critical component of each of the three impact pathways. Impact pathway 1 emphasizes researchers and scientists-in the CGIAR, NARSs, and developed countries-not only as producers of research results, but also as users of research. Collaboration with other CRPs (as indicated in Annex 2) will facilitate the application of CPR2 outputs within the CGIAR, while working with GFAR and regional agricultural forums will facilitate broader outcomes among NARSs and other research institutes. Impact pathway 2 involves various development stakeholders (such as development organizations, producers' and women's organizations, advocacy groups). Working with organizations involved in developing or implementing policies and programs will ensure that the research addresses their needs and that the findings are likely to be taken up. For example, lessons from research to assess the impact of agricultural development projects are likely to be applied by the local implementing agency, other offices of that agency, and the organization that funds that type of program. Impact pathway 3 is intended to reach policymakers and policy analysts. Research in response to government requests has a high likelihood of being taken up through this pathway. Training and other capacity-strengthening activities will enable policy analysts to carry out such research themselves, broaden outcomes to other groups, and enable such analysis to continue beyond CRP2's direct research. IFPRI's Country Strategy Support Programs provide an example of such partnerships. And circulation of highly visible publications in journals, policy briefs, and websites will promote the international public goods nature of this impact, by spreading it beyond the partners we work with directly.Thus, partnerships will  strengthen CRP2's ability to undertake sound applied research in a range of countries;  widen CRP2's range of influence and expand its overall impact; and  allow CRP2 research teams to concentrate on their comparative advantage-that is, the production of policy-oriented research. For the impact pathways to be effective, CRP2 research must be designed in a way that makes it useful to end users. We will integrate extensive feedback into the initial research design from key stakeholders, including representatives of community groups, local government officials, and a range of CGIAR partners, from donors to development organizations. Another crucial condition for maximizing the uptake of research and capacity outputs is packaging the outputs to suit the specific needs of different user groups. To ensure policy relevance, CRP2 will work closely with other CRPs to ensure that the new When global food prices began to rise in 2007, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was one of the first institutions to warn of an impending global food price crisis. With an extensive research portfolio and expertise ranging from markets and trade to nutrition and food consumption, IFPRI was well placed and well prepared to answer questions from the public, media, and policymakers with regard to \"What happened?\" and \"Why did it happen?\" The Institute provided evidence-based information through a coordinated communication campaign to inform policy debates through publications, media interviews, face-to-face meetings with policymakers, testimony before legislators, press releases, and the communication of research findings through the internet. During 2007-08, more than 700 media citations, ranging from major international media to influential outlets in the countries most affected helped raise public awareness and engage policymakers.In May 2008, well before many others, IFPRI published an action plan proposing an emergency package of policy actions that could yield immediate impacts as well as medium and longterm activities. These recommendations were used as the basis for discussions at several high-level meetings and summits. Seven out of the eight urgent actions advocated by IFPRI appear in the UN's Comprehensive Framework for Action as policy recommendations and are being implemented through the High-Level Task Force on the global food security crisis.Source: IFPRI 2009a.technologies for accelerating agricultural growth that these CRPs are developing will reach small producers and the rural poor through the formulation of appropriate policies, effective and equitable governance structures, and efficient markets. Monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, in turn, will provide feedback to help reshape research agendas and processes.Other more diffuse impact pathways involve flows of research and capacity products through other users, such as the media and the general public. These pathways affect the general discourse on certain key issues and create greater public awareness and demand for appropriate policies, feeding into both impact pathways 2 and 3 (see Figure 3.1). Examples include the media outreach in response to the food price crisis, innovative approaches such as the IFPRI/International Livestock Research Institute TEDx presentations on gender and development, and partnership with Oxfam to provide information for their information campaigns.Measuring progress along these impact pathways is challenging, especially for policy-oriented research. Even a standard linear model, the results chain from inputs, to activities, to outputs, to outcomes (use of the outputs), to impact (effects on poverty reduction, environment, ultimate goals) involves decreasing levels of involvement or control on the part of the researchers and greater uncertainty, resulting in an \"attribution gap\" (Earl, Carden, and Smutylo 2001;Kuby 2003). Until now, few researchers have tackled the complex methodological issues that are inevitably encountered in assessing the concrete benefits of policy research (Ryan and Garrett 2003). There are several other challenges with measuring impact along the pathways identified for CRP2. The complex nature of the relationships means that it is possible neither to identify simple cause and effect nor to predict where impacts will be seen. The objective of generating public goods means that findings from one country or sector may be taken up in a different country or sector.The CGIAR's increasing emphasis on partnerships increases the likelihood of impact, but also makes attribution of impact much more problematic. Unlike crop varietal improvement, research on policies and institutions does not necessarily develop identifiable \"germplasm.\" In a research program in which researchers work with policymakers, ideas are co-produced; if changes in policy or programs are attributed to the \"adoption\" of research ideas, the local ownership of the changes can be reduced. Moreover, given the relatively rapid timeframe for decisionmaking compared with the time required for scientific publications, policies and programs may change based on research findings before those findings are published. The researchers have no control over what their other partners may do; political, institutional, or other considerations may restrict the adoption of particular recommendations. Agricultural policies are particularly challenging to measure because of the diversity of their types and objectives, and any analysis must be disaggregated by major policy type (Norton and Alwang 1998). Even then, the direct relationship between policy research and policy is difficult to capture due to \"human\" factors such as politics. Even more difficult is predicting the adoption of policy recommendations. The effects of policy are complex, blurring the clear link between results, action, and outcomes (Ryan and Garrett 2003). Research under CRP2 (Subtheme 2.1) will address methodologies for assessing the impact of policy research.Thus, while the outcomes of research, such as publications or training materials, are quantifiable and relatively easy to verify, tracing impacts is much more difficult and requires a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, with more reliance on ex post analysis that traces the pathways through which research influenced policies or other changes, which in turn had an impact on the lives of the ultimate beneficiaries (Kuby 2003;CGIAR Science Council 2008).Therefore, CRP2 will use a mix of methods for monitoring, evaluating, and assessing impact. In the following sections, we will first discuss monitoring, which focuses on outputs, then go on to discuss what will be done to transform outputs to outcomes, and finally to methods for impact assessment.With support from the Program Management Unit, the CRP2 director and the Management Committee will have the primary responsibility for designing the M&E framework and for monitoring progress. This M&E framework will also serve as a crucial tool for the independent Science and Policy Advisory Panel. More generally, the M&E framework will be used by all CRP stakeholders to  report on program activities and outputs;  track progress; and  take corrective actions when needed. We will develop a monitoring plan under each subtheme, encompassing all of that subtheme's activities. The monitoring will be based on indicators and metrics for all outputs and outcomes. Progress in delivery of the outputs of each research theme and subtheme will be reviewed and reported annually. All researchers will use a standardized, web-based, real-time tracking system, so that all outputs can be captured and accounted for on a continuing basis, using information such as that presented in Table 3.2. In addition to these generic outputs, specific outputs have been identified at the subtheme level: see performance indicators matrix in Annex 1. Within each subtheme and in consultation with the leaders of each research theme, we will identify key performance indicators and metrics to be used to review the quality and quantity of outputs and outcomes. For example, all journal articles will be quantified, but the number of journal articles published in high-impact journals and influential open-access outlets-as identified by research theme leaders for reaching target audiences-will be prioritized over articles published in less influential outlets. Conferences, trainings, and other research outcomes will be similarly weighted.High-quality research outputs alone are not enough to achieve impact; they must also be taken up and used. While the use may be beyond the control of the researchers, much can be done to increase the likelihood that outputs are translated into outcomes by building bridges to users. At the most basic level, this may mean ensuring that findings are published in a form and an outlet that is accessible to the intended users. For example, if the intended users are other researchers, publications in a prestigious scientific journal may be effective, but if the intended users are government policymakers, policy briefs translated into appropriate languages are more important. Even the availability of the research findings is insufficient: the intended user needs to know about the research and trust the findings. Cash et al. (2002) identify three key factors linking research findings to decisionmaking: (1) salience (findings are relevant to the problems at hand); (2) credibility (findings are authoritative and believable); and (3) legitimacy (findings are perceived as fair). They also highlight the importance of boundary-spanning organizations that link research to users of the information.Taking these factors into consideration increases the likelihood of research outcomes. CRP2 researchers will therefore consider publication outlets in terms of reaching their intended audience. In addition to ensuring the credibility of findings by applying best-practice methods and peer reviews, researchers will increase salience by working with prospective research clients (for example, governments and NGOs) to identify the most relevant questions and increase legitimacy by working with appropriate partners. Professional societies, policy networks, or project advisory committees can provide boundaryspanning functions. In addition, presentations about the project and research results in a variety of forums increase awareness of the findings and the likelihood that results will be applied. Each subtheme will develop its own outreach strategy to increase the uptake of research results, going beyond the basics of \"what did you produce?\" to \"who did you reach?\" Process indicators can be used to document whether these strategies are being effectively followed to increase the likelihood of project outcomes. Beyond this, CRP2 can use stakeholder feedback and knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) surveys to provide indicators of outcomes and influence.Another important set of indicators is the extent to which each of the user groups (such as donors, policymakers, other researchers, and women's or producers' organizations) is being served by, is using, and is satisfied with the program's research deliverables. This satisfaction will be assessed through the collection of distribution and product usage statistics and citations in peer-reviewed publications; the media; and government, NGO, and donor reports. Examples of quantitative indicators include downloads and citations of publications, downloads and uses of databases and films (including uses in student theses or training courses), and follow-up evaluations of training courses or materials. Many government and donor reports may not include direct citations, but content analysis can identify where key findings or concepts have been used in policies. Stakeholder feedback on the quality of outputs using annual web-based surveys will generate indicators of satisfaction and provide information on the end users of each type of product.KAP surveys go a step further in documenting the influence of research on various stakeholders. For example, a newly initiated study of the impact of agricultural programs on the gender gap in assets is administering a KAP survey to donors and implementing organizations at the project's outset and after three years in order to document the extent to which staff members have improved their knowledge of gender relations in agriculture, their attitudes toward the importance of addressing gender issues, and the practices of their organization. This approach could be broadened to include a larger set of stakeholder organizations, as well as other issues related to CRP2. While the methodology for KAP studies is relatively well established, using it to track the impact of CRP2 will present challenges, including turnover of individual staff in surveyed stakeholder organizations. Using this approach requires identifying the appropriate stakeholders and a minimum set of KAP questions for each.IFPRI's Country Strategy Support Programs (CSSPs) (see Box 3.3,Box 3.4,and Box 3.5) are a promising vehicle for enhancing the impact of CRP2 at the country level, staying close to the issues, and facilitating the research and delivery of results in the developing world. CSSPs will also be key in understanding agricultural and rural development processes, collecting longitudinal data, testing and experimenting policy options, and building capacity for impact within countries. CSSPs can serve as a platform to integrate different research themes together to present policy options and strategies in a holistic approach.A Country Strategy Support Program (CSSP) is a country-based intensive and sustained program of research, policy communication, and capacity strengthening undertaken by IFPRI and its partners in an individual country. CSSPs work directly with national research institutions, decisionmakers within the government, and other stakeholders to (1) increase the availability of research in that country on a broad range of issues related to food policy and development strategies, (2) enhance national capacity to undertake such policy research, (3) provide a platform through which CGIAR research staff can remain better informed about the national policy process of food policy and development strategies, and (4) promote dissemination and outreach of research results and facilitate public dialogue on key issues at various levels of government, civil society, and the private sector.The quality of the research is crucial for policy uptake. High-quality research addressing highpriority issues and effectively communicated to policymakers can play a catalytic role in the policy process. Researchers can use the credibility of their research to influence policy, and CSSPs allow researchers to play such a role. For example, CSSPs in Africa have been actively involved in supporting the CAADP process by conducting high-quality research, organizing and participating in strategy development consultations and other events, and participating in direct dialogue with policymakers. CSSP research programs are designed to meet demand from policymakers and other stakeholders in a timely way to contribute to policy debates in host countries. Examples of such research include analysis of fertilizer marketing and pricing (Nigeria, Ghana, and Malawi), agricultural growth options and prioritization of public investment (Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda), and options for enhancing rural and urban linkages (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda). Research results, such as from the Ghana fertilizer subsidy analysis, has provided useful input into policy dialogue and contributed to the improvement of the relevant policy. CSSP research also provides international public goods in the form of broad lessons on agricultural and rural issues for other developing countries.The CSSP approach to strengthening the analytical capacity of selected national institutions uses collaborative research, based on state-of-the-art analytical tools and techniques. Almost all CSSP research projects are designed and undertaken by IFPRI researchers jointly with their in-country partners. For example, the Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) has developed sustainable partnerships with the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI), the Central Statistics Agency (CSA), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) and has conducted various research and survey projects jointly with these partners. CSSPs also provide training programs to their partner institutions. More than 200 women and 500 men in Africa have been taking short courses organized by CSSPs about the application of different policy analytic tools. The technical assistance ESSP provided to Ethiopian CSA analysts in GIS techniques, database management, and data analysis helped CSA produce the Population and Housing Census Atlas of Ethiopia 2007, published in 2010.The institutional platform developed by CSSPs creates an environment where research teams within the CGIAR can jointly undertake country-specific work on strategies to alleviate hunger and poverty. In so doing, the CSSPs facilitate the generation of international public goods and contribute to achieving better impact on policy and national capacity in the countries. CSSPs are also useful for regional networking and can play an important role in bringing a variety of stakeholders-including the numerous bodies of the CGIAR-together to inform the policy process.The Ghana Strategy Support Program (GSSP) is a research, communication, and capacity-strengthening program that builds the capabilities of researchers, administrators, policymakers, and members of civil society in Ghana to develop and implement agricultural and rural development strategies. With core funding from the USAID and a mandate to develop a multi-donor-funded program, IFPRI launched GSSP as a partnership between Ghana and its development partners.Unlocking the potential of Ghanaian agriculture and achieving the country's growth and poverty reduction goals requires strong and strategic partnerships committed to the achievement of the following GSSP objectives:  To develop and implement a research and capacity-building agenda that addresses knowledge and capacity gaps;  To improve the information and knowledge base required to develop and implement strategies through better data standards, integration of information across sectors, and improved management of knowledge;  To strengthen the analytical capacity of Ghanaian researchers and institutions by adopting innovative collaborative arrangements that take advantage of complementarities;  To stimulate and invigorate policy discussions by popularizing innovative policy analysis tools; and  To strengthen policymaking processes, stimulate policy dialogue, and communicate research outcomes to relevant stakeholders.To meet these objectives, GSSP collaborates closely with policymakers, researchers, and other partners at the national and subnational levels who identify program priorities and guide their implementation. GSSP builds on existing work and capacities in Ghana by forming broad partnerships and networks with institutions and individuals in research, the private sector, civil society, and government. Examples include the Office of the President, the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Ghana in Legon, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF).Government and donor stakeholders have emphasized the unique and unprecedented value-added dimension that GSSP has brought to Ghana. The program has been able to create a niche in research and has been recognized as providing knowledge-based services that donors, the Government of Ghana, and other stakeholders can identify with. The program has helped provide an avenue for improving analytical capacity among numerous stakeholders, namely the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ghana Statistical Services, the National Development Planning Commission, the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), the University of Ghana, and the University of Cape Coast.Based in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) began its activities in late 2004, with the aim of forming broad partnerships and undertaking timely and actionable research to fill knowledge gaps, improve knowledge database management systems, and strengthen national capacity to undertake policy relevant economic analysis.Phase I of ESSP conducted a varied program of economic research and provided extensive technical and analytical support toward the establishment of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). Phase II (ESSP-II), which began in July 2008, places a greater emphasis on strategic partnerships and capacity strengthening, while continuing a collaborative program of capacity building, research, policy analysis, and knowledge dissemination by IFPRI and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI).ESSP-II is country-driven and country-owned program that aims to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction in Ethiopia through policy-oriented research, institution strengthening, capacity building, and dialogue on economic and agricultural policy issues. The program's priorities are set and updated regularly by a high-level National Advisory Committee. Additionally, ESSP-II is supported by a consortium of four donors, with the understanding that national partners set the agenda. As a result, ESSP-II is structured in a way that enables close collaboration with an extensive and unlimited range of partners, including national academic institutions, private-sector and civil-society actors, technical experts in line ministries, and donor agencies.To respond effectively to Ethiopia's growing development challenges, IFPRI, ESSP-II, and the latter's advisory committee identified four key activities. The first main activity includes collaborative research with EDRI, the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with a focus on promoting poverty reduction and economic development in Ethiopia. The second activity focuses on the achievement of robust knowledge management to contribute to policy dialogue, strategic priority-setting, and evidence-based policy analysis. Capacity strengthening and increased knowledge dissemination within the academic and policy research community is the third activity. The final activity seeks to enhance communications and institutional linkages among policymakers, policy analysts, civil society, and other policy and research actors through joint seminars and other dissemination events.ESSP-II achievements depend on collaboration, coordination, and communication with key partners and stakeholders, including policymakers, donors, researchers, and private-sector and civil society leaders. Therefore, the program has developed formal and important links with institutions such as the Central Statistical Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, the Ethiopian Economics Association, Ethiopian universities and research institutes, and numerous private trade associations.For further details, please see: http://www.ifpri.org/book-757/ourwork/program/ethiopia-strategysupport-program.Finally, studies of the policy process (Subtheme 2.1) will provide insights on political constraints and on how the values, motivation, and power of different actors shape the policymaking process. This research is analogous to the \"constraints to adoption\" research that can increase the likelihood that new crop varieties or other technologies will be adopted. Policy research findings are more likely to contribute to policy if they fit an environment's political limits, institutional pressures, and vested interests. Changing political environments often provide opportunities for better use of research by decisionmakers. Such insights can help to increase the application of CRP2 outputs and thereby make a difference in practice.The aim of impact assessment is to evaluate the success of CRP2 in achieving its stated goals by measuring the effects of the project on intended beneficiaries, using tangible intermediate and final impact indicators. Moving from outcomes to impacts requires triangulation among quantitative and qualitative methods to identify how research has influenced policies or practice and how those changes have, in turn, affected the welfare of poor agricultural producers and rural laborers, the ultimate beneficiaries of CRP2. These methods include the following: Impact narratives: These narratives document cases where research has led to policy changes and impact on the ground. Narratives will be suggested by project teams and independently verified through interviews with key stakeholders to document the mechanisms through which research contributed to change. Ex post impact assessments: These assessments can document the impact of a particular change in policy, institutions, or markets on the SLOs of poverty reduction, food security, nutrition and health, and environmental sustainability. Wherever possible, these impact assessments will also explicitly address the differential impact of changes on men and women. Ex post studies play an important role in documenting the value of policy-oriented research, as well as in examining how the implementation of a policy affects the ultimate impact. External reviews: These reviews will assess the effects of major research projects after their completion and provide lessons for other research. Once every five years (or another agreed-upon timeframe), external reviews of the entire CRP2 will be commissioned by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement of the CGIAR on behalf of the Fund Council. These independent evaluations will provide an external perspective on research relevance and performance and will serve as an important input into the periodic revision of the CRP.Once the final structure of CRP2 is approved, a workshop will be held to finalize the impact assessment framework of CRP2. The outputs of this workshop will include  a complete set of measurable indicators at the subtheme and research theme level and more globally aggregated at the CRP level (the indicators mentioned in each subtheme of this proposal and in the performance indicators matrix in Annex 1 are initial propositions, with quantitative targets and dates to be provided at the initiation workshop, when the resource availability is known);  a baseline of the values of those indicators by target region, and the evolution of the values of those indicators by target region as expected over the CRP period;  the modalities and timeframe for collecting and analyzing the information needed for assessing the values of the indicators; and  the roles and responsibilities of the different partners in the measurement of indicators The indicators should be aligned with  the SLOs of reducing rural poverty, improving food security, enhancing nutrition and health, and facilitating sustainable management of natural resources; and  the impact pathways of CRP2, as described above. In designing the impact assessment framework, we will consult the CGIAR Social Science Stripe Review, keep a pragmatic approach (the system should be as simple as possible so as not to be too great a burden for stakeholders), and focus on the goals of M&E, which are to report on the actual progress made thanks to CRP funding, as well as to provide institutional learning about what makes research effective in influencing policies and improving the welfare of the ultimate beneficiaries.The proposed research portfolio of CRP2 addresses policy, institutional, and market challenges for global food security and rural poverty and is derived from an extensive consultation with our partners and beneficiaries. The program proposed here builds upon the ongoing programs and funding of the CGIAR centers, with CRP2 providing new integration to move from individual projects to a more comprehensive approach to the key and strategic research areas. In the first year of its operation, two-thirds of CRP2's funding is committed to ongoing restricted donor projects. As these projects are completed, funding will be freed up to develop new programs addressing critical gaps, new collaboration, and integration across research activities. In Year 2, 52 percent of the funding is from the CGIAR Fund, and by Year 3, 64 percent of the funding is new and will be allocated through the CGIAR Fund and CRP2. This funding can be allocated to filling research gaps and new programs, in addition to expanding core CRP2 research areas. During subsequent years, the remaining restricted donor-funded projects will come to a close, completing the transition. Because of this transition process, most of CRP2's research activities comprise both ongoing and new projects over the course of the three-year budget horizon.For each of the subthemes in the proposed research portfolio, we present the following:  Rationale for the research, including its goals and the processes through which those goals will be reached  Selected research questions  Proposed research activities that will be conducted to answer those questions  Tentative priorities (these priorities might be modified after the priority-setting process that will start in November 2011 [please also see Table 3.1 for a typology of countries or major subnational regions in terms of research areas]) Main partners/alternative suppliers 2 , and CRP2's comparative advantage  Expected outputs, outcomes, and impacts of the research Annex 1 (performance indicators matrix) provides an integrated view of CRP2's contribution to the SLOs at the theme level. Table 2.1 in Section 2 provides the detailed contributions of each of the research subthemes to the SLOs.Policies provide the enabling environment in which development actions occur and investment choices play out. This first theme of CRP2 analyzes which policies and investments might be better formulated to improve food security and accelerate agricultural income growth and, of equal relevance, how. It also evaluates key growth, equity, and sustainability tradeoffs associated with alternative development strategies and scenarios that provide the broader context in which policies and investments are formulated.Theme 1 consists of 4 subthemes aimed at addressing the key policy gaps identified above. Subtheme 1.1 (Foresight and Strategic Scenarios) focuses on designing scenarios reflecting emerging challenges, modeling the consequences of these scenarios, and using the outputs of the modeling to inform policy research, thereby improving existing agricultural policy and investment decisions. The Foresight program will work closely with the GCARD process. The three other subthemes center on policy analysis, with a global objective of enabling smallholders, the rural poor, and other vulnerable groups to participate in income-generating and asset-building growth. Research under Subtheme 1.2 (Macroeconomic, Trade, and Investment Policies) is designed to correct underinvestment and policy and market distortions in the agricultural sector relative to other sectors. Subtheme 1.3 (Production and Technology Policies) will strive to facilitate participation of smallholders, female farmers, rural laborers, and vulnerable groups in agricultural productivity growth and sustainable resource use. Subtheme 1.4 (Social Protection Policies) plans to increase poor people's access to safety nets, food assistance, and cash transfers to reduce their vulnerability to risks.At its core, the Theme 1 policy and investment research agenda involves the design, implementation, and dissemination of public goods tools and analyses that examine and inform strategic agricultural development choices for practitioners and researchers at different spatial levels, including the global and regional context, both macro and micro levels, for both agriculture and nonagricultural sectors.A key area of innovation in the policy and investment agenda of Theme 1 will be spatially explicit, multiple-scale analysis in which more detailed national and subnational analysis can be embedded within and bounded by regional and global contexts.To address these challenges, each of the four subthemes of Theme 1 draws on cutting-edge modeling approaches that permit macro, meso, and micro analysis of agriculture and the broader economy, in an increasingly spatially explicit way. Some examples of the economic models that will be applied are single-commodity, economic surplus models (for example, Dynamic Research EvaluAtion for Management, or DREAM) and economywide, multimarket models (such as IFPRI's national models for African countries); multicommodity, agriculture-focused, global food projection models (for example, the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade, or IMPACT); and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, such as the Global Trade and Analysis Project (GTAP) and Modeling International Relationships in Applied General Equilibrium (MIRAGE). Other research approaches include the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM) and the GeoWiki supported georeferenced data analysis coupled with the application of biophysical models (for example, water resources, crop and livestock systems, and soil carbon balance) that can evaluate the potential marginal physical productivity and natural resource impacts of a range of R&D interventions.Many of these models will be adapted to address specific research questions. For example, gender will be integrated into the research to assess the differential impact of trade and macroeconomic policies on men and women. By enhancing CGE models, econometric estimations will be able to capture impacts disaggregated by the gender of the household head. Building on the GTAP database, a global database in which labor is broken down by gender and skill level at the sectoral level will improve analysis of gendered labor markets.Complementing these modeling approaches, research activities will also involve socioeconomic analyses relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data will increasingly be collected at the level of individuals, disaggregated by sex and age, and at the household and community level. Experimental/randomized and quasi-experimental (matching, regression discontinuity) designs will be used. Where appropriate, survey work will be complemented by experimental/\"games\" work (for example, to elicit preferences and willingness to pay and to understand gender and age differences in response to social protection interventions), as well as web-based \"crowd-sourcing\" techniques for data collection and data and model validation.Over the next half century, the world's population will increase by roughly 50 percent-mostly in poorer countries-and become increasingly urbanized. Aggregate demand for food, feed, fiber, and biofuel products is projected to double. 3 Just keeping pace with this scale of growth would represent an unprecedented global food security challenge, but agriculture is also being subjected to increasing stresses from socioeconomic, environmental, and other drivers of change. Growing competition for water and biomass resources, increasing variability in cereal yields in Sub-Saharan Africa, and slowing productivity growth in the rice-wheat systems of South Asia's Green Revolution belt-one of the world's primary breadbaskets-are all symptomatic of the stresses being faced by major farming and food systems. These changes are rapidly shifting the structure, composition, and distribution of the agricultural production and farming systems that support the livelihoods of smallholder producers and the rural poor. The interplay of underlying drivers 4 has ushered in an era of increasing variability, uncertainty, and risk. Given these challenges, there is an increasing demand for incorporating more strategic foresight into decisionmaking in many areas of agricultural research and agricultural development for the developing world.To help meet this demand, this subtheme will develop a CGIAR Strategic Foresight Platform consisting of sets of spatially explicit data, scenario-building and modeling capacities, and a global network of analysts and partner scientists. This platform will be linked to the mobilization of foresight activities identified through Global Conferences on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) 2010 to bring together a wide range of partners active in foresight considerations at global, regional and national levels. Mobilizing diverse perspectives and models in foresight-linked prioritization of agricultural research for development is recognized as essential to identifying best bet approaches for successful impact from research for development. CRP2 will build on the good fit between the delivery capability of the CGIAR CRP2 and the convening role of GFAR and the actions supported in the GCARD \"forward thinking\" initiative in creating a strategic platform between foresight initiatives that mobilizes a diversity of models, perspectives and analyses. The latter will be brought together with the development of critical analyses and research on specific issues that can be mobilized through the expertise of the CGIAR centers and mobilization of the funding available under CRP2, to address particular scenarios and their implications in different development contexts.The Strategic Foresight Platform resources will  articulate \"plausible\" sets of future trends in drivers of change and their potential interactions;  assess the potential effects of those changes on food security, agricultural growth, welfare improvement, and the environment; and identify policies and investments that will deliver the most beneficial outcomes while limiting undesirable tradeoffs. This work builds on research that IFPRI and other CGIAR centers have conducted for more than a decade and that has already provided useful input into research agendas and policy debates. Many of the individual research activities comprising this subtheme are thus underway, but there has been limited integration across activities. CRP2 provides the multi-institutional framework and funding levels required for true integration of scenario assessment methodologies and innovative data management and modeling to create the foresight platform.This subtheme is designed to help policymakers, researchers, and practitioners set priorities, formulate more effective policies, and better target agricultural investments and interventions in a context of rising variability, uncertainty, and risk. Overall, the goal of this subtheme is to improve the design and cost-effectiveness of policies and investments that can significantly improve future food security, human welfare, and natural resource outcomes at local to global scales.The initial set of research questions from which our core international public goods research agenda will be distilled is as follows: How and where will the socioeconomic, technological, and environmental drivers of global change affect future food security and human well-being?  What stresses will this change impose on social, market, and natural resource systems? What are the implications for international agricultural research policies and priorities and strategic portfolio design, by system, theme, and region?  Which regions and agroecosystems will be most exposed to change, and which food systems and groups of individuals (men, women, better-off, and poor) are most at risk?  What combinations and sequences of enabling policies and agricultural investments hold most promise for advancing global development goals for growing populations under alternative future scenarios?  How can the tradeoffs in meeting different development goals be minimized to promote more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable growth?Any foresight and scenario research must begin with a baseline. Research in this subtheme will therefore involve establishing and maintaining a comprehensive and coherent set of databases quantifying the baseline conditions and trends in key variables (for example, change drivers, evaluation model parameters, and variables and outcome indicators). Through this activity, researchers will forge strategic alliances with groups collecting primary data critical to modeling and impact assessment and invest in activities that fill critical data gaps. Examples of strategic data partnerships to be developed include sentinel data networks designed to generate data on critical policy-relevant indicators, such as the Longitudinal Village Studies of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics; the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Survey initiative for improved agricultural panel data for Africa (LSMS-ISA); and IFPRI's census-type survey of all the households in 26 natural villages in Guizhou Province, China, in 2005China, in , 2007China, in , and 2010. Global agricultural monitoring platforms (CIRAD, FAO) could also be important sources of data. Other strategic data partners will include, but not be limited to, the Consortium on Spatial Information (CSI), HarvestChoice, and Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI).Scenario building often involves many formal and informal and quantitative and qualitative approaches. It includes decisions about appropriate baselines, drivers of change, intervention options to be included or excluded, and a range of technical options conditioned by the specific analytical tool to which the defined scenarios will be applied. This activity will draw on the perspectives of all relevant stakeholders, not only to ensure that the right questions and expectations are being tested, but also to enhance engagement, ownership, and, ultimately, impact. One extremely relevant approach to development and documentation of scenarios (that includes climate change as a driver and technical change as an intervention) is currently being developed and tested by the Global Futures project, which will become part of CRP2. 5 Links through GFAR will also allow open linkage and evaluation of situations and scenarios by different methods such as comparison among diverse foresight evaluations and by cross-comparison with models examining the same questions, but based on assumptions beyond productivity, such as nutrition supply and sustainability. These latter may themselves create research needs in adding data, or locality context.Biophysical models (for example, water resources, crop and livestock systems, soil carbon balance) will be used at a number of scales to generate more disaggregated and reliable insights into the marginal physical productivity and natural resource impacts of a range of R&D interventions. To decide on the required scope and operating scale of such models and ensure their appropriate calibration and validation, researchers will engage in dialogue and collaboration with other CRPs, seeking to maximize synergies across scarce, specialized capacities within the entire CGIAR portfolio (for example, cross-center crop modeling collaboration built into Global Futures and HarvestChoice initiatives). A key factor influencing inter-versus intra-CRP choices in providing modeling capacity is the required degree of coupling between the biophysical and economic models. For example, can the models be run independently or sequentially, simply sharing common data elements, or, as is increasingly the case, are they best dynamically linked in the simulation process? Such choices are also relevant across biophysical models (for example, optimum degree of coupling between crop and livestock productivity models). All major biophysical models will be formulated in a geo-referenced framework and will be harmonized as much as possible to make analytical results more coherent. For instance, they will draw from common databases on climate, soil, terrain, production, demographics.To evaluate the economic, environmental, and welfare consequences of change, we will also apply a range of analytical approaches, from single-commodity, economic surplus models to multicommodity, agriculture-sector-focused, global food projection models, and CGE models. The models of choice for addressing specific research questions will depend on, among other things, the geographic scale of relevance, the nature of the interventions to be evaluated, and the range of relevant outcome indicators required. This research will build on the current intercenter effort involving IFPRI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), ICRISAT, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and others, through links with the Global Futures for Agriculture project and with the HarvestChoice project. Much of the research will involve better assessing environmental and welfare outcomes and analyzing gender-disaggregated impacts.We will develop tools to improve our ability to assemble and compare scenario results and to examine the impacts on (1) different intervention goals, such as income growth, poverty reduction, food security, improved nutrition, and resource sustainability; (2) micro-versus macro-level interventions; and(3) key policy and investment strategies, such as public versus private, rural versus urban, and on-farm versus off-farm.While short-term priorities will be based on commitments in the existing research pipeline, the strategic priorities of this subtheme will be increasingly aligned to delivering on the System Level Outcomes (SLOs) prescribed in the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework, and new issues as they are identified, relying heavily on the consultative processes facilitated by GFAR as part of its contribution to the overall GCARD Roadmap. Within these system-level frameworks and mechanisms, we will regularly review research, outreach, and capacity-building priorities to ensure that available resources are being effectively used and that the Strategic Foresight agenda properly reflects changing client needs.As a general principle, highest priority will be given to  maintaining and developing baselines, driver scenarios, and foresight evaluations that address the strategic policy and investment knowledge needs of the CGIAR and its primary stakeholders;  a Strategic Foresight Report and organizing a Foresight Conference on at least a biannual basis; and  a web portal to deliver Foresight research products. a greater range of strategic evaluation studies would be conducted;  more ambitious model, data functionality and reliability goals would be established;  the Foresight Report and Conference would be delivered annually;  outreach products would be more diverse, targeting different research, practitioner, and media audiences; and  a more extensive set of user capacity-building products and services would be developed.At all funding levels, high priority will be placed on partnering opportunities with the Foresight Academy proposed as part of the GCARD Roadmap. The Academy concept is aimed at fostering and accelerating professional growth of national and regional strategic planning capacities, and as such could represent a major tool for meeting the outreach expectations for this subtheme (GFAR 2011) (see section on Partnerships below).As is the case for other subthemes and themes of CRP2, a range of client, partner, and stakeholder groups have important interests in shaping, co-implementing, or utilizing the core research outputs and findings of this subtheme. However, unique to this subtheme is the direct interest of other CGIAR-related bodies or processes in the Strategic Foresight activity and outputs: SRF: By definition, Strategic Foresight capacities and analysis are an integral part of the SRF process. Indeed much of the data and analysis used in the current SRF was supplied by members of the proposed Strategic Foresight team. The revised Consortium SRF that will be developed in the coming three to five years (SRF 2011) will play an even greater role in achieving a more effective Consortium agenda for delivering on the four SLOs. Subtheme 1.1 will play a major analytical role in the development of all future SRFs. ISPC: The ISPC has specific, mandated responsibilities with regard to CGIAR Strategic Foresight. It is tasked with providing the Fund Council and the Funders Forum with \"foresight advice on trends and emerging issues, as well as potential strategies of addressing them related to the CGIAR Strategy and ResultsFramework. In undertaking this role the ISPC will act as commissioner and coordinator of any required foresight studies, drawing on expertise within the Consortium and beyond, as appropriate, to undertake them.\" Early dialogue with the ISPC Chair and members suggest their focus will be in identifying key, emerging scientific issues and assess how best for the CGIAR to broach them. The ISPC will not have the resources to undertake its own modeling work and is more likely to commission studies to be undertaken by the CRP2's Strategic Foresight team. The IPSC sees the role of CRP2 as \"evaluating plausible scenarios with regard to the impact of various research outputs on the SLOs, and then using these analyses to help guide and prioritize the CGIAR research portfolio, and the global research portfolio more generally\" (Cassman, personal communication, April 18, 2011). GFAR: As part of the overall GCARD Roadmap, GFAR has identified several roles and goals related to improving national and regional capacities in strategic foresight. These are being taken forward as a collective action, including through CRP2 and IFPRI, termed the forward thinking initiative, this is supporting biannual meetings among those concerned with foresight studies, to enable specific common issues to be addressed from a variety of perspectives at global and regional levels. It will be crucial for the CRP2 Strategic Foresight subtheme to forge strong partnerships with GFAR, particularly in two areas: (1) CRP2 will take advantage of and contribute to the various stakeholder consultative forums that GFAR convenes and facilitates; and (2) CRP2 will play a role in GFAR's activities to develop strategic foresight capacities through, for example, foresight \"academy consortia.\" CRP2 might, for example, help develop training modules, provide relevant data and analytical tools and support, or engage interns or academy students in evaluation studies. We plan early dialogue with GFAR to develop partnership ideas and plan for a set of strongly mutually beneficial outputs.More broadly, the set of proposed partners can be summarized as follows: CGIAR system management and oversight entities responsible for planning, monitoring, and evaluating the priorities, investments, and impacts of the entire system (SRF, ISPC, and GFAR);  other CRPs and other themes of CRP2 that need to undertake periodic strategic analyses from a more focused regional, thematic, commodity, or system perspective;  participants in regional and international agricultural research and development processes and institutions, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), whether or not these are part of a formal GFAR process;  foresight and strategic research groups in national agricultural research systems such as CAAS, Embrapa, and ICAR; and  public and private funders of international agricultural research and agricultural development efforts (for example, bilateral donors, multilateral banks, private companies, and philanthropic organizations). Research partnering with these groups will leverage and extend existing knowledge bases and experiences of CGIAR centers-for example, spatial targeting, systems productivity modeling and impact-assessment tools, databases, and expertise. A new cross-center/cross-CRP Strategic Foresight community and mechanism, when established, will support strategic ex ante evaluation capacity development across the CGIAR (and appropriate partners) for the purposes of priority-setting, targeting, and investment decisionmaking.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 1.1 are the following (in alphabetical order): CRP2 will link teams and individuals working on foresight, targeting, and priority-setting issues across CRPs, and in so doing strengthen and deepen the Consortium's internal capacity to generate and act on strategic information in the planning and designing of its research portfolio. Thus, the knowledge, tools, and data generated in this process will not only serve to enhance the capacity of individual CRPs to better target and prioritize their own work, but will also provide consistent information for Consortiumwide evaluation. This cross-CRP evaluation platform that will be delivered by CRP2 can serve as a broad accounting framework for assessing the coherence and consistency of impact expectations across individual CRPs.One example of how CRP2 will foster cross-CRP engagement and the nurturing of a Consortiumwide community-of-practice will be to convene (annually or biannually, depending on funding) a Strategic Foresight Conference that will bring together CRP specialists and their research partners working on these issues. They will present latest findings, review methods and data, and participate in this venue for technical capacity-building workshop sessions.There are several reasons why hosting a world-class strategic foresight capacity and network in CRP2 makes sense compared to relying on external suppliers: It provides an ongoing platform for foresight and scenarios research to frame and analyze foresight and allocation questions for the Consortium.  The cross-CRP evaluation platform provided by CRP2 will serve, as noted above, as an \"accounting framework\" and reality check across the expectations of impact from individual CRPs.  CRP2 institutions have collaborated for a long time directly as partners with most of the leading alternative suppliers listed above.  The strategic planning and strategic directions are understood and owned by the Consortium and its staff.  CRP2 modeling tools are being regularly expanded and updated, have been used for many years by CG centers, and are contributing to other past and future global foresight exercises, including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, GEO-IV and GEO-V, the IAASTD, AgMIP, and others.The outputs of this research will include the following:  Relevant, documented, and accessible datasets and scenarios showing likely drivers of change in the coming decades; how changes are likely to affect future agricultural production, food security, and poverty; and which policies and investments will help deliver the most beneficial outcomes  Analytical and capacity-building tools for scenario and foresight assessments of key partners in developing countries and regional and subregional organizations  Qualitative and quantitative knowledge products, including peer-reviewed scientific publications that will advance understanding of strategic assessments in this complex global environment  An actively supported Strategic Foresight community of practice, served by a web portal that continually provides information on strategic scenarios and global conditions, that will work in partnership with GFAR and will plan and support a biannual (or annual) Foresight Conference and Strategic Foresight Report These outputs will provide a picture of the most serious challenges the world faces in combating food insecurity, poverty, and environmental degradation. The datasets, tools, and projections will help to guide strategic investment in the CGIAR and, through partnership with GFAR, in NARSs. They will thus make important contributions to the effort of developing effective policies and investments in a rapidly changing and risky environment at both global and national levels. International development donor organizations have expressed demand for such data and projections on the priority needs and potential for agricultural research and other policy reforms, so we are confident that they will use the outputs of this work to increase the effectiveness of agriculture-related investments.The main outcomes of Subtheme 1.1 will be the following: Greater capacity of targeted decisionmakers and policy and investment practitioners to access, interpret, and use strategic foresight knowledge products and findings Growing influence of strategy foresight products and findings on policy and investment decisions  Increasing interest and understanding of general audience and media  Cohesive relationships and understanding of technical expertise among CGIAR centers and other partners  Enhanced relationships and increased cooperation with the private sector and public donorsThe contributions of Subtheme 1.1 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.Macroeconomic, trade, and nonagricultural policies have important roles for sustainable and pro-poor agricultural growth in developing countries. The impact of these policies on food security and small producers' livelihoods has increased in recent years as a result of increased globalization, international financial crises, global macroeconomic imbalances, and differential growth patterns between industrialized and developing countries. Moreover, a critical constraint in promoting pro-poor agricultural growth remains lack of adequate public investment.Thus, this subtheme will analyze both the general policy environment and the variety of country contexts in order to identify the macroeconomic, international trade, public and private investment, and nonagricultural policies that will maximize the contributions of agriculture and the rural economy to food security, poverty reduction and smallholders' incomes, and sustainable resource management in different types of developing countries. It will investigate how to better tailor domestic fiscal policy and public investments to include the agricultural sector as a key player in the development process, by reducing the bottlenecks faced by the sector, with a special emphasis on the rural poor and disadvantaged groups. This research will examine the complementarities between sound macroeconomic and trade policies, on one side, and government investment, on the other, through a series of strategically selected country-level studies. It will also examine options for prioritizing, sequencing, and financing public investments; test the effectiveness of public spending compared with other policy interventions; and support institutions in decentralizing public investment implementation. Equally important, this subtheme will address capacity building to improve the efficiency of the agencies that provide public goods and services, and develop tools for monitoring and evaluating public investment and strengthening capacity in the developing countries to enable them to conduct their own impact evaluations.The CGIAR is uniquely positioned to address these issues. No other institution has the clear mission and the expertise to analyze how these macroeconomic, trade, and investment policies may affect global food security and small producers' income in an increasingly complex world. How should national and global trade and macroeconomic policy agendas be shaped to ensure inclusive agricultural growth, poverty reduction and food security?  What is the impact of international migration, foreign direct investments, and international cooperation on food security and poverty reduction?  What role should agriculture play in economic growth, poverty alleviation, and food security in different types of developing countries?  What are the priorities for public spending and the appropriate sequencing of public resources to achieve food security and improve small producers' income efficiently, and how do these priorities and sequences change over time and across space?  How can institutional mechanisms and public finance responsibilities of different tiers of government be designed to ensure efficient use and effective allocation of public resources?Identifying more effective international and national macroeconomic and trade policies Macroeconomic factors (monetary, fiscal, trade, and exchange rate policies) and trade openness increasingly shape trade specialization and have consequences for poor people in developing countries. This research will examine their impacts and their interrelations with agricultural, climate change, and biofuel policies in developed countries. A dynamic CGE model including a large set of policy tools (macroeconomic factors, energy, land use, and trade) and accounting for household heterogeneity will be used to study how shocks in world markets affect households based on the structure of their consumption, the source of their income, and their dynamic reaction to these shocks (for example, migration, trade specialization and investment in education). Researchers will also use an enhanced model and database to examine the impacts of trade policies on men and women at the national and household levels. By providing objective analysis of how global macroeconomic and trade issues affect poor people in developing countries, this research will generate knowledge that can be used by developing-country delegates and other stakeholders in international negotiations and various arenas (G20, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and multilateral development banks). This research will also identify (1) the policies and investments required to promote equitable economic development; and (2) the international institutional setting needed to support social inclusion. While other organizations focus on similar general topics (for instance, WTO on trade, IMF on macroeconomics, World Bank on development policies in general), CRP2 looks at these issues from the point of view of food security, poverty, and sustainable agriculture. It offers the unique combination of a specific mandate; a focus on research-based capacity building in the public, private, civil society, and academic sectors; institutional and political independence; adequate scale; and recognized research capabilities.Researchers will explore how trade and trade policy can benefit developing countries by encouraging greater specialization or diversification. They will complement the consistent analysis provided by CGE modeling with more flexible models that deal with the heterogeneity of farms and households, and they will integrate detailed information on transportation costs 6 and value chains. Spatial, partial equilibrium models for key commodities will be developed to capture detailed information about specific value chains, drawing on data from commodity-specific research done in other CGIAR centers. Lastly, political economy models will investigate how endogenous processes have resulted in heterogeneous trade policies and how these policies affect poor men and women. Researchers will identify optimal country-level trade policies in situations where supply of agricultural products is constrained and provide new models and product or market-level parameter estimations that other researchers can use. Attention will be paid to the consequences of specific specialization patterns on gender and to the use of trade policies to mitigate gender inequalities. A global database of domestic trade margins and transportation costs within and across borders will be set up to support the modeling work. This research will be performed in close association with the work on value chains (see Theme 3) to improve understanding of the different stages separating the producer from the consumer. The modeling will assess how imperfect price transmission affects trade policy outcomes. These results will help to define infrastructure or competition policies that can reinforce the expected gains from, or mitigate the potential costs of, trade liberalization and accrue gains for consumers and producers.Poor people have only limited capacity to respond to adverse shocks in food prices. Researchers will develop methodologies to identify excessive price volatility in global food prices, identify the groups likely to be most negatively affected by price volatility (Ivanic and Martin 2008;Robles and Torero 2010), and propose policies to mitigate excessive volatility and its impacts. The research team will explore the definition and scope of volatility relevant for producers and consumers and develop methodologies to identify how price volatility is transferred from international markets to domestic markets. Researchers will also study the role of trade and trade policies in managing price fluctuations in agricultural markets to help design policies that balance the needs of agricultural producers, poor consumers, and industries that use agricultural products as inputs (Díaz-Bonilla, Diao, and Robinson 2004). We will also examine how a country's trade patterns and reliance on foreign markets affects domestic price volatility, and develop a stochastic analytical framework to capture these random shocks and the behavior of private and public agents in this context. We will take account of the policies (including export and import restrictions) set up by some countries to stabilize domestic prices, which potentially also export volatility to world markets and thus to smallholders in other countries (Bouët and Laborde 2010)-an important issue for ongoing global trade negotiations and governance.In many developing countries, remittances of international migrants contribute significantly to household incomes and government revenues. Aside from remittances and impacts on labor markets, migration can also encourage trade flows arising from new social networks. International migration, differentiated by skill level and by gender, affects the supply of domestic labor and may have differentiated impacts on the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors. Research activities based on econometric estimation and global CGE modeling will involve investigating the mechanisms through which international migration of male and female workers and remittances affect household income and structure, the agricultural sector, and national economies through changes in domestic labor markets, income transfers, and their role in financing the current account deficit. The research outputs will include policy options that will help international migration to ensure income growth and stability for poor households and limit gender disparities. A global, gendered database on migration and remittances will be developed to support the analysis and provided as a public good to other researchers.The proposed research will also analyze how foreign direct investment (FDI) (and its associated effects on macroeconomic variables) and technology transfer affect the agricultural sector in developing countries. Research will explore how FDI affects the economics and the political economy of trade negotiations and trade liberalization. Foreign direct investment in land and its consequences for land markets and the agricultural sector will also be examined. A global database on FDI will be developed from external data and linked to the global CGE model. The main output will be knowledge to guide policy formulation regarding the mechanisms through which FDI affects agricultural households, the agricultural sector, and developing economies.Lessons from cross-country comparative research will illuminate the different pathways and conditions of successful development approaches. Based on a typology of developing countries, we will examine the factors and strategies that have led to successful or failed rural and agricultural development outcomes in each type of country. We will investigate countries' patterns of adaptation and advancement, as well as how changes in demographic structure affect household agricultural production and labor decisions, agricultural productivity, technology use, and food security. Activities such as South-South learning workshops and field study tours will provide opportunities for researchers and government officials from African, Asian, and Latin American countries to discuss and compare development experiences.The proposed research will further identify multiple pathways for the rural poor to move out of poverty traps. Building on CGIAR research on rural farm and nonfarm employment opportunities (Haggblade, Hazell, and Reardon 2007) and on a conceptual framework 7 to understand the policy options needed to promote sustainable rural employment, researchers will examine conditions and policies that broaden income generation and job creation for women, and the role of formal and informal sectors in this process. Through a macro-spatial, micro-integrated analytical framework, this research will identify constraints to creating employment opportunities for different types of countries and different household groups. It will also design growth scenarios based on agricultural growth targets at the sector or commodity level set by national governments or defined in commodity-oriented CRPs. A similar approach has been applied to selected African countries within the CAADP framework (for example, Diao et al. 2011).Researchers will examine the role of small and medium-sized town development in rural growth and income creation, especially in agroprocessing and nonagricultural activities, and the policy options that facilitate the development of these activities. Besides, they will look at the role of migration and remittances in rural development and identify policies that support the expansion of pro-poor nonfarm activities, and especially that increase women's participation in nonfarm activities. Ways to develop regionally based public services, urban land-use planning, and rural infrastructure for water and energy will be identified. Finally, research will assess barriers to market entry for small enterprises in rural areas. The work will cover micro, spatial, and economywide aspects of rural-urban linkages in an integrated way.Many governments and their development partners have expressed a need to prioritize their scarce public resources, but they lack the information needed to translate this principle into action. 8 Building on the expertise the CGIAR centers already possess, this research activity will conduct econometric analysis of the relative returns to different types of public investments in agriculture (for example, research, extension, and irrigation) and rural areas (for example, roads, energy, education, and health) at national, subnational, and regional levels. Based on these estimated returns, it will estimate the public financial resources required to achieve specific development impacts, such as reducing poverty by 50 percent or achieving an 8 percent yearly average rate of agricultural growth. This activity will also study the poverty and rural development implications of financing public investment from different sources. The current literature does not explain how decentralization reforms have affected the intergovernmental allocation of budgets for agriculture and how these allocations have affected performance in the sector. This activity will place particular weight on the role and impact of agricultural budgets in the context of decentralization reforms. It will also investigate the relative outcomes associated with the level or participation of women in the decentralization process.To our knowledge, no analysis has been undertaken on the effect of disaggregated public spending on different sections of the income distribution in developing countries. Such analysis is critically needed to evaluate the quality of public spending as a pro-distribution instrument and in targeting the poor. This research activity will (1) measure the impact of the level and composition of public spending on income distribution; and (2) estimate various indicators of distribution within the household sector itself as a function of fiscal variables, while controlling for other factors. We will conduct critical studies of implemented policies on public expenditures to better understand potential underlying structural problems, to develop potential solutions, and to estimate the budgets needed to implement such policies.The success of this research will ultimately depend on developing countries' capacity to implement effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems for public investments. The types of partnerships that will be built for this research reflect the relative capacities in different subregions: in the subregions that consist of mostly small countries with relatively weak national capacities, regional and cross-country analyses and partnerships will be more cost-effective than country-by-country approaches.Methodologies developed in large countries with higher capacity, such as China and India (Fan 2008), will have to be refined and adapted. Tools and frameworks for data collection and M&E will be regularly updated, as will global databases on public and private investment in agricultural research and development (such as ASTI and Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System, or ReSAKSS).The research activities comprised in this subtheme are closely linked. In the event of a shortfall in funding, it will be important to maintain the ongoing research activities and prioritize the regions and countries identified in the typology. the role of global macroeconomic, trade, migration, and FDI on poverty and food security in developing countries;  identifying the pathways through which domestic macroeconomic, trade, and nonagricultural policies affect agricultural growth, employment, food security, and small producers' income at the national, local, and household levels;  prioritizing, sequencing public investment, and improving its efficiency.Many research activities have global relevance. In terms of regional priorities, this subtheme, like CRP2 as a whole, will focus on Africa and South Asia.We plan to include various partners at different stages of the research cycle: institutions with experience on agricultural and rural development, which can contribute expertise in economic modeling, international trade, analysis of public investment, and gender analysis; potential partner institutions include African Growth and Development Policy (AGRODEP) modeling consortium, the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Research Network, GTAP, and the African Union;  researchers and policy analysts in developing countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, and Vietnam among many others, at the national, regional, and subregional levels, with whom collaboration will generate the policy and contextual relevance of the research, as well as help to develop cross-and incountry analytical capacity;  civil-society groups, intergovernmental institutions, and private-sector advocacy groups (for example, the Gender Responsive Budgeting [GRB] initiative of United Nations Development Fund for Women [UNIFEM], the International Budget Partnership, umbrella agricultural cooperative unions, and chambers of commerce), which are the primary targets of the research findings;  government bodies, including ministries of finance and agriculture and parliamentary standing committees on agriculture, as well as donor agencies, particularly in CSSP countries; and  international and regional development agencies, such as the World Bank, FAO, IFAD, ADB, African Development Bank (AfDB), and IDB, that can use findings in setting their investment priorities and improving the efficiency of their investments. 9The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 The main comparative advantages of CRP2 with respect to these alternative suppliers are the following: A specific focus on how macroeconomic, trade and investment policy interacts with food security, poverty reduction, and agricultural and rural development  Large datasets in global trade, economywide modeling and public investment related to agriculture, rural development, and food security  History of building national capacity facilitated by large presence in and strong collaboration with national institutes in developing countries  Ongoing direct research input and policy advice provided to G20 and WTO platforms and negotiations  Existing collaboration with many of the alternative suppliers listed aboveSpecific outputs and/or outcomes of each activity have been identified above. This research will provide the analytical basis and country-level capacity to support the design and adoption of macroeconomic, international trade, and nonagricultural policies, public investment, and fiscal policies that take agricultural growth and rural development into account for the more efficient functioning of the food, nutrition, and agricultural systems at the subnational, country, regional, and global level. This subtheme will produce readily applicable tools for developing-country governments. These tools include (1) typologies to assess countries' deficiencies, opportunities and risks both at the international and national levels; (2) specific simulations to gauge the effect of macroeconomic and trade policies; (3) a body of studies pointing out where and how to invest scarce resources to boost the agricultural sector under alternative conditions; (4) methodologies and tools for monitoring and evaluating public investment, and (5) databases on public expenditures and investment in agriculture (for example, research, irrigation) and nonagriculture (for example, education, health, transportation, defense, social security) that will be made publicly available and downloadable via the ASTI, ReSAKSS, and AGRODEP websites. 10 Research results will be reported in scholarly and policy-oriented publications.The results of this subtheme will inform developing countries on  how to improve their trade negotiations through sounder evidence of the impact of different reforms;  how to design macroeconomic, trade, and nonagricultural policies for pro-poor agricultural growth and for improving small producers' income including women farmers; and  how to make investments more efficient, including better budgetary allocation policies across sectors and within agriculture. Typically, in international negotiations, the interests of the poorest and most vulnerable are neglected. Sound research to reduce the asymmetry of information among stakeholders is a key element in shifting policies toward a more inclusive outcome and in ensuring that the concerns of the poorest are addressed directly or indirectly through specific redistributive policies. Although the global governance agenda will likely remain contentious in the years ahead, the research activities proposed and the evidence and options provided by the modeling innovations at the product-and country-level will play an important role in informing the debate and policymakers.CRP2 will work closely with various national governments and stakeholders to ensure that CRP2's analyses on pro-poor macroeconomic and nonagricultural policies are used in formulating policies, strategies, and decisions for achieving pro-poor agricultural growth and increasing small producers' income. Partnerships with national collaborators and think tanks will ensure that research results are used by various stakeholders.With regard to more efficient investments, the research outcomes will include positive influences on public finance policies in decentralized countries, such as policies affecting the revenue and expenditure assignments of different tiers of government (local, state, and central/federal) in agriculture and other sectors key to agricultural and rural development. These also include policies on the design of intergovernmental transfers and systems to monitor the spending performance of the different tiers of government.The contributions of Subtheme 1.2 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.As recently reaffirmed by the CGIAR Stripe Review of Social Sciences, the effort to enhance agricultural productivity has been and should remain at the core of CGIAR research, comparative advantage, and expertise. The goal of this subtheme is to increase productivity and sustainability of agricultural production systems 11 in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the face of growing food demand; increasing scarcity of natural resources, particularly land and water; and other emerging drivers of global change. To contribute to this goal, research under this subtheme will identify production and technology policies that enable pro-poor, gender-equitable and sustainable growth in agricultural productivity. This work will also seek to increase research capacity related to food, agriculture, and rural development, in partnership with governments, the private sector, and civil society. Research activities will investigate policies that support aspects of sustainable agriculture, from germplasm to natural resource management. Using a variety of tools and data sources (see Section 6), researchers will look at market-agent interactions, biophysicalenvironment linkages, and institutional and policy constraints to assess and identify policies that support sustainable agricultural productivity growth. Given that land, water, and energy use are interlinked, and agricultural technology policies are often associated with increased energy use, our assessments of policies on sustainable agricultural productivity improvement will also consider the potential impacts on renewable energy sources. Because effective production and technology policies need supportive governance systems and institutions, research under this subtheme will build on Theme 2 research.We will answer the following critical research questions: What policies and strategies can facilitate the conservation, development, dissemination, and effective use and management of plant and animal genetic resources and improved crop cultivars and animal breeds?  What policies and strategies can sustainably increase agricultural productivity along the land-water-energy-food nexus?  What policies and strategies can increase technology dissemination, delivery, and adoption?  What policies and strategies can expand opportunities to diversify agricultural and nonagricultural incomes while also sustaining the natural resource base and enhancing biodiversity? In each of these areas, we will conduct ex ante and ex post impact assessments and analyze key factors such as the comparative advantage across locations and production systems; the roles of the public, private, and civil society sectors; and the contribution of farmers, communities, and consumers to the innovation process. We will also place particular emphasis on assessing the suitability of different technologies for women, producers in remote areas, landless farmers, and farmers without tenure security.Research activities on how to better develop, disseminate, exchange, use, and manage improved crops and animal breeds and neglected and underutilized species (NUSs) will continue to be conducted in collaboration with the commodity-based CGIAR centers and CRP3, within programs such as the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). Research will focus on both micro-and macro-level analysis of the development and deployment of improved cultivars and animal breeds-a fundamental part of the CGIAR mandate, a comparative advantage of the CGIAR network of centers and programs, and a historically proven success that requires continued attention on the policy side.At the micro-level, the research will focus on understanding firm-and farm-level responses to the development and deployment of improved cultivars and breeds, and on the legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks that influence these responses. At the macro-level, the research will focus on the impact of national and regional policies on supply and demand for major agricultural commodities and NUSs and the food security implications of these policies. Given persistent low productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, concerted efforts will be made to expand research in this region to enhance capacity and policy development with governments, NARSs, producer organizations, and public-private partnerships. National case studies and cross-country comparisons of activities related to commodity crops and NUSs derive lessons from experiences in Asia and Latin America and encourage knowledge transfer to Sub-Saharan Africa.An important part of this work will be to support the sustainable conservation and use of NUSs. 12 This activity will examine the constraints faced by these species along the value chain, support policies that promote their cultivation and use, and study the roles of women in conserving, developing, using, and earning income from NUSs.Another important component of this work will focus on improving policies related to the functioning of seed systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In many countries, market liberalization has encouraged the emergence of commercial and nongovernmental seed producers alongside the entry of domestic and foreign technology seed developers. However, public policies and investments designed to encourage the movement of genetic materials, information, and technologies between public researchers, technology companies, seed producers, and farmers often fail to improve smallholders' access to improved seeds. Effective policies related to seed access, seed regulation, intellectual property rights, seed trade harmonization, fiscal incentives for research and development, management of public innovation, and compliance with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) are critical. Our research will address this topic across a range of countries, regions, crops, traits, and technologies.In the coming years, given current projections for population and economic growth and climate change, maximizing agricultural output while minimizing resource input and adverse impacts on ecosystems and the environment will be crucial. This research activity will focus on policies in support of maximizing agricultural productivity under all natural resource constraints, including land, water, and energy, to increase food production sustainably. Up to now, most agricultural technology policies have incorporated only part of this nexus (for example, technology policies on land management might focus on the fertilizer-land productivity nexus but might not assess associated greenhouse gas emissions or water uses). This research will identify policies that can shape the development, dissemination, and marketing of technologies to increase agricultural productivity using more resource-efficient methods and multifunctional technologies, as well as policies that will make these technologies more accessible to poor women and men. New research on low-external-input agriculture, integrated soil nutrient management, and energy-saving low tillage systems will study the productivity of these practices and their income potential in regions. Tradeoffs between sustainability and productivity associated with low-energy waterlifting and application devices will be identified and researched, in close collaboration with CRP5. Many of the technologies that reduce pressure on natural resources already exist-such as integrated soil fertility management, technologies and economic incentives to conserve irrigation water use, and policies and incentives to promote carbon-sequestering practices-but adoption rates are low. This research activity will therefore continue to identify bottlenecks that hinder technology uptake and strengthen capacity to enhance the adoption of combined, resource-use efficient land, water and energy management strategies.This research will also assess how to reduce adverse impacts of sustainable renewable energy production, such as biofuels, on the natural resource base (land, water, and energy), and on national and global food security. Some studies have been ongoing in this area, such as the \"Biofuels and the Poor\" project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but more research needs to be done to assess the most effective policies in this area. Assessing the food-land-water-energy nexus also requires new research on policies to encourage consumers to promote on-farm fuelwood production and improved stoves as part of the shift from unsustainable fuelwood to sustainable biomass or modern fuels, as well as the cost of this transition. We will use experimental approaches and randomized controlled approaches to identify policies, investments, and innovative market and financing mechanisms that can help facilitate organizations and agreements, including the CBD (http://www.cbd.int/recommendation/sbstta/?id=10689), the International Treaty for PGRFA (ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/agp/planttreaty/gb3/gb3w16e.pdf), the FAO Global Plan of Action for PGRFA (http://www.globalplanofaction.org/id/gpa/), and the Chennai Platform for Action (http://www.underutilizedspecies.org/documents/PUBLICATIONS/chennai_declaration_en.pdf). this transition. We will also consider the significance of this shift for agriculture, agroforestry, ecosystem health, and human health. This activity will work closely with CRP5 and CRP7. The research will be implemented in selected Asian countries where energy and resource use is high, as well as in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where resource intensity is relatively low. Analyses will be implemented across scales, production systems, and regions-using econometric and simulation model-based quantitative analyses combined with qualitative analyses-and include the study of impacts and policy options for female producers.Moving along the scientific frontier from biotechnology to nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and other advanced scientific applications allows for more rapid development of plant and animal varieties. Biotechnology and GM crop research is rapidly providing applications to enhance yields, nutrition, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, or other desirable traits. Similarly, nanotechnologies offer considerable potential for helping the poor-for example, by increasing plant input use, raising animal vaccine efficacy, and reducing postharvest losses. Synthetic biology and other advanced applications hold similar promise. However, gaps in research prevent their potential from being realized. These gaps include: weak biosafety regulatory systems in developing countries; a limited analysis of the constraints in access, knowledge, and affordability; insufficient investment in risk assessment and management; questions about market acceptance; and limited attention to intellectual property rights. This research will assess food-and nutrition-related science and technology policy, with attention to the socioeconomic opportunities and risks of advanced applications for resource-poor farmers, food-insecure consumers, biodiversity, and trade. It will emphasize innovations that are safe and accessible to poor people. The research specifically aims to identify and evaluate the benefits and risks of advanced applications for the poor, to analyze the distribution of risks and benefits by gender and occupation, and to help anticipate the emerging institutional and marketing challenges specific to these new technologies. Work will include (1) ex ante assessments and research prioritization of applications for the poor in specific countries or commodities (supporting NARS involvement); (2) ex post evaluations of agricultural and food technologies adopted in the emerging economies that are leading in this field (Brazil, China, India, and South Africa); and (3) analyses of the governance, institutional, and market constraints and solutions to enable the most promising high-benefit/low-risk technologies to reach and be used by the poor at a global, regional, national, or subnational level. For major staples, this work will be done in collaboration with CRP3, but we will also consider how the methods already in use for major crops can be applied to overcome constraints affecting NUSs. This work will also address the regulatory reforms necessary for farmers and consumers in developing countries to benefit from GM crops and other advanced applications, building on the integrated program of research, capacity development, and outreach of the Program on Biosafety Systems (PBS), and leveraging partnerships with advanced research institutes working on relevant applications. The project will examine gender-differentiated issues that may affect adoption and use of GM crops in developing countries.This research activity will assess the costs and benefits of alternative science, technology, and innovation policy and marketing strategies, including those related to biotechnology, high-input technology, conservation agriculture, mainstream agricultural practices, precision agriculture, organic agriculture, crop/livestock/tree interactions, enhanced use of NUSs, and associated standards and quality-assurance systems, such as certification methods. We will look into how to make such policies and strategies more accessible to women and low-income farmers by (1) analyzing their potential payoffs, in terms of yield growth and food security, taking into account the spatial variability of crop production, climate, soil, and projected climate change; (2) assessing the market-level consequences of broad adoption of these technologies and associated policies at a regional and global scale; and (3) identifying suitable governance systems and policy frameworks (in collaboration with Theme 2).While this type of analysis cuts across several CGIAR CRPs, the activity described here is unique in scope. First, the activity addresses policy and institutional issues in a manner that is holistic and systems-based rather than crop specific, taking an integrated macro-level policy view of micro-level evidence on crops, traits, resources, policies, and institutions. This means that research on individual technologies will allow for analysis of interplays between policies on commodities (e.g., minimum support prices for food staples), policies on external inputs (e.g., subsidies on fertilizer, machinery and equipment), policies on seeds and traits (e.g., public and private investment in hybrids and GM crops conducive to ZT and RCTs), and so on. Second, this activity will provide more comprehensive and crosscutting approaches across farming systems and technologies to identifying opportunities for women. While this area of inquiry has received some focus in the past, intensification and mainstreaming of gender-related analytical work will be an essential component of future work. Third, this activity builds on work conducted at IFPRI, other CGIAR centers, and partner institutions under programs such as the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative, which compiles, analyzes, and publicizes data on institutional developments, investments, and capacity in agricultural R&D at national, regional and global levels; Harvest Choice, which generates knowledge products to help guide strategic investments to improve the well-being of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through more productive and profitable farming; and other established research initiatives. The integrated assessments described here will be implemented across all developing countries and regions. Partners include NARSs; private companies in biotech, hybrid seed, inputs, processing, and packaging; CGIAR commodity centers; government regulatory authorities and focal points; farmer organizations; women's organizations; trade organizations; and regional associations in Africa and Southeast Asia.Historically, models of extension have typically been top-down and expensive to implement. More recent models are demand-driven and pluralistic (involving public and private sectors, NGOs, and civil society), and they focus on helping farmers learn how to obtain information on a wide variety of services rather than simply training them to use available production technologies. However, there is little systematic analysis of the effectiveness of these new models. Important questions remain about how extension and advisory services function and what roles different actors should play in supporting innovative extension approaches. More also needs to be learned about appropriate roles for public, private, and civil society organizations in pluralistic extension systems designed to support value-chain development-and how these roles vary by commodity, land use system, gender, and the target group's level of wealth. Anderson (2007) has called new extension approaches \"a chronically under-researched field.\" This activity will make advances in five areas for which satisfactory outcomes have yet to be achieved in developing countries: Understanding how rural communities obtain and spread new technologies and information and how extension services can make the best use of existing individuals and networks  Determining the key factors affecting the impact of innovative extension approaches, such as volunteer farmer extension programs, farmer field schools, rural resource centers, and short message service (SMS) information systems  Assessing the impact of innovative extension approaches by commodity, land use system, gender, social setting, and region  Identifying how extension systems can support value-chain development  Identifying effective strategies for reaching both women and men and ensuring that they are able to obtain and use the information This research will address the challenge of reaching female farmers. The number of female extension agents remains low, and extension services are often biased toward men. Even programs oriented toward women fail to adequately consider and address the heterogeneity of female farmers. Strategies need to be context-specific to reach women effectively and should involve a comprehensive diagnostic approach to identifying diversity among female farmers (Quisumbing and Pandolfelli 2010). This activity will be implemented in two to three countries each in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in close consultation with CRP3 and CRP6, the private sector, NGOs, farmer organizations, and NARSs, as appropriate. A key partner at the global level will be the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services.Agricultural and livelihood diversification can be an effective strategy for improving food security, increasing incomes, and coping with risk and uncertainty, particularly in the face of climate change. This research will focus on what enterprise types and combinations (for example, NUSs, legumes, livestock, and trees) can improve poor farmers' incomes and identify the technology policy and capacity needed to support these enterprises. Economies of scale may dictate that greater efficiency and higher incomes are achieved when individual households and even communities specialize in particular enterprises. Therefore, the research will assess trade-offs between specialization and diversity by area, commodity, social setting, and degree of market access, and it will highlight the advantages of such strategies and policies for female farmers and the poor.Other research will study the potential of private-public partnerships to facilitate nonfarm employment and agricultural income diversification and determine the key factors that contribute to effective linkages between the public and private sector and how they vary across space and by commodity. This activity will also assess approaches to implementing private-public partnerships and building trust and production and marketing arrangements that are mutually beneficial for both smallholders and private enterprises. Our assessments will cover partnerships involving local traders and processors and those involving multinational corporations, because both types can provide important benefits to the poor. This research will also examine the lessons learned from experiences with sustainability standard schemes such as organic and fair trade products and payments for environmental services (biodiversity, freshwater resources, and carbon sequestration). It will assess how such schemes can best be implemented, their efficiency and equity impacts, and how the poor and women can gain better access to certified markets. Research will be implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, across a range of commodities (tree crops and annual crops; commonly grown crops and NUSs).Key partners at the global level may include the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA), a global consortium of institutions and UN agencies developing and applying innovative ways of measuring and understanding sustainability in the agrifood sector, as well as certification bodies, NGOs, and other entities facilitating the implementation of sustainability standards.All four research activities in this subtheme are fundamental to CRP2's thrust to support sustainable propoor agricultural growth. They have been, and will remain, at the core of CGIAR research and comparative advantage and expertise (see CGIAR Science Council 2009). Besides, they are closely linked with other CRPs and CGIAR centers. Therefore, we have chosen to give them equal priority at this point. The priority-setting process described in Section 3 will probably lead to differentiation in priority levels between activities and regions for this subtheme, either in terms of funding allocation or in terms of sequencing over time.To ensure that priorities for technologies are adapted to each region and country, research on policies and strategies that facilitate access to improved crop cultivars and animal breeds is undertaken with over 40 national agricultural research and extension institutions, in close collaboration with regional organizations such as APAARI, FARA, FORAGRO, and AARINENA, under the GFAR umbrella. The research on policies to promote carbon sequestration in agricultural systems will involve a range of applied organizations and initiatives such as the African Climate Policy Centre, the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), the Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), AGRA, the World Wildlife Fund, the Katoomba Group, the National Research Conservation Center (NCRC-Ghana), the World Land Trust, Forest Trends, and the Clinton Foundation. This activity will also work closely with CRP7's agricultural mitigation theme.To achieve goals in women's agricultural productivity, we will work directly with women's groups (such as the self-help groups in India and District Women's Associations in Zambia); farmer organizations; NARSs, both on the research and extension side; government departments; and the private sector. This effort will continue and increasingly engage directly with the private sector, given its large research development and dissemination budgets and the potential for increased engagement in poor areas. Furthermore, the active participation of community-based organizations is essential and will be promoted, for example, in work with the MSSRF, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN, India), or PROINPA. CRP2 will also disseminate its technologies, methods, and tools in socially and culturally acceptable ways to reach poor beneficiary groups.Researchers under this subtheme will work very closely with several other CRPs (see  CRP5: Collaboration with CRP5 will cover land, water, and ecosystems. CRP6: Collaboration with CRP6 will address certification and quality assurance issues. CRP7: Collaboration with CRP7 will look at climate change, agriculture, and food security.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 The main outputs of research activities under Subtheme 1.3 will be the following:  Synthesis of evidence on effective germplasm management systems for food and nutrition security  Scenario analyses and interactive tools on food, land, water, and energy use;  Design of policies, strategies, and capacity-building materials for resourceefficient technologies  In-depth analyses of biotechnology and nanotechnology impacts, policy challenges, and knowledge gaps  Platforms and other collaborative mechanisms for promoting neglected and underutilized species  Assessments of key technology opportunities and extension modalities  Decision-support tools for policymakers on strategies for sustainable intensification of agriculture  Design of technology policies and capacity building for rural diversification, including nonfarm activities  Innovative certification schemes for enhanced productivity, biodiversity, and rural incomesThese outputs should translate into the following outcomes:  Improved smallholder access to better quality seeds  Increased investment and improved regulatory systems to support biotechnology and nanotechnology  Increased food security and income opportunities arising from local species  Increased investment in public and private research and extension systems  Improved access of rural poor to promising high-benefit/low-risk technologies  Enhanced diversification of rural activities  Increased adoption of policies that sustainably increase agricultural productivity  Adoption of resource-efficient policies  More effective policies in support of value chain integration for local agrobiodiversity We will strive to make our research findings relevant and available to a wide range of people and groups who can effectively act on them. We will make use of regional forums, GFAR, and universities to ensure that our data and findings are peer-reviewed and shared as widely as possible. Through our work with partners, we will strive to ensure that our research on raising agricultural productivity sustainably will be demand driven and owned by NARSs, governments, donors, NGOs, and the private sector.The contributions of Subtheme 1.3 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.The principal drivers for achieving the goals of this CRP-increased food security and incomes for the rural poor-are necessary to meet the CRP's objectives, but they are not sufficient in themselves. Certain groups may not be able to benefit directly from these activities-for example, households with low and nonexistent land endowments and individuals suffering from illnesses and disabilities. In addition, many of the world's poorest households live with great risk, related, for example, to weather and price variability and health. When health, climate, or price shocks hit, households may cut back on consumption, reduce investments in education, or sell productive assets. Even the potential of an uninsured shock has welfare costs if it discourages smallholders from adopting potentially more productive technologies. The malign effects of risk and the goal of ensuring that all households experience growing incomes while maintaining or increasing their asset bases provide the rationale for including social protection in this CRP.Social protection refers to a set of benefits available from the state to the individual or household to reduce hunger, poverty, vulnerability to poverty, and other forms of deprivation. Social protection encompasses three broad sets of public action (see Figure 4.1): Social safety nets: Safety nets are targeted noncontributory programs that transfer resources to poor households, such as cash welfare payments, school feeding programs, subsidies to goods purchased by the poor, and public works schemes. Publicly provided state contingent insurance: Here, financial assistance is triggered by an event-for example, drought, illness, or unemployment. Eligibility and benefit levels are typically based on past contributions, not current poverty status. Elements of social-sector policies: Such policies complement social safety nets and include fee waivers for the use of primary healthcare facilities, interventions to prevent malnutrition in preschool children living in poor households, and free primary education. Within the universe of social protection interventions, this subtheme will focus on social safety net programs and forms of state-contingent insurance relevant to poor people in developing countries. The goal is to clarify how safety net and insurance programs can promote agricultural development and increase rural incomes by creating assets, as well as reduce risk and protect assets from shocks so that the rural poor who cannot directly benefit from enhanced agricultural growth are not left behind. As such, it addresses two system-level outcomes-rural poverty reduction and improved food security-both through the direct impact of social protection on these outcomes and through its indirect impact on the ability of poor rural households to take up new agricultural technologies.Work carried out under this subtheme will link to value-chain work within this CRP (to understand how risk can affect the adoption of new technologies and how these risks can be reduced or mitigated; see Theme 3) and on gender and assets (see Subtheme 2.4). The work on the effects of risk, the consequences of shocks, and the role of social protection in mitigating shocks will link with CRP7. How are benefits from social protection interventions distributed across beneficiaries, in particular between men and women and within households?  Under what circumstances does social protection stimulate agricultural income growth, asset preservation and accumulation? Which farmers benefit the most? Are these benefits gender differentiated?  How can innovations in insurance markets provide better health and livelihood protection for poor households, and men and women and their assets? How can these innovations complement and strengthen publicly provided safety nets and existing semi-formal and informal insurance arrangements?Targeting beneficiaries, distributing benefits, and assessing impact on assetsSocial protection programs must be carefully designed if they are to deliver the greatest possible benefit to the neediest people in the most efficient way. Sound evidence can inform this design, and countries have shown themselves to be eager to adopt social protection programs that are backed up by such evidence (as in the case of CCTs). Many questions remain, however, about how best to design and implement social protection interventions for different populations and in different countries. This research will address how to target the beneficiaries of social protection interventions, determine the distribution of benefits across and within households, and assess the impact on food security, poverty, and asset protection and formation. Researchers will work with stakeholders, including governments, civil society organizations, and donors, to design and implement demand-driven evaluations of pilot programs. These evaluations will assess how the implementation modality affects asset creation and the targeting of benefits across and within households. Aspects to be assessed will include the form in which resources are provided to households (cash, vouchers, food items, or other in-kind goods), delivery mechanisms (subsidies, direct payments, use of ICTs, and other technologies), and whether the transfers are conditional or unconditional (that is, whether disbursement is contingent on specific behaviors, such as children's school attendance). Where feasible, researchers will assess multiple types of interventions-for example, those providing both food and cash-to facilitate comparative analysis. This work will also examine the interface between transfer modalities and the gender and generational dimensions of resource allocation within households-for example, the perceived and actual differences between transfers targeting women or children and those targeting households more generally.The role and effectiveness of social protection interventions in Latin America are well understood, but their role in Sub-Saharan Africa is less well understood. In South Asia, some evidence exists on the impact of public works programs, but much less evidence is available on direct versus conditional transfers. For these reasons, we anticipate that the bulk of this work will be carried out in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Research activities will involve collecting socioeconomic data using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Where appropriate we will use double differenced randomized control trials (RCTs) or quasi-experimental methods (such as matching methods and regression discontinuity designs) combined with qual-quant process and operations research.IFPRI and other centers have undertaken past work on social protection, but the focus here on the interplay between modality, gender, and impact is new. Initial work on this topic was funded externally in 2010. Because the transfer component of this work is expensive, we will continue to work with partners who will provide funds for both the transfer programs and the data collection. CRP funds will be used to support the analysis and dissemination of results.Potential synergies between social protection and the delivery of agricultural innovations, including those that strengthen the value chain, are underexploited. Poor households often fail to adopt new innovations because they lack the necessary working capital to get started or are unable to risk failure. Conceptually, it is clear that combining agricultural innovations with social protection programs, particularly social safety nets, can help overcome these constraints, but evidence of these complementarities and their implications for the design of social protection and agricultural interventions is lacking. An important aspect of this work will be the distributional consequences of such interventions. This work will involve dialogue at national and regional levels to inform policymakers of these potential synergies.Certain components of social protection, such as insurance, may be more efficiently provided by the market rather than the state. Under this research activity, we will work with private insurers to explore the design of affordable insurance contracts. We will also work with governments and the private sector to determine appropriate institutional arrangements for the provision of such insurance (whether reinsurance of publicly provided safety nets, the provision of individual insurance through public-private partnerships, or the provision of insurance for semi-formal and informal organizations). At the household and individual level, we will undertake survey and experimental work to determine the willingness and ability of poor households to pay for insurance products, such as health and livelihood insurance. Insurance itself is an innovation, so we will identify constraints that prevent or inhibit poor households from adopting or purchasing innovative financial products designed to reduce risk. Based on earlier analyses of the sources of risk of greatest concern to the poor, work will initially focus on the development of weather and health insurance, beginning in East Africa and South Asia, and thereafter gradually expanding to other parts of the developing world.The three research activities are closely linked, so the successful implementation of this subtheme requires that all three activities move forward. Nevertheless, the first activity on targeting beneficiaries, distributing benefits, and assessing impact is better funded across the various institutions and initiatives, and its policy findings are more established compared with the activities on social protection and agriculture and social protection and risk mechanisms. Hence, in the event that cutbacks are required, in order to scale up high-impact work on the last two activities, we will scale back the use of CRP funds for the first activity, expanding it more slowly than originally envisaged.Collaborators in implementing this research include developing-country governments at national, regional, and local levels, including ministries of finance and agriculture and those responsible for implementing social protection programs; international agencies such as the World Food Programme, IFAD, World Bank; regional banks such as ADB, AfDB, and IDB; civil society organizations; developing-country research institutes; and the private sector. These partners will supply the resources needed for the transfers (such as money and staffing), as well as collaborating in the design and implementation of interventions. In addition, these collaborators are the primary audience for the research outputs and outcomes produced.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 1.4 are the following (in alphabetical order): Research in this subtheme will provide evidence that can be used to better design social protection and agricultural interventions and that will be communicated along all three impact pathways (informing research, influencing policy development, and providing policy recommendations, see Section 3).Research outputs will focus on creating knowledge on  the design of social protection interventions that more cost-effectively protect and increase the asset bases of poor households;  the design of social protection interventions that reach neglected and vulnerable groups;  improved understanding of linkages between social protection and agriculture; and  improved understanding of the gender-differentiated impacts of social protection interventions. Work on this subtheme will contribute to the following research outcomes: Interactions with governments, donors, and other development community stakeholders, combined with further dissemination of research outputs in newsletters, briefs, and materials understandable to project staff (as well as peerreviewed publications), will contribute to improved social protection interventions and better integration of social protection and agricultural growth policies at the national level. We will engage with these actors during the development of specific interventions and as part of general policy discussions on the appropriate role and scope of social protection. These interactions and others that take place during process and impact evaluations will allow us to understand the needs of stakeholders, the constraints they face, and the most effective means of communicating new knowledge and its implications for policy.  Evidence from this research will contribute to the design of new insurance products and services that poor households can use to protect their consumption and assets, based on interactions with both suppliers of insurance products (privateFor new policy ideas to be translated into changes on the ground, two conditions need to be met: (1) policy ideas must be formulated into policies; and (2) policies must be adequately implemented. Subtheme 2.1 (Policy Processes) will study research-policy linkages and policy implementation processes in order to increase the likelihood that science-and evidence-based policy options will be adopted into progressive reforms.One major obstacle to policy implementation arises from the failure of governments and markets to provide rural services and infrastructure. Subtheme 2.2 (Governance of Rural Services) will address this issue by identifying governance arrangements suitable for providing critical rural services and for supporting effective and equitable farmer organizations, resource user groups, and producer groups.Tenure security and capacity for collective action are prerequisites for reducing poverty and enabling more effective management of common pool resources and environmental services. Moreover, agricultural policy processes often suffer from the lack of voice of smallholder farmers and women, who make up so much of the agricultural labor force in developing countries. How can sound arrangements for property rights and collective action be achieved, and how can small-scale producers be empowered to increase their voice in policy decisions and to gain access to investment and market opportunities? These are the questions that Subtheme 2.3 (Collective Action and Property Rights) will strive to address.Translating increased productivity and incomes into sustainable rural development requires ensuring that poor people are able to accumulate the tangible and intangible assets that will allow them to generate sustainable livelihoods. Such changes often go beyond single policies and require appropriate institutional structures. To address this challenge, Subtheme 2.4 (Institutions to Strengthen the Assets of the Poor) will focus on creating enabling institutions for the poor.Although the focus of each subtheme is distinct, complementarities between the subthemes will be maximized by regular sharing of methods and results.Partnerships for participatory action research between CGIAR research institutions and policy actors as well as implementing organizations will be used to improve the links between research, policymaking, and policy implementation. Theme 2 will also focus on capacity building in these areas. The theme is designed to distill lessons that can be adopted by a wide range of organizations involved in policymaking and implementation. By focusing on ways in which research can be used more effectively in agricultural policymaking and implementation, the theme will increase the overall institutional and policy impact of CGIAR research.CRP2 will use a range of methods to identify mechanisms for improving the policy processes and institutions critical to increasing agricultural incomes and strengthening the assets of poor people.Quantitative methods will include surveys of individuals, households, users, and providers of infrastructure and services as well as actors involved in policy processes. Where possible, research will use longitudinal surveys and panel data to facilitate research on changes over time. Quantitative methods for analyzing policy processes will go beyond the existing political economy models developed in agricultural economics and apply innovative approaches to link political bargaining models with economywide models, taking into account the role of voting behavior, lobbying strategies, and belief systems (see Henning 2008;Henning, Saggau, and Hedtrich 2010). Quantitative methods for analyzing asset accumulation will include randomized allocation of interventions to control or treatment groups, propensity score matching to construct a counterfactual comparison group, regression discontinuity designs that exploit eligibility criteria to create the counterfactual, and instrumental variables approaches (see Ravallion 2008 for a discussion of program evaluation methods).Experimental game methods and randomized experimental design will be used with infrastructure and service providers, as well as collective action groups. New applications of experimental games will enable us to study the effects of rule changes on cooperation and provide feedback to user groups to help them increase. Social network analysis will be applied to model, measure, and promote the inclusiveness and use of networks, including policy networks, to promote collective action, innovation, and use of best practices. Qualitative methods will enable evaluators to hear the impact of an intervention \"in their own words,\" as well as to better understand the processes that underlie the success or failure of the intervention. Participatory assessments, participatory mapping methods such as Net-Map (Schiffer and Waale 2008), life histories, focus groups, and key information interviews are among the qualitative methods that will be applied to this theme.Policymaking processes that are inclusive and based on evidence are an important dimension of good governance. However, agricultural policy processes are often dominated by vested interests and lack of inclusion and participation, which limits the voice of smallholder farmers and women in policymaking. Likewise, there are often weak analytical capacity and limited political incentives to use research-based evidence as a basis for agricultural policymaking. These factors constrain the effectiveness of policy research, including that conducted by the CGIAR. This subtheme specifically addresses this challenge. Only a better understanding of the strategies that can make agricultural policy processes more inclusive and evidence-based will enable us to create strong demand for our research products by policymakers and their advisers, which is an essential element of an effective impact pathway.The political economy of agricultural policymaking has been subject to extensive academic research, mostly with a focus on formal models and cross-country regressions. A recent review by Swinnen (2010) points to the limitations of this approach and emphasizes the need to combine modeling approaches with detailed knowledge of individual countries and other methods such as analytical narratives. Here is where CGIAR policy researchers have a comparative advantage, thanks to their experience with modeling approaches on the one hand and their extensive country presence and involvement in policy processes on the other. Accordingly, this subtheme will combine innovative methods to model political decisionmaking processes (Henning, Saggau, and Hedtrich 2010) with innovative participatory approaches to engage stakeholders, including farmers' and women's organizations, in policy processes (Schiffer and Waale 2008). This research will also serve other CPRs by identifying the factors determining the political feasibility of policy options and improving our knowledge on the types of interactions and communications among researchers, stakeholders, and political decisionmakers that can promote effective policy changes. Special priority will be given to strategies that increase the voice of smallholder farmers, including women, in the policy process. The subtheme will also identify the political factors that promote policy implementation, considering that lack of political incentives for implementation often undermines the effectiveness of policy change (Birner and Resnick 2010).This subtheme can be compared to \"constraints to adoption\" research in technical fields: it will identify the factors that facilitate or limit the uptake of policy research findings.Key questions include the following: What are the determinants of political feasibility of agricultural policies and policy reforms?  How can participatory policy processes and research-based evidence contribute to pro-poor policy change?  Which factors promote the effective implementation of pro-poor policy decisions?  Which factors increase the performance of the political system in responding to opportunities and challenges for pro-poor agricultural development?These research questions will be investigated from a comprehensive perspective of the overall agricultural and food system, taking into account where decisionmaking and rule-setting power lies and acknowledging that the state formal institutions often play a limited role in determining policy outcomes. Consequently, research under this subtheme will address the interactions between the state and civil society (local and international NGOs and associations), the private sector, and donor agencies, all of whom play an important role--especially in the context of weak states. This research will explore diverse levels and types of policies and will also address the influence that international and regional policymaking has on national and subnational policy choices. Research will focus on three new areas, which are particularly important for increasing the effectiveness of CGIAR research.Since smallholder producers, and especially women smallholders, have limited political voice, agricultural policies generally fail to support smallholder agriculture or are biased in favor of larger commercial enterprises. Examples are agricultural input subsidies or concessions for forest and fisheries exploitation. Institutional reforms that aim to empower smallholder producers and resource users face particular political obstacles because they involve the devolution of state authority. Other areas of CRP2 and the policy research in other CRPs focus on identifying the policies and institutional reforms that are most suitable to support smallholder agriculture, building on existing CGIAR research. We will increase the effectiveness of this research by analyzing the political economy of formulating and implementing such policies under this new priority area. We will place emphasis on collaborating with CGIAR centers' research activities on institutional reforms, such as the devolution of authority for managing irrigation systems, forests, fisheries, and rangelands to community-based organizations, agricultural research and extension systems and livestock services, and agricultural market reforms. Research will focus on political factors that have been relatively neglected in the existing agricultural economics literature on agricultural policies, such as the role of leadership and policy beliefs.Political participation is a key topic for pro-poor politics-both in terms of understanding which mechanisms allow for effective and efficient collective political action and in terms of studying the role of participation through voting behavior via institutions of representative democracy, such as parliaments. The three research activities described are presented in order of priority. As already explained, this research not only provides valuable information on its own, but it has been specifically designed to complement other CGIAR policy research. The full budget proposal includes standalone research on the policy process; if budget constraints apply, the research will initially focus on and integrate with projects that complement other policy research under CRP2. This integration will allow research in this area to be conducted with lower budgets.For this research subtheme, CRP2 will build partnerships with research organizations specializing in political science and agricultural policy analysis, including institutes in the US, Europe, and Australia, such as the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, the LICOS Center for Institutions and Economic Performance, the University of Leuven, Belgium, and departments dealing with agricultural policy analysis at the Universities of Kiel and Hohenheim, Germany. These partnerships will allow for synergies between the specific political science expertise of these institutions and the expertise of the CGIAR in agricultural policy as well as its close involvement with partner institutions and policy processes at the country level. Equal emphasis will be placed on partnerships with university institutes and political science think tanks in the countries where the research is being conducted, such as the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, and the Center for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Given the nature of this research subtheme, partnerships with policymakers and stakeholders are particularly important as well. Apart from staff in ministries and departments of agriculture, who have traditionally been strong partners of the CGIAR, new partnerships will be developed with elected political representatives, ranging from parliamentarians to local council members, and with civil society organizations, including farmers' and women's organizations. In the work on policy processes, researchers will intensify their collaboration with FAO, and especially FAO's country-level representatives, who are typically strongly connected to agricultural policymakers and stakeholders in the respective countries. Partnerships will also be developed with the associations that represent small-scale private sector organizations engaged in agribusiness. Finally, to strengthen the capacity of the partners for participatory and evidence-based policy-development, researchers will work with institutes that train elected representatives, policymakers, and civil society organizations.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 2.1 are the following (in alphabetical order):  Greater role and voice of women, smallholders, and the poor in formulation, design, and implementation of policies affecting them IFPRI's Country Strategy Support Programs will provide a platform for dissemination and outreach such that evidence-based research results can facilitate public dialogue on key issues at various levels of government, civil society, and the private sector. In addition to direct work with stakeholders in the research under this subtheme, another avenue through which outputs of policy process research will be used is by informing other policy research, including other subthemes of CRP2. Regular communication with other research teams in CRP2 will therefore be an important channel for increasing application of this research.The contributions of Subtheme 2.1 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.Smallholder-based agricultural development depends on the effective provision of many types of services (such as agricultural research and extension, finance and insurance, land administration, and food safety regulations) and rural infrastructure (such as rural roads, electrification, postharvest processing, and commodity storage). Efforts to improve rural service and infrastructure provision in recent decades have included governance reforms that, for example, involved local communities and the private sector in providing services and assigned a coordinating, regulating and facilitating role to the state (World Bank 2007). These efforts have often had limited success, and there are persisting knowledge gaps about which governance arrangements best fit a specific situation. For example, it is unlikely that the rural poor will benefit from better access to inputs and services unless there is better knowledge of how to develop wellfunctioning commercial input supply systems or successful farmer-driven extension systems. In view of its geographical and subsectoral coverage, the CGIAR is in a unique position to promote cross-country learning on what governance arrangements work best where and why.Against this background, the goal of this subtheme is to contribute to the formulation of more effective, poverty-oriented, and gender-sensitive policies and governance arrangements that can support the provision of services and infrastructure essential for crop and livestock production, forestry, and fisheries. To reach this goal, the research will  identify innovative institutional arrangements to provide services and infrastructure, involving the public sector, the private sector, and civil society organizations; and  identify and enhance governance reform strategies that strengthen the capacity and the incentives of the organizations involved in implementing agricultural policies and regulations. Which governance arrangements ensure that agricultural research, extension, and education systems and other institutions in the agricultural innovation system are effective in promoting innovation in agriculture, especially among male and female smallholder farmers?  Which governance arrangements are most appropriate to ensure effective regulatory services in agriculture, such as biotechnology, biosafety, food safety regulations, quality control of inputs, regulation of agrochemicals and veterinary drugs, and standards and labels?  Depending on context-specific factors, what is the appropriate institutional set-up for managing rural infrastructure 13 in support of smallholder agriculture? How can such institutions be more inclusive in terms of gender and marginalized groups?  What are the appropriate regulatory frameworks for agricultural finance and insurance to ensure that the different risks facing rural lenders (such as banks) are recognized and that the soundness of lending institutions, including the protection of deposits, is assured?  What are the most appropriate governance structures for the institutions in charge of land administration and management, including conflict resolution regarding land?A wide range of academic institutions and think tanks are studying governance reforms such as liberalization, decentralization, and public sector reforms, but this research often fails to address the application of governance reforms to agriculture and natural resource management-the specific area of focus of this subtheme. This is an area in which the CGIAR has a clear comparative advantage.Public sector reforms are essential for (1) creating an enabling environment for the private sector and NGOs; and (2) effectively providing the services and infrastructure that allow markets to function.Research in this area will focus on the governance reform strategies for ministries, departments, and agencies responsible for agriculture, livestock production, fisheries, and forestry, including public sector research, extension, and education organizations; regulatory agencies; agencies in charge of road management; and agencies in charge of land registration and management.Agriculture depends on a mix of centralized and decentralized services. Since some subject areas, such as food security and the prevention of crop and livestock diseases, require central coordination, some services are most effectively organized at the level of agroecological zones or the national level. Others, such as extension services, can be decentralized to the community level. Countries may also benefit from delegating some agricultural subjects, such as agriculture-related regulations, to the supranational level.The appropriate level of political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization or regional integration for agricultural services also depends on a range of country-specific conditions, such as government capacity and scope for elite capture at different levels.Better service and infrastructure provision also requires management reforms in the areas of financial and human resource management, to strengthen capacity and staff incentives, improve the working environment, and reduce undue political interference. Research in this area will focus on innovative approaches, including e-governance (for example, for land registration and program implementation), to resolving these longstanding problems that affect the performance of agricultural institutions.In all governance reforms relating to agriculture, it is essential to build the capacity of farmers to demand better services and infrastructure and to hold providers accountable. Such \"demand-side\" governance reforms include ensuring that farmers-whether male or female, large-scale or smallholders-are represented in organizations providing infrastructure and services. Empowerment strategies include participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation methods, participatory budgeting, citizen report cards, complaint mechanisms, social audits, and right-to-information approaches. Farmers' organizations can also be empowered to award service contracts and become service providers themselves--for example, in the case of dairy cooperatives. Research in this area will focus on the factors that influence the success of such reform strategies, paying special attention to strategies that build the capacity of inclusive farmers' organizations representing the voice of smallholders and both male and female farmers.Within this subtheme, the highest-payoff activities are those that deal with services that support agricultural innovation, land administration, and management of rural infrastructure.Activities under this subtheme will involve policymaking and implementation organizations in order to catalyze changes along the impact pathway. At the policy level, it will be important to work with actors involved in policy processes, such as parliamentarians, members of the executive, policy planning units in the relevant ministries, elected and administrative members of local governments, producers and agribusiness organizations, and the media. A range of advocacy groups, including women's and indigenous people's groups, will be targeted to enhance the influence of research outputs on policies that shape service provision.To pilot and evaluate new institutional arrangements, CRP2 researchers will seek partnerships with providers of services and infrastructure in the public and private sectors and civil society organizations. Examples of these types of organizations include agricultural research, education, and extension organizations; land administration institutions; forestry agencies and forest user groups; agricultural banks and insurance companies; regulatory agencies; and NGOs and farmer organizations, including cooperatives. Because these organizations are directly involved in service provision, engaging them in the research process will facilitate the transfer of knowledge so that they can in turn deliver better services to their clients. Special attention will be paid to working with institutions that train agricultural service providers and strengthen the capacity of service users, especially in terms of women's ability to hold agricultural service providers accountable. The CGIAR will also collaborate with international organizations that support governments in their efforts to improve agricultural service provision, such as FAO or OIE. Another set of partners will consist of development partners and international financial institutions that finance reform processes for agricultural services and infrastructure. An example of this collaboration between the CGIAR and other global organizations in the field of agricultural governance is the newly established Global Partnership for Land Governance Assessment, which includes FAO, IFAD, UN-Habitat, the World Bank, and IFPRI (with IFPRI housing the partnership secretariat).The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 2.2 are the following (in alphabetical order): The research outputs in this subtheme will provide a range of policy options for delivering more effective and equitable services to smallholders and the rural poor. Research will identify key factors that influence the suitability of different governance arrangements for agricultural service and infrastructure provision and provide tools for assessing governance arrangements, including arrangements for controlling corruption and creating a conducive business environment in agriculture. The research activities will generate learning among the implementing organizations by facilitating collaboration among the public and private sectors and civil society organizations involved in providing infrastructure and services. These partnerships will promote capacity development and cross-country learning, thereby promoting institutional change at the implementation level and leading to efficient infrastructure and service provision in response to the needs of the rural poor. For example, the Global Partnership for Land Governance Assessment convenes panels of national experts to undertake land governance assessments, which engage high-level policymakers to identify priorities for improvement in land governance services. This leads to identification of priorities for research, with findings taken up not only within the countries of the research, but also internationally through the network of other organizations in the global partnership. The effectiveness of the research under this subtheme will be measured in terms of recipients of infrastructure and services based on defined quality per unit of investment.Additionally, this research will facilitate collaboration with institutions in charge of training, service delivery personnel employed at universities, civil service colleges, local government training institutes, and vocational training institutions for agriculture. In addition to the specific research outputs derived from the activities outlined above, the findings of the research will be integrated into training modules and material used by these organizations to increase the multiplier effects of the research. Evaluations of the determinants of effective and efficient delivery of public services to smallholder farmers and the rural poor, and of the determinants of access to these services  Innovative methods to design rural services that improve the productivity and welfare of the poor  In-depth analyses and insights on how public services can be more genderequitable, using innovative gender-disaggregated data collection methods The contributions of Subtheme 2.2 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.Farmers, fishers, pastoralists, and forest-dependent communities are struggling to maintain and improve their livelihoods in the context of intensifying resource competition. A number of trends are jeopardizing these producers' livelihoods, including increased integration of international agricultural markets, increased investments in agricultural resource assets and natural resource extraction, growing populations, a shrinking and degrading resource base, new markets for environmental services including carbon sequestration, and the growth of biofuel at the expense of food crops. Producers need secure access to land and other natural resource assets (forests, rangelands, water, and fisheries) to achieve sustainable natural resource use and agricultural production systems, because property rights give producers incentives and authority for long-term investment. At the same time, coordination is needed to manage resources and develop livelihood strategies beyond the individual farm level (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2002). Collective action and property rights provide a fundamental basis for managing natural resources, addressing climate change, and reducing resource-based conflict. Collective procurement of agricultural inputs and services and collective marketing of produce can lower transaction costs for smallholders and address market failures. Thus tenure security and capacity for collective action are prerequisites for reducing poverty and making local livelihoods more resilient in the face of rapid economic and ecological change. How can sound arrangements for property rights and collective action be achieved? Applied research for development can help strengthen appropriate institutions, from local to regional scales, and derive lessons that will catalyze institutional and policy change in other areas (Ostrom 2007).The goal of this subtheme is to strengthen appropriate property rights and collective action institutions that contribute to sustainable natural resource management and reduce poverty. Research under this subtheme will engage multistakeholder networks through the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) to  increase security of resource tenure for small-scale producers;  enable more effective management of common pool resources and environmental services; and  empower small-scale producers to increase their voice in policy decisions and to gain access to investment and market opportunities. CRP2 researchers will work jointly with multistakeholder networks that articulate a focused demand for learning to influence policy and institutional reform. Empirical research conducted in collaboration with CRPs 1, 5, 6, and 7 will support poverty reduction and sustainable agricultural and natural resource-based livelihoods (in dryland, coastal, aquatic, watersheds, and forested systems, etc). What are effective ways to strengthen the access and tenure security of poor men and women to land, water, trees, and other critical natural resources in the face of increased and globalized competition for resources, particularly in multiuse landscapes?  What combinations of property rights are needed for small-scale producers to improve environmental management, enhance production, and be active participants in value chains?  What community and state actions are needed to secure rights to, and effectively manage, common property (for example, water, rangelands, forests) and environmental services (for example, genetic resource conservation, water and watershed management, pest management, carbon sequestration), especially for smallholders, pastoralists, fishers, indigenous peoples, women, and the poor?  What interventions increase the effectiveness of collective action and its inclusion of women and marginal groups? What measures help reduce gender and other inequalities in accessing, participating, and leading collective action institutions?As resources become scarcer, strategies are needed to minimize conflicts. Yet many programs to formalize property rights have ignored the multiple overlapping uses of resources that are vital to the livelihoods of the poor. This research will go beyond \"ownership\" as defined by state title to consider the entire bundle of rights derived from customary and statutory law. Methods include action research to strengthen the property rights of marginalized groups (for example, indigenous peoples, women); intrahousehold surveys, focus groups, and key informant interviews to identify the strength and impacts of rights held by different actors; and factors that strengthen property rights of marginalized groups. Case studies of large-scale agricultural investments and projects for biofuel development or environmental service payment programs that increase land value will identify ways to ensure that poor people share the benefits rather than lose their resource rights. These case studies will seek innovative tenure measures to secure private, collective, and common property. This research builds on prior CAPRi work on legal pluralism and a set of four case studies on securing access to natural resources, as well as studies of carbon payments and tree tenure conducted under CRPs 6 and 7. CRP2 will carry out new studies on investor pressures and identify cross-cutting lessons.This research examines the interactions between various property rights with productivity and environmental sustainability, considering not only private lands, but also shared land, water, and biological resources and environmental services. Action research and the study of decentralization programs, such as joint forest management or fisheries co-management, will identify what is needed to establish effective organizations at the local level, explore the feasibility and potential outcomes of expanding local authority over natural resources, and determine the necessary state support for such efforts. Studies of programs for payment of environmental services will identify the need for collective action or certain types of property rights among smallholders for participation and how such programs can be more inclusive of the poor. Partnerships between research organizations (CGIAR, agricultural research institutes, and NARSs) and implementing organizations (NGOs and governments) will ensure that research findings are linked to national policies, donor initiatives, and international conventions seeking technical advice. These partnerships will promote the inclusion of local institutional development and secure poor people's access to development policies and programs, and identify how to measure the effectiveness of globally coordinated systems, including indicators that measure benefits delivered to the poor. Although past studies of these issues have been conducted at the local level (through CAPRi and others), new research will address these issues at a broader scale, particularly in the context of growing vulnerability due to climate change.Research to help small-scale producers claim their voice in policy decisions and gain access to markets will include action research involving producer organizations, NGOs, and national and international development programs designed to increase the effectiveness and inclusiveness of collective action. Cross-cutting lessons will be identified through ongoing case studies and new comparisons of the performance of hundreds of groups, meta-analysis, and agent-based modeling (Poteete, Janssen, and Ostrom 2010). New applications of experimental games provide a tool for studying the effect of rule changes on cooperation and for giving feedback to user groups to increase their cooperation. Researchers under CRP2 will work with producer, fisher, and pastoralist organizations in value chains, women's organizations participating in agriculture, and federations engaging in policy advocacy. Activities will coordinate with research conducted by CRPs 1, 5, 6, and 7, as well as CRP2 Theme 3 on collective action for agricultural production and value chains. The research will look at fisheries, rangelands, forests, water, watersheds, genetic resources, and climate change programs, providing methods and research tools; continuing CAPRi's work in learning across different types of groups through conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and meta-analyses; and commissioning new cases to fill critical gaps.The highest-priority research within this subtheme is the expansion of work on property rights and tenure security, which feeds into the current window of opportunity in land tenure reforms, such as FAO's Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests and the African Union's Land Policy Initiative. This work will also have a heavy focus on Africa, where customary tenure is most prevalent and most insecure. Within other regions, areas with a high proportion of indigenous people and marginalized groups will receive priority because they are likely to face greatest tenure insecurity. Ongoing and new work under property rights, collective action, and improved management of resources will also receive priority in order to address the institutional underpinnings of payment for environmental services so that they can be scaled up to help poor producers cope with climate change. Funding cuts would mostly affect activities related to collective action and empowerment of small-scale producers, which would be limited to working with and synthesizing studies under other themes and CRPs, without commissioning any new empirical work.Issues of collective action and property rights are relevant wherever people manage natural resources or work together in agriculture, but the emphasis of empirical work will differ by region and agroecological zone. In Africa, interaction between customary and statutory property rights is particularly important, especially in the context of foreign investment in agriculture. In Asia and Latin America, distribution of property rights and access to resources for poor households is relatively more important. Latin America has stronger farmer movements and more gender integration of groups. Postsocialist countries, such as in Central and Southeast Asia, have experienced changes in property rights, and previous forced collectivization has often disrupted voluntary cooperation.The research process to address these issues requires collective action across disciplines and types of organizations. CGIAR researchers work with NARSs to conduct all research, often involving top faculty in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) universities and their students in the field work. Research will be conducted in close collaboration with producer organizations, NGOs, and national and international development programs.Research and outreach will influence the formation and implementation of policies that deal with natural resource access and allocation, especially land tenure policy, at both national and international levels, to strengthen the resource tenure of women, pastoralists, fishers, and secondary resource users. Researchers participate in key networks, including the African Union Land Tenure Initiative, the International Land Coalition, and the Global Land Tools Network. Work on conditions for equitable partnerships between agricultural investors and local land users will link to initiatives by the World Bank, FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to develop a code of conduct for agricultural investment. It will contribute to the initiative by the International Land Coalition (ILC), ActionAid, and regional farmers' organizations to widen the dialogue on large-scale land acquisitions and their alternatives. And it will seek to influence private investment trends through corporate social responsibility norms and programs in the area of property rights for the poor.An example of this engaged mode of action research is a CAPRi project led by the WorldFish Center in Cambodia's Tonle Sap (see Box 4.1).Most development programs involve some type of group in managing resources, delivering services, or marketing products, but these programs often do not recognize the collective action and associated institution building necessary for success. Therefore, in addition to working directly with programs to strengthen collective action on the ground and implement decentralization policies, CRP2 researchers will share lessons on how to strengthen inclusive collective action with governments, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, and producer organizations. This subtheme will bring interest groups together across sectoral or institutional boundaries to identify and support innovation and action. Input from government and development agencies, NGOs, and civil society/producer organizations will provide clear demands for analysis and capacity building in support of policy and institutional reform. Partnerships with universities will ensure that research teams learn from the most recent academic findings and that the results of this research strengthen the capacity of a new generation of researchers, who will be encouraged to go into applied research, whether in the academic, public, private, or NGO sectors. These partnerships with universities will target university curriculums, involve students in dissertation research, prepare training materials from research, and offer interdisciplinary training workshops in each region. Links with professional societies, including disciplinary associations, the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), and networks such as the International Land Coalition, will ensure that findings reach broader audiences.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 2.3 are the following (in alphabetical order): The partnership joins the key government agency, the leading domestic policy research institute, and the most important grassroots network of small-scale fishers to jointly assess the sources of competition and conflict over fishery resources and identify opportunities for building collective action across sectors to manage such competition equitably. Because all key stakeholders, including community leaders, the police, and local and provincial government officials representing a range of sectoral agencies, are analyzing the problem and exploring options jointly, solutions emerge on the spot. Because the commitments these actors make are reinforced by local mechanisms of social accountability, the action research process is catalyzing institutional change processes. Even before the project has concluded, community fishery representatives are reporting improved enforcement of local regulations that combat destructive fishing and ensure access by the poor to fishing grounds, as well as more effective resolution of tenure disputes with the commercial sector. The civil society network is maturing beyond its former adversarial relationship with government and is empowered with new capacity to work with government in seeking joint solutions. The government's recent halting of all fisheries concessions pending resolution of such issues indicates a willingness on the part of the government to address the identified problems. Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University CRP2's comparative advantages with respect to these organizations are the following:  CAPRi's strong reputation for bringing together collective action and property rights research of high caliber  Conceptual frameworks and application of best practice methods  Close collaboration with alternative suppliers  Ability to link theory and research to practical applications  Strong networks with NGOs and policy agencies (governmental and international)to ensure application of research findingsThe research strategy includes exchange among multiple stakeholders to create conditions for implementing policies, laws, and institutional reforms in a manner that serves the interests of poor resource users and marginalized groups. The research will use several impact pathways to ensure that research translates into effective and inclusive collective action and tenure security for people who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. The most immediate pathway is active engagement with user groups and government or NGO programs to improve capacity for collective action or security of tenure for the poor in the study areas. Researchers will also promote findings from studies and impact assessments of programs to help governments, NGOs, and donor agency partners address collective action in their programs. By feeding research results into discussions on international conventions, CRP2 will promote the inclusion of local institutional development and secure access rights. By articulating corporate social responsibility norms, CRP2 will influence private-sector investment to respect the customary property rights of farmers, herders, fishers, forest-dwellers, and women. Policy briefs, presentations, films, and other outreach materials will be used to share findings with other government, NGO, and donor organizations. Peer-reviewed publications will ensure the quality of research findings and feed these back to universities and NARSs. Multistakeholder networks of which CAPRi is a member-such as the International Land Coalition and the Global Land Tools Network-will provide opportunities for dissemination and uptake of research results and recommendations. This research activity will also develop and document research methods and provide capacity-building materials to ensure that a new generation of applied researchers can apply this research in new areas, creating a multiplier effect. This research will contribute to the greater effectiveness of at least 5,000 collective action groups through direct engagement in action research and results applied by NGOs and government agencies, and to the creation in five to six subregions of robust institutions that link producer organizations and national and regional policy networks to effectively advocate for access rights for millions of resource-dependent people. By using the research results, governments will be better able to create or strengthen policies that provide security of rights to land, water, trees, and fisheries for poor and resource-dependent women and men. These policies will also contribute to achieving other poverty reduction goals, such as increased incomes and greater asset accumulation, reduced vulnerability to risks, including environmental shocks, and improved health and nutrition. Research findings, repackaged as products oriented toward policymakers and practitioners, will contribute to the creation of effective intermediary institutions advocating for the provision of secure rights to resources and highlighting the important role of local institutions, such as producer organizations, water user groups, and civic associations, in helping improve local livelihoods. Case studies and experimental games identifying factors leading to effective collective action groups  Identification of effective ways to strengthen inclusive collective action and coordination for managing natural resources  Studies of large-scale land-based investments to identify ways in which such investments can be made without loss of property rights for women and poor local populations  Identification of effective ways to strengthen property rights to commons and customary rights  Capacity-building materials for producer organizations and NGOs These outputs should be translated into the following outcomes:  Creation or strengthening of intermediary institutions advocating for access rights  Programs to improve tenure security that pay particular attention to the needs of the poor, women, and marginalized groups  Strengthening of associations of women and smallholders for improved voice in decisionmaking and market access  Enhanced capacity of government and NGOs to work with collective action institutions (and vice versa)The contributions of Subtheme 2.3 to achieving impacts and contributing to the SLOs are described in Table 2.1 in Section 2.Raising people's stock of assets has been shown to be a more enduring contributor to reducing poverty than increasing incomes alone. Like income, assets can be converted to cash, but they are also multidimensional. Assets both store wealth and can increase in value; they can act as collateral and facilitate access to credit and financial services; they help deal with unforeseen contingencies and smooth consumption streams. Their flexibility provides security through emergencies and opportunities in periods of growth (Deere and Doss 2006, 1). Increasing ownership of, and control over, assets also helps provide more permanent pathways out of poverty compared with measures that focus on increasing incomes or consumption alone. Sabates-Wheeler's (2006) review of the relationship between ownership and control over tangible assets and agricultural productivity concludes that the combination of asset inequality and market failure has a negative impact on growth and that inequalities tend to reproduce inequalities. Ownership and control of agricultural assets-physical, human, and social capital--is also highly correlated with the adoption of new agricultural technologies, including environmentally sustainable farming practices (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2002;Deininger, Ali, and Yamano 2008;Deininger et al. 2008). Agricultural development projects that seek to increase the asset holdings of poor people not only contribute to sustainable poverty reduction, but also help promote socially desirable and empowering behavior by both individuals and marginalized communities. Asset-based approaches view well-being as a cumulative process, resulting from a lifetime of stored efforts and accrued wealth (Sherraden 1991). Savings and stored wealth (assets) are necessary for the kinds of cushioning and security needed to exit poverty (Carter and Barrett 2006). This is especially true for poor women, who typically have lower levels of ownership and control over assets than men, but whose assets contribute to their empowerment and the education and health of children, reducing the intergenerational transmission of poverty (Quisumbing 2003).Although there is increasing evidence that assets matter for moving out of poverty in the long term, we know less about the role that institutions play in enabling the poor to accumulate assets, protect them from shocks, and transmit these assets to future generations. These institutions include property rights institutions (encompassing customary and statutory laws), social protection institutions (both formal and informal), and inheritance laws. Social and cultural institutions, including gender norms surrounding or concerning asset ownership, as well as political institutions that determine individuals' ability to participate in and benefit from decisionmaking at the local and national levels, are also important. The role and importance of institutions is context-specific. Because institutions are not \"given\" but evolve in response to external factors and internal change processes, it is important for the CGIAR to know how institutions can be made more conducive to reducing hunger and poverty. The argument that attention to assets-as well as to the distribution of those assets within the household-is key to attaining better development outcomes implies a shift in the \"theory of change.\" The conceptual framework underlying this theory of change is found in Meinzen-Dick et al. (2011). The goal of this research is to identify mechanisms and institutions to strengthen the portfolio of those assets that enable the poor to be agents of their own development, to protect those assets from adverse shocks, and to increase their stock of other assets. These assets include natural capital (rights to land, water, trees, livestock, and biodiversity), financial capital (credit, savings), physical capital (especially tools and technologies), human capital (education, health, nutritional status, extension services, knowledge of agricultural environment, and information, including access to and use of information and communication technologies), and social and political capital.CRP2 will work with action research programs under CRPs 1, 4, 5, and 6, which seek to strengthen poor people's assets-including education, health, nutritional status, livestock, water, fisheries, agrobiodiversity, and associated natural resources-to draw out lessons related to the questions above. Because assets are multidimensional and because the relevant institutions that constrain or facilitate asset accumulation are context-specific, mixed-method approaches using quantitative and qualitative techniques will be used in a representative set of countries and regions in order to reach general conclusions.Differences in resource endowments and institutional settings across regions make it imperative to strive for regional balance in the research portfolio. Because gender norms and gender disparities are also quite different across regions, each region may have to develop a specific policy focus, but with comparable methodologies to enable the creation of international public goods. For example, asset poverty traps have been documented only in Sub-Saharan African societies with missing markets, particularly in capital and labor (for example, Carter and Barrett 2006). Evidence for these types of poverty traps has not been found in Asia (see Naschold 2006;Quisumbing and Baulch 2009), possibly because of the existence of wellfunctioning credit and labor markets. A broad question with cross-regional implications would be why the conditions and institutions that give rise to poverty traps are present in one region but not in the other. Another issue would be the different roles that control of assets play in men's and women's livelihoods. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one possible focus might be women's access to and control of assets as agricultural producers and the interaction between customary and statutory law, particularly with respect to land rights. In South Asia, where labor markets are active, the focus might be on the role of assets and access to financial services in enabling women to participate in nonagricultural enterprise and labor markets. The following are selected research questions. What kind of assets do poor men and women hold, how do they acquire them, and what can be done to help them build up and protect their stocks? Which assets, not typically held by poorer people, act as critical constraints to self-improvement in different contexts?  What is the effect of trends such as increases in agricultural productivity and land values, migration, the increased role of the nonagricultural sector in the economy, and the growth of alternative financial service delivery mechanisms (such as microfinance) on poor women's and men's abilities to acquire, protect, and realize returns to assets? What types of human assets have been most critical for poor men and women in increasing the returns to their other assets, and what policies and programs are needed to build and enhance those types of human assets?  What role do different types of assets play in enabling men and women to escape poverty traps, participate in agricultural and nonagricultural growth, and protect their productivity and well-being against shocks? Do the roles of assets in fulfilling these functions differ for men and women and for poor and nonpoor households?  What are the institutional arrangements that contribute most effectively to building the assets of the poor? Of women? What existing or proposed programs or policy reforms have the potential to strengthen the assets of the poor, and reduce gender asset gaps? What institutional arrangements need to be in place to support these programs? How can action research contribute to learning about the appropriate institutional arrangements that support asset accumulation by the poor?Small-scale producers and the poor in general face serious financial constraints and are unable to obtain credit easily. They face difficulty in building their asset base. This research activity will use quantitative techniques (a household survey) and qualitative techniques (participatory assessments, life histories, focus group discussions) to ascertain the assets held by poor men and women in different country and regional contexts. The activity will adopt an inclusive definition of assets (natural, financial, physical, human, social, and political capital) and examine not only the quantities or levels of assets held by men and women, but also their quality, importance, and possible substitutability or complementarity at different stages. CRP2 will econometrically analyze large-scale surveys and panel data, ideally with information on individuals within households, to (1) identify how broader trends and policies (such as migration, rural-urban linkages, the process of structural transformation, and the changing landscape of financial services) affect poor women's and men's abilities to acquire and protect different forms of assets; and (2) study the economic returns and other impacts (for example, empowerment, reduction in vulnerability) of assets held by women and men. Attention will be paid to the legal and political bases for asset ownership and the extent to which property rights regimes and contextual factors (including cultural practices) assist or hamper asset accumulation by the poor (this activity complements Theme 1). Attention will also be paid to the evolution of institutions that support accumulation of different types of assets by the poor--for example, microfinance institutions (the use of social capital, such as group liability, to obtain access to financial capital and thus enable the accumulation of physical capital) or conditional cash transfers programs and school expansion (interventions facilitating the accumulation of human capital). This research will look into regional comparisons between Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two areas of the world with the greatest concentration of poor people, which also have very different resource endowments and sociocultural institutions. This component will include continuous panel data collection in key countries in order to analyze the consequences of asset accumulation and disposal for managing food security, risk, and vulnerability.Most analyses of the role of the different types of capital and their relationships to livelihoods strategies have been conducted at the household level. This research will examine the role of assets for different household members in moving out of poverty. It will investigate whether poverty traps exist at the household and individual levels and whether particular individuals are more likely to be trapped in poverty.] Yet, because risk is not shared equally within the household (Goldstein 1999;Dercon and Krishnan 2000;Duflo and Udry 2004), and because men and women may have different perceptions regarding risk (Doss, McPeak, and Barrett 2008), shocks affect men's and women's assets in different ways. In Thailand, women tend to keep more of their individual assets in tangible forms (such as jewelry), because this gives them more control over asset use (Antonopoulos and Floro 2005). Men and women may also use assets in different ways to move out of poverty. In the Philippines, where sons inherit land and daughters are favored in schooling, daughters have been able to acquire nonagricultural jobs, migrate to urban areas, and send remittances to their parents (Quisumbing, Estudillo, and Otsuka 2004); these patterns are different in other countries where men and women hold different types of assets. In Ghana, for example, where returns to schooling in the nonagricultural sector were still low, women's incomes would increase more when they were given equal access to land than when they were sent to school. (Note that new funding would be used to expand country coverage through the collection of new genderdisaggregated datasets, which could also build on impact evaluation work.)Evidence from life histories (see Krishna 2010 on India, Kenya, Peru and Davis 2006 on Bangladesh) suggests that asset accumulation is gradual and incremental, but shocks such as death and illness can lead to a rapid depletion of assets. Both formal and informal safety nets that enable the poor to smooth consumption (publicly provided health insurance; credit, whether formal or informal; credit-cum-insurance schemes; food-for-work) may protect the poor from temporary shocks that could otherwise lead to a permanent depletion of asset stocks. This research activity will examine the range of risk management and insurance mechanisms available to the poor, the extent to which poor men and women avail themselves of such mechanisms, and the effectiveness of such mechanisms in protecting consumption and assets after shocks. These mechanisms will include not only formal social protection mechanisms, but also informal mechanisms (migration and transfers) and local institutions that poor rural communities use to manage their biological assets, such as seeds, seed systems, and other components that contribute to risk reduction and livelihood improvement. Findings will inform the design of social protection mechanisms that enhance the ability to manage risk without displacing indigenous social protection systems.This subtheme will undertake rigorous impact assessments of a range of development interventions and institutional arrangements that seek to strengthen different types of assets or increase the returns to assets held by the poor. It will use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. To maximize the effectiveness and uptake of lessons learned from these evaluations, researchers will undertake them jointly with implementing agencies-not just government agencies, but also civil society organizations-and will elicit views from a diverse range of stakeholders. Attempts will be made to choose projects with regional balance, with the priority given to Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Quantitative methods can include randomized allocation of interventions to create randomly assigned control or treatment groups, propensity score matching to construct a counterfactual comparison group, regression discontinuity designs that exploit eligibility criteria to create the counterfactual, or instrumental variables approaches (see Ravallion 2008 for a discussion of program evaluation methods). Qualitative methods will enable evaluators to hear from beneficiaries about the impact of the interventions in their own words, as well as to better understand the processes that underlie the success or failure of the intervention. Data collected in these evaluations will be gender-disaggregated. The evaluation of alternative implementation modalities will be an explicit focus of the research. By involving a range of stakeholders and employing qualitative and quantitative methods, this research will avoid the dichotomy between action research and academic research and will generate knowledge useful for identifying and scaling up programs that help poor people build assets. (Note that funding to assess the gendered impact of agricultural programs on assets has recently been obtained [2010] and can cover impact assessment of eight projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia).Given that partial funding for both impact evaluation and data collection (in line with impact evaluation, as well as other projects) has already been obtained for this research program, priority should be given to these newly funded efforts so that activities remain on schedule. If budgets are cut, analytical work on mapping asset portfolios and understanding the context of asset accumulation would be delayed, but the impact evaluation and risk management work would have generated datasets that can be used to undertake this analysis at a later time. Funding would eventually be raised for this cross-cutting analytical work.This research program will involve not only NARs and researchers from developing-country universities, but also government and civil society organizations. Many of the organizations that have undertaken innovative programs to transfer assets to the poor are civil society organizations (for example, the Grameen Bank, BRAC International), and action research programs that pay specific attention to implementation modalities and scaling up will be important to distill the lessons learned from these initiatives. Action research programs can be undertaken in partnership between development institutions and CGIAR research institutions so that rigorous and replicable research designs can be used, which can yield benefits directly to program implementers. Attention to implementation issues and capacity building will help researchers distill lessons beyond the specific program being evaluated. CRP2 researchers will also actively collaborate with networks of researchers and academics in universities in developed countries. For example, CGIAR researchers in this area already work with, and are supported by, collaborative research support programs (CRSPs) funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, such as the livestock and assets for market access CRSPs, and research networks and universities in the United Kingdom and European Union.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 2.4 are the following (in alphabetical order): Outputs of this research will consist of  mixed-methods approaches to improve our understanding of the factors, processes, and institutions that enable poor men and women to accumulate assets, protect them from shocks, and use them to move out of poverty;  a set of country case studies documenting different ways that men and women accumulate assets and use them to move out of poverty, including synthesis and comparative analysis across country case studies;  a set of action research studies or impact evaluations, using mixed-methods approaches, that document the impact of policies and interventions (including changes in institutional arrangements) on assets of the poor and recommend best practices to increase and/or protect assets of the poor; and  gender-disaggregated datasets generated by the project and a set of best practice recommendations for gender-disaggregated data collection.Outcomes of the research will include  the use of asset-based indicators to evaluate project and program impacts on the poor;  use by project implementers of promising approaches and best practices to reduce gender-based constraints affecting the control and ownership of key productive assets in agricultural development programs; and  recognition by research managers, donors, and NGOs of the importance of reducing asset disparities and explicitly targeting them in their programming. Key elements of this subtheme's strategy to ensure translation of outcomes into outputs include (1) working with project implementers to evaluate the impact of their interventions on assets and identifying ways of strengthening the long-run asset accumulation by women and the poor; 14 (2) strengthening the capacity of NARSs and NGOs to undertake such studies themselves;(3) sharing information with key government agencies, donors, and land rights and women's advocacy agencies to document positive outcomes of asset accumulation; and (4) ultimately, working to create a \"paradigm shift\" to give greater attention to long-run strategies of genderequitable asset accumulation. increased assets held by the poor;  reduced asset inequality;  reduced gender asset disparities; and  achievement of better development outcomes related to agricultural productivity, food security, and nutrition as a result of the inclusion of assets as well as income in the development paradigm from an income to an assets focus;  ultimately, poverty will be reduced as the asset base of such groups is strengthened and made more secure against shocks, enabling greater productivity and reduced vulnerability (see Table 2.1).Establishing competitive and efficient markets is a central challenge of achieving economic growth. Among the most severe constraints are those related to costs (such as direct and indirect costs, opportunity costs, transaction costs, and others). The high costs to farmers and other actors of poor infrastructure, lack of information, insufficient credit, and policy distortions reduce the efficiency of value chains and impede producers' ability to connect to market systems. A value chain is the sequence of interlinked agents and markets that transforms inputs and services into products with attributes for which consumers are prepared to pay. Millions of low-income people, a large proportion of whom are women, participate in agricultural value chains as producers, small-scale traders, processors, and retailers. Many millions more, including the great majority of the developing world's poor, participate in value chains as consumers. Improving the performance of value chains therefore stands to benefit large numbers of people (Aramyan, Lansink, and van Kooten 2005;Lohman, Fortuin, and Wouters 2004;Lambert and Pohlen 2001;Beamon 1999). This theme identifies key constraints and opportunities in value chains; evaluates options for upgrading value chains; and provides tools, strategies, and policy approaches for achieving development change that is pro-poor, sustainable, and gender sensitive.Few tools have been developed to design and implement economics-and management-based change within value chains. Moreover, the tools that are in existence suffer from the lack of unifying theory and performance metrics that enable consistent data collection and analysis. Taken together, these conditions mean that value chains have been subject to little consistent and constructive research but offer an excellent platform for research activities and communication of results. This is the opportunity that Theme 3 exploits. Filling this research gap will involve tracing impact pathways via their commercial linkages and developing more advanced economic tools that measure impacts in a consistent way. Value chains research, as proposed here, would broaden the analysis from the farm level to the level of the agricultural and rural sector. The CGIAR and other partners in CRP2, including NARSs, GFAR, and IFAD, have a strong comparative advantage in this research, partly because it combines knowledge of technology and policy, and the value chains theme maximizes complementarity with Themes 1 and 2 and commodity CRPs. GFAR has been mobilizing collective learning and knowledge sharing around experiences and best practices in linking smallholder farmers to markets for a number of years and this theme has strong ownership among regional forums and farmers' organizations alike. The research capabilities of the CRP2 offer the chance to look across learning among regions with an analytical lens and analyze underlying trends, rationales and solutions that could be readily transferrable elsewhere to increase the speed of change and better benefit poor farmers as they struggle to organize for large scale markets.The goal of Theme 3 is to create an overarching theoretical framework to understand and address problems and opportunities in agricultural value chains as they relate to the poor, and to apply this framework to understand and improve the efficiency and access to value chains by small producers. It will target productivity increases and marketing changes that are not only location-and product-specific, but also relevant across products and locations. Theme 3 provides a framework for compiling existing knowledge as a precursor to formulating prototypes for field testing, stimulating learning processes, and disseminating findings with other CRPs and other initiatives. Such initiatives include the GFAR/FAO/CGIAR initiative, Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD) initiative, which identifies what works where, for whom, and promotes its dissemination. Targeting of locations and specific chains will be carried out as participatory activities with partners, facilitated where appropriate by other CRPs' activities. Further complementarities to commodity CRPs is provided by CRP2's capacity for analysis across multiple commodities, specifically in key constraint contexts, such as innovations in institutional arrangements (vertical and horizontal coordination), infrastructure, and information flows.Value-chain analysis provides a vital aspect of evidence-based policy advice. This theme provides an understanding through value chains of the market performance portrayed in Theme 1 on prioritization of value chains, policies and investments, households' participation in those markets, the roles played by public and private actors, and the public investments required to upgrade value chains. The governance and institutions of the public and private actors are, in turn, analyzed in Theme 2, by understanding how to structure number of interventions specific to problem and opportunity identification, and three cross-cutting activities featuring gender, extension, and knowledge sharing. This theme's focus on value chains is intended to complement and extend research carried out in the other themes of this CRP and in other CRPs. Research within this theme will  define the value chain for analysis, measure its performance, and evaluate the benefits and costs associated with upgrading options; identify opportunities for smallholders to benefit from rising demand for highvalue commodities and gain access to the available retail structures, including modern retail chains, based on the different policy scenarios simulated in Theme 1; and foster institutional and infrastructure innovations to generate equitable and sustainable benefits-including the mitigation and management of risk-for value-chain actors.Research activities can be described in terms of the location within the value chain and the type of commodity. With respect to the location within the value chain, research activities can be distinguished between those that focus on inputs, including agricultural technology, and those that focus on output markets. With respect to type of commodity, one way to distinguish commodities is high-and low-value crops. Low-value commodities (such as staples) are those that generate a relatively low economic return per unit of land or labor. Markets tend to be insensitive to quality, whereas large market volumes and the poor consumer base magnify sensitivity to price. Key policy research issues concern how to reduce marketing and processing costs to raise producer prices, while ensuring consumer affordability and access. High-value commodities, by contrast, feature quality-sensitive demand, with associated requirements for grading and standards in serving income-responsive markets. Policy research issues include market failure in information flows, capacity building, postharvest action, and market access and response.In both high-and low-value commodity value chains, commodity-specific CRPs address technical issues that will be complemented by CRP2 (see Annex 3). Of particular policy interest is the potential for upgrading value chains through postharvest activities as a way to help women generate value added. Such benefits are associated with chain coordination, particularly linkages with traders, and the research in this theme will identify predisposing factors and optimal intervention strategies. research on innovations to foster opportunities for smallholders across the value chain (Subtheme 3.1) and  research on impact evaluation to measure the costs and benefits of options for upgrading value chains (Subtheme 3.2).As these two subthemes are deeply interrelated, the \"Selected research questions,\" \"Prioritysetting,\" \"Partnerships,\" and \"Outputs, outcomes and impacts\" sections are common to both subthemes.CRP2 will apply a mixed set of methods to identify constraints and opportunities in the value chain and evaluate interventions for improvement. This research will require engaging actors along the value chain and refining existing methods to identify and define performance. To complement Theme 1's examination of alternative objectives in models, CRP2 will examine alternative value-chain performance measures. Moreover, the recognition and measurement of variables associated with innovation, governance, and risk will complement Theme 2's work addressing transactions.Value-chain methodologies have in the past focused on participatory data collection for point estimates of prices. These methodologies are good practice for consulting firms, serve the needs of many commercial actors, and are well supported by handbooks and examples from the World Bank, FAO, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ now part of GIZ), and others. CRP2 will use research, rather than consultancy, methods: innovative sampling techniques of mobile market agents such as traders, margin calculation for diversified and seasonally affected producers and traders, definition and measurement of whole-chain performance (by financial and social numéraires), assessment of intrahousehold equity in the context of value addition, power relationships related to defining and achieving standards, and many other measurement issues. The use of these innovative research methods will allow to identify generic measures (for example, on equity issues, or as return on working capital), while also expanding context-specific measures (for example, risk factors associated with delays in cultivation, or in delivery).The value-chain approach allows close examination of issues related to transmission of consumer preferences regarding food safety and quality, impacts of market related policies, incentives to reduce postharvest losses, and risks. Research will draw on existing biophysical and detailed household survey data to estimate the efficiency of local farmers and rural workers given certain conditions such as climate, topology, prices, and their own economic and demographic characteristics, using a stochastic profit frontier.Contact with value-chain agents will necessarily be participatory, and a major challenge faced by past research has been quantification of this qualitative research for rigorous analysis. Methods applied in CRP2 will therefore complement other CRPs' work, suggesting variables to observe and means to measure them, and feeding back benchmarked values of performance. Participatory approaches will support a key objective by creating the awareness, capacity, and opportunities for farmers to become more positive, informed actors in the market chain. They will also provide an unprecedented opportunity to address gender-related issues and ensure increased empowerment and equity for female farmers and other women through increased participation in the value chain. CRP2 will collaborate in this regard with the emerging global Gender in Agriculture Partnership (GAP) spearheaded by GFAR, FAO, Agropolis-Foundation and AWARD with support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the CGIAR Consortium.To further exploit opportunities posed by current commercial momentum, researchers will use randomized and quasi-experimental interventions to examine the value-chain role of improving access to market information using mobile phones and other information and communication technologies. They will identify sustainable delivery systems for training and certification related to value chains, and they will examine mechanisms to promote formal and informal business networks (such as lead farmers and trader-driven networks) to optimize potential knowledge spillovers. Cost-benefit analysis will be used to compare the cost of quality assurance systems to farmers, traders, or processors with the benefits accruing to farmers and consumers.Value-chain studies of input distribution systems will evaluate the effects of market imperfections and policy interventions (for example, subsidies) on input distributors. They will identify ways to improve access to inputs and reduce farm-level costs, particularly by studying internal chain arrangements and assessing the impact of different marketing policy interventions on the behavior of traders and processors. For this work, researchers will use state-of-the-art behavioral economics techniques. Finally, agriculture-sector models will be used to evaluate the impact of interventions on production, consumption, prices, and trade in agricultural markets. Stochastic simulation models will be used to study the impact of alternative policies to stabilize prices and farm income. power and tacit collusion among firms. According to Integer Research, leading fertilizer producers have achieved record profits in recent years (with total revenues over US$50 billion). Market power exertion may allow firms to fully transmit price spikes in raw materials (for example, natural gas for the production of ammonia) to fertilizer prices and to take advantage of any increase in grain prices by also raising fertilizer prices. A time-series analysis will be used. To evaluate tacit collusion, researchers would track leading fertilizer producers and their range of operation in order to uncover potential pricing patterns among them. The second objective of this activity is to examine the structure of supply chains in specific developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia with different characteristics (for example, net importers or exporters, coastal or inland, featuring high or low levels of government intervention, and with different size markets). Researchers will analyze procurement and distribution costs and market margins at the production, import, wholesale, and retail levels to examine price differences between markets within a country (whenever possible) and between countries within a region. They will identify the components of the supply system in each country and collect cost and price data through visits, interviews, and surveys of different market participants. This analysis for some key countries will help identify factors-beyond market power exerted at the global level-that drive prices up in particular developing regions and reduce their fertilizer intensity use. Countries using small quantities of fertilizers are expected to pay higher prices for the product because of economies of scale, but other factors at the country level might influence prices, such as a lack of competition among suppliers and distributors, a poor dealer network, high transportation costs, and the cost of finance.This research activity will also examine the impact of alternative marketing policies. The performance of agricultural value chains is strongly influenced by agricultural policies, particularly marketing policies. Although direct government participation in agricultural processing and marketing has declined since the 1980s, many governments continue to intervene in markets for selected inputs and crops. In response to the global food crisis, numerous countries have reintroduced fertilizer subsidies, expanded food security stocks, and increased efforts to stabilize food prices, including some protectionist measures. The crisis has renewed interest in staple food self-sufficiency to insulate domestic food prices from the uncertainty and volatility of world markets. Research is needed to determine whether these policies are meeting their stated goals and how they affect different types of farmers and consumers. This activity will involve applied research, using a range of methods (as noted above), on key policy issues such as fertilizer or other subsidies and other aspects of marketing policy. The research outputs will be country-and global-level guidance on the effects of marketing policy interventions on agricultural markets (production, consumption, trade, and prices), as well as the distributional impacts on different types of households. The guidance will contribute to more well-informed marketing policies, leading to a more efficient and pro-poor marketing system.An important aspect of this research activity relates to high-value agriculture and value-added activities. Income growth and urbanization in developing countries are contributing to the transformation of diets in which consumers are shifting from basic grains and other staple foods toward high-value commodities, including animal products, fish, fruits, and vegetables. At the same time, international trade and foreign direct investment are creating opportunities for farmers in developing countries to take advantages of the demand for high-value agricultural commodities in other countries. Finally, the modernization of the food industry, including the rise of supermarkets, large processors, and exporters is changing the nature of agricultural supply chains. The effect of these transformations of agricultural supply chains on small-scale farmers in developing countries is mixed and requires a systematic assessment. One of the main challenges in seeking greater public investment in agricultural research and extension in high-value agricultural commodities is the perception that staple food self-sufficiency is necessary to achieve food security. In addition, there is a perception that high-value commodities are grown mainly by better-off farmers, so that improving horticultural markets, for example, will not contribute to reduction in rural poverty (Reardon and Timmer 2007). Analysis of existing data can be used to challenge and test these assumptions. Based on experience in some countries, it seems likely that (1) farmers who have a diversified mix of rice and high-value crops can achieve a higher level of food security than those who seek rice self-sufficiency, (2) high-value crops can make a significant contribution to the income of poor rural households, and (3) diversification into high-value agriculture contributes to rural income growth and poverty reduction. If these hypotheses can be confirmed in systematic research across countries, it will assist the advocacy efforts to increase public investment in high-value agriculture. The challenge of this research activity is to test these assumptions and to identify the policies, regulatory environment, public investments, and institutional innovations that will ensure that these transformations have a pro-poor impact.Another important component of this research activity will be to investigate farmers' information needs and mechanisms to supply it. Much of the value added in agricultural marketing depends on the processing of information-for example, about the availability, location, and prices of products on farms and in markets and about what product attributes consumers value. Information is subject to market failure in that it is difficult to sell (the buyer does not know its value until after it is \"purchased\") and easy to reproduce (making it hard for the \"producer\" to recover costs). One policy research question concerns private-sector underprovision of information and the government's role in providing directly information or promoting more provision of information by the private sector. In the value-chain context, information flows enable value-chain actors to add value through branding and certification schemes, for which many examples exist but no repository of developing-country-relevant knowledge is yet available (Torero and von Braun 2006;Aker 2008;Goyal 2010;Jensen 2007). This research activity will provide that knowledge and engage partners in producing and testing prototypes for application across a range of applications. As such, it will complement the CIARD initiative and the global platform on linking farmers to markets being established through GFAR and provide an internationally relevant research methodology and set of analytical principles that can be used in support of all sectors.This research activity will bring three major opportunities: (1) improving the flow of information in value chains in different countries across regions through the implementation of market information systems (we estimate that the project could reduce marketing margins between 2.5 and 5 percent, reducing the incidence of poverty in 2 to 3 percentage points for almost 2 million people affected by the project); (2) identifying the best practices in designing and implementing pro-poor market information systems and disseminating these recommendations; (3) designing and scaling up a framework for proposed information and communication technology interventions. Within each selected country, the project will identify the regions of intervention based on an index combining the following four criteria:(1) market potential (revealed comparative advantage); (2) high rate of poverty; (3) accessibility to major markets; and (4) level of information and communication technology development in rural areas. This selection framework will allow us to estimate the potential impact of scaling up the intervention to the entire country or to other countries based on the four dimensions specified. Researchers will identify and promote methods for generating, delivering, and transmitting information such as prices (outputs and inputs), standards, and cross value-chain production innovations and solutions. Activities will include randomized and quasi-experimental interventions to improve access to market information using mobile phones and other information and communication technologies; the identification of sustainable delivery systems for training, certification, and promotion new technologies and inputs; and the identification of mechanisms to promote formal and informal business networks (lead farmers, trader-driven, and so on) to optimize potential spillovers. This research will have a direct effect on poverty in the areas where it carries out interventions because improved market information will reduce marketing margins, increase farmgate prices, and boost the incomes of rural households. The key outputs will be (1) characterization of the key information needs of each actor in the value chain; (2) a database of existing management information systems and the information included in them; (3) a set of best practices in designing and implementing market information systems that maximize pro-poor impact; and (4) detailed plans for scaling up the proposed ICT interventions (produced together with our NGO implementation partners).Recognizing that marketing infrastructure strongly affects the cost of getting agricultural commodities from the farmer to the consumer, as well as the degree of competition at each stage in the value chain, this analysis will improve knowledge about the impact that complementary investments in rural infrastructure (water, sewerage, roads, electricity, and telecommunications) and postharvest infrastructure (storage facilities, processing equipment for home and market, market facilities, certification, and sanitation facilities, and so on) may have on market development, reduction of postharvest losses, and poverty reduction. It will identify investments with the largest multiplier effects; design institutional strategies that provide adequate access to the public infrastructure necessary to enhance the environment for private sector activity; and identify infrastructure investment opportunities across the food value chain that generate the largest multiplier effects and attract public and private ruralsector investments. Researchers will consider how to raise the private and social profitability of executed investments and identify which bottlenecks (physical or institutional) impede the attainment of maximum potential investment potential in rural infrastructure. The key outputs of this research will be (1) a systematic review of existing information on infrastructure provision best practices (this review will consider not only hard infrastructure, but also postharvest infrastructure, freight capacity, airport capacity, and sanitary and phytosanitary facilities); (2) research that overlaps development domains with economic corridors identified for infrastructure development (particularly for Sub-Saharan Africa) to increase the economic return of infrastructure investments; (3) identification of a framework for prioritizing infrastructure investment, taking into account development domains; (4) identification of ways to forge public-private partnerships based on competitive funds best practices (as the telecommunication and electricity rural funds) as a way to minimize the use of public resources ; (5) measurements of the gains in coordination of different types of infrastructure investments; and (6) identification of best practices in infrastructure provision through solid impact evaluation.Finally, this research activity will also address standards/certification. Quality assurance systems are mechanisms for verifying to consumers the quality, food safety, or production methods of food products, while providing signals to farmers regarding production practices that will be rewarded in the marketplace. Examples are grades, standards, and certification systems, including those organized by private firms, associations, and public agencies. Quality assurance systems are particularly important for perishable high-value commodities, where they are usually organized by private firms or associations. They are also relevant to low-value staple crops, where both public and private systems exist. For example, grades for food grains facilitate long-distance trade and can eliminate the need to inspect lots personally before purchase. The rise of quality assurance systems raises a number of important research questions: How and under what circumstances can quality assurance systems help small-scale farmers (particularly women and the poor) get access to new markets? What are the lessons from established quality assurance systems? What is the appropriate mix of standards, grades, and labeling that will improve product quality and farm income without unnecessarily restricting the market? What methods can firms, associations, and public agencies use to evaluate the usefulness of a quality assurance system ex ante? The outputs of this research will be (1) recommendations regarding the feasibility of quality assurance systems for specific commodities in specific countries; (2) guidelines regarding the situations in which grades, standards, or certification systems are likely to be successful; and (3) best-practice guidelines concerning the design of effective quality assurance systems, including the appropriate combination of grades and standards, the conditions under which certification is best provided by a thirdparty company, an association of producers, and a government agency. The audience for this research includes private firms, associations, and public regulatory agencies. Finally, the development impact of this research will be to create new opportunities for small-scale farmers to tap into growing markets for quality-sensitive, high-value foods and to facilitate a better match between agricultural supply and demand.This research activity will focus on organizations to improve vertical and horizontal coordination. Poor, rural farmers are often left out of the market. They may not be able to compete with larger farmers who can provide firms with consistent quantities of high-quality products. These barriers to entry for small farms may be due to the fact that they cannot exploit economies-of-scale in production. Farmer associations and other ways of collective action can help to address this problem in production and marketing, contracting, and other interventions, such as quality assurance. However, these elements of market entry have not been assembled in a chain-relevant package that is widely applicable to collective action (for example, Minot and Roy 2006;Coulter, Goodland, and Tallontire 1999;Wibonpoongse et al. 1998;Boselie, Henson, and Weatherspoon 2003;Delgado, Narrod, and Tiongco 2003;Dolan and Humphrey 2000). While Theme 2 provides guidance on designing organizations to achieve pro-poor collective action, this theme formulates value addition interventions that use vertical integration and collective action to correct scale-and capacity-related market failures.The related field research tests and validates innovative marketing arrangements (including contracts) to solve the problems of barriers to market entry faced by small farmers, particularly those growing high-value crops across different regions and countries. This research will (1) undertake randomized and quasi-experimental interventions to improve market access through contract farming, outgrowing schemes, or a combination of horizontal and vertical coordination; (2) evaluate methods and tools for improving development interventions that build the business capacities of farmer association; (3) seek to understand the costs and benefits of organizational models, identifying best practices; (4) evaluate alternative incentives for improving or learning from collective models (cooperatives, producer associations, and other farmer groups); ( 5) evaluate vertical and horizontal arrangements relative to other institutional designs, such as farmers' becoming shareholders in for-profit firms; and (6) evaluate the role of women, youth, and excluded populations in horizontal and vertical coordination arrangements and the potential for members of these groups to serve as enterprise leaders.Outputs from this research will help design new institutional mechanisms that give smallholders access to dynamic markets through efficient contract farming arrangements, horizontal coordination arrangements, and improved business capacity, improving the welfare of the poor. Consequently, in addition to scholarly contributions to the topic, we will target policymakers in ministries of agriculture, development practitioners in NGOs, and key private-sector buyers, among others, through forums and policy-relevant bulletins. CRP2 researchers will develop series of documents on optimal strategies for contract farming arrangements, horizontal coordination, and business capacity development, including policies and strategies that institutions can use to improve market access for smallholders. The ultimate beneficiaries of the research project are poor, rural men and women who will have better access to dynamic markets. It is anticipated that the tested mechanisms will be replicable elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America and will be able to be expanded to different crops, including those used for biofuels.Another important aspect of this research will be developing willing buyers through improved private-sector business practices. Research in the CGIAR typically focuses on increasing farm productivity to leverage improved livelihoods for smallholder farmers and their families. A value-chain approach encompasses additional actors and opens an additional area of inquiry, recognizing that many of the organizational and institutional rules that constrain or permit rural poverty reduction are not formulated at the farm level but rather by private actors. The previous themes have focused on building farmer capacity to become good partners for business and on providing an enabling environment to achieve solid linkages. This theme, in contrast, focuses on providing information and inputs to privatesector firms to influence them to adopt pro-poor business practices to support successful market linkages for smallholders. The rationale behind this theme is the increasing importance of organizational and institutional decision-making by firms, often well removed from the reality of smallholder agriculture in the developing world. As market chains formalize into more modern configurations, firms choose to implement private standards and higher-value differentiated products become more relevant. As a consequence, the decisionmaking nexus and power shifts toward the buyer's end of the chain. Unfortunately this power shift often occurs in an information vacuum in which buyers may make decisions that have unintended negative effects on smallholders in these value chains. Despite the often negative consequences of this shift, previous work by CIAT 16 and CIP (such as the \"Papa Andina\" platforms) has shown that targeted research can influence private sector decisions in a way that supports rather than undermines the position of smallholders. The opportunity, therefore, is to identify effective mechanisms that firms can apply or adapt to help include smallholder farmers in value chains with special emphasis in agricultural products important for the poor.The principle objective of this research is to identify cross-cutting principles that underpin sustained business linkages between smallholder farmers and buyers, thereby contributing to rural poverty reduction for women and men. We will conduct comparative case studies using both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine issues such as chain-wide collaboration and innovation, social intermediary models, fair and transparent governance, risk and cost sharing, and access to services as they pertain to lead-firm business models. This research will be conducted with private-sector firms, international NGOs, and multistakeholder forums, such as the Sustainable Food Laboratory, Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, among others. Outputs from this theme will include (1) a regional series of in-depth case studies of successful and failed attempts at building links between smallholders and large buyers that evaluate the impact of business mode changes on household outcomes in terms of smallholder livelihoods; (2) regional and global comparative analysis to identify key principles for effective linkages and to evaluate the impact of changes in private sector practices on poor women and men; (3) a toolkit to design and consistently measure the outcomes from improved business practices on smallholder livelihoods in a genderdifferentiated manner; (4) scholarly and applied publications on inclusive design principles and evaluation methods and tools; and (5) continued participation and engagement in multistakeholder forums to ensure a clear linkage between research demands and end users.This research activity will explore access to two key financial services--financial markets and insurance mechanisms--for the different players in the value chain. It is well known that access to financial services is important but often inhibited by imperfections in the credit markets. In low-income rural areas, contracts are difficult to enforce and the problem of adverse selection is acute. Banks face high risks and lend conservatively. They lack appropriate, well-developed, and suitably designed credit-scoring models that can help identify suitable borrowers and significant asymmetries of information. Research on access to financial markets will study institutional designs that can reduce the problems of adverse selection and lack of collateral. Such designs might include, for example, a certified warehouse receipt system for staple crops; innovative contract farming arrangements; and a credit-scoring system for rural lending. Absence of a well-developed credit-scoring system both restricts access to credit and prevents the growth of differentiated borrowing options (for example, a menu of choices involving interest rates, loan terms, and loan amounts).Researchers will also investigate three approaches designed to overcome weaknesses of current market-based insurance products that have been hypothesized to explain low pick up rates of the existing insurance mechanisms, as follows: Reducing the complexity of insurance products offered. Many of the weatherbased index insurance products currently offered are complex, and some observers suspect that low take-up rates may result in part from farmers' limited understanding of the products (see in particular the results from Malawi presented in Gine and Yang 2007 in which take-up rates for uninsured loans were higher than take-up rates for insured loans). Increasing demand for these new products may require designing a simpler version, even if it results in more basis risk for an individual farmer. Researchers will analyze the potential success of fairly simple mechanisms that can closely replicate a standard lottery. Our hypothesis is that a simple, more familiar mechanism will result in a faster learning process for farmers and therefore a faster adoption rate. Research on the specific design of the proposed lottery-insurance mechanism will be undertaken--in particular, analysis of indicators that will guide the underlying lottery. The definition of \"losing\" and \"winning\" events must be clearly identified based on indicators highly correlated to the source of risk one wants to insurance against. Experiences with weatherbased index insurance schemes in developing countries will be analyzed to draw lessons  Designing mutual savings products as opposed to insurance products. Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa informal insurance arrangements closely resemble mutual savings arrangements. The concept of insurance offered through these arrangements is quite different from the concept of insurance offered in marketbased schemes. A disconnect between the types of insurance currently understood and used and the types of insurance offered by the market, may explain disappointing take-up rates. Researchers will examine whether offering a mutual savings product may encourage a higher rate of adoption. Providing insurance through a trusted intermediary. Entering into an insurance contract requires trust that the other party has correctly portrayed and explained the terms of the contract and that they will honor the terms of the contract in case a claim is made. Improving the level of trust in the provider of insurance may improve the take-up rate, particularly if insurance can be provided to individuals by groups that already currently insure them. Offering weather insurance through traditional insurance networks builds on the knowledge of insurance provision these groups already have. In addition, providing insurance through groups may reduce the cost of insurance and helps ensures that the new forms of insurance provided do not weaken these groups that are already effective at dealing with some types of risk. The key outputs of this research activity will be the development of innovative mechanisms to improve smallholders' access to credit and insurance.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 3.1 are the following (in alphabetical order): This research activity will prepare a comprehensive strategy for evaluating and assessing the impact of different interventions in upgrading value chains under Subtheme 3.1 and across different CRPs. It will identify appropriate indicators and a combination of methods to monitor the performance of different projects, evaluate their effectiveness, and assess their impact on the poor and other target groups, including women. The strategy will describe indicators and methods best suited to the needs of the different interventions on science and technology (CRP1), productivity (CRP3), market access (CRP2), and nutritious content in value chains (CRP4). The design of the methodology will draw on partners experienced in designing and implementing qualitative and quantitative impact evaluation, in designing and using monitoring systems, and in validating different measurement tools for different purposes.This subtheme will  develop sets of indicators to monitor and evaluate the impact of the full range of interventions across CRPs in upgrading value chains; design cost-effective yet rigorous methods for measuring the impact of different types of interventions on the selected indicators; and implement impact evaluations and document best practices and feed them into knowledge clearinghouse in coordination with existing initiatives.The first step will be to identify the impact pathway of the intervention, defined as the expected causal chain of events leading from project activities to outputs to changes in the target population to the achievement of project objectives. For example, a project to assist agro-input dealers may be based on the following sequence of events: the money is allocated, training and credit are provided to agro-input dealers, the dealers sell more fertilizer (especially to women and poor farmers), farmers apply more fertilizer on their crops, and the farmers get better yields, which leads to higher income and reduced poverty.One or more indicators should be selected for each of the main steps along the impact pathway. In this way, the indicators may serve as a diagnostic tool, identifying the place in the impact pathway where the chain was broken. For example, if indicators reveal that agro-input dealers are getting credit and training but they are not able to expand sales or only increase sales to men or better-off farmers, then the project team may want to revise the training or examine other constraints to fertilizer sales. In contrast, if sales are increasing but yields are not responding, the project team may want to reexamine its fertilizer recommendations.Two types of indicators will be developed: 1. Process indicators to measure the inputs and outputs of the intervention itself. These indicators would include the number and distribution of farmers trained or the amount of credit provided. Because they can be easily and inexpensively collected, they can be monitored on a continual basis. Examples include the value of plant breeding, the number of agro-input dealers trained, the area under new micro-irrigation schemes, and the number of modern-input packages delivered to farmers, disaggregated by gender of farmer recipients. 2. Impact indicators, which refer to the range of effects of the project on the intended beneficiaries. Impact indicators are usually collected through household or business surveys. Because these surveys are more expensive and time-consuming, and because impact often takes time to achieve, impact indicators are usually collected less frequently than other indicators. Intermediate impact indicators include the share of farmers using improved seed varieties, the number of farmers able to obtain fertilizers, and average yields for staple crops. They will vary according to the project to be evaluated. Final impact indicators might include the incidence of poverty, the proportion of farmers that experience hunger periods during the year, and the nutritional status of children.Researchers will include gender-disaggregated data wherever possible, both to assess the effectiveness of programs and to strengthen the availability of information on the extent of the gap in assets and services between men and women. Two common measures of problems in targeting are the rate of undercoverage (the proportion of the target group that does not benefit) and leakage (the proportion of beneficiaries that are not in the target group). Indicators also vary according to the level of aggregation.Finally, the impact evaluation will be designed using different methods according to the specific type of intervention. Value-chain interventions pose particular challenges to impact evaluation techniques, so we propose using both qualitative and quantitative techniques to address this problem. To effective evaluate the impact of value-chain interventions, researchers will integrate qualitative and quantitative methods and use operational research methods (for process evaluation and monitoring). They will also use experimental and quasi-experimental approaches for impact evaluation, as well as innovative sampling techniques across the value chain. They will build appropriate counterfactuals to address issues related to (1) confounding factors, and (2) selection biases (Habicht, Victora, and Vaughan 1997). In our view, the use of mixed methods in monitoring and evaluation is necessary not only for the triangulation of findings, but also for achieving a thorough understanding of the different design, operational, or contextual factors that may have fostered or hindered the achievement of expected impacts. This need will imply significant innovation in the designs and techniques used.The main alternative suppliers of CRP2 on Subtheme 3.2 are the following (in alphabetical order):  It brings together a unifying theory and performance metrics that enable consistent data collection and analysis.  It brings together state-of-the-art tools on impact evaluation to identify best practices in upgrading value chains across different commodities.  It offers a unique platform for research activities and communication of results.Theme 3 features a core set of interrelated activities that might receive priority, although it could also be assigned to \"low-hanging fruit\" opportunities or to problems of evident and persistent magnitude. Engaging all three criteria, the research program has identified the following priority areas for Theme 3: Core input to other CRP activities: work on transaction costs and infrastructure and on risk in the value chain; \"Low-hanging fruit\": development of a knowledge clearinghouse and of research methodologies surrounding value-chain performance, both of which would be addressed in partnership with extension services; and  Evident problems: improved market access through partnerships and research on input provision.Efforts devoted to reducing rural poverty have traditionally focused on small-scale farmers trying to increase their competitiveness within the market chain by augmenting productivity through new technologies and organizational strengthening. Despite these efforts, some challenges cannot be overcome through a farmer level approach alone. The market chain encompasses diverse actors ranging from smallscale producers to modern supermarket chains or restaurants, including wholesalers and processors. These actors live in distinct geographical areas and cultural settings, and sometimes have never met or have only informal relationships characterized by lack of trust and strong competition. They lack the capacity to identify common interests and joint opportunities, and to innovate to overcome hurdles at different levels of the market chain. For innovation to occur, new patterns of interaction and new institutional arrangements among the diversity of actors involved in the value chain are necessary. These interactions and arrangements need to focus on adapting scientific expertise to the local context, paying special attention to the socioeconomic, environmental, technological, and market-driven dimensions, while ensuring strong linkages to policy development and incorporating public-private partnerships. CRP2 recognizes the significant potential for drawing on existing work that addresses the developed world's food systems, and which has analyzed and presented the achievements of transition and rapidly advancing economies. The creation of a knowledge clearinghouse, in combination with Theme 1's Strategic Foresight Platform, will catalyze this exchange of experience and bring a range of new partners to the value-chain research, including the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-Pal) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University College London, and the International Growth Center with Oxford University and the London School of Economics. The key partner types for the markets and value-chain research include  public, private, local, and international development agencies and the farmer associations they support; 17  national and multinational private-sector firms that purchase goods from the rural poor; 18  national and subnational public-sector agencies that set the rules of the game and decide on infrastructure investments; 19 and  key public and private donor agencies and investment funds, which fund the above. 20 The use of learning alliances will be a key mechanism for developing successful partnerships. Learning cycles provide opportunities to promote interaction, social learning, social capital formation, and collective activities with partners from the private sector, development NGOs, public-sector agencies, Southern and Northern research centers, other CRPs, and donor spheres. CRP3 will have its own commodity-specific learning alliances that will interact with the CRP2 regional learning platforms, providing feedback on technological, market and organizational innovations and contributing to the development of policies and approaches for effective public-private partnerships.The strategy will build on experiences of existing partnerships in different commodities. Over the years, the centers have invested both direct funding and human resources into different forms of partnerships. Good examples of partnership found in CRP3-RTB include Banana Regional R4D Networks (global), the Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative-SPHI (Sub-Saharan Africa [SSA]) and the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium to Support Cassava Research and Development. In relation to staple crops, IFPRI, IRRI, CIMMYT, and ILRI all participate in CSISA in collaboration with the NARSs of South Asia; private crop-science, seed, and agricultural input companies; farmers' organizations, and NGOs. This partnership seeks to prioritize value-chain development in the context of inputs, technologies, and resource-management systems, and aims to decrease hunger and malnutrition, and increase food security among resource-poor, small-scale farm families in South Asia. IFPRI also partners with COMESA to conduct a series of policy seminars and training courses on various topics related to staple food marketing in the region, in addition the value-chain theme will be directly linked to CAADP Pillar 2, which focuses on value chains for SSA.Various partnerships also promote linkages between farmers and high-value markets. This would include the University of Bonn's Foodnet efforts toward supply-chain excellence, Monash University's Centre for Retail Studies, and a host of others spanning promotion of contracting to the establishment of high-value direct sales to the consumer. Similarly, the research theme will continue partnerships with the Mathematics, Computing, and Technology Faculty of Open University and with University College London and Wageningen University. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) partners with IFAD's Latin America and Caribbean Division to develop systematic ways for IFAD, as a donor agency, to support market linkage programs between private-sector enterprises and smallholder farmers in innovative and effective ways. IFPRI also has partnerships with IFAD and with the World Food Program 17 Their role is to co-develop methods and approaches in collaboration with the CGIAR to build the capacities/access to infrastructure of poor farmer associations to function as effective and attractive business partners in ways that contribute to reducing poverty. 18 Their role is to co-develop methods and approaches in collaboration with the CGIAR that develop and move more inclusive private-sector policies (purchasing, payment, grading, and so on) toward the mainstream of national and multinational business practice. 19 Their role is to co-develop methods, approaches, and good practices in collaboration with the CGIAR to identify and implement efficient investments in critical social and productive infrastructure that benefits the rural poor. 20 Their role is to co-develop methods and approaches in collaboration with the CGIAR that are more effective at promoting equitable and sustained economic and social growth for the rural poor.(WFP) in linking farmers to markets (in the case of WFP, the key partnership will be with the Purchase for Progress program). In addition, IFPRI partners with the University of Adelaide, the Indonesian Center for Agriculture and Socioeconomic Policy, and the Indonesian Center for Agricultural Policy and Agribusiness Studies to evaluate horticultural value chains in Indonesia. In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, FAO, and the National Bureaus of Statistics and Livestock Line Ministries, ILRI has created a large-scale project involving piloting improvements to the database for livestock production and marketing systems in Mali, Tanzania, and Uganda.Many of these partnerships focus on capacity-building around the world. IFPRI partners with the Regional Unit of Technical Assistance of Central America (RUTA), with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). CIAT also participates in the Sustainable Food Laboratory, which is a coalition of private companies and international NGOs that focuses on increasing the sustainability of the global food system in themes related to smallholder inclusion, social equity, and rural development.In addition to the outputs described at the research activity level, Theme 3 will establish a web-based information and knowledge clearinghouse. This clearinghouse will serve as a fully-accessible repository linked to the GFAR/CIARD portal for all the existing and future products developed through the markets theme of CRP2 for use by other CRPs working on global and local market issues impacting on smallholders (that is, CRP1, CRP3, CRP4, and others), as well as the broader research and development audience. The ethos of the clearinghouse will be that of \"Creative Commons\" (in contrast to materials under \"copyright\"), where all products are made available as quickly and widely as possible under the stipulation that authorship be respected although changes can be made and shared. Specific products in the clearinghouse will include  a common toolbox of methods for use by other CRPs or other research and development partners built around CRP2 prototypes;  best practices from CRP2 and components of other CRPs focused on markets;  quality and attribution methods and tools, which will be provided through the impact evaluation activities of Subtheme 3.2; and  results from quality and attribution testing under diverse crop, market, and policy conditions and cross-cutting analysis. These research results will provide the analytical base and country-level capacities to provide smallholders with access to dynamic markets. The key research outputs will be  tools to optimize and prioritize investment in institutional arrangements and valuechain infrastructure;  best new practices to upgrade value chains across CRPs and through institutional innovations on CRP2, increasing the adoption of best practices through the knowledge clearinghouse and collaborative partnerships; and  identification of policies for creating an environment for willing buyers and the enabling sustainable linkages between capable farmers and willing buyers. Key outcomes will be  improving access to markets for smallholders at better prices and with lower transaction costs; and  upgrading value-chain governance and equity.These research outcomes will have a direct impact on equity and poverty because improved market access, technical innovation, information, and improved efficiency will reduce marketing margins, increasing farmgate prices, expanding labor opportunities for women and the landless, and boosting the incomes of rural women and men. In addition, the research will reduce the risk to farmers through the promotion of risk coping mechanisms, and increase the quality of produce, thereby improving food security. Working with partner organizations that complement the strengths of the CGIAR centers and that focus more on the implementation of the proposed innovations is a key aspect of this theme's strategy for ensuring uptake of outputs. We will promote collaboration with ministries and other public-sector agencies to take into account political and administrative constraints in valuechain recommendations, and to ensure buy-in of the results. Cooperation with NGOs with a strong field presence will be useful in understanding farm-level problems and mobilizing participation to solve them. Working with local universities and research institutes will enable us to draw on local expertise, as well as to develop local capacity to undertake policy-relevant research on agricultural value chains. By design, the evaluation component of Theme 3 (Subtheme 3.2) directly contributes to ensuring that outputs are translated into outcomes and impacts.Farmers and other rural actors are not a homogeneous group. In the developing world, their access to resources and their abilities to initiate and expand agriculture-related businesses are frequently shaped by access to resources according to their gender roles and responsibilities. Neither opportunities nor risks are shared equally within the household (see Subtheme 2.3); men and women may have different perceptions of risks, such that both entrepreneurial efforts and shocks can affect men's and women's welfare in different ways. Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence that increasing the resources under women's control is likely to increase their bargaining power and improve their children's nutrition and health. Accordingly, for the CGIAR to deliver on its mission-achieving sustainable and positive change for those who need it most-its approaches to agricultural research and development must engage, empower, and invest in women, not only to correct gender inequities, but also to achieve more effective development.This has been widely recognized as a critical and high return, issue to address in agriculture and rural development, most recently in the FAO 2011 State of Food and Agriculture report and the GCARD 2010 Conference and subsequent agreed GCARD Roadmap. Following the GCARD 2010, extensive discussions have continued, through the collaborative mechanism of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research, between the CGIAR, FAO and GFAR's other constituent forums, institutions and networks. The outcome is now an initial agreement to pursue a collective global partnership among these institutions to address (1) strengthening the role of women in agricultural research for development institutions and (2) a more effective gender-based focus on agricultural research prioritization and delivery to better meet the particular innovation needs of women farmers. We will continue to work with GFAR and the regional agricultural research organizations, as well as individual NARS institutions, to promote appropriate attention to gender in agricultural research and extension, and contribute materials for capacity strengthening on gender-responsive agricultural research.CRP2 will ensure that gender issues are not only integrated into preexisting research programs, but also that critical gender issues become a focus of R&D in their own right. In CRP2, experiences with gender analysis under individual projects will be collected, compared, and contrasted to uncover broader lessons on gender integration in its research.An overarching aspect of the three themes of CRP2 will be addressing constraints to collecting and analyzing gender-disaggregated data so that they can be used in all aspects of agricultural policy research. In some cases, no data have been collected, or data are incomplete or inconsistent. In other cases, where gender-disaggregated data are available, they have not been adequately analyzed to identify key gender relations and their influence on agricultural productivity or poverty reduction. Examples include agricultural censuses in Africa that have applied new methods of collecting intrahousehold data, which in many cases have yet to be analyzed, and longitudinal datasets (for example, ICRISAT's villagelevel surveys and IFPRI's datasets on Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Kenya). In such situations, relatively low levels of funding for gender analysis can yield valuable insights. Further linking gender-disaggregated data to geographic information systems (GIS) can ensure that gender is integrated in strategic foresight research, to better identify, for example, who are the key decisionmakers and stakeholders who will be affected by technology innovations or climate change.The CGIAR has internationally-recognized research capability in this area and has particular capability in studying the implications of gender in relation to agricultural research and its role in development. Researchers will both develop methodologies and analyze existing data collaboratively with in-country partners (especially NARSs), providing an opportunity for mutual capacity building. That is, CGIAR researchers can help strengthen NARSs' capacity to collect and analyze data while themselves learning more contextual information about local gender relations from their partners in country.The output of this activity will be strengthened information systems on gender in agriculture, including better methods, data, and analysis. Gender-disaggregated datasets will be documented and made available on the web so that they can be used in training courses and student theses. Synthesis studies on gender in agriculture will provide evidence on how and why it is important to pay attention to gender in agricultural projects. This work will feed into major global reports and processes, including providing information for the next World Bank World Development Report, which will focus on gender. The impact will be seen in public investments and agricultural research systems that meet the needs of both women and men.Research will also explore the role of technology policies in gender relations. As part of a larger, regular set of evaluation activities, researchers will formulate and test a range of hypotheses relating to (1) gender imbalances in access to assets, technology, and support services; (2) gender differentials in agricultural productivity and incomes (Alene et al. 2008); and (3) intrahousehold distributional impacts of technological and institutional innovations. Specific steps will be taken to leverage this knowledge to inform technology development and delivery systems so that both men and women benefit. Although the conceptual frameworks for each theme will differ, each will examine how contextual factors, assets, activities, and outcomes may differ for men and women, as well as examining the degree of \"jointness\" within households. During R&D interventions, in-depth baseline studies will initially be conducted on the roles, livelihood strategies, constraints, and preferences of male and female farmers (including the roles of female-headed households and female farmers within male-headed households). The results will be used to improve on the design of R&D interventions in ways that increase participation among disadvantaged groups and achieve an informed and balanced emphasis on empowering women and strengthening their assets.Evaluations of technical and institutional innovations will be designed to allow researchers to systematically assess gender-differentiated technology needs, choices, and constraints and to test mechanisms for targeting and delivering technologies for greater impacts among both men and women. Farmer participatory research and extension approaches will be used to promote participation of women and other marginalized groups in developing and disseminating technologies, as well as in evaluating programs, as called for under the GCARD Road Map (GFAR 2011). By expanding the range of genderdisaggregated analyses of potential and actual technology adoption and the impacts of alternative innovations, the program will increase awareness and use of gender analysis in agricultural research and extension. Special emphasis will be given to enhancing female farmers' capacity to obtain information, credit, and technologies and to integrating them into input and output markets to strengthen their assets and incomes.In addition, a number of the subtheme descriptions have identified how they will investigate gender issues as a cross-cutting theme.Research on the impact of technology policies on gender, health, and nutrition that will build on an irrigation technology evaluation on health, gender, and nutrition project conducted in Kenya and Tanzania. The \"Gender and Health Impacts of Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops in Developing Countries\" project will examine the interdynamics of these three topics.Research on policy processes will pay particular attention to the formal and informal institutions that can increase women's voices in agricultural policy processes through capacity development and work with leaders to improve their awareness and knowledge of the issues. Another example is the research on governance and institutions will identify strategies to make the provision of infrastructure and services more gender sensitive. These strategies will target public administration (such as promoting gender targets for extension services and training frontline service providers-both women and men-to address gender-based constraints), local political institutions (such as promoting women in local councils), and community-based organizations (such as examining gender dynamics in producer organizations and involving women's groups in service delivery). Research on property rights and assets will identify ways to strengthen women's tenure security and narrow the gender-asset gap to reduce present and future poverty.Research on value chains will promote increased opportunities for women and greater gender equity in value-chain development and operations. This work will consider ways to ensure that commercialization does not transfer control of assets from women to men, while improving the representation of women as actors throughout the value chain.Prioritization of gender work overall will emphasize areas in which gender disparities are greatest, notably in Africa and South Asia. A context-specific strategy of engagement and outreach on gender, including a training and communications strategy, will ensure that outputs serve the needs and capacities of women as clients and partners. CRP2 will, for example, include women in research teams, work with women's producer organizations, and address gender attitudes among managers, NGOs, aid administrators, and other key actors in the agricultural field. We will also build on our close collaboration with FAO and IFAD on gender issues to influence broader development policy and practitioner audiences. Continued close interaction with the other organizations brought together through GFAR at global and regional scales will ensure mutual synergies with the regional agricultural research-fordevelopment networks and constituencies of farmers, NGOs, private sector and national government research, extension and education institutions, maximizing the impact of the gender research and capacity strengthening in CRP2.Developing new tools and methods will be one of the hallmarks of CRP2's approach. Following the CGIAR Science Council's advice on the importance of using social science methodologies in interactions between social and biophysical scientists (CGIAR Science Council 2009), CRP2 will draw on the social science expertise of the CGIAR system and of other advanced research centers as well as on the unique knowledge of NARSs and local partners to assess existing policies, institutions, and investments.Box 6.1 summarizes the range of innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies that form the foundation of the research themes and subthemes described in sections 4 and 5 of this proposal. CRP2 will use cutting-edge research designs. These designs will include randomized experimental design to evaluate the impact of policy reform, institutional change, and marketing innovations; action research linked to comparative analysis; digital survey methods to ensure rapid turnaround; and GIS analysis of marketing networks and market accessibility. Experimental economics will incorporate farmer behavior into the testing of value-chain analysis and identify ways of strengthening farmers' organizations, as well as provide feedback to organizations to foster collective action. Various techniques for understanding gender differences, such as the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data and information on social norms, will be integrated into each research theme.Research on policy processes will be based on innovative quantitative methods, such as combining political economy modeling with computable general equilibrium modeling, and on innovative qualitative methods, such as the participatory influence mapping method, Net-Map. 21 To understand how policy change can occur despite political obstacles, researchers will apply analytical concepts in new ways. These possible lenses for analysis include the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the concepts of political capital, policy beliefs, and policy discourse. CRP2 will also apply creative methods for analyzing governance arrangements, such as empirically measuring the transaction costs incurred by farmers in accessing inputs and markets. Researchers will develop special assessment tools and indicators, such as gender-disaggregated governance indicators for agriculture and natural resource management.CRP2 promotes interdisciplinary research, another facet of its innovative approach to agricultural science. CRP2 researchers will use an economywide approach to integrate different policy and institutional topics within a particular region and to assess and compare the effects of alternative policy and institutional reforms on agricultural growth, income generation, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition improvement. Although focused on agriculture, the policy work will examine links to other types of policies. Collaboration with biophysical scientists will enhance the synergy between technology and institutional innovations on the ground. Systematic comparative analysis of the economic and environmental impact of new technologies under alternative policy regimes across agroecosystems will enhance the understanding and impact of these technologies.To ensure policy relevance, CRP2 will work closely with other CRPs to ensure that the new technologies for accelerating agricultural growth that they are developing will reach small producers and the rural poor through the formulation of appropriate policies, effective and equitable governance structures, and efficient markets.Drawing on the expertise of the CGIAR system, we will apply a diversity of approaches and methods to research activities under CRP2. The analyses will be informed by state-of-the-art theoretical and conceptual frameworks and methods, a few of which are described here.  Econometric methods including cross-country panel data analyses, multilevel estimations, crosscommunity estimations, and intrahousehold and microeconometric approaches will be used to analyze the poverty and income distribution impacts of different policies.  Model-based simulation analyses will be used to assess the national and global impact of policies.Economywide models, such as CGE models, will be used in conjunction with farm/household and spatial models to assess these impacts at the household and local level. CGE models and agent-based models will also be combined with political-economy models to facilitate a better understanding of policy processes.  Strategic foresight assessments will be formalized on an ongoing basis for scenario analyses, using stateof-the-art modeling tools combining economic and biophysical models with geo-referenced physical data.  Social network analyses will be used to model, measure, and promote the inclusiveness and use of networks to encourage collective action and to better understand the innovation process, from discovery to development to delivery, emphasizing key decision points in the network. Data collection methods for network analyses include both gender-disaggregated questionnaire-based survey techniques and mapping techniques.  The value chain component will use innovative mixed methods to identify constraints and opportunities in the value chain. These methods will include sampling of mobile market agents, such as traders and across the whole value chain; margin calculation in diversified and seasonally affected producers and traders; definition and measurement of whole-chain performance; and industrial organization tools to measure power relationships. Experimental and pseudo-experimental methods will be used to understand consumer preferences regarding food safety and quality and the impacts of policies.  Qualitative analyses will be used by a range of subthemes. Techniques used will vary by subtheme (see Section 4) and will include participatory assessments, gender analyses, life histories, focus group discussions, interviews, ethnography, participant observation, and content analyses. Particularly in the work on collective action, the research will use a legal pluralism (Merry 1988) and polycentric governance (Ostrom 1999) approach, that recognizes both customary forms of cooperation, as well as those introduced by government and projects; thereby going beyond \"ownership\" as defined by state title to examine the entire bundle of rights derived from customary and statutory law.  Participatory action research will be used to improve the links between research and implementation and to catalyze institutional change. Engaging program implementers in action research will draw the focus to implementation modalities and the potential for scaling up. Action research also helps in the identification of gender-related constraints to participation and in testing ways to overcome these constraints.  Country Strategy Support Programs will be used to assist in collecting long-term household panel data, observing and understanding the development process, testing and experimenting with policy options, and building strong national capacity through collaborative research (see Box 3.3).  Experimental approaches and randomized controlled approaches will be used to evaluate impact and test policy options. Such approaches will be used to study the effect of rule changes on cooperation in collective action groups and to provide feedback to the groups to help them increase cooperation.  Gender and intrahousehold analysis will use the gender-disaggregated data collection mentioned above, integrating information derived through the different methods to understand how intrahousehold relations shape the outcome of policy or institutional changes. Analysis will go beyond unitary or bargaining household models to examine the separate assets, activities, income, and welfare of women and men, as well as what is shared within the household, based on age and gender differences.  Data banking and access will be developed, including long-term panel datasets and advanced web-based knowledge and information. This activity is further described in this section (CRP2 Data Strategy), and details specific to themes can be found in Section 4.In addition to directly undertaking novel research, CRP2 will seek to encourage innovative research practices more broadly. Therefore, CRP2 proposes an annual competitive grants program to promote innovation among researchers in both developed and developing countries. This competition will focus on top-priority research gaps identified by CRP2 research each year.The objective is to identify the most innovative and high-potential projects on the specific priority themes identified by CRP2 research. Grant funds will be used to implement the chosen projects at the pilot level and to carefully evaluate them. This program will help to identify simple solutions to complex problems to strengthen food security and incomes for the rural poor-best bets to be further researched and scaled up.The call for proposals will be widely announced at the beginning of the year and a committee of recognized researchers will identify the top five proposals. The key criteria for ranking the proposals will include their policy relevance, their potential to inform a methodologically rigorous study, innovativeness, and the degree of groundwork and preparation conducted for the pilot work.The best proposals will be accepted for funding, with the funding level and number of projects to be determined during the implementation phase. The selected researchers will have to deliver the results by the end of the year, and these results will be a key input into CRP2 research. In addition, the winning researchers will become part of the network of CRP2 researchers, which will facilitate joint research activities and generate additional benefits through technical and logistical support as well as fundraising assistance and joint publications.Within this network, CRP2 will organize technical meetings and outreach forums to promote scientific exchange between the winning researchers, experts, and policy practitioners. Interactions with policymakers will take place in collaboration with leading organizations at the regional and continental level. We expect these activities to help build research capacity in developing countries.There is a high level of synergy between world-class research and world-class information systems, which means that data should be treated as a corporate research asset. The quality, credibility, and cost of CRP2 research, the program's capacity to develop timely, relevant, and accessible research products and services, and its ability to respond to evolving research priorities, will all be highly conditioned by CRP2's data strategy. Therefore, the development of integrated data and knowledge management platforms is a priority of CRP2.CRP2's data strategy aims to reduce research costs, enrich analytical opportunities for CRP research partners, and deliver a major international public good in the form of an open-access data portal, which will foster broad opportunities for innovation beyond CRP2 by both the public and the private sectors. These objectives go well beyond existing practices for data management and sharing within and across CGIAR centers.Although there is still room for progress, a number of significant data sharing and networking examples within the CGIAR can serve as models for future success. Among these is the CGIAR's Consortium for Spatial Information (www.cgiar-csi.org), a grassroots, scientist-to-scientist network for spatial data and knowledge sharing. The CSI has been very successful in engaging the spatial community of the CGIAR in collaborative efforts to generate and share new data products, and has worked with partners within and outside the CGIAR to convene a flagship annual African Agriculture GIS Week that increasingly engages African students and young professionals as well as the private sector in fostering advances in the use of spatial data in African agricultural development. A second example is the ICT-KM program, which has promoted awareness and adoption of a broad range of new communication technologies for improved data sharing among CGIAR scientists. Other examples include the spatial data portal capacities of IWMI and the recently convened multicenter Trial Sites effort to harmonize and share technical data from CGIAR field trials and experiments. CRP2's holdings will include a wide range of spatially-explicit GIS data, secondary statistical and census/survey data, and primary datasets collected as part of CRP2's own field work, e.g., long-run panel household and village data collected to support analysis of how changes in policies, institutions, and markets are impacting food security and poverty at the micro-level. Examples include ICRISAT's Village Level Surveys and IFPRI's China, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria surveys. Other components of CRP2's shared data resources include access to key bibliographic source material underpinning CRP2 research themes, as well as a very large and continually expanding set of analytical results (e.g. output data from scenario runs for CRP2 Strategic Foresight models such as IMPACT, MIRAGE, crop models, and DREAM).Three start-up action items are planned for the initial implementation of the CRP2 data strategy:1. Commission a CRP2 data, tool, and specialist resource inventory. To provide a detailed scoping of the initial range of CRP2 data and tools as well as of the CGIAR and partner specialists who develop, manage, and apply those assets, a draft CRP2 data, tool, and specialist resource inventory will be compiled within four months of the launch of CRP2. In addition to providing key information to guide the startup priorities of the Data Systems Team (see item 2, below), the inventory will feed into the deliberations of the Data Strategy Task Force (see item 3) and guide the program management on filling gaps in the availability of relevant data expertise in each CRP2 center. The inventory will be posted on the CRP2 data portal/website. The ongoing maintenance of the inventory will become a key responsibility of all CRP2 staff with data responsibilities.2. Form a CRP2 Data Systems Team. This would entail recruiting a web/cloud-oriented data systems leader, reporting to the CRP director, whose responsibilities would include the initial design and implementation of cross-center and cross-partner data and metadata management systems, tools, and sharing protocols to support data access and sharing (initially aimed only at the needs of researchers in CGIAR participating centers). The focus will be on software systems, tools, and logical data structures that facilitate acquisition, management, and sharing of core datasets identified by the CRP2 inventory activity (see item 1). The physical and networking infrastructure required to support these \"soft\" systems will be obtained by contracting existing CG center ICT or third-party ICT service providers, whereas the Data Systems Team will focus its efforts on developing data management, access and interoperability as well as necessary project management tools.3. Convene a Data Strategy Task Force (1 year mandate). Within six months of approval of CRP2, a Data Strategy Task Force will be convened and mandated to develop a staged vision of a CRP Data Systems Design and Implementation Plan. This plan will provide an ambitious two to three year work plan for the Data Systems team, including initial program level goals and milestones. Task Force members will partly be drawn from constituent CRP2 CGIAR centers and partners, but will also include external specialists and thought leaders in data and knowledge management (for example, the CGIAR's ICT/KM program and Consortium for Spatial Information (CSI), Google, and Tableau). Other recommendations will include best-practice standards for research data documentation and for data release and data sharing policies, that will be factored into the design and costing structure of CRP2's research investments.Ultimately the data strategy will be deemed successful if (a) it provides a means of compiling, harmonizing and sharing data resources and tools amongst the distributed CRP2 research teams, and (b) it provides a range of external users with deep and flexible access to CRP2's core data collections and analytical results and, increasingly, to tools that add value for specific user needs. Some objectives of the data strategy are listed here: Evaluating and adopting innovative, more reliable, and cost-effective data collection and validation technologies and best practices: such as low-cost household/community data recording devices; natural resource, production, and price monitoring systems; use of nanotechnology; satellite-based remote sensing; mobile phone infrastructure; and crowd-sourcing approaches  Using ICT tools to accelerate the two-way transfer and built-in consistency and validation checking of data between collection and use locations  Adopting interoperable database management structures to ensure cost-effective management, and efficient cross-theme integration of survey, statistical, spatial, and other data as well as CRP2 model results  Better sharing of research data, analytical results, and modeling tools among research partners using advanced metadata and data-networking technologies and practices  State-of-the-art data query, mining, and integration platforms and tools to deliver data and knowledge aggregation products targeted to the needs of key CRP2 clients and audiences: building, for example, on the initial efforts of such CRP2 components as HarvestChoice, Global Futures, ASTI, the Food Security Portal, MacMap, Global Futures CASE maps, Public Spending Database (SPEED), and ReSAKSSCRP2 sets out an ambitious agenda for research and impact, and achieving it will require concerted collective effort. The CGIAR centers have long provided crop varieties and other agricultural technologies that address many of the problems smallholders face and that have the potential to push the boundary of agricultural productivity. CRP2 will help ensure that these technologies can take root in a policy, governance, and market environment designed to support their use and exploit the enormous potential of agricultural growth to improve human well-being. CGIAR researchers not only can draw upon expertise in a number of social and natural sciences, but also have strong ties to governments and other stakeholders that play a critical role in these institutional aspects of development.Of course, the CGIAR centers cannot do all of the research, or even less achieve impact, alone. Meeting the research and implementation objectives requires close partnerships with conventional research partners from universities and NARSs, but also with a range of stakeholders, such as farmer organizations, research and advisory institutions, governments, development agencies, donor agencies, and the private sector, at the national, regional, and global levels. As documented in Annex 64, the CGIAR centers participating in CRP2 currently collaborate with more than 500 partner organizations. Examples of specific partnerships are provided in this section and in the descriptions of the research subthemes in Section 4.The Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Chinese Academy of Science, is the premier agricultural policy and research institute in China. CCAP's mission is to undertake rigorous strategic and applied research that helps to analyze the problems and challenges facing China's agricultural policymakers and producers. It has four major research programs: agricultural science and technology policy; resources and the environment policy; rural development and poverty alleviation; and commodity market, food security, and decision support systems. In past five years, CCAP has led or coordinated more than 50 research projects related to agricultural and rural development, funded by both the Chinese government and international donors. Findings of CCAP studies have not only generated significant publications in international journals, but have also played important roles in China's decisionmaking in agricultural policy. CCAP has had relations with CRP2 partners, particularly with IFPRI, for more than 15 years. The close relationship started when Jikun Huang, now professor and director of CCAP, spent one year at IFPRI to develop a supply-and-demand modeling framework to assess challenges to food production growth in China along the lines of IFPRI's International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), a key player in global food markets. The relationship has continued with joint research and outreach work over the years, covering topics including the future of Chinese agriculture, biotechnology policy, water institutions and management policy, food demand and supply modeling, public investment in agriculture, impact of biofuels on agriculture and poverty, economic and health impact of biofortification, as well as ecosystem services in agriculture.Policy and practitioner partners refer to those organizations that are not directly involved in the research itself but have a direct stake in its outcomes. Examples include government agencies that request policy advice; donor organizations that seek advice on new strategies or priorities for investment; governments or NGOs implementing programs that are being evaluated by the research projects; farmers' organizations that work with researchers to identify ways to strengthen their capacity; and private sector actors that participate in value-chain innovations to help small-scale producers reach high-value markets. These partners are called upon to work with the researchers to set priorities and identify the key questions to be addressed. They will also be associated with implementing projects in various ways, such as facilitating research, participating as respondents, discussing and giving feedback on emerging findings, and using findings to improve policy and program design and implementation. As active partners during the research, they are also likely to apply the research findings in their ongoing work, thereby contributing to translating research outputs into outcomes. An example of such a partnership is provided in Box 7.4.Existing partnerships with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will be further strengthened, both through direct collaboration and by working through GFAR.Policy research institutions such as IFPRI have the capacity to identify and promote innovative, researchbased policy options for rural poverty reduction. However, pro-poor policy innovation must be tested on the ground and negotiated with all stakeholders before becoming concrete and effective solutions. IFAD has the capacity to design and finance projects through which developing countries can test and implement such innovative solutions on various scales.The overall goal of the IFAD-IFPRI Strategic Partnership Programme is to enable the rural poor-with due attention to gender-to have better access to and capacity to take advantage of new market opportunities, especially markets for high-value agricultural products and markets for climate change mitigation and other environmental services. This will be achieved through applied policy research and knowledge management and sharing between IFAD, IFPRI, and selected countries, combined with investment, impact evaluation, and scaling-up based on the results of the program. The specific objectives are (1) to strengthen the capacity of country program partners to analyse and address policy issues, in particular those related to improving access by small farmers to new market opportunities in agriculture, including for high value products, and for climate change mitigation and other environmental services; (2) to identify, test, and evaluate innovative policy, institutional, and program options for improved access to such market opportunities; and (3) to disseminate and mainstream the identified options so that they become solutions in national policies and investment programs.These objectives are being pursued in a single program to develop positive synergies in efforts to promote pro-poor access to high-value commodity markets and markets for climate change mitigation and other environmental services, as well as to facilitate interorganizational cooperation and lower transaction costs and ensure a rigorous approach to innovation and its mainstreaming in IFAD-funded operations.Knowledge-sharing partners are those who help to store and transmit knowledge. They may be key in disseminating information to their own constituency (as when a donor agency shares findings from research in one site to its offices in other countries) or to a broader public. Knowledge-sharing partners also play a critical role in capacity strengthening; this is the case when universities use research findings in courses or graduate research or when other organizations run training courses using the research outcomes.In some cases, the same organization may have all three types of partnerships with CRP2, such as when an agricultural research institute or NGO participates in the research, helps to implement policy innovations, and takes part in dissemination of research findings.Because partnerships play a crucial role in achieving impact, there is broad correspondence between the types of partners and the three impact pathways of CRP2 (see Section 3 and especially Figure 3.1). In general, research partners play the greatest role in impact pathway 1, by helping to influence and strengthen other research. For example, NARSs that work with the foresight or science policy subthemes will be better able to target their technical research to meet the needs of poor people.  Practitioner partners play a key role in impact pathway 2, influencing the policy development and implementation arena. By participating in the research in some way, these agencies are more likely to be aware of the findings and to apply them in practice. Similarly, policy partners are key in impact pathway 3. Researchers may work directly with such \"boundary partners\" for the direct purpose of influencing their behavior or positions. For example, in Indonesia, ICRAF researchers worked directly with a range of stakeholders (including farmers, foresters, local officials, and policymakers) to reconcile differences in their expectations and aspirations on watershed functions for the purpose of achieving more sustainable management of the resource (see Box 7.5).  Knowledge-sharing partners play a role in all three pathways, by ensuring that the findings are communicated effectively not only to the research, policy, and practitioner communities, but also to a broader public, and by helping with capacity strengthening.CRP2 brings the particular added value of international research to bear in working in close partnership with national and regional actors to help achieve desired national and local development outcomes. Engaging with partners as part of a shared learning process helps generate clear impact pathways between research activities and development impacts. Partnerships can lead to greater impact by, for example  allowing researchers to collaborate with community groups to implement action research programs or link producers more effectively with markets; facilitating dissemination, as NGOs and NARSs bridge the space between research projects and farmers' fields, leading to increased adoption of innovations; and enabling results to be disseminated more widely through media organizations and professional associations.In West Sumatra, Indonesia, in the early 1990s, the government believed that uncontrolled deforestation and conversion to coffee on sloping lands had led to significant increases in erosion, which was threatening the operation of a newly constructed hydropower dam and reducing water availability for irrigated paddy rice downstream. As a consequence, between 1991 and 1996 thousands of farmers from Sumberjaya Forest were evicted. However, studies by ICRAF in the area showed that multi-strata coffee farms not only provided livelihoods to people, but also acted similarly to the natural forest in controlling erosion. ICRAF scientists focused on clarifying the knowledge differences between and among local people, foresters, local officials, and policymakers on forest hydrological functions. The basis for collective action was rooted in the benefit of reconciling the expectations and aspirations of these multiple stakeholders on watershed functions. Local communities joined together to gain access to the Indonesian government's Community Forestry Program, which provides farmers with conditional land tenure to cultivate protected forest. In exchange, farmers adopted environmentally friendly farming practices and protect the remaining natural forest, thus ensuring that the land will continue to protect the watershed. In the context of payments for ecosystem services, this \"conditional tenure\" is a reward, incentive, or payment that modifies farmer behavior. A recent impact study of land tenure in Sumberjaya found that community forestry permitted increased land tenure security, doubled local land values, reduced corruption, increased income (mostly through a reduction in bribes), increased equity, promoted tree planting and agroforestry, promoted soil and water conservation, and motivated farmers to protect remaining natural forest.CRP2 seeks to ensure that the partnerships forged are mutually beneficial and adhere to the need to build on complementary expertise. Consistent rules are needed for the selection of partners, as well as clarity regarding the roles each partner will play. While working closely together, partners should remain focused on their areas of expertise. Thus, partnerships in CRP2 will not involve researchers undertaking development projects or development agencies managing research initiatives. Rather, partnerships will establish clear, mutually beneficial complementarities.In some cases, research organizations can work directly to channel research results and identify recommendations to policymakers, strengthening their role in the policy process. Some universities, NARSs, and CGIAR centers, for example, have partnered for many years, each contributing funds, personnel, infrastructure, and materials to ongoing research activities; other partnerships may be of shorter duration, or even for a single event only.In situations where funds are available for enabling direct participation of a certain organization in delivering the program's outputs, the partnership will be formalized under a contractual agreement. In other cases, and provided that the research meets their own objectives, partners will contribute their own or complementary resources from other funding sources and synergistically align their work with CRP2 to deliver enhanced outcomes through collaborative actions.A critical step in developing effective and impact-enhancing partnerships is the selection of additional relevant partners from civil society, the public sector, and the private sector. The selected partners should have similar interests in contributing to reaching the MDGs through targeting the rural poor; significant leverage or reach in their spheres of influence; and a clear capacity to develop and test prototypes, evaluate lessons learned, and upscale effective results. While specific partner agencies are best defined at the regional level, candidates might include national and international NGOs capable of reaching hundreds of thousands or millions of farmers; 22 multilateral, bilateral, or philanthropic funding agencies with significant investments in projects supporting relevant market-related initiatives 23 ; national and subnational government agencies; and key private companies involved in crops and geographies important to the rural poor. 24 The process of partner selection will occur at the regional level, but will be linked to the overall CRP2 learning agenda at the global scale.The identification of relevant partners of the three types defined above cannot be a one-shot exercise, but will rather be a continuous and open process. Additional regional or national institutions or initiatives may emerge as stronger partners after a while as a result of capacity-building activities spearheaded by the CRPs and other international programs. Given the fundamental role that partnerships play in CRP2 to catalyze collaborative actions and sharing of knowledge, we propose that development of partnerships will become an integral part of the program. This will be achieved by closely involving existing partnership mobilization structures, such as GFAR and the wide range of stakeholders it brings together through regional forums and sectoral networks. A CRP2 partnership status report will be prepared on a semi-annual basis.In some area of research-such as investment strategies, futures scenarios, and macroeconomic and international trade policy-CRP2, with the well-recognized expertise of IFPRI and other CGIAR centers in scientific analysis of key agricultural issues at a global scale, has a clear comparative advantage compared to other CRPs. This advantage has its greatest value when brought together with other global, regional, and national foresight initiatives as they develop in the context of the implementation of the GCARD Road Map. In other areas, strong research cooperation is also needed across CRPs and partnering institutions.In the area of value chains, for example (see Annex 3), CRP2 will engage in cutting-edge methodology development and lead cross-commodity synthesis, the main focus being linking smallholders to (local, regional, and international) markets. CRP2 will also support CRP3's commodityspecific capacities by providing specialized expertise in developing, validating, and refining economic models and policy questions. In undertaking collaborative work on cross-commodity synthesis, CRP3's input will focus on commodity-and production system-specific research, which requires close linkages between social scientists and biophysical scientists in developing appropriate, demand-driven innovations. Many commodities have differentiated value chains that may also vary across farming systems and policy environments. As a result, in cooperation with CRP2, CRP3's work on value chains will focus on their commodity-specific value chains. For example, CRP3 will focus on the maize-and wheat-specific elements of technology targeting, adoption, and impact assessments; analysis of seed systems, input delivery systems, and associated value chains; differentiated markets and value chains; the maize/wheat systems-specific elements of poverty; gender studies, system dynamics, and social and environmental footprints of maize/wheat interventions.In the area of natural resource management policies, the focus of CRP2 is production and technology policies that enable pro-poor and gender-equitable growth and strengthen capacity related to food, agriculture, and rural development. CRP2 will perform this work across locations, agricultural commodities, and farming systems, including those studied by CRP1 and CRP3. Moreover, CRP2 will look at market-agent interactions, biophysical-environment linkages, and institutional and policy constraints to assess sustainable agricultural production policies across scales. CRP2 will also work with CRP7 on policies, institutions, and investments for natural resource management (NRM) related to climate change, and with CRP5 on policies, institutions, and investments for NRM related to water.The issues of governance, collective action, and property rights also cut across CRPs. CRP2 will provide intellectual leadership in the broad areas of governance, collective action, and property rights research, leading the development of high-level hypotheses, and support for methods. CRP2 will also engage in broader partnerships for research and to enhance impacts. CRP2 should be the nexus for research on land tenure; cross-cutting gender, agriculture, and NRM issues; and implementation of collective action for marketing and agricultural production. Other CRPs will collaborate with CRP2 in these areas where appropriate and lead research in governance, collective action, and property rights issues of particular relevance to their topic of focus. In addition to the broad principles described in the preceding paragraphs, additional detail on the intersection of CRP2 research themes with other CRPs is presented in Table 7.1 and in Annex 2.As shown in Table 7.1 and Annex 2, the linkages across CRPs in the policy area are quite complex. During the period of CRP development, it has not been possible to fully delineate the boundaries across CRPs and the detailed responsibility of all policy, institutions, and markets research. Therefore, we propose to call a planning meeting involving the leaders of the policy components in each CRP upon acceptance of the various CRPs, in order to fully develop the delineation of boundaries and integration of policy and social science research across the CRPs. This meeting could evolve into an annual scientific meeting on policy and social science research in the different CRPs.Box 7.6 gives an example of partnerships between centers under CRP2. See also Box 8.2 on the Central American Learning Alliance for Rural Enterprise Development. Annex 4 shows some ways in which work by the different centers can contribute to the different subthemes of CRP2. However, this is based on current work and does not reflect the whole dimension of IFPRI's partnerships with centers, which will from now on be implemented through CRP2 and other CRPs.The current strategy for a policy renewal process in Africa, together with related development efforts such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), provide a significant scope to expand current partnership and capacity-building activities under CRP2. The most important among these to be integrated with CRP2 are (1) the (3) nearly two dozen countries across Africa. Under ReSAKSS, the CG centers and their partners are supporting a transition toward evidence-based policy planning and implementation, which is one of the key objectives of CAADP. This is being done through targeted collaborative research and the development of IT-based data and knowledge platforms at the regional and country levels to facilitate benchmarking, dissemination of best practices, and mutual learning.In order to expand and sustain the analytical work feeding into the ReSAKSS, a complementary policy research capacity building has been launched: the African Growth and Development Policy Modeling Consortium (AGRODEP). The latter is a partnership between IFPRI and the two leading subregional research organizations (SROs) in Africa-the West and Central Africa Council on Agricultural Research and Development (WECARD/CORAF) and the Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA)-as well as the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Policy Network (FANRPAN). The ultimate goal of AGRODEP is to facilitate the emergence of a critical mass of world-class modelers in Africa, thereby creating local capacities to address issues of strategic importance to Africa and to partner with outside modelers dealing with issues of global concern. Under the Consortium, (1) a shared, IT-based modeling infrastructure will be established to allow Consortium members across Africa access to a family of cutting edge modeling tools;(2) a distributed database linking major data sources on Africa will be created to facilitate access to high quality data by members; and (3) a community of practitioners will be constituted to pursue a limited set a key strategic policy research agenda items in Africa. Strengthening the capacity of the collaborators and of those who will translate research results into onthe-ground impacts is a key element of CRP2, as described above. The capacity-strengthening mechanisms that will be used as part of CRP2 range from links with formal academic programs, to working with developing-country policy analysts to ensure they have the tools they need to answer policy questions in their countries, to the creation of development-oriented learning networks at the regional scale. Meeting the demand for capacity strengthening creates international public goods that help to amplify the impact of CPR2 over time and beyond the immediate areas where research is done.The mechanisms for capacity strengthening in CRP2 can be divided into two broad sets of activities, which will be combined to achieve the desired development impacts: Capacity strengthening through collaborative research partnerships  Production of global public goods for long-term capacity developmentThis first type of capacity-strengthening work focuses on sharing research methods and results developed from the research components with key partners (the private sector, development NGOs, public-sector agencies, Southern and Northern research centers, other CRPs, and donors). This sharing is based on the premise of collaboration and mutual accountability with a shared goal of contributing to improved propoor policies, institutions, and markets. (See Section 7 for a detailed description of partnerships and Section 4 for additional information within the various research themes and subthemes.)The long-term sustainability of the capacity-strengthening efforts will be ensured by the production of a set of global public goods that partner institutions can effectively use to build local capacity and enhance the use of research methods, tools, and results generated from CRP2. This approach will have a multiplier effect, going beyond the aforementioned collaborative partnerships to reach a new generation of policy researchers and analysts-even beyond the time period and locations covered by CRP2. specialists to a \"writeshop\" to develop a sourcebook adapting key CAPRi publications and case studies for nonspecialists. These materials were used by an NGO to train Ministry of Environment staff in El Salvador even before the sourcebook's release. Other universities are considering using the sourcebook in introductory courses, with links to the original source materials for more depth. The sourcebook was released in January 2011 at the International Association for the Study of the Commons conference, where it reached a network of more than 1,000 researchers and practitioners working at the interface of collective action and property rights for sustainable resource management. The Foundation for Ecological Security, an Indian NGO, is using these materials in its Commons Initiative to strengthen property rights and management of common property in India.Achieving the appropriate balance between academic and applied capacity strengthening is critical for achieving immediate impact and ensuring the next generation of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who understand the policy research results. In line with this goal, each research subtheme will identify a range of capacity-strengthening activities as an integral part of its work (see Section 4 for some initial description of these activities). As an entry point to this capacity-strengthening action plan, each subtheme needs to define the key capacities to be strengthened, the target audiences, and the level of capacity to be achieved at the end of the project period. For Theme 1, for example, key capacities to be strengthened would include policy research; target audiences would include researchers in government ministries, academic institutions, and think tanks; and the ultimate goal would be increased national capacity for policy analysis and research that leads to investments for pro-poor growth.Despite the investments made in initiatives to improve rural livelihoods in the global South, rural poverty persists. The ability of useful research to benefit the poor is limited by the small amount of collective learning that occurs among researchers, development workers, donors, policymakers, and private enterprises.In 2003, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), with the support of International Development Research Centre (IDRC), convened a group of actors from Central America, including major international NGOs, local NGOs, and the Honduran National University, with the aim of improving this situation through increased collaborative learning on rural enterprise development in four countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The Central American Learning Alliance works with 25 direct partner agencies and through their networks supports 116 additional organizations.By the end of the first phase in 2008, the Learning Alliance had contributed to change in organizations working with 33,000 rural families (approximately 175,000 people) in the four countries. Seven years after the start of the project, significant changes have taken place in partners' knowledge, attitude, and practices. Evidence shows improved connections between organizations working on similar topics, better access to information and knowledge on rural enterprise development, and use of improved methods and tools. As partners realize that working together enhances their capacity to serve rural communities needs, attitudes have shifted from competition to collaboration. Moreover, the Learning Alliance approach to agroenterprise development has spread far beyond Central America. It has been used by Catholic Relief Services to increase staff capacity in rural enterprise development in more than 45 countries. Rural enterprise development practices and knowledge management have improved as a result of increased effectiveness in existing projects and a higher number of strategic new projects. These shifts, in turn, contribute to a more efficient innovation system in favor of rural enterprise development, as evidenced by the shared use and generation of information, joint capacity-building programs, and largescale collaborative projects.Themes 1 and 2 will emphasize strengthening the capacity of NARSs and public-sector actors to conduct economic research and analysis, make sense of the findings, and then apply them to real-world policies in diverse national and subnational contexts (see Box 8.1). To achieve this goal, CRP2 will link with formal academic programs in the North and South to sponsor and incorporate M.Sc. and Ph.D. candidates in proposed research activities and develop curriculum materials based on research outputs. For government policymakers (both public-sector employees and parliamentarians), CRP2 will organize targeted training courses on how to commission, analyze, and use research findings in public policy formulation. Finally, CRP2 will link emerging research and public policy capacities to specific regional learning platforms, including NGOs and producer organizations that will function as \"communities of practice\" for horizontal learning and coaching.Theme 3 will construct a set of interlinked learning cycles at the regional scale involving researchers and practitioners. CRP2 researchers will draw on existing theoretical and case study literature to develop a prototype practitioners' toolkit that will be tested in pilot sites, and evaluated in diverse conditions to document outcomes in terms of pro-poor benefits, leading to a refined and improved toolkit. The use of learning cycles will allow us to generate a range of knowledge products and increased capacities in collaboration with implementing agencies as direct clients capable of taking these market innovations to scale in favor of the poor (see Box 8.2).The methods and tools resulting from the learning cycles can be further used to support applied capacity strengthening programs targeted specifically at key extension or impact partners, such as international NGOs. An example of specific capacity development programs is the Post-Graduate Diploma in Rural Enterprise Development offered jointly by CIAT and Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Latin America since 2001. 25 This set of interlinked courses has successfully trained several hundred NGO staff throughout the region with limited donor support. Another example is the CGIAR's work with the Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAEE) in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa (CMAAE), in which IFPRI and CAPRi have provided course materials and curriculum input for courses that reach students in more than a dozen countries.Output indicators of capacity strengthening include the number of men and women trained as students collaborating with CRP2 projects and trainees at short courses, as well as the number of training modules and curriculum materials developed. Outcome indicators of the first capacity-strengthening strategy-capacity strengthening through collaborative research partnerships-requires assessing how much participants in training have strengthened their skills and increased their confidence and ability to incorporate research findings into their policy work. Outcome indicators of the global public goods work on capacity strengthening would include the number of universities using the curriculum materials (texts, articles, DVDs, and audiovisual materials).CRP2's overall objectives-to increase income, reduce poverty, and improve food security for male and female farmers across the world-will be achieved by focusing on three mutually supporting themes: policies and investments that accelerate pro-poor growth; enabling institutions and governance for the poor; and value chains linking smallholder farmers to markets.The innovative research produced under this program will rely on a state-of-the-art communications strategy based on successful CGIAR outreach strategies carried out in the past. The overall purpose of such a comprehensive external and internal strategy is to forge close ties with local collaborators and key policymakers; increase opportunities for hands-on research in the field; and promote seamless collaboration among CGIAR centers, all of which leads to enhanced dissemination and impact of research results.The internal and external communications strategy of CRP2 will determine in detail  important messages that should be communicated to its audience; Key internal stakeholders, as well as global and regional stakeholders in developing and developed countries, to whom messages and results should be communicated; a portfolio of media and channels (print, web, audio, and visual) through which these communications will take place; optimal timing of communications activities to achieve maximum mileage; resources available to achieve the strategic communications goals; information policymakers need in order to make evidence-based, informed decisions on agricultural and rural policies; collaboration efforts to strengthen the communications capacity of local institutions; the creation and management of information systems to compile and organize knowledge for maximum access and impact on policy; and  use of policy dialogues and close interaction with policymakers and other key stakeholders on a local, national, and global level.CRP2 will produce a wide range of outputs to be communicated to various audiences:  research results disseminated in scholarly and policy-oriented publications; the effective use of research-based knowledge in policy processes, indicated by the use of research-based studies in different stages of policymaking; research-based information to all relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors; policy reforms that lead to more pro-poor national and international agricultural policies; analytical and capacity-strengthening mechanisms and learning networks; relevant, timely, and accessible datasets; qualitative and quantitative knowledge products  policy and investment analyses that facilitate and support evidence-based decisionmaking; and  methodologies and tools for monitoring and evaluation.The program's target groups include global and local stakeholders, such as donors, development banks, international and local research and academic institutions, CGIAR centers, NGOs, country-level policymakers, policy analysts and advisers in government ministries, and country-level academics. Partners will also be targeted.Each group of stakeholders has different needs, so the use of CRP2's outputs might differ widely from one stakeholder group to the next. Because of this diversity of stakeholder groups, we will define a concise and structured approach to reaching each group. For certain stakeholders, CRP2's more traditional outputs, which include country briefs/fact sheets, regional reports, presentations, and other publications, will suffice. Other stakeholders, however, might require custom-made publications and presentations. Theme leaders will work with the communications team to indentify stakeholders and design relevant vehicles for these stakeholders.A well-designed website plays a key role in fostering cooperation and information sharing with stakeholders, especially in terms of increased functionality, improved access to information, presentation features, and enhanced visibility. A preliminary meeting among the CGIAR's web experts will establish the website design and content. A system will also be established to regularly update and improve the site.Publications will play a key role in increasing CRP2's visibility among its national and international audiences. A strategy will be devised to ensure that research results are successfully reaching the desired outlets; submissions to journals and donor newsletters are frequent and successful; and the review, update, and distribution of brochures and other printed materials are systematic and effective.The CRP2 will also establish a web-based information and knowledge clearinghouse that will serve as a repository for all existing and future products developed through the CRP2's three themes. This repository will be designed for use by other CGIAR researchers working on these issues, as well as the broader development research audience. The clearinghouse will include a common toolbox of methods for use by the CGIAR and R&D partners built around CRP2 prototypes and best practices from CRP2 and components of other CRPs.A focus on datasets is essential to the overall communications strategy, because these outputs will help improve the quality, timeliness, transparency, and objectivity of evaluations of high-impact policy investments and promote the development of effective and efficient investment portfolios.The CRP2 will offer a repertoire of strategically advertised seminars, outreach, and capacitystrengthening activities, the capstone of which will be a biennial CGIAR Strategic Foresight Conference. Designed to showcase the CRP's newest projections, evaluation tools, and datasets, it will be framed as the premiere CRP2 event to all stakeholders.Media talent culled from the associated CGIAR centers will work with the extensive network of journalists already familiar with the CGIAR to promote the launching of tools, reports, and other products produced by the CRP2 of interest to the media. The media team will build a fine-tuned media list organized by component, region, stakeholder, and specialized topic (such as climate change or gender). It will also devise a system of recording media mentions of CRP2 work.A communications team will be built from the associated CGIAR centers' staff. The team will work closely with CRP2's central communications office, as well as the CRP2's leaders, to carry out the tasks laid out in this strategy. If necessary, additional staff will be hired to ensure that communications goals are effectively carried out.Because CRP2 operates across CGIAR centers, effective internal communication is as essential as strategic external communications. Because the communications team will often work virtually, the web will play a central role in internal communications. To this end, the team will establish a web-based (Google group, open atrium) collaboration page for sharing documents and create a central repository of communication materials for the program. This virtual internal communications system should revolve around the following elements: To improve the creation and dissemination of publications, the communications team will create an interactive, web-based organization chart for CRP2 to identify relationships and potential collaborations. It will also create a web-based system for distributing relevant CRP2 publications throughout CGIAR centers and send out a monthly communications email to the communications team and research leaders with updates, developments, and calls for collaboration. To bolster capacity strengthening through events, the communications team will increase the number of internal \"virtual brown bags\" reporting on program developments, findings, and best practices. The team will create a system of webbased meetings that would allow CRP2 staff to discuss an issue across time zones.partner organizations of CRP2. Nominations for the 10-person panel (including the chair) will be actively canvassed from participating centers and partners by the Management Committee to ensure broad acceptance and representation. The nominees will include eminent scientists and policy advisers from the Consortium, the public and private sectors, and civil society. The slate of candidates will be proposed to the IFPRI director general for confirmation by the IFPRI Board. The SPAP will provide advice and a formal annual report to the Lead Center Board. It is expected that the chair of the SPAP will communicate regularly with the chair of the Lead Center. The CRP director and Management Committee will prepare an annual report for the SPAP. The Science and Policy Advisory Panel will have delegated authority from the IFPRI Board to undertake their mandate as an independent expert body.The Lead Center will be the primary contracting unit for CRP2 and will sign performance contracts with the Consortium Board and subcontracts with participating centers and partners. The Lead Center will report to the Consortium Board on CRP2 performance from research and financial perspectives.The Lead Center will develop and authorize management policies. CRP2 activities will be reported by the respective centers in their audited financial statements. The Lead Center will prepare financial statements for the overall CRP2 showing fund receipts and payments to participating centers and partners and other details as agreed by the Consortium/Lead Center in due course.Conflict resolution mechanisms will be implemented as follows. Conflicts among centers/partners will in the first instance be referred to the Management Committee. When conflicts cannot be resolved at that level, the issue will be referred to the chair of the SPAP if they concern programmatic issues and to the Lead Center director general if they concern fiduciary, legal, or reputational issues. If necessary, the Lead Center Board will be consulted, and, where appropriate, the issue maybe referred to them for a decision. If the conflict cannot be resolved at these levels it will be referred to the Consortium Board.The CRP2 director will be appointed by the Lead Center and will report directly to the IFPRI director general. The CRP2 director, assisted by the Management Committee, will be responsible for overall management of CRP2. The CRP2 director and Management Committee will act on behalf of all participating institutions and will make key decisions in a consultative manner. The Management Committee will consist of the following: The CRP2 director (who will serve as chair of the Management Committee)  The leader of Theme 1 and another representative of Theme 1 chosen among the Subtheme leaders  The leader of Theme 2 and another representative of Theme 2 chosen among the Subtheme leaders  The leader of Theme 3  The leader of the Strategic Research on Gender.Theme 3 has a higher level of homogeneity than Theme 1 and Theme 2, which is why it will be represented by only one member. The relatively small size of the Management Committee will keep meeting costs as modest as possible while enhancing management efficiency. To reflect the importance of the participation of other centers and partners in the management processes, a minimum of three members will be drawn from centers or other partners than IFPRI.The Management Committee will be responsible for the following activities: coordinating strategic foresight, planning, and reporting of the full research portfolio; preparing the five-year and annual work plans with the Management Committee and the theme leaders; prioritizing research activities using the priority-setting processes detailed in Section 3 of this proposal; determining the allocation of resources coming from the CGIAR Fund to the research themes and their activities, based on the priority-setting process, evidence collected from regular assessments, and monitoring of agreed-on work plans submitted by the participating centers and their strategic partners; interfacing between CRP2 and the Consortium Board and Fund (budgets, contracts, and financial reporting); representing CRP2 at major events of the global and regional R&D communities; fundraising (together with the centers and other partners); managing the monitoring and evaluation program described in detail in Section 3, including establishing reporting regimes and developing mechanisms for tracking progress against agreed milestones and budget use; organizing periodic research reviews; and preparing and conducting annual meetings of the SPAP, the Management Committee, the research leaders of CRP2 subthemes, and other small workshops with the research and development community worldwide.To carry out these tasks, the CRP2 director and Management Committee will be assisted by a small Program Management Unit (PMU), including a program manager and a research coordinator. Funds for CRP2 management will consist of (1) a fund to help catalyze teamwork, new research, and delivery activities with partners; (2) funds to implement cross-cutting activities related to gender, science capacity strengthening, and Strategic Foresight functions; (3) and general program management funds, including communications, workshops and travel, and CGIAR integration.The overall mode of operation will provide for considerable decentralized decisionmaking (see Box 10.1). Each theme and subtheme will operate on an appropriately designed partnership model. The research activities of the portfolio will be developed and implemented under performance contracts between the Lead Center and a center or other institution that has leadership of the theme. The theme leaders and their teams will have considerable flexibility in developing, managing, and implementing research activities. Each organization leading a subtheme will be responsible and accountable for managing its activities together with team partners, ensuring that work is consistent with the CRP business plan, and delivering results. This approach will ensure that wherever possible, funds, responsibilities, and accountabilities are devolved to the center, unit, or partner undertaking specific tasks.There are risks ahead in managing these complex, multidisciplinary research activities and integrating them into the work of other CRPs and other CGIAR centers. We see three categories of risk: Administrative risks. With CRP2 spanning many CGIAR centers and partners, the management structure within the CRP itself and across other CRPs could be complex. Rather than trying to build another bureaucracy, we will address this risk through efficient M&E systems, mediation processes, and decentralization to existing centers. A clear outline of the role of various institutions (along with timelines for deliverables) and the interaction of different segments will be prepared at the inception of the CRP. Financial risks. The current funding base could be too small and fragmented to successfully achieve the goals of this CRP. To mitigate this risk, the CRP needs to concentrate funding on a set of priorities and to actively and collectively seek additional funding for activities. Political risks. Political changes may lead policymakers or other stakeholders to view research ideas and outputs unfavorably. This risk should be mitigated by taking a long-term perspective and building long-term partnerships.The indicative scale of CRP2 is reflected in the following budget, which projects US$82 million in activity for 2011, rising to $95M in 2013. This captures costs associated with the collaboration among 11 CG centers, including IFPRI, as well as a host of global partners. Personnel and partnership costs represent 36 and 23 percent, respectively, of the total 2011 budget. As can be expected, Theme 1 comprises the majority of the budget, at $40 million or 49 percent. These ratios are fairly consistent over the three year period.As was described earlier in this proposal (see especially Section 4, Section 7 and Section 8), CRP2 will engage many partners both within and outside the CGIAR. The Lead Center, IFPRI, has historically had a higher portion of its budget devoted to partners than other centers, and has the management capacity and corporate structure to manage such relationships. As is reflected in Table 12.1, IFPRI's partnership costs as a percentage of total operating costs average 30 percent, compared with 16 percent for the CGIAR as a whole. IFPRI's research agenda is traditionally highly participatory, engaging over 200 partners annually, harnessing the expertise of CG centers, universities, local and international NGOs, and private companies. IFPRI's culture of extensive collaboration is woven into CRP2's research activities, as is evident from the budget for partnerships. Collectively, personnel and partnership resources projected for CRP2 represent 59 percent of the budget, which is consistent with the historical ratio for the CGIAR. However, partnership costs for CRP2 are proportionately higher than personnel costs when compared with the CGIAR historical trend. This is indicative of the commitment to an integrated, inclusive solution that is aligned with the Strategy and Results Framework of the CGIAR objective of strategic partnerships.Other than office space to accommodate research staff, policy research requires a relatively modest level of investment in property and equipment. Research outputs are facilitated by information and knowledge management system; thus computers and information technology and services are the primary components of capital investments supporting policy research. Table 12.1 illustrates the low capital investments for IFPRI and CRP2 compared with the CGIAR, which includes centers that conduct research requiring significant investment in infrastructure, laboratories, and vehicles. One of the pillars of the CGIAR reform process is to provide greater assurance of longer term and sustainable funding. Donors contributing to the new Trust Fund are encouraged to contribute to Window 1 (unrestricted funding) to maximize coordination and harmonization. While donors are strongly encouraged to channel their resources through the fund, bilateral funding continues. In cases where such funding is provided, it should be consistent with the agreed Strategy and Results Framework. The accompanying financial projections assume that current bilateral funding will gradually be replaced by grants through the Fund. Thus, in 2011, US$30M, or 37 percent of total funding, is assumed to be from the Fund, and broadly in line with the current systemwide ratio of unrestricted to restricted (bilateral projects). In 2013, the ratio of CGIAR Fund income is projected to be $63M, or 66 percent of total funding.The \"rate of shift\" is not possible to predict with any degree of accuracy. IFPRI, as designated Lead Center for the CRP, has assembled the costs necessary to do the work, but cannot be expected to predict with great accuracy the delineation of funding sources between Consortium Windows and bilateral funding sources.Table 12.2 shows the total costs by theme for the period 2011 to 2013. Once the overall CRP has been approved, the Budget proposals for 2012 have to be further refined to ensure the full cost recovery principles embodied in CGIAR Financial Guideline Number 5 are effectively made operational. As Lead Center, IFPRI has operated project based full costing principles for many years. The partner centers are committed to following these principles and identifying the appropriate cost drivers.Detailed Budgets for 2012 are in the process of being developed and will be evaluated by the Planning and Management Committee in October 2011 to ensure that the CRP and the individual participating centers achieve budget harmony for 2012.Budget figures are stated at conservative levels and do not include upside or overly optimistic estimates. First year budgets are based largely on financial data from each center's medium-term plan (MTP) on a full cost-recovery basis. Years following the base year show a modest cost increase of 7 percent in 2012 and 8 percent in 2013. Given the demand from stakeholders and donors, the budget illustrates a clear and achievable transition to a CGIAR Research Program financing structure that supports a rapid deployment of CRP2 in 2011.The accompanying tables provide a breakdown of costs on an overall program basis and also by the three main research themes: (1) Effective Policies and Strategic Investments, (2) Inclusive Governance and Institutions, and (3) Linking Small Producers to Markets. As described in Section 4, these main themes are further broken down by subtheme; however, for ease of presentation, Table 12.3 is limited to the theme level.     Note: Under CRP3, many activities will be relevant to most commodities; the examples above are illustrative.Targeting agricultural research based on overlay of crop importance and MDG indicators Targeting agricultural research at subnational level using dynamic models Assessing commodity situations and outlooks based on trend analysis Priority-setting based on rates of return of investments and impacts using economic surplus analysis, at the global and regional levels The Harvest Choice program develops an enhanced and interlinked set of data and quantitative tools, which include spatial databases, detailed mapping of food-system characteristics and human welfare, and a detailed characterization of the impacts of changes and uncertainty in the state of natural resources on global food systems The Harvest Choice program develops a wide range of policy options and possible technological and institutional interventions that can be tailored to fit the specific regional, national, or subnational problems, issues, or opportunities that are identified Updated and expanded quantitative information on capacity and investment trends in national, regional, and global agricultural R&D that is widely accessible for improved decisionmaking and further analysis (ASTI Initiative) Establish and operate the African Growth and Development Policy Modeling consortium (AGRODEP) with the objective of creating a world-class modeling community in Africa Assessment of the contributions of multilateral trade agreements and rules to efficient global food and agricultural markets and benefits for the world's poor Priorities of public investment for promoting rural growth and reducing poverty are assessed, and the role of governance in public investment is better understood Assessment and documentation of the regional effects of multilateral trade policies and rules, and of the contributions of regional trade agreements to efficient food and agricultural markets and benefits for the poor Greater understanding of the heterogeneous demands of smallholders for infrastructure and institutions, and the importance of their complementarities in the development of rural markets Analysis of country development strategies including general equilibrium analyses of trade and exchange-rate policies (Country Strategy Support Programs) Analysis of implications of alternative rural and urban focused development strategies Develop enhanced rural water quality management options Develop policy options for reform of investments in irrigation water systems Development of enhanced tools for the valuation of ecosystem services related to water Impacts of land management practices on poverty and sustainability of the resource base assessed, and synergies or tradeoffs evaluated The role, implementation, and impact of different approaches to promoting SLM and the potential for synergies among different approaches evaluated Assess the role of crop genetic resource management as a tool to increase the resilience of producers to biotic and abiotic constraints Analyze the constraints to the access and delivery of improved seeds to small farmers: from intellectual property rights to seed systems Adoption and socioeconomic impacts of transgenic crops: guiding methods and policies to maximize the potential of biotechnologies for the poor Research, new knowledge, and information for biosafety policy development and regulatory decisionmaking in the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS) Regional and subregional models and initiatives for biosafety policies and procedures in Africa and Asia developed under the PBS program Innovations developed in research designs and analytical methods for evaluations of policies and programs to provide social protection, reduce poverty, and improve human capital of the poor Increased understanding of the impacts and impact pathways-in the short, medium, and long termof alternative social protection interventions to increase human capital and promote sustainable poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition improvement Increased understanding of the impacts of shocks on poverty, food security, and human capital, and innovations in social protection interventions that can best respond to new conditions, for different regions and demographic groups in the short and long term. Shocks emphasized in this research include HIV and AIDS, rising food prices, and climate Improved understanding of how social protection policy processes, institutions, and program operations affect intervention outcomes, and development of methods for studying these factors ","tokenCount":"57361"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85f65aba086592a6b3ae229bb0e4f02b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77886f2d-6d06-4d76-8f24-904bb2e3b845/retrieve","id":"1457934904"},"keywords":["Adaptation","forage legumes","livestock production","soil degradation"],"sieverID":"064c35ec-f9fb-4e7d-8f33-3b1efad5ff56","pagecount":"1","content":"Climate vulnerability is affecting livestock production in the tropics. In addition, poor management practices such as overgrazing, overstocking and deforestation are converting livestock production in one of the main drivers of soil degradation, resulting in expansion of the agriculture frontier looking for fertile lands. An alternative to reverse soil degradation is the use of improved forages (i.e., legumes and grasses) with the ability to grow in degraded soils and recuperate them rapidly.Aiming at evaluating the agronomic performance of hebaceous forage legumes under the conditions of Patía Valley-Cauca/Colombia, four species were stablished under dry subhumid climate and low fertility soils of various stages of degradation. The species tested were: Canavalia brasiliensis CIAT 17009, Centrosema molle CIAT 15160, Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 11995 and Desmodium heterocarpon CIAT 13651. Previous studies have shown a broad adaptation of these species to marginal/ stressed environments and the production of high nutritious forage. As control a naturalized forage grass was included (Dichanthium aristatum). The field sites were cleared using glyphosate (Roundup TM 1.5 L ha -1 ) and fertilised with P, K, Mg and S (22, 41.5, 20 and 20 kg ha -1 ). Legumes were sown in 2016 at three locations with different levels of degradation (high to low) Piedra Sentada, Mercaderes and Patía, under the following conditions: average rainfall 1616 mm year -1 mean temperature 32 • C, at an altitude of 800 m asl for Mercaderes and 500 m asl for the two other sites. A complete randomised block design with 3 repetitions was used. Each plot was 100 m 2 with a sowing density per hectare of 25 kg for C. brasiliensis, 2 kg for C. molle, 3 kg for S. guianensis and 1 kg for D. heterocarpon. Once established (2017), forage dry matter productivity (DM ton/ha/42 days) was assessed in the wet season. Results showed that S. guianensis hat the highest productivity at all 3 locations (3.2, 2.2 and 4.8 DM ton/ha/42 Day, respectively) compared to C. brasiliensis (2.1, 0.8, 3.9), D. heterocarpon (3.0, 2.2, 1.8) and C. molle (2.5, 1.6, 2.6 respectively). Productivity during the dry season will be measured to valuate performance under drought conditions, anticipating a higher drought tolerance of the deep rooted legumes.","tokenCount":"365"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e307710bd4812100618eeda83d3d840d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a882582f-9ab4-4414-84cf-f3b8622eeeba/retrieve","id":"-986319044"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"81704a17-708b-4a08-99e2-31ce45803f81","pagecount":"7","content":"Climate security pathways in GUATEMALA -The diagram shows the relationships between drivers of the Climate Security Nexus identified through 4 qualitative and quantitative analyses (Climate Security Pathway Analysis, Network Analysis, Econometric Analysis, and Social Learning Theory). Specific drivers are either analyzed qualitatively quantitatively or both . The grey box shows the contextual factors, while the black box highlights socioeconomic and political vulnerabilities that also play a role in these pathways. Direct relationship Indirect relationship Quantitative analysis Qualitative analysisGuatemala is considered to be one of the most exposed and vulnerable countries in Latin America to climate variability and extreme weather events, as well as non-climatic natural events. It is also a primary hotspot for climate change, as it is highly exposed to extreme weather events like tropical storms and droughts and has low capacity to cope with these impacts.While Guatemala is an upper-middle income country, poverty and inequality rates are among the highest in Latin America, particularly affecting indigenous peoples, women, rural populations, and those employed in the informal sector.The country also faces high levels of violence and insecurity mostly related to gang violence and organized crime. It is geographically situated in the middle of a drug-smuggling route from South to North America where there has been an increase in violence linked to drug trafficking, micro-trafficking, extorsion and money laundering activities. Conflicts over natural resourcesmainly water, forest, and agricultural land and disputes related to extractive industries-commonly occur across the national territory, often involving indigenous communities.The Climate Security Observatory is an evidence-based decision support tool helping researchers, policy makers and other practitioners working at the intersection of climate, peace and security to understand and respond to climaterelated security risks.We are using a mixed-method approach to give answers to four lead questions:HOW does climate worsen the root causes of conflict?WHERE are the most vulnerable areas to climate induced insecurities and risks? WHO are the vulnerable groups to climate and security risks that should be targeted? WHAT needs to be done to break the cycle between climate and conflict? The following pathways represent mechanisms for how Guatemala's climate security nexus might operate:Climate change is negatively impacting on water, land, and food systems in the country, further degrading the country's natural resources, which is already affected by overexploitation over land and water resources, deforestation and slash and burn subsistence agricultural practices. The combination of climatic and non-climatic factors undermine the access and availability to natural resources, which increase the risk of competition over diminishing resources and may lead to tensions and conflicts. This is further compounded by socio-economic and environmental factors such as environmental degradation, poverty, marginalization, and insecure and irregular land tenure arrangements.The effects of climate change negatively impact agricultural productivity, particularly affecting vulnerable communities dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture, contributing to increased food and livelihood insecurity. This may heighten migration dynamics either towards urban areas or abroad, sometimes exposing migrants to various human security risks. The lack of alternative forms of livelihood may also lead to increased involvement in illicit activities and gang recruitment, indirectly contributing to the growth of organized criminal networks.• Climate risks and socioeconomic vulnerabilities are highly interconnected in Guatemala.• Heat stress is affecting net primary production of agriculture, which is closely related to resource exploitation, socio-economic inequality, and undernutrition, while water availability affects agricultural areas.• Evidence points to lower education levels being associated with higher undernutrition rates, and this also correlates with heat and drought events, illustrating how climate extremes affect Guatemala's most vulnerable populations.• Inequalities such as healthcare accessibility, agricultural indicators and female education levels are linked to conflict.• Departments in the country with a 12 month above-average temperature have 31% higher food insecurity incidence rates. A 1% increase in temperature-induced food insecurity in turn increases violent crime risks by 15.3%. i• The network analysis found strong correlations between flooding events and crime, extreme weather events and social unrest, and disasters and crime.i The model results suggest that other, unobserved factors may have a significant mediating effects within the above average temperature anomalies and violent crime relationship.Maya Chortí, populations in La Lima, Chiquimula An increase in intensity and frequency of tropical storms and heatwaves, alongside mid-summer droughts, have had a profound impact on soil erosion and fertility. According to reports, these climate impacts have reduced agricultural productivity in the region, including increasing the risk of crop losses and decreasing yields. This in turn has led to more of a dependence on the nearby communal forest, which has long been the stage of inter-communal conflicts over access to the forest with the neighbouring Shupá community. It has also increased the population's dependency on seasonal migration, most commonly to coffee plantations both within Guatemala and across the border in Honduras. However, due to increased demand over short-term employment in coffee plantations, as well as the effects of coffee leaf rust over productivity, an increasing number of farmers are forced to find alternative sources of income during the dry periods, mainly migrating to sugarcane plantations to the southwest of Guatemala or to the main urban centres in search of work. This has increased the risk of theft and assault, as well as harsh labour conditions. Lastly, climate impacts have increased agricultural land and water scarcity, which in turn has led to land-based conflicts linked to insecure land tenure arrangements.The increase in frequency and intensity of precipitation in the rainy season and flooding is leading to a loss of harvest and livestock in Tenedores. Coordinated efforts for resilience building have established an early warning and response system, however this has been largely responsive and past impacts have yet to be fully addressed. Furthermore, the unequal distribution of resilience building support by the international community is undermining social cohesion and collaborative capacities for climate adaptation. As a consequence, cattle owners are being forced to sell their cows before the rainy season, leading to a decrease in cattle market prices and profitability, while farmers are struggling to make a profit due to higher risks of crop losses and increasing prices of agricultural inputs. This is coupled with low land availability and land tenure that is highly insecure and irregular, leading to many community members depending on short-term and informal leasing agreements. This is fuelling grievances between landowners and land leasers. The high availability of alternative livelihoods such as temporal and assisted migration to Canada, sand harvesting and work in the banana plantations, have so far strengthened adaptive capacities, but there is recognition by the locals that the low levels of land availability and tenure are a potential source of conflict.El Caripintero, Chiantla Huehuetenango -Water for domestic consumption and irrigation in El Carpintero comes entirely from springs in the region, most of which were sold by the municipal government to surrounding municipalities during the last few decades to larger urban communities. This has led to the community only owning a few of the springs within El Carpintero, which are for the most part privately owned. The community reports a reduction in water flow during drier periods and the need to acquire the remaining water springs for water security. They have however, been unable to do so, in part due to a low willingness of community members to pool resources in buying the land. The scarcity of water and privatization of water springs has increased the risk of conflict between and within communities in accessing nearby water springs and, on several occasions, conflicts have already occurred with varying degrees of violence. The lack of water availability also reduces agricultural productivity and associated incomes, increasing their dependence on using irregular migration as a coping mechanism. Irregular migration however is associated with human security risks, as those on the move are more prone to assault, theft, and kidnapping.Quantitative insights:WHERE are the most vulnerable areas to climate induced insecurities and risks WHO are the vulnerable groups to climate and security risks that should be targeted?Policy frameworks: There is the need for policymakers to comprehensively and systematically integrate climate, peace, and security considerations. Possible measures include conducting a gap analysis for the integration of climate security into the policy framework of relevant sectors, and for policymakers in these sectors to be sensitized to climate change impacts. In addition, climate change-related projections and tools need to be integrated into the policy design and planning processes of peace and security actors specifically.There also needs to be more effective engagement between the different sectoral policy actors to ensure integrated policy coordination on climate security.Multilevel governance: To modify current practices for climate adaptation and peacebuilding towards integrating a climate security sensitive approach, there is the need for a community of practice for climate security in Guatemala that fosters multi-level governance approaches. Moreover, Guatemalan government actors should reflect on what existing multi-level climate policy instruments that are used to transpose national level objectives into local level realities could become vehicles through which to integrate climate, peace, and security considerations into sub-national level planning and implementation.Programmatic planning: To design and implement programmes that cover the intersection of climate change, conflict and peace, programming staff need to be sensitized to this nexus and related context-specific mechanisms, while project proposals need to integrate a climate perspective and be based on vulnerability assessments that account for conflict risks respectively.Research and evidence gaps: For a comprehensive perspective on climate, peace, and security there is a need for improving and expanding the current empirical research on this nexus. This includes expanding beyond the traditional understanding of conflict and encompassing climate security risks, incorporating indirect linkages into the analysis, as well as developing intersectional approaches, and building upon community knowledge.There is the need for investments with co-benefits for both adaptation and peacebuilding across Guatemala's hotspots for climate-related security risks. To achieve this, some options include leveraging pre-existing networks and multi-stakeholder platforms to support the development, implementation, and scaling of financial interventions and enhancing organizations' grant writing and fundraising skills. Furthermore, identifying existing climate finance instruments at the national level that could be targeted for improved conflict-sensitivity is likely to facilitate the emergence of more conflict-sensitive and peace responsive funding.WHAT needs to be done to break the cycle between climate and conflict?Participatory workshops held in El Carpintero, Tenedores, and Lima uncovered resilience building local solutions based on collective action that contribute towards sustainable peacebuilding.To avoid inter-community conflicts surrounding access to water resources, practical solutions were identified such as strengthening the role of water-related committees within community governance to foster engagement with local populations and to increase the capacity for conflict management.An integrated and collaborative water management approach with access to climate information systems was also proposed for active participation at the department-level through the Agro-Climatic Technical Committees, where participants can exchange climate-relevant information such as on climate adaptation practices and climate change developments.Secondly, to address territorial conflicts over forest resources, a proposal emerged for the use of forest management as a mechanism for conflict management. Mandating the community with developing and updating a management plan, along with monitoring and enforcing regulations and sanctions could potentially strengthen state-society relations and generate a sense of interdependence and a shared identity over the forest, as well as create employment opportunities for those involved in forest management. In addition, to reduce dependence on seasonal and rural-urban migration, which are associated with insecurity risks and hardship, participants proposed the establishment of an association of local coffee producers and a coffee cooperative to strengthen coffee production within the community, thereby potentially generating employment opportunities.Lastly, to address low access to land, insecure tenure and land-based conflicts that are exacerbated by climate impacts on the agricultural sector, one of the proposed solutions was to create a local farmer's association that would focus on finding alternative arrangements between herders and farmers that increase a secure access to land, which would incentivize farmers to adopt agricultural conservation practices. This would protect livelihoods of both farmers and herders, and open up previously unavailable land, hence potentially reducing the risk of land-based conflicts. Collective action to strengthen market access could potentially also lead to supply chain arrangements that better protect local livelihoods, by organising direct access to local wholesale centres, rather than through individual intermediaries. This could also reduce competition and drop agricultural prices.","tokenCount":"2019"}
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+{"metadata":null,"keywords":null,"sieverID":"09b4f3f7-b29c-423b-babc-9e6fe2cc30be","pagecount":"0","content":"Atlas de Yorito y Sulaco, Yoro (Honduras) \nNúmero de Cabezas de Ganado Bovino \npor Aldeas, Vorito y Sulaco \n\".O!,ld mlllm \nlQCQ ·1001 \nUmlm 1St aldtn \nf'.Wme,o d. e.b.ZII:I bow \n11 . 153 \n· 44; \n- 780 \n· 1091 \nEn la subregión un 33% de las explotaciones \ntenían ganado bovino. De aproximadamente \n9,741 cabezas de ganado casi el 83% se \nconcentraba en las zonas bajas. El 64% del \nhato se criaba en el municipio de Sulaco, de \néste las aldeas de San Juan (32%) y Sulaco \n(25%) concentraban el 57% del hato. En el \nmunicipio de Yorito , el hato se concentraba en \nlas aldeas de El Destino (29%), Yorito (24%) y \nLuquigue (23%). El 70% de los productores \nde la subregión tenían un sistema de \nganadería de doble propósito. \nA-26 AneKOS \nProductores que Utilizaban Semilla \nMejorada por Aldea, Vorito y Sulaco \nAllrtud rmIf'1m \n1000 ·1001 \nrI Lfmll86 di aldNQ \nSiñil'1II m.jortlOl. ('r.) \n, 0-0.8 \n----, 0 .8·5.3 \n5.3 - 11 .7 \n11.7 - 252 \nLos diferentes sistemas de producción de la \nsubregión se caracterizan por utilizar un bajo \nporcentaje de semilla mejorada. En 1993, de \n2500 productores, de la subregión, solamente el \n6.5% utilizaron semilla mejorada. Entre los \nmunicipios, el 7.5% en Yorito y 5.5% de los \nproductores de S ulaco. Nó \ntese en el mapa que las aldeas de las zonas \naltas presentan porcentajes de cero a un \nnúmero cercano a cero en el uso de semilla \nmejorada, en cambio las zonas oscuras, parte \nbaja, presentan algún porcentaje de \nproductores con ésta tecnologi \na. En el caso de Sulaco, la aldea de Sulaco de \n210 productores un 23% y El Desmonte de 196 \nun 12% y en Yorito, se destacaban las aldeas de \nYorito donde de 155 un 25% y en Jalapa de 68 \nun 9% de productores usaron semillas \nmejoradas. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nAtlas-cJe Yorita y Su/aco, Yoro (Honduras) \nProductores que Usan Fertilizantes \nQuímicos por Aldea, Yorito y Sulaco \nEntre los insumas qUlmlcos se destacan los \nfertilizantes como urea, fósforo, potasio, magnesio \nentre otros; y herbicidas y/o insecticidas. El uso de \ninsumas químicos en los diferentes sistemas de \nproducción de la subregión se tiene como una \nvariable determinante para el incremento de los \nrendimientos. Sin embargo, en 1993, sólo un 12% \nde los productores de la subregión utilizaron \nfertilizantes químicos, un 11 % en Yorito y 13% en \nSulaco. Como se puede apreciar en el mapa, en \nYorito se destacan las aldeas de El Destino (30%), \nYorito (28%), Jalapa (21%) y Luquigue (18%); yen \nSulaco sobresalen las aldeas de Sulaco (30%), El \nDesmonte (1 0%) Y San Antonio (10%). Es de notar \nque si queremos identificar productores con \nagricultura orgánica el mapa muestra que las \nzonas altas casi no usaban fertilizantes quimicos. \nAnexos \nProductores que Usaban Tracción \nMecánica por Aldea, Yorito y Sulaco \nEl uso de tracción agrícola está muy relacionada \na las condiciones topográficas del país y la \nsubregión de Yo rito y Sulaco. Esta variable \npermite identificar en la zona ,,1 nivel de \ndesarrollo de los sistemas de producción y de la \ninversión de capital en su sector agropecuario. \nEn 1993, en la subregión un 16% de los \nproductores utilizaban tracción mecánica para \npreparar la tierra y cosechar los diferentes \nproductos agrícolas. En el municipio de Sulaco, \nel 48% de los productores de la aldea de Sulaco \nreportaron el uso de tractores agrícolas en sus \ncultivos, asimismo el 19 y 15 por ciento en El \nJaral y El Desmonte, respectivamente. En el \nmunicipio de Yorito, el 64% de los productores de \nEl Destino, 26% en Luquigue y 24% en Yorito \nhacían uso de la tracción mecánica para sus \nactividades agrícolas. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limiles de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación . \nA·27 \nAt/as de Yorlto y Su/aco, Yoro (Honduras) \nCaracterización Socioeconómica \nLas c aracterísticos demog ráf icas y \neconómicas de una población nos don una \nradiografío de un país. Indicadores sobre bajos \nniveles de ingresos y de bienestar de los familias \nimplican dificultades pero distribuir los recursos \n01 desarrOllO económico. En esto situación \nlosas crecientes de población y concentración \nde lo mismo en algunos áreas tendrían como \nresultado uno mayor presión sobre los recursos \ndisponibles. Mayores efectos se visualizon en \naquellos recursos. como bosques y suelos, con \nmayor fragilidad. Es así que uno creciente \npoblación con lo fatta de un ordenamiento de \nlOS recursos y un alto desempleo impactarán \nfuertemente en el manejo de los recursos \nnaturales. \nA-28 Anexos \nPoblación al año 2000 por Aldeas de \nYorito y Sulaco \nMIIud rtWIl11 \n1000. t OO'l -.­.n \nLa población es la variable fundamental en el \ndesarrollo de un país. Su crecimiento deberia \nestar en correspondencia con el crecimiento \neconómico. En la subregión la población crece \na una tasa anual de 2.9%. Las lasas más altas \nse registraban en las zonas altas. En este \nmapa los colores más oscuros muestran las \naldeas que concentran un mayor número de \nhabitantes dentro de cada municipio. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nAtlas de Yorito y Sulaeo, Yoro (Honduras) \nHabitantes en Aldeas de Yorito y \nSulaco \nLa demanda de recursos y la presión sobre los \nmismos están en función de la densidad de \npoblación. El Destino y Yorito presentan \ndensidades mayores a 100 habitantes por km', \nen el municipio de Yorito; para Sulaco, estas \ndensidades se presentan en Sulaco y El \nDesmonte. Estas comunidades se encuentran \nen la zona baja, zonas que está \nn expulsando población hacia las zonas altas, \nsobre la cual se está dando una presión sobre la \nfrontera agricola. A ésta están llegando \nproductores con poca o sin tierra y ganaderos \ncon sistemas de ganadería extensiva. \nAnexos \nFamilias Dedicadas a la Agricultura , \nYo rito y Sulaco \nEn este mapa se muestran los porcentajes de \nfamilias por cada comunidad dedicadas a las \nactividades agrícolas. Esta variable permite \nidentificar los sitios hacia donde deberían \nenfocarse los programas de desarrollo dentro \nde la subregión. Programas agrícolas tendrían \nuna mayor cobertura entre productores de la \nparte alta . Las zonas bajas requerirían de una \ncombinación de programas agrícolas y de \nservicios. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nA-29 \nAtlas de Yorito y Sulaco, Yoro (Honduras) \nFamilias sin Tierra por Aldeas en Yorito \ny Sulaco \nÉste mapa evidencia las comunidades que a \ntravés del tiempo han ido quedando sin tierra \nagrícola, y donde hoy, ésta es bastante escasa. \nTambién se podría identificar fácilmente, hacia \ndo nde prob ableme nte están o estará \nn emigrando estas familias sin tierras en \nbúsqueda de tierras agrícolas. Es evidente que \néste proceso podría estar provocando una \nexpansión de la frontera agrícola, situación que \nafectaría la cantidad y calidad de los recursos \nnaturales de la subregión. \nDistribución de fincas por Estrato en \nYorito y Sulaco \n• , _o. \n'- . \n.'. \n..,j •• \" \n. \" \n---., • • < \nEstudios preliminares basándose en datos \ncensales de 1993 indican que en el municipio \nde Yorito, las comunidades de Santa Marta , \nPueblo Viejo, La Esperanza y El Portillo \npueden no estar satisfaciendo sus \nnecesidades de maíz. Situación similar \npodría estar sucediendo en la comunidad de \nLa Albardilla en el municipal de Sulaco (ver \ncomunidades coloreadas en rojo). Además, \nestas aldeas con demanda insatisfecha de \nmaíz se encuentran ubicadas por encima de \nlos 900 m.s.n.m. Las comunidades con \ndemanda satisfecha de maíz se encuentran \ncoloreadas en amarillo y anaranjado y se \nubican en la zona baja de la subregión. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capaci tación . \nAtlas de Yorlto Y Sulaeo, Yoro (Honduf'lls) \nDemanda Satisfecha e Insatisfecha de \nMaíz a Nivel de Aldea en Torito y \nSulaco \nt:J Lifnit.~ , 'deas \n¡ ilnd\" de malz. ,%) \n-$<1 •• 3-1 \n· 3 •. , .. .., \n60 · 321 \nEstudios preliminares basándose en datos \ncensales de 1993 indican que en el municipio de \nYorito, las comunidades de Santa Marta, Pueblo \nViejo, La Esperanza y El Portillo pueden no estar \nsatisfaciendo sus necesidades de maiz. Situación \nsimilar podria estar sucediendo en la comunidad \nde La Albardilla en el municipio de Sulaco (ver \ncomunidades coloreadas en rojo). Además, estas \naldeas con demanda insatisfecha de maiz se \nencuentran ubicadas por encima de los 900 \nmetros sobre el nivel del mar. Las comunidades \ncon demanda satisfecha de maiz se encuentran \ncoloreadas en amarillo y anaranjado y se ubican \nen la zona baja de la subregión. \nAnexos \nDemanda Satisfecha e Insatisfecha de \nFrijol a Nivel de Aldea en Yorito y \nSulaco \nlimite aldeas \nLl~ma,nda de mjlll ¡%) \n_ .78 .. 52 \n. -52··29 \nn·29·30 \nI 130 - 110 ,.*, \nEn relación a la demanda satisfecha o insatisfecha \ncon frijol , en el mapa se puede notar que las \ncomunidades coloreadas en amarillo si estaban \nsatisfaciendo su demanda de frijol. Entre estas \ncomunidades se encontraban Santa Marta, La \nEsperanza, Pueblo Viejo, Vallecillos y El Portillo \nubicadas en la parte alta del municipio de Yorito; en \ncambio también en la zona alta La Albardilla era la \núnica aldea de Sulaco que satisfacia su demanda \nde frijol. Es claro que en éste caso las \ncomunidades de las zonas bajas teni \nan menores ventajas comparativas para la \nproducción de frijol; situación que se presentó a la \ninversa en relación a maiz. \nA·31 \nAtlas de Yorito y Su/aeo, Yoro (Honduras) \nApoyo a la Toma de Decisiones \nIdentificar y combinar diferentes factores \nbiofisicos, socioeconómicos y demográficos, \npermiten establecer los criterios que faciliten y \napoyen la toma de decisiones tanto a nivel local, \nregional , o nacional. Asimismo, establecer \nacuerdos entre pobladores de diferentes \ncomunidades que identifiquen características \ncomunes o problemas acerca del manejo de \ncultivos, agua, entre otros, relacionado al \nmanejo de los recursos naturales. \nA-32 Anexos \nMaiz y Altitud en la Subregión de Yorito y \nSulaco \nEste mapa muestra las aldeas que podrían \ntener ventaja comparativa para la producción \nde maíz. Sin embargo mostraban rendimientos \npor debajo de las 2 tm por ha. Esto era debido \nal bajo uso de semilla mejorada y fertilizantes. \nDos recomendaciones se podrían sugerir: (1) \nincrementar los rendimientos incorporando \nvariedades de trópico bajo con el objetivo de \nincrementar los volúmenes de producción \ndestinados al mercado; (2) mejorar la \nproducción en las zonas altas incorporando \nmateriales de altura, el objetivo sería mejorar la \nautosuficiencia alimentaria con maíz en estas \ncomunidades. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacítación. \nAtlas de Yarita y Su/aea, Yaro (Honduras) \nFrijol y Altitud en la Subregión de \nYorito y Sulaco \nEste mapa muestra las aldeas que podrían \ntener ventaja comparativa para la producción \nde frijol. No obstante sus bajos rendimientos \nhace que el incremento de los volúmenes de \nproducción se hagan a expensas de la \nexpansión de la frontera agrícola. Una \nrecomendación pertinente sería empoderar a \nlos productores con semillas mejoradas y, un \nuso apropiado de fertilizantes a fin de \nincrementar producción estabilizando áreas en \nproducción. \nAnexos \nDominios de Recomendación para Maiz \nde Primera en la Subregión de Yo rito y \nSulaco (Expresado en días a floración \nmasculina) \n01eSJ*. t \n1300 unidmes 1M \n(b-.M 50C opem. 34 -c \n. 81- 7Q \n. 71 - 90 \n. 81 - 90 \n• ¡¡JI _100 \n\"01-120 \nEste mapa muestra un ejemplo de como se \npodrían determinar dominios de recomendación \npara el cultivo de maíz. Las zonas a colores \nilustran los dias a fioración masculina de un \ngenotipo de maíz tropical. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nA-33 \n\n","tokenCount":"1931"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0dbc0eecaeccc91abb22b43e0090a0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9fc03fa-3836-45a2-9d85-0ab1df79de8d/retrieve","id":"2010223036"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f333586d-0f16-400f-9769-f19d3d53ed64","pagecount":"29","content":"Plantains are starchy bananas which make up one-quarter of the total world production of bananas (Musa spp.). Unlike the sweet dessert bananas , plantains are a staple food which is fried, baked , boiled (and then sometimes pounded) or roasted , and consumed alone or together with otherfood.About 70 million people in West and Central Africa are estimated to derive more than one-quarter of their food energy requirements from plantains , making them one of the most important sources of food energy throughout the African lowland humid forest zone.In Africa, plantains are grown for home consumption, not for export. The area between the lowlands of Guinea and Liberia in West Africa and the central basin of Zaire in Central Africa produces one-half the total world output of plantains (figure 1). West Africa produces two-thirds and Central Africa one-fifth of the African output. In term s of cost per hectare , per ton and per unit of food energy , plantains are also the cheapest staple crop to produce.Bearing plants (figure 2) consist of :(a) Bunch or inflorescence. Composed of many flowers, the bunch emerges between the leaves and is attached to the plant by a rachis or fruit stalk. The many protuberances on the rachis are called glomerules. Each glomerule bears a group of flowers, also called a hand. Edible fruit (o r fingers) develop from female flowers located at the first 10 glomerules of the bunch. Neutral flowers (also called hermaphrodite or intermediate flowers ) appear next but do not develop into fruit as their ovaries cannot swell to form pulp. The purple bud at the end of the bunch is called the \"male bud\" and consists of bracts covering groups of so-called male flowers . This male bud may be absent or present when the bunch reaches maturity.(b) Pseudostem with foliage leaves. The cylindrical structure rising from the soil and carrying the foliage is not a stem in the true sense. It is a \"false\" stem or pseudostem because the growing tip (or meristem) of the plant remains near soil level. As the false stem consists of overlapping leaf sheaths, (c) Underground corm with suckers and roots. The corm , sometimes wrongly called a bulb, is the true stem of the plant.Numerous roots emerge from the corm, most of which grow horizontally at a depth of 0 to 15 cm. Roots are whitish if young and healthy and become brown with age. If infested by nematodes, they become brown or even black and/or show protuberances.The growing tip (or meristem) at the top of •the corm continuously forms new leaves and later becomes the inflorescenc e. The corm produces many branches, called suckers, and the whole unit is often referred to as the \"mat\" or \"stool\". After the plant crop has been harvested, the mother plant is cut down and the suckers are thinned. Although all suckers are followers or daughter plants , the cultivator selects one (the ratoon) to continue the next cyde of production. Th e second harvest from the plantain mat is call ed the first ratoon crop. The third harvest is the second ratoon crop , and so on.At least 116 plantain cultivars have been identified in West and Central Africa. Plant size and bunch type are the most important characteristics for production purposes.Plant size depends on the number of leaves produced before flowering: giant more than 38 fo liage leaves ; medium between 32 and 38 foliage leaves ; small fewer than 32 foliage leaves. When the plantains flower, leaf production has ended.Bunch morphology provides another method of classifica• tion (figure 2): French plantains: bunch is complete at matu rity . Many hands consist of numerous , rather smal l fingers fo llowed by the bunch axis cove red with neutral flowers and male flowers; the male bud is large and persistent. False Horn plantains: bunch is incomplete with no male bud at maturity. Hands consist of large fingers followed by a few neutral flowers . Horn plantains: bunch is incomplete at maturity. Handsare few in number and consist of a few but very large fingers. Th ere are no neutral flowers or male bud ; a tailor a de• formed glomeru le terminates the bunch axis . The Horn plantain resembles the False Horn but it has no neutral flowers and has larger fin gers.Several types of conventional planting material exist: peeper: a small sucker emerging from the soil (fig ure 3) ; sword sucker: a large sucker with lanceo lated leaves (fig• ure 3) , the best conventional planting material ; maiden sucker: a large sucker with foliage leaves; bits: pieces of a chopped corm.A new and most promising planting material consists of in vitro plants which are smal l maiden suckers produced from meristem culture (figure 4).Planting material can be collected from: (a) An existing fi eld , preferably an old field which is becom• ing unproductive. Otherwise damage to the roots may be (b) A multiplication plot, which is planted only for the production of suckers and not to produce bunches. Plant density (2 m x 2 m) is much higher than in production fields and suckers are obtained by either decapitation or false decapitation . Both methods consist of removing the growing point (figure 5). In the fi rst method , the pseudostem is removed to get to the growing point. On ly a small ho le or window is cut for the second method. The foliage can remain active for up to 3 months after the removal of the meristem by the second method. (c) A tissue cu lture laboratory, where in vitro plants which look like small maiden suckers are produced from meristems . In vitro plants are healthy , vigorous , free from pests and diseases (figure 4) and have a great future.Plantains , like other bananas. require a hot and hum id environment. Ideally, the average air temperature should be about 30°C and rainfall at least 1 00 mm per month. Rainfall should be we ll distributed throughout the year and dry seasons should be as short as possible. Irrigation is not suitable nor economically worthwhile for plantains grown by the fami ly farmer. but may become necessary when larger fields are cu ltivated in areas with a long dry season.Organic matter is essential for plantain cu ltivation (figure 6). External sources of mulch can consist of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) , which is rich in potassium , or c• cassava peelings , wood shavings , palm bunch refuse, dried weeds, kitchen refuse, and so on. Collecting and transporting mu lch are expensive in time and labor. The most co nvenient source consists of plants growing inside the plantain fields if they produce a great deal of organic matter without competing with the plantains.Su itable mu lch mOlterial can be obtained from trees which were slashed when the fields were cleared and which are growing again (figure 7); or from a deep-rooted legu me shrub cal led Flemingia congesta or F. macrophylla (figu re 8). F. congesta is seed drilled in the midd le of the 3 m plantain alley. It can be difficult to establ ish, but from the second year onwards it grows vigorously. It can reach a height of approximately 2.5 to 3 m if left unpruned, but in the field it is cut back 4 times a year to a height of about 1.5 m  (figure 8). The prunings are spread overthe soil. Flemingia is not fertilized as it benefits from fixed nitrogen and leached fertilizers appli ed to the plantains. Grass growing between the plantains is not suitable as a mulch source because it competes with the plantains.The plantain crop always benefits from the use of fertilizer (table 1). The yield from fertilized plants can be up to 10 times higher than that from unfertilized plants. The amount of fertilizer needed depends on soil fertility and so il type. General recommendations cannot be made as these should be based on soi l or leaf analysis and the results of fertilizer experiments. Since potassium and nitrogen are eas ily leached, they shou ld always be applied at regu lar intervals (split applications) during the growing (rainy) season. Other important nutrients are phosphate , calcium and magnesium which are provided in one application. In some exceptional cases, micro-nutrients (for example, zinc or sulfur) have to be applied. Weeds can be hand-pulled orchemicallycontrolled . Paraquat and simazine are appropriate herbicides since they control the weeds without affecting the plantains , unless leaves are accidentally sprayed . Glyphosate, diu ron and gramuron are not recommended as they can be phytotoxic to plantains.Black sig atoka is the major disease attacking plantains; nematodes and stemborers are the major pests.Black sigatoka is a leaf spot disease (figure 9a-d  Fougamou 1 (cooking banana)Nematode damage green leaves at maturity (9d) . Photosynthesis is reduced and small bunches (sometimes with undeveloped fingers) are produced. Yield losses are estimated at between 30 and 50 percent.Black sigatoka can be controlled with aerial applications of fungicides belonging to the groups ofthe benomyl , benzimidazoles, chlorothalonils, dithiocarbamates, flusilazoles , imazaliles , imidazoles, methylthiophanates, nuarimols, prochloraz, propiconazoles , triazoles and tridemorph , or soi lapplied fungicides such as triadimefon and triadimenol. In any case , at least two types of fungicide should be used alternately to preventthe fungus from developing resistance to the active ingredient.Plantain cu ltivars resistant to black sigatoka provide the only effective means of control since the fungicides are very expensive and can pose health hazards when applied in backyards. Breeding for resi stance began at the Onne station of the International Institute of Tropical Agricu lture (IITA) in Nigeria du ring 1988. For the time being , cooking bananas (\" Fougamou 1 \", \"Bom\", \"Gia Hui \", \"Foulah 4\" and \"Nzizi\") are available from IITA (figure 10) as a substitute for plantain. These varieties are resistantto black sigatoka and can be prepared and consumed in the same ways as plantains.Nematodes are minute worms which live in the soi l and infest plant roots. Several types of nematodes can extensive ly damage the plantain root system if the land was previously cropped with plantains or if they were introduced with infected planting material (figure 11). Nematodes impair the transport of nutrients and water to the main stem , causing a reduction in yie ld and weaken ing of the plant. As a result, many plants may be lost through tip-over whenever winds become strong.Nematodes can be controlled by applying nematicides in a circle , 25 cm in diameter, around the plant. The stemborer or banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus (figure 12) lays its eggs near the corm of the main plant. The larvae attack the underground part of the plant, feeding on I ,..,. Stem borer trap from a piece of pseudostem the corm and boring channels in it (figure 13). Plants become very weak, especially during the dry season , and tip over. Yield can be drastically reduced.Stem borers can be controlled by leaving the land under fallow, by the application of coffee husks and by insecticides. The cost of insecticides should determine whether they should be used. The use of traps provides an alternative method for controlling banana weevils which is cheap but time-consuming and not as effective as the use of insecticides. Traps are made by cutting pseudostems in half longitudinally and laying the pieces cut side down on the soil near the plantains (figure 14). One trap for every 20 to 30 plants is the current practice . Traps should be inspected daily early in the morning. The adult black weevils are then retrieved from between the soil and the cut surface of the pseudostem and killed. Traps remain effective for about 1 or 2 weeks and are renewed at harvest when an ample supply of pieces of pseudQstem is available.A field that becomes unproductive should be left fallow when the plantain mats have been destroyed . Good results can be obtained with the use of kerosene , glyphosate or 2-4 0 but the plantain mats can only be completely destroyed by hand. This ensures that no live material remains to harbor pests and reinfect the field .To restore fertility , the organic matter in the soil should be raised as high as possible during the fallow period by planting an improved fallow (for example , a leguminous cover crop). Otherwise the fallow crop can consist of trees which were cut down at planting time and are growing back or of Flemingia congesta which was grown between the plantain rows as a source of mulch. In addition to restoring fertility, the fallow crop should by itself completely eliminate all kinds of weeds , especially grasses. A grass fallow is not suitable as grass easily grows again and becomes a noxious weed.Compound garden with plantains 12Most plantains produced in West Africa come from compound gardens or backyards inside villages (figure 15). Backyard soil is very rich in organic matter and nutrients from household refuse which is dumped there. Such gardens.are permanently in use for plantains which grow there luxuriantly, become very large and produce heavy bunches. They grow in groups or clusters as each bearing plant produces many suckers which are not pruned out. Human activity is limited to manuring, propping and harvesting.Since the demand and thus the price for this crop are continuously increasing, many farmers want to grow more plantains in orderto raise their income. However, backyards cannot be readily extended since they are enclosed by houses or fences. The only way, therefore, to expand production is to grow plantains in fields at some distance from the village. In most cases such field-grown plantains are very poorly maintained. The result is a very modest yield from the first year onwards. Different methods of cultivation should accompany the change in site to achieve and sustain high-level yields for several years.The site should be easily accessible, especially if the establishment of a large field is being planned. It should be well drained but not too steeply sloped. Plantain cultivation is impossible if the land becomes flooded from time to time, or has a water table at a depth of only 50 cm or less. The soil should be rich in organic matter (black soil). Hence fields in a long natural fallow, under an improved established fallow or with a lot of mulch are recommended.Fields are to be prepared with minimum disturbance to the soil (no-tillage farming). In consequence, manual clearing should be preferred to mechanical deforestation because bulldozers always remove topsoil with the important organic matter and compact the remaining soil. When an old natural fallow is cleared , the debris from the forest should be burned if plantain cultivation is planned for 1 or 2 cycles only. If perennial CUltivation is being considered, planting should be done through the mulch (figure 16). Young fallows of about 3 to 5 years or improved legume fallows should be simply slashed and left without being burned. Trees must be cut but the stumps are not to be removed , and the trees should be left to grow again (figure 7). They can be pruned only when they start to obstruct field activities or shade the plantains.Once the fallow crop is slashed, the field is ready for pegging. Drains should be dug if some spots in the field tend to waterlog after heavy rains. The recommended spacing is 3 m between the plantain rows and 2 m within the row (in other words . 3 m x 2 m). An alternative is 2.5 m x 2.5 m. If spaced 3 m x 2 m, 1 hectare should contain 1667 plants , but with a spacing of 2.5 m x 2.5 m, it should contain 1600 plants . Rows shou ld be straight in flat fields to give plants the maximum amount of sunlight. However, on sloping land , rows should follow the contour lines in order to decrease soil erosion.For fie ld cultivation, medium plantains should be preferred to giant ones even though giant plantains produce heavier bunches. Giant plantains take longer to produce and are more likely to be damaged by strong winds because of their size.The decision whether to grow a French (figure 17a) or a False Horn (figure 17b) plantain cu ltivar should depend on which type the consumers prefer. Horn plantains (figure 17c) should never be CU ltivated as their yield is very low .Suckers are separated from their mother plant with a spade or machete . The sucker corm must not be damaged or chipped. Consequently the corm should be careful ly peeled with a machete. The pseudostem of the suckers should be cut off a few centimeters above the corm (figure 18). Peeling of the corm de lays the development of nematode infestation, whi le cutting of the pseudostem reduces bu lkiness and improves early growth of the newly planted sucker.fThe peeling process is just like that for cassava. A freshly peeled healthy corm ought to look white , but corms infected by stemborers and nematodes show brown and black spots which have to be removed until on ly white tissue remains. If the infestation is severe, with many brown and black spots, the sucker shou ld be destroyed. Sucker preparation (peeling) is carried out in the field where the planting material is collected . This is to avoid contamination of the new field with roots infested with nematodes or corms with stem borers. Prepared corms are transported to their destination where they are left to dry for a few days (not in the sun). Suckers have to be planted within t week. Storage of suckers for more than 2 weeks will adversely affect future yields.Suckers are planted immediately after field preparation. Plant holes are prepared with a minimum size of about 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. Care should be taken to separate the topsoil from bottom soil. The sucker is placed in the hole and its corm is covered , first with the topsoil and th' en with the bottom soi l (figure (9) . In the plant hole, the side of the sucker corm which was formerly attached to the corm of its mother plant is placed against the wall of the hole. The opposite side of the sucker' corm is placed towards the middle of the plant hole , where the so il is loose (figure (9). The best sucker (the future ratoon) will emerge at the side opposite to where the planted sucker was previously attached to the mother plant. If the land is sloping, the sucker shou ld be so oriented that its follower will emerge against the slope. That will delay the development of the so-called highAn unprepared sucker (left) and peeled suckers (right) ready for planting Plantains can be planted throughout the rainy season. However, they should grow vigorously and without stress during the first 3 to 4 months after planting, and therefore they should not be planted during the last months of the rainy season. Planting with the first rains seems agronomically sound but not financially advantageous. Most farmers will plant at the onset of the rains, causing the market to be flooded with bunches 9 to 12 months after planting, when prices will be very low. Planting in the midd le of the rainy season is a better proposition as plantains wi ll then be produced off-season and get high prices.Organic matter is essential for plantain cu ltivation (table 1, page 6) if the field is to be very productive for a long time. A high leve l of organic matter in the soi l is beneficial because it stimulates root development, improves soil drainage, decreases soil temperature fluctuations, and increases soil porosity and biological life.Organic matter decays under the influence of microorganisms in the soil , heavy rainfall and high soil temperature. The amount of organic matter will gradually decrease once the field has been cleared and cause a decrease in yield. Therefore newly established plantains which receive only fertilizer will produce a high yield only in the first year. In the second year the yield will drop because the organic matter will have decomposed (figure 20 and table 1). To compensate for this continuous decrease in the amount of organic matter, the field needs mulch from plants and/or manure from animals. There are many sources of mulch. It can be either carried into the field or produced between the plants; but to be effective , it should cover the soil completely (figure 21 ). Once the field is mulched, weeds are controlled and the topsoil is protected against heavy rainfall and intense sunshine. Poultry, pigs and cows produce suitable manure which is applied only at the base of the mat.To produce a heavy bunch , plantains always need some extra nutrients. These can be applied in the form either of inorganic fertilizers or organic fertilizers (mulch , manure or ash from wood fires). Inorganic fertilizers have the advantages of easy handling and concentrated nutrients. Organic fertilizers are very bulky, yet they manifest many important characteristics. They improve soil moisture retention , weed and erosion control, soil porosity and biological activity. The application of fertilizer should start 1 month after planting of plantains or with the first rains in an already existing fie ld. The fertilizer is applied around the main plant in a circle about 50 cm in diameter. Fertilizer is not worked into the soil as that causes extensive damage to the superficial root system. No fertilizer is applied in the dry season.Plantains should always be weed-free . Weed control starts during field preparation. Weeds are initially controlled about every 6 to 8 weeks ; but when the plantain canopy closes , about 5 to 6 months after planting, weed infestation declines due to shading . Any plant with a superficial root system shou ld be considered a weed and therefore eliminated. Grasses or herbs are the most pernicious weeds because they derive their nutrients from the same level of the soil as the plantains. Tree seedlings are not considered to be weeds.Weeds can be controlled through mulching , chemically or manually . Mulching is the most efficient means , because a mulch layer can impede or prevent weed growth. Chemical control is expensive and in some circumstances also dangerous. Manual weeding is not recommended, although the weeds are thereby effectively controlled, because slashing or hoe weeding inevitably damages the plantain root system . However, sometimes manual weeding is the only possible method .Plantain fields are arranged in rows spaced 3 m x 2 m. As the canopy closes only some 5 to 6 months after planting, a fair amount of inter-row space remains un exploited during the first months. This space can be used for plants which have a short life cycle and which do not compete with plantains. Groundnut, yam , cocoyam (figure 22) and maize are su itable intercrops alth ough maize effectively delays the plantain harvest by about 2 months. Cassava and cowpea are not suitable , because their yields are reduced under the shade of plantain rows . Plantains can be used as a shade crop for young cocoa and coffee plants.The heavy weight of the plantain bunch bends all bearing plants and can cause doubling (pseudostem breaks) , snapoff (corm breaks , leaving a part in the ground) or uprooting , also called tip-over (the entire corm with roots comes out of the ground). Plants are generally weak during the dry season and strong winds , nematodes and stemborers also increase the rate of loss . For these re asons , bearing plants always need support from 1 or 2 wooden props , usually made of bamboo (figure 23). If a piece of bamboo is used, the support is placed alongside the bearing plant and the top of the plant is tied to the bamboo. A lateral branch at the top of the bamboo prop sometimes forms a natural fork which can be used to support the plantain without being tied to it. When 2 pieces of bamboo are used, the bunch and not the plant is supported in the first place. The bamboo props are crossed and form a fork. This fork is tied together with a rope and placed just underneath the bunch.The bearing plant is cut and the bunch, 3 to 4 months old, is harvested when 1 or 2 fingertips of the first hand start yellowing . The bunch usually then ripens within a week. Care has to be taken that the bunch does not drop on the ground when the main plant is cut. The whole of the pseudostem and foliage of the. main plant is then chopped (figure 24) and spread overthe soil as a mu lch for the ratoon crop. If this is not done, weevi ls may live and multiply on the intact pseudostem.Unlike those of most other bananas , plantain suckers develop very slowly. After harvest, all suckers start to grow at the same time and most have to be eliminated to stop competition (figure 25). The tallest is left to guarantee the follow up and maintain the density. Thinning usually has to be repeated a month later, as new suckers will have emerged by that time . Suckers are thinned with a machete . The sucker pseudostem is cut off near its corm and the point of the machete is twisted in the growing tip , thus killing it.After production of several ratoon crops , the upper surface of corms in aging plantain fields can be seen above soil level. The exposure of the corm s, which is call ed high mat (figure 26) , is believed to have several causes. The nature of ratooning in plantains seems to be particularly important. High mat exposes the roots which dry out. The plants become weak and tip over easi ly because they are no longer firmly based in the soil. Earthing up (adding so il around th e plant) does not help much . Howeve r, mulch protects the roots which would otherwise dry out and improves the ' ram ification and stability of the plants .A field which becomes unproductive should be left fa llow. If plantains are to be planted again after a fallow period , the following points shou ld be considered .• At the beginning of the fa ll ow, all plantain mats should be entirely destroyed. Otherwise , remain ing plants cou ld maintain nematode and stembore r popu lations which wou ld readily infest newly planted plantains after the fa llow period .• Only manual destruction guarantees the complete elimination of the existing plantain mats.• The level of organic matter in the soil should be raised as high as possible during the fallow period in order to restore fertility. This can be done by allowing trees to regrow andlor by planting a legume cover crop .• The fallow period should last at least 2 to 3 years. \"C: degrees Celsius, Centigrade 2,4 D: a herbicide aldicarbe: an insecticide anchorage: stabi lity of plantains in the soi l backyard : compound garden banana weevil : an insect that damages the plantain corm benomyl : a fungicide benzimidazole: a fungicide bits: pieces of chopped corm used in planting black sigatoka: severe leaf spot disease of plantains and bananas \" 80m \": a variety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka bottom soil: soil from the bottom of a hole dug for planting bract: a purple modified leaf covering a flower cluster breeding : plant improvement canopy : cover formed by leaves carbofuran: a nematicide and insecticide chlordecone : an insecticide chlorothalonil: a fungicide cm: centimeter contour line: a line connecting the points on a land surface that have th e same elevation cooking bananas: starchy bananas which have to be cooked corm : th e (underground) stem of a plantain or banana wh ich produces suckers and roots Cosmopolites sordidus: see banana weevil cultivar: cu ltivated variety daughter plant: sucker succeeding the bearing plant decapitation: the process of eliminating the growing tip after cutting the pseudostem ; used in sucker multiplication dithiocarbamate: a fungicide diuron: a herbicide doubling: breaking of the pseudostem drainage: the gradual disappearance of water in the soi l earthing up: heaping soil in mounds at the base of the main plant ethoprophos : a nematicide fallow : previously cu ltivated land that is allowed to lie idle, usually in order to re-. cover its fertility false decapitation: the process of elim inatin g the growing tip after an opening (a window) has been made in the base of the pseudostem ; used in sucker mu ltiplication. See also decapitation False Horn plantains: plantains with an incomp lete inflorescence at maturity; hands consisting of large fingers fo llowed by few hermaphrodite flowers, no male bud at maturity female flowers: those flowers on the bunch who se ovaries deve lop into fruit fertilizer: a chemical mixture used to supply nutrients to the soi l finger: a sing le plantain or banana fruit Flemingia congesta (F. macrophyl/a): a legume shrub used as an all ey crop in plantain fie lds; cut regularly to supp ly mulch flowering: producing flowers flusilazole: a fungicide foliage leaves: the big leaves of a plantain or banana follower: sucker, daughter plant succeeding the bearing plant \" Fougamou 1 \" , \" Foulah 4\" : varieties of cooking banana resi stant to black sigatoka French plantains: plantains with a complete inflorescence at maturity. This type has many hands consisting of many , rather small fruits fo ll owed by the inflorescence axis covered with persisting hermaphrodite flowers and male flowers; th e male bud is large and persistent fungicide: chemical used to kill fungi fungus: any of a major group of saprophytic and parasitic lower plants that lack chlorophyll and include molds , rusts and mushrooms, among others g: gram \" Gia Hui \": a variety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka giant plantains : tall plantains which produce more than 38 fo liage leaves before flowering glomerule : proluberance on the rachis of a bunch glyphosate: a herbicide gramuron : a herbicide hand: a cluster of fingers borne on the same glomeru le HCH: an insecticide hectare: area of land 100 m by 100 m herbicide: chemical used in killing weeds hermaphrodite flowers: interm ediate or neutral flowers which persist on the bunch but do not develop into fruit high mat: the upper portion of the corm grows o'ut of the soil , exposing a considerable area of root-bearing tissue Horn plantains: plantains with an incomplete inflorescence at maturity. This type has . few hands consistin g of few but very large fingers, no hermaphrodite flowers and no male bud imazalil: a fungicide imidazole: a fungicide inflorescence: a floral axis with clusters of flowers insecticide : chemical used in killing insects intermediate flowers: see hermaphrodile flowers in vitro plant : plant produced from a meristem and CU ltivated temporarily in a laboratory isazophos: a nematicide isofenphos : an insecticide lanceolated: tapering to a point at the top and sometimes at the base leaf sheath : the lower part of the leaf which forms the pseudostem of the plantain plant legume: a plant which fixes nitrogen from the atmosphe re by interaction with bacteria m: meter maiden sucker: a large sucker with foliage leaves male bud: the big purple termin al protuberance of the plantain bunch male flowers: flowers which are found in the male bud manure: organic mulch from animal origin; e.g. poultry manure mat: corm with suckers; stool meristem: growing tip which is found on the corm medium plantains: plantains producing between 32 and 38 fo liage leaves before flowering methylthiophanate: a fung icide micronutrient: nutrient needed in ve ry small amounts for good plant deve lopment microorganism: an organism of microscopic size ; e.g . fungus , bacterium mm: millimeter morphology: form , structure mother plant : a plantain plant with a bunch mulch: organic matter of plant origin used to . cove r soi l and improve ferti lity Musa: genus name of bananas which includes dessert bananas, cooking bananas and plantains, and their wi ld re latives . Mycosphaerel/a fijiensis: wind-borne fungus causing black sigatoka disease nematicide: chernical used in ki lling nematodes nematode: minute parasitic worm which damages plant rools neutral flowers: see hermaphrod ite flowers no-till farming : farming without soi l disturbance nuarim' ol: a fungicide \"Nzizi \" : a vari ety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka ovary: the basal portion of the flower which develops into a fruit in female flowe rs, but not in hermaphrodite and male flowe rs paraquat: a herbi cide peduncle: see rachis peeper: a small sucker emerg ing from the so il pegging: using pegs to mark a field or planting holes ground split application : the application of identical amounts of a substance (e.g. ferti lizer) at regular intervals stem borer: see banana weevil stool : see mat sucker : a shoot from the main plant which can develop into a bearing plant sword sucker: a large peeper with lanceolated leaves thinning : the process of eliminating all but one sucke r to avo id competition tip-over : entire corm with the roots comes out 0f the ground ton : 1000 kilograms topsoil : soil at the top or on the surface of the fie ld which is usually darker and richer in nutrients than the bottom soil underneath it triadimefon : a fungicide triadimenol : a fungicide triazole: a fungicide tridemorph : a fungicide uprooting: see tip-over waterlogging: when water remains on the fie ld after rain; this is caused by bad drainage ","tokenCount":"5614"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5e931184488ba73f61454e4675b8bc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31146eb3-1977-41ad-b55f-4e5f1931ddd6/retrieve","id":"-1186890384"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cceec56e-f191-4148-af45-024d114bc577","pagecount":"1","content":"• Women's diet is one of the immediate determinants of maternal and child nutrition• Examine dietary intake of women with children <2 years of age • Examine inequity in dietary intake by wealth status • Assess the role of food or cash transfers in maternal diet diversity• Data came from a phone survey of 6,227 women in six states of India. • Dietary intake was assessed using the diet quality questionnaire which was then recategorized to calculate score for food diversity, consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, and minimum diet diversity (MDD) for women. • Inequity in dietary intake was examined using wealth quintiles • Association between food and cash transfer on maternal diet was examined using multivariate regression analysis controlling for maternal, child, households' factors and state fixed effects.pf the women achieved MDD• The suboptimal diet and inequity in food consumption requires concerted actions to improve diet and narrowing of equity gaps. • More efforts are required to increase the coverage of already existing cash transfer schemes in India.• Consumption of meat, poultry and fish was lowest, 17% ","tokenCount":"179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82803fb438e6b3f3e34c30ec360a83bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cef05914-3e93-4df5-9abd-d38511539eae/retrieve","id":"1742539241"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"811a5665-9b42-45e0-a2d1-00aa2540cd75","pagecount":"42","content":"La Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) agradece a los comités municipales, a las asociaciones de productores, industrias, comercializadoras, entidades de educación, organizaciones no gubernamentales, agencias de cooperación internacional, centros de investigación, y demás actores públicos y privados que hacen parte o apoyan al gremio cacaotero del Caquetá, por su participación en la construcción del presente plan de acción que hace parte de la \"Estrategia para la sostenibilidad de la cadena de cacao en Caquetá: ruta hacia la acción climática y la construcción de paz\".El presente documento es el resultado de un trabajo participativo que deja de manifiesto la voluntad y el compromiso de los actores regionales en la búsqueda de una agricultura sostenible para la Amazonia colombiana. De este modo, este plan de acción se fundamenta en la proposición concertada de objetivos y acciones estratégicas que buscan contribuir al cierre de brechas de competitividad de la cadena y, a su vez, resaltar la importancia del cultivo del cacao en el posconflicto, como una alternativa que favorece la recuperación y conservación de los bosques en plantaciones agroforestales.La construcción de este documento fue financiada por el proyecto 18_III_106_COL_M_Estrategias productivas sostenibles, \"Implementando sistemas productivos sostenibles agrícolas y pecuarios para simultáneamente alcanzar la conservación de los bosques para la mitigación del cambio climático (REDD+) y la construcción de la paz en Colombia\", que forma parte de la Iniciativa Climática Internacional (IKI) y las iniciativas de investigación de CGIAR \"Sistemas de Innovación Agroalimentaria Resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe (AgriLAC Resiliente)\" y \"Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+)\". El Ministerio Federal del Medio Ambiente, Conservación de la Naturaleza y Seguridad Nuclear (BMU, por sus siglas en alemán) apoyó esta iniciativa sobre la base de una decisión adoptada por el Bundestag alemán.Como resultado del trabajo colaborativo entre el proyecto \"Implementando sistemas productivos sostenibles agrícolas y pecuarios para simultáneamente alcanzar la conservación de los bosques para la mitigación del cambio climático (REDD+) y la construcción de la paz en Colombia\", en adelante proyecto SLUS, y las iniciativas de investigación de CGIAR \"Sistemas de Innovación Agroalimentaria Resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe (AgriLAC Resiliente)\" y \"Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+)\", fue posible trabajar con los actores de la cadena del cacao del Caquetá en la estructuración de una estrategia sectorial con enfoque de sostenibilidad. Este proceso contó con la participación de 114 personas, entre ellas representantes del sector productivo, proveedores de insumos agrícolas, industrias procesadoras, comercializadores, entidades de investigación y prestadores de diversos servicios de apoyo al subsector cacaotero de la región y del país.El presente plan de acción hace parte del documento denominado \"Estrategia para la sostenibilidad de la cadena de cacao en Caquetá: ruta hacia la acción climática y la construcción de paz\", disponible en el repositorio de CGIAR. El propósito de este subdocumento es proporcionar una herramienta que facilite los ejercicios de planificación y seguimiento de las actividades planteadas por el conjunto de actores que se integran en el encadenamiento del cacao en el Departamento. De esta manera, se busca apoyar la continua construcción de una hoja de ruta, que pretende articular los intereses institucionales e individuales en la persecución de objetivos y metas comunes para abordar los actuales desafíos de la sostenibilidad.Es relevante enunciar que la estructura del plan de acción responde a la necesidad de trabajar en el cierre de brechas que alejan a la cadena del cacao del Caquetá de una competencia sostenible a nivel de región y de país. Asimismo, se enmarca en lo ordenado por la Ley 811 de 2003 para las organizaciones de cadena en lo que respecta a incluir en la planificación una visión conjunta y la formulación de estrategias para: (1) mejorar la productividad y competitividad, (2) vincular productores y empresarios al desarrollo de mercados, (3) desarrollar alianzas estratégicas, (4) fomentar el cuidado de los recursos naturales, (5) contribuir a la formación de recursos humanos, (6) promover la investigación y el desarrollo tecnológico, (7) mejorar el flujo de información y (8) reducir los costos de transacción entre eslabones.Con lo anterior, el plan de acción integra pilares de la sostenibilidad social, ambiental y económica. En lo que respecta a lo ambiental, tanto la estrategia como el plan de acción se orientan a la reducción de emisiones asociadas al uso del suelo, la conservación de los bosques y la restauración de paisajes degradados. Por último, pero no menos importante, se espera que, a través del desarrollo de acciones conjuntas, la sociedad cacaotera continúe trabajando por la construcción de paz en las zonas rurales afectadas por el conflicto armado a través del denominado cultivo de la paz. El planteamiento de una estrategia sectorial parte del diagnóstico del estado del arte de una cadena productiva, así como de la identificación de sus cuellos de botella y oportunidades de mejora, para planear acciones dirigidas a aumentar la competitividad y sostenibilidad. Esta ruta de planificación participativa requiere establecer una visión integradora que le permita a los actores proyectar el estado deseado de la cadena en un determinado período de tiempo. Para el caso de la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá, los actores establecieron la siguiente declaración de visión, con el propósito de alcanzarla en un lapso de 10 años:En 2032, el Caquetá habrá logrado incrementar las áreas establecidas con el cultivo de cacao -principalmente en sistemas agroforestales SAF -así como su productividad y la calidad del grano. Este logro se deberá al esfuerzo institucional y de los actores de la cadena de valor, para impulsar procesos de extensión rural, crear capacidades locales a través de escuelas de formación, adaptar buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA), emplear materiales vegetales nativos o mejorados acoplados al territorio, gestionar proyectos de fomento productivo, impulsar la investigación y consolidar una cultura cacaotera.El cultivo del cacao se afirmará como una alternativa viable para la economía agrícola departamental, a la vez que habrá permitido promover la conservación y el aprovechamiento sustentable de los ecosistemas, y recuperar áreas y posturas degradadas para alcanzar la cero deforestación. Además, el cacao caqueteño será referente en el mercado nacional, habrá logrado ingresar de forma competente a mercados diferenciados e internacionales, y potenciará el desarrollo de la agroindustria cacaotera local.Es relevante enunciar que esta meta estratégica incorpora elementos de la visión 2030 establecida por los actores de la cadena en 2017, en el marco de la iniciativa Visión Amazonía del Gobierno de Colombia. No obstante, durante el proceso de su revisión participativa, se consideró importante agregar nuevos elementos y alinearla con la visión 2040 para el desarrollo agropecuario rural del Caquetá, la cual se cita a continuación:En el año 2040, el departamento del Caquetá será un territorio con arraigo e identidad amazónica, que consolida sus procesos de ordenamiento y fundamenta su desarrollo rural sobre cadenas de valor de bienes y servicios que garantizan el manejo, conservación y restauración de nuestros biomas, propiciando el aprovechamiento sustentable de los recursos naturales y oportunidades atractivas y viables que contribuyan al buen vivir de los pobladores rurales y su permanencia en el campo. (FAO & ADR, 2021, p. 115).En Colombia, la Ley 811 de 2003 establece los lineamientos para la inscripción y reconocimiento de las organizaciones de cadena del sector agropecuario, forestal, acuícola y pesquero ante el MinAgricultura. En respuesta a lo decretado en la norma, los actores de la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá han establecido los siguientes objetivos estratégicos para cada uno de los nueve aspectos especificados por el Congreso de la República (2003) (Tabla 1).Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Desarrollo del mercado de bienes y factores de la cadena Generar capacidades locales para la búsqueda, ingreso y permanencia competitiva de la región en escenarios del mercado nacional e internacional.Disminución de los costos de transacción entre los distintos agentes de la cadena Buscar la optimización de las inversiones e ingresos de los cacaoteros en el desarrollo de modelos productivos sostenibles.Establecer alianzas institucionales que logren sinergias en recursos técnicos, humanos y financieros para el beneficio de los actores de la cadena.Coordinar la estructura de medios que faciliten la comunicación y transferencia de conocimientos entre los actores de la cadena, así como la generación de información actualizada para el subsector cacaotero.Estructurar programas que potencien la participación e inclusión de pequeños productores, mujeres, jóvenes rurales y emprendedores en la cadena productiva.Fomentar la protección de los ecosistemas donde se cultiva cacao, el uso sostenible del suelo y las prácticas sustentables del manejo del cultivo.Formación de recursos humanos Desarrollar fortalezas empresariales, técnicas y comerciales en los productores y en las organizaciones que los agremian.Impulsar el desarrollo de investigaciones y proyectos que permitan el progreso tecnológico del cultivo y la caracterización de especies nativas.Tabla 1. Objetivos estratégicos de la cadena de cacao en el Caquetá en cumplimiento de la Ley 811 de 2003 (Artículo 1).Tras definir la visión de la cadena de cacao en el Caquetá y determinar los objetivos estratégicos alineados a los nueve puntos mandatorios por la Ley 811 de 2003, se realizaron jornadas de trabajo con integrantes del comité departamental para analizar los cuellos de botella de la cadena en cada eslabón, proponer estrategias, plantear actividades que contribuyan al cierre de brechas y fijar metas. Este proceso concertado resultó en la formulación de un plan de acción (Tabla 2 a Tabla 10), el cual se presenta subdividido en función de las líneas estratégicas establecidas por mandato en la norma enunciada. Cabe mencionar que cada una de las estrategias expuestas fue articulada con el objetivo estratégico que guarda mayor relación a su alcance y propósito; sin embargo, las actividades pueden relacionarse con uno o más de los resultados esperados.Tabla 2. Plan de acción para la línea estratégica 1 -Mejora de la productividad y competitividad.Objetivo: Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Deficiencia en la calidad del material vegetal ofertado.Fortalecer el manejo fitosanitario del material vegetal y la capacidad instalada de la oferta local.Registro de viveros y jardines clonales que proveen material vegetal.Número de viveros y jardines clonales registrados ante el ICA.Cuatro (4) viveros y cuatro (4) jardines clonales registrados ante el ICA.Validar y liberar clones adaptados a las condiciones propias de la región y a la adversidad del cambio climático.Número de clones validados y liberados.Tres (3) clones validados y liberados.Formación de productores en manejo de material vegetal.Porcentaje de productores formados.Formación de al menos el 50% de los productores de los comités municipales. Cinco (5) tecnologías desarrolladas, validadas y transferidas.Producción y poscosecha Estructurar y poner en marcha un proceso de aprendizaje con criterios unificados de extensión rural.Número de procesos de aprendizaje diseñados y en marcha.Un (1) plan de aprendizaje con enfoque de extensión diseñado y en marcha. Inadecuado manejo agronómico del cultivo de cacao.Promover el aprendizaje de técnicas de manejo productivo y la adopción de BPA tanto de capacitadores como de los cacaoteros.Capacitar y certificar competencias de los productores de cacao.Porcentaje de productores capacitados y con certificación de competencias.Al menos el 50% de los productores participan de procesos de capacitación.20% de los productores asociados a los comités certificados en competencias.• ACAMAFRUT • SENA • UNIAMAZONIAEl inadecuado manejo poscosecha en las unidades productivas impacta en la calidad del grano de cacao.Evaluar modelos de beneficio a partir de los parámetros que influyen en la calidad del grano.Identificar los principales factores de poscosecha que influyen en la calidad del grano.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los modelos de beneficio y de los factores que afectan la calidad del grano.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los modelos de beneficio y de los factores que afectan la calidad del grano.Producción y poscosecha Definir y proponer un modelo piloto de beneficio para la región.Validar la adopción de sistemas de secado tecnificados y apropiados a las condiciones climáticas de la región (p. ej., secado a gas, eléctrico).Número de sistemas de secado validados.Un (1) sistema de secado funcional adecuado a la capacidad de acopio y las condiciones de la región.Un (1) manual de operación para sistemas de secado.Objetivo: Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Débil cultura cacaotera asociada a la baja vocación agrícola del Departamento.Promover el desarrollo de proyectos de investigación social con el objetivo de impulsar el desarrollo de la comunidad cacaotera.Identificar y documentar los factores que inciden en el desarrollo de la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los aspectos que afectan la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los aspectos que afectan la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Falta de recursos necesarios para la prestación del servicio de extensión agropecuaria (entre ellos, infraestructura y equipos de técnicos y profesionales).Apoyar la gestión de recursos para mejorar la cobertura y continuidad del servicio de asistencia técnica y extensión rural a los cacaoteros.Gestionar recursos del Sistema General de Regalías (SGR) y de cooperación internacional para la atención de productores de cacao a través del servicio de extensión rural.Número de productores de cacao que han recibido asistencia técnica.2.000 usuarios atendidos. Objetivo: Generar capacidades locales para la búsqueda, ingreso y permanencia competitiva de la región en escenarios del mercado nacional e internacional.Alta intermediación en el proceso comercial e informalidad en las negociaciones.Buscar oportunidades de mercado para los diferentes tipos y calidad de cacao que se cultivan en el Departamento.Realizar acuerdos comerciales con compradores que ofrezcan precios rentables para el productor.Número de acuerdos comerciales establecidos y en marcha, entre comités y compradores.13 acuerdos, al menos un (1) acuerdo comercial por comité.Bajo nivel de conocimiento de las oportunidades de mercado.Incrementar la participación del grano de cacao del Caquetá en mercados diferenciales.A través de la marca regional.Realizar un foro departamental, con actores externos, sobre estrategias de diferenciación en el mercado de cacao sostenible.Número de foros departamentales por año.Un (1) foro departamental anual. Objetivo: Coordinar la estructura de medios que faciliten la comunicación y transferencia de conocimientos entre los actores de la cadena, así como la generación de información actualizada para el subsector cacaotero.Carencia de cifras validadas para el subsector cacaotero.Garantizar la actualización y socialización periódica de las estadísticas relacionadas con la cadena productiva del cacao del Caquetá.Caracterizar a los productores y realizar un censo cacaotero en el Caquetá; con el fin de identificar el número de productores, área de siembra, área cosechada, proyecciones de producción, edades de cultivos, asocios, entre otros.Un (1) censo cacaotero actualizado respecto a la caracterización de los productores.Un (1) censo cacaotero actualizado según la caracterización de los productores.• ACAMAFRUTActualizar cada año.Crear una plataforma regional en la que se encuentren documentos y estadísticas de relevancia para la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá.Un (1) repositorio de información regional administrado por el comité departamental.Un (1) repositorio de información regional administrado por el comité departamental.Falta de unificación de los criterios divulgados por parte de técnicos y profesionales.Realizar procesos de gestión documental para facilitar la transferencia de información entre los actores de la cadena.Construcción de un manual para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao con enfoque territorial.Un (1) manual técnico para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao.Un (1) manual técnico para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao.Tabla 6. Plan de acción para la línea estratégica 5 -Mejora de la información entre los agentes de la cadena. Un (1) piloto con tres (3) establecimientos educativos.Pocos emprendimientos e iniciativas de agroindustria para el procesamiento del cacao de la región.Fomentar la agroindustria del cacao como una iniciativa de emprendimiento.Establecer acuerdos con instituciones, empresas y expertos, para el desarrollo de capacidades en la transformación del cacao.Número de acuerdos establecidos.Al menos cinco (5) acuerdos que beneficien a seis (6) agroindustrias.Ejecutar programas de fortalecimiento a la agroindustria cacaotera departamental. La participación de la mujer en los procesos de toma de decisiones es minoritaria.Promover el desarrollo de proyectos productivos y empresariales con enfoque de género.Ejecutar un proyecto que involucre la participación de mujeres en temas de siembra, transformación y comercialización del cacao.Porcentaje de mujeres de los comités que participan de proyectos en la cadena del cacao. 80% de las mujeres de los comités han participado en al menos un (1) proyecto. Objetivo: Fomentar la protección de los ecosistemas donde se cultiva cacao, el uso sostenible del suelo y las prácticas sustentables del manejo del cultivo.Baja adopción de los sistemas de producción adaptados a las condiciones de la región y al cambio climático.Fomentar la implementación de prácticas sustentables durante el establecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo del cacao.Identificar las prácticas sostenibles más adecuadas a las condiciones del Departamento y que den respuesta a los requisitos del mercado.Un (1) estudio de identificación de prácticas sostenibles en función de las condiciones del Caquetá.Un (1) estudio de identificación de prácticas sostenibles en función de las condiciones del Caquetá.Producción y poscosecha Modelar los impactos potenciales de la variabilidad y el cambio climático sobre el cultivo del cacao.Un (1) estudio de impactos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el cultivo de cacao.Un (1) estudio de impactos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el cultivo de cacao.Desarrollo del cultivo de cacao en zonas no aptas.Contribuir al fomento del uso sostenible del suelo en el Departamento.Establecer lineamientos de política pública para el fomento del cultivo de cacao en zonas aptas.Número de documentos de política pública departamental.Un (1) documento técnico y un (1) acto administrativo aprobado por la Asamblea Departamental, para establecer un lineamiento de política pública. Puesta en marcha de procesos continuos de fortalecimiento de capacidades organizacionales.Número de procesos de fortalecimiento organizacional en marcha.Porcentaje de comités con capacidades organizacionales fortalecidas.Un (1) plan de formación en marcha en el marco del PDEA.80% de los comités con capacidades fortalecidas.Fortalecer las unidades de negocio de los comités o de las asociaciones de productores de cacao.Número de organizaciones con unidades de negocio adicional.Cuatro (4) comités con unidades de negocio adicionales.• ACAMAFRUT • Red Nacional CacaoteraDébil estructura comercial de los comités.Crear capacidades comerciales en las juntas directivas de los comités.Poner en marcha un programa de formación comercial que incluya encuentros, talleres, capacitaciones, entre otras.Número de juntas directivas que participan de programas de formación comercial.13 juntas directivas que participen de un programa de formación comercial.• ACAMAFRUT Desde la perspectiva ambiental, la línea estratégica denominada \"Manejo de recursos naturales y medio ambiente\" comprende, en su objetivo y actividades de planificación, la identificación de prácticas sostenibles para el establecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo en función de las condiciones edafoclimáticas del Caquetá. Esta consideración incluye la evaluación de los posibles impactos del cambio climático sobre la producción del grano y viceversa, con el fin de valorar alternativas de adaptación y mitigación además de las proyecciones del subsector.Asimismo, busca mitigar impactos negativos de la instalación de cultivos en zonas de baja aptitud, mediante la gestión ambiental del suelo y la influencia en las políticas locales. Por último, comprende procesos de reforestación con el fin de mejorar la estructura arbórea a la vez que se ejerce una actividad agrícola sustentable. Cabe agregar que, en una menor proporción, la sostenibilidad ambiental de la actividad productiva también se encuentra relacionada con actividades de las líneas estratégicas 1 y 5 del plan de acción (Figura 1).Figura 1. Actividades del plan de acción relacionadas con la promoción de prácticas sostenibles en el cultivo del cacao.Pilares de la sostenibilidad ¿Qué buscan las prácticas agrícolas sostenibles?Uso eficiente de los recursos naturales Mejora de la productividad y competitividadReducción del impacto de la agricultura en el medio ambienteValidación y liberación de clones adaptados al cambio climático. Procesos de aprendizaje en BPA y transferencia tecnológica. Gestión de asistencia técnica y extensión rural.Mejora de información entre los agentes de la cadenaManual para manejo sustentable del cultivo con enfoque territorial. . Paquetes tecnológicos con prácticas de sostenibilidad ambiental por tipo de sistema productivo.Manejo de recursos naturales y medio ambiente ","tokenCount":"3270"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"240e757f704d95e01c1b8c0355aba755","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8b68aa0f-6fc6-4412-9e71-aa59dae8d761/content","id":"919798461"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6bac0002-2f64-45a3-a493-3c5eaab9b2af","pagecount":"8","content":"Stem borers are major insect pests of maize in Uganda. A study was conducted in 2014-2016 to assess the performance of Bt hybrids expressing Cry1Ab (event MON810) against the two major stem borer species in Ugandathe African stem borer (Busseola fusca) and the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus) -under artificial infestation. The study comprised 14 non-commercialized hybrids, including seven pairs of Bt and non-Bt hybrids (isolines), three non-Bt commercial hybrids and a conventional stem borer resistant check. All stem borer damage parameters (leaf damage, number of internodes tunneled and tunnel length) were generally significantly lower in Bt hybrids than in their isolines, the conventionally resistant hybrid, and local commercial hybrids. Mean yields were significantly higher by 29.4-80.5% in the Bt hybrids than in the other three categories of non-Bt hybrids. This study demonstrated that Bt maize expressing Cry1Ab protects against leaf damage and can limit entry of stem borers into the stems of maize plants, resulting in higher yield than in the non-transgenic hybrids. Thus, Bt maize has potential to contribute to the overall management package of stem borers in Uganda.Stem borers are some of the main insect pests of maize in Uganda. The four major stem borer species are the spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe), the African stem borer Busseola fusca (Fuller), the sugarcane borer Eldana saccharina (Walker), and the pink stem borer Sesamia calamistis (Hampson). Busseola fusca and C. partellus are the two most widely distributed and dominant species in Uganda (Matama-Kauma et al., 2007;Molo et al., 2014). The larvae of stem borers feed on the plant whorl and tunnel stems leading to the death of growing shoots (Ampofo et, 1986). In Kenya, stem borers were reported to cause losses ranging from 10 to 100% (De Groote et al., 2002;Ong'amo et al., 2006;Seshu Reddy, 1990). Furthermore, in Kenya, total losses to stem borers were valued at USD 25 and USD 59.8 million in 1999 and 2000, respectively (De Groote et al., 2002). In Uganda, yield losses due to stem borers were estimated at 23.5% in 2015 (Wamatsembe et al., 2017). Stem borer damage on maize ears predisposes the grain to pre-harvest infestations by storage insect pests and mycotoxins (Njeru et al., 2020;Opoku et al., 2019). Mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, pose a serious health threat to humans and livestock and are associated with liver cancer, stunted growth in children, and immune disorders (Wu, 2014); these health risks make aflatoxin-contaminated maize grain unsuitable for food and feed.Cropping system, chemical, cultural, biological, and host plant resistance are used to control stem borers in maize (Khan et al., 1997;Ndemah et al., 2007;Schulthess et al., 1997). The push-pull technology is one of the cropping systems that are effective in controlling stem borers. However, it is poorly adopted by smallholder farmers because it is knowledge-and labor-intensive. In addition, limited availability and high cost of Desmodium seed, a key component of the technology, limits its uptake (Mukebezi, 2008). Spraying with insecticides only protects against early infestations, but not against stem borers feeding inside the ears and stems (Jotwani, 1983). In addition, insecticide use is not cost-effective in smallholder systems and may expose farmers to health and environmental risks. Biological control agents of stem borers have been introduced and released into farmers' fields but they take long to establish and only provide partial control (Bonhof et al., 1997;Bruce et al., 2009;Schulthess et al., 1997;Zhou et al., 2001). Many farmers have therefore resorted to using insecticides or not controlling stem borers at all. Although host plant resistance is safe and averts the need for farmers to purchase and apply insecticides, not a single stem borer resistant maize variety has been released and commercialized in Uganda, despite the existence of conventional stemborer resistant maize germplasm (CIMMYT, 1993;KEPHIS, 2022). In Kenya, 13 stem borer tolerant/resistant varieties have so far been released (KEPHIS, 2022).Transgenic plants expressing toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with resistance to different groups of insects have been developed by genetically engineering (Koziel et al., 1993;Vaeck et al., 1988). Transgenic Bt maize can help to control several species of Lepidopteran stem borers, e.g. Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Magg et al., 2001), S. calamistis (Van Den Berg and Van Wyk, 2007), Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefèbvre) (Farinós et al., 2011), B. fusca and C. partellus (Tefera et al., 2016;Tende et al., 2010). The Bt toxin Cry1Ab included in event MON810 was deregulated and commercialized in the United States in 1996. It has also been approved for importation and cultivation in many countries in Latin America, Asia, and Europe (ISAAA, 2017). Farmers in South Africa started growing MON810 maize hybrids in 1998 (Kruger et al., 2012), and later Bt11 (also Cry1Ab) and MON89034 (Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab2) were approved for control of stem borers in 2003and 2010, respectively (De Buck et al., 2016). In Egypt, MON810 was approved for cultivation in 2008 (Sawahel, 2008). To date, Bt maize has not been approved for commercial use in Uganda.No studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of Bt maize in controlling stem borers in Uganda, yet the expression and efficacy of Cry1Ab protein can vary with environmental conditions and farming systems/practice (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007;Székács et al., 2010;Trtikova et al., 2015). There are also known Cry1Ab resistant strains of B. fusca in South Africa (Campagne et al., 2013). The present study was conducted for three seasons under the supervision of the Uganda National Biosafety Committee (NBC) to generate empirical information to inform decision making on application for approval of Bt maize cultivation in Uganda. The performance of the Bt maize event MON810 in controlling two stem borer species (C. partellus and B. fusca) under artificial infestation was evaluated in confined field trials (CFTs) using different maize genotypes.The experiments were conducted in confined field trials (CFTs) following the national guidelines (UNCST, 2006). One CFT site was located at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Namulonge, Wakiso district (0.525931, 32.622453), and the other in Mubuku irrigation and settlement scheme in Kasese district (0.20845, 30.12483) NaCRRI oversees maize research in Uganda and was, therefore, chosen because of the existing technical and physical resources, including a well-developed CFT village required for the study. The Institute is 27 km north of Kampala, on the Kampala-Gayaza-Zirobwe road. The rainfall pattern at NaCRRI is bi-modal with peaks in April and October. Average rainfall ranges from 900 mm to 1,200 mm per annum.Mubuku irrigation scheme in Kasese was chosen because it hosts one of the largest and oldest CFT sites in the country and has a welldeveloped irrigation system for off-season planting. Mubuku lies at an altitude of about 1,007 m asl, with a mean annual temperature and rainfall of 27.8 • C and 750 mm, respectively.Genotypes in the field trials included seven Bt hybrids (maize hybrids with event MON810 expressing insecticidal Cry1Ab protein) and seven of their corresponding non-transgenic near-isogenic hybrids (isolines). The isolines are non-GM hybrids from inbred lines with genetic background identical to those of their corresponding GM lines. Three commercial non-transgenic maize varieties sourced from seed companies (East African Seeds, Farm Input Care Centre and Nalweyo Seed Company) in Kampala and a conventionally bred B. fusca and C. partellus resistant hybrid from CIMMYT (Munyiri et al., 2013) were also used (Table 1). The Bt hybrids and isolines were sourced from Monsanto Company (now Bayer).The experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2016. Chilo partellus trials were planted at NaCRRI on January 6, 2014and December 19, 2014and harvested on May 25, 2014and May 11, 2015,  Hybrid 14 -Isoline more abundant in the western mid altitude farmlands and Semeliki flats (Kasese) and Lake Victoria Crescent (Wakiso), respectively (Molo et al., 2014), and the presence of well-developed CFTs. In order to provide temporal isolation, the planting times were chosen to coincide with a period when most other maize crops in the vicinity were almost mature. This, in addition to implementing spatial isolation, was meant to avoid pollen exchange between Bt and non-Bt maize. The trials were planted in an alpha lattice experimental design, nine entries by two blocks, with four replications. There were two-row plots per entry. Two seeds were planted per hill in a row of 5 m length and thinned to one seedling per hill at two weeks after emergence. This made a total of 21 plants per row. The inter-and intra-row plant spacing was 75 cm and 25 cm, respectively, giving a population of 53,333 plants ha‾ 1 . Standard rates of fertilizers were applied (125 kg N and 125 kg P 2 O 5 ha‾ 1 ). Top dressing was done using urea in two splits. Supplemental irrigation was applied when needed. The fields were kept weed-free by hand weeding. The non-infested plants in each row were protected with Bulldock® 25 EC (Beta-cyfluthrin), but data were not collected from the sprayed plants.The rearing of C. partellus and B. fusca followed methods of Tefera et al. (2016). The stem borers were reared in an insectary at NaCRRI from field-collected populations of the stem borers. To ensure that neonates were alive at the time of infestation, both eggs and larvae were handled carefully to ensure maximal survival. The eggs were collected, surface sterilized using formaldehyde, and dried on filter paper as described by Tefera et al. (2016). The collected eggs were then kept under room temperature (26 ± 2 • C) for 4-5 days to develop into the blackhead stage. The eggs were then monitored for 1-2 days, within which period they hatched and were used for infestation. Where the number of neonates was low, further development of the emerged neonates was delayed by subjecting them to a temperature of 4 • C until enough neonates were recovered for infestation.Five plants, from the second to sixth plant in each row (10 plants per plot), were infested with 10 neonates of the target stemborer species (C. partellus at NaCRRI and B. fusca in Kasese), starting at about three weeks after the emergence of maize plants and repeated at weekly intervals. A total of three infestations was used for C. partellus. For the B. fusca experiment, the infestation was done four times because the required number of neonates could not be obtained; infestations used for B. fusca were 10, 3, 6 and 10 neonates per plant for the first, second, third and fourth infestations, respectively.A camel-hair brush was used to transfer the neonates into the young maize whorls. Only active neonates were used to infest the maize plants between 8:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. to avoid exposing the neonates to harsh sunny conditions, which could lead to desiccation. The neonates were placed directly into the cooler and concealed maize whorls.Data on stem borer damage were collected on the leaves, internodes and stems (tunnel length) of maize. Leaf damage by stem borers was assessed by scoring each infested plant on a scale of 1-9 (where 1 = no visible damage and 9 = completely damaged) (Tefera et al., 2011). Scores of leaf damage were taken three times fortnightly beginning at two weeks after infestation. At harvest, the 10 infested plants were stripped off the leaves and assessed for stem damage. The number of stem borer exit holes per plant and the number of tunneled internodes were counted and recorded. The stalks were then split open to record the tunnel length, the number of larvae and number of pupae.To determine grain yield, only the infested plants (10 plants per plot) were harvested. The ears from the harvested plants were weighed separately and their respective moisture content was determined from a sample of grain. The yield was then converted to grain yield per hectare, assuming 80% shelling percentage and adjusted for moisture content at 13.5% using the formula below:Dry grain weight (kg) = Field weight* (100 − % Field MC) 86.5Where MC = Moisture content.The means of the different data parameters were calculated for each experimental unit in Microsoft Excel. Before analysis, all data were checked for the assumption of normality and homogeneity of variance using GenStat (International, n.d.). The number of exit holes and internodes tunneled, as well as tunnel lengths, were not normally distributed and were, therefore, transformed using square root transformation since they all had several zero counts and measurements. All data were analyzed using ANOVA, with contrasts for pairwise comparison between Bt and their non-Bt isolines. Similarly, we used ANOVA with contrasts for comparing the Bt hybrids, non-Bt Isolines, resistant check, and commercial checks. The means were compared using multiple comparison tests using Fisher's LSD method. All statistical analyses were done using GenStat V12.1.3338 (International, n.d.). Untransformed data are presented in the results.There were significant differences between Bt-and isolines in leaf damage in both seasons for C. partellus (Table 2). Mean leaf damage scores were significantly lower in all Bt hybrids when compared with their isolines. Mean leaf damage ranged from 1 to 1.4 in Bt hybrids and from 4.6 (entry 10) to 6.1 (entry 14) in isolines. Similar trends were observed for B. fusca in leaf damage for both Bt-and isolines (Table 2). Busseola fusca leaf damaged score ranged from 1.7 to 1.9 in Bt hybrids, and from 3 to 3.5 in isolines. The number of exit holes followed as similar pattern as leaf damage, being significantly lower in all Bt hybrids 1.9 ± 0.10a Hybrid 10 -Isoline 4.6 ± 0.46b 5.5 ± 0.17b 5.1 ± 0.28b 3.2 ± 0.24b Hybrid 11 -MON810 1.0 ± 0.02a 1.0 ± 0.03a 1.0 ± 0.02a 1.9 ± 0.08a Hybrid 12 -Isoline 4.9 ± 0.21b 5.5 ± 0.29b 5. Entries with odd numbers have Bt genes and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.than in the isolines in the two C. partellus plantings, and in six of the seven Bt/isoline combinations (Table 3). Hybrids 8 and 12 recorded the highest exit holes in both seasons of infestation with C. partellus. Similarly, significant differences were observed in number of internodes tunneled (Table 4) and tunnel length (Table 5). Most of the Bt hybrids were highly resistant to tunneling caused by C. partellus in both seasons. There were, however, longer tunnels recorded in B. fusca infested plants (hybrids 4, 8, 10, 14) than in C. partellus infested plants (Table 5). For grain yield, there were significant differences between Bt-hybrids and isolines under both C. partellus and B. fusca infestation (Table 6). All Bt hybrids had greater yields than isolines in the C. partellus infested experiments. Among the C. partellus infested hybrids, hybrids 3, 5 and 7 had the highest yield (8.5-8.6 kg/ha) in the first season and hybrids 1, 3, 5, 7 and 13 had the highest yields (10.5-12 kg/ha) in the second season.In the B. fusca experiment, significant differences occured between the Bt and isoline pairs in grain yield only between Bt hybrid 13 (9.1 kg/ha) and isoline 14 (7.3 kg/ha). All the other comparisons between Bt and isolines in the B. fusca infested plants were not significantly different.There were significant differences between the four sets of hybrids (Bt hybrids, isolines, resistant check and commercial checks) in leaf damage, number of exit/entry holes, number of internodes tunneled, tunnel length and grain yield (Table 7). Bt maize had the lowest leaf damage, number of exit/entry holes, internodes tunneled and tunnel length followed by the resistant check, when infested with C. partellus and B. fusca. There were no significant differences between isolines and commercial checks in leaf damage and number of exit holes in all the three trials. However, the number of internodes tunneled were significantly lower in the isolines than in the commercial check in the second trial infested with C. partellus and the one infested with B. fusca. The length of tunnels was significantly lower in isolines than in commercial checks only in the first season of infestation with C. partellus. No significant differences were observed between the two in those other plantings. Bt hybrids had the highest yield followed by the resistant check in both seasons under C. partellus infestation; however, there were no differences in grain yield between Bt hybrids and their isolines under infestation with B. fusca.The number of different stages of both species that were recovered was not analyzed to test differences between treatments as the numbers were very low (Table 8). Chilo partellus larvae were recovered in both Bt maize (hybrid 9) and two isolines (hybrids 2 and 10) in the first season planting, and only isoline 10 in the second season. Chilo partellus pupae were recovered in Bt maize (hybrid 9) in the first season and isoline 10 in the second season. Busseola fusca larvae were recovered only in the stems of isolines 4, 8, 12 and 14.In this study, we demonstrated the efficacy of MON810 maize in controlling C. partellus and B. fusca on maize in Uganda. The Bt maize (that was artificially infested with C. partellus and B. fusca showed significantly lower leaf damage, fewer exit holes, and reduced tunneling by stem borers when compared with the corresponding isolines,The number of exit holes (±SEM) of Bt hybrids and their non-Bt isolines following artificial infestation with Chilo partellus at Namulonge, Wakiso, and with Busseola fusca at Mubuku, Kasese, Uganda from 2014 to 2016 crop season.Mean Entries with odd numbers have the Bt genes and those with even numbers do not have the Bt genes (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different at P < 0.05 using t-tests. Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.conventional resistant check, and the commercial non-transgenic reference maize varieties. As a result, the Bt maize produced significantly higher grain yield (29.4-80.5%) than the isolines and the commercial non-transgenic maize varieties. Chilo partellus larvae and pupae were recovered in isoline, resistant check, and commercial varieties, but in only one of the Bt hybrids, while B. fusca larvae and pupae were only recovered in the resistant check, isolines, and commercial varieties. Reduced stem borer damage (leaf damage, number of exit holes, and tunnel lengths) in the Bt maize as compared to the non-transgenics showed and confirmed that transgenic Bt maize (MON810) is effective against C. partellus and B. fusca. Similar results were reported in Kenya for B. fusca in the laboratory and C. partellus in CFT trials (Tefera et al., 2016;Tende et al., 2010).The high expression of Bt protein in maize leaves as reported by Nguyen and Jehle (2007) explains the success of Bt maize in managing maize stem borers. The use of different promoters in commercial Bt maize hybrids leads to differential expression of toxins in different plant tissues (Dutton et al., 2003;Van Wyk et al., 2009). The maize events MON810 and Bt11 contain the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35 S promoter, which results in toxin expression in the leaves, stem, roots, and kernels at all maize growth stages (EPA, 2001). If differences occur in Bt-toxin concentrations within a plant, control success may be compromised as is the case when larvae feed on silks and kernels with a lower toxin concentration, and later enter the stems as 3rd instars. This may lead to development up to the adult stage. Indeed, van Rensburg (2001) reported successful control of B. fusca during the vegetative stages because of high protein expression, and survival of B. fusca 1st instar larvae when fed on maize silks with lower toxin levels.Grain yields realized from MON810 Bt hybrids were higher than those of the isolines, resistant check and commercial varieties. This shows that protection from stemborer damage resulted into higher grain yield. In addition to guarding against grain yield losses, MON810 Bt maize can also limit field infections by Aspergillus spp., thereby reducing aflatoxin contamination and contributing to food safety and reducing risks caused by aflatoxins (Schulthess et al., 2002;Sétamou et al., 1998).A similar study by Kocourek and Stará (2018) on the European corn borer in the Czech Republic reported reduced damage and incidence of Fusarium species on Bt maize (MON810), with a corresponding yield advantage of 15% over the non-Bt maize. Bt crops can be a useful component of integrated pest management (IPM) systems to protect the crop from targeted pests (Mabubu et al., 2016). We observed some cases of exit holes and stem tunneling in Bt maize hybrids infested with either species of stem borers, and one pupa in Bt maize infested with C. partellus, implying incomplete control of C. partellus by Bt maize. This may be because of a window of opportunity for successful feeding and survival of later generation neonates and second instar larvae on silks, which were postulated to have a reduced concentration of the Bt toxin (van Rensburg, 2001). We also observed higher leaf damage and tunneling by B. fusca in Bt hybrids suggesting that B. fusca requires higher amount of Bt plant tissue to cause mortality. The more extensive tunneling also implies that the pest can easily develop to adulthood once it gains entry into the stem, especially that Bt maize plants were reported to have lower concentration of the toxins in the stalk (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007). The lack of complete control is not consistent with previous studies that showed 100% mortality of C. partellus (Singh et al., 2005;van Rensburg, 1998). This may be explained by observations of other authors who reported that the expression of the protein varies with plant parts, variety, environmental Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different. Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.conditions, season, and phenology of the plant (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007;Székács et al., 2010;Trtikova et al., 2015). Adopting Bt maize could help farmers in Uganda to guard against grain yield losses associated with stem borers, thereby improving household food security, incomes, and livelihoods. Growing Bt maize would also eliminate/reduce the costs associated with the use of insecticides, and lessen the dangers to humans and the environment as a result of pesticide misuse/overuse. Sustainable use of Bt maize will, however, depend on the development of products that offer season-long protection against different strains of the pests, regulatory compliance, and product stewardship, among other requirements. Product stewardship means that everyone involved in the product life cycleinnovators, scientists, and technology usersis accountable for ensuring that the products are safe and socially and environmentally responsible (Mbabazi et al., 2020).The incursion by fall armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda) (JE Smith) in Africa (Goergen et al., 2016;Otim et al., 2018) is a new challenge on the continent. Originally, known to be restricted to the Americas, the FAW has become the most damaging pest of maize in Uganda, and many sub-Saharan Africa countries (Day et al., 2017;FAO, 2018). Though event MON810 offers partial control for FAW (Prasanna et al., 2018), it was not developed to control this pest. The use of maize with MON810 should be considered primarily as a tool to manage stem borers, with additional Bt events needed for more effective control of both stem borers and FAW. This should be accompanied by a comprehensive insecticide resistance management strategy that forms an integral part of Bt deployment. The evolution of dominant resistance to Cry1Ab protein in B. fusca in South Africa (Campagne et al., 2013) calls for robust resistance management strategies, including the use of integrated pest management (Campagne et al., 2013) and the use of other Bt toxins in maize with different receptors in the target insects.Our study has demonstrated that Bt maize (MON810) with Cry1Ab was effective in controlling C. partellus and B. fusca in our trials in Uganda in 2014-2016. Bt maize protected against leaf damage and limited stem borer entry into maize stems, resulting in 29.4-80.5% higher yield than in the non-transgenic hybrids. Bt maize has potential to help Ugandan maize farmers produce high-quality grain with greater yield and less reliance on insecticides, and thus enhancing food security. This study was conducted in only two locations because of regulatory requirements. Additional studies may be needed in multiple locations to capture representation from different populations of the stem borers. Such studies could be part of the testing in national performance trials for variety registration and commercialization.Michael H. Otim: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing original draft, writingreview and editingvisualization, supervision, project administration; Grace Abalo: Investigation; methodology, writingreview and editing; Godfrey Asea: Conceptualization, investigation, writing-review and editing, supervision, project administration, fund acquisition; Julius Pyton Sserumaga: Investigation, formal analysis, writingreview and editing; Simon Alibu: Investigation, writingreview and editing; Stella Adumo: Investigation, data curation, supervision, writingreview and editing; Jane Alupo: Investigation, data curation, supervision, writingreview and editing. Stephen Ochen: Investigation, data curation, Means within a column for each trial followed by different letters are significantly different.  ","tokenCount":"4153"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63032112a7cd3c9c0cbfa1615c998c09","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e23dd7ea-101b-458a-8e70-e0804fd58951/retrieve","id":"501760507"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"36a1e3d6-af9b-414f-a432-0f7b5b98b536","pagecount":"49","content":"Acknowledgements vi       This synthesis report captures the strategies devised, procedures adopted and processes followed to enhance the uptake of best-bet technologies by the smallholder farmers in the laboratory countries of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock (CRP Livestock). The report also documents the outcomes achieved by the end of 2021 and synthesizes the lessons learned during identification, selection, scaling assessment, and adoption of technologies. Considering the importance of livestock for the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in developing countries, the CRP Livestock was introduced in four selected countries (Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Ethiopia) as a laboratory to test the best-bet technology bundles and strategies for their uptake. Based on the learnings from the previous phase of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish (CRP Livestock and Fish), the identified best-bet technologies were bundled after stakeholders' consultation to enhance the buy-in by the key livestock value chain actors and ensure their sustainable adoption. Similarly, a systematic approach was used for scaling assessment of the rolled out best-bet technologies in the project countries.The annual countries' reports, published articles of the program, workshops' reports, presentations, and other unpublished material are reviewed, consulted, and analysed to synthesize information. The areas covered include the types of technology bundles introduced in the four country projects, processes adopted and challenges faced in the integration of intervention bundles and uptake, and contribution of technology bundles in improved productivity and livelihoods of the smallholder livestock producers and keepers in the project countries. The delivery mechanisms documented best practices, and lessons learned are collated, connected, and associated to derive the final consideration and way forward for the program partners, donors and researchers.Under the umbrella of CRP Livestock, different projects have been rolled out in the selected four countries. The project in Uganda introduced an integrated intervention package for improved productivity of pigs to enhance the incomes of the pig farmers. In Tanzania, the focus is on inclusive dairy development through enhanced uptake of technology by introducing institutional approaches that involve inclusive agribusiness models for the improved livelihood of smallholders. The 'Livestock-led interventions towards equitable livelihoods and improved environment' project seeks to stimulate the system transformation to empower highland farming communities through bundled livestock-based interventions in the northwest highlands of Vietnam. The 'SmaRT-Small Ruminant value chain transformation in Ethiopia' project, on the other hand, intends to improve the livelihoods of women and men farmers in Ethiopia through consolidation, testing, and promotion of SmaRT pack at the producer level while facilitating equitable access to input supplies and services through community action and political support. Detailed information on the Ethiopia project are not included in this report. Lessons learned on the overall approach across the four priority countries can be found in Kruijssen et al. (2021).Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation progress remained slower than that was planned in all four countries. The four countries have completed the selection of best-bet technology bundles. The scaling assessment of some of the introduced technologies has also been conducted in Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. The rolled-out technology bundle in Uganda consists of community-based artificial insemination (AI), heat-tolerant forages and feed/food crops, certification business model for small-scale commercial feed producers, strengthening of multi-stakeholder platforms and a PigSmart 1 extension platform for promoting best practices and tools in pig farming support that includes disease reporting and drought herd health management, suitable pig feeding, balanced least-cost feed rations using breeds and breeding, management of heat stress, and record-keeping to assess the financial performance of the Feed Calculator application, training and enterprise. In Tanzania, the best-bet technologies included in the intervention bundle are a digital platform for e-extension services, forage options, agent network model for extension services, Rume8 tool to specify total mixed rations, manure management, East Coast fever vaccine, and genomic evaluation of dairy cattle based on a digital herd recording platform. Similarly, communitybased AI of pigs and cattle, herd health management, feed and feed baskets, inclusive market arrangements, and African swine fever vaccination are made part of the technology bundle introduced in Vietnam. The characterization and selection process of best-bet technologies in Ethiopia included community-based breeding programs, certified breeding sires, fertility improving package for sheep and goat production, vaccination and treatment calendar for common small ruminant (SR) diseases, integrated herd health management, health certification of breeding rams, business-oriented sheep fattening, forage options, marketing models, multi-stakeholder platforms for collective actions, and policy advocacy.During the first year of implementation, the uptake of best-bet technologies has been witnessed in Uganda and Tanzania. With the private sector engagement, the establishment of a digital ecosystem in the form of the PigSmart platform in Uganda and a digital platform for e-extension and marketing in Tanzania have been widely adapted by the livestock value chain actors in both countries. Assessments and experimentation during the projects in Uganda and Tanzania have helped to determine the existing state of feed and forages and explore the potential economical feed and forage options. Based on the experimentation, improved and locally-grown forages and feed options significantly reduced the cost of feeding in both countries. Additionally, the training and certification of small-scale feed producers in Uganda has succeeded to standardize the quality of commercial feed production and induced more farmers to use certified commercial feed from certified small-scale feed producers.The substantial involvement of the public and private sectors has been instrumental in the implementation of various components of integrated packages in the project countries. The partnerships have been established with the digital solution service providers, academia, and government agencies for the implementation and sustainability of the interventions introduced by the projects. Despite slow progress in the implementation of projects, there are important successes and lessons from Uganda and Tanzania that could be worthwhile for Vietnam and Ethiopia to successfully implement technologies and enhance their uptake.The establishment of digital platforms in Uganda and Tanzania for advisory and e-extension services has been successful in terms of interest and adoption by the key value chain actors. Similarly, forage options for dairy and pigs, and community-based AI interventions in both of these countries are being widely adopted and becoming beneficial to the smallholder farmers.1 IntroductionEnhancing uptake of technology by the smallholder livestock farmers is a promising strategy to improve livestock productivity and the livelihoods of the producers. The interventions that involve empowered and appropriately skilled agri-entrepreneurs offer auspicious avenues for enhanced uptake of technologies and services, thus leading to increased productivity, competitiveness, and income of the smallholder producers. In contrast to a single intervention, an integrated bundle of interventions -that focus on the underlying determinants of technology uptake and equitable access -predominantly is likely to result in the improved and sustained livelihoods of the livestock producers. The smallholder livestock producers often lack access to essential knowledge, inputs and services to increase productivity and profitability. Therefore, the uptake of technology by the farmers has always remained a prolonged process. Multiple risks, including disease, climate, and market shocks, can limit their ability and willingness to innovate. Simultaneously, gender disparities hold women back, while young people's involvement in livestock enterprises gets constrained by lack of access to capital (land, finance) and cultural norms. Thus, the uptake of technology in livestock farming remains limited due to financial constraints (Mtimet et al. 2018) encountered by smallholders and keepers.Generally, livestock productivity is low in developing countries, with yield gaps of up to 300%. Livestock's low productivity is due to inadequate and poor-quality feed supply, high incidence of diseases leading to increased morbidity and mortality. The absence of organized smallholders breeding programs, lack of technical and business capacity of the producers, and a dearth of research and extension support systems further add to the list of impeding factors to productivity in the developing countries.Owing to a lack of capacity, skills and infrastructure for breeding programs in the national system, women and men farmers face enormous challenges in accessing genetically improved livestock in developing countries. The smallholder producers have limited knowledge about the best practices in husbandry, disease prevention and control. Also, they have inadequate access to quality veterinary inputs and advisory services. Low and seasonal variability of feed supply is another challenge the farmers face. Additionally, the producers and livestock extension agents lack knowledge on feed formulation and feed quality, so the available feed resources are utilized ineffectively. Usually, the functional feed quality control mechanism does not exist, which results in low trust of the produces in commercial feeds.Market inefficiencies exacerbate the livestock value chains that further limit the farmers' access to technology adoption benefits, thereby, disincentivizing its uptake. Input and output markets' inefficiencies impede the farmers' access to affordable quality feeds and profitable markets. Poor value chain performance is attributed to the lack of innovative institutional arrangements to enhance poor farmers' access to input and marketing services. Linkages between farmers and other value chain actors are mostly weak leading to inadequate access to quality inputs, credits, technical knowledge, and business skills. The small-scale livestock keepers and producers face enormous challenges to exploit the growing markets. The evidence shows that overcoming market inefficiencies provides incentives to them to adopt promising technologies in livestock farming, value addition and marketing.Livestock and their products play essential roles in contributing to most households' incomes in developing countries. The livestock assets are usually a way to save and insure against multiple risks to the families. The households predominantly invest these assets in off-farm enterprises to diversify and multiply livelihood opportunities. The income generated from various sources is often used for children's education, contributing to generational escape from poverty. Simultaneously, the demand for meat, milk, and eggs is increasing rapidly, especially in developing countries. Over half a billion small-scale producers, the majority of them women, currently meet most of the demand for most animal commodities. Also, women's role is instrumental in keeping and marketing a small stock of livestock that is usually their most important income source to feed their families. Additionally, livestock value chains also provide employment opportunities for input suppliers, service providers, and traders.Work under the CRP Livestock spans across Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South and Central America. The learnings from the CRP Livestock proposed a focus on locally-adapted farming systems, which respond more flexibly to variations in landscape, climate, and socio-economic and political conditions. Such locally-oriented integrated interventions have the added benefit of providing local solutions to the farming community's issues. Therefore, the four priority countriesthree African (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda) and one Asian (Vietnam) -were selected as a laboratory for CRP interventions to demonstrate the integration of technological and institutional innovations that enhance technology uptake and scaling amongst the smallholder livestock producers.This synthesis report reviews the types of technology bundles introduced in the four-country projects, processes adopted, and challenges faced in the integration of intervention bundles and uptake, and their contribution to improved productivity and the livelihoods of the smallholder livestock producers and keepers in the project countries. The delivery mechanisms, best practices, and lessons learned -documented by the project teams in each country -are collated, connected, and associated to derive the final consideration and way forward for the program partners, donors and researchers. This report is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction and objectives of the synthesis report. The methodology and data collection for collating, organizing, and synthesising the information from secondary and primary sources are given in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is the core part of the report that summarizes the results achieved by the countries so far. Chapter 4 is devoted to synthesizing the critical lessons learned through highlighting successes and areas of improvement. Based on the lessons learned, the final consideration and way forward are given in Chapter 5.Based on the principle that the evidence collated and constructed systematically improves decision-making and ultimately outcomes, this report summarizes the approaches, methods, progress, and results attained by the four countries' projects. It synthesizes the lessons learned relevant to the need of program partners, decision makers and researchers. The report also proposes final consideration and a way forward for the policymakers, donors and researchers to decide what methodological approaches and concerns need to be implemented for appropriately and adequately addressing the question of technology uptake by the smallholder livestock farmers.The specific objectives of the report are:• To review, extract, and collate information related to progress, achievements, challenges, practices, and lessons documented by the project countries in the form of reports, presentations, research articles, assessments, and evaluations.• To organize and structure the collated information under areas/themes of consideration and connect to analyse and synthesize the information for the program partners, stakeholders, researcher and decision makers.• To propose final consideration and a way forward for equitable and adequate uptake of the technology by the smallholder farmers that could lead to sustainable and improved livelihoods.2 Methodology and data collectionThis synthesis report is constructed using secondary data in the form of the published and unpublished substance of the four countries' projects. Similar to the baseline and midline reports of the four country projects; progress reports periodically submitted by the project country teams; glimpses of stakeholders' reflections documented in various stakeholders' workshops; presentations made by the implementing partners on the activities performed and outputs delivered; published research articles in peer-reviewed research journals; and other unpublished documents related to the program were used as sources.The links of the papers, reports and presentations consulted are given in the body of the report and listed in the references.Besides the secondary data specific to the projects, other relevant literature was also reviewed to analyse the practices, challenges, and learnings of the four-country projects in the broader context.The synthesis report was constructed by reviewing the documents of four country projects. A systematic approach was used to collate, extract, organize and connect information related to the specific areas, themes and concepts. For that purpose, a synthesis matrix was constructed with columns labelled 'countries', and each row labelled 'important area', 'concept', and 'theme' that recurred across all or most of the countries (see Table 1). The desired information from the source documents was then extracted and added against the relevant themes in the synthesis matrix to relate them across the countries/cases. Except for the goal and objectives of the individual country project, all other themes were connected and linked from different aspects across the countries to discern meaningful information and synthesize the successes and areas of improvement. Under the technological characterization theme, the process, considerations, and challenges were looked at across the countries. Similarly, the rationale and composition aspects of intervention bundles provided the basis for cross-country connectivity and association. Simultaneously, the implementation mechanisms were associated with the perspectives of delivery approaches, partners, and support mechanisms put in place by the country projects. The connectivity and relationship in the projects' progress were looked at from the efficiency and efficacy perspectives in attaining the intended outputs and outcomes. The practices adopted by the country projects were associated with the stage, context, and evolving situations. The final considerations and way forward were derived from the synthesized lessons learned for decision makers, donors, and other relevant stakeholders.This report is synthesized from the information contained in the form of reports, brochures, presentations, and papers. It has the following limitations.• This report is primarily built on the annual country progress reports (2020) of the four CRP priority countries and their projects proposals.• The annual reports of the CRP countries were incomplete either due to delay in the kick-off of the projects in those countries or implementation constrained due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the countries were either at the stage of finalization of technology bundles or had just rolled out the best-bet technologies at pilot sites.• Very minimal evidence on outcomes-related indicators has been documented by the countries so far.• The majority of the work so far has been done on the preparation and identification of the intervention packages in most of the priority countries. Therefore, the synthesis of the lessons learned at the level of implementation and results was only partially covered in this report.The livestock subsector is one of Uganda's important growth sectors with prospects of improving the livelihoods of the rural poor. The small livestock (such as chickens, goats and pigs) are particularly important 'insurance' and 'living banks' for poor households, which they sell to enable them to cope with shocks and stressors (Scott et al. 2016) and to meet planned financial needs such as school fees obligations. The sector contributes 17% of agriculture value-added and 4.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) (UBOS 2018).Of the livestock subsectors, the piggery especially presents a tremendous opportunity for rural households to generate income and to move out of poverty because it requires low capital investment and gives relatively quick and attractive returns. Therefore, more poor women and men are taking on pig rearing because of a guaranteed market. The growth in pig production has been on an upward trend since 2008 with a population of 3.2 -4.4 million pigs in 2019 (UBOS 2020). The pig sector is largely dominated by smallholders, who collectively constitute more than 90% of the agricultural system. The smallholders rank pig and crop production as a highly important source of livelihoods and guaranteed income-generators for women. The average productivity of pigs in Uganda is poor compared to the other regions of the world, but not different from that of East Africa and Africa as a whole. The estimated average carcass weight is 60 kg/animal in Uganda compared to 47.9kg/ animal in East Africa and 48.8 kg/animal in Africa (Twine and Njehu 2020).Pig-keeping in Uganda is categorized into three basic management systems; i) intensive, ii) semi-intensive, and iii) extensive (smallscale subsistence). In the intensive system, the pigs are kept housed all-time in a small place where they are provided with feed, water, and protection from extreme weather (Mutetikka 2009;Pezo and Waiswa 2012). This system is characterized by higher demand for labour and other inputs, but higher farm outputs are vital for commercial production. The intensive system accounts for a small proportion (less than 10%) of the pig production. This management system requires significant capital, management skills, and aggressive marketing arrangements. However, this system allows easy selection of breeding stock, faster growth of pigs, effective control of diseases/internal parasites, good hygiene in the pens, and eventually minimum mortality rate of piglets and pigs.In a semi-intensive management system, the pigs are partly housed and partly kept outdoors on pasture (Mutetikka 2009). Though this pig management system is rare, it can be found in areas where pork is highly remunerative. Limited space in this system provides opportunities to improve feeding, growth rate, disease control of heat stress and enhancement of mating to have betterquality animals (Pezo and Waiswa 2012). The extensive pig management system is the simplest and most common system in Uganda (almost 90% of the pigs are kept this way). Pigs are kept outside on the pasture all the time. This system is often practised by the very poor who invest in low-cost/low-output farming systems.The pig value chain is not well regulated in Uganda and typically operates under informal market arrangements. There are several intermediaries between the production and consumption nodes, which tend to lengthen the chain. There are generally no standards to adhere to in the value chain (Ouma et al. 2017). The value chain is characterized by the limited availability of end-market information on prices and there is a lack of transparency in transactions performed. Aimed at improving pigs' productivity and incomes of the value chain actors, the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock rolled out the 'Improving pig productivity and incomes through environmentally sustainable and gender-inclusive integrated intervention package' project in the country, with the following specific objectives:• Piloting and evaluating innovative market arrangements at the level of pig aggregators to strengthen the market linkage between them and pig farmers, and link the farmers to input and service providers.• Implementing and evaluating an integrated package for improving pig productivity and performance comprising of pig herd health practices, reproductive management, improved genetics, and better feeding for the farmers participating in the market arrangements.The theory of change (ToC) for the project is intended to address the problem of low income for pig value chain actors in Uganda through market arrangements and the introduction of integrated technology packages. The entry points for the project interventions are considered to be producers, input service providers and aggregators. Development of a well-designed digital ecosystem for agriculture, informed and trained value chain actors regarding innovative technology packages, available extension services for use and adoption of technologies, and the existence of required coordination amongst the value chain actors are set as short-medium term changes to be brought about by the project. The establishment of the systems, setting up of institutional arrangements, and uptake of technology packages by the value chain actors are some of the key mediumlong term changes to be brought about by the project. And the expected long-term changes are set to be business growth, increased market opportunities, and income of the value chain actors and farmers. Beginning in 2012, under the CRP Livestock and Fish, ILRI tested best-bet technology interventions to address specific pig value chain constraints in Uganda. The best-bet interventions then tested included feeding options, capacity building of the value chain actors, biosecurity control of African swine fever (ASF), and waste management. But the results showed limited uptake of the best-bet interventions due to financial constraints of the farmers to invest in them (Mtimet et al. 2018). The inefficiencies at input and output markets and limited access to veterinary services further disincentivized farmer uptake of these profitable technologies.The identified best-bet technological interventions, under the CRP Livestock and Fish, were first tested in small-scale pilots.Then the integrated technology packages were finalized for enhancing pigs' productivity and incomes of the pigs' aggregators.The technology packages covered health, genetics, feed and forages, livelihood, and environmental aspects of the pigs' production and value chain. The technology packages included:• Community-based artificial insemination for improved breeds of pigs.• Capacity building of pig farmers and other value chain actors in disease control.• Promotion of good animal husbandry through the utilization of PigSmart for disease reporting and advisory services.• Selection of heat-tolerant forages and feed/food crops or nutritious, affordable, and accessible feeds and forages for pigs' production.• Balanced least-cost rations.• Introduction of a certification business model for small-scale commercial feed producers to improve the feed quality.• Multi-stakeholder platforms for pigs' value chain at national and international levels and catalyzation of lower-level multistakeholder platforms (MSPs).The intervention packages were built on reducing the pigs environmental footprint through assessment of different packages of interventions in terms of water and land, competition with human food, and future climate change. The best-bet interventions were developed, tested, and evaluated on reduced environmental footprint through waste management, and adapting to heat stress.A systematic approach was applied to scaling individual technologies and the integrated package. The approach comprised of structured assessments of scaling suitability of individual technologies and integrated packages through scaling frameworks and implementation arrangements. That approach helped in the systematic navigation of the complexities involved in the implementation of the intervention package.The Impact at Scale program (I@S) assessed the scaling readiness (Sartas et al. 2020) and developed a scaling plan for the 'training and certification of small-scale feed producers' through holding a stakeholders' consultative workshop. Scaling readiness is a decision support system designed to support CGIAR projects and programs to improve the use of innovation at scale. I@S assessed the scaling-readiness (Sartas 2020) of two components a) 'Piloting and evaluating a training and certification business model to improve feed quality for small-scale commercial feed producers in Uganda,' and b) 'Marketing arrangement intervention.' The assessment covered intervention profiling, innovation profiling, innovation package profiling, and scaling strategy/plan. The intervention profiling described and assessed the characteristics of the component by giving the rationale, with a snapshot of facts and diagnosis. The innovation profiling explained the critical innovation component and assessed its characteristics in terms of its potential to achieve use at scale. The innovation package profiling highlighted all other innovations necessary to use the program at scale in a specific (Uganda) context and covered assessment of those other innovations. Finally, the scaling strategy brought all three together and provided a recommendation for improving the use of training and certification programs at scale in Uganda. Each step covered the rationale with a snapshot of the facts and concluded the diagnosis. The assessment concluded that improving the content of the training and certification program will not be sufficient to increase the use of the program at scale.However, the specific recommendations made by the assessment for the piloting and evaluating a training and certification business model to improve feed quality for small-scale commercial feed producers in Uganda were to:• Study the experience of 'feed certification implementation group' and establish a group to support with the same mandate.• Study the experiences of 'feed standard associations' in a similar context and prepare organizational establishment statements and business plans for new associations.• Share the plan of the implementation group with the partners and other stakeholders working in the feed sector.• Support testing of the PigSmart digital extension platform and its dissemination to the stakeholders working on an extension in the pig sector.• Create learning on quality and safety aspects of feed production training to make commercially viable and superior feed mixes.• Design a training curriculum based on the findings of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) analysis with a flexible scheduling and input-output approach.• Convert the conceptual model of combining training, certification, and licensing into an application model by detailing the plan.• Present the curriculum based on the findings of KAP with flexible scheduling to other components and initiatives working on the feed research and development.• Include a training curriculum as a commercial course in the Continuing Agricultural Education Centre (CAEC) of Makerere University.• Collaborate with other organizations or projects providing role-based training.The specific recommendations made by the assessment for the marketing arrangement intervention in Uganda were to:• Conduct desktop research on successful implementations of openly sharing market-related information in livestock value chains in East Africa.• Validate existing evidence-based logistical arrangement approaches in pig value chains and tailor them for use in Uganda at scale.• Validate existing effective hands-on-brokerage techniques in pig value chains and tailor them for implementing them at scale in Uganda.• Conduct desktop research on existing transportation best-practices in pig value chains and design a blueprint of how they can be implemented in Uganda.• Validate how existing pig health, weight and other price and quality-related inspection practices can perform in Ugandan pig value chains and design an application that combines the effective practices.The project developed and tested an environmentally sustainable and gender-inclusive integrated intervention package. The package contained innovative market arrangements at the pig market aggregators level to strengthen the market linkages between them and the pig farmers and link the farmers with input and service providers. Such market arrangements were made to incentivize the uptake of productivity-enhancing technologies, including herd health practices, reproductive management, improved genetics, and better feeding. This section covers the steps, strategies, and approaches taken and adopted by the project to ensure and enhance the uptake of profitable technologies by the smallholder farmers and other value chain actors.A scoping study was conducted to assess the existing business models utilized by the pig aggregators, input suppliers and service providers to further support the design of the intervention (Sebatta et al. 2020). The assessment explored the existing pig aggregator business model operating in the project area. The study findings note that the smallholder farmers mostly sell live pigs to holding units (abattoirs). The large farmers sell live pigs either directly to the holding units or to village middlemen who then sell to abattoirs. There also exists a typical pork aggregator/butchery model. Abattoirs sell fresh pork to butchers and consumers as fresh cuts. The abattoirs sell off-cuts to the traders. The smallholder farmers directly sell live pigs to pork joints (butcheries). While pork is directly sold to butcheries by the farmers, small and large abattoirs sell to butchery. The butcheries then sells fresh and fried pork to the ultimate consumers.The scoping study also profiled veterinary practitioners, and drug and feeds suppliers to the smallholder farmers. The study findings noted that the veterinarian had the least membership of associations and all the sampled veterinary stockists were serving the pigs. The proportion of the total drugs dispensed for various pig diseases by the stockists appeared mainly for African swine fever (82%), followed by worms (71%) and mange (53%). The main barriers that affected drug stockists' businesses were i) poor roads that delayed delivery of drugs, ii) high taxation and license fees that resulted in high cost of operation, and iii) unreliable energy supply that led to spoilage of drugs needing refrigeration. The assessment suggested i) ensure stable and reliable energy supply, ii) reduce energy tariffs for small businesses, iii) revise taxes levied on veterinary distributors, iv) organize veterinarians into associations, v) provide additional training in veterinary drug management and disease investigation, and vi) scrap off non-effective drugs.The study also documented that the feed processors/stockists involved in commercial feed production had adopted different innovations along with feed processing. The feed industry was providing technical advisory services in feed formulation, feed requirements for different livestock, feed storage, proper housing hygiene, proper feeding regimes, disease management, and bio-safety measures. Stakeholders also have strategized to cope with the changing market through maintaining the quality of the products and adapting to the prevailing market situation by introducing new innovative products in the market such as concentrates. The main constraints impeding the businesses of feed processors/stockists were related to policy issues, adulteration of feeds, inappropriate feed formulation resulting in poor-quality feeds, highly priced commercial feed ingredients (concentrates), price fluctuations, and competition with imported feeds. Therefore, the assessment suggested that the government enact a Feed Bill to regulate the feed industry, conduct content analysis of commercial compounded feeds and concentrates, regulate the export of maize, support traders to stock feed raw materials, set up ceiling price, give credit to farmers, and enter into contractual agreements with the farmers.A situation analysis study (Twine and Njehu 2020) assessed the conditions within which the pig value chain actors operate in Uganda and provided an overview of past trends, current status, and future directions in the pig value chain. The assessment also identified challenges being faced by the different value chain actors and the opportunities for improvement. The study witnessed the increasing demand and market for pork across all regions of the country and found a potential demand for pig meat in neighbouring countries such as South Sudan. But the dominance of subsistence, smallholder pig production systems, and lack of organized farmer groups to collectively access the extension services, inputs, and credits were identified as the limiting factors for large-scale and quality commercial production of pig meat in Uganda.Considering the findings of the scoping study and situation analysis, the project adopted a market system approach by supporting strong and more profitable linkages between pig aggregators (buyers) and pig producers. Those market arrangements strengthened the backward linkages with the inputs and services suppliers that incentivized the adoption of best-bet interventions. A service provider, Ultimate Business Strategies (UBS), was engaged in mentoring pig aggregators, input suppliers, and service providers in market arrangements and strengthening their entrepreneurial capacities. A training manual was developed for the value chain actors to be used for training on market system development. A series of training, coaching, and mentoring sessions were carried out with various value chain actors.Aimed at improving the pig market system through enhancing knowledge in the market system approach, a virtual six-day training on market system development for 19 CRP Livestock country staff and key partners was conducted by a private partner (UBS). UBS applied a mix of approaches while introducing the concept of market systems development and training 59 aggregators from Mukono and Masaka, and 24 feed and drug stockists from the same sites. To strengthen the entrepreneurial and business capacities of women-led businesses, a private sector partner (Enterprise Uganda) was contracted. The focus of the intervention predominantly remained on the capacity building of pig aggregators, feed, and drugs stockists. The interventions included customized and specialized entrepreneurship training, one-on-one and/or group mentoring, networking, and peer learning engagements. Moreover, the project trained 30 extension agents as trainers of trainers (ToT) on the use of the gross margin calculator for the small-scale farmers to understand their businesses.Poor management and husbandry practices increase the risk of transmission of highly infectious diseases such as ASF (Dione et al. 2020b). Poor biosecurity and breeding practices also contribute to disease transmission. The lack of functional livestock disease surveillance mechanisms in the country has compounded the problem of disease control. On disease control and modelling, a systematic review of the 'Status of research and gaps on respiratory diseases of swine in Africa' (Oba et al. 2020) highlighted knowledge and information gaps related to the epidemiologic and economic impact of various pathogens on pigs.The review revealed that limited research had been conducted in Africa on respiratory pathogens. No study was found looking at the economic impact of any of the pathogens on pig productivity in Africa. Similarly, the review further informed that the surveillance systems, specific to respiratory pathogens, were either weak or non-existent. Most of the national surveillance systems were found focusing on a single disease, such as ASF, instead of undertaking a more holistic approach to gauge the breadth of pig diseases and their impact to get better insights for targeting interventions. Limited investment in animal health was seen as alarming and needed to give attention to the control of diseases that affect productivity and threaten the livelihood of smallholder farmers.A disease transmission simulation model framework, developed in Vietnam, was adapted to tackle porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) in Lira District. Results were reported in a paper that was submitted for publication. A modelling analysis to assess the global incidence and prevalence trends of Taenia solium/porcine cysticercosis globally was carried out with a subset of Uganda dataset collected from Masaka and Lira districts to better understand the geographical heterogeneities in its transmission and support post-2020 World Health Organization (WHO) targets.Research related to single infectious diseases generated useful information and knowledge to characterize the pig health status (Dione et al. 2014;Ouma et al. 2015;Roesel et al. 2017;Dione et al. 2018). But the wider herd 'ecosystem' has health issues related to feeding strategies, co-infection, and reproductive management. Thus, herd health management (HHM) is a method to optimize health, welfare, and production in the herd. HHM does not focus on a single infectious disease, rather on general farm conditions such as feed strategies, biosecurity, general health, reproductive management, husbandry and management skills to ensure sustainable production and maximize profit. The project strengthened advisory services to the value chain actors (farmers, traders and butchers) on herd health and best practices in biosecurity with value chain actors. Information communication technology-based (ICT-based) dissemination of information to the actors and players involved in the pig value chain was used by the project. A publication on 'Assessment of gender perspective of pig husbandry and disease control among smallholder pig farmers in Uganda' was published in Agrigender (Dione et al. 2020a). The paper recommended measures to improve ASF control and better disease management.A training course was designed to equip the Uganda veterinarians (known as 'vet champions') in skills on HHM. Five vet champions received two weeks of intensive training at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden.The training course provided an opportunity for the vet champions to exchange knowledge and experiences with Swedish veterinarians and learn from them. After training, the vet champions provided support, training, and mentorship to fellow veterinarians in applying herd health principles at the farm level.The project developed an integrated training manual on herd health management and biosecurity for smallholder pig value chain actors. The manual informed the herd-health module of the PigSmart platform for dissemination of the messages for various value chain actors. A training module on prudent and efficient use of antibiotics was also developed. All the five animal health champions were trained on the module and then supported the smallholder value chain actors. SLU, together with pig herd health champions and Makerere University, developed a mixed on-site/remote training format for prudent and efficient use of antibiotics.Uganda lacks pig registration of known breeds that can allow pig keepers to select pig breeds of their preferences. The registration and certification of animal breeds, breeders, and breeding centres is yet to be put in place for pigs. Pig farmers, therefore, face significant constraints in the genetic improvement of their stocks. They have limited access to high-productivity pig breeds, information about high productivity traits, and there is inability to keep and record mating practices. Pig breed types are considered at the level of local, exotic, and cross-bred (Muhanguzi et al. 2012).The project introduced a community-based model for artificial insemination (AI) of pigs to support the uptake of improved breeds of pigs. For the implementation of the intervention (AI), collaboration was sought with the local partners for the capacity building of farmers on AI, and linkages were developed with the local service providers for AI services and semen supply. A survey of pigs' aggregators was administered to know their perceptions of the community-based AI approach.Comprehensive training materials on pig breeds and breeding were developed and tailored to the context of Uganda in four local languages (Marshall 2020). Online service providers delivered AI services and pieces of training to the farmers. In the era of global connectivity, the digital solutions/digital ecosystem was conceived as a better approach towards enhancing awareness, outreach, accessibility, and effectiveness of the best-bet interventions. An ecosystem of digital players was established in the form of the 'PigSmart' platform. Based on the assessment of the knowledge, attitude, practices (KAP), and needs of the pig value chain actors (Dione et al. 2020b), the best-bet interventions were designed and embedded in the PigSmart innovation, which provided multiple digital solutions to the growers, aggregators and other value chain actors of the pig value chain. Under the umbrella of that digital innovation, a 'feed calculator' was introduced through a mobile-based app to compute the least cost and balanced feed for livestock. Similarly, a 'gross margin calculator' was developed for the farmers to calculate input cost and output prices to promote the concept of farming as a business and bring efficiency in pig farming.While an EzyAgric application served as a hub of knowledge and an e-commerce platform for production, produce, marketing, and financial access of all the stakeholders involved in the pig value chain. PigSmart also provided a data-driven and inclusive platform to link the community-based cooperatives and individual farmers with the input suppliers and service providers.The engagement of the private sector companies in the PigSmart digital innovation was seen as a sustainable mechanism. The companies engaged included Single Spark Ltd. for a feed calculator mobile-based app, AgriTech Talk International for the gross margin calculator, Akorion Company Limited or EzyAgric for the digitized financial and market information bundle, and Vetline services Ltd for AI services.The small-scale commercial feed producers have dominated (75%) the production of compounded feeds in Uganda. But they have lacked the basic knowledge of feed ingredients, formulation, and production. The farmers, more often than not, complained about the poor and inconsistent quality, and high cost of such mixed feeds. Moreover, enforcement of rules and regulations in commercial feed production was almost non-existent. Therefore, training and certification of small-scale commercial feed producers' model was initiated by the project. The main purpose of the initiative was to improve feed quality, maximize feed utilization and grow markets of commercial feeds to support farmers in improving pig nutrition and get value for their money. The training and certification business model was piloted and evaluated through a collaboration with Makerere University, Lira University, MAAIF, Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), and feed companies (Lukuyu 2020). The model encompassed training courses and manuals on feed-formulation, mixing and feed safety. Best-practice protocols and guidelines were developed for small-scale feed production to put in place a quality assurance system (by bringing on board Reco Industries Ltd). The small-scale producers were selected and trained in feed formulation, production, and best practices. The baseline and end-line knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of small-scale feed producers and the quality of the feed produced were assessed during the training and certification intervention and the result was certification of trainees and catalysing of the formation of a feed manufacturers association for self-regulation.Under the capacity building interventions, 16 extension staff and other village agents were trained on the Feed Calculator app to formulate feed rations based on the local feed ingredients. Then, those agents supported farmers' groups in the formulation of quality feed rations for pigs. The previous studies note that the more commonly used feeds in Uganda include maize bran obtained from local millers, crop residues, kitchen waste, cut-and-carry green forages and farm weeds (Mutetikka 2009). The feed types used by the farmers vary depending on the season (Lule and Lukuyu 2017). In the rural areas, pig farmers mostly rely on sweet potato vines, maize bran, weeds, and cassava leaves to feed pigs in the dry season. Other feed types used in small amounts include home-mixed rations, swill, and cassava roots. In the urban areas, maize bran is more commonly used, constituting nearly half (45%) of the pig diets, followed by home-mixed rations, swill, and sweet potato peels.The project introduced the Feed Calculator app through the PigSmart digital platform in partnership with Single Spark Ltd (a private sector service provider). The service provider recruited, trained, and backstopped the farmers and feed producers on using the Feed Calculator app. Sixteen extension agents were trained on the Feed Calculator app for making feed rations. Those agents supported farmers, through groups, in the formulation of quality feeds for pigs. A total of 30 extension agents were trained as ToTs on the use of the gross margin calculator tool for the small-scale pig farmers to understand their pig businesses. Improved forages were promoted through farmer field schools, radio messages, and the distribution of extension messages through word of mouth. Also, business models for forage seed production were tested.Heat stress is a global issue constraining livestock production and potentially intensifying future climate change. When the cows and pigs get exposed to continuous heat stress, their bodies lose the ability to cool themselves effectively, resulting in lowered productivity, weakened immune systems, and, at times death. A journal article, 'A methodology for mapping current and future heat stress risk in pigs' (Mutua et al. 2020a) mapped heat stress risk and quantified the number of pigs exposed to heat stress using 18 global circulation models and projected impact in the 2050s. The results showed that more than 800,000 pigs would be affected by heat stress in Uganda in the future and provided evidence for policy formulation and resource allocations in the livestock sector of the country.The International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) conducted heat stress mapping for dairy, beef, pig, sheep, goat, and poultry across East Africa. The exercise identified hotspot areas that could significantly affect livestock production in the absence of adaptation and mitigation measures. In the light of the heat stress mapping study for dairy and pig, an adaptationplanning stakeholders' workshop identified the effects of the heat stress on pig production and value chain (Mutua et al. 2020b). The list of effects predominantly were change in the design of the structure, increase in disease prevalence, change in transportation pattern, and reduced volume of trade. The list of ongoing adaptation measures that the pig value chain actors used to take were the use of microorganisms as feeding methods, promotion of heat stress-tolerant breeds, transportation of animals during night-time, and increased establishment of pig market associations. To cope with and mitigate the listed effects of heat stress, the stakeholders suggested enhancing knowledge and information sharing among the pig value chain actors, catalysing smart innovations, and increasing investment and funding. They also emphasized conducting more research on animal welfare, tree species for pastures and silvopastoral systems, and climate-resilient livestock breeds and forages/pastures.As a part of multi-stakeholder learning series around livestock and climate change, a policy briefing workshop was organized in Kampala on 10 December 2020 (Mutua et al. 2020c). The 'Reducing climate-Induced heat stress in pigs in Uganda: Policy actions,' workshop was co-hosted by MAAI and MWE and attended by 59 participants (including 15 women). The briefing focused on heat stress in pigs and its anticipated adverse impacts on the pig sector in Uganda. The presented analysis of the historical climate data and simulation predicted a gradual shift towards severe heat stress conditions in most parts of the country. The pigs were found to be more vulnerable to heat stress because they do not have functional sweat glands. The heat stress distorts the pigs' feed intake, growth, and reproduction, thus making them more vulnerable to diseases. The research, therefore, suggested that the adaptation of smallholder pig production systems to heat stress needs to be a policy priority and recommended policy options for agricultural extension, national-and local-level policymakers, and development donors and organizations. The policy briefing workshop recommended coordinated national-and local-level policymaking, promotion of heat stress coping and adaptation measures at farm level, preparation of action plans at various stages of the value chain, close cooperation and information sharing between research and policy, and creation of an enabling environment for the farmers to adapt and mitigate heat stress in pigs.Involving MAAF, Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), and NaLIRRI, the project conducted a Comprehensive Livestock Environment Assessment for improved Nutrition, secured Environment, and sustainable Development (CLEANED) virtual training. In addition, a knowledge exchange and transfer consultation workshop on heat stress was held, which was attended by 30 participants from policy, research, the private sectors, and civil society. A technical training manual on the management of heat stress in pigs was compiled in partnership with Makerere University.• An inclusive market arrangement is put in place at the project sites that ensures forward linkages of pig producers with pig aggregators and backward linkages with input suppliers and service providers who are incentivized to adopt best-bet interventions. Moreover, the value chain actors, particularly pig aggregators, feed and drug stockists are trained on market system development and are skilled enough to expand and sustain profitable businesses. The outcomes include:a.Strengthened intra-and inter-actor relationships. The majority of the pig aggregators unanimously agreed on the need to foster new relationships with various value chain actors as well as amongst themselves to harness the opportunities within the various relationships. Most pig aggregators had weak relationships with farmers and consumers and almost non-existent relationships with the district local governments, vet service providers, and input suppliers. UBS identified the relationship gaps and identified and implemented intentional activities aimed to close the gaps. Several meetings were held between the aggregators and the pig farmers/pig farmer cooperatives to identify the needs and chart a way forward to address the needs including linkages with input and service providers.b. Improved market linkages. UBS supported pig farmers to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships with aggregators through engagements between the farmers and aggregators. It also fostered the emergence of relationships between aggregators, inputs dealers and pig farmers to incentivise the uptake of good-quality inputs and services through the farmer-aggregator-input service provider meetings.c. Increased uptake of improved business management practices. Pig aggregators and feed producers were coached and mentored. The individual aggregator business sessions were intended to improve the value chain actors' business management practices. This interested them to grow their businesses by being more customer-centric and also to consider possibilities of managing agent retail networks.d.Strengthened capacity of industry associations. UBS supported the institutionalization of industry associations to develop and enforce a code of conduct. Five associations have been supported to emerge.• The farmers are practising AI and benefiting from the AI service providers and semen suppliers. The outcomes are yet to be documented.• A digital ecosystem is established in the form of a PigSmart platform that is providing multiple digital solutions to the growers, aggregators, and other value chain actors. One of those digital solutions is a 'feed calculator app' that is being used by smallholder farmers and small-scale feed producers for the formulation of nutritious and balanced feed for livestock from the locally available cheap feed ingredients. The 'gross margin calculator app' is also being used by the farmers to calculate the gross margin of their farming business through feeding input cost data and output prices. This app has succeeded to promote the concept of farming as a business entity amongst the smallholder farmers. Moreover, all the value chain actors now have access to information regarding production, produce, marketing, and financing through an e-commerce platform in the shape of an EzyAgric app that is embedded in the digital ecosystem, the PigSmart. Altogether, introducing the digital solution to technical advisory services has strengthened the overall pig value chain system in the target areas. The aggregate demands of the farmers for input supplies and services have started to be delivered to the individual farmers and groups at competitive market rates by the quality-assured resources.• Training and certification of small-scale feed producers have standardized the quality of commercial feed production and have induced more farmers to start using certified commercial feeds from small-scale feed producers. The long-term results in the form of improved growth and productivity of pigs is likely to be achieved and documented soon.• The insights from the policy brief attracted high-level political participation from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), MWE, and the Office of the Prime Minister. The policy actors, international and national organizations gave comments for improving the brief, which will be updated soon.• The substantial involvement of public and private sector partners has been instrumental in the implementation of various components of the integrated package and has emerged as a sustainable mechanism. New partnerships have been established with digital solution service providers, capacity-building service providers, academia, and government functionaries for the implementation and sustainability of interventions introduced by the projects.• The scoping study and situation analysis of the pig value chain helped determine the existing mechanism for marketing of live pigs and pork; delivery of veterinary services, drugs and feeds to smallholder farmers; addressing barriers and challenges to the drug stockists, feed processors, and veterinary services providers; and the operational environment for pig value chain actors in Uganda. A scaling readiness approach was used to assess the scalability of best-bet technologiestraining and certification of small-scale feed producers. This evidence-based approach in setting up market arrangements guided targeted activities and actions that led to the development of profitable linkages between pig aggregators and pig producers. Similarly, a consultative approach in the assessment of scaling readiness of best-bet technologies, through stakeholders' workshops, helped to thoroughly review the pros and cons of the technologies' scale-up to address potential barriers in implementation and opportunities for the actors involved to maximize the benefits from the technology. The scaling readiness approach guided the relevant stakeholders towards ensuring the sustainability of the assessed technological interventions.• The digital platform (PigSmart) has proved to be beneficial for the farmers in balancing feed for pigs and running of better performing businesses. It also has been instrumental in enabling access to information and knowledge for the producers and other dairy value chain actors. The sustainability of such a platform has yet to be ensured after the withdrawal of project support. However, the engagement of the private sector in the development, troubleshooting, and operationalization of the digital platform has provided a good opportunity to find a mechanism that ensures that the current level of stakeholders' coordination and the financial viability of the digital innovation introduced by the project is sustained.Tanzania has the third largest livestock population in Africa, with about 30 million cattle. The livestock sector contributes about 7% to the national GDP. Though the sector contributes merely 1.5% to the national GDP, it is critical to the rural economy for being a source of income, employment, nutrition, and food security of more than 2.3 million people in the country. There are two main systems: improved dairy that comprises only 3% of the national herd yet produces 30% of the milk; and the traditional, or pre-commercial, livestock production system. Dominated by the smallholder farmers, the dairy sector in Tanzania struggles for a variety of reasons. The prevalence of poor management practices and seasonal fluctuations in the availability of forage and feed preclude many smallholder farmers from accessing affordable extension and veterinary services. The lack of high-quality inputs, such as parasite control, nutritious feed, vaccines, and AI, are at the heart of the problem.Given the dependence of the country on natural resources, the dairy sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. Although, climate change is a global phenomenon, dairy farming is a climate-sensitive economic sector. Drought is the most serious climate-change factor that affects feed and water availability, animal health, and in turn milk production. Usually in Tanzania, a dry season's decline in milk production exceeds 40% due to feeding scarcity. Thus, adaptation solutions in the form of policies, strategies, and plans are needed to cope with the ever-changing climate. Since a healthy economy and a healthy environment go hand-in-hand, both are needed for the survival and prosperity of the sector and populace.Commercialization of smallholder dairying in Tanzania was seen as a critical mechanism for improved productivity of smallholder livestock farmers and dairy development. The building of pre-commercial dairy market hubs (DMHs) and innovation platforms (IPs) around enterprising value chain actors, in the previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi were found to be promising entry points for creating and growing linkages among the value chain actors for improved access to market, inputs, and services. At the same time, sustained investment in the promotion of proven dairy technologies and innovations yielded significant results in Kenya and Rwanda, wherein dairy contributed around 6-8% of their national GDPs. Based on the previous experience, a project titled, 'Agri-entrepreneurship, technology uptake and inclusive dairy development in Tanzania' was designed to catalyse uptake of dairy technology packages through institutional approaches that involved inclusive agribusiness models for improved livelihoods of smallholders and environmental sustainability. Beyond the traditional value chain model, the project adopted a market-system approach that emphasized and upgraded the inclusive value chain for overall economic growth.The specific objectives of the project are:• Smallholder women and men farmers have reliable and consistent access to quality inputs and services to achieve high milk productivity efficiently.• Smallholder men and women farmers have access to inclusive, reliable, well-coordinated, and efficient dairy products' marketing arrangements with resultant improvement in household income and livelihoods.• Poor consumers have improved access to quality, safe, and nutritious dairy products at affordable prices, reflected by an increase in their per capita consumption of safe dairy products. An interactive and participatory approach was adopted in the identification and scaling of profitable dairy intervention packages. The identification process was initiated through consultation with the agri-entrepreneurs, national researchers, service providers, and delivery organizations in a workshop held in October 2019. With stakeholders' input, the basic structure and protocol for the characterization of two principal types of packages (delivery and enabling) were designed and developed. Each package essentially contained a technical product (intervention/innovation), institutional and delivery mechanisms, and a set of actions to grow the technical and business capacities of the target actors. The delivery packages integrated product, services, and technical know-how. Eventually, four dairy interventions and support mechanisms were identified that could be profitably delivered to the producers and value chain actors.The four technical products selected for the delivery packages included Brachiaria grass (or other forage options), manure management, East Coast fever (ECF) vaccine, and AI. The institutional arrangements and delivery mechanism for the delivery packages included capacity development of agri-entrepreneurs and agribusinesses that were supporting market access, safe products, and effective collective action. The package also included the establishment of institutional arrangements for digital platforms to be used for farmers' profiling and e-extension services for the smallholder producers. The enabling packages involved the change agents and partners to provide services to the agri-entrepreneurs and agribusinesses in the form of technical know-how, and business and soft skills that were necessary for the dairying to be a profitable business.Capacitated agri-entrepreneurs working through Agent Network Model, Dairy Farmer Assistant Model, and DMHs were conceived as the potential delivery mechanisms for enhancing uptake of demand-driven technology packages. The presence of partners, farmers with dairying potential, sustainable markets, processors, unmet demand, and conducive agro-ecological factors for dairying were considered in the selection of sites for the implementation of the project. The group of smallholder dairy producers as well as individual producers were targeted. Parallel assessments were planned to support the piloting and evaluation including the 'environmental assessment of selected packages', 'participatory system modelling', and 'scaling readiness'.  The Scaling Scan tool was used to formulate a realistic and responsible scaling ambition by identifying the challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed. Ten scaling ingredients 2 were used to evaluate each technical product at a 1 to 5 scale (where a high score means more confidence in reaching the ultimate objective). Three types of interventions, with relatively great potential for scaling, were identified in this order: AI, forages, and East Coast fever vaccine. Of the bottlenecks assessed on the scaling ingredients, 'finance' emerged at the top, followed by 'evidence and learning', 'leadership and management', and 'public sector governance', whereas the key strengths mentioned in order of importance were: 'technology/practice', 'awareness and demand' and 'knowledge and skills.' Key officials from the public and private sector partners reviewed the results of ex-ante modelling of environmental impacts and prioritized opportunities for scaling environmental management interventions in the dairy sector (Ngoteya et al. 2020a).For genomic evaluations of the animals, an index developed by the African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project allowed for the selection of animals to be used for breeding that had an improved rate of milk production with constant body weight.The project used the results from the genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV) for milk production and bodyweight of the animals, conducted under ADGG.The involvement of the private sector in key commodity value chains and the participation of smallholders in input markets was very limited in Tanzania. There were no efficient ways to promote rural commercialization as a key mechanism for improving dairy productivity and livestock-dependent livelihoods. Moreover, integration of scale-ready innovations to enhance their uptake by the smallholders was almost non-existent. In that backdrop, the project engaged empowered agrientrepreneurs as entry points for service provision and focal points for packaging of technologies. Strong business-oriented partnerships were built to enable skills training for youth and women, and delivery of bundled technologies to the targeted value chain actors and smallholder dairy farmers.The use of digital technologies in agriculture provides digital platforms to access information on needs and demands for services that support agricultural farming. The digital platforms link data on many farmers, crops, animals, and technologies to evaluate productive potential and set benchmarks for increased productivity. The CRP Livestock projects leveraged the ADGG digital platform for e-extension and maximizing market access. The users of the digital platform included feed suppliers, milk producers, AI service providers, and animal health service providers. The ADGG project developed an agile and scalable webbased data platform to collate and sort data obtained from the small-, medium-, and large-scale farmers by the performance recording agents (PRA)/livestock extension officers. The PRAs pay monthly visits to collect dairy productivity data and support farmers in the dairy management system. The PRAs relay the data to the ADGG data platform using tools developed on the ODK data platform. The collated data are verified, linked, and analysed through the ADGG platform and mirrored on the servers of the Dairy Performance Recording Center (DPRC). The feedback on animal productivity is then shared with farmers through one-on-one interaction or SMS messages facilitated by the i-Cow platform. The ADGG has delivered training and refreshers to PRAs on data collection using the ODK tool.Moreover, in collaboration with Farm.ink, two digital training courses were developed and digitized to turn the static course content into a fun and an engaging web app for dairy farmers on the Learn.ink platform. Training apps were developed for use in the training of the value chain actors and producers on calving management and milk hygiene. The apps were implemented through a digital marketing campaign. The assessment of the piloted web apps reported 9,937 users that went through digital training tools and attained an average score of 90% in the post-lesson quiz. The users rated digital training courses at 4.7/5 stars.Feed and feeding are the most important input for increased productivity of livestock. Therefore, access to good quality forages for dairy and beef animals is key. A review report on the forage seed system in the pilot sites of Tanzania (Ngunga and Mwendia 2020) highlighted the existence of a weak formal forage production system. The report further pointed out the limited involvement of the private sector for sustainability, while seed production of limited forage species was mainly carried out on public sector farms and in research institutes. Complete reliance on the public sector for seed availability and lack of awareness have constrained access to seed by the farmers. Therefore, the review report identified the inaccessibility of quality feed as a major factor that contributed to the low productivity of livestock in East Africa.Brachiaria grass has played a key role in transforming livestock sectors across the tropics, except in Africa. It is a native African grass that produces high amounts of quality biomass. It is adapted to drought and low fertility soils. Moreover, Brachiaria can be grown in all types of soils from 0-2,400 metres in altitude while requiring 800mm rainfall. It is also not susceptible to frost. From an environmental perspective, the Brachiaria grass sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide, protects soil erosion, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Empirical evidence (Ghimire et al. 2019) showed that the Brachiaria grass extended forage availability up to three dry months, increased milk production of cows between 15-40% c those fed on local forage and contributed to 50% more body weight gain of heifers fed on Brachiaria grass plus concentrate compared to those fed on Napier grass plus concentrate. Based on the reported evidence, a poster was published highlighting the benefits and opportunities for scaling up Brachiaria grass in the project areas. The poster pointed out the availability of products and hay-making technologies for the Brachiaria grass and the existence of demand for Brachiaria seed to convert that into an opportunity for women and youth to generate income with limited assets.Another assessment was conducted to seek forage options for the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Using 'Targeting Tools' -a web geographic information system (GIS) -the context-specific varieties were tested in three districts namely, Mufindi, Njombe and Rugwe with farmers' participatory approach. The tested forages included two Cenchrus purpureus (Syn. Pennisetum purpureum) cultivars, two Urochloa (Syn. Brachiaria) hybrids, and Chloris gayana. Where applicable, the grasses were intercropped with three forage legumes-Lablab purpureus, Stylosanthes guianensis and Desmodium intortum, while Tripsacum andersonii (Syn.Tripsa-cum laxum), a grass, was planted as a local check. The assessment observed clear differences amongst the three districts and treatments. Dry matter (DM) accumulation (t ha−1) in the districts, and across the various forage treatments was higher in Rugwe followed by Mufindi and Njombe. Most DM accumulation was by Napier grass intercropped with Lablab purpureus that was closely comparable to Chloris gayana-Desmodium intercrop (Mwendia et al. 2019).Sustainable dairy production systems need greater quantities of home-grown quality forages that can greatly reduce livestock production costs without compromising productivity. Therefore, the project evaluated the impact of improved Napier grass and maize stover-based diets on milk yield under smallholder conditions. The evaluation used 23 farms as experimental units and 24 lactating cows as replicates. The study findings noted that the Napier grass supplemented with bean haulms resulted in milk yields similar to those the Napier grass supplemented with concentrate feed. Thus, mixing Napier grass with legume crops' residues has the potential to increase milk yields on farms. While the cows fed on maize stover-based diets had low dry matter intake (DMI), which affected the milk yield of animals, this indicates maize stover should not be relied on as a basal diet for feeding milking cows due to low palatability and high fibre content.A general lack of knowledge on husbandry practices and the higher cost of procuring inputs (time plus transportation) by the individual farmers discourage the use of appropriate technology and husbandry practices, which are essential to enhance the productivity of smallholder dairy farmers. An agent network model (ANM) provides a link between agro-dealers and farmers.In the ANM model, qualified personnel were engaged as agents to train farmers on husbandry practices, technologies and create awareness about the agro-dealers products. The agents receive bulk orders from farmers and coordinate delivery by saving time and transportation costs of inputs. The agents are incentivized for offering training and creating demand in the form of commission on the volume of sales.Based on reviews and evidence, the project team developed a poster for advocacy of the ANM model as a cost-effective modality by reducing transaction costs of inputs procured by the farmers. The ANM approach has also enhanced the knowledge base of the farmers on animal husbandry and delivered more value to agro-dealers in creating demand for their products. Therefore, the poster (Figure 6) suggested the establishment of a strategic alliance between business-focused agrodealers and qualified service providers/extension agents to access geographically clustered farmers via cooperatives. The ANM approach is seen as a sustainable mechanism where cooperatives' members are clustered across villages, service providers are readily linked to the farmers and the farmers appreciate the value of improved husbandry. Rumen8 -a tool to specify total mixed rations Unbalanced feeds for cows are prevalent across Tanzania, which has led to the low productivity of cows. Allowing cows to access adequate nutrients is key to exploiting the maximum production potential of animals. Limited tools exist to optimally ration feed through the best combination of available feedstuffs. Rumen8 is a tool that is widely used for rationing feed in countries with developed dairy production such as Australia. The tool was improved by including tropical feedstuffs that fitted in the smallholder dairy context. The tool uses traffic lights to identify the required level of a nutrient that could compound TMRs using available feedstuff at minimum cost and set production levels. The Rume8 tool can easily be downloaded and installed in smartphones free of charge. The tool is versatile with up to 230 feedstuff options relevant for tropical context. The tool is ideal for use by enterprising youth and producers of dairy rations.Integrated Manure Management (IMM) preserves nutrients for crops, prevents transmission of certain diseases, reduces detrimental environmental effects of manure (greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions and pollution of water), and offers economic benefits through biogas for cooking fuel and lighting (replacing firewood and charcoal). The agro-dealers and extension agents are best suited for the delivery of flexi-biogas units and training to the farmers. IMM is suitable for livestock-keeping households in all agro-ecological conditions, free-range systems, deep litter systems, mixed crop, and dairy farming systems.East Coast fever (ECF) is a major constraint to improving livestock productivity in Tanzania. This disease is responsible for about two-thirds of calf mortality in the country and is more serious in improved breeds than in zebu breeds. The Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) vaccine against ECF, following a single vaccination, give life-long immunity to cattle and reduces mortality by 95%. ITM also allows smallholder farmers to keep improved dairy animals in ECF endemic areas with a considerably reduced risk of loss. The agrovet dealers, AI service providers, producer organizations, and private veterinarians were identified as the best-suited facilitators in the delivery of the ITM vaccine.Cost of feed is the most important variable in rearing dairy cattle. The feed consumed by the dairy cattle is used for milk production and maintenance of the body. The quantity and type of feed consumed by the dairy cattle also influence the composition of milk. Therefore, countries such as New Zealand, Netherlands, Finland and the United Kingdom (UK) have developed indices for dairy cattle that reduce feed intake by constraining animal body size. For the first time in Tanzania, the body weight of mature animals was evaluated to get their genomic estimated breeding value (GEBV) for genomic prediction under the Africa Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project. By using the results of GEBVs for milk production and body weight, the ADGG project developed an index to allow for the selection of animals that improve the rate of milk production but keep body weight constant. The CRP Livestock researchers leveraged the genomic evaluations conducted under ADGG in testing integrated packages. The resultant higher producing crossbred and purebred dairy sires were publicized for use through dairy cooperatives, dairy agri-entrepreneurs, and other value chain actors.The environmental footprints (land, soils, water use, GHG emissions) of the intensive livestock production system are a big challenge. A stakeholder workshop around environmental management opportunities was held that highlighted the scarcity of research on environmental aspects of livestock production in the country. The stakeholders emphasized synergizing livelihood and environmental objectives and called for sustainable livestock intensification through improved feed and forage to reduce the ecological footprint of, and improve, livestock production. The stakeholders recommended that the research be embedded in appropriate financial incentives, institutional settings, and capacity building of involved stakeholders. Tropical forages were considered an excellent case to explore and demonstrate research on multidimensional impacts and trade-offs compared with mixed crop-livestock systems (Paul et al. 2020a). So, the drivers, barriers, and incentives required to create an enabling environment for uptake and adoption of tropical forage technologies required accelerated research attention.Evidence on climate and soil co-benefits of improved forage grasses was generated through biophysical research by employing integrated modelling techniques and quantitative review methods. The biophysical research was conducted at various sites of Tanzania to explore the co-benefits of the improved planted forages such as Napier and Brachiaria grasses. The climate benefits included a reduction in greenhouse gas emission intensity, increase in soil organic carbon, reduction in soil erosion, and positive nutrient balances (Paul et al. 2020b).Public and private investors in the dairy sector collaborated in the implementation of the integrated interventions. Key government officials were engaged to review initial results of ex-ante modelling of environmental impacts and to prioritize opportunities for scaling environmental management interventions in the dairy sector. SNV was engaged through their project on empowering women and youth for income and employment in Kilimanjaro; Solidaridad through their project on climatesmart dairy farming in Tanga; Abt Associates through their evaluation role in the AgResults Dairy Productivity Challenge Project, a multi-donor initiative promoting the uptake of bundled inputs and services; Land O Lakes V37 through their roles in both the AgResults project and the Dairy Nourishes Africa initiative, and a multi-donor initiative through the Global Dairy Platform composed of dairy companies, associations, scientific bodies and other partners that collaborate on responsible food production and sustainable agriculture.• Capacitated agri-entrepreneurs who are excited about new business prospects as they engage in the delivery of demanddriven technology packages. Evaluations of the incubation process ranked the program content and participatory approaches used in training as 'very good and effective'. The effectiveness was partly enabled by co-learning and exchange with facilitators on gender-responsive training facilitated by the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). The boot camps that crystallized this excitement involved 66 participants, including 50 agri-entrepreneurs who were selected from pilot project sites. About 42% were women and 60% youth aged 19-35 years (31 from Kilimanjaro and 19 from Tanga) and District Livestock and Fisheries Officers (DLFOs) from project districts and a consortium of facilitators/trainers took part.• Easy and quick access to digital course contents on calving and milk hygiene, which were uploaded at the learning portal and web apps, attracted the people already engaged in dairying and agriculture farming. These apps have made a significant contribution in raising awareness and imparting skills amongst the smallholder livestock keepers to deliver clean, safe, and quality milk to the distributors and ultimate consumers.• Higher producing crossbred and purebred sires have been identified through genomic evaluation of dairy cattle. The technology has allowed for the provision of high-producing dairy sires to dairy farmers through dairy cooperatives, agrientrepreneurs, and other value chain actors.• Rural commercialization has become part of the core of the national agricultural development strategy of the country. The partners' engagement to influence policy and invest for scaling innovations, and the role of empowered agri-entrepreneurs to act as glue for integration of demand-driven technology packages have earned acceptability at both government and private levels.• The public and private sector partners are engaged from identification, composition, and scaling assessment of integrated packages to their implementation at different levels. The areas of engagement include digital solution services, bundling and delivery of technology packages, capacity building of partners, and learning and knowledge management. This approach is serving the intended purpose and seems an effective arrangement for the sustainability of introduced interventions.• High milk-producing forages are identified based on the locally available feed options that are a cheap source of quality feed for smallholder dairy farmers. This has provided economically viable feed and forage options for the smallholder farmers.• In Tanzania, delivery and enabling packages were designed for dairy groups and development change agents, respectively. Packages covered integrated technical products, delivery mechanisms, services, and know-how/knowledge about the technology uptake through capacity building interventions. Going for such a comprehensive package required identification of multi-level stakeholders, development of a coordination and consultation mechanism, and provision of a common platform to access, interact, and be informed of the progress and latest developments in the dairy value chain. The multistakeholder engagement in the process of identification and scaling up of technologies, through stakeholders' workshops, provided platforms for actors, facilitators, and enablers to interact and exchange their views, thoughts, and limitations to reach mutually acceptable, doable, and sustainable solutions. The technical approach, adopted in scaling scan assessment of the identified and piloted technical products remained instrumental in the selection of scalable technologies. Additionally, the technologies identified and scaled up through such a large-scale consultation earned more acceptability and adoptability amongst the stakeholders that were engaged in the livestock value chain.• The data-driven digital platform for e-extension services and training of the dairy value chain actors remained instrumental in accessing information and knowledge for the producers and other dairy value chain actors. The sustainability of such a platform has yet to be ensured after the withdrawal of project support. The engagement of the private sector in the development, troubleshooting, and operationalization of the digital platform has provided a good opportunity to look for a mechanism that ensures the current level of stakeholders' coordination as well as the financial viability of the digital innovation introduced by the project. Moreover, there is a need to look at the synchronization of the database/information with the country-level databases to use for the development of a national-level dairy and agriculture development strategy.• As opposed to the use of simple illustrations, the use of photos in the digital course content on calving management and milk hygiene emerged as a key drivers for engagement of the value chain actors and the producers. However, based on users' feedback, continuous improvement in the training contents and creation of new course materials are required to meet the changing needs and demands of the users. Moreover, digital marketing has proved to be a cheap and effective way to recruit new users in online training. But the consistent follow-up is required to re-engage the users who have not completed their courses. So, automation of the follow-up for re-engagement of the users via SMS and in-app notifications is required to derive course completion.• Systematic reviews and experimentation during the life of the project helped to determine the existing state of feed and forages in the project sites and explore the potential economical feed and forage options. Eventually, the focus on the improved and locally grown forages and feed options greatly reduced the cost of feeding dairy animals. It also created business avenues for women and youth to develop seed businesses for locally grown improved forages.• Joint platforms for the private and public sector actors who are interested and involved in forage seed production are vital to address the challenges of seed availability and exploring potential for seed production. The training and technical support to the commercial growers on seed production, purity, and handling are equally essential.In Vietnam, 12 million households are engaged in livestock production, most of which is by smallholder farmers. Between 1990 and 2019, Vietnam's cattle (beef and dairy), goat, pig, poultry, and sheep populations increased, while those of buffalo and horses decreased slightly. In 2017, poultry comprised 91.6% of Vietnam's total livestock population, followed by pigs (6.5%), cattle (beef and dairy) (1.34%), and buffalo (0.59%). The average annual growth rate of Vietnam's livestock sector between 2007 and 2017 was 4.92% (General Statistical Office of Vietnam 2019a). The consumption of livestock productsespecially pork, cow milk, and eggs-increased dramatically between 2010 and 2020, with growth rates in Vietnam leading all countries in the Southeast Asian region (World Bank Group 2016). The total production quantity of meat in the country has increased by 152% between 2007 and 2016, from 3.29 to 5.02 million tons. The production of cattle and poultry meat products has grown 174% faster than the average output of all animal populations, equivalent to 8.6% per year over the same period. In terms of quantity, pork comprises 73.0% of total livestock production, with 3.7 million tons produced in 2019. However, this is down 25.5% from the previous year due to the spread of African swine fever. In the same year, poultry accounted for 960,000 tons, or 19.1% of total livestock production, while meat products from buffalo and beef comprised 6.1% and 1.7%, respectively (General Statistical Office 2019b).The country is deficient in feed and imports 3 million tons of it per year for livestock. The prevalence of poverty is 2.7 times higher (70%) in the Northwest (NW) region than that in the rest of the country. More than one-third (35%) of the children in the region have stunted growth. The ethnic minorities make up 80% of the total population in the NW region comprising nearly 30 groups, mainly Tay, Thai, Hmong, and Dao. Over 94% of the land is sloping land, in which 87% is above 25°. The province of Son La, in the NW, was selected for the project due to the high density of ethnic minorities, high levels of relative poverty, high livestock density, and pressing problems of environment, market, and livestock production.The district of Mai Son offers a diversity of farm types from grazing and extensive systems at the top of mountains to intensive farms, integrated with crop-livestock, at the bottom valleys. The commonly reared livestock species include buffaloes, beef cattle, pigs, goats and poultry. In a baseline survey conducted in early 2020, livestock species ownership did not differ among farm types, with nearly all farms owning chicken, around 50% owning cattle and 50% owning pigs (Hammond et al. 2021). The livestock is fed on natural grazing areas, planted forages, maize, cassava, sugar cane, and natural forest. There is a wide variety of socio-economic and ecological conditions that can broadly be categorized into three types;• An intensive system with good access to market and relatively better capacity for innovation• Mixed crop-livestock systems• Remote extensive systems with low access to the market.Li-chăn, the 'Livestock-led interventions towards equitable livelihoods and improved environment in the North-West Highlands of Vietnam,' the Livestock CRP priority country project in Vietnam, aims at stimulating system transformation (livelihoods, environment, equity, and market access) to empower highland farming communities through bundled livestockbased interventions in the NW highlands. The project, short-named 'Li-chăn', which means 'livestock is good' in the local language, is characterized by a system and landscape approach, a focus on multiple species (large ruminants and local pigs), and community-based activities in agreement with government plans. The project's theory of change is shown in Figure 7.The specific objectives of the project are:• To intensify equitable and sustainable smallholder crop-livestock production through °identifying, testing, and evaluating bundled livestock-based interventions°improving knowledge and skills in animal husbandry °increasing awareness of environmental degradation• To identify, facilitate and evaluate institutional innovations that stimulate local livestock product development, market linkages, and effective service delivery for sustainable commercialization benefiting equitably to all gender and ethnic groups.• To identify and promote inclusive inter-sectoral environment and agriculture policy dialogue and interactions at different levels that address trade-offs and synergies and lead to more conducive and effective policy attention to smallholder croplive-stock systems. Aligned with the three farming systems in the NW region of the country, different bundles of interventions were identified for intensive systems in the lowlands, mixed crop-livestock systems in the mid-altitudes, and extensive systems in the high altitudes. Having better market access and innovation capacity, market-driven interventions were identified for lowlands to produce branded, healthy, and sustainable 'green' livestock-source products. The intervention package included farmers' training on livestock breeds, breeding, animal health, and biosecurity; ii) capacity building of animal health professionals; iii) introduction of improved livestock feeding practices and their evaluation; and vi) capacity building of farmers in nutrient management. Interventions were also supplemented by the Comprehensive Livestock Environment Assessment for Improved Nutrition, Secured Environment and Sustainable Development (CLEANED) approach, and awareness-raising on environmental issues. Further, market research to assess the potential demand for high-value livestock products and participatory identification of suitable value chain interventions at farm and market levels were made part of the project interventions.The integration approach for the identified interventions included shared activities by stocktaking, diagnosis, activity planning, baselining, common monitoring and evaluation, and engagement of local authorities and community. Inter-flagship collaboration, having common farming systems' understanding considering multiple indicators, and common beneficiaries, were made at field-level.A rapid multi-indicator survey was carried out in 622 households to establish a baseline of the targeted indicators in the Mai Son District (Hammond et al. 2021). The survey tool, the Rural Household Multi-Indicator Survey (RHoMIS), was built on specific indicators related to AI, breeding, African swine fever (ASF), animal health, veterinary care, feed-basket, and feeding practices, and soil fertility management. Local partners and authorities jointly selected villages, activities, and communities for interventions.Particular attention was given to choosing the animals' genetics, both at the breed and individual level, to produce the animals that are productive and adapted to the local environmental conditions. The project gave a subsidy of up to 1,000 inseminations to different groups of communities at different times. The genetic interventions also focused on building capacity on cattle and pig AI at the levels of AI service provision, semen provision, and smallholder use of AI as a breeding strategy. To that end, a series of training sessions were held, supported by training material developed for the local context and inclusive of material in the local language of the Hmong ethnic minority. Training, related to cattle and pig breeds and breeding was delivered to 125 farmers (51% women, 44% Hmong ethnicity). Similarly, training on AI in pigs and cattle, boar semen collection, and preparation for AI were attended by 73 persons (52% women,15% Hmong ethnicity), including veterinary workers, and boar and bull keepers. From the training on cattle AI, 19 persons (7 women) were accredited as AI service providers. Additionally, 3 Ban (local breed) boars breeders were trained for semen collection.The farmers were trained on biosecurity, the use of vaccines and antibiotics, and farm management. The animal health professionals were oriented on common animal diseases, biosecurity, vaccines and antibiotics, outbreak investigation and management, and risk communication. Around 110 farmers attended the training with 50% being females from the project sites.Fifteen demo farms were established in the six target villages, with frequent monitoring through farmers diaries. Some farmers are willing to invest in farm renovation (e.g. construction of new pen and water system). A KAP survey showed that animal health control measures (e.g. biosecurity and farm management) were more practised after than before the training sessionsThe Gendered Feed Assessment Tool (G-FEAST) was conducted in six intervention villages to identify feed opportunities and constraints among different household types concerning feeding practices and uptake of feed interventions. One hundred and thirty-seven (137) people participated in 24 focus group discussions and 110 individual interviews were conducted with key informants. Based on the G-FEAST assessment, feed basket options were tailored for different types of farming systems.The options covered integration of legumes in trees' plantations, rotation of staple crop fields, and introduction of improved grasses. Appropriate solutions for winter storage of fodder were also provided to the farmers and their impact tested based on key indicators of sustainable intensification domains.Improved livestock management and productivity in Mai Son La can be achieved through better feed management and increased cultivation of improved forages, to meet animal nutrition demand. A study was conducted by Atieno et al. ( 2021) aimed at assessing feed intervention strategies to address context-specific feed-related challenges, mainly winter-feed shortage for improved animal nutrition and livestock productivity. These interventions included promoting the uptake of improved forage varieties (grasses and legumes) and capacity building on animal nutrition techniques including feed processing and preservation, feed mix and feeding regimes for cattle and pigs.One hundred and forty-five ( 145) farmers (70 men and 75 women) from across six intervention villages participated in animal nutrition training sessions, which included both theoretical overviews through poster presentations and practical demonstrations.Poster presentations were also done to introduce selected forage varieties as well as their environmental benefits. After the training, willing farmers selected forage varieties from those proposed and were provided with seeds and planting materials to grow on their farms. The proposed varieties included four types of grass (Mulato II, Mombasa guinea, green elephant grass and Ubon paspalum), and three legumes (Ubon stylo, Arachis pintoi and rice bean). These varieties were selected as they are high yielding, high quality and cold-tolerant, characteristics best suited to address feed challenges in the study area. Farmer-led field trials were set up with a total of 155 farmers across the six villages. Field demonstrations on different ways of growing forages were conducted in each village, after which the farmers applied the same techniques in their farms. A total of 25 ha were planted with improved forages, a significant increase in the area grown with forages from 0.01-0.02 ha per household to about 0.05 ha per household. Data collected during trial monitoring and follow-ups reported increased farmers' awareness of feed technologies, increased biomass yield, and availability of high-quality feed for their livestock.By the end of 2021, training on erosion control, soil fertility and biomass recycling, as well as animal manure and crop residue composting was given to 145 farmers in the six villages of project intervention. The CLEANED assessment revealed that high nitrogen mining and erosion are key issues in the Mai Son district (Douxchamps et al. 2021). A nitrogen flow study on six case study farms showed that nitrogen balances were positive in high and middle access farms, with 35 to 177 kg N/ha. In contrast, the balances were negative in the most remote farms, with -18 kg N/ha in average. The application of mineral fertilizer was a key game changer, accounting for an average of 83% of the N inputs across the six farms. The burning of crop residues contributed strongly to nutrient losses, especially on remote farms. The nitrogen recycling intensity was 13% on average, except for one farm which produced a lot of its livestock feed and reached a nitrogen recycling intensity (NRI) of 64%. Proper manure management, and production and use of improved forages are recommended across the systems. The addition of cover crops and contour farming is highly recommended in highland areas to improve soil water retention and minimize erosion. The use of organic inputs should be encouraged and burning should be avoided, especially on sloping lands. Legume species should be better integrated into the system, for example as multipurpose forages (Douxchamps et al. 2021).A market study was conducted to understand current market structures and interactions amongst the value chains of the targeted livestock species (large ruminants, local pigs), and to identify opportunities for standardized and specialized livestock products. In that regard, 10 FGDs with producers and 20 key KIIs with downstream value chain actors were conducted. The study findings identified the need to link farmer groups directly to the preferred collectors/traders or butchers with more stable demand and better-offered prices. Based on the study findings, the project developed a mechanism to enhance direct linkages of the farmers' groups with the collectors or butchers to ensure consistent demand and competitive prices of their produce and products.The formation of common interest groups (CIGs) was facilitated by an experienced consultant. A series of introductory meetings were organized at different levels (district, commune, village) to convey the concept and benefits of CIGs and to identify the demand from local authorities and value chain actors towards this initiative. This was followed by two intensive training sessions on detailed steps of establishing and operating CIGs for the most enthusiastic farmers (three to five farmers selected in each village) and representatives of local associations (i.e. farmer unions, women unions). Thirty (30) participants joined these two sessions of training, of which 16 were males and 14 were females. After the training, they went back to their villages and invited others to be part of their community of interest. Five CIGs have been established in the study sites with the involvement of 60 farm households.Moreover, awareness of food safety, quality, and environmental footprints of livestock products was raised amongst the consumers and producers through the market research component.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) conducted a modelling exercise to assess the economic impact of ASF under different scenarios. The simulation model revealed that;• ASF outbreaks pose adverse impacts on national pork supply and demand, especially in the traditional sector. The national pig supply falls by nearly 27.8% in the traditional sector with 5% negative demand shock and by 33.2% with 20% negative demand shock in the simulated scenarios compared to the non-outbreak scenarios.• The modern sector is less likely to be affected and may even benefit from the ASF outbreak. Compared to the nonoutbreak scenarios, the national pig sector's income from the modern sector increases by 16.9% with 5% negative demand shock and by 14% with 20% negative demand shock in the simulated scenarios. The results are driven by the modern sector's strict biosecurity practices and high technology growth.• ASF outbreaks tend to accelerate the restructuring process of the pig industry towards the faster expansion of the commercial and modern pig sectors and the shrinking of the traditional sector.• Provision of subsidy and training to the farmers on AI have induced community-based AI practice in the project sites.Similarly, the safe handling of semen collection through training of AI service providers has minimized the losses of semen and the probability of failure in breeding buffaloes, cattle and pigs.• The beneficiary farmers of herd-health management intervention are better managing the health farm-related issues of their livestock. The long-term impacts of the intervention in terms of morbidity, mortality, and production are yet to be documented.• The identified and advised feed and forage options are being availed by the farmers in project sites. Appropriate storage solutions for feed and forages in the off-season (winter) are ensuring year-round availability of feed for livestock in the project sites.• A market mechanism has been established that ensures stable demand and competitive prices to the farmers' groups for their produce and products.• The findings that the ASF outbreaks are more likely to affect the traditional sector and accelerate restructuring of pig industry towards commercialization and modern sectors has triggered policy debate to create employment opportunities for smallholders to ensure sustainable livelihoods for them.• The photovoice tool was used to, among other things, stimulate discussions amongst farmers regarding the technologies disseminated in the project, spread word about the tool amongst the community members as well as attract the interest of local authorities to support further project interventions and scaling.• Scientific impact assessment of ASF outbreaks through simulation models helped informed decision-making for the formulation of national-level policies and strategies.• The awareness, knowledge, and inclination of the farmers towards value-added livestock products has remained instrumental in the development and growth of the off-farm industry and enterprises at the project site. This could accelerate economic activity in the target areas and create more livelihood opportunities for the smallholders and the community in the project areas.• Combining theory with field practice attracts ethnic farmers to attend the technical training courses.• The successful cases of pilots after training promoted local farmers and vet workers in the adoption of innovations.• From the demonstration farms, indicators such as productivity, mortality/morbidity rate, vaccination rates and use of antibiotics were used to review behaviour change.• There was a high preference for three grass varieties (Napier, Mombasa Guinea and Ubon paspalum) due to their high germination rate, biomass, and palatability and there was moderate preference for forage legumes (Ubon stylo, rice bean, Arachis pintoi) and Mulato II. Farmers have expressed willingness to expand the land area used to grow improved forages.• COVID-19-related restrictions limited follow-up to guide farmers on forage management and utilization. However, forage fact sheets were developed and adapted to address issues raised by farmers such as appropriate cutting time, feed mix and use.• Maintaining gender balance during flagship activities saw more female farmers actively participating in practical training sessions.• Proper manure management, and production and use of improved forages is recommended across the systems.• Production of improved forages can minimize water lost through evapotranspiration.• The addition of cover crops and contour farming is highly recommended in highland areas to improve soil water retention and minimize erosion.• Recycling of organic matter should be encouraged to improve soil fertility.• Residues burning should be avoided.• The use of appropriate approaches for involving active actors as change agents in the early stage of common interest groups (CIGs) should be emphasized.• Integration with other flagships is vital for laying a good foundation for the establishment of CIGs.• The need for capacity building for CIG members on developing CIGs.• Development of linkages among newly established CIGs for knowledge sharing and potential shared activities.• The involvement of local authorities is crucial for the sustainability of CIGs.4.1 SuccessesIn Uganda, the 'scoping study' and 'situation analysis of pig value chain' helped determine the existing mechanism for marketing of live pigs and pork; delivery of veterinary services, drugs and feeds to smallholder farmers; barriers and challenges to the drug stockists, feed processors and veterinary services providers; and operational environment for pig value chain actors. This evidence-based approach in setting up market arrangements guided targeted activities and actions that led to the development of profitable linkages between pig aggregators and pig producers. Similarly, a market study was used to guide decisions to enhance direct linkages of the farmers' groups with the collectors or butchers to ensure consistent demand and competitive price of their produce and products in Vietnam.Moreover, consultative approaches in the assessment of scaling readiness of best-bet technologies, through stakeholders' workshops, helped to thoroughly review the pros and cons of the technologies' scale-up, potential barriers in implementation, and opportunities for the actors involved to maximize the benefits from the technology in both Uganda and Tanzania. The scaling readiness approach guided the relevant stakeholders in working toward the sustainability of the assessed technological interventions.In Tanzania, delivery and enabling packages were designed for dairy groups and development change agents, respectively. Both technology packages covered integrated technical products, delivery mechanisms, services, and know-how/knowledge about the technology uptake through capacity-building interventions. Going for such a comprehensive package required identification of multi-level stakeholders, development of a coordination and consultation mechanism, and provision of a common platform to access, interact, and be informed of the progress and latest developments in the dairy value chain. The multi-stakeholders were engaged in the process of identification and scaling up of technologies through stakeholders' workshops that provided platforms for actors, facilitators, and enablers to interact and exchange their views, thoughts, and limitations to reach mutually acceptable, doable, and sustainable solutions. The technologies identified and scaled up through such a large-scale consultation earned more acceptability and adoptability amongst the stakeholders engaged in the livestock value chain.In Vietnam, a different approach was adopted for characterization, selection, and scaling of technologies and the intervention bundles were aligned with three different farming systems through G-FEAST assessment, forage seed system analysis, value chain mapping, and land use and forage suitability mapping. Similarly, market-driven interventions were identified for lowlands for having better market access and innovative capacity to produce and develop branded, healthy, and sustainable 'green' livestock-source products.In Uganda, a digital ecosystem, established in the form of a PigSmart platform, is providing multiple digital solutions to the growers, aggregators, and other value chain actors. One of these digital solutions is a 'feed calculator app' that is being used by the smallholder farmers and small-scale feed producers for the formulation of nutritious and balanced feed for livestock from the locally available cheap feed ingredients. Another app named 'gross margin calculator' is being used by the farmers to calculate the gross margin of their farming business through feeding input cost data and output prices. This app has succeeded to promote the concept of farming as a business entity amongst the smallholder farmers. Moreover, all the value chain actors have now access to information regarding production, produce, marketing, and financing through an e-commerce platform in the shape of an EzyAgric app that is embedded in the digital ecosystem, the PigSmart. PigSmart has proved to be beneficial to farmers in balancing feed for pigs and running profitable businesses. It also has been instrumental in accessing information and knowledge of the producers and other dairy value chain actors. Largely, introducing the digital solution to technical advisory services has strengthened the overall pig value chain system in the target areas. The aggregate demands of the farmers for inputs supplies and services have started to be delivered to the individual farmers and groups at the competitive market rate by the quality-assured resources.The data-driven digital platform for e-extension services and training of the dairy value chain actors has remained instrumental in accessing information and knowledge for the producers and other dairy value chain actors in Tanzania. Easy and quick access to digital course contents on calving and milk hygiene, which are uploaded on to the learning portal and web apps, has attracted those already engaged in dairying and crop farming. As opposed to the use of simple illustrations, the use of photos in the digital courses on calving management and milk hygiene has enhance the engagement of the value chain actors and producers throughout the courses. Moreover, digital marketing has proved to be a cheap and effective way to recruit new users and online training participants.Training and certification of small-scale feed producers in Uganda have succeeded to standardize the quality of commercial feed production and have induced more farmers to start using certified commercial feeds from small-scale producers. Moreover, the Feed Calculator app through the PigSmart digital platform in Uganda has promoted the concept of profitable businesses and the entrepreneurial mindset of small-scale pig farmers. In Tanzania, systematic reviews and experimentation helped to determine the existing state of feed and forages in the project sites and explore the potential economical feed and forage options. Eventually, the focus on the improved and locally-grown forages and feed options has greatly reduced the cost of feeding dairy animals. It also has created business avenues for women and youth to develop seed businesses in their locally grown improved forages.In Vietnam, the G-FEAST assessment guided the formulation of a feed-basket for cattle and pigs in different types of farming systems. The options covered, integration of legumes in trees' plantation, rotation of staple crops fields, and introduction of improved grasses. The feed-basket options were tailored after the G-FEAST assessment.The substantial involvement of public and private sector partners has been instrumental in the implementation of various components of the integrated package in Uganda. The partnerships have been established with digital solution service providers, capacity building service providers, academia, and government functionaries for the implementation and sustainability of interventions introduced by the projects. The engagement of the private sector in the development and troubleshooting, and operationalization of the digital platform has provided a good opportunity to find a mechanism that ensures sustainability of the current level of stakeholders' coordination and the financial viability of the digital innovation introduced by the project in both Uganda and Tanzania.Rural commercialization has become part of the core national agricultural development strategy of Tanzania. The partners' engagement to influence policy and invest in scaling innovations, and the role of empowered agri-entrepreneurs to act as a glue for integration of demand-driven technology packages have earned acceptance at both government and private levels. At the same time, in Vietnam scientific-based impact assessment of ASF outbreak through simulation models helped in informed decision-making for the formulation of national-level policies and strategies. 5 Final considerations and the way forward• Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, significant progress was seen in Uganda and Tanzania. In both countries, the technology bundles have been selected and rolled out. The learnings from both countries could be helpful for the project teams of Vietnam and Ethiopia to expedite the implementation of technology bundles. The strategies and procedures adopted in Uganda and Tanzania could provide a road map to follow with slight tailoring following the context and emerging situations of the remaining two countries struggling to implement the technology packages.• Experimental designs to see the impact of various interventions were proposed and planned in all four countries. The progress in this regard is not documented and reported by any country. There is a need to establish a baseline of outcome and results' level indicators to see the overtime improvement and ultimate impact after the program. There is a good opportunity for inter-countries comparison to see the enabling, contributing, and constraining factors in technology uptake, and achievement of intended outcomes and ultimate results.• There is no alternative to data-driven decision-making. The establishment of digital platforms in Uganda and Tanzania for advisory and e-extension services are steps towards the use of innovative techniques for informed decision-making. The way livestock value chain actors have shown interest and adopted the digital platform in Uganda and Tanzania is a landmark achievement, albeit, with room to increase the scope of digital services and sync them with the national databases for data-driven policy formulation and progress tracking. The rest of the countries need to follow the strategies devised and followed by Uganda and Tanzania for the establishment and uptake of digital solutions for advisory and e-extension services.• Community-based artificial insemination, though at a nascent stage in Vietnam, Uganda and Tanzania, is another potential intervention that can gain widescale adoptability by the smallholder farmers. The engagement of the private sector in AI service provision looks to be a sustainable arrangement for scaling up the intervention to enable as many farmers as possible to get the benefit.• Though the overall focus is on the improvement of smallholders through enhanced productivity of livestock, the targeted type of livestock varies across the laboratory countries (the interventions are targeting piggery in Uganda, dairy animals in Tanzania, pigs and cattle in Vietnam, and small ruminants in Ethiopia). With varying genetic requirements for different livestock types, the cross-country comparison of progress in the achievement of specific output and outcome level indicators seems difficult. However, the variation in the best practices and adopted strategies for uptake of technologies across the laboratory countries would be the most relevant yardsticks to gauge the success of the projects across countries.","tokenCount":"17211"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cab2f0ab5376dbe89aa56a54b76879a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e7be133-0bbb-4b1f-ac28-4ce8bdfe79b0/retrieve","id":"-1671076264"},"keywords":["Coffee cultivars","compound fertilizer","leaf area index","planting density","specific leaf area"],"sieverID":"4e0154ed-79a5-4494-8b33-2252bd93f5c7","pagecount":"5","content":"Leaf trait is good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with light requirement, growth and survival of the plant. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of seedling planting density and fertilizer rate on leaf traits variation of two Arabica coffee cultivars under nursery conditions. It was conducted at Jimma Agricultural Research Center from (February 29 to October 29), 2018. A factorial experiment was used and treatments were arranged using completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments consisted of combinations of two Arabica coffee cultivars (74110 and 75227), four population densities (one, two, three and four plants per polythene tube) and three compound NPK (22:6:12 + Te) rates (control, 5g and 10g). The results showed that interaction between cultivar, population density and fertilizer was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) influenced LN, LPR and LAI, and highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) influenced LWR and SLA. High planting density (PD2) with 5g of NPK enhanced LN and LPR in cultivar-74110 while conventional (PD1) with 5g of NPK enhanced LN and LPR in cultivar-75227. Highest value of LWR was recorded from high planting density (PD2) with 5g of NPK while maximum value of LAI and SLA was recorded from high planting density (PD3) with 5g of NPK for both cultivars. At early field planting time, coffee seedling with higher LAI and SLA are very important for efficiently capture and better utilization of solar energy or light as well as increase seedling growth. In general, planting high population density (PD3) and fertilized with 5 g of NPK seems sufficient to improve LAI and SLA of coffee seedlings. Therefore, the future research direction should be focused on the management for increase leaf traits under field conditions.Coffee is one of the cash crops for millions of small farmers and other actors in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, its productivity is influenced by quality of planting material, field management and fertility of the soil. Leaf is a part of a plant that have several uses and benefits to man. It is the food-making organ of plants in the process of photosynthesis. It is an important variable used to predict photosynthetic primary production, evapo -transpiration and as a reference tool for crop growth. Leaf traits are good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with growth, survival and light requirement of the plant (Poorter and Bongers, 2006). Pervious results indicated that morphophysiological and chemical leaf traits vary in response to differences in shade management and nutrients (Buchanan et al., 2019). Light is one of the crucial factors for the growth and development of plants. Plants respond to changing light conditions by adjusting a suite of morphological and physiological traits.At high planting density, competition for light increase leaf weight ratio of plants (John et al., 2005). Higher leaf area index observed for coffee plants growing under shade indicated that these plants have higher potential for CO 2 assimilation and dry matter production, because of leaves adjust to the light environment under which they expand and develop. Increase in leaf area index with increase in plant density is important for better utilization of solar energy (Amanullah et al., 2008). Specific Leaf Area (SLA) is a key functional trait of plants underlying variation in growth rate. It is a major trait in leaf economics spectrum, which reflects the range of fast to slow returns on nutrient and dry mass investment in leaves (Wright et al., 2004;Flores et al., 2014). Coffee plants grown under shade or low-light develop thinner leaves, wider, a larger leaf area and higher SLA which allow more efficient capture of light energy (Poorter, 1999). These modifications allow them to efficiently capture and utilize the available light energy in order to increase their dry matter production. Coffee plants increased SLA which contributed for the higher rate of photosynthesis (Adugna et al., 2011). Coffee seedlings undertake certain morphological modifications and physiological adaptations for increase photosynthetic rate under high population density. In addition to genotype, water and nutrient have also makedifferences on leaf trait parameter. The increases of leaf traits are very important at early field establishment because it facilitate food making process by increase the efficiency of light capture, utilize light, maximize carbon gain and assimilate. Therefore, the experiment was conducted with the objective to evaluate the effect of planting density and fertilizer rate on leaf traits variation of two Arabica coffee cultivars under nursery conditions.The study was carried out at the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) in southwestern Ethiopia under nursery for eight month from (February 29 to October 29), 2018. It is located at 7° 46' N latitude and 36° 0' E longitude and at an altitude of 1753 meter above sea level. The site receives high amount of rainfall with a mean total of 1556.9 mm per annum. Its mean minimum and maximum temperature are 12.77 ℃ and 26.14 ℃, respectively.The study was carried out using a factorial experiment arranged in completely randomized design with three replications. The treatments consisted of two released Arabica coffee cultivars that represent contrasting growth habits of compact ( 74110) and open (75227), four plant population densities (one, two, three and four plants per polythene tube) and three compound NPK rates (control, 5g and 10g). Compound NPK fertilizer (22: 06: 12 +Te) with 22% total N, 6% P 2 O 5 , 12% K 2 O and trace elements (Te) including 4% S, 0.15% B, 0.15% Zn and 0.002% Mo was used. Hence, twenty-four treatment combinations (2*3*4) were used for the study.The growth medium was prepared from top soil (0-30 cm depth) from Jimma (Melko) and sand at 3:1 ratios was used. A conventional black polythene tube with size of (12 cm diameter and 22 cm length) was used and 2kg of the soil medium mix was filled, arranged on seed beds and irrigated prior to seed sowing. For each treatment, six polythene tubes were used per plot and the prepared seed from selected of coffee genotypes were sown on each polythene tube following the designed planting density. At two pair of true leaves, the compound NPK fertilizer rates were applied to each pot using ring basal method. All the routine pre-and postsowing nursery operations including mulching, watering, shading and weed control were uniformly applied as recommended (Tesfaye et al., 2005).Leaf Number (LN): Total number of true leaves was counted at six pairs of leaves.It refers to number of leaves produced over a period of time. It was counted at two and six pairs of leaves from two plants. It was estimated as described by (Suarez, 2010). LPR = (Ln2-Ln1)/(t2-t1), where, LPR = Leaf production rate, Ln1 and Ln2 are number of leaves produced at time t1 and t2, respectively.Leaf Weight Ratio (LWR): It is expressed as the dry weight of leaves to whole plant dry weight. Three polythene tubes of coffee seedlings from each treatment were used for leaf dry and plant dry and it was taken at six pair of leaves. It was estimated as described by (Kvet et al., 1971). LWR = LDW/PDW, where, LWR, LDW and PDW are leaf weight ratio, leaf dry weight and plant dry weight, respectively, and expressed in g g -1 .Leaf Area Index (LAI): It was estimated as described by (Antonio et al., 2016 cited Oliveira andMesquita, 2008). LAI = RGR*(LA/PDW), where, LAI is leaf area index, RGR is relative growth rate, LA and PDW are leaf area and plant dry weight, respectively. Specific Leaf Area (SLA): Is the ratio of leaf area of the plant to its leaf dry weight. Three polythene tube of seedlings from each treatment for leaf dry weight and two plants for leaf area were used. It was estimated as described by (Kvet et al., 1971). SLA = LA/LDW, where, SLA, LA and LDW are specific leaf area, leaf area and leaf dry weight and expressed in cm 2 g -1 .Statistical Analysis: All relevant data was summarized and subjected to three way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS 9.3 version (SAS, 2011). Treatment mean separation was done by least significant difference (LSD) at 5% probability level.The analysis of variance revealed that the three way interaction effect of coffee genotype, population density and fertilizer rate was highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) for LWR and SLA, whereas significant (P ≤ 0.05) for LN, LPR and LAI (Table 1).Leaf Number and Leaf Production Rate: The result indicated that both LN and LPR were highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) affected by population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1). It was observed that maximum values of 11.66 and 11.33 for LN were recorded for 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and 75227*PD1*5g of NPK, respectively, while lowest values of LN was recorded from treatment combinations of 74110*PD1*10g of NPK (4) and 75227*PD1*10g of NPK (6) for cultivar-74110 and 75227. The maximum values were 191.5% and 88.8% increment in LN over lowest values in cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively (Table 2). Similarly, treatment combinations of 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and 75227*PD1*5g of NPK resulted in maximum of LPR with the respective values of 0.094 and 0.091 which were by 394.7% and 133.3% higher than the respective lowest values (0.019 and 0.039 for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK and 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227) (Table 2). Higher values of LN and LPR were recorded for higher planting density (PD2) treated with 5g of NPK for cultivar 74110. This might be due to with adequate supply of N, which enhanced leaf growth of coffee seedlings at high planting density. This result was in agreement with some previous study indicated that adequate supply of N would promote rapid plant development through increase in number of leaves (Malavolta, 1986). Maximum values for LN and LPR were recorded for 5g of NPK in all treatment combinations, with 16.6% and 8.8% increments for LN and 20.51% and 12.34% increments for LPR over the control for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively.    Leaf Weight Ratio: The result revealed that LWR was highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) influenced by coffee cultivar, population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1), where maximum value (0.545 g g -1 ) of LWR was recorded for 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and the minimum value of (0.33 g g -1 ) for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110. Similarly, maximum value (0.59 g g -1 ) of LWR was recorded for 75227*PD2*5g of NPK, whereas the minimum (0.34 g g -1 ) for 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-75227 (Table 3). The maximum values were exhibited 65.2% and 73.5% higher LWR than their respective lowest values for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. Higher LWR with higher planting density rather than with the single seedling in polythene tube might be related to competition for light with more dry matter accumulation in the leaves. Application of 5g of NPK resulted in 16.7% and 34.77% higher LWR over the control, and 11.45% and 31.77% higher values over the plots treated with 10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. High LWR means partitioning of a large proportion of biomass to leaves (John et al., 2005). In higher population density a higher LWR and SLA may improve competitive ability of species (Hendrik, 2016). The result of the present study was also in agreement with the findings of Poorter (1999) who reported that plants shaded by other trees produce thinner, larger and wider leaves and have higher LWR than un-shaded plants.Leaf Area Index: LAI was highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01)affected by coffee cultivar, population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1), where the highest values of 2.88 and 3.32 were recorded for 74110*PD3*5g of NPK and 75227*PD3*5g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively, respectively (Table 3). It was 569.85% and 577.55% higher than the respective lowest values for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. The differences in LAI of cultivars might be related with variations in morphological growth habit, due to genotypic differences (Mohammed et al., 2015). This results in line with Sobrado (2005) who reported that the diversified growth habits of Arabica coffee genotypes influence LAI. Leaf is an important source in manufacturing photo assimilates and an increase in LAI results in better utilization of solar energy and enhanced growth of coffee seedlings. Higher LAI was recorded for high planting density (PD3) with 5g of NPK for both cultivars, with 10.34% to 24.34% increment over single seedling (PD1), which might related with production of more leave area with increasing seedling number. Application of 5g of NPK more enhanced LAI than the other fertilizer treatments; as N increases vegetative growth especially number of leaves and leaf area, and resulted in 154.8% and 98.8% higher LAI over the control, and it was decreased by 53.8% and 42.8% with application of 10g of NPK to cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. This might be related with toxicity problems with excess amount of fertilizer. The highest LAI was recorded from main factors of population density3 (PD3) due to mutual shading and 5g of NPK (Table 4). Optimum LAI is very important, as both below and above the critical level may not allowed maximum light interception by plants and yield may even tend to decline due to shading and competition for water, nutrients and light (Taye and Burkhardt, 2015).Specific Leaf Area: The result indicated that SLA was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by coffee cultivar, were also highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) for SLA difference due to population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1). It was observed that maximum value (186.93 cm 2 g -1 ) of SLA was recorded for 74110*PD3*5g of NPK, whereas the minimum value (139.8 cm 2 g -1 ) was recorded for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110. Similarly, the highest of (191.77 cm 2 g -1 ) SLA was recorded for cultivar-75227 with PD3 and 5g of NPK, whereas the lowest value (131.73 cm 2 g -1 ) was recorded for combination of 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-75227 (Table 3). High planting density increased SLA, which was more enhanced with application of 5g of NPK that resulted in 13.17% and 15.3% increments over the control and 21.3% and 24.2% increments over 10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. The highest SLA was recorded from main factors of population density3 (PD3) due to mutual shading and 5g of NPK (Table 4). High planting density increase SLA, might be related to the tendency of plants to efficient utilized the limited light penetrating through the canopy due to mutual shading. It could be also attributed to morphological modification of plants growing under shade to adapt to available low light intensity (Hiwot, 2011). Similarly, it has been reported that plants shaded by other trees produce larger, thinner and wider leaves, and have higher SLA (Poorter, 1999). Coffee plants grown under shade develop thinner leaves and a larger leaf area which allow more efficient capture of light energy. At low light, plants increase light interception by means of a high biomass allocation to leaves and formation of thin leaves with a high SLA. Both SLA and LAI may vary with light intensity, as higher SLA has been observed for plant under low light condition (Taye, 2006). This modification allows them to efficiently capture and utilize the available light energy in order to increase their dry matter production (Li et al., 2005).Leaf traits are good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with growth, survival and light requirement of the plant. Result indicated that there was significant increase in LN and LPR due to planting density in cultivar-74110, whereas sowing one seed per polyethylene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK promote LN and LPR in cultivar-75227. Maximum value of LWR was recorded from sowing two seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK in both cultivars. It was observed that sowing three seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK was significantly increased LAI and SLA in both cultivars, but, higher increments was observed in cultivar-75227. In general, at early field transplanting stage a seedling with larger leaf traits are important for capture and utilize light as well as potential for CO 2 assimilation and faster growth rate; sowing three seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK was enhanced LAI and SLA of coffee seedlings in both cultivars. Therefore, the future research direction should be focused on management to increase the coffee leaf traits for efficient utilization of light under field conditions.and Mohammed Aman for their unlimited technical support during designing, implementing the treatments and data recording time.","tokenCount":"2729"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ad7f396fe7c3eab0aa822a84d1382b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a32b9ee-37ee-4fca-b6c3-535884657c0b/retrieve","id":"-1800749191"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fbe8f042-2546-4a3e-b3d5-6fba1e105626","pagecount":"2","content":"Insurance projectIndex-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) is the world's first index-based insurance designed to protect vulnerable pastoralists in drought-stricken areas from losing their primary asset-livestock. First developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to insure pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia, this specialized insurance product has had a considerable impact on the asset base and consumption activities of its intended beneficiariesnomadic populations living in an expansive area. However, despite its ability to deliver social and economic returns to a population-traditionally neglected by financial services firms-IBLI's uptake has been slower than expected.This case study demonstrates the opportunities and challenges emerging from the IBLI project. It explains the need to establish the product in locations with large vulnerable pastoralist populations and encourages students to consider and develop an IBLI growth strategy. Through the case study, students will consider various pressures from the market, governments, donors and partners related to IBLI's growth strategy and future sustainability. It was developed as part of a MBA program in microfinance for students interested in the management of international organizations and NGOs. It is also relevant to a range of other courses, including social entrepreneurship, 'bottom of the pyramid' expansion strategies, or introductory finance.The case study begins in East Africa, where an agricultural economist introduced a novel financial technology designed to help livestock herders living in some of Africa's harshest regions. Andrew Mude and his ILRI team of scientists lead the innovative IBLI project, which helps herders recover from severe droughts that devastate livestock assets and routinely leave pastoral communities destitute; livestock are critical assets for 'pastoralists', who depend on their animals, and regularly move hundreds of kilometres with their stock to track new pastures and water resources.As one of humankind's oldest forms of production, these communities produce food in otherwise unyielding environments. However, regular droughts in the Horn of Africa account for 75% of livestock deaths and routinely devastate pastoral communities, especially as the average herding household holds 100% of its productive assets in the form of livestock. Mude's ambition has been to find risk management strategies focused on providing complementary services that enhance pastoralist livelihoods.IBLI represents an exciting innovation by offering insurance to vulnerable rural smallholder farmers and livestock keepers and potentially reducing the climaterelated risks they face. Initial analyses of IBLI projects have shown that insured households experienced: a 25% reduction in likelihood of poor nutrition; a 36% reduction in 'distress sales' of livestock (selling livestock to provide quick income in times of hardship); and a 33% reduction in reliance on food aid when compared to uninsured households. These initial results suggest that IBLI provides a valuable safety net for vulnerable families, protecting them from having to take drastic measures during droughts.December 2015After the Kenya and Ethiopia launches in 2010 and 2012, the IBLI project has, however, experienced growing pains. Despite evidence of its effectiveness as a social welfare program, sales have been slow. This is likely due to a number of factors, including challenges with the insurance partners that implement the project and working with a clientele that can be difficult to reach and unfamiliar with IBLI's benefits.Mude and his team now need to decide how to further develop the IBLI project. In team discussions, Mude recognized that all team members want to ensure IBLI's growth and success, but they hold differing views about how that should be accomplished. The goal is clear: to grow IBLI. But when and how should this growth take place?Mude feels torn between two broad strategies: deepening the project within Kenya or broadening it out to new geographical areas. Much needs to be accomplished in Kenya, and the government there intends to introduce short-term insurance subsidies. Focusing on Kenya would also help develop a sustainable model that could be scaled up to new areas. However, many donors and team members are eager to expand the project to new countries with large, vulnerable pastoral populations.As ","tokenCount":"645"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd92b61d572bf671e41c24e51962eb5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dd3b114f-631c-43a1-b7d8-c2792a44cc46/retrieve","id":"238165989"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"57fcf093-4f9c-4baf-b047-7936bd6885c3","pagecount":"28","content":"This study was carried out to identify successes and challenges associated with the utilization of the Rift Valley fever (RVF) Decision Support Tool (DST) in Kenya. The DST was developed by various stakeholders from government and non-government sectors following the 2006-07 outbreak of RVF in East Africa. It identifies events leading to the RVF outbreak, classified as decision points, and matches them with interventions that could be implemented at each point. Currently, the framework identifies 12 decision points 1 and 13 interventions 2 .Three activities were used in the study, namely, (1) a review of literature to describe systems/models that could be used with the DST and to identify how other frameworks/DSTs have been used to support disease control policies;(2) focus group discussions and key informant interviews involving decision-makers in the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), local and international organizations, farmer groups etc. and (3) a stakeholder workshop to validate findings obtained and develop recommendations on ways of improving awareness and utilization of the framework. Three parameters were used to verify uptake and implementation of the framework: (i) Whether there had been an official recognition of the DST as a component of the RVF control policy in the DVS (this did not include other relevant departments, e.g. Public Health and the Zoonotic Disease Unit, because they were not included previously in the dissemination of DST).(ii) Level of utilization of the framework indicated by the proportion of key decision-makers that had the framework and the number of decision points that had been covered at any one time.(iii) Perceptions on the convenience of its application.An additional parameter -the ability of the DST to guide and promote good/effective responses -was considered at the design stage of the study but this was not used because, since the DST was developed and disseminated, there has not been an outbreak of RVF for it to be utilized in full (beyond the early warning stage). The review of literature described some of the systems and models that can be used with the DST. Some of these systems e.g. the Global Early Warning System (GLEWS), Africa Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System and the webbased application of the Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES-i) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were regarded as being useful for staging the DST for they provide early warning signals that define the escalation of risk and hence a change in the decision level from normal to the early warning stage. Others such as risk maps generated from a range of statistical models would be useful for identifying risk zones where interventions suggested by the framework would be applied. The review also identified challenges associated with the implementation of decision support systems in general, e.g. technical issues on operationalization of the models, bureaucratic hoops and lack of incentives, culture, attitude and resource challenges. These issues were incorporated into data collection instruments for the focus group discussions and key informant interviews.Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were carried out between May and September 2012 in Nairobi, Garissa, Mombasa, and Nakuru while the stakeholder workshop was held in Naivasha, Kenya in September 2012. These surveys confirmed that the DST had been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan but less than 10% of the decision-makers, mostly from the provincial and district centres, were aware about the DST. Challenges associated with the utilization of the framework were classified into four categories namely: (i) resource/funding constraints, (ii) inefficient response measures, (iii) low morale among local veterinary staff and (iv) poor coordination and communication. The DVS had developed a budget of 66,015,880 Kenya shillings (KES) (790,609 United States dollars [USD]) as the national RVF emergency fund. However, no funds had been allocated to the budget. These issues were discussed at the stakeholder workshop held in Naivasha, Kenya in September 2012. Its recommendations were:• There is need for the RVF task force to establish a budget and an emergency fund to support the contingency plan/DST. The disease control agents, especially the District Veterinary Officers (DVOs), also need adequate financial support to run other basic disease surveillance and control activities. Some of these funds can be secured by establishing collaborative activities with relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international bodies such as FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, DVOs and other sub-national agents need to be facilitated by the national authorities (e.g. through provision of information and authority) to develop proposals for such engagements.• Field officers require more technical guidance and support in the implementation of the tool. It was suggested that this could be achieved by offering DST training in continuous professional development sessions, seminars, colleges, etc. The study also established that the tool has not been disseminated widely and in fact most DVOs and other stakeholders from NGOs were not aware about its existence.• Existing private-public partnerships should be strengthened and new ones initiated to ensure smooth implementation of the contingency plan/DST especially during emergencies. Experiences from previous outbreaks suggest that interventions implemented could have achieved greater impacts had implementation efforts been sufficiently coordinated. The disease control agents therefore need to strengthen linkages with trader associations, the police/security forces, border patrols, community representatives etc. especially during the inter-epidemic periods. Some of these interventions could be addressed through the refinement of the veterinary policy to highlight key partners and areas where collaborative efforts would be more beneficial.• Present a summary of the DST in posters and brochures to enhance its readership and dissemination. It was suggested that laminated cards or A4 posters be made for different audiences. They would contain the basic steps with quick instructions of what to do and who to contact at each step. A number of stakeholders e.g. farmer groups could help distribute these materials to create more awareness and hence compliance.• The workshop was informed that most respondents interviewed in the DST assessment studies regard the decision points defined in the DST as being numerous (12 in total) with some of them being too close in time to be considered as being independent decision points. The workshop recommended having five key decision points, namely: normal, early warning, pre-outbreak, outbreak and step-down phases with the DST stages being classified under them (five stages) while retaining the detailed information presented in the DST. A small group of experts was formulated to review the structure of the DST and refine the budget that had been proposed.This study was successful in identifying successes and constraints to the implementation of the DST. FAO had initially suggested hosting an interactive website in a decision tree structure that would enable users to quickly access the relevant information for a particular decision point of interest. Work is underway to develop DST dissemination materials and additional analyses are being done to determine benefits and costs of the RVF interventions captured in the DST. This would make a valuable component of an interactive website; the user could weigh different choices at each stage based on the benefits and costs involved and decide whether to act at that stage or wait until later. These activities are meant to generate additional information for effective decision-making.RVF outbreaks occur as explosive events that follow periods of prolonged heavy rainfall. They usually have a rapid onset and progression that has been difficult to predict in good time. The early warning message that preceded the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in East Africa, for example, was given in mid-September 2006 while a consolidated warning was given in November 2006 when initial cases of the disease had already occurred (FAO-WHO 2008). Such delays in prediction, coupled with poor surveillance systems, weaken the capacity of public and animal health departments to implement effective response measures. Surveys conducted in Kenya after the outbreak indicated that the severity of the epidemic was exacerbated by delays in recognizing the risk and in taking decisions to prevent and control the disease (ILRI 2009). The surveys also noted that that the country lacked a well-documented contingency/emergency plan for RVF and pre-allocated emergency funds, particularly within the livestock sector. These experiences made it necessary to refine the RVF contingency plans and develop the RVF DST to guide responses to future RVF epidemics (Consultative Group for RVF Decision Support 2010).The development of the RVF contingency plan was commenced by the DVS soon after the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in East Africa, through a consultative process, based on the template provided by FAO at http://www.fao.org/ docrep/005/y4140e/y4140e00.HTM . It was thereafter officially adopted in April 2010. At the same time, a consultative process was initiated that led to the development of the DST based on the findings of a study that had developed a timeline of events that led to the outbreak (Jost et al. 2010). That study was implemented in Northeastern Province, Kenya and Arusha, Tanzania. The timeline developed is summarized in Table 1. The DST identifies 12 decision stages and 13 interventions that could be implemented with the following assumptions:• A national RVF emergency fund has been established and procedures and modalities put in place to enable the fund to be made available rapidly in response to predetermined criteria.• An effective communication system has been established including a clear chain of command from the Director of Veterinary Services to the field which facilitates early and effective communication back up the chain from field to the Director and effective communication between the veterinary department and other relevant ministries and departments, such as health, planning and finance, and the provincial administration.• The above are captured in a government-approved RVF contingency plan. However, the DST has not been widely used as envisaged. Preliminary surveys conducted in Kenya in the initial two years following the dissemination of the DST indicated that only 10.2% (6/59) of the senior veterinary officers from the national, provincial and district veterinary centres had received the RVF DST and were conversant with its content (Gachohi et al. 2012). This study was designed to identify challenges associated with dissemination and application of the DST. Parameters developed to guide the research included:(i) Has there been an official recognition of the DST as a component of the RVF control policy in the DVS?(ii) What is the level of utilization of the framework (as per the proportion of key decision-makers that had the framework and the number of decision points that had been covered at any one time)?(iii) What are some of the perceptions on the ease of use of the DST?Review of literature A review of literature was carried out to identify systems and models that could be used with the DST as well as to describe successes and challenges associated with the implementation of the DST in general. The review used a 'funnelling in' approach which commenced with general searches that were subsequently refined until most of the information that was being pursued had been obtained.An initial systematic search of published articles was undertaken using the online databases PubMed and MEDLINE and selected search engines, including Google, to identify relevant studies and reviews on decision support systems worldwide, using key words/Medical Subject Headings. All permutations of Medical Subject Headings were entered and each search was conducted twice to ensure accuracy. Keywords used included decision support tool, framework, policy, stakeholders, barriers, attitudes, perceptions, processes, user experience, usability, uptake and dissemination. Summaries of returned articles were reviewed and articles where the abstract indicated potentially useful information were retrieved. Reference lists of identified articles and key reviews were also considered. Where suitable papers did not provide adequate information, authors were contacted by e-mail and requested to provide further information.Other sources of information used included 'grey' literature (including unpublished conference proceedings) and personal contacts with researchers known to have contributed to the development of a particular DST.• African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)• NGOs including Vétérinaires sans Frontières Belgium, Switzerland and Germany• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) KenyaInterviews were structured around a pre-developed checklist (Annex I) of issues of concern, even though not necessarily in the same order. Informants were allowed to follow the natural progression of the conversation in order to explore and capture emerging issues. Key issues covered included barriers and incentives, decision-making skills, technical and knowledge support, funding and RVF intervention options.Focus group discussions involved RVF control agents in the field (DVOs) and other stakeholders from various animal health sectors in Kenya. These discussions began in July 2012 after the development of a survey checklist. The same checklist (Annex I) was used to collect data on successes and challenges related to the implementation of the DST. Discussions were flexible and covered all key topics for all the focus groups convened although the order of the checklist questions was not always maintained since discussions were allowed to flow freely. Those interviewed included:• Veterinary officers in the three RVF hotspots: Northeastern, Rift Valley and Coast provinces A stakeholder workshop was held on 25 September 2012 in Naivasha, Kenya. A total of 19 participants drawn from various institutions attended. Discussions were guided by findings of the appraisal studies that had been done to collate experiences, attitudes and perceptions from decision-makers on the applicability of the DST.Findings from the review of literatureFindings from the review of literature are classified into two sections. The first focuses on early warning systems and risk models and how the DST can be integrated into these systems and the second outlines challenges that are associated with the utilization of such decision support systems in general.Early warning systems constitute a critical component of DST since they are useful for staging the DST. Messages generated from these systems define RVF risk levels, leading to the identification of an appropriate decision point to focus on. Risk maps, on the other hand, are useful for identifying risk zones where interventions suggested by the framework would be applied.• GLEWS (www.glews.net) is a system developed jointly by FAO, OIE and WHO. It systematically collects, verifies, analyses and responds to information from a variety of sources, including unofficial media reports and informal networks. The system minimizes unjustified duplication of efforts by linking and utilizing alert messages from different systems and organizations including FAO's Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES), WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and OIE's World Animal Health and Information Database. These linkages also help to improve accuracy. The network is managed by a GLEWS task force which is responsible for setting up working groups and identifying diseases of interest. The GLEWS working groups are then involved in tracking trends of the identified diseases, conducting epidemiological analyses, modelling, forecasting as well as risk assessment. After each outbreak debriefing meeting, the GLEWS working groups submit a report including recommendations and conclusions to the GLEWS task force for review and clearance. The task force is responsible for issuing early warning disease alerts and general risk communication.• Africa Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System (http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GCMD_CIESIN0122. html) -This system, developed jointly by FAO, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Reading and the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands, uses remote sensing techniques for surveillance and forecasting under the Global Information and Early Warning System. It generates products such as 10-day and monthly cold cloud density maps for Africa and the Near East (resolution 7.6 km), 10-day and monthly estimated rainfall maps for the southern Sahara, the Sahel, Sudan, and the tropical countries of West Africa (resolution 7.6 km), 10-day and monthly composite vegetation index maps for Africa and the Near East. In addition to these products, the system maintains a 10-year vegetation index archive on a 10-day and monthly basis.• EMPRES-i (http://www.fao.org/foodchain/empres-prevention-and-early-warning/en/) is a web-based system designed by FAO to support disease control agents through collation, analysis of, and access to, animal disease data. EMPRES-i was particularly used to convey information on increasing RVF activity in the Horn of Africa in 2006-07. It enables users to easily access data that can be used for further analysis e.g. as charts or maps. EMPRES-i information sources include country or regional project reports, field mission reports, partner NGOs, cooperating institutions, government ministries of agriculture and health, FAO in-country representatives or other United Nations parties, public domains, the media and web-based health surveillance systems. For verification purposes, EMPRES-i uses official and unofficial sources of information such as in-country assistance projects and personal contacts with NGOs and other institutions. It therefore provides updated information on global animal disease distribution and current threats at the national, regional and global level for priority animal diseases. It also provides access to publications, manuals and other resources, such as contact details of chief veterinary officers and FAO/OIE reference laboratories. In addition to these systems, dynamic models such as the differential equation model developed by Gaff et al. (2007) can also aid in the staging of the DST since they predict changes in RVF risk over time. This model specifically highlights virus persistence for over 10 years provided that contact rates between hosts and the two mosquito species are maintained in an isolated system.Another study done in Kenya described the use of a regression model to compute relative risks of RVF based on geographic, geologic and meteorological data such as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and land use patterns (Hightower et al. 2012).Other models have focussed on the risk of RVF with respect to movement of animals and their products through trade (Davies 2006). All of them used qualitative methods and none has specific focus on eastern Africa. One study in Egypt highlighted the possibility of spread of the RVF virus by insects carried by wind and animal movements though trade.Spatial analysis techniques were used to correlate RVF activity and increased NDVI (Linthicum et al. 1987). One study done in Kenya highlighted the possibility of forecasting RVF outbreaks two to five months in advance by associating the outbreaks with sea surface temperatures and NDVI data (Anyamba et al. 2009). Time series analysis of combined sea surface temperatures and NDVI anomalies were also found to be indicative of intensity and duration of RVF outbreaks in Africa (Anyamba et al. 2002).A subsequent study using the same methodology was used to provide a two-to-six-week warning for the Horn of Africa that facilitated outbreak response and mitigation activities (Anyamba et al. 2009). These studies used spatial techniques for mapping combined with time series analysis, remote sensing data and other statistical analysis methods (Figure 1a). Additional analyses have also been conducted to predict the distribution of the RVF hotspots based on the data on RVF epizootics obtained from Kenya (Bett et al. 2013). These models utilize climate, remote sensing, geological and limited socio-economic data; their output is demonstrated in Figure 1b.Their main limitation, however, is availability of data that can be used to drive these systems. In addition, climate models which determine the level of risk do not always give reliable predictions especially in western Africa, the Middle East and Madagascar (FAO-WHO 2008).Figure 1. Spatial distribution of RVF risk in the greater Horn of Africa estimated from remote sensing and climate data (Anyamba et al. 2009; Figure 1a) and based on the analysis of RVF epizootics (Bett et al. 2013; Figure 1b)Figure 1b Barriers that impair the use of decision support systems and research outputsMost publications on decision support systems do not provide information on the challenges that impair uptake and levels of utilization of these systems yet a few of them get assimilated into policy frameworks following their dissemination. A large proportion of these systems are interactive, computer-based tools (such as EpiMAN-FMD (Sanson et al. 1999), classical swine fever decision support system (Crauwels et al. 2001), geographical information systems etc.) with tremendous potential to enhance disease control. Though the DST has not yet been computerised, it is assumed that some of the limitations associated with the use of decision support systems would be relevant for this study. These limitations were classified into four main categories:• Technical challenges• Culture change/attitude challenges• Bureaucratic hoops and incentives• Resource limitations and ineffective dissemination modelsDecision support systems require appreciable levels of technical and infrastructural prerequisites for them to be used effectively, particularly on how to process input and output data. Stephens and Hess (1996) describe a study carriedFigure 1b out to assess the uptake of a PEARCH crop environment computer model that was developed to aid understanding on how crops respond to arid environments. The utilization of the model was impaired by multiple factors including challenges associated with organizing meteorological data for the model. In healthcare, electronic decision support systems are expected to aid decision-makers access knowledge stored electronically. This might help them make conscious choices regarding health and interventions. However, barriers to adoption of such tools have mainly been related to low computer literacy among general users.The DST shares some of these challenges with regards to the definition of credible decision triggers (based on forecasting models) given that these triggers have to be identified based on reliable prediction systems. Forecasting models, on the other hand, also have their own assumptions and limitations that can be applied to the DST.Changes in policy may be met with resistance especially when there is lack of understanding on the benefits of the changes or when implementers have alternative options. Wallace et al. (2013) give a comprehensive review of the barriers that impair uptake of scientific evidence by decision-makers: physicians, nurses and medical personnel. The review classifies obstacles encountered into knowledge, attitude and behaviour challenges. Knowledge indicates awareness of and familiarity with information and might be influenced by dissemination levels etc. Negative attitude and behaviour, on the other hand, come from lack of perceived usefulness of the product. The review observes that lack of access to information and limited awareness are significant barriers to uptake of evidence. Innvaer et al. (2002) identified similar barriers and suggested that some of these could be due to:• Absence of personal contacts between the researchers who generated the outputs and policymakers• Lack of timeliness or relevance of the research evidence• Mutual mistrust, including perceived political naivety of scientists and scientific naivety of policymakers• Power and budget struggles• Poor quality of researchThey propose that two-way communication between researchers and policymakers would facilitate a mutual understanding of a policy question and knowledge needed. Lomas (1997) further states that researchers and policymakers have to view research dissemination and uptake as a communication process between the two sides.It is believed that no matter how valuable a support tool is, institutional or high-level administrative support is required for it to make meaningful impact. An assessment of the effectiveness of the Intersectoral Action Plan for Health and its Health Impact Assessment Tool in Slovakia established that tools that had been institutionalized, for example Environmental Impact Assessment, worked well compared to those that had not (Mannheimer et al. 2007). Furthermore, the study established that politicians, though supportive of the action plan, had not allocated the required operational budgets. The public servants therefore felt that there was not enough support, resources and training for continuous and routine implementation of the plan. This suggests that decision-makers and politicians need to change their mind-sets in favour of new policies and support tools before they are introduced. New policies and tools, especially if they challenge the status quo or professional prowess, might have far-reaching consequences on tastes, preferences and sensibilities of those who are expected to implement them.DSTs also ought to enhance horizontal, intersectoral coordination to boost capacity and information exchange. However, such tools need to be institutionalized within and between sectors given that informal working principles do not always hold.Funding bodies do not often provide support for the translation of research outputs into policy (Poulos et al. 2007). Funding periods for these systems are usually too short to ensure effective dissemination (Myers et al. 2000). It is often assumed that the users have been integrated into the research work to enable them take over when funding comes to an end. It is slowly being realized that some of the partnerships formed in the course of a scientific research are not institutionalized and so there is usually no assurance that the research outputs will be carried over.Dissemination channels used need to identify distinctions across audiences being targeted, ways of enhancing the utilization of a tool and means of addressing negative perceptions on convenience of usage. Lomas (1997) indicates that researchers get 'one-size-fits-all' dissemination process and hence fail to tailor the content, timing, setting and format to the audience. A survey conducted by Wilson and Opolski (2009) on barriers for the implementation of a cardiovascular computerised decision support tool suggested ways of enhancing the uptake of the tool e.g. (i) using financial incentives, (ii) joint promotion with a professional body and (iii) undergraduate medical education. For the financial incentive model, users of the tool were provided with a one-off payment linked to a formal agreement for them to install and use the tool in their practice. Payment would be made to the user once evidence is received that the tool is being used and the target number of users has been met. The second dissemination method involved a joint promotion of the system as a valuable decision-making tool by a leading professional body which would allow the users to know that a peak body had endorsed the materials and information within the program. The last method on undergraduate training involved integration of the decision support system in undergraduate training providing students with knowledge and understanding of electronic tools that would be used.A total of 23 key informants, mostly senior veterinary officers and heads of departments at the DVS headquarters in Kabete (9) as well as local representatives from NGOs, KARI, CDC Kenya, AU-IBAR and Farm Africa ( 14), were interviewed to collate information on:• whether or not the DST had been used to manage RVF• extent of usage of the DST• perceptions on the convenience of usage of the DST• ability of the DST to guide and promote good responsesThree focus group discussions were conducted in Nakuru, Garissa and Mombasa to collate views and perceptions of DVOs and farmer representatives from the three RVF hotspots -Northeastern, Rift Valley and Coast provinces. Each group was composed of 7-9 people. The results of these discussions are presented with those of the key informant interviews.It was established that the DST had been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan developed by the DVS and it constitutes Chapter 8 of the RVF action plan. The decision points were classified under the action points defined in the FAO's guide for developing a contingency plan as outlined in Table 2.FAO had also used the DST to stockpile vaccines following warnings of heightened risk towards the end of 2012. These developments suggest that a number of institutions had started using the DST though no outbreak had ever occurred since it was developed for a conclusive determination on its suitability/ability to guide and promote good responses.Extent of usage of the DST Only 10.6% of all respondents (5/47) in both the key informant interviews and focus group discussions were aware of the existence of the RVF DST. Most of the respondents who were aware of it were senior officers at the DVS in Kabete. It was therefore established that usage of the DST was still limited to the national (veterinary) headquarters given that a majority of the districts/DVOs had not received it nor been sensitized on its application. The focus group discussions identified a number of constraints that had curtailed the widespread dissemination and application of the DST:• Resource and funding constraints The focus group discussions established that the DST had been incorporated into Kenya's RVF contingency plan and its operational budget (amounting to KES 66,015,880 or about USD 790,609) developed and assimilated into the department's strategic plans, including Vision 2030 and the medium-term expenditure framework. However, participants stated that the government had not provided the funds and the DVS was exploring ways of supporting the budget, including developing proposals targeting bilateral funds. The department had been hoping to secure and ringfence these funds especially during inter-epidemic periods as it builds the response capacity. It was also indicated that it is better to raise funds during inter-epidemic periods given that the bureaucratic and slow procedures involved in raising and mobilizing funds would frustrate emergency responses to be used during the high-risk periods.The department intends to lobby for the required funds but it needs more input on costs and benefits of RVF control to incorporate these in its proposals. It also suggests that social-economic surveys should identify and prioritize issues at the local level that can be used to leverage funding.Issues raised under this theme focussed on technical challenges that hamper the implementation of the RVF response measures identified in the DST. Participants underscored the need for better and cheaper diagnostic tests that can be used in remote areas to enhance surveillance during inter-epidemic and epidemic periods. It was pointed out that field workers collected samples and sent them to the Central Veterinary Laboratories in Nairobi for confirmatory analyses with initial testing being done at the regional veterinary laboratories. It was indicated that the turnaround time for samples processed at the Central Veterinary Laboratories was too long and so the stock owners had lost patience with the system. Officers who managed sentinel herds indicated that they were not being allocated enough resources for periodic sampling of the animals. Funds assigned to them were not adequate for purchasing consumables and fuel or vehicle repairs and replacing animals that had seroconverted.Participants suggested that community animal health workers could help in disease reporting in pastoral areas where they offered clinical services. Various models of linking these community animal health workers with veterinarians (as described in reports on the delivery of animal health services) were identified, e.g. linking them with local private veterinarians who operate agro-veterinary stores.Discussions were held on the need for safer and more effective vaccines while recognizing that existing vaccines caused side effects e.g. abortion. The rate of production and dissemination of these vaccines was also thought to be inadequate. These factors, together with poor acceptability, contributed to low vaccination coverage. Other factors that were attributed to low vaccination coverage included poor security in most RVF hotspots, poor road network and low operational budget. These factors compromised the ability of the department to administer effective vaccination drives. Some of the NGOs had therefore stepped in to support the department although some of their campaigns focussed on defined target areas given their interests to integrate interventions at the community level.The focus group discussions suggested that the DVS needed to play a more critical role in coordinating disease control interventions implemented by the NGOs to ensure that plausible targets (e.g. spatial and population coverage, frequency and safety) were achieved.Participants indicated that the DVS did not have the capacity to implement vector control measures. This activity was being implemented by the Ministry of Health although its focus was to control mosquitoes in settlement areas and not in watering and animal grazing sites. The DVS was requested to strengthen its capacity to manage RVF especially during the inter-epidemic period when it was possible to cover wide areas.DVOs generally felt that RVF was not being taken seriously given that the DVS focussed more on diseases that are perceived as causing the greatest economic burden. They thought that their directors had not prioritized RVF given that it was a zoonotic disease that could be addressed by multiple institutions such as the Zoonotic Disease Unit. They offered suggestions on how to enhance their participation in RVF management policy, namely:• training on the disease epidemiology, syndromic surveillance, budgeting and cost-benefit analyses, and the use of DST.• more interaction between researchers and implementers to better understand exposure patterns as well as harmonise response procedures.• provision of an effective infrastructure/funding for the DST implementation.• employing more staff as well as retaining the existing ones given that there is a high turnover of staff and it would be difficult to maintain the institutional memory required for effective management of RVF given its long interepidemic period.The DVOs indicated that the DST and RVF contingency plan had not been disseminated effectively as most of them and their NGO partners had not received it. They observed that there is a need for the DVS to develop modalities of enhancing the utilization of the DST, for example, by assigning specific individuals, offices or other institutions the role of disseminating the DST. They added that the government needs to enforce animal health policies, particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas where the disease is endemic, for the disease control and coordination efforts to be felt on the ground. Some of these efforts could be implemented through the Zoonotic Disease Unit.Participants also noted that there was need to synchronize policy issues throughout East Africa to allow for the use of the DST as a common RVF management and control tool given that it is a trans-boundary disease. These attempts were already being explored under the AU-IBAR project entitled Standards Methods and Procedures in Animal Health. Some of the steps that would be taken to achieve this include:• Disease prioritization surveys to harmonize efforts across borders since RVF may or may not be a priority disease in all the target countries.• Standardization of disease surveillance and control acts.• Characterization of RVF control programs in the target countries and the development of a region-wide acceptable standards.• Identification of a coordinating body (such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, FAO or AU-IBAR) to manage these activities.• Establishment of a database of stakeholders in the field of RVF research through which pertinent information such as research results can be passed along from one institute to another. This will promote information flow between institutions as well as enhance communication and collaboration;• Strengthening of the existing public-private partnerships to ensure smooth implementation of the DST especially during emergencies. These include linkages with trader associations, the police/security forces, border patrols and community representatives.There is need for an official platform to facilitate communication and collaboration between government institutions and NGOs as the current ones are based on personal relationships/acquaintances. This hampers collaborations especially during emergencies. Memoranda of Understanding would promote, nurture and guide institutional partnerships that will far outlive individual relationships. District Steering Groups should be set up even in non-arid and non-semi-arid areas to assist in coordination of disease control activities during emergencies. This would ensure sharing of resources as well as tone down excessive institutional competition.Perceptions on the convenience of usage of the DST Participants who had used the DST indicated that the number of decision points identified was high and the document was voluminous and so there was need to develop shorter versions of the document (e.g. briefs and leaflets) to improve its distribution and accessibility. Suggestions were also made on the need to improve prediction models.Nineteen participants drawn from various institutions attended the workshop convened on 25 September 2012 in Naivasha, Kenya to verify the findings of the focus group discussions including the challenges associated with the utilization of the DST, and identify effective ways of disseminating the tool.Below is a summary of the key points discussed at the workshop.• The level of utilization of the DST has been very low. Under 10% of decision-makers had received the tool, partly because the channel that was used for its dissemination (e-mail) is inaccessible for most of the field officers.In addition, the DST was said to be rather long (32 pages). The workshop recommended the development of simpler versions of the document like posters or brochures that would be easier to read and disseminate. These documents could then be distributed during stakeholder meetings and to all the DVS offices throughout the country.• The DST has been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan that was developed by the DVS in liaison with FAO. The DST forms Chapter 8 of the contingency plan. It was however noted that the DVS should involve other stakeholders in the development of the contingency plan. This would also help transform the contingency plan/DST into a One Health framework when the needs and inputs of the other relevant stakeholders, e.g. Ministry of Health, are incorporated.The workshop came up with a list of stakeholders that could be involved. These were classified into three main groups: advisory or coordination team, response or implementation team and financiers. The contingency plan will need to be revised, spelling out the roles of each stakeholder group.• The workshop was informed that most respondents interviewed in the DST assessment studies regarded the stages defined in the DST as being numerous (12 in total) with some of them being too close in time to be considered as being independent decision points. The workshop recommended having five key decision points, namely, normal, early warning, pre-outbreak, outbreak and step-down phases, with the DST stages being classified under them (five stages) while retaining the detailed information presented in the DST.• The workshop observed that RVF response measures, mainly vaccination, movement control and surveillance, are often implemented late, haphazardly and at very low levels of coverage. For example, during the RVF outbreak in 2006-07, vaccination was implemented from February 2007 when the epidemic was tailing off. The coverage attained then was estimated to be 3-18% in cattle, 3-56% in sheep, 1-25% in goats and 2-4% in camels. The DVS indicated that it often faced major challenges in funding RVF control. The DVS was however challenged to explore other channels of mobilizing resources, including developing proposals for external funding.Since the last RVF outbreak in the Horn of Africa 2006-07, efforts have been made to develop decision support tools and frameworks to improve response capacity. The need for decision support tools is informed by the fact that RVF epizootics occur in irregular cycles that offer immense challenges for governments to develop clear intervention strategies in the face of an outbreak after a period of no visible RVF activity. Inter-epidemic periods are characterized by a decline in the levels of awareness; limited resources are therefore shifted to other diseases or more pressing problems (Martin et al. 2008). In addition, future decision-making in RVF control is complicated by uncertainties regarding types of drivers that are critical for the disease occurrence. Though it is suspected that there is a threshold level of precipitation that would heighten the risk of an epidemic, it is likely that a convergence of a number of events (e.g. strong reduction in population immunity, presence/emergence of infectious vectors, persistent precipitation, presence of a critical population of hosts etc.) are required for an outbreak to occur. It is not always possible to predict the convergence of these factors. Therefore, uncertainties about the disease causation impose severe limitations on the choice of interventions.The DST was developed to help decision-makers in the Greater Horn of Africa take timely, evidence-based decisions to prevent and mitigate the impacts of RVF (Consultative Group for RVF Decision Support 2010). Its development and dissemination was, however, based on four key assumptions suggesting the existence of emergency fund that can be made available based on predetermined criteria, communication system with a clear chain of command, and that during normal situation the users will review the suggested interventions in line with the contingency plan.Observations generated by this study, however, indicate that these assumptions have proved to be the DST's Achilles heel.The key strengths of the study is that it addressed barriers to the utilization of the DST through sequential steps that started with a review of 43 articles, followed by key informant interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and lastly, a stakeholder workshop that validated the findings obtained. From these activities, four parameters were identified and used to gauge the level of utilization of DST: (i) whether or not the DST had been used to manage RVF, (ii) the extent of usage, (iii) perception on the convenience of usage, and (iv) its ability to guide and promote good responses.There were a few challenges associated with the implementation of the study. First, very scanty information regarding uptake and level of utilization of decision support tools was obtained despite a good number (n = 43) of articles reviewed. Most of the articles focused on decision support systems that were mainly being used in the medical field in developed countries. Moreover, most of the systems reviewed had not been applied in official policy settings, suggesting that there could be publication bias acting against systems that get disapproved by policymakers. This might also suggest that the development of decision support systems is seldom linked to desired needs leading to its inability to gain traction in the policy arena. To guard against narrowing the review to a few potentially non-representative articles, those focussing on challenges of uptake and utilization of research outputs in general were included. Second, the fourth assessment parameter envisages a scenario where the DST has been fully utilized through its 12 decision points. Fortunately, the Horn of Africa has not had an RVF outbreak since the DST was developed. Reports relating to the successful application of the DST represent preparatory activities that were implemented in response to heightened risk of RVF in 2008 and 2012 that never developed into an outbreak.The results of this study agree with those of one carried out in 2010 to investigate the sources of early warning messages and response measures implemented by the DVS during the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in Kenya (Gachohi et al. 2012). In that study, 10.2% of the survey respondents were aware and had received a copy of the RVF DST. This shows that there have not been any efforts to disseminate and increase awareness and utilization of this tool.In addition, barriers and challenges hindering the uptake of the DST that were identified during the focus group discussions and key informant interviews corroborate those identified from the literature review. To some extent, this is expected because the checklist used to guide the focus group discussions was developed based on the evidence obtained from the review. Nevertheless, the focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted in an open manner to encourage and foster the identification of new information leads. The focus discussion groups, for instance, indicated frontline personnel in the DVS (in the districts) lacked the drive to implement RVF control policy for what they perceived to be lack of support and prioritization of the disease at the headquarters. This culture goes against the spirit of the DST which in fact recommends a raft of measures that should be implemented during normal (inter-epidemic) periods e.g. establishment of information systems, risk analyses, training of personnel, pre-testing of messages, among others. These measures, if implemented, would reduce impulsive responses when risk warnings are provided. More work is therefore needed to promote the culture of risk-based decision-making as espoused in the DST.Resource limitations and underfunding of RVF interventions were identified as critical and long-standing challenges that the department should find innovative ways of addressing e.g. by developing proposals for funding. It was also realized that though the government has not allocated any funds to the RVF emergency fund, it has invested a substantial amount of funds to establish disease-free zones at the Coast Province and in Laikipia, Isiolo and North Rift. This intervention has been supported by proponents of integrated management of trans-boundary animal diseases since it provides a platform for the development of contingency plans for a range of trade-sensitive diseases. The department should, however, not lose sight of the need to develop capacity for managing emergency responses such as the ones needed when RVF outbreaks occur. In the past, it has been criticized for not managing disease outbreaks and balancing investments in disease control against successive surges in case counts. The department in fact has a huge potential to play a coordination role when it does not have adequate funding to implement the interventions.Annex 1: Checklist for discussion points for key informant interviews and focus group discussionsSeveral factors may prevent a tool from making any significant impact in helping to improve the decision-making process. These can perhaps be grouped into• Language/ comprehension/ simplicity• General layout 2. Constrains to its widespread uptake and use ","tokenCount":"7323"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"971b7484c7d9351ca35975c518aabdd0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/57601e9f-6ba5-4865-b19b-04ad3b6fddb9/content","id":"1377092550"},"keywords":["AMOVA, analysis of molecular variance","BSSS, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic","CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","CML, CIMMYT maize line","GRIN, Germplasm Resources Information Network","MPH, midparent heterosis","MRD, modified Roger's distance","NSSS, non-Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic","PAV, present-absent variation","PCA, principal component analysis","PVP, Plant Variety Protection","SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism"],"sieverID":"21e5ac2f-e5ea-4683-ad2c-ebb9eb257c48","pagecount":"16","content":"The use of temperate maize (Zea mays L.) inbreds with expired Plant Variety Protection in tropical maize breeding programs could enhance the combining ability for grain yield among tropical heterotic groups. We used DNA markers from the DArTseq genotyping-by-sequencing platform to investigate the genetic structure of lines with expired U.S. Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) relative to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's (CIMMYT's) maize heterotic groups. Neighbor-joining cluster analysis revealed two major groups: CIMMYT and ex-PVP.The CIMMYT lines clustered according to their pedigree relationships and adaptation, but not according to their heterotic groups. In contrast, ex-PVP lines clustered according to the Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) and non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) heterotic groups, except for a few lines that were considered to be mixed. The genetic divergence, estimated as Wright's fixation index (F ST ), between BSSS and NSSS (F ST = .053, P < .01) was four times as large as the divergence between CIMMYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups (F ST = .013, P = .068). Estimates of genetic divergence marginally favored breeding with BSSS in Tuxpeño and NSSS in non-Tuxpeño. However, CIMMYT breeders may still exploit the ex-PVP heterotic structure fully only by ensuring that the temperate heterotic groups are placed on opposite sides of the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern. We also showed how estimates of admixture from model-based clustering could be used to avoid ex-PVP lines of mixed heterotic background when selecting lines to maximize the genetic divergence and combining ability of CIMMYT heterotic groups.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) hybrid maize (Zea mays L.) breeding programs for the lowlands (0-900 m asl), mid-altitudes (900-2,000 m asl), and highlands (>2,000 m asl) were started in the early 1990s using populations of mixed racial origin as source germplasm (Vasal, et al., 1999;Vasal & McLean, 1994). Therefore, an initial objective of CIMMYT's hybrid maizebreeding program was to identify heterotic patterns among the populations and inbred lines using cross-classified mating designs (Vasal, et al., 1992;Vasal, et al., 1993). Vasal et al. (1999)   (CIMMYT, 1998;Vasal et al., 1999). Heterotic groups and patterns are important because they determine how germplasm is organized, managed, and used to achieve genetic gain from selection in hybrid breeding programs (Melchinger & Gumber, 1998). Quantitative genetics theory for heterosis shows that in the absence of epistasis, and assuming two alleles per locus, midparent heterosis (MPH) between two random-mating populations is a function of dominance and the square of the difference in allele frequencies at loci controlling the trait of interest (Falconer and Mackay, 1996;Lamkey & Edwards, 1999;Melchinger & Gumber, 1998;William & Pollak, 1985). Heterosis is therefore maximized when the difference in allele frequencies at loci associated with the trait of interest in the parents is maximized (Melchinger, 1999).Genetic structure analysis of CIMMYT germplasm using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers did not detect genetic divergence according to heterotic groups among inbred lines (Semagn et al., 2012;Wu et al., 2016;Xia et al., 2004Xia et al., , 2005)). The results observed among CIMMYT lines were similar to the results of Duvick, Smith, and Cooper (2004) that showed apparent clustering by heterotic groups for modern Pioneer Hi-Bred lines and lack of structure for lines from the U.S. preheterotic group era. Although heterotic patterns discovered based on phylogenetic and geographical isolation exist (e.g., B73 × Mo17, or the case of Iodent and the French inbred line F2 in Europe), empirical evidence suggests that heterotic groups are created and enhanced by breeders through selection (Barrière et al., 2006;Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). Studies of the heterotic structure of germplasm are done to guide germplasm organization and management for breeding purposes. To be informative, therefore, the studies of the heterotic structure of CIMMYT lines should be done with lines that have been widely used in breeding or as parents of successful hybrids, as opposed to the full set of CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs) as was done in previous studies (Wu et al., 2016;Xia et al., 2004;Xia et al., 2005).Breeding with several heterotic groups can be expensive and inefficient as hybrid development often requires the use• Genetic diversity was higher among CIMMYT than among US ex-PVP inbreds. • The heterotic structure of US ex-PVP was more developed than that of CIMMYT inbreds. • Ex-PVP lines can be used to increase the genetic diversity between CIMMYT heterotic groups. • Increasing the genetic divergence between CIM-MYT heterotic groups could increase heterosis.of cross-classified mating designs to identify new hybrids and superior inbred lines (Pswarayi & Vivek, 2008). The use of a singular overarching heterotic pattern is desirable because it simplifies inbred and hybrid development and saves resources through the use of one to a limited number of testers to identify new superior inbred lines and hybrids. The CIMMYT maize inbred lines were classified based on the predominant racial origin of the source population and combining ability with established heterotic testers as either Tuxpeño (Group A; e.g., Population 21) or non-Tuxpeño (Group B; e.g., Population 32), but the groups are still indistinguishable (Wu et al., 2016). Reciprocal recurrent pedigree selection (Lee & Tollenaar, 2007) with existing lines can be effective in driving allele frequencies in opposite directions in the long term; however, introgression of exotic germplasm with a diverged heterotic structure could be a complementary strategy to enhance CIMMYT's heterotic groups.The Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) and non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) heterotic pattern has been in use in the U.S. Corn Belt since the late 1940s (Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006;Troyer, 2004) and is probably the most developed in maize breeding globally. In the United States, proprietary maize inbred lines are protected by either the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act, a U.S. utility patent, or both. As the protections expire after 20 yr, these inbred lines become available to the public. The heterotic relationship and structure of inbred lines with expired Plant Variety Protection certificates and U.S. patents (ex-PVP) have been extensively studied (Lorenz & Hoegemeyer, 2013;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White, Mikel, de Leon, & Kaeppler, 2020). Consistent with the theoretical expectations for a reciprocal pedigree recurrent selection program (Comstock, Robinson, & Harvey, 1949;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007), all the studies have shown clearly that allele frequencies between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups have significantly diverged and that this divergence has resulted in increased combining ability and grain yield of BSSS × NSSS hybrids in the U.S. Corn Belt (Duvick, 2005a(Duvick, , 2005b;;Duvick & Cassman, 1999). The heterotic divergence in the BSSS and NSSS heteroticpattern could be exploited to increase genetic divergence and, as a result, combining ability between the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups. In addition to enhancing the heterotic structure, ex-PVP lines can also be used to improve other important traits such as reduced inbreeding depression and time to maturity, increased yield potential and stalk and root strength, adaptation to higher planting densities, and fast grain dry down.Understanding the genetic composition of ex-PVP lines and their relationship with CIMMYT germplasm is necessary to effectively exploit the heterotic structure of the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern to improve the combining ability of the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern. We assessed the genetic structure of ex-PVP lines relative to the CMLs and other elite and special trait inbred lines using SNPs and present-absent polymorphisms (PAVs) from the DArTseqbased genotyping (Edet, Gorafi, Nasuda, & Tsujimoto, 2018;Ren et al., 2015;Sansaloni et al., 2011). We narrowed our objective to focus only on the genetic structure of CIMMYT elite lines widely used for breeding and hybrid development and the most recombined ex-PVP lines (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006). Specifically, we (a) assessed the degree of genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS relative to CIM-MYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño, (b) determined the ideal heterotic alignment of BSSS and NSSS with CIMMYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño lines (i.e., determine in which CIM-MYT heterotic group to introgress the BSSS or the NSSS lines), and (c) identified the most genetically pure sources of BSSS or NSSS ex-PVP lines to use in CIMMYT breeding programs.Seed of 244 U.S. ex-PVP lines genotyped in this study was obtained through the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN) (http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs; accessed 11 July 2020) from the U.S. North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (Ames, IA) in 2014. Information from the PVP certificates obtained from the GRIN data system and from published studies (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White et al., 2020) was used to classify lines as either BSSS or NSSS. In addition, a total of 570 tropical, mid-altitude, and highland CMLs and other elite inbred lines from CIMMYT's breeding programs were also genotyped. The 244 temperate lines represented about 80% of the lines in the ex-PVP database in 2014; the 570 CIMMYT lines represented most of the diversity in CIMMYT germplasm.Because not all CMLs were widely used in CIMMYT and other private and public breeding programs, we performed genetic diversity and structure analyses on a subset of 147 lines (Table 1) representing the core set of lines used in CIM-MYT breeding programs in 2014, and the most recombined ex-PVP lines (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006). The CIM-MYT subset had 76 lines that consisted of 43 Tuxpeños and 33 non-Tuxpeños. The ex-PVP subset had 71 lines: 45 NSSS and 26 BSSS. Although the majority of the selected ex-PVP lines were among the most recombined (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006), others were selected based on recommendations from some U.S. breeders that were familiar with the germplasm and our field observations.Sequencing and SNP calling  , 1984). The DNA was then quantified and diluted to an equal concentration of 200 ng μl −1 before performing high-throughput genotyping in 96 plex using DArTseq technology following methods described in earlier studies (Chen et al., 2016;Ren et al., 2015;Sansaloni et al., 2011). The genomic DNA of all the samples was digested with restriction enzymes PstI (CTGCAG) and HpaII (CCGG) prior to ligating barcoded adaptors to identify each sample. For each 96-well plate, 16% of the samples were replicated to assess the data reproducibility. Amplification products of equal molar concentration for each sample were pooled by plate and amplified with c-Bot (Illumina) bridge PCR, followed by fragment sequencing using Illumina Hiseq 2500 (http://www.illumina.com; accessed 11 July 2020). Sequence analysis was done to align reads with the sequence tag-based maize meta-genome, and SNPs and present-absent variations (PAVs) were called using the DArTsoft analytical pipeline. A search was conducted on the B73 reference genome (B73 RefGen_v3; Andorf et al., 2016) to look for the positions of the SNPs. The SNP position search was conducted using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST; Altschul, et al., 1990;Ye, et al., 2006) with a maximum 4-bp mismatch threshold. The marker locations and tiled regions were mapped to the B73 reference genome from the Gramene database (ftp://ftp.ensemblgenomes.org; accessed 11 July 2020), but some SNPs and PAVs could not be mapped to a chromosome. A total of 616,967 unimputed SNPs and 18,936 present-absent variations (PAVs) were successfully identified on each inbred line. After removing markers with >25% missing data and minor allele frequency <5%, T A B L E 1 The subset of 147 lines consisting of the most widely used for breeding and hybrid development in the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) breeding programs and some of the most recombined lines with expired Plant Variety Protection (Mikel & Dudley, 2006)  a Chromosome 0 consists of markers that could not be mapped to the B73 reference genome.the 8,690 unimputed SNPs and 12,391 PAVs (21,081 markers) that remained had an average of 7.35% missing data (Table 2). The 21,081 markers or subsets with ≤5% missing data, depending on the type of analysis, were used for subsequent genetic diversity analyses.Summary statistics for markers, including heterozygosity, percentage missing data, and the effective number of alleles per locus, were computed across the 21,081 markers using R Crop Science (R Core Team, 2019). The effective number of alleles (A e ) for each marker was calculated aswhere D j is the gene diversity of the jth of l loci.Standard χ 2 tests were used to test for genetic homogeneity between pairs of heterotic groups (Table 1), with a null hypothesis of equal allele frequencies between groups. The χ 2 tests were done using a subset of 10,413 markers with ≤5% missing data and minor allele frequency ≥.01. A Bonferronicorrected probability value of .05/n, where n is the number of loci, was used to adjust for multiple testing. The number of significant markers for each pair of populations was then expressed as a proportion of the total number of markers analyzed. The standard errors for the percentages of significant markers were calculated using standard formulae, according to the Bernoulli distribution (Evans, et al., 2000). Data of the subset of 10,413 markers coded as codominant genotypes were also subjected to analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) (Excoffier, et al., 1992). The AMOVA was conducted using GenAlEX (Peakall & Smouse, 2012) to estimate Wright's fixation index, F ST (Wright, 1965). Statistical significance for pairwise F ST values was determined by permutation across the dataset.Private alleles (the number of alleles unique to a subpopulation) were estimated in R from 5,000 random samples of 26 (the smallest subset) lines drawn without replacement from the Tuxpeño, non-Tuxpeño, and the NSSS subsets using the full set of 21,081 markers. Private alleles between the full CIMMYT and ex-PVP sets was estimated from the average of 1,000 random samples of 244 drawn without replacement from the CIMMYT group. A resampling approach was used to estimate the number of private alleles to avoid bias due to differences in sample size.Principal component analysis (PCA) was also done using the 21,081 markers on the CIMMYT, ex-PVP, and the subset of 147 inbred lines with the prcomp package in R. The first three principal components were plotted using the scat-terplot3d package in R. The genetic distance between each pair of inbred lines was estimated across the 21,081 markers using Rodger's modified genetic distance (MRD). The MRD was calculated aswhere p ij and q ij are the alleles frequencies of the jth allele at ith locus in each pair of inbred lines, a i is the number of alleles at the ith locus, and m is the number of loci. The MRD matrix was used to perform cluster analysis using the neighbor-joining method with the hclust package in R. The MRD was preferred because its square (MRD 2 ) is linearly correlated with MPH (Melchinger, 1999). The dendrogram was produced using the software Figtree 1.4.0 (http://tree.bio. ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/; accessed 11 July 2020). To assess whether PAV and SNP markers gave similar results on the genetic relationships among the lines, we created two MRD distance matrices for the full set of 814 lines: one based on the 8,690 SNPs and another based on the 12,391 PAVs. The two distance matrices were then converted to vectors that were then used to calculate Pearson's linear correlation coefficient between the SNP and PAV genetic distances.The population structure of the subset of 147 lines was evaluated using model-based clustering using the program STRUCTURE 2.3.4 (Pritchard, et al., 2000;Hubisz, et al., 2009). STRUCTURE was run with a subset of 7,994 markers that had <5% missing data and minor allele frequency ≥.1. The program was run with the number of populations, K, ranging from 1 to 10, with five runs for each value of K, a burnin period of 30,000, and 30,000 replications. The model with the optimal population number was selected using the ad hoc statistic delta K (ΔK), which is based on the rate of change in the log probability of the model between successive K values (Evanno, et al., 2005).The MRD matrices for PAV and SNP markers were highly correlated (r = .78, P < .01), indicating that combining the two marker datasets for the statistical analyses conducted in this study was appropriate. The AMOVA detected a significant genetic divergence (F ST = .16, P < .01) among the four groups. Pairwise F ST estimates were significant for all comparisons, except for between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (Table 3). The F ST between BSSS and NSSS was about four times as large as the F ST between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño. Estimates of F ST between CIMMYT and ex-PVP heterotic groups showed that BSSS was more diverged from Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (F ST ≈ .09, P < .01) than NSSS was diverged from the CIMMYT heterotic groups (F ST ≈ .08, P < .01) (Table 3).Similarly, BSSS and the CIMMYT heterotic groups had an average of 16% more loci with heterogenous allele frequencies than between the CIMMYT germplasm and NSS (Figure 1). Further, only 0.30% of the loci had heterogenous allele frequencies between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño, compared with 24.4% between the BSSS and NSS (Figure 1). The percentage of loci with heterogeneous allele frequencies between the Tuxpeño and BSSS (42.5%) was larger than that between Tuxpeño and NSSS (27.1%). The difference in mean percentage of heterogeneous loci between the Tuxpeño and BSSS pair and between the non-Tuxpeño-BSSS pair (1.35% or 141 loci) was statistically significant (t > 200, P < .001), suggesting that BSSS was genetically closer to Tuxpeño than to non-Tuxpeño. Also, the difference in percentage heterogenous loci between the Tuxpeño and NSS, and the non-Tuxpeño and NSS pairs (0.95%), although too small to be of practical significance, suggested that NSSS was genetically closer to non-Tuxpeño than to Tuxpeño (Figure 1). Although the largest number of significant markers (68%) was observed between the full sets of 570 CIMMYT lines and 244 ex-PVP lines (Figure 1), the largest heterotic group divergence based on allele frequencies was observed between non-Tuxpeño and BSSS (Figure 1).The average MRD among individual lines was highest within the full CIMMYT set and the subsets of Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño lines, suggesting that the CIMMYT germplasm pool had more genetic diversity than the ex-PVP set. Average MRD among the 244 ex-PVP lines was similar to the CIM-MYT subsets, but the NSSS subset had a higher average MRD than the BSSS subset (Table 4). The CIMMYT group and its subsets also had higher genetic diversity when diversity was expressed as either the average number of effective alleles per locus or the average number of private alleles (Table 4). In addition, the trend in all three measures of genetic diversity suggested that the BSSS subset had lower genetic diversity than the NSSS subset (Table 4). Based on the number of private alleles in each heterotic group, the Tuxpeño group, with an average of 39.7 private alleles, was the most dissimilar of the four heterotic groups (Table 4). Trends in the group pairwise average genetic distances were in agreement with F ST estimates showing no genetic divergence between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (Table 3). In contrast, the distance (MRD) between BSSS and NSSS was more than twice as large as the distance between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño. (Table 3). In addition, estimates of MRD suggest that both Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups had equal genetic distances to NSSS and BSSS. Collectively, these results suggest a lack of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups and the presence of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT germplasm pool and the ex-PVP lines and between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups.Cluster analysis of the subset of 147 inbred lines revealed two main clusters: the CIMMYT and the ex-PVP clusters (Figure 2). The 76 CIMMYT inbred lines clustered according to their source populations and the breeding program from which they were developed, but not according to their heterotic groups. Four weak subclusters were inferred in the CIMMYT cluster: inbred lines from the highland breeding program, mid-altitude, and lowland, and a mixed cluster of lowland and mid-altitude lines (Figure 2). The highland cluster consisted of all the 11 lines (Table 1), with no overlap with germplasm from the lowland tropical and mid-altitude programs (Figure 2). The lowland tropical cluster consisted of seven lines that can be traced back to the Tuxpeño Population 21: CML264, CML401, CML498, CML503, CML500, CLWN216, and CML573. The rest of the lines in the lowland tropical cluster were not related to Population 21 by pedigree; however, CML450, CML451, and CML495 have a common parent that may be related to Population 21.The mid-altitude cluster consisted of lines from the midaltitude programs in Mexico, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, whereas the mixed cluster consisted of lines from the lowland and midaltitude programs. The inbred line CML444 clustered with CML494, CML576, and CML373 (Figure 2), all extracted from Population 43. The inbred line CML312 clustered with related lines from Zimbabwe (CML539 and CML537) and its sister line CML311, as would be expected based on pedigree information (Figure 2). Additional subgroups of lines related by pedigree included the Suwan subgroup of CML224, CML225, CML227, and CML510. The lines CML489 and CML440 also clustered with Suwan lines despite having no evidence of Suwan germplasm in their pedigree. The close clustering of CML330, CML331, and CML332 is also consistent with pedigree information, indicating that all three were extracted from a population that was 50% Suwan. Theclustering of lines of the same heterotic group was also observed for CML78, CML375, CML505, and CML491, which all belonged to Tuxpeño.The clustering of lines based on their source population and association of sister lines such CML311 and CML312, CML383 and CML384, and CML379 and CML380 showed that our data were able to detect real genetic relationships among the lines. However, some inconsistencies were observed: CML537 (CML312 × CML206) clustered with CML202 instead of CML206. Further, CML483 clustered with CML78 instead of the related lines from Population 502: CML321, CML383, and CML384.The BSSS and the NSSS heterotic groups were clearly separated in the ex-PVP cluster (Figure 2). Within the BSSS cluster, a subcluster of lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred and another consisting of lines of Holden Foundation Seeds and Dekalb lines were detected (Figure 2). The NSSS cluster consisted of three distinct subclusters of Iodent, Oh07-Midland, and Oh43 or M017. The Iodent (PH207 and others) cluster consisted primarily of lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred and lines that were derived out of Pioneer hybrids. The Oh7-Midland (PHR03 and others) cluster consisted entirely of Pioneer lines, suggesting that this germplasm was unique to Pioneer Hi-Bred. The Oh43/Mo17 or Lancaster cluster was made up mainly of Holdens and Dekalb lines, with PHT60, PHG47, and PHK76 from Pioneer Hi-Bred also clustering with the Lancaster lines (Figure 2).Principal component analysis for the 570 CIMMYT lines separated inbred lines from the highland breeding program from the lowland tropical and tropical mid-altitude inbred lines on PCA1 (Figure 3). No clear separation of groups was observed on the other two principal components. The first three principal components explained 5.7% of the genetic variation, consistent with the general lack of structure in CIMMYT germplasm (Figure 3). In contrast, PCA for the 244 ex-PVP lines separated the lines into at least five subgroups (Figure 4). The first principal component (PC1) for all the ex-PVP lines separated the BSSS from the NSSS lines; BSSS lines were on the positive end and NSSS lines on the negative end of the PC1 axis (Figure 4). Lines that had a mixed NSS and BSS background, such as PHJ40, PHRE1, and PHAA0, were near the origin of the PCA1 axis. Iodents were on one end, and Mo17 and Oh43 lines were on the other end of the PCA2 axis, with BSSS, Oh7-Midland, and other NSS lines (e.g., Minnesota 13 and the French lines F2 and F7) at the origin. Along PCA3, the most extreme groups were mixed: one cluster consisting of Mo17 and B73 lines on one end, and B14, B37, and some Iodent lines on the other end. In general, PCA3 separated B73 and Mo17 types from B14 and B37 types. The first three prin- cipal components for the ex-PVP lines explained 23.8% of the genetic variation among the lines (Figure 4). For the subset of 147 lines, the first three principal components explained 19.8% of the genetic variation. The first principal component (PCA1) separated CIMMYT lines from ex-PVP lines. On one extreme of PCA1 were the lowland tropical lines from Population 21, and on the other extreme were the B73-derived BSSS lines. The highland, Oh43, and the Oh7-Midland lines were close to the origin of PCA1 (Figure 5). The second principal component separated the BSSS from the NSSS lines, with Iodent lines on one extreme of PCA2 and B73 lines on the other; CIMMYT lines were close to the origin of the PCA2 axis (Figure 5). Finally, the third principal component had Iodent lines on one extreme and Mo17 and Oh43 lines on the other of PCA3. The CIMMYT lines were at the origin of PCA3, and highland lines CHWE237, CHYL22, and CML460 were close to the Oh7-Midlands lines and the Mo17 or Oh43 lines (Figure 5).Model-based clustering results for the subset of 147 ex-PVP and CIMMYT lines are shown in Figure 6  because the results were more informative than the results for K = 2 for the use of ex-PVP lines in CIMMYT breeding programs. Despite the lack of subpopulations within CIMMYT germplasm, the results showed a trend towards an increase in the proportion (Q) of temperate (ex-PVP) genome with altitude (adaptation) from lowland to highland (Figure 7). The proportion of temperate genome for lowland tropical lines ranged from Q = 0 (for inbred lines from Population 21) to Q = .16 (for CML534), with an average of .07. The midaltitude lines had an average Q = .16 from the ex-PVP lines, with a range of Q = .03 (for CML379 and CML380) to Q = .36 (for CML486). The proportion of the genome originating from temperate lines was highest among highland lines with an average Q = .32 and a range of .29 (CML459) to .40 (CHWE237) (Figure 7). The results also suggest a higher proportion of NSSS alleles in CIMMYT lines than BSSS alleles (Figure 7). Most ex-PVP lines were assigned to the BSSS or the NSSS heterotic group, except PHMK0 and LH85, that were considered mixed because they had membership probability (Q) < .5 in all three populations (Figure 7). Among the BSSS lines, the majority of the Dekalb and Holden lines and the Cargill line 2369 had Q ≥ .9 within the BSSS group (Table 5). In contrast, the only BSSS lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred that had Q ≥ .9 within the BSSS population were PHHB9 and PHW52 (Table 5). For the NSSS group, 19 lines had Q ≥ .9 within the  5). The lines with high membership probability (Table 3) in their assigned group were considered the purest for that group.It is clear from the results of our study using all CIMMYT lines and the subset of lines that were widely used for breeding and as parents of successful hybrids that CIMMYT maize lines do not cluster according to their heterotic groups. These results were consistent with the finding of previous studies that used the full set of lines (Wu et al., 2016). The lack of genetic divergence between CIMMYT makes it challenging to choose testers to evaluate the combining ability of new inbred lines. However, the clusters of families of lines that were derived out of the same populations, such as Suwan 1, Population 21, Population 43, Population 500 (CML311 and CML312), and Population 502, could form the base germplasm that can be used to refine and enhance CIMMYT heterotic groups via both a pedigree-based recurrent selection scheme for combining ability and targeted introgression of ex-PVP germplasm. The Suwan germplasm (Sriwatanapongse, Jinahyon, & Vasal, 1993), for example, is a major heterotic group in subtropical and tropical breeding programs (Fan et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2019), but it is relatively underused in CIMMYT's breeding programs. Inbred lines of Suwan background could also be targeted for breeding in the non-Tuxpeño group because they did not cluster with lines from Population 21-the primary source of Tuxpeño in the CIMMYT germplasm pool.The CIMMYT inbred lines also clustered by adaptation; the highland lines formed a unique group, whereas the tropical and mid-altitude groups were mixed. This genetic structure of CIMMYT germplasm can be exploited to enhance heterotic groups by moving germplasm across adaptation zones, at leastT A B L E 5 Summary of the inferred populations from genetic structure analysis of the subset of 147 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and expired Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) linesLines bCIMMYT: Q ≥ .9 CLWN216, CML264, CML394, CML401, CML450, CML451, CML495, CML498, CML500, CML503, CML573, CML379, CML380, CML384, CML311, CML576, CML312, CML494, CML383, CML532, CML537, CML444, CML449, CML531, CML436, CML286, CML488, CML530, CML269, CML330, CML321, CML332, CML373 CIMMYT: .5 ≥ Q < .9 CML539, CML491, CML331, CML438, CML225, CML224, CML439, CML440, CML375, CML227, CML534, CML483, CML510, CML487, CML206, CML202, CML489, CML395, CML197, CML78, CML390, CML442, CML505, CML536, CML538, CML323, CML463, CML464, CML460, CML445, CML324, CML457, CML459, CHYL22, CML461, CML462, CML327, CHWE227, CHYL10, CHWE133, CHYE140, CML486, CHWE237 BSSS: Q ≥ .9 LH194, CARG2369, LH132, LH196, LH198, LH200, LH202, LH205, LH195, PHHB9, PHW52, DKFBLL, DK2FADB, DK2FACC BSSS: .5 ≥ Q < .9 LH208, DK87916W, PHP38, PHG39, PHT11, PHK29, PHBW8, H8431 NSSS: Q ≥ .9 DKIBC2, PHG29, PHJ90, LH214, PH207, PHN82, PHP02, LH213, PHTD5, CARG11430, DK3IIH6, LH284, LH123HT, PHP55, DKIBO14, LH181, LH211, LH212Ht, PHR25 NSSS: .5 ≥ Q < .9 PHR03, PHK56, LH216, PHV78, PHR63, PHG35, PHM10, DK3IBZ2, DKMM501D, LH59, DK78551S, DKIBB14, PHG47, LH172, PHK76, PHN46, LH210, DKMM402A, LH184, PHK46, PHG84, PHT60, PHZ51, PHJ40, PHAA0, PHRE1, PHM57, PHJ31 Mixed PHMK0, LH85a The populations inferred from structure analysis using the software Structure 2.3.4 (Pritchard et al., 2000): CIMMYT, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS), non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) subdivided based on admixture values (Q) of each of the lines. The mixed group consisted of lines that did not have group membership >.5 in any of the three inferred populations. b Inbred lines with expired U.S. Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) were from Pioneer Hi-Bred (prefix PH), Dekalb Genetics (prefix DK), Holden Foundation (prefix LH),and Cargill (prefix CARG). The BSSS line H8431was from Novartis Seeds.on one side of the Tuxpeño-non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern, given the limited variation among heterotic groups. Pedigree records of CMLs show that there has been little movement of germplasm between the highland program and tropical or mid-altitude breeding programs. Similarly, Population 21 has been a rich source of lines in Latin America, but it has not been used for breeding in Africa. In the same vein, unique germplasm from Africa (e.g., the N3 and SC heterotic pattern from Zimbabwe; Derera & Musimwa, 2015) has not been used for breeding in the lowland tropical and highland programs in Mexico.Because the genetic diversity among the CIMMYT heterotic groups was low, it is especially crucial that germplasm exchange and use be complemented by a breeding strategy that is designed to increase genetic divergence and combining ability between the heterotic groups (Duvick et al., 2004;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007). DNA markers can be used, not just to aid selection but also to help assign lines to heterotic groups and avoid making breeding crosses between lines that are supposed to belong in different heterotic groups. The absence of DNA marker-based quality control for breeding crosses could contribute to unintended mixtures and hinder progress in the divergence of heterotic groups. The mixture of heterotic groups resulting from breeding with the wrong crosses could explain the inconsistency observed in the pedigree of CML537. The inconsistency in the pedigree of CML537 was also detected in an independent study by Wu et al. (2016), suggesting that it was a case of the wrong cross being made rather than resulting from sampling errors during genotyping. On the other hand, the inconsistency detected for CML483 suggests a sample handling error because CML483 clustered with related lines from Population 502 in the study by Wu et al. (2016).A trend towards a higher proportion of temperate alleles in mid-altitude and highland than in lowland tropical germplasm was consistent with the genetic constitution of the source populations from which the lines were extracted. The inbred CML486, which had the highest ex-PVP population membership probability among the mid-altitude lines, was extracted from Population 45, whose background included lines from Purdue University, BSSS, hybrids from Dekalb Genetics, and inbred lines from Nebraska (CIMMYT, 1998). Further, several highland populations contained up to 25% of U.S. Corn Belt germplasm (CIMMYT, 1998). In contrast, only a few of the tropical populations contained U.S. Corn Belt germplasm (e.g., Populations 19 and 26) (CIMMYT, 1998), and most of them did not result in widely used CMLs probably because the selection pressure against temperate alleles was higher in lowland tropical environments than in mid-altitude and highland environments.Evidently, CIMMYT germplasm is still in the preheterotic group era relative to the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern Crop Science (Duvick et al., 2004;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). However, despite the limited genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups, there were enough clustering patterns that could be used to optimize the heterotic grouping through reclassification of some of the lines, moving germplasm across breeding programs, and use of a breeding approach that aims to increase allele frequency divergence and combining ability. Introgression of BSSS lines in one heterotic group and NSSS in the other could be a complementary strategy to increase the combining ability between the CIMMYT heterotic groups.Our results confirmed the genetic divergence between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups among ex-PVP lines (Nelson et al., 2008;Lorenz & Hoegemeyer, 2013;Beckett, Morales, Koehler, & Rocheford, 2017;White et al., 2020).In addition, the subgroups identified in the BSSS heterotic group were consistent with historical pedigree information indicating that the BSSS heterotic group of Pioneer Hi-Bred consisted of B14, B37, Maiz Amargo, and Iodent, whereas that of Dekalb Genetics and Holden Foundation Seeds consisted predominantly of B73 (Mikel, 2011Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Troyer, 2004). The NSSS subgroups of Lancaster, Oh7-Midland, and Iodent were also in agreement with pedigree information indicating that Mo17 was prominent in Holden Foundation Seeds and that it was rare in Pioneer Hi-Bred International (Tracy & Chandler, 2006). Cluster analysis, PCA, and model-based clustering placed the majority of the lines in the BSSS or NSSS heterotic groups and subgroups as expected according to pedigree information (Beckett et al., 2017;Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White et al., 2020). However, there were a few exceptions: PHJ40, PHAA0, and PHRE1 were declared BSSS by Mikel and Dudley (2006), but our results from model-based clustering assigned them to NSSS. It is important to note that the results depend on the set of lines analyzed and that the clustering pattern may be different for a different set of lines. Still, we suspect that the clustering of PHJ40, PHAA0, and PHRE1 closer to NSSS than BSSS could have been caused by the Maiz Amargo genetic background, which was not accounted for in the model-based clustering in this study, and their Iodent background (Mikel & Dudley, 2006).The lines PHMK0 and LH85 were declared mixed because they did not have membership probability >.5 in any of the three populations inferred using model-based clustering. PHMK0 can be traced back to B14, B37, Maiz Amargo, and Iodent; the Iodent component could explain the NSSS membership, whereas the Maíz Amargo component could have been lumped into the CIMMYT group. The other mixed inbred line LH85 was selfed out of Pioneer hybrid 3978 with unknown background information (Mikel & Dudley, 2006). The results of model-based clustering suggest that Pioneer 3978 was a BSSS × NSSS hybrid, and LH85 was, therefore, of mixed genetic background. By contrast, DK3IIH6, DKIBO14, and DKIBC2, which were also selfed out of Pioneer hybrids, clustered with Iodent lines, whereas LH123 from Holden Foundation clustered with Oh43 lines; all four lines had NSSS membership probability ≥.9, suggesting that they were all derived out of NSSS × NSSS hybrids.The lines with the highest membership probability in either BSSS or NSSS should have the most substantial allele frequency divergence between the two groups. Breeding with the purest BSSS lines in one of the CIMMYT heterotic groups and NSSS in the other would maximize allele frequency divergence and, possibly, combining ability for grain yield between the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups. In addition, the results showed that our data could be used to resolve unclear pedigree information, and, as a result, the heterotic grouping of the ex-PVP lines used in this study.The results showed a lack of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups and large genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS. The genetic divergence between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups could be exploited to enhance the genetic divergence and combining ability of the CIMMYT Tuxpeños and non-Tuxpeños. Evidence from tests of genetic divergence using F ST and χ 2 tests for homogeneity allele frequencies between heterotic groups, although weak, suggested that BSSS should be placed in the Tuxpeño group and that NSS should be used in the non-Tuxpeño group. It is important to note that other factors such as seed yield and pollen production may determine in which CIMMYT heterotic group the BSSS and NSSS lines are placed. When only male and female seed production traits were considered, it was deemed appropriate to align BSSS with Tuxpeño and non-BSSS with non-Tuxpeño (Whitehead, Caton, Hallauer, Vasal, & Cordova, 2006). The decision to group BSSS with Tuxpeño and NSSS with non-Tuxpeño is therefore consistent with the results of this study and is supported by empirical data (Cupertino-Rodrigues, Dhliwayo, Trachsel, Guo, & San Vicente, 2020).According to quantitative genetic theory for heterosis and empirical evidence, increased genetic divergence at loci associated with the trait of interest should result in increased combining ability. The findings of this study could be used in conjunction with pedigree information to select the most heterotically pure BSSS or NSSS lines to use in CIMMYTbreeding programs to maximize the divergence of heterotic groups. The BSSS inbred lines such as LH132, LH198, and LH195 that had the least membership probability in NSSS (e.g., Q ≥ .9; Table 5) should have a higher priority for CIMMYT breeding than lines with higher membership probability in NSSS heterotic group. Likewise, NSSS lines with the lowest membership probability in BSSS, such as PHG29, PHN82, and LH213 (Table 5), should also be included in the list of lines to use for CIMMYT breeding, together with other highly recombined lines such as PHR03 and PHK56 (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006).Introgression of BSSS into Tuxpeño and NSSS into non-Tuxpeño can increase the performance of CIMMYT hybrids only if the genetic divergence observed between the NSSS and BSSS heterotic groups is associated with grain yield in tropical environments. Genetic divergence is a prerequisite for heterosis to occur. The results of previous studies indicated that heterosis increased with an increase in genetic divergence but within a restricted range of genetic divergence (Moll, Lonnquist, Fortuno, & Johnson, 1965;Moll, Salhuana, & Robinson, 1962;Paterniani & Lonnquist, 1963). Further, studies that assessed the relationship of DNA marker-based genetic distance with MPH and F 1 hybrid yield reported moderate to high correlation coefficients, but these studies were conducted within adapted germplasm pools (Melchinger, 1999;Reif et al., 2003). The presumption that the genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS is associated with hybrid performance in temperate environments is supported by empirical evidence. The genetic divergence between NSSS and BSSS resulted from a pedigree breeding strategy akin to reciprocal recurrent selection that resulted in increased combining ability and grain yield of BSSS × NSSS hybrids (Duvick, 1984(Duvick, , 2005b;;Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007).The genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS is thus associated with increased grain yield in temperate environments; the question, therefore, is whether the ex-PVP lines are not so extremely diverged from tropical lines that the favorable alleles in temperate lines are masked by a lack of adaptation to tropical environments. Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020) evaluated BSSS × non-Tuxpeño and NSSS × Tuxpeño hybrids in the mid-altitude tropical environments in Mexico and reported that several hybrids had grain yield equal or superior to that of the adapted check hybrids. The NSS inbred lines PHR03 and PHN82 combined well for grain yield with Tuxpeño testers, and the BSSS lines PHG39 and PHK29 combined well with non-Tuxpeño testers. It is therefore likely that the favorable alleles for grain yield in temperate environments are expressed in tropical environments. However, Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020) evaluated only 10 BSSS and 11 NSS lines in mid-altitude (>900 m asl) environments where disease pressure is lower than in lowland tropical environments (<900 m asl). Hence, more studies involving more lines across more tropical environments may be needed to assess fully the usefulness of ex-PVP lines for tropical maize breeding. Nevertheless, the results of this study should help breeders increase the genetic divergence between Tuxpeños and non-Tuxpeños by avoiding ex-PVP lines of mixed heterotic origin and by maintaining BSSS and NSSS lines in separate heterotic groups when forming breeding populations with ex-PVP lines.Disease resistance and general adaptation to tropical environments have to be addressed before the yield potential of temperate germplasm is fully expressed. Further, for markets that prefer white grain, selection for grain and cob color is necessary because most of the ex-PVP lines have yellow grain and red cob. These considerations influence the breeding approach and the size of segregating populations when breeding with temperate germplasm in tropical environments. Two general approaches can be proposed: a conservative approach that aims to introduce small (≤25%) proportions of temperate germplasm through backcrossing, or an aggressive approach using populations that have 50% or more temperate germplasm. The aggressive approach in both heterotic groups would result in a higher frequency of temperate alleles and greater genetic divergence between the BSSSderived Tuxpeños and NSS-derived non-Tuxpeños. Based on evidence from Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020), the aggressive approach might be successful in the mid-altitude tropics and perhaps in the highlands. In contrast, the conservative approach or the recycling of temperate-derived mid-altitude inbreds seems appropriate for the lowland tropics when disease pressure is high.The probability of success when selecting in populations with a high proportion of temperate germplasm might be improved by intermating each population for one or two generations before extracting lines using the traditional pedigree selection (Goodman, 2004). Intermating would reduce linkage drag and improve the recovery of favorable temperate alleles; however, the benefits of intermating may be offset by an increase in the breeding cycle time, especially if no more than two generations can be completed per year. The CIMMYT mid-altitude maize breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa and Mexico have begun breeding with ex-PVP lines that have shown superior combining ability (e.g., PHR03, PHN82, PHK29, and PHG39) and other highly recycled related lines using a combination of both the conservative and aggressive approaches. Future studies could investigate the genetic divergence and combining ability between the resulting BSSS-derived Tuxpeño and the NSS-derived non-Tuxpeño lines to assess the effectiveness of the breeding strategy and the usefulness of ex-PVP lines.Finally, the introgression of ex-PVP lines to increase the divergence of CIMMYT's heterotic groups can only succeed if it is accompanied by a sound breeding strategy, sustained investment, and germplasm management standards that areadhered to by all breeders. Efforts to create the current BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups started in the 1940s, about 50 yr before Plant Variety Protection certificates of the current ex-PVP lines were issued in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s (Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). It should take the same time or at least the same effort for CIM-MYT to develop heterotic groups that are as diverged as the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern. However, modern breeding tools, the availability of ex-PVP lines, and the retrospective lessons learned in temperate maize breeding programs may help reduce the time and effort it should take to develop divergent heterotic groups in CIMMYT breeding programs. Divergence of allele frequencies and increase in combining ability between heterotic groups could be expedited by uncoupling hybrid development from population improvement, then apply reciprocal recurrent genomic selection (Gaynor et al., 2017;Rembe, Zhao, Jiang, & Reif, 2018) to improve combining ability and to drive divergence in allele frequencies between heterotic populations.","tokenCount":"7290"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b62a587718351b36328caedd24271ab1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3abaf8d-162e-4500-97ba-61fe2cdc370e/retrieve","id":"147624046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"391188f1-703b-403d-a973-d7f3eb53876d","pagecount":"6","content":"All participants in the study have witnessed a change in weather in the last 10 years. Most notably, temperatures have increased and become more variable while precipitation has decreased and become more variable. Perceptions of climate change in Vietnam do not appear to be individual but rather disaggregated at the household level (at the most finite level) or possibly at the landscape level. Perceived impacts of stress by male and female respondents are quite similar, which may indicate that stress is managed at the household level rather than at the individual level. Further gender research in Vietnam should focus on adaptation and coping strategies during climate change stress as it appears that gender differences are most present in this area. To cope with climate change issues, farmers need:(1) rice varieties that are tolerant to stresses such as heat, drought, and salinity; (2) pest management training; and (3) crop production management training. Challenges related to climate change faced by individual households are likely to be the same challenges as their neighbors. Thus, future climate change studies in Vietnam should also include spatial analysis.This brief summarizes the findings of a project output for the Policy Information and Response Platform on Climate Change and Rice in ASEAN and its Member Countries (PIRCCA), being implemented by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The report focuses on the results of the survey conducted in the first half of 2015 on climate change perception and adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in three selected provinces across the Mekong River Delta (MRD) region in Vietnam: An Giang, Bac Lieu, and Tra Vihn.The survey gathered information on current climate change perceptions and adaptation strategies and gaps between the identified male and female respondents.A total of 214 farm households were selected to be part of the climate change perception and adaptation strategies study. The husband and wife of each household were separately interviewed, which brings the number of respondents to 428 (214 pairs). The surveys were carried out by IRRI's local partner in Vietnam, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), in seven districts located in the three provinces.Geographic selections for this study were based on a priori knowledge of areas facing climate change issues. This criterion was used in the selection of provinces, districts, communes, and villages. Once the villages were identified, a list of farmers with at least 10 years of farming experience was prepared for each commune.Survey participants were then selected using a stratified random sampling procedure with equal numbers of respondents from each village.Of the 214 surveyed households, all male and female farmers reported that they had noticed changes in the weather in the last 10 years. This result is in support of Lambrou and Nelson (2013) who received the same response from Indian farmers reporting change over a 40year period. When asked specifically about changes in temperature, nearly all respondents, male (92.1%) and female (85.0%) alike, reported a perceived increase in temperature.The data suggest that perceptions of the average temperatures are higher and there is potentially more variability in temperatures. Results also showed that respondents perceived colder temperatures during the cold months (18.2% for males and 19.2% for females) and hotter temperatures during the hot months (37.4% for males and 50.9% for females) as well as many irregular changes in temperature.On the average, male and female respondents reported a decrease in precipitation. Approximately 31% of the males also perceived rainfall coming later in the season. Reports indicated that the most significant change in perception observed was low rainfall. Similarly, males and females had compatible perceptions on drought. High drought was most perceived, with approximately half of the respondents noting that they had experienced high drought.Nearly 40% of the male respondents also reported early drought. Ninety-one males and 66 females reported high drought to be the most significant change in the last 10 years. The responses to changes in precipitation and drought are in agreement with one another and suggest that low precipitation is of concern to many respondents in southern Vietnam. In further agreement, the respondents also reported less flooding in the last 10 years.Sea-level rise does not seem to be a major concern to the respondents: 42% of the male respondents and 37% of the female respondents reported no change in sea-level rise in the last ten years. The responses on sea-level rise were similar between males and females. In fact, all responses regarding climate variability were similar between male and female respondents.There is slight variation in responses between male and female respondents in regards to what causes climate change. Male respondents reported that climate variability is due to humankind and non-humankind activities at 33% and 44%, respectively, while female respondents reported 41% and 43%, respectively. Female respondents were 8% more likely to report humankind activities as drivers of climate change. Regardless of this difference, there appears to be a consensus among the respondents that temperatures are increasing and becoming more variable, precipitation is decreasing, and sea-level rise is not presently a concern in their respective regions.Both male (66.4%) and female (67.3%) respondents reported heat stress to be the climate stress most present in their area. Similarly, drought was reported as the second highest observed stress in each respondent's area, followed by salinity and flooding. When respondents were asked which stress was most important or most prominent in their areas, the most common response was salinity. Even though heat and drought were identified as the major stresses present in the area of the respondents, stress associated with salinity was reported to have the greatest effect on their areas. This observation was reported by 35.0% of male and 40.6% of female respondents. Storms and sea-level rise were rarely reported as observed weather stresses.Male and female respondents during the project orientation.Figure 1. Perceived changes in precipitation and drought during the last 10 years in the survey areas.Respondents also reported that livestock production was affected by stress. The major effect reported was in the increase in disease incidence. The most commonly reported livestock raised were cows and pigs among 55 and 34 households, respectively. The effect of climate stress in aquaculture is unknown in this study because only few respondents engage in aquaculture.A total of 123 (57.48%) male and 105 (49.06%) female respondents reported that climate stress has affected irrigation on their farms.Based on an open-ended question, the most reported effects on irrigation were shortage of water and salinity contamination. The most commonly reported irrigation source was canals (85.70%). Among all the respondents, only five identified new sources of irrigation in the farm after stress. The new sources mentioned include public wells, dikes and gates.Survey interview with a male farmer-respondent.Respondents were asked to identify the impacts of climate stress on rice production. Low yields were the most commonly stated impact for both males and females, with 66.35% of male and 68.22% of female respondents reporting it. Other reported impacts include crop loss and incurrence of debt. Respondents were also asked if there were noticeable changes in individual stresses on male and female household members as a result of climate stress. The responses were nearly identical for all four scenarios:(1) male perception of male stress; (2) male perception of female stress;(3) female perception of male stress; and (4) female perception of female stress. Generally, male respondents perceived more health problems for both male and female household members. Female respondents, meanwhile, perceived increased anxiety of male and female household members. The similarities of responses among males and females may indicate that stress is managed at the household level rather than at the individual level.Another objective of the study is to investigate the existing institutional support extended to the respondents during stress. The types of support included in the inquiry were housing support, relief goods ration, credit support, health insurance, training on new rice technologies, and support on farming activities. The findings reveal that majority of the institutional support that was investigated in this study was not widely used by the respondents. For instance, the only institutional support that had a large recognition from male and female respondents was on farming activities (57.9% for male and 42.5% for female).On their expectation of institutional support during stress, the most common responses include improved rice varieties, training on production techniques and climate change adaptation, access to low-interest credit for inputs, better access to markets, and price support for paddy produced in the farm to be sold at a higher price.Respondents also reported non-farm support such as access to rice for home consumption and health insurance.Figure 3 . Perceived impact of stress on household members.Respondents were asked about their access to information on cropping patterns and agronomic practices. Most of them stated that they have access to these information, and information on weather conditions are most common.Respondents were asked what they did as individuals to cope with the negative impacts of climate stress. For many, \"do nothing\" was the most mentioned strategy in dealing with stress (56.1% for male and 38.3% for female). Aside from \"do nothing\", male respondents also cited other strategies such as reducing household consumption of food (26.6%), availing of bank loans (21.5%), and working more (21.5%).Meanwhile, female respondents reported reducing household consumption for food (30.4%), availing of banks loans (27.6%), use of savings (22.0%) and working more (21.0%) as adaptation strategies. The results of the inquiry on adaptation and coping strategies introduce major differences in male and female perception. An example of such disparity is the use of bank loans between male and female respondents (21.5% vs 27.6%).It is also possible that the coping strategies within the household are not equally known to all members.A greater consensus was observed between genders regarding the changes in farming activities that male and female intend to do in case of a climate stress. For male respondents, \"no change\" (45.8%) is still the most common strategy reported. Female responses reported \"no change\" (39.3%), second only to changing rice variety (46.7%). Male respondents reported changing rice variety second most frequently (44.4%). Change of cropping pattern was also cited by male (19.6%) and female (15.4%) respondents, and many respondents also reported leaving lands to fallow. Other adaptation strategies such as changing to livestock production, diversifying crops planted, growing dry fodder crops, and relocating crops were rarely mentioned. As discussed, \"change rice varieties\" was reported to be the most common option of change in farming activities that is done in times of stress. When asked on factors that influence the decision to change their commonly used rice varieties, both male and female respondents had almost similar responses. Data for this study were gender disaggregated to investigate whether there was gender disparity in climate change perceptions or adaptation and coping strategies. The data do not provide any strong evidence that a gender gap exists in climate change perception. The largest variability in responses comes from the individual coping and adaptation strategies.Some interesting findings from this study are: The respondents have witnessed change in weather in the last 10 years. Most notably, temperatures have increased and become more variable while precipitation has decreased. The expressed needs of farmer-respondents are rice varieties that are heat-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and salt-tolerant; pest management training; and crop production management training.The findings of the study affirm that there is no gender imbalance in terms of awareness and understanding of climate change issues between male and female rice farmers in the MRD. However, this study finds differences in the coping and adaptation strategies between male and female. The empirical evidence of this study supports the anecdotal evidence witnessed through several field visits conducted for the study. The following are the probable reasons for these findings: The term 'climate change' is not so popular among farmers in the study areas. Climate change became more comprehensible when it was represented by proxy questions relating to changes in temperature, precipitation, etc. Farmers recognize changes in climate through actual experience in agricultural activities. In addition, the wide coverage of climate issues in the mass media such as television, radio, and newspapers in the MRD and other rural areas, has helped in disseminating climate and weather information. The findings of the study that there are no gender differences in climate change perceptions are consistent with other gender-focused climate change studies (see Lambrou and Nelson, 2013). Climate change impacts indiscriminately across landscapes but not all individuals within these landscapes are equally equipped to adapt to climate change. Similarly, challenges related to climate change faced by individual households are likely to be the same challenges as their neighbors but each household and individuals in each household are likely to have different adaptation abilities and strategies.Therefore, future studies on climate change perceptions in Vietnam should provide more emphasis on landscapelevel impacts of climate change and less emphasis on gender issues that do not appear to exist in climate change perceptions.Future gender research in Vietnam should focus on adaptation and coping strategies during climate change stress as it appears that gender differences are present in this area. Finally, the effect of household income on climate change perceptions and adaptations should be investigated in future research.","tokenCount":"2178"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2667bf514a68d7ad949bdf175950d835","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ec664cd7-e40b-445b-bb08-f4cd36e3c600/retrieve","id":"2078086568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e327906-e9a1-464b-a2eb-14541e9b30dc","pagecount":"31","content":"Background 2 03 The Dialogues 3 04 African Dialogues 4 05 Regional dialogue summary according to cross-cutting themes 6 Southern region (Botswana,Climate change is adversely affecting regional and national food systems contributing to low agricultural productivity and food insecurity;Countries are adopting diverse approaches to move towards environmentally sustainable production and consumption, but they require capacity building and financial resources for implementation;To improve trade and market access there is a need for improved infrastructure, the harmonisation of trade standards and better monitoring and dissemination of market information;Value chain development is constrained by a lack of access to processing equipment, technical knowledge, financial resources and disconnected value chain actors;High levels of food waste are attributed to poor handling, a lack of food processing and inadequate storage facilities (especially cold chains), poor road and rail infrastructure and limited access to markets;Health challenges include poor nutritional education and awareness, a lack of dietary diversity, inadequate food safety standards and policy, unaffordable nutritious whole foods and low levels of consumption of local/indigenous food products;Gender and social inclusion is recognised as essential to sustainable food systems but requires land tenure reform and improved access to inputs, including finances, by women, youth and vulnerable groups;Discussions on governance and policy highlight the naeed for the maintenance/development of supporting infrastructure, improved alignment of policy, revised land use policy and better coordination and collaboration between and amongst government departments/ ministries and other stakeholders;There is a need to enhance investment in demand-driven food systems research, and this can be achieved through private and public sector partnerships;Technology and innovation are key for knowledge sharing, enhancing agricultural productivity and the generation of agricultural data for evidence-based decision making; andCredit and loan facilities are largely inaccessible to food producers due to high interest rates.The United Nations Secretary-General called upon world leaders to take part in the Food Systems Summit to accelerate collective action for food systems transformation. This report synthesises the findings from the African Member States' Dialogues, held to shape national pathways towards sustainable food systems.In 2021, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General convened a Food Systems Summit (the Summit) as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit presented new actions to progress towards the seventeen SDGs, each of which relies to some extent on more sustainable and equitable food systems.The ongoing Food Systems Summit Dialogues (the Dialogues) provide a standardised approach for purposeful events that enable a diverse range of stakeholders to collaborate and share their experiences with the goal of transforming food systems to sustainably meet the current and future needs of the global population.The Dialogues follow a standardised approach involving the following:• Inclusion of diverse actors from across the entirety of food systems;• Adherence to the Summit's principles of engagement;• Discussions on the long-term visions for sustainable food systems;• Sharing of reflections, building on knowledge, experience and wisdom;• Reflection on the consensus and divergence of opinions amongst the stakeholders; and• Identification of priorities for action within the context of current realities.Multi-stakeholder dialogue allows multiple actors to congregate and apply their combined knowledge and experiences to address a problem. The discussions are stimulated and guided by facilitators so that the desired outcomes are shaped and articulated. The outcome is a thorough exploration of the issue at hand, the development of shared positions and the emergence of joint action.A wide range of stakeholder groups are required to take part in the multi-stakeholder dialogues, such as:• Representatives from the entire food value chain (e.g. food producers and processors, distributors and retailers, caterers, marketers, traders, consumers);• Health and nutrition professionals;• Private sector;• Community organisations;• Education and research institutions;• Vulnerable groups such as women, youth, indigenous peoples and migrants; and• Those who help to govern territories, protect livelihoods, foster resilience, regenerate ecosystems, participate in climate action and manage freshwater, coastlines, seas and the ocean.A successful multi-stakeholder dialogue event enables multiple stakeholders to connect, share ideas, understand each other's perspectives, develop propositions, examine their potential and nurture the shaping and emergence of pathways to sustainability.The Dialogues provide an environment conducive to open debate, collaboration, consensus-building and shared commitmentmaking and are designed to offer valuable insights for shaping pathways to equitable and sustainable food systems by 2030. Southern Africa is commonly referred to as a climate change 'hotspot' with drought and extreme rainfall events negatively impacting on the food systems of several countries.Mozambique is considered one of the worst affected African countries in terms of extreme climatic events and subsequently held a Dialogue focused on innovative solutions to climate change challenges. Climate change hazards were mentioned to have a devastating effect on the country's food systems by contributing to low agricultural productivity, an increasing occurrence of pests and diseases and a reduction in productive areas. Furthermore, stakeholders noted that climate hazards such as tropical cyclones have led to the destruction of infrastructure (e.g. irrigation systems, roads, warehouses, amongst others) thereby disrupting food value chains.Practices (GAPs), enhancing renewable energy generation, capacity building and improving water use management and land use planning. Botswana has adopted climate smart agriculture (CSA) and conservation agriculture practices and technologies to mitigate climate change, improve production and commercialise agriculture. However, it was noted that there is a need for scaling which requires adequate funding. The country has boosted aquaculture to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as methane from meat production. Botswana has also improved their water management through sustainable water use practices and enhanced wastewater management.In addition, Botswana focused on renewable energy production and has conducted research on renewable resources. Malawi has also investigated renewable energy generation through the identification of hydroelectric power opportunities along the Shire River.In terms of shifting to sustainable consumption patterns, Malawi has faced the following challenges:• Lack of a comprehensive definition of sustainable consumption;• Limited consumption of indigenous foods despite being highly nutritious;• High food waste and pollution;• Low dietary diversification;• Low accessibility to some food types in certain parts of the country; and• Increased post-harvest losses.In Zimbabwe, stakeholders indicated that a manual was produced on resilient and sustainable agriculture covering issues on agroecology and other naturepositive production mechanisms. The manual was funded by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund and is to be translated into different local languages. In Masvingo, the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum is implementing soil fertility management and water harvesting schemes. Efforts are also being made to establish a local seed bank.Southern region (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe)Proposed solutions from Mozambique's Dialogues included:• The construction of robust infrastructure using modern technologies that ensure greater durability and resilience;• Humanitarian assistance to displaced people, solidarity campaigns, resettlement, agricultural development and income generation projects for displaced and host families;• The establishment of food banks across the different regions; and• The identification and mapping of alternative production areas for affected people.Malawi, a neighbour of Mozambique, has also been adversely affected by climate changerelated hazards such as erratic rainfall patterns and an increase in natural disasters such as tropical cyclones. Stakeholders indicated that due to climatic factors and inadequate agricultural diversification, some regions are now better suited to the production of livestock.The South African Dialogues highlighted the need for improved Early Warning Systems (EWSs) to disseminate information to all members of society. Crisis management methods such as an adaptation strategy, action plan and anticipation protocol were mentioned as key.Mozambique also considered food system resilience to other shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated increased unemployment rate has resulted in lower purchasing power and a reduced demand for food. This, in turn, is resulting in food surpluses at the producer level, higher levels of postharvest losses and food insecurity and malnutrition.Community-level education on contingency planning and risk management was proposed to address the issue of shocks. Stakeholders also mentioned the challenges surrounding armed conflict in the country's central region and terrorist attacks in the north resulting in the abandonment of productive areas further contributing to food insecurity.Mozambique's Dialogues drew attention to the fact that different regions of the country are impacted differently by climate hazards and shocks and that the impacts vary according to the type of sector, i.e. crop, livestock or fisheries. This highlighted the need to manage and prepare for climate hazards at a more localised scale, e.g. provincial.The countries of the Southern region are implementing diverse approaches to move towards environmentally sustainable production and consumption such as by adopting Good AgriculturalIt was noted that land use planning aimed at reducing the overexploitation of natural resources is a key focal area in Mozambique, and in South Africa, former agricultural colleges have strengthened the capacity of local community-based centres of excellence to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.Countries in the Southern region highlighted a need for improved infrastructure to increase market access, the harmonisation of trade standards and better monitoring and dissemination of market information. Stakeholders indicated that the Northern region of Malawi has poor road infrastructure and a hilly topography that affects the accessibility and distribution of food supplies within the region. The country has experienced market failures including unregulated contract farming agreements, uncompetitive prices and dysfunctional and unstructured markets.In Zimbabwe, Knowledge Transfer Africa/ eMkambo is monitoring food-related market information. They are working with the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) and other stakeholders to issue weekly reports on the quality of food in specific markets.Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, respectively. The country has installed new infrastructure (roads, electricity, water and market infrastructure) and improved communication networks in places of deficit.There is a focus on the creation of a transportation network that will ensure the timely delivery of food products and reduce wastage. It was noted that the Government, the private sector and farmers should be encouraged to collaborate to build food storage facilities in remote areas to reduce post-harvest losses. Furthermore, the Government is working to secure a market for local producers with healthy market competition. Mozambique also identified the need for nutritional awareness programmes using the media and food guides.In the South African Dialogues, other potential means for improving nutritional intake included improved dietary data, school feeding programmes, the incorporation of nutritional education in school curricula, the diversification of food production for more balanced diets, improved processing, fortification/enrichment methods and modern food storage practices.The Botswanan Dialogues indicated an improved use of agrochemicals and the promotion of organic farming through ongoing public education. South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe highlighted the issue of food waste in their Dialogues.Malawi recognised a food deficit due to poor handling and storage, inadequate budgeting, post-harvest losses and wastage.Cultural celebrations such as weddings and funeral ceremonies were also considered major contributing factors to the country's food waste. In South Africa, food wastage and loss are deemed prevalent in both the production cycle and during consumption. In Zimbabwe, investment in post-harvest infrastructure and value addition was recognised as essential for reducing food waste and loss in informal markets.In the Southern region, common health and nutrition challenges included poor nutritional education and awareness, a lack of dietary diversity, inadequate food safety standards and policy, unaffordability of nutritious foods and low levels of consumption of indigenous food products.Stakeholders in Malawi recognised that the country's food safety challenges were mainly due to a lack of national-level food safety policies, standards and regulations with limited coordination across the sectors on food security, nutrition and food safety (there is no delivery mechanism to enable this). A lack of diversity in local diets, which are dominated by the consumption of maize, was also noted. Stakeholders in both Malawi and South Africa noted that nutritious foods are too expensive.Like Malawi, in Zimbabwe, the Dialogues discussed a need for improved food safety through legislation, i.e. a Food Safety Act, and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Child Care. It was indicated that the Government of Zimbabwe and partners need to promote and enforce food safety standards in both formal and informal food markets to protect consumers.example, discussions in South Africa mentioned a need for enhanced collaboration with neighbouring countries to ensure a coordinated approach to trade, especially in the face of the recently ratified AfCFTA.Key challenges faced in establishing sustainable value chains in the Southern region included a lack of processing equipment and financial resources for value addition and the need to link value chain actors as well as producers with markets.The Botswanan Dialogues also indicated a need to increase resources and the skills base of agriculture extension officers. Furthermore, transaction costs along value chains need to be reduced to offer consumers better food prices.to drive processing and value addition and that there is a need for food processing equipment.Mozambique recognised that their food value chains are fragmented; and the South African Dialogues discussed the inclusivity of their food value chains and the need to incorporate smallholder and subsistence farmers.Actions proposed to strengthen food value chains in South Africa included:• Mobilise investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains that support sustainable end markets;• Build data on food value chain actors, their profiles, locations, needs and actions;  Governance and policy improvements for sustainable food systems varied by country.However, common needs included the maintenance and development of supporting infrastructure, improved alignment of policy, revised land use policy, and better coordination and collaboration between and amongst government departments/ministries and other stakeholders (e.g. non-governmental organisations (NGOs), finance institutions and civil society).In Botswana, stakeholders identified the need to review the National Land Policy to make fertile land available for the youth and to centralise food standards at the Botswana Bureau of Standards for all sectors. A holistic review of policies is needed to align them with international obligations that support sustainable agriculture and food systems. The country further recognised the need for an inclusive approach to the development of policies i.e. from the bottom up.In Malawi, regulatory services are being strengthened and capacity building is taking place in key ministries such as the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Trade as well as district councils, community structures and institutions such as the Malawi Bureau of Standards.In Zimbabwe, stakeholders highlighted the need to address inadequate environmental governance and impose strict penalties on people who start bushfires for clearing land.In the Mozambiquan Dialogues, the inclusion of Provincial Directorates of Agriculture and Fisheries in policy development was mentioned as key to sustainable food systems. It was noted thatBotswana, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique have made efforts towards improving their inclusivity both within the Dialogue process and in food systems.For example, Botswana has introduced inclusive policies to improve:• Access to funding and land for production;• Support for the elderly in food systems; and• Mentorship programmes for the youth.Botswana has also installed infrastructure in rural areas to enable people with disabilities to lead active lives and gender equity has been introduced in the allocation of programmes for commercialisation with youth now able to access financing.In Malawi, it was recognised that gender inequalities persist in accessing safe and healthy food products. Stakeholders discussed women and youth marginalisation in agri-food systems, which was attributed to a lack of access to land and resources which are traditionally controlled by men. Women and youth also have limited access to financial opportunities, due to the structural barriers associated with smallholder farmers' access to finances. The limited livelihood opportunities are forcing youth to migrate to South Africa which is resulting in labour shortages in some Malawian districts.South Africa ensured the inclusion of subsistence and smallholder farmers in the engagements for food system transformation;this involved interpretation in 11 local languages. Over 1,000 farmers discussed, in their own languages, the major challenges they faced such as gaining access to land, water and energy. As the engagements were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, extensionists and government officials used their laptops to convene farmers who did not have access to internet.incentives are to be provided for locally produced inputs (e.g. fish feed) and focus is placed on processing at both artisanal and industrial scales. In addition, it was recognised that supporting infrastructure (e.g. irrigation channels and road networks) coverage and improvement/rehabilitation is needed.The South African Dialogues discussed the need for coordination across government departments and the inclusion of municipalities, NGOs, finance institutions and other formations of civil society. A central coordination structure is required to monitor all food system elements and avoid the duplication of programmes aimed at fighting hunger. Clear legislative and regulatory guidelines are also needed to ensure the active participation of smallholders.Suggested actions from the South African Dialogues included:• The maintenance and development of infrastructure, particularly related to water, electricity, roads, rail and ports;• Comprehensive farmer support services, including mentorship, extension services and agricultural colleges;• Effective land reform and tenure security in conjunction with rural safety;• The revision of curricula to include food systems, indigenous knowledge, food security, food safety and nutrition, and to stimulate research in these areas;• Revisiting, evaluating and up-scaling food security programmes;• Re-educating agricultural practitioners and agro-processors with regards to sustainable practices; and• Policy considerations for digital agriculture, embracing the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), advanced technologies and big data to expand smart farming practices.• There is a need for research in Malawi, as there is a deficit in data and evidence required by policy makers and the private sector to understand the landscape better.• In Zimbabwe, academia, the Zimbabwe Nutrition Association (ZimNA), eMkambo and other stakeholders are willing to engage and research food systems and food consumption.• The South African Dialogues highlighted the importance of researching organic agriculture and indigenous food production, with a focus on heat-and droughttolerant varieties and improved nutritional content.The importance of PPPs for investment, training and knowledge sharing was frequently highlighted in the Dialogues. Botswana has strengthened PPPs, which has improved investment across their value chains. In Zimbabwe, it was mentioned that the Government needs to partner with relevant stakeholders to incentivise smallholder farmers for growing healthy foods. In South Africa, emphasis was placed on partnerships for equality. In Malawi, the Dialogues explored stakeholder engagement for collective action in transforming food systems. It was noted that there are several partners working in the food systems, including NGOs (local and international), faith-based organisations, farmer organisations and cooperatives, government departments, private sector players, amongst other, but they rarely work together to share lessons learnt and best practices. The lack of collaboration was attributed to poor coordination at the regional and district levels, including between ministries, departments and agencies of the Government, despite the decentralised governance system. Opportunities, enablers and recommendations to transform food systems are multi-sectoral in nature and so require a coordinated approach at the regional and district level to be impactful.The Dialogues of four countries emphasised the importance of agricultural and food system research:• In Botswana, the apiculture and aquaculture sectors need to be commercialised and farmers require funding, training and stock (bees and fish). To expand entrepreneurship in these sectors, research is needed as well as the development of appropriate agro-food technologies.Digital technology developments were recognised by Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa as important for food system transformation.Botswana has implemented food processing technologies for indigenous products.In Malawi, the development of a digital technology strategy was highlighted as important for communication as well as enhancing agricultural productivity e.g. through adopting agricultural technologies such as CSA, conservation agriculture, permaculture, intercropping, agroforestry, and land and water conservation measures.Mozambique's Dialogues also emphasised the importance of technology for communication in real-time, particularly in the case of warning mechanisms for extreme weather events. In South Africa digital technology was recognised as key for providing data to municipalities on food needs and prices as well as supply chain efficiencies. It was noted that communication technologies can also be used to distribute food amongst users and create awareness on food waste. AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 13 12 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Malawi, the Affordable Input Programme proved contentious. Despite the country experiencing its highest yields in the last five years some stakeholders felt that the programme is an outdated social protection instrument that could be improved through diversification away from maize to other crops such as legumes and livestock. It was suggested that in the Southern region, because of the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, communities are getting used to receiving aid. For example, communities in Chikwawa district are affected by floods every year but are not willing to relocate to other areas. Some stakeholders suggested that the programme contributes to an increased dependence on the Government.In Mozambique, concerns were raised over the establishment of food reserves by the Government. It was argued that the purchasing of agricultural products, their storage and distribution to vulnerable groups will come at a great expense considering the current availability of storage facilities and maintenance requirements.In Zimbabwe, trans-fat, sugar and salt taxation was a contentious issue. It was stated that the taxes could create more problems than solutions and may not even change consumption patterns.In South Africa, stakeholders highlighted the lack of a clear food production and consumption mandate, noting that responsibilities are split between different departments and at different levels of the governance system. There is no coordination and alignment of services and a lot of information is lost. Furthermore, the inexplicit mandate at the local level makes the allocation of financial and human resources difficult for municipalities. The need for sustainable production systems such as agro-ecology and permaculture was discussed in the Malawian Dialogues. It was noted that the current food production system is near collapse as although conventional farming practices yield large amounts of produce, they utilise resources at an unsustainable rate. It was concluded that there is a need to incorporate both approaches.In Mozambique, environmental sustainability was identified as a major point of divergence as increased production and productivity is required to develop domestic industry, but an increased use of agrochemicals is damaging to the environment. It was concluded that a cost-benefit analysis is needed to assess the damaging effects of agrochemicals and it was suggested that the taxes applied to agrochemicals could be used for environmental restoration projects.In South Africa's Dialogues, it was noted that the agro-ecological approach has not been fully optimised. Whilst land needs to be made available for farming, people also need to be taught sustainable land management practices, as land rehabilitation and restoration is costly.In Malawi's Dialogues, mention was made of the need to embrace and consume indigenous food varieties as a major source of nutrition. The promoters of the indigenous food varieties emphasised that such foods have a high nutritional status and are resilient to climate change, on the contrary those championing improved varieties accentuated the high yielding and drought resistant varieties of maize.In Malawi, pesticide use in the Southern region was questioned, as there has been an increased use of pesticides due to the infestation of fall armyworm and increased cultivation of horticultural crops. Participants noted that if the pesticides are not handled and used properly, they can be fatal. For instance, the withdrawal periods on vegetables need to be strictly adhered to for safe consumption.In South Africa, it was mentioned that food system discussions are not inclusive and there is a lack of understanding on the topic due to poor knowledge dissemination. Furthermore, a lack of information on the informal sector hinders food system transformation and resilience.In the Eastern region of Malawi, contradictory discussions took place on the benefits of fishing as a major source of income in the region. Some stakeholders argued that an overreliance on fishing affects crop production as men do not have time to tend to their crops, thereby reducing dietary diversification. Another area of divergence in Malawi's Dialogues was the attraction of tourists to Liwonde National Park. It was argued that tourism positively impacts the district's economy and offers employment to young people. However, other stakeholders said that the tourists bring diseases. • Promoting the use of renewable energy;• Adopting farming practices that prevent land degradation;• Further promoting agroforestry;• Adopting integrated management of pests and diseases;• Ensuring water/irrigation efficiency; and• Promoting soil health management.Eastern region (Comoros, Kenya Mauritius, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan)In the Sudanese Dialogues, stakeholders agreed on the need for nature-positive production but highlighted the lack of appropriate policies and legislation. Large areas of land are available for organic farming, but farmers require financial resources and know-how.With regards to trade and market access, the countries from the Eastern region focused on market access for small-scale producers, competition with imported products and a need for capacity building on trade standards.The Kenyan, Rwandan and Mauritian Dialogues discussed the need to enhance market access for small-scale producers. In Mauritius, stakeholders highlighted the need for capacity building of agro processors to meet food safety standards and to be able to compete with imported produce. It was suggested that there should be a dedicated space in shopping malls and other retail outlets for locally processed food items.Competition with food imports was also noted as an issue in the Seychelles. The local market is highly competitive due to the adoption of the fair, free and open market policy and the limited capacity of farmers to exploit economies of scale due to the small size of their farms (average farm size is 8,000 sqm). Producers indicated that global food trade is likely to limit local food production systems as they cannot compete with the prices of imported goods. Local produce is further inaccessible due to poor distribution networks and low levels of organisation of the local food production system.Rwanda highlighted a lack of awareness of regional compliance standards amongst stakeholders and significant gaps in trade standards between East African countries. It was suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises undergo capacity building on trade standards.Food loss and waste was mentioned in the Dialogues of Rwanda, Sudan and Mauritius. In Rwanda, stakeholders mentioned the need for warehouses and other storage infrastructure for times of surplus. In Sudan, it was argued that issues surrounding consumption and food loss are due to culture. In Mauritius, food loss and food waste were a major concern, and the development of postharvest processing was seen as key to improving shelf life, marketability and reducing postharvest losses. Support is being provided to agro-entrepreneurs in the development of value-added products from local fruits and vegetables such as gluten-free breadfruit and cassava flour, ginger paste, turmeric paste, lime paste, guava fruit paste, dehydrated papaya and fruit paste sorbet.Stakeholders from Rwanda and Sudan understood the importance of environmentally sustainable food production, but development was hindered by barriers such as a lack of suitable policies and legislation, inadequate knowledge on sustainable land management practices and a need for financial resources.Stakeholders in Rwanda's Dialogues discussed the limited adoption of CSA practices and technologies despite the prevalence of soil degradation due to agricultural malpractices. It was noted that inadequate knowledge on the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is causing soil and water pollution and is negatively impacting pollinators.• Promote tailored ecosystem-based approaches for smaller scales of production (e.g. micro-agriculture, urban agriculture and landless agriculture);• Promote the recovery and reuse of organic waste to restore soil fertility;• Appropriately manage the application of inorganic fertilisers to reduce GHG emissions;• Enhance awareness on the importance of maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity at the local level;• Scale up initiatives to restore/rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and promote indigenous species in agroforestry and landscape restoration in high-risk areas; and• Protect biodiversity through awareness trainings at the community level.In the Seychelles, stakeholders discussed the gaps in value and supply chains such as sourcing difficulties, access to technology, limited farm workers in the local market, regional temperature-controlled storage facilities, demand and supply management platforms as well as inadequate services from support institutions. The Mauritian Dialogues indicated a lack of adequate processing, storage and distribution facilities. Similarly, the Rwandan Dialogues made mention of a need for increased investment in food distribution channels (including cold chains), markets, post-harvest handling and processing.• Mobilising investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains that support sustainable end markets;• Building data on actors in food value chains, their profiles, locations, needs and actions given the risks;• Strengthening PPPs by promoting mechanisms for coordination; and• Recognition of informal markets and value chains as important components of the food system.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 19 18 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Sudan, policy on food security exists but the implementation of the action plan requires the mobilisation of resources.Furthermore, stakeholders agreed that food security policy and legislation need to be developed with a focus on prices which form the main barrier to accessing nutritious food.The Rwandan Dialogues focused on land use planning and the introduction of commercial farming through the implementation of the Land Use and Development Master Plan, 2050. Discussions were also held on increasing the reach of extension services to smallholder farmers, the promotion of small livestock husbandry and the lack of a coordinated multi-sectoral approach for promoting CSA practices. It was mentioned that CSA practices could be incentivised through subsidies and tax breaks as well as by creating stronger partnerships with institutions such as the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture. Enhanced inter-ministerial coordination amongst the different sectors to determine the trade-offs between agriculture and the environment was highlighted as well as the need to strengthen policy coherence and implementation. Rwanda also put in place legislative frameworks to promote healthy diets and policies to reduce food waste at all levels. Coordination mechanisms were established at both national and local levels.Kenya's Dialogues focused on partnerships to enable small-scale farmers to access credit, training and to boost innovation to enhance self-sufficiency and reduce dependency.Intergovernmental collaboration, the control of imports, and policy coherence and implementation were identified as common challenges to food system governance amongst the Eastern region's countries.In the Seychelles, stakeholders indicated a need for better coordination and action to implement and drive agricultural and food system-related policy decisions. The benefits of elevating key policy objectives and strategic choices in the form of a legal instrument were debated at length. There was bipartisan alignment and agreement in favour of the proposal to draft a Food Security Bill to ensure policy continuity. Furthermore, there was general agreement that sector activities should be taxed but according to a different taxation regime.The Comoros Dialogues focused on improving livestock health through improved control of imported animals at borders. Mauritius addressed animal product importation policies that are disadvantageous to local farmers.In Kenya, it was noted that major discrepancies exist between the national and county functions with agriculture being a devolved function and policy making still the responsibility of the national government. Policy needs to be coherent and the overlapping roles and division of policy making responsibility between the two levels of government needs to be clarified. Furthermore, within the counties, there is a lack of alignment in agricultural policies. Intergovernmental cooperation, institutional coordination, public participation and stakeholder involvement is required. Kenya is also working to develop legislation and policy frameworks to anchor pastoralism as a component of sustainable food systems as well as strengthen the policy environment to enhance and protect agricultural land in the Central Region Economic Bloc.Gender and social inclusivity was a major topic in the Dialogues with focus placed on women and youth inclusion. In Mauritius, the need for training and awareness of producers on GAPs was identified with special mention made of the inclusion of vulnerable groups. It was also noted that youth need to be better integrated into agriculture by providing free training.In Rwanda and Sudan, stakeholders discussed the role of youth and women in achieving sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems. The Mauritius, Rwandan and Madagascan Dialogues all highlighted the important role of the private sector in achieving inclusivity, and the need for improved coordination between parties. Madagascar's Dialogues focused on empowering women in food systems and strengthening the commitment of the private sector and civil society to support family farms and farmers' organisations.The Kenya Youth in Agriculture Strategy includes robust measures to meaningfully engage young people in agriculture. In SEKEB, it was noted that agroprocessing and value-addition initiatives can be used to enhance the capacity and skills of young people as well as provide meaningful employment for them. It was noted that to leverage such opportunities, the vulnerable groups require ownership rights and access to productive resources such as land, finance, digital agriculture and technological solutions, training and access to data and information.The Rwandan Dialogues also identified barriers around creating employment for marginalised groups and the following actions were proposed:• Establish appropriate credit funds to address the limited access to finance for small-scale entrepreneurs and marginalised groups; and• Promote inclusive consultation processes and participatory assessments of land degradation for the design of effective ecosystem restoration strategies.Nutritional education, food safety awareness campaigns, improved food safety standards and enhanced local production were identified as key action areas by stakeholders in Mauritius and the Seychelles. The Mauritian food safety standards are to be reviewed and slaughterhouses relocated. Stakeholders noted a need for training, support from authorities and incentives to boost the sector. Consumers are encouraged to eat locally produced foods (e.g. cassava, potato, breadfruit, eddoes) and to undertake their own production such as roof gardening and urban agriculture.In the Seychelles, education is needed on the nutritional value of whole locally produced food, particularly as fast food consumption is increasing to the extent that it is a default option for lunch in most schools, and in many food outlets. Stakeholders indicated that there has been limited to no investment in promoting local farm produce and very few campaigns to address fast food advertising. Without action it is expected that fast food consumption will increase along with associated dietary problems.To increase local food productionin the Seychelles it was suggested to:• Increase investment in turnkey farms and allocate them to young farmers;• Establish an innovation fund; and• Revise legislation and submit the food system transformation policy and strategy to the National Assembly for final discussion, alignment and consolidation by mid-October 2021. • Enable more reliable access to usable and shareable data; and• Conduct quality analyses to support evidencebased decisions on performance management, M&E, research and policy.It was also noted in Kenya's Dialogues that access to ICTs in both urban and rural areas is growing rapidly, but progress is unequal both geographically and socioeconomically. For example, in many areas women and youth have less access to smartphones and digital services. In SEKEB, it was determined that investment is needed in innovation and technology such as irrigation, the use of digital agriculture tools in extension services and managing post-harvest losses through food processing technologies.The Rwandan Dialogues also focused on the modernisation of agriculture and the need to strengthen ICT. Special mention was made of the need to:• Leverage innovative technologies, such as satellite/drone technologies, to enhance data systems linked to agricultural insurance;• Adopt technologies that improve yields whilst reducing GHG emissions and land degradation; and• Use labour-saving technologies along the whole value chain.The The focus of discussions on technology and innovation were on the importance of agricultural data for evidence-based decision making and the need to strengthen and improve access to ICT.The Comoros Dialogues discussed the importance of strengthening advocacy and the need for government, together with other technical and financial partners, to mobilise funds to support technological innovations and the modernisation of agriculture and fishing. In Kenya, the SEKEB Dialogues mentioned the need for private sector investments and financing tools to de-risk food systems in the ASAL counties. It was further noted that the creation of an SEKEB Bank could boost the interest of young people in agri-businesses by providing access to much needed capital.Similar to the Seychelles, Rwanda emphasised the need for financial services at affordable interest rates. Stakeholders mentioned that farmers' cooperatives and organisations could be used to increase awareness on good agricultural extension and advisory services as well as to establish a commercial/agricultural bank. A need for banks to provide financial literacy programmes and insurance services was also highlighted. Stakeholders indicated that current subsidy programmes are inadequate for building short-term resilience in smallholder farmers and there is a lack of funds for innovative initiatives for improving ecosystems and biodiversity.The Mauritian Dialogues indicated a need for investment to modernise farming practices and stakeholders. In Sudan, stakeholders noted a need for investment in infrastructure in both the agriculture and industry sectors with special mention made of the need to finance smallholder farmers.In the Rwandan Dialogues, stakeholders disagreed on the percentage of insurance premiums that should be paid for by the Government. It was mentioned that in some parts of India, 80%-90% was required to attract interest compared with only 40% in Rwanda. Others noted that this was not feasible in Rwanda and that emphasis should instead be placed on integrating crop insurance into existing social protection programmes.In Mauritius, the granting of import permits for vegetables that are produced locally proved to be an area of contention for stakeholders.In Rwanda, there were disagreements on the role that insurance companies should play with some arguing that they were not doing enough whilst others indicated that the issue lies in farmers' lack of trust in the companies. This fed into a larger discussion on PPPs and the balance that must be found between business interests and social protection.There was some divergence over the promotion of biodiversity in the Rwandan Dialogues, as well as the use of more nutritious and drought-resistant crop species. In Madagascar, some stakeholders insisted on the urgency of adapting existing techniques to address climate change challenges whilst others stressed the need to carry out in-depth studies on the actions to be implemented and the need to transfer knowledge to the primary players concerned.In the Rwandan Dialogues, the use of technology to disseminate EWS information was mentioned as a possible 'game changing' solution, however, there was divergence on how to make it user-friendly and accessible. The successful case study highlighted a smartphone application developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The application provided weather information to improve farmers' decision making. However, it was argued that such an approach may not work in Rwanda as not all farmers, particularly the most vulnerable, have access to a smartphone. Simple SMS messages were suggested as an alternative solution, but the effectiveness of transmitting complex information in such a limiting format is likely to prove challenging.Rwandan stakeholders argued on the importance of harmonising trade standards across East Africa and raising the awareness of smallholder farmers to regional standards. It was noted that some countries, such as Kenya, have higher standards than their neighbours. The consultation of experts on issues related to policies, food safety regulations and post-harvest handling to harmonise policy was suggested. Others noted that while differences in standards exist, there are legal and economic frameworks in place, notably the East African Community trade forum, to address trade disputes in the interests of vulnerable stakeholders. It was deduced that raising farmers' awareness of standards is key so that they can export to other markets competitively.The countries of the Western region discussed the climate hazards they faced and the resulting impacts on both natural and human systems. Conflict was identified as another driver adversely impacting upon food production in the region.The Ghanaian Dialogues highlighted reduced yields due to water scarcity in the dry season and flooding in the rainfall season. A continuous decline in soil fertility was also noted. The need for improved and localised irrigation systems was emphasised, as rain-fed agriculture can no longer sustain the levels of food production needed.Nigerian stakeholders noted that the food system experiences shocks and stresses such as flooding, soil erosion and conflict. Poverty, unemployment and insufficient food reserves were recognised to further increase the vulnerability of local food systems. Areas to the south-east of the country have been affected by insecurity due to farmer-herder conflict, which has led to the destruction of crops, forced migration, death and forms of sexual violence. The Dialogues highlighted the need for social protection mechanisms and agricultural insurance.In the event of shocks affecting smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone, it was recognised that the Government and partners should establish seed banks to support farmers in reviving their activities. The seed banks were also noted as being important for preventing the loss of crop varieties and certain species of animals.It was noted in the Western region's Dialogues that environmental degradation and pollution due to human activities is already prevalent and adversely affecting food systems. It was suggested that rebates be issued to producers who adopt sustainable land management practices and policy be revised, especially in relation to land tenure and use.The Gambian Dialogues emphasised the considerable degradation of the country's resource base over the years. This was attributed to deforestation, overfishing, inappropriate fishing nets, the poisoning of marine life, land degradation Western region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria)AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 25 24 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe Western region is working towards sustainable food value chains, common areas for improvement included an increased access to good quality inputs (especially seeds), enhanced mechanisation to maximise production and the establishment of processing facilities to reduce postharvest losses.In Sierra Leone's Dialogues, the high cost of agricultural inputs (particularly agro-chemicals) was highlighted, as well as the need for improved regulation. Special mention was made of the need for affordable quality seeds, with a preference for input dealers not only at the chiefdom level but at the district level.In Nigeria, stakeholders indicated a need for value chain and development financing by the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase food accessibility and safety. The need for mechanisation in all value chain activities was mentioned as key to enhancing efficiencies, improving productivity and encouraging youth inclusion. It was also noted that Nigerian food systems could be enhanced, and food safety improved, through the provision of high-quality inputs, the adoption of good agronomy practices and the management of postharvest activities.In Niger, stakeholders indicated that legume, fruit and vegetable value chains are weak.Processing was noted as inadequate, forming the weakest link of the value chain and resulting in postharvest/post-production losses. Major investments are deemed necessary to strengthen food value chain links and improve food preservation, e.g. through cold chains. Milk collection and processing units need to be created and promoted in each region. The millet value chain is limited by the unavailability of suitable seeds, soil degradation, poor access to agricultural inputs and low levels of mechanisation. Vegetable value chains, particularly for tomatoes, are also affected by poor access to suitable seeds. The fish value chain was noted as having great potential but needs to be strengthened with the development of inland aquaculture, which could be achieved by popularising national fisheries policy.A lack of access to food processing facilities was also highlighted in the Ghanaian Dialogues.In Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Niger, stakeholders mentioned that poor road networks (and rail in Nigeria) limit market access and contribute to post-harvest losses. Additionally, the need for appropriate transport such as refrigerated trucks for perishable products and other cold chain components was noted by stakeholders in Niger's Dialogues.Stakeholders in Ghana identified the need for vulnerable small-scale farmers to be protected from the importation of foreign goods and Sierra Leone's Dialogues discussed the need for a robust commodity market system to ensure price stability. and frequent bushfires. Some of the adaptive measures undertaken to mitigate the degradation include sensitisation on bushfire control measures, agroforestry, regulated fishing and fishing nets and the creation of appropriate policies. It was further noted that poor agricultural practices on slopes have contributed to soil erosion leading to a loss of topsoil and a subsequent decline in soil fertility.In Ghana's Dialogues, focus was placed on cocoa which is a major cash crop in the Ashanti region and a key source of income for farmers.Cocoyam was noted as an important indigenous crop, but production levels keep dropping due to the use of herbicides on cocoa farms. In addition, it was indicated that local fishermen use a lot of chemicals in their fishing activities and this, coupled with other factors, has caused a decline in fish stocks.• Improving the productivity of small-scale farmers in a climate-smart and nutritionsensitive way;• Adopting improved farming practices to increase food production and productivity;• Promoting practices that prevent a loss of indigenous and traditional foods and promote the natural regeneration of trees; and• Avoiding destructive farming activities that degrade natural resources such as the uncontrolled use of agrochemicals.Senegal's Dialogues highlighted a drive for local consumption and key areas for improvement included the construction of cold rooms, enhanced processing of local products and improved marketing. To ensure the resilience and sustainability of food systems it was proposed that a rebate be paid to companies for actions to preserve the environment. It was also noted that water management needs to be promoted, particularly rainwater harvesting, to allow for out of season production.In Nigeria's Dialogues, key actions given by stakeholders for protecting the environment included:• Promoting the use of organic fertilisers;• Appropriate use and management of herbicides and pesticides;• Enforcement of existing laws and regulations to prevent further environmental degradation;• Protection of ecosystems against agricultural expansion;• Efficient recycling of waste;• Use of cover crops to reduce soil degradation and erosion;• Investing in the development of improved crop varieties for higher yields and improved attributes including biofortification;• Facilitating the sustainable management of food production systems to benefit the environment and people through GAPs;• Restoring degraded ecosystems and rehabilitating the soil for sustainable food production through renewed afforestation efforts; and• Scaling up the use of organic soil practices, crop rotation and intercropping.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 27 26 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Gambia's Dialogues it was noted that a lack of access to quality health services in rural areas has led to high under five, infant and neo-natal mortalities.In Sierra Leone's Dialogues it was noted that there is a lack of food reserves, highlighting the need for formation of food banks, the provision of improved storage facilities and the manufacturing of key foods for improved preservation.In Ghana, there are no standards for regulating produce especially those for local markets. Food safety standards and labelling need improvement by following guidelines such as the Codex Alimentarius. The Ghanaian dialogues also mentioned the improper use of agrochemicals in farming, processing and retail and the need for adherence to safe practices. With respect to consumption, there is no screening for food vendors on diseases such as typhoid, which puts consumers at high risk. Furthermore, there is a lack of education and low nutritional literacy amongst the population. Ghanaian stakeholders also described an absence of food-based dietary guidelines, a lack of nutritional standards and the unaffordability of nutritious food. A need for recognition of the value of healthy indigenous foods and a return to their consumption was further highlighted.In Sierra Leone, poor dietary diversity is a major concern for both children and adults and proposed actions included improved nutrition education and scaling up sensitisation on the country's Food-Based Dietary Guideline for Healthy Eating. It was identified that the health system is weak, and health system strengthening can assist in improving the health status especially of women and children under the age of five years.The Nigerian Dialogues focused on the adoption of healthy diets through the production and availability of healthy and safe foods. To ensure agricultural systems produce good quality and nutritionally adequate food, stakeholders recommended the promotion of the use of high yielding crop varieties and livestock breeds to increase productivity and subsidies for Stakeholders in Ghana recognised the need to strengthen their fragmented food value chains, with actions such as:• Mobilising investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains supporting sustainable end markets;• Building data on actors in food value chains, their profiles, locations, needs and actions given the risks;• Strengthening PPPs by promoting mechanisms for coordination; and• Recognising informal markets and value chains as important components of the food system.The Western region's food waste was largely attributed to a lack of storage facilities, limited food processing and poor food handling. In Nigeria, stakeholders discussed the reduction of food loss and waste through innovative food storage and processing methods from the point of harvest to the point of consumption. The rehabilitation of, and use of, silos in each Local Government Area was suggested. In addition, to reduce environmental impacts and health and safety it was suggested that the recycling of food waste products be improved.Stakeholders in Ghana described the need for warehouses and other storage infrastructure in times of surplus. Key areas of discussion included hermetic bags to reduce post-harvest losses of cereals and legumes and healthy food processing techniques to increase the shelf life of locally produced agricultural commodities. In Sierra Leone, stakeholders suggested that the Government improve access to affordable electricity supply to reduce food waste, particularly in urban areas. farmers. To enhance consumption of nutritious, safe, and diverse foods, stakeholders suggested a nutrition awareness programme to assist consumers in making healthy food choices against the dangers of contaminated food either through harmful chemicals, poor processing methods, or poor health and safety practices. It was also indicated that nutritional education in schools, hospitals and marketplaces needs to be strengthened.The Western region recognised the important role that women play in food systems, despite their unequal opportunities (e.g. access to land, financial resources and information), and the need to empower them for transformational change. In addition, stakeholders from Ghana and Nigeria highlighted the need to attract youth to food systems through improved technology.In the Gambian Dialogues, stakeholders indicated that women form more than 50% of the farming population and in some regions they are the main producers of vegetables, rice and groundnuts. However, despite their contributions, they are disadvantaged by a lack of access to key production components and inputs, particularly land, financial resources and technical know-how. It was noted that due to cultural norms and traditions, women in Gambia typically do not own land and so do not have collateral to obtain bank loans.In the Ghanaian Dialogues, women's access to credit was identified as a key challenge in the agricultural sector. There is also a lack of access to gender-sensitive equipment especially for small-scale processing. Furthermore, food production is currently unattractive to the youth who are not replacing the aging farmer population. Suggested actions to address this included the deployment of mobile agricultural extension services and digitisation. It was also recommended that the Government purchase/ subsidise land for agricultural purposes and engage traditional landholders to address land tenure challenges for easier access by women and youth.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 29 28 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe following actions were suggested for improving gender and social inclusion in Nigerian food systems:• Encouraging and supporting the establishment and functioning of cooperative societies for women and other vulnerable groups;• Promoting the 'Village Savings Association Model' to facilitate access to credit, inputs, and trainings;• Providing access to land for cultivation by vulnerable groups at the community level;• Addressing social norms and practices that systematically provide privileges to some groups over others;• Eliminating access barriers to markets, and social exclusion for vulnerable groups;• Ensuring social protection schemes reach the intended beneficiaries;• Promoting the use of clean energy; and• Identifying alternative sources of funding for interventions, other than government.In Sierra Leone, it was also noted that women play an important role in food production and have unequal access to agricultural inputs. As was mentioned by Ghanian stakeholders, there is a need for gender-friendly processing tools and equipment. Furthermore, there is a need for the inclusion of women in policy formulation and implementation along the food system chain and linkages.The Nigerian Dialogues highlighted the importance of including youth in the agricultural sector using technology and e-commerce.Nigerian stakeholders noted that over 60% of the farmers in the south-east are women, and that they have unequal access to productive resources. It was recommended that the south-east develop and implement Social Investment Programmes that take vulnerable groups into consideration. Improving women farmers' access to land was seen as a key means for enhancing food production and security. Women groups should be created and encouraged to participate in food system decision-making.In Gambia, the effective coordination of relevant policies on food systems was highlighted as a major issue in the attainment of the SDGs by 2030. Existing policies need to be reviewed and aligned ensuring equity, justice, empowerment and sustainability for all. It was noted that the Government needs to honour its commitments to national and international agreements/treaties such as the Malabo Declaration (committing 10% of public expenditure to agriculture). The need for national and regional level food reserves for building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses was also emphasised.It was highlighted in the Sierra Leone Dialogues that the land tenure system is affecting commercial farming and needs to be resolved through the allocation of land for agricultural purposes. Another area of concern was that of mining companies degrading land and aquatic habitats that could be used for crop, livestock and fish production, respectively. It was suggested that land be reclaimed from the mining sector for food production. The need for modern farming technology, irrigation systems and crop intensification were highlighted as well as the waiving of agricultural input taxes for the next five years. The Sierra Leone Dialogues also that there is no standalone policy to address community disputes arising from the destruction of farmers' crops by grazing animals.The Nigerian Dialogues discussed the need to review existing policies that limit access to resources e.g. the Land Tenure System/Land Use Act. It was suggested that court rulings be enforced to grant women the right to inherit land. Stakeholders also recommended awareness programmes for policy makers on the importance of food systems for food and nutrition security, job creation and economic development, and the challenges facing food systems together with actions needed to fix them. Other recommendations included strengthening divisions within different ministries, departments and agencies of government, and ensuring budgetary provisions for nutritional programme implementation.It was suggested that Niger learn from the experience of Kenya and South Africa, who have established relatively low prices for fresh produce and have implemented import policies to fill gaps in the local market.Discussions in Burkina Faso suggested that national policies relating to food systems and their state of implementation are adequate but could be enhanced. It is important that national policies guarantee access to sufficient, diverse, healthy and nutritious food for all, including vulnerable people as well as ensure the adoption of good dietary practices and healthy lifestyles by consumers. • Promoting improved technologies for processing, preservation and packaging of food products;• Facilitating national producers' access to local and international markets;• Incentives for the development of partnership contracts between large urban suppliers and small rural family farmers for an adequate food supply for cities;• Promotion of efficient networks for the equitable distribution of food products;• Trade tax exemptions for the food and pharmaceutical sectors;• Considering the food sector's action plans in the multi-year expenditure planning document;• Popularisation of texts (laws, decrees, orders) and policy documents relating to the country's food systems;• Facilitating access to resources, financial support for the development of said systems; and• Strengthening of national research programmes on food and nutritional issues in Senegal. In the Nigerian Dialogues, it was noted that strong partnerships between government, the private sector and other funding agencies (both local and international) are needed to transform the food system. Emphasis was placed on the need for collaboration between national and state agencies and all relevant stakeholders, to be better able to understand the nature of the food system challenge and the gaps to be filled by agricultural extension workers.Stakeholders in Ghana made special mention of a need for partnerships to mobilise financial resources.particularly in the areas of seed production, GAPs and food preservation. Research institutes need to be better positioned to engage in demand-driven research. It was suggested that the private and public sectors establish a partnership to enhance domestic R&D capacity and ensure the dissemination and adoption of viable R&D output amongst Nigerian farmers.In Niger, discussions suggested that research is poorly funded, and the results are not adequately disseminated. Sufficient budget is needed for research to contribute to rural development through innovations and advice to users. A partnership framework needs to be developed between research institutions.In Ghana, stakeholders suggested that agriculture should be made attractive to the youth, however, some indicated that the youth are already attracted to agriculture but face other difficulties e.g. entering the poultry industry. The youth need support from the Government including access to arable land.In Nigeria, a key challenge mentioned by stakeholders was lobbying and interference by special interest groups such as large multinationals and some local industries. It was noted that to achieve equitable access to affordable healthy diets, the Government will need to commit to reducing the influence of interest groups within food systems and open the market to what people really need, rather than what food companies want consumers to buy. This would simultaneously improve consumption patterns. Furthermore, there were divergent views on the Government's actions towards improving nutrition, for example, some stakeholders were of the opinion that the Government is doing a considerable amount of sensitisation especially on breastfeeding, whereas others were of the opinion that the Government could do more in addressing issues concerning undernutrition e.g. poverty.In Guinea, contentious issues included the management of land disputes; conflict management between actors, particularly farmers and breeders; and policy for granting land to youth and women.In Niger, stakeholder opinions varied on subsidising agricultural inputs. Some stakeholders disagreed with the action saying it was only viable in the short term, as subsidies can create dependency, distort competition and private sector activities, and manifest a significant financial burden for the state in the long term. Other stakeholders were adamant that Niger cannot eliminate hunger without subsidising agricultural inputs and equipment.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 33 32 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe Nigerian Dialogues highlighted the following technology and innovation needs to increase resilience and productivity with a focus on nutrition:• Scale up technologies, particularly in relation to cold chains, to tackle post-harvest food losses;• Enhance innovation in agricultural production e.g. hydroponics, drip irrigation, mechanisation, biotechnology and genome editing;• Adopt modern farming techniques by providing farmers with technologies and farm implements that can be maintained by local farmers;• Use of drones for the application of fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides;• Conduct geological surveys and mapping for agricultural areas and those prone to insecurity;• Group security systems including community watches; and• Undertake soil and nutrient mapping, land banking and weather modelling to control poor farming systems.In Ghana, stakeholders mentioned the need to digitise food systems, for example, by using artificial intelligence, blockchain farming and hydroponics.Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Niger all indicated constraints in accessing finance for healthy and sustainable foods. In Sierra Leone, policies surrounding access to finance for agricultural activities need to be reviewed as the conditions for loan repayment are not suitable for farmers. The current interest rates in commercial banks are too high and the period for repayment of loans needs to be specified in financial loan policies.to work with other partners who have agricultural know-how to create access to micro-finance for the youth and/or female entrepreneurs, in combination with business coaching and advisory services. In Niger, it was recommended that donors contribute to sector pooled funds in addition to the Investment Plan for Food and Nutritional Security.In Ghana, it was suggested by some stakeholders that there are too many 'middlemen' and that they inflate food prices. On the other hand, some stakeholders said the middlemen were important for linking farmers to markets.In Benin's Dialogues, farmers and herders had differing opinions on the management of corridors for livestock movement.In the Nigerian Dialogues, stakeholders disagreed on the assumption that youth want to work in agriculture or agroprocessing. The notion that a large proportion of youth is ready to be employed in low-paying, low-tech industries might be misplaced, and the question 'what do the youth want?' needs to be answered to inform demographic transition and youth policy design.by insurgency where women are becoming the household head. It was clear from different submissions that what is seen as a discriminatory social norm against a vulnerable group in one community might be a normal way of life in other communities, depending on the values and level of social indoctrination of the people. However, the issue of concern is the impact of gender inequality on food systems in the region. Some believed that women should be organised into groups, e.g. cooperatives for stronger participation whilst others felt that most women involved in farming have already formed producer groups, cooperatives, and associations and that the key challenge lies in access to production knowledge, technology and resources.In Sierra Leone, the right for women to own land was strongly debated. All the traditional leaders were against the motion for women to own land and the women representatives argued for it. Women argued that they are key players in the agricultural sector and deserve to own land. In addition, it was noted that the Government input supply chain model for community youth farms needs to be reviewed. Feedback from most participants indicated an appreciation for the Government's job creation efforts, however, some participants believed that the model for accessing inputs through mobile money needs to be revised to a voucher system.In Ghana, stakeholders disagreed on whether the country's food system had the capacity to prepare for, withstand and recover from climate change-related crises and shocks. Initially a few participants argued that the food system was resilient to climate change, however, their perceptions changed after a discussion on the indicators of resilience. Although the stakeholders agreed that the food system was vulnerable to climate change, they also noted the potential for resilience building.A few areas of divergence emerged during the Gambian Dialogues, particularly around land use and humanwildlife conflict. Stakeholders from the forestry and food production value chains could not agree on the expansion of agricultural lands at the expense of forests. Rice farmers complained about hippopotamuses invading and destroying their fields, but as they are protected animals, they cannot hunt them. This has resulted in lengthy discussions between the agriculture and wildlife departments.In Nigeria, divergences addressed the issue of a 'healthy diet' versus a 'sustainable diet'. A healthy diet was said to include \"a diversity of foods that are safe and provide levels of energy appropriate to age, sex, disease status and physical activity as well as essential micronutrients\". However, it was noted that healthy diets and sustainable diets are not mutually inclusive. Evidence suggests that synergies can be identified (e.g. reducing animal protein in meat-based diets) but are often exceedingly difficult to achieve. On the other hand, completely decoupling healthy diets from the sustainability of value chains that deliver them would also not be desirable from a food system, environmental and climate change perspective.Another divergence in the Nigerian Dialogues was on the establishment of Rural Grazing Area settlements to address the issues of livestock production and GHG emissions. It was highlighted that State governments need to meet with relevant stakeholders on the suitability of the programme given the diverse ecosystems that will be affected. In addition, it was noted that inorganic fertilisers are preferred to organic types, and there is a need for sensitisation/ capacity building on the benefits associated with the latter. Public awareness campaigns were central to enhancing sustainable consumption and production practices in Morocco and Tunisia. In Morocco, public awareness programmes were strengthened and operationalised to institutionalise information and training campaigns within structures responsible for disseminating good agricultural and food safety practices. Successful experiences were disseminated through mass media and social networks. Tunisia followed a similar approach to Morocco, using public awareness programmes to encourage a shift towards sustainable consumption and production patterns. Users were educated onIn Mauritania, stakeholders identified the key constraints to food security as the use of outdated farming techniques, the low technical capacity of producers, and difficulties in accessing land and funds.Nutritional awareness programmes and the promotion of healthier diets using the media and food guides were deemed necessary by Tunisia. In Morocco, the need to recognise the nutritional value of indigenous foods and return to their consumption was highlighted.Moroccan stakeholders recognised that the economic empowerment of women through access to resources, services, economic opportunities and decision making contributes to improved food security and more efficient and sustainable food systems.• Supporting women to exercise their fundamental rights;• Facilitating their access to employment, natural resources, services and markets;• Enabling entrepreneurship; and• Promoting their participation in political and governance processes.Northern region (Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) the need to protect water and soil resources, the recycling of wastewater and the adoption of GAPs.In Egypt, stakeholders identified the key barriers to sustainable food systems as water scarcity, population growth, urbanisation, persistent food safety and quality challenges and the prevalence of unhealthy consumption patterns.Stakeholders in the Tunisian Dialogues suggested a review of international trade rules to make them better suited to sustainable food systems. The protection of producers through the establishment of a monitoring system on supply and market prices was also highlighted. In Mauritania, stakeholders indicated a need for improved import regulation, particularly of milk products.The Moroccan Dialogues described the need for fair, secure and sustainable supply chains to ensure the responsible use of natural resources, reduced food loss and food waste, and for making sustainability an easy choice for consumers.In Morocco, restaurant owners shared their concern about disposing of large amounts of uneaten food. The wastage of food shocked stakeholders working with food insecure households and presented an area for collaboration. In Morocco, it was established that agricultural trade and social policies facilitate access to affordable, safe and nutritious food for all. The need to review and update and/ or operationalise legislative mechanisms in the sectors of water, climate change, biodiversity, energy transition, women's empowerment, health security, nutritional quality, food loss and waste and the circular economy was emphasised. Furthermore, the Dialogues highlighted the misalignment between action logic and coordination mechanisms, which has limited the efficiency of interventions.There is also a need for improved participation and coordination, which can be achieved through the active engagement of all stakeholders in the development and implementation of strategies and the strengthening of coordination structures.Morocco's stakeholders indicated the need for an increase in funding for scientific research in the agricultural sector.Stakeholders also discussed the need for integrated and multidisciplinary research.In Tunisia, the use of digital technologies for the production of educational materials on consumption and sustainable production (e.g. applications, games, social networks) was discussed. Furthermore, digital applications could be developed to promote networking for the recovery and redistribution of food products and leftover meals. The strengthening of EWSs and digitisation of agriculture was mentioned as key.It was highlighted in the Mauritanian Dialogues, that the country has promoted and popularised agricultural mechanisation.In Tunisia, discussions took place on the geographic scale of regional food models.It was noted that some models are focused on the importance of returning to traditional foods specific to localities, whilst others focused on the relaunch of regional food models such as the Mediterranean diet.In Mauritania, some stakeholders mentioned the need to introduce differential taxes for imported products to reduce competition with the local market.Other stakeholders suggested that it would be more beneficial to support local producers with equipment and inputs, considering the global trade agreements in place (World Trade Organisation (WTO), AfCFTA and the Economic Community of West African States).In Mauritania, it was recognised that budget allocations need to be increased to meet basic infrastructure and human resource needs. In addition, smallholder and family farms require better access to financing and agricultural credit. Gabon's Dialogues highlighted the importance of looking at food system resilience not only with a climate change lens, but also addressing other shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated increased unemployment rate has resulted in lower purchasing power and a reduced demand for food. This in turn is resulting in food surpluses at the producer level, higher levels of post-harvest losses and food insecurity and malnutrition. Communitylevel education on contingency planning and risk management were suggested actions to address the issue of shocks. In addition, Gabon described the need to favour local production to strengthen the resilience of food systems in the face of crises such as COVID-19, which disrupted food value chains and importation.Central region (CAR, Cameroon, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon)In the Central region's Dialogues, improved land tenure, capacity building on good land management practices and equal access to subsidies were some of the action areas given to enhance sustainable food production. It was recognised in the Equatorial Guinea Dialogues that comprehensive and diversified training is needed for technicians and farmers to increase agricultural production. In addition, the Environmental Organisations Sector insisted on the importance of promoting the sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity conservation. • Improved dietary data;• School feeding programmes;• Incorporation of nutritional education in school curricula;• Diversification of food production for more balanced diets;• Improved processing;• Fortification/enrichment methods; and• Modern food storage practices.but could be resolved through following guidelines such as the Codex Alimentarius. Consumers' knowledge of food safety was described as poor with a clear need for awareness creation.In Gabon, it was mentioned that people living with HIV are now included in agricultural projects with grants available to them to purchase agricultural land. The FAO has committed to continue supporting the empowerment of people living with HIV by providing training on vegetable production and balanced diets. Land has also been allocated to refugees for agricultural and commercial activities.Gabon's Dialogues. The youth have been mobilised through the digitalisation and mechanisation of agriculture but there is still a need to promote agricultural professions and provide incentives to In Gabon's Dialogues, special mention was made of the regional imbalance between farmers in the northern countries who benefit from subsidies and those in the south who tend to be small-scale farmers with limited resources. Mechanisms need to be developed to support the farmers in the south to protect biodiversity (protected fauna causes extensive damage to farmers' plantations) and to promote improved farming methods and sustainable forest management. Persistent humanwildlife conflict was noted as threatening food security as well as the lives of farmers with 8 deaths recorded in 2020, 15 accidents and 8,300 complaints. Furthermore, it was noted that the emigration of youth to urban areas is likely to continue, should a solution not be found. It was concluded that support from international bodies is needed in the implementation of ecoresponsible agriculture.Dialogues in the DRC highlighted the need to:• Guarantee access for all to healthy, affordable and nutritious food;• Switch to sustainable consumption patterns;• Stimulate production that respects nature;• Promote equitable livelihoods; and• Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.Land tenure was noted as a major barrier to sustainable agricultural production in the DRC.In Equatorial Guinea, the need for improved equity in rural transport was highlighted, as rural populations are economically excluded by food distribution barriers.In CAR, stakeholders indicated that smallholder farmers are responsible for the majority of food production but face multiple agricultural challenges such as a lack of access to good quality inputs (such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and supervision) and reliable machinery. It was mentioned that the resilience of vulnerable communities can be strengthened through the development of sustainable value chains and the establishment of food safety nets.In Equatorial Guinea's Dialogues, it was indicated that food handling in supply chains is poor and the control of food quality in public markets and grocery stores is inadequate.In the Central region, key areas for improving health and nutrition included nutritionsensitive agriculture, reducing the prices of nutritious foods, awareness campaigns on nutrition and indigenous foods, improved dietary guidelines and food safety standards. In the CAR Dialogues, it was mentioned that there is a need for the development of nutrition-sensitive agriculture with the ambition of reducing chronic malnutrition by at least 10% in three years.The Dialogues in Equatorial Guinea found that healthy and nutritious food is too expensive thereby limiting the population's access to it. Consequently, obesity, anaemia and child malnutrition have risen, and the country has promoted the production and consumption of healthy, safe and nutritious food.Nutritional awareness programmes and the promotion of healthier diets using the media and food guides were deemed necessary by Gabon. Stakeholders described an absence of food-based dietary guidelines and a lack of nutritional standards. Furthermore, the need for a return to the consumption of healthy indigenous foods was recognised.primary forests and other terrestrial and aquatic protected areas. The Dialogues in Gabon also highlighted the need for an increased budget for the Department of Agriculture so as to be able to respect the Maputo and Malabo agreements. Other action areas included the need to implement nutrition policies, strengthen collaboration between the Health Department and other sectors that deal with health issues, and to reform the legislative and regulatory framework to promote smallholders' access to land.Gabon identified the need for forestry companies to collaborate with the department responsible for infrastructure to maintain road networks essential for the flow of agricultural produce.In Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, stakeholders noted the need for State-funded research to improve agricultural production. Additionally, in Equatorial Guinea, it was recognised that all subsectors (e.g. crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry) need technical assistance in production, diagnosis of problems, coordination and financing for research.In the CAR Dialogues, customary law on land access proved a contentious issue as it does not allow equity in access to land nor the sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products. Furthermore, current agricultural systems, concentrated around villages with limited resources, were noted as not being conducive to the establishment of large farms, which would likely create tension over land.In Equatorial Guinea, importance was placed on updating national legislation related to the food system and its sustainability. The livestock sector indicated a need to build a feed factory. This led to discussions on who should establish the factory, the Government or the private sector. Additionally, producers highlighted the need for better coordination between financial institutions and the competent ministerial departments to improve the selection of beneficiaries to financial facilities.In CAR, a support strategy has been established for small-scale producers which includes improved access to financing and Equatorial Guinea has entered high-level dialogue to work towards the Maputo agreement of investing 10% of resources in the agricultural sector.In Gabon, the Dialogues highlighted the need for mechanisms to mobilise funds for producers. It was deemed essential to set up an investment fund to support agricultural activities. It was noted that professionals from the agricultural sector are prepared to contribute to its establishment through voluntary financial contributions which will be supplemented by the State. Furthermore, it was suggested that banking institutions hire agricultural specialists to better assess the demands for related financing.Image: ©Juan Pablo Marin García (Alianza de Bioversity International / CIAT)AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 43 42 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process interest more young people. The State also needs to improve basic social services such as hospitals, schools, recreation centres and internet connectivity in rural areas.In Cameroon, an impact study was conducted on the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on livelihood strategies undertaken by the rural poor and the adaptation of the agricultural sector as a whole. Consultation was inclusive with participation by the Regional Platform of Farmers' Organisations of Central Africa, youth, women, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The consultation was facilitated by the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network Global.In CAR, a common vision for 2030 was identified through the involvement of different food system stakeholders, government, technical and financial partners, civil society, farmers' organisations as well as the national scientific community. The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, is to strengthen its leadership and coordinate actions.Stakeholders mentioned that Gabon is implementing a policy that reconciles agricultural production with environmental conservation. The National Land Use Plan is to provide a key instrument for the preservation ofIn Equatorial Guinea, special mention was made of the need for technical assistance by fisheries, particularly in the areas of:• Traditional boat repairs;• Safety and survival equipment at sea, such as radar;• Engine spare parts; and• Facilities for the conservation, handling and sale of fresh fish. As such, the momentum created by the UN Food System Summit is therefore an opportunity to substantially improve on and accelerate the pace of implementation of the CAADP/Malabo Agenda. The BR and AATS may be supplemented with additional indicators (e.g., processing and distribution as key segment in the food system) to better inform a more comprehensive planning, implementation, and tracking of transforming Africa's food systems. The aim of the report is to present individual Member States and collective performances in order to trigger continental, regional and national level action programmes to drive agricultural transformation in Africa.The report also helps to create more appetite for individual entities to strengthen national and regional institutional capacity for agriculture data collection and knowledge management to inform actions. Building on this principle, it is anticipated that this would support improved evidence-based planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, mutual learning and foster alignment, harmonization and coordination among multi-sectoral and multistakeholder efforts. Such efforts include the CAADP Malabo Policy Learning Event, the Permanent Secretaries' Retreat, engagements led by Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and platforms organized by partners.The report highlights the inclusive nature of the process and methodological approach that was used to collect and analyse data and write the report. Furthermore, the report also presents the key findings at continental and regional levels, the detailed profiles and scorecards of individual Member States, and sets of recommendations for individual Member States, regional bodies and continental institutions.The report is complemented by an online CAADP BR Communication Toolkit, used as a smart and powerful online interactive tool that presents the BR data in various forms, making it more easily accessible to users. The tool was developed by AU and its partners in close consultation with RECs, technical experts and other stakeholders as an accompanying output of the BR Report to facilitate the dissemination of its findings. The tool is designed to make it easier for policymakers and other stakeholders at national and regional level to interact with the data and information provided. The Toolkit contains clear graphics, analyses and maps that facilitate easier access to the information.Rwanda is ontrack to meet the goals and targets of Malabo by 2025, nineteen (19) countries are classified as progressive. With an overall score of 4.32, the continent is not-on-track to meeting the Malabo goals and targets by 2025. Regarding financing, the report shows that only four (4) countries invested at least 10% of their national expenditure on agriculture. Only one country is on track to meeting the vgoal by 2025. Both empirical observations and research findings presented in the report, show that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on agriculture and food security on the continent, could partly explain this low performance of the continent.For every reporting Member State, performance against the set targets is presented in the form of a \"Country Scorecard in implementing the Malabo Commitments\".For the first time, the report includes a section on the implementation of AU decisions, thematic in nature, and specific to agricultural transformation in Africa, on: Seed and Biotechnology; Livestock Development; Fisheries and Aquaculture; Irrigation; Mechanization; Fertilizer Use; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Capacities, Land Policy; and Ecological Organic Agriculture. This reporting period covers progress made by Member States in the implementation of the Malabo declaration for the period 2015 to 2020.As reflected in the key findings, the report presents the seven (7) thematic areas of performance, aligned with the commitments in the Malabo Declaration. It also evaluates country performance in achieving the goals and targets, which have been disaggregated into twenty-three (23) performance categories, and further divided into forty-six (46) indicators.In the Third BR Report, countries are considered 'on-track' if their total score is equal to or higher than the benchmark of 7.28; or 'progressive' when their score is equal to or more than 5 but less than 7.28; or 'not-on-track' if their score is less than 5.A total of fifty-one (51) AU Member States reported in this 3rd cycle of the Biennial Review process, up from the 49 Member States that reported in the 2nd Biennial Review cycle, and 43 in the inaugural Biennial Review cycle. Out of the 51 Member States that reported, 25 Member States registered increased scores between 2019 and 2021 review cycles. This reflects the commitment by Member States to the CAADP BR process and their efforts to address the shortfalls revealed in the inaugural and 2nd BR reports.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 53Image Top: ©Annie Spratt (Unsplash)• Member States, regional economic communities and AU should mount a strong communication and dissemination campaign on the findings in the report.The use of the CAADP biennial review communication toolkit and the biennial review dashboard should be encouraged among different stakeholders to view, observe and reflect on the findings in the report.• Member States, working in collaboration with all stakeholders, should ensure that national dialogues are convened to reflect on and discuss the results of this report to prioritize and develop policy and programmatic responses to speed up the implementation of the Malabo Declaration.RECs, Member States and development partners should be guided by the findings of this report to ensure alignment to the CAADP agenda.• Strengthen mutual accountability systems to include accountability for actions and results by a broader range of players, including the private sector, farmer organizations, civil society organizations, and development partners.• Member States should use the CAADP biennial review mechanism to report on progress in the implementation of the pathways for food systems transformation in the Africa Common Position to the UN Food System and national dialogues report.• AU should undertake an external evaluation/audit of the overall biennial review process to establish the efficacy of the self-reporting system and to suggest measures to strengthen the quality and robustness of the process at national, regional and continental levels.• Stronger political leadership and commitment is required in order for government to mobilize stakeholder buyin for financing and implementation of key recommendations. A central multi-sectoral coordination mechanism is required for effective CAADP implementation.• Member States are urged to design, fund and implement carefully selected priority programs and projects to fast-track the achievement of the seven Malabo Commitments. In this regard, Member States should intensify efforts to develop and implement Malabocompliant high-quality NAIP.• Strengthen the capacity of regional economic communities, given the critical role they play in mobilizing member state in the biennial review process, by providing them with more human and financial resources.• Member States are encouraged to integrate the CAADP biennial review data collection process into existing national monitoring and reporting systems, including the joint sector review processes.• AU and Member States need to develop and strengthen implementable mechanisms for peer learning. Well-structured peerto-peer learning and exchange should be an integral part of the CAADP process.• From the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Member States should establish stronger emergency response plans and commit to building more resilient food systems to respond better to future shocks.The 2021 biennial review report calls for action to transform Africa's agriculture","tokenCount":"13993"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7cdcb0a99670f864688cae999c03abb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1b86e342-f554-403f-b60c-92ea892121fe/retrieve","id":"-1209337161"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2b4ea271-5218-4fed-9e65-f88abfb6bf32","pagecount":"22","content":"This 3-day workshop convened nearly 50 representatives from Climate-Smart Village related Flagship projects across Latin America, Africa, Asia and South Asia to share experiences and foster learning and exchange in order to:1. Define a common vision of what CSVs are, their purpose to CCAFS and its partners, and direction moving forwards 2. Reflect on lessons learnt from different CCAFS regions and identify a set of best practices going forwards 3. Identify opportunities for harmonization of methodologies to enable cross regional analyses and global learning, and 4. Respond to emerging CCAFS external evaluation recommendations on CSVs and incorporate adjustments into Flagship projects during Extension and Phase 2Plenary and fruitful group discussions, combined with field visits to the Haryana CSVs enabled deep reflections and the collective building of a common vision on the objectives, key elements and generic theory of change of CSVs.Various success stories of CSVs were highlighted including the development of climate-smart integrated portfolios based on holistic approaches, participatory action research and empowerment. CSVs were seen as particularly important models for articulation and partnerships between a variety of actors and institutions at all levels. Nevertheless, it was noted that certain areas had potential for improvement and this included concerns over the viability of sustainability beyond the project cycle, a lack of evidence of climate-smartness beyond productivity, a need to balance technology and socioeconomic aspects, the need to better acknowledge indigenous knowledge, a lack of involvement of 'poor' farmers and youth, and more research, engagement and documentation needed to facilitate scaling out.There was general agreement on the farmer-driven nature of the CSVs processes and convergence on a minimal set of criteria for the participatory approach to be considered while acknowledging that the levels of participation must be context-specific, reflecting local realities. The criteria included the focus on evidence building, integration of knowledge to actionable science, understanding farmer priorities and institutional landscapes, promotion of empowerment and ownership through effective multi-stakeholders partnerships to support scalability and sustainability through integration in the agricultural system.Discussions on the CSV Theory of Change reflected some initial confusion by the participants around the CSV replications (e.g 500 CSVs in Haryana) and the scaling up component, but finally a common understanding was reached. Put in simple words, CSV Theory of Change is based on generating solid evidence with farmers, on the effectiveness of integrated CSA portfolios (incl. climate smart technologies and practices, business models and associated supporting services and resource leveraging mechanisms). This is in addition to working with partners, governments and private sector on developing implementing pathways to scale it up (e.g. integration into gov. and local planning documents) in order to reach farmers that are not in CSVs (Haryana's 500 CSVs are villages who are adopting climate-smart technologies and practices that come from learning within CSVs).It was also pointed out that: i) -We have a common CSV model among the different regions made of a set of replicable processes aiming to build solid evidence that leads to enable wide adoption but where implementation and scaling up of this evidence are context-specific, ii) In order for CSVs to be scalable, a simpler model is required to piggyback on existing large scale initiatives and iii) CSV Theory of Change should be a combination of the two complementary bottom-up and top-down, science led approaches.When discussing the issue of CSV scale and research units, it became clear once again that one size does not fit all, with CSVs being defined at different levels in different regions. (E.g. in SA villages defined by administrative boundaries. In SEA: landscape, (micro) watershed level; LAM: territorial/ catchment level approach based on production system). However, in general, it was agreed that the CSV scale should be a manageable unit with similar conditions based on biophysical, socio-economicpolitical context and dependent on CSA technologies being tested and research questions addressed.The need to further develop and strengthen the CSV Research framework was also highlighted with useful discussions around three proposed thematic building blocks: The creation of more systematic and targeted science-led evidence at the relevant scale (landscape, value-chain) and for the different stakeholders, specifically some topics where evidence is particularly weak including addressing longer term climate variability and change, avoiding maladaptation, defining CSA versus Sustainable Intensification, layering of technologies vs individual options.  Development of a methodological transferability framework based on processes (not contextspecific) where its \"ingredients\" or components are transferable but bring the context specificity; incl. establishing appropriate metrics, adaptation domains (incl. more work on farmer typologies and CBA); using biophysical and socio-economic Analogues; building more on big data analysis (capitalizing baseline data) and learning from dis adoption.  Developing relevant business models as vehicles for scaling up/out (CCAFS role: informing vs developing?).Opportunities for methodological harmonization were also identified and included among others:  For the Agronomic trials: The need to establish a minimum common framework to enable comparable set up of several scenario trials  For GHE emissions: Develop guidelines and protocols on the different methods available (incl. landscape level); address how to validate the mathematical models; agree on relevant measurement scale (plot emissions, life cycle or full footprints?)  For Business models: indicators to assess climate-smartness of a business model,  For Scaling out: to develop a framework to integrate CSA into local planning  For Gender: the need for a general assessment on what has been done and what have been the different results across the regions; strategies to enhance women's decision making in the hh; to address how can CSVs be a factor that influences youth staying in rural areas.This first CSV workshop was a real success and allowed the CSV community to make major progress on the collective development of the CVS.II Vision to be reflected in the full CCAFS Phase II proposal. Co-develop a 3-page Synthesis of CSV concept, TOC and objectives, to be shared for comments by October.  Develop the CSV research framework and share  Establish CSV practitioners (email list); Interest in group on business development and regional learnings  Bring other flagships into this CSVs discussions and future actions (mitigation and climate information components have big roles to play) to further catalyze synergies  Consider Writing Workshops to harmonize methodologies (of what is context specific) and clearly identify and strengthen the science  Synthesis paper ideas: Framework for Agricultural Trials, mainstreaming CSA into planning/LAPAs  Carry out a second CSV workshop towards the end of 2016 before Phase II (highlighting the science and including poster sessions) (Yen Tan Bui) This presentation by the coordinator of the CSV villages in SEA addressed: the selection of CSVs, the climate-smart components present in each of them, and introduced the aspect of the relevant scale to be addressed, including the landscape level. The implementation structure from national to community level was also presented: the identification activities of the baseline work, initial capacity building, land use planning, and priority interventions carried out based on a bottom-up and participatory approach. Also mentioned were upcoming activities related to capacity building of CSV teams, household-based land-use optimization and opening of CSV research proposals.The presentation addressed the risk profiles of the EA CSV villages, the regional vision and impact pathway ending with a focus on the Nyando Case documented in the CCAFS info note.  Andy Jarvis invited the participants to address and discuss, in group tables, the following aspects related to the scaling up and out of strategies behind the CSV approach:   CSV Theory of Change should be a combination of the two proposed models: the more local/ bottom up, as well as the higher intensity, \"top down\" or science led setting.  No one size fits all. CSV Theory of Change needs to be embedded in the local/regional context and could build on context specific ecological and socio-economic typologies.- The morning of day three was devoted to continuing the CSV science session. Three major topics were address through short opening presentations followed by group discussions. Key aspects are summarized below.CSVs are founded upon an action research framework whereby communities are an integral actor in the research process. Different participatory approaches with local institutions and farmers themselves have been implemented across the different regions. Are we observing regional differences on its implementations (e.g. farmers as implementers vs farmers as drivers of the agenda or hybrid process)? To open up the discussion, an introduction on What is PAR and its key principles was made by John Recha:Participatory action research is an outcome-driven approach to research in communities that emphasizes farmer participation and action. PAR seeks to understand the community by trying to change it, collaboratively and following reflection. It emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history. Key principles include: Recognizing community as a unit of identity  Building on strengths and resources within the community  Facilitating collaborative partnerships in all phases of the research  Integrating knowledge and action for mutual benefit of all partners  Promoting a co-learning and empowering process that attends to social inequalities  Continuous monitoring and involving a cyclical and iterative process  Disseminating findings & knowledge gained to all partners  Scaling up through local policy makerso Are there success stories that might help us to identify which might be the best PAR practices? o Do we need different strategies for PAR or are we on the right track? o Which might be the minimum requirements for a PAR approach?Building on the collective discussion the following principles and requirements came out (in blue, novel elements compared to the initial definition are highlighted).PAR is a tool to generate scalable, cost-effective and socially relevant CSV models for different agroecologies. The out scaling of the CSV model does not necessarily require PAR. PAR in CSVs needs to be an Eye Opener allowing to create awareness and showcase available technologies and tools1. -Site selection: should be region specific/representative and scalable -Conduct situation analysis /baseline and vulnerability Assessment -Identify climate risks, incentives and benefits of participation in CSVs -Fosters initial community mobilization to build common understanding of the vision and goals-Essential need to understand the specific history of the community rather than assuming that we are starting from a blank page. -Recognizing that a project might have a limited scope, and will only contribute to addressing some aspects/needs of the community. -Need to make some distinction about Participatory Action Research (might develop some model and protocols on which participatory action in needed) and Participatory Action.Appropriate CSV Scale  Not easy to define concrete concept of CSV research unit. Current diversity observed on scales across regions. (E.g. in SA villages defined by administrative boundaries. In SEA: landscape, (micro) watershed level; LAM: territorial/ catchment level approach based on production system)  One size does not fit all.  CSV scale should be a manageable unit with similar conditions, context specific, considering:- -Do we know which the best PAR practices are (things that will really make a difference to help us achieving out outcomes)? -Now that CCAFS is reaching its first 5 years, should we think about evaluating the PAR work already done in the different sites and assess how far have we have got so far? -At which level is PAR being used: CCAFS level, project level?-After having collectively reflected and established the PAR minimum requirements the questions that arise are: Are we meeting all those PAR minimum requirements? Should we try and use a similar \"set level\" of participation across all the regions or should it be grounded in the cultural and institutional realities of each site? Should PAR be taken as \"one size fit all \"approach in its implementation? Collective agreement was reached on the fact that in the case of PAR's implementation in the CSVs, one size does not fit all and the levels of participation must be context-specific depending on the regional/local realities.Village is in the name, but this may not always be the most appropriate scale for a CSV. In Asia and Latin America, perhaps landscapes or catchments are more appropriate. The issue of scale of a CSV has been brought up by the external evaluation. In this discussion, the group reflected on which might be the appropriate scale, and tried to clarify the CCAFS strategy across and within regions.In its opening presentation Julian Gonsalves recalled, in a great and very illustrative way (See Video), the CSV purpose, focus, principles and scale, opening the floor to the  1. To create science-led evidence on the efficiency of the model (at the relevant scale: landscape, value-chain etc.).  Are we properly addressing climate change (longer term) and climate variability? Or are we addressing climatic risk?  Need of more scientific analyses to evaluate that what we are promoting today will not lead to maladaptation.  How to make better use of climate information services? Some sort of distinction needs to be made between sustainable intensification and climate-smart agriculture. Need to be more specific on what is and what is not CSA 2. Define adaptation domains to facilitate transferability of successful research 3. Identify and develop the business models that are needed. Our outcome-driven approach leads us towards impact and applicability. After several years of research and evidence building, we now need to reflect on the most appropriate scaling model e.g. for engaging the government and for industry.Are we building evidence appropriately?Most of the discussion groups (4 out of the 6 tables) concluded that CCAFS is currently NOT doing enough to build evidence base and that opportunity for improvement exists and focuses around:  Targeted evidence: defining the targeted stakeholders (farmers, investors, policy makers), the different types of evidence needed and how it needs to be framed and communicated.  More systematic evidence base processes (establishing clear trade-offs between the research and the scaling out goals), and consider specifically some topics where evidence is particularly weak.  Strengthening innovative aspects of research: focus evidence base on portfolios and layering of technologies (not occurring everywhere so far) vs traditional individual technologies evaluation.  Establishing CSA metrics for M&E and enabling more breakdown of evidence around the three pillars.  Addressing future climate variability and risk (incl. appropriateness of current coping mechanisms from farmers for future CC conditions).  Building more on big data analysis opportunities (capitalize baseline data).  Learning from dis adoption of technologies and fast spreading technologies (i.g cell phones).  Agenda guidance: can weather and climate information services be used to drive the CCAFS research agenda?Adaptation domains: Are we understanding transferability?The group agreed overall that so far CCAFS has not adequately addressed transferability within its projects (no evidence) and shared the need to further address and understand both current and future adaptation domains and ensure future sustainability of CSA technologies and options despite context specificity associated to technology adoption. In terms of available tools, the Climate Analogue was recognized as being of key importance if embracing the socio-economic and soil aspects. Suggestions on aspects to be further considered include: Development of a methodological transferability framework based on processes (not context specific) where its \"ingredients\" or components are transferable but bring the context specificity.  Carrying out more work on farmers typologies and CBA (costs associated to implementation of CSA)o Are we building evidence appropriately to address climate variability and future climate change? (Method) o Adaptation domains: Are we understanding transferability? (Tool) o Business models: What is the research process and how do we mainstream it in the thinking of a region?This discussion led to the following key reflections:o CSV concept is a process/approach, thus need for BM that are different than for products. o BMs for CSVs should be market driven but need to be dynamic. o Need to identify target specific investors (e.g. private enterprises, gov, cooperatives, and self-help groups) and define processes that promote investments at CVS level accordingly. o Need to engage and involve those \"clients\".o Lack of clarity was expressed on the research behind BMs for CSVs and who the customers of this research are. Call for more work. o Questioned role of CCAFS researchers/policy makers (partners) on trying to develop BM by themselves. o CCAFS science role should be informing investors and entrepreneurs on potential business opportunity, providing them the necessary inputs (e.g. evidence for cost recovery, microcredit etc.) o Research process might include documentation of BM benefits (M&E)o Need for business case for capacity building for famers, in collaboration with private sector. o Existing CCAFS SEA platform to enable different groups to come together and develop BMsRajbir Singh's presentation (Video) focused on sharing learning from the Indian and ATARI experience at the CSVs. See highlights in ANNEX 3.In its opening presentation Surabi Mittal (CIMMYT) recalled the current key challenges:• Majority of farmers are small and bounded by limited subset of knowledge and access to resources • Male farmers are moving for secondary income leading to increasing feminization of agriculture • Youth moving out of agriculture • Gender gap-literacy, limited access to assets, and cultural barriers and traditional mind set-\"Women don't need information\" • The problem of lack of information is even more pertinent among women engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture • Limited experience/ confidence in decision makingCSV research has strong focus on technologies, innovative platform and partners, and how foster uptake, adoption, scale-out and impact of those technologies. However, the key catalyst in between is behavioral change.Examples from India:-What the existing gender gap is (survey analysis 2012 reflected poor access to assets but also to information and knowledge, where ICT can act) -Enhancing the role of gender in hh decision making to adopt CSAPs (reducing information asymmetry and empowering them; making women in hh accountable for record keeping) -Enhancing understanding by training (green seeker, inclusiveness in ICT services, weather info, creation of service windows) -Gender empowerment index Gender should be incorporated in activities where possible but is difficult to understand (and in some locations even more challenging)  What role do women play in agriculture and related activities? Do we know this? Should this be the starting point? Do we have data and information on this?  Technologies, especially mechanization, might displace labor-the first loss might be to female labor-how this will be accounted for? (Gender neutral? Same impact on men and women?)  Men and women think differently, might internalize information and implement it differently-so should we have a disintegrated (only women) vs integrated (men and women) approach?  What is the role of gender in the decision making process?  What is the incentive for women to be part of CSVs?  Is it necessary for CSVs to be concerned with gender issues?Questions for discussion and reporting by discussion facilitation Sophia Huyer  Should CSVs be concerned with gender issues?  Are we doing enough in CSVs to examine gender and youth elements of climate adaptation and mitigation? -Do you know of existing tools for gender main streaming/ integration-Are these tools simple to understand and implement? -Do CSVs need a different approach from pre-existing gender approaches?  How can we enhance the role of gender in household decision making to adopt CSAPs?-What are the regional lessons learned? Can you list at least one? -Are we collecting and analyzing the data to truly understand gender and youth differentiated impacts of CSA options? -How are you addressing gender and youth in technology adoption assessments? Consensus on the need to address gender and youth issues in CSVs  Emerging approaches in the region on the role of gender and technologies assessment  Different tools exist and are used, but need for a general assessment on what has been done and what have been the different results across the regions.  Need for strategies to enhance women's decision making in the hh (Assessment of technologies and tools introduced and their impact on women's position in the hh, their control and access to resources (been done in Nepal; Women involved in book keeping in India)  Need to address: How can CSVs be a factor that influences youth staying in rural areas (financial instruments, loans, incentives, use of technologies, training on business opportunities around farming; providing interesting jobs around CSV activities-data recording etc.)ii. Scaling-out approaches: linking with LAPA or sub-regional planning: Experiences from South Asia, primarily IndiaThe opening presentation by Jeetendra P. Aryal highlighted to following aspects:-India is very special because it has NAPCC (National Action Plan on CC) and SAPCC (State Action Plan on CC) and good integration between both levels. Missing GAP = Local Adaptation Plans of Action.-LAPA: Important vehicle to scale CSA (endorsed by the government in Nepal) -Need to explore how we can mainstream CSVs into LAPAs, enable coordination and synergies (both concepts acting at village level)o What are the most appropriate sub-national policies and plans that can provide incentives for scaling-out CSA? (experiences from Nepal, regional lessons learned) o How might local CSA programs be best designed to promote CSA adoption? o What is the role of local institutions in providing supporting services to farmers that increases CSA adoption levels and where do the opportunities lie?-The group discussed the need to reach impact at local level planning -In general, in most of the CSV sites, existence of national level frameworks (NAPAs) but gap at local level -Climate-smart alliances set up in rural Africa to be used as vehicles to integrate into national planning but, how is this going to be connected to the local plans? -Nepal: village plans including 50% of the budget on LAPAs -Incentives to integrate CSA into LAPAs? Where is the information feeding the LAPAs coming from? Can CSV research provide inputs to LAPAs? -Need to further discuss how to integrate CSA into local planningClare Stirling presented some of the key challenges to be discussed related to GHG emissions methodological issues in CSVs. What is the most appropriate GHG approaches to use in CSVs?  Do we replicate (FP3 detailed and expensive measurements) or do we take less expensive approaches (incl. calibration of models as way to scale out)? What is the trade-off: Gold standards models (DNDC, but apparently several problems been reported) vs data light model? Cool Farm tool?  Do we want a robust analysis of emissions or idea of which directions these technologies are going to take GHG?Questions for discussion and reporting o Are we using the best methods? -There are different groups using different measurements.-Methane measurement is easily done, but carbon sequestration is very difficult.-It is really not easy to tell if the methods being used now are the best ones.-Guidelines of different measurements should be developed.-A group from New Zealand has been doing measurements in cattle productions, paddy rice, and applying different predictive models for different location-specific measurements of emissions.o Are all measurements using SAMPLES best practice methods?Not a concrete answer for this Y/N question, just miscellaneous ideas:-GHG lab has been set up in Nairobi for different measurements.-Mono-cropping of rice in the Philippines: measure CH4 emissions in rice.-Using different mathematical models to predict GHG emissions. The question is, how do we validate these models? -Implementation of GHG emissions measurements at landscape scale. Follow-up design, data management and analysis. Participants on this discussion table addressed the following questions:o What are the minimal standard practices that need to be implemented across all CSVs? o What common protocols can be adopted across all CSV projects Key reflections shared by the group facilitator Samuel Partey were that given the important heterogeneity among the CSVs from the different regions (in terms of climatic risks and challenges, agro-ecologies and production systems etc.) it might be difficult to identify standard practices and rather the common elements should be:-Sharing a common objective -Having a comparable set up of several scenario trialsThe opening presentation by Anne Marie Groot \"Exploring opportunities to scale out CSA in CSV through innovative business models\" share the ongoing work developed under FP1 project \"Recommendation domains, incentives and institutions for equitable local adaptation planning at subnational level and scaling up climate smart agricultural practices in wheat and maize systems\"; as well as the concrete case study developed for the cooperative in Noorpur Bet (Punjab). Watch the Video, See ANNEX 4 for the highlightso Should CCAFS focus more on cooperatives to out-scale CSA practices and accelerate climate smart businesses? o Establishment/facilitation of innovation platforms: is there a role for CCAFS? o Should we identify a basic set of criteria for assessing climate smartness of business ideasbusiness cases?-Reduced price of inputs -Higher skills -Increased income The group also reflected on the question of whether CCAFS should be moving into the value chain/ market driven approach or if we should be more focused on the production of technologies. To be compared with CCAFS definition (as per in pre-proposal):  Integration of technologies, practices and services, examining how token technologies function in a broader ecosystem of approaches  Built on a participatory approach to understand adoption barriers, farmer acceptance  Wider lens of evaluation: going beyond productivity to also incorporate adaptation and mitigation  Building of evidence for scaling out, piggy-backing the opportunities that climate context adds to a traditional technology roll out approach (e.g. using climate finance, bundling with climate services among others)General closing comments from the plenary  Significant discussion about CSA but no one is really concrete about it. Some say: Is CSV the right approach? What else should we ask back? If not in this way how do we reach millions of Ha/ farmers? (Reiner)  This workshop has helped participants to realize how important the participatory research element is in the CSV approach (multi-stakeholders involvement not only farmers)  Importance of having and showing the evidence on the value addition for promoting and upscaling this model: having good business cases for CSVs (e.g. inspiration from the cooperative model)  Lots of progress made but wide range of opportunities identified for more coordination on specific topics/areas  On harmonization: Writing workshops would be very helpful to get to an harmonized methodology (harmonization of what is context specific)","tokenCount":"4290"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29c325db513524b918b951014ec92757","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/434c5896-ff35-4b9a-902b-ef5565ed3afa/retrieve","id":"-895718532"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"52efab6a-ae8b-4539-a801-0c2cbbebdb4a","pagecount":"12","content":"The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization and Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) is supported by USAID/ Bangladesh and aims to support the mechanization of agriculture in Bangladesh by developing the capacity of the private sector to develop, manufacture, and market innovative new technology. This assistance will enable the country's farmers to mechanize their agricultural production to maintain national food security and avoid dependence on imports.More than half of the agricultural workforce in Bangladesh are women. Women farmers typically engage in activities around the homestead, such as homegardening, poultry, post-harvesting, and processing (BISWAS et al., 2022). However, social, and cultural norms disfavour their engagement in household decision-making and control over farm assets (Jennings et al., 2022). In this context, women's abilities to realize their full productive potentials, and to contribute to the wellbeing of their families are often severely limited. The Mixed Farming System Initiative aims at identifying and promoting innovations that contribute to reducing genderconstraining norms and to enhancing greater gender equality. One potential entry point to encourage increased gender equity in mixed farming systems in rural Bangladesh includes livestock production, which is traditionally under women's responsibility.At the household and farm level, livestock can support household nutrition and income in multiple ways. Meat, milk, and dairy supply calories and quality nutrition such that livestock ownership is associated with lover levels of stunting among children (Hossain & Khan, 2020). A significant share of household cash income comes from livestock (Thornton et al., 2009), mainly through the sale of livestock products. Livestock also acts as savings or economic reserves. Women's control over livestock may therefore enhance their empowerment across different domains in mixed farming systems. But livestock rearing also includes labour intensive tasks, such as manual feed preparation which can be a burden on women's workload.Mechanical fodder chopping, and feed preparation, are strategies to reduce drudgery and to improve feed use efficiency in livestock rearing. Improved fodder chopping technologies have been extensively piloted and scaled in the context of small-scale mixed farming systems. In Bangladesh, a great number and diversity of fodder chopping innovations have been developed and scaled throughout rural households and manufacturers/dealers. The use of fodder choppers is not only beneficial for individual farmers, but also for wider rural economies in Bangladesh. Fodder chopper is one of the technologies which has been widely researched under the USAID funded Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia -Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) project. Through a collaboration between local manufacturers and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) more than 100 women and men have been trained on fodder chopper operation and how to utilize fodder chopper to run a machinery service business. Most of the research on fodder choppers focuses on chopper modification. For instance, the previous model's open blade presented a health concern. CSISA-MEA created the safe model in partnership with BARI, using a cover manufactured by a local manufacturer. Additionally, the promotion of fodder choppers has resulted in a significant increase in interest in the machines, with sales v nearly doubling in 2023 compared to 2021 (according to the USAID-funded CSISA-Mechanization and Extension Activity, implemented by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre).CSISA-MEA is also collaborating with another USAID funded project in Bangladesh called Livestock Production for Improved Nutrition (LPIN) Activity, where the project is promoting fodder chopper among the large cattle farms. As a part of the collaboration CSISA-MEA is providing silage chopping training to the farmers.Due to its characteristics and intended use, fodder choppers have the potential to impact the lives of women farmers in rural Bangladesh. Through the reduction of workload, enhanced productivity, and the opportunity for financial independence by offering chopping services to their community, the technology can empower women to seize control of their lives and make valuable contributions to the local economy. However, despite the growing diffusion of fodder choppers in small-scale mixed farming systems in Bangladesh, and their potential benefits for women farmers, the gender equity and social inclusion implications of the use of fodder choppers has not been assessed in detail. This research protocol describes the design and data collection process of a study on the impacts of the introduction and use of mechanized fodder choppers on women farmers' agency, control over productive assets, and farm income in rural Bangladesh. In most smallholder livestock raising systems, fodder processing is done manually and falls within the responsibilities of women, adding significantly to their workload. The immediate outcome of the use of fodder choppers is a reduction in the time needed to prepare livestock feed (compared to manual feed preparation). However, related impacts on gender roles in livestock production and gender equity in mixed farming systems can be manifold. Error! Reference source not found. presents stylized pathways of some of these potential impacts. Accordingly, the use of fodder choppers may have both, positive and/or negative outcomes. It may enhance women's role in livestock raising through two main pathways: 1) by lowering women's workload and thereby promoting the expansion of their portfolio of activities, and 2) by increasing the productivity of livestock raising, and thereby increasing women's control over cash income and ultimately women's agency in household decision-making. Pathways that may be detrimental to women's roles in livestock raising include the crowding out of women (by men). This may happen if the adoption of fodder choppers is associated with men taking over control of livestock farming from women, a pattern that can be observed after the introduction of an innovation. For instance, Fischer and Qaim (2012) show that the promotion of collective action in Banana marketing in Kenya leads to increased male control in banana production, which is typically dominated by women.Whether the crowding out of women has positive or negative effects on gender equity depends on women's use of the time previously spend with manual fodder preparation. A significant reduction in women's engagement in livestock may cause women's loss of control over the households' livestock assets and livestock income. Mehraban et al. (2022) find that households' adoption of labour-saving crops (oil palm) is associated with women having less decision-making power in terms of farm management and income control in Indonesia. The aim of the study is the quantification of the effects of the use of fodder chopper on i) time allocation for fodder chopping activities of both women and men farmers, ii) gender roles in decision-making in livestock production, and iii) gender control over livestock-based household income. The study relies on a quasi-experimental design with observational quantitative data for the statistical analysis. Formally, the treatment effect is estimated as follows:Where \uD835\uDC4C is the respective outcome variable for household i in district j, and \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 is a dummy variable indicating whether the household uses fodder (\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 = 1) choppers or not (\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 = 0) . The vector \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 includes \uD835\uDC5A control variables that also influence outcome variable, such as household demographics, farm characteristics, and contextual variables, including households' location. With randomized assignment of \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36,the estimate of \uD835\uDEFD indicates average treatment effect (ATE). Since the use of fodder choppers is not randomly distributed among observations, the study will rely on statistical approaches from applied econometrics to account for missing counterfactual and observed confounders that may simultaneously influence the use of fodder choppers, and the respective outcome (self-selection bias) (Wooldridge, 2010).Table 1 shows the hypothesized direction of the association between the use of fodder choppers and the set of outcome variables. While we expect the use of fodder choppers to reduce the time required to manual feed preparation, expected associations between fodder chopper use and women's role in decision-making and control over income are mixed, and are expected to depend on the women's ability to use freed time to engage welfare and or wellbeing enhancing activities.Table 1. Hypothesized direction of associations between the use of fodder choppers and outcome variables.Hypothesized association between fodder chopper use and outcome 1. Time allocation for fodder chopping activities of both women and men farmers -2. Women's roles in decision-making in livestock production -/ + 3. Women's control over livestockbased household income.-/+The study relies on farm household data collected through a structured phone-based questionnaire. As the focus of the study is the assessment of the effects of the use of fodder choppers on gender roles in livestock raising, the questionnaire was addressed to both spouses individually and separately (if the household was headed by a married or co-residing adult couple). Table 2 summarizes the areas covered by the questionnaire.A team of enumerators was carefully trained in the content and application of the data collection tool during September 2023 in Dhaka. The team of enumerators was selected to include both male and female members. Considering the social context and cultural norms in Bangladesh, male enumerators conducted phone interviews only with male farmers, while female enumerators interviewed all female respondents. Data collection was implemented in October 2023.The sampling frame included 791 households from 40 districts in Bangladesh. A total of 997 individual interviews were conducted. These represent 551 households covering 36 districts as depicted in Error! Reference source not found.. For 446 households, data could be collected from both spouses (or partners). The final share of fodder chopper users and non-users was almost equally distributed among the sample. Addressed to Livestock endowments and management, i.e., number and turnover of small and large livestock, main purposes of livestock raising.Main responded only Fodder processing activities employed by the household, i.e., chopper use, ownership, and type, labor use and distribution for fodder processing and livestock management.Gender roles in livestock production related to management, decision-making, and control over income.Both genders within the household Individual, 30-minute interval time allocation of female and male adults in the household during the 24-hour period preceding the interview.Both genders within the household Socio-demographic household characteristics.Main responded onlyTable 3 gives an overview of the main household and farm characteristics of sampled farms. Our sample is almost equally divided between fodder chopper users and nonusers. Fodder chopper users tend to possess a larger number of both small and large livestock compared to non-users. Users of fodder choppers also have higher expenditures for livestock feed and tend to hold a larger area of land both around the homestead and on fields away from the homestead. The average time spend on fodder chopping is significantly lower for fodder chopper users. ","tokenCount":"1808"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2264ad9f50d0ef6bf6b9c050a651f3df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d44cfc5-4ec8-4e2a-b148-ba6477b3d490/retrieve","id":"1342975776"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9efcd0fe-cf3a-455c-b4cd-ca6e5f5259eb","pagecount":"30","content":"SAIRLA) Programme is a UK Department for International Development-funded initiative that seeks to generate evidence and design tools to enable governments, investors and other key actors to deliver more effective policies and investments in sustainable agricultural intensification that strengthen the capacity of poorer farmers', especially women and youth, to access and benefit from SAI in Burkina Faso,The NLA project contract was signed between WYG and ILRI in February 2017 with an agreement to implement the NLA strategy in Ethiopia till 31 December 2019. ILRI took the leads on implementing the NLA strategy with five staffs where by three members of the team are on consultancy bases and the remaining are staffs of ILRI and involved in other similar project. The team is responsible for delivering the five project milestones. Accordingly, the NLA facilitation team together with the research representatives held their initial meeting on 3th of March 2017 to introduce NLA facilitation team members and research project representatives, agree on NLA strategy and research project themes alignment, draft vision and mission statements and identify boundary partners, draft outcome challenges for each boundary partner groups and discus on NLA launching workshop process.One of the decisions made during the 3rd of March meeting was to hold NLA launching and outcome mapping workshop on 27th and 28th of March, 2017. Accordingly National Learning Alliance (NLA) facilitation team organized a two day workshop for the NLA launching and outcome mapping exercises. The workshop brought together a total of 27 participants from the NLA facilitation team, the four SAIRLA research project representatives, WYG and SAIRLA international learning alliance facilitator and boundary partners identified for the NLA.The workshop aimed at launching the NLA and conducting an outcome mapping exercise with boundary partners. The specific objectives of the workshop were the following:  Introduce the National Learning Alliance (NLA) strategy  Introduce the four SAIRLA projects in Ethiopia  Identify and group boundary partners and define outcome challenges, progress markers and collective actions for each boundary partners group  Jointly agree on the NLA structure, steering committee roles and responsibilities and appointing NLA steering committee membersAccordingly, the meeting agenda included opening and introductory remarks, presentations on SAIRLA program, experience sharing on Africa RISING, Panel Discussion on the four SAIRLA research projects, presentation on the NLA strategy, presentation on outcome mapping exercise and an outcome mapping exercise including validation of mission and vision statements and development of outcome challenges and progress markers as well as identification of collective actions required, including communication and capacity building requirements for boundary partners. Specifically, the processes followed during the workshop are elaborated below:Richard Lamboll from NRI/SAIRLA made a brief introduction of what SAIRLA is doing in the six intervention countries across Africa and welcomed the workshop participants. In her opening remark, Siboniso Moyo also welcomed the workshop participants and said that ILRI campus is an ideal venue for NLA launch as 11 CGIAR Centres that have a presence in Ethiopia other parts of Africa and globally are hosted in it. She further stated that finding solutions for complex problems such as how to deliver equitable sustainable agricultural intensification in Africa require innovative solutions. Finding such solutions, she stated, requires diverse stakeholders to engage and learn together with the ultimate aim of developing the collective commitment and capacity to turn ideas and plans into action. Hence the SAIRLA projects which are anchored on a National Alliance approach is an innovative approach against the business as usual way of doing research and development. She then declared the workshop officially opened.The SAIRLA research representatives introduced their projects using a panel discussion format. The panel discussion was facilitated by Simret Yasabu and Million Getnet. Each Participant was given five sets of questions to answer in 2-3 minutes each. The questions include, what are the main challenges that your project is aiming at addressing?, how is your project going to address these challenges? What are the expected practice and policy changes that your project is going to bring? Where are your project intervention areas and who are your partners and beneficiaries? How are you planning to engage your stakeholders at different levels? Participants were allowed to ask questions around the end of the session to which the panellists gave answers.The aim of this presentation was to introduce the NLA strategy, together with the draft governance strategy. Million Getnet made the presentation and facilitated establishment of thematic work groups. Thematic workgroups were established in line with the three SAIRLA thematic areas include Equity, Services and Trade-Offs. The four researches which will be conducted do not explicitly include Equity as their thematic focus, but the workshop participants insisted that equity should be included. The methodology used to identify thematic workgroups was by writing down the three thematic workgroups on a flip chart and requesting the participants to join one or more of the thematic groups depending on the mandate of their organization and their interest.The outcome mapping exercise stared in the afternoon of the first day. The processes started with a brief presentation of outcome mapping a monitoring and evaluation tool by M and E expert of the NLA facilitation team. The presentation was followed by validation of vision and mission statements. This was done using a buzz group methodology where by those who were seated on a same table were given 10 minutes to discuss the draft vision and mission statements and then proceed with a plenary discussion. The process then went into validation of the draft list of boundary partners. This was done by displaying the list of boundary partners with a projector and editing the list. In the second day of the workshop the outcome mapping exercise continued with a group work on development of outcome challenge for each boundary partner group. The participants were split into five boundary partner group namely Public Development Partners, National and international research partners, NGO's and civic associations, Media and Donors. Each group was given close to one hour to develop their outcome challenge and they present their findings using a flip chart presentation. The outcome challenges were then commented and amended. Then the groups proceed with identification of progress markers. The same approach was used for identification of progress markers as well, participants went on their boundary partners group and worked on their progress markers and presented their findings using flip charts. Finally the groups were asked to develop their collection action requirements together their communication and capacity building requirements.The NLA facilitation team presented the draft governance structure of the NLA including the suggestions on membership in the steering committee. The participants discussed and amended the membership. Then the discussion went on the way forward where by the importance of reaching out to higher level decision makers at the Ministry of Agriculture, the need to include private sectors representatives and the importance of regular attendance of NLA related events by all boundary partners identified were discussed. The steering committee includes; The NLA vision and mission statements and boundary and strategic partners drafted first by the NLA Facilitation Team members and the SAIRLA research project representatives during their first meeting on 3rd March, 2017 to get to know each other's roles and responsibilities and contributions to SAIRAL objectives. During the NLA Launching and Outcome Mapping Workshop the NLA members, by working in small discussion 'buzz' groups, have thoroughly reviewed and suggested improvement on the draft NLA vision statement, mission statement and boundary partners. The revision of the vision and mission statements, incorporating the suggestions and comments by the workshop participants, was undertaken by three workshop participants on voluntary basis, which was later presented for endorsement by the NLA members.The NLA vision and mission statements and boundary partners endorsed by the NLA members are presented below:Decision makers create enabling environment for development and implementation of SAI strategies that would strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers especially women and youth. Smallholder farmers employ and benefit from sustainable agricultural intensification practices.In support of the vision statement, the NLA create a learning platform for decision makers, development partners and smallholder farmers that enables them to have access to evidences and engage with decision support tools on sustainable agricultural intensification that is equitable, sensitive to trade-offs management and improvise service provisions.The boundary partners are those individuals, groups, or organizations with whom the NLA program interacts directly and with whom the program can anticipate opportunities for influence. The draft list of NLA partners was developed by the NLA Facilitation Team and research projects representatives on 3 rd March, 2017. The list of NLA boundary partners was further enriched and endorsed by NLA members during the Launching and OM workshop (see Development is complex, but an essential element concerns how people relate to each other. Outcome Mapping (OM) is a participatory methodology for planning, monitoring and evaluation, which focuses upon people and organizations and their relationships. Outcome Mapping is concerned with the level where a project has direct influence. OM concentrates efforts on assessing changes in the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the people and organizations with whom the NLA project works. These changes are called 'outcomes'. OM recognizes that while a project or programme can influence the achievement of outcomes, it cannot control them, because the ultimate responsibility for change rests with the partners of the project (boundary partners), and other actors beyond them. Outcome mapping recognised the limits of a project's influence, and shape our planning, learning, and accountability functions around \"outcomes\". The \"challenge\" is for the NLA project to help bring about these changes. The Outcome challenge describes how the behaviour, relationships, activities, or actions of an individual, group, or institution will change if the NLA project is extremely successful. Ideally, the outcome challenges describe how will the boundary partner be behaving or acting differently, and what new relationships will have been formed or the existing ones change in order to contribute to the NLA vision.The outcome challenge of each NLA boundary partner group was developed by respective members in each boundary partner group during the NLA Launch and Outcome Mapping Workshop (March27-28, 2017). All groups has assessed first their key functions /roles within the SAI agenda and their baseline condition. This information was then used to develop their outcome challenges (see Table 2).The boundary partner groups, based on their respective outcome challenges, have elaborated a set indicators of changed behaviours or milestones describing progression towards the outcome challenges known as 'Progress Markers' (see Table 2). This is centred on two key ideas: 1) that change occurs mainly through a series of small, incremental steps; and 2) that sustainable change comes about as a result of changes in people's behaviours, not just what they produce.Finally major collective actions required to be undertaken by each of boundary partner in order to contribute and influence the desired behavioural changes. This indicate the boundary partners are the first to effect and embrace changes by doing purposeful actions (see Table 2).There are three types of sustainable behaviour change. These are behaviours we would:  expect to see -key actors demonstrate early positive responses and initial engagement with the idea of change or the issue;  like to see -key actors are showing signs that the messages are being taken on board and are proactively changing the way things are done;  love to see -key actors display deep transformations in behaviour that demonstrate that the idea of change has been deeply internalised and will be sustainable in the long term. In a post NLA meeting held by the NLA facilitation team, the following activities are identified as things to be done between now and September. Abate Taye IDE a.taye@ideglogal.org 2.Abayneh Derero EEFRI abynehdd2009@gmail.com 3.Arega Gashaw ARARI-SARC argonlacomolza@gmail.com 4.Ashebir Wondimu MEFCC ashebirsa@gmail.com 5.4.1.1.1 Fadda Carlo Bioversity International c.fadda@cgiar.org 6.Fisseha Teshome MoANR Fishodagem@gmail.com 7.Getamessay Demeke Inter Aid France Getu.demeke@interaide.org 8.Reg. of NR/HARC Gettaye3@yahoo.com 9.4 4.1.1.7 Zoltan Tiba OPM Zoltan.tiba@opml.co.uk project will be anchored on a National Alliance approach that you will hear more about in these two days.","tokenCount":"1988"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d4121a3ac2be2e6415418b3b1dd5f6a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/19327d8a-cdf9-4c05-b9d4-13943db7552b/retrieve","id":"-1957103594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ecd704d2-0e4c-4298-a641-a8b3e7981646","pagecount":"3","content":"PART 1: Description and all information of the outcome/impact reported OUTCOME STORY/IMPACT STATEMENT Thanks to AICCRA capacity building on Next Generation (NextGen) seasonal climate forecast systems, the AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre for West Africa and the Sahel has adopted an objective, traceable, and reproducible seasonal forecasting procedure that enables the generation of improved seasonal forecasts. The NextGen approach is fully operational at AGRHYMET, and NextGen forecasting products are being used to upgrade the AGRHYMET climate information portal. AGRHYMET has also transferred the newly acquired technical capacities to 173 participants from 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in West Africa and the Sahel, enabling them to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for agricultural sectors in West Africa.AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre for West Africa and the SahelAICCRA Next Generation (NextGen) seasonal climate forecast systems, and capacity development and engagement have enabled the downscaling/transfer of new capacities from the AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) [1][2]. NextGen is a seasonal climate forecasting system that enables the development and dissemination of objective forecasts by combining the best dynamic models, and automates the generation and verification of objective, probabilistic, statistically-calibrated, multimodel predictions of a range of climate or impact variables [1].A key statutory function of AGRHYMET as a Regional Climate Center is to develop seasonal forecasts and organize the Regional Climate Outlook Forum (RCOF). Currently, the West Africa RCOF uses a consensusbased forecasting procedure. However, this consensual approach is subjective, in the sense that it is not easily traceable and reproducible. In addition, it does not enable the fulfillment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommendation that seasonal forecast procedures be objective, traceable, and reproducible [3]. The collaborative partnership with AICCRA has offered AGRHYMET a unique opportunity to strengthen its technical capacities to implement NextGen seasonal climate forecasting systems and improve the products available on its climate portal. NextGen is a seasonal climate forecasting system that enables the development and dissemination of objective forecasts by combining the best dynamic models, and automates the generation and verification of objective, probabilistic, statistically-calibrated, multi-model predictions of a range of climate or impact variables [1]. AICCRA supported and embedded AGRHYMET capacity through a series of regional and continental capacity strengthening efforts [4][5][6]. These efforts have enabled AGRHYMET to develop a new approach for seasonal climate forecasting that is tailored to West Africa regional needs [3,7]. NextGen is fully operational at AGRHYMET and NextGen products are being used to enhance the AGRHYMET climate information portal [8].A key challenge frequently mentioned by NMHSs that limits operationalizing the NextGen approach is the lack of consideration of hydrologic parameters in the PyCPT tool, one of the tools to operationalize the NextGen approach [9]. To address this challenge, AGHRYMET has adapted the PyCPT tool for hydrological forecasting [7]. In addition, AGRHYMET now has the full technical capacity to independently train NMHSs. To date, 173 participants from 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (including non-AICCRA countries) have been trained [10][11]. Some NMHSs have operationalized the NextGen approach to generate seasonal climate forecasts [9]. Overall, AICCRA engagement and capacity development on state-of-the-art forecasting systems are enabling regional and national meteorological agencies to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for agricultural sectors.Gender relevance: 1 -Significant. About 18% (31 out of 173) of the NextGen training participants were women. [4,5,10,11] Cap Dev relevance: 2 -Principal. Through AICCRA training, AGRHYMET is now equipped to provide enhanced climate information services to West African stakeholders. AGRHYMET has also trained 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) (including both AICCRA and non-AICCRA countries for spillover effect). Equip 500 million small-scale producers to be more resilient to climate shocks, with climate adaptation solutions available through national innovation systems.","tokenCount":"611"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3608853dd14aee18d029cb124cc0dc02","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b96ab351-0e66-461e-8919-8b7982b32ea9/retrieve","id":"-321529194"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca71c6cc-9093-4d2c-a0e9-b54dcfe48d38","pagecount":"4","content":"Mamadou Dembele I dentifiée par la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali comme une filière porteuse pour le développement économique national du pays, et dotée d'un fort potentiel de production (estimé à 35 000 t par an), la filière banane est pourtant sous-exploitée. En dépit de la position géographique favorable du Mali, différentes contraintes affectent sa production, notamment la non maîtrise des techniques appropriées. Or, la banane contribue à la sécurité alimentaire (elle représente une source substantielle de glucide) et constitue une opportunité socio-économique.L'une des préoccupations du Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), qui supporte la filière banane malienne depuis 2011-2012, est le développement et la diffusion de technologies en vue d'accroître la production agricole pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et réduire la pauvreté. Aussi a-t-il initié, à l'intention des membres de la Fédération, une formation sur de nouvelles techniques de production visant à améliorer la productivité des bananerais et les revenus des producteurs. L'expérience a débuté dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso) avant d'être étendue dans d'autres localités du cercle de Dioïla (Koulikoro).Le diagnostic effectué en 2010 par la Fédération sur la production de la banane au Mali, en particulier à Koutiala, a fait ressortir une diminution de la productivité des pieds de banane de 20 à 40 % de leur potentialité productive ces cinq dernières années due à un mode d'irrigation inapproprié, à l'apparition et au développement de la cercosporiose (une maladie de la souche de banane), et surtout à une méconnaissance de nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane.Une formation sur ces nouveaux itinéraires a donc été mise place dans les zones de production avec pour objectifs i) d'accroître la productivité des pieds de banane en augmentant le poids des régimes des bannerais ; ii) de diminuer l'intensité de main d'oeuvre nécessaire dans les champs de banane ; iii) de permettre un développement végétatif normal du bannerais ; iv) de réduire les risques de cercosporiose ; v) et de permettre un bon murissement de la banane afin d'augmenter sa qualité organoleptique.La stratégie adoptée pour atteindre ces objectifs fut l'établissement d'un contrat de collaboration avec la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de la banane. Le chargé de la filière a dû suivre des formations en Côte d'Ivoire pour renforcer son expertise sur les nouveaux itinéraires de production.Pour améliorer la productivité des bananeraies et les revenus des producteurs de banane, la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali, en concertation avec le Programme de Productivité Agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), a lancé un plan stratégique de développement de la filière consistant dans le renforcement des capacités de ses membres. C'est dans ce cadre que le PPAAO a initié un transfert de technologie dit « nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane » dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso).Couverture En plus de sa contribution à la sécurité alimentaire, la culture de la banane est un facteur de lutte contre l'exode rural et l'orpaillage en milieu rural devaient former à leur tour 80 producteurs dans les zones de production de la banane. Cette stratégie a permis de toucher un grand nombre de producteurs.L'évaluation technique menée par le Programme-Mali auprès des bénéficiaires dans le bassin de Koutiala a révélé plusieurs résultats positifs. Les 50 formateurs relais formés ont ainsi touché plus de 3 965 producteurs dans plusieurs villages. Le développement végétatif des plants de banane est désormais normal, et même excellent, ce qui permet au bananier d'arriver à maturité physiologique en huit ou neuf mois au lieu de douze mois. La combinaison des techniques (effeuillage, nettoyage, respect des écartements, etc.) a permis de passer à un rendement d'une tonne pour 25 régimes (contre moins d'une tonne pour 50 régimes auparavant). L'oeilletonnage, qui consiste à supprimer les rejets du bananier pour ne garder qu'un ou deux rejets par pieds-mère, a permis de réduire la quantité d'engrais à apporter aux plants de trois sacs à un sac et demi et d'augmenter le poids des régimes (70 régimes par t auparavant contre 30 régimes par t aujourd'hui). L'effeuillage, consistant à supprimer les feuilles mortes et celles du bas pour une meilleure aération de la bananeraie, a considérablement réduit l'infection par la cercosporiose et les grattages sur le fruit. La coupe de la fleur et la mise en place de tire-sève ont contribué à la maturité physiologique plus rapide du fruit. Le tuteurage, c'est à dire la mise en place d'une fourche de soutien afin d'empêcher les gros régimes de tomber au sol, a permis de réduire les pertes de bananes.Le nouvel itinéraire de production a permis de mettre en valeur 999 ha de surface supplémentaires.Les nouvelles techniques de production, importées de la Côte d'Ivoire, consistent à la destruction des rejets du bananier, l'effeuillage, la coupe des fleurs et la fertilisation. Elles ont été appliquées sur la banane Grande naine principalement cultivée au Mali. Cette variété a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative (elle produit le matériel végétal, les rejets, nécessaire à la création de nouveaux plants).Pour bénéficier de cette intervention, les producteurs devaient posséder des parcelles de production et disposer d'équipements agricoles (motopompe et accessoires …), être capables de comprendre et d'appliquer les messages techniques et les conseils, se montrer motivés et disponibles. Une première séance de formation a concerné 50 formateurs relais qui La banane Grande naine a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative.En vue d'assurer la durabilité du projet, la technique de production enseignée a été associée à la technique de plants issus de fragments de tige (PIF). Celle-ci répond au problème de vieillissement des bananeraies qui explique en partie les baisses de rendement enregistrées ces cinq dernières années et constitue un sérieux handicap pour le développement de la culture de la banane. C'est pourquoi la promotion de la technique PIF a été une innovation appréciable, accessible à tous les producteurs, même les plus petits, à moindre coût. Elle constitue une opportunité d'assurer la souveraineté semencière de la filière et de permettre une durabilité de la production de la banane au Mali.À travers les nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane se dessinent les caractéristiques d'une nouvelle professionnalité de producteurs, et un ensemble de conditions qui définissent les traits d'une communauté apprenante et émergente dans la production de la banane au Mali. Cette communauté doit faire face à un certain nombre de défis :• Des difficultés de mobilisation de ressources financières pour amener un grand nombre de producteurs à la maitrise des nouvelles technologies de production de banane ;• L'insuffisance des mesures portant sur le renforcement de l'organisation des acteurs, la structuration de la filière, l'accès au financement, le développement des infrastructures adéquates pour une meilleure valorisation de la banane, les bonnes pratiques de gestion des eaux de surface, le développement du marché intérieur et l'amélioration de la qualité de la banane ;• De mauvaises conditions de stockage et de transport des bananes, qui contribuent pour beaucoup à l'altération de la qualité du fruit ;• La non sécurisation foncière, qui limite de plus en plus la culture de la banane aux environs des grandes villes, plus précisément dans le district de Bamako. Les terres se font rares du fait du développement de la ville et de la spéculation foncière qui atteint aujourd'hui même les villages éloignés ;• L'insuffisance de soutien matériel, financier et technique apporté aux femmes productrices de banane, celles-ci s'intéressant de plus en plus à la production de banane ;• L'insuffisance d'agents spécialisés dans le suiviaccompagnement des acteurs de la filière banane. ","tokenCount":"1286"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da1dde334c4e2b3ae214c9b53f436eee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b521ba3-cc75-4f55-9b32-1c2ba42fa631/retrieve","id":"-1762970835"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9e755ba-656e-48aa-966e-bff1169b593e","pagecount":"8","content":"MAIZE is a very well structured, articulated and conceptualised CRP proposal. In general, it sets out a reasonable, achievable and important agenda for research. Following more than 30 years of maize research at CIMMYT and IITA, this proposal now brings forward a strategic, integrated and comprehensive international approach to maize research. Openness to develop collaboration with all key institutes involved in maize research is an important step forward to avoid duplicative work and thus increase efficiency and accelerate progress that builds on each partner's experience and expertise.As with CRP proposals previously approved, MAIZE has been developed without the guidance of an overarching CGIAR strategy for prioritizing research. However, maize is one of the three global food security crops, and among the three, the most dynamic in terms of demand growth, land area requirements, yield growth, and knock-on effects on land-use change. It is also very important as a food crop and as an income source to many of the world's poor. Given the projected importance of maize for achieving the broad development goals presented in the current Strategy and Results Framework, a program on maize and maize systems is justifiable. However, the expected dynamics of maize production and research have implications for this CRP as discussed below.Against the background of the CGIAR's overarching goals, the rationale of MAIZE is compelling for the research agenda presented in nine distinct but well integrated Strategic Initiatives (SI), and the overall goals are clear.Program objectives are consistent with the SRF. The program rationale is strongly based on the analysis of effects that commodity price fluctuations have on the poor and of the effects that increasing production demands have on expansion of land in maize production. The importance of maize to global food security and income for the poor is clear and increasing. In general, researchable topics are derived from careful analysis of current problems and opportunities. The nine Strategic Initiatives (SIs) constitute a comprehensive program that covers the essential aspects for enhancing sustainable productivity in maize-based systems. The regional focus of program implementation is appropriate. Working on clearly defined types of farming systems based on dominance of maize production is an effective organizing tool for this CRP, and also for delineating boundaries and linkages with other CRPs. However, given the complexity and heterogeneity of the factors affecting impact on agricultural development in these farming systems, the constraint analysis is necessarily at a very general level only. Refining and adjusting this framework with better data, analytical tools and a process of multi-stakeholder consultation should be given a high priority as this CRP develops to help adjust SI components in terms of resource allocation, objectives, geographic focus, program outcomes and impact pathways. The \"value chain\" perspective emerging in some of the SIs should more clearly influence hypothesis development and implementation of research.The proposal encompasses investments on a very broad range of activities-from increasing the efficiency of input use through smallholder precision agriculture, to molecular work on stress tolerance, to post-harvest processing. The very large agenda, squeezed into the nine SIs, and which include substantial components of continuing maize research from CIMMYT and IITA, would benefit from continuous review and prioritization. In this regard, it is positive that in most themes initial milestones include diagnostic analysis of opportunities and constraints. Strong donor influence in deciding on program orientation, which is indicated in the proposal, will challenge prioritization if based solely on the strategic framework developed for this CRP.The proposal defines two types of smallholders as the targeted beneficiary groups: (1) those in stress-prone environments with poor market access, and (2) those that are market-oriented but technology-constrained in more benign environments. The ISPC strongly believes, however, that more attention should be given to poor consumers. In many countries that are priority areas for the MAIZE proposal, urban maize consumers are a large and growing fraction of the population. However, little consideration is given to urban consumers, and especially poor urban consumers. The drivers, constraints and preferences relevant to this group are likely to be different from those relevant to the producers. Hence, the strategy should encompass consumers and other chain actors. More attention should also be placed on the dynamics between these target groups that currently are presented as very static. In many ways the proposed research that address the needs of Target Group 2 of maize producers and systems could have strong positive impact on urban consumers, but these linkages need to be considered explicitly as this CRP develops.The proposal has not sufficiently considered other dynamics that affect developing countries and even the resource poor smallholders. These include: declining importance of maize as a food relative to rice and wheat due to other drivers of demand, particularly animal feed, and possibly biofuels; effects of industrial development and multilateral trade agreements on poverty alleviation, particularly on smallholder segments of agriculture in some regions; rate of technology dispersion even in resource poor regions; synergy between research on tropical and temperate maize; role of private sector along with emerging markets in regions where Target Group 1 is prevalent, including its effects on seed market evolution where clear patterns of mergers and acquisitions can be observed due to takeovers of small local seed companies by much larger national and multinational companies. From a strategic viewpoint these trends must be recognized, understood, and addressed in subsequent priority setting and adjustment across SIs.The proposal is very clearly directed at delivery and impact, which are discussed for each SI. There is a clear description of outputs, outcomes, and milestones. In most SIs there is reference to earlier and current work done at CIMMYT in particular, but also at IITA, and in several cases both lessons learned and progress are explained, which supports the feasibility of the proposed milestones. Impact estimates are presented at the intermediate (first order) level, which is useful. These targets are, however, quite opaque because the baseline levels are not defined or quantified. Subsequently is it not easy to assess the feasibility of monitoring progress. While we commend the attempted ex ante impact analysis, the quantifications are not convincing, and we would like to see a discussion of how these numbers were arrived at. Perhaps most important, the outcomes and impacts on poor urban consumers should be included in the analysis, Furthermore, it would to evaluate the differential effect of different maize technology and/or policy interventions. We therefore encourage further development and refinement of this ex ante impact assessment methodology as a tool for continued improvement in prioritizing the research agenda as this CRP develops.A stronger a program-level theory of change should be developed, including the underlying assumptions and definitions of expected innovations, and HOW the program intends to achieve its objectives through the multi-institutional innovation systems. The proposal provides reasonably appropriate assumptions about risks although more thorough sensitivity analysis is needed of key assumptions that strongly affect likelihood of outcomes.For germplasm, impacts appear to be based on an assumption that pathways are relatively straightforward. However, generating impact from genetic improvement of crops and livestock that benefit poor farmers in resource constrained environments has been difficult due to a number of constraints. Several of these bottle necks are recognized; for instance capacity and risk aversion preventing adoption of improved varieties, but a more thorough analysis is recommended.Despite discussion of outcomes at the SI level, the proposal lacks a clear and coherent strategy for program-level outcomes beyond the sum of individual SI outputs. While objectives from all nine SIs can be justified as having significant potential to achieve impacts contribute to one or more SRF SLOs, only a small portion of these are likely to be widely adopted to provide significant quantifiable impact on smallholder target groups. This is especially true for improved germplasm where downstream constraints to adoption are many, especially in harsh environments. For example, identification of hybrids is left to NARS and Local Seed Companies-the latter of variable and declining quality following two decades of acquisition by multinationals looking to purchase high quality local companies. Thus a relatively well designed research program has a risk at the results management and delivery end, particularly regarding stock seed maintenance, hybrid seed production.It is commendable the Proposal recognizes the limited economic value of open pollinated maize even for resource poor smallholders and thus emphasizes the need for hybrid research and development. That, however, is more demanding, particularly at the delivery end. An effective delivery and outcome-oriented strategy for hybrids would need to better align the levels from up-stream research to delivery encompassing the following: (i) a strategy and concept for breeding product development, including acquisition of the necessary genetic components for prioritized traits and development of stocks and improved, appropriately adapted hybrids; (ii) support to NARS for regional and national breeding and evaluation; and (iii) support of local seed companies for quality control in seed multiplication and delivery. Management needs to support these linkages through capacity review among inhouse teams and partners. Policies, markers and financial services will also affect achievement of outcomes.The more upstream research is presented as having high potential for improving the efficiency and precision of germplasm improvement. For several advancements clear timelines are presented. It would be useful to identify also the risks associated to this research. In some cases the time lines seem too ambitious (breeder-ready markers for largeeffect QTLs for biotic stress resistance, efficient incorporation in adapted backgrounds of at least two transgenes for drought or nitrogen use efficiency, acid-, waterlogging-and heattolerant hybrids in advanced validation/PVS testing), and with SI8 (seeds of discovery) the outcomes may require a much longer time line. Some components of the program could be considered as too ambitious. Areas such as production systems (with innovation systems focus), precision agriculture and post harvest are relatively new to CGIAR maize research and represent risks in terms of finding the needed research skills, as well as new partners to adapt the new approaches to local conditions and formulate impact pathways. Pathways for these innovations will be quite different than the better understood impact pathways for germplasm. With SI2 the estimated impacts are very large by 2020-2030 considering the types of deliverables from the initiative (information, decision guides, and methods), unless there is a chain of other interventions enabled by the SI delivery. Some overlap can be seen between SI3 (sustainable intensification) and SI5 (double yield) and given the relatively small resource allocation to SI3 and what has earlier been said about enhancing focus on program outputs and outcomes, these two SIs could be merged. The CRP's process monitoring and impact assessment includes appropriate dimensions. Participatory reviews of milestones in each region and SI is commendable, and plans for quality monitoring involving partners and a learning loop (for instance for research and service delivery) can be further strengthened. However, plans for identification of performance metrics should be refined in concert with other CRPs, and in consultation with the Consortium. Good metrics should provide input to assessment and review of SIs and SI components, and such evaluations should foster incentives for high quality research and accountability for donors and stakeholders. Thus purely quantitative indicators for shortterm performance (p. 57) do not seem appropriate except for internal recording.The program proposes partnerships that span well into adaptive research and locally integrated approaches, local capacity building and scaling up. In these activities the Centers' role is bridging and supportive. There are indications that in the broad consultations that have preceded development of the proposal, regional and NARS priorities have been incorporated into the international agenda.Plans to address gender issues and inclusion of women as participants are systematically included for each SI. However, the research to address women's constraints is not well considered. For example, recognition of women's workload and drudgery are not considered although they have multiple implications, for instance in conservation tillage that often requires additional manual weeding and other labor requirements that can be constraints to adoption. More consideration should be put on technological interventions that have the potential to benefit women. Capacity building needs are identified in SI-specific contexts, which are appropriate, and training activities are planned in considerable detail. However, capacity building strategies could be strengthened with inclusion of institutional capacity and support for regional coordination.Baseline studies are included in plans to facilitate ex post impact assessment. However, because much of this CRP represents continuation of long-term maize research, adoption studies and ex post impact assessment on earlier work should also continue.The germplasm research and breeding approaches appear sound and include several innovative components. The track record of partners in these areas is also of high science quality. SI8 and 9 capture well the opportunities from advanced genomics and phenotyping. Much of this work has been advanced in the Generation Challenge Program (GCP) and can benefit from continuous cereal-wide collaboration within the CGIAR. General lists of methods, outstanding innovations (for instance in SI8 they are highly relevant) and partners give a good indication of quality research. Lists of references for each SI, and lessons learnt in Part 2 are very useful. Both novel, high-potential and proven research approaches and methods are used in a balanced way; for instance exploring intra-specific untapped genetic diversity but, at the same time, identifying opportunities for using transformation in particular situations (page 61). The ISPC supports the CRP's strategy and rationale for transgenic maize, which is the predominant transgenic crop globally. However, a necessary innovation regarding this technology is development of new and creative ways (science and policy based) to empower the international and national research systems to develop and distribute such technologies with the necessary degrees of freedom.In some cases there is clearly scope for improving quality. For instance, the reference upon which estimates of climate change impact on maize yields is very weak. In fact, improving capacity to estimate impact of climate change on future maize yields in developing countries should be a high priority and will require collaboration with CRP7. Another area of concern is the lack of minimum datasets (particularly on various biophysical parameters) to support research on SIs 2, 3 and 5. Specifications for baseline data collection, including suitable data to allow tracking farming system performance, should be included as a matter of priority. Attention should be given to how performance benchmarks can be measured and monitored at reasonable cost and accuracy, and how data collection and data use in monitoring can be made coherent across all CRPs for similar components. In addition to methods and accumulated benchmark data that have IPG nature, the proposal should be more explicit about the IPGs that are generated from SIs 2, 3 and 5.Although, on one hand, partners for state-of-the-art genomics and phenotyping are already identified and committed in collaborative projects; and, on the other hand, the Centers and partners hold well maintained maize genetic collections, it is the breeding, testing and scaling-up capacities, and their links with seed production systems, that will make the difference at regional and local levels for generating economic and social impacts. This has been discussed above. The CRP cannot lose sight of this aspect in the process of making research products available to national agricultural systems. Thus stakeholder involvement, particularly in ex ante analysis (SI1) and in SI3 focusing on closing the yield gap, is important. In aiming to double maize productivity for poor farmers (SI5) and some components of influencing policies (SI1), managing deliverables and attracting partners among stakeholders need to come together. Establishing clear rules for the use of intellectual property is essential for generating incentives and trust.The program is not particular elaborate regarding social science research, which is not especially innovative. Social science is essential in several SIs, and SI1 is designed to address targeting, institutional innovations and markets. Economics needs to be more prominent. Linkages with CRP2 could be stronger and more explicit.The partnerships are comprehensive, there is a strong framework defining the kinds of partners that provide value to each of the SIs, and partner linkages are defined for SIs. The proposal enlists support of dozens of the world's leading research institutions over a broad spectrum to leverage international resources as much as possible. Management of these partnerships is less clear. In fact, the large number of partners (>300) represents a challenge to management at different levels, particularly if there is frequent turnover among partners. Likewise, the number of institutions involved seems far in excess of the number that could be effectively coordinated. The question of what research takes place inside the MAIZE collaboration and what takes place outside the collaboration could end up being quite complicated.Therefore, the partnership strategy needs to be very clear. Particular challenges and opportunities of working with the big five multinational seed companies should be clearly analyzed, given that maize is a crop in which the private sector is spending at least 10 times what this CRP will spend. Private sector linkages are important regarding genome sequencing but the Program needs to be prepared to negotiate handling of restrictions to secure benefits from these partnerships. Intellectual property rights (IPR) issues are relevant for most of the SIs and the arrangements should be clear and transparent regarding final products and generating and publishing new knowledge. In networks there are plans to provide some exclusivity for partners to provide incentives. The conditions for such exclusivity agreements need to be clear. The concept of \"pre-competitive ag-commons\" and developing of \"open-source\" technology exchange and breeding practices is innovative and highly commendable.Links to other CRPs are discussed but there are more opportunities for MAIZE to leverage other CRPs. For example, CRP2 has considerable work on input and output markets and risk management, and these are major issues for maize in Africa. In countries where maize is the major food staple, the maize CRP should be able to partner with CRP2 as the lead CRP. Similarly, CRP4 (nutrition and health), once established could assume the lead on quality maize research and research on maize mycotoxins. Closer partnership with CRP7 (Climate Change) would also be beneficial. Collaboration both in planning and implementing components that address research production and innovation systems will be important. However, in management of all the cross-dimensional partnerships (MAIZE partners and CRP partners) transaction costs need to be controlled.The proposal is frank in its partnership risk assessment in stating that intended partner engagement depends significantly on availability of funding and other factors, such as dependence on restricted funding which could shift attention from the big picture due to sporadic partner engagement, and disturb the research dynamic thus leading to waste of resources. The capacity of NARS, and local seed companies also poses a potential risk and may require change of strategy. Risk analysis should thus be strengthened both at SI and Program levels.The CRP3.2 is dominated by the lead-center, CIMMYT, which is reflected also in the projected contribution from CIMMYT. No other partner has a comparable role in this CRP. Unlike GRiSP, the planning of which started some years before agreement of the CRP structure, MAIZE is a product of the reform. The CGIAR community can expect that the MAIZE partnership will foster future fruitful collaboration of CIMMYT and IITA, and management should support this aspiration. The current proposal does not show how this collaboration could be considered in designing program management. CRP management support receives little attention and only one staff is identified (to take care of the Web portal). CRP management expenses are described as an onerous affliction. The Management Committee includes relevant directors and representative of the research primary partners (three other organizations currently considered in addition to CIMMYT and IITA). Program management is, however, closely held by the lead-center. The ISPC would argue such tight control is not a good framework for management and governance of a multi-partner program in an increasingly collaborative funding environment. Aggregation of control exceeds the level needed to control risks related to the lead Center's legal and fiduciary responsibilities. Although half of the CRP management budget is allocated to knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation but the grounds for these budget estimates are not explained.The budget presentation indicates that CIMMYT's contribution is a very large part of the overall budget. While projections through 2013 are more speculative, the relative size of CIMMYT's role compared to that of IITA continues to track in a relatively constant manner. It is also projected that a large proportion of funding will come from bilateral sources. The associated influence of those bilateral donors is a concern if their priorities are not consistent with the strategic framework and this CRP.The CRP also lacks a strong mechanism for independent oversight and evaluation. There will be an Oversight Committee, but there are no details of how it will be elected. However, the Oversight Committee fulfil the role of independent oversight under the following conditions: A mechanism by which \"at large\" members (those not representing participating Centers or primary research partners) can be nominated and appointed in a manner not wholly influenced or controlled by the lead Center,  A greater number of at large than representative members  Term limits or a similar mechanism that provides for turnover among at large members and encourages individual performance  A committee chair that is nominated from among the committee members and serves for a fixed term  The authority to commission periodic external evaluations of the CRP, including its management and governanceThe ISPC therefore strongly recommends that the Oversight Committee be established according to these conditions.","tokenCount":"3548"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"857f41221f359303b0705cc9c5eb54e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cff83285-cc7f-4513-b561-a0457e847724/retrieve","id":"-2008100276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"877c4a36-8a60-4422-94db-dd69711d99fc","pagecount":"34","content":"Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING is creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.For West Africa to be self-sufficient in food production, the need to adopt sustainable intensification (SI) approach is urgent. Low productivity across all farming systems is the major challenge for the region's agriculture. The major factors responsible for the low productivity include land degradation, low soil fertility, climate variability and poor adoption of improved technologies.The farm household scale is the focal domain for Africa RISING's SI investments and activities. This is the scale at which household production decisions, gender, nutrition issues, household welfare as well as soil health and productivity issues operate. Research activities at this scale focus on understanding household needs and incentives that support effective evaluation, adoption, and adaptation of the most relevant interventions.The program co-develops with partners and shares with end-user soil and water conservation technologies on cowpea in mixed farming systems. Beyond soil and water conservation, field observations in recent years have revealed that farmer planning, including timing of planting and agronomic management practices, is often haphazard. However, if planned well it offers numerous dividends such as early crop vigor, drought avoidance, tolerance to pests and diseases. This reference manual on soil and water conservation also complements training of extension agents and development partners on use of crop planning matrix for improved crop productivity, thus developing both human and institutional capacity. It has been prepared as a practical guide to help farmers produce crops sustainably. This user-friendly soil and water conservation manual was made possible with support from the American people delivered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the US Government's Feed the Future Initiative. The contents are the responsibility of the producing organization and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of USAID or the U.S. Government. The three regional projects are led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (in West Africa and East and Southern Africa) and the International Livestock Research Institute (in the Ethiopian Highlands). The International Food Policy Research Institute leads the program's monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment.The Africa RISING Program in West Africa aims at creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty. Sustainably intensification (SI) farming systems approach is used to conserve the land resource base to improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children. It is now known that Soil and water conservation practices ensure that the land resource base is protected from degradation. However, the practices are not easy to implement on the field especially on mixed farming systems. This field manual is designed to assist Africa Rising Farmers practice soil and water conservation in mixed farming systems. These include the use of grassed waterways, erosion control methods, soil fertility improvement, crop-livestock systems, mixed cropping systems for optimum use of soil water at different soil depths.Climate smart soil and water conservation practices provide scalable SI innovation packages that improve sustainability, resilience, and equity in most farming systems. Training of farmers in Soil and water conservation Farmer Field schools enhances quick adoption of practices. This improves crop productivity (yield), economic profitability (crop sales), environment sustainability (reduced soil erosion, drought stress and improve soil fertility) and social conditions (improved nutrition).The manual targets extension and farmers. It covers aspects like knowing the soil and terrain that farmers work on. Features of erosion peculiar to farm fields. The soil texture and depth are important for characterizing potential soil moisture retention. Therefore, simple identification of soil texture has been illustrated. Contouring using A-Frame has been illustrated including composting and some methods to regenerate soil fertility. Cowpea living mulch in mixed farming system has been used for most of the illustrations.      Chapter 2: Know your terrainIt is appropriate to know your terrain. Best farmlands are generally flat or gently sloping. Note that most fields in Northern Ghana slope in multiple directions. To understand your terrain:• Move round the field and observe erosion features on the soil surface (Figure 2.1a).• Identify the direction and level of slope as flat, steep, and gentle (Figure 2.3).• Use A-frame to determine master contour (Figure 2.4).  Use the line level to determine your slope as following:• Hold the two sticks vertically upright with the first stick placed at the starting point.• Stretch the string tightly between the two sticks.• Move the second stick along the direction of slope.• Move the string of the second graduated stick up until the bubble in the spirit-level indicates level. This gives the difference in height of the two (2) positions. • The height difference divided by the distance between the two sticks indicate the slope. To control soil erosion typical of Africa RISING farmers' fields in Ghana, the difference in land level between contour lines should be 0.3 -0.5 m. The following procedure should be adopted to establish the master contour and other subsequent contours.• Position your master contour in the middle of the field.• Use Line-Level to establish the master contour by stretching the string tightly between the two sticks across the slope. • Move the string of the second graduated stick up until the bubble in the spirit-level is at the centre. • Put a peg and continue.• Re-align zigzag pegs to smooth out the master contour.• Other contour lines should be established at the same distance upslope and downslope.Using A-frame to determine master contour.Alternatively, A-Frame can establish the master contour (Figure 2.4).• At the middle of the field, position the A-Frame and put a peg for the first point.• Swing the second leg slowly across the slope until the plumb line is at the center of marked line. • The two (2) points are at the same level so put a second peg.• Place the first leg at the second peg and swing the second leg to determine the next level. • Continue the process to the edge of the field.• Re-align zigzag pegs to smooth out the master contour.• Other contour lines should be established at the same distance upslope and downslope.Chapter 3: Agronomic soil and water conservationEffective soil and water conservation is a combination of a number of technologies. These may be classified as agronomic (Figures 3.1 and 3.2), crop management (Figure 3.3).The natural process of decay tends to change organic wastes into humus-like material usually called compost. Figure 3.1 shows preparation of compost. From soil and water resilience perspective, it can be used to improve soil fertility by: • Providing organic matter to the soil and improving capacity for nutrient retention.• Increasing soil water holding capacity and reducing soil erosion.Choose a site under shade close to the house and dig a pit about one (1) cubic meter. ii.Collect biodegradable materials and separate them into their components. Start the foundation with chopped maize/cowpea straw, animal beddings or leaves. ii.Sprinkle water and wood ash. iii.Add manure and repeat the process until pit is almost full. iv.Sprinkle urea or sulfate of ammonia if available. v.Cover with soil and sprinkle some water. vi.After 14 to 20 days open the pit and remove wastes layer by layer. vii.Re-pile the layers with the first layer at the bottom followed by the second layer in that order and cover with soil. viii.After 40 to 45 days, the compost is ready to use.  No-till mixed farming using maize and cowpea-living mulch • No-till is planting on unprepared land by opening narrow slits for seed coverage.Weeds may be controlled by using herbicides. Mixed cropping is planting different crops on the same piece of land.• Cultivate the soil and sow one main crop of longer duration.• Intersperse the main cover crop with crops of intermediate maturity periods.Suitability: Fields prone to sheet and rill erosion.• Provides maximum soil cover but exploits nutrients and soil water at different layers of the soil. • Provides food for household at different periods in the growing season.• Provides maximum soil cover.• Exploits nutrients and soil water at different layers of the soil.• Natural soil fertility is regenerated.This approach prevents water from causing damage by reducing runoff speed. This tends to conserve water and control runoff. The major limitation is the high cost of construction and the need for technical support. These include:• Earth and stone bunds (Figure 4.1).• Alternating beds/bunds and drainage channels (Figure 4.2).• Terracing (Figure 4.3).• Vegetated waterways (Figure 4.4). Stone bunds are piled stones parallel to the master contour at specific distances. Cropping is carried out within the inter-contour bunds. Earth bunds can be used.• Use A-Frame or line level to establish the master contour.• Determine the number of rows of the intended crops.• Arrange the stone barriers before and after the number of rows crop.Suitability: Stony areas.• Soil water storage is improved.• The stones trap soil particles and decomposed organic matter.Chapter 5: Cropping calendar for cereal-legume mixed cropping systems Onset and cessation of rains is very important for cropping calendar of Africa RISING farmers. The cropping calendar begins with land preparation, planting, fertilizer application, weeding, harvesting and fallow period. The cropping is interspersed/separated with drought depending on soil water requirements of the intended crop. Figure 5.1 presents the general cropping calendar for maize, groundnut, soybean, and cowpea in Northern Ghana for planning cereal-maize mixed farming systems. ","tokenCount":"1558"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a807adde681d0102f43276bbed9646d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0330146e-4a21-4ba6-abee-f733dc27da49/retrieve","id":"1859450176"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"07f5f993-a3d2-485e-83b2-fd7838066378","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: The IRRI Rice Quality Assessment Kit consists of a set of various tools that help measuring one or several paddy, milled rice or seed quality traits. It is intended to be used in postharvest and other quality related training courses but several of the kits have already been purchased by millers and other value chain actors to help them in their daily tasks too. It is used globally by millers, extension workers, etc. New Innovation: No Innovation type: Production systems and Management practices Stage of innovation: Stage 4: uptake by next user (USE) Geographic Scope: Global Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Outcome Impact Case Report: <Not Defined> Description of Stage reached:The IRRI Rice Quality Assessment Kit is available in the second half of 2019 from GrainPro Inc.; several of the kits have already been purchased by millers and other value chain actors to help them in their daily tasks too. There is a continuous flow of inquiries for the kit.","tokenCount":"166"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4539e25ea5b3ba22cf83529701e6f03","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b7c641a9-004c-44d0-bcaf-fbc05581a344/content","id":"2084663625"},"keywords":["Solanum tuberosum","genomic prediction in potato","genomic × environment interaction","multienvironment modeling","multiple trait modeling","single-environment modeling","single-trait modeling"],"sieverID":"d30b036a-11ba-4b4a-bd87-1b8f1ca72945","pagecount":"13","content":"In this study, we extend research on genomic prediction (GP) to polysomic polyploid plant species with the main objective to investigate single-trait (ST) and multitrait (MT) multienvironment (ME) models using field trial data from 3 locations in Sweden [Helgegården (HEL), Mosslunda (MOS), Umeå (UM)] over 2 years (2020, 2021)  of 253 potato cultivars and breeding clones for 5 tuber weight traits and 2 tuber flesh quality characteristics. This research investigated the GP of 4 genome-based prediction models with genotype × environment interactions (GEs): (1) ST reaction norm model (M1), (2) ST model considering covariances between environments (M2), (3) ST M2 extended to include a random vector that utilizes the environmental covariances (M3), and (4) MT model with GE (M4). Several prediction problems were analyzed for each of the GP accuracy of the 4 models. Results of the prediction of traits in HEL, the high yield potential testing site in 2021, show that the best-predicted traits were tuber flesh starch (%), weight of tuber above 60 or below 40 mm in size, and the total tuber weight. In terms of GP, accuracy model M4 gave the best prediction accuracy in 3 traits, namely tuber weight of 40-50 or above 60 mm in size, and total tuber weight, and very similar in the starch trait. For MOS in 2021, the best predictive traits were starch, weight of tubers above 60, 50-60, or below 40 mm in size, and the total tuber weight. MT model M4 was the best GP model based on its accuracy when some cultivars are observed in some traits. For the GP accuracy of traits in UM in 2021, the best predictive traits were the weight of tubers above 60, 50-60, or below 40 mm in size, and the best model was MT M4, followed by models ST M3 and M2.Genomic prediction (GP) and selection (GS) have changed the paradigm of plant and animal breeding (Meuwissen et al. 2001;de los Campos et al. 2009;Crossa et al. 2010Crossa et al. , 2011;;Desta and Ortiz 2014). Practical evidence has shown that GS provides important increases in prediction accuracy for genomic-aided breeding (Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012;Crossa et al. 2014Crossa et al. , 2017)). Additive genetic effects (breeding values) can be predicted directly from parametric and semi-parametric statistical models using marker effects like the ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (Endelman 2011), or by developing the genomic relationship inear kernel matrix (G) to fit the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP;VanRaden 2008). Departures from linearity can be assessed by semi-parametric approaches, such as Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space regression using the Gaussian kernel (GK) or different types of neural networks (Gianola et al. 2006;Gianola and Van Kaam 2008;de los Campos et al. 2010;González-Camacho et al. 2012;Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012;Gianola et al. 2014;Sousa et al. 2017).Standard GP models were extended to multienvironment (ME) data by assessing genomic × environment interaction (GE; Burgueño et al. 2012). Jarquín et al. (2014) proposed an extension of the GBLUP or random effects model, where the main effects of markers and environmental covariates could be introduced using covariance structures that are functions of marker genotypes and environments. Consistently, GP accuracy substantially increased when incorporating GE and marker × environment interaction (Crossa et al. 2017). Cuevas et al. (2016) and Sousa et al. (2017) applied the marker × environment interaction GS model of Lopez-Cruz et al. (2015), but modeled not only through the standard GBLUP but also through a nonlinear GK like that used by de los Campos et al. (2010) and a GK with the bandwidth estimated through an empirical Bayesian method (Pérez-Elizalde et al. 2015). Cuevas et al. (2016) concluded that the higher prediction accuracy of GK models with the GE model is due to more flexible kernels that allow accounting for small, more complex marker main effects and marker-specific interaction effects.In GP, the training set usually includes a sufficient overlap of lines across environments, so that estimating the phenotypic covariance among environments for modeling GE is sufficient to specify it on the linear mixed model used. When modeling GE, some researchers used the mathematical operation defined by the Kronecker products or direct product (Cuevas et al. 2016) that allows operations of 2 matrices of different dimensions. Other authors model GE using the matrix operation named Hadamard products (also known as element-wise products), which is a binary operation between 2 matrices of the same dimensions as the operands (Jarquín et al. 2014;Lopez-Cruz et al. 2015;Acosta-Pech et al. 2017;Perez-Rodriguez et al. 2017;Sukumaran et al. 2017;Basnet et al. 2019). When modeling epistasis, Hadamard products of the additive genomic relationship have mainly been used (e.g. Jiang and Reif 2015;Martini et al. 2016;Vitezica et al. 2017;Varona et al. 2018;Martini et al. 2020). However, Burgueño et al. (2007) have used Kronecker products for modeling and the estimation of additive, additive × environment interaction, additive × additive epistasis, and additive × additive × environment interactions by means of the coefficient of parentage. In a recent study, Martini et al. (2020) gave theoretical proof that both methods lead to the same covariance model when used with some specific design matrices and illustrated how to explicitly model the interaction between markers, temperature, and precipitation.Traditionally, GP models have evolved from the singletrait (ST) and single-environment prediction (ST-SE) models to ST-ME models including GE. Furthermore, standard GS-assisted plant breeding models are concerned with the assessment of the GP accuracy of a multitrait (MT) measured in a single environment (MT-SE) or MT-MEs. In general, MT GP models have evolved from MT-SE to MT-ME. The MT models are keys for improving prediction accuracy in GS because they offer benefits regarding the ST models when the traits under study are correlated. Most existing models for GP are the ST models although the MT models have several advantages over the ST (Montesinos-López et al. 2019). Compared with ST, MT can simultaneously exploit the correlation between cultivar and traits and thus improve the accuracy of GP as they are computationally more efficient than ST (Montesinos-López et al. 2019). When the traits are correlated, MT models improve parameter estimates and prediction accuracy as compared to ST models (Schulthess et al. 2018;Calus and Veerkamp 2011;Jiang and Jannink 2012;Montesinos-López et al. 2016, 2019;He et al. 2016). With the continuous growth of computational power, MT models play an increasingly important role in data analysis in plant and animal genomic−aided breeding for selecting the best candidate genotypes.The use of MT models is not as widespread as the use of ST models because of several factors such as, among others, lack of efficient and friendly software, and not enough computational resources. Likewise, MT models have more complex GEs that make it difficult to assess and achieve MT model assumptions. Furthermore, MT models have more problems of convergence than ST models. Some models have been proposed for MT GP, e.g. MT mixed models and their Bayesian version. Bayesian MT genomic best linear unbiased predictor and MT models under artificial deep neural networks were applied to maize and wheat data sets (Montesinos-López et al. 2018, 2019). However, most researchers use MT models to improve prediction accuracy for traits to be predicted (i.e. the prediction set)-which are tedious and timeconsuming to measure and have low heritability-by using a few traits (i.e. the training set) with high heritability that are highly correlated with the former prediction set (Jiang and Jannink 2012;Semagn et al. 2022).It is widely recognized that from the statistical and quantitative genetics perspectives, when data on MTs are available, the preferred models are the MT as they can account for correlations between phenotypic traits in the training set because borrowing information from correlated traits increases GP accuracy. Montesinos-López et al. (2022) investigated Bayesian MT kernel methods for GP and illustrated the power of linear, Gaussian, polynomial, and sigmoid kernels. The authors compared these kernels with the conventional ridge regression and GBLUP MT models. Montesinos-López et al. (2022) showed that, in general, but not always, the GK method outperformed conventional Bayesian ridge and GBLUP MT in terms of GP prediction performance. These authors concluded that the improvement in terms of prediction performance of the Bayesian MT kernel method can be attributed to the proposed model being able to capture nonlinear patterns more efficiently than linear MT models. Semagn et al. (2022) were interested in comparing prediction accuracy estimates of a subset of lines that have been tested for an ST, with a subset of lines that have not been tested for certain proportion traits (MT1, certain cultivars were not tested for any of the traits), and a subset of lines that have been tested for some traits but not for other traits (MT2) across different bread wheat genetic backgrounds for agronomic traits of varying genetic architecture evaluated under conventional and organic management systems, and several host plant resistance traits evaluated in adult plants under standard field management. Their results show that the predictive ability of the MT2 model was significantly greater than that of the ST and MT1 models for most of the traits and populations, except common bunt, with the MT1 model being intermediate between them, thus demonstrating the high potential of the MT models in improving prediction accuracy.Although most GP research for ST and MT for SE or ME has been applied to diploid species, a recent study by Ortiz et al. (2022) demonstrated the increase in prediction accuracy of ST-ME over the ST-SE genomic-estimated breeding values for several tetrasomic potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) breeding clones and released cultivars for various traits evaluated in several sites for 1 year. Ortiz et al. (2022) considered 4 dosages of marker alleles (A) pseudo-diploid; (B) additive tetrasomic polyploidy, and (C) additive-nonadditive tetrasomic polyploidy, and B + C dosages together in the genome-based prediction models using the conventional linear GBLUP (GB) and the nonlinear GK for ST-SE and ST-ME together. Results show that GK did not show any clear advantage over GB, and ST-ME had prediction accuracy estimates higher than those obtained from ST-SE. The model with GB was the best method in combination with the marker structures C or B + C for predicting most of the tuber traits. Most of the traits gave relatively high prediction accuracy under this combination of marker structure C or (B + C) and methods GB and GK combined with ST-ME including the GE model.Based on the above considerations, and the need to extend research on GP to polysomic polyploid plant species, the main objectives of this research were to investigate ST vs MT for ME (GE) models using trial data from 3 locations [namely Helgegården (HEL), Mosslunda (MOS), and Umeå (UM)] over 2 years (2020,2021) of 253 potato cultivars and breeding clones, which were also included by Ortiz et al. (2022). In this study, we will use only the genomic relationship matrix obtained from the additivenonadditive tetrasomic polyploidy (C), because using this genomic relations matrix in terms of GP accuracy was found to be one with the best GP accuracy (Ortiz et al. 2022). This research investigated the GP of 4 genome-based prediction models including either Hadamard or Kronecker product matrices for assessing GE: (1) the conventional reaction norm model incorporating GE with Hadamard product (Jarquín et al. 2014) (2) GE model considering covariances between environments, similar to the model employed by Burgueño et al. (2012) or the GE with Kronecker product (M2); (3) GE model 2 including a random vector that attempts to more efficiently utilize the environmental covariances as in Cuevas et al. (2017) or a GE with Kronecker product (M3); and (4) an MT model with GE as in Montesinos-López et al. (2022), but including a GE model that joins Hadamard and Kronecker products (M4). Several prediction problems were analyzed for the GP accuracy of each of the 4 models. We investigated the prediction set of locations in the year 2021 from locations in the year 2020 using the 4 GP models combined with 2 of the prediction sets (100 and 70%) and predicting ST and MT.The MT experiments included 256 potato breeding clones and cultivars in trials at HEL, MOS, and UM. Their list is provided by Ortiz et al. (2022)   (Ortiz et al., 2020), while the cultivars are a sample of those released and grown in Europe during the last 200 years. HEL and MOS are near Kristianstad (56°01′ 46″N 14°09′24″E, Skåne, southern Sweden), while UM (63°49′30″N 20°15′50″E) is in the north of Sweden.An incomplete block design (simple lattice) with 2 replications of 10 plants each was the field layout for the field trials across testing sites. Fungicides were only used in HEL to avoid late blight caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans throughout the growing season, thus allowing tuber yield potential to be estimated at this site. Crop husbandry was used for potato farming at each site.Total tuber yield per plot (kg), tuber weight by size (<40, 40-50, 50-60, >60 mm; kg), while tuber flesh starch was measured as a percentage based on specific gravity after harvest. Reducing sugars in the tuber flesh after harvest was determined using potato glucose strip tests (Mann et al. 1991). Host plant resistance to late blight was evaluated using the area under the disease progress curve in MOS.After sampling using 4 leaf punches for each of the 256 breeding clones and cultivars included in the experiments, the materials were sent by AgriTech-Intertek ScanBi Diagnostics (Alnarp, Sweden) to Diversity Array Technology Pty Ltd (ACT, Australia) for targeted genotyping following a genotype-by-sequencing approach (https://www.diversityarrays.com/technology-andresources/targeted-genotyping/). More than 2,000 singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were used for genotyping. They derived mostly from SolCAP SNPs based on chromosome positions and MAF > 0.05 in germplasm from the Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP, Lima, Perú) and the United States of America. According to Selga et al. (2021), such a number of SNPs seems to be enough for researching GEBVs without losing information. Although there were very few missing genotyping data (0.1%), one breeding clone (97) and 2 cultivars (\"Leyla\" and \"Red Lady\") were not included further in the analysis because they were lacking enough SNP data.We briefly described the method used for codifying the molecular X matrix proposed by Slater et al. (2016) and used one of the options used by Ortiz et al. (2022) in the genomic-enabled prediction models.For coding matrix X, according to Slater et al. (2016), we considered additive and nonadditive effects in a full tetrasomic polyploid assuming each genotype, has its own effect. In this case, there were 5 possible (AAAA, AAAB, AABB, ABBB, BBBB) effects per SNP marker, coding 0, and 1, for the absence or presence of the genotype, respectively, in each of the 5 cases. For each SNP marker, exists 5 columns on X coding the presence or absence of the genotype. Then the genomic relationship between individuals j, k was computed aswhere M was the number of markers × 5, x ji represents the code of the absence or presence of the genotype from column ith of individual jth, and p i is the frequency of each genotype, i.e. the frequency in each column. To compute the diagonal of this matrix, we used:The standard reaction norm model incorporating GE (Jarquín et al. 2014), as shown below, explains the variation of the observations of a ST in each of the m environments (ME) represented by the vector y = (y ′ 1 , . . . , y ′ i , . . . y ′ m ) ′ by estimating each mean of the environment observations μ E , plus the prediction of the main genetic effects g and the prediction of the interaction random effects G × E represented by vector ge, the unexplained variation or random errors are represented by vector ɛ.where y is a column vector of size n T × 1, Considering n T as the sum of the number of observations in each environment. The incidence matrix Z E relates the observations to the mean of the environments. The random genetic vector of main effects g follows a multivariate normal distribution N(0, σ 2 g Z g KZ ′ g ) where σ 2 g is the variance component of g, Z g is an incidence matrix that relates the observations with the K matrix of genomic relations between the clones. In our study, K was computed as previously indicated for the case of a full tetrasomic genomic relationship matrix. The random vector of interaction effects ge follows a multivariate nor-, where σ 2 ge is the variance component, # denotes the Hadamard product, and E is a matrix of relationship between environments (in our case, an identity matrix is considered) such that Z E EZ ′ E is a block diagonal matrix with 1 s for all pairs of observations in the same environment and 0 s otherwise. This implies that the estimation of the effects ge is independent in each environment. Random errors ε are considered with homogeneous variance, that is, ε ∼ N(0, σ 2 ε I). This model is flexible because it allows predicting different numbers of clones in different environments or even predicting the entire environment. However, when the correlations between the environments are not positive, the GE model with the Hadamard product does not explain the phenotype variation well enough (Lopez-Cruz et al. 2015), because the model does not incorporate genomic covariances between environments.Based on Burgueño et al. (2012), the GP model including GE considered the genomic covariances between environments to attempt improving the GP accuracy of unobserved environments. In M2, we considered only one trait (ST) and MEs, but the main effect of genomic and the GE interaction effects are modeled jointly by using a single vector u assuming a multivariate normal distribution that considers the genomic covariances between environments. One form of this model iswhere the genetic random effects can be modeled as a normal dis-where U E is a matrix of genomic covariances between the environments of size m × m to be estimated, and ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product. The random errors are modeled as ε ∼ N(0, Σ ⊗ I), where matrix Σ is a diagonal matrix of size m × m, that has on its diagonal the variances of the errors between environments to be estimated, and I is the identity matrix of order n L × n L (Cuevas et al. 2017), where n L denotes the number of lines or clones in each environment (for balance data).Although model M2 is powerful when considering the genetic covariances between environments, it cannot predict full environments because it does not have a way of estimating the corresponding genomic covariances of those environments in the training sites with those in the testing sites where no data have been collected.Cuevas et al. (2017) showed that adding a random vector to M2 to account for the cultivar variation across environments that was accounted for by vector u, could increase the prediction accuracy.Here, we considered a ST measured in different environments (ME) to construct and add a random vector f to M2, that isThen a random vector f is added that is independent from u, and ε, and that has a normal distribution f ∼ N(0, F E ⊗ I), where F E is a matrix of environmental covariances of size m × m to be estimated, ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product, and matrix I represents the identity matrix. Note that the vector f allows predicting the nonadditive effects (or a proportion) for possible covariances that were not modeled in K. Model M3, like M2, allows improving the prediction accuracy of model M1, when the covariances (or correlations) of the observations between environments are negative or close to zero. Like M2, M3 could not be used to predict complete environments because, technically, it could not estimate covariances between related environments with the environments to be predicted because of the lack of data on the environments to be predicted.Note that M2 could be adopted to be a single environment MT (MT-SE) aswhere the vectors Z T μ T are similar to those of M2, that is, the μ T is a vector that represents the means of the t traits, and the incidence matrix Z T relates the observations with the mean of the traits, but now the number of cultivars is the same for each trait so that if we order the phenotypic observations of the first trait, then the second trait and so forth,then the genetic random effects can be modeled as a normal distribution u ∼ N(0, U T ⊗ K), where U T is a matrix of genomic covariances between the traits of size t × t to be estimated, and ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product. The matrix K represents the relationships between the genotypes built with molecular markers.The random errors are modeled as ε ∼ N(0, Σ ⊗ I), where the diagonal matrix Σ is a matrix of size t × t, expressing the covariances of the errors to be estimated; and I is the identity matrix of order n L × n L . This model MT-SE can also be represented as a multiresponse model, that is, instead of representing the observations as a vector, they can be arranged in a matrix so that M2 can be rewritten aswhere Y is a matrix of order n L × t that represents the phenotypic values ordered in such a way that the columns contain the data for each trait and the rows contain the data for each line or genotype. The intercepts or means of each trait are represented by a vector μ of size t × 1. The matrix of genetic random effects assumes that they follow a multivariate multiresponse normal distribution u ∼ MN nL×t (0, K, U T ). The random errors assume a multivariate multiresponse normal distribution ε ∼ MN nLxt (0, I, Σ).As already mentioned, when MT data are available, the models to be used are those that account for correlations between phenotypic traits because when the degree of correlation is moderate or large, this could increase the GP accuracy. The model, based on the Bayesian MT kernel of Montesinos-López et al. (2022), can be seen as the combination of the MT model 2a and the reaction norm G × E M1 for ME. Then M4 is represented aswhere the matrix Y is of size n T × t ordered in such a way that the columns represent the phenotypic values of each of the t traits and the rows are the lines or genotypes, ordered first by environments, and then by lines. The vector μ is of size t × 1 and it represents the intercept or mean of each trait. The matrix Z E is an incidence matrix of the environments of size n T × m, and μ E is a matrix of order m × t with the means of each environment in each trait. The matrix g is of order n T × t and follows a normal distribution g ∼ MN nT×t (0, Z g KZ ′ g , U g ), where Z g is an incidence matrix of the genotypes of order n T × n L , K is the relationship matrix of the genotypes of size n L × n L and U g is a variance-covariance matrix of main effects between the traits. The matrix ge is of order n T × t and follows a normal distribution ge ∼ MN nTxt (0,, where # is the Hadamard product and U ge is a variance-covariance matrix of interaction effects between the traits. Random errors are represented by the matrix ɛ of order n T × t that follows a normal distribution ε ∼ MN nTxt (0, I, Σ t ), where the identity matrix I is of dimension n T × n T .The GP accuracy of the different models can be assessed by means of several different validation schemes. The first validation scheme (predicts 100% of the cultivars next year) uses the traits from each of the 3 locations in 2020 (HEL, MOS, and UM) to predict all the values of the traits in each of the 3 locations in 2021 (HEL, MOS, and UM). The second validation scheme (predicts 70% next year) uses all the data from 2020 plus 30% of the value of the traits in 3 locations in 2021 to predict 70% (prediction set) of the value of the traits at the 3 locations in 2022; this second case was established with 10 groups or random samples.The acronyms used for identifying models M1-M4, ST (S) or MT (M) and prediction set comprising the prediction of all cultivars in each location during 2021 (a), or the prediction of a percentage of cultivars in each location during 2021 (p) are given in Table 1. A graphical explanation of the different combinations of models (M1-M4), considering 2 prediction sets (100 and 70%), and ST or MT cross-validation schemes for assessing the GP prediction accuracy of the models is shown in Fig. 1 for 10 hypothetical cultivars evaluated in HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 to predict HEL in 2021. The only MT model is M4, whereas ST models are M1, M2, and M3.As shown in Fig. 1, the first cross-validations refer to 2 cases including models M1 and M4 for predicting all the values (100%) for each trait in location HEL 2021 using as a training set all the values for each trait in each location from 2020. Model M1 is an ST (traits are separated by black lines), whereas M4 is an MT model (traits are not separated). For these 2 cases, the given acronyms join (1) the model (M1-M4), (2) the ST or MT (S or M) prediction, and (3) include the prediction of all (100%) the lines in HEL 2021 and denoted by \"a,\" that is, M1Sa and M4Ma. The third and fourth crossvalidation schemes delineated by red lines included models M1, M2, and M3 for ST and model M4 for MT, and they predict 70% of the values of each trait in HEL 2021, using as training set values of the trait in each location from 2020, but also adding 30% of the values from HEL 2021 to the prediction set in the training set. As already mentioned, this prediction of 70% is performed 10 times using the 10 random samples for extracting 30% of the values of the prediction set (2021) and adding them to the training set (2020). The same 10 random samples were used for comparing the GP accuracy of the 4 models.The names of each of these model-prediction types and sizes are M1Sp, M2Sp, M3Sp, and M4Mp where the letter \"p\" refers to the percentage of the prediction set (70%). Note that for these 4 cases, 3 cultivars (out of 10) are missing in all the traits (Fig. 1). The fifth cross-validation scheme had MT M4 that predicts 70% of the cultivars in HEL in 2021 for all traits, but now, the crossvalidations between the traits and locations for HEL 2021 are different from those in the previous case (M4Mp) where some cultivars are observed in some traits and locations but not observed in other traits and locations. This cross-validation scheme is refereed to M4Mp*. Note that in this case, some cultivars are missing in some traits but not in other traits; for example, cultivars 1, 2, and 3 are not observed for the weight of tubers below 40 mm, but are observed for the weight of 40 − 50 mm tubers (Fig. 1).We used 2 metrics for comparing the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of the different models (M1, M2, M3, and M4). One metric is the Pearson correlation coefficient (COR) between the observed and predicted values, whereas the second metric is the prediction mean squared error (PMSE) of the different prediction models.In this study, we used 3 genomic models (M1, M2, and M3) that predict one ST and various environments (ME). The first model M1 is the ST conventional reaction norm model that considers the genomic main effect and interaction effects with homogeneous variance for the environmental random errors. Model M2 considers together the genomic effects and heterogenous environmental variance error. Note that model M3 adds a random vector to M2 with the aim of capturing some nonadditive genetic effects that were not previously explained. Finally, model M4 includes MTs as multiresponse and MEs.Two main prediction scenarios were analyzed: (1) use models M1 and M2 to predict all potato cultivars for each of the 3 locations in 2021 where the training were the locations in 2020, and (2) using all 4 models to predict 70% of the potato cultivars of each location in 2021, and incorporating 30% of the prediction set in the training set. Note that we used acronyms to identify the model (M1-M4), the ST (S) or MT (M ), and the size of the prediction set, all cultivar (a) or a percentage (p) (Table 1, Fig. 1).Phenotypic correlations were computed for traits in each location (HEL, MOS, and UM) in 2021 (prediction set, PS) with those traits observed in the locations of the previous year (HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020; Table 2). The PS contains 7 traits (5 tuber weight traits and 2 tuber flesh quality characteristics) in each of the 3 locations of 2021 using the locations and traits of the previous year, 2020. The M1-M4 ST or MT prediction models for predicting all cultivars or a proportion of cultivars (all cultivars or 70%) are combined in the following acronyms: M1Sa, M4Ma, M1Sp, M2Sp, M3Sp, M4Mp, and M4Mp* (Tables 3-5 and Figs. 2-4). shown in Tables 3-5 and displayed in Figs. 2-4; i.e. the mean prediction accuracy estimates are higher for the cases when the phenotypic correlations between years were higher as was the case for starch. In these cases, where the phenotypic correlations between traits for the 2 years were high, the mean prediction accuracy between the models did not show significant differences. Furthermore, when the phenotypic correlations between locations are moderate, as for example for reducing sugars, the accuracy of the model's predictions did not show significant differences (Figs. 2-4). On the contrary, when the phenotypic correlations were negative or near zero, as for example, for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers for HEL 2021 (Fig. 2), the prediction accuracy estimates were low in the models except for M3Sp and M4Mp*. Similar results were observed for the weight of 40-50 mm tubers at HEL 2021 (Fig. 2) and UM 2021 (Fig. 4), where models M3Sp and M4Mp* had better predictions than models M1Sa and M1Sp, which showed lower predictions when the phenotypic correlations were close to zero or negatives. Table 2. Phenotypic correlations of each trait at HEL in 2021 with each trait at HEL 2020, MOS 2020, and Umeå (UM) 2020. Overall, the model showing the best prediction accuracy was M4Sp* closely followed by model M3Sp. However, the differences were higher when the phenotypic correlations between the locations were near zero or negative.Genomic predictions including all cultivars in HEL 2021 were the best for tuber flesh starch in all the models, whose GP accuracy estimates were above 0.85 (Table 3 and Fig. 2). Most of the 4 models had a very similar GP accuracy for starch; i.e. ranging from 0.852 (M2Sp and M4Mp) to 0.877 (M3Sp) (Table 3, Fig. 2).The second trait with an important GP accuracy shown by most of the models was the weight of 60 mm tubers. The MT model predicting a proportion of cultivars (M4Mp*) had the highest prediction accuracy (0.730, Table 3) and a ST conventional reaction norm model for predicting that all cultivars (M1Sa) had the lowest GP accuracy (0.627). The weight of tubers below 40 mm and the total tuber weight had a very similar GP accuracy except for the MT model M4Mp*, which was the worst model for the weight of tubers below 40 mm but the best model for total tuber weight. Excluding M4Mp*, the predictions ranged from 0.525 (<40 mm, M4Ma) to 0.623 (<40 mm M3Sp) for both traits. The best predictive model was M3Sp for the weight of tubers below 40 mm and M1Sa for total tuber weight (Fig. 2). Weight with 40-50 mm tubers and 50-60 mm tubers had the lowest prediction accuracy for most models except M3Sp (Fig. 2). Comparing the models with ST and MT, M3Sp was the best ST model for tuber weight below 40 mm and between 50 and 60 mm, and tuber flesh starch, whereas M4Mp* was best for weights of 40-50 mm and above 60 mm tubers, as well as for the total tuber weight.In summary, prediction of the 7 traits at HEL in 2021 shows that traits with a higher phenotypic correlation between location HEL 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 are tuber flesh starch and most of the tuber weights (except the weight of 50-60 mm tubers). In terms of GP accuracy, the MT model predicting 70% of the cultivars for some traits while observing others (M4Mp*) was the best for weight 40-50 mm tubers or above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight, and very similar to those for tuber flesh starch. Model M3Sp was the best GP for the weight of tubers below 40 mm and 50-60 mm, as well as for tuber flesh starch.The phenotypic correlation of traits measured in location MOS in 2020-2021 is given in Table 2. For all the traits, phenotypic correlations between traits in MOS for 2021 and 2020 were higher than those between MOS 2021 and the 2 other locations (HEL and UM) in 2020. Tuber flesh starch had the highest phenotypic correlation between MOS 2021and HEL, MOS, and UM 2020 (0.83, 0.89, and 0.72, respectively) followed by the weight of tubers above 60 mm (0.73, 0.74, and 0.62, respectively), total tuber weight (0.64, 0.74, and 0.52, respectively), and the weight of tubers below 40 mm (0.65, 0.64, and 0.55, respectively).Overall GP accuracy in MOS 2021 was higher than in HEL 2021. Tuber flesh starch was the best-predicted trait for all the models with GP accuracy below 0.85 (Table 4 and Fig. 3). Most of the 4 models showed a very similar GP accuracy for tuber flesh starch M3Sp is the prediction accuracy from model M3 (ST GE M2 extended to include a random vector that more efficiently utilizes the environmental covariances) when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021; M4Mp is the prediction accuracy from model M4 when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021, M4Mp* is the prediction accuracy from model M4 when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021, in which, some cultivars are observed in some traits. When predicting 70%, the mean and the standard deviations (SDs) from the 10-fold cross-validation are given in parentheses.but ST M2 and M3 predicting 70% of the cultivars (M2Sp and M3Sp) were the best genomic predictors, with 0.866 and 0.867, respectively. Models M1 and M4 predicting all potato cultivars (M1Sa and M4Ma) were slightly below in terms of prediction accuracy (0.847 and 0.848, respectively).The second trait with important GP accuracy shown by most of the models was the weight of tubers above 60 mm with M4Mp* with an accuracy of 0.817, followed byM1Sa having an accuracy of 0.791, followed by M3Sp with 0.790 (Table 4). Overall, the total tuber weight irrespective of size, ranked third based on GP accuracy, with model M4Mp* having a prediction accuracy of 0.808, followed by M3Sp with 0.758 prediction accuracy, followed by M2Sp (0.750). The weight of tubers below 40 mm had relatively high GP accuracy, with models M2Sp and M3Sp being the best with 0.717 and 0.714 of GP accuracy, respectively. Finally, the weight of 50-60 mm tubers had lower prediction accuracy than the previously mentioned traits, with the best predictor models being M4Mp*-whose GP accuracy was 0.711-followed by M2Sp and M3Sp (GP accuracy = 0.660).The GP accuracy estimates for the 7 traits in MOS during 2021 were slightly higher than those at HEL 2021. The traits with higher phenotypic correlations between MOS 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 were tuber flesh starch, the weight of tubers above 60 mm and below 40 mm, total tuber weight, and the weight of 50-60 mm tuber. Overall, the best models for predicting most of the 7 traits were the ST models M2 and M3 predicting 70% of the potato cultivars in each location (M3Sp and M2Sp), except for traits such as the weight of 50-60 mm and above 60 mm tubers, and the total tuber weight in which, the MT model M4Mp* was the best GP model.Table 2 lists the phenotypic correlation of traits measured at UM in 2020-2021. For all the traits, the phenotypic correlations between traits in UM for 2021 and 2020 are higher than those between UM 2021 and other locations (HEL and MOS) in 2020. The traits with the highest phenotypic correlation between UM 2021 and HEL, MOS, and UM 2020 were the weight of 50-60 mm, below 40 mm, and above 60 mm tubers, followed by tuber flesh starch.Overall, the GP accuracy in UM 2021 was lower than those of HEL and MOS in 2021. The weight of 50-60 mm and below 40 mm tubers were the best-predicted traits for all the models in UM 2021 (Table 5 and Fig. 4). The best GP model for all the traits, except reducing sugars and starch in the tuber flesh, was M4Mp*. ST and MT models predicting 70% of the cultivars (M3Sp and M4Mp) had the best GP accuracy for predicting traits of tuber flesh sugar and starch, respectively.Most of the 4 models showed similar GP accuracy for these 2 traits, but M2Sp had a GP accuracy of 0.688 for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers, and model M4Mp had an accuracy of 0.633 for the weight of tubers below 40 mm. Models M2Sp and M3Sp had a GP accuracy of around 0.578 for the weight of tubers above 60 mm that ranked third on overall GP accuracy (Table 5) followed by tuber flesh starch, with model M3Sp being the best with (prediction accuracy = 0.483), followed by M2Sp (0.481).    research (Crossa et al. 2021). The integration and exploitation of several big data sets are necessary, and the use of appropriate statistical machine-learning models has become important for modern breeding.When performing research on GS and GP accuracy, several problems become important; one is the inclusion of statistical machine-learning methods and models that include GE interaction. Another problem to be assessed is the addition of several traits for prediction rather than only one trait, and another issue is the methods used for comparing the GP accuracy of several traits using several models and various possible cross-validation schemes to develop a GP accuracy metric. Several options exist for investigating the GS accuracy for predicting the breeding value of cultivars that have been genotyped with genome-wide molecular markers. One scenario is predicting the performance of a proportion of cultivars (e.g. 70%) that have not yet been observed in any of the testing environments (usually location-year combinations); another option is to predict all cultivars (i.e. 100%) observed in all the environments except one (leave one environment out).Another scenario is predicting cultivars that were observed in some environments but not in others.In this study, predictions for these scenarios have been done using ST (M1, M2, and M3) and MT (M4) models. These ST and MT models combined with different prediction testing scenarios are described in Table 1 and graphically displayed in a small example in Fig. 1, where several proportions of the PS have been combined with the 4 different models. We included the predictions of all cultivars in 1 entire site-year combination or the prediction of a proportion of cultivars (70%) using the other 30% as TS together with the previous year. We found that for the majority of the traits in each location-year combination to be predicted (HEL, MOS, UM in 2021) M4 (MT), with a proportion of potato cultivars evaluated (30%) in some location-year combinations M4Mp* (Fig. 1) but not observed in other location-year combinations, was found to be the best predictive model, usually followed by ST models M3Sp and M2Sp.Results of this study demonstrate that for predicting traits in HEL 2021 using all environments in 2020, the superiority of the MT prediction method M4Mp* over the mean GP accuracy of the other 6 prediction methods including ST and MT for predicting the entire PS (100%) or 70% for traits tuber weights 40-50 mm, above 60 mm and total in this location were 65, 14, and 24%, respectively. However, this superiority of the MT over ST methods was not so when comparing M4Ma or M4Mp with other ST methods, especially for M3Sp for traits tuber weight <40 mm, 50-60 mm, and tuber flesh starch. Results for predicting traits at MOS in 2021 using all environments in 2020 show the superiority of the MT prediction method M4Mp* for 4 tuber weight traits and 1 tuber flesh quality characteristic over all the other 6 methods. The GP accuracy of method M4Mp* overcame the mean GP accuracy of all the other 6 methods by 10, 9, 4, 8, and 4% for the weight of 40-50 mm, 50-60 mm, above 60 mm tubers, total tuber weight and tuber flesh sugar, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the prediction of location UM in 2021 using the TS comprising HEL, MOS, and UM from 2020; the best GP accuracy method for all 5 tuber weight traits was method M4Mp* over the mean GP accuracy of all the other 6 methods by 7, 24, 12, 8, and 26% for tuber weights below 40 mm, 40-50 mm, 50-60 mm, above 60 mm and total tuber weight, respectively.Previous research noticed variable prediction accuracy that depends on factors such as heritability of the trait, size of TP, relatedness of PS and TS, statistical machine-learning models, marker density, linkage disequilibrium, and the incorporation of GE interactions in the prediction models. In a recent article, Semagn et al. (2022) compared the predictive abilities of wheat cultivars that have not been evaluated for an ST, not evaluated for MTs (MT1), and evaluated for some traits but not others (MT2) using agronomy and disease traits. Note that the partition of Semagn's MT1 is similar to the partitions of Sp (M1, M2, and M3) and Mp (M4) in this study, whereas the partitions of Semagn's MT2 are similar to that of M4Mp*. Semagn et al. (2022) found that the GP accuracy of MT2 (method M4Mp* in this study) increased over ST and other model-partitions in all traits from 9 to 82%. This occurred because, under the prediction scheme MT2 of Semagn et al. (2022), it is possible to exchange information between traits like method M4Mp* that allows borrowing of information between traits and also between environments, and thus, to efficiently use the available information in one single model combined with an appropriate prediction scheme.This demonstrated the high potential for improving prediction accuracies and the high potential of the MT models for improving prediction accuracy, thus offering researchers the opportunity to predict traits that were not observed, due to possible difficulties or because they are expensive to measure under certain environmental constraints (Semagn et al. 2022).Genomic prediction in potatoes is still in the early research stages before using it for routine breeding of this highly heterozygous tetrasomic polyploid tuberous crop with vegetative propagation (Ortiz et al. 2022, and references therein). The use of MT and ME models for GP in this research led to the highest accuracy for tuber yield and tuber flesh starch as per available literature. Tuber flesh starch, which is often estimated from specific gravity measurements, is a very highly heritable trait (Bradshaw 2021;Ortiz et al. 2021) that is affected very little by the GEs (Killick and Simmonds 1974), thus explaining the high prediction accuracy noted in this and research elsewhere. The high prediction accuracy noted in this, and previous research suggests that developing GEBV modeling in potatoes for tuber flesh starch does not require a very large training population, but it seems that just a few hundred (including both breeding clones and released cultivars that are relevant to the breeding program and covering a broad range of trait variation) may suffice.Genotype × environment interactions may significantly affect tuber yield, but the use of ME GP allows identifying promising germplasm in both crossing blocks (Ortiz et al. 2022) in potato breeding. The significantly high correlations noted when using MT, ME modeling suggest that GP may also be useful for the potato cultivar development pipeline even when using small breeding populations (Selga et al. 2022). Every year, F 1 seeds (resulting from crossing heterozygous parents) are planted in individual pots in a greenhouse, and one tuber (the best in size) for each plant is taken at harvest. Thus, thousands of tubers derived from these F 1 hybrid seeds are produced for further field testing in single plant plots during the first year. At harvest, all plants are dug up to assess their tuber number, size, shape, color, appearance, and health, which are used as the selection criteria for obtaining the next breeding generation for further testing the next year. After selection in early clonal generations [first (T 1 ), second (T 2 ), and often third (T 3 )], the aim is to have about a few dozens for field testing from the fourth generation onward and ending with a few promising breeding clones after the seventh year of field testing and selection to include them in MT trials in the target population of environments. The GP accuracy over the 2 years within each site suggests that it will be possible to select (based on GEBV models) in early generation trials for each target population of environments. Furthermore, as per previous GP accuracy estimates (Ortiz et al. 2022;Selga et al. 2022) and these results, it seems that GEBV for selection will be useful from T 3 onward, rather than in T 1 or even in T 2 . Hence, as shown herein, genomic selection appears to be feasible in potato breeding when using elite-bred germplasm.The ST model M3Sp was the best genomic predicted, followed by M1Sp and M1Sa at HEL in 2021. In terms of MT GP accuracy, M4Mp* was the best for the weight of 40-50 mm and above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight irrespective of size, and very similar to tuber flesh starch. The GP accuracy of the 7 traits at MOS in 2021 indicated that the best models for predicting the majority of the 7 traits were ST M3Sp and M2Sp, except for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers, above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight, where the MT model M4Mp* was the best GP model. The traits with higher phenotypic correlations between location UM 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 are the weight of tubers with the following sizes: 50-60 mm, below 40 mm, and above 60 mm. The best model method for predicting the majority of the 7 traits was MT M4Mp* because it allows the exchange of information between traits and environments followed by M3Sp and M2Sp, which efficiently used information between environments. According to Cuevas et al. (2017), M3Sp producing better or similar GP accuracy than M2Sp was expected.","tokenCount":"7865"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"04637c600fa27a670ff7bca936686f21","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/feceaf69-cec0-424d-81e5-d5168637e977/retrieve","id":"61067092"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9fdee72b-9643-4c57-a7d5-871e33bf162f","pagecount":"63","content":"La mécanisation agricole est l'emploi des machines dans le secteur agricole pour la production végétale, animale, halieutique, la transformation et le transport des produits agricoles.En résumé, c'est la substitution des opérations manuelles par celles des machines, pour réduire la pénibilité du travail et accroitre la productivité et la qualité des produits.C'est la substitution de la force humaine ou animale par un moteur (thermique, électrique, hydraulique, éolien, etc.).Il faut noter que la mécanisation n'est pas que la motorisation. La culture attelée est une forme de mécanisation.Les machines agricoles désignent l'ensemble du matériel (équipements) utilisé dans le domaine de l'agriculture pour les productions végétale, animale et halieutique et pour la transformation des produits agricoles.Une machine agricole est un équipement pouvant produire, transformer, communiquer un mouvement, effectuer un travail ou produire un effet (chaleur, froid, etc.) pour accroître la productivité.L'unité motrice est une source d'énergie mécanique (qui produit de la force) destinée à mettre en mouvement une machine ou mécanisme.Il s'agit entre autres de : l'homme, l'animal, le moteur (thermique, électrique), le tracteur, le motoculteur, l'automoteur. Permettre à l'apprenant de comprendre comment la construction métallique est fondamentalement la base du métier de fabricant d'équipements agricoles post récoltes.La construction métallique est un domaine de la mécanique qui s'intéresse à la fabrication des pièces, équipements et ouvrages en métal. Autrement dit, c'est le domaine de la transformation des métaux.Le fer et ses alliages sont très utilisés dans la construction métallique. C'est la matière première de l'artisan en construction métallique. Mais aussi, les métaux non ferreux et leurs alliages tels que le cuivre et l'aluminium sont très utilisés.Les propriétés mécaniques très variées des métaux permettent de multiples utilisations pour la fabrication de pièces, ouvrages et objets d'usage courant, tels que les petits instruments usuels, des machines et les grands ouvrages (charpentes, ponts, bateaux, etc.).L'artisan en construction métallique est un technicien qui travail les métaux par diverses techniques pour fabriquer des ouvrages. Il réalise des opérations de montage de pièces et d'ouvrages métalliques diverses au moyen d'outils, de machines et des techniques spécifiques.Les artisans formés auront la capacité de concevoir, de réaliser des équipements de transformation de produits agricoles et d'assurer leur maintenance (moulin, batteuse, broyeur, presse, râpeuse, etc.). Ils pourront de même intervenir sur divers équipements de production (charrues, herses, etc.). De façon spécifique à l'issue de cette formation, ils seront à même de fabriquer divers objets et ouvrages métalliques (table, porte, fenêtre, chaise, armoire, abreuvoir, mangeoires) et des gros ouvrages (charpente, citerne, tank, etc.).Pour  Permettre à l'apprenant de connaitre l'état du secteur de la production des équipements post récoltes au Bénin. De se faire une idée synoptique du secteur, les progrès réalisés et surtout les défis à relever.Le secteur de la transformation post récolte des produits agricoles est en plein développement au Bénin. Mais la croissance de la production et le besoin croissant des populations en produits agricoles transformés de qualité mettent le secteur face à un grand défi à relever. A savoir :-La réduction des pertes post récoltes -La réduction de la pénibilité du travail -La disponibilité de produits plus diversifiés, en quantité, de qualité et à des couts accessibles Ainsi, le sous-secteur de la production d'équipements de transformation des produits agricoles doit contribuer à relever ce défi par une production d'équipements de qualité.Le process ou procédé de transformation des produits agricoles est la succession des étapes, activités et opérations à suivre partant de la matière première (produit brut) jusqu'à l'obtention du produit fini.La machinerie post récolte est l'ensemble des machines ou équipements de transformation utilisé dans le secteur de la transformation des produits agricoles.Les perspectives du secteur de la production des équipements post récoltes, visent à contribuer à :-Améliorer substantiellement le plateau technique de production des machines de production et la disponibilité de machines de transformation de qualité Assurer à l'apprenant un minimum de connaissances en mécanique. Ceci devrait lui permettre de mieux maitriser l'environnement technique dans lequel il opère. Ces connaissances doivent aussi lui permettre de faire de petits calculs et de raisonner des choix techniques. Aperçu de quelques formes géométriques et leurs propriétés (Dimension, surface, volume) Les formes de représentations techniques des pièces sont :    En mécanique pour réaliser des ouvrages, mécanismes, machines, on procède à l'assemblage de divers éléments ou pièces. Assemblage ne nécessitant aucune pièce intermédiaire. Exemple : Soudage, sertissage.  Les mouvements se transmettent par interaction des pièces entre elles. Ainsi, la transmission est le fait d'entraîner ou de communiquer un mouvement d'une pièce (source) à une autre (réceptrice).On distingue deux formes de transmission de mouvement :- Les systèmes de transformation de mouvement permettent d'adapter le mouvement à l'utilisation visée. Ils ont pour objectifs de :changer la direction du mouvement changer l'intensité de l'effort (force ou couple) changer la vitesse rendre le système irréversible La force pour mettre en mouvement les différents objets ou mécanismes sont de différentes sources : musculaire (homme, animaux), moteurs : thermique, hydraulique, pneumatique, électrique, etc.Les organes ou pièces mécaniques utilisés dans les mécanismes de transmission sont entre autres : Poulie, roue dentée, pignon, crémaillère, vis sans fin, chaine, courroie, came/excentrique, articulation, roue et pièce de friction (avec garniture), bielle, poussoirs.Le tableau ci-dessous illustre quelques systèmes ou mécanismes de transformation de mouvements : La transmission par poulies-courroie est un système de transmission de mouvement de rotation entre deux arbres distants l'un de l'autre par l'intermédiaire de deux poulies (au moins) solidaires aux arbres et entrainées par une courroie. Elle permet de transformer le mouvement initial (vitesses, inversion de sens, position des arbres, etc.).C'est une solution simple et économique de transmission, présentant de nombreux avantages lorsqu'il n'y a pas une nécessité de synchronisation entre les arbres (simple d'entretien, silencieux, vitesse élevée, pas de lubrification, entre axe variable, etc.).- La transmission par roues dentées-chaîne est un système de transmission de mouvement de rotation entre deux arbres parallèles distants l'un de l'autre par l'intermédiaire de deux roues dentées (au moins) solidaires aux arbres et entrainées par une chaine.Elle permet transmettre des puissances plus élevées par rapport à la transmission par courroie, de transformer le mouvement initial (vitesse) et sans glissement (mouvements synchrones).La transmission par engrenage est un type de transmission de mouvement   Connaitre les métaux et leurs propriétés mécaniques, leur utilisation, et maitriser les techniques de fabrication (formage), l'utilisation des outils et savoir choisir les techniques les plus adaptés aux contextes.Dans le métier de construction métallique, les métaux utilisés sont : le fer, le fer inox, le fer galvanisé, l'aluminium, le cuivre et leurs alliages. C'est un travail qui consiste à transformer les tôles et les profilés en diverses formes d'ouvrages.Ainsi, les matières premières dans la construction métallique sont essentiellement les tôles et profilés en acier, en inox (acier inoxydable), en aluminium, en fers galvanisés et en cuivre (pas très courant).-Résistant (résiliant) -Soudable -Malléable (déformable, pliable) -Résistance à la rouille La construction métallique repose sur plusieurs spécialités dont : la chaudronnerie, la soudure, la fabrication mécanique (ajustage, usinage, etc.), forge, etc.Le technicien est donc appelé à maitriser les connaissances de ses spécialités.Le chaudronnier fabrique des ouvrages (équipements) à partir des feuilles, tubes et profilés de métaux comme l'acier, l'inox, l'aluminium, le cuivre, etc.Le travail de chaudronnerie se réalise en plusieurs étapes :-Etude de l'ouvrage à réaliser : la réalisation commence par le dessin. Ce qui permet d'évaluer les besoins en matière et matériel de travail ; -Traçage : il consiste à dessiner des pièces à plat sur la matière (développante des formes) avant de passer à la phase de découpage à l'aide de (gabarit) ou directement sur la matière ; -Découpage : des composantes de l'objet à réaliser sont découpées par diverses techniques par chalumeau, scie, cisaille, ciseaux, burin, tronçonneuse, etc. ; -Mise en forme (formage) : les composantes sont mises en forme par différents procédés : pliage, cintrage, roulage, emboutissage, estampages, etc. -Assemblage : les composantes son assemblées par diverses techniques : soudure, rivetage, vissage/boulonnage, agrafage, etc. Dans les assemblages, interviennent aussi les opérations d'ajustage, perçage, filetage, taraudage, meulage, etc.  Le découpage est une opération qui consiste à obtenir des morceaux de matière ou pièces prélevés dans une masse plus grande. Le découpage se fait par diverses techniques, telles que : le poinçonnage, le sciage, le cisaillement, au chalumeau, à la meule, au laser, etc. ;          Cette technique utilise des appareils électriques (générateur ou poste à souder) à courant électrique alternatif (220 ou 380 volts) ou continu (110 volts) pour produire l'énergie (la chaleur) nécessaire à la fusion du métal.Le principe de base est de conserver un écartement constant entre l'électrode et la pièce à souder afin de créer un arc électrique.-Si l'électrode touche la pièce, il ne se produira pas de fort dégagement de chaleur et l'électrode collera à la pièce.-Si, l'électrode est trop éloignée de la pièce, le passage d'électricité ne se fera pas et il n'y aura pas d'étincelle.Il faut veiller à choisir des électrodes de bonne qualité, de diamètre adapté. -Régler l'intensité du poste en fonction de la pièce à souder ; -Préparer les pièces : nettoyer au papier abrasif, et dégraisser les surfaces à souder et faire des chanfreins sur les pièces pour recevoir le cordon de soudure au besoin, -Mettre en contact les pièces à souder et les fixer au besoin avec un serre-joint ou étau afin de bien les immobiliser ; -Placer l'ensemble sur un support ininflammable et fixer la pince de masse sur la pièce à souder ; -Fixer l'électrode dans le porte-électrode du poste ; -Amorcer l'arc (frotter la pointe de l'électrode sur la pièce pour créer les étincelles) ; -Éloigner l'électrode de quelques millimètres afin de créer l'arc ; -Déplacer régulièrement l'électrode au-dessus de la zone à souder afin de réaliser un cordon de soudure ; -Laisser refroidir les pièces à la fin de l'opération -Couper le poste et le débrancher au besoin -L'opération terminée ; Cette technique de soudure utilise un générateur constitué de deux bouteilles de gaz dont l'une contient de l'oxygène et l'autre l'acétylène dont la brulure produit la chaleur de soudure.Indications : -La bouteille toujours marquée de rouge ou autre est celle de l'acétylène. Le raccord rouge lui est relié -La seconde est celle de l'oxygène souvent marquée de couleur bleue. Le raccord bleu lui est relié -Les deux sont reliés aux embouts du chalumeau      De façon générale, une machine transformation est constituée de grands éléments ci-après :-Le châssis ou bâtis : ossature servant de support pour les autres organes ;-Le système d'alimentation : stock, régule et introduit la matière dans la zone ou dans le mécanisme de traitement ;-Le mécanisme d'opération ou de transformation : permet de réaliser la transformation qui est l'objet (la raison d'être) de la machine ;-Le système d'évacuation : permet de sortir (expulser) les produits traités de la machine ;-La chaine cinématique : génère, transforme et transmet le mouvement aux organes. Unité motrice : manivelle, pédale, moteur avec transmission (poulie-courroie, chainedents, trains d'engrenage, came, etc.).-Les organes de protection : assurent la sécurité de l'opérateur, la perte ou la dispersion des matières (produits).-Les organes de fixation ou de roulement : servent à brider (équipements fixes) ou déplacer la machine. ","tokenCount":"1830"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"33999a325ac56c8643d1a7fcbeb7dbc5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5aedd69f-4c7b-4835-861f-579f3915ba9a/retrieve","id":"449691644"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f21840b0-e8a6-4963-9b63-0f0c2d890719","pagecount":"29","content":"Guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers de racines, tubercules et bananes. Lima (Pérou). Programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les racines, tubercules et bananes (RTB) Guide d'utilisation RTB N° 2024-1.Annexes. GlossaireCe guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes présente des outils pour diagnostiquer, évaluer et améliorer les systèmes semenciers de pomme de terre, de patate douce et d'igname. Dans l'ensemble, ces cultures sont appelées racines, tubercules et bananes, et elles sont cruciales pour la sécurité alimentaire et la génération de revenus, en particulier dans les pays en développement. Toutes ces cultures sont reproduites végétativement, à partir de racines, de tubercules, de tiges, de rejets ou de vignes. Ce matériel de plantation volumineux est coûteux à transporter. Les semences végétatives sont périssables et (sauf pour les pommes de terre, les ignames et quelques autres exceptions) doivent être plantées aussi fraîches que possible, et elles sont plus susceptibles de véhiculer des ravageurs et des maladies que les vraies semences. Outre ces défis uniques, les systèmes semenciers améliorés des cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes donnent aux agriculteurs la possibilité d'améliorer leurs moyens de subsistance en accédant à du matériel végétal de meilleure qualité provenant de variétés locales ou de variétés améliorées à haut rendement, résistantes aux stress, plus nutritives ou plus sensibles aux besoins des consommateurs.Les outils de cette boîte à outils comprennent des méthodes, des modèles, des approches et des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC), qui peuvent être utilisés par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens travaillant sur les systèmes semenciers des cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes. La section 1 de ce guide de l'utilisateur décrit l'importance d'un bon matériel de plantation, les concepts clés des systèmes semenciers, outils et de la boîte à outils, et comment ils ont été développés. La Section 2 traite des utilisateurs, des objectifs et des points d'entrée pour l'utilisation des outils du point de vue d'une chaîne de valeur des semences ou d'un cycle de projet. La Section 3 décrit le glossaire des systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes et les 11 outils dans la boîte à outils : (1) cadre multipartite pour intervenir dans les systèmes semenciers de racines, de tubercules et de bananes ,(2) Analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA), (3) «Seed Tracker», (4) Approches et modèles intégrés pour la santé des semences, (5) Analyse de circulation de semences, (6) Étude de cas exploratoire à petite échelle, (7) Méthode des quatre carrés, (8) Analyse de chaînages cognitifs, (9) Enchères expérimentales, (10) Analyse du cadre réglementaire des semences et (11) Outil d'analyse de la durabilité des entreprises de production de semences de première génération (SEGSBAT). Chaque description comprend des exemples de questions auxquelles l'outil peut aider à répondre, ainsi que la manière dont le sexe et les groupes sociaux sont pris en compte. La Section 4 décrit les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils, avec des exemples de leur utilisation. La Section 5, conclusions et perspectives, traite de la formation, du soutien et de la rétroaction, ainsi que des nouveaux outils qui pourraient être inclus à l'avenir.Il y a des références bibliographiques et un bref glossaire des termes du système semencier.Ce guide d'utilisation est destiné à être utilisé avec cette page Web de la boîte à outils https://tools4seedsystems.org/, où des liens vers des informations détaillées sont disponibles, y compris des guides de l'utilisateur, des fiches descriptives, des documents de recherche et des blogs pour chaque outil.L'application des outils décrits dans ce guide de l'utilisateur vise à soutenir les interventions du système semencier qui s'efforcent de contribuer à cinq défis mondiaux dirigés par les ODD : la nutrition, la pauvreté, l'équité (inclusion), l'environnement et le changement climatique.Guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananesCe guide d'utilisation explique comment les systèmes semenciers de la banane, du manioc, de la pomme de terre, de la patate douce et de l'igname -racines, tubercules et bananes -peuvent être étudiés et améliorés à l'aide d'outils (méthodes, modèles, approches et technologies de l'information et de la communication [TIC]), qui sont regroupés dans la boîte à outils décrite ici. L'objectif est de fournir des conseils aux différents utilisateurs -chercheurs, décideurs et praticiens -dans l'utilisation des outils pour répondre aux questions clés afin de comprendre les systèmes semenciers des tubercules et des bananes, de les améliorer en menant des projets, et  On peut visualiser un système semencier de différentes manières. La Figure 1 présente le système semencier en tant que chaîne de valeur semencière, avec une représentation schématique de l'ensemble des 11 outils. Il montre comment les outils fournissent des informations sur un ou plusieurs segments de la chaîne de valeur des semences. Parce qu'une chaîne de valeur semencière fonctionnelle exige que tous les segments fonctionnent bien, des outils d'intégration sont également nécessaires pour localiser les forces et les faiblesses. Des exemples de questions auxquelles les outils peuvent répondre sont décrits dans la section 3, à la fin de chaque descriptif d'outil. Un projet de système semencier comprend généralement plusieurs phases : diagnostic, conception, mise en oeuvre, suivi et analyse de scénarios (Figure 2). Chaque phase peut nécessiter différents types d'informations.Les outils présentés dans le Tableau 1 peuvent jouer un rôle à différents moments du cycle de projet. Pour suivre le changement à des fins de diagnostic, de conception, de mise en oeuvre et de suivi, des informations similaires sont collectées périodiquement. Pour l'analyse de scénarios, une approche de modélisation est généralement suivie. Quel est le taux de dégénérescence des semences conservées à la ferme ?Concevoir À quelle fréquence les agriculteurs doivent-ils acheter des semences certifiées ?Comment la qualité des semences de ferme s'est-elle améliorée avec l'utilisation périodique de semences certifiées ?Comment différentes combinaisons de semences certifiées, de résistance de l'hôte et de gestion des semences à la ferme affectent-elles le taux de dégénérescence des semences conservées à la ferme ?Une autre considération pour l'utilisation des outils est la disponibilité des ressources : temps, argent, maind'oeuvre et expertise. Certains outils nécessitent des connaissances spécialisées et d'autres sont plus faciles à appliquer. Une collecte de données extensive augmente généralement les coûts et le temps nécessaire pour traiter et analyser les données. Ces considérations sont prises en compte dans les fiches descriptives des outils disponibles sur le site web décrit ci-dessous.Des informations détaillées pour chaque outil sont fournies sur cette page Web de la boîte à outils https://tools4seedsystems.org/ avec des liens vers :• Une fiche descriptive de l'outil, pour un aperçu rapide de l'outil, y compris des références à la littérature et à d'autres ressources • Un guide de l'utilisateur, avec des procédures sur la façon d'utiliser l'outil • Un article évalué par des pairs qui décrit comment l'outil est utilisé et comment il a été développé ou adapté à partir d'un outil existant • Et, dans certains cas, un blog et d'autres supports de communication.Les outils sont décrits ci-dessous, accompagnés d'exemples de questions auxquelles chacun peut répondre.Le cadre multipartite donne aux chercheurs, aux décideurs et aux praticiens un aperçu rapide des systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes. Le cadre est un tableau, avec des rangées de parties prenantes (producteurs de semences, négociants en semences, vulgarisateurs, etc.) et des colonnes de fonctions du système semencier (disponibilité des semences, accès et qualité). Il est idéalement appliqué lors d'ateliers et de visites sur le terrain comme première étape vers la compréhension d'un système semencier ou le suivi d'un projet, ou son évaluation. Lorsqu'il est utilisé avant le démarrage d'un projet ou pour analyser un système semencier, le cadre aide à identifier les prenantes, les goulots d'étranglement et les actions clés pour le projet à venir. Lorsqu'il est utilisé pour suivre ou évaluer un projet, le cadre peut aider à documenter les rôles des parties prenantes en ce qui concerne l'accès, la disponibilité et la qualité des semences, les ruptures de coordination entre les acteurs, et à constituer une base de données plus solide pour les interventions futures. Le cadre offre la possibilité de différencier l'accès et la disponibilité des semences et des variétés pour différents types d'agriculteurs, y compris les hommes et les femmes. Les résultats obtenus avec le cadre doivent généralement être complétés par des études plus approfondies réalisées avec d'autres outils.Questions pouvant être traitées avec le cadre multi-acteurs : Qui sont les acteurs spécifiques d'un système semencier ? Quel est leur point de vue concernant la disponibilité, l'accès et la qualité des semences ? En quoi les agriculteurs et agricultrices diffèrent-ils dans leur accès à des semences de qualité ? Quelles ruptures de coordination se produisent entre les parties prenantes et comment peuvent-elles être résolues ?L'analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) est un outil d'évaluation des résultats probables d'un projet de système semencier actuel ou potentiel. Ces résultats appuient la prise de décision par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens. Les résultats peuvent être définis en termes de caractéristiques importantes, notamment la propagation potentielle de la maladie dans le système, l'adoption probable de nouvelles variétés dans la région et la manière dont le système sert différentes catégories de parties prenantes. INA inclut un package R qui simule les résultats pour différents scénarios définis par l'utilisateur. Les utilisateurs directs seraient familiarisés avec les applications R et collaboreraient avec les utilisateurs indirects. Les scénarios sont définis avec des données sur les systèmes semenciers obtenues à partir d'autres outils de la boîte à outils (tels que l'analyse de circulation de semences) ou d'autres sources de données. L'INA peut être appliquée pendant le développement du projet pour aider à prendre des décisions et à identifier les lacunes d'information pour une étude plus approfondie. L'INA peut utiliser des données désagrégées sur les agriculteurs hommes et femmes, les jeunes et les personnes âgées, ou entre les groupes professionnels (tels que les producteurs de semences par rapport aux commerçants). Les scénarios d'intervention peuvent inclure la surveillance d'une maladie transmise par les semences, des subventions pour soutenir l'adoption de nouvelles variétés ou une formation pour promouvoir de nouvelles techniques.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec l'analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) : Quels types d'interventions sont susceptibles de conduire à une adoption plus large d'une nouvelle variété ? Quelles sont les meilleures stratégies pour gérer une maladie dans le système semencier ? Quelles subventions profiteraient aux jeunes ou aux femmes ?Le « Seed Tracker » (ST) est un outil TIC qui relie numériquement les acteurs de la chaîne de valeur des semences, suit la production de semences et organise les informations. Le ST fournit des outils de collecte de données numériques (utilisables sur tout appareil connecté à Internet avec un système d'exploitation Android). Il propose des comptes sécurisés individuels et de groupe, ainsi qu'une base de données avec des outils d'analyse et de Système d'information géographique (SIG). Le ST couvre toutes les étapes de la chaîne de valeur des semences et les besoins des parties prenantes : chercheurs, vulgarisateurs, régulateurs, producteurs de semences, commerçants, fournisseurs de services et agriculteurs. Il prend en charge la planification de la production de semences, la traçabilité des semences, la gestion des stocks de semences et l'assurance qualité. Le « Seed Tracker » permet aux autorités de régulation de surveiller la production de semences certifiées et fournit un échange d'informations en temps réel entre les producteurs de semences et les régulateurs. C'est aussi un outil commercial qui permet de mettre en relation les producteurs de semences avec les clients. Il offre des informations en temps réel sur la production de semences par classe de semences, variété, volume et emplacement. Le ST peut être personnalisé pour s'adapter à différentes cultures, réglementations nationales sur les semences et besoins définis par l'utilisateur. Il a le potentiel de cartographier des informations ventilées par sexe.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec le « Seed Tracker » : Le ST a été conçu à l'origine pour des objectifs pragmatiques et individuels de tous les acteurs de la chaîne de valeur des semences, afin que les producteurs de semences puissent demander : Où puis-je trouver des clients ? Et comment puis-je m'inscrire et obtenir la certification de ma semence en ligne ? Cependant, le tracker de semences peut également être utilisé pour poser des questions au niveau du système telles que : Quelles sont les tendances actuelles en matière de production et de certification de semences ? Où et qui sont les producteurs de semences, les clients, les variétés cultivées, les volumes et les champs de production de semences ? Les régulateurs des semences peuvent l'utiliser comme une plateforme en ligne pour l'enregistrement et la certification de la qualité des champs de semences afin de régulariser les producteurs de semences informels des VPC.Les approches et modèles intégrés pour la santé des semences fournissent un cadre pour combiner trois composantes clés de la gestion de la santé des semences : semences propres, variétés résistantes aux maladies et gestion à la ferme. Une dépendance excessive à l'égard d'un seul élément tend à être moins efficace que des combinaisons stratégiques des trois. Les modèles de santé des semences, en particulier le package R seedHealth, soutiennent la prise en compte d'approches intégrées de la santé des semences en évaluant des scénarios pour combiner ces trois composants. Ces résultats appuient la formation et la prise de décision par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens. Dans une interface en ligne pour la formation, le package seedHealth illustre les résultats probables de la modification des trois composants. Les utilisateurs directs seraient familiarisés avec les applications R, tandis que les utilisateurs indirects collaboreraient avec les utilisateurs directs. L'interface en ligne est conviviale, même pour ceux qui ne sont pas familiers avec R. Le package seedHealth peut également être utilisé pour évaluer la maladie probable et produire des résultats pour des systèmes et des groupes d'utilisateurs spécifiques (par exemple, le sexe ou les groupes d'âge), lorsque des données suffisantes sont disponibles sur les taux de dégénérescence des graines et les réponses. Le package seedHealth peut être utilisé pour la modélisation d'aide à la décision par les utilisateurs qui peuvent développer ou accéder à des estimations des taux de dégénérescence des semences pour leurs systèmes.Quelle combinaison de semences propres, de résistance aux maladies et de gestion à la ferme sera la meilleure pour un emplacement particulier ? À quelle fréquence faut-il acheter des semences exemptes de maladies ? Si les agriculteurs hommes et femmes ont des pratiques de gestion des semences différentes, comment cela affecte-t-il la dégénérescence et les rendements associés ?L'analyse de circulation de semences peut être utilisé pour cartographier les flux de semences, en particulier lorsque les agriculteurs multiplient de nouvelles variétés et les distribuent dans le système semencier informel. Le jeu de données peut constituer la base d'une Analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA, voir ci-dessus) : il constitue un « jeu de données minimum ». La cartographie des flux de semences aide à comprendre la distribution, la conservation et la propagation des agents pathogènes transmis par les semences dans un système semencier. L'analyse du réseau met en évidence les dimensions sociales d'un système semencier. Par exemple, il peut montrer comment l'accès et l'échange de semences dépendent du sexe ou de la richesse du ménage. Cela peut également révéler quels agriculteurs ont un meilleur accès aux semences formelles. Lors de l'analyse de circulation de semences (par échantillonnage en boule de neige), des données peuvent être collectées sur les transactions entre les acteurs, y compris les volumes, la qualité et les prix. Les transactions forment les liens ou les bords dans l'analyse du réseau et les noeuds représentent les acteurs, tels que les sélectionneurs, les multiplicateurs de semences et les agriculteurs. Le genre, la richesse, la localisation et d'autres informations peuvent être collectées auprès de ces acteurs, en fonction de la question de recherche.Questions qui peuvent être résolues avec l'analyse de circulation de semences. Comment une nouvelle variété se propage-t-elle d'un agriculteur à l'autre ? Comment les hommes et les femmes partagent-ils les semences de différentes manières ? Qu'est-ce que cela signifie pour une introduction efficace de matériel végétal de qualité ?La petite étude de cas exploratoire recueille des données pour se concentrer sur plusieurs sujets, pour obtenir une première compréhension de la façon dont les agriculteurs utilisent et manipulent leurs semences. Une petite enquête N est exploratoire et utilise des données quantitatives et quantitatives. Elle ne prétend pas être représentative ; elle est plus orientée vers une description large que vers des différences et des corrélations statistiquement significatives. Les données sont généralement collectées à l'aide d'un formulaire d'enquête comportant un nombre modeste de questions ouvertes et fermées ; il faut environ une heure ou 90 minutes pour terminer avec chaque agriculteur. Il y a également un espace pour inclure d'autres informations fournies volontairement par les personnes interrogées. Pour identifier les modèles d'utilisation des semences lors d'une première reconnaissance, il est important d'échantillonner stratégiquement différents groupes, tels que les agriculteurs contre les commerçants, les petits exploitants contre les grands agriculteurs, les hommes contre les femmes agriculteurs. Une étude peut nécessiter 12 à 15 enquêtes par type d'agriculteur et 35 à 50 agriculteurs par communauté. Il y a une puissance supplémentaire lors de la comparaison d'études de cas, par exemple en comparant différentes communautés.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'étude de cas exploratoire à petite échelle. Quels agriculteurs conservent leurs propres semences et lesquels les obtiennent en dehors de la ferme ? Où les agriculteurs obtiennent-ils des semences lorsqu'ils n'utilisent pas les leurs ? Quelles semences et variétés les grands et les petits exploitants utilisent-ils ? Quels paiements et échanges les agriculteurs masculins et les agricultrices utilisent-ils ? En quoi l'utilisation des semences des agriculteurs plus âgés diffère-t-elle de celle des jeunes ?La méthode des quatre carrés signifiait à l'origine identifier les variétés de cultures communes, uniques et menacées d'une communauté pour la conservation génétique. Pour les semences végétatives, la méthode peut générer un inventaire des variétés cultivées dans un lieu particulier et discuter de leur importance avec les agriculteurs. Ces informations aident à identifier les interventions semencières nécessaires pour conserver les variétés de cultures et à mettre en évidence les caractéristiques souhaitables dans les nouvelles variétés. La méthode des quatre carrés trace les réponses en deux dimensions (popularité et échelle) pour former quatre cellules dans lesquelles les variétés de semences et de cultures sont positionnées : Cellule 1) variétés cultivées par de nombreux agriculteurs sur une grande surface, Cellule 2) celles cultivées par de nombreux agriculteurs sur une petite surface, Cellule 3) variétés cultivées par quelques agriculteurs sur une grande surface et Cellule 4) celles cultivées par quelques agriculteurs sur une petite zone. La méthode est principalement appliquée comme première étape pour comprendre les variétés cultivées dans une communauté et pourquoi les gens les plantent. La méthode est généralement utilisée dans les groupes de discussion (FGD) qui peuvent être menées séparément pour différents groupes sociaux (sexe, âge, statut social, etc.) afin de saisir des perspectives et des expériences différenciées. Les résultats peuvent aider à identifier les points d'entrée pour des recherches ultérieures. Il peut également compléter une petite étude de cas exploratoire.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec la méthode des quatre carrés. Quelles variétés locales et améliorées les agriculteurs cultivent-ils ? A quoi servent les différentes variétés ? Que peuvent dire les agriculteurs sur leurs variétés ? En quoi les connaissances et l'expérience des hommes agriculteurs diffèrentelles de celles des femmes ? Quelle est la valeur des variétés locales et améliorées, selon les jeunes agriculteurs ? Quel est l'impact des interventions du système semencier sur la diversité variétale ?L'analyse de chaînages cognitifs (MEC) est une approche issue du domaine des études de consommation. Son attractivité est la liberté qu'elle donne aux répondants de sélectionner et de verbaliser leurs propres construits pour évaluer un produit ou un service. Les entretiens de chaînages cognitifs se composent de deux parties : (1) l'élicitation d'attributs et (2) l'échelonnement. La technique d'élicitation consiste en un tri triadique basé sur la grille du répertoire de Kelly. Typiquement, les agriculteurs ou les commerçants voient trois produits ou services assez similaires, qu'ils doivent trier par similitudes et différences. Ces constructions personnellement pertinentes sont ensuite liées aux propres objectifs des personnes interrogées via des entretiens en échelle dans lesquels l'intervieweur demande uniquement « lequel préférez-vous ? » et « pourquoi est-ce important pour vous ? » En montrant aux personnes interrogées le matériel de plantation réel, les agriculteurs peuvent proposer des caractéristiques ou des motivations que les chercheurs n'auraient pas pu imaginer comme importantes. L'approche a été appliquée pour saisir les perceptions des agriculteurs sur les sources formelles et informelles de plants de pomme de terre au Pérou et de matériel de plantation de bananes en Ouganda. Une étude MEC nécessite environ 40 entretiens, voire moins lorsque les réponses sont très similaires. On peut comparer les réponses des agriculteurs hommes et femmes ou des agriculteurs aisés et pauvres, par exemple. Une certaine formation est nécessaire, en particulier dans l'enregistrement et l'analyse des données.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'analyse de la chaîne moyens-fins. Quelles caractéristiques variétales les agriculteurs apprécient-ils et pourquoi ? Où les agriculteurs préfèrent-ils s'approvisionner en semences et pourquoi ? Les agriculteurs hommes et femmes préfèrent-ils les mêmes caractéristiques variétales et si oui, est-ce pour les mêmes raisons ?Les enchères expérimentales sont devenues une méthode de recherche populaire car elles obtiennent une valeur pour la Volonté réelle de payer (WTP) et la Volonté d'adopter (WTA) d'une personne. Cette valeur réelle ne s'exprime que lorsque les enchères sont bien organisées et que l'enchère pour le produit ressemble à une situation réelle. Les économistes proposent différentes manières d'organiser les enchères et le paiement. Les scientifiques de l'alimentation ont utilisé les enchères pour déterminer les préférences et les valeurs marchandes des nouveaux produits alimentaires. Ce mécanisme est relativement nouveau pour les cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes, et pour les semences et les variétés en général, mais un nombre croissant d'études utilisent ce mécanisme. Ils offrent de bonnes occasions de comparer la valeur accordée aux semences, aux variétés ou aux traits variétaux par différents groupes sociaux, c'est-à-dire les hommes et les femmes. Une étude WTP utilisant les mécanismes d'enchères et d'enchères validés existants est coûteuse.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec des enchères expérimentales. Quelle est la valeur marchande réelle des semences ? Quelle est la différence entre le prix réel que les agriculteurs et les agricultrices sont prêts à payer ? Quel est le WTP relatif entre les semences de différentes caractéristiques, telles que la variété, la source, le niveau de qualité et l'étiquetage ?Cet outil fournit des preuves exploitables sur les politiques et les options d'investissement pour accélérer le développement du système semencier et du marché dans les pays où les cultures à multiplication végétative (VPC) sont importantes pour la sécurité alimentaire et le développement agricole. Les utilisateurs de l'outil sont les chercheurs agricoles et les analystes des politiques. L'outil consiste en une série de listes de contrôle pour les entretiens avec des informateurs clés (KII) à utiliser avec différentes parties prenantes du système semencier, par ex. les sélectionneurs de plantes, les régulateurs publics du matériel végétal VPC, les experts de l'industrie, les entrepreneurs, les commerçants, les producteurs de semences, les importateurs de semences, les ONG ou d'autres parties prenantes, y compris les agriculteurs et les dirigeants de leurs associations. Les entretiens posent des questions sur les différences entre les sexes dans les perceptions sur l'utilisation et les implications des réglementations sur les semences. Les entretiens avec des informateurs clés doivent être complétés par une revue de la littérature, des données secondaires et une analyse de documents.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'analyse du cadre réglementaire des semences. Quels types de politiques publiques et de réglementations sont en place pour les cultures concernées dans un pays ? Comment ces politiques et réglementations sont-elles mises en oeuvre ? Quel type d'assurance qualité est rentable pour accroître l'accès, la disponibilité et la qualité du matériel de plantation ? Comment améliorer l'accès des agricultrices à des semences de qualité ?Cet outil permet d'analyser les performances financières des entreprises de semences de première génération (EGS) gérées par des producteurs de semences spécialisés, tels que les SNRA et des entreprises privées. Les EGS comprennent les plantes in vitro, les semences de pré-base et les semences de base. L'approvisionnement en EGS est souvent un goulot d'étranglement pour l'amélioration des systèmes semenciers formels. SEGSBAT mesure la viabilité financière en six étapes : (1) identifier la capacité de production minimale pour chaque étape de la production d'EGS afin d'atteindre les objectifs de vente minimaux, (2) mesurer le total des coûts récurrents de production pour le produit final, (3) formuler des stratégies de tarification basées sur le type de client et le moment de commande, (4) calculer les fonds, tels que les fonds renouvelables, nécessaires pour couvrir les coûts récurrents totaux, (5) estimer le flux de trésorerie net sur la base des ventes réelles, et (6) examiner et mettre à jour le plan de production chaque saison pour suivre les performances réelles du commerce de semences. Cet outil peut être utilisé par toute personne familiarisée avec Microsoft Excel. Cet outil n'effectue pas d'analyse de faisabilité financière, qui comprend les valeurs actualisées nettes, le taux de rendement interne et l'analyse de sensibilité de l'entreprise. Le genre ne joue aucun rôle évident dans l'application de l'outil ou l'utilisation des informations qui en résultent.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec SEGSBAT. Qu'est-ce qu'un coût précis de production d'EGS ? Comment déterminer le prix des produits EGS et formuler une stratégie de prix pour les produits EGS afin d'attirer plus de clients ? Existe-t-il des inefficacités de production qui peuvent être rationalisées pour rendre EGS plus rentable pour les fournisseurs ?Un glossaire est particulièrement important pour un sujet comme les systèmes semenciers, qui rassemble des experts de nombreux domaines différents de la biologie, de l'agronomie et des sciences sociales. Ce glossaire détaillé est basé sur une revue de la littérature de publications évaluées par des pairs, citant les textes et fournissant les références, afin que les lecteurs puissent avoir un aperçu rapide du langage technique des systèmes semenciers, tout en pouvant également consulter la littérature originale pour un contexte plus large.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec le glossaire. Quelle est la différence entre semence « de qualité » et « semence de qualité déclarée » ? J'ai besoin de commencer une revue de littérature (pour ma thèse, pour un cours que j'enseigne, pour un article que j'écris), où puis-je trouver des références solides pour commencer ?Cette section décrit les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils, puis quelques exemples de résultats de l'utilisation des outils pour la banane, le manioc, la pomme de terre, la patate douce et l'igname.Le troisième résultat attendu se situe au niveau politique : l'allocation de ressources éclairée par des preuves scientifiques. La plupart des interventions agricoles dans les pays en développement comprennent des composantes solides du système semencier. Cependant, où allouer les ressources est généralement une préoccupation majeure pour les bailleurs de fonds et les décideurs politiques. Les outils présentés ici peuvent aider à allouer des ressources sur la base de preuves scientifiques. Par exemple, pour gérer à long terme la dégénérescence des semences pour les agriculteurs pauvres, il pourrait être plus rentable d'investir dans la sélection de variétés résistantes que dans des systèmes complexes de fourniture de semences propres aux agriculteurs, comme l'évalue le modèle seedHealth.Les cinq exemples suivants, un pour chaque culture majeure d'intérêt pour RTB, décrivent où les outils ont été utilisés et leur potentiel pour mieux comprendre et améliorer les systèmes semenciers :Les pommes de terre sont le « second pain » en République de Géorgie. Cependant, le rendement est de 8,9 à 12 tonnes par ha, tandis que le rendement potentiel peut atteindre 50 tonnes par ha. L'un des obstacles à l'amélioration du rendement de la pomme de terre est la mauvaise qualité du matériel de plantation. Les producteurs de pommes de terre conservent les tubercules de la récolte précédente pour planter la saison suivante. Cette pratique conduit à la dégénérescence des graines, car les agents pathogènes, tels que les virus et Synchytrium endobioticum (l'agent causal de la verrue de la pomme de terre), s'accumulent dans les tubercules de semence, forçant les rendements à diminuer avec le temps. Avec le soutien de l'Agence autrichienne de développement (ADA), le CIP, l'UF et des partenaires locaux ont conçu une intervention pour améliorer la qualité du matériel de plantation (https://ishpotato.cipotato.org/) et un plan national d'amélioration de la pomme de terre de semence (CIP 2019), basée sur l'approche intégrée de la santé des semences (Thomas-Sharma et al. 2015) (Outil 3, Tableau 1). Les résultats de cette intervention incluent l'adoption par des centaines d'agriculteurs de la sélection positive, une technique simple pour sélectionner les meilleurs tubercules de semence ; l'identification de trois clones de pomme de terre résistants aux virus à diffuser en tant que variétés ; et l'adaptation des normes internationales de certification des semences aux conditions géorgiennes. De même, à l'aide d'une analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) (Outil 2, Tableau 1), l'équipe de l'étude a modélisé des scénarios de propagation de S. endobioticum, dans le cadre d'une analyse d'évaluation des risques, et identifié les zones où l'agent pathogène doit être surveillé attentivement pour éviter des pertes importantes (Andersen et coll. 2020), s'appuyant sur des concepts développés dans une étude des systèmes semenciers de patate douce en Ouganda (Andersen et al. 2019).Le manioc est l'une des cultures de rente les plus importantes en Asie du Sud-Est. Les racines féculentes de la culture sont largement produites par de petits exploitants au Cambodge, au Laos, au Vietnam, en Thaïlande, en Indonésie et aux Philippines, alimentant des chaînes de valeur de plusieurs milliards de dollars. Mais malgré sa taille et son importance économique, l'industrie reste vulnérable à l'invasion de ravageurs et de maladies limitant le rendement. En 2017, le virus de la mosaïque du manioc du Sri Lanka (SLCMV) a été signalé au Cambodge et s'est depuis propagé à quatre autres pays de la région. L'Asie du Sud-Est manque de variétés résistantes et la maladie s'est rapidement propagée à l'aide de vecteurs d'aleurodes et d'échange de tiges de plantation infectées (Minato et al. 2019). La réponse a été particulièrement entravée par l'absence de connaissance systématique des réseaux de semences de manioc. Grâce à une subvention du Centre australien pour la recherche agricole internationale (ACIAR), le Centre international pour l'agriculture tropicale (CIAT) a mené une étude avec WUR, UF et des partenaires nationaux au Cambodge, au Vietnam et en Chine pour comprendre l'utilisation et le mouvement de semences du manioc, et pour modéliser la propagation probable et l'impact des interventions d'atténuation. L'approche a utilisé une combinaison d'analyse de circulation de semences (Outil 5, Tableau 1) pour cartographier les réseaux d'échange de matériel végétal existants (Delaquis et al. 2018) et l'analyse des réseaux d'impact (Outil 2, Tableau 1) pour construire des modèles épidémiologiques combinant à la fois des paramètres environnementaux et des réseaux d'échange de semences pour modéliser des scénarios de propagation (publication à venir). Les résultats de ce travail ont conduit à un vaste nouveau projet de recherche ACIAR sur la réponse SLCMV, et ont été présentés lors d'ateliers de parties prenantes et de réunions des groupes de travail régionaux pour SLCMV, fournissant aux représentants du gouvernement régional et aux acteurs de la chaîne de valeur du manioc les toutes premières données régionales sur SLCMV, échange de semences et analyses de scénarios pour la planification des interventions.Dans la patate douce, le cadre multipartite (Outil 1, Tableau 1) a été utilisé dans le cadre d'un examen postintervention et d'un atelier d'apprentissage du projet Marando Bora (Better Vines) mis en oeuvre dans Lake Zone, en Tanzanie (Ogero et al. 2015). Le projet a formé des multiplicateurs de vigne décentralisés (DVM) pour multiplier le matériel de plantation de variétés améliorées et le distribuer par le biais d'un système de bons subventionnés. Le cadre multipartite a permis une réflexion systématique à partir des perspectives de différentes parties prenantes sur les succès et les défis de l'amélioration de la disponibilité, de l'accès et de la qualité du matériel de plantation de patate douce pour différents types d'agriculteurs. Plusieurs défis ont été mis en évidence : certaines variétés étaient sensibles aux maladies virales de la patate douce ; les connaissances sur la dégénérescence des semences étaient insuffisantes et il n'était pas clair quand les agriculteurs devraient remplacer leur matériel de plantation. Ces questions ont ensuite été explorées dans un projet de suivi, Kinga Marando (Protéger les vignes), qui a introduit une technologie innovante de gestion des maladies utilisant des tunnels en filet pour protéger le matériel de plantation des insectes. Des modèles de santé des semences (Outil 4, Tableau 1) ont ensuite été utilisés pour évaluer la dégénérescence des semences pour deux variétés préférées, avec et sans filets. Les résultats de cette recherche ont été utilisés pour recommander le nombre de saisons où les agriculteurs peuvent réutiliser le matériel de plantation avant d'atteindre un seuil économique potentiel de 40 % de perte de rendement (Ogero et al. 2019).Le « Seed Tracker » (Outil 3, Tableau 1) a été utilisé pour la première fois avec le manioc au Nigeria et en Tanzanie. Son utilisation récente avec l'igname au Nigéria illustre les avantages de l'application des TIC pour la collecte de données dans le suivi en temps réel de la production de graines d'igname (Ouma et al. 2019). Les données sur les semences d'igname au Nigéria sont principalement collectées à l'aide de carnets de terrain, puis saisies dans une feuille Microsoft Access. Les faiblesses de ces systèmes de données comprennent le retour d'information tardif et le manque de données sur demande, ce qui entrave l'analyse de circulation de semences à divers stades de la production et de la gestion des cultures. L'étude a fourni aux collecteurs de données une application préinstallée « Seed Tracker » (ST) à utiliser sur un appareil Android. Cette application a amélioré l'efficacité, la rapidité et la commodité de la collecte et de la visualisation des données, montrant que le ST peut être utilisé dans la gestion des cultures et la recherche, pas seulement avec des semences. Recevoir une rétroaction utile et rapide a été à la fois une incitation pour les agriculteurs à fournir des données de qualité et une justification sur laquelle fonder leurs décisions de gestion pour augmenter les rendements. Les parties prenantes ont pu visualiser les tendances de la production et de la commercialisation de l'igname.Dans le cas de la banane, la méthode des quatre carrés a été utilisée au Burundi pour évaluer comment la diversité de la banane était influencée par la maladie invasive du Bunchy top et par les interventions du système semencier utilisées pour la contrôler (Simbare et al. 2020). Cela a permis une discussion avec les agriculteurs sur les changements dans la diversité du groupe bananier des hautes terres d'Afrique de l'Est, ce qui était important parce que les agriculteurs sont des acteurs des semences et les gardiens de la diversité à la ferme. Les agriculteurs pourraient également anticiper la pénétration éventuelle de variétés introduites via des interventions de culture tissulaire. Cette étude a révélé la nécessité d'inclure un objectif de conservation dans les interventions du système semencier dans les lieux qui sont des centres de diversité secondaire, fournissant ainsi un argument solide pour des approches alternatives à l'assurance qualité des semences dans ces zones. Les données de ces études ont également constitué la base d'une étude du réseau d'impact en cours sur les systèmes semenciers de banane afin de révéler les interactions des systèmes d'acquisition de semences coexistants. L'étude a révélé qu'un mélange d'approches formelles et informelles est nécessaire pour développer le système de semences de banane afin de répondre aux multiples besoins des ménages et de les aider à améliorer leur productivité et à faire face aux défis émergents.La boîte à outils est composée de 11 outils (méthodes, modèles, approches et TIC) et d'un glossaire qui peut être utilisé par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens pour diagnostiquer, évaluer et améliorer les systèmes semenciers de banane, manioc, pomme de terre, patate douce, et l'igname. Les outils et la boîte à outils sont le résultat de l'effort combiné de plus de 50 scientifiques de différents horizons techniques et scientifiques travaillant depuis 2012. En fonction de leurs intérêts et de leurs questions, les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens peuvent sélectionner un outil dans la perspective d'une chaîne de valeur des semences (des ressources phytogénétiques aux marchés et aux consommateurs) ou d'un cycle de projet (du diagnostic à l'analyse de scénarios). Les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils comprennent une meilleure compréhension des systèmes semenciers tubercules et de bananes, une conception et une évaluation améliorées des interventions, et l'allocation des ressources sur la base de preuves scientifiques. Plusieurs de ces résultats sont décrits dans des exemples fournis pour la pomme de terre en Géorgie ; le manioc en Asie du Sud-Est, au Nigeria en Tanzanie ; patate douce en Tanzanie ; l'igname au Nigeria ; et la banane au Burundi.Les auteurs envisagent la boîte à outils comme une initiative vivante qui évoluera avec le temps. La Figure 1 montre qu'il existe des composants dans une chaîne de valeur des semences qui ne sont pas entièrement pris en compte par les outils actuels. Par exemple, davantage d'outils sont nécessaires pour aider à concevoir des stratégies de diffusion de variétés améliorées, ou pour aider à sélectionner des techniques de multiplication rapide pour produire des semences de première génération. De nouveaux outils seront ajoutés pour combler ces lacunes à l'avenir.","tokenCount":"6244"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a850e9555999a2ee607f4f337573b56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f560b6b8-0917-4e72-ad6e-0ea96c67c67e/retrieve","id":"1282071909"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba92c492-290a-47a8-ba7b-e1c7a90831f1","pagecount":"57","content":"por su acompañamiento en la construcción del enfoque de las MTA y su liderazgo en el proceso de implementación.Los autores agradecen sinceramente a las siguientes instituciones por el apoyo brindado para el desarrollo del enfoque MTA como insumos en la elaboración del presente manual: ElManual de implementación: Guía detallada sobre el uso de MTA, paso por paso Introducción Las nuevas herramientas de información climática que incluyen análisis históricos, sistemas de monitoreo, predicciones climáticas tienen el poder de ayudar a los agricultores a adaptarse a los impactos de la variabilidad y cambio climático. Al proporcionar información climática local traducida junto con los servicios de extensión, los agricultores están mejor preparados para protegerse de los fenómenos climáticos extremos y aprovechar las buenas condiciones climáticas, cerrando así la brecha entre la generación de información agro-climática y su uso por parte de los agricultores.Bajo el proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural en Colombia durante 2013 hasta 2015 se da inicio al enfoque de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA), que fue inspirado en el trabajo de las aldeas en Senegal (PNUMA, 2014). En las metas de Colombia (formalmente conocidos como \"Contribuciones Determinadas Nacionales\" o NDC) negociadas en el acuerdo de Paris 2015 bajo el Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), Colombia se comprometió a que el país disponga una red de MTA con 15 departamentos participando, y un millón de productores recibiendo información agroclimática. Por lo anterior, en un proceso de sostenibilidad gremios como Fedarroz y Fenalce iniciaron el liderazgo de las MTA locales con el apoyo del servicio meteorológico nacional -IDEAM, que lidera la MTA a escala Nacional. A partir del 2017, MADR continuó liderando la iniciativa de las MTA, y a través de una alianza con FAO la implementación de las MTA locales en un proceso de escalamiento con ocho (8) MTA en Colombia.La MTA es un proceso de diálogo entre una diversidad de actores locales incluyendo científicos, técnicos, representantes del sector público, privado y agricultores que busca comprender el posible comportamiento del clima en una localidad y generar recomendaciones para disminuir los riesgos asociados a la variabilidad climática esperada (Loboguerrero et al. 2018). Como resultado de dicho diálogo, se genera un boletín agroclimático que contiene la predicción climática, su posible impacto en los cultivos para condiciones específicas en tiempo y espacio, asociado a recomendaciones como toma de decisión para cada rubro productivo. Las predicciones climáticas, son generadas en consenso con el servicio meteorológico de cada país y los grupos de agro meteorología existentes de las instituciones, con el fin de identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación a los fenómenos climáticos, que son transferidas a técnicos y productores locales por medio del Boletín Agroclimático Local.Este manual brinda instrucciones paso a paso para trabajar el enfoque de las MTA. Está dirigido principalmente a instituciones líderes del sector agropecuario que tengan interés de implementar un espacio de discusión en su región. Este enfoque consta de siete pasos, que se llevan a cabo con las instituciones participantes. Dada la naturaleza específica por lugar, hay una serie de actividades de preparación que son necesarias realizar antes de cada reunión. A lo largo del manual se destacarán unos recuadros naranja los que indican consideraciones de género e inclusión social para la implementación de las MTAEs necesario identificar las demandas y preferencias de los agricultores para obtener información agroclimática, debido a importantes diferencias sociales que se encuentran en su entorno habitacional entre estas la desigualdad y falta de equidad entre hombres y mujeres. Por lo anterior, los roles, responsabilidades y actividades diarias que llevan a cabo las mujeres y los hombres determinan cómo perciben el cambio y el riesgo socio ambiental y cómo responden y se adaptan a ellos (Bee, 2016). En consecuencia, las mujeres y los hombres pueden tener diferentes necesidades, acceso y respuesta a la información climática (Kristjanson et al., 2017).Los servicios climáticos pueden correr el riesgo de exacerbar las desigualdades de género que prevalecen en otras estructuras institucionales, por lo tanto es relevante evaluar los diversos desafíos y oportunidades que enfrentan hombres y mujeres para incorporar información climática en la toma de decisiones agrícolas y la planificación de medios de vida (Gumucio, et al., 2018a). En este contexto, este manual identifica las consideraciones relacionadas a género para la implementación de las MTA, a fin de garantizar que tanto las mujeres como los hombres tengan la oportunidad de beneficiarse de la información agroclimática que se genera. También se abordan aspectos generales sobre inclusión social, aquí unos puntos importantes: La información generada a través de las MTA deben ser relevante para los agricultores; esto a menudo implica incorporar mecanismos en la MTA para asegurar que los intereses de mujeres y hombres, y de los diversos grupos sociales existentes en el territorio, estén representados.  También es de suma importancia que la MTA utilice canales de comunicación apropiados para mujeres y hombres para la difusión de información agroclimática, como el contenido del boletín agroclimático.Al pasar por cada fase y paso del proceso de las MTA, el Manual destaca la importancia de garantizar que las consideraciones para la igualdad y equidad entre hombres y mujeres se incorporen de manera integral, desde el principio hasta el final.En el presente manual, las actividades están divididas en pasos claros y lógicos. Cada paso se basa en lo que se cubrió en los pasos anteriores. Así, los primeros se centran en la implementación de la mesa, la información climática y agronómica de los diferentes cultivos. Un componente transversal en todos los pasos es el fortalecimiento de capacidades o alfabetización agroclimática; como se denomina en Colombia, anexo podrá encontrar el contenido de alfabetización agroclimática promovidos por la FAO en Colombia en las MTA (Anexo 1).Los siguientes pasos le permiten al lector, participar en un diálogo sobre los posibles impactos de la predicción climática sobre su cultivo e identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación con base en la información presentada, que luego serán traducidas y plasmadas en el boletín agroclimático regional. Finalmente, el lector tendrá la responsabilidad de difundir el boletín a su entorno de trabajo (ej. agricultores, servicio extensión), y lograr retroalimentar la MTA con los hallazgos encontrados en el proceso de difusión. El proceso se puede dividir en 7 pasos (como se indica a continuación y en el diagrama de actividades de la página 5): Paso 1: ¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA? Paso 2: Información climática: datos históricos, monitoreo y pronósticos  Paso 3: Información de cultivo: mesas de trabajo y modelos de cultivo  Paso 4: ¿Cómo generar las recomendaciones dada la predicción agroclimática? Paso 5: Generación del boletín agroclimático local  Paso 6: Difusión del boletín agroclimático local  Paso 7: Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Cada paso tiene un conjunto de actividades que el líder del proceso, implementa con los participantes, mediante una serie de reuniones. Las actividades de cada paso se explican con mayor detalle en las hojas de actividades que se encuentran a lo largo de este manual. Los nombres de las hojas de actividades corresponden al nombre del paso al que corresponden, p. ej. Paso 1, Hojas de actividades 1a y 1b. Una de las primeras responsabilidades del líder, es establecer un cronograma de reuniones. Cuando elabore el programa, necesitará tomar en consideración en qué época del año se llevará a cabo cada paso, con el objetivo de que el usuario final del boletín agroclimático local pueda tener el insumo para tomar decisiones de su cultivo a tiempo. Si los participantes de la MTA acostumbran a realizar reuniones periódicas con los agricultores, la información presentada en la MTA puede ser insumo en dichas reuniones.Esta es solo una sugerencia de programa y se debe adaptar a las necesidades del contexto específico, rubros productivos y logística de cada MTA local. Por ejemplo: 1) En Colombia, las reuniones de las MTA se realizan mes a mes, en cada reunión se presenta el pronóstico de tiempo y clima, las recomendaciones de los cultivos para las fases más importantes, y se genera un boletín agroclimático local mensual, 2) En Honduras, las reuniones de las MTA se realizan antes del inicio de las fecha de siembra importante de los principales cultivos y una reunión al final del ciclo, en total se generan 3 boletines agroclimáticos regionales al año para las siembras de primera, postrera y apante 2 .A continuación se presenta el diagrama de actividades de cada paso, asociado cronológicamente al inicio de época de lluvias, que es de importancia para las actividades agropecuarias del país. Seguir esta secuencia paso a paso brinda un proceso práctico y lógico para ayudar en la generación del boletín agroclimático como instrumento en la planificación y toma decisiones. Sin embargo, para algunos pasos, puede que no sea necesario seguir todas las actividades descritas del presente manual, dada la naturaleza o contexto específico de cada MTA.Mucho antes de la época de lluvias Paso 1: ¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Paso 2: Información climática: datos históricos, monitoreo y pronósticos Paso 3: Información de cultivo: mesas de trabajo y modelos de cultivoPaso 4: ¿Toma de decisiones dada la predicción agroclimática?Paso 5: Generación del boletín agroclimático local Paso 6: Difusión del boletín agroclimático localPaso 7: Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso.Nota importante: se recomienda que la(s) institución(es) que implemente(n) la MTA, sea líder en la región, con poder de convocatoria. Como líder de la MTA, es importante que siempre tenga en mente su función, que es la de facilitar el aprendizaje, análisis compartidos entre los participantes, y la generación del boletín agroclimático local, así como la comunicación permanente con el servicio meteorológico de su país y otras instituciones clave a nivel nacional.Ingredientes a tener en cuenta antes de iniciar el proceso:¿Por qué implementar una MTA? Pensar en implementar una MTA implica iniciar un proceso de cambio en actitud, conocimientos y habilidades de los actores que participan. Este proceso es resultado de la reflexión por parte de los actores involucrados sobre la necesidad de cerrar la brecha entre la generación de información climática y su uso por parte de las instituciones, servicios de extensión y agricultores, donde se puedan tomar decisiones en los cultivos dadas las variaciones climáticas esperadas en su región.Es necesario hacer una revisión de los documentos que hacen parte de los antecedentes del trabajo de CCAFS (Fig. 1), en la creación de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas, definiéndose la documentación que debe ser parte del marco conceptual y las lecciones aprendidas de las instituciones que han liderado la implementación de las MTA en otros territorios.También, es clave identificar iniciativas lideradas que se enfocan en los intereses de mujeres y hombres en el territorio e incluir a estos actores en la MTA. Los sesgos basados en género a menudo pueden subyacer a organizaciones agropecuarias, de manera que los intereses de las mujeres pueden ser descuidados (Perez et al., 2015). Ejemplos de organizaciones a incluir en la MTA: instituciones para el desarrollo con un mandato de igualdad de género, ONG sectoriales relevantes que tengan interés o experiencia en asuntos de género, y una organización inclusiva de mujeres. Desde el sector gubernamental, es relevante incluir puntos focales de género del ministerio de agricultura, medio ambiente o sectores asociados.Funciones de la institución que lidera la primera reunión de la MTA a) Identificar los actores potenciales (instituciones) que conformarían la MTA. b) Identificación potencial de recursos humanos y financieros, socios que puedan hacer sostenible la MTA. c) Generar una carta de invitación que indique el motivo de la reunión, así como la fecha y lugar d) Generar una agenda de trabajo para esta primera reunión e) Tener un grupo con la lista de correos de los actores a convocar a la reunión, para enviarle la invitación Figura 1. Para los antecedentes de la creación de las MTA, consultar la página de CCAFS (https://goo.gl/Jq4DhG)Es la persona(s) de la institución que lidera la MTA, que preside, coordina y enlaza el grupo de debate durante el diálogo. Debe hacer aportes, conciliar el trabajo de los miembros, dar la palabra, anunciar los tiempos y mantener un ambiente de polémica pero de buena actitud entre los participantes. Deberá ser imparcial y objetivo en sus intervenciones, resúmenes y conclusiones.Cuando se explica una actividad es útil proporcionar un ejemplo. Después de presentar los ejemplos es importante recordar que en todos los métodos participativos son los asistentes los que llevan a cabo las actividades. Sus actividades como facilitador durante el desarrollo del evento son: abrir la sesión con palabras iniciales, mencionando el tema por tratarse, explicar el procedimiento que ha de seguirse, hacer la presentación de los expositores, comunicar al auditorio la metodología de preguntas y ofrecer la palabra al primer expositor.Son los expertos que presentan las predicciones climáticas y los análisis agroclimáticos, cuyos resultados representan las bases para generar la discusión y análisis entre los participantes de la MTA, con el fin de proponer las medidas adaptativas en los cultivos priorizados, teniendo en cuenta las evaluaciones agroclimáticas. Deben tener conocimiento en temas de modelación, análisis de predicción climática y agroclimática.Después de seleccionada(s) la(s) institución(es) líder(es) de la MTA, se convocan para iniciar el proceso participativo, trabajando en sesiones mensuales (o según sea decidido con los miembros de la MTA), poner en marcha y así replicar la experiencia del trabajo de las MTA en otras regiones del país. La metodología antes, durante y después de la MTA, debe comprender la planificación y concertación local para el abordaje de los temas o problemas relacionados con las actividades agropecuarias, en lo relacionado con la toma de decisiones, acciones preventivas y la reducción de pérdidas por fenómenos meteorológicos y climáticos adversos.De manera general, las sesiones mensuales constan de cinco fases: i) la introducción (presentación de la agenda y de los asistentes), ii) el cuerpo de la discusión (presentación de las predicciones agroclimáticas para los próximos meses, con la sesión de preguntas y respuestas), iii) análisis de medidas adaptativas de manera participativa (por grupos temáticos, por ejemplo los conocedores de cada cultivo), iv) construcción del boletín agroclimático local , y v) comentarios finales (sobre la dinámica de la MTA, conclusiones y compromisos adquiridos). La reunión inicia con la introducción: El facilitador comienza presentando una introducción del tema que se va a tratar, explica cómo se va a desarrollar la MTA, la estrategia y los tiempos asignados, presenta a los expositores y comunica al auditorio la metodología para la formulación de preguntas. Documentar la experiencia durante el evento: Para lograr registros confiables y de incidencia es necesario documentar durante el desarrollo de la MTA, las acciones de cada reunión, así como de los acuerdos entre las partes y listados de asistencia, el cual serán consignados en las ayudas de memoria. Además de tomar apuntes, dejar registrado el evento con fotografías, en twitter y videos para el desarrollo de las memorias o actas.Nota importante: Tiene que considerar que para muchos de los participantes los conceptos relacionados con información meteorológica y climática son nuevos, y que existe una brecha entre la generación de información climática y su uso por parte del sector agropecuario. Así que, usted deberá asegurar que antes de generar un boletín agroclimático local, los participantes de la MTA manejen y conozcan los conceptos, que haya una homologación de lenguajes, que se cumpla con las capacitaciones y evaluaciones respectivas de los temas.En las MTA ya establecidas, las primeras 2 o 3 reuniones se tomaron para transferencia de capacidades en temas climáticos, y luego se diseña un currículo de capacitaciones de acuerdo a las necesidades y requerimientos de la MTA que contribuya a mejorar la información agroclimática contenida en el boletín. Estas capacitaciones se dictan en una sesión aparte a la reunión de la MTA. Es decir en horas de la mañana (8:30 -12:00) se tenía la reunión de la MTA, y en horas de la tarde, o al día siguiente todo el día se dictaba la capacitación del tema priorizado.¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Paso 1Paso 1 -¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Al finalizar este paso, tanto usted lector, como los participantes a la MTA deben tener muy claro cuál es la visión y misión de la MTA a implementar, así como el compromiso y aporte de cada institución. Este será el punto de partida para generar el mapeo de información de clima y cultivo, y posteriormente el plan de trabajo. Es importante que los participantes trabajen en conjunto por un mismo objetivo.1. Comprender el alcance, antecedentes y lecciones aprendidas en las MTA ya implementadas en los diferentes países. 2. Identificar qué actividades lleva a cabo cada institución, en que cultivos y zonas trabaja, y su interés en ser parte de la MTA (mediante un mapeo de actores). 3. Revisar si existe coherencia entre los objetivos, metas y actividades para el establecimiento de la MTA a través de un mecanismo de formalización (ej. carta, reglamento, acuerdo). 4. Generar un punto de partida para explorar la información climática y de cultivo disponible en la región. 5. Construir un plan estratégico de funcionamiento de la MTA Mapa de actores (ver Hoja de actividades 1a).  Antecedentes de la MTA ya implementadas en los diferentes países  Carta de formalización de la MTA (misión, visión, compromisos)  Matriz de información de clima y cultivo (ver Hoja de actividades 1b).  Plan de trabajo (ver Hoja de actividades 1c)Dado que es la primera reunión de la MTA, asegúrese de tomarse el tiempo para explicar todo el proceso en general y el propósito de las diferentes reuniones que se planificarán. Según concertaciones previas y experiencias derivadas de las MTA anteriores, se propone la agenda para este primer día que se realice entre las 08:30 AM y las 04:00 PM.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Un mapa de actores es una herramienta participativa que describe cuales son los actores que intervienen en el proceso de generar, difundir y recibir información relacionada con clima y cultivo, además un análisis del papel de los actores, sus aportes y sus capacidades para el abordaje de las temáticas. La participación de los \"actores clave\" es crucial para el éxito de cualquier iniciativa, contando con un proceso previo de identificación. Esta incorporación de actores es dinámica y se fortalece a medida que todos sus participantes se apropian del proceso.Las capacidades técnicas institucionales que los actores aportan a la estrategia de las MTA son analizadas desde la generación, transferencia y mecanismos de apropiación de información agroclimática. Lo anterior, hace referencia con lo que cuentan las instituciones del sector agropecuario para la generación, la apropiación y divulgación de información agroclimática, por ejemplo: oficinas internas de cambio climático, personal especializado, equipos de extensión, acceso a radios comunitarias, programas radiales, boletines internos, cobertura regional, estaciones agroclimáticas, entre otros.Necesitará lista de asistencia, cartulinas de colores y marcadores para escribir el nombre de las instituciones. Adicionalmente, necesitará una cartulina con las preguntas iniciales.1. Después de dar la bienvenida a los participantes, usted como facilitador realizará las siguientes preguntas a los participantes como una introducción, a) nombre y profesión, b) institución a la que representa, y c) en la opinión de los participantes que es una mesa técnica agroclimática. Esta dinámica puede ser tan creativa como sea posible para romper el hielo entre los asistentes. 2. Los nombres de las instituciones participantes se escriben en tarjetas de cartulina y se agrupan según el tipo de institución (ej. organización de cooperación internacional, organización de enseñanza, investigación y/o desarrollo, organización gubernamental, gobierno central, agremiaciones, asociaciones y cooperativas, productores del departamento/municipio, gobierno local o instancia de gobierno local, y medios de difusión). 3. Una encuesta pequeña con una escala sobre las capacidades técnicas de cada institución. 4. En cartulinas de color blanco recopilar las opiniones de cada participante sobre que es una MTA. 5. Al final de este paso socializar el mapeo de actores (Fig. 3), que será utilizado en los próximos pasos.Figura 3. Ejemplo de mapeo de Actores en Santander -ColombiaEs importante saber que esta iniciativa comenzó en el año 2013 cuando CCAFS facilitó una experiencia de intercambio en el cual, una delegación de Colombia y Honduras visitó el Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima de Kaffrine 3 en Senegal 4 para aprender cómo la información meteorológica estaba ayudando a los agricultores a adaptarse a la variabilidad climática. En 2014, una delegación Senegal-Honduras visitó Colombia para continuar el proceso de aprendizaje 5 . Posteriormente, CCAFS junto con el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR) y otros socios nacionales iniciaron en Colombia el proyecto de las MTA a finales de 2014.En un proceso de sostenibilidad gremios como Fedarroz y Fenalce iniciaron el liderazgo de las MTA locales con el apoyo del servicio meteorológico nacional -IDEAM, que lidera la MTA a escala Nacional. A partir del 2017, MADR continuó liderando la iniciativa de las MTA, y a través de una alianza con FAO la implementación de las MTA locales en un proceso de escalamiento con ocho (8) MTA en Colombia.Se recomienda presentar el video \"Información climática puesta en manos de los agricultores\" 6Un proyector para presentaciones de diapositivas y audio para video.1. Coordinar previo a la reunión con un representante de CCAFS, para dar una presentación de una hora (con preguntas) sobre los antecedentes de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas, los componentes de trabajo y cómo funciona la colaboración interinstitucional. El trabajo que se ha realizado en las MTA ya implementadas y presentar estudios de caso sobre su funcionamiento, así como las lecciones aprendidas. 2. Coordinar previo a la reunión con un representante de otra MTA ya implementada, para dar una presentación de media hora (con preguntas) sobre su funcionamiento, cómo se genera el boletín agroclimático y qué impactos ha generado.Las iniciativas de creación de espacios de discusión entre multi-actores, resulta en muchas ocasiones reuniones informales con un fin inmediato específico. En ese sentido, la preocupación en consolidar el proceso de la gobernanza agroclimática en los departamentos se debe considerar como puntos clave a resolver los siguientes aspectos: participación permanente y sistémica de los actores del sector agropecuario; difusión y trascendencia de la información generada; y sostenibilidad técnico operativa de las MTA.Al desarrollar las reglas y acuerdos para formalizar la MTA, es importante considerar los procesos y procedimientos que pueden facilitar la discusión grupal y la toma de decisión inclusiva. Esto es crítico, reconociendo la diversidad de actores que se reúnen para la MTA y las desigualdades en la participación que pueden resultar debido a las diferencias de género, etnia, etapa de la vida y otros atributos socioeconómicos. Es importante promover la incorporación de las mujeres a las capacitaciones técnicas convocándolas de manera directa, o a través de organizaciones en las que tengan participación efectiva.También, promocionar también mecanismos que permitan aumentar las capacidades institucionales en la apropiación de información agroclimática en especial a los actores regionales. La creación de una MTA trae consigo un proceso de compromiso por parte de las instituciones participantes. Por tal razón, se recomienda que la MTA tenga un proceso de formalización y fijación de metas, que hace posible la medición de los resultados y la evaluación del grado de cumplimiento y eficiencia logrados por los miembros. La formalización de la MTA se puede llevar a cabo de varias formas: a) Un proceso de apropiación y gobernanza durante el transcurso de la implementación de la MTA, con actividades que van desde un análisis DOFA de los actores, análisis de la participación e interés de las instituciones en la temática, apropiación de la información agroclimática, para en el largo plazo generar un acuerdo de voluntades de la MTA (Caso MTA Colombia) b) Un acuerdo de voluntades firmado por las instituciones participantes para el establecimiento de la MTA. Se aclara que, en ningún caso, el presente acuerdo faculta a las instituciones firmantes para la delegación de las funciones que por ley le corresponde (caso MTA Guatemala) c) Un reglamento (capítulos y artículos) de la MTA firmado por las instituciones participantes (caso MTA Honduras) que incluye: a. Capítulo I: Creación, objeto, visión, misión, domicilio y duración b. Capitulo II: Estructura Organizativa c. Capitulo III: Atribuciones de los cargos directivos MTA, anexo plan de trabajo, cumplimiento de objetivos, acuerdos y plazos. d. Capitulo IV: Acceso, generación y difusión de información de la MTA Este reglamento fue promovido por la Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), para que las MTA quedaran dentro el marco legal y político de la Estrategia de Adaptación para el sector agroalimentario de Honduras, este acuerdo ministerial para la creación de las MTA facilitó su establecimiento y sostenibilidad.Necesitará un rotafolio, cartulina de colores y marcadores Procedimiento 1. Retomar las opiniones de cada participante sobre que es una MTA escritas en las cartulinas blancas (paso del mapeo de actores), y consolidar participativamente una sola definición sobre que es una MTA. 2. Entendiendo qué es una MTA por todos los participantes, se procede a entregar 3 cartulinas de diferentes colores, para que cada institución escriba desde su punto de vista cual sería el objeto, misión, visión de la MTA de su región.100% de acuerdo en una MTA para mi región Figura 4. Creación de la misión, visión y objetivos de la MTA en Danli -Honduras 3. Luego de definir en conjunto el objeto, la misión, y visión de la MTA, se procede a realizar las siguientes preguntas: a. ¿Cuál sería el papel y aporte de mi institución dentro de la MTA? b. ¿Qué instituciones deberían ser invitadas a participar en la MTA?Al realizar el mapeo de cultivos y clima, es importante distinguir los roles de las mujeres y los hombres en la agricultura, la ganadería y la seguridad alimentaria, e incluir una discusión sobre los cultivos y las actividades agrícolas de las que son responsables.Los agricultores hombres y mujeres a menudo tienen responsabilidades domésticas distintas y desempeñan roles diferenciados en las actividades comerciales y de subsistencia y en el uso de los recursos naturales. En consecuencia, pueden participar de manera diferente en las cadenas de valor, y también pueden llevar a cabo distintas actividades productivas. Por ejemplo, las mujeres a menudo pueden desempeñar roles primarios en las cadenas de valor de los cultivos y productos derivados destinados para la subsistencia del hogar (como ejemplo, las mujeres suelen participar significativamente a lo largo de las cadenas de valor de las setas; este producto suele ser importante para el rol de las mujeres en la preparación de comidas y la seguridad alimentaria del hogar).Es importante definir con los participantes, el alcance geográfico de la MTA (regional, departamental, municipal). Por lo cual, identificar la cobertura de información climática proveniente de estaciones meteorológicas es un punto de partida. El facilitador antes de iniciar la primera MTA, debe realizar los siguientes pasos:1) Contactar al servicio meteorológico de su país, contarle la iniciativa de la implementación de la MTA, hacerlo parte de la MTA.2) De acuerdo a la región o departamento en la cual se va implementar el proceso de la MTA, solicitar al servicio meteorológico la ubicación (coordenadas y altura) de las estaciones meteorológicas de esa zona con sus respectivos metadatos (temporalidad, fecha de instalación, tipo de estación, % de datos faltantes). 3) A través de un sistema de información geográfica se debe generar un mapa con los límites administrativos de la región, departamento, municipios y la ubicación de las estaciones meteorológicas con su respectiva leyenda.Necesitará un rotafolio, 3 plotters de los mapas, marcadores de varios colores, y una hoja anexo por cada institución participante (Anexo 3)De acuerdo al número de participantes, divida tres grupos de trabajo con el objetivo de realizar un ejercicio de identificación de los principales municipios donde se utilizará la información climática generada por la MTA para la toma de decisiones. Así mismo, se deberá identificar las zonas de trabajo y acciones de cada institución participante. Se identificarán los principales rubros (cultivos) y temáticas de trabajo a nivel comunitario, municipal o departamental y las estaciones meteorológicas más cercanas a sus zonas de trabajo. Los resultados de esta sesión se presentará en plenaria.En la plenaria, los participantes de cada grupo deberán responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Dónde trabaja usted (zonas, municipios)? ¿Por qué trabaja en esas zonas? ¿Cuáles son los principales rubros, actividades? ¿Qué cultivos? ¿Hay estaciones del servicio meteorológico cercanas en el municipio que seleccioné? ¿Mi institución tiene estaciones, dónde?  ¿Qué problemas tengo en esas zonas/cultivos relacionados con clima? ¿Qué información contenida en el boletín agroclimático puede ayudarme con estos problemas? ¿cuáles son los principales sectores y actividades en las que mujeres y hombres participan en el territorio? En consecuencia, ¿cuáles son los principales cultivos de los cuales son responsables las mujeres y los hombres en el territorio? Hay que tener en cuenta que mujeres y hombres pueden ser significativamente responsables de los mismos cultivos, pero pueden llevar a cabo diferentes actividades/tareas relacionadas con el cultivo, la cosecha, la post-cosecha, las ventas, etc.Después de terminar la primera reunión de la MTA, usted como facilitador debe realizar las siguientes actividades: Conformar un comité técnico cuyas principales funciones son la elaboración de las ayudas de memoria y los boletines agroclimáticos, las cuales son rotadas por los miembros del comité en cada reunión. Los criterios para la conformación de este comité tendrán en cuenta el rol y la motivación de las instituciones identificadas en la primera reunión. El comité también se encargará de apoyar al facilitador de la MTA con las fotos, logística de las reuniones (convocatoria, confirmación de asistencia, lugar de encuentro), y lista de asistencia. Con la información plasmada en los mapas y las hojas anexo, el facilitador de la MTA tiene la responsabilidad de digitalizar la información y consolidarla en un mapa final, lo anterior, hará parte de las memorias de la primera MTA. Tener la lista de asistencia en formato digital, crear una lista de correo de los participantes, y un grupo de WhatsApp para mantener informado a los integrantes de la MTA sobre las últimas noticias, eventos, y fechas de reunión, este grupo tendrá como único fin comunicar información relevante para los objetivos de la MTA. Organizar un plan de trabajo para presentarlo en la siguiente reunión, incluyendo la justificación, importancia, objetivos, metodología, líneas de acción, organización, recursos, y limitaciones. Elaboración de la agenda con los expositores, presentaciones y dinámicas. La agenda debe contener el tema que se va a tratar y dar el título a la misma, definiendo el orden de presentación de los subtemas. La forma de iniciación, generalmente consta de una introducción de bienvenida a la MTA, seguida de las exposiciones de predicción climática y el análisis agroclimático, Figura 6. Mesas de trabajo: Priorización de acciones y zonas de trabajo en Chiquimula -Guatemala trabajo participativo y las conclusiones y recomendaciones. La agenda de trabajo se construye de acuerdo a las necesidades y disponibilidad de recursos. El facilitador puede encargarse de invitar a los participantes como expositores para que presenten ante la MTA sus trabajos en la región o a otras personas que puedan exponer temas relacionados y de interés para la MTA.Ejemplo del mapa final:Paso 2 ¿Cómo presentar la información climática: histórica, monitoreo y pronósticos?Paso 2 -¿Cómo presentar la Información climática: histórica, monitoreo y pronósticos?Según BSA una empresa dedicada a la creación de soluciones de software (www.bsa.org), a lo largo de la historia de los seres humanos, los hitos de la civilización estuvieron marcados por avances en nuestra capacidad para observar y reunir información. Nuestros ancestros desarrollaron herramientas para medir la distancia, el peso, el volumen, la temperatura, el tiempo y el lugar -cada una fue mejorando con el tiempo y cada una fue fundamental para la transición de cazadores y recolectores a agricultores y a residentes de ciudades. Ya en el 6000 A.C., se utilizaron los datos del rendimiento de las cosechas y los ciclos de barbecho para incrementar la producción agrícola y alimentar a más gente. En el siglo XV, se utilizaron los datos del firmamento para navegar por el mundo y abrir los profundos mares al comercio global. En la década de 1850, se utilizaron los datos para relacionar los brotes de cólera con el clima y así salvar vidas.En el siglo XXI, estamos experimentando un aceleramiento de este proceso. A medida que los datos empiezan a abundar más y su costo de almacenamiento baja, las nuevas tecnologías les están proporcionando a los científicos de datos herramientas de vanguardia que dejan al descubierto valiosos conocimientos a partir de enormes cantidades de datos que adquieren características más transformadoras. Nos dirigimos a un mundo de información y posibilidades casi ilimitadas.La MTA debe asegurarse de tener en cuenta los conocimientos territoriales tradicionales sobre la variabilidad y el cambio climático y tener en cuenta las costumbres, medidas y prácticas que los agricultores mujeres y hombres usan para observar el clima y los problemas relacionados con el clima, según corresponda. La comprensión de las percepciones locales y el conocimiento del cambio climático y la variabilidad es fundamental para la comunicación efectiva de los pronósticos de tiempo y clima. Para esto es importante que se identifiquen y se generen procesos de formación técnica con énfasis en las mujeres, para mejorar sus habilidades, sobre todo en lo relacionado a temas de variabilidad y cambio climático, y de sensibilización de los hombres, para que se desarrolle de mejor manera el rol de las mujeres.Por lo anterior, los agricultores hace muchos años, comparten el reto de aprender a convivir con el clima para asegurar e incrementar su producción agrícola. Este enorme desafío sumado a la variabilidad climática, supone llevar a cabo estrategias de adaptación, y aunar esfuerzos para desarrollar recomendaciones de investigación que generen soluciones útiles, confiables y aplicables para mejorar la toma de decisiones. La información relativa a las condiciones climáticas del pasado, el presente y el futuro es importante para la elaboración de políticas y estrategias nacionales. Al finalizar este paso, los participantes de la MTA deberían comprender en esta segunda y tercera reunión de la MTA los siguientes conceptos:1. Conocer y aprender del clima pasado: Necesitamos una buena caracterización y análisis históricos desde el punto vista climático. Por lo anterior, necesitamos analizar las series de tiempo de las estaciones meteorológicas y sus métricas estadísticas más relevantes, asegurando el control de calidad de la información.2. Monitoreo del clima presente: Se pueden tomar medidas preventivas, con un buen monitoreo de las condiciones de clima; lo que está pasando y donde se van encendiendo esas alertas para tomar decisiones en tiempo cuasi-real, por ejemplo cuando aparece un plaga o enfermedad, que en una semana puede causar daños o incluso la perdida de nuestro cultivo. Por lo anterior, necesitamos conocer los productos de información a escala diaria, semanal, así como, las herramientas de monitoreo en tiempo real, que nos permitan tomar decisiones a corto plazo.3. Información relevante hacia futuro: El pronóstico climático ha tomado relevancia en los últimos años debido a su utilización como un instrumento básico en la planificación y toma de decisiones. Lo anterior, para diferentes sectores socio-económicos, incluyendo el agropecuario, dirigidos a la evaluación de riesgo ante fenómenos de variabilidad del clima para asegurar el abastecimiento de alimentos. Preguntas como esta ¿Cómo va estar el clima en mi próximo ciclo de cultivo?, son muy frecuentes en nuestros agricultores.• Proporcionar a los participantes la información climática de la zona que puedan utilizar para reflexionar sobre el clima y su variabilidad, compararla con la percepción que tienen del cambio, y sus efectos en los rubros productivos (ver Hoja de actividades 2a y 2b).• Los participantes comprendan que son los pronósticos a corto plazo y las alertas, cuales son las herramientas y productos que pueden consultar para obtener esta información y su utilidad (ver Hoja de actividades 2a). • Proporcionar a los participantes la predicción climática para los próximos 3 meses, así como, las ventajas y limitaciones en el uso de la información, y sus implicaciones para la toma de decisiones (ver Hoja de actividades 2d y 2e).Durante este paso usted debería facilitar: (con los expositores) Aplicar una encuesta (línea base) de conocimiento a los participantes sobre los conceptos asociados a esta segunda y tercera reunión. El entendimiento de dónde viene la información climática, y la interpretación de las gráficas y mapas climatológicos con los totales de precipitación anual, acumulados mensuales, números de días con lluvia. Con ejemplos, el análisis de las herramientas y productos de información disponibles de pronósticos a corto plazo y alertas, para que los participantes estén mejor preparados para tomar decisiones de acuerdo a los pronósticos y alertas que reciban. El conocimiento sobre qué es una predicción climática y cómo se genera. Asegurar que los participantes entiendan los conceptos asociados al pronóstico como son: probabilidad, terciles, análogos, incertidumbre, verificación y validación.La información climática histórica es esencial dentro del enfoque de la MTA. Es importante que los participantes conozcan de dónde viene dicha información y cómo ha sido colectada, para que puedan confiar en los resultados que se les presentan durante el paso 2d, también los datos de las estaciones en tiempo real serán la base para el monitoreo y posterior verificación de los pronósticos de tiempo y clima. El facilitador antes de convocar la segunda reunión de la MTA, debe tener en cuenta los temas a tratar y expositores para esta reunión. Por lo anterior, usted deberá considerar: Reunirse con el servicio meteorológico de su país para analizar la información histórica de la zona y solicitar la presenten en la MTA. Si lo anterior no es posible, deberá indagar con ellos la posibilidad de acceder a los productos de información históricos (mapas) y a las mismas series climáticas históricas de las estaciones meteorológicas priorizadas en el paso 1d. Contar con un profesional experto en clima para el procesamiento de la información de las estaciones meteorológicas 7 , dado el caso que la información no cuente con un proceso de control de calidad y el servicio meteorológico no pueda acompañar el proceso (no es la situación ideal).En este paso, antes de mostrar la información histórica de la zona, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse: Homologación de conceptos: Es importante explicar las diferencias entre tiempo y clima, qué es variabilidad y cambio climático, las escalas de variabilidad climática, los elementos meteorológicos. Estaciones meteorológicas: Muchas veces las instituciones a través de proyectos o donaciones instalan sus propias redes de estaciones meteorológicas, las cuales cuando el proyecto se acaba no tienen una sostenibilidad. Muchas estaciones terminan abandonadas y todo el esfuerzo que se hizo para construir una historia del clima a escala local queda desvanecido. Así que es importante dar una charla sobre: el rol de las estaciones meteorológicas, su clasificación, representatividad y sostenibilidad a lo largo de los años, ventajas y desventajas del tipo de estaciones; el enfoque es que esa estación instalada logre la determinación de una normal climatológica (30 años). Refuerzo de estadística con la herramienta RClimTool: El uso de datos históricos con la suficiente calidad y cantidad es de vital importancia para obtener resultados en modelación de cultivos y predicción climática con la mejor evaluación posible de las incertidumbres asociadas. Es común encontrar errores tipográficos, datos faltantes, atípicos y tendencias en la información de series de tiempo, lo que implica ejecutar un proceso minucioso para el control de calidad, estimación de la información faltante y análisis de las series. Por lo anterior, en el 2014 se desarrolló RClimTool, una interfaz en R de libre acceso y fácil uso. Necesitará la hoja de los metadatos de las estaciones meteorológicas que están instaladas en la zona con los siguientes datos: latitud, longitud, elevación, nombre de la institución a la que pertenece, temporalidad de la serie (número de años desde la instalación), % de datos faltantes. Así mismo, deberá asegurarse de tener a la mano la ficha técnica de la estación meteorológica y su estado actual. Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la MTA las gráficas de la climatología (30 años) de las estaciones en su zona para las variables disponibles (precipitaciones, temperaturas máximas) y las gráficas multianuales de toda la serie de datos disponible.Ejemplo Ficha técnica de la estación:Procedimiento 1. Cuando el expositor presente la charla sobre las estaciones meteorológicas. Reparta un ejemplo de la ficha técnica de una de las estaciones de la zona. Asegúrese de que los participantes comprendan: a. Cómo se miden las variables más importantes, cantidad de precipitación y temperaturas con un equipo estándar. b. Cómo se registra diariamente el total de precipitación y las temperaturas (máxima y mínima), y si esta información es colectada en forma manual o en tiempo real. 2. Pida al experto de clima explicar las gráficas de la climatología promedio mensual de las estaciones presentes en la zona de estudio, cuáles son las épocas secas, lluviosas, las temperaturas máximas y mínimas históricas a través de cada mes.Ejemplo presentación de información climatológica por estación:La fuente de esta grafica son datos del servicio meteorológico de Colombia -IDEAM y las gráficas elaboración CIAT.Ejemplo presentación de información climatológica a nivel espacial:Es importante que los participantes se familiaricen con la información climática existente en su zona, pero también comprendan qué es lo que llamamos la normal climatológica, que \"nuestra historia, el promedio\" está cambiando como consecuencia del cambio climático. Bajo este contexto, ¿cuántas medidas, estrategias de planificación o toma de decisiones se basan en esperar un año promedio? Se siembran cultivos en determinadas épocas porque en promedio la lluvia o la temperatura se comportan de tal manera. ¡Planificamos para un año que no va a existir! Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son: Formar mesas de trabajo por rubros productivos según la experticia de los participantes para dibujar un calendario agroclimático con las actividades agropecuarias mes a mes, realizadas durante todo el año.  Con la serie histórica de la estación meteorológica de la zona (mínimo 20 años), los participantes tendrán la habilidad de identificar los años de altas y bajas precipitaciones, y relacionarlos con los eventos de El Niño y La Niña, y a su vez analizar y replantear el calendario de producción agrícola, pecuaria y de subsistencia cuando se presentan estos eventos y qué implicaciones tienen para las actividades.Al formar las mesas de discusión para desarrollar calendarios agroclimáticos de acuerdo con los sectores/cultivos clave, es importante considerar en cuáles actividades agrícolas/ganaderas/de subsistencia participan mujeres y hombres. Esto puede significar: formar un grupo de discusión específico para un cultivo o sector clave en el que las mujeres desempeñan un papel primordial (por ejemplo, las mujeres a menudo pueden participar significativamente en la pequeña producción ganadera en casos en América Latina, África subsahariana y Asia) y/o asegurándose de identificar aquellas actividades a las que contribuyen las mujeres y los hombres dentro de cada uno de los grupos que se forman (por ejemplo, tanto las mujeres como los hombres pueden desempeñar un papel importante en las actividades de cosecha y post-cosecha de café en Nicaragua; sin embargo, los hombres pueden ser en gran parte responsables del cultivo del café). Necesitará tres rotafolios y marcadores de colores para dibujar el calendario agroclimático. Necesitará imprimir los mapas de precipitación en un año característico El Niño y La Niña, y el índice oceánico ONI de la NOAA. Necesitará un juego completo de gráficas de la estación climática más reciente que se encuentre disponible. Saque copias suficientes, de modo que cada participante tenga un juego.1. Comience por hacer circular entre los grupos las gráficas de la climatología mensual de la estación de referencia y pídale a los integrantes que dibujen el calendario de actividades agrícolas, pecuarias o de subsistencia de acuerdo a la experticia de cada participante. Al finalizar el calendario agroclimático seleccione un representante de cada grupo para que pase y explique el calendario, de acuerdo a las siguientes preguntas:o ¿Qué actividades se realizan en el rubro asignado a cada grupo en los diferentes meses del año? o ¿Qué actividades realizan las mujeres y los hombres cada mes durante el año? o ¿Qué actividades son afectadas o beneficiadas por el clima y cómo?Figura 7. Calendario agroclimático del cultivo de Maíz 2. El experto en clima introducirá los fenómenos de variabilidad climática El Niño y La Niña, como se desarrollan, y como se calcula el índice, apoyado en la explicación de la tabla suministrada por la NOAA 8 . Como ejemplos utilizará los mapas suministrados por el servicio meteorológico, seleccionando años de referencia.3. Luego de entender los conceptos de El Niño y La Niña, se procede a entregar las gráficas de las series de tiempo de las estaciones meteorológicas cercanas de precipitación y temperaturas correlacionadas con el índice ONI. Los participantes responderán las siguientes preguntas de acuerdo a las gráficas:o ¿En qué año se presentaron sequías? o ¿En qué año se presentaron lluvias abundantes? o ¿Cree usted que el clima ha cambiado en los últimos 30 años? De ser así, ¿cómo cree usted que ha cambiado? o ¿Cree usted que hay más, menos o igual cantidad de lluvia? o ¿Ésta información es útil y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones?Ejemplo presentación de información de la serie histórica:Así como la información climática es la base para generar nuestro boletín agroclimático, es importante que los participantes de la MTA se familiaricen con la información de tiempo 9 (corto plazo): ¿cuáles son las herramientas y productos que pueden consultar para obtener esta información y como pueden ser útiles en la toma de decisiones? La información en tiempo real de las estaciones meteorológicas o los mapas suministrados por los servicios meteorológicos de los próximos días (1-10 días) es información valiosaManual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a pasopara tomar decisiones en el sector agropecuario, tales como la preparación de labores antes de la siembra, la aplicación de fertilizantes, labores específicas de nuestro cultivo (secado de granos) o el control de plagas y enfermedades.Por lo anterior, tener información de estaciones meteorológicas automáticas con información cercano a tiempo real nos permite realizar un seguimiento continuo de las condiciones diarias en épocas claves de nuestro cultivo como una herramienta de monitoreo. Si no contamos con información de estaciones meteorológicas automáticas, podemos consultar herramientas como información de radar o imágenes de satélites, esta última como un insumo clave para la era de la agricultura de precisión. Por lo anterior los objetivos de este paso antes de finalizar la segunda reunión de la MTA son: Reunirse con el servicio meteorológico de su país para conocer los productos de información relacionados con el estado del tiempo. Se debe asegurar que para cada MTA se presente dicha información 10  Dar a conocer graficas de interés para la agricultura con los datos diarios procesados de las estaciones meteorológicas: variación de inicio y finalización de la estación lluviosa, duración de la estación lluviosa, numero de periodos de sequía, duración del periodo de sequía más largo, lluvias extremas. Dar a conocer que es el estado del tiempo, su pronóstico y las fuentes de consulta  Introducir los conceptos de ondas (MJO), huracanes y frentes, su pronóstico y las fuentes consultaEn este paso, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse:• Dar a conocer el funcionamiento de un radar y cómo interpretar su información • Dar a conocer qué es una imagen de satélite, cómo se interpreta y dónde consultar dicha información en tiempo real.• Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la mesa las gráficas de variación de inicio y finalización de la estación lluviosa, duración de la estación lluviosa, número de periodos de sequía, duración del periodo de sequía más largo, lluvias extremas.1. Si no hay suficiente tiempo para tratar cada una de las gráficas, pida a los participantes que seleccionen las dos o tres gráficas que ellos consideren más útiles para discutir. Busque un espacio donde se puedan desplegar todas las gráficas para que todos las puedan ver y participar de la discusión.Ejemplo presentación con información diaria de las estaciones meteorológicas:Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona: ¿En qué épocas del año llueve más en la primera o segunda época?  ¿En qué época del año los días con lluvia son más constantes?  ¿En qué época siembran sus cultivos y en que variables basa esta decisión?Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona:• ¿De acuerdo a la gráfica, por qué varía cada año la fecha de inicio de lluvias?• ¿Qué impactos tiene para sus cultivos un retraso o adelanto en la fecha de inicio de lluvias?• ¿La gráfica es útil, y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones? Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona:• ¿Qué etapas de su cultivo son las más sensibles a periodos largos de días sin lluvias?• ¿Cuántos días sin lluvia consecutivos tiene un impacto en su cultivo?• ¿La grafica es útil y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones? 2. Después de la trasferencia de capacidades, y asegurando que los participantes de la MTA conocen el concepto de pronóstico del estado del tiempo, su interpretación y fuentes de consulta (páginas web). Pida al experto de clima que explique el consenso del pronóstico de tiempo para los próximos días para la zona de estudio. 3. Pida a los participantes que como ejercicio y previamente capacitados en el tema interpreten una imagen de satélite, lo anterior les ayudara a entender la información satelital cuando sea presentada en la MTA o enviada como parte del monitoreo de las condiciones diarias en el grupo de Whatapps.La predicción del clima se basa en la comprensión de las interacciones que existen entre los océanos y la atmósfera, que nos permiten conocer mejor el clima en un horizonte de tiempo futuro (1 -3 meses) (Martínez et al., 2011). Si bien, la variabilidad climática es una de las principales fuentes de riesgos de producción (Fraisse et al., 2006), beneficios significativos han surgido a partir del uso de pronósticos de tiempo y clima como una herramienta fundamental para reducir los riesgos de la producción agrícola y apoyar la toma de decisiones de siembra, variedades, insumos, manejo, y demás.Al proporcionar información local a los pequeños agricultores traducida junto con los servicios de extensión (Ortega et al., 2018), los agricultores están mejor preparados para protegerse de los fenómenos extremos y aprovechar las buenas condiciones climáticas. Por lo anterior, los objetivos de esta tercera reunión de la MTA son: Conocer la metodología y productos de información en la generación de predicciones climáticas por el servicio meteorológico de su país, asegurando que para cada MTA se presente dicha información como el insumo principal para la construcción del boletín agroclimático.  Dar a conocer a los participantes de la MTA que es la predicción climática, como se genera (estadístico dinámico), modelos dinámicos y estadísticos de consulta de la predicción, y sus fuentes de incertidumbre.  Explicar a la MTA de una manera didáctica y con ejemplos claros los conceptos de terciles, años análogos, probabilidad e incertidumbre Nota importante: Antes de convocar la tercera reunión de la MTA, el experto de clima debe asegurar que el servicio meteorológico cuenta con una evaluación retrospectiva de las predicciones climáticas para su región. Ya que la primera pregunta que surge en la MTA es cuantas veces ha sido acertada o se ha equivocado la predicción climática. Para lo anterior, ver artículo de Esquivel et al., 2018.• Bolsa con 10 pelotas de cada color (rojo, verde, azul) • Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la MTA un ejemplo de una gráfica de la serie histórica de los próximos meses en consideración, con la definición de los terciles.Entregará la gráfica de la precipitación acumulada de la serie histórica durante el trimestre en consideración • Entregará la predicción climática en probabilidades de los próximos meses a los participantes Procedimiento 1. Con dinámicas se introducirán los conceptos de:Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -3. Años análogos: La metodología de análogos tiene como objetivo aproximarse a años que experimentaron condiciones climáticas similares, tanto estadísticamente como en la dinámica de procesos océano-atmosféricos. Pero, es importante recordar que este debe ser un método exploratorio, ya que para encontrar análogos naturales se necesita información de muchos años. En la gráfica de lado izquierdo se muestra los posible años con condiciones análogos para el mes de referencia de pronóstico, lo anterior se contrasta con un análisis de la precipitación acumulada de la serie histórica para el periodo de referencia y su posible comportamiento a años análogos.4. Predicción climática de los próximos meses: La incorporación de modelos de estructura estadística, como el de Análisis de Correlación Canónica (ACC), con ayuda de la herramienta CPT 12 (Climate Predictability Tool) desarrollada por el IRI (Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre el Clima y la Sociedad, de la Universidad de Columbia, EE.UU.) y utilizada en muchos países para la predicción operativa del clima, permite poner en marcha un programa para realizar predicciones periódicas en una forma rápida y fácil y así suministrar perspectivas climáticas en la escala temporal de meses.Figura 12. Grafica de terciles para una serie climática y metodología de cálculo Figura 13. Años análogos a nivel espacial y precipitación acumulada de la serie históricaManual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Ya con los conceptos claros por parte de los participantes de la MTA de que es una predicción climática y su interpretación, se procede a entregar la gráfica de la predicción climática de los próximos meses y su fuente de consulta. Es importante no confundir a los participantes presentando varias fuentes de predicción climática, ya que el experto de clima debería presentar el consenso (dinámico y estadístico) final de la predicción y sus fuentes de incertidumbre.Usted debe asegurar que la información de la predicción esté disponible en la Web como fuente oficial en la página del servicio meteorológico y sea actualizada al menos cada tres meses como insumo principal para la generación del boletín agroclimático. Algunos ejemplos puede consultarlos en la página del foro regional de clima Centroamericano 14 y en la página de Clima y sector agropecuario Colombiano 15 .Si bien las predicciones tienen un elemento de incertidumbre, en particular para periodos de tiempo más largos, la retroalimentación con los usuarios que usaron este tipo de información sugieren que la misma les da una orientación útil en la planificación. Por ello, es fundamental establecer una relación fuerte entre los generadores de las predicciones climáticas y los usuarios para el entendimiento de sus necesidades.Paso 3Paso 3 -Información de cultivo: agronomía y modelos de cultivoSegún la Organización Meteorológica Mundial -OMM los servicios agroclimáticos sean convertido en una herramienta esencial para hacer frente a los cambios en la producción agrícola debido al incremento de la variabilidad, asociado con eventos extremos y el cambio climático. Por ejemplo, la diseminación de información meteorológica convertida en índices de importancia para la agricultura permite al agricultor tomar decisiones tácticas de planeación de su cultivo a corto plazo e las diferentes etapas del cultivo que se pueden traducir en impactos económicos como reducir la aplicación de insumos químicos para el control de una plaga o enfermedad o el uso eficiente del recurso agua. Independiente del tipo de decisión, es importante mejorar el entendimiento de los efectos del tiempo y clima sobre los cultivos para asegurar el uso de esta información de forma adecuada y en el momento preciso.El uso de modelos de cultivo ha avanzado rápidamente en los últimos 30 años con el objetivo de proveer las ecuaciones que describen la fisiología de la planta y como estos procesos son afectados por el genotipo, ambiente y prácticas de manejo agronómico (Wheeler et al., 2007). Para el uso de estos modelos se requiere así como clima una serie histórica de los parámetros importantes de nuestro cultivo de estudio para ser ajustados y verificados, así como la opinión del experto en el cultivo. Para hacer los análisis agroclimáticos, las predicciones climáticas se convierten en predicciones agroclimáticas locales, con apoyo del uso de modelos y/o conocimiento del experto de cultivo para responder las preguntas más frecuentes del agricultor: ¿Qué cultivo/variedad puedo sembrar? ¿Cuál será la fecha optima se siembra de mi cultivo? ¿Mi cultivo tendrá el agua necesaria para desarrollarse? ¿Cuál será el rendimiento de mi cultivo?Al finalizar este paso, los participantes de la MTA deberían comprender en esta tercera reunión de la MTA como planificar las actividades agrícolas basados en la disponibilidad de información de predicción de tiempo y clima, que tipo de variables climáticas afectan más mi cultivo y son relevantes para la planificación de nuestras actividades en el cultivo. Aplicar una encuesta de conocimientos sobe lo aprendido en el paso 2.  Los participantes generan un nuevo calendario de planificación de sus actividades agrícolas de acuerdo con la predicción climática dada de los próximos meses  Conocer cuáles son los factores climáticos más limitantes en el desarrollo de los cultivos presentes en la MTA, así como sus requerimientos hídricos.  Los participantes comprendan cómo funcionan los modelos de cultivo y su importancia como herramienta de planificación.Cuando los participantes conocen como se genera la información climática, se ha analizado la historia, monitoreado el presente, y como interpretar la predicción climática, se procede a retomar el calendario agroclimático de la actividad 2b trabajando con la historia, para discutir qué cambios se harían en la planificación de los cultivos dada la predicción climática y que otro tipo de información climática (variables y escalas) serían relevantes para el cultivo. También, es importante continuar formando grupos de discusión que aborden los sectores productivos y las actividades relevantes para mujeres y hombres. Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son:  Formar mesas de trabajo por rubros productivos según la experticia de los participantes para re-dibujar un calendario agroclimático con la planificación de las actividades agropecuarias dada la predicción climática.  Discutir los requerimientos y demandas de información climática para la planificación de mi próximo cultivo Necesitaras retomar los calendarios agroclimáticos históricos  Necesitará los rotafolios y marcadores de colores para dibujar el nuevo calendario agroclimático.  Necesitará imprimir las hojas con la predicción climática1. Es importante que en este punto se retome una homologación de conceptos entre todos los participantes sobre que es: a. Medida de adaptación b. Modelo de cultivo c. Vulnerabilidad d. Impacto 2. Comience por hacer circular entre los grupos las gráficas de la predicción climática de los próximos meses y pídale a los integrantes que modifiquen el calendario de actividades agrícolas, pecuarias o de subsistencia de acuerdo a la predicción. Al finalizar el calendario agroclimático seleccione un representante de cada grupo para que pase y explique el calendario, de acuerdo a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué actividades realizo en el cultivo diferente a las tradicionales dada la predicción?  ¿Cuál de las actividades de hombres y mujeres se llevaría a cabo de manera diferente dada la predicción?  ¿Qué otro tipo de variables y escalas de información climática necesito para tomar decisiones?Tomando como ejemplo el caso de las mujeres involucradas en la producción de ganado de especies menores, los pronósticos de fuertes lluvias e inundaciones podrían influir en la decisión de vacunar a las gallinas de sus hogares. En consecuencia, ¿qué otras variables y escalas de tiempo de información climática necesitarían mujeres y hombres para tomar decisiones?Los resultados de las predicciones climáticas, se distribuyen entre los participantes para que puedan establecer relaciones con los factores de la producción agrícola, asimismo se constituirán en datos de entrada en los modelos de cultivos que analizan diferentes medidas agronómicas de adaptación, en un clima cambiante. Las predicciones climáticas locales determinísticas se convierten en Figura 15. Variables y escalas de información climática necesarias para la planificación del cultivo de Maíz en el 2014-II semestre dado un evento de lluvias por encima de lo normal.predicciones agroclimáticas locales, con apoyo de modelaciones clima-suelo-agua-manejo (con modelos CROPWAT 16 , AQUACROP 17 , entre otros), para responder preguntas como: ¿Qué pasa si adelanto o retraso mi fecha de siembra? ¿Cuánta y con qué frecuencia necesita agua mi cultivo? Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son: Conocer cuáles son las etapas fisiológicas de cada cultivo y sus requerimientos hídricos.  Que los expertos en cada cultivo den a conocer los factores que limitan la producción.  Dar una presentación sobre aplicaciones de los modelos de cultivos y su importancia como herramienta de planificación.En este paso, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse: Dar a conocer la metodología para traducir las probabilidades de la predicción climática en escenarios determinísticos basados en la historia climática de la serie.  Dar a conocer que es un modelo de cultivo y las partes que lo integran.  Realizar sesiones prácticas de corridas con los modelos CropWat y AquaCropEntregar los datos mensuales de precipitación de los últimos 5 años para la estación cercana • Necesitará entregar a los participantes un rotafolio para que ellos grafiquen las etapas fenológicas vs los requerimientos hídricos.Necesitaras entregar a los participantes una hoja del modelo de cultivo con las variables para completar cada módulo de cultivo Procedimiento 1. Formar grupos por experticia de cultivos, en el cual graficarán la duración de las etapas fenológicas del cultivo y los requerimientos hídricos ideales en (mm). Luego se les entregará los datos de precipitación mensual de los últimos 5 años, los participantes escogerán un año de interés el cual graficaran junto la curva de requerimientos ideales. Otro indicador interesante es contabilizar número de días con lluvias en relación a cada etapa fenológica.Figura 16. Grafica de requerimientos hídricos del cultivo de frijol comparado con la precipitación real de una época de cultivo y su número asociado de días con lluvia.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Con el uso de los modelos mencionados se analiza la sensibilidad de los cultivos, ya que permiten determinar los impactos de ocurrencia de eventos climáticos como El Niño, La Niña y otros que generen condiciones pluviales extremas, en el desarrollo (en etapas fenológicas críticas) y productividad de esos cultivos. De este modo con los modelos será posible diferenciar la sensibilidad de cada uno de los cultivos analizados, así como de sus fases fenológicas críticas, ante la ocurrencia de variaciones climáticas desfavorables. Este análisis permite definir medidas adaptativas orientadas a un mejor uso y manejo del recurso hídrico regional disponible.2. Un recorrido por los modelos de cultivo: Preguntar a los participantes en una sesión abierta sobre cuáles variables debe considerar un modelo de cultivo, luego agrupar las variables de acuerdo con los módulos encontrados en los modelos con el propósito de consolidar los conocimientos sobre el funcionamiento de un modelo de cultivo y sus diferentes módulos e interacciones. Los participantes completaran un esquema del modelo AquaCrop con las diferentes variables entregadas como fichas.Figura 17. Actividad \"AquaCrop\" un recorrido hacia las funciones, variables y módulos.\"Paso 4Paso 4 -Toma de decisiones dada la predicción agroclimáticaSegún la Comisión de meteorología agrícola (CAgM, siglas en inglés) de la Organización Meteorológica mundial (OMM), los servicios agro meteorológicos en los países en desarrollo deben asumir mayores responsabilidades debido a la mayor presión de la población y los modos cambiantes de las prácticas agrícolas. En el futuro, se esperan cada vez más demandas de información y servicios agrometeorológicos con respecto a las tecnologías, los sistemas y patrones agrícolas, la gestión del agua y el control de plagas y enfermedades basadas en el clima, preferiblemente con innovaciones locales como puntos de partida. Por lo tanto, los desafíos futuros incluirán la necesidad de enfatizar un enfoque de abajo hacia arriba para asegurar que los pronósticos, las alertas tempranas y la planificación de contingencia lleguen incluso a los pequeños agricultores, de modo que puedan aplicar esta información en su planificación y en el desarrollo agrícola diario.En esta cuarta reunión se debe tener el conjunto de prácticas de seleccionadas a través de múltiples procesos analíticos y participativos que refleja el deseo colectivo de promover un sector agropecuario productivo y adaptado al clima. Para estos fines, se deben tomar decisiones con respecto a la combinación correcta y la combinación de estrategias de adaptación tradicionales, conocimiento del agricultor con la ciencia y tecnología, y entornos de políticas apropiados. Conocer cómo se generan los portafolios de medidas sostenibles adaptadas al clima con ejemplos claros.  Generar el portafolio de medidas para las zonas de influencia de la MTA y analizar los cuellos de botella para la no implementación de estas por parte de los agricultores.  Seleccionar las medidas de adaptación a promover con los agricultores dada la predicción climáticaEsta parte corresponde a la formulación de un portafolio de prácticas de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) 18 , que se ajusten a las condiciones del territorio en el cual se implementa la MTA.Existen principalmente dos tipos de prácticas ASAC y corresponden a aquellas de corto plazo y aquellas de mediano o largo plazo. Las prácticas de corto plazo son las que se pueden tomar de forma inmediata como respuesta a las predicciones climáticas, con el objetivo de reducir o evitar los posibles impactos del clima sobre los cultivos. Un ejemplo de una práctica de corto plazo sería la selección para la siembra de una variedad de frijol de ciclo corto (precoz), como respuesta a un pronóstico de reducción de periodo de lluvias habitual. Por su parte, las prácticas de mediano y largo plazo son aquellas que responden a eventos recurrentes y aumentan de forma permanente la resiliencia de los sistemas productivos.Un ejemplo de prácticas de mediano plazo es el uso de compostaje en zonas secas con poca retención de agua en los suelos, ya que esta medida tiene un efecto inmediato sobre la nutrición del cultivo, pero a la vez con su uso recurrente va mejorando la estructura del suelo, permitiendo al cabo de unos ciclos de cultivo una mayor retención de agua en el suelo. Finalmente, un ejemplo de una práctica de largo plazo es la siembra de árboles como barreras vivas rompevientos, con el fin de evitar el volcamiento de cultivos como el maíz. Esta práctica es de largo plazo, ya que después de sembrados los arboles el tiempo de crecimiento de estos es prolongado, lo que significa que los efectos de la práctica se verán reflejados sobre los cultivos varios años después.Con base en la explicación anterior el objetivo de este paso es:  Construir un amplio portafolio de prácticas ASAC tanto de corto como de mediano y largo plazo, el cual debe ser retroalimentado constantemente entre los distintos integrantes de la mesa con el fin de incluir ideas innovadoras que respondan a los retos climáticos. Necesitará un proyector para presentaciones de diapositivas y consolidación de una hoja de Excel con el portafolio de medidas ASAC1. Coordinar previo a la reunión de la primera MTA con un representante de CCAFS, para dar una presentación sobre las prácticas ASAC y los tres pilares sobre los cuales están fundamentadas (adaptación, mitigación, y productividad y seguridad alimentaria). 2. Compartir con los participantes un listado con algunas prácticas ASAC, como insumo para iniciar la discusión y poder enriquecer el portafolio. 3. De acuerdo al número de participantes, las instituciones en que trabajan y/o los cultivos de interés de la zona, divida en grupos de trabajo de máximo 10 personas. El objetivo es que en conjunto revisen y discutan las prácticas propuestas, con el objetivo de descartar las que no sea relevantes para la región e incluir las ideas nuevas que surjan de los grupos de trabajo. 4. Al final en plenaria los grupos van a argumentar porqué descartaron algunas prácticas y por qué incluyeron otras, y con base en esta plenaria se consolidará una versión regional de portafolio de prácticas ASAC, las cuales servirán como insumo para desarrollar estrategias de corto plazo dependiendo de los pronósticos climáticos discutidos en cada MTA y de mediano y largo plazo con base en las estadísticas multianuales de eventos climáticos recurrentes. 5. A partir de la segunda sesión de las MTA, el portafolio de prácticas ASAC podrá ser enriquecido durante cada sesión, ya que es probable los integrantes de la misma con el tiempo desarrollen o conozcan nuevas prácticas innovadoras que permitan hacer más resilientes los sistemas productivos.Ejemplo de portafolio de prácticas:Este ejemplo es parte del marco de priorización de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima en el corredor seco en Guatemala con apoyo del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación de Guatemala (MAGA) con el objetivo de identificar, priorizar y promover las prácticas o tecnologías agrícolas que contribuyan al logro de los objetivos planteados, a través de un esfuerzo integrado en tres pilares fundamentales: el fortalecimiento de la seguridad alimentaria por medio del incremento de la productividad de forma sostenible, el aumento la capacidad de adaptación de los agricultores y el desarrollo agropecuario bajo en emisiones a través de la reducción/eliminación de gases de efecto invernadero (mitigación).El aporte de los participantes que integran la MTA es el de buscar y promover las medidas adaptivas en su región en los rubro productivos priorizados con el grupo de agricultores y/o usuarios del boletín agroclimático, con base en las predicciones climáticas presentadas para los próximos meses. En este paso, se plantean soluciones conjuntas a los problemas planteados, se discuten ideas, se toman decisiones, en lo que se refiere a acciones que contribuyan a reducir el impacto ante las anomalías climáticas y evaluaciones agroclimáticas presentadas. En Colombia lo anterior se realiza a través de un panel de expertos, por rubro productivo se reúnen y se discuten bajo la predicción climática dada cuáles serán las recomendaciones seleccionadas. El objetivo de este paso es: Dado el portafolio de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima identificadas para la región y cultivo de interés de las actividades 4a, seleccionar aquellas medidas respuesta dada la predicción climática. Entregar impreso el portafolio de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima desarrolladas en la actividad 4a  Necesitará rotafolios y marcadores de colores para escribirEn esta etapa se hace un trabajo en grupo con los participantes de la MTA. Los grupos pueden conformarse de acuerdo a los temas o competencia en sus trabajos y las entidades que representan (por ejemplo grupos de suelos, agua y cultivos). Cada grupo tiene que responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuáles son los impactos (positivos o negativos) en los rubros productivos priorizados dada la predicción climática?  ¿Qué medidas o prácticas de adaptación puedo seleccionar dada la predicción climática?  ¿Qué recomendaciones daría a qué agricultores (mujeres, hombres, de diferentes grupos sociales), dada la predicción del clima?  ¿Cuál es mi compromiso para promover estas prácticas en mi región? Figura 18. Foto de la MTA en Cauca, durante el análisis por grupos temáticos, sobre medidas adaptativas para el sector agrícola local, según predicciones y análisis previos Paso 5Paso 5 -Generación del boletín agroclimático Al finalizar la cuarta reunión se debe contar con un borrador del boletín agroclimático debe reflejar la recolección de resultados y análisis elaborados en cada uno de los pasos de la MTA. Es importante que después de realizada la MTA, en los siguientes 3 días (máximo) sea generado el boletín agroclimático que será enviado a los participantes de la para su revisión y adiciones, y en los dos días subsiguientes publicado 19 .Construcción del boletín agroclimático, se recomienda la siguiente estructura:1. Logos de las instituciones participantes en la MTA 2. Información de la climatología para los meses de referencia 3. Diagnóstico sobre la evolución y seguimiento del fenómeno meteorológico actual influyente en el comportamiento meteorológico (precipitación, temperatura, viento) de la región (ejemplo el fenómeno El Niño/La Niña) o la temporada de Huracanes. 4. Verificación de la predicción climática realizada en la reunión anterior 5. Predicción climática local para los próximos meses. 6. Evaluaciones y perspectivas agroclimáticas. 7. Conclusiones y recomendaciones agroclimáticas provenientes de los actores participantes en la MTA (medidas adaptativas para los cultivos de interés). En este paso es importante pedir insumos como fotos de los cultivos que reflejen el trabajo de las instituciones en la región.A continuación para cada uno de los numerales se mostrara ejemplos del boletín agroclimático de los departamentos de Cauca y Córdoba 20 en Colombia:Paso 6Paso 6 -Difusión del boletín agroclimático Además de conocer información climática relevante hacia futuro, es necesario buscar alternativas de manejo agrícola para adaptarse a tales condiciones e implementar mecanismos eficaces que puedan ser sostenibles, bajo un marco de comunicación efectiva con el agricultor (Jones, 2003;Pulwarty et al., 2003). Según Podestá et al. (2002) y Bert et al. (2006), se necesitan varias condiciones para el uso efectivo de las predicciones climáticas en la mejora de la toma de decisiones:  La información debe ser relevante, traducida y compatible con las decisiones de producción, llegando en momentos adecuados y con apropiada resolución geográfica y temporal.  Deben de existir diferentes alternativas que pueden ser tomadas en respuesta a las predicciones climáticas, y que dan resultados bajo diferentes escenarios climáticos.  Los tomadores de decisiones pueden evaluar (p. ej. económicamente) los resultados de estas acciones alternativas.  Los tomadores de decisiones tienen la voluntad de adoptar un manejo adaptativo al clima en un contexto complejo de toma de decisiones. Podestá et al. (2002) y sus coautores destacan que un elemento clave que facilita el uso de los pronósticos del clima, es un sistema de herramientas de soporte a la toma de decisiones para evaluar los impactos de las alternativas implementadas. Además, la información traducida que proviene de fuentes confiables tales como agentes de extensión agrícola o asesores técnicos tiene más probabilidad de ser tomada en cuenta.En un estudio de campo, Patt et al. (2005) muestran que agricultores de subsistencia que aplican los pronósticos durante varios años para tomar decisiones mejoran significativamente sus cosechas. Además, muestran que los agricultores que han asistido a breves talleres participativos y han aprendido más sobre los pronósticos son significativamente más propensos a utilizarlos que los agricultores que aprendieron sobre los pronósticos a través de canales no participativos.Los factores basados en género pueden influir en que las mujeres y los hombres tengan un acceso diferente a los canales de comunicación. Por ejemplo, finanzas limitadas a menudo pueden impedir que las mujeres posean TICs (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación) y los activos de comunicación, como teléfonos celulares y radios. Además, debido a las diferencias en la alfabetización, el conocimiento técnico y los niveles de escolaridad, los hombres pueden ser más capaces de interpretar los formatos de las TICs (Gumucio et al., 2018b) . Las responsabilidades del hogar pueden limitar el tiempo disponible de las mujeres para escuchar también los programas agrícolas por radio (Gumucio et al., 2018c) Objetivos de este paso: Los participantes de la mesa tienen la responsabilidad de difundir la información técnica agroclimática generada en las MTA, centrada en las necesidades de los agricultores, que faciliten la toma de decisiones y la gestión de riesgo del sector agropecuario.Un punto relevante de las MTA es generar información agroclimática, pero también divulgarla entre instituciones, servicios de extensión, hacia los agricultores, entre otros actores locales, regionales que se consideren relevantes, que podrían hacer buen uso de la información suministrada. Para esto se utilizan diferentes medios de comunicación como la prensa, la radio y los servicios de redes sociales como correos electrónicos y grupos Whatsapp, que sirven para divulgar el trabajo que adelanta la MTA, le da identidad a la misma y representa una mejora para el buen desempeño de estas a escala regional, permitiendo la difusión de toda la información agro meteorológica a los integrantes y a la comunidad en general. Otros medios de difusión constituye la realización de Foros, Seminarios y Talleres.A continuación se da a conocer algunos ejemplos de difusión: La difusión de la información debe ser de doble vía (intercambio de información y conocimiento), para que haya oportunidad en la información, es decir, que llegue al productor local (las comunidades), que se entienda, sea utilizada y genere un cambio mental dirigido hacia la generación de capacidades de adaptación ante el clima cambiante. Las comunidades deben adquirir conocimiento en aspectos climáticos locales, recolección y suministro oportuno de información agro meteorológica local. Lo anterior, implica iniciar un proceso de cambio de actitud y aptitud en las comunidades, desde que perciben la existencia del problema que afecta su realidad, y se genera la necesidad de enfrentarlo.  Conocer el canal de comunicación preferido por los agricultores locales: Boletín físico, Mensaje de texto (celular), Radio y Prensa. Como ejemplo, en la MTA de Cauca como territorio de Postconflicto en Colombia asisten soldados y oficiales para capacitarse en temas de agro climatología y lograr difundir esta información a los campesinos para la adaptación de la agricultura a la variabilidad climática con información local.  Aprovechar la participación de los comunicadores locales, los periodistas (prensa, radio), mediante un acercamiento para hacer un análisis de la difusión de la información para que sea efectivo. Es importante que la MTA considere las preferencias de los agricultores hombres y mujeres. Esto implica aprovechar los diferentes tipos de fuentes de información relevantes a nivel local y los formatos disponibles (por ejemplo, mensajes SMS, radio, pizarras meteorológicas, personas influyentes). También puede ser útil identificar contactos clave en la comunidad.Por ejemplo, las mujeres que poseen su propio teléfono celular pueden compartir información recibida con otros familiares y amigos. De manera similar, las intervenciones deben garantizar que el uso de las TICs o los dispositivos de medios sea compatible con las actividades de subsistencia de las mujeres y/o que ahorre tiempo.  Tener en cuenta que las normas e instituciones socioculturales relativas a las interacciones entre mujeres y hombres, el espacio y la movilidad pueden limitar la participación de las mujeres en grupos donde se comparte información sobre el clima. Incluir a los grupos de mujeres como canales de comunicación puede ser una forma importante de responder a estos desafíos.Las \"comunicadoras\" mujeres también pueden facilitar el acceso de las mujeres agricultoras a la información agroclimática clave.Paso 7Paso 7 -Implementación de medidas de adaptaciónDado el aumento en la frecuencia de eventos hidro meteorológicos extremos, asociados a la variabilidad climática y/o cambio climático, y la mayor vulnerabilidad de las sociedades humanas frente a estas amenazas, se presenta un mayor interés en la implementación de medidas de adaptación sostenibles adaptadas al clima. Teniendo en cuenta, que la adaptación y la gestión del riesgo, deben integrase con una visión holística para reducir la vulnerabilidad de los agricultores.El conjunto de medidas de adaptación identificadas deberían ser de interés y beneficio para mujeres y hombres. No obstante, la MTA debe considerar que el control limitado de los recursos y la falta de oportunidades para participar en la toma de decisiones agrícolas pueden restringir significativamente la capacidad de las mujeres para hacer un uso completo de la información climática y aplicar medidas, en algunos casos. Los hombres tienden a poseer el equipo agrícola, el ganado y la tierra necesarios, más a menudo que las mujeres. Además, las normas socioculturales arraigadas con respecto a los roles y responsabilidades agrícolas y de los hogares pueden impedir que las mujeres participen en los procesos de toma de decisiones relevantes para abordar los riesgos climáticos.Es de suma importancia evaluar los desafíos que mujeres y hombres pueden enfrentar de manera diferente para implementar las medidas de adaptación identificadas y buscar oportunidades para coordinarse con otras iniciativas/actores de desarrollo para abordar las limitaciones de recursos productivos de los grupos más marginados. Es importante coordinar con socios locales como municipalidades y mancomunidades para brindar un mayor apoyo a planes de adaptación que mejoren o mantengan los medios de vida de las familias rurales. Implementar las medidas de adaptación seleccionadas de acuerdo a predicciones climáticas y análisis agroclimáticos de modo participativo entre especialistas externos (investigadores, académicos, técnicos) y comunidades (conocedores locales), que trabajan de modo integrado en talleres y jornadas de campo.A continuación unos ejemplo de la ficha técnica de implementación de las medidas de adaptación:Número de la medida: 2 Nombre de la medida: Construcción de sistema de cosecha de aguas lluviasComo mejora la capacidad de adaptación: Permite almacenar agua para disponer de ella en verano; asociada a un sistema de riego por goteo puede contribuir a la seguridad alimentaria La escasez de agua en el Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima en Cauca, ha limitado las posibilidades de obtener alimentos a partir de la huerta familiar en épocas de sequía, incrementando la vulnerabilidad de los productores locales a los efectos adversos de la sequía. A través de la instalación de sistemas de cosecha de agua, propone contribuir con la disminución de la vulnerabilidad identificada de manera participativa con la comunidad.Para esto asociamos la medida de \"Cosechas de Aguas Lluvias\", a otras medidas complementarias como son: a. Riego por goteo; b. Huertas circulares, c. Huertas tradicionales con cubiertas o c. Huertas verticales, y d. cuando sea posible, a Reservorios con cubierta plástica. El diseño propuesto consiste en aprovechar el agua de las cubiertas de casas y otra infraestructura, recogiéndola por medio de canales fabricadas a partir de secciones longitudinales de tubos de PVC de 6\", para recolectarla en un tanque plástico (ver Foto) cuyo sobrante puede ser a su vez, recogido en reservorios para ser usada principalmente como fuente de riego en épocas de sequíaPASO A PASO COSECHA AGUAS LLUVIAS Defina la localización del tanque y las canales Mida el largo de las canales, si estas tienen más de 6 metros, hay que pegar dos tubos mediante unión de PVC de 6\" Pegue dos tubos de 6\" por medio de unión, teniendo en cuenta que los letreros de los tubos coincidan. Esto le ayudara a guiar el corte Marque el lado opuesto a los letreros utilizando una siembra, (hilo impregnado de algún colorante) para obtener un corte recto. En caso de así preferirlo, marque los tubos por los dos lados. Recorte los tubos de 6\" a todo lo largo para obtener dos canales. Fabrique varios soportes de canal utilizando varilla de 3/8\". Asegure firmemente el soporte inicial y final de cada cubierta teniendo en cuenta un pequeño desnivel para que el agua fluya hacia donde será recolectada. Pase un hilo indicador entre los dos soportes que le sirva de ayuda para asegurar los demás soportes y evitar desniveles en las canales. Monte las canales sin asegurarlas para poder hacer ajustes.Con ayuda de los codos y uniones de 3\", arme el sistema de recolección del agua de las canales. Este tubo debe llegar hasta el tanque de 1000 litros.Recorte el agujero de entrada y de rebose para el tubo de 3\" en el borde superior del tanque.12 Coloque el tapón de desagüe del tanque. 13Arme el sistema de rebose del tanque definiendo la disposición final del agua.14 Una vez armado el sistema y cuando se encuentre conforme, pegue todas las uniones.Figura 19. Foto de la construcción cosecha de aguas lluvia, como medida de adaptación priorizada en Cauca. Fuente: Ecohábitats /CCAFS Paso 8Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso Paso 8 -Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del procesoPodemos definir a las lecciones aprendidas como el conocimiento que podemos llegar a adquirir mediante el análisis y la reflexión de un proceso o una experiencia que pueda haber tenido un resultado positivo o negativo. Para que estas lecciones puedan ser aprendidas, deben ser registradas en una base de conocimientos al alcance de todos, para que sean revisadas, consultadas y utilizadas en ocasiones futuras.Para que una lección sea aprendida, es imprescindible que se produzca la respectiva acción de cambio de actuación 21 . Solo podemos hablar de aprendizaje cuando somos capaces de tener una actuación diferente de la anterior con la finalidad de obtener un resultado distinto. Por lo que no será suficiente con realizar el análisis, la reflexión, obtener las conclusiones, redactar informes o normas para aprender. Debemos pasar a la acción y cambiar nuestra forma de actuar para que podamos afirmar que hemos aprendido de una lección. Lo anterior, se puede llevar a cabo en una sesión al final del año para considerar con los participantes de la MTA los siguientes cuestionamientos: ¿En qué manera consideran que las capacitaciones y participación en las MTA les ayudó en su trabajo?  ¿Qué partes del proceso de la MTA fueron las más útiles y por qué?  ¿De qué manera se podría mejorar el enfoque de la MTA, p. ej., para el próximo año?Sería útil anotar en un rotafolio los puntos importantes que salgan de la conversación.Para fines de monitoreo y evaluación, la MTA debe asegurarse de evaluar cómo se han promovido los objetivos relacionados con la igualdad de género y la inclusión social a lo largo del proceso. Por ejemplo, puede ser clave considerar y evaluar en qué medida la información generada por la MTA ha sido socialmente inclusivas, es decir, si es útil para la toma de decisiones sobre los medios de vida de las mujeres y los hombres, de los diferentes grupos sociales que existen en el territorio. Otro tema importante para evaluar es hasta qué punto las mujeres y los hombres agricultores, de diferentes grupos sociales, tienen mejor acceso a las alertas agroclimáticas en los territorios influenciados por los actores de la MTA. Así como, quiénes de los agricultores, hombre o mujeres que cuentan con la información climática de las MTA, aplican mejores medidas de adaptación Objetivos de este paso: Realizar encuestas de monitoreo, para evidenciar cambios en conocimiento y adopción de nuevas metodologías o herramientas, así como la difusión y alcance sistemática del boletín agroclimático.  Dar lineamientos para generar una cosecha de alcances 22 y/o evaluación de impacto, que son necesarios si la MTA lleva implementada más de tres años.No participé pero tuve acceso a la información y la compartí ","tokenCount":"14216"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f676ccc47443fb2842643e9bc6ec115e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2638ba83-f752-41ce-a28e-bf4aa6390a05/retrieve","id":"-1321032345"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8c8c12c6-7738-4bf3-a272-68e73328e846","pagecount":"20","content":"Qué se está haciendo para reducir las cifras de desnutrición… Desde su creación en el 2004, Harvestplus junto con múltiples socios a nivel mundial han logrado liberar más de 130 cultivos biofortificados en más de 40 países, mediante la estrategia de la biofortificación: cultivos mejorados de manera convencional (a través de cruces en campo), más nutritivos en vitaminas y minerales.¿Que tienen las pasturas de Urochloa que están potenciando la traslocación de Zn al grano de maíz?OBJETIVO: Evaluar el efecto residual de genotipos de Urochloa con capacidad IBN contrastante sobre el maíz biofortificado como cultivo subsecuente.HIPOTESIS: La capacidad de IBN en pasturas Urochloa suprimen la nitrificación del suelo, lo que resulta en un mejor rendimiento y contenido de Zn en el grano del maíz biofortificado.   Aumento del 36% en el contenido de Zn en los tratamientos de maíz precedidos de pasturas con un promedio de 35.14 ppm versus 25.83 ppm observado en el control sin rotación con Urochloa.Los resultados de la correlación sugieren que a medida que aumenta la materia orgánica, el pH, la radiación y el riego adicional, es probable que también aumente el contenido de Zn.Sin embargo, se necesitan medir otras variables que podrían estar explicando el fenómeno observado (i.e., mayor concentración de Zn) están siendo estudiadas tales como cambios en el pH, Mo, CIC, Zn en suelo, tasas de nitrificación y textura entre los genotipos y ciclos que reportaron mayor contenido de Zn.Se necesita más investigación en el tema para entender este proceso.Los resultados obtenidos revelaron una correlación positiva entre las variables de rendimiento de grano y biomasa, lo cual concuerda con investigaciones anteriores realizadas por Karwat et al. (2017) en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.En dichos estudios, también se observó un incremento en el rendimiento de ambas variables debido al efecto residual de la Inhibición Biológica de la nitrificación (IBN) en pasturas con U. humidicola. • Hasta el momento existe escasa investigación reportada que nos permita comparar nuestros resultados. Sin embargo, a raíz de este hallazgo surgen múltiples hipótesis que podrían explicar estos resultados:• Un suministro más abundante de nitrógeno, como resultado de la inhibición de la nitrificación, favoreció la salud de las plantas de maíz, mejorando su capacidad de absorción de Zn y, en última instancia, conduciendo a una mayor acumulación de este mineral en los granos de maíz.Posibles hipótesis• Otra explicación posible podría estar relacionada con el aumento de la materia orgánica en el suelo promovido por las pasturas. Esto podría incrementar la mineralización en las parcelas donde se encuentra el pasto, en comparación con el tratamiento de control, lo que a su vez resultaría en una mayor solubilización de Zn.• Variables ambientales, contenido de materia orgánica, pH, CIC, contenido de Zn en suelo, en los genotipos que reportaron mayor acumulación del mineral, podrían estar explicando el fenómeno observado.• La absorción y acumulación de Zn en las plantas es un proceso complejo en el que influyen múl tiples factores que interactúan entre sí. Las condiciones específicas y las interacciones entre est os factores pueden variar en función de la especie vegetal y del entorno en el que se cultivan.• Se requiere de más investigación para profundizar en estas hipótesis y comprender mejor los mecanismos subyacentes a este fenómeno.• Jairo Arcos Jaramillo • Daniel Mauricio Villegas • Miguel Angel Acosta Chinchilla • Programa Biofortificados -Laboratorio de Calidad Nutricional • Alejandro Ruden por ser el portavoz de este trabajo.Madyan Vanessa Prado-Murcia m.prado@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"565"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acb51629bba7c0e51526286da8543f54","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1721bf3-ed99-48e9-a7b4-023167dc6d8b/retrieve","id":"-1580104846"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ccf6cb0b-acff-4c8a-addd-96defc5a7918","pagecount":"10","content":"Cassava is the second most important staple food crop for Uganda and is prone to contamination with mycotoxins. This study aimed at understanding the current agricultural practices, their potential influence on mycotoxin occurrence, as well as assessing mycotoxin knowledge among key cassava value chain actors, including farmers, wholesalers, and processors. Data were collected through individual interviews (210), key informant interviews (34), and 4 focus group discussions. The findings revealed that 51% of farmers peeled cassava directly on bare ground, resulting in direct contact with soil that potentially harbors mycotoxin-producing fungi, such as Aspergillus section Flavi. During postharvest handling, 51.6% of farmers dried cassava chips directly on bare ground. Nearly, all (95.2%) of wholesalers packed cassava chips in local gunny bags and placed them on ground instead of pallets. In the processing of cassava chips into flour, only one of the 14 processing machines was certified by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. Additionally, there was only one processing machine available for every 180 (1:180) consumers bringing their cassava for processing. 50.8% of cassava consumers interviewed admitted to consuming cassava flour regardless of quality, while 73% blended cassava flour with flour from mycotoxin-susceptible crops mainly maize, millet, and sorghum. Most (96.2%) of the people along the cassava value chain did not understand what the term mycotoxins meant. However, 56% of interviewed respondents were familiar with the term aflatoxins. Of the cassava value chain actors aware of mycotoxins, 82.9% knew of methods for reducing aflatoxin contamination, but only 40.9% were putting such methods into practice. More farmers (47.9%) managed aflatoxins compared to wholesalers (33.3%) and processors (21.4%). Knowledge on aflatoxins was significantly associated with value chain actor (P = 0.026), head of household (P = 0.004), region (P = 0.033), age (P = 0.001), and experience (P = 0.001). This study highlights the critical areas of mycotoxin contamination within the cassava value chain in Uganda and underscores the need to improve the knowledge among value chain actors especially farmers.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a major staple crop in Uganda that is consumed by more than 50% of the population (UBOS, 2019). Due to its cheap source of carbohydrates, resistance to drought, and capacity to produce significant yields even on marginal land where other crops fail, cassava production has spread and is now the second most important crop after bananas (Scott et al., 2021). Production and consumption of cassava is more concentrated in the eastern region (37%), followed by the northern region (34%), the western region (15%), and the central region (14%) (Buyinza & Kitinoja, 2018). Currently, 2.67 million MT of cassava are produced on 878,297 ha outpacing all other root crops in Uganda (FAOSTAT, 2022).Historically, 88% of the cassava produced was consumed locally, and the crop was considered a food security crop for resource-poor farmers (Buyinza & Kitinoja, 2018). However, in 2016, the pharmaceutical, baking, and alcohol sectors transformed cassava into a wonder crop due to its novel attributes. For instance, it has been discovered that cassava is gluten-free and can replace wheat in bread (Garske et al., 2023;Oyeyinka et al., 2022;Rachman et al., 2023). Furthermore, the Nile Breweries Ltd, the largest brewer in Uganda, is utilizing cassava to produce beer that contains 60-68% cassava flour and the pharmaceutical industry is also drawn to the starch content in cassava (Graffham Andrew, 2017). For these reasons, the Ugandangovernment has identified cassava as one of the ten crops that will enable the country to change its status from a subsistence to a middle-income by 2040 (National Planning Authority, 2020).Despite this, the production and marketing of cassava in Uganda face numerous challenges, including low productivity, postharvest losses, and contamination with mycotoxins (Atukwase et al., 2009). Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi, which can grow on crops during preharvest, harvest, and postharvest stages (Bennett & Inamdar, 2015). The presence of mycotoxins in food and feed poses significant risks to human and animal health, including cancer, liver damage, immune suppression, and developmental problems (Zain, 2011;IARC, 2002). In Uganda, mycotoxin contamination in food crops is a significant public health concern (Oyesigye et al., 2024), with aflatoxins being the most prevalent and potent mycotoxins. In particular, aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) is the most potent naturally formed carcinogen (IARC, 2002).The significance of mycotoxin contamination in cassava cannot be underestimated, especially considering that cassava is the second most widely consumed food crop in Uganda. Several studies have reported high levels of mycotoxin contamination in cassava-based products in Uganda. For example Kaaya and Warren (2005) reported that more than 60% of analyzed cassava flour samples had high levels of aflatoxins exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) maximum permissible limit of 20 μg/kg. Kitya et al (2010) also found high levels of aflatoxins with an average of 16 μg/kg in Uganda's cassava flour, indicating the need for better postharvest handling practices to reduce contamination. Kaaya and Eboku (2010) reported aflatoxin levels in cassava flour ranging between 0.51 to 0.45 μg/kg. Another study conducted in Uganda by Serck-Hanssen (2013) reported acute poisoning and death of a 15-year-old child who consumed cassava that was contaminated with aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ). The situation is worse given the increasing death cases reported at the national regional referral hospitals (Mulago) attributed to hepatocellular carcinoma-a cancer type highly linked to aflatoxins (Bukirwa et al., 2021). Addressing mycotoxin contamination in cassava is crucial for improving public health and enhancing economic growth. Recent studies have demonstrated that efforts to mitigate mycotoxin contamination are more effective when informed by a comprehensive understanding of the entire crop value chain (Cervini et al., 2022a;Massomo, 2020;Namubiru et al., 2022). By critically assessing activities along the value chain and examining the knowledge and practices of value chain actors, interventions can be better targeted towards addressing the specific factors contributing to mycotoxin contamination. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on cassava handling practices along the value chain (farmers, wholesalers, processors, and final consumers), and how these practices are likely to lead to mycotoxin contamination at each stage of the value chain. Furthermore, it is not clear the extent to which value chain actors know about mycotoxins. This study aimed to (1) understand the current methods used to handle cassava along the value chain and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination, and (2) assess knowledge of mycotoxins within key cassava value chain actors.An explanatory mixed methods design approach was used. Individual interviews, on-site observations, focus group discussions (FDGs), and key informant interviews (KIIs) were used to collect data about cassava production and postharvest handling practices, and mycotoxin knowledge.Data were collected from a purposive sample of cassava farmers, wholesalers, and processors. Sample size was determined using Raosoft online sample calculator (https://www.raosoft.com/samplesize. html). District Production and Marketing Officer (DPMO) data indicated that each district had an average of 35,000 cassava farmers and 506 wholesalers; thus, the sample was drawn from this. The inclusion criteria for farmers, wholesalers, and processors were as follows: Farmers were required to possess a cassava garden and store cassava chips and flour for a minimum of 30 days. Wholesalers needed to have been in business for at least 2 years and to have stocked cassava chips and flour for at least 30 days. Upon applying these criteria, the total number of farmers and wholesalers in the sample was reduced to 205 and 110, respectively. Utilizing the Raosoft sample calculator with this adjusted population, a minimum sample size of 124 farmers and 75 cassava wholesalers was determined for the study. Given the limited number of processors in the cassava value chain (Kleih et al., 2012), a sample size of 15-20 respondents was deemed adequate (Namey et al., 2016) and thus was targeted.According to Graves (2002), Namey et al. (2016), Vasudevan et al. (2020) 4-5 FGDs consisting of at least 15 people, and 15-34 KIIs are deemed enough to provide sufficiently reliable data, thus were targeted. For FGDs, the selection of participants, moderators, and preparing open-ended question was conducted as recommended by Nyumba et al. (2018). Of the four FGDs, two were from farmer groups and two from wholesalers (those owning stores). Despite targeting a FGD from processors, the attempt was unsuccessful since there were relatively few of them in the area, and they were also busy with clients. The FGD was conducted by a moderator and a note-taker, both native language speakers. Each FGD lasted an average of two hours, with the moderator probing participants when it was required to elicit more details. The questionnaire used was divided into 2 main sections firstly, to understand the processes that cassava goes through from the field to harvest, drying, storage, and consumption at the farmer level, and secondly to investigate procedures that wholesalers follow, after receiving cassava from farmers, including how it is stored, dried, processed, and sold.For individual interviews and on-site observations, a total sample of 210 face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted that included cassava farmers (121), cassava wholesalers (75), and processors (14) (Table S1). Enumerators were selected from the study communities based on their ability to communicate effectively and conduct semistructured interviews in local languages. They underwent a four-day training session, which included the pretesting of the questionnaire. The final pretested and validated questionnaire was uploaded on an open-source KoboCollect app version 2024.1.3. The interview procedure began with a comprehensive explanation of the study's objectives and obtaining consent from the participants. Following preguided questions, the respondents were then interviewed for a duration of 20-30 min. On-site observations were made at each value chain stage following a mini-predetermined checklist (Table S2) about the state in which cassava is dried, stored, and processed. The team leader recorded these observations upon anonymous agreement with the data collection team.For key informant interviews, a total of 32 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were carried out to systematically gather information on the handling, consumption, existing policies, and awareness of aflatoxin in cassava value chain. The key informants were dominated by Agriculture Extension Officers (15), the Head of the cassava traders Organization (8), the District Production and Marketing Officer (4), and the District Agricultural Officer (5) (Table S1). The interview guide consisted of 2 major sections. The first section involved questions relating to cassava quality requirements, handling practices at farm, wholesaler, and processing level. The second section involved questions related to knowledge of aflatoxins, perception of communities towards aflatoxin, policies, and existing mitigation strategies being implemented. The same interview process as earlier explained was followed to conduct KIIs.A precalibrated digital dry moisture meter (safeguard Europe Ltd) was used to measure the ambient moisture content (% MC) for respective storage sites. Three different readings were recorded from three different positions (at the two corners and center) of the store.Quantitative data were exported to Microsoft Excel for data cleaning. The latter consisted of omitting questionnaires with responses less than 60%. After cleaning, quantitative data were analyzed with Stata version 17 (Stata 2017). Prior to analysis, the data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk and heteroskedasticity using the Breusch-Pagan tests. The analysis was parametric because the data passed these two tests without the requirement for transformation. Descriptive statistics mainly frequency tables and graphs were used to summarize data. To determine the factors that may contribute to knowledge about mycotoxins, simple binary dichotomy statements were used with one point (1) accorded to any right statement while no point (0) was awarded for a wrong response (1 = true, 0 = false). A Chi-square (X 2 ) test at a 95% confidence level was run to test associations between the categorical variables against the value chain actors (farmer, wholesaler, and processor). The relationship between knowledge on mycotoxins and demographic variables was determined with the bivariate logistic regression at a 95% confidence level. All other variables for instance gender, region, and head of household were converted into dummy variables with binary responses. To avoid perfect multicollinearity, dummy variables with more than one category, for instance, education level were converted to two categories to fit within the assumptions of the model (1).whereby Y = Knowledge about aflatoxins, X 1 = head of household, X 2 -= education level, X 3 = gender, X 4 = age, X 5 = region, X 6 = experience and e i = error terms. Qualitative data from FGDs were analyzed following the thematic content analysis as recommended by Nyumba et al. (2018). Data were coded into themes, and individual responses to a question were first evaluated for the level of anonymous consensus among participants. The findings were then triangulated into the face-to-face in-depth interviews to provide a more detailed understanding of the subject studied. Data from KIIs that contained 28, predetermined statements were weighed against a Likert scale of 1-5. If a respondent selected 5 for each of the 28 statements, the maximum weight would be 140 (28 × 5), while selecting 1 for each of the 28 statements would result in the minimum weight of 28 (28 × 1). To check factor dimensionality, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on the 5 constructs Likert scale. The scores were measured by Cronbach alpha (Cronbach, 1951) to check if the Likert statements were internally consistent (if Cronbach value, Ca > 0.7). A screen test with varimax rotation was used to obtain results that can easily be interpreted with statements of factor loading >0.4 retained for further analysis.This study aimed to (1) understand the current methods used to handle cassava along the value chain and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination, and (2) assess knowledge of mycotoxins within key cassava value chain actors. Results are presented as follows:The current cassava handling practices and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination To understand the handling practices, the study first examined the duration cassava chips and flour remain at each stage of the value chain. A systematic review and analysis of results from FGDs and indepth interviews resulted in the flow of dry cassava from the farmer to consumers (Fig. 1). The first step to produce cassava chips is to slice and dry fresh cassava. Three primary routes are used to move cassava chips from the farm. In the first route, farmers take cassava chips to the nearby wholesaler who stores the chips for 30-90 days. More than 72% of farmers use this route. The second route, which is used by 22% of farmers relies on village assemblers to collect the chips from farmers door to door and sell them to the wholesaler, and this is usually accomplished between 3 and 7 days. In the third route, 6% of the farmers directly sell to farmer groups contracted by industries to supply high−quality cassava chips as raw material for the industry sector. The producer organizations also sell the chips to wholesalers especially in the season when the supply supersedes their demand.Between 5 and 90 days of acquiring the cassava chips, the wholesaler sells to retailers, and industries. Depending on the need, the wholesalers process the cassava chips into flour and sell the flour. The major value chain actors that significantly transform cassava chips into flour are the retailers that do this piecemeal; they store chips for a duration of 1-40 days and continue to transform them into flour, depending on the demand from the final consumer. The cassava flour obtained from the processor can be utilized for home consumption by making a cassava meal, animal feeds, small-scale brewing, and in the manufacturing of confectionery, starch, and ethanol. It should be noted that cassava stays the longest period during bulking and storage with the wholesaler and retailers holding it up to 90 days.Majority of (75.6%) cassava farmers greatly rely on traditional indicators to decide whether cassava is ready for harvest. Only 24.6% of the farmers check their planting records to find out the maturity period; the majority (76.4%) perceive that once the soil around the cassava plant crack, the root will have reached the required size to be harvested (FGD-ST02). Since the months of November through February are sunny, most farmers (61.6%) take advantage of this time to maximize natural sunlight for drying their cassava. The harvesting process is carried out by both men and women (68.3%), primarily by digging out the cassava tubers using a hand hoe which cuts, injures, and bruises the cassava tubers allowing soil to intermingle with tubers which predisposes it to mycotoxigenic fungi. In the FGD ST02, farmer admitted that, unless it is to be used for roasting, in which case the customer needs a full root that is not damaged, 82.5% of the cassava harvested is sliced, injured, and encounters soil during harvest. \"We don't have time to worry about whether the tuber is cut or mixed with soil. What we typically care about is to remove as much as we can from the soil, whether they are cut or not. Cutting the tuber while it is still in the field even reduces labour costs for slicing it into manageable sizes during peeling, which ultimately speeds up and simplifies the peeling process, after all, we wash off any soil after peeling\". (FGD-KML1).Peeling and drying cassava. Cassava is normally peeled on bare ground (51.6%). The peeling activity is dominated by women (85.1%) (Fig. 2; 01). Peeling is followed by drying which is majorly on tarpaulin and bareground (Fig. 2; 02). Although it is majorly dried in these two ways, the preferences differ by region. Whereas the Eastern region dries most of their cassava on bare ground (42.2%), the Northern region does so on tarpaulin (48.1%) (Fig. 3). To prevent direct contact of cassava with soil, 16% of farmers first smear the surface with cow dung and when the surface is dry enough, they dry their cassava on this surface 'cow dung smeared surface'. The other drying surfaces were rocks and paved roads (3.9%), and gunny plastic bags (1.95%) (Fig. 3). The drying process takes an average of 6 days, after these days, farmers rely on traditional indicators to decide if the cassava chips are dry enough to be stored or processed. Most of the farmers (88.9%) break to check the brittleness of cassava. It is assumed that when the cassava chips can easily break without brittleness, then it is ready enough for processing or storage (Table S3).Moisture content in stores varied from 12.6% to 26% with an average of 15.6%. Cassava is stored either as chips or flour. The wholesaler prefers storing cassava in the form of chips so that retailers can buy it at any time and convert it into flour for selling to the final consumer. Farmers primarily store cassava for a long period (up to 1 year) as flour. The farmer stores cassava chips for 10-30 days. In this period, the farmer slowly sells the chips to get money for household use, while the rest of the chips are converted into flour for home consumption. When cassava chips/flour are ready for storage, both farmers (46.7%) and wholesaler (95.2%) dominantly use the plastic singlelayered gunny bags for packaging and storage (Fig. 2; 06) (Table S4). The nature of storage is dependent on the value chain actor (Fig. 2; 04-05). Only 5.83% of the farmers owned stores which are built separate from the living room mainly intended for crop storage. The majority (86.7%) of farmers store cassava chips and flour in kitchen and bedrooms because they believe the smoke from kitchen preserves cassava, while storing in bedrooms protects the chips from thieves (Fig. 2; 07). Only 5% store cassava chips and flour in metallic barrels (Table S4).Conversely, almost all the wholesalers (89.2%) store cassava chips in facilities which are normally rented in trading centers. These facilities are referred to as 'stores'. Within the storage facility, the chips are packed tightly in single−layered local gunny bags and placed on the ground (Fig. 2; 06). Only 22.4% of wholesalers place the cassava chips on pallets or raised surfaces. Before buying, wholesalers base on white color and brittleness as indicators for high-quality cassava chips. The responsibility of protecting the storage is sorely left to the farmers because when the chips are of poor quality, wholesalers will reject it. In this regard, whereas most farmers (72.9%) are more concerned with protecting their storage by continuously redrying, turning the chips, and regularly opening windows, only 30.1% of the wholesalers do so (Table S4). Cassava chips are mainly converted into flour which is either used for preparing a cassava meal, manufacturing industries, local brew, and pancakes. In this study, the ratio of processing machines to consumers taking their chips for processing was found to be 1:180 and each machine processes an average amount of 26.43 kg of cassava chips daily (Table S5). Because electricity is not available in most parts of the study sites, the frequently (75%) used processing machines are diesel-powered milling machine (Fig. 2; 09). Despite the call by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to register the milling machines so that they can be inspected and ensure they meet quality standards, only 1/14 machines (table S5) were certified and registered with UNBS. The same machines that process cassava are used to process other high mycotoxin contamination-prone crops particularly, maize, sorghum, and millet. When asked whether these machines are cleaned from one crop to another or from one lot to another, all machine operators admitted that they never do so.   Cassava can be consumed either fresh or dried. The consumption characteristics are summarized in Table S5. A significant number of respondents (75%) expressed a preference for consuming cassava in its dry form, specifically as flour. The cassava meal, particularly when blended with flour derived from other crops, is considered a culinary delight by the majority (72.8%). The consumers who blend cassava do so because they believe that blending improves the taste and reduces the starch content thereby making the meal more viscous, and others do it because it is the traditional norm. In FGD K-04, one respondent stated, 'Mixing cassava flour with sorghum is the best for me. My husband loves it so much, if I don't mix it, he will not eat the meal and eventually becomes less productive. Because of this, my children have also started rejecting eating a meal prepared from cassava flour without any mixing. However, blending is sometimes expensive because if you don't have your own sorghum or maize, then you have to buy it and, in some periods, I don't have money'. A few consumers (27.2%) who do not currently blend cassava with other crops expressed a desire to do so but the deterrent was the high cost of flour from other crops. This indicates that the preference for blending is nearly unanimous among consumers, with the limitation being primarily due to economic factors rather than personal choice. The highly preferred crops for blending included sorghum (54.9%), millet (36.6%), maize (7.19%), and sweet potatoes (Table S5).Managing mycotoxins requires the value chain actors to have a basic understanding of mycotoxins, their causes, and mitigation strategies. The study assessed the knowledge of mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxins along the cassava value chain, demographic factors that may be linked to this knowledge, and what key informants perceive to be the knowledge capacity along the cassava value chain.The results in Table 1 indicate that the level of knowledge about mycotoxins varied significantly along the cassava value chain. The word mycotoxin seemed new to value chain actors. Only 3.82% had ever heard of the word mycotoxins. Of these, one was a farmer, seven were wholesalers and no processor had ever heard of mycotoxins. Conversely, aflatoxins were a more familiar terminology as a majority (55.7%) of value chain actors had ever heard of them. In terms of knowledge distribution, farmers had significantly low (48.8%) knowledge of aflatoxins compared to wholesalers (68%) and processors (50%) (Table 1). Additionally, the findings revealed that farmers (56.2) were more knowledgeable about the crops prone to aflatoxins contamination than either wholesaler (53.3%) or processor (21.4%). Similarly, a higher proportion of wholesaler (40%) than farmers (11.6%) or processors (14.3%) were aware of the consequences of consuming mycotoxin-contaminated food implying that wholesalers may be more aware of the dangers posed by aflatoxins.The study also found that while more cassava value chain actors (82.9%) were aware of the methods for reducing mycotoxin build-up especially drying on tarpaulin and storing on pallets, only 40.9% were putting such methods into practice. Farmers were putting significantly more effort (47.9%) to manage aflatoxins than either wholesalers (33.3%) or processors (21.4%). This suggests that, even though people may be aware of the techniques to reduce mycotoxin contamination, there may be barriers to putting these practices into practice.The analysis of results in Table 2 reveals that cassava farmers have significantly less negative knowledge of mycotoxins (P = 0.026), compared to wholesalers and processors. Equally, female-headed households were not aware of mycotoxins (P = 0.004), with femaleheaded households having relatively less knowledge about aflatoxins than male-headed households. Similarly, there were significant differences (P = 0.033) in aflatoxin knowledge between regions, with farmers from the northern region more aware of aflatoxins than the eastern region. Age emerged as a crucial factor influencing aflatoxin knowledge. The analysis indicates a significant negative association between age and knowledge (P = 0.001) suggesting that older actors along the cassava value chain have lower knowledge about aflatoxins. Experience was significantly associated with knowledge (P = 0.001), the more experienced value chain actors had higher levels of knowledge of aflatoxins (P = 0.001). It is important to note that education level and gender did not show significant associations with aflatoxin knowledge.The results presented in Table 3 provide information on the perception of key informant interviews on the knowledge spread and practices of farmers, wholesalers, and processors regarding mycotoxins in a community. The factor loadings reveal the strength and direction of each item's association with the three respondent categories (farmers, store clerks, and processors).The findings show a strong correlation between key informants' perceptions and the community's awareness of aflatoxins. As indicated in the loading factors of 0.63-0.67 for \"The community is aware of mycotoxins\" and 0.648 for \"There are currently in place guidelines on mycotoxins\", key informants acknowledge community's awareness of aflatoxins and the availability of recommendations to manage afla- toxins. However, it was worrying that some value chain actors, especially farmers did not understand the negative effects of mycotoxins. This is seen by the loading factors of 0.77 for \"The community does not know the consequences of mycotoxins\" and 0.86 for \"The community does not know the consequences of mycotoxins.\" These results show that the key informants believe there is a knowledge gap in the community regarding the potential risks associated with mycotoxins. It was also revealed by key informants that the community is frequently consuming aflatoxin-contaminated foods as shown by a high loading factor of 0.74. Consequently, key informants strongly agreed (factor loading 0.63) that cassava meal is normally prepared with other aflatoxin-prone foods mainly millet and maize.In terms of recommended practices, the key informants perceive that value chain actors have received training on the management of aflatoxins (0.6-0.83), but there is a general lack of implementation especially in drying and storage. This is evident from the loading factors of 0.46 for \"Recommended practices are not often implemented. Similarly, processors were pinpointed as strong contributors to aflatoxin contamination as depicted in the factor loading of 0.759 for \"Processors are not certified; machines don't meet standards.\" These findings suggest that the key informants believe that the recommended practices for handling aflatoxins are not consistently followed, and there may be issues related to certification and adherence to standards among processors. Overall, the results indicate a mixed perception among the key informants regarding aflatoxins in the community. While there is a general awareness of aflatoxins and existing guidelines, there is also a need to improve understanding of the consequences and ensure better implementation of recommended practices.The current cassava handling practices and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination This study compared practices along the cassava value chain with existing literature to determine the critical areas potentially contributing to mycotoxin contamination. This discussion is based on key findings from the following stages: preharvest activities (harvesting and peeling), postharvest (drying, storage, and processing), and consumption. At preharvest stage, the study identified two critical areas that are likely to increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination: intercropping and contact of freshly harvested tubers with soil. Results revealed that freshly harvested tubers can get in contact with soil through damage of tubers during harvesting and placing peeled cassava directly on bare ground. In both scenarios, farmers wash off the soil to make the peeled tuber clean. However, rinsing the tubers with water may not effectively detach mycotoxigenic species and will provide a humid environment for fungal growth (Donner et al., 2009;Nyangweso Salano et al., 2016), thus increasing the risk of mycotoxin contamination. The cell wall of Aspergillus section Flavi species are composed primarily of glucan and chitin, which provides them with a strong attachment ability to various materials, including cassava tubers (Ruiz-Herrera, 1967). Therefore, contact between freshly harvested cassava and soil represents a significant predisposing factor for mycotoxigenic-producing fungi that lives in soil to get in contact with fresh cassava, hence encouraging contamination. Moreover, it is crucial to characterize the specific species of Aspergillus section Flavi present in the soils  within cassava fields. This characterization will enable a comprehensive assessment of their toxigenic potential in different geographical contexts, thereby identifying areas with a higher risk of mycotoxin contamination. Understanding the geographical distribution of these species and their toxigenicity levels is essential for implementing informed management practices to effectively mitigate the risk.The cassava postharvest stage encompasses drying, storage, and processing. Three critical areas that potentially expose cassava to mycotoxin contamination were identified. First, farmers dried cassava chips directly on the ground that was prevalent in the eastern region. This practice is sometimes intentionally done because cassava dried on the ground appears to weigh more, leading to higher monetary value (Kaaya & Warren, 2005). However, drying cassava chips on bare ground has been found to significantly contribute to mycotoxin contamination, primarily aflatoxins and fumonisins (Atukwase et al., 2009;Kitya et al., 2010) and should be avoided. The widespread practice of drying cassava on bare ground and rocky surfaces in the eastern region is a prominent factor that is likely to increase mycotoxin contamination and requires urgent intervention. Secondly, farmers admitted that animals, particularly chickens, goats, and pigs, trample over the drying cassava, resulting in fecal contamination of the chips. Fecal matter from such animals is highly contaminated with mycotoxins (Dersjant-Li et al., 2003;Nishimwe et al., 2019;Schrenk et al., 2022). This represents another pathway that can lead to the accumulation of mycotoxins in cassava. Majority of respondents reported drying cassava during the peak months of sunshine, from November to February, and relied on subjective methods like brittleness to determine if the cassava chips were sufficiently dry. There is a need for innovative and economically feasible alternative drying methods, such as solar dryers (Cervini et al., 2022a), that can be used year-round especially in rainy seasons when the prices for cassava chips are high. These dryers would not only prevent animals from trampling over the drying cassava but also reduce the labor involved in removing the chips from drying surfaces when it rains.Thirdly, wholesalers pack cassava chips in high moisture-absorbing gunny bags and place them on the ground for storage. Poor storage conditions, particularly in unhygienic, and poorly ventilated environments have been reported to increase mycotoxin levels (Swai et al., 2019;Uwishema et al., 2022). Although double-layered polythene bags, such as hermetically sealed bags are highly recommended for storage, only 1% of wholesalers are utilizing these bags, hermetic bags may protect the products but may not necessarily reduce mycotoxin contamination of the cassava chips. It is crucial to explore affordable packaging solutions that can effectively reduce the levels of mycotoxin, like recent advancements in sodium metabisulphite sheets for reducing aflatoxin B 1 in chili powder (Al-Jaza et al., 2022) and in peanuts (Cervini et al., 2022b). Additionally, the responsibility of protecting the storage has been mainly left to the farmers, with only a few wholesalers (30.1%) concerned about checking storage quality. Wholesalers play a crucial role in mycotoxin contamination as they dictate prices and buy cassava chips based on their preferences (Essuman et al., 2022). This situation allows them to pay less attention to the quality of stored cassava. Therefore, the implementation of innovative packaging materials, such as sodium metabisulphite sheets and other alternatives, which can reduce mycotoxin levels in chips already contaminated, becomes crucial in addressing the negligence displayed by these actors.Furthermore, it was found that only one processing machine was certified and registered with the national standards regulatory body (UNBS), and these machines were never cleaned between consecutive lots. The same machines are used to process other crops including maize, millet, and sorghum, which are highly prone to mycotoxin contamination. This factor can contribute to the problem, as the levels of mycotoxin in the crops brought for processing may vary among different owners. Consequently, even if one strives to produce uncontaminated cassava chips, there is a likelihood of contamination during the processing stage when utilizing these machines. The impact of processing machines on mycotoxin levels has been investigated on peanut butter in Kenya (Ndung'u et al., 2013), and adherence to registration requirements set by the national standard bureau was identified as a crucial intervention to mitigate contamination levels, the same is recommended in Uganda.At the consumer level, it was evident that individuals are reluctant to discard flour that appears to be contaminated with some opting to mix the new batch of flour with the visibly contaminated portion to reduce the overall level of contamination. To make matters worse, the majority prepare cassava meal by blending it with flour from highly mycotoxin susceptible crops (maize, millet, and sorghum). Mixing cassava flour with other known mycotoxin−prone crops like millet and sorghum (Kitya et al., 2010;Lukwago et al., 2019;Murokore et al., 2023) may increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination among consumers.The study also examined mycotoxin (particularly aflatoxins) knowledge among various actors along the cassava value chain. Aflatoxins were the most recognized mycotoxins, with the majority being aware of them. However, the term \"mycotoxins\" itself was not familiar to many respondents, indicating a lack of awareness about the broader category. The limited knowledge of aflatoxins within farmers has been documented along the value chain (Massomo, 2020;Nakavuma et al., 2020;Namubiru et al., 2022), yet they are at the beginning part of the entire value chain. More efforts should be directed to educate farmers about mycotoxins. The study also found that while some cassava value chain actors (especially wholesalers) were aware of the methods for reducing aflatoxin contamination, the actual implementation of these methods was relatively low. This suggests that although people may be aware of the techniques to reduce aflatoxin contamination, there may be barriers to putting these practices into action.The analysis of social-demographic factors influencing knowledge on mycotoxins along the value chain in Table 2 revealed several interesting findings. The role of being the head of the household exhibited a significant negative correlation with aflatoxin knowledge, with female-headed households having relatively less knowledge about aflatoxins than male-headed households. Region and age were also identified as crucial factors influencing mycotoxin knowledge, with the northern region and younger actors demonstrating higher levels of knowledge. Women are responsible for family nutrition and are better placed to manage mycotoxins than men (Kang'ethe & Lang, 2009), thus should be targeted for trainings on aflatoxins. Additionally, the experience was significantly associated with knowledge, indicating that more experienced value chain actors had higher levels of knowledge on aflatoxins. Contrary to other researchers (Magembe et al., 2016;Namubiru et al., 2022), our study showed that level of education and gender did not influence knowledge of mycotoxins. Findings in this study highlight the need to pay keen attention to household heads, age, and region while designing or revising existing aflatoxin management strategies.Perceptions of KIIs regarding knowledge spread and practices of farmers, wholesalers, and processors regarding aflatoxins were also assessed (Table 3). The results showed a strong correlation between KIIs' perceptions and the community's awareness of mycotoxins. However, there was a concerning knowledge gap among farmers regarding the negative effects of aflatoxins. The KIIs also highlighted the high consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated foods in the community. In terms of recommended practices, they perceived a lack of consistent implementation, particularly in drying and storage, and identified processors as contributors to aflatoxin contamination. KIIs provide an overview on the level of implementation and are at the forefront for most trainings and enforcing policies in relation to mycotoxin contam-ination highlighting the need for their involvement during designing or revising existing aflatoxin management strategies.Limitations of the study: This study faced several limitations. Firstly, the number of processors in the cassava value chain was relatively small, which constrained the sample size for this group to 14 participants. This small sample size may limit the depth of insights gained from processors. Additionally, wholesalers were often unable to allocate sufficient time for more in-depth questioning due to their busy schedules, which might have restricted the comprehensiveness of their responses. While the study aimed to conduct multiple focus group discussions (FGDs), logistical challenges prevented the inclusion of additional FGDs. This limitation potentially affected the breadth of qualitative data collected. Despite these challenges, the study made considerable efforts to capture a broad range of perspectives through the available individual interviews, FGDs, and key informant interviews.This study delved into two main objectives: the current cassava handling practices along the value chain, and their potential to increase mycotoxin contamination as well as the level of knowledge regarding mycotoxins among key actors within the cassava value chain in Uganda. Critical areas were identified as potential contributors to mycotoxin contamination, including contact between freshly harvested tubers and soil, poor postharvest practices such as direct ground drying and inadequate storage conditions, as well as improper processing. Interventions such as innovative drying methods, improved storage facilities, monitoring and regulating milling machines used in the processing of cassava chips into flour, and alternative packaging materials were recommended to mitigate these risks. While awareness of aflatoxins was relatively high among value chain actors, there was limited understanding of mycotoxins as a broader category. This highlights the need for targeted educational efforts to improve awareness and implementation of practices to reduce mycotoxin contamination. Furthermore, the findings indicate that while most value chain actors are aware of recommended practices for managing aflatoxins, they are not implementing them. This suggests a need for either a revision of existing practices or stronger enforcement measures. Factors such as household headship, age, region, and experience were found to influence mycotoxin knowledge, suggesting the need for tailored educational interventions. Addressing these identified gaps in cassava handling practices and mycotoxin knowledge among value chain actors is crucial for improving food safety and public health in Uganda. Collaborative efforts involving policymakers, researchers, extension officers, and community members are essential to implement effective interventions and ensure the adoption of best practices along the cassava value chain. ","tokenCount":"6482"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0103641061ef2934601d55bcd9b48bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a8f74615-71c1-4fc0-ab0d-f24d2766a72e/content","id":"172792379"},"keywords":["Migration","Climate-smart agriculture","Food and nutrition security","Knowledge index"],"sieverID":"c4a3eda5-da48-4446-8f99-43b8795c6ccc","pagecount":"19","content":"Purpose -Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male outmigration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.Design/methodology/approach -Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.Findings -Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of outmigration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Genderequitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.Social implications -The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.Climatic risk because of extreme weather events variability is one of the most critical factors affecting agricultural production. Indian agriculture is largely weatherdependent; over 60% of crops are rainfed, making them highly vulnerable to climateinduced changes in precipitation patterns. Weather-related risks in India such as heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and floods have become the norm because of their increasing occurrence during the recent past. This is evident from the extreme weather data; the number of extreme temperatures (minimum and maximum) and rainfall events have increased significantly from 30 in 1930 to about 358 in 2010 (Mahdi et al., 2015). It is estimated that by the 2050s, with a temperature increase of 2-2.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels, water for agricultural production will reduce further, and this may impact food adequacy for some 63 million people (The World Bank, 2013).In India, the state of Bihar is highly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological natural disasters, with North Bihar, in general, being flood-prone and South Bihar being drought-prone. In the (relative) absence of state-level climate models and or vulnerability studies, and with low community awareness, the state is potentially more sensitive to climate change (Bihar state action plan on climate change, 2015). A unique paradox is witnessed in Bihar wherein flood and drought events occur in the same year and sometimes in the same district. Out of 38 districts, 28 are flood-prone, with major flood events occurring in 2004,2007,2011,2013 and breach-induced flooding in 2008. Both North and South Bihar have experienced drought, as evidenced by drought being declared in 26 districts in 2009, all 38 districts in 2010 and 33 districts in 2013. Further, the years 2012, 2014 and 2015 were no better than the drought years because Bihar experienced irregular and erratic rainfall. In March 2015, there was extensive crop damage because of unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms (Roadmap for Disaster Reduction, 2016).Because of these unpredicted and extreme climatic stresses, farmers often face the loss of their crops, livelihoods and food security are threatened and already-stressed areas are pushed further into poverty and destitution. To cope with this vulnerability and marginalization, farmers look for alternatives, and labor out-migration is an important and often-adopted strategy to diversify household livelihood portfolios (Choithani, 2017;Kim et al., 2019). Although the extreme weather conditions may hit the male and female farmers somewhat equally, the implications for coping and recovering from the shock may differ because of social and gender inequalities prevalent in the society. The Indian sociocultural contexts offer more freedom to men than to women to migrate out of their home area and explore opportunities for additional income. A survey from the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, says that 70% of households where women are engaged in cultivation to have witnessed male labor out-migration. This leaves the women left behind obliged to IJCCSM 14,1 perform agricultural activities on top of the household responsibilities that already overburden them (Times of India, 2014). This may already limit their performance, but even worse, their limited access to knowledge and resources may lead to deteriorating agricultural production and also impact the overall well-being of the women involved, as is highlighted by many prior studies (Gartaula et al., 2012;Tamang et al., 2014;Patel et al., 2015).With the extent of these human and economic concerns of increased extreme climatic situations, and to safeguard farmers' well-being, there is a need to manage climate risks better and find a way forward. In an attempt to address the problem, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and consultative group for international agricultural research (CGIAR) Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CIMMYT-CCAFS), in collaboration with stakeholders at national and international levels, are working on the concept of climate-smart villages (CSVs). The CSV program addresses climatic risks from both technological and social perspectives. It provides gender-inclusive training to farming communities to scale climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) up for sustainable agriculture and better mitigating the risks of climate change. Interventions ensuring economic access to resources need to be targeted and scaled to safeguard climate change mitigation and minimize productivity loss. In CSVs, farmers practice climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which is an approach that integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental, economic and social) by jointly addressing food security and climatic challenges through CSAPs (Sriram et al., 2019).The mitigation strategies such as food crops choice mix (or crop diversification), offfarm work, better farming practices, etc. ensure household income and food security and thereby reduces male out-migration. However, adopting the proven beneficial CSAPs requires adequate knowledge for their use, economic viability and broader scalability. Practical training and the provision of services are strategies that can make adoption easier. Given the immense role played by women in agriculture, it is vital to build women's capacities and ensure that they have sufficient knowledge and training to achieve gender equality in agriculture. It is also crucial to overcome the exclusion of women from decision-making processes and labor markets so that they can better cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change (Sriram et al., 2019). However, there remains a gap in knowing to what extent and how the capacity enhancement of women in climate risk mitigation strategies can curtail migration and improve household food security and overall farm livelihoods.In this context, this paper investigates how CSAPs affect food security and, consequently, male labor out-migration in the state of Bihar, India. Our analysis shows that the adoption of CSAPs can reduce the probability of migrating by 21%, whereas women's literacy also reduces migration. Moreover, a narrowing of the gendered knowledge gap increases the adoption of CSAPs, thus improving food security and decreasing male out-migration. This paper concludes with insights into how the enhancement of gender-equitable knowledge relating to CSAPs is key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.Gender and social differences are dynamic and nuanced within communities. Thus, an understanding of how these differences could affect implementation strategies and the need for climate information is critical in reaching the most vulnerable (Bernier, 2013). The primary form of gendered vulnerability in the context of agrarian distress emerges Household food security and labor migration from male out-migration, which affects the distribution of labor and resources. Sugden et al. (2014) observe that poverty, gender inequality, insecure land rights, heavy reliance on agriculture and less access to education and information are among the principal reasons for climate change vulnerabilities. At the same time, women are not only the passive victims of climate change but are also agents of hope for adapting to and mitigating abrupt climate change shocks. Women are also concerned about environmental issues and are highly supportive of policies aimed at restoring the environment. There are plenty of suggestions for gender-differentiated agricultural strategies aimed at adapting to climate change. Many studies claim that differences in men's and women's responsibilities, priorities and access to resources, training and services at the community and household levels are responsible for the gender gap in agriculture in many developing countries (Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2020). Although hotspots of women in agriculture are discussed to assess CSA interventions relevant for women, their potential to help women mitigate climatic risks in production and consumption is not well addressed. A recent study points out that some CSAPs have the potential to reduce women's labor drudgery, but their adoption depends on several social, economic and political factors. Notably, the prospect of negative implications for a specific group of women should not be ignored but addressed and mitigate challenges accordingly (Gartaula et al., 2020). India's agricultural labor force is reducing. In 1981, over 66% men and 83% women worked in agriculture, which in 2011 were reduced to about 50% for men and 65% for women (Pattnaik et al., 2018). This shows that although overall labor force engaged in agriculture is declining in India, women's involvement is still more than of men's, indicating women's paramount role in Indian agriculture. Their contributions to household livelihoods vary according to the region and the type of farming and cropping system but broadly include providing labor for crop and livestock production and household management. Of the 98 million women who live in rural areas and practice agriculture in India, about 37% are farmers, whereas 63% are agricultural wage-laborers (Chanana-Nag and Aggarwal, 2018). Statistics show that 48% of India's self-employed farmers are women. About 75 million Indian women are engaged in the dairy industry compared to 15 million men. Likewise, 20 million women practice animal husbandry compared to 1.5 million men (Ghosh and Ghosh, 2014). Women are generally involved in various cultivation and post-harvest operations like storage; these activities are essential for the well-being of farm households but are often not included in the definition of economically beneficial activities. A substantial proportion of rural women who are active in farming are counted merely as unpaid family labor.Despite their crucial role, women's contributions to agriculture in India tend not to be valued in the same way as men's, and often women are not involved in agricultural decision-making. Men's departure from agriculture to non-agricultural jobs is increasing across South Asia, including Bihar, India. This process of agricultural feminization, sometimes, linked with women's better space in the agricultural decisionmaking. However, men's exit from this sector does not necessarily leverage the decision-making capacity of the women left-behind in agriculture (Pattnaik et al., 2018). Moreover, women's increased participation to some extent increased their role in the agricultural decision-making, but the \"final\" decisions should still be approved by men, even if they stay outside, as evident in Karnataka, India (Goudappa et al., 2012) and in Jhapa, Nepal (Gartaula, 2012).Like in other areas in the region, Bihar's agricultural sector is also feminized, with over 50% of the total farming workforce consisting of women, according to a report on women in the informal economy of Bihar, Asian Development Research Institute. Additionally, women make up 79.5% of the workforce engaged in animal husbandry in the state (The Times of India, 2014). This underscores the significant role of women in contributing to household income and food and nutrition security.There is a clear understanding of the positive correlation between income and food security. By food security, we refer to not only having enough meals but also meeting the nutritional needs of the men, women and children of the household. The ratio of perconsumer unit calorie intake to the measure of per capita calorie intake may vary widely between individual households because of inter-household differences in agesex composition. Thus, for a household with no children, the two measures will be much closer than for a household with a large proportion of children and babies. Hence, the per-consumer unit calorie intake analyzed in the study gives a much better idea of the adequacy of calorie intake at the individual household level. For India as a whole, the share taken by cereals in household consumer expenditure is 10.7% for the rural sector. In rural Bihar, total spending on food is calculated as 59.3% of total household expenditure, 15% of which is spent on cereals, contributing 61.6% of calories. Cereals are followed by milk products, oils, pulses, and so on. Thus, any effect of climate change on cereal production or consumption will have a significant impact on the food and nutrition security of the consumer units. In our paper, we emphasize how farmers are practicing CSAPs to safeguard production, ensuring higher yields and income and thereby securing consumer consumption.With limited access to resources and decision-making, women play a vital role in forming mitigation strategies while adopting CSAPs for improved household food security. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies have investigated the impact of climatic risk in terms of male out-migration, causing feminization of agriculture. The results substantiate how CSAPs can be promoted among women farmers to support them in mitigating climatic risks in agriculture, combating the effects of these on yield and securing household food security. Integrating the structural intersections between climatic risks, gendered knowledge, migration and food security is necessary to make informed policy decisions that will impact at scale (Sugden et al., 2014).This study was carried out in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India. The study area map (Supplementary Figure 1) presents the geographic location of the villages surveyed. Both districts are located in central Bihar and have similar geographic conditions and similar literacy averages, thus negating the scope of disparity in CSAPs adoption.To assess the impact of climatic risk on farmers' mitigation strategies, defined by the awareness and adoption of CSAPs by both men and women, we used a mixed research design that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The qualitative data were collected using focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted separately for men and women. The FGDs were crucial to identify the domains to be included in the survey questionnaire as part of the quantitative data Household food security and labor migration collection. The survey was performed by a team of men and women enumerators to ensure capturing the responses of women respondents appropriately. In the survey, we captured the farmers' understanding of how they had experienced climate change and the benefits of project interventions aimed at CSA adoption over time. We also collected comparison data on the impact of climatic risks on household food security among adopters and non-adopters.The survey was conducted in 100 households where both men and women from the same household were interviewed, making a total sample size of 200. In total, 10 CSVs were selected in Samastipur and Vaishali districts for data collection. From each CSV, 10 households comprising five adopter and five non-adopter households were randomly selected and interviewed. Interviewing both male and female respondents of the same household helped us to capture perspectives of both genders and to map out the gender gap about issues like crop yields, income, migration, food consumption, technology adoption and other demographic variables. We aimed to assess the determinants defining CSAPs adoption among men and women and resulting behavioral changes.We observed the impact of the CSAP interventions for over 10 years. Before 2007, the farmers carried out their usual agricultural practices, and from then onwards, training in building knowledge about CSA was initiated in the districts as mentioned above of Bihar. Hence, the year 2007 was taken as the base year from which data were collected based on recall, and 2016 was taken as the current year. However, spillovers because of improper record-keeping by farmers and insufficient knowledge of females remained a constraint to the analysis.The average yield and income indices of CSAP adopters were analyzed to estimate the effects of adoption on yield and income and to capture post-adoption percentage changes. The indices generated were derived only from the adopters. Yield and income were not calculated separately for men and women as both reported the household data; however, because of inefficient farm budgeting and differences in farm information and decisionmaking, the indices reported by men and women did differ.A knowledge index (KI) was generated to capture the current knowledge level, which mapped out the farmers' understanding of CSAPs. In our study, the CSAPs included nine technologies: laser land leveler, green seeker, multi-crop planter, harvester and thresher, zero tillage, leaf color chart, nutrient expert tool, relay planter and bed planter. This index ranked different individuals based on their knowledge about the practical usage and adoption of the technologies. The index was developed for men and women separately to assess the difference in technical knowledge about CSAPs; this is discussed in the following subsection.The indices were generated based on the principal component analysis (PCA) of the variables related to CSAPs knowledge, yield and income. PCA is used to exploit variation in variables to generate weights and corresponding ranks for households and individuals in the large dimensionality of the data (Jolliffe and Cadima, 2016). PCA provides a weighted rank based on the variation across a large dimension of variables as compared to some other measures that are based on means making it less susceptible to biasedness owing to extreme values. Various other studies have used PCA to construct indices with discrete data (Kurbanoglu et al., 2006;Filmer and Pritchett, 2001).The male and female respondents were asked to respond to a given statement on a fivepoint Likert scale 1 = very low, 2 = low, 3 =average, 4 =high, 5 = very high. The five-point scales were reconfigured to three-point scales to show a pattern of reduced (for very low and low), unchanged (for average) and improved (for high and very high), and a tabular analysis was performed.The PCA technique and the derivation of indices is discussed briefly below; we normalize the N indicators as follows:where X is the responses for i indicators, 1 to N for kth individual.The above adjustment transforms all the selected variables on the 0-1 scale. The value of 0 is assigned to the individual with the lowest value of the selected knowledge indicator, and a value of 1 is assigned to the individual with the highest value of the selected knowledge indicator.The results for the eigenvalues (l 1 . . . :l n Þ are presented in Supplementary tables 7, 9 and 11, respectively, for knowledge, income and yield.Eigenvectors as in Supplementary Tables 8, 10 and 12 are obtained for knowledge, income and yield.Finally, the index is computed as a weighted sum of N principal components and l 1 . . . . . . :l n eigenvalues, where weights are the variances of successive principle components as follows:The index is monotonous, with higher index values indicating higher knowledge levels related to better farming techniques. The index is generated for males and females separately, providing an opportunity to assess the gender gap in technical expertise in farming. A separate analysis at the village level provides important information on Household food security and labor migration differences across villages in farm knowledge and indicates the direction to follow in policy design. The efficacy of CSA options in terms of their benefits to both men and women stands to lose out if the gender gap in agriculture is not considered (Nelson and Huyer, 2016), and hence, the KI is used to measure the gap and form corrective measures. The KI not only helps compare the information levels on various climate-smart practices across villages and gender gap in information but also enables to study the association and impact of these variations on socio-economic outcomes such as CSAP adoption, migration and consumption. Impact analysis -To understand the effect of the KI, female literacy, training on CSAPs, household size and alternative livelihood activities on the adoption of CSAPs, migration and nutritional security, we used impact analysis using the following formula. The adoption of CSAPs also depends on landholding, other livelihood options, and the availability of required resources. Quisumbing and Pandolfelli (2010) highlight that other socioeconomic parameters such as age, marital status, education level and landholding size can affect agricultural technology adoption. These are therefore included as controls in the impact analysis for CSAPs adoption to circumvent omitted variable bias as follows:where, k is the individual, s is the state and X ks comprises the other control variables. The model is estimated using logistic regression that estimates the probability of CSAPs adoption as a function of KI and training. The binary values \"1\" and \"0\" represent adoption and non-adoption, and if we assume that, this probability follows the logistic curve as denoted by the following logistic function:The probability of adoption can be modeled as follows:where P M ¼ 1jX 1 ; X 2 ; . . . :; X K ð Þ is the probability that the value of the dependent variable, CSAP adoption, takes the value 1 (Hu and Lo, 2007). X i represents the vector of independent variables, KI, training and other controls.Another key was to study the effect of CSAPs adoption, female literacy and age of the migrant men. We hypothesize that CSAPs adoption would raise the productive capacity of farmers and minimize risks and that similarly, a higher degree of female literacy would correspond to better decision-making and farm budgeting, resulting in increased income. Such factors are imperative to higher productivity and improved standards of living, further negating the need for migration. Poor nutrition standards, on the other hand, could be a result of low productivity and income levels, increasing the probability of migrating to find an alternate source of earnings. The analysis also controls for factors that may affect migration and lead to omitted variable bias if excluded from the estimation. The current estimates are derived through logistic regression models similar to those explained in the previous section, with the variable of interestthe dependent variable, migrationbeing a response variable with the response as either a \"yes\" or a \"no.\" Equation (2) below represents the logistic regression model for estimation. IJCCSM 14,1The control variables include household size, land size, KI, OBC and SC/ST. Model 1 contains only CSAP adoption as the independent variable.The literature suggests that the risk of food security increases with increased volatility in climatic conditions (Campbell et al., 2016). We hypothesize that when faced with climatic risk, it is more likely that non-adopters will reduce their consumption compared to CSAPs adopters. A farmer who has a large land size would also be less affected by climate risk, as he is able to practice a diversified cropping system giving higher yields and income.Ordinary least square estimates are derived from studying the impact of CSAPs adoption on nutrition intake as per the equation below. The control variables include female literacy, migration, age, household size, land size, OBC and SC/ST.The design of this study was not a systematic observation of transformative changes in terms of gender roles and relations. This snapshot data collected from the areas where some climate risks mitigation strategies are applied, and we wanted to know how male and female farmers respond to that. Therefore, the analysis of this paper should not be viewed as a full scale gender studies that have systematic observation of changes and gendered responses to the interventions. Moreover, it is important to note that this paper is not an independent impact evaluation of the CSV program that is being implemented in Bihar, India, but our attempt is to showcase how the men and women farmers experience the CSAPs in the research areas.Yield and income indices were 0.799 and 0.671 for men, which are slightly higher values, than 0.686 and 0.571 for women, respectively. Results from more than 15 CSA interventions in Nepal show that women's participation in different agricultural activities were found to potentially reduce women's drudgery in agriculture and improve productivity and farm income (Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2019). Another study conducted in India also observes the potential of CSAPs to reduce women's labor drudgery (Gartaula et al., 2020), indicating that adopters of CSAPs tend to be less affected by climatic risks.Climate-smart agricultural practices adoption, migration and literacy Supplementary Figure 2 presents the trend of CSAPs adoption with respect to male outmigration in the period between 2007 and 2016. (innovators and early adopters), 83.6% of male farmers did not migrate; of those, 78% adopted CSAPs during that specific period. There has been a considerable change in the nature and causes of migration. Recent years have witnessed greater migration rates among the labor force in search of a livelihood, mainly for a more extended period of time (De Haan, 1999;Rodgers and Rodgers, 2001;Sharma et al., 2000). One of the more significant impacts of labor out-migration is the supply of remittances to the migrants' households, a significant non-farm source of income, depicting the severity of migration in the area. The remitted money increases the small household income of about Rs 6,426 per month; approximately, 60% of this derives from crop and livestock production, and the rest seems to be supplied by wages from local off-farm labor and remittances from migrant workers (The Hindu, 2017). The migrants' income at their destination largely depends on the type of occupations they are involved in, the duration of the work and the personal endowments of the migrant workers, such as level of education, skill, years of experience, etc. Because most of the migrant workers possess low private endowments, they are generally absorbed by the informal sector in irregular or casual employment that have abysmally low earnings. However, declining employment opportunities in their home area and the expectation of finding remunerative employment at their destination keep migrant workers tied there. Because the nature and patterns of migration in the research areas do not necessarily yield a large supply of remittances, interventions such as CSAPs do have an impact on curtailing migration by providing high-income and low-cost technologies. Our data highlight the fact that adopters are less likely to migrate compared to non-adopters. Among the 94 adopters, 17% were migrants, whereas, among the 92 non-adopters, 52% were migrants. In a situation where there has been an alarming rate of out-migration (from rural Bihar in the recent past), CSAPs can play an important role in curtailing this phenomenon by transferring the monetary paybacks together with delivering environmental benefits.Supplementary Figure 3 shows that the adoption of CSAPs also differs from farmers' levels of education. We have categorized education as illiterate (no schools), primary, secondary, senior secondary and graduate levels or above. Individuals possessing primary, secondary or higher levels of education tend to adopt CSAPs. We observe that illiterate farmers are more resistant to adopting new technologies, which is the main bottleneck for scaling. This validates the notion that knowledge of and training in CSAPs increase adoption because a literate and well-educated farmer is obviously better able to understand the technologies and related benefits. The resources, knowledge and capacity required to adopt a new CSA practice can be significant.Data reveal a stronger relationship between education and migration. Illiterate people are not able to perform advanced agricultural operations efficiently, are usually involved in lowpaid labor activities and tend to migrate in search of jobs. Highly educated people are seen to migrate more, as they have better earning opportunities in cities. Education is seen as strongly linked to migration (Rajan, 2013).Supplementary Figure 4 suggests that irrespective of the level of education, adopters are less likely to migrate. Over 85% of adopters with primary education do not migrate, whereas, with the same level of education, 56.8% of non-adopters migrate. This could be attributed to the higher profits realized from CSAPs that encourage adoption. Farmers with higher education are more likely to adopt and not migrate, as they are in a better position to understand the benefits of conservative agriculture. In our study, we observed that 85.2% of farmers with secondary education, and 84.6% of those with a bachelor's degree or above, were adopters and did not migrate.Irrespective of adoption, approximately, half of the farmers were non-migrants. From the policy perspective, there is a scope and a need for interventions to curtail migration aimed at IJCCSM 14,1 a better education, capacity building and scaling of CSAPs with a focus on women. Observing the role of female education on migration, we observed that if women were highly educated, men were less likely to migrate, as shown in Supplementary Figure 5. If a woman in the same household has a bachelor's degree, only 20% of men migrate, whereas 42.1% of men migrate if a woman is illiterate. We also observed that men did not migrate if a woman in the same household had primary or secondary education in 65.1% and 84.2% of cases, respectively. These quantitative estimates are also supported by the qualitative response of one of the male adopters who had migrated and whose wife had secondary education, who stated, \"My wife plays a very important role in farm decision-making. As we are aware of the benefits of CSAPs, her education, and my exposure to training help us achieve good profits. Not only her education supports in farming but also to take care of livestock, providing us additional income for children's education.\" These qualitative and quantitative findings justify the interventions targeting women's capacity building by providing training and knowledge.From the above statement and other field observations, the role of educated women in reducing low-paid out-migration and concentrating the household labor force on agriculture and allied activities becomes clearer. Although education plays an important role, literacy rates in India are low and witness significant gaps. As per the 2011 census, male and female literacy rates were 73. 4% and 53.3%,respectively,in Bihar [1]. In this context, increased women's education may help households in several ways as follows:Women may be better off in terms of managing households and agricultural (through extension education they receive).It may reduce men's out-migration, as men also see more opportunities locally and be with the family. It may eventually increase adoption of CSAPs.Figure 2 shows that a higher KI is indicative of better knowledge. Among adopters, the KIs for men and women were 0.717 and 0.527, whereas for non-adopters, they were 0.614 and 0.388, respectively. Data suggest that the male adopters are 1.36 times more knowledgeable than their female counterparts. Among non-adopters, men are 1.58 times better informed than women about CSAPs. This reflects a knowledge gap between men and women farmers in terms of adopting CSAPs. This corresponds with the results found in other studies that reflect on women's (as opposed to men's) vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change because of greater poverty, less education and training and less access to institutional support (Yadav and Lal, 2018;Goh, 2012). Women, however, play a strategic role in economic activities. Rather than merely supplying labor, they possess detailed knowledge of agriculture and plants and plant products for food, medicine, fish farming and animal feed. Women today are central to the selection, breeding, cultivation, preparation and harvesting of food crops (Weerakoon and Motebennur, 2017). Apart from their pivotal role in the cultivation of staple crops, they are primarily responsible for producing secondary crops, such as pulses and vegetables, which are often the only source of nutrition available to their families. Thus, we require plans for strategic integrated farming interventions to enhance women's participation by increasing their knowledge and endowment of resources.To gain a better understanding of the gendered nature of KIs across the region, a villagewise analysis was performed as presented in Supplementary Figure 6. Detailed analysis from the set of 10 CSVs suggests a critical piece of information, highlighting the differences Household food security and labor migration between men' and women's KI and the factors behind them presented and described in Supplementary Table 1. Besides, we also analyzed CSA technology-specific gendered KI to help design technology-specific interventions, as shown in Supplementary Table 2. The World Bank considers the KI as an economic indicator to measure a country's ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge. The report shows that India ranks 109th out of 145 countries with a score of 3.1. Of the three pillars of the knowledge economyeducation and human resources; innovation systems; and information and communication technology, India ranks highest in the area of innovation with several examples of low-cost innovative techniques that have emerged in rural India (Livemint, 2014). Innovative and cost-effective techniques lead the discussion for the adoption and scaling of CSAPs. They combine both high-and low-cost machinery, but when it comes to the benefit-cost analysis, they lead to significant profit-making technologies. The challenge, therefore, is the widespread diffusion of knowledge about these technologies in rural communities. There have been several initiatives made by CIMMYT and its partners to make farmers climate-smart and to increase yields, income, food security, adaptation and climate-risk mitigation sustainably.We analyzed the food and nutrition security scenario, where farmers' coping strategy was to alter their consumption pattern for different food groups if they fell short of supplies because of climatic stress. The mean reduction in consumption was calculated as a weighted average of the responses to the percentage reduction in each food category that was experienced with weights and compared between adopting and non-adopting respondents and among males, females and children (Supplementary Table 3). The average consumption of pulses, eggs, meat, vegetables, cereals, legumes and fruits was reduced less by adopters than non-adopters across all social categoriesmales, females and children. In other words, the impact of climatic risk on nutrition intake is more severe for non-adopters, thus making it necessary for farmers to adopt CSAPs to mitigate risks. Food category-wise, the highest impact on the mean reduction in consumption under climatic risks for both adopters and non-adopters was on the consumption of eggs and meat. Cereals contribute approximately 62% of total calories consumed, equivalent to 1,748 calories/day. The consumption of cereals, which are a major source of energy, was less affected among adopters than among non-adopters. Legumes were majorly affected by climatic risks among non-adopters, despite being a major source of calories. Pulses, vegetables, legumes and fruits were comparatively less affected among adopters; on average, adopters reduced their consumption by 10.53%, whereas non-adopters reduced it by 21.76%. With such a significant reduction in consumption, non-adopters tended to fall below the recommended calorie intake levels. The difference highlights the fact that food security for adopters is ensured as they experience higher yields and income, which allows them to mitigate risk in the case of climatic adversities.Based on the data obtained from NSSO (REPORT 560, 2014), we estimated the average daily calorie intake in rural Bihar as 2,731 kcal, obtained from different food groups (Supplementary Table 4). The report illustrates that the number of meals consumed by men for 30 days (71.2) is almost the same as the number consumed by women (70.9). It was also observed that children were not discriminated against in any age group and were provided equally well with food at home or school (Supplementary Table 5). Neither did we observe any discrimination in food consumption between men and women across age groups. Thus, under normal conditions, we should assume that nutritional requirements are equally addressed as long as sufficient energy-rich foods are consumed.Table 1 shows that the KI has a positive impact on the adoption of CSAPs. Model 1 shows an expected increase of 1.57 in the log odds of adoption with every unit increase in the KI. Adoption may be impacted by several other factors such as farmer literacy; availability of training; farmers' characteristics, such as gender, caste, education, social and economic capital; farmland characteristics; access to market and extension services; and climatic risks experienced by the farmers (Aryal et al., 2018). It is imperative to partial out the effects of such variables to obtain consistent estimates for KI. Model 2 includes other impacting variables such as circumventing omitted variable bias. The results are significant and remain robust to the inclusion of other variables. The estimate suggests that adoption of CSAPs increases the log of odds to adoption to 2.36. The inclusion of other variables leads to an increase in the probability of CSAPs adoption with an increase in the KI, indicating a possible underestimation of the estimate in the absence of the control variables [2]. Other similar studies conducted in India (Aryal et al., 2018) and elsewhere (Tran et al., 2019) also observed that farmers' knowledge about CSAPs is vital to address climatic risks and increase adoption of such technologies. It is thus essential to improve farmers' knowledge of CSAPS to increase their adoption. Female literacy is also shown to have a negative and significant effect on male outmigration. The results are again robust across the models. Model 3 suggests that an increase in female literacy by one unit reduces the log of odds to migrate by 0.37. Put differently, the probability of migration reduces by 40% upon adoption of CSA technologies and practices.A rise in the age of an individual is also seen to be negatively associated with migration.Rural youths leave their residence searching for better employment opportunities elsewhere within and outside the country; the main push factors are less agricultural production, local unemployment and other socioeconomic drivers (Patel et al., 2015;Choithani, 2017;Deshinkar and Start, 2003). Labor out-migration could be a climate-change adaptation strategy, as the supply of remittances contributes to household income and food security (Jha et al., 2018). Our study complements these studies but also demonstrates that adoption of CSAPs could be a strategy to reduce labor out-migration and promote the local economy.Model 1 results in Table 3 suggest that CSAPs adoption leads to a rise in nutrition intake by 5.92 units. The estimate is found to be significant and robust to the inclusion of other controls such as age, household size, etc. Men's migration tends to increase nutrition intake deficiency by almost five units. In the previous results, it is shown that in the case of food deficiency, men migrate. This highlights the vicious cycle of food deficiency among migrating households. To break this cycle, proper emphasis should be placed on addressing climatic risks and harnessing women's potential. An increase in land size also tends to reduce the decline in consumption and is robust at a 5% level of significance. Thus, well-endowed farmers are less impacted by climatic risks. To address the situation of smallholders, CSAPs offer the best interventions to secure household food security. CSAPs adopters can sustain a higher standard of food consumption. These results contradict other studies that look at migration as a household strategy to cope with poverty and food insecurity (Sunam, 2017;Patel et al., 2015;Kim et al., 2019) and as an adaption strategy to cope with climate change (Mcleman and Smit, 2006); this may be because of differences in the causes and consequences of migration in Bihar and elsewhere.In this paper, we focused on how the adoption of CSAPs influences farmers' decisions on rural-urban migration and how it impacts the overall household food security in two relatively food insecure Bihar districts. The overall low economic development and gender and social inequalities, especially in rural villages, are the most important reasons for the high incidence of rural out-migration in South Asia. The solution lies in the rapid economic development of rural areas. We observed low, average knowledge indices of the farming community and that women are in a disadvantaged position in the two study areas of Bihar, India. Thus, informed policy decisions are urgently needed. Business models for creating gender-equitable employment opportunities, improved education levels and training packages should be priority targets for investment and benefit from strategic short-, medium-and long-term interventions. A socio economic-environmental benefits portfolio should include focused, improved access and control for women over resources, ensuring enhancement of their decisionmaking and reducing low-paid workers' migration.This paper has highlighted the knowledge gaps that exist between men and women farmers in terms of CSAPs. Therefore, a policy intervention for an equitable genderresponsive development action plan is needed. The results suggest that a reduced knowledge gap would increase CSAPs adoption and consequently reduce the likelihood of migration. This is especially important in the research area as the labor migration is mostly a destitute migration, and if it could be reduced by improved social and economic conditions locally, it would benefit the rural youths in the research areas. The subsequent benefits, such as improved household income, proper farm budgeting and enhanced household food and nutrition security, would help improve the productive capacity of the society. Although the role of women in curtailing migration and ensuring household food and nutrition security (through production and consumption) is significant, there persists discrimination in wages and working status for the female workforce in agriculture. This wage inequality needs important consideration in policy so that both male and female farmers would be encouraged. This paper has demonstrated the need to implement policies and initiatives taken by the government to promote CSAPs for mitigating climatic risks; these policies and initiatives should aim to empower women and make women's labor as agricultural workers visible. One strategic intervention could be to enhance the adoption of CSAPs with a gender lens, endowing women with better decision-making. The direction should be toward gender Household food security and labor migration equity, aiming toward gender equality, targeting improved societal productive capacity and ensuring a sustainable integrated farming system. Although the adoption of CSAPs helps minimize the impacts of climatic risks significantly and promotes gender equality while relieving the pressure on government expenditure in massive amounts of compensation paid to farmers as relief at times of climatic risks. Its success, after all, relies on political will and commitment to the public. Her work focuses on generating knowledge, building capacity and learning on climate smart agriculture practices that can lead to equitable outcomes for women and other marginalized social groups in agriculture. Her particular interest is in finding innovative ways how sustainable shifts toward empowerment, equality, poverty reduction and nutrition security and sustainability can be achieved that leads to income and food security under progressive climate change and variability.Deepak Bijarniya is Research Scientist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). He associates in the sustainable intensification research, specially related to gender and social inclusion research portfolio in India. His research covers the issues of gender and social inclusion, youth and agriculture, climate change, food security, labor migration and human wellbeing. Deepak holds a PhD in Plant Sciences with interdisciplinary focus on integrated management of plant diseases from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.Dil Bahadur Rahut is Senior Research Fellow at Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan. Before joining ADBI, Dil was global program manager for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre's (CIMMYT) socioeconomics and sustainable intensification programs. He previously worked for the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan's Research and Statistics Department. He also served as a research fellow at the WorldFish Centre; senior fellow and Japan chair at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations; chief of research, planning, and monitoring and Visa/Mastercard director at the Bank of Bhutan Ltd; and assistant professor of development economics at South Asian University. He has a PhD in development economics from the University of Bonn's Center for Development Research, a master's degree in economic policy management from the University of Tsukuba, and an MBA specializing in finance and Bachelor of Science degree from India. He has over 100 publications in Scopus indexed journals focusing on development issues across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.M.L. Jat is Principal Scientist/Systems Agronomist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT. He has devoted over two decades to intensively work on basic and applied science in agronomy, soils and environment and promote conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification in smallholder farming systems of Asia. His research on CA has provided scientifically sound basis and directions for promoting sustainable intensification through policy changes and led to impact at scale in smallholder systems of south Asia. Research results of his group have been well documented in over 300 peer reviewed high impact journal articles, book chapters, books, manuals, monographs and proceedings. He has served several reputed international and national scientific bodies and fora. A fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dr Jat has several awards and recognitions to his credit. M.L. Jat is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: M.Jat@cgiar.org For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com Household food security and labor migration","tokenCount":"7401"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bceb47e78082264e80851d5a319c8349","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/934bcea4-78ca-4af2-b57e-645dd14515c1/retrieve","id":"425340380"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"10d2d832-6671-477e-9333-1db11d7ea2cc","pagecount":"4","content":"If 10% of auto rice mills operate at approximately 50% lower capacity a fortnight due to weather related supply disruption, it costs around BDT 11.17 million⁷ If 1% of the approximately 7 million⁶ agricultural borrowers default due to weather-related impact, it is estimated to be worth BDT 2.83 billion. An anticipated offset of 10% is estimated to be worth BDT 283 million. Impact-Harvesting and Machinery Opportunities-Harvesting and Machinery Market size-Seed Production Opportunities-Seed Production DCAS Innovation-processing Drought-increases need for irrigation, which significantly increases cost of seed production.Heavy rainfall events force mills to run at approximately 50% of their milling capacity. These events can also reduce grain quality supplied to 2,847 auto rice mills.In Bangladesh, the number of registered combined harvesters (CH) in 2023 is 6,000 with an average of 30 operation days per year per CH. The average harvested area per CH per day is 4.86 hectares, and the cost of harvesting by CH per hectare is BDT16,367. Loss of one operation day for 20% CH cause a revenue loss of BDT 95 million. (BBS, 2019;DAE, 2023;Kabir et al., 2020) 2 BDT35.20 million (Additional paddy transport cost) Boro rice area in Bangladesh is 4.75 million hectares and average transport cost of harvested paddy from farmer's field to farmer's home is BDT 3,705 per hectare. If 1% of the Boro rice area is affected by an untimely rainfall, the total additional cost of transportation is BDT 35.20 million taking 20% increase in transportation cost. (BBS, 2019; T.S Amjath-Babu, 2022) 3 BDT70 million (Aman seed production cost) The average cost of rice seed production per ton is BDT 50,000 and the total Aman season seed supply from formal sector is 69,870 tones. So, 20% increase in cost of seed production due to drought event, impacting 10% of total supply, the increase cost is BDT 70 million. (BSA, 2023) 4 BDT 558 million loss due to unsold seeds Total long-duration rice seeds sold in Bangladesh is 93,035 tons (Covering 40% of total area) A 20% decrease in demand for long-duration seeds due to delay transplanting means 18,607 tons will probably be sold as grain at BDT30,000 per ton instead of seed selling price of BDT 60,000 per ton, leading to a revenue loss of BDT 558 million. If a climate service can offset 1% of this cost, it could be worth BDT 5.58 million. (BSA, 2023;T.S Amjath-Babu et al., 2023) 5 BDT176 million additional logistic cost for unsold rice seeds The logistic cost required to return the unsold rice seeds from dealers to the company for storage is BDT 6,000 per ton. So, the total additional logistic cost when farmers switch to short-duration from long-duration rice seeds will be BDT 112 million.(BSA, 2023) 6 7 million agricultural borrowers Total agricultural loans disbursed in the country is BDT 283 billion including BDT 248 billion from micro finance institutions (MFIs) (45% of total loan) and BDT 35 billion from Banks. Estimated number of agricultural borrowers is 7 million, assuming an average agricultural loan size of BDT 40,000 per farmer). If 1% of agricultural borrowers default due to weather-related impacts, it is worth BDT 2.83 billion. (BB, 2023;PKSF, 2022) ⁷BDT11.17 million (Revenue loss of millers per fortnight) Milling capacity of 2,847 auto rice mills is 74,511 ton per fortnight. If 10% of the mills operate at 50% lower capacity for a fortnight, revenue loss will be BDT 11.17 million . (Assuming profit margin of BDT3,000 per ton in processing). (MoF, 2023) Exchange rate 1 USD= BDT 110.25 as of December 10, 2023(BB, 2023).","tokenCount":"586"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cde7903cecacf522c099ab9fa84c3837","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c13f85fe-f07b-480f-ab1a-57f9a6fccd69/retrieve","id":"868908259"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1267396c-90c9-47b5-96c0-299ec12f22d4","pagecount":"4","content":"Conservation agriculture is a promising technology for supporting sustainable increases in productivity. It helps farmers achieve more reliable and often higher yields while reducing production costs, increases dietary diversity, improves soil structure and fertility, maximizes nutrient and water-use efficiency, and controls some pests and diseases.While the biophysical benefits in terms of improved soil and fertility will be achieved over several cropping seasons, farmers are likely to improve their food security and incomes as a result of higher yields after only two seasons, with reduced labor demand for land preparation and weed control.Agro-ecological conditions: Conservation agriculture systems are used currently by farmers cultivating a wide range of crops under many different types of soils and environments. The greatest improvements over conventional tillage occur in water-scarce environments. Conservation agriculture is also most beneficial where farming is subjected to labor or power constraints (animal or tractor), and where environmental degradation has resulted in accelerated soil erosion and low soil fertility. Heavy soils requiring a laborious tillage process are also suited to minimum or no tillage.Livestock: Conservation agriculture systems are highly successful where there is little livestock pressure, since crop residues can be left to cover the soil surface rather than used as fodder. However, where livestock is more common and crop residues are required as fodder, there may be trade-offs between feeding the residues to livestock or retaining them on the soil surface. Mixed crop-livestock farmers can start conservation agriculture by using no tillage on a small portion of the farm where they can add sufficient crop residues. Once the plots under conservation agriculture are established and yields have increased, farmers can use part of the crop residues for feed and part as ground cover, starting another small no-tillage plot and eventually expanding to other areas of the farm. Conservation agriculture stops the practice of burning, thereby reducing carbon emissions.The requirement for crop rotation to increase soil fertility, and reduce pest and diseases creates diversity by introducing leguminous crops, but also means that farmers need access to legume seed and markets for their produce. A lack of access to input/output markets can therefore hamper uptake of the crop rotation component by farmers living in remote areas with poor road infrastructure.Conservation agriculture systems can be applied equally by small-scale farmers with a limited land area and larger-scale farmers that have access to draft or tractor power. Producing large amounts of biomass requires application of sufficient nutrients through compost, manure, or inorganic fertilizer. Farmers who are unable to purchase fertilizer (due to lack of access, subsidies, or cash) may therefore not achieve the maximum potential benefits.Labor: Manual conservation agriculture systems require only a pointed stick to plant maize under the prevailing conditions without having to till the soil. Where animal traction is common, the dibble stick can be replaced by an animal-drawn ripper.A key ingredient is the availability of plant biomass to cover the soil surface and retain soil moisture. This is easily obtainable in agro-ecologies where farmers neither burn crop residues nor feed them to livestock.Crop management: Conservation agriculture requires crop diversification by rotating or intercropping maize with legumes or other cash crops. This is essential to reduce the spread of pests and diseases. Maize-legume intercropping is particularly beneficial; the legumes not only add nitrogen to the soil, they also provide nutritious food and are an additional source of biomass to use as mulch. Farmers with a rather small land area available should practice intercropping instead of crop rotation. The most suitable legumes for intercropping are pigeonpea and cowpea. In cooler climates they can also intercrop beans with maize. New research shows that farmers can grow two legume crops at the same time using the 'doubled-up' legume system (https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108796), without suffering from maize yield loss.Weed control: This is critical when farmers convert from conventional to conservation agriculture. Without weed control through tillage, farmers need to apply a comprehensive weed control strategy to avoid yield penalties. This could entail rotations with competitive legume species, judicious use of herbicides, and/or more intensive manual weed control, at least in the first years of conversion until the weed pressure drops.New mindset: Conservation agriculture requires a new way of planting crops without previous ploughing. This can be challenging for smallholders, extension agents, and researchers, at least in the beginning, and may require long-term testing and demonstration to convince users of its merits.Farmer Grace Malaitcha, from Zidyana, near Nkhotakota, Malawi at her maize plot which she cultivates using conservation agriculture (CA) practices. Photo credit: Patrick Wall/CIMMYT.Most staple crops can be grown successfully under manual conservation agriculture. In Malawi and Zambia, the technology was tested successfully with maize, sorghum, cowpea, soybean, bean, cotton, sunflower, and tobacco. Even crops such as groundnut and cassava can be produced under conservation agriculture, although harvesting such crops causes considerable soil movement. Green manure cover crops, shrubs, and leguminous trees are also suitable for cultivation under conservation agriculture and have proven effective in improving degraded landscapes, producing high-quality animal fodder, and supporting the sustainable productivity of multicrop systems. The maize-pigeonpea intercropping system, for example, has been adopted widely in southern Malawi and has proven successful as a source of food security and income. Farmers are continually balancing risks against opportunities. Moving to conservation agriculture requires careful evaluation and encouragement over several seasons, since the benefits are not immediate.Livestock: There may be a trade-off between feeding crop residues to livestock and leaving the biomass on the soil surface to improve soil fertility.Price fluctuations: Diversification to legume rotations or intercropping as cash crops can be risky due to fluctuating market prices.Weeds: These can be troublesome in the early stages of conservation agriculture and may require additional labor and/or use of herbicides. However, if prevented from seeding, weeds will diminish after two or three seasons.Soil organic matter: Breakdown of organic amendments in soils of low fertility may limit nitrogen availability to the plants due to proliferation of soil organisms (known as 'nitrogen lock-up'). This may affect initial plant growth. Careful nutrient management and rotation with leguminous crops can overcome this issue.Food security and incomes: Conservation agriculture leads to improved soil fertility and therefore to higher productivity. Yield benefits can be significant after two to five cropping seasons, with yield increases of up to 140% measured in drought years.The technology helps farming families to diversify their diets, since farmers usually plant leguminous crops in rotation or as intercrops with their cereals. In long-term on-farm trials this led to an increase in Crop Diversification Index on average from 0.4 to 0.5 (+25%) and a higher Food Consumption Score.No-tillage systems permit three to five times higher rates of water infiltration, raising soil moisture content by 25-50% compared with conventional tillage. This explains why the technology performs best in conditions of water scarcity.Soil structure and fertility: Soils managed under conservation agriculture have higher biological activity, with an increased concentration of earthworms, beetles, ants, and spiders. This provides superior biological control of insect pests, such as the recently introduced Fall Armyworm. Soil erosion can be 64% less in no-tillage systems, leading to decreased siltation of dams and rivers, and halting soil degradation.Soil carbon: Over time, there is a gradual increase in soil carbon (a 45% increase was measured in five years at the Chitedze Research Station, Malawi), although this depends on the residue management practice and the agro-ecological environment.Labor: There is a reduced labor demand for land preparation (15-25 labor hours per hectare less) and weeding (15 labor days per hectare less when herbicides are used). This gives farmers a higher gross margin by up to 260%. If controlled effectively and seeding is prevented, weed populations decrease after the first two or three seasons. Achieving the same harvest with less labor preferentially benefits women, who may use their time to perform more profitable tasks. ","tokenCount":"1290"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5f96068b40c7906808f1d75821cb2f08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b97c03b2-8116-496d-b2ad-3509aa27e74c/retrieve","id":"1784935190"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"80a00e13-c973-4a88-8501-5267bfbfa4c9","pagecount":"10","content":"During the first phase, the farmers received certified rice and maize seeds and some herbicides to aid their 2022 wet season farming. For the second phase, each farmer received 4bags of fertilizers, 4 liters of post-emergence herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide suited for their rice and maize plants. The farmers are expected to remit 4 bags of grains after harvest.Input financing is one of the ways through which the Activity supports over 60,000 smallholder farmers trained in Climate Smart and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in both Adamawa and Borno States.In continuation of input financing for 259 maize and rice farmers in Gombi and Song Local Government Areas of Adamawa State, USAID-funded Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity and Capital Agricultural Development Limited (CADL) commenced the second phase of the exercise in the month of July.Local Government, Adamawa State.Women beneficiaries in Gombi, Adamawa State.  On a daily basis, Aishatu makes N400 to N500 profit. On market days, she makes between N700 and N800; approximately, N3.500 a week.\"Before now, I couldn't feed my children twice a day but now, I cook two to three quality meals for my children. I can also take care of some medical bills. I really appreciate IAA for bringing such an opportunity my way\", Aisha said. \"They helped change my orientation about seeds. I thought it was okay to purchase just any kind of seeds at the market. I didn't know buying just any kind of seeds would impact on the quality of crops produced\", admitted John.John received some improved rice and soybean seeds from his extension agent courtesy of the Activity and planted them during the last rainy season. For the rice, he didn't make much harvest due to the heavy rains and attacks by insurgents.He expected about 60 bags from 2 hectares but got 16 bags. However, the soybeans yielded much. He harvested 8 bags which he sold at N37,000 each.\"The money came at the right time. I needed to pay my children's fees. One of my children had just gained admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study Chemistry. I didn't need to borrow money from anywhere for her to settle down in school. It was like a miracle. Thanks to IAA\", recounted John.John and some of his children Tomapepo:the Activity facilitated the provision of a grinding machine for each group. This is in conformity with the objectives of the USAID/USG Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act, 2018 which \"strengthens USAID's programming to promote gender equality and women's empowerment; builds upon the success of our work in financing microenterprises; and expands the universe of our potential partners\".Most of these recipients have indeed put to good use the machines they received with amazing results to show. \"We have been using the machine for the production of Tomapepo. One of our members, Mariya Mahmad, recently sold 146 bottles here in Kwaya and also in Abuja.Each bottle costs N1,500. Others are not doing badly in their sales well. When we are not producing Tomapepo, we are grinding pepper, beans, maize, and millet for peoplein the community\", Fatima explained.On a weekly basis, the group remits N2000 from grinding. They deduct maintenance and repair fees from this amount.\"One of our members was in dire need of money to buy her ward's JAMB form, we were able to loan her the money from what is generated from the machine. Other members also come to borrow from time to time and we lend them\".In January 2022, from the proceeds of the grinding machine, the group first purchased three 100kg bags of maize at N13,000. Then, they bought two more at N13,500. By June, they sold the stored grains at N20,000 per bag and made a profit of N34,000. To aid their farming, the group decided to buy 2 cartons of herbicide. This, they sold to members at subsidized rates.\"We, Progressive Women, have benefitted so much from Integrated Agriculture Activity. There is no doubt about it\", affirmed Fatima.The 16 members of Murna Group all received training on the production of Tomapepo in 2020 and received a grinding machine to support production. However, to ensure continuity and accountability, the group decided to empower a young woman with the skills and machinery needed for production.\"We couldn't find a more dedicated person to handle our group's Tomapepo production. Vashti Aliyu is just 22 years old. With two children to cater to, she lost her husband about a year ago. Moreso, she was unemployed at that time\", said Anna Sabe, a prominent member of the group.In February 2022, Vashti made and sold 60 bottles of Tomapepo at N1,200 each. When tomatoes are abundant, she makes for customers on demand.During the harvest of tomatoes last December, Vashti made the product and sold them around April/May this year. On a weekly basis, Vashti remits between N2000 and N2,500 grinding cereals and legumes for customers. During a certain festive period, Vashti remitted N15,000 to the group to our surprise. She transports the machine to wedding ceremonies to offer grinding services as well.\"God has really used these elderly women to bless me. Apart from the machine and skills I got from them. In the first year of learning Tomapepo, they sold to customers but halted the commercial sales of the product due to poor sales in the community. But rather than give up on production, they decided that they wanted the product for themselves.Once tomatoes, pepper, and onions are abundant, they buy the commodities with the money realized from daily commercial grinding (they make between N500 and N700 daily; N5,000 and above during festive seasons). They produce bottles of Tomapepo and distribute them among themselves.\"Producing Tomapepo together helps unite us. In fact, that is not the only thing uniting us. The ability to loan ourselves profit from the grinding machine is a plus for us. Also, our decision to buy two bags of maize (N15,000 each) has brought so much satisfaction to the members. We intend to sell these grains during the peak sales period….We are seriously considering resuming the commercial production of Tomapepo, now that we are more united\", Lydia said. To achieve these objectives, the Activity works with a coalition of public and private sector partners to facilitate improved agro-input and extension advisory services to serve vulnerable populations; strengthen the institutions that form the market system and the networks that serve smallholder farmers disenfranchised by conflict, and facilitate the engagement of youth and women in economic and entrepreneurial activities M o b i l e : + 2 3 4 9 0 6 2 9 2 7 8 3 9 E m a i l : P . S i l w a l @ c g i a r . o r g","tokenCount":"1117"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"faee691243560eaeeed1193bf7416e10","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/50f55e19-18c7-44d5-80ac-caafdee10b7d/retrieve","id":"-2104901198"},"keywords":["Consumer preferences","Indigenous sheep","Linear body measurements","Production system"],"sieverID":"e4656e8d-942b-4a9d-b5c2-b82016cf2f3c","pagecount":"133","content":"By my signature below, I declare and affirm that this Thesis is my own research work. I have followed all ethical and technical principles of scholarship in the preparation, data collection, data analysis and compilation of this Thesis. Any scholarly matter that is included in the Thesis has been given recognition through citation. This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MSc degree at the Haramaya University. The Thesis is deposited in the Haramaya University Library and is made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. I solemnly declare that this Thesis has not been submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this Thesis may be made without requiring special permission provided that accurate and complete acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotations from or reproduction of this Thesis in whole or in part may be granted by the Head of the School or Department when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author of the Thesis.mid-altitude. The primary reason of keeping sheep was for cash income and saving across the two agro ecologies. The major feed resources for sheep during the wet and dry seasons were natural pasture and crop residues across the two agro-ecologies. Rivers and spring water were the main water source for sheep in the study area. Castration was not common practice by the keepers in the study area. Docking the fat fail of ewe lambs is a common practice in the highland. Farmers in the study area mainly practice natural and uncontrolled mating systems. Selection was practiced both for male and female. Growth rate, appearance and color were the most frequently reported traits in selecting breeding rams across the two agro ecologies. Twining ability, appearance, color and lamb growth were reported as traits given due emphasis in choosing future breeding ewes across the two agro ecologies. Feed shortages, disease, parasite prevalence and market were the major sheep production constraints in Bensa district. There are four towns where sheep was marketed in addition to many villages that were used as primary market outlets for sheep. Farmers, collectors, traders, brokers, restaurant/hotel owners and individual consumers were the major actors in xviii the sheep market. There are five main market channels and three market outflow route of sheep in the study area. The most preferred traits by consumer in the study area were younger age, uncastrated, large frame size, good body condition and non-black color. The demand of sheep was high during the time of crop harvesting and Christian holidays. The main frequently observed coat color pattern of sampled male and female populations of indignous sheep were patchy (51.9%) and while the most observed coat colour type was red followed by mixture of red and brown. Majority of female and male sheep in the study areas had medium and smooth coat cover, and most of female had no horn. In the study area overall mean of ear length, body weight, body length, chest depth, chest girth, height at withers, pelvic width, tail length, tail circumference and scrotumcircumference were 10. 3±0.07cm, 27.6±0.5kg, 60.2 ±0.34cm,23.2±0.08cm,68.5±0.6cm,60.2±0.5cm,17.23±0.54cm,32.73±0.54cm,20.17±0.3cm and 24.93±1.06cm,respectively. Sex of the sheep had significant (P>0.05) effect on the body weight and linear body measurements except ear length, pelvic width and tail length and rump length. Dentition classes of sheep contributed significant differences to body weight and the linear body measurements except ear length. The correlation coefficient between body weight and other linear body measurements were positive and significant both for male and female sheep. The result of the multiple regression analysis showed that chest girth alone could accurately predict body weight both in female and male of sampled population of indigenous sheep with the equation y =-20 + 0.67x for females and y = -29+ 0.8x for males, where y and x are body weight and chest girth, respectively. It was concluded that understanding the production system, consumer preferences and breeding practices of indigenous sheep can be used as first step in designing a sustainable breeding programme in the study area.Ethiopia is home for most populous and diversified indigenous sheep breeds/populations in Africa. There are about 14 traditionally recognized sheep populations in Ethiopia, which are classified into nine genetically distinct breeds and 6 breed groups (Solomon, 2008). The country has about 26 million heads of sheep, of which about 75% is found in the highlands where mixed crop-livestock production systems dominate, while the remaining 25% is found in the lowlands (DAGRIS, 2006;CSA, 2013). In Ethiopia sheep are widely distributed across the diverse agro-climate prevalent in the country. Sheep production in Ethiopia is based on indigenous breeds which account for about 99.78% of the total national sheep population (CSA, 2014).Sheep production is a major component of livestock farming in Ethiopia. It contributes close to 30% of the total ruminant livestock meat output and 14% of the total domestic meat production (Workneh et al., 2004). The sheep enterprise in the Ethiopian highland, where crop and livestock production are integrated, it is the most important form of investment and cash income and provides social security in bad crop years. The livestock sector contributes 30 to 35% of the Ethiopian agriculture GDP, 19% of the total GDP and more than 85% of farm cash income (Benin et al., 2002). Small ruminants account for about 40% of the cash income earned by farm households, 19% of the total value of subsistence food derived from all livestock production, and 25% of total domestic meat consumption (Adane and Girma, 2008).The level of production and productivity of sheep in the country is generally extremely low, due to several technical (genotype, feeding and animal health), institutional, environmental and infrastructural constraints (Markos, 2006). For instance, the average annual off-take rate and carcass weight per slaughtered animal for the years 2000 to 2007 were about 32.5% and 10kg, respectively, the lowest even among Sub-Saharan African countries (FAO,2009). But indigenous sheep breed has a great potential to contribute more to the livelihood of people in low input, smallholder and pastoral production system.The dominant sheep production system in Ethiopia is traditional and subsistence. So far, only very limited efforts have been exerted to promote market-oriented sheep production in the country and hence the current income generating capacity of the sector is not at all justifiable.Production system approach, which involves designing an effective and informed breeding programme, is a necessity to bring about improvements sheep production system of the sector. This approach entails proper valuation of both traded and non-traded products and services generated from the system. Information on the economic value of populations, traits and processes would ease the management of animal genetic resources that requires many decisions (Scarpa et al., 2003). Proper identification and valuation of the different characteristics of the production systems and animals would make resource allocation decisions among the different livestock improvement interventions for commercialization of the system quite fast and smooth (Kassie, 2007). This will also enable identification of sheep market opportunities by identifying preferred traits of sheep by the market in general and local consumers in particular.Sheep genetic improvement programs in developing countries have not been very successful may be due to failure to perceive the multidirectional aspect of the problem such as implementing genetic improvement programs without taking into consideration other vital needs of the farmers (Sölkner et al., 1998;Kosgey et al., 2006). In addition, poor performance of imported breeds from the temperate regions to tropical region with sub optimal management conditions has created a negative image for genetic improvement programs (Workneh et al., 2003). Further, crossbreeds such as Blue du Maine X Menz, Rambouillet X Menz, Romney X Menz, Corriedale X Menzand Hampshire X Menz produced at different research stations and ranches in Ethiopia were rejected by smallholders upon distribution because of phenotypic unlikeness and other characters to the indigenous ones (Markos, 2006).Other authors (Workneh et al., 2003;Kosgey et al., 2006) explained the failure of crossbreeding in the tropics due to incompatibility of the genotypes with the breeding objectives and management approaches in low-input and low-output production systems.Community-based breeding programs that adopt to take into account the farmers' needs, views, decisions, and active participation, from inception through implementation, and their success is based upon proper consideration of farmers' breeding objectives, infrastructure and ownership (Sölkner et al., 1998).Characterization of animal genetic resources encompasses all activities associated with the identification, quantitative, and qualitative description, and documentation of breed populations and the natural habitats and production systems to which they are adapted on. The aim is to obtain better knowledge of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR), to their present and potential future uses for food and agriculture in defined environments, and their current state as distinct breed populations (FAO, 2007). Genetic and phenotypic characterization of locally available farm animal populations provides essential information to make rational decisions for the improvement and the development of effective breeding programmes. In developing regions, there exist types of farm animal species which owe their distinct identity to a combination of traditional 'breeding objectives' and geographical and/or cultural separation by communities which own them (Mwachero and Rege, 2002). But extensive characterization activity was not undertaken in some part of the country. The importance of small ruminants to the socioeconomic well being of people in developing countries in the tropics in terms of nutrition, income and intangible benefits (i.e., savings, an insurance against emergencies, cultural and ceremonial purposes) cannot be overemphasized.Small ruminants also play a complementary role to other livestock in the utilization of available feed resources and provide one of the practical means of using vast areas of natural grassland in regions where crop production is impractical (Markos et al., 2006). Small ruminants are not only advantageous for human being during periods of cyclical and unpredictable food shortages but they are also useful for balancing the energy and protein supply during normal variations occurring over the years as well as between different seasons.Indigenous sheep in Ethiopia have a multipurpose role for smallholder farmers as sources of income, meat, skin, manure and coarse wool or long hairy fleece. They are also a means of risk avoidance during crop failure. Thus, increasing the current level of productivity of sheep is essential to meet the demands of the ever-increasing human population. On the other hand, by improving the productivity of sheep, export earnings as well as the income of the household will be improved. There are however, a number of constraints that affect the productivity of sheep such as mortality, feed scarcity and inadequate indigenous breed utilizations to production. Various scholars from different corners of the world have been advising that the performance of indigenous sheep could be improved through management and there is also potential for genetic improvement through selection.In all regions, small ruminant contribute significantly to food production and economic output. About 31-38% and 21-33% of the Ethiopian smallholder farmers own sheep and goat (Asfaw and Jabbar, 2008), The livestock sector contributes 30% to 35% of the Ethiopian agriculture GDP, 19% of the total GDP and more than 85% of farm cash income (Benin et al.,2002). Small ruminants account for about 40% of the cash income earned by farm households, 19% of the total value of subsistence food derived from all livestock production, and 25% of total domestic meat consumption (Adane and Girma, 2008). The demand and prices for sheep are also increasing locally due to increased urbanization and increased income in the cities. The demand is especially pressing given that the current population of the country is expected to rise to about 129 million by the year 2030 (IBC, 2004).The domestic sheep is one member of the genus Ovis, and is thought to be descended from the wild mouflon of South-West Asia. Sheep (Ovis aries) are quadruped ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name \"sheep\" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Sheep, Ovis aries, (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae, Caprinae) are a highly versatile and adaptable species. From their domestication in the Fertile Crescent, approximately 11,000 years ago, sheep now span the diverse terrains of each inhabited continent where they are exploited for a variety of uses including the production of food (milk, fat, meat) and clothing (skin, wool) (Dwyer,2008).African sheep are thought to be of Near-Eastern origin (Epstein 1954(Epstein , 1971;;Ryder, 1984).The earliest sheep in Africa were thin-tailed and hairy and introduced to East Africa through North Africa. The second wave of sheep introduction to Africa included fat-tailed sheep entering North Africa via the Isthmus of Suez straits and East Africa via straits of Bab-el-Mandeb (Ryder 1984). Fat-rumped sheep entered East Africa much later (Epstein 1954(Epstein , 1971;;Ryder, 1984).Accordingly, African sheep have been traditionally described and classified based on their tail type (Epstein, 1971;Ryder, 1984). However, the relationship between the traditional classification and genetic variation across currently recognized breeds are unknown. Recently, the study by Solomon (2008) indicated that Ethiopian sheep are classified in to 6 major breed groups and breeds.Ethiopia is believed to be one of the major gateways for domestic sheep migration from Asia to Africa (Devendra and McLeroy, 1982). Ethiopia is a home of most populous and diversified indigenous sheep breeds. Ethiopian sheep breeds have been traditionally classified into four broad categories based on tail type and fiber type: the hairy thin tailed, woolen thin tailed, fat tailed and fat rumped (MoA, 1975). Accordingly, attempts have been made to group some of the indigenous sheep types in to these different categories. Previous studies on Ethiopian sheep limited only on few specific sheep types in the country such as such as Horro, Menz, Afar and Bonga and/or are based on few animals (Galal,1983;Kassahun, 2000;Solomon,2002;Sisay,2002;Zewdu et al., 2010;Getachew et al.,2010;). Morphologically characterized sheep types in Gamogofa, Sidama-Gedeo, Gurage -Silte, Kembata Tembaro -Hadya and Wolaita zones and very few woredas of SNNPR were undertaken (Abera et al., 2013). Molecular characterization of 14 sheep types was also studied by Solomon (2008).However, information on sheep types in some pocket areas of Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region is lacking. The choice of farmers/pastoralists of agricultural enterprises in Ethiopia depends on the production environment (availability of resources, particularly land, water and climate), longstanding tradition of agricultural production in the community, socio-economic circumstances (awareness and skill, access to inputs and markets), and government support (inputs and services) which stems from agricultural policies. In subsistence-oriented traditional production system, goats and sheep are important because they require low initial capital and maintenance costs, are able to use marginal land and crop residues, produce milk and meat in readily usable quantities, and are easily cared for by most family members. Furthermore, they are important in feeding the rapidly expanding population of the developing world under typical harsh environmental conditions (Markos et al., 2006).Ethiopia is one of the countries that have predominantly traditional sheep production system.The major sheep production systems in Ethiopia include the traditional sheep production system, which consists mixed crop-livestock systems, and pastoral and agro-pastoral system and the government ranches for breeding and multiplication centers, characterized by different production goals and priorities, management strategies and practices, and constraints (Markos, 2006).The sheep production systems of Ethiopia are classified into five based on degree of integration with crop production and contribution to livelihood, level of input and intensity of production, agro-ecology, length of growing period and relation to land and type of commodity to be produced (Solomon et al., 2008).This production system prevails in the high altitude areas (above 3000 m.a.s.l.) where the major crops grown are barley and pulses such as faba beans, lentils, etc. Sheep are the dominant livestock species. The main feed resource-base includes wasteland grazing, stubble and sometimes straw. Sheep flock sizes range from 30 to several hundred head. Although sheep are reared mainly for meat but skins and coarse wool production for the cottage industry of the central highlands are subsidiary products (Solomon et al., 2008).This system is predominantly found in highland agro-ecological zones where the climatic factors are conducive for farming of crops and raising livestock. This system is generally found in areas where the altitude ranges between 1500 and 3000 m.a.s.l. The area has adequate rainfall and moderate temperature and is thus suitable for grain production. In this production system, livestock and crops are maintained as complementary enterprises. The average land size per household is often less than two hectares (Solomon et al., 2008). Within the mixed crop-livestock system, small ruminant production systems are found associated with the different agricultural production systems which vary in potentials, intensity of the mixed farming operation, natural resources base including grazing and livestock resources.Furthermore, in highland agro-ecology, as in central Ethiopia, increased human population has led to decreased farm size and a gradual shift from keeping large to small ruminants, mainly goat and sheep (Peacock, 2005).Pastoral and agro-pastoral systems are found in the lowlands are characterized by extensive production based largely on the rangeland (Tembely, 1998;EARO, 2000). Small ruminant production is associated with the purely livestock based nomadic and transhumance pastoral production systems based largely on range, primarily using natural vegetation. In the lowlands of Ethiopia, livestock is comprised of large flocks and herds of sheep and goats, cattle and camels mainly transhumant's, where only surplus are sold at local markets or trekked to major consumption centers. Extensive livestock keeping is the backbone of the economies of the lowlands (Tembely, 1998;EARO, 2000).Ranching system is a range-based system of livestock production similar to the pastoral systems but with different production parameters, livestock functions and management. The system can be considered as a modern land use system. The main function of this system is to generate cash income. Both highland and arid/semi-arid ranching can be undertaken in Ethiopia (Solomon et al., 2008).Urban and peri-urban production systems involve the production of sheep and goats within and at the periphery of cities. In this system the feed resource of livestock are usually household wastes, market area wastes, mill leftovers, by-products and roadside grazing.Currently, small-scale sheep and goat fattening is emerging as an economic activity in many growing cities (Solomon et al., 2008).Flock structure or flock composition is the proportion of the flock which is formed by different age and sex classes. This is determined by flock owner on the basis of economic and management considerations. The composition is also influenced by reproductive and mortality rates. Determination of the best flock structure is strongly influenced by the owner's management objectives, whether the main interest is in the production of milk or meat, the prevailing constraints in the system and it can further provide the basis for calculating or for casting flock productivity (ILCA, 1990). For example, in Konta special Woreda of SNNPR sheep flock consisted of breeding ewes, castrates, ram lambs, rams, ewe lambs, ewes, breeding rams account for about 20.2, 18.6, 16 13.1, 12.1,10.4 and 9.3% respectively (Amelmal, 2011) of the flock while On the other hand, average flock sizes of 24 animals were reported in the central highlands of Ethiopia (Abebe, 1999). Lower flock sizes of 6.3 for Horro sheep (Solomon et al., 2005)  and 6.97 for sheep breed found around Dire Dawa (Aden, 2003) were reported.Under farmers management condition both breeding ram and ewe graze together throughout the year with all age class of sheep and in most cases with other species of livestock (Abebe, 1999;Aden, 2003). Report on male to female ratio of different studies range from 1:5.21 to 1:29 (Niftalem, 1990;Abebe, 1999;Aden, 2003;Solomon, 2007;Tesfaye, 2008;Dejen, 2010).Animal genetic resources for food and agriculture are an essential component of the biological basis for world food security. Characterization of animal genetic resources refers to the process by which populations or ecotypes are identified or differentiated. Characterization means the distillation of all available knowledge, both published and unpublished, which contributes to the reliable prediction of genetic performance in a defined environment. It does not imply mere accumulation of existing reports or individual findings on genetic performance (Rege and Lipner, 1992). The exercise includes a clear definition of the genetic attributes of an animal species or breed, which has a unique genetic identity, and the environments to which species or breed populations are adapted or known to be partially or not adapted.Characterization activities should contribute to objective and reliable prediction of animal performance in defined environments, so as to allow a comparison of potential performance within the various major production systems found in a country or region. It is, therefore, more than the mere accumulation of existing reports. The information provided through the characterization process enables a range of interest groups, including farmers, national governments and regional as well as global bodies to make informed decisions on priorities for the management of AnGR Characterization of a livestock breed or population should be done both at the phenotypic (phenotypic characterization) as well as molecular level (genetic characterization). Both are complementary to each other. Phenotypic and molecular genetic characterizations of AnGR are used to measure and describe genetic diversity in these resources as a basis for understanding them and utilizing them sustainably.The term \"phenotypic characterization of AnGR\" generally refers to the process of identifying distinct breed/ population and describing their external and production characteristics within agiven production environment. The information generated by characterization studies is essential for planning the management of AnGR at local, national, regional and global levels (FAO, 2012). The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources (FAO, 2007) recognizes that \"a good understanding of breed characteristics is necessary to guide decisionmaking in livestock development and breeding programs\".Reproduction is the process by which animals produce offspring for the purpose of continuing the species. It is a series of events comprising of gamete production, fertilization, and increase with age of ewe up to six years, and is greater for seasonally breeding ewes in the first half of the breeding season (Hafez, 1974) It is also affected by age (parity), season and to a large extent ewe body weight at mating which itself modulated by nutrition. Parity had a significant effect on litter size. Litter size increases with increase age of the dam up to about five years or fourth parity, and decreases slightly thereafter (Wilson and Durkin, 1984). The growth performance of sheep is also influenced by age of the dam/parity, pre-mating weight of the dam, type of birth, sex, the season and month of birth. Birth weight is an indicator of the size and vigor of the lamb at the beginning of postnatal development and an important factor influencing later growth. Birth weight which itself is affected by dam size, dam body condition and litter size influences the survival rate and pre-weaning growth performance of the off springs. Birth type and sex are sources of variation in lamb preweaning growth rate .Lambs which are heavier at birth are usually singles or are those produced by ewes with larger body sizes and good feeding conditions. The indication is that lambs heavier at birth have larger adult weight and higher growth capacity (Kassahun, 2000).Weaning weight is a trait of great economic importance in meat sheep production since it has influence on growth rate and survival. Weaning weight and post-weaning growth rate of lambs is as important as the pre-weaning growth performances, mainly when the objective is producing meat through lamb production. Weaning weight influenced by season of birth, sex of lamb and type of birth (Kassahun, 2000;Gbangboche et al., 2006); ram lambs and singleborn ones were heavier than their counterparts. Parity and postpartum ewe body weight had significantly influenced weaning weight; dams with higher parity and heavier postpartum weight produced heavier lambs at weaning (Gbangboche et al., 2006).Communities are defined as groups of people bound together by social, cultural and economic relations based on shared interests and living in a well defined area. Communities are not homogeneous; there may be differences between sub-groups (e.g. families) and individuals in a community. However, shared interests in cooperation outweigh competing interests that serve as the glue linking members together. A community-based breeding program refers to village-based breeding activities planned, designed, and implemented by smallholder farmers, individually or cooperatively, to effect genetic improvement in their flocks and conserve indigenous genetic resources. The community-based breeding strategies also consider the production system holistically and involve the local community at every stage, from planning to operation of the breeding program ( Sölkner-Rollefson, 2003).Community-based breeding programs are most appropriate to implement in situations where livestock keepers already run their animals together, such as in communal grazing areas (Solomon et al., 2010;Solomon et al., 2011). These situations also have potential for other community-level collective actions, such as joint procurement of services (veterinary, feeding and marketing). Programs that adopt community-based strategies need to take into account farmers' needs, views, decisions, and active participation, from inception through to implementation, and their success is based upon proper consideration of farmers' breeding objectives, infrastructure, participation, and ownership (Sölkner et al., 1998). Thus, a full understanding of local knowledge and practices of communities in animal management is of paramount importance for the design and implementation of such programs. Indigenous knowledge is closely related to survival and subsistence and provides a basis for local-level decision making in natural resource management, food security, human and animal health, education, and various other community-based activities.In the Ethiopia past failures in sheep genetic improvement have led to research on design of breeding programs. Small flock sizes, communal grazing/herding and uncontrolled mating did not favour the implementation of selective breeding/recurrent selection programs within village flocks. The approach adopted initially and implemented for Afar, BHS, Horro and Menz sheep was to generate improved rams in closed, nucleus flocks and to disseminate them to village flocks. The projects generally ended in failure, as most lacked long-term vision and did not involve farmers in the planning (Solomon et al., 2011). These failures led to the argument that such breeding schemes may not be appropriate for smallholder systems in developing sheep industries. A new village-or community-based breeding scheme, which does not involve central nucleus flocks, has thus been adopted recently to improve village flocks through recurrent selection (Solomon et al., 2009;Gemeda, 2011;Tadele, 2011). Indigenous knowledge is the body of knowledge acquired by a community in any given area and relating to agriculture, livestock rearing, food preparation, education, institutional management, natural resource management, health care and other pertinent subjects. It is regarded as a valuable resource for development activities that may be equal or even superior to the knowledge introduced by outsiders and should therefore be considered and applied in development projects wherever suitable\" (Mathias, 1995). It is variously referred to as \"traditional knowledge\" or \"local knowledge\". Much indigenous knowledge is based on practical experience and is not easily expressed verbally -it represents \"tacit knowledge\", to distinguish it from \"explicit knowledge\". This knowledge is not evenly distributed. One culture or community has different knowledge from another.Indigenous knowledge of animal breeding is made up of various concepts and practices used by livestock breeders to influence the genetic composition of their herds. It includes:➢ Cultural concepts on the uses of animals (general breeding objectives)➢ Local preferences for certain characteristics, such as colour, size, behavioral patterns and disease or drought resistance (specific breeding objectives)➢ Selection practices for certain qualities (castration, culling, offspring testing)➢ Pedigree-keeping ➢ Social restrictions on the sale of genetically valuable breeding animals that lead to closed gene-pools.Nowadays, small ruminant improvement programmes are being promoted under the smallholder farmers to enhance meat supply. However, there is difficulty in animal marketing in relation to price setting. The market price is usually set by subjective measurements (i.e.visual judgment and loin-eye-area palpation). Estimating the market price based on live weight is quite important in reducing the bargaining practices. Due to lack of weighing scale in the remote rural areas of the region, it is almost impossible to obtain any accurate measurement of this very important trait. Estimating the live weight of small ruminants is quite important for good animal management, including understanding medication doses, adjusting feed supply, monitoring growth and choosing replacement males and females (Mathieu et al., 2011).Body measurements are considered as qualitative growth indicators which reflect the conformational changes occurring during the life span of animals. Studies indicated that variation exists indigenous sheep breeds for body weight traits (Kassahun, 2000;Sisay;2002;Markos, 2006;Solomon;2007). According to Attach and Elkhidir (2004)  Sheep marketing operations are generally small-scale family businesses. The sheep producers supply to the market is not based on market demand, rather buyers must choose from whatever is available in the market. The live animals are either transported in trucks or herded over long distances to feedlot operators, export abattoirs, or major markets. These final market destinations are far away from supply sources, and the transportation costs associated with getting live animals to markets can result in significant weight loss and even death; stock routes are characterized by lack of adequate feed, water, and resting places. Price is determined through bargaining at the market; sheep producers are usually less informed about price, supply, and demand situations. Producers are highly fragmented, while there is a concentration of major sheep buyers, a situation which might lead to noncompetitive pricing and marketing behavior (CSA, 2005).There is a need for a well performing marketing system which satisfies consumer demands with the minimum margin between consumer and producer prices. Higher prices for producers can encourage farmers to adopt new technologies which, though potentially more profitable, may pose greater risk than traditional production system (Belay, 2013).The marketing channels flow to final consumers in both the domestic and export markets are lengthy, without significant value-added activities. The sheep marketing channels, which start with the smallholder livestock producers from the mixed crop-livestock farming system, mainly cater to the domestic market. The marketing channel starting with the pastoralists is for both domestic and export markets. The market actors may be involved in cattle only, sheep and goats only, or cattle, sheep, and goat transactions (Fekadu, 2006).Economic valuation of phenotypic traits starts from elicitation of the preferences of consumers of the livestock raised or bought from the market. Reorientation of livestock production systems towards consumer preferences and demands through timely and comprehensive transformation is currently the main agenda among the stakeholders of livestock improvement. Market orientation of livestock production system requires proper valuation of both traded and non-traded products and services generated from the system. This is why eliciting farmers' preferences of the phenotypic characteristics of livestock and estimating the economic values of these characteristics become crucially important. Proper identification and valuation of the different characteristics would make resource allocation decisions among the different livestock improvement interventions for commercialization of the system quite fast and easy. The research was justified for the basic reason that prices of animals are determined mainly based on phenotypic and qualitative traits than quantitative traits such as live weight or carcass weight as commonly practiced in developed markets (Girma et al., 2007).However, information on the different types of criteria used for marketing sheep, and whether these market criteria have significant association with the buying price and purpose for which they are assessed is lacking. Such information provides first hand idea for sheep breeders so as to improve production according to market demand.This study was conducted in Bensa district of Sidama Zone in Southern Nations Nationalities  The agricultural production system of Bensa district is mainly characterized by mixed crop livestock system. The most important staple food crops grown by the farmers in the area are enset (Enset ventricosum), maize and haricot bean. Enset is the major stable food source for human and its by products serve as an important source of animal feed in the study area. The main crops grown during the long rainy season are barely, wheat, vegetables and pulses which are grown exclusively in highland and mid-altitude areas. Perennials crops are cash crops which include coffee and fruit trees (Avocado). Among cash crops coffee is the most important source of income. Livestock production is one of the major economic bases of the study area. Sheep production has always been an integral part of the traditional subsistence mixed crop-livestock production system in this area. For consumer preference study, discussion was held with district marketing and cooperative promotion office of study area. Accordingly, all possible markets and primary, secondary and tertiary market of the study district were identified. Accordingly, Gonjobe, Bura, Chebe and Daye markets were identified as the major markets in the study area. After identification of potential markets, producers and traders (small and large) and consumers (butchers, hotels, and restaurants) were selected and discussion was held on consumer's preference of indigenous sheep of the study area.For morphological characterization study both qualitative and quantitative traits of indigenous sheep were measured. Measurements were made on individual animals from 446 randomly selected females and 128 randomly selected males in the study area. Every Animal to be measured was identified by sex and dentition. Morphological measurements were taken from each individual animal (0PPI to 3PPI) that were available in sampled sheep population in study area. All sampled sheep were individually handled and dentition characters were used to determine the age correlated in each case by owner's information.Data were collected by administrating a semi-structured questionnaire, individual interview employing field measurement and observations, through organized group discussion and from secondary sources. Rapid market appraisal (RMA) as outlined by Holtzman (2002) was employed to study the consumer preferences and marketing systems of sheep in the district. Local traders, terminal traders, hotel/ restaurant owners and consumers were interviewed using respective checklists.The checklists included meat consumption level and pattern of consumers, phenotypic trait they prefer to buy sheep from market, limitation of meat consumption trends of consumers, factors influencing consumers' choice of meat. All possible to and from sheep market chains in Bensa district were identified.Quantitative (body measurements) and qualitative (morphological characters) data were collected based on age groups and recorded on the format adopted from the standard description list developed by FAO (2012)   Wilson and Durkin (1984) for African sheep breed. Body condition score (BCS) was assessed subjectively and scored using the 5 point scale (1= very thin, 2 = thin, 3= average, 4 = fat and 5 = Very fat/ obese) for both of the sexes according to Hassamo et al. (1986). Linear body measurements were taken by restraining and holding the animals in a stable condition.The data collected was checked for any inconsistency and corrected, and then coded and entered into computer. The collected data that is morphological and qualitative data were entered into Microsoft EXCEL software's. Survey data was described and analyzed using SPSS (2009). Indices were calculated to provide ranking of the reasons of keeping sheep, importance of major farming activities to the family food source and income, selection criteria, and major constraints of sheep production according to the following formula: Index = Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] given for particular qualitative variables divided by Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] for all qualitative variables considered.Effective population size for randomly mated population was calculated according to Falconer and Mackay (1996) as: Ne = (4Nm Nf) / (Nm + Nf) Where, Ne = effective population size, Nm = number of breeding males and Nf =number of breeding females. The rate of inbreeding coefficient (ΔF) was calculated from Ne as ΔF = 1/2Ne. The mean of these parameters was also computed.Qualitative data from individual observation was analyzed following the frequency procedures of SAS version 9. 1.3(2008). The General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS was employed to analyze quantitative variables to determine effects of class variables (sex and dentition). Sex and age group were fitted as fixed independent variables and body weight and a linear body measurement except scrotum circumference was fitted as dependent variables. Tukey's test was used to separate means when significant difference was detected.The models for analyzing quantitative data except scrotal circumference were: yijk =  + Ai+ Sj+(AS)ij+ eijkWhere: Yijk = the observed k (body weight or linear body measurements except scrotum circumference) in the i th age group and j th sex = overall mean Ai = the effect of i th age group (0-3 pair permanent incisor) Sj= the effect of j th sex (j= male or female) (AS)ij = the effect of interaction of i of age group with j of sex eijk = random residual error Model to analyze the scrotum circumference was:Where: Yij = the observed j (scrotum circumference) in the i th age group = overall mean Ai = the effect of i th age group (0-3pair permanent incisor) eij = random residual error Multiple linear regressions were used to estimate the body weights of sheep from various body measurements. The association between body weight and linear measurements were assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient in SAS version 9. 1.3 (2008). The following models were used for estimation of body weight from linear measurements:-For male:Where: Yj = the response variable; body weight  = the intercept X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 are the explanatory variables chest girth, body length, height at withers, pelvic width tail length, tail circumference and scrotal circumference, respectively.are partial regression coefficients of the variables 7 X X1,X2,..., ej= the residual random error For female:Where:Yj= the dependent variable body weight Household characteristics of the sampled households are presented in Table 4. The majority (92.95%) of the interviewed households in the study area were male headed. The age of the majority (84.3%) of the respondents fall under 50 year, which is the active age group and are the main source of farm labor. Moreover, about 94.5% of the interviewed households were married.The educational status of the respondents in the present study was 33. 6, 25.75, and 22.7, and 18.2% for primary attendants, illiterate, read and write and secondary attendants, respectively.In contrast to this report, higher proportions of illiterate and primary attendants (33.55% and 54.75%) lower level of read and write and secondary attendants (8.35% and 3.35) were reported in southern Ethiopia (Dejene, 2010). This survey result indicates that the higher proportion of farmers having primary educational background would be an opportunity to utilize them in keeping simple records which are of paramount importance in decision making and easy to implement community based breeding program in the study area .The average family size of the households was 7.8±0.39 (ranging from 2-14), which is closer to 8.5 reported for the same district previously (Yoseph et al., 2015). However, the present family size was higher than Benchi Maji and Keffa Zone of southern Ethiopia (6.7±3) (Dejen, 2010). The higher family size in the current study indicates the existence of polygamous marriages and lack of awareness on family planning in the area. The average land holding per household in the study area was 2.13 ha. The result was consistent with 2.15 ha reported for the same district previously (Yoseph et al., 2015). The average land holding per household showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between the two agro-ecologies of the study area. Accordingly, landholding was significantly higher (P<0.05)for highland (2.38 ha±0.06) compared to mid-altitude (1.88±0.05) agro-ecology. The reason for small land size in mid-altitude agro ecology was mainly due to conduciveness of the area for cash crop production especially for coffee production. Land holdings range from 1.01 to 2.00 ha for about 30.8% of farmers in the SNNPR and for 33.3% of farmers at the national level (CACC, 2003).  2005). However, it is smaller than the average land holding reported for Metama (6.17ha) (Sisay, 2006) and Bale high lands of Oromia region (Teshome, 2006). The size of land holding is an important factor that determines availability of feed for livestock. Thus, feed resources are more available in highland compared to mid-altitude agro-ecology in the study area. The major farming activities and their contribution as food and income source to the family in the study area are presented in Table 6. Thus, the major source of food as ranked by the sampled households was cattle production followed by crop and sheep farming, while the major source of cash income was both crop and cattle production followed by sheep. Among the crop type enset, maize, coffee, wheat, barley, teff, haricot bean, pea and beans are the major crops used as a source of cash income and household consumption. Among these crops, enset is used as the main source of food for household consumption, source of income and for livestock feed across both agro ecology of the study area. On the other hand, maize and haricot bean were the major crops used for income and household consumption in midaltitude agro ecology while barley and wheat were the major crops used for income and household consumption in highland agro ecology. Coffee is an important source of cash particularly in the mid-altitude agro ecology while bean, peas, cabbage and onion were used as additional source of income in highland agro ecology. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.The average livestock holding/household of the study district is presented in Table 7.Respondents in highland had significantly higher number of cattle, sheep and horse holding (p<0.05) than respondents in the mid-altitude. However, they had significantly lower (p<0.05) number of chicken, goat and donkey compared to mid-altitude agro ecology. All the households considered had sheep across the entire study district. This is due to the fact that this study considered only those farmers who had sheep.Sheep was the largest livestock species possessed by the two agro ecology of the study area.The possible reasons that sheep is easy to manage and conducive environment for sheep production in the study area. The population trends of major livestock species for the last ten years in the study area is summarized in Table 8. According to the respondents, the decline in the number of livestock species was the highest for chicken (50%) followed by cattle (39.85%) and sheep (20.7%).The possible reasons reported by the respondents for this trend were frequent occurrence of disease, presence of predators, shortage of feed both in quality and quantity, cultivation of grazing land. According to the information generated during group discussions in the study area, feed shortage and disease are the major causes for the decline in the number of livestock.Similar reasons were reported by Solomon (2007). The possible reasons for an increasing trend of sheep population comparing to other livestock species in the study area might be due to the use of sheep as immediate source of cash income. The present finding was similar to Wossenie (2012) who indicated that the population of livestock was increasing in westHararghe zone of Oromia region. It was related to the availability of grazing land, high demand (increased human population) and attractive price for livestock. The ratio of breeding ram to ewe in the study area was 1:6.24 and 1:7.1 for highland and midaltitude sheep flocks, respectively. This ratio is closer to 1:7.5 reported for for Menz sheep (Abebe, 1999) while it is lower than 1:1.98 reported for Dawuro and Konta sheep (Amelmal, 2011) and 1:5.21 reported for Kaffa and Benchmaji sheep (Dejene, 2010). The male to female ratio of the two agro ecologies of the study area is higher than 1:8.  The purposes of sheep keeping in the study area are presented in Table 10. Knowledge of reasons for keeping animals is a prerequisite for deriving operational breeding objectives (Jaitner et al., 2001). The results of this survey revealed that sheep play multi-functional roles in both agro ecologies with similar production goals. The results indicated the relative importance of tangible benefits of sheep keeping (such as regular source of income, saving, and meat). Most farmers in both agro ecologies keep sheep primarily as source of income. In the study area both male and female involved in sheep management interchangeably, except milking which is dominantly undertaken by the female in highland agro ecology (Table11). All activities of sheep management across the study area were done by family labor. The responsibility of purchasing (85.9%), selling (84.4%) and breeding (80.5%) of sheep was dominantly undertaken by head of the household. However, children and women were heavily involved in caring and herding of sheep. The same members of the household feed and protect sheep from bad weathers, predators and theft and assisted during lambing.Therefore, in designing breeding strategies, the role of women and children in sheep production should not be undermined. Similar result was reported from north western lowlands of Amhara region (Solomon, 2007). The quality and quantity of feed resources available for animals primarily depends upon the climatic and seasonal factors (Zewdu, 2008). who reported for Metema district of Amhara region, around Dire Dawa, Dawuro Zone and Konta Special Woreda of SNNPR, respectively. However, the major feed resources during the dry season across the two agro-ecologies were crop residues followed by natural pasture.Enset leaf and stem, and bamboo leaf are also important feed resources used to complement feed supply particularly during the dry season when the availability of forage is low. In study area, during wet season the important feed recourses were natural pasture, crop residues and fallow land.The major crop residues in highland agro ecology include barely, wheat, bean and peas straws while in mid-altitude it includes maize stover, wheat, haricot bean, and teff straws. The difference in type of crop residues availability between the two agro-climates is due to difference in agro-climatic requirements of the different crops. There are different methods of grazing practiced by sheep producers in the study area (Table 13). In fact, the different types of grazing methods depend on season. Thus, during the wet season, majority (about 71.9%) of the respondents use tethering grazing in order to prevent sheep from grazing cultivated annual food crops. According to focus group discussants, the main reasons for tethering apart from preventing crop damage, was for optimal usage of family labor, protect from predators and unwanted breeding. During the dry season, majority of the respondents (59.5%) practice free grazing, followed by rotational grazing (23.4%) and tethered grazing (10.9%) and herded (6.2%) in highland agro-climate. The majority of farmers in highland (71.9%) and mid-altitude (78.1%) do not fatten sheep (Table 15). The finding of the current study is less than 89.5% reported for Adiya kaka but higher than 53.3% reported for Horro sheep (Zewdu, 2008). The difference might be due to lack of awareness on value addition through fattening and seasonality of markets for fattened sheep. Although fattening is less common, the major classes of sheep used for fattening by those who practice fattening in study area were castrate followed by young males and older females. Crop residues, enset leaves, salt, grain and home left over were commonly supplemented for fattening sheep in the study area. According to the respondents, most of the producers didn't consider consumer preferences while fattening sheep in the study area. Table 16 showed that river water was the major water source of sheep in wet and dry seasons in both agro ecologies. The proportion of sheep watered by river water were 78.12 % and 75 % during the dry and wet seasons, respectively, in highland agro-climate while it was 65.62%, and 60.9 % during the wet and dry seasons, respectively, in mid-altitude agro-climate. The distances to watering points varied during the dry and wet seasons. The majority (76.5% for dry and 79.6% for wet seasons) of the respondents water their animals within less than one km distance in highland agro-climate. Similarly majority of the households (62.5% for dry and 59.4% for wet seasons) water their animals at less than 1 km in mid-altitude agro-climate. Similar to this study Workneh and Rownalds (2004) reported that the majority of households (three-fourth) water their animals with less than 1 km in wet season Oromia region. The majority of the respondents water their animals once a day during both the dry and wet seasons both in highland and mid-altitude agro ecologies. In general, water was not a limiting factor for sheep production in the study area.House protects animals from extreme temperature, rain, wind, predators and theft. In the study area different types of houses, housing materials and the common housing systems were identified (Table 17). The majority of the respondent in both agro ecologies house their sheep in the main house together with the family. Separate sheep house with roof was also reported by some farmers across two agro ecologies. The majority of the farmers across the study district house their sheep during the night. About 26.6% and 21.88% of the respondents house their sheep in separate house constructed purposively for sheep in highland and mid-altitude agro ecologies, respectively. The results indicated that 85.9 and 90.6 % of the households used grasses or bushes for construction of roof while the remaining 14.1% and 9.4% used corrugated iron sheet. Similar to this study, Workneh and Rownalds ( 2004) indicated that 60% of the households used family house for housing their sheep in crop livestock system of Oromia region. The majority of respondents house their sheep together with cattle while 3.1% of house separately.Table 17. Reported housing of sheep in the study areaDiseases have numerous negative impacts on productivity of herds i.e. death of animals, loss of weight, slow down growth, poor fertility performance, decrease in physical power etc.(CSA, 2012). Gatenby (1986) also stated that maximum productivity in a given system of production is obtained when disease control is optimal. Healthy sheep with normal physiological function and structure that enable the sheep to attain highest production is vital.Farmers in the study area do not exactly know the type of disease which causes mortality but they were able to describe the symptoms. According to the livestock and fishery office of Bensa district, the major types of diseases and parasites of sheep which frequently occurred in the study area are presented in Sheep milk consumption was common in highland agro ecology of the study area. Producers in the study area milk their sheep for different purposes where priority was given to the lambs.Lambs were allowed to suck their ewes freely for about a week to ensure survival of the lamb after birth. When the Lambs were in a good growth (after about a month) and supplemented with feed, farmers start to take out some amount of milk for consumption, mainly for coffee whitening, children and old people (mixed with coffee). According to FG discussants some farmers prefer sheep milk for butter making due to the perceived higher fat content. Sheep milk contains higher fat (6.8 to 8.5%) compared to goat (3.4 to 4.5), cattle (3.4 to 5.5) and camel (5.0 to 5.5) (Degen, 2007). According to the FG discussants sheep milk was not marketed in the area mainly because of cultural reasons. Thus the producers were reluctant to disclose that they milk sheep though they consume the milk at home. Frequency of milking and milk yield per day per ewe were different in the rainy and dry seasons due to feed scarcity in the dry season (Tesfaye, 2008). Sheep milking was not practiced in mid-altitude agro ecology of the study area. Note: Though the lactation continues up to the period of suckling by the lamb but the lactation length was recorded as the number of days up to which sheep were hand milked.Weaning is a crucial period which influence both dam and lamb productivity. In the study area, lambs wean naturally without shepherd intervention. The overall reported average weaning ages for both sexes was 4.4 months. It was a little bit longer than 3-4 months reported for indigenous sheep breeds of Ethiopia (Tembely et al., 1994). Moreover, the present finding was higher than what had been reported for the thin tailed Gumuz sheep (3.95± 0.9 months) (Solomon, 2007).Good reproductive performance is a prerequisite for any successful sheep production program. Reproductive performances of sheep in the study area are presented in Table 21.There was significant (P<0.05) difference was observed between the agro ecologies with respect to reproductive performance of indigenous sheep because of better sheep management practices in the highland than the mid-altitude. The average age at sexual maturity of male sheep in highland was 7+0.12 months while it was 7.15 ±0.2 months in mid-altitude agroclimate. Similarly, an average age of 7.1 months was reported for Afar sheep earlier (Tesfaye, 2008). The average age at sexual maturity of females in highland was 7.68±0.23 months while it was 7.8 ± 0.12 months in mid-altitude.The breeding practices of sheep in the study area presented in Appendix Table 3. The dominant sheep breeding practices in the study area was uncontrolled mating system.Similarly, Workneh and Rownalds ( 2004) reported that 77.3% of the farmers in Oromia region practice uncontrolled mating system. With regard to ram possession of the study area, about 39.1% of the respondents have no breeding ram to breed their breeding ewes. They use rams from neighborhood or borrow males from other areas for mating. Most of the respondent had one ram running with the flock throughout the year. Majorities of the respondents do not give additional feeds for breeding rams. The purpose of keeping rams was for mating purpose (64.1%), for socio cultural (7.7%) and for saving purpose (28.21%). The majority of the males used for breeding purpose were born or originated within the flock (82.05%) and the remaining was purchased and managed privately. This implies that the animals within the flock are very closely related and have narrow relationship which leads to inbreeding (Jaitner et al., 2001). Similar scenario was observed among Menz and Afar sheep breeders (Tesfaye 2008). The majority of the respondents (65.62%) could identify the sire of the new born lamb by relating the color of the lamb with the color of its sire and knowing the sire of a lamb.Although the disadvantage of inbreeding was not clear for farmers in the study area, some of them reported that they heard the negative effect of inbreeding.According to the respondents castration of sheep was not a common practice in the study areas. Some farmers with better wealth status, however, castrate and fatten one to two rams for one year period for home consumption as well as for market. The method of castration is traditional through repeatedly crushing the spermatic cord using a smooth river-stone and wood. Although the age of the animals at time of castration is not fixed, farmers suggested that it should be after eruption of one pair of permanent teeth. This is because farmers believe that the rams will mature and finishes growth at this age. The scheme should introduce and emphasize on awareness creation of castration of the inferior rams/unselected/ for fattening purpose and select superior rams with better management to be parents/sires of the next generation.Docking of female sheep was a common practice undertaken by sheep producers in highland agro ecology of the study area. Accordingly, about 60.94% of the respondents practice docking in the highland while in mid-altitude docking was not common (Appendix Table 3).The major reason for docking female sheep was that it facilitates mating easily. Moreover, the focus group discussants reported that docking females improves body weight and condition, appearance, ease hygiene during delivery and widening the tail. Unlike females, males were not docked since docked males are not preferred at the market. Even though there is no standardized specific age and site of tail cutting in female sheep, most producers during the focus group discussion estimated that it is about 5cm from the tip of the tail based on the body condition of the ewe lambs.The effective population size (Ne) and the rate of inbreeding (ΔF) calculated for sheep flocks in the study area are presented in Table 22. High level of inbreeding and decreased genetic diversity may be the result of the utilization of breeding rams born with in the flock, uncontrolled mating, and lack of awareness about inbreeding and small flock's size (Falconer and Mackay, 1996;Kosgey, 2004). Effective population size is a measure of genetic variability within a population with large values of Ne indicates more variability and small values indicate less genetic variability (Maiwashe et al., 2006). In this study, the estimate of Ne was 97.68 when a household flock is herded alone. Under random mating when the sheep flock of a household was not mixing, the rate of inbreeding was 0.005. This value is lower than the report of Amelmal (2011) for Tocha (0.17), Mareka (0.2) and Konta sheep (0.18).Tesfaye ( 2008) also reported 0.079 and 0.2 for Menz and Afar sheep respectively, when sheep flocks were not mixed, which is higher than the present study. Rate of inbreeding in the study area is maximum acceptable level (0.063) (Armstrong , 2006) which is due to small effective population size, lower proportion of breeding ram and uncontrolled mating practiced in the study area. The small effective population size and lower proportion of breeding ram in the study area is due to absence of mixing various flocks from different households. Study (Tesfaye, 2008) indicated that mixing of flocks was reported to reduce ΔF by a range of 86% to 78%. Knowing the potential of local sheep population and trait preferences are useful to make better informed decisions in developing interventions to improve the contribution of sheep to livelihoods of their keepers (Tassaw, 2010). In the study area appearance/size, coat color, character, meat quality, growth rate, fertility, disease tolerance and tail type were among the reported preferred traits in both agro ecologies. In highland appearance/size (index= 0.29), coat color (index= 0.19), fast growth rate (index= 0.18) and meat quality (index=0.12) were among the reported preferred traits in their order of importance by the respondents (Table 23) while in mid-altitude fast growth rate (index= 0.25), appearance/size (index= 0.21), coat color (index= 0.17) ,tail type (index= 0.12) and fertility (index= 0.12) were among the traits considered for improvement intervention. The most preferred color was red, light red and white with white patch and white respectively, while unwanted color was black because of lower market value. Similarly Zewdu (2008) indicted that traits like body appearance and coat color were the most considered characters in Adiyo Kaka and Horro rams. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.In both agro ecologies, FG discussants and key informants reported that the tendencies of farmers to rear their local sheep has become high. According to them, they liked these local sheep type for their large body size, attractive coat color, fast growths, and nice posture. They also mentioned that such type of sheep can fetch high premium price when it has been sold.Due to this reason, it was observed that some farmers practice selective breeding of ram and ewe. The proportions of red /light red and white sheep are increasing and that of black sheep is decreasing over time. This is strongly supported by the preference of farmers to white and red/light red colors against the black color for which the farmers are exercising some kind of selection for the preferred ones. The results indicated that, any sheep breed improvement interventions should take into account the need of the producer trait preferences and the demand markets in the study area.Selection criteria are the characteristics that allow the farmers to achieve the breeding objectives and select replacement animals (Holst, 1999). It is expected that farmers select replacement stocks by considering its own morphological and production characteristics. In general as stated by Tabbaa and Al-Atiyat (2009) livestock producers place more weight on morphological selection criteria (subjective selection) than production selection criteria (objective selection). In the study area selection of breeding rams and ewes were practiced by the farmers, although they don't have specific age of selection. Farmers in the study area select rams/ewes when they need to cull some for market and save the others. Ranking of selection criteria of breeding ram and ewe are presented in Tables 24 and 25. In selecting a breeding ram, fast growth was ranked first in highland while appearance/size conformation was ranked first in mid-altitude agro-climate with an index of 0.32 and 0.35, respectively. In highland, appearance/size and coat color were ranked second, and third high with indices of 0.32 and 0.24 respectively. In mid-altitude fast growth rate, color and tail length were ranked second, third and fourth high with indices 0.25, 0.19 and 0.14 respectively. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.In selecting a breeding ewe, twining ability was ranked first both in the highland and midaltitude agro-climate with indexes of 0.35 and 0.37, respectively. In highland, appearance/size, coat color and lamb growth were ranked as second, third and fourth with indices of 0.27,0.23 and 0.11, respectively/ while in mid-altitude appearance/size, coat color and lamb growth were ranked second, third and fourth with indices of 0.25,0.16 and 0.13, respectively. Mothering ability of ewes embraces maternal behavior that allows proper bonding to take place between mother and offspring, as well as nursing behavior, responsiveness and attentiveness towards the lambs, and protection of the lambs from predators (Gemeda, 2011). Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.Knowledge about ways of acquisition of breeding stock and mode of disposal is important in assessing the breeding practices of sheep owners (Helen et al., 2015). Major modes of flock entry and exit are summarized in Table 26. In the study area, sheep were added on farm through birth, purchase and exchange, of which the contribution of the former (87.55%) was the highest followed by purchase (8.55%). The contribution of exchange as source of animals was very minimal (3.9%). Similarly, birth was reported as the main mode of indigenous sheep flock entry in Horro, Adiya Kaka, and Alaba districts (Tsedeke, 2007;Zewdu, 2008). The highest share of the total exit (70.85%) was accounted for sale, followed by mortality (11.9%) and exchange (10%) while only 7.25 % was reportedly slaughtered. Participatory identification and prioritization of the major constraints of livestock production is the first step to design and implement need based interventions development options.Constraints impending sheep productivity in the study area are presented in Table 27.Although the major constraints limiting sheep breeding were mostly similar, their importance, however, varied across the study areas. This study observed that feed shortage, disease, genotype and market were the major constraints challenging sheep production across both agro ecologies. Feed shortage have been reported by the majority of respondents as common constraint and ranked first. Similar results were reported for Menz and Afar areas (Tesfaye, 2008). The major causes of feed scarcity were shortage of grazing land and expansion of arable farming at the expense of grazing land.  Bura sheep market is located at the north eastern tip of the district some 28 km far from Daye.The market is operational on Monday and Thursday. Although this market was fenced, it has poor access for road and transportation. Chebe sheep market is located at about 25km east of the Daye town. The market days are Monday and Thursdays. Similar to Gonjebe, this market place was not fenced and there was no other facility. Generally, the district has poor market infrastructure, which hinders the movement of livestock inputs and outputs.The major reasons of selling sheep as reported by the respondents in the study area are shown in Table 28. Most of the sampled households sell their sheep to purchase farm inputs for crop production (28%) and cover school fee for children (20%). Sheep is often at immediate disposal for several income requirements in the rural households. Producers do not sale large animals and other farm resources for urgent needs because acquiring back them is not easy.Among the household members, husbands are usually responsible for selling sheep.Consistent with other parts of the country, the sheep to be sold were usually trekked from home to the markets. The most important months in which farmers sell their sheep included June (for farm input purchase), July and August (to purchase grain), September (for festival and covering children school fee), December (for Christmas holiday) and April (for Easter holiday). The major actors involved in sheep marketing in the study area included traders, sheep producers, brokers, hotels/restaurants and individual consumers. The number and type of sheep buyers and sellers vary according to the level/stage of markets. Thus, the major buyers at primary market (Bura, Gonjobe and Chebe) were small traders and sheep producers, while at secondary and terminal markets(Daye,Hawassa) the major buyers were trader's, butcheries, restaurants/hotels, individual consumers and institutional users. The major suppliers/sellers of sheep in the primary, secondary and tertiary market were producers, small traders and large traders, respectively. Producers buy sheep mainly for rearing and to a less extent for slaughtering. Thus, they buy young ewes for rearing. The type of sheep purchased for slaughtering depends on the economic status of farmers.The major parameters considered by traders during buying sheep are presented in Table 29.Body conditions and age were ranked as the most important parameters considered by traders for buying sheep. Accordingly, traders opt for sheep with better body condition, intact male and young. On the other hand, restaurants prefer to buy old ewes due to their lower price.Castrated male sheep were required during festivals such as New Year, Easter (Fasika) and Christmas (Gena). Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.Producers raise sheep and sale any time when cash is needed. According to buyers they purchase sheep for breeding, slaughtering and fattening purposes. They sell the animals after value addition (breeding/fattening) during the holidays or during the period of coffee harvesting times. In addition, collectors buy sheep at primary markets (Gonjobe, Bura, Chebe)and trek to Daye (secondary) and other surrounding markets to sell in a better price.Collectors are found in rural areas and they purchase sheep from primary markets. They were market actors in the study area who buy sheep from the rural markets and supply them to small traders and large traders. There are more collectors than traders (large and small) in the study area. Collectors use either their own capital or large-scale and small-scale trader's money to buy sheep. They may also sell to farmers and individual consumers. Collectors who use traders' money deliver the animals to the same traders on commission basis.Small traders who buy sheep from producers and collectors. They are those who buy sheep from primary markets like Gonjobe, Bura and Chebe and sell them in district town such as Daye or to bigger traders who transport the animals to central markets. Usually they buy and sell small number of animals, not more than 20 in the study area. These traders also use other non-regular market days (gulit) in district town (Daye) to sell their animals.In the context of this study area, big trades are those market agents that can supply about 40 sheep to tertiary and terminal markets which are located in major cities such as Hawassa, Shashemene and Dilla. Big traders also supply sheep to individual consumers, hotels/restaurants and butchers. They share the premium obtained as a result of collecting large numbers of animals with their suppliers. In addition, they provide working capital to their agents (small traders) in order to ensure the supply of adequate number of animals that fetch them premium prices. Traders have quality parameters to be considered when buying sheep. They consider the age of animals, so mostly look for yearlings. Similar market participation was also reported from pastoral areas of Borena (Solomon, 2004).Brokers, locally called Delalas, are also major participants in marketing of sheep in the study area. According to key informants, without the involvement of broker's, they don't sell the animals. The role of brokers in marketing sheep in the area was perceived in different ways.Some people describe them favorably as they facilitate transaction between buyers and sellers while others see them as problem in marketing as they are the ones who mainly decide on the price. The fee they collect is also described by some as exorbitaul and unnecessary as they negotiate the price his/her animal with the buyers/sellers. In agreement with this report, the role of brokers was also described previously ( Endeshaw, 2007;Tsedeke, 2007;Daniel, 2008)There are two groups of consumers in the study area. These are hotels/restaurants and individual consumers. Hotels/restaurant buy sheep either directly from the producers, small traders and/or larger traders, and make local delicacies like Misto, Tibis, Dullet, , Key wot and Kikil. Public servants, traders and farmers are also an important part of actors in the sheep value chain in the study area. They buy sheep directly from traders and from farmers.Preferences for size and type of animals are influenced by individuals' purchasing power and the type of festivity/holiday to be celebrated.In the study area, season was the most important factor influencing the price, supply and demand of sheep. The variability in sales is associated with holiday markets, crop planting and harvesting seasons and drought seasons and years. During major crop harvesting time, cultural and religious holidays the demand for sheep increases and so does the supply by the producers as well as the price of sheep. According to the traders, most of the households in the study area prefer to sale their sheep during the major holiday season. There was also a time where sheep price was high, which was mainly associated with coffee and other crops harvesting time (October to December). Money is available at hands for most people during the coffee producing season in the study area. During this period, producers purchase sheep using the money obtained from the sale of coffee and keep the animals (breed/fatten) to be used at the time of deficit, and for harvesting farm inputs in mid-altitude and highland areas.The supply of sheep increases during the time when farmers need additional farm and household inputs and religious festivals. Such as during the months of June, July and August (Figure 3). During this time, most farmers forced to sell their sheep to fulfill different household needs such as fertilizer, improved seeds, clothing and stationery for schoolchildren, household consumable items etc. Therefore, in most cases sheep are sold for lower prices during this period.According to the producers', traders' and consumer response, demand for sheep varies depending on the season. The demand of sheep was high during times of crop harvesting time, religious and other holidays as well as those times when there is a priority to buy household and consumer goods. Compared to other months, farmers sell their sheep at higher price during the months of April, September, and December and November farmers sold their sheep) at higher prices.  In the study area the price of sheep marketing is set by eye ball estimation. It is also accompanied by traditional methods of body condition scoring. There was no weighing or grading of animals for sale in the market. Consequently, it is difficult to estimate the quantity of carcass produced from the animal. This is expected to influence the production and productivity of the animals negatively. The finding was similar with previous works (Ayele et al., 2003;Endeshaw, 2007;Tsedeke, 2007).This study demonstrated that sheep meat is consumed without any taboo in the study area.However, majority (83%) of the sampled households consume sheep meat during the major holidays. Sheep meat is also consumed during occasions such as wedding, birth of child, funerals and during the time of coffee harvest (Figure 6). In the study area sheep is slaughtered in group and divided among group members or slaughtered individually depending upon wealth status and type of occasion. It is not common to purchase sheep meat from butcheries by the households in the study area. According to group discussants, slaughtering sheep at the time of crop harvest, particularly for coffee grown areas, is a common practice in the study area. According to Beneberu (2003) young sheep fetch higher prices. This is true not only for economic purpose but also for its tenderness, softness and the like. This study demonstrated that, respondents preferred meat from male than female animals. The difference could be attributed to variation in mass and sensory test of meat produced from different sexes of livestock (Tsegay, 2012). According to this study, about 35% of the respondents prefer meat from young animals, while 20% preferred from middle aged animals, 14% from old animals and 31% consume meat irrespective of the age of the animal. The high number of people associated with the consumption of meats from young animal probably could be as a result of preference for lean meat which characterizes younger animals.The major constraints related to sheep marketing in the study area are shown on Table 30.Seasonality of market price, lack of market information, and over exploitation by brokers were the major constraints identified by the households.  (Solomon, 2008). The higher proportion of animals with red coat colour could be a reflection of strong selection for animals manifesting red colour to meet the preference of market demand. The majorities (81.96%) of sampled population of study area had medium and smooth hair type followed by short and smooth (14.63 %) and long and smooth (3.41%). The observed hair type was similar with Dawuro and Konta sheep types reported previously (Amelmal, 2011).The face profile of most of the sample population was flat (73.4%) followed by convex (13.57%) and concave (13.03%). Moreover, majority of the sheep population do not have wattle (94.4%), and all of them had no ruff. The majority of the sampled sheep population had straight tip (95.58%) tail sheep while the others (4.42%) had tail shape twisted end curved at tip. Almost 99.89% of the sampled population had long fat tail. Similarly, Solomon (2008) reported that Arsi-Bale sheep had long fat tailed with some of them having tail shape which is twisted at the end and all had hair fiber type.The most dominant ear orientation or form of sampled sheep population of female was carried horizontal (73.54%) followed by semi pendulous(21.30%) and erect(5.15%) whereas the male was carried horizontal (46%) followed by semi pendulous(38.30%) and erect(15.62%) . The majority (74.89%) of the females' sheep were polled whereas 87.5% of the male sheep were horned. Out of the horned male sheep, 56.25% had spiral horn shape followed by straight (31.25%) and (12.6%) rudimentary horn shape. These findings are contrary to the results of Solomon. (2008), who reported that above 50% Arsi Bale female sheep were horned (52%). , respectively(Table 32). The change in body weight was higher in both sexes between the age class 0 PPI and 1PPI, which was approximately 8.68kg. This might be due to the wide age range of the sample populations. From this study, it can be shown that the sample sheep populations attain their mature weight when they had ≥1PPI. Similar trend was reported for Black head Somali (Fikrte, 2008), Bonga (Zewdu, 2008), and Horro, sheep breeds (Sisay, 2009).   Sheep is the most important livestock species which have been adapted to a range of environments extending from the cool alpine climate of the mountains to the hot and arid pastoral areas of the lowlands. It play an important economic role and make a significant contribution to both domestic and export markets through provision of food (meat and milk)and non-food (manure, skin and wool) products. However, sheep production is constrained by various factors in Ethiopia that needs to be addressed by systematically describing and characterizing the production and marketing system, consumer preferences, and phenotypic attributes and thereby prioritize and implement appropriate interventions (research and development) through the involvement of stakeholders to address the challenges.The existing knowledge on characterization of sheep genetic resources and production and marketing system in various region of the country shows that the information on breed level characterization is inadequate. The present study was, therefore, conducted in Bensa district of Sidama zone of southern Ethiopia to characterize the physical, their environment, consumer preferences, and to identify the sheep population category in the study area. Data were collected from 128 sheep producers who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. For consumer preferences and marketing system, rapid market appraisal was employed in the study area. For assessment of qualitative and quantitative traits, a total of 574 sheep (0PPI to 3PPI) of both sexes were randomly sampled in the study area. Focus group discussions and key informants interview were held to strengthen the findings the survey. From this study it could be concluded that the sheep production system in the study area was more of extensive production system. The major production constraints in the study area were feed shortage, prevalence of diseases and parasites and lack of market information. The natural uncontrolled mating with small flock size is predominant in the study area. The study revealed that, there is no selection of fast growing animals with desirable traits. Moreover, sheep fattening is not common in the study area. On the other hand, due to the presence of suitable traits there is high demand for the indigenous sheep from domestic markets.However, since farmers in the area follow traditional husbandry practices, without any extension support, they are unable to make use of the existing market opportunity. Based on the current study the following recommendations have been made:❖ The present study showed that sheep producers dispose fast growing animals at younger age through sale at the market. Therefore, community based selective breeding program needed to control negative selection and improve the performance and productivity of sheep particularly males.❖ Since feed shortage in-terms of quantity and quality is among the leading constraints limiting sheep value chain development in the study area, efforts should be made to improve grazing land through top dressing with urea and controlled grazing, introduction of improved fodder grasses and legumes consistent with the respective farming system, and enhancement of the nutritive value of crop residues through urea treatment.❖ Prevalence of disease and parasites, and poor health management negatively influenced productivity of sheep flock in the study area. Hence, the type, seasonal occurrence and economic losses due to the diseases and parasites should be documented and pertinent control measure should be introduced.❖ The predominant production system of the area is traditional low-input-low-output with little market orientation (producers do not target the market or lack of focus on consumer preference). Thus, effort should be geared to transform the system into market oriented system using value chain framework (involvement of stakeholders).❖ The study showed that producers have no access for market information. Therefore, it is important to disseminate livestock market information on time to actors and service providers through electronic and printed media, extension staff, and through breeders cooperative.❖ The study demonstrated that producers have poor capacity to adopt improved sheep production techniques. Thus, effort should be made to create awareness and develop capacity of producers on the subject.❖ The prevalent sheep commodity development approach focuses on improving the production of the animals and ignores its contribution to income and livelihood of the household. Thus, in order to make sheep development strategies sustainable effort should also be made on improving income and livelihood of the producers, input/service providers and processors/traders. This should be done by government, research and developmental organizations. ","tokenCount":"13376"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"212467ec6cab6b76c8b61834635810b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5884e3ec-f3b7-4de7-a8c6-2b3990776a1c/retrieve","id":"-566501068"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7f09c82d-9d14-4228-adfa-f98830380365","pagecount":"2","content":"TechFit is a tool to prioritize and select animal feed interventions. It was developed by ILRI under the leadership of Alan Duncan. It has been further refined and developed with inputs from many individuals in and beyond CGIAR. This is one of a series of feed intervention 'TechSheets' developed alongside the TechFit tool to provide summarized information on different interventions included in the tool. Werner Stür led the development of the TechSheets. This sheet was prepared by Werner Stür. TechFit is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. ilri.org/techfit Feed intervention >> Fodder production, grassland development and utilization> Improved planted forages  Enables year-round livestock production.  Farmers can produce milk and beef at times when prices are high and, for beef production, animals for fattening are relatively cheap. Can be highly profitable.Intensive fodder production for sale as fresh feed, grown with irrigation and high fertilizer inputs in northeast Thailand Pumping water for forage production from a pond Irrigated forages by smallholder, Thailand Small plot for forage grasses, watered by hand, Cambodia Description  Irrigating small areas of intensively managed forages needed for year-round dairy and beef production is common in Southeast Asia. It is one of the simplest ways of overcoming food scarcity in the dry season. Smallholder farmers mostly use small on-farm ponds or wells as the water source to irrigate small areas; often 500-1,000m 2 . For small areas farmers use hand watering but mostly farmers use a small pump and hand-held hose for watering small areas. For larger areas, farmers use a pump for furrow or flood irrigation. Very occasionally farmers use sprinkler irrigations, particularly if these are also used for irrigating other high-value crops. Irrigation of fodder maize and other annual fodder crops is also common in parts of the tropics. Produces very high yields of green forage at times when availability of green feed is severely limited. Can be used as a sole feed for high productivity or as supplement to lower quality basal feed such as rice straw.","tokenCount":"338"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"586d46fc94e8f2019972c3f858cc8cae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d01ecd84-ed1e-4caa-8562-9d2a981d50c1/retrieve","id":"280973802"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b74642d0-3513-4bd4-b7a4-969d84f3c365","pagecount":"32","content":"The results of an analysis of the spatial distribution of disease risk and its visual presentation through risk maps allow for the design of targeted and therefore more cost-effective animal disease surveillance strategies. There are various methods by which disease risk maps can be generated. One of these is multicriteria decision modelling (MCDM) which is a knowledgedriven approach to the production of risk maps.As with all modelling work, it is important for the user of these outputs to be aware of the assumptions made in relation to the models and any potential sources of selection and information bias when interpreting the results of such analyses.The objective of this study was to describe the spatial variation in the likelihood of (i) introduction and (ii) spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) subtype H5N1 on a continental scale in Africa.This report describes the methods used to produce likelihood maps illustrating the likelihood of introduction and subsequent spread of HPAIV H5N1 at both the continental and country level (Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana; targeted countries of the DfID project), and highlights limitations associated with the maps.MCDM is an example of static knowledge-driven modelling that can be used to produce qualitative or quantitative estimates of risk 'based on existing or hypothesized understanding of the causal relationships leading to disease occurrence' (Pfeiffer et al., 2008). Knowledge of the risk factors associated with the occurrence of a disease and their interrelationships is used to drive the model.In contrast to data-driven modelling, MCDM cannot generate estimates of absolute risk, but rather describes variation in absolute risk. This means a map produced using MCDM will allow for the identification of areas with relatively higher and lower risk of event occurrence without quantifying what the risk is, and but it will thereby still inform targeting of risk management activities. To reduce the chances of the map outputs being misinterpreted, the term 'likelihood maps' was used in this report instead of 'risk maps'. However, it is acknowledged that both terms have a similar meaning.MCDM involves the following sequence of analytical steps which were also used to structure this report:1. Defining the objective(s) 2. Defining the factors 3. Defining the relationship between each factor and the risk 4. Sourcing digital maps of the factors and constraints 5. Standardising the maps so that they can be compared 6. Defining the relative importance of each factor in relation to the objective 7. Combining all factors and constraints to produce a final weighted estimate of risk for each location in the study area 8. Sensitivity analysis Geographic data were visualised and manipulated using ArcGIS 9.2 (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) and IDRISI Andes (Clark Labs, Worcester, MA, USA). The multicriteria decision model was developed in IDRISI Andes.The objectives of the likelihood mapping exercise were to identify factors associated separately with the (i) introduction or (ii) spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa, and to combine them using MCDM to produce maps separately showing the likelihood of introduction or spread HPAIV H5N1 in Africa. Note that no attempt was made to combine likelihood of introduction and spread, as it was felt that both processes will require different measures of risk mitigation. Furthermore, both results are subject to significant uncertainty which cannot be quantified when using MCDM, and combining the results may lead to propagation of bias that it would be difficult to consider when interpreting the results.'Introduction' was defined as: 'The introduction of single or multiple instances of HPAIV H5N1 into an area through migratory birds or the legal or illegal movement of infected domestic poultry or poultry products'.'Spread' was defined as: 'The dissemination of HPAIV H5N1 within an area through the legal or illegal movement of infected domestic poultry or poultry products conditional on successful introduction'.A systematic review of the published literature on the epidemiology of HPAIV H5N1 was used to identify risk factors associated with the introduction and subsequent spread of HPAIV H5N1, within an African context, and to define the relationship between each risk factor and the likelihood of introduction or spread. Searches for relevant literature were performed on two scientific databases assumed to represent the majority of the veterinary and medical journals; PubMed/Medline (a standard general medical database) and ISI Web of Knowledge (veterinary medicine and public health). A detailed description of the search algorithms and the complete list of risk factors identified can be found on pages 1-6 to 1-9 of the Initial Bird Flu Risk Maps Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009).Risk factors were categorised according to their relevance for introduction or spread of the disease (Table 1 and 2). Two selection criteria were used to identify risk factors for inclusion in the MCDM: Relevance and importance of a risk factor to the epidemiology of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa  Ability of the risk factor to be mapped (e.g. \"owner lives off farm\" [Kung, Morris et al. 2007] is a risk factor for spread that cannot be represented on a map whereas \"water area\" (Ducatez 2006) is a risk factor that can be spatially represented.Tables 1 and 2 list the risk factors which meet both selection criteria for either introduction or spread of HPAI H5N1 in Africa, and were therefore incorporated into the model. Hypothesized relationship between potential risk factor and the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 in AfricaFor the MCDM likelihood mapping, it was assumed that migratory birds constitute a risk for the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 into Africa. The migratory flyways covering areas in Africa represent areas expected to be at higher likelihood of introduction of bird flu.The role of migratory birds in long distance transmission of HPAI H5N1 has been considered in several studies, but still remains controversial due to many knowledge gaps. Wild birds (especially wild ducks) were identified as potential long distance vectors for the virus in various studies (Kilpatrick et al., 2006;Stallknecht, 2007;Gaidet et al., 2008b;Keawcharoen et al., 2008), while other authors considered it unlikely (Feare, 2007;Saad, 2007;Weber and Stilianakis, 2007). Different risk assessments of the introduction of HPAI H5N1 into different regions have concluded that the role of migratory birds was low but not negligible, with high uncertainty (Pfeiffer et al., 2006;Goutard et al., 2007;Sabirovic et al., 2007).Increasing distance from surface water is expected to be associated with decreasing likelihood of introduction of the disease in Africa.Wetlands are considered to be aggregation sites for migratory and resident wild birds and therefore constitute potentially higher risk areas for introduction and transmission of HPAIV (Hlinak et al., 2006;Jourdain et al., 2007), as was suggested for Nigeria (Ducatez, 2006). Surveillance studies conducted in several major wetlands of Africa isolated AI viruses in Eurasian and Afro-tropical species of wild birds (Gaidet et al., 2007;Gaidet et al., 2008a). Distance to wetland areas containing migratory waterfowl species has also been hypothesised as a risk factor for the introduction of disease in Spain (Martinez et al., 2009).For the MCDM likelihood mapping, it was hypothesized that international poultry trade occurs via roads, ports and airports, and that increasing density of ports, airports and roads is associated with a higher risk of introduction of HPAIV H5N1.Poultry trade has been identified as a risk factor for introduction of HPAIV (Ducatez, 2006;Kilpatrick et al., 2006). A study published in 2007 stressed the importance of formal and informal trade for the introduction of the disease in previously unaffected areas, as it seems was the case in Nigeria (Vannier, 2007). In addition, proximity to highways was found to be associated with the risk of HPAIV outbreak in China (Fang et al., 2008), and this is likely to be due to increased movements of poultry and poultry products for trade.DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 7 of 32Increasing density of roads is expected to be associated with increasing movements of poultry and poultry products for trade, and thus higher risk of disease spread.Outbreak risk was associated with proximity to major roads in Romania (Ward et al., 2008) and China (Fang et al., 2008). This is likely to be due to transport of poultry for trade via road.Increasing distance from navigable rivers is expected to be associated with decreasing risk of spread of the disease.There is no published evidence for the direct role of navigable rivers in the spread of HPAIV.,However, given the identification of roads as a risk factor (Fang et al., 2008;Ward et al., 2008) such a role can be hypothesized for important rivers in Africa known to be used for transport of consumption goods and livestock.Increasing density of poultry is expected to be associated with a higher contact rate between susceptible and infected birds and therefore greater risk of spread.It was found that H5N1 persistence in Nigeria was correlated with backyard chicken and duck numbers (Cecchi et al., 2008). Proximity to an infected farm has been shown to be an important factor in the spread of low pathogenicity influenza viruses (Mannelli et al., 2006) as well as distance to the nearest case farm (Nishiguchi et al., 2007). Conversely, Fang et al., 2008 found no association between poultry density and the risk of HPAIV infection in China, arguing that this unexpected finding was due to a greater proportion of industrialised chicken production at higher poultry densities, with associated higher biosecurity standards and vaccination protocols. Henning et al. (2009) found that poultry density was a risk factor for HPAIV outbreaks in Vietnam, but only at medium population densities. High poultry density was postulated as a risk factor for HPAIV occurrence in Thailand (Tiensin et al., 2005) and in Hong Kong (Kung et al., 2007), although this has been shown to be associated more with duck density alone than total poultry density (Gilbert et al., 2006).Increasing density of cities is expected to be associated with increasing risk of spread of HPAI H5N1. Cities are associated with higher demand for poultry products and therefore the presence of trading areas providing live or freshly slaughtered birds. Low pathogenicity viruses have been isolated from poultry in live bird markets in the USA (Bulaga, 2003), China (Cheung et al., 2007) and Korea (Choi et al., 2005), and HPAI has been isolated from a live bird market in Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2005). Sale of chicken at retail markets was also identified as a risk factor for HPAI infection of farms in Hong Kong (Kung et al., 2007). The risk of HPAI outbreak was found to be negatively associated with increasing distance from higher density human population areas (Pfeiffer et al., 2007), and this is likely to be due to increased intensity of production and trade of poultry in highly populated areas.Increasing distance from wetlands and waterbodies is expected to be associated with decreasing risk of spread of the disease. Proximity to wetlands has been shown to be a risk factor for the occurrence of HPAI in poultry in South-East Asia (Gilbert et al., 2006;Fang et al., 2008), as has proximity to rivers and wetlands in Romania (Ward et al., 2008;Ward et al., 2009). Distance to wetland areas containing migratory waterfowl species has been hypothesised as a risk factor for disease in Nigeria (Cecchi et al., 2008).Proximity to irrigated areas is expected to be associated with increased risk of spread of HPAI H5N1. Rice crop production has been found to be associated with HPAI in Vietnam and Thailand (Gilbert, 2007;Pfeiffer et al., 2007), as has aquaculture (Pfeiffer et al., 2007).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 8 of 32Geographic inputs for the model need to be in the form of raster maps. However, it seldom happens that the exact raster maps needed for the MCDM are readily available in the required format; they usually need to be derived from existing map layers of the risk factors. Sometimes all that is necessary is a simple conversion from vector to raster format, but at other times the first generation of risk factor maps require extensive manipulation to produce the raster maps that will be included in the modelling process.Risk factor maps were manipulated as presented in Tables 3 and 4 to produce the raster maps needed for the multicriteria decision modelling. Where required the raster maps were then reclassified so that their scale was positively correlated with the outcome (likelihood of disease introduction or spread) and map scales were standardized by converting each one to a byte binary scale ranging from 0 to 255.A more detailed description of the risk factor maps is available in the Initial Bird Flu Risk Map Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 9 of 32 Five members of the project team with experience in either avian influenza epidemiology or knowledge about the field situation in Africa weighted pairs of risk factors specifying firstly whether Factor A (for example) was more or less important than Factor B (for example) regarding the introduction or spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa and secondly, the degree of importance. Factor A could be (i) Equally, (ii) Moderately, (iii) Strongly or (iv) Very Strongly, more or less important than Factor B. These weightings were based on each team member's expert opinion, and were performed for each pairwise combination of factors. The five sets of weightings were then compared and where three of the five team members had the same weighting, it was taken to be the agreed weighting. Where there were discrepancies between team members' weightings for any pair of factors, the weighting was discussed and a final weighting agreed upon. The agreed weightings for each pairwise comparison of the risk factors for the introduction and spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa are presented in Tables 5 and 6. For the pairwise comparison risk factors in the rows are weighted relative to the risk factors in the columns. For example, reading from Table 5, the risk factor density of airports is considered to be moderately more important than distance from waterbodies for the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 into Africa. The agreed pairwise weightings were used to derive a weight for each risk factor by taking the principal eigenvector of the pairwise comparisons, and these weights were incorporated into the multicriteria decision model (Tables 7 and 8).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 12 of 32   The data presented in Table 7 indicates that the experts felt that the likelihood of introduction is most strongly influenced by trade networks (total weight = 0.84) and much less by exposure to migrating wild birds (total weight = 0.16), and this assumption therefore strongly influences the likelihood scores generated by the MCDM for likelihood of introduction. The data presented in Table 8 indicates that the experts felt that the likelihood of spread given introduction is most strongly influenced by road networks (total weight = 0.46), urbanisation (weight = 0.15) and poultry density (weight = 0.15) and much less by access to surface water (total weight = 0.08), and this assumption will therefore strongly influence the likelihood scores for spread generated by the MCDM.The risk factor maps and weights were combined using a method known as weighted linear combination (WLC) (Pfeiffer, Robinson et al 2008;Malczewski 1999) in which factors with a higher weight exert a greater influence on the final likelihood estimate. An explanation of the combination method can be found on pages 3-4 of the Initial Bird Flu Risk Map Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009). The combination method generated a numeric likelihood score on a scale of 0 (lower likelihood) to 255 (higher likelihood) for each pixel of the map. This score has a range from 0-255 to allow taking advantage of the colour range used by the Idrisi Andes software. The numerical value has no absolute likelihood interpretation but rather one of relative likelihood, i.e. allowing characterisation of locations with relatively lower or higher likelihood.The resulting maps identify: Area(s) of the continent where HPAIV H5N1 is most likely to be introduced -based on the risk factors considered (Figure 1);  Area(s) of the continent where an outbreak of HPAIV H5N1 has the greatest likelihood to spread given that it has been introduced -based on the risk factors considered (Figure 2).Areas identified as having the highest likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 include the Nile Delta, the coastline of Northern Africa, Western Africa, and parts of South Africa (Figure 1). Areas identified as having the lowest likelihood of introduction include Northern Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia and Botswana (Figure 1).Most of sub-Saharan Africa was identified as having the highest likelihood for the spread of HPAIV H5N1 (Figure 2). In other words, most areas of the continent are more vulnerable to spread once introduction has occurred, than to the initial introduction of HPAIV H5N1.Regions with the lowest likelihood of spread include Northern Africa, Somalia, Angola, Namibia and the south-west parts of South Africa (Figure 2). For each risk factor two new weights were calculated by (i) adding and (ii) subtracting 25% from the original weight. Each of the newly calculated weights was then individually incorporated into the multicriteria decision model, while holding all other factor weights constant, thereby generating 16 new likelihood maps. The likelihood estimate was measured at 10 000 randomly selected locations on each of the maps, and the average change in the likelihood estimate as a result of altering the different factor weights was calculated (Tables 7 and 8). The highest average change in the likelihood score was 3.91 + 2.29 as a result of decreasing the weight assigned to tertiary road density in the spread of disease. In other words, changing the weight assigned to tertiary road density by 25% would be expected to change the final overall risk score for the spread of avian flu by only 2 to 6 points on a scale of 255.Likelihood estimates for both disease introduction and spread were highly robust, showing little change as a result of the altered weights. But it needs to be noted that this does not provide information about the validity of the likelihood scores, but rather their stability given variation in the relative weighting of the risk factors used to generated the scores. From the continental likelihood maps for introduction and spread (Figures 1 and 2), maps for four countries were extracted; Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. These country-level likelihood maps (Figures 3 to 10) are presented on the following pages. Note that the range of the colour scale used to present the variation in likelihood was based on the map for the whole continent. The map presented in Figure 3 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is fairly homogeneous across Ethiopia. But there are some pockets of increased likelihood of introduction. The map presented in Figure 4 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Ethiopia. It is apparent that the likelihood is higher towards the western half of the country, and lower in the eastern parts.DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 21 of 32 The map presented in Figure 5 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is fairly homogeneous across Kenya. But there are some pockets of increased likelihood of introduction. The map presented in Figure 6 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Kenya. It is apparent that the likelihood is higher towards the southern half of the country, and lower in the northern parts. The map presented in Figure 7 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 varies across Ghana. But no clear pattern can be defined, apart from there being a small number of high likelihood locations. The map presented in Figure 8 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Ghana. It is apparent that the likelihood is increases towards the eastern part of the country, and is lowest in the south-west. The map presented in Figure 9 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 varies across Nigeria. There a pockets of increased risk spread across the country, and the risk appears to be highest in the south. The map presented in Figure 10 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Nigeria. It is apparent that the likelihood is relatively homogenous, but high across the country.One of the key findings of the continental analysis is that the likelihood of introduction is relatively homogenous across Africa with small pockets of increased likelihood spread out across Africa. This finding is most likely the result of giving ports and airports a relatively high weighting in the MCDM for likelihood of introduction. A high likelihood for spread assuming successful introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is geographically more widespread, mainly influenced by the assumption that continental transport networks (roads, navigable rivers and internal airports) have a key influence on spread once the virus has been introduced. However, these results should be interpreted with care, taking into account that they are based on assumptions made by the experts in relation to the selection of risk factors and their relative importance, the quality of the data used as well as the method used to weight the different risk factors.Data quality: The quality of the data used as geographical inputs for the model varies. For example, we suspect that data pertaining to the number of ports and airports might be an underestimate of the current situation. In addition, the road map displayed only primary, secondary and tertiary roads; data on minor roads, which could play an important role in the illegal trade of poultry, were unavailable.Proxies: When data for specific risk factors was unavailable, proxy data was used. For example, as there is no available data on the location of markets in Africa, cities with human populations of more than 50 000 were used as proxies for the location of markets. This may bias the results as even if the main markets would be located in the main cities, marketing activities in rural areas might play an important role in legal or illegal trade.Influence: Weighting of the different risk factors was performed by only five people who have, of necessity, been involved in all aspects of the development of these risk maps from the outset. The participants may have therefore have influenced each other's opinion regarding weighting of the risk factors.There is a general lack of knowledge and uncertainty regarding the introduction and spread of HPAI H5N1, not only in Africa, but worldwide. However, our access to the most up-to-date scientific knowledge on the subject hopefully translates into a better assessment of the risk factors involved and their relative importance in the introduction and spread of HPAI H5N1 in Africa.With data-driven models, outcome data and a set of risk factors are used to generate weights for the different risk factors so that the error in the outcome is minimised. With these methods, we are given an idea about lack of information through the amount of residual variance in the outcome. These models are affected by selection and information bias (misclassification of outcome and incorrect risk factor data) and by external validity issues. With a knowledge-driven model, we have no outcome data and therefore need to make subjective judgements to generate the weights for risk factors thereby creating a potentially substantial source of apparently unquantifiable bias, even with sensitivity analysis. This can be explored to some extent by using Dempster-Shafer theory (Dempster 1966;1967). We also have no mechanism for knowing whether important information is missing, and although MCDA models will not be affected by misclassification bias of the outcome, they can still be affected by data errors in the risk factors. These considerations should be taken into account when interpreting and using the risk maps.","tokenCount":"3925"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50d9d6397929ae9aed4cdcd968900237","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c766bade-d443-4d81-aea3-57f3cf5a042a/retrieve","id":"-1370454314"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"119258c9-ff23-4278-8c89-390be9c6dd87","pagecount":"40","content":"El fríjol común (I'haseolusvulgaris L ies un componente importante de la dieta humana en América Latina , donde se produce el 35 por cien to de la producción mundial. El fríjol es un a fuente especialmente importante de proteinas en la dieta de las familias de ingresos medios y bajos, que no puede n comprar o producir proteina an im al. El centro de orige n del fríjol se encuentra en América Lat ina (Miranda , 1967 Y Hend ri ch, 1969).Los rendimientos de las le gum inosas de gran o cosme tible, especialmente Jos de fríjol . varían considerablemente. En algunos ex perimentos se han registrado rendimientos de fríjol hasta de 5.000 kg/ha*. En ensayos varietales replicados, establecidos en la Estación Ex perimental del Centro Intemací onal de Agricultura Tropical (CIAr) , ce rc a a Pal mira, Colombia, es usual obtener rendimientos de aproximadamen te 3.000 kg/ha. Los rendimientos de las fin cas son ge neralmente más bajos y flu ctúan desde 200 hasta 2.800 kg/ ha. El nivel de produc tividad es más al to en los paises de sarrollados y en 1<.1 5 ,¡ Te as en las que se pueden utilil,ar in sumas tecn()lógicos y tiende a disminuir en las laderas de las cordilleras . El rendimiento promedio de América Latina fue del orde n de 580 a 620 kg/ha duran te el período 1952-197 1 (Cuadro 1). En té rminos ge nerales, los rendimientos y el indice de mejo ramiento Cuadro l . Diferencias en la producción de Phaseolus vulgaris de acuerdo con las zonas y las épocas de siembra . /971 ., de los rendimientos de frijol son mucho más bajos que los de Jos cereales. Por ejemplo, los rendimientos mundiales de arroz han aumentado en un 40 por ciento hasta 2.280 kg/ha . durante los últimos 20 años (Manual de Producción de la FAD, 1973). Roberts (1967), al revisar los rendimient os de las leguminosas de grano en el mundo, citó la falta de investigación pertinente como uno de Jos principales factores limitantcs de los rendimi entos. Después de es tudiar el potencial de los programas nacionale s y regionaJes de cereales. Roberts concluyó que con este tipo de progra• ma s no se púdia obtener mayores rendimient os . por lo que sugiri ó diseñar programas integrados de investigación sobre legu minosas de gran o que les se rvirian de respaldo a taj es programas nacionaJes y se reaJizarian a través de los centros intenlacionales de investigac ión. Se propuso que el erAT fuera el centro internacional que se ocupara de la in vestigación sobre el cultiv o de ffl'jOl. Aunqu e algunos miembros del pe rsonal habian trabajado anteriormente con Phaseolus vulgaris, el proyecto integrado de inves ti gación de fr íjol no se inició hasta e l año fiscal 1972•1973. Es te programa es uno de Jos d os programas de productos agropecuarios del CIAT que no se limit a a la s tierras bajas tropicales.El Crupo Consultiv o para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CCIAR) ha hecho responsab!e al CIAT de la investigación sobre producción de fríjol a nivel regional . Además, el CIAT es un o de los principales centros de gennoplasma de fríjol. Recie nt emente. el Comité Téc nico Asesor del G rupo Consultivo le solicitó desarro• llar una red coordinada de investigación en tod a América Latin a.Es ta publicación describe varios aspectos de la producción de frijol en Amé• rica Latina. Busca identifica r las <Íreas en las que se requiere mayor investigación o desa rro llar actividades similares y a las que el Programa de Sistemas de Producció n de Fríjol del CIAT podria contribuir beneficiándose todas las partes involucrad as. Igualmen te, se di scu ten los logros del prog ram a realizados hasta la fecha y las ac ti• vidades proyectadas hacia el futuro.La producción de fr ijol en América Latina se ll eva a ca bo princjpalmente en propiedades pequeñas, generalmente. sob re terre no o ndul ado. En El Salvador, por ejemplo, más del 95 por ciento de la producción de frijol se obtiene en fin cas de menos de 5 hectá reas. En Panamá. el tamaño promedio de las fincas productoras de fn\"jol es de sólo 2,6 hectáreas. Generalmente , el fríjol trepa dor, de hábit o de cre ci• miento inde terminado. se siembra con mal\"/. . Los sistemas mecanizados y la mano de o bra que no sea n Jos de las mism as familias. son escaso s : los insumos técnicos, tri.' les C0l110 fertilizantes. her bicidas y pesticidas, son generalmente limitados (Gutié• !Tei' (' Iaf.,19 75). Los pcquciios agricultores tambi én afIon.tan dificultades de merca• deo. restricciones de crédito y serv icios de extensi ón dcficientes. Tal ve z. a estos mot ivos se deba el que la mayoria de los paises estudiados pur Pinchinat (1973) ha• ya menc ionado Jos fac tores socioeconómil,;os como una de la s li mitaciones princi. pales de la producción .No obstante, en Chile, Perú, Brasil , México y Colombia existen vastas áreas en las cuales los rendimientos y el uso de insumos tecnológicos ya han alcanzado prácticamente los que se registran en Estados Unidos_ En estas áreas se cultivan fríjoles arbustivos que reciben abundante can tidad de fertilizantes y herbicidas ~ la preparación de la tierra y la recolección son mecanizadas y, con frecuencia , se utiliza el riego. Este sistema de producción es el que ha sido más extensamente estudiado, especialmente en los Estados Unidos (ver los Informes Anuales Cooperativos sobre Mejoramiento de Fríjol, 1962de Fríjol, -1974))_ En cambio, es poco lo que se conoce sobre el sistema de producción asociada de maíz y frijol.Entre las diferentes razones aducidas para explicar los rendimientos generalmente baj os de frijol en América Latina (Roberts, 1970;He rnández-8ravo , 1973;Y Pinchinat , 1973), la más frecuente es la insuficiencia e inconsistencia del apoyo investigativo. Como se aprecia en el Cuadro 2, América Latina posee un número re-Cuadro 2. Distribuc.:ión por campo de especialización de investigadores en ¡fijol de 22 paúes latinoamericanos. • ducido de inves ti ga dore s de frijol. La mayoria de los programas nacionales emplean fitomejorad ores, agrónomos y patólogos , pero no sabemos con ce rteza si se trala de una necesidad nacional o si es simplemente el sistema educacionaJ empleado en estas áreas. Pocos program as tienen entomólogos, economistas, fisi ólogos, microbiólogos y es pecialistas en ge nn oplasma y cal idad de la semilla. Si bien es cie rto que la finandación de este sinnúmero de disciplinas reviste serias dificultades para los programas nacionales pequeños, también es evidente , como se podrá observar en las secciones siguientes, la necesidad de contar con dich os científi cos. Debe agregarse que la may oría del pe rson al que aparece en el Cuadro 2 trabaja con varios cultivos diferentes mi e ntras que men os de la mitad posee la preparació n científica apropiada.El fil o mejoramiento ha desempeñado y co ntinuará desempei'iando, un papel i~nportante en el incremento de los rendimientos de frIjol en América Latina . De los 13 programas nac io nales investigados por Pinchinat (1 973) , 1 1 consideraron el mejoramiento varietal de un valor prá<.:tico defini tivo durante el pe n'odo 1969-1972. Vieira e l al. (1971))comparó los resultado s obtenidos en mas de 20 localidades en Minas Gerais y Goias donde las variedades mejoradas, tales como Ri co 23 y Rosinha da Seca, superaron en un 80 por ciento los rendimientos de las variedades locales.A pesa r de la imporlancia del mejo ramie nto varietal y d~da la gran variabilidad genética del Phaseoi/l s ¡!/llgaris. muy pocm prog ramas nacionales cuentan con los recursos para mantener oconseguir gennoplasma , lo cual re dundaría en beneficio de los programas de fitomejoramiento. Por co nsiguient e, el banco de germop tasm a del CIAT es la respu esta a las solic itudes naci o nal es de mantener ge nnoplasmél disponible , t31 como se manifestó en el Seminari o sobre El potencial del fn'jol y de ot ras leguminosas de grano comestible en América Latina . reali z<Jdo en el ClAl en 1973 (ve r la s Actas de este Seminari o). Las preferencias del consumidor, qu e varían de acuerdo con los paises y las regiones, dificultan y limitan la tran sferenc ia de ge rmo -pJa sma, incluso de las variedades prometedoras (Scobie el al.. 19 74) .También se debe te ne r en consideración la cal idad de la semilla. M~s del 50 por cie nt o de la s enfermedade s principales del frijol ! entre la s que es tán el mosa ic o com un , la unlracnosis, la mancha angular y el af'¡ublo b'H. : teriul , son transmitidas por la semilla (Zaumayer y Thom as, 1967) . Bajo condiciones fa vorab les, los materiales infectados pueden transmitir ráp idament e las en ferm edad es . Ni siquiera esta amenaza ha logrado ev itar que los peque~os agri cultores continúen ay udando ti tran smitir las infecciones. sembrando sem illa que les habl'a so brado de la cosecha anterior. ((,utiérrc7. ef al., 1975).A los pequeños agricultores les es prác ti camente imposible obtener semilla certificada. La semilla certificada representa de l 1 al 2 por ciento de la cantidad tot al sembrada (Terra-Wetzel el al .. 1971).SáncheL y Pinchinat (1974) compara ron muestras de se milJiJs de 77 fincas e n Costa Ri¡;a y o btuvieron un ¡'ndice promedio de germinación de sólo 6R por ciento, motivo por el cual los agric ultores siembran más de un grano por hueco (Freytag . 1973). Por lo general, los altos precios de los fertilizante s, especialmente de nitrógeno y de fósforo (Harry el al., 1974), además de los desequilibrios del co mercio interna• donal, han aumentado el precio de muchos insumos de las fincas perjudicando tan• to a los agricultores grandes como a los pequeños. Dado el gran nl'lmero de áreas d~ América Latina que presentan deficiencias en fósforo (Fassbender ft al.. 1968 y Vieira y Bomemisza, 1968) o que tienen una gran capacidad de njación de fósforo (Fassbender, 1969), pvede anrmarse que los requerimientos altos de fó sfo ro de las plantas de fríjol limitarán los rendimientos en muchas áreas. Además ) siendo el nitrógeno tan importante para la nutrición de la planta de fríj ol (Malavolta, 1971), no deja de ser preocupante que sólo muy pocas áreas hayan respondido a la inocuo lación de P. vulgaris (Brakel , 1966: Brakcl y Manil , 1965: y Whitcwa y y Nduku , 1967). A la temperatura, al pH Y al rhizobium nativo del suelo se les ha culpado por esta respuesta tan baja (Graham y Hublell, 1975).Los sistemas de siembra de fríjol varían considerablemente según el tipo de semilla y la región . Muchos agricultores no labran el suelo y prefieren utilizar el siso tema de \"corte y quema\" descrito por Freytag (1973) . Los sistemas de siembra pue• den variar desde el voleo al azar hasta sistemas mecánicamente controlados.El fríjol con hábito de crecimiento detenninado (Tipo 1), preferido para la siembra mecanizada, ha sido utilizado ampliamente en estudios de densidad de pa-   '\" '¡;;'\" ;; .!! ' -.\".Q1;;'\" '\" ,¡; \" '\" ¡¡¡ El '2  padoras con hábito de crecimiento indeterminado (Tipos II y 111) ensayadas en el CIAT presentan , por lo general, rendimientos estables con densidades de 200.000 a 400 .000 semillas por hectárea. La densidad óptima de siembra para los fríjoles trepadores , ya sea en monocultivo o en cultivo asociado con maíz, todavía se desconoce, aunque para las siembras asociadas, muchos agricultores usan espaciamientos que resultan ser más apropiados para el maíz que para el fríjol. El rOJol y el maíz se pueden sembrar simultaneamente en cultivos asociados; no obstante, lo usual es sembrar el frijol después del maíz e incluso cuando el mal'z ya se está secando. Las épocas de siembra del maLZ y del fríjol pueden deberse a la s diferencias en Jos patrone s de precipitación pluvial.El Programa de Fríjol del CIAT tiene un solo objetivo principal : incrementar el rendimiento y lo productj¡¡idad del [n /ol en América Latina. Esperamos alcanzar este objetivo a través de los mej oramientos varietales y técnicas desarrolladas como parte de nuestro programa experimental. de adiestramiento y de apoyo de cientlficos latinoamericanos que trabajan en los programas na ci onales y de la investigación cooperativa realizada tanto en los laboratorios de América Latina co mo de los paises desarrollados_ Dados los bajos rendimient os que nonnaJmente se obtienen en la mayor parte de América Latina , confiamos en lograr aumentar el rendimiento hasta en un 4 por ciento por año. De alcanzar este objetivo, el rendimiento promedio del fríjol en América Latina , para 1990, seria de más de 1.000 kg/ha.A corto plazo, como se aprecia gráficamente en la Figura 1, es más fa ctible progresar por medio del uso de tecnologia que reduzca al máximo la variabilidad de los rendimientos. Entre estas prácti cas se encuentran el uso apropiado de fung.icida s, inse ctici das y pesticidas; mejores sistemas de fertilización con fó sfo ro y nitrógeno; una mejor comprensión de las deficiencias de microeJementos; el suministro de mayor can tidad de semilla libre de patógenos o por lo menos, de semilla certificada, y la adopción de densidades óptjmas de poblaciones . Durante este periodo, se lograrían mayores progresos con el fríjol arbustivo cultivado bajo condiciones aceptables de campo.A fin de manten e r el ritmo de mejo rameinto de los rendimient os durante el período intemledio se requeriría selecci onar las variedades y proteger a Jos agricul. tores de las principales Ouctuaciones en precios y de la escasez de insumos. El fitomejoramiento cobraría mayor importancia en el CIAT al comenzarse, con los ensayos regionales de rendimiento, el suministro de materiales promiso rios a Jos progra• mas nacionales y 1::1 combinación de factores de resiste ncia contra diferentes plagas mkrobianas e insectiles; dicha s actividades pasarían a ser parte sus tancial de: programa. Para conservar su tasa planeada de mejoramienlO, el programa del CIAT de• beria tener disponible para 1977 variedades genéticamente mejoradas y para 1979-1980 se debería haber aumentado el número de se le cciones resisten te s a diversas enfennedades e insectos. En vista de las marcadas diferencias de color y tamaño del grano de cada región (CIAT, In forme Anual de 1973), sería imposible pro• ducir variedades apropiadas para todas las regiones. El incremento de los rendimientos de los fríjoles trep• adores tomaría mucho más tiemp o. Se han he¡;ho menos investigaciones sobre este grupo de fn'jales que generalmente , se cultiva n -corno ya se mencionó an teri ormente -bajo condiciones ambicntaJcs muy pobres. La necesidad de considerar la compa tibilidad del maíz y del fríjol es una necesidad adicional . Una prioridad urgente sería demostrar quejas variedades trepadoras ocupan una posición similar a la de las o tras variedades, independientcmente del sistema de apoyo. Una vez más, el fa cto r principal para el mejoramiento de los rcndimientos del fríjol trepador serJa el mejoramiento de las prácticas agronómicas , entre las que se cuenta una mejor comprensión del espaciamiento requerido entre el maíz y el fríjol , y de la interacción de los dos cultivos. En vista de que la mayoría de los agricultores que cultivan es te tipo de fríjol dispone de poco c rédito y dinero en efectivo, también se ría necesario ma ximi zar la eficiencia de los insumas tecnológi cos. Esto incluiría el estudio de los microorganismos y su contribución a la fijación simbiótica y asimbió tica del nitróge no y a la solubiliza ción del fosfato; una mejor utili zación de los fertilizantes y un conocimiento mayor del nivel de infestación al cual las aplic aciones de in se cticidas y fungicidas son ese nciales. Dicho paquete tecnológico no podria estar disponible antes de 1978.El mejo ramien to varietal de' frij ol trepador, especial mente de aquellos para altitudes mayo res. dependería de una mayor colección de genno plasma. Por esta razó n, es improbable que Jos ensayos region ales de rendimie nto con rríj o les trepad ores puedan co men zar antes de 1977•1978. Indudablemente , será más difícil reali za r est os ensayos de rendimiento que aqu ell os para los fríjoles de tipo arbustivo. Si se pie nsa culti va r los frijoles trepadores en enrejados, lo cu al exije una gran cantidad de mano de ob ra pe ro produce grandes ren dimient os por unid ad de área, se ría necesa• rio conside rar esta p os ibjJidad con suficien te antelació n.Un a de las dificultades principales de es tos proyec tos se rá de le nnin ar e l punto hasta el cual Jos usuarios acep tarán la nueva tecnologLa . Ya hicimos referencia, po r ejemplo, a la renu encia a adop tar nuev as v ~rieda des . La evaluación econó mica será vital en es ta área ,y para 1976-1977 ya 1cbe d an habe rse identifit:ado los fa c tores que limitan la aceptación de nueva te cnología , a nivel de la fin ca, en un buen numero de legi ones. Para asegura r la acept ación por parte de los programas na ci;:¡nales tamLién será esencial concede r mayo r i,rllportancia tanto a los program as de cooperación como a los de adiestramiento. El funci onamient o ex itoso de las red es de investigaci ón de fríj ol se rá indispensable para la tran sferencia de información y de tecnolog{a .Hasta 1975 , ha habido disponibilidad de fondos para finan c ior las posiciones de sie te científicos pe rmanentes dos de los cuales trabaj an simu ltanea mellt c en el program a de yuca de l eIAT. A partir de 1975 , se finan cia rán dos posj c ion e~ adicionales , para mantenim iento de genn o plasma y producción de semilla, en virtud de un fondo es pecial de ap oyo oto rgado por el Banco Inte ramericano de Desarrollo (B ID). La Figura 2 mues tra Ja o rient ación disci plinaria de los cientlficas del personal del programa de fríjol.A fin de log rar las me las disc iplinari as de talladas en la Se cción IlI , seria rec o• mendabl e co ntar con un person al pe rm anente de 10 cientifi cos para 1977. Has ta el mom ento, se ca rece de fond os para financiar es te aumento de p~rsot1a l. Como hasta ahora el programa ha sid o eminentemente re gio nal , todavía no se ha estudiad o la posi bilidad de cola borar es trechamente con centros asiáti cos y africanos. Incluso , asumiend o que se obtenga es te nivel de persona l, cl programa tc ndrla que ace pt ar cie rta s limitaci ones que se disc uten a co ntinu ac ión. de investigación y estaría en conflicto con las responsa bilidades básicas de otros centros internacionales .2. La experimentac ión inici al se concentrarla en cuatro loca lidades, con temperaturas , precipitacione s y condiciones de suelo diferente s. Estas localida des serían: a) l :: sede del CIAT, Palmira , Colombia (latitud 03' 22 ' norte ; alti tud 1.000 metros : temperatura media anual : 23,9°C; precipitación pluvial total anual : 1.000 mJll. Como el frijol está en desve ntaja si se lo compara con otras especies de leguminosas de grano comesti ble (como el cau pi o el m<l lll) que so n tole rantes a los suelos ácidos (lnrofllll' Anual del CIAT , 1973), no se continuará co n los ex perimentos en los suel os al tamente ácidos de los Llanos Orient ales de Colombia . La inves tigación coo pe\"tati va co n o tros púses de penderla de que se encuen tren inst ituciones y cientlficos ciese osos de participa r o contribuir a los objetivos del program a.3. Inicialmente , se le d<lra pOCa importancia aJ a ca! id<ld y al equilibrio proteinico. Los ffl]olescont iencn de un 20 a un 30 por ciento de prote l'na relativamen te bien balanceada; aSI eS que increment ar los rendi mientos tal vez sea la forma más ap ropi ada de ílumentar el contenido proteínico ( Bressan i e l al, 1973) . El Instituto de Nutrición de Centro Am érica y ll;mamá (INC'AP) , en Guatemala. se ría el lugar ideal para reaJi z.:.t r estos es tu dios. aunq ue el CIAT seleccionará el material promisorio panl fltom cjormniento a fin de garantizar que no huya deterioro grave en el contenido o en la calidad de la protelna.4 . En vista de que investigJ dores de los países de sa rrollad os est<i n interesados en reaJi zar in ves ligac ión coopera tiva o por contrato, el CIAT no de berla trat ar de resolver problemas a los cuales se encontr~lTia un a solu d')r1 r,lás sa ti sfac to ria en tales unidades de inves tigació n.  La mayoría de estas selecciones y<l han sido culti vadas en el CIAT y se han determinado sus características agronómicas y de re sistencia a las enfennedades y plagas. Para comprobar la adapta bilidad de las I{neas promisorias se han hecho nuevos ensayos de siembras en Boliche y/o en Monter{a. El anáJisis de la información ac tuaJmente disponible indica que cie rtas ca racterísticas espedficas de las plantas están relacionadas con el rendimienlO. Los fríjoles que tienen hábitos de crecimiento diferen tes también varian significativamente en los dlas requeridos para a1caniar la madurez, en el número de vainas, tamaño de la semilla , número de racimos y de se• mill as por vaina (C uadr o 6).La selección de variedades re sistentes a plagas de insec tos se ha concentrado en las espec ies de Empoasca y en menor grad..o. en los ácaros . En h!s siembras de 1973 y 1974 se identificaron va rias se lecci ones tolerantes a Empoasca con niveJes diferentes de tol erancia . Las variedades susceptibles como IC'A•CaJ ima aumentaron 37 veces su rendimiento cuando se les aplicó insecticidas en el momento de la siembra durante la estación seca. Por otra parte, las va riedades toJerantes no requ iere n un uso intensivo de insec ticidas. Cuando se aplú;an insect icidas a estas variedades, los rendimientos aumentan de 16 veces con rCA•Tui y Jamapa , a solamente S veces    En el programa de patología vege tal se le ha dado pri oridad a la se let.:ció n (en la sede del CIAT y en Monlería) de variedades resislenles a la roya, al aí'lublo bac terial y a la mustia hil ac hosa bujo condiciones de campo (Figura 7) ya la selección de va riedades res istentes al virus del mosaico co mún en invemaderos. Se han proba.do más de ~.OOO selecciones contra cada patógeno . Las varieda de s promisorias resistentes, detenninadas hasta el momento , se encuentran e n el Cuadro 7. La mano cha fo li ar angu lar no se ha mcluído e n las inves ti gacio nes por cuanto el Instituto Colombiano Agrope cuari o ( ICA) ya había hecho un esludio intensivo y había ide ntificado variedades res istenles (Ca rdona y Walke r, 1956 y Orozco y Cardona, 1959). La antracnosis no se presenta en los terrenos de la sede del CIAT pe ro se estudiará en las siembras de 1975 que se hagan en Popayán . Se h<:ln iniciado proyectos cooperati vos para al gu nas enfermedades que todavía no se han re gistrado en Colombia . Por ejemplo. en Guatemala se estudiaron recie ntemente 3 .500 se lecciones del CIAT para determinar su resistencia al mosaico ama rill o.Buscando agil iza r el suministro de ge nnoplasma para los programas na cionales, se están utili zando tarjetas de computador para al macena r jnform ación sobre cada selección . Es te sistema estará conectad o dentro de poco tiempo con un serv icio de recuperación de info•nnación. Actualmente, se es tá preparando para publicación un a lista qu e incluye las característi cas de 400 se lecciones que parece n ser pro-misorias; una lista que se publicará posteriormente , detallará las características específicas disponibles en el ban co de ge rmoplasma del e lA T. Desde mediados de 1973 hasta octubre de 1974, el programa envió más de 7.000 selecciones a 22 países diferentes, lo cuaJ demuestra claramente 10 valioso que es es te programa para los o lros programas nacionales .Otra ac tivida d esenciaJ del programa de ge rmoplasma es el desarrollo de viveros inte rnaci onales de variedades con diversos factores de resistencia. La selección de vari edades resistentes a la roya es un ejem plo obvio. La selección inicial que se hace en el elA T elimina aquell as variedades susceptibles a las razas fisiológicas locales de ro ya pero no considera las razas prevalecientes en los otros países. A través de un a red de viveros internacionales, el mate rial promisoriv de una localidad se puede ensayar en vari as instituciones cooperativas. Un taller ( t ipo de reunión/discusión) sobre la roya,lIevado a cabo recientemente en el e fAT, fijó los criterios para una det erminación más adecuada de los síntomas y estudió las variedades o selecciones que se debían incluir en los primeros viveros. Por disponer de un banco de gennoplasma de semilla libre de patógenos y de información sobre m ate ri ales re sistentes, el CIAT fue escogido para coo rdinar y di stribuir los materiales para el primer vivero de la roya . Tambié n, se están desarrollando viveros similares para re aliza r ensayos a nivel internacional con las selecciones agroJlómicamente promisorias . Como la ca racterización del ge nn o plasma ini cial ya es ta casi comple ta se inició un programa intensivo de cruzamiento con los materiales más prom isorios. Diez selecciones agronómicament e promisorias y cuyas caracte rislicas se inclu yen en el Cuadro 8, se están cruzando con material es seleccionados co n base en el tiempo requerido para alcanzar la madurez, la insensibilidad al ro tope riodo, el hábi to de c recimiento, la re sistencia a la roya, a la mancha o mustia hil achosa , al mosaico com ún, el añublo bac terial y a Empoasca. El mate rial que present a un bajo nivel de resi stencia a algun os patógenos se es tá intercru zan do con el propósito de lugrar un mayor nivel de resistencia. El mate rial promi sorio estará a di sposició n de los programas nacionales tan pronto como sea posible. Otros materiales promisorios se rán incluidos en el programa de hibri dación, des pués de ser probados en ensayos regionales de ren o dimiento. Esperamos alcanz.ar hasta 4.000 c ru ces por afio.. La su pe ri o rid ad apa re nte de las líneas de semilla negra del Ti po Ir hace mas difícil satisracer las prererencias regionales. Casi todo el materhll res is te nt e a Em-poas{'o tiene semillas negras y en las pruebas regio nales de rendim iento, nueve de las diez vanedades con mejores rendimientos han sido negras. Jáffe y Bucher (1974) también jJlrorn~aron que es te grupo posee mayor contenido proteinico.  MSU 3 I I 12-1,31128,3 11 32•2,32349 , 32030 , 32033 , 4 ,27,94 , 98, 206, 21 3. CIAT 73 VlIl 5174, 72 Vul 240 10, 25 153,24454,24147, 73 Vul 3222, Cal im a, Tara.Ecuador 299, México 309 . Guatemala 209.487 , Turrialba 4, IAN 509 1,73 Vul 3215 ,3231 ,3241 ,3242 ,3248.3285.3287. 150.5375 ,3690 . PR S,12 ,17,18,19 ,  Roya ciones de cerca de un millón de plantas por hectárea (Figura 8), en tanto que con las variedades más detenninadas y semidetenninadas, los rendimientos óptimos se obtuvieron con densidades de 250.000 a 400.000 plantas por hectárea.También , se comenzó a evaluar el banco de gennoplasma con base en su respuesta al fotoperíodo aprovechando las ventajas que ofrece el campo en el CIAT . Las genotipos insensibles al fotoperíodo son de importancia crítica a fin de poder desarrollar variedades fácilmente adaptables a todos los ambien tes para los programas nacionales, En 1974 se iniciaron en la sede del CIAT, Montería, Popayán y Boliche,ensa• yos varietales replicados. En cada una de estas localidades se ensayaron de 40 a 50 variedades comerciales o selecciones promisorias. La superioridad de la variedad Porrillo Sinté tico en tres de las cuatro localidades fue evidente (Cuadro 11). En la prueba en la sede del CIAT el peso del grana/vaina estuvo estrechamente relacionado con el rendimiento, pero se podían observar dos grupos diferentes de sem illas (Figura 9). Las plantas Tipo 1 de hábito de'crecimienlo determinado tenian vainas con tres a cuatro semillas con un peso individual alto por grano, en tanto que las varie• dades semideterminadas tenían un núme:-o menos estable de semillas/vaina y por lo general, tenían semillas más pequeñas. Número de granos por va ina Figura 9. Relación entre el peso de grano/vaina y el núme ro de granos/vaina en ensayos varíetales con Phaseofu.s vulgaris ll evados a cabo en el CIAT durante 19 74 , Obsérvense las diferencias en relación con los hábitos de crecimiento de las variedades .sólo de la fertili zación con fosfato sino de la forma de aplicarlo (Figura 10). La fijación del fosfato también fue importante en el caso de sus forolas más solubles. En dos localidades se ob tu ~o re spuesta al nitrógeno cuando se aplicó la ca ntidad adecuada de fósforo. Debido al fósforo, las leguminosas inoc uladas desarrollaron nódulos más grandes y fijaron más nitrógen. o. Los estudios que se están realiza ndo actualmente consideran los requerimientos de fósforo para la fijación de nitróge no en el fríjol y el uso de especies de 1ñiobacillus y Endogone para mejorar la disponibilidad de fósforo en el suelo, Además, se efectuaron experjmentos de fe rtil ización con boro y molibdeno . El programa mantiene y distribuye gran variedad de inoc ula ntes para Pllaseolus IJ ulg!lris,La producción de semilla básica libre de patógenos fue una prioridad en 1974, La semill a limpia sumin' ist rada ini cialmente por el erA T a 80 pequeros agricu ltore s de Jos valles de Las Monjas y San Malias, en Guatemala , aumentó los ren-  , La mate ria se<:a total es igual al peso del lallo. de los , AJl> a folillI máX ima '= índicc de áre a de~pu ¿s de la noraci ón peciolos, dc 'a~ ~ainas y de los fr ijoles. en ~, mome n• rcndun icnto fríjol ( u de I~ madl'l n':l. mas la ma ll'ria $Cea roHar O1a~im a, , Eficienda de rcnd irn iclllO de rTlJol (Rr) dc)pués dI. \"\" la Iloraclón díu huta la m:.zdurc1.rendIm iento fríjol , Eficicnei3 materia seca tOlal (MST) = ma te ria seca total Indl ~;: de co~eha ma lcoa:¡eu 10lal X 100 d íu hou ta la madurez dimientos de 515 a 1.545 kg/ha en una sola estación'. El e rAT también cooperó 'en la limpieza de la semilla de las variedades comerciales de Perú y de Brasil. En 1975, la mayoría de las líneas promisorias de gennoplasma no prese ntarán enfennedades transmitidas por la misma. sem illa y en la mayoria de los ensayos en la sede del ClAT se utilizará solamente semilla libre de patógenos . Deb ido a las restricciones nacionales sobre cuarentena vegetal, la labor del CrAT en este programa será la de limpiar la semilla básica e identificar las áreas dentro de los paises en los cuales se pueda multiplicar esta semilla libre 'de patÓgeno\"s .Los estudios sobre protección de las plantas efectuados en 1974 enfatizaron el  y de piretros no tóxic os. Aun que se e nsaya ron vari os insecticidas para verificar su control en el campo y se hicieron algunas recomendaciones, se tra taba de encontrar soluciones a corto pla zo las cuaJes n o serán parte ese ncial del p rograma de spués de 1974.Se efectuaro n estudios patol ógicos si mila res, ent re los que se incluyen: 1) la evaluación de las pé rdidas de rencli m iento debidas a enfe rmedades específic as y a las epocas de com ienzo de la enferme dad; 2) la innuencia de las p rá.cticas cult!J ral es, t illes como la densidad de siembra en la incidencia, gravedad y difu sión de la crifc nn e• dad; y 3) una eva luación del control que eje rcen los fu ngicidas en variqs patóge nos principales (Figura J J) .Como se menc ionó anterio nnen' te en la Sección 11, diversos problem3s soc ioeconóm icos lim itan la productivida d de l fn' iol en Amé:ica Latin a. Para log rar un a   mejor comprensión de la te cnología qu e actualmente se encuentra disponible para los agricultores y del impact o que la nueva te cno logia podrta tener , el grupo de Economía Agrícola del CIAT es ta est udiando la producci ón de ffljol en tres áreas principaJ es de Colombia . Se está recopi land o información detallada sobre las prácticas cu ltu rales co rrientes, especialmente los sistemas de siembra , meca ni zac ión , uso de semillas, fertilizantes y plagu icídas; por ot ra pa rte, se cuen ta con agrónomos ad iestrados encargados de inspeccionar los cu lti vos para encontrar las plagas y defi• cie ncias de nutrimentos. También , se están es tudiando los problemas asociados con el mercadeo y la financiación de la producción. Los resultados preliminares sobre 72 de las fincas est udjadas presentan las diferencias principa les en el uso de crédit o y tecn ología ent re las tres áreas (ver Cuadro 11) y ay udarán al CIAT a asignar sus re • cursos de investigación.La red latinoamericana de investigación sobre f~/jvlComo se mencionó en la intro ducción . al CIAT se le soli citó es tablecer y coordinar una red latinoamericana de in vestigac ión sobre frijol. La Junta Directiva del ClAT, aunque en principio aceptó esta solicitud , pidió un año de plazo para considerar los progresos logrados con el programa hasta la fecha y las implicaciones futuras que los gastos del establecimiento de dicha red tendrían en el programa. Un donativo a corto plazo del Banco Interamericano de DesarroJ1o fInancia algunas de las actividades de investigación que se han encomendado a la red para su coordi• nación.Aunque en los programas nacionales e internacionales de investigación, lo mismo que en algunas disciplinas, se menciona con frecuencia la importancia de las redes cooperativas, la realidad es que muy pocas funcionan eficientemente , por una o más razones . El grupo organizador puede patrocinar unidades cooperativas 0 , por el contrario, no responder a sus necesidades. Puede darse duplicación de actividades dentro de la misma red y finalmente, se pueden presentar intereses encontrados que no admiten solución. Si la red de fríjol ha de ser operante debe es tar fundada sobre una base de respeto, complementación y ayuda mutua entre el CIA T y los programas nacionales y regionales. Dentro de esta red, el CIAT se deberia concentrar en las actividades que sean aplicables a toda América Latina, en tanto que los programas Cuadro 12. ¡'xperimentación cooperativa del programa de [\"jol  ~'3n en el Cuadro 12 , ayu dar ían a resolver problemas espe cíficos fuera del alcance \\,. : las capacidades técnicas, disciplin arias y de dispunibilidad de genn oplasma de los programas nacio nales.Las re laciones de trabajo entre el personal del CIAT y los inves tigador« de Colombia, Ec uador, Guatemala y Perú eran.exce lentes, incluso antes de presentarse la sol icitud del Comité Técnico Asesor. Entre las actividades realizadas en colaboración con estos países se enc uentran las siguientes: 1) Aseso rar a los go biernos sobre los requerimient os y pri oridades de la in ves tigación en fríjol ; 2) Suministrar germo• plasma y materiales selec tos; 3) Ad ies trar cientíncos; 4) Brindar servicios de docume ntaci ón; y 5) organi za r la experimentación cooperativa. La red de investigación sobre fríjol continuará y am pli ará estas actividades. Recienteme nte, aJgunas institu• ciones de Brasil , Chile , Cos ta Ri ca y Venezuela expresaron su interés en el enfoque que se ha dado a la red de investigadón.Hemos mencionado algunas ac tividade s de la red de investigación so bre frij ol del CIAT ; po r ejemplo, la selecció n y sumini stro de gennoplasm a. En esta sección de la publicació n concentrarem os las ac tivida des de adies tramie nt o, se rvicios de in• fo rmación , organización de reuni ones y \" taJl e res\" y coordinación de experimenta. ció n cooperativa.Com o se me ncio nó en la Sección JI , el respaldo científico in suficiente e inconsistente es uno de los p rinc ipaJes fa c tores responsables de los bajos rendim ie ntos del fújo!. Muchos países no tienen los espedalis tas que req uieren y por lo ge ner,a l, tampoco puede n brincar a los cientlficos la opo rtunidad de es pecializa rse. El CIAT resaJta la importancia del adiestramiento a nivel de posgrado recibiendo becari os de tres ca tego rías, proce dentes de di ve rsos programas e in stitucione s nacionales. a) ¡.os Becarios de Posgrado. durante un periodo de sz is meses a un año en el CIAT, redben adiestramiento e in strucción sobre diseño y manejo de ex perimentos, aJ mismo tiempo que se les inco rpo ra al programa general de investigación. Mas de 20 becarios de nueve pa ises fu eron adie strados en el programa de fríj o l durante el período 1973-1974. UII as pect o esencial de este adiestramiento es mante ner el con• tacto entre el becario y el CIAT después de qu e és te termin a su per íodo.  Tend\"-,, una duración variable y harán hincapié tanto en la parte teórica como en la práctica de los métodos propuestos para obtener una producción de fríjol más eficiente.La organización de un programa coordinado de adiestramiento para los inves• ligadores de fríjol de América Latina, constituye una necesidad esencial. Actualmente, hay varios centros o programas latinoamericanos (el CIAT, el Centro Agrícola Tropical de In~estigación y Ensenanza (CATlE) y la Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA» que poseen fondos y las facilidades para adiestrar a los investigadores dedicados al cultivo de fríjol. Varias universidades de países desarrollados (Cambridge, Comell, Florida y la Universidad Estatal de Michigan) también están involucradas en el adiestramiento de estudiantes de esta región. Los programas se deberían organizar de acuerdo con: a) el nivel de adiestramiento requerido; b) el equipo humano y la experiencia con que se cuente : e) las similitudes de clima y de sistemas de producción , entre el país del estudiante y la institución adiestradora.En Agosto de 1974, el Programa de Frijol estableció un servicio de resúmenes y documentación a través del cual los científicos y las instituci ones interesadas pueden recibir. a costo mínimo, tarjetas de resúmene s y bibliografías sobre la literatura disponible de frijol. En la Figura 12, aparece una tarjeta típica de resúmenes. Se comenzará el proyecto con la elaboración de resúmenes de las publicaciones más recientes, que se remontarán paulatinamente hasta 1960; para mayor conveniencia, estas tarjetas se publicarán en Inglés. A partir de 1976, las versiones en Inglés y en Espailol estarán en disponibilidad de quienes las soliciten .Los \"talleres\" cortos (tipo de reunión/discusión) sobre una disciplina especi• fica , con asistencia de 15 a 25 participantes, estimulan la colaboración, el mejoramiento de los métodos experimentales , la comparacfón detalJada de los resultados y un mayor contacto entre los científicos. Dichos talleres también garantizan una exposición constante del personal del CIAT a áreas específicas de problemas conectados con el cultivo del frijol. Cada año se planean dos talleres , de acuerdo con el siguiente progratna:-\" rl7-5: Taller sobre Protección de las Plantas  . \"-f--~ -\\' segregantes se seleccionaron lIneas arbustivas, lineas con gu fa corta y lineas con ::::. _ , ' : ' : , ' . ' : ' ,, -: __ \" ' , < _ ' , ' , : _ : , ; _ , _ , ' . ' : , ' , -_ , , , ' : . _ , ' : ~ ía larga. La,' . Se espera que la investigacTón sob re cada uno de estos campos específicos esté suficientemente adelantada para la fecha que se ha establecido para cada taller (Fi• gura 1). De esta forma, el taHer sobre Fitomejoramiento y Gennoplasma , para 1975 , proveerá una oportunidad para djscutir las pruebas recíentemente conc1uídas sobre utili zaci ón de germoplasma y la forma en la cual los programas re gionaJes podrían utili zar más provechosamente el material disponible . El taller también debería tener disponible la progenia F3 de los materiales de fitomejoramiento que aparecen en el Cuadro 8 y discutir el proceso de transición de las pruebas básicas de rendimiento realizadas a nivel local a pruebas con alcance internacionaL Igualmente , el Taller sobre Economía, para 1977, debería coincidir con la te rmin ac ión de los dos es tudios económicos sobre los factores Iimitantes de Jos rendjmientos del fríj ol que se están llevando a cabo fuera de Colombia,El Cuadro 12 muestra las áreas de investigación cooperativa propuestas para 1975. Como se sugirió anterionnente , dichas áreas tratan de resolver problemas específicos de la localidad utilizando la experiencia y las facilidades técnicas del CIAT, conjuntamente con los conocimientos y la supervisión prestada por Jos científicos de los programas nacionales.Las pruebas regionales de rendimiento mencionadas anteriormente son un ejemplo patente de actividad internacional. La evaluación inicial en el CIAT servirá para identificar variedades o líneas promisorias, en cuanto al rendimiento, dentro de unas condiciones ecológicas limitadas. A fm de comparar tales materiales con los desarroUados por los programas nacionales se establecerán ensayos integrados de rendimiento en tantas áreas como sea posible. Para que estos ensayos tengan éxito será necesario reunirse con los líderes de los programas nacionales que deseen participar en los programas de pruebas de rendimiento y fijar, de común acuerdo, las variedades que deberían incluirse, el tipo de protección estándar con fertilizantes y plaguicidas que se debería establecer, el tamaño de las parcelas y la información que se 'debería recopilar.De igual manera, el ClA T puede poner a disposición de los agriculto res pequeñas cantidades de semilla limpia proveniente de su banco de germoplasma. No obstante, esto sólo puede hacerse multiplicando la semilla bajo el control de los programas nacionales interesados.Los estudios sobre Apion, la antracnosis y la mancha O mustia hilachosa, aunque son de importancia primordial para la región, no se pueden efectuar fácilmente en la sede del CIAT.Cuando se estudiaron las propuestas para formar la red cooperativa de investigación sobre el cultivo de fríjol para América Latina, el Comité Técnico Asesor resaltó la necesidad de crear un Comité Asesor de carácter científico. Se sugirió que dicho comité podría revisar las necesidades regionales de investigación, ayudar a canaliza r las áreas-problema al ClAT o a las entidades nacionales apropiadas y comunicarle al personal del programa de investigación de fríjol del CIAT aquellas deficiencias de orden técnico que aparecieran en su operación .  El Director General o en su defecto, el Director General Asociado del CIAT, tambi én será miembro de es te comité. La integración y actividades del comité se revisarán y ratifica rán en el primer encuentro qu e tendrá lugar, probablemente, en Junio de 1975\",Como se mencionó en la Sección IV , exis ten numerosas áreas de in ves tigación del fríjol qu e se pueden estudiar en form a más apropiada en los laboratorios de los países desarrollados o bajo contratos especiales. Entre éstas se pueden mencionar las siguientes:Estu dios sobre temperatura del suelo. La temperatu ra del suelo en la sede del CIAT puede exceder los 45°C durante varias horas al día y en otras áreas se aproxima a los 60°C . Con temperat uras mucho más bajas di sminuye el crecimiento de las plantas y la fijación del nit rógeno en otras legu minosas de grano (Dart et al., 1973). El efecto de la te mperatura depen de casi siempre de la variedad o cepa que se esté estudiando. El CIAT no tie ne facilidades para e f..:ctuar expe rimentos con temperatura regulada; este fenómeno se podría es tudi ar mejor por me dio de inves tigación de apoyo realizada en otros laboratorios mejor equipados. En la sede del CIAT se continuará con las medidas prácticas para reducir la tempe ratura del suelo tales como la cubierta protectora , la labranza m ínima y los cultivos asociados. Con la cubie rta protec tora , en especial, se han obtenido buenos resultados.El desarrollo de germoplasma para tierras altas tropeza rá con el problema de las temperaturas bajas, lo cual requerirá un estudio similar.Enfermedades transmitidas por la semilla. Muchos aspe ctos de las enfermedades transmitidas por las semillas se pod rían estudiar en form a más eficaz fuera de la sede del CIAT . Por ejempl o , la difi cult ad 'de di stin guir entre !os problemas virajes con sintom atología simiJar, Existe mu cha confusión entre el virus del mosaico amarillo del fríjol (que se encuentra corrientemente en Chile), el viru~ del mosaico dorado (en Guatem,la) y el virus del mosaico ampolladO (e n El S?Jvador). Lo más ade• cuado para identificar ~stos virus difere!1tes sería utili za r los rr,étodos se rológicos pero esta técnica no se justifica dentro del programa del CIAT. El hecho de que va• riedades aparentemente libres de patógenos, algunas veces muestren síntomas en generaciones subsecuentes, es de interés directo para el eIAT. Se debe investigar el mecanismo mediante el cual estos virus o bacterias permanecen viables en las plan• tas sin causar daños visibles.Fertilización con fósforo. Ya se ha hecho alusión a la impo rtancia de la fertilización y del sistema de aplicación del fósforo. Si bien el CIAT no puede inves• tigar la química del fosfato en el suelo, el conocimiento en este campo ser ía sJmamente importante para desarrollar prácticas de fertilización. Igualmente, se debería detennmar la presencia de micorrizas endotrópicas en Jos suelos tropi cales y su importancia con relación a la disponibilidad de fósforo.Manejo de la infonnación. Si, como parece posible, el Programa de Fríjol del CIAT Uega a ser el centro mundial de germoplasma de Phaseolus vulgaris, se ría neo cesario mejorar el manejo y la recuperación de la información así como los sistemas de análisis de la misma. La información sobre el banco' de germoplasma puede ser una herramienta de gran utilidad, por ejemplo, para los estudios hechos en Austra• lia de Srylosanthes sp. (Burt et al., 1971). Los procedimientos que agilicen la se lec• ción son esenciales para disminuir el tiempo perdido al suministrar los pedidos de germoplasma .Estudios proteinicos. Dada la falta de énfasis que en la actualidad da el ClAT a la cantidad y calidad de la proteína, es esencial que otros centros comiencen estudios sobre las interacciones proteína~rendimiento. Este trabajo se está realizando, en parte, en la Universidad de Cambridge y en eIINCAP , en Guatemala.El acuerdo entre el CIAT y las. universidades de Cornell, Hokkaido y Michigan sirve para ilustrar la eficacia de la investigación cooperativa. El factor principal estudiado por estas universidades, bajo este acuerdo, es la fisiología básica del fríjol que comprende factores tales como la caída de las flores y el desarrollo de la vaina, la fotosíntesis de la vaina y su contribución al rendimiento, y las c'ausas de la inestabilidad en los hábitos ,de crecimiento del • fríjol.Bean lmprovement Cooperative. A,mual Repori. v. 5, 1962 . . ","tokenCount":"7994"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15b5e460666e7ec82ab69d773ce5c885","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8039e8f-cfcb-4630-9bf1-17e27309f65e/retrieve","id":"728045165"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ebcef80f-65c8-4e9d-b669-765489414c91","pagecount":"53","content":"Grace conducted the literature review and wrote the draft report. Elisabetta Lambertini and Haley Swartz wrote portions of the report, reviewed drafts, and provided quality control. Elisabetta Lambertini provided input into the methodology and interpretation of findings. Caroline Smith DeWaal and Bonnie McClafferty reviewed and provided feedback on the full draft.Ethiopia bears a significant burden of foodborne disease (FBD). As in other African countries, traditional markets play a vital role in suppling food to Ethiopian consumers. However, little if any oversight exists to monitor the safety of foods sold at those markets. Conditions at the market itself could contribute to food contamination, for example due to inadequate infrastructure, vending practices, or poor environmental health. Feed the Future's EatSafe: Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food (EatSafe) undertook a comprehensive two-part review of the published literature to synthesize existing evidence on the occurrence of biological and chemical hazards in foods and beverages in Ethiopia.This report is organized in three parts: Section 1 presents objectives and methodology, while Sections 2 and 3 present findings on hazard occurrence in food and beverages, respectively. Section 2 details findings from recent literature review efforts, synthesizing 97 articles published from 1990 to 2021 on chemical and biological hazards detected in foods sold and consumed in Ethiopia. Section 3 presents methods and findings of a new literature review conducted by EatSafe on beverage-borne hazards consumed in Ethiopia, covering 118 articles published from 2000 to 2021.Regarding hazard occurrence in foods (Section 2), 70% of included studies investigated the presence of bacterial hazards. In animal source foods, in particular the beef and dairy value chains, Salmonella spp., E. coli, and Staphylococcus aureus were documented most frequently. This level of attention seems justified by the high contamination prevalence observed, although there may be a bias likely due to the importance of these commodities in the Ethiopian food economy. Conversely, data are lacking on viral pathogens and parasites. While some studies found fresh vegetables to be highly contaminated with parasites and bacteria, comparatively little data was available for this commodity category, thus supporting the choice of fresh vegetables as a focus for EatSafe's activities. Only three studies reported on egg contamination.Regarding hazard occurrence in beverages (Section 3), 58% of included studies covered raw or pasteurized cow milk and camel milk. A quarter of records (28%) covered water, while 13% examined fruit juices. More biological hazards (n=469) than chemical hazards (n=70) were identified. Almost all (94%) biological hazards were bacteria, while a small portion were fungi and parasites (5% and 1%, respectively). Of the bacterial hazards, the most frequently reported were Escherichia coli (21%), Staphylococcus spp. (22%), and Salmonella spp. (11%). Antimicrobial residues, heavy metals, and pesticides were also reported by a small number of studies.In general, results from the reviews were compatible with disease burden estimates from the World Health Organization's Foodborne Disease Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG), the most credible global source of FBD burden estimates. Notably, Salmonella spp. and E. coli feature prominently in both the reviews and FERG estimates. However, certain hazards that the FERG considers high priority but are difficult to assess (e.g., Campylobacter spp.) are underreported in the reviews. Moreover, while the FERG did not consider S. aureus, this was one of the most reported bacteria in the reviews. This report represents an important step in gathering and synthesizing scientific evidence to inform upcoming EatSafe research activities and interventions to improve food safety in traditional markets in Ethiopia.Although access to safe food is a basic human right (1), foodborne diseases (FBD) continue to present significant global health challenges. FBD is caused by food that carries bacteria, viruses, parasites, foreign material, and chemicals that makes food unsafe for human consumption.The Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG), a World Health Organization (WHO) group of experts focused on FBD, provides the best estimates of the foodborne disease burden globally (2,3). Using global data on 31 foodborne hazards, the FERG estimates about 600 million people become sick each year and 420,000 die, resulting in an estimated FBD burden of 33 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)(4). 1 A subsequent FERG study estimated a burden of over one million additional disease cases, 56,000 deaths, and nine million DALYs attributed to four foodborne heavy metals (i.e., arsenic, cadmium, lead, and methylmercury) (5). Additional detail on bacterial, viral, and chemical disease agents from the FERG studies are in Table 1. Regionally, the FERG found that for two of the four heavy metals listed above, Africa sub-region E 2 had the top two highest FBD burden per capita. Ethiopia, the focus of this report, belongs to that sub-region. As shown in Table 1, the top five hazards as per DALY burden are biological. While non-typhoidal Salmonella ranks highest in terms of DALYs and deaths, Campylobacter spp. and norovirus rank first and second in illness numbers -reflecting frequent but less severe illnesses.Feed the Future's Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food (EatSafe) aims to improve food safety in traditional food markets by focusing on the consumer. This report presents the existing body of evidence on the occurrence of foodborne hazards in foods and beverages commonly consumed in Ethiopia. In conjunction with other research studies, this report will inform the design of EatSafe's consumer-facing interventions in Ethiopia. 3   This report is organized in two parts:• Section 2 on Hazards in Foods, which synthesizes results from a review of foodborne hazards in Ethiopia from 1990 to 2021 (3); • Section 3 on Hazards in Beverages, which presents the results of a new review of beverage-borne hazards in Ethiopia from 2000 to 2021.The following research questions grounded both reviews:• What biological and chemical hazards have been identified in foods and beverages consumed in Ethiopia? • What is the prevalence (i.e., percent of contaminated products) and concentration of hazards in foods and beverages consumed in Ethiopia? • What is the spatial distribution of studies reporting these hazards (i.e., where, within the country, were the studies conducted)?EatSafe consortium partner ILRI previously conducted a systematic literature review covering a broad range of foodborne hazards in Ethiopia, including evidence from 1990-2 Countries in this sub-region include: Botswana; Burundi; Central African Republic; Congo; Côte d'Ivoire; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Kenya; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; Rwanda; South Africa; Swaziland; Uganda; United Republic of Tanzania; Zambia; Zimbabwe. Note these countries are classified in the same sub-region based on similar levels of mortality, as Africa sub-region E corresponds to high child and very high adult mortality. 3 In particular, this review will inform the choice of specific hazard(s) and commodities that will be included in EatSafe risk assessment activities in Ethiopia.A second supplemental review was conducted to identify more recently published articles, covering 2017-2021. This section summarizes findings from both searches. The search protocol for the systematic review is detailed in (3), and the supplemental search used the same methods. Data was extracted from 97 articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria and met acceptable quality standards.Of the 97 articles selected for data extraction, the vast majority (70%) investigated the presence of bacterial hazards (Figure 1), followed by 20% on parasites. Only a minority of articles addressed viruses or chemical hazards. The distribution of bacterial hazards, in terms of percent of articles, is shown in Figure 2. In terms of value chains, bovine dairy and beef were the most studied. The focus on these two value chains is possibly a reflection of the importance of livestock in Ethiopian food systems, and of funding to support research on them.More recent results from the supplemental search confirm these hazard prevalence rates. While gaps in several hazards and commodities remain, EatSafe identified an increase in published literature for vegetables from 2017 to 2021.The most investigated and detected hazards are pathogenic bacteria (Figure 2). While each species or subspecies results in different clinical presentations, most can cause acute gastroenteric illness, often including diarrhoea and associated complications, as well as numerous long-term sequelae of infection. Several of these pathogens are estimated to cause the highest burden among FBD, worldwide and in the Africa subregion AFR-E including Ethiopia (2). Among chemical hazards, long-term exposure to aflatoxins can lead to carcinogenicity, in particular liver cancer, immunotoxicity, and growth impairment, as well as acute liver toxicity in extreme cases (6).The following sections presents results by value chain.Six articles investigating microbial contamination in the bovine dairy products value chain (excluding milk and yogurt, covered in the beverage review) were identified, covering four bacterial pathogens and one suspect pathogen (Mycobacterium). Five hazards were identified in various stages of the Ethiopian bovine dairy value chain: Staphylococcus, Listeria, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella, and Mycobacterium. 4   Staphylococcus spp. -This pathogen enters the dairy production chain when it is shed in milk by cows. The likelihood that cows shed S. aureus varies based on geographical location and farming systems but is closely related to hygiene practices during milk handling. While five studies investigated the occurrence of S. aureus in bovine milk, and found a prevalence ranging from 7% to 50% at multiple stage of the milk production and processing chain (7-10); see Section 3), no study investigated the presence of this pathogen in cheese or other dairy foods.Listeria spp. -Studies in Addis Ababa identified Listeria spp. in ice cream (43% of samples), cheese (0%-4%), and cottage cheese (2%-5%) (11)(12)(13)(14). In a different study, cheese was found to be highly contaminated with the hazard (60%), more so than raw milk (19%) and yogurt (5%) (15). While pasteurization will kill this bacterium, 20% of pasteurized milk samples still contained this pathogen, likely due to cross-contamination during processing (15). Bacillus cereus -Over 60% of ayib samples (an Ethiopian traditional cheese) sold at a traditional market were contaminated with Bacillus cereus (11). Salmonella spp. -In supermarkets and retail shops located in Gondar, Salmonella spp. was not detected in cottage cheese samples (16). For context, over 10% of individuals working in Addis Ababa dairy farms were found positive for Salmonella (10).Mycobacterium spp. -No study investigated the presence of this genus in bovine dairy products other than milk. A large study involving cattle (n=1,220) found Mycobacterium tuberculosis (15%), M. bovis (44%) and atypical mycobacteria (39%) in 4 Mycobacterium spp. is of primary importance for animal health and only a suspect human pathogen.Because the foodborne hazard review excludes milk, it is mentioned here for completeness. However, the three articles described in the Mycobacterium sub-section are excluded from the number of studies in the foodborne hazard review, instead included in the beverage review (Section 3). milk from tuberculin-positive cows (17). Two other studies found that 8%-18% of tuberculin sensitive cows were shedding M. bovis or M. tuberculosis in milk (11%) (18,19). 5   BEEF Because consumption of raw beef meat is common in Ethiopia, the presence of foodborne pathogens is particularly relevant to this value chain. A total of 23 studies investigated microbial contamination in the beef value chain. Salmonella spp. -Salmonella was detected in 12% of raw meat samples, 8% of minced meat samples, and 3% of raw burger samples (16). In another study, only two of 200 (1%) beef samples were positive for Salmonella spp. (20). Salmonella was observed in raw beef products at a prevalence ranging from 2% to 26% in abattoirs, and 4% to 70% in retail (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26).Listeria spp. -Approximately half of 61 minced beef meat samples analyzed in one study (14) were positive for Listeria spp., and one of these positive samples was confirmed as L. monocytogenes (14). Another study found a 28% prevalence of Listeria spp. Four percent of beef samples contained L. monocytogenes, which has higher rates of antimicrobial resistance (27).Eight studies examined the prevalence of E. coli in beef samples. One study found a E. coli O157 prevalence of 8% in meat samples from abattoirs and butcher shops in Addis Ababa (28). Six recent articles investigated the presence of generic E. coli in raw beef meat or carcasses in the Oromia region. Prevalence in raw beef meat products sampled at abattoirs or retail ranged from 19% to 45%, with the highest prevalence observed at retail (22,29,30). In particular, prevalence of E.coli O157:H7 ranged from 1% to 19% at abattoirs and retail. (29)(30)(31)(32). One study focusing E.coli O157:H7 on carcass swabs at processing plants (including skin, intestinal, and fecal swabs) found a much lower prevalence of 1-2%, possibly due to the sampling method used, or to the processing plant exhibiting a higher degree of food safety controls than other establishments (33). Shigella spp. -A study involving butcher shops in Gondar town isolated Shigella in 9% of raw meat samples. Contamination was also reported in swabs of chopping boards (13%), hands (11%), and knives (11%) (34).Staphylococcus aureus -S. aureus was identified in 12% to 25% of raw beef products in abattoirs (7,22) and in half of butcher shop beef samples (35). In another study on environmental samples in abattoirs, four knife and slaughter line swab samples tested positive for S. aureus, as did all hand swabs (7). Assessing concentrations in raw beef samples collected at urban butcher shops, one study found a mean of 4 Log CFU/g, considered unacceptably high (21).Mycobacterium bovis -In one study, 6% of carcasses were found positive for M. bovis upon postmortem examination (36). The study also found poor agreement between routine and detailed abattoir inspection, and well as between results of inspection and culture detection, with 14% of carcasses harboring mycobacteria that were not detected by the detailed abattoir inspection. While Mycobacterium spp. is of primary importance for animal health, it is a suspect human pathogen and included here for completeness.EGGS Four studies on eggs were identified. A study in Addis Ababa found that 5% of raw shell egg samples were positive for Salmonella enteritidis (n=384) (37). In another study, 18% (n=50) of raw egg samples were found positive for Salmonella spp. (16). Finally, Salmonella was also detected in one out of 30 egg sandwich samples (38). One study found a somewhat higher prevalence of Salmonella in eggs sold at markets (4-5%) than in eggs collected at farms (0-2%) (39).FRUITS AND VEGETABLES A total of six studies on fresh vegetables were identified (see Table 2). Most studies focused on parasites -unlike for other commodities -and only one study investigated bacteria. No study examined viral occurrence, highlighting a key gap in evidence on foodborne hazards and risk.Parasites -Four studies investigated the presence of parasites in fruits and vegetables. One study found that half of the 36 fruit and vegetable sampled tested positive for at least one parasite, and of those testing positive, half were contaminated with two parasite species (40). 6 Contamination rates differed by product type, and included 71% of tomatoes, 67% of kale (Brassica oleracea), 62% of carrots, 60% of lettuce (Lactuca serriola), 49% of bananas, 40% of mangoes, and 38% of avocado samples. Two other small-scale studies confirmed the prevalence levels observed for individual parasites. However, one large recent study found a relatively lower prevalence of some parasites in multiple vegetable sampled at markets in Bahir Dar City (41).Bacterial contamination -Varying levels of microbial contamination were identified in fruits and vegetables. In one study of lettuce and green peppers (each n=40), Salmonella was detected in 10% of samples and Shigella in 30% (100% and 97% penicillin-resistant, respectively), in addition to coliform counts above 4 Log CFU/g in 48% and 35% of lettuce and green pepper samples, respectively (42). In the same study, 80% of samples had high Staphylococcus counts (between 4 and 6 Log CFU/g). A different study examined the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce sold at Addis Ababa markets found a relatively low (0.5%) prevalence (43). In one study examining mycotoxins, ochratoxin was the most frequently identified hazard, isolated in teff (27%; n=33), wheat (23%; n=107), sorghum (22%; n=78) and barley (26%; n=103) (45). Aflatoxin B1 was found in teff (23%; n=35) and barley (11%; n=115), while deoxynivalenol was identified in 90% of sorghum (n=33) and 35% of barley (n=20) samples (45).Aflatoxin prevalence ranged from 23% to 41% in samples of groundnut seeds and locally produced groundnut cake (halawa) over two consecutive crop seasons (n=80 in each year) 7 (46). Beyond groundnut products, another study of mycotoxin contamination in maize from farms in south and southwest Ethiopia found high concentrations 8 of Zearalenone compounds, Fumonisins B1-B4, and Aflatoxin B1 (47).In another study, all samples of maize consumed were contaminated with Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), at a mean concentration of 1.8 mg/kg (48). Specifically, over three-quarters of maize samples for human consumption collected from households at three sites contained levels above the standards set by the European Union and/or the Codex Alimentarius (i.e., maximum residue levels for DDT/DDE in maize 0.05 and 0.1 mg Kg -1 respectively) (49,50), highlighting the potential risk when maize is used as an ingredient in complementary foods. This study also investigated organochlorine and organophosphate pesticide residues in other cereal crops (sorghum, millet, rice). 7 Concentration levels in both products combined ranged from 1.7 to 2,526 μg kg -1 for B1, and from 0.1 to 237 μg kg -1 for B2. 8 Prevalence of Aflatoxin B1 was 8% (mean concentration of 606 μg kg -1 ), 51% to 70% for Fumonisins B1-B4 (mean concentrations of 85-606 μg kg -1 ), and 81% to 96% for Zearalenone compounds.The findings on contamination levels of the review, presented in the previous section, was consistent with estimates of disease attribution to different commodity categories in the FERG estimates, for the Africa sub-region E including Ethiopia (4). In particular nontyphoidal Salmonella, one of the most important bacteria in terms of public health, was studied in numerous publications in Ethiopia (and elsewhere). However, viruses were under-represented and chemicals over-represented in the publications identified by the review, compared to FDB burden attributed to them in the FERG estimates. This highlights that viruses are relatively understudied compared to their estimated burden.The high representation of chemical hazards in the published literature is possibly an indication of increased funding for research targeting them. The review also searched for and identified publications on important foodborne pathogens that were not included in the FERG study (e.g., Staph. aureus and Bacillus cereus). It should be kept in mind that hazard occurrence data cannot be directly linked to disease burden without a proper risk assessment effort. Hence, no comparison is drawn here between frequency of hazard occurrence reported in the literature and disease burden estimated by FERG.EatSafe conducted a systematic literature review focused on peer-reviewed articles published from 2000 to 2021 that examined consumption of beverages (including water) in rural and urban communities in Ethiopia. The review followed PRISMA guidelines. 9  Appendix 1 presents the review protocol, including inclusion and exclusion criteria. The search process for this review followed the same approach for a similar EatSafe in Nigeria review on foodborne and beverage-borne hazards consumed in Nigeria (51).Given the scarce literature on hazards in Ethiopia, hazard proxies are also included (i.e., the broader categories of pathogens that have a subset of hazards). For example, more studies on E. coli exist compared to toxigenic E. coli, although many E. coli strains are non-pathogenic. Similarly, bacteria that cause opportunistic human infections (e.g., Alcaligenes spp.,) were included. Moreover, some of these bacteria are also spoilage organisms, and while not the direct focus of the study, presence of spoilage organisms is important when planning interventions, as preventing spoilage is a major incentive for value chain actors.Data extraction and quality assessment happened concurrently, using the same quality assessment methods from the Nigeria review (i.e., three quality categories including good, medium, poor for each inclusion criterion, assessed by two Reviewers). To capture data from the studies included in this review, EatSafe used the same data extraction template developed for previous Nigeria review (see Table 3 for types of extracted data). 10 A total of 512 studies were retained for full text screening; of these, data were extracted from 118 publications. A summary of these data is provided in Appendix 2. The included studies yielded a total of 539 unique hazard records. Throughout this section, the number of records is used as the primary unit of information, in addition to the number of articles on a commodity/hazard pair. Because a \"record\" refers to the information about a commodity/hazard included in an article, an article may include multiple records (e.g., if the study targeted several hazards).During the 20-year time period studied, there has been an increase in the number of published articles focusing on food safety in Ethiopia (see Figure 3) 11 -a trend mirrored in the EatSafe review on this topic in Nigeria (51).Most studies focused on four regions within Ethiopia, with the highest in Amhara, followed by Oromia, Addis Ababa, and Tigray (Figure 4). Clarifying why these areas are more prevalent in the literature was beyond the remit of this review, though large urban areas may have dominated study settings more than rural settings. Sidama, the region where Hawassa is located, was considered in six articles (nine records). TYPES OF BEVERAGES Excluding alcoholic beverages, 514 records on beverages included cow and camel milk (58%), water (28%), and fruit juices (13%). 12 (Figure 5). Milk records (n=296) included raw milk (88%) and fermented milk (12%). Water surveys (n=142) were from tap water (55%), surface water (22%), ground water (18%), and bottled water (5%). 12 The remaining 1% were studies examining energy drinks and were excluded from this review. The review found both biological (n=469 records) and chemical (n=70) hazards, out of the 539 records included in the review.Of the records on biological hazards or hazard proxies reported (n=469), 94% were bacteria, 5% were fungi, and 1% were parasites. Sixty-seven (15%) of the bacterial strains investigated were not hazards per se but rather provided indication of contamination or were broader categories of bacteria that also include pathogenic strains (total bacterial counts, coliforms, Enterobacteriaceae etc.). Also included for completeness are hazards that cause rare, opportunistic human infections such as Alcaligenes spp., and Erwinia spp. These organisms do not usually cause infections in healthy individuals, but can infect persons with compromised immune system responses, e.g. due to other infections or severe malnutrition. Of the 303 records that reported bacterial hazards, E. coli (21%), Staphylococcus spp. (22%), and Salmonella spp. (11%) were the most frequently reported (Figure 6).   Although not covered in depth in the review, resistance to commonly used antibiotics was reported in some studies. For instance, E. coli isolated from fruit juice showed resistance to antibiotics such as clindamycin (80% of isolates), ampicillin (70%), sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim (60%), erythromycin (60%), chloramphenicol (50%), and kanamycin (50%) (57). In a different fruit juice study, a high proportion of E.coli isolates were found resistant to erythromycin (100%), ceftriaxone (67%), tetracycline (67%), ciprofloxacin (60%), and chloramphenicol (50%) (77). In the same study, all S. aureus isolates showed resistance to erythromycin and amoxclavulic acid, and a high proportion were resistant to other antimicrobials including 18% to tetracycline, 59% to ciprofloxacin, 41% to gentamicin, and 65% to chloramphenicol (77).Bovine dairy products are very often found to be contaminated by bacterial pathogens at various stages in production chains. This section summarizes evidence on prevalence of different pathogens, organized by beverage type (i.e., raw milk, pasteurized and raw milk combined, and yogurt).Milk -A diverse group of bacterial hazards and pathogens were found in both raw and pasteurized milk. While 20% of samples were positive for L. monocytogenes (9%), L. innocua (7%), and L. seeligeri (3%) in one study (n=407) (52), another found a 34% and 3% positivity rate for E. coli and E. coli O157:H7, respectively (n=380) (54) raw milk samples (n=30) (53), as well as 20% of pasteurized milk samples containing Listeria, likely due to cross-contamination during processing (15). At the household level, rates of E. coli in raw milk ranged from 21% to 55% in two districts of the Oromia Region of Ethiopia (80).In a recent study conducted in the Gondar region, almost all raw and pasteurized milk samples (95%) collected at milking, transport, processing, pasteurization, and retail levels were positive for gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus spp, Bacillus cereus, and others (59). At the retail level, E. coli prevalence ranged from 63% in milk shops to 31% at dairy farms (57). Data on overall bacterial counts indicated significant contamination in milk samples across retail locations in Ethiopia: higher rates among street vendors compared to milk farmers (54,55), lower rates in cooperatives as compared to farmers ( 56), and higher rates in homes and cafeterias as opposed to dairy farms and vending shops (81).Yogurt -Fermented milk products, in particular ergo and yogurt, were investigated by 12 studies, most of them in Oromia, Amhara, or Addis Ababa, with sample sizes ranging from 18 to 200. One study was conducted in Hawassa (69). Ergo, a cultured milk product, is produced at different conditions than yogurt, but the two products are considered as one category by several authors. Ergo or yogurt were found to be contaminated by Staphylococcus aureus at a 3-46% prevalence range (62,63,66) while it was not detected in a small-scale study where other Staphylococci were detected (n=20) (64). Concentrations of Staphylococcus spp. were not always assessed, but two studies found an average of 5.5 Log CFU/ml (69) and 8.6 Log CFU/ml (67). Listeria spp. was detected in 4-10% of yogurt samples (15,65) and L. monocytogenes in 5% (n=20) (15). When different products were compared, yogurt was contaminated at a lower frequency than cheese for both Listeria and Staphylococcus (15,62), and sometimes more (15) and sometimes less than raw milk (62) While several studies investigated E. coli or coliform bacteria as hygiene indicators (66,67,69,70) only one study investigate the occurrence of pathogenic E.coli O157:H7, without detecting it in yogurt (n=18), while it was detected in raw cow and camel milk (66).In terms of chemical hazards, one study (61) detected aflatoxin AFM1 in yogurt, at concentrations potentially posing health risk to children, but lower than for milk, cottage cheese, and butter.CAMEL MILK Salmonella spp. positivity rates in camel milk (n=24) varied based on value chain stage, ranging from 66% by producers, 83% in wholesalers, and 100% at retail (71). Another study found a prevalence of 90% for Staphylococcus spp., 54% for Streptococcus spp., 32% for E. coli, and 18% for Salmonella spp. (72). Staphylococcus had the highest prevalence at production, while Streptococcus prevalence increased from production to market (a trend also observed in coliform levels).WATER, BY REGION Microbial contamination has been observed in a range of water sources throughout the country. The microbial targets most often investigated are bacterial indicators of fecal contamination. This section summarizes evidence of microbial contamination in water used for drinking purposes and is organized by region. No evidence was identified from Sidama, the region where the city of Hawassa is located. Of the two neighboring regions, Oromia and the Southern Nations, some information is available for Oromia.Oromia Region -Households water sources in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia had E. coli in 55% of studied samples (80). Three-quarters of river water samples and dug well water in Oromia did not comply with WHO guidelines for human drinking water standards, including E. coli contamination (73). 13 However, samples had higher positivity rates in the rainy season as compared to the dry season. Amhara Region -Water samples from southern parts of Lake Tana in the Bahir Dar area contained the following pathogens: total coliforms (100%), Clostridium perfringens (90%), fecal coliforms (86%), and E. coli (82%) (82). Another study from Bahir Dar City found lower prevalence rates with samples from springs, reservoirs, and taps within households including total coliforms (21%), fecal coliforms (19%) and E. coli (18%) (83). In particular, E.coli was detected in 100% of spring water (n=4), 20% of reservoir water samples (n=10), and 17% of tap water (n=126) samples (83).Somali Region -In Jigjiga City, water from household containers, pipeline, and reservoirs found contamination rates of 52% for E. coli, and rates of 6% to 8% for Shigella spp, Salmonella, and Vibrio spp, while half of household and pipeline water samples were positive for fecal coliforms (74). In particular, E. coli was detected in 55% (n=60) of household samples, and 30% (n=30), 80% (n=15), and 67% (n=15) of pipeline, reservoir, and \"beyollie\" (donkey cart water vendor) respectively (74). Tigray Region -Parasites, including Giardia spp and Cryptosporidium spp, were identified in Tigray water sources (76).North Gondar Zone -Over 70% of samples from urban and rural parts of the North Gondar Zone were positive for indicator bacteria, including 50% of fecal coliforms and 35% positive for E. coli (75).The primary hazards identified in fresh fruit juices, including avocado, mango, papaya, and guava juices sold at cafés and juice houses include S. aureus (contamination rates ranging 12% to 42%), Shigella spp (20% to 85%), Salmonella spp (20% to 57%), and E. coli (7% to 60%), though contamination rates varied based on the type of fruit drink and geographic location (57,77-79).Seventy records reported on chemical hazards (13% of 539 records): heavy metals (44 records), pesticides (10), minerals (8), aflatoxins (4), and antimicrobial residues and nitrates (each 2 records). This section contains a smaller number of records than for microbial hazards and includes both drinking water sources and milk.Aflatoxin -Bovine milk samples taken from dairy farmers in and around Addis Ababa City contained aflatoxin contamination in 26% of samples (84). In Bishoftu town, 100% of milk samples (n=108) from both industry and local producers had aflatoxin, as did yogurt samples (n=93) (61).Antibiotic Residues -Twelve percent of milk samples from Nazareth dairy farms tested positive for Oxytetracycline and penicillin G (83% and 16% of samples tested above the recommended limit, respectively) (85). Organochlorine pesticide residues were identified in human and cow milk samples collected from South-West Ethiopia (86). Tests on drinking water samples from reservoirs and wells in Jimma City and the water treatment plant that supplies Addis Ababa, identified levels of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, malathion, diazinon, and Pirimiphos-methyl (87).Heavy Metals -In Tigray, river water samples tested for eight heavy metals were all above the respective WHO limit, including zinc (100% of samples), iron (76%), cobalt (76%), lead (64%), cadmium (44%), nickel (44%), chromium (40%), and copper (16%) (88). Another study did not find cadmium and cobalt in the tap water samples after testing, though iron, manganese, and lead levels were higher than recommended (89). Assessing the suitability of flood water for drinking, among other uses, found lead concentration levels above the WHO standard (90). Water from Lake Beseka in Oromia contained lead, cadmium, arsenic, and iron concentration levels above WHO guideline limits (91).Fluoride -Three-quarters of river water samples and dug well water in the Oromia region did not comply with WHO guidelines for human drinking water standards, including due to high fluoride concentrations (80).The two systematic review efforts presented here, synthesizing over 20 years of evidence on hazard occurrence in foods and beverages in Ethiopia, contribute to evidence-based and risk-based design of food safety interventions. The evidence points to medium-high frequency of contamination in a wide variety of foods and beverages, covering a broad range of hazards and across multiple points in the supply chains, from production to retail. Overall, the data paint a picture of widespread contamination affecting a broad range of food supply chains. The hazards detected can be transferred to food from humans, animals, or the environment. Hence, a One Health systemic approach, programmatically accounting for multiple routes of transmission (human, animal, environmental) appears warranted.The studies covered 11 of 13 Ethiopian regions, to varying degrees; however, only a limited number of studies were conducted in Sidama, the region where the city of Hawassa -EatSafe's study site-is located (these were six studies on biological hazards in milk and fermented milk, identified by the beverage review).Traditional markets, while playing a key role in the accessibility, quality, and safety of foods, were generally not explicitly targeted in hazard studies. However, several studies investigated foods or beverages at multiple stages along their supply chain, including at retail. For example, the studies of milk and some dairy products, where contamination was detected more frequently, included evaluation points from production to retail. This review is extremely useful to identify critical points where interventions could be beneficial and highlights the value of \"farm to fork\" interventions that engage multiple supply chain actors, including markets, to manage food safety hazards.Access to safe water is critical to improving the health of a population. It is also vital for safe food handling practices. Fecal contamination of drinking water can result in crosscontamination of food or food-contact surfaces, since water is frequently used in food washing and preparation, in addition to drinking. The widespread detection of E. coli and coliforms in Ethiopian drinking water sources suggests many water sources have been contaminated with feces -confirming the known fecal-oral route of transmission of many waterborne and foodborne pathogens (92). In addition, the detection of Salmonella points to the likely role of animals as contributors to water contamination, and to the role of water in the transmission of zoonotic foodborne pathogens. Similarly, the occurrence of parasites that share human and animal hosts, such as Giardia spp. and Cryptosporidium spp., in water highlights the need to account for both human and animal ecologies in the design of food safety interventions.The body of evidence on chemical contaminants is scarcer than for biological hazards. Only few high-quality studies involved pesticides and aflatoxins in grains, nuts, or seeds, while none was identified in fresh fruits or vegetables. Comparatively, more studies on chemical hazards were identified for beverages, covering aflatoxins and antibiotic residues in milk, and heavy metals in drinking water sources (also potentially used to produce some beverages). However, some findings emerged: surface water may be contaminated with pesticides from nearby agricultural areas and from household application (87) which may also have persisted in the environment. Heavy metals can enter food value chains through many routes, most commonly via environmental contamination (93). The detection of this type of contaminants signals the need for systemic environmental health interventions.The information compiled through these reviews also highlights several limitations in the available body of evidence. For instance, some hazards and commodities are clearly more studied than others. Bacterial hazards are reasonably well studied in the dairy and beef supply chains. However, data on viruses and parasites are missing. Conversely, fresh fruits and vegetables are not well studied, with only two studies (one on parasites, one on bacteria) identified by the review. This key gap supports the choice of fresh vegetables as focus commodity category for EatSafe's work. Heavy metals, the top hazard category in terms of FERG burden estimates in the sub-region including Ethiopia (5), have been investigated only in water. In addition, data are in the vast majority of studies reported as prevalence, while concentration levels are not measured. Concentrations are more often measured for chemical hazards, at least in terms of exceedance of an established threshold, while concentration is most often not measured for microbial hazards. This gap greatly hinders the ability to use these data for risk assessment purposes, hence limiting their usefulness.Prioritizing interventions to control food safety hazards can lead to better use of scarce resources in many countries including Ethiopia (3). However, evidence-based FBD risk prioritization processes are needed to allocate resources effectively. The processes for conducting risk rankings are becoming available (94) but supporting data and the organizational capabilities to effectively implement them is often lacking. Food safety tends to capture national attention only when there is a crisis (95), especially one that is likely to result in a major public health issue or have a negative economic impact (2). Also, risk perception is often misaligned with actual risk. Diseases that most elicit fear in the population, including those that may cause a high individual burden or that are due to novel hazards, are usually regarded as more important by stakeholders, and even experts, than those that are much more common but more familiar or less dramatic in their manifestations (3). Data on hazard occurrence along food and beverage value chains, combined with risk assessment to estimate the burden that could be expected from such occurrence, are needed to effectively prioritize how to allocate the limited resources. Ideally, risk assessment estimates (prospective) are complementary to disease surveillance data (retrospective). Disease surveillance data collection, especially when it includes disease attribution to specific hazards, can enable early detection of disease outbreaks and can be used to assess burden trends over time. These time trends provide evidence for the need of interventions, and help assess whether national-scale interventions are working. However, surveillance systems in many developing countries face a number of challenges including weak laboratory capacities and scarce resources (96,97) and have received minimal support in public health planning. Hence, in these cases, hazard occurrence and risk assessment approaches provide the best and sometimes only rigorous way to estimate the need for, and impact of interventions. The comprehensive body of evidence presented here enables this crucial assessment and highlights gaps that hinder it.Multiple hazards were found to be present in varying frequencies in a broad range of foods and beverages commonly consumed in Ethiopia. From a food safety perspective this raises concern over the possible threat to public health, and merits further attention. Although a review such as this one helps gauge the prevalence of hazards which consumers may be exposed to, by itself it is not sufficient to inform risk management decisions. Data on hazard occurrence is, however, a key step in the risk assessment process -a process that includes hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.In both the foodborne and beverage-borne reviews, most completed studies have not been done in systematic ways, and many are based on small sample sizes. They also tend to focus on hazards that are easy to detect, possibly due to limited laboratory resources. Further, a disproportionate number of studies were conducted in large towns or capital areas. Nationally representative samples are absent, and hazard proxies were often examined rather than the hazards themselves. Therefore, comparing or aggregating studies is difficult. Nonetheless, it is clear that common, detrimental hazards are very high in food and beverages consumed in Ethiopia, leading to an almost certain conclusion of a high burden of FBD -a conclusion consistent with findings from the FERG.Valuable insights emerge from the review synthesizing evidence on foodborne hazards in Ethiopia, including: • Across commodities, bacterial hazards are the most studied (70%), but not in all commodities; parasites were the focus of some studies (20%), particularly on fresh fruits and vegetables, while only a minority of studies addressed viruses or chemical hazards. • The beef value chain is the most intensely studied commodity, in particular for bacterial hazards.• Few studies focused on eggs or cheese, and all assessed bacterial contamination as the most common hazard found in these products.• Few studies on microbial contamination in fresh vegetables were identified, the majority investigated parasites, with a few for bacteria, and none for viruses. • Several studies measured contamination at multiple nodes of a supply chain, including retail, providing actionable evidence on potential control points. In particular contamination in some supply chains was observed to increase going from production to retail. While we cannot readily draw conclusions on trends along the supply chain without a meta-analysis, such trends would support the argument that significant risk reduction could be achieved in the later stages of the chain, including at markets. • While the reasons for the strong focus on assessing bacterial contamination are not known, this focus is consistent with FERG estimates that bacteria are the leading cause of foodborne disease in the African region that includes Ethiopia.The novel review on hazards detected in beverages adds an important dimension to currently available evidence on foodborne contamination. Key insights include:• Studies reviewed had a strong geographical bias, with some areas in the country being poorly represented.• Recent trends show an increase in literature published on hazards in beverages in Ethiopia. • Overall, bacterial hazards were the most commonly investigated. Other hazards appeared less frequently in the literature despite some of them carrying important health implications, e.g. heavy metals. Evidence on parasitic hazards is lacking. • Milk is fairly well studied, while evidence is lacking for other beverages.• The high contamination levels observed in water can be seen as a proxy for the level of environmental contamination in an area, with repercussions on foods grown and processed there.• Contamination in water also highlights the importance of applying a One Health approach for food safety interventions, given the animal and human sources of water contamination. • Given the home-made, traditional nature of some of the beverages studied in this review, care must be taken to identify and engage stakeholder in informal value chains.Across all studies, and also considering the FERG burden estimates, the most important foodborne hazards appear to be Salmonella, enterotoxigenic E. coli, and Campylobacter spp. with probable additions of Staphylococcus spp., lead, and Listeria. Other hazards may be equally or more problematic but are not represented in published studies.This review will inform the choice of specific hazard(s) and commodities to target in EatSafe's risk assessment activity in Ethiopia. Through the risk modelling process, the risk associated with consumption of selected foods will be determined, and potential mitigation steps identified and discussed.These reviews have outlined food hazard occurrence in beverages and foods in Ethiopia, based on past research. Based on the results of this activity, , we recommend that EatSafe considers the following points while planning for the risk assessment (Activity ET 1.6) that informs intervention design:• Several hazard types were reported in the review, many not in the list of priorities determined by FERG. This might suggest a (potential focus on the \"trivial many\" rather than the \"vital few\" in the literature, which can be misleading. • Although the study provides a comprehensive overview of the status of hazards occurrence in foods and beverages in Ethiopia, it is not, on its own, sufficient to inform food safety prioritization decisions; these data can, however, contribute to risk assessment and risk ranking efforts. • Fresh fruits and vegetables are not well studied. This key gap supports the choice of fresh vegetables as focus commodity category for EatSafe's work.• Other important data gaps include viral pathogens, parasites, and eggs.• No clear evidence exists to assess the role of market practices or infrastructure in either hazard control or enabling/exacerbating contamination.• The vast majority of studies did not measure concentration, only presence/absence (summarized as prevalence, i.e. frequency of detection). This key gap hinders the usefulness of these data for risk assessment.• Where possible, the risk assessment modeling should utilize primary data collected within the project, due to significant gaps in the literature. • Overall, the widespread bacterial contamination observed in a broad range of foods and beverages points to the likely role of environmental and zoonotic transmission, which calls for a One Health systemic approach.","tokenCount":"7090"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"150e42aadff58f2f2eae324f2ffc1772","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9e09fc79-49ec-4b6b-b328-ea97fdc7f24b/retrieve","id":"1883399717"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"77165d0a-fdc7-4ca3-a6dc-2896b954b3ee","pagecount":"57","content":"Three dimensional image of evapotranspiration in center pivot irrigation systems (by courtesy of the DLO-Winand Staring Center, Netherlands). Each center pivot system is 110 meters in diameter. The pivot system located in the center of the image is working correctly as the area of evapotranspiration shows a uniform depth, surface, and color. In the pivot system slightly below and to the right of that, the area of evapotranspiration shows an uneven depth, surface, and color, suggesting stunted crop growth due either to inadequate water delivery, poor cultivation practices, or to environmental problems. The pattern of evapotranspiration illustrated by the peaks plotted along the bottom right hand corner of the image demostrates vegetable cultivation with alternated irrigated fields receiving water from a surface water irrigation method.Remote sensing interpretation of evapotranspiration in center pivot irrigation systems in Castilla la Mancha (Spain). The box defines the area illustrated in the 3-dimentional image of evapotranspiration shown on the front cover of this report (by courtesy of the DLO-Winand Staring Center, Netherlands).To meet the challenge posed by the growing scarcity and competition for water, a new paradigm of water resource management is emerging from the work of IIMI and others. This paradigm has two components. First, there is a movement away from the old paradigm of classical efficiency of water use at the local levelfields or irrigation systemsto the concept of increasing the water productivity of the whole water resource system, that is, at the level of entire river basins. Sometimes, the productivity of water at the river basin level can be increased by increasing the classical efficiency, or water use at the local level and, sometimes, it can be increased by decreasing classical efficiency. The difference between the two lies mainly in determining the use of the drainage water from the irrigation system or from other water users. If, for example, the water draining from the system flows to sinks (deep aquifers or the sea), then improving the efficiency of the system will improve the efficiency of the whole basin. On the other hand, if the drainage water from the field or system is used by farmers further downstream, either directly or through recharge of aquifers, then improving the efficiency of the system may not lead to efficiency in the basin as the drainage flows to them will be reduced. This raises the second component of the paradigm. To determine these flows, we need more sophisticated means of observing, measuring, and inferring these water flows in both surface and subsurface areas. The rapid advances currently being made in information technologies are coming to our aid. Satellite remote sensing and geographical information systems are enabling us to measure these flows at river basin level. By using these techniques crop yields for example, can be predicted through observation of evapotranspiration. This makes it possible to determine how well irrigation water is being managed.The front cover of this report illustrates the point that we wish to make, and what we believe is a dramatic breakthrough in this field. As explained in the image caption, using remote sensing techniques enables us to actually observe the evapotranspiration of crops. Since yields are a function of evapotranspiration, we can literally see in detail, over vast areas, how effectively we are managing irrigation. The usefulness of applying remote sensing in the assessment of the performance of an irrigation system is amply demonstrated by the first paper in this report.We believe that further development of this paradigm, combined with better understanding of the social, institutional, and economic aspects of water management, will result in dramatic increases in water productivity and equity of use. There are around 250 million hectares of irrigated land in the world with an estimated capital value of the irrigation facilities, in terms of replacement cost, of at least US$5,000 per hectare. The total capital value of these facilities is around US$1.250 trillion. It is our belief that the productivity of this asset can be increased by 25 percent or more. Given that much of the $300 billion gain can be used to substantially increase the welfare of poor and disadvantaged groups, the stakes, impacts, and rewards for investment in the field of water resource management are enormous.The IIMI ParadigmCan advanced technologies be used to successfully assess the productivity of irrigation water and the effectiveness of irrigation water management practices at a regional scale? This question was tested on the Sirsa Circle, Haryana State, northwestern India (figure 1) using satellite remote sensing (SRS) techniques, hydrological modeling, and geographical information systems (GIS).The Sirsa Circle uses the warabandi system for supplying water to the farmers. The warabandi distribution system, developed in the late nineteenth century, divides the area to be irrigated into three sectors. Every day water is distributed to each sector in turn. For 8 days each sector takes priority over the others, making the total distribution rotation of the warabandi system 24 days. The water courses receive water from the distributaries via ungated outlets at a fixed discharge. The schedule of water deliveries does not correspond with cropping patterns or groundwater development. Instead, farmers receive their share of water by rotation at fixed moments and flow rates in proportion to the size of their landholdings. The charges of irrigation water are based on the area actually irrigated. In Haryana, the canal system is designed to distribute a limited supply of water over the largest area of land and among the greatest number of farmers as possiblethe objective being to protect crop failure and prevent famine.The total area under cultivation in the Sirsa Circle is 385,799 hectares of which 281,340 hectares are irrigated. The irrigated area is divided into 84 administrative command areas. During the rabi (winter) season, November to May, when the total rainfall varies between 50 and 130 mm, farmers grow wheat, oilseed, and gram. The irrigation water allowance is designed to irrigate one third of each farmers cultivable area but is insufficient to meet the crop water requirements. The available water does however, prevent the crop from wilting.The agricultural conditions were assessed in 199596 using multi-temporal measurements by the Linear Imaging Scanner System (LISS-II) radiometer aboard an Indian Satellite (IRS-IB). The 30 m pixel size created a unique opportunity to study the geometry of the crop and irrigation intensity in relation to the detail of the canal network in the Sirsa Circle (figure 2). With the recent inclusion of all four spectral channels on the IRS, a new hybrid classification procedure was designed to classify crop types of similar spectral reflectances. Areas with known crop typesdetermined by field visits were first assigned on the images, and then the spectral signatures of the areas were extracted from three different images acquired during rabi 199596. A series of classification steps were performed and repeated until all the pixels were classified as wheat, oilseed, or other. Assuming that crops were only grown on the plots receiving irrigation water, the irrigation intensity could be inferred after identification of the wheat and oilseed.Composites of the spectral images from the IRS provided delineation of vegetative and non-vegetative surfaces. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated to monitor the crop development stages. The NDVI at crop heading stage provides a direct relationship between yield and NDVI. A pixel by pixel analysis provided a picture of the distributed patterns of wheat yield for the entire Bhakra command area (figure 3).As the IRS does not have a thermal infrared channel to derive surface temperature, the spatial delineation of actual evapotranspiration the amount of water used by the growing crops in transpiration and building plant tissuefor the Sirsa Circle was determined with another satellite system, the Landsat Thematic Mapper. The blue patches in the image below represent waterlogged fields.Satellite Remote Sensing data were entered into a Geographical Information System (GIS) and the administrative boundaries of the command areas digitized. The positions of the irrigation canals derived from the high resolution satellite images were also entered into the GIS allowing an analysis of the spatial structure in crop yield and evapotranspiration in relation to irrigation water distribution. Ancillary data such as groundwater quality, pre-monsoon depth of the water table, and soil types were also entered into the GIS.The daily canal discharge data were provided by the Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Department, and precipitation records from 12 local climate stations were collected. For completeness, the results of earlier research by others on integrated water management in the Sirsa Circle using the hydrological model FRAME were included in this study. FRAME contains a network of 46 grids, each grid having options for various crops, land use types, and a field-scale crop water balance model. Water flow in the multiple root zones is schematized and horizontal water distribution at the field level is taken into account. Combined with groundwater, surface distribution, and regional drainage models, the interaction between the surface water and groundwater systems is formulated so that canal network leakages and percolation losses from agricultural fields could be accounted for. These water and salt balance data were linked to the administrative command areas of the Sirsa Circle. The outputs of the hydrological model FRAME were integrated with the remote sensing and field data within the GIS.The satellite-based data for the rabi season indicated a nonuniform intensity of wheat cropthe percentage of the total cropped area varied between 25 and 90 percent. This information revealed that either the geographical environment was not suited to the cultivation of wheat or that the irrigation management was unreliable. Analysis of the data showed that the wheat intensity differed considerably between the divisions of Sirsa Circle, although more homogeneous at the subdivision level. No evidence of head to tail effects between divisions was found. The irrigation intensity was found to be similarly heterogeneous within the divisions revealing that the irrigation practices were not uniform at division or subdivision levels.A comparison between wheat intensity and irrigation intensity showed a correlation coefficient of less than 10 percent. This suggested that the wheat crop was not related to the presence of Figure 3. A detailed pixel analysis of the IRS images provided a picture of the distributed patterns of wheat yields for the entire Bhakra command. The image below shows the impact of groundwater in increasing the wheat area intensity (green color) along the flood plains of the Ghaggar River.irrigation so either the irrigation system was malfunctioning, or other constraints such as unfavorable economic conditions prevailed.The average wheat yields over the whole of Sirsa Circle were found to be highly homogeneous, providing 3.76 tons per hectare, slightly less than the 4.09 tons per hectare for the whole of the Bhakra Canal command area. As the coefficient of variation of the wheat yields was found to lie around 9 percent and the internal variation of the command areas around 21 percent, the data suggested that wheat cultivation was conforming to the principles of warabandi. However, the satellite-spotted spatial structure of wheat yield and evapotranspiration revealed a fingered pattern identical to the canal water distribution network; and the observed geometry matched the treebranch structure of the canal system layout. This showed that the fields in the direct vicinity of the distributary and minors contained a higher agricultural density than areas further away from the canals. Obviously, these fields received more water, either directly from the canals, or as seepage through the subsurface.Using the digital information in the GIS, the relationship between the agricultural practices and the canals was calculated. The calculations clearly illustrated that the level of confidence of obtaining a favorable wheat yield (> 4.5 tons per hectare) was higher within the first 200 m from the distributary/minor than when further away. Furthermore, beyond 1,500 m of the main water conveyance system, favorable yields are exclusively ruled out (figure 4). As the distributaries/ minors cover a very small fraction of the cultivated area, the water leakage from the canals was shown to be intense.Consequently, the analyses demonstrated that the irrigation system in the Sirsa Circle is a physically constraining water distribution system. Canal water was not reaching all minors in sufficient quantity due to the vast water losses from the main canals. To remedy these effects, the farmers intensively cultivate wheat in the immediate vicinity of the major water conveyance systems. Beyond 2,000 m from these systems, large tracts of land were abandoned resulting in the fields being rapidly salinized and becoming unusable for cultivation.To provide spatiotemporal information on the water and salt balance components of the irrigation system in the Sirsa Circle, the water and salt balance components were determined for the 46 model grids of FRAME on a day-by-day basis and later converted to annual values. Information on the evapotranspiration, water storage in the soil, canal irrigation water, precipitation, tube well irrigation, seepage, leakage, drainage, salt storage changes, and various solute concentrations related to the water fluxes was integrated in the model. The outputs were compared to the figures for the water balance of the lower-saturated groundwater system, or aquifer, underneath the upper system.  rabi 1995-1996. The results showed that the water table declined dramatically from the beginning to the end of the Bhakra irrigation canal system indicating a substantial imbalance between inflow and outflow of water. The buildup of water climbed from 18 mm per year at Sirsa to over 182 mm per year at the end of the Bhakra Main Canal. At the same time, the drainage outflow of 221 mm per year through the Ghaggar River was far below the necessary capacity to dispose of the salts brought into the area by the irrigation system. Consequently, the model showed salt buildup in all grids without exception varying from a low 0.7 ton per hectare to a high 3.3 tons per hectare. To halt the accumulation of excess water and salts in the system, substantial interventions will need to be introduced.A correlation analysis was performed to assess the relationship between agricultural practices and the hydrological processes. At the scale of the model grids, wheat yield was correlated with wheat intensity, seepage, and actual and relative evapotranspiration. Wheat intensity showed a high correlation with the hydrological processes confirming that the farmers do indeed cultivate wheat according to the hydrological conditions rather than by the reigning irrigation practices. This was confirmed when the correlation coefficients between canal water supply, wheat yield, wheat intensity, and irrigation intensity showed no statistical significance.The performance of an irrigated system can be evaluated from various viewpoints and by a wide spectrum of indicators.Water consumption should be considered in a regional context as local water losses may be effectively taken up elsewhere in the same system of a command area or river basin. Also, nonagricultural uses and losses should be accounted for. The concept of water accountingthe analysis of uses, consumption, and productivityhas been introduced to clarify the links between regional hydrological processes and water uses.The objective of protective irrigation schemes is to optimize production per unit of water rather than per unit of land. The hydrological model analyses showed that wheat consumed 428 mm per season bringing the productivity of water consumed for wheat to 0.88 kg per m 3 . Applying the 1996 international wheat price for wheat of US$163 per ton, the net return to water consumed was US$0.14 per m 3 . This is considered fairly productive, but this happens at a cost of a salinization rate of 1.81 tons per hectarea far from sustainable system.Without the analyses obtained through the use of satellite remote sensing, hydrological models, and GIS, the Sirsa Circle would appear to exhibit uniform crop productivity indicating that irrigation system targets are met. The intrinsic intensity of warabandi is however, differentit is a system whereby water is provided to ensure all farmers can grow crops and maximize the returns per unit of water. Although the canal system failed to bring water to farm holdings located furthest from the canals, farmers were able to adjust crop types and the field locations so they could benefit optimally from non-intended irrigation practices. This was especially evident in the Sirsa Circle area served by the Bhakra Main Branch Canal where farmers cultivated wheat close to the main conveyance system where the crops benefited from the fresh water belt underneath the leaking canals. Although the returns to water were good, the buildup of intolerable levels of salinity makes this system unsustainable in the long term. This investigation therefore, demonstrated that the productivity per unit of water consumed can be derived from satellite remote sensing techniques using outputs such as yield and crop water use. The additional value of the hydrological model calculations revealed the water and salt storage processes and the subsurface redistribution of water and salts. All the disciplineshydrology, agronomy, productivity, environment need to be built into performance and water accounting frameworks and these outputs can only be sufficiently quantified if remote sensing data and outputs from hydrological models are integrated into a GIS.So, to answer the initial question advanced technologies can be used successfully to assess the productivity of irrigation water and the effectiveness of irrigation management practices at a regional scale.Land allocation policies in command areas of new irrigation systems rarely allow women to obtain their own irrigated plots. Plots are normally given to heads of households whose majority comprises men. The reluctance to allocate plots to women stems from fear among policy makers and project planners that allocating plots to both men and women will lower overall irrigated agricultural productivity. They also believe that women benefit from the plots of their husbands and, unless plot sizes are varied, allocating more than one plot to a single household is inequitable. To ascertain the validity of these fears, IIMI examined the Dakiri irrigation system in Burkina Faso.The Dakiri system is one of the few irrigation systems in Burkina Faso where several women have secured irrigated plots on an individual basis. Sixty womenrepresenting 9 percent of the total number of plot holdersowned individual plots. Most of their husbands also owned plots. The study compared the effects on productivity, labor contributions, and intra-household distribution of income derived from agricultural activities where both men and women within the same household owned irrigated plots, and where men are the sole owners of plots.Several women have secured irrigation plots in the Dakiri irrigation system, Burkina Faso.The Dakiri reservoir has a capacity of 10,460,000 m 3 serving a command area of 120 hectares of which 112 hectares are cultivated by 740 farmers who have individual plot sizes ranging from 0.08 to 0.16 hectare. The overall agricultural productivity of the command is around 4.7 tons per hectarea figure that compares favorably with production for the rest of Burkina Faso, and is much higher than the 0.50.8 ton per hectare of millet produced from rain-fed farming.Rice is the predominant irrigated crop and total rice production reaches around 900 tons per annum. Irrigation increases annual agricultural output for farmers but does not replace traditional rain-fed agriculture80 percent of household cereal needs are derived from rain-fed agriculture. As rice is not part of the staple diet, most farmers sell the rice and use the income to purchase the balance requirement of millet and sorghum.In the majority of households there are one adult man, one adult woman or more, and several children. The adult man is considered the head of the household. All household members have an obligation to work on the rain-fed, family or collective field where sorghum and millet are grown. Adult household members may also have access to one or more individual fields, allocated by the head of the household.The collective field is considered the most important field in terms of securing food for the household. Individually owned fields are cultivated only after the work obligations on the collective fields are fulfilled. The exact number of days of labor each household member has to contribute to the collective field is a matter of negotiation. On average, adult female and male household members invest around 35 and 46 days a year, respectively, to the cultivation of collective fields.The harvest from the collective field is stored in a collective granary. When women prepare meals they either serve themselves from this granary, or the household head allocates shares to each of the kitchen units. If the production of the collective field exceeds consumptive requirements, the surplus is controlled by the household head. He uses the proceeds as savings in the form of livestock, or to buy clothes for other household members as a token of appreciation for their labor.The productivity of rain-fed agriculture, however, is seldom sufficient to meet family consumption needs. Households depend more and more on the production from the womens individual plots to complement the harvest from the collective fields. Consequently, women are increasingly turning towards the cultivation of basic food grainsmillet and sorghumin place of groundnut and vegetables. Women store their harvests in separate granaries and have full control over how the produce is used. Although the millet is used to complement the supplies in  and women, 1991-1993. the collective granary, the groundnut harvest is sold, providing an important source of individual income.Allocation of irrigated plots to women is often resisted by policy makers and project planners. They fear that women will not produce as much as men because of time constraints or a lack of technical farming skills. Most farm household members in Dakiri do not agree. Almost 60 percent of the interviewed women thought there was no difference in agricultural performance between men and women, while 7 percent thought that women can produce as much as men provided they receive some help from their husbands.Around one third of the men thought there was no discernible difference between male and female holders of plots. But, over half the men thought that womenbecause they were more patientwere better rice cultivators, more careful weeders, and had higher productivity. The production figures confirm these perceptionsthe average agricultural productivity of womens plots is, in general, at least equal to or slightly higher than that of mens plots (figure 5).Another fearbased on the assumption that if women are also given plots, they will reduce their labor contributions to plots owned by males in favor of working on their ownis that overall agricultural productivity will decline. Instead, the study illustrated that agricultural productivity actually increases (figure 6). Furthermore, the productivity of labor shows no significant difference between plots owned by women and men for households where both men and women have plotsboth are around 60 kg per person-day. For those households where only men have a plot, labor productivity is less than half, about 25 kg per person-day. Clearly, labor use efficiency increases sharply when women have plots.Most farm households give priority to rain-fed farming and finish sowing their rain-fed fields before initiating irrigated production. Around 17 percent of a households total labor capacity is devoted to irrigated cultivation. However, the total amount of labor each household spends on agriculture is not just a simple function of total household labor availability, but is dependent on the intra-household division of rights and responsibilities. The willingness of any household member to increase labor in irrigated agriculture depends on how much he or she can expect to get in return in comparison to returns to labor for other activities.Additional labor is required to cultivate irrigated plots in the wet season. To accommodate these demands, men and children may work in the rain-fed fields while women and other children  , 1991-1993. take care of the irrigated plots. Others may cultivate the rain-fed fields in the morning and attend to the irrigated plots in the evening. If only men have an irrigated plot, the plots are considered as collective fields and rice cultivation becomes a collaborative effort between the men and their wives.When women have their own irrigated plots, they undertake most of the cultivation tasks themselves. On average, they dedicate 11 more days per year to irrigation than households where women do not have their own plots and, overall, they increase household labor contributions to irrigation by 10 persondays a year. Interestingly, male labor contributions to irrigated agriculture, vary considerablyfrom 0 to 22 person-days per yearand are unrelated to whether or not their wives have a plot.The intra-household distribution of the proceeds of irrigated farming is very much a function of the productivity of the rain-fed plots. When the millet harvest from a collective field is too low for feeding the family, the proceeds from the individual plots are initially used for buying additional millet. When the millet production from the collective field is sufficient, the proceeds from the individual rain-fed fields and irrigated plots are used for other purposes. Men usually invest in livestock, procure clothes for themselves or their children, purchase food, and use the remainder for other personal requirements. Once the household food requirements are secured, women use the balance of their incomes to meet various domestic needs, purchase clothes, and invest in livestock. These women are happy to contribute to household needs, preferring to contribute to the household by providing produce from their own plotsrather than by providing labor to the plots of their husbandsas it gives them a greater degree of economic independence from their husbands.The four effects of having an individual plotthe ability to contribute to household survival, financial independence, supporting kin, and individual wealth accumulation substantially improve the bargaining position of a woman within a household. The ability to significantly contribute to household survival is a source of much pride, within both the household and the community. In fact, a mans appreciation of a woman is very much a function of her agricultural performance.In households where both men and women have plots, they have more irrigated land than households where only men have plots. But policy makers and project managers have nothing to fearalthough the labor contribution to each plot decreases when there is more than one plot holder per household, the allocation of separate smaller plots to men and women has positive agricultural production and social benefits.Since the early 1970s, governments in Latin America, Mexico, and the Caribbean have been transferring, in one form or another, many public companies and other state enterprises to the private sector. Such transfers have been especially prevalent in the manufacturing and transportation sectors, but privatization has now extended to almost all sectors of the economy, including the provision of water services such as potable water and irrigation.Up to the 1900s, most water-based services in Latin America were provided by the private sector. It was only since the 1920s that governments in the region decided water services should be provided by the public sector and only since the 1940s that such services should be provided by agencies of the central government rather than by the states. Numerous reasons have been adduced to justify intervention in the provision of water services, but the primary one was a belief, by both governments and international donor agencies, that strong government intervention in the economy was required to ensure economic growth led to improved economic welfare. In the 1970s, this belief was reversed with a change in ideology and a feeling that the private provision of services was a more efficient means of improving both economic efficiency and social welfare. Furthermore, transfer of management responsibility from the public sector to groups of users was not just a means of increasing overall production but was a necessity to ensure sustainability of infrastructure, particularly the infrastructure developed to provide water for large-scale irrigated areas.In many countries, the lack of political will to charge the full operation and maintenance (O&M) costs to users of public facilities often resulted in a situation where public infrastructure was unsustainable. This has been particularly true of public irrigation schemesit is easy to find irrigation schemes developed withdesign lives of 50 years but requiring rehabilitation in less than 10 years. As a means of ensuring sustainability of the infrastructure, in the early 1990s, many governments in Latin America, Mexico, and the Caribbean decided to transfer responsibility for the management of irrigation to the user associations.The agriculture sector of Mexico accounts for about 7 percent of GDP but employs 23 percent of the economically active population in the country. Although Mexico has a land area of approximately 2 million square kilometers, over 75 percent of the country is classified as arid and semiarid. Consequently, water is the major constraining factor in agricultural production in many areas. The productivity of irrigated land is 2.3 times higher than that of rain-fed land and accounts for 50 percent of the total value of agricultural production and around 70 percent of agricultural exports.At the end of the 1980s, Mexico had approximately 1,300 storage dams, 2,100 diversion dams, 68,000 km of canals, 47,000 km of drains, 54,000 km of service roads, and over 50,000 deep irrigation wells. The financial crisis of 1982 not only reduced the availability of funds for new irrigation investment, but significantly constrained the funds available from the government for maintenance. Owing to the deterioration of the infrastructure, it was estimated that by the end of the decade about 800,000 hectares of irrigated land would be out of production or used at a reduced level, and a further 1.5 million hectares would require rehabilitation.Having recognized these problems, the National Water Commission (CNA) was established to develop a new policy for the management of water in the country. This policy led to the establishment of the National Program for Decentralization of the Irrigation Districtsthe transfer program.The total irrigated area in Mexico is 6 million hectares, 3.3 million hectares of which are distributed among 80 public irrigation districts. The transfer program was designed to establish a system of joint management between CNA and the water user associations whereby the 80 public irrigation districts would become financially self-sufficient.Phase I of the transfer program shifted secondary level management responsibilities from the governmentstaffed irrigation districts to water user associations. Each of the water user associations was given responsibility for O&M within a modulethe irrigated area served by the secondary canal down to the individual farm intakeswhile CNA retained responsibility for the management of the water source(s) and the main canals. The program was designed to reduce government subsidies to the districts to zero. To do this, it was necessary to increase water fees to cover all O&M and administrative costs, including the costs incurred by CNA in operating the water source(s) and the main canals.Phase II of the transfer program created Limited Responsibility Societies (SLRs). These societies are federations of the individual modules within a single irrigation district. SLRs became responsible for operating the main canals, drains, and roads of the irrigation districts. The SLRs are expected to pool the maintenance equipment provided to the modules to maximize the use of the equipment. Once the transfer program is implemented in all the 80 public irrigation districts, and all the SLRs are in place, CNA will be responsible for management of the water sources, as well as for playing a larger role in overall water resource planning and development.In contrast to many countries, particularly those in Asia that first attempted to create water user associations at the block level (100500 hectares), Mexico decided to form these associations at the module level (1,00020,000 hectares). In the early years of the program, the modules were relatively small as it was felt these would be easier for users to manage. With experience, however, it became obvious that these modules were too small and, as a result, the water fees had to be very high to cover the fixed staff and overhead costs of administering O&M in the area. Therefore, to ensure that the modules in the districts that were transferred later on were financially viable and of manageable sizes, larger modules (5,00050,000 hectares) were created.An important part of the Mexican transfer program was the granting of water concessions to the water user associations by the government. These are part of the legal agreement signed between the government and these associations. Users do not have individual water rights. Instead, each association has a proportional right (based on area) to the supply of surface water available to the district for that season. Concessions are made for a fixed time frame, 5 to 50 years, and can be taken away if an association does not fulfill its agreement with CNA.The decision to implement the transfer program was made at the highest level of the government, the Office of the President. This decision was strongly supported by the farmers in the more commercial irrigated areas in the country, primarily in the north and northwest where 53 percent of the irrigated area of the country is located. As a result, the initial systems transferred were concentrated in the more commercial areas as shown in table 1.By concentrating on areas where the program had strong local support and where the systems were relatively large, Mexico was able to jump-start the process. Transfer of O&M responsibility to the associations was shown to be a viable strategy. Between 1990 and 1994, transfers of over 2.45 million hectares were made within the country against the original target of 1.96 million hectares.A key aspect of the transfer process was to ensure that water user associations had adequate financial resources to be self-sufficient. This meant that the Removing such a heavy dependency upon the federal government has unquestionably improved the overall financial sustainability of the transferred districts. This was particularly obvious during 1995 when, due to the prevailing financial crisis, the government provided virtually no operating budget to the line agencies such as CNA. In contrast to the 1982 financial crisis, when the districts almost stopped operating due to lack of funds and all maintenance was deferred, funds from the users kept the modules operating while the users actually carried out some of the deferred maintenance themselves. The funds derived from the water tariffs that went to CNA provided the critical finance to ensure that CNA could continue to carry out the necessary O&M on the main canals and water sources.Responsibility for O&M from the secondary canals downwards was transferred to the modules. In the process, employees who worked for CNA and who were competent and required by the module, were hired by the modules and the others were released. In many cases, the modules realized they could not afford all the staff that were being funded by CNA and the consequent reductions significantly reduced CNAs overall staffing levels. The staffing changes are included in table 3.In line with the policy of making irrigation districts more financially sustainable, it was recognized that the users would have to pay the real O&M costs for their irrigation service. This meant that the costs of water for farmers increased significantly. Although the costs of water with respect to the costs of production increased slightly, the percentages still ranged from 3 to 8, which are not unusual for irrigated agriculture.Although the cost of water relative to the total production costs did not increase significantly over the previous 10 years, the terms of trade of agriculture changed drastically. With the removal of the subsidies on inputs and the elimination of most price guarantee programs, profitability of grain crops declined by more than half.  Figure 7 shows that in Rio Lerma the net returns for maize, wheat, and sorghum suffered a serious decline over the 10 years, 19841994. This trend poses a threat to the sustainability of the transferred irrigation systems as it reduces the ability of the users to maintain the system and will encourage them to underfund O&M.Approximately 60 districts have been transferred since the program started in 1990. The government is now left with the last 20 districts for turnover, each with its own specific set of problems some are located in areas where there is civil unrest, the irrigation infrastructure of others has structural problems, and farmers refuse to accept turnover until they are rehabilitated; and in others there are serious water quality problems. At the same time, the government is starting to face some second generation problems in the districts already transferred.The transfer program significantly increased the actual funds available for O&M. In most districts these funds were obtained by volumetric charges for water. There are, however, two interlinked weaknesses in the present water tariff system:1. In the districts there is normally no reserve fundthe fees are set at a level just sufficient to pay the day-today O&M expenses of the modules.2. Volumetric charges appear logical but it is assumed that districts will always have water. The lack of a base fee charged to all users, independent of volume, means that any time a module cannot deliver water its income drops to zero.To avoid these problems in the future, modules will clearly have to change to a system of charging a base fee for all users in the system together with a volumetric charge. Without this system they will face the same problems that have already struck a number of modules in the north during the recent droughtsome modules became insolvent or were on the verge of becoming insolvent as they did not have a sufficient volume of irrigation water to generate sufficient funds to meet the operating costs of the module.To help address some of the problems associated with the transfer program and promote the change to more commercial agriculture, the government passed a new water law in 1992 and introduced regulations to support it in 1994. Together, the two documents were designed to form the basis of the transfer program and provide the legal framework to allow the sale of water for highervalue uses, as well as to protect the existing water rights of the modules.  (1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994) in the Alto Rio Lerma Irrigation District: Wheat, maize, and sorghum.*In each transferred district, water user associations within the individual modules were granted renewable concessions (for 5 to 50 years) once they fulfilled all the filing and registration requirements. This entitled them to a proportional share (based on land area) of the water available in the district for each season. However, nowhere in the concession did it specify the volume of water associated with the concession. In contrast to the California water law, which defined a volumetric share, the Mexican law did not provide water on an individual priority basis, but instead the water right was defined as proportional to expected streamflow, stored amount, or canal flow for that season. Consequently, if streamflow is 20 percent below normal, each right holder will receive 20 percent less water.In addition to not actually granting a volumetric right, the law defining concessions also is unclear on priorities in case of shortage. Without a firm volumetric water right, the actual operating procedures are left to the districts and CNA. This fails to provide any guarantee of quantity of water for those who buy or rent water rights. In 1995, based on an interpretation that grants priority to domestic use, the state of Nuevo Leon and the city of Monterrey diverted the water of the Rio San Juan to fill the Cuchillo Dam. Yet, the water user associations in the Bajo Rio San Juan Irrigation District have valid concessions that have been approved by CNA for this water and also have a 1952 agreement signed by the President of Mexico stating that this water belongs to Tamaulipas and the Bajo Rio San Juan Irrigation districts. This action has brought to question the effectiveness of the water law and the regulations that exist to implement the law. This is particularly worrisome as the water law is the legal basis for the transfer program.The transfer program in Mexico took off faster than planned and clearly created a system that is more sustainable than the previous one. Users are paying more for water but are receiving better service from the local module staff who now work for them rather than for CNA. Some of the achievements of the program to date are displayed in the box.Achievements 1. By the end of 1995 more than 80 percent of the 3.3 million hectares of publicly irrigated land in the country was transferred to joint management.2. Water user associations were shown to be able to operate and maintain the modules, even of sizes over 30,000 hectares.3. Water tariffs collected by the users supported the module O&M activities and funded the majority of CNA staff activities at the main canal and water source levels.4. The number of CNA staff was significantly reduced leaving fewer but higher-qualified staff.5. The elimination of unionized staff removed one of the major complaints of the farmers. It has been reported that the ability to hire and fire their own staff has improved the responsiveness of the operational staff to the needs of the users.6. There was no discernible impact on the area irrigated in the transferred districts and yields appear to have been unaffected as a result of the change in management.There are additional changes that need to be made in the irrigated sector to ensure the program is sustainable. The system of water tariffs must be changed so that the districts develop a reserve fund to pay for future costs of improvements as well as to protect the modules from unexpected expenses. With a rapidly increasing population and the structural transformation of Mexico from an agricultural society into an industrial nation, competition for water is increasing. Mexicos legal system needs to be modified to clarify what rights exist for irrigated agriculture and how these rights can be protected against competing demands for water from municipal and industrial users.The decision by the government to remove all subsidies and withdraw from the agricultural production business has turned the terms of trade against agriculture. Combined with the impacts of the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) and the resulting cheap imports of maize, soybean, and wheat from the US and Canada, irrigated agriculture is under tremendous economic pressure. In the next decade there needs to be radical change in irrigated agriculture as farmers shift to highervalued crops to justify the use of expensive irrigation water and infrastructure. These changes will require new agricultural policies, technical assistance from both the public and private sectors, and significant investments in agriculture to ensure Mexican farmers can compete with agricultural producers in the US and Canada.By the end of 1995 more than 80 percent of the 3.3 million hectares of publicly irrigated land in Maxico was transfered to joint management.Institutional development forms the most significant part of a countrys development strategy. It serves to institutionalize technical solutions introduced by various infrastructure projects, thereby ensuring good returns on the heavy investments made in infrastructure development. The large scale of Pakistans irrigation infrastructure is well-known. To determine whether a responsive institutional framework could improve irrigation performance in Pakistan, several pilot studies on social organization were undertaken in the Punjab and Sind. These studies were designed not as part of a broad policy of irrigation management transfer, or privatization where government-owned assets are transferred to the private sector, but as an effort to transfer the key management functions related to a distributary subsystem to water user associations as part of a strategy to decentralize the management of the countrys irrigation systems.In countries where irrigation management transfer has been attempted, water user associations have been promoted to take over the responsibility for managing irrigation and drainage systems to reduce government costs, and improving water distribution equity and system performance. In contrast, these present pilot studies in the Punjab and the Sind were designed to test if the assumptions underlying management transfer policies hold true for irrigation systems and water user communities in Pakistan. The first step taken was to learn how to organize water users at the distributary or minor canal level. The second step was to test the effectiveness of these water user associations in sharing the management responsibilities with the government agencies and, ultimately, improving irrigation performance.These projects were based on a number of theoretical assumptions and principles. Collective action is assumed to be more effective than individual action in solving the social problems related to equitableresource allocation and sustainable resource management. This is particularly true for water in irrigated agriculture as irrigation systems are inherently complex socio-technical systems.Organizing farmers is a local responsibility and the decisions related to social organization should be taken by the local authorities and the water users. Trained community-based leaders and volunteers can play a significant role in helping farmers become organized, and provide awareness of the technical, socioeconomic, and environmental issues of irrigation. The awareness of these issues will heighten farmer motivation to develop sustainable water user associations.Although collective action by the organized groups of farmers is expected to facilitate improved management of the irrigation systems, it does not ensure that users will consume water more productively. This will become a key issue to be reviewed, following successful transfer of responsibility to the water user associations.Six locations were selected for the pilot studiesthree each in the Punjab and the Sind. In the Punjab, work was sited at the Hakra 4-R Distributary Canal in Haroonabad and two small dams at Fateh Jang. The sites in the Sind included a distributary canal in each of the three districts: Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, and Nawabshah. The two independent small dam sites at Fateh Jang contrast with the other canal sites, in that the latter are parts of the integrated canal system in Pakistan.Five-member field teams, a team leader plus four others including social organizers and technical research assistants, were first deployed in the Hakra 4-R Distributary. Social organizers moved into selected communities and interacted with the farmers. Here, they helped the farmers set up water user associations through a four-phase process. The first phase was to generate support mobilization, working with collaborating partners and agencies to provide the necessary assistance for the work, and with recruitment and training of field staff. The second phase invoked the initial organization, generating awareness among the farmers, assessing the characteristics of the community, and promoting the initial formation of the associations. The third phase identified the association leaders, developed action plans, and reached agreements with the local government agencies for joint management. Finally, in the fourth phase, the water user associations action plans for taking over certain agreed functions of irrigation management at the distributary level were implemented.A key feature of the methodology adopted in this program was the use of community-based volunteers referred to as contact farmers in the Sind, and social organization volunteers in the Hakra 4-R Distributary in the Punjab. They served as links between the field teams and the community and became an extended part of the social organization field teams. These volunteers were selected for their acceptability within the community, their leadership attributes, and their motivation to work with their colleagues to improve system management.From the socioeconomic baseline surveys certain general characteristics of the irrigation system emerged. In all locations well over half the respondents complained of inequity between and within distributaries. The problem was attributed to the influentialsthe big landlords and irrigation officials. Water distribution within the watercourses though, was reported as equitable. The effect of inequity of water distribution between head and tail in the Hakra 4-R District was clearly apparent. The average cropping intensity in the head reaches of the system was 147 percent while in the tail it was only 97 percent.Farmers were enthusiastic about helping themselves. Over 90 percent of respondents in both provinces were willing to become involved in maintenance activities at the distributary level, and most were already directly engaged in operations and maintenance of the watercourses and parts of the drainage systems. Almost without exception, respondents were willing to work together to develop user associations to help improve the water management and productivity of irrigated agriculture.After consultation with the water users through individual and small group interviews, 146 social organization volunteers were selected in the Hakra 4-R Distributary. The average number of volunteers was four per village. This contrasted with the strategy in the Sind where identification of the volunteers was based on the number of watercourses rather than by representation per village. After the social organization volunteers and contact farmers were identified, a series of meetings were conducted to build general awareness on project objectives and intended methodologies. Several seminars on social organization in irrigated agriculture provided the opportunity for the volunteers to discuss how problems in managing the irrigation systems could be addressed collectively at the local level. Subsequently, formal consultation meetings were organized with the water users, with the intention of developing tentative plans for establishing water user associations. Initially, the focus of the discussions centered on membership of water user associations, organizational structure, and procedures for identifying and electing the leaders. Attention of the participants was also drawn to the provisions of the existing laws and the desirability for specific changes.The water user associations in the Sind were developed along the lines of a Farmers become already involved in maintenance activities.structure followed by the On-Farm Water Management (OFWM) directorates in their earlier attempts on having a water user association for each watercourse. The intention was to federate them into distributary level water user associations. In the Punjab, an informal committee of 3 to 7 persons was chosen for each watercourse that, in turn, nominated one person to represent the watercourse at the higher level. Membership of the water user associations in the Punjab embraced all shareholders, landowners, tenants, and lessees but in the Sind, all tenants were excluded from membership, as their tenure was temporary.In the process of identifying association leaders, in both the Punjab and the Sind the water users were informed of the meetings by diligently working door-to-door volunteers, or by announcing the meetings via the local mosque loudspeakers. Meetings were held at the convenience of water users, usually after sunset. In the Sind, a representative of the OFWM directorate usually participated in the meetings, whereas in the Punjab, the social organization volunteers and IIMIs field team members had to work without much assistance from any agency staff.High motivation is evident among the water user community to develop water user associations to improve the reliability and equity of irrigation services. To sustain that motivation, important information on the cost-benefits of collective action needs to be fed back to the participating water users. In fairly early days, it is important for the objectives and functions of the associations to be clearly identified. Similarly, the legal status of the associations needs to be clarified if they are to become permanent custodians of components of the management of the irrigation systems. To adequately manage the distributary-level irrigation and drainage systems, the associations need to be able to mobilize sufficient financial resources. They also require some technical assistance. Yet, until the enabling legal framework is established, it is difficult to clearly identify the methods of resource mobilization and the sources for technical assistance inputs.Accountability of the water user associations and their office bearers and the associated government irrigation agency has yet to be clearly defined and understood by everyone in the community. Monitoring and evaluation of the activity and functioning of the associations need to be introduced. To avoid confusion about the objectives of the associations and the government agencies, policies for managing the irrigation systems and closer liaison mechanisms between the newly established associations and the government agency staff need to be developed.These pilot studies have now reached a stage where the newly formed Farmers were willing to work together to form user associations.associations need institutional support to proceed to the next stage of associational development. As system operation and maintenance are under the purview of the provincial irrigation departments, transfer of authority to the water user associations is essential. Meantime, current water delivery practices should remain in place until the water user associations have taken over, and can make the changes they require. It is only after the departments of irrigation, agriculture, and revenue, and the regulatory and law enforcement authorities have given full recognition to these new associations, can they proceed with their collective actions to better manage the operation and maintenance of the distributaries.IIMI explored the relationship between water distribution rules and water distribution performance in the Tambraparani irrigation system. Water distribution rules specify who is to get water, how much, and when. They exist in all irrigation systems to simplify decision making and reduce the potential for conflicts among users. In Tambraparani, the water distribution rules do not specify a pattern of water distribution that serves the desires of the farmers; so users evade the rules thus adversely affecting water delivery performance. Furthermore, inconsistencies in the rules lead to inefficient and inequitable water distribution.The Tambraparani irrigation system lies in the Tambraparani Basin at the southern tip of India (figure 9). The Tambraparani River originates in the Western Ghat mountains and flows southeastward to the Gulf of Mannar. Major tributaries include the Servalar and Manimuthar rivers. The total registered command of the Tambraparani irrigation system is 34,934 hectares.The Tambraparani system developed by accretion over a period of centuries. Initially, independent tank (small reservoir) systems were combined by construction of feeder channels fed by diversion from the Tambraparani River. Later, larger reservoirs were constructed near the head of the basin to control the river flow. Most of the water in the basin is now captured in three reservoirs Papanasam, Servalar, and Manimuthar and the Tambraparani riverbed serves as the main channel of the system. Water is diverted from the river by 8 anicuts Water Distribution Rules and Performance in the Tambraparani Irrigation System in India (diversion weirs) into 11 channels. Farmers irrigate directly from the channels and indirectly from 187 tanks fed by the channels.Traditionally, farmers in the Tambraparani system plant rice during the pishanam (OctoberMarch) and kar (June-September) seasons. Since completion of the Papanasam reservoir in the 1940s, additional demands have been placed on the Tambraparani water, which include diversions for hydropower generation, the new advance kar crop growing season (April though July), and the cultivation of banana. Banana is now planted in one third of the command, overwhelmingly in the tail areas, as it provides much better returns than rice. Unlike rice, banana requires year-round irrigation so it does not fit in with the seasonal irrigation schedules. In addition, there has been a 10 percent increase in the command area, and domestic and industrial users have increased so that they now require over 14 percent of the available water.The Tambraparani system is operated and maintained by the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department (PWD, now called the Water Resources Organization). System management is the responsibility of an Executive Engineer and a number of subordinates including subdivisional officers, sectional officers, irrigation inspectors, and gate operators or laskars. The Papanasam and Servalar reservoirs and powerhouses are operated by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). Two District Collectors play an important role in ratifying water allocation and in other decisions on the distribution of water. There are 132 water user associations and a number of informal farmer groups. All these groups have strong influences on how the system is managed although only the PWD, the TNEB, and the District Collectors are recognized in the water distribution rules.Water is distributed to serve three functions, hydroelectric power generation, municipal and industrial use, and irrigation. Sets of rules govern the distribution of water for each of these functions. Distribution for municipal and industrial use is governed by agreements between the users and the state. Use of water for power generation is governed by rules for operation of the Papanasam reservoir. Distribution to irrigation is the most complex as there are many more users and irrigation requires large amounts of water. There exists a correspondingly complex set of distribution rules for irrigation.Essentially, water allocations to irrigation are determined by the amounts required by rice in any given season. As there is heavy rainfall during pishanam the whole command is allocated water for rice production irrespective of actual water availability. The kar season officially begins on the first day of June and finishes at the end of September. As water is not usually available in sufficient amounts to irrigate the whole command, the Executive Engineer calculates the area that can be devoted to rice production based on his estimate of the available supplies. The areas where irrigation for rice is authorized are then determined on a priority basis starting from the head and finishing at the tail of the system. Once the Executive Engineer selects the dates for water release to the selected areas, the District Collectors ratify and publicize the decision.Advance kar season begins on the first of April and finishes at the end of July. The total area that can be devoted to irrigation is calculated by the Executive Engineer based on his estimate of the available water. Under the rules, he has to ensure that 500 million cubic feet (14.2 million cubic meters) of water remain in the Papanasam reservoir on 1 June to be used for kar season irrigation. The balance is then allocated to regions in the tail of the system in a specified priority order.Once allocations are made, water has to be delivered according to a schedule, which is done at three levelswithin the 11 channels, on the main system (the river), and from the reservoirs. Distribution rules exist for each level. The 1935 Channel Operating Rules provide explicit instructions for water deliveries within each of the 11 channels. For example, the operating rules for the Nadhiyunni Channel specify that water is to be delivered using a 5-day turn system that rotates water among 4 defined subareas. For those channels with system tanks the rules specify the order in which the tanks should be filled. For the main system, PWD operating rules require that the demand for each channel be determined every day and the flows in the main system are adjusted daily to meet the demands. These demands are determined by the laskars who keep track of the crop conditions along each channel. This information passes through the PWD hierarchy to the Executive Engineer who combines the demands and then orders the gate settings of the reservoirs and channel heads in the system.Separate written sets of rules exist for the operation of the Papanasam and Manimuthar reservoirs. The rules for the operation of the Servalar reservoir are still being prepared. The Papanasam rules divide inflow to the reservoir between allocations to hydropower and irrigation. The TNEB releases water allocated to hydropower as it sees fit while the PWD Traditionally, farmers plant rice in the pishanam and kar seasons.Executive Engineer has to ask the TNEB to release the water for irrigation to meet the daily demands. The rules, however, state that releases are generally limited to the capacity of the Papanasam powerhouse. This means that the PWD Executive Engineer is unable to obtain more water from this reservoir when he needs it to satisfy irrigation demands. The TNEB presently operates the Servalar reservoir under the same set of rules so it can take Papanasam water to the Servalar reservoir through a tunnel, release it through the Servalar powerhouse, and let it flow down to the Servalar River to its confluence with the Tambraparani, and then through the Papanasam powerhouse. Unlike the Papanasam and Servalar reservoirs, the Mamimuthar reservoir is operated by the PWD Executive Engineer. The operating rules for the Manimuthar reservoir are quite specific on how Manimuthar water is to be divided between the Tambraparani System command and the command of the Manimuthar High Level Canal that feeds some 349 tanks.Operations within the channels do not conform to the 1936 Channel Operating Rules. The key reason for this is that the flow in the river varies daily while the operating rules require rather rigid scheduling. To overcome this problem, the PWD laskars attempt to provide water to the farmers as and when the farmers require it and, in return, farmers reward the laskars with gifts of rice or banana at the end of each season.Water deliveries to the channels are supposed to conform with demand. The operating decisions, however, are only as good as the data on which they are based. Almost all data, including those on crops and cropped area, originate from the laskars who use them to justify their demands. The only flow records kept are those measuring the flows at the anicuts and into the channels and these are kept by the laskars responsible for defining the daily demands. Because of reuse, the quantity of water let into the channels is always greater than the quantity released from the reservoirs. However, the return flows are ignored in the daily decisionmaking process. Rainfall data are collected on a weekly basis and, consequently, offer no value to daily adjustments. These practices give considerable power to the laskars to serve the farmers and, as a result, there is no way to check the cumulative amount of water delivered to each channel against the amount allocated for the season.To provide water to meet the daily demands, the Executive Engineer has to be able to draw on the reservoirs. During the height of the irrigation season the required flows are often greater than the water coming from the Papanasam powerhouse. Because the TNEB restricts flows from the Papanasam and Servalar reservoirs, the Executive Engineer often cannot get enough water from those reservoirs; so water is taken from the Manimuthar reservoir at the expense of the reservoirs own commandbut even this strategy may not be sufficient to meet the daily demand. As a result, actual deliveries to the channels are compromises between laskar demands and the restrictions on reservoir releases. This results in unpredictable water deliveries to the farmers.According to the rules, all areas of the Tambraparani command are allocated water for rice production during the pishanam season. PWD records show that, between 1971 and 1993, all 34,934 hectares of the registered area had been irrigated and an equivalent area harvested during pishanam. During the kar season, the PWD Executive Engineer defines the allocations. From 1979 through 1992, areas authorized irrigation during the kar season averaged 25,121 hectares. Government records indicate that the harvested areas closely matched the authorized areas.As in the kar season, the Executive Engineer defines the advance kar season allocations. These vary widely. From 1977 through 1989, allocations ranged from 0 to 18,660 hectares, averaging 5,167 hectares. However, the actual area irrigated was likely to be much greater than authorized, and the official government figures for 199495, for example, show a number of interesting features:• Advance kar rice was authorized for the maximum area in the South Main Channel permitted by the rules 4,500 hectares. The official figures given in table 4 show that rice was planted in the whole of the 5,166hectare command of the South Main Channel and, in addition, over 2,800 hectares were planted with banana.• The total area officially reported under advance kar rice in the last 4 channels was 11,127 hectares (table 4), somewhat less than the 13,617 hectares officially authorized. Adding the corresponding banana areas brings the total irrigated area to 19,777 hectares, well above the authorized limit.These values imply that considerably more area had been irrigated during advance kar than authorized. The rice area may also have been overreported to illustrate that the advance kar water was used for rice, though in fact it had been used for banana.The tail of the system is where yearround water demand is greatest because of banana cultivation. During the pishanam season, the channels get adequate irrigation water to supplement the northeast monsoon rains but water is often scarce during the rest of the year, particularly from April to June when rain seldom falls. The shortages are met by pumping groundwater or canal water, obtaining special releases, and by acquiring advance kar allocations.Pumping groundwater is unregulated, so this does not represent a problem. However, relatively few farmers have access to good quality groundwater. Instead, they pump water from the canals where the water is destined for other uses such as industry or for special releases. As this action is against the rules the water can only be obtained with the collaboration of the laskars. The scale of pumping is considerableto supply 1.13 cumecs of water to the Tuticorin industrial park, for example, the PWD releases 4.25 4.53 cumecs of water at the North Main Channel head every day. Most of the transmission losses are accounted for by the water pumped from the North Main Channel by over 300 farmers.  (1994)(1995). A further means of getting water is to request special releases of water during shortage periods. Special releases are requested for numerous reasons, such as for betel cultivation (under a special government order), for the use of the famous Thiruchendur Temple, and for drinking. In almost all instances, the water is used for irrigating crops, particularly banana. Obtaining advance kar allocations is the principal way of obtaining water to irrigate banana in the tail of the system, although ostensibly, the water is released for rice.A major function of the water user associations in the tail is to mobilize pressure on government officials for advance kar allocations and for special releases. Special delegations and gifts to various government officials and politicians generally result in getting the needed water as there have been no reported banana crop failures despite the widely varying water allocations!Kar season allocation rules give priority to the channels at the head of the system. But, because of advance kar allocations, tail farmers have crops in the ground before June when farmers in the head areas begin kar season cultivation. If there is a water shortage in June or July when the two seasons overlap, the tail areas get priority for water because they already have crops in the ground. In these circumstances, advance kar allocations reverse the traditional priority for allocation to the head end of the system. This situation has led to conflicts between head and tail farmers resulting in court action.Water delivery performance refers to the delivery of water to users in the irrigation system in the correct amounts and at the correct times. As equity of delivery is one of the goals of management in Tambraparani, the correct deliveries are those that deliver the same amount of water per hectare to each part of the system. Efficiency of delivery is obtained when only the necessary water is delivered so that the excess can be used for other purposes. To investigate the water distribution performance and efficiency in the Tambraparani irrigation system, information was collected on water deliveries to the 11 channels between April 1994 and March 1995. The calculated data are given in table 5.Overall water availability was quite high during 199495. The rules state that when there is sufficient water, as in 199495, there should be continuous water delivery to the channels. In 1994-95 though, none of the channels were operated continuously. Periods of delivery varied between 66 and 86 percent of the season and the maximum deliveries to all 11 channels varied between 82 and 16 percent of design discharge.The amount of water supplied to the 11 channels was much larger than the requirementsthe target annual delivery to the channel heads is 2,340 mm while the supply to the channel heads averaged 6,335 mm. The efficiency of supply to the channels varied between 57 and 17 percent. Efficiency varied among the channels because drainage flows were ignored, channels were poorly maintained and, most importantly, the daily demand for each channel was set by the laskars of individual channels without regard to the demands from the other channels. To serve the farmers, laskars demand as much water as they can get and, as PWD officials have no way to check on the accuracy of the demands, they try to satisfy these demands as far as possible. This situation resulted in an average efficiency for all 11 channels of only 39 percent.The average annual supply of water is 3,072 mm for the registered command. And, as the average annual crop water requirement is only 1,600 mm it should be possible to irrigate all the registered command with an intensity of 200 percent in a normal year if the channels were operated slightly above 50 percent efficiency. At the 1994-95 efficiency level of 39 percent, this was not possible.Because of evasions and subversion of the rules the agricultural output of the Tambraparani irrigation system is better, from the point of view of some farmers, than it would have been if water was delivered according to the rules. Sticking to the rules would severely damage the banana as it produces significantly higher cash returns per hectare than the two rice crops, and would significantly reduce the total value of the harvests. Furthermore, the actions of the laskars, farmers, and water user associations in managing channel operations against the rules compensate, in part, for the main system delivery deficiencies, and maintain rice yields higher than they might otherwise be.The Tambraparani case shows that if water distribution rules are ill-adapted to the farmers goals, farmers will take steps to evade or subvert the water distribution rules to make the irrigation systems serve their needs. Evasion and subversion of the water distribution rules have adverse consequences on water distribution performance and increase the costs for the irrigators. Also, inconsistent sets of water distribution rules cause operational problems that are likely to lead to failure to obey the rules and to poor water distribution performance.Demands on irrigation systems are accelerating with population growth and development, and with competition with domestic and industrial uses. Responding effectively to these demands requires altering the institutional resources used for managing irrigation systems, including the water distribution rules. Once established, water law systems are often difficult to change and do not keep pace with changing water demands or social concerns. As competition for limited water supplies increases, these institutions can have significant negative impacts on opportunities for efficient water use and management. System managers need to develop a concern for the consequences of the present rules and management practices. If the rules are periodically reviewed, system managers will be forced to face the changing demands of the users, and adjust the rules accordingly.Farmers and other users need to have a formal voice. It is in the interest of the users to remove inconsistencies and adapt the rules to meet their requirements. If farmers and other users have a direct influence over system In Pakistan, one of IIMIs major efforts in recent years has been to help form water user associations as part of the irrigation management transfer program.Trained community-based volunteers help organize farmers.. This work is described in some detail in an earlier section of this report, Establishing Effective Water User Associations in Pakistan. This work was undertaken in collaboration with the States of the Sind and Punjab and relies heavily on the assistance of over 160 community-based volunteers to organize the farmers. These trained volunteers greatly assisted the action research program to achieve the high participation ratesover 80 percentof the water users in the formation and organization of the water user associations. The field teams were also briefed on a range of field survey research methodologies, socioeconomics, sample survey design, baseline surveys, and rapid appraisal methods.Under IIMIs design and operations program, in-service training is performed ubiquitiously in all field locations. Seconded staff learn about computerbased management information systems, decision support systems, calibration of structures and outlets, and discharge monitoring. In 1996, an officer of the Punjab Irrigation Department, for example, was seconded for 2 years to the IIMI office in Lahore. His task was to establish a more formal link with IIMI to strengthen the research capability of the Irrigation Department and help identify those research techniques and topics that would be most useful for collaborative work in the future.Opportunities for NARS staff to undertake field work as part of their higher degree programs constitute a further way of assisting collaborators strengthen their research capacity. Such opportunities have occurred regularly at IIMIs field research sites in Burkina Faso and Niger in West Africa, Colombia, Pakistan, Mexico, and Sri Lanka. In addition, conducting study tours, field meetings, and national and regional workshops with irrigation agency staff is part of the daily research activities of the institute that constitute an active capacitybuilding program.IIMI uses various media and methods for reaching its clients and beneficiaries. The ultimate beneficiaries of IIMIs work are the poor people of the developing world, both those directly involved in irrigated agriculture, and consumers. But IIMIs links are indirectthe results of most of its work must be used by policy makers and irrigation managers who are responsible for creating the necessary conditions for farmers to improve their productivity. Some of IIMIs work does have direct impact such as its activities on improved irrigation practices, irrigation management transfer and local management of water, multiple uses of water, and empowering local farmers including womento manage water resources themselves.Most of IIMIs partners include policy makers and planners, researchers, and irrigation and water resource managers. IIMI uses a variety of media to communicate its results, including publicationsmost significantly, Research Reports that are also published on the internetconferences and workshops, IIMI offers opportunities to NARS staff to undertake field work as part of their higher degree programs. and to a lesser extent, videos. The library and documentation unit contributes by providing information on water resources and irrigated agriculture from its databases to staff and partners alike. As IIMIs work has expanded from Asia into Africa and Latin America, publications are produced in French and Spanish where funds allow. Two low-cost but highimpact newsletters, Information Techniques for Irrigation Systems (ITIS) and in West Africa the Bulletin du Réseau Irrigation Afrique de lOuest (BRIAO), are distributed to informal networks of professionals.IIMI research outputs are disseminated through its publications.In 1996, IIMI spent US$9.12 million of its income of $10.07 million as operating expenditures (figure 10), 68 percent of which was devoted to research (figure 11). The institute ended the year with a net operating income of US$0.947 million of which $0.254 million and $0.693 million were allocated to capital purchases and the operating fund, respectively. Unrestricted donor income in 1996 amounted to US$3.9 million (table 6) or 39 percent of total donor funding.In 1996, the Institute had 20 senior internationally recruited staff. They were complemented by 14 associate staff (seconded by donor organizations) and postdoctoral fellows. National professional and management staff engaged in IIMIs research, training, and information activities in headquarters and overseas units numbered 117. IIMIs total staff numbered 356, more than half of them based outside Sri Lanka.Figure 10. Operating expenditure, 1984-1996. Figure 11. Research and governance expenditure, 1996  Restricted Projects 1996 (Continued)• Australia• Canada• China• Denmark• France• Germany• India• Japan• Netherlands• Norway• Philippines• Spain DONORS 1996• United Kingdom• USA• African Development Bank• Asian Development Bank• Inter-American Development Bank• World Bank• Food and Agriculture Organization• Ford Foundation• International Fund for AgriculturalThe Governments of Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Egypt, India, Mexico, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka provided program support for IIMI-related activities in those countries.During 1996, IIMIs funding support was provided by the following governments, development banks, agencies, and foundations:","tokenCount":"12477"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1746a884cdabdca05703990876f9c23d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/33df16ee-407c-4c30-b6ca-a81985718bd7/retrieve","id":"945281203"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9891a74-8228-4ae2-8853-b40ca48dcfd4","pagecount":"4","content":"The application of framed field experiments can provide valuable insights into the multiple layers (individual-, group-and incentive-level) relevant to understanding collective action in conservation (Cardenas et al, 2004) and the pathways through which conservation behavior is affected by external institutions. To learn about people's preferences and decision-making in real resource and group contexts, research in real field contexts is needed (Cardenas, 2000;Swallow et al, 2005). There is a growing body of literature analyzing cooperative behavior in the management of natural resources in field framed experiments conducted in developing countries (Cardenas and Carpenter, 2008;Cardenas, 2009).However, there has only been limited application (Narloch et al, 2012;Midler et al, in press) in the context of (i) managing agrobiodiversity, and (ii) the impact of reward systems, such as payment for ecosystem services (PES). This emerging body of literature suggests that although individual rewards (i.e. rewards proportional to effort) are likely to be more effective and less sensitive to social factors than collective (i.e. egalitarian) rewards, the latter might have a positive effect on conservation when they are shared within socially closely-related groups and in situations where communication and deliberation about collective action is possible.Behavior in the farmer experimental games suggests that understanding farmer perceptions of fairness can have important implications for the design and implementation of conservation incentive mechanisms, particularly given the important influence of such perceptions on the pro-social behavior that underlies much de facto conservation. Incentive mechanisms, such as payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services (PACS), that can, in the words of Bowles (2008) \"support socially-valued ends not only by harnessing selfish preferences to public ends but also by evoking public-spirited motives\" are also more likely to be sustainable over the long-term.As the Peruvian government moves closer to implementing an up-scaled PACS scheme 1 for quinoa, amaranth and other crops, the importance of gaining improved understanding of how such a scheme may be designed in practice to be both effective and account for procedural justice (including the recognition of perceptions of fairness) has become increasingly critical.This new round of games explores how effective (in terms of conservation outcomes) individual/proportional rewards are compared to collective/ egalitarian rewards, depending on whether the way those rewards are to be shared is imposed exogenously (top-down) or endogenously (bottomup). In the bottom-up endogenous approach, groups have the opportunity to decide collectively which payment (proportional to effort or egalitarian) method they prefer to receive via a voting procedure. These two variables (group formation and type of reward) are designed to test if:  different reward types would affect behavior in terms of conservation outcomes; involving farmers in the process of choosing the reward type to be implemented would impact conservation outcomes; and  the constitution of groupsrandom or autonomously selected -affected conservation outcomes.Games were carried out between February and March 2016 in seven Aymara and eight Quechua communities around the Titicaca basin in Peru, involving 252 participants in total. The communities were selected with the assistance of local experts covered communities known to be interested in the maintenance of quinoa landraces. The games were applied to community groups of 12-20 participants, divided into a number of sub-groups of four each.Each participant in each community sub-group played a sequence of three games. Each sequence is called a treatment. Four treatments were played with sub-groups formed randomly (treatments 1 to 4) and two with farmers allowed to autonomously select their own sub-groups (treatment 5 and 6). Table 1 summarizes treatment combinations.Following the experimental game, a socioeconomic survey was conducted with each participant, collecting a range of data including demographic information, landholdings, and family relations, distance between group members, and frequency of collaboration.  When imposed by an external entity, proportional rewards increase conservation effectively while egalitarian rewards do not. When farmers have the possibility to choose between both types of rewards, they prefer the egalitarian one. As a result, they end up making lower levels of conservation and thus have lower payoffs. When farmers can choose their preferred reward type, the egalitarian one performs better than when it is imposed. This suggests that allowing farmer communities to determine their own group reward mechanisms/ conditions may be expected to increase their willingness to participate and thus undertake conservation activities. When farmers can choose their group peers, they conserve/ cooperate more than when their group is randomly assigned. No crowding-in or crowding-out of intrinsic motivations relative to the baseline was found following removal of the incentive mechanism. Improved understanding how group social dynamics and reward mechanisms affect conservation behavior, including through an exploration of issues of \"fairness\" (both distributive and procedural) and how this can impact willingness to participate in group reward schemes. Support for the current design of PACS schemes in Peru and elsewhere, with their high levels of \"procedural justice\" (i.e. farming communities free to choose to participate or not, select which of the priority landraces to conserve, identify specific farmer group participants and lands upon which to realize such activities, as well as determine their own level of in-kind rewards and whether these will be distributed on an egalitarian or proportional basis). Findings point towards policy implications arising from the fact that there is an apparent trade-off to be overcome between the costs of investing in social equity dimensions (in terms of procedural and distributional equity dimensions) and the benefits of obtaining more effective conservation outcomes. ","tokenCount":"886"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec195945f08c42b513ef7821de0ca054","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c8fa689c-a7a8-4cb6-b8d4-ddc27e42ab8f/retrieve","id":"628705993"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95320ea4-278e-4a0b-a7c3-eacfd79f728b","pagecount":"47","content":"The workshop had the following objectives:• Identify researchable issues that cut across RTB crops and centres; further develop the research portfolio within the cluster CC 4.1, and better shape the vision• Identify key public and private-sector partners, brainstorm on their potential role in postharvest innovation and nutritious RTB products implementation, and define essential mechanisms for effective research collaboration• Brainstorm on a mechanism of how we link with other clusters in FP4, FP2 and FP5, and how we envision joint resource mobilization• Develop an implementation and resource mobilization strategy for the period 2018-2022• Develop and outline a plan of action for the remaining period of 2017The workshop allowed to share experiences, learn from one another and to advance the RTB cluster CC 4.1 team implementation and resource mobilization strategy, including ideas that cut across crops and centers. The workshop was held back-to-back with a two-day workshop of the RTB-ENDURE project (6-7 June 2017) to incorporate the lessons learned into the cluster portfolio, consolidate the linkages between cluster CC4.1 and other clusters in FPs 4 and 5, and develop strategies for implementation and joint resource mobilization.The workshop was structured around small facilitated working groups, presentations and plenary discussions to allow all participants to engage in practical discussion. A key note was delivered by two colleagues from NRI -Ben Bennett and Keith Tomlins -who provided an overview and insights into current advances in RTB postharvest innovations across the globe. Feedback from the workshop was very positive as participants saw great prospects for cross-crop and cross-center collaborations, harnessing linkages between the clusters within FP4 and across other FPs in addition to bringing on board other strategic partners along the value chains. This report provides an overview of the workshop, background information and objectives, a summary of the presentations and discussions, and suggestions for next steps.• Identify researchable issues that cut across RTB crops and centres; further develop the research portfolio within the cluster CC4.1, and better shape the vision• Advance the research ideas with a view on key public and private-sector partners, their potential role in postharvest innovation and nutritious RTB products implementation, and essential mechanisms for effective research collaboration.• Brainstorm on a mechanism of how we link with other clusters in FP4, FP2 and FP5• Develop an implementation plan and resource mobilization strategy for the period 2018-2022• Develop an outline plan of action for the remaining period of 2017 The principal activities on day one, 8 June 2017 included introducing the participants to RTB CRP and FP4, overview of CoA 4.1, overview of the RTB-ENDURE Project and sharing of lessons learnt from the four sub-projects (banana, cassava, potato and sweet potato) and current advances in postharvest innovation. The day ended with participants identifying principal postharvest innovations and possible gaps.The workshop started with a welcome address from Simon Heck of CIP, the leader of FP4. Goodwill messages were given by Dietmar Stoian of Bioversity International, Thierry Tran of CIAT, and Ben Bennett, Deputy Director of NRI.In his message, Ben acknowledged the good collaboration his institute has had with RTB over the period and said individual countries have begn funding research and suggested the cluster and RTB could take advantage of this opportunity. According to him, donors are demanding to see impact in a shorter space of time in comparison to what pertained previously and we need to adapt to these demands. Ben said postharvest losses is on the world agenda because a director of one of the world's biggest conservation organisations Worldwide Fund for Nature in his presentation at the Imperial College of London, where one of its major donors was present, made a passionate plea for reduction in post harvest losses. Such a statement at such a forum has put postharvest losses on the world agenda and we can take advantage of it.Busie Maziya-Dixon, IITA senior scientist and cluster CC4.1 leader, gave an overview of the agenda and the purpose of this workshop.Presented by Simon Heck, CIP (fepq0uo5ldj5mg0) • Why the cluster focused on SMEs and did not include large enterprises as next-users. In response, it was noted that the proposal focuses on SMEs and targeted vulnerable groups. It was also observed that once small enterprises in RTB are supported to be more competitive, then there is a high possibility of their transformation into large scale enterprises.• CA4.2 focused on cassava alone yet RTB-ENDURE worked on other crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and Bananas. The rationale behind the cluster is to harness the untapped potential for improving processing, enhancing postharvest management and reducing postharvest losses of RTB crops; target the changing needs and preferences of emerging urban markets through product and value chain development and enable producers and processors to increase food safety and quality. The cluster also provides support to crop clusters inside FP4 and enables effective linkages with postharvest and nutrition related research in FP2, FP3, and FP5. The key partners were identified as NGOs and NGO-led programs, commercial food processing enterprises, A4NH, Women's processor associations, Farmer groups/Associations and lead farmers, Natural Resource Institute (NRI) -UK, commercial processors and machinery manufacturers and fabricators. The integration of gender was emphasized noting that gender responsive approaches will be developed and applied throughout all capacity development interventions. This will also include developing and strengthening the capacity of boys and girls to develop as entrepreneurs for small businesses along the postharvest value chains.Lead and Linked products under CoA 4.1 Lead Product were categorized into four groups as presented below:• Lead product LP4.1.0: Lessons, tools and metrics to support development of nutritious and value-added RTB products • There is the need to define the different categories especially SMEs and large scale enterprises• Within the SMEs there are different categories thereby requiring different interventions.• SMEs in Nigeria are categorized as such based on the number of employees. Working with large scale enterprises was observed to be important in terms of screening varieties and providing models to learn from for equipment fabrication.• Cluster 4.1 should focus on SMEs as large companies have capacity to carry out their own research and develop technologies.• Regarding the research questions and geographical location, it was argued that there was need to remain flexible and open minded and that research centers can determine the location or study area where their research questions would be better answered.Presented by Diego Naziri, CIP (/j5s2x2ekhge0j5s) Diego Naziri, the CIP/RTB Project Leader gave an overview of the \"Expanding Utilization of RTB and Reducing Their Postharvest Losses (RTB-ENDURE) Project\" implemented in Uganda between January 2014-December 2016. He revealed that the bulkiness and high perishability of RTB crops coupled with poor postharvest handling and lack of processing & storage facilities result in short marketing channel, high post-harvest (PH) losses and limited value addition, provided the rationale for the project. The project used the cross-crop and cross-center collaboration approach involving the International Potato Center (The project Lead), Bioversity International, IITA, CIAT and CIRAD plus a wide spectrum of research-for-development stakeholders and partners including ILRI, 5 NARI, 3 Universities, 5 NGOs, Extension and other local authorities, private firms, exporters and farmers' organizations. The objective of ENDURE was to \"Improve food availability and income generation through better postharvest management and expanded use of RTB\".The Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), developed by CIP, was used to help smallholder farmers link up with profitable markets by stimulating innovation process and long-term partnerships among farmers, marketers , and service providers. Participants jointly identified, analysed, and exploited new market opportunities and this process facilitated the development of marketing innovations, technological innovations and institutional innovations. Steps that were followed in the project are as presented in figure below. Success of ENDURE project is seen by the fact that the lessons are being used by CoA 4.1 to refine the cluster.Presented by Enoch Kikulwe, Bioversity (s/o8efacbswrmmlu6)Reducing post-harvest losses and promoting product differentiation in the cooking banana value chain: key research findings, research outcomes and proposed next steps.▪ High post-harvest losses (up to 13%) along the entire VC ▪ Mismatches between the banana cultivars farmers grow, those produced by input suppliers, and those preferred by the market ▪ Gender inequalities in resource access and utilization constraining the participation of women in profitable nodes of the VC ▪ Established optimum harvest age for one popular cooking banana cultivar Kibuzi (133-150 days) & optimum storage temperatures (peeled -at 10-18ºC for 5 days compared to a few hours & unpeeled-12-18ºC for 12 days compared to 5 days at room temperature▪ Using micropropagation chamber technique, one commercial seed production farmer group with 22 members (10 women and 12 men) has increased their acreage with market-demanded varieties (longer shelf-life) and have sold approx. 3200 in six months. ▪ One female trader (who was only farming) has accessed the export market by using unpeeled fingers and proper post-harvest practices (proper harvesting, cushioning, hygiene, etc.), which were promoted by the project, supplying about 150 boxes (@10kg) per week, allowing her to generate about $1,000 after 6 months. ▪ One retail woman is serving customers faster (reducing the waiting time by 15 minutes) with peeled bananas from the new technology she has adopted, including a premium to the prices she fetches.Charcoal cooler Initial) Prototype stage: testing has been done with one woman retailerFurther testing required• Testing with more traders• Testing at farm level• Design improvement(efficiency improvement)• Different sizes• Alternative fuel sources for evapo-cooling• Cost Benefit Analysis Differentiated forms (peeled and unpeeled fingers, clusters and protected bunches) Initial prototypes tested with a few traders• Testing with consumers in various market segments• Testing peeled bananas with natural preservatives; with vacuum sealing (currently peeling under water, blot and seal-no preservatives-stored for 5 days)• Test peeling at source -work with banana union-need for farmer organisation• Utilisation of residues-banana wastes chain• Test more varieties -storage temperatures and optimal harvest stage• Factors responsible for the mismatch between banana varieties grown and market demand is lack of up-to-date and precise market information on the part of the farmers. Using an integrated approach, stakeholder meetings were held involving key value chain actors in the meetings, it was established that the varieties were already being grown but not in major volumes due to limited market information -farmers were not aware of emerging markets that demand certain varieties, especially high-end and export markets that require longer shelf life.• Further analysis is needed to establish the actual post-harvest losses in terms of physical and economic losses.o physical losses include ripening and occur principally during production, but also during transport and at retail level;o economic losses occur when bananas are bruised, resulting in lower prices; this kind of losses are more severe in the post-harvest stages due to inappropriate transport, storage and handling.• Regarding the validation of the charcoal cooler, temperature monitoring over one month revealed that temperature varies inside the cooler, leading to uneven results in terms of shelf life increase.• A gender specialist was involved in the project who managed the integration of gender in all steps of value chain development. As a result, women have become the champions of the project innovations. • How were partners replicating the storage technology o Technology was borrowed from Kenya where it was already working well. o It was cheaper to hire a contractor to build the storage facility but it was not good for scalability hence in the project the team opted to build it with the beneficiaries which ended being more expensive.o The prohibitive cost will hinder the uptake of the technology even though the desire to adopt it exist.• Controlled atmosphere storage technology is an option which can be considered in the futureImproving the utilization of sweetpotato and other root and tuber crops residues as pig feeds:. The project was implemented by CIP in Kamuli and Masaka Districts.Key findings of the project:• Traditional feeding practices result in poor growth rates of pigs • sweetpotato residues are the most common feed for pigs • All SPS diets have ample crude protein levels for growing pigs.• A substantial amount of vines, roots and peelings are wasted at farm level During the plenary discussion, it was revealed that a bio-chemical analysis was done to test impact of pruning but observed that there was need to do more research. It was also learnt that when pruning is done, starch is converted into sugar. It was also agreed that there is need to determine the percentage changes in sugars and comparing the different varieties.Diego Naziri noted that action research and learning approach was based on 3 main pillars (Research, Value Chain Development (VCD) and Capacity building). Sub-project multidisciplinary teams (technology, economics and other social sciences) were important and there was also strong emphasis on multi-stakeholder partnerships and private sector. This approach promoted technology adaptation (feedback), identification of new knowledge gaps/researchable issues and early adoption. Other key lessons were that:• The balance between research, value chain development and capacity building depends on where we are along the impact pathway (no \"one size fits it all\" solution). • PMCA is a useful tool for creating joint vision, trust and partnerships, but requires adaptation for medium-large scale projects. • It is important to engage the private sector at the right time when there is something to offer otherwise they lose interest. • Cross-crop, cross-center collaboration is possible but challenging. Need to share methods and tools, opportunities of cross learning and ideally multi-crop research. • Scoping studies useful to collect key initial information and guide intervention design but it is time consuming and increases overall project costs. • There were mixed feelings about the initial competitive approach.• Adaptive management and donor flexibility was critical in facilitating appropriate response to opportunities and challenge of scoping studies and during implementation. • It is important to allocate adequate resources to gender responsive and communication.• Youth have to be categorized for business models plans so that they are effectively targeted since the needs are different for each category • In the future, capacities of the partners in the project should be built • For easy collaboration, common areas of research and activities have to be chosen • A scientist with strong skill set has to be chosen to backstop the process in any given location to be able to provide solution to challenges in the locations when they came up Keith Tomlins and Ben Bennett of Natural Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich made a joint presentation on current advances in RTB postharvest Innovations focusing on target beneficiaries, commodity coverage, possible themes, areas of innovations and outcomes. It was noted that in dealing with RTB innovations, it was important to deal with environmental waste from RTB processing and addressing labour displacement in postharvest RTB Sector focusing on the need to think of unintended consequences of our innovations.Target beneficiaries 1. Small scale subsistence farmers 2. Small holder farmers with potential for market access 3. Emerging commercial farmers 4. Women and youth 5. Small, medium and (large) scale processors and their employees. 6. Fabricators for equipment (not really beneficiaries but important to make efficient technologies available to the beneficiaries). 7. Value chain actors that improve efficiency. There is much thought on what is going on. 8. Consumers/ end-users -need more integration and work on consumer acceptance. Professor Bennet opined that many different scales and models of RTB enterprise were possible ranging from sole ownership to community development. He noted that RTB processing businesses were not managed efficiently or operating optimally. Therefore, more sub-sector targeting was needed to link sources of demand and supply and there are great opportunities for benchmarking and promoting best practices. To optimize the RTB business models, there is need to take advantage of potentially transformative new web based solutions and internet.Outcomes Improved on-farm, intra-household foods and enterprises.Better policy improved nutrition, shelflife/storage improvement Compliance in an equitable competitive space Improved health Increased options, reduced risk, reduced losses Consumer and market driven research Alignment of innovations with sources of demand: push vs pull balance Traditional products bre-engineered for new marketsDuring plenary discussion, a number of observations were made regarding how best to optimize the opportunities in RTB innovations and create substantial impact:• There is a need to better understand the youth and make sure they are integrated effectively by crop and center research groups. We heard that in Nigeria the farming population is getting old which increases the need to bring the youth on board.• There is a need for market responsive research to remain afloat. Nigeria used to pride itself in aroma of cocoa beans but this has become outdated due to many industrial players manufacturers various flavors.• The new business models need to devise means of push for contract farming. While contract farming has had many challenges, it remains the most widely used model for creating impact to smallholder farmers.• Purposeful breeding geared toward end user preferences is needed to make sure that products are favourable in the market• Most agribusinesses are poorly run Therefore, there is need to work with entrepreneurs to translate innovations and ensure that such innovations succeed in the market.• There are few private companies investing in RTB research so the sector will highly depend on public research.• Cassava is the crop that has potential for processing in developing countries.• What is the integration state of OFSP in the market?• There should be technology innovation pipelines for the industry.• The uptake of gari is not well coordinated.• Most of the SMEs do not know where to go for new products as they are producers and not research • Breeders need to fast identify consumer attributes. Need to engage the consumer in the process of developing a variety. So, the different flagships can help each other as information from consumer preferences will feedback to the breeding programs.• Technologies to reduce PHL. How to adapt it to different crops• Develop crops that are suitable for market needs e.g suitability for mechanical peeling• The record on the adoption of CG varieties is poor. What is the linkage between our research work, extension and market e.g some varieties have a huge yielding gap. As we do product development, there is need to talk with users either farmers or processors.• End-user traits should be measurable; need for quantification of sensory qualities; handling qualities and processing qualities.• Need to make sure there is empowerment of women and youth to ensure impact.• Need to asses any possibility of cross-crop product development, e.g flours and juices.• CC4.1 and 5.1 can work together by developing tools to predict future demand in CC4.1 at scale, link 5.1 to study adoption and impacts.• CC 4.1 and CC 2.1 need to link in order to increase dissemination.• FP5 and CC4.1 can link to collaborate in developing methods for gender responsive technologies. Also need to look at consumer preference studies and need to look and gender segregated preferences in 5.3.• Considering RTBs as shopping malls, there is need to increase communication about our products through dialogues and this need to start with demand side which is FP5.• Need to look at the perspective of the farmer. Have the challenge of negative perceptions about our roots and tubers changed and how to make commercially viable. Need to emphasize social research aspects.• Need for concerted efforts to disseminate outputs, products.• There is need for a mechanism to inform research agenda of FP2 and FP3 by creating demand and supply of research knowledge.• FP5 informs our dissemination agenda.• There is need for resources to facilitate collaboration between flagships and breeders.Postharvest scientists need to work with breeders but there is lack of resources.• The breeding process has been targeting constraints like drought, disease but with limited effort on post-harvest handling. Need to ensure end-user quality traits are being incorporated in the breeding process. Interpersonal relationships are also key.• Cost Benefit analyses for RTB processing equipment/machine. I. Type 1: Start-up funding for clusters that need to better shape the vision, set-up the portfolio, bring the team together and develop a resource mobilization strategy. Funding level is up to $200,000 II. Type 2: Cross-cutting and cross-center cluster funding between $ 400,000-$800,000 on a yearly basis for 2017-2019. Level per cluster will be defined before clusters are invited for \"fund request-submission\".III. Type 3: Thematic areas that are crosscutting and spread over CC and crop specific clusters. Funding level is up to $400,000.A Cluster will be a platform for identifying and developing fundable projects focusing on multicrop and cross-cutting challenges and opportunities based on ideas from the workshop and additional ideas and specific follow-on to ongoing or recent research (\"low-hanging fruits\"), where the Cluster team is best positioned.Through brainstorming, participants raised various possible ways of non-traditional funding:• Rockefeller Foundation which is already funding some work on cassava in Nigeria and tomatoes in Kenya.• MasterCard foundation: MasterCard is interested in job creation for youth, food availability and food processing.• National partners e.g Governments because RTB are major crops for food security.• Private sector [Multinational companies] can find ways of cross synergies.• Africa Trust Fund which is looking at employment and food security.• Impact Investors who invest money in value chains though may not be interested in research.• The Netherland government which is currently funding IFDC. They are doing work that can fit in what the cluster is doing.• Using link that are usually engaged in advertising call for proposals.• It was suggested that there should be a resource mobilization office.To be able to attract funding through the proposed or possible funders and form new partnerships, the following actions were suggested:• Complete mapping of deliverable of clusters • Identify potential funding sources• Prepare funding proposals• Need to bring in experts• Mobilization of funds from the centers and centrally by Cluster Team Members should continue.• Need to discuss why we need to remain loyal even when individual organisations get funds from other sources.• Need to keep inter-partner relationships to ensure complementary skills sets as a prerequisite for winning proposals Participants suggested a code of conduct for members to follow in order to create harmony and meet the cluster objectives. A code of conduct was needed because the team comprises of people from different organizations, different countries and different cultures. Some of the suggested conduct are -Mutual respect -Transparency -Professionalism -Commitment -HonestyMembers be champions within their respective centers.Dietmar Stoian thanked all the participants for putting in all their efforts. He noted that this was very important in ensuring positive transformation from ENDURE to CoA 4.1. Ben Bennett and Keith Tomlins were specially recognized for having spared their valuable time to be part of the workshop and for the rich contributions they made. It was noted that the outcome of the workshop was very satisfying as it had raised key inputs to inform the development of a thoughtful strategy.Simon Heck, the FP4 leader encouraged the team to remain professional in order to be able to acquire the resources needed to actualize the work the cluster is capable of doing. He also thanked the government of Uganda for hosting the partner research organisations in the country.A vote of thanks was given by Busie Maziya-Dixon, the CoA 4.1 Cluster leader who repeated the importance of cross-centre collaboration for the success of the cluster. This was demonstrated by IITA working with the CIP support staff to successfully organize this workshop.","tokenCount":"3846"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b86d256e6a38723f900df552acdcbb28","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d769025a-ccee-4d57-a65a-98ca50c0fc4b/retrieve","id":"-878603974"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a0bd8b36-3025-46f8-8384-063720311992","pagecount":"44","content":"esta contribuye a la producción de alimentos en el país. Por la evidencia recogida, reconoce el grave riesgo en que se encuentra la biodiversidad en las chacras y la necesidad de fortalecer los sistemas campesinos de producción de semillas.La edición de LEISA revista de agroecología 30-1 ha sido posible gracias al apoyo de la Agencia Sueca para el Desarrollo Internacional (Styrelsen för internationellt utvecklingssamarbete -Swedish International Development Agency-SIDA) Los editores han sido muy cuidadosos en editar rigurosamente los artículos incluidos en la revista. Sin embargo, las ideas y opiniones contenidas en dichos artículos son de entera responsabilidad de los autores.Invitamos a los lectores a que hagan circular los artículos de la revista. Si es necesaria la reproducción total o parcial de algunos de estos artículos, no olviden mencionar como fuente a LEISA revista de agroecología y enviarnos una copia de la publicación en la que han sido reproducidos.LEISA es miembro de esta red mundial, integrada por siete organizaciones responsables de la edición de revistas regionales que proporcionan información sobre agricultura sostenible a pequeña escala en todo el mundo:• FARMING MATTERS (Asuntos Agrícolas, edición internacional, en inglés) • LEISA revista de agroecología (América Latina, en español) • LEISA India (en inglés, canarés, tamil, hindi, telugu y oriya) • AGRIDAPE (África Occidental, en francés) • AGRICULTURAS Experiencias en agroecología (Brasil, en portugués) • LEISA China (China, en chino mandarín)• BAOBAB (África del Este, en inglés) ¿Semillas o granos? Superando la dicotomía Paulo Petersen, Luciano Silveira, Emanoel Dias, Amaury Santos, Fernando Fleury Curado Frente a las políticas gubernamentales de producción convencional de semillas, en 1996 ASA-PB comenzó a producir semillas de variedades locales de frijol en Paraiba, Brasil. Esta acción ha logrado establecer los bancos de semillas y ha contado con el apoyo de los campesinos, la iglesia y otras organizaciones locales.En junio de 2011 (LEISA volumen 27 número 3) anunciábamos haber cumplido 15 años de publicación continua de esta revista de difusión de experiencias concretas, reflexiones y opiniones autorizadas sobre la agroecología como un nuevo paradigma científico de la agricultura sostenible, tanto ecológica como socialmente. Esto equivale a pensar la agricultura en términos compatibles con la productividad sostenible de los agroecosistemas, en beneficio de los actores directos del quehacer agropecuario: los agricultores familiares campesinos.En aquella ocasión presentamos nuestra voluntad de ir construyendo nuestra autonomía económica, para lo cual solicitamos la contribución monetaria de nuestros suscriptores interesados en recibir la versión impresa de LEISA. Estas contribuciones fueron solicitadas solamente para cubrir parte de los costos del envío postal de la revista impresa y se mantienen ahora con el mismo propósito, mientras que la versión electrónica sigue siendo de libre acceso. Estamos en 2014 y por los cambios en la cooperación internacional al desarrollo es cada vez más difícil financiar proyectos no lucrativos, como es el caso de nuestra revista, por lo que debemos optar por soluciones que nos permitan continuar con la publicación de la revista por medios electrónicos e impresos. ¿Cómo lograrlo?La amplia gama de lectores de LEISA está compuesta por agricultores líderes, investigadores académicos y profesionales de las ciencias agropecuarias y sociales, emprendedores rurales, estudiantes y otros, quienes la consideran como una publicación de su interés editorial 4 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 Diversidad de semillas de frijol y maíz Red Guardianes de Semillas, Ecuador A ctualmente causa gran preocupación la rápida disminución de la agrobiodiversidad y la falta de medidas para protegerla. Las políticas agrarias promueven, por lo general, la agricultura comercial basada en el monocultivo de grandes extensiones de tierra. Por otro lado, la rápida expansión de los organismos genéticamente modificados (OGM) y la distorsión en la aplicación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual amenazan a la agrobiodiversidad e impactan el paisaje rural y las diversas especies de flora y fauna que lo pueblan, incluyendo a los parientes silvestres de los cultivos y del ganado -recurso genético de mucho valor para la conservación de la vitalidad de las especies domesticadas-así como a los microorganismos y polinizadores naturales -especialmente las abejas que se encuentran ahora en grave riesgo de extinción como lo señala John Wightman (LEISA 28-1, p. 23)-. Todas estas prácticas y políticas son causa de la disminución y, lo más grave, están también produciendo la desaparición de muchas especies de plantas y animales, y del conocimiento implícito de sus usos y manejo.Pero la buena noticia es que ahora muchas iniciativas para preservar y manejar la biodiversidad de la agricultura se han iniciado en todo el mundo. Sobre todo se constata que a diferencia de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, las organizaciones internacionales -especialmente desde 2008 ante el alza de precio de los alimentos-reconocen el valor de la biodiversidad para la sostenibilidad de los cultivos alimenticios en todo el mundo. Y en este marco otorgan un reconocimiento y valoración a la función que cumple la agricultura campesina en la conservación de la biodiversidad cultivada o agrobiodiversidad y de sus parientes silvestres.Como sabemos, la agricultura campesina ocupa el 35,8% de la superficie de la superficie agrícola total en América Latina (Altieri y otros, p. 5). Pero lo positivo para la conservación de la biodiversidad es que las familias agricultoras campesinas o de pequeña escala son en muchos casos los \"guardianes\" o \"custodios\" de las semillas, cuyo rol no es solamente pasivo, pues entre ellos se encuentran los llamados \"locos\" o \"curiosos\" que no cesan de innovar sus variedades. En este punto las llamadas redes de semillas que se han generado en varios países de América Latina, cumplen una función muy importante como organización de los productores campesinos para tener una presencia política y económica, a escala nacional e internacional, en defensa de los recursos genéticos de sus cultivos (Borja y otros, p. 16) y también como una forma de autovaloración del patrimonio heredado y del cual son responsables.Aquí es importante recordar que la generación de nuevas variedades y el mantenimiento de la agrobiodiversidad dependen del manejo de la semilla, pues este recurso transmite la información genética de cada variedad o especie que se concreta en una nueva planta. Es ahí donde se hace evidente el valor del productor campesino \"custodio de la semilla\" por preservar los genes de cultivos de importancia para la alimentación humana (Rojas y otros, p. 19). No hay que olvidar que los recursos genéticos son considerados como el cuarto recurso de la producción agrícola, y que su diversidad depende de que haya un gran número de productores de diversas variedades de semillas, ya que si estos disminuyen el riesgo de reducción de la biodiversidad de los cultivos será mayor. Estos productores son los campesinos y su reconocimiento obliga a otros regímenes de producción y abastecimiento de semillas, como se está dando en Paraiba, Brasil (Petersen y otros, p. 13).Para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad agrícola, la agricultura ecológica -practicada por los productores familiares o campesinos-junto a los avances de la agroecología, forman un binomio o yunta de trabajo que permite vislumbrar alternativas posibles para no solo un nuevo paradigma productivo, sino nuevos enfoques políticos que garanticen un desarrollo rural innovador. Y aquí conviene citar las palabras de Víctor Manuel Toledo (\"Regresemos al agro\" en Cuadernos Verdes del Colegio Verde de Villa de Leyva, Colombia, núm. 5, 1992):\"La agricultura ecológica no intenta un romántico (e inviable) retorno a las formas preindustriales de producción. Lo que busca es implementar una estrategia que modernice el agro a partir de un manejo adecuado de la naturaleza y del reconocimiento de la tradición rural…\"LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 | 5 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina El papel de la biodiversidad en la agricultura campesina en América Latina E n América Latina la agricultura, que ocupa el 35,8% de su superficie total, se expande a expensas de los bosques naturales. Los bosques naturales se deforestan a una tasa de 4,3 millones de hectáreas anuales para dar paso a la agricultura de monocultivo para la exportación y al incremento de pasturas, plantaciones de eucaliptus y cultivos como la soya -mayoritariamente transgénica-, la caña de azúcar y la palma africana. Estos cultivos, ahora llamados flexibles (flex crops), crecen a una tasa anual de 3,25%. Esta expansión agroindustrial no solo homogeneiza los paisajes y deja una inmensa huella ecológica, sino que también desplaza a las poblaciones rurales -mayormente integradas por campesinos productores de alimentos-que migran a las ciudades a una tasa anual del 2%, lo que agrava los problemas sociales en las urbes y debilita la capacidad de autosuficiencia alimentaria de la región.A pesar de esta devastación ecológica impulsada por el modelo económico capitalista-extractivista, aún persiste en América Latina una población campesina estimada de 65 millones de personas, constituida principalmente por producto-MiGuEL A. ALtiERi, CLARA i. NiChOLLS, RENé MONtALBA res familiares a pequeña escala, que tienen fincas menores a dos hectáreas y que ocupan menos del 30% de la superficie agrícola, pero que producen más del 50% de los alimentos básicos que se consumen en la región. Por ejemplo, en Ecuador el sector campesino ocupa más del 50% de la superficie dedicada a cultivos alimentarios como maíz, frijol, cebada y ají. En México los campesinos ocupan no menos del 70% de la superficie cultivada con maíz y 60% de la superficie donde crece el frijol (ETC Group, 2009). No menos del 50% de estos campesinos aún mantienen agroecosistemas diversificados producto de siglos de coevolución biocultural, adaptados localmente y manejados con tecnologías ingeniosas que han permitido a miles de comunidades contar con seguridad alimentaria, conservar la agrobiodiversidad clave y mantener formas nativas de identidad cultural y organización social (Koohafkan y Altieri, 2010).La prevalencia de millones de hectáreas en forma de campos elevados, terrazas, policultivos, sistemas agroforestales y silvopastoriles representan estrategias indígenas exitosas de adaptación a ambientes marginales y cambiantes, constituyendo Después del huracán Mitch en honduras: derrumbes en campos con monocultivos (izquierda) y resiliencia de los sistemas diversificados bajo agroforestería y cultivos de cobertura (derecha) M. Altieri Variedades de papas nativas de los Andes animalesyplantasdeperu.blogspot.com Aun cuando los monocultivos de exportación conocidos como flex crops crecen sin parar causando devastación ecológica, la agricultura campesina de pequeña escala sigue produciendo más de la mitad de los alimentos que se consumen en América Latina en agroecosistemas diversificados que aprovechan y mantienen la biodiversidad y el rol ecológico esencial que esta cumple.6 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina un símbolo de la creatividad de miles de agricultores. Además estos microcosmos de agricultura tradicional son modelos de resiliencia y sostenibilidad ya que minimizan riesgos, estabilizan los rendimientos, promueven diversidad nutricional, maximizan retornos con el uso de recursos locales, limitan el uso de insumos externos y mantienen una oferta alimentaria local todo el año. Estos beneficios están ligados a los altos niveles de biodiversidad que caracterizan a estos sistemas tradicionales, ya que la regulación interna de su funcionamiento es un producto de la biodiversidad y las interacciones o sinergismos entre sus componentes.Todas las especies de plantas, animales y microorganismos existentes dentro de un ecosistema y que interactúan optimizando procesos ecológicos claves, constituyen la biodiversidad. En los agroecosistemas es posible distinguir cuatro tipos de biodiversidad: productiva (cultivos y animales), destructiva (plagas, malezas, enfermedades), neutral (herbívoros no plaga que sirven de alimento a predadores) y benéfica o funcional como los polinizadores, los enemigos naturales, las lombrices, los microorganismos del suelo, etc., que cumplen roles ecológicos importantes en procesos tales como la polinización, el control natural de plagas, el reciclaje de nutrientes, etc. En general, el grado de biodiversidad en los agroecosistemas depende del mantenimiento de sistemas de conocimiento sobre manejo y formas culturales de usos (alimenticios y no alimenticios) de los cultivos y especies silvestres, así como de varios factores y características de los sistemas de cultivos, como son:• El número de subsistemas productivos (huerta, chacra, pasturas y praderas, zonas sin cultivo) y espacios naturales. • El número de especies y variedades vegetales y razas animales desplegadas en el tiempo y el espacio por el campesino. • Maneras en que los agricultores asocian los cultivos y cómo integran a los animales. • La permanencia temporal de cultivos anuales y perennes dentro del agroecosistema.• El tipo e intensidad del manejo, (por ejemplo químico versus orgánico). • La diversidad y tipo de arvenses en el agroecosistema y de vegetación natural en sus alrededores (por ejemplo si al cultivo lo rodean bosques o monocultivos transgénicos).Lo importante y necesario es identificar el tipo de biodiversidad que se desea mantener y estimular para prestar servicios ecológicos claves para la producción y definir así las mejores prácticas agroecológicas que fomentan los componentes deseados de biodiversidad (figura 1).La investigación agroecológica ha demostrado que la agrobiodiversidad es clave para que el agroecosistema funcione y provea servicios de apoyo -por ejemplo fertilidad de suelos-y de regulación -por ejemplo control biológico de plagas-. Todos estos procesos de renovación y regulación, reciclaje y almacenamiento de nutrientes, control del microclima, regulación del flujo y almacenamiento de agua, desintoxicación de químicos nocivos, etc., están mediados biológicamente, por lo que su persistencia depende del mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Por ejemplo, la disponibilidad de nitrógeno y fósforo para las plantas depende de poblaciones de bacterias fijadoras de N y de micorrizas presentes en el suelo, lo que a su vez depende de la adición de materia orgánica. La regulación de la abundancia de organismos indeseables depende de biota benéfica que aumenta en policultivos que proveen hábitat. Cuando estos organismos y sus servicios se pierden debido a la simplificación biológica -establecimiento de monocultivos-los costos económicos y ambientales son altos ya que incluyen la necesidad de abastecer a los cultivos con agroquímicos caros y tóxicos.Los agroecólogos están de acuerdo en que mientras más diverso es el agroecosistema, más tienden los agroecosistemas a prevenir las explosiones de especies invasoras, aumentar la estabilidad y la resiliencia frente a disturbios y cambios ambientales o climáticos y a mejorar su capacidad de subsidiar su propio funcionamiento: reciclaje de nutrientes, regulación biológica de plagas, productividad, etc. Si se elimina un grupo funcionalFigura 1. Tipos de biodiversidad funcional en el agroecosistema campesino, su función y sistemas de manejo para incrementarla ¿Cómo manejan los campesinos la biodiversidad?Los campesinos aumentan y manejan la diversidad de sus agroecosistemas a tres niveles (Altieri y otros, 1987): Nivel paisajístico: muchos campesinos practican una \"agricultura de mosaicos\" caracterizada por campos pequeños insertos en una matriz paisajística dominada por vegetación natural. Para grupos étnicos como los p'urhepecha que viven en la región del lago Pátzcuaro en Michoacán, México, la cosecha silvestre es parte de un complejo modelo de subsistencia basado en múltiples usos de los recursos naturales. Esta gente utiliza más de 224 especies de plantas silvestres para sus necesidades dietéticas, medicinales, y energéticas.Nivel predial: los sistemas de cultivo múltiple constituyen sistemas agrícolas diversificados en el tiempo y el espacio tomando la forma de cultivos en franjas, cultivos intercalados, cultivos con cubierta vegetal, sistemas agroforestales y silvopastorales (véase recuadro). Entre las ventajas potenciales que surgen del diseño inteligente de estos policultivos se encuentran: la disminución de la población de plagas de insectos por enemigos naturales albergados en ambientes complejos, la supresión de malezas por el sombreado de doseles más densos o por alelopatías, el uso más eficiente de los nutrientes del suelo y la mejora de la productividad por unidad de superficie.Nivel genético: muchos agroecosistemas tradicionales se ubican en centros de origen de cultivos, por lo tanto contienen numerosas variedades criollas de maíz, frijoles, papas, granos nativos, raíces, frutas y otras plantas alimenticias altamente adaptadas incluyendo sus parientes silvestres. Los campesinos mantienen gran diversidad genética de cultivos en forma de variedades tradicionales y en muchos sistemas siembran dosRotaciones de cultivos: diversidad temporal en forma de secuencias de cereales y leguminosas. El suelo está cubierto y los nutrientes se conservan de una estación a otra, y los ciclos vitales de las plagas de insectos, enfermedades y malezas se interrumpen.Policultivos: sistemas de cultivo en el que dos o más especies de cultivos se plantan dentro de cierta proximidad espacial, resultando en complementariedades biológicas que mejoran la eficiencia en el uso de nutrientes y la regulación de plagas mejorando la estabilidad del rendimiento de los cultivos.Sistemas agroforestales: los árboles que crecen junto con cultivos anuales, además de modificar el microclima, mantienen y mejoran la fertilidad del suelo; algunos árboles contribuyen a la fijación de N y la absorción de nutrientes de los horizontes profundos del suelo, mientras que su hojarasca ayuda a reponer los nutrientes del suelo, manteniendo la materia orgánica y sosteniendo cadenas tróficas complejas en el suelo.Cultivos de cobertura y mulch: el uso de cultivos puros o mixtos de gramíneas-leguminosas bajo los árboles frutales puede reducir la erosión y proporcionar nutrientes al suelo y mejorar el control biológico de plagas. En agricultura de conservación, aplanar mezclas de cultivos de cobertura sobre la superficie del suelo es una estrategia para reducir la erosión del suelo y reducir las fluctuaciones en la humedad y la temperatura del suelo, mejorar la calidad del suelo y posibilitar la supresión de malezas por alelopatía, lo que resulta en mayores rendimientos.Mezclas de cultivos y ganadería: una alta producción de biomasa y un óptimo reciclaje de nutrientes se puede lograr mediante la integración de cultivos y animales. La producción animal que integra arbustos forrajeros plantados en alta densidad, intercalados con pastos altamente productivos y con árboles maderables, combinados todos en un sistema que puede ser directamente pastoreado por el ganado, aumenta la productividad total sin necesidad de insumos externos.Izquierda: sistema agroforestal de cacao; centro: sistema quesungual en Honduras; derecha: policultivo maíz y frijol como ejemplo de diversificación específica fuentes diversas en internet; M. Altieri 8 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina o más variedades de cada cultivo. El uso de múltiples variedades de cada cultivo proporciona diversidad intra e interespecífica, mejorando así la seguridad de las cosechas. La diversidad genética hace que los cultivos sean resilientes y menos vulnerables a condiciones de estrés biótico (plagas, enfermedades) como abiótico (sequías y heladas). La diversidad genética actúa como un seguro para enfrentar el cambio ambiental o las necesidades sociales y económicas futuras, ya que la riqueza varietal disminuye la variabilidad de la producción.La diversificación paisajística, especifica y genética, potencia los efectos positivos de la biodiversidad en la productividad, derivados de los crecientes efectos de la complementariedad entre las especies de plantas y animales, resultando así en un mejor aprovechamiento de la luz solar, el agua, los recursos del suelo y la regulación natural de las poblaciones de plagas. La mayoría de los esquemas campesinos de diversificación son multifuncionales y su adopción generalmente implica cambios favorables en diversos componentes de los sistemas de producción. En otras palabras, funcionan como una \"plataforma ecológica giratoria\" mediante la activación de procesos clave tales como el reciclaje, el control biológico, el antagonismo, la alelopatía, etc., esenciales para la sostenibilidad y la productividad de los agroecosistemas.Las cuatro propiedades que emergen de las estrategias de diversificación campesina resaltan la importancia de la diversidad que se traduce en heterogeneidad ecológica, lo que a su vez incrementa las opciones. Así, la biodiversidad proporciona un \"seguro\" o sirve como un \"amortiguador\" frente a fluctuaciones ambientales debido a que la diversidad de cultivos, árboles y animales responden de manera diferente a las fluctuaciones, condicionando una comunidad más predecible o fomentando las propiedades del ecosistema. Aún más, los sistemas campesinos agroecológicos no son intensivos en el uso de capital, trabajo o insumos químicos, sino más bien, al propiciar altos niveles de biodiversidad, intensifican la eficiencia de procesos biológicos clave para mantener la salud de suelos y cultivos, la resiliencia y la productividad. Por ello, en agroecología se conoce a estos sistemas como \"agricultura de procesos\". Existe un potencial enorme en la colaboración entre científicos y comunidades rurales a través del diálogo de saberes entendido como el encuentro del conocimiento agroecológico tradicional y el conocimiento científico, para contribuir a la producción sostenible de alimentos sanos y a la recuperación de los ecosistemas.A pesar del serio debate de las últimas décadas sobre la sostenibilidad rural, tanto la investigación como la transferencia de tecnología y la asistencia técnica continúan fomentando modelos de Revolución Verde, sin un análisis completo de sus efectos ambientales y sociales. Una manifestación visible de esto es la aplicación generalizada de paquetes tecnológicos que ignoran el contexto productivo de cada región. Una opción viable para la reconversión de la producción agropecuaria y la restauración ecológica de tierras degradadas es la generación de tecnologías apropiadas para las comunidades rurales mediante procesos de investigación participativa. El ingrediente fundamental de estos procesos incluyentes es la comprensión y valoración del conocimiento campesino.Aunque en América Latina la tradición indígena es rica en ejemplos exitosos de agricultura basada en el conocimiento y buen manejo de la naturaleza, no todas las culturas campesinas mantienen vivo este saber. Por otra parte, la agroecología y la restauración ecológica, que gozan de gran dinamismo y creciente interés académico, son disciplinas científicas relativamente jóvenes y deben apoyarse en otros desarrollos, más prácticos que teóricos. Es necesario mejorar el actual conocimiento sobre métodos para recuperar la base de recursos naturales de las comunidades con el fin de sustentar los procesos productivos y culturales. Esto requiere de investigación con amplia participación social y métodos innovadores.Los dos estudios de caso que presentamos relatan procesos de colaboración entre comunidades rurales e investigadores externos para la generación y aplicación de conocimiento con el objetivo de producir alimentos en forma sostenible y al mismo tiempo restaurar tierras degradadas y recuperar la biodiversidad de los ecosistemas.En la microcuenca Los Sainos, ubicada en la Cordillera Occidental colombiana, la transformación del paisaje boscoso empezó en la primera mitad del siglo XX con la extracción de las maderas valiosas y la tala gradual del bosque, hasta dejar una cobertura forestal mínima en los filos de montaña y corredores ribereños.A comienzos de la década de 1970, la producción agrícola basada en sistemas agroforestales con café y una alta diversidad de especies que satisfacían las necesidades nutricionales de las familias, cambió en poco tiempo, impulsada por la demanda de los mercados urbanos, hacia monocultivos muy rentables de frutas como tomate de árbol (Cyphomandra betacea), lulo (Solanum quitoensis) y granadilla (Passiflora ligularis), todos ellos altamente dependientes de insumos químicos. Pocos años después, la prosperidad de la economía local basada en monocultivos terminó repentinamente con la aparición de Panorámica de la región de la Cordillera Occidental, donde se localizan las experiencias campesinas Enrique Murgueitio R. -CIPAV 10 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina múltiples problemas fitosanitarios. Esta crisis productiva vino acompañada de la rápida expansión del ganado bovino hacia las cabeceras de las nacientes de agua y el acceso libre de los animales a las franjas ribereñas. A finales de la década de 1980 la crisis productiva se agravó con la falta de agua, la pérdida de la soberanía alimentaria, el deterioro de los suelos y los conflictos sociales por el acceso a los recursos naturales.Muchas familias consideraron vender sus predios y migrar a otras localidades o a centros urbanos, pero un pequeño grupo optó por un cambio integral del paradigma ambiental, productivo y social. Motivados por su fuerte arraigo a la tierra y con el acompañamiento institucional de la Fundación CIPAV, la comunidad de Los Sainos asumió el reto de ser protagonista en el diseño de un modelo propio de desarrollo rural. El trabajo de CIPAV y la comunidad se fundamentó en el respeto, la confianza y la amistad.Los productores adoptaron prácticas agroecológicas y sistemas productivos diversificados tales como bancos mixtos de forraje, cercas vivas, barreras rompeviento, sistemas silvopastoriles y arreglos agroforestales complejos. La producción vegetal y animal se reforzaron mutuamente en la medida en que los policultivos aumentaban la oferta y variedad de alimentos para las familias y a la vez demandaban una mayor fertilización orgánica. La seguridad alimentaria y el flujo de ingresos de las familias de la comunidad mejoraron con la adaptación de tecnologías sencillas para el manejo de ganado bovino semiestabulado, la producción escalonada de cerdos con recursos locales, la piscicultura de pequeña escala y el manejo de aves de corral.Paralelamente, la comunidad generó, validó y adaptó tecnologías muy sencillas para la construcción de viviendas e instalaciones pecuarias, la cosecha de aguas lluvias, la descontaminación productiva de aguas servidas, el uso de biogás para el reemplazo parcial de la leña en las cocinas, el tratamiento del agua con filtros lentos de arena y la conservación de los suelos. Todos los proyectos de investigación que llevaron a cabo la comunidad y CIPAV durante más de dos décadas involucraron a adultos, jóvenes y niños en calidad de coinvestigadores locales. Esta interacción y retroalimentación permanentes permitieron generar conocimiento científico y tecnológico adaptado a las condiciones del sitio. Al mismo tiempo se formó un grupo local de personas de diferentes edades con aptitudes e intereses en diferentes disciplinas.Sustentada en valores compartidos y el respeto mutuo, la relación de trabajo de la comunidad campesina de la microcuenca Los Sainos y CIPAV ha perdurado por más de 25 años, con resultados positivos para ambas partes. La comunidad se ha fortalecido a través del empoderamiento y el liderazgo que surgen de los procesos prolongados de investigación participativa. El conocimiento generado a través de la investigación participativa para la gestión y el manejo de los recursos locales ha servido como modelo e inspiración para miles de personas.El territorio mismo se ha transformado en la medida en que los bosques han sido restaurados para mejorar la regulación hidrológica. Ha aumentado la conectividad entre relictos boscosos, gracias a lo cual han mejorado las perspectivas para la conservación de la biodiversidad. Varias familias han cedido terrenos productivos para la regeneración del bosque y han constituido pequeñas reservas naturales de la sociedad civil que hoy son reconocidas en Colombia como modelos de conservaciónproducción. Existe además un sistema de control interno que vela por la continuidad de estos procesos.En los sistemas agroforestales de la microcuenca Los Sainos destaca la alta diversidad de especies vegetales. Plantas tradicionales destinadas al autoconsumo familiar y al mercado como maíz, frijol, yuca, plátano, arracacha, piña, lulo y granadilla, se asocian hoy con arbustos forrajeros como botón de oro (Tithonia diversifolia), nacedero (Trichanthera gigantea), chachafruto (Erythrina edulis), ramio (Boehmeria nivea) y morera (Morus alba), y con árboles nativos como chagualo (Myrsine guianensis), guayabo (Psidium guajava), arboloco (Montanoa quadrangularis) y nogal (Cordia alliodora). Esta biodiversidad planeada coexiste con la biodiversidad asociada, que incluye a los organismos polinizadores y artrópodos benéficos, que a su vez regulan a los insectos herbívoros y otras plagas del sistema. Con el tiempo, los productores de la microcuenca Los Sainos han dejado de considerar a los artrópodos y otros componentes de la biodiversidad local como enemigos reales o potenciales y han empezado a verlos como aliados.La estructura vegetal compleja que resulta al combinar varios estratos de plantas protege el suelo con una gruesa capa de residuos vegetales y contribuye a la formación de materia Cuadro 1. Contribuciones de la investigación participativa LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 | 11 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina orgánica estable que se conserva en el suelo gracias a la labranza moderada y al abandono del fuego como práctica de limpieza. Por otra parte, la asociación de especies de ciclo productivo corto con árboles de larga vida y madera valiosa, permite a las familias tener un flujo de caja a través de la producción de alimentos y un ahorro de mediano plazo representado en la madera. La suma de estas características reduce la vulnerabilidad del sistema frente a las lluvias torrenciales y sequías por lo cual es una herramienta importante para la adaptación de los productores campesinos al cambio climático. Estas ideas innovadoras se fortalecen con proyectos de investigación participativa y proyectos universitarios de grado (pregrado y maestría) en temas como fenología de plantas nativas, reciclaje de nutrientes, alimentación de animales domésticos con recursos locales y abejas criollas, entre otros. A través de las redes sociales e intercambios permanentes, los sistemas que aprovechan y favorecen la biodiversidad han alcanzado un amplio radio de influencia en la medida en que cada vez más productores campesinos e indígenas, junto con técnicos y profesionales de varias disciplinas y de todas las regiones del país, han visitado la localidad para conocer este modelo de producción sostenible.La planificación predial de las propiedades se sigue llevando a cabo para garantizar la soberanía alimentaria y el uso racional de los recursos naturales -suelo, agua y biodiversidada través de sistemas agroforestales cada vez más complejos. En una comunidad que hace 25 años tenía conflictos por el acceso al agua, hoy existe una oferta hídrica suficiente para 75 familias. Es digno de destacar que los sistemas agroforestales de la microcuenca han evolucionado en forma paralela con la conciencia ecológica de la comunidad campesina. Hoy existe un fuerte arraigo por la tierra y una valoración de la cultura rural, que se transmite a las nuevas generaciones para lograr el relevo generacional y la continuidad de los procesos.Estudio de caso 2: reconversión de los sistemas productivos en reservas de la sociedad civil de la Cordillera Occidental de Colombia Aunque las reservas naturales de la sociedad civil han existido formalmente en Colombia durante más de dos décadas, solo fueron reconocidas como áreas naturales protegidas de carácter privado en el Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas (SINAP) en 2010. Si bien en la mayoría de los casos la iniciativa de constituir un predio como reserva surge de la familia propietaria, las reservas situadas en los municipios de Versalles, El Dovio y Bolívar, en el norte del Valle del Cauca, tuvieron un proceso diferente, liderado por organizaciones de base comunitaria (Corpoversalles, Acerg y Ecofuturo) que vieron en esta figura la posibilidad de generar procesos locales de conservación.Este trabajo, que se inició en 2003, ha permitido constituir 50 reservas que en la actualidad avanzan en la implementación de sus planes de manejo. Estos predios suman alrededor de 1.200 hectáreas que se destinan a la conservación y recuperación de ecosistemas naturales y al mejoramiento agroecológico de los sistemas productivos. Las reservas conservan especies de flora y fauna importantes en la región: árboles amenazados de extinción como el medio comino (Aniba robusta), molinillo o copachí (Magnolia hernandezii), palma de cera (Ceroxylon alpinum), roble (Quercus humboldtii) y cedro rosado (Cedrela montana); aves endémicas como la clorocrisa multicolor (Clorochrysa nitidissima) y mamíferos muy escasos en los paisajes rurales como el mono aullador (Alouatta seniculus), entre otras.El trabajo desarrollado en los agroecosistemas ha permitido negociar con las familias propietarias la liberación de nuevas áreas para la conservación. Dado que la mayoría de las propiedades son medianas y pequeñas, la cesión de terrenos para este fin exige incrementar la productividad en las áreas más aptas para la ganadería, la agricultura comercial y la producción para el autoconsumo. Solo así es posible asegurar que las áreas más sensibles se destinen a la regeneración natural, a la restauración de las fuentes de agua o a establecer corredores entre fragmentos de bosque.Con el tiempo las familias propietarias de los núcleos de reservas se han convertido en referentes para los productores vecinos, que se interesan en los cambios productivos y en los espacios de participación tales como intercambios, encuentros de capacitación y ejercicios de planeación y ordenamiento del territorio. En los últimos años esto ha motivado a otras familias a hacer de sus predios nuevas reservas naturales.En síntesis, las propuestas clásicas de conservación no son atractivas para todos propietarios de la región, pero el mejoramiento de las actividades agropecuarias sí lo es. Las organizaciones articuladoras de reservas naturales en los municipios de Versalles, El Dovio y Bolívar (Valle del Cauca) han demostrado que es factible aumentar la eficiencia agroecológica y al mismo tiempo restaurar áreas de ecosistemas naturales.Las comunidades campesinas de la región andina enfrentan retos enormes para mantener su estilo de vida y su cultura. El modelo urbano dominante, la globalización de los mercados y el cambio climático ponen en riesgo a cientos de miles de familias para quienes el campo es mucho más que una actividad generadora de ingresos.La agroecología y la restauración ecológica, dos ciencias relativamente jóvenes, pueden apoyar el desarrollo rural sustentable si se orientan hacia la construcción de nuevo conocimiento mediante el diálogo de saberes entre investigadores y habitantes del campo. Todos pueden beneficiarse de esta interacción, como lo evidencian estos dos casos en las montañas de Colombia.Investigador CIPAV -jgiraldo@cipav.org.coCoordinadora del Área de Restauración Ecológica CIPAV zoraida@cipav.org.coDirector Ejecutivo CIPAV -enriquem@cipav.org.co Sandra M. Giraldo Ecofuturo -smilegirald@yahoo.es Policultivo agroforestal con más de 20 especies para la seguridad alimentaria humana y animal investigado en forma participativa en la microcuenca Los Sainos, El Dovio (Colombia)Zoraida Calle -CIPAV 12 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/agricultura campesina Manejo de la diversidad: estrategia para el autoabastecimiento y la comercialización E duardo y Salomón son dos campesinos que comercializan su producción en los mercados orgánicos de Xalapa y Coatepec, ciudades del estado de Veracruz, México. Ellos viven en Tatatila, pequeña población que se encuentra a 26 kilómetros de Xalapa, adonde viajan cada fin de semana a ofrecer sus productos. tatatila está ubicada en zona montañosa, a una altitud de 2.060 msnm, con un clima húmedo y temperaturas extremas. La lluvia promedio anual es de 1.346 mm, más abundante en verano y otoño.Los suelos de esta región son del tipo luvisol, que se caracterizan por tener acumulación de arcilla en el subsuelo, aunque con un buen potencial para actividades agrícolas, forestales y pecuarias, pero con fuertes pendientes y pedregosidad, lo que dificulta mucho las prácticas agrícolas con maquinaria y, a veces, también con los implementos agrícolas tradicionales.Estas características edafoclimáticas y orográficas son un reto para mantener los terrenos productivos sin que se degraden por la erosión. Las familias de Eduardo y Salomón han decidido responder a este reto a través de la diversificación biológica en tres pequeñas parcelas; en dos de una hectárea cultivan frutales, hortalizas y la milpa, y en la otra conservan bosque, de donde obtienen madera para construcción, leña y para producir carbón. Esta diversidad se hizo evidente durante las entrevistas realizadas a estos campesinos, pues reconocieron tener 35 especies diferentes entre frutales, hortalizas, forestales, medicinales, aromáticas y de condimentos, frijol y maíz, aunque es muy probable que haya muchas más especies útiles en este agroecosistema. Tal diversidad les permite contar con un suelo permanentemente cultivado y sin riesgos de erosión. Además el manejo de la pendiente, que en ambas parcelas es cercana al 40%, tiene una lógica interesante: en la parte más alta de la finca dejan un área pequeña de bosque, de tal manera que evite el escurrimiento del agua cuando llueve, y en las partes con mayor pendiente asocian árboles frutales (estrato arbóreo) con especies arbustivas, como puede ser el caso del chile de cera (Capsicum pubescens) o la berenjena (Cyphomandra betacea), con especies herbáceas como es el caso de la milpa, el chayote (Sechium edule) y los frijoles de enredadera que van ocupando todo el terreno sin dejar espacios vacíos.El manejo de la biodiversidad se vincula con la selección y conservación de semillas o materiales de propagación y a técnicas agronómicas como el injerto. Esto les permite incoporar germoplasma seleccionado a su unidad productiva.Así se van sumando criterios biológicos y culturales de gustos por la comida en un proceso que va afianzando una forma de vida, que se trasmite de generación en generación. Esta gran diversidad por lo tanto se expresa en el número de actividades y también en los períodos de cosecha que pueden prolongarse por muchos meses, garantizando así un ingreso, que si bien no es elevado, es casi permanente.Otra característica interesante encontrada es el deseo de mantener la unidad familiar como una manera de reproducir su forma de vida, que si bien es limitada en cuanto al nivel de ingresos, mantiene la filosofía del autosustento a partir del manejo de los recursos locales y el trabajo familiar. En este proceso los padres juegan un papel fundamental al trasmitir a sus hijos la forma de percibir la producción de alimentos y la cohesión familiar. Cada vez más las semillas son dominio de productores profesionales, agronegocios y elaboradores de políticas. Ellos deciden qué es una buena variedad y establecen leyes que excluyen a otras variedades. A pesar de esto, organizaciones de campesinos y movimientos sociales en Paraíba, Brasil, han logrado fortalecer las políticas públicas de semillas y los sistemas descentralizados para su selección y distribución, conducidas por los agricultores mediante sus organizaciones locales. De esta manera, están abriendo el camino para otro régimen de semillas.H istóricamente, los cultivos siempre se han adaptado a su medio ambiente natural y cultural. El resultado es un rico patrimonio biocultural, la agrobiodiversidad. Este proceso se interrumpió cuando la maximización de los rendimientos se volvió el principal hilo conductor del mejoramiento de cultivos. Según el punto de vista dominante, se necesitan tecnologías agroindustriales modernas para crear y mantener las condiciones ambientales necesarias para que un cultivo realice completamente su potencial genético.El gobierno federal de Brasil y el del estado de Paraíba han lanzado varios programas que respondían a este punto de vista agronómico, la promoción de variedades que responden bien a la aplicación intensiva de agroquímicos. Se animó a los agricultores familiares a reemplazar su amplia gama de variedades locales de, por ejemplo, frijoles, maíz, yuca y maní, con unas cuantas \"variedades mejoradas\". A medida que estas variedades se extendieron, la biodiversidad agrícola disminuyó.Este enfoque o paradigma agrícola, se institucionalizó aún más cuando nuevas regulaciones definieron qué es una \"semilla\". De acuerdo con la Ley de Semillas de Brasil -alineada con los acuerdos internacionales sobre el tema-las variedades solo pueden comercializarse si son reconocidas por los institutos de investigación y las comisiones agrarias del Ministerio de Agricultura, que están fuertemente influenciados por los intereses económicos de las empresas de producción de semillas. La Ley de Cultivares del país establece los requisitos de estabilidad, uniformidad y homogeneidad de las semillas para que puedan ser registradas como variedades protegidas.Adriana Galvão Freire 14 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla Hay varios problemas con este desarrollo. Las variedades locales tienen una alta variabilidad genética, que es exactamente lo que las hace tan resistentes al estrés ambiental. Pero estas variedades ya no son consideradas \"semillas\" sino \"granos\". Además los agricultores tienen que utilizar variedades protegidas para poder beneficiarse de diversos programas de apoyo, lo cual desincentiva el uso de variedades autóctonas.La dicotomía semillas-granos se ha convertido en una arena de lucha para los movimientos en defensa de la agroecología en Brasil. La producción agroecológica se fundamenta en el uso sostenible del capital ecológico de las diferentes regiones y el uso de las variedades adaptadas localmente juega un papel clave en esta estrategia. Además, contrariamente a las políticas de semillas del Estado, la agroecología apoya la creación de una agricultura cada vez más autónoma, libre del funcionamiento de los mercados de insumos y del poder corporativo del sector del agronegocio. La Articulación del Semiárido de Paraíba (ASA-PB), una coalición de organizaciones de la sociedad civil, ha desafiado esta dicotomía con la movilización de agricultores alrededor de las \"semillas de pasión\": variedades locales que, a diferencia de las semillas distribuidas por los programas públicos, están enraizadas cultural y ambientalmente.Las prácticas que usan y conservan la biodiversidad agrícola en la región semiárida de Brasil son una estrategia de reproducción económica importante para los agricultores familiares. Aunque estas prácticas se llevan a cabo en todas partes, siguen siendo en gran medida invisibles, consideradas \"irrelevantes\" por las fuerzas ideológicas y económicas dominantes. Por esta razón la identificación y mejoramiento de la visibilidad de estas prácticas fue un primer paso crucial.ASA-PB comenzó este proceso en 1996. En colaboración con el sindicato de agricultores locales se realizó una evaluación participativa, para identificar las variedades locales de frijol en los municipios de Solânea y Remígio. Se encontraron 67 variedades de frijoles con características diferentes, incluyendo resistencia a sequías y plagas, sabor y aceptación en el mercado. También se identificaron mecanismos, impulsados por los agricultores, que mejoran la diversidad y la seguridad de las semillas. Por ejemplo, los agricultores guardan sus semillas y las intercambian con otras familias, lo que permite la libre circulación del material genético y de los conocimientos asociados a cada variedad en las comunidades. Otro ejemplo, en la década de 1970 las comunidades eclesiales de base, ligadas a la Iglesia Católica, apoyaron el establecimiento de bancos de semillas comunitarios en la región semiárida brasileña. Estos bancos resultaron muy eficaces en tiempos de sequía, cuando se perdieron las cosechas y las reservas de semillas propias de los agricultores se agotan. El banco presta semillas a los agricultores, quienes las devuelven, con un pequeño porcentaje de incremento, después de la cosecha. Para las organizaciones dentro de ASA-PB, la comprensión de estas prácticas fue esencial para hacerlas más visibles y extender su aplicación.Los bancos de semillas locales formaron un importante punto de partida para un nuevo sistema de seguridad de las semillas. ASA-PB estableció la Red Semillas, una plataforma de intercambio de conocimientos sobre las prácticas de siembra y conservación de la agrobiodiversidad. Esta red conecta 230 bancos de semillas en 61 municipios, que abarcan 6.500 familias campesinas en Paraíba. Durante una de las reuniones de la red, un agricultor acuñó el término \"semillas de pasión\". Basado en este concepto localmente construido y luego difundido, Joaquim Santana, representante del sindicato de agricultores del municipio de Montadas dijo: \"las 'semillas de pasión' son aquellas que son buenas, que se adaptan a nuestra realidad\", afirmando luego: \"La gente solamente se apasiona con lo que le es significativo\".La Red Semillas formó un espacio para el análisis político crítico y la promoción de alternativas. En 1993 una sequía provocó una protesta en la que ASA-PB y otros movimientos sociales desafiaron las medidas estatales, que se basaban en la idea de \"combate a la sequía\". En cambio ASA-PB y otros propusieron \"convivir con el semiárido\", un pensamiento eminentemente agroecológico.Como respuesta, el gobierno nacional puso en marcha una política de apoyo a los bancos comunitarios por medio de donaciones de semillas. Estas donaciones dieron un impulso a las comunidades para la construcción de nuevos bancos de semillas, pero los stocks de los bancos fueron repuestos con semillas convencionales. Después de la sequía de 1998 a 1999, los bancos locales de semillas fueron reabastecidos de nuevo con semillas convencionales, medida que fue recibida con protestas. ASA-PB persuadió al gobierno de Paraíba de adquirir semillas de agricultores locales para el año siguiente. La iniciativa tropezó con una barrera legislativa: las semillas locales no estaban reconocidas como semillas y por lo tanto no podían ser distribuidas oficialmente por el estado a través de la red de bancos de semillas. El gobierno pasó por alto esta barrera adquiriendo las semillas como \"granos\" y transfiriéndolas a ASA-PB que luego las distribuyó, a través de sus mediadores, a los bancos de semillas. En 2002 una ley en Paraíba hizo posibles las transferencias directas. Cuando las variedades locales fueron formalmente reconocidas por el gobierno nacional en 2003, en gran parte como resultado de la presión ejercida por la Articulación Nacional de Agroecología, la puerta se abrió para innovaciones más progresistas en el programa gubernamental de semillas.Una de las estrategias del gobierno de Lula da Silva para eliminar el hambre fue el Programa de Adquisición de Alimentos. Como parte de este programa, en 2003 el gobierno y las organizaciones conectadas a ASA-PB ayudaron a los agricultores a producir y distribuir variedades autóctonas que estuvieran libres de contaminación transgénica. Las semillas fueron compradas y distribuidas directamente a los agricultores.Esta experiencia confirma que las organizaciones locales pueden y deben desempeñar un papel de liderazgo en el mantenimiento del patrimonio biocultural encarnado en las variedades locales. El Estado puede apoyar el fortalecimiento de la acción colectiva orientada a la redistribución y la regulación de las reservas de semilla de las variedades locales. A pesar de los éxitos alcanzados por el programa en Paraíba y algunos otros estados, la mayoría de los programas gubernamentales de semillas continúa estando sesgada hacia el paradigma convencional, con el argumento de que ha sido científicamente demostrado que las Diálogo sobre los resultados de la investigación conducida con tableiros Costeiros de EMBRAPA Adriana Galvão Freire LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 | 15 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla semillas mejoradas funcionan en condiciones semiáridas y que iniciativas como las de ASA-PB, aunque deseables, no se pueden llevar a una escala que permita llegar a todos los agricultores que necesitan semillas. Esto ha llevado ASA-PB a reconocer la necesidad de involucrarse con la ciencia.Para demostrar que las variedades locales son superiores a las variedades distribuidas por los programas oficiales la Red de Semillas de ASA-PB entró en una alianza con EMBRAPA, la agencia de investigación agrícola más influyente del gobierno federal. Esto ayudó a la Red a ganar tanto aceptación en el mundo académico como legitimidad ante los funcionarios involucrados en los programas de semillas. Las organizaciones que integran la Red Semillas participaron en la investigación que siguió, la cual consistió en comparar el rendimiento de las variedades locales y convencionales.El equipo de investigación utilizó métodos participativos para determinar qué variedades comparar, qué lugares utilizar para la prueba y cómo debería estructurarse la interacción entre los agricultores y los investigadores, de modo que los parámetros de rendimiento se identificasen conjuntamente. Estos parámetros incluyeron la calidad del grano, la sanidad vegetal, la cantidad de biomasa que una planta produce y el efecto de la asociación de cultivos.Los resultados de los estudios mostraron que las variedades locales superaron a las variedades convencionales en todas las regiones y en cada uno de los tres años que duró el experimento. Las variedades convencionales sólo rindieron mejor en suelos muy fértiles y con mucha lluvia, que son condiciones excepcionales para la agricultura familiar en las regiones semiáridas. Se concluyó que las variedades con mejor rendimiento en un área determinada por lo general son originarias de dicha área. También se encontró que las variedades locales producen más biomasa, que es muy valorada como alimento para animales, especialmente en el clima errático de la región. Por último, la investigación mostró que las instalaciones para almacenamiento de semillas construidas por los agricultores, a menudo utilizando sólo materiales de la zona y sin pesticidas, tuvieron un buen desempeño.Aunque la investigación confirmó lo que los agricultores ya sabían, las prácticas locales ahora han sido reconocidas científicamente. Más aún, se aprendió mucho de la interacción entre agricultores e investigadores, tanto en cuanto a contenido como metodológicamente. Esto contribuyó en gran medida a la lucha para aumentar la visibilidad de las \"semillas de pasión\".Hasta ahora la experiencia en Paraíba demuestra la importancia de la movilización social para mejorar la capacidad de acción colectiva en las comunidades rurales. También muestra que el Estado puede jugar un papel importante en el apoyo a las organizaciones y redes de la sociedad civil en la construcción de sistemas de seguridad de semillas. Estos sistemas permiten a los agricultores familiares en las regiones semiáridas construir sus propias estrategias de alimentación y nutrición y aumentar su resiliencia al cambio climático. La lucha puede abrir el camino a otro régimen de semillas, uno que se base en la realidad de los agricultores familiares.Cordinador ejecutivo de AS-PTA -paulo@aspta.org.brAsesor técnico de AS-PTA -Luciano@aspta.org.brAsesor técnico de AS-PTA -emanoel@aspta.org.brInvestigador de Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros amaury.santos@embrapa.brInvestigador de Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros fernando.curado@embrapa.br Semillas de pasión: obteniendo legitimación científica y reconocimiento histórico AS-PTA 16 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla El rol de las semillas campesinas en la sierra del Ecuador E s evidente el rol que los pequeños productores desempeñan en la conservación y desarrollo de la biodiversidad agrícola, y los impactos de este recurso en la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria. La velocidad con la cual los recursos genéticos locales han desaparecido ha dejado claro que si los esfuerzos comunitarios para la conservación in situ no son reconocidos, los recursos genéticos se perderán.El Manejo Comunitario de la Biodiversidad ha devenido en una estrategia para el manejo de los recursos genéticos en la finca. Como tal, integra conocimientos y prácticas dentro de un sistema social con el fin de construir la capacidad de las comunidades rurales para tomar decisiones sobre la conservación y uso de la biodiversidad y asegurar el acceso y control sobre sus recursos ( Los agricultores familiares campesinos de las provincias ecuatorianas de Bolívar, Chimborazo y Cotopaxi, están logrando un mayor acceso y control de sus recursos biológicos, lo que aumenta su capacidad de resiliencia y soberanía alimentaria.Campesinas exponen variedades locales de papas logradas con sus semillas principal para asegurar la resiliencia de los sistemas productivos, frente a las perturbaciones creadas por el cambio climático y las crisis recurrentes de mercados.La importancia de la pequeña agricultura familiar para el país está en su aporte a la alimentación. Más del 50% de los productos primarios en la dieta del ecuatoriano son provistos por este sector agrícola, que en el caso de otros productos básicos como papas, cebollas y maíz, su aporte es de 70% o más (Chiriboga, 2006(Chiriboga, , 2012)). La base biológica de la producción de la pequeña agricultura está en las semillas del campesino, en cuyas manos ha recaído históricamente su uso, conservación y saberes concomitantes. El sistema campesino es el mayor oferente de semillas de cultivos andinos, tanto de variedades mejoradas como locales, que en su mayoría son cultivadas en pequeñas fincas. En la práctica el sistema campesino de semillas en el Ecuador constituye, sin duda, una de las formas más conspicuas de autoorganización social, abarcando una red extensa de actores, influencias, tradiciones e instituciones que ha resistido a las influencias de todo tipo de actores externos y políticas agrícolas, con una vitalidad aún vigorosa.El abandono y falta de comprensión de la importancia de fortalecer los sistemas campesinos de manejo de recursos genéticos por los sectores modernizantes, y el proceso privatizador del Estado -iniciado en la década de 1980 sobre las bases de la Revolución Verde-debilitaron la institucionalidad oficial y minimizaron el rol del Estado en la mejora del conocimiento y organización de estos sistemas.Actualmente, las semillas formales y \"mejoradas\" no constituyen, ni han constituido, más del 1 al 2% del material de siembra en el país (cuadro 1). Preocupados por los impactos ambientales, generados por la agricultura agroindustrial y la necesidad de alternativas agrícolas para hacer frente al cambio climático, las miradas de políticos, técnicos y académicos se vuelve hacia la pequeña agricultura.A pesar del reconocimiento actual de la biodiversidad local como factor clave para mantener estos sistemas agrícolas activos y resilientes, nuestros estudios presentan evidencias de que los sistemas agrícolas de los pequeños agricultores de la Sierra Central están, en términos biológicos y organizativos, en grave riesgo. En opinión de cientos de campesinos que hemos entrevistado en comunidades de la Sierra Central sobre las causas de pérdidas de variedades y semillas, están la promoción del monocultivo, las demandas de mercados modelada por ciertos estereotipos de calidad, la migración que afecta al conocimiento local y en general, el desconocimiento del consumo de ciertos productos nativos. A esto se agrega el que una mayor variabilidad climática y frecuencia de eventos extremos resultará, probablemente, en sistemas de semillas disfuncionales y agricultores y comunidades sin control sobre sus recursos.Las variables en el cuadro 2 ilustran la pérdida sistemática de control sobre los recursos biológicos, las chacras al perder su resiliencia ponen en riesgo el futuro de la agricultura y las estrategias de vida de los campesinos. Sin embargo, este cuadro también muestra que los comuneros se autoidentifican como líderes en el manejo de plantas y semillas. Estos comuneros tienen un gran valor en la transmisión de conocimientos y potenciamiento de innovaciones sociales y técnicas.Durante los últimos años nuestra organización ha estado trabajando con familias campesinas e indígenas en la Sierra Central, en lo que ellas describen como la pérdida acelerada de su cultura como resultado de los diferentes procesos de modernización: cultura externa, producción industrial, migración, etc.Iniciamos un proceso de acción-aprendizaje con el objetivo de hacer visible el rol y función de las semillas y sus depositarios para las comunidades, así como su importancia para las estrategias de vida de las familias. El proceso se enfocó en resaltar 18 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla la agrobiodiversidad como una fortaleza de las comunidades y reconocer la necesidad de mejorarla.Una primera etapa involucró la documentación campesina de los recursos disponibles en finca y en la comunidad, las prácticas y el conocimiento local. Trabajamos en experimentación campesina, días de campo, giras e intercambios campesino a campesino, etc., para llenar vacíos de conocimientos referentes a la botánica de las plantas cultivadas, disponibilidad de semillas, erosión genética, etc. Para fortalecer las redes locales y promover vínculos en ámbitos de mayor complejidad, identificamos a los actores locales que intervienen en los sistemas de acceso e intercambio de semillas. Paralelamente, iniciamos un proceso de incorporación de variedades mejoradas y reintroducción de numerosos materiales desde los bancos de germoplasma, particularmente de papas locales.Iniciamos la construcción de una propuesta de bancos comunitarios y hemos comenzado el análisis de qué factores les confieren fortalezas o debilidades, y también de sus potencialidades de cobertura territorial y política. Después de un proceso intenso de organización, varios bancos están operando y han mostrado capacidad para dinamizar el intercambio de materiales genéticos.Como mecanismo de capitalización, toda semilla aportada al banco con fines de producción es devuelta por los comuneros en la modalidad de \"2 x 1\", mientras que el mecanismo de \"pase en cadena\" forma la base de la difusión de materiales con arreglo a la equidad. La idea detrás de estos acuerdos es crear mecanismos de redistribución, mantener la semilla de la especie en cuestión y generar un producto para la venta cuyo retorno permitirá formar un fondo de apoyo multipropósito.Las comunidades han tenido éxito en relacionarse para la circulación e intercambio de materiales y conocimientos, lo que ha fortalecido sus capacidades para mejorar la biodiversidad local y lograr fuertes lazos entre las familias. En particular, las mujeres ganaron mayor aprecio dentro de sus comunidades debido a sus habilidades para conservar y mejorar variedades y semillas.Los consumidores urbanos y sus organizaciones han probado vincularse con los grupos de productores rurales para mejorar la agroecología y el acceso a alimentos sanos. Como resultado, el proceso presentado ha permitido contrarrestar la pérdida de biodiversidad y que tanto consumidores como productores recuperen su identidad y orgullo por sus saberes e interés por la innovación.En conclusión, el fortalecimiento de los sistemas agrícolas andinos deberá estar construido con la convicción de que cualquier acción en este campo debería empezar con las experiencias, elecciones y prioridades de la gente rural y debería fortalecer la capacidad de las comunidades para el manejo autónomo de sus sistemas de semillas y para responder a los desafíos modernos de la seguridad alimentaria. Esto implica nuevos arreglos organizativos e institucionales.Los autores reconocen el valioso aporte realizado por varones y mujeres líderes de las organizaciones campesinas. Su pasión y compromiso son un futuro esperanzador. Agradecemos el apoyo de la Fundación McKnight, Embajada de Holanda, Fundación Tidlund, Fundación Swift y FAO para hacer posible la realización de esta experiencia. WiLFREDO ROJAS, MiLtON PiNtO, JuANA FLORES, StEFANO PADuLOSiEl cambio y la variabilidad climática representan una grave amenaza para la agrobiodiversidad.Ante esta situación la comunidad internacional está respondiendo con un mayor apoyo a la conservación ex situ. Sin embargo, este apoyo está orientado hacia los cultivos considerados \"principales\", como el trigo, maíz, arroz y papa, y no toma en cuenta a los otros cultivos subutilizados y estratégicos para la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de la humanidad. En comparación con la conservación ex situ, la conservación en finca (in situ) es poco abordada por los programas de investigación y desarrollo, y débilmente integrada en las estrategias nacionales de conservación.Agricultores Custodios realizan la selección de semilla de oca después de la cosecha.Comunidad Cachilaya, provincia Los Andes, La Paz -BoliviaFundación PROINPA L a conservación en finca se desarrolla mediante estrategias basadas en las comunidades campesinas y, a diferencia de la conservación ex situ, mantiene los conocimientos tradicionales vinculados a la agrobiodiversidad y a las prácticas relacionadas con su uso, transmitidos por los agricultores de generación en generación. Los agricultores que se distinguen de los demás por su contribución a la conservación de la diversidad de cultivos y variedades en sus sistemas tradicionales de manejo son los pilares de la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad. Es necesario hacer un mayor esfuerzo para reconocer la contribución de estos agricultores que, silenciosamente y sin reconocimiento alguno, aportan con los cultivos destinados principalmente a la alimentación de sus familias.El proyecto Especies Olvidadas y Subutilizadas del Fondo Internacional para el Desarrollo Agrícola -conocido como NUS IFAD III por sus siglas en inglés-es coordinado por Bioversity International y se ejecuta en tres países: India, Nepal y Bolivia. Este proyecto contribuye a desarrollar métodos, herramientas y enfoques para evaluar y monitorear la agrobiodiversidad, así como su adaptación al cambio climático.Algunos agricultores destacan en sus comunidades por su dedicación al manejo de una amplia diversidad de cultivos y variedades, incluyendo las variedades raras y en peligro de extinción. Estos agricultores poseen el conocimiento tradicional asociado al manejo de la agrobiodiversidad. A estos agricultores excepcionales se les han otorgado diversos nombres, como: expertos de semillas, agricultores nodales, conservadores de semillas, curiosos, conservacionistas, innovadores, guardianes de las semillas y agricultores custodios. 20 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla En Bolivia el proyecto NUS IFAD III, desde octubre de 2011, trabaja con cuatro instituciones socias: CARE Bolivia, Samaritan's Purse, CETHA Tupak Katari y la Fundación PROINPA. Las actividades se ejecutan en ocho comunidades del área circundante al lago Titicaca y con 43 \"agricultores custodios\" que fueron seleccionados mediante un enfoque participativo (Cuadro 1). En forma conjunta, los agricultores de la comunidad y los técnicos facilitadores definieron los criterios para la selección de los agricultores custodios: 1) tener un número importante de especies y variedades; 2) mantener una vocación para conservar y usar la diversidad de variedades; 3) amplia experiencia en el manejo de cultivos, y 4) ser reconocidos y respetados por la comunidad en su papel de agricultor. Los agricultores custodios fueron seleccionados, reconocidos y validados por la comunidad por su contribución a la conservación de la diversidad de cultivos.Durante dos años agrícolas (2011-2013) se ha realizado el registro de la agrobiodiversidad con este grupo de agricultores custodios. Por cada agricultor custodio se cuenta con un libro del Registro Comunitario de la Biodiversidad, que consiste en 20 variables y las respectivas imágenes fotográficas.Los agricultores custodios no solo conservan su diversidad de cultivos sino que experimentan, son observadores por excelencia y tienen un sentido de responsabilidad para compartir su material vegetal, conocimiento, patrimonio y cultura con sus familias, comunidades y con la sociedad en general; ellos son quienes mantienen, adaptan y fomentan la biodiversidad agrícola. Los otros agricultores de la comunidad tienen la responsabilidad de seleccionar y conservar las semillas para asegurar la subsistencia de sus familias.Se encuentra en proceso la conformación de una Red de Agricultores Custodios, igual a las que existen en otras partes del mundo como México y Nepal y donde este tipo de organizaciones son reconocidas y apoyadas por sus gobiernos en el marco de una política nacional. Estas redes juegan un rol importante en la conservación y uso de agrobiodiversidad y, aquí en Bolivia, se espera que las políticas de gobierno les brinden apoyo por su papel estratégico como guardianes de la diversidad genética y del conocimiento tradicional asociado.Es importante tener en cuenta la naturaleza de cada comunidad con el fin de determinar si se debe promover la acción colectiva en lugar de trabajar, además, con agricultores individuales. Por lo general, la participación de todos los agricultores de la comunidad es necesaria, de lo contrario el trabajo de los agricultores custodios será limitado en el sentido de que las personas ya no quieren compartir sus semillas o material de siembra con ellos, creando barreras en los flujos de semillas. En este sentido, los bancos comunitarios de semillas son vistos como una estrategia complementaria para apoyar a los agricultores custodios, como es el caso del sur de Asia donde su concepción y manejo están mucho más avanzados.Los bancos comunitarios de semilla cumplen, al mismo tiempo, la función de ser espacios de multiplicación de semillas y de enseñanza-aprendizaje entre los agricultores, donde se ponen en práctica de manera colectiva los aprendizajes compartidos en los cursos de capacitación. Sin embargo, se necesita más investigación para entender mejor la complementación de funciones entre los esfuerzos individuales (agricultores custodios) con los esfuerzos colectivos (bancos comunitarios de semillas) para el mantenimiento, valorización e intercambio de la diversidad genética y del conocimiento tradicional. También falta generar y poner en evidencia las funciones y la relación entre los bancos comunitarios de semillas y los bancos nacionales de germoplasma.El Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF), creado en junio de 2008, es la institución nacional encargada de la investigación agrícola, pecuaria y forestal del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia y actualmente está a cargo de los Bancos Nacionales de Germoplasma. Entre sus actividades principales está la conformación del Sistema Nacional de Re-Viviana, René, Ricardo y Elías, agricultores custodios de la comunidad de Cachilaya, provincia Los Andes, La Paz De los cinco municipios en los que se trabaja, el Municipio de Batallas ha dado un paso importante al priorizar e incorporar en su Plan de Desarrollo el apoyo a la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad, por la función que cumple en la adaptación al cambio climático. Asimismo, el rol de las instituciones involucradas como PROINPA, CARE Bolivia, CETHA Túpac Katari, Samaritan's Purse, además de otros actores que trabajan en el desarrollo y entendimiento de la dinámica local de estos procesos, es fundamental para su articulación en el SNRG. De esta forma es posible construir de manera participativa un modelo de manejo, conservación y uso de los recursos genéticos que vele por este patrimonio que tiene el país.Fundación PROINPA, La Paz, Bolivia w.rojas@proinpa.orgFundación PROINPA, La Paz, BoliviaFundación PROINPA, La Paz, Bolivia Banco Comunitario de Semillas de papa nativa en la comunidad Coromata Media, provincia Omasuyos, La Paz, Bolivia.Agricultores custodios explican y evalúan las diferencias entre variedades Sin embargo, a partir de la Revolución Verde a mediados del siglo pasado, empezó a popularizarse el uso de agroquímicos que incrementan la productividad del cultivo a corto plazo, pero a la larga agotan la fertilidad del suelo, crean plagas resistentes y son contaminantes y nocivos para la salud de los agricultores. Además, en los últimos diez años el precio de los agroquímicos se ha triplicado.Buscando una alternativa para preservar el suelo, un grupo de agricultores adoptó prácticas agroecológicas en el cultivo de su maíz, con lo que además reducían costos y certificaban su producto como orgánico.Históricamente una forma de dar valor agregado a este maíz, que de otro modo no tiene mercado, es la venta de tortillas artesanales. La tortilla tradicional elaborada con la metodología prehispánica, involucra el uso de maíz previamente nixtamalizado (cocido en agua de cal y molido) y su cocción en estufas de leña. En la zona Pátzcuaro-Zirahuén hay aproximadamente 200 talleres de tortilleras que manufacturan tortillas de En Pátzcuaro-Zirahuén, Michoacán, los agricultores familiares luchan por la defensa de sus variedades nativas de maíz. La experiencia de la red Tsiri es una muestra de acción para la conservación desde la semilla, el cultivo, y el procesamiento del grano y elaboración de las clásicas tortillas. El cambio en el patrón alimentario mexicano ha hecho que se dejen de consumir productos artesanales y locales, poniendo en riesgo de perderse para siempre la enorme riqueza gastronómica, cultural y agronómica que representan las variedades locales de maíz, junto con el estilo de vida campesino que las sustenta. En los últimos años, como respuesta a esta alarmante situación, movimientos como \"Sin Maíz No Hay País\" o la agroecología han despertado el interés de algunos sectores de la población por el consumo responsable y los productos locales y orgánicos.Con estos antecedentes, en 2009 se formó la Red Tsiri (maíz en lengua purhépecha), fruto de la colaboración de investigadores y técnicos del Grupo Interdisciplinario de Tecnología Rural Apropiada (GIRA) y el Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental de la UNAM (CIGA), con el objetivo de crear un vínculo sin intermediarios entre los productores de maíz orgánico local, talleres de tortilleras y consumidores conscientes.Un taller tradicional de tortilleras da empleo a dos mujeres en promedio. La construcción habitual es de piso de tierra, paredes de madera, techo de lámina de acero galvanizado y una estufa en forma de \"U\". Estas estufas expulsan todo el humo dentro de la cocina, creando graves problemas de salud a largo plazo, además de ser sumamente ineficientes en el consumo de leña. Como parte de su empeño por dignificar las condiciones de trabajo de las tortilleras, la Red Tsiri ha promovido la transformación de los talleres con la instalación de pisos firmes de cemento, techos de ladrillo y estufas ahorradoras Patsari. Las estufas Patsari desarrolladas por GIRA con la colaboración de académicos y usuarias son un modelo mejorado de las estufas Lorena (la Lorena -lodo y arena-es una popular estufa ahorradora diseñada en Guatemala en la década de 1970), ahorran hasta en un 60% el consumo de leña con respecto a las estufas o fogones tradicionales y cuentan con una chimenea que expulsa el humo fuera de las cocinas.La Red Tsiri busca preservar la agricultura sostenible campesina y ayudar a valorizar los maíces criollos a través de productos artesanales; busca ser \"sustentable de la tierra a la mesa\". En la actualidad cuenta ya con cinco tortilleras de tiempo completo y otras cinco como apoyo cuando aumenta la demanda, las cuales compran maíz orgánico producido en la región a un precio justo. Gracias a la creatividad de las señoras, además de tortillas y gorditas, la Red Tsiri ofrece ahora también otros productos como galletas de maíz, ponteduros y taller de tortilleras antes (izquierda) y después (derecha) Marta Astier atole de pinole. Tiene presencia en mercados alternativos de la ciudad de Morelia, en el campus Morelia de la UNAM y en muchos hogares de consumidores sensibilizados.En conclusión, la Red Tsiri es una experiencia que sigue creciendo gracias al amor de su gente por la tierra y por el maíz, y que busca llegar cada vez más lejos, llevando productos artesanales y orgánicos a un número cada vez mayor de consumidores, porque creemos que son iniciativas como estas las que pueden devolverle el sentido a un sistema de consumo globalizado y mecanizado que ha perdido su vínculo con la tierra y con el hombre.Omar Xabier Masera Astier omarnnmap@gmail.com Marta Astier Agricultura Ecológica. Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental, UNAM mastier@ciga.unam.mx 24 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/gestión de la semillaJAViER CARRERA En estos tiempos de uniformizadas semillas de almacén tendemos a olvidar que la semilla evoluciona, que su lenta transformación de mano en mano, generación tras generación, ha sido el aspecto más esencial del cultivo desde los inicios de la agricultura. Queremos en este artículo analizar algunos aspectos de esta evolución, en base a un ejemplo concreto. El ejemplo elegido es el de un proyecto llevado a cabo por la Red de Guardianes de Semillas de Ecuador en el cantón Calceta de la Provincia de Manabí, donde se intentó adaptar una técnica ancestral de cultivo de arroz con variedades propias del país. El proyecto fue implementado por Servio Pachard, guardián de semillas local y técnico agroecólogo, junto con sus compañeros de la Asociación de Productores Agroecológicos San Francisco de Sarampión, en base al diseño de Servio y de quien escribe este artículo.Quedaba la duda de si se podría adaptar esta forma de cultivo a las especies de patos y peces del Ecuador. Nuestra red decidió implementar un proyecto experimental que consistió en la siembra de arroz criollo variedad Lira, con patos nativos (Cairina moschata, bastante más grandes que los asiáticos), el helecho azolla y chame (Dormitator latifrons), un pez de poza muy apreciado en la culinaria local. Para dar más validez al experimento se sembró una parcela testigo con cultivo convencional químico.El principal efecto que causan los patos es el de enturbiar el agua, por lo que su nivel debe controlarse de manera que los pies de los patos rocen el fondo de la poza, sin llegar a asentarse. Esto crea condiciones muy similares a la de los pantanos donde evolucionó el arroz, y al ser el agua muy oscura, reduce al mínimo la germinación de malezas. El suelo así aflojado pone a disposición del arroz una cantidad mayor de nutrientes. Adicionalmente, los patos depositan grandes cantidades de estiércol Los patos saliendo de su casa en el borde del arrozal Red Guardianes de Semillas arroz con pato L a Asociación San Francisco de Sarampión está recorriendo un arduo pero emocionante camino hacia el cultivo agroecológico. En 2010, la asociación instaló su propia piladora de arroz de rodillos regulables para poder vender arroz integral de semilla criolla. Para 2011 la producción ya había logrado eliminar los pesticidas y herbicidas, pasando al deshierbe manual y el control de plagas con preparados de plantas medicinales. Pero se mantenía el uso de urea, pues los socios encontraban imposible producir sin este fertilizante sintético.Y es en este momento que nos preguntamos, ¿cómo produjeron arroz los campesinos asiáticos, por miles de años, sin necesidad de fertilizantes artificiales? La investigación bibliográfica reveló varios métodos, pero el que más llamó la atención fue el modelo ancestral que incorporaba el pequeño pato chino y la lamprea (Hyperoartia, una clase de agnatos o peces sin mandíbulas con forma de anguila no muy grande). Este modelo está siendo rescatado y promovido por el permacultor japonés Takao Furuno.LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 | 25 biodiversidad/gestión de la semilla rico en nitrógeno, fósforo y potasio. Otro aspecto importante es que el chapoteo de los patos oxigena el agua, al tiempo que disemina el estiércol.Los patos se alimentan de las malezas y de los insectos, así como de larvas, lombrices, algas y otros seres vivos que se reproducen en gran cantidad en la poza ecológica. Es decir, cumplen la doble función de controladores de plagas y de malezas. La siembra de la azolla contribuyó a su desarrollo, así como los alevines de chame. Además, los patos necesitaron poco alimento adicional: un suplemento alimenticio al 18% durante 30 días y, a partir de entonces, un poco de maíz y restos de cocina. Esto puede mejorar a futuro, cuando se diversifique y mejore la fauna y flora de la poza, y se siembren policultivos al borde de la misma.Los resultados que Servio presentó a la asamblea anual de la Red de Guardianes de Semillas, reunida en julio de 2012, causaron alegría y asombro: la parcela de los patos logró una cosecha récord para variedades criollas y superó ligeramente en productividad al testigo convencional. No se usó ningún tipo de fertilizante. En pleno ataque de caracol manzano, que destruyó el 30% de los arrozales en el país, esta parcela no recibió ningún tipo de control de plagas y no sufrió en absoluto por ello, pues los patos y peces protegieron perfectamente el cultivo. El deshierbe manual se redujo a una fracción. Y las ganancias económicas triplicaron lo obtenido por la parcela testigo, pues al arroz orgánico se sumó la venta de patos y peces. Además, se obtuvo una dieta casi completa en lugar de un monocultivo.Un aspecto muy interesante fue que, de acuerdo a la bibliografía consultada, Furuno recomienda sacar a los patos del sistema cuando el arroz forma su semilla para evitar que se la coman. Pero Furuno utiliza semillas híbridas modernas, que producen plantas de tallos cortos, fácilmente accesibles para los patos. La variedad criolla Lira utilizada en el experimento de Calceta es de tallo largo y resultó imposible para los patos alcanzar la semilla, por lo que se los pudo mantener en la poza hasta la cosecha del arroz. Esto facilita el manejo del sistema y extiende el beneficio de los patos.El sistema \"arroz + patos + peces\" se convierte básicamente en un ecosistema completo, donde los insectos y hierbas cumplen el papel de alimentar a los animales en lugar de convertirse en plagas y malezas; donde se produce carbohidrato y proteínas en grandes cantidades con poco esfuerzo, y de forma sostenible, pues la fertilidad de la poza aumentará con los años. Este fue sin duda uno de los sistemas de cultivo más populares en Asia hasta la llegada de la Revolución Verde. Y nos parece lógico suponer que una de las razones por las que los antiguos agricultores asiáticos no trataron de crear variedades de arroz de tallo corto, fue precisamente la necesidad de mantener a los patos en el sistema. Este tipo de producción no puede realizarse con plantas de tallo corto, excesiva uniformidad genética o acostumbradas a alimentarse solo con nutrientes sintéticos. Un ejemplo claro de por qué la agroecología requiere semillas campesinas, pues son estas las que evolucionaron en sistemas de tipo agroecológico.La semilla evolucionó a lo largo de la historia de la agricultura en este contexto:• Agricultura de tipo familiar en unidades productivas controladas por familias que dependían directamente de la calidad de su semilla para su supervivencia. • Agricultura de tipo sostenible, sin insumos externos, adaptada a las condiciones locales: climáticas, de suelo, ecológicas. • Sistemas de cultivo que producen dietas completas, es decir, policultivos que incluyen animales en el sistema. • Selección realizada a nivel familiar, a lo largo de generaciones, donde cada persona que realiza el proceso de selección Servio Pachard, coautor y director del estudio del arroz con patos, procesando carbón de cascarilla de arroz para usarlo como fijador de abonos en la huertaRed Guardianes de Semillas va imprimiendo su propia huella, de acuerdo a sus gustos y necesidades. La semilla no es un ente pasivo en esta relación, al contrario: lo que se da es una especie de diálogo simbiótico entre las familias de agricultores y sus semillas. • Intercambio y circulación libre de las semillas entre las familias productoras. Las semillas viajan de mano en mano entre las familias y a través de circuitos tradicionales de comercio.Estos son los aspectos fundamentales que permitieron la creación del enorme patrimonio genético que heredó la humanidad. La creación de las variedades de cultivo no fue labor de entidades estatales o grandes empresas privadas hasta el advenimiento de la agricultura industrial y la Revolución Verde.Es hora de cambiar ese paradigma. La destrucción de los suelos, el cambio climático, la declinación en el abastecimiento de los combustibles fósiles nos obligan a orientarnos hacia modelos sostenibles de producción. La agricultura familiar de tipo agroecológico, de bajo costo y alta producción de alimentos, representa la mejor opción para nuestro futuro. Pero ese futuro solo será posible si las familias de productores recuperan su evolución simbiótica con las semillas.Red de Guardianes de Semillas, Ecuador info@redsemillas.org -www.redsemillas.orgMARiANA MARASAS, VALENtiNA FERNáNDEZ, NADiA DuBROVSky BERENSZtEiNLa generación de soluciones para los problemas sociales y medioambientales que enfrentan los agricultores familiares del Cinturón Hortícola de La Plata, requiere romper con la interpretación reduccionista del agroecosistema y la práctica de transferencia de tecnologías. Un primer intento es a partir del trabajo colectivo entre agricultores, técnicos e investigadores para ir construyendo -en conjunto-nuevos modos de ver y manejar los sistemas productivos.E l Cinturón Hortícola de La Plata (CHLP) se caracteriza por la existencia de pequeños agricultores familiares cuya producción se desarrolla en quintas de 7 hectáreas promedio y producen hasta 30 cultivos diferentes que abastecen entre 60% y 90% de la verdura fresca que consume Buenos Aires y alrededores (Benencia, 2002).Este sector se caracteriza por un alto grado de descapitalización y precariedad en la tenencia de la tierra. La situación económica general les impide adoptar los paquetes tecnológicos completos y esta realidad los pone en desventaja, ocasionándoles una serie de perjuicios productivos -siguen sin resolver los problemas de plagas, malezas y enfermedades-, pero también socioambientales, pues en muchos casos aplican químicos muy tóxicos y de amplio espectro que suelen ser más económicos, pero más peligrosos (Marasas y otros, 2012).Frente a estos problemas ambientales y sociales aparece la necesidad de avanzar hacia una propuesta alternativa. Algunos productores convencionales, que hasta hace un tiempo priorizaban la adopción de las pautas hegemónicas de producción, se manifiestan interesados en realizar cambios con el fin de lograr sistemas con menor dependencia de insumos externos contaminantes, y así mejorar la posibilidad de su permanencia en la actividad.Para ello se requiere conocer más profundamente cuáles son las estrategias productivas que se realizan en los distintos sistemas de producción del CHLP, así como el estado de los recursos disponibles en el agroecoesistema, entre ellos la agrobiodiversidad tanto cultivada como asociada.Este artículo hace referencia a una experiencia de trabajo colectivo que inicia un proceso de generación de conocimientos a partir de la articulación interinstitucional, incluyendo a técnicos e investigadores del Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) y los productores de las organizaciones del sector de la agricultura familiar. En particular, se trabajó con la Cooperativa de Trabajo Espacio de intercambio de saberes y acuerdos de trabajo entre técnicos, investigadores y productores Ante la demanda creciente de tecnologías alternativas de producción acordes a las necesidades de la agricultura familiar (AF), se propuso pensar en el manejo de la agrobiodiversidad y del hábitat como opciones de control biológico por conservación para regular las plagas y así disminuir la dependencia de insumos externos. Para generar dichas tecnologías es necesario, por un lado, contar con un mayor conocimiento de la agrobiodiversidad como proveedora de funciones y servicios ecológicos y, por el otro, desmitificar la idea de que todo insecto que aparece en el sistema es \"malo\" y hay que eliminarlo antes de que sea tarde.El desafío fue identificar la existencia de estos componentes de la agrobiodiversidad en las quintas de los productores y reconocerlos como herramientas útiles de manejo a la hora de pensar colectivamente en alternativas para la resolución de los problemas planteados más arriba.Se acordaron con los grupos de productores, tres localidades del CHLP. En cada una se trabajó en tres tipos de quintas con los siguientes manejos: con base agroecológica (AGROEC), convencionales de alto uso de insumos químicos (CONV) y convencionales de bajo uso de insumos químicos (BI).Para conocer y reconocer los complejos de biodiversidad presentes en las quintas y sus diferencias según el tipo de manejo. Esto permitirá diseñar estrategias participativas de control biológico por conservación en vías de disminuir o suprimir la necesidad de aplicar agroquímicos.Se estudió la agrobiodiversidad en tres ambientes de cada quinta: frontera entre lotes cultivados (F), borde del lote cultivado (B) y lote cultivado (LC) (figura 1). La metodología de recolección de datos fue: por observación directa de artrópo-dos, con trampas amarillas y red de arrastre y por observación y colecta de vegetación. Luego se determinaron y cuantificaron los ejemplares, identificando los mismos en función del rol ecológico que potencialmente ocupan en el sistema.Los resultados de esta investigación muestran que el sector hortícola familiar menos capitalizado aún mantiene cierta agrobiodiversidad en sus establecimientos. Es interesante destacar que inclusive en los productores convencionales de alto uso de insumos, existen zonas de refugio de biodiversidad (B y F), que probablemente estarían inhibidas en su accionar por el uso de insumos químicos. En las quintas de base agroecológica, por el contrario, al no usar agroquímicos, los enemigos naturales de los ambientes menos disturbados colonizan el LC y operan en el control de plagas.Los productores que usan insumos químicos, al reconocer el potencial biológico que poseen, podrían a través de estrategias de reconversión recuperar el rol de la diversidad en la regulación de plagas y así prescindir paulatinamente de los insecticidas.Un resultado valioso de esta experiencia fue el trabajo grupal con todos los actores del proceso, el intercambio con otros grupos de productores y la participación en los talleres de presentación y socialización de la propuesta de investigación. El desafío es continuar este trabajo, con el fin de avanzar en el Fuente: elaboración propia.Fuente: elaboración propia.28 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 biodiversidad/horticultura campesina análisis participativo de los resultados obtenidos y en la construcción colectiva de propuestas que permitan revalorizar y resignificar los conocimientos adquiridos para elaborar una estrategia apropiable por el sector. Y para finalizar, cabe una reflexión acerca de la agricultura familiar y su relación con la biodiversidad: conocer y reconocer la agrobiodiversidad resulta un recurso clave para defender y mejorar las condiciones del sector y la sustentabilidad de la producción, pero también es fundamental conocer y reconocer el rol protagónico de los agricultores familiares, como guardianes de dicha agrobiodiversidad, diferencia notoria y significativa con respecto a los sistemas empresariales de producción e importante a la hora de pensar en políticas públicas que premien esta función. José Antonio Casimiro González, agricultor familiar cubano, presenta la experiencia de su finca como un proceso que brinda alternativas para revertir los procesos de erosión en el campo, recuperando y manteniendo la biodiversidad como factor de sostenibilidad productiva.Nuestra finca tiene alrededor de 10 hectáreas y allí vivimos desde hace 20 años. Al inicio, como principiantes de ese inmenso mundo de la agroecología, con gran entusiasmo y tratando de hacer todo lo que oíamos que era bueno, llenamos la finca de cuanta planta y animal pudimos. Pensábamos que eso era biodiversidad, agroecología, porque todo no era de lo mismo. Al ir superando etapas por conocimientos adquiridos de los demás y lo que nos decía nuestro propio sistema, es que llegamos a conclusiones que queremos compartir. Una finca sostenible es un campo infinito para la creatividad y a cada familia le tocará su gran paquete de errores, lo que no quiere decir que esto no esté dentro de lo normal, porque un sistema agroecológico sostenible vivirá en un permanente rediseño y esto es parte de lo más excitante, ya que todo se puede mejorar y perfeccionar eternamente.Luego del encuentro con el movimiento agroecológico también lo hicimos con los permacultores, que en nuestro caso fue un salto hacia el futuro, porque la familia se vio involucrada desde el inicio en cursos de permacultura.Lo que, al lado de lo que veníamos haciendo, nos dotó de herramientas imprescindibles para la toma de decisiones muy actualizadas para la pequeña finca.Con elementos científicos para el diseño sostenible de la finca agroecológica familiar, se hizo evidente que muchas cosas las estábamos haciendo por gusto, sin sentido y que aquello tenía de todo, menos de biodiversidad: era un verdadero bio-conflicto.Al analizar los problemas y buscarles solución -hilvanando la teoría con la práctica-comprendimos que la verdadera diversidad ecológica teníamos que conquistarla atrayendo, en primer orden, la fauna silvestre y para ello iniciamos los cercos vivos. En total establecimos diversidad de árboles a lo largo de 5 km, tanto en los linderos como internamente y los intercalamos con piña de ratón (Bromelia pinguin L.), moreras, guayabas, plátanos, sin orden preestablecido. Ahora que tenemos abundantes plátanos los 365 días del año, también nos damos el lujo de tener casi siempre racimos maduros en las matas para que todo el mundo se sirva y las avispas liben el néctar durante la época seca.Hoy nos parece que mantener la biodiversidad en la finca no es un problema, pero claro, hay muchos detalles que atender y lo lindo es que depende de nosotros lograrlo.Según fuimos avanzando, comenzamos a entender que los guanajos (Meleagris gallopavo) se subían a los árboles y comían las frutas maduras, desmontaban los arropes deDesde el campo: opinión paja de arroz en los ajos y las cebollas, se comían la yuca, los carneros y los chivos, nos dejaban más problemas que beneficios. A muchas cosas tuvimos que renunciar y siempre fueron decisiones con mucha oposición.Un sistema agroecológico que se analiza y observa cada día se va convirtiendo en algo muy natural, teniendo en cuenta que son espacios creados según la capacidad de la familia, el lugar, la altura, el clima, la cultura. La agroecología familiar de las pequeñas fincas puede ser el eslabón perdido que le falta hoy a lugares sin vida que han perdido el suelo, porque se ha salinizado o contaminado, o son invadidos por el marabú (Dichrostachys cinerea).Creo que la biodiversidad puede retornar de la mano de los pequeños agricultores apoyados por proyectos estatales que dignifiquen esta forma de vida, hay que conquistar el talento que emigró del campo cuando este aún estaba bien, para salvar lo que no funcionó y que solo el amor y la inteligencia podrá recuperar. ¿Cómo lograr esto? Creando la misma expectativa que los tentó a ir a la ciudad, pero bien multiplicada, que les ofrezca seguridad para retornar a salvar lo que está por perderse: la cultura de la familia viviendo en el campo. La finca agroecológica podría ocupar grandes extensiones de tierra dividida en espacios donde cada núcleo familiar tenga su finquita, y así hacer realidad el sueño de llevar la agroecología a cualquier lugar sin importar cuán demasiado grande parezca. Sí es posible la biodiversidad, y este sería uno de los grandes secretos para mí, un método que revierta el problema en solución; cada familia, por naturaleza, podrá encontrar la cultura de convivencia con su sistema.Cuando se asocia la teoría científica con la experiencia práctica se puede ver lo que se puede hacer tan solo con la selección y mejora de la semilla, la siembra de cada cultivo en el momento de su ciclo óptimo y en la cantidad que permita ofrecerle toda la atención y el agua que requiera, para que se vea el sentido máximo de la biodiversidad.Nuestra finca \"Del Medio\" se ubica en la localidad de Siguaney, municipio Taguasco, provincia Sancti Spíritus, a un lado de la Autopista Nacional en el kilómetro 349. Somos parte de la Cooperativa de Créditos y Servicios (CCS) Rolando Reina Ramos.José Antonio Casimiro González Leidy Casimiro Rodríguezleidic@uniss.edu.cu A consecuencia de lo anterior surgió la iniciativa de establecimiento de este Centro de Resguardo. La metodología empleada para establecerlo ha consistido en: 1) contactar a personas con saberes sobre plantas medicinales de las comunidades, 2) realizar caminatas etnobotánicas por las diferentes comunidades, 3) acondicionar un espacio dentro de la Estación Experimental para la siembra de plantas medicinales y aromáticas, 4) registrar los usos que dan en las comunidades visitadas a las especies a resguardar, 5) realizar una permanentemente articulación con las familias de las diferentes comunidades para el intercambio de plantas y el registro de saberes, 6) manejar las plantas agroecológicamente y 7)declarar al Centro en construcción permanente.A propósito del establecimiento de este Centro, se apunta hacia la promoción de la investigación en el tema, facilitar la formación en las comunidades en cuanto al uso consciente de plantas medicinales, promover estrategias de transmisión de este conocimiento entre las familias de las comunidades, resguardar los saberes populares sobre su uso y, como un aspecto de valor inmensurable, resguardar la biodiversidad.OLGA MONAGAS, yONy CARMONA, tuLiO CARMONA E l Centro de Resguardo es un espacio donde se establecen y reproducen plantas medicinales y aromáticas, asociándose especies silvestres y cultivadas, y donde además se registran los conocimientos populares sobre sus usos. Se encuentra ubicada en la Estación Experimental Cataurito de la Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez (UNESR), en el Valle de Tucutunemo, Zamora, estado Aragua, Venezuela. Esta iniciativa nace de la interrelación que establece la institución con las familias de las comunidades aledañas a través de sus trabajadores y trabajadoras. La principal misión de la institución es preservar la diversidad biológica y cultural relacionada con las plantas medicinales y aromáticas.El Centro permite la interacción con vecinos así como también con personas e instituciones interesadas en el tema, intercambiando especies de plantas y saberes sobre sus formas de uso. Es un trabajo continuo y en construcción permanente.Cercanas a la Estación Experimental se encuentran varias comunidades y es común ver entre las familias que allí residen el uso de plantas medicinales para atender algunas enfermedades. Sin embargo, tanto estas plantas como sus usos corren el riesgo de desaparecer a causa del uso indiscriminado, el rompimiento de la cadena de transmisión Plantas medicinales establecidas en asociación, ubicadas en el Centro de Resguardo Autores El señor irene de la comunidad de El Onoto, ha contribuido con sus saberes y sus plantas al fortalecimiento del Centro de Resguardo de plantas medicinales de la Estación Cataurito de la Universidad Simón Rodríguez Hierba buena Mentha spicata L.Curia moradaPoleo Mentha pulehium L.Rosmarinus officinalis L.Tomillo Thymus vulgaris L.Origanum majorana L.Argalia Hibiscus abelmoschus L.Flor de jamaica Hibiscus sabdariffaOcimum sanctum L.Ocimun basilicum L.Cadillo pata 'e perro Urena lobata L.Sábila Aloe vera L.Granada Punica granatum L.Ñongue Datura stramonium L.Lantana trifolia L.Lantana camara L.Llantén Plantago major L.Moringa Moringa oleífera L.Siempre viva Gomphrena globosa L.Túa túa Jatropha gossypiifolia L.Onoto Bixa orellana L.Noni Morinda citrifolia L.Mangifera indica L.Plectranthus neochilusEs importante socializar que el uso indiscriminado coloca a las plantas en riesgo de desaparecer. Es notorio que al momento de conocerse las propiedades medicinales de una planta, crece rápidamente su demanda pasando por la posibilidad de agotar la permanencia de la misma en espacios silvestres, o, por otro lado, la introducción de plantas foráneas que se convierten en invasoras, socavando de ambas maneras la biodiversidad local. Un ejemplo de ello son algunas especies del género Kalanchoe, reportándose en México la Kalanchoe delagoensis (Altamirano y otros, 2012) y la Kalanchoe daigremontiana en zonas semiáridas de Venezuela (Herrera y otros, 2011). Muchos autores expresan que las actividades humanas constituyen uno de los elementos aceleradores de los procesos de invasión más importantes (Elton, 1958;Mooney y Hobbs, 2000;Kolar y Lodge, 2001;Keane y Crawley, 2002, citados por García y otros, 2012).A medida que pasa el tiempo, ya en los patios de las casas de las comunidades se van distanciando algunas plantas, y estableciéndose plantas que no son de la localidad, pasando esto muchas veces por el boom que surge con el uso de una especie para algunas enfermedades. En tanto la gente conozca las consecuencias de eliminar o introducir una especie en los patios, se contribuirá desde la familia a amparar la biodiversidad local.Estación Experimental Cataurito, UNESR olgamarlenemonagas@gmail.com En los últimos años los servicios intangibles que brindan los pastizales de Sudamérica tomaron importancia, principalmente los rioplatenses de la Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay y sur de Brasil. Los pastizales rioplatenses de la Argentina pertenecen en parte a la subregión conocida como Pampa Deprimida. Una porción importante de este paisaje ha sido fuertemente afectada por el proceso de agriculturización. Paradójicamente, en la región argentina existen áreas ubicadas en los alrededores de los grandes cascos urbanos que aún conservan superficies importantes de tierras cubiertas por pastizales naturales manejados por pequeños productores familiares.A ctualmente existen establecimientos de pequeñas producciones ganaderas de economías de reducida escala que abarcan a una cantidad importante de productores, muchos de ellos con tambos que cuentan con pocos animales, generalmente de 2 a 10, en etapa ordeño, dedicados a la producción de masa, a partir de leche cuajada, que comercializan con fábricas locales de mozzarella.Las familias tamberas también crían cerdos y gallinas. A estos productores se les considera como agricultores familiares pues no cuentan con trabajo asalariado y la familia o parte de ella conforma el equipo de trabajo con distintas funciones. Estas unidades productivas mantienen las características de la actividad agropecuaria vinculada al patrimonio familiar, como son la preservación del bien -la tierra-, el acervo cultural y la inserción de la familia como \"sujeto social\". Este grupo de productores pertenece históricamente a un segmento de la población con escasos recursos económicos y técnicos, y con pocas posibilidades para mejorar su producción actual. Sin embargo, su presencia y trabajo ayudan a la preservación del medio ambiente y a la conservación de la biodiversidad en zonas cercanas a las grandes urbes con serios problemas de contaminación ambiental (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina). Los pequeños productores suelen ser solidarios con sus vecinos, amigos o familiares productores. Algunos de ellos arriendan las tierras para pastar a cambio de trabajo o por muy poco dinero, lo que les permite ser laboralmente autónomos pero dependientes de sus pares. La mayoría de los productores habita en tierras que no son de su propiedad y comercializa directamente su producción, a diferencia de algunos pocos que dependen de las condiciones y precios definidos por Este proyecto de extensión se realiza con el objetivo de promover, acompañar y mejorar la productividad de los pequeños productores tamberos bajo principios de sostenibilidad ecológica. Los productores pertenecen a los partidos de San Vicente y Cañuelas, provincia de Buenos Aires.El proyecto propuso dar un tratamiento diferencial a los pequeños ganaderos, ya que conforman uno de los grupos más vulnerables de la población rural y suburbana. En este sentido diseñamos estrategias para suplir las dificultades que tiene esta comunidad de productores para incorporar tecnologías de procesos que contribuyan a conservar y mejorar la cantidad y calidad de alimento para los animales en producción.Realizamos la labor en dos etapas: la primera consiste en el acercamiento hacia el productor para interiorizarnos en la información del establecimiento desde el punto de vista productivo-social y ambiental. Para ello realizamos una selección de productores a los cuales denominamos unidades demostrativas (UD). Luego de la interpretación y análisis de la información, definimos la problemática de cada productor involucrado. Con esta información organizamos una reunión en cada UD para comunicar la propuesta de manejo de los recursos forrajeros, con principal atención al pastizal natural. En cada reunión de campo, abierta a toda la comunidad, se proponen mecanismos de inclusión mediante charlas directas con el productor y los otros productores que participan de la visita. Esto permite acompañar a cada uno de los que pertenecen a la unidad demostrativa y a todos aquellos que asisten a la charla, pero principalmente fomenta la implementación de tecnologías para la integración y transformación agroecológica. La segunda etapa es la divulgación de las prácticas recomendadas a través de material escrito, usando volantes y folletos. Las prácticas recomendadas se sustentan en fomentar el arraigo al campo y a la actividad, así como concientizar al productor del cuidado para la preservación de su pastizal natural.Al principio trabajamos bajo condiciones difíciles porque la participación de los productores era muy escasa en cada reunión a campo. Después de cuatro años aumentamos notablemente la participación de los productores en las reuniones y contamos con el apoyo de instituciones públicas como el Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) del Ministerio de Agricultura Ganadería y Pesca (MAGP), la Universidad Nacional de la Plata y la municipalidad local. Se aplicaron conceptos ecológicos al diseño y manejo de los recursos naturales, como manejo del pastoreo y usos de los descansos que fueron gratamente adoptados por los productores. Rediseñamos herramientas de manejo para mejorar la salud del suelo y la condición del pastizal, para impedir el reemplazo del pastizal natural por especies cultivadas anuales (Holechek y otros, 1989). Es importante encontrar el equilibrio que permita balancear los aspectos productivos con servicios ambientales como la conservación de las especies nativas, la vida silvestre y la calidad del agua.María C. Vecchio, María Isabel Lissarague, Lorena Mendicino, Bárbara Heguy, Anahí Musso Proyecto de extensión Sustentabilidad de productores ganaderos familiares en sistemas pastoriles, financiado por la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina cristinave08@hotmail.comLa Pampa Deprimida constituye una porción importante de los pastizales del territorio argentino, caracterizada, en términos generales, por presentar un paisaje plano con excesos de humedad y presencia de salinidad y alcalinidad. Esta gran área (90.000 km2) que ocupa el centro-este de la provincia de Buenos Aires, está atravesando un fuerte proceso de agriculturización de la soja que ha eliminado más del 30% del recurso natural, que representa un importante refugio y hábitat de especies silvestres y el principal alimento para el ganado vacuno.Aunque la Pampa Deprimida posee rasgos de homogeneidad de paisaje, encierra una gran heterogeneidad florística (León y otros, 1979). En porciones pequeñas de superficie de suelo encontramos diferentes comunidades de plantas diferenciadas según su ubicación en el paisaje, como las lomas, medias lomas, bajos dulces y bajos alcalinos. Estas son notablemente distintas entre sí en cuanto a relieve, características de suelo y vegetación. Esta heterogeneidad puede ser claramente apreciada a simple vista, mirando un potrero de pequeña superficie, o en las imágenes satelitales o de Google Earth, valiosas herramientas que están fácilmente disponibles en la actualidad. Las comunidades naturales presentan cantidades significativas de especies vegetales -430 especies totales para toda la regiónprincipalmente gramíneas y leguminosas, que brindan una importante biodiversidad necesaria para sostener la vida de las especies silvestres y el hábitat saludable para el ciudadano común (Perelman y otros, 2001).Los pastizales de la región, que se ubican bordeando importantes ciudades, aseguran la presencia de humedales y además brindan forraje de muy buena calidad y cantidad a lo largo del año. Los humedales aportan servicios ambientales diversos, como son la regulación de aguas, la recarga de acuíferos y el mantenimiento de hábitat para la fauna local y migratoria. Los pastizales en áreas cercanas a las urbes actúan como redes ecológicas para la conservación de la biodiversidad.Las redes ecológicas son esenciales para la migración, la dispersión y el intercambio genético de las especies silvestres.Los modelos agrícolas vigentes en las últimas décadas han considerado, por lo general, que lo rural se identifica con lo atrasado y que por lo tanto debería modernizarse. Este foco de atención disminuyó la importancia de aspectos cruciales para el bienestar de las personas más allá de lo económico, perdiendo valor lo tradicional en pos de lo moderno.L a tecnificación de las labores rurales y el avance de la frontera agropecuaria sobre áreas naturales es uno de los factores más importantes en la disminución de la biodiversidad y produce erosión genética y cultural. La sistematización de tierras y su introducción al cultivo y a la producción pecuaria implica la retracción y desaparición de numerosas especies vegetales nativas, muchas de ellas con propiedades para uso alimenticio, forrajero, medicinal, industrial, tintóreo y como combustible. Todas estas especies fueron utilizadas por los pueblos originarios y aun por los primeros pobladores inmigrantes que llegaron a estas tierras.En la Patagonia argentina estos procesos son causa de la desertificación que se manifiesta en distintos grados según la zona. El factor desencadenante de mayor peso en este proceso es la pérdida de cobertura vegetal motivada por la introducción de ganado exótico sin aplicar medidas de conservación.La importancia de mantener la biodiversidad radica en que cada grupo de individuos cumple una función específica en el ecosistema. Al desaparecer una comunidad vegetal, desaparece, en forma paralela, la función que ese grupo de individuos realizaba en el sistema. Podría trazarse un paralelismo entre este concepto y el de diversidad cultural. La multiplicidad de culturas aporta a la visión compleja de la realidad, fundamental para establecer nuevas formas de desarrollo.El proceso de pérdida de diversidad florística está directamente relacionado con la erosión cultural, es decir que estamos frente a un proceso de disminución de la biodiversidad. Esta situación podría revertirse recorriendo el camino inverso al que se recorrió durante la modernidad, es decir revalorizando los saberes y prácticas tradicionales y, a la vez, cultivando especies nativas o exóticas utilizadas por los pobladores rurales. En esta línea es fundamental que la familia rural participe activamente en los proyectos de desarrollo, desde su concepción hasta su puesta en práctica.El reto de revertir el proceso de degradación de los ecosistemas y al mismo tiempo satisfacer las demandas crecientes de sus servicios, puede conseguirse en algunos escenarios aunque se requieren cambios significativos en las políticas y en las instituciones, además de innovaciones tecnológicas sustanciales y mejoras en la capacidad de las personas para gestionar los ecosistemas locales y para adaptarse a la alteración de los mismos (Norero y Pilatti, 2002).A partir de 1997 se ha llevado a cabo una experiencia conjunta con los pobladores de una comunidad originaria. El biodiversidad/saber local foco estuvo puesto en la revalorización de especies nativas y el cultivo de estas y otras introducidas con valor forrajero, alimenticio, medicinal y tintorero. En forma paralela se trabajó sobre la revalorización de los saberes y la cultura locales. Se abordó principalmente el cultivo de especies forrajeras debido a que los lugareños tienen como actividad productiva principal la cría extensiva de ganado caprino y en menor escala ovino (Bünzli, 2007). Además se abordó el cultivo de especies que ellos señalaron como comestibles (Prosopis spp.), además de las medicinales y combustibles.Desde el equipo de trabajo se reflexionó sobre la hipótesis de que el fuerte proceso de transculturización sufrido por los pueblos originarios podría haber debilitado la fuerte ligazón que estos pueblos manifiestan ancestralmente con la naturaleza. En este sentido, se consideró importante comenzar a trabajar en las escuelas de la comunidad, por lo que entre 2002 y 2004 se trabajó con los alumnos, docentes y padres que deseaban participar de una propuesta, que además de compartir conocimientos científicos y saberes empíricos con respecto al cultivo de especies nativas, tuvo como objetivo recuperar el saber ambiental latente en las familias de la comunidad. En esta ocasión se trabajó en forma paralela en la escuela de El Cuy, localidad de la Región Sur de Río Negro (mapa 1).La Comunidad Gramajo ha presentado una clara evolución desde que se comenzó este trabajo en 1997, sus actividades productivas se han diversificado, la utilización de plantas nativas e introducidas se ha incrementado y los propios integrantes de la comunidad han sido agentes multiplicadores, compartiendo estas prácticas con otras comunidades que habitan parajes cercanos en la provincia de Neuquén, como Las Lajas, Campana Mahuida (Loncopué), Los Hornos (Mariano Moreno), Los Catutos (a 20 km de Zapala) y Añelo (mapa 2).El grado de apropiación del cultivo de especies forrajeras nativas e introducidas ha alcanzado tal magnitud, que en la feria de Zapala de 2003 se organizó una capacitación para productores que fue dictada por una señora integrante de la comunidad. Ella junto con su marido fueron los que mayor impulso le dieron a esta propuesta. Más adelante, a medida que se fue difundiendo la experiencia, a través de personal vinculado al Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería se estableció un contacto con una comunidad indígena de Blancura Centro ubicada en la Región Sur de la provincia de Río Negro (Argentina), que propició el encuentro entre integrantes de las dos comunidades en octubre de 2009 (véase foto).En el marco de estos procesos que implican el compartir material reproductivo (semillas), técnicas de cultivo y experiencias con habitantes de otros parajes de la provincia, se observa la importante participación de los pobladores de la Comunidad Gramajo en el desarrollo del proyecto original. Ellos son los actores que han tenido un rol fundamental en la difusión de la técnica del cultivo de especies adaptadas a las condiciones climáticas de la zona. A través de todos estos años de trabajo constante se ha concretado la revalorización de sus saberes y el empoderamiento de los integrantes de esta comunidad.La evolución del cultivo y la creciente participación de la comunidad Gramajo en este proyecto permiten formular la conclusión de que la gestión de la vegetación por los actores directos es posible. Por otra parte, la participación activa de los destinatarios de un proyecto de recuperación de la vegetación nativa es fundamental para garantizar su continuidad en el tiempo, ya que al aportar su saber ambiental aumentan las posibilidades de colaborar en el diseño de estrategias para la utilización sostenible de los recursos.A través de este trabajo se ha logrado recuperar, al menos parcialmente, saberes asociados a las plantas nativas y su uso sistemático, hecho que se evidencia en la práctica continua de cultivar especies tanto nativas como introducidas que luego se utilizarán en distintas aplicaciones. De esta manera se está logrando paulatinamente evitar el sobreuso de las plantas que crecen espontáneamente y así se contribuye a detener el proceso de desertificación y, simultáneamente, para los lugareños es posible continuar con su principal actividad productiva.La recuperación de las prácticas y destrezas tradicionales y locales conducirá inevitablemente a la inclusión de los poseedores de estos valiosísimos saberes -que hoy forman parte de sectores marginados de la sociedad-en planes integrales de desarrollo rural.No obstante, son necesarias políticas estatales que provean asistencia técnica permanente, además de la provisión de algunos insumos.La elaboración de planes de restauración o rehabilitación deberán contemplar el aspecto tecnológico en forma paralela a la visión ambiental, territorial y cultural. Será necesario invertir en nuevos modelos de capacitación que superen las concepciones de asistencia técnica y extensión convencionales y se concentren en formar una nueva generación de técnicos y mediadores sociales capaces de comprender y apoyar un nuevo enfoque de desarrollo rural sostenible. Ahora que la implementación del programa está por concluir, la sostenibilidad de la iniciativa es un tema clave que se construye sobre tres pilares organizacionales. En primer lugar, una amplia base de profesionales (102 técnicos y 329 promotores/paratécnicos) capacitados y con habilidades para utilizar diferentes metodologías para transferir conocimientos y servir de guías a los productores. En segundo lugar, el incremento paulatino de la productividad, lo que se traduce en mayores ingresos y, a su vez, en acceso a los mercados de alto valor. PROCASO ha apoyado a 41 cooperativas y empresas exportadoras llegando a 9.000 productores. Por último, la existencia y vigencia del equipo técnico del programa a través de financiamiento de otros donantes y algunos de los implementadores después de la finalización de PROCASO permite asegurar una fuente de conocimiento y herramientas para que las cooperativas continúen creciendo.La revisión de algunos casos particulares permite apreciar el impacto positivo que PROCASO ha tenido sobre los pequeños productores (y sus familias), sus ingresos, productividad y prácticas. El caso de la sociedad anónima Café Orgánico Marcala S.A. (COMSA), de honduras, es un buen ejemplo. Fundada en 2001 por 62 productores, en 2013 contaba con 840 productores (de los cuales el 26% son mujeres) que producen entre 95.000 y 120.000 quintales de café por temporada sobre un terreno de 2.646 hectáreas. Desde que consiguió las certificaciones sostenibles (UTZ Certified, Orgánica, Comercio Justo y Café Manos de Mujer) sus mercados se concentran en el exterior, con Europa, Estados unidos y, recientemente, China como principales compradores. y si a nivel productivo y de ingresos la evolución es innegable, no hay que dejar de mencionar que PROCASO tiene también consecuencias positivas sobre el capital humano de las comunidades y familias involucradas; para los socios de la cooperativa se reflejan en beneficios educativos como becas universitarias para los hijos de los productores, conseguidos gracias a los premios por certificación. Y es que las certificaciones sostenibles han hecho posibles los vínculos directos con los mercados de café diferenciados para los pequeños productores, lo cual significa un gran avance comercial.El caso de la Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples La Unión, de Nicaragua, miembro de la Unión de Cooperativas de Servicios Multiples del Norte de Nicaragua (UCOSEMUN), es otro ejemplo del impacto que PROCASO tiene sobre sus asociados. Después de cuatro años de vinculación al programa se pueden contar beneficios como la presencia de un equipo técnico con capacidades para desarrollar las actividades de extensión rural, la internalización de metodologías de enseñanza que los productores mismos pueden utilizar con sus compañeros, la presencia permanente de intercambios de experiencias entre organizaciones, la obtención de la certificación sostenible (UTZ Certified), la implementación de buenas prácticas agrícolas, la formación técnica vocacional para los hijos e hijas de los productores y la incursión en mercados novedosos con nuevos compradores.En una escala mayor, tenemos el ejemplo de la Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples Santiago, constituida en Nicaragua en 1994 y también miembro de la uCOSEMuN. Esta fue una de las primeras cooperativas en trabajar con PROCASO con el objetivo de Financiado por Solidaridad (www. solidaridadnetwork.org), con fondos de irishAid (www.irishaid.ei) e implementado por el SNV (www.snvworld.org) entre 2009 y 2013, el Programa de Calidad Sostenible (PROCASO) buscaba mejorar la productividad e ingresos de los pequeños productores y productoras de café en Honduras y Nicaragua. también tiene presencia, aunque menor, en México y Guatemala. Para ello se impulsó la implementación de buenas prácticas productivas y el acceso sostenible a mercados de alto valor, transformando positivamente el proceso productivo tradicional del café.Otro componente de primera importancia fue el fortalecimiento de capacidades, que se refleja en las habilidades de los equipos técnicos para brindar asistencia en campo; lo que se logró a través de capacitaciones y talleres, promoción de cursos e-learning, uso de herramientas y metodologías de capacitación, las alianzas de escuelas especializadas en cultivo y procesamiento de café, y el establecimiento de programas de formación técnica para personal de las organizaciones y jóvenes, estos últimos destinados principalmente a los hijos de las familias participantes en la cadena productiva del café. El tercer y último componente clave es el fortalecimiento de la gestión comercial, que implica la maduración de contactos de mercado, la visita de compradores, la participación en ferias de importancia internacional, el desarrollo de perfiles de taza y la realización de talleres de cata, tostado de café y giras comerciales nacionales e internacionales. La suma de estos tres componentes hizo posible el funcionamiento adecuado de PROCASO y la expansión del programa para replicar el impacto positivo en la vida de los beneficiarios.36 | LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 Empacando café orgánico para su comercialización PROCASO solucionar algunas problemáticas constantes como la contaminación de las fincas, el mal manejo agronómico de los cafetales y la fluctuación de los precios del café. Los beneficios que se ha logrado obtener en esta experiencia son similares a los mencionados en los casos revisados, pero incluyen también el mejoramiento de la infraestructura productiva cafetalera gracias a la construcción de beneficios húmedos y el uso de parcelas demostrativas para la enseñanza, así como el fortalecimiento de las capacidades y competencias organizativas del personal de la cooperativa y de los socios.también se encuentran casos de pequeños grupos de productores que, de la mano del programa, han logrado darle una evolución positiva a sus cultivos y a sus negocios como en el caso de la Asociación PILARH, organización sin fines de lucro creada en 1997 en Honduras con el objetivo explícito de apoyar Solidaridad es una organización sin fines de lucro que apoya la transición hacia una economía inclusiva, en la que las personas pueden participar plenamente. Solidaridad persigue una transformación del mercado impulsada por el sector privado. Sin embargo, las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y los gobiernos juegan un papel esencial en la activación y fomento del proceso de cambio. En este proceso, Solidaridad es un gestor de transición que apoya a los agricultores económicamente pobres, pero que tienen gran potencial en el emprendimiento y trabajo de sus mujeres y varones, quienes quieren construir sus medios de vida en base a ingresos justos. Los socios de Solidaridad y todos los involucrados en la cadena productiva cumplen un rol importante, porque el cambio es lo que importa.En Honduras, conversación entre técnicos sobre el estado del cultivo PROCASO a los productores con la compra de terrenos, el acompañamiento de sus ciclos productivos, la capacitación, la asistencia técnica y el otorgamiento de pequeños financiamientos. PILARH ha trabajado desde el inicio con un modelo bifocal: por un lado existe la preocupación por fomentar la diversificación de las fincas con la ayuda de los empresarios agrícolas dedicados al cultivo de granos básicos, al café, la agricultura y la apicultura, y por otro, la firme decisión de integrar esas fincas diversificadas a los circuitos productivos de empresarios no agrícolas dedicados a rubros como la panadería, o su engarzamiento en procesos como la producción de alimentos con inclusión de género, el mantenimiento de huertos familiares y el rescate de plantas autóctonas. El resultado ha incentivado, en el caso del café, la producción de café de calidad, el uso de secadores solares y la conformación de dos empresas de servicios múltiples: Aroma y Sabor de Occidente y Oro Verde. Si bien PiLARh no acopia café, sí brinda acompañamiento a estas dos empresas en el proceso de comercialización, dando seguimiento y acompañando el establecimiento de contactos con compradores y la negociación de mejores precios que los usuales.Como se desprende de las experiencias revisadas, PROCASO ha logrado resultados positivos a pequeña, mediana y gran escala, abarcando el espectro completo de los productores de café y de las actividades relacionadas. Las experiencias brevemente reseñadas no hacen más que confirmar el éxito que el Programa de Calidad Sostenible ha tenido y sigue teniendo a la hora de apoyar a los productores y mejorar sus prácticas tradicionales. hoy en día, estos productores pueden ofrecer para la exportación un café oro generoso con el ambiente y de primera calidad.LEISA revista de agroecología | 30-1 | 37Sus actividades abarcan el desarrollo de cadenas productivas como las del café, el té, el cacao, las frutas, los textiles, el algodón, la soja, la caña, el oro, la ganadería y el aceite de palma. En dichas cadenas, Solidaridad brinda servicios a productores como: capacitación en buenas prácticas agrícolas, desarrollo de capacidades y fortalecimiento a sus organizaciones incluyendo la asistencia para acceder a medios de producción, financiamiento y mercados. También apoya a las organizaciones de productores y empresas productoras para el acceso a la certificación de estándares sociales y ambientales, y a otras empresas para establecer políticas de responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) y cadenas sostenibles de abastecimiento, desarrollo de conceptos de productos y negocios sostenibles que amplíen el mercado para los países en desarrollo. Este apoyo comprende también el asesoramiento para el mercadeo y la comunicación sobre RSC, para una mejor información de los consumidores y los socios comerciales.En el vivero con las plántulas de café PROCASOCasablanca: biogás para la familia campesinaCarmen Felipe-Morales es ingeniera agrónoma y doctora en ciencias del suelo. Con su esposo Ulises Moreno, también ingeniero agrónomo, conducen la finca Bioagricultura Casa Blanca, centro de producción, capacitación e investigación agroecológica y agroecoturismo, situado en el distrito de Pachacamac, provincia de Lima, Perú.Entrevista: teobaldo PinzásCarmen Felipe-Morales con los participantes en el curso teórico-práctico sobre biodigestores en Bioagricultura Casa Blanca T. GianellaA partir de la investigación y la experiencia de Casa Blanca, ¿cómo se puede adaptar la producción y utilización de biogás a la agricultura familiar de pequeña escala?En la finca Bioagricultura Casa Blanca construimos en 1994 un biodigestor modelo chino de 10 m 3 de capacidad para la producción de biogás y bioabonos, utilizando como insumo principal el estiércol de los cuyes que criamos. Con base en estas experiencias hemos podido llegar a las siguientes conclusiones:• El guano de cuy, a través de un proceso de descomposición anaeróbica que ocurre en el biodigestor, produce una fuente de energía como es el biogás, además de excelentes abonos: líquido (biol) y sólido (biosol). • El modelo de digestor más adecuado para la realidad de nuestro país, en especial para la sierra, que es la zona donde hay mayor pobreza rural, es el modelo chino. Por su sencillez es el que mejor se adapta a un manejo familiar que tradicionalmente recae en la mujer. También el que se construya en una excavación lo aísla de las temperaturas frías en las zonas altas. Puede ser construido utilizando materiales disponibles localmente, lo cual reduce los costos de construcción. • Para obtener la mayor eficiencia en la producción de biogás es importante la determinación de las debidas proporciones en la mezcla de paja y estiércol (precompost). Por ello, se requiere adecuada capacitación y acompañamiento técnico hasta que se logre manejar este aspecto. Durante el gobierno del General Velasco Alvarado, el ITINTEC construyó biodigestores en varios lugares del país, pero luego de un tiempo fueron dejados en abandono. La excepción fueron los biodigestores que se construyeron en el valle de Siguas, Arequipa, donde la empresa de la leche Gloria estaba interesada, más que en el gas, en el biol, para que sus proveedores de leche lo apliquen en sus campos de alfalfa, demostrando en ensayos realizados con la universidad San Agustín que el rendimiento de este cultivo se incrementaba hasta en un 50% al aplicársele biol al follaje. Ello motivó a los agricultores a construir biodigestores con apoyo de la empresa y, sobre todo, motivó a las esposas al obtener unEsperamos noticias de los lectores sobre experiencias con energías de fuentes renovables. Enviarlas a Teobaldo Pinzás, tpinzas@etcandes.com.pe gas limpio y barato. • Los mejores resultados se han obtenido con estiércol de cuy, que tiene una capacidad energética tres veces superior a la del estiércol de res. Esto resulta muy conveniente para las familias rurales, especialmente de la sierra, porque la crianza doméstica del cuy es muy común en los Andes.Una familia campesina que trate de generar biogás a partir de los desechos agrícolas y el estiércol de sus animales ¿qué necesidades de energía podría satisfacer?Con un biodigestor mínimo de 5 m 3 de capacidad una familia campesina podría disponer de biogás para cocinar, alimentándolo dos veces por semana con guano de cuy y agua. Este volumen no permite la generación de electricidad, pero si podría usarse para encender una lámpara a gas. Las ventajas para la familia campesina son varias. En las zonas altas ya se utiliza el estiércol para cocinar pero como bosta seca, que se quema en fogones dentro de ambientes cerrados, lo cual es perjudicial para la salud. El biogás generado en la finca cubrirá una parte de las necesidades de la familia; para satisfacer otras necesidades se puede recurrir a otras fuentes renovables, por ejemplo a la energía solar, mediante la instalación de paneles solares fotovoltaicos.¿Qué cantidad de cuyes necesita una familia para generar biogás suficiente para la cocina?En Casablanca, para cargar semanalmente el biodigestor de 10 m 3 necesitamos alrededor de 300 cuyes. Esta carga nos puede producir hasta 3 m 3 de biogás por día. Para un Biodigestor de 5 m 3 se requerirían unos 150 cuyes.¿No es ese un número de animales que excede al que pueden mantener las familias?No necesariamente, porque en los últimos años ha aumentado mucho la demanda de carne de cuy y sus precios de mercado, en el marco del llamado boom gastronómico, y muchas familias han aumentado su producción de cuyes para aprovechar esta tendencia de la demanda.Hay también experiencias a gran escala. Por ejemplo, la empresa La Calera, que tiene alrededor de 4 millones de gallinas ponedoras, ha construido biodigestores de gran tamaño, modelo alemán, inicialmente para ahorrar en el consumo de energía pero actualmente también produce y vende biol.En lo que se refiere a experiencias con agricultores familiares campesinos, el Instituto para una Alternativa Agraria ha ensayado con biodigestores de geomembrana en la microcuenca de Jabón Mayo, Canas, Cusco, a alturas de 4.000 msnm, utilizando fitotoldos para contrarrestar la baja temperatura y generar un ambiente adecuado para el biodigestor. Pero es verdad que todavía debería difundirse más el uso de biodigestores porque es una alternativa que, en las zonas en que existe leña, ahorra a las mujeres el trabajo de buscarla, y además proporciona el biol, que es un excelente activador biológico del crecimiento y floración de las plantas, que se aplica principalmente al follaje, y el biosol que es un fertilizante orgánico de gran calidad y se aplica al suelo.Para que un biodigestor sea efectivo en las zonas altoandinas es necesario que sea construido con asesoramiento técnico y capacitación para su mantenimiento y uso.Finca Bioagricultura Casa Blanca carmenfm@terra.com.pe Biodigestor de geomembrana T. GianellaBiodigestores domésticos en África: el programa ABPP harrie Oppenoorth Desde 2009 se desarrollan programas nacionales de desarrollo del mercado y del sector de biodigestores en cinco países de África (Burkina Fasso, Etiopía, Kenya, Uganda y Tanzania). Estos programas se inician con la creación de demanda mediante la promoción acerca de qué es un biodigestor y cuáles son sus beneficios para el agricultor familiar campesino que produce cultivos y cría algunos animales (vacunos o porcinos). Paralelamente se capacitan albañiles en la construcción de biodigestores de ladrillos. La idea básica es que estos albañiles se conviertan en pequeñas empresas que venden biodigestores a las familias campesinas. Para cubrir el costo de los biodigestores (US$500-700 para un digestor de 6 m 3 ) se organiza también la provisión de créditos mediante organizaciones microfinancieras o cooperativas de ahorro y crédito. También se involucran ONG de desarrollo rural para la promoción y para la capacitación en el uso de biol, el efluente del digestor.La familia mezcla diariamente dos baldes de estiércol con dos baldes de agua y los introduce al digestor. Esta cantidad de materia prima da unos 5 m 3 de biogás, suficiente para cocinar todas las comidas del día y para alimentar una lámpara de biogás durante algunas horas. Como ya no es necesario recolectar leña, las mujeres ahorran ese tiempo y se evita la deforestación para energía doméstica. La cocina y las ollas quedan limpias y se elimina el humo que afecta a la salud. El biol permite fertilizar aproximadamente una hectárea de cultivos y, si se composta con desechos agrícolas, hasta 3 a 5 hectáreas. El biol da mejores resultados en los cultivos que el estiércol crudo ya que el nitrógeno después de la digestión anaeróbica se asimila más fácilmente por las plantas.Hasta ahora se han instalado en los cinco países más de 42.000 digestores y en otro programa de Hivos en Indonesia unos 12.000 más, también desde 2009. La diseminación aumenta exponencialmente y el número de pequeñas empresas que las instalan o construyen también. Se evitan la deforestación y las emisiones de gases con efecto invernadero ya que las familias dejan de usar leña y el metano emitido por el estiércol se captura en el digestor y se quema.En consecuencia, se trata de una tecnología con muchas ventajas para la familia campesina y, aplicando el enfoque de mercado e involucrando actores en la formación de un sector de biogás, se logra masificar hasta alcanzar decenas de miles de hogares.El Programa Alianza Africana de Biodigestores (ABPP por sus siglas en inglés) es apoyado financieramente por la Dirección General de Cooperación Internacional del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Holanda. Los fondos son canalizados por Hivos, quien tiene a su cargo la gerencia del fondo y del programa, desde su oficina en Nairobi. SNV lleva a cabo el desarrollo de capacidades en los cinco países y la gestión de conocimiento a nivel internacional. En su segunda etapa, ABBP se propone llegar a 100.000 nuevos biodigestores domésticos. Los paisajes cambian a lo largo del tiempo, así como las estrategias de quienes viven en ellos. En todo el mundo el aumento de la población origina una presión creciente sobre la tierra, llevando a una competencia por los recursos existentes tanto entre comunidades rurales como al interior de ellas mismas. En la actualidad hay también grandes fuerzas externas que presionan por apropiarse de la tierra para cultivos agroindustriales, expansión urbana, turismo, explotaciones mineras y de hidrocarburos, y están en competencia desigual con los agricultores familiares por la tierra y el agua. Los agricultores familiares y las comunidades pastoriles y forestales dependen de su territorio para obtener alimentos, combustible, forraje, madera, plantas medicinales y otros bienes para satisfacer sus necesidades básicas. Para muchas comunidades rurales los paisajes tienen también importancia cultural. Sin embargo, generalmente son excluidas de las estructuras de gobernanza del territorio y del desarrollo de políticas para el manejo de recursos naturales.En los últimos años los enfoques de paisaje y los enfoques territoriales han atraído el interés de investigadores, responsables políticos, organizaciones no gubernamentales, organizaciones del sector privado y comunidades rurales por su utilidad como herramientas para comprender la multifuncionalidad y las demandas competitivas de los diferentes usuarios de la tierra. En preparación para el Foro Mundial de Paisajes, a realizarse en diciembre de este año en el Perú, LEISA revista de agroecología explorará los esfuerzos de los agricultores familiares y las demás comunidades rurales para construir y dar vida a paisajes sostenibles. ¿Cómo hacen estas comunidades y sus organizaciones para hacer frente a las crecientes presiones sobre sus recursos, sean estas presiones internas o externas, locales o globales? Buscamos artículos sobre las relaciones entre bosques, agricultura sostenible y paisaje y sobre la conexión entre el paisaje, el territorio, la cultura local y la economía de la región. Esperamos con interés artículos sobre la defensa de estos paisajes de las amenazas de las grandes industrias, empresas mineras y otras fuerzas. ¿Qué mecanismos y políticas de gobernanza se necesitan para garantizar que los derechos de las comunidades rurales se respeten? ¿Es posible alcanzar acuerdos de beneficio mutuo con otros usuarios del territorio que permitan a las comunidades locales fortalecer sus sistemas agroecológicos de producción? ¿Qué futuro esperan las comunidades rurales para ellas, sus paisajes y sus territorios? Damos la bienvenida a los artículos que cuenten con información que sustente la evidencia de las experiencias presesentadas. Todo artículo para LEISA 30-3 enviarlo antes del 22 de junio de 2014, a: Teresa Gianella-Estrems, editora. Correo electrónico: leisaal@etcandes.com.pe Desde los territorios libres de cultivos transgénicos: defensa de la soberanía alimentaria","tokenCount":"20622"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"72a00fbf69932f164ade86724eee89a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/74b195e9-500c-4bec-b002-e1dcc144470b/retrieve","id":"-964290201"},"keywords":["Activity factors","Colombian livestock sector","environmental impacts","factorial analysis of mixed data","livestock production systems","public policies"],"sieverID":"435d2f06-9209-449d-a161-a4e60ac9c1a2","pagecount":"15","content":"environmental characterization of Colombian beef cattle-fattening farms, with a focus on farm size and ways of improving production The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.Cattle-fattening, mostly under grazing conditions, is a very important economic activity in South America, with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia being the Latin-American countries with the largest beef herds (FAO, 2013). In 2015, the total number of cattle in the Colombian beef herd was 10,473,067, roughly 45.7% of the national cattle herd (DANE, 2017). Cattle-fattening accounts for 45.2% of the Colombian beef herd, with the remaining 54.8% distributed between cow-calf (40.4%) and full cycle (14.4%) activities (DANE, 2017).Together, traditional-extensive and improved-extensive grazing systems are used in approximately 90% of the Colombian beef farms (Mahecha-Ledesma et al., 2002). In these systems, animals graze on large plots and their diets may include native forage species, the growth of which is reduced under dry conditions, thus affecting biomass and feed supply (Barahona et al., 2003). Cattle-fattening occurs mainly on improved, extensively managed pastures, a land use that represents 49.1% of the beef industry. The use of extensive grazing, together with the low nutritional value of tropical grasses, has led to stagnation of the national herd size and to low productivity rates (ICA, 2017). Thus, although important for the country in terms of social and economic benefits, it is necessary to improve the productive parameters of Colombian beef farms.Carrying out characterization studies facilitates the identification of the main production, reproduction, economic, and environmental variables that determine the degree of heterogeneity among farms.Collection of accurate information is critical to conduct characterization studies, which, among other benefits, are useful in identifying inefficiencies, and in proposing good farming practices, technological strategies, and differential public policies for sectoral development. This is important when increasing productivity and reducing negative environmental impacts are policy priorities.In Colombia, characterizations of cattle-fattening production systems, using primary data, have not been conducted, which limits our understanding of their dynamics, and the proposal of strategies to improve their productive and reproductive performance. Consequently, this study was carried out to characterize very small, small, medium, and large cattle-fattening farms across 13 cattle producing departments of Colombia from a technical and environmental perspective, to identify the main differences among groups and the proper strategies to improve their productive and environmental indicators.The information used in this study was obtained from the Sustainable Colombian Cattle Ranching (GCS, Spanish initials) and the Livestock Plus (L+) projects. The GCS project conducted surveys in a total of 2011 farms characterized as either cow-calf, cattle fattening, dual-purpose, full cycle, or specialized dairy livestock farms, which were selected based on environmental attributes, the existence of globally important ecosystems, and proximity to protected areas. Livestock farms surveyed were located in the departments (in parenthesis, the number of municipalities surveyed): Atlántico (13), Bolívar (4), Boyacá (12), Caldas (2), Cesar (10), La Guajira (5), Meta (10), Quindío (9), Risaralda (2), Santander (4), Tolima (6), and Valle del Cauca (7) (Figure 1). The criteria used to select these farms included being the property of Colombian owners and covering over 2 ha. A 10-component questionnaire used with each farm covered:(1) general information, (2) herd composition and management, (3) pasture management practices, (4) livestock production and reproduction data, (5) animal health, (6) environmental information, (7) social information, (8) organizational and relationship with the external environment information, (9) incomes from livestock, and (10) financial information. The L+ project conducted a survey among farms located in the Meta Piedmont (municipalities of Cumaral and Restrepo), Meta high plains (Puerto Gaitán and Puerto López), and Cauca dry valley of Patía (El Bordo and Mercaderes) (Figure 1). Surveys were conducted in 607 livestock farms as follows: Piedmont (150), High Plains (147), and dry valley of Patía (310). The questionnaire focused on eight components: (1) general information, (2) administrative information, (3) land-use information, (4) technical assistance, (5) production and trade system characteristics, (6) association membership, (7) financial information, and (8) climate events.From the 2,618 livestock farms surveyed, 275 beef cattle-fattening farms were identified. These were stratified into four categories of livestock producers according to the number of cattle heads (in parenthesis): very small producers (VSP: 1 to 30), small producers (SP: 31 to 50), medium producers (MP: 51 to 250), and large producers (LP: over 251) (Fedegan, 2006). Table 1 shows the numeric and categorical variables included, classified into five components. (1) (1) General Farm Information Total number of animals; total area, ha; grazing area, ha; stocking rate, Animal Units (AU a ) ha -1 ; flat area, %; undulated area, %; hilly area, %; agroforestry crops area, ha; perennial crops area, ha; transitory crops area, ha; forest monoculture area, ha; improved pastures area, ha; pasture area with more than 25 trees per ha, ha; silvopastoral systems, ha; livestock area, ha; number of: buffaloes, horses, mules, pigs, goats, sheep, hens and chickens.Farm facilities (barn, pen, chute, storehouse); machinery and equipment (tractor, chainsaw, manual lawn mower, motor pump, electric fence, electric pump, electronic scale); large species (horses, mules, and buffaloes); medium species (pigs, goats, and sheep); small species (hens and chickens).(2) (2) Herd composition and management Calves per cow; Number of: milking cows, calved cows, dry cows, female calves (0-1 year old), male calves (0-1 year old), growing females, growing males, breeding heifers, fattening steers, and bulls; supply rate (kg yr -1 AU -1 ) of mineral salts, supplements and concentrate feeds.Record keeping (yes, no); mineral salt supplementation (yes, no); plain salt supplementation (yes, no); another kind of supplementation (yes, no); concentrate feeds (yes, no).(3) (3) Pasture management Improved pastures area, ha; fertilized area, ha yr -1 ; fertilizer application rate, kg ha -1 yr -1 ; amendment application rate, kg ha -1 yr -1 Improved pastures (yes, no); rotational grazing (yes, no); division of paddocks (barbed wire, electric fence, mixed); shifting paddocks areas (yes, no); weeding method (manual, mechanical, chemical, mixed); fertilization (yes, no); agricultural lime (yes, no); dolomite lime (yes, no); pasture renewal (yes, no).(4) (4) Production InformationFattening final weight, kg; weight gain at fattening b , kg day -1 ; mortality rate, % Animal weighing method (weighing tape, scale),(5) (5) Environmental Information ---Forest (yes, no); water source (surface water, underground water, piped water); water springs (yes, no); water availability during summer for livestock (yes, no); wastewater treatment system (yes, no); solid waste management (incineration, burial, handled by a third party).a AU: Animal Unit (1 AU being either 1 cow, or 3.3 female and male calves less than 1 year, or 1.7 female and male calves 1 -2 yr, or 1.3 heifers 2-3 yr, or 1.3 steers 1-2 yr, or 0.8 bulls) b Weight gain at fattening (kg day -1 ): was estimated based on the weight at the beginning and the end of the fattening stage, and the fattening timeAssessment of each of the five components was performed by means of Factor Analysis for Mixed Data (FAMD), using the homonymous function of the FactoMineR package in R ( R Core Team, 2016). Mixed data are those in which both quantitative and qualitative variables are recorded on sampling units. FAMD is a multivariate method that simultaneously uses both types of variables as active elements to generate a lower-dimensional space, trough the combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) (Pagès, 2004). Quantitative variables were balanced and normalized to Z values, while the qualitative variables were disaggregated in a disjunctive normalized data table. This ensures to balance the influence of both quantitative and qualitative variables on the determination of the dimensions of the lower-dimensional space. This method allowed us to graphically study similarities/dissimilarities between production units (distances) and correlations between continuous variables (Pagès, 2004). Prior to applying FAMD, missing data imputation was carried out, using the algorithm implemented in the imputeFAMD function within the missMDA package (Josse and Husson, 2016).General information and land usage on the farms are presented in Table 2. Figures 2 to 6 include a graphic representation of the FAMDs for each of the five components described in Table 1, as well as: (a) the spatial relationship among the centroids of qualitative variables, with the categories of livestock producers used as a supplementary variable and (b) the projection of continuous variables on the factor plane of the first two dimensions with number of cattle heads as a supplementary variable. Supplementary variables did not participate in the construction of the model. Table S1 of the Supplementary material shows the contingency tables of the variables included in the FAMDs. The first two dimensions explained 41. 70, 24.78, 36.45, 68.7, and 39.37% of the total variability of the observations for the components: General Farm Information (Figure 2), Herd Composition and Management (¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia.Figure 3), Pasture Management (Figure 4), Production Information (Figure 5), and Environmental Information (Figure 6), respectively. The contribution of each variable (Square Cosine-cos 2 ) to the construction of the first two dimensions in each FAMD analysis is shown in Table S2 of the Supplementary material. Variables with cos 2 values closer to 1 were those which contributed the most to build each dimension and showed a higher correlation with them. There was a separation of the centroid of the different groups (VSP, SP, MP, and LP) in the components: General Farm Information, Herd Composition and Management, Pasture Management, and Production Information. For the component Environmental Information there was no a clear separation of the centroid, which suggests there are no remarkable differences in the implementation of these practices associated to farm size. Plotting the categorical variables within this component showed an alignment of the livestock producer categories over the first dimension of the FAMD representation (Figure 2.a). Such variables as electric fence, electronic scale, tractor, and big animal species were more correlated with the first dimension (Table S2). On the other hand, variables as barn, pen, chute, storehouse, electric pump, chainsaw, manual lawn mower, and motor pump presented the highest correlation with dimension 2 (Table S2). There was a close association between the presence of machinery, equipment and infrastructure, and the categories LP and MP (Figure 2.a). On the contrary, the lack of use of these technologies aligned to the left side of dimension 1 and were associated to VSP and SP producers (Figure 2.a).  S3 of the Supplementary material.Numerical area variables -total, with livestock, with improved pastures, with agroforestry crops, with forestry monoculture, with transitory crops, with perennial crops and pasture areas with more than 25 trees per hectare -were positively correlated with the first dimension representing farm size (Table S2). In addition, there was a high correlation between these variables and the number of cattle, i.e., with MP and LP (Figure 2.b). In turn, the variables number of buffaloes and number of chickens were more correlated in a negative way with dimension 2, while the number of pigs and the percentage of flat area were positively correlated to this dimension (Table S2; Figure 2.b).Herd composition, supply rates of supplementary feeds, and productive parameters for VSP, SP, MP and LP farms are shown in Table 3. 1.0 ± 3.0 2.3 ± 4.5 7.5 ± 17.6 37.0 ± 62.0 Fattening Calves (2-3 yr)3.1 ± 4.9 11.6 ± 13.7 31.1 ± 43.5 97.6 ± 119.7 Bulls 0.5 ± 1.5 0.5 ± 0.9 0.8 ± 1.8 2.9 ± 5.1 Supplementary Feeding Farms using concentrate feeds, % 7.0 13.9 10.9 25.0 Supply Rate of Concentrate Feeds, kg year -1 AU -1 * 171.0 ± 146.8 161.8 ± 130.1 394.7 ± 140.6 386.2 ± 185.9 Supply Rate of Supplements, kg year -1 AU -1 * 130.2 ± 174.2 135.8 ± 151.3 144.3 ± 192.8 131.9 ± 132.8 Supply Rate of Mineral Salts, kg year -1 AU -1 * 34.1 ± 9.6 34.9 ± 6.1 34.9 ± 6.7 34.0 ± 2.1 Productive Parameters Live Weight Gain (LWG), kg day -1 0.39 ± 0.1 0.45 ± 0.1 0.46 ± 0.1 0.49 ± 0.1 Mortality Rate, % 6.49 ± 7.8 4.49 ± 5.9 1.45 ± 2.4 0.75 ± 0.4 VSP: very small livestock producers, SP: small livestock producers, MP: medium livestock producers, LP: large livestock producers, AU: Animal units *Average calculated with farms applying this practice Analysis of the categorical variables showed a higher correlation in the use of concentrate feeds with the first dimension. In addition, the supplementation of mineral and plain salt presented the highest correlation with dimension 2 (Table S2). Results suggest that MP and LP farmers are more likely to keep productive records and use a larger proportion of supplementary feeds in the animal diets than VSP and SP farmers (Table S1).  S3 of the Supplementary material.Numerical variables as the percentage of dry cows, calved cows, calves, and supply rate of mineral salt presented positive correlation to dimension 1, while the cow:calf ratio and the percentage of fattening calves were negatively correlated with this dimension (Figure 3.b) (Table S2). In turn, the supply rate of concentrate feeds, the percentage of breeding heifers, and the percentage of bulls were positively correlated to dimension 2, while the percentage of growing males showed a negative correlation. Since the variable number of cattle heads did not contribute to a great extent to the first 2 dimensions of the FAMD, herd composition and management practices were not associated to the size of farms.Categorical variables as barbed wire and mixed division of paddocks, rotational grazing, mixed weed control, fertilization, and pasture renovation presented a higher correlation with dimension 1 (Figure 4.a.) (Table S2). On the other hand, improved pastures, division of paddocks with electric fence, and manual and mechanical weed control had a higher correlation with the second dimension (Table S2). In addition, there was an aggregation towards the right side of dimension 1 of the categorical variables chemical fertilization, pasture renovation, amendment application, mixed division of pastures (barbed wire and electrical fence), mixed weed control, and use of electrical fences (Figure 4.a). Variables related to the non-implementation of these practices oriented towards the left side of dimension 1, together with the division of pastures with barbed wire and non-rotational grazing. Livestock-producer categories were aligned along dimension 1, as SP and VSP farmers tend to carry out pasture improvement and conservation practices to a lesser extent.  S3 of the Supplementary material.With respect to numerical variables (Figure 4.b), the area with improved pastures and fertilization; and the number of cattle were positively correlated to dimension 1, while the amendment application rate was negatively correlated (Figure 4.b) (Table S2). Thus, in MP and LP farms the area with improved pastures and receiving fertilization was larger.With respect to the categorical variables, the use of a scale showed a high correlation with dimension 1, while the use of a weighing measuring tape and not weighing the animals being correlated with dimension 2 (Table S2). Regarding numerical variables (Figure 5.b), live weight gain (LWG) in the fattening stage, final fattening weight, and the number of cattle heads were positively correlated to the first dimension, while the mortality rate was negatively related to it, indicating better production performance in MP and LP farms compared to VSP and SP farms.  S3 of the Supplementary material.In this component, there was no a clear separation of the centroid among the four livestock-producer categories (Figure 6), which suggests there are no patterns in the development and implementation of environmental practices across producer categories.  S3 of the Supplementary material.Around 97.1% of farms fell into the VSP, SP, and MP categories (Table 2), which agrees with FEDEGAN (2006) in that a high percentage of livestock farms in the country belong to small and medium producers. Thus, public policies targeted at improving production, environmental, and social conditions of Colombian cattle-fattening farmers should prioritize VSP, SP, and MP, as well as to discriminate the type of market incentives among small-scale farmers and larger and entrepreneurial producers.Livestock farms with a higher number of animals and higher availability of machinery and equipment are more profitable, competitive, and generate greater income (Holmann et al., 2003). In this study, MP and LP were found to have greater availability of machinery and equipment and better facilities and thus, their economical and productivity performance should be better than that of VSP and SP. Similar observations were reported in studies conducted in Venezuela and Mexico, where farms with a higher number of animals had greater use of technology and infrastructure and higher income (Chalate-Molina et al., 2010).The percentages of farm area with flat topography was higher in LP (81.9%) and MP (66.9%) than in SP (48.9%) and VSP (43.0%). In contrast, the percent of farm area with hilly topography (slope over 60%) was higher in VSP (31.7%) and SP (23.5%) than in MP (10.3%) and LP (6.3%). Lands with steep slopes (over 30%) are not suitable for grazing (Ríos-Núñez and Benítez-Jiménez, 2015). Grazing on hillsides generates soil erosion and pasture degradation problems, reducing livestock production due to low forage biomass availability (Braz et al., 2013). This suggests that VSP and SP may be concerned with land degradation issues that can lead to less productivity. In addition, less than 50% of farms in each livestock producer category used improved pastures (Table 2), in spite of the fat that implantation of improved pastures increases forage biomass availability and farm productivity (Chirinda et al., 2019). Hence, ensuring adoption of improved pastures is of high-priority to increase productivity in cattle-fattening farms.In all farms evaluated, the percentage of males in the herd, mainly as fattening steers, ranged between 65% and 71%, and the cow:calf ratio was higher than 4.5, which confirms the orientation of all farms towards beef production. This is similar to what was observed in characterization studies of cattlefattening systems of Mexico and Venezuela (Mosquera, 2005;Velázquez-Avendaño and Perezgrovas-Garza, 2017). Supplementation with mineral salt was carried out in over 71% of farms assessed in each category; the use of supplementary feeds occurred between 51% and 75% of all farms, while the use of concentrate feeds occurred in less than 25% of farms belonging to each category (Table S1). In general, herd structure was similar in all farm categories, with a high percentage of males and a high cow:calf ratio. Feeding practices, however, varied, based on pasture topography and salt uses, and while some farms used supplementary feeds, similarly to what was has been described in Costa Rica (Holguín et al., 2003).Between 70% and 80% of the total farm area in the four livestock producer categories had naturalized, degraded pastures (Table 2), which leads to reduced forage availability and low animal productivity. Both MP and LP farms used better pasture renewal practices and had proportionally larger areas with improved pastures and fertilization, compared to VSP and SP (Table S1). In addition, VSP and SP had land with steeper slopes and a reduced availability of machinery, which limits soil mechanization, the establishment of pastures, and a more intensive land use. Similarly, among Costa Rican producers, it was mostly those of large farms who made substantial investments to renew their pastures (Benavides-Salazar et al., 2013).Pasture renovation practices aim at improving soil physical and chemical conditions by means of improving nutrient, water and air dynamics, thus promoting the growth and vigorous development of forages (Cajas-Girón et al., 2005). Pasture renovation includes practices such as mechanization, fertilization, weed control, planting grass and/or leguminous species, rotational grazing, and, depending on the degree of pasture degradation, the use of different combinations of the above. Therefore, it is clear that by implementing this type of technologies, it is possible to increase forage and beef production, and farm income (Cajas-Girón et al., 2012).The average harvesting age ranged from 28 to 33 months across all four producer categories, which is similar to what is reported for beef production systems in Ecuador (Ríos-Núñez and Benítez-Jiménez, 2015). The average final fattening weight ranged from 430 to 459 kg, which was comparable to those of fattening systems under extensive grazing in Brazil, where final fattening weight ranged from 420 to 500 kg (Dick et al., 2015a(Dick et al., , 2015b;;Ruviaro et al., 2015). Higher daily live weight gain occurred in LP and MP farms (Table 3), which might lead to higher income. In previous characterizations (Velasco-Fuenmayor et al., 2009), it was reported that larger farms showed better productive parameters and higher income than smaller farms. In this study, higher stocking rates, younger harvesting ages, and higher daily live weight gains occurred in LP farms, probably due to better pasture management practices than those of smaller farms.The mortality rates in the study were inversely related to the number of cattle (Figure 5.b). Research shows that conducting record keeping and technical control practices fosters health management of the herd, which reduces the occurrence of diseases and deaths (Díaz-Castillo et al., 2014). On the other hand, grazing in hilly lands can reduce the quality of forage, as well as animal well-being and increase mortality (Ríos-Núñez and Benítez-Jiménez, 2015). As more MP and LP farmers kept records and their farms had a higher percentage of flat farm area (Table 2), this could have contributed to the lower mortality rates observed in these farms. In addition, it must be kept in mind that in small farms, the proportional impact of one dead animal is greater than in a big farm.Over 63% of all farmers reported the presence of forests on their farms (Table S1). It was not determined what percentage of the farm area was allocated to this land-use, information need for the establishment of public policies for the conservation of forest and landscapes. In previous descriptions of Latin American livestock production systems, the forested area was found to be below 10% of the total farm area (Holmann et al., 2003;Ramírez et al., 2012). In tropical Latin America, the expansion of agricultural and cattle herding frontier has been conducted at the expense of forests. In Colombia, for example, 55% of the deforested area was transformed into pastures for livestock production (Cabrera et al., 2011). This suggests that it is important to analyze changes in land use to generate information useful to strategies for forest conservation, expanding forested areas, increasing terrestrial carbon sinks, and reducing national GHG emissions.Both lotic and lentic surface water bodies were the main sources of water in all four categories of the farms evaluated (Table S1). Under extensive grazing conditions, it is common that animals have free access to these water bodies, which could reduce their physical quality, increase their organic matter content, and reduce their concentration of dissolved oxygen (Chará and Murgueitio, 2005), especially, in the cattlefattening systems, where the main source of water is surface water. It is important to conduct assessments at the watershed level, to determine if livestock farming might cause eutrophication problems and to set up measures to mitigate these negative impacts. Creating vegetation corridors along riverbanks and ravines and restricting livestock access to these areas can reduce negative impacts (Chará et al., 2007).The use of wastewater treatment systems in the four farm categories was below 38% (Table S1). The contamination of water bodies from livestock farming operations is associated with nitrogen, phosphorous, and other elements, as well as pathogens and substances, such as pesticides, antibiotics, and heavy metals (Patiño-Murillo and Tobasura-Acuña, 2011). Thus, it is important to promote the adoption of wastewater treatment systems in livestock farms to reduce possible water source eutrophication.Our findings show that, in general, better infrastructure, better machinery and equipment, better pasture management, and better productive parameters and practices were found on larger farms. These factors, we believe, lead to a better economic performance. Developing better cattle management practices and implementing technology on-farm and providing technical assistance to the smaller producers, is necessary to achieve better productive and reproductive parameters in the Colombian beef sector.Further, it is important to assess the environmental performance of farms and identify the main environmental impacts associated with different size livestock production categories, with the purpose of proposing appropriate climate change mitigation measures that effectively contribute to the national goals of reducing GHG emissions.Future policies and government programs aimed at improving productivity and environmental indicators should pay special attention to the smaller producer, which account for the greater number of the Colombian beef farmers.","tokenCount":"4051"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b2703043729754e63d705bf011c7104","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ccac2dbc-2015-496c-84aa-f3e03d48902f/retrieve","id":"-380760258"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d73b2203-7bec-4daf-ac3a-597c7cddce4e","pagecount":"20","content":"En las regiones templadas del norte del mundo, las l imitaciones impuestas por la acidez del suelo se eliminan, en parte, mediante el encalamiento para aumentar el pH del suelo hasta llevarlo a un valor casi neutro; sinembargo, esta estrategia no es aplicable a la mayoría de las regiones de oxisoles-ultisoles e inceptisoles derivados de cen izas volcánicas, debido a la distinta naturaleza química de los minerales de las arcillas de baja actividad, lo cual resulta con f recuen cia en reducciones del rendimiento si dichos suelos se encalan hasta su neutralidad (Kamp rath, 1971).Por otra parte , los costos del transport e de la cal son con frecuencia altos en muchas áreas del trópico latinoamericano. De todas manera s , las principales 1 imitaciones impuestas por la acidez del suelo, toxici dad de Al y Mn y deficiencia de P, Ca, Mg, se de ben superar para lograr una agricultura exitosa en estas regiones que cubren un 70% con su elos infértiles en la América tropical.La acidez del suelo generalmente se or1g1na por la acción integrada de los factores de formación del suelo, pero puede ser ag ravada por la percolación continua del agua a través de éste, por el uso prolongado de algunos fertilizantes que dejan residuo ácido, por la de scomposi ción de la materia orgánica y mineral o debido a ciertas reacciones entre el suelo y las raíces de la planta (Kamprath , 1977 ).La acidez del suelo se identifica con ba jo pH ( < 5.5.), altas concentraciones de aluminio y/o ｾ Ｑ Ｋ Ｋ Ｋ ＠ + Mn++ y deficiencias de elementos esenciales. El aluminio es el catión predominante en el complejo de intercambio en estos suelos y frecuentemente un factor limitante del crecimiento de muchas especies de plantas (Adams y Lund, 1966).Para atenuar las limitaciones impue stas por la acidez del suelo sin hacer aplicaciones masivas de cal, se proponen algunas estrategias: l.Cal para reducir la saturación de aluminio por debajo de los niveles tóxicos para sistemas agrícolds específicos;2. cal para suministrar Ca y Mg y para estimular su movimiento en el subsuelo;3. uso de especies y variedades tolerantes a las tox icidades de Al yCa l para di sminu i r la saturaci6n de aluminio Hay tres consideraciones ｢ ｾ ｳ ＠ i cas que se deben tener en cuenta a 1 adic i onar cal para disminuir la saturaci6n del aluminio: la determi naci6n de la canti dad de cal que se debe adicionar s i es que es necesari o, l a calidad de la cal que se debe utilizar y la promoc i6n de l efecto residual ma s prol ongado. l . Determinaci6n de la dosis de cal El diagn6stico de l a toxicidad de aluminio en suelos ácidos de América tropical se ha basado en el aluminio intercambiable extraído con KCl 1 N, de sde la década de los sesenta (Mohr, 1960;Cate, 1965;Kamprath, 1970y Salinas, 1978). La recome ndac i6n para el encalamiento se deriva comQnmente de las s i guientes f6rmulas en la que el requerimiento de cal se expresa ya en mili eq uivalentes de calcio o toneladas de CaC03 equ i val entes por hectárea: meq Ca/100 g de suelo = 1.5 x meq Al Inter./100 g ton Ca C03 -eq/ha 1. 65   , 1979), el enfoque comQn ha s i do el de encalar el suelo para lograr una respuesta 6ptima del cul tivo. Este criterio se puede interpretar como el cambiar el suelo para satisfacer la demanda de la planta. Este enfoque es difíci l de aplicar en muchas áreas de América tropi ca l debi do a limitaciones de índole econ6mica. También se de be anotar que Kamprath (1971) indic6 que el encalamiento exces iv o puede tener un efecto en detrimento del crecimiento de las pl antas, como por ejemplo , una deficiencia de zinc inducida po r l a cal en yuca (Spain, 1976).Por consiguiente, es importante determinar la f6rmula más apropiada para convertir el Al intercamb iab l e a la cantidad de cal para sistemas específicos de suel o-cultivos . Cochrane et al., (1980) desarrollaron una f6rmula para determinar la cantidad de cal que se necesita pa ra dismi nu ir el nivel de saturaci6n de aluminio de la capa superior del suel o al ra ngo deseado:Cal requerida (ton CaC)3 -eq/ha) = 1.8 (Al -RAS (Al + Ca + Mg )/lOO , donde RAS es el po rcentaje crítico de saturación de aluminio requerido por un cultivo, una variedad o un sistema agr1cola determinado para superar la toxicidad del aluminio y Al, Ca y Mg son los niveles intercamb iables de estos cationes expresados en meq/100 g. Al compa rarla con datos reales de campo, la capacidad de predicción de esta ecuación es excelente (Coch rane et a 1 , 1980).Una ventaja adicional es que no se requiere un análisis de suelo exhaustivo sino solamente la extracción de aluminio, calcio y magnesio con KCl l N e información sob re l a tolerancia de los cultivos al al uminio en términos del porcentaje de saturación de Al.La adopc ión de dicha fórmula podría conducir a una utilización más efectiva de la ca l y ahorros considerables en las cantidades aplicadas como también en los costos.Ut ilización de materiales de calidad para el encalamiento Además de la forma para determinar las canti dades de cal que se deben apli car, es importante considerar la calidad del material para el encalamiento. Desafortunadamente, en las regiones de Oxiso l es Ultisoles de América tropical, por lo general es poca l a atención que se le presta al tamaño de las part1culas y composición qu1mica de la cal, excepto si es calc1tica o dolomítica (López, 1975 ). Es necesario fomentar estudios de caracterización de depósitos locales de cal tales como los realizados por Guimaraes y Santos (1968) para el estado de Pará en la Amazonia brasilera. El material ideal para encalamiento se debe encontrar en la forma carbonatada y el 100% debe pasar po r un tamiz 10 y e 1 50% por un tamiz 100 . Las fuentes de Ca C03 gruesas rara vez producen las respuestas deseadas en rendimiento del primer cultivo debido a que reaccionan lentamente. Con el fin de compensar esto, los agricultores con frecuencia aplican dosis más altas que las recomendadas, lo cual puede causar problemas por sobreencalamiento en cultivos posteriores (Camargo et al. 1962;Jones y Freitas , 1970).En parte del Amazonas , la mayoría de l as fuentes de cal se explotan para fines de construcción y se produce cal hidratada, Ca(OH)2 . Este material es extremadamente reactivo y sus efectos residuales son muy cortos (NCSU , 1975(NCSU , , 1976)).La alternativa para una mejor utilización de esta cal hidratada es utilizar dosis de aplicación más pequeñas y más frecuentes (Wade , 1978 ). Una mejo r alternativa es solicitarle a los productores de cal que muelan l a caliza al tamaño apropiado y mantenerla así en la forma carbonatada.Como el magnesio es particularmente limitante en Ox isoles y Ultisoles, se prefieren las fuentes de ca l dolomítica. Una relación Ca: Mg de 10:1 en el material para encalamiento generalmente se considera adecuada, aunque existe muy poca evidencia que sostenga esta aseveración.Generalmente se espera que los efectos benéficos del encalamiento de suelos ácidos duren varios años . Sin embargo, los efectos residuales por lo general duran menos en las regiones tropicales que en l as temp l adas debido a la mayor precipitación y a las temperaturas más altas (Lathwe l l , 1979) . La estimaci6n de los efectos residuales del encalamiento de suelos ácidos es un factor primordia l de manejo de los suelos en las regiones údicas de bosques tropicales y ústicas de sabanas . La duraci6n del efecto residual también dependerá del ecosistema . En general, los suelos ácidos en los bosques húmedos tropicales presentarán efectos res idual es más cortos que las regiones de saban a debido a la 1 iberac i6n más rápida del alumin io de lo s comp lejos de mate ria or gán i ca y a la mayo r remoc i 6n de bases por las plantas en sistemas anuales de producci6n de cultivos y quizá s a mayores pérdidas por lixiviaci6n en los bosques húmedos (Villachica, 1978) .El Cuadro 1 resume los resultados de los efectos res iduales de un experimento de encalamiento d largo plazo realizado en Bras il después de siete cultivos consecutivos (cir.co de maíz, uno de sorgo y uno de soya). Después de 6. 5 años, el pH de 1 su e 1 o disminuy6 en todas las dosis de cal probablemente debido a la ac idez residual por los fertilizantes nitrogenados . El nivel de al uminio intercambiable aument6 con el tiempo y los niveles de calcio y magnesio intercambiables disminuyeron. Los niveles de saturaci6n de aluminio aumentaron en aproximadamente un Ｒ Ｐ ｾ ＠ de los valores iniciales para las dosis de O, 1 y 2 ton/ha. Los rendimi entos de grano indi caron un excelente efecto residual , aún obteniendose más del 801 del rendimiento máximo de soya en el séptimo cultivo sucesivo con la dosis de cal de 1 ton/ha. Este resultado probablemente se asocia con la tolerancia al alum inio relati vamente alta de la variedad de soya utilizada.El énfasis tradicional en la fertilizaci6n con NPK en América tropical (con la adici6n reciente del azufre) ha distraído la atenci ón de las difundidas deficiencias de calcio y magnesio en las reg iones de Ox i soles-Ultisoles. En si stemas de altos insumos, las f uentes tradicionales de fertilizantes tales como superfosfato simpl e y ca l dolomítica, frecuentemente sa tisfacen los requerimientos nutricionales de las plantas en lo que respecta a los tres elementos secundarios . En sistemas de bajos insumos con plantas tolerantes a altos niveles de sa turación de aluminio y bajos niveles de f6sforo aprovechable cultivadas en suelos con baja capacidad efectiva de intercambio cati6nico (CEIC) , la correlaci6n de las deficiencias de calcio y magnesio requiere atenci6n directa.Di sponibil idad de calcio y magnesio Los principales factores que afectan la disponibilidad de calcio y magnesio en Oxisoles y Ulti soles incluyen el nivel de estos nutrimentos en la forma intercambiable, la CEIC , los niveles deCuadro l. Efectos residuales de las aplicaciones de cal a un Oxisol de Brasilia en términos de cambios en las propiedades qu1micas de la capa arable y rendimientos relativos en grano a 6 y 66 meses después del encalado.  Meses después del encalado. Los rend imientos se refieren al primer cultivo (maíz) y al séptimo cultivo (soya) . Rendimientos máximos fueron 4.0 y 2.1 ton/ha, respectivamente. aluminio intercambiable, la textura del suelo y la mineralogta de las arcillas (Kamprath y Foy, 1971).Ultisoles generalmente son muy bajos. El rango encontrado en sabanas de Brasil, Colombia y Venezuela es del orden de 0.1-0.7 meq Ca/100 g y 0.06-0.4 me t1g/100 g en la capa superior del suelo (López y Cox. 1977;Salinas, 1980;C. Sánchez, 1977). Los niveles de calcio y magnesio en el subsuelo generalmente son menores y a veces no son detectables en subsuelos de Oxisoles (Ritchey et Los niveles de calcio y magnesio intercambiables en Oxisoles y Ultisoles de bosques húmedos son relativamente mayores, especialmente en la capa superior del suelo.Las bajas CEIC de la mayoría de los Oxisoles y Ultisoles proporcionan algunas ventajas y desventajas para el suministro de calcio y magnesio. La primera desventaja es la rápida lixiviación durante períodos de lluvias intensas. Durante dichos períodos pueden ocurrir condiciones anaeróbicas temporales que inhiben la absorción de calcio y magnesio por las raíces. Durante la estación seca, la sequía puede acentuar las deficiencias de calcio y magnesio.La concentración de estos elementos en muestras de tejido de Melinis multiflora y especies nativas de sabana disminuyó significativamente durante la estación seca en Carimagua (Lebdosoekojo, 1977). Las plantas se enfrentan, por lo tanto, a una situación diftcil: probablemente hay una disponibilidad adecuada de calcio y magnesio durante parte de la estación lluviosa; durante ｰ ･ ｲ ｾ ｯ ､ ｯ ｳ ＠ de intensa lluvia ocurren pérdidas rápidas por lixiviación; y durante la estación seca hay una baja disponibilidad de ambos nutrimentos debido a la sequía (Gualdrón y Spain, 1980). Sin embargo, tanto las plantas nativas como las introducidas en sabanas de Oxisoles parecen exhibir un mejor comportamiento en lo que respecta al calcio y al magnesio lo que se puede inferir de los bajos niveles en el suelo y las relaciones adversas dependientes de la humedad. Rodrtguez (1975) indició que algunas especies pueden presentar mecanismos más eficientes de absorción de calcio y magnesio que los que actualmente se conocen.El aluminio compite con el calcio en la solución del suelo por sitios de intercambio.Por consiguiente, la toxicidad de aluminio se puede disminuir mediante adiciones de calcio {Millaway, 1979). La reducción en el desarrollo radical en condiciones de altas concentraciones de aluminio podría deberse a la deficiencia de calcio, la cual obstaculiza el desarrollo de ratees primarias (Zandstra, 1971).En general, los suelos dominados por arcillas 1:1 requieren un menor nivel de saturación de bases para una disponibilidad adecuada de calcio y magnesio para las plantas que los suelos dominados por arcillas 2:1 (Kirby, 1979).Esta es una ventaja de los Oxisoles y Ultisoles debido a la predomi nancia en ellos de arcillas 1: 1.Es escasa la informaci 6n que ex i ste sobre la dos i s de apl icaci6n de ca l para sati sfacer los requerimientos de fertilizaci6n con calcio y mag nesio.El Cuadro 2 resume las experiencias obteni das en Oxisoles de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia con nivel es de 0. 1 0.4 meq/100 g de ambos elementos .En algunos casos , la respuesta a 0.5 ton/ha de cal dolomítica se debe al magnesio. Spa i n (1979) present6 un informe al respecto para l a fase de establecimiento y mante ni miento de dos l egumi nosas fo rrajeras , Desmod i um ova l ifoli um y Puerari a phaseo l oides , en Carimag ua , Colomb i a. En un experimento a largo plazo reali zado en Brasilia, Bras i l , una res pu esta directa al magnes io t ambién respon di 6 por la mayor parte de la respuesta a la ca l por un primer cu l t ivo de maíz (NCSU, 1974). En Ultisol es de bosques húmedos en Yurimaguas, Perú , en donde no hay disponible cal dolomítica , Villachica (1978) recomend6 dosis de apl icaci 6n de magnes i o del orden de 30 kg Mg / ha / cultivo para superar las deficiencias de mag nesio y prevenir los desba l ances de K/Mg . Estudios real izados recientemente muestran que lastrop icales di f i eren en sus requeri mi entos de l calcio (CIAT, 1981).No impo rtando el fin por el cual se aplique cal (ya sea pa ra disminu ir la saturaci6n de aluminio o para sumin istrar calcio y magnesio, o ambos), sus efectos benéfi cos ocurren princi palmente a la profun di dad a la cual se i nco rpore , pues t o que la ca l no se mue ve en l os suelos en forma considerable . El subs uel o de l a mayo ría de los Ox i soles y Ult i soles es por l o genera l ác ido y con frecuencia presenta una barrera química pa ra el desarrol lo radical , ya sea debido a la toxicidad causada por el alum i nio , a una defi ciencia extrema de calcio o a ambas causas.Es común observar raíces de cultivos anuales confinadas cas i exclusi vamente a la capa arable encalada, con poca pe netraci6n hacia el subsuel o ácido en los Ox i so l es de sabana (González, 1976 ; Ba ndy, 1976) y Ultisoles de bosques húmedos (Bandy, 1977;Valverde y Bandy , 1981) . Dic has plantas sufren por defi cienci a de ag ua cuando ocurren períodos de sequ í a a pesar de tener suf i ciente humedad del suelo almacenada en el subsuelo. Ocurren pérdi das grandes en rendimiento cuando hay sequías \" temporales en etapas ｣ ｲ ｾ ｴ ｩ ｣ ｡ ｳ ＠ del crecimiento durante la estaci6n lluviosa en regiones de Ox i soles (Wolf , 1977).Un objetivo primordial de la tecnología de bajos insumas es la de estimul ar el desarrollo radical hacia dichos subsuelos ác idos como una alternativa para los sistemas de riego suplementari o mucho más costosos . Se han di señ ado t res estrategias para supera r este probl ema: 1) aplicaciones profundas de ca l en Oxisoles , 2) esUmulo al mov imiento descenden t e de calcio y magnesio y 3) el uso de cultivares y especies tolerantes . A pesar de que la incorporación de las mismas dosis de cal a los primeros 30 cm de profundidad en vez de los primeros 15 cm no parece ser una tecnología de bajos insumas, de hecho ha aumentado los rendimientos de maíz en varias estaciones en un Oxi sol cerca de Brasil ia, Brasil {NCSU , 1984; Sal inas, 1978;González et al., 1979). Esta práctica es factible en Oxisoles bien granulados que pueden ser labrados a una profundidad de 30 cm . si n mayores aumentos en el consumo de combustible de los tractores. En Ultisoles, con un cambio marcado en su textura dentro de l os primeros 30 cm de profundidad, esta práctica no se puede recomendar puesto que puede crear problemas físicos severos en ese suelo (Sanchez, 1977). Esto indica que no solamente se deben considerar parámetros químicos del suelo al definir la práctica de encalamiento más apropiada, sino que también hay que tener en cuenta los parámetros nsicos del sue lo.Una ventaja primordial de muchos suelos ácidos e infértiles es que sus propiedades f'isicas y químicas permiten el movimiento descendente de ca lcio y magnesio hacia las capas del subsuelo, disminuyendo de esta manera las limitaciones causadas por la acidez del suelo a mayor profundidad y aumentando el desarrollo rad i cal.El mov imiento descendente de calcio y magnesio aplicados en la forma de cal tiene poco signi ficado práctico en otros suel os dominados por arcillas de alta actividad.Como se mencionó con anterioridad , la cal no se mueve considerablemente en los suelos, pero el calcio y el magnesio intercambiables si presentan un movimiento cons iderable en Oxisoles y Ultisoles de baja CICE acompañados por aniones tales como sulfatos o nitratos (Pearson, 1975;Ritchey et al., 1980). La primera evidencia de este fenómeno en América Latina tropical la registró Pearson et al., {1962) después de aplicar aproximadamente 800 kg N/ha/año en la forma de sulfato de amonio a pasturas de gramíneas ferti 1 izada s intensivamente en Puerto Rico.La posible presencia de grandes concentraciones de aniones acompañantes estimuló el movimiento rápido de cationes bási cos hacia el subsuelo.En los últimos tres años se han hecho observaciones si milares en Oxisoles de l as sabanas brasileras y colomb ianas en Ultisoles de la Amazonía peruana, pero a niveles mucho más bajos de cal y de fertilizantes (Salinas , 1978 El pri nci pa 1 componen te de 1 manejo de 1 a acidez de 1 su e 1 o es 1 a selección de variedades productivas que sean tolerantes a la tox icidad del aluminio. Un procedimiento preferido para el efecto es la selección de un gra n núme ro de ecotipos ya sea en so lu ciones de cultivo, en el invernadero, en el campo o una combina ción de los tres. Para lograrlo exitosamente, se requiere de la colaboración cercana entre especiali stas en suelo s y fitomejoradores. Entre las técnicas de selección en soluciones nutritivas de cultivo, la prueba de l a hematoxilina propuesta por Polle et al. (1978) es muy útil.Sin embargo, los resultados de la selección en cultivos nutritivos o en invernaderos se deben va 1 i dar en e 1 campo con un rango representativo de los cultivares seleccionados. Spain et al., (1975), Howeler y Cadavid (1976) , Salinas (1978) y Salinas y Delgadillo (1980) presentan ejemplos de dichas correlaciones. Los estudios adelantados por los últimos dos investigadores de aluminios y fósforo puesto que estos tienden a ocurrir al mismo tiempo (Salinas, 1978).En consecuencia, los cultivares se pueden clasificar por el nivel crítico de saturación de aluminio requerido para alcanzar un 80% del rendimiento máximo. Para una localidad espec1fica, este parámetro se puede expresar en términos del requerimiento de ca l mediante la utilización de la fórmula de Cochrane et al. (1980), in corporando el porcentaje requerido de saturación de aluminio (RAS) .La toxicidad al manganeso es otro factor limitante en ciertos Oxisoles y Ultisoles.Aunque no se conoce su distribución geográfica, se considera que es menos común que la toxicidad por aluminio. La toxicidad por manganeso ocurre en suelos que presentan altos nivel es de manganeso fácilmente reducibles, general mente con contenidos relativamente altos de materia orgánica que pueden causa r condiciones anaeróbicas temporales. El manganeso es muy soluble a valores de pH menores que 5.5 particularmente en condiciones anaeróbicas, en lds que el Mn 4+ se reduce a Mn2+.En Oxisoles y Ult i soles bien drenados pueden ocurrir condiciones anaeróbicas temporales deb i do a la descomposición rclpida de materia orgclnica o a inundaciones temporales durante períodos de lluvia fuerte.Algunos ejemplos de dichos suelos incluyen el suelo arci l loso de Co t o, un Tropeptic Eutrorthox de Puerto Rico (Pearson, 1975) y algunos suelos Orthoxic Palehumult en la estación de CIAT Quil i chao en Colomb ia. A diferencia de la toxicidad de alumi nio, la toxicidad de manganeso puede ocurrir a niveles de pH tan altos como 6.0 (Simar et al., 1974). Los niveles de cal comú nmente requeridos para aumentar el pH de los Oxisoles y Ultisoles tóxicos ｾ ｮ ＠ manganeso a un nivel de aproximadamente 6, son por lo general muy altos. Por ejemplo, para aumentar el pH de 4.6 a 6.0 en el Ultisol de la estación de CIAT-Qu ilichao, es necesario aplicar Ca C03 puro a razón de 20 ton/ha (CIAT, 1978).En consecuencia, la principal estrategia es la de seleccionar variedades tolerantes . A diferencia de la toxicidad de aluminio, los síntomas de la toxicidad de manganeso, ocurren en las hojas puesto que este elemento tiende a acumularse en las partes aéreas, en tanto que el exceso de alum ini o se acumula en las raíces (Foy, 1976 ) . Los síntomas de toxicidad de manganeso incluyen cl orosis marginal, deficiencia de hierro induc ida , malformación de las hojas jóvenes y manc has l ocal izadas en los sitios en donde se acumula manganeso (Vlami s y Williams, 1973;Foy, 1976). En términos generales , aparentemente las leguminosas son más susceptibles a la toxicidad del manganeso que las gram1nea s (Lohnis , 1951 ; Hew i t, 1963). Los ci ent1 f i cos australianos han encontrado diferencias importantes en la tolerancia al exceso de manganeso entre las principales espec i es de legum inosas forrajeras.A pesar de que cerca del 70% de la extensión de t i erra de las regiones de Oxiso les y Ultisoles de América tropical poseen limitaciones severas por l a acidez del sue l o, no es necesario encalar estos suel os hasta llevarlos a su nivel neutro o i ncluso a un pH de 5.5 con el fin de obtener una produ cc1ón de culti vos y pastos sostenida.Los estimativos de las necesidades de producción de alimentos en el mundo a largo pl azo no requieren de altas dosi s de apli cación de cal pa ra las 750 millones de hectáreas de América tropical con limitaciones severas por la toxicidad de aluminio, deficiencia de calcio y deficiencia del magnes i o. A su vez, so n engañosas las aseverac i ones que indican que una producción agrícola sosteni da es posible sin el encalamiento en la mayoría de los Ox isoles y Ultisoles. La existencia de variedades de especies forrajeras y de cultivos muy to lerantes al aluminio puede el imina r la ne cesi dad de disminuir el nivel de saturación de al uminio del suelo med i ante el encalamiento, pero en la mayoría de los casos las plantas requieren de fertilización con calcio y magnesio . Esto se puede lograr mediante aplicaci ones de cal en dos i s pequeñas o med i ante el uso de fe r t ili zantes que contengan suficientes canti dades de estos dos nutrimentos esenciales . Las ap l icaciones de cal en pequeñas dosis son probablemente menos costosas por un idad de nutrimento que los ferti l izantes de calcio y magnesio.Un atributo muy positivo de muchos Oxisoles y Ult i soles de Améri ca tropical es la relativa facilidad de movimiento del calcio y magnes io en el subsuelo. Es pos ible aprovechar lo qu e normalmente se cons ideraría como un factor l i mita nte del suelo: su baja CICE. Junto con una estructura del sue l o favorable y suficiente lluvia , una baja CICE favorece la disminución gradual de las propiedades químicas del subsue lo. Esto a su vez fa vorece un desarrollo radical más profundo y menos oportunidad de que ocurra stress por la sequía. (Sá nchez y Sa li nas, 1973).La asociación de cultivos en el trópico tiene una historia ca s i tan larga como l a historia de la agricultura. Los s istemas complejos del campesino actual en América tienen sus ｲ ｡ ｾ ｣ ･ ｳ ＠ sin duda en las culturas ind í genas y sus cultivos de subsistencia . Su importancia se preserva en numerosas zonas de minifundio en América Central y Amér i ca del Sur, en especial a todo lo largo de la cordillera andina , en los valles, altiplanos y laderas.La investigación agr1cola en el trópico ha ignorado por largo tiempo esta realidad, enfocAndose hacia el desarroll o de una tecnolog1a cuyo objetivo es una producción mAs eficiente de unicultivos. En este sentido se ha llegado a aumentar el potenc i al de rendimiento de muchos cultivos a través de nuevas prActi cas culturales, uso de fertilizantes , fungicidas, insecticidas y herbicidas y ｡ ｳ ｾ ＠ mi smo medi ante el mejoramiento genético , con la obtención de nueva s variedades de rendimiento super ior para condiciones de alta tecnolog1a .Sin embargo, muchos de los cultivos al i menticios en el trópico se siguen produciendo en ｰ ･ ｱ ｵ ･ ｾ ｡ ｳ ＠ fincas con sus sistemas de ｣ ｵ ｬ ｴ ｾ ｶ ｯ ＠ tradicionales, sistemas comp lejos con dos o mAs cultivos en el mismo l ote, bajas densidades, labores manuales con mano de obra fam il iar y sin uso de insumos ｱ ｵ ｾ ｭ ｩ ｣ ｯ ｳ ＠ y variedades regionales de cultivo tradicional .La importancia de estos sistemas de producc i ón ha llevado a la necesidad de orientar la investigación hacia el entendimiento de los sistemas con el objeto de contribuir con una nueva tecnolog1a para el mejoramiento de las condiciones de vida y productividad del campesino.La asociación de cultivos puede definirse como un sistema en el cual do s o m ás especies cu ltivadas se siembran con suficiente proximidad en el espacio para resultar en una competencia interespec1fica para un recurso limitante o potencialmente limitante (Ha rt, 1975a). Esta definición impl ica que cada cu ltivo estará afectado por competencia con las otras especies componentes de l sistema . Como consecuencia , el rendimiento de una especie serA menor cuando es asociada que en unicu l tivo.La característica mas notable del s i stema es que cualquier variación en un factor que influya en el crecimiento y desarrollo de las plantas, resultarA en una ventaja selectiva de uno de l os cul tivos sobre el otro. Esta in teracción dinámica entre los cultivos asociados trae aparejada una mayor estabilidad de producción del s i stema como un conj unto, con un menor riesgo de pérdida total por cualquier• factor de stress ｦ ｾ ｳ ｩ ｣ ｯ ＠ o enfermedad de una de las especies. Cuando el rend imiento de un cultivo di sminuye , aumenta el del otro o los otros.Al definirse esta interacción cor11o un atributo propio del sistema, se evidencia la necesidad de analizar y eval uar l os s i stemas de asociación de cultivos que se encuentran en la rea lidad entre las forma s tradiciona les de 1 os campesinos en América, como un conjunto integrado por dos o más cultivos, con una mayor estabi lidad de producción y menor riesgo a través ce los años que l os unicultivos por separado. La mayor estabilidad del ecosistema se explica ｣ ｯ ｮ ｾ ＠ un freno a la multi plicación de los patógenos e insectos por la presenci a de la otra especie , f r ente a las al t as densidades de siembra del unicultivo (Rappaport , 1971). Lépiz (1974) ha observado en Méx i co, en varios años de ensayos de asociación ma1z -frijol, mayor sani dad del frijol asociado en cuanto a plagas y enfermedades respecto a los unicultivos. También se produce un mejor aprovechamiento de las variaciones del medio ambiente, ventaja que tiene una mezcla de genotipos en un ambiente vari able, por ejemplo en un factor como distribución de las lluvias. La eficiencia fotosintética del ecosistema asoc i ado es mayor que en los unicultivos, debido al mayor aprovechamiento de l a l uz en estr atos fo l iares di ferentes o más amp li os. El sombreado de los cu l tivos fa vo rece así mismo una mayor competencia del sistema con las ma l ezas.Respecto a la interacción y estabilidad en la asociación de maíz-frijol, comenta Lépiz: \"en algunos ensayos los rendimientos de frijol han sido sobr esalientes, en algunos otros el maíz no ha l ogrado una buena producción y en otros más, tanto el fri jol como el maíz han producido buena cosecha ; de acuerdo principalmente a la disponibi l idad de humedad en un momento dado\".En cuanto a l a asoc i ación de cultivos como a l ternativa para e l agricultor se evidenc i a en varios t r abajos (Francis, Sanders, 1979;Hart, 1975b;Tobón et al, 1975, Lépiz, 1974) que el beneficio económico de las asoci aci ones en l a mayoría de los casos es significativamente más alto que el de los unicultivos, siendo una buena alternativa para el uso de los recursos del campesino en las zonas estudiadas. \"La ganancia combinada de ambos cul tivos en la asociaci ón supera sistemáticamente a la ganancia que se ob ti ene a l sembrar fri jol o ma í z solos (Lépiz, 1974). \"Los sistemas de a lte r nati vas probados de unicultivos de maíz y frijol con variedades mejo r adas , con mayor fert il i zaci ón y mayores densi dades de población no f ueron superior es en ingresos netos a los sistemas agr1colas tradi cionales\" ( r elevo papa-ma1z -fri jol) (Tobón , 1975).La disminución del riesgo en el sistema de asociación, junto al mayor beneficio económico, demuestran la racionalidad de estos sistemas agrícolas tradi c i onales y su pe r sistencia en los distintos países del área. Como contraparte, los unicultivos, sistemas de siembra de una sola va ri edad a densidades a 1 tas de pob 1 aci ón, en extensiones y con uso de maq ui na ri as , tiene una productividad e l evada y se la considera como una evo lución de l a agricultura . Si n embargo, t ambién se dice que es el ecosistema más delicado e i nestable que jamás haya aparecido en la tierra .Como conclusión de este análisis cabe mencionar del trabajo de Tobón en Colombia , analizando los sistemas complejos de Antioquia, \"Sistemas agd co l as como l os que los agricultores del Oriente de Antioquia han i deado existen en muchas reg i ones de agricultura tradicionalmer,';P E>n América Latina. Por diferentes razones, los agrónomos latinoameri canos hemos aceptado a priori la ineficiencia de estos sistemas agdcolas, f r ente a l os prometedores avances que ofr ece la llamada revol uc i ón verde. El hecho en s í de que los sistemas agrícolas tradicionales hayan subsi stido pese a l a opinión adversa de l os agrónomos puede tomarse como una evidencia de que aq uellos ofrecen ventajas para los agriculto res t r adicionales. Si se acepta esta posición, el reto para e l fitomejorador y el agró nomo es desarrollar nuevas variedades y tecnologtas apropiadas para los ｰ ･ ｱ ｵ ･ ｾ ｯ ｳ ＠ agricultores que representen un verdadero beneficio para ellos.Se hace mención de algunas estimaciones estadtsticas como ejemplos especHi cos de la importancia de la asociación de cu l tivos en el mundo (A.S . A ., 1976;Gutiérrez, et al . 1975).El 98% de la producción de caupí, principal leguminosa en Africa, se encuentra asociada con otros cultivos al imenticios.El 83% del terreno cultivable en la zona norte de Nigeria se ded i ca a cultivos múltiples.El 90% del cultivo de fri jol en Co l ombia se encuentra en asociación con maíz, papa y otros cu lti vos .El 73% de la producción de frijol en Guatemala se encuentra en asociación, principalmente con ma1z.El 80% de frijol en Brasil se encuentra sembrado en asociación con otros cultiv os, principalmente ma1z. El 58% del fri jol en México corresponde a siembras asociadas con matz .El 60% del ma1z y un 70-80% de frijol en el trópico latinoamericano se encuentran asociados con otros cultivos . Terminolog1a de los sistemas de cultivos asociados Durante el simposio sobre cu ltivos múltiples celebrado en Knoxv ill e (A. S.A., 1976), se acordó una serie de términos para describir los varios sistemas de cultivos mú l tiples. Con ello se bus ca normalizar el uso de dichos términos para evitar problemas de comun i cación entre l os investigadores. l . Culti vos mú lti ples (Multiple Cropping): La intensificación de la agricultura en tiempo y espacio por medio de la siembra de dos o más cultivos en el mismo terreno, durante el mismo ai10 . Dentro de este concepto hay una serie de alternativas . Cu l tivos de relevo . Siembra del segundo cultivo antes de la cosecha pero después de la floración del primero.Unicultivo (Sole Cropping):La siembra de una sola variedad a su densidad normal.Monocultivo: La siembra repetida del mismo unicultivo en el mismo terreno .La siembra cíclica de una serie de cultivos, que puede incluir un período de descanso, en el mismo terreno a través de varios anos.La secuencia anual y colocación f1sica de los cultivos, o de los cultivos y el barbecho, en determinado campo .Los patrones de cultivos utilizados en una finca y sus interacciones con recursos u otras actividades en la finca, as í como la tecnolog1a, disponible que determi na su composición.Según esta terminología, al hablar de cultivos múltiples se trata de una escala de posibilidades agronómicas, desde un extremo de cultivos en secuencia, en serie, traslape parcial o relevo de cultivos hasta el otro ex tremo de una siembra s imultánea de cultivos . En la realidad se presentan distintas situaciones para cada caso, como por ejemplo en asociación directa o siembra simultánea, sistema que puede ser intensivo, con altas densidades de cada cultivo y una producción relativamente alta; o muy tradicional , con varios cultivos, sin organización, a densidades bajas, sin uso tan intensivo del terreno o de otros recursos disponibles.A continuación se ejemplifican algunos sistemas de asociación de frijol principalmente con ma1z, existentes en pa1ses de América Latina.l. Cultivos mixtos frijol trepador-maíz:Este s i stema se encuentra en países como México, Guatemala, Co lombia, Ecuador y Perú. Su producción se concentra en los valles y","tokenCount":"6003"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4515c2882047f78053212cdbd21bcf08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/94631f77-4b4c-4ad1-b152-db2e6fa34783/retrieve","id":"-1037378800"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f99eb622-5df2-407a-9f51-3f6396b00b90","pagecount":"14","content":"The mainstay of the economy of North East States of India is agriculture and allied activities, which is currently exhibiting trends of decreased sustainability. Agriculture is practiced in mixed crop-livestock system but with low inputs and low outputs. Slash and burn agriculture is still predominantly practiced in almost all the states on steep slopes with a reduced fallow cycle of 2-3 years against 10-15 years in the past.Livestock production is a crucial component of the livelihoods of most rural families in the states of NE India, especially pigs and poultry -25% of all pigs in India are in the NE States, 80% of tribal families keep a few pigs (generally 2-3) and it is estimated that 50% of all pork consumed in India is consumed in the North East (ICAR 2007). Livestock not only provides products for household consumption, but also serves as a means of generating income, accumulating capital, diversifying risk, meeting socio-cultural need. Consumption of milk is not common among tribal people and therefore except in Assam and some pockets of other NE states, cattle rearing is not widely prevalent. In higher altitude areas such as in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, Yak and Mithun are also important livestock species. Recent studies have indicted that there is a growing demand for livestock products within the region. This is especially true for pork: a recent study by ILRI and local partners (Deka at al., 2007) estimated that the demand for pork in surveyed districts of Nagaland has increased by 15-25% over the past 7 years. Nagaland alone imports about 10,000 pigs from outside the state in every month. In respect of eggs, trade source indicates that about 10 million eggs are being procured from outside the region every month. In the case of milk products about 2500 tonnes are imported into the region each month. This suggests that there are significant opportunities for improving the livelihoods of large numbers of the most disadvantaged communities in the region for whom livestock rearing is an integral part of their household farming activity. However there are a number of constraints to the improvement of livestock production, which will be the focus of this sub-project.The National Agricultural Innovation Project is funding a project led by ICAR NEH Regional Complex entitled 'Livelihood Improvement and Empowerment of Rural Poor through Sustainable Farming Systems in North East India' The project will focus on seven of the most disadvantaged districts in NE India (excluding Assam). ILRI will participate only in one target district, Mon District of Nagaland. NAIP has allocated Rs 3,674,000 (approx US $91,850) over 5 years (2007-08 to 2011-12) to ILRI to cover in-country research costs and the salary of one Research Assistant. IFAD has agreed to provide $110,000 over the first three years of the project to fund international staff costs, international travel and some local staff costs plus some operating costs to allow the full participation of ILRI. 1. Assess the contribution of livestock to the livelihoods of the target communities. 2. Assess the market for livestock products and opportunities for improving marketing and market efficiency. 3. Evaluate, test and promote viable and sustainable options for improved feeding, breeding and management practices. 4. Build capacity among stakeholders in participatory approaches to research on livestock-based farming systems for livelihood security. 5. Ensure suitable institutional and policy measures are developed for promoting sustainability of improved practicesThe project is being implemented in Lompongsheanghah and Longwa villages of Mon district of Nagaland. Lompongsheanghah village is located about 30 km from Assam Nagaland border and 10 km away from the district headquarters (Mon town) while Longwa village is located about 40 km from Mon Town on both side of the border Indo-Myanman. The connectivity to Longpongsheanghah village is poor because of poor road condition.Earlier Longwa was almost inaccessible by road for 5-6 months in year because of very poor road conditions, however the road has it improved significantly in the last year.There are about 115 households in Longpongsheanghah village and about 536 households in Longwa village. Economically, the villagers are very poor and they can hardly meet two square meals round the year -the magnitude of poverty is more in Longwa village than Longpongsheanghah village. The people are cash starved, and yearly cash income comes to not more than Rs.15,000/-in Longpongsheanghah village and Rs.6000/-in Longwa villge out of which about 20-25% is contributed by livestock. The major sources of cash income are selling of fire wood, vegetables, orange, bamboo, pigs, poultry, traditional crafts, handloom products, minor business/ services and daily wage earning.In both the villages almost all the households have cultivable land and almost all of them depend on jhuming(shifting cultivation). Maize, colocacia, paddy (rice) and millets are the major crop. Some of them also grow vegetables. Their own agricultural produce is usually not even enough to meet the household requirement for 6 months. Many of the villagers depend on colocacia, tapioca and jungle food/ leaves as staples for certain periods of the year. Amongst the livestock, pigs (about 70% households rear pigs) and poultry (about 40% in 15% in Longwa) are the most notable, while cattle, goat and Mithun (about 20% in Longpongsheanghah and 15% in Longwa) are reared by only a small section of households. About 90% of households rear one or more species of livestock in Longpongsheanghah village and about 75% in Longwa village. Cows and goats are not very important as milk and chevon are not the choice of food for the local people. Mithun plays an important role in the household economy of those who own them as selling a Mithun can raise Rs.20,000/-to Rs.25,000/-each. But the opportunity for technical intervention in Mithun production is limited by its semi-wild nature of rearing. All the livestock in the villages are low productive indigenous breed or their crosses and herd size is very small ranging from 1-5. Livestock are reared mainly as a part of household tradition/culture and for home consumption or occasional selling, proper market orientation is not there. Rearing of pigs for breeding (boar and sows) is not a popular practice in the village. Feed is generally gathered from the field and it is mostly constituted of jungle forages, colocacia, tapioca and kitchen waste. Cultivation of food-feed crops (including sweet potato) in the homestead for feeding pigs is not practiced. Except wheat bran, other feed ingredients are not available in the villages.There are absolutely no veterinary services. Producers have the traditional skill for management of indigenous pigs but they are not well versed with management of cross-bred pigs. They do not have adequate knowledge and confidence about breeding (care and management of pigs during pregnancy and lactation), feeding (cultivation of new feed crops) and management of cross-bred pigs. There are no linkages for supply of farm inputs and selling of outputs.Prior to NAIP, no organisation made any concerted effort to build the capacity of the villagers or support the villagers on management of improved livestock for income and employment generation. Out of all the livestock species, villagers identified pigs as the most preferred and important livestock species for livelihood improvement. The key challenges for improved pig production were (a) existing pigs were of indigenous breed which took almost 4-5 years to achieve the market weight (80-100 kg), (b) feeding practice was completely unscientific -mainly jungle forage based, (c) little or no access to improved farm inputs (piglet, feed) and veterinary services, (d) the housing system was unhygienic, (e) inadequate knowledge and confidence for rearing of pigs for breeding purpose-pigs ate reared mainly for fattening purpose, and (f) little or no access to markets.For improving livelihoods through livestock development (especially pigs) all the above constraints need to be strategically addressed keeping in view the local resource constraints (mainly feed and financial), demographic conditions, geo-political situation and market opportunities.It was initially planned to undertake a survey of market opportunities early in the project, but as explained in last year's report this was delayed at the request of local partners to concentrate initially on capacity building activities. It was decided to implement the market survey in 2009 but in view of the need to implement a similar survey in other districts of Nagaland in 2010 as part of another project it was decide to conduct the survey in Mon district at the same time as that in other district to give a state-wide view.Howeve to start to create market linkages between with the villagers and pig traders/ pork retailers, piglet traders, feed suppliers, medicine suppliers, veterinary departments and banks, a buyers-sellers meet was organized in both the project villages in January 2010 in association with ICAR and SASARD in. This gave a platform for information sharing and built linkages between the villagers and service providers. There was lot of open discussion among the participants about their business and terms and conditions and the possibility of helping each other.Because the capacity building is an integral part of the testing and promoption of improved practicies, these two objectives are reported together.Initially, ILRI staff visited some of the villages in Assam and Nagaland to identify local best practices and thereafter they visited the project villages and had thorough consultation with the villagers to identify the key interventions. It was discuss and decided to help only 3 SHGs (two men and one women SHG) in Longpongsheanghah village and 2 SHGs (both women SHGs) in Longwa village on pig production (only those SHGs which were not supported by partner institutes). The key areas of interventions were identified as (a) distribution of good breed of pigs under Hands on Gift (HoG) scheme, (b) development of community-based veterinary service delivery system, (c) support for cultivation of food-feed crops, (d) capacity building on improved pig management (especially for breeding purposes) and (f) develop linkages with all relevant stakeholders. Thereafter, a work plan was prepared, shared and agreed with the partner institutes and permission taken from them to work with the SHGs already promoted by them.As a first step of actual intervention in the project villages, the ILRI workplan was explained to the members of the target SHGs. Villagers were asked to identify two young educated youths from each project village who could service the community as Veterinary First Aid Practitioners. Accordingly, the villagers organized a general meeting and came up with two suggested names from each village. The members of each self help group were asked to identify the six most successful pig producers within the group who would receive better quality piglets supplied by ILRI under HoG scheme. They were also asked to select the down-line beneficiaries (2 or 3 in number) under each first line beneficiary, who would receive piglets as a gift at the end of production cycle from the first line beneficiaries. All the SHGs organized their own group meeting (where ILRI's RA was invited observer) and identified the first, second and third line beneficiaries and submitted the list of beneficiaries to ILRI. The key objective of this initiative was to use the best local people to take the lead in the initiative and have put a peer pressure within the group for the initiative to be successful.Before distributing the piglets to the beneficiaries, training on \"Smallholder Pig Management\" was designed (after assessment of training need) and organized in June 2009 in both the project villages, using a local veterinarian and successful pig producers as resource persons. Another, refresher training was organized in the project villages in August 2009 on the same topic. The training was also accompanied by exposure visits to some of the successful pig producers. AfterTraining of paravets building the capacity of the target beneficiaries, piglet distribution and other assistance programmes were started.All the identified beneficiaries were provided with a good quality piglet procured from College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara. Along with the piglets, they were given 10-15 kgs of concentrate feed as initial support. All piglets were vaccinated against Swine Fever before transporting from Khanapara. Community First Aid practitioner offered deworming drugs, mineral and vitamin mixture to the piglets in due course of time. Unfortunately, some mortality was recorded in the piglets procured from Khanapara which were thereafter replaced by locally sourced best quality pigs from Mon town, selected by the beneficiaries. Currently, 3 SHGs (20 beneficiaries) in Longpongsheanghah village and 2 SHGs (14 beneficiaries) in Longwa village are rearing improved pigs.For better feeding of pigs, it was suggested to all the first line beneficiaries that they cultivate food-feed crops (sweet potato, colocacia, tapioca and maize) in the backyard. In this connection, first line beneficiaries were also provided with planting materials of an improved variety of sweet potato supplyed by the International Potato Centre (CIP), Bhubneswar. Before distributing the planting materials to the beneficiaries, it was multiplied in SASARD campus, Nagaland. Locally available other best quality food-feed crops were suggested. Other than supplying the sweet potato planting materials, no financial assistance (in any form) was given to the beneficiaries. ILRI's staff worked closely with the community and motivated the people to cultivate food-feed crops for their betterment and offered technical guidance whenever required. It is worth mentioning here that out of 20 first line beneficiaries in Longpongsheanghah village 18 cultivated the food-feed crops and in Longwa village out of 14 beneficiaries, 10 cultivated the crops.The buyers-sellers meet in LongwaTo stimulate growth and to reduce the incidence of diseases, better housing is required. To improve the housing conditions, all the beneficiaries were suggested and motivated to construct a larger pig sty to improve the comfort of the pigs. Also, they were suggested to construct the sty in their backyard especially in a dry area having plenty of sunlight and a proper drainage system for collection of manure. Other than suggestions and guidance no financial assistance was given to them. Surprisingly, out of 20 beneficiaries in Longpongsheanghah village, 18 constructed or renovated the sty and in Longwa village out of 14 beneficiaries, 8 constructed or renovated the pig sty with locally available materials using their own labour.To reduce the incidence and spread of diseases explained to them about the use of these disinfectants in cleaning pig sty, farm utensils and surroundings. Thereafter, SHG group members and ILRI's trained paravets collectively cleaned stys of all the beneficiaries and distributed some disinfectants for further cleaning. Out 20 beneficiaries in Longpongsheanghah village, 18 are adopting the clean and hygienece measures and in Longwa village out 14 beneficiaries, 8 are adopting the measures.A summary of the key capacity building and improved practices is given in As a part of the policy advocacy strategy, ILRI is working closely with the Minister, Commissioner & Secretary and other top officials of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Deptartment, Nagaland. Linked to other ILRI projects in Nagaland, ILRI is trying to influence policy makers to design livestock development programmes to meet the need and expectation of poor livestock keepers keeping in view the resource constraints and poor accessibility to inputs and services. One of the key areas of policy advocacy strategy is to develop local resource based feeding systems for pigs and development/ procurement of good quality swine fever vaccine.Since ILRI has a very small role in the whole NAIP project from the standpoint of activities The HoG scheme has the advantage that it puts peer pressure on the members to work efficiently for sustenance of the activities. Supplying good quality piglets to the villagers requires access to better feed resources and this is a challenge, especially in Longwa, where villages are too poor to feed the pigs with any purchased inputs (even small quantity). Also they do not have sufficient other feed resources to manage (including kitchen waste) the pig, so pigs may not grow as quickly as desired. It remains to be seen how sustainable this is. Efficient market linkages will be key to sustainability.Food-feed crops are a good option for feeding of pigs in these difficult areas, but many of the producers do not have sufficient land for cultivation. So increasing the herd size of pig should not be considered until and unless the area under cultivation is increased.Capacity building programmes are crucial for incremental changes in the production system over a period of time and may bring long term impact on livelihoods. The impact is likely to be more sustainable than delivering inputs for a short time.The community-based veterinary service delivery system is perhaps the only way out for providing some kind of veterinary services to the producers, but producers are reluctant to pay the First Aid practitioner for their services. If the community members do not pay the FA practitioners, sustainability of their services may be at stake. ILRI expects that gradually the producers will be ready to pay for their services once the benefits are seen and FA practitioners would be the key contact person in the villages as far as pig production is concerned. ILRI is also trying to build linkages between the FA practitioners and other stakeholders so that they can offer input supply and output marketing services in order to generate more income. As it's exit strategy ILRI would like to build them as the key resource persons in the village who will carry forward the initiatives after completion of the project.In order to create market linkages, ILRI is currently implementing a market study in Mon to assist in the development of better market linkages.As part of synergies, ILRI is continuously working with a number of other organizations (local, national and international) to meet the requirement of the villagers and will continue to do so in order to make the intervention sustainable, up-scalable and out-scalable with their support.Creating linkages is one of the priority area for up-scaling the activities Since the interventions are quite recent the impact in terms of productivity and profitability of improved pig keeping cannot yet be assessed. Nevertheless, the process and approach adopted by ILRI seems useful and fruitful in difficult areas like Mon and perhaps it can be replicated in other areas as well. In particular ILRI is very encouraged with the outcome of the capacity building programmes which motivated the villagers to revisit their production practices and adopt new improved practices without getting any financial help from the project. Initially, when ILRI approached the villagers for availing training, they were asking for a day wage for attending the training and they used to leave the training after the lunch. But now, they are more eager to learn and they attend the full training programmes, even stopping going to jhoom fields or attending the day wage programme under National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGA). Learning about the interventions of ILRI in the project villages, three other villages have approached ILRI to help them out in improving their production system. Some of them are not expecting any monetary help from ILRI but requested training and guidance for improving their pig production system. Following a request made by the Village Development Council of Tuimai village (a neighbouring village to Longpongsheanghah) ILRI started inviting 2-3 representatives from the village to ILRI's capacity building programmes.Based on ILRI's experience in Mon, ILRI has taken an initiative to develop three training manuals i.e. (a) smallholder pig management, (b) veterinary first aid and (c) hygienic slaughter and selling of pork for improving the efficiency of productivity of pig through incremental production changes using its own financial resources. The draft training manuals are almost ready and will be shared with all the veterinary departments in NE India. Thereafter they will be printed and distributed amongst all the institutions/ organizations involved in pig production.A number of actions have been taken to ensure community participation, promote transparency and build ownership. These include: All the activities in the project area have been planned in consultation with the community;  Beneficiaries have been selected by the community, not by ILRI;  Except some minor inputs and technical guidance , other investments in terms of labour and resourcing coming from beneficiaries voluntarily;  ILRI has built the capacity of the community members to carry on improved practices;  Trying to create linkages with other stakeholders for input supply, output marketing & follow up support; ","tokenCount":"3336"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7df6a22de795bad5bf0f0e9802baa4e2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/55d8c21b-9cc0-48c5-b875-776e37b7ef17/retrieve","id":"188703601"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e41c3c0f-ccdf-4c26-9912-e51899f0ed01","pagecount":"168","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Some illustrations or graphics appearing in this publication may have been adapted from content published by third parties. This may have been done to illustrate and communicate the authors' own interpretations of the key messages emerging from illustrations or graphics produced by third parties. In such cases, material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of United Nations Environment Programme concerning the source materials used as a basis for such graphics or illustrations.Mention of a commercial company or product in this document does not imply endorsement by the United Nations Environment Programme or the authors. The use of information from this document for publicity or advertising is not permitted. Trademark names and symbols are used in an editorial fashion with no intention on infringement of trademark or copyright laws.The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Environment Programme. We regret any errors or omissions that may have been unwittingly made.This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the United Nations Environment Programme and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth.Ending our war does not mean surrendering hard-won development gains. Nor does it cancel the rightful aspiration of poorer nations and people to enjoy better living standards. On the contrary, making peace with nature, securing its health and building on the critical and undervalued benefits that it provides are key to a prosperous and sustainable future for all.The urgent need to transform our relationship with nature risks being overlooked amid the huge suffering inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Saving precious lives and livelihoods is our top priority. But by exposing humanity's vulnerability, the pandemic can also help make 2021 a turning point towards a more sustainable and inclusive world.This report provides the bedrock for hope. By bringing together the latest scientific evidence showing the impacts and threats of the climate emergency, the biodiversity crisis and the pollution that kills millions of people every year, it makes clear that our war on nature has left the planet broken. But it also guides us to a safer place by providing a peace plan and a post-war rebuilding programme. By transforming how we view nature, we can recognize its true value. By reflecting this value in policies, plans and economic systems, we can channel investments into activities that restore nature and are rewarded for it. By recognizing nature as an indispensable ally, we can unleash human ingenuity in the service of sustainability and secure our own health and well-being alongside that of the planet.Making peace with nature is the defining task of the coming decades. We must seize the opportunity presented by the COVID-19 crisis to accelerate change. This year, several major international conferences, including on climate change, biodiversity and desertification, provide an opportunity to increase ambition and action on recovering better and addressing climate disruption. Our central objective is to build a global coalition for carbon neutrality. If adopted by every country, city, financial institution and company around the world, the drive to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 can still avert the worst impacts of climate change.Similar urgency and ambition are needed to transform other systems, including how we produce our food and manage our water, land and oceans. Developing countries need more assistance to redress environmental decline. Only then can we get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.This report shows that we have the ability to transform our impact on the world. A sustainable economy driven by renewable energy and nature-based solutions will create new jobs, cleaner infrastructure and a resilient future. An inclusive world at peace with nature can ensure that people enjoy better health and the full respect of their human rights so they can live with dignity on a healthy planet.Secretary-General of the United Nations, February 2021Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was emerging as a moment of truth for our commitment to steer Earth and its people toward sustainability. Momentum was building and global meetings were set to discuss bold action on the three interconnected planetary crises facing humanity, namely the climate crisis, the nature crisis and the pollution crisis. These crises, driven by decades of relentless and unsustainable consumption and production, are amplifying deep inequalities and threatening our collective future. This report makes the strongest scientific case yet for why and how that collective determination must be urgently applied to protecting and restoring our planet. Drawing on a unique and comprehensive synthesis of global environmental assessments, it details the self-defeating and dangerous consequences of our overconsumption of resources and overproduction of waste.The science is clear that we are putting extreme pressures on the planet. According to the 2020 UNEP Emissions Gap Report, while the pandemic resulted in a temporary decline in greenhouse gas emissions, we are heading for at least a 3°C temperature rise this century. Our colleagues at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have sounded the alarm on the rapid decline of nature and what this means for Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, together with climate change and pollution will undermine our efforts on 80 per cent of assessed SDG Targets, making it even more difficult to report progress on poverty reduction, hunger, health, water, cities and climate. We need to look no further than the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, a zoonotic disease, i.e. transmitted from animal to human, to know that the finely-tuned system of the natural world has been disrupted. And finally, the \"toxic trail\" of economic growthpollution and waste which results every year in the premature deaths of millions of people across the world.While the response to the medical emergency of COVID-19 rightly preoccupies government budgets and political action, the response to this pandemic must ultimately accelerate the economic and social transformations needed to address the planetary emergency. As the UN Secretary-General noted in his State of Planet speech, \"COVID recovery and our planet's repair must be two sides of the same coin.\"The report outlines what the \"repair\" of our planet entails, the transformative actions that can unleash human ingenuity and cooperation to secure livelihoods and well-being for all. Repair means solutions that recognize how our environmental, social and development challenges are interconnected. Repair means shifting our values and worldviews as well as our financial and economic systems. Repair means taking a whole-of-society approach. And repair means being fair and just.With science as our guiding light, UNEP's Medium-Term  Strategy (2022-2025) seeks to ensure the link between science, policy and decision-making remains stronger than ever, sustained by strong environmental governance and supported by economic policies that can be the foundation of a catalytic response to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. In doing so, we support member states, working with partners, scientists, civil society and business to tackle the three interconnected crises so that we stabilize climate; live in harmony with nature and secure a pollution free planet.2021 must be remembered as the year we took it upon ourselves to ensure that the pandemic is remembered not only as a human tragedy, but as the moment when people reconsidered their priorities as individuals and societies and took to heart that safeguarding the health and well-being of current and future generations means safeguarding the health of our planet.Executive Director United Nations Environment Programme, February 2021This report presents a scientific blueprint for how climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution can be tackled jointly within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. The report is a synthesis based on evidence from global environmental assessments. It has been a privilege to oversee the production and peer review of the report by the eminent group of experts and advisors appointed by Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of UNEP, for their leading contributions to and intimate understanding of the interface between science and policy in addressing the environmental challenges of today.The expert analysis rests on the synthesis of key findings from a range of recent intergovernmental global environmental assessments and assessments prepared under the auspices of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, UN bodies and others (see annex 1). The report makes reference to the assessments, not the original literature referred therein. The presentation of the findings from the assessments is the responsibility of the authors of the current report. In a limited number of cases, additional high-impact peer-reviewed literature and grey literature have been assessed and referenced in order to present a complete and updated picture of the knowledge base.The results of this synthesis are presented for decision makers in the form of clear, digestible and facts-based key messages and an executive summary substantiated and referenced in the main report. Part I of the report shows how the findings of the assessments are interlinked and add up to an unparalleled planetary emergency. While most of the underlying assessments are relevant for policy formulation, Part II goes a step further in recommending how the accumulated scientific evidence can be turned into concrete and far-reaching actions by a broad range of actors across society in order to transform humankind's relationship with nature.This report was prepared amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that the authors, scientific advisory group and secretariat had to work without ever meeting face to face. All work was carried out through dozens of virtual conference calls. This synthesis would not have been possible without the work undertaken for the international assessments used as the evidence base in this report and the contribution by experts from these assessments. We also highly appreciate the outstanding contributions by the group of experts who have joined us in authoring this report and the valuable gui-dance by the members of the scientific advisory group who peer-reviewed the report multiple times. We would particularly like to acknowledge the sustained enthusiasm for this endeavour by authors and advisors given their many other commitments. We are also indebted to the strong support received from the UNEP secretariat, research fellows, designers and the science communications editor, in particular the visionary guidance and inspiration provided by Inger Andersen and the unwavering commitment of the core team of the secretariat.   Transforming nature puts human well-being at riskThe current mode of development degrades the Earth's finite capacity to sustain human well-being • Human well-being critically depends on the Earth's natural systems. Yet the economic, technological and social advances have also led to a reduction of the Earth's capacity to sustain current and future human well-being. Human prosperity relies on the wise use of the planet's finite space and remaining resources, as well as on the protection and restoration of its life-supporting processes and capacity to absorb waste.• Over the last 50 years, the global economy has grown nearly fivefold, due largely to a tripling in extraction of natural resources and energy that has fuelled growth in production and consumption. The world population has increased by a factor of two, to 7.8 billion people, and though on average prosperity has also doubled, about 1.3 billion people remain poor and some 700 million are hungry.• The increasingly unequal and resource-intensive model of development drives environmental decline through climate change, biodiversity loss and other forms of pollution and resource degradation.• Social, economic and financial systems fail to account for the essential benefits society gets from nature and to provide incentives to manage it wisely and maintain its value.The majority of the essential benefits of nature currently have no financial market value despite being the underpinning of current and future prosperity.Society is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage• Society is not on course to fulfil the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to further limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. At the current rate, warming will reach 1.5°C by around 2040 and possibly earlier. Taken together, current national policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions put the world on a pathway to warming of at least 3°C by 2100. Human-induced current warming of more than 1°C has already led to shifts in climate zones, changes in precipitation patterns, melting of ice sheets and glaciers, accelerating sea level rise and more frequent and more intense extreme events, threatening people and nature.• None of the agreed global goals for the protection of life on Earth and for halting the degradation of land and oceans have been fully met. Three quarters of the land and two thirds of the oceans are now impacted by humans. One million of the world's estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction, and many of the ecosystem services essential for human wellbeing are eroding.• Society is on course to restore the Earth's protective stratospheric ozone layer. However, there is a lot more to be done to reduce air and water pollution, safely manage chemicals, and reduce and safely manage waste.The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is threatened by an array of escalating and mutually reinforcing environmental risks• Current and projected changes in climate, biodiversity loss and pollution makes achieving the SDGs even more challenging. For example, even small increases in temperature, along with associated changes such as in weather, precipitation, heavier rainfall events, extreme heat, drought and fire, increase risks to health, food security, water supply and human security, and these risks increase along with warming. In 2018 alone, damages from climate-related natural disasters cost about US$155 billion.• The burden of environmental decline is felt by everyone, but disproportionally by the poor and vulnerable and looms even larger over today's youth and future generations. Producers and consumers in wealthy countries often export their environmental footprint to poorer countries through trade and the disposal of waste.• Environmental changes are already undermining hardwon development gains and impeding progress towards ending poverty and hunger, reducing inequalities and promoting sustainable economic growth, work for all and peaceful and inclusive societies. Land degradation, for instance, adversely affects more than 3 billion people.• Earth's capacity to sustain growing needs for nutritious food, water and sanitation will continue to weaken in the face of ongoing environmental declines, as vulnerable and marginalized people are currently experiencing. For example, food security is threatened by the loss of pollinators and fertile soil. Loss of pollinators, threatens annual global crop output worth between US$235 billion and US$577 billion.• The deteriorating state of the planet undermines efforts to achieve healthy lives and well-being for all. Around one quarter of the global burden of disease stems from environment-related risks, including those from animal-borne diseases (such as COVID-19), climate change, and exposure to pollution and toxic chemicals. Pollution causes some 9 million premature deaths annually and millions more die every year from other environment-related health risks.• Environmental risks in cities and urban areas, including those from heatwaves, flash floods, drought, wildfires and pollution, hamper efforts to make human settlements (including informal settlements) inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.There is an urgent need for a clear break with current trends of environmental decline and the coming decade is crucial• The risks to human well-being and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will continue to escalate unless environmental degradation is halted. Global warming of more than 2°C combined with continued loss of biodiversity and increasing pollution will likely have dire consequences for humanity.• The costs of inaction on limiting environmental change far outweigh the costs of action. Global aggregate impacts from climate change are estimated to be very high by the end of the century unless cost-effective mitigations strategies are undertaken.Transforming humankind's relationship with nature is the key to a sustainable future Human knowledge, ingenuity, technology and cooperation can transform societies and economies and secure a sustainable future• Decades of incremental efforts have not stemmed the environmental decline resulting from an expansive development model because vested and short-term interests often prevail.• Only a system-wide transformation will achieve well-being for all within the Earth's capacity to support life, provide resources and absorb waste. This transformation will involve a fundamental change in the technological, economic and social organization of society, including world views, norms, values and governance.• Major shifts in investment and regulation are key to just and informed transformations that overcome inertia and opposition from vested interests. Regulatory processes should embody transparent decision-making and good governance involving all relevant stakeholders. Opposition to change can be defused by redirecting subsidies toward alternative livelihoods and new business models.• The COVID-19 crisis provides an impetus to accelerate transformative change. The pandemic and the ensuing economic upheaval have shown the dangers of ecosystem degradation, as well as the need for international cooperation and greater social and economic resilience. The crisis has had major economic costs and is triggering significant investments. Ensuring that these investments support transformative change is key to attaining sustainability.Earth's environmental emergencies should be addressed together to achieve sustainability• Given the interconnected nature of climate change, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution, it is essential that these problems are tackled together.Response options that address multiple issues can mitigate multidimensional vulnerability, minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies.• Limiting global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to further limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C requires rapid implementation and a significant strengthening of pledges under the Paris Agreement. Globally, net carbon dioxide emissions need to decline by 45 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010 levels and reach net zero by 2050 to put the world on a pathway to 1.5°C with a probability of about 50 per cent, whereas more ambitious targets would be necessary for higher certainty.A pathway to 2°C would require global emissions to be reduced by 25 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010 levels and reach net zero by around 2070. Both pathways entail rapid transformations in areas including energy systems, land use, agriculture, forest protection, urban development, infrastructure and lifestyles. Mitigating climate change is vital, urgent and cost saving: the lower the degree of warming, the easier and cheaper it will be to adapt.• The loss of biodiversity can only be halted and reversed by providing space dedicated for nature while also addressing drivers such as changing land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species. To prevent extinctions and maintain nature's life-supporting contributions, biodiversity conservation and restoration must be integral to the many uses of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and coupled with an expanded and better-managed global network of interconnected protected areas designed to be resilient to climate change.• The adverse effects of chemicals and waste on the environment and human health can be substantially reduced by implementing existing international chemicals conventions. Further progress will require strengthening the science-policy interface as the basis for evidence-based policymaking and improved management systems, along with legal and regulatory reform.The economic and financial systems can and should be transformed to lead and power the shift to sustainability• Governments should incorporate full natural capital accounting into their decision-making and use policies and regulatory frameworks to provide incentives for businesses to do the same. Yardsticks such as inclusive wealth (the sum of produced, natural, human and social capital) provide a better basis for investment decisions than gross domestic product, as they reflect the capacity of current and future generations to achieve and sustain higher living standards.• Governments should shift away from environmentally harmful subsidies, invest in low-carbon and nature-friendly solutions and technologies, and systematically internalize environmental and social costs.• Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require massive shifts and increases in public and private financial flows and investment patterns, including in the water, food and energy sectors. Incentives must be shifted so that investments in sustainable development are financially attractive.• The Global South needs increased access to low-interest finance in order to build its capacity and overhaul accounting systems and policy frameworks in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Global North has exacerbated the finance gap by failing to meet its commitments on international environmental and development assistance.• Shifting taxation from production and labour to resource use and waste promotes a circular economy. Potential inequalities resulting from this shift can be offset through social safety nets.• Reducing inequalities and the risk of social conflict requires the minimization and reversal of environmental degradation and declines in natural resources. It also requires structural changes to the economy, including steps to promote equity and address individual and community rights to property, resources and education.The food, water and energy systems can and should be transformed to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally-friendly manner• Feeding humanity, ensuring water and energy security, and enhancing the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of nature are complementary and closely interdependent goals. Achieving these goals requires food systems that work with nature, reduce waste, and are adaptive to change and resilient to shocks. Small-scale farmers, especially women farmers, are central to the challenge of food and nutrition security and must be empowered.• Changes in global patterns of consumption are critical to transforming food, water and energy systems, and to challenging social norms and business practices. Improving access to safe, nutritious and affordable food for all, while reducing food waste and changing dietary choices and consumer behaviour in high-income countries and groups, is central for the achievement of hunger, biodiversity, waste and climate goals.• Ensuring sustainable food production from the oceans while protecting marine biodiversity requires policy action to apply sustainable harvesting approaches to fisheries management, improve spatial planning and address threats such as climate change, ocean acidification and pollution.• Sustaining freshwater in the context of climate change, rising demand, and increased pollution involves cross-sectoral and sector-specific interventions at the watershed or river basin scale. This can be achieved by simultaneously increasing water-use efficiency, wisely expanding storage, reducing pollution, improving water quality, minimizing disruption and fostering the restoration of natural habitats and flow regimes.• Universal access to clean and affordable energy requires a transformation of both the production and use of energy.Increasing the supply of clean energy coupled with innovation and efficiency gains is vital to achieving equitable and sustainable economic growth while limiting global warming. Clean energy will also reduce poverty and indoor and outdoor air pollution and provide critical services such as communications, lighting and water pumping.Keeping the planet healthy is key to providing health and well-being for all• Policies, good practices and appropriate technologies to limit climate change, ecosystem degradation and pollution can significantly reduce associated human health risks, including from respiratory diseases, water-borne, vectorborne and animal-borne diseases, malnutrition, extreme weather events and chemical exposure. Technological change and diffusion are important mechanisms to drive transformation.• A One Health approach integrates action across sectors and disciplines to protect the health of people, animals and the environment. Such an approach is key to minimize future human health risks from climate change, ecosystem degradation and deteriorating food, air and water quality.It is also essential in preventing and limiting the impact of future health emergencies, including pandemic outbreaks of animal-borne diseases such as COVID-19.• Cities and other settlements, especially rapidly expanding urban areas and informal settlements, must be made more sustainable. Improvements in urban planning, governance, infrastructure and the use of nature-based solutions can be cost-effective ways to reduce pollution and make settlements more environment friendly and resilient to climate change impacts such as increased urban heat island effects and flooding. Blue and green infrastructure in urban areas have significant benefits for mental health.Everyone has a part to play in transforming social and economic systems for a sustainable future• All actors have individual, complementary and nested roles to play in bringing about cross-sectoral and economy-wide transformative change with immediate and long-term impact. This can be enhanced through capacity-building and education. Governments initiate and lead in intergovernmental cooperation, policies and legislation that transform society and the economy. Such transformations enable the private sector, financial institutions, labour organizations, scientific and educational bodies and media as well as households and civil society groups to initiate and lead transformations in their domains.• Individuals can facilitate transformation by, for instance, exercising their voting and civic rights, changing their diets and travel habits, avoiding waste of food and resources, and reducing their consumption of water and energy. They can also promote behavioural change by raising awareness in their communities. Human cooperation, innovation and knowledge-sharing will create new social and economic possibilities and opportunities in the transformation to a sustainable future.HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (from 2020): The well-being of today's youth and future generations depends on an urgent and clear break with the current trends of environmental decline. Human knowledge, ingenuity, technology and cooperation need to be redeployed from transforming nature to transforming humankind's relationship with nature. Time is of the essence. Society needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 °C as aspired to in the Paris Agreement, while at the same time conserving and restoring biodiversity and minimizing pollution and waste.Humanity has been grappling with environmental challenges that have grown in number and severity ever since the Stockholm Conference in 1972. The scientific assessments synthesized in this report show that those challenges now represent a planetary emergency. While tackling the emergency is demanding, the report lights a path to a sustainable future marked with new possibilities and opportunities.Part I of the report addresses how the current expansive mode of development degrades and exceeds the Earth's finite capacity to sustain human well-being. The world is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage and this increasingly threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).A. The current mode of development degrades the Earth's finite capacity to sustain human well-beingHuman well-being is critically dependent on Earth's natural systems. Economic, social and technological advances have come at the expense of the Earth's capacity to sustain current and future human well-being. Human prosperity rests on the wise use of the finite space and resources available to all life on Earth, as well as on the restoration of its life-supporting processes and capacity to absorb human waste. Every person benefits from clean air and water, a protective stratospheric ozone layer, a hospitable climate and the many additional benefits that land and oceans provide, including food, medicines, energy, materials, inspiration and a sense of place. The rich web of life, of which humanity is a part, modulates and maintains Earth's systems in ways critical to people, for example by reducing the severity of natural disasters and by providing soil, pollination and pest control that help people harness the planet's fertility. Over the past 50 years, human societies have dramatically increased the production and extraction of food, energy and materials, resulting in economic, technological and social advances and increased prosperity for many. However, the exploitation of nature has reached unsustainable levels and is undermining the Earth's capacity to sustain human well-being, now and in the future.Human prosperity is strained by widening inequalities, whereby the burden of environmental decline weighs heaviest on the poor and vulnerable and looms even larger over today's youth and future generations. Across the world, people are living longer, are more educated and have greater opportunities on average than previous generations, but the wealth gap is growing between rich and poor, both among and within countries. Economic growth and poverty reduction occurred across the developing world prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little of the economic progress seen in high-and middle-income countries has benefitted the least developed countries. About 1.3 billion people remain poor, and some 700 million are going hungry, and both numbers are expected to increase significantly because of the economic impact of the pandemic. Environmental decline affects and concerns everyone, rich and poor. However, the burden weighs most heavily on the poor and vulnerable, where women are often overrepresented. Future generations in many localities risk a situation where more people must struggle to make a living from diminished natural resources in a changing environment.Economic and financial systems fail to account for the essential benefits that humanity gets from nature and to provide incentives to manage nature wisely and maintain its value. Nature provides the foundation for human existence and prosperity. From an economic perspective, nature is a vital capital asset that provides many essential goods and services. Conventional metrics like gross domestic product (GDP) overstate progress because they fail to adequately capture the costs of environmental degradation or reflect declines in natural capital. Conventional economic measu-res also fail to reflect indicators of health, education and other dimensions of human well-being. Most of the essential benefits of nature currently have no financial or market value despite providing the underpinnings of current and future prosperity. Inclusive wealth, which sums the value of natural, human, manufactured and social capital, is a better measure of sustainable progress. The current practice of excluding the value of nature and the costs of its degradation from economic accounting and market prices, along with the impact of environmentally harmful subsidies such as those for agricultural output and fossil fuel energy, pose an increasing risk to economies and societies. Excluding the value of nature skews investment away from economic solutions that conserve and restore nature, reduce pollution, expand renewable energy and make more sustainable use of resources while also increasing prosperity and well-being.The resource-intensive and increasingly unequal model of human development indirectly drives global environmental change. Over the last 50 years, the human population has more than doubled, while the extraction of materials and the production of primary energy and food have all more than tripled. The global economy has grown nearly fivefold, and trade has grown tenfold. Resource use is driven by growing supply resulting from innovation and efficiency gains in production of goods and services as well as from marketing, governance and increasing consumer demands from a wealthier and expanding population. People in high-income countries generally consume far more than people in low-and middle-income countries. The world population, the economy and resource use are expected to continue growing, though at a slower rate. By 2050, the global population is projected to have increased from 7.8 billion people today to nearly 9 billion and become wealthier and more urban. The production of energy is projected to increase by about 50 per cent and food by 70 per cent. Projections depend on the implementation of policies in areas ranging from reproductive health and tenure rights to the economy.Increases in resource use and waste generation drive global environmental change in ways that transcend borders and continents. To satisfy growing demands, humans use an ever-increasing fraction of the Earth's land, freshwater and oceans for the production and extraction of food, fibre, energy and minerals as well as for industrial facilities, infrastructure and settlements. In doing so, society also releases greenhouse gases and pollutants, including nutrients and toxic chemicals as well as household, industrial and human waste. Humans modify life and move organisms around the world in pursuit of increased production or through accidental introductions. These practices also narrow down the range of genetic material in domesticated species. Many of the impacts of human activities are felt over large distances, such as through transboundary pollution or when wealthy countries export their environmental footprint by meeting their demands through trade.B. Society is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage The Earth's climate is changing and its web of life is unravelling as land and oceans degrade and chemicals and waste accumulate beyond agreed limits. The international community has set targets, informed by science, in multilateral agreements for protecting natural assets and limiting harmful environmental change. Despite some progress, efforts to date have failed to meet any of the agreed targets.The world is not on course to fulfil the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, let alone meet the 1.5°C aspiration. The Earth's mean near-surface temperature has already risen by more than 1°C compared to the period from 1850 to 1900. At the current rate, warming will reach 1.5°C by around 2040 and possibly earlier. Taken together, current national policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions put the world on a pathway to warming of at least 3°C by 2100, though this may change as countries update their pledges. 1 Current warming, which is greater over land than over the ocean and is highest in the polar regions, has already led to melting of ice sheets and glaciers, accelerating increases in sea level, more frequent and more intense extreme events, changes in precipitation patterns, as well as shifts in climate zones, including expansion of arid zones and contraction of polar zones. Emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are still increasing, with current atmospheric concentrations much higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years. The accumulation of heat in the oceans will persist for centuries and affect many future generations. About two thirds of the warming caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gases is due to carbon dioxide, mostly originating from the use of fossil fuels and some industrial processes. About one quarter of the warming results from activities related to the land -agriculture, pastoralism, forestry and especially changing natural land covers to human-dominated ones. Natural sinks today are only able to absorb around half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, split between terrestrial ecosystems and the ocean. The increased uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans is causing harmful ocean acidification. To fulfil the Paris Agreement to limit warming to well below 2°C or meet the agreement's aspiration of restricting the increase to 1.5°C, net global emissions from human activities need to reach zero or even become negative by the middle of the century. While meeting the Paris Agreement is technically feasible, political commitment to do so is currently lacking.None of the global goals for the protection of life on Earth have been fully met, including those in the strategic plan for biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi biodiversity targets.At the global level, only six of the 20 Aichi targets have been partially achieved, including increases in the proportion of land and oceans designated as protected areas and improved international financial flows to developing countries. Little or no progress has been made on others, such as eliminating harmful subsidies. Species are currently going extinct tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural background rate. One million of the world's estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. The population sizes of wild vertebrates have dropped by an average of 68 per cent in the last 50 years, and the abundance of many wild insect species has fallen by more than half. The number of local varieties of domesticated plants and animal breeds and their wild relatives has been reduced sharply.For example, over 9 per cent of animal breeds have become extinct and at least another 17 per cent are threatened with extinction. Ecosystems are degrading at an unprecedented rate, driven by land-use change, exploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species. Climate change exacerbates other threats to biodiversity, and many plant and animal species have already experienced changes in their range, abundance and seasonal activity. Degradation of ecosystems is impacting their functions and harming their ability to support human well-being. Loss of biodiversity is anticipated to accelerate in coming decades, unless actions to halt and reverse human transformation and degradation of ecosystems and to limit climate change are urgently implemented.Society is not on course to achieve land degradation neutrality, where degradation is minimized and offset by restoration. Land degradation objectives are embedded in the SDGs and land degradation neutrality is a focus of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).International targets on aspects such as combatting desertification, soil degradation, or wetland loss as well as national targets on preventing or reversing land degradation have not been sufficient to achieve land degradation neutrality. Natural ecosystems have been transformed by humans at an accelerating rate since the middle of the twentieth century. Only a quarter of the original habitat on ice-free land is still functioning in a nearly natural way. Much of this habitat is located in dry, cold, or mountainous areas with low human population densities and also includes the protected areas that currently cover 15 per cent of the total land area. A quarter of land has been radically transformed to cropland, plantations and other human uses. Half of the land area functions in an increasingly human-dominated and semi-natural way. It includes the rangelands grazed by livestock, the semi-natural forests harvested for wood and the freshwater systems altered by water use. The world's forests constitute nearly a third of the land area, and about 10 per cent of their area has been lost through conversions to other land uses since 1990, though the deforestation rate is decreasing. Of the combined area of semi-natural and highly transformed landscapes, around one sixth is degraded to the degree that ecological capacities to support human well-being are reduced. Of particular concern is degradation where ecological processes have been impaired to the point that the ecosystem is no longer able to recover. Wetlands are the most transformed and degraded ecosystem type. Only 15 per cent of wetlands remain. Land degradation and transformation contributed around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in the decade 2010-2019. Over half of these emissions derive from land transformation (particularly deforestation) and most of the remainder from the loss of soil carbon in cultivated land. Notwithstanding the agreed goal of halting land degradation, all development scenarios explored in the relevant assessments project that land degradation will continue to increase in the twenty-first century. The fraction of remaining near-natural land is projected to be only 10 per cent by mid-century, while degraded land will reach over 20 per cent.Many of the targets for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of oceans, coasts and marine resources will likely not be fully met as marine and coastal ecosystems are declining. Targets for oceans and coasts have been agreed as part of the SDGs. Detrimental human activities including overfishing, coastal and offshore infrastructure and shipping, climate change, ocean acidification and waste and nutrient runoff combine to affect two thirds of ocean area. One third of wild marine fish stocks were overharvested in 2015, a portion that has increased from 10 per cent in 1974. Sixty per cent of stocks are fished at maximum sustainable yield and only 7 per cent are underexploited. Fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 \"dead zones\" totalling more than 245,000 km 2 -an area bigger than the United Kingdom or Ecuador. Marine plastics pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, constituting 60-80 per cent of marine debris, and is found in all oceans at all depths and concentrates in the ocean currents. Marine plastic litter causes ecological impacts including entanglement and ingestion and can act as a vector for invasive species and other pollutants. The risk of irreversible loss of marine and coastal ecosystems including seagrass meadows and kelp forests increases with global warming. Warming of 2ºC is projected to result in a decrea-se in the biomass of marine animal communities and their productivity. Coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to climate change and are projected to decline to 10-30 per cent of their former cover at 1.5°C of warming and to less than 1 per cent at 2°C of warming, compromising food provision, tourism and coastal protection. Depending on the amount of sea level rise, 20-90 per cent of current coastal wetlands may be lost by the end of the century. Climate change is increasing the chances of the Arctic Ocean being ice-free in summer, further disrupting ocean circulation and Arctic ecosystems.The world is on course to restore Earth's protective stratospheric ozone layer, but there is much more to be done to reduce air and water pollution and to safely manage chemicals and waste. C. An array of escalating and mutually reinforcing environmental risks threatens human well-being and the achievement of the Sustainable Development GoalsCurrent and projected future environmental degradation will seriously undermine society's chances of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (figure ES.1). Recent data and projected trends show that society prior to the COVID-19 pandemic was reducing hunger, increasing access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and increasing access to clean modern energy services, but not enough to meet the targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Current and projected changes in climate, biodiversity loss and pollution make achieving the SDGs even more challenging. For example, even small increases in temperature, along with associated changes such as in weather, precipitation, heavier rainfall events, extreme heat, drought and fire, increase risks to health, food security, water supply and human security, and these risks increase along with warming. Combined environmental changes increase the risks of crossing thresholds beyond which ecological and climatic shifts accelerate and become very hard to reverse. Socioeconomic development patterns strongly determine the vulnerability and exposure of people, and thus related impacts, as well as the groups in society that would bear the brunt of these impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted already uneven progress towards achieving many of the SDGs and caused the first increase in global poverty in decades by pushing an estimated 70 million more people into extreme poverty in 2020. Earth's capacity to meet growing human needs for nutritious food, water and sanitation for all will weaken in the face of continued environmental decline. Environmental degradation makes ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture (SDG 2) more demanding. Agricultural yields are projected to be negatively impacted by climate change due to warming, changing precipitation patterns, greater frequency of extreme events such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation in several regions, and droughts in some regions, and changes in the incidence of pests and diseases. While sustainability choices influence food security at the local scale, climate change risks to food security could become very high at 2°C, whilst 4°C of warming is considered catastrophic. Air pollution such as ground-level ozone also negatively impacts agricultural yields and will be impacted by climate change. Species and genetic diversity in agriculture, which are critical to resilient food systems, is lower than ever. Future agricultural expansion is projected to take place on more marginal lands with lower yields. Biodiversity loss poses risks to food production. The loss of animal pollinators, critical to more than 75 per cent of food crops, including many fruit and vegetables and cash crops such as coffee, cocoa and almonds, threatens annual global crop output worth between US$235 billion and US$577 billion. Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be 10 to more than 100 times higher than the soil formation rate, affecting agricultural yields through reduced water-holding capacity and loss of nutrients. An estimated 176 gigatonnes of soil organic carbon has been lost historically, mostly from land-use change, and another 27 gigatonnes is projected to be lost between 2010 and 2050. Wild fish catch, which has already declined due to overfishing, is under additional threat due to changing climatic conditions, ocean acidification and pollution. Efforts to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG 6) are also impeded by environmental change. Climate change will exacerbate water stress risks, especially in areas of decreased precipitation and where groundwater is already being depleted, affecting both agriculture and more than 2 billion people who already experience water stress.Water pollution has continued to worsen over the last two decades, increasing the threats to freshwater ecosystems and human health.The deteriorating health of the planet undermines efforts to secure healthy lives and well-being for all (SDG 3). Pollution is estimated to cause some 9 million premature deaths annually and millions more die every year from other environment related health risks. Around one quarter of the global burden of disease stems from environment-related risks, including climate change, air and water pollution, and exposure to toxic chemicals. Climate-related health risks, which become greater with rising temperatures, include undernutrition, vectorborne diseases (including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and zika virus), animal-borne (zoonotic) diseases (see box below), heat-related morbidity and mortality, and food-and water-borne diseases. Indoor air pollution from cooking with biomass on traditional stoves, and outdoor air pollution, much from the combustion of fossil fuels, currently cause around 6.5 million premature deaths per year related to respiratory diseases and are projected to continue to represent a serious human health risk. Other major environmental health risks include lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation services, causing 1.7 million deaths per year from diarrheal diseases, many of which are deaths of children under the age of five. Pollution-related health risks also stem from exposure to heavy metals and chemicals. The stratospheric ozone layer -which is slowly recovering -reduces the risk of excessive solar ultraviolet radiation exposure that leads to skin cancer, cataracts and other health problems in humans. As a result of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, nature's ability to support human health through regulation of air and water quality is in decline in many places, as well as its ability to provide opportunities for recreation and relaxation, which support physical and mental health and well-being. Biodiversity loss is also negatively affecting nature's ability to supply medicines. An estimated 4 billion people -more than half the global population -rely primarily on natural medicines for their health care, and some 70 per cent of drugs used for treating cancer are natural or are synthetic products inspired by nature. Antimicrobial resistance, industrial chemicals, multi-exposures and newly emerging diseases are increasingly threatening human health and well-being. The risks to human well-being and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will continue to escalate unless current rates of environmental degradation are halted. Global warming of more than 2°C combined with continued loss of biodiversity and increasing pollution will likely have dire consequences for humanity. If warming exceeds 2ºC, both marine and terrestrial animals and plants are projected to decline, including the decline of warm-water coral reefs by 99 per cent, the decline of Arctic summer sea ice, large declines in marine fishery catches and the placing of 20-30 per cent of terrestrial species at increased risk of extinction. Substantial increases in heatwaves, heavy precipitation in several regions and drought in some regions are associated with global warming, and in turn increase risks to food security. Crop yields are already declining in some regions due to global warming. The fraction of remaining near-natural land is projected to be only 10 per cent by mid-century, while degraded land will reach over 20 per cent.The costs of inaction on limiting environmental changes far outweighs the costs of action. By 2100, negative impacts from climate change exceeding 2.5°C of warming are likely to be substantial, far in excess of impacts with limiting warming to 1.5°C or well below 2°C. Furthermore, limiting greenhouse gas emissions would also generate considerable benefits, including for human health. Cost estimates for reducing emissions, though substantial, are far less than the avoided economic damage. There is an urgent need for a clear break with current trends of environmental decline, and the coming decade is crucial. Only system-wide transformation will enable humanity to achieve well-being for all within the Earth's finite capacity to provide resources and absorb human waste. Society continues to exceed and degrade the Earth's capacities despite clear evidence of the risk that this development path poses to humanity and growing efforts to reduce its environmental impacts. Continuing along this path constitutes an ongoing and increasing risk to current and future prosperity and well-being. Human skills need to be redeployed from transforming nature to transforming the social and economic fabric of society. This effort needs to put human well-being centre stage, and speed progress towards achieving the opportunities set out in the indivisible and interdependent SDGs, whose target date is fast approaching.  Achieving sustainability will entail interventions across scales and sectors and changes to incentive structures, management systems, decision-making processes, rules and regulations. Transformed incentive structures would encourage conservation and discourage actions that result in environmental degradation. Systems for policymaking, planning and managing natural resources and the use of lands and waters would be coordinated across sectors and jurisdictions; pre-emptive in addressing emerging threats via effective environmental monitoring and evaluation; include meaningful participation, especially of stakeholders and rightsholders such as indigenous peoples and local communities; and be designed for resilience and adapted to uncertainties. Strong environmental laws would protect ecosystems and the human enjoyment of a healthy environment, bolstered by consistent enforcement of laws and independent judiciaries. These three sets of governance interventions have been called the \"levers\" of transformation to reflect their power to effect change at the specified leverage points and also more broadly.Opposition from vested interests to transformations aiming to secure a sustainable and prosperous future is to be expected but can be addressed. Existing infrastructure and built capital provide system inertia that can make change difficult and incurs short-term costs, especially if change involves the premature retirement of capital stock. Also, individuals and organizations have habits, procedures and ways of doing business that can yield a reluctance and resistance to change. Individuals and organizations can also oppose change that disrupts their livelihoods, market share and revenues, or that otherwise appear unfair. E. Earth's environmental emergencies must be addressed together to achieve sustainabilityGiven the interconnected nature of climate change, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution, it is essential that these problems are tackled together now. Immediate action is required to mitigate climate change, conserve and restore biodiversity, improve air and water quality, make more efficient use of resources and reduce the adverse effects of chemicals. Actions also need to be taken now even where the benefits may not be realized for years due to the long-lasting nature of environmental effects or to inertia in the socio-economic system. Essential actions with delayed effects include reforestation and restoration of degraded lands. Response options that can address multiple environmental issues, mitigate multidimensional vulnerability and help minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies, need to be implemented. Numerous response options that can preserve and restore the environment and contribute to achieving some of the other SDGs have already been identified. For example, large-scale reforestation with native vegetation can simultaneously help address climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water security. A key challenge is to avoid unintended consequences. For instance, large scale afforestation schemes and replacing native vegetation with monoculture crops to supply bioenergy can be detrimental to biodiversity and water resources.The further development and implementation of the goals, targets, commitments, and mechanisms under the key multilateral agreements on climate change, biodiversity, land-degradation, oceans and pollution need to be aligned and become more synergistic and mutually supportive. There needs to be enhanced harmonization in the implementation, monitoring and financing of the multilateral agreements. Sustainable policies, technologies and management practices need to be implemented within the interconnected agriculture-fisheries-forestry-water-energy systems given their impact on climate, biodiversity and land degradation.Governments must scale up and accelerate action to meet the Paris Agreement goals and limit dangerous climate change. Evidence shows that the risks associated with climate change, including the risks of extreme weather events, impacts on unique and threatened systems, and large-scale discontinuities such as the disintegration of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (Figure 1.1), are generally higher than previously understood. Limiting the global mean temperature increase to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to hold it to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement, require immediate significant strengthening and rapid implementation of existing national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, with a probability of about 50 per cent, net emissions of carbon dioxide will need to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach zero by 2050. Transboundary agreements and regional frameworks provide a strong foundation for regional coordination and cooperation for the equitable sharing of water.Universal access to clean energy requires a rapid transition to low-carbon systems in both the production and use of energy. Improving access to affordable and modern energy (SDG 7) coupled with innovation and efficiency gains are vital to achieving equitable and sustainable economic growth while limiting global warming. Clean energy will also reduce poverty and indoor and outdoor air pollution and provide critical services such as communications, lighting and water pumping. Achieving this goal while combating climate change involves a rapid transition to low-carbon energy systems encompassing both production and consumption. Investments in the energy transition need to grow five-or sixfold between now and 2050 to achieve the Paris Agreement aspiration of limiting warming to 1.5°C. Renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, along with improved energy efficiency in buildings and elsewhere, will be key. Governments must develop laws and policies that enable greater public and private investments in generation and distribution, while also encouraging more responsible energy consumption. Government policy and incentives can speed the phase-out of fossil fuels in power generation and transportation, including by supporting the development of renewable energy storage and electric vehicles. Large-scale renewable energy installations on land, watercourses and in the ocean require careful planning to avoid or minimize adverse effects on nature and on food and water security.H. Keeping the planet healthy is key to providing health and well-being for allReversing environmental decline reduces threats to human health and well-being. Human health and the health of the planet are closely interlinked, underlining how policies aimed at protecting human and planetary health should also be integrated. For example, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions will limit the health risks and impacts from climate change. These include vector-and water-borne diseases such as malaria and cholera, heat stress, extreme weather events, loss of nutrients in foods, air pollution leading to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Halting and reversing ecosystem degradation will help safeguard food and water security, secure medicinal plants and genetic resources valuable to medical research and reduce the risk of zoonotic disease pandemics. The reduction of air and water pollution and safe management of chemicals are key to safeguarding human health.Future human health risks from environmental decline can be minimized with a One Health approach. One Health is an approach that seeks to simultaneously secure optimal outcomes for human health, animal health and the health of the environment. A healthy society relies on a multifactorial foundation of physical, mental and social well-being, which can only be maintained and fostered if cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approaches are pursued. Collaborative efforts under a One Health approach can prevent human health disasters such as zoonotic pandemics. The need for such an approach is widely recognized as a critical component in creating a healthier world.  Make own international activities and operations sustainable. d) Health and well-being Facilitate international cooperation on protecting the health of the planet in order to provide health and well-being for all. Advance a One Health approach and strategies to meet WHO guidelines for air pollutants. Continue to promote the coordination and implementation of existing chemicals conventions and strengthen the science-policy interface for chemicals and waste. Implement monitoring and surveillance and early warning systems. e) Cities and settlements Promote sustainable urban planning, nature-based solutions for climate and biodiversity in urban areas, retrofitting of blue and green infrastructure, and access to urban services including clean energy and water.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Facilitate international cooperation on frameworks for natural capital accounting, reform of measures and models of economic growth including through the use of natural capital and inclusive wealth in decision-making, and reform of trade systems to make them more fair and environmentally sustainable. Support sustainable urban planning and investments in low-carbon infrastructure, including mass transportation, congestion charges, nature-based solutions and green and blue spaces.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Promote and use natural capital accounting and inclusive wealth in decision-making, including lending and grant-making policies. Promote the internalization of externalities in prices and a circular economy. b) Subsidies and markets Promote the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies. Facilitate carbon trading, schemes for offsetting nature and payments for ecosystem services. Develop environmental and social risk registers for all financial transactions. c) Investments Facilitate a major shift away from investments in environmentally unsustainable activities and toward economic activities that enhance the stock of natural assets. Fund the transition to a circular, green and low-carbon economy. Funding should flow to resilience, adaptation and just transition programmes. Fund research and development nationally and through international development assistance.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Fund programmes that improve access to affordable and nutritious food, clean energy and safe water for all. b) Food and water Finance sustainable intensification and ecological intensification of agriculture, and sustainable fisheries, and stop supporting unsustainable activities such as deforestation.Advance the use of agricultural, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries certification standards and labelling and encourage healthy diets, and reductions in food, water and energy waste. Support the development and use of certification standards for agriculture, fishing, aquaculture, forestry and water use. c) Energy Finance low-carbon energy production and use, and stop supporting unsustainable activities, such as fossil fuel energy.1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Help develop and comply with strong environmental legislation that levels the playing field so that firms cannot gain competitive advantage by externalizing costs that are then borne by society. Implement certified and traceable sustainable practices along the complete supply chain. Disclose climate-related financial risk, use of natural resources and the impact of activities on the environment. Practise corporate social responsibility. b) Climate change Adjust business models and align them with the global net-zero carbon emissions objective and sustainability practices in all sectors, including in shipping and aviation. Investors should demand information from companies on the resilience of those models. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Develop and promote innovative publicprivate partnerships for financing and engaging in the conservation and restoration of biodiversity, including through the use of payments for ecosystem services. Implement sustainable land management practices for agriculture and forestry. Engage in transformative landscape governance networks. Develop sustainable global supply chains for deforestation-free agricultural commodities. d) Health and well-being Comply with environmental standards to protect human health.Move industries to a sustainable and circular business model by reducing waste and resource use and encouraging sharing, reuse and recycling. Promote and support plastic free/environmentally friendly packaging. Conduct transparent risk assessments of the impact of chemicals on the environment and human health. Increase the use of green chemistry, invest in waste recycling and set high standards for waste disposal. e) Cities and settlements Engage with and support government in sustainable urban planning, public transport, energy-efficient buildings and partnerships to enhance access to urban services.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Use natural capital in decision-making and develop environmental and social risk registers for all projects and investments. b) Subsidies and markets Engage in carbon trading, schemes for offsetting nature, and payments for ecosystem services. Promote behaviour change in customers. Further develop and implement social and environmental standards for corporate operations. c) Investments Shift investments and operations away from unsustainable industries, such as fossil fuels. Invest in innovation, environmentally sound technologies and move towards a circular economy.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Develop and invest in systems to produce, store and distribute affordable and clean power and water and healthy food to all. b) Food and water Provide modern food storage and distribution services that minimize waste. Promote the development and use of food certification standards and product labelling. Invest in sustainable intensification in agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture. Develop climate-resilient crops and livestock breeds as well as alternatives to harmful agricultural inputs, including to fertilizers and pesticides. c) Energy Develop, invest in and use low-carbon energy technologies and distribution networks.1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Support education, promote youth movements and engage communities in citizen science. Participate in community-led initiatives to promote sustainable consumption and production. Help hold societal actors accountable for their environmental promises, commitments and responsibilities. Support the training of the next generation of leaders. b) Climate change Promote and align activities and operations with the net-zero carbon emissions objective. Implement mitigation, adaptation and resilience programmes and projects, including through nature-based solutions. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Support and implement efforts for the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity. Develop localregional-national conservation programmes. Participate in community-led initiatives to conserve nature. Engage in transformative landscape governance networks. Support the development and management of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures. d) Health and well-being Raise awareness on chemical safety and take a greater role in the SAICM chemicals management processes. Work with communities and local municipalities for the safe disposal of waste. e) Cities and settlements Campaign for and support sustainable urban planning and improved access to urban services and community initiatives, especially for the urban poor.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Promote the use of natural capital accounting, and initiatives for the transformation to a sustainable and circular economy. b) Subsidies and markets Engage in carbon trading, schemes for offsetting of nature and payment for ecosystem services Promote behavioural change in consumption and production, including among their own members and wider society. c) Investments Advocate for policies and regulations that promote investment in sustainable development.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Advocate for and implement programmes and projects for improved access to affordable and nutritious food, clean energy and safe water for all. b) Food and water Develop and implement initiatives for the ecological intensification and sustainable use of multifunctional landscapes. Promote dietary transitions and reductions in food, water and energy waste. Assist in improving certification standards. c) Energy Participate in community-led initiatives to shift toward cleaner fuels, increase energy-efficiency, conserve energy and develop sustainable bioenergy strategies.Individuals, households, civil society and youth groups, and indigenous peoples and local communities 1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Foster social norms and behaviours that embody sustainability principles by exercising voting and civic rights and holding governments and the private sector accountable for their actions. Review and comment on local and national policies. Engage in initiatives that promote sustainable consumption. Engage in education and citizenscience initiatives. b) Climate change Make climate-friendly everyday choices on travel and consumption that contribute to the net-zero carbon emissions objective. Engage in local adaptation and resilience initiatives, including through nature-based solutions. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Engage in local and national conservation and restoration efforts, transformative landscape governance networks and awareness campaigns to influence consumer behaviour. d) Health and well-being Understand and promote the links between environment and human health. Participate in community-led clean-ups of waste in public spaces. Ensure materials are recycled and waste is properly disposed of. e) Cities and settlements Engage in participatory processes to advance sustainable urban planning and initiatives to increase access to urban services, and promote nature-based solutions and green and blue infrastructure.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Foster economic and financial transformations by supporting initiatives to include environmental costs in the prices of goods and services. b) Subsidies and markets Engage in carbon trading, schemes for offsetting nature, and payments for ecosystem services. Support fair trade and companies with sustainable production models that provide services and products that foster societal well-being. c) Investments Support shifts in investment towards those needed to achieve the SDGs, and away from unsustainable industries, such as fossil fuels.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Support and engage in local production and distribution systems for healthy food, safe water and clean energy. b) Food and water Consider what constitutes a healthy diet and also reduces environmental damage. Adopt sustainable practices in community-based and small-scale food production. Purchase sustainably produced food and reduce waste. Reduce wasting water, and collect rainwater and use grey water. c) Energy Support community-based energy production. Reduce energy consumption and chose clean energy when possible.1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Develop analytical tools, including plausible futures models, using exploratory, target-seeking and policy-screening scenarios that account for the complex interlinkages between environment and development. Further develop observational programs. Engage in national and international scientific assessments. Develop environmental education programs for all age groups. Raise public awareness through public engagements, editorials, social media. b) Climate change Assess the impact of climate change on socio-economic sectors, nature and human health at all scales. Assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of different mitigation and adaptation policies and technologies. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Assess the impact of multiple drivers on biodiversity and ecosystem degradation, and the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of conservation and restoration activities, including nature-based solutions. d) Health and well-being Promote education, information and awareness of One Health approaches. Assess interactions among environmental issues and their impacts on socioeconomic sectors and human health. Assess the implications of chemicals for human health and the environment, and develop health surveillance and monitoring systems, and approaches to prevent disease outbreaks, including pandemics. Assess the mental health implications of green and blue infrastructure in urban environments. e) Cities and settlements Support sustainable urban planning and development, including the use of nature-based solutions. Promote education, information and awareness on sustainable cities and settlements and their importance for human health.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Further develop the framework for natural capital accounting and the relevant databases. Assess the costs and benefits of mitigating and adapting to climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation, land degradation, and air and water pollution at a range of spatial scales. Assess the implications of reforming measures and models of economic growth. Promote education, information and awareness on sustainable economic and financial systems. b) Subsidies and markets Assess the environmental and distributional social impacts of reductions in harmful subsidies, and the reallocation of these resources to support sustainable consumption and production. c) Investments Assess the environmental and social impacts of switching investments from unsustainable activities such as fossil fuels to sustainable activities.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Help develop and monitor systems and networks to produce and distribute clean water and energy and nutritional food. Support the development of certification processes. b) Food and water Promote education, information and awareness on sustainability within agriculture-fisheries-forestry-water-energy systems. Assess the implications of environmental degradation on agriculture and water resources. Develop temperature, drought, pest and salinity resistant crops. Assess how to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. Facilitate the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources. Develop water purification and desalination technologies. c) Energy Develop low-carbon production and use technologies, and assess how to overcome the barriers to market penetration of these technologies.Executive Summary1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Inform all actors about the relationships between environment and development issues. Help hold societal actors accountable for their environmental promises, commitments and responsibilities. Support campaigns for meaningful actions to address environmental degradation. Counter disinformation and promote environmentally responsible social norms. b) Climate change Highlight the implications of climate change for people and nature, and the opportunities for adaptation and mitigation. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Highlight the importance of biodiversity for human prosperity and well-being and the options for its conservation and restoration. d) Health and well-being Spread understanding and awareness of One Health approaches.Support campaigns for meaningful transformations in the health sector. e) Cities and settlements Document the impact on people and nature of unsustainable systems in urban areas and support campaigns for transformations in how cities and settlements are planned and designed, including the supply of essential services.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Raise awareness of how current economic models and performance measures as well as the price of some goods and services fail to fully account for natural capital and environmental costs, and how this skews investment toward unsustainable activities. Support campaigns for meaningful transformations in economic and financial systems. b) Subsidies and markets Inform the public and other actors of the adverse consequences of fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies that lead to environmental damage, and explore the impact of redirecting the financing of subsidies to sustainable activities. c) Investments Highlight government spending and private sector investments that are unsustainable and those which are sustainable.Humanity has been grappling with a growing number of environmental challenges of increasing severity ever since the Stockholm Conference in 1972. The decision to hold what became the first in a series of decadal conferences on sustainable development was taken by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 1969. 1 The Stockholm Conference identified the environment as a challenge needing a UN system-wide response and resulted in the establishment of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to help spearhead and coordinate the effort. 2 Governments have since put in place a number of specific multilateral environmental agreements and instruments, some of which address issues largely unknown in 1972, such as the depletion of the ozone layer and climate change. 3 Environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution have become increasingly severe. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has compared key impacts and risks of global warming across sectors and regions to people, economies and ecosystems for selected natural, managed and human systems through a sequence of science-based assessments (figure 1.1). The more recent assessments find that the risks kick in at lower temperature increases than the earlier ones did, and that the reasons for concern about climate change have increased over time.Science in interaction with policy has played a key role in identifying emerging environmental issues and providing the evidence base needed to address them. International environmental cooperation has developed an elaborate science-policy interface, including intergovernmental assessments co-designed and co-produced by independent experts interacting with government representatives and stakeholders. International assessments have established a foundation of shared knowledge that has often gone hand in hand with the development of international actions to curb environmental decline. A prominent example is the international effort to restore the life-protecting ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. Stratospheric ozone depletion was first hypothesized in 1974 and prompted a series of disco-veries showing that human-produced substances were to blame (figure 1.2). An elaborate interplay between science and policy resulted in the Montreal Protocol, which initiated the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances so that the ozone layer could start to recover, as detected in 2014. How science and policy interacted on this issue is detailed in Section 3. Advanced science-policy processes are key to generating actions needed to address more complex problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss.   1974   1985  1988  2014   1985 -1989  1995 -1996   activities. Section 3 explores how the world is currently failing to meet almost all of its targets on limiting environmental decline. Section 4 analyses how an array of deepening and mutually reinforcing environmental risks now threatens human well-being and the achievement of the SDGs. In Part II, the report urges the world to respond to the planetary emergency by transforming people's relationship with nature and with each other. Section 5 analyses how this daunting goal of a fundamental, system-wide change in the technological, economic and social organization of society can be achieved. Section 6 then assesses how the Earth's environmental emergencies should be addressed together to achieve sustainability. Section 7 moves on to examine how the economic and financial systems can be transformed to lead and power the shift to a sustainable future, and then explores how food, water and energy systems can be transformed to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner. Actions to reverse environmental decline in order to reduce the threats it poses to human health and well-being are addressed in Section 8. It also examines the environmental dimensions of promoting peaceful societies before addressing how cities and communities could become more sustainable. Finally, Section 9 sets out the roles and responsibilities that actors in the public and private sphere should assume if transformation is to succeed. It makes clear that humanity needs to take ingenuity and cooperation to a whole new level in order to achieve the sustainable development that will safeguard people and the planet in both the immediate and distant future. People rely on nature for livelihoods, prosperity, health and well-being. This section lays out the many ways in which people depend on nature, including through the provision of resources, the cycling of materials and the regulation of environmental conditions, and the many non-material contributions that nature makes to a good quality of life. It assesses how current economic and financial systems fail to account for society's dependence on the environment. The section then explores the underlying social and economic dynamics driving the human activities that directly degrade the environment through appropriation of space, modification of life, production, extraction, consumption, pollution and waste disposal.Human survival and well-being rests on the Earth and its ecosystems, and though the benefits of nature are received by all, the burden of environmental decline is unjustly distributed. Humans depend on the Earth's finite space and resources as well as its capacity to regenerate renewable resources, absorb waste and sustain life. The Earth provides humanity with clean water and air, 1 a protective stratospheric 2The current mode of development degrades the Earth's finite capacity to sustain human well-being I. Transforming nature puts human well-being at risk ozone layer, 2 a stable global climate and many other critical benefits. Human dependence on Earth and its ecosystems is often exposed when human systems degrade or surpass the planet's capacity to sustain prosperity. The growing use of land, freshwaters, coasts, oceans and natural resources such as fossil fuels, food crops, timber and aquatic foods have fuelled economic, technological and social advances (see figure 2.2). 3 However, human use of space and resources leaves less room for other living beings, and disposal of waste surpasses the Earth's absorptive capacity (see Section 3). The consequences, as this report shows, are devastating for human well-being and unjust (see Section 4). The benefits of nature have accrued unequally, and the burden of environmental decline is often disproportionately borne by poor and vulnerable communities. 4,5 Nature provides both material and non-material benefits crucial to human well-being and regulates Earth system functions that secure liveable conditions and protect people from harm. Many benefits derived from nature flow from interactions between people and the environment. Nature provides food, medicines, fibre, materials and energy and, with the aid of human inputs the production of many of these goods has increased over the past 50 years. 6 Nature also provides inspiration and learning, physical and psychological experiences, a sense of place and supports human identities. 7 The diversity of nature maintains humanity's ability to choose alternatives in the face of an uncertain future; for example, wild species might be domesticated as new crops. 8 In addition, natural processes modulate and maintain Earth systems, thereby providing a stable climate, mitigating natural hazards such as floods and fires, maintaining air and water quality, and supporting biological productivity. 9 Food production, for example, depends not only on food plants themselves but on many contributions from nature, including animal pollination, maintenance of soil fertility and water holding capacity and genetic diversity to withstand environmental changes such as increased temperatures or pests and disease (see Section 4). 10 Human well-being, now and in the future, depends on a healthy planet, achieved by avoiding climate change, pollution of air and water, degradation of land, water and oceans, and erosion of life on Earth. A changing climate, a degraded ozone layer, pollution and the degradation of ecosystems threaten human health, infrastructure and the many benefits that nature provides to people. 11 Nature itself is critical in mitigating these impacts, though in doing so its integrity is threatened. For example, oceans and land ecosystems have absorbed roughly 50 per cent of total human carbon dioxide emissions, but in so doing the oceans have acidified, negatively affecting ocean ecosystems that many people depend on, 12 and the persistence of natural carbon sinks are themselves uncertain due to climate change 13,14 and other drivers (see Section 2.3). 15 Sustaining the flow of benefits from nature increasingly depends on avoiding further loss of biodiversity. 16 For example, biodiversity in agricultural systems, including species and genetic variability, reduces vulnerability to stresses and shocks, in part by increasing the choices available to producers. 17 Avoiding land degradation will benefit billions of people by maintaining crop yields and other benefits of nature. 18 A healthy planet is a prerequisite and foundation for long-term prosperity, human health and well-being and for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.The aggregate value of nature is often difficult to quantify because people value nature and its contributions to quality of life and cultural integrity in many different ways. 19 Groups with different culture, history, experience, education, income or other factors may use and value nature quite differently. 20 People experience the value of nature through their physical and mental health and as social, cultural and holistic well-being. Gross Domestic Product fails to fully account for the benefits people get from nature and the costs of its degradation. The standard measure of economic performance, gross domestic product (GDP), only measures the value of market transactions and therefore excludes much of the value of nature's contribution to human well-being. GDP excludes the value of ecosystem functions that regulate environmental conditions and the value of non-material benefits related to spiritual or cultural values. It also excludes measures of negative externalities associated with the depletion and destruction of nature. GDP measures current income but does not show whether that income is sustainable. Supporting current income through depletion of natural capital is not sustainable.Inclusive wealth is a better measure of sustainable prosperity. Rising GDP overstates human progress because it does not account for declines in natural capital. Maintaining or enhancing inclusive wealth (also known as weak sustainability) gives future generations the possibility to be at least as well off as the current generation. 26 Between 1990 and 2014, the annual growth rate in GDP for a set of 135 countries was almost double the increase in inclusive wealth (3.4 per cent versus 1.8 per cent). 27 Yet even this comparison only partially reflects the loss of nature's contributions over this period.Natural capital provides contributions to human well-being for which there may not be substitutes. Maintaining stocks of critical natural capital for which there are no substitutes is necessary for sustainability (also known as strong sustainability). 28 For example, the natural processes integral to growing food cannot be replaced. Even where substitutes for natural capital exist, they may be limited and costly. For example, biodiversity often reduces the need for food and agricultural producers to rely on costly or environmentally harmful external inputs. Similarly, high-quality drinking water can be provided through ecosystems that filter pollutants, through human-engineered water treatment facilities, or through hybrid solutions such as constructed wetlands and greywater treatment. Coastal flooding from storm surges can be reduced by coastal mangroves or by dikes and sea walls. Where limited or no substitutes for natural capital are available, policymakers can set science-based standards for environmental sustainability and adopt measures to ensure that these standards are met. This approach has been adopted for climate change, biodiversity loss and protection of the stratospheric ozone layer.Markets do not provide sufficient reward for businesses to invest in conserving or restoring natural capital. Businesses often find it unprofitable to invest in natural capital because they bear the costs but are not able to capture fully the benefits of conserving or restoring natural capital that accrue to wider society. The lack of investment results in natural capital's continued decline.Market prices fail to internalize environmental costs, magnifying environmental harm. Business and consumers often fail to pay the full costs of producing and consuming goods and services. For example, production and use of fossil fuels causes climate change, air pollution, destruction of habitat, ocean acidification and other environmental costs that are borne by society as a whole. Failure to pay for external costs encourages overproduction and overconsumption of environmentally harmful goods and services and discourages shifts towards more environmentally friendly substitutes such as renewable energy.Subsidies to environmentally destructive industries increase environmental degradation and its costs to people. Subsidies to fossil fuels, non-sustainable agriculture and fishing, non-renewable energy, mining and transportation exceed US$5 trillion annually. Globally, fossil fuel subsidies alone have been estimated at US$4.7 trillion (6.3 per cent of global GDP) in 2015 and are projected at US$5.2 trillion (6.5 per cent of GDP) in 2017. 29 In 2017-2019, the net transfers to the agricultural sector in 54 countries was more than US$600 billion per year. 30 These subsidies distort market outcomes and result in greater environmental degradation.Removing harmful subsidies would improve both economic and environmental outcomes.The failure to recognize the true costs of resource use or the value of waste reduction impedes movement towards a sustainable and circular economy. Failure to include the full costs of environmentally harmful activities skews investment away from sustainable solutions that involve the restoration of nature, development of renewable energy, more efficient use of resources, the reuse of materials and other characteristics of a circular economy. In a circular economy, the by-products of production or consumption becomes the raw material for other products. 31 A circular economy eases the pressure on natural resources and reduces waste and the costs of disposal. The current economic system does not provide effective incentives to reduce resource use, reuse materials or reduce waste, thereby slowing progress towards a circular economy.Human activities are changing the Earth's ecosystems and climate and leaving a geological signature so significant that the current geological epoch may be named the Anthropocene. I,32 These changes in the Earth system are driven by an array of underlying causes anchored in socioeconomic dynamics, the indirect drivers of environmental change, which The number of people on Earth has more than doubled over the last 50 years but the growth rate is projected to slow.The world population has grown from 3.7 billion people in 1970 to an estimated 7.8 billion in 2020 (see figure 2.2 panel a.i). 33 Although the population growth rate is projected to slow, the total population is expected to continue expanding in most regions. Based on a range of future fertility, mortality, migration and education assumptions, population projections used in existing assessments vary between 8.5 billion and 10.0 billion people by 2050 and between 6.9 billion and 12.6 billion people by 2100 (figure 2.2 panel a.i). 34,35,36,37,38,39 The largest uncertainty is the speed of the fertility transition, with low population projections resulting from a relatively rapid drop in fertility rates, though drops in fertility rates have a lag time     The fastest growth is projected for non-metallic materials, reflecting additional needs for buildings and infrastructure. 62 Increased material consumption is putting further pressure on an already stressed environment, as the decreases in the Living Planet Indexes indicates (see figure 2.2 panel b).Production, marketing and consumer choices have driven changes in energy and agriculture systems involving a significant and ongoing rise in the use of natural resources. Economic growth has been fuelled by an increase in global primary energy production of more than 270 per cent over the last 50 years. While the share of renewable energy is increasing, fossil fuels are still the source of more than 80 per cent of primary energy and continue to drive climate change (figure 2.5). 63 Innovations, marketing and changes in consumer preferences shape production systems, including that for food. There has been a shift to-wards more meat-intensive diets and increases in material consumption among those in society who can afford it. The extent to which diets shift is a key variable in how much food is required by 2050. Between 2015 and 2050, demand for agricultural products (including wood, grass and fodder, food, feed and energy crops) is projected to increase by 30-80 per cent (SSP1-3), while primary energy demand is expected to rise by 80-130 per cent (SSP1-5) (figure 2.2 panel a.iii). 64 Future developments in demand for energy and materials are also sensitive to economic growth and structure, while agricultural demand is more directly affected by population growth. 65 Technology can yield important efficiency gains but is not a panacea for unsustainable resource use. Technological innovation and efficiency gains can reduce the environmental footprint of human activities. For example, energy  efficiency increased by an estimated 12 per cent between 2000 and 2018. 66 However, growth in consumption due to reduced cost to consumers, sometimes called the rebound effect may offset efficiency gains. 67 Structural shifts may also offset efficiency gains. Material productivity has not improved globally since the year 2000 due to structural shifts in production towards economies with low material productivity. 68 Although the assessed SSPs show some decoupling of resource use from economic output (for example, in improved energy, water and nutrient-use efficiency and increasing agricultural yields) they fall short of offsetting rising demand driven by increases in population and per capita income. 69 Massively expanded global trade is exporting environmental footprints and distancing consumers from their impacts on the climate and biodiversity. Global trade has grown by nearly ten times in the last 50 years. 70 Ever-more distant consumers are shifting the environmental burden of consumption and production across regions. 71 Assessment of the \"upstream resource requirements\" of trade (that is, the additional resources used in the country of origin for producing traded goods but left behind as wastes and emissions) reveals that resource-intensive processes have shifted from high-income importing countries to low-income exporting countries, with a corresponding shift in associated environmental burdens. 72Human-caused direct drivers of environmental change are now a dominant force shaping the Earth. To satisfy growing demands, people use an ever-increasing fraction of the Earth's land, freshwater and oceans for the production and extraction of food, fibre, energy and minerals as well as for industrial facilities, infrastructure and settlements. Humans and farm animals have become the dominant species among all mammals on Earth. One estimate of the combined biomass II of mammals on Earth shows that the human population constitutes about a third and livestock nearly two thirds, while wild mammals, from whales to mice, amount to  92 Natural sinks today are only able to absorb around half of all carbon dioxide emissions, more or less equally split between terrestrial ecosystems and the ocean. Increased uptake of carbon dioxide is causing harmful ocean acidification. 93,94 In order to limit warming to well below 2°C, net global emissions from human activities need to reach zero or even become negative by the middle of the century. 95 Disposal, release and leaks of chemicals, nutrients and waste are driving environmental declines, especially in aquatic ecosystems. Pollution is regarded as the third most important driver of biodiversity loss in freshwater and the fourth in terrestrial and marine systems (see figure 3.1). Up to 400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other industrial wastes are dumped annually into the world's waters, and fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced dead zones. 96 Marine plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, constituting 60 to 80 per cent of marine debris, and is found in all oceans at all depths and concentrates in the ocean currents. Marine plastics cause ecological impacts from entanglement and ingestion and can also act as a vector for invasive species and pollutants. 97,98,99  This section examines the state of the Earth from six perspectives, each relating to a cluster of international agreements: climate change; biodiversity loss; land degradation; air pollution; chemicals in the biosphere; and the depletion of stratospheric ozone. It demonstrates how society is failing to meet most of the internationally agreed environmental and sustainable development goals and targets relating to these topics. It concludes with a subsection showing how these major environmental challenges are linked to one another, and therefore why their collective solution requires a coordinated approach.The future is not entirely bleak. Multilateral cooperation and actions by individual nations, industries and households have yielded positive results, albeit insufficient to date. In general, these successes are not keeping pace with the growing negative ecological consequences of expanding human activities. If humanity continues on this path, the environment will keep changing for the worse, and this decline will contribute to conflicts, a reduction in the quality of human life and deteriorating prospects for most other lifeforms on the planet. Almost all of the Earth system and human system processes involved in the dramatic changes observed over the past century contain time lags of years to centuries. This imparts an inertia to the changes observed and reinforces the urgency with which people must act. There is a high risk that systems will cross thresholds beyond which change accelerates and becomes effectively impossible to reverse.Human activities have already caused the Earth's surface to warm by more than 1°C since the industrial period of 1850-1900. 1,2 Warming substantially greater than the global average is being experienced in most land regions: up to twice as large for hot extremes in mid-latitudes and more than three times larger in the cold season in the Arctic. 3 The increased atmospheric warming has led to more frequent and inten-Society is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage se heavy precipitation events at global scale, but also to an increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts in some regions. 4,5 The additional warming has also led to Arctic sea ice retreat, permafrost thaw, and to melting of glaciers and ice sheets, which together with the thermal expansion of the oceans, have resulted in accelerating sea level rise. 6 Non-climatic drivers such as land subsidence, partly human-caused, have also played an important role in increasing vulnerability to sea level rise. Human-induced climate change has led to increases in the intensity and frequency of many extreme events, in particular hot extremes in all land regions, heavy precipitation in several regions and droughts in some regions. 7,8 In many regions, changing patterns of precipitation and the melting of snow and ice are altering the volume and seasonal timing of water flows in rivers, affecting both the quantity and quality of water resources, and the potential occurrence of peak flow events. Climate zones are shifting, including expansion of arid zones and contraction of polar zones. 9The heat-trapping effect of atmospheric greenhouse gases will persist for centuries to millennia, 10 and the resultant continued increase in global temperature will have large adverse consequences. There is inertia in the climate system. While some changes in the natural system, such as ocean acidification, can be detected almost immediately and can be clearly attributed to anthropogenic influence, other effects, such as sea level rise, will gradually but inexorably reveal themselves over the next several centuries. They are equally attributable to climate change, but the connection is less obvious to non-scientific observers because of the delay. Ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is already contributing to sea level rise. 11 The unstable retreat of some Antarctic and Greenland glaciers may further accelerate sea level rise, 12 possibly abruptly. Mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet could be irreversible in the foreseeable future. 13 Risks of biodiversity loss and extinction increase greatly both for terrestrial and marine species as warming increases, with large increases for warming levels between 1.5 and 2°C (see Section 3.2) and further increases in risk beyond 2°C warming. Ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, permafrost degradation, and the extinction of species are phenomena that are highly relevant to human societies and ecosystem integrity but are effectively irreversible on century time scales. 14,15 Other effects, such as marine heatwaves and the retreat of Arctic sea ice, may be reversible over a period of decades to centuries (table 6.1) if the drivers of warming are reversed. Widespread disappearance of Arctic near-surface permafrost is projected to occur this century, 2-66 per cent of the area is at risk under low emission scenarios, and 30-99 per cent under high emission scenarios, releasing as much as 240 gigatonnes of carbon to the atmosphere, further accelerating climate change. Permafrost melting dries out the soil in some places, results in flooding in other places, and causes damage to infrastructure. 16 Rising concern about the climate has led to the Paris Agreement and other international accords to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed in 1992, 17 led to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, 18 the first coordinated attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The subsequent Paris Agreement of 2015 was the result of several years of intensive international efforts to reach an agreement between all countries on limiting climate change. It includes the aim of \"holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.\" In the light of different national circumstances, the Paris Agreement calls for \"rapid reductions\" of emissions to be achieved \"on the basis of equity, and in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.\" 19 The connections between eradicating poverty and reducing inequality and addressing climate change are embedded in the sustainable development goals (SDGs, see Section 4).Despite growing awareness and alarm about climate change, greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. Emissions of greenhouse gases increased from the equivalent of around 30 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2e) in 1970 to around 55 GtCO2e in 2019. 20 In the absence of vigorous mitigation measures and policies, most projections show further increases in greenhouse gas emissions in the future, driven by increasing fossil fuel use, land-use changes and other human activities.If society continues on its current emissions pathway, it will miss the target of keeping warming to well below 2°C, let alone that of stabilizing global warming at 1.5°C, and be on course for warming of more than 3°C. Taken together, the national climate mitigation pledges (known as Nationally Determined Contributions) made to date fall far short of the reductions needed to achieve the goals set under the Paris Agreement. Current pledges are more consistent with scenarios that lead to a warming well in excess of 3°C by the latter part of the century. 21 Many countries are failing to achieve even the modest emissions reductions goals they set for themselves. 22 Unless major emissions reductions are achieved by 2030, any chance of stabilizing global warming at 1.5°C will be lost. 23 Typical scenarios aimed at holding warming well below 2°C or even to 1.5°C typically show a 25-50 per cent reduction compared to 2010 (see also Section 6.1). 24 Scenarios in which warming temporarily exceeds the Paris Agreement goals around mid-century before falling rapidly depend heavily on the development of carbon dioxide removal technologies, whose ability to capture and store carbon dioxide at scale is as yet unproven and could lead to unintended negative impacts on biodiversity and food production. 25,26 In 2020, greenhouse gas emissions have shown a temporary drop as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Carbon dioxide emissions could decrease by about 7 per cent in 2020 (range 2-12 per cent) compared with 2019 emission levels due to COVID-19, with a smaller drop expected in overall emissions as other greenhouse gases are likely to be less affected. However, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise. Studies indicate that the biggest changes have occurred in transport, as some COVID-19 restrictions were targeted to limit mobility, though reductions have also occurred in other sectors. 27 Long-term impacts on emissions are uncertain. The stimulus packages announced by governments to support economic recovery may have a strong impact on long-term emissions, leading to either lower emissions (if investments are combined with decarbonization strategies) or higher emissions (if investments are mostly made in greenhouse gas-intensive technologies).Climate change amplifies existing risks and creates new risks for natural and human systems. 28,29,30,31,32,33 Restricting global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot avoids many additional risks compared to a stabilization at 2°C, including reducing the risk of some irreversible impacts. 34 At 2°C of warming and higher, the likelihood and magnitude of impacts rises steeply. For example, substantial further increases in hot temperature extremes in most inhabited land regions are projected at global warming of 2°C or more compared to warming of 1.5°C. 35 There would also be further increases in heavy precipitation in several regions, and a higher probability of drought and precipitation deficits in some regions. 36 Global mean sea level rise is projected to be around 10 centimetres less by the end of the twenty-first century in a 1.5°C warmer world compared to a 2°C warmer 68 3. Society is failing to meet most of its commitments to limit environmental damage Terrestrial ecosystems world. The probability of a sea ice-free Arctic Ocean during summer is substantially higher at 2°C compared to 1.5°C of global warming. The risks to ocean and terrestrial ecosystems, including the number of species at risk of accelerated extinction, increase more than proportionally to the change in global mean temperature; at 2°C, the number of species at risk is more than 30 per cent higher than for 1.5°C, and higher temperature increases further magnify the threats (see Sections 3.2 and 3.7).Worldwide, biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming and accelerating rate. The absolute abundance of wild organisms has decreased over the past half-century, typically by about half across many groups, including birds, mammals and insects. Hotspots of rare and endemic species, which account for a disproportionate fraction of global biodiversity, have on average suffered greater declines in ecosystem structure and biotic integrity than other areas. The global rate of species extinction is already at least tens to hundreds of times higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years and is accelerating. Over 1 million of the estimated 8 million plant and animal species on Earth are at substantially increased risk of extinction in the coming decades and centuries as a direct or indirect consequence of human activities. Only a quarter of their original habitat is largely still functioning in a semi-natural way, and more than a third of terrestrial global plant production is now appropriated by humans for their own use and the use of domesticated species. 37 Climate change exacerbates other threats to biodiversity (see Section 3.7). Many terrestrial, freshwater and marine species have shifted their geographic ranges, seasonal activities, migration patterns, abundances and species interactions in response to climate change, and this trend will continue. 38 Half of all warm-water coral reefs have already been lost due to such combined effects. 39 A third of marine fish stocks have declined as a consequence of overharvesting. 40 Fertilisers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 ocean \"dead zones\" with a total area greater than 245,000 km² -more than the land area of the United Kingdom. 41 Widespread changes in organismal traits and reductions in genetic diversity are also evident. The diversity of organisms is in decline in both natural and managed environments (such as agricultural landscapes), with negative consequences for their productivity and resilience in the face of stress. The world's major ecosystems vary in both the intensity of the change-inducing factors they face and their ability to withstand them. Some, including arctic ecosystems and tropical coral reefs, are thought to be close to collapse in the form of large-scale regime shifts. 42 The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5Progress towards elements of each target 3.2. Assessment of progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets None of the goals in the international agreements intended to slow the rate of biodiversity loss have been fully met, including those in the strategic plan for biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Across six international agreements 43 whose objectives include slowing or reversing biodiversity loss, only one in five of the strategic objectives and goals are on track to be achieved. Nearly a third of the goals are not being met or in some cases even becoming further out of reach. 44 For example, none of the targets agreed under the CBD in 2010 (known as the \"Aichi Biodiversity Targets\") were fully met by the target deadline of 2020. One assessment of progress found partial progress in just four of the 20 targets. 45 A subsequent assessment that also took into account reports by countries implementing (not used by IPBES), green indicates good progress and that the element has been or is likely to be achieved by 2020, yellow indicates that moderate progress has been made towards the element but that it has not been achieved, red indicates poor progress or no significant change in the element, and purple indicates that the trends are moving away from achieving the element (not used by IPBES). In cases where the element could not be assessed due to insufficient information, the segment is grey. In the left hand column: \"Drivers\" refers to Strategic Goal A on underlying causes of biodiversity loss; \"Pressures\" refers to Strategic Goal B on the direct pressures on biodiversity; \"Status\" refers to Strategic Goal C on improving the status of biodiversity; \"Benefits\" refers to Strategic Goal D on enhancing benefits from biodiversity; and \"Implementation\" refers to Strategic Goal E on enhancing implementation.Source: IPBES 2019a, GA SPM, Figure SPM.6; CBD 2020a, GBO-5 SPM the targets concluded that six of the targets were partially achieved 46 (see figure 3.2). Areas of progress included increases in the proportion of land and oceans designated as protected areas and improved international financial flows to developing countries. Little or no progress has been made on others, including the elimination of harmful subsidies. 47 Both analyses show that there has been moderate or poor progress for most of the targets aimed at addressing the causes of biodiversity loss (see figure 3.1). As a result, the state of biodiversity overall continues to decline. Even though conservation actions have likely reduced the number of species becoming extinct by between two and four times, the number of species threatened with extinction continues to increase.There has been moderate or poor progress on maintaining genetic diversity of cultivated plants and their wild relatives, restoring ecosystem services and no progress overall in enhancing carbon storage. Some progress has been made in adopting policy responses and actions including raising awareness of the value of biodiversity, sharing benefits equitably, developing national action plans, and improving scientific understanding of the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss. 48 Lag times and system feedbacks mean that species can be committed to premature extinction decades before the last individuals actually die and that there is a high likelihood that ecosystem thresholds will be crossed, with large and negative consequences. It is estimated that more than half a million terrestrial species have insufficient habitat for their long-term survival, and are committed to early extinction, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored. 49 Deforestation could cross critical thresholds of fragmentation and area loss that undermine forest ecological integrity and ultimately human well-being. 50 Once the world is committed to warming greater than 2-3°C, most warm-water coral reefs will die, boreal forests will not reproduce, and ice-dependent ecosystems (such as permafrost, glacier-fed and seasonal coastal ice sheets) face collapse. Coral reefs are already dying as a result of a warmer world, whereas it will take many decades to see a significant reduction in the area of boreal forests (although leading indicators such as fire and diseases already show change), and centuries to millennia to see a complete destruction of ice-dependent ecosystems. 51,52 Biodiversity and the benefits it provides are set to decline further because of continued climate and land-use change.Most scenarios project ongoing and often accelerating loss of biodiversity (see figure 3.3) and of many of the regulating and cultural services it supports, largely due to projected changes in climate and continued changes in land use. 53 Ongoing changes in land use are inevitable due to evolving human needs and the effects of climate change, but they need not, in aggregate, lead to further degradation of a finite but essential resource. To recognize this point while still aiming to halt and then reverse land degradation, the concept of \"land degradation neutrality\" has been proposed by the UNCCD and is a target in SDG 15. It means that for every hectare newly degraded, a hectare of equal value somewhere else is restored from past degradation. 54 In 2020, less than a quarter of the global land surface still functions in a nearly natural way, with its biodiversity largely intact. This quarter is mostly located in dry, cold, or mountainous areas, and thus far has a low human population and has undergone little transformation. It also includes much of the terrestrial protected area network, currently covering 15 per cent of the land area. Of the remaining three quarters, a third (i.e. a quarter of the total land surface) has been radically transformed from its natural state. The original ecosystem has been replaced by croplands, plantations, planted pastures, infrastructure such as roads, railways, dams, canalized rivers, human settlements, industrial developments, waste dumps or active or abandoned mining lands. The rate of this transformation has accelerated since the middle of the twentieth century. The other two thirds (i.e. half of the total global land area) retains some level of natural processes and biodiversity but is strongly and increasingly human-dominated. It includes the rangelands of the world that are grazed mostly by domesticated livestock, the semi-natural forests from which wood and other products are harvested, and the freshwater systems where flows are altered by water use. 55 Land degradation has reduced productivity in more than 20 per cent of the global terrestrial area. 56,57 Wetlands are the most transformed and degraded ecosystem type. They have lost about 85 per cent of their area and much of their function. 58 Although land degradation is ubiquitous, its large and persistent impacts are only now being appreciated. Degradation occurs everywhere in the world, to varying degrees and in many forms, all of which compromise human well-being (see figure 3.4). The economic impact is large, and billions of lives are affected (see Section 4). However, land degradation has been present for so long, and in so many places, that it has often come to be thought of as the natural state or is conceived as an inevitable consequence of progress. Local species richness (N=3)Regional species richness (N=4) Biodiversity intactness (N=1) 0%-4% -8%-12%been an impediment to quantification of the issue (see box 3.1), 59 but in the past decade there has been a convergence on definitions that can be applied to all terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, based on a long-term reduction in the capacity of the affected ecosystems to deliver benefits to people, now and in the future. Some definitions also include an accompanying reduction in the diversity, abundance, or health of nature. Of particular concern is degradation where ecological processes have been impaired to the point that the ecosystem is no longer able to recover -unaided, fully and in a reasonable time -once the causes of degradation have been alleviated. 60A useful distinction is between land transformation and land degradation. 61 Transformation may be legal or illegal, but it is usually intentional. The ecosystem is deliberately altered for the purpose of increasing the delivery of a particular benefit, or set of benefits to a group of people, often at the expense of other benefits, and almost always with a loss of biodiversity.For instance, a diverse, self-regenerating natural forest may be converted to a managed tree plantation, or a grassland into a cropland. In the developed world, transformation often occurred centuries ago, and is often assumed to be the natural and desired state.In  Land degradation and transformation contributed around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade.Over half of these emissions derive from land transformation (particularly deforestation) and most of the remainder from the loss of soil carbon in cultivated land. Halting land transformation and degradation could contribute 6.6 (range 2-11) GtCO2e per year to greenhouse gas emission reductions between 2020 and 2050, and land restoration-related activities 63 could contribute a further 18.6 (range 1.8-35.5) GtCO2e per year over the same period, while simultaneously restoring ecological function and ecosystem services, and in some cases, biodiversity (see section 5). 64,65,66 The issue of land degradation is recognized as a global concern, but the approaches to addressing it have been inadequate and fragmented. The UNCCD specifically addresses degradation in drylands. There is no single conven-tion to protect forests, but several treaties address aspects of forest degradation, including the CBD, the UNFCCC, the International Tropical Timber Agreement and some of the rules of the World Trade Organization. Wetlands of international importance are protected under the Ramsar Convention. Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land) sets out to halt and reverse land degradation by 2030. This builds on the concept of land degradation neutrality, adopted by the UNCCD in 2015, also for achievement by 2030. These constitute the first comprehensive global targets relating to land degradation. There have been other implicit or explicit targets relating to particular aspects of degradation, such as combatting desertification, or soil degradation, or wetland loss. Many countries have national targets related to preventing or reversing land degradation, but in aggregate they have not been sufficient to meet international goals. Despite the agreed goal of halting land degradation, land degradation is projected to increase in the twenty-first century under all development scenarios (see Section 4). 67 Under scenarios where slowing land transformation is not a priority, the fraction of land remaining in a near-natural state is projected to be as little as 10 per cent by mid-century, while degraded land will reach over 20 per cent. The pace of land degradation depends strongly on the outcome of efforts to mitigate climate change (see Section 3.7). In particular, under scenarios where mitigation actions are weak and slow, degradation in arid lands and polar regions is projected to accelerate. Land-based climate mitigation actions can, if targeted at rehabilitation of degraded lands, achieve both climate and land restoration objectives, but the availability and productive potential of such lands is insufficient to supply more than a small part of the net carbon uptake needed by mid-century. If inappropriately applied, for instance by afforestation of lands not previously forested, or by reforestation using monocultures of species not native to the area under restoration, the co-benefits to land restoration will not be achieved, and net biodiversity harm could result. 68 3.4 Air pollution is not sufficiently reduced to protect human well-beingAir pollution is the biggest environmental risk factor contributing to the global burden of disease. 69,70 From a health perspective, the most important air pollutants are ground-level ozone and particulate matter, 71 both of which can also act as short-lived climate forcers. An estimated 90 per cent of the world's population lives in an area where annual average outdoor concentrations of the pollutant PM2.5 (fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less) exceeds WHO air quality guidelines. 72,73 Urban areas typically have high levels of pollution; of the 45 megacities with measurements in 2013, only four met the WHO guidelines for PM2.5. 74 Projected increases in urbanization have the potential to negatively impact on local and regional air quality.Nature contributes to the regulation of air quality but can be degraded in the process. 75 Nature improves air quality through the retention and detoxification of pollutants, though these processes (such as acidic deposition) affect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems negatively. 76 Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function, resulting from air pollution and other drivers such as land degradation and climate change, may compromise nature's contributions to moderating air pollution. 77,78,79 Ecosystems can also be sources of pollutants, such as from biomass burning, dust, biogenic volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen emissions, as well as ammonia and methane that contribute to secondary pollutants. These contribute interactively to ambient air pollution and many act as short-lived climate forcers. 80,81,82,83,84,85 Nature also helps prevent emissions of air pollutants, for instance in the way that vegetation modulates dust emissions from soil. 86 Climate-related factors interacting with land-use and land cover changes in many dryland areas have over the last few decades resulted in increased frequency and intensity of dust storms with negative impacts on air quality and human health. 87 The increased occurrence of wildfires as a result of climate change will negatively impact air quality and thus represent a growing health risk. 88 Natural or human-induced increases in the production and release of airborne allergens (pollen or fungal spores) and consequent upsurges in allergy-related respiratory ill health can make people more susceptible to air pollution impacts. 89 Releases of hazardous chemicals from environmental reservoirs such as soil, water and ice due to increasing temperatures are also projected to increase exposures and vulnerabilities for both people and ecosystems. 90 While there is no global agreement on limiting air pollution, international targets, regional agreements and national policies 91,92,93 aim to decrease air pollution and its negative impacts. The international targets with a bearing on air pollution are SDGs 3.9, 7.1 and 11.6 and Aichi Biodiversity Target 8. The Montreal Protocol and the Paris Agreement also impact air pollution; their implementation will affect air quality, both directly through changes in emissions and atmospheric chemistry, and indirectly by mitigating climate change and its subsequent impacts on air quality. 94,95 The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) 96 is an example of a successful regional agreement that has led to marked improvements in air quality. In Europe, the abatement of pollutant emissions under CLRTAP has helped to increase average life expectancy by 12 months and decreased the exceedance of critical loads (i.e. the exposure ecosystems can sustain without being degraded) for acidification by a factor of 30 and nitrogen by a factor of three. 97 Progress on reducing air pollution is mixed, with air quality improving in high-income countries but continuing to degrade in low-income countries. 98,99,100,101,102,103 Globally, health impacts from exposure to ambient PM2.5 and ozone, and household PM2.5 have decreased significantly (by about 25 per cent) between 2006 and 2016. 104,105 However, these trends are highly variable from place to place. 106,107,108,109,110 For example, North America and Europe have seen decreases of about 75 per cent in sulphur dioxide emissions (which contribute to ambient sulphur dioxide concentrations and particulate matter pollution) since 1990, while increases have been seen elsewhere, including of 50 per cent in Asia. 111 The regional differences in progress towards targets are striking and cause for concern. Quantifying these trends in middle-and low-income countries is greatly hindered by lack of data. Large data gaps for quantifying and characterizing air pollution and its impacts can be addressed through actions that expand the knowledge base as well as improve monitoring and reporting; these include improving emission inventories, increasing sampling coverage of a range of pollutants and impacts, as well as improving availability and accessibility of data and information. 112,113 While air pollution levels are impacted by activities in many sectors, action to decrease emissions in the energy sector is critical to achieve air quality targets. 114 Energy production and use is the main source of anthropogenic emissions for many pollutants, accounting for 85 per cent of primary PM emissions and almost all of the emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. 115 Air quality related SDG targets will not be fully met with current energy policies alone, but rather a transformation of the energy sector is needed. 116,117 As air quality has linkages across sectors, more holistic and integrated assessments are needed to develop policies and interventions that avoid potential unintended trade-offs. 118,119,120 3.5 Chemicals and waste are not always managed safelyA wide range of hazardous human-produced chemicals are accumulating in the biosphere, in the environment in which humans live, and in the human food chain, which adversely affect ecosystems and human health. The production and use of chemicals are increasing (see figure 3.5).Hazardous and toxic chemicals have adverse effects on terrestrial and aquatic life. Large quantities of human-manufactured chemicals continue to be released to the air, water and soil. In many parts of the world, emissions and releases of hazardous chemicals are increasing. Not only do these emissions pose risks to human health and the environment, they also represent lost opportunities to realize economic benefits from repurposing the waste stream. Significant progress has been made in reducing releases of some chemicals of concern, including ozone-depleting substances (see Section 3.6) and some persistent organic pollutants.Global warming leads to the remobilization of some pollutants such as persistent organic pollutants due to melting glaciers and thawing permafrost. Atmospheric long-range transport of pollutants is responsible for their occurrence in remote areas. Supply chains involving trans-or inter-continental shipping of hazardous chemicals potentially increase the risk of their accidental release into the environment. 121The Millennium Development Goals set in 2002 to minimize the adverse impacts of chemicals and waste by 2020 will not be achieved. Solutions exist (see Section 5), but more ambitious worldwide action by all stakeholders is urgently required. There has been good progress in addressing the legacy of persistent organic pollutants, such as the pesticide DDT, under the Stockholm Convention, where a global monitoring programme has been in place for more than 10 years. The levels and trends of selected persistent organic pollutants in air and mother's milk are monitored around the globe. On several continents there has been a reduction in concentration of a range of persistent organic pollutants of high concern, even in remote areas. The levels of contaminants newly added to this convention, such as brominated and fluorinated chemicals, have not yet shown a decline. The results of the monitoring programme suggest that targeted regulations, including those that predated the convention in some regions, are working to reduce levels of persistent organic pollutants in the environment and in human populations. Effective regulatory actions at the global level since the entry into force of the Convention in 2004, particularly for listed persistent organic pollutants that are still commercially available, are expected to lower environmental concentrations in the long term. 122,123 Chemical-related multilateral agreements have improved the management of the whole life cycle of chemicals. Agreements including the Rotterdam, Stockholm and Basel Conventions address the life cycle of chemicals, including their sources, commerce (use), transport, and disposal. The Minamata Convention on mercury covers the entire life cycle of mercury and mercury-added products. A multi-stakeholder voluntary agreement known as the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) addresses emerging policy issues and other concerns in global chemicals management such as: lead in paint; chemicals in products; hazardous substances within the life cycle of electrical and electronic products; nanotechnology and manufactured nanomaterials; endocrine-disrupting chemicals; environmentally persistent pharmaceutical pollutants; perfluorinated chemicals and the transition to safer alternatives; and highly hazardous pesticides. Work to strengthen the science-policy interface and prepare recommendations regarding the Strategic Approach and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 are still ongoing. 124 3.6 Strong international coordinated action is restoring Earth's protective ozone layerHuman-made chemicals have caused the depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, exposing people and other organisms to harmful ultraviolet radiation. The reduction in the concentration of ozone in the stratosphere, first detected in the late 1980s, is directly due to the release of humanmade chemical compounds including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and bromine-containing halons. The impact of these ozone-depleting substances is manifest as an ozone \"hole\" above Antarctica and a thinning of the ozone layer in the Arctic and in mid-latitudes. This has increased the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth's surface, which is harmful to both people and other organisms.Concern about the threat to the ozone layer prompted pioneering scientific research, assessments and international agreements to address a complex global environmental problem. Meetings of international experts beginning in 1979 125 produced the first of a series of in-depth scientific assessments of ozone depletion. 126 With the threat identified, UNEP formed an expert working group to develop a framework to protect the ozone layer. The resulting Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted by 21 countries in March 1985. 127 This Convention called for Parties to take measures to protect human health and the  1989 1991 1994 1998 2002 2006   environment from ozone depletion, but to also cooperate on scientific research and observations. The full scientific assessment report published in late 1985 was the first of its kind, in the sense of being international, comprehensive, peerreviewed, and including a summary for policymakers. 128 The summary noted the first evidence of the Antarctic ozone hole, albeit without an understanding of its cause. Two years later, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was adopted to control, at least partially, the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. It established technical committees and mandated scientific assessments every four years, starting in 1990. 129,130,131 Stratospheric ozone has begun to recover because of concerted international action. In the late 1980s, laboratory, field and modelling studies established the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole and mid-latitude ozone depletion. The scientific assessments since 1988 have provided the scientific foundation for strengthening the Montreal Protocol through a series of amendments and adjustments limiting the consumption and production of ozone-depleting substances. The levels of chlorine-and bromine-containing substances at the surface peaked in about 1995 and most are now steadily decreasing.It is now projected that the Antarctic ozone hole will disappear in the 2060s 132 (see figure 3.6).Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs) used to replace some ozone-depleting substances have been shown to be potent greenhouse gases and subsequently controlled through international action. CFCs, which were widely used as refrigerants, propellants and solvents, have been replaced in some applications by hydrofluorcarbons (HFCs). The ozonedepleting CFCs were also potent greenhouse gases, hence eliminating their emission into the atmosphere was greatly beneficial for the climate system. While HFCs have a very small impact on ozone levels, they are also powerful greenhouse gases. Recognition of this unintended consequence led to the 2016 Kigali Amendment controlling the production and consumption of several HFCs. 133 As a result, their projected climate impact in 2100 has been reduced from 0.3-0.5°C to less than 0.05°C. 134Climate change, land-use change, land degradation, and air and water pollution act synergistically to cause pervasive, extensive and systemic damage to biodiversity and ecosystem services on land and in the ocean 135,136,137,138,139,140 (figure 3.9). Land-use change also affects the climate system through altered albedo, evaporation and plant transpiration. In regions with seasonal snow cover, such as boreal regions and some temperate regions, increased tree and shrub cover has a wintertime warming influence due to an increase in the solar radiation absorbed by the less reflective vegetation. 155 This means that afforestation can locally induce warming in these regions and thus counteract cooling associated with added carbon uptake from trees. Land-use changes can also induce local to regional cooling, for instance through increased evaporation of water and plant transpiration in regions with irrigation, 156 but the global effect is zero since the water re-condenses in the atmosphere, emitting the energy it absorbed during evaporation.Climate change and biodiversity loss jeopardize the health and productivity of land. Loss of biodiversity and vegetation cover accelerates soil erosion and land degradation (figure 3.9, dark pink arrow). Global warming has already led to shifts in climate zones in many parts of the world, including Increases in global mean surface temperature (GMST), relative to pre-industrial levels, affect processes involved in desertification (water scarcity), land degradation (soil erosion, vegetation loss, wildfire, permafrost thaw) and food security (crop yield and food supply instabilities). The literature was used to make expert judgements to assess the levels of global warming at which levels of risk are undetectable, moderate, high or very high. As part of the assessment, literature was compiled and data extracted into a summary table. A formal expert elicitation protocol (based on modified-Delphi technique and the Sheffield Elicitation Framework), was followed to identify risk transition thresholds in panel, including a multi-round elicitation process with two rounds of independent anonymous threshold judgement, and a final consensus discussion.Panel (a) indicates risks to selected elements of the land system as a function of global mean surface temperature. Links to broader systems are illustrative and not intended to be comprehensive. Risk levels are estimated assuming medium exposure and vulnerability driven by moderate trends in socioeconomic conditions broadly consistent with an SSP2 pathway.  Red: Significant and widespread impacts/risks.Yellow: Impacts/risks are detectable and attributable to climate change with at least medium confidence. expansion of arid zones and contraction of polar zones. 157 In Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Central and East Asia, and Australia, warming and reduced precipitation have contributed to desertification (figure 3.9, light purple arrow). 158 Loss of glacier mass and snow cover is higher with greater global warming. 159 Widespread near-surface permafrost thaw is projected to occur during the twenty-first century, with losses of 69 +20 per cent by 2100 in the absence of climate change mitigation, reducing to 24+16 per cent for high-mitigation scenarios. A regional-scale threshold between 1.5°C and 2°C of warming has been identified in the Mediterranean above which biome shifts unprecedented in the last 10,000 years and associated with extreme drought are projected. In Southern Africa, much greater water stress and increased drought are anticipated for warming above 1.5-2°C. 160,161 Globally, risks from water scarcity, wildfire damage and permafrost degradation are projected to be already high at 1.5°C; for warming of 3°C, risks arising from water scarcity, wildfire damage and vegetation loss become very high (figure 3.8a).Climate change risks to food security are expected to become increasingly severe with increased global warming.The risk is expected to become high between 1.2°C and 3.5°C of warming depending on socioeconomic development pathways, and very high risks could be incurred with only 2°C warming in some pathways. 162 At 3-4°C warming, very high risks of declines in low-latitude crop yields are expected whilst 4°C warming is considered catastrophic for food supply stability and access. 163 Rising carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to reduce the protein and micronutrient content of major cereal crops, which is expected to further reduce food and nutritional security. 164 Climate change, biodiversity loss and water pollution affect oceanic and coastal ecosystems. Without action to limit global warming, marine heatwaves, coupled with ocean acidification and loss of oxygen, will result in the crossing of critical thresholds in the ocean and in coastal systems, beyond which ecosystem functioning will be impaired (figure 3 heatwaves have already resulted in large-scale coral bleaching events at increasing frequency, causing worldwide reef degradation. Recovery is slow (more than 15 years), if it occurs at all. 165 There are many potential limits to adaptation in marine ecosystems, 166 and these limits are projected to be exceeded well before the end of the century in many coral reef environments, urban atoll islands and low-lying Arctic locations. Marine heatwaves are projected to become 50 times more frequent and 10 times more intense in the absence of strenuous climate change mitigation. 167 Ocean acidification, which inevitably results from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, amplifies the adverse effects of warming, impacting the growth, development, calcification, survival and abundance of a broad range of species, from algae to fish. 168 Warm-water coral reefs are projected to decline by 70-90 per cent at 1.5°C warming and by more than 99 per cent at 2°C, 169,170 compromising food provision, tourism, coastal protection and the diversity of coral reef-associated species (figure 3.8b). Cold-water coral reefs, similarly highly biodiverse, are also projected to be harmed. Unless efforts to mitigate climate change are successful, by the end of the century the biomass of marine animals is projected to decline by 10-20 per cent and the maximum potential catch of fisheries by 20.5-24.1 per cent relative to 1986-2005. 171 In the Arctic, the chances of the sea being ice-free in September by the end of the century rise from about 1 per cent each year for stabilized global warming of 1.5°C, to 10-35 per cent for a stabilized 2°C increase. 172 A sea ice-free Arctic Ocean would disrupt the functioning of the Arctic ecosystem.Coastal ecosystems face high to very high risks unless climate change is halted. The risk of irreversible loss of many already declining coastal ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows and kelp forests, increases with further global warming (figure 3.8b). Increased salinization and hypoxia in estuaries contribute to their decline. 173 Global mean sea level is rising, with acceleration in recent decades due to increasing rates of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets 174 as well as continued glacier mass loss and ocean thermal expansion, and is accompanied by increased wave heights in the Atlantic Ocean. 175 Irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and instability in the West Antarctic ice sheet may occur between 1.5°C and 2°C. 176 A high risk of potential collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet is considered to exist for 2.5°C warming ( figure 1.1 (e)). Depending on the amount of sea level rise, 20-90 per cent of current coastal wetlands are projected to be lost by the end of the century, including mangrove forests and salt marshes (figure 3.8b). 177 Local sea levels that historically occurred once per century are projected to become at least annual events at most locations during the twenty-first century. 178 Extreme sea levels and coastal hazards will be exacerbated by projected increases in tropical cyclone winds and associated heavy rainfall. 179 Reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases typically also reduces air pollution. The greenhouse gases and aerosols responsible for anthropogenic climate change are in some cases also air pollutants, and even when they are not themselves toxic at ambient levels, they are often associated with chemicals that are. For instance, carbon dioxide is not poisonous at current elevated levels, but reducing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes typically reduces the emissions of gases that cause human and ecosystem health problems, including tropospheric ozone precursors. Similarly, methane is not toxic at normal levels, but combines with oxides of nitrogen emitted from industry and vehicles to form tropospheric ozone, which as a result frequently exceeds damage-causing levels. Particulate matter affects both the Earth's radiation balance and human health (see Section 3.4).Water pollution is a leading cause of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in freshwater and coastal aquatic systems (figure 3.1). Key water pollutants include excess nutrients, salts and sediments resulting from agriculture, human settlements and land degradation. Water pollution and air pollution are often linked, since diversion of waste from one pathway can simply displace it into another pathway. For instance, excess nitrogen in water is often removed by anaerobic denitrification, which results in emissions of nitrous oxide. The solution is to reduce nitrogen waste overall.Plastics and chemical waste entering the biosphere contributes to both biodiversity loss and to land degradation. The accumulation of plastics in the oceans and pesticide residues in soils and sediments are examples. On the other hand, plastic and other chemicals can reduce food waste through spoilage, and pesticides reduce the loss of crops before and after harvest. 180 Most human-created substances implicated in stratospheric ozone depletion are also greenhouse gases, as are some of the substances that replace them. While the state of stratospheric ozone is improving as a result of concerted international efforts to reduce the production and emission of ozone-depleting chemicals, a degree of depletion of this life-protecting layer will persist well into the middle of the twenty-first century (Section 3.6). This reduction in emissions also reduces the contributions of these gases to climate change. 181 The multiple interactions between environmental problems mean that uncoordinated single-issue solutions are inefficient and likely to fail. An integrated approach that addresses the underlying root causes of interlinked environmental problems and pays attention to unintended consequences of actions is both more cost-effective and more likely to be successful than treating the issues as if they were independent of one another. It further allows synergies to be identified and exploited, while steering away from the worst trade-offs.Where Section 2 showed people's dependence on the natural world and their role in shaping it, Section 3 concluded that, under current trends, internationally agreed environmental goals are unlikely to be achieved. People are changing the climate system, polluting air and water and using more land and marine resources than ever before. Life on Earth is rapidly eroding and nearly all of nature's regulating functions are in decline. This section discusses how environmental degradation, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services and pollution of air, land and water, undermines progress towards achieving the economic and social objectives of the SDGs. It explores risks to poverty and economic development (SDG 1 and SDG 8), to food and water security (SDG 2 and SDG 6), to human health (SDG 3), to reducing inequality (SDG 5 and SDG 10), to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies (SDG 16) and to cities and communities (SDG 11). Figure 4.1 provides an overview of selected environmental changes, as discussed in Section 3, and selected impacts on the SDGs, as discussed below.Ongoing and projected environmental degradation undermines progress towards the SDGs. In many countries in the Global South, poverty levels and thereby people's vulnerability to environmental degradation remain high (see Sections 2.3.1 and 4.1). Most scenarios project clear improvement over time in areas including reducing hunger (SDG 2), increasing access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation (SDG 6) and increasing access to modern energy services (SDG 7), though not enough to meet the related SDG targets by 2030. 1 Trends in environmental degradation will make reaching these and other goals even more challenging (see figure 4.1). 2,3 Poor and vulnerable communities are most at risk from environmental threats and future generations will be more affected than the current. Poverty is increasingly concentrated in rural dryland areas of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 4 Socioeconomic developments, such as in population, trade, consumption and inequality, determine the vulnerability and exposure of people and thus related impacts on their well-being. For instance, a scenario with low population growth, reduced inequalities, land-use regulation, The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted human well-being, disrupted implementation towards many of the SDGs and, in some cases, turned back decades of progress. 7 In 2020, global per capita GDP is expected to decline by 4.2 per cent (SDG 8), pushing an estimated 71 million more people into extreme poverty (SDG 1) and resulting in hundreds of thousands of additional under-5 deaths (SDG 3). The disruption caused by the pandemic is also a threat to food security, with the World Food Programme estimating an almost doubling of the number of people facing acute food insecurity in 2020 compared to 2019 (SDG 2) (see Section 2.3.1). 8 Due to lockdowns, school closures have kept 90 per cent of all students out of school for some period of time (SDG 4) and, in some countries, cases of domestic violence have increased by 30 per cent (SDG 5). Poor and disadvantaged people have been affected most (SDG 10), while all these impacts can further threaten global peace and security (SDG 16).  Purple: Very high probability of severe impacts/ risks and the presence of significant irreversibility or the persistence of climate-related hazards, combined with limited ability to adapt due to the nature of the hazard or impacts/risks.Red: Significant and widespread impacts/risks. Environmental changes are increasingly impacting economic development and employment (SDG 8). Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, along with changes in extreme events such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation in several regions and droughts in some regions (Section 3.1), are already having an impact on human systems. 14 Key economic sectors being affected include tourism, energy systems and transportation. 15 In 2018 alone, damages from natural disasters, the vast majority of which were climaterelated (including droughts, fires, storms and floods), were estimated at US$155 billion. 16 Safe work activity and worker productivity during the hottest months of the year will be increasingly compromised with higher ambient temperatures and climate change. 17 Land degradation has already reduced productivity in 23 per cent of the global terrestrial area, 18 with economic losses as large as 5 per cent of total GDP being observed. 19 Over the past 50 years, the potential of nature to contribute to human well-being has declined in 14 of 18 major categories of contributions that were recently assessed. 20 These changes have decreased the flow of regulating and non-material benefits to people, resulting in a significant loss of non-market values. For example, loss of pollinators puts between US$235 billion and US$577 billion in annual global crop output at risk. 21 The costs of inaction on limiting environmental change far outweigh the costs of action. Though estimates of future damages to the economy from climate change are uncertain and exclude important categories of damages (e.g. loss of public goods and global commons) 22 global aggregate impacts are estimated to reach high levels with 2.5-3°C of warming (see figure 1.2). 23,24 By the end of the century, inaction on climate change could lead to a 15-25 per cent reduction in per capita output for 2.5-3°C of global warming, relative to a world that did not warm beyond 2000-2010 levels. 25 Estimates of economic damages associated with 2°C of warming reach US$69 trillion, 26 while an estimated US$15-38.5 trillion in economic damage could be avoided by limiting warming to 1.5°C. 27 The global health savings from reduced air pollution could be more than double the costs of implementing the Paris Agreement between 2020 and 2050. 28 Estimates of the costs of reducing emissions, though substantial, are far less than the estimates of damages. Cost estimates for limiting warming to less than 2°C are 2-6 per cent of global GDP in 2050, and 3-11 per cent in 2100. 29 Further delays in climate mitigation action increase the risk of escalating costs, lock-in of carbon-emitting infrastructure, stranded assets and reduced flexibility in future options for reducing emissions. 30 The loss of benefits that people get from nature are also costly. Some benefits, such as wild pollination, are irreplaceable, while for others substitution can be extremely expensive, such as the replacement of coastal mangroves with built flood protection infrastructure. 31 The diversity of nature also maintains humanity's ability to choose between alternative development options in the face of an uncertain future.The Earth's capacity to supply food and water weakens in the face of environmental decline (SDGs 2 and 6)Though food security has been improving, environmental changes and shocks threaten further progress in ending global hunger (SDG 2). After a period of reductions in the number of people affected by hunger, the world is now facing an alarming situation. In 2019, nearly 700 million people were estimated to be hungry (undernourished), up nearly 60 million in five years. This upward trend is partly due to increasing frequency of extreme weather events, altered environmental conditions and the associated spread of pests and diseases over the last 15 years. Such factors contribute to vicious circles of poverty and hunger, particularly when exacerbated by fragile institutions, conflicts, violence and the widespread displacement of populations. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may add more than 80 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world in 2020.If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030, which is far from the goal of ending hunger by 2030. 32 Current low levels of biodiversity (species and genetic variability) in agricultural systems increase their vulnerability to stresses and shocks (SDG 2.5), and biodiversity loss, land degradation and climate change jeopardize land productivity, potentially altering the suitability of vast areas for agricultural production and human habitation. 33 Billions of people face the challenges of inadequate access to drinking water and sanitation, increasing water pollution and water scarcity (SDG 6). In 2017, around 2.2 billion people did not have access to safely managed drinking water (SDG 6.1) and more than 4 billion people did not have access to safely managed sanitation (SDG 6.2). Together, these deprivations were responsible for approximately 8 per cent of all deaths among children under 5. Water pollution (SDG 6.3) has continued to worsen over the last two decades, causing increased threats to freshwater ecosystems, human health and sustainable development. 34 Furthermore, more than 2 billion people globally live in river basins suffering water stress, where total withdrawals exceed 40 per cent of the renewable freshwater available (SDG 6.4). In some countries in Africa and Asia, the proportion withdrawn extends beyond 70 per cent. 35 Irrigation is the primary human use of freshwater resources, and around 71 per cent of the world's irrigated area and 47 per cent of major cities currently experience at least periodic water shortages. 36 In addition, many vulnerable and poor people are dependent on activities such as rainfed agriculture that are highly susceptible to variability in precipitation patterns. 37,38 Environmental change poses multiple, interacting and mutually reinforcing risks to agricultural productivity and food security (SDG 2). Climate change is affecting crop yields. Yield decreases are already occurring in the tropics and are expected to continue. 39,40 Climate change also reduces the nutritional quality, availability and diversity of crops as well as undermining key ecosystem services that underpin food production. 41 Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be 10 to 20 times higher (under no-till systems) to more than 100 times higher (with conventional tillage) than the soil formation rate. 42 An estimated 176 Gt of soil organic carbon has been lost historically, mostly from land-use change, and another 27 Gt of soil organic carbon is projected to be lost between 2010 and 2050, affecting agricultural yields through reduced water-holding capacity and loss of nutrients. 43 As the remaining natural land suitable for agriculture is limited, future expansion is projected to take place on more marginal lands with lower yields. 44 Biodiversity loss and declines in regulating ecosystem services pose risks to food production through impacts on pollination services, resistance to more frequently applied pesticides and herbicides in insects and plants, and soil nutrient losses. 45 Animal pollination is critical to more than 75 per cent of global food crop types, including fruits and vegetables and some of the most important cash crops, such as coffee, cocoa and almonds. 46 Ground-level ozone is a strong oxidant that can enter plants through the leaves, affecting photosynthesis and other physiological functions, and thereby affecting forest productivity and agricultural yields. 47 Climate change risks to food security are expected to become high between 1.2°C and 3.5°C of warming depending on socioeconomic development pathways, and very high risks could be incurred with only 2°C warming in some pathways. 48 At 3-4°C of warming, very high risks of declines in crop yield in low latitudes are expected whilst 4°C of warming is considered catastrophic for food stability and access. 49 Rising carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to reduce the protein and micronutrient content of major cereal crops, which is expected to further reduce food and nutritional security. 50 Water availability, reliability and quality is being threatened by climate change, pollution and ecosystem degradation (SDG 6). Water stress is mostly driven by water demand, and demand from agriculture and irrigation -already the largest user -is expected to increase further in a changing climate. 51,52,53 All assessed scenarios project an increase in water demand and water scarcity.  Biodiversity loss in agriculture threatens the resilience of food systems (SDG 2). The decline in pollinators, crop and livestock diversity and soil organic matter, threatens the agricultural yields of the few main crops that feed the world. Biodiversity in agricultural systems, whether at the genetic, species or ecosystem level, decreases vulnerability to stresses and shocks, reducing their impacts and supporting recovery and adaptation in the face of climate change and other environmental shifts. 63 Diversity increases the choices available to producers in their efforts to adapt production systems and to breeders in their search for better-adapted plant and animal populations. While more than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food, fewer than 200 make substantial contributions to global food output, with only nine (sugar cane, maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, oil-palm fruit, sugar beet and cassava) accounting for 66 per cent of total crop production in 2014. The world's livestock production is based on about 40 animal species, but only a handful provide most of the global output of meat, milk and eggs. Among extant local breeds, 26 per cent are classed as being at risk of extinction. A third of freshwater fish species assessed are considered threatened. 64 Pollinators, natural enemies of pests, and beneficial soil organisms are under pressure from threats including habitat degradation and pollution.Climate change accelerates damage to ocean and coastal ecosystem integrity and functioning, impacting fishery catch and coastal livelihoods (SDG 2). Climate change, biodiversity loss and ocean acidification are increasing risks to fisheries and aquaculture via impacts on fish physiology, survivorship, habitat, reproduction and disease incidence, and on invasive species, and these effects will increase at higher levels of warming. 65 One projection suggests a decrease in global annual fishery catch for marine fisheries of more than 3 million tonnes for 2°C of global warming. 66 This threatens benefits for coastal livelihoods, especially for fishing communities in the tropics, sub-tropics and the Arctic. 67,68 In the oceans, nearly a third of fish stocks are already overfished 69 and over 55 per cent of the total ocean area has been subject to industrial fishing.  Environmental degradation impacts human physical and mental health and causes millions of deaths annually (SDG 3). In 2012, almost a quarter of all deaths were attributable to modifiable environmental health risks, including air, water and land pollution; heatwaves, flooding and other weather extremes due to climate change; spread of pathogens; desertification; reduced biodiversity; and food inse-curity. 71 The SDGs address many of these risks, including vector and water-borne diseases (SDG 3.3), non-communicable diseases and mental health (SDG 3.4) and exposure to hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil contamination (SDG 3.9). The incidence of non-communicable diseases is on the rise globally and will continue to be affected by the state of the environment in relation to pollution, diet and physical (in)activity. Furthermore, emerging impacts and challenges for human health and well-being include threats from antimicrobial resistance, industrial chemicals, multiple exposures and newly emerging diseases. 72 Environmental pressures disproportionately affect the health of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. The young, the elderly, women, people living in poverty and or with chronic health conditions, indigenous people and those targeted by racial profiling are some of the groups whose health is most vulnerable to the impacts of environmental decline. 73 Diarrhoeal disease, mostly caused by faeces-contaminated water, is responsible for around 1.7 million deaths every year, many of them children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 74 This is a prime example of how environmental pressures can disproportionately affect the young, especially as a significant proportion of these deaths can be prevented through safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and handwashing (SDGs 6.1 and 6.2). 75 The multifaceted relationship between the environment and human health should be framed within the context of social determinants of health as illustrated in figure 4.3. Socioeconomic and cultural factors have significant impacts on human health, through lifestyle choices and agency, inequalities, and damaging practices such as war, violence, unsafe working conditions and child labour. 76 Social and wealth inequalities as well as complex interrelations between health, socioeconomic and environmental factors, must be considered when striving to achieve SDG 3.Climate change increases health risks through undernutrition, disease, mental health stressors and violence, extreme weather events, heat stress and pollution. Health impacts from climate change depend on population vulnerability, individual livelihood status, cultural identity, income level and living area. Low-lying coastal zones and small island states, for example, will be more exposed to storm surges, coastal flooding and sea level rise. 77 Increases in ambient temperature are linearly related to hospitalizations and deaths once specific thresholds are exceeded. Risks associated with extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation in several regions, and droughts in some regions already become high between 1°C and 1.5°C warming (see figure 1.1, panel b). Tipping points could exist for human systems with increased temperatures and may arise in places in which low human adaptive capacity exists. Warming of ambient temperatures by up to 3°C is projected to see substantial increases in heatwaves causing heat stroke and death. 78,79 Risks of heat-related mortality and morbidity become high between 1°C and 3°C of global mean temperature increase, 80 whilst above 4°C cli-mate-related health impacts will likely increase non-linearly. Increased variability in precipitation patterns (e.g. shifts in monsoon seasons) is projected to increase the incidence of water-related and vector-borne diseases. 81 For example, the Aedes mosquito-borne diseases (dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever) are expected to expand their ranges, exposing additional populations to the risk of infection. 82 It is estimated that the world will see around 60,000 additional deaths due to climate change-induced malaria for the year 2030 and 30,000 deaths for 2050. 83 There is a lack of projections indicating how climate-sensitive health outcomes such as diarrheal disease and mental health could be affected by climate change. 84 Ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss and increased human-animal interactions are eroding nature's contributions to human health and exacerbating the risk of zoonotic diseases. Urbanization, current agricultural practices, land-use change and biodiversity loss are altering ecosystem dynamics and facilitating increased human-animal contact. These changes exacerbate the risk of zoonotic disease emergence and spread. 85 Infectious diseases that develop into epidemics or even into pandemics, as is currently the case for the Coronavirus SARS CoV2 disease (COVID-19; see box 4.1), have major health, economic and social implications that may impact the way society interacts with the environment.Nature's ability to support the provision of medicines is in decline worldwide. An estimated 4 billion people rely primarily on natural medicines for their health care, with communities living in lower-income settings particularly reliant on largely plant-based traditional medicines. The health of these people is compromised as wild collected medicinal plants become less available. Some 70 per cent of drugs used for cancer are natural or are synthetic products inspired by nature and more than 20 per cent of modern drugs used for all diseases are based on leads from natural molecules, identified by science or based on indigenous local knowledge, including aspirin, vincristine and taxol. Though novel natural medicines are continuously being identified, the potential for future discoveries is critically undermined by biodiversity loss. 86,87 Pollution is expected to continue to contribute to millions more premature deaths in the coming decades. In 2015, it was estimated that 6.5 million deaths were attributable to ambient and indoor air pollution combined, 1.8 million deaths to water pollution (unsafe water sources and inadequate sanitation) and another 1.3 million deaths to pollution stemming from soil, heavy metals, chemicals and occu-pational environments. 88 As these three categories have overlapping contributions, total pollution-related mortality is estimated at 9 million deaths (16 per cent of total global mortality), which is three times as many deaths as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. From a health perspective, the most important outdoor air pollutants are groundlevel ozone and fine particulate matter. Due to emissions from industrial, agricultural, vehicular and domestic activities, as well as background dust and wildfires, large proportions of the global population remain exposed to levels of air pollution exceeding WHO guidelines. 89 The frequency and intensity of dust storms due to land degradation have increased over the last few decades in many dryland areas. 90 Scenarios that assume that past trends of stricter air pollution policies, coupled with increasing incomes will continue into the future, still anticipate 4.5 million to 7 million premature deaths globally by mid-century. 91 Ground-level ozone peaks, particularly in urban areas, are projected to increase ozone-related deaths. Total atmospheric mercury concentrations have increased by about 450 per cent above natural levels due to human activity, contributing to high mercury loads in some aquatic food webs and presenting a serious human health concern. 92 Eliminating emissions of ozone-depleting substances has prevented millions of cases of skin cancer. Ozone in the stratosphere screens out biologically damaging ultraviolet radiation. Excessive ultraviolet radiation exposure leads to melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, cataracts and other health problems in humans. 93 If action had not been taken, growing emissions of ozonedepleting substances would have destroyed two thirds of the ozone layer by 2065, leading to millions of cases of skin cancer annually. 94 Mental health will become increasingly affected by the loss of nature and extreme weather events. Time spent in nature has positive impacts on physical and mental health. Natural and semi-natural ecosystems are spaces for physical exercise, recreational activities and mindfulness, and contribute to well-being, happiness, quality of life and a sense of place and belonging. 95 Other benefits of biodiversity include cultural identity and reduced post-surgery recovery time in patients with trees outside their hospital rooms. Inequalities in environmental opportunities and burdens are expressed and interconnected at various levels, arising between and within countries along dimensions of ethnicity, gender, race and income. Environmental burdens associated with pollution, resource scarcity and extreme events accentuate socioeconomic inequalities and are projected to increase under current development trajectories. 108,109,110 For instance, environmental pressures and their impacts on health and well-being fall especially on groups that are already vulnerable or disadvantaged (see Section 4.4). Furthermore, where poor people find work either in industry, agriculture or the informal sector, they are more likely than higher-wage employees to work in dangerous, unregulated settings where risks such as exposures to hazardous chemicals are high. 111Climate change accentuates inequality through direct and indirect impacts. Climate change disproportionately affects disadvantaged and vulnerable populations through food insecurity, higher food prices, income losses, lost livelihood opportunities, adverse health impacts and population displacements. 112 Some of the worst impacts are expected to fall on agricultural and coastal livelihoods, indigenous people, women, children and the elderly, poor labourers, poor urban dwellers in the Global South, and people and ecosystems in the Arctic and Small Island Developing States . 113,114 Countries with higher initial temperatures, greater climate change levels and lower levels of development, which often implies greater dependence on climate-sensitive sectors and in particular agriculture, are expected to bear the highest levels of impacts. 115Gender inequality accentuates vulnerability to environmental change and differences in access to the social and environmental resources needed for adaptation. Whereas both men and women experience changing demands in productive roles, women experience increasing burdens due to factors such as family care and reproductive responsibilities, and differential access to labour markets, land rights, education, health, and financial resources, as well as, in many contexts, unequal decision-making power. 116,117,118 Gender inequality is particularly marked in agriculture. While agricultural production is increasingly feminized, agricultural and food policies, including training and research and development, do not consider the specific needs of women. Furthermore, women have limited access to decision-making processes for resource management and have less access to resources that increase agricultural output, including financial resources, land, education, health and other basic rights. Women's relatively higher vulnerability to weather-related disasters is documented in terms of number of deaths and in how socially constructed gender differences affect exposure to extreme events, leading to differential patterns of mortality for both men and women.  11). Climate change and ecosystem degradation are impacting the provision of basis services to urban populations living in informal settlements (SDG 11.1) and can accentuate extreme weather events and their impacts (SDG 11.5). With around 6.5 million deaths annually related to ambient and indoor air pollution and 3 billion people lacking access to adequate waste disposal facilities, air pollution and waste management remain challenging in many cities (SDG 11.6).Compared to high-income neighbourhoods, informal settlements are more vulnerable to environmental degradation as they are often in areas prone to flooding, landslides and other natural disasters and close to landfills.Climate change is projected to increase risks for urban populations, assets and economies. Key risks to settlements from climate change that span sectors and regions and are projected to increase include heat stress, heavy precipitation, inland and coastal flooding, landslides, air pollution, drought, water scarcity, sea level rise and storm surges. Coastal communities are exposed to additional climate-related hazards, including tropical cyclones, marine heatwaves, sea-ice loss and permafrost thaw. 130,131 Cities, especially large landlocked cities, will be exposed to increased heat stress due to the urban heat island effect, which increases the intensity of heatwaves by an estimated 1.22°C to 4°C. 132,133 This is particularly relevant as the number of mega-cities grows. 134 Urbanization also increases extreme rainfall events over or downwind of cities. 135 Key urban risks associated with housing 136 include poor quality and inappropriate location, making them more vulnerable to extreme events. Climate-related risks will be amplified for those lacking essential infrastructure and services or living in exposed areas. 137,138 Climate change and ecosystem degradation will impact coastal communities through submergence, coastal flooding and erosion. The population and assets projected to be exposed to coastal risks as well as human pressures on coastal ecosystems will increase significantly in the coming decades due to population growth, economic development and urbanization. The costs of coastal adaptation vary strongly among and within regions and countries. Some low-lying developing countries and small island states are expected to face very high impacts that, in some cases, could have associated damage and adaptation costs of several percentage points of GDP (on low lying urban islands and urban atoll islands). 139,140 The vulnerability of coastal cities to natural disaster is exacerbated by loss of ecosystems such as mangroves that reduce the risks from storm surges. 141 In the absence of more ambitious adaptation efforts and under current trends of increasing exposure and vulnerability of coastal communities, annual coastal flood damages are projected to increase by 2-3 orders of magnitude by 2100 compared to today. 142Rapid development and urbanization combined with insufficient environmental governance in many regions suggest a likely worsening of air pollution and rising solid waste. Traffic, residential fuel burning, electricity generation, industry and agriculture all contribute to urban air pollution, with varying contributions of sectors in individual cities. In growing cities across Africa, Asia and other developing regions, there has been a rapid increase in the number of vehicles, driven by population growth and economic development. The impacts of pollution from megacities extend far beyond the urban area with effects at local, regional and global scales. 143 Solid waste is mostly generated in and disposed of in cities and its volume correlates with purchasing power. Cities produce 1.3 billion tons of solid waste per year. Solid waste per capita has doubled over the last decade. 144 Many low-income cities still have waste collection coverage in the range of 30-60 per cent. 145 With increasing incomes, global waste volumes are going to increase further, which will increase the pressure for policies that decouple economic development and human well-being from resource consumption. For example, without global intervention, the quantity of plastic in the ocean alone could increase to 100-250 million tons by 2025. 146 Waste has also become a global economic sector, with large quantities of often hazardous waste being unlawfully exported to developing countries, with the potential to cause significant impacts. 147 As developed countries pursue the goals of reduced waste, a circular economy and greater resource efficiency, developing countries must not be left behind. 148 97Making Peace with Nature: a scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergenciesOnly transformative change will enable humanity to fulfil international environmental agreements and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Only a \"fundamental, system-wide transformation across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values\" can reverse the current trends that threaten the well-being of present and future generations and the survival of other species. 1,2,3 Transformation can also enable the realization of the collective vision of a sustainable future for humanity, one that involves a rapid and thorough decarbonization, food security for all, an end to poverty, harmony with life on land and beneath the water, and substantial improvements in justice and fairness. Transformative societal change would affect not only the subsystems described below (including economic and financial systems, energy systems, food systems, water systems, health systems, and systems for infrastructure and settlement), but rather simultaneously and holistically reshape these systems and the interactions between them. Human attention and political will are often exhausted after addressing system issues, including controversies involving trade-offs between different interests, whereas the emphasis should be on the possible synergies and multiple benefits of change.The magnitude of the problems hampering change requires larger-scale and more fundamental actions addressing the rules and dynamics of systems. 7 Transformation does not necessarily entail changing everything massively and quickly. Transformative change can be a product of incremental but cumulative changesespecially if those changes affect key drivers, such as structural elements or fundamental processes. 8 Each individual and organization has a role to play in moving society along pathways toward a sustainable future that will vary across nations, regions and contexts, including through existing institutions and policy approaches.Human knowledge, ingenuity, technology and cooperation can transform societies and economies and secure a sustainable future II. Transforming humankind's relationship with nature is the key to a sustainable future Fundamental, system-wide reorganization requires significant upfront investment but can generate large positive returns. For example, studies of greenhouse gas emissions reduction show that the costs of doing nothing, measured in terms of damages from future climate change, far exceeds the costs of investing in mitigation (see Section 4.2). Some emissions reduction strategies pay for themselves, such as investments in energy efficiency that can deliver cost savings of US$2.9-3.7 trillion per year by 2030 or switching to lowcost renewable energy sources. 9 Other interventions may need to be accompanied by structural changes so that the positive returns for society also generate positive economic returns for a business or household and encourage widespread adoption. This often requires the reform of subsidies and incentive structures (see Sections 5.1.2, 5.2). To guide and measure the outcomes of government action, more inclusive measures of wealth and economic performance can address the limitations of conventional metrics such as GDP, which fail to properly reflect the benefits of change because they exclude important non-market social or environmental benefits or damages such as negative externalities (see Section 5.2).Transformative change towards sustainability can result from strategic intervention at key points of leverage within systems. Implemented globally, transformative change would result in a world that operates differently in many important respects. To envision change on this scale, it can be helpful to identify elements of the destination of transformative change, or leverage points and describe the change needed in these elements. It is also possible to pinpoint key \"levers\" of a strategy to bring such change about, including a \"carrots and sticks\" approach. The elements and levers are outlined below. Constantly recalling the elements of the destination and adaptively managing systems can help to realize this vision.The elements of the \"destination\" and the strategy for transformative change are derived from several recent reports. Reviewing a wide range of assessments and other scenario and pathways analyses at global and regional scales, the IPBES Global Assessment proposed a framework for categorizing actions and strategies toward transformative change in terms of eight leverage points and five levers (recognizing that the metaphor of leverage is an imperfect one and that changes to complex systems are not straightforward). The UN Global Sustainable Development Report focuses on a set of four levers for achieving sustainable development [(i) governance, (ii) economy and finance, (iii) individual and collective action and (iv) science and technology] and six entry points to sustainability transformation [(i) human well-being and capabilities, (ii) sustainable and just economies, (iii) energy decarbonization and access, (iv) food systems and nutrition patterns, (v) urban and periurban development and (vi) global environmental commons. 10 ] This report lists eight leverage points in global, regional and local systems, and simplifies the five IPBES and four UN levers into three kinds of governance interventions. This is not a suite of options, but rather a checklist of constituents: each element likely must change in the transformation to sustainability, whereby some elements substantially enable others. 11Key areas for transformative change:1. Paradigms and visions of a good life: Move towards paradigms that emphasize relationships with people and nature over material consumption, including many existing visions of good lives as those lived in accordance with principles and virtues of responsibility to people and nature.Reduce the negative global effect of human needs and demand -a function of consumption and production rates, population size, and waste -by reducing per capita consumption and production in some regions and human population growth in others.3. Latent values of responsibility: Unleash existing capabilities and relational values of responsibility to enable widespread human and organizational action.Systematically reduce inequalities in income and other forms, including across gender, race and class.Practice justice for and inclusion in decisionmaking of those most affected by it, especially including indigenous peoples and local communities.6. Externalities: Understand and internalize the distant, delayed and diffuse negative effects of actions, including economic activity.7. Technology, innovation and investment: Transform regimes of investment and technological and social innovation, such that technologies and their use produce net-positive impacts on people and nature (for example, by transitioning to a circular economy and eliminating waste).Promote the broad base of knowledge and capability that is fundamental to well-functioning and just societies, and increase and spread knowledge specific to sustainability.The strategy and levers for transformative change:A. Fix the \"carrots\" and build capacity: Change the incentive structure facing individuals and organizations, including by broadly reforming subsidies to shift from harmful production-enhancing ones towards those that directly improve well-being and a suite of social and environmental capacities and outcomes. Simply adding new incentives to balance the negative effects of existing subsidies is not sufficient because of a lack of underlying capacity for environmental stewardship and because existing subsidies have systemic perverse effects.B. Manage better: Reform management organizations, programmes and policies to make them pre-emptive, inclusive, integrated across sectors and jurisdictions, robust to uncertainty, and geared towards system resilience or transformation as needed. Existing management systems are largely historical artefacts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, geared towards underpopulated lands and lightly used waters, imagining linear relationships between causes and their effects. Sustainable pathways through the twenty-first century will require management systems designed to accommodate the complexity of social and ecological systems and pervasive and long-distance effects in space and time of local actions. Management would include unilateral action within states as well as bilateral and multilateral action across them.C. Strengthen the \"sticks\": Bolster environmental laws and policies and strengthen the rule of law by ensuring consistent enforcement of all laws, including by eliminating corruption and strengthening institutions such as independent judiciaries.Change in organizational and individual behaviour pervades every element of transformative change. Every lever applied at every leverage point entails and effects changes in human action, including by policymakers, politicians and a diverse set of actors in business and civil society. These changes can be top-down and/or bottom-up and can be accelerated when pressure for change emanates from multiple sources. Each lever can be applied at each leverage point by managers and decision makers at local, regional, national and international level, triggering broader social and industrial change.Government action may follow pressure from businesses and industry associations, public opinion and protest or advocacy from civil society organizations. Thus, these levers and leverage points are available both to those designing policy and practices and to those seeking to shape policy and practice via grassroots or other bottom-up actions.Six systems are key entry points for transformations towards sustainability. Synthesizing the six foci of the IPBES Global Assessment, 12 the Global Sustainable Development Report's six entry points, and the six transformations of The World in 2050 initiative, it is possible to identify six areas for system transformation: economy and finance; food and water; energy; human settlements; health, equity and peace; and environment (see table 5.1).Applying the levers to the leverage points fosters system transformations that move society toward sustainability.All three levers at the heart of a strategy for transformative change can be applied to each of the leverage points identified (see table 5.1). Similarly, pressure applied at the leverage points can drive transformational change in key systems. Bidirectional relationships between some systems and leverage points mean that systemic change can help shift the leverage points closer to the destination of sustainability. For instance, paradigms and visions of a good life (1) impact all systems. They are in turn shaped by changes especially in economy and finance, human settlements and health, equity and peace. Patterns of consumption, population and waste (2) both shape and are shaped by all six systems. Latent values of responsibility ( 3) are relevant to the actions of all players within the system (such as consumers, farmers and food distributors), and the configuration of systems can unleash action by all actors in line with latent values. Addressing inequalities ( 4) and enhancing participation (5) can enable system transformations; all six system transformations can lessen inequalities and enable participation. Similarly, addressing externalities (6) could enable the six system transformations, while the transformations within each system should substantially reduce externalities. All six system transformations could be driven partly by appropriate technology, innovation and investment (7); meanwhile economy and finance, energy and human settlements could also drive needed changes in technology, innovation and investment. Education and knowledge generation and sharing (8) could be a driver of all system transformations via specific knowledge systems and general societal education; only transformations in human health, equity and peace can really advance this leverage point.Transformative change can result from the culmination of many seemingly small but strategic actions, while some attractive and feasible actions can impede transformation. Global systems are multiscalar and complex and actions 103Making Peace with Nature: a scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies intended to generate change face risk from co-option, unintended effects and unforeseen feedbacks. By acknowledging these risks and uncertainties, actions can be characterized in terms of their contribution to transformative change.• Transformative enablers are important actions that facilitate broader systemic change (e.g. the replacement of GDP by better measures of sustainability such as inclusive wealth).• Incremental enablers are actions that yield small changes whose accumulated impact contributes to transformative change (e.g. slowly shifting and reorienting subsidies, wholesale subsidy reform would be a transformative enabler).• Necessary measures are actions to protect nature and its contributions to people in the short term, but which may not contribute to transformative change (e.g. the expansion of protected areas).• Insufficient measures are interventions that may contribute somewhat to environmental protection in the short term, but detract from longer-term efforts towards transformative change (e.g. incentive programs for biodiversity and ecosystem services not accompanied by wider reform of harmful subsidies or environmental law).Feasibility may vary widely across strategies and actions, but transformative enablers may only become feasible after intervention via incremental enablers or the triggering of tipping points. The changes that appear most feasible may be those that do not contribute to, or even impede, transformative change, for instance by retaining or even consolidating the power of interests vested in the status quo (see Section 5.3).Participatory and equitable processes can raise public acceptance of transformative change (leverage point 5). While the appropriate level and nature of inclusion of rights-holders and stakeholders varies across contexts, broad participation and the perception of fairness in decision-making processes and outcomes is key to generating public acceptance of transformative change (leverage point 5). 13,14 Systemic opposition, friction and inertia can thwart transformative change. 15 Existing infrastructure and built capital create system inertia by making change difficult and costly. In addition, individuals and organizations have habits, procedures and ways of doing business. These norms yield a reluctance and resistance to change. Some individuals and organizations also have substantial stakes in maintaining the status quo. These vested interests may oppose change that disrupts their livelihoods, market share and future revenues. These barriers can be overcome with investments to overhaul infrastructure and built capital, directly confronting regressive habits and norms, and enabling the reorganization of labour by, for example, providing financial incentives and training to shift businesses and labour away from unsustainable industries and practices towards sustainable ones.Societies have demonstrated both potential and limitations in the capacity to undertake widespread systemic change in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 mobilization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic indicates how societies are capable of systemic change, but also how parts of society may resist change. The rapid design, implementation and relatively widespread acceptance of physical-distancing measures, restrictions on movement and economic activities, despite the resulting economic and social dislocation in many nations, demonstrate how shifts in norms and priorities (leverage points 1 and 3) can reshape multiple systems.Widespread systemic change is needed to address the global environmental emergencies through mitigation, restoration and adaptation. Transformative change must begin now to avoid imposing huge and potentially irreversible environmental declines on today's youth and future generations.A sustainable future is achievable, and it can be a just and prosperous one, full of human ingenuity and opportunity, nourished by and caring for a vibrant natural world. The following sections on the key systems for transformation detail specific changes that can enable society to collectively realize this ambitious but essential vision for humanity and the Earth.  Participation in environmental action and resource useTechnology, innovation and investment  The action of the levers and leverage points in fostering the six key system transformations Direct actions that can foster the system transformations,•• = Both levers and leverage points can apply • = Leverage points can primarily influence the system transformations 105Making Peace with Nature: a scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergenciesClimate change, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution are highly interconnected. This section examines how these interconnected systems can be transformed individually and collectively to be sustainable, assessing which actions are synergistic and which involve trade-offs, emphasizing actions needed in the short-term.Protecting life on Earth, including human life, requires actions that are significantly more effective than those taken thus far. Action to halt the loss of biodiversity and land degradation, avoid dangerous climate change and keep the effects of chemicals on the biosphere within tolerable limits must be coordinated to be effective. All these forms of degradation are primarily driven by the unsustainable level of consumption by the well-off, while the poor are left behind, characterizing contemporary civilization. Achieving transformative change requires that the fundamental drivers of overconsumption are addressed, through changes in personal values, norms, economic and social operating rules, technologies and regulations.Given the interconnected nature of climate change, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution, it is essential that these problems are tackled together urgently. Actions needs to be taken now even where the benefits may not be realized for years due to the long-lasting nature of environmental effects or to inertia in the socioeconomic system. Essential actions with delayed effects include reforestation and restoration of degraded lands. Response options that can address multiple environmental issues, mitigate multidimensional vulnerability and help minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies, need to be implemented. Numerous response options that can preserve and restore the environment and contribute to achieving some of the other SDGs have already been identified. For example, large-scale reforestation with native vegetation can simultaneously help address climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water security. A key challenge is to avoid unintended consequences.For instance, large-scale afforestation schemes that replace native vegetation with monoculture crops to supply bioenergy can be detrimental to biodiversity and water resources.Earth's environmental emergencies must be addressed together to achieve sustainability 6.1 Scaled-up and accelerated actions to address climate change in this decade are essential Mitigation and adaptation are both urgently needed to reduce the risks of climate change. 1 Mitigation is insufficient to remove all the risks from climate change since adverse climate impacts are already apparent and more are projected at 1.5°C of warming and beyond. Some impacts, such as sea level rise, will continue for centuries after the global temperature has stabilized. 2 Without meaningful climate mitigation, adaptation also will be insufficient to limit all the risks associated with climate change. Limits to adaptation already exist for the most sensitive human and natural systems at 1.5°C of warming, and further limits exist at higher levels of warming.A slower rate and magnitude of climate change creates additional opportunities for adaptation. 3 Governments must scale up and accelerate action to meet the Paris Agreement goals and limit dangerous climate change. Evidence shows that the risks associated with climate change, including risks of extreme weather events, of impacts on unique and threatened ecosystems, and of large-scale discontinuities such as the disintegration of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (see figure 1.1), are generally higher than previously understood. There is a near-linear relationship between future temperature change and cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. This relationship implies that net emissions would need to be reduced to zero within only a few decades if the Paris Agreement goals are to be met.Limiting the global mean temperature increase to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to stay below 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement requires significant strengthening and rapid implementation of existing national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, with a probability of about 50 per cent, net emissions of carbon dioxide will need to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach zero by 2050. To limit global warming to 2°C, emissions need to decline by about 25 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach net zero by around 2070. 4 Emissions of other greenhouse gases must also be reduced rapidly. The target year for net-zero emissions for other greenhouse gases is generally projected to occur about one or two decades later than that for carbon dioxide. More ambitious reductions would be necessary for higher certainty of avoiding dangerous climate change, as indicated in the emissions gap presented in figure 6.1, which shows pathways with about 66 per cent chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and 2°C. 5 Delaying action exacerbates difficulties and incurs greater costs. 6An important determinant in climate change mitigation is the timing of emission reductions, affecting both short-term and long-term technology choices. Slower emission reductions in the short term will require very rapid reductions later in the century, followed by the large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, if the Paris Agreement goals are to be met. Carbon dioxide removal technologies differ widely in terms of maturity, potential and risks, while several technologies have significant negative impacts on land, energy, water and nutrients when deployed on a large scale. In contrast, the sequestration of carbon in restored natural ecosystems and soil do not require land-use change and can have co-benefits, such as improved biodiversity, soil quality and local food security. Effective governance is needed to limit trade-offs and ensure the permanence of carbon storage in terrestrial, geological and ocean reservoirs. If negative emission technologies become practical at scale and affordable in the second half of the century, they would allow for a slightly slower energy system transition to low-carbon technologies.Even in this scenario, net-zero emissions would need to be achieved around the middle of the century. If the deployment of large-scale carbon dioxide removal is to be limited, deeper near-term emission reductions are required, combined with measures that lower demand for energy and land. 7,8 Limiting global warming requires rapid and far-reaching transformation of energy systems, land use, infrastructure and industrial processes. Emissions of carbon dioxide in both the land-use and energy systems can be reduced to zero or below based on a portfolio of mitigation measures, striking different balances between lowering energy and resource intensity, decarbonizing energy supply, and the reliance on carbon dioxide removal and behavioural change.For non-carbon dioxide emissions such as methane and nitrous oxide, measures have been identified to significantly reduce emissions from the energy sector (such as fugitive emissions of methane from mining) and agriculture (including methane from livestock and rice production), but it will be hard to reduce emissions to zero based on only technical measures. Immediate reductions in the emissions of shortlived climate forcers such as black carbon and methane are an important contribution in limiting warming. It should be noted that reductions in the use of fossil fuels also reduce cooling aerosol emissions, leading to less air pollution but also reducing the amount of climate change avoided. 9Adaptation involves both preparations for and responses to climate change impacts, with nature-based solutions playing a vital role. Mitigating climate change is vital, urgent and cost saving: the lower the degree of warming the easier and cheaper it will be to adapt. Societies, economies and ecosystems must adapt to changing temperature and precipitation patterns, including more heatwaves, heavy precipitation in several regions, droughts in some regions and higher sea levels. There has been significant progress in climate change preparedness over the last two decades. Adaptation options, if well-designed and managed in a participatory manner, can reduce the vulnerability of human and natural systems, and have many synergies with achieving the SDGs, including those related to food and water security, though potential trade-offs must be recognized. Adaptation is place-and context-specific and can be enhanced through complementary actions across all levels from individuals to governments. Increasing investment in social and physical infrastructure is vital to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of societies. Specific interventions can include climate-resilient agriculture, land-use planning, nature-based solutions such as conserving and restoring ecosystems, coastal defence systems and social safety nets. Nature-based solutions have gained prominence, given the close interlinkages between climate change and biodiversity loss, and the potential to deliver co-benefits. Nature-based adaptation options include restoration or protection of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, coastal wetlands, mangroves, and beaches to reduce coastal flooding and erosion; green and blue spaces to reduce urban flooding and heat-related risks; and protecting and restoring floodplains, peatlands, and riparian vegetation to reduce river flooding. Substantial gains in the protection of nature can be achieved through the sustainable management and restoration of landscapes and seascapes that are productive and often inhabited. Transformative actions to reduce the drivers of biodiversity loss must necessarily occur mostly in human-populated and production-oriented landscapes and seascapes outside of protected areas. This requires the development of new land-and resource-use rules and objectives that are beneficial, neutral or at least much less harmful to biodiversity, while permitting uses benefitting humans. 14 Effective management of land and sea resources and their biodiversity requires a situation-appropriate combination of: security and clarity of land tenure and responsibility; financial and non-financial incentives to resource owners and custodians; and regulations and agencies to monitor and enforce them, working at ecosystem scale and coordinating actions across the various agencies and jurisdictions involved. Recognition of the custodial traditions and knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities, and the use of participatory approaches to resource management, are key success factors. A multiple land-use approach includes the promotion of pastoral, cropping and forestry practices that sustain biodiversity and support local livelihoods, while avoiding land degradation. It includes the strategic and widespread restoration of degraded lands and ecosystems. 15 An integrated approach to action is needed to bend the curve of biodiversity loss (figure 6.2). Fisheries reform, integrated spatial planning, conservation, climate mitigation and reduced pollution are all key to restoring marine life. Sustainable fish quotas are essential to reform fisheries, end overfishing and restore marine biodiversity. Integrated spatial planning covering multiple uses of marine resources can help advance sustainable development in oceans and coastal areas. 16,17 Trade negotiations are ongoing to craft new rules on the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies. 18 Expansion of protected areas and strict no-take areas in both territorial waters and the open ocean can conserve and rebuild stocks of commercial and non-commercial species and protect aquatic ecosystems. No-take areas have been demonstrated to be an effective and practical solution to overfishing. The deep seas mostly fall outside of national sovereignty and thus have no pre-existing formal ownership rights. Consequently, only 5.3-7.4 per cent of the deep seas are currently protected. Catch and effort restrictions, regulation of fishing capacity and gear, and co-management of fisheries resources can all help conserve fish stocks. Restoring marine life in both the open oceans and in coastal areas is achievable using a combination of proven approaches, but only if global war-ming is limited to 1.5°C (which would hold the acidification of the oceans below critical thresholds) and the contamination of the oceans with chemicals, plastics, sewage and sediment (from land degradation) is halted. 19 Key actions to conserve biodiversity such as reversing the net loss of habitat, halting overharvesting, reducing pollution and slowing the spread of invasive alien species will help nature adapt to climate change. The relative importance and impact of the main drivers of biodiversity loss differ across different biomes. For example, habitat transformation is the major threat for tropical forests, while invasive alien species have their most severe impacts on islands and freshwater ecosystems. 20 Many species are endangered by overharvesting and poaching for human consumption in local or international markets, practices that also increase the risk of the emergence of novel zoonotic diseases like COVID-19. Alleviating these pressures will permit many populations and communities of wild organisms to remain viable as they track the moving location of their preferred climate zone. 21 Such adaptation strategies are consistent with the objectives and programmes of action Figure 6.2: Historical and modelled future trends in four selected terrestrial biodiversity indicators, based on a \"business as usual\" approach, a package of bold conservation and restoration measures (\"conservation action only\"), and an integrated package combining such conservation and restoration action with additional measures to address both supply-side and demand-side pressures on habitat conversion for food production (\"integrated action\"). 62 Source: CBD 2020b, GBO-5, Figure 22.1 of the conventions and other international undertakings on biodiversity, desertification, forest protection, air pollution, chemical management and ozone protection. Some solutions are beneficial to more than one issue; for example, the protection of intact forests reduces carbon emissions and also conserves biodiversity. 22,23 Such solutions are also consistent with nature-based adaptation strategies under the climate convention but are potentially undermined by unrestricted use of land-based climate mitigation options such as biofuel production or afforestation. 24,25,26 The private sector can help protect biodiversity by ensuring that the products it trades are sustainably sourced, and that benefits accrue in both local and distant locations. The removal by governments of implicit or explicit subsidies that have the unintentional effect of driving the loss of biodiversity or its habitats, including some forms of subsidies for farming, fishing, mining and industries exporting commodities will assist the private sector in achieving sustainable use. Beneficial market-based actions include positive incentives for protecting biodiversity or generating ecosystem services for the use of others. Consumer education, product traceability to source and certification as being climate, ecosystem and biodiversity-friendly permit consumers to make informed choices between harmful and sustainable products. Some companies, such as those trading and processing commodities like palm oil and cocoa, have adopted policies to reduce their environmental footprint, for instance by purchasing supplies from deforestation-free farmers or fisheries that reduce damage to non-target species. 27 Protected area networks need to be expanded, interconnected and better managed to conserve biodiversity in a changing climate. The expansion of formally protected areas, such as national parks, has been the main pillar of biodiversity conservation action for over a century. Despite significant progress (protected areas now cover more than 14 per cent of land, and almost 6 per cent of the ocean), 28 there are still important gaps in the representation of some ecosystems. 29 Wetlands are an example of a functionally critical, highly threatened and biodiversity-rich ecosystem needing urgent protection. 30 Many protected areas are too small or isolated to be effective in the long term, given the impacts of climate change. Increasing connectivity between fully or partly protected areas makes them more resilient to climate change and more able to sustain viable populations of threatened species. 31 Some ostensibly protected areas have weak management and governance and need increased investment, including for surveillance and law enforcement. Expansion of the protected area network continues to be beneficial. When the true value of natural capital and the services it provides are not considered (see Section 6.2), protected area expansion can seem politically and economically costly. Taking into account the risks of not protecting ecosystems, and strategic prioritization of locating new protected areas where the benefits are greatest in relation to the cost, greatly outperforms an ad hoc approach.Diverting land exclusively to climate mitigation adds to pressures on land use from food and fibre production.Transitions in global and regional land use are found in all pathways limiting global warming to 1.5°C with no or limited overshoot, but their scale depends on the pursued mitigation portfolio. 32 Land-use transitions as part of mitigation pathways could slow the achievement of other SDGs, such as those relating to life on land and in the oceans, food and water security, and equity; but there are also climate-oriented land-use transformation measures that could assist in reaching non-climate SDGs. The degree to which land use-based mitigation approaches such as afforestation and bioenergy are required depends on the mitigation portfolio that is pursued, but could potentially result (by 2050, relative to 2010) in an increase of up to 2.5 million km² in non-pasture agricultural land for food and feed crops, 6 million km² more agricultural land for energy crops, and a 9.5 million km² increase in planted forests. This magnitude of change would compromise the sustainable management of land for human settlements, food, livestock feed, fibre, bioenergy, carbon storage, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. 33,34 On the other hand, mitigation options limiting the demand for land include sustainable intensification of land-use practices, ecosystem restoration and changes towards less resource-intensive diets.Transforming land use can contribute to climate change mitigation while minimizing trade-offs. Relevant transformative actions include sustainable intensification, ecosystem restoration, dietary changes and food waste reduction. By maximizing the potential of transformative actions, it is possible to shift land use to a net greenhouse gas sink rather than a source. These options can contribute to climate change mitigation without driving detrimental land-cover change.They create strong direct and indirect co-benefits and have synergies with SDGs such as eradicating poverty, eliminating hunger, promoting good health and well-being, provision of clean water and sanitation, and life on land. 35 The practical actions include improved cropland and grazing management, dietary choices that minimize the requirement of new croplands, and the reduction of food waste. Transformation of diets and reduction of food waste can help to significantly reduce emissions resulting from the food system. At present about a quarter (12 GtCO2e per year) of net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions arise from the agriculture, forestry and other land-use sectors, 36 while the global food system as a whole emits 21-37 per cent of global greenhouse gases, much of it from deforestation to create new agricultural lands. 37 Transformation of diets such that protein needs are derived more from plants and less from animals has the potential to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 0.7-8 GtCO2e by 2050 (2-20 per cent of current emissions). 38 Co-benefits include improvements in human health and wellbeing, conservation of biodiversity and enhanced ecosystem services. 39 Reducing post-harvest losses, where a part of agricultural output never reaches the market, can be reduced by better storage and transport, and post-consumer loss can be reduced by education and change in consumer behaviour.Sustainable land management, coordinated and optimized at the scale of whole landscapes, can enable the multiple objectives of agricultural production, climate mitigation, climate adaptation and biodiversity protection to be realized simultaneously. Sustainable land-use strategies form a continuum, with end points dubbed \"land sparing\" and \"land sharing.\" Land sparing reduces the need to transform natural ecosystems to agricultural lands by increasing productivity on already-converted lands. Land sharing attempts to meet production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation objectives on the same land parcel. Different types of biodiversity and ecosystem services fare better with each approach. 40 There is increasing consensus that most multi-benefit, sustainable land-use systems will lie between these contrasting models, taking into consideration the specific social, economic, ecological and technological context of the landscape. 41Sustainable agricultural intensification can help to avoid further loss of natural ecosystems while also creating space for land-based mitigation and can have synergies with biodiversity conservation and restoration. Careful and appropriate agricultural intensification can reduce the loss of natural ecosystems, including by avoiding deforestation, and create space on former agricultural lands for land-based mitigation or biodiversity protection. To deliver the promised biodiversity and ecosystem services benefits, the spared land (i.e. land not used for agriculture thanks to intensification) must be used for ecosystem restoration and protection. Landscapes where the use-intensity already exceeds sustainability limits, on the other hand, would benefit from de-intensification. Many landscapes have both under-and over-intensive elements, and the optimal solution involves both land-sparing and land-sharing, along with other novel approaches. 42Land-and ocean-based climate mitigation approaches, including ecosystem restoration, could provide a third of the mitigation effort needed in the next decade. Nature-based solutions, such as reforestation with native trees, restoration of degraded lands, improved soil management and agroforestry, can contribute significantly to reducing the atmospheric abundance of carbon dioxide. Such solutions have been estimated to be able to provide 37 per cent of the mitigation effort needed until 2030 to limit warming to 2°C, 43,44 and coastal areas hold additional potential (see below).Ecosystem restoration can involve returning agricultural land to its natural state, or the rehabilitation of ecosystems on degraded land. Ecosystem restoration is a cost-effective way of achieving multiple benefits. 45 The potential for ecosystem restoration depends on the degree to which other transformative enablers such as sustainable intensification, dietary changes and food waste reduction are implemented, as there is potential competition between the use of land and water for ecosystem restoration, pastureland, and agricultural cropping for food and energy feedstocks. 46 To maximize the co-benefits, policies aimed at increasing land carbon sinks need to restrict activities to ecosystem restoration specifically, as opposed to the more general reforestation or afforestation, which might otherwise encourage the planting of monocultures of non-native trees 47 or the conversion of carbon-and species-rich peatland, grassland or savannas to less rich forests. Ecosystem restoration also helps biodiversity adapt to climate change.Ecosystem restoration can simultaneously mitigate climate change, slow and reverse biodiversity decline and increase the benefits that people get from nature. Restoration can deliver multiple benefits in all ecosystems. It offers particularly important benefits in dryland regions where climate change and desertification are projected to cause reductions in crop and livestock productivity. Avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation, including desertification, would enhance soil fertility, increase carbon storage in soils and biomass, and increase agricultural productivity and food security. 48,49 Ecosystem restoration makes a cost-effective contribution to the timely action to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation that can increase food and water security whilst contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation. 50 This includes restoration of vegetated coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows (coastal \"blue carbon\" ecosystems), that could provide climate change mitigation through increased carbon uptake and storage of around 0.5 per cent of current global emissions, with co-benefits for local ecosystems and livelihoods. 51 6.4 Science-based management can reduce the adverse effects of chemicals on human health and the environmentThe existing regulatory and legislative framework for the management of chemicals must be comprehensively implemented, taking into account the scale, complexity and pace of the issue. The development of basic legislation and institutional capacity has been recognized as critical to the attainment of sound chemicals and waste management. Many countries have already made important headway in enacting laws, creating programmes, and implementing policies to this end, in particular in the developed world, such as the REACH program in Europe and the Canadian Challenge Program on chemical substances. Further steps, particularly in developing countries and economies in transition, could include the following: intensification of action at all levels to strengthen legislative and institutional capacities to regulate chemicals and waste during their full life cycle; the development of national chemicals management profiles and action plans on the sound management of chemicals and waste; advancing the alignment and harmonization of policies between countries, mutual learning regarding effective approaches, and the maximization of opportunities for regional cooperation, drawing on existing institutional structures. 52Science-based approaches to the sound management of chemicals are available. Established approaches for the management of chemicals that are available to governments and regulators include: accelerating chemical hazard assessment and harmonized classifications of substances; refining chemical risk assessment and risk management decisionmaking processes; and advancing alternative assessments and informed substitution of chemicals of concern, including through non-chemical alternatives. At the same time, concerns have been expressed that current approaches are at times complex and slow. Over the past decades, valuable lessons have been learned in the practical application of these approaches, and opportunities have emerged to enhance their effectiveness, streamline their use, and employ them more systematically in all countries. Developing countries and economies in transition in particular stand to benefit from progress in these areas. 53 Data gaps can be filled if priorities are established. Opportunities to strengthen the engagement of scientists and the science-policy interface include: taking steps towards the cost-effective harmonization of data generation and collection, strengthening monitoring and surveillance capacities, and sharing data more systematically at all levels; scaling up industry engagement in generating and disseminating relevant data; strengthening two-way communication, and supporting collaboration between scientists and policymakers; and exploring methodologies that facilitate more systematic identification of future priorities at the international level. Although a wealth of data and knowledge has been generated, many data gaps and unknowns remain. These include gaps in regard to: chemical hazard data for a range of chemicals on the market; environmental, health and safety data; outdoor and indoor chemical releases; exposures and concentrations in humans and the environment; and adverse impacts of chemicals. Disparities remain in data collection and availability across time and countries, making the identification of baselines, trends, and emerging issues and priorities challenging. While a diverse set of mechanisms has been established at the international level to identify emerging issues and to set priorities for action (for example, the SAICM mechanism), opportunities exist to explore the complementarity of processes and the use of science-based criteria for prioritization. Various barriers pose challenges to making policy-relevant knowledge available for informed decision-making. 54 Innovation and new business models may help to reduce global and local chemical pollution. The implementation of new business models (such as chemical leasing) aimed at reducing the use of chemicals of concern, the scaling up of efforts to develop green and sustainable chemistry alternatives, and commitments to phase out chemicals of concern in consumer products, can all help to reduce chemical pollution. Despite these efforts, voluntary actions and sustainability strategies that go beyond compliance and advance sound chemicals management are not yet being sufficiently developed and replicated, particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, important private sector stakeholders are not yet fully engaged in relevant discussions at the national and international level. Strengthening corporate commitment at the highest level is therefore essential. From a design perspective, incentives to develop green and sustainable chemistry solutions are needed. Responsible production should be encouraged, and consumer information related to chemicals should be clear, transparent and reliable. As an important contribution to a sustainable future, chemistry and its products must be adapted to a circular economy -a system aimed at eliminating waste, circulating and recycling products, and saving resources and the environment. The increasing trade in chemicals and related products, and the quest to recycle products and materials, create opportunities but also raise concerns regarding the fate of chemicals and chemicals in products once they reach the waste stage or become secondary raw materials. Challenges include the chemical content of products becoming secondary raw materials, as well as the global flows of recycled products often being unknown, potentially impeding management intervention that could ensure undesired chemicals re-entering supply chains are not causing health and safety problems at various stages of the material flow. 55 Multi-stakeholder partnerships will help protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of chemicals and waste. The engagement of all relevant stakeholders at the national, regional and global levels is needed to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effect of chemicals and waste. This includes not only the chemicals and waste community, such as ministries of environment and health, intergovernmental organizations, civil society organizations engaged in chemicals and waste, the chemical industry and trade unions, but also actors in key economic and enabling sectors, some of which have so far not been sufficiently engaged.  Source: Source: CBD 2020a, GBO-5 SPM on the Paris Agreement, and vice versa. The manner of integrating adaptation, mitigation, biodiversity and sustainable development in policy is dependent on context-specific conditions where synergies are achieved and trade-offs are made, involving \"winners\" and \"losers\" across governance levels and time scales. 58 Reconciling trade-offs between development needs and emissions reductions requires an understanding of the dynamics between adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development, and of the specific roles that different actors play at particular points in time. Enhancing synergies and avoiding trade-offs is essential for achieving multiple benefits and transformative change for people and the planet.Multilevel governance is key for systemic transformation and for reconciling environmental and development objectives. 59 Governance approaches that coordinate and monitor multiscale policy actions and trade-offs across sectoral, local, national, regional and international levels are best suited for the implementation of environmental goals, such as those for climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, and air and water pollution, while simultaneously promoting sustainable development. 60 This is because vertical and horizontal policy integration and coordination enables the interplay and tradeoffs between sectors and spatial scales, and the dialogue between local communities, institutional bodies and nonstate actors.Policies that support the achievement of the SDGs, such as those for poverty alleviation, clean water and universal energy access, need to align constructively with environmental policies in order to realize potential synergies. Aligning policies synergistically increases their efficiency and effectiveness, whilst increasing societal support. For example, integrated landscape governance entails a mix of policies and instruments that together ensure nature conservation, ecological restoration and sustainable use, sustainable production (including of food, materials and energy), and sustainable forest management and infrastructure planning. 61 As a further example, the nature of legal rights to land ownership and of international forest certification systems can be reformed so that rural development and poverty alleviation can be aligned with carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation, thus avoiding deforestation and increasing the resilience of human and natural systems to environmental change. Such an approach can address and reverse the drivers of deforestation and prove transformative during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration that begins in 2021. Better alignment of measures can create the portfolio of actions needed to protect and restore life on Earth (figure 6.3).Economic, financial and productive systems profoundly shape society's relationship with nature. This section examines how those systems can be transformed to lead and power the path to a sustainable future. It explores how the food, water and energy systems can be transformed to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner.Achieving a just and prosperous future for all on a safe and resilient planet requires the transformation of economic and financial systems. Current economic and financial systems focus on a narrow set of financial returns from market activities. Achieving the SDGs will require economic and financial systems that simultaneously support economic well-being, social inclusion and environmental sustainability -sometimes called the \"triple bottom line.\" Economic well-being means that all basic needs are met, meaning an end to poverty and hunger, and the provision of education, water and sanitation, clean energy, decent jobs and modern infrastructure for all (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9). Social inclusion means gender equality, reduced inequalities and freedom from violence (SDGs 5, 10  and 16). Environmental sustainability means that dangerous climate change is averted, having clean air to breath and clean water to drink, life on land and in the water is protected and critical ecosystems functions preserved (SDGs 6, 7, 11, 12, 13,  14, 15). 1,2,3 This all requires systemic change in economic and financial systems to assure freshwater availability, sustainable cities, sustainable production and consumption, climate stability, and protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems (SDGs  6, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15).Achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals will require large changes in economic activities, national accounts, financial systems and governance. 4 Securing equitable access to goods and services while averting dangerous climate change and avoiding environmental harm will require major structural changes in economic activities. Such a shift is 7Earth's environmental emergencies must be addressed together to achieve sustainability unlikely without reforming economic and financial systems to better align market incentives and national accounts with the protection of global commons and common-pool resources.Measures of economic performance should include the value of nature's contributions to human well-being. Including the value of nature's contributions to human well-being in measures of economic performance is vital for aligning economic incentives with more sustainable outcomes. The UN-led initiative on the System of Environmental Economic Accounting is working to expand the accounting rules to incorporate the value of nature. The framework integrates economic and environmental data to provide a more comprehensive view of the interrelationships between the economy and the environment and the stocks and changes in stocks of environmental assets.It is a flexible multipurpose system which generates outputs that can be adapted to countries' priorities and policy needs while at the same time producing internationally comparable statistics. I China is working to develop and report a measure of Gross Ecosystem Product along with GDP. 5Governments should use measures of inclusive wealth to track progress towards sustainable development. Sustainable development requires leaving future generations with sufficient capital assets, including natural capital, to allow them to meet their needs. 6 Governments should develop measures of inclusive wealth to inform policy and track progress towards sustainable development. Improved data collection, methods, and reporting of changes in natural capital along with other capital assets (produced and human) is needed in order to accurately measure inclusive wealth. 7,8,9,10 Measures of inclusive wealth may be supplemented by science-based environmental sustainability standards for critical natural capital that cannot be effectively substituted by other forms of capital.Making economic systems more sustainable requires policies that align private incentives with social and environmental objectives. Eliminating incentives for environ-I SEEA web page: https://seea.un.org/content/about-seea mentally harmful activity and promoting more sustainable alternatives can align private and social goals. Policy tools that internalize environmental costs include taxes on environmentally harmful activities and cap-and-trade systems targeted at emissions of pollutants. Policy tools that promote environmentally friendly alternatives include payments for ecosystem services, tax breaks for environmentally benign economic activities and feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.Policy reforms also include the abolition of perverse subsidies (especially in agriculture, energy and transportation) that damage global commons and common-pool resources, such as subsidies for fossil fuels that lead to climate change and air pollution. 11,12 Policies that reward the reduction, reuse and recycling of materials in production or that penalize waste generation can accelerate the shift to a circular economy. 13 A circular economy reduces pressures on natural resources and the pollution of land, water and air caused by waste disposal and inefficient use. Moving to a circular economy is one way to decouple economic growth from increasing environmental degradation. Putting a tax on the extraction of virgin raw resources and the disposal of waste to reflect their full costs increases the relative attractiveness of reducing, recycling and reusing existing materials. Product design and purchasing guidelines such as performance labels are another important policy lever. Achieving a circular economy requires changes in the practices of businesses and households. A key element is the notion that well-being does not necessarily increase with the consumption of resources, especially at high levels, but is rather derived from the services and amenities that resources help provide. 14 Efficiency and sufficiency reduce the needs for resources while increasing well-being. 15 A shift away from individual ownership towards a sharing economy can further increase economic efficiency and sufficiency. 16,17 Achieving sustainability will require major shifts in patterns and large flows of investment. In energy, accomplishing a transition from a fossil fuel-dominated supply to a low-carbon system consistent with Paris Agreement climate objectives will require investments in renewable energy, nuclear energy, transmission, distribution, storage and energy efficiency of US$0.8-2.9 trillion per year through 2050. 18 Global financing for biodiversity is estimated at about US$80-90 billion annually, 19 far below the conservatively estimated hundreds of billions of US dollars needed. 20 Biodiversity, climate and other environmental finance could be ramped up by redirecting some of the estimated more than US$5 trillion in annual subsidies on fossil fuels, non-sustainable agriculture and fishing, non-renewable energy, mining and transportation (see Section 2.2). Large investments are also required to make water, food and other economic sectors sustainable (see Section 7.2). The investments pledged by governments around the world to restart economies stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic should be directed toward sustainable economic structures and lifestyles that increase the inclusive wealth of society.Substantial private sector investment is needed to complement public financing to achieve the SDGs and assure resilient management of risk and natural disasters. The investments required to reach the SDGs exceed the capacity of public funding, therefore substantial private sector financing is essential. Socially-and environmentally-oriented investment funds that provide low-cost financing for sustainable projects can close part of the financing gap. Currently there is an estimated US$500 billion of assets in impact investing. 21 However, achieving large-scale financial flows on the scale needed to achieve the SDGs will likely require making such investments more financially attractive. New tools and approaches that can leverage and incentivize private sector funding include the use of capital markets to unlock private sector investment in sustainable infrastructure. The Global South needs increased access to low-interest finance in order to achieve the SDGs. The Global North has exacerbated the shortfall by failing to meet its commitments under environmental conventions and on international development assistance.Good governance is at the core of a well-functioning economy able to provide a good quality of life for all. Good governance, which involves interaction between state and non-state actors to assure the rule of law, the absence of corruption and global cooperation, is key in building inclusive and just economic and financial systems for transformative change. Economic growth directed towards increasing access to food, water, energy, good health and education, and a clean and healthy environment, improves quality of life, but with diminishing returns at high levels of income and consumption. A well-functioning sustainable economic system will \"meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs Sustainable agriculture requires strategies and technologies to increase the productivity of land and the nutritional value of food while reducing water use intensity and the release of pollutants. Sustainably intensifying agriculture while reducing water scarcity requires more efficient use of water, increasing water storage and avoiding salinization.Technologies to increase the yield of nutritious food need to be adapted to specific agroecological zones to conserve soils and reduce fertilizer application, such as reactive nitrogen and phosphorous. Genetically modified organisms could potentially increase the efficiency of food production with crop varieties that are tolerant of pests, diseases, drought, floods and salinity. However, biosafety and social considerations must be taken into account (see Section 2.3.2). Organic farming and other forms of agroecology may make a significant contribution to the food system transformation, although further research is needed to increase yields. In some cases, sustainable intensification and precision agriculture may be the best approaches, while organic or agroecological systems may be appropriate elsewhere. Managing pollution from agricultural chemicals will be critical, as will reducing waste by limiting post-harvest and consumer losses. 23 Making freshwater systems sustainable in the face of climate change, increasing demand and pollution requires steps to improve supply and use efficiency, reduce pollution, and restore natural habitats and flow regimes. Impacts on freshwater systems from climate change, rising demand for extraction from agriculture, households and industry, and increasing pollution, require both cross-sectoral and sector-specific interventions that improve water use efficiency, increase storage, reduce contamination, minimize disruption and restore aquatic habitats and natural flow regimes. Water used for irrigated agriculture will remain the largest consumptive use of water, so sustainable water futures will include a range of solutions to manage irrigation water demand and increase agricultural water use productivity. Increased water use productivity in agriculture could be achieved through crop breeding and shifts in crop planting. 24 This will include improved irrigation techniques such as micro-irrigation, moisture conservation methods such as rainwater harvesting, which may include using indigenous and local practices, and maintaining vegetation and mulch cover. 25 Drought-resilient ecologically appropriate plants and other agroecological and ecosystem-based adaptation practices will also be important. 26 Some adaptation options can become maladaptive due to their environmental impacts, such as irrigation causing soil salinization or overextraction leading to groundwater depletion, so response options should be tailored to the context. 27 Improved management of urban and other water uses will also be necessary. Investment in wastewater treatment as well as in distribution and supply infrastructure are necessary for equitable access to clean water. 28 Renewable energy sources can be made less water-intensive with present technology, and existing hydropower dams can be managed to integrate ecological water requirements. Increased water storage can be achieved through policies that implement a mix of groundwater recharge, integrated management of surface and groundwater, wetland conservation, low-impact dams and decentralized (for example, household-based) rainwater collection. 29 Technical assistance and economic incentive programs can encourage sustainable farm practices and reduce pre-and post-harvest losses of food. Technical assistance is important to enable farmers to adopt more sustainable practices, especially for smallholders. Policies with incentives for sustainable practices include standards, certification schemes and payments for ecosystem services such as direct payments through agri-environmental schemes. 30 Agricultural losses can also be reduced by developing real-time plant disease diagnostics, supported by a global surveillance system, to monitor and contain crop disease outbreaks Limiting post-harvest losses requires investments in rural roads, electricity infrastructure, storage and cooling systems.Small-scale farmers, in particular women farmers, need to be empowered to embrace sustainable practices. Smallscale agricultural producers are at the heart of the challenge of food security. They therefore need access to information and technology, gender-sensitive and participatory research and extension services, financial and legal services, markets, added-value opportunities, access to and control over land and production inputs (including high-yielding, water-efficient, and pest-and disease resistant crops, and fertilizers), and groundwater and irrigation services. Reliable and affordable insurance for small-scale farmers to withstand and recover from environmental shocks is also needed.Measures are needed and available to protect pollinators.Given the worldwide decline in the populations and diversity of wild pollinators and the seasonal colony loss of western honey bees in some regions, it is important to maintain healthy pollinator communities. This can be achieved through agroecological farming practices, strengthening existing diversified farming systems, and investing in ecological infrastructure by protecting, restoring and connecting patches of natural and semi-natural habitats in agricultural landscapes. These measures need to be complemented by reducing the effects of pesticides, particularly insecticides such as neonicotinoids, on pollinators through integrated pest management. Honeybees also need to be protected from a broad range of parasites, including Varroa mites, by placing greater emphasis on hygiene and control of pathogens. 31Policy instruments to achieve water system sustainability include water reallocation at the basin scale and education and incentives to increase water use efficiency in agriculture. Integrated water resource management has moderate mitigation potential, with no adverse impacts on challenges related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, desertification and food security. 32 Drought resilience policies, including drought preparedness planning, early warning and monitoring, and improving water use efficiency, synergistically improve agricultural producer livelihoods and reduce water stress. 33 Environmental farm programs and agri-environment schemes, water efficiency requirements, and water pricing and incentive programs, such as water accounts and payment for ecosystem services programs, can also help relieve water stress. 34,35 Sustainable food production from freshwaters and the oceans requires improved management, planning and policy action. Fisheries management, spatial planning (including the implementation and expansion of marine protected areas) and policy action are needed to address drivers of decline in aquatic ecosystems such as climate change and pollution. Pathways to sustainable fisheries entail conserving, restoring and sustainably using marine ecosystems; rebuilding overfished stocks (including through targeted limits on catches or moratoria); reducing pollution; managing destructive extractive activities; eliminating harmful subsidies and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; adapting fisheries management to climate change impacts and reducing the environmental impact of aquaculture. For example, ending overfishing and rebuilding depleted resources may result in an increase of as much as 20 per cent in potential yield, provided that the transitional costs of rebuilding depleted stocks can be addressed. 36 Marine protected areas (including no-take zones) have demonstrated success in biodiversity conservation when managed effectively and can be further expanded through larger or more interconnected protected areas or new protected areas in currently underrepresented regions and key biodiversity areas. Integrated marine and coastal planning are important. Additional tools could include both non-market and market-based economic instruments for financing sustainable use and conservation, including for example payment for ecosystem services, biodiversity offset schemes, blue carbon sequestration, cap-and-trade programmes, green bonds and trust funds, new legal instruments, such as the proposed international, legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and halting harmful subsidies, especially those aimed at maintaining capacity.Inequalities, especially regarding income and food subsistence for local communities and small-scale artisanal fisheries, need to be addressed to advance sustainability.For local communities, reduced, declining and unequal access to marine resources may, in a complex interaction with other factors, be a source of conflict. Adding to the risk from overfishing, tropical regions face critical challenges due to interactions with climate change (with fish stocks projected to 122 7. Transforming economic, financial and productive systems can lead and power the shift to sustainability move poleward), and intense coastal development. Equitable sharing of fish resources is a ubiquitous challenge worldwide that often translates into competition between industrial fisheries and small-scale artisanal fisheries. It is therefore critical to foster well-managed small-scale fisheries using selective and non-destructive gear to promote employment, lower fossil fuel consumption and reduce fisheries' footprint on the oceans. Universal access to clean energy requires a rapid transition to low-carbon systems in both the production and use of energy. Improving access to affordable and modern energy (SDG 7), preferably clean energy, coupled with innovation and efficiency gains, is vital to achieving equitable and sustainable economic growth while limiting global warming. Clean energy will also reduce poverty and indoor and outdoor air pollution and provide critical services such as communications, lighting and water pumping. Achieving this goal while combating climate change involves a rapid transition to low-carbon energy systems encompassing both production and consumption. Investments in the energy transition need to grow five-or sixfold between now and 2050 to limit warning to 1.5 °C as aspired to in the Paris Agreement. 41 Renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, along with improved energy efficiency in buildings and elsewhere, will be key.Since 2000, progress with respect to access to modern energy services has been made in all regions, but billions of people still lack such access. Progress on access to modern energy has been made especially in Asia, while in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth largely outpaced the advances made, with these trends projected to continue towards 2030. 42 More than 800 million people still do not have access to electricity, 43 and some 3.8 billion are exposed to household air pollution from burning of solid fuels such as traditional biomass, kerosene and coal 44 -fuels that also contribute to climate change. Striking global inequality in access to energy services is reflected in adverse impacts on development and health. In 2019, air pollution is estimated to have contributed to about 6.5 million deaths worldwide, and one third of these deaths are attributed household air pollution. 45 To achieve universal access to clean fuels and technologies, the affordability, availability and safety of fuels and practices for cooking, heating and lightning need to be improved. 46 Achieving universal access to electricity requires expanded generation capacity and distribution networks, as well as access to more efficient and affordable appliances, with a focus on poor, remote communities. Clean cooking and universal access to electricity improve health and reduces greenhouse gas emissions if traditional fuels are replaced by electricity (especially if it is generated renewably) or natural gas.It is possible to transform the energy system to provide clean and affordable energy for all. Analyses show that energy efficiency and sufficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, and electrification all play a key role in providing access to modern energy services. 47 Today's reliable, affordable and resilient energy options are driving a new paradigm of heterogeneity. Distributed solutions today offer increasingly compelling economics for those without access to traditional energy carriers, suggesting a fundamental reconsideration of infrastructure policies, energy access solutions and economics that does not rely on uniform -or old and outdatedassumptions about energy systems and embraces a portfolio of solutions versus singular approaches.Transforming the energy system is key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Key components of a strategy to transform the energy system include mitigating energy demand, decarbonization of the power system, further electrification of energy supply and phasing out fossil fuel use in other sectors. Mitigating energy demand (either by efficiency improvements or changes in human activity) is essential. It not only leads to direct emission reductions, but it also limits the volume of energy supply, which reduces the environmental impacts associated with energy supply beyond those of climate change.Falling costs for the generation of renewable energy and energy storage are bringing higher mitigation targets within reach. In the last decades, the cost of photovoltaic solar cells, wind turbines and batteries has fallen significantly. As a result, in some cases renewable electricity is as cheap to generate as fossil-fuel based alternatives. This development has resulted in rapid growth of renewable energy capacity, a trend that can help create a net-zero power system, although further developments to overcome system integration issues are needed. People's health and well-being are strongly influenced by environmental factors. This section identifies actions that can be taken to reverse environmental declines that threaten human health. It also examines the role of environmental factors and natural resources in promoting peaceful societies before addressing how making cities more sustainable can promote human well-being.The ensemble of environmental issues that threaten human health and exacerbate inequalities within and between countries must be addressed. Policies and technologies are needed to limit the impacts on human health from climate change (e.g. vector-and water-borne diseases, heat stress mortality, extreme weather events, less nutritious foods), air pollution (e.g. cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases), loss of biodiversity and illegal wildlife trade (e.g. zoonotic and vector-borne diseases), water pollution (e.g. diarrhoea and cholera), and exposure to chemicals (e.g. poisoning from mercury, lead and pesticides). The policies and technologies required are addressed in more detail below.Substantial improvements in global human health and well-being (SDG 3) can be achieved through transformative changes. They include a shift to sustainable land management and environmental stewardship. A transformation of energy and transport systems to create a low-carbon economy promises large benefits for human health, including through reduced pollution (SDG 7). Transformative changes focus action on high-level determinants of the health of people and the environment as well as the drivers of environmental change. A shift to sustainable land management is essential to safeguard human health and nutrition as well as livelihoods and other components of well-being. Reduced environmental impacts, which can be achieved through innovative technology, policy or institutional and cultural changes, are required to maintain the valuable ecosystem services upon which human lives 8Keeping the planet healthy is key to providing health and well-being for all depend (SDG 12). 1,2 Eliminating the use of fossil fuels can significantly reduce outdoor air pollution, which is projected to contribute annually to 4.5 million premature deaths by 2040 and 7 million premature deaths by 2050, 3 while also reducing the adverse health impacts from human-induced climate change (SDG 13). Access to clean and modern energy can reduce mortality and morbidity among the about 3.8 billion people who still rely on solid fuels for heating and cooking (see Section 7.3).New forms of governance and cooperation that are inclusive and participatory can generate sustainable improvements in the health of people and nature. Improved coordination and collaboration between governments, individuals, civil society, the private sector and scientists can break cycles of intergenerational poverty and inequality by emphasizing the value of investing in the well-being of people (SDGs 11, 16 and 17). Such new forms of governance and cooperation are needed to provide better education, health care, nutrition, water and sanitation, and energy access, which are all critical to maintaining healthy individuals. 4 An example is cooperation between herders, health officials, human and veterinary doctors, ecologists and anthropologists in the management of zoonotic diseases. 5 Addressing inequalities and poverty can also help to achieve long-term environmental sustainability with benefits for health. 6 Preventing environmental degradation saves lives. Environmental stewardship is key to a preventative approach to health care, which is in turn key for long-term health outcomes. A preventative approach can be achieved through intersectoral approaches, local community-based interventions, judicious legal and policy frameworks, rapid detection programmes, adequate financial resource allocation and ready-to-use rapid-response intervention plans. Large-scale approaches based on multidisciplinary efforts, such as One Health, encompass the opportunities and challenges pertaining to the interconnections of the human-animalenvironment interface. 7 The primary aim is optimal health outcomes for all three sectors: human health, animal health and environment health. Through the surveillance of \"hotspots\" for emerging diseases by considering behaviours, practices, and biological and ecological factors, successful detection, management and control of emerging infectious diseases, such as zoonoses, is possible. This must happen at a local level for best results. 8 By protecting the environment and increasing understanding of risks of emerging infectious diseases, countries will be better equipped to prevent, prepare for, and respond to (the threat of) an outbreak (see Box 8.1). 9 Box 8.1 Avoiding pandemics and the transition to a sustainable worldThe COVID-19 pandemic, which was still unfolding at the time of the completion of this report, illustrates why the transformation to a sustainable future needs to be accelerated. Science plays a pivotal role in informing policies that can drive this transformation, and a key area that needs to be better understood is the interaction between society and nature.The emergence of new infectious diseases in humans, animals and plants can be exacerbated by human activities. Activities that contribute to ecological degradation can increase the risk of zoonotic-origin disease from wildlife through increased human contact with pathogens and changes in pathogen ecology. These activities include climate change, land-use change and fragmentation, agricultural intensification, deforestation, and legal and illegal commercial wildlife trade. In particular, the creation of new habitat edges at the interfaces between humans and wildlife increases the risk of pathogens spilling over from their wildlife hosts into human populations and their livestock. 10 The risk of zoonotic-origin epidemics and pandemics can be reduced by managing such human activities and by applying a holistic One Health approach. 11,12,13 A One Health approach recognizes how human, animal, plant and environmental health are intrinsically connected and profoundly influenced by human activities. COVID-19 has delivered a shock to humanity that could spark a paradigm shift towards a healthier and more sustainable future. Governments around the world are investing trillions of US dollars to catalyse economic recovery. This is an opportunity to build back better by ensuring that the social and economic measures put in place by countries to emerge from the crisis aim at moving away from unsustainable practices and accele-rating the transformation towards the implementation of all the SDGs. SDG 17 calls for \"Partnerships for the Goals,\" to ensure that all SDGs are implemented with science-based decision-making, sound governance and a sense of responsibility of individuals. To achieve transformation, society must overcome sectoral silos, entrenched power, and economic interests, eliminate harmful drivers and perverse incentives, while promoting resilience and adaptation. There is a need for cooperative, multilateral and engaged democratic action at all levels of society, in every country, and at the international level. As part of this effort, promoting and operationalizing the One Health approach is paramount to secure human health in this changed world, including by preventing and improving the response to future pandemics. COVID  Participatory approaches to spatial planning can lessen conflicts over resources. At the regional level, participatory approaches to spatial planning and zoning, including land-use planning, water use planning, ecosystem modelling, marine spatial planning, integrated coastal zone management, and integrated watershed management can lessen the conflicts between economic actors competing for resources. 20 Measures to prevent and reduce conflict include supporting co-management regimes for collaborative water management, fostering equity between water users (while maintaining minimum flows for aquatic ecosystems) and promoting transparency and access to information. 21Multilateral agreements addressing transboundary issues are key to protecting the global commons. At the international level, multilateral agreements addressing transboundary issues are key to the protection of the global commons, and adaptive governance involving a wide range of institutions and stakeholders can help ensure their sustainable management. Building upon and enhancing existing international agreements can further strengthen the protection of global commons and help establish partnerships for solving conflicts and for the sustainable management of commons. 22Rapid urbanization makes the design of environmentally and socially sustainable cities critical. The share of people living in urban areas is projected to increase from 54 per cent in 2015 to 78 per cent in 2050. Around 90 per cent of population growth in cities is projected to take place in low-income countries, mainly in small and medium-sized cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (see Section 2.3.1). The expansion of the world's urban areas in the next two to three decades poses challenges and represents opportunities to plan and design sustainable cities. 23,24,25 In rapidly growing and urbanizing regions, climate mitigation strategies based on urban design, spatial planning and efficient infrastructure can avoid the lockin of high emission patterns. 26,27 In industrialized countries with cities characterized by urban sprawl, it is crucial to promote more intensive and smarter use of space and regeneration of city centres. 28 Urban systems transitions require deep and far-reaching solutions, significant upscaling of investments 29 and institutional capacity development.  Make own international activities and operations sustainable. d) Health and well-being Facilitate international cooperation on protecting the health of the planet in order to provide health and well-being for all. Advance a One Health approach and strategies to meet WHO guidelines for air pollutants. Continue to promote the coordination and implementation of existing chemicals conventions and strengthen the science-policy interface for chemicals and waste. Implement monitoring and surveillance and early warning systems. e) Cities and settlements Promote sustainable urban planning, nature-based solutions for climate and biodiversity in urban areas, retrofitting of blue and green infrastructure, and access to urban services including clean energy and water.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Facilitate international cooperation on frameworks for natural capital accounting, reform of measures and models of economic growth including through the use of natural capital and inclusive wealth in decision-making, and reform of trade systems to make them more fair and environmentally sustainable. 2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Promote the use of natural capital accounting, and initiatives for the transformation to a sustainable and circular economy. b) Subsidies and markets Engage in carbon trading, schemes for offsetting of nature and payment for ecosystem services Promote behavioural change in consumption and production, including among their own members and wider society. c) Investments Advocate for policies and regulations that promote investment in sustainable development.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Advocate for and implement programmes and projects for improved access to affordable and nutritious food, clean energy and safe water for all. b) Food and water Develop and implement initiatives for the ecological intensification and sustainable use of multifunctional landscapes. planning and initiatives to increase access to urban services, and promote nature-based solutions and green and blue infrastructure.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Foster economic and financial transformations by supporting initiatives to include environmental costs in the prices of goods and services. b) Subsidies and markets Engage in carbon trading, schemes for offsetting nature, and payments for ecosystem services. Support fair trade and companies with sustainable production models that provide services and products that foster societal well-being. c) Investments Support shifts in investment towards those needed to achieve the SDGs, and away from unsustainable industries, such as fossil fuels.3. Transform food, water and energy systems to meet growing human needs in an equitable, resilient and environmentally friendly manner a) Access Support and engage in local production and distribution systems for healthy food, safe water and clean energy. b) Food and water Consider what constitutes a healthy diet and also reduces environmental damage. Adopt sustainable practices in community-based and small-scale food production. Purchase sustainably produced food and reduce waste. Reduce wasting water, and collect rainwater and use grey water. c) Energy Support community-based energy production. Reduce energy consumption and chose clean energy when possible.1409 All actors have a part to play in transforming humankind's relationship with nature educational organizations 1. Address Earth's environmental emergencies and human well-being together a) Synergies Develop analytical tools, including plausible futures models, using exploratory, target-seeking and policy-screening scenarios that account for the complex interlinkages between environment and development. Further develop observational programs. Engage in national and international scientific assessments. Develop environmental education programs for all age groups. Raise public awareness through public engagements, editorials, social media. b) Climate change Assess the impact of climate change on socio-economic sectors, nature and human health at all scales. Assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of different mitigation and adaptation policies and technologies. c) Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation Assess the impact of multiple drivers on biodiversity and ecosystem degradation, and the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of conservation and restoration activities, including nature-based solutions. d) Health and well-being Promote education, information and awareness of One Health approaches. Assess interactions among environmental issues and their impacts on socioeconomic sectors and human health. Assess the implications of chemicals for human health and the environment, and develop health surveillance and monitoring systems, and approaches to prevent disease outbreaks, including pandemics. Assess the mental health implications of green and blue infrastructure in urban environments. e) Cities and settlements Support sustainable urban planning and development, including the use of nature-based solutions. Promote education, information and awareness on sustainable cities and settlements and their importance for human health.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Further develop the framework for natural capital accounting and the relevant databases. Assess the costs and benefits of mitigating and adapting to climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation, land degradation, and air and water pollution at a range of spatial scales. Assess the implications of reforming measures and models of economic growth. Promote education, information and awareness on sustainable economic and financial systems. b) Subsidies and markets Assess the environmental and distributional social impacts of reductions in harmful subsidies, and the reallocation of these resources to support sustainable consumption and production. c) Investments Assess the environmental and social impacts of switching investments from unsustainable activities such as fossil fuels to sustainable activities. Support campaigns for meaningful transformations in the health sector. e) Cities and settlements Document the impact on people and nature of unsustainable systems in urban areas and support campaigns for transformations in how cities and settlements are planned and designed, including the supply of essential services.2. Transform economic and financial systems so they lead and power the shift toward sustainability a) Accounting for nature Raise awareness of how current economic models and performance measures as well as the price of some goods and services fail to fully account for natural capital and environmental costs, and how this skews investment toward unsustainable activities. Support campaigns for meaningful transformations in economic and financial systems. b) Subsidies and markets Inform the public and other actors of the adverse consequences of fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies that lead to environmental damage, and explore the impact of redirecting the financing of subsidies to sustainable activities. c) Investments Highlight government spending and private sector investments that are unsustainable and those which are sustainable. Adaptation Adjustment in natural or human systems to a new or changing environment, including anticipatory and reactive adaptation, private and public adaptation, and autonomous and planned adaptation.; In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate.A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles suspended in air, with a typical size between a few nanometers to tens of micrometres (μm). Aerosol particles can reside in the atmosphere up to weeks. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin. 10 9 (1 000 000 000).Renewable energy produced by living organisms.; Energy derived from any form of biomass such as recently living organisms or their metabolic by-products.Organic material above and below ground and in water, both living and dead, such as trees, crops, grasses, tree litter and roots. In Section 2, used as the unit to measure ratios of mammals on Earth in gigatons of carbon.Accumulating from the lowest level of a hierarchy or process to the highest level.Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) Anthropogenic activities removing CO2 from the atmosphere and durably storing it in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products. It includes existing and potential anthropogenic enhancement of biological or geochemical sinks and direct air capture and storage but excludes natural CO2 uptake not directly caused by human activities.The process of increasing the carbon content of a reservoir other than the atmosphere.The quantity of carbon contained in a \"pool\", meaning a reservoir or system which has the capacity to accumulate or release carbon.A levy on the carbon content of fossil fuels. Because virtually all of the carbon in fossil fuels is ultimately emitted as CO2, a carbon tax is equivalent to an emission tax on CO2 emissions.Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain.Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.A group of chemicals containing chlorine, fluorine and carbon atoms, highly volatile and of low toxicity, widely used in the past as refrigerants, solvents, propellants and foaming agents. Chlorofluorocarbons have both ozone depletion and global warming potential.147Making Peace with Nature: a scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergenciesA circular economy is a systems-based approach to industrial processes and economic activities that enables the resources used to maintain their highest value for as long as possible. Key considerations in implementing a circular economy are reducing use, extending longevity, renewability, reusability, reparability, replaceability, upgradability of resources and products.The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change definition is \"a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.\"The positive effects that a policy or measure aimed at one objective might have on other objectives, without yet evaluating the net effect on overall social welfare. Co-benefits, also referred to as ancillary benefits, depend on, among other things, local circumstances and implementation practices.The protection, care, management and maintenance of ecosystems, habitats, wildlife species and populations, within or outside of their natural environments, to safeguard the natural conditions for their long-term permanence.Illness caused by the 'severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2' (SARS-CoV-2), which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in East Asia, and first reported to WHO on 31 December 2019. On 30 January 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency and March 2020 a global pandemic.The process by which countries, individuals or other entities aim to achieve zero fossil carbon existence. Typically refers to a reduction of the carbon emissions associated with electricity, industry and transport.An infectious diseases caused by any one of four related viruses transmitted by mosquitoes. The dengue virus is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropic and subtropics. As many as 400 million people are infected yearly.Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. It involves crossing thresholds beyond which the underpinning ecosystem cannot restore itself but requires ever-greater external resources for recovery.; When individual land degradation processes, acting locally, combine to affect large areas of drylands.The overarching socio-economic forces that exert pressures on the state of the environment.A complex social-environmental system consisting of interacting physical, chemical, biological and social components and processes. It determines the state and evolution of the planet and life on it and the Earth ś interacting physical, chemical and biological processes. The system consists of the land, oceans, atmosphere, frozen water bodies, poles and living organisms including humans and their domestic species. It includes the planet's natural cycles and deep Earth processes (the carbon, water, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and other cycles, and the energy balances).A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. Ecosystems may be small and simple, like an isolated pond, or large and complex, like a specific tropical rainforest or a coral reef in tropical seas. Ecosystems are typically embedded in larger ecosystems.A long-term reduction in an ecosystem's structure, functionality, or capacity to provide benefits to people.The conditions and processes whereby an ecosystem persists, maintains its integrity, and transforms materials and energy. Ecosystem functions include such processes as decomposition, primary and secondary production, nutrient cycling and biogeochemistry, demography, migration and evolution.The return of the structure, composition and function of an ecosystem to some desired level, from a degraded state. The desired level may be its inferred original or natural state.148Infections that have recently appeared within a population or those whose incidence or geographic range is rapidly increasing or threatens to increase in the near future.The trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions over time; typically used to describe scenarios of future emissions during the 21st century.The effect that a person, entity of activity has on the environment. It can be measured, for example, as the quantity of natural resources that they use, the amount of harmful gases that they produce or the equivalent land area required to provide those resources. In Figure 2.4, material footprint attributes all resources mobilized globally to the final consumer according to country income.The uppermost part of the ocean that receives enough sunlight to allow photosynthesis, less than 200 meters.Fairness of rights, distribution and access. Depending on context, this can refer to access to resources, services or power.The presence of people; livelihoods; species or ecosystems; environmental functions, services, and resources; infrastructure or economic, social or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected by a given stressor.A process in a system whereby a change in one part propagates through the system and ends up affecting the originating part, either by dampening the original change (negative feedbacks) or amplifying or reinforcing it (positive feedbacks). Feedbacks are responsible for system behaviors such as non-linearity of change, equilibrium (or lack thereof) and tipping points.Physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences.A set of activities and actors ranging from the production to the consumption of food, including agriculture, food transformation, storage, distribution and waste disposal. It encompasses food security and its components -availability, access and utilization -and including the social and environmental outcomes of these activities.Coal, natural gas and petroleum products (such as oil) formed from the decayed bodies of animals and plants that died millions of years ago.Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society at a given time considers appropriate for men and women. In addition to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, gender also refers to the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context and time-specific and changeable. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context, as are other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis including class, race, poverty level, ethnic group, sexual orientation, age, etc.Natural assets that are not owned by any particular person or entity, but are potentially used by all, such as the atmosphere, he high seas, outer space and the Antarctic.Increase in the global mean near-surface air temperature, primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.The act, process, or power of governing for the organization of society/ies. For example, there is governance through the state, the market, or through civil society groups and local organizations. Governance is exercised through institutions: laws, property-rights systems and forms of social organization.The value of all final goods and services produced in a country in one year. GDP can be measured by adding up all of an economy's incomes (wages, interest, profits; and rents) or expenditures (consumption, investment, government purchases) and net exports (exports minus imports).Water that flows or seeps downward and saturates soil or rock, supplying springs and wells. The upper surface of the saturated zone is called the water table.The natural home or environment of an animal, plant or other organism. It can also be used to refer terrestrial or aquatic areas distinguished by particular geographic, living and non-living features, entirely natural or semi-natural, in which some organism exists.The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend or physical impact that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems and environmental resources. In this report, the term hazard usually refers to climate-related physical events or trends or their physical impacts.Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing. It is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.The extent to which individuals have the ability to live the kinds of lives they have reason to value; the opportunities people have to pursue their aspirations. Basic components of human well-being include: security, meeting material needs, health and social relations.Regularized patterns of interaction by which society organizes itself: the rules, practices and conventions that structure human interaction. The term is wide and encompassing, and could be taken to include law, social relationships, property rights and tenurial systems, norms, beliefs, customs and codes of conduct as much as multilateral environmental agreements, international conventions and financing mechanisms. Institutions could be formal (explicit, written, often having the sanction of the state) or informal (unwritten, implied, tacit, mutually agreed and accepted).Introduced species that have spread beyond their area of introduction, and which are frequently associated with negative impacts on the environment, human economy or human health. Rarely, it can include native species that have recently expanded their populations.A state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.A long-term loss of ecosystem function and services, caused by disturbances from which the system cannot recover unaided.The exploitation of land for various human purposes or economic activities. Examples of land use categories include agriculture, industrial use, transport and protected areas. At a given moment, a given parcel of land has only one land cover (see definition), but can have many land uses.The way someone gains the resources people needed to provide for their needs, such as feed themselves and their family, obtaining clothing and a place to shelter, obtain, etc. It includes activities that earn the money that can be used for these purposes, and has cultural dimensions (\"a way of life\").Livestock Domesticated terrestrial mammals that are raised to provide a diverse array of goods and services.A tree or shrub that grows in chiefly tropical coastal swamps that are flooded at high tide. Mangroves typically have numerous tangled roots above ground and form dense thickets.Urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants.In the context of climate change, a human intervention to reduce the sources, or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases. Examples include using fossil fuels more efficiently for industrial processes or electricity generation, switching to solar energy or wind power, improving the insulation of buildings and expanding forests and other 'sinks' to remove greater amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits 150Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain.The approximately 20 chemical elements known to be essential for the growth of living organisms, such as nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and carbon. There are small differences between different groups of organisms regarding which elements they need, and in what proportions.Changes in the chemistry of the ocean that result in a reduction of pH. It occurs when atmospheric CO2 is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with seawater to produce acid. Although CO2 gas is naturally exchanged between the atmosphere and the oceans, the increased amounts of CO2 gas into the atmosphere as a result of human activities in modern times (e.g. burning fossil fuels) has results in seawater that is increasingly acidic.An approach to health that recognizes the interconnections between people, animals, plants and their shared environments. It is a collaborative, multisectoral and trans-disciplinary approach, working at local, regional, national and global level, to achieve optimal health and well-being outcomes.Organic agriculture A production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of synthetic inputs.Bodies of individuals with a specified common objective.Organizations could be, amongst others, political groups; governments; economic organizations, federations of industry; social organizations (non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and self-help groups) or religious organizations (church and religious trusts). It is not synonymous with institutions (see definition).A region of the atmosphere situated at an altitude of 10-50 km above the Earth's surface (called the stratosphere) which contains most of the ozone in the atmospheric column, albeit in dilute concentrations.The worldwide spread of a disease. A pandemic occurs when a new highly-infective agent emerges and spreads around the world, since most people do not yet have immunity.Another name for aerosol particles. Very small (typically less than 10 mm diameter) solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the air; see also areosols.Pathogen/Pathogen shedding rate A bacterium, virus or other microorganism that can cause disease. Shedding rate refers to emission of pathogens throughout the course of infection.A type of wetland with a very high organic carbon content (ty-pically>20%) in the sediment. Peatlands currently cover about 3% of the global land surface. The term refers to both the peat soil and the wetland habitat growing on its surface.Soil, silt and rock that remains frozen year-round for two or more years, occurring chiefly in polar or high altitude regions.Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) Chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.Any substance that causes harm when released into the atmosphere. The presence of minerals, chemicals or physical properties at levels that exceed the values deemed to define a boundary between good or acceptable and poor or unacceptable quality, which is a function of the specific pollutant.Deaths occurring earlier due to the presence of a risk factor than would occur in the absence of that risk factor. Often these risk factors are related to the environment, particularly pollution.Energy embodied in natural resources (such as coal, crude oil, sunlight or uranium) that has not undergone any anthropogenic conversion or transformation.The private sector is part of a country's economy which consists of industries and commercial companies that are not owned or controlled by the government.The act of attempting to produce a description of the future subject to assumptions about certain preconditions, or the description itself, such as \"population projections used in existing assessments vary between 8.5 billion and 10.0 billion people by 2050 and between 6.9 billion and 12.6 billion people by 2100 (Section 2.1).\"A clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.Scenarios are plausible descriptions of how future developments might evolve, based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about the key relationships and driving forces (box 2.1).Short-lived climate forcers refers to a set of compounds that are primarily composed of those with short lifetimes in the atmosphere compared to well-mixed greenhouse gases, and are also referred to as near-term climate forcers. This set of compounds includes methane (CH4), which is also a well-mixed greenhouse gas, as well as ozone (O3) and aerosols, or their precursors, and some halogenated species that are not well-mixed greenhouse gases. These compounds do not accumulate in the atmosphere at decadal to centennial time scales, and so their effect on climate is predominantly in the first decade after their emission, although their changes can still induce long-term climate effects such as sea level change. Their effect can be cooling or warming. A subset of exclusively warming short-lived climate forcers is referred to as short-lived climate pollutants.Any process, activity or mechanism that releases a greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas or aerosol into the atmosphere.A characteristic or state whereby the needs of the present population can be met without compromising the ability of future generations or populations in other locations to meet their needs.Sustainable Agriculture emphasizes methods and processes that improve soil productivity while minimizing harmful effects on the climate, soil, water, air, biodiversity and human health. It aims to minimize the use of inputs from nonrenewable sources and petroleum-based products and replace them with those from renewable resources; and focuses on local people and their needs, knowledge, skills, socio-cultural values and institutional structures. It aims to ensures that the basic nutritional requirements of current and future generations are met in both quantity and quality terms, and to provide long-term employment, adequate income and dignified and equal working and living conditions for everybody involved in agricultural value chains. It further sets out to reduces the agricultural sector's vulnerability to risks such as adverse natural conditions (e.g. climate) and socioeconomic factors (e.g. strong price fluctuations).Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.These arise when two or more processes, organizations, substances or other agents interact in such a way that the outcome is greater than the sum of their individual effects considered independently.A system is a collection of component parts that interact with one another within some boundary.Physical artefacts or the bodies of knowledge of which they are an expression. Examples are water extraction structures, such as tube wells, renewable energy technologies and traditional knowledge. Technology and institutions are related. Any technology has a set of practices, rules and regulations surrounding its use, access, distribution and management.State of being transformed, or a fundamental change in the technological, economic and social organization of society, including world views, norms, values and governance. Transformation can also refer to a series of actions that explores opportunities to stop doing the things that pull the Earth System in the wrong direction and at the same time provide resources, capacity and an enabling environment for all that is consistent with the sustainable-world vision.152Non-linear, systematic and fundamental changes of the composition and functioning of a societal system with changes in structures, cultures and practices. 10 12 (1 000 000 000 000).A cognitive state of incomplete knowledge that can result from a lack of information or from disagreement about what is known or even knowable. It may have many of sources, including imprecision in the data, ambiguously defined concepts or terminology, or uncertain projections of human behaviour. Uncertainty can be represented by quantitative measures (for example, a probability of being correct) or by qualitative statements (for example, reflecting the judgement of a team of experts).An increase in the proportion of the population living in urban areas.In disease biology, the organism or vehicle that transmits the disease-causing organism from the reservoir to the host. Many vectors are bloodsucking insects and ticks, which ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal). Vectors can also be an animal, such as a bat, or an inanimate object.Illnesses caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria that are transmitted by mosquitoes, sandflies, triatomine bugs, blackflies, ticks, tsetse flies, mites, snails and lice.An intrinsic feature of people at risk. It is a function of exposure, sensitivity to impacts of the specific unit exposed (such as a watershed, island, household, village, city or country), and the ability or inability to cope or adapt. It is multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral and dynamic. The exposure is to hazards such as drought, conflict or extreme price fluctuations, and also to underlying socio-economic, institutional and environmental conditions.Illnesses that are transmitted through contact with, or consumption of, contaminated water.The chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water, usually in respect to its suitability for a particular purpose.Occurs when annual water supplies drop below 1 000 m³ per person, or when more than 40 percent of available water is used.The sustainable use and protection of water systems, protection against water related hazards (floods and droughts), sustainable development of water resources and the safeguarding of (access to) water functions and services for humans and the environment.Water stress Occurs when low water supplies limit food production and economic development, and affect human health. An area is experiencing water stress when annual water supplies drop below 1 700 m³ per person.Area of marsh, fen, peatland, bog or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water to a depth that does not exceed 6 m at low tide.Wild animals collectively; the native fauna (and sometimes flora) of a region.A flavivirus first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys, transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, biting during the day. Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been reported in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Most infected people develop mild symptoms for 2-7 days, or no symptoms, but infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born malformations.Diseases that can spread between animals and people, moving from wild and domesticated animals to humans and from humans to animals. ","tokenCount":"43429"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9d55822152d5c0858e39d6de09dddd4b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5b732543-3b67-453a-b46f-365a6a13d13f/retrieve","id":"-1929737189"},"keywords":["PEN 1","992","949"],"sieverID":"6445e2a3-b854-4ad2-a711-97654d3e3ba8","pagecount":"2","content":"Desarrollo de métodos de diagnóstico fitosanitario para asegurar la distribución y repatriación de semillas de oca, olluco, mashua y yacón libres de virus diagnósticos 100% confiables, se han empezado a desarrollar métodos más modernos, rápidos y seguros. Uno de los más promisorios es conocido con el nombre de secuenciamiento y ensamblaje de ARNs pequeños de interferencia, que consiste en secuenciar fragmentos pequeños del ARN (ácido ribonucleico) viral, y posteriormente, con el uso de herramientas bioinformáticas, ensamblar dichos fragmentos (como un rompecabezas) para reconstruir el genoma parcial o total del virus.Mayor precisión en la detección del virus. El secuenciamiento de fragmentos pequeños de ARN es costoso pero es necesario como paso previo para el desarrollo de un método de diagnóstico rutinario y de bajo costo basado enLa papa es el pilar de la seguridad alimentaria y una fuente importante de desarrollo para las comunidades altoandinas del Perú. Otras raíces y tubérculos andinos (RTAs), con nutrientes y beneficios particulares para la salud, complementan el rol alimenticio de la papa y han empezado a ganar importancia entre los agricultores y empresarios como fuentes alternativas de ingresos económicos. Y es que con los años, estos alimentos se están convirtiendo en recursos estratégicos para satisfacer la demanda creciente de alimentos funcionales. Un ejemplo son las exportaciones de productos derivados del yacón y la maca, que alcanzaron el año 2014 un valor de USD 2.9 y USD 28.7 millones, respectivamente.La diversidad de las raíces y tubérculos andinos es salvaguardada principalmente en los bancos de germoplasma del Instituto de Innovación Agraria (INIA) y del Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP), donde se conservan más de 5,000 accesiones (semillas) colectadas en diferentes zonas del Perú. Estos materiales se desean poner a disposición de productores e investigadores; sin embargo, debido a que carecemos de herramientas de diagnóstico para las enfermedades virales, la distribución de semilla desde los bancos de germoplasma representa actualmente un alto riesgo para diseminar enfermedades, en especial las enfermedades virales.La mejor forma de conservar la diversidad es haciendo uso de ella. Por ello, con la finalidad de que tanto los agricultores, como la comunidad científica en general, puedan acceder a semillas libres de virus, el CIP y el INIA plantean un proyecto cuyo objetivo es el desarrollo de un método de diagnóstico de virus basado en tecnologías modernas de última generación. El proyecto contribuirá además a identificar los virus presentes en 1,000 accesiones de oca, olluco, mashua y yacón conservados en los bancos de germoplasma, y al mismo tiempo identificar materiales que estén libres de virus y disponibles para la distribución. Otro objetivo importante del proyecto es fortalecer las capacidades institucionales y humanas en el CIP e INIA, así como difundir el conocimiento de los resultados del proyecto a través de talleres, congresos y publicaciones científicas.Conocimiento de métodos más ágiles. En la actualidad, y debido a que la producción de nuevos antisueros demanda muchos años y dinero, y no hay garantía de Las raíces y tubérculos andinos han empezado a ganar importancia como fuentes alternativas de ingresos económicos para las comunidades altoandinas. Debido a la carencia de herramientas de diagnóstico fitosanitario, la distribución de semilla representa actualmente un alto riesgo para diseminar enfermedades. Este proyecto contribuirá a: (i) desarrollar un método de diagnóstico rápido y de bajo costo para los principales virus en oca, olluco, mashua y yacón, (ii) identificar los virus presentes en 1.000 accesiones conservados en los bancos de germoplasma del CIP y del INIA, y (iii) poner a disposición para la distribución aquellas accesiones que resulten libres de virus. PCR (por sus siglas en inglés Polymerase Chain Reaction). Con el genoma secuenciado de un virus en particular, se diseñan posteriormente cebadores o primers (pequeñas secuencias de ADN) que reconocen regiones muy específicas del genoma del virus, con lo cual se puede lograr un diagnóstico muy preciso y rápido. El diseño de primers es la clave para desarrollar los métodos de diagnóstico de los virus.Virus identificados. Mediante el uso de pruebas serológicas y antisueros específicos, en el pasado se han podido identificar 4 especies de virus en oca, 8 en olluco, 4 en mashua y 2 en yacón. El presente proyecto permitirá contar con un método de diagnóstico basado en PCR que facilitará la identificación de dichos virus, pero muy probablemente también de virus nuevos que aun desconocemos.• Un método de diagnóstico, rápido y de bajo costo, basado en PCR para identificar los virus en materiales de oca, olluco, mashua y yacón; incluyendo un manual de laboratorio de acceso libre para el diagnóstico de virus en los cuatro cultivos.• Estado fitosanitario identificado en 1.200 accesiones de oca, olluco, mashua y yacón conservadas en los bancos de germoplasma del CIP y del INIA.• Un stock de accesiones de raíces y tubérculos andinos libres de virus, disponibles para la distribución, en especial a investigadores y agricultores, contribuyendo así a la repatriación de estas variedades a sus hábitats naturales. A su vez, generará oportunidades comerciales basadas en el uso de la diversidad de estos cultivos.• Un programa de terapias inicial para la eliminación de virus en las accesiones que resulten positivas al diagnóstico de virus.• Hasta la fecha se han identificado 40 posibles géneros virales en oca, 26 en olluco, 16 en mashua y 7 en yacón. Los géneros más conspicuos son Allexivirus, Badnavirus, Caulimovirus, Cytorhabdovirus, Nepovirus, Polerovirus, Potexvirus, Potyvirus, Potexvirus, Umbravirus e Ilarvirus. Además se han diseñado primers para todos los virus considerados prioritarios, para completar regiones de los genomas virales identificados y para estandarizar métodos de diagnóstico basados en PCR.• Investigadores y técnicos del INIA, CIP y al menos dos universidades, capacitados en las técnicas de diagnóstico viral.• Una tesis de doctorado y otra de maestría.• Al menos dos artículos científicos publicados. El paso a paso del proyecto 2 3 4 5 6","tokenCount":"958"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9d8898534806e7774a9df3ed165bcfea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/244fd3a1-2e2d-4e95-9237-f7d8e80383bb/retrieve","id":"788754667"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"569f9d69-f74c-46b5-b72f-d3620495110b","pagecount":"2","content":"Project Title: P344 -Evidence of impacts, impact pathways, synergies and cost-effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programsThe Nutrition Embedded Evaluation Program Impact Evaluation (NEEP-IE) used a cluster-RCT design to examine the effectiveness of using a community-based ECD center as a platform in Malawi to promote household production and consumption diversity, improve caregiver knowledge and practices of nutrition and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, and improve diets and nutrition among preschoolers and their younger siblings The World Bank and the Government of Malawi agreed in June 2018 to scale-up a nutrition-sensitive intervention based on results from an IFPRI-led impact evaluation which showed that preschools can be an effective platform for delivering a nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention. This will start in 2019.• Save the Children • The World Bank• 16 -Optimized consumption of diverse nutrient-rich foods 1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:28 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"143"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a8ccb2f3cbb270053e468c31cbd9e8b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4653cfde-994e-4ae8-8958-9e664cc58562/retrieve","id":"910104778"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3bde6686-d6d4-4b30-9ea5-6dc29b397a00","pagecount":"69","content":"Resilient Cities Through Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agrifood Systems (known as Resilient Cities) is a new research for development Initiative of the One CGIAR which aims to support a vibrant, largely informal urban and peri-urban agrifood sector, to help improve sustainability, equity and opportunity growth , and to mitigate risks to human and environmental health. During its first phase, the Initiative is primarily working in cities of Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Peru and the Philippines. Resilient Cities is being implemented by five CGIAR Centers -CIP (lead), IFPRI, IITA, IRRI, IWMI -as well as R&D partners World Vegetable Center and RUAF.The reports and publications generated through the Initiative contribute important development information to the public arena. Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce material from them in their own publications. As copyright holder CIP/Resilient Cities requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears.Please send a copy to the Communications Department at the address below.Table 2 . Summary characteristics of pilot cities (Quezon City and Pasay City) . . . . . . . . . . . Table 3 . Top 10 ranking of highly urbanized cities (HUCs), 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 4 . Annual per capita consumption of food commodities in the Philippines . . . . . . . . Table 5 . Vegetable production in different zones in the Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 6 . Vegetables traded in wholesale and retail markets (English, common and . . . . . . scientific names) and main supply areas Table 7 . Urban and peri-urban farms and gardens, markets and uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 8 . Profile of the informal vegetable vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 9 . Business information about informal vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Informal Food Markets in Quezon City and Pasay City, Philippines: A Rapid Assessment iv Table 10 . Summative food supply and market chains involving informal vegetable . . . . . . . vending Table 11 . Challenges and opportunities in the vegetable supply chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 12 . Supply sources of vegetables (%) sold by vendors in Pasay and Quezon City . . . . markets Table 13 . Average prices (PhP/kg) and margins (%) of common vegetables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . contributing to bigger share of sales and income Table 14 . Types of street food sold in Pasay and Quezon City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 15 . Profile of street food vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table 16 . Street food vendors: business location, challenges and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table17 . Summative supply and market chains of the informal street food vending . . . . . . The study on the informal food markets has been positively received by relevant agencies and city governments approached for the rapid assessment of the informal food vendors in the focused sites -Pasay and Quezon City. We sincerely appreciate the strong support particularly of the offices of the mayors of Pasay and Quezon City through the facilitation and interviews with the Chief of Staff Mr. Peter Eric D. Pardo and team, Pasay City; Mr. Emmanuel Hugh Velasco II and team of Sustainable Development Affairs Unit, Quezon City; the active participation of Mr. Roger Tamondong, supervisor of the Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP) of the Department of Education; Mr. Glenn Panganiban, chair of National Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Program (NUPAP)-Bureau of Plant Industry and director of High Value Commercial Crops, and Mr. Ramon Niedra of the Agriculture Marketing Assistance Support of the Department of Agriculture with their respective staff. Also, great appreciation for the zeal and hospitality of the focal officials of the community and school gardens-Mr. Wally Canque of Holy Spirit Community Garden; Mr. Silverio Estorco, principal of San Diego Elementary School; Mr. Jun Ogot, principal of Commonwealth High School; and Mr. Geoffrey Echanis of old Balara Elementary School.Special thanks to the former director of the Agriculture Training Institute, Department of Agriculture, Dr. Rosana Mula and staff in the facilitation and provision of venue for the focus group discussion with key officials of the NUPAP, and support staff for the key informant interviews: Mr. Jomar Tabor, Ms. Janina Villafuerte, Mr. Justin Paolo Interno and Ms. Lyka Mercader. Most importantly to scores of vendors and officials in Padre Rada-Divisoria, Pasay and Quezon City markets who shared valuable time and information during the market visits.On the whole, this should not have been possible without the assistance of Ms. Arma Bertuso, Resilient Cities Focal Person (Philippines), for the overall facilitation and active participation in interviewing; the guidance of Dr. Gordon Prain, Resilient Cities Senior Advisor, for providing detailed comments and suggestions for revising an earlier version of the report; and the joint leadership to the Initiative provided by Dr. Simon Heck and Dr. Silvia Alonso.As part of this initiative, the CIPimplemented Philippine project aims to improve urban food systems by strengthening enterprise capacities of informal vendors, thereby helping to improve food supply and diets of the urban populace and securing economic opportunities, especially for the urban poor. This initial study reports findings from an assessment of the participation of informal food vendors in the agrifood systems of two Metro Manila pilot cities in order to contribute to the design of capacity development interventions in the next phase.Findings show that informal food vendors play a significant role in food provisioning, livelihood and income generation across the food chain. They are found to be key links between multiple food production locations and consumers in primary, secondary, and satellite markets, especially benefiting the urban poor. Recognizing these, city governments started policy initiatives to improve the functioning of informal vendors in market spaces, coming up with options that address issues on relocation, regularization, and marketing. At this point, though, it is still largely a work in progress. Evidence suggests a greater likelihood of informal food vendors contributing to resilient cities by strengthening their enterprise skills and giving them access to information, innovation, and support services to improve selling practices, sanitation and hygiene, and make nutrient-sensitive food chain improvements. Based on these, it is proposed that designs for developing the capacity of this sector involve the adaptation of the CIP-developed Farmer Business School into the Vendor Business School, integrating the capacity and learning needs of informal vendors in partnership with city governments and stakeholders.T he One CGIAR Initiative on \"Resilient Cities through Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban Agrifood Systems\" aims to strengthen evidence and capacities for improving management of urban food systems in Africa, Asia, and Latin America through access to technology, skills, and information to improve diets and livelihoods of a fastgrowing global urban populace while reducing environmental footprints. Securing a productive, healthy population in resiliently green urban spaces has become a global priority. The sciencebased resilient cities initiative has identified five key entry immediate action points: more efficient and safer urban/ peri-urban food production, improved urban food markets and supply chains, innovative circular bio-economy, improved urban food environments for healthier urban diets, and support of research and innovative capacity development systems.In the Philippines, the research focus of the Initiative in the first year is on efficient and safe food production and inclusive profitable informal markets, both with Metro Manila as the focus area. The current report addresses the issue of improving the efficiency of the marketing side of the urban agrifood system. The informal food market, which is a large part of the urban informal economy, is the priority sector being addressed with the end goal of improving urban food systems through capacity development that will strengthen enterprise skills and ensure access to technologies, information, and business support services, thus, improving the food supply and diets of the urban populace while reducing environmental footprints in the urban food system.The iconic view of vibrant city streets and markets presents scores of ambulant vendors of food, wares, and crafts, along with agricultural produce such as fruits and vegetables-the informal market sector, unregistered and outside the purview of public services and assistance. Yet, it increasingly plays a significant role in the urban economy in terms of livelihood, employment, food provision, and potential contribution to the resiliency and sustainability of cities. The urban food economy is affected by a range of activities from farm to table. Taking the urban informal food sector as a take-off point toward establishing resilient cities requires that it be viewed from an agrifood system perspective. It needs to be understood within the context of urbanization and the related issues of unemployment, poverty, food insecurity, congested settlements and whether cities are able to prepare and recover for future shocks (e.g., economic, social, institutional, environmental). The informal market sector, because of its enormous economic importance in cities of the Global South, needs to be included in public sector planning, policymaking, and program design (ILO 2018, UN 2021, Tefft et al. 2017): that is, informal markets are ubiquitous but exist beyond the purview of public sector policy and action.Like in most countries in Asia, the rate of urbanization in the Philippines is expected to increase over the next 20 years (UN-Habitat 2022). Metro Manila is classified as 100% urban, even though there are agricultural areas in the fringes. The rest of the country's population is expected to be 60% urban within the decade (PSA 2020). But the economic growth and dynamism of Metro Manila have not been effectively translated into health and wellbeing. The existing food system in Metro Manila may be described as dysfunctional. People suffer from a \"triple burden\" of malnutrition. About 33% of children under 5 are stunted, 30% of adults over 20 are overweight or obese, and 20% of children below 5 are suffering from Vitamin A deficiency or \"hidden hunger\". Moreover, about 67% of households do not meet their calorie requirement (FNRI 2017(FNRI , 2018)). The farmers and fisher folk who feed Metro Manila are suffering, are getting old (average age, 58), and are not being replaced as the young generation does not want to engage in farming. The reasons are complex. Land and water resources are in short supply with competing uses for housing, farming, and commercial, and industrial purposes. Multiple-use component effluents of the food system (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, growth promoters, plastic packaging) are causing pollution in rivers; in Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay, the waters have become unsafe for people and aquatic life. Soil quality in the farms continues to deteriorate. Climate change remains a threat. The current food system, which is dependent on imports and long supply chains, contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and is deemed inadequately prepared to adapt to shocks (PSA 2022).As in other megacities, food is critically high on the development agenda but is being challenged by urbanization trends, growing markets, poverty, food and nutrient insecurity, rising food prices, growing dependence on food imports, and challenges posed by climate change. Such a complexity requires new ways of thinking from various actors who have, in the past, been less engaged in foodand agriculture-related decisions; these actors include urban planners and local and regional authorities. For resilient urban food systems, diverse sources of food supply are needed: from the traditional long rural-urban supply chains across regions to newly emerging urban and peri-urban short supply chains. Markets, as part of the urban agrifood system, offer rich opportunities for resource recovery (waste management) and plowback to urban food production (soil bio-enhancers, bio-pesticides) or energy sourcing (waste to energy) or climate change adaptation (idle areas converted to tree parks or community gardens). Urban food systems have increasingly become an important driver for a number of urban policies such as food security, livelihood generation, social welfare, health and nutrition, education, environment, waste management, and disaster risk reduction (Pasay, Quezon City 2022, DA-ATI 1998;FAO 2020;UN 2021).To establish a resilient city, this Initiative is a small contribution to the whole gamut of interwoven actions that are required in the short, intermediate, and long term. The informal food sector as the entry point, however, is significant since it is often absent in planning and policymaking and is subject to conflicting views among local and national authorities. Yet, this sector is numerically large and continuously contributes to income and livelihood to a vast population of urban women and youth. Furthermore, it provides convenient, affordable, and tasty food to poorly paid construction workers, public and private workers, and no-kitchen households in slums and congested residential areas. It is also a vital food supply during emergencies and disasters (Alderslade et al. 2006, FAO 2007, Tshofuti 2016, World Bank 2017, Smith et al. 2019).This pilot initiative is a determined effort to use soft technology on innovative capacity development of informal food vendors by honing their business skills and enhancing their consciousness as to their significant contribution in terms of improved nutrition, social and environmental health and protection, economic growth (through employment, income, marketing ancillaries), and food security, especially for the less endowed majority of urban workers and residents. This is also an exercise of partnership: in implementing a collaborative participatory process of working out interventions in the agrifood system. The learnings are understood as process and inputs for further improvements to be used for adaptation and scaling out later, eventually contributing to a resilient Metro Manila.The study generally aims to understand the participation of the informal market vendors of vegetables and street foods in the market system in Metro Manila in order to define their role and contribution to the urban food system. Specifically, with the identified target sector, the study seeks to (1) define the different related subsystems and their characteristics, the types of actors and stakeholders and their relationships, governance issues, challenges and opportunities; (2) identify areas for improvement or learning needs that can be addressed through the capacity development process of a vendor business school; and (3) provide options to improve guidance and conduct of the vendor business school.The project is designed within the agrifood system approach, deemed appropriate considering that this involves a range of dimensions from production, storage, value addition, distribution, and consumption, which will be affected by climate change with increasing frequency and intensity of weather events (FAO 2020, Tacoli et al. 2013, Godschalk 2003). With the project's focus on informal food markets where a chain of relationships from suppliers to consumers is important, a system perspective would be relevant. Related concepts of food security and urbanization put an understanding of the priority focus in context.Food security is understood as the outcome of effective food systems: the consequence of the interplay among activities, processes, and governance from farm to plate. During the post-1996 World Food Summit, food security has shifted to a broader understanding of four key dimensions: availability, access, utilization, and stability. The emphasis is not only on food supply and production but also on affordability (purchasing power) and access (market links and infrastructure, logistics), nutrient adequacy and food safety (including culture and habit preferences), and ability to bounce back from socioeconomic and environmental shocks (FAO 2013). The Philippines, in its Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) (Republic Act 8435) of 1997, has adopted this FAO definition. The ensuing programs and promulgations, however, did not reflect a clear a understanding of the full concept, and thus, the priority swings: food selfsufficiency on staples, especially rice, dominatess the programming agenda and budget allocation.Metro Manila is a composite of 16 highly urbanized cities and one municipality (Table 1). The project is limited to two pilot sites: the biggest city and smallest city in population and area, Quezon City and Pasay City, respectively. Selection and characterization are detailed in later sections.The target sectors are the informal food vendors of vegetables and street food (representing animal-based products) in the focus Metro Manila pilot sites. Vegetables and animal-based street food constitute a significant part of the informal food market. Vegetables and street food vending is a strategic focus because of the number of poor people (especially women and youth) who are involved (PSA 2019(PSA , 2022;;Bersales and Llarina 2019). This is supported by observations on the streets of Metro Manila.A rapid food system assessment approach was adopted for the study. Rapid assessment deals with limited or a more focused segment of the food system. Extended assessment covers more food system issues and deals with the specificities of diverse actors and their functions in the food system in detail to identify systemwide interventions (Tefft et al. 2017, Skinner and Harvey 2018, Peter and Batt 2022). The current study uses modular rapid assessment because this focuses on the informal food market sector of the urban economy. The food market chain analytical framework is used on the descriptive characterization of activities, functions, and relationships of informal vendors (vegetables and street food), together with governance in relation to policies, regulations, and initiatives on urban food security and the environment.The study was carried out in two stages (Annex 1). The first step was the selection of pilot sites from two of the 16 cities of Metro Manila using three criteria:(1) bigger markets serving a bigger population with the likelihood of serving a bigger share of low-to middle-income class households, (2) greater links to/ experience in urban agriculture initiatives with the DA and/or private sector, and(3) more progressive local government leadership and/or \"greater likelihood of effective facilitation for the piloting of the capacity-building approachthe vendor business school\". A 4-day rapid market appraisal was done in the markets of the selected cities of Pasay and Quezon City. Thirty informal food vendors (n=20 for vegetables; n=10 street food) in Quezon City and Pasay City were interviewed to characterize and assess the existing supply market chains-conditions of operations, practices, commodities and food sold, benefits from the business, manner of governance, and challenges and opportunities. As links in the agrifood system, these vendors bring food initially produced in far-flung and nearby farms, some of them processed, to the tables of the urban poor and, hugely, directly to their work places. Importantly, they serve customers who may not be able to conveniently source food from markets and prepare these at home. An increasing number of consumers join the millions of those who have food away from home (FAFH) for various reasons, mainly economic and for convenience. In the process, their learning needs were assessed to identify specific areas for capacity development to enhance operations, enabling greatercontribution to food and nutrition security and to the city's resilience. Earlier, initial information in the context of governance would be further explored in relation to the informal food sector at the chosen sites.Inasmuch as selection of key informants was purposive due to time constraints, the findings cannot be considered as representative of all markets (12 markets in Pasay City; 34 markets in Quezon City, 41 talipapa). However, confidence in results can be enhanced because of the inclusion of the main markets in the survey.The informal food market sector and food securityHalf a century after British anthropologist Keith Hart's research on the \"economy of the street\" in Accra, Ghana (1973), interest in the informal sector (understood as unregistered economic activity) has increased. There is growing literature on theoretical and empirical issues regarding definitions, distinctions, and measurements giving rise to a \"shadow or hidden economy, \" elaborating on the survival and living strategies of the urban poor in African Latin American, and Asian cities. This underground informal economy was \"an overwhelming and enduring reality. \" For decades, the informal sector has been misunderstood as \"lost taxes, unfair competition, public service burden, street trash, and public health concerns, \" not an important part of the local economy. They are the forgotten lot in urban planning, policies, and programs (Smith et al. 2019, Skinner et al. 2018, FAO 2007, Alderslade et al. 2006). The understanding of the urban informal economy has advanced significantly since then with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other organizations supporting further research and discussions from the primitive descriptive and dualistic definitions of the early 1970s to the mounting evidence of persistent growth of the urban informal sector and its critical role in rapid urbanization performed by its diverse subsectors (e.g., low-paid unregistered labor, ambulant food vendors, street artists, dry good peddlers, garbage pickers).The term \"informal sector\" has been widely applied to describe loosely organized and unregistered activities in the rapidly growing cities of the developing world. They are often overlooked and not considered in policy and program formulation. Documented evidence in a growing literature has reversed perceptions of the informal sector as \"drivers of wealth, enterprise, and stability in communities. \" The informal market vendors are integrated into the urban food systems, playing a significant role in food distribution by providing poor urban households with better opportunities to secure food and generating livelihood for the otherwise unemployed women, men, and youth (Scott 2007). The Food Insecurity Experience Scale of the FAO estimates that food insecurity in urban areas, especially in low-income countries, is higher at 50% than in rural areas, 43%. In urban slums, this is estimated to be higher at 90%. There is also increasing literature on the informal food sector in developed economies as well (FAO 2021(FAO , 2007;;UNHSP 2017;World Bank 2017).Street food comprises a huge part of the informal food sector. It refers to a \"wide range of ready-to-eat food and beverages that are prepared and/or sold by itinerant or stationary vendors on streets and other public places\" as defined during the FAO regional workshop on street foods in Jogjakarta, Indonesia in 1986 (Winarno andAllain 1991). Street food has become a global phenomenon in both developing and developed countries (Imatheu 2017, UNHSP 2017). Globally, as well as in the Philippines, FAFH is increasingly the trend in food consumption, especially in cities with food preparation seriously limited by time and transport constraints to work or school. A systematic review of evidence about the contribution of street food to diets estimated that it contributes between 13% and 50% of food for adults in LMICs and from 13% to 40% among children (Steyn et al. 2014)  Argenti (2000), attributing the trend to pressures of urbanization. Households have very limited time to prepare food, which tends to change food-buying and -consuming behavior. Also, with urban food budgets higher at least 30% than those in rural areas, this increases the demand for convenient processed meals even among the non-poor.With vendors often lacking knowledge of food safety, hygiene, or sanitation and sometimes being obliged to work/ sell under unsanitary conditions, issues of food quality (including nutrient content), hygiene, and safety in terms of inputs and water quality in processing have increasingly been raised (Gupta et al. 2016). Many food-borne diseases in low-income countries have been traced to food sold in informal markets with perishable food, improper use of additives (e.g., coloring agents, preservatives), food adulteration, contamination, and lack of sanitation in informal food marketing (Skinner et al. 2018, Azanza et al. 2000). But when properly managed, street food can enhance the quality of urban public space as they play important roles in food provision and livelihood in cities, usually benefiting women (Tefft et al. 2017, UNHSP 2017, FAO 2007).The informal food market is a significant subsector of the urban agrifood system and the urban economy in general.Following the CGIAR-CIP initiative perspective, interventions for improving the informal food markets need to be contextualized within the process toward resilient cities. The vast and growing body of literature on urban resilience recognizes the interconnectivity of sectors in an urban system and must be integrated, not dealt with sectorally per se. With increasing global urbanization projected at 70% by 2050, cities will be threatened by a myriad of issues: housing, food security, water access, energy, employment, economic uncertainty, and social conflict, among others (Smith et al. 2019, Tacoli et al. 2013). Thus, the perspective of the agrifood system is central in the initiative related to informal food markets. While having a focus, a system's view is maintained. A central issue of urban resilience is food resilience.The discourse on resilience is evolving, as well as the cadre of expertise across disciplines: from the natural to the social sciences, urban planning and public administration, and ecological and engineering thrusts, among others. From the traditional view of resilience in the 1960s, which is the \"ability to bounce back and recover from shocks, \" to the more flexible and expanded view that recognizes the power of man's ability to transform the environment, and the system's ability, by human agency, to \"adjust in the face of changing conditions, \" resilience of cities as a target has been understood as complex. The pilot cities: a briefer   Interestingly, the informal vegetable and street food vendors in both Quezon City and Pasay City can substantially meet the kitchen and food needs of these dynamic cities with a huge working population who subsist on ready-to-eat/prepared or street food. These are construction workers, students, and employees in malls/shops, other institutions, and offices. Vendors report how the construction boom during the pandemic as well as the need for having food sources closer to households contributed to the growth of the informal vegetable and food sector. City officials describe how the cities try to maintain a compassionate attitude toward those involved in the informal market sector, trying to ease pressure to enable them to pursue regular business activities and exploring ways to provide services to them. They recognize that while taxes are not paid in their current status, they are important political constituents who earn livelihood that returns income to the city through their purchasing power and consumption multiplier effect. Largely, market improvement is a work in progress (Quezon and Pasay city profiles 2002, personal interviews with market officials).Markets may be classified as primary, secondary, and satellite or talipapa. They can be publicly or privately owned and/ or managed. For the purpose of this study, the markets that were surveyed are described (Annex 3).The major markets are known as bagsakan ('drop off point') wholesale markets and have the following characteristics:• Consist of large complex spaces with a huge number of wholesale and retail operators and establishments • Include warehouses or bodegas for storage • Operate actively at night, mainly between 8:00 pm and midnight, when stocks of goods are delivered by trucks in big volumes • Goods in bulk are delivered, cleaned, and packed for delivery to wholesalers/retailers and institutional buyers (restaurants, hotels) to secondary and other markets in Metro Manila, provinces, cities, and municipalities up to about 3:00 pmRetailing along the sidewalks and/or road islands stretching along the main highway goes on at the same time as wholesale activities. The hustle and bustle of market people cleaning, sorting, packing, and selling their products and hauling them away in trikes (motorized tricycles) that whiz through a myriad of people is impressive. YouTube videos can be accessed documenting the action. Two major bagsakan markets are the Divisoria Terminal Market in Manila and the Balintawak Cloverleaf Market in Caloocan City (Figure 2).The Divisoria Terminal Market, the largest and considered the main market in Metro Manila, is located in Tondo, a major commercial district. Its proximity to North Harbor (for Visayas and Mindanao products) and easy access to Luzon provinces made it the biggest trading hub in the region. Consolidatortraders from the provinces bring their commodities (e.g., vegetables, fruits) directly to wholesalers in Divisoria. All trading of commodities provides the required volume for delivery to secondary medium and large retail markets in Metro Manila, and other provinces, cities, and municipalities.Divisoria has four major specialty markets: Asuncion market, with wholesale trading of fruits and root crops; Padre Rada market, divided between one building selling tomato and sweet potato wholesale and another building engaged in selling tropical vegetables such as eggplant, squash, string beans, green papaya, leafy vegetables, calamansi, onion, and ginger; El Cano Public Market, mainly on fish and meat; and the Divisoria public market utilizing a 9,000-sq-m old building for retail sale of vegetables, wholesale and retail sales of fruits, and wholesale trading of plastic toys and native products.Based on the author's personal experience, the physical and administrative organization of Divisoria market has shown considerable improvement since the 1980s-1990s. Stalls are relatively clean and orderly and arranged in such a way that buyers and vehicles can pass through the streets during the bagsakan peak hours. The wholesaler-retailers sell their wares mostly just near their warehouses; the retailers sell along the road island stretch. Many retailers are actually sub-units of the main wholesalers, selling on a percentage basis vegetables from the highland (onions, garlic, tomato) and other high-value produce. Those who are independent are informal vendors who sell a mixture of vegetables, many of which are greens coming from peri-urban farms. They operate a little longer than the main wholesalers, up to about 5:00 am, after which they continue selling in secondary markets and/or talipapa. The road island selling should be done by that time, ready for another day of business.Divisoria market buildings are privately owned and trader businessmen pay a monthly rent for their stalls and warehouses. They also register and get a business permit from the city of Manila.The city oversees the orderly operations of the market 24 hours, 7 days a week. The barangay maintains a 24/7 office in the market also, which is manned by a barangay tanod (peacekeeping official of the village). This person collects PhP 20 (US$0.4) in the morning and evening from informal vendors, the cost of 'tickets' for morning and evening trading. The money is remitted to the city treasurer. This charge is well known as the \"etnebetneb\" (the reverse spelling of bente-bente, meaning twenty-twenty in English). This catch-phrase for the daily trading ticket was coined by a popular former mayor, who came up with words and phrases that touched the hearts and minds of ordinary people while pushing through new policies and regulations. The local leadership has been quite successful in improving the Divisoria market in terms of cleanliness, orderliness, and efficient administration.The market has a system of garbage and waste collection, which in itself is an income source to pickers and handlers who collect trash/garbage from the sellers (i.e., paid by the sack depending on size) and deliver these to the main garbage truck. This waste management system needs further assessment to effect improvements, guide policymaking, and become a useful tool to sustain agrifood market systems.The Balintawak Cloverleaf market is located on the border of Quezon City and Caloocan City and is mainly accessed by nearby secondary and satellite markets, especially those of the Quezon city markets. It is a complex of 11 different markets of wet and dry goods along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). Agricultural products from areas north and south of Metro Manila are delivered in volumes, driving prices low.The schedules and night market activities practiced in Balintawak are the same as those in Divisoria.The Balintawak Cloverleaf market and Mega-Q Mart are major trading areas along EDSA. Goods are distributed to secondary wholesale/retail outlets in eight public markets, 29 private markets, and 31 talipapa in Quezon City (Figure 2).   Kamuning is a public market that is traditionally popular for textile/fabrics and related goods/finished products, but it also has a thriving vegetable and fruit section. The city government, through its Market Development and Administration Department, recently had groundbreaking activity for the construction of a threestorey Kamuning public market. This aims to provide better space for both vendors and market goers.Along sidewalks and at strategic peripheries of both Commonwealth and Kamuning markets, informal market vendors operate. Direct observations of market practices of vendors and waste management and infrastructure, including sanitation, highlight the issue of hygiene in many markets, public and private. The dismal reputation of markets for poor sanitation was, to some extent, confirmed through studies of contamination of vegetables as well as of money (paper and coins) circulating in markets. Bacterial and parasitic contamination was detected in 45% of vegetable samples from selected Metro Manila markets (Su et al. 2012). In a later study, 70% of paper money samples were found to have bacterial contamination (Su et al. 2015). Because of extensive trading of vegetables among various markets, large-scale contamination is possible, an alarming scenario considering the risk of disease incidence. While a recent survey indicates better vegetable handling, merchandising, and packaging in markets, a large room for improvement exists (Su et al. 2012). The informal market vendors are in a more precarious situation as access to water may not be adequate in their places of business. The potential for interventions lies in all market levels, including the informal market vendors, in particular, improving vendors' knowledge and understanding of the basics in food hygiene, sanitation, and related health issues; improving practices and skills to implement them; and providing support services to sustain such efforts.A transformation of vendor knowledge, attitude, and behavior is imperative.The informal vendors thrive abundantly in the talipapa or satellite markets, which are strategically located in the barangay. The Filipino food culture is rice-based (or maize-based in Mindanao, Cebu) with fish or meat as viands, cooked with Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and American influences. Filipinos on the average consume rice at 110 kg per capita per year. Among regions, CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region) had the highest consumption, especially with their heirloom rice; the Zamboanga Peninsula and Central Visayas consumed more of corn, at 160 kg per capita. NCR would be just about the average, but it is low on the supplemental staples, camote and cassava (Table 4). Bread has become very popular for breakfast and snacks. Food is mostly non-spicy.Vegetables The  The marketing of vegetables goes through a complex chain of intermediary actors from farm to final consumers (i.e., households, institutional buyers). Figure 3 shows the flow of goods from producers to consolidator-traders who bring the produce to the wholesalers in Manila.Long supply chains (green arrows) usually refer to vegetables from the Cordillera highlands (   Balintawak and Commonwealth matters to reduce logistics cost.To informal vendors, other factors are also important, like the suki system, usually with embedded services like credit and/ or financing and filial relationships with some vegetable sources (i.e., relatives, friends). Vendors can also get price discounts from their suki supplier.The specialty production areas may be regarded as peri-urban farms or gardens that produce vegetables like cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, eggplant, and okra.Innovative farming landscapes are geared toward agro-ecotourism, integrated organic vegetable production with livestock, and school and community gardens (Table 7). The schematic flow of the supply chains is shown in Figure 3.The observed vegetable supply chains in Metro Manila are indicated in Figure 3:1. The long supply chains (green arrows) link rural producers to wholesalers and retailers (in the primary and secondary markets) The vegetable supply chains continue to evolve, considering the impact of the pandemic: high cost of logistics, increasing consciousness for convenience, food safety and health. As per survey interviews, the fast emergence of e-marketing and social media-based food chains during the pandemic has caused informal vendors to worry about how these trends could encroach on their vegetable sales.The informal vegetable vendors are a large part of the retailers' sector. For example, inside the Pasay city public market, only six regular stall owners are officially registered/licensed as vegetable sellers.Along sidewalks and in makeshift stalls in privately owned talipapa in barangays 91 and 92, more than a score of ambulant vendors has been operating daily for at least 2 years; some are doing so for 10 years or more, continuing their parents' or relatives' vegetable business. They are not registered with the city, but they give PhP 20 payment daily to the market inspector (remitted to the city treasurer), stall rent to the private land owner at PhP 100-600 per day, depending on stall size, and some amount for utilities like electricity. Permission to locate and sell in the talipapa is sought from the barangay captain.Informal vegetable vendors are commonly found in the fringes and sidewalks near private and public markets in Pasay and Quezon City, construction sites, and barangay talipapa.The vendors interviewed are mainly long-time residents in Metro Manila; some originally come from the island provinces in the Visayas (Leyte) and from places south of NCR (Masbate) who came to Manila seeking better livelihood opportunities (Table 8). While it may be said that these vendors operate on a day-to-day basis (as they are not officially registered), almost half have been in the business for 20 years or more. Vendors in Quezon City have been longer established: 7 out of 10 have been doing business for more than 20 years, with two interviewees for more than 40 years. In Pasay, 7 of 10 have been working as vendors for 20 years or less (Table 8). Some have intergenerational succession in the location and operation of business; they initially work as helpers of their parents or uncles/aunts and they then continue the business afterward. Given the limited sample, this trend needs further exploration as literature suggests that blocks and ambulant vegetable vendors occupy an easily accessible stretch of stalls, about 90% pay a daily rent to the owner of the place. Stalls are makeshift with rent at PhP 100/sq m (Table 9).All the vendors interviewed have a positive opinion about their business as a means of livelihood. Though still recovering from slow business, even loss, during the pandemic, they were able to survive even without support for business during these difficult times. Considering that Pasay is a heavily populated area, vendors were able to attract new customers from nearby residences during the lockdowns. However, vendors whose stalls are in secluded locations, like those in Kamuning and Commonwealth markets, had low sales, forcing some vendors in Kamuning to quit the business. Meanwhile, the pandemic also brought in new informal vendors along the highways or sidewalks, which are more accessible to customers. They look forward to government support in the near future by way of funding and training assistance. They would like some capital inputs as assistance to tide them over.The high cost of vegetables, together with perishability problems and customer attitude pose challenges (Table 9). The pandemic made big markets like Mega-Q Mart and some vendors to sell online, which brought some competition to the informal sellers. These developments need to be further assessed vis-à-vis plans by the city governments of relocation and regularization of the informal vendors.In conjunction with Figure 3, Table 10 further describes the production to consumption chain of the agrifood system where the informal vegetable vendors in the pilot sites are enmeshed.The directional green and red arrows in Figure 3 correspond to the long and short vegetable supply chains specified in the green and red cells in Table 10 as linked to the different types of markets in the pilot sites. The informal vendors are largely visible in these chains and not in the institutional supply chain.A diverse variety of vegetables (Table 6) grown according to suitable agroecologies come from CAR (highland vegetables), other northern regions (Ilocos and Central Luzon), lowland/upland vegetables), and around Metro Manila (CALABARZON, lowland vegetables). These are delivered to primary wholesale markets, which find their way to secondary, and then to satellite markets. As previously noted, informal vegetable vendors are firmly integrated in the secondary markets and strongly integrated in satellite markets (Table 10). In the night market, they are also active in the primary bagsakan along road sections; they then transfer to the secondary or satellite markets during daytime. As informal sellers, they follow longer food supply chains than big distributors and thus form an essential link from the farm to the table. Urban residents, restaurants, canteens, and small eateries near vendors' locations can buy relatively cheaper fresh vegetables compared with those offered in the malls. Some of the informal vendors with stalls have mobile carts that peddle around the streets beyond permissible selling hours in the open market, usually after 9:00 am. Their customers are those around densely populated, low-to middle-income residences.Produce from peri-urban farms finds its way to the vendors in Commonwealth market, Quezon City, with 10% of their supply reportedly coming from farmers around La Mesa Dam and Bulacan (Table 10). Farmers directly deliver their produce in the night market. Vendors in Pasay also experienced selling urban produce during the pandemic through the KADIWA (DA-LGU food distribution initiative) stores, where they can get vegetables at low prices. They welcome improvements along this chain as this means fresher and better quality produce, less logistics cost, and easily manageable information on supply volume and prices. The urban agriculture initiative, which, at the moment, is mostly geared toward self-sufficiency, holds promise as a commercial venture, with more inputs from further assessment of agrifood systems.As to risk and efficiency issues in the supply-market chain, both producersuppliers and vendors are faced with high costs and prices caused by a variety of factors, though at different levels: high cost of inputs and resource use (labor), logistics, especially with supply being largely affected by weather/climate LGUs and private market operators can be encouraged to partner for initiative in market development planning to address needed improvement from physical infrastructure to waste management; facilitated by the CGIAR-CIP WP2 project .Capacity of informal vendors can be enhanced through awareness activties and implementation of good vendor practices (GVP) through the CGIAR-CIP WP2 project -the Vendor Business School . Business support services for the identified needs can be clarified, arranged, and facilitated for access .LGUs, traders' organizations, DA, baarangaysLGUs, private market operators, DTI, DA/ KADIWALGUs, private market operators, DA/ KADIWA, DTI, TESDALGUs, private market operators, DOH, TESDA, barangays DOH, NGOs, consumers' groups disturbances, in addition to low yields in some areas. Vegetables are easily affected as they are perishable and tend to have increased wastage during extreme weather events both at the production and distribution nodes of the chain.Traders usually hedge to avoid such losses and costs and fix selling at relatively higher prices, while buying from farmers at relatively low farm gate prices. The informal vendors who are at the receiving end of the third or fourth tier of the distribution chain already bear the bigger brunt of increased prices. Not surprisingly, buyers complain of high prices and cut down on purchases−the common woes of vendors (Table 11).The stakeholders (e.g., LGUs, DA, DTI, private sector, TESDA, DOH, NGOs) across the vegetable supply chain include a mix of public and private agencies that perform various roles and functions that can be tapped to address the identified challenges and opportunities from production to consumption (Table 11).Hoping for support from city governments and private market authorities, vendors expressed a desire for better selling environments, improved sanitation with adequate water provision for cleaning and washing, proper garbage/waste system, and adequate personal hygiene facilities. Despite the challenges, vendors remain positive and are willing to participate in collective ways of improving their trade but with consideration of the time and labor involved (Table 9).The Pasay informal vegetable vendors differ from the Quezon City vendors particularly in terms of location. The Pasay informal vendors are located very close to the small formal vegetable section because the talipapa (Primero Mayo in barangays 91 and 92) is situated in the block next to the city public market. They are very visible, with full access from the main highway and side streets.To compete well, informal vendors get their vegetables from the same sources that formal vendors use. All of the sample respondents buy vegetables from the wholesale bagsakan in Divisoria and from the Wowee night market, just a few hundred meters away, depending on type and price (Table 12).The Quezon City markets are in more secluded locations, but they are also nearer urban peri-urban vegetable growers who are an additional source of produce. Vendors here mostly source their products from wholesalers and traderretailers in the nearer Balintawak bagsakan market (64-71% The vendors in Pasay market reported a net income ranging from PhP 500 to PhP 5500 per day (US$7.5 -81). In Quezon City, the Commonwealth market vendors reported between PhP 1200 and PhP2000 day (US$18 -29.5); in Kamuning market, the range was PhP 500-1000/ day (US$7.5 -15). This reflects the mix of vegetables that are sold daily, which reportedly contribute to a greater share of sales and income; that is, the pattern of purchases in the surveyed markets. Pasay city vendors sell more of the tomatoes, onions, and garlic as well as forrestaurant-use vegetables such as potato, carrots, and pechay. These are common purchases of food establishments and households around the surveyed markets in the Libertad area, a densely populated district where low-to middle-income families reside. Commonwealth vendors profit more from vegetables mostly used in households and food establishments like pechay, eggplants, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and the greens saluyot, kangkong, and kinchay. Kamuning vendors follow the same pattern as do those in Pasay city, but sellers suffer from their location, as well as from competition with other markets (i.e., secondary and talipapa) that are accessible to surrounding residential districts.Table 13 reveals interesting findings on pricing as affected largely by supply sources. Buying and selling prices are the average of the reported prices during the peak season of the vegetable (meaning a relatively lower price on the average). However, with the limited sample size, this observation needs more in-depth study because of implications related to supply-price dynamics and seasonality as to vegetable type and sources.Yellow-shaded cells are comparably the lowest prices of commodity across the surveyed markets. Commonwealth vendors have the lowest buying and selling prices for tomato, potato, cabbage, and carrots, which are supplied directly by trader-wholesalers from the north (e.g., Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya) during the night market and for okra and ampalaya supplied by peri-urban growers from La Mesa Dam and Bulacan. Kamuning vendors offer the lowest prices for garlic, ginger, pechay (Baguio and native), and chayote, which are sourced from traderwholesalers in the Balintawak bagsakan market. These show a relatively more efficient vegetable selling in Quezon City markets where the vendors' selling prices are still lower compared with those of Pasay vendors even with price margins of about 50% versus 25-30% in Pasay City. Pasay vendors offer relatively higher prices even with lower margins for garlic, ginger, and pechay; but the best price is for onions with reasonably good margin at 50%. They have a competitive edge on onions, thereby contributing highly to their income. This high price at source Table 13. Average prices (PhP/kg) and margins (%) of common vegetables contributing to bigger share of sales and income.could still be covered by demand, with this vendor group located close to a densely populated area. Commonwealth vendors sell the greens at relatively low prices, which are reportedly supplied directly by peri-urban growers.The challenges in the supply-market chain of vegetable vendors revolve mainly on production instability (especially with the long chains from the north) brought about by extreme weather events and increasing input costs and logistics, which consequently result in fluctuations in supply and prices. While the long chain market links are established, informal vegetable vendors strive to gain access to smaller secondary night markets like Commonwealth in Quezon City and Wowee in Pasay City, where trader-consolidators from the north and CALABARZON deliver vegetables wholesale, which means cheaper prices and lower logistics. However, facilities in these start-up bagsakan markets are largely inadequate: very limited spaces, negligible storage, minimal utilities. They could not handle an expanded trade volume.On the whole, most markets suffer from similar problems, in various degreesof poor hygiene and sanitation, lack of water, inadequate garbage disposal, improper waste management, and no real-time market information. Vendors consider these as their own problems too, in addition to high costs and prices, perishability of goods, problematic customers, competition from new entrants and on-line selling, and the need for capital.Still, informal vegetable vendors are numerous and serve as critical links in the food system. Their contribution to the economy is significant, especially among the lesser endowed urban populace.There are opportunities for intervention to improve their capacities and operations to enable them to be more efficient links and to effectively contribute to the city's resilience. The positive attitude of most vendors and their willingness to participate in development efforts, the progressive and compassionate attitude of city authorities toward the informal sector, and the existence of various urban initiatives for food security and sustainable development with some institutional innovations are strong foundations on which to build a strong and resilient city.Savor the streets filled with smoke and aroma from charcoal grills and fryers; mini-stalls with folding eating counters with casseroles of pares or goto; melting pots of consumers waiting for affordable, convenient, and delicious street food.The iconic Filipino street food in creative names of simply delicious flavors do liven public and private spaces across the streets of Metro Manila and all over the country. A number of street food are animal-based (e.g., chicken and pork meat, chicken parts, eggs); some are native delicacies (e.g., banana/camote cue, ginataan), and others are ready-to-cook industrial processed foods (e.g., squid and fish balls, tempura). Street food is also a way of understanding the native food culture and tourists enjoy partaking such treats. They have become popular in night markets till the wee hours of the morning.Street food has become a distinctive food category on its own as evidenced by their popularity in urban areas and the rest of the whole country (Neary 2018, Imatheu 2017, Recio andGomez 2013, Milgram 2011).Pork and chicken are the major meat products consumed by about 62-63% of households. Chicken egg is greatly preferred by 82%, but only 2% consume fresh/pasteurized milk (PSA 2017). This consumption pattern and the large visibility of street food in urban spaces lead us to focus on such food from fresh animal-based processed products (e.g., pork and chicken barbecue, kwek-kwek/ tokneneng from quail or chicken eggs).Street food can provide nutritious, lowcost, tasty food, according to some consumers. But street food vendors have not been well-supported, and most lack facilities and proper education (e.g., food storage, adequate water and sanitation, waste collection) to enable them to operate in safe and clean surroundings and to give hygienic services. They provide food not only to low-wage workers and urban poor households, but also, increasingly, to professionals, students, and consumers at higher socioeconomic status.There is a huge culture of grilling in Philippine street food and there are very few things Filipinos do not enjoy grilled over charcoal. Usually, pork, chicken, and chicken parts (feet, head, intestines, neck) are marinated, skewered, grilled over charcoal, and basted with a barbecue sauce, then served with seasoned vinegar. Also, fried food is just as popular served with sweet sour or spicy sauce or seasoned vinegar.Street food in Pasay and Quezon City comprise a diverse selection of animal-and vegetable-based products. Animal products are both processed by the seller as well as sourced from third-party home processors and sold as meals or snacks. There are also native delicacies for snacks and fried products from ready-to-cook industrial processing. (Photo documentation of common street food is presented in Annex 3.) Table 14 summarizes the different street food sold by respondent vendors in the three market areas in Pasay and in Commonwealth and Kamuning markets in Quezon City.Animal-based street food. The animalbased street food mainly consist of different kinds of meat (pork, chicken, beef ), animal parts (liver, feet, innards, head), and eggs. The most popular meat preparation is barbecue, where the meat and animal parts are usually prepared in different cuts, marinated in soy sauce with vinegar and spices for a few hours at home, and skewered; they are then brought to the selling location for grilling over charcoal upon purchase. Cooked barbecue is served with sauce or vinegar dip. Increasingly popular is serving a filling, tasty meat dish (e.g., beef pares) as combo meal (with rice or noodles) at affordable price.The egg-based street food have gained nationwide popularity like the boiled fertilized egg (balut or penoy), and the fried boiled chicken (tokneneng) and quail (kwek-kwek) eggs coated with flour-egg mix. Energy boosters like lugaw/arroz caldo (rice porridge with chicken, siomai, chicharon) or goto and mami noodles are main meals by themselves. Homemade processed traditional meat products such as longganisa, tocino, and embutido are fried and goes well with rice as meal.Industrial processed food. These are processed meat formulated by food manufacturers that are frozen or vacuumpacked and purchased from supermarkets or grocery retail stores. These include the fish and squid balls, siomai, kikiam, and tempura; hotdog and cold cuts, and burgers. These are commonly fried or grilled and eaten as snacks or part of a meal.Native delicacies. For years, native delicacies have always been important snack food for all ages. Commonly mentioned by respondents are the popular banana and camote cue and turon (fried wrapped banana); flour or rootcropbased formulations like cuchinta, palitaw, and carioca; and home-made ice cream, shake, or palamig (juice coolers).The street food vendors interviewed for this assessment are currently residents of Pasay and Quezon City, with just under half having migrated during the 1980-1990 period from the Cordillera region (Abra), Bicol (Camarines Norte), and East Visayas (Leyte). They have a history of family members being engaged in food or street food businesses. Originally, they belonged to tenant farming families, but the low productivity of unsecured farms pushed them to migrate to Metro Manila. Some are lucky enough to have the business and location handed down from a street food vendor employer or from direct relatives. On the average, the street food vendors have been in business for 15-20 years, a significant length of time that implies that the business is good enough to financially support and sustain them. A balance of women and men are engaged in street food selling. Most of the snacks and native delicacies are handled by women, whereas meatbased street food are mostly handled by men, especially pares, balut/penoy, and kwek-kwek. Eight out of 10 vendors reported that street food vending is their main source of income; the rest have other income sources like driving, contribution from family members, and other microbusiness enterprises (Table 15). Two have multiple street food stands.Customers consist of walk-in buyers (for both individual and household food), market goers, loyal or suki workers (construction workers, drivers, students, market staff ) and employees of shops and offices nearby (Table 16). The continued construction activities during the There is sustained demand for all types of street food, especially kwek-kwek (quail's eggs), grilled or fried cold hotdogs, cuts and ready-to-fry industrial foods like fish/squid balls and tempura, native delicacies, home-prepared ice cream, and cold beverages. Consumers prefer ingredients to be fresh and they like natural ingredients such as ube (yam) ice cream from fresh tuber, not using powder or food color. Vendors are actually very positive with lockdown restrictions being lifted during the pandemic, and business is up again.Vendors who are located within the main market premises get permits from the market inspector, do not pay rent, but are not given permanent stalls. They are allowed to sell only at certain times: 8:00 am to 1:00 pm usually for meal servings (e.g., fried chicken) or 4:00-8:00 pm (e.g., barbecues, fried eatables), or during daytime for snack food and beverages. Those who locate in the talipapa, street corners, or sidewalks get permission from the barangay, subject to the barangay's directives, like clean-fixing their paraphernalia and doing proper garbage disposal. There may be unofficial concessions to secure a location; no payments but some tokens of gratitude like sharing some of the food sold (e.g., a few sticks of barbecue). Utang na loob (\"debt of gratitude\") is a strong Filipino value, which finds its way in business, especially for favors that redound to security of location.Restrictions during the pandemic, as well as the public consciousness about viral spread through food took a toll on the street food vendors. Opening a business, even with the permit to operate, was still slow. Only this year, with vaccinations in full swing, did business start to pick up. However, some reported good business, especially those who cater to construction workers, are in open markets, and located in corners of dense residential areas. Some even increased sales as many households chose to buy already prepared food to limit their market trips. Government cash assistance during the pandemic was mainly for food sustenance, but some were able to allocate part of this for capital. In Quezon City, two vendors were able to access livelihood capital support. Vendors needed capital assistance to improve their facilities (e.g., stalls, bench, stove, utensils, packaging) and maintain a working fund. With spirits up, they maintained a positive attitude, deciding to continue with street food vending and expressing willingness to participate in training or development initiatives, but with careful consideration of time so as not to disrupt business.  17). The array of needed business development support can be negotiated and facilitated with these agencies that are also in the process of finding ways to better collaborate and implement their respective mandates.Vendors' incomes depend on the kind and volume of goods sold, which depend on capitalization and markets. Meat-based barbecues (pork, chicken and parts), fried products (hotdogs, longganisa, tocino, chicken, eatables), and meal preparations (simple combo like pares) earn the most. On average, the range of net income of meat-based food products per day is PhP 1000-4000 (US$18.20-72.70); fried eatables (fish/squid balls, kikiam), PhP 1000-1500 (US$9.10-27.30); and native delicacies and drinks, PhP 500-1000 (US$9.10-18.20). Those with relatively less daily earnings find other supplemental income sources.Street food is patronized and preferred by many because it is more accessible and cheaper than food offered even in small restaurants, logically due to its very low Earlier literature and reports pointed out concerns of regulators about informal vending, such as the competition and loss of business it poses for formal (registered) retailers, congestion and disorder in the streets, potential for increased crime (especially in areas of dense informal trading), loss of tourism, and spread of diseases (Giroux et al. 2021, Roever andSkinner 2016 ). This explains the negative view of the informal sector, resulting in an ambiguous relationship between authorities and this sector. The enforcement of anti-vending laws further strained the relationship; cities could not consistently support and enforce food safety and public health regulations due to limited resources. The general approach maintained is that of regulation and control, and evidence shows that such repressive tactics are not effective (Giroux et al. 2021, Skinner et al. 2018, Evans 2017). The informal food sector: insights for ways forwardThe significant findings and emerging issues addressed in this rapid assessment study relate to the LGUs and the informal food markets. These are summarized in the following: The pilot cities maintain a compassionate stance toward the informal food sector, clearly recognizing its role in food provision, employment, livelihood and income generation. Steps have been taken for their formalization-facilitative registration, inclusion in the formation of market association or cooperative, tolerance for coexistence in business with formal stall owners, and planning for relocation to an improved market facility. But further details of effective operation need to be clearly laid out.There are also recent initiatives of integrating marketing in the urban food security and livelihood program as an extension or as improvements of local marketing initiatives with the DA-KADIWA food supply provision during the pandemic. The feasibility for realistic improvement of the sector depends on the specifics of each strategy.Location specificity could be critical with informal vending having diverse conditions to effectively operate. It is important to assess the spatial aspects of food distribution and access to help ensure the viability of vendors' location and help ensure food access by the poor households (Giroux et al. 2021).Vendor-specific types of intervention considering linkages with suppliers and consumers and critical conditions like hygiene and sanitation practices, food quality standards, and waste/garbage disposal are non-negotiable. Safety, hygienic selling environment, and security can be significantly enhanced by making available areas for informal trade, including shelter, areas for sorting and packing, and storage and ensuring good water supply for cleaning and sanitary practices. Personal care and childcare facilities are additional considerations as women are largely part of this sector.Locating informal food vendors with other informal commodity sellers in one single market facility or informal food vendors taken as a group and relocating them would likely leave many households less food secure. This does not consider the spatial aspects of food distribution and access and removes certain food chain nodes that low-income and less foodsecure households rely on.Also, relocating them in places away from the concentration of their markets will negatively affect the viability of their business. Understanding of how location affects food access and business relationships is needed by local governments and urban planners to plan the relocation of informal vendors to improve their physical market conditions (Skinner et al. 2018).The regularization of the informal food sector is already under way through a local ordinance that facilitates the registration of hawkers at the Quezon City Hall. While Pasay City is still thinking of ways to formally recognize and support the informal sector, it has started the process of benchmarking. Authorities may need to consider the constraints that this process may present to the informal vendors. The current procedure of the barangay giving permission to informal vendors to operate in talipapa or street corners may need to be assessed in terms of operability. A consultative process may be facilitated with the informal vendors for a win-win strategy. This may be difficult but could help improve efficiency in terms of the number and spatial location of the vendors and the greater likelihood of establishing an amenable food system (Giroux et al. 2021).The case of Singapore on formalizing the informal vendors in the 1960s provides useful insights. This is a benchmark caseInformal Food Markets in Quezon City and Pasay City, Philippines: A Rapid Assessmentwhen Singapore was still a developing city-state (Ghani 2011). By area, Singapore is about the same size as Manila; yet Metro Manila currently is a robust consumer market; the latter, three times more populated. Metro Manila has more global street food types comparable with Singapore than the traditional-food types of other Asian cities.About 40,000 hawkers selling food and other low-cost goods and services were active in the streets and along the Singapore River. Serious food safety and environmental issues then haunted authorities. A licensing and inspection scheme was introduced with a main strategy of relocating vendors to hawker centers: 54 centers built in the late 1970s and an additional 59 in the early 1980s. After which, in the next decade, a \"regulate and educate\" policy was phased in to improve hygiene practices. The centers were increasingly recognized in their role as important community elements for social interaction. In 2001, a huge investment was done (US$420 M) for the hawker centers' upgrading: largely infrastructure improvements complete with needed facilities and equipment (e.g., freezers, cleaning areas); and improvements were continuous to accommodate additional hawkers (2014: additional 6,000 vendors). They continue to be favorite places and have loyal customers, an attraction to tourists (Tefft et al. 2017). Note that Singapore is a city-state as big as Metro Manila, but only about 20% as populous. Thus, more urban poor benefit from food provisioning and livelihood. Further, tourists can serve as additional markets for more viable informal enterprises.A case where a city with similarities to Metro Manila successfully dealt with regularization of the food system in a participatory way through stakeholder engagement is Bangkok (Boosabong 2019).The pilot cities have included improvements in market physical infrastructure and facilities (including waste management) in their market development programs. Pasay is challenged due to its already congested public market space, whereas Quezon City still has a bigger land area. In both, however, proximity to residential areas via affordable transport routes can be an issue. Installing store kiosks in strategic accessible public spaces like parks, public markets and offices, or terminals can be more feasible for the informal vendors like the Quezon City pilot project, (i.e., selling in kiosks made of tents near the city hall and park).The facilities and utilities of street food vendors can benefit from improved access to financing their food stands/stalls, with technical assistance on design. A few vendors reported getting minimal financial support. But this needs to be done in a more systematic basis. Marketing and promotions assistance will need to be more rationalized and linked to seasonal supply or production patterns of vegetables and consumer perspective of street food.To increase the effectiveness of their contribution to resilient cities, the assessment has indicated that the informal food vendors can benefit from strengthening of their enterprise skills, consciousness and practice of food safety, hygiene and sanitation, nutrient knowledge of raw and processed foods, waste recycling and use, regulatory policies and a broad understanding of the agrifood systems. On the whole, capacity strengthening improves livelihoods of vendors and contributes to the efficiency of the food marketing-consumption system, especially serving the low-income urban population. Building partnerships with the city governments and other relevant stakeholders to implement this capacity strengthening is key.The informal food vendors (both vegetables and street food) identified very similar key capacity strengthening and learning needs in order to improve their business capability. These needs include: For capacity development of informal food vendors in pilot cities, the CIPdeveloped manual and learning guide, \"Farmer Business School with Gender and Climate Change Perspective\" (FBS-GCC), will be revised to fit the learning needs of informal vendors. Developed as the Vendor Business School (VBS), it will have a similar agrifood system perspective with gender and climate change. Critically relevant issues (food safety, hygiene and sanitation, food and nutrition, etc.) surrounding the vendors' contribution to Resilient Cities Initiative will be integrated.The information gathered from interviews with vendors and officials and direct observations are the inputs to the revision of the FBS-GCC manual and learning guide.The FBS-GCC is a community-based business cycle-long participatory learning that builds enterprise skills among farmers as they interact with market chain actors.The curriculum adopts a value chain framework that could have a perspective similar to that of agrifood systems. The FBS-GCC has been adopted in the IFADfunded project with the DA-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources into the Aqua-based Business School with Gender and Climate Change (ABS-GCC) perspective and as Value Chain Business School (VBS) in India CIP-World Bank APART potato project.Engaging vendors under a supportive environment can be done by encouraging them to join business associations where they can have a voice. Specifics can follow from a consultative process where vendors can effectively communicate their needs, constraints and aspirations, and negotiate for solutions. Business organizations are venues where vendors can continuously improve, learn, and innovate with and from other members or mentors. They can negotiate more strongly as a group to pursue plans or push for some solutions and can better leverage for technical or financial assistance or other support services (FAO 2007). In the Philippines, organizations can better access assistance or are preferred beneficiaries for support services.Partnership for transformative change is essential. Local authorities should consider that, formally, vendors lack an institutional partner with whom they can negotiate for their rights and responsibilities, and they may not understand regulations. No agency has the monopoly of knowledge, expertise, and operational adequacy to plan and implement a complex urban development for resilience program across time and spatial dimensions. Giroux et al. (2021) note spatial differences and vendors' and consumers' needs in cities; thus, a one-size-fits-all approach for integration of informal vendors into the food system is less likely to be successful in terms of economic development, household food security, and urban resilience.LGU partnership with government and non-government agencies, private sector, and civil society is gaining ground.Involving informal vendors in a relevant consultative process will give them a voice and participation in understanding their challenges and finding feasible solutions. They lack institutional partners with whom they can negotiate for their needs as well as make them understand regulations and responsibilities. Participatory consultation with vendors (e.g., issues of relocation and registration of businesses) can be facilitated. It may be difficult but it could be done with determination.The ever-growing body of literature toward understanding component systems aimed at resilient cities is rich and multi-faceted, engaging various disciplines, levels, and tools of analyses, perspectives, and approaches. The boundaries can be so seamless that the suggested integrative approach, at times, seems difficult to manage. A clear broad framework, some guides and toolkits for analyses should be useful and forthcoming from various international organizations (FAO 2020, Skinner et al. 2018, WB and FAO 2017, ADB 2014). Focusing on a subsystem can be a pragmatic strategy to deal with the complexity without losing the whole conceptual framework to put in context the interconnectedness.The current perspective of the urban agrifood system focuses on improving the efficiency of the informal food markets and harnessing its huge potential to enhance food and nutrition security, in other words, food resilience. Thus, the nature of analysis and trend of discussion center on an assessment of the informal food markets, both the spaces themselves and also the key actors in those markets, informal vegetable vendors, street food vendors, and those responsible for the management of the markets. Some conclusions may be made about the informal food markets:• Local governments need to accept the current reality that almost half of all employment is informal in urban Asia (ILO 2018) and a large part of that urban employment is related to wholesale and retail food vending (FAO 2007). The markets where food vendors operate are very important economic and social spaces, which often have infrastructure and organizational problems that market managers are trying to address, but with major challenges where they need support. • Informal food markets, like the vegetable and street food markets, are increasingly significant parts of the urban agrifood system characterized by a) diversity in supply-market chains (e.g., long and short chains) in terms of structure, conditions, and relationships that are specific to the respective location and commodity; and b) lack of visibility and voice in policy formulation and implementation and social development programs. • Informal food vendors are key links between multiple food production locations and consumers in all types of markets (i.e., primary, secondary, satellite), and food vending is a source of livelihood and income for many actors across the food system, especially benefiting the urban poor. • Informal food vendors need to be viewed as assets of the urban food system and included in urban dialogue, planning, and policymaking. This will require authorities to proactively consult with vendors and search for holistic approaches in understanding the sector and crafting strategies for their improved operations and contribution to the local economy. • Governance is key in helping the informal food sector effectively contribute to resilient urban food systems to enhance their roles in food provisioning and livelihood and income generation. Thus, the Resilient City project initiative advocates for proactive collaborative partnership with local governments, market managers, and other relevant stakeholders with a clear understanding of the nature and dynamics of the urban food system.Though the proposed intervention phase from this assessment by the Resilient Cities team will be focused on food vendor capacity strengthening, there are many other issues that have emerged that need to be addressed to strengthen food marketing and the food systems in the target cities. These include infrastructure improvement, organic waste management, better understanding of food flows and market chain dynamics, food policy analysis, and formulation and implementation of integrated urban agrifood system development. These may be taken up in future collaborative actions between city governments and Resilient Cities.","tokenCount":"12049"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d764b7a29ff169be1bea688f48b1219","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f89f7bf7-59c9-4522-803b-bf483fc74eec/content","id":"-1337181094"},"keywords":["vector","vector-borne disease","biocontrol","endosymbionts","sustainability"],"sieverID":"ad1a5072-97a1-4615-b9b1-c124c96370da","pagecount":"9","content":"Vector-borne diseases pose a severe threat to human and animal health. Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) is a widespread mosquito species and serves as a vector for the transmission of infectious diseases such as West Nile disease and Lymphatic Filariasis. Synthetic insecticides have been the prime control method for many years to suppress Cx. pipiens populations. However, recently, the use of insecticides has begun to be questioned due to the detrimental impact on human health and the natural environment. Therefore, many authorities urge the development of eco-friendly control methods that are nontoxic to humans. The bacterial associates [Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus spp. (Enterobacterales: Morganellaceae)] of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) (Sterinernema spp. and Heterorhabditis spp.) (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematidae) are one of the green approaches to combat a variety of insect pests. In the present study, the mosquitocidal activity of the cell-free supernatants and cell suspension (4 × 10 7 cells mL −1 ) of four different symbiotic bacteria (Xenorhabdus nematophila, X. bovienii, X. budapestensis, and P. luminescens subsp. kayaii) was assessed against different development stages of Cx. pipiens (The 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupa) under laboratory conditions. The bacterial symbionts were able to kill all the development stages with varying levels of mortality. The 1st/2nd instar larvae exhibited the highest susceptibility to the cell-free supernatants and cell suspensions of symbiotic bacteria and the efficacy of the cellfree supernatants and cell suspensions gradually declined with increasing phases of growth. The highest effectiveness was achieved by the X. bovienii KCS-4S strain inducing 95% mortality to the 1st/2nd instar larvae. The results indicate that tested bacterial symbionts have great potential as an eco-friendly alternative to insecticides.Among blood-sucking insects, mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are the most wellknown class of vectors of pathogens causing serious diseases in humans and animals [1,2]. To date, 26 mosquito species have been identified as disease vectors, 8 of which belong to the Culex genus [2][3][4]. Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) is one of the most abundant Culex spp. in Europe and a major vector of several diseases with medical and veterinary importance [3][4][5][6]. Culex pipiens has been linked to the transmission of the major cause of lymphatic filariasis, Wuchereria bancrofti, and viral diseases including Rift Valley fever, St. Louis encephalitis, and the Sindbis and West Nile viruses [2,[5][6][7][8]. Additionally, as a possible vector, Cx. pipiens has also been associated with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) [9][10][11].Controlling vector mosquitoes plays a vital role in preventing vector-borne diseases and ensuring public health locally or nationwide as well as reducing nuisance mosquito populations. Of various mosquito control methods, synthetic insecticides such as organochlorine and organophosphate compounds are the most preferred control strategy [12]. However, over the last decade, the use of synthetic insecticides has begun to be questioned by many authorities due to continuous use or inappropriate application that exerts strong insecticide resistance selection pressure on mosquito populations and causes harmful effects on human health and the environment [13][14][15][16][17]. As a result, in recent years, developing environmentally safe and effective mosquito control strategies has gained importance and this has prompted many researchers to investigate various alternative methods in the control of vector mosquitoes [18][19][20].Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) (Steinernema spp. and Heterorhabditis spp.) and their bacterial symbionts [Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus spp. (Enterobacterales: Morganellaceae)] are lethal parasites of insect pests and an emerging approach to controlling many economically impactful pests [21][22][23][24]. The bacterial associates of EPNs, after being vectored into a host body by infective juveniles (IJs) of EPNs, multiply using the host hemolymph as a source of nutrition and release a wide range of metabolites including toxin complexes (Tc) and immunosuppressants into the host hemolymph that is lethal to host insects [25][26][27]. Recent studies have shown that bacterial symbionts alone are capable of inducing varying levels of mortality against target insects without their nematode partners [28][29][30][31]. However, only a few studies have tested the pathogenic activity of bacterial symbionts of EPNs against Cx. pipiens [29]. In addition, the differences in the mortality of test insects have been generally attributed to the variation in the frequency and chemical compositions of secondary metabolites with insecticidal and immunosuppressant activities produced by different symbiotic bacteria species/strains [32][33][34][35][36]. Therefore, the screening of pathogenicity of various Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus species/strains on the target host are of crucial importance for ensuring effective biocontrol. In this study, the mosquitocidal efficacy of cell-free supernatants and cell suspensions of different symbiotic bacteria (X. nematophilai, X. bovienii, X. budapestensis, and P. luminescens subsp. kayaii) was evaluated against the different development stages of Cx. pipiens.Different larval instars and pupae of Cx. pipiens were obtained from the stock culture of the Parasitology Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Erciyes University, Türkiye [6]. The larvae and pupae were observed for one day after being transported to the Laboratory of Entomology (Erciyes University) and kept in an incubator at 25 • C, 60% RH, and a photoperiod of 14:10 h (Light:Darkness).Four bacterial strains of EPNs [Xenorhabdus bovienii (MZ688381), Xenorhabdus budapestensis (MW403817), Xenorhabdus nematophila (MZ688376), and Photorhabdus luminescens subsp. kayaii (MW403818)] isolated and identified in earlier studies were tested for their mosquitocidal activity in the bioassays [35].In order to extract the bacterial symbionts of EPNs, ten Galleria mellonella (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae were exposed to IJs of nematode partners of each symbiotic bacterium at 200 IJs/mL distilled water. Dead larvae were transferred to sterile Petri dishes and placed on modified White's traps for the emergence of IJs. Approximately 500 newly harvested IJs kept in sodium hypochlorite (10% w/v) (NaOCl) solution for disinfection were crushed manually using a sterile tissue grinder in a 1.5 mL microcentrifuge containing 1 mL of sterile PBS buffer. Subsequently, 20 µL of the suspension was inoculated on nutrient bromothymol blue triphenyl tetrazolium chloride agar (NBTA medium) [25,26,28] and maintained at 28 • C (20% RH, in darkness) for 48 h. Pure bacterial colonies were obtained by re-streaking the single colonies of phase I variants onto the NBTA plates [37,38]. The bacterial cells of purified colonies were inoculated into the larvae of G. mellonella using a sterile needle for each injection to confirm the pathogenicity of the symbiotic bacteria. Then, bacterial symbionts were re-isolated from the hemolymph of dead larvae and grown on the NBTA medium at 28 • C for 48 h [36][37][38].A single bacterial colony of each pure culture was transferred into 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing 100 mL Luria-Bertani broth (LB) (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) with a sterile loop and incubated for 6 days at 28 ± 1 • C in a shaking incubator at 150 rpm [36][37][38]. Then, sub-cultured bacteria suspensions were transferred into 50 mL sterile Falcon tubes. The supernatant and pellets were carefully separated from the suspension by centrifugation twice at 20,000 rpm for 15 min at 4 • C. The final supernatant fractions were clarified by passing through a 0.22 µm millipore filter [39,40]. The presence of bacterial cells in the filtrated suspensions was checked by streaking a drop of each suspension on the NBTA medium. The remaining bacterial cell pellets were purified by washing with sterile distilled water twice. The resulting bacterial pellets were re-suspended in 5 mL of sterile distilled water. The total number of cells was calculated by using a spectrophotometer (OD600, 600 nm) and adjusted to a final concentration of 4 × 10 7 cells/mL by diluting with sterile distilled water [37]. The cell-free supernatants and cell suspensions were stored for one week at 14 • C prior to their use in the experiment.Different developmental stages of mosquitoes generally occur in mixed groups in outdoor circumstances. Therefore, the susceptibility of mixed instars (1st/2nd and 3rd/4th) and pupae was tested against the cell-free supernatants and cell suspensions of four different bacterial symbionts of EPNs under controlled conditions. The experiments were performed in 24-well plates containing 1.5 mL of distilled water. One single larva of either the 1st/2nd or 3rd/4th instars was simultaneously put into each well using a plastic Pasteur pipette to avoid cannibalism [27]. As much finely ground commercial fish food as would fit on the tip of a toothpick was added to each well plate as a source of nutrition. Then, 0.5 mL of cell-free supernatant or cell suspension was pipetted into each well. Ten larvae were used for each treatment and each treatment consisted of four replicates. In the control treatments, the well plates were treated with the Luria-Bertani broth only and the same experimental procedures were followed. The well plates were maintained at 25 • C, 60% RH, and a photoperiod of 14:10 h (Light:Darkness) and checked for larval and pupal mortality daily for three days by gently poking larvae with a sterile pipette. The larvae and pupae were considered dead when no mobility was observed after several poking. To confirm bacterial infection, the hemolymph of the dead larvae and pupae was inoculated onto NBTA plates and incubated at 28 • C for 48 h. The experiment was carried out twice on different dates and mortality data from the two experiments were pooled for statistical analysis.The arcsine-transformed data were subjected to factorial repeated measures ANOVA (RM-ANOVA) using IBM SPSS statistics (Version 29) (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Tukey's multiple range tests (p ≤ 0.05) were performed to make multiple comparisons. Lethal times (The exposure time of different development stages of Cx. pipiens to cell-free supernatants and cell suspensions at which the mortality reached 50% of each tested population) (LT 50 ) were calculated with probit analysis with 95% confidence for each treatment.The results showed that the mortality of Cx. pipiens was significantly affected by all main factors (Table S1). The 1st/2nd instar larvae were the most susceptible developmental stage to the tested cell-free supernatants, followed by the 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupae. The highest efficacies were achieved as the exposure time to the supernatants increased. Among the tested cell-free supernatants of symbiotic bacteria, the highest effectiveness was obtained by X. bovienii KCS-4S inducing 65, 80, and 95% mortality on the 1st/2nd instar larvae 24, 48, and 72 h after treatment, respectively. The sensitivity with the 3rd/4th instar larvae ranged between 22.5% and 62.5%. Xenorhabdus bovienii KCS-4S was the only strain that exhibited mortality greater than 50% on pupae (Table 1).  Different lowercase letters show statistically significant differences among the cell-free supernatants of symbiotic bacteria (Tukey, p ≤ 0.05).The cell suspensions of the tested symbiotic bacteria were lethal to the different development stages of Cx. pipiens with varying levels of virulence and all variables [Symbiotic bacteria (S), Development Stage (D), and exposure time] including the interaction between S×D and S×t influenced the mortality rates of Cx. pipiens (Table S2).However, although the mortality rates showed an increasing trend with rising exposure times, the cell suspension treatments had relatively low mortalities in the different development stages of Cx. pipiens compared to cell-free supernatants. Xenorhabdus nematophila E-76 was the most efficient strain causing 57.5% mortality in the 1st/2nd instar larvae, followed by X. bovienii KCS-4S (50.0%). However, the cell suspensions demonstrated a gradual decline in toxicity in the 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupae (Table 2).   In general, the lowest LT 50 values were obtained in the 1st/2nd instar larvae and the LT 50 values increased with the 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupae. The LT 50 values ranged between 21.2 and 77.1 in the cell-free supernatant treatments while higher LT 50 values were obtained in the cell-suspension treatments, varying between 53.4 and 74.6 h. The supernatant of X. bovienii KCS-4S strain was the most toxic among the supernatants of the tested bacteria and provided the lowest LT 50 values in the different development stages of Cx. pipiens. However, in the cell suspension treatments, X. nematophila E-76 yielded the lowest LT 50 values (Table 3). The bacterial symbionts of EPNs have attracted great attention in the last decade due to their biocontrol potential against a wide range of agricultural pests including insect vectors [27,[41][42][43][44][45]. However, although efficient, most of these studies targeted a single development stage of the target pests [27][28][29][30]32,43]. In the present study, the toxicity of different bacterial symbionts of EPNs was evaluated against different development stages of Cx. pipiens. The results revealed that 1st/2nd instar larvae were highly susceptible to the cell-free supernatants of tested bacterial symbionts while 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupae showed a moderate sensitivity. These results are in line with Da Silva et al. [27], who reported 52% and 73% mortality in the 3rd/4th instar larvae of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) (Diptera: Culicidae) after treatment with X. nematophila and P. luminescens, respectively. In contrast, 98% larval mortality was reported in another study against the 3rd instar of A. aegypti larvae when treated with a 2 mL bacterial suspension of Xenorhabdus ehlersii (bMH9.2_TH) containing 10 8 CFU/mL [28]. The discrepancy in mortality rates may be due to the differences in the amount and composition of secondary metabolites (toxins, enzymes, and proteins) produced by different species/strains of bacterial associates of EPNs, metabolites that exhibit varying levels of insecticidal and immunosuppressant activities [25,[46][47][48][49]. For instance, Hasan et al. [33] reported a great variation in the secondary metabolite production of different strains of X. nematophila and a positive correlation between secondary metabolite production and mortality in Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera) larvae. In another study, Fukuruksa et al. [28] tested the insecticidal activities of different Xenorhabdus stockiae strains on A. aegypti larvae, and the mortality rates ranged between 2% and 64%. Sheetal et al. [41] reported that purified lecithinase enzyme produced by Xenorhabdus sp. was found to be highly toxic to the 3rd instar larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae). Similarly, Vani and Lalithambika [47] isolated an insecticidal protein that caused 93% mortality on the 3rd instar larvae of Anopheles gambiae Giles (Diptera: Culicidae). Although no toxic compounds were characterized in this study, the results indicate that the cell-free supernatants of tested bacteria contain highly toxic substances that can be used against Cx. pipiens.This study also revealed that early instars of Cx. pipiens larvae exhibited a higher susceptibility to both cell-free supernatants and cell suspension solutions, which is consistent with the findings of Ünal et al. [48] and Fathy et al. [49] who reported a higher efficacy of Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus bacteria on the early instars of Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Schistocerca gregaria (Forsskål) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) larvae/nymph, respectively. One possible reason for this may be the differences in the immune responses of insects in different life stages. The insects counteract entomopathogens with different cellular and humoral responses. However, a number of studies demonstrated that insect immunological reactions can vary depending on the development stage of the insects [50][51][52][53]. For instance, Abdolmaleki et al. [54] indicated that late instars of Pieris brassicae (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera, Pieridae) larvae, when challenged with the culture broth of Photorhabdus temperate subsp. temperata exhibited much higher phenoloxidase activity compared to early instars. This may also have played a role in the poor efficacy of cell suspension treatments against the larvae due to the activation of the innate immune system upon the detection of bacterial cells.In conclusion, cell-free supernatant treatments provided higher mortality against different development stages of Cx. pipiens than cell suspension treatments. The highest efficacy among the tested development stages (the 1st/2nd instar and 3rd/4th instar larvae and pupae) was obtained by X. bovienii KCS-4S in cell-free supernatant treatments against the 1st/2nd instar larvae. Although the pupa of Cx. pipiens was the least susceptible stage to the cell-free supernatants, 55% mortality was achieved by X. bovienii KCS-4S. The results indicate that the use of the tested Xenorhabdus and Photrhabdus bacteria could be a novel approach in the biocontrol of Cx. pipiens. However, further studies are needed to identify, isolate, and assess the biocontrol potential of bioactive compounds that display potent insecticidal activities.The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https: //www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/pathogens12091095/s1, Table S1: Summary of statistical analysis of the mortality data of different development stages of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) after treatment with cell-free supernatants of different symbiotic bacteria; Table S2: Summary of statistical analysis of the mortality data of different development stages of Culex pipiens after treatment with cell suspensions of different symbiotic bacteria.","tokenCount":"2663"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f20b2ef6f96968fbd8d17de980d23f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/610a4369-11f1-4174-8618-92be46a38951/retrieve","id":"-277988454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"afa82bec-9764-466a-b9af-f4d0fd3bf548","pagecount":"49","content":".. l. Why Raise Gender lssues ? I Gender issues 3 are not new to the Consultative Group on Intemational Agricultural Research (CGIAR) 5ystem. Indead, the importance of gender issues in agricultural research and women's roles in agricultural production and food systems have been discussed by members of the CGIAR System on several occasions during tha past decade. Explicit. recommendationa conceming gender ilsues have been made by the System itlalf to the member Intemational Agricultural Reaearch Centera (IARCs):To incorporate the gender variable in research methods and analysis, to include more women farmara in the IARC tachnology generation process.to increase tha numbers of women fram National Agricultural Resesrch snd Extensian 5ystems (NARES) in IARC training programs, snd to engage more women professionals in the ranks of IARC scientific staff, management snd boarda.While certain Centers have made exceptional progress in sdapting snd implementing many of these recommendations. adoption of the recommendations scross the CGIAR system ia quite uneven. Some sppear to haya ignored the recommandations altogether.What factora contribute to adoption of s gender perspective among those Center's that haya done so successfully? Why have the other IARCs found it difficult to deal with gender issues? What 'next steps\" should be taken by the CGIAR System to ensure system-wide attention to gender? 3A note on terminology:Sex refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women.These differences are congenital and celatively universal and unchanging. The term \"gender' refecs to a social rather than biological constructo lt describes the socially determined attributes of men and women. including male and female roles. As a social construct, gender coles are based on leamed behavior and are flexible and variable acrosa and within cultures. Gender is a useful socioeconomic variable to analyze roles, responsib!lit!es. constraints, opportunities and incentives of the people involved in research and development effarts.\"Gender blindnen\" is the inability to parceive different gender roles and J:esponsibilities, the perception that all farmer! are male (or neuter). and the failure to realize that research and project activities can have different effects on men and women.\"Gender !!).alysis• is the analys!s of the intersection of male and female roles and ._~ponsibilities with research or project goals. strategies, and outcomes, at anj stage of the project cycle. The focus of gender analysis ia less on equity tor women and more on the effectiveness and effic!ency of development activities. Effective gender analya!a, however, ultimstely leada to better definition of human resource needs and capabilities, results in more equitable allocation of resources and benefits and revision of the gender 1mbalance that exists among the professionals involved in research and development.1 , , , Guided by these questions. chis paper addresses five topics. Beginning with a brief overview of the rationale for ineluding gender issues in agrieultural researeh and development. the paper then summarizes the existing sets of recommendations made to the CG!AR 5ystem eoneeming gender issues, A synthesis of the discuasion and reeommendations made on differential user groups and gender issues at the 1981 Intemational Centers Week Seminar 1s ineluded. Mindful of che large number.of reeommendations already 'on the books,' the next seetion highlights the innovative strategies and approaehes taken by some Centera to de al with eertain gender iasues. This i8 followed with an analysis of the underlying reasona for the difficultie8 within the !ARC eommunity of incorporating gender sensitive researeh end development. Based on this analysi, and drawing upon the lucceasful experiences frem within the 5ystem, the final part of the paper moves the discussion beyond ehe existing recommendations to next steps and alternative strategies te assist the CG!AR System in aehieving a better gender balance in the methods and operation af its researeh pragram. This paper has been written in direct response to a request made by several of the CG!AR donor representatives at the last Intemational Cantera Weak (I<:\"J-1989), Duri~g the maeting. they raised the question of what progress had be en made by the !ARCs in dealing with gender issues sinee the saminar condaeted during the 1981 ICW that drew attention to differential usert and teehnology. lhey requested that the topic be placed on the agenda at thi, mid-term meeting of the CGlAR System. The overarching concem of these donora and other. i8 not directed juat at the CG!AR system. but rather representa a global coneem for monitoring the progresa af resaarch and develapmant organizations in incorporating appropriate gender perspectives.As this mid-term meeting of the CGlAR marks the beginning of the 1990s and the last decade of this eentury, it i. timaly to take stock of where we are in reaching gendar equity in the international 8ystmR for agricultural researeh.A lationale fer a Gender Perspectiva in Agricultural lesearen.In a recent IDiC technieal study. Patricia Stamp poses two key quastions regarding technology development and transfer that are very relevant to the work of the CGlAR System. 'irst. ahe asks whether the outcoma envisaged ia really developmant. \"Unle •• women ana --by intimata but not previously selfevident implication --ehildren are unequivoeally served. soeiety itself has not been served\" (Stamp 1989,2). She observe. that ovar the, past lS years there has been 'en emerging m~ 'al aud seientific commitlr•\"' .. ',0 the truth that woman are half of humanity &nd that gender relations are as fundamental a shaping farce in society as are economic relations or politieal structure. Indeed. there i3 no politieal econamy that ia gendar neutral, as those who are willing to look diseover. In development discourse, women are no longar entirely invisible, even if ehey still get far from equal time' (Ibid.)The second question posed by StamPlis whether Third World social reality has been adequately considerad in technology generation and transfer studies and projects. She argues, in barmony with a growing consensus of development practitioners, that 'it is no longer possible to view technology as artefact or to avoid tbe difficuIt task of examining our underlying assumptions about Tbird World societies' (Ibid.) She then calls upon all of us to test the scientific accuracy of each developmen; study by asking whether gender variables have been properly accounted foro To a large extent, what tbe CGlAR Donors are calling for i5 tbis 'gender test'. Gender anaIyais ia now recognized by many development institutions as an important aspect of the design, implementation and evaluation of development projects. The fact tbat women are critical to agricultural production and that their accaas to nacessary resources and effective technologies is often constrained by gender barriers is eonfirmed in the explosion of literature on ¡ender and development and the increasing number of eonferences and workshops on the topic in the international research and development community.However, there is considerable difference between voicing eoneern for ¡ender --that ls, being 'sensitized' --and ineorporating gender as an analytical variable in the research and development equation. The gap between sensitization and incorporation varies across the different development sectora. In agricultural research institutions. sensitization is, unfortunately, not widespread, and the gap between the few sensitized voiees and actual incorporation is deep. What might be called the general 'culture' of agricultural researeh institutions often serves to compound the 'normal' diffieuItiea of introducing gender analyais. Important among these cultural features and their implieations are: a general belief that teehnology alone will solve problems; a view of technology as 'neutral' to socioeconomic differences among users;increasing disciplinary and technical apecialization and relianee on reductionist researeh methods that encourage tachnleal fixes rather than integrated approaches; reIatively recent and scanty inclusion of non-economic social scianees in technology development and thus the absence of relevant gender sensitiva methodologies; a gene rally conservativa political climate institutionally that makes the lubject of _ O \" !r leem like a radical intrusion rather than a call for gre~ter efficiency of resource use; the language of agricultural researeh which has tended until only recently to make women invisible by referring to farmers and researchers only as 'he'; and, the extremely law numbers or absence of women among professional or management ranks of researchland extension institutions which contributes ta the male arientation oE the research agenda.!hese characteristics reElect deep-seated values that have made it difficult for agricultural research to effectively reach aut ta law-resource or amall farmers with relevant techuology, much less to even speak of a gender perspective in the development of the 'echuology.During the past 15 years, a growing client-orientation and a gradual shift towards on-farm experimentation has occurred as a result of several new interdisciplinary approaches ta agricultural tachuology development. Most important amang thele are Earming systems research and extension (FS1/E) and farmer-participatory or user-oriented research. By focusing more directly en lower resource farmers and their behavior in response to techuology, these approaches have allowed, at lasto for the differences between men's and women's roles in production to begin to be recognized and for the assumed homogeneity of the ferm household to be replaced by the concept of 'incrahousehold dynamics•.!he reorientation and methodologies embodied in the en-ferm. client-.. oriented approach have fundamentally altered the relationship between social science and agriculture in threa key waya that have providad fertile ground for the incorporation oE gender analyais. 1) expanding che ranga of social science disciplines ensased in agricultural devalopment work. Z) placing social scientists an techuology development teams, and 3) develaping institutional structures to previde a home base for the social scienees in agriculture.!hese changes have expanded the perspective of existins agricultural staff snd brought new profesaionsls, many with genáer analysis expertise, into the agricultural field. Application of gendar aualysi! tools to the iterative procedures of client-oriented techuology davelopment is beginning to change the way production problems are identified. ehe unáerstanding of division of labar, snd the natura of farmer participation.!he toola of gender analyais are more than ehecklists or guidelines for data collection. Instead, they are analyticsl frameworks designed specifically ta deal with gender issae. (Overholt et al. 198';leldstein and Poats, 1990). !hey lead to the design of interventions and action strategies which will ensure that men and women are better integrsted into on-going development efforts. l., s recent FAO study, the ineorporation of gender frameworks into the work of researeh snd áevelopment organi:ations has been shown to be intimately linked to five conditions: 1) making changes in poliey mandates; 4) having sufficient profesaional staff with gender expertise; and 5) eubancing overall human resource eapaeity through training (Poats and Russo. 1989.) Available evidenee indieates that while the first four eonditions are necessar¡. the fifth appears to be critical.A survey of projects using on-farm research approaehes found that while there was a correlation between having women andlor social leientists on teams and whether or not gender analys!s was conducted, not all women or social scientists were suceessful in eondueting ¡ender analysis (Poats, Gearing and Russo 1989.) Their presenee did not guarantee attention to gender issues. However. in all cases where training (either formal or informal) in ¡ender issues and analyais occurred. project members did subsequently conduct or improve gender analyaia. Training of professional staff aeross and up and down the hierarchy of a project or an organization can signifieantly alter cultural views that have caused ¡ender blindness and can be a critical step in leaming how to do ¡ender analysis and how to incorporate ¡ender sensitivity as part of the normal way of doing good work.111. Gender Issues in the Donor Community.The FAO study mentioned aboye reported on a number of organizations that are using training as a key tool for promoting the incorporation of gender analysis. Amang the institutions included in the study were. the World Bank. the U.S. Agency for lntemational Development (USAID), the Canadian Intemational Oevelopment Agency (ClDA). the United Nations Development Program (UNOP). the Intemational Oevelopment Research Centre (IDRC). the Australian lntemational Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB), the Overseas Oevelopment Administration (ODA), the 5wedish Intemational Oevelopment Agency (SIDA). the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) , the United Nations Population lund (UNFPA) and a number of U.5., Canadian, !uropean and lndian Universities. Institution-wide training courses designed to introduce gender issues in development and to train staff in the use of gender analysis tools have been key elements in the process of incorporating a gender perspective into the development agendas of ehese organizations.In another study, Eva Rathgeber (1987), Women in Development specialist 4 ae ¡ORC, reviewed ehe official position taken by nine donors on gender issues , and described the efforts they are making to ens\"~. greater benefit for women from development aid projects. Like those described in the FAO study, .' many of these donors are major actors in the support of ehe CGIAR System. It ie clear that as a result of specific poliey statements, training of project managers and designera, and qualified leadership in the subject matter. many donors are now guiding their funding choices with explicit attention to gender issues. This fact alone provides a strong rationale for the CGIAR Centers to strangth the attention given to gender in tne agenda for iñtemational agricultural researcn and development.For tnose who have added gender analysis to eheir toolkits for the diagnosis of farm level problema and t~e design or adaption of new technology, the response ia an overwhelming yeso Examples al tne dilference gender makes can be found in much of the literature cited in the case studies and otner references to this papero !here are several eflorts in progre s s to further document methodologies used where gender made a difference. A few examples fram agricultural researcn on food crops and livestock, the key concems af the CGIAR System, may be useful for those wno are unfamiliar with gender issues or ere still skeptical.In Colombia, en on-farm bean and fertilizer researeh project (Ashby 1990) did not initially inelude women's perspectives an bean varieties beeausel prevailing wisdom at the time held that only men were engaged in the productian af beans. Cued by some unexplainable anomalies in the preferences by some hausehalds for bean varieties designated as unmarketable by the project researehers, the team decided to use participant observatian tools to further explore internal nousebold decision-making about bean variety preferences and selection. !hey leamed of the multiple roles of beans in the household and the women's key role in influencing the choice of bean varieties for production. As a result the team retained bean varieties in the on-fa~ testing program that would have othervise been discarded by breeders. !Dcluding both men and women as users of be ana revealed new information about. the eharacteristics and the proeess that farmar. use to guide bean selection or rejection. !hese proved valuable to bean breeders and subsequently made a difference to the direction of the bean researeh in the projeet.In. Zambia, Chabala and Gichiru (1990) documented the experiences of an on-farm researeh team (agronomist, agricultural economist and extension specialist) that eonducted its early diagnosis of produetions problems only amang male farmers. Growing concem over timeliness and competing needs for labor as the critical constraint to improving crop production led the team to eonduct a detailed study of household labor resources and allocation. Recognitian of the !ncreasing populstion of female headed households in the research are a (some 30% or more of all households due to male out-migration primarily to mining regions) led to shifts in the approachea used to identify reeommendation domains snd potential users of technology. Reducing the labor raquirement especially amang women responsible fer weeding became a research priority and led to an experiment mixing maiz •• th. dominant men's erap, vith beana, a key caah crep grown by women. Both eropa vere traditionally groWn separataly. By combining them, the researchera hoped te take advantage of well-known complementar¡ nutrit!,nal interaction. as well as decreasing the amount of weedin& time, since both could be weeded simultaneously. However, in farmer evaluations of the technolegy that ineluded both female and male farmer partieipants in the trial, women voiced their negative reactians to the teehnology. When beana vere planted en land normally allocated to maize, the women lost ownership of the beans and men benefited from the cash generated by I 1 \\ their sales. Sinee men and women operated separate ineome streams within households and eaeh had different respon,ibilities to fulfi11 with their cash, 10ss of the bean income to women could decrease the welfare of the household as a whole. Researchera were informed by this experienee of gender diffarenees in the eriteria for a 'sueeessful' teehnology. Their next researeh steps would have to eonsider whether women's ownership of beans could be retained while using mixed cropping teehnology or if other labor conserving technologies would 'fit' more appropri,tely with the existing gender segregated cropping system.A final example comes for the Philippines and coneems an integrated pest management (IPM) project (Adalla, 1988). !he project initially worked with male farmer cooperators. IPM i9 generally considered as a concept that ia difficu1t initial1y to comprehend and involves a lot of management decision-making. As such, IPM i9 often thought to take longer time to leam snd as a technology, more difficult to adopto In the project, though researchers felt farmers were beginning to understand the concept, few if any were edopting. In searching for en explanation, researchers found that though men did lndeed do the physical labor associated with managing pests, women al so played a crucial role. 'lt was the wife who dictated the specific brand or kind of pesticides to buy and the dosage to use, based on friend's recommendations or based on experiences of the husband as to which poison kilI s mosto Bowever, in a tight financial situation the declaion la to settle for the least expensive kind ••• • (Adalla, 1988). Even if the male farmers did see a potential value in IPM, their wives continued to purchase pesticides. Once the researchers understood the role women played in determining the choices in pest management technology, women were invited to participate directly in the lPM discussions and training. Subsequently, there was an increase in the use of IPM'because women understood the alternatives to pesticides. In addition, involvement of the women resulted in a project to develop IPM toola appropriate to their vegetable•gardens.These three example9, dealing with different cropa and widely differing socio-cultural and agroecological settings, show clearly that gender makes a difference. In each case, when researchers pursued 'who is doing what' in the production system, they discovered that initial suppositions were wrong and that both women and men were involved and needed te be considered in the technology development process.The above sections have outlined both the progresa and difficulties encountered by the agricultural development sector in understanding gender issues and using gender analysis. The lARCs, aS leadera in the intemational community of agricultural practitioners, need te take a serious look at the critical role and example they must play in furthering this perspective and enhancing the use of gender analysis in reaching viable solutions for the production problems of !hird Vorld agriculture.The remainder of this paper reviews the progresa ano problema in accounting for gender within the CGlAR System and recommends a courae of action for the future.'v.CGIAR Recammeudationa &ud Áctional 1981-86.Attention to gender issuea in the CGlAR System began with su early call to consider the importanca of women in agricultural production. The Report of the 1981 Quinquannial Raview Committea on eha CGIAR System states tha issue as follows.'In many parts of tha developing,world, women play an importsut role in agricultural production, for example. as farm owners, managers, sales agents, sud field workers. Too often, this role has been overlookad rasulting in reducad impact or even total failure oE programmes related to agricultural development. Conaequently, it ia important that the System should give explicit attention to the role of women wherever relevsut to its work. In particular, Centers should review their programmes, particularly those on farming eystema, to ensure that the role of vamen i8 specifically considered and that the possibility af differential benefits to men sud vomen i8 analyzed. Furthermore, ve consider that TAC should ensure that the impact en women of th. 5ystem's work i8 fulIy taken into account in designing and evaluating programmes of work (Para. 7.114, p. 97, Report of Review Committee, 1981, t'aken frem MUCIA 1983.S.)  ,4 'While these recommendations call for explicit action, little vas' immediately takeu. In 1982, Barbara Knudson and Jean Veideman of the Midwastem Universities Consortium on Intemational Agricultura (HUCIA) gave a presentation at Intemational Centers Veek on a proposal far a collaborative program on women and agricultura betwaen the HUCIA Vamen in Development Network and the IARCa (MUCIA 1983). The program vaa to provide consultation ~ servic., and the development of educational materials and training modules on women's productive roles in agricultura. Though the program was not funded, it was eh. first time the subject of directing IARC research activities towards to specific techuological needa of women farmers vas discussed among the donor and IARC representatives in plenary session at an ICV.In hindsight. it ia likaly that ehe proposal was befo re its time. Few people anywhere were making the link between techuology development and the varying techuical needa and constraints of different potential usera of nev techuology. However. tha follaving year, the situation began to changa vithin the CGIAR 5ystem.4The Committae addrassed a separate but relatad issue in its Report. whare additiona1 recommendations urge attention to the apeeial needa for training women as scientists bn.~ as potential members oE staff for the institutions and as future research leaders in tha developing countries (Para. 5.56 citad in MUCIA 1983.S). The Review -•~ttee advised the CGIAa' .. o 'make vigorous efforts to increase the partici-jn av wamen as profess1onal staff and to identify vomen qualified for member an Boarda of Trustees and of other CGIAR bodies, \" and to inaure that \"th' :retariat should report to the Group. at appropriata intarvals, en progre ~de in ehese respects' (Para. 7.11S.p.97 cited in MUCIA 1983.5)...• In September 1983, IRRI convened an international conference on women's concerns in rice farming. Biological scientists. social scientists and policymakers from 21 countries discussed whether women have benefited from the introduction of new rice technology, how wamen might benefit from emerging technologies, and how women's roles in technology development and transfer might be enhanced (IRR! 1987). The conference was the catalyst that launched activities at IRRI leading to the establishment of the Women in Rice Farming 5ystems (WIRFS) Program in 1986. How ~d why this program has be en successful i8 discussed later in this report. The monograph published from the conferenee, Women in Rice Farming (1985), set an example for national and international agricultural research institutions to begin exploring the direet technical relationships between speeifie production systems and women farmers. Conference participants also made three recommendations to the CGIAR 5ystem as a whole: 'l. The CGIAR should organi~e an inter-center seminar tor Policy-makers on Women in Farming 5ystems Improvement based on the work in all lARes. AlI CGIAR members eould be invited to participate $0 that donors can contribute to the action research projects of the kind recommended.' '2. The TAC to the CGIAR should add the following to the Terma of Reference and Guidelines for external program reviews of the lARCs: 'Examine the research and training programe of the institute in relation to their potential impact on women-specific occupations with s view to diversifying employment opportunities. generating sdditional income. snd reducing drudgery.\" '3. Centera themselves could monitor progresa during their annual program reviews.' These recommendstions contributed to the decisions on mea sures taken by the System as a whole to explore the gender question. At its annual meeting (ICW) in November 1983, following the IRRI conference, the CGIAR commissianed a wide-ranging impact study of the results of the activitiea of the IARCs under its sponsorship. At this time, the Impact Study leader! and Advisory Committee recognized the need fer a separate study on gender iasuea. Conducted by Jsnice Jiggins during 1984-85, the study produced a series of sector specific papera (on liveatock, breeding. post-harvest issuas. etc.) that ware later compilad into a single volume. Gender-Related Impacts and the Werk of the International Agricultural Research Centera (1986).While the Impact Study was still underway. tvo conferences brought CGIAR Centers and gender iaaues together. In 1984 the Rockefaller Foundation hosted a conference entitled 'Understanding Africs's Rural Bouseholds and Farming 5ystems' (Moock 1985.) Though focused on\" one speeific region and not targeted ta the CGIAR 5ystem. psrticipants did include representatives from a number of IARCs and danora af the CGIAR.S The canference attempted to reconeile the divergent methodalogical and conceptual ~ssues between Fsa/E as it was being conducted at the time and the body of household research eondueted largely by social scientists. Progress was made in the exchange of ideas. experiences and methods. however, more than one partieipant characterized the confarencs as two bodies of researehers speaking past eaeh other. Fsa/E praetitioners at ehe time were still very reluctant to aeknowledge the need for a gender disaggregated understanding of the Afr!can household and social scienee researchera examining the Afriean houaehold vera not generating the kinds of analy'is that could lead easily to teehnieal decision-making. It was obvious that more cowmunieation between these two groups would be neeessary to arrive at a cohesive analytical framework.In Mareh 1985. ISNAR snd the Rackefeller Foundation co-sponsored a weeklong intar-cantar seminar at Sellagl0. Italy on Women and Agricultural Technology: The Usars' Perspective in Intemational Agricultural Research (Rockefeller/ISNAR 1985 Vals. I and II.) The abjectives af the meeting were to assess ehe eurrent aetivities in ehe Centera related to a more effective integration of women in the modemization of agriculture and to seek possible ways of improving the performance of the CGIAR Syatem on this issue. The thirty participants in the seminar included seven Director Generals. members of the CGtAR Secretariat and rAC, several representatives of Donora, university and national program laadera. and selectad tARC social scientists with experience in gender issues and analysis.Prior to the seminar. twelve of the thirteen tARCs prepared background papers on their experienees to date with the 'users' perspective' and women as users of tachnology. (IBPCa did not prepare a paper but did participate in the aeminar.) In addition. three regional background papers on women in Africa. Asia and Latin America vere prepared. All background papers were cireulated in advance so that the seminar itself was devoted to analytical presentationa and discussion.The seminar serves as a benehmark for the CGtAR System on user perspectives and gender issues. The papers prepared for ehe aeminar summarize the experiencea. shortcominga. success stories and projeeted needs for the future in order to conduct gendar-aware researeh. On the positive sida, six of the tARCs provided fairly claar evidence of snalytical applicationof gander issues to problema of technology development. Several Cantera gave examples of specific technology changes in arder to suit needa of women usara. Some of the reports were less positive.Thre~ of the tARe reports dealt with gender issues mostly in terma of including more women in training programa and provided little more than token evidence of gender analysis in their research programa. Two of the Center S Included amang the participants at ehe c~nference vere scientists and managers from. CIMMYT. lITA. lCARDA, IC~~E. ILCA, IITA, ICRISAT. the formar Agricultural Development Couneil (now a ;:rt of WINROCK Intemational), Ford Foundation. USAID. the World Sank. and the lockefeller Foundation. 10 l l , . J reports are notable for their virtual laek of mention of women or gender issues. (Ihe only mention in one was an¡aim to look at the relationship betveen nutrition and women's, in particular mothers•. work patterns.) That reports commissioned for a eonferenee dealing vith women and teehnology could leave out women entirely raises eoneern. Finally. one report presented a negatively biased viev af women's roles in produetion aud misinterpreted existing data on gender issues from the region of the Center's responsibility .Ihe conference confirmad that several Centers vere already vell engaged in gender-sensitiva research on seme topics and vere taking stapa to alsure that gender analyai, would be included in other areas of responsibility. Ihe coneluding statements of the participants affirmed several key points Ó on the relevanee of women's and gender issues to research. that gendar is an important variable in distinguishing among potential beneficiary groups far agricultural technolagy researeh and poliey analyaia ¡ that female farmera do not form a homogeneous group lor development purposes and gender and other variables need to be considered in defining categories of people for research and development aetivities¡ that choice of technological approach i8 based on more than.the production procesa itself; it is based on the entire food and economic context of the hOUBehold and women play an active part in that choice; that the economic contribution of women to the household can be disrupted and disadvantaged by the introduction of well-intentioned technological change, particularly when biased towards male heads of households; and that women are crucial repositories of information on plant and animal species as well as technical aspects of production practices and useful insights are lost when women are ignorad.Ihe aem1nar confirmad the need for complementarity betveen the LARCs and national programs in addressing gender iasues and women's participation in the technology development procesa. Characterizing the relationship as a team effort requiring more two-way flow of information, the seminar participants called for: increased, systematic use of information and cooperation in raising avareness of gender issues at national and international program levels; 6 These issues are drawn directly from the Concluding Statement oE the report preparad on the seminar (Rockefeller/ISNAR 1985 Vol.I) and from an interview with Josette Murphy, then with ISNAR, conducted following the seminar and reported inCGIAR News Vol. 5. No. 2, June 1985. 11 , develapment af a lang-term $tra~egy ta consider women in all phases of research and development work; greater collaboratian and recognition af complementarity amang the lARCs, especially between the commedity centers and IFPRI and ISNAR; and• inclusion of gender issues in the evaluatien of the impact of lARC work at the national systema level.Final1Y, the coneluding statement of the seminar listed a set of suggestions for the CGlAR System as a whele that are summari:ed below:Gender issues must be linked to the entire technology generation procesa.Z) lARCs should collaborate with national organi:ations in generating' information and methodologies dealing vith gender issues.3) Interdisciplinary teama of leientists should identify specific areas in which gender makes a differenee to the effectiveness and effieiency of lARe work.Inter-center exchanges among natural and social scientists to discuss speeific issues in incorporating gender into research plana and proeedures need to be organi:ed.High-quality studies should be commissioned and widely disseminated on the e:periences of and methodolagies for incorparating gender issues.6\" lARCs an~ national programa should offer more training opportuni:ies for women, find vays to increase the number of female extension workers to reach farm vomen, and pay specific attantion to gender factors in on-farm raseareh.Taken together, the seminar statements affirming the need for understanding ¡ender issues, calling for collaboration between international and national researeh entities, and laying out speeifie sug¡estions for the CGIAl System. represent a very positive step towards ¡ender sensitivity for ehe entire System. In effect. the conference 'sigoaled ehe beginning af a system-wide dialogue on the lubject of women and agricultural development' (CGlAR News 1985).However. two critical elemants vere :e •• ~.f of the agenda.First, no mechanism vas developed to insure that the System would follow' ehe seminar suggestions. Instead, as Josette Murphy, currently st ehe World Bank, e:plains (COlAR Newe 1985), 'it vas 1eft to each center to decide exactly vhat it needs te do under its mandate and how it should go about doing it. Reporting and other administrative requirements vere not included to 1Z avoid artificial isolation of the issue.' While the argument for not isolating gender iasues i5 val id, the 1aFk of System-wide mechanisms to require, evaluate and monitor progress in this area has contributed to the great unevennesa in Center attention to gender iasues. To a large extent, those Centers that were already beginning to deal with gender issues, at least in some program areas, have continued to do so, provided that the people wha had the eapacity to direct and conduct the ~ork have remained at the Centers. Only one Center, IRRI, has developed a~ explicit program to take leadership for gender iatues. Those where the issues were weak or misdirected in 1985 have, with few exceptions, continued in the same fashion to presento Secand, no consideration was given aa to how Centera were to go about capacitating their scientific and management staff tO be ab!e to incorporate gender issues. Those present at the seminar represented on1y a tiny pereentage of the total staff of the CGIAR System. They could also be eharaeterized as being 'the already converted' within the System. How would the larger numbers of scientists, managers and po1ieymakers for the System be sensitized to gender issues1 Where would they leam the skil1s and methods ta be able to incorporate gender concems into their work1 j Over100king these tvo eoncems has meant that while the System has ¡ ca1led for attention to the issues. on1y the committed few have taken and continae to take action. Until these areas --evaluation and capaeitatian are addressed, gender iasues will not beeome part of the most critieal task of the CGIAR 5ystem. the techuology generation process.Following the Bellagio Seminar. many tARC 8cientists proceeded ta communlcate results of gendar-related researeh in severa1 international meetings. To some extent, the Bellag10 Seminar may have at last validated the topic as legitimate for discussion outside the Centera. if not within. Papers by Center scientists were included at the 1986 Conferenee at the University of Florida on Gender Issues and Farming Systems Researeh and Extension (Poats et al, 1986), at several meetings of the Assoeiation for Women in Oevelopment (AVIO) , and at the annua1 Farming Systems Research and Extensian Symposium.In 1986, Janiee Jiggins's report for ehe CGlAA Impact Study was released. It added numerous examples. both from within and outside the IARC work, where taking sender lnto aecount made a differenee in tne development and adoption of techuology. She reiterated many of the concems aud suggestions from the previous Bel1agio conference with twO important additions. She called for exp1ieit attention to the links between varietal characteristics. productlon and domestie proeessing. In arguing for ear1y attention to preservation and preparation techuologies, she identified these areas as large1y a female doma in and one that ia normally exeluded from all but a very few IARC programa.Second. ahe high1ighted the lack of underatanding of mu. 1 tl -,-'. ose uses for mueh of the biomass produced by rural househoJñs. Oefining researeh objectives in terma of single uses for crop or live~lock products often disadvantages users. frequent1y women, of the other traditiona1 products from these same commodities.Jiggins's report has been wide1y circu1ated and cited among the intemationa1 community of researchers and deve10pment workers addressing 13 , gender issues. lt has joined a growing set of literature on gender issues and agricultural development. The increasing call for further discussion and action on gender issues and analysis led the CGIAR Secretariat to organiza a half-day special seminar on 'Gender lssues: User Impact, Agricultural Technology and the Global Agricultural aesearch System' at the 1987 International Centers' Week. While the 1983 conference at lRaI and the 1985 seminar at Bellagio had brought together a range of CGIAR System leaders and specialists on gender issues. the lCW $eminar in 1987 was the first time sinee 1982 that the entire systam. donors. Centerl, Secretariat and TAC discussed the question of gender and agricultural technology.The ICW 1987 Seminar OA Differential Uaera: Sammary and aecommendations on Gendar Issus. 7• .•• it•s not so much tbat women are the issues; it's ehe issues that women are concerned with is what our focus must be.' (W. David Hopper. World Bank)!he foeus of the ICW seminar was the naed to underatand the potential impact of agricultural technology on diaadvantaged user groups. particularly women. !h~ee themes were addressed by the presentations and the discussions:Bow can the research procesa bring user implications to bear in technology choice?2) What are the respective roles of national research systems and international centers in incorporating user considerations into technology design?3) Baw far have th. centera themselves progressed in achieving gender balance and incorporating it into research and training activities1Finally, given the wide differences in Center reaction to the gender issue question. ehe possible usefulness of a Stripe aeview on the suhject was raiaed.!he saminar included five presentations. comments by a selected panel, and open discussion from the floor. Immediately follawing the saminar. ehe CGIAR Secretariat summarized the overarching recommendations from the discussion.!hat the centers play a role in bringing processes and methods to national systema which allow deciaion on research ehrusts and on technology choice to he made in the light of the needs of and potential impacts on different user groups.7 T he information presented in this section draws di:ectly upon the transcript of the ICV 1981 Seminar on Differential.Users. All of the quotations in ehe section come from the transcript prepared by Miller Reporting Company. lnc. October 28, 1987.That the Group should reeeiv, information on progresa in this area. and in the balaneing of gendera at the eentera themselves. on a routine basia.3) That external reviews of centera take up gender as an explicit Lssue in the questions aaked of, eenters and in their reportoIn addition to these. most of the participants made additional reeommendations and raised questions for further consideration during their preaentations. Drawing upon the transcript of the seminar. these additional issues are summarized here.Margaret Catley-Carlson. CIDA, outlined three essential elements to effect institutional adoption of a gender perspective: a clear. agency-wide policy mandating attention to gender as a development variable; an aetion plan. ereated from bottom-up for implementing the poliey; and training for all stsff, starting with those at the topo These elements sre spplieable not just to donora. but to the Centers as vello Catley-Carlaon alao laid down the donor bottom line by saying, 'for those of us who invest millions, iE not bil1ions. ol dol1ars in intemationa1 development, it's quite 8i1ly to go on doing so il ve're not targeting the actual aetors in the procesa.' All of the presenters highlighted the need for the ineorporation of user considerations in technology development and the essential inc1usion of gender analysia as a critical element in determining user groups. However. ineluding a 'gendered' user perspective raised other concems. Given the location speeificity of user group pattems and needs. how can the lARCs. with a broad mandate to develop technology for the range of users embraced by individual national programe, orient research output and research program planning to al1 of these differing user needa? Concerning this question, Bob Herdt. Roekefeller Foundation, clarified that the key role ol the lARCs ia to develop appropriate analytical methods to address user coneems. These methods must be oriented to the challenge ol identifying innovative technologies that vill have a positive impact on the general groups that are the ultimate CGlAR System elients: the poor. the women. and the disadvantaged. The lARC responsibility is to provide leadership and training in these methods as part of their overall mandate. Ashby's presentation underseored the lARC role vis-a-vis national programs.'A user-orientation in the research agenda, such as giving priority to commodities or activities where women are likely to benefit from research, reflects valuea which are not necessarily shared in all cultures where NARS operate. The lARCs have the opportunity to show by their example. the relevance of user-orie~'-' research to attaining the objective of improve1 food availability for the poor. To the extent that resaurces illvested by lARCs in networks, training, and methodology development reflect concern with apecific groups of usera, eommitment i5 l!kely to be generated in national programa to reapond ta user prioritiea in the reaearch procesa.' Opponents of the user perspective and a concern for gender issues often fall back on the argument that the role pf the LARCs is to generate what might be called 'generic technology'. This is then adapted to local conditions by national programs, or in some cases, local user groups, in the process of developing 'brand-name technology'. While the boundaries between what is !ARC work and what is NARS work are often fuzzy, the seminar discussion highlighted the importance of feedback along the resear~h chain to identify user relevant priority thrusts at the applied and sti8tegic levels. User concerns and information must play a strong role in informing the research agenda from the beginning. Technology developed at strategic and applied levels in isolation from user concerns and criteria, will likely be insulated from user adoption.'The diversity of user circumstances and of potential impacts which can arise from technological change means that user implications ultimately have to be accommodated in technology design through greater involvement of users in problem definition and technology evaluation. The issue at this level is fundamentally one of how to institutionalize the participation of users in the research process to inform research strategy and orient technology design.' (Ashby presentation) On-farm, client-oriented or farming systems research within the LARCs will continue to have the greatest responsibility for the user perspective in research. However, to carry this out effectively, beyond its concern with technology adaptation, FSR must increasingly emphasize a feedback role engaging in the dynamics of research priority-setting and strategy-building. And, most importantly, FSR will have to accommodate methods which can account for the gender and intrahousehold differentials in technology impactoThe case experiences discussed in the seminar confirmed that efforts to right the gender imbalance in agricultural research are better placed as part of the mainstream effort rather than as special women's projects which may further isolate the problem and solution from the general bureaucracy.Patel's presentation on adaptive research and gender issues in Zambia brought out another critical issue: the rapidly growing numbers of femaleheaded households due to male-outmigration. Though in southern Africa, this situation is reaching drastic proportions, it is occurring at a rapid rate in all developing countries. The growing feminization of agriculture, especially food crop production, will have profound implications on the definitions of user needs for research and the ability and resources of poorer farmers and households to adopt improved technology. Gender sensitive analysis will need to play an even stronger role in determining the differences among women farmers as well as between male and female farmers. Given the mandate of the CGLAR System as a whole to increase the amount, quality and stability of food supplies for poor people in low-income countries, the Centers must deal vith the fact that ur.'ess the trends are quickly and drastically altered, the maj ority of _\"e faces of their clients in the near future vill be female.Though most of the seminar discussion focused on the users of technology, a parallel thread addressed the gender imbalances among the designers and managers of the technology innovation process. the researchers, staff. management and boards of the Cent,rs. In the final seminar presentation. Richard Sawyer. Director General of CIPo underscored the need to increase the number of vomen professionals in the CGlAR System. He pointed to the lack of vomen in the centers themselves. on the boards and within the Technical Advisory Committee and the CGlAR secretariat itself. Using CIP as sn example, he recommended that other centers actively recruit women professionals into their ranka vithout,sacrificing quality for equity. However. he wamed against getting too involved with the internal politica of national programs in trying to balance gender inequities ameng participants in lARC training cauraes.Echoing the concems of Sawyer, John Mellor. Director General of IFPRI, notad that 'sometimes ve forget, as we look at the question of gender. what a powerful force the combination or juxtaposition of latent racism and sexism represent in the world. 0 0 0 ve need to give some special attention to that interaction within intemational organizationso' While the attention of the lARCs and the entire agricultural research establishment to the gender iSBue is long overdue, the discussion during the seminar revealed another problem. Gender refera to men and women, not just women. The use of gender analysh is not gender specific. Male and femal.e researchers can be equally proficient at gender analysis. Likevise. a woman researcher trained in a narrow technical discipline can be as gender-bíind as a male trained in the same profession. Both need training in the skills of gender analysis to become proficient and effective in applying it to their work. So, hiring more women scientists, unless they are specifically trained in gender analyaia techniques, will not rectify a gender bias in the technology generation process. Á surprising number of the participants at the seminar seemed by their comments to be confused en thia issue. !he implications of confusing affirmative action or \"the equity issue\" and the 'efficiency lasae' of gender analyai' in development, are discussed later in this paper.In the final comments of the aeminar, Janiee Jiggins brought the discussion back to the need to assess the progresa made, and yet to be made. by the Centers in dealing with user perspectives and gender issaes. She observed that very practical and constructive efforts have be en made by some Centera both internally and in collaboration with national programa. Other havebeen far more hesitant and she po sed the question why some Centera rema in reaistant to gender. As a prelude to exploring this issue, the next section presents some examples of the strategies used by various Centera to addresa user needs and gender analysis in technology development.Before moving on, it is important to note that gender has surfaced at least twice more among the centers since ehe ICW 1981. One was during the Internaeional Agricultural Research Centen Wo,:kshop on Human Resouree Development Through Training. held at CIP, ~ima, Peru. in September 1988. In the summary report listing major issues and recommended aetiona. number 14 reads as follows.'Women in Human Resouree Development in Agriculture.Canters recognize that woman farmars are an important target pop~lation and that action should be taken to.encourage the participation of women in their training programs. 'Recommandation: That centara develop training material. which peint o~t the importance oi reaching women as a neglected target group ior technology development and al so explo~e methods for improving the participation of women in center.training activitie •• 'A second time gender issues vere raised was at ICW 1989. when sevaral donors discussed the issue in smallar gro~p sassiona as vall as in tha plenary. They called for a report en the progresa made since tha 1987 ICW seminar on the incorporation of gender and usar issuea in the Centera. This report.is a first response to that request.VII. Strategia. fer Gendar Issuas: izamples fra. tha Systam. 8From the previous sections of this paper. it is quite clear thst there is no 1ack oi recommendations to guide the CGIAR 5ystem in dealing with gender issues. Howevar, as stated in the beginning, the applicatien and use of the recommendations is quite uneven ameng the 13 Canters. Based upen the literature froal ehe system reviewed fer this pap'er, the Centen can be grouped into three categories. The first comprises those Cantera with a clear mandate or policy on gendar issues, an operating research program that has a focus on gender, training in gender analysia. and a commitment to a gender balance among stafE and trainees. The only Centar in thia category ia IRaI.The second group consista of Centera where individual scientists have 8 A thorough review oE all gender-relatad activities undertaken by tne CGIAR System vaa beyend the acope of th!. papero Instead, a purposive searen vas made to find examples oE successes and then to identify the factors tnst encouraged suecess and the lessons leamed from the ezperienee. This search was done by interviewing a number of people who hold current positions within tne 5ystem and otherawho ~sed to work vith the Cantera. The selected interviews vere complemented by a rapid content analyais of the most recent reports snd documents from the CGIAR. TAC and the Cantera themselves. Annual reports from asch Center (lIIOstly for the yean 1988 or 1989) vere reviewed to locate sny referances to women. ¡ender, household. er intra-household issues. Specisl p~blications. joumal articles and project reports were also scanned. Where availsble, strategy statementa and long-range planning documents vere reviewed. In addition. saveral external progrma and managementa reviews vere st~died to see whether reviewen had complied vith recOllllll.endations from the CGIAR to include gender iasues in the regular reviev procesa of ehe Canters. Finally, several of the CGIAR I.aI'/'Iact Studies vere alao included in the review.All of the documents ~on~y~ted in this review are listed in the referencls to the paper, including documents that vere stu~~ed but not cited directly. A large part of the literature consulted was provided by the CGIAR Secretariat offiee in Washington. D.C.done good work either directly on gender issues or have incorporated gender analysis into an on-going research direcfion. !hese Centera do not have a clear policy on gender and the work that has been done on gender, even when recognized internationally, appears to have a limited audience within the Center. In some instancea, such work ia given brief mention in annual reports, but in most cases, the results remain at the level of projects and programs, dOBa and not aerve to inform the center effort as a whole. Seven Centera fall into this category. CIAT, CIMHYT. CIPo lCARDA, IFPRI. lITA, and YARDA.The final category include those Centers where there vas very little sttention or mentíon of gender or women in the documenta reviewed. Some of the Centera in this group made no mention at all in any of the documents reviewed. others have some minor mention in project related reports. but usually nothíng at the level of the annual report or strategic plan. Ihis group includes: ISNAR. IBPGR. ILRAD, ICRISAT, and ILCA.From the first two groups, a number of strategies can be identified that would be useful to other canters in the System. I have selected three for discussion. Among these, considerable attention i9 given to IRRI due to the length and depth of that institution's experience. Several other examples are given at the end of the aection.!he most auccinct statement on IRRI's position regarding vomen and gender iasuea ia found in 'IRRI Toward 2000 and Beyond', Of the five IRR! policies laid out in the document to guide the future of the institution, the fourth i9 atated as 'vomen and rice', The brief summary of the policy reads: 'Yomen and rice. Affirmative action will be taken in recruitment, in selection of candidates for training and in research design to address tbe roles of women in IRR! itself. in national rice programs, and as users and beneficiaries of rice tachnology.' p. 23.•An expanded version of the policy provides some additional information about the program and its results.'rhe role of women in rice research and rice farming has both efficiency and equity implications. IRRI has be en sensitive to this issues for many years. Some progress has been made in regard to women in IRRI itself, in national rice programa, and as usera and beneficiaries of rice technology, but much remaina to be done.Ye recognize and uphold the principle of affirmative action in the recruitment of all staff at IRRI, Ye will intensify our effores to recruit qualified women scientists and administrators. Ye a)80 aim to increase the proportion of women in IRRI graduate and posedoctoral fellow programa snd short-term training programs.Ye vill continue to promete the integration of women'9 concerns into all research projects in IRRI and in national programa. Specificslly, gender anaIyais vill permit recognition of the centribution of vemen to rice produc:tion. marketing, &nd eepsumption; teehnolegies that reduce the burden on women vithout displacing their income-earning eapacity vill be developed, &nd researc:h on rice processing vill aim at conserving the level of essential nutrients. These ac:tivities vill help US te focus more sharply on the whole family as the ultimate beneficiarof rice researeh.• •The eornerstene ef lRAI's foeus on women and gender issuea is the Women and Rice Farming Systems Program (WIRFS). WIRFS traces its history te the Women in Rice parming conferenee held at IRRI in 1983. In addition te the reeommendatiens made by the c:enference to the Systam as a whole (mentioned earlier) participants also ealled for lRAI to organiza a network on women snd rice farming sy.tema for the Asian region. In 1984, a eonsultant vitb longterm expertise in women and rice produc:tion, Jennie Dey (currently vitb FAO). vas funded by the Pord Foundation to lay the groundwork for auch a network involving six countries. Bangladesh. India. Indonesia. Nepal, the ?hilippines. and Thailand.Following the Bellagio Conferenee on Women and Agricultural 1echnology, lRAI took steps to implement the rec:ommendation to davelop a long-term stratagy fer involving women in all phases of researeh and taehnology development work. In 1985, lRAI hald a projac:t dasign workshop to create WIRFS. Leadership for the first year vas provided by Gelia Castillo from the University of the PhiIippines, a notad scholar who vas aIraady sarving on the boards of several Centers. She coordinated WIRFS aetivities at lRAI. in the Philippines and within eountry members of the Asian network for rice farming systems. In 1986, WIRPS began aetion researeh vithin ene of lRAI's crop-Iivestock projec:ts (Paris, 1988). This work demonstrated te lRAl seientists snd management that introdueing a gender perspectiva mede a difference in research prierities and directions. as vall as identifying nev topies. such ss glutinous rice preparation, that had not previously been the subjeet ef lRAl research sttentien.On the basis of ehe inielal results of the WIRPS initiatives, the 1987 lRAI External Program Review recommended strengthening WIRFS york st the Institute. This reeommendation vas endorsed by tACo As a result, lRAI obtained funding from the Ferd Foundation for expanding WIRFS ac:tivities st lRAI snd within ehe network. To date, VIRFS has sponsored more ehan 26 different research projects. During the past two years, it has organized 11 workshops snd training eourses st national and international levels during 1988-1989. Funding from a number of other donora hss been obtained for many of the WIRFS aetivities ineIuding IDRC, ClDA, DANIDA, USAID, Rockefeller Foundation. snd a number of the Universities in the region. Over 81 papera or presentations haya been delivared by r~~ ~s of VIRFS on their work. at national and international eonferenees and workshopa between 1986-1989.The impres,ive rec• =d of WIRFS st lRAl la not duplic:ated st any of the oeher Centera. No othe~ :enter in the CGIAR System ~as a poliey ststement en women and gender issues. A number of critieal factors haya enabied lRAl to develop sueh s poliey anc, more importantly, gsin the nec:essary eonsensus among Center stsff and management. as vell as the partieipsting national programa and governments. to have it approved. These critical or 'conditioning' factors are listed below. 1 1)International legitimization for a focus on women and use of gender analysis. Tha lnternational conferences and external/international advisors have provided legitimacy and respect for the WIRFS effor~ in 'the eyes of the other members of the Institute. Donor funding has also assisted in legitimizing the effort.Sustained experienced leadership for WIRFS. The individual s leading the program have been qualified researehers in the social seienees with experience and training in gender analysis tocls.They were able to provide both scientific as well as mansgerlal leadership.3 All of these factors together have enabled the program to ¡et started and to begin to make s differenoe to soma of IRRI's york. At present, however, WIars i. at the end of ehe phaae of Pord Poundation funding snd vill hold a review in March 1990 to determine the future of the programo The review taam will have to deal vith several critical issues that vill determine the extent to which WIarS vill be continued.Pirst, leadership at lRaI has changed in the last yesr and the new management wants hard evidenca of WIarS strengths snd impacto WIarS internal leadership will also shift shortly with the departure of one of its two leadera. Under Swaminathan, junior scientiats at lRaI, many of wham are from the Philippines, vere given significant responsibilities. including the ability to travel outside the Institute to participate in regional and international activities. This is unusual amang ehe Centera. The prime \"mover' for ehe program during the past three yearl has been a Philippine woman with a M.S. degree. Though not senior IRRI staff herself. in the eyes of WIarS collaborators. ahe has represented and \"spokeu' for lRaI. Within lRaI, she ia a junior staff member and thus lesl able to influence ehe senior seientiata frem other programa. WIRFS has capitalized on the substantial cadre of Philippine women scientists for conducting WIRFS activities. The extent ta which this can continua should ba assaased. Alao, eritical attlntion needa to be given to the nead for a leader with senior ranking within ehe Institute in arder that the valuable lessons frem WI1FS activities ean influence the larger lRa1 program agenda.!he aecond issue ia that the program up to now has functioned largeIy in ehe mode of a apecial project focused on women. While gender analysis has been the working apparatus. the mode has been to operate through apecial projects snd teama that have been composed largely of women scientists.Partieipants in WIRFS activities have been mostly women. While it 15 importsnt to involve more wamen in ehe research work of the Institute, ie i8 esaentisl that the male scientists working in the mainstream be brought into \"s ¡ander vay of thinking.\" WIRFS has very successfully captured the 'converted' within and around lRa1 and gained the basic foundations of experience and results. Its challenge uow ia to mainstream the effort into the internal research program snd the larger rice farming systems network.Until recently. it waa difficult to find any mention of ¡ender or ot women in CIMMYT annual reports or strategy documents. However, CIMMYT's 1989 strategy statement. 'Toward the 21st Century, , includes a section dealing with 'Perspectives on Women in Agriculture.' In this statement. CIMHY't recogni;es the important role women play in agriculture snd the need ta identify the technical needa of women farmers. The statament also underlines the need to emphasize women's roles in production wi~hin CIHMYT's training programa, and the need to include more female participants in the training courses. CIHMYT's growing attention to gender issues is largely due to the results of gender-sensitive work conducted at various field sites.In an internal CIHMYT study on the impaet of the Center on women, Carney (1988) notes that 'the principal manne. in which CIHMYT has directed assistanee to'women in developing eountries ia through its work in on-farm researeh, known as on-farm researen with a farming aysteme perspective (OFR/FSPl.' Vithin its OFR activities, CIHMYT has reached women farmera in two broad re1ated areasl the development of methods for senaiti:ing researchera to the needa and circumstancea of a target group of farmers, and workshops and training programa in the effeetive use of the methods. The key OFR coneept directly relating to women fa~rs 19 the 'recommendation domain' whieh is a \"homogeneoua group of farmera who ahare the same problems and possess similar resources for salving these problems' (Low eited in Carney 1988). vnen applied.correctly, the recommendation doma in concept has the potential to identify production problema for women and men fa~rs and to angage women in on-farm research to solve these problema. The problem is that too often the method is not applied in a sufficiently unbiaaed manner. and recommendation domains are delineated aecording to the problems ahared by male farmers, not all farmers. However, the concept has great potential to facilitate the involvement of women farmers in tecbnology development.The seeond example ~omes from CIMMYT activities in Afriea. CIMMYT Eastern and Southern Africa Economics Program operates\"explicitly from an onfarm research perspective and has taken the lead in the region for providing training and national capacity building in adaptive research. From 1987, the CIMMYT program has taken steps towards ehe application of gender analys!s to agricultural researeh. In Apri1 1987, it sponsored a Networkshop on Household Issues and Farming Systems Research. The workahop included presentation of a case study incorporating gender analysis (Chabala snd Guichiru 1990), pspera by participants on the application of intra-household analyaís to trial design, farmer selection, and trial analysis, and general discussion of methodologies and issues related to the application of intra-household or gender anslyais to on-farm researeh (Alistair Sutherland 1987.) In 1989 and 1990, resource persona with expertise in the application of gender analyaia to agricultura1 research vere íncluded in Part 1 of CIHMYT's annual basle training eourse in on-farm research held at tne University of Zimbabwe. Participants are generally agronomists or agricultural economists from nationa1 systems who have not had formal training in OFR. The courae la divided into two parts: Part 1 cover, (' ~.vsis. informal and formal surveys snd runs for three weeks in February; Part 2, trial design and evaluation, runs for two weeks in September. !he schedule for Part 1 ia relstively tight sinee emphasis i9 put on fieId practicums. In 1990. the resource person gave a one hour lecture on gender analysia which included a slide show, methods for developing \"gender related\" cropping calendars. snd key definitions and questions; prepared a '¡endar sensitive' supplementary handout to the detailad guidelines for the informal,survey: led one group for the informal survey: anc prepared suggestions for further incorpofation of gender into the regular curriculum.!his kind of work by an e%temal training advisor is a good beginning. but still leaves gender analysis more or less as an add-on, not an integral part of the training. Gender as a useful ~d important variable needs to be threaded throughout the lectures, fie14 e%ercises, and field reports. While the foreshortened nature of each field e%ercise makes in depth questioning of farmers more difficult, some strategic, ahead-of-time planning and commitment on the part of the trainers could incorporate gender, an important variable in understanding farmer decision-making, as a natural part of the on-farm researcher's toolkit.One of the areas which does need to be addressed with more material in future courses is the approach to leaming about women and from women. Participants talked about the awkwardness of interviewing women--either because husbands were unwilling to have their wives intervieved alone or, vhen interviewed, women vere deferent in the presence of their husbands. It vas clearly an e%plicit barrier (probably hiding other deeper barriers) to better gathering of gender disaggregated information on the production system and therefore to the adequate inclusion of gender analysis.Another e%ample of a growing gender concem is highlighted in CIHMYT's ora work in Ghana. CIHMYT and Ghanaian researchers have become avare of the unique decision-making roles that vomen e%ercise in the choice of technology.\"In Northern Ghana, vomen will normally have the responsibilities of seed selection and planting of cereals, vhile decisions about other cultural practices, such as fertilizer selection and weed control, will often be made by meno !hus field-days that focus on the ma:~ring crop will normally only attract men, yet it is the women who maka many of the important decisions concerning choice of variety, time of planting and plant density and arrangement.\" (Edmeades, pers. comm. cited in Camey 1988).A recent study on changing maize production practices in Ghana showed that women adopt nev technologies as fast or faster than men (Tripp et al. 1987). But as Camey points out (1988:4) the fact that women only represented 15 percent of the study's sample and of these, only five grew maize as a monocrop. has uncovered additional areas that need to be researched. In fact. the team, as a result of such information, has begun several interesting nev initiatives. For e%ample, work is now being conducted on mi%ed cropping systems for maize because women farmers nearly alvays plant maize with other crops, such as cassava, and have been, thus far, uninterested in \".he m04o-crop techr.' SY developed by the project and adopted largely by male farmers. ~e project staff in Ghana have rese, ~h teams --all male members --inter~ct or collaborate in OFR work. nev Ghanaian reorganization that has recognized that the gender of the makes it difficult for vomen farmers to Therefore, they are collaborating vith a taken e%isting home economics extensionagenta --all vomen --and re-struetured them as th. Women Farmera Extenaion Serviee. The C1MMYT projeet i8 providing OFR training to a large group of these nev agrieultural agenta and intends to place them on field teama, lika male extension vorkers, vith the exp1icit objective of co1laborating more with women farmers. lt ia probably significant that the donor for this project is ClDA. and ClDA project offieers are insisting that CIDA's mandate regarding the incorporation of gender issues be foll~ed in the Ghana programo However, it was evident frem diseussions with C~ seientists in Ghana that they are strongly supportive of gender issues and eheir key coneem ia to 1eam appropriate methods for including gender iasues in the research procesa as vell as including WQmen in the on-farm triaIs.!hese experiences from C1MMYT's on-farm researeh program are good examples of how, both in training and in fieId work, gender iSluea can be ineluded and make a differenee. One can argue that at selected field and project interfaces, C1MMYT's research is being influenced by the results of gender analysis. However, as indicated in CIMMYT's strategy statement, concern for gender iasues is confined largely to on-farm research activities and th. Economies Programo As the Economics Program moves 'upstream,' away from adaptive OFR towards applied and ~trategie research. it will be important to continue to incorporate gender analysis within the nev research initiatives. Likevise. consideration of gender issues should move late rally into the coneems of both the wheat and maize programa.The pioneering efforts to develop a user orientation to reaearch and partieipatory researeh methods at CIAT by Jackie Ashby have already been discussed in this paper and are well-documented elsewhere (Ashby 1990(Ashby , 1987)).9 Ser efforts to incorporate gender issues snd analyais within the usar perspective have been very important. It 18 significant to note that Ashby's work has be en supported by and large by external. not cere funding. While this has provided a great deal of flexibility. it has al so contributed to the 'special project' status and the difficulty of influeneing other CIAT seientists with the results ef a gender sensitive research strategy. No mention is made of the research in the last two annual reports from the Center.In a reeent strategy documento CIAT in the 1990s. there i8 a statement under the bean program activities within the Africa section. that produetion ia by small farmara. mostly women, and ls predominantly subslstence (CIAT 1989). Unfortunately. there ls no further mention of whether this tact calls for any changes in agenda or methods of reaching farmers. No other program mentions gendar or women.Despite the lack of mention at higher levela of manageme~t,.in the 9 CIAr and lFDC collaborated in publishing an annotated bibliography on Women•, Agriculture, and Rural Development in Latin America by Jacqueline Ashby and SteUa Gomez (1985).lt ia one of the very few resources en women in agriculture in Latin America.bean programo and ta a les ser extent in the cassava programo there 15 increasiag attention ta and use of gender analysis methods. Breeding vark en besns at headquarters in has been significantly affected by Ashby's work in Colambia that has identified gender differentiated and user defined criteria for bean selectian.Within the Bean Program's Great Lakes, Pragram in Eastem Airica. two anthropolagists have placed attention qn women needs in bean development. Joachim VOIS, the first anthropologist vith the team based in Rvenda, illuminated the fact that the majority, if not all. of the bean producers in the region of the program vere women. tf they did not focua on women, they would miss the farmers entirely.Louise Sperling. the current anthropologist vith the team, has built upon Voss'a earlier york and the CIAT experiences in farmer participatory research and designed an innovative strstegy ta bring farmer's criteria for be aa vsriety selection into the breeding procesa at an early stage (personal communicatian, L. Sperling, Oecember 1989.) Working vith bean breeders and fsrmar communities, 'expert aeed selectors' vere selected by their neighbors ,and brought ta the experiment station. There, they vere exposed to the \"logic' af bean selection on-statian while providing iniormation on their own selection procedures on-farm. Over time, the farmar selectora, all of vhom are women, have become a regular part of the bean aelection process. The result is that farmar experience of decades of bean selection is being incorporated into varieties, scientists are altering their field trial arrangements to aceommodate better farmer understanding snd involvement in selection procedures, and there 18 higher probability that the varieties te be releasad vill prove aceeptable to the farmers they are intended to help. As 5perling says. 'rarmer knowledge, eombined vith breeder talents, has a chanca to produce something bettar than each expert's isolated afiocts,' Additionally, Rvandan and ClAT scientists, long conditioned not to view rural women aa 'thinkers' noc 'dec1sion-makars' are gaining a new perspectiva on women farmars who can match the breeders at their own game on their own turf, These examples from CIAT demonstrate tha value of user perspectives and gender sensitivity in tha research programo However, the impact of the understanding derived from attention to gender remain. at the immediate level of the field activities and does not filter up the aystem, nor systematically across the Canter to other programs. This problam is not limited just to gender analysis results. but 15 true for much of the socioeconomic research at CIAT snd at the other lARCs. This fact l. supported by a stetement from ClAT's recent External Program Review that says \"little use has been made of economic research capacity by ClAr administrators for Center-wida managemene decislons.' A This list i8 by no maans complete. It would be useful for tha scientists within the CGIAR System to have an inventory of the work that has been done related to gender in o~der that they could draw upon each others' expariences. It would al so ~~ useful for donors to have a sense of what might hava been triad elsewhere before it i5 repeated in a new set.ting or expanded. Finally, national programs wha are facing growing raquests by donora to include gender issues in their donor-funded work. would benefit from the experiences gained by the IARCs.The review of gender lssues in the CGlAR System reveals that the tapie has been dlfficult for the lARCs. TAC and the CGlAR Secretarlat to address. w~ile considerable york has been accomplished. many of the researchera responsib1e for the effort do not feel they. have succeeded in convincing othar col1eagues of the utility af gender ana1yala. Little of the results from york desling witb gender lssuea has influenced ar informad the research agendas of the Centera. Vhile some difficulties are Center-specific. othera cut across the System and create a general barrier to gender sensitivity and analyais. These cross-cutting lasues are dlscusaed in this sectian, drawing an speelfic centera as examples.There is general misunderstanding af the difference between gender analysis and affirmative actian. Gender analyaia i5 aimed at greater effieiency in productian through the use of analytieal toola designed to better define wao dae. what in the production system and to a1ign research and development priorities, resaurces and participation of users aceordingly. Gender analyais is nat gender speeific and can. and should, be done by men and women. The use of gender analyais as part of the routine of agricultural researeh results in a gender sensltive approach to development as a waole.Affirmative actlon, on the other hand, refers to the staffing of agricultural researcn entities and revising the overwhelmingly male structure to one that involves equitable numbers af men and women at all levels of staffing. Affirmative action is applied to training programs through mechanisms to assure that men and women have equal access and participation.Though ¡ender sensitlve research and development and affirmative action are related, they are not equivalent. Women, just because of their sex, are not gender experts. Gender analyai! 1s leamed, like any other skill. Within many tARCs. however, managers have confused the tvo issusa and have assumed that hiring a few more women seientists will salve the problem of ¡ender issues. While the simple preaence of more women professlonals st a11 1evels in the System may influence some researchera to 'see' more women farmers and decisian-makers in the rural sector, it does not guarantee the use of gender ana1yais. Managers must be careful to elarify, separate and manage them as two issues.As defined earlier. gender ls a social construct and gender analysis draws on social selence toe!a. .~dci3l1y from anthropolo¡y, sociology, geo¡raphy and ecanoeLcs. There are relatively few social leientists in the CGlAR System as a whole. The few that are there, are not uniformly equlpped (trained) to do this type of work. In additian, the diseiplinary bias of the socioeeonomics divlslons or positlons wlth the System ls towards agricultural economics. Agricultural economies training. with few exceptians, does not address gender lssues nor provide training in gender analyals methadologies.-In fact, as others have pointed out, the predominance of agrieultural economista aa the voiee of social seienc, in the Centera and especially in onfarm researeh teams, likely contributes to gender blindness through a reliance on traditional household modela that aasume the farm household functions as a single unit for produetion and eonsumption and that assume that consensus exists among household members on the alloeation of resourees and benefica, and that all household members' interests and problema are identieal (Cloud 1988) • •As Hurphy notes in a recent World Bank guide, '!he contribution of women to development ia often underestimated in economic analyses if these include only formal market activities. because much of the economic contribution of rural women ia done tbrough non-market labor. Yet this contribution ia highly significant altbougb its relative proportion varies between countries. The World Bank Long Term Perspective Study estima tes that women are responsible for about 70% of the food staple production in Africa. Their labor contributien te expert crop and te informal trade is also highly signifieant'(1989:3).To deal with this problem, managers can add, judiciously, genderexperienced scientists from the other social science domains, either on a permanent or project (consultant) basia, to expand the analytical and metbodological base of the social sciences in the Centers and provide the capability to conduct gender analysis. Alternatively, training existing staff and backstopping them with experieneed professionals drawn locally and internationally would be another solution to enhancing the gender anaIyais eapacity. Pooling analytical resources across international and national researeh institutions i8 another route to enhancing capabilities.A key tool for enhancing a gender perspective ls the incorporation of a gender analysis framework in researeh. One of the reasons why frameworks for gender analysis are useful to agricultural researchera 11 that they pose a set of questions that should be asked at every decision point in the process of agricultural research. !he questions --who does what. with what resourees, who has access or control to the resources and benefits. and who should be included in research activities --are always the same. !he answers vary. Analyais of the information generated by the questions becomes part of the overall analysis of the production or food system. Practice with a gender 1 analysis framework will make it part of the normal process of inquiry.3. Laek of contact betveen scientists and women farmara.IARe scientista gene rally have very little contact with women farmara. Even Ni.: .• 2SR or on-farm research programa, it i8 rare to find consistent or extensive contaet with women farmers. therefore litt~e knowledge and understanding ls gained of the differences that might occur between males and females practicing agriculture in the same zone. One raason for the lack of women participants in on-farm research ia a lack of rigor and methodological justification in the selection of farmar cooperators. A recent ISNAR study (Siggs, 1989) pointed out the selection of farmer cooperators i8 the veakest methodological &spect in the rea~ of farmer participation. More oiten than not, faeners are selected fer their conv.nience, not for representativeness. They tend to be wealehier and commercially oriented. They often have very little in common with women farmers in the same area. Poor implementation of the methods for farmer selection prevents adequate inclusion of women farmers and exacerba tes the lack of contact vith scientists despite the growing use of on-farm research approaches.Better application of the toola to build representativeness into the selection of farmers as collaboratora in the research process vill lead to a rational inclusien of women farmers in the process.When a Center is headquartered in an are a where women either historically have had a smaller role in the production of the commodities within the mandate of the Center, or where women are believed to playa amall role in agriculture, the beliefs and understanding of the Center stafi conceming gender roles in production are greatly influenced by the immediate surroundings. Por example, the location of lITA in a region of Nigeria where WQmen are not very involved traditionally in preduction activities has caused or reinforced the belief that vomen in general are not involved in agriculture. (personal communicatien, A. Goldman, January 1990.)In the north of Nigeria women are not even involved in marketing activities. Field exposure there has served to reinforce a lack of attention to the issue sinee it simply doesn't visually hit researchers over the head. Likewise, the loeation of CIHHYT in an area of Mexico typified historieally by men taking major responsibility for field tasks in agriculture has contribQted to a similar bias (personal communicationf J. Camey, February 1990.) This kind of 'conventional visdo=' can serve as blinders to gender differences, even when one is confronted vieh them, face to face. Camey explains that in Mexico, women are becoming major decision-makers in agricultural production fer maize and wheat. In the past, they vere noto Even though migration to ehe U.S. on a seasonal basis was alvays an economic strategy used by men to augment household income, they vere able to be ae home to perform the major agricultural tasks. Now that aeasonal migration ia 111egal, men can no longer return to perform these tasks and women must bear ehe bQrden of ehe agricultural work. Usually ehey use remittances from ehe men to purchase labor in the form of mechanizstion. Bouad by their beliefs in the aystem 'the way lt vas,' the research community has not perceived these changes in the production system &ud nor questioned whether lt makes a difference. In the definition of problema &ud design of r.~• ~ology, the mele is still considereu as the aead of the household &ud key aecision.maker.In the Mexican situation above, if researchera first asked who doas what in the local production system. thay would discover the changes in gandar roles brought on by larger politicsl &ud social changes. They could then adjust researeh directions and priorities accordingly. lf they don't ask ehe 30 • ¡ ., question, then they remain blinded by their beliefs in the way the system usad to be instead of how it really 15. 5. Lack of senior scientist involvement in gender issues.Research relating to gender iasues i3 often assigned to or undertaken by junior staff, the post doc'!, junior seientists, research aasociates, and research aasistanta. Because vomen haye be en the primary actors in dealing ,.with gender iaaues and beeause women are gene rally within the Centera in more junior positiona, the lack of senior status and involvement has created a type of \"second elass standard' for gander issuas vork. This has mada it diffieult for those condueting gander analyaia to make their results heard within the Center and within the CGlAR System. Additionally, most of the attention to gender is by social scientists, who al SO generally have less status and seniority within agricultural research.• Not only does this deafen the larger research effort to gender analysis, but also there i8 a lack of guidance and mentoring for the seientists and researchers who do engage in gender analysia. While there are gendersensitive male seientists within the Syatem, few apparently are willing to be vocal in public on the subjeet. Often this ia a case of simply lacking experience in artieulating gender issues within the agricultural research framework. For othera, there la a definite perceived social and even professional risk in standing up for gender amongst tbeir peers. Aa long as the 'culture\" of the Centera make it risky to voice gender issues. the effective lncorporation of gender analysis in research is unlikely.The riak pereeived in voicing gender eoncerns i9 linked to the connection of gender isaues to the social seienees, and in most cases, to onfarm research. Gender ia embedded in a whole approach to eondueting agricultural research that ia still not well accepted aeross all seetors of the field. Resistance to doing research with direet farmer involvement ia still SO strong that proponents often fear to eomplicate the issue further by adding the gender perspective. Thua, many of the more gender-sensitive male seientists in the System are reluetant to push the issue since they are already fighting a difficult battle just to get any farmers at all involved in the process. 6. Gender viewed as the responsibility of NARS not lARCs.As mentioned earlier in the paper, gender issues and analysis, and indeed any reaeareh direetly involving farmera, is viewed by many within ehe CGIAR System aa the responsibility of NARS not the lARCs. While it is true that the adaptive stage of the research process should be aquarely in the domain of the national programs, the technical results from strategie and particularly from applied resear~:, ;~,~ot be generated in isolation from the realities of farmer produetion aystems. There ia a crucial need to ~a1 •. tain a contact with farmers to assure relevancy. ~f this contact is lost or mediated only througb several layera of researchers. the technology released by the System may be inappropriate, or vorae, miss the target entirely. The exact balance of farmer and user contact neeessary to research dependa on the problem being addreased and the skills of the human resources involved.Gender iuues IllUst be articulated in the for=lation of t .. d researeh problem as well as the formatting of its solutio~. For some problema, gender, as well as other soe:io•economic variables, are meot iasues in the sDlution procesa. Hawaver, for the majority of problema facing developing e:ountry disadvantaged farmers, the socioeeonomie: variables are part and parcel of the problem and we cannot afford ta overlook ehem.A related element to thia is the.fact that ehe CGIAR Centers are the aaurce of research methodology for many NARS researchera. Hany laok ta the Centers for training and far the latest innovations in agricultural research. the absenee Df gender perspectives, senaitivity and methads Df study in the training programa offered by the CGIAR 5ystam perpetua tes the invisibility of women as a client group far IARC/NARS tachnalagy.7. Gender issues as a apecial project.Gender related projects and programa, the few that exist, are underfunded, and/ar rely on apecial funding. they tend not to be eore funded. this makes tham very vulnerable to funding cutoffs. It also tends to iso late the issue as a \"spee:ial topic\" rather than integrating the con~ent and methods thraughout the programo Special 'women's projects\", l!ke those at lRAI and UTA, can sometimes backfire in the long runo they serve to bring womeri into the aystem and often to produce relevant research results, as long as the apeeial funds lasto When the funding or the project terminates, there are no meehanisms in place to assure continuity in funding or direetion. there needs to be far greatar \"mainstreaming' of the effores dealing with gender i9sue8. Mainstreaming will also help to legitimize ehe work af the seientists who are already candueting work on the subject. a. Lack of mechanisms ta implement affirmative ae:tion goals.While correeting the eurrent gender 1mbalance in the staffing pattems and the training courses af the CGIAR System will not automatieally aehieve gender sensitivity, having more women professionals in the 5ystem i9 a related concem and a stated goal of many IARe directora. Howevar, managers camplain that they do not get enough women applicants for staff positions. Most agree vith Richard Sawyer's comment at the 1987 ICY seminar. that it i9 important not to sacrifice quality in favor of balancing numbers. While this i8 trua, it may be that the Canters have not beeo pro.active enough in eheir searches. The men who currently dominate the staffs af the Centers, have contact in the professional world and in their disciplinary soeieties primarily with ather meno Overtime this may change. As mare women meve into the system, mare WOmen will gain aecess and interest through their presenee. Inereasing numbers of women spee;alizing in agrieultural research with international interests vill enhwnc. che pool of human resources lor future staffing.In terma af •sining at the Centers, managers face a different problem. Much of the respocs_bility fór selecting trainees lor training coursss is in the hands of national program leader!. Center! are reluctant to make demands for specifie kinds of participants with regard to gender. However, criter1a Training managers should explore whether criteria for balancing male and female participants would really cause problema st the NARS level. le might require more time in negotiation and diseussion about participants and, for this, training managers could approaeh the issue with NARS leadera on an informal basis. In other cases, it may be useful to substitute field. experienee for formal educstion in the requirements for admission to trai_ing in order to sllow women greater access to technical training, even when the educational system has previously biased their aequisition of basic formal disciplinary training. Sometimes. the barrier i9 simply taking ehe first step. In the short run, quota systems or similar mechanisms may be necessary. However, if regional lARC staff and eollaborating national program leaders can be sen9itized to the issue, then it is likely that targets for increasing women's participation in training will be achieved.Monitoring the progresa of the CGlAR System in incIuding women as staff and trainees was called for in several of the sets of recommendations from the series of conferences summarized earIier in this paper. It i9 difficult to assess the degree of compliance with this requeat sinee the public documents of the Centers (the annual reports in particular) still do not report any gander disaggregated staffing or training information. Even discussion in several reports and planning documenta from Centera, and from the COlAR Secretariat of critical human resource deficiencies in Africa. as a special topie. did not mention women professionals as an overlooked or scarce resouree. Even though the statistic! on the critical role women playas the predominant food crop farmers in Africa are well.known and cited almost routinely in intemational circles, there is little or no linking of women farmers to the need for women professionals within the agricultural research and development ranks.The COlAR Secretariat has taken some steps to implement changes in response to this recommendation in the management reviews of the Centers. Looking at the three concluded in the last sl% menths, it ia worthwhile considering the terms of reference for the task and the results in the review reports.In the CIP EMR (1989) the question that focused on gender/women in the list of questions in the management review terms of refarence was found under human resources. '#7. Ooes CIP actively promete recruitment. retention and career development of women? Are there barriers to women's advancement in the center?\"The response to this question by the EMR team was found on ~. ~8 of the report.'CIP has around 138 women emp10yees of whom five are intemationa1 scientists and a further five are postdoctorals. CIP has no quota for women and doea not consciously monitor their number. CIP has so admirable record in this area. CIP women have ehaired the Board and its 33 , proje~ts in remote areas. T~}re are advaneement of women ando i~ :erms p tbere is equality of opportunity.') diseernable ohstaeles to the leleetion and work opportunities.To test tae validity of this assessment. the CIP professional staff were disaggregated by génder using tbe staff listings in the 1988 annual reporto the same year as ehe management review (see belaw). As can be seen, among senior managemant, women enly appear on. the Board. This means that in terms of day-to-day management snd scientific leadership, women are absent. Among the research seientists (headquarters and regional) with a Ph.D. only 8.5% are women (5 out of 59). Among the other researeh seientists. 19% (2 out of 21) are women. While these numbers have ineraased sinee 1983. they do not substantiate the assessment by the EMIt team of 'no discernable obstaeles ,. or having 'equality of opportunity'. Among the seientifie assistants. 35% are women and in several departments. the numbers of women assistants is nearly half; in two departments (social seienee and training/communieations) women number equal to men or more. In terms of total numbers. however. tbere are 48 women (or 24%) and 149 meno These numbers differ from those quoted from ehe EMIt. It seems likely that secretarial staff may have been inadvertently included in the total number of women staff counted by the EMR. In the CIAT EPR (1989), within the terma of referenca for the review, fallowing question vas ineluded, '8. Is CIAT giving sufficient eonsidetation in planning reseateh and related activities to the needs of women and ta the implication of the applieation of resaareh results fot women?\"In the review document producad by the program evaluation team, undet the saction \"Target groups and gendar issues\" no further mention of the word \"gender\" is used.While the \"equity orientation\" of CIAT in terms of limited resource farmers snd consumers i9 applauded, no eoneem i8 raised over lack of gender disaggregation to see if there is any differentiation among this group, In addition to noting that the bean farmers in East Africa are women, the only further note on gender i8 at end of the section wbere it states: \"At the other end of the spectrum. st the micro-level, the Farmer Participstory Research Projeet ia seeking vaya to draw men and women into the research process in their capacities as producers, procesaors and consumerl,\"In the CIAT EMR (1989) the gender-apecific queation posed in the terms of reference was the same posad to CIP: \"7, Does the center actively promete recruitment, retention and career development of women1 Are there barriera to women's advancement in the center?\" Answars to question are hard to find. On p.39 it states:• More aggresaive a9sistance with spousal employment may a1so ba warranted, particular1y if CIAT i9 serious about improving the gender balanca; professional woman a!most invariably have professional spouaes. Thare ia already a new poliey permitting CIAT employment of spouses in outreach programa under specified conditions. This issua i9 endemic to al1 CGIAR centera and a concerted collaborativa affort to idantify solutions would probably be useful,'The report also notes that at CIAT intemationally recruited staff includes 97 man and 11 women (10.2%). Thera is no breakdown by gender for programa nor by discipline in the rev!ew., Leoking finally at the lITA review, questions about women were included in the ter=s of reference for both the EPa and the EMR. In the EPa, lt asked: 'What mechanlsms does the Centre have to ensure equal recognltion of ehe role of men and women in agricultural research and acceas to its products1'This question was placed in the general list of review questions. In ehese addressed specifically to lITA. there vas no further mention of women nor gender. In the EPa report (1990. p. 61) it states. 'The Instltute i5 also vorking to ensure that women vill soon fill at least 30% of training opportllOities.' On p. 66 it adds the following clarification, 'Records ovar the past four yeara shOY tha: only 6.8: oE African trainees st lITA vere vomen. Given the important role plsyed by 'JOmen in Africsn agriculture. this participation ls obviously inadequate, lITA 18 nov developing an afflrmative action programme to identify snd encourage vomen to apply for training opportllOities at the Institute. In 1989. 22% of the PhD and 23% of ehe MSc graduate students vere women, while ln group courses. the women represented l2% of the total particlpants. In 1985. lITA received a grant from the Ford Foundation to cover the expenses for flve female MSc students and 34 vomen on short training courses. A second proposal seeking financial support for ten female agricultural professional (MSc. and PhD.) has just been approved Eor fllOding, The lITA objective is to have vomen fill at least 30% of the openings in education and training at lITA. Oespite substantial improvements since 1986, that earget remains elusive, and will remain so unIese financial support for ehe yollOg dependents of female students 15 provided. 'In ehe lITA EMR (1990) llOder human resources the teons af reference included the same questions posed to CIP and CIAT: \"#1. Ooes lITA actively promote recrui~ent. retention and career development of women1 Are there barriers to women's advancament L~ the eenter?In the report itsalf, on p. 39, the response ia • rhe ratio af male ta female internatianal staff ia about 8:1. The ratio has shown slight improvement in recen~ years. Efforts to hire mora femala staff shauld continue, \" For all of the other indieators on human resources. there are tables with information, but not for gender. There is no infor=ation about gender disparity or problep~ with recruitment, retention snd career development. Thera ~s nv information on any measures to attract women nor issues of tu~_over. There la no informatlon on nationally hired staff regarding gen.-~, sector or discipline. In som, t~e answer ta the quest!on by the evaluatlan ~eam ia incomplete. rhe same can be said for the other reviews. Though it ia necessary to • J-, .include the question in the terma of reference for the EMRs and the EPRs, and the CGlAR and TAC are to be commended o~ taking this initiative, having the question is not sufficient. TAC and the CGlAR will have to monitor whether the review teams address the question and how well they can assess a response. Obviously, there are some errora in the CIP review reporto For all three of the examples, the answera for the questions are very incomplete. Rectifying this will take some thought and attention .. It is not sufficient just to be sure a woman is on the review teams. 59me of these teams did include women. One had two women. It is necessary that the Centers themselves take the iasue seriously and prepare for the review by disaggregating their staff and training participants by gender. This will enable the CGlAR to monitor progress in reaching gender balance over time and allow reviewers easier access to the necessary information to make an assessment.Restrictions on the numbers of people on review teams and the variety of qualifications that must be represented will limit the extent to which gender specialists can be placed on the teams for both EMRs and EPRs. For the latter, however, given the move to more strategic EPRs, greater attention will be paid to linkages with the national systems and their capacity to collaborate as strong partners with the centers. For this assessment it is imperative to have a member on the panel who is highly sensitive to the issue of NARS linkages with their resource poor clients, and not least to the potential impact of technologies on gender balance in the farm household.The gender information gap. 'While there is a virtual explosion of literature today on gender issues in all aspects of development, this literature does not seem to come in contact with the majority of Center staff. Part of the reason is that the scientists themselves are fairly specialized by disciplinary interests and by their assignment to specific tasks. Their fieldwork and travel schedules do not often allow exploration of related research fields, even if they have the interest. Access to literature is also a problem since the Center libraries are also focused to their specific mandates. It is not feasible for the Centera to invest in expanding their collections to include the whole gender literature, but selective inclusion of relevant material s would be an improvement. Information specialists could be another resource on this topic by learning about and providing access to literature sources on gender issue5 at local and international levels.Presentation of the information in the CGIAR 5ystem publications could a150 be improved. Though there is substantial use of pictures showing women as farmers and consumers in the Center documents, few pictures portray women as scientists, collaborators in research or as significant numbers within training courses. Again, referring to the example that the Centers set in __ \"drnational agriculture, improvements could be made in the visual presentation of t~e importance of men and women in the work of the System.The CGlAR 5ystem is not lacking in recommendations regarding gender issues. Rather, the problem lies in identifying actions to implement the recommendations already mada. !bis sectipn outlines five next steps to alleviate the diffieulties the System has in dealing with gender.Step l. Donors to ehe CGIAR System must exert pressure upon the system to adope an explieit gender perspective and incorporate ¡ender analysia in the research agenda. !his pressure cannot be limited to an annual call for ad hoc reportin¡ st the ICV. Mauy, perhaps mqst, of the major donors to the CGIAR System have already implemented ¡ender or VID policies that are routinely applied to other development efforts. Donors must reconsider these policies and devise appropriate mean. to apply them to the CGIAR System.Step 2. TAC and the CGIAR have taken a eritical first step by adding questions on women and ¡ender issues to the terma of reference for the regular review proceas of the Centera (the EMR and the EPa). However, this was not suffieient. leview eeams must be instructed (trained or advisedl on how to look for information to answer these questions. !hey must be encouraged to address al1 of the questions, not just the part on 'how many women are employed.' !his means lookin¡ at two aspects of ¡ender:-!he first ia the use of gender as an analytical tool in the description of problems, the design and testing of new technology and in the examination of impact on clients and beneficiaries. In this sense, ¡ender is a part of the research process and evaluators must look for its appropriate application.-!he 'acend aspeet daals with staffing. leview teams must look at the gender of the staff of ehe Canters to see the extent to whicb women are present at eaeb level and within tbe'various programa.Centers themselves sbould assist the review teams in tbis process by providing annually a gender disaggregated aecounting of staffing at all levels, by eovering pragmatic themes and summarizin¡ ¡ender-related resesreh and results. Between the regular reviews, Center progresa en these issues can be monitored by reviewing annual reports, researeb reports, planning documenta, snd ather aecounts of Center activities.Step 3. rf Centers are ta take gender issues seriously and incorparate ¡ender analysis into relevant parts of tbeir research and programming, Centar staff need to leam how to do this. It is clear from ehe review of the Center's experience to date that only a very few seientists, lar¡ely social scientists -use gander analysi. as a tool in tbeir work. !hose who do, cama te the Centers with these skills leamed alsewbere. Despite ehe literature cn gander issues from within and witbout, the Centers have not adapted their methods ta include ¡ander analysis, in their work. Simplv r•• A ' 19 ar haaring about ¡ender iasues ia not sufficient to make a change in the way reseerch 18 done. ~at i~ needed te eneourage this changa is treining.Trsining needs to be earried out at two levels: for those currently being trained by the Centers snd for those witbin the Centera tbemselves. Takin¡ ehe first level, ehe curriculum of the training offered by ehe Centera for I • • national program researchers and practitieners neede to be-reviewed and revised fer gender contento !his doea npt mean the creation of a special course on gender, but rather the careful incorporation of gender issues and methods within ezisting. appropriate courses. Obviously, there is no need fer gender content in the courses dealing with such specialized technology as virus testing procedures. however. courses dealing with user or clientoriented research methods, such as process~g and storage systems, smallscale machinery, pest-management, seed,management and on-farm research in general can be enhanced with the inclusion of gender issues and methods. The CIMMYT example from East Africa described earlier or the work done at IiRI to revise the farming systems course curriculum (A. Frio. personal communication. March 1990) are useful modela tor other Centera. In each case, the course was not necessarily expanded, but altemate material s and ezereises were included that draw participants attention to male and female roles in farming and gender analysis toola for technology design and teating. Relevant training material s and literature do already exist for these purposes. !he necessary next step is their incorpcration threugh the normal channels cf training currículum review and revision.Trainíng at the second level -among the Center staff itself -ls also critIcal. VDile it is not necessary for every Center staff scientist or research assistant to be an expert in gender analysis. it is important that the Center as a whole adopt a positive attitude towards gender. Providing training of al1 staff. from top to bottom is a significant step towards revising the gender bias that exista in agricultural research institutions -Centera included -and ereating a climate in which gender issuea can be dealt with a ratienal analytical level. rather than through the haze of misperceptions and subjective prejudice. Sensltization and avareness. This ia a 'starter' course and it i8 targeted at the entire staff. !he purpose is general awareness and understanding of the difference between sex and gender, the reasons why gender issues are important in agricultural research, and the framework and basic tools used in gender analysis. !he training vill give Center staff a commOn set of terms and definitions -a vocabulary to use in discussing gender issues and anaIysis. !his vill help to correct the many mi.cenceptions and confusions that exist between gender analysis and affirmative action, respectively the efficiency and equity aspects of gender understanding .!he content for a Type 1 course can be drawn from existing gender training materials (s~e ___ ~xamples Overholt. et al. 1985); Feldstein et al. 1989;Feldste!n and Poats 1990) but ~ould be complemented with examples from the commodities and areas of cone~m'for each center.. The course should contain handa-on exereises to give eaeh participant a chane e to handle gender data and experiment with analya!a and interpretation. Practical ezercisea in applying the lessons of the course to staff member own job responsibílities ahould be the final part of the course.Type I training should be eondueted First among all senior management and leaders of eaeh Center. There should be no exeeptions. Training must start st the top to set an example that the issues are important to the Center as a whole. Prom the top, the training should be implemented in groups of 25-30, mixing senior seientists snd research stsff in interdisciplinary fashion.It i8 suggested that the trainer •• for this course be drawn from outside the Center in order that all member of each Center can participate equally. However. the trainers should be familiar with the Centers and their activities. It might be pos.ible for existing gender-experieneed researchers from other Centers to participate as trainers or resouree persona.Experienee in conducting this sama type of training in a vide range of institutions for similar purposea strongly luggeata that a minimum of one-and-one-half days should be allocated for the training seasion. To conserve on trainer costs. it 1a wise to schedule a series of courses in a row st a time when staff are gathered se headquarters. Pollow-up monitoring se si: snd 12 months Should be designed to elicit impact on staff members work .. Hany Centers are presently undergoing a number of other staff training programs dealing with management, research planning. resource allocation. etc. Gender i9 susceptible to •short shrifting• in the face of these perceived priorities. Donors. CGIAR, TAC and Center Directors viII have to determine just where their commitment lies on user issues as a Whole, and gender spe~ifically, and then allo~ate the neceslary resources to get the Job done.Type 2.Gender Analysis Methode. Following Type 1 training, those persona with researeh responsibilities that draw them into close contact with techuelogy users, should be selected for a more thorough training in gender analysis methods. Gender-experienced eenter staff can be valuable resource persons and facilitators far such training, or, depending on individual capabilities, trainera themselves. This training ceurse would be more explicitly focused on data gathering and analysis methodologies, interpretation skills, and field practice. Field practicum work i8 sn essentisl part of such a course, because it provides the necelsary experience in daing researen through a new gender perspectiva.The cantent of the caurse is similar to the gender eantent described aboye under level one. Hawever. since the researchera participating would already be experienced in the other content areas, ehe gender mathods alone would be the focua. Between three and five dayl il usually needed for such training in order to aecommodate the field exerci~es.In~luding researeh collaborators from proje~ta with NARS may he an effeetive mechanism ta pr~te a team approach to addrelsing gender-issues L~ new or on-going projec~~. Type 2 courses can be designed sctually to initiate field or project york to include ¡ender issues. In eSlence, the practieum launches participants in applying gender toola and using the ¡ender analysis framework en an actual research problem. Tying training to such work can ennance both the relevance and speed with which the toola hecome part of the The content of a Type 3 course snould be-focused on practice vith a variety of training materials that already exist that have been useful in teaching gender analysia tools to reaearchers and development workera in other settings. Trainera should a1so be exposed to nev types of training material s and approaches tnat nave been particularly effective in dealing with gender issues that might not already be in their particular repertoire of training toals. Finally, trainers should be given practice and guidance in develaping new material s specific ta tneir technical mandates for teaching gender issues in their awn centers.The lengtn of time far this type af training depends on the existing skills of the trainers and the number of people in tne course. The important thing ia to give the trainer-participants enough time to practice training on gender issues and in designing gender components for other training courses so that they viII be able to carry this york on vithin the Centera. Well qualified and experienced trainers who have done gender training themselves should be 80ught as the facilitators for tnis course. The experienced trainera can serve as mentors to tne trainer-participants as they begin training in their respective Centera.Taken together, the three types of training viII develop the capacity of the Centers to undertake research with a ¡ender perspective and to sustain that perspective vith new members of their own staff and among tne trainees from national programa.Stap.. Centers should use existing networks such as those aIready established for collaborative activity on commodity researen to develap common themes and research methodologies for dealing with gender issues. There are several advantages of doing this. First, networks bring a vitality to researeh by engaging a number of researchers in different socioeconomie and agroecological settings to focus attention on similar issues and using similar metnodological approaches. For gender analyaie, tne netvorkin¡ approach will bring greatar innovation to the methodologies for ¡ender analysis as well as a range of examples that demonstrate why and how gender sensitive research can make a difference to the development and adopti~n .~ ~dchnology.The networking approach applied to ¡ender iS$ue$ vill also help to reinforce the linkage between the LARCs and the NARS. PIacing gender iasues and analyaia within a network helpa to integrate the ¡ender perspective into tne larger research framework •Step~.!he CGIAR sha~ld develap a atrategy paper far the general implementatian af existing recommendatio~a. !hese sno~ld be fallowed by Center-specific strategy atatements. Each Ceneer ultimately needa to develop and ¡ain eonsenaus en Buen a seatement, Buen as IAlI's, and translate that into explieit previsions in the workplan and the allacatien af resaurees.!hese five stepa vill enhenee the capacity aE the Centers, and the CGIAR system as a whale, ta emplay ¡ender enalyaia as a normal. pragmatie vay ta conduct ¡ood agricultural research end to develap useful technolagies far rescurce poor farmera. ","tokenCount":"18060"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a96f42ed32c97bcd529252a6619ad197","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ac16ea3f-5b4a-41a1-a2e2-b1047ebc9c5b/content","id":"-1830203259"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca5aaad9-264e-48c9-b439-9414734febe3","pagecount":"2","content":"This brief summarizes fi ndings from an assessment of young people's perceptions of and participation in agriculture in Mozambique. In order to understand young people's interest and perspectives as they relate to the agricultural sector, we examined young women and men's perceptions of the following themes: (i) sustainability of farming as a livelihood; (ii) existing opportunities for young people in the agricultural sector; (iii) access to land, other farm inputs and outputTransporting maize harvest, Tete province, Mozambique. Photo: CIMMYT/Tsedeke Abate.• Regardless of the village of residency, both young men and young women showed positive attitudes towards farming. Farming is a source of food and income for rural households.• Youth receive land from their parents, when they marry. In patrilineal communities of Macate, the new couple receives land to farm from the husband's parents at the time when the young wife moves to her husband's home. In matrilineal communities in Angonia, when a woman marries she receives land from her parents for her to farm with her husband.• Youth in rural Mozambique see themselves as farmers for the rest of their lives. There is lack of alternative employment and economic opportunities outside agriculture in rural areas; therefore, youth fi nd agriculture to be their only option. markets for their farm produce; (iv) access to knowledge, skills and information; (v) youth engagement in forums for youth dialogue; and (vi) access to green jobs that contribute to environmental conservation and other economic activities outside agriculture. The study was conducted in six villages of Macate and Angonia districts, in central Mozambique. A total of seven focus group discussions were held with a total of 85 participants (39 males and 46 females).• Although youth are aware of employment opportunities in urban areas, of the 85 study participants only one male youth from Macate district revealed plans to move to urban areas in search of employment and stop farming.• Youth are involved in small business. More female youth are involved in trading crops and fruits, while male youth sell food stu (oil, sugar, salt). For youth, small business is temporary, not stable, and not profi table. Thus, the youth tend to put farming activities as a fi rst priority at most times and small businesses are considered a secondary priority.• Youth face many challenges in farming that hinder them from moving from subsistence to more profi table agriculture. However, as noted by Ripoll et al. (2017), a number of these challenges are not specifi c to youth, but rather of general structural character. Some of the challenges that were noted by young women and men in this study include: (i) Lack of access to fi nancial services necessary to invest in improved inputs, labor, and machinery; ii) Problems in obtaining good returns from trading crops due to price fl uctuations and lack of reliable markets; (iii) Lack of access to knowledge, skills, and information about farming; and (iv) Young women face several genderrelated barriers, e.g. in relation to voicing their concerns and participation in meetings.• Including young women and men farmers in the targeting of interventions related to information about and access to good quality seeds, as well as to with fi nancing or price discounts for fertilizer, seeds and herbicide purchase.• Strengthening young women's and men's membership in producers' groups, to help them learn from, and address input-as well as output market challenges together with other farmers (FAO, 2012). This could also facilitate young farmers' exposure to extension information and improved agricultural technologies.• Evaluate experiences with emerging youth-focused fi nancing products to build evidence. A relevant example can be found in Uganda, where youthdedicated products have started to be o ered, through a partnership between the Development Finance Company of Uganda (DFCU) Bank, Stanbic Bank and Centenary Bank with the Government of Uganda and its Youth Venture Capital Fund (FAO, CTA and IFAD, 2014).• Take advantage of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) i.e., mobile phones, internet services, radio, among others, to reach out specifi cally to rural youth and provide them with information that will enhance their agricultural knowledge, business skills and production capability.","tokenCount":"679"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d42116280f76f594bb058131b1058b9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad022220-cadf-4e6a-bc1f-2b94c88f4642/retrieve","id":"1630975752"},"keywords":["Homem","B. G.","de Lima","I. B. G.","Spasiani","P. P.","Guimarães","B. C.","Guimarães","G. D.","Bernardes","T. F.","... & Casagrande","D. R. (2021). Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems","121(2)","167-190. Subbarao","G. V.","Rondon","M.","Ito","O.","Ishikawa","T.","Rao","I. M.","Nakahara","K.","... & Berry","W. L. (2007). Plant and Soil","294","5-18"],"sieverID":"8fc5edf3-f24b-4d8b-a1f7-c871711f7bf9","pagecount":"1","content":"Unfertilized grass monocultures with extensive grazing management dominate pastures in Colombia's Caquetá region. These practices contribute to significant nutrient losses, particularly nitrogen (N).Pasture's N supply could be improved by the inclusion of legumes in pastures (Homem et al. 2021, Thomas, 1992)  or grasses with capacity of biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) (Subbarao et al., 2013).Understanding soil N cycling is key to develop strategies that improve sustainability of Amazon pastures' management.• Soils under U. humidicola pastures exhibited 80% lower gross nitrification rates than U. brizantha, likely due to the capacity of biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) (Subbarao et al., 2009).• Net nitrification was higher in grass-legume pastures due to lower NO 3 immobilization compared to grass-alone pastures.4. Results• Uh: Urochloa humidicola grass alone (6) and grass-legume (6)• Ud: Urochloa decumbens grass alone (3) and grass-legume (3)• Ub: Urochloa brizantha grass alone (3) and grass-legume (3) BNI capacity Uh > Ud > Ub (Subbarao et al., 2007) Methods:• Topsoil sampling (0-20 cm), sieved at 4 mm and pre-incubated.• Soil incubation at 25°C at 60% of soil water-holding capacity (96 h after 15 N labelling of NH 4 + and NO 3 pools).• 15 N pool dilution method for gross N fluxes determination (Di et al., 2000). ","tokenCount":"202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b6609dd0a27b71603c85daa11fcc87f7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/be1bff5b-33ef-438f-8a74-db87405912aa/retrieve","id":"174006330"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1029c011-67aa-4005-9bc5-019e425f064c","pagecount":"8","content":"The CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is co-constructing a strategy for Climate Change Communication and Social Learning (CCSL). Not to be confused with the general CCAFS Communication Strategy for disseminating materials and raising profile etc, CCSL is about an attempt to fundamentally change how CGIAR scientists and the communities they work with and for, communicate their shared knowledge and experience and learn together. It is about ensuring a relevant and dynamic transformative change that truly recognises the needs of communities facing the harsh realities of climate change today not just in 50 years time.To embrace a social learning methodology right from the start the CCAFS team has been working with a community of people working in communications, participatory methodologies, knowledge management and social learning to think together about the implications of such a strategy for CGIAR and how CCAFS might begin to take this forward. This community will grow and expand as new people are introduced to the programme.The first step in the CCSL coconstruction process was a call for proposals to develop a discussion paper designed to catalyse a dialogue with an initial group of people. Drafted by IDS and IIED this paper did four things: gave a background to the theory of climate change communication and social learning, presented findings from a survey and case studies of climate change communication initiatives and presented the idea of single, double and triple loop learning 1 . It also looked at some of the implications of adopting such an approach within a large entity like the CGIAR. Participants at the first workshop in Addis were tasked with thinking through the implications of a triple loop learning approach for a CCAFS climate change communication and social learning strategy. Since the workshop, CCAFS has facilitated the start of a community of practice or Sandbox (www.yammer.com/ccsl), and innovation funds for exploring ideas and initiatives in pursuit of understanding how social learning works and will be finding further opportunities for 1 Social Learning is defined in a number of ways by different people. Perhaps for this brief introduction Devaux's definition (Feb 2009) \"-social learning brings about a shift from \"multiple cognition\" to \"collective cognition\". Individuals involved in social learning processes begin with quite different perceptions of their current situation and the potential for change; as they interact, they develop common, shared perspectives, insights and values\" helps to situate the principle outcomes of good social learning. The action of learning is nicely summarised in the Triple Loop Learning concept (Armitage 2008) that shows that true social learning is a process of looped interactions from action to reflection leading to changed behaviours in new actions. This concept leaves out the nuance of power relations and social differentiation which true social learning processes need to recognise but it demonstrates the importance of an iterative process to learning. This synthesis paper presents five key change areas deemed critical by the participants of the Addis Workshop to inculcate a process of change in working with communities and partners. These change areas are those key areas where the group felt that CCAFS needed to devote attention if it was to take this challenge seriously. Further research commissioned by CCAFS has tasked IDS and IIED to review the literature of others' experience of social learning and what the critical success factors are. We are looking forward to seeing where there is overlap or difference with the change areas identified at the workshop. An early finding suggests the importance of well facilitated and structured processes, although this was not defined as a key change area in our meeting it is an implicit part of understanding what the preconditions are for a good social learning process and this is part of all the key change areas.Below, there is a template for defining each change area, saying why the group in Addis felt it important for social learning and the CCAFS strategy as well as a description of the work to be one next as proposed by participants. The five areas, with no significance in the order:1. Documentation 2. Social Learning within CCAFS 3. Endogenous Social Learning 4. Social DifferentiationWorking groups at the workshop identified both the change areas and the project activity for each change area. The material below comes from the presentations of each of the working groups exploring this at the workshop.This change area was about making sure we really analyse and test social learning as a tool, that we really understand what it is, how it works and can cite good examples of where it has worked, where it has not worked and what the different levels of impact might be in certain situations. This learning needs to be documented and shared with the research and policy communities. We need to communicate with confidence and with good evidence before we can have any certainty that this kind of approach will be adopted and that it adds value both for those engaged in the process and those who need to demonstrate impact. Documentation can include research and literature reviews that already include experience and evidence of social learning as well as documenting new case studies and pilot studies.One of the challenges is to make sure that social learning is really understood and recognisable as a methodology and not just as a new and more fashionable term for participation, advocacy or organisational learning. The evidence suggests that social learning is a particular methodology -with a wider remit than participation -that looks more closely at the relative value of knowledge, how it is perceived and used in a collective response to a challenge and how to ensure that all participants are learning. The significance of \"triple loop\" learning where a community changes collective behaviour together by learning and acting together presents a subtle nuance. To understand this fully will be helped greatly with good documentation of examples and the use of this methodology when dealing with particularly complex or \"wicked\" problems will be vital.The number and range of projects that the CGIAR science community is involved with is enormous and projects vary from large global studies with very long timeframes to more local community-based projects where communities are dealing with daily challenges. Transforming learning approaches in this environment is extremely challenging and will require top level buy-in as well as creative ways to get buy-in with the scientific community. Good documentation, an archive of examples and approaches provides the substrates from which new approaches and ways of working can germinate.Also the CGIAR community can provide a testing ground for analysing, monitoring and documenting new ways of working. Those researchers who are prepared to design projects using social learning methodology can also document their experience to be shared. Indeed many CGIAR projects are already demonstrating that considerable thought goes into the design of project to ensure wide participation and shared learning. A glossary of CGIAR terminology for these activities would help in developing a shared internal discourse.It was recommended that this change area look at building an Inventory of Cases looking at testing Social Learning as a model. Selecting the case studies to work with will be the role of CCAFS -and their partners. CCAFS is also extremely well -positioned to support some of the funding and logistics, supporting the networking and dissemination of ideas and to help build and support the development of a growing body of work, a global public good. A budget of $200,000 was suggested.Where we are now:It is clear that a universally recognised methodology for evaluating the impact of social learning tools and approaches would help to consolidate the learning from this process. The second studythe Impact Assessment -being carried out by IDS and IIED is beginning to see key themes emerging for key success factors. Developing a framework from this work could be a vital next step.Build the Inventory of Cases• Determine process for submitting proposals to the Innovation Fund or to CCAFS.• Put forward proposals for good case studies to add to the inventory.• Establish selection criteria by which to choose cases to study.• Identification of a multi-disciplinary team to work on the case studies.• Establish a methodology with which to analyse the case studies.• Identify key indicators for success with which to evaluate the case studies.• Write up and share findings. A social learning approach adopted and promoted by CCAFS within the CGIAR system is aiming to achieve a significant step change, championed by the work of CCAFS and others in CGIAR who are.This change area is all about working to promote a behaviour change within the CGIAR system -this is a big challenge and at the heart of it is how to support or incentivise an institutional change process. Much discussion was held around the role of CCAFS as a partner in a social learning environment and the recognition that the CGIAR centres combine a global and local engagement. It was felt important that the CCAFS CCSL recognises where CCAFS can contribute added value and where it needs new kind of partnerships to make this happen. The way the CGIAR is funded, organised and researchers incentivised means that a social learning methodology would appear carry high transaction costs in terms of time let alone the challenge of bringing together different kinds of knowledge to contribute to a shared learning outcome however, the potential for unlocking a more dynamic and effective delivery of results would mean that this approach is more cost effective. The exciting part is the appetite and enthusiasm within the CCAFS team that will ensure this methodology has the greatest chance of adoption.This change area is essentially an internal communications and organisational management challenge for CCAFS. Participants for this Change area identified the Goal as \"Social Learning is validated within CCAFS (CGIAR) as a mainstream methodology\". It was felt that the indicators for success here would include:• A significant percentage of CG funded proposals to include explicit reference to and design of project including social learning as a central part by 2020.• A dynamic based of \"artefacts\" or products (tools, activities, processes, publications etc) with shared attribution and use -a clear connection here to the change area around documentation.• A porous CGIAR and partners' network with two-way learning.Such a change clearly demands buy-in at the very highest level within the CGIAR management and within the family of hard and social scientists. This demands a consistent and thoughtful process to create an enabling environment for change. It means leveraging key opportunities for talking about change, providing the evidence for change and for determining a good communications strategy for change. This change would unfold more quickly if there was a strong alignment and added value in achieving strategic priorities and to demanding delivery targets.For CCAFS and CGIAR investment in a more deliberative, transaction-heavy way of working and the evidence supporting this change must ensure that people can see the added value demonstrated in the impact at community level. There must be no doubt that this is the best way forward for real development impact.Institutions like the CGIAR -and many others are struggling with meeting high numerical delivery targets in uncertain and complex situations. Social learning needs to make this easier and not more complex.The This growing community of people prepared to champion a social learning methodology is a vital part of building the interest and influence to make this change.Where we are now:Our most recent research is suggesting that a social learning approach that does not include a change in methodologies in institutions but only affects the individuals involved can cause greater dissatisfaction and disempowerment 2 . Increased knowledge and awareness and then an inability to make anything happen is potentially worse than a less inclusive process. Embracing this reality would have a considerable impact on stimulating internal behavioural change.A key challenge to this change area was whether CCAFS/CGIAR has the right expertise in social learning to take leadership. Two responses here are that CCAFS will not be doing this alone -it will always be working with partners and with alliances to implement projects but perhaps more importantly this is a co-learning process that will involve all parties in responding to collective challenges. Some interesting work was done at our most recent meeting that looks at where CGIAR is positioned in its work with partners and across the different levels 3 . Further exploration of where CGIAR can add value will be helpful.Develop the Dynamic Basket of Good Practices• Articulate the internal social learning goals for CGIAR.• Use the Inventory of Cases and additional research to begin to build a list of good practices that will help CGIAR achieve those goals.• Identify and organize an advisory group and champions that will catalyse social learning within the organization.• Identify partners and alliances to involve in the process.• Organize training sessions, awareness raising campaigns, and coaching and mentoring schemes to encourage institutional change.Change Area Aim: That all CCAFS/ CGIAR social learning processes or projects recognise the importance of context specific local structures, governance, cultures and systems.Endogenous social learning is social learning that is firmly rooted in the political, economic and social frameworks of the locality or region. It would be social learning that brought together stakeholders that represented not just a socially differentiated community of actors but a set of actors that acknowledged the governance, traditions and local authorities of the region as well as an understanding of the local organisations and trade federations.Communication The recommendation of the group was there should be three pilot studies identified that would specifically focus on endogenous social learning -case studies where there would be strong evidence of the social learning potential, strong evidence of working relationships between communities and local institutions, the role of customary laws, strong local values and priorities. The aim would be to run three projects over a two year period to help engage partners and build relationships -this would provide an opportunity to document and assess changing needs and redefine the process.Further research on social learning in the impact assessment is revealing the importance of repeated mutually beneficial interactions over a period of time. This supports the idea of running a pilot project over a couple of years that fully recognises local practices, values and priorities. Endogenous social learning is clearly not a \"different\" social learning, but without this local focus and an understanding of local priorities and values social learning is unlikely to take place.Develop the Opportunity Assessment guidelines• Determine key areas to include in the guidelines, e.g. traditions, values, rights, etc.• Draw up a worksheet that will help CCAFS to evaluate which areas present opportunities.• Determine the principles and terms of reference for the framework.• Develop the Joint Needs Assessment.• Determine which key areas to include in the Assessment, e.g. funding, research support, capacity, knowledge, experience.Design and conduct three pilot studies to test the three tools. These would be around case studies with 1) strong evidence of social learning potential, 2) strong evidence of working relationships between communities and local institutions, and 3) strong evidence of the role of customary laws, strong local values and priorities.Change Area Aim: That any CGIAR social learning projects and processes recognise the complexities of social differentiation and the related power relationsThe dictionary definition of social differentiation is \"the distinction made between social groups and persons on the basis of biological, physiological and socio cultural factors as sex, age, race, nationality etc. It is about recognising that any community is made up of different groups of people who represent both collective and individual interests. In the last few months, a more detailed exploration on social differentiation, the implications for CGIAR projects and case studies with a strong focus on social differentiation has been started. This will help to underpin the subsequent work of this change area.An understanding of social differentiation was an important change area identified because it has a vital part to play in identifying the real needs of communities. Decision making on future food security and climate change at the local level is often not inclusive or equitable. In communities where there are strong hierarchies or caste structures it will be difficult to ensure the inclusion of the full range of voices who have something to say. In communities/ countries/groups where free speech has been curtailed or dangerous for political reasons it can be difficult to ensure the right spaces for discussion and engagement. For real social learning to take place it may be important to collect the views and experience of all members of society or certainly those who are not used to working together.A social learning approach will need to ensure it facilitates the right kind and number of processes, perhaps running in parallel that ensure the engagement of different groups in an unthreatening and relevant way.This change area is indeed critical to successful social learning but has the potential to be hidden. Social learning should imply the engagement of stakeholders across the spectrum but unless there is a conscious effort to understand the social structures, hierarchies and social norms, critical views and experiences relevant to solutions will be missed. In the same way that endogenous social learning needs to recognise values, priorities and governance, social learning that recognises the social differentiation of a given community needs to facilitate and ensure equality of engagement.A key implication for CCAFS in adopting a social learning approach that recognises social differentiation is to ensure it is working with the right partners and that projects are designed in a way that responds to the communication needs of the different groups involved. Learning processes adapted for different groupings might need to refer to particular timings, particular people present or not present, particular seasons or needs etc. The use of different language for both clarity of understanding but also to capture nuance -for example people may say different things if working in an official language than they may in a colloquial or tribal language.Translating hard science in a way that relates to daily practice may inform choices for different communication methodologies.What is the project work that is expected to take place? Workshop participants envisaged a programme to catalyse change to ensure there was a good understanding of the role of social differentiation within social learning approaches. Some of the work here was similar to that proposed in the social learning within CGIAR change area. An important part of the next steps here was to review CGIAR projects to find further opportunities for projects that speak to a more socially differentiated approach as well as to review and speak to those who are already prioritising this way of working. Creating a working group within CCAFS was seen an important way to catalyse further thinking. The report to review the project is underway and a working group to help champion social learning within the organisation has been established.Similarly, building a network, or a community that builds our understanding and experience of social differentiation for social learning (Social LSD) was suggested as a critical part of this catalyst. Using the skills already housed with the CCAFS team and within ILRI in particular, facilitating the right kind of catalytic spaces for good dialogue, discussion and development was a key part of next steps.The final activity for this change area was to support the development of a research agenda -an agenda built through a social learning process using all three loops, again much the same as the change area activities for social learning.Where we are now:Much of the activity highlighted here was felt to be too removed from the community level. Much of the work of the community of practice already established will help with building the understanding of social differentiation and in identifying further projects to support. Importantly though, this change area needs to work harder outside of the community and with external partners to think about where social differentiation is designed into projects and where it is not.• Solicit knowledge and experiences from members of CGIAR using this approach.• Review all CGIAR projects to find opportunities to use this approach.• Begin building a network/ community of internal and external practitioners and develop a space/ platform for these practitioners to share and build learning on this approach.• Develop a research agenda on the topic using a triple looped learning process. Whilst workshop participants recognised the challenge of different framings of time it was felt the first step in this change area would be to craft a Theory of Change that addressed the issues of short term and longer term adaptive capacity and how longerterm considerations can be addressed through short term incentives to invite greater participation from stakeholders. Development of this theory of change would lead to developing three particular methodologies for sharing with future projects: a time-horizons evaluation framework, an incentives framework and methodologies for evaluating subsequent change.The Time horizons evaluation tool and Incentives framework would help to frame a series of sequenced activities and commissioned research that would look at current methodologies for risk management, psychology and behavioural economics. It would look more carefully at the target audiences, the role that they play within a given scenario and their time windows and how that relates to local, national, regional and global levels. These activities and research would then underpin the development of a tool to provide methodologies that others could use to test how effectively time scales were aligned in future projects.It is envisaged that there will be a number of commissioned research activities looking at how state of the art thinking on psychology, behavioural economics, risk and development social science can frame a view of particular CCAFS project in particular regions.It is also envisaged that there would be subsequent evaluation of these projects.Where we are now:This theme was a critically important change area that was identified by a number of people but it is the one that is the least well defined from participant discussion. The challenges by the peer group of experts invite greater clarity on how we can create incentives for different stakeholders to consider different timescales. Some interesting work was done by the group working on this to look at the different timescales and interests of different groups to start the framing but it was clear that it needed some further thinking and articulation through these next project ideas.Develop a Theory of Change• Identify main time scale issues.• Identify solutions for bridging long term and short term needs, as well as increasing stakeholder involvement.• Conduct research on current methodologies for risk. management, psychology and behavioural economics.• Identify key assessment areas to include in the Evaluation Tool, e.g. target audience, time window, national context, etc.The five change areas outlined here will be mapped against the second literature review carried out by IDS and IIED with a view to challenging or aligning them with the perceived pre-conditions for good social learning emerging from the study. The sandbox is developing discussion themes and it is clear that these discussions could invite particular comment in the five areas.","tokenCount":"3820"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"145bdcbfedcfe48b4d2ba48fc6fbee7c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/de828121-933d-4e66-989d-782b169d30fc/retrieve","id":"1298897941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6644fc2d-ebae-4bcf-a633-0337787aa951","pagecount":"12","content":"▪ The number of goats in Senegal increased dramatically over the last three decades from around 2 million heads to over 6 million heads in 2017 (FAOSTAT 2019).▪ Goats and other small ruminants are generally managed by women o Women also tend to control incomes from the sale of goats and goat products.▪ Goats are also used as a store of wealth and are more easily traded following shocks, which can increase household resilience.▪ Because goats are typically given as gifts, almost all agricultural households own at least some goats (Sow et al. 2021).▪ Goats constitute an important animal source food, as goat milk is generally consumed by young children in the household and goat meat is consumed as part of many religious ceremonies (Traoré et al. 2018).o Goat products could be leveraged further in the context of under-and malnutrition, particularly for young children and mothers.Study Objectives o To examine entry and exit points for nutrition along value chains has become increasingly important in order to increase access to nutrient-rich foods.o Important food safety and health risks at later stages of the value chain should also be identified and addressed to ensure that goat meat provides maximum nutrition benefits without the health risks.o To identify opportunities for women along the goat value chain in order to identify opportunities for women's empowerment and to strengthen the nutrition outcomes. ▪ \"As a coping strategy, we are forced to sell some of our goats to buy feed for the rest of the herd. We do not use storage and fodder reserve techniques. We cannot grow fodder crops due to lack of financial means and lack of water. To dig a well requires a lot of money because the water table is very deep in this locality. We can only store small quantities of straw harvested in the area.\"o Woman in Dahra Djolof▪ At the level of the Ministry of Livestock, they do not distinguish the goat sector as a separate sector, but reason in terms of the small ruminant sector by combining sheep and goats. ","tokenCount":"342"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7313e8bd4185985ecb32ad823dbcf246","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/66598127-a6bd-4c6d-bf34-6295b995271c/content","id":"-1803025530"},"keywords":["Emek","Ankara","Turkey"],"sieverID":"7d24cff0-3596-467a-9201-3ca483e6bd2e","pagecount":"3","content":"Fusarium algeriense Laraba & O'Donnell has been recently described as a novel crown rot 12 pathogen of wheat within F. burgessii species complex (Laraba et al. 2017). To our 13 knowledge; there are no reports of the existence of this pathogen outside of Algeria. Inwheat plants exhibiting symptoms of crown rot including brown discoloration on the first 16 two or three internodes of the stem were collected before maturity, at maturity and/or 17 after harvest. To identify the pathogen, symptomatic crown and stem base tissues were 39 cm diameter pot filled with a sterile mixture substrate containing equal volumes of peat, 40 vermiculite, and soil. Approximately 1-cm diameter mycelial plugs from cultures of each 1 isolate were placed in contact with the seeds. Seeds inoculated with sterile agar plugs were 2 used to serve as control. The seeds were covered with the same mixture substrate and 3 then the pots were transferred to a growth chamber of 23±2°C and 14-h photoperiod. The 4 experiment was conducted twice with five replicate pots per isolate. Four weeks post-5 inoculation, discoloration of the crown was observed on the inoculated plants, while no 6 symptoms were observed on the control plants. Koch's postulates were fulfilled by 7 reisolating and identifying the pathogen based on morphology described above. This is the 8 first report of F. algeriense causing crown rot of wheat in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is the 9 second country after Algeria in which the pathogen was detected. Although all Algerian 10 isolates were obtained from durum wheat, isolates in this study were isolated from bread 11 wheat. Further investigation is needed to understand its potential distribution and impact 12 on wheat crops.","tokenCount":"278"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3bca1f91785aeaf65be2c88c38fc7aea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/850e955d-64c6-461c-8f52-5a649252b8ae/retrieve","id":"624284304"},"keywords":["Myanmar","Climate Services","Agriculture","Food Security"],"sieverID":"c1ebd0e7-c62c-4943-96da-f87306d98c80","pagecount":"42","content":"The increasing variability of seasonal climate and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that are expected to accompany climate change will impact agricultural production and food security in Southeast Asia. The timely provision of climate information is one mechanism to help societies and individuals prepare for and adapt to these changes. This report assesses the state of climate information products and services in Myanmar, including how such services are disseminated and utilized by national actors. It includes recommendations to help meet the climate information needs of the agriculture and food security sector in Myanmar.Ruby Rose Policarpio is an Institutional Development Specialist at Regional Integrated Multi-hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), where she is responsible for liaison with the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) of Myanmar and with other national meteorological and hydrological services throughout the region. Contact: ruby@rimes.int Michael Sheinkman is a food security analyst, on special leave from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to strengthen CCAFS partnerships with food security actors.Since 1991, At WFP's Regional Bureau for Asia, he led food security analysis and served as the focal point for Climate Change issues, providing technical advice for the design and implementation of research or risk reduction activities integrating food security and climate change adaptation. Contact: m.sheinkman@irri.orgAgriculture is vital to the Southeast Asian economy. Hosting most of the region's workforce, agriculture is a main driver of food security and development. Agriculture, however, is climate-sensitive and thus, climate variability and extremes impact on food production.Aberrations from normal climate, especially in terms of rainfall and temperature, exacerbate risks to food production. Differential risks to agriculture and food security are likely, based on location-specific climate manifestations, agro-ecosystems, and production practices and conditions. Climate variability, weather extremes, and climate change necessitate strategies to be put in place for mitigation of anticipated adverse impacts. Hence, climate information of different timescales, to guide informed decisions, is essential. This report is part of a series that evaluates the status of climate information products and services for agriculture and food security in six (6) countries of Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam. Each country report evaluates the mechanisms and systems used to generate, communicate, and apply climate information and services for agriculture and food security; highlights strengths and weaknesses; and provides recommendations for further development. Specifically, each country report includes: § Country background; § Capacities in climate information generation and application: The report components feed into an analysis of the end-to-end forecast generation and application process which involves observation of weather/climate parameters and generation of forecasts/warning information; generation of location-and sector-specific impacts outlook and response/management strategies; implementation of management strategies; and providing feedback to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) on the forecast performance and management and/or mitigation strategies that were implemented.Gaps and potential opportunities for enhancement of the forecast generation and application system could guide institutions, working in relevant fields, in focusing resources to address country-specific concerns. In addition, institutions in the countries working in related areas could synergize their initiatives to maximize the benefits of current and planned initiatives.The series of country reports have been prepared by RIMES as part of its collaboration with the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS), Southeast Asia regional program.According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food security is a situation that exists when people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This underscores that food security necessitates (a)sufficient physical availability of food supplies; (b) adequate access, of households, to the said food supplies from their own production, from the market, or other sources; and (c) appropriate utilization of food for meeting individual dietary requirements (World Food Summit, 1996).Direct and indirect influences of climate on food security (Figure 1), include, but are not limited to (a) agro-ecological states impacting crop production and livestock rearing, (b) incidence/outbreak of pests and diseases in plants and animals, (c) demand for produce, (d) livelihoods and income distribution, and (e) human health. Climate impacts all three (3) key indicators of food security. However, this report focuses on the relationship between climate and food availability, specifically agricultural production. Myanmar's economy is largely dependent on the sector. Agriculture absorbs about more than half of the country's workforce. The majority of Myanmar's population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture for their livelihood and food security.Rice is the most important agricultural crop in Myanmar. Cultivation occurs in irrigated lowland areas, rainfed lowland areas, and rainfed upland areas. The Ayerawaddy Delta is regarded as the country's rice bowl. It contributes more than half of the country's total annual rice production. Other areas where rice is cultivated include: the Dry Zone (Figure 3), in the semi-arid central part of the country; coastal areas; and uplands in the northern part of the country.Pulses, maize and oilseeds are the most important crops after rice. Exports of maize and pulses are important sources of foreign currency for Myanmar. Maize is predominantly grown in Monsoon season under rainfed condition. Oilseed crops are also grown in upland rainfed areas. The Dry Zone also contributes more than half of the national production of pulses.Pulses are also grown in the Ayerawaddy Delta and in Shan state.Agriculture in Myanmar is vulnerable to extreme weather events, drought, flood, erratic rainfall, temperature fluctuations, and delayed onset / early withdrawal of the Monsoon.Other vulnerabilities include: decreasing ground water levels, intrusion of salt water in coastal and delta areas; and irrigation induced salinity in the Dry Zone.Food systems in Myanmar are changing over time. Consumption of meat, eggs and milk are increasing. Consequently, market demand for maize continues to rise, with sown area and yield per acre increasing rapidly in the last decade. This is due primarily to the introduction of hybrid maize varieties and increased use of chemical fertilizers.Yields for both rice and maize are considered low compared to those in neighboring countries.Rice and maize production face several agronomic and input constraints that are compounded At the national level, Myanmar produces surplus food. However, food insecurity and childhood malnutrition remains endemic in some parts of the country, particularly the Central Dry Zone, Shan State, and Chin States.     In Myanmar, climate variability is attributed to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO).According to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH), El Niño years, ENSO's warm phase, have resulted in deficient rainfall and higher temperatures in the country. LaNina, the cold phase, tends to have the opposite impacts. According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED, 2013), seventy percent (70%) of natural disasters affecting Myanmar are climate-related (Wealer, 2013). Of the climate-related hazards and disasters, droughts, floods, and storms have the most significant impact on agriculture and food security. In addition, climate variability directly impacts agricultural production. Yi, et al. (2013)  Rainfall. 50-year (1955-2007) rainfall data analysis suggests that overall rainfall in Myanmar has increased by 29mm per decade on the average. The trend, though, is variable: majority of the regions recorded rainfall increase, the greatest in Upper Sagaing, with approximately 215mm on decadal basis; decrease in yearly rainfall however was recorded in six regions, with Bago registering the greatest decrease per decade of about 81mm. Variations in the Southwest monsoon season duration have also been recorded, showing a decreasing trend, from the normal 144 days, with the onset becoming later and withdrawal becoming earlier.Drought. Drought can occur in a number of areas in the country, especially in the dry zone.DMH analysis of 50-year data  suggests increasing frequency and intensity of drought events in Myanmar. Significant drought years in Myanmar were 1954Myanmar were , 1957Myanmar were , 1960Myanmar were , 1963Myanmar were , 1966Myanmar were , 1972Myanmar were , 1977Myanmar were , 1979Myanmar were , 1990Myanmar were , 2002Myanmar were , 2004Myanmar were , 2010Myanmar were , 2011Myanmar were , 2012Myanmar were , and 2013. . In 2010, by far the hottest year recorded in Myanmar, severe drought resulted to water stress in communities across the country and impacted agriculture heavily -production of peas, sugarcane, tomato and rice, among others, was adversely affected.Cyclones. In 135-year period (1877-2012), a total of 87 storms and severe cyclonic storms crossed Myanmar ( Climate projections for Myanmar, generated using PRECIS (Providing Regional Climates for and (e) increase in the occurrence and intensity of extreme weather events, including cyclones/strong winds, flood/storm surge, intense rains, extreme high temperatures and drought. Table 2 provides a summary of projections per time slice, while Table 3 lists extreme events anticipated in vulnerable areas in the country.  In Myanmar, DMH is the mandated government institution to observe, analyze, predict, and provide warning services for weather-and climate-related hazards for protection of lives and properties, reduction of impacts of natural hazards, and sustainable resource management and development. In partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and other UN institutions, various international and regional climate centers, and development organizations, DMH works to develop forecast products and services to better cater to user needs. Hydro-meteorological forecasts issued by DMH are summarized in Table 4.   Additionally, WFP also provides Food Security Assessment in various areas in Myanmar prone to food insecurity, provides an analysis of food insecurity triggered by relevant events, including climate-related hazards and provide recommendations to address food insecurity concerns. These publications provide monitored conditions and do not include forecast-based potential conditions and corresponding management strategies.In DMH communicates forecasts/warning information through multiple channels and mechanisms. Information is sent simultaneously to a) relevant ministries, which are to communicate the information to their line agencies and concerned non-government The recent shift in the political and policy landscape in Myanmar has facilitated collaboration between DMH and international and regional institutions. A detailed list of institutions involved in the generation, interpretation, translation, communication, and application of climate forecasts for agriculture and food security, along with their specific programs, projects, and activities is provided in Annex 1.The inaugural meeting of ASEAN Climate Outlook Forum (ASEANCOF) was convened in December 2013 by ASEAN, Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS), WMO, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Like other Regional Climate Outlook Forums (RCOFs), the ASEANCOF aims to provide consensus seasonal outlook for the region to provide better guidance on the likely seasonal condition to NMHSs in the Member States.A wide range of forecast products is provided, by DMH, in Myanmar. Although there remains room for improvement in terms of enhancing forecast resolution, both spatially and temporally, the availability of climate information products of different timescales equips users the opportunity to anticipate potential climate conditions and make informed decisions.The utilization, however, of forecast is not exploited due to the following gaps, as elevated by stakeholders during Monsoon Forums conducted in Myanmar, as well as in other discussions, assessments, and reports by various other organizations.anticipation of potential opportunities and/or risks relative to forecasted conditions.Forecasts can be better utilized when it is supplemented with monitored/observed conditions.However, there is at the moment no mechanism to couple forecasts with observed conditions.In order to facilitate better decision-making among stakeholders, a summary of observed conditions, in various areas in the country for a relevant period of time, could be coupled to forecasts. This would help information users to better anticipate opportunities and risks and put in place appropriate management strategies.patterns in the country. Rainfall is significant to Myanmar agriculture. However, the current distribution of observation stations is not dense enough to sufficiently capture rainfall variability, both spatially and temporally, to establish micro-climatic zones in the country.This unestablished micro-climatic zones also contribute to make forecasting, and the application thereof, more challenging. Romano (2010) has to be done and the risk information has to be delivered to relevant stakeholders. Historical data has to be made available for stakeholders' analysis, for better guidance in putting in place short-term and long-term interventions in agriculture and food security. Romano (2010), in his report to FAO, indicated that there should be an integration of expertise, including an agro-meteorologist, in a technical body to convert available data into relevant information for food security.relevant stakeholders, remains to be a gap in Myanmar. Intra-institutional mechanisms in ensuring that forecasts and associated advisories reach the last mile, in user sectors, remain weak. Inter-and intra-institutional mechanisms, for information dissemination, have to be redundant and sustained in order for information to be accessible in the sub-national and community levels. Collaboration with MRTV and mass-based organizations (e.g. MyanmarRed Cross Society) has to be harnessed to maximize information dissemination with ample lead time. Forecasts should be included in media programs relative to agriculture; DMH and MOAI could take advantage of MRTV's Farmers Channel to maximize information dissemination. Further, forecast-based advisories could be included in currently available agriculture-and food security-related regular publications.In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, international, regional and other development organizations implemented various interventions, in the sub-national and community levels,for better response to forecast information. These interventions, however, were anchored on extreme events like cyclones and did not include the integrated utilization of forecasts of different timescales. As most of these interventions focused on the utilization of short-range severe weather information, capacity building in forecast-based agricultural planning was not given emphasis. MOAI advocates the use of appropriate crop varieties in various areas in Myanmar. The utilization of these crop varieties though have to be anchored to seasonal and other forecasts for optimum productivity. Monsoon Forum stakeholders, during the 10thMonsoon Forum, recommended a capacity building mechanism for farmers for integration of climate information of various timescales into planning and decision-making. Capacity building for water associations in monitored information and forecast-based water management should be conducted. Provision of government support, for implementation of appropriate management strategies, could also facilitate better uptake of climate information in agriculture and food security.different information for application in their sectors. In Myanmar, stakeholders recommended that DMH do a thorough study of information needs of each sector at various levels. This would provide guidance in developing need/demand-based forecast/waning information.For stakeholders to better understand their future climate, analysis of location-specific climate variability, trends and projections have to be made.Climate change scenarios currently available are generally having coarse resolution and high uncertainty, hence could not adequately guide adaptation initiatives. Analysis of locationspecific (region-, state-, or division-wise) climate variability and development of climate change projections are required to facilitate information application. Access to historical data is necessary in order for agriculture and other relevant sectors to analyze and plan short-term and long-term management strategies.Forecasting technologies, tools for application, the nature of risks, and information requirements, by different stakeholders, evolve. This dynamic system of forecast generation and application necessitates regular assessments of capacities and gaps, in an end-to-end framework, to ensure that forecast information cater to differential needs of stakeholders vis-à-vis risk management.Absence of a rigorous drought monitoring system. DMH and MOAI do not have the capacity, at the moment, to issue drought early warning information. It is recommended that institutional capacity be built in both institutions for drought monitoring and early warning. ","tokenCount":"2495"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"be98f9647cbf5376c48039e1a0bf6c47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H037529.pdf","id":"946924000"},"keywords":["Decision-Aid","Great Ruaha River Basin","Integrated water management","Water allocation","Water productivity"],"sieverID":"150f358d-bf01-4724-b376-78ee1aeaf264","pagecount":"11","content":"The Great Ruaha River Basin is one of Tanzania's most important river basins. The basin includes one of the major rice producing areas in Tanzania and it embraces the Usangu plains and wetlands. The Great Ruaha River serves the Ruaha National Park and supplies water to two national hydroelectric power stations (Mtera and Kidatu). The basin is characterized by increasing competition over water resources and conflicts among users. Managers in the area face the challenge of devising effective measures to ensure efficient and equitable allocation of water resources. The conventional ways of allocating water resources in the basin have proved to be inefficient largely due to lack of integrated and strategic approaches to natural resource management. In addition, water allocation decisions have been reached without having a comprehensive understanding of the river basin characteristics and the inter-linkages between the different components, and are undermined by a lack of supportive tools for decision makers. This paper discusses the current water management framework in the Great Ruaha River Basin, the need for having a river basin Decision-Aid (DA), and a description of the DA, which is currently being developed by the RIPARWIN project (Raising Irrigation Productivity And Releasing Water for Intersectoral Needs). The DA is designed with the involvement of key stakeholders in the basin and will help assessing, among other things, the hydrological and socio-economic impacts of different allocation decisions.Decision support, and therefore Decision-Aid (DA) can be defined as an interactive system consisting of \"any and all data, information, expertise or activities that contribute to option selection ' [1]. This can be paper based, physical or computer based; and is intended to assist decision makers in their decision making process.Over the past 50 years, cross-sectoral water utilization in Tanzania has grown considerably due to rising human populations, and increasing food demands and economic activities that require water in their production. At the same time, agriculture has remained the engine of development in the country, employing more than 80% of the total population. Recognizing 1 this, the government of Tanzania has attached great importance to the development of this sector with irrigated agriculture being one of the options for achieving this. Yet, irrigated agriculture is globally the major consumer of water resource denying other sectors access to adequate water, including the environment and downstream users. In Usangu plains (upper part of the Great Ruaha River Basin), for example, irrigated paddy alone consumes about 576 Mm 3 of water, about one third of the annual outflow [3]. Irrigation activities in this area have increased significantly over the past 30 years and have been implicated as one cause of the drying up of the Great Ruaha River (GRR) in the Ruaha National Park (RNP).The Great Ruaha River Basin comprises multi-sectoral water uses that have different but important impacts on the livelihoods of the local people and on the national economy as a whole. Most of the population in the basin depend on irrigation and other water-related activities (such as fishing and livestock keeping) to sustain their livelihoods. Irrigated paddy is the main water user in the basin, mainly practiced during the wet season in the alluvial plains upstream of the western wetland. Dry season irrigation (for high value crops such as vegetables) only occurs in very localized areas in the upper courses of the rivers, but irrigation schemes have their canals abstracting water to meet other needs (e.g., domestic uses and dry season activities such as brick making). Due to these abstractions, downstream, most rivers that supply the wetlands have zero or very minimal flows in the dry season. This has resulted in transforming the western wetland from permanent to seasonal wetland and diminishing the amount of water supplied to the Ihefu wetland. Below the Ihefu wetland, the GRR has been drying up completely during the dry season for the last ten years. As the GRR is the major source of water for the park, supplying about 80% of the total water, this has caused significant ecological change of both aquatic ecosystems and wildlife in the park. In 2003, for example, about 5,000 fishes and 49 hippopotami died when the GRR dried up [7]. Downstream of the RNP is the Mtera Reservoir, which generates about 80 MW and acts as a regulating reservoir for the large Kidatu hydropower scheme, which generates some 204 MW.There has been a recognition that the conventional ways of allocating water resources among these competing sectors have proved to be inefficient largely due to a lack of integrated approaches to natural resource management. The decisions to allocate water resources judiciously are recent but in the past such decisions were made without a comprehensive understanding of the river basin characteristics, inter-linkages between the components, or tools to support decision-making processes. According to the National Water Policy [6. p.13] integrated planning and river basin management are compulsory in order to sustain the desired pattern of growth and consumption, and to ensure that all the socio economic activities maximize their capacities.The above arguments suggest a need for developing tools that will inform water managers and decision makers of the consequences of various decisions about water resources allocation and utilization. With this in mind, this paper reviews the current water management framework in the Great Ruaha River Basin, the need for a river basin Decision-Aid and presents a description of a computer-based DA, which is being developed by a research project 'RIPARWIN' (Raising Irrigation Productivity And Releasing Water for Intersectoral Needs). The paper also discusses the objectives of such a DA. called the 'RUaha Basin Decision Aid' (RUBDA).Natural resources in Tanzania were governed by informal rules until the early 1900's when the German colonial government first started efforts to curb water problems as a response to an increase of water demand. The first Statutory Water Law (1923 Water Ordinance) as well as by-laws concerning water management were created in the 1920's. These state policies remained until the 1960's when Tanzania adopted a more socialistic economy and launched effective in communicating findings it generated. R&D institutions have also fail to account how and to what extent investment in research has had impact especially on the poor and uptake by a wider section of beneficiaries (Bopp, 2002;Hazzell and Haddad, 2001;Gundel, et at.;2001).The problem is partly caused by the way research projects are designed, whereby most GUIDELINES FOR research projects do not demand a plan of how the research project and its outputs will contribute to impact on the livelihoods of the poor and ways in which research findings would be communicated to ensure that this happens. Because of this shortfall often there is an attribution gap between impacts and the contribution of research, thus making assessment of the impact of NRM research projects difficult (Douthwaite et at., 2003). The other stakeholders are necessary for creating enabling environmental to allow uptake of research products such as manufacturing and distribution, policies, institutions and processes that would promote use of the products. Uptake of research products need more players other than research, extension and farmers as suggested in the Agricultural and Knowledge Information Systems (AKIS) knowledge triangle (FAOlWorld Bank, 2000). Furthermore, R&D failed to address institutional and policy issues in order to support broader integrated strategy that addresses NRM and poverty. Ashby (2003) argued that researchers should recognize that outcomes and impact on NRM research depends on relationships with other stakeholders, who may have more power to visualize and to realize the desired outcomes of interventions than the researchers do.This posing a new challenge to researchers to manage \"the complex science-policy interface\" an important feature of integrated water resource management' (Lankford, et a/;2004). Managing this interface call for a change in the way research projects are designed and communicated to end users at all stages of research projects implementation. This would create better understanding of the research findings across a range of stakeholders in the R&D sectors, and use of information from research findings to a wider scale would increase research outcomes and impact on farming household's livelihoods and the watershed development.A number of policy and strategy documents were reviewed to get the insight of policy aspects about issues of NRM management and research guidelines and pathways through which policy are received, implemented and reviewed based on scientific evidence of their performance. Consultation with Policy makers, Research managers in the Directorate of Research and Development and Extension services managers in the Ministry of Agriculture and Director for Forestry Research Institute, Director of Postgraduate studies, Dean of University Faculties and NRM researchers was carried out at national level to col/ect information about policy and guidelines for research designs and how communication activities are funded and implemented. Two semi-structured questionnaire were designed to soliciting in-depth information. One questionnaire was administered to potential policy makers and research managers and the second questionnaire to researchers. Fifty researchers were interviewed; out of these 9 were women scientists (that is 19 percent) of the total respondents. Information at village level was also gathered to evaluate the current sources of information to farmers regarding NRM technologies with reference to rainwater harvesting in Maswa and Pare lowlands. Focus group discussions with farmers were conducted in twelve villages in Maswa. Mwanga and Same districts. Among other things research was to establish the efficacy of various communication methods and media in reaching a cross section of stakeholders.Hypotheses tested include: i)The role of research systems, institutions and researchers in uptake promotion is rarely recognised or promoted in policies and strategies that guide research on soil and water management. ii)The mind-set of most of research planners, managers and researchers in soil and water management are still fixated in linear dissemination approach of reaching the ultimate beneficiaries through extension services. iii)Research programmes and projects rarely include promotion and uptake plans. Iv)Research programmes and projects are rarely evaluated for communication, knowledge sharing, uptake and utilisation of knowledge and technologies produced. v)A very small proportion of programmes and project budgets and activities are committed or used in the communication and uptake promotion of research results. vi)Research outputs rarely include specific advise to farmers, input suppliers (e.g. fertilizer suppliers, manufacturer::;, extension services, policy makers and other clients. vii)Researchers are not adequately trained for communication and uptake promotion viii) The rewards and incentives systems like salaries, promotion, prizes to researchers do not demand evidence of utilisation and impact of research.Awareness In the University about 50% of the respondents were aware of policy documents guiding soil and water conservation. In the ARls on average only 37% are aware of these documents despite the fact that they are the makers and custodians of most of these documents. Scientists from other research institutions such as TAFORI are slightly aware of these documents. One of the reasons is limited accessibility to these documents, particularly in the ARls. The source of information on policies and strategies to researchers are mentioned as being MAFS headquarters (2%), institute libraries (8%), government website (7%) and friend/colleagues (2 °'.) 7<:;,.As a follow up to SMUWC, the RIPARWIN Project initiated further development of a DA through enhanced stakeholder involvement/participation. The actual structure of this DA, called RUBDA, was first adopted during the project steering workshop in September 2002 where key policy stakeholders from the ministries and representatives of most of Great Ruaha River Basin's stakeholders were present. Since then, the RUBDA has evolved in accordance to discussion held during various seminars, workshops and interviews that were held with stakeholders. The main objective of RUBDA is to support RBWO and Districts Councils (especially Mbarali and Mbeya Rural) in making decision concerning water resource management and allocation. For the last 10 years, these institutions have seen their role increase progressively, a role that will grow yet more with the coming Water Regulation Act.RUBDA is rightly described as a \"decision incubator\" [4]. In other words, the spirit of this DA is not to deliver \"ready-to-use\" answers for water allocation but instead to generate discussions between decision-makers that could lead to decisions being taken further down the line. This tool will allow the user to go beyond the existing hydrological model (UBM) to involve economic, environmental and social implications in the various scenarios created. It aims to support the implementation of the national water policy and enhancing users' understanding on various issues concerning water management. It is also fundamental to highlight the decision-making mechanisms that stakeholders are using and will use when managing water and land resources in the Great Ruaha River Basin In order to deliver appropriate \"answers and solutions\" supporting these mechanisms. We will not give in this paper a description of how RUBDA was developed using stakeholder participation, but instead concentrate on its architecture and main \"outputs\", offered as follows:• Act as a database; Assess the economical impacts of these water allocation strategies especially focusing on potential and impacts of transferring water between sectors on the basis of improved irrigation management and productivity.Up to 2004, the RBWO has been allocating water without elaborating an overall allocation strategy or a priority plan concerning the allocation of water. In other words, it is giving water to whoever asks considering only the water available without giving weight to the use of water. This then ignored environmental needs, even though the latter is of prominent significance in the new Water Policy. When dry years occurred the RBWO asked users to restrict their abstraction of water, without having a priority plan of whom to restrict first or any means of monitoring whether users were following instructions. However, recently RBWO started developing water allocation strategies where water rights are not a strategy on there own anymore but a tool, among others, to achieve the allocation plans. It has been observed that when issuing water rights in a particular location, basin authorities notionally use the \"10 or 20 year minimal flow\" in the river at this location to estimate the water available and then assess the effect of the new water abstraction on downstream users by consulting various actors, including Districts Councils. The RBWO is in charge of assessing the effect of new water uses at the basin level, but it does not have access to any tools or efficient means of .... quantitatively estimating these inter-relationships or effects. If correctly designed, RUBDA eQuid be a tool to help meet these needs for a strategic approach by providing a holistic description of the basin and the effects of allocation strategies.Several models constitute RUBDA: it is based on an upgraded hydrological model (the Usangu Basin Model or UBM). is supported by an Outcome Model and Water Management Modules (WMM) and is accompanied by a 'Geographical Information System' (GIS) viewer.Except for the hydrological model. programmed in Fortran 90. the other modules and users interfaces are developed in VISUAL BASIC. This programming language provides a means of developing interactive \"windows-type\" interfaces that are an added advantage when trying to develop \"easy-to-use\" software. Structurally, RUBDA can be divided in three parts as shown in Figure 1. The user is, here, given a description of the basin and is offered the opportunity to create scenarios. The description of the basin section is important for situating the policy-maker in recognising that the characteristics of the basin greatly affect the types of water management strategies that must initially be considered. RIPARWIN is trying to build a comprehensive database by collecting all the data scattered in the different institutions that are involved in the basin, including the RIPARWIN project data originating from field surveys. The description interface uses a GIS viewer (Figure 2) developed using a facility called MapObjects™technologies. This GIS viewer allows the user to examine, extract and print the comprehensive database using tables or dynamics maps. The data required to run RUBDA are numerous and cover a wide range of domains. These inputs ;;'lfe processed and used to run scenarios. In default mode, RUBDA runs by using actual data. This means that the \"baseline\" is the basin information as of 2003/2004 and that modifying this default data generates scenarios. These scenarios can be pre-defined scenarios, physical changes scenarios and water demand scenarios and may include the following:• Rainfall data: the user can here define a sequence of years. In other words, historical flow data have been classified from very wet, wet, normal, dry to very dry allowing the user to define the type of year (Figure3): • Input from the rainfall stations: new rainfall data. This utility can be used if the user has new rainfall data; • Irrigated area. This is a major driver of irrigation demand, it can be adjusted up or down; • Irrigation efficiency is another factor affecting water demand and can be adjusted; • Water abstracted for irrigation, related to the previous two, the total abstraction volume can be adjusted; • Environmental flow requirements. This establishes various instream and downstream demands that then need to be provided; • Western floodplain threshold value. This defines the size of the wetland, and is another measure of environmental conservation; \\ • Ifushiro wetland area and flow routing characteristics. This establishes the manner in which water is released to the Ruaha National Park; • Pre-defined scenarios such as \"balanced\" (optimal share of water between sectors; ensuring year round flow through the Ruaha National Park, but also allowing water for rice and hydropower), \"hydropower\" (priority given to hydropower generation through the Mtera/kidatu dams system -downstream of the catchment) and \"irrigation\" (priority given to agriculture water uses -upstream of the catchment).The physical scenarios (Le., 1 to 2 above) will allow the user to estimate the water that is available in the basin in different climatic situations, while the demand and pre-defined scenarios (i.e., 3 to 10) will directly assess the needs of the decision-makers. Indeed, the decision-makers have socio-economic objectives to reach and need to assess the effects of trying to reach those objectives. The pre-defined scenarios will be sort of \"teaching scenarios\" for training DA users, but will be the basis of more nuanced scenarios in the future. After defining the hydrological impacts of the various scenarios, RUBDA will evaluate their socio-economic impacts.Part of the data entered in the scenario interfaces is processed through the hydrological model and other part is directly used in the Outcome Model. The hydrological model basically addresses hydrological issues without giving due consideration to the economic and social issues as a comprehensive decision tool. The UBM has six components that tend to capture the main hydrological features of the basin. The components are; (i) the high-catchment rainfall-runoff pattern; (ii) the impact of human activities on the runoff (water demand); (iii) losses that occur on the alluvial fans (i.e. plains); (iv) flows through the western floodplain; (v) the routing through the eastern swamp; and (vi) the hydrological routing from the swamp through the Ruaha National Park to the Mtera Reservoir.The development of the UBM was based on a hydrological understanding of the basin using historical data of more than 40 years. The data include rainfall, climatologic parameters such as temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sunshine hours, river runoff, land use and land cover. The inputs into the UBM are rainfall and/or stream flow at the high catchment with an optional evaporation as well as rainfall and optional evaporation on the plains including the wetlands (the floodplain and the swamp). The model runs on a dally basiS and so its outputs can easily be aggregated into decadal format that is useful for agricultural planning or into monthly format for water balance that is needed for managerial decisions.Once the hydrological model has run, the user has access to a large set of flows at different critical points in the basin. These pOints can be water available for irrigation and after irrigation, flows entering the swamps and wetlands or at the outlet of the basin. These flows are then combined with data acquired directly from the scenario interfaces to form the input to the Outcome Model. The aim of this module is to use the water available as an indicator to help addressing issues as livelihood, economic or environmental issues. The Outcome Model is developed using work undertaken by the RIPARWIN project on Water Productivity Indicators (WPls). \"Water productivity indicators can be defined in terms of physical, economical or social values. Physical indicators normally show the physical output such as ton or kilogram of crop biomass produced, the number of catches of fish from a given water resources/ecological system. The economic indicators derive from the physical ones in the sense that they represent the equivalent value in monetary terms ($) of the output from water given the market conditions. While some social indicators may fall into economic indicators they include benefits such as; the number of jobs created from the presence of the natural resource; livelihood sustenance directly from the natural resources; and the social value attached to the presence of water by rural communities. It is important to note that most social benefits are generally difficulty to value [5, p 2]. By using WPls, the DA intends to capture both intended and unintended benefits of water uses. The outcome model. in particular. intends to analyse tradeoffs and present that information in sectoral terms summed for the total volume of water allocated to each sector to allow comparison between sectors and in turn support decision-making over the re-allocation of water. Results generated when running scenarios are named indicators. These indicators were defined during workshops and interviews with stakeholders and represent the type of results needed to meet the various users' needs. The indicators assess the outcomes of the different scenarios and are of three types. The first set is physical, while the other two (economic and social) explain the tradeoffs of the new allocation patterns. The following is the list of indicators that were defined -this list is not exhaustive and still needs to be expanded: The indicators are presented as graphs, tables and maps using the GIS viewer (except for graphs) that can be printed or saved. The stakeholders themselves, through interviews, have determined the degree of support, the units and the \"scale\" in which the results are to be presented. .The Water Management Module (WMM) will constitute a set of sub-modules; here the user is prompted on critical issues that might have appeared in the results. These modules give information about institutional issues, demography, water and environmental laws or any other subject the user must keep in mind when running scenarios on water allocation. WMM could also contain information on real cases in other basins or impacts of decision on water management that have been made in the past. In doing so, this WMM briefly explains how inter-sectoral. water allocation m!ght be effected successfully and sustainably.The indicators and the outputs of the WMM are then combined as a \"package\". This package enables the user to print and keep a record of his/her scenarios, choices and results obtained. The report obtained in this interface can be used as a dissemination tool.Resolving current conflicts over water utilisation in the Great Ruaha River Basin requires that managers are equipped with tools that will assist in making appropriate and well-informed water allocation decisions. RUBDA, being developed under RIPARWIN, intends to serve as one of these tools. RUBDA will also act as a potential database and will help assessing the available water resources and hence the sectoral water demands at the sub-basin level. This DA is expected to assist the River Basin Authority in its task of reviewing and delivering water rights by matching it to the available water resources. By using the hydrological and socio economic information, the DA users will be able to assess the impact of each water allocation decision. In order to make the DA useful, there are some prerequisites that need to be observed. These include, among others, the need to collect and enter reliable data. In addition, involving all the key stakeholders in the on-going design and operation of the DA, as well as in other decision-making processes is very necessary if RUBDA is to be successful in helping resolving the current water management problems in the basin.","tokenCount":"3993"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21f2295b90154f95add49bc8886ce1e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad3d1ba0-13f5-4c51-a2b9-7b09466f8a85/retrieve","id":"-1034614387"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"020b4aef-1e2f-4812-b6cd-e83bd58b36b6","pagecount":"12","content":"Durante 50 años, el CIAT ha trabajado en colaboración con cientos de socios a lo largo y ancho de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC).Trabajamos con agencias gubernamentales y otros socios sobre el terreno proporcionando herramientas y apoyo científico y técnico para implementar una agricultura eco-eficiente a escala. La labor de investigación del CIAT en ALC ayuda a comprender mejor y aprovechar las tendencias actuales y futuras y sus nexos con la seguridad alimentaria, la nutrición, el manejo de los recursos naturales, el cambio climático, los paisajes y la eco-eficiencia en el sector agroalimentario.Activo actualmente en 14 países en América Latina y el Caribe, el CIAT juega un rol valioso en la transferencia sur-sur de conocimientos agrícolas y aprendizajes en toda la región y en el mundo para acelerar la innovación y generar impacto en el desarrollo.El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), un centro de investigación de CGIAR que funciona en África, Asia y América Latina, tiene su sede principal en Cali, Colombia. Durante 50 años, el CIAT ha trabajado en colaboración con cientos de socios a lo largo y ancho de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC). Durante este tiempo, el CIAT ha liderado el desarrollo y difusión de tecnologías, metodologías innovadoras, diseño de políticas y nuevos conocimientos que ayudan a los agricultores -pequeños, medianos y grandes -a mejorar la eco-eficiencia en la agricultura, contribuir a una mayor prosperidad y mejorar la salud humana mediante soluciones basadas en investigación en la agricultura y el medio ambiente. Un área central de colaboración entre el CIAT y sus socios nacionales en la región ha sido el fitomejoramiento para fríjol, yuca, arroz y forrajes tropicales. La adopción de variedades relacionadas con el CIAT tan solo en ALC en los últimos 50 años ha generado beneficios económicos calculados en US$16.300 millones en fríjol, US$10.800 millones en arroz, US$2.300 millones en yuca y US$1.580 millones en forrajes tropicales. 1, 2 E El equipo de investigación mundial del CIAT está conformado por más de 350 profesionales, con 119 científicos ubicados en ALC en la sede y principal eje regional del CIAT en Cali, Colombia, así como en oficinas nacionales en Nicaragua, Honduras y Perú. El equipo de investigación del CIAT en ALC reúne a una amplia gama de experticia disciplinaria en fitomejoramiento, socioeconomía y políticas, acceso a mercados y desarrollo agroempresarial, agroecología y manejo de cultivos, sistemas agropecuarios integrados, uso sostenible de la tierra, nutrición, sistemas de semillas, ciencia del suelo y mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático. El banco de germoplasma del CIAT en Cali, Colombia, se encuentra en el núcleo de los esfuerzos del Centro para lograr que la agricultura tropical sea más productiva y resiliente. El banco conserva las mayores colecciones del mundo de cultivos tropicales claves: fríjol, yuca y forrajes tropicales.1 Cifras presentadas en dólares estadounidenses de 2011. 2 CIAT. 2017. Los impactos de la investigación colaborativa del CIAT. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Cali, Colombia.Campo de ensayo de arroz en la sede principal del CIAT en Colombia (Neil Palmer/CIAT).Para satisfacer la demanda creciente de soluciones en investigación para el desarrollo a una mayor escala y dentro de un marco de tiempo proporcional con los retos mundiales en rápido y constante cambio, el CIAT está en proceso de establecer una alianza con Bioversity International, un Centro CGIAR hermano con mandato, estrategia, capacidades complementarias y presencia sobre el terreno.La alianza desarrollará e implementará soluciones con base en evidencia para forjar sistemas alimentarios y paisajes sostenibles y resilientes. Esto incluirá aprovechar mejor la biodiversidad agrícola, producir alimentos de cara al cambio climático, reducir la huella ambiental de la agricultura y asegurar un sector agrícola vibrante que impulse la prosperidad, el desarrollo económico y una mejor salud y nutrición humana.Esta hoja de ruta capitaliza sobre las sinergias y complementariedades del CIAT y Bioversity International para enfrentar con éxito estas oportunidades en ALC.A medida que el programa de la alianza evoluciona dentro de la región y emergen nuevas oportunidades, es posible que deban hacerse cambios a este documento.Se da a conocer ahora con el fin de orientar el trabajo del CIAT durante este período de transición e innovación institucional, de modo que se mantenga un programa fuerte y con visión de futuro a medida que evolucionan las prioridades y las disposiciones.Vista del Valle del Cauca, cerca a Palmira, la denominada \"capital agrícola\" del país, en el suroccidente colombiano (Neil Palmer/CIAT).3Noviembre 2018 | Semillas del Futuro, una nueva iniciativa, es un banco de germoplasma de última tecnología que se encuentra en desarrollo para garantizar la protección continuada de la invaluable reserva de diversidad de cultivos de la humanidad. Semillas del Futuro también posibilita las innovaciones en genómica y tecnologías de big data (inteligencia y minería de datos) para lograr un uso mejor dirigido y más orientado por los datos de la diversidad de cultivos al expandir la dimensión digital del banco. Ubicado en una zona de alta riqueza en biodiversidad mundial, Semillas del Futuro servirá como plataforma para reunir a científicos de recursos genéticos de todo el mundo.Las alianzas están en el núcleo de la estrategia del CIAT en la región. Nuestro mandato para lograr impacto a escala implica que trabajamos con agencias gubernamentales y otros socios sobre el terreno brindando herramientas y apoyo científico para implementar una agricultura eco-eficiente a escala. La investigación del CIAT en la región ayuda a comprender mejor y aprovechar las tendencias presentes y futuras y sus nexos con la seguridad alimentaria, la nutrición, el manejo de los recursos naturales, el cambio climático, los paisajes y la eco-eficiencia en el sector agroalimentario. Activo actualmente en 14 países en ALC y en más de 50 países a nivel mundial, el CIAT juega un rol valioso en la transferencia sur-sur de conocimientos agrícolas y aprendizaje en la región y en el mundo para acelerar la innovación y generar impacto en el desarrollo. Dado que la agricultura utiliza más del 50% del agua de la región, surge una inmensa oportunidad para innovar en los sistemas de producción eficientes en su uso y en la conservación del agua en los paisajes agrícolas. El recurso hídrico está surgiendo como un discurso de marco importante para políticas y prácticas en la agricultura, y el acceso continuado para los pequeños agricultores enfrentará retos mientras que sus medios de vida agrícolas dependerán más de la disponibilidad de este recurso.Los focos de malnutrición, la falta de calorías suficientes y el hambre oculta persistirán, en especial en donde la agricultura y el autoprovisionamiento son importantes para la seguridad alimentaria. No obstante, a nivel nacional en muchos países, la obesidad reemplazará el hambre como el reto principal en materia de salud, con índices crecientes de diabetes y otras enfermedades no contagiosas relacionadas con la dieta que afectan a la población rural y urbana de escasos recursos. El crecimiento de las fincas medianas y grandes, y las grandes agroempresas al lado de un sector continuado de fincas pequeñas tendrá implicaciones para las estrategias de medios de vida de los hogares, la desigualdad y las economías rurales.La transición demográfica en las zonas rurales será hacia más pocos agricultores y de mayor edad, junto con una migración rural-urbana e internacional, que incluye a la juventud. Las políticas, los programas y la investigación deberán diferenciar entre estos grupos como usuarios finales.Las políticas de salud, incluidos los impuestos sobre los alimentos poco saludables y nuevos requerimientos de rotulado, las políticas de desarrollo económico que fortalecen al sector agrícola y sustentan el potencial de la región como proveedor clave de bienes ambientales mundiales, y las políticas comerciales que responden a relaciones globales cambiantes, todas ellas crearán potencialmente incentivos conflictivos para el sector agrícola.para los productores y los consumidores de la región, en especial los grupos de menos ingresos. El sector privado, incluidos grandes agroempresas, procesadores de alimentos y distribuidores, tendrá un rol cada vez más importante en la regulación de los sectores agrícola y alimentario con respecto al sector público.Existen incentivos importantes para la conservación de la biodiversidad, el agua, el suelo, los bosques, otros servicios ecosistémicos y los paisajes. El desarrollo agrícola tiene una mayor presión para ser compatible con el uso sostenible, la valoración y la conservación de los recursos naturales.El clima como un tema estratégico (y un verdadero reto) para el desarrollo económico y agrícola se centra en los cambios climáticos a largo plazo así como en una mayor variabilidad climática a corto plazo y la exposición a fenómenos meteorológicos extremos. Los paisajes productivos y las comunidades que sean resilientes en estos tres contextos serán la arquitectura del futuro.Con los índices de pobreza en descenso y el PIB per cápita en aumento, principalmente en las zonas urbanas, la distribución desigual de la riqueza seguirá siendo un reto primordial para el desarrollo en la región.Los sistemas nacionales de investigación y extensión agrícola (SNIEA) y los sistemas nacionales de innovación en América Latina son heterogéneos, con una brecha creciente entre un puñado de SNIEA sólidos, con recursos suficientes y fuertes vínculos con el sector privado y la mayoría de SNIEA con capacidades limitadas que requerirán estrategias diferenciales.Agricultor de tierras altas en Bolivia (Neil Palmer/CIAT).Tema de investigación 1:América Latina y el Caribe (LAC) alberga países que encabezan las listas por obesidad; en promedio en la región, el 60% de los consumidores padecen sobrepeso. Estas cifras, junto con la incidencia de la diabetes, están creciendo rápidamente y las mujeres son las más afectadas. 3,4,5 La desnutrición en ALC es más baja que en otras regiones (6.6%); 6 no obstante, dentro de ALC, algunos países registran niveles de desnutrición hasta de un 40%. 7 La obesidad, la desnutrición y el hambre oculta coexisten dentro de muchos países de la región. Las transformaciones en los sistemas de mercado y los cambios en las dietas están ocurriendo rápidamente y el sector privado juega un rol cada vez más importante en la producción, procesamiento y distribución al detal de alimentos a medida que ALC consolida su posición como el principal exportador neto de productos agrícolas y alimenticios a nivel mundial. 8 A futuro, necesitaremos mejorar los cultivos con mayor calidad nutricional, continuando a su vez el desarrollo de variedades que muestren alto rendimiento, se adapten a distintos entornos y sean resilientes a múltiples estreses. Aunque habrá un enfoque en los cultivos centrales del CIAT (fríjol, yuca, arroz y forrajes), los cultivos de alto valor (café, cacao) y los sistemas alimentarios en general también serán parte de los objetivos.Creemos que la agricultura (apoyada por instrumentos de políticas claves) tiene un enorme potencial para catalizar procesos de inclusión socioeconómica en las zonas rurales y abordar las causas estructurales de la agitación social y política en muchos países de la región. Tendremos que profundizar nuestra comprensión de los sistemas de mercado que sirven a la población de escasos recursos y cómo ellos afectan los resultados nutricionales, la generación de ingresos y la distribución equitativa de los beneficios para la población pobre rural y urbana y para los productores y los consumidores. Esto requerirá de investigación e innovación en los sistemas tradicionales de mercado, ambientes alimentarios, políticas de información en nutrición para incentivar opciones saludables para los consumidores, y disposiciones institucionales que apoyen resultados nutricionales positivos a través del consumo, incluidas la indagación más a fondo del nexo alimentario rural-urbano y la vinculación con iniciativas de desarrollo urbano conectadas a la alimentación, entre ellas la agricultura urbana y la rotulación de los alimentos. 9Incluye el desarrollo de cultivos y variedades en los cultivos centrales del CIAT con un enfoque nutricional; trabajo en contaminantes y prácticas de producción relacionadas con la inocuidad de los alimentos; enfrentar la malnutrición mediante estrategias de innovación en nutrición como la biofortificación;investigación en adopción y replicación a escala para entender y mejorar los resultados en nutrición para diferentes hogares y miembros de familias con énfasis especial en los roles marcados por el género; y apoyo a ministerios en la innovación en materia de políticas.Incluye comprender y cerrar la brecha de rendimiento para cultivos prioritarios mediante la investigación varietal, agronómica o de sistemas; sistemas productivos e investigación en mejoramiento para incrementar la productividad de la tierra, el agua, la mano de obra, la biodiversidad y el capital financiero;y sistemas agropecuarios integrados y agroforestería. Esta investigación debe considerar innovaciones tecnológicas que sirvan a los jóvenes y las agricultoras en particular, y tengan como objetivo fincas pequeñas y medianas en donde los retornos sobre la innovación son altos.Incorpora el desarrollo de indicadores y herramientas para evaluar los sistemas alimentarios en términos de resultados nutricionales, de seguridad alimentaria, resiliencia y equidad y las ventajas vs. desventajas para orientar las intervenciones en políticas; características y factores determinantes del ambiente alimentario para los consumidores de escasos recursos; y análisis de la salud, la nutrición y las políticas para impulsar la innovación en las megaciudades.Hasta octubre de 2018, más de 290 variedades biofortificadas de 12 cultivos básicos se habían liberado o estaban en fase de prueba en más de 60 países alrededor del mundo. América Latina y el Caribe también se ha visto beneficiada con el desarrollo de cultivos más nutritivos. Solo en el año 2017, se liberaron 8 variedades que incluyen fríjol, arroz, yuca, maíz y batata.Especialistas en semillas y comercialización están trabajando en cadenas de valor para introducir y acelerar la adopción de cultivos biofortificados.Tal es el caso de Colombia, donde se está implementando un programa nacional para impulsar a los agricultores a hacer la transición de cultivos ilícitos a cultivos alimentarios básicos. Actualmente, se están produciendo semillas para que 10.000 hogares en Colombia puedan cosechar los beneficios, tanto nutricionales como económicos, de los cultivos biofortificados.Cubre la investigación en cadenas de valor y modelos de negocio sensibles a la nutrición y el género, incluyentes, resilientes al clima y ambientalmente sensatos (por ej., libres de deforestación);investigación en el sector alimentario tradicional y los sistemas locales de mercado; y mejorar la rentabilidad y la sostenibilidad de los sistemas productivos reduciendo a su vez las huellas ambientales.Nuevas alianzas incluirán los sectores salud, medicina, ciencia/procesamiento/inocuidad de los alimentos, que apoyen a los países para reenmarcar su comprensión sobre las conexiones entre la agricultura, los alimentos y la salud, y la manera de regular y articular apropiadamente estos sectores para lograr mejores resultados en nutrición y reducción de pobreza. Los actores del sector privado, incluidos comerciantes, procesadores, distribuidores, organizaciones de productores, consejos de productos básicos (commodities) y actores tradicionales del mercado; integración comercial internacional o mesas de trabajo del sector privado como la WEF e ICCO/ICO; e iniciativas internacionales como Food-Smart Cities y el programa 10FYP SFS del PNUMA serán socios importantes en esta agenda de investigación.El estrés hídrico, el cambio climático, la pérdida de biodiversidad, la deforestación y la degradación de tierras son preocupaciones cada vez más importantes dentro de la comunidad internacional, al igual que para los gobiernos nacionales y regionales en ALC. La región posee importantes zonas de naturaleza y biodiversidad. Los gobiernos y los actores del sector privado cada día son más conscientes de que el crecimiento de la productividad en la agricultura por su propio bien no es suficiente, e inversiones públicas y privadas de gran escala se están reorientando con mayor frecuencia en torno a indicadores ambientales de interés. Los paisajes para la prestación sostenida de servicios ecosistémicos en donde se reconcilian los fines productivos y de conservación están recibiendo una atención creciente a expensas de un enfoque estrictamente productivo para el desarrollo rural. El cambio climático ha desafiado a los comerciantes de productos básicos para invertir en la resiliencia y el desempeño ambiental de las cadenas de valor con un enfoque en la estabilidad a largo plazo del abastecimiento.En lo sucesivo, el trabajo del CIAT en paisajes y sistemas de producción agrícola para ALC deberá vincular más estrechamente la productividad y rentabilidad del sistema en el corto y largo plazo, incorporando indicadores de crecimiento verde y la prestación de servicios ecosistémicos, generando así contribuciones cuantificables para los objetivos frente al clima, la pobreza y la conservación de recursos nacionales y regionales. La región necesitará más soluciones que se inclinen hacia los paisajes productivos sostenibles en donde la agricultura y la restauración funcional estén integradas, demostrando cómo el desarrollo del sector agrícola contribuye de manera positiva y verificable a los compromisos nacionales e internacionales, como las contribuciones determinadas a nivel nacional (NDCs).El agua será especialmente importante, dado que la agricultura usa el 70% del agua de la región. 10 Se requiere mucha más investigación en infraestructura de riego eficiente en el uso del agua y en políticas de apoyo, así como en el manejo de recursos hídricos a modo más general que apoye los diversos usos para la agricultura, los hogares, la energía y la industria.Incluye desarrollar y promover la adopción de prácticas agroecológicias a nivel de parcela, finca y paisaje que logren un uso más eficiente del agua y los nutrientes, conserven la biodiversidad, reduzcan los problemas de plagas (por ej., controles biológicos), restauren suelos, paisajes y servicios ecosistémicos, y que promuevan los sistemas agrosilvopastoriles integrados.• Restauración a nivel de paisaje de los ecosistemas degradados Cubre el diseño e implementación de paisajes productivos que apoyen los medios de vida, la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos, con énfasis en agua, carbono y gases de efecto invernadero para sitios específicos; con la mirada puesta en áreas gravemente degradadas con potencial para la agricultura y la prestación de servicios ecosistémicos que promuevan actividades comunitarias; y usen modelos de negocios sostenibles.• Eficiencia del agua Ampliar nuestra agenda de investigación en sistemas y paisajes agrícolas sostenibles en el uso del agua, incluyendo inversiones en riego sostenible, tecnologías eficientes en el uso del agua, prácticas agronómicas y el involucramiento de asociaciones de riego para lograr eficiencia en el uso del agua y el manejo de cuencas.• Cuantificación y valoración económica de los servicios ecosistémicos Innovación con herramientas digitales y perfeccionamiento de métodos para la cuantificación, monitoreo y valoración económica de los servicios ecosistémicos; medición del impacto de las tecnologías e intervenciones como la restauración de tierras para orientar la planificación de la inversión y la formulación de políticas para los sectores público y privado.10 http://www.fao.org/americas/prioridades/suelo-agua/es/ El sistema de producción sostenible Quesungual ha sido implementado de manera exitosa en el Corredor Seco centroamericano para el manejo de suelo, agua y vegetación. Cientos de agricultores han aumentado sus rendimientos de maíz y fríjol, a la vez que han mejorado los servicios ecosistémicos y su resiliencia.El CIAT también viene trabajando en Centroamérica en medidas que mejoran la disponibilidad del agua y de herramientas que orientan la inversión en cosecha de agua para la agricultura. En Perú, la investigación del CIAT para determinar el valor de los servicios ecosistémicos fue clave en la aprobación de una ley que promueve mecanismos para la distribución equitativa de los beneficios económicos de la naturaleza.Será importante una colaboración mucho más fuerte con el sector ambiental, incluido el PNUMA, ministros del medio ambiente y otras agencias ambientales, ONG ambientales mundiales y regionales, así como la participación en debates sobre medio ambiente, construyendo puentes hacia la agricultura y facilitando la cooperación sur-sur. La integración con pueblos indígenas en la región, que a su vez son agricultores y guardianes de grandes tramos de bosques, presenta una oportunidad llevar a cabo investigación colaborativa y participativa, extensión e implementación de productos del conocimiento en la práctica.Resiliencia al clima ALC es altamente vulnerable al cambio climático, la variabilidad climática y los fenómenos climatológicos extremos. La importancia del sector agrícola para las economías de Sur y Centroamérica en términos de empleo, economías rurales, PIB y seguridad alimentaria hacen del cambio climático una amenaza muy real e inminente para la región. El cambio en el uso de la tierra y la degradación, en especial el avance de la frontera agrícola y la expansión de extensos sistemas de pastoreo, están acelerando los efectos del cambio climático en la región. Los compromisos frente al clima son cada vez más centrales en las agendas de muchos gobiernos de la región.Las capacidades y el liderazgo del CIAT en el área de cambio climático y agricultura nos convierte en un aliado clave en la región para ayudar a los países a transformar el cambio y la variabilidad climática en una oportunidad para el crecimiento sostenible en el sector agrícola. Para ello, el CIAT debe enfocar más esfuerzos en el caso económico para la agricultura resiliente al clima en el corto y largo plazo, aportando información para orientar inversiones e instrumentos financieros para liberar el potencial del sector.Incluye promover el desarrollo y la adopción de variedades tolerantes a la sequía/altas temperaturas/ inundaciones, prácticas agronómicas que promuevan la adaptación y mitigación, y sistemas de producción resilientes al cambio y la variabilidad climática.• Caminos resilientes al clima bajos en carbono Abarca el apoyo para los países en la región para cumplir con sus NDCs, desarrollar planes nacionales de adaptación (NAPs) y prospección para la planificación del sector.• Manejo del riesgo agrícola Incluye los servicios mejorados de información climática para la planificación de la inversión agrícola; servicios de asesoría digital para un mejor manejo de los cultivos, incluidos los servicios agroclimáticos para los agricultores; servicios y productos financieros, prácticas agronómicas para reducir el riesgo de plagas y enfermedades, así como la pérdida de rendimiento, e instrumentos para el manejo del riesgo de mercado, como los seguros agrícolas y el estudio de disposiciones institucionales en varios niveles.Las nuevas alianzas se enfocarán en instituciones financieras, comerciantes de productos básicos agrícolas y organizaciones de productores, partiendo de interacciones actuales bajo el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS), pero abriendo camino hacia el desarrollo y despliegue de productos por parte de actores del sector privado, incluidos los bancos de desarrollo. Las compañías de tecnología digital, proveedores de servicios de extensión, oficinas nacionales para el cambio climático, ministerios de recursos naturales e institutos meteorológicos también serán aliados importantes.El CIAT ha sido líder en la región en el desarrollo de servicios climáticos para el sector agrícola, diseñados para minimizar pérdidas de cultivos frente a la variablidad climática, reducir riesgos para los agricultores y contribuir a lograr una mayor rentabilidad para las empresas agropecuarias. Nuestra labor en Colombia ha ganado numerosos premios internacionales por su innovación e impacto para el desarrollo, y el CIAT participa en toda la región en el diseño y despliegue de nuevos servicios.El enfoque presenta a los agricultores nuevas habilidades, mejores prácticas y conocimientos sobre cómo incorporar información climática, específica por sitio, local, confiable y oportuna a partir de fuentes confiables en sus sistemas y estrategias de planificación. En Colombia y Honduras, se ha llegado a unos 330.000 productores a través de nueve comités locales técnicos agroclimáticos, y tan solo en Colombia, más de 150 mil productores están recibiendo servicios de asesoría agroclimática ajustados a sus necesidades, y 6.000 más han adoptado prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima.Los científicos de fenómica del CIAT usan drones para facilitar la evaluación y el diagnóstico fisiológico de los cultivos con base en información capturada en el campo (Neil Palmer/CIAT).América Latina y el CaribeEnfrentamos tiempos de cambio sin precedentes. El CIAT continuará innovando en torno a los pilares claves de la eco-eficiencia que buscan usar los recursos de una manera más efectiva para lograr incrementos sostenibles en la productividad, para ayudar a reducir la degradación de los recursos naturales y para crear oportunidades a fin de impulsar los ingresos y el empleo. No obstante, el paradigma del desarrollo agrícola está cambiando rápidamente de un enfoque centrado en maximizar el rendimiento a lograr que los cultivos sean más ricos en nutrientes. Adicionalmente, existe actualmente una tendencia para que la producción agrícola rinda más y mejores cultivos pero de una manera justa y limpia. En estos tiempos de cambio, el CIAT continuará siendo una organización de vanguardia que promueve varias estrategias para lograr el desarrollo sostenible.La investigación aplicada del CIAT para el desarrollo debe aportar información a la toma de decisiones, el diseño de políticas y la práctica. La alianza con actores locales, nacionales y regionales en el diseño, implementación y aplicación de investigación a escala apoyará la eficiencia y eficacia junto al continuum de investigación y desarrollo para abordar algunos de los retos más importantes que enfrenta la región. La formación de capacidades dentro de la región continuará siendo un componente importante de la estrategia del CIAT con el fin de transferir continuamente capacidades a los socios tanto para investigación como para su aplicación frente a retos de desarrollo. Los socios claves para que el CIAT logre impacto a escala incluyen ONGI, bancos de desarrollo, institutos gubernamentales (incluidos ministerios de agricultura y medio ambiente, institutos de investigación agrícola, como el CATIE, e institutos meteorológicos, entre otros), el sector privado, organizaciones de pueblos indígenas, agencias de la ONU y donantes. Las alianzas múltiples que integran los SNIEA, universidades, sociedad civil, el sector privado y los bancos de desarrollo serán esenciales. Entablar relaciones con institutos homólogos y socios que influyan en la agenda regional, como las instituciones de investigación, las organizaciones intergubernamentales y los foros también será fundamental.Dentro de ALC, varias subregiones brindan similitudes agroecológicas que permiten investigación transnacional/regional, intercambio o extrapolación de resultados, por ejemplo, Mesoamérica y países más grandes en el Caribe, islas estados más pequeñas en el Caribe, los Andes, la cuenca amazónica o el Cono Sur. Estas subregiones comparten además retos y prioridades similares, como es el caso de las reducciones de emisiones en el Cono Sur. Las redes políticas y técnicas a través de instituciones y plataformas regionales de integración como SICA, CARICOM, MERCOSUR, FONTAGRO y las INIA-Iberoamérica también pueden facilitar la formación de capacidades, la difusión y la escala de resultados y la participación en políticas, incluida la cooperación sur-sur. Partiendo de nuestra base en la región dentro de distintas agroecologías y redes sociopolíticas, el CIAT maximizará el impacto trabajando en ellas y a través de ellas para alcanzar escala e impacto.Los tres temas de investigación de esta hoja de ruta vinculan transversalmente las áreas de investigación del CIAT y responden a la Actualización de la Estrategia CIAT (2018-2020), para brindar soluciones aplicadas en diferentes contextos agroecológicos y socioeconómicos, movilizando conocimiento en la zona austral mundial. Como miembro del Sistema CGIAR, el CIAT, por medio de esta hoja de ruta, busca responder al Plan de Negocios de CGIAR, aprovechando transformaciones intensivas en conocimiento y colaboraciones fortalecidas con socios para enfrentar los retos globales en continuo cambio. La agenda de investigación propuesta partirá de los siguientes Programas de Investigación de CGIAR y a su vez contribuirá a ellos: Agricultura para la Nutrición y la Salud (A4NH); Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS); Políticas, Instituciones y Mercados (PIM); Agua, Tierras y Ecosistemas (WLE); Raíces, Tubérculos y Banano (RTB); Bosques, Árboles y Agroforestería (FTA); así como las Plataformas de Bancos de Germoplasma y Big Data. La alineación de nuestro trabajo con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de la ONU nos permite trabajar al lado de países y otros socios para lograr una agenda compartida en torno al futuro que deseamos crear. Aunque el trabajo del CIAT contribuye de distintas formas a todos los 17 ODS, 9 de ellos son particularmente centrales para la misión del CIAT y para esta hoja de ruta, como se muestra a continuación. El CIAT buscará diseñar y aplicar acciones que puedan abordar diversos retos del desarrollo simultáneamente para contribuir a múltiples ODS. Carolina Navarrete Frías, Directora Regional para América Latina y el Caribe c.navarrete@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"4534"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"08487883b67e3a0e42afa42520133118","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/98fe2589-12c1-4322-b52a-f062747b0f20/content","id":"425858963"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c8e10478-b04a-4bad-b3bf-7b9416674540","pagecount":"40","content":"Breeding for drought tolerance is among the top priorities for CIMMYT's Global Maize Program. Drought tolerant maize is one of the flagship products of CIMMYT. Research on drought stress in maize at CIMMYT started in 1970s, and continued as one of the priority areas. This has been further intensified in the last ten years to cope-up with the climate change effects in the tropics.CIMMYT has been a pioneer in developing and deploying protocols for drought stress phenotyping, selection strategy and breeding for drought tolerance (Banziger et al., 2000;Zaman-Allah et al., 2016). The information presented in this manual is based on the work on quantitative management of drought stress phenotyping under field conditions that received strong and consistent support from several donor agencies, especially the BMZ/GIZ, Germany and the MAIZE CGIAR Research Program. The financial support for compilation and publishing this field manual from CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) platform is duly acknowledged.CIMMYT -the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center -is the global leader in publicly funded maize and wheat research-for development. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners worldwide to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on MAIZE, WHEAT and Excellence-In-Breeding (EIB) platform.In agriculture, the term drought refers to a meteorological condition in which the amount of water available through rainfall and/or irrigation is insufficient to meet the crop needs for optimal growth and development. This eventually affects overall productivity. Rainfed crops grown during the summer-rainy season in the tropics occasionally face extreme weather conditions. These extreme weather conditions translate into various abiotic stresses, such as intermittent/contingent drought, which constitutes one of the key abiotic constraints for crop production in many parts of the world. The erratic distribution pattern of rain in the tropics due to inter-annual variability occasionally causes prolonged dry spells at different crop growth stages, which results in poor crop growth and development and eventually poor yields.Crop breeding programs targeting drought tolerance using conventional and/or molecular breeding approaches rely heavily on high-quality phenotypic data generated under drought stress. One of the key prerequisites for generating a quality drought phenotyping data is accuracy and precision in managing drought stress in field phenotyping, so that genotypic variability could be expressed and precisely identified. Applying drought stress at required intensity with uniformity and precisely at targeted crop stage has been a major challenge, especially under field conditions, as several weather factors interact and affects the stress development and its intensity. Occasionally, the managed drought stress trials ended with either low or too severe stress, which is often realized after completing the trial. In this manual, the quantitative approach of managing drought stress with required intensity at targeted crop stage (for example -flowering stage), and with uniformity over space (across plot) and duration is discussed. This manual is developed for field crop breeders, crop physiologists, agronomists, masters or Ph.D. students and field technicians who are working on phenotyping and/or selection for drought stress tolerance in field crops.vCrops grown under rainfed conditions in tropics occasionally face contingent/intermittent drought largely due to erratic distribution pattern of rains.Drought is identified as one of the major factors responsible for year-to-year variation and instability in crop productivity and production in tropics. Crop breeding programmes targeting drought tolerance using conventional or molecular breeding approaches rely heavily on high quality phenotyping data generated from drought screening trials.Timing, intensity and uniformity of imposed stress in a drought trial is key for precision phenotyping and identifying available genotypic variability among test entries for drought tolerance.The key aspects for conducting a managed drought stress trials are described as follows:1. Understanding the target population environment:A clear understanding about target population environment (TPE) is essential for planning and selecting the best suitable selection environment where the phenotyping site should be established. The phenotyping site does not necessarily have to be in the target environment, but should have a good representation of the TPE. Therefore, a minimum set of information about the TPE is required for establishing phenotyping site, such as:▪ Daily weather data, at least for past 5 years, including maximum temperature (Tmax), minimum temperature (Tmin), relative humidity (RH) and rainfall.▪ Soil type, cropping season and cropping system, especially the cropping window for the targeted crop (e.g. maize) in the TPE.▪ Other relevant information, such as major biotic stresses and socio-economic constraints.Analysing these information will help in defining the most relevant type of drought stress and understanding the requirements for establishing a phenotyping site that is significantly related to the TPE.Though drought is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs due to prolonged dry-spell during rainy season, it is almost impossible to precisely predict such dryspells at targeted crop stage during rainy season. Therefore, a managed drought stress screen is conducted during rain-free dry season, where stress is imposed by managing irrigation schedule in such a way that test entries are exposed to desired level of drought at targeted crop stage. On the basis of a careful analysis of past 5 years weather data including T max , T min and rainfall for all potential locations, a suitable site with rain-free period during targeted crop stage could be identified. Apart from rain-free period, other weather conditions should be suitable for growing the crop at the selected location in the planting window identified for drought phenotyping trial. For example -in maize breeding for drought tolerance the targeted crop stage is flowering and early grain-filling stage. At Hyderabad location in India (17.3850° N, 78.4867° E, 545 masl), November to February months are usually a dry season as most parts during this period is almost rain-free (Fig. 1). Also, T max is <35 0 C and T min is >8 0 C in most part of this period, which is suitable for growing maize crop. Therefore, this site is identified as a suitable location for drought phenotyping, where planting can be takenup during last week of November, a trial with medium maturity group of entries reaches to peak flowering stage around 1 st week of February, and most critical stages of reproductive phase complete within month of February. At this site drought stress could be imposed at a desired intensity (and duration) and timing (targeted crop stage) with good uniformity by managing irrigation schedule.3. Establishing the drought phenotyping site:Based on TPE analysis followed by suitable location identification, a field phenotyping plot need to be selected for establishing a dedicated site for drought stress phenotyping. It is important to ensure that the selected field satisfies following basic requirements:▪ A field with medium textured soil (Fig. 2) and good water holding capacity in order to avoid frequent irrigation and/or very fast drought stress development after imposing stress by withdrawing irrigation.Fig. 2: Soil type requirement for a suitable field plot for drought phenotyping.▪ Soil physical properties of the phenotyping site should be characterized to determine the field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP). This need to be done only once as it is a site-specific physical property of the soil and does not change over several years.▪ Well-levelled field to facilitate smooth waterflow during irrigation to avoid water run-off and stagnation in patches.▪ Good irrigation (and drainage) facility to avoid random drought stress or excessive moisture/ waterlogging during trial.▪ Field located away from large water bodies water (such as rivers, lakes, ponds etc.) as these could influence ground water- There are various options for mapping spatial field variability:▪ Ideally, it should be carried-out by growing a single crop variety (preferably the same crop for which drought phenotyping site is to be developed, as different crop may vary significantly in their sensitivity to soil physical and chemical properties) to be able to identify existing field variability and bad patches, if any.▪ Direct assessment of soil variability is possible through destructive soil sampling at different depth intervals (up to a depth of 90 or 120 cm) and analysis of key soil physical and chemical properties. This analysis can provide information on the suitability of a site for drought phenotyping. Soil samples should be taken across field using a square grid basis with a minimum of five sampling points per hectare (Masuka et al., 2012).▪ High-throughput techniques are now available for mapping spatial field variability based on soil electrical conductivity sensors, penetrometers, spectral reflectance, thermal imagery of plant canopies and measurements of plant growth as surrogates of variability (Prasanna et al., 2013).Drought phenotyping trials should be carried out with more phenologically homogeneous entries in a trial. Genotypes should, therefore, be grouped in trials based on similarity in their flowering-time. Such grouping should be preferably based on using growing degreedays (GDD) units. This is crucial for avoiding different levels of stress within a trial, as entries with different maturity group will reach the targeted crop stage (for example, flowering/early grain-filling) at different times.Ideally, all entries within a trial should have comparable flowering days, for example-in case of maize, a difference of 2-3 days (or equivalent GGD units) is acceptable, but more than 5.0 days difference in flowering days within a trial should be strictly avoided.In case there is no option but to take-up more than one maturity group trials at same site, then staggered planting (late maturity trials first and early at last, Fig. 3) can be used so that last irrigation is applied at same time in all trials with significant variation in flowering time.All the test entries should be first grown in the main crop season. GDD of each test entry can be calculated using the equation given below, and entries with similar maturity group should be grouped in one trial for managed drought stress phenotyping trials. GDD = (Tmax+Tmin)/2) -base temperature or absolute minimum temperaturewhere Tmax = hourly maximum temperature if Tmax >absolute maximum then Tmax = absolute maximum Tmin = daily minimum temperature if Tmin < absolute minimum then Tmin = absolute minimum.Note: There are four temperature thresholds, called the cardinal temperatures that define the growth of a crop, including the absolute minimum, the optimum minimum, the optimum maximum, and the absolute maximum. The absolute minimum and maximum temperatures define the coldest and hottest temperatures beyond which a crop will stop to grow. Temperatures between the optimum minimum and maximum define the best suitable range of temperature for the crop growth. These cardinal temperatures vary for different crops; maize (Zea mays L.), for example, has an absolute minimum temperature of 8°C, an optimum minimum of 18°C, an optimum maximum of 33°C, and an absolute maximum of 44°C.Except irrigation management to impose drought stress, all other recommended crop management practices should be followed in drought stress phenotyping trials. Adequate crop management, including timely application of recommended inputs and agronomic operations, is a pre-requisite for high quality phenotyping data.▪ Plant population: Number of plants per unit area is one of the components of final grain yield; therefore, this needs to be given due attention to ensure that the required plant population is maintained in the field. If seed is not a limitation, planting extra seeds per hill (or double density) and thinning-out extra seedlings, once seedlings are fully established is recommended.▪ Border effect: Border rows should be planted (in double-density spacing) all around the trials in order to avoid border effects on test-entries and any physical damage. In addition, to maintain the same level of competition, no space should be left empty (un-planted) inside the trial. Any empty space in the trial whether border row or free space due to non-germination should be planted using some bulk seeds and clearly indicated in the field map.▪ Moisture management: Before imposing drought stress, irrigation intervals need to be well defined so that the crop has optimal moisture conditions for good establishment and growth. If possible, method of irrigation should be combination of furrow/flood and sprinkler system to ensure uniformity in moisture availability across the field, which eventually helps in achieving a uniform drought stress treatment in a field trial. In case of furrow irrigation, it should be ensured that no water stagnated in any part of the field, as this may affect the microclimate or may cause excessive moisture stress. However, drip irrigation is preferred in drought phenotyping trials because of its high precision in achieving uniform moisture level across the field, and therefore uniformity in stress treatment as well.▪ Application of recommended inputs: Recommendations regarding inputs including fertilizers (their time of application and doses), weed, insect-pest and disease control measures are usually location-specific and depend on soil physical and chemical properties and common biotic pressures. Therefore, it is essential to have updated information on the recommended package-ofpractices for the phenotyping site and ensure that they are implemented on time, in order to keep the crop free from nutrient stress and any biotic stresses such as weeds, insects or diseases.▪ Interactions with other stresses: Presence of other biotic or abiotic stress agents that influence plant growth and functions can limit the accuracy of drought phenotyping. These agents may cause mechanical damage to roots (e.g., nematodes, rootworms), impairment of root growth (e.g., soil acidity, boron toxicity, salt stress) and/or reduce water availability to the crop (e.g., presence of weeds, salt stress) and source capacity (e.g. foliar diseases, insect damage to the canopy). Similarly, interactions may occur when evaluation for drought stress is done in presence of other unintended abiotic factors (e.g. low-nitrogen fertility, high or low temperatures etc.).In field-based drought phenotyping trials, it is essential to record weather data (including Tmax, Tmin, relative humidity and rainfall) that could significantly alter the overall effects of drought stress experienced by the crop.A portable weather data recorder should be installed within or in vicinity of the phenotyping field for regular recording of these weather parameters. Apart from directly recorded parameters, vapour pressure deficit (VPD) can be calculated at given air temperature and respective humidity value using the formula given below, and expressed in kPa (kilo Pascal). ▪ Stress timing should be managed such that the targeted growth stage(s) are exposed to the desired level of drought stress.▪ Stress intensity should be severe enough so that important traits for yield under stress become distinct from those, which affect yield under nonstressed conditions. Drought tolerance per se is expected to play a progressively more important role than yield potential as the severity of drought escalates, as genotype ranking for yield changes considerably once the mean yield falls below 20-30 percent of yields under optimal moisture as a result of water scarcity. In general, a drought stress is considered intermediate when mean yield of the drought trial ranges between 40-50 percent of yield under optimal moisture, and severe when it goes down below 30 percent.▪ Stress uniformity over space and time is necessary for expression of genotypic variability within a trial and that could be clearly observed and recorded.There are some key factors that contribute in achieving a desired level of drought stress at targeted crop stage with reasonable uniformity.(a) When to apply last irrigation to impose drought stress?Various methods are available to determine the day of last irrigation for imposing drought stress at targeted crop growth stage, For example -in case of flowering stage drought stress in maize, depends upon soil type (for example -in a medium texture soils), irrigation should be stopped about two weeks before anthesis (Banziger et al., 2000). However, the criteria based on days or weeks might not always be accurate because it is largely dependent on prevailing weather conditions in a particular cropping season/year. Therefore, for improved accuracy there is need of a quantitative criteria such as growing degree-days (GDD) from planting to identify the day of last irrigation for imposing drought stress.For example -in case of a reproductive stage drought trial with medium maturing group of genotypes having GDD for anthesis of approximately 750±25 0 C, and a site with about 10-12 0 C GDD per day during pre-flowering stage, the day when about 550 0 C ∑GDD is reached, is identified appropriate time for applying the last irrigation (Table -1). However, the GDD value for last irrigation is a site and maturity group specific, therefore, this need to be calibrated at least once for a particular phenotyping site and maturity group. An example of how to calculate GDD is given in Annexure-I.Uniformity of last irrigation before imposing drought stress is critical for uniform moisture regime across field, and therefore development of uniform drought stress. The best option for achieving this uniformity is to use drip irrigation system until full saturation. The second best option is sprinkler irrigation system, applied in two instalments; for example: first round of 3-4 hours and after a gap of few hours second round until full saturation. It is difficult to achieve a uniform moisture across field using furrow/flood irrigation at least at this critical stage for drought trials.After applying last irrigation uniformly up to full saturation level all possible sources of water heading towards drought trials should be properly closed, and as a precaution, install a board displaying 'Drought trial or No irrigation' at all possible sides of drought plot (Fig. 4).Table 1 : Accumulation of growing degree days (GDD) and time to apply last irrigation for imposing drought in a medium maturity group of maize hybrid trial at Hyderabad location in India.Some basic precautions for ensuring uniform irrigation using sprinkler system are as below:▪ Irrigation should be done at a time of the day when there is little or no wind.▪ Sprinkler system should be cleaned and checked for leakages.▪ Catch cans should be used to measure the amount of irrigation at places in the field where sprinkler water is expected to be relatively low. If placed systematically in the field, the volume of water collected in the catch cans can be used to adjust the sprinklers for uniformity.  (b) Soil moisture profiling:Recording soil moisture data after imposing drought stress helps in regular monitoring of drought development in field and achieving desired level of stress, which eventually helps in generating high quality phenotyping data.The key steps involved in the process are as follows:Installation of soil moisture profile probes: Vertical profiling of soil moisture can be done using a suitable soil moisture profile probes depending on root depth of the crop (For example: Short and long versions of the PR2, with 4 or 6 sensors along the length, Fig. 5, https:// www.delta-t.co.uk/product/pr2/). Porous access tubes (Fig. 6a) need to be installed in field once all mechanical field operations are completed, at least one week prior to applying last irrigation. These tubes are fibre glass specially constructed thin-wall tubes, which maximise the penetration of the electromagnetic field into the surrounding soil. A set of tools are supplied along with equipment for installation of porous tubes in field (Fig. 6b).The tools need to be used as per given guideline for proper installation of each porous tube in a way that full-length of the tube, up to black ring near the top, is inserted into soil (Fig. 6a). Each tube need to be immediately capped properly after installation using rubber cap supplied with tubes (Fig. 6c) so that any object including soil etc. should not fall inside the tubes. The number to be installed in a field depends on the spatial variability in field. Ideally, one tube in each block of experimental design is recommended, or at least one tube in each range (or bed) should be placed following spatial pattern in field (Fig. 7) to optimize moisture depletion data capture across field after imposing drought stress. Recording soil moisture: In deep-rooted crops like maize vertical profiling of soil moisture is done using PR2/6 profile probes. The 1.0m long PR2 probe measures volumetric soil moisture at different depths within the soil profile including 10, 20, 30, 40, 60 and 100 cm depth. It consists of a sealed polycarbonate rod, ~25mm diameter, with electronic sensors as pairs of stainless steel rings arranged at fixed intervals along its length (Fig. 8). Each sensor produce an electromagnetic fields extend into the soil (Fig. 5) and a voltage output, which is converted into soil moisture using a general soil calibrations. The probe needs one-time calibration for specific soil type for a dedicated phenotyping site.For recording soil moisture data the probe is fully inserted into the access tube after removing the cap and after 15-30 second volumetric soil moisture content (m³.mˉ³ or % volume) at different soil depth can be read in data-logger (Fig. 8), which can be manually noted or saved in the data-logger. The moisture reading process in each tube should be repeated at least twice, and average should be used as soil moisture content (m 3 . m -3 or percentage volume) for that particular tube. For second reading in the same tube, take-out the sensor and rotate it to about 90 ○ , again insert it into access tube to repeat the data in same tube.In a drought phenotyping trial moisture data need to be recorded at a regular interval, at least weekly, starting from one week after applying last irrigation, until the stress is relieved or irrigation is resumed. This helps in keeping track with moisture depletion at different soil depth (Fig. 9), progress in drought stress development, and deciding the threshold of drought intensity for terminating stress. Measuring soil water content allows the repetition of such experiment under similar conditions as well as more rigorous assessment and interpretation of the results. It also enables to quantify and document the level of stress applied. (c) When to resume irrigation to terminate drought stress?It is a critical decision to make in order to identify available genotypic variability for drought tolerance.The criteria such as days after imposing drought stress, visible drought stress symptoms in field etc. for terminating the stress are often misleading. A quantitative criteria based on monitoring soil moisture depletion in root zone after imposing drought stress is more reliable in taking decision on termination of stress in a drought trial. For example -stress should be terminated (irrigation resumed) in case of drought phenotyping trial for maize in a medium textured soil (clayey loam), once the soil moisture content at a depth of 30-40cm reached near permanent wiling point (PWP) of the soil (Fig. 9). However, this limit may vary for a particular site and crop, and therefore need to be calibrated at least for one season.Along with soil moisture data, keeping track with accumulated VPD at Tmax after applying last irrigation helps in keeping track with severity of drought stress; For example -in case of maize drought trial at Hyderabad location during winter cycle, a total accumulated VPD ~ 120.0kPa from day after last irrigation to the day of terminating stress was calibrated and used along with moisture depletion data for taking decision on terminating stress. Moisture depletion data supported with VPD information is especially important in some unusual years, when crop encounters a spell of dry wind and a period of prolonged high VPD regime. In such unusual situation, even if moisture content is yet to be depleted to the targeted limit, trial may suffer with severe drought stress due to high VPD regime. Therefore, in such situation VPD criteria helps in taking decision of early termination of drought stress to avoid losing drought trial. VDP data also helps in clustering different sites according to stress pattern and severity before performing across-site data analysis. An example of how to calculate accumulated VPD is given in Annexure-II.The three key steps, i.e.-time of imposing drought stress, monitoring/tracking moisture depletion and terminating the stress at appropriate time, are the key of a successful drought phenotyping trials. Once these steps are implemented based on quantitative criteria discussed in above section, the genotypic variability for drought stress is clearly expressed, which could be recorded in form of high quality data related to various agronomic and yield traits (Fig. 10). Annexure-I ","tokenCount":"3965"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8f71977d56de53ded49e2414ed15d65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c720d2e-bb26-4410-be71-c3e9c38346d3/retrieve","id":"-512503471"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d318d204-bd56-40c4-bbb4-edfb7ba5bbfc","pagecount":"20","content":"Farmers have an intricate koowledge of Iheir agroecological domains. The empirical evidenees from Kachorwa (Ieral) and Begnas (mid-hill) sites in Nepal suggesl that farmers dislinguish domains for rice primarily on Ibe hasis of moislure and fertility. Farrners also differentíale the number, relative size, and specific eharaeteristics of each domrun wíthin a given geographíe area. Símilarly, Ibey allacat. individual varietiesllandraces to each domain, indieatíng lhat the competítion between varietíesllandraces accurs within the domain and Ibat transgression of domain was ralber limited. These deductions need to he verified at a wider level. A fuller understanding by researehers ofspecific agroecologieal domains is a prerequisite ror them to contribute substantíally in planning and executing effective participatory plant breeding (PPB) programs. Only with a sound knowledge of agroecological domains and the varietal distribulion within domains can a program on diversity deployment and biodiversity conservation be effectively implemented. Likewise, justifying Ihe cosl-effectiveness of PPB, targeting researchlexlension activities, and measuring Ihe contribution of PPB to foad security demands a detailed Wlderstanding of agroecological dom.ins. Simple and practical ways lO ilIieit inforro.tion on agroecoJogical dornaios and assaciated varietiesllandraces tbrough farmem' group discussion al Ibe víllage level have been suggested as a pre-projeet activity for PPB, which could enhance Ibe suecess of PPB programs.The importance of agroecological dornams can be found in earlier work on defining and delineating . recornrnendation dornains (RDs), whích is c10sely associated with the farrning systerns research of the late 1970s (Wotowiec, Poats, and Hildebrand 1986). Initial work on RDs concentrated on a few relatively easily identifiable factors (bíological variables), such as land and soil types, agro ecological zones, and erop types and rnanagernent (Harrington and Tripp 1985). The exercise on RD was híghly complex sinee the process was to identify farrning households, based on the sirnilarity in their practiees, rather than farrns. But the delineation of agroecological domains was rnueh less eumbersorne with rice because rice is very sensitive to changes in agroecological conditions and its adaptation is Iirnited, as compared lo sorne other crops such as maíze. Moreover, rice is the rnost important cereal crop in the regíon, so farrners have an in-depth knowledge ofrice-growing environrnents and varieties suitable to different agroecological dornains.The current endeavor on refining the definition of agroecological dornaíns for rice in parts ofNepal is the case of\"sharpening the focus\" fur better targeting of participatory plant breeding (PPB) work, including diversity deployrnent, eonservation of landraees in different dornains, and planning strategic erop rnanagement research. The methodology adopted is quite simple and can be replícated in other areas for wider use by the researchers and deve10pment workers. Field exercises for delineating agroecological domains have largely been influenced by the methodologies on RDs advocated by Collinson (1980), Franzel (1985), and Vaidya and Floyd (1997).Ihey emphasized the use of secondary sources of information, followed by preliminary surveys supplemented later by a formal survey lo refine the domains. However, later views on the subject hold lha! the refining process should take place only after researchers have a clear understanding of the variabílity inherent in the local farming systems (Cornick and Alberti 1985). The current study embodies the thoughts from both the methodologies for delineating domains and associated rice landraces/varieties.In the process of delineating agroecological domains, two group meetings were organized in the Kachorwa and Begnas eco-sítes. The first meeting was held with field-based staff; the second, with farmers from the project area. Ihis was followed by a transect walk by researchers and farmer representatives lo jointly validate farmers' statements. Ihe exercise took about two days, including field visits in each site.Sínce field-based staff are stationed in villages, it was expected !hat they would have a fairly good understanding of the agroecological domains and the farming systems of their respective eco-siles.Hence, the first level of group discussions was organized in field offices, with the field officer, technical assistants, and motivators part.icipating.Afier discussions, the participants were able to come up with four major agroecological domains, mainly defined on the basís of water regímes. They also broadly classified the soíl type and fertility status of soils from each domaín, based on scientific knowledge of soil classification and characterization. Participanls were also asked to estímate the size of each domain and place different landraces/varieties in their right domains. Estimating tbe relative size of each domain was straíghtforward because tbe pok:harilman occupied only a limited area within the eco-site. But placing each landrace/variety in its right domain proved more difficult. The team could place tbe majority of landraces/varieties in their domains, but the number of landraces/varielies per eco-síte was too large for them to rernember aH the names and tbeir right enviromnents. The process was also complicated by the fact lhal sorne of the landraces/varieties are grown in more than one domain.The whole process was reviewed by the participants, and once they were satisfied with the sleps and outputs, the field officer was asked lo facilitate tbe same process for tbe farmers' group discussion.A group discussion was held with farmers witb the specific objective of delineating agroecological domains. Fíeld officers/sile coordinators facilitated the discussion and tbe whole exercise was repeated witb farmers' groups. Both female and male farmers participated in the discussion and put forward tbeir opinions.Farmers identified four agroecological domains within the eco-site (ucha, samta/, nichaJkhalar, and pokharllman), based on the major criteria of moisture regime and fertility status/gradient (tables 1 and 2). They could easily identifY the relative size of each domain, but there were disagreements among about soil c1assification. Perhaps this reflected the variability of the soíl types and soil fertility slatus in each domain. Placing landraces/variety in the domains initiated a lively  Having achieved a high degree of agreement between farmers and researchers in Ihe defmition of agroecological domains, it was decided to field-verif)' the definitions through a transect walk and to look for consistency in Ihe field implementation. A representative group offarmers made a transect walk of Ihe eco-site along wilh researchers. They identified domains and located landraces/varieties on different farms. The exercise helped in relating different agroecological domains and Iheir characteristics with Ihé landraceslvarieties being grown Ihere. Thus, Ihis exercise needs to be conducted when the rice crop ls mature or when Ihe crop is standing in Ihe field.Based on the analysis oflhe characteristics of different agroecological domains and Ihe distribution oflandraces/varieties within domains, an attempt lo develop a conceptual model of agroecological domains for rice was made (figure 1). In Ihe following subsections, Ihe characteristíc features of the domains have been explained. Nevertheless, Ihe model needs verification in a larger context and further refinement for wider applicability.Local farmers can provide very reliable inforrnation on Ihe agroecological domains for rice. Similarly, farmers can provide detailed features of each domain in terms of soíl type, drainage, fertility status, production potential, cropping patterns, and so on.The size of agroecological domains varies, with more extreme environments (domains) being relatively smaller as compared to more favorable ones. This follows normal distribution curve. How-  Doma!n 4 ever, depending upon fue geographic location (high-potential production systems or marginal growing envíronrnents), the size of each domain will vary. For instance, in marginal environrnents for rice, fue extreme domain will be relatively larger as compared to ofuer domains; whereas, in favorable environrnents, the míddle domains will be relatively larger.Until fue distribution oflandráces/varieties across domains, the features of domains, and fue traits of cultivars are analyzed, one cannot appreciate fue complexity of farroers' strategies to manage plant genetic resourees to meet fueir multiple needs. From the analysis, it is apparent that one landrace/variety is best suited or most competitive in only one domain, though farroers might grow the same cultivar in more fuan one domain. This implies that fue cultivar competes wifu ofuer cultivars trom within the domain, and that there is less competition between cultivars across domains, except when fuere is an overlap of cultivars. Overlap signifies the presence of transitional zones between dornains, which explains fue presence of landraceslvarieties in two different but adjacent dornains. Within dornajns, fue area and number of households growing different landraceslvarieties is explained by rnarket forces, farrocrs' socioeconomic status, cultural factors, preferences for specific traits, and ofuer abiotic and biotjc factors.Alfuough landrsces/varieties rnay overlap in adjacent dornains, no case was registered where a landrsce/variety was found in more fuan two dornajns. This suggests fuat landraces/varietíes have very specific adaptatíons. In ofuer words, it reinforces fue idea that a cultivar is most cornpetítive in only one dornaín.Landraceslvanetíes falling wíthin the sarue domaín are more likely to be similar in their genetic cornposition as cornpared to landraces/varietíes frorn dissimilar dornains. The logic behind is that they have been put under similar managernent condítions have been selected over time fo! adaptation. However, this hypolhesis needs lo be proved from laboratory analysis of sorne of the saruples frorn each domaín. If it proves tme, then there ís a strong case, from a conservation point ofview, for disaggregating genetic materials across agroecologícal domains. Nevertheless, this process still holds true where diversity deployrnent is the prime objective of the project.The distribution oflandraces/vaneties in different domains is the result of farmers' experimentation with those landraces/vaneties over years. In other words, they are the \"best fit\" under farmers' rnanagement conditions. Therefore, researchers definítely need to know the characteristics of each dornain, as well as the specific traits of the landraces/vaneties in each domain and their distribution across dornains in order to make any intervention in the present system. The anaIysis of agroecological domains is worth the money and time invested in collecting and analyzing the information.Planning conservation strategies for landraces ldentifYing landraees that are grown in small areas by a limited number of farrners and devising ways and rneans of conserving them might seem to be a straightforward task for conserving endangered landraces. Sornetirnes, weighted diversity, as well, might be computed for facilitating Ihe decision-makíng process in choosing which landraces to focus on for conservation when there are numerous landraces falling in the endangered category. However, all these processes and steps consider the diversity oflandraces at the aggregatedllandscape (cornmuníty) level and thus ignore the influence of agroecological domains in deterrniníng the position oflandraees in different dornains.The need for micro-Ievel analysis emerges from the faet that landraces are conditioned over years by their continued growth and selection over time in specific dornains. As a result, Ihey have developed adaptive traits, wruch are uníque 10 landraces falling in that domain. Therefore, analysis of landrace diversity at the aggregated level fails 10 appreciate the position oflandraces in specifie dornains, which in faet might be harboring genes of irnportanl traits. Selecting landraces frorn an aggregated list rnight exclude, certaÍn strategically important landraces from conservation.PPB has been used as one rneans 10 conserve useful genes in landraces through crossing with modem vaneties. However, there could be number of landraces withín a domain that might require sorne forrn of conservation (through breeding and nonbreeding means). Understanding Ihe features of domains and the distribution oflandraces in them will facilitate decision rnakíng about selecting landraces for conservation. Failing to do this could result in selecting landraces with similar genetic traits for conservation (vía PPB) from jusI one or two domaÍns. This would lead lo the neglect of sorne and overrepresentation of olhers.Diversity deployrnenl in simple terrn means \"províding farmers wilh options of genetie materials 10 choose frorn.\" The introduction ofnew genetic material results in temporal disequilibrium because of competition between existing and new genetic material. The competition is for space in farmers' fields, for farm labor, for capital inputs, and so on. As time elapses, Ihe new entrant finds its rightful place in Ihe given environment. This is Ihe outcome of farmers constantly tryíng to rnaintain an equilibrium (meeting farmers' objectives) in terms ofstabilizing yield and production over time.The strategy for diversity deployment must begin by analyzing the distribution oflandraces/varieties across agroecological dornains. Once this is done, researchers would have a clear picture of each domain, aIong with the dístríbutíon of landraces/varíeties, and the dominance of certain cultivars against others would becorne evident Researchers would also come to know the reasons for this dominance. Only then could Ihey develop their strategy for diversíty deployrnent. In the absence of this ínformation, new genetic materials míght fit into domains where there is not much cornpetitíon.It could also happen that new genetic rnateríals compete with each other landraceslvarieties in similar domains, resulting in limited impact of diversity deployrnent.The conflict between breeding varíeties for wide adaptability or for ruche environments will perhaps go on. (Wide adaptability rneans Ihe dornain for which the suítability ofthe landrace/variety is large. Niche environment means the domain for the given landrace/varíety is limited.) In Ihe truest sense, wide adaptabilíty should encompass Ihe ability of a cultivar to be grown in several different domains and vice versa for the ruche environment. However, such is not the case.Whatever Ihe case, the proponents of PPB rnust bear in mind that the approach has to prove its worth in terms of chuming out farmer-acceptable varieties efficiently on such a scale that Ihe economic return on investrnent is positive. But this is possible only when researchers have a clear knowledge of the size and characteristics•ofthe dornains the new varíety will fit into. In addition, Ihey also need to know Ihe likely existing cultivar to be replaced Without this inforrnation, it would be rather difficult to estirnate the potential adoption ceiling ofPPB varietíes, which irnplíes that the estimation of economic returns at the household leve! ig difficult. This will becorne an increasingly important issue in the future, when enough time has elapsed between Ihe developrnent and adoptionldissemination of PPB varíeties and Ihe evaluation of their irnpact.Another important issue that can be addressed by analyzing agroecological domains is oríenting PPB programs towards \"poverty aIleviation\" and food securíty at the household leve!. Since resource-poor farmers rnainly own marginalland, Ihere is limited varietal choice. By conducting PPB programs using landraces from marginal environments, the chances of providing greater options in such environments is' increased, which would contríbute to food security, particularly in resource-poor households. Targeting PPB for equity ofbenefits for the resource-poor can also be justified aIong similar lines.Agroecological delineation using key informants/farmers from fue given cornmunity can be reliably done. The identified dornains and the associated varieties in each domain have 10 be verífied through a transect walk with the key informants. This exercise helps príorítize landraceslvaríeties in each domain based on Ihe number ofhouseholds growing them and Ihe area covered. Using lhis information, a selection oflandraces/varieties for PPB work could be made. Diversity deployment and conservatíon of certain landraces/varieties could also be planned using this information. The argurnents presented here clearly índicate the need to focus PPB irutíatives on marginal environments for which Ihere are no MVs, and where, al the same time, the majoríty oflhe resource-poor dwell. This exercise has to be conducted prior to initiating PPB work in a given area. Information required to delineate agroecological domains and associated landraces/varieties can easily be gathered using key informants at the vilIage leve!. It has been suggested that this exercise be incorporated as a component of PPB work.Decisions about the adoption oftechnology are conditional to farmers' perceptions ofthe performance of a new technology relative to that of the technology currently being practiced. Farmers may assess a new technology, such as an improved variety, in terms of a range of attributes, such as grain quality, straw yield, and inpu! requirements, in addition to grain yield (Traxler and Byerlee 1993). In Orissa, eastern India, farmers indicated preference not only for the visual appearance of rice grain, but also for attributes such as cooking quality, taste, keeping quality, and straw quality (Kshirsagar, Pandey, and Bellon 1997). If fimners perceive an improved variety to be inferior to traditional varieties in terms of one or more attributes, they are unlikely to adopt such a variety (Adesina and Zinnah 1993, as cited by Kshirsagar, Pandey, and Bellon 1997). Crop improvement could potentially benefit from farmers' assessments of the relative performance of different varieties under farmer management. Information on the traits desired by farmers and their knowledge of the production system could be invaluable in setting the goals of a breeding program, delineating the target environment, identifying the parents for breeding and defining the management treatment for breeding work (Sperling ･ ｾ ＠ al. 1996; Eyzaguirre and Iwanaga 1996).Varietal preferences may differ, not only between socioeconomic groups bu! also by gender.In a farmer-participª1ory breeding (FPB) project on pearl millet in the Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, India, grain yield, early availability of grain, and the case ofharvesting by hand (lower paniele number and lower plant height) were the main considerations for making selections by women. For the men, yield and quality appeared 10 be a stronger eoneern (W' eltzien, Whitaker, and Anders 1996). WhiJe women have traditionally been seed selectors and managers of germplasm in low-input farrning systems, scientists have no! given enough attention to their local knowledge, eriteria for selection, and perceptions regarding new seeds untiJ recently, F or instance, the criteria for selecting seeds, practices of animal care and food processing, and the consequent preferences for different kinds of blending various food materials are useful starting points for building on women'g perspectives in particípatory research (Gupta et al. 1996). Another example is when high labor demands for manual tbreshing may create incentives for women to adopt vaneties that are easier to thresh (Adcsina and Forson 1995). Including women in the early evaluation of varieties ensures that new seeds can be adopted rapidly, Thus, men's and women's entena and preferences for rice vaneties should be well understood and considered in plant-breeding strategies, In March 1997, a farmer-participatory planl-breeding program for raínfed nce was developed at the Intemational Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in collaboration with the Indían Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), This project inc\\udes síx research siles representing different nce ecosystems in eastem India, The project is under the umbrella ofthe CGIAR's Systemwíde Initiative on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis. The goal of this iniliative is to develop, test, and refine methodologies of participatory research and gender analysis as they apply to Ihe development ofnew technologies in germplasm and natural resource management. This FPB projecl aims lo test the hypothesis that farmer particípation in rainfed nce breeding can help develop suilable vaneties more efficiently, It is also designed to identifY the stages in a breeding program where farmer ínterfacing is optimaL The project has two components: the first is a plant-breeding component, whích aíms to develop and evaluate a methodology for participatory improvement of rice for heterogeneous environments, and to produce and improve adoption of matenal suíting farmers' needs. The second is a socÍal-science component (including gender analysis) that aims (1) to characterize cropping systems, diversíty ofvanetíes grown, and the crop-management practices ofrice farmers, (2) to analyze male and female farmers' selection criteria and their reactions to a range of cultivars and breeding lines, and (3). to enhance the capacities of national agricultural research systems (NARS) in participatory research and gender analysis in plant breeding andrice vanetal selection (Courtoís et al. 2000), Thís paper focuses on farmers' selectíon cnteria and their reactions to a range of cultivars and breeding lines UIlder particÍpatory vanetal selection conducted on farmers' fields,The results of the socioeconomic and gender analysÍs in the FPB project includes only two villages (table 1): Mungeshpur in the Faizabad district and Basalatpur in the Siddathnagar district, eastem Vttar Pradesh. These sites are among the research sites UIlder the FPB project. A similar study was conducted in the other FPB research sites in Onssa and Madhya Pradesh, Basalatpur represents favorable (but submergence prone) lowland, rainfed arcas, Mungeshpur represents shallow, submergence-prone areas that are favorably rainfed during years of low rainfalL Basalatpur and Mungeshpur have a rugher proportion of lowland fields (70% and 60%, respectively) with heavier soil and good water-holding capacity, The flow of natural resources like rainwater (field hydrological conditions) tbroughout the season has also had a major impact on vanetal selection in these villages, F armers in Mungeshpur have more access to supplementary irrigation, wruch enables them to diversífY into other crops, partÍCularly vegetables and fodder crops, Only one diesel pump exists ín Basalatpur and trus limits crop diversífication. The importance of livestock between the two villages also differs, Livestock in Mungeshpur is more importan! than in Basalatpur, In Mungeshpur, bullocks continue to be used for Jand preparation, and tbreshing is done manually, In contrast, land preparation and threshing in Basalatpur is mechanized with the use of tractors, The degree of market onentatíon is higher in Basalatpur (nearer the cíty) where more rice is sold, The socioeconomic characteristics of the sample households are shown in table 2, Households are classified by official social categoties of caste. Muslims dominate in Basalatpur (55%), followed by scheduled and back:ward castes. In Mungeshpur, the backward and scheduled castes dominate (89%). The Yadavs, a subcaste ofthe backward caste in Mungeshpur, take care ofmilch animals. The majority ofthe farming households are owner-cultivators, and share cropping is oflimited importance. F emale labor participation in rice production is four times hígher than that of males in Basalatpur and three-fourths in Mungesphur. There is wide disparity in terms of access 10 education between men and women. In general, females have lower literacy rates than meno The differences in resource endowments, socioeconomic status, importance aflivestock, degree ofmarket orientation, gender roles and responsibilities in rice production, and family size may determine the choice of rice varieties/cultivars and agronomic management practices.Rice followed by wheat + mustard is the predominant cropping pattem in al! villages. In BasaIatpur, wheat and oilseed are grown mainly for domestic use, but rice is grown for consumption as welI as marketing. On the other hand, in Mungeshpur, rice 18 mainIy grown for consumption because oflow yields and low marketabIe surplus. Rice is followed by wheat + mustard, which are grown for both domestic consumption and sale. Land preparation for rice is started in June after the arrival afthe monsoon. Transplanting and broadcasting are done in luIy; weeding, in August; and harvesting and threshing, in Oclober to December. During the rabi (dry) season from November to April, crops such as wheat + mustard, peas, grams, lentils, berseem as green fodder, and vegetables are grown. A few farmers, who have their own irrigalion sources, grow crops like mung, maize, vegetables, and green fodder during the zaid season (late April to lune) in Mungeshpur. Growing crops during the rabi and zaid seasons i5 not common in Basalatpur because of the lack of irrigation facilities. The majority of the respondents belong to the lower social class, with small-sized landholdings.Females are younger and have lower literacy rates, compared to males, and have over 20 years of farming experience. The extent of female participation in rice production is high in both villages. Sorne tasks in rice production and postharvest operations are gender specific. Land preparation and the application of chemicals are men's responsibilities in both villages (10% of fertilizer application is done by women in Basalatpur). In Mungeshpur, women from the lower social status dominate in the work of pulling seedlings (100%), transplanting (70%), weeding (80%), applying farrnyard manure (60%), harvesting (82%), and threshing (82%). In Basalatpur, more men than women participate in pulling seedlings and harvesting. Women do the transplanting of seedlings (100%) and most ofthe weeding (75%), with men doing most ofthe spraying (90%). Women are also mainly responsible for postharvest activities such as cleaning and selecting the seeds for the next season, storage, and processing rice into other food products for home consumption and for sale. They are the primary end-users of rice byproducts and biomass for livestock and other farm use. A village study in eastem India revealed that women from the lower castes provided 60% to 80% ofthe total labor input in rice production (Paris et al. 1996). Aside from their significant contributions in rice production, women also provide labor in non-rice crops, collect green animal fodder, and feed and tend Iivestock. Thus, men's and women'g preferences for specifíc traits in rice varieties may differ, based on gender-specific roles and responsibilities. With inereasing male migration lo cities, women are laking on more responsibilities as farm managers, aside from theír normal household and childcare responsibilities (Paris el aL 1996).The rice varieties eurrently grown by farrners are shown in table 3. Traditional varieties are more cornrnon in Basalatpur than in Mungeshpur. Although modern varieties (MVs) show higher adoption rates in Mungeshpur, these varieties ofien suffer from submergenee, drought, and stress al reproduetive and ripening phases when the erop is planted late. Most farrners felt that traditional varieties are more tolerant to drought, submergenee, pests, and diseases, while MV s performed well under irrigated conditions. The majority of the farrners indieated that they felt that MVs needed better management lhan traditionaI varieties. Modero varieties need more labor, higher levels of fertilízer, and more irrigation, but more farmers prefer to grow MV s because of their higher yields.   Farrners generally match varieties wíth their environment. For rainfed rice, this means an adaptation to the hydrological conditions of their fields, Each field position in the topo-sequence corresponds to a risk of drought or submergence. The drought risk inercases frorn the bottom to the top of the topo-sequence, while submergence risk decreases along the same path, assocíated with progressively lower water depths and earlier recession of the water. This translates into different ideotypes for the different situations. Table 4 shows varietal diversity according to land type/topography. In Basalatpur, varieties such as Bengalia, Sarya, Oriswa, Kuwari Mashuri, Malwa, and Ghanbhanan are the major traditional rice cultivars grown in the uplands, and Kalamanak, Malasia, Motibaddam, and Malwa are the major varieties grown in the lowlands. Improved varieties, such as NDR-97, PNR-38 1 , and Sarju 52 are grown in the uplands by a few farrners, but the improved variety, Mashuri, occupied more area in the lowlands. In Mungeshpur, the cornrnon local varieties grown on upland fields are Ari, Bagri, 90 days, Sonia, Lalmati, Punjab, Lalbagra, Ashwani, lndrasan, and Bilaspuri. The improved varieties are Saket-4, NDR-80, and NDR-118 in upland and medium fields and Sarju 52, Mashuri, and dwarfMashuri mostly in lowland fields, Medium-duration fields are grown mostly in medium land. Varieties such as Sarju-52. Ashwani.  andIndrasan are grownon the fields thatare located in between upper and lower levels oí land type. Fanners of Mungeshpur prefer to grow these varieties on the these land types on the belief that they need optimum moisture during the growth period. Fields dif-in Basalatpur; therefore, sorne farrners prefer to grow medium varieties on upland fields also.To determine whether there are gender differences in perceptions of useful traits in varietal adoption, we used graphic illustrations of traits. We first showed cards that illustrate useful traits in selecting rice varieties. We then asked each farmer what traits he or she consider in selecting rice varieties for specific land types-upland and lowland fields. To assess how farmers valued each trait, we asked the question, \"If you had 100 paisa, how much would you pay for each trait? The value in paisa allocated to a particular trait corresponded to the importance given by the fanner. Because many traÍts are interrelated, we rec1assified them in consultation with a plant breeder. For example, we grouped traits such as ease in hullíng and mílling recovery under postharvest quality. Table 2 shows the seleetion eriteria of male and female fanners for different land types and villages.F avorahle rainfed low/ands (Basalatpur, Siddathnagar district) In the lowland areas in Basalatpur, yield and duratíon are the most important trait5 maJe and female farmers consider in selection rice varieties, In this village, the popular traditional varieties are Bengalía, Oríswa, and Kuwari mashuri. These are short-duration (90-110 days), medium-height varieties, The average yields are 2.5 tons per hectare, Farmers prefer short-duration rice varíeties in the uplands because of the importance of growing early winter crops such as oilseed, linseed, pulses, peas, and potatoes. They prefer to parboil Bengalia; otherwise, its grains break easíly. Women in Basalatpur use traditional rice varietíes for making puffed rice and churra, beaten rice Iike cornflakes .. For women who continue to use the traditional method ofhand-pounding rice, postharvest qualities such as ease ofhulling and mgh milling recovery are additional useful traits. The men did not mention these. The finding that women are more concerned !han men with postharvest traits and milling recovery are similar to the findings in a participatory breeding project in the hígh altitudes in NepaL Sthapít, 10sm, and Wítcombe (1996) also observed that women farmers are particularly skillfuJ in assessing postharvest traits, such as milling recovery, and the cooking and eating quality of rice. They found that the evaluation scores between maJe and femaJe farmers in Chhomrong village showed significant agreement. Women farmers reported ¡hat they would like to decide on varíety selection after the postharvest evaluation. Consumers preferred wmte-grained rice to red-pericarped rice because it saves women time in milling.In Basalatpur, both male and female farmers agreed upon the important traits fo! 10wland rice varieties. Grain price is an important cohsiderlltion for farmers here because they seU traditional varíet-¡es in the market. These, like Kalamanak, command a higher price because oftheir good taste and aroma. Kalamanak gives Iow yields of 1.5 to 2 tons per hectare. In contrast, grain price is not an important consideration in Mungeshpur because rice ís mainly used for home consumption and is seldom sold in the market.In Mungeshpur, both male and female farmers agreed upon important traits in selecting varieties for the uplands. Women gave more importance to postharvest qualities and grain quality such as bold and pure graíns. For the lowlands, both males and females cited better grain yield, medium duration (125-135 days), bioniass, and resistance to abiotic stress as their selection critería for lowland rice varíeties. Women gave greater weight to better adaptation to specific soH types and to grain quality. Women mentioned additional useful traits for varíeties in the uplands and lowlands that were not mentioned by men: competitiveness with weeds and postharvest quality. Weeds are the major problem in the uplands, particularly when rice is direct-seeded. In the lowlands, weeds are more prevalent during drought. These additional traits are related to the roles and responsibilities of female farnily members (e.g., hand weeding and feeding rice straw to livestock).During the 1999 monsoon season, two farmers from each of the villages of Mungeshpur and Saríyawan (rainfed neighboring village) ofthe Faizabad district and from Basalatpur were selected to check the performance of rice genotypes in their fields. The genotypes were (1) advanced lines from a shuttle breeding project from Uttar Pradesh, (2) released varieties, and (3) the most common local varieties. Of the 14 genotypes screened in Basalatpur, two are scented varíetíes (Kamini, which flowers in 136 days, and Sugandha, which flowers in 124 days). Scientists distributed the seeds through the FPB project. In this approach, breeders select the most promising lines with farmers, and farmers are given a \"basket of choices,\" growing several genotypes in their specific environments.Ten farmers (five women and five men) visited the individual plots and ranked the rice genotypes grown on farmers' fields past the maturity stage. Farmers were asked to rank the rice lines from I (exceIlent) to 14 or 16 (worst) on the basis ofvisual assessment. The rankings ofthe new cultivars by the farmers generated an n x k matrix, where n equals the lines being evaluated and k equals the farmers evaluating the crop performance. KendaIl's Coefficient ofConcordance (W) was used to measure the agreement in rankings arnong male farmers and among female farmers, and the correlation between male and female farmers' rankings. High and significant correlation values indicate cIose agreement on the ranking of the rice genotypes by men and women in the sample.Tables 5a to 5d show that in the two villages, male and female evaluators were in cIose agreement in the ranking ofthe lines. The Ws were highly significant, revealing that farmers' and breeders' rankings are ofien acceptable. Table 6 shows the surnmary of the ranking of male farmers, female farmers, and plant breeders indicating their choices. Ofthe 14 and 16 varieties ranked in Basalatpur and Mungeshpur, PVS 1, PVS3, PVS7, PVS9, PVSlO, and PVSI5 carne out as the farmers' and breeders' choices in 1999. The traits of these lines are shown on table 7. During the crop season in 2000, several ofthese lines were compared with local check through PVS. Twenty-three farmers in two villages in Faizabad grew three rice lines, while 50 farmers in six villages in Siddathnagar grew six rice lines obtained from PVS trials.      ","tokenCount":"5385"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5742e2a742f88e66327e1ccb35d4d35","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe8d8ab9-4289-4130-a36e-27d6bd29e42c/retrieve","id":"1935589402"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"29bb707c-5d2d-4d35-8436-6ad2af50af40","pagecount":"7","content":"iotechnology has transformed many parts of the chemical industry, agriculture, and medicine. This area of science has little demarcation between basic and applied research, and new discoveries and innovations, in most cases, can find direct application. Innovations, techniques, and tools that have emerged and revolutionized modern biotechnology include genetic engineering, cell fusion technology, bioprocess technologies, and structure-based molecular designs including drug development, drug targeting, and drug delivery systems.In the 1980s the Government of India considered the need for creating a separate institutional framework to strengthen biology and biotechnology research in the country. Scientific agencies supporting research in modern biology included:Basic research is essential on all aspects of modern biology including development of the tools to identify, isolate, and manipulate the individual genes that govern the specific characters in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology is the basis for these new developments. The creativity of the scientists and the basic curiosity-driven research will be the keys to future success. India led through the work of G.N. Ramachandran, in which he elucidated the triple helical structure of collagen. The Ramachandran plot has proven to be fundamental in solving the protein structure. Areas of biosystematics using molecular approaches, mathematical modeling, and genetics including genome sequencing for human beings, animals, and plants, will continue to have priority as we move into the next century. The tremendous impact of genome sequencing is increasingly evident in many fields. As an increasing number of new genes are discovered, short, unique, expressed sequenced tags segments are used as signatures for gene identification. The power of high throughput sequencing, together with rapidly accumulating sequenced data, are opening new avenues in biosciences.In the plant genome area, the sequencing of Arabidopsis and rice genome will soon be completed and cataloging and mapping of all the genes will be done.There have been major achievements in basic bioscience in the last decade or so in India, where we have expertise in practically all areas of mod-Manju Sharma ern biology. The institutions under the CSIR, ICMR, ICAR, DST, and DBT have established a large number of facilities where most advanced research work in biosciences is being done. In the identification of new genes, development of new drug delivery systems, diagnostics, recombinant vaccines, computational biology, and many other related areas, considerable success has been achieved. Breakthroughs include studies on the three-dimensional structure of a novel amino acid, a long protein of mosquito (University of Poona), and demonstration of the potential of the reconstituted Sendai viral envelops containing only the F protein of the virus, as an efficient and site-specific vehicle for the delivery of reporter genes into hepatocytes (Delhi University).The post Green Revolution era is almost merging with the gene revolution for improving crop productivity and quality. The exploitation of heterosis vigor and development of new hybrids including apomixis, genes for abiotic and biotic resistance, and developing planting material with desirable traits and genetic enhancement of all important crops will dominate the research agenda in the next century. Integrated nutrient management and development of new biofertilizers and biopesticides would be important from the view-point of sustainable agriculture, soil fertility, and a clean environment. Stress biology, marker-assisted breeding programs, and studying the important genes will continue as priorities. We will have to switch to organic farming practices, with greater use of biological software on a large scale.In India we have achieved the cloning and sequencing of at least six genes, developed regeneration protocols for citrus, coffee, mangrove species, and new types of biofertilizer and biopesticide formulations, including mycorrhizal fertilizers. Research to develop new genetically improved (transgenic) plants for brassicas, mung bean, cotton, and potato is well advanced. Industries have also shown a keen interest in the options of biotechnology and are participating in field trials and pilot level productions. The successful tissue culture pilot plants in the country, one at TERI in New Delhi and the other at NCL in Pune are now functioning as Micropropagation Technology Parks. This has given a new direction to the plant tissue culture industry. The micropropagation parks serve as a platform for effective transfer of technology to entrepreneurs, including training and the demonstration of technology for mass multiplication of horticulture and trees. Considerable progress has been made with cardamom and vanilla, both important crops. Yield of cardamom has increased 40 percent using tissue-cultured plants.Between 1996 and 1998, in just eight countries, the area covered by new genetically improved transgenic plants (from 16.8 to 27.8 million hectares) (James 1998). Some of the main crops grown are soybean, corn, canola, cotton, and potato. The United States, Argentina, Brazil, and China have moved ahead quickly. The new plants exhibited herbicide, insect, and viral resistance, and overall improvement in product quality.While the Green Revolution gave us self-reliance in food, the livestock population has provided a \"White Revolution,\" with 80 percent of the milk in India coming from small and marginal farms. This has had a major social impact. A diverse infrastructure has been established to help farmers in the application of embryo transfer technology. The world's first IVF buffalo calf (PRATHAM) was born through embryo transfer technology at the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. Multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, in vitro embryo production, embryo sexing, vaccines and diagnostic kits for animal health have also been developed. Waste recycling technologies that are cost effective and environmentally safe, are being generated. The animal science area is also opening up many avenues for employment generation.With a coastline of more than 8,000 kilometers, and two island territories of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, there is great potential for marine resource development and aquaculture. To achieve an annual target production of 10 million metric tons of fish, scientific aquaculture offers great possibilities. In fact, aquaculture products are among the fastest moving commodities in the world. We have to continuously improve seed production, feed, health products, cryopreservation, genetic studies, and related environmental factors. This is an area which will help substantially in the diversification of the breadbasket, and in combating nutritional deficiency.Food security is another area in which biotechnology offers major inputs for healthier and more nutritious food. Millions of people are malnourished, and Vitamin A deficiency affects 40 million children. There are also serious deficiencies of iodine, iron, and other nutrients. A recent UNICEF report on food and nutrition deficiencies in children describes this as a \"silent, invisible emergency with no outward sign of a problem.\" Every year over 6 million children under the age of 5 die worldwide. About 2.7 million of these children die in India. More than half of these deaths result from inadequate nutrition.With the advent of gene transfer technology and its use in crops, we hope to achieve higher productivity and better quality, including improved nutrition and storage properties. We also hope to ensure adaptation of plants to specific environmental conditions, to increase plant tolerance to stress conditions, to increase pest and disease resistance, and to achieve higher prices in the marketplace. Genetically improved foods will have to be developed under adequate regulatory processes, with full public understanding. We should ensure the safety and proper labeling of the genetically improved foods, so consumers will have a choice.It is scientifically well established that an environmentally benign way of ensuring food security is through bioengineering of crops. For the 4.6 billion people in developing countries, one billion do not get enough to eat and live in poverty. Is there any other strategy or alternative? Biotechnology will provide the new tools to breeders to enhance plant capacity. Since we know that 12 percent of the world land is under agricultural crops, it is projected that the per capita availability may be reduced from 2.06 hectares to 0.15 hectare by 2050.With more than 47,000 species of plants and two hot-spots of biodiversity, 8 percent of the total biodiversity of the earth is available in the Indian subcontinent. The bioresource and biodiversity constitute the mainstay of the economy of the poor people, and special emphasis is required for plant biotechnology research. Isolation of genes for abundant proteins, combining molecular genetics and chromosome maps, and a much better understanding of the evolutionary relationship of the members of the plant kingdom, have led to the potential of plant species being the major source of food, feed, fiber, medicine, and industrial raw material. Molecular fingerprinting and areas of genomics and proteonics will penetrate the barriers of fertilization to allow transfer of important characters from one plant to another. By identifying appropriate determinants of male sterility, we can extend the benefit of hybrid seeds to more crops. We must help the farmer by ensuring hybrid vigor generation after generation. Additional research on apomixis would open up such possibilities.We have set up a National Plant Genome Research Centre at Jawaharlal Nehru University. A number of centers for plant molecular biology in different parts of the country were initially responsible for training significant numbers in crop biotechnology. There are innumerable possibilities of producing more proteins, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, coloring material, bioreactors, production of edible vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and drugs. Promising leads are available in these areas, and a number of genetically improved crops are ready for field trials of transgenic plants. Work on developing transgenic cotton, brassica, mung bean, and potato has significantly advanced.A special area of global concern amongst the scientific community is environmental protection and conservation, and the need for a policy of sustainable development in harmony with the environment. The Stockholm Conference in 1972, and the UNCED Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, both focused world attention on areas of pollution, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development. Plants and microbes are becoming important factors in pollution control. World Bank estimates show that pollution in In-dia is costing almost US$80 billion, as well as the human cost in terms of sickness and death. New developments such as bioindicators, phytoremediation methods, bioleaching, development of biosensors, and identification and isolation of microbial consortia are priority research areas. Significant work has been done in India, but developing a more biologically oriented approach towards pollution control would be extremely important. Cleaning up the large river systems and ensuring the destruction of pesticide residue in large slums in the city are priorities in which a biotechnological approach would be environmentally safe.Phytoremediation to remove the high levels of explosives found in the soil has become a reality. Although it was known that some microbes can denitrify the nitrate explosives in the laboratory, they could not thrive on site. French and others (1999) have transferred this degradative ability from the microbe to tobacco plants, and these have produced a microbial enzyme capable of removing the nitrates.The global biosphere can survive only if resource utilization is about 1 percent and not 10 percent. The global environment is regulated by climate changes and biosphere dynamics. Knowledge about biodiversity accumulated in the last 250 years is being used by scientists throughout the world. There are many gene banks, botanical gardens, and herbaria for conservation purposes. There are also molecular approaches including DNA fingerprinting for plant conservation. The totality of gene species and ecosystems has become exceedingly important, not only to understand the global environment but also from the viewpoint of the enormous commercial significance of the biodiversity.Biotechnology is becoming a major tool in conservation biology. Twelve percent of the vascular plants are threatened with extinction. Over 5,000 animal species are threatened worldwide, including 563 Indian species. India also has about 2000 species of vascular plants that are threatened.Biodiversity is under threat, and understanding the scale of this destruction and extinction is essential. Questions such as who owns the biodiversity, who should benefit from it, and what is the role of society and the individual are pertinent. There is a Kashmiri proverb that says: We have not inherited the world from our forefathers, we have borrowed it from our children.More research is needed on forests, marine resources, bioremediation methods, restoration ecology, and large-scale tree plantations. The last has reached 180 million hectares and may increase substantially in the next decade. Marine resources provide many goods and benefits including bioactive materials, drugs, and food items and must be characterized and conserved.A major responsibility of biotechnologists in the 21st century will be to develop low-cost, affordable, efficient, and easily accessed health care systems. Advances in molecular biology, immunology, reproductive medicine, genetics, and genetic engineering have revolutionized our understanding of health and diseases and may lead to an era of predictive medicine. Genetic engineering promises to treat a number of monogenetic disorders, and unravel the mystery of polygenetic disorders, with the help of research on genetically improved animals. Globally, there are about 35-40 biotechnology-derived therapeutics and vaccines in use and more than 500 drugs and vaccines in different stages of clinical trials.Every year about 12 million people die of infectious diseases. The main killers according to WHO are acute respiratory infection, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, and HIV-AIDS. There are vaccines being developed for many diseases, and diagnostic kits for HIV, pregnancy detection, and hepatitis are being developed. The technologies have been transferred to industry.The Department of Biotechnology has developed guidelines for clinical trials for recombinant products, which have now been accepted by the Health Ministry and circulated widely to industry. Promising leads now exist to develop vaccines for rabies, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, cholera, JEV, and other diseases. Recombinant hepatitis B vaccine and LEPROVAC are already on the market. There is a Jai Vigyan technology mission on the development of vaccines and diagnostics. A National Brain Research Centre is being established to improve knowledge of the human brain and the brain diseases.The discovery of new drugs and the development of the drug delivery system are increasingly important. Bioprospecting for important molecules and genes for new drugs has begun as a multi-institutional effort. A recombinant vaccine for BCG and hepatitis is being developed. The age-old system of Ayurveda practiced in India needs to be popularized and made an integral part of health care. The global market for herbal products may be around US$5 trillion by 2050.Advances in biotechnology can be converted into products, processes, and technologies by creating an interdisciplinary team. The pharmaceutical sector has had a major impact in this field, as rare therapeutic molecules in the pure form become available. Diagnostics have expanded, with over 600 biotechnology-based diagnostics (valued at about US$20 billion worldwide) now available in clinical practice. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnostics are the most common. Indian efforts in the diagnostic area have been commendable, and it is expected that sales will rise from about US$235 million to US$470 million in the next century.The consumption of biotechnology products is expected to increase from US$6.4 billion to about US$13 billion by 2000. Industrial enzymes have emerged as a major vehicle for improving product quality. In India a number of groups are gearing up to produce industrial enzymes such as alpha-amylose, proteases, and lipases, increasing three-fold by the end of the century, which will match or surpass the computer industry in size, importance, and growth. India is now producing 13 antibiotics by fermentation. Capacity exists to produce important vaccines such as DPT, BCG, JEV, cholera, and typhoid. Cell culture vaccines such as MMR and rabies, and hepatitis-B, have also been introducedThe coming together of biotechnology and informatics is paying rich dividends. Genome projects, drug design, and molecular taxonomy are all becoming increasingly dependent on information technology. Information on nucleotides and protein sequences is accumulating rapidly. The number of genes characterized from a variety of organisms and the number of evolved protein structures are doubling every two years. DBT has established a national Bioinformatics Network with ten Distributed Information Centres (DICs) and 35 sub-DICs. A Jai Vigyan Mission on establishment of genomic databases has been started, with a number of graphic facilities created throughout the country. This system has helped scientists involved in biotechnology research.The bioethics committee of UNESCO established in 1993 has evolved guidelines for ethical issues associated with the use of modern biotechnology.Biosafety guidelines for genetically improved organisms (GIOs) need to be strictly followed to prevent harm to human health or the environment. A three-tier mechanism of Institutional Biosafety Committees has been instituted in India: the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, and the state level coordination committees. It is important to give a clear explanation of the new biotechnologies to the public to allay their fears. New models of cooperation and partnership have to be established to ensure close linkages among research scientists, extension workers, industry, the farming community, and consumers.Gene transformation is done worldwide with four broad objectives: (a) to develop products with new characteristics; (b) to develop pest and disease resistance; (c) to improve nutritional value; and (d) to modify fruit ripening to obtain longer shelf life. Thus the aims and objectives are laudable and the tools are available. The new technology does, however, call for a cautious approach following appropriate biosafety guidelines.About 25,000 field trials of genetically modifed crops have been conducted worldwide. The anticipated benefits are better planting material, savings on inputs, and genes of different variet-ies can be introduced in the gene pool of crop species for their improvement. The potential risks include weediness, transgene flow to nontarget plants, and the possibility of new viruses developing with wider host range and their effects on unprotected species. For crops such as corn and cotton with single gene introductions, there is very little problem expected. When multiple genes are involved scientists have to be more cautious.The time has arrived for a serious look at ethical and biosafety aspects of biotechnology. Researchers, policymakers, NGOs, progressive farmers, industrialists, government representatives, and all concerned players need to come together and share a platform to address the following issues. There are about 50 approved MS, postdoctoral, and MD training programs in biotechnology in progress or just about to start, in different institutions and universities covering most Indian States. Short-term training programs, technician training courses, fellowships for students to go abroad, training courses in Indian institutions, popular lecture series, awards, and incentives form an integral part of the human resource development activities in India. A special feature of the program has been that since 1996 many students after completion of their training course join industries or work in biotechnology-based programs in institutions and laboratories. National Bioscience Career Development Awards have been instituted. Special awards for women scientists and scholarships to the best students in biology help promote biotechnology in India and give recognition and reward to the scientists.Biotechnology-based activities to benefit the poor and weaker sections and programs for women have been launched. A unique feature is the es-tablishment of a Biotechnology Golden Jubilee Park for Women which will encourage a number of women entrepreneurs to take up biotechnology enterprises that benefit women in particular. This will also encourage women biotechnologists to develop relevant technologies.States are taking a keen interest in developing biotechnology-based activities. The States of Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Mizoram, Punjab, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Bihar have already started large-scale demonstration activities and training programs.The Indian Government has made substantial investments in biotechnology research. Bringing Indian biotechnology products to market will require the involvement of large and small entrepreneurs and business houses. This will require substantial investments from Indian and overseas investors. The worldwide trend is that large companies are becoming major players in development of biotechnology products, and also in supporting product-related biotechnology research.In the years ahead, biotechnology R&D should produce a large number of new genetically improved plant varieties in India, including cotton, rice, brassicas, pigeonpea, mung bean, and wheat. Tissue culture regeneration protocols for important species such as mango, saffron, citrus, and neem will lead to major commercial activities. Micropropagation technology will provide high-quality planting materials to farmers. Environment-friendly biocontrol agents and biofertilizer packages will hopefully be made available to farmers in such a way that they can produce these in their own fields. The country should be in a position to fully utilize, on a sustainable basis, medicinal and aromatic plants. The development through molecular biology of new diagnostic kits and vaccines for major diseases would make the health care system more efficient and cheaper. Genetic counselling clinics, molecular probes, and fingerprinting techniques should all be used to solve the genetic disorders in the population. The establishment of ex situ gene banks to conserve valuable germplasm and diversity, and a large number of repositories, referral centers for animals, plants, and microorganisms should be possible. Detailed genetic readouts of individuals could be available. Information technology and biotechnology together should become a major economic force. It is expected that plants as bioreactors would be able to produce large numbers of proteins of therapeutic value, and many other important items. The recent discovery of the gene for recalcitrant species was a landmark event. In vitro mass propagation can be carried out on any desired species with nonrandom programming. Certainly the 21st century could witness a major increase in new bioproducts generated through modern biology.To achieve the goal of self-reliance in this field, India will require a strong educational and scientific base, clear public understanding of the value of new biotechnologies, and involvement of society in many of these biological ventures. India has a large research and educational infrastructure comprising 29 agriculture universities, 204 central and state universities, and more than 500 national laboratories and research institutions. It should therefore be possible to develop capabilities and programs so that these institutions act as regional hubs for the farming com-munity, where they can get direct feedback about new technological interventions. It will be equally important to establish strong partnerships and linkages with industry, from the time a research lead has emerged until the packaging of the technology and commercialization are achieved. Arther Kornberg, Nobel Laureate, stated: \"Much has been said about the future impact of biotechnology on industrial development, but this does not yet apply to the less developed countries that lack this infrastructure and industrial strength. In view of the current power of biotechnology and its even brighter future, there is no question that the less developed countries must now position and strengthen their status in biotechnology.\"Kornberg further stressed that :\"What a tragedy it would be if these enlarged concepts of genetics, biology and chemistry were available only to a small fraction of the world population located in a few major centres of highly developed countries.\"","tokenCount":"3706"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8749f82e757c0703bac963f11688f9ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/80c17398-4db0-4056-bde1-b38d5c89d3c5/retrieve","id":"573187296"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f36489ab-b28f-421e-ab3b-edefd96b2e00","pagecount":"30","content":"I MPCRTANCIA E CON OMICA P ág i na A . D efinición B . Causas de la apar i ción de altas poblaciones de larvas * EVALUAC I ON TERCERA PARTE 111. METODOS DE CONTROL A. Neces ldad d el control integrado B . M étodos de control utilizacbs en el combate de Erinnyis ello • 1 . Cultural 2. Mecánico 3 . Qu(rnico 4 . Biológico EVALUACI ON 14 15 16 CUARTA PARTE Página IV . EL CO\\ITROL BIOLOGICO DE Erinnyis ello A. Control biológico mediante insectos 1. Parás itos de huevos 2. Pa r ásitos de larvas 3. Predatores de larvas B. Control biológico rr:ediante microorganismos C . Control biológico mediante vertebrados D. El control biológico como componente del control • integrado EVALUACION QU INTA PARTE v. RESUMENLa yuca (Manihot escu\\enta Crantz) es una de las especies vegetales que posee una alta c apacidad de producción de ca rboh idratos. La facilidad de cult1vo en reg1ones tropicales la ha conve r tido en una de las principales fuentes de carbohidratos para los habitantes de dichas regiones.E s por ello que actualmente se com ienza a reconocer su gran potencial no sólo para cubr1r el défi ci t calóri co que padece una g r an parte de la población, s1no tamb1én para su utilización en la alimentación animal y para su procesamiento agro1ndustr1a l.Por ser una planta perenne, la yuca se ve afectada por una g r an cantidad de plagas, entre las cuales se destacan principalmente los tri ps , l os á ca ros , el gusano cachón y los barrenadores del tallo . El incr emento del área cultivada y el uso indiscriminado de insec ti cidas han alte r ado el equilibrio ecológico en las poblaciones insecti les en muchas r egiones , dando lugar a que algunos insectos que antes aparecran esporádicamente (plagas secundar1as) se conviertan en plagas causantes de daños de importancia econ6m1ca.Uno de ellos es Er1rv1yis ello, llamado com6nmente gusano c a chón, el cual causa severos daños especialmente en p lantas jóvenes , encontrándose en \\a mayorra de las zonas yuqueras del continente americano. Esta plaga se caractertza por su alta capacidad de consumo foliar, sobre todo en los 61timos estadios de su fase larval. Por esta razón, al p r esentarse en alta s poblac iones puede defoliar total mente la planta e incluso consumi r la parte tierna del tallo y las yemas late ral es.Cuando Erinnyls ello se presenta en a l tas poblaciones se convierte en plaga de importancia económica , sobre todo si ataca plantaciones jóve nes , siendo necesario controlarlo para evitar reducciones ap r ec iabl es e n e l r endimiento. El control del gusano cac hón puede efectuarse a través d e varios métodos: cultural, mecánico , quCmico y biológico .PRIMERA PARTE 1, BIOLOGIA DE Erinnyi s e llo (Lepid6ptera: Sphingidae) A. Adulto El ciclo biológico completo de Erinnyis ello (Fig. 1) dura aproximadamente entr e 33 y 55 d(as, según las condiciones ambientales .El adulto es una mariposa de hábitos nocturnos con una coloración grisácea o marrón.Generalmente presenta unas 5 ó 6 bandas negras en el abdomen. Las alas anteriores son de color gris , mient ras que las posteriores pueden presentar una c oloración rojiza; las primeras pueden medir de 34 a 48 mil(met r os.Por lo general, los machos son más pequeños que las hembras, de color más oscuro y presentan una banda negra longitudinal en las alas superio res.La hembra adulta puede vtvtr de 5 a 7 d(as, y los machos unos d(as menos, aun cuando se tienen informes de que algt.r~os adultos pueden vivir hasta 25 d(as en condiciones normales. La copulación ocurre comúnmente durante la noche, en las primeras 24 horas después de la emergencia de los adultos. La oviposición se inicia uno o dos dras después de la cópula , y tiene lugar sobre la haz de la hoja , aunque puede ocurri r también sobre el envés o incluso sobre e l pecro lo y los tallos .L os huevos de Erinnyis ello son redondos, miden de 1 a 1 ,5 miHmetros de diámetro , y generalmente son puestos individualmente. El total de huevos que el adulto oviposita dur ante toda su vida var(a entre 30 y 50 .Los huevos presentan una coloración verdosa inicial que se torna amarillenta a las 24 hor as.La eclosión de los huevos ocurre 4 6 5 d(as después de la oviposición .C . Larva L a etapa larval tiene una duración d e 12 a 15 d ras , dependiendo de las ccndi ciones c limáticas .La larva pasa por ctnco ins tares , con cuatro carobios o mudas de piel, a través de los c uales va aumentando de tamaño hasta alcanzar una longitud de aproxtmadamente 1 O a 1 2 cent(metros .Estas larvas se caracterizan por tener un cuerno caudal erecto , d e mayor tamaño durante los primeros estadios, de donde proviene su nombre de cachón (cachudo, en otros par-: ses) .Es dur ante esta etapa l a r val cuand o Erinnyis ello ocasiona daño a las plantas de yuca , y muestra tal voracidad que puede con sumi r hasta 11 dec fmetro s cuad r ados de superficie folia r; un 75 por ciento del consumo o cu rre durante el último estad i o.Tal como lo señaláramos e n \\a mtroctucci6n , l a larva de Erinnyi s ello es polffaga , y puede al im entarse de rnt.s de 35 especies diferentes , pertenec i entes prmcipalmente a l a s familias E uphor-b iaceae , Car icaceae y So l a n aceae . Vale la pena destacar e l hecho de que apr-oximadamente el 75 por c i ento de estas especies p r esentan l a t ex .Otro asp ecto inte r esante de l a etapa l arval d e Erinnyis ello es su marcada dtferencia de color: pueden se r verdes , ama r-i llas , anaranjadas , marrones , gris oscuro, neg r as o vetead as de rojo y negr-o.E sta va r iabil idad en el color de la l arva par ece depender d e factor es tales como l a aglomer ación de larvas en l a planta , la calidad del alimento consumido , l as condiciones el imát tcas y otros factor es desconocidos .D espués de haber compl etado sus ci nco e s tadios , la l a r va baja al suelo y se esconde debajo de residuos u hojas ca fdas , en donde pasa por un perfocto d e prepupa que d u ra apr oxi m adamente d os d[as , durante l os cuales no consume ning6n alimento , tiene poca movilidad y fina lmente empupa . L a pupa es de col o r marrón osc uro y puede medi r hasta 45 mil [metr os de l argo por 1 O de ancho .Tiene una durac i6n de ap roximadamente 1 5 a 30 dfas ; en algunos casos , cua ndo las condicion es ambiental es no l e son favor ables , l a pupa puede permanecer e n e l suel o dur ante var-ios meses en un estado de latencia denominado diapausa.Para fines de control, los estados más impor-ta ntes son l os de huevo y l a r va , por cuanto los enem i gos naturales de la plaga la atacan en alguno de  Pupa:Se considera que un insecto se convierte en plaga de importancia económica cuando su población es tan alta como para producir daños que disminuyen apr eciablemente el rendimiento del cultivo. En el caso de Erinnyis ello , es conveniente saber cuárdo y por qu~ la aparición del insecto adquiere importancia econ6rnica.Hab(amos dicho que e l gusano cachón provocaba daños a la pl a nta de yuca al consum ir grandes cantidades de follaje y que, al presentarse en altas poblaciones poora defoliar totalmente las plantas y causar la muerte de algunas d e ellas ll egardo , en algunos casos , a consum ir las yemas y las partes tiernas del tallo. (Fig. 2) Fig. 2. Defoliación total de plantas de yuca debida a un ataque severo de ~. ~ll..!>..! L a intensidad del ataque va rra seg6n ta edad de la planta. El gusano puede apar ece r tempranam ente , en cuyo caso es muy p r obable que ocurran d a ños de cons id e r ación sobr e todo si hay una atta población de larvas . L a d efoliac ión provocada po r el ataque de Erinnyi s ello entre tos dos y tos seis meses puede causa r dismin uciones en el r endimiento del orden d e l 1 O a l 50 p o r ciento .D esp uás d e t os 6 m eses de edad , la plantación se ve poco afectada por la defoliación , habiéndose comprobado experimentalmente que defoliaciones del o rd en d el 40 y a6n del 80 por e iento no afecta n el rend imiento de las plantas. Por ello, es posible concl uir que el gusano cachón s6to tiene impo r tanc ia económica cuando aparece en plantaciones de menos de 6 meses ; en estos casos es necesa ri o apt icar métodos de contr ol que permitan r educi r l a població n de larvas r ápida y eficientemente .B. Causas de la apar ición de alta s poblacio nes de larvas Una población de l arvas capaz de c ausar daños severos a plantaciones jóvenes puede aparecer debido a alguna de tas siguientes c ausas:-Atta movilidad del adulto . Como ta s mar iposas son capaces de votar grandes distancias, pueden migra r de una región a otra alterando e l equilibrio biológico ex iste nte entre t a población de d icha plaga y sus enemigos naturales . En algunos casos de ataques severos se han encontrado hasta 90 larvas por planta , ocasionand o la defoliación total, e incluso l a mue r te de algunas de las plantas .-Las variaciones mar cadas e n las condiciones climáticas, especialmente al comenzar o final izar tos per[odos de H uvia.-El uso indiscriminado de insecticidas para combatir otras plagas , el cual p uede p r ovocar una dism i nución en la poblaci ón de tos enemigos naturales del gusano cachón permitiendo por consiguiente , que una mayor cantidad d e huevos c ontin6e su c icl o nor mal y dé origen a una atta pobl ación de larvas .Defina e l concept o de plaga .11.E n qul! consiste e l daño causado por las l a r vas de E. e llo a las plantas d e yuca? Es igua l en plantas jóvenes y en-p l antas viejas? De no ser as ( , cuál es l a dife rencia?Enu mere l as causas d e la apa rición de a ltas poblaciones de larvas de E . ello capaces de c ausar reducciones en el rendimiento.1.3 .TERC ERA PARTEA. Necesidad de un control integr ado C uando 1.1'1 insecto apa re c e en poblaciones altas , capaces de causar daños que provoquen disminuciones apreciables en los rendimientos , se hace necesario aplicar algunos de los métodos de c ontrol conocidos para el combate de plagas . Desafortunadamente la mayorra de las plagas insect iles son adversar tos ver sáttles y cambiantes , capaces d e adaptarse a su h uésped, a su medio ambiente y a l os m étodos de control . Aún con los grandes avan--ces en l as investigaciones relacionadas con s u repres i ó n, el hombre no puede espera r un control pe rfecto , ni muc ho menos la err adicación de un número s ustanci al de plagas , as( que e s necesario aprender a convivir con e ll as.Exis te una gran variedad de métodos d e control, con dife r entes n iveles de e fi c iencia y e cono m(a, per o ninguno ha l ogr ado una soluc i ón sati sfactoria y duradera a los múltiples problemas caus ados por las plagas , los cual es han a umentad o acel e r adamente du r ante las últimas décadas demos trando c larament e que e l enfoque unil ater a l del control de plagas e s inadecuado .Para el caso del gusano cachón, pod emos mencionar cuatr o posibles m étodos d e control: cultural , mecánico, qu(mi co y biológico. Lo ideal ser(a un control int egra do basado en el uso de l os cuatro métodos a nte rio r e s en fo r ma s incron izada y oportuna para l ograr mantener la pobl ación ins ectil a niveles que no caus en daños de importancia económica . (Fig . 3)El obje to de este método es modificar la s condic iones natural es favo r ables a la plaga , mediante el empleo de p rácticas c ulturales . En el caso d e Erinnyi s e llo se r ecomienda a r ar inmediatamente de s pués de la cosecha con e l objeto d e enter r ar p r ofundament e las pupas y de es ta manera eliminarlas , Otr a práctica cultura l recomendada es eliminar las m a lezas, especialmente las eufor biác eas , presentes en l a plantación o en s us alrededores , las c uales s irven d e hospedantes a la plaga .En e l c aso de ataques continuos del gusano cachón en una z ona se r ecom ienda la rotación de c ultivos , ya que a l desaparecer el hospedante más prol (fe r o , dism inuye la población de la plaga ,Este mátodo de control cons iste en la utilización de cual quier medio f(sico para el combate de una plaga. En el caso del gusano cachón se utiliza la recolección manua l de las larvas, sobre todo en parcelas pequeñas , y su eliminación med iante inmersión en una mezcla de kerosene y agua . Tambián puede utilizarse la fuerza f(sica para matar las larvas. Otra medida es la captura de los adul tos o mariposas mediante trampas de luz, aprovechando sus hábitos nocturnos y su atracción por la luz, aunque esta tknica no es del todo efectiva y económica .La a plicac ión de productos qu(micos para la destrucción de las plagas es un mátodo muy utilizado en la mayorra de los cultivos, pero s ólo se recomienda para el combate de Erinnyis ello cuando se presentan casos extre-mos de infes tac ión d e tarvas e n plantas jóvenes . Las apt icaciones foliares de productos tales como S evin, Dipterex, Bas udin, Azodrin y BHC , en tas dos is comerciales r ecomendada s , producen buenos resultados e n el control d e a t aques s e veros d e l gusano cachón.Sin embargo, hay que tener p resen te que ta aplicac ión ind is criminada y e l mal uso en gene ral de t os insecticidas pueden traer consecuencias ne gativas a t equilibrio biológico d e l ecos istem a , s obre todo c uando se aplican insecticidas con bajos niveles de infestación de ta plaga , en m ezclas inadec uadas, en dosis incor r e c tas , y en ~po cas inapropiadas . El d esar rollo de poblac iones r esistente s , ta r eaparic ión d e ata ques más seve ros , la conver sión de pla g as secundarias e n plagas de impo r tancia económi ca , t a e li minación de t os enemigos natural es ben~fi cos y ta contaminac ión gene ral del medio ambiente en forma de resid uos m e d ibtes de prod uctos qufm icos per sistentes y nocivos para ta fauna y para el hombre son c onsec uencias d irectas de empl ear el c ontrol qufmico sin tas debidas precauc iones .Et control biot6gi co s e puede definir como el combat e de las plagas mediante l a utit ización deliberad a y sistemática de s u s enemigos natural es. Los intentos d e controla r pl agas por m e dios bi ot6gicos han r e s ultado e xitosos en algunos c ultivos y conc retamente par a algunas plagas, aún c uando todavía exi s ten muchos probl emas que no pu e d en ser solucionados por est e tipo de contr o l. Debido a l a impo rtancia que ha adqui r ido y a s u papel estrat~gico para el control integ r a d o de pl a g a s , y en especial det gusano cach6n, este método se tratará en detall e en t a s iguiente sección .En qué consiste e l control integrado y cuál e s su objetivo p rincipal ? Para inducir el control biológico de Trichogra mma spp . es necesario liber ar adultos c riados artifici a lmente e n el l abor a t o r io, m e diant e un p roceso r e l ativamente senc illo en e l cual se utiliza como sustrato de multiplicación los huevos del lepid6pte r o Sitotroga cerealella. Est o s huevos, una vez colectados y col ocados en carton es engo mados , son som etidos a l a par asitación por Trichogramma spp . Luego, se cortan los cartones en trozos d e una pulgada cuadrada, (Fig. 4) y cuando l os a dultos e s tán prÓximos a emerger s e trasladan al campo y se fijan a l as plantas, e n donde son libera dos (Fig . 5) . Cada pulgada de huevos de S itotroga sp. parasitados  produce aproximadamente unos 3 . 000 a 3 . 500 aci.J\\tos. Para combatir el g._ ;ano cach6n en \\a yuca se recomienda e fectuar \\ iberaciones de Trichog ramma spp. utilizando 10 a 20 pulgadas cuadradas por hectárea .Dentro de\\ grupo de parásitos de larvas , \\as especies más importantes son Apante\\es congregatus , ~• americanus y Euplectrus sp .Las avispas del género Apanteles sp. ovi.positan dentro de l a larva de \\a plaga; después de la eclos ión , \\as larvitas s e desarrollan dentro de\\ gusano a limentándos e de é l . Cuando estas larvas están pr6ximas a abandonar e\\ cuerpo del gusano aparecen unas manchas negras y redondas a través de las cual es emergen, (F ig. 6) .Una vez fue r a , \\as \\arvi.tas de\\ par ásito comi enzan a formar un tejido blanco algodonoso al rededor d e \\ gus ano , (Fig. 7) en el cua\\ _se di s tribuye n para luego empupar y finalmente emerger e n forma de adultos , lis t o s para comenzar nuevamente e \\ ciclo , Flg. 6. Larvas de Apanteles sp. abandonando una larva de ~ ello. Flg. 7. Larvas de Apantele s sp. e mpupando alrededor de una l arva de gusano cachón.Otro de los parásitos de larvas de Erinnyis e llo es una avispita del género Euplectrus sp ., la cual ataca la larva especialmente durante s us dos primeros estadios, oviposit ando sobre ella. Al eclosionar, las l arvitas del parásito se fi j an en el cuerpo del gusano del cual s e alimentan . Las larvitas se localtzan d e tal manera que resulta imposible para e l gusano deshacerse de ellas. Posteriormente, se mueven hacia la parte infer ior del gusano en donde empupan, recubriéndose de un teJido marrón claro. Como resul tado el gusano muere y queda recubierto por di cho tejido. Sin embargo, todavía se desconoce la magnitud del control que puede ejercer este parásito sobre las l arvas del cachón.Dentro de lo s insectos que ejercen control biol ógico sob re Erinnyis e ll o están los predatores de larvas tal es como una c hinche del género Podisus sp . y la avispa conocida como chepa o patiamarilla, d e la cual s e conocen dos e s pecies: PoHstes canaC:ensis y P. erythrocephalus. De e s tas especies la más importante es P. e rythrocephalus . Estas avispas , que generalmente viven e n colonias relativamente pequeñas, (Flg . 8) ejer cen su acción predatora degollando inicialmente la larva. S i la larva e s muy grande, la cortan en trozos , a lgunos de l os cuales consumen directamente, el resto l o amasan formando una bola que transportan al avis pero con el fin de alimentar las c rías . Generalmente l a avispa ataca al gusano en su segundo o tercer instar .Para su subsistencia, y la de sus c rías , la avispa requiere diariamente de varias larva s .El control biológico mediante Pol istes sp . puede inducirs e e incr ementarse exitosamente, col ocando avisperos con un pequeño n6mero de avispas en s itios cubiertos cercanos a la plantación de yuca.Para e s to, se construyen unas estructuras s encillas de dos metros d e a lto, cubiertas de paja , en el interior de las cual es se colocan los avisperos , (Fig. 9). Hay que tener en cuenta que la utiltzación de Polistes sp . para el control biol6gico d e Erinnyis ello puede verse limitada por la pres encia d e mos cas del género Oxis arcodexia, las cuales parasitan las larvas y pupas de PoHs tes s p. reduciendo en algunos casos s u pobl ación.De la mis ma manera que existen microorganis mos patógenos para combatir los animales superiores o vertebrados , también s e han podido identificar micr oor ganis mos que atacan específicamente a l os ins ectos en algunas de sus fas e s de des arrollo . Para el control de plagas en a lgunos cultivos (principalmente lepid6pteros en cultivos anual es) se han utilizado algunas especies de bacterias, especial mente bacilos , y ciertos virus específicos .  En e l caso del gusano cachbn , s e ha p roba d o con gran éxito el u so de Bacillus t h.Jringiensi s Berline r, un bacilo que ataca las larvas d e 1epid6pteros p r ovocando una especie de septicemia que las des truye . Est e biocida , el cual se encu entr a en e l mer cad o bajo los nombres comerciales de Dipel o T huricide , está compuesto d e las espor as d e l bacilo con l as cuales se preparan soluciones •de a l t a dilución que se aplican al follaje que consume la l a rva .Bacillus thuringiens i s ha resultado muy e f ectivo en l a reducción de pobl aciones altas d e larvas de gusano cachón, sobre todo en sus tres p r imeros ins tares .Con el o bjeto de compr o bar empíricamente la efectividad d e B . thur ingiensis se rea liza r on varios experi mentos .Uno d e e ll os con s i s tió -en la aspe r s ión de una s uspensión del bacil o sob re una parcel a de 50 pl ant as bajo un fue rte a taque d el gusano . La poblac ión de lar vas se m idi ó a ntes y tres dfas d espués de la a plicación . L os res u lt a dos mostraron que l a pobl ación de l a rvas se r eduJO e n u n 68 por c iento y que la bacteria fue más efectiva par a el contr o l d e la lar va en s u s tres p ri meros estadios . (Ver f ig . 10) E n un e xper imento r ealizado e n e l C IAT, a fin d e compar a r l a cantida d de s upe rfi cie folia r consumida por larva con aplicacj.6n del produc t o y s in él , s e observ6 una r e ducción drás t ica en e l con s umo p rome d io de s uperficie fol iar por larva cuando se aplic6 el bacilo. Las l a r vas muri eron dos o t r es d(as después de l a a plicación d e l product o a l consumir el foll a je tratado . (Ver fig . 11  En cada parcela se liberaron aproximadamente 98.000 adultos de Tri chogramma .Muest ra de 100 huevos .Como la acción del biocida no se observa inmediatamente después de la aplicación, algunos agricultores han manifestado reservas en cuanto a la efectividad de este tipo de control; s in embargo, una vez que la larva ha comenzado a consumir el follaje tratado sólo sobrevive dos o tres dfas , s u capacidad de consumo di sminuye considerablemente durante ese lapso.Por otra parte se ha demos trado que la aplicación del producto contentivo de esporas de §. thuringiensis no tiene efectos adversos sobre el parasitis mo de los huevos por Trichogramma spp. tal como se observa en el cuadro 1, por lo que se considera que la apl icaci6n del bacilo conjuntamente con la 1 iberaci6n del parás ito puede ser una buena medida de control del gusano cachón.Cuando se decida utilizar B. thuringiens is para el combate del gusano cachón se recomienda una do sis de dos gramos del producto comercial (Dipel o Thuricide) por cada litro de agua, aplicando hasta 200 litros de l a solución por hectárea. OJando el gusano atacado por el bacilo muere, aparece suspendido de las pseudopatas anales en cualquier lugar de la planta. En este estado, presenta una consistencia blanda y un abultamiento en su sección anterior, debido a la licuefacción de los tejidos internos resultante de la acción patogénica del bacilo .El ú ltimo tipo de control bio16gico es el realizado por vertebrados, entre los cuales se pueden citar batracios , lagartos y aves. Actualmente se desconoce la magnitud d e l contro l que ejercen estos a nimales. Se ha observado que a l gunas especies de ranas y l agartos de gran tamaño se pueden a li mentar de l os adultos de Erinnyis ello que se encuentren a s u alcance; igualmente, s e tiene conocimiento de que varias especies de aves son p redato r es de lar vas. Stn embargo , este tipo de control no tiene tanta importancia como el ejercido por insectos o por microorganismos .D . El control biol ógi co como componente del control integ r a d o El ml!todo de control biol ógico se ha venido practicando des de hace más o menos 100 años en cerca de 60 paí s e s a fin de combatir más de 100 especies d iferentes de plagas. A l comparar lo con otros métodos de control, p r esenta l as siguientes ventajas: es pe r manente , es recomendable desde e l punto de vista ecológico y es económ ico .La única d esventaja proviene de s u complejidad , ya que e l contro l biológico requiere de una s erie de conocimientos previos sobre la vida no s6l o d e la plaga insectil , sino tambil!n de l os enemigo s natural es y más i mportante aún, d e la interacción plaga-enemigo natural.S in e mbargo , e l control integ rado de plagas requie r e necesar iamente dei contr ol biológico , ya que n inguno de l os o tros métodos logra afectar las en s u s etapas c ruc ia l es . Por ejemplo , e l combate qu ími co del gusano cach6n generalmente diezma las larvas e n la plantación en la c ual s e hizo la aspe r s ión de ins e c ticida s , pero su acción es m omentán ea y r estringida a l área asperjada .Por otra parte, a pesar de l as fl uctuaciones e n las poblaciones d e ins ectos , l os e nemigos na t u r ales d e u na pl aga ejer cen s u acción en forma continua , y en cualquie r s itio; por ejemplo l as avis pas Trichogramma spp . pa ras itan los huevos de E rinnyis e llo tanto s obre l as pl antas d e yuca como sobr e cualquier mal e za hosped ant e d e la plaga .C tro aspecto de gran importa n c ia es que e l contro l biológico se bas a en las r elaciones que condi cionan y determinan el equtl ibrio biológico del ecos i s tema , s in atent a r en ni ngún momento contra el s i s t ema mis m o .Po r últi mo los requerimientos bás i cos de los s is t emas integrados del manejo de las pl agas rea firma n l a impor tanc ia d el control b i ológico dentro de e s tos s i s temas ; d e aquí que el conocimiento d e los s i guie ntes a s pect os sea indispensabl e:• L a bi ol ogía , fis io l ogía y ecol ogía tanto d e las plagas insecttles como d e s u s enemigos natura l es .• L a fi s iologí a d el o d e lo s cultivos que s e desea protege r.• L os niveles d e pobl aci ón de la plaga que puede toler a r e l c ultivo s in que s e trad-Jzca en u na disminución de l a cosecha .• Los factores bi6ticos y abi6ticos que r egulan las fluctuaciones de las poblaciones de las plagas insectiles.• El impacto que tienen l as diversas p r ácticas de contro l utiliza das s obre las plagas insectiles , sus enemigos naturales y sobre el ecosist e ma en gener al .• Debido a lo dinámico y flexible del sistema, es necesario contar con técnicas par a un mues treo rápido y segu r o que permita tomar una decis ión sobr e la apl icaci6n de u na medida de control. Describa brevemente el proceso de uttltzaci6n de la avispa Trichogramma sp. para el combate biológico del gusano cachón.IV. Diferencie la acct6n de A pa ntel es sp . de la de Euplectrus sp . sobre las larvas de E. ello.V. Describa el m od o de acct6n de l a avispa chepa (Pol istes sp.) y señale c6mo se puede fomentar su acct6n predat ora par a los fines del control biol6gi co del gusano cach6n . El control integr ado de Erlnnyis ello debe iniciarse Inmediatamente después de la cosecha anter ior , aplicando medidas cultura l es como arar entre hileras y el combate de las mal ezas. El control biológico d ebe fomentarse continuamente, aGn sin la ocurrencia de ataques severos; una buena opción es la utilización combinada de los parásitos de huevos (Tric hogramma spp . ) con l os predator es de lar vas (Polistes sp . ) y parásitos de larvas (Apanteles sp . y E upl ectrus s p.).E s r ecomendabl e que e l ag riculto r efectGe c ontinua y especialmente en plantac io nes jóvenes , conteos de huevos parasitados y no par asi t ados. Si e l nGmero de huevos no pa r asitados aumenta , se puede predecir que habrá un aumento s imilar en el nGmero d e larvas. En este caso, lo más aconsejable es efectuar una liberación de avispas Trichogramrna s pp.(1 O a 20 pulgadas cuadradas por hectá r ea) o reali zar una aspersión de Bacillus thuringiensis (350 a 400 g r amos por hectárea).El control qu (mico debe evitarse en lo posible pues su uso continuado provoca la ruptura del e q uilib rio existente entre la población de la plaga, la de sus enemigos natur ales y la fauna en gener al , acentuando ataques posterio.res del insecto. Por lo tanto , sól o debe usa r se cuando el ataque es muy severo (altas poblaciones de la rvas por planta) y cuando tiene luga r en plantaciones jóvenes (hasta los 6 meses) y s iguiendo siempre las r ecomendaciones precisas.•","tokenCount":"5456"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4718cf73837be21b2e9a09f2a0aeac7c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa065c1d-3057-4094-9a59-c866cf972402/retrieve","id":"-43137550"},"keywords":["Heterosis","lattice design","genotypes","Striga related traits","maize"],"sieverID":"c77ebdf7-5ce1-4ae4-8fb3-2933c8f6f404","pagecount":"8","content":"Heterosis for yield, secondary traits and Striga resistance was estimated in maize test crosses generated from fifteen inbred lines and three testers using line by tester analysis. Hybrids, testcrosses and parents were evaluated for two years at Agricultural Research Institute, Sotuba and Sanankoroba, to identify combinations expressing high hybrid vigor in Mali under Striga-infested and Striga-free conditions. Under Striga-free condition TZISTR106 /TZISTR1230, TZISTR106/TZISTR1223 and TZISTR1033/ TZISTR1223 appeared as the best hybrids combinations with respect to grain yield, while combinations TZISTR1207/ TZISTR1226, TZISTR106 /TZISTR112, TZISTR106 / TZISTR113 and TZISTR106/ TZISTR1028 showed positive mid parent heterosis for grain yield and negative mid parent heterosis for Striga related traits under Striga infestation. These hybrids are worthy for further utilization.Maize occupied the second place with 28.27% after rice 31.36% in term of production in Mali l'Enquête Agricole de Conjoncture EAC, 2016/2017. The crop is now an important cereal in both rural and urban areas because of its economic profitability and its use in food and feed (60 to 70% of the poultry ration) conferred an important role in food security. The industrial use of maize represents another particularly important outlet. National companies canned, biscuits, but also batteries, pharmaceuticals or paint and beverages have significant needs for starch or corn flour. The total production is 8 964 829 tones, the area planted in maize in Mali from the last five years varied from 579 396 ha in 2013 to 1031 522 ha in 2017 according to EAC, 2017, this evolution indicates that maize have seen very high superficies' growth almost the double of the area planted in five years, while average yield remain almost static (2.35t/ha to 2.85t/ha) FAO, 2015. The demand for food and feed is increasing due to the development of poultry industry, the pisciculture and fattening cattle. To meet the increasing demand hybrid maize can be successfully used.of the maize varieties grown, hybrids occupied 2.27% while OPV gained 97.5% (PLAN DE CAMPAGNE AGRICOLE CONSOLIDE ET HARMONISE 2018/ 2019). Among these hybrid just few are resistant to Striga hermonthica. Heterosis has been exploited for hybrid production and it play an important role in achieving successful hybrid production. As reported by researchers, heterosis occurred in quantities in maize grain yield, plant height, ear height, days to maturity and 1000 seeds weight Coulibaly et al., 2015. It is helful in identification of parental lines performance in hybrid combination. Little emphasis has been addressed to Striga resistance in heterosis study in maize in Mali. Heterosis in maize hybrids has been subjected to grain yield in drought prone area Coulibaly, 2013 but information on heterosis for Striga resistance traits in crosses between inbred lines with different patterns of Striga hermonthica is yet to be done. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to estimate the heterosis for grain yield, plant and ear height, days to maturity and Striga resistance traits in crosses using fifteen inbred lines and three testers in line by tester design.The experiment was carried out in the rainy season from 2014 to 2015 at Regional Centre for Agronomic Research (CRRA) station in Sotuba (12°39'47'' North 7°54'50'' West) and Sanankoroba (12° 23'51.67'' North and 7° 56'22.10'' West) in southern Mali. The hybrid trial was composed of 48 entries made up of forty five (45) experimental hybrids originated from a line by tester cross among the fifteen inbred lines and three inbred testers (TZSTRI106, TZSTRI1207 and TZSTRI1033) and two checks (Farako and Mata). The F1 crosses, two checks and the parental lines were planted separately. The F1 hybrids were planted in 6x8 alpha lattice design, while the parental lines were planted in randomize completed block design. The parental lines were all obtained from IITA and derived from various source populations. The list of fifteen inbred lines plus three inbred testers used in this study are described in table 1. The pedigree of these lines indicated the presence of Zea diploperennis an African landraces and elite tropical germplasm which contained an excellent source of resistance to Striga hermonthica. Seeds were sown in single row plot, 5 m long with spacing of 0.75 m between rows and 0.25 m between hills on the same row. Under both Strigainfested and Striga-free condition, all agronomic practices were kept constant except for hand weeding under Striga-infested condition for whole of the experiment. Where SR= Striga resistant line and ST= Striga tolerant line Data for all traits were on a per plot basis for each experiment at each location. Under both Striga-free and Striga-infested, data on traits including grain yield (Yield), anthesis-silking interval (ASI) and plant height (PLHT) were collected in addition Striga related traits such as Striga damage rating 8 and 10 weeks after planting and Striga emergence count at 8 and at 10 weeks after planting collected under Strigainfested environments. The differences between the days to 50% silking and 50% anthesis is called anthesis-silking interval. Plant height the distance from the base of the plant to the height of the first tassel branch was collected from an average of five random plants. However, Striga damage rating was scored on a scale of 1 -9 as described by Kim, 1994. Striga emergence count was counted, while ASI are observed. Grain yield was calculated in kilogram per hectare and was estimated based on 80% shelling percentage and adjusted to 15% moisture. Grain yield under Striga-infested environment was calculated as followsWhere, GY = grain yield (kg ha-1), Fwt = field weight of harvested ears per plot (kg), m = moisture content grain at harvest, 10,000 = land area per hectare (m 2 ), Ȣ = land area per plot (0.75 m x 0.25 m), ɸ = number of hills/plot (20) and 0.80 = 80 % shelling percentage. The mid parent heterosis (MPH) were calculated in terms of percent increase (+) or decrease (-) of the F1 hybrids against its mid-parent value as suggested by Fehr, 1987.F1=Mean value of a cross, MP = mid parent value of the particular F1 cross [(P1 + P2)/2]. Test of significance for percent heterosis was made using the t-test.Where, MSE = mean square error; S = number of site, Y = number of year the trial were conducted, r = number of replications; 2-the \"t\" for each entry, hybrid was calculated as follow t = Entry heterosis/SEentry The t calculated value was tested against the t value at degree of freedom for error Analysis of variance for grain yield, Striga resistance and secondary traits were performed in SAS 9.3 software using the model described by Kempthorne, 1957. Genotypes were considered fixed effects, while replications and environments were considered random effects.The analysis of variance revealed that there is significant (P < 0.05) difference for all traits among genotypes under Striga-infested and Striga-free conditions (Table 2). Under Strigainfested conditions the Genotypes by environment mean squares was significant for most traits except for Striga damage rating at 8 and 10 weeks after planting. Significant positive mid-parent heterosis were observed for all hybrids for grain yield under Striga-infested and Striga-free conditions. The mid-parent heterosis values for grain yield were higher under Strigafree conditions than Striga-infested conditions (Table 4). Mid-parent heterosis ranged from 105.8% (TZISTR106/ TZISTR110) to 259.5% (TZISTR106/ TZISTR1230) for grain yield under Striga-free conditions and from 100 % (TZISTR1033 / TZISTR1218) to 228.2% (TZISTR1033 / TZISTR1223) for grain yield under Striga-infested conditions. Mid-parent heterosis for plant height ranged from -0.7% (TZISTR1207/ TZISTR1237) to 44.9% (TZISTR1033 /TZISTR1227) under Striga-free conditions and from -6.7% (TZISTR1207/ TZISTR1235, TZISTR1207 / TZISTR1237) to 40.1% (TZISTR1033 / TZISTR1222) under Striga-infested conditions. Crosses TZISTR1207 / TZISTR1237 exhibited significant negative heterosis for plant height under both conditions. Some crosses also exhibited significant positive heterosis for plant height under both conditions. Anthesis-silking interval showed values ranging from -100% to 122.2% under Striga-free conditions and from -52.1% to 107.7% for grain yield under Striga-infested conditions. The range is wider under Striga-free conditions than Striga-infested conditions for anthesis-silking interval. The mean value range was wider for grain yield than for the others traits under both conditions. Striga damage rating at 8 and 10 WAP exhibited the highest number of negative mean values compare to Striga emergence count at 8 and 10 WAP under Striga-infested conditions. Significant negative heterosis were found for five hybrids for the same trait under Striga-free conditions, with heterosis value ranging from -100 to 122.2. Among the forty five hybrids, cross TZISTR1033/ TZISTR1227 exhibited significant negative heterosis for ASI under Striga-infested conditions, heterosis were found in a range from -2, 2 to 107.7. The heterosis estimates for plant height were positive for most hybrids except six crosses. The midparent heterosis estimate, in percentage was found in a range of -0.7 to 44.9 under Striga-free conditions and -6.7 to 40.1 under Striga-infested. Their magnitude is lower under Striga-infested compare to Striga-free. The estimate heterosis for grain yield was positively significant with high magnitude. Similar result was found by Tonette and Carena, 2014 enabling plant breeder to select good lines and their promising hybrids. Three out of the twenty hybrids exhibited negative mid parent heterosis for anthesis silking interval in both conditions indicating that theses crosses could be tolerant to Striga. This finding agree with Lu et al., (2010) who reported that low anthesis silking interval is mostly used to screen genotypes for stresses tolerance. Lesser difference between anthesis and silking is desirable for grain sitting. The finding also corroborate with those of Iqbal et al., (2010) who fund negative mid parent over, reported that these crosses could be either due to dominance at the same locus or different dominant genes which are closely linked and /or pleiotropic in their action. Hybrid TZISTR1207/TZISTR1238 exhibited negative mid parent heterosis for plant height under both conditions, indicating that they have not been affected by the effect of the parasite. This is desirable because dwarf plant can reduce the final yield of maize crop while high plant height could also cause plant lodging as reported by Ali et al., (2011b). According to Scapim et. al., (2006) reported that when the level of heterosis is low the choice of parental line for hybrid development should be based on their means. Similarly, hybrids TZISTR1207/ TZISTR110, TZISTR1207 /TZISTR112 and TZISTR1207/ TZISTR113 exhibited positive mid parent heterosis for plant height. This finding corroborate with Uzarowska et al., (2007) who observed substantial mid-parent heterosis for plant height in field environment. For the entire hybrids mentioned above the heterosis was in desirable direction. TZISTR1207/TZISTR1238 exhibited significant and negative mid parent heterosis under Strigainfested condition indicating the availability of variability for hybrid for this trait. The level of heterosis observed for Striga related traits was lower than for grain yield and plant height. This is in agreement with study undertake by Solomon et al., (2012) on sweet corn who found that quality related traits exhibited mean value mid parent heterosis lower than for most agronomic trait. There is lack or lesser significance for Striga related traits, this finding agree with Kvitschal et al., (2004) who reported that this absence could be explained by the lack of difference in among the degrees of complementation with each other, in relation to the frequency of alleles at loci with some dominance and predominating additive effects.In this study, the mid-parent heterosis for grain yield were noted for all crosses under Strigainfested and Striga-free conditions. Under Striga-free condition test crosses TZISTR106/ TZISTR1230, TZISTR106 / TZISTR1223 and TZISTR1033/TZISTR1223 appeared as the best hybrids combinations with respect to grain yield, while combinations TZISTR1207 /TZISTR1226, TZISTR106/ TZISTR112, TZISTR106/ TZISTR113 and TZISTR106 /TZISTR1028 show positive mid parent heterosis for grain yield and negative mid parent heterosis for Striga related traits under Striga infestation. Amongst tester TZISTR106 and TZISTR1033 contributed a lot toward the exposure of Striga related traits. Hybrids exceed the best parent in yield and productivity. ","tokenCount":"1946"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/1067366450.json b/data/part_2/1067366450.json
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8c09d0ab8cbff0afb8838221af77bc1b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36c3c635-7cee-4ef7-973d-6eb4f78d7d22/retrieve","id":"-1807513755"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b499835-025f-4f7c-b3f1-e1a12e231495","pagecount":"2","content":"Phakopsora pachyrhizi Syd. was reported on legume hosts other than soybean in Tanzania as early as 1979 (1). Soybean rust (SBR), caused by P. pachyrhizi, was first reported on soybean in Africa in Uganda in 1996 (3), and its introduction into Africa was proposed to occur through urediniospores blowing from western India to the African east coastal areas by moist northeast monsoon winds (4). The fungus rapidly spread and was reported on soybean in South Africa in 2001, in western Cameroon in 2003, and in Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2007 (5). A second species causing SBR on soybean, P. meibomiae, has not been reported in Africa or elsewhere, outside of the Americas. From 2012 to 2014, symptomatic leaf samples were collected in the major soybean growing areas of the Tanzanian Southern Highlands (Iringa, Mbeya, and Ruvuma regions). Symptoms of SBR included yellowing of leaves and tan sporulating lesions. These symptoms were observed at flowering through seed maturity. From fields surveyed in 2012, 2013, and 2014, SBR was observed in 5 of 14, 7 of 11, and 14 of 31 fields, respectively. Some of the leaves sampled had up to 80% of the leaf area affected. When microscopically examined, urediniospores were elliptical, echinulate, and hyaline to pale yellowish brown. In 2014, sporuliferous uredinia were observed on leaf material collected from the Iringa and Ruvuma regions of Tanzania, and a subset of these samples was sent by APHIS permit to the University of Illinois. To confirm the pathogen, symptomatic soybean leaf tissue of approximately 1 cm 2 was excised from each of the samples, and DNA was extracted using the FastDNA Spin Kit (MP Biomedicals, Solon, OH), with further purification using the MicroElute DNA Clean-up Kit (Omega Bio-Tek, Norcross, GA). The DNA was subjected to quantitative PCR using published Taqman assays for P. pachyrhizi, P. meibomiae, and a multiplexed exogenous internal control reaction to validate negative results (2). P. pachyrhizi DNA was detected in excess of 66,000 genome equivalents/cm 2 in all samples, and P. meibomiae DNA was determined to be absent from all samples (limit of quantification ~2 pg DNA/cm 2 ). Free surviving urediniospores were dislodged from 12 samples and inoculated onto susceptible soybean cultivar Williams 82, which produced sporulating SBR lesions after 2 weeks of incubation in a detached-leaf assay. Thus, Koch's postulates were completed. This is the first report of P. pachyrhizi causing rust on soybean in Tanzania. In vivo cultures have been established from most of these samples, and ongoing research includes an evaluation of the P. pachyrizi virulence on a differential set, and characterization of the genetic diversity.","tokenCount":"437"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/1070373630.json b/data/part_2/1070373630.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..aabf2b006aac60f3006887e977ed847a097f91f9
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a33acc093ac59860e04f66cfb90d0a9e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e467ad3b-3112-4c6c-8e22-74f55dc936f8/retrieve","id":"760282023"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a5f2902-5687-4ac4-82aa-758fa4157449","pagecount":"5","content":"Vietnam's food systems are rapidly evolving. Food safety is a high priority for consumers and the government. A4NH scientists contributed to a range of initiatives which have supported a shift in food safety policy and implementation. One of the most effective initiatives was the National Food Safety Risk Assessment Taskforce. Based on a recent assessment report, requested by the government and contributed by the Taskforce and partners, the government committed to implementing measures to improve food safety in the country.• # of more farm households have adopted improved varieties, breeds or treesVietnam's food systems are evolving rapidly, making food safety a high priority for the government. Over the past four years, A4NH scientists from ILRI mobilized, produced, or contributed to a range of initiatives which have supported a shift in food safety policy from an inspection and enforcement approach to a risk-based inspection and monitoring system bolstered by compliance incentives.One of the most effective initiatives that have supported these changes has been the Vietnamese National Food Safety Risk Assessment Taskforce ('Taskforce'). In 2013, scientists from ILRI teamed up with national and international partners to establish the Taskforce. Since then, it has conducted a series of cutting-edge studies on risk assessment and the cost of illness and, based on the findings, developed guidelines and materials to enhance food safety in pork value chains. These materials have been used in assisting key ministry officials and researchers to bring risk-based approaches to food safety management [1,2,3] In 2017, the World Bank published a report, which was convened by the government and technically led by ILRI and the Taskforce [4]. The report included critical evidence from A4NH research on the safety of perishable foods and the importance of traditional markets, the first ever quantitative assessment of Salmonella in pork, and the first-ever cost assessment of foodborne diseases. As a follow-up of the report, the government committed to implementing measures to improve risk assessment, risk communications and management, and foodborne disease surveillance (5). As part of the government's commitment, researchers and officials are working with a coalition of national and international partners to improve pork safety by developing, testing, and promoting incentive-based interventions and equitable, sustainable, and scalable recommendations. It is estimated that improvements will have positive effects on 10 million farmers and other value chain actors, 7,000 traditional markets, and 94 million consumers. Local authorities in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Hai Phong have begun developing plans to implement the report's recommendations with development partners. This project would improve food safety for 20 million people in those cities.","tokenCount":"424"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/1079304401.json b/data/part_2/1079304401.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..37a04c4b37cac80bb4eb7efd24d492dbafc19dbb
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+++ b/data/part_2/1079304401.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e34c1917f16e1ab0c2be9024836aeb9b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a7cc701-59fd-4b84-9a8b-6894d80c2d09/retrieve","id":"1173238939"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a8064fe-a771-4a10-bd24-614fe2d2f216","pagecount":"40","content":"Ama membaa Bajrangi Community Seed Bank dri i. Ama olu tauni ungwele Balapur rii 'i ga. Ani 'di esua Bundelkhand ga, India 'a. Ami'do Community seed bank 'di kinya 2016 si. Soko Balapur ga 'dia a'a rii ga angwa dru. Soko amgbugo dru ri Karwi district ga. Koca kilomita 12 ra. Driadru a'a ama idrea rii, ama osu ni drile mgbilimgbili (chickpeas, green grams, lentils, linseed, mustard, peas, pigeon peas) 'a ta mba awu. Anyu, go'do, rusu, ngana tro sa a'a. Ama rusu, ngano, osu tro sa azile. Onya zii pi ri amaa saa amani nyale. Jo azile saa amazia ga angwa dru.'Ba amani cara loso ri kweka ri a'i 'di 'baa i: Deendaya Research Institue a'i Bioversity International tro.Amale ama mi anyi tro le'jo vodo (technical issues) drii. Ovi dru ori ni ero kominiti dri ka e'bu idre ingoni ya i. Ziani 'di ama anyi ikonyi ingoni ori ni ero kominiti dri i'dore ga i. Ori ni ero kominiti dri alu alu, ole 'ba ta ni'ba loso ta 'di nii idri ra rii. Ta 'di ka saa le anyi dri si amgbu ra.Anyi le ori ingo 'a ta mbale awu anya ori ni ero kominiti dri 'i ga i? Ta kolea anyi 'ba ati ri, ori onya dru 'baa lele ambamba rii. 'Ba kpoo kolea kole ni. A'i 'ba 'di pi: uku ago tro, 'ba ciri 'ba amba tro, 'ba ta tro rii 'ba ta ako rii, losi'ba ire rii losi'ba lolu rii tro.Ori ni ero kominiti dri amgbu ka mori ta, ori igweka dri jo kusa esuka na dria okpori ri undrure ga. Ori 'di zi ti ole ni, aia rangi andreka loso is, ku saa azo ki na a' andreka loso, ole anaa runyaka limilimi si. Vu amgbu si ta uku alele ori ru ga ri mgbi ago alele ri tro. Kolea ota ki asi mgbili mgbili 'dii iru. Ka 'ba ikony ra, 'di ori ingo ni omba ta na awu ya i.Vu amgbu si, a'di ki esua, 'ba amgbu ole ori kozo cuwi o'du 'dinia rii. A'du siku o'du 'diinia eyi keca a'dungani ya ni oniru ku.Ta zi kolea ota ki anyi tro asi laka ra, jo 'ba ni mori koca ori ni drile yayadru mgbili mgbili ri a ta mbajo wa ya i. Jo morii iyo kolea ota ki asi ori ni drile ga ka. Jo alu isa saa unji ku. A'di inja 'di 'di, a'di zii 'baa lini inja si.Ta okpo ori loso ri ovire ga ri, a'di anya ovoloyi ako, pelere ri esu ingoni ya i.Leti loso ta 'di idrejo wa ri 'di 'baa pii:• Kolea acii kii amvua ori loso, pelere ri ovire ga • O'du ori loso ri ole alu ga si isa ku. Kolea opi amvu ni 'a kpoo ori pelere ri undrure ga ovire ga tro• Kolea ovi kii ori andre'ba pelere ri awu. O'ba oru, ori dru.• Ori amvu ni lokokori ga rii, ota ku. Amgbu na emuru ta zi 'baa pi tro ra.• Ovi ki ori andre'ba loso, pelere , laza ako (disease free) rii.Jo ovi ki ra ri, e'be ki ori andre'ba laza tro ri ra. O'bu 'a i'dole nyale ra ri tro. Saa a'di kii ori 'di 'ba dru sutoa 'a rii, kolea o'ba kii ku ori andre'ba laza tro rii. A'dusi ku, ori laza tro ri jo 'oba sutoa 'a, ka ki rinja 'daku. Ka ori zi 'baa inya ra.Zi ti si kolea undruki ma'di (extension worker) ta nire ori ni drile ga nja ri, kikonyi dru 'ba ni.Vu amgbu si ovi a'di ori ni ta mbaka loso ri ole vu aci kusa i'gbe ambamba ri ku. Awusi dru ta kolea oni ki ote, otra ki asi laka ri' 'di 'baa pii:√ Kolea ole a'di ori ni ta mba laka ri kolu aci ambamba ku (temperature). Awusi dru ori konga dru loso wa.√ Suali ole okojo a'di ori 'ba aru ri kolea kolu pelere. Jo ani cupa ya, gilasi ya, utu ya. Awusi dru ori osu dru ku.√ Ori 'di kolea kolu ebi ku (moisture content). Kolea ko'wi ca. Awu si dru konga dru emi.","tokenCount":"681"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/1092560385.json b/data/part_2/1092560385.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1fceed4d00b6fe59ad30e76147a3bcf6652d8674
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e965d9c58a424575bb56f9ed5ae658ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6bfdb547-26e5-4b2f-9736-999512e00eef/retrieve","id":"-191198636"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73a10182-0520-4f60-8ac6-1d47104aaa70","pagecount":"12","content":"i.l. 'J .1 ~IHea~ The objective of the Section is to study and develop preventive medicine schemes adapted to the pasture and management production systems developed by the Tropical Pastures Program. Strategies for attaining this objective were explained in detail befare (CIAT 1979,,  Tropical Pastures Program Annual Report).ETES Brazil. Herds surveyed in the vicinity of Brasilia revealed that the farms milking cows in more intensive production systems have considerable more control measures for ticks, hemoparasite and gastrointestinal parasites, than beef herds. Severa! farms have installed preventive schemes with dippings every 15 days for tick control. This is in concurrence with the need to keep ticks at a level which will not affect productivity, maintaining at the same time a high degree of protection against hemoparasites. In contrast, at the moment there is no widespread control against ticks in pure beef herds in the ares. It appears that most of the beef animals are zebu types which are somewhat more resistant to ticks. On the other hand, animal density is much lower in beef than in the mixed dairy herds, an average of 0.5 AU/ha vs. 1 AU/ha, respectively.As far as vaccination is concerned, 10 of 12 farms in the ETES Brazil Project vaccinate against foot and mouth disease; all of the farms vaccinate against black-leg, and only one vaccinates against brucelosis. This lack of vaccination against brucelosis is probably one of the reasons for the high prevalence of Brucela abortus infection in beef cattle herds under extensive range conditions in the north of Mato Grosso.Most technical assistants are recommending vaccination of adult animals agains botulism. Even though this could be useful in herds where cases of botulism have appeared, it is not economical for all herds in the ares, since reporta of botulism cases are localized.In relation to nematode infestation most farms deworm once a year; however, they treat adults more often than young animals. This practice does not agree with most recommendations, since field studies revealed that young animals are more susceptible to round-worms than adults, and it is more important to remove parasites from growing animals.In relation to photosensitization, three of seven farms reported cases in animals between 10 and 12 months of age. Ranchera associate the problem with the first grazing of the pasture and believe that it appears more often when the pasture is high. ETES Venezuela. Some of the farms in the ETES Venezuela Project reported similar problema. Severa! include ticks as an increasing problem in recent years. Farmers feel they have more tick problems toward the beginning of the dry season. They also feel that Dermatobia hominis, \"nuche\", is rapidly increasing. One possible reason is the forest invasion of the open savannas. This new cover provides an adequate environment for the fly and the vectors. The forest cover is expanding because savannas are not burned, a practice which is banned in Venezuela.It is also of interest that small farmers who have credit for milk operations have experienced calf mortality problema, probably due to interna! parasites and hemoprotozoos, and also are being forced to spray against ticks every 21 days to prevent losses and to maintain milk production. Some farmers at low technical input levels do not treat animals against interna! parasites until they experience losses from high infestation and anemia.In Venezuelan farms two other conditions are reported. One is \"sequita\" which is probably similar to \"secadera\" from the Llanos of Colombia and \"peste de secar\" in the Cerrado of Brazil. Farmers believe that \"sequita\" occurs at any age including that of young animals. Antibiotic treatments and body stimulants have been tried with limited success. If this conditions is similar to the \"secadera\" cases in Colombia, mineral deficiencies could be involved. Ranchera also report cases of botulism, especially in areas of \"Valle de la Pascua\" and \"El Tigre\". Even though there are no confirmed laboratory cases, farmers are beginning to vaccinate. The main problem could be a mineral deficiency that induces animals to consume careases, thereby picking up the botulism toxin.This project is carried out in full cooperation among the Cattle Production Systems, Economics and Animal Health Sections. A complete description of the project appears in the Cattle Production Systems Section. Animal health information was obtained from surveys as reported above, of cattle ranches and examination of individual samples in each farm. Data analysis from farms in the Colombia and Brazil Projects was presented in CIAT 1980 Annual Report. Collection of data for ETES Venezuela has been completed and will be analyzed shortly.Overall cattle mortality in Carimagua decreased over the last four years. Present mortality (2.0%) is ata reasonable low leve! (Table 1). As stated in last year's CIAT Annual Report, this is a reflection of better nutrition of the herds as well as of closer and more effective animal management. Calf mortality stabilized this year at 6.2% of 550 registered births (Table 2). The main factors that contribute to calf mortality in Carimagua are sequelae of nave! infections that induce poliartritis and abcesses. This is secondary to difficulties in management when calves are not treated soon after birth. Nutrition-disease relationships. Monitoring of various herds in Carimagua showed the usefulness of two tests to study nutrition-disease relationships. A comparison is made in Table 3 of blood parameters from a group of animals with clinical malnutrition, with apparently normal cattle, and a group with externa! photosensitivity lesiona. The animals with clinical malnutrition have total blood serum protein levels significantly lower than the steers on grass/legume associations (P < 0.10). In the photosensitivity animals blood protein is at normal levels and G.G.T. enzyme is significantly higher than in the other two groups (P < 0.10), indicating a liver lesion from some toxic effect.Animals with no apparent disease (steers on grass/legume associations) have both total protein and G.G.T .• enzyme at normal levels. LSD GGT 24.78 2 Different letters denote differences significant at the 0.1 level.Bioecology of Boophilus microplus. This is the most important externa! parasite in the Topical Pastures Program target area. It has become one of the priorities for in-depth studies and is one of the factors being modified by changes in animal management resulting from introduction of sown pastures. A project was designed to study population dynamics of the tick in the Colombian Llanos. Its main objective is to study the effects of ecological factors in the infestation levels in animals with adult ticks. It is especially important to know seasonal variations of tick levels in the pastures and in the animals in this area.The ecological conditions provided by Andropogon gayanus, Brachiaria decumbens, Melinis minutiflora and native savanna in pure stands for tick populations are evaluated during two full rainy and dry seasons. Animals are under continuous grazing and optimum stocking rates for each grass in each season, as described in CIAT's 1980 Annual Report.• Each paddock is infested with 500 evenly distributed engorged female ticks per animal. No acaricides are applied to the animals at any time. Evaluations (height and coverage) of grass in each paddock are made to define the conditions under which the larvae and adult populations are present. Tick larvae are evaluated on the pastures every two weeks and adult ticks on the animals every week.•Tick larvae populations are in the process of stabilization. After the first 13 samplings, Melinis grasa had the lowest counts, followed by native savanna, Brachiaria decumbens and !• gayanus; however, the counts on !• decumbens increased toward the end of the rainy season.Levels of adult ticks on the animals are probably a better reflection of the environment influence on the tick population. Heifers in !• decumbens and !• gayanus paddocks have the highest infestation levels during the first six months of the rainy season (Figure 1). •, t 1 ' '  Levels of infestation in Brachiaria have increased gradually from low levels of 20 adult ticks/head per day, to levels above 100 ticks/head, which are considered high. Levels in animals on Andropogon gayanus are of medium intensity, averaging between 20 and 30 adult ticks. For animals on M. minutiflora and native savanna the levels of adutt ticks are similar-and low (5-10 ticks average). In the first rainy season Brachiaria and Andropogon provided better environment for the persistence of larvae that end up as adult ticks in the animals.Pasture coverage could be one of the factors explaining differences in tick levels. At the August sampling (Table 4), Andropogon gayanus had roughly half the coverage of Brachiaria, and the average tick counts on the animals were much lower in the Andropogon group (20-30 ticks/head) as compared to the Brachiaria group (100-120 ticks/head) (Figure 1).The findings of adult tick counts on the animals parallel observations of potted pastures. Larvae of !• microplus are seen readily in the leaves of !• decumbens, !• gayanus and even native savanna. However, they do not crawl on the leaves of M. minutiflora. Larvae in the pots only crawl dry and dead leaves of Melinis, and this is probably one reason why animals pasturing Melinis have low tick levels. This confirma previous observations that Melinis pastures have some repellent effect on the ticks.The level of hemoparasites in the heifers is being measured. It is becoming evident (Figure 2) that animals grazing !• decumbens and A.gayanus have increased reactions compared with animals grazing ~• minutiflora and native savanna.The reaction to hemoparasites coincided with the tick adult counts, except for the heifers on !• gayanus. Even though these are resulta of only one rainy season, there is a tendency for M. minutiflora and native savanna to have lower larvae tick counts on the-pasture, lower adult ticks on the animals, and less reaction against hemoparasites-.An apparently atable population of ticks in the pasture has been obtained and variations seen in larvae and adult tick counts are beginning to reflect differences in the environment offered by the pastures for tick multiplication and persistence. Information obtained from the next dry and rainy seasons will be useful for best knowledge of tick ecology that can be used in the design of control measures.Photosensitization in cattle grazing Brachiaria decumbens. Photosensitization in young animals grazing B. decumbens is a limiting factor for the use of this pasture in the Program's target area. Work continued to determine the main epidemiological factors involved in presentation of the syndrome as well as possible control measures. This syndrome resembles the photosensitization seen in sheep and cattle in New Zealand.No evidence has been found of the seasonality of the condition. However, clinical cases in the past four years show a tendency for cases to appear in the middle and at the end of the rainy season (Figure 3). Age is an important determinant; most cases occurred in cattle between 9 and 24 months of age.  Cases in 1981 had two, commonly seen, clinical manifestations (Table 5). The animals developed edemas in the lower neck, dewlap and ears. This edematous form is apparently more acute and usually terminates in death of affected animals (7/6 animals in 1981). There was an obvious liver involvement detected by gross lesions and high levels of G.G.T. and S.G.O.T. enzymes. In the skin necrosis form, the animals developed severe necrosis in several areas of the skin, but most frequently in the perineal region, abdomen and lower part of the neck. Animals thus infected generally recover. The levels of G.G.T. and S.G.O.T. are also elevated as a reflect of liver lesions; animals developed generalized icterous and elarged liver. The clinical and pathological changes were manifestations of the hepatic damage. -------------Range ------------- Forty-one steers grazing Brachiaria decumbens were monitored through weighings and liver functions tests from the end of tpe dry season through the middle of the rainy season. Monitoring was conducted in cooperation with the Pasture Productivity and Management Section. Weight losses were valued, assuming gains of 100 gm/head per day for the dry season (December-March), 300 gm for March through May, and 500 gm for May through July, as a minimum for ~• decumbens.A comparison of liver damage and weight changes in animals revealed a significant relationship at the March sampling (P < 0.10). For the second sampling in May the relationship was highly significant (P< 0.01), and for the July sampling there was no relationship (Table 6). It appears that at the initial stages of liver damage, corresponding weight alterations are not significant. However, as liver damage becomes more pronounced weight is significantly altered. This second stage coincided with appearance of animals with externa! photosensitivity lesions. Toward the end of the observation period, most animals had recovered from liver. damage; however, convalescent animals were not gaining weight as expected. It is evident that when hepatic damage is induced in animals grazing ~• decumbens a significant proportion loses weight before developing externa! photosensitization lesions.Evaluation was made of the relation of enzyme G.G.T. levels and liver lesions in animals with clinical disease. High average levels are seen at the onset of clinical disease (Figure 4). They begin to drop and reach normal levels 30 days after the first appearance of clinical signs.A hypothesis for the etiology of photosensitivity is that the Pithomyces chartarum fungus is involved in its appearance. However, a system must be found to reproduce clinical signs to better study the syndrome. A strain of P. chartarum was isolated from a Carimagua paddock; the fungus was-cultured in the laboratory, multiplied extensively, and returned to the same paddock in greater concentration.  decumbens pasture. Fifteen 18-months old heifers were allowed to graze the inoculated pasture. One month after seeding the spores, ene animal showed clinical symptoms of photosensitivity and four more were found with subclinical affection (hepatic damage). Quilichao area were sent to Ruakura Animal Health Laboratory in New Zealand and to the National Research Council labs in Canada for detection of Pithomyces toxin (sporidesmin). From 15 cultures so far tested only three have shown to produce toxin. However, toxin concentration lower than ene was obtained from cultures isolated in New Zealand. Hence, it appears that other factors might be involved in the etiology of the syndrome. The next step will be to evaluate the role of zinc in conjunction with the fungus in the etiology and/or as a control mechanism.Test herds. This section is in charge of the ICA/CIAT herds. Production objectives were described in the 1978 CIAT Annual Report. Main emphasis is to produce experimental animals of high quality and uniformity. There are 300 breeding cows divided in seven herds, with one bull for every 25 cows in a system of seasonal mating from May through September. Calving rate through September of this year was 61.7%, very similar to the previous two years. Calf mortality up to weaning was 5% this year, considerably below that of 1979 and 1980. Calves were weaned at nine months of age •.During the year the test herds provided 318 animals for research projects at Carimagua.","tokenCount":"2459"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e51e051e0f1fadea003bc3c573da0b37","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/80e3aaf2-a747-4a4a-b58e-060e2a6bb11d/content","id":"749214796"},"keywords":["Bioinformatics Comparative genomics Genome annotation Ontology Plant anatomy Terpene synthase BFO, Basic Formal Ontology","CARO, Common Anatomy Reference Ontology","CL, Cell Ontology","FMA, Foundational Model of Anatomy","GO, Gene Ontology","GCP, Generation Challenge Program","ID, identifier","MGCSC, Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center","NASC, European Arabidopsis Stock Centre","OBO, Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies","OBOF, Open Biomedical Ontologies flat file format","PO, Plant Ontology","QTL, quantitative trait locus","RO, Relation Ontology","PATO, Phenotypic Quality Ontology","SGN, Sol Genomics Network","SVN repository, Subversion repository","TPS, terpene synthase","TAIR, The Arabidopsis Information Resource","URI","Uniform Resource Identifier","URL, Uniform Resource Locator","OWL, web ontology language","OWL-DL, Web ontology language sublanguage named for its correspondence with descriptive logics"],"sieverID":"f027f38b-33c0-4196-972b-c9b18922cb27","pagecount":"23","content":"The Plant Ontology (PO; http://www.plantontology.org/) is a publicly available, collaborative effort to develop and maintain a controlled, structured vocabulary ('ontology') of terms to describe plant anatomy, morphology and the stages of plant development. The goals of the PO are to link (annotate) gene expression and phenotype data to plant structures and stages of plant development, using the data model adopted by the Gene Ontology. From its original design covering only rice, maize and Arabidopsis, the scope of the PO has been expanded to include all green plants. The PO was the first multispecies anatomy ontology developed for the annotation of genes and phenotypes. Also, to our knowledge, it was one of the first biological ontologies that provides translations (via synonyms) in non-English languages such as Japanese and Spanish. As of Release #18 (July 2012), there are about 2.2 million annotations linking PO terms to >110,000 unique data objects representing genes or gene models, proteins, RNAs, germplasm and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) from 22 plant species. In this paper, we focus on the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO, describing the organizing principles, resources available to users and examples of how the PO is integrated into other plant genomics databases and web portals. We also provide two examples of comparative analyses, demonstrating how the ontology structure and PO-annotated data can be used to discover the patterns of expression of the LEAFY (LFY) and terpene synthase (TPS) gene homologs.Analyses of vast data sets from genetic and genomic studies have the potential to improve our understanding of species evolution, development and the molecular basis of traits of economic relevance. To realize this potential, plant scientists must be able to connect the spatial and temporal expression patterns of genes and gene products to their molecular functions, their roles in biological processes and gene-gene interactions. Associating qualitative and quantitative phenotypes derived from mutants and breeding populations with the functional and expression aspects of the genome helps to identify candidate genes and regions of the genome that may be associated with traits of interest. Sequenced genomes are available for an ever-growing number of Viridiplantae species ranging from algae, e.g. Volvox carteri (Prochnik et al. 2010) and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Merchant et al. 2007), and bryophytes, e.g. Physcomitrella patens (Rensing et al. 2008), to many angiosperms, such as Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000), Populus trichocarpa (Tuskan et al. 2006) and Oryza sativa (Goff et al. 2002, Yu et al. 2002). This now makes it possible to connect genotype to phenotype for intraspecific genetic diversity comparison and also allows interspecific comparison of gene expression, phenotypes and functions of genes and gene family members.Effective interspecific comparisons at the genome scale demand a common vocabulary (ontology), structured in a way that permits computer-aided reasoning about relationships among entities of different sorts. Ontologies have become indispensable tools for data curation and analysis in the life sciences (Blake andBult 2006, Jensen andBork 2010). Basically, an ontology is a structured vocabulary that provides a set of terms to describe the types of entities within a given domain and the relationships among these entities. Terms from an ontology are associated with genes or gene products through annotation (or 'tagging') of data with ontology labels. Because the same term names are used to annotate diverse bodies of data, the results can then be used to serve integration and analysis across multiple studies or species. For example, a user can compare genes expressed in a soybean (legume) pod with those expressed in a silique of an Arabidopsis plant. Though defined differently in a species-specific context, both pod and silique are synonyms of fruit in the Plant Ontology (PO) and it may be of interest to investigate what makes a pod different from a silique or how they are similar (note: throughout the paper, ontology terms and relations are printed in italics). The PO organizes the conventional knowledge, such as that about types of fruit, into a common structured vocabulary that alerts a researcher (and also a computer) that both pod and silique share similar characteristics of the PO term fruit.Widespread use of ontologies in the life sciences began with the development of the Gene Ontology (GO) in the late 1990s. Recognizing that many genes and proteins are conserved in most or all living cells, developers of the GO made the first significant effort to develop a unified vocabulary to describe the attributes of gene products in species-neutral fashion (Ashburner et al. 2000, Gene Ontology Consortium 2012). The GO Consortium developed a standard protocol for annotating genes with ontology terms, laying the foundation for the first serious effort to unify molecular and cell biology in a computationally useful way, thereby radically improving the process of computationally driven functional annotation and comparative analysis of genes and gene products.Early on, major plant genome sequencing and annotation projects adopted the GO approach for annotating the A. thaliana and O. sativa genomes (Garcia-Hernandez et al. 2002, Ware et al. 2002, Haas et al. 2003). Researchers soon realized that in order to utilize the full potential of data sets arising from genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and other '-omics' studies, additional controlled vocabularies were needed to describe the anatomical spatial location, temporal growth and developmental stages of plant parts and whole plants. Therefore, as the potential for comparative biology grew, the PO was developed to provide terms that describe flowering plant anatomy and morphology (Ilic et al. 2007) and development stages (Pujar et al. 2006) in model plant species, in order to annotate gene expression and phenotype data sets more accurately (Avraham et al. 2008). For example, the GO biological process term C4 photosynthesis (GO:0009760) in maize differs from C3 photosynthesis (narrow synonym of reductive pentose-phosphate cycle; GO:0019253) in a rice plant by localizing and coordinating carbon fixation (GO:0015977) in plastids (GO:0009536) found in two different cell types. In maize, C4 photosynthesis is coordinated between the mesophyll cell (PO:0004006) and the cells of the bundle sheath (PO:0006023); whereas, in rice, C3 photosynthesis occurs only in the mesophyll cell. Therefore, if we simply look at the GO annotations of the rice and maize gene products without the context of the mesophyll/bundle sheath cell type specificity provided by the PO, a user will not be able to differentiate the physiological and anatomical significance. The PO makes it possible to extend GO functional annotations to plant molecular biology data, thereby linking known gene functions annotated to GO terms with PO annotations to spatialand temporal-specific gene product expression and observed phenotypes.Since the initial development of the PO for the model plant species A. thaliana, O. sativa and Zea mays (Jaiswal et al. 2005, Avraham et al. 2008, Ilic et al. 2008), the scope of the PO project has expanded to develop the controlled vocabularies required to annotate anatomy and development stages of all green plants, thus covering a wide array of new plant model species. In its current form, the PO bridges diverse experimental data derived from genetics, molecular and cellular biology, taxonomy, botany and genomics research. The power of the PO lies in its ability to resolve disparities, not only between the various terminologies used by researchers in different genomics projects, but also between the names classically used by different groups of investigators to describe plant anatomy. As such, the PO serves as a common reference ontology of plant structures and development stages.A recent review of the utility of ontologies to plant science describes the challenges in adopting such a unified approach, as well as the organizing principles behind the development of the PO (Walls et al. 2012a). Here, in contrast, we focus on detailing the composition of the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO, its guiding principles for development and expansion, and applications of data annotation, integration and analysis.We provide examples of how the PO is integrated into many other plant genomics databases and web portals, and describe associated online tools for curation and data mining. Furthermore, we demonstrate the power of the PO for comparative plant anatomy and genomics by showing how the PO annotations of the LEAFY (LFY) and terpene synthase (TPS) gene homologs can be explored for inter-and intraspecific comparative analysis. This article describes the PO in reference to Release #18 (July 2012).In its original form, describing anatomy and growth stages for monocots and dicot plants (primarily A. thaliana, Z. mays and O. sativa), the PO (Avraham et al. 2008) was the first multispecies anatomy ontology among the various biological ontologies. The multispecies anatomy ontologies that have been developed since then include the Teleost Anatomy Ontology (Dahdul et al. 2010), and Uberon, a multispecies anatomy ontology primarily covering metazoans (Mungall et al. 2012). By providing both species-neutral terminology and references to taxon-specific terminology for the respective taxonomic kingdoms, the PO and Uberon enable research that compares anatomy, development and phenotypes across species. However, developing such ontologies presents challenges due to a diversity of phenotypic characters and anatomy contributed by the evolution of species and their adaptation to different environments. Such challenges are minimal in the development of ontologies that cover a single species or group of closely related species. Encompassing the diversity of anatomy and morphology found in green plants is particularly challenging, because green plants are one of the few groups in which structures found in the gametophytic phase of the life cycle are similar to those found in the sporophytic life cycle phase. For example, non-vascular leaves (phyllids) are found in the gametophytic phase in bryophytes and the similar structure vascular leaf is found in the sporophytic phase of the vascular plant life cycle. The following sections describe in detail how the PO is organized, with emphasis on anatomy and morphology, as encompassed by the ontology term plant anatomical entity and its child terms. They include descriptions of some of the specific plant structures that are included in the PO to accommodate a wide variety of plant species, a discussion of ontology design practices and examples of how the PO and the annotated data sets can be used for comparative analyses.The PO follows the ontology standards set forth by the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry initiative (Smith et al. 2007). The PO can be represented as a graph or tree (e.g. Fig. 1), consisting of nodes that correspond to the PO terms, joined by edges representing relationships among the terms (Smith et al. 2005). Each node in such an ontology graph consists of a standard or preferred name (often referred to as a 'term'), a scientifically correct definition with appropriate references, a list of synonyms, e.g. exact, narrow, broad or related synonyms, or foreign language synonyms, as described in Walls et al. (2012a) and, most importantly, a unique alphanumeric identifier (e.g. PO:0025034 for leaf) which is used to form a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Terms are related to one another by relationships such as is_a or part_of, as described below. Every term has at least one is_a relationship to a parent term.The PO consists of two branches, each with a topmost or 'root' term-plant anatomical entity and plant structure development stage, respectively. Each PO branch is organized hierarchically by means of the is_a (or subclass of) relation, by appropriately placing it under a single root term. The plant anatomical entity branch, which is the focus of this paper, describes morphological and anatomical structures such as plant organ, whole plant and plant cell, while the root term plant structure development stage describes the stages of development of plant structures (including the whole plant). A more detailed discussion of the plant structure development stage branch is the topic of a future paper.Plant anatomical entity. Plant anatomical entity and its child terms (Fig. 1) are organized as a structural anatomy ontology, in which all child terms are defined in terms of structure, including spatial information, rather than function. In addition, a number of definitions include a reference to the ontogenic development lineage. The use of the develops_from relation (Smith et al. 2005) (Fig. 1, Table 1) acknowledges the intrinsic link between a structure and its ontogenic predecessor parent structure, e.g. fruit develops_from gynoecium. The PO largely follows the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) (Rosse and Mejino 2003) in defining terms structurally. Nevertheless, the PO includes comments describing the common functions of some anatomical entities. For example, a comment states that xylem functions in the translocation of water and solutes and, in combination with other portions of vascular tissues, also provides structural support to the plant axis, but this statement is not an essential part of the definition of xylem. Because it is largely neutral with respect to function as well as homology (Walls et al. 2012a), the PO can be used in many different applications, including other ontologies that aim to model plant function.Like any graph tree, the nodes that are closer to the root term (towards the top of the tree) are more general terms, compared with the more specific terms that are farther from the root (Fig. 1). The direct subclasses of plant structure (highlighted in yellow in the tree, Fig. 1A; and in the tree viewer, Fig. 1B), along with numerous new mid-level terms, provide the framework into which specific plant anatomical entities can be incorporated, allowing the PO to accommodate a diverse range of agronomically important species and emerging plant models for genetic and taxonomic studies. This format allows the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO to serve as reference plant anatomy ontology for all plants, to which species and/or other specific vocabularies can be mapped. The definitions of nearly all previously existing high-level terms (those in the first two levels below the root terms) of plant anatomical entity have been modified, and several new ones have been added (see Fig. 1 and Table 2). Although many of these terms will probably never be used directly by data annotators (e.g. gene expression would not be annotated directly to collective plant structure, but instead to one of its child terms, such as shoot system or perianth), these high-level categories are essential for ontology maintenance and logical reasoning. The processes of integrating new mid-to lower level terms and improving existing definitions, driven by the addition of new plant models, are described below.   The root term plant anatomical entity has three immediate child terms: (i) portion of plant substance; (ii) plant anatomical space; and (iii) plant structure. In order to follow the OBO Foundry guidelines on anatomy ontologies and to keep the plant anatomical entity organization consistent with other biomedical ontologies, these three second-level terms correspond to terms from the Common Anatomy Reference Ontology (CARO) (Haendel et al. 2007), which are in turn modeled on the FMA (Rosse and Mejino 2003). For example, the definition of portion of plant substance is 'A portion of organism substance that is or was part of a plant'. This is based upon the definition of portion of organism substance (CARO:0000004) and, thus, it prevents having to redefine the concepts and allows the user to make broad comparisons across annotated data sets in diverse species. Similarly, the definition of plant anatomical space is based upon the definition of anatomical space (CARO:0000005). For the user's convenience, the CARO terms and definitions are provided in the comment field of the respective PO term pages. The term portion of plant substance (see 'Design Practices and Naming Conventions' below for an explanation of portion of) consists of child terms that describe entities that are substances rather than structures, such as plant cuticle, cuticular wax and cutin. Plant anatomical space represents pores or other spaces that are part of a plant and surrounded by one or more anatomical structures. They are distinguished from arbitrary spaces, e.g. between adjacent leaves, in that they are generated by developmental, morphogenetic or other physiological processes. Examples of plant anatomical space include: hydathode pore, stomatal pore, stomium, axil and canal. The following section describes plant structure in more detail.Plant structure and its child terms. The child terms of plant structure make up the largest group of plant anatomical entity terms (Fig. 1, Table 2). Based on anatomical structure from the CARO (Haendel et al. 2007) and the FMA (Rosse and Mejino 2003), a plant structure in the PO includes the organism itself (whole plant) as the largest anatomical structure, while the smallest is a plant cell. As a best practice to avoid redundancy among ontologies, subcellular plant structures are represented in the cellular component branch of the GO (Gene Ontology Consortium 2012).The broad category of plant structure includes familiar plant parts such as leaf, stem, flower, fruit and seed, and also any in vitro plant structure that was derived from a plant part. Plant structure has 11 child terms, some of which-such as plant cell, portion of plant tissue, embryo plant structure and whole plant-are intuitively understandable by most plant biologists. Others, such as collective plant structure or multi-tissue plant structure, are less intuitive but are needed in order to ensure that the PO provides a complete and logically well-structured set of definitions for all the terms in the PO. They allow the ontology to support the widest possible interspecific comparisons of plant structures, make it easier to browse the ontology tree and aid in checking for errors.One important child term of plant structure is plant organ (Fig. 2, Table 2), which is defined as 'A multi-tissue plant structure that is a functional unit, is a proper part of a whole plant, and includes portions of tissues of at least two different types that derive from a common developmental pathway.' Some examples of plant organs are: plant axis, coleoptile, coleorhiza, plant gametangium, sporangium, phyllome and floral organ. Plant axis includes any axial plant organ, i.e. organs that make up the roughly linear axes of a plant, such as root and shoot axes. The child term shoot axis includes structures such as stem, branch and rhizome. The term phyllome, widely used for leaf/leaf-like organs, is defined as 'A lateral plant organ produced by a shoot apical meristem.' Its child terms include leaf, bract and prophyll, as well as the floral organs petal, sepal and tepal (Fig. 2).One of the challenges inherent in describing the anatomy of all plants is resolving issues where the same name is used to describe different plant structures. For example, the term leaf is commonly used to describe the vascular leaf structure found in angiosperms, gymnosperms and ferns, as well as the similar leaf-like non-vascular structure called a phyllid found in bryophytes. In order to differentiate the vascular and non-vascular types of leaf structures, we defined the general parent term leaf and created two child terms, non-vascular leaf (synonym: phyllid) and vascular leaf (Fig. 2). The term non-vascular leaf has no is_a child terms. It does have several part_of children, which are exclusively recognized in non-vascular leaves, such as the alar cell (not shown in Fig. 2), found at the base of a non-vascular leaf adjacent to where the leaf attaches to the stem, and costa or non-vascular leaf midvein. A number of child terms that are common to both vascular and nonvascular leaves are part_of children of the parent term leaf, e.g. leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf stomatal complex (not shown in Fig. 2). Some subtypes of vascular leaf described by the PO are adult vascular leaf, cigar leaf (as in banana plants), compound leaf, cotyledon, juvenile vascular leaf, rosette leaf and simple leaf. Together, all these terms share the common properties of the parent term vascular leaf, but, because of their individual characteristics and prevalence in the plant science literature, it was important to create specific child terms for them. A computational reasoner applied to PO-annotated data would be able to make inferences that any part_of vascular leaf is also part_of some instance of leaf.In vitro plant structures. In order to maintain logical simplicity, many anatomy ontologies deal exclusively with in vivo structures (Dahdul et al. 2010, Yoder et al. 2010, Mungall et al. 2012). However, because the use of in vitro culture is so prevalent in plant sciences, there is a need to annotate gene expression for in vitro plant structures. Thus it was important to include in vitro plant structure as a direct child term of plant structure in the PO. This presented a challenge, however, because every in vitro plant structure can be classified in at least two ways. For example, an in vitro plant cell is both a plant cell and an in vitro plant structure. Ideally, each in vitro plant structure would be included only as a direct is_a child of the respective in vivo plant structure (e.g. an in vitro plant cell as a child of plant cell). However, the information that the structure in question was grown in vitro would be lost. In order to capture this information, an exception was made to the rule of single inheritance for PO (i.e. each term must have exactly one is_a parent). In other words, some in vitro plant structure terms were assigned two is_a parent terms (e.g. culture plant cell is_a plant cell and is_a in vitro plant structure).As mentioned above, the PO was created and developed in accordance with the principles of the OBO Foundry (http:// www.obofoundry.org; Smith et al. 2007) to ensure interoperability with ontologies created in other life science domains. The OBO Foundry is a collaboration among science-based ontology developers that aims to establish a set of best practices for ontology development, with the goal of creating a suite of orthogonal, interoperable reference ontologies in the biomedical domain (Smith et al. 2007). The PO aims to follow the OBO Foundry principles (http://obofoundry.org/crit.shtml) such as having a unique identifier space, clearly delineated content that is orthogonal to other OBO Foundry ontologies and textual definitions for all terms.One of the accepted principles of the OBO Foundry is that the ontologies have a unique identifier (ID). All the term IDs in the PO are prefixed by 'PO:' and include a seven-digit, zero-padded integer. No other ontology in the OBO suite of ontologies is allowed to use the PO designation, thereby ensuring that the term identifiers are unique. This allows the PO to exist alongside all the other ontologies, and if a user sees the 'PO' designation, you always know it is from the Plant Ontology. The PO ID corresponds to a universally unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL; http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/PO_ XXXXXXX). These URLs are resolvable via the Ontobee website (http://www.ontobee.org/index.php).To ensure compatibility with other OBO Foundry ontologies, the top level (root) terms in the PO are defined on the basis of the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) (Grenon et al. 2004, Smith 2012). The BFO is an upper-level ontology that is used to support domain ontologies developed for scientific research. There are currently >100 ontology projects using BFO as common upper-level framework, including the ontologies within the OBO Foundry (Grenon et al. 2004, Arp andSmith 2008). The BFO does not contain physical, chemical, biological or other terms that would fall within the domain of specific fields of inquiry. Instead, it provides a context for organizing the knowledge within those domains.Textual definitions and is_a completeness. Another accepted principle of the OBO foundry is that all terms in the ontology must have a textual definition. All terms in the PO have textual (human-readable) definitions. The long-term goal of the PO is for all the definitions in the ontology to be logically structured in a way that promotes both consistent formulation of the definitions and automatic reasoning. All definitions are structured as Aristotelian definitions (Rosse and Mejino 2003), which means that they are of the genus-differentia form illustrated as follows and discussed further in Walls et al. (2012a).produced by an archegonium PO : 0025126 ð Þor an embryo sac ðPO : 0025074Þ differentia ð Þ :OBO best practices require that all terms beneath the root should have is_a parents. While it is not strictly necessary to provide such parents from within the ontology, doing so ensures that the ontology is self-contained and makes it possible to formulate definitions consistently for all terms using the genus-differentia format. Other important OBO Foundry principles to which the PO adheres are the requirements that the ontology be openly available and that there is a consistent versioning system. More details can be found at the OBO Foundry Principles Page (http://obofoundry.org/crit. shtml).Relations used in the Plant Ontology. More than just a list of terms, an ontology represents relationships among the entities to which its different terms refer. The asserted relational connections between the nodes of the ontology can be used for multiple purposes, including ontology navigation and enhancement of queries across annotation data. The PO utilizes relationship assertions of seven types in addition to the basic is_a and part_of relations, namely: has_part, derives_by_ manipulation_from, develops_from, adjacent_to, participates_ in, has_participant and located_in (Table 1). Formal, logical definitions of these relations can be found in the Relation Ontology (RO; Smith et al. 2005). The meanings of participate-s_in and has_participant used in the PO are more restrictive than the RO definitions. The relation derives_by_ manipulation_from is a special case of the RO relation derives_from. The PO maintains a Wiki page describing the relations in much more detail (http://wiki.plantontology.org/ index.php/Relations_in_the_Plant_Ontology). Where possible, the PO uses the OWL version of the RO: http://code.google. com/p/obo-relations/), which is a descendant of the Smith et al. (2005) RO, and itself makes use of BFO relations. A new version of BFO is currently under development (http://code.google. com/p/bfo/), and in the future the relations will be incorporated in a single file with BFO (Smith 2012).Design practices and naming conventions. The design of the PO follows the OBO Foundry principles and guidelines (http:// www.obofoundry.org/crit.shtml), as well as best practices of the ontology community, as described in Walls et al. (2012a). The particular needs of describing plant anatomical entities dictate several additional practices that are described in more detail below.To ensure biologically correct definitions and consistent use of terms in annotation, a number of nomenclature rules were followed in the development of the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO. First, term names for some common plant parts such as cell, tissue, organ, zygote and embryo are prefixed with 'plant' and thus referred to as plant cell, portion of plant tissue, plant organ, etc. This helps to differentiate them from terms of the same name in other non-plant ontologies and vocabularies, and ensures that their meaning is accurately reflected outside the context of plants. Secondly, following the practice laid down in the FMA (Rosse and Mejino 2003), several terms use the prefix 'portion of' in their names, e.g. portion of plant tissue, and many of its child terms. Although such use of the 'portion of' phrase is not part of the standard language of biologists, it is important as a means of distinguishing between the physical object that is a portion of plant tissue and a description of the corresponding tissue type. Many tissue types do not have 'portion_of' in their term name, because their single-word names are widely used and already imply a physical entity rather than a description (e.g. epidermis). In such cases, more specific names were added as exact synonyms (e.g. portion of epidermal tissue). Definitions are written to make it clear when a term is referring to some arbitrary portion of tissue or to the maximal portion of tissue in some given plant structure.Finally, the use of the words 'cardinal' and 'proper' have specific meanings in the context of the PO and other ontologies. The use of 'cardinal' in the term name cardinal organ part refers to the fact that these are biologically meaningful and not arbitrary parts of a plant organ. The word 'proper' is used in the PO, as in mereology (the study of parts and wholes) (Schulz et al. 2005), to denote the non-reflexive form of a relationship. When one plant anatomical entity is defined as being a 'proper part' of another, this refers to the fact that the first entity is a genuine subpart of the second, thus falling short of being identical. This distinction is important because the part_of relation (as defined by the RO) is reflexive, so special cases when it is not meant to be reflexive must be specified.The PO collaborates with a number of other ontologies, especially with the GO (Gene Ontology Consortium 2012), the well-established ontology widely used for the annotation of gene product function. Following OBO Foundry ontology principles, the PO strives for orthogonality between the domains of GO and those of the PO. The GO is made up of three branches: molecular function, biological process and cellular component. The domain of the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO includes plant structures ranging from the plant cell and larger, while the parts of a plant cell, for instance the chloroplast, are described in the cellular component branch of the GO.The GO branch biological process encompasses many terms that describe processes that occur during plant development, e.g. flower morphogenesis (GO:0048439) and seed germination (GO:0009845). As far as possible, the GO plant development terms are composed using terms from Mungall et al. (2011). For example, the GO biological process term shoot system development:G0 :0022621 ! shoot system development :Equivalent : GO : 0048856 ! anatomical structure development and RO : 0002296 ! results in development of some 'PO : 0009006 ! shoot system PO and GO are working together to align these two ontologies systematically through an ongoing process of suggesting new terms and modifications of existing plant-specific GO terms through the GO SourceForge tracker (https://source forge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=36855&atid=440764). In the future, the GO intends to use PO in combination with TermGenie (http://go.termgenie.org/), a template-based, reasoner-assisted ontology term generation tool, for creation of new plant-related terms (Chris Mungall, personal communication).Arabidopsis annotations to GO terms are developed by the TAIR (Berardini et al. 2004, Lamesch et al. 2012) through their curation pipeline and are added to the PO database at each PO release through an automated pull process from the GO FTP site (ftp://ftp.geneontology.org/pub/go/gene -associations/). Recent advances in gene annotation efforts in other plants such as rice (Hamada et al. 2011, Nagamura et al. 2011, Sakurai et al. 2011), barley (Mochida et al. 2011), maize (Sekhon et al. 2011, Kakumanu et al. 2012) and Physcomitrella (Lang et al. 2005, Rensing et al. 2007, Rensing et al. 2008, Wolf et al. 2010, Timmerhaus et al. 2011), among many others, are contributing to the body of knowledge about plant gene functional annotations, but, since these annotations are not yet cross-referenced to PO terms, this information is not yet available through the PO database.Similar to the GO approach above, developers of the PO and the Trait Ontology (TO) (Jaiswal et al. 2002, Yamazaki andJaiswal, 2005) are working to align these two ontologies. It is being accomplished by creating cross-references in the TO to PO terms and their qualities or attributes from the Phenotypic Quality Ontology (PATO; Gkoutos et al. 2004). For example, the trait leaf color (TO:0000326) is referenced as PO leaf (PO:0025034) bearing the quality color (PATO:0000014) (Pankaj Jaiswal, personal communication).To maintain orthogonality, the PO re-uses terms from existing ontologies in definitions wherever appropriate. As described above and in Walls et al. (2012a), many plant anatomical entity terms draw on the CARO (Haendel et al. 2007). Although the CARO structural classification is based on the FMA, a human anatomy ontology (Rosse and Mejino 2003), many of its terms are defined broadly enough to encompass plants. Ongoing discussions with CARO curators ensure the continued compatibility of the CARO and the PO, and enhance the possibilities for comparative research across eukaryotes.The PO term plant cell presents a special example of interactions among OBO Foundry ontologies. It is an important principle that ontologies in the OBO Foundry should have clearly specified and delineated content that is orthogonal to other OBO Foundry ontologies (http://www.obofoundry.org/ crit.shtml). The GO term cell is a child term of cellular component, and the definition of plant cell in the PO references cell in the GO as its parent term. However, most organisms, including plants, have cells of specialized types that are considered an essential part of their anatomy. To standardize descriptions of cell types across species, the Cell Ontology (CL) was developed as the reference ontology for the representation of in vivo cell types from all biology (Meehan et al. 2011). Previously, the CL contained its own parallel hierarchy of plant cell terms that were cross-referenced with the PO. This, however, created serious problems in maintaining two parallel ontologies. Therefore, it was decided that the CL would import the plant cell term and all its child terms from the PO and retain the original PO identifiers, relationships and definitions. This allows maintenance of terms for plant cell types to remain within the control of plant experts, but provides for cross-ontology interoperability.Since April 2009, the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO has grown from 808 terms to 1,203, a 49% increase, and from describing nine plant species to the current 22 species (http:// www.plantontology.org/docs/release_notes/index.html). All terms have text definitions, with many refinements of those from the initial project. During this period of time, the scope and amount of genomics data represented in the PO have increased from about 45,000 data objects (genes, mRNA, proteins, etc.) annotated in 2009 to more than 110,000 data objects in 2012 (Table 3). These data representations result in about 2.2 million individual annotations, or links between PO terms and the genomic data, as many of the data objects are annotated to more than one PO term.Two of the major challenges in developing the PO are (i) the need to define high-level terms in such a way that they are appropriate for all instances in all taxa and (ii) dealing with differences in vocabulary usage among groups working on different taxa. The process of expanding the coverage and enriching the PO to provide new terms for plant anatomical entities is highly collaborative, involves many different database groups and user communities (below and Table 4) and is continuously evolving. Such collaborative developments help to ensure that PO terms and definitions can be used across different taxa.The sections below detail four collaborative projects, which resulted in term enrichment and expanding the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO. The PO SourceForge tracker (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=76834&atid=8355 55) is the main avenue for new term requests and/or modifications and collaborations for larger scale projects. Outreach workshops and presentations have been held at national and international conferences, and in-house workshops are held with specific groups of domain experts such as wood anatomists (Lens et al. 2012). For more information, see the PO outreach page (http://wiki.plantontology.org/index.php/POC_ Outreach_Events).Flora of North America Glossary. A significant source of new terms and synonyms for existing terms was a collaboration with the curators of the Flora of North America Glossary (http:// huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/hibd/departments/DB-INTRO/Intro FNA.shtml), which resulted in the addition of 333 new synonyms and 143 unique new term requests (Walls et al. 2012a, Walls et al. 2012b). The list of mappings between the PO and the FNA can be downloaded from the PO Subversion (SVN) repository (http://palea.cgrb.oregonstate.edu/viewsvn/Poc/ trunk/mapping2po/FNAglossary2po.txt?view=log) and the list of new terms and synonyms can be downloaded from Source Forge (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail &aid=3376762&group_id=76834&atid=835555).Solanaceae and other tuber-bearing plants. Although the PO has been developed as a species-neutral ontology for plants, certain specific introductions and annotation requirements from new species, such as those bearing tubers, challenged the concept of neutrality. Detailed revisions were made to the plant anatomical entity term tuber and its is_a and part_of children, at the request of the Sol Genome Network (SGN; Bombarely et al. 2011) (Fig. 3). The revision of the term tuber demonstrates how the PO can be used to describe the parts of a complex structure in a species-independent manner, and yet still accurately describe agronomically important crop plants of interest to plant breeders. A number of new terms were created to allow specific annotations of potato tuber structures, but they were added in a way that does not limit their use exclusively to potatoes, i.e. using species-neutral primary names with narrow synonyms that are specific to potatoes. For example, 'potato eye' is a narrow synonym of subterranean tuber axillary vegetative bud. Many of the PO terms describing the parts of the subterranean tuber are child terms of portion of plant tissue. This applies, for example, to subterranean tuber epidermis (synonym: young potato tuber skin), subterranean tuber periderm (synonym: mature potato tuber skin) and subterranean tuber pith (synonym: water core). The use of synonyms such as 'young potato tuber skin' permits ontology builders to maintain strict naming conventions, while allowing plant breeders to search for the terms they need using familiar phraseology. At the same time, the use of speciesneutral primary names makes the ontology useful for groups working on other species as well as supporting interspecies comparisons. For example, the tuber terms that were added to the PO for potatoes can be applied to Dioscorea species (yams) with no modifications. These revisions facilitate research and annotation of the spatial-and temporal-specific profiles of expressed genes determined in the recently sequenced genome of the potato (Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium 2011), one of the world's most important, non-grain food crops.Physcomitrella patens and non-seed plants. Sequencing of the P. patens genome (Rensing et al. 2008) has facilitated the creation of many new expression data sets for P. patens, the annotation of which created a need for PO terms to describe plant structures and development stages found in mosses. This was necessary, for example, for comparing the gene functions and Fig. 3 The terms in the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO describe plant structures specific to a certain species, while remaining species-neutral. PO terms are supplemented with species-specific synonyms that allow users such as plant breeders to maintain their own vocabulary and relate their terms to the PO hierarchy. (A) An example of using PO to annotate species-specific structures such as the potato tuber anatomy. The parts of any subterranean tuber can be described processes essential for various non-vascular plant structures found in mosses with those of the functional and structural homologs found in angiosperms. PO developers worked with researchers from the Rensing lab (http://plantco.de/) and the Physcomitrella model species database (cosmoss; http://www. cosmoss.org/) to incorporate anatomical terms for P. patens into the PO. The cosmoss curators suggested 63 new plant structure terms (Supplementary Table S1), along with suggestions for definitions, references and mappings to the PO. In order to integrate the non-angiosperm terms, an additional 44 terms describing the anatomy of bryophytes, lycophytes (club and spike mosses) and pteridophytes (ferns) were added at the same time, to support these taxonomic clades. Many of the new terms, e.g. seta, peristome and gametophore, are found not only in P. patens but also throughout the mosses and other bryophytes, and some even in vascular plants (e.g. rhizoid, exothecium or archesporial cell). In keeping with the objective that the PO should be species-neutral, some of the term names and definitions suggested by cosmoss were modified slightly to ensure that they would be applicable to any plant in which the corresponding structure is found (Supplementary Table S1).Musa spp. (banana and plantain) and other monocots outside the Poaceae family. Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) are important tropical fruit crops worldwide. In collaboration with the Generation Challenge Program (GCP; http://www. generationcp.org/) and Bioversity International, 31 new terms were created, and synonyms were added to several existing terms, to accommodate the anatomical descriptions of banana and plantain species that are widely used by plant breeders and collection curators (Supplementary Table S2).Similar to the potato tuber terms, many of the structures found in Musa are also present in other taxa, particularly in other non-grass monocots. Some terms were already in the PO, and simply required the addition of Musa-specific synonyms, e.g. 'male bud' as a synonym for inflorescence bud. Examples of some of the terms that were added are free tepal, fused collective tepal structure and cigar leaf.The Plant Ontology is a Resource for Plant BiologistsThe online PO database provides ontology terms and definitions along with the associated 'annotations' (links) as described by Hill et al. (2008), between the PO terms and data sourced from numerous plant genomics data sets (Table 3). PO Release #18 (July 2012) contains about 2.2 million annotations linking PO terms to >110,000 unique data objects representing genes, gene models, proteins, RNAs, germplasm and quantitative trait loci (QTLs). These data are currently contributed by 11 different data sources ( In some cases, annotation files are a result of special projects devoted to the creation of specific data sets; in others, the creation of annotations results through an ongoing collaboration with more or less regular updates to the data sets housed at the PO. An example of the former is the collaborative project between the Rensing lab (http://plantco.de/), the moss model organism database (cosmoss; http://www.cosmoss.org/) and the PO project. In addition to the new and modified PO terms described above for the moss P. patens (see above and Supplementary Table S1), we have added some 26,000 gene expression data points for moss anatomy and development, resulting in approximately 82,000 new annotations. Future efforts will include continuing to enrich PO with bryophyte terms and additional gene expression annotations.Ontology terms and the associated annotation data sets can be accessed through the web browser (Carbon et al. 2009) on the PO home page (http://plantontology.org) (Fig. 4) or from any term page. Users can browse for terms or annotation data directly using the tree view, or can 'Search PO' for specific terms or genes of interest. Fig. 4A presents an example page for the term plant egg cell with the three main panels. The 'Term Information panel' (Fig. 4B) contains information about the term such as the term name, accession (ID), any synonyms, the definition and comment. The 'Term Lineage panel' (Fig. 4C) shows the location of the term in the PO hierarchy, in either tree format or graphical view. The numbers/counts in parentheses next to the term name is a hyperlink to the data annotations page (Fig. 4E) for that term and its direct is_a children. These links will take the researcher to the annotation data source for more information (Fig. 4F). For example, the term plant egg cell and its child terms have 175 annotations to data objects, which in turn are linked out to the source database (TAIR) and to the relevant gene product page in GO, if that information is available (Fig. 4G). At the bottom of the term page in the 'External References' panel (Fig. 4D) is a link to the SourceForge Tracker entry (https://sourceforge.net/ tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3030032&group_id=768 34&atid=835555) related to that specific term. The user can follow that link to view the history of the term and definition and to make comments or suggestions. In future versions of the PO, many of the term pages will also have links to images of the relevant plant parts (including images specific to particular developmental stages).The ontology files for download are accessible in two formats: Open Biomedical Ontologies flat file format (OBOF; http://oboformat.org) and Web Ontology Language (OWL; http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/) format from the links provided on the PO Download webpage (http://plantontology.org/download/download.html). Ontology files and bulk annotation data files are available for download from the SVN repository (http://palea.cgrb.oregonstate.edu:/svn/ Poc). The ontology (but currently not the annotations) is also available via web services as described below.Glossary, translations and subsets. Three additional features have been added to the PO to enhance the ability of users to access the ontology and the associated data. In addition to the ontology browser, another means of accessing terms, synonyms and definitions is by using the glossary feature (http://www.plantontology.org/db/glossary/glossary) on the PO website. Here, the user can browse through plant anatomical entity child terms alphabetically or search for a specific term of interest. In order to increase the utility and acceptance of the PO for plant scientists in other countries and nonnative English-speaking researchers, Spanish and Japanese translations have been added for the term names in the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO and are available on the online ontology browser (Fig. 4) as well as in the downloadable ontology files. Several subsets of PO terms have been created to help make the corresponding terms more easily accessible to specific groups of users (Supplementary Table S3). Subsets provide a way for users to search for terms relevant to a particular topic or taxon, and they also provide a means of quality control. For example, a user trying to choose between two related terms can select the term tagged to the most appropriate taxonomic subset. Subsets can also be used to create pared-down versions of the PO-also known as 'slims'-that contain a subset of ontology terms. Existing subsets in the PO have been complemented with new subsets which include: Plant Functional Traits (general terms needed for plant ecology, added at the request of TraitNet; http://traitnet.ecoinformatics.org/); terms used for banana (Musa); terms used for potato (Solanum tuberosum); and separate subsets for terms used for angiosperms, gymnosperms, pteridophytes and bryophytes. In future releases of the PO, taxonomic subsets may be enhanced with the use of only_in_taxon or never_in_taxon relations [Deegan (nee Clark) et al. 2010] along the lines described in Walls et al. (2012a).PO web services. Developers who wish to use the PO in mobile or desktop applications, such as those for annotation and curation tools, can now access terms, synonyms, definitions and comments using web services. The PO has developed its own web services, to complement other existing services. The PO web services (see link below) were built with Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP; http://www.php.net/), a widely used general-purpose scripting language, model aspects of RESTful software architecture (Fielding 2000), and provide PO data encoded in JSON format (http://www.json.org), a widely used standard for providing data over the internet. There are two types of PO services available at this time: (i) the short and quick 'term search web service' (Fig. 5A) provides term name and synonym search results, given a partial term name or synonym. For example, a search for 'basal' will return multiple terms and/or synonyms with 'basal' in their names, such as axillary hair basal cell and basal flower; and (ii) the web service providing extensive details on multiple pieces of term data, given a PO accession ID (Fig. 5B). A search for 'PO:0000252' will return the term name, aspect, definition, comment and any synonyms for the PO term endodermis. These services could be used, for example, in applications that allow users to provide PO terms as keywords for image annotation, gene and phenotype curation, adding mark-ups on scientific literature and help autofill/autocomplete the database query searches, etc. Future development will include a web service delivering PO annotation data in a similar manner. Full documentation is available on the Plant Ontology website documentation page: (http://www.plantontology.org/docs/otherdocs/web_ services_guide.html).BioPortal web services (Whetzel et al. 2011) also offer PO web services as part of a larger set of methods providing access to ontological data, and generally return data in XML, although JSON format was more recently made available for most of their methods. In addition to serving term data, they provide relationship and hierarchy data connecting terms in the ontologies that they host. The iPlant's Simple Semantic Web Architecture and Protocol (SSWAP; http://sswap.info/) (Gessler et al. 2009, Nelson et al. 2010) offers the PO as a complex set of graph-based query services based on the OWL sublanguage (OWL-DL; http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/) and resource description protocols.The power of the PO is its ability to link anatomical and morphological descriptions to genomics and genetic data sets A search for 'PO:0000252' will return the name, aspect, definition, comment and any synonyms for the PO term endodermis. Full documentation is available on the Plant Ontology website page (http:// www.plantontology.org/docs/otherdocs/web_services_guide.html). and to facilitate data mining and inter-and intraspecific comparative genomics analysis. This can be most effective if ontology terms are integrated in metadata annotations of plant structures (spatial aspects) and growth and developmental stages (temporal aspects) in gene expression or phenotype studies. For example, gene expression analysis annotated to plant anatomical entities across a wide range of taxa can be combined with taxonomic studies to compare the patterns of expression of gene orthologs.PO hierarchy and relationships facilitate comparative genomics analyses of the LFY/ZFL homologs. One advantage of an ontology, compared with a simple glossary, is that by making use of the relationships between the terms (Fig. 6, Table 1), a user (including a computer) may explore up and down the ontology graph to learn more about plant anatomical entities and their constituent parts (through part_of relations) and/or their ontogenic development, (through the develops_from relation). For example, ear floret is part_of ear spikelet and flower develops_from flower primordium (Fig. 6A). Additionally, you can query the graph for annotations by entering at any level, because the annotations flow through certain ontology relationships (Fig. 6B, Table 1). This allows annotations assigned directly to a term to be percolated to the is_a or part_of parent terms, but not through the develops_from relation. For example, the A. thaliana gene AtLFY was annotated to the inflorescence and flower (Fig. 6B) terms based on mutant phenotype and gene expression studies, and its role in the regulation of flower and inflorescence development (Schultz and Haughn 1991, Weigel et al. 1992, Mandel and Yanofsky 1995, Siriwardana and Lamb 2012, Yamaguchi et al. 2012). Because inflorescence and flower are child terms (is_a children) of reproductive shoot system, it can be inferred that AtLFY is expressed in a reproductive shoot system. Thus, the ontology structure can guide the user to find the AtLFY annotation on reproductive shoot system, a less granular term in the ontology, to facilitate comparative genomics analysis with species that have a reproductive shoot system but not flowers (such as gymnosperms).In a search for annotations for the LFY homologs from maize ZmZFL1 and ZmZFL2, identified in the phylogenetic analysis (Bomblies et al. 2003, Bomblies andDoebley 2006) (Fig. 6C), a user could find annotations on the inflorescence and flower terms, even though in this case these annotations were assigned to a specific flower subtype called ear floret. The ZmZFL genes were annotated to more specific unique terms based on their known roles in regulating the process of floral organ identity and pattern formation, and development of inflorescence architecture. They also regulate flowering time by regulating the transition of the vegetative shoot apical meristem to reproductive shoot apical meristem (Bomblies et al. 2003, Bomblies andDoebley 2006).A user, while looking for these LFY/ZFL annotations, may also search for known rice (OsRFL) (Rao et al. 2008) and moss Physcomitrella (PpLFY1 and PpLFY2) (Tanahashi et al. 2005) homologs, based on the gene trees such as those provided by the Gramene database (Fig. 6C). The PO database may or may not contain annotations to OsRFL and the PpLFY genes, but one could hypothesize that OsRFL may be associated with spikelet floret and inflorescence (synonym: panicle in rice), based on the evidence from the homologs. and which we find is true on review of the literature. Though OsRFL functions in a manner partially similar to AtLFY (Chujo et al. 2003) and the ZmZFL genes, it has unique expression patterns and regulates an additional set of interacting genes (Rao et al. 2008). The PpLFY genes cannot be compared in this manner because mosses do not have inflorescences like those found in angiosperms, suggesting that the Physcomitrella genes may play a different role in moss plant development. Indeed, the PpLFY genes are known to control sporophyte development, by regulating the first zygotic cell division (annotations not shown), and PpLFY1 is expressed in the sporophyte (Tanahashi et al. 2005).The combination of characterized genes, e.g. the LFY homologs and their annotations to PO terms in the ontology tree, allows users to address questions such as: 'Are homologs annotated to the same PO terms describing similar gene expression profiles?' If not, can their annotation tell something about the (dis)similarities between the structures found in the species, such as flowers of monocot grass plants vs. the dicot Arabidopsis? Also, similar to the example mentioned above on C 4 photosynthesis, if the gene products were annotated only with the GO, it would have been difficult to question how homologs with the same or similar function (e.g. transcription factor activity; synonym of GO:0000988) regulate the development of taxon-specific plant structures in grasses (rice and maize), Arabidopsis and moss plants. Therefore, by adding the spatial and temporal annotations from PO to the existing GO annotations, it is possible to find answers to such questions.Comparative analysis of the terpene synthase gene family with PO annotations. Often plant genomes contain sets of related genes as members of a gene family. The terpene synthase (TPS) gene family is well studied and characterized (Aubourg et al. 2002, Chen et al. 2011, Tholl and Lee 2011). These families can be identified as arising due to ancient or recent genome duplications and characterized by synteny across phylogenetically distant homologs. Many such homologs may have similar functions, such as enzymatic activities, but have clearly diverged in different lineages (Chen et al. 2011). Tholl and Lee (2011) characterized the genomic organization of the 32 Arabidopsis enzymes of the core biosynthetic pathways producing the 5-carbon building blocks of terpenes. The PO terms and annotation database allows us to ask questions such as: do all the homologs and TPS gene family members have similar plant anatomical entity annotations or do they differ based on TPS subgene family and how do the annotations differ between the same or different species?In order to address these questions, we first resolved a gene family tree of some the known TPS gene family members from five species (A. thaliana, Z. mays, O. sativa, Selaginella moellendorfii and P. patens) (Fig. 7; Supplementary Table S4). The tree includes 33 A. thaliana TPS gene family members (Tholl and Lee 2011), to ensure the gene families are classified according to the known nomenclature. Based on the classification of TPS genes provided for A. thaliana (Tholl and Lee 2011), five major groups (TPS-a, b c, e/f and g) of TPS genes were identified in this set (indicated on the tree, Fig. 7).The TPS-a family had a clear subdivision with the dicot (A. thaliana) in the TPS-a1 subgroup and the monocots (Z. mays and O. sativa) in the TPS-a2 subgroup (Fig. 7). The moss, P. patens, was limited to the TPS-e/f subgroup, along with three S. moellendorfii genes, while the majority of the S. moellendorfii genes are in the TPS-h group (not shown in Fig. 7). TPS-g had representation from A. thaliana, Z. mays and O. sativa. These results agree with the groupings of the TPS gene family found by Tholl and Lee (2011). The tree was then probed by overlaying the plant anatomical entity annotations hosted currently in the PO database (Fig. 7). The PO database currently includes a large number of annotations to the members of the Z. mays and Arabidopsis TPS families, but lacks extensive data linking TPS homologs in O. sativa and S. moellendorfii.Based on the current set of annotations, we found that A. thaliana TPS genes for each of the subgroups indicate a widespread divergence of tissue-and cell type-specific expression profiles, while the Z. mays genes in the subgroups TPS-c and a2 indicate consistency in expression among the paralogs. The A. thaliana TPS-g gene AT1G61680 is preferentially annotated to reproductive plant structures compared with the TPS-g homologs from Z. mays that are preferentially expressed in vegetative structures. Also evident from this analysis was that the Z. mays TPS-a2 genes are expressed in the vegetative structures leaves and primary root and in the reproductive structures floret and anther, while the A. thaliana TPS-a1 family is more commonly expressed in the parts of the flower and inflorescence. From these results, guided by the placement of TPS homologs in the gene family tree, one can hypothesize about gene expression in other closely related plant species, such as O. sativa and other monocots, and S. moellendorfii. For example, a user might expect to find the expression of the S. moellendorfii TPS genes in the non-vascular leaves. A recent study by Li and co-workers (2012) characterized the TPS genes in the above-ground portions of plants after treatment with a fungal elicitor, but, to our knowledge, no one has yet examined the tissue-specific expression of TPS genes in Selaginella.The Physcomitrella TPS homolog Pp1s130_5V6.1 is annotated in the PO database to four plant structures: gametophore, protenema, plant protoplast and plant spore (Fig. 7). This gene was characterized as encoding an ent-kaurene synthase, PpCPS/ KS (Hayashi et al. 2010). The gametophore is a shoot that bears non-vascular leaves (phyllids) and ultimately the megagametophyte and microgametophyte. Thus, by using the PO annotations, users can compare not only across taxa, but also across plant life cycles.The PO is widely adopted among plant genomics databases and websites (Table 4). There are too many to describe them all in detail, but we present a few representative examples here.The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR). As a founding member of the Plant Ontology Consortium, TAIR (http:// Arabidopsis.org/) has contributed to the development and use of the PO from its inception (Berardini et al. 2004, Jaiswal et al. 2005). TAIR's current participation in the PO consortium is through the large-scale contribution of PO annotations and new term requests. PO terms are used within TAIR to annotate Arabidopsis gene expression patterns reported in published research articles, along with the evidence supporting the annotations. A notable example of such a large-scale submission is the gene expression data from the multinational Arabidopsis expression atlas project (AtGenExpress) (Schmid et al. 2005) Fig. 7 Expression profiles of TPS orthologs based on annotations to plant structures in the PO. Using Arabidopsis TPS gene sequences, we identified the TPS homologs in four other species (Zea mays, Oryza sativa, Physcomitrella patens and Selaginella moellendorfii) and resolved their expression on a TPS gene family tree. Bioinformatics analysis of the expression of TPS genes was performed by aligning the genes annotated in the PO database to plant anatomical entity terms. Groups of the TPS gene family members are indicated on the gene family tree. Some branches were collapsed to avoid empty blocks due to unavailability of annotations for those genes. Branch lengths are shown on the gene tree. The iTOL (http://itol.embl.de/index.shtml) online tool was used to make this figure (Letunic andBork 2007, Letunic andBork 2011).each PO release (roughly quarterly). Although the current TAIR annotation files may be accessed through the PO SVN repository site, they are not displayed on the PO browser until the next release.The Sol Genomics Network (SGN). The SGN (http://solgenomics.net) database hosts genomic, phenotypic and taxonomic information on Solanaceae and related species, mostly from the asterid clade. As a clade-oriented database, SGN's main focus is to exploit the high level of genome conservation in the Solanaceae family for comparative querying of phenotype and genotype data. For this purpose, PO is extensively used for annotating functional genes, gene models and phenotyped germplasm, such as mutants and mapping populations. SGN also utilizes PO for scoring plant traits, thereby assisting quantitative and qualitative phenotyping in breeding programs. The two predominant species in SGN are Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) and S. tuberosum (potato), both having high-quality sequenced genomes (Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium 2011, Tomato Genome Consortium 2012). These species are important food crops and serve as models for studying developmental processes such as fruit ripening and tuberization. By including the required vocabulary for describing the plant anatomical entities and plant structure development stages in tomato and potato, the PO provides the resources to represent their counterparts in other Solanaceae species, such as Solanum melongena (eggplant), Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) and Capsicum annuum (pepper). Overall, SGN has contributed more than 20,000 manually curated gene and phenotype annotations for 14 Solanaceae species, and plans to develop PO annotations for expression data for each published Solanaceae transcriptome in the near future.The Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB). The PO grew out of its third founding member MaizeGDB's (http:// www.maizegdb.org/) contribution to maize-specific controlled vocabulary (Vincent et al. 2003). Currently, the maize data hosted in the PO database include genes, genetic stocks and gene models. Associations with 7,067 stocks and 11,436 alleles, representing 1,157 genes, are inferred from more than 800 phenotypes that are annotated with plant anatomical entity and/or plant structure development stage terms. The phenotype curation efforts have been mostly supplied by the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center (Neuffer et al. 1997, Sachs 2009), with annotations to PO terms under the purview of MaizeGDB staff. A recent collaborative project involved associating PO terms to gene models from a comprehensive atlas of global transcription profiles across 60 combinations of plant structures and developmental stages of the maize inbred line B73 (Sekhon et al. 2011). In this project, each tissue sampled was annotated with both PO terms and the corresponding MaizeGDB-specific synonym. For example, the MaizeGDB record labeled 'tassel meiotic V18 B73' (http://www.maizegdb. org/cgi-bin/termrefs.cgi?id=2366346) is annotated in the PO to the plant anatomical entity term tassel inflorescence, as well as the plant structure development stage terms D pollen mother cell meiosis stage and LP.18 eighteen leaves visible. To make the gene expression data more interactive with genome data about other plants, MaizeGDB provides enhanced access to the PO. A stable reference page is provided for each expression experiment, which lists the PO terms and plant sample images. The PO database hosts about 1.5 million MaizeGDB annotations to 35,323 gene models. A new tool for phenotype query that leverages the PO is being developed at MaizeGDB. It will be similar to the tools described by Green et al. (2011) and Harnsomburana et al. (2011), which use parent and child terms, along with synonyms, to search both annotations and full text descriptions for any ontology supplied. Currently, you can search the prototype, VPhenoDBS:Maize (http://www. phenomicsworld.org) for associations to the GO, PO, and TO, returning both text data and any images associated with a phenotype.Oryzabase Database. Oryzabase (http://www.shigen.nig.ac. jp/rice/oryzabaseV4) is an integrated database of rice science in Japan (Yamazaki et al. 2010) that has been continuously providing information such as traits, genes, mutants, wild rice collections and organ-specific developmental stages for more than 15 years. Most contents are available in both English and Japanese. The phenotype information of genes, mutants and wild rice as well as anatomical terms and developmental stages are annotated using the PO (Yamazaki and Jaiswal 2005). While the features of DNA sequences and enzyme names/reactions are mostly described in a common language of English, the phenotypes and anatomical names in Japanese have been used historically. Even though today all scientists publish their articles in English, it is still difficult for non-native English speakers to describe the exact meaning of each term of the PO in English. To overcome these difficulties and enable Japanese scientists to contribute more to the development of the PO, a newly introduced 'Japanese version of the PO browser' is available at www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/plantontology/ja/ go.cgi and provides term names and keyword search of plant anatomical entities in both English and Japanese, allowing Japanese users to grasp the hierarchy of the PO intuitively.Gramene database. The Gramene database (http://www. gramene.org) is a curated online resource for plant comparative plant genomics and genetics analysis (Liang et al. 2008, Jaiswal, 2011, Youens-Clark et al. 2011). As a founding member of the PO, Gramene has integrated PO in their spatial and temporal aspects of annotation of plant gene products and QTL phenotypes to describe the spatial and temporal associations. Gramene contributes by sharing their PO annotations for about 1,700 rice genes and about 8,500 QTLs in addition to requesting new terms required for annotating cereal crop genomes. The Gramene project team, in collaboration with Plant Ensembl (http://plants.ensembl.org), mirrors PO annotation in gene pages of Plant Ensembl. In a new collaboration with the European Bioinformatics Institute's ATLAS and Array projects, the PO will be integrated into annotations of the source plant samples used in developing the microarray and RNA-seq transcriptome data sets submitted to these database archives for analysis. The Gramene project is also the primary developer of the TO for plants (Jaiswal et al. 2002, Yamazaki andJaiswal 2005). The curators at Gramene and the PO are working on aligning the TO and PO as described earlier.VirtualPlant. VirtualPlant (http://virtualplant.org) is a software platform designed to allow scientists to mine lists of genes, microarray experiments and gene networks from A. thaliana and to visualize, integrate and analyze genomic data from a systems biology perspective (Katari et al. 2010). The project's data browser provides access to the annotations and functional categories in the VirtualPlant database, including all of the A. thaliana annotations associated with PO terms.The Plant Expression Database. The Plant Expression Database (PLEXdb; http://www.plexdb.org/) is a gene expression resource for plants and plant pathogens that leverages highly parallel expression data with portals to related genetic, physical and pathway data (Wise et al. 2008). PLEXdb provides access to whole-genome transcriptome expression data sets contributed by authors for barley, maize, rice, sugarcane, wheat, Arabidopsis, citrus, cotton, grape, Medicago, poplar, soybean and tomato. The PO is used by the resource for consistent annotation of the plant samples used as RNA library source in the experiments.The standard names and definitions used in the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO constitute a controlled vocabulary that is designed to foster consistency in annotation and querying of genomics data sets such as gene expression profiles and phenotypes pertaining to plant anatomy. The consistent use of PO terms in annotations and publications will allow plant biologists and breeders to make meaningful crossdatabase and cross-species queries, in order to discover patterns of similarity and dissimilarity. This, in turn, will facilitate determination of the functions of genes and their genetic interactions associated with plant development processes, and thus their contribution to the agronomic and commercially significant traits, such as improved disease resistance and yield. Textual definitions provided for each term in the ontology serve to assist researchers in understanding the precise meaning of the term in question, while the logical definitions based on ontology relationships allow for different types of computer processing of the associated data (e.g. for purposes of cross-species integration or for data quality assurance).Future versions of the ontology will probably include additional high-level terms that will allow some unique structures to be better classified and circumscribed. For example, plant structure includes three direct child terms (plant ovary, trichome and rhizoid) that cannot be categorized as child terms of any other plant structures in the current version of the PO, because they consist of more than one type of plant structure. We will be looking at closer integration of PO and GO by cross-referencing each with the other to suggest which plant-specific GO biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components are associated with respective plant anatomical entity terms from PO. One example is the C4 photosynthesis mentioned previously, and which is specific to mesophyll cell and cells of the bundle sheath. Future enhancements to the database would include an integrated tool to query gene homologs and their annotations, links from plant structure term pages to the images in image archives annotated with the PO terms and enrichment of annotations by adding gene and gene product annotations for existing and new species.In summary, these examples demonstrate how the PO can serve as a reference ontology for all plants. The structure of plant anatomical entity and its child terms in the ontology will continue to be developed to describe and annotate plants from all taxa. This will set the stage for widening the scope of the genomic data annotated using terms from the PO and other ontologies.Analysis of terpene synthase gene families using annotations to plant anatomical entity terms Sequences in FASTA format of the 33 A. thaliana TPS gene family members (Tholl and Lee 2011) and the TPS homologs in four other species (Z. mays, O. sativa, P. patens and S. moellendorfii) were obtained from Gramene (http://www.gramene. org) and Phytozome (www.phytozome.org). The homologs retrieved from the two sources were further refined, by querying the homolog gene clusters generated in a large-scale analysis (done previously) by using a modified version of the InParanoid (O ¨stlund et al. 2010) program (Shulaev et al. 2011). For this analysis, the primary homolog hits (score 1.0) were listed, plus any additional matches with a homology score 0.25, restricting the results to the canonical form of the gene model (longest transcript/peptide). The homolog list was compiled (see Supplementary Table S4) along with their protein sequences in FASTA format. In a further analysis, the TPS homolog sequences were analyzed using ClustalW (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/) and MUSCLE (Edgar 2004) at http://www.phylogeny.fr/ to create the best alignments. Branch lengths are shown on the gene tree and the tree is rooted between the higher plants A. thaliana, Z. mays and O. sativa, and the lower plants P. patens and S. moellendorfii. These alignments were then used to generate the TPS gene family tree by using the PhyML 3.0 tool (http://www.phylogeny.fr/). A series of MySQL searches were performed on the PO database using the TPS orthologs from Arabidopsis, maize and moss. The list of PO annotations for TPS orthologs from Arabidopsis, maize and moss was overlaid on the gene family at the Interactive","tokenCount":"11462"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ea3a16e641e00374a629f5e83067210","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/62dd82a1-e157-4a9c-a964-ed0867267669/retrieve","id":"-1721281512"},"keywords":["hydroxide","Copper sulphate","Copper Chloride","Fluoxynam","Iprovalicarb","Мancozeb","Famoxadone","Mephenoxam","Cymoxanil","Fluocinam","Fenamidone","Dimetomorph","Metalaxyl","Mandipropamide","Methiram","Fluazinam","etc"],"sieverID":"031c8c45-5b0b-4020-b857-84a3cea065e0","pagecount":"38","content":"Caucasus, located at the intersections of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north, Turkey, Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the south-east. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometers, and population is about 3.718 million. Climat of Georgia There are almost all types of subtropical climate belt in Georgia. Their influence creates especial environment for development of agricultural crops. However at the same time, the local natural-climatic conditions are also favorable for reproduction and development of plant pests, including potato diseases.Potato is an important crop in Georgia, with approximately 20 000 ha under production, and annual per capita consumption of 55 kg. Nearly all potato is consumed fresh, and Georgians consider the crop at their \"second bread\". In Georgia, potatoes are subject to several serious diseases that are caused by various types of fungi, bacteria, viruses and phytoplasmas. Among other diseases of potato, Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans) is the most common and harmful disease. It is widespread both in lowlying and high-mountainous regions, both on early and late potatoes, and is characterized by great harmfulness.Late Blight (Phytophtora infestans)Major fungal diseases of potato in GeorgiaIn Georgia, control over Late Blight is carried out by the same methods that are accepted around the world, although it has certain features. A more effective way to combat Late Blight potatoes is through chemical fight. In Georgia, mainly fungicides are used against Late Blight, which contain the following active ingredients: Copper• Late Blight are generally more severe when potatoes are produced in monoculture, when old infected seed pieces are used for planting, and when effective diseases management programs are not developed and implemented;• Deficiency of healthy seed materials;• Faulty agrotechnics;• Poor phytosanitary conditions and risks of spreading of a large number of harmful organisms;• Lack of knowledge of LateBlight symptoms and innovative methods to control;The current situation Despite potato's importance in the diet and culture, yields remain low: at roughly 12 t / ha. One of the reasons for the low harvest is Late Blight potatoes. In general, the following factors contribute to the spread of Late Blight:• Use highly reproductive certified seed materials;• Select disease and pest resistant cultivars;• Use crop rotation and implement agrotechnological processes on time;• Spatial isolation -at least 1 km between crops of infected cultures.• Use high quality fungicides, insecticides and herbicides timely and follow the appropriate regulations;• Avoid overfeeding plants with fertilizers.• Аvoid thickened landings, stagnation of air and lack of light.• Growing potatoes in the bedsThe main ways to rectify the situationIn organic farming, especially in mountainous areas where beekeepers produce honey, mainly apply the processing of potato seeds and leaf dressing with liquid bio-organic fertilizers in order to enhance immunity. For example, organic-bacterial fertilizer \"Organika\", based on plant residues; \"Bactofert\" -organic-bacterial and mineral fertilizer with microelements based on zeolite.Biological fungicides are also used, such as \"Agrocatena\" (Bacillus subtilis BA) -Georgia, \"Phytocatena\" (Pseudomonas Fluorescens BA) -Georgia, \"Timorex gold\" (Etheric Oil of Melaleuca Alternifolia) -USA, \"Agat-25K \" (Pseudomonas aureofaciens H16 100g/ha) Russia, \"Ovnier\" (Ampelomyces quisqualis) Turkey, etc.Much attention is given to the use of potato varieties resistant to Late Blight. Georgia has been collaborating with the International Potato Center (CIP) for many years. Tested many CIP clones. Comparative resistance to Late Blight and other diseases, as well as high productivity and quality, were shown by the clone CIP \"Unika\", which was registered under the name \"Meskhuri Red\".It should be noted that in recent years, the main vector of viral infections -Aphids is already found at 1200 -1300 meters above sea level. This can be explained by global warming. In Georgia, several strains of Ralstonia Solanacearum were isolated -N62, J5A, N19, 2A. The activity of bacteriophages against them F455c, F6c, F5, F4c was established.","tokenCount":"626"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b878214c33074a7804539786c16c1f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/46c0b9d3-b874-4de4-8112-5f4033d90503/retrieve","id":"-2116510098"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4611af56-9259-458b-b698-e80a652dde05","pagecount":"6","content":"While there is extensive literature on seed systems and how they should be organized to ensure seed security for smallholder farmers, a body of research unpacking gender dynamics within these systems has just begun to emerge. This includes a portfolio of projects initiated and funded by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research, which was hosted within Gender Research and Coordination from 2017 2019 (Box 1). This brief summarizes this early work and provides an outlook for future research to mainstream gender analysis in seed systems development.NOVEMBER 2020To enhance the reach and effectiveness of formal breeding programs, formal seed systems must generate quality seeds that respond to the different needs and preferences of both women and men, across socioeconomic categories.Informal seed systems can reach smallholders, particularly women, where formal systems do not. Integration of formal and informal seed systems could generate synergies to improve availability and accessibility of quality seeds for both women and men.Beyond improved equity in access to seeds, equally important is to evaluate what programs, policies, and business models can improve the use and control of quality seeds, and the benefits arising from their use, in a cost effective, inclusive, and equitable way.It is time for a new paradigm in which we ask how seed systems development can be transformative and provide business opportunities for both women and men, not just how gender responsiveness makes seed systems more effective.Future research should seek to improve our understanding of gender dynamics and gendered opportunities and constraints in seed systems across different commodities, including crops, trees, fish, and livestock.Berber Kramer and Alessandra Galiè * refer to propagation material including crop varieties and seeds (botanical seeds, as well as other planting materials for crops, such as tubers and cuttings), livestock breeds and animal seed stock (young animals of any livestock and fish seed or fingerlings that can be brought into a farm, including quality semen).Existing evidence on how gender dynamics and norms interact with seed systems reveals four conditions essential to achieving seed security for women and men farmers:1. Seeds need to be of high quality and respond to the needs and preferences of both women and men from different demographic and socioeconomic categories. 2. Quality seeds must be physically available for all smallholder women and men farmers in the right place, at the right time. 3. Quality seeds must be accessible, meaning that farmers can obtain reliable information about seeds, can afford them, and can physically obtain them, regardless of gender. 4. Both women and men can use and control quality seeds and the benefits arising from their use.Quality needs to be evaluated not only in terms of physical traits such as germination rates, but also in terms of whether the seeds meet the needs and preferences of women and men farmers. Although major breeding efforts by agricultural research centers, including those in the CGIAR network, have made great strides toward improving seed quality, they have not always done so in a gender-responsive way.Formal breeding programs have traditionally focused on high-value crops and species with significant productivity and commercialization potential, and when engaging with smallholder producers, they have often interacted only with men, consequently overlooking traits preferred by women farmers or livestock keepers. Varieties and breeds with low market value but that are nonetheless important for nutrition (for example, chickens, which are often unn left out. Some new varieties may even have had traits that could disempower women, for instance by increasing their labor burden or requiring complementary inputs to which women had less access than men (Bergman Lodin et al. 2012, Teklewold et al. 2013).Gender-responsive participatory plant breeding (PPB) addresses some of these shortcomings by bringing women and men farmers and scientists together to assess and improve varieties under local farm conditions, including selecting locally preferred traits (Vernooy 2020). Varieties created through PPB can then be multiplied locally and, where govern-The CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research ( 2017 ment regulations allow, be submitted for formal registration and release. A gender-responsive approach can help change the gender norms that channel benefits to men farmers only, and ensure that women and men benefit equally from the co-developed varieties (Galie et al. 2017).Availability of quality seed: In the right place, at the right time, for both women and menFarmers need quality seeds in their rural, often very remote areas at the right time before planting in the case of crops. This timely availability is often a key challenge, particularly for women whose mobility is restricted by gender norms. Where formal seed distribution channels may not reach the most marginal rural areas, informal systems making seeds available through family and kinship networks and local markets can play an important role. Yet informal systems used more often by women may also fail to provide enough quality seed at the time of planting.Local institutions such as seed banks, cooperatives, and small seed enterprises can bridge this gap by decentralizing seed multiplication. These institutions not only improve seed supply for their communities, but also generate local employment and income, creating opportunities for development of gender-responsive seed systems. Involving women in seed production and management gives access to varieties that better meet their needs, generates extra int (Mudege et al. 2020).Unfortunately, systemic gender inequities and community bias prevent women from reaping full benefits of such initiatives (Nyantakyi-Frimpong et al. 2019). Women tend to have limited access to finance and seed processing machinery, are often unable to attract and retain skilled labor, and may suffer from delayed payments for their services. A societal bias against women in business may be further aggravated by the lack of husb he heavy burden of domestic work and other care responsibilities.Access to seed is the ability to acquire seed, as well as to receive reliable information about how and where to obtain it. Access is influenced by seed affordability and delivery mechanisms, intrahousehold For instance, women may have less access than men to the formal-sector seed sold in a local shop if they lack transport to get there and carry the seeds, cash or bargaining power to buy their preferred seeds, or knowledge about the availability of the seed, as women are not always targeted (effectively) by formal sector institutions, such as extension services or mass media.Farmer-managed systems reach women more easily, as they circumvent barriers that women face when buying seed in the formal sector (Galiè et al. 2017). They allow women to use other means to obtain seeds, for instance through seed or labor exchange, gifts, and credit (McGuire and Sperling 2016), and at more affordable prices (Mudege and Torres 2017). At the same time, informal information channels, rooted in local social networks, are often biased against women (especially young women), and this may interact with intrahousehold dynamics. For example, in Malawi, women would obtain potato seed from trusted farmers within their communities, in part to avoid husbands blaming them for crop failures due to poor-quality seed (Mudege et al. 2016).Innovations are emerging to improve women s access to seed, including public subsidies and seed voucher programs prioritizing women (Mudege et al. 2018) although these are criticized for creating artificial markets and increasing aid dependency. Private seed companies are employing new marketing efforts, including demonstration plots by women in locations accessible to women, videos featuring not only men but also women as their clients, and smaller packaging, which may better meet the needs of women, who often require less seed. However, the cost effectiveness and sustainability of these methods remains to be seen. So far, such marketing efforts have focused mainly on commercial crops and varieties for which profits are assured, not on openor self-pollinated crops, for which farmers are less likely to buy new seeds.decide what seeds to source, when, and how to use them, and then how to use the associated benefits and income. Legal regimes may regulate who can sell or replant seed. Global regulations around patents and property rights may disenfranchise women from claiming rights over seed unless they explicitly protect the rights of women farmers to access and ic material (Galiè 2013).Women play a central role in farmer-managed (infortion and use of seed are important, given their roles as household managers and custodians of seed (Khan et al. 2016). But there is little systematic evidence on gendered decision-making regarding seed use within households. Decision-making varies across crops and varieties, often in relation to market orientation. Women in Tanzania and Ethiopia, for instance, have control over seed use for food crops but not for cash crops (Amri 2010). When women do not control the income from crop sales, this may affect their ability to purchase seed (Mudege et al. 2018). Further, when different household members control the seed and the benefits from that seed, this misalignment can lead to inefficient decision-making.For women to be fully engaged in and benefit from the modern formal and informal seed systems, many structural barriers and harmful gender norms must be overcome. Building on Puskur et al. (2020), we propose a forward-looking research-for-development agenda to inform the design and implementation of gender-responsive seed systems and seed policy.Understanding the local social and gender context is critical in designing seed systems that allow equitable access to seeds and that empower women as users, producers, or traders of seed. Seed system design should be based on a systematic analysis of gender roles and dynamics and the social norms and power relations at play that determine availability, access, and use or benefits from quality seeds. This includes considering not only institutional dimensions of gender relations, such as the extent to which tion, and use is recognized and valued, but also gender norms regarding expected and appropriate roles, behavior, voice, and mobility of women. The analysis should also consider volvement in seed management translates into The answer to these questions is likely determined by community norms and practices, customary laws, and formal policies and laws.Of note is that CGIAR recently started to include livestock (beyond forage) and fish as part of seed systems. A new research agenda on gender dynamics and livestock seed needs to reframe the existing body of work on livestock-related gender issues in light of the seed systems discourse.Most previous research has focused on diagnosing where the gender gaps are in seed systems; less effort has been made to understand how to sustainably reduce these gaps. Seed policies developed without ity to access seed, and gender-responsive programming could generate positive results, but these outcomes need to be documented.A promising gender-responsive innovation is integrated seed sector development (Louwaars et al. 2013). The Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Africa program aims to build stronger linkages between formal and farmer-managed systems to generate synergies between the two. The formal sector could for instance tap into informal social networks for diffusion of certified quality seeds, and To enhance understanding of how this integrated approach benefits women and men, the ISSD Africa program has prioritized these questions in its theme on Gender and Seed Systems.We also need to know more about other innovations in agricultural value chains, not all directly related to seed systems development, that could help overcome gender-specific barriers in accessing quality seeds. Promising areas include initiatives that help advance financial inclusion and improve access to financial instruments (savings, credit, insurance); those that bundle seeds with other agricultural inputs; social and behavioral change communication to influence constraining gender norms; and those that strengthen value chains, linking farmers with markets that provide better prices for their produce. Whether these innovations are indeed gender-responsive when promoting seed security remains to be tested (Brearley and Kramer 2020).Research on how to strengthen seed systems must focus on which innovations not only reach but also benefit and empower women and men equally (Johnson et al. 2018). To support such analysis, data collected on seed system development need to be sex-disaggregated, focusing not only on a gender comparison based on the sex of heads of household, but also on the majority of men and women who live in households headed by men.Opportunities exist for collecting gender-disaggregated data at scale. The Access to Seeds Index, a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) benchmark published by the World Benchmarking Alliance, evaluates and compares private seed companies according to their efforts to improve access to quality seeds for smallholder farmers. However, the index does not provide gender-disaggregated data, nor does it include some crops that may be important for women, such as vegetatively propagated crops or varieties important for nutrition and livestock. If such data were added, the index could help inform national governments and development actors in designing gender-responsive seed policies.It is important to ask what seed systems can do for women, not just what women can do for seed systems. How should the formal seed sector reinvent itself to be more relevant to women seed users inpreferences and needs; designing effective information delivery channels; and enhancing the capacity of women to use the seed and benefit from it? How can seeds be made more affordable to smallholders, especially women farmers? What innovations and incentives can best support women seed entrepreneurs and producers, including gender-responsive financial products, capacity development, and policies?There are other opportunities to integrate gender into global seed system development frameworks and initiatives. However, the gender transformational potential of seed systems remains under-researched. ","tokenCount":"2200"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8991f2c90dd676c963a3acb0b3623e73","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/781ccfae-00c7-4cc8-a135-da79d74a843d/content","id":"670744389"},"keywords":["Chilo partellus","quality insects","insect rearing","maize genotypes"],"sieverID":"3af63ffb-5405-4ce4-bcee-0cea6578dc0f","pagecount":"5","content":"The quality of laboratory reared stem borer species for screening of maize varieties is usually questioned by end user cereal breeders. A quality check study was performed in a screen house at KARI-Katumani to evaluate the quality of eight-year old laboratory reared stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe). The evaluation was aimed at finding out the performance of the laboratory borers subjected to six-month interval of gene infusion in comparison with wild F1 generation of the same species collected from the field. One hundred (100) maize seedlings were grown on plastic pots of 5 by 5 cm and of 12 cm-height. The maize seedlings were infested with five first instar larvae on eight plants replicated four times for each borer ecotype. The wild ecotypes were collected from two different localities for comparison with eight-year old laboratory reared borers. Foliar damage, tunnel length on the maize stems and the recovered number of C. partellus larvae from the maize plants were used as the parameters for quality measure of the borer ecotypes. The laboratory-reared stem borer species had been subjected to frequent six-month gene-infusion interval from the wild. The results indicated feedvoracity drop of 3.8 and 21.5% for stem and foliar damage on the laboratory borer ecotype. The study established the need for continuous gene infusion to maintain high quality maize stem borer species as test organisms.The spotted stem borer Chilo partellus Swinhoe (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and the African stem borer Busseola fusca Fuller (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are the most important lepidopteran stem borer species causing substantial annual loss of maize (Zea mays L.) production estimated at 13.5%, and worth US $91 millions in Kenya (DeGroote, 2002). Hassan (1998) had given an estimate of 0.4 million tons of potential yield in the country. Grain maize is one of the most important food staples in sub-Saharan Africa, providing food and income to well over 300 million resource-poor smallholders (FAO, 2008). Its cultivation spans the entire continent and it is the dominant cereal food crop in many countries, accounting for 56% of total harvested area of annual food crops and 30 to 70% of total caloric consumption (FAO, 2008;World Bank, 2011). Among pests, stem borers play a considerable role in reducing maize yield in Africa through damaging the leaves, stem, ears and kernels. Various control mechanisms have been evaluated including chemical, cultural, host plant resistance, and classi-cal biological control in different parts of Africa (Akinsola, 1990;Reddy, 1998;Kfir, 2002;Tefera et al., 2011). With the introduction of the parasitoid Cotesia flavipes Cameron (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) into Africa, notable achievements were reported in suppressing C. partellus and B. fusca (Kfir, 2002). Various insecticides have been recommended in order to protect plants against the stem borers. However, in addition to posing health problems, insecticides are frequently unavailable or too expensive for subsistence farmers in Africa (Mugo et al., 2008). Therefore, an environmentally safe and economically feasible stem borer control practice needs to be available.Host plant resistance is the most promising method to control stem borers, as it is environmentally benign, practically applicable and easy to adopt and to use by resource poor farmers in Africa (Mugo et al., 2008). Host plant resistance can be attained by using conventional breeding, marker assisted selection or by transformation (Reddy, 1998;Mugo et al., 2008;Tefera et al., 2010Tefera et al., , 2011)). In an effort to design effective and efficient methods to control the maize pests, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), developed and deployed resistant, high yielding, and adapted maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties through conventional breeding. In collaboration with CIMMYT-Kenya, KARI has released 12 stem borer resistant open pollinated maize varieties and hybrids between 2006 and 2011 (CIMMYT, unpublished data). The resistant varieties show low stem borer damage, whereas, insect-cide use is justifiable to susceptible lines when borer density reaches the economic injury level of over 10% (Kfir, 2002). Unlike other pest infestations, stem borer damage on maize might look small on the foliage part of the plant but the major injury is usually on the stem as reported by Hassan (1998). The CIMMYT and KARI collaboration on maize breeding for resistance relies on mass supply of stem borers with acceptable quality from KARI-Katumani Insectary, for field testing of improved maize lines and hybrids. At the KARI-Katumani insectary, stem borer larvae and pupae are periodically collected from infested field maize stubbles and stalks (Tefera et al., 2010).Observations at the KARI-Katumani laboratory indicated that the C. partellus species undergo about 11 to 12 generations in a year. The field collected insects are reared in isolation to F1 generation to avoid any contamination. Parasitized, diseased and deformed insects are discarded. The second generation is allowed to crossbreed with the laboratory colony to avoid genetic decay (Tefera et al., 2011). Despite periodic gene infusion done by mating the laboratory colony and the wild population, it has been observed that there is irregular infestation to maize plants when infested with laboratory reared neonates of C. partellus under field conditions. The objective of this study, therefore, was to assess the efficiency of C. partellus borers' subjected to continuous laboratory rearing in comparison to field collected populations.An eight-year old laboratory-culture of C. partellus with six-month periodic gene infusion was compared with field collected populations of the same species from two different agro-ecological zones, Low/Medium 4 (LM4) at Kima and Upper Medium 3 (UM3) at Masii of the lower eastern Kenya. The two sites at Kima and Masii are different in altitude and thus the stem borer ecotypes were presumed to be different on voracity feeding on maize stems. C. partellus larvae were collected from 10 fields in each locality. Stem borer ecotypes at Kima were collected from farms of geographic areas of 01° 56.614 S, 037° 18.118 E and 01° 50.5 545 S, 037° 19.780 E sites in July 2011. Mean locality altitude was 1327 m above sea level. The farms within Masii locality were in 01° 28.992 S, 037° 23.394 E and 01° 32.183 S, 037° 17.368 E, with mean altitude of 1433 m above sea level. The mean altitude difference between the Masii and Kima sites was about 100 m.The collected larvae were reared on artificial diet after removal from the plant stems for one month (August/November, 2011) before using them on potted maize plants to evaluate their quality. One hundred (100) seedlings of maize variety, Katumani Composite B (KCB) were grown on plastic pots of (5 cm-lenght × 5 cm-width × 12 cm-height) on well watered loam soil in September 2011. The plants were placed in a screen house (3 × 5 m), where day time temperatures ranging between 18 to 34°C and relative humidity between 36 to 78% (day and night). The plants were arranged in three groups, each group consisting of 24 plants. The plants were infested separately with three stem borer ecotypes (laboratory, Masii and Kima) with five first instar larvae per plant three weeks after emergence (late September and another lot November, 2011). The treatments were arranged in completely randomized design with four replicates. The plants were monitored daily and watering was done when required.Two months after infestation, foliar damage, tunnel length, number of surviving larvae and plant height were recorded after splitting the stems using a knife. Foliar damage was scored using a 1 to 9 scale (where 1 = least, 9 = highest) (Tefera et al., 2011). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for plant height and tunneling lengths was performed using one-way (ANOVA) for each parameter across the three borer ecotypes. Non-parametric analysis of variance (Kruskal-Wallis) was used to determine foliar damage and number of borers. Plant percentage damage of leaf (out of total) and tunnel length (of total stem length) was calculated for borer ecotypes. T-test on significance difference of damage of pooled wild (Masii and Kima) and laboratory borers were explored to comparably measure the difference between the two ecotypes. GenStat Discovery 3 edition software was used for the significance difference test and Ms Excel for graphing of the percentage damage of leaf and stem.The foliar damage was significantly different (P<0.05) among the C. partellus ecotypes as well as number of    live borers recovered on maize samples was significantly different (P<0.001) (Table 1).Maize plants infested with the different ecotypes of C. partellus had fairly similar heights (Table 2). The tunnel length was significantly different (P<0.001) among the three different site sources. The Kima ecotype caused the highest stem damage followed by Masii and the laboratory borers 45.03, 18.05 and 9.93 cm, respectively as shown in Table 2.There was higher number of Masii and Kima borer ecotypes (3.1 and 4.0) leading to subsequent higher tunnel lengths of 45.0 and 18.1 cm, respectively (Table 3). The laboratory culture borers (1.9/tem) had the least tunnel length of 9.9 cm/plant stem. This indicates that higher borer numbers led to increased tunnel length.The foliar damage index was a mean of 2.5 for the labo-ratory and 4.5, indicating 28.5 and 50% plant damage for the laboratory and wild borers, respectively (Figure 1). The stem damage percentage was 19.5% for the eightyear old Katumani laboratory borers compared to the 23.3% of the wild collected borers as shown in Figure 1. This was a mean short fall of 3.8% for the tunnel length and 21.5% level for the foliar damage, of laboratory borers as compared to voracity of wild borers. A t-test analysis of foliar and stem damage (tunneling) indicated a significant difference (<0.001) between the two C. partellus borer samples tested on KCB maize (Table 4). This was demonstrated by 8.62 of foliar damage and 12 value of t-statistic (df = 7) of stem damage between the laboratory-reared and field (wild) collected C. partellus borers.Some workers on mass rearing of cereal stem borers have reported on the need to observe quality insect products by regular gene infusion of the laboratory cultured insects with the wild ecotypes which have diversified gene pool (Owens, 1984;Onyango and Ochieng-Odero, 1994). From the study, the Masii C. partellus ecotypes had twice stem damage (tunneling) in comparison to the laboratory reared borers. Both foliar and stem damage levels of wild ecotypes were higher indicating  a slow deteriorating quality of the laboratory reared C. partellus. The wild borer numbers on test maize stems was higher than the eight-year laboratory reared ones.The study results show that the quality of the laboratory C. partellus borers had lower voracity of feeding on the maize plants. Though, minimal difference on stem damage from the wild borer ecotypes; it nevertheless demonstrated that in time laboratory, reared borers on artificial diet need frequent gene infusion to maintain their efficient quality as test organisms (Owens, 1984). The type of borer change which had occurred to C. partellus, whether physiological or morphological could not be ascertained from the study. If the artificial diet caused the low voracity of feeding of the borers on the maize plant whorls or the motility of the larvae on plants need to be answered in a similar study (Berger, 1993) and probably by including molecular studies. Artificial diet formulated and prepared in the laboratory enable mass production of cereal stem borers like C. partellus (Tefera et al., 2011). Kega et al. (2011) reviewed the advantage of rearing stem borers on artificial diet leading to high numbers of eggs and larvae available for use by scientists and students involved in maize lines evaluation against specific stem borer pests. A year ago, the cost of producing one Chilo pupa was reported as KES 6.50 and Busseola sp as KES 13 (Kega et al., 2011). Nevertheless, the need to develop stem borer resistant maize varieties overrides the cost involved. Over decade ago, DeGroote (2002) estimated the yield loss in Kenya at US $ 76 million ha -1 . In the survey study, the marginal areas of Kenya led in maize deficit of the country's 0.39 million tones per year with stem borers contributing 15 to 21% loss (DeGroote, 2002). This emphasizes the likelihood of more laboratory produced stem borers for more research work towards developing stem borer resistant maize lines suitable to the varied agro-ecological zones of Kenya, and the larger south and eastern Africa region. Field experimental settings could reflect lower damage scores due to other biotic factors like increased predation on the borers by biological agents agents in the environment (Bonhof et al., 1997). Early surveys in Ethiopia on cereal stems borers indicated that infestation levels depended on presence of natural enemies in the field (Gebre-Amlak, 1985). Reddy and Walker (1990) on a review of Chilo species damage of field cereals observed that this borer led other species in frequency in the South and Eastern African region. C. partellus has been reported to significantly reduce KCB variety yield under artificial infestation but escape such damage in natural settings where it matures early unlike late maturing varieties where higher damage occurs not only on the stem but also on the cobs (Kumar and Saxena, 1994).It is important to continue with regular yearly gene infusion activities on laboratory reared C. partellus probably by reducing the interval from six to three months to continue providing quality insects to scientists carrying out maize screening tests both for the conventional and genetically modified varieties to enhance economic maize production (van de Berg et al., 1997;Tefera et al., 2011). The end user of the particular borer species needs to be assured of the quality of the test product, neonates, eggs or adult stages intended for maize genotype screening.","tokenCount":"2225"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"005c80df33c008014e41436dc929409c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d7659515-5ed7-40d7-ba6d-813701919aad/retrieve","id":"-1292217683"},"keywords":["Conserved ortholog set (COS)","Genetic mapping","Potato genome","Solanum"],"sieverID":"21eb120c-2f6e-4bf9-a09e-663c72086326","pagecount":"12","content":"Background: Conserved ortholog set (COS) markers are an important functional genomics resource that has greatly improved orthology detection in Asterid species. A comprehensive list of these markers is available at Sol Genomics Network (http://solgenomics.net/) and many of these have been placed on the genetic maps of a number of solanaceous species. Results: We amplified over 300 COS markers from eight potato accessions involving two diploid landraces of Solanum tuberosum Andigenum group (formerly classified as S. goniocalyx, S. phureja), and a dihaploid clone derived from a modern tetraploid cultivar of S. tuberosum and the wild species S. berthaultii, S. chomatophilum, and S. paucissectum. By BLASTn (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool of the NCBI, National Center for Biotechnology Information) algorithm we mapped the DNA sequences of these markers into the potato genome sequence. Additionally, we mapped a subset of these markers genetically in potato and present a comparison between the physical and genetic locations of these markers in potato and in comparison with the genetic location in tomato. We found that most of the COS markers are single-copy in the reference genome of potato and that the genetic location in tomato and physical location in potato sequence are mostly in agreement. However, we did find some COS markers that are present in multiple copies and those that map in unexpected locations. Sequence comparisons between species show that some of these markers may be paralogs. Conclusions: The sequence-based physical map becomes helpful in identification of markers for traits of interest thereby reducing the number of markers to be tested for applications like marker assisted selection, diversity, and phylogenetic studies.The use of genetic diversity in plant breeding is a sustainable method to conserve valuable genetic resources and to increase agricultural productivity and food security [1]. To facilitate the use of the wide genetic diversity existing in landraces and crop wild relatives more information is needed on the organization and structure of their genes and genomes. Molecular markers linked to loci with important effects hold a promise to facilitate the introgression of those traits into adapted germplasm. Agriculturally important traits captured during domestication are often coded by very limited number of loci with major phenotypic effects. Within the Solanaceae it is common to find that these loci have putative orthologous counterparts in other species [2] and therefore molecular markers, such as Conserved Orthologous Set (COS) markers, are powerful in comparing genomic information across species [3].The development of markers for orthologous genes, many of which have been mapped in tomato, is documented in the Sol Genomics Network [4]. Comparative mapping studies with the help of COS markers have shown syntenic relationships within various species of the Solanaceae family [5][6][7] and between species within the Asterid and Rosid clades comparing coffee (Rubiaceae, Asterid) with tomato (Solanaceae, Asterid) [8] and coffee and grapevine (Vitaceae, Rosid) [9]. The combined power of comparative mapping and systematic analysis of germplasm with orthologous gene markers can efficiently leverage information generated by genomic research from one species to another. COS markers also have shown great power in resolving interrelationships of tomato and potato with great precision [10].The recent accumulation of nucleotide sequences of model organisms and crop plants has provided fundamental information for the design of sequence-based research applications in functional genomics [11]. The draft genome sequence of potato has been publicly available since late 2010 and the finalized high-quality sequence has been released [12] as well as the genome sequence of closely related tomato [13]. The availability of these genomes and the genomic tool kits, such as genome browsers, are of great importance to the scientific community working with solanaceous crops. With the help of physical sequences, new molecular markers can be developed efficiently, utilizing genes in the regions of the genome that contain markers linked to traits of interest. The possibility of comparing physical and genetic maps also has implications for molecular breeding programs, facilitating the search of molecular markers flanking QTL [14]. Linking COS markers to the potato genome sequence allows for powerful comparative genomics between the potato genome and other species with COS-based maps that do not yet have genome sequence available.Here we present a case study where COS are amplified from diverse set of Solanum germplasm and aligned to the whole genome sequence of potato, allowing for comparison of physical and genetic maps of related species. We aligned the sequences of COS, generated from a panel of ten genotypes of potato and tomato, to the recently published potato genome sequence and compared the physical location with the genetic location in tomato and potato. We show that the COS markers analyzed are single-or low-copy in the DM potato genome (see Methods) and that there are several breaks in colinearity between the species analyzed.In total, 322 COS were mapped in silico in the potato genome, from here on referred to as DM, utilizing the DM superscaffold sequences (Additional file 1: Table S1). To verify that the hits located inside predicted genes, we ran BLASTn against the DM gene sequences and found that ten COS had no matching DM gene although they had high confidence hits in the superscaffold sequence; we did not pursue these markers further. The COS markers are distributed throughout the genome (Additional file 1: Table S1) and the majority exist as single copy markers. However, 17 markers are present in multiple copies (Table 1) with either existing in tandem repeats in the same genome region or having copies in different genomic regions. After single copy, the most frequent copy number is two and the highest copy number is three.For genetic mapping in potato we utilized mostly the back cross progeny BCT [15]. 186 COS markers were placed on the BCT consensus linkage map, which contains in total 321 markers assembled into 12 linkage groups. The total length of the consensus BCT map was 1042 cM, the average marker interval was 3.4 cM and the maximum interval was 34.7 cM on chromosome 12. In addition three COS markers were integrated on the BCT paternal map because they would not integrate on the consensus map.19 markers that were not polymorphic in the BCT parents, were placed on the previously published frame work genetic maps of PCC1 [16] and PD [17]. The genetic maps are shown in Additional file 2: Table S2.A total of 208 COS were placed on the potato genetic maps (Additional file 1: Table S1). Of these, 173 were also mapped in silico, but there are 35 markers that were only mapped genetically because their DNA sequences were not available. The Tomato EXPEN2000 genetic map, from here on referred to as TomEXPEN, was used as a reference and the map locations of the COS markers in silico mapped in potato in this project were downloaded from the SGN web site [4]. Of the 322 COS mapped in silico 254 were found in the TomEXPEN map.Based on the previous information on their location in the TomEXPEN map, most of the COS markers mapped into the expected potato chromosomes either in the reference potato genome, (DM) or in the potato genetic maps BCT, PCC1 or PD (BP) (see Methods; Figure 1). Of the 173 shared markers between DM and the potato genetic maps, eight map in different chromosomes and 12 have one copy mapping on the same chromosomes and a second copy in another one (Additional file 1: Table S1). Of the 254 markers shared by DM and TomEXPEN, ten are in different chromosomes and nine have one copy mapping in the same chromosomes and a second copy in another chromosome. Of the 305 markers that had a single location in DM, in total 15 mapped in unexpected chromosomes when compared to tomato or potato genetic maps (Table 2). These markers had a single matching DM gene hit except for two markers which had no gene hit. The difference may be a real one suggesting major differences in genome organization but it may also reflect errors in sequence assembly or genetic mapping.Markers having unexpected locations were found in all chromosomes, but the highest number of these was in chromosome 10. Pairwise comparisons between the three maps show that eight markers that locate in chromosome 10 in at least one of the maps have an alternative locus in another chromosome (Additional file 1: Table S1). These markers are: C2_At2g46370, (in silico 1 and 5, tomato 10); C2_At3g60080 (in silico 2, tomato 10); T1391 (in silico 2, potato 1 and 10, tomato 10); T0966 (in silico 10, potato 10, tomato 7); C2_At5g08580 (in silico 10, potato 2, tomato 2); C2_At5g06760 (in silico 10, tomato 1); C2_At4g26180 (in silico 12, potato 10, tomato 12); C2_At2g41680 (in silico 4 and 10, in tomato 9). Differences are mostly specific to the genetic maps, meaning that the marker position is usually conserved in two of the maps. Also, multi-copy markers mapping to different chromosomes in silico in DM are mostly found in one of the same chromosomes in the genetic maps. For example, This could be simply because the alternative marker was not detected due to lack of polymorphism or because the other sequence detected by BLASTn search is a paralog.The COS that mapped in the same chromosomes by both methods (in silico in potato and genetically in potato or in tomato) as found at SGN were not always in agreement in their exact order, reflecting errors either in statistical testing or differences between the solanaceous species at the microsynteny level. In addition to the nine large inversions between tomato and potato several small inversions have been demonstrated [13]. In total, 77 COS that were mapped in potato (either in silico or genetically) were not found on the TomEXPEN map and thus we were not able to compare their locations.We observed 17 markers that were duplicated in the potato genome. To find the DM genes that correspond to these markers we ran a BLASTn search against the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium (PGSC) databases containing the genes and the coding sequences. For most of the markers (in total 13) all copies had the same annotation suggesting that they could be orthologs (Table 1). The four markers that have different annotations for the copies are T0408, At1g14980, At2g42620 and T1511. To further test the ortholog/paralog relationship of these markers we aligned the potato and tomato reference genome gene sequences, coding sequences and query sequences for these markers and constructed Neighbor Joining trees (Figure 2).T0408 marker was sequenced from two genotypes, the parents of the PD population (CHS_625 and PS-3). This marker is entirely in the exon region and is similar to the genes PGSC0003DMG400046906 (gene of unknown function) on chromosome 1 and PGSC0003DMG400029022 (aminotransferase) in chromosome 11 (Table 1). In the TomEXPEN map this marker is found in chromosome 1. The coding sequences PGSC0003DMC400069010 and PGSC0003DMC400050560 are identical in the query sequence region consisting of 119 amino acids. However,  outside this area the two DM CDS are not identical. Genotype CHS-625 differs from the DM sequences in only one amino acid. Genotype PS-3 is highly heterozygous and because only one sample was sequenced and we cannot resolve the two possible haplotypes of this genotype and therefore it appears different from the rest of the sequences (Figure 2a). The corresponding tomato reference genome coding sequence is quite different from the potato sequences. In this case the gene may be single copy but the marker may be unspecific, resulting in alternative hits. Marker At1g14980 was amplified from genotypes LA1974, HH1-9 and M200-30 and the sequences are similar to PGSC0003DMG400028744 (PGS0003DMC40005 0071) in chromosome 7 and PGSC0003DMG402023448 (PGSC0003DMC400040570) in chromosome 5 with the e values of 1.00E-110 and 1.00E-99, respectively. The marker spans both exonic and intronic regions. Translated amino acid sequences of the exonic regions show two well resolved groups where two sequences from M200-30 group together with one of the tomato genomic sequences and two sequences from HH1-9 group with the CDS of the gene that maps in chromosome 5. Relationships with the other DM coding sequence are not well resolved (Figure 2b). Genetic mapping in potato suggests that the marker resides in chromosome 5. However, based on the sequence data we cannot determine the correct location for this marker. Marker At2g42620 sequences from the BCT population parents (HH1-9 and M200-30) have hits in genes PGSC0003DMG400007856 (F-box family protein) and PGSC0003DMG400035320 (F-box/leucine rich repeat protein) with the e values of 0 and 1.00E-112, respectively. The first gene is found in chromosome 12 and the latter in chromosome 7. According to the NJ tree, all our sequences from the genotypes HH1-9 and M200-30 are more similar to the first mentioned gene represented by the coding sequence PGSC0003DMC400013844 (Figure 2c). The latter DM gene has some amino acid changes comparing with the others and thus may code for a different gene as already shown by the different annotations (Table 1). Genetically this marker is found in chromosome 12 in tomato which most likely is its correct location.Marker T1511 was amplified from five genotypes (CHS-625, PS-3, PI310991, MP1-8, and HH1-9). According to the BLASTn analysis it is similar to the DM genes PGSC0003DMG400018190 (Elongation factor TuA) in chromosome 3 (1E-160) and PGSC0003DMG400041767 Elongation factor TuB, 6E-63) in chromosome 6. In NJ tree all genotypes are more closely related to the first gene represented by the CDS PGSC0003DMC400031700 (Figure 2d). The marker resides in the exon and has quite variable sequence even at the amino acid level. Because this marker has been genetically mapped in chromosome 3 in tomato and the evalue for the hit in chromosome 3 is higher (Table 1), this is most likely its correct location. Of the three corresponding tomato coding sequences, two group with the chromosome 3 gene.A comparative summary of the maps is shown in Figure 1. Overall the alignment of COSII markers follows a sequential order. However, as described above several COSII markers show differences as indicated by crossing lines or lines indicating locations on different linkage groups or pseudomolecules.There is a large overlap of QTL regions between the traits included and based on this information alone the same markers may be considered candidates for disease resistance and Carotenoid or vitamin C biosynthesis (Additional file 1: Table S1 and Additional file 3: Table S3). Therefore, functional annotations of the matching DM genes (Additional file 3: Table S3) may help suggesting markers in candidate genes for the QTL traits and for further studies.The SEA analysis showed that the COSII-DM list contained no associated ontology terms that were significantly different in the biological process gene ontology category as compared to the list of terms associated with the original COSII list. However, both the COSII-DM and the original COSII term list have associated term lists that are enriched for 33 GO terms in the biological process category that is different (see Table 3 and Additional file 4: Figure S1). The terms form two major groups: a) cellular metabolic process and b) response to stimulus.COSII markers represent an important functional genomics resource that has greatly improved comparative mapping in Asterid species. They can be used to design primer sequences for cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) useful for genetic mapping across diverse taxa, including the Solanaceae. In genetic mapping, the number of markers placed on the map is dependent on the number of polymorphisms between the parents of the cross. Our initial goal, before the availability of the genome sequence, was to facilitate comparative mapping in the Solanaceae by mapping 300 single-copy COSII in potato, Solanum tuberosum, to a diploid mapping population. However, limitations mostly in the level of polymorphism resulted in the successful genetic mapping of only 208 markers using three different segregating populations. The availability of the potato genome sequence enabled another approach to be taken to investigate the genomic locations of these markers in potato. With the help of BLAST analysis we successfully mapped over 300 orthologous markers in silico and compared their physical location in the reference potato genome to that of the genetic location in a potato cross and in previously published map of tomato. Because we utilized DNA sequences obtained from various Solanum species we were able to sample some of the polymorphism present in these taxa and thereby detect markers that are potentially present in multiple copies. We found that most of the markers are present as single-copy in the reference genome. Low copy number is a required character for markers intended for comparative genetic mapping and phylogenetic analysis. Low-copy sequences generally evolve independently of paralogous sequences and tend to be stable in position and copy number. However, a potential problem is the existence of gene families producing paralogs that can evolve independently [18] and the fact that some genes characterized as low-copy in some groups can be multiple copy in others. We discovered that very low number of the COS markers tested here (17 out of 354, 4.7%) were designed on genes that were present in multiple copies in potato, thus validating the low-copy number definition of these markers.In silico mapping using the BLASTn algorithm seems to work well in mapping COS marker sequences into the reference genome. This is because the COS primers have been designed to amplify a PCR fragment in the size range that is suitable for BLAST and they have been tested through rigorous algorithms to target genes that are present in single or low-copy numbers [19]. The BLAST algorithm may result in the identification of paralogous sequences. This is a problem only in the case of incomplete reference sequence dataset or when the target genes belong to gene families. Since our input database is the complete genome sequence of potato and most of the markers resulted in a single hit in the genome it is likely that the genes identified are true orthologs. However, for the sequences resulting in multiple hits, it is necessary to make gene-level comparisons when attempting to distinguish paralogues from orthologs. For the markers that target intronic regions, this may be difficult.The ontology enrichment analysis showed that no bias was introduced in the COSII-DM list as compared to the original COSII list. In general, both gene lists may have a slight overrepresentation of genes in cellular metabolic process and response to environmental stress, and be related to QTLs and agronomic traits of interest like yield, quality and resistance. Considering COS markers that locate in previously published QTL as candidate genes for a given trait may be difficult because the QTL regions span large parts of the chromosome. However, functional annotations are helpful in narrowing down to some specific candidate genes. Some obviously interesting candidate markers for late blight resistance are C2_At5g51840 (Rar1) and C2_At4g36530 (Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase) in chromosome 11 as well as C2_At4g02600 (MLO1) in chromosome 9. RAR1 is required for the functionality of several R genes [20], while Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase is the first enzyme on the pathway leading to production of Lignin, which is an important factor in plant defense responses and MLO1 confers broad spectrum mildew resistance in barley [21].Obvious candidate markers for carotenoid and vitamin C biosynthesis are not that easy to identify from this study. However, the QTL regions for these traits contain a couple of photosynthesis and chloroplast related genes, which is to be expected since carotenoids function in photosynthesis acting as pigments in the light harvesting complexes and vitamin C is just a few biochemical steps away from 'sugar' produced by photosynthesis. Carotenoids have two key functions in plants: broaden the light spectrum for light harvesting and protecting the chlorophyll against oxidative damage or excess energy [22]. Overlapping regions for QTL for vitamin C biosynthesis and disease resistance are not surprising since many biological processes are altered in the plant during defense response. For example ascorbic acid content in leaves has been shown to modulate plant defense transcripts [23] and has been suggested to protect the cells against oxidative stress arising from wounding [24]. We found only a few COS markers that mapped in unexpected chromosomes. In cases where one copy was detected in the same chromosome as in the genetic map and an additional copy in an alternative locus, it is possible that one of the markers detected originates from a paralog. Often these can be readily detected by choosing the gene hit with the best e-value. The single copy markers that have unexpected locations between physical and genetic maps may be true differences as we are comparing different species (DM = phureja, BCT = berthaultii × tuberosum, PCC1 = paucissectum × chomatophilum, PD = phureja × tuberosum, and finally tomato). Tomato and potato are generally considered to be highly colinear in their gene order [13,25,26], and this is true for the majority of the RFLP markers shared by the tomato and potato maps at the SGN website [4]. According to Tanksley et al., [26] tomato and potato genomes differ by only five paracentric inversions while these two species differ from pepper and eggplant by many more complex rearrangements, mainly paracentric inversions and translocations [27,28]. According to the most recent tomato/potato comparison there are nine major inversions and several small ones [13]. Significant conservation is found between distantly related species from the Asterid (Coffea canephora and Solanum sp.) and Rosid (Vitis vinifera) clades, at the genome macrostructure and microstructure levels [9]. A minimum of three (and up to ten) inversions and 11 reciprocal translocations differentiate the tomato genome from that of the last common ancestor of Nicotiana tomentosiformis and N. acuminata [6].It is possible that the potato reference sequence may contain small numbers of incorrectly oriented or misplaced scaffolds as well as genes that were not discovered by the gene prediction algorithm used. As seen in this work we found a number of markers that had a high confidence hit in the whole genome sequence, but no gene hit. We ran those genome regions through Softberry gene prediction and were able to identify genes matching the COS marker hit region (results not shown). Further work focusing on the genome regions that from this work show contradictory results may facilitate the refinement of the genome assembly and annotation.The high degree of conservation of gene order (synteny) in the Solanaceae revealed by cross mapping of homologous gene sequences has provided insights into genome evolution and has enabled the cloning of genes for agronomically important traits [29,30]. However, when comparing two genetic maps it is necessary to take into account that the number of markers shared by any two maps is rather small, and therefore allows only a limited resolution for comparison. Recent comparisons of physical maps between solanaceous species have allowed for more detailed level of comparison of gene order and orientation [31,32]. Comparison of orthologous regions shows general colinearity between solanaceous species, but also local breaks due to inversions and/or indels. Also, some of the inconsistencies in sequential ordering may well be artifacts since both the potato and the tomato genome still contain scaffolds that could not be oriented. Our results may help to refine the assembly and annotation of the potato and tomato genome.The distances between markers on a genetic linkage map are based on the proportion of recombination events occurring within a given chromosome segment and thus indicative of gene order at a much lower resolution than physical map distances, which are the actual nucleotide sequence based distances. The sequencebased physical map becomes helpful in identification of markers near traits of interest and thereby reducing the number of markers to be tested in developing applications such as marker assisted selection, diversity assessment, and phylogeny.The COS markers studied are mostly present as single copies in the reference potato genome sequence, making them ideal for applications such as diversity and phylogenetic studies. In silico mapping is complementary to genetic mapping and facilitates detailed marker identification for traits of interest.Parents of the BCT [15], PCC1 [16], PD [17], the DM/ DI//DI (developed at CIP and contributed to the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium for anchoring of the DM potato genome [33], and tomato mapping populations [34] were subjected to COS marker amplification intended for DNA sequencing. The progeny from BCT backcross population (M200-30 (USW2230 × PI473331) × HH1-9) involving Solanum berthaultii and S. tuberosum [15], PCC1 [16] and PD [17] were used for genetic mapping. In addition, COS were amplified from other asterid species Ipomoea trifida genotypes M9 (CIP107665.9) and M19 (CIP 107665. 19), and Daucus carota genotypes QAL and 0493B [35] for cross species comparisons. Leaf tissue was ground in liquid nitrogen and genomic DNA was extracted using standard protocol [36].COS markers were selected comparing the published genetic maps with the tomato COS map [4] and selecting markers that located in the QTL intervals for late blight resistance and/or maturity [16,17,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], ascorbic acid biosynthesis [45] and carotenoid biosynthesis [46] (Additional file 1: Table S1). In addition markers with annotations to genes known to have function in abiotic and biotic stress were selected.COS markers were amplified from genomic DNA and the optimal annealing temperature for each primer pair was determined using temperature gradient. PCR reactions were conducted with 25 ng of DNA in a 1× PCR buffer (10 mM tris HCl, pH 8.3, 50 mM KCl, 1.5 mM MgCl 2 , 0.1% Triton-X), 0.2 mM of each dNTP, 0.2 mM of each primer forward and reverse and 0.5 U of Taq polymerase. Reactions were set up in microplates and processed in an MJ Research model PTC-200 PCR thermocycler with the following cycles: 1 cycle at 94°C for 4 min, 35 cycles at 94°C for 1 min plus 55 or 60°C for 1 min plus 72°C for 1 min, and 1 cycle at 72°C for 5 min. The bands were separated by SSCP (singlestranded conformation polymorphism) electrophoresis using 6% denatured (7M urea) polyacrylamide (19:1) and visualized by silver staining. All well-separated bands were cut from the gels with a razor blade. The excised gel slices were placed on 96-well PCR plates, and the DNA was eluted in 40 uL of sterile nuclease free water. This was used as a template in a new PCR reaction with the same primers in a 10 uL reaction.One μL of this product was sequenced with the same primers in a 5 μL reaction using the ABI Big Dye dideoxynucelotide termination kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, California). Amplifications were carried out in an MJ Research DNA Engine Dyad® Peltier Thermal Cycler (Watertown, Massachusetts) using an initial denaturation at 95°C for 3 min, followed by 30 cycles of 96°C for 25 s, 50°C for 20 s, 60°C for 5 min and with a final elongation at 72°C for 7 min. Excess of dye terminators were removed using CleanSeq magnetic bead sequencing reaction clean up kit from Agencourt Biosciences (Beverly, MA). Sequences were resolved on an ABI 3730xl capillary-based automated DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems) with 50 cm POP-7 polymer capillaries at the Biotechnology Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Alternatively, for some of the markers the PCR products were isolated and purified with Qiaquick Gel Extraction kit and sequenced without the previous reamplification step.Publicly available sequence files and other data of potato S. tuberosum Group Phureja DM1-3 516R44 (CIP801092) generated by the Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium were obtained from [47]. We used the v3 superscaffold sequences, v2.1.10 AGP Pseudomolecule Sequences, 3 DM Pseudomolecule AGP data (v2.1.10), v3.4 gene sequences, and v3.4 cds. Tomato genome sequences were obtained from [48]. We used the ITAG1 release cds and genomic sequences.We used VectorNTI to assemble the COS marker DNA sequences and queried the consensus sequences of contigs formed by at least two sequences against the DM superscaffolds using BLASTn. The DNA sequences of the COS markers were deposited to the NCBI GenBank GSS database and SGN database (Table 4). The exact location of each COS in the DM genome was obtained by selecting the best matching hit location based on e-value. The positions of the COS in the DM physical map were determined with the help of the superscaffold location information in pseudomolecules according to the pseudomolecule report v.2.1.9 provided by PGSC.Three diploid mapping populations BCT [15], PCC1 [16] and PD [17] were used for segregation analysis to locate COS in potato linkage groups. Polymorphisms were detected by high resolution melting (HRM), [49], SSCP followed by silver staining or by agarose gel electrophoresis. For HRM the PCR amplification was performed with the fluorescent DNA-binding dye (LCGreen) and the DNA melting profiles were analyzed by LightScanner instrument (Idaho Technologies). Melting curves were analyzed with the help of the LighScanner software and converted into appropriate segregation codes. For the gel separated markers, polymorphic marker alleles were recorded considering presence and absence.The band and HRM records were compiled according to the genotype codes of population type CP described in the Joinmap® 4 manual [50]. A consensus map was constructed with Kosambi's mapping function following Joinmap® 4 manual [50].A comparative COSII map between the integrated potato genetic map, the potato physical map and the tomato genetic map was made as described in the legend to Figure 1. The figure was prepared using the genoPlotR library [51] for the statistical software R [52].We ran a BLASTn against the DM genes and coding sequences provided by PGSC and the tomato genomic and coding sequences using our marker DNA sequences as queries. The marker sequences and the corresponding gene or coding sequences were aligned as DNA or translated amino acid sequences depending on whether the marker sequence obtained was covering intron or exon regions of the genes analyzed. The alignments were made using ClustalW and Neighbor Joining (NJ) trees were constructed using the Poisson correction method for amino acid sequences and the Maximum Composite Likelihood method for DNA sequences. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA5 [53].In the initial phase of the project the list of ontology terms associated with the 2868 COSII markers was manually reviewed and filtered for genes with gene ontology annotations that may have a role in traits of interest like stress tolerance and late blight resistance. For the final analysis, other criteria included single-copy status, and mapped in DM/DI//DI. This final list of 273 markers (further referred to as COSII-DM list) was subjected to the 'Singular Enrichment Analysis' tool as available on the AgriGO web-site [54]. The method tests if particular terms are over-represented or different in the set of interest against a reference list. We tested if the COSII-DM list was different from the original COSII list and versus the Arabidopsis gene model (TAIR9) as available on the AgriGO web-site. The focus of interest for the term analysis was on GO terms within the 'biological process' category.earlier versions of the manuscript. LP: Selected markers on QTL intervals, conducted genetic mapping in potato and amplification of COS for all species, compiled sequence data. FR: Selected markers for analysis, coordinated generation of sequences from amplification products, helped write paper. RS: Supported selection of COS and analysed ontology. LM: Obtained funding, helped write paper, submitted sequences. DS: Obtained funding, helped write paper. MB: Obtained funding, helped write paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.","tokenCount":"5141"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c30b52a949df9486c1fd120dfc45c5fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6ef044b-6e73-4f27-94a2-5ce6058158ea/retrieve","id":"1344625693"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b694129b-09bc-44e0-864c-6759a7eeb46f","pagecount":"3","content":"A CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) project, led by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has worked in these upper catchments of northern Laos, finding ways to enhance the food and livelihood security of some of the poorest farmers in the region. For local farmers like Sysomphane, upland rice farming had become unproductive. They could only produce a six months supply of rice each year, and needed to buy the rest from the trader who made regular trips to the village. Her fellow villagers, who had smaller rice fields in the valley, took to terracing the slopes, but some of these were also unproductive because of soil erosion. The CPWF research team discussed with villagers the reasons for low farm productivity, such as the short fallow period, intensified cultivation, soil erosion, water losses, and the decline of forest cover in the watershed. The researchers initially planned to limit themselves to testing and validating a few technologies. However, because of strong community and institutional participation in the project, the scope of their engagement was expanded. For Sysomphane it was important that the project help farmers like them to produce more to meet their additional needs, reducing the number of hungry months in Ban Fai.The project team inventoried, characterized and mapped land and water resources in the upper catchments.Water-poverty links were studied using household survey data. ","tokenCount":"227"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/1166938966.json b/data/part_2/1166938966.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed9273440174b9f02965906bf18a727e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/852b071c-598f-4b39-80e7-9ad52b90eb72/content","id":"-2075962057"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"91fd46a2-813b-4952-ab05-f68a3140f8a7","pagecount":"1","content":"Ni Ugonjwa wa mahindi unaosababishwa na virusi. Ugonjwa huu husababishwa na muunganiko wa virusi vya aina mbili: Virusi vya Mabaka na Madoa ya Mahindi-Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus (MCMV) na mojawapo kati ya virusi vifuatavyo: Virusi vya Batobato ya Miwa-Sugarcane Mosaic Virus (SCMV), Virusi Vidumaza vya Batobato ya Mahindi-Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus (MDMV) na Virusi Michirizi vya Batobato ya Ngano-Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus (WSMV)Hatua 12 za kuzingatia ili kupata mbegu bora ya mahindi isiyokuwa na Ugonjwa wa Mnyauko (Maize Lethal Necrosis-MLN) 1 Pata historia ya shamba pamoja na ugonjwa katika shamba la kuzalishia mbegu kabla ya kupanda 2 Hakikisha udongo una rutuba ya kutosha ili kuweza kupata mimea iliyo bora. Inashauriwa kupima rutuba ya udongo kila baada ya kipindi kisichozidi miaka mitatu ili kuweza kutambua aina ya mbolea itakayotumika Chunguza dalili za ugonjwa shambani, ng'oa, choma au fukia mimea yote itakayoonekana kuwa na dalili za ugonjwa nje ya shamba.Chukua sampuli za mimea itakayohisiwa kuwa na virusi, chunguza sampuli hizo kwenye baabara (au kwa kutumia kifaa maalum) ili kuthibitisha kama mimea hiyo ina ugonjwa. • Madoadoa machache au mengi kwenye jani ambayo huanzia chini ya shina la jani changa na kusambaa kuelekea kwenye ncha yake.• Majani machanga hukauka kabla ya mmea kuchanua, hali hiyo husababisha dalili inayoitwa 'kifo cha moyo', hatimaye kifo cha mmea mzima.• Jani hukauka kuanzia kwenye kingo zake na kusambaa kuelekea katikati, hatimaye jani lote.• Mmea hudumaa na kukomaa kabla ya wakati wake.• Wakati mwingine mmea huwa tasa (hakuna utengenezaji wa chamvua).• Gunzi huwa na mbegu chache kabisa.• Maganda ya mhindi hukauka kabla hayajakomaa wakati sehemu zingine za mmea zikiwa bado ni mbichi (zikiwa na rangi ya kijani).• Gunzi huoza• Mashambulizi ya kuvu wenye rangi ya kijivu kwenye magunzi yaliyooza hujitokeza kama maambukizi nyemeleziUgonjwa wa Mnyauko huenezwa kwa njia zifuatazo:• Wadudu wa aina mbalimbali, wakiwemo: Vidukari na Vithiripi-hula kwa kufyonza utomvu wa mahindi; minyoo ya mizizi; panzi na mbawa kavu-hushambulia majani.• Wanyama wa aina mbalimbali, binadamu pamoja na zana za kilimo-katika kuzihamisha kutoka shamba moja hadi jingine (kunaweza kukawa na shamba lenye ugonjwa) ","tokenCount":"334"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40399d59158920ed2ec4ce55ee7b7337","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/15efe123-0efb-40be-addc-8b931a369041/retrieve","id":"972352246"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff733bf9-d1db-4537-8ef1-311d2978ffdb","pagecount":"8","content":"Estimados lectores de nuestro boletín: Esta quinta edición aparece con un pequeño atraso debido a la actividad intensa en los últimos dos trimestres.La evaluación de medio periodo fue planificada para octubre pasado pero fue postergada a enero 2006. Por eso tuvimos que adaptar nuestras actividades a este cambio. Esta edición es corta con un artículo en el centro de nuestro socio SIDE, reflejando el desarrollo y los cambios en los precios del ganado en Costa Rica.Costa Rica tiene una gran cantidad de subastas de ganado en todo el país. Esas subastas han contribuido mucho a la transparencia de precios. Las diferentes subastas son manejadas por organizaciones de productores y empresarios privados. Para muchas cámaras de ganaderos una subasta bien manejada es casí como una mina de oro que les permite generar ingresos y ofrecer una variedad de servicios para sus socios. SIDE organizó para representantes de productores y empresarios privados de los otros paises de Centro América una serie de capacitaciones en aspectos de subastas con visitas y con intercambios directos con los representantes de las cámaras que manejan subastas.Un aspirante fuerte para establecer una subasta es Honduras con su Fondo Ganadero como entidad de gestión para una subasta. El Fondo Ganadero de Honduras está interesado en establecer la primera subasta de Honduras en Choluteca para el año 2006.La publicación de esta quinta edición coincide con el fin del año y las fiestas navideñas. Tomamos la oportunidad para agradecer a nuestros socios la colaboración y el apoyo que hemos experimentado y les deseamos una Feliz Navidad y un próspero y exitoso Año Nuevo.El proyecto organizó una pequeña fiesta navideña con los socios en Nicaragua el día 21 de diciembre que fue muy divertida con comida típica y rica. Por supuesto con carne de primera calidad, baile y karaoke hasta media noche.  (4) noticiaS Paula Cordero de SIDE salió del proyecto a fines de agosto para estudiar en EE.UU., en la universidad estatal de Ohio para obtener un doctorado en economía. Nosotros le deseamos mucha suerte. La nueva cara en SIDE es Melissa Ugalde. Melissa es también economista y reemplazó a Paula a partir de septiembre pasado. En Honduras la secretaría de la cadena de carne esta manejada por Juan Carlos Ordoñez, quién fue el coordinador de las actividades en Honduras. El proyecto le desea mucho éxito en sus esfuerzos y le va apoyar lo más posible. El sector privado en Honduras fundó CAFOGA (Cámara de Fomento de la Ganadería). La idea es establecer una entidad similar a CORFOGA de Costa Rica, pero manejada solo por el sector privado. Los ingresos de la organización vendrian de un autogravamen sobre el ganado sacrificado. Esto requiere una ley que está en preparación. Según un artículo de \"La Prensa\" (edición de diciembre 19) en Nicaragua la gandería es la campeona de las exportaciones (carne vacuna y ganado en pie) en el año 2005. Una gran demanda de la exportación resultó de México. Debido a los casos de la \"vaca loca\" en Estados Unidos, México cerró su frontera para importaciones del norte y empezó a comprar en Centro América. Esto causó una alza de precios para ganado y para carne bovina.(5) loS prEcioS dEl Ganado En coSta rica: la suerte de tenerlosSe expresa un agradecimiento especial a la Sra. Carmen María Dengo, Gerente de la empresa GANAFAX S.AEn muchos paises los ganaderos sufren las consecuencias de no estar informados sobre los precios del ganado. Como resultado de ello, cuando tienen que vender sus animales, en la finca o en una feria local, no tienen un punto de referencia para negociar. El resultado es que reciben por sus animales menores precios que los que merecen o por lo menos que sean precios que reflejan condiciones de mercado competitivo.Desde hace varios años en Costa Rica se establecieron las subastas de ganado, como una instancia que permite una relación directa entre compradores y vendedores. Actualmente existen 15 subastas, unas de propiedad privada y otras de propiedad de cámaras de ganaderos. Dado que algunas subastas realizan eventos dos veces por semana, en total se realizan 22 subastas por semana.Un evento de subasta dura más o menos 4 a 5 horas, pasando los animales de uno en uno y muy ocasionalmente, en grupos pequeños cuando los animales son homogéneos y del mismo propietario. La afluencia de ganado en cada evento de subasta fluctúa entre 300 y 700 animales, y a veces más. Por lo tanto se estima que cada semana se subastan alrededor de diez mil animales.En Costa Rica subastas se han convertido en el mecanismo de formación de precios para el ganado. A partir de un precio de referencia, por kilo en pie, presentado por el Subastador (en base a una larga experiencia), los interesados en comprar \"pujan\" el precio hasta que queda el mejor postor. En esta forma se determinan los precios para animales de diferente edad, sexo, calidad y estado físico. Las subastas reportan doce categorías de animales.Algunas subastas hacen entrega de la información semanal de precios a la empresa GANAFAX. GANAFAX a su vez los resume y entrega semanalmente a personas, empresas y cámaras suscritas a su boletín semanal. Esta labor de GANAFAX es de extraordinario valor, como se demuestra en el análisis que se presenta a continuación.A partir de los datos ofrecidos por GANAFAX, SIDE ha construido un archivo de información de precios semanales para cinco años. A continuación se presenta un análisis que utiliza parte de esta información, para ilustrar las diferencias de precios del ganado según la ubicación de las subastas, el sexo y edad de los animales, y la calidad de los mismos. A continuación se ofrece un breve comentario de referencia sobre cada uno de estos criterios. Las zonas de producción. Aunque Costa Rica es un país pequeño (51,000 kilómetros cuadrados) muestra importantes diferencias en condiciones ecológicas entre la región de Pacifico y la zona Atlántica. Mientras en la primera predomina el ganado de tipo cebuino, especialmente en el Pacifico Seco (Guanacaste); en la zona Atlántica Central (San Carlos) se destacan importantes lecherías con ganado Holstein, y también cruces de ganado cebuino con razas europeas. Por otro lado en las zonas del Pacifico es mas notoria la estacionalidad en cuanto a precipitación. Por lo tanto, al compararse los precios entre zonas, hay diferencias en los precios por kilo en pie para el mismo tipo de animales y puede haber diferencias en los precios en diferentes épocas del año.Con el propósito de relevar la importancia de la cercanía a los mataderos, ubicados en el Valle Central (en las inmediaciones de San José), se incluyen también los precios del ganado en la subasta de Santa Ana y en la plaza de Montecillos. En este último caso solo se ofrecen los precios de los animales destinados a la matanza, toros o vacas.En realidad esta diferenciación se refiere dos aspectos, por un lado el sexo y por otro la edad. En cuanto al sexo, para hembras se reportan los precios para vacas lecheras (de desecho) novillas y terneras. Y en el caso de machos se reportan los precios para bueyes (de desecho), novillos, repasto (machos para desarrollo y engorde) y terneros. Las diferencias son muy marcadas entre todas estas categorías, y ello depende en gran medida por razones de la expectativa de vida de los animales o su destino inmediato y su aporte de carne en canal. Al respecto puede esperarse precios mucho mas altos para las terneras, luego las novillas y finalmente las vacas lecheras de desecho. Algo similar se aprecia en el caso de los machos.Este es uno de los aspectos mas importantes a destacar en cuanto a la información de precios. Es bien conocido que para animales de la misma edad, de la misma raza, machos o hembras, hay diferencias importantes en la calidad de los animales. Esto es mas notorio en los terneros y terneras, pues el precio es un reflejo de su potencial reproductor o como potencial productor de carne. la tendencia general de los precios del ganado.Sobre este tema es común la apreciación de que la ganadería de carne es cada vez menos rentable, debido a los malos precios del ganado. Desde luego que en muchos paises y quizás ese es el caso de Costa Rica, la disminución en la Rentabilidad se debe mas a al alza en los costos de producción. La situación ha sido particularmente seria en los últimos años a raíz del aumento en los precios del petróleo.Este breve artículo pone en evidencia la gran importancia de contar con las subastas como un mecanismo de formación de precios para el ganado y también la importancia de que estos sean conocidos por los ganaderos. En tal sentido las Cámaras de ganaderos deben cumplir una labor de difusión de estos precios.Además de reportar los precios, es también de alto valor el análisis que se hace de los mismos. Lo aquí mostrado es solo una pequeña porción de lo que puede ser un análisis mas exhaustivo. Ello es una invitación a profesionales y estudiantes vinculados a la ganadería para que realicen un análisis mas detallado al respecto.","tokenCount":"1508"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f36b3efdba0d0c538ff91ec03fccbad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/99b61632-d8e8-4f0a-af28-9abc9ec1207c/retrieve","id":"1033884649"},"keywords":["Simulation model coupling","Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT)","wheat blast disease (Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT))","wheat (Triticum aestivum)","climate information services","disease inflicted relative yield loss"],"sieverID":"57d0851d-6365-4ceb-aafa-ce2013b05174","pagecount":"109","content":"* The period of the mini-grant project finished in 2019, but the project still continues and will generate some outcomes during 2020By the end of 2019, due to funds availability, one extra project was awarded with the Crop Modeling CoP mini-grant program for starting in 2020 (Table 2, see Section 4 for more information), adding a total of 7 mini-granted projects.There is a significant opportunity-and need-to improve the global coordination of crop modeling efforts in agricultural research, which in turn will greatly improve our ability to develop crops and cropping systems to be more resilient in the face of climate change, underpinning food security at its roots.The Community of Practice on Crop Modeling was created to initiate a better-coordinated and more standardized approach to crop modeling challenges. By promoting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles, the Crop Modeling CoP fosters a culture that values GEMS (Genotype x Environment x Crop Management x Socio-Economic) data and facilitates its members to solve global grand challenges faster, better and at greater scale.In order to enhance the collaboration among crop improvement experts, the Community of Practice on Crop Modeling started a mini-grant program in 2017 to provide CoP members from CGIAR and external partners with mini-grants (10K-20K) to facilitate the development of key activities, tools, datasets, and model analysis that can facilitate CGIAR's crop modeling research, achieve some boost/impact within the community, and promote collaborations.The Crop Modeling CoP mini-grant program has so far awarded more than US$110,000 in grants to a total of 6 mini-projects (Table 1). The outcomes from the funded projects have been and will be shared among the CoP via publications, webinars, and news feeds. During 2019 five mini-granted projects have been developing their activities, generating valuable outcomes for the crop modeling community that will be here presented (sections 2 and 3).During 2019, five awarded projects carried out their activities and generated different outcomes of interest for the Crop Modeling community. In Table 3 we can find a summary of each of the projects and their main outcomes. In this section, some of the main outcomes generated during 2019 are highlighted.• News containing the project outcomes published in the Crop Modeling CoP website: o Xiong, Wei, Senthold Asseng, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Ixchel Hernandez-Ochoa, Richard Robertson, Kai Sonder, Diego Pequeno, Matthew Reynolds, and Bruno Gerard. 2019.Warming Impacts on Wheat.\" Nature Food, 1-7. WorldClim2 provides gridded climate data by month for the period 1970-2000 for several variables (max and min temp, average temp, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed and water vapor pressure) at four resolutions (10, 5 and 2.5 minutes and 30 seconds). The objectives of this projects are:1) Increase the functionality of WorldClim2 by developing grid files that include variables by location;(2) Reformat WorldClim data into a format that is of direct use to crop and other modelers; -Global climate datasets at the same four resolutions as WorldClim2, organized as direct-access binary files with crop-modelrelated variables stored in each record by location.-Updated MarkSimGCM software, both the web-based and the stand-alone versions, that utilises WorldClim2.-Blog Post in the Crop Modeling website (Published 2020) Develop an early warning system (EWS) for wheat blast outbreaks applicable to Bangladesh, Brazil, and beyond using linked crop and disease models and numerical weather forecasting. This project will increase flowering predictability by integrating the Decision Support System for Technology Transfer (DSSAT) model to the wheat blast EWS framework for Bangladesh and Brazil, thereby allowing improved risk assessments. The activities will result in both decision support tools and advisories to assist in rational and integrated disease management in South Asia.-Integration of crop models into Wheat Blast Early Warning System (EWS) for Bangladesh: http://34. Develop necessary tools to accelerate production of post-rainy (rabi) sorghum yields in India. This will involve using APSIM_sorghum as a decision support tool to design suitable crop and management interventions for particular locations and to optimize rabi sorghum systems productivity. The validated modelling set-up from prior work is being used and being spatially refined to suit this particular purpose. Such improved set-up will be further used to design the site-specific optimal genotype x management (G×M) options, which have higher probability to increase productivity in specific regions of rabi-sorghum production tract in India.-Use of modeling for testing different G x M options in all the grids of rabi sorghum regions in India. The results can be visualized using an interactive map application: https://maps.csita.cz/.Better Clean and curate the large IWIN data sets (from 1986 until 2018) and to fill gaps, such as anthesis date, daily temperature, and other missing parameters, which will be modeled, to have a complete and rich dataset ready to be used for the crop modeling community and other research activities. This project will also use machine learning algorithms in order to establish a connection between phenotypes, genomic data and performance of CIMMYT's nursery lines at a global scale.IWIN data sets will be made publically available via the GARDIAN portal. Hourly weather data for the key IWIN data sites (max 500) will also be made publicly available.-Curation of the elite spring wheat yield trial (ESWYT), international durum wheat nursery trial (IDYN) and high temperature wheat yield trial data (HTWYT).-Started a collaboration with www.meteoblue.com weather company to receive the daily (and 3 hourly) weather data from 1985 at 30 Km resolution -Develop of a flag system to mark questionable records and development of an algorithm to estimate the missing phenology data.In the following section, we will present the final report presented for each of the grantees describing the activities performed, the results and main outputs generated during 2019.Peter Jones, Waen Associates Ltd., UK.Agricultural modelling of crops, livestock and households is widely carried out in CGIAR, for a wide variety of purposes, including evaluating different options in time and space in a way that can add massive value to the field-based activities that CGAIR centres undertake.WorldClim v1 has been used very widely in CGIAR's (and other organisations') modelling efforts, as has MarkSim, software that basically allows the user to move from climate data for any location to weather data for the same location that are characteristic of the particular climate, including future climates as generated by successive generations of IPCC climate modelling activities. Now that WorldClim has been updated with new data, this is an excellent time to update the various MarkSimGCM tools that can be used by the general user, and to provide a set of climate grids that can be used directly by modellers who do their own programming. The proposal will build on the recently-released version 2 of WorldClim, which updates the previous version of the dataset and corrects several errors.WorldClim2 provides gridded climate data by month for the period 1970-2000 for several variables (max and min temp, average temp, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed and water vapor pressure) at four resolutions (10, 5 and 2.5 minutes and 30 seconds). This project will (1) Increase the functionality of WorldClim2 by developing grid files that include variables by location, as well as providing the basis for deriving a key variable not currently included, number of rain days per month;(2) For one kind of user, reformat WorldClim data into a format that is of direct use to crop and other modellers; (3) For users who do not do their own programming, upgrade MarkSimGCM to work from the WorldClim2 data set, providing weather files that can be used directly in crop modelling software such as DSSAT and APSIM. The project started in July 2018 and due to some technical problems was extended until February 2019.This work has updated the MarkSim application data with the new data from WorldClim v2.0, Fick & Hijmans (2017). The outputs are a new set of MetGrid files at 10, 5 and 2.5 arc minutes and 30 arc seconds, and sets of CLI files, which can be used as input to the standalone version of MarkSim or as input to other weather generators. Until now, MetGrid files have not been available to the general user; this changes with this version and they are available for download from CCAFS at CIAT. As they are a highly specialized format, a Fortran module, MetGrid_Handler, has been produced for general distribution to assist their use. The full final report or the project can be found in below (Annex 1).During March 2019, the compressed CLI files and the panes descriptor were installed and made available from a world map interface at CIAT under: http://www.ccafsclimate.org/pattern_scaling/Colombia: project report Julian Ramirez-Villegas 1,2 ; Jeison Mesa 1 ; Patricia Alvarez 1 ; Chetan Deva 3 ; Andrew J.Challinor 2,3 Beans are the most important grain legume for direct consumption across the globe. The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important bean species in terms of consumption, and is grown under a wide range conditions, and therefore exposed to a number of production constraints, including drought, heat, and various pests and diseases.Here, we have conducted an analysis of stress patterns based on crop simulations for dry bean aiming at determining whether the set of selection sites and conditions adequately represents the intensity and timing of the stresses that exist across the target production environments. The results indicate that, if bean production is to continue and expand in Colombia, a breeding strategy that explicitly accounts for the separate and joint occurrence of high temperature and drought stress is required. We highlight the fact that nearly half of the analyzed sites, years and seasons experience significant heat stress, and all sites experience some type of drought stress. While the bean program has historically been centered on drought, and as a result has phenotyping facilities that allow for selection of drought-tolerant genotypes, selecting for heat stress tolerance required the definition of a new site with the adequate temperature conditions. As a result of this and related work, a new site, Espinal (Colombia), has been selected for heat phenotyping and selection under high-temperature conditions. In order to implement a breeding strategy that is truly global, future work will require expanding the current understanding of stress response in African environments and develop a range of tools (e.g. molecular markers, phenotypic screens) that contribute to accelerate the breeding process.Domesticated in the Americas, beans are the most important grain legume for direct consumption across the globe (Beebe, 2012;Beebe et al., 2011). The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most important bean species in terms of consumption, and is grown under a wide range of climates, soils, cultivars and technological levels (Allen et al., 1989;Broughton et al., 2003). Due to the large variation in growing conditions, beans are exposed to a number of production constraints, including drought, heat, and various pests and diseases (Frahm et al., 2004;Seidel et al., 2016;Suárez Salazar et al., 2018). Additionally, bean farmers usually lack the institutional support, knowledge, and access to technologies and services that are necessary to respond to such constrains (Perez et al., 2019;Thornton et al., 2010). In addition, climate change will exacerbate many of these constraints, reducing productivity and or making bean cultivation no longer suitable in particular areas (Eitzinger et al., 2017;Rippke et al., 2016;Taba-Morales et al., 2020). In Colombia, the fifth most important bean consumer in Latin America, and the focus of this study, bean farmers are highly vulnerable to climate variability and climate change (Perez et al., 2019;Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012).Under this context, bean breeding at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has focused on developing high-yielding, stress-adapted genotypes that meet farmer and consumer needs, and also have enhanced nutritional attributes. For instance, CIAT's partners have released more than 550 bean genotypes in 19 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.Nevertheless, while the bean breeding has been delivering benefits to farmers on a global scale, a key question remains as to whether the current breeding strategy needs to be adjusted in light of existing and future projected biotic and abiotic stresses. Most importantly, a key question for crop improvement is whether the set of selection sites and conditions adequately represents the intensity and timing of the stresses that exist across the target production environments. Here, we seek to resolve this question for Colombia by conducting a model-based analysis of Target Population of Environments.We applied a characterization of environments that uses a process-based crop model, and integrates weather, soil, crop and management factors to generate a comprehensive understanding of the stress patterns that are most relevant. We first calibrated and evaluated the crop model using existing field trial data for two representative cultivars (one commercial, one promising drought and heat-tolerant line). Next, we conducted spatially explicit crop model simulations using weather data from on-the-ground weather stations and other publicly available data sources. We then analyzed the crop model output to determine stress patterns through clustering. Finally, we discussed our findings with the crop improvement team to start devising an improved breeding strategy.The research conducted under this project was enabled by a series of existing and new ii)A greenhouse experiment at the University of Lancaster, which helped determine breakpoints of vapor pressure deficit (VPD) at which plant transpiration starts reducing, as well as the slopes of the response curve between transpiration and VPD before and after the breakpoint. Because the experiment included 12 genotypes of varied genetic backgrounds, it also provided useful insight as to genotypic differences in VPD response.iii) Finally, an experiment at CIAT (in Cali, Colombia) helped identify a clear interaction between heat tolerance and VPD (vapor pressure deficit) response.Data analysis from this experiment helped identify an empirical model that can predict leaf temperature using air temperature and relative humidity (Deva et al., 2020).While results from these three experiments are being incorporated by the University of Leeds in an improved bean model, the research presented in this document used primarily the Santander trial data. Using these data, we calibrated and evaluated the CSM-CROPGRO-DRYBEAN model. Analyses focused on two varieties included in the trial, a representative commercial check (Calima) and a promising line for drought and heat stress for Colombia (SAB686). These two varieties were deemed representative enough of commercial and breeding genotypes and will hence be used for all analyses. The field experiment included seven treatments (i.e. seven different planting dates), out of which two were used for model calibration, and the remaining four were used for model evaluation.Model calibration was performed through the following steps:i) Identify key parameters that needed calibration through sensitivity analysis. To this aim, we conducted a Sobol (Saltelli et al., 2007;Sobol' et al., 2007)  ii) Calibration of model parameters through a genetic algorithm with calibration data (2 treatments). Using observed dates of flowering, pod and seed appearance and physiological maturity, we first calibrated phenology parameters. Next, we calibrated growth parameters using total, leaf, stem, and pod biomass, yield, and leaf area index. For phenology, for which all variables are in the same units (i.e.days), we sought to minimize the sum of squared errors (SSE), whereas for growth, we used the distance correlation normalized by the mean absolute error. Figure 1 shows phenology calibration and evaluation results for both SAB686 and Calima.In general, the simulation of phenology was found to be accurate for both calibration and evaluation experiments, with RMSE being the smallest for SAB686 (RMSE=2.47 days, RMSE relative to mean = 4.8 %), and about twice as large for Calima (4.95 days, 9.8 %). Notably, RMSE for both reduces in the evaluation experiments (except for CM14), suggesting the model represents well the phenology of these genotypes. We also note that CM14 calibration performed better than the calibration reported here in both calibration and evaluation experiments. Simulated yield is presented in Fig. 2 for the calibration experiments. For these experiments, in general, the performance of the model for simulating growth (not shown) and yield of SAB686 was better than for Calima. For Calima, specifically, we note that CM14 calibration performed poorly compared to the calibration reported here. There were also differences in how well the model simulated both treatments across the two genotypes. Treatment 1 was systematically well simulated for both genotypes, whereas treatment 2 was generally underestimated by the model, especially for Calima.Simulated yield for evaluation experiments is shown in Fig. 3. We find consistent model performance across the three genotypes, with the model generally performing well for treatment 3 and 5, and relatively poorly in treatment 4. It is possible that the model is overestimating the degree of drought stress in treatment 4 for the three genotypes, or that there is associated experimental error in the field measurements, especially for genotype Calima, for which variation across replicates is larger. It is also Calima. However, despite these limitations, the model performs sufficiently well for phenology, growth and yield, especially for genotype SAB686.possible that the weather measurements or the initial field conditions are not captured well. As for calibration experiments, the performance of the model for SAB686 was greater compared with that of Calima. Finally, we note that the CM14 growth parameter set tends to perform less well than our calibration.These results suggest that there are inherent limitations in the model that require more careful examination and improvement, especially under stress situations and for genotype. Model parameters are shown in Table 1 for the two genotypes. As a reference, we include parameters from CM14, which are generally consistent with the calibration results from the genetic algorithm. Once the model was calibrated and evaluated, we used it to perform the TPE analysis. The analysis followed a well-established methodology, previously applied to common beans in Brazil (Heinemann et al., 2016). Daily precipitation data for a total of 426 locations across Colombia was gathered from the IDEAM (Colombian Meteorological Service). These data were quality-controlled, and gap-filled as necessary. Temperature and solar radiation data were gathered from the NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER)database. The final database contained data for all locations for the period 1984-2008. Crop model simulations were conducted for both cultivars, grown in rainfed conditions, and using agronomic recommended management for the region (seed depth, planting density).Simulations were performed across 8 representative planting dates chosen to capture historical variation in the start of the rains at each of the 426 locations. Since our analysis focused on both temperature and drought stress responses, all simulations were conducted without nitrogen stress. Using the daily crop model output, we then computed the average drought stress (ratio of actual to potential evapotranspiration) and heat stress (average minimum temperature)indices every 100 degree-days (using a base temperature of 5 ºC). At an average temperature of 20 ºC, these correspond to 5 calendar days. We chose to aggregate per degree days because the significant temperature variations across bean growing areas of Colombia (Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012) create substantial disparity in the duration of the growing cycle, which precludes an analysis based on calendar days. These data were averaged from the day of emergence until physiological maturity, as simulated by the crop model. Using these data, we then performed a k-means clustering with 3 and 4 centers for each index individually (water stress, heat stress), and chose one (3 or 4 groups) as the final result after visual inspection.The analyses indicated that minimum temperatures explain most of the yield variation in Colombia. This is because of the spatial variation in minimum temperatures across Colombia, and the relatively large number of locations analyzed (n=426). Figure 4 shows the identified heat stress profiles, derived from clustering the 100-degree-day averaged minimum temperature data. After careful examination, three temperature stress patterns were identified, resulting primarily from differences in the within-season mean minimum temperature. These lead to different yield outcomes. The warmest environments (following stress pattern \"S1\"), experience an average minimum temperature of 25 ºC, which results in shorter cycles and a significant reduction in grain filling rates as a result of heat stress. Previous research in experimental settings has shown substantial yield reductions when night temperatures (herein ascribed by minimum temperatures) exceed 23 ºC (Gross and Kigel, 1994;Ofir et al., 1993;Vara Prasad et al., 2002).The two other environments experience much colder temperatures, with \"S2\" showing temperatures in the range of 16-17 ºC, and pattern \"S3\" showing temperatures around 14 ºC. These stress profiles correspond to the Andean hillsides, where night temperatures hardly exceed 20ºC. While we find that temperature is the primary driver of crop productivity across Colombia, there is also substantial variation in drought stress (Figure 5). All of the stress profiles identified here show some degree of drought stress, which indicates that Colombian bean production is challenged by both heat stress and drought. The most severe is also the most likely (\"S2 -severe reproductive and terminal drought stress\", 39% probability of occurrence). This stress pattern shows a relatively early onset of drought (around 400 degree-days), and no recovery.  attern \"S1\" (severe terminal drought stress, 34.4% probability of occurrence) shows the same severity although with a later onset. Pattern \"S3\" (severe reproductive stress, 15.7% probability of occurrence) shows severe drought stress during flowering (around 600 degree-days), but the stress is later released. Finally, stress pattern \"S4\" shows only moderate stress around flowering (moderate reproductive stress, 500-600 degree-days). We also find a significant interaction with temperature. More specifically the \"S4\" pattern is associated with the shortest crop durations, likely resulting from warmer temperatures.Conversely, pattern \"S2\" generally experiences longer crop durations, likely associated with cooler temperatures.Climate change is expected to increase temperatures and alter precipitation amounts and distributions in Colombia and elsewhere (Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012;Rojas et al., 2019). It is therefore clear that bean breeding will continue to be challenged by both high temperatures and limited water availability. Bean breeding will require a strategy that addresses these two challenges, while also targeting nutritional outcomes for a rapidly growing human population.The bean program at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) uses conventional and novel breeding approaches to develop beans that have greater yield, are drought tolerant, and harbor adequate market and nutritional attributes for vulnerable populations in both Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa (Beebe, 2012;Beebe et al., 2011).More recently, the program has also been developing heat-tolerant genotypes, making use of inter-specific crosses (CGIAR, 2015). While the program is not Colombia-specific, there are many promising breeding lines which have potential for climate adaptation, greater productivity, and enhanced iron concentrations for Colombia. Some of these are being released by HarvestPlus 2 . Here, we find that roughly 50 % of the bean production areas analyzed experience severe heat stress during the cropping cycle, whereas all areas2 See here http://lac.harvestplus.org/frijol-biofortificado-bio-101-bio-107/ experience some type of drought stress, with particular severity during the reproductive and grain filling stages.To provide a more comprehensive picture in order to set bean breeding targets, a preliminary version of TPEs was also created for East Africa, under the \"AcceleratedVarietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa\" (AVISA)project (Figure 6). These TPEs used a simpler method based only on the clustering of monthly temperature and precipitation data. A total of five environmental groups have been defined, with the aim of facilitating site selection and understanding likely stresses, including pest and disease pressure. We highlight the existence of a hot environment (cluster \"5\", in blue in Fig. 6), where temperatures are similar to those of heat stress profile \"S1\" in Colombia (see Fig. 4). The breeding program will thus have to adjust to take explicit account of the stresses occurring in both Latin American (with focus on Colombia here) and African environments.The combination of these analyses further advances the discussion within the bean program (including modelers, breeders and eco-physiologists) regarding, (i)The design of an appropriate set of experiments that help gain physiological understanding of heat stress; and(ii) Design a testing trial network for advanced testing by CIAT partners in Africa and Colombia.Currently, drought phenotyping is carried out with the help of a rain shelter, as well as offseason in Cali (Colombia) and elsewhere (e.g. testing sites in Fig. 6). While these will need to be adjusted to a certain extent based on the results of shown in Fig. 5, heat phenotyping is less straightforward. A site for heat phenotyping needs to be identified that adequately represents the stress patterns identified. Toward this aim, CIAT scientists (breeders, modelers and eco-physiologists) went through a site selection exercise based on the TPE results, and additional analysis of climatic data (Figure 7).  Results indicate that a large proportion (~70%) of the areas under bean cultivation will eventually have temperatures that are as warm as Espinal (Figure 8). Hence, the selection of Espinal as a heat phenotyping site is highly beneficial for the development of climate-ready common beans. We have conducted an analysis of stress patterns based on crop simulations for dry bean.The results indicate that, if bean production is to continue and expand in Colombia, a breeding strategy that explicitly accounts for high temperature and drought stress is required. While the bean program has historically been centered on drought, and as a result has phenotyping facilities that allow for selection of drought-tolerant genotypes, selecting for heat stress tolerance required the definition of a new site with the adequate temperature conditions. The selected site in Colombia will help breeders and physiologists develop knowledge and tools to accelerate the breeding of heat-tolerant genotypes. In order to implement a breeding strategy that is truly global, future work will require expanding the current understanding of stress response in African environments and develop a range of tools (e.g. molecular markers, phenotypic screens) that contribute to accelerate the breeding process.Broughton, W.J., Hernández, G., Blair, M., Beebe, S., Gepts, P., Vanderleyden, J., 2003 between the models also demonstrated the capability to link two models to predict disease occurrence and when applied to a hind-cast experiment driven by historically observed weather data inputs, could quantify wheat blast induced relatively yield losses in the 2015-16 epidemic season in Bangladesh. This same linkage structure can also potentially be applied to couple DSSAT models to other disease models, and should be the subject of additional research.Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT), or wheat blast disease, was first discovered in Brazil's Parana state in 1985 (Igarashi et al., 1986). While the disease attacks all above ground plant parts, fungal infection of wheat spikes by MoT can cause significant yield losses (Cruz and Valent, 2017). While spike infection by MoT resembles Fusarium head blight, the two diseases can be differentiated because MoT infects the rachis, above which spikes appear white with partially or completely unfilled grain. With more advanced infection, the entire spike appears to be sprinkled with black fungal spots visible to the naked eye. Although infection can occur at the vegetative stage, yield losses are most severe when infections occur during flowering and/or early grain formation stages (Cruz and Valent, 2017).Following the initial appearance of wheat blast in six municipalities in Brazil in the eighties, the disease gradually spread to Bolivia, Paraguay and parts of Argentina (Duveiller et al., 2016). As such, until 2016, wheat blast was largely considered as a problem for farmers in South America, although some research had been conducted on potential risk scenarios should introduction to North America take place (Cruz et al. 2012). For these reasons, it came as a great surprise when MoT was however found to have infected over 15,000 ha in the space of six weeks during the months of February through March in 2016 in Bangladesh (Malaker et al., 2016).At that time, wheat Bangladesh's second most widely grown cereal, preceded by rice and followed by maize (BBS, 2017). Large-scale infection sparked fears of potential spread across the region, with the Government of Bangladesh and neighboring areas in India encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops to reduce disease pressure (Mottaleb et al. 2019). Wheat blast reappeared in Bangladesh during the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 wheat growing seasons, although at low levels of incidence and severity. Reports from the popular media also suggest that wheat blast had begun to spread into India (e.g. Das 2017). Although prevailing climatic conditions and a significant reduction in wheat areas in Bangladesh appears to have limited the cropped area with infection during seasons, the threat posed by wheat blast remains very real.Regional extrapolation estimates have suggested that South Asian farmers could lose up to 1.77 million tons year -1 with light infections of just 10% (Mottaleb et al., 2018).Wheat blast infections are affected by climatic conditions, the degree of susceptibility of host cultivars, and the location (leaf, stem or spike) and timing (vegetative or reproductive stage) of infection (Goulart et al., 2003). MoT tends to be associated with regions that have high humidity (Fernandes et al. 2017). Combined with temperature, relative humidity influences the speed of M. oryzae development (Calvero et al. 1996). Cardoso et al. (2008) suggested that the optimal temperatures for blast infection of wet or damp spikes range between 25 and 30 °C. Spore reported to confer 50-72% resistance to head blast in some genotypes under glasshouse conditions (Cruz et al. 2016). However, during a 2015 blast epidemic in Bolivia, even the best materials with resistance were insufficient for controlling blast (Vales et al. 2018). In Bangladesh, affordability. An alternative approach to mitigating the threat posed by wheat blast is to incorporate principles of integrated pest management (IPM), although most IPM programs require farmers to regularly visit and observe their fields to estimate infection levels. An alternative is the development of linked crop and disease development models that, when driven by weather forecasts, can assist in the early prediction of disease risks to alert farmers to take preventative action when and where it is needed. This report explores and reports research conducted over the last two years to address the this alternative by coupling a weather information driven wheat blast spore development and infection model (Fernandes et al., 2019) with the wheat crop development and a yield prediction model to assess the potential impact of wheat blast in a virtual simulation environment.The maximum yield of plants, determined by their genetic potential, is rarely achieved because factors such as lack of water or nutrients, adverse environmental conditions, insect damage and especially plant diseases will limit growth at some stage. Plants exposed to these biotic and abiotic drivers are said to be stressed. Crop pests and diseases are responsible for direct yield losses ranging between 20 and 40% of global agricultural productivity (Oerke 2006;Savary et al., 2012).However, crop losses remain poorly recognized as an important driver in matters of food security, whereas plant diseases have had an enormous impact on livelihoods throughout human history (Flood, 2010).Plant disease simulators have also been envisioned as a tool to support decision-making on the control of a particular disease, for example. A plant disease simulation model simulates the course of an epidemic based on amount of primary inoculum, weather and availability of susceptible host tissue (Magarey et al., 2004). Model outputs may assist in the choice of management practices, to maintain a low level of damage to a particular crop and to avoid major economic losses. forecasts. By doing so, the goal of their work was to increase the ease of use and applicability of this model in data limited environments. Both of these models however only predict disease incidence and severity; they are currently limited in that they do not assess potential crop losses to MoO or MoT, respectively.To be realistic plant disease simulation models should have a dynamic link with the crop model (Bregaglio et al. 2016). Despite efforts are few models which can run in real time, both the crop and the plant disease simulation model. This process is often laborious and requires knowledge of all models involved. To assess the potential impacts of pests and diseases on crop production, some crop models include coupling points, presented in simple graphical format in Figure 1.These can be which can be thought of as specific model variables whose changing values can be used to represent pest and disease damage to crop organs or growth processes. Plant disease simulators, on the other hand, are created to represent the impact on the final yield of a crop (Savary, et al., 2006 ). The coupling point concept was first introduced in 1983 (Boote et al. 1983), and later formally implemented in the DSSAT crop modeling platform (Jones, et al., 2003) as a Pest Module (Batchelor et al., 1993). A variety of methodologies exists for coupling environmental models (Brandmeyer et al. 2000) that can be extended to crop and disease models. Examples of coupling point variables include leaf mass or area, stem mass, root mass, root length, and seed mass or number, all of which might be negatively impacted by pests and diseases. By identifying specific mechanical and infection damage pathways, and rates of damage using these variables, growth models can be tuned to quantify how crop development and yield might be affected.Once implemented the new model can address multifaceted issues, such as on season risk analysis and studies on climate change/variability impact on crop growth and development (Bregaglio & Donatelli. 2015). The DSSAT Pest Module for example allows users to input field observations or dynamically modeled data on insect damage, disease severity, and physical damage to plants or plant components (e.g., grains or leaves). Users can then simulate the likely effects of those pests and diseases on crop growth and economic yield (Fernandes et al. 2019a).Among different approaches to integration of different simulation models the use of message passing interfacing (MPI) approaches is catching the attention (Pajankar & Pajankar. 2017).This report provides information on initial progress to dynamically simulate and couple both the MoT life cycle and wheat crop development by linking weather-data driven disease and crop models to estimate infection and spike damage. Although this project focuses on both Bangladesh and Brazil, this report provides details of initial model coupling and preliminary simulation efforts in Bangladesh only. All results presented in this report should therefore be treated as preliminary and non-definitive.An existing generic model constructed to simulate the interactions between diseases and wheat In Equation 1, T and RH refer to air temperature and relative humidity, respectively. Where RH is below the threshold in Equation 1, the model does not accumulate thermal time, and as such it does not simulate individual MoT spore development. Conversely, the model does calculate the development of a spore cloud and the density of spores in a 1 m3 area over the crop canopy, subject to assumptions of air current uptake, atmospheric diffusion and wind shear, all of which can affect and reduce spore longevity (Mousanejad et al. 2009) Survival of spores while airborne may also be affected by temperature, solar and ultraviolet radiation, in addition to relative humidity (Deacon, 2005). Based on this literature, we applied a simple metric and assumed that spore cohorts have a half-life of three days within any seven-day window. For each 24 period during which these conditions were met, the model accumulates values that result in a blast spore 'index' that is used to estimate the risk of outbreak. The model also determines the number and timing of days with climatic conditions favoring blast infection using a conditional ruleset. Days favoring infection (DFI) are consequently declared following spore cloud development when the daily maximum temperature exceeded 23°C, and when temperature amplitude (calculated as the daily minimum temperature subtracted from daily maximum temperature) was > 15°C, with mean daily RH above 70%, as in Equation 1. Rain can also damage conidiophore and/or was freshly deposited spores off of leaves and wheat spikes (Mousanejad et al. 2009;Suzuki (1975). If > 5mm of rain is accumulated within a 24-hour period, DFI is set to non-favorable.The This method of coupling the influence of pests with the wheat crop model, which was achieved with an MPI, has the potential to improve wheat simulations in disease and pest-prone environments, and provide better assistance in crop management decision-making. An MPI can be described as a standardized set of libraries for parallel and high-performance computing, consisting in exchanging messages between processes (Figure 2). It is frequently used as communication switches where applications can be written in different programming languages and easily communicate each other, sharing information through a communicator/interface. In this way, MPI shows up as an architecture independent and efficient strategy to exchange information (Browne andWilson, 2015, Fernandes et al. 2019a). A message passing interface parallel technique was developed for an agroecosystem model, EPIC on global food and bioenergy studies (Kang et al. 2015).To achieve these aims, non-relational open source database known as MongoDB was utilized to implement a flexible structured data schema. This permitted the storage and retrieval of experimental data and model-required input data. Preliminary efforts to facilitate model coupling and calibrate this model in Bangladesh are described in this report. Our work to couple the models is novel and is intended to predict yield in the presence or absence of wheat blast. Field experiments to calibrate model performance were carried out in Bangladesh in the 2017-18 and 2018-2019 winter 'rabi' season wheat growing periods (Figure 3). The experiment was replicated in three locations in Bangladesh. A split-plot design six wheat cultivars and five sowing dates was utilized across three replicates. to be blast resistant). Seed was sown by hand at between 5-7 cm depth following two tillage passes and covered with soil. Seed rates were 120 kg ha -1 for all varieties exempting BARI Gom 33 which tillers poorly, for which rates were increased by 20 kg ha -1 .Fertilizers were applied at elemental rates of 100-27-40-20-1 kg ha -1 of N-P-K-S-B. Two-thirds of N and the full amount of the other fertilizers were applied basally. The remaining N split was applied immediately before the first irrigation near crown root initiation (17-21 days after sowing (DAS)). Three light irrigations no more than 5 cm deep were applied. The first was applied as described above, the second and third irrigations were applied at booting (50-55 DAS) and grainfilling (70-75 DAS) stages. Weeds were controlled to reduce any competition with the crop.Observations of 50% anthesis and 80% maturity dates were recorded by trained technicians for all plots in all locations. After excluding 20 cm borders to minimize edge effects, the remaining plot was harvested at physiological maturity a corrected to a moisture content of 12% for grain.Canopy biomass was also measured from the same surface after sun drying to a constant weight.The DSSAT-Nwheat model combination requires daily precipitation, maximum and minimum air temperature, and solar radiation as standard weather inputs. In Bangladesh, these inputs were taken from HOBO automated weather stations (Bourne, MA, USA) placed at 2 m height from less than 200 m from the experiments. Any gaps in data due to equipment malfunction were filled with data from the nearest Bangladesh Department of Meteorology (BMD) synoptic observation station. The wheat blast simulator required hourly temperature and relative humidity data from the same sources. Where only three-hourly data were available (as was the case with BMD stations), data were interpolated to obtain hourly values.Because a pest simulation module in DSSAT has been made accessible to the DSSAT-Nwheat model, a communication approach using an MPI was used to couple the parameterized wheat blast model to DSSAT-Nwheat as described above that simulated yield loss (Figure 4). When applied in Bangladesh, the genetic coefficients of the model were refined to numerically represent the genotypic constitution of wheat cultivar BARI Gom 26, BARI Gom 28, BARI Gom 30, BARI Gom 31 BARI Gom 32 and BARI Gom 33. These coefficients express all relevant information regarding the life cycle, distribution and duration of each phenological stage, growth rates indexes, biomass distribution and reproductive processes. To achieve this aim, we developed a customized graphical user interface (GUI) to enhance researchers' capability to manipulate DSSAT-Crop Simulation Model (CSM) files to achieve simulation and data visualization goals. As such, an interactive library that could provide a mechanism for reading, writing and processing different DSSAT-CSM created. The GUI was developed using the jDSSAT (de Abreu Resendes et al. 2019), a multiplatform JavaScript module.The jDSSAT provides a standard and reusable approach for reading and processing DSSAT files.Through this approach, we isolate the complexity of processing DSSAT files to allow DSSAT integration in any environment. The DSSAT-Nwheat application uses the MongoDB database to store outputs from simulations and collates these alongside observed data. The R software embedded in the application enables the development of a more robust and flexible graphs within the user interface. This in turn, allows GUI users to produce graphs of simulated outputs with observed data and associated statistics that simulate disease inflicted yield losses.The goal of this research was to develop a proof of concept that models could be coupled to simulate wheat blast impact on yield in Bangladesh. To this end, we calibrated the DSSAT-Nwheat CSM by comparing it to experimental results. DSSAT-Nwheat model calibration was achieved by manipulating the genetic coefficients of each cultivar by iterative trial and error until observed data sufficiently matched simulated data.The DSSAT crop models require genetic coefficients, which are specific for each cultivar to describe the processes related to plant growth and development adequately. These coefficients concede the model to simulate the performance of different genotypes under various soil, weather, and management conditions. The model was calibrated using field measured meteorological variables, crop management and soil properties during the field trial cropping seasons in 2017-19 and 2018-19. Genetic coefficients were estimated by using observed anthesis and physiological maturity dates, canopy biomass and grain yield of wheat cultivars growing during the three seasons.Initial values of the genetic coefficients were obtained from the cultivars Bari Gom 26 and Bari Gom 28, already available in the APSIM (Donald S Gaydon, personal information). An iterative approach was used to obtain reasonable genetic coefficients through trial and error adjustments until there was a match between the observed and simulated dates of anthesis and physiological maturity, canopy biomass and grain yield. The derived genetic coefficients were used for model performance evaluation, and are available for the wheat cultivars BARI Gom 26, 28, 30, 31, 32 and 33 are presented in Annex 1.We implemented three virtual experiments for the wheat cultivars using the customized GUI and simulated wheat productivity performance with and without the blast model coupling given measured weather conditions in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 wheat growing seasons. We hypothesized that We speculate that temperature during January -the month prior to when the wheat crop usually enters into the reproductive stage -is vital for the inoculum build up and during February for infection. Data were explored using descriptive statistics and plotting modeled vs. observed data for each variety tested considering the number of days to anthesis, maturity, yield and canopy biomass.We utilized a case study to explore the model coupling described above. Our virtual case study concerns a fictitious situation where a wheat crop is planned to be cultivated in Jessore, Bangladesh. Using the modeling environment developed in this research, we constrained the potential yield of this hypothetical wheat crop by introducing wheat blast disease infection. This hypothetical experiment that included the simulation of the wheat susceptible cultivar Bari Gom 26, which was 'grown' in the simulation environment with and without the impact of wheat blast introduced to the model. This virtual experiment was simulated over the wheat growing seasons of 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 and examined yield patterns in relation to expert knowledge of the level of wheat-blast induced yield losses in each of these cropping seasons. Soil profile and weather data for the locality of Jessore was obtained from the global soil data base and the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, respectively.The mean of the minimum temperature observed during January in the three locations was 8.23 C and 10.35C respectively, in 2018 and 2019 (Figure 5). The mean of the maximum temperature   An inverse relationship between sowing date and in yield has been observed by a number of research groups in South Asia and is associated with terminal heat stress (Farooq et al. 2011;Mondal et al., 2013;Krupnik et al., 2015;Arshad et al. 2018). Heat stress in wheat can cause a reduction in pollen sterility and desiccation of stigma that result in lower seed set and grain filling (Reynolds et al. 2016). Data from three of the four site-seasons in this experiment appear to generally confirm this relationship, although variability and idiosyncratic yield observations in 2018-19 in both Jashore and Rajshahi underscore that other factors -such as storm events and consequent lodging -can disrupt this pattern.In addition, data from Jashore and Rajshahi in the 2017-18 seasons indicate yield decline is not always immediate. In both of these cases, yield declined precipitously on the last sowing date but was generally more stable in crops established on November 25, December 2, December 12, December 22. Yet in order to validate these patterns, these experiments remain ongoing at the time of writing in February of 2020 and will continue for an additional three seasons to come at all locations.Disease-free DSSAT-N-Wheat simulations for grain yield in Dinajpur, Jashore, and Rajshahi showed a more consistent trend of yield decline ranging from a high of just over 5,000 kg ha -1 of under 2,500 kg ha -1 across simulated locations as a function of progressively later sowing dates (Figure 8).This inverse relationship is more in line with literature on terminal heat stress and negative effects on yield when wheat is sown late in South Asia (Farooq et al. 2011;Mondal et al., 2013;Krupnik et al., 2015;Arshad et al. 2018). Simulation results however did not capture the site-and seasonspecific variability and idiosyncratic results observed in in 2018-19 in both Jashore and Rajshahi where lodging and other factors affected the expression of yield. Yields were also generally higher in the northern most location (Dinajpur) relative to the southernmost location (Jashore). The latter also had the lowest simulated yields with both early and late sowing. In general, simulated yield patterns showed the order Dinajpur > Rajshahi > Jashore across sowing dates.observed data. This indicates only a few days of error and is important as wheat can be particularly susceptible to wheat blast in the reproductive stage (Cruz & Valent, 2017). As such, accurate phenological prediction is important in linked disease-crop growth model development.All of these results should however be taken as preliminary and not as definitive. Efforts to further improve model calibration and fit with observed data will be undertaken with ongoing experiments in the growing season of 2019/2020. The DSSAT-Nwheat provides, in a daily step, the total seed mass to the disease model, which calculates the daily damage caused by wheat blast infection, returning back through the coupling points an estimate of the fraction of seed mass loss. Simulated outputs for virtual experiments of the coupled models conducted using weather data for the 2015-16, 2017-19, and 2018-19 wheat season in Jessore showed a grain yield decline for BARI Gom 26 progressively later sowing dates in the first but not subsequent seasons (Figure 9). In the growing season of 2015-16, a wheat blast outbreak was observed for the first time in Bangladesh (Malaker et al., 2016;Mottaleb et al. 2018).The weather conditions and an increase in temperature provided circumstances for fungal infection (data not shown). During this season, nearly 15,000 ha were affected (approximately 3.5% of Bangladesh's wheat area) with yield declines reported from 5-51% (Islam et al., 2016).Our preliminary simulation efforts show a reduction in yield of up to 20% with the disease introduced to the DSSAT-Nwheat model. The next following growing seasons had cooler weather, thus, diminishing the risk for wheat blast. When data were simulated for the 2016-17 wheat season in Jessore, blast disease introduction had nearly no effect. These limited simulated yield loss values for the both cropping season are to some extent supported by large-scale field surveillance that was undertaken by the BWMRI, CIMMYT and Cornell University throughout Bangladesh in early 2017. Out of 800 wheat fields surveyed in 25 districts of Bangladesh, only 77 showed symptoms of blast. Those that with blast however all had very low levels of infection and negligent yield or economic impact (data not shown). Similarly, low levels of disease were found in the 2017-18 seasons. Surveillance from repeat visits to 616 fields across Bangladesh during this season indicated that than 5 ha across Bangladesh were found to have infections throughout the, and those that did registered blast severity <20% (http://34.80.72.205/model/samplingwheatblast). The epidemic and non-epidemic years can be considering as case studies to evaluate the model linkage in comparison to the progression of the disease.After rice, wheat is the second most widely grown and consumed cereal crop in Bangladesh. After the introduction of the wheat blast pathogen that occurred and caused an epidemic in 2016, is necessary to understand the impact and potential for continued disease risks yield under different production environments, especially to address future climate change impacts on disease development and crop performance. Although a second wheat blast outbreak has not again occurred in Bangladesh, the risk of epidemics remains very real.The original weather-data riven disease model that this report is based on was developed in Brazil and validated for locations where more than a decade of wheat blast observations were available.This model was subsequently transferred to Bangladesh. The overall objective is to develop a flexible computing environment that will eventually permit model users to explore a range of sowing dates, weather conditions, and cultivar effects on wheat blast infection. In this report, we detailed efforts to calibrate DSSAT-Nwheat was calibrated for Dinajpur, Jashore and Rajshahi environments using field experimental data collected over three years. The performance of the model was evaluated through phenology, biomass at harvest, and grain yield. sorghum yields in India. This will involve using APSIM_sorghum as a decision support tool to design suitable crop and management interventions for particular locations and to optimize rabi sorghum systems productivity. The validated modelling set-up from prior work is being used and being spatially refined to suit this particular purpose. The model refinement includes parameterization of the elite sorghum material into APSIM. This tool will allow assessment of particular GxM fitness to particular production zones (E), development of novel approaches, and its quantitative advantage over standard Maldandi cultivar (M35-1) and standar management practices. Such improved set-up will be further used to design the site-specific optimal genotypex management (G×M) options, which have higher probability to increase productivity in specific regions of rabi-sorghum production tract in India. The most relevant of predicted GxM options will be tested in multi-location trials in-vivo to clearly demonstrate and validate the tool for practical on-ground use of such modeling framework. The project is planned for three years and all the data obtained from the project and resulting publications will be available open-source.APSIM Sorghum was run for 30 years using gridded AgMERRA weather data in 311 grids covering all the rabi sorghum grown districts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana. Information on soil parameters (collected from National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, International Soil Reference and Information Centre), crop cultivar parameters and management parameters are given to initialize the simulation. The conditional sowing window was set as 25 September to 15 October with a minimum of 9 mm rain within 5 days required to trigger sowing. If these requirements are met, APSIM will initiate the sowing of the crop at the density of 12 plants m −2 . Other crop management practices used for modeling were based on standard methods for growing sorghum (Rooney et al., 2007;Olson et al., 2012). The soil moisture profile at sowing time was assumed to be fully saturated in all grids because rabi sorghum is usually cultivated after the rainy season on the recharged soil profile and in addition, farmers often use pre-sowing irrigation before cultivation to ensure adequate moisture in the soil (Trivedi, 2009). After setting the baseline setup, different G × M options were tested in silico in all the grids of rabi sorghum regions.Different G × M options tested were: The APSIM sorghum model (APSIM ver 7.6) was run for 30 years with 13,824 GxM combinations in 311 grids. Thus in total 4299264 simulations needed to be run to generate the output files. This is time consuming and requires huge storage capacities to hold the generated output files. The setup files for the simulations can be generated and run by the Factorial feature of the APSIM. However, it cannot handle that amount of simulations. By using supporting software tools for automation and scheduling it is possible to tackle these large numbers of simulations. The simulations were generated by a custom software solution. Researchers from Department of Information Technologies, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic assisted the team in developing a special application which generates simulations and runs them in batches. The detailed description regarding the data preprocessing is documented by Jarolimek et al., 2019 and available at https://econpapers.repec.org/article/agsaolpei/294144.htm. Running that amount of simulations on a single computer would take huge amount of time. Therefore, the batches were run in parallel on 7 high performance computers (128GB RAM, 16 core AMD Ryzen CPUs). Biplot Analysis: Biplots of results of principal component analysis (PCA) indicating the correlations between the selected traits for all the grids across all the soils.We developed a system using flags to mark questionable records. The advantage of using flags is that subsequent users can filter the data by their own criteria and it also allows for preserving the original data. A main portion of our time has been devoted on developing an algorithm to estimate the missing phenology data. The collaborators reported date of sowing, date of emergence, days to heading, anthesis and maturity. However, not all records are complete. Fortunately, we have phenology data for most years and trials, which enables us to predict the missing data points. Knowledge on the timing of key phenological events in combination with daily and hourly weather data is paramount for the understanding of the performance of the lines that had been tested.We conducted a preliminary cluster analysis in order to determine as to whether there was any remarkable change in the grouping of the test sites between the 1985-1994 and 2005-2014 decades due to changes in weather conditions. Please note that these clusters differ from CIMMYT's mega-environments: We included all sites at which the three nurseries had been grown. However, not all sites are representative for spring wheat, e.g., in the North China Plain as well as in Central Europe, winter wheat is predominantly grown. We did not consider any crop management information, such as irrigation and only included a key set of weather variables in the clustering analysis. We used the seasonal averages of daily weather variables, such as maximum and minimum temperature, solar radiation, photothermal quotient, relative humidity, number of days at which maximum temperature exceeded 35º C, and number of days at which minimum temperature was below 9º C. We will use these clusters to determine as to whether some lines perform relatively better in specific environments (clusters) than in other ones. Moreover, we wanted to see whether the clustering of the locations may have changed due to climate change. The cluster analysis revealed that most test sites stayed in their clusters, and only few sites, mainly in India and Africa switched from one cluster to another one (Fig 1). Furthermore, we analyzed the trends of cross-over of yield of the ESWYT, HTWYT, and semi-arid spring wheat nurseries (SAWYT). This included regression analyses and principal factor analyses between yield cross-over and growing-season climatic variables, in order to investigate the significant climatic factors that drive a cross-over. We are using a shifted multiplicative model (SHMM), additive and multiplicative models to quantify relationships between cross-over and environment. We also started close collaboration with Dr. M. Krause, a US-NSF fellow, who will link the phenology data from the nurseries to genomics. Information resulting from these analyses will allow for fast and efficient selection of new wheat lines with an optimal phenology that fits into changing wheat production environments caused by global warming.well as a 2-page implementation brief about minimum experimental data required for crop modeling and analytical purposes among CGIAR centers.The outputs and deliverables will include:1) Support in the elaboration of a manuscript that makes specific recommendations on minimum datasets for a range of crop modeling activities,2) Support in the elaboration of a 2-page implementation brief about minimum experimental data required for crop modeling and analytical purposes among CGIAR centers3) Blog post about the outcomes from the project.The impact of the proposed project will be an awareness to the crop modeling community and experimentalists of the importance in minimum experimental parameters that need to be collected to make more datasets available for crop modeling and system understanding purposes. The outputs from the project will be made available to the international crop modeling community through the Crop Modeling CoP and AgMIP -one of the largest international research communities with more than 900 members. This will ensure great visibility of the potential impact of the Big Data Platform in CGIAR for other scientific communities, with broader implications for future research direction and policy makers.From the first records in the 18 th century in Europe daily weather has been observed and recorded; it was crucial for the agricultural revolution in England. Researchers have long used these data for agronomic and grazing studies, some of these go back to not long after the records began.The ethos of data collection for the agricultural world spread to European colonies around the world. These were used to plan and manage plantations. Tea in Kenya and Assam, cacao in western Africa, rubber in the Malay peninsula and cotton in America.All of these analyses were done on a point basis; if meteorological data were need then they had to be recorded at the point of use. Early methods of interpolation relied on climate classifications, which could be mapped; Kӧppen (1884) is an example. Digital versions of climate data, for example Hijmans et. al (2005) are useful for GIS application where environmental indices can be calculated from the monthly climate data.Daily data are generally needed For crop modelling, but these are far too voluminous to store in a high-resolution global coverage. This problem is compounded by the need to include realistic variation, both short term and annual, in modelling analyses. One solution to this is to use a weather generator. MarkSim is a daily rainfall generator devised for the tropics in CIAT and ILRI in the late 1990's building on work at CIAT from the previous 15 years; Jones & Thornton, (1993, 1997, 1999, 2000), Jones et. al. (2002). More recently, see Jones & Thornton (2013), we have added a capability to simulate future weather sequences from a suite of GCM models, MarkSimGCM a standalone version is available in an EXE as MarkSim_Standalone.The weather generator needs all of the monthly climate values in one record and so the MetGrid file was born. This eventually used the data layers of WorldClim. This work is to update the MarkSim application data with the new data from WorldClim v2.0, Fick & Hijmans (2017). The outputs are a new set of MetGrid files at 10, 5 and 2.5 arc minutes and 30 arc seconds, and sets of CLI files, which can be used as input to the stand-alone version of MarkSim or as input to other weather generators. Until now, MetGrid files have not been available to the general user; this changes with this version and they will be available for download from CCAFS at CIAT. As they are a highly specialised format, a Fortran module, MetGrid_Handler, has been produced for general distribution to assist their use.The basic MetGrid structure was created in the late '80s for various applications in CIAT that used long-term climate data from the CIAT Climate Database. In those days GIS was rudimentary and using single variable coverages for any calculation more complicated than simple overlay was out of the question. The CIAT Climate Database (later to be incorporated into WorldClim) held individual station data. These were interpolated into 10 minute and 5 minute grids, but instead of storing the grids by monthly variates, I devised the MetGrid file so that calculations such as water balance, length of season, climate and land classification and varietal suitability could all be calculated directly, pixel by pixel, using Fortran programs.For a start, a MetGrid file is not a grid file. It is a space-conserving file can be used to construct derived climate grids throughout the world. The base data are from WorldClim v2.0 with the exception of the number of rain days that are derived from MarkSim v1.0. MetGrid files come in four resolutions; 10 arc-minutes, 5 arc-minutes, 2.5 arc-minutes and 30 arc-seconds. The big difference from the WorldClim files is that all variates are represented in one record.The MetGrid files are not raster grids, or, in fact, any sort of grid, and so they have to carry additional data to identify the record. This is simply the Latitude, longitude, and median elevation of the pixel. MetGrid v1.0 used the latitude and longitude of the lower left corner of the pixel, but we found that rounding errors made it difficult to translate easily to normal GIS grids. In version 2 we've decided on the latitude and longitude of the centre of the pixel. The user will now find no problem with translating any MetGrid to a raster image using the functions in the MetGrid_handler module. MetGrid records are stored as binary record in order from North to South in lines of longitude from West to East, but non-land areas are not recorded. There is therefore no simple relationship between a record number in the MetGrid file and a raster map. In order to overcome this the full MetGrid fileset is a group of three files with dedicated file extensions. They should always be copied together as a unit or the full functioning of the MetGrid will be impaired.They consist of a file header, extension .hdr, which describes the fileset. It is a small ASCII file such as this one for the 10 arc minute dataset. Note that although the contents appear to MarkSim Record. describe a raster grid dataset, the MetGrid is not; what is being described here is the grid that it represents.World2_10m.mtg Author P.G. The use of 12-bit words in modern computing is unusual, but the type and quality of the data in this case lend themselves to it, considerably reducing record size and hence file size. The extra computation involved can be offset against the reduced seek and read times from the file which will only have to be produced once. The overall record does conform to standard 32-bit word boundaries, and so it is read efficiently.The variates are: The index file (extension .idx) is a binary file that can efficiently relate a latitude and longitude to a single record in the direct access .mtg file without involving multiple reads and searches. It is essentially a run length encoded file by lines of latitude. The run length encoded values are simply presence or absence of a land based pixel and the identity of the target record within the .mtg file can be returned with the absolute minimum of computation. Each .idx is specific to the resolution of the .mtg file and so must never be separated from it.The use of MarkSim and the MetGrid files requires an understanding of climate rotation. The following section was taken mainly from the original manuals of FloraMap, MarkSim and Homologue, where it is crucial in the operation of these applications.The climatic events that occur through the year, such as summer/winter and start/finish of the rainy season, are of prime importance when comparing one climate with another. Unfortunately, they occur at different dates in many climate types. The most obvious case is where we compare climates between points in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but more subtle differences occur in climate event timing throughout the tropics. What we need is a method of eliminating these differences to allow us to make comparisons free of these annual timing effects.Let us look at two hypothetical climate stations. They are in a typical Mediterranean climate-warm wet winters, hot dry summers. Northville could be somewhere in California, and Southville might be in Chile. The August rainfall in Southville happens in January in Northville (Figure 3.3). If we plot these rainfalls in polar coordinates, we can readily see that to compare them we need to rotate them to a standard time. How do we do this automatically? The answer is the 12-point Fourier transform. This is fortunately the simplest of all the possible Fourier transform algorithms. It is highly computationally efficient and fast. It takes the 12 monthly values and converts them to a series of sine and cosine functions. The one used in MarkSim has a modification to make it conserve the monthly total values (Jones, 1987). The equation produced is:We can write this as a series of frequency vectors, each with an amplitude I, and a phase angle, i: If we subtract the first phase angle from all the other vectors in the set, we have produced a rigid rotation of the vectors; this is the rotation we want, it puts the maximum of the first frequency at a phase angle of zero and places the rest in positions equivalent to their angular separation in the original data. We then use the first phase angle for rainfall to rotate the data for temperature and diurnal temperature range, which we rotate through the same angle. This explanation works well for the tropics. There was a small chance of the procedure going off the rails if the rainfall record did not have a seasonal peak. This was the case in some records from tropical desert regions, in these cases the rotation was ambiguous and sometimes resulted in pixels allocated to the wrong cluster. The beta release of MarkSim went out with this type of rotation algorithm, as did the first release of FloraMap. When the climate grids of the latter were extended to Europe, the case arose where annual climate pattern was dominated by temperature and not rainfall.We therefore have the possibility of rotating on rainfall or temperature, but when to decide which is the dominant? We tried many combinations of rules, but unfortunately came to the conclusion that none were acceptable. They all resulted in a hard line across the map at some point where the rotation basis changed. This led to climates that should have been grading imperceptibly from one type to another suddenly jumping at a discontinuity. This would have given the users serious problems when fitting models in these areas.The best solution found is to use BOTH the rainfall and the temperature in calculating the rotation phase angle. Thus: Unfortunately, this does not completely solve the problem of fitting a model to climates with different weather determinants. However, the vast majority of climates in the world are either:(1) Rainfall determined where temperature is not an important seasonal effect (large areas of the tropics and subtropics); (2) Temperature determined where rainfall is even throughout the year (most of the rest of the tropics and some temperate climates); or (3) Rainfall and temperature determined when the two variates are highly correlated (summer rains -most of the rest of the world).The Odd Man Out is: (4) Winter rains and hot dry summers (almost only Mediterranean climates).Luckily, the Mediterranean climates are at moderately high latitudes and we can afford to have the rotation dominated by temperature without losing generality in the rotations and comparisons. We therefore need to increase the weighting for the temperature vector smoothly as we approach the Mediterranean climates (in order to avoid a sudden swing). The index marked OK at 0.79 indicates (see Fig 7) an angle of 90 degrees between the two vectors if they are of equal length that denotes a reasonably stable rotation angle. It also corresponds to the case where one vector dominates the phase angle, which is also acceptable. The perfect confidence is found in the subtropics there the two vectors point in same direction. The equatorial regions and some Mediterranean regions have vectors pointing to different degrees in opposite direction. Luckily, none of these areas reaches the level where the phase angle is completely indefinite. The highest index noted is about 1.1, which is equivalent to an angle of about 120 degrees between two vectors of the same length. While this is somewhat indeterminate, there is still enough purchase to get a unique phase angle for rotation  A Fortran module contains data structure definitions that specify defined type variables that allow the grouping of various types of data into structured data units, and sets of functions or subroutines that use these units or operate on them. The module is invoked from within a Fortran program with the use command thus: use MetGrid_HandlerThe structure most likely to be interpreted by the user, in that the internal variables will be used in a Fortran program is the climate_structure. Most of the others are specific to the internal workings of the module and so are mostly only minimally described. Some variables are used within the module, but are defined as public as they may be of use in a program using the module. These include halfpi, pi and twopi as real*4, eof, year, month and day as integer*4 and month_code as an array of 12 three byte character representations of the calendar month. If the MetGrid header has been read then it is held in the variable h. Lastly, two logical*4 variables header_loaded and index_loaded indicate if the respective loading has been done.The index arrays are defined as private and are only accessed within the module; module routines to access MetGrid records use the loaded index arrays.As with the variable structures, not all module functions are necessarily called by the end user. Some have to be included because they are called by end-user functions; others are there because they are of use in the administration of the files.These four function rely on having the MetGrid header loaded in public variable h B04 type (climate_structure) function rotate_climate (c, phase) care must be taken when using this function as it can do one of three things depending on the call and the state of the climate_structure. parameters c type (climate_structure), input will not be changed unless specified as the function target. phase real*4, optional. a phase angle radians, may be any magnitude but will be used modulo twopi.1) If phase is specified the structure is rotated through the angle, 'phase' irrespective of whether the structure is rotated or not. 2) if phase is not specified and the structure is rotated, ti will be rotated to zero phase angle i.e. true calendar time. 3) if phase is not specified and the structure is not rotated, then a new, natural, phase angle will be calculated for the structure and it will be rotated to this angle.This function transforms a climate_structure into a MetGrid_record. This is used in creation of the MetGrids, but can be used as a handy way to save climate_structures by writing them to a binary file, the record length should be 104 bytes.As for null_climate, this is a way of creating an empty metgrid_record.None of these routines need concern the end user as they are all subsumed into rotate_climate. However, I will briefly describe them so that the end user may gain an insight into what is happening. They all have to be present in the module because they are interdependent and used on the working of rotate_climate.This function creates a new climate_structure such that the rotation angle is the definitive angle that rotates the structure to match similar climates. It cannot be used if the structure is already rotatedThis routine correct for small errors that are sometimes introduced during rotation. These are notices on variates that cannot go negative, such as rain and raindays. They are an artefact of the rotation process, but are invariably small and can be eliminated parameter v 12 valued real*4 array, declared as input and output R03 subroutine rotate (v, phase) Rotate a 12 valued variate array through a phase angle. Although there may be times when this routine is appropriate, it is dangerous as the array is divorced from any structure and no internal knowledge of the state of previous rotation is known. !4 Use the index to find the record at latitude 52.737, longitude -3.883, Dolgellau, actually the Unicorn Inn. read from the MetGrid file on unit 1 and return an error if the position turns out to be in the sea.!5 Make the climate structure from the MetGrid record !6The MetGrid is always rotated. This is because the majority of the uses for a MetGrid file require the data in the rotated form. This line rotates the record to normal calendar form so that August is actually month 8.Rainfall is stored as rain per day. This has the advantage of being independent of month length, however this is available from the module.Find Abermaw (Barmouth) with coordinates from an unreliable map.  This is an example of how having all of the monthly variables together in one record can be handy for calculations. That the index is pretty useless is irrelevant, still, it brings up the hilly terrain quite nicely. I apologise for slipping in the image_processing module which is not available on this site. Phil Thornton and I use it extensively to produce Idrisi Images from Fortran programs but I've never got round to documenting it. If any would like a copy please contact me at p.jones@cgiar.org Grid functions are basic to using the MetGrid file in a grid oriented way. They take all relevant information from the MetGrid header, which must be loaded.!2 These are statements relevant to the production of the Idrisi image, you could use any other format for the production of the map image. They are indented one extra tab to indicate that they are not basic to the calculation.Error return is used here to skip all other processing when a pixel is all at sea.There is no need to rotate the structure in this case because we are only interested in the total of the monthly indices. Of course the rotation angle is unlikely to fall such that monthly values are exactly conserved. I will leave it to the interested reader to produce the alternative map with the structure rotated back to standard calendar to see what difference this would make. Hint! You don't need to produce two images, merely do two calculation on each pixel and subtract one from the other. The resultant image will be the difference of the two.The CLI pane descriptor is both a file that can be found in the compressed copy of each pane and a Fortran type descriptor for the information contained therein. As can be seen above, the pane descriptor has a directory definition. This is more for the analysts implementing the application than for the end user, but it can be used to structure the directories for the panes if the user so wishes. The directories define 40 degree squares to hold copes of the compressed panes of CLI files.The panes are made of CLI files from a geographic square of 120 pixels on the side. This means that the pane sizes are 20 degrees of latitude and longitude for the 10 arc minute resolution and 10 and 5 degrees for the 5 arc minute and 2.5 arc minute ones respectively. The maximum number of files in a pane is therefore 14400, but this is only found in panes that do not include a coastline.The pane name is constructed from the coordinates, in degrees, of the south western corner of the pane, it is given in the pane descriptor file and is used as the name of the compressed structure, i.e. N020E020.rar. The CLI files are named by row and column, thus: R01921C04801.CLI. Note that the row and column numbers are those of the virtual grid of the MetGrid file and not row and column within the pane. This is to ensure that all CLI files have unique names, however the names will not be unique between resolutions so it is important to keep the three sets separate if you are using more than one. The SOURCE field with the CLI file will define the resolution, but this would involve reading the file to determine its resolution.The CLI files and the pane descriptor file are compressed using WinRAR with the -s option to benefit from compressing multiple files with the same structure. This yields a compression to half","tokenCount":"12693"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a919017082aaba94daff64c258550617","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b5395b62-bd42-4ed6-9c2a-5a543f0c6d3e/retrieve","id":"959672994"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"365546d0-e796-4f33-bff5-75f7537fbbba","pagecount":"8","content":"With population growth far exceeding growth in staple food production, and climate change beginning to take its toll, does Africa have the time to rectify the situation? In many Southern African countries population growth has been slowed by HIV and AIDS related mortality, but so has productivity in agriculture. Poverty and malnutrition continue unabated yet these at the same time hold back agricultural productivity improvements and broader economic recovery, thus condemning the sub-region to a perpetual cycle of poverty, underdevelopment and social and economic deprivation.For decades a key barrier to the achievement of a green revolution in Africa, and Southern Africa especially, has remained and still is the unsupportive policy environment. What is urgently needed to break this barrier is known; these are inclusive and broad-based policy reforms that create and provide incentives at every stage of the food value chain to encourage higher investment into the food sector. Yet, the policy formulation culture in many countries remains inhibitive, typically top-down, populist and dominated by the governments and the few literate. Policies are often recycled without sufficient learning from previous policy failures (or successes). This raises the question whether we know how to learn from our own experiences? National and regional platforms for broad-based policy formulation are often absent, neither is there sufficient documented evidence on what works (and what does not) to inform policy choices. Think tanks are unfortunately too few. Policy research is irregular and not credible due to poor funding and lack of skills to package high quality research outputs. National universities for example are generally poorly funded and fail to attract and retain top-notch researchers. Whilst farmers know what works and what does not, they are often excluded in policy formulation. At best they are engaged when it is too late, often creating the impression they are needed to rubber stamp policy decisions already finalised at higher political levels.One of the critical barriers affecting the policy input from farmers in Southern Africa is the disconnect between farmers and researchers. In addition, most farmers are small scale, illiterate, not well organised and usually not well informed. The voice of many involved in small scale farming is weak and hardly heard especially in regional and global policy dialogue.The Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Network (FANRPAN) was set up in 1997 with a specific mandate from the FANR Ministers in Eastern and Southern Africa to address capacity weaknesses in policy formulation in the region. FANRPAN has already succeeded to create a regional stakeholder platform that brings together farmers, the private sector, government, NGOs and researchers in SADC, ESA and COMESA to dialogue on critical policy issues. FANRPAN is creating the opportunities for policy dialogue and the exchange of ideas directly between farmers in the field, researchers in laboratories, think-tanks and policy makers in conference rooms and parliaments throughout Africa.To help bring its constituency together, FANRPAN's has national nodes in 13 member states with a national secretariat hosted by an existing national institution in each country that has a mandate for increasing agricultural research and advocacy. But these institutions (nodes) have different levels of capacity. As a result, a key thrust of FANRPAN's current Strategic Business Plan (2008-15) is to strengthen the capacity of these nodes to become more effective hubs of policy research, information collection, documentation and sharing, and providing policy advice with sufficient credibility to influence policy decisions.There are many opportunities to be exploited, but so are the challenges that confront FANRPAN's work on capacity building of nodes. This Newsletter is dedicated to discussing these opportunities and challenges focusing on issues such as: governance and leadership, operations and management systems, human-resources management, financial management systems, capacity for programming and service delivery, and external relations and advocacy strategies.Governance structures of FANRPAN nodes vary markedly in their strength. They range from nodes with well-functioning Boards of Trustees, that are democratically appointed, abiding by the constitution, providing strategic guidance and exercising good control over activities of the nodes through well-articulated strategic plans and well laid out board procedures, to nodes whose boards are inactive and are not properly constituted. In building capacity of nodes in the area of governance, FANRPAN has the opportunity to draw from best practice among its own constituency and promote crosslearning between the boards. Boards that have the capacity to provide the necessary oversight and strategic direction on the operations of their organisations but lack a clear strategic plan will be immediately supported to develop these as vehicles for resource mobilisation. Such strategic plans should articulate clearly the vision, mission and values of the nodes, as well as key result areas and clear strategies. Each plan should have a coherent results framework and a result-oriented budget to guide resource mobilisation and monitoring and evaluation.In strengthening node governance structures, FANRPAN will also work with nodes to effectively widen the representation by increasing participation of civil society and the private sector. Some boards are dominated by government players, and this hinders effective engagement of other sectors in the activities of the nodes. As new board members are incorporated, nodes will be supported to develop board procedures and train board members and induct them on FANRPAN activities.Although some nodes have all the governance structures in place, they lack financial support to strengthen the operations of these structures, especially for the board to be able to meet regularly and exercise its leadership functions. FANRPAN seeks to provide such nodes with technical support to develop effective resource mobilisation strategies built upon their strategic plans, and also provide direct budgetary support for such node level activities. Nodes will be encouraged to incorporate their Board meetings if necessary into their cost estimated annual work plans.FANRPAN nodes that are hosted by government structures do not have the autonomy which could allow them to create their own governance and management tools. They are not free from vertical subordination to government structures and thus remain circumscribed to focus and scope of the broader government system when it comes to strategic envisioning. However, their strategic planning process and capacities will still be enhanced to maximise on the complementarities between the missions of the government and of FANRPAN.FANRPAN Newsletter -June 2010 FANRPAN Partners Meeting, Pretoria, South AfricaThe cycle of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation usually lacks adequate support and capacity among many nodes. Although all nodes undertake planning around their missions, for some nodes, there is a clear need for greater involvement of their constituencies in planning and review. Planning and review need to be systematised, internalised and well funded. Most node strategic plans are implemented without a clear participatory monitoring and evaluation system. Few nodes actually evaluate the impact of their work. Hence results for their constituencies are not documented nor published. This practice often ricochets as nodes fail to mobilise resources from their constituencies for reason of non-visibility and failure to demonstrate the value of such investment. The current FANRPAN business plan seeks to offer concrete support to nodes in this area of developing sound M&E systems and institutionalising technically sound planning, monitoring and evaluation.Some nodes have outstanding administrative procedures including security systems for their assets, but others clearly need some strengthening. Policies on replacement of aged equipment are often absent, resulting in many nodes keeping equipment that is beyond its economic life.Many nodes urgently need support to modernise their information management systems, including ICTs. Almost all need to improve internet connectivity, secure new open system software and develop an effective management information system.As ICTs are at the centre of information communication strategies that FANRPAN requires for effective networking, this area is being given increasing attention, including not just assisting nodes to purchase ICTs but to interface the node e-resource platforms with those of the Regional Secretariat to enable nodes to upload and disseminate strategic outputs and information through the FANRPAN Regional Secretariat website and database.Attracting and retaining top-talent through strengthened human resources management systems In general, staff performance management systems are compromised, with little or no evi-dence of use of results-based management tools such as the balanced score card or dash-board. Time sheets to monitor staff productivity are rarely (if at all) used. Revamping staff performance management systems will require FANRPAN to adopt a staged approach, beginning with inculcation of basic concepts through training and then technological and software support to implement computerised staff performance management systems. FANRPAN will have to partner with competent HR management service providers to support the network with training and mentoring but through a node-led process.In addition, node resource mobilisation strategies will be bolstered through technical support and linking nodes with potential funders. This would be expected to increase income streams of nodes eventually enabling them to recruit more staff and/or offer existing staff more competitive salaries that motivate and contribute to staff retention. Such a strategy will go a long way to address the acute skills deficit in some nodes in the area of coordination, policy research, documenting and sharing results of policy dialogue sessions and championing policy advocacy.With the exception of nodes that are hosted by government institutions, many are in desperate need of predictable and unrestricted core funding for effective programming, a challenge also shared by the Regional Secretariat but which the network is devising strategies to address. Only a few nodes have their constituency contributing core-funding or generating revenue through cost-recovery measures. Some of the nodes which have succeeded in introducing annual subscriptions for members have only managed to secure nominal contributions which are hardly adequate monthly recurrent costs. Almost all nodes heavily rely on donor funds for support.Some nodes have medium-to-long term plans but these are yet to be used to adequately mobilise resources in the form of either internally generated revenue or pool funding from donors for programmatic support. As a result most nodes are implementing their strategic plans through fragmented donor funded projects, with some co-mingling the funds when disbursements for some of the projects arrive late.FANRPAN through the Regional Secretariat plans to strengthen financial management capacities of its nodes on results-oriented budgeting, budget tracking and donor reporting, a major area of its own strength. In addition, FANRPAN will assist the nodes to develop and implement sustainable resource mobilisation strategies in the context of a strengthened system of strategic planning.A few nodes (universities and line ministries) rely on government funding but which is usually not enough for planned activities. FANRPAN will build the capacity of these nodes to mobilise resources from outside government through both cost-recovery and strategic public-private sector partnerships.Research institutions (universities and policy research institutes) engage in commissioned consultancies to boost their financial inflows. FANRPAN will link these institutions to international bodies that require partners for policy research in the region, as well as commission own policy research using these members of the FANRPAN network. Alongside this support the Network will promote north-south partnerships that strengthen the analytical capacities of researchers in the region.Most of the research, documentation and publication activities of nodes are covered by donor funding, which is usually short term and unpre-dictable. Yet this function is critical for visibility and sustainability of the nodes and thus should be funded ideally with core-funds. To address this, nodes need support to develop resource mobilization strategies that will widen their funding base, facilitate resource sustainability and promote visibility and their competitiveness in the regional and global research and publication market.Ultimately nodes should have funding strategies that allow for some independence in programming. Reliance on donor funding hampers them from implementing their strategies with autonomy and holistically. This imposes the risk of mission creep as nodes try to respond to demands of donors and not necessary those of their constituencies. Hence FANRPAN will help nodes to speed up discussions with their constituencies on innovative self-financing mechanisms for sustainability. Some of the measures include cost-recovery, members' subscription fees and outdoor fundraising activities such as agricultural shows or market fairs where levies or gate collections can be collected.Finally, due to poor funding and staff shortage, some nodes have weak financial management systems, with no clear segregation of duties in finance. Some do not have senior personnel in their finance units. FANRPAN will invest significantly in building financial management systems of nodes. Such systems upgrading could focus on computerisation of accounts, development of sound accounting policies and procedures, strengthening corporate governance, and recruitment of accounts personnel (on temporary or permanent basis) with the requisite qualifications and experience to ensure adherence to general accepted international accounting standards.Many nodes, even with just a little support, are able to develop comprehensive strategic frameworks which they need to guide medium term programming, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. This is a critical area where FANRPAN will assist with technical and financial support to enable each node to formulate its own robust five-year strategic plan, operational plan and project proposals for possible funding.The strategic plans should spell out how the nodes will address staffing requirements. Nodes will be sensitised on the need to develop long term staff development plans and supported to implement them covering all categories of staff. FANRPAN will specifically assist nodes in identifying potential donors and lobbying for support.Some research-oriented nodes have outstanding research competencies, but results from research activities remain within the confines of the institution because they are viewed as an academic exercise, and not action-oriented.FANRPAN will enhance capacities for demanddriven research including linking its nodes to organisations that may need operational research services.To take on and successfully deliver the activities of FANRAN while the node continues with its regular mandate, skilled personnel dedicated specifically to FARPAN work are needed. Once in place such personnel can also strengthen the capacity of the node for its core mandate, for example with skills and financial resources to effectively market the work of the nodes as a whole rather than just FANRPAN-related. Many nodes already hold stakeholder platforms for dialogue, but resources are too few to followthrough resolutions or hold any follow-up meetings so as to continuously engage their constituency. Additional support to them would seeNodes continue to register growing successes in establishing forums for engagement of their constituencies as well as other critical stakeholders like the media and the private sector briefing them on node activities, various policy issues and mobilising a critical mass of voice for lobbying and advocacy. Nonetheless, many nodes need to improve packaging and dissemination of policy research results. Many are yet to develop media and public relations strategies, linking their work to regional and international policy dialogue, and strengthening and formalising collaboration with non-members of their constituency. FANRPAN Secretariat has been working on this, bringing on board media personnel to participate in Annual Dialogue Meetings and training them on to report appropriately on policy issues concerning the food, agriculture and natural resources sector. The lessons learned from this work will be filtered into the nodes to assist them in crafting media strategies.There is also evidence that some nodes have succeeded to engage in a wider range of internal and external networks and institutional collaborative activities to inform and sharpen their research agendas, better coordinate with others and pool the available resources. FANRPAN will complement these efforts by promoting their research collaboration and networking objectives, and negotiating space and resources for their involvement in policy-dialogue.FANRPAN Newsletter -June 2010 nodes able to continue to organise needed debates, bring on board the voiceless, and generate or provide the evidence needed for effective policy advocacy.To reach the voiceless, at times, policy dialogues have to be convened at the grassroots level, and cascade all the way up to national but due to limited resources dialogue starts and stays at the higher levels. The process is not a once off meeting, but a series of consultations and good tracking of key issues and main points of consensus. Such a capacity has to be resident in the node or outsourced by the node. Such multi-level process of engagement is critical for strong ownership first of the debates and secondly of their outcomes by the node's constituency. Indirectly, the node will have marketed its services, strengthened ownership of its programmes at all relevant levels and built a stronger base for support in resource mobilisa-tion. These capacities will be strengthened by helping the nodes to come up with effective networking and information communication systems and procedures to improve ownership of their country programmes by their members.FANRPAN Regional Secretariat will work with nodes to develop and implement effective monitoring and impact measurement systems. The aim also is to have all nodes use state-of-the-art communication facilities (reliable broad-band internet access). All nodes should ultimately have well populated, functional and up-to-date websites and teleconferencing facilities, with upgraded information sources and services, possessing the necessary capacity in their information centres to use new technologies, and offering information literacy training. This provides FANRPAN with many opportunities for strengthening node ICT and information dissemination capacities.","tokenCount":"2786"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25b9bddf51911e22ad78d3aa731e4513","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/47c6c14a-bc92-4297-bec9-218553f26a0e/retrieve","id":"-1883698401"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1352e251-7989-4647-9e0b-ca3cdf33b23f","pagecount":"44","content":"A few scattered trees can make all the difference in the Sahel, providing wood for fuel, food for people and animals, a home for beneficial insects and birds, protecting the soil from wind erosion and bringing many other benefits.T he world's climate is changing fast, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, no matter what measures are now taken. For agriculture, change will also be significant, as temperatures rise, rainfall patterns change and pests and diseases find new ranges, posing new risks to food and farming. Until recently, agriculture has tended to be on the sidelines of discussions concerning human-induced climate change, and has generally been seen as the 'victim'. There is now, however, a growing recognition of agriculture's contribution to climate change, past and present, and of the means by which farming systems can adapt to cope with the changes, as well as the potential of agriculture to mitigate our climate impact. This recognition has led to the concept of 'climate-smart agriculture'.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines climate-smart agriculture as consisting of three main pillars: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes (food security); adapting and building resilience to climate change (adaptation); reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), where possible.There are many projects that are testing or promoting climate-smart agriculture, but few have shown widespread uptake. This booklet showcases 16 initiatives that are having a widespread impact on food security, adaptation to climate change and climate change mitigation, covering large areas of land and improving the lives of millions of people.With examples from both the developed and developing world, the initiatives include innovative agricultural interventions (Chapter 1 in this booklet), initiatives that address climate-related risks (Chapter 2) and policies and institutions that underpin adaptation to and mitigation of climate change (Chapter 3). In some cases, particularly in the policy domain, the support for climate-smart agriculture is a side-benefit rather than the core objective of the initiative; in others, it is the main focus. But ultimately, all the cases meet the threepart goal of improving resilience to climate change, enhancing food security and livelihoods, and reducing agriculture's climate footprint.These 16 initiatives show the potential of agriculture to adapt to a changing climate, to be more resilient and protect farmers against future changes in weather patterns, pests and diseases, and to slow the rate of climate change. The challenge now is to promote widespread adoption of climate-smart agricultural interventions around the world. A recent publication 1 from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security shows how widespread adoption might be achieved, drawing lessons from the 16 initiatives presented in this volume. n Guddi Bai Verma gathers wheat during the harvest in Madhya Pradesh, India, where agriculture has been described as a gamble on the monsoon. hile the impact of climate on agriculture has been recognised for as long as people have been farming, climate change has high lighted this dependence like never before. Temperatures are rising, rainfall is increasing in some areas and declining in others, seasonal patterns and pest and disease distribution are changing, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe.But there is now an increasing awareness of the impact that agriculture has on climate, particularly through production of methane and nitrous oxidepotent greenhouse gases. Agriculture produces nearly half of all methane generated by human activity, and nearly 60% of nitrous oxide emissions.Rather than dealing with short-term weather events-droughts, floods, heat waves and cold spells-farmers must now respond to climatic changes that will alter the way they farm irrevocably.Around the world, farmers urgently need innovations that will enable them to produce enough to support themselves and the ever-growing global population. Their added challenge is to do so in ways that will protect the environment, especially soil and water, and minimise agriculture's contribution to climate change. This section presents examples of how this is already being done. n There is growing recognition of agriculture's contribution to climate change, past and present, and of the means by which farming systems can adapt to cope with the changes, as well as the potential of agriculture to mitigate our climate impact F or centuries, farmers in the Sahel grew their crops in fields scattered with trees that were selected and nurtured. But, by the 1980s, almost all of these trees had disappeared, falling victim to drought, increasing population pressure and modern forestry and agricultural advice that dictated that trees should not be left to grow in crop fields. Farmers were told that trees on farmland were 'weeds' that competed with their crops for light, water and nutrients. This drastic loss of trees had devastating consequences. Stripped of its cover, land was exposed to sun and wind, reducing the fertility of the soil and its ability to absorb and retain water. Crops were shredded and buried by wind-blown sand. Insects and birds that used to help protect crops from pests lost their habitat and their populations declined, leading to plagues of pests and crop losses. Crop and livestock yields fell, contributing to chronic hunger and periodic acute famine. Women and children were forced to walk ever further in search of firewood, and turned to burning manure and crop residues instead, removing farmers' only source of fertiliser.Spurred by severe famine in the 1970s, development efforts targeted reforestation as a way to stop desertification and restore agricultural yields. These efforts relied on 'modern' approaches, growing seedlings of exotic species such as eucalyptus in nurseries and plan-ting them out in windbreaks and woodlots. But with little buy-in from local communities, and a national forestry policy that denied farmers ownership of trees on their land and fined them for cutting trees, few of these efforts survived when project funding ended.However, in the early 1980s, people working on a rural regeneration project in the Maradi region of Niger realised that the stumps of many indigenous trees were still present in farmers' fields and sent up shoots each year-which the farmers routinely slashed and burned. Studies showed that, far from being 'useless bushes', as had been assumed by many development practitioners, these indigenous trees could provide a wide range of goods and services, including timber, firewood, fodder, fibre, medicines, fruits, edible leaves and nuts, fodder, dyes and many environmental services.In 1984, the Maradi Integrated Development Project (MIDP) introduced 'farmer-managed natural regeneration' (FMNR), under which farmers allowed the stumps to regenerate, as part of a 'foodfor-work' programme targeting 95 villages in Niger's Maradi region. Initial results were promising, with crops growing well among the trees. But, as often happens with food-for-work programmes, when the incentive of food was withdrawn at the end of the famine, many of the farmers reverted to their normal practice and cleared the tree regrowth. Two-thirdsOver 5 million ha of degraded land in the Sahel have been restored through a practice known as 'farmer-managed natural regeneration', increasing the food security of millions of people and enhancing their resilience in the face of climate change.Firewood is an increasingly scarce and valuable commodity in the Sahel. Farmers who allow trees to regenerate on their land have a ready source of fuel for their own use and for sale, and are able to leave crop residues in the field, building up organic matter in the fragile soil.©CIFOR CHAPTER 1 / Agricultural Innovation of the half million trees that had been allowed to regenerate were cut down the following year.Those farmers who retained their trees, however, rapidly realised the benefits: more firewood, fewer pests and diseases, less soil erosion, rising water tables and higher crop yields. More wood meant that farmers were able to leave crop residues on their land, to be incorporated into the soil or grazed by livestock, thereby improving soil fertility and structure. A recent study by the World Agroforestry Centre shows that FMNR more than tripled yields of millet, from 150 kg/ha to 500 kg/ha. Overall, the changes brought about by FNMR, including improved soil fertility and increased supply of food, fodder and firewood, have been estimated to be worth at least US$56 per ha each year.More farmers quickly adopted the practice, and from those first 95 villages, FMNR has now spread across southern Niger and even into neighbouring countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. More than 5 million ha of land have been restored, with over 200 million trees re-established or planted. This has resulted in an additional half a million tonnes of grain production each year and enough fodder to support many more livestock. This has improved the food security of about 2.5 million people so far.The environmental impacts of FMNR are clear: the structure and fertility of the soil has improved, rain soaks into the soil more readily and water tables have risen in some places, making water more accessible available to plants and people alike. Together, these changes have increased the resilience of farming systems to extreme weather events, diversifying sources of food and income and protecting land and water resources. Anecdotal evidence suggests that FMNR also contributes to climate change mitigation, by sequestering large amounts of carbon in the soil, and in tree roots and wood. These benefits might never have been achieved, however, without the flexibility of the Maradi Forestry Department. Back in the mid-1980s, all trees in Niger were the property of the state, and farmers were fined or even imprisoned for cutting them down. Following discussions with MIDP staff, the local forestry department agreed to relax these rules, converting trees (in farmers' eyes) from a nuisance to a cash crop. Finally, in 2004, the Government of Niger changed the law, giving farmers ownership of trees on their land. The World Agroforestry Centre now estimates the value of tree products at about US$1000 per year to each household practising FMNR. n More than 5 million ha of land have been restored, with over 200 million trees reestablished or planted. This has resulted in an additional half a million tonnes of grain production each year and enough fodder to support many more livestock. It has improved the food security of about 2.5 million people so far R ice is the staple food of over half of the world's population-more than 3.5 billion people depend on rice for at least a fifth of their daily calories. More than 1 billion depend on rice farming for their livelihoods.But rice farming has some serious drawbacks. Paddy rice consumes more water than any other crop, and globally, nearly 40% of all irrigation water is used to grow rice. Globally, flooded rice fields also produce about 10% of all the methane produced by human activities, with methane 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Paddy fields are also a significant source of nitrous oxide, from the breakdown of excess nitrogen in the soil. Excessive use of inorganic fertilisers and agrochemicals in rice production are also responsible for environmental damage, such as pollution of water bodies.Various agronomic practices have been developed to help smallholder farmers grow more rice in a sustainable way, using less water and other inputs.Key practices include alternate wetting and drying (AWD) of the soil during grain filling rather than continuous flooding, application of organic fertilisers, such as manure, and reduced use of inorganic fertilisers and pesticides. Allowing the soil to dry out intermittently lets air in, preventing build-up of anaerobic bacteria responsible for methane production; this has been shown to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies by up to 50%. AWD also reduces the amount of water farmers have to apply to their fields by up to 40%. However, AWD may increase production of nitrous oxide, so careful fertiliser management is needed to reduce excess nitrogen in the soil and thus reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Changes in the way the crop is planted and managed-with seedlings more widely spaced in a grid pattern-allows the plants to make best use of the light, water and nutrients available to them and ensures good yields. Integrated pest management completes an environmentally friendly package.Vietnam supplies more than a fifth of the rice consumed worldwide, but millions of smallholder farmers in the country grow barely enough rice to meet their own needs.More than 9 million farmers in Vietnam own less than half a hectare of paddy rice land. Faced with the effects of climate change-declining rainfall, unpredictability of rains and salinisation of groundwater as a result of rising sea levels-and increasing H erbicide-tolerant (HT) and pest-resistant crops boost the climate resilience of farming systems and their capacity to mitigate climate change. HT crops, for example, reduce the need for ploughing and other types of mechanised weed control, reducing fuel consumption by up to 44% in maize and 60% in soybean. Both HT and pest-resistant crops reduce the amount of chemicals farmers need to apply, and the chemicals they use are less toxic than previous generations of herbicides and pesticides. Reduced tillage helps to preserve soil structure, reducing erosion and increasing infiltration and retention of water, and leads to a build-up of organic matter in the soil. Such benefits protect the environment and increase the resilience of farming systems, while also reducing the contribution of agriculture to climate change.A great advantage of HT varieties is that they facilitate weed control under reduced tillage, as they are not harmed by broad-spectrum herbicides. For example, HT canola-a variety of oilseed rape-was introduced in Canada in 1995, and now accounts for about 95% of the national crop-some 6 million ha. Grown under reduced or zero tillage, HT canola has been credited with reducing the amount of fuel used to grow the crop by over 31,000 tonnes a year, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 94,000 tonnes between 1996 and 2004. Adoption of reduced and zero-tillage for canola has led to the build up of organic matter in the soil, resulting in around 1 million tonnes of carbon being sequestered or no longer released into the atmosphere each year . Soil structure has also been improved, reducing vulnerability to wind and water erosion and increasing the availability of water to plants-all of which are vital for sustainable agriculture on the prairies. And beyond the environmental gains, farmers are also receiving immediate benefits in the form of higher yields, lower costs and greater returns. nAdoption of reduced and zerotillage for canola has led to the build up of organic matter in the soil, resulting in around 1 million tonnes of carbon being sequestered or no longer released into the atmosphere each year M aize is a staple food for more than 300 million people in Africa but, by the 2030s, drought and rising temperatures could render 40% of the continent's current maize-growing area unsuitable for maize varieties available today. Maize production in southern Africa, for example, may fall by 30% or more. New, drought-and heat-tolerant varieties will have to be developed quickly and be growing in farmers' fields in the next few years if we are to avoid widespread famine in Africa.Since 2006, more than 100 new, drought-tolerant maize varieties and hybrids have been developed and released across 13 countries by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Initiative (DTMA), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, USAID and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Each of these new varieties is adapted to local requirements, including cooking and milling properties and pest and disease resistance. In onfarm trials, the new varieties have yielded up to 35% more grain than those grown previously by farmers'; the best hybrid out-yielded even the most popular commercial variety by 26%. More than 2 million smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are now growing these new varieties and hybrids, some of them in countries not directly involved in the DTMA-a sure sign the initiative is on the right track. Farmers are reporting yields 20-30% above what they would have got with their traditional varieties, even under moderate drought conditions. Key to the success of this initiative, which is coordinated by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is the way it has brought together a wide range of partners, including publicly-funded research organisations, public and private seed producers, varietal certification agencies and farmer groups. This has helped avoid the bottlenecks so common in efforts to get improved crop varieties into the hands of farmers. Farmers themselves guide the breeding efforts, making sure the varieties developed meet their requirements. Certification agencies have been engaged in the process from the beginning, so their staff are up to speed on what the initiative is trying to achieve and the new varieties can move efficiently through the certification process. Seed companies are geared up and ready to produce seed as soon as it is ready for release. Engaging the private sector has helped to ensure that farmers have access to both inputs and markets for their produce.In March 2012, DFID won the Best Technological Breakthrough award for its support of the project at the UK Climate Week Awards. nThere is not much to eat on this maize, suffering from severe drought. Climate change is increasing the risk of drought across sub-Saharan Africa, and droughttolerant maize is throwing farmers a lifeline.I n China, during the 1990s, more than a million hectares of land became eroded each year. By 2009, 38% of the country's total land area was considered badly eroded, with more than 2 billion tonnes of silt entering the Yangtze and Yellow rivers each year, two-thirds of this from farmed hillsides.China's 'Grain for Green' programme (GGP), initiated in 1999 and implemented countrywide in 2002, was designed to reduce erosion in river catchments and to alleviate poverty in poor and remote areas. Based on paying farmers not to cultivate steep slopes and to restore forests on hillsides and eroded grasslands, GGP is one of the most ambitious conservation set-aside schemes in the developing world. Farmers are supplied with tree seedlings and receive annual grain and cash payments for each hectare of set-aside land that they plant with trees. With a budget of around US$40 billion, nation-wide the scheme aimed to convert about 15 million ha of farmland into forest and grassland, and 17 million ha of eroded wasteland (grassland) into forest by 2010.The Loess Plateau, in the upper and middle reaches of the China's Yellow River, was identified as a GGP priority region. In recent years, increasing population pressure and overexploitation of the land, including overgrazing, have led to severe degradation on over 60% of the land area. The Plateau's climate is also warming and drying: between 1951 and 2008, average temperature increased by 0.02°C per year and precipitation declined by an average of 0.97 mm annually.The impact of the GGP has been considerable. Over 2.5 million households have participated, converting 2 million ha of cropped hillside to grassland or forest. In Ansai County, Shaanxi Province, for example, the forested area (both old forest and newly forested land) grew from 12.4% in 1995 to 37.7% in 2010. The new forests and grassland sequester over 700,000 tonnes of carbon (2.5 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents) annually across the whole Loess Plateau-equivalent to removing nearly 800,000 cars from the road. Soil erosion has been reduced by up to 26%.As a result of GGP, total grain production on the plateau was only slightly reduced, largely because the land converted to forest was marginal for cropping and yields here were low. Farmers were able to increase yields on their remaining land by concentrating their efforts and resources on these more fertile areas, boosting food security. Household income also increased, largely because farm workers were able to take up gainful off-farm employment, broadening their livelihoods base and increasing resilience. nFarmer in the Loess Plateau.Paying for ecosystem services is good for the environment and peopleT he Sahel-the belt of land that stretches across Africa below the Sahara-has always been a tough place to farm, and climate change is set to make matters worse. Rainfall is sparse and intermittent, and droughts are frequent. When rain does fall, it is usually in short, intense downpours. After the long dry season, the hard-baked surface of the soil is largely impermeable, and the rain runs off to be carried away in streams and rivers, along with valuable topsoil. As a result, both people and plants are deprived of the water they need.Constructing stone bunds along contours has proved to be an effective way of reducing runoff. These loose 'walls', 20-30 cm tall and spaced 20-50 metres apart, slow the runoff, allowing more of the water to soak into the soil and trapping silt and organic matter that would otherwise have washed away. Combined with other changes in land management, such as digging zai pits-shallow bowls filled with compost or manure in which crops are planted-the bunds markedly increase cereal yields. Sorghum and millet yields of more than 1 t/ha have been reported, double the yield achieved on unimproved land. The benefits of contour bunds should also be futureproof: if the climate becomes wetter, the bunds will alleviate runoff erosion, and if it becomes drier they will contribute to water harvesting.Contour bunds have been established on some 200,000 to 300,000 ha of land across the Sahel. Assuming a yield increase of 400 kg/ha, this implies 80,000 to 120,000 tonnes more cereal grain being produced each year, enough to feed 500,000 to 750,000 people.Tree cover and diversity have also increased on the rehabilitated areas, increasing the supply of fuelwood. As a result, more manure is being applied to fields instead of being used as fuel, further increasing soil fertility and crop yields. Groundwater levels are rising, and farmers have started growing vegetables on small plots near wells, thereby increasing both their income and the diversity of their diets. Health benefits from this are likely to be significant, although have yet to be measured.The primary constraint to widespread adoption of stone bunds is their high initial cost: constructing the bunds on a single hectare requires 30 to 50 tonnes of stone at a cost of around US$200 and up to 150 person-days of labour. Farmers therefore require external support-from government, extension services or non-governmental organizations-to take on such projects, even if the longterm benefits make them financially attractive. n © TREEAIDMillet Zai pit : farmers in the Sahel traditionally plant sorghum and millet in zai pits-shallow pits that are filled with compost and manure-that concentrate nutrients and rainfall. These work well in combination with contour bunds.Story 6 500,000 to 750,000 people are fed with yields increasing thanks to contour bundsA griculture will always be largely at the mercy of the climate. Too much rain, too little rain, or simply rain at the wrong time can devastate a farmer's crop. An intense downpour may wash away newly planted seed, leaving the farmer with the prospect of no crop or the expense of replanting. Warm, humid spells increase the danger from fungal diseases, and such weatherinflicted losses are not only experienced in the developing world. Droughts in the USA's Corn Belt in 2012 caused US$20 billion of damage to crops. In early 2013, freezing temperatures and snow in the UK killed tens of thousands of lambs across the country, driving many farmers to the brink of bankruptcy. What's more, the frequency and severity of such extreme weather events, along with changes in seasonal patterns and distributions of pests and diseases, are predicted to increase in future years.Faced with these seemingly endless risks posed by the weather, resource-poor smallholder farmers are reluctant to gamble on investing in inputs such as improved seeds and fertiliser. In a good season, these could boost their yields and bring them extra food and income. But a hail storm, drought or disease outbreak could wipe out their crops or livestock, leaving them with nothing to eat, a large debt to repay, and no way of rebuilding their livelihoods.Farmers in the developed world have long had access to safety nets and insurance that helps them survive tough times. Now, innovative approaches are being tested throughout the developing world. Examples found in this chapter include a programme in Ethiopia that is helping resource-poor farmers to rebuild their resources and boost their food security, and a weather-based insurance scheme in India that is encouraging smallholder farmers to take judicious risks to raise their production. Ultimately, such systems are helping farmers move to new production systems that can meet the demands imposed by future climate scenarios. nInsurance policies have the potential to markedly increase food production by reducing the risk farmers face from investing in inputs such as improved seeds and fertiliser. With climate change, insurance is also invaluable in protecting the food security of farming families A farmer looks towards the sky while standing amongst his drought-stricken crop.S mall-scale farmers, especially poor subsistence farmers, are loath to take risks: they cannot afford to. If a gamble does not pay off-and, in the context of uncertain physical and financial climates, investing in improved seeds, fertilisers and other inputs is a gamble-their lives and those of their families are at risk. This is one reason why smallholder farmers are often trapped in poverty-they do not have the resources to invest in the inputs that would help boost their yields and give them a surplus for sale. And unfortunately, climate change is only increasing the levels of risk for those who choose to gamble.Over two-thirds of agricultural land in India is rainfed and, as a result of climate change, droughts are increasingly frequent. The major river valleys in the north of the country-the Ganges-Brahmaputra and Indus river systems-have always been prone to flooding, but the area of land affected by floods has more than doubled in recent decades, from 19 million ha in the 1950s to 40 million ha in 2003. Between 1801 and 2002, India suffered from 42 serious droughts that reduced agricultural production. In early 2013, parts of western India were suffering from the worst drought in more than 40 years. Indian agriculture has been described as 'a gamble on the monsoon.' India has a long history of agricultural insurance schemes, starting with a pilot programme for cotton farmers in Gujarat in 1972. This led to the Comprehensive Crop Insurance scheme in 1985, which was subsequently replaced by the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) in 1999. NAIS is based on an 'area yield index': yields are independently checked each year on a sample of farms within a sub-district and farmers receive a pay-out if the yield falls below a certain percentage of the long-term, average yield for the area. The scheme works reasonably well for widespread events such as drought and is relatively cheap to run, as yields do not have to be checked on each farm. However, payouts tend to be delayed, taking up to 2 years to reach affected farmers.Introduced as a pilot in 2003, the Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) was adopted by the government in 2007 as an alternative to the existing 'yield index' insurance. The weather index includes rainfall (high or low, length of wet or dry periods etc.), temperature, humidity, wind speed, and a combination of these as a proxy for disease risk, and is based on measurements taken at official weather stations around the country. Pay-outs are triggered automatically without the need for farmers to formally file a claim, reducing transaction costs andWeather-index-based crop insurance is encouraging farmers in India to invest in their crops, boosting food security and the resilience of smallholder production systems.Story 7resulting in rapid pay-outs, usually within 30 days of the index trigger. The system also has the advantage of avoiding fraudulent claims by those insured.All farmers who borrow money from financial institutions are required to take out insurance (including NAIS or WBCIS), while those who do not take out loans are still able to insure their crops if they wish to. Story 8 E thiopia's millions of smallholder farmerswho account for some three-quarters of the country's population-largely practise low-input, low-output, rainfed, subsistence agriculture. As a result they are vulnerable to the vagaries of the weather in the short term and will be hard hit by climate change in the longer term.Ethiopia has a long history of droughts and famines, but they are becoming more frequent. Throughout much of the twentieth century, the country suffered from droughts that caused widespread food shortages about once every 10 years, but such droughts are now occurring every three years or so, and almost constantly in the southern Borana rangelands. Average temperatures in the Horn of Africa increased by 1.3°C between 1960 and 2006.The increasing frequency of drought has depleted the asset base of smallholder farmers. They and their families commonly go hungry for several months even in 'normal' years, and famine is just one failed rainy season away. And every time the rains fail or crop yields are low, they are forced to sell off their livestock, ploughs, tools, and even their seeds, just to make ends meet.In 2005, the Ethiopian government introduced the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) to improve the food security of people who suffer from chronic food shortages and live in areas that are prone to drought. The programme is almost fully funded by external donors, including Canada, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, UK, USA, EU, the World Bank and the World Food Programme. However, the Ethiopian Government is the driving force behind the programme and has had strong ownership of it from the beginning.Households that have experienced food shortages for at least three months each year in the previous three years and have no external social supportrelatives working in towns and cities who send remittances, for example-receive payments in cash, food or a mix of the two in exchange for six months' work on public works projects. Households that cannot provide labour, such as those headed by disabled or elderly people, receive the payments as grants. About 85% of beneficiaries are engaged in 'workfare' projects. These are chosen through a participatory approach based on local authority development plans and include such things as enclosing protected areas, esta-Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme and Household Asset Building Programme have improved the food security and resilience to climate change of nearly 8 million households across the country.The Household Asset Building Programme in Ethiopia is helping farmers invest in increasing their agricultural production.Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme means that many farmers no longer have to sell off their productive assets, such as their livestock, when drought or other calamities hit. The programme provides cash or food in exchange for work on public works projects.blishing woodlots, constructing hillside terraces, shallow wells and ponds, and diverting streams for irrigation.A complementary programme, the Household Asset Building Programme (HABP), has provided access to agricultural credit and similar services to help people build up their productive assets and increase their agricultural production. Households' food situation is monitored regularly and, once they are deemed to have achieved an acceptable level of food security and no longer need external support, they 'graduate' from the PSNP. Between 2008 and 2012, almost 500,000 households graduated from the programme.In 2012, the programme was supporting nearly 8 million people (9% of the country's population) across seven of the country's 10 regions. A study published in 2011 showed that the PSNP reduced the 'hunger gap'-the period during which households ran short of food-in beneficiary households by just over a month (29%) and improved child nutrition . The HABP reduced the hunger gap by an additional 17 days. Households enrolled in the programme showed a steady increase in livestock holdings (up 11% between 2006 and 2010) and the value of tools-hoes, sickles and ploughs-they owned. In contrast, households not enrolled in the programme saw their livestock holdings and assets fluctuate widely over the same period. Distress sales-selling off livestock and productive assets to meet immediate needs-also declined markedly, from 51% of households at the beginning of the programme to 34% of households reporting distress sales in 2010.There were strong synergies between the PSNP and HABP. Households enrolled in both programmes were 19 percentage points more likely to use fertiliser on their crops than households enrolled in only the PSNP, and 21 percentage points more likely to use fertiliser than households that were not enrolled in either programme. Similarly, households enrolled in both programmes were more likely to invest in stone terracing, which improves productivity by conserving topsoil. As a result of such measures, those enrolled in both programmes produced 147 kg more grain per household than those enrolled only in the PSNP.Working together, the PSNP and the HABP have improved the immediate food security of households, strengthened their resilience to shocks such as droughts and floods, and increased their ability to adapt to longer-term climate change. There is anecdotal evidence that the PSNP and the HABP have increased tree planting by beneficiaries and suggestions that agricultural practices adopted are likely to increase carbon sequestration, but these have not been measured or even estimated. nThe Productive Safety Net Programme improves the food security of people who suffer from chronic food shortages and live in areas that are prone to drought. It reduced the 'hunger gap' -the period during which households ran short of food -in beneficiary households by just over a month and improved child nutrition N early 70 years ago, All India Radio started broadcasting a farmers' weather bulletin. These bulletins and the subsequent TV show, Krishi Darshan, played a vital part in promoting the uptake of improved production technologies by smallholder farmers and enabling them to respond to demands imposed by the weather.Such advisory services have come a long way. The latest iteration, the Integrated Agro-Meteorological Advisory Service (IAAS) was introduced in 2007. The service involves a wide range of partners, including the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), state departments of agriculture and agricultural universities, several government ministries, media organisations, nongovernmental organisations and private sector bodies.The meteorological services provide weather data and five-day forecasts. Specialists from ICAR, state departments of agriculture and the universities translate these into agricultural advisories, to alert farmers to weather-related events that are likely to affect their agricultural operations, such as strong winds, low temperatures or periods of humid weather, which can increase the risk of disease outbreaks. They also provide advice on what actions farmers should take. Field units at the agricultural universities relay these advisories to farmers in local languages using a variety of channels, including SMS messages on mobile phones, local radio and newspapers, and face-to-face advisory and extension services.The IAAS also provides national-level and state-level advisory bulletins, used for planning by national and state governments and the agro-input supply industry.The agricultural advisories currently reach some 2.5 million smallholder farmers across India. Studies have shown that farmers receiving IAAS advisories have yields that are 10-15% higher, and costs that are 2-5% lower, than farmers not receiving the advisories, largely as a result of using more modern agricultural production technologies and practices, having better irrigation and pest/disease management and improved postharvest technologies. Since it started in 2007, the service has had an estimated economic impact of more than US$10 billion.The IAAS has clearly helped farmers cope with current, short-term climate-induced risk, but may do little to help them adapt to longer-term climate change. More will need to be done, to build on the foundation of farmer engagement and to help farmers make the changes necessary to cope with uncertain future climate scenarios. n Often, this proves to be because the policy environment does not encourage farmers to take up these interventions, or institutions such as land or tree tenure mean that farmers would not reap the gains from their labours. Inappropriate policies and weak institutions may result in farmers adopting practices that are unsustainable or actively degrade the environment. Resource-poor smallholder farmers live a hand-to-mouth existence. They typically lack the resources to invest in potentially life-changing interventions-even simple ones like improved seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides or improved livestock-or are reluctant to do so because of the risks to their lives and livelihoods if their crops fail or their livestock die.The difficulties facing farmers are being compounded by climate change. Extremes of weather are increasingly common, making farming a more and more risky business in the immediate term. But in the longer term, farmers will have to make major changes to the way they farm, and even what crops and livestock they keep, if they are to continue to derive their livelihoods from the land in a sustainable way.This section highlights policy approaches from around the world that are helping farmers adapt to climate change, reduce some of its impacts and contribute to its mitigation while boosting their income and protecting their livelihoods. nThe impact of agriculture on the environment is unquestionable. It is responsible for up to 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Policies must be implemented worldwide to help mitigate climate change and raise farmer incomes A griculture is responsible for up to a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and Denmark' agricultural sector is no exception. Denmark is one of the world's most intensively farmed countries and a leading exporter of pig and dairy products. Denmark's agricultural sector is the country's third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the energy and transport sectors, contributing 17% of emissions.Agricultural production in Denmark is based on intensive, specialised farms, with large-scale pig, poultry, beef and dairy units and arable farms common across the country. Such intensive agriculture places considerable demands on the environment, and Denmark has a long history of efforts to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. In 1989, for example, the government introduced the Action Programme for Joint Biogas Plants, which explored the use of liquid manure in large-scale biogas plants as a way to reduce emissions and improve manure management in the country's intensive livestock industries. The programme was backed up by action plans to reduce agricultural contamination of water courses. The Action Plan for Sustainable Agriculture, launched in 1991, tightened controls on the use of manure on farmland, and was followed by a further action plan in 2001, to improve manure handling and reduce the amount of ammonia released into the atmosphere.All of these measures were aimed at reducing the impact of agriculture on the environment, including nitrogen pollution of groundwater and release of greenhouse gases-methane and nitrous oxide in particular-to the atmosphere.The Agreement on Green Growth, signed by all of Denmark's major political parties in 2009, builds on these measures and aims to ensure that protection of the environment and the climate goes hand-in-hand with modern and competitive agriculture and food industries. The Agreement includes measures to promote organic farming, re-establish wetlands, encourage environmentally sound farming practices and reduce use of pesticides and nutrients. It also focuses on efficiency in resource and energy use and the application of environmental technologies that reduce input use, energy consumption and emissions, recover valuable by-products, and minimise waste disposal problems. One of the specific aims of the Denmark's Green Growth policy has helped reduce the agriculture sector's carbon footprint while ensuring the sector remains vibrant. Smart measures, such as improved use of manure and a 40% reduction in the use of inorganic fertiliser, have contributed to a 28% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2009.Agreement is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Danish agriculture by 800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per year by 2015, half of which will come from reducing the amount of nitrogen applied as manure or inorganic fertiliser.A key climate-change mitigation element of the Agreement is its target to use half of all manure produced in the country to produce biogas by 2020-a 10-fold increase from 2009 levels. Production of biogas will reduce methane emissions from manure and reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuel-both of which will help bring down Denmark's carbon footprint. The use of catch crops and establishment of perennial plants such as willow for biomass, mandated under the Agreement, will sequester considerable amounts of carbon in organic matter and woody species.With a budget of some US$2.4 billion for 2009-15, the Agreement provides funding for several initiatives that will contribute to climate-change mitigation. These include the development of common, centralised biogas plants, farm-level investments for connecting to these plants and planting of perennial energy crops, such as willow. Planting these crops has also been made tax-deductible, to encourage uptake by farmers.Such initiatives are balanced by policy measures aimed at ensuring the continued health and vi-brancy of the agricultural sector, which is a vital part of Denmark's economy, accounting for 3% of gross domestic product and employing 8.5% of the country's labour force. Many of the changes are aimed at simplifying the policy environment in which agriculture operates, in order to reduce farm overheads and increase the efficiency of production.To date, the various measures have had considerable impact: Denmark's greenhouse gas emissions declined by up to 28% between 1990 and 2009 (from 18.7 to 13.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents). Much of this decline came from a 31% reduction in nitrous oxide emissions, due to improved use of manure and a 40% reduction in use of inorganic fertiliser between 1990 and 2000. Studies suggest that greenhouse gas emissions from Danish agriculture could be cut by a further 50-70% without reducing food production, and that increases in biogas production from manure could result in a positive energy balance for the agricultural sector as a whole. nThe Agreement on Green Growth, signed by all of Denmark's major political parties in 2009, aims to ensure that protection of the environment and the climate goes hand-in-hand with modern and competitive agriculture and food industriesA n initiative launched by the Australian Government in December 2011 to generate carbon credits for trading or to satisfy mandatory or voluntary carbon commitments is already showing benefits in terms of climate change mitigation and raising farmer incomes.The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) allows farmers to earn 'carbon credits' by implementing practices that sequester carbon or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The credits may then be sold by farmers to individuals and businesses that want or need to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of their business operations, creating additional income for Australian farmers and land managers and boosting resilience of Australian agriculture to climate change.Eligible activities for reducing emissions include altered livestock management, increasing fertiliser use efficiency and improved savannah fire management. Activities to increase carbon sequestration include managing for increased soil carbon and reforestation and revegetation. Such sequestration activities must demonstrate that they will deliver genuine and lasting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.To be eligible to participate in the CFI, farmer projects have to meet a number of criteria, including applying a government-approved methodology for implementing and monitoring specific carbon farming activities and generating carbon credits. So far, four methodologies have been approved, covering environmental planting of native species, burning savannah in the early dry season, destruction of methane generated from manure in piggeries, and capture and combustion of landfill gas. New methodologies are being developed by private bodies, industry associations and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.By July 2013, 69 projects had been declared as eligible under the CFI, including 10 related to early burning of savannah to reduce carbon emissions, 10 involving reforestation and afforestation and three reducing methane emissions from manure from piggeries.Benefits to the farms can be impressive. A pig farm in New South Wales that invested in a biogas generator went from paying US$15,000 a month for electricity to earning US$5,000 a month from the surplus electricity generated. The farm is burning some 2400 cubic metres of methane every day, saving the equivalent of 32 tonnes of carbon dioxide. At A$15 (US$13.80) per tonne, the carbon credits the biogas digester is generating are expected to be worth around US$160,000 a year.One possible drawback of the scheme, however, is that the high up-front costs of getting a project approved may discourage smallholders from getting involved, as the pay-back from small-scale operations may be too small to justify the investment; smallholders account for 86% of agricultural and forestry businesses in Australia. n Australia's Carbon Farming Initiative allows farmers to earn carbon credits for changes in land management that sequester carbon or reduce emissions, such as improved pasture management.Story 11T he Government of Brazil has introduced a US$1.6 billion fund to encourage farmers to introduce climate-smart agricultural practices that will boost production and reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.As in many developing countries, agriculture in Brazil is the second largest source of greenhouse gases after the energy sector. But there are clear opportunities in the country to mitigate agriculture's contribution to climate change. For example, Brazil has about 40 million has of degraded pasture. Restoring these pastures could increase beef yields six-fold, from around 30 kg/ha per year to 180 kg/ ha, reducing the pressure to expand agriculture into the Amazon region. Well-managed pasture also sequesters more carbon than degraded pasture.In 2010, the government initiated the Low-Carbon Agriculture (ABC) Plan, which aims to promote sustainable agricultural systems and practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also increase the efficiency of agricultural activities and boost the resilience of rural communities. The Plan's credit arm, the ABC Programme, provides low-interest loans for sustainable agricultural practices such as: no-till agriculture; restoration of degraded pasture; integration of crops, livestock and forest; planting of commercial forests; biological nitrogen fixation; and treatment of animal wastes.The goals are ambitious, including rehabilitating 15 million ha of degraded pastures and increasing the area under zero-tillage from 25 million ha to 33 million has by 2020. The target is to reduce Brazil's direct farm carbon dioxide emissions by more than 160 million tonnes a year, and save as much again by curbing the invasion of rainforests by farmers. Initial uptake was slow, with only five projects totalling US$1.7 million approved in the first year, but over 2,000 projects were approved in 2011/12 with a total value of US$251 million-still way short of the US$1.6 billion target. Uptake has been constrained by a number of factors, including shortage of people able to evaluate proposals, both among producers and at the banks, lack of information about the technical and financial performance of some proposed interventions, and excessive bureaucracy. The government is working to reduce the red-tape, including relaxing some of the environmental controls, but it is too soon to tell if the initiative will achieve its ambitious goals. n ©Eduardo Martino/Panos/Hollandse Hoogte The most dramatic way to see the extent of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is from the air.Persuading Brazil's farmers to adopt low-carbon agriculturex 6The Brazilian Government launched a plan to promote sustainable agricultural systems and practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the efficiency of agricultural activities and boost the resilience of rural communities I n November 2010, the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project (KACP) became the first soil carbon project in Africa to sign an Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund.The project is operating in the Kisumu and Kitale districts of Western Kenya, which are dominated by subsistence farms with an average of less than one hectare of highly degraded land. Implemented by Vi Agroforestry, a Swedish non-governmental organisation, the project is helping these farmers adopt sustainable agricultural land management (SALM) practices, such as reduced tillage, use of cover crops and green manure, mulching, targeted application of fertilisers and agroforestry. The project is following the World Bank's ' Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Land Management' methodology, which uses land management practices as a proxy for carbon stock changes. A survey of agricultural practices at the start of the project provides the baseline against which adoption of SALM practices is monitored.A key feature of the World Bank methodology is the bottom-up approach to monitoring (with farmer groups directly engaged in monitoring of the adopted activities), which helps boost awareness and understanding of the practices among participating farmers and promotes buy-in. A sample of participating farmers completes an Activity Baseline and Monitoring Survey each month, and these are independently audited to estimate the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Vi Agroforestry then sells the greenhouse gas gains to the BioCarbon Fund. The revenue from carbon credits is distributed between farmer groups (60%), Vi Agroforestry extension operations in the project area (30%) and Vi Agroforestry headquarters in Stockholm to cover administrative costs (10%).To date, some 15,000 farmers in 800 farmer groups have adopted SALM practices, which have been applied to around 12,000 ha of degraded land. The project's target is to enrol a total of 60,000 farmers and apply SALM practices on around 45,000 ha by 2016. Vi Agroforestry estimates that this would result in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents each year, while also restoring degraded land, boosting crop yields and reducing the vulnerability of the farmers to the effects of climate change. According to the World Bank, the project will bring direct benefits of US$350,000 to local communities. Payments from the BioCarbon Fund will provide additional income to participating farmers until 2025. n Farmers participating in the Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project are earning carbon credits for implementing land management practices such as mulching that reduce carbon emissions while at the same time boosting crop and livestock production. of two-thirds of Niger's local governments to design and implement development plans using small capital grants. In this locally owned process, villagers agree on a list of projects to be implemented, with backstopping from local technical experts from decentralised offices of national ministries. While many of the projects have focused on health and education, the programme has also financed more than 1,000 income-generating micro-projects in agriculture, fisheries and livestock, which have benefited an estimated 100,000 people, 80% of whom are women. More sustainable land mana-gement practices have been implemented on nearly 9,000 ha, increasing agricultural productivity, vegetative cover and carbon sequestration and reducing water erosion on 88% of sites. Now, the Community Action Project for Climate Resilience (CAPCR)-part of the government' Strategic Programme for Climate Resilience-is building on CAP, focusing on making sure that climate resilience is incorporated into development programmes and investment plans across the economy and improving the resilience of agricultural, agroforestry, agropastoral and pastoral production systems to climate change. There are already many good practices in sustainable land and water management known in West Africa, such as soil/moisture conservation methods, water harvesting, reduced tillage, agroforestry and nutrient-enhancing rotation systems, and the project will support initiatives to roll these out across the country. The project will also support social protection measures, such as cash transfers, seasonal labour-intensive public works programmes and safety nets for the most vulnerable households.It is too early to say how much impact these programmes will have on climate-change mitigation or resilience, but the bottom-up approach augurs well for both sustainability and beneficiary buy-in. n The objective of the original Plan Maroc Vert was to revitalise and reform Morocco's agriculture and transform it into a driving force for broadbased economic and social growth in rural areas. The targets are ambitious: increase production of olives four-fold; more than double citrus production; double or treble the income of 3 million rural workers; and create 1.5 million new, permanent jobs in the agricultural sector. The plan has two pillars, one focused on promoting modern, competitive, market-oriented agriculture, the second dedicated to combating rural poverty by increasing the agricultural incomes of the most vulnerable farmers in marginal areas. The measures proposed could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 63.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over 20 years, largely though sequestration of carbon in the soil as a result of improved agronomic practices.So far, the Plan has delivered impressive results. By 2011, production of olives had nearly tripled relative to 2005-07, citrus production was up 20%, cereal production was up 52%, date production up 45%, and red meat production was up 48%. F orests play a vital role in the livelihoods of millions of Tanzanians, but uncontrolled exploitation of the country's forests in the 1990s and early 2000s led to over 400,000 ha of forest being lost each year.Tanzanian authorities recognised that they did not have the resources-money or people-to protect all the country's forests. Villagers were using the forests as an open access resource, indiscriminately gathering fuelwood, forest fruits and vegetables, medicinal plants and building materials for their own use, and cutting trees for timber or to make charcoal for sale.Participatory forest management (PFM) was seen as a way of getting local people to take responsibility for managing the forests themselves. The Forest Policy of 1998 and the Forest Act of 2002 provided a legal basis for communities to own and manage forest resources on village lands and jointly manage forest resources in government forest reserves.By the end of 2011, more than 2 million ha of forest were under community-based management and more than 1.6 million ha were under joint management, involving over 1,800 villages-17.5% of all the villages in the country. The impact on deforestation and forest degradation is promising. The size and volume of trees are increasing in forests under PFM, but are continuing to decline elsewhere; cutting of poles and timber harvesting are lower in the PFM forests than in traditionally managed forests. However, there is some evidence that villagers are harvesting wood from other, non-protected areas, so the overall impact on deforestation may not be as great as hoped for. The impact on livelihoods is also mixed, with community-based forests contributing more to livelihoods than the jointly managed forests, with their more-restrictive protection rules.  ","tokenCount":"8891"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b4f87906ddb394f7d1112ab2f76dcafb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e85d48d3-5a14-4ece-a564-e3b8ed1695b3/retrieve","id":"-1158722877"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a92f8c4-27db-4525-8efd-89feea25d4d9","pagecount":"2","content":"Sustained adoption of animal traction for crop cultivation in the semiarid zone of West Africa has been slow despite deliberate attempts by governments, development agencies and research organisations to promote its use among smallscale farmers. The low adoption rates are partly due to demand and supply constraints, combined with the absence of certain preconditions (e.g. appropriate climatic and biophysical attributes, and farming practices). On the demand side, factors like the short time available for land preparation and sowing, high opportunity cost of resources tied up in animal traction, variable yield gains from animal traction tillage and long learning curves for both animals and operators have contributed to limit the adoption of animal traction. On the supply side, inappropriately designed and expensive equipment, and inadequate extension, training and support services have inhibited adoption of animal traction. Together, these demand and supply factors have lowered the profitability of animal traction and made its use unattractive to the farmer in semiarid West Africa.For policy makers and researchers in West Africa, the issue of how to improve the adoption, utilisation and profitability of animal traction remains an important one. This is all the more so given that animal traction has not been fully exploited in many parts of semiarid West Africa and that its use has seldom led to the achievement of the many benefits documented for other regions of the world, particularly Asia. Factors responsible for the divergence between the potential and actual impact of animal traction, and measures to narrow the gap need therefore to be identified more clearly through empirically based research.Survey data collected in 1991 and 1992 in two villages situated in the Sahelian (dry) and Sudanian (wet) agroclimatic zones of Niger serve to demonstrate the regional diversity in patterns and intensity of animal traction utilisation, and potential gains associated with it.Production function estimates showed that the use of animal traction did not have any significant impact on area cultivated, but increased yields of sorghum and maize by 12-15%. At the same time, it increased labour input by 15 manhours/ha in the Sahelian agroclimatic zone, but reduced it by 50 manhours/ha in the wet zone. These differences in labour use per hectare in the two villages were due to the differential uses of animal traction in the dry and wet zones. In the dry zone, animal traction increases labour requirements because it is mainly used for ploughing which adds an extra task to the cultivation process. In the wet zone, the higher degree of animal traction utilisation, particularly for weeding (in addition to ploughing), results in labour savings that offset the increase in labour input incurred in ploughing early in the season.Multiyear partial budget streams estimated under three different scenarios also showed that rates of return on animal traction investment ranged form -4% to 18% in the dry zone and from 14% to 58% in the wet zone. The analysis indicates that benefits other than area expansion and cultivation of cash crops played a minor role in the profitability of animal traction, particularly in the wet zone. Overall, the profitability of animal traction under existing farm conditions in the study villages appears limited.The evidence presented for Niger indicates that there exists a wide regional variation in the potential for adoption and efficient utilisation of animal traction depending on a broad range of agroecological and economic factors. This point has generally been overlooked in previous attempts by governments and non governmental organisations to promote the use of animal traction in Niger and other parts of semiarid West Africa.While simple mantoland ratios suggest that there is ample land for expansion in villages of the Sahelian zone, the low and variable rainfall creates a short growing season. This implies a need for early planting with minimum land preparation at the onset of the rains. The extremely poor soil fertility and the limited range of crops that can be grown strictly limit potential utilisation and profitability of animal traction in the dry zone. Some limited success in maintaining animal traction in this zone could, however, be achieved by using it mainly for weeding and by easing farmers' access to inorganic fertilisers.In the relatively better endowed Sudanian zone where the growing season is longer, soils more fertile and crops more diverse the potential for profitable use of animal traction is higher. However, realising the potential benefits will depend on using animal traction on a wide range of farm tillage operations (e.g. ploughing, planting and weeding), on a sufficiently large farm area and on highvalue crops (e.g. cowpea and groundnut). Since animal traction as currently utilised in the wet zone is not sufficiently profitable, changes in existing farm practices and increased intensity of animal traction equipment use should raise the economic returns to animal traction to an acceptable level.An option not considered in this study is the use of donkey traction which could be promoted together with changes in cropping patterns, particularly in the wet zone where the potential exists for profitable use of animal traction.For more information on this issue see: Williams T.O. 1997. Problems and prospects in the utilization of animal traction in semiarid West Africa: Evidence from Niger.  ","tokenCount":"855"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"45e9d0b6124b0e3398328eeed23579a8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fef3cbe3-692a-45f2-a9d2-ba50cdf31159/retrieve","id":"1451458661"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"93b71816-8010-44b3-91ce-ee2aa68b444e","pagecount":"97","content":"Tabla 1: Características generales de tipologías de finca por zona ganadera ..En el marco del \"Estudio de apoyo a la preparación del portafolio de inversiones para el desarrollo de la ganadería baja en carbono de Nicaragua\", se estableció una tipología de fincas basada en los siguientes criterios:• Agrupamiento de la producción ganadera en cinco zonas, basada en criterios geográficos y de clima (Nueva Frontera Agrícola, Vía Láctea Ampliada, Zona de Transición, Zona del Pacífico, Zona Seca). Para una descripción detallada de las zonas favor ver el documento \"Análisis de los datos macros a nivel de región para preparación de un plan de inversiones para la producción ganadera baja en carbono de Nicaragua\". • Definición de cinco sistemas productivos con base en la escala de producción y propósitos de productivos de la explotación ganadera:• Micro Ganaderos de Subsistencia: Son productores que mantienen pocas vacas en ordeño y producen diariamente pequeñas cantidades de leche durante determinados meses en el año exclusivamente para consumo familiar. Son productores con sistemas de producción mixtos (agricultura y ganadería), limitado acceso a tierra por lo cual el área para producción de forrajes es escaza y les obliga a buscar diferentes estrategias como alquiler de potreros, pastoreo en caminos y pastoreo en áreas de producción agrícola en épocas que no están cultivadas, lo que enmascara el alto índice de carga animal por unidad de superficie de pastos que se registra en este tipo de fincas. Su capacidad de inversión y capital de trabajo para ganadería son casi nulas, lo que limita su capacidad para realizar innovaciones y las prácticas se limitan a aquellas basadas en uso intensivo de mano de obra familiar.• Mini y Pequeños Ganaderos, productores de Leche y crianza de terneros menores de 1 año: Son productores cuya finalidad productiva es la producción de leche para consumo familiar y venta de excedentes, como alternativa de mejora de ingresos y para el flujo diario de caja. Debido a limitaciones de tierra, venden los terneros después del destete o a más tardar cuando tienen un año de edad, y las terneras las dejan en la finca como futuras productoras. La denominación mini y pequeños depende de la cantidad de vacas en ordeño, normalmente los pequeños ganaderos poseen entre 5 y 10 vacas en ordeño, y los mini ganaderos entre 3 y 5 vacas en ordeño. Cuentan con un poco más de capital de trabajo que el tipo anterior, lo que le permite realizar pequeñas inversiones en mano de obra temporal e innovaciones no muy intensivas en capital. Cuenta con mejores condiciones de acceso a servicios y mercados que los micro ganaderos. • Medianos ganaderos, productores de leche y crianza de terneros menores de 1 año:Similares a la tipología anterior, el fin productivo es la producción de leche para consumo familiar y venta de excedentes, como alternativa de mejora de ingresos y para el flujo diario de caja; y debido a limitaciones de tierra, venden los terneros después del destete o a más tardar cuando tienen un año de edad, y las terneras las dejan en la finca como futuras productoras. La escala de producción refiere a fincas en el estrato de tamaño entre 50 y 100 Mz, principalmente en las zonas Seca y Pacífico, con un promedio de 10 vacas en ordeño. La mano de obra utilizada para las operaciones ganaderas es mayormente familiar y contrata trabajadores temporales para las labores de limpieza de potreros y mantenimiento de cercas; cuenta con mayores oportunidades de acceso a servicios financieros con créditos de bajos montos, servicio de asistencia técnica y acceso a mercados. Realiza mayores inversiones en innovaciones basadas tanto en uso de capital y uso intensivo de mano de obra familiar y contratada, lo que permite realizar un mejor cuido del ganado • Medianos ganaderos, productores de leche y crianza terneros menores 18 meses.Producción de leche a mayor escala, poseen en promedio 17 vacas en ordeño (rango entre 15 y 18) en las zonas subhúmeda y seca, y promedio de 24 vacas en ordeño (rango entre 23 y 25) en las zonas húmedas y muy húmedas (NFA y VLA). Gracias a la mayor disponibilidad de tierra (fincas en el estrato de 100 a 200 Mz en todas las zonas), retienen los terneros 10 a 20 meses más después del destete, para obtener mayores ingresos por la venta de los mismos. Cuenta con mayor acceso a servicios de financiamiento y asistencia técnica, mano de obra familiar y mayor capacidad de contratar trabajadores asalariados, pero el sistema de explotación tiende a ser más extensivo en el uso de tierra aprovechando la ventaja de tener mayor acceso a este recurso. También tiene mayores oportunidades para acceder a mercados más favorables. • Medianos ganaderos, productores de leche y desarrollo de terneros. Son productores que se ubican en el estrato de fincas que poseen entre 200 y 500 Mz, con un promedio de 40 vacas en ordeño (rango entre 36 y 44 vacas) en las zonas húmedas NFA y VLA, y 27 vacas en ordeño (rango entre 24 y 31) en las zonas sub húmedas, Pacífico, zona de Transición, y zona Seca. Producen leche para venta a plantas de acopio o intermediarios que se dedican al procesamiento de lácteos o venta de leche fluida a la industria láctea. Gracias a la mayor disponibilidad de tierra, retienen los terneros nacidos en su finca y compran terneros o novillos a otros productores para desarrollarlos y venderlos con un peso igual o próximo al peso ideal para sacrificio. Su acceso a servicios de asistencia técnica y financiamiento es de regular a bajo, mejores oportunidades de insertarse en mercados favorables; el sistema de explotación tiende a ser más extensivo en el uso de tierra aprovechando la ventaja de tener mayor acceso a este recurso.• Tamaño de la finca. Dependiendo de la zona ganadera, se definió entre cinco y ocho estratos de fincas basado en tamaño y sistema de producción. La Tabla 1 presenta los detalles.Para el análisis más detallado de la situación actual (\"Línea Base\") y del impacto de intervenciones (basados en un portafolio de inversiones), para cada zona ganadera se definió tres tipologías (\"pequeña\", \"mediana\", \"grande\"), basadas en las tipologías originales y la proporción que representan del total de fincas ganaderas; las tres tipologías definidas comprenden por lo menos 75% de las fincas con ganado y tienen gran potencial para aumentar productividad y mitigación de impactos ambientales y climáticos. Fuente: Censo 2011, elaboración propiaLa Tabla 2 presenta las características generales de las tres tipologías seleccionadas por zona. En general, estas tres tipologías representan el mayor porcentaje de las explotaciones ganaderas existentes en cada zona, representando en promedio el 74% en las zonas Pacífico y de Transición y el 88% en las otras tres regiones.• Predomina el uso de pasturas naturales las cuales representan en promedio el 70% de las áreas de pastoreo, lo cual incide en la baja carga animal por unidad de superficie de pastoreo y el carácter extensivo de la ganadería, asociado esto a bajos niveles de productividad. • Merece especial atención el hecho que las fincas pequeñas en todas las zonas tienden a tener una mayor proporción del área de la finca en uso con bosques, con un promedio del 43%, mientras que los otros dos tipos poseen un menor porcentaje del área de la finca en uso bajo bosques con un promedio de 22% y 8%, respectivamente para los medianos y grandes productores.Tabla 2: Características productivas de tipologías de finca por zona ganadera La Figura 1 muestra la composición promedio de la dieta diaria de los animales durante el año para las diferentes tipologías. De este gráfico puede resaltarse la alta proporción de forrajes (naturalizados) y bajo uso de suplementos en la alimentación del ganado, que refleja limitaciones en la cantidad y calidad de la dieta e inadecuada o insuficiente suplementación, con sus consecuencias productivas, económicas y ambientales. Para más detalles ver el Anexo B.Fuente: varios informes, publicaciones, grupos focales, elaboración propia Figura 1: Composición de la canasta de alimentos por tipología -línea base La Figura 2 muestra por tipología las proporciones de los diferentes tipos de pasto del área total de producción.Figura 2: Areas de diferentes tipos de pastos por tipología (Mz) -línea baseLos niveles de producción, productividad y eficiencia reproductiva en general son bajos en todas las zonas ganaderas, aunque debe señalarse las limitaciones de acceso a información pública, como el monitoreo de fincas que realiza el MAG, y la falta de uso de registros ganaderos impide determinar con mayor precisión esos indicadores para poder determinar cuáles son los principales que más afectan el desempeño de las fincas ganaderas. Los promedios de producción diaria de leche en las zonas ZT y ZS son un poco más altos que los promedios de las zonas NFA y VLA, esto se explica por una mayor disponibilidad y accesibilidad de suplementos alimenticios como melaza, semolina y pastos de corte, que permiten tener una alimentación un poco más balanceada en las primeras zonas, mientras que en las zonas NFA y VLA la alimentación es casi exclusivamente forrajes durante todo el año, con serias limitaciones tanto en cantidad como en calidad por el estado de degradación de las pasturas y manejo deficiente del pastoreo. Tabla 3 presenta los detalles. Fuente: Censo 2011, elaboración propiaLa Tabla 4 presenta los impactos ambientales, a través de los siguientes indicadores:• Balance de nitrógeno: en general la salida de nitrógeno (biomasa) exceda la entrada (estiércol) y varía entre -21 y -33 kg por ha (-14 y -22 kg por Mz). Este balance negativo es una de las causas de la degradación de las pasturas, lo cual merece una atención prioritaria buscando alternativas que contribuya a reducir o eliminar ese balance negativo con énfasis en aquellas que permitan aprovechar el ciclaje de nutrientes como especies forrajeras fijadoras de nitrógeno o con potencial de inhibir la nitrificación en el suelo, pastoreo intensivo con altas cargas en pequeñas áreas, entre otras. • Erosión: varía entre 0.3 y 1.5 toneladas de tierra por ha (0.2 y 1 t/Mz), los valores más altos en la NFA y VLA, posiblemente relacionado con una mayor erosión hídrica en pasturas con altos niveles de degradación. • Comparación entre el área para la alimentación animal (pasturas) según los datos oficiales (basados en el Censo agropecuario de 2011) y el requerimiento de tierra basado en los requerimientos de energía (Energía Metabolizable) y proteína (Proteína Cruda) de las diferentes categorías de ganado, los rendimientos de pastos y otras fuentes de alimentación en las diferentes zonas, las tasas de aprovechamiento, etc. Ver Anexo A para algunos detalles. En general, salvo en el caso de las fincas medianas en la NFA y las fincas grandes en la NFA y VLA, el área requerida es superior al área real, indicando una sobreexplotación, una causa principal de la degradación de las pasturas. • Emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI): en todos los casos superior a 4 kg de CO2 equivalentes por kg de leche. La FAO reporta un promedio 3.4 kg de CO2 equivalentes para una producción anual de 1,947 kg/vaca para Latino América y el Caribe (FAO and GDP, 2018). Esta cifra se compara bien con este análisis (promedio de 6.6 kg de CO2 equivalentes por kg de leche para una producción anual de 950 kg/vaca en sistemas extensivos con una baja productividad y una alta proporción de ganado que no produce leche). El Anexo D provee más detalles sobre las diferentes fuentes. • Las emisiones por hectárea varían entre 2.3 y 3 t (1.6 y 2.1 t/Mz); por otro lado, la captura de carbono varía mucho, y depende principalmente de la presencia de bosque secundario en la finca, observándose una tendencia a un balance positivo de carbono generado por tasas de secuestro mayores que las tasas de emisiones. • El requerimiento de agua por kg de leche varía de 2.0 a 3.7 m 3 . Este resultado concuerda con otros análisis, por ejemplo de CATIE en Jinotega y Matiguás (Ríos et al, 2013)  La Tabla 5 presenta aspectos económicos. Ellos incluyen:• El valor promedio anual de la producción de leche y carne • Los costos de operaciones de la producción: manejo del ganado (mano de obra, costos sanitarios), mantenimiento de los potreros (mano de obra, algunos insumos), pastos de corte (mano de obra incluye también suministro al ganado) • El balance (valor de producción menos los costos operacionales). Cabe destacar la tendencia a obtener balances negativos para todas las tipologías en las zonas Nueva Frontera Agrícola y Zona Seca y balances modestos a bajos en el resto de las zonas, lo que está asociado con los menores valores de la producción; esto confirma la brecha de la ganadería del país en general en los niveles de productividad y eficiencia reproductiva, siendo más marcado en las dos zonas mencionadas inicialmente. • El requerimiento de la mano de obra (manejo del ganado, manejo de pasturas y forrajes): la mano de obra constituye entre 60 y 70 % de los costos operacionales. Fuente: Grupos focales, elaboración propiaBasado en los grupos focales y la consulta nacional (ver informe para más detalles) se propone las siguientes intervenciones al nivel de finca:• Sistemas silvopastoriles: aumento y rehabilitación de pastos mejorados con árboles dispersos en potreros • Aumento de bancos energéticos (pastos de corte) • Establecimiento de cercas vivas (parte de sistemas silvopastoriles) • Bancos de proteínaConsiste en el establecimiento de pastos mejorados al espeque o en surcos, en dosis y distancias de siembra que garanticen una correcta densidad o cobertura de plantas de pastos por unidad de superficie, asociado con árboles dispersos dentro del área de potreros en densidades entre 35 y 70 árboles por manzana (50 a 100 árboles por hectárea), provenientes de regeneración natural, siembra de especies leñosas multipropósitos o de la combinación de ambas estrategias de introducción de árboles en potreros. Para la escala de intervención por cada finca se considera la cantidad de animales existentes en las principales categorías productivas (vacas de ordeño, toros y hembras y machos en crecimiento 0-3 años de edad) cuantificados como Unidades Ganaderas Grandes (UGG, 1 UGG= 450 kg de PV) y se establece una relación de 2 UGG por cada manzana a intervenir con esta tecnología. Para más detalles ver el Anexo C.Consiste en el establecimiento de cultivares de gramíneas con tallos de crecimiento erecto y prominente y altos rendimientos de biomasa forrajera por unidad de superficie, sembradas en monocultivo en lotes o áreas compactas para usarlos principalmente en sistemas de corte y acarreo para suministro como forraje verde picado o para la conservación de forraje verde mediante la técnica del ensilaje para suministro en épocas críticas. Preferiblemente se utilizan especies perennes como cultivares de Cenchrus purpureus (antes Pennisetum purpureum), variedades de caña de azúcar y caña japonesa, aunque también se incluye la siembra de variedades forrajeras de maíz y sorgo. Para determinar la escala de intervención por finca se consideró la cantidad de animales existentes en las principales categorías productivas (vacas de ordeño, toros y hembras y machos en crecimiento 0-3 años de edad) cuantificados como Unidades Ganaderas Grandes (UGG, 1 UGG= 450 kg de PV), y se fijó un suministro de biomasa verde de pasto equivalente al 3% del peso vivo, como complemento diario al pastoreo durante todo el año (365 días), y luego se dividió entre el rendimiento de biomasa de pastos promedio anual por manzana estimado en dependencia de las zonas ganaderas.Consiste en el establecimiento de arbustivas forrajeras, leguminosas y no leguminosas, sembradas en monocultivo en lotes o áreas compactas para usarlos principalmente en sistemas de corte y acarreo para suministro como en forma de forraje verde picado como suplemento forrajero de alta calidad nutritiva, para mejorar suministro de proteína y energía digestible. Para determinar la escala de intervención por finca se consideró la cantidad de animales existentes en las principales categorías productivas (vacas de ordeño, toros y hembras y machos en crecimiento 0-3 años de edad) cuantificados como Unidades Ganaderas Grandes (UGG, 1 UGG= 450 kg de PV), y se fijó un suministro de biomasa verde seca de forraje equivalente al 0.75% del peso vivo, combinado con pasto de corte, como complemento diario al pastoreo durante todo el año (365 días), y luego se dividió entre el rendimiento de biomasa verde seca promedio anual por manzana estimado en dependencia de las zonas ganaderas.Esta innovación consiste en la división de pasturas en potreros de tamaño pequeño, mediante el uso de cercas eléctricas (preferiblemente) o cercas convencionales de alambre de púas. Los pequeños potreros son manejados con períodos adecuados de descanso después de un pastoreo y períodos cortos de pastoreo (preferiblemente un día) con altas cantidades de ganado, los cuales se definen con base en la biomasa de pasto disponible para asegurar mayor eficiencia en su utilización sin afectar la cantidad de forraje residual para el rebrote de los pastos. Entre los principales beneficios de esta innovación están: Aumento de la vida útil de las pasturas, la capacidad de carga animal y la productividad animal por unidad de superficie; uniformidad en el pastoreo y en la distribución del estiércol y la orina de los animales; mejora la fertilidad física, química y biológica del suelo en áreas de pastoreo y su capacidad de infiltración de agua; reducción de emisiones de carbono; reducción de costos de operación y mantenimiento de pasturas, entre otros.Para estimar la escala de intervención se consideró el área total de pastoreo en la finca; se definió una intervención hasta un máximo de 70 Mz de área total de pastoreo, con base en la capacidad máxima promedio de un sistema de cercas eléctricas con el equipamiento básico. En la implementación de este sistema de pastoreo es importante tener en cuenta la altura promedio de las plantas de pastos como criterio de decisión para la entrada y salida de pastoreo de los animales, y el uso de una carga ganadera adecuada que permita el consumo de toda la biomasa que crece entre la altura de entrada y la altura de salida después de un pastoreo. Otro elemento importante es el período de recuperación o descanso sin pastoreo que requiere un potrero para alcanzar la altura óptima de entrada para pastorearse nuevamente. En la Tabla 6 se sugieren las alturas de entrada a pastoreo y altura de salida de pastoreo y los tiempos promedios de recuperación o descanso por zonas climáticas para distintos cultivares de pastos mejorados.Tabla 6: Prácticas de pastoreo rotacional intensivo Para definir el tamaño promedio de potreros, se considera un día de pastoreo o de ocupación y debe asegurarse una oferta o asignación de forraje, en base seca, del 7% del Peso Vivo de los animales (7 kg de biomasa verde seca de forraje por cada 100 kg de PV). A manera de ejemplo, para pastorear 20 vacas (equivalentes a 20 UGG) con una asignación del 7% se debe asegurar una oferta de 450 kg biomasa verde seca de pastos; en el caso que se determine una disponibilidad o rendimiento de 20 t de materia seca/ha/año, lo que equivale a un rendimiento promedio por corte de 2.2 t MS/ha con 9 cortes en el año, tendríamos que se requiere 0.21 ha (2100 m2 equivalente a 1/3 de manzana) por cada 20 UGG que pastorean en un día.A continuación, se presentan los resultados de la modelación del efecto de las inversiones a nivel de finca hasta 2030 en algunos indicadores productivos, ambientales y económicos. Para este análisis se consideran dos escenarios: i) un crecimiento de 2% anual (Inv 2%), ocasionado por una mayor tasa de selección y extracción de hembras, tal a como han sugerido algunos especialistas nacionales con el fin de reducir costos, aumentar productividad, producción individual y eficiencia reproductiva, mediante la eliminación de hembras improductivas, o con problemas reproductivos o con bajo potencial genético de producción y reproducción, y ii) un escenario de proyección de crecimiento del hato del 5% anual (Inv 5%), similar al estimado por fuentes oficiales y especialistas nacionales para el período 2010-2020 para el que tomaron como base el hato nacional reportado en CENAGRO 2011.Con la implementación de las intervenciones tecnológicas se logra un aumento en la oferta de alimentos (forrajes y suplementos) de buena calidad. En la Figura 3 se muestra los cambios en las proporciones de pastos mejorados, pastos naturalizados y pastos de corte en el área total de producción de forraje por finca para los escenarios línea base y con inversiones. La Figura 4 muestra la participación de los diferentes forrajes y otros suplementos alimenticios en la composición de la dieta diaria de los animales, en escenarios de LB y con inversiones (Inv 5%).Además del aumento significativo en la proporción de pastos mejorados y pastos de corte, con las inversiones se alcanza a mejorar el manejo del pastoreo en el 100% de las áreas de pastos mejorados, mediante la implementación de un sistema de pastoreo rotacional intensivo (Figura 4), el cual se describió detalladamente su implementación en sección anterior de este mismo documento.Figura 3: Composición de la canasta de alimentos por tipología -con inversiones          En general, el efecto esperado de las inversiones en las innovaciones propuestas, bajo ambos escenarios de crecimiento del hato, es un aumento o mejora significativa en los principales indicadores productivos y eficiencia reproductiva con respecto a la situación actual (Línea Base) (Tabla 12). Los aumentos o mejora en los principales indicadores se explican por una mejora en la composición de la dieta de los animales con un aumento considerable en el porcentaje de participación de pastos mejorados y la inclusión de otras fuentes alimenticias como pastos de corte, forrajes con mayores contenidos de proteínas (como leguminosas y otras arbustivas forrajeras) y concentrados, todo lo cual aumenta la oferta diaria de alimentos, en cantidad y calidad.El efecto será mayor en las zonas VLA y ZT en comparación con las otras tres zonas, lo cual se explica por las mejores condiciones climáticas y mayores niveles de adopción tecnológica en las primeras dos zonas. Cabe mencionar que los indicadores que se presentan en las tablas antes mencionadas son exclusivamente indicadores de desempeño individual de los animales, los cuales se consideran similares para ambos escenarios con diferentes tasas de crecimiento del hato.El porcentaje de aumento en la ganancia anual de peso es mayor para el crecimiento de los terneros menores de un año que para los novillos, lo que también se refleja en un porcentaje de aumento mayor en el indicador de peso al destete. Esto se explica por los valores actuales de ganancia diaria de peso durante el primer año de vida de los animales, los que se consideran son demasiado bajo producto de prácticas de manejo deficientes de alimentación y manejo, mientras que el valor actual de la ganancia diaria de peso en novillos después del primer año de vida tiende a ser un poco más alta, aun cuando la alimentación es insuficiente en cantidad y calidad. El aumento en las tasas de ganancias de peso en los animales en los primeros dos años de vida también tiene un efecto positivo en la edad al primer parto de las hembras, ya que se reduce el tiempo requerido para que las hembras alcancen el peso óptimo requerido para entrar a la etapa reproductiva.En el caso de la producción láctea, las inversiones aumentarán la producción anual de leche por vaca adulta en un rango promedio por zona entre 70% y 117%, producto de los aumentos que se generen en la producción diaria y estacional de leche, el período de lactancia y la tasa de parición.A nivel de zonas, los aumentos serán mayores en las zonas NFA, VLA y ZT por el efecto de las mejores condiciones de precipitación en esos territorios; mientras que a nivel de tipologías los mayores aumentos se esperan en los tipos medianos y grandes debido al mayor efecto de las innovaciones en la duración de la lactancia y la tasa de parición. Las Tablas 13 a 17 presentan los detalles por zona y tipología.Tabla 13: Productividad por zona ganadera y tipología -Nueva Frontera Agrícola En general en todas las zonas, tipologías y escenarios de crecimiento del hato, la salida de nitrógeno por hectárea excede las entradas (provenientes en mayor parte del aporte que hace el estiércol y la orina) al sistema ganadero. Este balance negativo merece una especial atención porque es una de las principales causas de la degradación de las pasturas. La cantidad de nitrógeno que sale está en relación directamente proporcional a la producción de biomasa de pastos y de follaje de especies arbustivas y arbóreas en los potreros, de allí que el balance negativo de nitrógeno es 2 a 3 veces más en los escenarios con intervenciones pastos mejorados manejados bajo sistema PRI e integración de estas intervenciones con SSP, principalmente en las zonas NFA, VLA y ZT. Esto obliga a considerar la inclusión de algunas estrategias u opciones tecnológicas de manejo de la fertilidad del suelo en pasturas que contribuyan a reducir ese desbalance de nitrógeno.El nivel de erosión del suelo en las fincas varía entre 0.7 hasta 1.5 t/ha/año, estimándose los mayores niveles para las zonas NFA y VLA, lo cual se asocia con la erosión hídrica por las mayores cantidades de precipitación a lo largo del año en ambas zonas y combinado con bajos niveles de cobertura vegetal en potreros por la degradación de pasturas y deforestación en pasturas para el escenario de línea base. Con las inversiones en tecnologías se estima una ligera reducción en este indicador, en comparación con la línea base.Con las inversiones en tecnologías los requerimientos de tierra estimados se reducen en promedio en 50% con respecto a la cantidad de tierra usada actualmente, siendo un poco mayor la reducción de tierra en el escenario con 2% de crecimiento del hato. Al comparar las zonas, el efecto de reducción del área requerida para la producción de forrajes y otros alimentos es mayor en las zonas NFA y VLA, lo cual brindará beneficios ambientales adicionales como la reducción en la expansión territorial de la ganadería, teniendo en cuenta que es en esas zonas donde se encuentran las principales reservas naturales del país.Las emisiones GEI por unidad de superficie en los sistemas de producción ganadera en el escenario línea base es en promedio 3.6, 2.1 y 1.7 t CO2-eq/ha, respectivamente para las tipologías de fincas pequeño, mediano y grande. Considerando que el mayor aporte de emisiones GEI provienen de la fermentación entérica, las variaciones entre tipologías de productores se explican por la intensidad en el uso de la tierra, lo cual es más extensivo a medida que aumenta la escala de producción. El Anexo D provee más detalles sobre las diferentes fuentes de las emisiones.Por otro lado, se estimó que los niveles de almacenamiento de carbono son mayores que las emisiones, aún en el escenario línea base, lo que genera un balance positivo en el carbono almacenado en todos los escenarios. El balance de carbono considerando solo el carbono almacenado por la implementación de SSP, a diferentes niveles o escalas de inclusión de árboles y arbustivas en el sistema ganadero, es de -2.50, -4.18, -6.34 y 0.93 t CO2-eq capturado/ha para los escenarios LB, Pasturas Mejoradas (PM), PM mas sistema de pastoreo rotacional intensivo (PRI) y PM+PRI+Sistema Silvopastoril (SSP); el mayor balance en los escenarios con SSP se deben a la mayor cantidad de carbono secuestrado tanto por las pasturas mejoradas (principalmente carbono en el suelo) como el carbono secuestrado por el componente arbóreo (se considera tanto la parte aérea como raíces), lo cual hace que el almacenamiento de carbono en el escenario que combina las tres intervenciones (PM+PRI+SSP) sea significativamente superior que en los otros escenarios analizados.El balance de carbono por unidad de superficie aumenta significativamente en todos los escenarios al incluir en las estimaciones el secuestro de carbono que hay en las áreas de bosques secundarios que se mantienen en las fincas ganaderas. El bosque secundario secuestra en promedio 6 t CO2-eq por ha.Otro de los indicadores ambientales de importancia se refiere al consumo de agua para la producción ganadera. Las estimaciones acerca de la intensidad del consumo de agua reflejan un consumo promedio de 3.32 m3/kg de leche producido en el escenario de línea base, lo cual se reduce en 37%, 72% y 74% en los escenarios con las intervenciones PM (1.86 m3/kg de leche), PM+ PRI (0.87 m3/kg de leche) y PM+PRI+SSP (0.81 m3/kg de leche), respectivamente. El consumo de agua por kg de carne se estimó en 21.87 m3/kg de carne para el escenario de línea base, y con las intervenciones el patrón de comportamiento es similar a los efectos estimados en el consumo de agua para la producción láctea; el consumo de agua se reduce con la implementación de las intervenciones en 23%, 64% y 67%, respectivamente para PM (16.77 m3/kg de carne), PM+PRI (7.81 m3/kg de carne) y PM+PRI+SSP (7.31 m3/kg de carne).En las próximas páginas se presentan a través de tablas y figuras por zona ganadera más detalles, para:• los diferentes niveles de inversión (Inv 2% y Inv 5%); Las Tablas 18 a 22 presentan los detalles de los impactos del paquete completo de las intervenciones (PM+PRI+SSP). Los Anexos F y G presentan respectivamente los impactos detallados de \"Pastos Mejorados\" solo, y de la combinación de \"Pastos Mejorados\"/\"Pastoreo Rotacional Intensivo\".        El valor total de la producción y los costos operacionales presentan una clara tendencia a aumentar con la realización de inversiones de capital en innovaciones tecnológicas, observándose mayores aumentos en un escenario con una tasa de crecimiento anual del hato del 5%, tanto para todas las zonas como para las tipologías de productores. No obstante, ambos indicadores son menores en las zonas Pacífico y Seca que en las otras tres zonas, lo que se explica por las mayores escalas de producción en las zonas NFA, VLA y ZT. Los costos operacionales de producción aumentan con la implementación de las innovaciones con respecto a la línea base (LB), aunque existe una tendencia a que estos costos sean menores con la implementación de pastoreo rotacional intensivo (PRI) y la integración de las innovaciones en mejoramiento de pasturas con SSP (PM/PRI/SSP) en comparación con pasturas mejoradas en monocultivo (PM), gracias al aumento en la oferta de biomasa de pastos en cantidad y calidad lo que permite un aumento en la carga animal y por consiguiente una reducción considerable en el área total de pastos requerida para mantener el hato con similares características en los tres escenarios tecnológicos.Los costos operacionales en las tipologías de fincas de medianos y grandes productores son mayores en las zonas con mejores condiciones climáticas (VLA, NFA y ZT) en comparación con las otras dos zonas (ZS y ZT), lo que se explica por una mayor escala de operación debido al mayor tamaño promedio de fincas en aquellas zonas. Esta tendencia en los costos operacionales es explicada en gran medida por la tendencia en los costos totales de mano de obra los cuales representan en promedio el 50% del total de costos operacionales, para todos los escenarios; sin embargo, el porcentaje de participación de los costos de mano de obra en los costos totales operacionales es menor en las innovaciones, con un promedio del 44%, en comparación con el 64% en el escenario línea base.El balance económico es mayor en los escenarios de innovaciones del PRI y la integración PRI/PM/SSP en comparación con pasturas en monocultivo y la línea base, siendo mayor esos balances para las zonas con mejores condiciones climáticas. En todas las zonas existe una diferencia bastante estrecha entre el valor de la producción y los costos operacionales de producción para la situación actual o línea base generando un balance positivo promedio de apenas USD 0.09 por cada dólar de costos operacionales, alcanzando incluso valor negativo de USD -0.02 en la zona NFA, lo que indica la posibilidad de que existan perdidas económicas en la actividad de producción ganadera actual. Por otro lado, en ambos escenarios de crecimiento del hato (2 y 5 %) con inversiones en tecnologías, se tiene un balance positivo es, mientras que para los escenarios de crecimiento del hato del 5% y 2% anual con la implementación de innovaciones tecnológicas se obtiene un balance promedio cinco veces mayor que el balance promedio de la línea base, siendo y veces mayor al considerar solo el promedio de las zonas NFA, VLA y ZT.El impacto de las inversiones en el balance o la ganancia es mayor en las tipologías de los medianos y grandes productores en las zonas VLA, NFA y ZT, mientras que en la tipología de los pequeños productores en esas mismas zonas el impacto en el balance económico es relativamente muy bajo. En las zonas Seca y Pacífico se observa que hay un bajo impacto de las inversiones en las tres tipologías de productores y no hay diferencias entre los escenarios de crecimiento del hato.En las próximas páginas se presentan a través de tablas y figuras por zona ganadera más detalles, para:• los diferentes niveles de inversión (Inv 2% y Inv 5%); Las Tablas 23 a 27 presentan los detalles de los impactos del paquete completo de las intervenciones (PM+PRI+SSP). Los Anexos F y G presentan respectivamente los impactos económicos detallados de \"Pastos Mejorados\" solo, y de la combinación de \"Pastos Mejorados\"/\"Pastoreo Rotacional Intensivo\".      Fuente: Censo 2011, análisis CLEANED, elaboración propia 4.5 Impacto de las intervenciones -nivel regional Esta sección presenta las consecuencias al nivel regional y nacional, basándose en una extrapolación de los datos en nivel de finca para los diferentes escenarios (Línea Base, Inversiones basadas en un crecimiento anual del hato de 2% y 5% respectivamente con la implementación de la combinación de pastos mejorados, pastoreo rotacional intensivo y sistemas silvopastoriles.El Anexo E provee por zona ganadera tablas con información detallada.El impacto de las intervenciones se proyectó bajo dos escenarios de crecimiento del hato:• 2% de crecimiento anual, asumiendo una mayor presión en las tasas de extracción, principalmente a través de la selección y descarte de hembras con problemas reproductivos y bajo potencial genético para producción de leche y ganancias de peso vivo, lo que significa un aumento a 5.2 millones de cabezas • 5% de crecimiento anual, asumiendo tasas de extracción similares a las estimadas durante el período 2010-2020 que ha generado esa tasa de crecimiento anual, lo que significa un aumento a un total de 7.15 millones de cabezas.Cabe aclarar que para este estudio solo se han considerado las explotaciones agropecuarias con ganado bovino que tienen un tamaño de área entre 1 y 200 Mz, las cuales representan casi el 95% del total que existen a nivel nacional. La Figura 49 presenta los resultados por zona ganadera y tasa de crecimiento.Figura 49: Evolución del hato por zona ganadera y nivel de inversión (2030)La implementación de las intervenciones tendrá impactos significativos en los principales indicadores productivos y de eficiencia reproductiva, principalmente en la tasa de parición del hato, producción anual de leche por hembra adulta disponible en el hato y las tasas de ganancia de peso vivo en animales jóvenes desde 1 hasta 24 meses después del nacimiento. Este impacto en los indicadores productivos generará un aumento significativo en la producción nacional de leche de 109% y 190% con respecto a la línea base al pasar de 1.1 millones t a 2.3 y 3.2 millones t de leche en los escenarios de crecimiento del hato del 2% y 5%, respectivamente. El aumento en la producción láctea nacional será liderado por las zonas VLA y ZT con una contribución promedio del 42% y 27%, respectivamente para cada zona, seguidos por la zona NFA y ZS con una contribución promedio del 16% y 11.5%, respectivamente (Figura 50).El crecimiento en la producción de carne se estima será menor que el crecimiento de la producción láctea, con tasas de crecimiento anual del 66% y 125%, respectivamente para los escenarios del 2% y 5% de crecimiento del hato. Este crecimiento también será liderado por las zonas NFA y ZT con aportes promedios del 47% y 25%, respectivamente, seguido por la contribución del 13.5% y 10.0% de las zonas NFA y ZS, respectivamente (Figura 51). Aunque al nivel nacional la modelación con la herramienta CLEANED estima para los escenarios de línea base un requerimiento de tierras para producción de forrajes y otros alimentos similar a lo que está actualmente en uso reportado en CENAGRO (2011), hay diferencias considerables entre las zonas ganaderas. En ZT, ZP y ZS el requerimiento excede la disponibilidad, lo que ratifica las opiniones y percepciones de especialistas nacionales acerca del déficit alimenticio del ganado, en cantidad y calidad, que se expresa en los bajos niveles de producción y productividad del ganado. Como mostrado al nivel de finca, las intervenciones propuestas reducen considerablemente el requerimiento de tierra, en algunos casos con más de 50% (Figura 52).Figura 52: Requerimiento de tierra (Mz) por zona ganadera y nivel de inversión (2030)El balance de nitrógeno en el total del área requerida para producción de pastos y cultivos forrajeros será afectado en forma negativa, producto de las mayores salidas de este elemento que las entradas en dichas áreas, sin considerar aportes de fertilización. La estimación de este balance para el escenario de LB es de -107.1 miles de t de nitrógeno, lo cual se estima aumentará en promedio casi 4 veces al pasar a -559.7 y -553.5 miles de t de nitrógeno en los escenarios del 2 y 5% de crecimiento del hato. Los aportes por zonas en estas pérdidas de nitrógeno serán en promedio -293.8, -139.5, -120.8, -2.5 y -0.256 miles de t de nitrógeno, respectivamente para las zonas VLA, ZT, NFA, ZP y ZS (Figura 53). Las emisiones anuales de GEI también aumentarán en los escenarios con intervenciones en comparación al escenario de LB con una emisión de 8.5 MT CO2-eq. Las emisiones en los escenarios del 2 y 5% se estiman en 10.8 y 14.9 MT CO2-eq, lo que representan aumentos del 27 y 75%, respectivamente. Los mayores aportes en las emisiones nacionales de GEI por la actividad ganadera serán por las zonas VLA y ZT, seguidas por las zonas NFA, ZS y ZP, con 44%, 25%, 16%, 11% y 3.5% de las emisiones totales, respectivamente para cada zona. Aunque se estiman aumentos en las emisiones GEI con la implementación de las intervenciones, esto se verá compensado con el aumento en el potencial de captura de carbono lo cual generará aumentos considerables en el almacenamiento de carbono en los escenarios con intervenciones respecto a la LB. El almacenamiento de carbono en el escenario de la LB se estima en 5.6 MT de CO2-eq (bosques y pastos mejorados), lo cual aumentará considerablemente a 19.2 MT y 24.1 MT de CO2-eq para los escenarios del 2 y 5% con intervenciones tecnológicas. El balance de carbono resulta positivo en todas las zonas y las contribuciones por zonas presenta el mismo patrón de comportamiento que los otros indicadores, siendo siempre mayor en las zonas VLA y ZT (Figura 54).Figura 54: Emisiones de GEI y almacenamiento de carbono (1000 t CO2eq) por zona ganadera y nivel de inversión (2030)El consumo total de agua disminuyera en casi todos los casos en comparación con la Línea Base, por tres razones principales, (1) el requerimiento reducido de área por rendimientos más altos de pastos y otros forrajes, (2) una proporción más alta de pastos y forrajes más adaptados a condiciones de sequía, (3) más altos niveles de producción animal (Figura 55).Figura 55: Requerimiento de agua (millón m3) por zona ganadera y nivel de inversión (2030)En términos económicos, los aumentos en los volúmenes de producción de carne y leche representan un valor de 724 y 1,350 millones de USD, que equivalen a aumentos del 84 y 156%, respectivamente para los escenarios del 2 y 5% de crecimiento anual del hato, lo cual implica una contribución significativa en la economía del país a través de la generación de mayores empleos a los largo de las cadenas de valor de leche y carne, aumentos en la capacidad adquisitiva de esos trabajadores y por las exportaciones de carne y lácteos. No obstante que esos aumentos en los volúmenes y valores de la producción de carne y leche implicarán aumentos en los costos de producción, el balance económico de la actividad se mantendrá en valores positivos y aumentará en relación al valor de la línea base, pasando de 67 millones de USD a 644 y 908 millones de USD en los escenarios de 2 y 5% de crecimiento del hato, respectivamente. Las contribuciones por zonas en los valores de producción, costos y balance de la actividad ganadera a nivel nacional, sigue el mismo patrón que los indicadores productivos, destacando las zonas VLA y ZT como las de mayores aportes seguidas por las zonas NFA, ZS y ZP (Figura 56).  ","tokenCount":"6755"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed61daee58b0785bd57318d89b8ec0c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/89f15841-f3af-40f3-a57c-a32641e2d3aa/retrieve","id":"-378196595"},"keywords":["Ralstonia solanacearum","coring method","potato","ELISA"],"sieverID":"dafbb540-2a78-43ef-9fff-73cae19ff189","pagecount":"6","content":"Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is considered among the most damaging diseases of potato in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, majority of farmers visually select and save seed from harvested potato tubers and reuse the same tubers for several seasons. Latently infected seed tubers which cannot be identified by visual inspection during certification further compounds the situation compelling the need for laboratory testing. The study evaluated the effectiveness of coring tuber samples to improve sampling efficiency for onward laboratory diagnosis. In this study, the coring method of sampling potato tubers for detection R. solanacearum was evaluated. Coring involves taking multiple tuber samples direct from the stolon attachment site into a collection tube containing extraction buffer that provides the extract for further diagnostic tests. Coring was assessed using field samples from different potato growing regions of Kenya including, Koibatek,Potato (Solanum tubersum) belongs to the Solanaceae family and is the second most important food crop after maize in Kenya [1]. It is grown by about 800,000 farmers, cultivating 150,000 hectares with an annual production of approximately 1 million tonnes over two growing seasons. National potato production ranges from 4.4 to 15 t/ha with an average of 6.7 t/ha, although yields of 40 t/h have been attained under research conditions [1]. Low-quality seed, diseases such as bacterial wilt and late blight and low soil fertility as well as high cost of inputs such as certified potato tubers have attributed to production constraints resulting into low yield [2].Ralstonia solanacearum is a pathogen that causes bacterial wilt disease in over 450 plant species including many economically important crops such as potato, tomato, eggplant, peanut, pepper, garlic, banana and ginger [3,4]. The disease causes serious problems for potato production in Kenya affecting 77% of potato farms [2]. Vegetative propagated crops, such as potato, are particularly vulnerable to infection due to latent infections. The use of clean certified seed potato and good cultural practices are the most effective methods to manage the disease [3].In Kenya, the standard sampling method of seed potato involves taking 400 whole potato tubers per hectare for diagnosis. The potato tubers are further sub-sampled by pooling batches of 25 tubers to constitute a single sample. The pooled potato tubers are prepared for diagnosis of R. solanacearum by cutting through each tuber using a blade and physically ringing out the vascular tissues. This method can be timeconsuming and labor intensive thus resulting in a prolonged time of testing since whole potato tubers have to be transported back to the testing facility for preparation before laboratory diagnosis is commenced. To better manage bacterial wilt disease in Kenya, a faster and cheaper method of sampling that can easily be adapted is in demand to improve sampling efficiency.This work report use of potato coring device [5] to sample potato tubers to detect R. solanacearum directly in the field. Potato tubers were randomly collected from 5 farms from Koibatek, Molo, Uasin Gishu, Mt. Elgon and Kisii. The survey involved collecting 25 potato tubers from 1/8 of a hectare per field which was cored and pooled to constitute a single sample. Sampled tubers were surface sterilized with 70% ethanol and cored at the stolon end using a potato coring device (courtesy of J. Smith, Fera Science Ltd, York, UK; Fig. 2). The corer was disinfected between samples by dipping the metal portion of the tool in 95-100% alcohol and pass through a flame to completely burn off the alcohol before use. One pooled cored sample was placed into a collection tube containing extraction buffer (phosphate buffer pH 7.0; Na 2 HPO 4 , KH 2 PO 4 and antioxidant; tetrazolium pyrophosphate). The samples were transported to the laboratory and the mixture transferred to a maceration bag and homogenized with a tissue homogenizer. The coring method of sampling was evaluated against the standard sampling method which involved taking 400 tubers from 200 randomly selected potato plants. Manual extraction of the tuber vascular tissues was done using a scalpel/ knife (25 tubers to constitute a single sample) and transferred into a single bag for crushing.The potato tubers were tested for R. solanacearum by NCM ELISA kit (CIP, Lima, Peru) [6]. Briefly, pooled potato tuber containing 25 tubers per sample were cored and macerated in extraction buffer containing 0.1 M citrate buffer (pH 5.6) and incubated in semi-selective broth 48 h with constant agitation. Dot blotting and ELISA was performed on a nitrocellulose membrane with positive and negative field samples for R. solanacearum identified through color reactions on nitrocellulose membrane.The results from ELISA were compared to Conventional PCR [7] 2006, [8] qPCR and LAMP [9]. Briefly, conventional PCR was carried out in 20 µl reactions 4 pmol of primers 759/760 and 2 µl of DNA extracted from field collected potato tubers. Reactions were heated to 96°C for 5 minutes and then cycled through 30 cycles of 94°C for 15 seconds, 59°C for 30 seconds and 72°C for 30 seconds. Samples (5 µl) of reaction mixtures were examined by electrophoresis through 2% agarose gels and bands were revealed by staining in 0.5 µg mL-1 gel red.  Positive detection by NCM ELISA was observed in 16 out of 20 pooled cored tuber samples. Negative controls containing healthy potato tubers did not test positive for R. solanacearum (Table 1). In addition, a separate control (1 infected tuber in 24 disease-free tubers) tested positive for R. solanacearum. The results of the ELISA assay for all the 20 pooled field samples that tested either positive or negative gave similar results when compared to conventional PCR, qPCR and LAMP. The study evaluated the effectiveness of coring tuber samples to assess whether cored samples can provide accurate results for further laboratory diagnosis. The results indicated that the coring method worked perfectly just as the standard sampling method currently used in Kenya [6,10].The procedure involves cutting a thin slice of the tuber from around the stolon end with a scalpel and removing a strip of about 3 x 3 mm along the vascular tissues for detection of R. solanacearum. The results indicated that the standard practice of sampling potato tubers in Kenya for detection of R. solanacearum was statistically reliable (p>0.05) when compared to coring method. Thus, coring and the standard practice of sampling potato tubers in Kenya were absolutely similar in terms of reliability for detection of R. solanacearum. Previous studies have illustrated that coring method of sampling was reliable and efficient for detection of R. solanacearum [5,11] using conventional PCR and qPCR. The method entails taking whole tubers back to the diagnostic facility before sample processing which is tedious, labor intensive and cumbersome process. Coring leaves waste at the sampling site thus no need to carry bulky tubers back to the testing facility. This eliminated the burden of cumbersome disposal processes of infected waste as tuber waste is left at the sampling site.The coring method compared to the standard method of sampling potato tubers was efficient in detection R. solanacearum in field collected potato tubers. Previous studies have indicated the physical removal of vascular tissues after dissection using a scalpel also resulted into positive detection of R. solanacearum in potentially infected field collected potato tubers [11,6]. During the extraction process, it was evident that coring resulted in quicker extraction and reduced labor time as opposed to manual extraction of vascular tissue as no dissection of potato tubers was required. Coring can be undertaken in the field, therefore, improving the efficiency of the sampling process. Coring is currently not practiced in Kenya hence can be adapted to increase the efficiency of the sample preparation process. Besides the coring method can also be undertaken in the field to reduce the turn-around time of testing by doing away with sample preparation in the lab as long as testing is undertaken within 48 h before the cored samples begin to degrade. Coring is currently not practiced in Kenya hence can be adapted to increase the efficiency of the sample preparation process. Besides the coring method can also be undertaken in the field to reduce the turn-around time of testing by doing away with sample preparation in the lab as long as testing is undertaken within 48 h. ","tokenCount":"1355"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"767e03c6c2a71a68d637e7e8405fa62c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3bf7cf22-806f-4984-9000-c6cfc620112e/retrieve","id":"617689472"},"keywords":["mineral fertilizer","Crop residue","manure","cropping system","soil fertility","longterm trial"],"sieverID":"d133e884-98b0-4175-a69c-0068b6cf6100","pagecount":"20","content":"Soils of Tropical Africa have been formed mainly from Pre-Cambrian materials and others from erosion process. Because of the type of parent material, the soils are characterized by a poor native fertility surface crusting and low water holding capacity. In Africa 65% of the agricultural land, 31% of the permanent pasture land, and 19% of the forest and woodland is affected by human-induced soil degradation. The nutrient depletion is the most important element in the land degradation equation. With increasing population pressure on the land, the traditional farming system (natural fallow) to restore soil fertility is no longer possible. The present farming systems are unsustainable and destructive to the environment with negative plant nutrient balances resulting to a mining agriculture. Many long term trials show that although application of mineral fertilizers is an effective mean of increasing yields in arable farming systems, mineral fertilizers alone cannot sustain yields in the long run. When mineral fertilizers are combined with crop residue or manure, added to cereal-legume intercropped or rotated, sustainable production can be obtained.Soil degradation, loss of organic matter, low soil fertility and yields, poverty, high CO2, global climatic changes are the main factors reducing crop production in the world. In the Sahel, low rainfall and its variability and distribution, dry spells and other adversities such as climatic factors affecting the rainy season affect crop production. Production losses are mainly due to drought (2/3) and cricket attack (1/3) (Nanga 2005). Water balance in the region is positive only 3 months of the year; meaning that water still a limitative factor for crop production in a region where 90% of the population is rural and depend on a subsidence rainfall agriculture. Millet is the main crop in CILSS countries with 45% of cereal production followed by sorghum (28%) and maize (11%). Niger is the second after Burkina Faso with 27% of cereal production. Niger, with a population of 12.94 millions in 2006, is one of the food deficit countries in the world (CILSS/Agrhymet 2005). Only 12% of the country has an annual rainfall of 600 mm and 10% with 350-600 mm. Cereal crop needs at least 300 mm if well distributed (Moustapha 2003). Cereal production in 2004/2005 was estimated to 2,449,900 tones with a negative balance of 223,350 tones, equivalent to 7.5% of Niger population needs or 2,991,600 tones (Nanga 2005). Niger is the poorest country in the world according to the UNDP classification based on IDH. 98% of the cereal production in Niger is from rainwater; rice that is the principal irrigated crop is less than 2% of the total cereal production. It depends to rainfall and in 2004, rice production decreased to only 0.5% of cereal production (FAO 2004).Population pressure has reduced cultivable area and traditional fallow is no longer feasible. It's known that millet is a crop adapted to Sahel conditions but combined to soil fertility constraints; low rainfall can reduce crop productivity. In this context of soil degradation and poor climatic conditions, farmer's practice is not adapted. ICRISAT research is to find and propose to farmers adapted soil fertility technologies, water use efficiency and adapted varieties which combinations can significantly improve crops yields.This study is to improve natural resources management in these poor soils and weather conditions. Soil nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, manure in an erratic rainfall conditions are shown in the study on a long term basis.Experiments addressing several research themes were carried out along a bioclimatic gradient at several benchmark locations in West Africa using commonly developed research protocols. The long-term on-station trials from which originated the technologies tested on-farm continued to run with the objective of identifying sustainability indicators and optimizing the use of organic and inorganic resources available to the land users. Soil samples from the long-term trials were collected for measurement of these parameters.Since 2000, these long-term on-station trials and others in different sites were run under TSBF Network collaboration with ICRISAT with a challenge to help empower farmers and land managers to combat soil nutrient depletion and land degradation, which are both serious threats to food production on the continent. The objective of these network activities is to develop and implement management options that both mitigate soil degradation, deforestation and biological resources losses and enhance local economies while protecting the natural resource base. This document will first give the highlights of the longest on-station trials run by TSBF Network in Niger, West Africa. The second part will give a brief description of other trials from different locations. The results of these experiments are reported every year in an annual report.Fields close to the village receiving high organic matter due to human and animal activities are more productive compared to the others. Prudencio (1993) have observed such fertility gradient between fields closest to the homestead (home gardens/infields) and those furthest (bush fields/outfields). Soil organic carbon contents of between 11 and 22 g/kg have been observed in home gardens compared with 2-5 g/kg soil in bush fields. Fofana et al. (2006) in a comparative study at Karabédji-Niger on degraded lands (bush fields) and non degraded (infields) have observed that millet grain yield across years and fertilizer averaged only 800 kg/ha in bush fields and 1,360 kg/ha on infields. Recovery of fertilizer N (RFN) applied varied considerably and ranged from 17% to 23% on bush fields and from 34% to 37% on infields. Similarly, recovery of fertilizer P (RFP) was 18% for bush fields and 31% for infields over 3 years cropping. It's clear that degraded soils are poor in organic carbon their response to fertilizer are less and the recovery of fertilizer applied is very low. Soil degradation was defined by FAO (2002) as the loss of soil productivity capacity in term of decreased fertility, biodiversity and natural resources. Yield loss due to soil degradation in Africa varied from 2% to 50% the last 10 years (Scherr 1999). Bationo et al. (2006a, b) in Scherr (1999) and in Oldeman et al. (1992) in a description of the level of degradation of arable soils in Africa and in the rest of the world have shown a proportion of 38% in the world and 65% in Africa. During the last 30 years, nutrients losses in Africa soils are equivalent to 1.400 kg/ ha N (urea), 375 kg/ha of SSP (phosphorus) and 896 kg/ha of KCl (potassium). In Niger, Henao and Baanante (2006) have estimated nutrients losses to 56 kg/ha (NPK) during 2002-2004 cropping season.Long term average of millet and sorghum grain yields are respectively 400 and 190 kg/ha; but in 2002 and 2003 with respective cereal production 3,336,956 and 3,561,660 tones in Niger, average millet and sorghum grain yields were respectively 461 and 476 kg/ha (FAO 2004). Research at ICRISAT (rapport annuel 1985) have shown that in the semi-arids zones of the Sahel where annual rainfall is over 300 mm, nutrients are more limitative than water in crop production. At Sadore (Niger), with 560 mm of annual rainfall, 1.24 kg of millet grain per mm of water was harvested without fertilizer and 4.14 kg of millet grain per mm of water when fertilizer was used (Bationo et al. 2006a, b). In Oumou and Ed Heinemann (2006), Africa account for only 3% in the world fertilizer consumption with 13% of world arable soils and 12% of world population. Sub-saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) account for less than 1% in the world fertilizer consumption equivalent to 9 kg/ha compared Asia 148 kg/ha and Pacific. In 2002, fertilizer consumption in Niger was 1.1 kg/ha only; and one tone of fertilizer cost 400 $ compared to 90 $ in Europe whereas a Nigerien is living with less than 1 $ per day making fertilizer less affordable.If fertilizer is affordable for farmers, the hill placement of small quantity (4 kg P/ha) can double millet grain yield. Tabo et al. (2006) have shown that micro-dose (4 kg P/ha) increased millet and sorghum grain yields up to 43-120% and farmer's income were improved trough Warrantage by 52-134% in the studied countries (Burkina Faso, Mali et Niger) (Table 6.1).Since 1986 a long-term soil fertility management was established by ICRISAT Sahelian Center to study the sustainability of pearl millet based cropping systems in relation to management of N, P, and crop residue, rotation of cereal with cowpea and soil tillage. The data in Table 6.2 give the main treatments in this trial. In this split-split-plot design the split-split plot consisted of crop residue application or no crop residue application consisting of leaving half of the total crop residue produced in the plot and the sub-sub plot was with or without nitrogen application. Four replications are used in this experiment.Very low yields were observed on control plots in both grain and TDM yields. The other treatments show high yields with better yield for T7 and T9 combining rotation, phosphorus and respectively animal traction (AT) and hand cultivation (HC) (Fig. 6.1).Nitrogen effect is similar on both grain and TDM yields showing better yield on plot receiving N. But when annual rainfall was combined to yields, the higher TDM yield was observed with the higher annual rainfall; whereas millet grain was not  subjected to higher rainfall. It shows that plant growth was better when nutrient and rainfall are combined; but grain production was subjected to other factors than annual rainfall only (Fig. 6.2). Crop Residue (CR) effect was similar to N effect showing an increased yield when CR was applied. The higher TDM yield was also obtained with higher annual rainfall but grain yield doesn't follow the same trend (Fig. 6.3). Since 1993 a factorial experiment was initiated at the research station of ICRISAT Sahelian Center at Sadore, Niger. The first factor was three levels of fertilizers (0, 4.4 kg P + 15 kg N/ha, 13 kg P + 45 kg N/ha), the second factor was crop residue applied at (300, 900 and 2,700 kg/ha) and the third factor was manure applied at (300, 900 and 2,700 kg/ha). The cropping systems are continuous pearl millet, pearl millet in rotation with cowpea and pearl millet in association with cowpea. Three replications were used for this experiment. Cropping systems have shown a good performance of rotation compared to the two other systems in both grain and TDM yields and during the whole period. There is no correlation between annual rainfall and millet grain and TDM production. The last 2 years were showing low yields whereas their annual rainfall were similar or higher than other years (Fig. 6.4).Although there is no significant difference between the different rates of CR, the higher yield was obtained with 2,700 kg/ha of CR. Annual rainfall was not correlated again to millet grain and TDM yields (Fig. 6.5).Manure application shows a large difference of millet grain and TDM yields with high yield for 2,700 kg/ha of manure. No correlation between annual rainfall and millet production; each factor varying independently (Fig. 6.6). The uses of fertilizer have shown a very large difference between the control and the plot receiving P and N with a very high yields for the high rate. It's clear that N and P application have increased millet grain and TDM yield independently to the annual rainfall (Fig. 6.7).This crop residue (CR) trial established since 1982 show a large cumulative effect on the soil (organic carbon, protection against erosion…) over these years. Four replications and four treatments consisting to: traditional, sole application of CR, sole application of fertilizer (F) and CR+F. Each plot was split-plot to include rotation with half cowpea and half millet rotated every year. CR application consisted to leave the previous year millet Stover in the plot. Data collected from 1984 to 2007 shows a significant difference between treatments. Yields in the control plot still low every year whereas Fertilizer + CR gave the higher yield and intermediary yield for the two other treatments: Figs. 6.8 and 6.9.Rainfall significance was shown in multiple ways: better rainfall was supposed to give better yields. It's not always the case, different situations were observed while combining yields and annual rainfall. With the lowest environmental mean of millet grain: 324 and 296 kg/ha respectively in 1993 and 2003, the corresponding rainfall were not very low: 541.7 and 534.3 mm but enough for a good production as in 1996 where a similar rainfall (543.9 mm) gave 1,362 kg/ha of grain. The worst annual rainfall was recorded in 2000 with 392.7 mm but millet grain yield was 753 kg/ha. In 1994 millet TDM yield was very low: 2,514 kg/ha with exceptional annual rainfall of 793.8 mm. It's clear that other internal factors such as rainfall repartition and drought spell affect more crop production than cumulative rainfall only. A survey on the daily rainfall demonstrated that when a contradiction occurred on the relation between annual rainfall and crop production, some explication can be found in its repartition.For example the good yield in 1996 was related to a very good repartition although the annual rainfall was only 543.9 compared to 1994 where annual rainfall was 793.8. Similarly, the bad repartition of the same amount of annual rainfall gave very low yields in 1993 and 2003. The drought spells that occurred during the grain filling period affected more grain yield and those in the plant growth period affected more TDM yield. A complete factorial experiment was carried out with three levels of manure (0, 3, 6 t/ha) three level of P (0, 6.5 and 13 kg/P ha) using two methods of application (broadcast and hill placement).The data collected give the response of millet to P and manure for the two methods of application. For pearl millet grain the hill placement of manure performed better than broadcasting and with no application of P fertilizer.The data for cowpea are showing also the same effect as for pearl millet. A very high yield of cowpea fodder can be produced with hill placement of manure and by the way using it for feeding animals can delay the difficult affordability of manure.Phosphate Rock (PR) was broadcast (bc) and/or hill placed (HP). For pearl millet grain P use efficiency for broadcasting SSP at 13 kg P/ha was low but hill placement of SSP at 4 kg P/ha gave a higher PUE. It also increased when NPK hill placed at 4 kg P/ha was combined to PR broadcast. For cowpea fodder PUE was also better with P hill placed. Those data clearly indicate that P placement can drastically increase P use efficiency and the placement of small quantities of water-soluble P fertilizers can also improve the effectiveness of phosphate rock. Past research results indicated a very attractive technology consisting of hill placement of small quantities of P fertilizers. With DAP containing 46% P2O5 and a compound NPK fertilizer (15-15-15) containing only 15% P2O5, fields trials were carried out by farmers on 46 plot per treatment at Karabedji to compare the economic advantage of the two sources of P for millet production.As hill placement can result in soil P mining another treatment was added consisting of application of phosphate rock at 13 kg P/ha plus hill placement of 4 kg P/ha as NPK compound fertilizers.The data clearly shows that there was no difference between hill placement of DAP and 15-15-15 indicating that with the low cost per unit of P associated with DAP, this source of fertilizer should be recommended to farmers. The basal application of Tahoua Phosphate rock gave about additional 200 kg/ha of pearl millet grain. The combination of hill placement of water-soluble P fertilizer with phosphate rock seems a very attractive option for the resource poor farmers in this region. The data is showing the variation of yield of each plot in farmers fields as compared to the farmer's practices and clearly shows that the application of Tahoua PR with hill placement of water soluble P outperformed the other treatments in most instances.At Gaya, with 50 plots per treatment the same effect can be observed and DAP seem better than NPK and confirm the choice on this source. 4. Cropping systems and mineral fertilizers evaluation (Sadore, Karabedji, and Gaya, Niger) Farmers' practices were compared to a three cropping systems consistency on pure millet crop with planting density at recommended level to be rotated next year with a pure cowpea, a fourth plot with millet and cowpea intercropped but not as farmer's practice. Here four lines of cowpea are to be rotated with two lines of millet. Tahoua Phosphate rock at 13 kg P/ha and NPK hill placed at 4 kg P/ha were applied for each plot except farmer's practice.The data indicates that millet grain yield can be increased two to three fold with this system and higher biomass can be yielded specially for cowpea introducing crop-livestock integration. The same trial was implemented at Karabedji and gave a similar effect as Sadore. At Gaya, cowpea was replaced by groundnut due to the lake of grain production some particular years. These data shows how the yield of the technologies evaluated fluctuated as compared to the farmers' practices with the high density and rotation systems dominating the other systems in most instances. PR P sources gave approximately the same yields in both millet grain and cowpea fodder while the combination of PR (50%) and inorganic P (50%) gave better yield. 6. Interaction of N, P and manure (karabedji, Banizoumbou and Gaya Niger)A factorial experiment of manure (0, 2 and 4 t/ha), nitrogen (0, 30 and 60 kg N/ha) and phosphorus (0, 6.5 and 13 kg P/ha) was established in the three sites to assess the fertilizer equivalency of manure for N and P. The data shows a very significant effect of N, P and manure on pearl millet yield. But everywhere the analysis demonstrated that P is the most limiting factors. Manure and nitrogen accounted less in the system and their effect were better when combined with P. 7. Comparative effect of mineral fertilizer on degraded and non-degraded soils (Karabedji, Niger) This is also a long-term soil fertility managed trial as started in 1999 and still running. Mineral fertilizers were applied on two major type of soils: Farm close the village (non-degraded) where household waste, human excreta and farm yard manure are commonly used and farm far from the village degraded and without any organic material added. The results show a high significant effect of the application of Phosphorus on pearl millet grain and total dry matter yields. P significance is higher but nitrogen significance is linked to the availability of P or organic fertilizer in the soil. The system (degraded and non-degraded) shows a very high significance meaning that organic fertilizers are important. The data show that the application of P increased significantly both millet grain and total dry matter yields and it is more important in fertile soils where it is combined with organic fertilizer. Nitrogen alone gives no significance but when combined with P the result is clear (Figs. 6.10 and 6.11). The different soil fertility technologies tested in the different experiments and sites have improved the millet grain and TDM yields. Results have shown that the yield in the control plot is always lower than the environmental mean while improved technologies gave higher yields. Both organic and inorganic amendments have increased millet production but their effects were different from a year to another. Organic amendment performance was lower than inorganic but their combination was better.Cropping systems experimented have shown a very good performance for the rotation where the previous leguminous crop gives additional nitrogen and organic amendment to the soil.The annual rainfall and yields variations were not correlated meaning that factors other than rainfall have affected millet production. The illustration was made in 2007 where millet was planted in July 14th and rain stopped in September 14th. The poorest environmental mean was observed this year with only 2 month of rain while millet cycle was at least 3 month. In most of the cases that yields were low, rain stopped early or long drought spell occurred during the cropping season. The performance of the technologies tested will be better if these negative factors were addressed.All data presented here were yields data; some soil samples were periodically took but no analysis was made due to budget constraint. If soil analysis was done, it could help in following soil fertility status. Please check the modified page range for Reference Prudencio (1993).Please confirm the reference Scherr (1999)  ","tokenCount":"3381"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5465cdf524b0080177fef725e6bdf99","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_Ciat/Digital/S_540.8.C4_C4277_CIAT_Program_Plans_and_Funding_Requirements.pdf","id":"730154506"},"keywords":["Core Comple-Total 2,,~1 93ii 502''52 ' \" ,., \"554 I~I,P¡' 355 310 715 .1.7.,::':~\".\"\"\",~ _~.,\"\"\"',:.l55 _ _ _ \",.......,\"\"\"',/',.\"\"'\"O::-,.,.~\"\"'_~\\j\"*_¡ ¡","o¡",".... p .... ,%,. ••• \"\" \\ \"U, 9 \"i'iN4!if\\","\"\",**\"\"\",\"\"**9. ji"],"sieverID":"612d2422-eb44-4bf3-bf7a-cfb94617c6e6","pagecount":"41","content":"In 1994, the core budget supported 1,118 support staff positions (an additional 50 support staff positions were financed with complementary funding).In 1995, assuming that the CGIAR will be in a position partially to make up for the revaluation of the Colombian Peso (see discussion below), the work program as approved by the CGIAR in the latter half of 1994 can be continued, with the same deployment 01 senior staff as in 1994.The budget request for 1996 is based on the T AC recommendation for core funding of CIAT, and proposes to continue the research program presented in the Action Plan.cutting and personnel reduction plan, CIAT is forcing cost reductions in 1995 amounting to US$2.4 million, or 4.9% of its 1994 budget base.CIAT Management and the CIAT Board have carefully analyzed the implications of these cost cutting measures and concluded that the Center cannot absorb cost ¡ncreases beyond 4.9% without doing irreparable damage to the Action Plan (which, by itself, was an effort to operationalize the Medium-Term Plan at the lowest possible cost). Therefore, CIAT is implementing a 1995 working budget of $29,600,000, which is $2,100,000 above the proposed funding level in 1995. CIAT is making a special case to the Finance Committee for an adjustment in its 1995 funding base of $2,100,000, so that the Center may be able to execute its 1995 work program without incurring a deficit.1996 Financial Year. Based on the best estimates available from government, the financial community, and industry as to the behavior of the Colombian Peso vis-ca-vis inflation in the 1995/1996 period, we are estimating that the cost increases for CIAT will be 7%. (The same projections show that the revaluation of the Colombian Peso will have run its course by the end of 1996.) CIAT is making plans to absorb 3% of the projected cost increases in 1996 (Le., the expected inflation rate in OECD countries). This will mean, however, that for 1996, the funding base will need to be adjusted by $1,200,000 (4% of the 1995 funding base) in order to make up for the cost of the revaluation effect.The Table on top of page 4 summarizes the financial information as presented here.NOTE: The Tables at the end of this document are based on the CGIAR (1995) and TAC (1996) core funding recommendations, and therefore do not contemplate adjustments for the cost of the revaluation of the Colombian Peso. Accordingly, the Tables show the cost of that part of the revaluation effect which CIAT is unable to absorb as operating deficits in 1995 and 1996.By using its research and technology development skills, CIAT endeavors to help developing countries achieve agricultural growth. distribute the resulting benefits equitably to alleviate poverty. and maintain or even enhance the agricultural resource base. To fulfill this mission, CIAT draws on three areas of strength, which together characterize the Center. 1. Commodities: The Center researches four commodities for which it has either a global mandate (beans, cassava) or a restricted mandate (tropical pastures for acid, infertile soils; rice for Latín America and the Caribbean).With appropriate technologies, these four commodities hold enormous potential for contributing to sustainable agricultural development.Through ils more recent commitment to research on the torest margins, hillsides, and savannas of Latin America. the Center is gaining expertise on vital resource management issues of these agroecosystems.Strategic research competences: CIA T's expertise in a wide range ot agricultural and related disciplines enables it to conduct path-breakíng research on themes that cut across crops and agroecosystems.A major challenge for CIA T is to generate new interest and commitment among research partners and donors to exercise these strengths in a coordinated and complementary fashion. The Center must actively design research around links between its mandate crops and other species, and among commodity, resource management, and land use issues.CIAT has six research programs:Although this program structure reflects a continuing commitment to the Center's crop mandates, it has little meaning unless commodity research extends from conservation and utilization of genetic resources to networking with research partners and clients.The investment of donors• resources in these activities is justified by the importance of (1) beans, cassava, and rice in the livelihoods and diets of the poor;(2) tropical forages as an essential input of livestock production and as a key component of sustainable farming systems; and (3) hillsides and tropical lowlands as agroecologies in Latin America.Starting in 1994, all activities of CIA T's research programs are being restructured along project lines. Each program delineates its research in terms of project areas, which are subdivided into projects and subprojects.Through its scientific resource groups (SRGs), CIAT can effectively encourage innovation within the various scientific disciplines that contribute to its mission.Each group comprises the Center•s scientific expertise in one of five areas and their respective research units. The five groups, their respective units, and overa\" objectives are:1 .Genetic Diversity (Genetic Resources Unit). Collect, conserve, analyze, evaluate, and distribute genetic diversity within and among selected species to support germplasm development. Help other institutions in Latin America characterize, conserve, and monitor a wide range of plant genetic diversity.Germplasm Development (Biotechnology Research Unít). Identify sources of useful genetic variability; assemble and recombine this variability into pools and complexes tor variety development (using both conventional and biotechnology approaches); devise efficient selection techniques for rapid enrichment with desirable genes; and promote networks for disseminating improved germplasm.Provide tools for detecting and monitoring pests and pathogens, gene complexes that can provide durable resistance, and biological control agents.Provide new knowledge on resistance mechanisms and the dynamic relationships among pests, diseases, natural enemies, and their plant hosts.Develop sustainable systems that combine plant species lo increase productivity, maintain adequate soil cover, cycle nutrients efficiently, and increase soil organic matter.Land Management (Geographic Information Systems). Analyze current patterns ot land use and develop tools tor designing sustainable land management strategies, including analysis of community action and government policies.The expertise of the first three groups relates mainly to CIA T's mandate commodities and their wild relatives. But, in its role as a convening center for ecoregional research, where its work cuts across crops and agroecologies, the Center will apply, in selected cases and with the collaboration of national partners, its capabilities to the integration of other species in sustainable farming systems.The Center will step outside its commodity mandates only where this would enhance its contributions to resource management and related work in the hillside and lowland tropical environments ot Latin America. In Africa and Asia, its commodity research will focus exclusively on beans, cassava, and tropical forages.The fourth and fifth scientific resource groups will focus primarily on torest margins, hillsides, and savannas in Latin America, but should also provide significant input tor commodity programs and the other scientific resource groups.Scientitic resource groups are new to CIAT. Initially, they were established to provide continuity and cohesiveness to the work of scientists operating in given areas ot competence across different research programs. When implementing the Action Plan, however, scientitic resources groups quickly became important sources of project identification and/or generation. In tact, the projects identified by the scientific resources groups contributed heavily to the mandates and objectives of CIAT in general, and to the objectives of different research programs in particular. Hence, the scientific resources groups were given the opportunity lo formulate, in conjunction with the research programs, their own research projects. While the specific research units attached to the scientitic resources groups already have ongoing research projects, the scientific resources groups, as yet, do not have their own research projects approved and financed.Projects: The Hub of Activity CIA T's experience shows that agricultural research can no longer be organized around broad-based research programs. Not only are such programs inflexible vis-a-vis constantly changing external demands and opportunities, but their outputs are also more difficult to document and highlight in a world that continually looks for results, feedback, and proof of relevance. Donors are increasingly interested in funding welldesigned projects that generate tangible outputs with measurable impact in finite periods of time. In turn, by structuring its research along project lines, CIAT can maintain a highly flexible and dynamic research program that can respond to the expectations and priorities expressed by the CGIAR, CIA T's national and regional research partners, and donors and potential investors in CIA T's overall research programoAs lhe Action Plan was being implemented, projects were identified and developed as centers of activity, resource allocation, and accountability. But, for the sake 01organization and accountability, each project is assigned to the research program or scientific resource group lo which it most contributes.This modus operandi guarantees a high degree of interdependence and fluidity among projects. At the same time, the Center is assured that the sum total of the projects directly contributes to the mandates and objectives of each research program and SRG-and therefore to the overall mission and objectives of CIAT.By organizing research along project lines, CIAT introduced a total budget approach to funding these projects. Budgets for core and complementary projects are integrated, thus enabling staff and management to betler ascertain the real cost of any activity; report expenditures for auditing; identify inefficiencies in resource utilization and constraints on outputs; and assess project performance.CIAT scientists generate outputs related to specific crops and agroecosystems through projects that are \"housed\" in six research programs and five scientific resource groups.Most financial resources are assigned or atlributed lo projects, so that the Center's lotal budget is the sum of resources assigned to al! projects together, with sorne central costs that cannot readily be atlributed lo projects (e.g., administration and maintenance) .With projects as its key operational and budgetary unít, CIAT is able to achieve fuI! transparency and accountability in its priorities, outputs, expenditures, and income. This enables the CGIAR, other donors, and national partners to see clearly how resources are deployed and the purposes for which they are used. Core resources provided by the CGIAR constitute the main part of CIA T's budget. These resources are assigned to projects according to priorities determined with the CGIAR and TAC. These priorities form the backbone of CIA T's project structure and these resources are its lifeblood.But the project structure also enables the Center to attract other donors and investors.Priority is placed on attracting additional funding for outputs that contribute directly to the achievement of CIA Ts core goals within its CGIAR mandate. Complementary funds are also sought to speed up and extend the scope of application of the Center's core outputs (e.g., through regional germplasm networks).Complementary resources can also be used to produce other complementary outputs and services demanded by CIAT partners, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the Center fulfills an ecoregional function. These complementary outputs are closely related to CIAT core outputs and capacities (e.g., training in molecular markers or GIS methods). The resources generated to deliver these outputs allow CIAT to expand the capacity of its scientific resource groups (e.g., through extra visiting scientists or postdoctoral fellows).Thus, CIA Ts project structure enables it to merge funds from a variety of sources into a single total budget. These resources are deployed synergistically to produce an interrelated set of core and complementary outputs. AII outputs derive from CIA Ts core capacities, which expand or contract according to the resources available.The core collection of bean germplasm has moved fully from a development and testing stage to maturity as a research tool. In 1994, evaluations were conducted for seed protein types, tolerance to low P and Mn toxicity, adaptation to water deficit, and temperature response of phenology.The tragic war in Rwanda lead to the Seeds of Hope initiative. This major collaborative effort between lARes, NGOs and foreign aid programs has the duel goals of helping relief efforts provide Rwandan farmers with seed stocks of bean and other crops, while protecting the genetic diversity in the region, and of understanding how genetic diversity is affected by major catastrophes and how diversity should be managed in future relief efforts.Confirming our continued commitment to improvement of bean production through plant breeding, over 15 bean cultivars derived from CIAT materials were released by NARS in 1994.New germplasm of cultivated cassava and Manihot species were incorporated into the world collection this year. Molecular markers were used to confirm putative duplicates in the germplasm collection, suggested by prior morphological and isozyme characterization, resulting in a reduction of the total number of accessions to be maintained in the field gene bank. Two types of molecular markers. RAPDs and RFLPs from DNA probes developed at CIAT, were used to construct the tirst genetic map of cassava, based on their segregation in an intraspecific cross.Fermented cassava starch has proven to be the unique in terms of conferring expansion properties to bakery products. This cassava characteristic could open up important niche markets for starch in dietary and gluten-free products.Progress was made toward understanding the basis of cassava's ability to maintain high photosynthetic rates under conditions of drought and temperature stress. High activity of photosynthetic enzymes and un usual anatomic features, possibly related to xerophytic adaptation, were discovered in two Manihot species.The global cassava needs assessment exercise that was initiated in 1993 has been completed. This study has quantified the major constraints taced by cassava farmers and processors by continent and by ecosystem. This information is in the process of being further reviewed by national program collaborators.In 1994, new accessions with potential for pasture, fodder, soil cover, and erosion barriers were identified for the mid-altitude hillsides, savannas, and forest margins, MCAC and Southeast Asia within the genera Arachís, Cratylía, Centrosema and Brachiaria. 100 accessions of the promising new forage species Arachis pintoi are now available in Brazil, 60 of which are duplicated at CIAT. Superior accessions of Arachis pintoi were identified for the humid tropics, dry season savannas and Southeast Asia.An international workshop was held on the major tropical forage grass genus Brachiaria.Coarse mapping of the apomixis gene was achieved, and sources of resistance to foliar blight were identified.Interspecitic differences were demonstrated in acquisition and utilization of N, P and Ca.Oifferences in Ca acquisition were shown between Brachiaria species. Greater Ca uptake was found to occur in grass-Iegume than grass-alone pastures.Funding was obtained to develop a forage research and development network in SE Asia.A watershed event during 1994-early '95 was the creation Ot an association ot private and public-sector rice institutions, farmer cooperatives and industries to fund international irrigated rice research. The Fondo Latinoamericano de Arroz de Riego (FLAR) is the first organization in the developing world self-tund international agricultural research on a tood crop. It should place Latín American rice improvement on a more sustainable long-term path, since the benefits derived trom research will now teed the research itself, as direct beneficiaries take its control and responsibility. CIAT was instrumental in the process that gave life to FLAR.A major triennial meeting took place during 1994, the ..Conterence tor Latin America.\" Jointly coordinated by CIAT and EMBRAPA, the meeting was attended by 297 particípants from 21 countries. A course-workshop was also held at CIAT to share CIA T's knowledge and expertise on rice anther culture, and to stimulate closer collaboratíon between tissue culturists and breeders.The preparation of cONA libraríes and the molecular characterízation of rice hoja blanca virus has led to the design of novel virus-resistant strategies to genetically engineer commercially-grown rice cultivars.We developed a methodology to derive economic thresholds for multi-species weed infestations in direct-seeded rice, with options to remove some site specificity constraints.Such thresholds are the key to unlock IPM for weeds in rice, and could reduce herbicide applications by up to 30%.HILLSIDES. Spatial autocorrelation of soil chemical properties across contrasting land uses strat~fied by environment showed autocorrelation for many properties, notably C and Al and micronutrients across contrasting land use types. The results of this study will be used to define representative properties for different land use mapping units.A prototype, decision-support system tor land use planning in the hillsides was tested, linking farmer decision-making with crop models which simulate the effect of farmer decisions. Progress was made in assessing the applicability with available data of simulation models to assess degradation processes, such as run-off and nitrate leaching.The effects ot changes in land use on degradation processes at the watershed level have been modeled for a pilot catchment area, determining consequences of plot-Ievel effects for degradation at the watershed scale. This research will provide tools to be tested with CIPASLA, the local consortium of institutions in Rio Ovejas, Colombia. CIPASLA conducted joint projects testing participatory approaches to soil conservation which showed a five-fold increase in adoption of conservation barriers in the pilot micro catchment area in Río Ovejas due to farmer participation in the adaptive research.A case study of farmer decision-making in the Atlantic littoral hillsides of Honduras, showed that itinerant agriculture was more sustainable than previously believed. Forestto-pasture conversion was more a consequence of the low productivity of dairy farming in the lowlands, which leads to the colonization of steep slopes for pasture. Local operational committees, the project's mechanism for interinstitutional collaboration in watershed sites, were set up in Honduras, and Nicaragua. Training continued to national programs in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru.TROPICAL LOWLANDS. An adoption study of pasture-based technologies in the Colombian savanna showed that 98% of sample farmers had planted improved pastures, covering 17% of the surveyed area. As natural increase in herd size occurs, farmers appear to be accepting improved grass pastures as an alternative to overgrazing.Extensive studies were conducted during 1994 on the floristic composition of native savanna, which constitutes the main (>70%) land use form of the regíon. These data have been georeferenced, and extensive soil and plant tisslJe analyses were conducted. On the whole. 173 plant species were identified belonging to 40 different families.An excellent indicator of positive changes in the biological properties of savanna oxisols appears to be soil microbial biomass. to the extent that nutrient cycling is very tightly linked to its turnover rate. In fact, P flux through microbial biomass, at least under grasslegume pastures (12-34 kg ha-1 year -\\ indicates that this could be a major pathway of P cycling in these soils.Investigations of deep-rooted germplasm that can effectively sequester carbon at depth, and possibly affect the exchange of other greenhouse gases as well. showed exciting results. Introduced grass and grass-Iegume pastures were found to make a major contribution to soil organic matter to a depth of at least 100 cm in both on station and on-1arm experiments. As a minimum it was estimated that a three year old B. dictyoneura pasture contributes 30 t C ha-1 in 3 years, and that the addition of a legume significantly increases the amount of carbon sequestered. A C-sequestration workshop took place with the participation of several NARs and international institutions, to develop an interinstitutional project on the subject for submission to potential donors.LAND MANAGEMENT. CIATwas invited to become, and is now, one of a selected few \"UNEP Collaboratíng Centres for International Environmental Assessment, Reporting and Forecasting\". This has already opened new channels 01 collaboration such as wíth the Dutch RIVM.The CIAT climate database covers the whole 01 the world tropics. It has been built over the last 17 years and now contains long term climatic normals for 9,864 stations in Latín America, 5,536 in Africa and 3,721 in Asia. Recently it was given a major update, adding data for almost 2,000 additional stations. Updating and expansion of the GIS hardware and software as well as the database software continued in 1994.Two Wild/Leitz model200 dual frequency P code Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems were acquired. These will allaw the Unít to perform control surveys tar satellite imagas and digital ortho-phatagraphy, as well as detailed project mapping.For details of the financial years 1993, 1994, 1995, and the 1996 'funding request, see Tables 1 to 17 at end of publication.1994 Financial Year Complementary funding amounted to $4,747,000 (see Table 2). When taken into consideration that in 1994, an amount of $1,918,000 of complementary activities was incorporated into the core program, it is evident that in 1994, funding for complementary activities was $1,877,000 (39%) higher than in the previous year.The 1995 CGIAR-approved core funding level for CIAT is $27,800,000 1 • Together with indirect cost recovery of $601,000, total availability of funds is projected at $28,401,000.With core expenditures projected at $30,501,000, CIAT anticipates a deficit of $2,100,000.As mentioned in the introduction, the deficit projected here represents that portio n of the costs to CIAT of the revaluation of the Colombian Peso which CIAT is unable to absorbo A special case is being presented to the Finance Committee to help CIAT deal with this projected shortfall.The allocation of resources in 1995 is as shown in the attached tables.In 1995, CIAT expects to execute complementary activities amounting to some $5,160,000. A number of special projects have been, or are in the process of being submitted to donor agencies. Depending on the approval rate of these projects, additional complementary funds will become available in the course of 1995.1996 Request $31,709,000Self-generated income, including indirect cost recovery, is projected at $609,000. As per the TAC recommendation, income from CGIAR donors is projected at $27,800,000. Therefore, 1996 expenditures are projected to be $3,300,000 above income. This difference represents that portion of the cost to CIAT of the revaluation of the Colombian Peso which CIAT is unable to absorbo A special case will be presented to the Finance Committee to assist CIAT in dealing with this extra inflation cost.Irrigated Rice in the Latin American Region. The Board of Trustees of CIAT accepted a proposal by Management to seek to re-conceptualize the form by which the irrigated rice sector of Latín America would be served by technology generation efforts at the regional and internationallevel. This entails the organization of the rice producing sector of the region (including the public, semi-public and private sector) into a regionwide cooperative endeavor that will provide a priority-setting mechanisms for rice research, as well as financial resources for the execution of the technology generation efforts. CIA T's participation in this effort is limited to providing an organizing mechanism to catalyze and promote the initiative. This mechanisrn is represented by a positíon for a senior scientist with a background in economics, rice production and business development to catalyze and promote the irrigated rice initiative.This organizing mechanism is proposed to be financed by eliminating from core support a senior staff position for irrigated rice breeding.The EPMR of CIAT has paid close attention, and provided strong support to CIAT's efforts in providing leadership for an integrated joint venture with the Latin American rice industry and to develop management experience in implementing long term linkages with the prívate sector.Currently existing contracts with special project donors amount to $2,944,000 of complementary activities. This sum is expected to increase in the course of 1995 and 1996 as additional special project-funded activities come on stream.      SoR water, and nutrient managemenl .\"1'   .11 .. M\"      .934.                1993, 1994, 1995, and Projection 1996. (. ( • í -=!:::::::= . . . . ,","tokenCount":"3801"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d92c1daa4c499af2f9f2c4bd003311c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/85a56fa4-2926-4c61-bfbd-b06eb65d176a/retrieve","id":"-25879263"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8efacf52-dd47-4224-bcc4-d0fdea8375b7","pagecount":"6","content":"A griculture is by far the largest human use of water. It uses 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, mainly for irrigation to supplement water for rainfed crops and livestock. Natural variability in rainfall and temperature means that, in many places, access to freshwater is already unpredictable. How climate change will alter this 'natural' variability is the subject of considerable study.For many millions of smallholder farmers, reliable access to water is the difference between plenty and famine. The classic response is to store water behind dams or in tanks or ponds when it is abundant and where it can be conserved for times of shortage. Water storage spurs economic growth and helps alleviate poverty by making water available when and where it is needed. Today, many developing countries, even those with abundant water, have insufficient water storage capacity.Inadequate storage leaves farmers vulnerable to the vagaries of climate. Ethiopia is one such example. Ethiopian farmers are heavily reliant on rainfed subsistence agriculture. The lack of storage infrastructure means farmers have limited ability to cope with droughts and floods. These limitations are estimated to cost the economy one-third of its growth potential. The Ethiopian case is a good illustration of the urgent need for appropriate investments in water storage to increase agricultural productivity and to ensure that farmers have options for adjusting to the coming climate changes.of significant social and environmental costs and have adversely affected poor people. For most of the world's large dams, downstream economic and environmental consequences have been given little attention in design and operation. Most dams were constructed with the emphasis on maximizing the economic returns from the dam itself, with little understanding of the long-term consequences of changing river flow patterns downstream.Over the last 40 years, there has been an increasing understanding of how dams modify riparian ecosystems. Using dams to regulate flow has been found to cause serious degradation of ecosystems and the natural resources and services upon which many people living downstream of the dam depend. Concerns about the negative social and environmental impacts led to reduced investment in large dams in the 1990s. More recently, there has been a reevaluation of the role of dams and though the controversy continues, investment in large dams in Africa and Asia is increasing again.Other forms of water storage and water use can also have negative environmental impacts, affecting river ecosystems and wetlands. Pumping from aquifers lowers the water table and can reduce dry-season flows and spring discharges and can cause wetlands to dry up. Even storage in small tanks and in the soil can modify flow regimes if scaled up over large areas.Dams are one of the many surface and belowsurface water storage options for agriculture. Others include natural wetlands, water stored in the soil, and rainwater-harvesting ponds. Historically, irrigation depended heavily on water in rivers or naturally stored in lakes, floodplains, and wetlands.Groundwater provides much of the water used for irrigation. In India, more than 19 million pumps withdraw 230 km 3 of groundwater annually. In Spain, northern China, and California, crop production is almost entirely dependent on groundwater. All groundwater originates as rainfall that percolates down through the soil into aquifers. In some places, the groundwater in these aquifers came from rains that fell many thousands of years ago when rainfall patterns were very different. Libya, for example, is currently exploiting vast reserves of water stored beneath the Sahara Desert, where almost no rain falls today. Water from these ancient aquifers is sometimes called 'fossil water.' Pumping fossil water is like pumping oil; once used, there is no more. Even where groundwater is recharged, if pumping exceeds the rate of recharge, water levels will fall until the aquifer is exhausted or until it becomes uneconomical to pump. This can be devastating for poor farmers as can already be seen in a number of places, including Gaza, northern China, and California. Artificial recharge of groundwater aquifers is possible (for example, using recharge ponds) and is an element of water storage that should not be neglected. Some effective methods for storing water are also relatively simple and cheap, bearing in mind that in some regions such as Ethiopia, even simple ponds and tanks are beyond the financial means of the poorest. Ponds and tanks built by individual households or communities can store water collected from microcatchments and rooftops. Individual ponds and tanks may be small in volume, but, in some places, this water is vital to supplement domestic water supplies, household gardens, rainfed crops, and livestock.Of all the choices available for water storage, large dams are the most controversial. Many large dams contribute significantly to economic development. However, it is also true that inappropriate construction and operation have been the cause The importance of ecosystem services is now widely recognized. Providing water to support those services is increasingly viewed as an essential use of water, along with water for agriculture, industry, and domestic use. In many countries, national legislation now makes explicit provisions to safeguard flows in rivers to protect the environment and support basic human needs.Different types of water storage also have a unique carbon footprint. Tropical hydropower reservoirs produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the decomposition of flooded vegetation and primary production. Under certain circumstances, these GHGs may exceed that of comparable fossil fuel power stations. Pumping from deep groundwater aquifers takes a lot of energy, usually in the form of electricity or diesel fuel. IWMI's partners and research collaborators estimate that the groundwater irrigation in India accounts for about 4% of the country's total GHG emissions.Population growth, rising incomes, and urbanization are just some of the drivers increasing the demand for water in cities and industry. Part of the problem in supplying these needs is that the pattern of demand is seldom the same for all users. For example, hydropower demand is more or less constant through the year with diurnal variations, whereas irrigation water is needed only at specific times of the year. For flood control, water levels in a reservoir need to be lowered, while irrigation requires that a reservoir be kept as full as possible. These differences are often a source of competition for, and conflict over, stored water. To reduce conflicts, it is important that everyone with a stake in the storage (including local people) participate in decisionmaking processes pertaining to the water and its use.Climate change will increase rainfall variability and average temperatures, affecting both the supply and demand side of the irrigation equation. In some areas of the world, annual precipitation will decline, decreasing river flows and groundwater recharge. In other places, total precipitation may increase but it will fall over shorter periods with greater intensity so that dry spells are longer. Higher temperatures will increase evaporation so that crops will use more water. Although the effects will vary from place to place, farmers will generally need to adapt to less soil moisture and higher evaporation. This means larger volumes and more frequent use of supplemental water. All storage options are potentially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. For example, less rainfall and longer dry periods mean that soil water conservation measures may fail to increase soil moisture sufficiently for crops. Groundwater recharge may be reduced if infiltration decreases. Many nearcoast aquifers will be at risk from saltwater intrusion as a result of sea level rise. Ponds, tanks, and reservoirs may not fill enough to support agriculture or may be at risk of damage from more extreme floods. Larger, more intense floods could also cause catastrophic large dam failures.The externalities created by different storage types are also likely to be affected by climate change. For example, water storage tanks, ponds, and reservoirs create breeding grounds for mosquitoes and can lead to increases in malaria and other water-borne diseases. The higher temperatures expected with climate change may worsen the situation. Similarly, adverse environmental impacts, arising from changes in the flow regimes of rivers, may be exacerbated by climate change. Factors such as these must be considered in the future planning, design, and operation of water storage schemes.With increased uncertainty, higher demand, and greater competition, water storage is only one component of a multipronged approach for adapting agriculture to climate change. Future water resource management must also include reallocation of water between users and increasing water productivity wherever possible. There is no doubt that providing more and diverse physical storage infrastructure is an imperative for securing reliable supplies of water for agriculture and other uses.Each type of storage has its own niche in terms of technical feasibility, socioeconomic sustainability, impact on health and environment, and institutional requirements. Each needs to be considered carefully within the context of its geographic, cultural, and political location. With so much uncertainty in climate change scenarios, the best option is to focus on flexibility in storage systems, wherever possible combining a variety of types to take advantage of their unique characteristics.Poor farmers already struggle to cope with changing and unpredictable weather patterns and this will be worsened by climate change. As climate change becomes a greater threat to water systems and agriculture, variety in the types of water storage systems used will provide an important mechanism for adaptation. However, the types of storage must be tailored to the specific needs and socioeconomic conditions of an area. Planners need to start taking climate change into account when they design and manage integrated storage systems. ","tokenCount":"1559"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b6765a44a8f91a35ff8cb1e07034300","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4bacaefd-b923-4c75-9745-efe8ffe59aaa/retrieve","id":"1182358987"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aaa019a3-8327-46ee-8ef3-3b3ee2e56b0e","pagecount":"76","content":"The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO, IFAD, WFP or CGIAR.Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations the International Fund for Agricultural Development the World Food Programme and the CGIAR Rome, 2023 Guidelines for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture SECTION 3 A step-by-step process to develop gender transformative change indicatorsStep 1: Create an impact statementStep 2: Identify key challengesStep 3: Identify which groups need to change and the sphere(s) of influenceStep 4: Develop outcome statements Since 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have been implementing the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security, Improved Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture (JP GTA) in collaboration with and through financial support from the European Union. The JP GTA contributes to the implementation of the European Union's Gender Equality Strategy and gender action plans, and in particular to Gender Action Plan III, 1 which has intersectionality and gender transformative, rights-based approaches as its main principles.The JP GTA seeks to assist in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 5 (Gender Equality) by supporting efforts to address the root causes of gender inequalities and trigger transformative change processes that lead to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in their households, communities and society -and ultimately, the improvement of the livelihoods of all women and men. The programme supports the United Nations Rome-based Agencies (RBAs) -FAO, IFAD and WFP -in adopting gender transformative approaches (see Box 1) in their policy dialogues, programmes, working modalities and institutional mechanisms, while enhancing their collaboration on Zero Hunger and Gender Equality.1 See https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/gender-action-plan-iii-towards-gender-equal-world_en BOX 1. What is a gender transformative approach?A gender transformative approach seeks to actively examine, challenge and transform the underlying causes of gender inequalities rooted in discriminatory social institutions. As such, a gender transformative approach aims to address the unequal gendered power relations and discriminatory gender norms, attitudes, behaviours and practices, as well as discriminatory or gender-blind policies and laws, that create and perpetuate gender inequalities. By doing so, it seeks to eradicate the systemic forms of gender-based discrimination by creating or strengthening equitable gender relations and social institutions that support gender equality.One of the core principles underlying the use of a gender transformative approach is that gender transformative change must come from within the communities and societies where this change occurs and cannot be imposed from the outside, including by development or research actors. i This requires setting up processes to obtain insider perspectives to ensure that these are used to inform the design of qualitative and quantitative indicators as well as tools and methods. Here, the role of the research or development actor is to help support ongoing gender transformative change processes, or to stimulate and facilitatetogether with local women and men and relevant stakeholders -these processes. This requires a nuanced understanding of people and place, and an appreciation that the precise process, and associated indicators, will always differ by location.An example of a gender transformative approach is seen in the social and gender research carried out by Cole and colleagues in the Barotse Floodplain in Zambia. This research led to the design of a gender transformative communication tool that was implemented within different fishing communities to encourage critical reflection, planning and action by women and men to improve gender relations and women's empowerment outcomes within the household and community. ii  Together, the RBAs offer significant technical expertise and support internationally recognized fora for discussing policy issues related to food security, nutrition and agriculture. The enhanced synergies among the RBAs are important to achieving SDG 2, which lies at the heart of their respective mandates. The three agencies share a common vision of ending hunger and malnutrition through supporting sustainable and inclusive agriculture development and rural transformation, with a particular focus on smallholder farmerswomen and men alike. Working towards the achievement of Gender Equality is seen as fundamental for attaining Zero Hunger as well as the other SDGs. Indeed, this vision is a global imperative and a pivotal element of the 2030 Agenda.Gender transformative approaches have been increasingly recognized as central to achieving sustained progress towards gender equality. However, important knowledge gaps remain in how to appropriately measure gender transformative change within food security and nutrition programmatic interventions. These are partly due to the complex nature of the changes that are sought through gender transformative approaches, which may require the measurement of changes in deep-seated power relations, gender norms, and individual and collective agency.With the aim of enhancing the capacity of the RBAs, the European Union, CGIAR, and other research and development partners to design, implement, monitor and evaluate gender transformative interventions, the JP GTA partnered with the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform to develop the \"Guidelines for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture\" (hereinafter \"the Guidelines\").The intended audience of the Guidelines includes gender experts and programme specialists seeking to design, implement, monitor and evaluate gender transformative interventions in food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture programmes and initiatives.The Guidelines were developed through a collaborative process involving the JP GTA and the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform carried out from January to December 2022. A technical working group was set up to guide the process, comprising the Global Coordinator of the JP GTA, gender programme officers and specialists from the three RBAs, and a group of CGIAR gender researchers. The technical working group met bimonthly over the course of five months to present ideas and consolidate input into the formulation of a draft framework, a glossary of terms and annotated outline of the Guidelines, and to prepare for an expert consultation to collect feedback and discuss the progress made.The expert consultation included a diverse group of scientists, practitioners and project managers from both the Global North and the Global South who were identified and selected by the technical working group. 2 These experts had various kinds of experience in designing, implementing and/or monitoring and evaluating gender transformative programmes or interventions in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture. The objectives of the consultation were to: (i) review and discuss the annotated outline of the Guidelines; and (ii) obtain new and critical expert insights on appropriate monitoring and evaluation (M&E) standards for encouraging, supporting and measuring gender transformative change.The consultation identified common challenges faced when assessing the complex area of gender transformative change and the M&E strategies that have proven successful in overcoming them. Experts were also asked to share how they and/or their organizations conceptualize and measure gender transformative change, including the metrics and indicators they use. The expert consultation yielded important insights, which have been incorporated into these Guidelines.The Guidelines build on and complement previous JP GTA knowledge products such as the Gender transformative approaches for food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture -A compendium of fifteen good practices (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2020) and the Guide to formulating gendered social norms indicators in the context of food security and nutrition (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2022). 2 The list of experts is available at the JP GTA Coordination Unit.The Guidelines are structured as follows:First, the Guidelines present an overarching framework comprising the key dimensions of gender transformative change and a socioecological model for identifying spheres of influence within which gender transformative change can be measured.Second, the Guidelines present some important methodological points to consider when attempting to measure gender transformative change.Third, the Guidelines provide guidance steps to formulate qualitative and quantitative indicators of gender transformative change, within different spheres of influence. Sample outcome indicators are provided. • The Guidelines provide helpful guidance on how to capture incremental changes along pathways towards empowering women and achieving SDG 5 (Gender Equality).• An experienced gender expert and M&E specialist are needed to develop gender transformative change indicators. Adopting a participatory approach with strategic partners, including programme participants and other stakeholders supporting the programme, is advised.SECTION 1 A framework for measuring gender transformative changeThe concept of gender transformative change is not new, although its formulation has changed over time. McArthur et al. (2022) trace the emergence of discourses on social transformation towards gender equality back to first-wave feminism in the 1800s. However, most conceptual and empirical work underlying current understandings of gender transformative change commenced in the 1970s. See Annex 1 for a brief history on the conceptualization of gender transformative change.At the core of measuring gender transformative change is the understanding that discriminatory social institutions and unequal power relations need to change, and that there is value in assessing how deep and enduring any changes have been to date (European Union, 2020; Kantor and Apgar, 2013;Morgan, 2014;Hillenbrand et al., 2015;Mullinax, Hart and Garcia, 2018). Social institutions that embed and (re)produce unequal power relations between women and men in a circular reinforcing process are the root causes of gender inequality (Cerise and Francavilla, 2012). These institutions comprise formal and informal rules and norms that organize social, political and economic relations (Carter, 2014) -or \"the underlying rules of the game\" (North, 1990, p. 3). The transformation of social institutions to make them more gender equitable fosters more cooperative forms of power and relationships, affirming people's capabilities, aspirations, critical awareness and dignity (Hillenbrand et al., 2015). These multiple forms of power are linked to individual and collective agency, which are at the heart of the empowerment process (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017;Kabeer, 1999).We can therefore broadly conceptualize gender transformative change as a process comprising the following key dimensions (DeMerritt-Verrone and Kellum, 2021): agency / power relations / social institutions (Figure 1).Agency is the ability to define one's goals and act upon them (Kabeer, 1999). It refers to \"the capacity for purposive action, the ability to pursue goals, express voice and influence and make decisions free from violence\" (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017, p. 14). Building agency entails building confidence, consciousness, aspirations and self-esteem, as well as improving knowledge, skills and capabilities (DeMerritt-Verrone and Kellum, 2021). Enhancing critical consciousness involves the \"process of changing the way people see and experience their worlds that can raise awareness of inequalities, stimulate indignation about injustice and generate the impetus to act together to change society\" (Cornwall, 2016, p. 344).Agency is exercised at the individual and group levels via cooperative relations and collective action (Elias et al., 2021), and can be expressed in positive and negative ways. It can include forms of negotiation, bargaining, manipulation, resistance and subversion (Kabeer, 1999), and encompasses \"the meaning, motivation, and purpose that individuals bring to their actions\" or their sense of agency (Kabeer, 2005, pp. 14-15). There are several subdimensions of agency (Mosedale et al., 2005) that can be considered when measuring gender transformative change (Figure 2). Power is something that each person has, but may be able to exercise to different degrees, whereas power relations are between two or more people who may have equal or varying degrees of power. Unequal gender relations are the expression of inequitable power relations and are considered the underlying cause of the disempowerment of women and girls (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Table 1 provides definitions of different expressions of power. It is within these gender relations that women face systemic disadvantages in exercising choice and expressing their voice (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017). Gender relations are embedded in patriarchal societies, where women and girls routinely experience discrimination, marginalization and subordination. Within the institutional arenas of the family, community, market and state (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017), the choices and voices of women and girls are constrained by unequal power relations.While power can be oppressive (i.e. power over another), it can also be a means of transforming one's own life and those of others (VeneKlasen and Miller, 2002). Challenging unequal power relations involves developing strategies to move away from inequitable power over relationships among individuals and groups towards building more positive expressions of power, including power within, power to, and power with in ways that help to catalyse systemic change (Pansardi, 2012;Rowlands, 1997;Allen, 1999;Gammage, Kabeer and van der Meulen Rodgers, 2016;Cornwall, 2016;Galiè and Farnworth, 2019).Power over involves using power to repress, force, coerce, discriminate against, corrupt or abuse others. This interpretation of power leads to an understanding of relationships as \"win-lose\" -one side has power and associated benefits, and the other does not.Power over perpetuates inequality, injustice and poverty when individuals or groups of people deny access to key resources like land and health care to others.Patriarchy is a deeply embedded institutional form of power over that systemically discriminates against women and girls.Power within has to do with a person's sense of self-worth and self-knowledge; it concerns the power of an individual and is not relational. Power within involves a person's capacity to imagine and have hope, and affirms the common human search for dignity and fulfilment. This expression of power is considered a starting point for engaging in other positive forms of power.Power to acknowledges the unique potential of every person to shape their lives and world. It involves activating a person's capacity to act (their power within) in the real world.Power with involves finding common ground among shared and different interests and building collective strength. Based on mutual support, solidarity and collaboration, power with can exponentially multiply individual talents and knowledge in a synergetic manner. This expression of power can construct bridges across different interests to promote equitable power relations and strengthen gender equality.Different women, men, girls and boys maintain important relationships with many people across different institutional arenas that can be considered when measuring gender transformative change (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017), such as:• spouses or domestic partners (family) Social institutions consist of both formal and informal rules and norms (Carter, 2014) that are made and remade through people's practices (Berry, 1989), and that change over time. These rules and norms structure how social relations play out in the institutional arenas of the family, community, market and state.• the written constitutions, policies and laws, and rights and regulations that are imposed by governmental and other authorities.• \"unwritten\" social norms, customs, values, traditions and sanctions.Social institutions dictate how agricultural inputs or land get distributed or accessed/owned by women, often in ways that constrain their abilities to communicate and act upon their practical needs and strategic life goals. In this context, both formal and informal institutions frequently interact with each other. For instance, formal policies combined with discriminatory social norms can create barriers to women's involvement in leadership positions within farmers' associations, and can limit women's power to participate in key agricultural and other decisions within their households.By developing their personal and collective agency, women can strengthen their decisionmaking and collective power -and their leadership capacities -to challenge informal and formal institutions to become more equitable (DeMerritt-Verrone and Kellum, 2021), thereby catalysing transformative change processes (van Eerdewijk et al., 2017).There are several subdimensions of social institutions (Mosedale et al., 2005), which reflect the above-mentioned references to formal and informal institutions:• marriage or kinship rules and roles In sum, gender transformative change involves building agency, challenging unequal power relations that disfavour women and girls, and making formal and informal social institutions more gender equitable, which can ultimately lead to more equitable social structures (e.g. macroeconomic structures, governance structures). Changes in the three dimensions of gender transformative change are mutually reinforcing (Figure 1). Increases in individual and collective agency, for example, can bring about changes in power relations among individuals, groups and organizations. Concurrently, changes in power relations can promote changes in formal and informal social institutions and give impetus to individual and collective agency.Changes in social institutions can also create space for individual and collective agency, thereby leading to more equal gender relations. As such, gender transformative change is non-linear, but ultimately, changes in all three dimensions are required to empower women and achieve SDG 5 (Gender Equality).In building a framework for measuring gender transformative change, it is important to determine where a change in agency, power relations and social institutions has occurred. Gender influences social and power relations at different levels, putting women and men in complex relationships within social institutions, which determines their status, power, and the expression of their voice (Cole et al., 2014). As such, gender transformative change should be measured across different levels (micro, meso and macro) or spheres of influence (individual sphere, household sphere, community sphere, etc.).Socioecological models can be used to situate where gender transformative change can occur (for example, see HC3, 2016a). These models are most often used to depict elements of the complex interactions between individual, household, community, organizational and macroenvironmental factors that lead to variation in a specific outcome. Overlapping spheres are used to depict how factors at one level can influence factors at another level. Programmes can then be designed to promote the positive factors and intervene to address the negative factors that influence agricultural, economic, health or other outcomes.These Guidelines use a modified version of a model proposed by Cole et al. (2014), which is similar to the socioecological model proposed by UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women (2020) to identify gender transformative interventions. 3 Through this socioecological model we highlight where gender transformative change could be measured depending on the focus of a particular gender transformative programme intervention.We describe each sphere of influence in Table 2 and provide some examples of the types of gender transformative changes that could be measured within each sphere. Given that the spheres interact with each other, changes in one sphere influence and are reflected in other spheres. These can also be measured, provided a programme is able to clearly trace and attribute cause-effect relationships between interventions in one sphere and outcomes in another.TA B L E 2 . Spheres of influence where gender transformative change can be measuredFocus is on individual women and men, girls and boys.-Changes in power within are reflected in strengthened individual agency and capacities -confidence, self-esteem, aspirations, awareness of discriminatory social institutions and unequal power relations at different levels, agricultural knowledge, skills, and capabilities.-Evidence of power to act -it is evidenced in action taken upon improved knowledge and capacities, evidence of women and men taking on new roles.-Changes in power within and power to act are reflected in women's and men's attitudes/beliefs on roles and responsibilities in agriculture, food preparation, and ensuring good health and nutrition.Focus is on households, families and intra-household relationships.-Changes in power to act, power with and power over are reflected and measurable in changes in the involvement of household members in making agricultural and other decisions.-Changes in social and gender norms are demonstrated through changes in gender roles and expectations in and outside of agriculture.Focus is on co-inhabitants of (and those providing services within) a bounded geographical space; community decision-making structures and actors active in the community, such as, local agricultural input and other service providers, buyers, cooperatives and farmer associations, women's groups, savings groups, etc.Gender transformative change can be measured in:-Changes in social and gender norms at community level.-Changes in power relations between local people and community decisionmaking spaces and service providers.-Changes in power to act by women's groups to ensure their gender issues are understood and addressed by community decision-makers, farmer associations, savings groups, and other bodies acting on behalf of or representing women and men.-Changes in decision-making powers, leadership positions, and bylaws in cooperatives, farmer associations, and other organizations that promote gender equality.-Changes in power with -evidence that women join women's organizations, savings groups and other organizations representing their gender and other interests.A framework for measuring gender transformative changeFocus is on national and international agricultural research and development organizations (e.g., national agricultural research and extension services), civil society, humanitarian, and other organizations (including national-level associations and cooperatives), and private sector bodies (e.g., buyers and aggregators, processing mills, seed and feed companies, exporters).Gender transformative change can be measured in:-Changes within organizations regarding their workplace and organizational culture and formal policies along with their attitudes about national agricultural development and gender relations, including recognizing women as farmers and economic change agents, and men as allies for change for gender equitable power relations, and as advocates for gender equality.-Changes in power over -changes in how public and private sector provide services to, or develop technologies for, farmers and other value chain actors that consider existing gender needs and norms, and unequal power relations that constrain their uptake of services and technologies.-Changes in power with -changes in the number of women's movements and NGOs advocating for gender equality in agriculture.Focus is on governments, resource partners (e.g., donors), and development banks.Gender transformative change can be assessed against:-Changes from power over to power to act -changes in agricultural development policies or related laws and approaches for implementing agricultural development programs from gender blind to those that aim to help people and their representative organizations to purposefully challenge underlying causes of gender inequality and envision gender transformative outcomes.-Changes in the formal and informal organizational cultures of governments, development banks and resource partners that facilitate actors in other spheres to spark transformative change processes leading to women's empowerment and gender equal outcomes in their own work.-Changes in the norms, attitudes and beliefs of policy and decision makers that influence the creation of gender equal policies, laws, strategies, etc.The framework for measuring gender transformative change is shown in Figure 3. This framework can be applied to any programme that aims to assess gender transformative change within one or across multiple spheres of influence. The JP GTA highlights core areas of gender equality in relation to food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture where improvements in gender relations, and in the gender equality of social institutions, result in empowering women and increasing their choices, opportunities and rights (Table 3). An assessment of gender transformative change may focus on one or more core areas described in the table (among others) depending on the nature of the intervention activities to be implemented, monitored and evaluated by a programme. 4  These core areas of gender equality are often interrelated and overlapping, with changes in one area sometimes reflecting changes in others.TA B L E 3 . Core areas of gender equality CORE AREA DESCRIPTIONKnowledge and skills (literacy, financial literacy, soft skills and technical knowledge), and access to information.Access to and control over natural productive resources and services, such as land, water, livestock, fisheries, forestry resources, seeds, fertilizers, tools and technology (including information and communication technologies, or infrastructure and advisory/extension services).Access to formal employment and a decent wage; means of earning an independent personal income; markets and value chains; financial services; social protection; informal employment; ownership of and control over assets (financial, housing, etc.).Ability to make own choices and act upon them, including self-esteem, selfefficacy and aspirations.Recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care and domestic work.Equal participation in decision-making at household level -over issues such as mobility, economic activity, income, production and nutrition -as well as in the community and other public spheres at regional and national levels.Capacity to organize; equal representation and leadership in formal and informal bodies and organizations and institutions at community, regional and national levels; capacity to negotiate, lead, express opinions and voice demands.Decision-making on family planning, contraception, marriage partner choice and marrying age.Freedom from: living with fear; physical, sexual and/or emotional violence and harmful practices; restrictions on mobility. Intersectionality refers to how different social identities, such as gender, socioeconomic status, age, ethnicity, geographical location, marital status and physical abilities, intersect to shape experiences of discrimination and oppression (Crenshaw, 1989). Viewing gender equality through an intersectional lens acknowledges that women and men are not binary categories, nor are their experiences homogenous within a given gender. These experiences will vary depending on their social position within the community (e.g. as a wealthy woman/ man from a dominant caste or ethnic group, a poor or widowed woman/man, a young wife/ husband in an extended family, or a rural woman/man). Thus, when developing indicators of gender transformative change and designing M&E systems, it is important to consider how gender intersects with other social identities and axes of power. For example, an assessment of normative changes related to the social acceptability of women's remunerated work outside the home might consider differences among younger and older women, women from different ethnic groups, women with disabilities, or the experiences of women in different forms of marital arrangements (e.g. monogamous versus polygynous, single/ widowed versus married) to determine whether and how these particular gender norms are changing.The social identities that are most salient for shaping discrimination and reinforcing inequality will vary across contexts. During the design phase and when developing the M&E system, each programme should determine which social identities are important to consider for the measurement of gender transformative change in a specific context.Indicators are frequently formulated by programme staff, or are selected from resources produced by past initiatives. As a result, these types of indicators are developed using outsider perspectives. Outsider perspectives typically shape the formulation of indicators (and of programmes themselves) and outcomes expected by the funding or implementing organization. As such, many indicators do not necessarily incorporate the perspectives of the target participants, such as individual women and men, community organizations, and other stakeholders.Hence it is important that M&E systems create opportunities for programme participants and other relevant stakeholders to define gender transformative change from their perspectives and inform the design of gender transformative change indicators based on the changes they wish to monitor. For example, indicators developed or informed by insiders have been used to address local conceptualizations of empowerment in different countries.These Guidelines provide some examples of the many ways to incorporate insider perspectives when designing indicators. One example is presented in Box 2; for others, consult the tools and methods for integrating insider perspectives in research (Annex 2). One recommended approach for indicator development is the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) approach, which is valuable for both quantitative and qualitative indicators. ii Another approach, SPICED, iii provides a useful framework for including stakeholders specifically for the development of robust and meaningful indicators. This approach (see full definition below) is qualitative, and allows participants to define change in their own words. It helps to foster shared accountability between stakeholders and aims to encourage ongoing learning and improvement. The principles of the SPICED approach are characterized as follows:• Subjective: Community members have experiences that are unique and can provide insights to the project's understanding of gender transformative change. These insights can vary from place to place.• Participatory: Indicators and objectives need to be developed together by all stakeholders.• Interpreted and communicable: Insider-informed indicators may mean different things to different stakeholders, so they need to be communicated according to shared denominators.• Cross-checked and compared: The validity of assessments needs to be cross-checked, by comparing different objectives/indicators and progress with different methods.• Empowering: The process of identifying indicators is empowering, and helps participants reflect on their changes.• Diverse and disaggregated: Indicators from different intersections of the population are sought.•Step 1: Identify and engage stakeholder groups and community researchers.•Step 2: Understand the local context, issues, barriers and opportunities for change.•Step 3: Identify informational needs and interests.•  Programmes should develop outcome indicators to showcase how certain activities or social change innovations can help build agency and support changes in unequal power relations and discriminatory social institutions. It is useful to develop \"progress markers\" to help identify the incremental changes that appear to be contributing to gender transformative change processes.Gender transformative change takes time to achieve, with rapid progress in some spheres and dimensions, and slower changes in others. Measuring incremental changes allows programmes to see how successful they are in facilitating and supporting gender transformative change processes over time, instead of only examining end-points. It is thus important to measure \"catalytic\" changes that lead to longer-term change, while at the same time developing indicators or proxies for slower-moving processes of change that can be tracked more easily (Mullinax, Hart and Garcia, 2018). One possible example of a catalytic change would be a change from gender-blind to gender-responsive policies and by-laws for setting up and supporting cooperatives and farmers' associations. Progress markers can also help assess small incremental changes on the path towards catalytic change (Mullinax, Hart and Garcia, 2018). An incremental change could be an increase in resource-poor married women's knowledge and skills regarding good agricultural practices as well as in their overall confidence, which could lead to increased involvement in agricultural production decisions within their households. Measuring these changes is important, even if it is only possible to capture a portion of the whole change process at any given time.Gender transformative changes can occur in both negative and positive directions -even simultaneously, across different dimensions of change. For example, an intervention designed to help increase women's decision-making power in agricultural cooperatives could lead to reduced involvement of women in food or cash crop production at household level, due to increased work and time burdens operating at the community level. Therefore, measures to examine unintended outcomes are additionally needed.Programmes should consider developing a mix of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Qualitative indicators, by gathering the views and perceptions of different people, can enable programmes to report on how and why gender norms have changed over the course of an intervention (i.e. to explain the \"why\" behind the processes of change). In turn, quantitative indicators can provide complementary information on changes in prevalence and patterns of gender norms over time.Measuring gender transformative change is not per se any more or less costly than measuring other types of processes or outcomes. Nonetheless, estimates of sample size, cost, and time required to carry out surveys and qualitative assessments should be made at the start of any research or M&E process, to ensure the indicators developed within programme teams match the overall research objectives and available resources. Where there are limited budget and human resources to implement a survey, for example, programme teams may wish to design a smaller study at the start or end of a programme cycle using qualitative indicators. For impact assessments, both baseline and endline (and ideally midline) surveys are important to conduct. Hence, having a significant budget and human resources for carrying out these M&E activities is a precondition to enable these surveys to be carried out.It is now recognized that many programmes that intended to empower women have only reached or benefited them in limited ways (Lawless et al., 2019;Johnson et al., 2018). To address this, the \"reach-benefit-empower\" framework (Johnson et al., 2018) was devised to help planners distinguish between reach, benefit and empower strategies and measurement. Kleiber et al. (2019) then added \"transform\" to the framework to address interventions aiming to transform discriminatory social institutions and unequal power relations. Table 4 highlights differences between \"reach\", \"benefit\", \"empower\" and \"transform\" objectives, strategies and indicators. In all cases, women and men with specific intersectional identities can be identified and worked with.TA B L E 4 . From \"reach\" to \"transform\": associations between programme objectives, strategies and indicatorsReach women as well as men as project participants.Inviting women to participate; reducing barriers to women's participation; using quota system for training events.Number or proportion of women and men participating in project activities (training, extension advice, etc.).Deliver access to resources and benefits to women and men.  Prior to the development of the change indicators and the implementation of these five steps, it is expected that the programme team will have carried out a thorough intersectional gender analysis to inform the formulation of the programme or policy intervention. This analysis should pay particular attention to the identification of the sources (or root causes) of gender inequalities, including a social norms assessment 5 to identify and understand the social norms that influence specific behaviours that are leading to gender gaps and inequality.The intersectional gender analysis should also examine differences in constraints and opportunities of men, women, boys and girls, as well as other intersecting and compounding forms of discrimination based on Indigenous identity, religion, ethnicity, disability status, age, socioeconomic status, health, and marital or migration status.F I G U R E 4 . All the examples presented are meant to be illustrative in terms of the different dimensions that could be relevant in each context, and in the number of ways the achievement of the outcomes could be measured. Importantly, gender transformative change is better understood when various indicators and dimensions are considered, as no single indicator in isolation should be taken as evidence of gender transformative change. It should be noted that indicator examples are perhaps more suitable for monitoring purposes, but can also be consulted when designing impact evaluations.The proposed step-by-step process can guide the development of a theory of gender transformative change (see Cole et al., 2014) within a given programme, or can be integrated as an impact pathway in a larger programme theory of change. Staff can decide and adapt the application of this process according to the stage of the programme within its overall cycle, though as previously noted, it is recommended that the indicator development process be planned from the design stage onwards.Some complementary resources for measuring gender transformative change are presented in Annex 2 that programmes can consult during the indicator design process. See Annex 5 for a review of select literature on measuring gender transformative change and on related indicators.STEP 1Create an impact statement• Use the core areas of gender equality to help formulate the impact statement Step 1• Link challenges to key dimensions and subdimensions of gender-transformative change • Specify the other social identities that intersect with genderIdentify who needs to change and the sphere(s) of influence• Specify the other social identities that intersect with gender• Associate them with the key challenge and dimensions/ subdimensionsSECTION 3Determine the longer-term impacts that your gender transformative research or development programme is expected to contribute to, clearly identifying who is intended to benefit from your programme and in what way. The assumption is that a gender transformative research or development programme will already have this knowledge at hand, or will have already carried out a study to determine the intended beneficiaries. Make sure to pay attention to other social identities that intersect with gender.Thinking about the gender transformative change you wish to contribute to in the longer term will help you to identify and/or formulate related indicators of shorter-term change in subsequent steps.Use the core areas of gender equality to help formulate an impact statement.See Figure 5 for assistance with the key parts to include in an impact statement. STEP 1Identify the underlying (or root) causes of gender inequality (i.e. the key challenges or problems) that your programme wishes to address to achieve the intended impacts. Again, the assumption is that a gender transformative research or development programme will already have this knowledge, or will have already carried out a study to identify the underlying causes.Link the key challenges to the dimensions of gender transformative change (i.e. agency, power relations, and formal and informal social institutions) that the programme should focus on.Thereafter, determine the subdimensions of agency and formal and informal social institutions and the important relationships on which the programme will focus (see Section 1). Identify which groups need to change and the sphere(s) of influenceDetermine which groups' behaviours, attitudes or beliefs create the key challenges to bringing about women's empowerment and gender equality outcomes. These groups become the focus (i.e. target) of the gender transformative research or development programme. They may (or may not) include the people or groups identified in your impact statement (Step 1), but also others who contribute to sustaining gender inequalities. In addition, identify which sphere(s) of influence these groups operate within.Choose the specific groups whose behaviours, attitudes and beliefs will be targeted by the programme, and which sphere(s) of influence (i.e. individual, household, community, organizational and macroenvironmental) the groups primarily operate in. Individual, household and community STEP 3Develop outcome statements specifying what each target group could do differently to overcome the key challenges identified in Step 2. Remember to focus on the key dimensions (agency, power relations, and formal and informal social institutions) and their subdimensions when defining each statement. Indicate the time frame and possible incremental changes that could lead to achieving the outcomes.The use of participatory methods to obtain insider perspectives of target groups and other local stakeholders are critical here when determining the specific changes required to achieve each desired outcome. Outcome 1 -Resource-poor married women gain the skills and confidence to make decisions on crop production and sales within the household.Outcome 2 -Men in resource-poor women´s households recognize women´s skills and value their contribution in decisions about crop production and sales.Outcome 1 -At month 6: Resource-poor married women increase their knowledge on good agricultural practices, marketing their produce, negotiations and bargaining, as well as learning overall confidencebuilding skills.-At year 1: Resource-poor married women are beginning to use good agricultural practices, better understand potential output markets and how to engage with traders, and practice their negotiation/ bargaining skills.Outcome 2 -At year 1: Men in resource-poor women´s households acknowledge women's market knowledge and their contributions to the implementation of good agricultural practices.-At year 2: Men in resource-poor women´s households recognize the value of women´s capacities and contributions and involve their spouses in production and marketing decisions. -Percentage of resource-poor married women who think that people in the community would approve of women taking decisions on crop production and sales (injunctive norm*)Outcome 2 -Percentage of men in resource-poor households who involve their spouses in decisions about crop production and sales -Percentage of men in resource-poor households who think that women should take decisions on crop production and sales on their own (descriptive norm*)-Percentage of men in resource-poor households who agree that most people in the community would speak positively of men who involve their spouses in decisions about production and marketing of crops (injunctive norm*)Outcome 1 -Resource-poor married women's perspectives on skills learned and confidence gained, and how these have influenced their decisionmaking capacityOutcome 2 -Resource-poor men's views on the importance of involving their spouses in decisions about crop production and sales STEP 5The significance of gender transformative approaches in promoting lasting change towards gender equality and women's empowerment has gained growing recognition in the last decade. These approaches emerge as an alternative and a complement to more traditional gender-aware approaches that have largely focused on addressing the symptoms of gender inequalities without paying sufficient attention to their structural causes. With the goal of achieving sustainable and transformative impacts, gender transformative approaches seek to eradicate systemic forms of gender-based discrimination and to create or strengthen gender relations and social institutions that support gender equality and women's empowerment.These Guidelines have presented an overarching framework for measuring gender transformative change in the context of food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture.The framework comprises three key dimensions (agency, power relations and social institutions) and a socioecological model for identifying spheres of influence within which gender transformative change can be measured. The Guidelines have also brought attention to other important issues to consider when implementing the framework and when developing context-specific indicators of gender transformative change, such as the incorporation of insider perspectives and consideration for intersectional forms of discrimination. Agency: Agency refers to the ability to define one's goals and act upon them (Kabeer, 1999). Discriminatory social institutions: Discriminatory social institutions consist of formal and informal laws, social norms and practices that restrict or exclude women and consequently curtail their access to rights, justice, resources and empowerment opportunities (OECD, 2019).Dominant/restrictive/toxic masculinities: These masculinities confine men to their traditional role as the dominant gender group, undermining women's empowerment and gender equality (adapted from OECD, 2021).Empowerment: Empowerment is the process of expanding an individual's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied (Kabeer, 1999).Feminist research: Both feminist and gender transformative research are concerned with gender as an axis of power. In particular, feminist research has closely examined the fundamental role of research in creating knowledge and power systems. Feminist methodologies seek to challenge traditional approaches to research to rebalance power, redefine the participants as experts, ensure a dedication to ethics and acknowledge all research as value-laden instead of objective (IDRC, 2018).Gender: Gender refers to the roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society at a given time considers appropriate for men and women (WHO, 2023).Genderaccommodating interventions acknowledge that women and men, on the basis of their gender, have specific needs, roles, opportunities and constraints. Interventions work around (i.e. accommodate) existing gender dynamics, norms and roles, but do not challenge them. This leaves the system which creates gender inequalities untouched, allowing it to continuously replicate inequalities.These consist of gender-aware policies and programmes that examine and address the set of economic, social and political roles, responsibilities, rights, entitlements, obligations and power relations associated with being male and female, as well as the dynamics between and among men and women, boys and girls (IGWG, 2017).In these interventions, gender (in terms of the differentiated and intersectional experiences of women, men, boys and girls) is not considered in the research project, not even in its conceptualization or its rationale (Oxfam, 2019). The interventions ignore the set of economic, social and political roles, rights, entitlements, responsibilities and obligations associated with being male and female as well as the power dynamics between and among men and women, boys and girls. Gender-blind interventions distinguish little between the needs of men and women, neither reinforcing nor questioning gender roles. However, this maintenance of the status quo can reinforce existing gender inequalities (IGWG, 2017).Gender discrimination: Gender discrimination describes the situation in which people are treated unequally simply because of their gender. Gender discrimination may be embodied in law (de jure) or result from practice (de facto) (Plan International, 2023).The state or condition that affords women and girls, men and boys equal enjoyment of human rights, socially valued goods, opportunities and resources regardless of whether they are born female or male (FAO, 2017). Pathways to gender equality include expanding the exercise of freedoms and voice, improving power dynamics and relations, transforming gender roles and enhancing overall quality of life so that women and girls, men and boys achieve their full potential (GTFN, 2023).These masculinities are supportive of women's empowerment and gender equality. They contest patriarchal structures and unequal gender power dynamics (adapted from OECD, 2021).Gender equity: This refers to the process of being fair to both women and men in the distribution of resources and benefits. It involves recognition of inequality and requires measures to work towards equality of women and girls, men and boys. Gender equity is the process that leads to gender equality (GTFN, 2023). Gender justice: Gender justice refers to a situation of full equality and equity between women and men in all spheres of life, resulting in women jointly -and on an equal basis with men -defining and shaping the policies, structures and decisions that affect their lives and the society as a whole (Oxfam, 2023).Gender mainstreaming: Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women and men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality (adapted from UN Women, 2023).A subset of social norms, gender norms are informal rules and shared social expectations which determine and assign socially acceptable roles, behaviours, responsibilities and expectations to male and female identities. By influencing expectations for masculine and feminine behaviour that is considered socially acceptable and appropriate, gender norms directly affect individuals' choices, freedoms and capabilities (FAO, 2021).Gender relations: Gender relations refers to the social relationships and power distribution between and among men and women in both the private (personal) and public spheres (INEE, 2023).These interventions seek to reduce gender-based inequalities by assessing and responding to the different needs or interests of women and girls, men and boys, and by incorporating the views of women and girls. Some gender-specific actions are implemented to redress inequalities, but not in a comprehensive way (GTFN, 2023).Gender roles: Gender roles refers to the behaviours, tasks and responsibilities that a society considers appropriate for men, women, boys and girls (IFAD, 2021).These interventions identify and specify different practical and strategic needs of women, men, girls and boys along with the potential differential effects of project activities or approaches. The interventions take gender norms, roles, relations and differences into consideration, and try to make changes within these rules and norms, although they may not directly change them (GTFN, 2023).Gender stereotypes: Gender stereotypes are widely held, generalized assumptions whereby women and men are assigned attributes, characteristics and roles. Descriptive stereotypes refer to beliefs about specific characteristics that a person possesses based on their gender. Prescriptive stereotypes are beliefs about specific characteristics that a person should possess based on their gender (Stewart, 2013). Stereotypes about women are the result of deeply engrained attitudes, values, norms and prejudices against women. They are used to justify and maintain the historical power relations by which men dominate women (EIGE, 2016).A gender transformative approach seeks to actively examine, challenge and transform the underlying causes of gender inequalities rooted in discriminatory social structures. As such, a gender transformative approach aims to address unequal gendered power relations and discriminatory gender norms, attitudes, behaviours and practices, as well as discriminatory or gender-blind policies and laws that create and perpetuate gender inequalities.By doing so, it seeks to eradicate systemic forms of gender-based discrimination by creating or strengthening equitable gender relations and social structures that support gender equality (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2022).These interventions include specific measures to change discriminatory social structures, sociocultural norms and gender relations to achieve more shared and equal power dynamics, decision-making and control of resources, as well as support for women's empowerment.Gender transformative methodologies are a suite of participatory approaches, methods and tools that encourage critical reflection and examination among women and men of gender norms and power relations (FAO, 2021).Gender transformative programming: Gender transformative programming involves taking a gender transformative approach to project and programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation throughout the project cycle.Programming strategies move beyond women's empowerment towards transforming unequal power relations and the social institutions which perpetuate and reinforce gender inequalities. At the core of gender transformative programming lie interventions that aim to address strategic gender interests in addition to practical gender needs, by triggering changes in agency, power relations and social structures at individual and systemic levels and across informal and formal life spheres (FAO, 2021).Gender transformative research aims to transform gender power dynamics and structures at the household, community and societal levels. It privileges marginalized perspectives and validates different ways of knowing. Women are central to the analysis, which is intersectional and contextualized.In gender transformative research, a participatory and collaborative approach is fostered to promote equal power dynamics (adapted from Hillenbrand et al., 2015;IDRC, 2018).These are initiatives that appear as if they benefit everyone equally, but in actual fact may have quite different and deleterious effects on certain members of a given group. Often constructed on the basis of treating everyone fairly or the same, these policies assume \"business as usual\" and ignore gender norms, roles and relations.Human rights: Human rights are inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status (UN, 2023).Indicators: Indicators are criteria or measures against which changes can be assessed. They may be pointers, facts, numbers, opinions or perceptions. Indicators are used to signify changes in specific conditions or progress towards particular objectives (OECD, 2007).Injunctive norms: Injunctive norms refer to what one believes others think one should do (Cialdini, Kallgren and Reno, 1991;Social Norms Learning Collaborative, 2021).Intersectionality: Intersectionality refers to how different social identities, such as gender, socioeconomic status, age, ethnicity, geographical location, marital status and physical abilities, intersect to shape experiences of discrimination and oppression.Masculinities: Masculinities comprise the various ways of enacting oneself and acting as a man. They refer to the specific expectations and values attributed with being and becoming a man in a given society (adapted from OECD, 2021).Organizations: Organizations are groups of individuals bound by a common purpose. These are shaped by social institutions and, in turn, influence how social institutions change (GSDRC, 2014).Patriarchy: Patriarchy is a social system of masculine domination over women (EIGE, 2016).Practical gender needs: Practical gender needs are a response to immediate perceived necessity, identified within a specific context. They are practical in nature and often stem from inadequacies in living conditions such as water provision, health care and employment (EIGE, 2016).Sanctions: Sanctions indicate social approval (positive sanctions) or disapproval (negative sanctions) for one's actions (Nguyen et al., 2020).Sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics that define humans as female or male (or other, for instance intersex) (GTFN, 2023).Social inclusion is the process of improving the abilities, opportunities and dignity of people who are disadvantaged on the basis of their identity, to better the terms on which they take part in society (SDC, 2023).Social institutions: Social institutions comprise the formal and informal rules and norms that organize social, political and economic relationsi.e. the underlying rules of the game. Formal institutions include: (i) political institutions such as parliaments, political parties , written constitutions, laws, policies, rights and regulations enforced by official authorities; (ii) formal membership organizations such as cooperatives; and (iii) economic institutions such as markets, private companies and banks. Informal institutions consist of the (usually unwritten) social norms, customs or traditions that shape thought and behaviour, such as kinship, marriage, inheritance and religion.In practice, formal and informal rules and norms can be complementary, competing or overlapping.Informal social norms may influence the design and implementation of formal institutions (GSDRC, 2014).Social justice: Social justice refers to the process of working towards change that reduces social inequalities, including gender inequalities, in a particular context (Fischer, Wittich and Fründt, 2019).Social norms: Social norms are unwritten \"rules\" governing behaviour shared by members of a given group or society. They are informal, often implicit, rules that most people accept and abide by. In contrast to individually held attitudes or beliefs, a social norm is defined by beliefs that are shared about a behaviour or practice (ALIGN, 2019). As such, the norms exist when a practice is considered both typical and approved of within a given group. Social norms can influence or uphold behaviour, and are typically maintained by social approval or disapproval for engaging in a behaviour (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2022).Social structures: Social structures form the complex and stable framework of society that influences all individuals or groups through the relationship between institutions (e.g. economy, politics, religion) and social practices (e.g. behaviours, norms and values), or the ways social institutions are related and interact in a given society (Bell, 2015).These are interests identified by women as a result of their subordinate social status that tend to challenge gender divisions of labour, power and control, as well as traditionally defined norms and roles (adapted from ESCWA, 2023).Annexes ANNEX 1In the mid-1990s, Kabeer and Subrahmanian (1996, p. 20) explained that gender transformative policies \"seek to transform the existing gender relations in a more egalitarian direction through the redistribution of resources and responsibilities\" between women and men. They acknowledged this was politically challenging because men would be required to give up some of their privileges or take on responsibilities and roles normatively ascribed to women (Kabeer and Subrahmanian, 1996). Their paper was developed at a time when conceptualizations of women's empowerment had long been led by feminist activists, including in low-income countries.Feminist movements around the world developed distinctive approaches, engaging from the outset with an intersectional approach. As explained by Batliwala (2007, p. 558), \"The spread of 'women's empowerment' [was] a … political and transformatory idea for struggles that challenged not only patriarchy, but the mediating structures of class, race, ethnicityand, in India, caste and religion -which determined the nature of women's position and condition in developing societies\". A major focus of researchers and activists was on the transformation of power relations to advance women's rights and social justice in economic, social and political structures (Cornwall, 2009;Cornwall and Rivas, 2015). Critical conceptual links between women's self-understanding, their capacity for self-expression, and their access to resources were also developed (Cornwall and Rivas, 2015;Kabeer, 1999). Kabeer (1994) and others began to develop a classification system termed the \"genderequality continuum\" to identify approaches to development as being gender-blind, gender-neutral, gender-accommodative, gender-sensitive, gender-responsive and gender transformative (UNICEF, 2019;HC3, 2016b;UNDP, 2015;Cornwall and Rivas, 2015). 6 Further efforts towards institutionalization included global landmark policy achievements on gender equality, such as the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), 7 the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 8 and Millennium Development Goal 3 (Promote gender equality and empower women). 9Yet despite these enormous political commitments, during the 2000s and into the 2010s there was growing concern that the very processes involved in gender mainstreaming actually meant that the terms \"empowerment\" and \"gender equality\" were, in some cases, in danger of becoming \"eviscerated of conceptual and political bite\" (Cornwall and Rivas, 2015, p. 396). A significant body of gender equality and women's empowerment interventions appeared to be focused more on what empowered women could do for achieving development goals, rather than on building an understanding of empowerment as desirable in and of itself (Cornwall, 2016). There was an emphasis on \"filling gaps\" in women's access to knowledge, services, resources and markets, rather than on challenging and changing discriminatory social institutions (Hillenbrand et al., 2015;Njuki, Kaler and Parkins, 2016). These processes contributed to a proliferation of measures and indices, which were arguably too simple with respect to unit and scope of analysis and not effective enough at capturing the nuances of gender in differing social contexts (Tavenner and Crane, 2022). And, above all, by the mid-2010s there was the sense that years of advocacy, policy efforts and investments 6 Combinations of these approaches vary according to the model one espouses.7 See https://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/cedaw 8 See https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/intergovernmental-support/world-conferences-on-women 9 See https://www.mdgmonitor.org/millennium-development-goal directed to gender mainstreaming were failing to bring the expected benefits for women's empowerment and gender equality.Nevertheless, on international policy agendas, change was afoot. The SDGs, integral to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, were agreed upon in 2015. SDG 5 made an explicit commitment to \"achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls\" in their own right. 10 The formulation of the SDGs, including the commitment to \"leave no one behind\", 11 reflected the understanding that the intersection of income inequality, the marginalization of certain social identities, and, frequently, locational disadvantage can lead to the systematic exclusion of certain groups (Kabeer and Santos, 2017). Intersectionality proposes that human lives cannot be understood as the expression of a single identity, such as gender, but rather are multidimensional and complex. Thus, inequalities and social differences are the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations and experiences (Hankivsky, 2014). At the same time, masculinities studies, conducted for decades in the health sector (Thompson and Pleck, 1995), became more common in rural development research (Cornwall, 2000), resulting in challenging and fruitful dialogues between feminist researchers and practitioners and those studying masculinities (Edström, Das and Dolan, 2014). Organizations like Promundo (now Equimundo) worked on the ground to promote understandings of masculinities and gender equality, developing in the process a number of valuable participatory approaches such as Journeys of Transformation (Promundo and CARE International in Rwanda, 2012). Today, masculinities and intersectionality are understood to be central to informing the design and implementation of gender transformative approaches (Mullinax, Hart and Garcia, 2018;Cole et al., 2015).A decade ago, drawing on the work of many organizations and individuals, CGIAR started developing its own conceptualization of gender transformative change. The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems inspired systematic efforts to institutionalize gender transformative programming (Shaw and Kristjanson, 2013;McDougall et al., 2021).The CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network (2012-2016) was followed by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research (2017-2019) and the current CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform. 12 Similarly, the global comparative research initiative GENNOVATE 13 was created to examine how gender norms and agency influence men, women and youth to adopt innovation in agriculture and natural resource management (Badstue et al., 2018). From this work, significant papers on how to conceptualize gender transformative change in agrifood systems began to emerge (Kantor and Apgar, 2013;Morgan, 2014;Cole et al., 2014;Hillenbrand et al., 2015;Njuki, Kaler and Parkins, 2016;Mullinax, Hart and Garcia, 2018).In 2019, the European Union, FAO, IFAD and WFP launched the Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security, Improved Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture (JP GTA), designed in response to a call at the joint 2016 high-level event \"Step It Up Together with Rural Women to End Hunger and Poverty\", 14 with financial support from the European Union. The JP GTA aims to strengthen the RBAs' contribution to the attainment of SDG 5 by explicitly addressing the root causes of gender inequalities and triggering transformative change processes that lead to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (FAO, IFAD and WFP, 2021). The first principle of the European Union Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in External Action 2021-2025 (European Union, 2020, p. 4) commits to gender transformative change, which means \"examining, questioning and changing rigid gender norms and imbalances of power which disadvantage women and girls and generate discriminations at all ages, starting from early childhood, in societies.\"  Fattal, 2022;McDougall et al., 2022). To some extent, the studies and writings in the current literature are rebuilding the understanding created decades ago that women and men must be able to challenge how they are represented, define what gender transformative change means to them, and meaningfully engage in decision-making systems.Complementary resources for measuring gender transformative changeThese Guidelines provide an overarching framework on how to measure gender transformative change, including several methodological issues to consider when developing gender transformative change indicators, and a step-by-step process for developing said indicators.In keeping with the Guidelines, this section presents some examples of complementary tools and methods that programmes can include in their toolbox for use when measuring gender transformative change. The examples are organized below according to the tools and methods for measuring the key dimensions of gender transformative change as per the framework provided in these Guidelines. It is important to note that some tools and methods focus on empowerment rather than gender transformative change per se. They are included when there is high potential for adapting them to gender transformative change measurement.Based on the process described in these Guidelines, we also provide some examples of tools and methods that will help organizations apply an intersectional lens and bring in insider perspectives when setting up their gender transformative research or development programme. Finally, we include quantitative and qualitative tools and methods to assist organizations in developing outcome indicators and in understanding incremental changes that occur during a programme cycle.Tools and methods for measuring agency The Gender and Power Analysis examines key gaps, risks and barriers that constrain gender equality and social justice in different arenas of life. The tool also helps identify people's experiences of power and privilege (with a specific focus on experiences of young people) as well as drivers of positive social change. It comprises six domains that can be used to explore a range of topics, including dimensions of gender transformative change, and is especially helpful for understanding how power differentials and accompanying systems of oppression operate.Bywater, K., Avakyan, Y. & Lepillez, K. 2021. Gender and power analysis. GAP analysis: a child-centred and intersectional approach. Save the Children. https:// resourcecentre. savethechildren. net/pdf/GAP-Guidance_FINAL. pdf/This toolkit covers social analysis and action to facilitate gender and social transformation. Section 4 on monitoring, evaluation and learning provides guidance on gender and power analysis to collect, identify, examine and analyse information on different power holders, norms and networks, as well as the roles of men and women.In particular, it focuses on examining diversity among groups of women, men, girls and boys. While it cuts across all three key dimensions of gender transformative change, it is a particularly good example of how to measure power relations. PVMSC is a participatory approach to measurement, evaluation and learning (MEL). The approach amplifies the voices of participants to enable organizations to better understand and improve their programmes. PVMSC uses a set of techniques to involve a group or community in shaping and creating their own film. Among these, the Most Significant Change technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation.It involves the collection of significant change stories from the field, with panels of designated stakeholders or staff selecting the most significant stories.Access to a free version of the toolkitThis manual explains how to develop the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). Part 3 (pp. 102-105) presents several tools for sharing, aggregating, evaluating and discussing knowledge gained to date. The manual also provides tools to ensure challenges are addressed, and to highlight the importance of self-led tracking and planning processes. There is a particular focus on ensuring gender justice is not lost during the GALS process, as participants move to deepen their understanding of livelihood and business planning. The manual also helps participants to build on positive gender changes and improve change processes. The sphere of influence that the assessment of the outcomes could target is also indicated along with a hypothetical programme focus. The sample indicators were developed using the \"knowledge, skills and access to information\" core area of gender equality (see Table 3).Core area of gender inequality: Knowledge, skills and access to information Outcome 2 -Men in powerful positions and male members of associations see value in having women leaders.Outcome 1 -At month 6: Male leaders of associations reflect on and develop action plans at community-based workshops to address the underlying causes of women's low representation in association leadership positions.-At year 1: Male leaders develop by-laws that make it mandatory that 50 percent of leadership positions be held by women.Outcome 2 -At year 2: Attitudes of male association members are becoming more positive regarding the presence of female leaders in the association.Outcome 1 -Ratio of women to men in leadership positions -Percentage of female members who believe that most people in their community would disapprove if they took up leadership roles (injunctive norm)-Percentage of women and men who report that it is common in their community for women to hold leadership roles in farmers' associations (descriptive norm)Outcome 2 -Percentage of male leaders who believe it is important to have gender parity in leadership positions -Percentage of members (women and men) who believe that only men can be good leaders or can fill leadership rolesOutcome Outcome 1 -At year 1: Scheduled caste women have the skills, knowledge and capital to manage small dairy businesses.-At year 2-3: (Extended) household-level attitudes are more positive regarding scheduled caste women's engagement in dairy businesses.Outcome 2 -At month 6: Scheduled caste women are trained with general caste and other backward caste women in the setting up of small dairy businesses and associated technical knowledge, and supported with tailored, gender-responsive loans.-At year 2-3: Scheduled caste women are able to run a successful operation, and community members acknowledge their new capacities and success.-At year 4-5: Community members across caste demonstrate positive attitudes regarding the engagement of scheduled caste households, and specifically women, in dairy production.Outcome 1 -Percentage of scheduled caste women who manage dairy businesses compared to general caste men -Percentage of scheduled caste men who believe that men support their wives' involvement in the dairy business (descriptive norm)-Percentage of scheduled caste men who believe that other men will think positively of them if they support their wife's involvement in the dairy business (injunctive norm)Outcome 2 -Percentage of men who believe that women (including scheduled caste women) have the capacity to own/manage dairy businesses (descriptive norm)-Percentage of men who believe that others in the community think that women (including scheduled caste women) have the capacity to own/manage dairy businesses (injunctive norm)Outcome 1 -Cross-caste community perception of scheduled caste women's engagement in the dairy business Outcome 1 -At year 1-2: Men's attitudes are more gender-equitable regarding who should perform home-based work versus productive work outside the home.Outcome 2 -At year 1: Men take up domestic and caretaking tasks reliably in their households.-At year 2: The participation of women in high-value markets increases.Outcome 1 -Percentage of men who believe that other men perform unpaid domestic work (descriptive norm)-Percentage of men and women who agree that it is common in their community for a man and woman to share child care and household chores equally (descriptive norm)-Percentage of women who think that people in their community approve of them spending their time working outside the household (injunctive norm) -At year 1: Policy-and decision-makers carry out policy reforms that ensure the needs, interests and constraints of all female and male farmers are attended to through agricultural extension services.-At year 2: District agricultural staff have the sensitivity, capacity and resources to be more gender-responsive, and recognize the importance of ensuring diversity and inclusion in the workplace.-Percentage of extension officers who apply differential approaches and methods for technical support for different types of farmers -Percentage of women farmers who report access to more frequent and better-tailored extension services, and have increased their productivity as a result -Percentage of extension officers who think that other extension officers provide gender-responsive services (descriptive norm)-Percentage of extension officers who think that most extension officers would approve of them providing genderresponsive extension services (injunctive norm)-Extension officers' experiences providing gender-responsive extension support to young women farmers, and the results from using such an approach -Young women farmers' experiences receiving genderresponsive support via their district extension network and the benefits they see for the development of their skills, knowledge and practical experience The SAA model is meant to be integrated into sector-focused programmes, through which individuals and communities explore and challenge social norms, beliefs and practices concerning gender and sexuality. The framework proposed sees change as a process instead of an end-point. It focuses on documenting and learning from small, incremental changes, and on the quality of programme implementation (e.g. staff perceptions of and commitment to gender equality, capacities of community-level facilitators or partners, and knowledge of SAA implementation).As the pathway to change is non-linear, the indicators suggested \"do not map a simple one-toone relationship to the three domains of change. Each indicator, while situated in either agency, or structure, or relations in the table, reflects multiple changes that in reality cut across the three dimensions. For example, the prevalence of female-owned businesses may reflect changes in individual choices and capabilities it may also reflect structural changes in shifting labour market incentives\" (p. 15). The authors argue it is necessary to ensure there are indicators to capture change in all dimensions.The document outlines an approach that organizes indicators into two groups. Group one includes indicators that measure immediate outcomes, mostly referring to the implementation of the SAA approach (e.g. staff become active champions of gender equality; individuals and communities are increasingly aware of -and motivated to change -inequitable gender, social and power norms; collective efficacy increases). Group two includes indicators that measure intermediate outcomes, reflecting changes in either agency, relations or structures. Within the second group the authors further classify indicators as either cross-cutting (e.g. self-efficacy, gender-based violence, genderequitable attitudes) or sector-specific (e.g. women's economic empowerment, food security and nutrition, sexual health, and reproductive rights). For research design and measurement, the authors recommend a theory of change that focuses on assessing incremental progress toward gender transformative change: i.e. using progress markers that assess small incremental changes instead of only end-points. This allows for defining benchmarks of success and provides clarity on what data is needed and for what purpose.Measuring \"catalytic\" changes should also be facilitated, which will eventually result in longerterm change.To understand gender transformative change, researchers need to better conceptualize and measure women's empowerment as being about changing power relationships and structures.Hence the paper argues that indicators should focus on relational and structural changes, as indicators related to women's individual mobility (e.g. the ability to go out alone) do not capture structural and relational dynamics. Furthermore, organizations need to understand from their projects and partners what gender transformative change looks like within their lived realities, and then create research and measurement based on this feedback.Finally, the paper stresses that MEL systems must include gender indicators based on participant and programmatic staff input. For example, organizations can ask teams their definition of gender equality in their particular context, and what it would ideally look like after the project closes.-Changes in women's power across multiple levels, including agency, inner household relationship dynamics, and structural systems and policies (i.e. socioecological framework) in comparison to men -Changes in gender stereotypes -Reflections of men and women on the consequences of the inequalities embedded within gender roles and norms, and of the resulting distribution of resources, thus encouraging a change in power relations in the community-Women make decisions over strategic aspects of their family business.-Men are more (or equally) involved in household duties.-Men inform women about their movements.-Women are able to go out alone. -Percentage of population above 18 years of age who believe or believe strongly that \"when a mother works for pay, the children suffer.\"-Percentage of population above 18 years of age who think that \"being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay.\"-Percentage of population above 18 years of age who agree or agree strongly that \"if a woman earns more money than her husband, it's almost certain to cause problems.\"-Whether or not the same legal minimum age of marriage applies to both women and men -Whether or not women and men have the same legal rights, decision-making abilities, and responsibilities within the household-Sex ratio among children aged 0-4 (number of males per 100 females)-Percentage of women aged 15-49 who consider a husband to be justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one of the following reasons: burning the food, arguing with him, going out without telling him, neglecting the children, or refusing sexual relations -Percentage of women who have suffered intimate partner violence or sexual violence at least once in their lives -Whether or not the legal framework protects women from violence, including intimate partner violence, rape and sexual harassment, without legal exceptions and under a comprehensive approach Access to productive and financial resources -Whether or not women and men have the same legal rights and secure access to land assets -Whether or not women and men share equal rights and opportunities in the workplace, including protection during pregnancy, parental leave, equal pay, and equal access to professionsCivil liberties -Percentage of the population who agree that \"on the whole, men make better political leaders than women do.\"","tokenCount":"11877"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"396329b0311b6d168f26ce1b4a1ad1a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H040604.pdf","id":"650326854"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0d74b34a-b516-491d-baf1-b38168557e21","pagecount":"17","content":"Despite the success claimed for the irrigation sector in contributing to falling food prices, food security and raising farm income, irrigation has, in the last two decades, elicited growing frustration in the community of aid agencies and development banks. A major reason for such sentiment is the low financial sustainability of the sector, which incurs recurrent rehabilitation expenditure and subsidies to operation and maintenance (O&M) that add to the large initial investment costs. A second reason is that agriculture accounts for 70% of the use of water and, despite growing shortages, is seen to be bedevilled by very low levels of efficiency (the water effectively used is only a small fraction of the water diverted) that seem unacceptable in a time of growing needs in other sectors. In addition, farmers often apply large quantities of water to irrigate crops that have both high water requirements and a low return (typically, rice in Asia).These problems of perceived low efficiency, poor management and financial unsustainability have been addressed by a wide range of actions that include rehabilitation, modernization, improved technical management, participatory management, turnover and collection of water charges. The limited benefits obtained have spurred many proposals to tackle these problems with some economic tools and incentives, particularly in the aftermath of the Hague and Dublin meetings (Rogers et al., 1997).In Thailand, water is supplied to agriculture free of charge: water is best seen as a gift, traditionally linked to the good will or power of the absolute king, who mediates its supply from supernatural forces. Chonlaprathan, the Thai word for irrigation, embodies a notion of the royal gift. The Loy Krathong festival, in November, when offerings are put afloat on the waterways of the kingdom to thank the water spirits for the life that water brings, epitomizes the relationship between people and water. However, proposals for water pricing in the country can be found as early as 1903, in the General Report on Irrigation and Drainage in the Lower Menam (Chao Phraya) Valley, submitted to the Government of Siam by Van der Heide (1903), a Dutch engineer in charge of the Department of Canals:A water tax could be levied, in a manner similar to the paddy land tax, over the whole area at present cultivated and the future extension of this area, as far as the fields are benefited by the [irrigation] system . . . water rates could in general be assessed in some proportion to the quantity of water utilized, and would most probably be a suitable taxation for dry season crops and garden cultivation.The logic for pricing water may have, at that time, been borrowed from practices in Java, India or other Asian countries under colonial rule. Likewise, in the post-World War II period when the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development funded the development of infrastructures in the Chao Phraya delta, the consultant in charge of the study saw no difference between irrigation supply and railways or electricity and stated that it would 'not be a misuse of language or an exaggeration to describe the position [of Thailand] as extraordinary. . . . The Irrigation Department is thus unique among the commercial departments of the Government in Thailand in deriving no revenue from its services and unique or nearly so in this respect, throughout the world' (IBRD, 1950). 1 Although, at the time, the Thai government had shown willingness to establish fees once the scheme would be completed and proper supply ensured to users (IBRD, 1950), the idea seems to have then vanished and only recently come to the fore. In the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis, reform of the agriculture and water sectors was encouraged by both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the latter supported the definition of an ambitious plan aimed at introducing river basin management, service agreements between the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) and users, cost recovery dubbed as 'cost-sharing', and legal dispositions around a Water Law. This policy remained a dead letter for a set of reasons that cannot be easily untangled, but which includes resistance from line agencies, weak political support and the over-optimistic and often unrealistic nature of many of the proposals. Despite the setting of a policy matrix that defined commitment to successive milestones to be achieved, the process lost momentum before being eventually discontinued by the Thaksin administration.In this chapter, I first examine the relevance of the arguments for establishing water charges in the particular context of Thailand, and most particularly that of the Chao Phraya delta, the rice bowl of the country (Molle and Srijantr, 2003). In the first section, I address successively the role of pricing as: (i) a means to signal to users the economic value of water and hence regulate its use and avoid wastage; (ii) an instrument to reallocate water to crops with higher water productivity or to non-agriculture sectors; and (iii) a cost recovery mechanism. In the second section, I briefly examine reforms that failed in the past, and attempt to draw conclusions on both the potential charging for water and the way a policy reform process should unfold. Although unsuccessful, these attempts at reforming the water sector provide useful lessons on the constraints commonly faced by water pricing policies, particularly when they fail to fully appreciate the context in which they are to operate.Before turning to these points, it is useful to single out a few specific features of the Chao Phraya delta, on which the analysis will focus. Agriculture in the delta traditionally distinguishes between the wet season (where rain is abundant, sometimes in excess, and irrigation merely a complement) and the dry season (when irrigation is a prerequisite to agriculture). The hydrology of the delta is very complex, since it includes numerous side flows and return flows, canals serving for both supply and drainage, generalized use of pumps, predominance of paddy with common plot-to-plot systems of supply, vulnerability to flooding, use of waterways for navigation, domestic supply, dilution of pollution load, etc. This defines a context with numerous uses and users where it is difficult to clearly identify both the sources of supply and the uses, and which is therefore little amenable to quantitative regulative mechanisms. Many of these features apply to other Asian deltas, particularly those of the Cauvery, Ganges-Brahmaputra, 1 The consultant also underlined the value of charging for water in order to limit wastage and to control society's demand for unsound projects: 'Mankind values the things it has to pay for and thinks little of and uses wastefully the things it gets free. Moreover if water is supplied free, farmers who get no water will be unable to see why their neighbours should and the Government will be embarrassed by pressure to carry out schemes regardless of whether they are sound or not.'Irrawaddi and Mekong rivers. On the other hand, the delta includes Bangkok and enjoys good transportation networks and rather efficient linkages to urban and export markets.Dealing with unacceptable water wastage?The statement that water is wasted when it is free or underpriced probably appears in one form or another in all papers and reports that address the issue of water pricing (see Molle and Berkoff,Chapter 2,this volume). This simple axiom has been disseminated widely by analysts like Sandra Postel (1992), who observes that 'water is consistently undervalued, and as a result is chronically overused', by development banks and agencies (e.g. World Bank, 1993;ADB, 2000), as well as by many academics. In Thailand, an endless number of observers 2 have taken it for granted, notably TDRI (1990) and Christensen and Boon-Long (1994), who posit that 'since water is not appropriately priced, it is used inefficiently, and consumers have no incentive to economize'. Several reasons, related to both theoretical assumptions and constraints to implementation, showing that such statement may be misleading are reviewed here. That rising water fees may be conducive to water saving is shown by numerous experiences in the domestic and industrial water sectors (Gibbons, 1986;Dinar and Subramanian, 1997;Dinar, 2000). Since individual meters can be easily installed on pressurized pipe networks, volumetric charging is practical and users' behaviour is generally affected by rising charges although, beyond a certain point, the elasticity of water demand falls drastically. The facts that volumetric charging is a prerequisite and that it is not feasible in the short run in most large-scale irrigation schemes of Asia are well recognized in the literature. Yet, in Thailand, where most of the hydraulic structures are rather crude, this evidence is generally glossed over and the potential benefits of volumetric charging are often assumed implicitly for pricing in general, as illustrated by the various statements collected in footnote 3.Since volumetric pricing at the individual farm level is unrealistic, 'water wholesaling' in which water is attributed to groups of users, for example, to the farmers who are served by the same lateral canal, appears to be an attractive option. This alternative has the advantage of encouraging farmers to act collectively to achieve reduced demand within the command area of their canal, and shifts on them the burden of solving conflicts and collecting a water charge. However, the effectiveness of such an arrangement rests on the possibility of: (i) defining and registering who the beneficiaries are; (ii) designing a transparent allocation mechanism at basin, project and farm levels; (iii) ensuring water supply to groups in accordance with an agreed service; and (iv) having Water User Groups that are in a position to perform all the tasks entrusted to them. Therefore, the wholesaling of water appears more like an option that would be made possible by a series of critical reforms spanning technical, legal, managerial and political domains, than a measure that can be put forward in a 'non-mature' context. In the case of Thailand, few, if any, of these prerequisites are met.The policy framework supported by the ADB in the 1999-2001 period (see later section) laid some foundations for establishing 'cost-sharing' and defining 'service agreements' between the RID and users that could amount to a kind of bulk allocation. Attractive in its design, the policy probably much 2 How popular wisdom emerges can be sensed from the following declarations. An offi cial of the Ministry of Agriculture said: 'Water should be priced in order to increase the effi ciency of its use in the farm sector' (The Nation, 2000, 21 April); 'Agricultural experts agree that water-pricing measures would help improve effi ciency in water use among farmers' (The Nation, 1999, 17 February); the Director of the National Water Resources Committee observed: 'In reality water is scarce, and the only mechanism to save water and encourage effi cient use is to give it a price' (The Nation, 2000, 23 April); etc. underestimated 3 both the technical difficulties to define and ensure service agreements and the institutional/political transformations required (Molle et al., 2001). Even where bulk allocation was implemented as part of a programme of management transfer (as in Mexico and Turkey), was credited with some success and contributed to a better fee collection and financial situation, there is little evidence that significant water saving in land or water productivity or gains have resulted from these reforms (Murray-Rust and Svendsen, 2001;Samad, 2001).Even if some kind of volumetric pricing were possible, prices would have to be set at a level high enough to have a bearing on farmers' behaviour. There is, indeed, overwhelming evidence from the literature that tariffs which reflect O&M costs and are economically feasible are in too low a range to have any significant impact on behaviour (Gibbons, 1986;de Fraiture and Perry, Chapter 3, this volume;Ray, Chapter 4, this volume). An average water fee of B(baht)120/ rai (one rai = 0.16 ha) as proposed by the ADB policy (H&P and A&E, 2001) would amount to 5-7% of the farmer's net income per rai. While not negligible, such a value would be unlikely to affect behaviour at the margin, assuming -for the sake of demonstrationvolumetric and individual pricing, saving, say, 30% of water would increase the revenue per rai by only 2%, a value much under the opportunity cost of the additional labour necessary to achieve such water savings at the plot level. It can therefore be safely concluded that the proposed fee, based on area and set at half the estimated O&M costs, would have no impact on water use whatsoever, despite repeated claims to the contrary.The second issue considered here is whether water is indeed wasted, and whether significant savings could be achieved, through pricing or other means. Recently, the Director-General of the Royal Irrigation Department on a Thai national television channel declared somewhat contritely that water efficiency was very low in Thailand and that this had to be remedied in the face of the water shortages experienced by the country. International agencies (and sometimes, in their footsteps, local officials) commonly report that Thai farmers are guzzling water or are showing water greed (The Nation, n.d.), furthering the general idea that efficiency in large state-run irrigated schemes is often as low as 30% (TDRI, 1990), and sticking to this overall vision without questioning it any further. Yet, research conducted in recent years has shown that water basins tend to 'close' when demand builds up: most of the regulated water in the basin is depleted and little water is eventually 'lost' out of the system when it has value (downstream requirements and environmental services taken into account). There has been widespread recognition that focusing on relatively low irrigation efficiency at the on-farm or secondary levels could be totally misleading (Keller et al., 1996;Perry, 1999;Molle, 2004). When analysed at the basin level, closing systems are eventually found to operate with a high overall efficiency during the dry season.In-depth investigations in the Chao Phraya river basin (Molle et al., 2001;Molle, 2004), most particularly in the delta, have shown that users and managers have not been passive when confronted with water scarcity but, on the contrary, have responded to it in many ways. Farmers have developed conjunctive use, dug farm ponds, drilled wells, closed small drains and invested in an impressive pumping capacity to access these sources. Dam managers have come under pressure to avoid dam releases that are in excess of downstream requirements and have improved management. Reuse of water along the basin and within the delta has developed to the point that, in the dry season, only an estimated 12% of the water released by the dams is lost to non-beneficial evaporation or outflow -effectively recycling the 'losses' from excessive water diversions 3 One of the consultants involved considered that the policy was not optimistic but 'simply stated what, ideally, ought to be done, without claiming that it would be done'. This, however, implies that proposals are made on a prescriptive and idealized mode without taking into consideration the institutional and political context in which they are supposed to be inserted.in exactly the way that research elsewhere has found and predicted. Because of the tendency to focus on state-designed policies, all the endogenous adjustments to water scarcity that accompany the closure of a river basin are generally overlooked (Molle, 2004).Irrespective of whether they pay for water or not, farmers are aware that water is valuable and scarce because they are directly confronted with the consequences of its scarcity, and have made significant investments in pumps, wells and ponds to tackle it. To squander water, farmers should first be in a position to access more water than they need, which is contradictory to the situation in the dry season, where cropping intensity is around 60% and where water shortages push farmers to actively look for alternative sources of water.In the wet season, patterns of water use often differ. In many instances water management is geared towards getting rid or controlling the potential damage, of excess water, rather than saving water. Water use at the farm level may be wasteful, but this only reflects the fact that supply is continuous and abundant (with a zero opportunity cost) and that the water 'wasted' was destined to flow back to the river anyway. Indeed, abundant water can ease management both to farmers and operators so that 'wasting' water may be the economic optimum given its zero opportunity cost.Finally, stating that water is 'free' misses the point that the majority of farmers have to resort to pumping to access water in the dry season (when saving water is an issue), to offset both the lack of water and the uncertainty in delivery. Because of the costs incurred by these water-lifting operations, there is little likelihood that farmers (80% of farmers in the lower Chao Phraya basin have at least one pump set) will squander water (Bos and Wolters, 1990).Shortages and crises are not due to a hypothetical low efficiency but to the insufficient control over interannual regulation, water allocation and distribution. The lack of strong technical criteria in managing dams and in allocating water to irrigation, the uncontrolled planting 4 by farmers and the irresistible political pressures to which competition for water gives rise, lead to escalating risk and sporadic shortages. This does not dismiss the fact that efficiency gains are desirable but draws our attention to the inconsistency of the commonly stated relationship between farmers' efficiency and water shortage.Overall, it emerges that both the empirical and theoretical justifications advanced to support the use of water pricing as a regulatory tool for saving water do not hold in the present case. On the one hand, water is not squandered as commonly assumed (adjustments to de facto scarcity occur), the overall efficiency of water use is high (reuse of return flows), and most farmers incur costs to access water that is, therefore, neither free nor wasted. On the other hand, theoretically, savings could be expected if pricing was volumetric and high enough to affect farmers' behaviour, but this has not been verified.Improving irrigation efficiency is only one aspect of better using scarce water resources. Another potential benefit from water pricing could be to encourage a shift towards crops that are less water-intensive, and/or that display a better water productivity ($/m 3 ), or towards non-agricultural uses. Volumetric pricing would directly penalize crops with high consumption of water, but it could also be possible to establish water charge differentials based on crop type, that would 4 The hopelessness of offi cials is apparent in public declarations: The Deputy Agriculture Minister reported in early 1998 that 'plantations in Nakhon Sawan, Tak and Kamphaeng Phet had increased to more than 670,000 rai from a target of 190,000' (Bangkok Post, 1999, 13 January), while the RID Director admitted that 'things are out of control', with 330,000 rai under cultivation, against a limit set at 90,000 rai (The Nation, 1999, 8 January). 'Our major concern is that we have no effective measures to control the use of water by rice growers. The only thing we can do is ask for their cooperation to cut down rice cultivation.' encourage farmers to grow crops with lower water requirements. This runs into the same difficulties exposed in the preceding section regarding the elasticity of water use, the impact on farm income, and the constraints to metering volumes (crop-type-based fees escape this last constraint but face costs in monitoring effective land use). This rationale on crop selection often implicitly assumes that farmers do not diversify into field crops, vegetable or fruit crops because water is cheap or free, leading them to favour water-intensive crops (e.g. rice or sugarcane). This assumption also needs to be put in context.In Thailand, the possibility of achieving water conservation by inducing a shift away from rice to field crops, which consume (ET) only 50-80% of the amount of water needed for rice, has long been underlined by policy makers and has formed the cornerstone of state projects aimed at fostering agricultural diversification (Siriluck and Kammeier, 2003). This was already a recommendation of the FAO as early as the 1960s, as well as the alternative that 'received the most attention' from Small (1972), in his study of the delta. Such a concern has been constantly expressed for at least four decades. Even nowadays, it is not rare to hear officials complaining off record, that 'farmers are stubborn', that 'they lack knowledge and only know how to grow rice' and that 'they oppose any change', despite being shown the benefits they might expect from it. Crop selection, however, is a more complex issue than merely choosing the crop with higher return to land or water.First, the rationale for induced shifts in land use is generally -implicitly or explicitly -based on average farmers' income, overlooking the aspect of risk, which is crucial in shaping farmers' decision making. Even for irrigated agriculture, where yields are deemed to be more secured, risks in production are not negligible and include both agronomic hazards (diseases, pests, etc.) and a higher risk in marketing, further compounded by the higher requirements of cash input demanded by commercial crops. As a general rule, the potential return of capital investments is strongly correlated to the level of risk attached to the activity undertaken (Molle et al., 2002). This is clearly exemplified by Szuster et al. (2003) in their comparative study of rice and shrimp farming in the delta. In other words, while cash crops may generate higher average returns, they are also subject to more uncertainty, either in terms of yields or farm-gate prices. Thus, only those farmers with enough capital reserve to weather the losses experienced in some years can afford to benefit from the average higher returns; others become indebted or go bankrupt. Shrimp farming in the delta, again, provides a good example of such a situation.It could be argued, however, that the price of rice in Thailand is also unpredictable and that rice production suffers from uncertainty as much as other crops do. If the rice price does fluctuate, its crucial importance for the rural economy brings it under more scrutiny. Despite recurring complaints, echoed in newspapers, that rice farmers lose money when producing rice, the political ramifications of possible low prices and the outcry they instantaneously generate, largely shield them in reality from dropping under the break-even threshold. 5 Ad hoc public interventions are always implemented when such a risk arises (even though their impact generally falls short of expectations, and benefits tend to be captured by millers and other actors in the rice industry). This does not hold, however, for secondary or marginal crops (that invariably include the desirable 'cash crops'), and complaints of scattered producers have little chance of being heard in case of depressed prices. A typical example of such a cash crop is chilli, a rather capitaland labour-intensive crop, which can fetch B25/kg in one year (providing a high return) and B2 or B3/kg in the following year (with a net loss for farmers). 6 5 In addition, rice can also be readily stored and used for own consumption, or provided to relatives and friends.This situation differs signifi cantly from that of western agriculture, where fl oor prices or 'intervention schemes' are generally established to compensate for economic losses when these occur. In addition, western farmers generally benefi t from insurance (against exceptional yield losses) that comes with stronger cooperative and professional structures.Second, several other constraints to diversification related to production factors are faced by farmers: labour may be lacking; for example, the harvest of mung bean, a typical supplementary crop with no additional water requirements, is often a problem because of labour shortage; capital is often required to transform the land (e.g. conversion to shrimp farms or orchards) or to invest in microirrigation; specific skills are necessary and not easily acquired by an ageing farming population; markets may be limited or the farmers not linked to them. Third, the delta agroecology, including heavy soils with little drainage and flood risk, is overall not favourable to growing field crops especially if neighbours are all growing rice. Fourth, the overextension of irrigation facilities, fostered by considerations of regional equity and by political patronage, makes it impossible to confine them to high-return agriculture only.The last point is noteworthy. Farmers are expected to behave as rational profitmaximizers and they are not directly concerned with water productivity ($/m 3 ) but, rather, by the net income per unit of land ($/ha) as well as by the risk attached to a given crop or activity (Wichelns, 1999). There are several alternative crops to rice. A first group -vegetables, fruits and flowers -fares better in terms of income, water productivity and absolute water consumption. A second group -field crops, such as groundnut, mung bean and maize -uses less water, and may have better water productivity, but is generally less profitable and/or riskier with regard to selling prices. A third group -fruits in raised beds, aquaculture -includes crops with better income and water productivity but higher consumption of water. Considering these various options it is clear that water productivity may or may not be increased by a profitmaximizing cropping pattern. 7   Siriluck and Kammeier's ( 2003) study of a large-scale public programme aimed at encouraging crop diversification in Thailand showed that such interventions are met with mixed success and are not flexible enough to adapt to different physical and socioeconomic environments. In many instances, the attempt by extension workers to meet the 'targets' ascribed by the project has led to inadequate investments and choices, sometimes resulting in debts or bankruptcy. It is doubtful that 'pushing' for more diversification is eventually beneficial. Decisions should be made by farmers, based on their own appreciation of their environment and left to market mechanisms, in order to avoid exposing non-entrepreneurial farmers to bankruptcy. Evidence of the dynamics of diversification in the delta (Kasetsart University and IRD, 1996;Cheyroux, 2003;Molle and Srijantr, 2003) points to the fact that farmers display great responsiveness to market changes and opportunities (a point definitely confirmed by the recent spectacular development of inland shrimp farming: Szuster et al., 2003). Good transportation and communication networks allow marketing channels to perform rather efficiently. Farmers will shift to other productions if uncertainty on water and sale prices is lowered. Time and again, Thai farmers have shown dramatic responsiveness to constraints on other production factors, such as land and labour for example (Molle and Srijantr, 1999), and have already sufficiently experienced the scarcity of water to adapt their cropping patterns, should conditions be favourable. Inducing crop shifts by raising differential fees to the level where they might be effective would substantially impact on farm income and critically raise economic risk, which is precisely the main factor that hinders diversification. While some potential may remain unrealized it is very unlikely that water would be a main constraint, or that pricing it would result in any significant shift.The reallocation of water towards more beneficial uses can also occur across sectors. The issue is somewhat simpler, as few object to the fact that domestic and industrial uses are to receive priority over irrigation. Here again, differential prices could theoretically help reallocate water, although water markets 8 are generally seen as being more efficient in theory. While the literature seems to underscore that there are significant potential economic gains to be expected from such transfers, it is apparent that in Thailand, this reallocation does occur and that nonagricultural activities are very little constrained, if at all, by lack of water. While the impact of the transfer of water out of agriculture is an important question (Howe et al., 1990;Rosegrant and Ringler, 1998), leaving open the question of compensation, reallocation is taken care of by the state in several ways, as shown by the case of Bangkok Metropolitan Area (BMA): the growth of BMA generated a rise in demand from 0.46 million m 3 /day in 1978 to approximately 7.5 million m 3 /day in 2000, a 16-fold increase in 22 years (Molle et al., 2001). This has been made possible not only by increasing the share of the Chao Phraya flow allocated to the city (up to 45-50 m 3 /s) but also by using groundwater, with an average extraction around 3 Million m 3 /day (TDRI, 1990). Future demand will be met by a recently completed canal which transfers water from the adjacent 'water-rich' Mae Klong basin (with a planned capacity of 45 m 3 /s to be reached in 2017).This shows, first, that the priority given to Bangkok has readily translated into an increased diversion of surface water (to the detriment of irrigation to the extent that it reduces the amount available in the dry season), and, second, that the impact of the shift has been mitigated by allowing industries to mine deep aquifers (at the cost of land subsidence and sustainability). Water from the Mae Klong basin will allow Bangkok to face future growth in demand, although possibly at a higher capital cost in economic terms than might have been possible if more water had been diverted out of agriculture in the delta area. This illustrates that Bangkok's needs are attended to in priority and that -despite its larger share in total water use -agriculture largely gets the leftover water in the system. Commentators, however, keep on asserting that the state has proved inefficient in centrally allocating water to the most beneficial use. 9 It is interesting to note the ubiquity of this argument even in settings where this problem has been handled relatively successfully.Justifications for cost recovery are diverse. One argument is that irrigators form a segment of society that has benefited from a specific capital investment by the state and, as such, are expected to channel back to the nation a part of the profit generated. If this logic of 'reimbursement' is often justified by notions of equity (redistribute part of the profits of those benefited), ideology (state involvement should be limited) or financial clarity (activities must be turned autonomous), shifts in public policy are generally motivated by more mundane reasons of 'financial drought'. We will examine here the rationale for cost recovery, as applied to the case of Thailand.A market is unrealistic in the present situation given the lack of control over volumes and of connectivity between users. The assertion that 'if the price of rice is low, [Thai] farmers would be happy to cede their right to industrialists' (Wongbandit, 1997) not only runs counter to the evidence that industrialists or cities are anyway served fi rst, but also that physical constraints make such a reallocation impossible. How would the 'rights' of a group of farmers in, say, Kamphaeng Phet (middle basin) be transferred to a given golf course or factory in the suburbs of Bangkok? A typical example is provided by Christensen and Boon-Long (1994): '[A] concern which could raise problems in the area of basin management involves the authority of the basin authorities to impose allocation priorities. . . . The burden of proof for such an initiative is to show that command and control could result in better allocations and less market failure. ' Israngkura (2000), for his part, considers that 'the returns on the irrigation dam investment have been low due to the lack of effective water demand management that could prevent less productive water utilisation'. This suggests that the assumed low return of irrigation has deprived other potentially more productive use, whereas irrigation is, in fact, largely allocated the leftover in the system.A first line of debate is about whether, indeed, irrigated agriculture can be said to have benefited from a preferential treatment within the national economy and, thus, whether -out of a concern for equity -water pricing as an additional government tax is justifiable as means to: (i) return part of its value-added to government coffers; or (ii) allow, in particular, further investments in the non-irrigated agriculture sector (FAO, 1986).It is necessary, therefore, to examine whether irrigated agriculture, and in particular rice cultivation, is -overall -subsidized or taxed. Thailand has long chosen to tax its agricultural exports (Schiff and Valdés, 1992) and to recover her investments in irrigation through indirect mechanisms (Small et al., 1989). The revenues siphoned by the state off rice cultivation through the mechanism of the rice premium, between 1952 and 1986, have been estimated at 25% of all rural income (Ingram, 1971;Phongpaichit and Baker, 1997) and it is clear that rice farmers have indirectly paid back more than any realistic water fee. It was estimated that in 1980 these indirect revenues amounted to three times the O&M costs (Small et al., 1989) while capital cost recovery reached uncommon levels. Indirect taxation may be inequitable but is quite efficient since it avoids the costs of collection and the possible corruption that may come with it (Hirschman, 1967). Because declining food prices in the last two decades (driven, in large measure, by the increase in reliable production from irrigation investments) have depleted the surplus that could be extracted from agriculture, these indirect revenues have now dwindled down, being captured as consumer surplus.This questions the rationale used by consultants to support cost recovery: 'Thai taxpayers are paying B35 billion a year to run RID. If this is worthwhile to the farmers then why should the taxpayers have to pay for RID?' (H&P and A&E, 2000). This question stems from a narrow definition of what 'taxpayers' pay for and ignores the more global arithmetic of sectoral taxes, subsidies and cross-subsidies, not to mention the distribution of benefits to consumers and multiplier effects in the economy. Indeed, rice farmers have probably contributed more to the rest of society than they have received from it, both through taxation and impact on rice market prices.One might argue, however, that this holds for the past but that the situation has changed. Leaving aside the argument that the water subsidy could be seen as a (small) compensation for the past pattern of indirect, yet heavy taxation, a water fee could be now construed as a charge reflecting the costs of providing irrigation water. This argument differs, depending on whether one considers that: (i) the disappearing of the premium reflects an increasing rice supply in the international market and a decline in real price (squeezing farmers' income and rendering the extraction of surplus unsustainable); or (ii) it stemmed from the growing political clout of a rent-seeking rice sector. Since the evidence unambiguously points to the first interpretation (Isvilanonda, 2001), this can be taken as an indication that rice incomes are now squeezed and that further taxation would have substantial socioeconomic and political implications.Another major argument regarding equity is that of discrimination against rainfed agriculture, resulting from both the subsidies in capital costs and the supply of free water, since the irrigated sector can produce more per unit of land than rain-fed agriculture and better absorb the impact of declining rice prices driven by overproduction (and, initially, by taxation). Such concern for equity is often mentioned by officials and ADB consultants ('60% of the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture went to 20% of farmers' provided with irrigation). This militates for closing the gap between the two subsectors, for example, by having irrigators bearing the cost of water delivery. This argument is valid when applied to the initial phase of irrigation development, when rainfed farmers disproportionately bore the costs of the rice premium and low prices, although this was smoothened by the fact that rain-fed production was mostly for home consumption and little for the market. In addition, initial differences have now been evened out by the evolution of farming systems: in the mid-term, average farm size and the degree of farm fragmentation at inheritance appear to be in line with the average income derived from a unit of land. Molle et al. (2002) have studied three sub-areas of the Chao Phraya delta where cropping intensities and return to land per year markedly differ. The study showed that differences in annual land productivity were largely compensated over time (albeit not fully) by growing differences in farm size, family size (linked to the rate of migration) and pluri-activity which partly rebalance final farm incomes.Another relevant issue is the international dimension of subsidies, as many of these commodities, notably rice, are traded in international markets. The insistence on having farmers pay the 'real' cost of water can first be questioned when European and American agriculture is admittedly heavily subsidized (Sarker et al., 1993;Baffes and Meerman, 1997;CRS, 2002). This applies especially for crops that compete in international markets -here the price is substantially set by the lowest (net)-cost producers -and it is not clear why developing countries should adopt policies which are not part of the agenda of their western or East Asian competitors. The US Congress, for example, provided $24 billion between October 1998 and 2001 to shield growers against low prices and crop disasters (The Nation, 2001). In May 2002, another 10-year $190 billion farm bill was signed by President Bush. This concerns, in particular, rice production whose revenue includes a share of 50% of subsidies (USDA, 2001, web site). Complying with orthodoxy (full operational cost recovery and 'real' factor prices), on the one hand, and disregarding it entirely, on the other, through intervention when benefits get squeezed by declining prices, illustrate that a real-cost regulated market is not yet in place for reasons that are far broader than water pricing.An additional difficulty for Thai rice farmers comes from their wide linkage with international markets. Whereas in many markets a change in input prices is readily passed on to the consumers, albeit partly depending on the structure of the market, this does not easily occur for commodities where producers mostly operate as 'price takers', for example, because of links to international markets. In the case of rice, the Thai farm-price elasticity relative to the world-market price is 0.8 (Sombat Saehae, by e-mail, January 2000, personal communication). It follows that farm-gate prices are predominantly driven by the world market and that internal balancing mechanisms to reflect changes in factor prices are critically constrained, to the detriment of producers.The need for 'cost-sharing', however, may become more pressing when the government is faced with financial squeeze and seeks to reduce expenditure, while the deterioration of irrigation facilities impinges on productivity and farm income, and gives way to costly recurrent rehabilitation programmes. Such deterioration appears relatively limited in the present case (RID's maintenance, especially in the Central Region, can be considered quite good if compared with many other countries), and there is no evidence that financial squeezes, even after the 1997 economic crisis, have drastically altered RID budgets or its capacity to carry out maintenance work. In Thailand, O&M costs are said to correspond to a 'huge drain on the national budget' (H&P and A&E, 2001) but these costs must be put in context 10 : the potential gains from the cost-sharing policies proposed represent 0.37% of the value of Thai agricultural exports, 0.27% of Thai government expenditures or 15% of the 10The proposal by ADB's consultants was to set up a tentative fee of B120/rai in pilot projects. This value was intended as a compromise derived from the total estimated O&M costs: B522/rai, out of which B210 were true direct costs (H&P and A&E, 2000).RID budget itself. Savings of 0.27%, not considering the transaction costs corresponding to the collection of fees, may be not negligible but certainly not considerable when compared with the political risk attached to it. Thus, it seems that the financial squeeze that was one of the major drivers of the Philippine NIA and of the Mexican reforms is not (yet) a crucial incentive to change in the Thai case.An important distinction must be made between cost recovery that goes to the government coffers, and irrigation financing, that is the provision of funds actually used for irrigation costs (Small, 1996). Surprisingly, the Royal Irrigation Act of 1942 recognized this fact early. It made it legally possible to charge users for water (despite fixing unrealistically low limits), but stipulated that collected money could not be considered as state revenue and should constitute a special fund to be put back into the development of irrigation. If this is the case, and if users are granted partial or total control of the allocation of these funds, then incentives to pay and limit degradation are created and a sense of 'property' may emerge. More generally, it is the potential role of pricing at the interface between line agencies and users, which deserves emphasis (see next section).Raising fees that only contribute to the government income is a measure that is not conducive to internal improvement and is, therefore, a decision pertaining to the design of the tax system as a whole: making users bear a part of O&M costs is helpful in internalizing costs from the point of view of the government, but shifting this financial burden has to be reasoned, based on wider public objectives of poverty alleviation and wealth redistribution, sectoral policies, possible treasury difficulties and political risks, which are all dependent upon the context of each particular political economy. Schiff and Valdés (1992) showed how governments are caught up in a web of contradictory goals, including protecting farmers, protecting consumers from high food prices, raising revenues through taxation and ensuring the competitiveness of economic sectors in the world market. This makes decision making more complex than just embracing the principle of cost recovery. The question raised here is how governments can change their policy, for example, from providing public goods for free to charging for it, without providing compensation.To conclude this section it is interesting to draw a parallel between charging for irrigation water and charging for groundwater use. Charging for groundwater use is backed by strong economic justifications because of the critical costs of overdraft in terms of land subsidence and increased flood risk and damage. Yet the constraints faced in establishing such charges illustrate what is at stake. Groundwater use mostly concerns industries in BMA and has remained admittedly underpriced, largely because of the political clout of both the Federation of Thai Industries. 11 All in all, charging for irrigation water use may be a more difficult business -both socially and technically -than charging for groundwater, which lends itself much more easily to control and volumetric charging.Further to the 1997 financial crisis, Thailand obtained a $600 million loan from both the ADB and the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation under the name of Agriculture Sector Program Loan (ASPL), conditional upon acceptance of some principles and a reform of the water sector (RWS). A policy matrix was defined, showing commitment and successive milestones to be achieved. The federation opposed a gradual rise of the groundwater price (from B3.5 to 8.5/m 3 , in an attempt to catch up with tap water at B12.5/m 3 ), stating that a price of B5 would 'lead to hardship'. Recently, the Thaksin administration seems to have adopted a more energetic stance and given deadlines for the phasing out of wells in areas where pipe water is available.• Decentralization of water management to river basins;• Watershed protection strategy;• Setting of performance indicators and service standards;• Participatory irrigation management (PIM) and definition of farmers as clients rather than beneficiaries;• Cost-sharing of O&M;• Reorganization, decentralization and privatization of RID.In parallel, the National Water Resource Committee was drafting a Water Law which was supposed to encapsulate many of the crucial aspects of this ambitious reform, notably the establishment of River Basin Committees (RBCs), and the separation of the water policy, management and O&M functions. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss the merits of the proposed reform but the aspects of cost-sharing, service agreements and participatory management are relevant to our current discussion.The RWS aimed at establishing a contractual relationship between RID as provider and farmers as clients. It was expected that such agreements duly defined through established standards and monitored through performance indicators would significantly increase the quality of delivery, thus justifying the principle of cost-sharing put forth (as opposed to cost recovery). This would set in motion a virtuous circle whereby farmers would get financial autonomy and better service, while participating fully in the definition of operational targets and maintenance priorities. This virtuous circle is well identified in the literature (Small et al., 1989;Small and Carruthers, 1991; see Molle and Berkoff,Chapter 1,this volume) but it has several prerequisites that were overlooked in the RWS.The first crucial weak point of the reform was that there was no provision to ensure that RID will deliver water, following standards of service agreed upon. By failing to link RID's financial income to such service, no drastic pressure would be put on RID to reform its management and it is highly doubtful that raising their awareness of the necessity of change by seminars or capacity building would be sufficient to ensure this. When fees contribute significantly to the salary of the officials of the agencies, or are used to pay field staff who are selected by the users themselves, there is a real change in the governance pattern of irrigation. This, of course, was the most contentious part of a reform and the one that was likely to be compromised.Service agreements were supposed to be established between users and RID but little was said about whether the existing human and physical capacity needed to achieve this, exists or not. After the early overemphasis on structural aspects, it has now become all too common to disregard the physical dimensions of management and to overlook their impact on reforms (Briscoe, 1997;Facon, 2002). Water management in the Chao Phraya basin is constrained by various aspects, including the lack of control over abstraction along the waterways, the occurrence of side flows, the crude technical design of most hydraulic regulation structures and the development of conjunctive use by farmers (Molle et al., 2001;Molle, 2004). This makes the definition of service agreements at lower levels extremely problematic. The RWS made no provision to ensure that hydraulic regulation was up to the task envisaged. It just assumed that 'farmers will receive improved irrigation service delivery. Farmers need to feel confident that service is being improved' (H&P and A&E, 2001).Initial service agreements were to be developed at the project level between RID and Water User Groups (WUG): '[A]s soon as WUG get ready . . . as federation of water users moves up the system, to IWUGs and WUAs, service agreements will move with them.' This was the second weak point of the reform. As is the case in many failed reforms of PIM, farmer organizations are first built at the tertiary level. This is easily accepted by irrigation agencies because they usually have no interest in what is occurring beyond the tertiary turnout and blame for deficiencies can then be placed if required on the farmers themselves. Since certainty in supply at the tertiary level generally depends on allocation and distribution at higher levels in the system and cannot be fully ensured, farmers soon discover that there is nothing to be managed and that they are wasting their time. Present reforms still consider water management at the tertiary level and maintenance as crucial issues but these may actually have lost importance in the eyes of farmers. As a result of the ongoing decentralization process, local administrations have seen their budget increasing and are now using the resources under their control to fund maintenance (notably mechanical ditch dredging). Likewise, the organizational needs of water management have been radically changed further to the introduction of direct seeding in lieu of transplanting, the development of secondary water sources and the spread of pumps. This has weakened the exigency of collective action and fostered individual strategies.In contrast, the issue that has gained prominence in a context of water scarcity is the allocation of water in the dry season (Molle, 2004). The process towards involving users in management should be initiated by allowing a transparent allocation process in which users would have representatives at each level (main canal level, scheme level, plus the delta and basin levels for farmers in the Chao Phraya delta). The definition of (seasonal) entitlements in which users have a say (as a first step to defining water rights) is the preliminary step to the definition of service agreements. Such agreements must be accompanied by a technical capacity to operationalize them, to monitor distribution and to assess whether the actual and the agreed supply match. This, again, has technical, managerial, legal and political implications that need combined support from the government, the political class and the society, which does not seem to be forthcoming. A part of RID officers' foot-dragging in considering the issue might be linked to the fact that establishing service agreements and a water charge may eventually backfire, in that farmers would be given 'the legal standing to bargain forcefully with the water conveyance bureaucracy for timely and efficient service' (Rosegrant and Binswanger, 1994).The reform process initiated under the ASPL has been phased out during 2002 and 2003. Pilot projects have been implemented partly, and without supervision, leading to no real change. Cost-sharing policies and service agreements have disappeared from the front scene. The draft Water Law has been shelved. The restructuring of RID has been limited to measures such as the non-replacement of retiring staff. Only the setting of RBCs has proceeded, under the guidance of the ONWRC. At present, however, RBCs still lack the formal recognition that would give them more importance than a mere consultative forum. The failure of the reform can be partly attributed to some of its internal weaknesses (overoptimism, structural constraints to the definition of service agreements, misplaced emphasis on building from the tertiary level, etc.) but was chiefly undermined by the lack of support from the Thai side, from both bureaucratic and political quarters. Its final dismissal came with the decision of the Thaksin administration to discontinue loans from the ADB. This failure exemplifies disregard of what Briscoe (1997) considers the first requirement for reform: that there be a demand for it. However sound and well intentioned they may be, reforms decided and imposed by external institutions have little chance of succeeding.In addition to the lack of strong political commitment and support, and of structural rehabilitation, the reform failed to ensure the crucial point of financial autonomy. Financial autonomy makes the water charge a 'glue factor' in a wider process of transfer of responsibility to users, who can decide on the hiring of staff and the priorities in maintenance which are ensured by their own funds. This factor, crucial in the Mexican reform, was absent from the ASPL and raises the question of whether a partial reform can achieve partial benefits or whether it is doomed to failure because of the absence of crucial linkages in the virtuous circle to be created.Pricing mechanisms are often held as a potential tool to help 'rationalize' the use of water in ways that increase the economic efficiency of both water use and allocation. Application of such measures has been met with some success in the domestic and industrial water sectors but has so far failed to produce convincing examples in the large-scale public-irrigation sector of developing countries. In the particular case of Thailand, both the rationale and the applicability of such measures were found to be problematic.The idea that water waste would be a consequence of the non-pricing of water was little supported by evidence. The closure of river basins, most notably the Chao Phraya basin, is accompanied by reductions in losses, both at the farm and the basin level, with only 12% of dam releases in the dry season lost to non-beneficial use: a reality which contrasts sharply with the image of outright waste that is routinely conjured up to justify pricing as a way to induce water savings. The technical impossibility of establishing volumetric water deliveries, as well as the wholesaling of water in the present context, removed the possibility of influencing users' behaviour through pricing. Even if this is possible, there are indications that the elasticity of water use is very low at the range of prices proposed to meet appropriate cost recovery objectives, in addition to the political difficulties in implementing them.The possibility of inducing land-use shifts towards crops with higher water productivity runs into similar difficulties. It was shown that farmers' decision making gives much emphasis to risk, and that water savings or water productivity objectives do not necessarily coincide with income maximization. To assume that there are substantial gains to be expected from shifts in cropping patterns if water is priced is to misunderstand the dynamics of, and constraints to, diversification. If much higher profits could readily be made through diversification, farmers would not wait for this. To penalize rice because of its higher water needs would only raise the vulnerability of the main crop, without making alternatives more secure or removing the other constraints to diversification, particularly the need of stable markets. Likewise, few economic gains can be expected from intersec-toral reallocation of water, as non-agriculture sectors are already given de facto priority.The principle of cost recovery is generally propped up by an image of irrigators who have unduly benefited from government largesse and are expected to pay back the 'taxpayers'. This was confronted with the net transfer of wealth from agriculture to other sectors, symbolized in Thailand by 30 years of rice premium, and with the multifaceted benefits of irrigation accruing to the society. It was also recognized that political considerations and national challenges, such as food security, rather than mere aspects of return to capital, dictated earlier priorities in state investments and that shifts in policy are not easily justified and implemented.A water charge would be akin to a flat tax that would decrease farm income, without effectively sending a signal of water scarcity, and decrease international competitiveness (especially with regard to western countries that continue their policy of subsidy), while it would not be easily passed on to the consumer because of the strong linkages between domestic and world rice markets. While reductions in price subsidies in developed countries are compensated for by adequate income policies, the latter are generally omitted in developing countries (partly due to the difficulty in implementing such income-support schemes). Shifting, even partly, the O&M costs to the users is helpful in internalizing costs from the point of view of the government and signalling to all concerned the real cost of system O&M. It may help ensuring financial sustainability if public budgets happen to be lacking, but has socio-economic and political implications that need to be addressed.Beyond 'the obsessive traditional concern on the part of resource economics with correct pricing levels for irrigation water' (Svendsen and Rosegrant, 1994), water pricing is made more attractive when it is construed as a binding element of a wider mechanism that redefines relations between users and the agency (Small and Carruthers, 1991;Bromley, 2000). It gains sense if a full reform is implemented that includes a degree of turnover and financial autonomy whereby water delivery service is paid for by users and linked to the quality of service. Service agreements should include definition of the allocation of resources and of the timing of the distribution of allotments. In both processes, the users should have a say, given their importance in a context of scarcity. Modifying the status of public agencies and civil servants in order to link their salary to performance and to the payment of users requires a much more ambitious reform in the direction of which the government has so far taken no unequivocal steps.The failure of the ASPL reform illustrates several lessons that failed to be learnt, in particular, the importance of infrastructure in the design of service agreements or bulk allocation, as well as the necessity to muster internal and political support for the reform. Emphasis thus, should be placed on paving the way for a thorough reform, ensuring in particular, the technical and managerial capacity to define and operationalize services, as well as the legal framework and the political/public support for changes in line agencies. Failing to alter the pattern of governance jeopardizes reforms which remain generally restricted to isolated components, backed by arguments that are turned invalid. It is not clear, therefore, whether 'half-measures' provide 'halfbenefits', and must be seen as 'second-best' options, as economic parlance suggests, or if they are likely, because of the absence of linkages and invalid supporting assumptions, to fail and lead to an overall negative result, rather than to the theoretical gains envisioned. All in all, it appears unwise to propel water pricing to the fore of the reform, as a symbol of restored economic orthodoxy, when it is expected to play a more crucial and later role in a wider and longer reform process.","tokenCount":"9408"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f3270ef180405753b48037d3d410b9c7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1b816b7d-d10a-4ba3-a51b-3cce7c63a225/retrieve","id":"1780162128"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1f1ec9f7-5b84-4911-b9fe-fcbdf5ca8f2d","pagecount":"16","content":"L'eau précieuse La petite irrigation, une affaire de techniques et de bonne gestion uReportage au Cap-Vert FOCUs ,11 Micro-assurance La sécurité pour les petits agriculteurs, mais pas au prix fort pOiNT DE VUE ,16 Entreprise agricole par Boureima Wankoye EN BREF ,3 pUBLiCATiONs ,12 ENTRE NOUs ,15 innovation agricole Créer tous ensemble EN BREF Communicating for rural innovation: Rethinking agricultural extension Par C. Leeuwis et A.W. van den BanIl aura fallu près de 40 ans pour que les agriculteurs des pays ACP, principaux acteurs et bénéficiaires du développement rural, commencent à être véritablement associés à la mise au point d'innovations pour améliorer leur production agricole et leurs conditions de vie. Car les préjugés ont la vie dure. Longtemps les chercheurs et les techniciens ont estimé que les paysans étaient hostiles aux nouveautés dont ils avaient, eux, l'apanage. Or pour s'adapter à de nouvelles conditions climatiques, agronomiques ou économiques, les paysans ne cessent d'innover.Longtemps aussi, les chercheurs ont exclu les agriculteurs des processus de recherche, pensant qu'ils savaient ce dont ils avaient besoin. Mais les solutions variétales, techniques ou organisationnelles proposées aux producteurs se sont souvent révélées peu adaptées ou difficiles à appliquer.Le constat a mis du temps à s'imposer et les méthodes sont lentes à changer. Une meilleure connaissance de l'environnement économique et social des paysans a été la première étape. Elle s'est révélée insuffisante pour cerner tout ce qui contribue à rendre une innovation pertinente et utile. Aujourd'hui, les producteurs et leurs organisations ne sont plus seulement consultés, ils commencent à participer activement à l'élaboration d'innovations. Le Club du Sahel et de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CSAO) parle de \"co-recherche\". On reconnaît les capacités des agriculteurs à proposer et à utiliser de nouveaux modes de production, de nouvelles techniques, de nouveaux types d'organisation.La recherche et la vulgarisation ont changé d'approche. Il s'agit désormais de partir des demandes du terrain. Les producteurs souhaitent pérenniser leur exploitation, améliorer leur système de production et diversifier leurs activités avec l'objectif essentiel d'améliorer individuellement leur niveau de vie. La sécurité alimentaire, l'alimentation des villes ou la croissance des exportations ont souvent fait négliger cet objectif pourtant au coeur des préoccupations de tout un chacun. L'évolution récente apparaît clairement dans certains documents de stratégie agricole. Celui du Ghana, par exemple, prévoit la création de Comités de liaison recherche/vulgarisation (RELC) dans chaque province. Ces comités réunissent chercheurs, vulgarisateurs, agriculteurs et représentants des organisations paysannes pour déterminer les recherches d'intérêt local à mener.Si la recherche a besoin des paysans pour mener des travaux efficaces en vue de lutter contre la pauvreté rurale et d'accroître significativement la production, les agriculteurs, eux, ont besoin des chercheurs et des organismes publics et, de plus en plus, du secteur privé pour améliorer, valoriser et diffuser leurs propres innovations. Et aussi pour que celles-ci s'intègrent dans l'environnement plus large, économique et écologique en particulier, qu'ils connaissent mal en général.Même judicieuses et bien adaptées aux besoins, les nouvelles pratiques trouvées par les agriculteurs ne suffisent pas pour accroître notablement la productivité et les revenus. Faute de moyens financiers ou techniques, elles reposent souvent sur une utilisation accrue de main-d'oeuvre, qui a ses limites. C'est le cas du paillage des sols pour limiter l'érosion et les pertes en eau ou de la cuvette zaï utilisée dans plusieurs pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest pour récupérer des terres dégradées.Généralement, cependant, ces solutions ingénieuses restent cantonnées à une petite région. L'association avec la recherche permet donc de les améliorer et d'en faire profiter le plus grand nombre. Au Rwanda, l'interaction entre les producteurs et l'Institut national des sciences agronomiques a facilité une lutte efficace contre la mosaïque du manioc en diffusant rapidement des variétés résistantes et adaptées au goût des populations.Pour favoriser le repérage, la capitalisation et la dissémination des innovations, des réseaux ont été mis en place. L'Initiative pour le repérage et le partage des innovations (IRPI) du Fonds international pour le développement agricole (FIDA) en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre recherche les innovations utiles aux femmes, aux jeunes et aux groupes défavorisés. Prolinnova, qui travaille dans de nombreux pays ACP, construit un réseau mondial d'apprentissage pour encourager l'innovation locale en agriculture et en gestion des ressources naturelles.L'association PELUM pour la gestion participative et écologique des terres, qui est présente dans plusieurs pays d'Afrique australe et de l'Est, veut créer en Tanzanie un centre d'information qui capitalisera les expériences des agriculteurs et les fera connaître à l'ensemble du réseau. Le programme de recherche-action PROFEIS, lancé en 2006, veut lui aussi promouvoir l'innovation paysanne. Au Mali, il s'intéresse à la domestication des espèces forestières naturelles menée par les agriculteurs qui mettent au point des techniques de germination et de gestion de ces arbres devenus rares.Des manifestations comme les foires aux innovations organisées par le CTA et le FIDA aident à faire connaître de bonnes idées. Trois innovations ont été primées en juin à Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso : un séchoir à manioc mis au point par un Camerounais pour des groupements de femmes, un partenariat entre une association de Sénégalaises et le ministère de l'Agriculture pour une meilleure prise en compte des problèmes des femmes dans les programmes, et les points d'information villageois créés par l'Association nationale des producteurs agricoles de Côte d'Ivoire pour mieux informer les producteurs sur les marchés.Malgré tout, les échanges d'expérience restent en général limités. Collecter les petites innovations disséminées çà et là et les analyser demande du temps et de l'argent.Pour les producteurs comme pour les chercheurs, il reste du chemin à parcourir pour améliorer le travail en commun. Entre recherche conceptuelle sur l'innovation et nouveautés mises au point au village, le fossé est encore grand. C'est pourquoi des programmes incluent la formation des agriculteurs à différents niveaux -de l'école primaire à l'école professionnelle -ainsi que des responsables des organisations paysannes pour renforcer leurs capacités d'innovation et de communication.Les chercheurs eux aussi doivent évoluer et se former. Les processus d'adoption des innovations sont très complexes, car ce ne sont pas seulement des aspects techniques qui entrent en ligne de compte mais aussi des aspects économiques et sociaux. Pour engager des recherches dans la bonne voie, il est indispensable de comprendre sur quelles bases les producteurs analysent leurs problèmes, quelles sont leurs priorités et quelles solutions ils préconisent.Des organismes comme l'Université et Centre de recherches de Wageningen, aux Pays-Bas, travaillent sur l'analyse de ces mécanismes. La Division ISNAR de l'Institut international de recherche en politiques alimentaires (IFPRI) étudie \"comment les organismes publics de recherche, le secteur privé, la société civile et les communautés, les populations et les ménages ruraux interagissent au sein de ce que l'on pourrait appeler un \"système d'innovation\". Les systèmes d'innovation font l'objet de nombreuses recherches et doivent être intégrés dans le cursus de l'enseignement agronomique et professionnel.Ce nouveau mode de fonctionnement en équipe demande aussi des réformes institutionnelles, en particulier un rapprochement entre organismes de recherche et de vulgarisation et producteurs. La décentralisation et un transfert de responsabilités au niveau local sont nécessaires, de même qu'un équilibre des pouvoirs entre les différents acteurs de l'innovation : État, ONG, chercheurs, agriculteurs et sociétés privées.Le plus important est que l'objectif de ce travail collectif soit bien d'accroître les revenus des exploitants, y compris les plus pauvres, et d'améliorer leur bien-être. Une nécessité si l'on veut faire décoller l'agriculture des pays ACP. Au sud-est d'Haïti, dans la localité de Cap-Rouge, 1 200 petits producteurs vont pouvoir écouler plus facilement leur café sur le marché local et international. À partir des sept ordinateurs du nouveau télécentre agricole équipé d'un accès Internet haut débit, le responsable de la coopérative locale enregistre les lots déposés par les producteurs (origine, poids, phase de traitement). Un système de radioidentification (RFID) transfère ces données sur des \"tags\", sortes de cartes à puce qui accompagnent chaque sac de café. Les producteurs peuvent aussi se connecter pour suivre leur café.Le mode de communication sans fil utilisé, le WiMax, est En août et septembre derniers, le Cap-Vert a pour la première fois interdit la pêche aux maquereaux dans ses eaux marines. Les autorités entendent ainsi favoriser la régénération de cette espèce de poisson menacée d'extinction et promouvoir à terme une pêche à la fois soutenue et durable. Les pêcheurs se disent pris de court et regrettent déjà cet excellent appât utilisé pour pêcher de gros poissons comme le thon.Magdalene Muiruru, propriétaire d'une laiterie à la porte de Nairobi, récolte les fruits de son investissement de 300 $ US (190 €) dans une unité de production de biogaz acquise il y a deux ans pour réduire le temps que son personnel consacrait à la collecte de bois. Son exploitation a ainsi réduit ses coûts énergétiques, limité son empreinte carbone et gagné en valeur. C'est le fabricant kenyan d'équipement pour laiterie DeLaval qui a fourni le digesteur ; celui-ci produit le gaz destiné à la cuisson, à l'éclairage de la salle de traite et au chauffage de l'eau qui sert à nettoyer les pis des vaches.\"L'afflux de bouses dans un digesteur produit du gaz. Le purin est ensuite répandu sur notre parcelle de trois acres (1,2 ha). Nous utilisons cet engrais biologique liquide pour la production de fourrage (herbe à éléphant), la culture de légumes et l'aquaculture\", explique Magdalene. Elle possède 16 vaches dont 7 pour la traite. Elle vend le lait qu'elle en tire (soit 180 l) à une école locale et à la communauté voisine.Comme pour de nombreuses familles rurales, ses bêtes sont pour Magdalene une source majeure d'aliments et de revenus et les aspects négatifs -odeurs et mouches attirées par le fumier -ont aujourd'hui disparu. Elle souhaitait aussi réduire les émissions de carbone de son exploitation et fait des projets écologiques pour l'avenir. \"J'espère fournir une énergie écologique aux communautés en stimulant l'usage des digesteurs de biogaz dans la région. J'envisage aussi de réduire mes coûts de refroidissement et les émissions liées à la réfrigération en mettant au point de nouveaux produits laitiers. Les consommateurs ont le droit de savoir qu'en plus de contribuer à leur santé et bien-être, l'industrie laitière s'attache à préserver la santé de la planète.\"Magdalene Muiruru PO Box 62788 -00200 Nairobi Kenya magdanjoki@yahoo.comEn RD Congo, au nord-est de Kinshasa, la Coopérative paysanne pour le développement de Mushie (COPADEM) a lancé une campagne de propreté pour les lieux d'aisance de la ville. Avant son intervention, les \"maladies des mains sales\" (choléra, fièvre typhoïde, dysenterie) proliféraient en raison de la mauvaise hygiène dans les rudimentaires toilettes de cette cité portuaire et commerciale de plus de 100 000 habitants.COPADEM recourt à une technique simple qui consiste à accrocher dans le trou des toilettes une botte de deux ou trois fleurs mâles sèches de palmier à huile enflammées. La fumée tue mouches et autres insectes et en outre la cendre absorbe les mauvaises odeurs.Soutenue par l'ONG américaine Innovative Resource Management (IRM), la coopérative achète des bottes de fleurs de palmier aux tireurs de vin de palme, à 200 francs congolais (0,25 €) la botte, et apprend aux gens à les utiliser pour assainir leurs toilettes.Ce procédé a très vite été adopté par la population. À Mushie, certaines maladies endémiques ont reculé. Dans son émission Écho de l'environnement, la radio communautaire locale Bandundu FM encourage ses auditeurs à suivre cet exemple.Les inflorescences mâles du palmier à huile brûlées pour assainir les toilettes Confrontés à la flambée des prix du blé, les boulangers du Ghana utilisent un mélange de manioc local et de farine de maïs pour faire le pain. La farine composite est fabriquée par le ministère de l'Alimentation et de l'Agriculture, avec l'appui technique de l'Université de science et technologie Kwame Nkrumah. Sa délicieuse saveur séduit les clients depuis son introduction fin juin 2008. Grâce à cette farine, le coût des matières premières a diminué de plus de moitié pour les boulangers, qui ont répercuté l'économie sur leurs clients.Une nouvelle technologie permet d'utiliser la bagasse -résidu de la production de sucre de cannepour fabriquer des emballages alimentaires biodégradables en 45 jours. L'emballage a été mis au point par le fabricant thaïlandais Biodegradable Packaging for Environment. Élément clé du processus de fabrication : le liant, une substance polymère qui contraint les particules de la pulpe de bagasse à s'agréger pour rendre l'emballage résistant à la chaleur et imperméable à l'eau. Ce liant répond à des normes strictes de santé et sécurité imposées par l'Administration américaine des denrées alimentaires et des médicaments.Le mil a été déclaré culture sous contrôle par le gouvernement namibien. Cette décision, destinée à améliorer les revenus et la sécurité alimentaire des agriculteurs locaux, aligne le mil sur le maïs et le blé qui jouissent déjà du privilège. Selon les nouvelles réglementations, tous les stocks de mil namibien doivent être vendus avant toute autorisation d'importation. Ces réglementations fixent aussi un prix plancher du grain de mil identique à celui du grain de maïs.Le Centre de recherche agronomique de la zone Forêt (CRA-F), au Togo, est parvenu à sélectionner sept nouveaux hybrides de cacaoyer qui résistent efficacement à la maladie virale du swollen shoot ou gonflement des rameaux. Ces hybrides ont aussi l'avantage d'être précoces : ils entrent en production au bout de 18 mois.Les cacaoculteurs togolais, regroupés dans la Fédération des unions de producteurs de café et cacao du Togo (FUPROCAT), sont nombreux à passer commande auprès du CRA-F. Depuis deux ans que ces variétés sont disponibles, plus de 50 000 cabosses ont déjà été distribuées dans la région des Plateaux pour renouveler les vergers dévastés à plus de 30 % par le swollen shoot. Selon le directeur du CRA-F, le principal défi à présent est de produire assez de cabosses pour remplacer progressivement les anciennes plantations malades et relancer ainsi la culture du cacao au Togo. Grenade, à partir des produits cultivés dans son arrière-cour. Elle fabrique des jus de gingembre, de citrons verts, de fruits de la passion et de cerises des Antilles, avant que les prix et les taux de casse des bouteilles importées ne stoppent sa production. L'effondrement du commerce de la banane des Caraïbes et les pertes importantes de ce fruit lui donnent alors l'idée de produire des chips de banane. Mavis lance une gamme prospère de chips de banane, de plantain et de fruit de l'arbre à pain, puis introduit des chips de banane au poivre pour livraison directe aux écoles locales, son principal marché.En 2004, l'ouragan Ivan dévaste sa petite propriété. Mais Mavis ne cède pas. Aujourd'hui, malgré les prix plus élevés de la banane, elle vit de sa production de chips et expérimente d'autres produits. \"Quand on se lance dans une aventure, de nombreux défis vous attendent, mais une nouvelle porte s'ouvre et vous essayez autre chose\", dit-elle. Son mari Raleigh a sollicité l'aide technique de Trinidad pour améliorer ses chips de taro (un tubercule, Colocasia esculenta) et le couple s'apprête à lancer une nouvelle gamme pour les supermarchés locaux : une sauce au poivre, une sauce de carambole (Averrhoa carambola), un condiment de légumes et un sirop à base de prune malgache (Flacourtia indica), un fruit prolifique mais peu vendu, qu'on malaxe manuellement avant consommation. Tous les produits de Mavis sont cultivés sur sa parcelle de 0,25 ha. Prochains objectifs : agrandir l'exploitation et explorer le marché international.MnR's Co Ltd. Telescope Street St Andrews Grenade rm_lalitte@hotmail.com Autre nouveauté, \"dans toutes les associations et coopératives que nous encadrons, les femmes deviennent de plus en plus nombreuses et sont souvent plus actives\", constate fièrement Ntama Festus, technicien agricole à SDA. Selon le président de la Coopérative des apiculteurs du bord de Nyungwe, \"plus de la moitié des 300 apiculteurs sont des femmes\".Des scientifiques du centre de recherches horticoles subtropicales (SHRS) de Miami (USA) ont établi, en collaboration avec des chercheurs d'Afrique et d'Amérique du Sud, des cartes génétiques des différentes variétés de cacao à l'aide de marqueurs ADN. Au départ, l'objectif était de détecter les gènes de tolérance à des maladies courantes comme le balai de sorcières et la pourriture brune afin de mettre au point des variétés résistantes. Avec le soutien d'importantes firmes privées, les chercheurs visent maintenant à séquencer le génome entier du cacao pour le bénéfice de tous les producteurs.  Le projet a été lancé afin d'enrayer la destruction massive des acacias pour le charbon de bois et le bois de chauffe. Désormais, les femmes tirent profit de l'arbre autrement ; les moustiquaires leur servent à emprisonner les vers à soie qui se nourrissent du feuillage.Le ver qu'elles élèvent est un hybride de l'espèce sauvage commune dans toute la région (Gonometa postica) et du ver à soie domestique (Bombyx mori). Il est parfaitement adapté à l'aridité des lieux et produit une soie de grande qualité. Un acacia moyen peut porter jusqu'à 200 cocons par saison.Appuyées par le Programme des Nations unies pour le développement (PNUD), les agricultrices récoltent les cocons une fois par mois et les vendent au marché de la soie sauvage de Mwingi. Les négociants internationaux qui convergent vers ce marché couvert représentent des acheteurs lointains (Canada, Europe, Inde ou Japon).Entre-temps, dans le district de Rachuonyo (province de Nyanza), le groupement féminin de Kamiro a créé la première unité de transformation de la soie avec le soutien du Centre international de physiologie et d'écologie des insectes (ICIPE). Les femmes vendent le mètre de soie unie à 700 Ksh (7 €) et le mètre de soie teinte à 1 500 Ksh (15 €). Le tissu est très demandé pour les saris, les robes de mariées, les vestes et robes du soir.   Jacobs, qui a bouclé la phase pilote avec succès, fait à présent la promotion de ses pompes auprès des gouvernements et des organisations. Leur prix reste à déterminer, mais l'objectif est qu'elles soient abordables pour les petits agriculteurs.Peter Jacobs 4316 Varsity Drive NW Calgary, AB T3A 1A2, Canada malawican@gmail.com ou petercjacobs@yahoo.caAu Burkina Faso, dans la zone du plateau central, Thomas Zongo utilise une technique simple, économique et efficace pour bien faire pousser ses tomates. Il laboure et arrose la terre, puis il y enfonce un canari, un pot de terre qui fait office de moule pour creuser une cuvette. En vissant et dévissant le pot, Thomas tasse la terre peu à peu et quand les parois intérieures de la cuvette sont bien lisses, il retire le récipient et renouvelle l'opération un peu plus loin. Ces trous bien réguliers ont un diamètre de 30 cm environ et une profondeur de 15 cm. La distance entre les trous est de 40 cm et entre les lignes de 1 m. Le premier d'une série de marchés fermiers prévus pour la capitale du Nigeria a ouvert ses portes à Maitama, l'un des cinq districts d'Abuja. Des licences à prix réduit sont proposées aux commerçants pour favoriser cette initiative qui vise à réduire l'encombrement des marchés de la capitale et à parer aux inconvénients de la récente interdiction des étals de rue. Une attention particulière est prêtée à l'hygiène et les commerçants disposent, entre autres services, d'un accès à des congélateurs.  La petite irrigation permet aux agriculteurs de tirer parti de l'eau disponible dans les rivières ou sous terre pour étendre la durée de production en ajoutant aux cultures pluviales traditionnelles des cultures de contre-saison en saison sèche. Son coût est généralement faible si l'on adopte des techniques simples.Pour donner toute son efficacité, la petite irrigation doit obéir à un certain nombre de règles, car installer un système irrigué représente un investissement souvent important pour un petit agriculteur.Le forage doit être d'un prix abordable et le matériel (pompes, tuyaux…) robuste et réparable par des artisans locaux expérimentés. Récemment, au Niger, des équipes de foreurs formés localement ont réussi à réaliser un forage maraîcher manuel à l'aide de tarières en installant des tuyaux en plastique de 5 cm de diamètre en moins de trois heures pour un coût global d'environ 38 €. Dans des conditions plus difficiles, avec une profondeur de forage pouvant atteindre 12 m, le coût total peut avoisiner 122 €. Par comparaison, la réalisation d'un puits en béton coûte de deux à six fois plus cher.On cherche aussi de plus en plus à mobiliser d'autres ressources que les nappes souterraines et les cours d'eau. Dans la zone semi-aride de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, deux techniques sont particulièrement répandues : la pose de rangées de pierres pour retenir les eaux de ruissellement et les cuvettes zaï ou tassa creusées autour de chaque plante pour recueillir l'eau. La récupération des eaux usées (voir encadré) offre également un potentiel important.Le matériel de pompage a lui aussi évolué et est mieux adapté aux pays en développement : pompes à pédale, petites motopompes indiennes et chinoises simples et à faible coût, systèmes solaires. Des pompes à pédale pour des profondeurs pouvant atteindre 15 à 20 m sont maintenant disponibles dans la plupart des pays ACP. Leur prix est de 30 à 50 € pour un débit de 100 l/min à 4 m de fond.Les techniques d'irrigation les plus performantes sont l'irrigation souterraine et le goutte-à-goutte. Elles se caractérisent par l'apport fréquent de petites quantités d'eau aussi directement que possible à la racine des plantes. En souterrain, les plus simples consistent à enterrer des récipients poreux (jarres d'argile, tubes perforés) à proximité immédiate des cultures et à les remplir d'eau qui se diffuse lentement dans le sol.L'irrigation goutte à goutte fait circuler de l'eau sous pression dans un réseau de tuyaux perforés qui courent au-dessus du sol et dont l'eau s'échappe goutte à goutte. La technologie est relativement simple, mais demande un investissement initial important. Elle demande aussi un entretien soigneux et régulier, car les asperseurs, très fins, se bouchent facilement. Les résultats obtenus dans de nombreux pays montrent que passer de l'irrigation par aspersion au goutte-à-goutte réduit la consommation d'eau de 30 à 60 %. L'équipement d'un hectare coûte de 1 500 à 4 000 €.Pour limiter ce coût, des techniques abordables de microirrigation ont été mises au point pour des petites superficies de 500 m 2 maximum. L'irrigation goutte à goutte se fait par gravitation à partir d'un réservoir installé en hauteur. Cela permet d'économiser le matériel de pompage électrique. Ce système coûte de 150 à 190 €. Au Kenya, l'institut de recherche agricole KARI s'est engagé dès 1996 dans cette technologie. Il a importé et assemblé des centaines de kits. Depuis, l'usage du goutte-à-goutte à partir de petites citernes surélevées s'est répandu dans le pays. Enfin, pour pérenniser l'investissement que représente un système d'irrigation, quel qu'il soit, et lui garder une efficacité maximale, l'entretien est essentiel. En Haïti, dans la vallée de l'Artibonite qui compteLe drainage a pour but d'évacuer l'excès d'eau dans le sol. Les fossés creusés dans le sol sont la solution la plus économique. Les drains, enterrés à une profondeur et à un écartement calculés, demandent un certain investissement financier. Les plus anciens sont des éléments en terre cuite emboîtés les uns dans les autres. Aujourd'hui, ce sont des tubes en plastique flexibles, perforés et parfois entourés de mousse synthétique pour empêcher les racines de pénétrer à l'intérieur du drain. Le drainage des terres irriguées a deux objectifs : réduire l'engorgement par l'eau et diminuer la salinisation. Il est particulièrement recommandé dans trois situations. En climat humide, il permet d'évacuer l'excédent d'eau résultant de précipitations trop abondantes qui saturent le sol et conduisent à l'asphyxie des plantes. En zones de bas-fond, le drainage abaisse la nappe phréatique et évacue les eaux de crue. En zone aride, enfin, il lutte contre la salinisation en assurant le lessivage des sols et empêche la remontée de la nappe salée. À l'Office du Niger, au Mali, la nappe phréatique est remontée de 20 m en 50 ans du fait de l'irrigation abondante des périmètres rizicoles. Seul un drainage énergique peut éviter la dégradation des sols par alcalinisation progressive jusqu'à leur totale aridification. Aujourd'hui, tout projet d'irrigation doit tenir compte du fait que l'eau se raréfie et donc chercher à maximiser l'utilisation de l'eau en évitant tout gaspillage. Il faut pour cela adopter les techniques les plus économes en eau. Ou améliorer les systèmes plus classiques : le système de canalisations fermées ou la couverture des canaux ont prouvé leur efficacité pour réduire l'évaporation.Mais l'adoption de techniques économes en eau ne suffit pas à résoudre tous les problèmes. Le manque d'organisation des utilisateurs et une gestion défaillante des périmètres pèsent sur les performances des installations. Longtemps gérés par les États, les périmètres ont souvent été des gouffres financiers pour de piètres performances, que ce soit dans la vallée Awash en Éthiopie, à Jahaly/Pacharr en Gambie ou à l'Office du Niger.Aujourd'hui, leur gestion est confiée de préférence aux usagers, souvent après découpage en plus petits périmètres plus faciles à gérer. Des associations se développent pour organiser une répartition optimale et équitable de l'eau d'un bassin ou d'une nappe et assurer l'entretien des installations. C'est le cas en Éthiopie où le gouvernement insiste sur l'irrigation, vitale pour le pays, et sur la formation des agriculteurs pour gérer les périmètres. Dans la région Pacifique, le Partenariat mondial de l'eau (GWP) a soutenu la création d'un réseau afin de promouvoir les principes de la gestion intégrée de l'eau au niveau de chaque bassin. Réunis en association, les différents exploitants d'un même bassin ou nappe phréatique évaluent la quantité d'eau disponible et les prélèvements maximums possibles sans risque de la tarir, puis décident de la répartition entre les différents usages (agriculture, eau domestique, industrie) afin d'éviter tout conflit.Toutefois, l'entretien ou la réhabilitation des périmètres sont souvent trop onéreux pour les usagers et les agriculteurs ont du mal à gérer le quotidien de ces périmètres qui se dégradent parfois rapidement. La formation des producteurs et des vulgarisateurs de même qu'un environnement économique propice qui permette aux agriculteurs de valoriser leurs investissements sont les clés de la réussite des périmètres irrigués.Réduire le gaspillage d'une ressource plus nécessaire que le pétrole et qui se raréfie, et la valoriser au mieux pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire sont des priorités dans les pays ACP. La marge de manoeuvre est grande : les pertes d'eau dans les réseaux d'irrigation peuvent représenter jusqu'à deux tiers du volume mobilisé, principalement par évaporation, fuites et écoulements hors de la parcelle.Les eaux usées de bains et de cuisines peuvent être facilement récupérées et traitées à l'échelle domestique pour être réutilisées comme eau agricole. Elles sont dites \"eaux grises\" par opposition aux \"eaux noires\" des toilettes qui contiennent de fortes concentrations de matières fécales et d'urine. Les eaux grises représentent 55 à 80 % des eaux usées domestiques. Leur composition varie selon chaque foyer en fonction du niveau de vie, des pratiques culturelles, des habitudes culinaires et des produits de nettoyage utilisés. Elles contiennent essentiellement savons, détergents, graisses, cheveux et fibres de vêtements. Il est indispensable d'évaluer leur qualité (pH, salinité, concentration en matières organiques biodégradables ou non, teneur en azote et en phosphore), car les eaux usées domestiques ne sont pas toutes bonnes pour l'irrigation, surtout s'il s'agit de cultures maraîchères. Une fois jugées aptes à être réutilisées pour l'irrigation ou l'arrosage, les eaux grises sont récupérées et traitées au moyen de simples filtres installés dans chaque habitation. La technique a déjà fait ses preuves en Amérique latine et en Australie, notamment, et devrait s'étendre à d'autres régions en situation de stress hydrique. Des travaux sur ce thème sont en cours à l'Institut de l'ingénierie de l'eau et de l'environnement (2iE) de Ouagadougou, au Burkina Faso. Au sud du Malawi, le projet Irrigation des petits exploitants (SHIP) aide les agriculteurs à s'accommoder des conséquences des changements du régime des pluies. Grâce à des fonds de la Banque africaine de développement, il leur fournit des pompes à pédale afin qu'ils puissent tirer de l'eau des fleuves, des lacs et des barrages pour leurs cultures. Le projet, qui vise 12 000 paysans, est aussi à l'origine de la construction de barrages pour améliorer l'irrigation et de nouveaux marchés pour faciliter la vente des produits. Les petits producteurs se sont regroupés pour cultiver toutes sortes de plantes, tomates, choux et oignons surtout. Certains fournissent déjà les chaînes locales de supermarchés. Des vulgarisateurs les conseillent et leur apprennent comment tirer le meilleur de leurs terres déficitaires en eau. Sani, chef de village de la circonscription traditionnelle Nanseta de Thyolo, explique que sa région a été durement touchée par l'arrêt précoce des pluies cette année : \"Nous dépendons des pluies pour nos récoltes, mais avec ces changements de temps nous avons vraiment souffert. Certains d'entre nous cultivent à présent en irrigué et tirent de l'eau des rivières les plus proches ; moi j'ai planté des légumes.\" Dans les districts de la vallée du Lower Shire, on montre aux agriculteurs comment pomper l'eau du fleuve Shire pour leurs jardins. Zex Thambo a appris à canaliser l'eau de la montagne Ndirande. \"Je me sers de conduits pour capter l'eau et irriguer mes cultures. J'ai aussi des barrages où je garde des poissons pour les vendre.\" Les directeurs du projet assurent qu'un soin particulier a été mis à garantir une irrigation durable ; l'eau est tirée de sources abondantes et des arbres sont plantés pour protéger les bassins versants. Depuis l'indépendance, on a tenté d'introduire plusieurs systèmes modernes d'irrigation. Dès 1982, l'entreprise Justino Lopes avait environ 8 ha irrigués par aspersion et par goutte-à-goutte. Trois systèmes différents ont ensuite été testés par le projet Tarrafal Water Resources. Mais la micro-irrigation n'a commencé à éveiller l'intérêt des paysans qu'après le lancement, en 1995, d'un projet FAO de diffusion de la petite irrigation mené avec l'appui de l'ancien Institut national pour le développement de l'agriculture et de l'élevage et un financement de la coopération américaine (USAID). L'objectif était de convaincre les paysans de la supériorité de la micro-irrigation sur le système traditionnel. Elle permet 40 à 50 % d'économies d'eau, avec des intervalles plus courts entre les arrosages, moins de stress hydrique et une augmentation significative de la productivité.Des kits d'irrigation ont tout d'abord été fournis dans le cadre du projet. L'État a pris le relais en subventionnant à 75 % les coûts d'installation, participation ramenée par la suite à 25 %. Aujourd'hui, les agriculteurs capverdiens n'ont plus droit à des subventions. Ils doivent acheter les équipements auprès des entreprises qui les commercialisent, en recourant au crédit bancaire. Ilídio da Moura, un agriculteur de Varzea de Santana (île de Santiago), souligne les difficultés de ce crédit : \"Il n'est pas aussi simple qu'il devrait l'être. Il faut aller en ville à la banque. Celle-ci nous demande des intérêts très élevés et se montre très exigeante sur le garant. De plus, elle demande les premiers remboursements trop rapidement. L'avantage avec l'irrigation, c'est que nous pouvons produire toute l'année, avec de bons rendements, et que nous arrivons toujours à écouler ce que nous produisons.\"L'adoption progressive du goutte-à-goutte à partir des années 1990 n'est pas seulement la plus importante \"révolution technologique\" de l'agriculture capverdienne. Elle a eu aussi des répercussions sociales considérables. Les agriculteurs cultivent de plus en plus pour le marché : de 5 000 t/an en 1991 à 18 000 t/an en 2000 (dernières statistiques) et probablement au-dessus de 25 000 t/an à présent. La qualité de l'alimentation de la population urbaine s'est du même coup améliorée. Les prix au consommateur restent toutefois élevés en raison de différents problèmes tout au long de la filière.Le jeune professeur Ângelo Freire, qui cultive une petite parcelle de 4 ares en irrigué pour son plaisir et pour compléter le revenu familial, estime que certains points de blocage nuisent à une adhésion plus large à la micro-irrigation. \"Le Service de vulgarisation a fait un bon travail de formation pour le choix d'un matériel durable, le savoir-faire technique et l'utilisation des équipements. Mais le modèle de gestion de l'eau qui caractérise les systèmes d'irrigation traditionnels est difficile à adapter à la nouvelle technologie. Le calendrier de la distribution d'eau, notamment, doit changer.\"Il reste également un énorme effort à faire pour construire plus de réservoirs où stocker l'eau et les placer, si possible, en hauteur par rapport aux parcelles à irriguer pour éviter l'utilisation de motopompes. Heureusement, le relief de l'archipel le permet souvent.On estime qu'un quart seulement des 1 800 ha de surface irriguée du Cap-Vert est aujourd'hui équipé en irrigation localisée. Beaucoup reste donc à faire, avec à la clé un énorme bénéfice pour les agriculteurs et les consommateurs.José Teixeira Le coût des catastrophes naturelles de ces dernières années, la nécessité d'accroître la compétitivité sur un marché libéralisé et l'amélioration des techniques de modélisation des risques ont eu pour effet d'éveiller l'intérêt pour une assurance en faveur des agriculteurs pauvres. Les assurances classiques ont leurs limites : des primes élevées, des difficultés logistiques à évaluer les demandes d'indemnisation dans les zones reculées et une clientèle peu familiarisée avec les services financiers. L'émergence de la microassurance est donc particulièrement intéressante pour les producteurs ACP. Il s'agit d'assurances au coût abordable pour les petits agriculteurs, proposées par des instituts de microfinance (IMF), des ONG ou des coopératives. Elles sont moins chères parce qu'elles concernent des groupes et sont associées à d'autres produits tels que crédit ou engrais. Dans des lieux reculés où les producteurs sont très dispersés, le regroupement des assureurs selon un mécanisme de pooling peut permettre de faire baisser les primes.En Inde, le secteur privé fournit déjà une micro-couverture pour les cultures et le bétail, la santé et les biens. Dans un projet pionnier, l'IMF locale BASIX s'est appuyée sur son réseau pour fournir la micro-assurance et a réassuré son portefeuille chez ICICI Lombard. Au Malawi l'ONG Opportunity International s'est associée à la Banque mondiale pour assurer les producteurs d'arachide contre le risque climatique.Dans le cadre du Programme des produits agricoles de base \"Tous ACP\" financé par l'UE (45 millions €), la FAO, le Groupe de travail de la Banque mondiale sur la gestion des risques liés à ces produits et d'autres organisations analysent la gestion du risque en agriculture. Le projet couvre l'Éthiopie, Madagascar, le Malawi, l'Ouganda et la Tanzanie.Selon Piero Conforti, économiste à la FAO, \"l'assurance agricole peut aider les petits agriculteurs à réduire les risques encourus et à améliorer leurs revenus, mais elle peut entraîner de gros frais de transaction. L'assurance à coupons est une façon de réduire ces frais\". Contrairement aux polices d'assurance classiques qui exigent des preuves des dégâts, les polices à coupons utilisent des critères météorologiques pour déclencher l'indemnisation -une température minimum, un volume de précipitations ou une certaine vitesse du vent. L'assuré reçoit un coupon d'une valeur monétaire fixe qui lui sera versée si l'événement climatique se produit.Cette assurance a l'avantage d'être simple, souple et de faible coût administratif, puisqu'il n'est nul besoin de vérifier les pertes. En Éthiopie, un projet développé avec le réassureur AXA Re fournit au Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM) une couverture pour le compte des cultivateurs de maïs. Si les précipitations sont inférieures à un niveau donné, le PAM reçoit une indemnisation qu'il convertit en aide. L'Earth Institute et le réassureur Swiss Re ont conçu une assurance à coupons basée sur les précipitations pour le village du millénaire Sauri, dans l'ouest du Kenya. La FAO travaille à mettre au point un système d'assurance à coupons pour les agriculteurs et les pêcheurs des Bahamas.Bien que considérée comme la formule la plus prometteuse, l'assurance à coupons a des inconvénients. Certains experts estiment que l'assurance n'est pas forcément le meilleur choix. D'autres mécanismes de gestion du risque sont importants, par exemple la diversification des produits ou la vaccination des troupeaux. Une formation est aussi cruciale car, pour de nombreux agriculteurs, l'assurance est un concept nouveau. Les gouvernements doivent instaurer un environnement favorable, y compris des mécanismes juridiques. Seuls l'Afrique du Sud, l'Inde et le Pérou disposent d'une législation explicite sur la micro-assurance.\"On peut faire beaucoup dans les pays ACP, mais des partenariats solides sont nécessaires. Ils doivent impliquer gouvernements, compagnies d'assurance privées, réassureurs, régulateurs et institutions de recherche\", explique Mark Wenner, expert financier à la Banque interaméricaine de développement. \"L'assurance est un produit compliqué à fournir de façon efficace et durable.\"La sécurité en prime L'assurance agricole aide à amortir les risques, mais les polices classiques sont souvent trop chères pour les petits agriculteurs. Divers mécanismes sont actuellement à l'étude pour faciliter leur accès à ce mode de gestion du risque.A s s u r a n c e Dynamiques paysannes nº 17 Téléchargeable gratuitement sur : www.sosfaim.be/pdf/fr/ dynamiquespaysannes/17_ organisations_interprofessionnelles_ agricoles_ouest_afrique.pdfDajaloo n° 10 www.sosfaim.be/pdf/fr/dajaloo/10_ crise_alimentaire.pdfLa FAO et l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) ont mis en ligne un nouveau guide, en anglais, sur l'élimination des emballages et récipients de pesticides vides. Celui-ci décrit les risques encourus et présente une série d'exemples de pays qui ont élaboré un plan pour gérer ces déchets dangereux. Des textes en anglais et en français dressent l'état de l'environnement non seulement globalement sur le continent, mais aussi par pays, accompagnés de graphiques, de cartes et de statistiques très parlants.L'édition imprimée est coûteuse en raison des nombreuses photos satellitaires, mais vous pouvez télécharger gratuitement en ligne cet extraordinaire atlas, chapitre par chapitre, de même que les images en haute ou basse résolution. La libéralisation de l'économie a eu un impact important sur les pays en développement producteurs de biens et de services. Associée à la tendance plus large de la mondialisation, cette évolution a créé de nouvelles opportunités, mais aussi de nouveaux défis pour les nombreux producteurs abandonnés à eux-mêmes. Ce marché de plus en plus concurrentiel est déconcertant pour les vendeurs qui doivent composer avec les contraintes supplémentaires de qualité, de rendement et des normes de sécurité.Ce guide aidera les lecteurs confrontés à certains problèmes pratiques en leur proposant des solutions pour les surmonter. C'est une bonne introduction générale aux lois de la concurrence et aux politiques de marché dans les pays en développement. Il explique certains pièges à éviter et les divers types de pratiques commerciales anticoncurrentielles qu'ils peuvent rencontrer. Il précise ensuite comment les politiques contribuent à garantir une concurrence équitable. Enfin, il illustre par des études de cas, notamment en Afrique du Sud et au Costa Rica, la manière dont la législation peut aider à réguler le marché.Le livre est téléchargeable en ligne et un cédérom reprenant l'essentiel des contenus du site est disponible pour ceux qui n'ont pas accès à Internet. Devenue synonyme de santé, la consommation de poissons, en particulier européenne, a partout encouragé la surpêche. Cette fringale qui pousse à pêcher plus que de raison condamne les écosystèmes océaniques de la planète à une mort certaine, à relativement brève échéance. Or la pêche est un métier de \"cueillette\" dans une immense réserve sauvage. Elle ne peut plus et ne doit plus être conçue de façon productiviste.Cet ouvrage critique sévèrement la politique européenne de la pêche. Après avoir décimé ses propres ressources halieutiques, le Vieux Continent s'est attaqué à celles des pays en développement. Les progrès de la technologie ont mis à la disposition des pêcheries industrielles de véritables armes de destruction massive qui ratissent les océans jusqu'à des profondeurs autrefois inaccessibles.L'auteur, qui a fait un tour du monde des pêcheries et connaît bien ce milieu, dresse un constat alarmant, rédigé d'une plume acérée, bien loin du langage lénifiant des grandes institutions.L'ouvrage se termine par un appel aux consommateurs européens, invités à préférer les rares espèces \"que l'on peut manger sans se poser trop de questions\" (cabillaud et saumon du Pacifique ou tilapia) à celles qui posent problème, telles que le thon rouge, le mérou et les requins, ou demandent réflexion (crevettes sauvages).  Les personnes interrogées ont aussi insisté pour qu'il y ait davantage d'appui à des rencontres, notamment de formation, et au renforcement des capacités.Le CTA avait choisi une nouvelle formule pour cette vaste consultation : chacune des dix équipes était formée de deux agents du CTA, accompagnés d'un consultant indépendant et d'un consultant local. Ces équipes ont mené des entretiens individuels et en groupe auprès de quelque 200 organismes. L'exercice a permis de rencontrer certains bénéficiaires et de mieux cerner les besoins réels des groupes cibles.Les résultats des visites de terrain ont été corroborés par une enquête sur Internet auprès d'un échantillon d'utilisateurs et par les données recueillies par le personnel du CTA à l'aide d'outils de marketing (par exemple la matrice BCG) pour identifier les produits à fort potentiel de croissance. La combinaison de ces outils a mis en lumière certains des points forts du CTA : couverture de zones linguistiques différentes, évolution progressive vers les langues locales, large couverture thématique et expérience d'un certain nombre de médias.Les entretiens ont aussi abouti à des critiques constructives, allant de commentaires sur les réactions tardives aux demandes de services à des difficultés de communication avec le personnel. Il a été demandé que des agents du CTA fassent plus régulièrement des visites pour s'informer sur l'impact des produits et des services.Cet examen inédit a été une bonne occasion pour promouvoir le CTA, ses produits et ses services, tout en fournissant une importante base sur laquelle fonder des choix stratégiques pour l'avenir. Les résultats sont en train d'être analysés en vue de redéfinir les priorités de façon à utiliser au mieux les ressources limitées du CTA dans le 10 e Fonds européen de développement (FED).L'objectif est d'améliorer encore les services tout en élargissant leur portée et en augmentant leur impact sur l'agriculture et le développement rural des pays ACP.Rencontre avec des producteurs au Malawi Malheureusement, le monde rural n'est pas assez soutenu. Dans nos pays, il n'y a pas de politiques agricoles adaptées à la réalité. Elles existent sur le papier, mais sur le terrain on ne sent pas l'appui des pouvoirs publics, tant au niveau des petits producteurs que des gros. Dans le \"projet oignon\" mis en oeuvre par Agro-Niger, nous n'avons pas bénéficié d'aide directe. Comme l'investissement est lourd, nous avons cependant été exonérés de taxes sur les matériaux de construction et sur le matériel (tracteurs, irrigation…) importés et nous sommes exemptés pendant 5 ans de l'impôt sur les sociétés.C'est appréciable mais insuffisant. Le carburant, par exemple, n'est pas exonéré. Et il y a encore des taxes sur les semences… Tout cela veut dire que la politique agricole n'est pas au point : la base de la production, c'est l'énergie et les semences. Sans cela, nous ne pouvons pas être compétitifs parce que nous ne sommes pas au même diapason que les autres pays et que nos concurrents. Une intervention des pouvoirs publics est attendue à chaque étape, de la recherche au transport.En règle générale, nos pays sont assaillis de problèmes en tout genre. Les pouvoirs publics sont conscients que l'agriculture est importante, mais ne la considèrent pas comme prioritaire, comparée, par exemple, au paiement des salaires des fonctionnaires, qui peuvent descendre dans la rue pour manifester. Le monde rural, lui, n'est pas assez organisé pour revendiquer, pour réclamer des droits, donc il est laissé pour compte.Les ruraux sont aussi des électeurs, mais il faudrait qu'ils s'organisent, à travers des gens comme nous, pour convaincre les autorités du bien-fondé de l'agriculture. Par exemple, aujourd'hui, tout le monde parle de réduction de la pauvreté. Où peut-on commencer à réduire la pauvreté si ce n'est dans le monde agricole ? Si tous les producteurs sont bien organisés, ils peuvent produire mieux et participer au commerce international, ce qui fait entrer des devises dans le pays. Tout le monde en sort gagnant.Il est vrai qu'Agro-Niger est quand même bien vu des autorités, parce qu'à travers nos investissements le pays est reconnu et bénéficie d'une bonne image. Nous sommes un peu la vitrine pour les bailleurs de fonds ou les instances comme la Banque mondiale. Ce sont nos exploitations qu'on montre comme exemples de réussite à l'UE notamment. Mais les appuis ne suivent pas toujours.Grâce à nos activités, nous aidons des gens. Nous avons acheté des camions à certains pour transporter des oignons et ils remboursent en plusieurs années. Cela fait d'eux de petits entrepreneurs. D'autre part, partout où nous avons une installation, on voit la prospérité chez les paysans ou dans les villages autour de nos plantations. Les autorités coutumières ou locales nous en sont très reconnaissantes, parce qu'elles voient ce que l'entreprise apporte aux populations. Nous produisons selon trois modalités différentes. D'abord, sur nos propres plantations. Nous avons aussi acheté pas mal de terres et avons des conventions avec des paysans qui n'ont pas accès à la terre, notamment les femmes, qui viennent cultiver ces champs de 10 ou 20 ares. Nous apportons tout (semences, engrais, irrigation…). Ensuite, nous partageons la production : elles prennent un tiers et nous deux tiers. Ce système, testé depuis trois ans, marche bien. Nous devons refuser des gens parce que nous n'avons pas assez de terres.La troisième composante, ce sont les paysans qui ont leurs champs et que nous essayons d'encadrer pour qu'ils produisent mieux. Nous leur apportons une sorte d'assistance technique pour harmoniser et valoriser la production, sur la base d'un contrat.De cette manière, nous participons à la solidarité africaine, communautaire, mais en respectant aussi les exigences d'une bonne gestion de l'entreprise, qui repose d'abord sur le travail.Le secteur privé a un rôle capital à jouer dans le développement, y compris dans l'agriculture. il peut être le moteur de l'amélioration des conditions de vie, mais attend des pouvoirs publics un appui plus concret que de simples paroles valorisantes.Boureima Wankoye, homme d'affaires nigérien diplômé de l'École supérieure de commerce de Marseille (France), a choisi d'investir dans l'agriculture : la gomme arabique d'abord, l'oignon ensuite. Il dirige Agro-Niger, une entreprise qui produit, achète, transforme et vend dans toute la sous-région.","tokenCount":"7533"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ccbde39401f57b2c8fa363fe9399f2e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e28f5549-ec47-478b-9ebb-4ba3c1553bb0/retrieve","id":"1731467348"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1cf28b1d-7e88-4cca-9f59-8f713f319895","pagecount":"1","content":"Future steps -Year 2 • Launch field activities as soon as travel restrictions imposed to manage COVID-19 are lifted• Finalize statistical analyses on seroprevalence data Activities initiated (2019) The project aims to generate knowledge and tools that can support better surveillance and control of the disease in Uganda. Figure 1 demonstrates the proposed impact pathway.ILRI thanks BMZ and all other donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.This  • MAAIF, NaLIRRI, KEMRI and ILRI trained 22 entomologists from 6 districts on sampling and characterization of RVF mosquito vectors (Figure 4a). Most of those trained had wealth of expertise on tick and tsetse sampling, but not mosquitoes• VSF -Germany trained 36 veterinary field personnel from 12 districts on participatory disease surveillance. This will improve syndromic surveillance for RVF and other diseases such as PPR• MAAIF has compiled data on historical RVF outbreaks in the country, starting with the first outbreak that occurred in March 2016 (Figure 3a). • MAAIF and ILRI conducted spatial analysis of sero-epidemiological data that were collected just before the project commenced.• A draft a risk map generated is shown in Figure 3b.• KEMRI commenced RVF virus isolation from archived serum samples from patients suspected to have had RVF in previous outbreaks in Kenya.• Scan to find out more","tokenCount":"219"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ba4917342357d362c40f4b0641f1c1c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/713f35b8-3ddc-4e3b-91ab-9838d4409561/retrieve","id":"898855324"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"084acc55-b55a-4682-8528-ec25841d6c32","pagecount":"16","content":"An early warning system delivers rainfall data to Kenyan farmers' cell phones An SMS service delivers quick answers to farmers' climate questions Communities use GIS and GPS to assess climate risks in the Cook IslandsF armers in ACP countries face increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, where late rains wash away newly planted seedlings or crops are scorched in dry soil before they are ready for harvesting. To help them cope with the erratic conditions, farmers are using ICTs to stay informed with regularly updated weather forecasts to help them plan their seasonal activities, and ensure timely delivery to markets. They are also using technology to share their expertise with other producers around the world to help them deal with extreme and variable weather conditions.In the Cook Islands, a local NGO, Te Rito Enua, worked with four rural communities to identify potential threats from the changing climate. Teams from the communities used GPS devices to record the locations of houses, farmland, water sources and other important landmarks. The project team entered the data into a geographic information system (GIS), combined with information from the government and other sources, to develop detailed maps of the resources available to the communities.Through this participatory mapping project, the communities were able to see which areas of their land would be vulnerable to prolonged periods of unseasonal rain or drought. With a better picture of the possible dangers, the community set up committees to develop strategies to deal with the increasingly unpredictable weather and protect their most valuable resources.Meanwhile, a team of scientists from the University of Oklahoma is trying to improve the reliability of weather information. They have developed a system to collate rainfall data in West Africa, using GIS to plot the precise locations of the rain gauge stations. The team tested the system, known as Rainwatch, in Niger, which has had wildly fluctuating rainfall patterns in the last few years.Staff from the local meteorological service can use Rainwatch to analyse the data, and produce maps and graphs that are easy to interpret. The service can share these visual representations with researchers and government ministries, and pass them on to radio and television stations, who can broadcast the information rapidly to even very remote communities. Previously, it could take up to two weeks to make rainfall information available to the public. Meteorological services can also use the system to monitor rainfall patterns, and set up early warning mechanisms when specific areas experience very wet or dry spells.It is especially important that farmers get information on imminent threats if they are to plan their activities effectively and get the best from their crops. For many generations, the Nganyi community, from the Kisumu region of Kenya, have used traditional methods to predict the weather and prepare for the planting and harvesting seasons. In recent years, however, they have found that their forecasts are less reliable due to increasingly erratic weather patterns.In a pilot project with the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), the community is now working with the Kenya Meteorological Department to share information and collaborate their efforts to predict the weather for the coming seasons. The project collates the information into a database and transmits it directly to the farmers' cell phones, giving them advance weather details to help them get the most out of their crops.And in Zambia, the National Agricultural Information Services has refined its question-and-answer service to help farmers prepare for unseasonal weather. They have now made it easier, and faster, for their experts to deliver details via SMS to farmers, showing that even the information services have to be prepared to adapt to climate change. ◀ An atmosphere for change ICT Update issue 63, December 2011.ICT Update is a bimonthly printed bulletin with an accompanying web magazine (http://ictupdate.cta.int) and e-mail newsletter. The next issue will be available in February 2012.T here are two ways we can address climate change. One is through mitigation efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the great amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The other approach, adaptation, recognises the risks and the fact that the climate will continue to change. Adaptation means adjusting to existing or expected impacts. Both actions are equally important and challenging. They require a significant amount of attention, direct response, policies, plans and implementation strategies, across all levels of society.Adaptation and mitigation actions are possible at the local level too. For instance, using renewable energy sources or planting trees to expand forests is a mitigation action, while an adaptation action may involve sharing information so that local communities can better respond and adjust to climate change. That information, however, needs to be relevant and up to date if communities are to make effective changes.The Global Connectivity team at the International Institute for Sustainable example, they receive regular weather updates from the country's meteorological department which they can share with the farmers. The CKW can interpret the information to suit the local environment and send data back to the relevant content providers to help them develop their services.Local communities are continuously exploring new and innovative ways of adapting to climate change, and more needs to be done to make it easier for them to share their experiences with others. Communities also require additional support and partnerships with the private sector, provincial or national government and other agencies to deploy new technologies and enhance existing ones used for adaptation. Further research may be required in this area, and strategies that link research outcomes to policies should be explored.Farmers are very aware of climate change and the effects it can have on their livelihoods. They see that productivity has changed in recent years and know that a number of factors have caused this change, including increased rainfall and unpredictable weather patterns in their region.Many ACP farmers have already had to adapt to their environment. They currently work in extreme conditions, and have developed ways to grow crops in very dry or very wet land. And researchers are now also realising how this indigenous knowledge can help to enhance scientific knowledge. They are looking at ways in which these farmers can share their methods with others around the world, with people who are now facing similar situations.Technology will be very useful for gathering and disseminating this information quickly, and to a wider audience. Such initiatives can help the global community understand the helpful adaptations that ACP farmers have already made, and can provide the means of sharing information that will help all producers deal with future challenges. ◀ Ben Akoh (bakoh@iisd.ca) is a project manager at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (www.iisd.org) Development (IISD) researches the use of ICTs in the production of greener economies, environments, and societies. The team is currently participating in the eTransform Africa project and analysing how ICTs are used to support adaptation action at the community level. The project has brought together a consortium of researchers to explore how a variety of sectors, including agriculture, health, education and others, can use ICTs to address the major economic, environmental and social challenges facing the African continent.IISD is also gathering case studies showing how ICTs help communities adapt to the effects of climate change. It has observed that people already use a number of platforms to share information, either online or through other means. AfricaAdapt, for example, is a continental initiative for sharing adaptation information between researchers, policy makers, civil society organisations and communities.Community radio is another effective method of disseminating information, since it overcomes illiteracy problems and the information can be translated into local languages. Some groups have even developed ways to use radio to get feedback from the communities, to find out how they were adapting to climate change and to assess how targeted messages were being received and used.A project in South Africa, for example, uses sensors in the Crocodile River that transmit temperature and water quality data via the cell phone network to a remote location. There, they are analysed so action can be taken that affect the dam downstream. New, more efficient and intelligent sensor networks are being tested around Lake Malawi that generate better quality data and perform initial on-the-spot analyses before transmitting the information, resulting in a reduction of the time needed to make decisions.In Uganda, community knowledge workers (CKWs) from the Grameen Foundation use applications installed on smartphones that receive regularly updated information. Users can pass this information on to farmers and also upload data from the field. ForCommunity groups are making use of websites, radio and cell phones to share information on climate change adaptation.eTransform Africa ➜ www.etransformafrica.org AfricaAdapt ➜ www.africa-adapt.net E xtreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, long periods of drought, sea level rise and higher temperatures, lead to loss of soil fertility and land degradation, reducing food security in farming communities. The Cook Islands, like many small islands, are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. They comprise small land masses surrounded by ocean, and are located in a region prone to natural disasters.With limited long-term meteorological data available, it is difficult to make accurate predictions on how climate change will affect the Cook Islands. However, there is consensus that the region is likely to experience more frequent extreme weather events, including floods, droughts, periods of extreme heat, an increase in cyclone intensity, increased climate variability and rise in sea levels.Observations by Pacific Island communities indicate that predicted climate change effects are being experienced, and are causing considerable social, economic and environmental pressures. The ability of the communities to adapt to a changing climate is generally low, due to lack of information and awareness of the potential effects of changing weather patterns. Traditional natural resource management practices, however, still practiced in some parts of the Cook Islands, provide important tools for resilience in the face of environmental change.In response to growing concerns about the possible effects of changing weather patterns, a local NGO, Te Rito Enua (TRE), tested the use of participatory GIS to assess climate vulnerability and adaptation planning in the Cook Islands. Together with the country's government and with the support of the Asian Development Bank, TRE worked with four communities on the islands of Rarotonga and Aitutaki.Both islands face similar problems of water shortages, deforestation and soil erosion as a result of climate change. Their terrain, however, is quite different. Rarotonga, the most populous island in the country, is mountainous, steep and heavily forested. Aitutaki is mainly atoll and lagoon, and so is flatter with some steeper land on the remains of the submerged volcano around which the atoll formed.The project began in 2010, and lasted 10 months. In that time, TER worked with the communities to develop the practical tools and skills necessary to produce their own specific climate risk analysis. The organisation gave training courses in participatory mapping, with components in vulnerability and risk assessment, climate models, GPS and GIS, and map interpretation.Participants, mostly volunteers, came from a cross-section of the community demography, ranging from school-aged youth to elders, including community leaders, resource users and professional resource managers. As a result of the training, all participants had a basic knowledge of the methods to be employed in the project, which they used to collect data from the field, and record assets that could be included later on maps.This data, which participants within their own frame of reference, helped them identify issues that could affect the vulnerability of individual households and their wider community. They looked at facilities such as energy provision, water supply, sanitation services, port facilities and even civil defence.Important risks associated with climate change were identified through the assessment and mapping processes that were neither considered nor evident during national-level vulnerability assessments. One example is the waste management facilities situated near the pilot communities. Runoff from these landfill sites at times of heavy rain can adversely affect the adjoining aquatic ecosystems. The communities rely heavily on these vulnerable coastal resources for their livelihoods, and so future waste management solutions need to include these considerations at the early planning stages.Additionally, the mapping information showed that disaster response shelters are often placed in areas vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm surge inundation. Also, some households could experience a shortage of water as the climate changes, which will mean enhanced water conservation measures, such as developing programmes for improved rainwater harvesting. Rarotonga in particular is dependent upon surface water supplies for domestic consumption and has suffered periodic water shortages in recent years as sources have dried up.A local NGo tested an innovative participatory mapping approach to help communities in the Cook Islands assess climate risks. the resulting maps highlighted vulnerable areas, allowing the communities to develop strategies to adapt to climate change.John Waugh (waugh2k@gmail.com) is an independent consultant on environmental strategies and planning, and science adviser to Te Rito Enua. Mona Matepi (tarofeet@gmail.com) is the executive director of Te Rito Enua. George de Romilly (romillyg@istar.ca) is an expert on climate policy and programme development and is a policy and legal adviser to Te Rito Enua.Another significant factor revealed by the project was the extent of invasive plant species in the environment. Observers had noticed that the watersheds of both Rarotonga and Aitutaki were infested with Cardiospermum grandiflorum (balloon vine), Merremia peltata (kurima), and Mikania micrantha (mile-a-minute weed).Available evidence shows that the species are having a devastating impact on the native vegetation and natural watershed systems. The implications for water supply in this already waterstressed country are not clear, but are a cause for concern.After the data collection phase, the project team integrated the information into existing government GIS files to highlight areas where a changing climate could potentially affect the environment. The resulting map layers were combined with information from a climate model commonly used for planning in the region. The new data were shared with the government to be integrated into their GIS database and made accessible to the National Environment Service, and relevant ministries.Each community received a paper map, known as a 'vulnerability atlas', showing the information specific to their area. The project team also facilitated meetings to discuss the implications of the mapping and the surveying process, and to gauge community perceptions of climate change. These discussions identified the main risks and developed plans for priority actions. Each community set up a Climate Change and Disaster Committee to ensure the plans would be followed.In some instances, the communities identified traditional practices, including organic farming and resource management methods, as having considerable value as adaptation measures to reduce the greatest climate change risks. One example was the traditional ra'ui system of resource allocation, which two communities identified as a way to improve the resilience of vulnerable water resources. Communities in Aitutaki also suggested promoting traditional building practices and styles, which could help mitigate the effects of the anticipated increase in extreme heat events. Some community participants were initially sceptical about the project, because they felt that the government had already mapped everything that was important. However, once they were able to re-envision maps, and given access to mapping tools, the communities became enthusiastic. As one of the senior participants of the Aitutaki planning process observed, 'I've lived on the island most of my life, and have today seen things I've never noticed before. 'Being able to participate in the production of maps that were explicitly for and about them gradually led to discussions on their social and physical environment that went well beyond the more obvious dimensions of climate change and climate adaptation. The discussions touched on deeper social issues such as cultural erosion, loss of language, unsustainable resource use, invasive species and out-migration.Planning for climate adaptation became a way of framing the broader suite of development issues. Because of this, the communities were able to take te rIto eNuAThe project made use of existing geographic information available from the government and combined it with the local knowledge captured by the community members.ownership of mapping their environment and the assets within it that are important to their identity and survival.The project showed that a community-based participatory approach is a valuable tool for bringing the reality of climate change to bear at the local and household level. A process of discussing, debating, and problem solving produces more resilient communities that are more able to organise themselves and prepare for a changing climate.Not only does participatory mapping provide communities with tangible evidence of the risks associated with climate change, but the community mapping process also highlights behavioural and development issues that affect the vulnerability of individual households and the community at large.There was a discernable sense of empowerment by participating communities in developing vulnerability maps and having them available. Without exception, all the pilot communities requested printed copies of the vulnerability atlases for display in public places to engender support for change and implementation of their proposed action plans.Measures to build upon this project would include using the existing capacity as an emerging centre of excellence. The centre's prime role would be to educate trainers to improve the ability of community mapping practitioners to convey techniques and best practices to other communities.To overcome the bottleneck in trained personnel, and the high costs of using commercial products, the training of young and motivated community members in open source GIS products, such as Q-GIS, will make the adoption of this technology for community mapping possible. A regional facility to build capacity for community mapping and access to remote sensing analysis will go far towards helping Pacific island communities to adapt to climate change.The project found that the participatory processes generated local knowledge unavailable to high-level planners. The process also generated a strong sense of ownership of the outcomes by communities, and increased the knowledge and awareness of participants about climate change risks and the implications for their families and communities. Finally, it increased the skills needed to develop more communities that are more resilient.This approach allows adaptation strategies to be developed from the bottom-up -from the family through to the community, island and eventually the national level -at the same time as the national strategy is developed from the top down.It should be noted, of course, that a community-based approach is no substitute for a technically rigorous national approach to climate change. Some important technical issues lie outside the competency of communities, and the scale can be too great; a patchwork of community approaches could potentially result in the geographic division of responsibilities that require a more unified approach. For example, ecosystem-based approaches require interventions at ecosystem scales.However, it is also clear that the communities are not fully engaged on the realities of climate change. This is clearly an issue of environmental awareness and ownership. Climate change issues have so far been the 'government's role' in the eyes of many communities, largely due to government officials being the ones engaged in the climate debate and conducting climate change vulnerability and adaptation activities.Linking the national efforts to local communities, therefore, is best demonstrated through the communitybased approach of site-specific adaptation planning. Adaptation thus becomes everyone's business. ◀ te rIto eNuA • Discourage building in vulnerable areas.• Establish a community-partnering programme to provide safe shelter for those in the most vulnerable homes. • Amend building code and encourage new construction to higher standards. • Establish community micro-finance or insurance to assist homeowners affected by extreme weather, and develop a reinsurance scheme for vulnerable businesses. • Raise public awareness of the need to build resilient homes. • Establish natural defences along the coast including through ecological restoration. • Establish community cleanup work details (tutaka) to control areas of stagnant water.P eriodic floods and droughts have already had a major socio-economic impact in Kenya, and led to reduced economic growth in recent years. The extreme weather from 1998 to 2000 was estimated to have cost US$ 2.8 billion from the loss of crops and livestock, forest fires, damage to fisheries, and reduction in hydropower generation, industrial production and water supply. Droughts in 2004, 2005 and 2009 affected millions of people and resulted in major economic costs from restrictions on water and energy, while the current drought in the Horn of Africa is said to be the worst in 60 years.There are also health concerns as changing weather patterns cause the incidence of pests and diseases to rise in some areas. Recent studies, for example, show that people living in rural parts of Kisumu region will have a far greater risk of contracting malaria by 2050 than they have now. There is, therefore, a need for an effective early warning system responsive to the needs of rural communities.The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), a climate research institute representing seven east African countries, is working on a system using cell phones to help farmers deal with the negative impacts of climate change. They are initially working with farmers from the Nganyi community around Kisumu as they had previously worked with ICPAC. The Nganyi are known for their own elaborate techniques for predicting the weather, based on knowledge and techniques passed on from generation to generation. The farmers have suffered in the last few years, as these traditional forecasting methods have proven less reliable in the face of increasingly erratic weather patterns.There are still many other sources of climate and weather data, such as brochures, community meetings, radio and television programmes. However, the community felt that the information often came too late to be useful, indicating that perhaps these more conventional modes of dissemination were not adequate. Also, many of the farmers were unfamiliar with the terms used in modern meteorological updates and were unable to interpret the technical language in a way that applied to their own lives.Cell phones, however, have become invaluable for the Nganyi. Initial project research showed that 88% of respondents in the community owned a cell phone, most of whom used it daily, while another 11% had access to one through a family member or neighbour. A method of delivering information via cell phones could, therefore, be useful for reaching a large portion of the population.The new system makes use of the Nganyi's traditional forecasting techniques combined with data from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD). The community's forecasters, known as rainmakers, meet with the members of the KMD every six months, before the onset of the twice-yearly periods of heavy rainfall, to discuss their respective findings. KMD staff compile the resulting information and enter it into a database. The information is then processed and Forecasts for a fairer future packaged into a format suitable for sending as an SMS message, which is sent using an SMS gateway, a computer program for sending multiple SMSes from a single computer. This program broadcasts the messages through the cell phone network to the Nganyi farmers who have their numbers registered on the cell phone database. The information is delivered quickly, is relevant to the specific area and is written in the local languages of Kiswahili and Luhya.The messages contain details such as rainfall intensity and length of dry spells between rainfalls, if any are within the forecast range. This type of information helps farmers decide which crop to plant and when, and estimate the best time for weeding and harvesting. Extension officers visit the community to give practical advice, where necessary, on the various tasks.The system, therefore, gives the farmers an early warning, allowing them to prepare food reserves for the period during and after extreme weather conditions. This reduces their dependence on government resources for food and shelter when drought or floods affect the country. Timely weather information can also help the farmers manage their crops efficiently, which can lead to improved output and increased income.The farmers have to pay to be part of the scheme, a cost that is prohibitive to many, according to project research. The system currently delivers the information to just 40 farmers. The project will require external funding to reach more producers, at least for the first two years until it becomes financially self-sustaining.An assessment of the project showed that there is a great demand among the farmers to break out of the cycle of poverty. They felt they could achieve this if they had increased access to competitive markets and more power to negotiate better prices for their produce. The information from the ICPAC project could help the farmers realise this as it could improve the productivity and quality of their crops. ◀A system delivering weather details via SMS to farmers in Kenya makes use of traditional and modern forecasting methods, alerting them to periods of heavy rain or drought.Sharon Wanjiru Kamau (kamau_sharon@yahoo.com) is an MSc computer science student at the University of Nairobi (www.uonbi.ac.ke)Weather information from other sources often comes too late or in a form that is difficult for the farmers to understand.FINbArr o'reIlly / reuterS Aondover Tarhule (atarhule@ou.edu) is chair of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oklahoma (http://geography.ou.edu). Zakari Saley-Bana is a former graduate student of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, the University of Oklahoma. Peter J. Lamb (plamb@ou.edu) is director of the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at OU (www.cimms.ou.edu).S ub-Saharan Africa is highly dependent on rainfall. More than 90% of the land is used for farming, very little of which is irrigated. Despite this reliance on rainfall, there are relatively few monitoring stations in the region that gather the data that farmers need to plan their seasonal cultivation processes. Even in areas where rainfall data are collected, several weeks can pass before the information is processed and made available in a form that is useful to farmers.To speed up and simplify the data collection and management procedures, a team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma has developed a geographic information system (GIS) that monitors rainfall and its seasonal patterns. Known as Rainwatch, the system can also automatically generate visual representations of the data that can be easily interpreted by interested parties, including farmers.The team has initially tested Rainwatch in Niger, where the Direction de la Météorologie Nationale du Niger (DMNN) is responsible for monitoring weather and climate. The country suffered a severe drought in 2009, followed by its wettest year in a generation in 2010, and then a return to severe rainfall deficiencies in 2011. Although there are more than 200Climate researchers have developed a system that uses GIS, computers, and the internet to improve rainfall data management and information delivery to farmers in West Africa.stations in Niger's rainfall monitoring network, most are 'rain gauge only' sites maintained by volunteer observers. They report rainfall data to DMNN's operations office in Niamey once a day by telephone or radio. Only 14 stations transmit data on an hourly basis throughout the year, using telex and phone.From these data, DMNN compiles rainfall reports that are broadcast on national and local radio and on national television -although TV reception is limited to the major urban areas. DMNN also publishes regular bulletins for the country's eight provinces, and shares data with policy makers and the national committee for early warning and disaster management systems (Comité Nationale du Systeme d'Alerte Précoce et de Gestion des Catastrophes).Although rainfall levels are broadcast on radio daily, it can take upto two weeks before DMNN releases data that have undergone any kind of analysis. Users of rainfall data outside the research community are not interested in exact rainfall statistics. Most farmers and other groups who depend on rainfall prefer qualitative information relating to previous seasonal patterns. Farmers, for example, simply want to know if the weather is dry, wet, or normal for the time of year. A long delay in delivering processed data means they cannot rely on the information, and cannot plan ahead.Rainwatch was developed to alleviate such limitations, and improve the way rainfall data is collected, managed and disseminated throughout West Africa. The system consists of a database and a program that customises several functions of ArcGIS and MapObjects software. The database is linked to a graphics feature, which automatically updates the related charts and graphs as new data are added. The software adaptations make it easy for the user to process and view the data, and prepare it for publication and distribution.When users log on to Rainwatch, they see a map showing the geographic locations of rainfall monitoring stations throughout the country. Users can click on the relevant icon to view the rainfall data for a particular station, then choose to compare the figures for a particular period of time against the median or with other years or even with the results from other stations. The user can then use the program to produce a variety of graphics to illustrate the data.The number of sites and/or years that can be seen simultaneously is limited only by the amount of information on the database. Users can also request further analyses of the data to show the frequency and intensity of rainfall in certain areas, or view the occurrence of dry spells; information that is especially useful to farmers.The results are, of course, only as good as the data. Rainwatch works best and provides the most accurate analyses when an optimum number of observers regularly contribute data to the system. By simplifying the data management processes, Rainwatch could be the catalyst needed for many countries to improve their rainfall monitoring procedures. The researchers hope the system will be adopted more widely throughout West Africa where other more complicated rainfall data dissemination systems have had limited success.Rainwatch uses self-explanatory symbols and easy-to-understand terminology. When the system was tested, new users quickly became comfortable and could navigate their way through its processes within ten minutes. The test users also found it easy to follow the system's logic, and fully understand and interpret the graphics they produced.Based on feedback from users so far, the research team is developing an updated version of the program. Users suggested including a feature that would trigger an early warning system once rainfall, or lack of it, reached a certain threshold. Users also wanted to be able to export data to spreadsheets easily for further analysis. The upgraded Rainwatch will also include other climatic variables, such as temperature, streamflow, and soil moisture -which are linked to activities like irrigation scheduling.Another important change will be to make Rainwatch compatible with free GIS software. This will make it available to users who cannot afford the product licence for the ArcGIS program, something that has been required up to now. A lower cost version of the system would make it possible to train more observers and equip observation stations throughout the region, which could act as local weather information centres. Providing more localised services could lead to farmers having a greater awareness of rainfall data, and a higher likelihood of being able to use the information. With all these improvements, the researchers hope that Rainwatch will become the African counterpart to Australia's Rainman rainfall monitoring software.There are already plans to expand the use of Rainwatch beyond Niger. Starting in 2010, the long-term plan is to develop it into a web-based application that would be available to anyone with internet access. It could then be used alongside other climate information initiatives, using radio or cell phones, for example, to deliver weather details to people in rural communities.The researchers believe that Rainwatch can especially benefit national meteorological services by improving the automation of rainfall data collection and database management. The ability to produce easily interpreted charts and graphics increases the likelihood that the information is distributed to more people. These are critical features in reducing the time lag between collecting the data and delivering it to farmers, and providing it in a format to help them adapt to a changing climate. ◀ DIDIer berGouNhoux / PhotoNoNStoP /ANP Rainwatch's easy-todevelop charts and graphs make rainfall data analysis simple. extension worker, and then discuss the issues raised in the broadcast. If they still have questions, they can fill in an evaluation form and send it to the nearest NAIS district office. The district office passes the form to the provincial office, where it is finally sent to the main country office. There, a NAIS radio producer assesses the questions, and contacts relevant specialists in agricultural research institutes and government ministries. Based on their feedback, the producer prepares a response for broadcast in a subsequent radio programme.The whole process can take up to two months. The farmers who asked the question have to wait all that time before they get an answer. In an effort to speed up the process, the department started to look at alternative methods of delivering the information. 'We looked at the technology currently available, and saw an opportunity to give farmers the information they needed in a shorter time, ' said Kahilu, a radio programme producer with the NAIS.Together with the International Institute for Communication and Development, and a local software developer, NAIS developed a system, called SMSize to which farmers can send a question via an SMS from a cell phone. The question arrives directly at a server computer at the central office, where the producer researches the answer and sends back the information to the phone of the querying farmer, in the same language as the original request.'Instead of taking several weeks, the farmers now get the information within a day or two, ' said Kahilu. 'We also still use the questions and concerns raised by the farmers to develop material for the radio programmes which will help other farmers facing similar problems. 'Delivering the information to cell phones helps the people living in areas where even radio reception is poor. Cell phones are now so popular that there will be at least one person in every community who owns a phone. Even ifFarmers in Zambia with climate change questions can now receive quick answers via SMS from a new system developed by the country's National Agricultural Information Services.I n recent years, the Zambia National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) has been receiving an increasing number of questions from farmers concerned about unpredictable weather patterns. Farmers are pointing out that sometimes the rains come earlier than usual, and when they do come, they are so heavy that they ruin the work the farmer has done to prepare the land. Sometimes the opposite is the problem and there is too little rain to water the crops.'The standard advice we gave in past is no longer relevant, ' says Darlington Kahilu, an agricultural information officer with NAIS. 'For example, we used to tell farmers to plant their maize seeds as soon as the first rains came. The rains would usually continue for a few weeks and germinate the seeds. But now there could be a dry spell lasting a month or more, killing the new seedlings. The farmers then have to spend precious time and money replanting. ' NAIS uses a mixture of print and electronic media to provide agricultural information. Radio is especially useful, and many farmers listen to programmes in groups, often with an Darlington Kahilu (dakahilu@yahoo.co.uk) is an agricultural information officer and programme producer with the National Agricultural Information Services in Zambia the network does not cover that particular village, as soon as someone is in an area with reception, they can send an SMS question and receive an answer that they can then share with the rest of the community.The farmers pay the cost of sending an SMS to the system, which is currently slightly more expensive than the normal cost of sending an SMS. However, since a single SMS can only carry 160 text characters, the farmer has to pay for two or three SMSes if the question is longer. The information officers also have the challenge of keeping their replies as short as possible, which can be difficult if a more detailed explanation is necessary. The cost of the replies is covered by the department, and NAIS is looking at ways of reducing the cost of sending requests to the system.NAIS tested SMSize in the northern province of Kasama, and is currently working to expand the project to cover the whole of Zambia. 'We have already started informing farmers around the country, and alerted the provincial offices, to make them aware of the system and how it works, ' said Kahilu.NAIS was especially encouraged by the feedback from the Kasama farmers. 'They told us that they now get a better service delivered in a shorter time, ' said Kahilu. 'One tomato farmer, Mr Kennedy Kanyanta of Ngoli, pointed out that his crop is especially vulnerable to sudden weather changes. The tomatoes could be destroyed if he had to wait for a month to get the right advice. Now he has the information within days, and can take the appropriate action in time to save the crop. ' ◀The information sent to farmers on the SMSize system is also broadcast on the regular agricultural radio programmes.'The standard advice we gave in past is no longer relevant.' Darlington Kahilu, agricultural information officer with NAIS.Evidence from the field is paramount when it comes to understanding the effect climate change has on the biosphere. While the causes and consequences of that change can be hard to grasp, hard facts from the field can help us to understand where and what is affected, and how.To promote the availability of climate data and encourage its analysis, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) a US-based environmental advocacy group, developed the Climate Hot Map, a web-atlas showing climate 'hot spots' .Each hot spot describes a location where higher than average regional temperatures have a negative impact on human activities and the environment. (Persistently higher regional temperatures are an indicator of climate change.)On the Climate Hot Map website, users can select any hot spot to get key facts on how climate change is affecting these places. They can also read about possible mitigation and adaptation measures.Visit the Climate Hot Map at www. climatehotmap.org.The main page opens to show a map of the world with the climate hot spots colour-coded to indicate five categories of environmental features that are affected by a warmer climate: people, freshwater, oceans, ecosystems and temperature.Under each category, listed below the map, users can check a series of boxes to select which aspects they want the map to display. Checking the 'food' box in the people category, for example, will show places on the map where food supply will be affected by a changing climate.You can click on the hot spot placemark on the map to get more details, including an image, a brief description of the location, and details about the three most severe impacts affecting that area. For example, the map displays several locations when the 'food' box is checked, including one in the Western Highveld in South Africa. The text tells us that 'Unless we act now to curb heat-trapping emissions, corn production in the Western Highveld is expected to decline, destabilizing the food supply of millions of people' .The text box provides only a brief summary of the information available, but also includes links with details about how to take action, learn about potential regional solutions to the global warming problem, or access the whole factsheet of the hot spot complete with key facts, details and endnotes.The hot spot information can also be downloaded and explored in Google Earth. Click on the Google link at bottom left corner of the map to download the KML file. Locate the downloaded file on your computer and double click to o view the information in Google Earth. From the program you can drag the KML file from the 'Temporary Places' folder in the frame on the left, and drop it in the 'Places' folder to store the file permanently on your computer.The information on each hot spot is also available from the Climate Hot Map main page, by clicking on the four tabs above the interactive map. The first tab from the left is a list of all the hot spots organised into regional groups. Click on a region listed on the left to show the associated hot spots. Click on one to open its complete factsheet.The second tab is the map itself where you can choose the hot spots by geographical location or type of impacts.The third tab 'See Impacts' gives an overview of the five main impact categories: people, freshwater, oceans, ecosystems and temperatures. Clicking any of the impacts refreshes the page to show the associated information and a link to references. The 'food' section, for example, reveals information on how climate change can reduce agriculturalGeorGe MollerING/NeDerlANDSe FreelANCerS/ANP productivity, lead to increased irrigation and threats from pests, and warns of severe shifts in seasonal rainfall patterns.The site provides further information on the causes of climate change, and has a glossary of climate change terms, both of which can be accessed by clicking the relevant links at the top of any page on the site.The 'Find Solutions' tab gives more details on the mitigation and adaptation measures needed to tackle climate change.The Solutions page is organised into world regions, and gives information on each region, such as what is being done to reduce the effects of climate change. Each regional page provides links to websites of institutions and programmes dedicated to the issue.The Climate Hot Map is one of several tools related to climate change awareness. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security research programme has its own map of climate hot spots (http://goo.gl/KAyDw) -along with a tools, a data portal (http:// goo.gl/uu6KC)and a 'related reading' page (http://goo.gl/7Qo7E).For more details on climate compatible development tools, the Climate Planning website provides an interactive user guide on how to develop sound climate strategies (http://goo.gl/65W1q). ◀Agriculture in many developing countries, where productivity is already low, will be greatly affected by a changing climate. Farmers will have to adapt if they are going to maintain an income and food security for their families and communities. This paper, published by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, looks at a number of technologies that can be used to provide farmers with the information they will need to overcome the main challenges of climate change. The authors, Travis Lybbert and Daniel Sumner, also look at the key research institutes and organisations and consider their role in supporting agriculture in developing countries. ➜ The indications are that very few farmers anywhere on the globe will be unaffected by climate change, but there are likely to be winners as well as losers. The latest predictions for Africa from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for example, show an average temperature increase of more than 3°C by the end of this century across the continent, while rainfall is predicted to increase by 7% in east Africa but decrease by 4% in southern Africa. On top of this, farmers will have to deal with more extreme weather events, like floods and cyclones. Sea level rise adds to the pressure in coastal zones, a key issue for many small island states.Coping with these changes will be a tall order for industrialised farmers with access to capital, insurance, modern technology and the latest scientific advice. For subsistence farmers operating on the margins, it will be an even greater challenge.➜ Communication is going to be critical in helping farmers win this battle, and it is a real advantage that cell phones are now reaching most rural communities in ACP countries. And access to the internet via smartphones is now on the horizon too. This provides communication options that were unthinkable a few years ago. It is not unrealistic to think that farmers, even in remote areas, will have access to modern online communication channels within the next decade or two.The technology, however, is only half the problem. Having reliable, relevant and appropriately tailored information to pass through those channels is also essential. Right now, the web is awash with climate data, research reports, contradictory statements, and a fair amount of deliberate misinformation. Even trained researchers can have difficulty getting to grips with it; for a farmer looking for practical information they can trust, it is even tougher.There are also problems with terminology and translation of key terms into indigenous languages. There is a big job to be done getting the basic concepts across, so farmers have the information they need to respond.Can ICTs be used to help farmers access accurate weather forecasts? ➜ For short-term weather forecasting, SMS services are already available in some countries, and as cell phone use picks up these are likely to spread. SMS is also being used in creative ways as part of cyclone and flood alert systems, helping farmers to get their families and livestock to safety.Longer-term weather forecasting is trickier. Having reliable forecasts for three to six months ahead would transform the picture for farmers. It would make a huge difference in helping them decide what crops to plant, whether a lower-yielding drought-resistant variety would be a better bet than a higher-yielding standard variety, for example. Cell phones would be one of the ideal ways of delivering this information. Unfortunately, the ability to provide this kind of seasonal forecast is some way off.➜ Too often, the answer is that it doesn't. Whether it is climate data or information on new cropping patterns, there is still a massive communication gap in many cases between researchers and the ultimate beneficiaries, farmers. The good news is that many research institutions (and, importantly, their funders) are waking up to this and putting more emphasis on communication.Individual research institutions can only do so much, however, and I am a particular advocate of the role that intermediary organisations can play in bringing together research from different sources, summarising and repackaging it into formats that are more understandable for policy makers, extension workers, farmers and other users, and getting it to them through the appropriate channels.How can online information services collaborate more effectively? ➜ In the climate sector, there are now many excellent websites out there, but this creates problems of its own -one that has been dubbed 'portal proliferation syndrome' . With so many websites, it is hard to know where to start, and a new one seems to pop up each week. Duplication of effort is undoubtedly happening, and users are left scratching their heads.To tackle this, a workshop was held recently in Germany for a range of people working on the subject of climate change. Staff from 21 leading global and regional climate websites got together to discuss how they could collaborate more effectively. A host of ideas emerged, including content sharing arrangements, a joint search facility, and a 'portal of portals' to guide users to the most relevant site. ◀'There is still a massive communication gap between researchers and the ultimate beneficiaries, farmers. ' Geoff Barnard (geoff.barnard@cdkn.org) is head of knowledge management at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (www.cdkn.org)In early October 2011, the Indian government launched a low-cost tablet computer, known as Aakash, in an effort to tackle rural poverty in the country. The device costs around US$50, and runs on the Android 2.2 operating system with a relatively slow 256 megabyte RAM. It has a seven-inch touch-sensitive colour screen, WiFi internet access, two USB ports and a slot for a memory card of up to 32 gigabytes. The battery is expected to last for at least three hours after being fully charged, but can currently only be charged from mains electricity. The developers had hoped to include a solarpower recharging function, but that might only be available in subsequent designs. The software allows word processing, web browsing and video conferencing facilities. Aakash (Hindi for sky), took six years to develop and will initially be available to higher education students who can buy it for half price (US$25).Recognising that many of its customers are farmers, the telecommunications company, Vodafone, has prepared a report looking at the role of cell phones in agriculture. Entitled Connected Agriculture, the report outlines twelve ways in which cell phones could be used to improve the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural value chains.The twelve 'opportunities' include improving mobile financial services, such as payment, micro-insurance and loan systems, and developing platforms to promote the trading, tendering and bartering of agricultural products.Information for farmers, the report says, is crucial for improving production. 'Using mobiles to increase access to expert agricultural information has the advantage of providing real-time support, and could be a more cost-effective way of distributing updates as well as complementing or reinforcing other sources of information that help farmers. 'Improving and building on existing information services that provide news, advice and weather data is one of the suggestions in the report. Increased access to such services through cell phones could, say the authors, generate an additional US$52 billion in agricultural income in 2020.Using cell phones for traceability and improving data availability would also lead to savings from more efficient transport, processing and distribution. A recently commissioned study by MFW4A examined the availability of finance for agriculture in four African countries, Kenya, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. The research analysed the value chains for a variety of commodities, including dairy, fruit, coffee, cocoa and cotton.One of the main findings is that current land tenure systems in many African countries make it difficult for small-scale farmers to invest in their businesses. 'Land reform is essential, ' the research notes, 'to encourage the development of a larger class of \"professional\" farmers willing to invest heavily in farm improvement and expansion with a view to improving The report notes that the expanding range of mobile applications -text messaging, mobile internet and mobile banking -can deliver a multitude of highly relevant services for MSEs. The authors review a number of cases from ACP countries, such as the Digital Early Warning Network, which is helping to fight pests and diseases in Tanzania, and the DrumNet information service in Kenya, which is helping farmers achieve higher sales volumes and incomes through the use of their mobile phones.To be successful, ICTs for private sector development need to factor in both user needs (in terms of what information and other inputs are needed) and possible constraints (for example, literacy rates, aversion to using new tools, scarce electricity and unaffordable user charges and prices). Involving the private sector in the design and provision of training and advisory services can help ensure that the services offered are truly demand-driven.However, the report also stresses that better data, more research and rigorous impact assessments are needed.UNCTAD also makes several policy recommendations, including adopting regulatory frameworks to build confidence in the use of new technologies or new applications, and developing donor guidelines to ensure that the ICT potential is fully reflected in their private sector development strategies. ➜ Download the full report: http://goo.gl/lDA0H weather stations operational in Africa. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says the continent ideally needs 10,000 http://goo.gl/IxIEy million, the number of people in sub-Saharan Africa living in households without access to electricity in 2009 http://goo.gl/74NGL households in Morphil, Senegal will get solar-powered electricity when a rural electrification project is completed in 2013 http://goo.gl/fkdaqThe World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a website to provide governments and health-care workers with guidelines for tackling malnutrition. The e-Library of Evidence for Nutrition Actions (eLENA) collates scientific data, resources and information related to nutrition. The tool is part of WHO's global drive to help countries improve nutrition and ensure their response includes the agriculture, health, social protection and food security sectors.'Several billion people are affected by one or more types of malnutrition, ' said Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Assistant Director-General of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. 'Countries need access to the science and evidence-informed guidance to reduce the needless death and suffering associated with malnutrition. eLENA can greatly improve how countries cope with the terrible health threats posed by malnutrition. ' Although currently only available in English, the site will soon be translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. WHO also have plans to distribute the information on CD. ➜ Visit the eLENA website: www.who.int/elena/enThe Rwanda Natural Resources Authority (RNRA) is using GIS to improve the country's land management systems. 'The promotion of GIS will enable Rwanda to get the optimal information concerning infrastructure and business planning, ' said Didier Sagashya, deputy director general in charge of lands and mapping at RNRA. The Authority has already surveyed more than three million plots of land in the Kigali City and Kirehe districts, with further mapping work continuing throughout the country. As part of the process, RNRA will organise training programmes to develop GIS skills in Rwanda, and raise awareness with the land management project. The RNRA has already held workshops with international partners, including the ITC Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, and Esri, a GIS software developer. Sagashya hopes the project will lead to greater cooperation between the public and private sectors, who will be able to use the data gathered in future developments.IStoCK 585 5719","tokenCount":"8804"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f353afc4c5e4e384f5ceea7816aa3ace","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/rcen/v33n1/v33n1a03.pdf","id":"546580538"},"keywords":["White grubs","Rhizophagous","Larva III","Action threshold","Cauca"],"sieverID":"04e5732f-e737-47da-9c3a-c99b80536520","pagecount":"4","content":"Resumen. Este experimento se planteó para determinar el daño económico en el cultivo de yuca causado por diferentes niveles poblacionales de Phyllophaga menetriesi en el departamento del Cauca. Las unidades experimentales consistieron en una estaca más cuatro densidades del insecto en el tercer instar (uno, tres, cinco y siete chisas) confinadas en contenedores plásticos con 0,028 m 3 de suelo agrícola por tratamiento, en seis repeticiones. Se evaluó el daño a la planta con una escala de valor agronómico de cinco niveles, desde planta ideal hasta irrecuperable (uno, tres, cinco, siete y nueve). Se determinó una sobrevivencia de 70% de las plantas atacadas por una sola chisa pero con detrimento del 53% de su potencial productivo por el consumo de corteza, médula y raíces de la estaca. Tres chisas por planta eliminaron el 50% de las unidades experimentales en 56 días y siete en 24. Igualmente siete larvas por planta eliminaron todas las unidades en 35 días. El umbral de acción resultó inferior a una chisa por planta, por lo que se dedujo que se debe evadir la coincidencia de la siembra con el rizófago; o, actuar al encontrarlo en tres plantas de 50/ha monitoreadas al azar.Palabras clave. Chisas. Rizófago. Larva III. Umbral de acción. Cauca.Los rizófagos como Phyllophaga menetriesi (Blanchard, 1850) (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae) afectan significativamente a una gran diversidad de cultivos tropicales durante la fase de establecimiento. La gravedad de los daños infligidos por esta especie, que es la más grande dentro de los rizófagos de importancia económica, va en directa proporción con el tamaño larval; en su tercer estadio alcanza los 4 cm de longitud. Los últimos estudios en la región (Pardo 2002;Pardo et al. 2003), determinaron en Caldono, Cauca, la mayor diversidad de chisas para el suroccidente de Colombia, listando 44 especies entre las que se destacan elementos de gran importancia económica como P. menetriesi, Phyllophaga spp., Plectris fassli (Moser, 1919), Plectris pavida (Burmeister, 1855), Ceraspis innotata (Blanchard, 1850), Astaena valida (Burmeister, 1855) Anomala inconstans (Burm,1844) y Anomala cincta (Say, 1835); sobresaliendo en capacidad de daño P. menetriesi, por haber encontrado hasta cinco larvas por metro cuadrado en cultivos de yuca y café (obs. pers.).Las estacas de yuca utilizadas para propagar al cultivo son afectadas tanto en su corteza como en su médula, a lo que se suman los reportes de ataque a raíces engrosadas, encontrándose en Panamá de una a tres perforaciones grandes en el 2002 (Melo 2005, obs. pers.) y en los departamentos colombianos de Quindío en el 2003 y Casanare en el 2001, galerías en raíces (Herrera 2005). En general se pueden observar parches de cultivos con plantas enanas, cloróticas o marchitas, inclusive baja emergencia de plantas por efecto de las chisas, siendo una sintomatología también observada en cultivos de ciclo más corto como el maíz o el fríjol, en otras latitudes como Centro América (Villalobos 1995;Aragón et al. 1998;Ayala y Monterroso 1998).Los síntomas en la planta se asocian muy poco con el rizófago, como lo han constatado los autores, debido a que la chisa actúa bajo tierra, por lo que cuando el agricultor reemplaza sus plantas perdidas con nuevos propágulos, logra únicamente continuar la alimentación de la chisa e incrementar las pérdidas originales. Hasta la presente investigación se tenían pocos referentes del umbral de acción contra las chisas, como los reportes de Ayala y Monterroso (1998) para el cultivo de maíz o los de Pardo et al. (2003) para yuca y café, quienes coincidían en que se debe actuar cuando se llega a un nivel de tres larvas por planta. Desconociendo este particular, algunos agricultores pudientes han utilizado toda clase de pesticidas sin resultados alentadores, a costo de su salud y la del ambiente además del elevado valor del pesticida, que en algunos casos puede producir resistencia en la plaga obligando al productor a aumentar las dosis con el consecuente incremento de los problemas antes mencionados (Aragón et al. 2003).En estas circunstancias, el Proyecto de Manejo Integrado de Plagas Subterráneas del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, CIAT, llevó a cabo un experimento con infestación artificial de P. menetriesi, sobre el cultivo de yuca en confinamiento, durante enero y marzo del 2005, en el Departamento del Cauca, Colombia, buscando establecer la población letal y el grado de daño del tercer estado larval.El experimento se llevó a cabo en la Finca Bellavista, ubicada en la Vereda Pescador del Municipio de Caldono, Cauca, a 1.580 m de altitud (2° 49'15,1'' N y 76° 33'45,6'' W). Se experimentó con un cultivo de yuca proveniente de estacas de la variedad SM 707-17 de 20 cm de longitud, obtenidas del tercio medio de plantas madre mantenidas en el banco de germoplasma del CIAT. Las estacas se sembraron verticalmente en baldes de plástico de 40 cm de alto por 30 cm de diámetro, con capacidad para 28.000 cm 3 de suelo agrícola local y con drenaje inferior de 6 cm de diámetro.Se utilizó un diseño experimental de bloques completos aleatorizados (DBCA) donde se probaron cinco tratamientos, siendo estos cero, uno, tres, cinco y siete chisas por unidad experimental. Se conformaron seis bloques de tratamientos. Las larvas de P. menetriesi de tercer estadio inicial, provenientes de la cría en el campus experimental del CIAT, se liberaron conforme a las densidades definidas en los tratamientos, sobre la superficie del sustrato, equidistantes entre sí las plántulas y la pared del balde y reemplazando las chisas que no se introducían después de 10 min, por otras más vigorosas que permanecían desde entonces confinadas.La metodología empleada, si bien confinaba al insecto, trató de replicar las condiciones naturales al ubicar los baldes en zanjas excavadas en uno de los lotes de la finca e introduciéndolos hasta un 95% de su altura, para evitar la influencia de la temperatura y la luz directa del sol sobre las paredes del balde. La superficie interna del sustrato se ubicó a la misma altura que el terreno externo a los baldes.Las larvas se introdujeron al día siguiente de la plantación; y las evaluaciones se iniciaron a los 17 días después de la siembra, tomando datos cada cuatro días, hasta los 60 días que duró el experimento. Las variables registradas fueron: mortalidad de plantas, valor agronómico, tomando en cuenta para ello el vigor del vegetal, desarrollo vegetativo y color de follaje. La escala visual propuesta para la cuantificación de esta última variable consta de cinco niveles (uno, tres, cinco, siete y nueve), donde uno corresponde a una planta ideal y nueve a una irrecuperable; ésta es un ajuste de la escala utilizada para la variable adaptación vegetativa en fitomejoramiento de fríjol (CIAT 1987). Una vez reconocida la muerte de las plantas se extrajo la estaca y se cuantificó el daño externo e interno de la misma, causado por la alimentación del rizófago. Los análisis y las gráficas se hicieron con el paquete informático estadístico INFOSTAT (2005).Daño externo en la estaca de yuca. Una sola larva daña por consumo hasta el 53% de la estaca (corteza y zona cambial), mientras que a partir de tres chisas se llega al 70% de daño externo. Todos los tratamientos resultaron diferentes del testigo absoluto (Tukey P < 0,0001) (Figs. 1 y 2), lo que indicaría que, aún movilizándose la larva en busca de otra estaca fresca para alimentarse, su consumo (daño) comprometería significativamente el potencial de rendimiento de la futura planta pues en su establecimiento carecería del suficiente alimento de reserva para cumplir sus procesos fisiológicos.Daño interno en la estaca de yuca. Con los datos corregidos con la fórmula 1 + x , debido a un coeficiente de variación alto, se encontró que una sola larva (T2) produjo 6,7% de daño interno (barrenado) en la estaca (Figs. 1 y 2); superando el 35% de este daño a partir de cinco chisas por planta (Tukey P ≤ 0,0011). Aunque el daño significativo interno ocurre seguramente por el confinamiento, este resultado y el daño exterior son un claro indicativo de la capacidad de perjuicio de una sola larva por estaca, lo que contradice el estimativo técnico subjetivo de controlar la plaga al encontrar entre tres y cuatro larvas por planta, dado en Ayala y Monterroso (1998) y Pardo et al. (2003).  Valor agronómico de la planta de yuca. Aunque hasta los 20 días el testigo y el tratamiento de una chisa por planta tenían un vigor estadísticamente igual, a partir de los 24 días se presentaron diferencias entre el testigo y las plantas con chisas, hospederos que mostraron una tendencia a deteriorarse en forma directamente proporcional a la densidad de la plaga y al paso del tiempo, llegando incluso a morir la totalidad de las unidades experimentales de los tratamientos con tres y más chisas en menos de dos meses (Fig. 3). La información obtenida coincide con lo advertido en campo por los agricultores y en estudios formales como los de Arguello et al. (1999), quienes mencionan que las poblaciones de chisas rizófagas pueden afectar hasta el 100% de una plantación en siete o 10 días en sitios con altas poblaciones de larvas, como en las zonas de Miraflor (Estelí, Nicaragua), donde se encontraron hasta 50 larvas por metro lineal; observándose este daño cada año.Durante los dos meses del experimento la densidad de una chisa por planta no eliminó al 50% de las unidades experimentales (Fig. 4), pero la pérdida del 30% de éstas en solo 49 días es irreparable, con base en lo expuesto por Bellotti et al. (2002). Cabe destacar que tres chisas/planta, un promedio comúnmente encontrado por los autores en la naturaleza, eliminaron al 50% de las unidades experimentales de yuca en solo 56 días desde la plantación. Observado el vigor de estas plantas y, según lo encontrado por Ortega-Ojeda et al. (2005), si el daño de las chisas se detiene al llegar éstas a prepupa, las plantas sobrevivientes tendrán muy bajo rendimiento de número y peso de raíces comerciales.Lo anterior apoya que se pueden pronosticar niveles de daño radicular a partir de la observación de los síntomas foliares, conforme con lo encontrado en un estudio sobre yuca a campo abierto, por Ortega-Ojeda et al. (2005). Sin embargo, este indicativo deberá detectarse muy tempranamente (dentro del mes de edad del cultivo), para eliminar las chisas del sitio afectado y reemplazar el propágulo, porque según los resultados el umbral de acción estaría por debajo de una chisa por planta. Al ejercer medidas de control en el nivel tres de daño, si bien no se recuperaría el rendimiento original, tampoco se perdería del todo la inversión en semilla; por tanto, a fin de mantener las pérdidas bajo el 5%, se deberían aplicar medidas de control al encontrar tres plantas con chisas, de 50 por hectárea revisadas al azar.Aunque sobreviven el 70% de las plantas de yuca atacadas por una sola chisa, éstas pierden al menos el 53% de su potencial productivo por el consumo del rizófago de corteza, médula y raíces de la estaca, durante la etapa de establecimiento del cultivo. Tres chisas por planta eliminaron el 50% de las unidades experimentales de yuca en solo 56 días; mientras que siete llegaron a este porcentaje en solo 24 días y al 100% de la mortalidad de las plantas en 35 días.El umbral de acción contra las chisas resultó ser inferior a una larva por planta; por tanto, para mantener las pérdidas del cultivo de yuca por debajo el 5% como política empresarial, se deben tomar acciones al encontrar tres plantas con chisas de 50 monitoreadas al azar por hectárea. De todo el estudio se deduce que el mejor control de P. menetriesi se debe hacer evadiendo al tercer instar que es el estado de desarrollo más dañino y, tomando medidas de remediación dentro de los primeros 30 días de edad del cultivo.Figura 3. Efecto de las diferentes densidades de chisas en el valor agronómico (vigor) de la planta de yuca en el tiempo. Vigor uno corresponde a una planta excelente, y nueve a una planta irrecuperable. Se incluye el error estándar (Tukey P ≤ 0,05). Figura 4. Días de consumo vs. mortalidad de plantas de yuca, con cuatro densidades de chisas (línea de corte en el 50% de los seis bloques del experimento) (Tukey P ≤ 0,05).","tokenCount":"2021"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c0dac924faa2dd51d6e4edb5ad6d7ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f57bcaba-7dd2-4992-9b6a-ffac05103d42/retrieve","id":"62833540"},"keywords":["climate security","social media","text mining","sentiment analysis","online issue mapping","digital methods"],"sieverID":"10748a76-4817-4e0d-950e-28f5c47e91c3","pagecount":"8","content":"Despite increasing awareness of the nexus between climate change and human security, especially in fragile contexts, this complex relationship has yet to be reflected in the policy arena. To investigate this potential policy gap, we apply an online issue mapping approach to assess representations of climate security within the public discourse of policymakers on social media, using Kenya as a case study. Considering Twitter as a proxy for public debate, text mining and network analysis techniques were employed to a corpus of almost 50 thousand tweets from selected national-level state actors, aiming to identify the evolution of thematic trends and actor dynamics. Results show a disassociation between climate, socioeconomic insecurities, and conflict in the public communications of national policymakers. These findings can have useful implications for the policy cycle, indicating where policy attention around climate security-related topics has been and what are the entry points for enhancing sensitivity on the issue.Climate security refers to climate-related threats to societies, communities and individuals that encompass risks directly or indirectly caused by climate change, including the potential for conflict. The relationship between climate and conflict has been receiving increased attention in the past decade, as the climate crisis has been shown to impact social and political stability. However, despite heightened awareness regarding potential linkages between climate, peace and security, such connections have yet to be reflected in the policy arena. Policy cycles for climate adaptation and mitigation, as well as national security concerns, often fail to reflect the complex pathways that link the two dimensions (Brzoska 2012).To explore the potential policy gap related to the climate-security nexus, a data-driven method was developed to assess representations of climate security as a topic of governance within the public discourse of state actors, using Kenya as a case study. While the country is characterised as relatively peaceful compared to some of its neighbours, climate variability and extremes have had adverse impacts on agricultural production. Compounded by external shocks that exacerbate existing inequalities, Kenya faces increased risks of resource-related violence (CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security, 2022). Consequently, though climate may not directly impact localized conflict dynamics, its context-specific interactions with socioeconomic and political factors can shape and increase risks of human insecurity and conflict.While extensive research about climate change discourses on social media have been conducted, focusing on various subjects such as issue polarization, disinformation, activism, and climate communication (see Pearce et al 2019 andFalkenberg et al 2022, among many others), this study investigates this study relies on the foundations of Digital Methods (Rogers 2013;Carneiro et al 2022) to explore climate security narratives and dynamics among policy actors. An online issue mapping approach (Rogers et al. 2015) was applied to investigate two main questions: 1) How salient are climate security issues in national policy agendas? 02) How are linkages between climate, socioeconomic risks and insecurities, and conflict represented in the public narratives of policymakers? Insights emerging from this analysis provide a starting point for the development of evidence-based advocacy and engagement strategies so that effective responses to climate change are sensitive to the interlinkages with the human security context in the country.Twitter has been widely recognized as an important venue for institutional communications; news media increasingly rely on the platform as a primary source of official statements and positiontaking. Its potential as a real-time, topic-driven platform enables rapid detection of trends to uncover discourse dynamics (McDonald 2013). Hence, to frame perceptions around the climate-socioeconomic insecurities-conflict nexus at the national policy level in Kenya, Bia Silveira Carneiro, Giuliano Resce, Giosuè Ruscica, Giulia Tucci an analysis of government communications on Twitter was performed. An algorithm was developed to extract all publicly available Tweets from the official accounts of central government bodies, ministries of agriculture, environment, and natural resources, as well as national security bodies (Table 1), from which the presence of a climate security taxonomy was explored. In total, 49,335 Tweets were collected between 2012-09-13 to 2022-05-26.  Carneiro et al (2022), in which topics were matched to AGROVOC1, the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) open-source, multilingual vocabulary. For each topic, the corresponding AGROVOC concept was extracted, and a custom algorithm was developed to detect and classify the related terminology within the text of Tweets. Topics were then assessed through correlation measures to identify any interlinkages.In addition, leveraging on the specific affordance of Twitter that enables direct conversations among users, a network analysis assesses the relationships among policy actors through a mentions network (Williams et al 2015), where accounts are the nodes and their relations are the lines connecting pairs of nodes. This means that accounts are connected if they are mentioned by another, with the weight of the connection calculated from the number of mentions by the same account.Drawing on the mechanisms through which climate stressors may interact with socioeconomic, ecological, and political dimensions identified in Kenya, figure 1 shows their overall distribution, as frequency counts. 'Famine' and 'Aid programmes' are the most regularly mentioned topics, followed by resource availability and access pathway variables 'Ethnic groups' and 'Cattle'. The most present topics for climate variables are 'Risk' and 'Weather hazards' and for conflict variables are 'Crime' and 'Sexual violence'. While the overall distribution of variables uncovers the cumulative prominence of topics, a temporal distribution provides a more nuanced perception of topic prevalence over time.Beyond the presence or absence of a topic, the algorithm also quantified their presence2. Figure 2 presents timelines for the prevalence of climate variables (top) and conflict variables (bottom) in the corpus of tweets. The visualisation indicates not only which topics were in focus, but also when they were of most interest. Among climate variables, 'Drought' presents several major peaks. In 2018 and 2022, they reflect consecutive failed seasons that led the Kenyan government to declare a national disaster in several parts of the country in 20213.The conflict timeline shows higher variability among topics, with 'Armed conflict', 'Dispute', 'Theft', and 'Crime' oscillating between peaks and low prevalence. As noted by DuttaGupta et al (2022), 'Theft' is most likely associated to livestock raiding, a significant problem in the country's rural areas, whereas the increase in 'Disputes' in the last five years points to increased attention to conflict over resources. To further unpack the interlinkages between different topics within the Tweets, a measure of correlation was established to identify when terms are present within the same body of text.A strong positive correlation indicates that the terms consistently occur within the same Tweet, whereas a negative correlation denotes they are occurring in separate Tweets. Figure 3 displays the 10 topics most positively correlated to climate variables (right) and to conflict variables (left). In the case of climate, the strongest associations are to livelihood and food security pathway and resource availability and access pathway variables; conflict is not represented in the table. Conversely, conflict-related content is frequently co-occuring with several climate and socioecological variables, namely 'Desertification', 'Risk', 'Climate change, 'Poaching', 'Environmental degradation', and 'Resource management'.Direct associations between climate and conflict are presented in Figure 4, which features the correlations among the six conflict types described in the impact pathways and climate stressors and socioecological variables. The strongest positive associations (in blue) concern 'Disputes' with 'Erosion', 'Theft' with 'Rain', and 'Violence' with 'Environmental degradation'. However, it is notable that most variables present negative associations (in red), meaning that the connection between climate and conflict is largely absent from the official discourse of Kenyan government actors on Twitter. Lastly, the mentions network in figure 6 presents a visualization of the dynamics between the key state bodies representing climate, agriculture, natural resources and security interests. As the focus of this analysis is on the interaction between national security and climate adaptation and mitigation policy narratives, the network was filetered to display only the connections between the 13 government accounts. The spatialization of nodes was estimated with the force-directed algorithm Fruchterman-Reingold (Fruchterman and Reingold 1991) , which moves nodes further or closer from each other in an attempt to find an equilibrium. The sizes of the nodes and the labels are partitioned by degree centrality, a measure of the number of connections to a particular node, whereas the edges are also weighed by the number of times a pair of nodes is connected. The graph points to the strongest connections between the ministries and central government accounts, but to weaker or non-reciprocal linkages between ministries from the different areas.Content analysis and network analysis techniques enable identification of trends in political agendas and actors over time. The machine-driven approach employed to explore the salience of climate security in the Twitter communications of Kenyan policy actors found that the pathways that link climate stressors, socioeconomic risks, and conflict are not well represented in the narratives of government bodies. While Tweets that addressed different types of conflict did show some association to ecological threats, most climate and conflict variables were negatively correlated. Further, the weaker or absent connections in the network analysis point to to potential gaps in dialogue.A limitation of our analysis is that social media narratives may not fully capture the complexity of policy cycles in a country like Kenya, where policy actors interact across multiple scales, and this engagement may not be adequately represented in digital platforms. Moreover, the African continent continues to have the lowest Internet access, with Kenya's internet penetration rate at 32.7 percent of the total population at the start of 2023, and Twitter reaching 3.5 percent of the total population4. However, given the continued trend to integrate digital platforms in policy and governance, especially during times of crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic or natural disaster responses, this study contributes towards mapping policymaker perspectives in public discourse. Our findings can have useful policy implications, indicating where policy attention around climate security-related topics has been, as well as what are the gaps and entry points for enhancing sensitivity on the issue, facilitating the integration of the climate security debate into Kenya's formal policy arena. ","tokenCount":"1642"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f4f74ccdbe42d35726d6ff3d324ab9f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/15bd2b29-8bd0-48f7-b46b-56e34b66eec9/content","id":"-86771630"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d0f61ee-fbfb-4928-b179-f42c840a77e8","pagecount":"22","content":"Fonctionnement d'un moteur à combustion interne Objectif général : A la fin de ce cours l'apprenant doit être capable d'expliquer le fonctionnement d'un moteur à combustion interne Objectifs spécifiques : ❑ Définir les quatre phases de fonctionnement d'un moteur à combustion interne ; ❑ De citer les organes composants d'un moteur à combustion interne. Consigne : Lisez attentivement le document mis à votre disposition et exécutez les tâches proposées. Texte : Euloge un élève en 1 ère année de Mécanique Automobile du Lycée technique de pobè pousse sa curiosité à comprendre le fonctionnement d'un moteur à combustion interne, un cours qui sera déroulé la séance prochaine par son professeur de spécialité. Au cours de ces recherches il découvre ce qui suit : « Le moteur est l'organe principal et central de la voiture. Il produit l'énergie nécessaire à son fonctionnement. Il fonctionne en quatre étapes, on dit qu'il s'agit d'un moteur à quatre temps. Dans le moteur sont creusés des cylindres et à l'intérieur de chaque cylindre se trouve un piston. Chaque cylindre est fermé au-dessus par une culasse dotée de deux ouvertures, dont l'une est fermée par une soupape d'admission, et l'autre par une soupape d'échappement. Les pistons descendent, aspirant du carburant et de l'air, soit un mélange admis dans les cylindres. En remontant, tout ce mélange est comprimé dans les cylindres, on parle de la compression. Arrivé en fin de course (Point Mort Haut), il se produit une combustion de ce mélange grâce à une étincelle jaillissant d'une bougie. On dit qu'il y a explosion ; cette explosion renvoie alors les pistons vers le bas (Point Mort Bas). Le piston remonte à nouveau pour pousser les gaz d'échappement vers le milieu extérieur au moteur, on parle de l'échappement des gaz. Le cycle recommencera alors à zéro. Chaque piston dans les cylindres est relié à une bielle, une petite pièce métallique qui a pour fonction de convertir le mouvement de va-et-vient du piston en un mouvement de rotation qui est transmis au vilebrequin auquel il est relié. Le vilebrequin à son tour transmet le mouvement de rotation à une unité motrice, ce qui permet de mettre la voiture ou l'équipement en mouvement ». Le document ci-après montre les quatre temps (étapes ou phases) de fonctionnement d'un moteur à combustion interne.V-Étude de la transmission de Unités MotricesPrévoir une évaluation formative écrite ou sommative  A la fin de son séjour, l'apprenant doit être capable de :- A la fin de son séjour, l'apprenant doit être capable de : -Intervenir de façon efficace sur les systèmes de direction, freinage et de relevage hydraulique","tokenCount":"431"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"949dd95f5f47c2f2d7aed135fd144587","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/616a61da-5ca7-4fab-9437-60a1c62009f6/retrieve","id":"1486285789"},"keywords":["agriculture management","tillage","fungal community","diversity indices","climate smart agricultural practices","soil organic carbon"],"sieverID":"ea988990-e80b-4f8e-8120-28b7f0fb9920","pagecount":"15","content":"Sharma PC ( ) Climate-smart agricultural practices influence the fungal communities and soil properties under major agri-food systems.Rice-wheat (RW) system is the dominant cropping system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, spreading over a 13.5 M ha area (Gupta and Seth, 2007). In this system, farmers follow conventional agricultural practices, such as repeated tillage, open field residue burning, indiscreet use of fertilizers, and irrigation waters, which lead to soil health deterioration, groundwater depletion, and environmental pollution (Jat et al., 2021a). In the 21st century, climate change with extreme weather events is likely to be the most serious issue being faced by mankind as per the IPCC predictions (IPCC, 2022). To adapt to extreme events and to manage natural resources, climate-smart agriculture (CSA)-based management practices on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA) (zero tillage, residue retention, and crop rotation) and mitigation co-benefits may prove an excellent option for conventional agriculture to maintain the sustainability of soil and cropping system. In CSA practices, the conventional management practices switch over to resource-conserving management practices by layering with zero/no-tillage, residue retention/incorporation, crop diversification, precise irrigation water, and nutrient management practices to sustain soil and farm productivity and environmental quality (Choudhary et al., 2020). In CSA, residues are managed through retention or incorporation, which are burnt by the farmers under conventional management practices. Crop residues provide an ambient environment for soil fungi, but their density and diversity depend upon the type of residue served. Different types of crop rotations provide different types of root exudates, which influence microbial community compositions (Huang et al., 2014;Jiang et al., 2016). Crop rotation and tillage practices disturb soils and influence the distribution of microbes in the soil layer (Orrù et al., 2021). Fungi play a great role in agricultural practices in nutrient cycling, transformation, and availability.Soil is the base of all civilizations and mankind, therefore, its functions and structure, directly and indirectly, influence food security. Soil functions are governed by climatic, edaphic, and anthropogenic activities. Soil properties and composition of the soil microbiota are directly interrelated with each other (Wakelin et al., 2008;Bender et al., 2016). Soil microbial communities are essential to biogeochemical cycles, and especially fungi play an important role in the biodegradation of organic matter (Rineau et al., 2012;Qiu et al., 2018). They dominate the microbial biomass in soil habitats (Joergensen and Wichern, 2008) and contribute to nutrient cycling (Stromberger, 2005). Soils have dynamic environments and the microorganisms that live in these soil habitats respond to the changing soil conditions. It has been found that more genera and species of fungi exist in the soil than in any other environment (Nagmani et al., 2006). Fungi are the primary decomposers in soils and secrete various enzymes, such as cellulases, laccases, and xylanases that break down lignocelluloses into simple sugars (Maza et al., 2014;Choudhary et al., 2016). A comprehensive understanding of the fungal community in agricultural soils provides the path to study their roles in the soil ecosystem. The relationship between the biodiversity of soil fungi and ecosystem function is an important issue, particularly in the concern of global climate change and human alteration of ecosystem processes. Fungi play an important role in soil formation, structure, and fertility by contributing to the nutrient cycle and maintenance of the ecosystem (Stromberger, 2005;Hoorman, 2011). Agricultural practices that impact soil conditions can significantly alter soil microbial community composition (Choudhary et al., 2018a,b). The differences in microbial community composition are mainly been attributed to differences in the soil properties (physical and chemical), which are linked to agricultural management practices (IPCC, 2022). Some studies reported the effects of different tillage practices on soil chemical and physical properties and microbial activities, and they reported better soil properties under zero tillage (ZT) and residue retention practices (Choudhary et al., 2018c,d). Agricultural management practices have an impact on different parameters of soil. Under CA practices, better soil physical properties such as lower bulk density (Li et al., 2019), enhanced saturated hydraulic conductivity (Patra et al., 2019), higher infiltration rate (Jat et al., 2018), and increased water-stable aggregates (Bhattacharyya et al., 2012;Jat et al., 2019a) were reported than conventional management practices in cereal-based systems. Increased nutrient availability (Zahid et al., 2020), soil organic carbon (Bera et al., 2017), and nitrogen (Bhattacharyya et al., 2018) were favored under notillage/ZT and residue management-based practices. In the western Indo-Gangetic Plains, higher soil biological properties and soil health were reported with CA-based management practices (Choudhary et al., 2018c,d;Sharma et al., 2021).In any agriculture system, different soil processes depend on microbial community compositions. The diverse nature of fungal communities makes them an important factor for sustainable agriculture in the changing scenarios of climate change (Yadav et al., 2020). The impact of different agricultural management regimes on fungal community composition gained rising interest, although up to date, only a few studies were dedicated to determining the effects of tillage, fertilization, and crop rotation on microbial diversity in cereal systems (Sharma-Poudyal et al., 2017;Choudhary et al., 2018b;Piazza et al., 2019). To date, some studies have applied next-generation sequencing techniques in South Asia to investigate the influence of different tillage regimes and types of crop residue management on soil fungal communities (Choudhary et al., 2018a,b). Our study focused on the changes in the fungal communities under the layering of different management practices, such as soil tillage (conventional vs. zero tillage), residue management (without residue vs. residue retention), crop rotation (ricewheat vs. maize-wheat), and irrigation (border vs. subsurface drip). The ultimate objective was to identify the impact of layering of management practices on the composition of soil fungal communities.A 9-year (2009-2018) long-term production scale fixed plot experiment was conducted at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (29.42 • N latitude, 76.57 • E longitude, and at an elevation of 243 m.a.s.l.), Karnal, India. The soil of the experimental field is silty loam in texture and falls under the Typic Natrustalf category (Soil Survey Division Staff, 1993). The experiment included six cerealbased scenarios varied with residue, tillage, crop, irrigation, and nutrient supply (Figure 1). The treatments are described as scenarios because they are varied in multiple indicators, namely, tillage, crop establishment, residue management, irrigation management, system intensification, etc. Initially, the experiment started with four scenarios, and later on, in 2016, two more scenarios (ScV and ScVI) were added (Choudhary et al., 2020;Jat et al., 2021b) with minor changes in ScIII and ScIV, and only irrigation management was precise (subsurface drip irrigation was used instead of border irrigation). The details of all the scenarios along with their management practices are presented in Table 1. Scenario III and ScIV were based on the principles of CA practices, so they were described as partial CSA. However, in ScV and ScVI, in addition to ScIII and ScIV, irrigation water and N were precisely managed using subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) and called full CSA. Scenarios were structured in a randomized complete block design and replicated three times. In ScI (farmers' practice or business as usual), both rice and wheat were established with conventional practice. Rice was planted by manual transplanting with 25-30 days old seedlings in puddled fields and wheat was planted by manual broadcasting in tilled soil under ScI. In ScII, manual transplanting for rice in a random geometry (20 × 15 cm) was done. In other scenarios (zero tillage (ZT) conditions), all the crops (rice, wheat, and mungbean) were planted with a row spacing of 22.5 cm using Happy Seeder with an inclined plate seed metering mechanism. However, maize was seeded by Happy Seeder at a row spacing of 67.5 cm. In the farmers' practice (ScI), all the crop residues of rice and wheat were removed from the ground level. However, in other scenarios, it was managed as per the details presented in Table 1. The total amount of crop residue in different scenarios ranged from 100.5 to 119.25 Mg ha −1 in 9 years of study (Table 1). Maize-based scenario received the highest (∼119 Mg ha −1 ) amount of crop residue, while the rice was based on the range of 100-105 Mg ha −1 . The NPK dose (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash) was given as per the recommendation of CCS Haryana Agricultural University for all the crops. In the subsurface drip-irrigated scenario (ScV and ScVI), 80% of the total N as urea (minus N added through DAP and NPK complex) was applied through irrigation (fertigation). In rice, maize, and wheat, irrigation was applied based on soil moisture potential (SMP) using a tensiometer.The soil samples were collected from all six scenarios (three from each scenario) at 0-15 cm soil depth after harvesting of wheat crop in May 2018. The soil surface was cleaned by removing crop residues and samples were taken randomly aseptically using an auger. Collected soil samples (18 samples) were sieved with 2 mm mesh to eliminate large soil aggregates and plant roots. Samples were divided into three parts, one part was immediately transferred to the laboratory, stored at −20 • C until DNA was extracted, and the second part is stored in the refrigerator at 4 • C for further analysis of biological properties. The third part was airdried, ground, and stored in glass containers for chemical and physical analysis.From the soil samples, DNA was extracted by MO BIO's PowerSoil R DNA Isolation Kit as per the instructions of the manufacturer. The quantity and quality of DNA were measured by Nanodrop spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) and agarose gel electrophoresis, respectively. ITS1 and ITS2 sequencing libraries were constructed by a two-step PCRbased workflow. For round one PCR, using a template of 10-100 ng metagenomic DNA, ITS1 and ITS2 regions were amplified using region-specific proprietary primers developed at Genotypic Technology Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India. The protocol also includes overhang adapter sequences that were appended to the primer pair sequences for compatibility with Illumina index and sequencing adapters. PCR was carried out for 26 cycles (hotstart 95 • C/3 min, denaturation 95 • C/30 s, annealing 55 • C/30 s, extension 68 • C/1 min, elongation 68 • C/5 min, and infinite hold at 4 • C) using 0.5 µM primers. The resultant amplicons were analyzed on 1.5% agarose gel whereby the desired amplicons were observed to be of sizes ∼350-450 bp for ITS1 and ∼450-500 bp for ITS2. For the second round of PCR, 1 µl of 1:2 diluted round one PCR amplicons were taken and amplified for 10 cycles to add Illumina sequencing barcoded adaptors (Nextera XT v2 Index Kit, Illumina, USA). Second round PCR amplicons (sequencing libraries) were analyzed on 1.5% agarose gel, then purified using Ampure XP magnetic beads (Beckman Coulter, USA), and concentrations were measured using Qubit dsDNA HS assay (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA). The ITS1 and ITS2 amplicons were generated separately by individual PCRs and libraries were constructed off these amplicons individually. The sample libraries were normalized based on the qubit concentrations, then multiplexed on the MiSeq flowcell, and sequenced using a 300PE read length chemistry.The forward and reverse primers (White et al., 1990;Fujita et al., 2001) were as follows:ITS1_Forward TCCGTAGGTGAACCTGCGG. ITS1_Reverse GCTGCGTTCTTCATCGATGC. ITS2_Forward GCATCGATGAAGAACGCAGC. ITS2_Reverse TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC.We have adapted our primer design based on fungal rDNA sequencing literature targeting the conserved regions of 5.8S rDNA and 28S rDNA. ITS1 primers were used to amplify the intervening 5.8S rDNA and the adjacent ITS1 region. ITS2 primers were used to amplify a longer region across the 5.8S rDNA through the intervening ITS2 region and the large 28S subunit.The organic carbon (OC) content of the soils was determined using the wet oxidation method (Walkley and Black, 1934). The available nitrogen (N) in soil was determined by the alkaline permanganate method of Subbiah and Asija (1956), available phosphorus (P) by the ascorbic acid reductant method of Olsen et al. (1954), and available potassium (K) by flame photometer using neutral 1N ammonium acetate extractant as described by Jackson (1973). Mean weight diameter (MWD) and water-stable aggregates (WSA) were determined following the method of Jat et al. (2019b). Soil bulk density (BD) was measured by core sampler method (Blake and Hartge, 1986).At maturity, crops were harvested manually for grain and straw yields according to residue management protocols. Grain yield was expressed as Mg ha −1 at 14, 12, and 14% grain moisture content for rice, wheat, and maize, respectively. Grain yields of maize, rice, wheat, and mungbean were converted to the rice equivalent yield (REY) by using Equation 1.where, MSP, Minimum support price of Govt. of India; INR, Indian Rupee.The Illumina paired-end reads were de-multiplexed using Bc12fastq software v2.20 and FastQ files were generated based on the unique dual barcode sequences. The sequencing quality was assessed using FastQC v0.11.8 software (Andrews, 2010). Raw reads with primer sequence were processed using the Cutadapt tool (Martin, 2011). The adapter sequences were trimmed and bases above Q30 were considered, and lowquality bases were filtered off during read preprocessing and used for downstream analysis. The high-quality R1 and R2 reads were filtered and stitched using Fastq-join (Aronesty, 2013). ITS1 and ITS2 sequences were merged and considered for further analysis using the QIIME pipeline (Caporaso et al., 2010). The query sequences were clustered using the UCLUST (Edgar, 2010) method against the reference UNITE (Abarenkov et al., 2010) database (ver7) with 97% similarity. The reads, which did not hit the reference database, were then clustered using the de novo method where reads are clustered against one another without any external reference sequence collection. Taxonomy was assigned through the BLAST method (Altschul et al., 1990), with an e-value of 0.001. The BIOM file generated was taken ahead for further advanced analysis and visualization. The rarefied biom at a depth of 177,000 for merged ITS sequences/samples was used for the calculation of alpha diversity indices using various metrics. Sequences from all six agricultural management scenarios have been submitted to NCBI with the Bio project: PRJNA563827.Biplot and principal component analysis (PCA) were done with JMP 14.1 software. The results were submitted to PCA to determine the common relationships between fungi classes, soil physical properties, and SOC, N, P, and K contents of the soil. The crop yield data were analyzed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique for a completely randomized block design using SAS 9.1 software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Differences among treatment means were compared using Tukey's HSD test at the 5% probability level.From the 18 soil samples, three of each from six scenarios, a total of 12,468,774 paired-end reads were obtained after processing of sequences, and a total of 5,033,723 sequences were obtained. Fungal diversity was calculated by different indices, such as Shannon's diversity index, Simpson's diversity index, and Chao1. Diversity indices were found to be significantly affected by agricultural management systems, as Shannon's diversity index, Simpson's diversity index, Chao1, and observed  species/OTU were varied in scenarios (Table 2). Shannon diversity index was found to be 1.47 times higher in maizebased scenarios (ScIV and ScVI) as compared to rice-based CSA scenarios (ScIII and ScV). A similar pattern was observed for the Simpson index, as it was 1.12 times higher in maize-based A total of seven fungal phyla were present in all six scenarios. Ascomycota is the dominating phyla followed by Basidiomycota and Zygomycota (Figure 2). A higher abundance of Ascomycota was observed in rice-based CSA scenarios (ScIII and ScV) as compared to maize-based scenarios (ScIV and ScVI). In rice-based scenarios (ScI, ScII, ScIII, and ScV), Ascomycota was followed by Basidiomycota but in maize-based scenarios (ScIV and ScVI), it was followed by Zygomycota. Higher Ascomycota (1.31 times) was found in ScIII than ScII, whereas, Glomeromycota was found 7 times higher in ScII than ScIII and 1.66 times higher in ScIV than ScVI. Chytridiomycota was found non-significantly higher in maizebased scenarios as compared to rice-based scenarios. In all six scenarios, a total of 48 classes were observed. Sordariomycetes, an unidentified class of Ascomycota, and Dothideomycetes are among the dominating classes (Table 3). The highest abundance was observed for Sordariomycetes (25.45-43.47%), except for ScV in which an unidentified class of Ascomycota (39.30%) was found in the highest abundance. The abundance of Sordariomycetes was found at par among all the scenarios. The relative abundance of the unidentified class of Ascomycota was found to be 7.8 times higher in CSA-based rice systems compared with maize systems. Although the difference in class Agaricomycetes was non-significant among scenarios, it was two times higher in maize-based scenarios (7.72%) as compared to rice-based scenarios (3.83%). The abundance of Mortierellomycotina_cls_Incertae_sedis class of Zygomycota was recorded 8.4 times higher in maize-based scenarios than in rice-based scenarios. Ascomycota unidentified class was respectively higher in ScIII (2.72 times) than that in ScII and 1.42 times higher in ScV than ScIII. Pezizomycetes class was 6.84 times, Glomeromycetes was 6.97 times, Saccharomycetes was 3.75 times, and Blastocladiomycetes was 8.5 times higher in ScII than that in ScIII. At the level of order, Hypocreales was the dominating order followed by Pleosporales, Pezizales, and Sordariales (Supplementary Table 1).Differences among the scenarios were recorded for soil chemical and physical parameters. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and available nitrogen (N) were 1.43 and 1.34 times higher in CSA-based scenarios (ScII, ScIII, ScIV, ScV, and ScVI) compared with farmers' practice (ScI). Available phosphorus and potassium were found to be 1.65 and 1.60 times higher, respectively, in the soil of CSA-based scenarios than that in the CT scenario/farmers' practice. All four SOC (5.7 ± 0.01 g kg −1 ), N (119.01 ± 0.58 kg ha −1 ), P (16.1 ± kg ha −1 ), and K (137 ± kg ha −1 ) were lowest with farmers' practice (ScI). Bulk density was observed highest in ScI (1.58) followed by ScII (1.52) (Table 4). It was lower in rice-based CSA scenarios (1.36) as compared to maize-based scenarios (1.445). The highest mean weight diameter was found in ScIII (2.95 mm) and ScV (2.70 mm) and the lowest was observed in ScI (1.45 mm). Waterstable aggregate was non-significant in full/CSA scenarios but significantly higher in ScII (68.3%) and farmers' practice (62.7%) than that in other scenarios.The total residue load in ScI, ScII, ScIII, ScIV, ScV, and ScVI was 105, 101, 119, 101, and 119 Mg ha −1 , respectively. During the year 2018, a higher yield of wheat was recorded with all the CSA-based scenarios (ScIII-ScVI) and ranged from 6.58 to 6.79 Mg ha −1 . The lowest yield was recorded with farmers' practice, that is, 5.88 Mg ha −1 . A similar trend was also observed for the system yield in all the scenarios (Table 4). The higher system yield was recorded with ScVI (16.85 Mg ha −1 ) followed by ScII (16.19 Mg ha −1 ) and ScIV (16.04 Mg ha −1 ). The lowest yield was found with farmers' practice or ScI (13.33 Mg ha −1 ).The results from the principal component analysis provided evidence that the different scenarios were diverse regarding the fungi classes, soil physical properties, and SOC, N, P, and K contents of the soil (Figure 3). According to the factor loadings, the first PC, which explains 48.8% of the total variance, had higher positive correlations with Agaricomycetes, Saccharomycetes, Blastocladiomycetes, and bulk density (BD), and a negative correlation with SOC, N, WSA, and MWD, while the second PC, which explains 16.76% of the total variance, was strongly correlated with Chytridiomycetes, Mortierellomycotina_cls_Incertae_sedis, and Pezizomycotina_cls_Incertae_sedis. The third PC explains 12.6% of the total variance and is correlated with Dothideomycetes (Supplementary Table 2). The PCA biplot in Figure 3 shows both PC scores of samples and the loadings of variables.Significant correlations were observed among the fungi classes, soil physical properties, and SOC, N, P, and K contents of soil irrespective of scenarios (Table 5). An unidentified class of fungi was significantly negatively correlated to Pezizomycetes, Chytridiomycetes, and Pezizomycotina_cls_Incertae_sedis. Dothideomycetes was significantly negatively correlated to WSA and MWD. Agaricomycetes was significantly positively correlated to Pezizomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and Blastocladiomycetes, and negatively correlated to the available N content of the soil. Eurotiomycetes was significantly positively correlated to Pezizomycetes, Tremellomycetes, and  WSA was significantly positively correlated to MWD and C and K contents. MWD was positively correlated to the C and K contents of the soil. BD was significantly negatively correlated to C, N, P, and K contents of the soil. Soil carbon was positively correlated to the N, P, and K contents of the soil. The available N was significantly positively correlated with available P and K content of the soil. The available P was significantly positively correlated to the available K content of the soil.Conservation agriculture-based practices showed higher Shannon and Simpson diversity indices in maize-based scenarios as compared to rice-based scenarios due to the inclusion of maize in the crop rotation system. Although sampling of soil was done in all scenarios after harvesting the common crop among them (wheat), the residue and root system of the previous crop can impact soil properties. Fungal diversity is directly or indirectly affected by plant and soil properties (Yang et al., 2017). Maize has a different root system than rice (tap root instead of fibrous root system); the amount and composition of root exudates vary with crops/plants, which can influence the microbial diversity of soil (Sasse et al., 2018). Moreover, the quantity and quality of residue also play a critical role in the microbial properties of soil (Moore et al., 2000). Maize residue provides higher amounts of lignocellulosic material, which can harbor more types of residue-decomposing fungi, hence showing higher fungal diversity than rice-based CA practices. Similar results were reported in our previous study (Choudhary et al., 2018b) based on 5 years of continuous CA-based practices. This combination of residue retention and incorporation in one calendar year may be the reason for the highest diversity indices in this scenario II instead of only crop residue retention in a similar cropping system. Through the tillage practices, crop residues mix well in the soil and alter the microclimate and distribution of nutrients, which resulted in higher fungal diversity under partial CA practice than that in other practices where only crop residues were retained.Ascomycota, found as a dominating phylum in all management scenarios, is well known as one of the most abundant fungal phyla of soils globally (Choudhary et al., 2018a,b;Egidi et al., 2019;Maguire et al., 2020). Ascomycota is the largest phylum of fungi and is ubiquitous in soil (Money, 2016;Egidi et al., 2019). Most Ascomycota members are saprophytic and the main decomposers of plant residue in the soil, hence they dominate the fungal community composition in soils. In our study, a higher abundance of Ascomycota was observed in rice-based CA scenarios as compared to maizebased scenarios due to the difference between residues. Since soil samples were taken after the harvesting of the wheat crop (common crop in all scenarios) and by that time ample duration (5 months for maize and rice residue) has been received by the residue to decompose. Initially, the residue decomposes fast due to the presence of water-soluble compounds in the residues, which are easily decomposable (Diochon et al., 2016), but in later stages, decomposition of more recalcitrant compounds such as lignin and cellulose takes place. The composition of residue and decomposition, which varies with crop type, are the main factors in harboring different types of microbial communities. This might also lead to the high abundance of Basidiomycota in rice-based scenarios and Zygomycota in maize-based scenarios. The type of crop, size, and type of residue and tillage practices vary in different management systems leading to variation in soil moisture also. Chytridiomycota are reported in aquatic ecosystems as well as in terrestrial ecosystems (Gleason et al., 2004), but in our study, these were found in different management systems and favored in maize-based scenarios. Not only residue type and decomposition duration but also variation in moisture played an important role in deciding the abundance of different groups of fungi (Miura et al., 2015). Sordariomycetes and Eurotiomycetes were among the dominating classes in all the scenarios, which were previously reported in soils of conservation agricultural practices (Wang et al., 2016;Choudhary et al., 2018b). Sordariomycetes is one of the largest classes of Ascomycota, which includes pathogens, endophytes, and saprobes. Members of the Sordariomycetes are ubiquitous and cosmopolitan. Saprobic Sordariomycetes have the potential to produce cellulolytic enzymes, and its member Chaetomium is a well-known cellulolytic organism responsible for the destruction of paper and fabrics (Zhang et al., 2006). Members of Sordariomycetes class play an important role in the decomposition and nutrient cycling of plant residues. Dothideomycetes also represents one of the largest and dominant classes of the phylum Ascomycota, which is mostly found as endophytes or saprobes (Kirk et al., 2008). Members of this class can cause disease in almost every crop plant including maize and rice (Goodwin, 2013). Members of this class are also known to degrade cellulose and other complex carbohydrates of dead or partially digested plant organic matter (Hyde et al., 2013). One unidentified class of Ascomycota is also among the most dominating classes found in scenarios. Although its identification is not known to class level, these unidentified and unknown fungal groups may be important to community compositions. Many of these previously unknown groups are later found as major components of communities of interest (Rosling et al., 2011). The abundance of some classes found to be high in maize-based scenarios can be correlated with the difference in crop type, root system, and residue depending on plant species, and biochemical characteristics of plant materials differ considerably (Xu et al., 2006). The effect of tillage practices on the abundance of fungi was observed at both phyla and class levels. Some phyla and classes were found higher in ZT, which indicates that the hyphal network in CT practices got disturbed due to intensive tillage practices, which resulted in limited growth. Whereas, the abundance of some phyla/classes was reported higher in CT than ZT, which might be due to the higher growth rate of broken mycelia of these phyla/classes under CT than that in other management practices. Wang et al. (2017)  of fungal communities with more stable communities under ZT conditions. Irrigation management and soil moisture had a great impact on fungal communities in arid and semi-arid areas where water availability is limited (Vargas-Gastélum et al., 2015;Deng et al., 2022). But in our study, irrigation was given to all the scenarios based on the tensiometer to maintain the soil moisture as per crop requirement to minimize the effect of irrigation management on fungal community composition. Crop residue retention enriches soils with a significant amount of nutrients (Jat et al., 2018(Jat et al., , 2019b;;Lohan et al., 2018). It is a major reason behind high SOC, N, P, and K contents in residue retention scenarios. Moreover, under zero tillage practices, the decomposition of residue also does not disturb due to the non-disturbance of soil. Residue not only harbors different types of microfauna but also provides nutrients to them, which in turn release different types of enzymes such as phosphatase, glucosidase, dehydrogenase, etc., responsible for the conversion of unavailable to the available forms of nutrients (Maguire et al., 2020). The activity of different enzymes is reported to be more in CA/CSA-based practices and have a higher soil quality index over farmers' practices (Choudhary et al., 2018c,d). CA practices not only improve nutrient availability but also improve overall soil quality (Jat et al., 2021a). It was observed by many researchers that tillage and residue had a positive effect on bulk density (Gathala et al., 2011). In farmers' practice, the residue is either burnt or removed, which resulted in more compactness in soils. Lower BD in the rice-based system as compared to maize-based CA scenarios might be due to higher conversion of crop residue carbon to SOC leading to good soil structure as evidenced through higher WSA and MWD (Mandal et al., 2007).The results clearly showed the differential benefits of CSAbased management practices in both rice-and maize-based systems. The highest wheat and systems yield (rice equivalent yield basis) were recorded with all CSA-based scenarios. Tillage and cropping systems, crop residue management, soil type, and climate control the magnitude at which SOC affects crop yields (Blanco-Canqui et al., 2013). About 0.1% increase in SOC concentration enhanced wheat yield by 0.04 Mg ha −1 at 0 kg N ha −1 (Blanco-Canqui et al., 2012). A direct relationship between SOM stocks and crop productivity was observed by Oldfield et al. (2018) through variables for soils and amendments. In a global meta-analysis, zero tillage (ZT) when combined with residue retention and crop rotation can produce equivalent or greater yields than conventional tillage, by minimizing its negative impacts. Higher system productivity in CSA-based scenarios might be due to the integration of mungbean (Gathala et al., 2013), less terminal heat effects on the wheat crop (Gathala et al., 2013;Sharma et al., 2015), higher carbon mineralization (Kirk et al., 2008;Datta et al., 2019) with better nutrient availability (Sasse et al., 2018), and improved soil biological properties (Olsen et al., 1954;Choudhary et al., 2018b,d).Some classes are negatively correlated while some are positively correlated with each other, and it is due to the ecological relationship between them, which may influence each other's position in the community. The groups, which have similar modes of nutrition, compete for the same biochemical fraction of the crop residues, and this might show a negative correlation. Biochemical qualities of residue are the main drivers in the composition of fungal communities. Specific function during the decomposition of residue linked to specific taxa (Rezgui et al., 2021). In residue decomposition, the end product of one class/group may be acted as food for another group. In such a situation, these may be positively correlated as they do not have competition for food. Due to the preferences of microbes for specific residue compounds, organic matter decomposition and transformation under different agricultural managements influence the abundances of the specific microbial taxa (Zheng et al., 2022). Different type of residue management over the years strongly influences the soil's microbial, chemical, and physical properties. In this 9-year-old experiment, the residue is accumulated over the years in all CSA scenarios, and according to Fontaine et al. (2011), the soil microbes can decompose old recalcitrant soil organic matter by using fresh carbon as a source of energy, which can lead to a different type of distribution of soil fungal taxa in these scenarios. A significant positive correlation between SOC and MWD and WSA was due to good soil structure rendered by higher SOC in CAbased scenarios. Higher MWD and WSA were found under crop residue retention scenarios in cereal systems (Jat et al., 2019a). There is a strong link between microbial communities and SOC (Zheng et al., 2022), which is influenced by the different tillage and crop establishment practices. ZT improved C fractions over CT and these C pools can directly impact the activities of microbes in soils (Rakesh et al., 2021). Soil properties and soil fungal communities also showed different types and magnitudes of relationships because of robust associations between them (Yang et al., 2017). Both the diversity and composition of the fungi community directly correlated with the soil properties and indirectly correlated with management practices (Li and Zhang, 2022).Agricultural practices in isolation do not prove good for soil and crop sustainability in cereal systems. Crop management practices, such as tillage, residue management, nutrient, water management, and crop diversification have a strong influence on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil. Therefore, the combination of different management practices led to differences in fungal community composition and soil chemical properties under climate-smart agriculture (CSA) systems. Maize-based scenarios are more diverse in terms of fungal communities than rice-based CSA scenarios. Rice-based scenarios with CSA practices showed a more abundance of Ascomycota phyla over the maize-based CSA scenarios. Ascomycota is followed by Basidiomycota in rice-based scenarios and Zygomycota in maize-based scenarios.CSA-based scenarios improved the soil chemical properties (organic carbon, nitrogen, and potassium) across the different cereal-based CSA scenarios compared with other scenarios (CT and partial CSA). Soil physical properties such as bulk density, mean weight diameter, and water-stable aggregate were also improved under CSA scenarios. Improved soil properties under CSA-based practices resulted in improved crop and system yield. Results indicate that the bundling/layering of smart agricultural practices not only influences the soil properties but also played an important role in deciding the microbial community composition.","tokenCount":"5345"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25f014053f7e0bc5296b540cd9bfbac0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/562c4ac2-d57e-408c-9057-1f25f71f46a1/retrieve","id":"609138130"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5100e95c-a3c3-4d72-82f8-2ef6cd6adcc6","pagecount":"5","content":"AKADEMIYA 014 Maize Grain Price trends in food surplus and defi cit areas of Zambia under the COVID-19 PandemicMaize is Zambia's main staple and it is most consumed and produced food at national level. Maize accounts for over 70% of food availability and meets 60% human consumption requirements (FEWS Net, 2017). It is signifi cant to note that Zambia has over the years been a surplus producer of maize (at both national and regional level). Eastern and Central Provinces are the main producers of maize, whilst the major defi cit areas include the urban (highly populated), high-consumption centres of Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces. The majority of maize producers in Zambia are small-scale farmers under rain-fed conditions. Within Zambia, both formal and informal market networks of maize grain trade coexist; however, they have separate well-defi ned market chains albeit well integrated (FEWS Net, 2017).The subsequent analysis in this bulletin examines the maize grain price trends (for the period of January, 2019 to June, 2020) for surplus and defi cit provinces, as highlighted. The goal is to help determine whether the maize grain prices within Zambia were infl uenced by the eff ects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and in which way.The pandemic is likely to be more disruptive to local food markets and thus have more serious eff ects on the poorest and most vulnerable groups and communities than any of the crises in recent years. This is because the poor and vulnerable are aff ected by changes in local food staple prices signifi cantly more than other population groups, not only because of more limited purchasing power but also because of diff erences in consumption baskets. Moreover, domestic markets for local food staples such as yam, cassava, white maize, cowpeas, millet or sorghum tend to behave diff erently during times of crisis than global markets for major commodities such as rice, wheat or yellow maize. For instance, the last global food price crisis had much more signifi cant impacts on the latter group of food commodities. Local food staples markets tend to be rather segmented from global food markets. Staple food prices therefore tend to be isolated from global market shocks. The diff erence with Covid is that the disruption of food supply chains has hit both domestic and global food markets rather badly.The global nature and complex ramifi cations of the pandemic make it impossible to avoid the pain from rising food prices, in particular among vulnerable groups. Diff erent staples weigh diff erently in local diets. Diff erent communities are aff ected diff erently by changes in prices of diff erent staples. Some markets are more connected than others and therefore price changes for the same staple food vary across geography and over time. Consequently, a good understanding of how local staples markets behave and close tracking of changes in food prices at community level have to be key elements of any strategy to protect livelihoods. AKADEMIYA2063 scientists and their partners are working to ensure that governments and other national stakeholders have suffi cient information to plan and respond to the eff ects of the pandemic on local markets.   Maize grain marketing system, trade flows and pricing in Zambia are much more complex when compared to the other staples due to the high consumption rate of maize across the country. Further complications on the marketing system emanate from the high level of government interventions on maize markets. Maize prices in the country can vary due to the fact that in as much as maize is the main staple, there are other competing staples i.e. cassava, wheat and rice. Cassava is the second highest consumed staple food, with high consumption in the northern and western parts of the country but low consumption in the central, eastern and southern parts of the country. This implies that maize and cassava can be substitutes in some parts of the country i.e. Northern and North Western Provinces. However, as earlier mentioned, some parts of the country have preference of one over the other; the \"cassava belt\"-Northern Province prefer cassava and the \"maize belt\"-Central, Eastern and Southern Provinces prefer maize (Tembo et al., 2010).Figure 1 presents the average maize prices in both surplus provinces and the deficit provinces; the average maize prices in the deficit provinces were slightly higher (averaging ZMW65/Kg) than those in the surplus provinces (averaging ZMW59/Kg) over the study (January 2019 -June 2020). However, while prices steadily increased throughout 2019, they dropped significantly after February 2020 in both surplus and deficit areas. This decrease of prices from February and March 2020 indicates the influence of COVID-19 related market restraints and interventions which resulted in reduced demand for maize. The drop in prices was more pronounced in the surplus provinces than in the deficit provinces. In general, maize trade flows in the country are from the surplus provinces (Central and Eastern Province) to the urban highly-populated centres of Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces as well as abroad into neighbouring countries (FEWS Net, 2017). It is likely that the restrictions on movements led to more excess supply of maize in surplus areas than in deficit areas leading to a reduction in prices.In Zambia, the marketing of maize is dominated by the main value chain actors -producers, traders, millers, the government (Food Reserve Agency), and consumers. The largest purchaser of maize grain is the Food Reserve Agency (FRA), followed by private sector actors (such as NWK Agri services, AFGRI Corporation, Zdenakie, CHC Commodities; other large traders such as Aliboo, Shifa and Kavulamungu; medium-scale traders, and a myriad of informal small-scale traders (also referred to as aggregators). The fact that all of these players were faced with restrictions on their activities during the Covid-19 period led to disruptions of on both the demand and supply side of the maize market.Eastern and Central Provinces possess fertile soils suitable for production of major crops including maize, with rainfall ranging between 800 -1000mm (Chapoto et al., 2018). Over time, there has been constant expansion in the area under maize production, which has in turn led to an increase in maize surpluses. High levels of production in Eastern province result in equally high maize availability, leading to comparatively lower prices of maize than in the Central Province (as depicted in Figure 2).The main maize marketing period in Zambia lasts from May to November (the peak between June and August). Notably, the prices in both provinces steadily increased throughout 2019 due to the fact that the country was experiencing increasing consumer price inflation (averaging 9.8% in 2019); roughly 3% higher than the previous two years (Zambia Central Bank, 2020). The upward trends in process stopped abruptly after March 2020, when the prices markedly fell to ZMW56/Kg and ZMW49/Kg in Central and Eastern Provinces, from ZMW100/Kg and ZMW92/Kg, respectively. This is also the time when the first Covid-19 cases were reported in Zambia. On the 17th of March, the Government of Zambia shut down all educational institutions and thereafter put in place restrictions on travels. The restriction of Lusaka and Copperbelt Provinces are the largest maize consumption centres in Zambia; they also exhibit low areas of maize production due to high population densities. As noted from Figure 3  ). The restrictions on people's movement dampened the demand for maize, hence the drop in prices after February 2020. The prices continued their downward trends in both provinces.Figure 4 compares the price changes in 2020 with prices changes in 2019 over the same period of six months from January to June in order to confirm whether the observed changes in 2020 were unique and different from usual patterns. The analysis focuses on the same categories of markets (surplus and deficit areas) for ease of comparison. The expectation under normal circumstances is that there should not be conspicuous differences between month-to-month price differences in 2020 and month-to-month price differences in 2019. However, with on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prices spiked in both provinces , implying that the prices were significantly higher in March 2020 than those observed in March 2019. The same phenomenon was observed in June. Prices fell drastically in both April and May 2020, due to the market closures and movement restrictions despite the commencement of the harvesting season, much in line with the earlier finding of falling prices in surplus area markets.Maize prices in 2020 have shown significant decline when compared to 2019 from the months of March to June. Comparatively, Lusaka recorded stronger negative price changes as compared to Copperbelt and showed more volatility in prices than its counterpart especially from March to June 2020. Again, a combination of the onset of harvesting season and reduced demand due to Covid-19 restrictions led to the observed price decline in 2020.The travel restrictions imposed by the Government of Zambia in March 2020 had a bearing on constraining maize grain trade flows within and outside the country. The restrictions depressed the demand for maize in and outside the country hence the notable decrease in prices during this aforementioned period.The travel restrictions and closure of public markets by the Government may have affected the business of small aggregators mainly located in rural communities. The massive price fall after March 2020 in both the surplus and deficit provinces may also imply that small aggregators were in a worse off position.To limit impacts from similar pandemics in future, the Government should consider enacting the policies that would enhance trade (enforcing personal protective equipment regulations) rather than imposing a full lock down (closure of markets), which The Expertise We Need. The Africa We Want.adversely affects food supply and prices. Thereafter government should engage in consultation with market players and neighbouring countries to allow trans-border trade flows. This would decrease the oversupply of maize in the local markets and also stabilise the local prices of maize.","tokenCount":"1629"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eddf858ec6a6e377b11df216e8cc8fc5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9120c62d-f0e2-47ec-83b4-758602f041eb/retrieve","id":"349402821"},"keywords":["heat-tolerant maize hybrid","willingness to pay","contingent valuation","preference heterogeneity","Nepal"],"sieverID":"c08e2869-ae6e-47e2-98f7-aa6abba1c704","pagecount":"18","content":"High atmospheric temperatures can reduce maize production in different parts of Asia. Heat stress is the major driving force behind the need for varietal development that confers a heat tolerance trait (drought + heat tolerant) to maize hybrids. CIMMYT has developed heat-tolerant maize hybrids and deployed them in the market in collaboration with NARS partners. This study was conducted to estimate farmers' willingness to pay for heat-tolerant maize hybrids in the Terai region of Nepal. A socioeconomic survey of 404 randomly selected maize-growing households was conducted to estimate farmers' willingness to pay using the contingent valuation method. Given the economic importance of heat-tolerant maize hybrids in maize cultivation, the survey showed that the average WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids was 71% more than that for the current varieties in the market, including overall seed sources and subsidized seed. Without a subsidy, the farmers' WTP price was at a 19% premium compared to the average price paid for conventional hybrids. Factors such as education, owning land, the interaction of hybrid adopters and owning land, soil depth, the number of goats/sheep, and the semi-pucca homes of households influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Heterogeneous demand was observed with respect to years of hybrid maize cultivation, farmers' association with the network group, and the gender of the head of the household. In the context of climate change and global warming scenarios, Nepal's agriculture policy should prioritize increasing domestic seed production and the distribution of heat-tolerant maize hybrids through a public-private partnership model.Population and industrial growth are the major drivers behind the global demand for rice, wheat, and maize-the world's major food staples. The world's population grew at a rate of 1.05% in 2020, with the current average increase estimated at 81 million people per year. An additional 1.2 billion people will need food by the year 2037 [1]. Optimal climatic conditions and packages of practices determine productivity in agriculture. However, climate change poses a major challenge to increasing productivity and sustaining livelihoods in the face of erratic weather patterns and scarcity of irrigation water. Drought, heat stress, and long dry periods are currently the leading causes of yield losses in South Asia, reducing crop yields by 15-20% on average in rainfed agriculture [2]. Climate-changeinduced heat and water stresses are projected to drastically reduce the yields of staple crops in the region by 9-19% in maize, 44-49% in wheat, and 14% in rice [3]. While drought negatively affects all stages of crop growth and development, the reproductive stage, particularly between tassel emergence and early grain filling, is most sensitive to drought stress [4]. A study [5] hinted that in sub-Saharan Africa a 2 • C increase in temperature would result in a greater yield loss than a 20% decrease in precipitation. Warming across South Asian countries during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has resulted in more frequent temperature extremes [6][7][8]. Heatwave frequency has increased since the mid-twentieth century in large parts of Asia [8]. The extent of heat-stressed areas in South Asia is projected to increase by up to 12% by 2030 and by 21% by 2050 with respect to the baseline [9]. Climate-smart technologies such as heat-tolerant hybrids (heat, drought, and heat + drought) are the best option to minimize the impacts of abiotic stresses.In the 2008-2009 drought in Nepal, power outages lasted 16 h per day in Kathmandu, increasing yield losses in wheat and barley, leading to food insecurity for two million people [10]. Climate change studies conducted in the twentieth century projected that there would be water stress in most of South Asia by the year 2050 [11][12][13]. The average temperature is predicted to rise significantly by 0.5 • C to 2.0 • C by 2030 [14], by 1.3 • C to 3.8 • C by 2060, and by 1.8 • C to 5.8 • C by 2090 [15]. High temperatures during critical stages of crop growth, long dry spells, and high precipitation pose a risk of increased food insecurity in marginal maize-growing areas. Past experience has shown that the use of new varieties alongside improved management practices can offset yield losses by up to 40% [16]. Developing a maize germplasm with drought and heat tolerance is seen as the right step toward risk mitigation in hotter and drier production environments. The drought tolerance trait in maize has global value, without which no farmer can afford it [17,18], given the climate change scenario. The current rate of water use is not sustainable if the world is to support 9 billion people or more in 2050 [19].The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), together with its national partners, has developed climate-smart technologies such as drought-and heat-tolerant maize hybrids (Rampur Hybrid-10 (RH-10) and Rampur Hybrid-8 (RH-8)) to minimize the effects of climate change. The adoption of these improved hybrids is governed by farmers' willingness to pay for their traits. The best way to assess the effective demand for drought-and heat-tolerant traits is to quantify the implicit price of the desired traits. This study was designed to estimate the farmers' WTP for such traits and facilitate the scaling of drought-and heat-tolerant maize technology in the Terai region of Nepal.Nepal is a topographically diverse country, with mountains covering 35%, hills covering 42%, and the Terai region covering 23% of its total area. Given the country's extreme topography, only 21% of its total land area is suitable for agriculture. Of the total agricultural land, 29.7% is irrigated [20]. Nepal's principal economic activity is agriculture, which contributed 30.7% of its GDP in 2019-2020. Maize is the second most important cereal crop grown for food, feed, and fodder [21], which showed an increase in production of 0.279 million tons and a 0.37% increase in area (3492 ha) in 2019-2020 compared to the 2017-2018 production of 2.56 million tons from a 0.95-million-hectare area [22]. In the 2020/2021 fiscal year area, production, and productivity were estimated to have increased by 0.21%, 3.22%, and 3%, respectively, compared to 2019/2020 [23]. Maize provides livelihoods (income and employment) to around 1.5 million people [24]. The per capita maize consumption in Nepal was 98 g/person/day [25]. Demand for the crop has grown by about 5% per year over the last few decades [26]. About 16.42% of the maize is grown in the Terai and inner Terai regions [27]. The crop contributes 25.4% of the total edible production in the country [28]. Nonetheless, 51.8% and 25.2% of households in the country are food insecure and under the poverty line, respectively [29].Of the total area under maize in Nepal, summer maize contributes 73.9%, spring maize contributes 14.2%, and winter maize contributes 11.9% [23]. Around 88% of the maize area (summer-and spring-grown) is susceptible to heat stress at both the vegetative and reproductive stages, particularly during pollination and grain setting. Yield losses of up to 75% have been reported due to heat stress [30], depending on crop stage, severity, and duration of stress [31]. High temperatures above 38 • C at the time of silking and anthesis have led to leaf firing and tassel blast, which led to poor pollination and barren ears, resulting in yield loss.Shallow tube wells are the major source of irrigation in Banke district. Most farmers with shallow tube wells used 0.5 hp motors to irrigate their maize fields, making it a time-consuming process. Decreasing water levels in the summer season are a major cause of unequal water distribution and insufficient irrigation.According to an estimate, only 12-15% of the maize area in Nepal is under hybrid cultivation, and 85-88% is under open-pollinated varieties (OPV)s [32], a major cause of low productivity. The demand for feed has been increasing at the rate of 11% per year [33]. The demand for poultry feed is estimated to be 391,538 metric tons, with 75% of this amount fulfilled through imports. Over a 20-year period (1994/1995 to 2014/2015), the country's livestock population increased by 0.73 to 1.23% annually [34].Considering maize's diverse uses, demand for it will keep growing. To meet the internal demand, Nepal imported 0.4 million tons, valued at USD 115.94 million, in 2019-2020. Since Nepal's national hybrid seed system is in the early stages of development, the country relies heavily on imported hybrid maize seeds, whose demand expanded from 20 tons in 2008 [35] to 27,754 tons in 2019-2020 [22]. These imports created a trade deficit of USD 9.7 million from the maize seed sector alone.Open-pollinated varieties have some limitations in terms of yield potential. Their yields cannot be increased beyond a point, even with high inputs. On the contrary, a hybrid can give 25-30% higher grain yield compared to OPVs [23]. However, the limited choice of hybrids, poor access to improved seeds of released or registered hybrids developed by the national system, and the high seed price of imported hybrid seeds could be some reasons for the low adoption of hybrid seeds. Research in hybrid maize in Nepal started in 1987 to increase production and productivity. Since then, the country has released 29 OPVs and 10 hybrids (years in parentheses): Gaurav (2003), Rampur Hybrid-2 (2012), Khumal Hybrid-2 (2014), Rampur Hybrid-4 (2016), Rampur Hybrid-6 (2016), Rampur Hybrid-8 (2018), Rampur Hybrid-10 (2018), Rampur Hybrid-12, Rampur Hybrid-14, and Rampur Hybrid-16 (2022). Of these, Rampur Hybrid-8, Rampur Hybrid-10, and Rampur Hybrid-12 are heat-tolerant single-cross hybrids developed under the HTMA/CIMMYT project funded by USAID. Along with these, multinational companies developed 53 hybrids registered for marketing in the country [23].This study is based on primary household surveys conducted in the Banke and Dang districts in the Terai region of Nepal in August 2021. Face-to-face interviews with household heads were conducted, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire that was designed using an electronic software (Kobo collect toolbox, v2021. 2.4) to minimize data entry errors and survey time. The districts were selected purposively on the basis of the deployment of Rampur Hybrid-10 by seed companies in the maize super zone, large maize areas under cultivation, and spring maize areas and the potential for the adoption of a heat-tolerant maize hybrid in Nepal. The location of the study districts is shown in Figure 1. The total area under maize in Dang district was 26,250 ha, with 75,081 tons of production, whereas the corresponding figures for Banke district were 9336 ha and 25,913 tons in 2019-2020 [22].1 The total population of both surveyed districts was 1,043,896 (Dang: 552,583 [36] and Banke: 491,313) [36], as per the 2011 census of Nepal. The sample size (n) of 400 was estimated using the formula by Yamane [37], as shown in Equation (1).where N = total population and n = sample size.As RH-10 is a recently released hybrid, the seed was distributed through the super zone for maize and co-operative societies. A list of adopters was collected from the super zone and co-operative societies to select adopters. A list of maize farmers was collected from rural municipalities to randomly select non-adopter farmers. Based on the deployment of seed in the super zone for maize, Rapti, Gadawa, and Rajpur rural municipalities and Lamahi municipality were purposively selected from Dang district, and Khajura and Duduwa rural municipalities were selected from Banke district. In total, 25 villages were selected: 6, 5, 1, and 4 from Rapti, Gadawa, Rajpur, and Lamahi municipalities, respectively, and 1 and 8 from Duduwa and Khajura municipalities, respectively. From each village, 16-18 farmers (8-9 adopters and 8-9 non-adopters) were randomly selected from the list. Of the total surveyed households, 192 farmers had adopted the heat-tolerant maize hybrid Rampur Hybrid-10 and 212 were growers of conventional maize varieties. Among the farmers, 357 were adopters of the maize hybrid and 47 were growers of OPVs or local varieties. Finally, a pool of 404 households (258 in Dang and 146 in Banke) was randomly selected for the survey to ascertain farmers' WTP for Rampur Hybrid-10, which is a heat-tolerant maize hybrid.The contingent valuation method originally developed in environmental and natural resource economics was employed to elicit farmers' demand for heat-tolerant maize hybrids [38]. The WTP can be estimated either using open-ended questions, such as asking respondents the maximum amount they are willing to pay, or through closed-ended questions, such as if they would be willing to pay a specific amount (dichotomous choice). This study used the dichotomous choice (DC) approach, which is generally superior to an open-ended format, as it confronts respondents with a more market-like situation [39]. In the single-bound model, farmers can provide a \"yes\" or \"no\" response to the initial bid offered for the technology. This approach is incentive-compatible; it is in the strategic interest of respondents to say \"yes\" if their WTP is greater than or equal to the price asked and \"no\" otherwise [38]. Utility maximization implies that respondents will only answer \"yes\" to the offered bid if their maximum WTP is greater than the bid. However, the single-bounded model requires a large sample and is statistically inefficient [40]. Greater efficiency is achieved in the double-bound model by offering respondents a second bid that is higher or lower, depending on the first response. This method incorporates more information about an individual's WTP and therefore provides more efficient estimates and tighter confidence intervals [40]. The double-bounded model is easy to administer, and the model can be estimated with standard econometric software, so we used a double-bounded model in our study.In the DC approach, the consumer is presented with two consecutive bids, and the second bid depends on the response to the first. If the consumer answers \"yes\" to the first bid (B i ), the second bid (B i u ) is set higher, but if the individual responds \"no\" to the first bid, the second bid (B i d ) is set lower. There are four possible outcomes: \"yes\" to the first bid followed by a \"yes\" to the second bid (with a probability denoted by P yy ); \"yes\" followed by \"no\" (P yn ); \"no\" followed by \"yes\" (P ny ); and two consecutive \"no\" answers (P nn ). The price bids varied randomly across the questionnaire, ranging from Nepalese rupee (NPR) 300/kg to NPR 700/kg based on the seed prices of different brands and seed subsidies provided by the Nepalese government. The format of the WTP questionnaire is given in Appendix A. To obtain information on a wide range of values, different bid amounts were randomly assigned between respondents (i). Combining the probabilities of the four outcomes, the log-likelihood function for this model for a sample of n consumers takes the form:where B i is the initial bid; B u is the follow-up bid; B d is the lower bid; and di YY , di YN , di NN , and di NY are binary variables, with 1 denoting the occurrence of that particular outcome and 0 otherwise. The parameter σ is the standard error of the regression, which captures the randomness in the bid function. The estimation coefficient (β) can be directly interpreted as the marginal effect of the variable x on WTP. The mean WTP was obtained by evaluating the estimated coefficient at the variables' mean values.A multilocation evaluation trial (MLT) of Rampur Hybrid-10 on a 10 m 2 plot with other hybrid cultivars as checks was conducted by CIMMYT to compare their performance in the 2017-2018 spring season (Table 1). The potential grain yields per plot of all the hybrids were recorded and converted to tons/ha at a standard moisture of 12.5%. The trials were conducted under high input and stressful environmental (spring season) conditions. The minimum yield was 4.52 t/ha in Bittipara, and the maximum was 8.25 t/ha in Nepalgunj I. In Bittipara, the performance of Rampur Hybrid-10 was significantly superior to that of commercial check 1 and on par with those of the other checks. In Sherpur, Rampur Hybrid-10 performed significantly better than the regional check, commercial check 1, and commercial check 2 and on par with commercial check 3. In Nepalgunj I and II, Rampur Hybrid-10 s performance was superior to those of the regional check and commercial check 1 and on par with those of the other checks. Among the trials in the six locations, Rampur Hybrid-10 s performance was superior to the regional or commercial checks in four locations and on par with them in two locations in the spring season. High temperatures/heat waves coinciding with the flowering/reproductive stage adversely affected pollen viability and stigma receptivity, leading to abnormal fertilization and resulting in poor grain setting. Given that uncertain climatic conditions and the probability of long dry spells and high temperatures/heat are higher in rainfed agriculture, the adoption of a heat-tolerant hybrid is a strategic way to minimize yield losses that occur due to heat stress. The socioeconomic profile of the sampled households is presented in Table 2. Of the surveyed households, 92% were male-headed. The average age of the household heads was 50.53 years. Most of the respondents (58.42%) were aged between 41 and 60 years, followed by 21.29% being less than 40 years old and 20.23% being more than 61 years old. Significant differences were observed among adopters and non-adopters of the heattolerant hybrid. The education status of the household head was found to be at a secondary level. Adivasi/Janajati respondents constituted 58% of the sample households, whereas 30% of them were Brahmin/Chhatri. About 86% of the households were members of social networks such as agricultural co-operative societies and self-help groups, which allowed them direct access to schemes/programs implemented by the Nepal government to promote cutting-edge technology. The average size of the owned land was 0.92 ha. About 73.27% of the households had land holdings that were below 1 ha, 19.55% had land holdings between 1.01 ha and 2 ha, 4.95% had land holdings between 2.1 ha and 4 ha, and only 2.23% had had land holdings of more than 4.1 ha. The per capita land holding size was only 0.15 ha. Of their own land, 0.27 ha was allocated to maize cultivation. Given the open border between India and Nepal, farmers in adjoining districts have been cultivating hybrid maize since 1980. On average, farmers have been cultivating hybrid maize for the last 3.5 years in the study locations. The mass adoption of hybrid maize varieties began 5-6 years ago in Dang district and in the last 2-3 years in Bankej district. Significant differences were observed among adopters and non-adopters of heat-tolerant hybrids in terms of the distances to input dealers and extension offices. The Nepalese government has been promoting different schemes to promote the swift adoption of hybrid maize. Agriculture remains the major source of occupation, providing employment to 77.48% of the households in the study location. Low land size and over-dependency on agriculture has led to outmigration. Of the surveyed households, 207 members (0.51%) had outmigrated from 158 households (39%). Of the total number that had migrated, 51.21% had migrated within Nepal, 32.85% had migrated to other countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, etc.), and 15.94% were taking part in seasonal migration to India. The major reported reasons for migration included low per capita land holding, the non-availability of employment in the village, and greater possible earnings outside Nepal than within the country, among other factors. Off-farm income was calculated by taking into account salary, business, machinery earnings, migration, and other sources and was estimated to be NPR 254,740/year. Income from remittance was not considered to calculate off-farm income. A buffalo and 4-5 sheep/goats were held by each household. The average soil depth in an adopter farmer's maize plot was 32.41 cm, significantly different from that in a non-adopter's plot (30.75 cm). About 59% of the households grew maize in the spring season, whereas 36% grew it in the winter season, indicating their clear preference for spring season cultivation. As a result of income received from remittances and migration income, 70% of the households had pucca houses on their own farm and 18% had semi-pucca houses, of which 23% of households adopted a new hybrid while 14% grew conventional maize varieties.The detailed cost of maize cultivation by farmers is given in Table 3. The average paidout cost was NPR 38,170/ha; adopter households had a significantly (at the 5% level) lower paid-out cost of NPR 36,060/ha than the non-adopters, with NPR 40,090/ha. The significant difference in paid-out cost was because of the seed cost. A detailed breakdown of the cost of cultivating maize is given in the Supplementary Materials (Table S1). The average seed rate used by farmers was 22.59 kg, which cost around NPR 7350/ha. Adopter farmers reported an average seed cost of NPR 5370 of Rampur Hybrid-10, which was significantly lower (at the 1% level), by NPR 3790, than that reported by non-adopters, with a seed cost of NPR 9150/ha. Hybrid seed is subsidized by 50% if purchased from the government's Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) maize super zone, whereas there is no subsidy if purchased from dealers. Rampur Hybrid-10 is produced and marketed by private seed companies in Nepal, and other conventional maize hybrids are imported from neighboring countries such as India, which includes the cost of transportation, import taxes, and storage charges, which increase the seed cost. In-country (Nepal) hybrid seed production, which reduces over-dependency on other countries and boosts the local seed industry, has been one of the major achievements of the HTMA project funded by USAID. Agricultural universities recommend fertilizer application for maize at 180:60:60 NPK/ha, which requires them to apply 340 kg of urea/ha, 130 kg of DAP/ha and 67 kg of potash/ha. Farmers, on the other hand, used very little fertilizer, which could be one of the reasons for low productivity. There is a scope for the use of optimal fertilizer doses to increase productivity per unit area. Very few farmers use micronutrients or weedicides. The total cost, including family labor, was estimated to be NPR 77,390/ha. Most of the farm work was being performed by family members, as the average family size was 6.86 members. Hence, expenses for hired labor were very low. A study in 2022 [35] estimated that the total variable cost of hybrid maize adopters was NPR 74,299/ha, which is similar to our findings. Households that adopted Rampur Hybrid-10 reported an additional yield of 0.36 tons/ha and an additional net income of NPR 13,720/ha compared to conventional maize growers. Studies revealed that stress-tolerant varieties provide higher and stable yields during dry spells and serve as a risk management strategy in the absence of institutional insurance mechanisms [42][43][44]. The initial bids offered to the surveyed farmers are given in Table 4. The bids ranged from NPR 300 to NPR 700 in NPR 50 intervals. Bids were decided following discussions with dealers and distributors and were based on the current prices of hybrids in the country's market. Of the surveyed farmers, 357 grew hybrid maize varieties and 47 farmers grew OPVs. Overall, 61% of the farmers were willing to adopt heat-tolerant maize hybrids at the given seed prices. While 65% of the adopters of maize hybrids were willing to adopt heat-tolerant maize hybrids, only 28% of the non-adopters (farmers growing OPVs) were willing to adopt heat-tolerant hybrids. Moreover, adopters of hybrid maize were willing to pay a greater price for heat-tolerant hybrids compared to non-adopters. It was observed that as the bid price increased, the willingness to adopt heat-tolerant hybrids decreased, indicating that the bid prices mentioned in the study suited the hybrid seed market in Nepal. Pearson's chi2 statistic for the association between the adoption of hybrid maize and the willingness (yes = 1) to adopt heat-tolerant hybrids was 24.25, which was statistically significant at p < 0.01.We estimated two WTP models. Model 1 consisted of socioeconomic characteristics, while model 2 included the interaction of hybrid adopters with their own land (log) and the interaction of household membership in a group with hybrid adopters (Table 5). The results from the two models were fairly consistent with respect to significance, except for hybrid adopters and interactions. It was observed that increasing the education level by one year played a positive role in influencing WTP for a heat-tolerant maize hybrid compared to illiterate farmers. In Kenya, Kimunji and Groote [45] observed that people with secondary schooling showed a significantly higher WTP for genetically modified food than those with either less or more education. In model 1, hybrid maize adopters were willing to pay a significantly higher price for heat-tolerant hybrids compared to those who grew OPVs. This was because hybrid adopters knew the comparative yield advantage of hybrids over OPVs and were therefore willing to pay a premium price for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Model 2 showed that increasing owned land played a vital role in influencing the WTP for heat-tolerant hybrids. Farm size and education were shown to significantly influence the WTP for Bt eggplant in India [46]. The owned land/farm size results were similar to those in earlier studies showing that farm size is an important determinant of the adoption of the latest technologies in developing countries [47][48][49]. The interaction of hybrid adopters and owned land was significant but negatively influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant hybrids. This is clearly explained in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows the prediction of WTP for heat-tolerant hybrids among hybrid adopters and OPV farmers. If OPV farmers adopt heat-tolerant hybrids, their WTP increases with increasing land holdings, whereas the WTP of hybrid adopters is similar irrespective of land holding. This indicates that in order to promote heat-tolerant maize hybrids, extension agents should focus on OPV farmers rather than hybrid adopters. The interaction of member groups and hybrid adopters showed a positive association that did not significantly influence WTP.Livestock rearing is complementary to agriculture. Farmers feed maize grain as a concentrate to sheep/goats to increase their weight and obtain a better price. Farmers consider sheep/goats to be a liquid asset that can be sold in any emergency. The availability of stable feed and fodder in a stressful environment is made possible by the adoption of a heat-tolerant maize hybrid. A farmer with sheep/goats was significantly more willing to pay an additional price for a heat-tolerant variety compared to a farmer with no sheep/goats. Soil depth indicates the quality of soil and fertility. Farmers with plots with good soil depth/quality were willing to pay more for Rampur Hybrid-10 compared to maize growers with poor soil quality. Male farmers were mostly the decision makers on the type of variety to be grown (local/improved/hybrid) and the price to pay for it. The exposure of male farmers to extension sources was greater compared to women. As a result, more male workers in households were willing to pay a premium price for the heat-tolerant trait than female workers but with no significant difference. With respect to season, farmers growing maize in the spring season were significantly more WTP a premium price for heat-tolerant hybrids compared to those who grew winter-season maize. In the spring season, farmers planted maize after harvesting mustard or potatoes. Increased irrigation sources and facilities enable farmers to grow three crops in a year. Spring-and summer-season maize are more exposed to heat stress, with up to 75% yield losses reported due to heat stress [30]. It is projected that heat-tolerant maize varieties could minimize yield losses from current maize varieties by up to 36% and 93% in 2030 and by up to 33% and 86% in 2050 under rainfed and irrigated conditions, respectively [9]. The type of household positively and significantly influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Farmers living in semipucca homes were ready to pay the premium price compared to farmers in pucca houses. The major source of income of farmers in semi-pucca houses was agriculture, and for those in pucca houses, remittances and off-farm income contributed the major source of income. The mean WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids across land holdings and the type of variety grown is presented in Table 6. The results are based on the prediction from the A farmer with sheep/goats was significantly more willing to pay an additional price for a heat-tolerant variety compared to a farmer with no sheep/goats. Soil depth indicates the quality of soil and fertility. Farmers with plots with good soil depth/quality were willing to pay more for Rampur Hybrid-10 compared to maize growers with poor soil quality. Male farmers were mostly the decision makers on the type of variety to be grown (local/improved/hybrid) and the price to pay for it. The exposure of male farmers to extension sources was greater compared to women. As a result, more male workers in households were willing to pay a premium price for the heat-tolerant trait than female workers but with no significant difference. With respect to season, farmers growing maize in the spring season were significantly more WTP a premium price for heat-tolerant hybrids compared to those who grew winter-season maize. In the spring season, farmers planted maize after harvesting mustard or potatoes. Increased irrigation sources and facilities enable farmers to grow three crops in a year. Spring-and summer-season maize are more exposed to heat stress, with up to 75% yield losses reported due to heat stress [30]. It is projected that heat-tolerant maize varieties could minimize yield losses from current maize varieties by up to 36% and 93% in 2030 and by up to 33% and 86% in 2050 under rainfed and irrigated conditions, respectively [9]. The type of household positively and significantly influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Farmers living in semi-pucca homes were ready to pay the premium price compared to farmers in pucca houses. The major source of income of farmers in semi-pucca houses was agriculture, and for those in pucca houses, remittances and off-farm income contributed the major source of income.The mean WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids across land holdings and the type of variety grown is presented in Table 6. The results are based on the prediction from the WTP interval regression model, as specified in Table 5 (model 2). The result shows that the mean WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids was NPR 557.57/kg (USD 4.72), and this amount is 71.37% more than the current average seed cost of NPR 325.36 (USD 2.77)/kg, considering overall seed sources, including subsidized seed. The average price paid by farmers for maize seed without subsidy was NPR 470.06/kg. This means that without subsidies farmers are WTP an 18.62% premium for heat-tolerant varieties compared to the average seed price paid for another commercial hybrid. These results match those of a study [44] that found that consumer WTP was 13.8% higher than the average price of non-genetically modified (GM) maize meal. They are also in agreement with a study in Zimbabwe that found drought tolerance to be the most preferred trait among smallholder Zimbabwean farmers compared to other traits such as yield, cob size, and flint texture [50]. A study revealed that Ethiopian farmers have been willing to sacrifice 3.1 quintals/0.25 ha yield to have the drought tolerance trait in a variety [51]. The Nepalese government gives a 50% subsidy on national hybrid maize seeds to promote the adoption of heat-tolerant hybrid seeds among farmers. If farmers receive maize hybrid seed from their co-operatives, distributed through the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) and the Smart Krishi village project, they receive a 50% subsidy. The subsidized seed price of Rampur Hybrid-10 is NPR 236.52 (USD 2.00)/kg, whereas the price is NPR 405.15 (USD 3.43)/kg for other conventional hybrids that exist in the market. The seed price of Rampur Hybrid-10 is less because it is produced and marketed by Nepalese seed companies and transportation and storage costs are minimized, whereas the high seed price of a conventional hybrid is because it is imported from India and includes transportation, storage, and marketing costs. The price of Indian hybrid maize seed ranges from NPR 270 (USD 2.27) to NPR 800 (USD 6.77)/kg without the subsidy. Without considering the subsidy, farmers are willing to pay NPR 557.57 (USD 4.72)/kg for Rampur Hybrid-10. Farmers receive a good quality heat-tolerant maize hybrid with a reasonable seed price due to the advantage of seed being produced by local seed companies. In order to obtain good quality seed, farmers in Kenya were willing to pay a 15% premium, on average, for bags purchased directly from the seed company compared to mint condition bags purchased from local retailers [52]. Hybrid maize growers were WTP NPR 574.46/kg for heat-tolerant maize hybrids, whereas OPV farmers' WTP amounted to NPR 429.18/kg; the difference was statistically significant, and hybrid growers were WTP an NPR 144.28/kg premium for heat-tolerant maize hybrid. A significant difference was observed between the WTP among hybrid maize adopters and non-adopters (those growing OPVs/local varieties). As the land holding sizes of hybrid adopters increased, the WTP for heat-tolerant hybrids slightly decreased, whereas as land holding increased, the WTP of non-hybrid adopters increased (Table 6). Therefore, government extension agencies need to focus on promoting heat-tolerant maize hybrids among OPV maize farmers in order to deliver climate-smart agriculture technologies to them.The mean WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids across the years of cultivation and membership in farmers' networks is presented in Table 7. The result is based on the interval regression model in Table 5 (model 2). The results show that the mean WTP for farmers who did not have any experience in maize hybrid cultivation was NPR 429.17/kg. Farmers with 5 years of experience or less were willing to pay NPR 549.34/kg, which was 28% more than what farmers with no experience were willing to pay. Farmers with more than 5 years of experience were willing to pay NPR 595.55/kg, which was 8.41% more than what farmers with 1 to 5 years of maize hybrid cultivation were willing to pay and 38.77% more than what farmers with no experience were willing to pay. It is clear that there was a positive relationship between the WTP and experience in hybrid maize cultivation. Farmers affiliated with any network group were willing to pay 20.90% more than those not affiliated with any farmer group [39]. Farmers who were members of a co-operative society, farmers' club, or both were willing to pay 20.42%, 27.50%, and 29.15% more, respectively, than those not associated with any group. Finally, male-headed households were willing to pay 11.55% more than female-headed households.The demand curves for heat-tolerant maize varieties in relation to years of experience in hybrid maize cultivation is presented in Figure 3, and the demand curves in relation to their membership in farmers' network groups is presented in Figure 4. Overall, all demand curves were elastic. The demand curve with zero years of experience in hybrid maize cultivation and the demand curve of households that were not a member of any group were highly elastic compared to the other groups. Farmers with more years of hybrid maize cultivation had a higher demand for heat-tolerant varieties than those with few years of experience, and as the experience increased, the demand for heat-tolerant varieties increased. Farmers with membership in network groups had a higher demand curve than those who were not members. The Government of Nepal has been promoting activities to increase the adoption of hybrid maize in the Terai region and other regions of Nepal. Liberalizing the hybrid maize seed market in 2011 created an opportunity for regional seed companies to enter the Nepalese market and formally register their hybrids [35]. The results of the differential demand curves could be useful to the private sector in quantifying the potential market for heat-tolerant maize varieties in maize-growing regions. quantifying the potential market for heat-tolerant maize varieties in maize-growing regions.    Temperature is a major environmental factor that determines maize's physiological development and yield. Extremely high and low temperatures coincide with critical stages of crop growth, such as the reproductive stage, with adverse effects on crop yield. The development of heat-tolerant maize varieties is needed to enhance the resilience of maize production under heat-stressed conditions. Global research institutions such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with national research stations such as the National Maize Research Station (NMRP, Nepal), developed heat-tolerant hybrids to address heat stress issues. In this context, the current study assessed smallholder farmers' WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids in the Terai region of Nepal. Our results show that education, owned land, the interaction of hybrid adopters and own land, the number of goats/sheep owned, and households living in semi-pucca homes influenced the WTP for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. Our results demonstrate that farmers' average WTP was 71% higher than the actual price of other conventional maize varieties, including all seed sources.The findings of this study show a heterogeneous demand for heat-tolerant maize varieties with respect to years of experience in hybrid maize cultivation, membership in networks, and the gender of the household head. We found that among farmers with more than 5 years of experience in hybrid maize cultivation, the WTP was 38% more than among farmers with no experience in hybrid maize cultivation or those who have cultivated OPVs and local varieties. This shows that farmers who adopt hybrid maize obtain a greater yield advantage compared to OPVs, which is the reason why they are willing to pay a premium price for heat-tolerant maize hybrids. In-country seed production of Rampur Hybrid-10 further enhanced the overall maize seed ecosystem in the country.Since OPVs cannot fulfil the increasing demand for maize, agriculture extension agencies and seed companies should target farmers growing OPV maize in their promotion of heat-tolerant maize hybrids.Imparting training on cultural practices in hybrid maize cultivation at the village level will speed up adoption.Increasing demand for hybrid maize seed among farmers and a shortage in the supply of domestic hybrid seed provide an opportunity for domestic seed companies to produce hybrid seed that not only increases production and productivity but also reduces import costs. 4.The Nepalese government is promoting the adoption of hybrid and heat-tolerant maize through different distribution and promotional schemes. The government could devise a policy wherein hybrid seed is subsidized only if it is produced by domestic seed companies, or it could give more incentives for locally produced hybrid seed instead of importing hybrid seed. 5.Involving 13 private seed companies in heat-tolerant maize hybrid seed production has been one of the biggest outcomes of the HTMA project and a great example of public-private partnership in the research, development, and deployment of new stress-resilient varieties in partner countries. Continuing the project collaboration with the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) under NARC and with private seed companies with the technical support of CIMMYT for the next five years could achieve excellence in breeding techniques and increase seed production per unit area in Nepal. 6.Strengthening backward and forward linkages for the commercialization of domestic maize hybrids through NMRP, in collaboration with PMAMP and other private partners, will enable domestic companies to invest in hybrid maize seed production for the sustainable development of the maize seed ecosystem. 7.Nepal's good network of co-operative societies can be used as outlets for the distribution of heat-tolerant hybrids directly from seed companies so that they are made available to farmers at a reasonable price.The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/su15043068/s1, Table S1. Break-up of economics of Maize production in Nepal. Institutional Review Board Statement: For all socioeconomic surveys and data collection from family or community representatives, the Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IREC) of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) classified this study as having no risk for human subjects and approved the study. Relevant IREC guidelines and regulations were followed.The front page of each questionnaire carried a section where the person being interviewed indicated her/his informed consent for the interview. Interviewers were trained and required to read the consent statement aloud to each interviewee before the interview could advance. Participants were informed that they were under no obligation to answer any questions and could stop the interview at any time, without giving any reasons, and could ask for any partial data to be removed from the records.Data Availability Statement: Data will be made available on request.","tokenCount":"6634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d47a260dc4c273710677fa66d6cc6f54","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d571288e-433e-4c4f-8bd4-a0130624ca13/retrieve","id":"-352870638"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6260aff2-971b-4ef1-9355-33767aa97efd","pagecount":"36","content":"Our overall assessment of 2015 was positive, but it was a challenging year for the program! In the space of twelve months we saw changes in governance, an external evaluation, an audit review, preparation of documents for Phase II of the CGIAR Research Program and some signifi cant budget adjustments. We made it through with some considerable achievements, thanks to our dedicated scientists, strong partnerships, engaged management team and committed governance group.We are very pleased to report that 2015 brought continued successes in research outputs, documented in the sections which follow, and also, adoption and enhanced outcomes as captured in the dashboard, a new feature in this year's report.We are very satisfi ed with our newly created Independent Steering Committee (ISC), which provided an institutional mechanism for checks-and-balances within the program, with clear and specifi c roles and responsibilities. The ISC comprises nine members, a majority of them are independent; Barbara Wells as the Director General (DG) of the International Potato Center (CIP) as a permanent member, a DG of another participating center on a rotating appointment, presently Bioversity International, a high-level representative of Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), and Graham Thiele the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) Program Director as ex-offi cio member. Chaired by Helen Hambly Odame of University of Guelph, in Canada, the ISC provided us with inspirational leadership in thinking about partnerships, theories of change, gender and risk management. The face-to-face meeting of the RTB ISC in Lima in September 2015 provided a critical sounding board to guide future development. Together with the CIP Board of Trustees, the ISC provided a high level of oversight and support in planning and reporting program activities. ISC was especially attentive to the preparation of our Pre-Proposal for Phase II, which was highly rated by the CGIAR.We are proud of RTB's achievements, refl ected in the 2015 Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) review, which noted that \"in spite of the complexities and challenges of successfully implementing a multi-crop and multi-partner CRP, RTB has made notable progress in the past four years and is already delivering results, in spite of budget cuts. RTB is well-directed and reaching a reasonable number of its near-term milestones and is working towards achieving its goals, particularly those concerning productivity and nutritional improvement\". In the same positive spirit, the Independent Audit Unit (IAU) review, also carried out in 2015, commented: \"RTB has done an impressive job in structuring the CRP to best minimize costs and obtain consensus\".In 2015, however, the program was challenged by two reductions in the overall level of funding. RTB and its partners managed these risks through fl exibly adjusted contractual arrangements with participating centers and compromises in the achievements of originally envisaged deliverables; although, thanks to high level of support from centers and scientists, strong progress was still made.As RTB moves to the end of the current phase, and plans for the next from 2017-2022, we are giving close attention to consolidating innovations and tracking progress in pursuance of alleviating poverty and improving food security.CIP Director General RTB Program DirectorThe CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) was launched in 2012 to harness the untapped potential of banana, plantain, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yam, and other root and tuber crops to improve food security, nutrition and livelihoods. It brings together the expertise and resources of fi ve centers: the International Potato Center (CIP), which leads the program, Bioversity International (Bioversity), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), which represents several other French partners in the research program. They have teamed up to collaborate on common issues aff ecting the RTB crops, mobilize complementary expertise and resources, avoid duplication of eff orts, and create synergies to increase the benefi ts of their research and interventions for smallholder farmers, consumers, and other actors involved in root, tuber and banana value chains.In 2015 RTB began the fi rst year of a two-year extension period for Phase I. This gave time to strengthen and expand the program's network of partners and improve management, whilst retaining organization around seven disciplinary Themes 1 . RTB fi nalized the move to a new program structure, based on fl agship projects (FPs) and clusters of activities (cluster), starting from January 2016. FPs and cluster business cases were laid out by RTB scientist teams, including partners, and were subjected to an intensive external review process in May/June 2015. Detailed feedback from this review, the Independent Evaluation Arrangement review, and donors, as well as broad discussions among the RTB teams, informed the cluster design, their integration into FPs and the new program structure. This laid the groundwork for the submission of the Preproposal for RTB Phase II, which was highly rated by the CGIAR Independent Science and Partnership Council.RTB centers broadened their collaborations to 366 partners, including 91 national agricultural research organizations, 102 academic and advanced research institutions, 28 non-governmental organizations, and 45 private sector companies.In 2015 the program had eight ongoing, internally funded competitive grants, guided by RTB Theme leaders, on discovery research and cross-center and cross-crop technological innovations, as well as four ex-post impact assessment studies. Much of the results of this research is presented in the body of this report.The results-based management (RBM) pilot, which began in 2014, continued with banana Xanthomonas wilt, potato seed, and nextgeneration breeding. The pilot was extended to small-scale cassava processing in 2015 with two workshops in Nigeria, to co-develop an impact pathway and shared monitoring and evaluation. To support RBM, RTB together with the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems developed a planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning information technology platform.RTB's targets, known as Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs), are fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).1 Theme 1: Unlocking the value and use potential of genetic resources; Theme 2: Accelerating the development and selection of cultivars with higher, more stable yield and added value; Theme 3: Managing priority pests and diseases; Theme 4: Making available low-cost, high-quality planting material for farmers; Theme 5: Developing tools for more productive, ecologically robust cropping systems; Theme 6: Promoting post-harvest technologies, value chains, and market opportunities; and Theme 7: Enhancing impact through partnerships.Increased incomes and • 20,000,000 people (50% women) increased their income employment• 30,000 small and medium enterprises operating profi tably in the RTB seed and processing sectors Increased productivity• 8,000,000 farm households increased RTB crop yield through the adoption of improved varieties and sustainable management practices Improved diets for poor and • 10,000,000 people (50% women) have improved their diet quality vulnerable people Enhanced benefi ts from• 1,900,000 ha of current RTB crops production area converted to sustainable ecosystem goods and services cropping systems More sustainably managed agro-ecosystem• Capacity to deal with climate risks and extremes increased for at least 2,000,000 achieved households Equity and inclusion achieved • At least 35% increase in # of female and young benefi ciaries of at least 700,000 households perceived to have better control over assets and resources Enabling environment• Individual capacities improved for at least 9,500 individuals (50% women) in improved research for development partner organizations • Capacity for innovation increased in at least 60 development-focused organizations, including women's networks and alliances • At least 5 partnership and scaling models tested in a minimum of 5 target countries and adjusted to be fi t for purpose National partners and• Regulatory frame works, policies, and national programs in relevant areas under benefi ciaries enabled implementation in at least 20 countries per policy changeWhile moving forward on research to improve the yield and value of roots, tubers and bananas, RTB made signifi cant progress on the crosscutting priority of integrating gender into its research, which will make RTB's work more eff ective and equitable.A concerted eff ort to mainstream gender during the research program's fi rst years has resulted in a growing list of gender-responsive research. For example, six graduate students from gender and development programs at US and Canadian universities worked with RTB scientists in 2015 to integrate gender analysis into their agricultural research, thanks to an RTB-university partnership. The students' contributions ranged from identifying gender-diff erentiated variables that infl uence the adoption of improved banana cultivars in Uganda to studying women's role in cassava pest management in Laos and adapting gender sensitive farmer business schools in Ecuador.Researchers from Bioversity, IITA and national partners developed and implemented a methodology for assessing the roles of gender norms and practices in banana farming and disease management at nine pilot sites in Sub-Saharan Africa, which resulted in gender-responsive guidelines for the management of banana bunchy top disease. CIP researchers developed a gender-responsive manual for participatory varietal selection (PVS) in potato and a PVS training module that was tested in Ethiopia, whereas IITA implemented a gender-responsive PVS methodology for yam with national partners in Ghana and Nigeria.CIP developed a prototype guide to integrating gender into the participatory market chain approach that is being fi eld tested under a joint initiative between RTB and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutes and Markets. CIAT, CIRAD, IITA, Natural Resources Institute and national partners in Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania completed a gender-diff erentiated assessment of consumer preferences for processed cassava products. These and other gender-responsive initiatives under RTB will promote more equitable access to technologies and knowledge being developed.Integrating gender to make crop research more eff ective Crop breeding and the dissemination of improved varieties has been a cornerstone of research for development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for decades, and RTB scientists contributed to research on the impact of this work which is featured in the book Crop Improvement, Adoption, and Impact of Improved Varieties in Food Crops in Sub-Saharan Africa, published in 2015. This ambitious review contains a wealth of information on decades of cassava, yam, potato and sweetpotato improvement in SSA, and it holds lessons for strengthening future eff orts to tap the potential of RTB crops for improving food security, nutrition and livelihoods.The book, which covers the development and distribution of improved varieties of 20 crops in 30 countries, grew out of the 'Diff usion and Impact of Improved Varieties in Africa' study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It confi rms the important role that RTB centers have played in strengthening crop improvement in SSA, but also shows that it takes a long time to develop and disseminate improved varieties, which is why RTB has prioritized innovations that accelerate the breeding process.Cassava is the second most consumed staple food in SSA, and the book documents the important role that IITA has played in improving that crop. Of the 367 improved cassava varieties released in 17 SSA countries between 1970 and 2010, more than 80% were IITA-bred or from IITA parents. According to expert estimates, IITA-related varieties were grown in approximately 30% of the total cassava area in SSA in 2009. IITA's yam improvement program has also had a signifi cant impact, with IITA-related varieties accounting for 13% of the 78 yam varieties developed or identifi ed for release between 1970 and 2010.The book also documents CIP's important role in potato and sweetpotato improvement in SSA. CIP was involved in the development of 42 of the 45 improved potato varieties released in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda over the past decade. And of the 60 new sweetpotato varieties re-leased in Burundi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda since 2000, 19 were CIP-bred and seven were bred by national agricultural research organizations using CIP parents.Many improved varieties have low adoption rates, and it is hard to determine whether that is due to problems with the varieties or inadequate dissemination. Yet some are widely adopted, and they off er lessons for breeding programs. One success story is the potato variety Victoria, which was selected by a CIP breeder in Uganda for release in the 1990s. By 2010, high-yielding, early-maturity Victoria covered more than half of Uganda's potato-growing area and was the second most popular variety in Kenya. There are many more success stories, such as the cassava variety Rugero (MM96/5280), released in Burundi in 2001, which covered 16.4% of Burundi's cassava area in 2009; or the variety Sauti (CH92/077), released in Malawi in 2002, which covered 16.8% of that country's cassava area in 2009.Weighted average adoption of improved potato varieties in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda in 2010 was 37%, but the weighted average adoption of improved sweetpotato varieties in Burundi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda was just 7% of the sweetpotato area. However, crop area may be a poor indicator of the success of CIP's eff orts to get vitamin A-rich orange-fl eshed sweetpotato varieties into the hands of the region's poorest farmers, especially women. In Uganda, for example, where sweetpotato covers just 2.6% of agricultural land, 8% of households grow the crop.Nevertheless, cultivation of improved potato and sweetpotato varieties needs to be expanded in SSA, and CIP is working on multiple fronts to achieve this. The book will contribute to improving such eff orts, and it has arrived just as RTB crop breeders are tapping the potential of genomic data and other scientifi c advances to accelerate the breeding of the improved varieties that African farmers need. Unlocking the value and use potential of genetic resources Accelerating the development of cultivars with higher, more stable yield and added value RTB undertook an array of eff orts to tap the potential of crop genetic resources for improving food security and incomes in 2015, including the use of high-throughput genotyping, phenotyping and metabolite analysis to accelerate and enhance crop improvement. Multi-center research made progress toward linking high-density genomic data to traits in cassava and banana, while genomic data were applied to potato improvement and genomic sequencing began for sweetpotato and yam.Thousands of cassava accessions have been sequenced, and CIAT and IITA researchers used the data to reconstruct the history of the crop's domestication and diversifi cation patterns, which can help breeders to identify populations with desired traits. CIAT completed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for cassava in Latin America and the Caribbean, and ran trials to investigate the genetic components underlying consumer preferred traits. IITA researchers increased the accuracy and reliability of genomic selection and identifi ed genes linked to traits of interest.Genomic data from 400 banana accessions were generated through RAD-seq and a new bioinformatics tool called scaff hunter was developed to integrate multiple sources of sequencing data for improving the banana reference genome. CIRAD, Bioversity and partners released a new version of the banana gene annotation, and version two of the reference genome assembly was released on the renovated Banana Genome Hub. Bioversity also undertook GWAS on a panel of 126 diploid banana accessions to detect genomic regions involved in parthenocarpy and female sterility.CIP breeders used genomic data to select true seed potato progenies of 24 families from crosses between parents with neutral photoperiod and earliness under warm temperatures that are undergoing fi eld trials in Uzbekistan and Peru. In sweetpotato, the sequencing of 250 drought-tolerant and 250 drought-susceptible accessions marked the fi rst step toward locating the genes responsible for drought tolerance. In the coming years, genomic and metabolite data will increasingly be used to enhance crop improvement.Assessing the impact of crop improvement has traditionally been hindered by the fact that varieties look very similar, but an innovative genetic analysis of the main cassava varieties being grown in Ghana marks a breakthrough for reliably estimating adoption rates in impact assessment studies.Researchers from IITA, Michigan State University and Ghana's Council for Scientifi c and Industrial Research -Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) collected more than 900 samples of cassava grown by 495 farming households in Ghana's top cassava-producing regions, sent them to Cornell University for genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), and compared their genetic 'fi ngerprints' with those of 64 cassava accessions held at CSIR-CRI (common landraces and released varieties) that were used as a 'reference library' . The results provide an unequivocal view of the actual varieties being cultivated across Ghana.The researchers found that 30% of the cassava collected on the farms matched specifi c released varieties, which is consistent with the results of a prior impact assessment. However, their analysis revealed widespread discrepancies in the names of varieties and landraces. While the farmers provided 180 diff erent variety names for the 917 cassava accessions collected, genetic analysis revealed that many were actually the same variety, whereas some accessions with the same name were genetically diff erent.\"One of the biggest lessons is that you can't rely on common names of varieties, \" said Ismail Rabbi, a cassava geneticist at IITA who led the study's DNA fi ngerprinting component. \"You also can't always rely on morphological characteristics, because these are infl uenced by environmental conditions and plant growth stages. The methods traditionally used to assess the impact of crop improvement are not as reliable as DNA fi ngerprinting. \"Genetic analysis showed that 69% of the accessions collected belong to 11 major variety groups, whereas the rest are the result of inter-varietal crosses. Nearly a quarter of the accessions collected were the same landrace, which farmers identifi ed as Ankra, Bankye kokoo, Debor, etc., whereas approximately 17% belonged to a landrace that was evaluated and released by Ghanaian universities in 2004-2005 as 'IFAD' and 'UCC' . This means that about 40% of Ghanaian farmers grow just two varieties.\"These two varieties are grown all over the place. We should do more research to understand why they are so popular, \" Rabbi said. He explained that characterizing the two varieties' traits could help cassava breeders ensure that improved clones coming out of their breeding pipelines have those traits, and thereby increase farmer uptake.A comparable but more comprehensive study underway in Nigeria, with support from RTB and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, involved the collection of more than 8,000 cassava samples from 2,500 farms that will be compared to a reference library of nearly 4,000 accessions. The results of this study, to be completed in 2016, will provide a clear picture of the distribution patterns of improved varieties and landraces across Nigeria.Rabbi observed that genetic fi ngerprinting can also be used to identify gaps and duplicates in genebanks, in order to make their collections more comprehensive while reducing redundancies. Several of the more common cassava landraces collected in the Ghana study weren't represented in the reference library, which also included identical accessions with diff erent names. Moreover, genetic analysis revealed that the 64 accessions in that reference library were actually just 34 unique cultivars, 16 of which were released varieties. To avoid such problems, IITA researchers are using GBS to improve the IITA cassava genebank collection.\"Genome-wide genetic markers are useful for a variety of identifi cation applications, \" said Rabbi, who explained that the study also provided information on the ancestry of and relations between specifi c varieties and breeding lines, which can help cassava breeders to better classify their material and identify sources of traits.He added that such research is only possible thanks to recent advances and reductions in the cost of next-generation sequencing technologies. \"This is something that we could not have imagined just a few years ago, \" he said.Yam is an important source of food and income in Ghana and Nigeria, which is why RTB is supporting an accelerated breeding pipeline for yam improvement in those countries. In order to ensure that the varieties coming out of that pipeline meet the needs of farmers, and thereby improve the probability that smallholders adopt them, researchers at IITA helped breeders at national programs in Ghana and Nigeria to design and implement a participatory varietal selection (PVS) methodology for yam. That methodology, which puts farmers in charge of fi eld trials and the selection of the varieties best suited for local preferences and environmental conditions, resulted in the selection of the fi ve best new varieties for each of three diff erent agroecologies.IITA yam breeder Antonio Lopez-Montes, who led the PVS initiative, explained that breeders at the national programs didn't pay enough attention to farmer-preferred traits in the past, and largely ignored women's preferences. IITA researchers consequently worked with 23 yam breeders and technicians at the National Root Crops Research Institute in Nigeria, and the Crops Research Institute and Savanna Agriculture Research Institute in Ghana, to adapt and implement a gender-responsive PVS for yam.The three institutes partnered with thousands of farmers who ran fi eld trials for 24 yam varieties developed by IITA and participated in evaluations that resulted in the selection of the top fi ve varieties recommended for release in Northern Ghana, Central Ghana and Nigeria. The initiative took place within the framework of the 'Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa' project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.A total of 4,328 farmers in the two countries participated, including 1,323 women. Lopez-Montes explained that they made an eff ort to involve as many women as possible so that selected varieties would meet the needs of both women and men, in order to ensure greater adoption. He added that farmers were involved in the design of fi eld trials -deciding issues such as plant density and fertilizer application -which they ran. Farmers evaluated the va-A total of 4,328 farmers in the two countries participated in the project, including 1,323 women.Lopez-Montes explained that they made an eff ort to involve as many women as possible The farmers also contributed to the design of agronomic packages for diff erent production systems that were scaled out for validation with the selected varieties in 2016. Lopez-Montes noted that the farmer-led focus on production systems, rather than agroecologies, is important because the performance of varieties can vary signifi cantly from one production system to the next. While all varieties were bred for drought-prone environments and poor soils, the farmer evaluations included traits such as fl avor and the number and size of tubers produced by each plant. Evaluation data were disaggregated according to gender and age group.Lopez-Montes observed that while men were more interested in varieties that produce one large tuber, which demands a high market price, women preferred varieties that produce multiple tubers of diff erent sizes, in order to sell the big ones but save the smaller ones for family consumption and seed.He added that IITA breeders have already developed new populations of improved yams with traits preferred by women that are ready to be delivered to the three institutes, and they will continue to develop populations with combinations of the traits preferred by women and men. This should enhance adoption and improve household food security, as women pay more attention to the full spectrum of family needs.To complement farmer criteria, breeders collected and analyzed quantitative data on traits such as dry matter content, the number of ware and seed yam per plant, and the incidence and severity of pests and diseases. However, Lopez-Montes noted that farmer criteria were the drivers of the selection process and that the quantitative data supported the farmers' selections.\"We implemented this project to demonstrate the advantages of using PVS to increase a new variety's impact, \" Lopez-Montes said. \"The national breeders recognized that this approach can ensure greater adoption, because the farmers already accepted these varieties during the selection process. \"In 2015, two virus-resistant potato varieties -salt-tolerant CIP-301029.18 and salt-and heat-tolerant CIP-396311.1 -were evaluated in coastal districts of Bangladesh where soil salinity is a growing threat. They had higher yields than popular varieties and were recommended for release, which means they will soon join a growing cadre of CIP-bred, climate-smart potato varieties that are helping farmers produce food in diffi cult environments that will become more challenging as the atmosphere warms.In recent years, CIP breeders have prioritized developing heat-, droughtand salt-tolerant potato varieties from CIP's lowland tropics virusresistant (LTVR) population, some of which are already being grown by farmers in countries such as Kenya, India and Vietnam. In 2015, the CIP Genebank began sending germplasm from a new, more robust generation of approximately 80 LTVR varieties to national agricultural research organizations in African and Asian countries where environmental stresses that are expected to intensify under climate change are already hindering smallholders' ability to produce food.Improved potato variety 'Qingshu 9' a success story in China and beyondIn their eff orts to improve the food security and livelihoods of farmers around the world, potato breeders at CIP strive to develop marketable, resilient varieties with resistance to viruses and late blight that can be grown in an array of environments. An excellent example of the potential of such a potato is CIP variety No. 392797.22, a high-yielding clone that can be found in fi elds all over China and is grown in several other countries. The Chinese government is promoting potato production to improve food security, and CIP 392797.22 has proven to be an excellent option for the country's farmers.Originally developed in Peru in the 1990s, the variety was selected from a cross of CIP No. 387521.3 and 'Aphrodite' , from CIP's lowland tropics virus resistant population. It was fi eld tested in Peru's lowlands and mountains and was fi rst released to farmers in 1998 by the National University San Luis Gonzaga, Ica under the name 'UNICA' . Field trials showed that it has a stable, high yield in varied environments, is resistant to viruses, and tolerates drought. It also produces quality potatoes with red skin and yellow fl esh that are good for fresh consumption and have the qualities needed for French fry production.\"The evaluation of improved populations in Peru's warm, arid coastal and cool, humid mountain regions is key to identifying varieties adapted to the diff erent, challenging environments of the tropics, and can help broaden adaptation even to temperate environments such as those of Northern China and Central Asia, \" explained Merideth Bonierbale, who leads CIP's genetics, genomics and crop improvement research. \"RTB is supporting CIP's genetic research to systematize and accelerate breeding of varieties with this combination of adaptive resistance and quality traits through genomic selection. \"UNICA was introduced to China from CIP in 2001 by the Qinghai (Provincial) Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences. Following evaluation by the Qinghai Crop Variety Assessment Committee, it was released as a provincial variety in Qinghai in 2006 with the name 'Qingshu 9' -Qing referring to the Qinghai Academy and shu being the Chinese word for potato. AfterIn order to ensure that the banana varieties developed by IITA and Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) have the traits that men and women farmers want, RTB scientists developed a methodology for a gender-diff erentiated baseline study that was undertaken in collaboration with NARO and the Agricultural Research Institute in Tanzania in 2015 and early 2016.Rhiannon Crichton, a postdoctoral fellow at Bioversity who is coordinating the study, explained that its results will strengthen RTBsupported banana improvement in East Africa by ensuring that women and men benefi t fully from the banana hybrids that national breeding programs develop. The study's gender responsiveness was strengthened by Bioversity researchers Susan Ajambo and Anne Rietveld, and Emily Albertson -a graduate student at Clark University who participated thanks to an RTB partnership with US universities.N.PALMER/CIAT assessment at a national level, Qingshu 9 was released as a national variety in 2011, and over the next fi ve years, it came to be planted in China's main potato production regions. At the same time, the variety has been introduced to Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and is slated for release in Bangladesh in 2017.Kaiyun Xie, a potato specialist at CIP's China Center for Asia and the Pacifi c, explained that farmers across Northern and Southwest China have adopted Qingshu 9, primarily because it produces well and consumers like it. According to preliminary expert consultations, Qingshu 9 was grown in 13 major potato-producing provinces in China in 2015, when it covered approximately one third of the potato-farming area of Qinghai Province, 14% of the potato area in Ningxia Province and 6% of the potato area in Gansu Province.Local experts estimated that more than 150,000 hectares in China were planted with Qingshu 9 in 2015. Given an average yield of 30 tons per hectare, compared to a national average of 20 tons per hectare, it is estimated that Chinese farmers produced approximately 4.5 million tons of Qingshu 9 potatoes in 2015. Xie noted that various companies are selling seed potatoes for Qingshu 9, so the area planted with the variety is likely to increase in 2016.\"This variety represents a successful case of breeding broadly-adapted and marketable potatoes with combined resistance to major diseases, a feature that helps farmers lower production costs and access new markets with reduced risk of crop loss, \" observed Bonierbale.Kaiyun Xie, a potato specialist at CIP's China Center for Asia and the Pacifi c, explained that many farmers across Northern and Southwest China have adopted Qingshu 9Improving the management of priority pests and diseases Making available low-cost, highquality planting material for farmers Pests and diseases cause major crop loss in developing countries and they constitute an especially serious threat for root, tuber and banana crops, which are propagated vegetatively -by planting tubers, suckers, stems or vine cuttings. This means that pests and pathogens are often passed from one planting cycle to the next, or one fi eld to another, via planting material. RTB has addressed major pest and disease threats through initiatives that bring together experts from multiple centers and partners. These initiatives include an eff ort to assess the risks posed by RTB-critical pests under climate change and cross-crop research on the accumulation of pathogens in planting material, known as seed degeneration. RTB also supports eff orts to improve the management of specifi c diseases, such as banana Xanthomonas wilt disease, an eff ective management package for which is being scaled out in Central Africa.RTB initiatives to improve disease management often include the establishment of clean seed systems. CIAT, for example, has promoted thermotherapy for producing disease-free plantain and banana seed as part of eff orts to control Moko bacterial wilt. CIP has long promoted clean seed systems to prevent yield loss from the accumulation of viruses in potato and an impact study of an intervention in Kenya that helped Kisima Farms Ltd. begin producing certifi ed potato seed determined that it benefi ted approximately 23,000 smallholders between 2010 and 2014. Even more farmers are likely to benefi t from a potato seed initiative launched by the Government of Ecuador in 2015 using CIP-validated, aeroponic propagation technology and guidance from CIP researchers. The government's goal is to expand the area planted with disease-free seed to approximately 30% of the potato-growing area in Ecuador by 2018. Such private and public uses of the technologies that RTB centers develop and disseminate confi rm the value of RTB's research for development.Pests and diseases already pose major threats to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders. With climate change, these threats are generally expected to grow and also expand to unaff ected areas. However, knowledge is limited about exactly which threats will be more severe and in what geographic areas.An RTB eff ort to fi ll this knowledge gap for critical banana, cassava, potato and sweetpotato pests and diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa has produced data for predicting how those threats will evolve under climate change and strengthened the capacity of government institutions to deal with them today.RTB centers have begun analyzing data from weather stations and farm surveys at action sites in the Rwanda's Ruhengeri region and Burundi's Rusizi Valley while researchers completed laboratory experiments to determine how rising temperatures aff ect the lifecycles of key pests and disease vectors. Harmonized pest and disease fi eld surveys were carried out at both actions sites during one cropping season, whereas weather data collection has been ongoing since July 2014. The goal is to compile two years of weather and farm data for use in modeling climate change impacts on pest and disease risks.At the same time, RTB researchers and partners have worked with representatives of national research and regulatory institutions in Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to strengthen the surveillance of critical pests and diseases and the capacity to elaborate eff ective responses using pest risk analysis (PRA) documents and pest risk maps. PRA documents and risk maps are important tools for national or regional eff orts to prevent the entry of new pests and diseases and help farmers prepare for evolving pest and disease threats.At a workshop on PRA and surveillance held in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2015, draft PRA documents were developed with national partners for the tomato/potato leaf miner (Tuta absoluta), whitefl y-vectored cassava brown streak virus, aphid-vectored banana bunchy top disease (BBTD), banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) and the invasive strain of Panama Disease Foc Tr4.According to Jürgen Kroschel, the project leader and Science Leader for Agroecology and Integrated Pest Management at CIP, RTB's support of PRA training and elaboration complements eff orts by the FAO and the UK Food and Environment Research Agency and Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) to promote the drafting and application of PRA documents by African ministries of agriculture. He added that RTB has improved PRA documents through the addition of pest risk maps, which illustrate potential pest entry and range expansion.PRA documents drafted at the Kigali workshop have since been refi ned using data from laboratory and fi eld research. RTB researchers generated data on the prevalence of the major diseases in the region. Bioversity scientists conducted fi ve surveys of BBTD and BXW incidence along altitude gradients in Eastern DR Congo, the Rusizi Valley/Lake Tanganyika area and Western Burundi. IITA scientists conducted biological surveys in Burundi and Rwanda to determine the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of the pathogens responsible for cassava mosaic disease, cassava brown streak disease and BBTD. And CIP researchers completed a thorough analysis of the late blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans population in Kenya and Uganda.RTB scientists used a number of approaches to assess the risks that major pests pose in the region. CIP researchers used life-table data for T. absoluta to develop a preliminary pest phenology model and risk maps with Insect Life-Cycle Modeling software. Using the program CLIMEX, CIAT researchers developed potential distribution maps for the cassava green mites Mononychellus tanajoa and Mononychellus mcgregori -based on 1,232 occurrence records for M. tanajoa and 99 for M. mcgregori. CIAT researchers submitted distribution records of cassava green mites and cassava whitefl ies -major virus vectors -to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, ensuring open access for modeling purposes. Researchers also developed an interactive database for cassava whitefl ies that will be launched in 2016.Through a combination of scientifi c research and capacity building, the project will continue to help national authorities to assess and prepare for evolving pest risks so that they can deal with them proactively.Banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) is a hugely destructive disease that is sweeping across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). RTB is working in eight countries in SSA and has made encouraging progress in building farmers' capacity to fi ght back. Action research at pilot sites tested community strategies for reducing disease pressure to facilitate recovery of banana production while scientists advanced knowledge of the disease's epidemiology, developed tests for detecting it, and raised awareness of the threat it poses.BBTD is caused by the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), which invades new fi elds or regions via the banana aphid Pentalonia nigronervosa or infected planting material. RTB scientists are consequently studying the virus and aphid vector while working with national partners and communities to establish systems for producing disease-free banana planting material. They've improved knowledge of the disease through laboratory research, fi eld trials and surveys at pilot sites in Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, DR Congo, Malawi and Burundi to determine the extent of BBTD's impact.\"We now understand much better the serious nature of this threat, \" said Charles Staver, a senior scientist at Bioversity, coordinator of the BBTD initiative and RTB project leader. He explained that the disease has been reported in 14 countries in SSA, and while incipient in countries such as Benin and Nigeria, it is widespread in the Congo River Basin. Researchers at the University of Kisangani estimated that BBTD threatens the banana and plantain production of over 5 million households in the DR Congo, whereas researchers in Burundi estimated that the disease has reached 500,000 farms. Staver warned that the disease is spreading in West Africa and is poised to advance further into East Africa.The alliance has raised awareness of this threat while working at nine pilot sites in eight countries -representing the major banana production systems in SSA -to test strategies for re-establishing banana production in areas where BBTD has devastated the crop. Results from pilot sites show that the Building communities' capacity to control and recover from the banana disease BBTD \"We now understand much better the serious nature of this threat, \" said Charles Staver, a senior scientist at Bioversity, coordinator of the BBTD initiative and RTB project leader. most eff ective strategy is to uproot all banana plants, maintain farms free of banana for at least six months, and replant with BBTV-free planting material while maintaining banana-free buff er zones around the replanted fi elds. If these practices are followed, banana production can be recovered for at least two or three harvests. However, the disease usually re-invades the farm, indicating a need for further research.From the onset of work at the pilot sites, RTB researchers collaborated with local partners on gender research to better understand the roles of men and women in areas such as community decision-making and farm management. Staver explained that cross-site lessons learned from that gender research will enhance impending eff orts to scale out successful recovery strategies.\"RTB partners have catalyzed commitments from African governments, the FAO and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen eff orts to study and control BBTD, \" affi rmed IITA virologist Lava Kumar. He gave the example of collaboration between IITA and several Nigerian government agencies to launch a \"Stop Bunchy Top\" campaign in early 2016 to halt the disease's advance within Nigeria.Kumar explained that an essential component of such eff orts is the ability to detect BBTV in plants and aphids, and RTB has contributed to the development of two new technologies for BBTV detection: a diagnostic test based on loop-mediated isothermal amplifi cation (CT-LAMP) and a recombinase polymerase amplifi cation assay. Plant virologist Marie-Line Iskra-Caruana, of CIRAD, noted that one advantage of the CT-LAMP assay is that it detects the virus in low concentrations, so it is useful for testing planting material and early detection in mature plants.Bioversity associate scientist Aman Omondi observed that another important achievement is that the RTB initiative has trained representatives of national research institutes, universities and ministries of agriculture in areas ranging from BBTD diagnostics to clean seed systems. As the disease spreads and the RTB researchers develop more tools for controlling it, this critical mass of trained people will lead the battle to defeat BBTD.The accumulation and synergistic eff ect of multiple viruses simultaneously aff ecting sweetpotato constitute one of the worst biotic constraints for African farmers. CIP researchers consequently contributed to the creation of an interactive, online database of viruses aff ecting sweetpotato in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) -known as the Pan-African Sweetpotato Virome -in order to help breeders develop virus-resistant varieties and predict and control the threat posed by viruses.The database was developed in collaboration with the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University. It contains information on viruses identifi ed in more than 1,600 sweetpotato samples collected in farmers' fi elds in 10 SSA countries, and includes a map of fi eld locations and photos of infected plants. It can be used to guide breeding eff orts, identify high-risk areas, and monitor the emergence of novel viral variants. It will also serve as a model for a new database on the potato virome (the viruses infecting potato) in Peru.Heat can make a diff erence: production of disease-free banana seed RTB researchers have shown that heat treatment can be a cost-eff ective tool for controlling disease transmission in banana and plantain.In partnership with the Colombian Plantain Growers Federation (FEDEPLA-TANO) scientists at CIAT standardized a prototype of a thermotherapy chamber for propagating clean planting material that has proven to be eff ective and adaptable. Plantain corms are placed in a chamber to sprout under controlled conditions of temperature (50º-70ºC) and high humidity, with frequent fertigation, producing healthy seedlings faster than traditional methods.The technology was further validated by Bioversity plant pathologist Miguel Dita, who built a prototype chamber at the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education, in Costa Rica, and has since been adopted by organizations in several countries. FEDEPLATANO and CIAT built a large thermal chamber in La Tebaida Quindío, Colombia that produces disease-free plantain planting material for approximately 7,000 farmers. CIAT also collaborated with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation for the construction of another large, fully automated chamber for plantain farmers in Northeast Brazil.\"Larger thermal chambers are an effi cient option for the mass production of clean seed for farmer associations, \" explained CIAT researcher Elizabeth Alvarez. \"However, the technology has also been successfully adapted for smaller scale operations. \"Alvarez cited the example of simplifi ed thermal chambers built by farmers in El Salvador. With technical assistance from CIAT and FEDEPLATANO, and support from the NGOs Oxfam, Caritas and Catholic Relief Services, farmer associations in the department of Morazán built tunnel-formed chambers using translucent plastic sheets and other inexpensive materials that now produce clean banana seed for about 1,650 smallholders, 350 of who are women.CIAT has promoted the technology with manuals in Spanish and English via the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) banana network and has collabo-rated with CIRAD to promote it as a way to control the banana and plantain disease Moko bacterial wilt in LAC. The technology has also been tested in Peru, and there are plans to evaluate it in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Cameroon and DR Congo.Meanwhile IITA researchers have validated an even simpler thermotherapy option for cleaning banana and plantain suckers of nematodes. IITA researcher Stefan Hauser explained that farmers merely need to dip suckers into boiling water for 30 seconds prior to planting to kill nematodes, adding that research has demonstrated that this practice improves yields. IITA has promoted the boiling water method to African banana and plantain farmers through a manual and fl yers in multiple languages, and demonstrations for more than 1,000 farmers in Cameroon, Nigeria and Zanzibar.A cross-center initiative to improve the understanding and management of seed degeneration -reductions in yield and quality due to the accumulation of pathogens in planting material over successive planting cycles -has shed new light on degeneration's dynamics.Research in Africa showed that farmers maintain sweetpotato viruses in local landraces at manageable levels using rouging (eliminating diseased plants) and positive selection (choosing healthy seed for the next planting cycle). However, some viruses are asymptomatic and may cause more yield loss in the long run than viruses with visible symptoms because farmers can't identify infected plants for removal. Potato scientists in Ecuador demonstrated that reversion (natural reduction of pathogen incidence within a seed lot) takes place at higher altitudes, confi rming the validity of a traditional practice of moving seed to high altitudes to 'clean' it. Data from fi eld trials in Africa and Latin America are being used to model the eff ectiveness of such common approaches for controlling seed degeneration.Farmers in SSA often can't get enough sweetpotato vines for planting when seasonal rains begin, since vines and roots don't survive the dry season, limiting adoption. CIP has developed and tested a root-based vine multiplication system called Triple S (sand, storage and sprouting) in Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia to overcome this bottleneck, with promising results.Farmers store sweetpotato roots in dry sand during the dry season and plant them in seedbeds 6-8 weeks before the rains begin. After successful trials in Tanzania and Uganda, Triple S was scaled out in fi ve districts in northern Uganda. A seasonal calendar with information on when to store and plant roots was distributed in two local languages, 18 community facilitators were trained, and 634 farmers engaged. Triple S was also tested in a region of Ethiopia where the dry season is one month longer than Uganda's, and 82% of roots sprouted successfully after four months in dry sand.Breaking the bottleneck for sweetpotato planting materialAlvarez noted that CIAT has also promoted thermotherapy to combat the spread of cassava frogskin disease, with thermal chambers of various sizes for producing clean cassava planting material built in several departments of Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Paraguay. She added that the technology could likely be adapted for other crops as well.Developing tools for more productive, ecologically robust cropping systems Promoting postharvest technologies, value chains and market opportunities While supporting research on the diversifi cation of cropping systems, RTB made major commitments to improving the postharvest handling and processing of roots, tubers and bananas, which can help smallholders access better markets, improve the incomes of value-chain participants, and create employment. RTB crops are perishable, creating special challenges for value chain interventions, but a three-year, multi-center project to improve postharvest handling and utilization in Uganda (RTB-ENDURE) is testing strategies for reducing postharvest loss in banana, extending cassava shelf life, improving potato storage, and creating silage from sweetpotato leaves and other by products that can be used as pig feed -all of which have potential for scaling out on a regional level. Cassava is especially problematic for farmers and retailers because its roots undergo rapid postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD). A south-south knowledge sharing trip organized by CIAT, CIRAD and IITA allowed seven members of the RTB-ENDURE cassava team to travel to CIAT headquarters in Colombia and learn about PPD control methods such as waxing roots. One practice that was quickly disseminated in Uganda is the pruning of plants six days prior to harvesting roots, which provides protection from PPD and makes roots sweeter.Cassava is widely used in processed foods, and RTB researchers have developed strategies for improving processing effi ciencies and using waste from processing plants in livestock feed, whereas a multi-country study of African consumer preferences for processed cassava products provided insights that can benefi t processors and widen smallholder access to those markets. While Bioversity and IITA have facilitated market opportunities for banana growers, CIP has helped smallholder potato and sweetpotato growers gain access to markets for French-fries and baked goods. In fact, CIP's promotion of sweetpotato purée as a substitute for fl our in baked goods was so successful in East Africa that the practice is currently being promoted in West Africa.RTB is working with local partners along the entire cooking banana value chain in Uganda -from the farm to the market -testing strategies to reduce postharvest loss and diff erentiate products in order to improve incomes and food security.Cooking banana is the main staple crop in Uganda, grown mostly by smallholders who eat about 60% of production and sell about 40%. The crop is an important source of income for farmers and other value chain actors, but a signifi cant portion of cooking banana production is lost or damaged due to the fruit's short shelf life and poor handling.A team of researchers from Bioversity, CIRAD, IITA and Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) is working with farmers, transporters, vendors and exporters in Central and Western Uganda on ways to reduce loss and increase the earnings of smallholders and cooking banana sellers -most of who are women. The collaboration is one of four subprojects under 'Expanding Utilization of RTB and Reducing Their Postharvest Losses' (RTB-ENDURE), a threeyear (2014-2016) initiative working with banana, cassava, potato and sweetpotato in Uganda, funded by the European Union and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.According to Diego Naziri, value chain expert and RTB-ENDURE project coordinator, the cooking banana research team has worked with farmers and transporters to decrease postharvest loss while testing ways for retailers to increase their earnings from cooking banana. He noted that a 2015 market study showed that women are disproportionately aff ected by postharvest loss, because they are largely responsible for retailing the crop and frequently have to sell damaged bananas for low prices. He added that women vendors earn smaller margins than middlemen and transporters.Because losses are highest during peak harvest, when the banana supply surpasses demand, RTB researchers are testing staggered planting systems, with 266 farmers trained in staggered planting in 2015. They also identifi ed cooking banana varieties that produce robust fruit with a longer shelf life that is less sus-ceptible to damage. Although there is market demand for these kinds of varieties, few farmers grow them. The RTB-ENDURE banana team worked with smallholders to select four such varieties for planting and provided training in macro-propagation of planting material and better agronomic practices to boost farm production.Bioversity researcher Enoch Kikulwe, the banana subproject coordinator, explained that farmer groups built macro-propagation chambers where clean planting material for the selected varieties provided by NARO is multiplied for distribution to smallholders. He cited the example of a group of women in Lwakalolo Parish, in Ddwaniro Sub-County, who also use their macro-propagation chamber for training other farmers. Researchers also helped farmers establish 10 mother gardens -four of which are managed by women -where they grow the new varieties. At the same time, CIRAD researcher Christophe Bugaud is trying to determine the best harvesting times for desired postharvest properties, combining sums concept, potential storage and sensory evaluation of fruit.RTB researchers are also testing ways to increase retail margins by diversifying the way cooking bananas are sold, such as by breaking bunches into smaller units (clusters, fi ngers or peeled bananas) that are sorted, graded, and labeled by cultivar. The banana team provided business training to two women who recently moved into wholesale -an activity dominated by men -and helped them gain access to credit, markets in Kampala and banana exporters as part of a strategy to promote women's participation in market-chain links with higher margins.\"When value chains improve, men often supplant women, but we're trying to avoid this, \" said Naziri, who added that gender was integrated into the participatory market chain approach used for all subprojects.Kikulwe explained that the women the project has helped move into wholesale will purchase the bananas with longer shelf life from participating farmers, which should improve smallholder incomes while reducing the risk of fruit loss for the wholesalers and vendors they sell to. This and other innovations facilitated by RTB-ENDURE have the potential to be scaled out within Uganda and beyond. S.QUINN/CIP Much of the cassava grown in developing countries is processed to produce starch or fl our used as ingredients in an array of food products. As demand for those products grows, the cassava processing industry will play an increasingly important role for farmers and local economies. RTB has consequently supported research to help starch and fl our producers become more effi cient.In many countries, processing is primarily done by small-and medium-scale operations, which frequently suff er ineffi ciencies -particularly in energy use -that negatively aff ect their profi tability and the environment. A cross-center team of researchers studied cassava processing operations in several countries to identify problems and measures that could be taken to correct them. Their research resulted in guidelines to improve the effi ciency of small-and medium-sized processing enterprises, which can in turn ensure higher, stable prices for the smallholders who supply them.The study was conducted by a team of researchers from CIAT, CIRAD and IITA, with support from Univalle and Clayuca in Colombia, Kasetsart University and KMUTT in Thailand, and Thai Nguyen University in Vietnam. The cooperation of industrial partners such as Niji Lukas (Nigeria), Ukaya Farms (Tanzania), Almidones de Sucre (Colombia), CODIPSA (Paraguay) was also essential.The team determined that because artifi cial drying is faster than sun drying, it can be a key factor for increasing production capacity. However, artifi cial drying consumes 70%-75% of the total energy used by a typical cassava starch/fl our factory, which means that ineffi ciencies in the drying process can signifi cantly increase production costs. They determined that 'fl ash drying' is one of the most suitable technologies for the production of cassava starch or fl our, and that large-scale fl ash dryers (200-300 tons of product/day) are highly energy effi cient. However, on a small scale (< 50 tons of product/day), fl ash-dryer energy effi ciency is only 40-60%, due to inadequate dryer designs.The researchers developed a numerical model to simulate fl ash drying at both small and large scales and investigated ways to improve energy effi ciency. Using computer simulations coupled with multi-objective optimization methods, they determined the optimal fl ash dryer dimensions and operating conditions for diff erent production capacities. They then developed guidelines for the design of energy-effi cient fl ash dryers.Improving cassava processing: less energy, higher effi ciency and more stable prices In Africa, cassava is commonly transformed into products ranging from traditional foods such as gari to fl our or starch for food industries. Yet little is known about which varieties and processes result in cassava products that consumers prefer. In an eff ort to strengthen local processing and widen or facilitate smallholder access to the markets it creates, a collaborative initiative by CIAT, CIRAD, IITA, Natural Resources Institute (NRI) and national partners assessed consumer preferences and gender diff erences in the perception of cassava product quality in fi ve countries.Teams in Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Tanzania completed questionnaire-based surveys to assess the preferences of hundreds of consumers using samples of gari, fufu or ugali, documenting pronounced gender diff erences in preferences. Physico-chemical analyses of those samples and fresh roots were completed by CIRAD, CIAT and NRI. Processing enterprises and breeding programs can use the resulting data to improve fi nal products and processes and contribute to improved livelihoods along cassava value chains.Those guidelines and research fi ndings were shared with key stakeholders from the private and public sector at a workshop in Bangkok, Thailand in December 2015. Workshop participants included representatives of cassava processing factories, equipment manufacturers, universities and government agencies from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Colombia, Nigeria, Tanzania, France and Germany.Engineers at the Colombian university Univalle are using the guidelines to produce blueprints for an energy-effi cient, small-scale fl ash dryer, a prototype of which is slated to be built in 2016. Other organizations in Indonesia, Myanmar and South Africa have also expressed interest in energy-effi cient, small-scale fl ash dryers. The researchers will continue to share their fi ndings at events in Africa and Latin America.Cassava peels discarded during processing -approximately 20% of root weight -constitute an environmental hazard and a huge loss of value. RTB partnered with the CGIAR Research Programs Humidtropics, and Livestock and Fish to develop a technology for turning cassava waste into a dried, high-quality cassava peel (HQCP) mash that can be used in livestock feed mixtures -a breakthrough that will improve profi tability and create jobs.Multiple centers collaborated to develop a quick and cost-eff ective technology, while researchers estimated the product's nutritional value and expected price: approximately half the cost of maize. Feed millers found that the HQCP mash is a suitable substitute for 15% of maize in livestock feed and fi nanced feeding trials with chicken and sheep that produced encouraging results. With 14 million tons of cassava peels discarded annually in Nigeria alone, the transformation of that waste into animal feed could reduce maize imports, generate profi ts and employment, and reduce pollution.An assessment of a CIP-coordinated, public-private venture in Rwanda that launched the Golden Power Biscuit and other baked products made with vitamin A-rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) purée found that the venture improved the earnings of both the company that produces the snacks and the smallholders who supply it with sweetpotato roots -especially women.The 516 households that supply sweetpotato to the food company Urwibutso Enterprises also sell about a third of their crop on local markets and consume about a third. Endline studies showed that households with women as principal growers produced more sweetpotato than households with men as principal growers, sold more of their harvests to Urwibutso, and earned more from those sales: on average US $277 per household compared to US $143. Urwibutso earned US $403,599 from the sale of OFSP baked goods in 2015, so those farmers should have a reliable market for their sweetpotato in the future.Women benefi t from public private partnership for sweetpotato biscuits The distribution of budget by funding sources between 2012 and 2015 shows a changing contribution of W1 and W2 to the RTB annual budget. While in 2012 the share of W1 and W2 was 44%, this fell to 28% in 2015 -with a respective increase in W3 and bilateral funds, from 56% to 72%, in the same period. • Bilateral funds are contracts directly signed between a center and a donor and mapped into RTB.RTB total expenditure across all funding sources in 2015 was US$72.2M. This represents execution of 92% of the budget: US$20.4M were spent from W1 and W2, and US$51.8M from W3, bilateral and center funds.Expenditure for gender research was US$4.4M (94% of gender budget execution), representing 6% of RTB total expenditure in 2015. Management expenditure of US$1.5M represents 2% of the RTB total expenditure (74% of management budget execution), similar to 2014.  ","tokenCount":"9541"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c723c36ab8bc32268a93fa97393a73e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0d4a218f-a035-42d4-ad65-704965c8010c/retrieve","id":"2137663344"},"keywords":["community seed banks","farmer\"s rights","policy"],"sieverID":"563b07cc-80ff-4fde-9312-bda5c7dda898","pagecount":"9","content":"The paper interrogates the role of community seed banks (CSBs) and related initiatives in the realization of farmers\" rights in Uganda and the policy and legislative space for the functioning of CSBs. The study finds that although community seed banks are a relatively new phenomenon in Uganda, there have been community based seed banking initiatives that have been instrumental in the realization of farmers\" rights to save and exchange seed and information; and especially providing a wide range of diversity of seed to farmers and improving access to good quality seed. Through partnerships with local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), research and government institutions, CSBs have received technical and financial support for conservation and seed production activities, thus enabling them to participate in seed value-chains through production of quality declared seed (QDS) and participate in decision making. Although the policy and legal environment for the functioning of CSBs is not well defined, various pieces of draft legislation provide positively for ways through which CSBs can be recognized and supported for the benefit of farmers. The study recommends that CSBs activities should be rolled-out to other parts of the country through a government financing mechanism that is suggested in the draft national policy on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The development of a policy and legal environment that includes an act that has provisions for the recognition of CSBs and the protection of farmers\" rights is important. Secondary information, interviews with key informants and Focus Group discussions (FGDs) are the primary sources of data used.Farmers\" rights were first developed in the 1980\"s primarily to secure recognition of their role in the conservation and continuing development of local plant varieties; and to protect their rights to these varieties i.e. to save, sell and exchange seeds from their harvest (farmers\" privilege) (ACIPA 2014). Ultimately, they were developed as a means to minimize the impact of plant breeder\"s rights on local farmers. These rights are enshrined in a variety of legal instruments regulating access to and use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The recognition of the rights of farmers is important not only to their local seed varieties but also to their lands, resources, traditional knowledge and self-determination. Although the global seed industry has grown exponentially in the last three decades, most farmers in developing countries still rely on farm saved seeds accounting for about 70-80 percent of all seed used by farmers (Louwaars & de Boef 2012). The availability, accessibility and reliability of farm saved seed is therefore crucial for poor farmers to be able to attain food and nutrition security. Community seed banks and other local seed initiatives provide a robust system both in terms of locally-adapted seeds, diversity of crops and strengthened local institutions that ensure accessibility of seed by poor farmers (Development Fund, 2011).A study of community seed banks in Honduras, India, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Zambia found that although community seed banks are crucial for seed and food security, most of the community seed banks are local initiatives operating within the domain of informal seed systems and hence not linked to or supported by governments. Community seed banking faces challenges including lack of legal frameworks and institutional support as well as the presence of restrictive seed laws (Development Fund, 2011). The international treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) allows governments, gene banks and agricultural research centers to pool their genetic resources and share the benefits arising from their use e.g through breeding. This enhances the protection and use of genetic material; and giving fair recognition and benefits to local farmers who hold and conserve local genetic material. However, in most countries the treaty is not yet implemented and there are no legal or policy frameworks through which CSBs and other local initiatives can function (FAO, 2014).Like most African countries, the seed industry in Uganda consists of two distinct systems: the informal sector and the formal sector. The informal sector broadly refers to the system where farmers produce, obtain, maintain, develop and distribute seed resources, from one growing season to the next. It is also diverse with many local indigenous varieties managed by farmers (Louwaars & de Boef, 2012). Majority of smallholder farmers in Uganda lack a sustainable and reliable seed supply system to ensure quality agricultural production and productivity (The African Seed Access Index (TASAI), 2015). 80 per cent of seed used by Ugandan farmers is obtained locally through own saved seed; exchange with neighbours; community seed banks; custodian farmers; and from the local markets (Otieno et al, 2016). Local seed systems therefore play an important role in providing diverse seed to farmers.Community seed banks and other local seed production initiatives have recently emerged in Uganda as a means of providing smallholders with a wide range of diversity and improving access to seed. 13 local community initiatives have been identified in various parts of the country. Most of them are performing the function of conserving local genetic resources and providing diversity in local seed systems. Additionally, some CSBs have also become seed production enterprises, they produce quality declared seed (QDS) for sale within the local communities. They are also serving to preserve indigenous knowledge and contributing to the realization of farmers\" rights.CSBs operate within the domain of informal seed systems which are unregulated and unsupported by any government programmes or policies. They govern themselves through informal by-laws and are mostly supported by local NGOs. Furthermore, the contribution of community seed banks to the realization of farmers\" rights is not properly understood or documented in Uganda and this contributes to their lack of support or recognition.This paper answers three pertinent questions with regard to the role of community seed banks in the protection and promotion of farmers\" rights. First the paper interrogates the practical ways that community seed banks in Uganda contribute to the implementation of farmers\" rights while identifying gaps and constraints in their functioning. The paper then interrogates the policy and regulatory environment for the functioning of community seed banks which include access to and benefit sharing, seed laws and plant variety protection. Finally, the paper identifies the public policy interventions that are supporting the operations of community seed banks and the policy instruments that could be put in place, to create incentives for community seed banks to maintain crop diversity and to remain viable. This paper relies on primary and secondary data obtained through FGDs, key informant interviews and literature. A review of related literature on community seed banks and farmers\" rights provides the contextual framework for the paper; an overview of CSBs in Uganda provides an understanding of their evolution and functioning within the system. Further, this paper analyses the primary data collected in the course of the last two years working with various community seed banks. And finally, this The paper also reviews policies, laws and regulations in the agricultural sector to determine whether there are provisions that promote CSBs and protect farmers\" rights and related local indigenous knowledge.Community seed banks range from a single farm family seed bank to a community level seed bank. They could deal with local landraces, introduced landraces or improved cultivars (Lewis and Mulvany 1997;Lipper et al. 2010;the Development Fund 2011). CSBs are defined as a community driven and community-owned effort to conserve and use both local and improved varieties for food security and to improve the livelihoods of farmers (Sthapit, 2015;Vernooy et al, 2015).Three types of community seed banks can be identified: i) community gene bank (solely conservation of local varieties as PGR in small quantities), ii) community seed bank (solely concerned with access and availability of cultivars) and iii) community gene cum seed bank (carries out functions of both (i) and (ii)) (Sthapit, 2015). Seed banks can be used as a platform for community institutions to strengthen the roles of the farmer seed systems.Purposes of community seed banks are not only saving and exchanging local seeds but also keeping them under the control of the farming community for easy access and use and to ensure seed security at the community level. Institutionally, CSBs also perform the roles of consolidating and promoting conservation, sustainable use and improvement of important local genetic resources / traditional knowledge within communities (Sthapit, 2015;Vernooy et al, 2015).CSBs are supported by a community-led seed management approach that includes production, collection, processing, storage, distribution (exchange, loan, grant, selling); and marketing of local as well as improved varieties. Sthapit et al. (2008b) defined a community seed bank as a community managed ex situ collection designed to enhance access to local varieties and associated knowledge for the benefits of the community. In other words, a community-operated seed bank provides farmers access to seeds of local crop varieties and performs the function of community level backup of genetic resources, a repository of associated knowledge, and an institution to organize, mobilize and represent farmers\" interests.Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) recognizes the important contribution of farmers in the management, development and conservation of genetic diversity in-situ and their contribution in global food production. Article 9 recognizes that realizing farmers\" rights is a means for halting genetic erosion and ensuring present and future and nutrition food security but also ensuring that farmers accrue benefits from the resources which they continue to maintain. The contracting parties agree that the responsibility for realizing farmers\" rights as they relate to PGRFA rests with national governments and in accordance with their needs and priorities.There are four key tenets of article 9 namely: Art 9.2a, protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; Art 9.2b, the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; Art 9.2c, the right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; Art 9.3, right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed/propagating material.And additionally, the role of farmer\"s organizations and civil society in realizing farmers\" rights.In Uganda indigenous knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation among culturally diverse ethnic groups consisting of over 52 ethnic groups with diverse indigenous knowledge systems which have been applied in the careful selection, development and conservation of PGRFA. These generations fostered relationships with other groups, creating a complex web of high levels of cooperation, exchange and support that are essential for sustainability of PGRFA. Their fast erosion due to internal and external factors poses a serious threat to PGRFA in the region. Furthermore, indigenous knowledge used in the management of PGRFA is mostly held by women. Protecting this indigenous knowledge is paramount to realizing not only the rights of farmers but also the rights of women.In the past few years the relevance and importance of CSBs has gained international recognition. A community seed bank is part of a system of community managed genetic resources. The seed bank is at the center of the seed network and offers various community services such as seed security (storage), seed distribution and exchange, germplasm restoration and introduction (Regasa Feyisa, 2000). CSBs are both ex-situ and in-situ initiatives combining on site management of genetic resources in a gene bank and on farm restoration and maintenance of biodiversity (Vernooy et al, 2015). CSBs play a key role in the development promotion and conservation of famers\" agro-biodiversity; providing access to seeds for farmers and maintaining genetic diversity in farmers\" fields (Regasa Feyisa, 2000). In-situ conservation of local varieties held by CSBs that have undergone years of adaptation could have a positive impact on adaptation to climate change in communities and subsequently on food security and livelihoods (FAO, 2010). Furthermore, many species are still being managed by local communities that use traditional indigenous knowledge (passed on from generation to generation) in the selection, preservation and management of these seeds. This knowledge requires protection (Vernooy et al, 2015).Farmers\" rights have been endorsed as rights originating from the past, present and future contributions of farmers to conserving, developing and making available plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and therefore recognizing their need to benefit fully from the natural resources they have continued to conserve (Santili, 2012). Article 9 of the ITPGRFA recognizes that responsibility for undertaking farmers\" rights rests with the national governments and calls on contracting parties to \"take appropriate measures\" to protect and promote farmers\" rights. In this context the scope 1 of farmers\" rights include the protection of traditional knowledge relevant to PGRFA; the rights to equitable sharing of resources accruing from the use of PGRFA and the right for participation in decisions regarding the sustainable use, management and conservation of their PGRFA, but with a requirement that national governments ensure that farmers\" rights are protected through appropriate legislation.Community seed banks ensure farmers\" rights are protected through their function of providing access to a variety of diverse seed to farmers; through protecting their local indigenous knowledge which is often un-documented. Through seed fairs and other community level interventions CSBs are also able to provide information on a portfolio of varieties and crops they have (Clancy et al, 2016). By ensuring that materials they have are conserved and adapted to the impact of climate change, CSBs also help to ensure that farmers have access to suitably adaptable material that they can use to tackle climate change. Other ways of ensuring farmers\" rights are protected are through Participatory Plant Breeding (PPBs) where some CSBs partner with breeder to do grassroots breeding or participatory varietal selection (PVS) and participatory varietal evaluation (PVE) (Clancy et al, 2016). These provide access to diverse seed; it also ensures that farmers participate in decisions that affect them at the community level.Authors (Santili, 2012, Bjonstard 2004) have pointed out contradictions between the recognition of farmers\" rights by the ITPRGFA\"s preamble and the requirement that the responsibility of ensuring farmers\" rights rest with national governments, and that the treaty does not establish international parameters by which farmers\" rights can be guided and hence no minimum international standards. As a result, achieving a balance between national legislation and international requirements is still a challenge for many countries. Other international legislation such as WTO\"s TRIPS Agreement which stipulates that countries provide for protection of plant varieties through patents or a \"sui generis\" system or both; and the Plant breeders\" rights under UPOV have tended to undermine farmers\" rights to save exchange, use and sell farm saved seeds for IP protected plant varieties (Bjorn, 2004). Furthermore, seed laws regulate the production, sale, marketing and distribution of seeds. In some cases, the seed laws may be stringent hence undermining farmers\" rights to save exchange and use farm saved seeds. As such, the issue of protecting and promoting farmers\" rights is still not adequately confronted by international legal and policy instruments.The study uses a number of secondary literature to provide the basis and conceptual framework for the analysis of community seed banks and farmers\" rights as presented in the preceding section. The study also relies upon a census on community seed banks and community seed initiatives carried out in 2015 in Uganda. The census reveals a total of 13 community seed banks and related inititatives. 13 key informants in the respective CSBs are interviewed to provide information about their roles and activities as related to seed production and dissemination; the number of crops and varieties they conserve or share in their community seed banks; the number of farmers benefiting from the initiatives; and the partnerships they have and whether they receive any support from local NGOs and government.Policy documents related to farmers\" rights, seed policies and plant genetic resource management and conservation are also analyzed to provide insights into the provisions that support the realization of farmers\" rights or those that support the development of community seed banks. As such, a number of policies such as access and benefit sharing policies; the draft national seed policy; the draft national plant genetic resources policy; and the plant variety protection bill 2010, and act of 2014 are analyzed. The policy gaps are then identified and recommendations are made.A total of 15 farmer groups with seed banking initiatives; five located in south-western, three in northern, five in West Nile region and one from the eastern part of Uganda and one established in the Central region; were inventoried. In South Western Uganda, we interfaced with: Lwengo Community Genebank; Kagyera Bataka Community seed bank; Kiziba Community seed bank and Rubaya Warehouse group. In Northern Uganda: Jing Komi Group; Pagwari Farmers Association and Dok Gangber Group. In west Nile: Kuluba sub-county Mixed Farmers Association; Agremac Ojiebo Womens Group for Development; Watembo Wadelai Group Association; Binagoro Group and Andevuku Mixed Farm Group. Acan Pekun Akadikum Group is in Otuke district of Eastern Uganda. And in Central Uganda was the recently established Nakaseke CSB. Of these only six have some kind of full time community seed banking initiatives while others are community based seed production entities that also function as seed banks during periods of surplus seed production (see Appendix 1).The different initiatives surveyed were established for different purposes. Five of the thirteen groups were established out of the need to conserve different crop varieties and improve seed and food security, and livelihoods improvement. Four of the groups started on their own without any external support while others were established by either; International Non-Government Organizations, a Government Organization in partnership with an International Non-Government Organization and others by a Government Organization (Appendix 1). All groups were established to address issues that are affecting Ugandan farmers such as access to quality seed, timeliness, proximity and affordability of seed; need for a diverse portfolio diverse seed; providing seed that is resilient to climate and diseases; the need to be linked with seed markets; and finally conservation of local indigenous varieties and related traditional knowledge (see Appendix 1).The seed banks are managed by farmers themselves and are registered as Community based organizations (CBOs). Their operations are based on by-laws developed by beneficiary communities; hence trust and social capital form the core principles of their functioning and sustainability. The gene banks have management committees composed of the gene bank manager, records manager, distribution manager, quality assurance manager and community mobilizers. The management committees operate on a voluntary basis and are elected every two years. There is a lot of intraspecific and interspecific diversity of genetic resources for food and agriculture being held by the community groups ranging from 12 crops within a single CSB to 69 varieties of a single crop being held within a CSB. Appendix 1 summarizes the CSBs, the number of farmers they serve and the partnerships they have. Partnerships are mainly formed to facilitate seed production, conservation or preservation of local indigenous knowledge with national and international NGOs which offer technical and financial support; and with local seed companies which offer markets for the seed produced.Community seed banks in Uganda often hold seed fairs where they showcase their varieties. National Agricultural Research Organization\"s Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NARO-PGRC) which also hosts the national gene bank organizes seed fairs and exchange visits between farmer communities where they share, save and exchange seed and also share knowledge on seed production practices. In the past 5 years, 4 seed fairs have been held with 4 farmer communities from 4 agro-ecological zones exchanging good quality seed and knowledge for over 54 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties, and other crops such as millet, maize, groundnuts and sorghum, all of which contrinbute immensely to food and nutrition security. NARO-PGRC has also helped the CSBs develop community biodiversity registers and bean catalogues which have been published and distributed to other farmers during the seed fairs. The catalogues specifically contain the description of the varieties of beans held by the CSBs, the local name, the colour and appearance, the morphological characteristics, and the uses within the community. Through diversity fairs, farmers have ably communicated to a wider range of stakeholders on the importance of crop intra-specific diversity to food security, agricultural research and development for resilient seed systems.Community seed banks are also invited to the annual world food day where the International community and National governments reflect on issues of food security, hunger, malnutrition, climate change and poverty. In Uganda three community seed banks from Nakaseke, Rubaya and Sheema districts have for the past three years participated and show-cased their varieties and catalogues for beans to a wide range of stakeholders which comprise of Ministry of agriculture, National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), FAO, international and local NGOs, members of the diplomatic corps, academia and the media among others. This opportunity has not only been an avenue for creating awareness on community seed banks but also to share information and allow farmers to participate in important decisions that affect seed and food security.The 3 CSBs in Nakaseke, Sheema and Rubaya, have partnerships with NARO-PGRC and Bioversity International which have supported them financially through the construction of the structures for the seed banks; and have also provided technical support for the management of the CSBs and the production of good quality seed. Recently the CSB in Sheema has also been trained by seed inspectors from the seed Inspection and Verification department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) to produce quality declared seed (QDS) of 7 popular varieties of beans which they are now selling within the district of Sheema. The NARO-PGRC\"s gene bank also acts as a repository where farmers deposit local varieties which they hold in their CSBs for safe keeping in duplicates. This material is only made available through informed consent by communities for inclusion as voluntary contributions to the multilateral system (MLS). NARO-PGRC has also provided \"lost\" varieties from the national gene bank for restoration and re-introduction to the communities. So far 23 varieties of beans were re-introduced to the CSB in Sheema in 2010, 12 varieties to Nakaseke in 2014 and 11 varieties to Rubaya CSB in 2015.There are also a number of NGOs working with community seed banks to provide technical, financial and social support not only for their establishment but also for their sustainability. For example, 6 community seed bank initiatives namely Lwengo group, Watembo group, Andevuku group, Rubaya group and Dok ganger have been supported financially by local NGOs for their establishment and other technical issues regarding their management.The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) which is a government agency responsible for extension and outreach to farmers has also supported the establishment of two community seed initiatives namely Pagwari group and Binagoro group whose main objective was initially to have seed multiplication within the communities, but have now become quasi community seed banks where farmers can access good quality seed. To this end, NAADS has provided financial support and trained farmers in production of good quality seed and distributed improved seed to farmers in those communities. This has had positive outcome of achieving seed and food security; improving incomes and livelihoods of farmers; and enhancing access to improved and diverse seed varieties. 5. Policy Environment for Farmers\" Rights: What\"s in it for Ugandan CSBs?The national regulations on ABS were formulated in March 2005 in line with Article 15 of the CBD on Access to Genetic Resources and as a result, ABS guidelines were published in 2007. These regulations do not apply where the exchanges are among local communities for their own consumption; or if the material is used for local research or breeding purposes by national government operated academic or research centers. Uganda acceded to the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) in 2003. Under the ITPGRFA, the Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit sharing allows for the free exchange of materials that are automatically in the MLS which includes a list of 64 crops of materials held by public institutions such as national gene banks and national research centers. Materials held by community seed banks are therefore not automatically in the multilateral system of access and benefit sharing and therefore subject to CBD-Nagoya protocol rules for access. Farmers within the country are however free to access and exchange genetic resources within their communities and among themselves.Uganda\"s 2007 guidelines on ABS require that before one is given an Access Permit to access genetic resources held by communities, the person, group or association intending to access the genetic resources must obtain a Prior Informed Consent (PIC) and an Accessory Agreement with the community under Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT). The applicants then need to obtain a valid access permit from the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) which is the competent authority in order to take the materials to Rwanda (Appendix 1 below). In accordance to Ugandan ABS Laws, the MTA must outline the benefits to be shared and include these in the agreement including expected technology transfer. According to article 5.4 of the guideline mechanisms for sharing benefits must be under Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT) and concluded with beneficiaries in advance prior to accessing the genetic resources. The issue is further complicated by UNCST\"s requirements for an export permit from CITES management authority and an issuance of a certificate of origin by the ministry of Tourism. Experts from NEMA indicate that the average time for this process ranges between 12-18 months and can even go upto 2 years depending on the process of negotiations.Although the national gene bank (NARO-PGRC) stores farmers\" varieties in duplicates, this material is in \"black boxes\" and not accessible under the MLS. NARO-PGRC is technical advisory only for PGRFA, and responsible for PGRFA that is in the Multilateral system. In this case the negotiations for accessing the PGRFA from these CSBs are still done through the Nagoya protocol. The country is also in the process of developing guidelines for ABS under the ITPGRFA in harmony with the provisions of the CBD and Nagoya Protocol, a ministerial order was issued and a committee set to provide modalities for harmonizing ABS laws under NP and ITPGRFA and strengthening institutional arrangements for their implementation.Uganda has also developed a draft national policy on Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture but this still awaits tabling through cabinet and parliament.. Under the Draft National PGRFA policy 2015, Policy statement and strategy 3.6.1, 3.6.4 and 3.6.5 provide for the establishment of CBS, support of Community management of PGR and farmers\" rights respectively. The Draft National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2012, target 4.5, provides for efficient implementation of the MLS through; putting in place mechanisms for sharing the benefits from access of PGR; documentation of indigenous knowledge, innovations and practices in PGR and support of community based PGR management initiatives in various parts of the country, and these include CSBs.The Draft National seed policy 2014, section 3.2 provides for conservation of PGR and specially establishment of CBS, Section 3.3 (Objective 2) also provides for increased availability and access to quality seed of preferred varieties to complement those produced under the formal seed system, among others.Currently Uganda does not have a farmers\" rights law or any other document addressing farmers\" rights however the draft national PGRFA policy and strategy states that as part of the new developments in the establishment of appropriate legislation for the management of PGRFA, a traditional varieties protection act will be developed to provide protection for materials held by CSBs. In providing this protection some core elements of farmers\" rights will be protected or realized.Enacted in 2010, the bill seeks to recognize and protect the rights of breeders over plant varieties protected by them. It also promotes the use of appropriate mechanisms for fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from use of plant varieties, knowledge and technologies and institutions for the protection of breeders\" rights. However, the bill does not have any clauses protecting farmers\" rights, indigenous knowledge, or the rights to save, exchange use and sell farm-saved seed, it is also silent on communities\" rights. In fact, the bill specifically states that \"the act does not affect the traditional methods of access, use or exchange of knowledge, technologies and plant varieties by local and between local communities\". Thus by only granting IPRs to breeders, efforts by CSBs is diminished especially with respect to increasing access to seed and sharing benefits arising from PGRFA. There are certain exemptions in the plant breeders\" rights which allow for the exchange of seed among farmers only for purposes other than commercial, such as for food production. Farmers are not allowed to sell farm saved seed. This limits the freedom of CSBs to exchange and sell seed. And recently, stakeholders have suggested the development of another act to protect the rights of farmers\" and their traditional knowledge, this is still under development.This paper purposed to explore: the role of community seed banks in the realization of and promotion of farmers\" rights in Uganda and to interrogate the policy environment for CSBs to operate in Uganda. The study results indicate that although community seed banks are a relatively new phenomenon in the country, they are helping to realize farmers\" rights in many ways. CSBs in Uganda are helping communities to conserve and manage their genetic resources while at the same time exchanging seed and sharing the diversity and information they have among Ugandan farmers. CSBs have contributed to the documentation and protection of local indigenous knowledge. Through the support of research and local NGOs the CSBs have enabled farmers to participate in decision making specifically with respect to the way their genetic resources are conserved in situ and at the national genebank and the way these materials are availed to the communities when they need them. In the face of climate change CSBs have also played a critical role in facilitating participatory varietal selection, conserving and making available genetic resources that are adapted to climate change thus contributing immensely towards the communities\" productivity and food security.An analysis of policy space reveals that community seed banking is not well provided for in most national laws and policies relating to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic diversity, or access and benefit sharing. However, key draft National policies and laws relating to Seed, PGR conservation and Utilization, Plant variety Protection and interim provisions for streamlining access and benefit sharing of PGRFA in Uganda do create some space for their recognition and protection; and for documentation of indigenous knowledge. benefit CSBs. The Draft National PGRFA policy recognizes the important role that CSBs play in-situ conservation strategies and proposes the support of CSBs technically and financially through a fund. Furthermore, the PVP act 2014 also provides for gazetting PGR centres and establishment of a Gene fund that can also be used to support conservation and PGR management initiatives done by CSBs.The above mentioned draft instruments fully recognize farmers\" rights to good quality diverse seeds for food security and livelihood improvement. They also acknowledge community seed banking as an effectively functioning linkage to provide for the implementation of the laws and policy provisions on farmers\" rights. Once approved and fully implemented, community seed banking will be a nodal link to foster, farmers\" rights advocacy, recognition and protection. The draft national PGRFA policy specifically proposes that a fund be set up to support in-situ conservation activities and this will ensure the sustainability of the CSBs. NARO-PGRC and other partners are using this platform to ensure National support for CBS is institutionalized and funded.Finally, as a way forward; more community seed banks should be established and existing ones supported as part of the process of realizing farmers\" rights in Uganda and fulfilling obligations of the plant treaty specifically with respect to access and benefit sharing and realization of farmers\" rights. The community seed banks\" activities should also be integrated in wider programmes and activities related to conservation and variety development i.e by linking to the national gene bank for in-situ ex situ complementarities in conservation; or linked to breeding programmes for development of new varieties through participatory varietal development. Community seed banks also need to be included in climate change adaptation programmes as they are able to help communities build their resilience by providing suitably adapted seed and contribute largely to food security. The development of the traditional varieties act which is on-going should include substantial elements of farmers\" rights and the recognition and support ie technical and financial of CSBs towards realizing these rights.","tokenCount":"5382"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55dc848dbdded7b777425840e6db1135","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1f9cc8d0-0303-475a-93da-0c2323dcedb3/retrieve","id":"-89832311"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f3c61e5d-ea31-4914-a840-3e8fbde2540e","pagecount":"10","content":"The convergence of the biodiversity and climate crises, widening of wealth inequality, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the urgent need to mobilize change to secure sustainable futures. Centres of tropical biodiversity are a major focus of conservation efforts, delivered in predominantly site-level interventions often incorporating alternative-livelihood provision or poverty-alleviation components. Yet, a focus on site-level intervention is ill-equipped to address the disproportionate role of (often distant) wealth in biodiversity collapse. Further these approaches often attempt to 'resolve' local economic poverty in order to safeguard biodiversity in a seemingly virtuous act, potentially overlooking local communities as the living locus of solutions to the biodiversity crisis. We offer Connected Conservation: a dual-branched conservation model that commands novel actions to tackle distant wealth-related drivers of biodiversity decline, while enhancing site-level conservation to empower biodiversity stewards. We synthesize diverse literatures to outline the need for this shift in conservation practice. We identify three dominant negative flows arising in centres of wealth that disproportionately undermine biodiversity, and highlight the three key positive, though marginalized, flows that enhance biodiversity and exist within biocultural centres. Connected Conservation works to amplify the positive flows, and diminish the negative flows, and thereby orientates towards desired states with justice at the centre. We identify connected conservation actions that can be applied and replicated to address the telecoupled, wealth-related reality ofbiodiversity collapse while empowering contemporary biodiversity stewards. The approach calls for conservation to extend its collaborations across sectors in order to deliver to transformative change.The convergence of the biodiversity and climate crises, widening of wealth inequality, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the urgent need to mobilize change to secure sustainable futures (Brondizio et al., 2019;Daszak et al., 2020;Pörtner et al., 2021). In contrast to conventional conservation that tends to focus on site-based intervention often in combination with local poverty alleviation goals, or incorporates market-based fixes that further commoditise nature, we call for a 'Connected Conservation'. This new conservation approach challenges conservation to target wealth accumulation as the key factor driving environmental degradation, albeit in 'distant' geographies. Further, it enhances conventional site-level conservation by working to amplify the contributions of indigenous and local communities to conservationnot just locally -in the management of their immediate environments, but also through enhancing the potential for feedbacks that serve to redefine common visions of prosperity, and cultivate positive human-to-human and human-to-nature values in society at large. Such a dual-armed approach is now essential to addressing the \"global interconnectivity\" that threatens biodiversity (Lenzen et al., 2012;Liu et al., 2013) and achieving the \"urgent policy action […] required to transform economic, social and financial models\" (CBD, 2021) in socially just, equitable and decolonial ways. This policy analysis synthesizes across broad literatures, to offer the conservation, policy and practice communities a concise account of some of the challenges facing contemporary conservation, and how Connected Conservation can overcome them.Despite increasing recognition of a new age of telecoupling, in which rising urban living and consumption-heavy lifestyles are disproportionately driving biodiversity decline in tropical forest landscapes (Brondizio et al., 2019;Almond et al., 2020;Dasgupta, 2020), the largely western 'conservation movement' (Pascual et al., 2021) remains dominated by local interventions and site-level protection or restoration, rather than actions focused on wealthy centres. For example, contemporary protection-centred interventions--e.g. Half Earth, '30 by 30' -advocate for extensive protected areas within hyperdiverse regions, rather than actions targeting distant drivers (Wilson, 2016;Waldron et al., 2020). Contemporary conservation thereby unduly exonerates those actors in centres of wealth and consumption who are most responsible for the biodiversity crisis, propagates the white-saviour colonial conservation style (Rudd et al., 2021), forfeits the opportunity of learning from contemporary biodiversity stewards, and ultimately fails conservation and its justice dimensions (Gordon et al., 2010;Díaz et al., 2019).Here we outline Connected Conservation -based around two foci: (1) a new, challenging, and disruptive branch of telecoupled conservation that uses novel tools to make visible, and new actions to tackle, systemic and often 'off-stage' (mostly distant and diffuse) (Pascual et al., 2017b) causes of biodiversity loss and (2) collaborative conservation -an enhanced form of existing site-level intervention that amplifies the longstanding contribution of local populations to conservation (Garnett et al., 2018). We then identify concrete actions towards this new, transformative and expanded Connected Conservation agenda.The failure to address the 'distant' drivers of biodiversity decline can undermine conservation in two important ways: by shirking the centrality of financial wealth and by passing-up on the opportunity of collaborating with, championing and learning from, biodiversity stewards.Narratives that uncritically blame or implicitly associate poor people at the site-level with biodiversity loss evade the predominant role of wealth as a key driver of biodiversity decline (Fig. 1) (Otero et al., 2020). Yet distant wealth, not site-level cash poverty, is the dominant driver behind many of the major threats to biodiversity acting through three main flows: (i) trade, (ii) climate change and (iii) a dominant 'one-world development model' (Fig. 2). Each is expanded below.An immense amount of resource draining takes place from North to South in unequal exchange under the guise of trade (Hickel et al., 2022). Globalized commodity trade is often financed by destination countries and involves intentional cost-shifting to lower income regions (Pascual et al., 2017b), driving environmental and cultural harms in countries with abundant resources (Lenzen et al., 2012) (Fig. 1). Some examples include agricultural expansion (Ceddia, 2020;Rajão et al., 2020), deforestation (Pendrill et al., 2019;Hoang and Kanemoto, 2021), overfishing (Tickler et al., 2018;Sumaila et al., 2019) and illegal wildlife trade (Duffy, 2016;Dang Vu, 2021), all of which result in species extinctions, either directly (e.g. with threatened bird species (Marshall et al., 2020)) or, indirectly (e.g. via bycatch associated with illegal fishing gear (Jaramillo-Legorreta et al., 2019)). Pollution is driving biodiversity decline and change through fertilizer and pesticide run-off from intensive commodity production, largely for export (Clark et al., 2018). Demand for illegal drugs is also key; conservation interventions and local communities are undermined by weakened territorial control within source and transit countries (Wrathall et al., 2020).Tackling climate change is central to averting global biodiversity loss (Manes et al., 2021;Pörtner et al., 2021). Extreme climatic events such as flooding, droughts, heatwaves and fires are jeopardizing biodiversity in terrestrial, fresh-water, and marine systems (Barlow et al., 2018;França et al., 2020;Manes et al., 2021). Climate change impacts from greenhouse gas emissions have been primarily and historically produced in centres of wealth; though some tropical countries such as Brazil and Indonesia have a high historical contribution through land use change, much of this can be attributed to global trade and commodity demand, rather than domestic consumption (Evans, 2021).Nearly all countries define societal progress as dependent on continuous and limitless economic growth within capitalist economies. This ubiquitous 'One World' model of development (Escobar, 2015) underpins global trade and climate change impacts, thus making it a powerful underlying (indirect) driver of global declines in biological (Otero et al., 2020) and cultural diversity (biocultural diversity) (Maffi and Woodley, 2012). The One World development model propagates cultural norms and mental structures that protect and legitimize the associated interests of the wealthy, compel affluence through material and energy growth, commodification and individualization, and seek \"modernity as unending progress\" (Feola et al., 2021). Furthermore, financial wealth accumulation drives alienation, rootlessness and inequality, that further undermine conservation (Pickett and Wilkinson, 2010;Martin, 2020). This development paradigm is grounded on an extractive and rent-seeking economic model that places humans as dominators of an ever-extractable nature (Muradian and Pascual, 2018). As such, it legitimizes prevailing governance patterns based on competition rather than cooperation, which are supported by current global institutions determining national economic policies and regulations (Kothari et al., 2019). This in turn fuels an accelerated global material and energy metabolism that directly degrades ecosystems, homogenises cultural diversities, and contributes to climate change.All three negative flows from centres of wealth dominate, and extend beyond jurisdictional bordersor across markedly different sociocultural contexts within countriesin a process known as telecoupling (Liu et al., 2013). Conventional, largely site-level conservation, is inadequate for tackling these transboundary flows associated with global wealth drivers (Gordon et al., 2010;Friess et al., 2015;Díaz et al., 2019).In addition to circumventing the dominant role of distant drivers, the disproportionate focus on site-level conservation places the onus for change on socially and economically marginalized communities (Adams et al., 2004;Skutsch and Turnhout, 2020). These approaches often attempt to 'resolve' local economic poverty in order to safeguard biodiversity (Roe et al., 2015;Woodhouse et al., 2021), in a seemingly virtuous act delivered by the too-often white saviour, rather than question what constitutes 'poverty' and what enhances well-being in rural place-based communities (though methods exist for doing so, e.g. Llopis et al., 2019;Carmenta et al., 2022). Further introducing economic rewards, payments and incentives can perversely nudge local actors in to the supply chains that already drive deforestation and biodiversity loss, or overwrite values related to stewardship of nature (Ezzine- de-Blas et al., 2019;Otero et al., 2020). Crucially, such site-level conservation may overlook local communities as the living locus of solutions to the biodiversity crisis -evidence shows how low intensity anthromes overlap with land held and managed by Indigenous and traditional communities (Garnett et al., 2018). It thereby misses the opportunity of empowering those local biodiversity stewards and fails to engage, champion and learn from the local knowledge and cultural norms that have proven consonant with care for nature (Büscher and Fletcher, 2019). Meanwhile, wealth-related drivers, and sometimes conservation intervention itself, are debasing centres where biocultural diversity flourishes and undermining the capacity of local people to defend biodiversity (Temper et al., 2015;Duffy et al., 2019;MacGregor, 2020). In many places, cultural diversity has persistently been attenuated, subjugated and stigmatized by the dominant flows of trade, climate change and one-world development that arise from centres of financial wealth (Maffi and Woodley, 2012). Yet, these communities contribute to biological conservation through three central, albeit increasingly marginalized, flows: (i) local models of biocultural governance, (ii) diverse knowledge and (iii) plural values (Fig. 2). Each is elaborated below.In many places, local models of biocultural governance systems (including territorial governance) enable and allow local communities to survive and flourish (Stavenhagen, 2006). Even while being eroded, local governance is a counter-force to globalisation and stands in direct contrast to one world developmentunderpinned by the philosophy of community and commons (over individualism and private accumulation), attachment to place and territory, and small environmental footprints (Feola et al., 2021). For instance, community-based agroecological production is associated with resilience, provision of multiple ecosystem services and agro-biodiversity (Padoch and Pinedo-Vasquez, 2010;Tscharntke et al., 2012;Tamburini et al., 2020). Despite constant threat, indigenous people and local communities retain sufficient autonomy to hold roughly 67 % of the world's remotest land under customary systems of tenure and governance (Garnett et al., 2018). Further, much of this land represents \"intact forest\" landscapes that are often effectively conserved and are contemporary strongholds of biological and cultural diversity (Fa et al., 2020;Dawson et al., 2021).Diverse knowledge systems and understanding of people-nature relations support, and are maintained by, different ways of knowing and experiencing the world (Ingold, 2002;Maffi and Woodley, 2012). Traditional and local ecological knowledge plays an important role in structuring species composition, agro-biodiversity, sustainable resource use and land management and thus is highly relevant for conservation (Reyes-García and Benyei, 2019). Furthermore, there are strong associations between cultural and biological diversity leading to the observation that landscape homogenization (e.g. via monoculture expansion) leads to lost ways of knowing, or the 'homogenization of the mind' (Maffi and Woodley, 2012;Cámara-Leret and Bascompte, 2021).A large diversity of values about nature exist within and across societies (IPBES, 2022). Within such diversity, positive 'relational values' (Chan et al. 2016) that express integration with and stewardship of nature tend to be more prevalent in the rural and small-scale communities that conservation so often engages with (Agarwala et al., 2014). Moral, gift and solidarity economies have enabled the resilience and persistence of local communities, even while they negotiate their marginalized positions within dominant models of development and market exchange in order to maintain their own ways of living (from, with, in, and as) nature (Henrich et al., 2005;Adams et al., 2008;Hill et al., 2021). Further, diverse conceptions of living a good life likely also enhance our capacity to identify new, viable solutions and alternative developments not centred on affluence and wealth accumulation (Gómez-Baggethun et al., 2013;Leyva-Solano, 2019).Addressing biodiversity loss in an economically interconnected world challenges us to develop a revised model of conservation based on greater awareness of connections among actors, locations and disciplines. Our 'Connected Conservation' model (Fig. 2) targets the role of wealth in environmental health collapse and biodiversity loss, interrogates common views of what constitutes poverty and well-being, and disrupts the dominant flows marginalizing nature. Yet is also recognizes and supports and contributes to positive, local biocultural governance, practices and values. This process of deconstructing accepted norms and models, combined with articulating efficient alternatives, is deemed necessary for the emergence of new sustainable futures (Feola et al., 2021).Connected Conservation therefore requires two broad, ideally interconnected, sets of actions (Fig. 2): (1) telecoupled conservation actions that reduce and filter the dominant systemic flows of one-world development, climate change and trade from centres of wealth, and (2) collaborative conservation actions that enhance and amplify the positive yet marginalized forms of local governance, diverse knowledge systems and plural values of nature from bioculturally diverse regions. Connected Conservation thus recognizes and mobilises justice and diversity, making space for transformative conservation actions in a movement that pushes for change at different levels, unconstrained by colonial ideas and models of site-level conservation.In essence, Connected Conservation pursues desired states within which both biodiversity and humanity can flourish. As illustrated in Fig. 2, within centres of wealth the desired states uphold (i) accountable and regulated trade supported by (ii) gratification not growth, thereby leading to a reduced desire and demand for socio-environmentally harmful consumption. Within biocultural centres, Connected Conservation actions pursues (iii) local governance, rights and selfdetermination, and (iv) respect and learning from diverse knowledge and plural values.The actions Connected Conservation needs to progress towards these desired states are available within four interlinked and overarching levers (Independent group of Scientists, 2019): (i) Governance and Accountability (e.g. accessible, transparent, effective, fair and systemic);  offers is conservation with justice at the centre, albeit while representing a great challenge to the networks and norms of contemporary conservation, pushing the conservation effort to connect across sectors to deliver.Novel conservation actions adequate for a telecoupled world will be the most transformative for the conservation agenda. A set of these must focus on reducing the negative flows from commodity and wildlife trade requiring regulations that allow for (a) internalising trade-related externalities and cost shifting to distant places-e.g. via commodity prices, (b) equitably safeguarding the value chain by ensuring actors (and thus their actions) and finance are traceable, (c) tightening regulations and compliance mechanisms to avoid the cost-shifting inherent in trade and (d) improving the transparency of trade agreements, fishing licensing and large-scale land acquisitions. Achieving these shifts involves actions across all levers. Although changes are ultimately delivered through trade policy (i.e. economy and finance and governance levers), these will only become available by progress and demand generated through the science and research and collective action levers. This is because existing trade institutions are designed to protect rather than challenge the dominant influence of financial wealth (Visseren-Hamakers et al., 2021;Hickel et al., 2022). Powerful vested interests in centres of wealth hold great political influence, while small-scale land or resource users with less political or economic visibility become scapegoats (Hickel et al., 2022).The short-term, pro-growth and siloed decision-making tendencies of global trade must ultimately be resolved through actions within the economy and finance lever. This will require addressing the dominant corporate culture that continuously aspires to influence rule-making and monopolise resources (Hickel, 2017). Curbing corporations' lobbying influence might be partly achieved by expanding impact evaluation processes of proposed mergers, specifically through assessing impacts on prices, market structures, human well-being and the environment more broadly (Cafaggi and Pistor, 2015;Clapp, 2021). Lobbying for trade policy shifts such as blocs against 'imported deforestation' (Bager et al., 2021), or moratoria for suppliers or regions linked to environmental harm can have considerable impacts. Identifying, communicating and lobbying for policy reforms, such as curbing fisheries subsidies through the World Trade Organisation (Cisneros-Montemayor et al., 2020), is crucial for Connected Conservation.Science and technology are fundamental, as they can gather evidence and develop the tools required to enable needed reforms. For instance TRASE (an open-access platform on supply chain flows) has enabled transparent monitoring of trade and finance linked to externalities (or cost-shifting) of deforestation (Gardner et al., 2019), while Global Fishing Watch is improving traceability via tracking global fishing activity in near real time. Evidence-based information can strengthen lawsuits focused on delivering liability for environmental and social externalities of extraction. For example, 'counter-forensics' (Digital Architecture group) generated evidence fundamental to the ultimate expulsion of a giant palm oil company from FSC certification in old growth Papuan forest (BBC, 2021).One key way to diminish all three negative flowsone world development, climate change and global trade (Brondizio et al., 2019;Pörtner et al., 2021) involves reducing the demand for commodity consumption in centres of wealth. This requires actions across all levers, many of which are not within the conventional remit of site-level conservation and challenge conservation to work towards transforming deeply entrenched ideologies of success and progress (Cinner and Kittinger, 2015;Balmford et al., 2021).Redefining common visions of prosperity is considered fundamental to reducing excessive consumer demand for commodities from extractive sectors and the 'breaking of capitalist habits' (Feola et al., 2021). Citizen action and mobilisation is vital. While government action is necessary, mainstreaming norms of living that reduce consumerism is unlikely to manifest without strong, bottom-up, demand from an informed population. Thus, through the interplay between collective action, and science and technology levers -Connected Conservation seeks actions that inform and mobilize publics to demand system change. Lack of concern or emotional disconnection has shown to be a main obstacle to more effective collective action, and it is particularly pervasive with long-distance environmental problems such as deforestation overseas (Bastos Lima et al., 2021). Conversely, the strength of humanitarian, emotive story-telling has been central in the climate change movement (Raymond et al., 2013) and may offer promise for conservation (Caldwell and Henry, 2020). Research shows that revealing the humanitarian dimension of environmental harm may help mobilize actors, and can engage even diverse stakeholders with powerful interests in the status quo (Carmenta et al., 2017). Research on the narrative shifts that would help recalibrate the understanding of conservation as a form of aid, to conservation as a collective responsibility underscored by principles of stewardship is crucial (Trisos et al., 2021). Conservation-orientated gaming, citizen science platforms and citizens assemblies have all been used to help reach a broader public with messaging about the importance and intricacy of our collective relationship with the natural world (Dorward et al., 2017;Fletcher, 2017), or enhancing empathy for 'distant' citizens through innovative methods (e.g. virtual reality) (Nelson et al., 2020).Broadening access to the knowledge and science that explains sustainability problems and the role of actors within them is also important (Blasiak et al., 2021). Connected Conservation must work more closely with the education and advertising sectors within centres of wealth to ensure that concepts such as climate change, justice, natural history, planetary boundaries, political ecology, sustainability and telecoupling are sufficiently embedded within formal educational curricula, because people may care more for what they know (Heimlich and Ardoin, 2008). Once inspired, citizens can be a powerful source of pressure on governments to demand effective and just policies supporting Connected Conservation (Raymond et al., 2013;Amel et al., 2017).Connected Conservation must identify and lobby for policies that convey broad ideological shifts towards the \"subordinat[ion of] economic objectives to ecological criteria\" (Raymond et al., 2013;Escobar, 2015;Hughes et al., 2017). These policies may enable, or require, citizens and companies to make sustainable decisions regardless of their own environmental values. Recent research and action shows how behavioral science and environmental law can be used across scales to foster positive changes (Balmford et al., 2021). For instance, environmental law can assist transformational change through enforcement, correctives and compensation for victims, which ultimately signal to society that over-consumption and associated damages are no longer acceptable (e.g. illegal wildlife trade (Phelps et al., 2021)).Connected Conservation requires bringing together a wide range of stakeholders and sectors to demystify and popularize contemporary 'alternative' living models that respect planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009;Raworth, 2017). Examples of such models include social housing ventures that aspire to reduce overconsumption (Angel, 2021;Martínez, 2021), and the movement of cities geared around reclaiming and protecting the commons to satisfy social wellbeing without the need of expansion (Comú et al., 2019;Russell, 2019;Thompson, 2021). Additional examples, already being put into action, include community economies, transition towns, and ecovillagesand are geared towards enhanced resilience through, potentially replicable and scalable, decarbonized and care-focused communities (Hopkins et al., 2008;Litfin, 2012;Gibson-Graham et al., 2013;Kallis and March, 2015). Connected Conservation can support a research agenda focused on identifying the impacts of these alternative models, and how to raise their profile to promote large-scale change (Balmford et al., 2021). Lobbying for supportive policies could help ensure that increased demand for new aspirational futures is coupled with government investments to normalize and make available the alternative models needed, which in turn can shift cultural norms and consumer preferences (Scott, 2008), particularly, when accompanied by better advertising regulation.Proximity between research and activism has proven a fertile ground for transformation (Fletcher et al., 2020). For example, the fusion of post-growth and degrowth academic and activist movements have started to define alternative aspirational futures that replace and recast notions of wealth and understandings of progress, and also identify policy options that may support them (Kallis, 2018). These 'radical' partners (e.g. activists, climate action youth, eco-feminists, political ecologists) have, however, hitherto remained peripheral to conventional conservation but hold great promise for Connected Conservation (Massarella et al., 2021).An enhanced model of site-level conservation (i.e. collaborative conservation) must be supported by empowering alternative knowledge systems, visions of a good life and the plurality of values about nature (IPBES, 2022). It can do so by amplifying the presently marginalized flows that contribute to transformative sustainability values (Visseren-Hamakers et al., 2021). Establishing meaningful recognition and broad validation for the diverse lifeways, notions of a good life and knowledge systems requires profound change in conservation practice in centres of wealth (see Sections 3.1 and 3.2), as well as in site-level conservation action. Decolonial conservation approaches that engage with transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and impact evaluations are opening new horizons (Rodríguez and Inturias, 2018). For instance, the shift enables Connected Conservation to be more aligned with local conceptions of well-being and the full suite of values that influence and motivate behaviours; it also helps reveal the true extent of injustices created by environmental harms, or indeed sometimes conservation intervention itself (Carmenta et al., n.d.;Cundill et al., 2017;Zafra-Calvo et al., 2020). New relational frameworks are enriching our understanding of the ways in which the environment mediates and contributes to multi-dimensional human well-being (Chan et al. 2016;Sterling et al., 2017).An example of progress in this direction is a site-level approach to assess and enhance governance of area-based conservation developed by an international consortium of NGOs and scientists. SAGE (Site-level Assessment of Governance and Equity) is a toolkit for multi-stakeholder assessment of conservation governance designed around three dimensions of equity: recognition, procedure and distribution (Schreckenberg et al., 2016). This and other related initiatives such as the IUCN Green List are important because they change the basis upon which we evaluate the performance of area-based conservation, from singular attention on biodiversity gains (and/or financial poverty alleviation) to measures more attuned with biocultural approaches, including recognition of local values and knowledge. By documenting and duly recognizing diverse people-nature relationships, IPBES is also helping to counter dominant worldviews and build momentum towards broader recognition of the contribution of biodiversity to human well-being and the diverse relationships between people and nature (Pascual et al., 2017a;Díaz et al., 2018).The capability to reclaim, rebuild and revive cultural ties is a resistance option that defends marginalized peoples and their cultures from homogenization (Rodríguez and Inturias, 2018;Yuliani et al., 2018;Leyva-Solano, 2019). Connected Conservation requires strong collaboration with place-based voices that defy dominant development in defence of diverse values, norms, knowledges and socio-ecological practices (Pilgrim and Pretty, 2010;Fletcher et al., 2020;Pascual et al., 2021). Working with humility across stakeholders and sectors can enable governance responsessuch as educational curricula that reproduce and recognize local traditional and Indigenous perspectives (Garcia and Shirley, 2013). For example, place-based curricula have been a formidable tool in the political agency and resistance of the marginalized, from the Zapatistas of Mexico and the peasant agro-food territories (TCAs) of Colombia, to the Eskola Rimba (Rimba School) of Indonesia (Leyva-Solano, 2019;Manurung, 2019;Feola et al., 2021). At their most powerful, place-based educational material will reach beyond local curriculums and be delivered to wider social groups (Guilherme and Hüttner, 2015).Crucially, Connected Conservation must move beyond simplified assumptions of values and incentives. For example, from a focus on shifting human behavior through individual motives and values (Balmford et al., 2021), towards focussing on larger-scale systemic shifts, or questioning structural socio-economic conditions driving exclusion, disempowerment and associated aspects of poverty. Further, the concept of biodiversity stewards remains branded as a 'romantic' vision that stands against the 'better evidence' and pragmatic realism of frameworks centred on utility-maximising 'man' (Bregman, 2020). These colonial tendencies of conventional conservation are now being called out (Armenteras, 2021;Gram-Hanssen et al., 2021;Trisos et al., 2021). New research could help identify what enables the resilience and persistence of local communities (rather than their collapse) (Smith et al., 2021) and, in so doing, identify how best to support communities over the long term. For example, in Indonesia's oil palm frontiers strong social connections, integral customary traditions and embedded peoplenature relationships are central to the rejection of oil palm development (Yuliani et al., 2020).Increasingly, local communities and networks are mobilising to share their knowledge and build alternative futures. Though still marginal and as yet unable to make significant macro-level transformations, such initiatives reflect a visible counter-trend to one-world development. These alternatives can be a re-assertion of ancient cultures, or be very new, but all have a core of ethical values that put justice and nature (including humans) at the centre. Bringing together these ideas and practices to create a critical mass is seen as crucial, and learnings from initiatives such as the Global Tapestry of Alternatives and the Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) represent promising opportunities for Connected Conservation partnerships (Kothari, 2020).The collaborative branch of Connected Conservation sees empowered, autonomous and self-determined local communities being supported by established, recognized and defended rights. The positive flows of local biocultural governance, diverse values and diverse knowledge can be enhanced and safeguarded by governance changes that move away from the traditional approach of 'resolving' frugal lifestyles, and instead champion the authority, rights and capabilities of contemporary biodiversity stewards to exercise diverse visions of prosperity (Stavenhagen, 2006;Garnett et al., 2018), and living well with nature.Forms of governance that enable place-based stewardship of nature in the context of local culture and knowledge, provide effective, equitable and cost-efficient models for conservation and restoration of biodiverse landscapes (Schleicher et al., 2017;Reyes-García et al., 2019). This major contribution to conservationand its diversity of local and alternative models of conservationis now beginning to be recognized in international conservation. For example through the adoption of new terminology (e.g. Other Effective area based Conservation Measures (OECMs) or Indigenous and Community Conserved areas (ICCAs)) to recognize areas of land and sea that are effectively conserved locally even where the primary management objective focuses on culture, autonomy or wellbeing, rather than biodiversity conservation per se (Alves-Pinto et al., 2021;Gurney et al., 2021;Shaw, 2021). Biosphere Reserves (BRs) sponsored by UNESCO offer an example of a site-based biocultural model of conservation supported through formal global conservation governance. They promote a model for learning about diverse ways of living with nature that incorporates a biocultural basis for conservation. This principle was established with the first example in Cape Horn (Berghoefer et al., 2010) and their benefits over more segregationist models of conservation have since been documented in many locations, along with the possibilities for strengthening the BR approach through greater commitment to biocultural diversity (Karez et al., 2015). The BR model links with larger scale 'telecoupled' conservation as it is influenced by global efforts to counter hegemonic oneworld development, through global legal interventions such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and global scientific initiatives such as the knowledge and value pluralism.Broader innovations within state legal systems can enhance biodiversity conservation locally, providing a pathway for self-determined management strategies informed by plural values. Legal governance, and specifically environmental law, holds unrealized potential to uphold environmental protection and support place-based conservation and associated localized cultural practices (Phelps et al., 2021). For instance, in 2017, the government of New Zealand/Aotearoa granted personhood to the Whanganui River (Te Awa Tupua) as a result of nation-to-nation negotiations with the Māori of the Whanganui Iwi (Macpherson, 2019). Ecuador has incorporated Indigenous law into its constitution by giving rights to 'Pachamama' (Mother Earth) as well as \"buen vivir\" (\"living well\") as a holistic measure to protect marginalized members of society, and support Indigenous principles of responsibility, reciprocity and interconnectedness (Sajeva, 2017).Important instances of resistance and self-determination have been catalysed through the collective action lever in multiple biocultural centres which Connected Conservation can support. For example, peasant and Indigenous movements and networks such as the Zapatistas, La Via Campesina, TCAs and ICCAs all orientate around principles of localized aspirational futures, and are grounded on principles such as autonomy, food sovereignty, solidarity, sufficiency, participation and the collective (Kothari et al., 2019;Feola et al., 2021). Through diverse partnerships with stakeholders that are embedded in place, locally salient welfare needs and hardships can be identified. Sound health is a prerequisite for the freedom to choose and self-define futures, and some conservation initiatives are now working in collaboration with the health sector to provide these services that inadvertently strengthen community capability to remain and to flourish (Miller, 2020).Conservation science and practice is constantly evolving, from its original biological focus (Soulé, 1985), to its more recent consideration of people and societies (Mace, 2014) and a phase featuring investments in nature (Kareiva and Marvier, 2012). It is evident another step change is unfolding (Büscher and Fletcher, 2019). Connected Conservation builds on this momentum to take us beyond site-level emphasis, or simplistic narratives about poverty and local biodiversity threats. It instead highlights the role of wealth-related drivers in precipitating biodiversity and cultural loss. Bringing about the four desired states in which biological and cultural diversity can flourish will not be easy or straightforward-there are strongly embedded power structures that encourage incremental innovation (Feola et al., 2021), rather than more fundamental changes to challenge the status quo. We do not contend that the conservation sector has either the expertise or capacity to deliver the four desired states alone, but highlight the necessary transformation to contemporary conservation, and the imperative to pursue new actions and alliances. Conservation must challenge itself to meet this need, working in diverse partnerships and with different sectors and disciplines to bring about fundamental changes with justice at the centre. A key task will be to improve our understanding of the impact of Connected Conservation actions across scales (Editorial, 2021), and how best to apply these actions so that we can live well without destroying the biological and cultural diversity that defines the living world and our well-being as part of it.RC, JB, CH and BV conceived the idea for the study; FF and NEC curated the data and ran the analysis; RC, JB, AM, NEP, FF prepared and developed the Figures and Visualizations; RC, JB, CH led the writing of the original draft. RC, JB, MBL, EB, SC, NEC, FF, EK, AL, AM, UP, NP, JR, IR, AS, TS, BV, JGZ and CH developed sub-section parts and made critical contributions to the review & editing phases of subsequent drafts, and gave final approval for publication.There is no conflict of interest.","tokenCount":"5334"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"154877cf8f4bb0507b6091285d209b76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4f7c9c11-4caf-477e-a018-64637de70f21/retrieve","id":"-1611774047"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"56725ecb-1616-4af5-aff3-c2e2f5a1ac56","pagecount":"79","content":"The year 2019 was the first year of the current five-year strategy (2019)(2020)(2021)(2022)(2023) of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). IWMI started implementation of the new strategy which included restructuring of the Leadership Team. The new strategy strengthens the alignment between global water challenges and IWMI's strategic programs. This was the third year of Phase 2 of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). WLE, as a program, continues to gain prominence. The new set of research activities that underpin Phase 2 are all well underway. IWMI completed the first phase of implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.This implementation included review and improvement of existing business processes. IWMI implemented the new Management structure which included restructuring the Research programs and hiring of new Country representatives. These changes ensure that the organization is ready to address the key water challenges that the world faces. Sri Lanka faced terrorist attacks in April 2019. This affected the operating environment for IWMI. Management with guidance from the Board made immediate improvements in security management and business processes to address the situation. IWMI is using the learning from this experience in the COVID-19 response.The global funding situation continues to remain variable. Global financial changes continue to challenge both IWMI and CGIAR. However, there was significant improvement in resource mobilization both at IWMI and at the CGIAR System level.The Board of Governors continues to take an active role in monitoring IWMI's risk management strategy, not only from the perspective of financial elements but also with respect to research strategies and issues.The Board has adopted the attached risk management policy that has been communicated to all staff together with detailed management guidelines. The policy includes a framework by which the Institute's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies that balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and reports, in conjunction with finance and administration staff, and internal audit staff, on results to the full Board annually.IWMI is working with CGIAR on the new One CGIAR initiative. The aim of this initiative is to ensure CGIAR has the organizational structure which can address global Food, Water and Land challenges. Increased funding from funders and improved governance are some of the results that are expected from this initiative. IWMI invests its funds in line with the investment policy approved by the Board of Governors, and IWMI's management regularly updates the Board on the implementation of the policy.On behalf of members of the Board, I wish to thank IWMI's investors and partners for their continued support and commitment to the Institute's work.The Board of Governors is responsible for the system of risk management and internal controls. Through the Audit Committee, the Board has reviewed the effectiveness of the Risk Management Processes. The identification of significant risks, which can affect achievement of the International Water Management Institute's (IWMI's) business objectives and ensure there is alignment with CGIAR principles, is an essential part of this Risk Management Process.The Board has reviewed the Risk Register and the proposed mitigation actions. The Board endorses the current risk ratings based on the analysis provided in the Risk Register. The global funding situation continues to remain variable. There was improvement in the amounts of funds received by IWMI in FY 2019. A number of new donors started funding IWMI and existing donors increased their contributions. This has brought in different sets of risks compared to the years before. These risks include operational, financial and reputational risks. The Risk Framework is implemented to address these risks. A process of regular follow-up to address risk mitigation measures has been initiated. The Board ensures that the full range of agreed risk mitigation actions are duly taken.Risks include the following:1. Misallocation of scientific efforts away from agreed priorities. 2. Loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity. 3. Increased competition from competitors, leading to a reduction of resources for IWMI to undertake key priorities. 4. Change in funding channels, leading to a reduction in the source of funds that IWMI can apply for. 5. Business disruption and information system failure. 6. Liquidity problems. 7. Transaction processing failures. 8. Loss of assets, including information assets. 9. Failure to recruit, retain, and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff. 10. Failure in staff health and safety systems. 11. Failure by the System Management Office to execute legal and fiduciary responsibilities. 12. Withdrawal or reduction of funding by donors due to variable funding situation. 13. Subsidization of the cost of projects funded from restricted grants and/or partial non-delivery of promised outputs, due to inadequate costing of restricted projects. 14. Failure by the lead center to comply with the terms of the agreement and/or not delivering on the agreed outputs. 15. Non-prioritization of natural resource management in the CGIAR Research Programs due to lack of funding.The process draws upon risk assessments and analyses prepared by staff of the center's business unit, internal auditors, center-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditors. Internal Audit is provided by Audit Asia, which is a shared audit unit between IWMI, International Rice Research Institute(IRRI), Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), WorldFish and the World Vegetable Center, and hosted by IWMI.IWMI's Risk Mitigation Strategy includes implementation of an internal control system which is preventive in nature. The internal control system includes having the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people in place. Regular business environment scans, implementation of clear policies and procedures, implementation of transaction approval frameworks, regular financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of both individuals and business processes are the key aspects of the internal control system.Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal control system are subject to ongoing review by the center's internal audit service, which is independent of the business units, and which reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and the Board of Governors through its Finance and Audit Committee. IWMI is currently working with other CGIAR centers on the One CGIAR initiative. Once the new One CGIAR initiative is completed, all CGIAR centers including IWMI will have a further improved risk management and Internal control system.The Board also remains alert to the impacts of external events over which the center has no control. In March 2020, the World Health Organization announced a global pandemic with the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This has full fledged remote working for all IWMI offices. This has been possible because of the investments made by IWMI in ERP and other processes over the last few years. This situation is going to continue and may require constant review by the IWMI Board. The experience received and improvements made as a result of the Sri Lanka Terrorist attacks in FY 2019 is helping IWMI to address the COVID-19 crisis. The Board aims to monitor the external situation including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and, if the need arises, provide mitigation measures.Chair, Board of Governors, IWMIFinancial Statements -December 31, 2019 Statement of the Management's Responsibilities for Financial Reporting IWMI management is required to prepare annual financial statements and is responsible for the accuracy and reliability of the financial information. IWMI management also claims responsibility for the substance and objectivity of the information contained therein.The accompanying annual financial statements of IWMI for the year ended December 31, 2019, have been prepared in accordance, and are fully compliant, with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and IFRS Compliant Reporting Guidelines released by the CGIAR System Organization. IWMI maintains a system of internal control designed to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded, and transactions are properly recorded and executed in accordance with the management's authorization.A system of reporting within IWMI presents the management with an accurate view of the operations, enabling it to discern risks to the assets or fluctuations in the economic environment of the Institute at an early stage and, at the same time, provide a reliable basis for the financial statements and management reports.The Board of Governors exercises its responsibility for these financial statements through its Finance and Audit Committee. The committee meets regularly with the management and representatives of the external auditors to review matters related to financial reporting, internal controls and auditing.The management is of the opinion that the annual financial statements, as presented in this document, give a true and fair view of IWMI's financial affairs and results for the year ended December 31, 2019.Director General The accounting policies on pages 13 to 30, notes on pages 31 to 54 and supplementary information on pages 55 to 74 form an integral part of the financial statements.  The accounting policies on pages 13 to 30, notes on pages 31 to 54 and supplementary information on pages 55 to 74 form an integral part of the financial statements.Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Accounting PoliciesThe International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is an international organization that works on research for development and partners with governments, civil society and the private sector. IWMI works to solve water problems by conducting research in developing countries in order to create and scale up solutions that will help to achieve a water secure world.  Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (\"IFRS\").The accompanying financial statements and supplementary schedules of IWMI were approved and authorized for issue by the Institute's Board of Governors on April 29, 2020. .The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis except for the following items, which are measured on an alternative basis on each reporting date. Defined benefit -Actuarially valued and obligation recognized at present value of the defined benefit obligation.The financial statements are presented in United States Dollars (USD), which is IWMI's functional and presentation currency. All financial information presented in USD has been rounded to the nearest thousand, unless otherwise indicated.In preparing these financial statements, the management has made judgments, estimates and assumptions that affect the application of IWMI's accounting policies and the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Actual results may differ from these estimates.Estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to estimates are recognized prospectively.Information about judgments made in applying accounting policies that have the most significant effects on the amounts recognized in the financial statements is included in the following notes.IWMI reviews all receivables at each reporting date to assess whether an impairment allowance should be recorded in the Statement of Activities. The management uses judgment in estimating such amounts in the light of the duration of the outstanding value and any other factors the management is aware of that may indicate uncertainty in recovery.Information about assumptions and estimation uncertainties that have significant risk of resulting in a material adjustment in the year ending December 31, 2019, is included in the following notes:Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Defined Benefit Plans (Note 3.14) Measurement of defined benefit obligations: key actuarial assumptions; Defined benefit plans -severance, gratuity, pension and leave encashment are determined using actuarial valuations. The actuarial valuation involves making assumptions about discount rates, future salary increases and mortality rates.Key assumptions underlying recoverable amounts, including the recoverability of development costs.A number of IWMI's accounting policies and disclosures require the measurement of fair values for both financial and non-financial assets and liabilities. IWMI regularly reviews significant unobservable inputs and valuation adjustments. If third party information is used to measure fair values, IWMI assesses the evidence obtained from the third parties to support the conclusion that such valuations meet the requirements of IFRS, including the level in the fair value hierarchy in which such valuations should be classified.When measuring the fair value of an asset or a liability, IWMI uses observable market data as far as possible.Fair values are categorized into different levels in a fair value hierarchy based on the inputs used in the valuation techniques as follows:Level 1: Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities. Level 2: Inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly (i.e. as prices) or indirectly (i.e. derived from prices). Level 3: Inputs for the asset or liability that is not based on observable market data (unobservable inputs).If the inputs used to measure the fair value of an asset or a liability fall into different levels of the fair value hierarchy then the fair value measurement is categorized in its entirety in the same level of the fair value hierarchy as the lowest level input that is significant to the entire measurement. IWMI recognizes transfers between levels of the fair value hierarchy at the end of the reporting period during which the change has occurred.IWMI has initially applied IFRS 16 with effect from January 1,2019. But it does not have a material effect on IWMI's financial statements.Except for the above IWMI has consistently applied the following accounting policies to all periods presented in these financial statements.Transactions denominated in currencies other than the presentation currency are translated to USD at the exchange rates prevailing at the beginning of the month in which the transaction took place. If the variation in the rates at the beginning and middle of the month is more than 2%, such variations are adjusted in the accounting system in the middle of the month.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than USD are translated to the functional currency at the exchange rate at the reporting date. Non-monetary items denominated in a foreign currency, which are carried at cost, are translated using the exchange rate prevailing on the date of the transaction.Foreign currency differences are generally recognized in the Statement of Activities.Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits during the period arising in the course of the ordinary activities of a CGIAR center, where those inflows result in increases in net assets. The major portion of a center's revenue is derived through the receipts of donor grants -either 'Unrestricted' or 'Restricted'.Unrestricted grant revenue arises from the unconditional transfer of cash or other assets to IWMI. Restricted grant revenue arises from a transfer of resources to IWMI in return for past or future compliance related to the operating activities of the Institute.Gross inflow of economic benefits includes amounts collected on behalf of the principal and do not result in an increase in the net assets, which are treated as 'Agency Transactions' and are not recognized as revenue.Grants are recognized as revenue when the outcome of a transaction involving the rendering of services can be measured reliably. Revenue associated with the transaction is recognized by making reference to the stage of completion of the transaction at the reporting date. Grants are recognized as revenue to the extent of the expenses incurred.Unrestricted grants are recognized as revenue upon unconditional transfer of cash or other assets by donors. Such revenue is recognized in full in the financial year for which the grant is pledged.As a Lead Center, grants received for the CRPs are recognized in the full amount of grants received from the System Organization (Windows 1 and 2), including the amounts passed on to other centers and spent by them. Disbursements to another CGIAR center by the Lead Center are recorded as a 'Prepaid Expense' until an expenditure report is received from the other center, and the expenditure amount is then liquidated from prepaid expense. This accounting treatment is in accordance with IFRS.Revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable. Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.(a) Cash grants are recorded at the face value of the cash received or the USD equivalent.(b) Grant revenue, including non-monetary grants at fair value, is recognized when there is reasonable assurance that the:i. organization will comply with the conditions attached to them; andii. grants will be received.(c) Grants are recognized as revenue over the periods necessary to match them with the related costs, which they are intended to compensate, on a systematic basis.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Cost Sharing Percentage (CSP) CSP is charged as follows:a) Windows 1 and 2 projects -Net grants after deducting CSP is received and accounted for the same. b) Windows 3 projects -Net grant after deducting CSP is received. As required by IFRS compliant CGIAR reporting guidelines, grant is reported gross and CSP is accounted for as an expense. c) Bilateral projects -Gross amount is received as the grant and 2% on the grant is recorded for and paid as an expense.Other revenues and gains are recognized in the period in which they are earned.Expenses are recognized when a decrease in future economic benefits, related to a decrease in an asset or an increase in a liability, has arisen that can be measured reliably. Expenses are recognized on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earning of specific items of revenue. IWMI presents an analysis of expenses using a classification based on the function and nature of expenses within the Institute.Research Expenses: These are the costs incurred for the activities that result in goods and services being distributed to beneficiaries, project proponents and members that fulfill the purpose of a mission for which IWMI exists.CGIAR Collaborator Expenses: This is the total expenditure incurred by other CGIAR centers in collaborative research undertaken by them.Non-CGIAR Collaborator Expenses: These are the costs incurred by external partners in collaborative research as per the contract research agreements between the partners and the CGIAR center.General and Administration Expenses: These are the expenses incurred for activities of IWMI other than Research Expenses. These expenses are also referred to as 'Governance and central support functions', 'Institutional costs' or 'Administrative costs'. The 'Management and Administration' costs are collectively referred to as indirect costs and include expenses of IWMI's Board of Governors, office of the Director General, Finance and Human Resources departments, internal and external audit costs, Communication and Knowledge Management (CKM) Division, and the unrecovered part of services.Direct costs are charged, in particular, to the programs benefited. Indirect costs are allocated to programs based on the total direct cost. The costs of providing the programs, management and general activities have been summarized on a functional basis in the notes. Accordingly, certain costs have been allocated among programs and other services, management and general activities.IWMI's finance income and expense include the following: Financial assets are not reclassified subsequently to their recognition unless the Institute changes its business model for managing financial assets, in which case all affected financial assets are reclassified on the first day of the first reporting period following the change in the business model.A financial asset is measured at amortized cost if it meets both of the following conditions and is not designated as at FVTPL; -It is held within a business model whose objective is to hold assets to collect contractual cash flows; and -Its contractual terms give rise on specified dates to cash flows that are solely payments of principal and interest on the principal amount outstanding. A debt investment is measured at FVOCI if it meets both of the following conditions and is not designated as at FVTPL; -It is held within a business model whose objective is achieved by both collecting contractual cash flows and selling financial assets; and -Its contractual terms give rise on specified dates to cash flows that are solely payment of principal and interest on the principal amount outstanding.On the initial recognition of an equity investment that is not held for trading, the Institute may irrevocably elect to present subsequent changes in the investment's fair value in OCI. This election is made on an investment-by-investment basis.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019All financial assets not classified as measured at amortized cost or FVOCI as described above are measured at FVTPL. This includes all derivative financial assets. On initial recognition, the Institute may irrevocably designate a financial asset that otherwise meets the requirements to be measured at amortized cost or at FVOCI as at FVTPL if doing so eliminates or significantly reduces an accounting mismatch that would otherwise arise.The Institute makes an assessment of the objectives of the business model in which a financial asset is held as a portfolio level because this best reflects the way the business is managed and information is provided to management. The information considered includes;The stated policies and objectives for the portfolio and the operation of those policies in practice. These include whether management's strategy focuses on earning contractual interest income, maintaining a particular interest rate profile, matching the duration of the financial assets to the duration of any related liabilities or expected cash outflows or realizing cash flows through the sale of the assets;-How the performance of the portfolio is evaluated and reported to the Institute's management.-The risks that affect the performance of the business model (and the financial assets held within the business model) and how those risks are managed;-The frequency, volume and timing of sales of financial assets in prior periods, the reason for such sale and expectation about future sales activity.Transfers of financial assets to third parties in transactions that do not qualify for derecognition are not considered sales for this purpose, consistent with the Institute's continuing recognition of the assets.Financial assets that are held for trading or are managed and whose performance is evaluated on a fair value basis are measured at FVTPL. IWMI's financial assets classified and measured at amortized cost are limited to its accounts receivable, (accounts receivable -donors, accounts receivable -employees), cash and cash equivalents and investments.(i) Accounts Receivable -Donors All receivable balances are valued at their net realizable amount, i.e., gross amount of receivable balances minus, if applicable, allowances for impairment losses. Allowances for impairment losses are provided in an amount equal to the total receivables shown, or reasonably estimated to be doubtful of collection. The amount of the allowance is based on past experience, and a continuous review of receivable reports and other relevant factors. When an account receivable is deemed to be doubtful in collection, an impairment allowance is provided during the year account is deemed doubtful. Any receivable or portion of accounts receivable judged to be uncollectible is written off. Write-offs of receivables are made while making impairment allowance for doubtful accounts after all efforts to collect such amounts have been exhausted.Accounts receivable from donors consist of amounts due from restricted grants that have been negotiated between the donor and the CGIAR center. It also pertains to claims from donors for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.Account receivable from employees consist of advances made to officers and employees for travel, benefits, salary, loans, etc.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Cash and Cash Equivalent Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash in hand, balances with banks, and short term highly liquid investments that are readily convertible that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with original maturity periods of 3 months or less, and which are subject to and insignificant risk of change in value.Investments acquired with the intention of disposing the same within 1 year or less from the acquisition date are classified as current investments. Investments classified as current, as distinguished from cash equivalents, are those that are acquired with original maturities of more than 3 months, but not exceeding one year.Investments are initially recorded at their cost. Interests or gains related to short -term investments are reported in the Statement of Activities under Finance Income.The short -term investments represents time deposits with banks that are collateral against national staff loan schemes and term deposits with original maturities of more than 3 months.These assets are subsequently measured at fair value. Net gains and losses, at FVTPL including any interest or dividend income, are recognized in profit or loss.Financial assets at These assets are subsequently measured at amortized cost using the amortized cost effective interest method. The amortized cost is reduced by impairment losses. Interest income and impairment are recognized in profit or loss. Any gain or loss on derecognition is recognized in profit or loss.Debt investments These assets are subsequently measured at fair value. Interest income at FVOCI calculated using the effective interest method and impairment are recognized in profit or loss. Other net gains and losses are recognized in OCI. On derecognition, gains and losses accumulated in OCI are reclassified to profit or loss.Equity investments These assets are subsequently measured at fair value. Dividends are at FVOCI recognized as income in profit or loss unless the dividend clearly represents a recovery of part of the cost of the investment. Other net gains and losses are recognized in OCI and are never reclassified to profit or loss.Financial liabilities are classified as measured at amortized cost of FVTPL. A financial liability is classified as at FVTPL if it is classified as held-for-trading, it is a derivative or it is designated as such on initial recognition. Financial liabilities at FVTPL are measured at fair value and net gains and losses, including any interest expense, are recognized in profit or loss. Other financial liabilities are subsequently measured at amortized cost using effective interest method. Interest expense and foreign exchange gains and losses are recognized in profit or loss. Any gain or loss on derecognition is also recognized in profit or loss.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019IWMI's financial liabilities comprises of Accounts payable.Accounts payable are amounts due to employees and others for support, services and materials received prior to the year end, but not paid for as at the reporting date and amounts received from donors in respect of any unexpected funds received in advance for restricted grants.(a) Accounts payable -employees This includes unpaid salaries And bonuses and leave credits.(b) Accounts payable -others These include all other liabilities IWMI has incurred and has been billed for, which remains unpaid as at the reporting date.The Institute derecognizes a financial asset when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the financial asset expire, or it transfers the rights to receive the contractual cash flows in a transaction in which substantially all of the risks and rewards of ownership of the financial asset are transferred or in which the Institute neither transfers nor retains substantially all of the risks and rewards of ownership and it does not retain control of the financial asset.The Institute derecognizes a financial liability when its contractual obligations are discharged or cancelled, or expire. The Institute also derecognizes a financial liability when its terms are modified and the cash flows of the modified liability are substantially different, in which case a new financial liability based on the modified terms is recognized at fair value.On derecognition of a financial liability, the difference between the carrying amount extinguished and the consideration paid (including any non-cash assets transferred or liabilities assumed) is recognized in profit or loss.Financial assets and financial liabilities are offset and the net amount presented in the statement of financial position when and only when, the Institute has a legal right to offset the amounts and intends either to settle on a net basis or to realize the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.Prepaid expenses comprise of deposits and advances to suppliers and other CGIAR centers. These are future expenses that have been paid in advance. The amount of prepaid expenses that have not yet expired are reported in IWMI's Statement of Financial Position as an asset. This consists of advance payments to suppliers, consultants and other third parties.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Inventories are held in the form of materials or supplies to be consumed in IWMI's operations or in the rendering of services. Cost of inventories is not directly expended at the time of purchase, and these are not held for sale in the ordinary course of business.Net realizable value is the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business minus the estimated costs necessary to make the sale. Inventories are valued at whichever is lower of acquisition cost or net realizable value, and charged when used. The acquisition cost includes the purchase price plus cost of freight, insurance and handling charges. Cost is determined by the weighted average method. Provision is made, where necessary, for obsolete, slow moving and defective items.Inventories held at the end of the reporting period are stated at the lower of cost and net realizable value.Property, plant and equipment are defined as tangible assets, which are: a) held by IWMI for use in the process of conducting the research and other activities in the institute or for administrative purposes; and b) expected to be used for more than one accounting period.An item of property, plant and equipment is recognized as an asset when: (a) it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the asset will flow to IWMI; and (b) the cost of the asset can be measured reliably.Effective January 1, 2017, the Institute increased its capitalization amount from USD 500 to USD 5,000. Accordingly, all individual tangible assets having costs in excess of USD 5,000 or its equivalent, with an estimated useful life beyond 1 year, are treated as fixed assets and designated as property, plant and equipment.Gains or losses arising from the discontinuation or disposal of property, plant and equipment are determined as the difference between the estimated net disposal proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset, and are recognized as revenue or expense in the Statement of Activities.Property, plant and equipment acquired from restricted funds are expensed in accordance with the grant agreement.Property, plant and equipment are initially measured at cost. Subsequent to initial recognition as an asset, property, plant and equipment are carried at cost minus any accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses.The cost of an item of property, plant and equipment comprises its purchase price and all other incidental costs in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Depreciation of property, plant and equipment is calculated on the straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets as follows:Buildings and improvements on lease hold land -Over the lease period (25 years) Building renovation/partitioning/wiring -5 years Heavy-duty equipment -7 years Office and household furniture, fixtures, research and office equipment -5 years Vehicles -5 years Computer hardware -3 years Depreciation of acquired assets is determined in the year the asset is placed into operation, and continues until the asset is fully depreciated or its use is discontinued. Property, plant and equipment acquired through the use of grants restricted for a certain project are recorded as assets. Such assets are depreciated at a rate of 100%, and the depreciation expense is charged directly to the appropriate restricted project.Capital work-in progress represents the accumulated cost of materials and other costs directly related to the construction of an asset. Capital work-in-progress is transferred to the respective asset accounts at the time it is substantially completed and ready for its intended use.At inception of a contract, the Institute assesses whether a contract is, or contains, a lease. A contract is, or contains, a lease if the contract conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration. To assess whether a contract conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset, the Institute uses the definition of a lease in IFRS 16.This policy is applied to contracts entered into, on or after January 1, 2019.At commencement or on modification of a contract that contains a lease component, the Institute allocates the consideration in the contract to each lease component on the basis of its relative standalone prices. However, for the leases of property, the Institute has elected not to separate non-lease components and account for the lease and non-lease components as a single lease component.The Institute recognises a right-of-use asset and a lease liability at the lease commencement date. The rightof-use asset is initially measured at cost, which comprises the initial amount of the lease liability adjusted for any lease payments made at or before the commencement date, plus any initial direct costs incurred and an estimate of costs to dismantle and remove the underlying asset or to restore the underlying asset or the site on which it is located,less any lease incentives received.Institute applies the cost model for the subsequent measurement of the right-of-use asset and accordingly, the right-of-use asset is depreciated using the straight-line method from the commencement date to the end of the lease term, unless the lease transfers ownership of the underlying asset to the Institute by the end of the lease term or the cost of the right-of-use asset reflects that the Institute will exercise a purchase option. In that case the right-of-use asset will be depreciated over the useful life of the underlying asset, which is determined on the same basis as those of property and equipment. In addition, the right-of-use asset is periodically reduced by impairment losses, if any, and adjusted for certain remeasurements of the lease liability.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The lease liability is initially measured at the present value of the lease payments that are not paid at the commencement date, discounted using the interest rate implicit in the lease or, if that rate cannot be readily determined, the Institute's incremental borrowing rate. Generally, the Institute uses its incremental borrowing rate as the discount rate.The Institute determines its incremental borrowing rate by obtaining interest rates from various external financing sources and makes certain adjustments to reflect the terms of the lease and type of the asset leased.Lease payments included in the measurement of the lease liability comprise the following:-fixed payments, including in-substance fixed payments; -variable lease payments that depend on an index or a rate, initially measured using the index or rate as at the commencement date; -amounts expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee; and -the exercise price under a purchase option that the Institute is reasonably certain to exercise, lease payments in an optional -renewal period if the Institute is reasonably certain to exercise an extension option, and penalties for early termination of a lease unless the Institute is reasonably certain not to terminate early.The lease liability is measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. It is remeasured when there is a change in future lease payments arising from a change in an index or rate, if there is a change in the Institute's estimate of the amount expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee, if the Institute changes its assessment of whether it will exercise a purchase, extension or termination option or if there is a revised in-substance fixed lease payment.When the lease liability is remeasured in this way, a corresponding adjustment is made to the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset, or is recorded in profit or loss if the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset has been reduced to zero and short-term leases, including IT equipment. The Institute recognises the lease payments associated with these leases as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term.The Institute has elected not to recognise right-of-use assets and lease liabilities for leases of low-value assets and short-term leases, including IT equipment. The Institute recognises the lease payments associated with these leases as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term.IWMI has received following lands as a grant at no cost to the institute and accordingly, IWMI has elected not to recognize right-of-use asset and lease liability in respect of these. However, the buildings and improvements on these lands are capitalized and depreciated over the lease term in accordance with the agreements.Sri Lanka -The initial lease agreement between IWMI and the Government of Sri Lanka is for 25 years commencing in 1991. IWMI has received an extension of the lease, for a further period of 25 years, till 2041.Ghana -As per the lease agreement entered on July 1, 2013, by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Accra, Ghana, IWMI was allowed to construct a new two-storey building in the CSIR head office premises. Accordingly, IWMI constructed the building using its own funds and moved into the new office in May 2015. The cost is amortized over the lease period.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The two-story building is jointly owned by CSIR, Ghana, and IWMI. However, the sole ownership of the building shall revert to CSIR when IWMI ceases its operations in West Africa. The leasehold agreement is for 25 years and shall be extended or revised on the mutual consent of both parties.Pakistan -The initial memorandum of agreement between IWMI and the Government of Pakistan was signed on September 28, 1986. Recently, at the request of the Government of Pakistan, IWMI submitted the necessary papers to renew the registration of the Institute in the country. IWMI's Pakistan office is situated in a building owned by the government, and the Institute incurred some refurbishment costs to bring the given building to a useable condition. Accordingly, these expenses are amortized over a period of 10 years starting from April 2018.Accordingly, as at January 1, 2019, the institute elected not to recognize right-of use asset and lease liability for short term and leases of low value assets and therefore the impact was not material on the institute's financial statements.As a lessee In the comparative period, as a lessee the Institute classified leases that transferred substantially all of the risks and rewards of ownership as finance leases. When this was the case, the leased assets were measured initially at an amount equal to the lower of their fair value and the present value of the minimum lease payments. Minimum lease payments were the payments over the lease term that the lessee was required to make, excluding any contingent rent. Subsequent to initial recognition, the assets were accounted for in accordance with the accounting policy applicable to that asset.Assets held under other leases were classified as operating leases and were not recognised in the Institute's statement of financial position. Payments made under operating leases were recognized in Statement of Activities on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. Lease incentives received were recognised as an integral part of the total lease expense, over the term of the lease.The intangible assets of IWMI are mainly computer software.Intangible assets are initially measured at cost. Subsequent to initial recognition as an asset, intangible assets are carried at cost minus any amortization and any accumulated impairment losses.The cost of an item of intangible assets comprises its purchase price and all other incidental costs in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use, such as installation.Amortization is calculated to write-off the cost of intangible assets less their estimated residual values using the straight-line method over their estimated useful lives, and is generally recognized in Statement of Activities.The estimated useful life of computer software is from 3 to 5 years. Amortization methods, useful lives and residual values are reviewed at each reporting date and adjusted if appropriate.Accounting Policies (Contd.)The carrying amounts of IWMI's non-financial assets are reviewed at each reporting date to determine whether there is any indication of impairment. If any such indication exists, then the asset's recoverable amount is estimated. An impairment loss is recognized if the carrying amount of an asset or cash generating unit (CGU) exceeds its recoverable amount.The recoverable amount of an asset or CGU is the greater of its value in use and its fair value less costs to sell. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset or CGU. For impairment testing, assets are grouped together into the smallest group of assets that generate cash inflows from continuing use that are largely independent of the cash inflows of other assets or CGUs.Impairment losses are recognized in the Statement of Activities. Impairment losses recognized in respect of CGUs are allocated first to reduce the carrying amount of any goodwill allocated to CGU (if any) and then to reduce the carrying amounts of other assets in the CGU (group of CGUs) on pro rata basis. For other assets, an impairment loss is reversed only to the extent that the assets carrying amount does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined, net of depreciation or amortization, if no impairment loss had been recognized.An employee may provide services to an entity on a full-time, part-time, permanent, contract or casual basis. Employees include directors and other management personnel. Employee benefits are all forms of consideration given by IWMI in exchange for services rendered by employees. Employee benefits include the following:(I) Short-term Employee Benefits Short-term employee benefits are expensed as the related service is provided. A liability is recognized for the amount expected to be paid if IWMI has a present legal or constructive obligation to pay this amount as a result of past service provided by the employee and the obligation can be estimated reliably. These include salaries, paid leave, bonuses and non-monetary benefits for current employees. These benefits are expected to be settled in full within a year in which the employees render the related services.(II) Defined Benefit Plans IWMI's net obligation in respect of defined benefit plans is calculated separately for each plan by estimating the amount of future benefit that employees have earned in the current and prior periods, discounting that amount and deducting the fair value of any plan assets.The calculation of defined benefit obligations is performed annually by a qualified actuary using the projected unit credit method. When the calculation results in a potential asset for IWMI, the recognized asset is limited to the present value of economic benefits available in the form of any future refunds from the plan or reductions in future contributions to the plan. To calculate the present value of economic benefits, consideration is given to any applicable minimum funding requirements.Remeasurements of the net defined benefit liability, which comprise actuarial gains and losses, the return on plan assets (excluding interest) and the effect of the asset ceiling (if any, excluding interest) are recognized immediately in Other Comprehensive Income (OCI). IWMI determines the net interest expense (income) on the net defined benefit liability (asset) for the period by applying the discount rate used to measure the defined benefit obligation at the beginning of the annual period to the then-net defined benefit liability (asset), taking into account any changes in the net defined benefit liability (asset) during the period as a result of contributions and benefit payments. Net interest expense and other expenses related to defined benefit plans are recognized in Statement of Activities.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019When the benefits of a plan are changed or when a plan is curtailed, the resulting change in benefit that relates to past service or the gain or loss on curtailment is recognized immediately in Statement of Activities. IWMI recognizes gains and losses on the settlement of a defined benefit plan when the settlement occurs.The post-employment benefits include pension plan, other retirement benefits, post-employment life insurance and medical care. IWMI has a 'Defined Benefit' pension plan for its national staff based at its headquarters. This plan was closed in 2004 to new employees.IWMI's net obligation in respect of severance, gratuity and leave encashment, which are defined benefit plans, are determined based on an actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary and are accrued at the reporting date. The liabilities are not externally funded.(a) Severance and GratuityIn accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members are entitled to terminal benefits referred to as 'Severance' on the completion of three full years of continuous service. The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.• Gratuity Payment is made for gratuity benefits under IWMI's personnel policies to nationally recruited staff. Nationally recruited staff qualify for a gratuity payment on completion of 5 years of continuous service with the Institute.The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.Payment is made for unutilized leave to internationally and nationally recruited staff members in accordance with the Personnel Policies Manuals on the following basis:• International staff in Sri Lanka and regional offices: From 2018 onwards a maximum of 10 days and payment is calculated based on current base salary. • National staff in Sri Lanka: From 2018 onwards a maximum of 10 days and payment is calculated based on current base salary. • National staff in other regional offices: Vary from 7 to 30 days and payment is calculated based on current base salary.The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members and their dependents are entitled to repatriation benefits on completion of the contract period. Provision is made for repatriation payable to all international staff members based on the estimated cost of airfare, relocation and freight charges.This amount comprises accruals made for suppliers, for which invoices were not yet received as at the reporting date.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019A provision is a liability of uncertain timing or amount. A provision is recognized when:(a) a center has a present obligation as a result of a past event;(b) it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation; and (c) a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation.The amount recognized as a provision should be the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the present obligation at the reporting date. Provisions should be reviewed at each reporting date and adjusted to reflect the current best estimate. A provision should only be used for expenditure for which the provision was originally recognized.Net Assets are the residual interest in IWMI's assets remaining after liabilities are deducted. The overall change in net assets represents the total gains and losses generated by the Institute's activities during the year. Net assets are classified as either undesignated or designated.(a) Undesignated -the part of net assets that is not designated by IWMI's management for specific purposes.(b) Designated -the part of net assets that has been designated by IWMI's management for specific purposes.Property, Plant and Equipment: This is the net book value of property, plant and equipment as at the Statement of Financial Position date.The Statement of Cash Flows has been prepared using the 'indirect method'. This is the method whereby a surplus or deficit is adjusted for the effects of transactions of a non-cash nature, any deferrals or accruals of past or future operating cash receipts or payments, and items of income or expenses associated with investing or financing cash flows. The Statement of Cash Flows for a period shall report net cash provided or used by operating, investing and financing activities, and the net effect of those flows on cash and cash equivalents during the period, in a manner that reconciles the beginning and ending cash and cash equivalents.Events after the reporting date are those, both favorable and unfavorable, that occur between the reporting date and the date when the financial statements are authorized for issue. The materiality of the events occurring after the reporting period is considered and appropriate adjustments to or disclosures are made in the Financial Statements, where necessary. Two types of events can be identified:(a) Those that provide evidence of conditions that existed at the reporting date (adjusting events after the reporting date); and (b) Those that are indicative of conditions that arose after the reporting date (non-adjusting events after the reporting date).Adjusting events after the reporting date: IWMI adjusts the amounts recognized in its financial statements to reflect adjusting events after the reporting date.The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis. However, IWMI doesn't prepare its financial statements on a going concern basis, if the management determines that it intends to cease operations or it has no realistic alternative but to do so after the reporting date.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The institute has applied IFRS 16 initially with effect from January 1, 2019. However, it does not have a material effect on the institute's financial statements On transition to IFRS 16, the Institute elected to apply the practical expedient to grandfather the assessment of which transactions are leases. The Institute applied IFRS 16 only to contracts that were previously identified as leases. Contracts that were not identified as leases under IAS 17 and IFRIC 4 were not reassessed for whether there is a lease under IFRS 16. Therefore, the definition of lease under IFRS 16 was applied only to the contracts entered into or changed on or after January 1,2019.As a lessee, the Institute leases some office premises. The Institute previously classified these leases as operating leases under IAS 17 based on its assessment of whether the lease transferred substantially all of the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the underlying asset to the Institute. Under IFRS 16, the Institute recognises right-of use assets and lease liabilities for leases of office premises -i.e. these leases are on-balance sheet as a Right of use assets and Lease Liabilities. At commencement or on modification of a contract that contains a lease component, the Institute allocates the consideration in the contract to each lease component on the basis of its relative stand-alone prices.On transition, for these leases, lease liabilities were measured at the present value of the remaining lease payments, discounted at the Institute's incremental borrowing rate as at January 1, 2019. Accordingly, as at January 1, 2019 the institute elected not to recognize right-of use asset and lease liability for short term and leases of low value assets and therefore the impact was not material on the institute's financial statements. The Institute used a number of practical expedients when applying IFRS 16 to leases previously classified as operating leases under LKAS 17. In particular, the Institute, relied on its assessment of whether leases are -onerous under LKAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets immediately before the date of initial application as an alternative to performing an impairment review. -did not recognise right-of-use assets and liabilities for leases for which the lease term ends within 12 months of the date of initial application -did not recognise right-of-use assets and liabilities for leases of low-value assets. excluded initial direct costs from measuring the right-of-use asset at the date of initial application. -used hindsight when determining the lease term.Accordingly, as at January 1, 2019 the institute elected not to recognize right-of use asset and lease liability for short term and leases of low value assets and therefore the impact was not material on the institute's financial statements.Accounting Policies (Contd.)Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The following IFRSs have been issued that have an effective date in the future and have not been applied in preparing these Financial Statements and these amended standards are not expected to have a significant impact on the Institute's financial statements.In October 2018, the IASB issued amendments to LKAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements and LKAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors to align the definition of 'material' across the standards and to clarify certain aspects of the definition. As per the redefined definition, information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions that the primary users of general-purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements, which provide financial information about a specific reporting entity.The amendments are effective from January 1, 2020, with early adoption permitted. However, amendments to the definition of material is not expected to have a significant impact on the Institutes' financial statements.The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting is the foundation on which the new accounting standards are developed. The revised framework contains changes that will set a new direction for accounting standards in the future.The key changes in the framework are:-New 'bundles of rights' approach to assets -New 'practical ability' approach for recognizing liabilities -New control-based approach to derecognitionThe accounting policies which refer conceptual framework should be reviewed and the new guidance should be applied retrospectively from January 1, 2020.Accounting Policies (Contd.)  11.2. IWMI Assets in Hosting Institutions Some regional offices of IWMI are hosted by other organizations. These organizations provide operational support to IWMI based on signed agreements. As IWMI does not have a legal status in those countries, IWMI assets purchased in such regional offices are also in the name of these organizations. However, such assets are reflected in IWMI books of accounts.Details of the cost of IWMI assets under the name of hosting organizations as at December 31, 2019, are given below: IWMI has a \"Defined Benefit\" pension plan for its National Staff at Headquarters. This plan was closed in 2004 to new employees. The plan assets and liabilities are valued annually by a qualified Actuary.As per the revised Pension Fund Charter in August 2017, contributions to the fund can be discontinued with the unanimous consent of contributing participants of the fund with the concurrence of the Pension Board subjected to the approval of IWMI's Board of Governors. Accordingly, based on the Pension Board approval, IWMI's Board of Governors approved to cease the contribution to the Pension Fund with effect from December 31, 2017. Further, as per the amendment made to the Charter of IWMI's Pension Fund in February 2019, in the event of a dissolution of the fund, IWMI will be entitled to take any balance funds in the pension fund. Accordingly, any annual deficit or surplus of the pension fund shall be taken in to the IWMI's financial statements based on annual actuarial valuation.As at December 31, 2019, an actuarial valuation was carried out for Defined Benefit Obligations by Mr. M. Poopalanathan, AIA, Messrs. Actuarial and Management Consultants (Private) Limited; a firm of professional actuaries.As per actuarial valuation report, the present value of funded obligation as at the reporting date amounted to USD 1,928,294 and the fair value of the plan assets amounted to USD 2,564,833. Accordingly, a surplus of USD 636,539 has been recorded in the financial statements in relation to the pension fund.The following was one of the key assumptions made in computing the actuarial valuation of the above retirement benefits as at the reporting date;Actuarial assumption 2019 2018 Discount rate 11.50% 12.00%The calculation of the recognized asset for the defined benefit obligation was sensitive to the assumptions set out above. The following table summarizes how the recognized asset for the defined benefit obligation at the end of the reporting period would have increased/ (decreased) as a result of a change in the above assumption by one percent, while other assumptions remain constant.As Employee Benefit requires the use of actuarial techniques to make a reliable estimate of the amount of retirement benefit using the Projected Unit Credit Method, the method recommended by the IAS 19 on 'Employee Benefits', in order to determine the present value of the retirement benefit obligation as at the reporting date.The liability is not externally funded.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 40Notes to the Financial Statements (In US Dollars '000)The following key assumptions were made in computing the actuarial valuation of the above retirement benefits as at the reporting date. Employee Benefit requires the use of actuarial techniques to make a reliable estimate of the amount of retirement benefit using the Projected Unit Credit Method, the method recommended by IAS 19 on 'Employee Benefits', in order to determine the present value of the retirement benefit obligation as at the reporting date.The liability is not externally funded.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 43 The calculation of the defined benefit obligation is sensitive to the assumptions set out above.The following table summarizes how the defined benefit obligations at the end of the reporting period would have increased / (decreased) as a result of a change in the respective assumptions by one percent, while all other assumptions remain constant.   Recovery of overhead costs represents the amount recovered from restricted projects based on the rates agreed on and as stated in the grant agreements.In 2019, IWMI changed the classification of overheads. Previously some allocated direct costs which were charged as overheads have been removed from overheads and will be charged directly on projects. The system ensures that there is no mix of direct and indirect costs. The overall cost recovery remains the same.The indirect cost ratios presented above have been computed based on the CGIAR Cost Allocation Guidelines, Financial Guidelines Series, No. 5.Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Net assets include both the designated and undesignated reserves.Undesignated -undesignated reserves represent the accumulated surplus of revenue over expenses.Designated -Property, Plant and Equipment. This is the net book value of property, plant and equipment as at the Statement of Financial Position date.On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic in recognition of its rapid spread across the globe with over 150 countries now affected. Board of Governors is unable to estimate the potential impact of the outbreak on the Institute's financial position, as of date. However, the impact on Institute's financial statements is expected to be minimal.Apart from the above, there are no other events occurred subsequent to the reporting date which would require adjustment to, or disclosure in, the financial statements.There are no commitments and contingent liabilities at the reporting date.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 50Notes to the Financial Statements (In US Dollars '000)The organization has established a pension fund to discharge defined benefit pension liability of its national staff and this plan was closed to employees in 2004.Surplus receivable at December 31 (Note 13) 637 637Contributions paid by the organization --As disclosed in Note 13, contribution to the pension fund by the center and employees was ceased with effect from December 31, 2017, which was approved by the Board of Governors. However, if there is a deficit in the future, IWMI is bound to make the additional liability to the pension fund.Notes to the Financial Statements (In US Dollars '000)The following table shows the carrying amounts of financial assets and liabilities. The carrying values of financial instruments are a reasonable approximation of fair values, due to short-term maturity, hence the fair value hierarchy does not apply.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 51Financial Statements -December 31, 2019Notes to the Financial Statements (In US Dollars '000)Overview i) Risk Management Framework IWMI's Board of Governors has overall responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate risk management framework is in place. The management is responsible for the Institute-wide implementation of the risk management system to ensure that risks are identified appropriately, assessed and acted upon in accordance with IWMI's policies. The risk management system and policies are reviewed regularly to reflect the changes in the market conditions and the Institute's activities.IWMI ensures minimum risk either by exercising a high degree of control or not being involved in certain high-risk activities. The Board of Governors takes an active role in monitoring the Institute's risk management strategy, and financial aspects, as well as research strategies and issues. The Board of Governors has adopted a risk management policy that has been communicated to all staff together with a detailed management guideline. The policy includes a framework by which the Institute's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies that balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and reports, in conjunction with finance, administration and internal audit staff, the results to the Board, on an annual basis.The annual statement from the Board Chair addresses the Institute's risk management strategy, and identifies key areas of risk and processes in place to mitigate such risks.The Institute has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:1. Credit risk 2. Market risk 3. Liquidity riskCredit risk is the risk that occurs when a counterparty will not meet its obligations under a financial instrument or donor contract, leading to financial losses and arises principally from the Institute's cash and cash equivalents, investments and accounts receivable.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 52Financial Statements -December 31, 2019The carrying amount of financial assets represents the maximum credit exposure. The Institute is not exposed to any material concentrations of credit risk other than its exposure to various donors. Donor receivables are reviewed on a monthly basis and regular follow-up actions are carried out to recover the balances due. Receivable balances are monitored on an ongoing basis and provisions are made where necessary for doubtful accounts. IWMI's exposure to non-recoverability is insignificant. Cash and cash equivalents are held with reputable local and international financial institutions with good credit ratings. Investments are made as per the Investment Policy of the Institute. Accordingly, short-term investments, cash and cash equivalents are invested in a portfolio to safeguard the funds and with an investment objective of maximizing the returns. IWMI's investment policy defines the maximum exposure to a single financial institution, in order to ensure diversification of investments.The policy also states the types of instruments in which the funds can be invested and the types in which investment is not permitted. However, the requirement for impairment is analyzed at each reporting date on an individual basis for grant agreements. Market risk is the risk that occurs due to changes in market prices, such as interest rates and foreign exchange rates, which will affect the Institute's income or the value of its financial instruments. The objective of market risk management is to manage and control market risk exposures within acceptable parameters.Currency risk is the risk that occurs when the value of a financial instrument fluctuates due to changes in foreign exchange rates. IWMI's exposure to the risk of changes in foreign exchange rates primarily affects the Institute's operating activities (when revenue or an expense is denominated in a different currency from the Institute's functional currency) and bank accounts held in different currencies. In order to mitigate the foreign exchange risks, the Institute matches the currency of payment with the currency of donor funds received, wherever possible.The following table demonstrates the effect of a reasonably possible change in the US dollar exchange rate, with all other variables held constant, on the net surplus.Effect on net surplus/deficit (US$ '000)10% 69The movement on the net surplus/deficit effect is a result of the cash and cash equivalents denominated in currencies other than the functional currency (US Dollar). If the US Dollar had strengthened/ weakened by 10% against the major operating currencies, with all other variables held constant, there would have been an increase/decrease in the surplus/deficit for the year.Bank deposits and short-term investments of IWMI are placed in term deposits and fixed deposits at fixed interest rates. Therefore, the risk of volatility of market interest rates will be minimal.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 54Notes to the Financial Statements (In US Dollars '000)Liquidity risk is the risk that occurs when the Institute may encounter difficulties in meeting the obligation associated with its financial liabilities that are to be settled by delivering cash or other financial assets.One of the investment objectives of the Institute is to manage liquidity, which is to ensure that it will always have sufficient liquidity to meet its liabilities when due under both normal and stressed conditions. ","tokenCount":"10617"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4f4aadfdf61b11696b49c37ba13f4121","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26e8861e-3656-4ba2-a169-5681b3b96baa/retrieve","id":"1129211488"},"keywords":["livestock","feed","constraints"],"sieverID":"969016d2-619c-4ef6-a3f7-820e494c93a4","pagecount":"5","content":"Livestock production is central to the livelihoods of a billion poor people. Transforming livestock production would have transformative effects on local economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Development efforts in the livestock sector have tended to be top-down without enough feedback loops to understand farmer realities and aspirations. This, despite the Farmer First movement that began in the 1990s. The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was developed as a reaction to top down livestock feed development approaches. FEAST facilitates a structured conversation with farming communities about their livestock production system and how it connects with the overall farming system. FEAST involves both individual farmer interviews and focus group discussions (FGD's). The final element of each FGD is a conversation with farmers on problems and opportunities for their livestock enterprise. Farmers are asked to name the issues which most limit their livestock enterprise and to rank them using a pair-wise ranking approach. The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that any following development activities consider the issues that really matter to farmers whether they be feed issues or other issues. FEAST has been applied in over a dozen countries and the many published reports provide a global overview of the main issues facing poor livestock keepers who are seeking to enhance their livestock enterprise. In this paper I will provide a global overview of livestock constraints based on over 150 focus group discussions involving over one thousand farmers from various countries in SSA and South Asia.Livestock production is central to the livelihoods of over 1 billion poor livestock keepers in low income countries. The mixed crop livestock production systems account for the largest share of these poor livestock keepers. Households typically keep small numbers of animals to provide food for domestic consumption as well as manure and traction for arable production. There is considerable variation in the extent to which livestock are kept for commercial milk and meat consumption, but the trend is upwards as urban populations grow and incomes increase (Duncan et al., 2013) Satisfying the resulting growth in demand for milk and meat is an opportunity for smallholder farmers but the transition from subsistence to semi-commercial production is challenging. Yields of milk and meat are generally far below the animals biological potential and development efforts to enhance productivity have often been disappointing. Productivity is influenced by a wide range of potential constraints including the classic trio of feeding, genetics and health but also constraints related to knowledge on basic husbandry, access to markets, lack of local infrastructure, access to finance and a range of other factors. Donors and governments look for promising intervention pathways and want to know where to invest their efforts and resources. This has spurred several initiatives to quantify the benefits of dealing with different sets of constraints to help focus investment. For example, ILRI engaged in a priority setting exercise for livestock research by identifying a list of research themes and then scoring each using a composite index based on e.g. benefit-cost ratios, pro-poor credentials and environmental effects (Randolph et al., 2001). The World Bank commissioned some work to identify investment options for ruminant livestock feeding in developing countries (Thorpe et al., 2012). Similarly, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the Livestock Knowledge Development Project (Staal et al., 2009) and more recently the Livegaps project (Mayberry et al., 2017), both aimed at using expert knowledge and modelling approaches to tease out the most efficient routes to improve livestock productivity in low income countries. These efforts are welcome but tend to be data driven without much consideration of the practical realities of smallholder farming practice. Farmers are p. 2 excellent integrators of knowledge and because their livelihoods depend on sound decision making, they are often best placed to offer insights into the most promising ways of improving the productivity of their livestock. However, there is a gap between conversations at donor/government level and the realities facing farmers and it is challenging to incorporate farmer perspectives into high-level decision making.The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was developed partly as a reaction to lack of farmer involvement in design of livestock feed intervention strategies. The tool is designed to guide a structured conversation between researchers/development agents and farmers to improve overall understanding of the local livestock production system and the issues surrounding improved feeding. Although FEAST is designed as a community-led diagnosis of feed constraints leading to action on the ground, a by-product has been the collection of farmer perspectives on livestock feed constraints across many low and middle-income countries. In this paper I present the results of 10 years application of the FEAST tool across 14 countries to gain insights into the farmer perspective on livestock sector constraints.The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was originally developed around 2008 and has evolved since then (Duncan et al., 2012). The tool consists of a focus group discussion checklist, a household questionnaire and a data app which generates standard charts summarizing key elements of the livestock production system and the place of feed within that system. The tool is designed to be applied at village/community level as a way of supporting appropriate livestock feed options based on data and farmer perspectives. One important part of FEAST is the constraint ranking exercise. For this, focus groups discuss important local constraints to livestock production and by consensus come up with a list of the top five constraints. These may be related to any aspect of livestock production and not just feed issues. Once the short list of constraints is agreed the farmer group is asked to rank these using a pairwise ranking exercise. This eventually leads to a ranked list of constraints agreed upon by farmers.For this analysis I used the ranked lists of livestock production constraints as raw data. Around 80 FEAST reports have been published and these report findings from 149 focus groups conducted in 14 different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and involving 2796 farmers (Table 1). Each constraint description was scrutinized and allocated to one of nine constraint categories and within each category to a further series of \"issues\" within each category. For example. feed, health and genetics were counted as broad constraint categories but within each there were distinct issues. Thus, the feed constraint might be about feed shortage in general or about seasonal feed shortage. The broad categories and sub-issues emerged through the analysis and were subjectively developed by me. Through this process a total of around 700 \"mentions\" of specific issues were counted. These were weighted by their position in the ranked list to come up with an importance score for each issue. The scores were allocated to ranks as follows: Rank 1 = 5, Rank 2 =4, Rank 3 = 3, Rank 4 = 2, Rank 5 = 1).Results show that of the major constraint categories identified in this study, feeding, health and \"infrastructure\" were the top three constraints (Fig. 1). The rankings were relatively consistent across global regions (data not shown). The infrastructure category was dominated by the issue of water shortage but also included poor livestock housing, lack of machinery and poor road infrastructure. Knowledge constraints also figured strongly in farmer responses and constraints related to breed quality ranked 5 th among constraint categories. Input/output markets and constraints related to finance ranked 6 th and 7 th on the list. Drilling down to the specific issues within these broad categories shows a similar pattern (Fig 2). General shortage of feed was the most-mentioned livestock constraint followed by livestock disease/pests. Knowledge on livestock husbandry and water shortage featured strongly as did breed quality and access to cash/credit. Intermediate importance was placed on issues such as quality and access to veterinary services, access to markets, grazing land issues, seasonal feed shortage, low prices for livestock products and markets for livestock. Concentrate feed issues, lack of forage seeds and housing were also of intermediate importance in the responses of farmers. A range of minor issues were also identified as shown in   While the data presented is ad hoc and the coverage reflects the use of the FEAST tool it does provide a reasonably comprehensive overview of livestock development constraints from the farmer perspective across many countries, systems and farmers. Feed shortage is often cited as the main constraint to improved livestock productivity (Ayantunde et al., 2005) without much evidence, but this is borne out by the current data. FEAST is of course focused on livestock feed and this may have skewed the responses somewhat. However, the question posed was general and it was made clear that issues beyond feed should be considered. The \"Big 3\" constraints of feed, health and genetics all featured in the top five constraints mentioned by farmers as expected. Less expected was the very high importance placed on water shortage as a key constraint to livestock productivity. \"Water shortage\" covered a range of issues from lack of ready access to drinking water especially for dairy production but also lack of water for optimum growth of forage crops. Gaps in knowledge about basic livestock husbandry were also repeatedly mentioned by farmers and this constraint ranked 4 th on the list. This points to the need for renewed focus on basic capacity building on livestock feeding, health and breeding at the farmer level -no small task of course given the unfavourable ratios of farmers to extension workers. The data also highlight the importance of market quality and access to finance for smallholder farmers. These issues have received increasing attention in development efforts in recent years through application of value chain approaches to livestock development, but this analysis suggests that further attention to these issues is needed. The analysis has categorized constraints into a series of bins but this is not to suggest a piecemeal approach to livestock development efforts. If we have learnt anything in the last 10 years it is that dealing with feed, breed, health and market constraints in isolation is futile and that what is needed is to work with bundled intervention packages that address several issues simultaneously.","tokenCount":"1671"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"10733fc6863130345c208f2822bcbb4b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f641abe-c2e4-4d59-9051-37244c5adecf/retrieve","id":"1732997079"},"keywords":["www","climatesecurity","cgiar","org Africa Climate Crisis Security Observatory www","climatesecurity","cgiar","org Climate Security Observatory Series"],"sieverID":"cc9181a0-ec44-491c-8236-b5418b39b6d0","pagecount":"12","content":"This factsheet gives answers on how climate exacerbates root causes of conflict in Nigeria, using an impact pathway analysis. Three main impact pathways are identified:1. Resource availability and access pathway: Due to impact of drought and desertification on pastoral resources in northern arid and semi-arid parts of Nigeria, herders are pushed southwards, moving beyond their usual grazing routes and seasons, resulting in competition and conflict with farmers over access and use of arable lands and water resources; 2. Livelihood and food insecurity pathway: Vulnerability of Nigeria's Lake Chad region to climate variability could be understood as compounded by grievances related to severe livelihood, food and water insecurities, growing inequality, poor socioeconomic conditions, and political marginalization, reinforcing a feedback loop of \"climate-conflict trap\"; 3. Fossil fuels, environmental impacts, and livelihood insecurity pathway: Overall risks of insecurity and violence over oil in the Niger delta can be attributed to complex interactions between ecological, social and institutional factors, compounded by weak governance, poor implementation of environmental protection regulations, as well as exclusion of local communities from resource rents and benefits.Vulnerability of Nigeria's Lake Chad region to climate variability could be understood as compounded by grievances related to severe food and water insecurity, growing inequality, poor socioeconomic conditions, and political marginalization, reinforcing a feedback loop of \"climate-conflict trap\". Climate impacts, mainly in the forms of droughts and rainfall variability, affect availability and distribution of water and land resources, specifically through vegetation loss, reduction in arable land, depletion of grazing land and fish stocks. The complex interactions of climate with land, water, and food systems can then seriously undermine the viability of traditional livelihoods practiced by farmers, herders, and fishers in the area. Moreover, combined effects of climate variability and resource conflict may make these livelihoods differentially vulnerable. Large-scale internal population movements due to climate and conflict-related impacts on rural livelihoods have put serious pressure on urban infrastructure, leading to growth of slums and squatter settlements, that can then be linked with human insecurity risks such as food insecurity, as well as communal tensions, crime and violence.Fossil fuels, environmental impacts, and livelihood insecurity pathway Impact of climate variability on oil industry can worsen already existing conditions of poverty, inequality, political marginalization, and lack of trust for the government. Thousands of oil spill incidents have been reported over the last several decades, resulting in the spilling of millions of oil barrels into the environment. Oil spills in the Niger delta have not only degraded the environment and water quality, but also disrupted livelihood structures of local communities in the region. The associated loss of livelihoods can amplify human security risks through consequences like food insecurity, hunger and poverty, and create grievances and conflict.Overall risks of insecurity and violence over oil in the Niger delta can be attributed to complex interactions between ecological, social and institutional factors, compounded by weak governance, poor implementation of environmental protection regulations, as well as exclusion of local communities from resource rents and benefits.The Impact Pathway Analysis (IPA) aims to identify, describe, and represent the complex and nonlinear interactions between climate, conflict, and existing vulnerabilities and risks with a special focus on food, land, and water systems. In particular, the IPA intends to address the following questions:• What are the potential climate security pathways through which climate may act as a threat multiplier?• Which specific vulnerabilities and risks, that are at the heart of insecurity and conflict, may be exacerbated by the climate crisis?• How can dimensions such as natural resources, livelihoods, mobility, governance and food, land, and water systems, inform climate security pathways in specific contexts?The IPA follows a systematic literature search and review to find, collate, analyze and synthesize insights from relevant knowledge products, including reports, policy briefs, fact sheets from grey literature, as well as books, journal articles, and other sources of documented evidence in academic literature and public media. The construction of a narrative is then followed by consultation with a designated set of experts and stakeholders through interviews and written feedback to gather evaluation and incorporate suggested revisions.As a country comprising multiple ecological regions, and facing medium exposure to ecological threats (Institute for Economics & Peace 2020), Nigeria experiences high vulnerability in food and water sectors (University of Notre Dame 2019), especially from increasing temperatures and rainfall variability, along with risks from more severe weather events and sea level rise. Multiple pathways could be identified linking climate impacts to security risks. With parts of the arid northern Sahel area experiencing more heat and less rain, many parts of the country facing more severe weather with torrential rains, along with a nearly one-foot rise in sea level observed over the last half century over the southern coastline (Federal Ministry of Environment 2009), Nigeria could be facing serious resource shortages, compounded by problems like environmental degradation and inefficient resource management (Sayne 2011). Land scarcity could be connected with the process of desertification in the north, intensifying drought conditions, with adverse impact on agriculture and livelihood resulting in acute food and water scarcity. Water scarcity is exacerbated by poor water management, use and conservation practices (FAO 2009). This scenario stands in contrast to parts of southern Nigeria, where flooding due to sea level rise is leading to conditions of high salinity and water pollution with saltwater contamination of freshwater aquifers (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2003). Overall, vulnerability analysis has illuminated that \"states in the north experience higher degrees of vulnerability to climate change than those in the south\" (Madu 2016;Federal Ministry of Environment 2014;Haider 2019).As a country heavily dependent on oil revenues, Nigeria's economy has been hit by COVID-induced shocks, specifically disruptions due to oil price declines. With a major section of its population living below the poverty line, Nigeria continues to face serious developmental challenges, owing to inflation, unemployment, regional inequality, inadequate infrastructure, and weak governance (World Bank 2021). Along with climate variability and socio-economic vulnerability, Nigeria's population has historically experienced violence involving multiple actors, including tensions between ethnic and religious groups, armed insurgency, and government repression (Dorff et al. 2020). The landscape of conflict risks in Nigeria today can be prominently characterized not only by the violent actions of Boko Haram, but also by engagement of other actors like local militant groups and security forces.Following are the potential key pathways through which climate related fragility can inform risks of conflict and violence (Figure 1).Due to impact of drought and desertification on pastoral resources in the northern arid and semiarid parts of Nigeria, ethnic Fulani herders are pushed towards southern parts of the country, moving beyond their usual grazing routes and seasons, and even relocating for longer periods of time (Fasona and Omojola 2005;Azuwike and Enwerem 2010). Simultaneously farmers are trying to bring more land under cultivation in response to weather related shocks, resulting in land use changes and pressure on land. Such spatial and temporal collision of adaptation efforts may bring \"desperate guests\" (herders) and \"unwilling hosts\" (farmers) in confrontation with each other, resulting in competition over access and use of arable lands and water resources (Olaniyan and Okeke-Uzodike 2015; Akinyemi and Olaniyan 2017). Triggering effects of losses like destruction of crops by cattle for farmers or cattle raids for herders can create tensions between the communities, amplifying risks of conflict (Sayne 2011;Akinyemi and Olaniyan 2017). Though climate impact may lead to changes in pastoral mobility patterns and indirectly influence farmer-herder conflicts, it may not necessarily act as a direct predictor of ensuing violence (Madu and Nwankwo 2020). However, the role of desertification as a key contextual factor influencing farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria is being increasingly recognized, alongside political and economic drivers (Lenshie et al. 2020).Nevertheless, together with socio-political and institutional factors, climate may act as a magnifier for conflict risks between the farmers and herders. Recent incidences of violence between farmers and herders have reportedly led to more fatalities than the Boko Haram insurgency. This is exemplified by the situation in Benue and Nasarawa states, with Benue passing an anti-grazing law restricting entry of migrating herders in farmlands, thereby driving thousands of Fulani pastoralists to relocate in neighboring Nasarawa. This ignited longstanding tensions between Fulani herders and the ethnic Tiv farming community, resulting in intercommunal violence in 2018, and necessitating state authorities to exercise legitimate use of violence (Eberle et al. 2020) Shared by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, the marginalized and volatile Lake Chad region presents a stage for multiple interrelated climate fragility risks (Nagarajan et al. 2018). Resources around the Lake Chad basin supports livelihoods of more than 45 million people, with Nigerians forming the largest population in the basin (Kombe et al. 2016). Observed and projected decrease in discharge of the Chari River basin, the main feeder for Lake Chad, can be mainly attributed to climatic factors and human activities (Mahmood et al. 2020). Temperature is predicted to increase, and precipitation is predicted to decrease over the next two decades (Mahmood et al. 2019) in this transboundary basin experiencing ongoing conflict dynamics. Vulnerability of Nigeria's Lake region to climate variability could therefore be understood as compounded by grievances related to severe food and water insecurity, growing inequality, poor socioeconomic conditions, and political marginalization, reinforcing a feedback loop of \"climate-conflict trap\" (Vivekananda et al. 2019;Schaller et al. 2020).Though water-related stress and uncertainty in this region have received significant attention, the complex loop has arguably remained relatively underexplored (Nagabhatla et al. 2020).Livelihood insecurity forms the key pathway through which this feedback loop operates. The northern states of Nigeria belting the Lake Chad Basin face serious risks of desertification and associated environmental problems (e.g., water pollution from tanneries and textile factories in Kano). Both agriculture and livestock-based livelihoods in this region have considerable water requirements, which explains the presence of multiple dams and irrigation projects on the Nigerian part of the basin, a factor that has likely contributed to depletion of fish species in the Komadugu-Yobe River (Kombe et al. 2016). Climate impacts, mainly in the forms of droughts and rainfall variability, affect availability and distribution of water and land resources, specifically through vegetation loss, reduction in arable land, depletion of grazing land and fish stocks. The complex interactions of climate with land, water, and food systems can then seriously undermine the viability of traditional livelihoods practiced by farmers, herders, and fishers in the area (Onuoha 2010). Moreover, combined effects of climate variability and resource conflict may make these livelihoods differentially vulnerable (Okpara et al. 2017).Lack of sustainable alternatives can push people towards activities like deforestation and shifting cultivation, resulting in further environmental degradation and biodiversity loss in this fragile ecosystem (Kombe et al. 2016). Left without sustainable livelihood options and support, a situation worsened by weak governance, unequal development outcomes, lack of public goods and services, political marginalization of the region, and conflict between state and non-state actors, often resulting in inhibited access to the basin's resources, people desperate for survival are likely to be recruited by armed insurgent groups such as Boko Haram (Nett and Rüttinger 2016). Furthermore, livelihood related stresses can have deteriorating effects on social cohesion between groups, within groups and even within families, fueling tensions, sexual and gender-based violence, and criminality (Owonikoko and Momodu 2020).Resultant insecurity risks around access to food, water, and income, amplified by the Boko Haram insurgency, can force people to migrate from affected rural areas to urban centers. For instance, Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state has received vast numbers of internally displaced people from rural areas, many of them finding shelter in IDP camps (Kamta et al. 2020;Kamta and Scheffran 2021).Overall, armed violence in the region, mainly fueled by Boko Haram's activities, has been identified as a prominent cause of displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Together with livelihood erosion, these act as major drivers of out-migration from areas surrounding the Lake Chad basin. Some of the mobility dynamics from this region involve changing characteristics of pastoral migration, which as described above, can be linked with risks of farmer-herder conflicts. What is perhaps more relevant here is internal migration from rural to urban areas, as a result of climate and conflict-related combined impacts on rural livelihoods. Large-scale internal population movements have put serious pressure on urban infrastructure, leading to growth of slums and squatter settlements, that can then be linked with human insecurity risks such as food insecurity, as well as communal tensions, crime and violence (Fasona and Omojola 2005;Owonikoko and Momodu 2020). Persistent inequalities and fractionalization between a Muslim majority north and a predominantly Christian south, with overlaps between regional and ethnic group identities (Mancini 2009), can further fuel these risks.The presence of state security forces and local vigilante groups through the formation of Civilian JointTask Force (CJTF) can affect the state's capacity to respond effectively by addressing underlying vulnerabilities driving non-traditional security risks (Okpara et al. 2015;Angerbrandt 2017, Vivekananda 2018, Day and Caus 2020). Lack of formalization and proper implementation of environmental codes by the Nigerian government can further contribute to reinforcing this vicious cycle of fragility and violence (Kombe et al. 2016). Beyond conventional assumptions around insurgency in the north-east driven by grievances against the government, the role of factionalized political elites in this partial democracy, lending political relevance to a group like Boko Haram (Iyekekpolo 2020), could be considered for a deeper understanding of complexities underpinning climate-conflict linkages in this region.Regional diplomacy can be key for effective resource governance in a fragile setting such as the Lake Chad basin, with potential dividends for long-term peace and stability. In 2018, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) adopted the Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience (RSS)of the Boko Haram-affected areas of the Lake Basin Region, which for Nigeria include the states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. Endorsed by the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union, the RSS focuses on nine strategic pillars of intervention, including areas of cross-border cooperation, human rights and security, humanitarian assistance, livelihood recovery and governance capacity among others (LCBC and AU 2018). Gaps related to funding, coordination between stakeholders, as well as longer-term implementation of the strategy would need to be adequately addressed to meet aims like replacing humanitarian assistance with sustainable livelihood support through climateresilient development efforts and investments (Planetary Security Initiative 2021).PATHWAY #3: Fossil fuels, environmental impacts, and livelihood insecurity pathwayAnother potential pathway would be the oil and environment related crisis in the Niger delta, as the oil industry is vulnerable to extreme weather events like storm surges. Impact of climate variability on oil industry can worsen already existing conditions of poverty, inequality, political marginalization, and lack of trust for the government. As Nigeria is one of the largest oil exporters in the world (Workman 2016), and the federal government is dependent on oil revenues, there is presumed to be a marriage of interest between the Nigerian government and oil companies. Thousands of oil spill incidents have been reported over the last several decades, resulting in the spilling of millions of oil barrels into the environment (Department of Petroleum Resources 1997; Inoni et al. 2006). Oil spills in the Niger delta have not only degraded the environment and water quality, but also disrupted livelihood structures of local communities in the region (Pegg and Zabbey 2013;Oshienemen et al. 2018).Oils spills have been reported to adversely affect the local economy, through decline in productivity of crops such as cassava and yam, and reduced availability of fish species. For example, the Ibani community of Bonny River in the Niger delta were among those dependent on fish and salt for internal trading in exchange for crops. With the discovery of oil, new infrastructure was built, but the development outcomes had detrimental effects on the environment, livelihoods and culture of fishing villages. Not only did spillage from oil industry reduce the stock of fish, as well as esem (periwinkles) and mgbe (mangrove oysters), it also resulted in pollution of rivers and waterways, causing irreversible harm to a fishing economy based on communal ownership of resources (Fentiman 1996).Environmental degradation, mainly water pollution and land degradation from oil extraction, also impacted farmers through lower agricultural income generation (Apata 2010). The associated loss of livelihoods can amplify human security risks through consequences like food insecurity, hunger and poverty (IPCC 2007;Elum et al. 2016).Lack of sustainable alternatives and livelihood support have then pushed people to migrate to other areas in search of employment. This process of erosion of traditional livelihoods, such as fishing, has damaged social cohesion, fostering frustration and grievances among community members, especially youths, who are recruited by oil companies and equipped with weapons to protect facilities, contributing to insecurity risks related to restiveness within the community (Oshienemen et al. 2018).Disproportionately facing harmful economic and environmental impacts of oil extraction, local communities such as Ijaws and the Ogonis have agitated and protested against the multinational oil companies and the federal government (Day and Caus 2020). This can then inform risk of further violence through state repression of oil-related protests. Overall risks of insecurity and violence over oil in the Niger delta can therefore be attributed to complex interactions between ecological, social and institutional factors (Boele et al. 2001), compounded by weak governance, poor implementation of environmental protection regulations, as well as exclusion of local communities from resource rents and benefits (Kankara 2013;Okpaleke and Abraham-Dukum 2020). Therefore, not only is there a need to adopt stricter measures of accountability for environmental degradation, but effective economic instruments could also be used to address oil-related insecurity risks and outcomes (Aghalino and Eyinla 2017).CGIAR aims to address gaps in knowledge about climate change and food security for peace and security policies and operations through a unique multidisciplinary approach. Our main objective is to align evidence from the realms of climate, land, and food systems science with peacebuilding efforts already underway that address conflict through evidence-based environmental, political, and socioeconomic solutions.","tokenCount":"2962"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de6d1ba5c2a2ce91b8b2044c4654d1e5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d6e1417-b51a-43c8-9146-9011a950469e/retrieve","id":"-504224151"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b0c2da74-b8a7-4797-8f9b-220edc8149b0","pagecount":"57","content":"Zambia, like any other country, has been experiencing the effects of climate change across all sectors of national development, including agricultural production. Changes in climate and weather patterns include unpredictable rains, a shifting and shortening of the growing season, increase in temperatures, and longer dry spells. The production of maize, which is a staple food crop in Zambia, is predicted to decrease by up to 20% in some places by 2050. The importance of developing new varieties and maximizing the use of existing diversity is paramount for responding to climate change, as one of the strategies for adaptation. Accessing this diversity for climate change adaptation will be a key to ensuring farmers and communities adapt to climate change.This case study focuses on activities being implemented in relation to access and benefit sharing in the development of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), and the availability of PGRFA for climate change adaptation. The study looked at the movement of PGRFA in and out of Zambia, and how international and national PGRFA developments have enhanced the resilience of Zambia's seed systems. Secondary data, obtained from the Genesys database 1 and the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), was analysed to show trends in flows of PGRFA in and out of the country and within the country. Primary data and information on germplasm exchange was collected from key informant surveys with people from various institutions involved in research, conservation and extension.Using crop-climate suitability modelling, PGRFA that are potentially adaptable to present and future climate challenges were identified from national and international gene banks. A combination of climate and GIS modelling tools were used to match specific accessions to the climates of collection points, based on 19 bioclimatic variables.The study also looks at the policy and regulatory implications for access and benefit sharing (ABS) in Zambia, identifying gaps and recommending changes that need to be made at a policy level in order to facilitate access to and exchange of genetic resources for the benefit of farmers. The fact that millions of seed samples representing different genetic resources have been secured globally, and are available for use through the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) of the ITPGRFA, offers an opportunity towards developing new varieties to respond to climate change. Germplasm introductions from external sources outside the country continue to be a major feature of crop development and improvement programmes for major crops in the country.The country now needs to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol/CBD), and to develop the necessary legislation, regulations and structures for its implementation. This will broaden access and benefit sharing to cover crops that are not currently included in the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing of the ITPGRFA (MLS). Consequently, iii ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia CONTENTSii ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia germplasm for all crops of interest to breeders will be available for exchange and use. But to achieve this, the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection (MLNREP), which is responsible for the Nagoya Protocol, must work together with the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI) and the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) to develop guidelines for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.  3. Varieties multiplied by community seed producers using foundation seed provided by variety owners .......                  an increase in the annual mean temperature, and maximum and minimum temperatures, since the midtwentieth century, with the most significant rises in temperature occurring over the last two decades. The report further notes that minimum temperatures have risen more rapidly compared to maximum temperatures over inland southern Africa (CDKN, 2014). In Zambia, where maize is the staple food crop, the production of maize is predicted to decrease by up to 20% in some places by 2050, under such temperature and precipitation scenarios (Schlenker and Lobell, 2010).Perceptions of the effect of climate change in the country are very much in conformity with the 2013 global survey findings of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), that climate change impacts on production, genetic resources for food and agriculture, and ecosystem services, and that there is a need in many cases to change species or varieties to respond to climate change (FAO, 2015). Ways of coping with increased climate stresses are needed, particularly with abiotic stresses such as heat, drought and flooding. The importance of developing new varieties is paramount for responding to the negative effects of climate change. The IPCC recognizes the use of existing diversity to adapt to climate change as one of the strategies for adaptation. Accessing this diversity for climate change adaptation will be key to ensuring farmers and communities adapt to climate change.This case study focuses on access and benefit sharing in the utilization and development of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), and, specifically, PGRFA for climate change adaptation. The study looks at the movement of PGRFA in and out of Zambia, and at how international and national PGRFA developments have enhanced the resilience of Zambia's seed systems. The future interdependence of two communities, due to climate change, is also used to illustrate how climate change will necessitate access to PGRFA for adaptation. Finally, the study examines the current access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regime in Zambia, and the ways in which it can be improved to make PGRFA accessible for climate change adaptation.The study uses various approaches to analyse the flows and exchange of genetic resources at different levels: The study also draws upon case studies on the exchange of genetic materials between communities, and looks at how climate change drives the interdependence and exchange of genetic resources. Two communities, namely Chikankata and Rufunsa, were chosen for the case studies. Each community selected a crop based on its importance for food security and climate change adaptation, and its contribution to livelihoods. Chikankata selected maize, while Rufunsa chose sorghum. PGRFA potentially adaptable for present and future climate challenges were identified from national gene banks and international gene banks, using a combination of climate and GIS modelling tools that matched specific accessions to the climate of the collection points based on 19 bioclimatic variables. Accessions were then selected based on their similarity to the present or predicted future (2050s) climate of the site. These accessions were then made available to farmers for trials. Potentially adaptable germplasm from the communities and community seed banks (CSBs) were also identified in collaboration with farmers through participatory varietal selection and ranking.Finally, the study investigates the policy and regulatory implications for ABS in Zambia, identifying gaps and recommending changes that need to be implemented at policy level in order to facilitate access to and exchange of genetic resources for the benefit of farmers. ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in ZambiaZambia is situated on a large plateau between 8° and 18° south of the equator. The climate is predominantly sub-tropical, with 95% of precipitation falling during the wet season (November to April). Rainfall varies according to latitude and agro-ecological region, with over 1,200 millimetres (mm) falling annually on average in the north and northwest (Region III), and less than 700 mm in the south (Region I).Region II, the central part of the country, receives between 800 and 1,200 mm of rain annually. Average temperatures peak in October, and the lowest average temperatures occur in July.The past 40 years have experienced a slight reduction in annual precipitation, along with increased variability in rainfall year-to-year, and an increase in extreme precipitation events (Solomon et al., 2007;Kirtman et al., 2013). There have been more droughts and floods over the past 20 years, which have impacted significantly on crop production and crop diversity in particular. Both droughts and floods are believed to have led to some loss of crop diversity on farm (Mwila, Ng'uni and Phiri, 2008). Predicted impacts of climate change differ between the country's three agro-ecological zones, depending on rainfall.In the western and southern parts of the country, rainfall has been low, unpredictable and poorly distributed for the past 20 years, despite historically being considered a good cereal cropping area (Jain, 2007).Since 1960, the mean annual precipitation countrywide has been decreasing by 1.9 mm per month per decade, most notably in the summer months, and the growing season has been shortening (McSweeney, New and Lizcano, 2010;Tadross, 2009). The climate, including its precipitation and temperature patterns, is expected to continue to change over the next five to 40 years. In the coming decades, the temperature across Zambia, along with the entire southern African region, is widely expected to increase by up to two degrees Celsius (°C) (Hulme et al., 2001;Tyson, 1991;Christensen et al., 2013). Total annual precipitation is expected to decrease slightly, although the frequency of extreme precipitation events (causing flash floods) will probably become greater. The intensity of rainfall events and the time between them may also increase. In other words, this reduction in the frequency of rainy days could lead to longer dry spells interspersed with more intense, heavy precipitation, all without greatly altering total annual precipitation (Gannon et al., 2014).The effects of climate change in Zambia are being felt most by farmers, through extreme weather events such as droughts, storms, floods and cold snaps; and gradual shifts in rainfall patterns and sometimes temperatures. These observations have been aptly summarized by FAO in Table 1. Longer or shorter rainy seasons in the northern or southern parts of the country, respectively, are the main changes perceived by farmers. This is confirmed by meteorological observation, which indicates that rainfall patterns in Zambia have changed significantly since the late 1980s. In the south, the critical threshold has almost been reached, with only 130 days left for planting maize. This is insufficient for many varieties except earlymaturing varieties, which mainly have smaller yields. In the north, on the other hand, longer rainfalls often cause the maize crop to rot in the fields (Neubert et al., 2011). Planting varieties that mature within the duration of the season is therefore a major form of adaptation. In addition to shifts in varieties, crop ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia species diversification is also necessary so that areas that are no longer suitable for maize can shift to sorghum and millets as well as cassava, which are more resilient.The majority of Zambia's farmers lack the capacity, resources and financial assistance to adapt to and overcome worsening climatic conditions. The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) of Zambia highlights that Zambian communities are vulnerable to climatic hazards (such as drought, flooding, extreme temperatures and prolonged dry spells), which precipitate widespread crop failure, negatively impact food and water security and, ultimately, affect the sustainability of rural livelihoods (MTENR, 2007). Indeed, within the last 20 years, prolonged dry spells and shorter rainfall seasons have reduced maize yields to only 40% of the long-term average. Furthermore, based on the scenario in which carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) doubles in these regions, estimates predict a reduction in yield of approximately 66% under rain-fed conditions. The country therefore has to come up with strategies for adaptation to climate change not only at national level, but for specific communities in different agro-ecological zones (AEZs). The dominance of rain-fed agriculture in Zambia means that climate change poses a considerable challenge. The yield during a severe drought in 1991-1992, for example, was less than half that of the preceding season. Droughts in 1993-1995, 2001-2002 and 2004-2005 similarly had a severe impact on yields and consequently on food security. Global climate models predict that temperatures will increase in southern Africa by 0.6 -1.4 °C by 2030. Rainfall predictions are more ambiguous, with some models suggesting increased precipitation, and some suggesting reduced precipitation. Crop yields in the region ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia are expected to suffer as a result, with maize yields predicted to fall by 30% and wheat by 15%, in the absence of adaptation measures (Lobell et al., 2008).It should be noted that the impact of climate change on crop production is not limited to total rainfall and temperature effects: intra-seasonal rainfall variation is also important. A 'false start' to the rainy season due to erratic rainfall can be disastrous for crop establishment. Similarly, intra-seasonal dry spells may be more damaging to growth than low total rainfall (Kaczan, Arslan and Lipper, 2013).Major crops that are grown in the country are maize, sorghum, millet, rice (paddy), wheat, cassava, groundnut, sunflower, cotton, soybean, beans and tobacco. Of these, maize, the staple food, is the most important, and also faces a significant threat from the impact of climate change on its production.In addition to the many adaptation programmes taking place in the country, there are also efforts to utilize so-called climate-smart varieties, which are considered to be adapted to the changed climate. There is indeed scope in finding or developing varieties that may withstand increased temperatures or reduced moisture during crop production. The fact that millions of seed samples, representing different genetic resources, have been secured globally, and are available for use through the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) of the ITPGRFA, offers an opportunity towards developing new varieties to respond to climate change.The FAO report on PGR and resilience to climate change (FAO, 2015), has outlined a number of technical adaptation actions that support adaptation and include the following: Actions involving change in species or varieties in production systems. The changes include direct selection of materials to meet changed conditions, and introduction of adapted materials (species and varieties). Diversification leading to increased diversity of crops or species, and use of trees in crop production systems. Improved and increased access to and availability of materials that can be used in adaptation. This has both policy and technical dimensions and is linked to capacity development.The Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Africa programme, in its assessment of the Zambian seed sector, identified five seed systems in the country (Nakaponda, 2012): Informal or farmer-managed system, in which farmers exchange and sell seed of traditional varieties. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support through their projects to farmers engaged in community-based and entrepreneurial forms of seed production of officially released varieties that are certified by the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI). National seed companies, which depend mainly on the CGIAR for germplasm for breeding, and engage both commercial and small-scale farmers in seed production of the released varieties of mainly food crops. International seed companies, which are involved in breeding and seed production of mostly hybrid maize and some cash crops. The export commodities-driven seed system, which is based on an out-grower scheme arrangement between smallholders and commercial farmers for cash crops, where the company provides seed of cotton or tobacco. The involvement of ZARI, which is a public research institution, contributed to the inclusion of openpollinated varieties (OPVs) that are more affordable and can be grown in more than one generation by small-scale farmers, while seed companies concentrated only on hybrids.Most seed sown in the country is produced locally by farmers who manage their own seed production. This seed is used by the household, exchanged or bartered with neighbours, kin or other communities (Mulvany and Mpande, 2013). By and large, most seed is informally produced, except maize seed for which there are many improved varieties on the market. Much more breeding for climate change is required to boost agricultural production in the country. Local varieties often yield less than improved varieties, though they may be better adapted to diverse and location-specific low-input agricultural conditions. They are also a source of seed security in case the improved varieties fail. Yet the farmermanaged seed system continues to decline as new improved varieties, particularly hybrid maize, are promoted in the government-driven Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), to the extent that the conservation and use of local varieties or local knowledge associated with these crops and varieties, and also the maintenance and seed production of those crops, is threatened. It is important that traditional varieties and associated indigenous knowledge are given prominence in the identification or development of varieties that address climate challenges.Through community seed banking and custodian farmers, indigenous knowledge has been preserved in the communities. Currently, very few community seed banks (CSBs) exist in the country, though the term is also often erroneously used to describe seed stores for community seed producers who produce seed of commercial varieties in partnership with seed companies and NGOs. The role of a CSB is to provide a sustainable flow of local indigenous seed and associated knowledge, and to conserve local varieties. In Zambia, CSBs are also known to participate in the distribution of improved maize varieties; they act as intermediaries between seed companies and farmers because they are already organized and their seed networks are strong. Many CSBs are involved with seed companies such as Kamano and Steward Globe, ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia as well as ZARI, to produce maize OPVs, legume seed of groundnut, beans and cowpea, and small cereals like finger millet.Various NGOs have promoted community seed production of mostly open-pollinated improved varieties, which are released locally by research institutions, as shown in Table 3. It is important to pay attention to some seemingly illogical things that farmers do. Why are some varieties popular despite low yields? Understanding the decision-making process of the farmers can facilitate the development of varieties that are adapted to changing or unstable climates. Whenever a four-cell diversity analysis is conducted in a community, the cell with many households growing a particular variety in small areas generates a lot of useful indigenous knowledge, because this is the cell that will have varieties that may be overlooked commercially, but are very important to the community because of attributes that may not be related to yield or even marketing. Some of the reasons for growing these varieties may be linked to climatic factors, such as drought resistance or short growing season, food security, or taste and cooking properties. An example of a situation where farmers have applied local indigenous knowledge in the decision to plant, conserve and manage local maize diversity can be found in Chikankata where a fourcell analysis of maize varieties was carried out (see Box 1).Participatory research carried out with farmers in Chikankata, revealed that farmers had been experiencing higher temperatures and shorter growing seasons, prompting them to find local varieties that are faster maturing. A four-cell analysis of maize, conducted in Chikankata, showed that Bbilimba (Gankata) is cultivated by many households on a large area of land. This is because this variety is preferred for consumption and also has good commercial qualities, such as high yield, and large cobs and grains. Many households grow Kafwamba and Tandanzala on small areas. These varieties are very early maturing and are consumed during the peak hunger period of February/March before the main harvest. Much of these are consumed fresh during this period and therefore there is only enough seed to plant in a small area of land. The grain of Kafwamba is also multicoloured, making it unattractive for commerce. A variety called 'Kenya' is being grown by a few households on a large area because although its taste is preferred and it is relatively high yielding, most households still prefer Bbilimba. So, the few households that cultivate Kenya do so in order to trade locally. Balankana and Hampungani are grown by just a few households on small areas of land. Balankana is mainly cultivated to be consumed as a roasted snack, while Hampungani is cultivated for sentimental reasons, as it produces twin cobs even though yield is low. In fact, farmers indicated that this was once a lost variety because of very limited seed availability.Many households, small area -Kafwamba -Tandanzala Few households, large area -Kenya Few households, small area -Balankana -HampunganiIn addition, the custodians of these local maize varieties in Chikankata are mainly old men and women; for varieties like Balankana, which are cultivated for roasting, women are the main custodians. These custodians hold a lot of indigenous knowledge for their use, management and conservation. ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in ZambiaThe National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) is responsible for most ex situ conservation activities in the country. Currently (2015), the NPGRC has 7,278 accessions belonging to different crop species maintained as seed samples. The ex situ collection also includes 100 germplasm materials of cassava maintained as living plants in a field gene bank. Since 2001, the NPGRC has distributed 1,936 samples of these accessions of different crop species to various research and learning institutions, NGOS and farmers. These include maize, cowpea, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, beans, sweet potato, cassava, sesame and local leafy vegetables, as shown in Table 5. Germplasm accessions have also been distributed to farmers and individuals on request.The NPGRC has adopted the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) for accessing PGRFA included in Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA, and has also developed a separate material transfer agreement (MTA) for PGRFA that are not on Annex 1, and for Zambian beneficiaries (See Appendix 1).From 2011 to 2012, ZARI partnered with Enza Zaden, a private vegetable seed company in the Netherlands, in the areas of germplasm collection, accessions regeneration and seed multiplication, with a focus on traditional leafy vegetables. As can be seen in Table 4, this company obtained a number of accessions, but the NPGRC has not yet followed-up to find out the fate of the germplasm provided, not just to this company but generally to all recipients of Zambian germplasm. This is purely an indication of inadequate capacity of the national gene bank to conduct follow-ups on the germplasm that it distributes. According to data from the ITPGRFA Secretariat, in the past eight years Zambia has received over 11,000 accessions of different crops held by international gene bank collections worldwide (Table 5). Most notably, the greatest number of accessions are of wheat and maize. In 2012, Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) funded an 'early win' project in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia, led by ICRISAT, whose aims were to increase production of both basic and certified seed for six target crops (maize, beans, cowpea, soybean, mediumduration pigeon pea and groundnut). The specific objectives were to: Accelerate the production of breeder and basic seed of improved varieties released by NARS. Build the capacity of NARS and small-scale private seed producers through investment in training in seed production, management and use. Foster public-private partnerships to increase the sustainability of seed systems serving smallholders.ZARI has been successful in releasing a range of hybrids and open-pollinated varieties, and the liberalization of the seed market has further contributed to the diffusion of a wide mix of varieties supplied -and sometimes planted -by numerous seed companies. Zambian smallholders have a long history of growing improved maize varieties, though adoption rates are still rather low. The national maize research programme and seed companies have released a wide array of maize hybrids since the 1970s.After the Zambian seed sector was liberalized in the 1990s, the number of released maize varieties proliferated, and seed companies have diversified. By the end of 2010, 203 improved maize varieties had been released (Table 6). Of these, the farmers surveyed in a Harvest Plus study conducted in 2011 (De Groote, et al., 2014) grew 106 improved maize varieties, as well as numerous local varieties and recycled hybrids. More than half of the farmers planted more than one variety, but few grew more than two varieties, and the maximum number of varieties grown during that season was five. Not one variety stands out as the most popular; not a single variety covers more than 10% of the area cultivated with maize, and the 20 most popular varieties together covered less than half of the maize area. About 16% of the maize area was taken up by local maize varieties. Agronomic characteristics are the most important criteria that farmers use when selecting a variety. Yield, drought resistance, and field pest resistance are by far the most important attributes farmers consider.  Some of the varieties registered are new national varieties, some are varieties imported from other countries that are adapted for national use, and some are imported varieties, which have been developed by plant breeders in other countries and by the CGIAR centres. However, Zambia produces 80,000 metric tonnes (mt) of seed and is a net exporter of mostly hybrid maize seed. Less than one percent of seed sold in the country is imported and this is mainly vegetable seed (Thapa and Keyser, 2012). The situation is different for legume crops, where there is less demand for certified seed and therefore less production as farmers tend to use their own farm-saved seed for these crops much more than they do for maize.While the formal seed system concentrates on developing and marketing varieties for large-scale commercial production, there are examples of their contribution to farmer-managed seed systems. For example, maize germplasm from open-pollinated varieties (OPVs), developed by both the public and private sectors, is used in informal seed systems. For most self-pollinated crop species, such as groundnut, developed varieties are usually integrated into the informal system where the seed is recycled over many generations and exchanged locally in the communities. In this system, farmers only differentiate based on seed colour and size, and the maturity period. The varieties shown in Table 7 show a maturity range from 90 to 160 days, thus offering farmers a wide choice in selecting the best variety to suit the rainfall patterns. Sorghum and millet are important traditional cereal crops for food security in many parts of the country, and are largely grown by smallholder farmers. However, these crops face stiff competition from maize in the production system, mainly because of the massive support that maize production receives in the form of inputs and grain marketing. Maize is also the preferred cereal in urban areas, giving it a superior market advantage.Consequently, the adoption rate for sorghum and millet varieties by smallholder farmers is far less compared to that of maize. The changing climate in some of the areas where these crops have been displaced by maize will inadvertently cause a reversal of crop choices as sorghum and millets become much more suited to the new climate. This is especially true for the southern part of the country, particularly the valley areas that are getting hotter and drier. The response has been the increased number of sorghum varieties released in 2015, as shown in Table 8. For pearl millet and finger millet, there have not been many new releases in the last ten years, as can be seen in Table 9. These two crops, together with cassava and sorghum, will be expected to increase in production as communities respond to climate change. The use of traditional varieties is predominant in these crops. The development and use of climate-resilient seed will largely depend on the ease of access to genetic resources, governed by nationally and internationally agreed procedures for exchanging genetic resources and information. Approximately 6,391 accessions of various crops collected from Zambia are currently conserved in international collections hosted by various CGIAR centres that have signed Article 15 agreements with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA. Those materials are made available under the SMTA. Information about those collections -and other collections, including those held by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and European national gene banks -is available from the Genesys database. Samples of 4,814 of these accessions have also been duplicated for safety in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.The Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI) regulates seed production through the Plant Variety and Seeds Act, and provides for the protection of plant breeders' rights and the registration of plant varieties, through the Plant Breeders' Rights Act. Table 10 summarizes some examples of recent genetic resources exchanges between various stakeholders in the seed sector. CRS-Zambia has been implementing the Diversity and Nutrition for Enhanced Resilience (DiNERs) programme on variety deployment since 2002. In the first year, the programme used the formal and informal seed systems, concentrating on seed fairs to build links between communities and seed producers (certified and QDS seed of improved varieties). Demand for seed has risen (50% for maize and 33% for beans). Emphasis was on communication; it will further develop direct links with seed producers in the second year. This will be supported by SMS services and the distribution of small packets of seed.The aim of DiNERs is to provide access to information on available varieties for farmers, and also to varieties that are available as QDS seed. Like traditional seed fairs, DiNERs supports private sector linkages between rural communities and commercial seed suppliers. DiNERs will also ensure that rural communities can access diverse types of seed and other planting materials essential for improving household nutrition and increasing resilience in the face of climatic shocks. DiNERs has included seedlings of fruit tree species, indigenous legumes and vegetables and cereal crops. Access to varieties (released and local) of priority crops is made possible through small samples and vouchers at seed fairs. Small vouchers equivalent to between US$0.50 and US$5 are used to buy seed in small quantities of up to a total of $20 (Rwomushana and Heemskerk, 2015). The main objective of community seed production is to increase availability of reasonably priced, quality seed of popular crops. The major crops produced by the community seed enterprises are OPV maize, groundnut, cowpea, sugar beans and bambara nut. The key challenge faced is access to foundation seed, especially groundnut and bambara nut, and access to markets. The ability to source foundation seed in a timely manner is crucial for the success of community seed schemes. Contract production for seed houses is also practiced; for example, Stewards Globe Ltd contracted farmers to multiply a maize OPV that had been developed from farmers' varieties, and which is relatively drought-tolerant (Mulvany and Mpande, 2013).Functional linkages between the formal and informal seed sectors are needed to support the evolution of the seed sector in general. The informal seed sector maintains numerous local varieties of many crops and is the primary source of germplasm for new crop varieties developed by the formal sector, which produces commercial varieties using modern breeding techniques.A seed system security assessment conducted in eastern Zambia, led by CIAT, found that a very small cluster of crops dominates food production. On a basis of seed quantity, maize, groundnut and cotton accounted for 95% of seed planted (USAID, 2013). The assessment also found that there are challenges in accessing groundnut seed due to the limited production of basic seed of released varieties. Access to new varieties by farmers was limited to only maize and groundnut, with no farmer accessing new varieties of beans, cowpea or pigeon pea, all of which are popular crops whose diversification is essential for adaptation to climate change. ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in ZambiaCrop improvement for food crops has been taking place within the public domain of ZARI programmes supported by CGIAR centres. However, access to varieties in the public domain by smallholder farmers is problematic. The funding for public breeding programmes generally originates from the government and is inadequate. According to the 'Yellow Book ' of 2015' of (MoFNP, 2015)), which lists agricultural budget allocations planned by the government, only a paltry US$200,000 was earmarked for breeding, to cover all crops across the whole country, from an agricultural budget of about US$300 million. This level of resources is inadequate for increasing foundation seed to obtain a large enough number of varieties for the purposes of developing climate-resilient varieties for small-scale farmers.Other causes for the limited availability of these varieties for smallholder farmers are the lengthy and complex release procedures, quantity and quality problems related to breeder and foundation seed, lack of incentives for breeders to distribute varieties to the private and community-based seed systems, capacity issues within the national agricultural research system, and also the capacity gap in relation to access to variety release and deployment (Rwomushana and Heemskerk, 2015).Another related problem is the unsuitability of certain varieties that are developed without the involvement or participation of farmers, in defining the breeding objectives and determining priority traits. This ultimately leads to disinterest in the variety and/or low adoption rates.Some of the main observations made on this topic by ISSD Africa (Rwomushana and Heemskerk, 2015) are that: Africa has a heterogeneous population with diverse cultural values leading to many different demands and required traits of varieties. There is also wide variation in food habits. This makes the still-prominent form of breeding, which focuses solely on yield and market demands, unsuitable. The variety portfolio requires diversification in adaptation to needs and agroecologies, which is why the reintroduction of well-adapted local varieties from gene banks or other sources is important. Farmer preferences are so diverse that they cannot all be dealt with by breeders without the involvement of the farmers themselves, hence the need for participatory plant breeding. Farmer tests and trials on plant varietal selection are needed, involving male and female farmers, to identify suitable traits such as cooking quality, fodder quality, marketability, etc.Access to information on the characteristics and availability of varieties is one of the main constraints in accessing varieties that are available in the public system. Information on newly released varieties for farmers, as well as farmers' feedback on these varieties, is one of the traditional functions of public agricultural extension, but these systems are not sufficiently effective. Usually, limited information is available to both farmers and local seed producers, about which varieties are available and how they can be accessed.While plant breeders' rights are in place, farmers' rights and community rights are not formally recognized. Limited and inconsistent funding to ZARI and other public institutions responsible for the ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia development of improved varieties and their promotion, result in the limited availability of new improved varieties of important food crops suitable for the small-scale farmer.The supply of breeder seed and foundation seed of local crops and subsistence crops, to seed companies and other organizations engaged in the seed sector (e.g. NGOs, associations, etc.), is inadequate. The low rate of release of varieties for crops with less commercial value acts as a further disincentive. In addition, ZARI is still biased towards conducting crop improvement activities in which the private sector is involved in the breeding of crops such as hybrid maize, wheat and soybean. This restricted investment in crop improvement, and the inadequate access to materials developed by public research results in the limited use of quality seed of improved varieties of self-pollinated crops among the small-scale farmers.The need for policy initiatives to address challenges in PGRFA exchange 3.6.1 National seed laws and regional initiatives for the harmonization of international laws Until 1998, Zambia had no seed policy, and the Plant Varieties and Seed Act guided the operations of the seed industry. A national seed policy was developed in 1999 and embedded in the National Agricultural Policy: 2004-2015, which has since been revised. The seed policy and act provide a basis to regulate the seed sector through seed testing, seed crop inspection, variety registration, variety protection and the enforcement of seed quality standards to facilitate seed trade, quarantine, multiplication, and the protection of plant breeders' rights.The overall objective of the national seed policy is to ensure that quality seed of various crops is made available to farmers in an efficient and convenient manner to ensure increased agricultural production. The policy has identified the following measures and strategies to achieve this objective: Regulate the seed sector through seed testing, seed crop inspection, variety registration, variety protection and the enforcement of seed quality standards to facilitate seed trade, quarantine and other seed related issues. Promote the development of the informal seed sector by providing accessibility to breeder/basic seed from research, and coordinate the sector in creating a sustainable cottage (rural) seed industry. Regulate multiplication, trading and adoption of seed of genetically modified crops.  Ensure the protection of plant breeders', farmers' and community rights.As can be seen, the policy takes an inclusive approach in addressing formal and informal seed systems. It is at the implementation level that all efforts, including legislation, have tended to be lopsided towards the formal system.It is a requirement under current regulations that all varieties are subjected to up to three years testing before being released for sale. This includes varieties developed elsewhere and imported into the country for release. There is an ongoing debate on the value of this regulation, which is intended to protect the farmer but which the suppliers argue increases release costs as the source of the material is deemed to have similar climatic conditions as Zambia. This is one of the underlying reasons behind harmonizing seed ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia trade for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), where testing will only be carried out in two countries and thereafter varieties will become eligible for release in all member countries.The whole process of variety registration is also questionable, and the argument is the same, that this is intended to safeguard the farmer against inappropriate varieties. However, this also inadvertently blocks the inclusion of traditional varieties, regardless of how good and popular they may be, because there is no mechanism for including them since the criteria used to qualify a variety, such as uniformity, works against most of these varieties. If there is political will to include certain traditional varieties based on farmers' experiences and popularity, this would encourage other seed requirements, such as viability and seed purity, when this seed is being traded or exchanged.Currently, the seed laws specifically state that only registered varieties may be bought or sold in Zambia.In other words, only 788 varieties of various crops are allowed to be traded. This is in stark contrast to the rights that are conferred by the ITPGRFA on farmers to exchange and sell the seed of their varieties. Therefore, while farmers frequently exchange their seed, the scope to which this can be done is restricted by the inhibitory seed laws.Zambia participated in the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (GRPI), coordinated and implemented by Bioversity International, which aimed to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to design comprehensive policy frameworks for genetic resources. A number of policy-related problems affecting the conservation, management and use of genetic resources were identified. These included inadequate appreciation of the value of genetic resources; limited knowledge on what genetic resources are available, their conservation and use; and low level of awareness on issues related to ownership rights, access to genetic resources and benefit sharing at all levels. In order to address these problems, three main activity areas touching on policy research and advocacy were implemented during Phase 2 of GRPI in Zambia from 2005 to 2007; these areas were: Creating awareness on the value of genetic resources and related knowledge, conducted through a range of activities focused on increasing understanding and awareness regarding the role of genetic resources in Zambia. Assessing conditions of ownership and access to local genetic resources, conducted through a range of activities aimed at the domestication of the ITPGRFA and associated policy development. Promoting the incorporation of traditional crop varieties in local seed systems, conducted through a range of activities aimed at promoting the role and value of traditional varieties at local and national levels.In 2008, ZARI informed the Secretariat of the ITPGRFA that it had placed a total number of 4,340 accessions in the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing of the ITPGRFA (MLS). The National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) has used agronomic and morphological characterization techniques to add value to some of the main collections, and has characterized 1,886 accessions of ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia sorghum, cowpea, finger millet, maize, beans and pearl millet in order to facilitate utilization of these genetic resources by the international community. These actions promote transparency and help other contracting parties to the ITPGRFA to understand the status and the importance of the collections within the MLS.While the country has made significant progress in relation to the ITPGRFA, it still lags far behind in relation to developing structures for implementing access and benefit sharing mechanisms, as agreed in the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol/CBD), which the country is yet to even ratify.The rationale behind harmonizing seed trade regulations in COMESA is to expedite regional trade and farmers' access to improved seed; overcome lengthy variety testing and release procedures before seed can be marketed; and obviate the need to comply with different national certification standards, and quality control and phytosanitary measures. One of the objectives is to increase drought-and heattolerant varieties to deal with climate change. Seed harmonization basically concerns centralized seed registration, streamlined and uniform seed certification, and a phytosanitary system designed to expedite release of registered seed in the region, availability of certified seed, and seamless regional cross-border trade.However, the harmonized laws impede trade of locally adapted varieties between farmers across the borders, giving rise to broader policy issues regarding facilitating and supporting a regional market for good quality and disease-free farmers' varieties, and special standards for the certification of farmers' varieties. The laws create an exclusive seed market for certified improved, commercial varieties of seed and excludes farmers' varieties from this marketing system.Small-scale farmers seeking to develop or maintain varieties, create local seed enterprises, or cultivate locally adapted varieties, are excluded from the system. There is a need to protect the trade in local landraces, and to overcome barriers to legal cross-border trade between farmers of local varieties (Keyser, 2013).Diversification is a measure to adapt to climate change, but it also helps to smooth out production and marketing risks as well as impacts of economic shocks. It is possible to cope with longer or shorter rainy seasons through variety diversification, which can also raise and spread income, increase soil fertility and enrich the nutritional status of households.One of the strategies outlined in the national climate change policy is to enhance farming systems that encourage crop diversification, including the cultivation and consumption of indigenous and more drought-tolerant food crops like cassava, millet, sorghum and sweet potato.ISSD Africa initiated a programme to contribute to increased access to public varieties for the private sector, and to coordinate donor activities in the development and deployment of public varieties. The objectives are to make more public varieties available to seed producers and farmers, develop licensing agreements and allocation mechanisms, and improve information and communication systems for variety catalogues. ISSD is also striving to increase the participation of the private sector (both formal and informal) in producing improved public varieties and making them available to farmers. The inclusion of PGRFA perspectives in national climate change adaptation planning is inconsistent, even though policies aimed at enhancing the availability of materials are crucial for climate change adaptation.Farmers have a long tradition of producing, saving and exchanging seed. The local varieties used are generally derived from mass selection, which consists of choosing those plants that seem to be the most interesting in a population, and using their seeds to plant the following season. The operation is repeated generation after generation, which makes it possible to improve crop performance progressively. The plants obtained are neither identical to the previous generation nor identical to each other. The seed obtained via mass selection contain heterogeneous individuals, which gives it abilities of adaptation and resistance. Yet these are considered inferior and don't qualify in the formal seed certification system, which only accepts homogeneity and uniformity. Farmers generally practice mass selection, even on commercial open-pollinated varieties. The government has to make a policy shift that recognizes and even rewards this form of varietal improvement as part of the whole system of crop improvement.Zambia is a member of the following international organizations or legal instruments: FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), which governs all agricultural biodiversity. The ITPGRFA, a legally binding treaty that has a multilateral system for access and benefit sharing and articles on conservation, sustainable use and farmers' rights. The International Plant Protection Convention, which aims to protect cultivated and wild plants by preventing the introduction and spread of pests and diseases. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which sets the governance of biodiversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels, within national jurisdictions. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB), which regulates the transboundary movement of living modified organisms such as genetically modified seed. The World Trade Organization (WTO) with its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), whose clause 27.3.b requires all members to have systems for plant variety protection. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which governs the 'ownership' of traditional knowledge among other issues, and houses the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), of which the country has been striving unsuccessfully to become a member. Zambia has its own Plant Breeders' Rights Act, 2007 3 , which protects breeders' rights and provides some exemption to small-scale farmers to allow them to continue with their time-ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia tested seed access and management traditions. To qualify to join UPOV, the country is expected to revise its law by restricting these farmer exemptions.Zambia has not yet ratified the Nagoya Protocol but has developed an MTA for the exchange of crop materials that are not included in Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA (Appendix 1).The country has struggled to fully implement all these international agreements, and in many cases fulfilled only partially some of the aspects, mostly due to limited capacity and resources. However, failure to implement some of the agreements has been mostly due to lack of political will, as has been the case with aspects of the ITPGRFA, where farmers' rights have been completely overshadowed by plant breeders' rights. During the initial process of formulating the draft for plant breeders' rights, drafts on farmers' rights were also being developed. It was, however, decided to separate the two at the point of enactment and no progress has been made on the latter draft since then.The ITPGRFA underscores the importance of plant genetic resources for food security. Through its MLS, it facilitates access to 35 major food crops and 29 forage crops. At the same time, it provides for fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from the utilization of these resources if the resulting products are not freely available for further improvement and research.The ITPGRFA reiterates the principle of national sovereignty over plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The Nagoya Protocol recognizes the ITPGRFA as a special international ABS agreement. Thus, parties to the ITPGRFA are free to apply the Nagoya Protocol to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture that are not covered by the MLS. Zambia is not a member of the Nagoya Protocol, but even if it were, the Nagoya Protocol would not change the way Zambia would operate under the ITPGRFA.A holistic implementation of all appropriate international agreements would lay the ground for enhancing the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources in the country, and especially for strengthening the link between conservation, variety development and adoption. By using these resources over the millennia, coupled with targeted selection and adaptation to existing conditions, farmers worldwide have developed a great deal of diversity within crop species. This is of crucial importance for the ability to adapt to future environmental conditions, continued development of varieties, and breeding to resist against disease and pests. Modern plant breeding depends on that gene pool that has been created over the years by small-scale farmers. However, the plant variety protection laws that accompany modern breeding can lead to a decrease in this multitude of agricultural varieties, if plant variety protection is enacted.Crop-climate modelling for maize in Chikankata and sorghum in Rufunsa (Figure 1) was carried out to identify suitable germplasm from within the country and internationally, for introduction to these areas. Modelling was conducted to identify materials that can be grown today and in 2050, when the climate is expected to change significantly.  2) show that both annual minimum and maximum temperatures will increase by almost 2 °C by 2050. Rainfall is also projected to increase significantly, from 786 to 1,100 millimetres (mm). The temperature and rainfall pattern in 2050 may still be suitable for maize production, but varieties adapted to higher minimum temperature during the growing period may need to be introduced (Figure 3).  The annual minimum temperature is expected to increase by 1 °C by 2050 in Rufunsa, while the maximum temperature will remain the same; rainfall is expected to increase significantly from 839 mm to 1,262 mm (Figure 4). The minimum temperature during the growing season will increase by almost 2 °C, while the maximum temperature will reduce slightly (Figure 5). These conditions will suit both sorghum and maize but adapted varieties may need to be introduced.  Using climate and crop suitability data, and passport information concerning the 300 accessions of maize conserved in the national gene bank (Figure 6), 48 accessions were identified as potentially suitable for present climate conditions (Figure 7), and only eleven were deemed suitable for future climate conditions predicted for 2050 (Figure 8). This demonstrated that as the climate is changing, a decreasing proportion of the national maize collection will be suitably adapted for future climatic conditions. This underscores the importance of the country having access to international collections for sources of genetic traits that ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Zambia are adapted to future climatic conditions. This further justifies the country's participation in the international system of plant genetic resources conservation and governance. Looking at international gene bank collections (Figure 9) and using the same method, accessions of maize were selected based on their adaptability to present and future temperatures and precipitation for Chikankata. According to the maps, the accessions that are most adaptable to present climatic conditions are from South and Central America (Figure 10). However, for future climatic conditions, some of the accessions that were originally collected in Africa are potentially adaptable (Figure 11). Therefore, Zambia will need to look to its neighbours for germplasm. The number of accessions suitable for the future climate were lower than those for the present climate. Based on average temperatures and precipitation for present and 2050's climatic conditions in Rufunsa, accessions of sorghum were selected from a list of 176 national gene bank accessions (Figure 12), and from international collections, comprising 23,931 accessions of sorghum held by CGIAR centres and other gene banks, whose information is accessible from the Genesys database (Figure 13). According to the maps, the most adaptable germplasm from national gene bank collections is from the south-eastern part of the country (Figure 14). It is also evident that in the 2050s, as the climate continues to change and temperatures increase, the adaptable accessions in the national gene bank collections would reduce (Figure 15), requiring the necessity to look further afield.  The crop-climate modelling exercise highlights the interdependence of countries on genetic resources with desired traits such as climate resilience. Table 11 below gives a summary of germplasm requirements, based on present and future climatic challenges. The table shows that as climate changes national collections from the gene bank will not be sufficient to meet climate-related challenges, but international gene bank collections will present an opportunity for the country's resilience; in the future, Zambia will need to access maize accessions from at least nine countries, and sorghum from four countries. The modelling exercise also reiterates the importance of being a member of the ITPGRFA, which provides for access to germplasm held in gene banks all over the world. This, together with the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing, makes the country less vulnerable to climate change by having a wide gene pool of germplasm available for plant breeding. Most plant breeding in the country is currently focused on maize, with both public and private sector participation. There are also some plant breeding programmes for sorghum and millets, groundnut, beans and cowpea.An important missing link for all crops, other than those addressed by private companies, is the access to basic seed of improved varieties. The community-based efforts of NGOs that are currently emerging may fill the gap left between the larger seed companies that focus on maize and the farmer-managed seed systems, thereby improving the availability of quality seed both for local and improved varieties for all crops important to food security in the country (Nakaponda, 2012).The government's FISP, and marketing support for maize, often distorts the decision-making process for farmers in relation to choice of crops and varieties. A case in point is the study conducted in Shibuyunji by Microthink Institute (Mubanga et al., 2015). Results showed that despite being confronted by late onset of rains, and post-germination crop attacks by army worms that made maize production extremely precarious, 61.5% of the affected smallholder farmers still replanted their cultivated land with maize. The farmers had a choice of whether to replant maize that had a ready market from the Food Reserve Agency, or to plant a drought-tolerant crop, such as sorghum or millet, which would have guaranteed them with household food security from their own production. They mainly chose the former option. They increased production of other crops such as soybean, sunflower and cotton when contract farming with private business entities became available. Markets determined smallholder farmers' crop production choices, more than household food security from their own production or the availability of climate information forecasting poor rainfall distribution. The study concluded that (i) prior knowledge of climate information does not necessarily result in a change of smallholder farmers' crop production choices in response to a predicted climate anomaly; and (ii) markets are a major determinant of crops cultivated by smallholder farmers, and hence adaptation measures involving crop diversification should be designed with market availability in mind.Access and benefit sharing of PGRFA, particularly for climate change adaptation, is a major precursor to achieving a climate-resilient seed system in Zambia. The movement of PGRFA in and out of the country has ensured that this resilience is not just being achieved in Zambia but in many parts of the world because of the platform made possible by the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol. Information about flows of PGRFA into and out of the country and within the country, from the Genesys database and the ITPGRFA Secretariat, shows the interdependence of countries and also the interdependence of research institutions and breeders from both public and private sectors.A suitable access and benefit-sharing mechanism is lacking, particularly in the context of PGR exchanges in local rural communities, which needs to be addressed. A process aimed at developing a national access and benefit-sharing mechanism has been initiated through a working group coordinated by the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. In order to formulate and effectively implement national access and benefit-sharing legislation, Zambia requires capacities drawn from a wide range of disciplines.Farmers' rights are considered critical to ensuring the conservation and sustainable use PGRFA. According to Article 9 of the ITPGRFA, the implementation and realization of farmers' rights rests with the national governments. Measures suggested under this article include the protection of traditional knowledge, equitable benefit sharing, participation in decision-making, and the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed and propagating material. Not much has been done in Zambia to implement farmers' rights.Gaps in the policy and regulatory frameworks for ABS in Zambia have to be understood in relation to the facilitation of access and exchange of genetic resources for the benefit of breeders and farmers. The national policy and institutional framework must take advantage of the fact that millions of seed samples representing different genetic resources have been secured globally and are available for use through the MLS of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. Access and use of these materials by local plant breeding institutions will be enhanced by establishing functional institutional structures at national level. This is especially important because germplasm introductions from external sources outside the country continue to be a major feature of the crop development and improvement programmes for key crops in the country.There is a need for the national gene bank, which is the focal point for the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol, to liaise much more, under a structure that promotes information exchange and joint programming. The country now needs to ratify the Nagoya Protocol and to develop the necessary legislation, regulations and structures for its implementation. This will broaden access and benefit sharing to cover crops that are not currently included in the MLS under the ITPGRFA. Consequently, germplasm for all crops of interest to breeders will be available for exchange and use. But to achieve this, the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, which is responsible for the Nagoya Protocol, must work together with SCCI and the NPGRC, to develop guidelines for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.Legal frameworks on seed should also include acts or legally binding clauses to defend seed security, farmers' rights and diverse farmers' varieties and populations that contribute significantly to food security.","tokenCount":"9579"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"449accd3374c500cd1856a2fa9a3d673","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0f2e7e14-b44b-4591-a953-80e9464d9c7c/content","id":"-22070254"},"keywords":["Puroindoline","Waxy proteins","landraces","KASP markers","Triticum aestivum"],"sieverID":"4714fb36-45be-4278-9835-66948fc87bca","pagecount":"10","content":"Grain hardness and starch are two of the most important factors that determine the end-use quality of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain. The grain hardness and amylose content are controlled by the puroindolines (Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1) genes, located on chromosomes 5D, and waxy (Wx-A1, -B1 and -D1) genes, located on chromosomes 7A, 4A and 7D. A total of 160 Iranian landraces from the Germplasm Bank of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center were evaluated for grain hardness using near infrared spectroscopy to predict the particle size index (PSI). In addition, molecular markers were used to evaluate the states of the corresponding genes. Eight accessions were found to have a hard texture (predicted PSI < 45%); however, only two could be explained by null alleles either in Pina-D1 or Pinb-D1. Additionally, 152 accessions had semi-hard textures (predicted PSI range of 45% to 55%). For the Wx gene, only one accession (CWI 67665) showed the null Wx-D1b allele, while two accessions (CWI 67747 and CWI 57684) were null for Wx-B1b. Single nucleotide polymorphism and sequence tag site marker techniques were used. Our findings further indicate the importance of using these landraces for grain quality improvement in breeding programs.Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. ssp. aestivum; 2n ¼ 6x ¼ 42, AABBDD) is an important crop worldwide and is estimated to be the staple food for 2.5 billion people in 89 countries (more than 30% of the world population) [1]. Grain hardness, starch properties and dough (gluten) viscoelastic properties are quality aspects that explain most of the variation in wheat grain quality traits [2][3][4]. Grain hardness or texture is one of the most important single factors determining the end-use food properties of wheat grain [5][6][7], and it also determines the marketing of wheat grain [8]. On the basis of this trait, wheat is classified into three main classes: very hard (durum wheat), hard and soft (bread wheat) [9]. Hard and soft wheat mill differently. Compared with soft wheat flours, hard wheat flours have greater levels of damaged starch, which leads to increased water absorption, something desirable for bread making [10,11]. In general, hard wheat is used for making bread and soft wheat is used in the manufacture of cookies, cakes and pastries [7,8].Grain hardness is genetically controlled by genes which have been reported to be located at the hardness locus (Ha) in the distal end of the short arm of chromosome 5D in bread wheat [8,[12][13][14], but in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum Desf. em. Husn.; 2n ¼ 4x ¼ 28, AABB) and other tetraploid species, these genes are not present, because of the absence of the D genome, and the complete deletion of these genes in the A and B genomes during the evolution of tetraploid wheat [13]. Studies have shown that the hardness (Ha) locus of bread wheat has a complex structure within an 82-kb region [13]. This includes two genes (Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1) that code for two basic grain proteins, the puroindoline a and b (Pina and Pinb) of $13 KDa, together with the grain softness protein. The Pins (a and b) are unique among other plant proteins because of their basic cysteinerich nature and the tryptophan-rich domains [6]. The presence of wild type alleles (Pina-D1a and Pinb-D1a) is correlated with soft grain in bread wheat, whereas nucleotide changes in the coding regions or deletions of whole Pin-D1 genes (null alleles) are correlated with a hard texture [15][16][17][18]. The gene polymorphisms lead to differences in the degree of hardness [19]. The literature indicates that genotypes harboring Pina-D1b/ Pinb-D1a have harder grains than genotypes that carry Pina-D1a/Pinb-D1b [20][21][22][23][24].Starch composition is another parameter affecting the processing and end-use quality of wheat grain. This macromolecule is composed of two types of glucose polymers, amylose and amylopectin [25], with a ratio of 20%-30% amylose to 70%-80% amylopectin [26]. The physical and chemical properties of starch (gelatinization, pasting and gelation) depend on the relative amounts of amylose and amylopectin [27,28]. Therefore, starches with different amylose/amylopectin ratios are needed for various industrial applications [29,30]. Environmental factors (such as temperature) and growth conditions can influence this ratio [31]. Granule-bound starch synthase I or waxy (Wx) protein is the key enzyme in amylose synthesis and is encoded in bread wheat by the Wx-A1, -B1 and -D1 genes, which are located on the 7A, 4A and 7D chromosomes [32][33][34].In recent years, several studies have been conducted to identify new waxy alleles in different wheatrelated species, such as einkorn and Aegilops [35,36] and in landraces [37] to increase the genetic resources used to develop wheat varieties with novel starch properties and end-use quality characteristics. Wheat landraces are important sources of genetic diversity that can improve the gene pools of modern cultivars by introducing new alleles [38][39][40][41][42]. Iran is one of the primary habitats of wheat's ancestors and is, therefore, a reservoir for new alleles. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) gene bank possesses $150,000 wheat and related species accessions, among which 48,600 accessions are of traditional durum and bread wheat landraces. This includes 6,947 accessions from Iran. The main aim of this study was to determine the distribution of Pin-D1 and Wx-1 alleles in a collection of Iranian bread-wheat landraces from the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank.A total of 160 Iranian bread-wheat landraces, held as accessions in the germplasm bank of the CIMMYT (Texcoco, Edo. de Mexico, Mexico) (Supplemental Table S1) were used in the study. The accessions were evaluated at the experimental field station 'CENEB' located near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Northwest Mexico (27_209 N, 109_549 W, 38 m above sea level), during the 2010 À 2011 cropping cycle under optimum growing conditions (full irrigation).Quality parameters were determined using the methods established by the American Association of Cereal Chemists [43]. The grain protein content (GPC, 12.5% moisture basis) and hardness particle size index (PSI, %) were determined using a near infrared (NIR) spectroscopic NIR System 6500 (FOSS-Tecator, HillerØd, Denmark), calibrated for protein content using the Kjeldahl method [43] and for hardness using the PSI method [44]. Soft wheat endosperm produces a greater proportion of fine particles that correspond to higher PSI percentages. Based on the predicted PSI data obtained by NIR, samples were classified as hard (30%-44%), semi-hard (45%-55%) and soft (>55%).Genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves of two-week-old seedlings grown in a greenhouse using a modified CTAB method described in Dreisigacker et al. [45]. The quality and quantity of DNA were evaluated in 1% agarose gels and using a Nanodrop 8000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, USA) and the samples were diluted to a final concentration of 50 ng/mL.Sequences of PCR primers and fragment sizes are shown in Table 1. Each 10-mL reaction included 50 ng DNA, 1.5 mmol/L MgCl2, 0.6 mmol/L of each primer, 0.8 mmol/L dNTPs, 1.5 ml 2.0Â PCR buffer and 0.05 U Taq polymerase (Go Taq Flexi, Promega Crop., Cat. #M8295). PCR was performed in an ABI Genamp 9700 PCR Thermocycler (Applied Biosystems, USA). The PCR conditions included an initial denaturation step of 2 min at 94 C, followed by 30 cycles of 1 min at 94 C, 2 min at 60 C and 2 min at 72 C. There was then a final 5-min extension at 72 C. The amplification products were separated in 2.5% agarose gels.KASP is single-step genotyping technology that detects, using a fluorescence-based application, preidentified co-dominant and dominant alleles of both single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and insertion/ deletion variants [49]. The primer sequences and more detailed allelic information are provided in Table 2. For Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1, KASP assays were conducted in a 384-well format and performed in 4.2 mL reactions containing 2.1 mL sterile water, 2 mL 2Â KASP Mix, 0.1 mL assay mix and 50 ng of dried DNA. For Wx-B1, KASP assays were performed using optimized buffer that contained MgCl 2 (50 nm). PCR amplification was performed in a GenAmp PCR system 9700 Thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems) using the following cycling conditions: 94 C for 15 min for hot-start Taq DNA polymerase activation, 11 cycles at 94 C for 30 s, 65 C for 60 s (-0.8 C each cycle) and 72 C for 30 s, followed by 26 cycles at 94 C for 30 s, 57 C for 60 s and 72 C for 30 s. Then, there was a final extension at 72 C for 5 min. Endpoint fluorescent images were visualized using PHERAstar plus (BMG LABTECH, Germany), and the data were analyzed using KLuster Caller TM software (LGC Genomics).A wide range of predicted PSI values was identified for the accessions (Table 3), with most of the samples (152) having semi-hard textures (predicted PSIs ranging between 45% and 55%). Eight accessions had hard textures (predicted PSIs < 45%) and none had a soft texture (PSI > 55%).Primers from Gautier et al. [6] were used to amplify Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1 genes and detect possible differences in amplicon presence/absence and size. The amplification of Pina-D1 yielded an expected PCR product of $349 bp. Most of the accessions produced a PCR product of $349 bp (Pina-D1a), except for two accessions (CWI56592 and CWI72061), which produced no amplification products, indicating that they were Pina-D1b(a-null) (Figure 1a). These two accessions were classified as hard and semi-hard based on the predicted PSI values. For the Pinb-D1 gene, most of the accessions produced a PCR product of 250 bp (Pinb-D1a) (Figure 1b), except for five accessions (CWI   For the Wx loci, all the accessions contained the alleles Wx-A1a and Wx-D1a in experiments using the markers MAG264 and MAG269, respectively, except for one accession (CWI67665) that had no amplification product, indicating Wx-D1b (null mutation) (Figure 2a). At the Wx-B1 locus, tested using marker Wx-B1, all the accessions contained the allele Wx-B1a, except for two accessions (CWI67747 and CWI57684), indicating Wx-B1b (null mutation) (Figure 2b and c).KASP primers were used in this study to identify the pina-D1/pinb-D1 and Wx-B1 genes based on sequences upstream and downstream of the detected SNPs (with the 3 0 end of the forward primer positioned at the mutant SNP site). For Pina-D1, two accessions (CWI 56592 and CWI 72061) shown in red (VIC) with null type alleles pina-D1b (A/G SNP) produced a hard texture in bread wheat. For Pinb-D1, five accessions (CWI 73113, CWI 57816, CWI 72525, CWI 71600 and CWI 57139) shown in red (VIC) with Pinb-D1b alleles (C/T SNP) produced hard textures. This identification is due to the codon change Gly-46 to Ser-46 and other accessions shown in blue (FAM) with wild-type alleles (pina-D1a and pinb-D1a) produced soft textures in bread wheat. No heterozygosity was detected (Figure 3b). For Wx-B1a, only one accession (CWI 67747) shown in red (VIC) had the null allele (Wx-B1b), and all the accessions shown in blue (FAM) had the wild-type allele (Wx-B1a) (Figure 3c).Bread-making quality is a key target of breeding programs. It is controlled by wheat genetics and the environment. Grain hardness influences wheat milling and flour viscoelastic properties [51][52][53][54], and it is used for marketing classifications [8]. In the present study, a collection of Iranian bread-wheat landraces held in the CIMMYT's wheat germplasm bank was analyzed for grain hardness using NIR calibrated by PSI and characterized at the molecular level by Pin compositions and Wx genes. The accessions were classified into hard and semi-hard wheat. In eight of the accessions showing a hard grain texture, two could be explained by a null mutation in either Pina-D1 or Pinb-D1, which corroborated earlier findings [24,55,56]. Accessions harboring Pina-D1 null alleles may be harder than those with other Pin alleles, such as Pinb-D1b [23,57], and have low milling yields [19,22,23]. This mutation has been reported in numerous studies worldwide [16, 24,   49, 57-62]. However, our result did not show differences in grain hardness between Pina-D1b and Pinb-D1null [63]. In this study, the findings may have been influenced by the following: 1) environmental conditions and grain size [14,[64][65][66][67]; however, Pomeranz et al. [68] showed that hardness-related measurements were more affected by genotype than by environment; 2) other minor genes [23,[69][70][71]; 3) the limited accuracy of NIR to predict PSI; 4) the limited number of accessions with different Pin-D1 alleles and the  different genetic backgrounds of the accessions, which led to unidentifiably small differences owing to the presence of different Pin-D1 alleles [53]. Grain protein content is directly related to grain hardness [14,58,70,[72][73][74]. In the present study, the grain protein content was 15.7% on average. Thus, it was not surprising that few of the accessions showing hard grain phenotypes had protein contents of $15.43%. (data not shown).However, Symes [75] reported that the correlation between protein content and hardness was positive in some cultivars and negative in other cultivars, which was corroborated by our results.Starch composition is another parameter that affects the processing quality and is controlled by Wx genes (Wx-A1, -B1 and -D1). All the accessions contained the allele Wx-A1a with the marker MAG264, which is similar to the results obtained by Liang et al. [76]. In our study, all the accessions contained the allele Wx-D1a with the marker MAG269, and only one accession (CWI 67665) indicated the presence of Wx-D1b (null mutation). However, the lack of Wx-A1 or Wx-D1 protein does not always lead to a significant decrease in the amylose content [34,77], while the absence of Wx-D1 has a greater effect compared with that of Wx-A1 [78]. At the Wx-B1 locus, using primers designed by Saito et al. [48] and Mclauchlan et al. [47], complete deletions of the gene existed and most accessions harbored the Wx-B1a allele, except two accessions (CWI67747 and CWI57684). Yamamori and Quynh [78] reported that Wx-B1b induced a lower amylose content, which was in agreement with an earlier finding [79]. They also analyzed the effects of Wx proteins and ranked the single null genotypes as Wx-B1b > Wx-D1b > Wx-A1b. Molecular characterizations of wheat waxy proteins and their effects on starch properties, as well as the detection of Wx null mutations, have been widely studied [47,48,[80][81][82][83], which is important for the identification waxy wheats in breeding programs [84]. The majority of KASP markers found in the CIMMYT used in this study were derived from the Pin-D analysis and were in agreement with the STS markers. KASP can be used for genotyping a wide range of species for various purposes that can help the development of grain quality.Molecular markers for Pin-D1 and Wx genes are imperative to wheat molecular breeding programs, because their different allelic compositions lead to different hardness levels [85] and amylose contents, which affect the end-use food quality of wheat grain [21]. Codominant and dominant markers are preferable for introducing null alleles into grain hardness and Wx proteins. The use of traditional gel-based PCR markers is time-consuming and results in a relatively low throughput, compared with more recently developed methods. The results of this study provide a deeper insight into the molecular and KASP markers that can be used to characterize grain hardness and Wx genes in bread wheat. Moreover, landraces offer an important genetic resource that can be used to improve modern varieties of wheat by means of introducing new alleles or a combination of genes.Waxy genes, including three null alleles, were found in the Iranian landrace collection described in this study. These alleles may be used to modify starch properties by adjusting of the standard amylose/amylopectin ratio, thereby enhancing the functionality of wheat flour doughs to improve traditional or novel wheatbased foods. In addition grain hardness is of paramount importance to wheat processors, end-users and those involved in wheat breeding and improvement. To this end, null alleles of puroindoline genes were determined in this collection of Iranian landraces. The results, therefore, provide evidence that these genetic materials are important sources of genetic diversity for developing wheat cultivars with improved grain textures.","tokenCount":"2606"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5d2000de46bda9c594259c0ab819b66","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fca7d236-f6cb-49ef-9379-137f44507775/retrieve","id":"-1521312906"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c493d0ad-4b06-4d6c-af33-86b4ba50d4aa","pagecount":"26","content":"de los suelos , l a obtención de híbr i dos y vari edades cor. mayor putcrrial de pr c•ducción que los sembrddcs dCtua l mente, la generación cada vez mas crecient e de informaci{,rr sobre técnicas de lc;boratorio, ca l ibración de análisis, respuesta at l0s cultivos en el ｣ ｡ ｮ ｾ ｯ Ｎ ＠ y e l cos t o cado vez mayur de l os fert i lizantes, son al9unos de lu s ,,;ás ｩ ｭ ｰ ｯ Ｑ ﾷ ｾ ｮ ｮ ｴ ･ ｳ ＠ asrectos relaci or.ados cun el problema . La conceptuc.:th.> rot:n como objetivo prest•ntar a ｭ ｡ ｮ ｾ ｲ ｡ ＠ de introducción, un<J dnrp lia cor;ceptualiuciún del problema: Se ha trabajarlG rl:ucho a nivf'l de técn i cas y procedimientos cie laboratorio dirigidos a mejoru so l uci un es extr actoras .En este sentido l os avances son evidentes.ｾ ･ ＠ han mejorado l ús criterios para la interpretaci (lr del análisis químico del suelo. lada vez se tienen niveles críticcs ｭ ｾ ｳ ＠ confiables , fundame ntalmente como resu;!:Jdo de un intenso LrabJjo experimental.Poco se di scu t e sobr e \" el rrobl em<J de l a recornendación de fertilizantes, especialmente en lu relacionacio cun grados y canti dades\" . El autor estima que en muchos poíses la tinoame ricanos \"existen en el mercado pocos grados de fe r•ti l izantes\", situación esta que l imi ta y a i ficulta \"la recomendac ión\", s in que exista una r•t l ac i ón di recta entr t: le> ¿sfuer zos pura mejor•or las técr•icJs de laboratorio y los cri terios de inte r pr etacióro, con los ･ ｳ ｦ ｵ ･ ｲ ｾ ｯ ｳ ＠ ori e ntados a tener uua r.1ayor ､ ｩ ｳ ｰ ｣ ｲ ｾ ｩ ｢ ｩ ＠ l idoc dA grados . :dr.lbién pone en duda denur.1inaci ones muy cornunes , ti! l es como: \" fertill<:ér: te arr ocero\", \"yrado cafet.erc\" , ｰ ｵ ･ ｾ ＠ el l as suponen que \"todos le c; ｾ ｵ ･ ｬ ｯ ｳ ＠ a rroceros o todos lo!; s uelos ca ft:teros\" son i guales, ｡ ￩ ･ ｲ Ｚ Ｎ ｾ ｳ ＠ de \"ur•a supuesta igua l dad en la can t ioad d\" nutriment os extra;cos por ｬ ｾ ｳ ＠ difer entes varieaades , l í neas, etc . , de un aduda, e l mejo r criterio pdrd l..: recomendac ión de ferti l izantes, pe ro un problerréJ import..tr.tP en este caso , es la extrdpolac i én ｾ ＠ re su tt.;dos . La zon ificac i úr. C:P ambientes t:Speciair.rente con ba se en el suel o y e l clirnd dett: de consti tuir e l criterü. pa r o ｬ ｾ ＠ loralizcH ij:1 de pruebas experin 1 u.Lcrles y la t>trapo l acióll de los ｲ ･ ｾ ｌ ｲ ｬ ｴ ｡ ､ ｯ ｳ Ｎ ＠Todavía se co ntinúdn aceptando y divulgdndo hipótesis ｡ ｮ ｴ ｩ Ｎ ［ ﾡ ｵ Ｌ ｾ ＠ y equivocddJS sobre l a u racterizución de un >t.:el u , hipó ::es i s que conducen d erróneas recomendaci ones . 6.La recomendación de ferti l izantes se ha enfocado casi excl usivamente hac i a el ni trógeno, el fósforo y el potasio . Como consecuencia ex i st e m ucho desconoc i miento sobre nutri me ntos secundarios , mi cron utrimentos . 7. Existen confusi ones y dudas entre l os técnicos cuando se trata de dar enfoques prácticos para el t ratam i ento del problema, ･ ｳ ｰ ･ ｣ ｩ ｡ ｬ ｮ ｾ ｮ ｴ ･ ＠ si se carece del apoyo de datos experimentales .8. La sel ección de especies y de ecotipos dentro de especies, constituye una al ternati va de i nterés creciente para solucionar el problema.La conceptua l ización anteri or sugiere que hay necesidad de \"ganar conci encia\" ace rca de la rea l i dad del problema de la recomendación de fertil i zantes para consegu i r nuevas alternativas de solución más r ac ionales y ajustadas a la realidad de la evaluación de la fertilidad de l os suel os, al comportamiento biológi co de ｬ ｡ ｾ ＠ plantas que se cultivan y al aspecto económi co de la solución.Bases pa ra una propuesta práctica de solución al problema Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior , se pretende recordar los criterios que debe n co nsiderarse para aj ustar más a la realidad y con sentido pr5ctico , la recome ndación de fertilizantes. Estos criterios son: l.La cantidad de nutrimentos que tiene el suelo.2. ｌ ｯ ｾ ＠ requerimientos nutrici onales del cu l tivo; lo s conceptos de \"exportaci ón\" y \"potencial de producción\".La eficiencia del fertilizante en función de l suelu.4. El aspecto económico de la fertilización.T. La ca nt i dad de nutrimentos que tiene el suelo:La cant i dad de nutrimentos que tiene el suelo es determinada mediante el análisi s quí mico del suelo. Forsythe y Díaz-Romeu (11), indican que es necesa r io \"poder transformar l os resul tados del laboratorio en térmi nos de l a capa arable , para que los análisi s de lahoratorio tengan valor en el campo. El éxito de dicha transformaci On depende del conocimiento de l a densidad aparente de la capa arable\". Sin embargo , se está comet 1endo un error al seguir aceptando la suposición ya tradicional de \"una hectárea ae suelo a la profundidad arab l e de 0-20 cm, pesa 2.000.000 kg\". Esta suposic ión se basa en una de ns i da d aparente promedi o de 1 gr/cm3 . Mas aún , ni siquiera existe acuerdo ace rca de este valor promedio de densidad aparente. La literatura cita va l ores de 1 gr /cm3 , 1.47 gr /cw3 . Para f>vitar toda esta situac ión lo recomendab l e es \"deteminar la verdad2ra densidad aparente* por \"zonas, tipos o series\" y utilizar el valor determinado para todos los ｣ ｾ ｬ ｣ ｵ ｬ ｯ ｳ ＠ posteriores. Esta densidad aparente puede variar entre 0.3 y 2.0 gr/cm3. \"En casos especia 1 es, para andoso 1 es, derivados de ce ni zas volc&nicas, con alta porosidad, los valores de la densidad aparente son excepcionalmente bajos: 0.30 a 0.85 gr/cm3. Guerrero, cita los siguientes ejemplos para suelos de la zona cafetera central de Colombia: Chinchín& 0.8 gr/cm3, Quindio 0.95 gr/cm3, Montenegro 1.0 gr/cm3, Fresno 0.63 gr/cm3.A manera de ejemplo se comparan contra el peso/ha tradicionalmente usado de 2.000 . 000 kg, los pesos reales obtenidos para cuatro suelos con densidades aparentes de 0.8, 1.3, 1.7 y 1. 9. (Cuadro 1). */ La densidad apa rente relaciona el peso seco del suelo con su volumen incluyendo los espacios porosos . Por lo tanto, considera el volumen de las part1culas y el volumen ocupado por los poros; este volumen se 11 ama \"vo 1 umen aparente\" ( = vo 1 umen verdadero + porosidad); no es un valor que permanece constante en cada suelo. Sufre cambios segú n se altere el volumen de los poros. Entre l os métodos más usados para determinar la densidad aparente se tiene el de la parafina que consiste en envolver un terrón de suelo en parafina de den s idad conoc ida. ｔ ｡ ｭ ｢ ｩ ｾ ｮ ＠ se emplean cilindros de PVC de 7 cm de altura y de 6 cm de diámetro, que dan un volumen de 197.9 cm3 (González et al , citados por Legarda) . En cambio la gravedad especHica o densidad real o peso especHico del suelo se refiere so l amente a la parte sólida del suelo. Su valor estA entre 2. 5 y 2.6; con mucha materia orgánica baja.No hay necesidad de muchos comentarios . Basta sol amente indicar que no se pueden seguir aceptando errores de 1.800.000 kg en la estimación del peso de una hectárea de suelo, como ｳ ･ ｲ ｾ ｡ ＠ el caso del suelo D. Estos errores, en forma directa, conducen a otros nuevos errores, bien sea por subestimación o sobreestimación en los cá lculos de la cantidad de nutrimentos presentes en la capa arable. El si guiente error seda la sube stimac ión o sobreestimación de los respectivos fertilizantes, correctivos o mejoradores.Una aplicación inmediata de esta co rrecc1on ｳ ･ ｲ ｾ ｡ ＠ la de \"olvidar\" cifras o factores que también en forma tradicional se han venido usando, bajo la suposición de que un a hectárea de suelo pesa 2.000 .000 de kg.:1 me de K/100 gr de suelo 1 me de Mg / 100 gr de sue l o 1 me de Ca/100 gr de suelo Si l os requerimientos nutricionales de un cultivo, por ejemp lo para el caso del potasio, fueran de 150 kg de K/ha , en el caso de usar la cantidad de K obtenida con la \"situación co nvenci onal\", la decisión sería fertil izar con K (109 kg < 150 kg) . Pero si se considera la situación real, el suelo tendría más K del requerido (174 kg > 150 kg), y por lo tanto no habría neces idad de fertilizar. Una dificultad más común, en el problema de la recomendación de fertilizantes, es el procesamiento de la información. Con frecuencia l a informac i ón que viene de los laboratorios en forma de \"resultados de un análisi s de suelos\", se convierte en un papel indescifrable, y por lo mismo, de muy poca utilidad. El objetivo de los cuadros 3, 4 y 5 adaptados de Guerrero (15) y Forsythe -Díaz -Romeu (11) , es facilitar ciertas conversiones y transformaciones, que permitan un usoOtra fuente :de error en los cálculos relacionados con el análisis qu1mico de l suelo está en la profundidad de las raí ces \". Algunos utilizan 0-15 cm , otros 0-20 cm y hasta 0-40 cm para el caso de árboles frutales. De nuevo la solución está en el conocimiento real de la distribución de ra1ces del cultivo respec tivo, aspecto que normalmente ha recibido escasa atención por parte de los investigadores*.Finalmente al discutir el aspecto relacionado co n la cantidad de nutrimentos que tiene el suelo, necesa ri amente hay que co nsiderar el poco énfasis que se ha dado a los nutrimentos secundarios y a los Cuadro 3.Peso en kg/ha de una hectárea de suelo profundidad 0-20 cm, a diferentes densidades aparentes. La cantidad de nutrimentos a aplicar al suelo para obtener una producción óptima, que en general se define como el 95% de la producción ｭ ｾ ｸ ｩ ｭ ｡ Ｎ ＠ Esta definición de requerimiento nutricional equivale al \"requerimiento de fe rtilizantes y varía de un suelo a otro. c.La concentración de nutrimentos en el suelo o en el medio o en la solución nutritiva {requerimiento externo) o en la planta {requerimiento interno) que corresponde con una producción óptima. Esta definición de \"requerimiento nutricional\" equivale a los \"niveles crHicos\" en el suelo o en la planta, o sea , la conce ntración de un nutrimento por debajo de la cua l la planta responderá a la aplicación de ese nutrimento y por encima de la cual no se espera ninguna respue sta.Finalmente, Howeler {17), indi ca que se cons idera que el nivel crítico es una característica bastante constante de la especie aunque sí puede variar algo entre variedades de la misma especie.Además varía entre diferentes órganos de la misma planta, y con la edad del tejido; l o afecta también la presencia o ausencia de otros nutrimentos y las condiciones ambientales como la temperatura, lluvias, etc. Constituye, por lo tanto, otro error el usar datos de extracción -absorción de nutrimentos obtenidos con una determinada variedad y un cierto ambiente, para calcular las necesidades de fertilizantes en otras variedades y otros ambientes . El Cuadro 6 muestra las diferencias en absorc ión obteni da s para N, P, K para algunas variedades de frijol, Es importante agregar que siempre que sea posible, los datos de absorción deben relacionarse con el niv el o niveles de rendimiento. Por otra parte es muy importante considerar la eficiencia de híbridos y/o variedades dentro de la misma especie para usar un nutrimento del suelo o del ferti lizante aplicado. Sali na s y Sánc hez (24) , indican que en los últimos años se ha reconocido la existencia de diferencias entre especies y variedades para tolerar factores adversos del suel o. Las más notables son las diferencias existentes entre variedades en cuanto a resistencia a la sequía y a elevados niveles de saturación de alumini o en el suelo. El hecho de que genes específicos hayan sido identi ficados como reguladores de algunos de estos factores, sugiere que la tolerancia varietal a condiciones adversas del suelo, puede ser incorporada como objetivo específico en el mejoramiento de plantas. El cuadro 7, {CIAT, 5), muestra algunos avances del programa de frijol del CIAT en su esfuerzo por bu scar materiales que toleren condiciones adversas de suelo como bajo P y alto Al, materiales estudiados en la localidad de CIAT-Quilichao.Thung {27) , ha clasificado los cu l t i vares de Phaseolus vu lga ris en cua tro categorías, de acuerdo a la \"eficiencia\" en el uso de Cuadro 6.Diferencias en absor ción de nutrimentos en frijo l común. Figu ra 1. Eficiencia y respuesta del frijol común a las aplicaciones de fósforo. E = eficiente, 1 = ineficiente, R = con respuesta, N = sin respuesta (CIAT, 5).Finalmente Salinas y Sánchez (24), indican que \"como resultado de la respuesta diferencial entre especies y variedades , surgió durante los últimos años la filosona de insumas mínimos e n fertilización. Este enfoque no debe ser interpretado como la eliminación total de una fertilización , pero sí como una alternativa que reduce los ni veles de fertilizantes en func i ón del requerimiento nutrici onal de una especie dada.Una propuesta de solución para esta nueva parte del problema de la recomendación de fertiliza ntes, es la necesidad de adelantar estudios locales de absorción de nutrimentos. La obtenci ón de la curva de absorción es el pri me r objetivo de estos estudios , pero el é nfasis debe ser ori entado hacia la obtenc i ón de una curva, basada en las etapas de desarrollo de la planta y no en el \"número de días después de la emergencia\" como frecuentemente se ha hecho. La figura 2 , describe l as curvas de absorción de N, P, K para porrillo sintético. En el eje horizontal se han usado en este caso \"etapas de desa rrollo\" y \"días después de emergencia\", sólo para ilustrar las dos situaciones mencionadas. Desde el punto de vista de absorción es importante revisar los trabajos de Haag, Cobra, Blasco y Pinchinat, citados por Howeler (16). (Ver Figura 3).* 1 Para mayor información se recomienda consultar los a rt í cu l os \"Thung , M. 1981, \"Metodología simultánea de \"screening\" po r l a eficiencia en el uso de bajos niveles de fósforo y por l a tolerancia a tox i cidad de a lumini o y ma nganeso en suel os adver sos pa r a frijol \" y Th un g M., J . Rod ríguez y J . Ortega, 1981. \"Efecto de la forma de ap 1 i caci ón de fósforo en s u efici encia y aprovechamiento por distintas vari¡!dades de frijol ( Phaseol us vulgaris) . Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, CIAT.   18 25 32 39 46 53 69 67 74 Oí as después de emergencia   Los estudios de absorción ｰ ･ ｲ ｭ ｩ ｴ ･ ｾ ＠ la obtención de los requerimientos nutricionales o ex1gencias minerales. La absorción o extracción, a un nivel deseado de rendimiento, puede obtenerse multiplicando el requerimiento interno del nutrimento por el total de materia seca producida a los niveles de rendimiento deseados. Malavolta {23), indica en el cuadro 8, los requerimientos en condiciones tropicales para el arroz, el maíz, el algodón, el frijol, l a soya y el tomate.Fernández y Ceballos {*) estudiaron la absorción de N en la variedad Porrillo s intético, Figura 4. Según Graham (13}, inicialmente la planta de frijol puede obtener parte de su nitrógeno de l os cotiledones , pues una semilla de frijol contiene entre 6 y 20 mg de N, pero alrededor de los 14-20 días y si no recibe fertil ización, mostrará los primeros síntomas de deficiencia.  Al mismo t iempo empieza el proceso de nodulación, proceso quepuede ser danado por el exceso de nitrógeno. Como los nódulos no f i jan bien hasta los treinta días aproximadamente , entonces en este período puede ocurrir un déficit de N. Desde los treinta días y hasta ｭ ｾ ｳ ＠ o menos los cincuenta días, las necesidades de N aumentan casi linealmente. Con la formación de las vainas , buena parte del N de las hojas de la planta pasa a l as semillas, causando disminución en la actividad fotosi ntética y eventualmente su caída, fenómeno que algunos consideran como un mecanismo de suicidio. Los requerimientos nutricionales indican la cantidad de nutrimentos que la planta necesita para completar su desarrol l o. Esta cantidad de nutrime ntos debe ser suministrada por el suelo, o por el suelo y los fertilizantes, y en el caso del nitrógeno debe considerarse también al aire.Por ejemplo en las localidades de ｐ ｯ ｰ ｡ ｹ ｾ ｮ ＠ y CIAT-Quilichao, se han alcanzado hasta 40 kg/ha de nitrógeno atmosférico fijado. Sin embargo, muchos cultivares come r ciales de Phaseolus vulgaris son débiles en fijar nitrógeno. En sentido muy estricto, también habría que considerar no sólo el suelo , los fertilizantes y el aire, sino 1 os nutrí mentes presentes en 1 a semilla. E 1 cuadro 9 presenta in formaci ón al respecto, basada en datos de Feitosa et al (7) para l a variedad Carioca y en datos del CIAT* para las variedades Ca lima y Pijao. Cuadro 9. Variación en la composición del grano de frijol. Para l os casos de P, K, M g y mi cronutrimentos , la relación \"requerimiento nutricional\", \"cantidad de nutrimentos en el suelo\" y \"decisión de fertilizar\", se puede resumir así: Otro concepto muy importante rel ac i onado con el prob l ema de la fertilización es el concepto de \"exportación\" , también conoc ido con el nombre de \"rem oci ón\" ; indi ca, l a cantidad de nutrimentos que se retiran del suelo con la cosec ha, por ejemplo : a.Los granos (semillas ) , en el caso de la cosechas ituación común a nivel de productores comerciales.b.Las vainas (va lvas y granos=semillas) en el caso de agricultores que en forma manual, van cosecha ndo los f rutos que van al canzando la madurez .c. El tall o, las ramas y las vainas, en el caso del f rijol cosechado por pequeños produ ctores y donde el proceso final del secam iento se efectúa muy ce rca o dentro de las casas .El cuadro 10 presenta información sobre nutrimentos expor tados por vari as cosec has. Los nutrimentos exportados dan origen a un criterio de fertilización: \"El criterio de la restitución o devo lución al sue l o de los nu trimentos que han salido de él, para mantener su fe rtilidad en el nivel origina l\".3. La eficiencia de los fertilizantes en función del suelo :Pocos datos se conoce n al respecto, pero en general: a . Los fertilizantes nitrogenados tienen una efi ci encia del 50%. Graham (13 ) indica que un resume n muy genera l de los experimentos sobre fertilizaci ón nitrog enada en frijo l, muestra que no existe rea lmente mucha diferencia entre el sulfato de amonio, el ni t rato de amonio y la úrea, como fuentes de nitróge no . Seña la además, que en estudi os efectuados en Bras il, al aplicar todo el fertilizante ni trogenado antes de la siembra, solamente el 26% de este ferti li zante fue usado por l a planta .  25) , indica que la eficiencia de utilización de los fertilizantes nitrogenados puede calcularse como l a recuperac i ón aparente del fertilizante en experimentos de campo. Conociendo 1 a extracción de nitrógeno agregado, el porcentaje de recuperación se ca l cul a as1:N absorbido con la dósis aplicada -N absorbido sin agregar N Porcentaje de recuperación = -------------------  ,-::::;: . ._.  La capacidad de fijación es mayor cuanto mayor es el contenido de óxidos de aluminio y hierro y cuanto mayor sea el contenido de aluminio intercambiable. Por ejemplo los suelos Andepts, debido a su alto contenido de óxidos de aluminio tienen alta capacidad de fijación de fósforo.En el caso del potasio, la eficiencia de los fertilizantes potásicos, se estima en promedio en un 50%.Anteriormente se había mencionado que para los casos de fósforo, potasio, calcio*, magnesio y micronutrimentos, se llegaba a una decisión positiva para fertilizar si: Hay necesidad ahora de calcul ar l a canti dad real (C) de fertilizante teniendo en cuenta: a) el porcentaje de nutrimento que tiene l a fuente de fertilizante escogida; b) la eficiencia del fert i lizante en función del suelo.l.Requerimiento nutricional, frijol variedad Gual i: 16 kg de P/ ha .2. Cant idad de P en el suelo: 7 kg de P/ ha. entonces , la decisión para fertili zar es positiva y el valor C, será:C. = 16 kg P/ha -7 kg de P/ha = 9 kg de P/ha */ El calcio en ･ ｳ ｴ ｾ ＠ caso se está cons i derando desde el punto de vista nutrimental. Por lo tanto la corrección de la ac idez del suelo co n base en el \"encalado\" no está considerada en esta discusión .  ","tokenCount":"3657"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"24847667bce8bc2f1d4f4e79048fc5f7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f66d06ee-69a4-43bb-8ef3-921de23bcabf/content","id":"-1323352642"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2c9d816a-089b-4349-8f09-d6c038de596f","pagecount":"3","content":"Puma 1075 y puma 1076, híbridos de maíz de temporal para los valles altos de México (2200 a 2600 msnm)Los dos híbridos son de ciclo vegetativo intermedio de 150 d, y conformados por tres líneas; una de ellas es la línea IATolsol que participa como progenitor masculino común, con un nivel S4 de endogamia y que procede del híbrido comercial de maíz H-33, para los Valles Altos, y que es de la raza Cónico. La genealogía de esta línea es IA33F2-28-4-2-2.En el híbrido Puma 1075, la cruza simple progenitora hembra es CML246 X CML242 y para el híbrido Puma 1076 es la cruza CML244XCML349, ambas cruzas generadas en el Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT). Las líneas que integran a la primera cruza simple fueron liberadas con endogamia S7 y S8, respectivamente. Puma 1075 presenta cubrimiento de espiga por la hoja bandera en 50 % de plantas en antesis; en cambio, en Puma 1076 la espiga está libre. En Puma 1075 la espiga es de forma semiabierta por el ángulo formado entre el eje principal y las ramas secundarias en el tercio inferior de la espiga, con ramas laterales; en Puma 1076 es abierta, con pocas ramas laterales y sin ramas secundarias. Pueden cosecharse con maquinaria porque su uniformidad aceptable lo permite. También exhiben tolerancia al acame con respecto al híbrido comercial H-33 y menor incidencia de las enfermedades virales Rayado Fino (Fine Stripe Virus, MRFV) y Achaparramiento (Corn Stunt Disease, CSD, Raza Mesa Central), que en los últimos años han ido en aumento en los Valles Altos. Los dos híbridos presentan pocos hijos con respecto al mismo testigo, el híbrido H-33.En pruebas de calidad nixtamalera presentan buen rendimiento de nixtamal. El color del grano de Puma 1075 es blanco, con características favorables para la fabricación de harina. En cambio, Puma 1076 presenta grano de color blanco cremoso, por lo cual no es adecuado para fabricar harina, de acuerdo con los estándares de la empresa MA-SECA ® .El rendimiento promedio del híbrido Puma 1075 en los años 1996 a 1999 fue 8700 kg ha -1 , valor que supera en 27 % al H-33, y el de Puma 1076 fue de 9000 kg ha -1 , 29 % más que H-33. El rendimiento potencial experimental de ambos es de 12 000 kg ha -1 , en el Valle de México, Cuautitlán, Méx., Valle de Puebla, Tlaxcoapan y Apan, Hgo., y en Tlaxcala. Prosperan en condiciones de buen temporal o secano, en humedad residual y en punta de riego; su adaptación puede extenderse a los estados de México, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo y Michoacán, en sitios de 2100 a 2600 msnm. Estos híbridos fueron liberados hace 5 y 4 años, de modo que la multiplicación de semilla de sus progenitores la realizó la ex Productora Nacional de Semillas y el Departamento de Ciencias Agrícolas de la UNAM, donde actualmente se cuenta con semilla de los híbridos y sus progenitores para los productores y empresas semilleras interesados.La producción de semilla puede hacerse en el Valle de México, Valle de Puebla, Valle de Toluca y Temascalcingo, Méx. La relación de surcos de progenitor hembra con respecto a surcos de progenitor macho puede ser 6:2 u 8:2; es preferible usar 6:2 para asegurar una óptima fecundación. Las dos cruzas simples poseen buena capacidad de rendimiento y calidad física de semilla comercial, cuya productividad es de 4.5 a 5.0 t ha -1 , con 70 % de semilla de tamaño grande y mediana de forma plana, lo que da redituabilidad en la producción de semilla de ambos híbridos.El uso de estos híbridos podría ayudar a elevar el escaso empleo de semilla certificada (6 %), ya que compiten con los materiales de empresas semilleras. En los dos híbridos se cuenta con información para incrementar con facilidad la semilla, que puede consultarse con los obtentores. .","tokenCount":"641"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"755f0519de71a6f0606ad0285e5f95b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c8ea1740-27e2-41ef-8d8c-95856fe842e5/retrieve","id":"-154180467"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6b566b5-4eaa-475c-9569-c84e8d7c5ff6","pagecount":"15","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-1 The SAPLING InitiativeThe CGIAR Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender Inclusion (SAPLING) is an initiative that focuses on sustainable animal productivity. This initiative aims to contribute to transforming livestock sectors in target countries to make them more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable (see Box 1 on how this objective will be achieved).The initiative is based in seven countries located in East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), West Africa (Mali), Southeast Asia (Vietnam) and South Asia (Nepal), and works on 15 livestock value chains in total (see Figure 1).Within CGIAR, SAPLING is mapped to the action area Resilient Agrifood Systems.Figure 1. SAPLING focal livestock value chains, which number 15 in total, across seven countries (Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mali, Nepal and Vietnam) and six livestock types (beef cattle, chicken, dairy buffalo, dairy cattle, pigs and small ruminants).Technologies and practices for sustainable livestock productivity: developing, adapting and testing new and existing productivity-and resilience-enhancing, low-emission, scalable technologies and practices across the three main pillars of livestock productivity: improved feeds, animal health products and genetics (Work Package 1).Innovations and practices for safe consumption of livestock-derived foods as part of diverse diets: co-creating innovative models and approaches for social and behaviour change communication (SBCC), and testing and evaluating approaches for incentivizing market actors to enhance the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable livestock-derived foods (Work Package 2).Sustainable livestock productivity for gender equity and social inclusion: understanding constraints and opportunities, identifying best-bet entry points, addressing constraints and developing tools to measure progress (Work Package 3).Competitive and inclusive livestock value chains: generating evidence on institutional arrangements and technical interventions to transition towards more profitable, inclusive and sustainable livestock value chains (Work Package 4).Evidence, decisions and scaling: generating and consolidating evidence, models and tools to support public and private decision-making for a sustainable and inclusive livestock sector (Work Package 5).From: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/1281502 Dairy buffalo value chain in NepalDairy is an important sector in Nepal considering its livelihood impact, poverty reduction potential, employment prospective and contribution to the national GDP. Almost all farming households possess livestock species which play a key role in household subsistence and nutrition. Livestock provides employment for 130,000 people. The contribution of the livestock sector to agricultural GDP currently stands at 25.7%, and to national GDP is 11.5% (Poudel et al. 2020).Women generally take care of the dairy animals, and spend a substantial amount of time feeding and managing them.Apart from the animal rearers, the other main actors in the dairy sector comprise milk collection centres, processors, input suppliers and retail outlets.There are about 5.31 million buffaloes in Nepal. Out of the milk producers who keep buffaloes, about 33% have crossbreeds (NDDB 2020). Buffalo remains the most important species for milk production in Nepal.Conventionally, these animals are kept under subsistence farming systems. Adhikari et al. (2017) reports that the majority of farmers in Nepal prefer the buffalo enterprise over cattle due to their multiple uses, lower risk and hardy nature against stresses. Low productivity of dairy animals, especially buffalo, compared to neighbouring countries is the number one limiting factor in the development and expansion of Nepal's dairy sector (CASA 2020). The production of native buffalo breeds is only about 900 litres/ lactation compared to the Murrah and their crossbreeds (1500 litres/lactation), which is still far behind the potential productivity of 2300 litres (NARC 2022).Out of the total milk produced, almost 65% currently comes from 1.5 million dairy buffaloes (CASA 2020). The recent livestock census (MoALD 2020) indicates that the buffalo population is increasing by 1.28% per year. Although the present cross bred population of buffaloes is more (26%) compared to cattle (13%), the cross bred population is not increasing as fast as that of cattle. Therefore, there is ample scope for improving the productivity of buffaloes in Nepal.In addition, buffalo rearing has implications on poverty reduction as many of the outputs of buffalo production systems among smallholder farmers in rural areas lead to household food security (Rasali 2015). Unfortunately, little effort has been made in the past to improve buffalo productivity compared to cattle (Rasali 2017;Devkota 2017). Farmers also have less incentives to invest in technologies due to lack of access to credit, inputs and output services. Thus, most of them have stuck to traditional husbandry practices.Due to the rapid increase in the demand for dairy products, there is great scope for improvement in the dairy sector in Nepal.  2020), it has to be reduced through forage-based feeding systems. So far, no fodder crops have been included in the cropping pattern; this limits the availability of feed, thus resulting in costly products.There are limitations which require policy attention. The Dairy Development Policy (2007) is the most relevant policy relating to development in the dairy sector. While the government controls milk prices, there is no control on the cost of inputs. The cost of treatment is also high. In addition, there is lack of sufficient knowledge and skills on modern dairy husbandry. On the processing side, there is a shortage of manpower (NDDB 2020). Many dairy processing units still use old technologies to process milk and milk products. Though product diversification can improve profitability, the possibility is limited due to low quality of raw milk, lack of qualified technical staff for product development and lack of market assessment.Sites selected by stakeholders to implement the SAPLING project in Nepal comprise six districts in the lowlands (terai), namely Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari and Sarlahi, plus two districts in the mid hills (Kaski and Parbat).All these were considered as potential buffalo belts. The ratio of terai and hilly districts was fixed at 6:2, considering the population density of indigenous (Parkote, Lime) and crossbred (Murrah) buffaloes.Key value chain research questions 1. How can recent advances in phenomics, genomics, digital and reproductive technologies be capitalized on to achieve sustainable and scalable models for livestock genetic improvement, and delivery that ensure women and men livestock keepers equitably access and benefit from improved genetics?2. How to make optimum use of agricultural byproducts, mainly crop residues, using innovative climate smart technologies already in use in other sectors (e.g. biofuel production).3. How to develop and apply improved forages and food-feed crops that respond to year-round feed demands, increase productivity, improve natural resource use efficiency, and adapt to and mitigate climate change.4. How digital farmer support systems and disease control decision-making tools can address the herd health and reproductive challenges of buffaloes in Nepal.5. What type of institutional arrangements (including business models), for input delivery and output market linkages are profitable, inclusive and would lead to increased sustainable livestock productivity?6. What are the trade-offs between productivity, economics, gender & social equity, and environmental factors that need to be considered when developing and scaling up livestock innovations at national level for policy making?The key partners include: the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), dairy cooperatives, local governments, provincial governments (Madhesh, Kosi, Gandaki), Shreenagar Agro, Nimbus Feeds and the National Dairy Development Board.Since past research has shown that successful livestock development requires integrated packages of productivity enhancing technologies and innovations along the value chain and in the enabling environment, SAPLING organizes its outputs not as individual \"silver bullets\" but rather in innovation packages-\"combinations of interrelated innovations and enabling conditions that, together, can lead to transformation and impact at scale in a specific context 1 \"-that target specific sets of inter-related, context-specific opportunities and constraints.SAPLING chose to develop theories of change (ToCs) at the value chain (VC) level to demonstrate how the outputs of SAPLING's Work Packages come together in Innovation Packages to contribute to outcomes on the ground. ToCs were initially developed in participatory workshops with stakeholders and later updated to reflect changes in programming, to clarify and firm up the underlying logic-via specification of sub-pathwaysand to increase consistency across value chains. Click here for information on the stakeholder workshop that initiated the development of the ToC for dairy buffalo in Nepal. Going forward, regular review and updating is planned as part of program management and monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA). For more information on how the value chain ToCs fit into the overall SAPLING monitoring, evaluation and learning plan, refer to the SAPLING MEL Brief.Annex 1 provides additional information on the elements included in the ToC. to identify genetically superior bulls and cows and promote use of the bulls through Artificial Insemination and natural mating (4) establish digital farmer extension and feedback systems using herd performance, genomic data and data from relevant input service providers in order to improve herd management and profitability and (5) establish private-public partnerships for long-term sustainability of genetic gains.On the management of fertility in buffaloes, a multidisciplinary approach to reduce frequency and length of infertility in the animals will be implemented by integrating nutritional inputs, physiological therapies and clinical diagnoses. Overall, the quality of animal diet will be improved through the upgrade of rice straw, inclusion of nutrientdense forages and ensuring a balance of nutrients in the diet using a digital feed balancing tool. Rice straw with poor nutritional characteristics will be improved by breaking the cell wall using a fodder shredder machine so that its digestibility is improved. The quality will be further enhanced by fortifying the shredded straw with 10% molasse and 1% mineral mixture. The straw, thus processed and enriched with the support of industries will be bagged as mash or block and sold to farmers through cooperatives.As presented in Box 2, this IP includes not only technological innovations, but also capacity development and other enabling activities with gender integrated into all of them. Efforts to provide various enablers and building the capacity of different value chain actors and supporters will form an integral part of this innovation package. Village youth will be selected and trained as village livestock promoters (VLPs). They will in turn train farmers on various technologies and link them to input/service delivery agents such as AI inseminators, forage seed producers, straw processors, silage manufacturers, agrovets, feed dealers, banks, insurance agencies, etc. VLPs will also be trained on data recording using the AADGG mobile application, which will support genetic selection of bulls to use for AI. They will act as a link for convergence with government livestock programmes and make them available to farmers. These promoters will be anchored in the cooperative and will act as one-stop business solution providers for all livestock inputs and services.Practice and behaviour change will be facilitated through capacity building of the community VLPs. The support provided by VLPs will help individual farmers, especially women, as well as farmer collectives to improve their outreach and strengthen farm procurement, access working capital and improve market linkages.To ensure that all inputs and services are delivered in an integrated manner, various mechanisms have been put in place: (1) AADGG mobile application, where the same animals will be targeted for all the technologies through the 15-digit unique identification number generated by the authorized national partner, which is NLBO (2) The VLP is the common link through which all technologies, inputs and services to the same farmers will be channelled (3) The interventions will be implemented in the same area as the cooperatives, which are the entry points of the SAPLING initiative in rural areas. Therefore, the cooperative will also act as an integrator (4) Within the cooperative, the program will reach the same farmers selected by the coop as part of the Farmer Field School.Through this, all interventions will target the same animals in an integrated pathway.Business models will be created around delivery of inputs and services. The VLPs will be trained to work as independent self-sustaining service delivery agents. Towards this, they will receive specialized training on development of business plans and will be provided with mentorship support. To make the service financially viable, the VLPs will charge the farmers and/or their coops a fee for all products and services provided. Apart from VLPs, capacity building training will also be given to animal breeders, field veterinarians, technicians and extension agents. Besides, private individuals and small-scale industry representatives will be trained on production and supply of inputs (semen, processed enriched straw, silage) and services (AI) including extension.The IP1 will contribute to three Immediate Outcomes (IOs) in this sub-pathway, namely men and women farmers (IO1), men and women village livestock promoters and other service providers including veterinarians and extension workers (IO2) and animal breeders of the National Animal Breeding and Genetic Resource Centre (NABGRC) and the National Livestock Breeding Office (IO3) to improve awareness, knowledge, skills and overall technical and business capacities, and provide integrated inputs and services to farmers. All these immediate outcomes (IO1, IO2, IO3) are expected to contribute to the End-of-Initiative outcome of improved income of about 6000 buffalo farmers, 50% of whom are women, resulting in a 20%-30% increase in dairy productivity (EOI1).Key assumptions that underlie the logic of this subpathway are that (i) relevant departments invest in infrastructure, personnel and maintenance (ii) adoption of business models results in increased profits and further investments and (iii) adoption of integrated technology packages improves productivity.The second sub-pathway acknowledges the importance of policy in mainstreaming the success to benefit all farmers in the country through appropriate decisions, strategies and investment. The policy Innovation Package (IP2) involves mechanisms for policy maker engagement, enablers and capacity building (Box 3). The mechanisms and processes for effective engagement with policy makers include exposure visits, policy roundtable discussions, bilateral dialogue sessions and outreach workshops, etc. Stakeholder platforms will be formed for co-designing and scaling up of innovations. This will be at different levels, namely federal, provincial and municipal. Potential (public/ private) scaling agencies will be identified right from the beginning of research and will be involved at the design stage. They will be continuously engaged through different mechanisms (advisory committees, progress update meetings, site visits, outreach workshops). Through this, policy makers will have an opportunity to see the evidence for themselves and witness the change.The CGIAR Innovation Profiling and Scaling Readiness (IPSR) approach will be used to profile all the core innovations, package them with enablers and develop scaling strategies depending on the maturity of the innovation. Policy makers will also be involved in developing the scaling strategy. They will be provided with documented evidence of change, impact narratives, etc.The IP2 is expected to contribute to the Immediate Outcome (IO4) of increased awareness of public/private sector policy makers at federal, provincial and municipal levels on the need for increased investment in the buffalo sub-sector. All this will lead to change in their capacity in making informed decisions in terms of favourable policies, budgetary allocations and new investments (EOI2, EOI4).Components of the package comprise:Annex 1. Elements included in the theory of changeThe Theory of Change (ToC) includes three standard elements: outputs (Innovation packages), outcomes and assumptions. CGIAR defines an outcome as \"a change in knowledge, skills, attitudes and/or relationships, which manifests as a change in behaviour in particular actors, to which research outputs and related activities have contributed.\" In these ToCs, Immediate Outcomes (IOs) are initial changes in things like awareness and capacity that occur among next-users of the innovation packages. End-of Initiative outcomes (EOIs) are outcomes that occur further along the pathway and reflect changes in behaviour among target actors and, in some cases, the consequences of that behaviour such as an increase in productivity or the value of investments. EOIs are the same across all ToCs while the immediate outcomes that lead to them are context-specific. In order to seeToCs are living documents that should be developed and updated in response to concrete programmatic needs. This theory of change will be reviewed in collaboration with stakeholders on an annual basis, with changes made as necessary. The reflection process, changes to the ToC and reasoning behind these changes will be documented as annexes to this report. ","tokenCount":"2666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"07595db04a552287e3b50c7fc2c5304a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a22dfed-2c99-427c-b25c-a9b358784e34/retrieve","id":"-777059528"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7fbacf49-8c33-4262-b178-4c4776929e80","pagecount":"28","content":"Maize streak virus is generally considered the most important and widespread disease of maize grown in sub-Saharan Africa. Occasionally reaching epidemic proportions, it is a chronic problem for small-scale farmers who lack the labor or equipment to ensure that their entire crop is planted early in the season. The later they plant, the greater the risk of virus damage.IITA's best-known accomplishment in maize improvement has been the development of a practical resistance screening system for large-scale field use against the streak virus. The system has been used to produce a wide rarlQe of resistant germ plasm fitting the various agroecologies of sub-Saharan Africa.The system enables th e identification of durable , oligogenic resistance. Since streak resistance carries no yield penalty or other undesirable side effects, and a practical screening technique exists, the effort now is to incorporate streak resistance into any variety before it is released in the region. To help achieve this goal, IITA has assisted national research programs to incorporate the screening method for streak resistance into their routine breeding practice. This booklet carries that assistance one step further. We hope the national programs in the region wil l use it profitably. We welcome their feedback on the usefulness of this publication.The success of any program breeding for resistance to diseases and/o r insects depends large ly on the development of suitable and reliable scree ning techn iques. Such techniques also have to be simple and relatively inexpensive. Field screening under natural infestations is often unsuccessful because the incidence of pests is erratic. To overcome this problem and to minimize the chance of 'escapes' in screening, it is necessary to infest a large number of plants artificially every season. For that purpose , rearing of the target insect is necessary.Mass rearing of Cicadulina leafhoppers was begun at the International Institute ofTropical Agriculture (IITA) , Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1976. Over the yea rs, a number of modifications and improvements have been made (Leuschner et al.l 980;Soto et al. 1982;Alam 1983;Dabrowski 1983).This handbook prese nts the techniques developed and experiences accumu lated at liT A over the past 15 yea rs for mass re aring and infestation of Cicadulina leafhoppe rs in screen ing for resistance to maize streak vi ru s (MSV).Maize streak virus (MSV) is one of the most economically damaging diseases of maize in sub-Saharan Africa. It is found on ly in Africa and surrounding islands, whe re it is widely distri buted and transmitted by leafhoppers in the genus Cicadulina. MSV is found in both forest and savanna zones and in varying altitudes (0-2000 m). Damage to maize from MSV can be insignificant in some years but epid emics of the disease in other years can devastate crops with yield losses of 100% (Fajemisin and Shoyinka 1976). The severity of the disease is usually re lated to the age of the plant at the time of infection , as well as to the relative suscepti bi lity of the varie ty. The you ng er the plant, the greater the severity of symptoms. At IITA, yield losses under artificially induced infestation of four varieti es with differing levels of resistance/susceptibility were found to range from 10 to 72%.Symptoms of MSV consist of broken to almost continuous , narrow, white ch lorotic stripes which develop ove r and along the vein on most of the leaf surface (Fig . 1). The density of striping depends on varietal susceptibility. Maize plants are vuln erable to MSV from emerge nce to tasseling . a Figure 1 Maize plant with streak virus symptoms 2 Susceptible plants infected at the seedling stage become stunted and may die or produce small and poorly filled ears (Fajemisin et al. 1976;Rossel and Thottappilly 1985).Twenty-two species of Cicadulina leafh oppers have been reported ; 18 of th ese occur in Africa (Webb 1987). Only eight species are known to be vectors of MSV (Table 1).The Cicadulina leafhoppers vary in length from 2.2 mm to 3.8 mm (Rose 1978). Coloration of the insects varie s but is generally pale to golden yellow. Some species have black markings on the forewings, pronotum, and venter. The dorsal side of the abdomen is usually brown. Most species have a pair of round, brown spots on the frontal margin of the forehead (Ruppel 1965). The fema le Cicadulina is distinguished from the male by its long ovipositor.  Dabrowski 1987Okoth & Dabrowski 1987Dabrowski 1987a Th e identification of Cicadulina species is somewhat difficult. Species differ marked ly in mal e genital characters. The shape and size of the aedeagus and th e shape of th e pygophore processes are use ful characte rs for differentiating between species of Cicadulina (Ruppel 1965;van Rensburg 1983;Webb 1987). Figure 2 illustrates genital characters fo r two of the most common species of Cicadulina in Afri ca: C. mbila and C. storeyi (= C. triangula). Webb (1987) mentioned that care should be taken in distinguishing Arrican species of Cicadulina from a leafh oppe r of th e ge nus Afrosteles. Extern ally, both genera are similar. However, Afrosteles distans is slightly larger than Cicadulina and it lacks the dark apex of the ovipositor which is present in Cicaduliha.  The distribution pattern s of Cicadulina leafh oppers also vary conside rabl y across Africa.C. mbila and C. storeyi (Fi g. 3) are wide ly distribu ted in Africa. C. mbila is th e most important vector species (Nielson 1968;Okoth and Dabrowski 1987). Both C. mbila and C. storeyi are presently bein g used fo r mass rea ring purposes in various African co untries. b \\ . \"., . .,Knowledge of an insect's life history is important for a successful mass rearing program . Cicadulina species differ in Iheir life history and ability to transmit MSV. The life histories of C. mbila and C. storeyi have been studied extensively (Table 2). Their developmental periods (egg to adult) (Fig. 4)    To start a new colony of Cicadulina leafhoppers, collect the live leafhoppers from the field. The optimal time for collection of Cicadulina leafhoppers is at the end of the rainy season, when leafhopper population density is high and they migrate from old plants to young ones.Grass species of the genera Pennisetum, Digitaria, Eleusine, Brachiaria, Paspalum, Setaria, and Panicum are preferred by Cicadulina; so you should sample them for col lection (Rose 1978;Okoth and Dabrowski 1987) . In addition, you could sample irrigated wheat and grasses growing near rivers , lakes , or in valley bottoms.There are various ways by which you can collect Cicadulina leafhoppers from the field, but most suitable is a method that uses a cubical frame made of iron or steel rods, covered by a dark green or black cotton cloth-with transparent netting or fine mosquito net on one side (Fig. 5) (Dabrowski 1983). The iron frame and the cloth are handy and portable.To construct a frame, you require four 140-150 cm pieces of iron or steel rod 10. -15 mm in diameter. Sharpen the lower ends of the rods so that they can be easily pushed into the soil. Bend the top end of the rod into a short 20-25 cm arm to give corner support. At the sampling site, follow the following steps for collection of Cicadulina leafhoppers.1. Place the iron rods at the four corners of the sampling site in such a way that they will form a cage size 1.25 x 1.25 m. Do not disturb the site.Once the rods are fixed , place the dark cloth quickly over them so that the Cicadufina leafhoppers within the cage cannot escape .3. Enter the cage and disturb the grasses, so that insects within the cage will be attracted to the light on the side with transparent netting (Fig. 6). From there, selectively collect the Cicadulina leafhoppers, using a mouth aspirator.4. Cage the fema le leafhoppers singly with young millet or maize seed lings, using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes (about 8 cm in diameter and 25 to 30 cm long) (Fig. 7).Alternati ve ly release the Cicadulina leafhoppers co llected into a cage (approx. 40 x 40 x 60 cm) (Fig. 8) with young, potted, insect-free millet or maize plants and transport back to the laboratory or screenhouse.  3. When the nymphs become adults, collect samples of males separately from each cage for species identification , and keep the samples in 75% alcohol (ethanol). Before identification, place the specimens in 10% potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution for 24 hours. Take out a specimen and place it under a dissecting microscope. Dissect the last abdominal segment to look for the male genitalia-the pygophore processes and aedeagus. See Figure 2 for an illustration of the genitalia of two common Cicadulina species. Follow Webb's (1987) key for identification of other species. 10 4. Once species identification is completed, put together adults belonging to the same species and release them into larger cages to build up the population (Fig. 9). Use only one species for mas& rearing.Select Cicadulina species with a high reproductive potential and high transmission ability of MSV for mass rearing and resistance screening. As explained, this would mean you use either C. mbila or C. storeyi for rearing. An added advantage is that ample information and experience exist on mass rearing these two species in various African countries.The standard procedure for mass rearing of Cicadulina leafhoppers at IITA is illustrated in Figure 10. The various steps involved are described next.The best host for egg laying by Cicadulina females is pearl millet, Pennisetum americanum (= typhoides). Up to 220 eggs per female have been obtained at IITA on this host (Dabrowski 1987b). Millet has the additional advantage over maize of tolerating large leafhopper populations without suffering severe damage. Use potted 14-day old plants for oviposition.For egg laying, keep adults on open oviposition tables (0.75 m high) (Fig. 11) or in metal framed cages (1.25 x 1.25Figure 11 Open table for egg-laying by leafhoppers on millet plantsNymphal rearing cageThe cage is covered with dark cloth prior to collection of leafhoppers 12x 1.50 m) covered with fine insect proof mesh (Fig. 12).Sew the mesh to form a cage that will fit over the metal frame; a zipper on one side of the mesh cage allows easy access to the plants and insects inside. Place cages over tables about 0.75 m high. Our experience at IITA is that adu lts kept on open tables do not escape from the screen house. This could be partly a result of adaptation to rearing conditions (i.e. , se lection for short-distance flyers), likely to occur in any large colony. We thus recommend using a combination of both methods (open tables and close cages) for oviposition until you obtain a large enough colony of leafhoppers adapted to open tables.After a one-week oviposition period , transfer the potted plants to nymphal rearing cages (1.25 x 1.25 x 1.50 m) for egg hatching and nymphal development (Fig. 12). Add fresh plants to the tables, so that females can continue layi ng eggs. Coll ect the adu lts and release them onto oviposition tables at least every 3-4 weeks. The duration of the oviposition period might vary , according to species and environmental conditions. Th erefore , carry out experiments to determine the most appropriate length of time for any given location. This period , however, shou ld not be very long , so as to avoid a corresponding ly long nymphal emergence period that will resu lt in a mixture of nymphs of different ages. Plant millet weekly to ensure avai labi lity of host plants for rearing.Once eggs hatch, nymphs wi ll start to feed on the millet plants. Add fresh plants to the cages regularly to ensure an adequate supp ly of food. Cut the older plants, on which nymphs have been feeding, with a sharp knife, and shake gently to dislodge the nymphs onto the fresh plants. Nymphs will take about 3 weeks to become adults.A nymphal rearing cage can hold 20-24 pots. However, it is advisable to reduce this number to 16 during the rainy season when high relative humidity prevai ls. This will ensure air flow and will help reduce problems of fungal growth on the millet plants.Em ergence of all the adults in a nymphal rearing cage shou ld ideally occur within one week. COllect the ad ults by covering the cage with a dark cotton cloth , leavin g a small portion of the cage uncovered (Fig. 13). Th e leafhoppers will respond to the light and move to the portion of the cage left uncovered. A person can then move into the cage and use a mouth aspirator or a modified vacuum cleaner (200-500 W) for collection . The rubber tube of th e vacuum cleaner is attached to a thick rubbe r tube (15 cm long x 6 cm diam) and the latter connected to a small plastic co ll ecting vial (9 cm long x 5 cm diam) (Fig. 14). The collecti ng vial shou ld have one end cove red by fine mesh ; the other end shou ld be a narrow tube that will be used to collect the insects (see inset in Fig. 14). After you have collected th em , transfer leafhoppers to vi ru s acquisition feeding cages or to oviposition tables , according to your rearing needs at th at time . Using Cicadulina in resistance screeningUse young potted MSV-infected maize plants of a streaksusceptible variety for virus acquisition feeding. Plant maize on a regular basis and infect it with MSV, 7-10 days before it is needed. Keep the plants in a cage the same size as the nymphal rearing cages. A period of 48 h is optimal for virus acquisition. After this period , col lect the viruliferous leafhoppers again, using the vacuum cleaner, and transfer to leafhopper dispensing vials (9 cm long x 5 cm diam) for transport to the field.The leafhopper dispensing vial is made of PVC , covered with fine mesh at one end and with a plastic lid at the other.The plastic lid of the dispensing vial is removable, to allow transfer of leafhoppers from the collecting \\i.ial into it. The lid has a small orifice (3 mm diam) to allow the leafhoppers to pass when they are dispensed. This orifice is covered with a small plug of cotton wool or grass, to prevent the leafhoppers from escaping during transport.If the field is far from your rearing facilities, collect the viruliferous leafhoppers from the virus acquisition cage and place them in a smaller cage (approx. 40 x 40 x 60 cm) with a few healthy potted maize or millet plants, so that they can be easily transported to the field. Prior to infesting the field, collect the leafhoppers from the cage with a mouth aspirator and transfer them to leafhopper dispensing vials.Alternatively, after collecting the leafhoppers from the virus acquisition cage, transfer them to the dispensing vials and transport these to the field in a cooler. At low temperatures (10 to 12°C) the leafhoppers wi ll sUNive for several hours. While humidity should be high to prevent dessication, water condensing in the vial will kill the insects. Therefore, cover the inner wall of the vial with absorbent paper (i .e., paper towel or filter paper) to collect the excess moisture resulting from condensation. If the field is close to your rearing facilities, you can take the leafhoppers directly to the field in the dispensing vials.To ease infestation, anesthetize leafhoppers with carbon dioxide (C0 2 ) immediately before you dispense them. Carry the CO 2 to the fie ld in a rubber inner tube , to which a thin rubber hose with a valve is attached (Fig. 15) (Leuschner et al. 1980). The CO 2 immob ilizes the leaihoppers, preVenting their escape. Next, dispense the insects into the leaf whorl at a rate of 3-4 leafhoppers per plant (Fig. 16). The leafhoppers wi ll become active shortly after release , and they wi ll start feeding on the plant.If necessary, use CO 2 a second time to inactivate the wakening leafhoppers in the vial. Excessive use of CO 2 , however, wi ll kill some insects and result in nonuniform MSV infestati ons. C02 can be bought from commercial establi shments, such as soft drink bottling companies , or it can be obtained from fire extinguishe rs. Ca rry out field infestations when plants are at the three-leaf stage (approx. 8-10 days after planting) (Fig. 16).Figure 15 Anesthetizing leafhoppers with carbon dioxi de (C0 2 ) in the field before infestation of maize seedlings. Notice the inner tube used to carry CO 2 to the fieldAnesthetized leafhoppers are shaken out of the vial onto a maize seedling (3-4 per plant) showing MSV symptoms three weeks after infestationViral symptoms will appear in 5-1 0 days and th ey will be cl early visible 2-3 weeks afte r infestati on (Fig. 17). The following visual rating scale of 0 to 5 (Tabl e 3) has been developed based on Soto et al. (1982) fo r evaluating resistance to maize stre ak virus (Fig . 18) .Selecti on for MSV resistance is done by first thinning out susceptible plants 3-4 weeks after planting. At fl owe rin g, se lect plants com bining adequate levels of resistance (1-3 on th e ratin g scale) with other desirable characters (Efron et al. 1989).Figure 18 Reaction to MSV (left to right). Susceptible ( 5), moderately resistant (3), and resistant (1). Ratings are based on the visual rating scale (Table 3)The host plants used for rearing shou ld be free from other insects , hence they should be grown inside a screen house to avoid pest infestation. Insects which might be problematic include whiteflies, aphids, leaf beetles, planthoppers, and lepidopterous la rvae . Manual removal of insects is often effective. If an infestation develops, it might be necessary to discard the plant batch or to spray a shortterm action insecticide , such as malathion. Spraying should be done outside the screenhouse, and the plants left for 1-2 weeks prior to their use for Cicadulina rearing. Large populations of aphids on millet seed lings have been effectively controlled in the past, using a coccinellid beetle, Chilomenes sulphureus (IITA 1987).Mass production of Cicadulina leafhoppers may be comp licated by:(a) presence of natural enemies inside the rearing cages;(b) temperature fluctuation during winter months or at high elevation.Like other insects, leafhoppers are attacked by predators and parasitoids . Ants, spiders, and lizards are common predators of Cicadulina nymphs and adults. In addition, there is a mirid bug , which is an egg predator. Ants can be kept off from the rearing cages by placing a water pan with water and kerosine or oil under the legs of the tables.The common parasitoids of Cicadulina leafhoppers are a hymenopterous wasp (Oryinid ae) and a dipteran fly (Pipunculidae). Sometimes, they can seriously affect mass production. Regular inspections by an entomologist should be carried out. Once it is noticed that a rearing cage has been infested wi th parasitoids or mirid bugs, it is advisable to discard the insects and , if necessary , also the plants and soil in the cages. The cages should be cleaned thoroughly and left empty for some days. If all the cages are severely infested, then it is advisable to discard the entire co lony and start with a new colony as described in Figure 9. Alternatively, 200-300 healthy males and females can be collected from the cages to start a new colony .In countries with severe winter, the temperature fluctuation during the winter months may affect the mass rearing of Cicadulina leafhoppers. Where the night temperature drops below 15\"C, special arrangements should be made to increase the temperature in the screen house . Low temperature will affect the leafhoppers as well as the germination and growth of the host plants. To augment the night temperature in the screen house during winter months, the sides of the screenhouse should be covered at night with clear plastiC sheeting. During daytime, the plastic sheeting should be rolled and tied up for cross ventilation. In addition, supplementary heating can be obtained from a kerosine burner or an electric heater (where electric power supply is available). The rearing cages can also be covered with plastic sheets at night.Cicadulina leafhoppers belong to two categories: active transmitters of MSV and nonactive transmitters (Storey 1932). This character is genetically controlled. When mass rearing Cicadulina leafhoppers, it is important to maintain a high percentage (60-80%)of active transmitters in the colony. This will reduce the number of insects required for infestation of each plant, ultimately resulting in more plants being infested using the same number of leafhoppers. But it will require periodical quality control.To test the proportion of active transmitters, about 50-100 female leafhoppers should be collected from a nymphal rearing cage and released for 48 h into a small cage with streak-infested maize plants. The females should then be caged singly with 5 to 7-day old potted maize plants susceptible to MSV, using PVC cages (Fig. 7). About 7-10 days later, the numberof plants showing streak symptoms should be observed and the percentage of transmission should be calculated . If the percentage of transmission is below 35 , a new colony of active transmitters should be initiated, by putting together the progeny of those females that transmitted MSV. Also , plants showing MSV symptoms from the transmission test shou ld be placed together in a cage for egg hatching and nymphal development. Within 3 weeks, the nymphs will develop into adults and the new colony of the leafhoppers should have a higher proportion of active transmitters. The new colony can be used to build up the population of active transmitters. The percentage of active transmitters in the colony should be checked twice a year.Trainees listen to liT A scientist (third from left) explaining mass rearing techniquesTo meet the needs and circumstances of national programs and private seed companies, modifications to the described techniques might be needed.Entomologists setting up Cicadufina rearing facilities should be able to adapt the techniques developed at IITA to fit their own conditions. IITA scientists are available to assist national programs in developing Cicadulina rearing facilities.The Togolese national program developed leafhopper rearing facilities with assistance from IITA and Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) and modified the infestation method to their needs. The national program of Zaire and CIMMYT's mid-altitude station in Harare , Zimbabwe, were assisted by IITA to develop their rearing facilities. For the latter two countries, modifications were needed to ensure survival of the insect colonies during the cold winter months. IITA is also assisting the national programs of Ghana and Cameroon to develop their leafhopper rearing facilities. ","tokenCount":"3786"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d26561780aaa29a4ed12784bb2a72c2d","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org/Data/Sites/3/Documents/PDF/Country_Docs/West_Bengal/Situation%20Analysis%20Brief%20West%20Bengal.pdf","id":"1575788626"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"42c69e01-daff-46db-83e5-ee70fd895d13","pagecount":"4","content":"• Rocky uplands of Purulia and the western fringes of Bankura, Birbhum, Bardhaman and Medinipur districts.• Low-lying alluvial plains encompassed within Jalpaiguri,This situation analysis is based on secondary data, field observations, household interviews and interviews with key informants. It examines farming systems in West Bengal and the characteristics of existing agricultural water management (AWM) practices. It takes into account the natural, political and institutional environments that influence AWM and identifies the people and organizations that have a stake in smallholder AWM. The results of the situation analysis are summarized here. The AWM solutions identified in the analysis were shared at the State Consultation Workshop and priority solutions for further analyses were selected by participants. For more on this, please see the State Consultation Workshop Brief which is also available on the website.Nearly 70% of the population of West Bengal depend on agriculture, making AWM a critical factor in improvement to livelihoods. Improving AWM is made all the more imperative because some 37% of the State's population are below the poverty line, compared to a national average of 26%, and over 80% of the absolute poor live in rural areas.Three-quarters of the land area of the State is alluvial plain and is highly suitable for agriculture. Major tributaries of the Ganges River flow through the State with high rainfall of 1,200-3,000 mm per year. There is therefore distinct potential for improving AWM, agricultural production and livelihoods.A particular difficulty in using AWM to address agriculture and poverty issues is that water resources are unevenly distributed across the State; so for example the three zones that can be identified based on groundwater resources would need different AWM solutions. These zones are:• The Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan zones of Darjeeling and parts of the Jalpaiguri and Cooch Bihar districts in the north.The State government is committed to increasing the irrigation potential of surface water through the rehabilitation of existing minor irrigation schemes 1 and excavation of new water storage structures. Groundwater irrigation should only be expanded after an assessment of aquifers and should be socially balanced.The resources for the proposed government intervention in minor irrigation would come from central financial support, such as from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Command Area Development and Water Management Programme (CADWM). In the case of groundwater irrigation, there is no comprehensive scheme for sharing expenditures between the Central government and the States except for the loan-based Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).The Water Investigation and Development Department (WIDD), Government of West Bengal has been the principal government agency implementing minor irrigation schemes in the State. Panchayats are also expected to be involved in all implementation aspects, from site selection to construction, after which open dug-wells, tube wells and river lift irrigation schemes are handed over to Panchayat Samities (village committees) to operate and maintain. Panchayat Samities are permitted to collect adequate water rates from beneficiaries to meet operation and maintenance costs in full. This has been highly successful.The West Bengal Ground Water Resources (Management, Control and Regulation) Act was passed in 2005, in response to the rise in groundwater extraction. This is implemented by the State Water Investigation Directorate (SWID), the District Level Authority (DLA), the Corporation Level Authority (CLA) and the State Level Authority (SLA). Under this Act, anyone intending to extract groundwater must obtain a permit.There has been no growth in agricultural production over the past few years, and the number of landless people and farmers with small parcels of land has greatly increasedcurrently, over 3.3 million hectares are divided into individual plots of 2 ha or less. This is a cause of concern as West Bengalhas not yet attained actual food security; it currently produces 50% less than its requirement for wheat and 75% less for pulses.There have also been changes in AWM with canal irrigation declining and groundwater irrigation dramatically increasing (Table 1). The Minor Irrigation Census (MIC) by the Government of India (GoI), which records irrigation schemes of less than 2,000 ha, identified over 800,000 structures in 2001 of which the majority (approximately 600,000) were shallow tube wells (STWs). The decline in dug-wells and surface irrigation is mainly due to lack of maintenance. The ownership pattern of shallow tube wells also suggests that most are privately owned by individuals or groups. Twenty villages were surveyed in four districts, and the State-wide trend of increasing groundwater use was seen in all but one village. In the villages of North 24 Parganas, farmers depend largely on diesel-operated STWs and electrically run STWs. In the villages of Hooghly, the farmers mainly depend on submersible pumps and deep tube wells (DTWs). Purulia District is the exception because most of the agricultural land is mono-cropped and there are very few irrigation facilities.The low adoption of electric pumps in West Bengal compared to the rest of India is a function of the availability of electricity connections, the cost of electricity and the metering structure imposed by the State government.Farmers with electricity meters complained that they pay around INR 30,000 per year compared to just INR 10,000 per year for unmetered submersible pumps. This cost is also transferred to farmers who buy water from pump owners and now pay INR 500-1,000 more per acre of boro paddy cultivation than before the introduction of metering.The metering charges are based on the time of day Diesel pumps are extremely popular but, due to the rising price of diesel, farmers are increasingly opting for Chinesemade pumps instead of conventional Kirloskar-type pumps produced in India. The Chinese pumps cost less to run as they require less fuel and can even be run on kerosene, which is cheaper than diesel, or a mixture of kerosene and diesel. They are also much lighter, which means that the pumps can be carried to the field and brought home at awm-solutions.iwmi.org Source: Narayanamoorty, 2007 Groundwater irrigation in Hooghly District night. As a result, the pumps are less vulnerable to theft, and farmers can transport them between different water sources, including tanks and canals. The primary disadvantage of the Chinese-made pumps is that they heat up quickly and wear more easily than other pumps, but this does not appear to diminish their growing popularity.In Uttar Dinajpur, treadle pumps are used by farmers in a few villages. These manually operated pumps are made out of bamboo and cost as little as INR 200. The amount of water extracted is similar to that extracted by hand pumps, which means that they can be used on crops with low water requirements and small vegetable patches, but they cannot replace STWs, which are essential for crops like boro paddy that require large amounts of irrigation water and in places where the groundwater table has fallen below 30 feet. An advantage of treadle pumps is that they have no direct financial operating costs, although they require labor.In Purulia District the poor capacity for retention of rainwater leads to severe runoff and soil loss. The nongovernmental organization, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), is trying to address this by introducing water harvesting structures (WHS) and the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) with funds from the Swaran Jayanti Rojgar Yojna (SJRY) and MGNREGA. These WHS are generally constructed on private lands, particularly of marginal and small-scale farmers from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribe communities. These WHS are rectangular or square and generally require 5% of the land area of the farm. Slightly larger ones are also constructed and are locally known as Hapa. They are best located at the lower level of the land, where natural water seepage can be used to the maximum. Those located on higher land tend to dry up faster. As a result of the introduction of WHS, many of the barren lands that remained fallow are being cultivated. According to the farmers interviewed, the main benefit of this system is that they no longer have to migrate in search of work, or gather food from the forest.The cost of irrigation depends on a number of factors especially the water source, the water extracting equipment, the means of powering the equipment, and whether the equipment is owned or leased. Farmers find innovative ways to reduce costs, such as using Chinese-made pumps, mixing kerosene with diesel, or using submersible pumps to fill tanks at night when electricity tariffs are lower and using this water to irrigate during the day.Comparisons of various different irrigation options and estimated costs are given in Stay informed. Join the mailing list to receive briefs and other project outputs by writing to us at AWMSolutions@cgiar.org. Find out more on the AgWater Solutions website http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org This briefing note is based on a report by Partha Sarathi Banerjee. The report is internal but if you would like an electronic copy please contact the Project Secretariat, awmsolutions@cgiar.org awm-solutions.iwmi.org crops such as mango. This may have implications for food security.In all cases, the cost of production has gone up due to the (electricity) tariff and diesel costs, and for some, these additional costs mean they can no longer afford to use their pumps or to rent pumps.Since the situation analysis was conducted a number of case studies have been undertaken on specific AWM solutions. These will be published as briefs on the project website as soon as they are completed, and stakeholder consultations will be continued to share findings and receive comments. The introduction of groundwater irrigation with tube wells had a positive impact on farmers and their families as water from these wells allowed them to grow surplus crops for the market. However, over the years the cost of irrigation has increased, while that of food grains has remained relatively constant. This is threatening to reverse the positive trends in agriculture and livelihoods.For users of electrical pumps, the metering system and the introduction of a three tariff structure based on the time of day have given the farmers cause for complaint because they usually have to operate their pumps when the tariffs are highest and there are frequent power cuts. This is altering farming patterns and could potentially result in a return to a single annual crop.The rising cost of diesel is also affecting production. Many farmers who use diesel pumps are opting not to grow the lucrative boro paddy but instead to grow less water-intensive ","tokenCount":"1709"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"308ade355e5d0b704fd6c6f6799939bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8e12d638-62f3-40d9-a0a7-57582d6efafd/retrieve","id":"2040968760"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"74c5ae68-a334-4539-85e3-5ef3054efc74","pagecount":"29","content":"Cuadro 4-1. Parcela de semillas necesaria para sembrar 100 hectáreas. Cultivo Area Yuca 12.5 a Arroz 2.5 b Soya 4.0 b Frijol 6.7 b Maíz 0.7 b a. Terreno ocupado durante un año. b. Terreno ocupado durante un semestre.Debido a su sistema de propagación vegetativa, que permite formar clones, la yuca es una especie en la cual todas las plantas de una misma variedad deberían ser iguales, tanto en su aspecto exterior como en la producción de raíces y follajes.Sin embargo, los factores ambientales bióticos (plagas y enfermedades) y abióticos (clima y suelo) pueden modificar considerablemente las plantas individuales, afectando aspectos tales como altura, vigor, floración, ramificación, producción de raíces, contenido de almidón y de HCN, entre otros. Uno de los aspectos más importantes que el ambiente puede afectar es la calidad del material de siembra, llegando a causar su degradación hasta el punto de hacer desaparecer una variedad dada. Enfermedades de tipo sistémico, como las causadas por algunos virus, bacterias y micoplasmas; baja fertilidad, desbalance de los nutrientes y aun niveles moderados de salinidad en los suelos, son algunos de los factores que, además de reducir el rendimiento de las plantas directamente afectadas, reducen la capacidad del material de siembra obtenido de ellas para expresar el potencial de rendimiento de los genotipos.El efecto de tales factores negativos durante varios ciclos de propagación vegetativa puede producir una disminución acumulativa en la calidad del material de siembra, ocasionando su degeneración paulatina (Lozano et al., 1984).Por otra parte, la utilización de estacas de buena calidad, como parte de un conjunto de prácticas de cultivo, permitiría la obtención de plantaciones sanas, vigorosas y con producciones cercanas al potencial de rendimiento de los genotipos.La oportuna disponibilidad de material de siembra de buena calidad constituye un factor decisivo para la diseminación y utilización de nuevas variedades de yuca. La falta de semillas mejoradas ocurre aun en cultivos de propagación sexual sencilla, pero naturalmente se acentúa en la yuca por la biología de la especie, la situación socioeconómica del agricultor que la produce y la falta de sistemas organizados de abastecimiento de semillas (estacas).La yuca es uno de los pocos cultivos cuyo material de siembra por sí solo no tiene ningún valor. En los cultivos de granos (maíz, frijol, etc.) y aun, en cultivos de propagación vegetativa como papa, ñame, caña de azúcar, entre otros, el material de siembra que no se utiliza como semilla, de todas maneras tiene valor como alimento. Semillas como las de cultivos hortícolas, que tampoco tienen otra utilidad, por lo menos poseen la ventaja de ocupar muy poco espacio y de poderse conservar por períodos prolongados bajo buenas condiciones de almacenamiento. La yuca, en cambio, se siembra CAPÍTULO 4 Semilla Vegetativa de Yuca Javier López* para aprovechar sus raíces, y los tallos que no se utilizan como semilla no poseen otra cualidad que les de valor.Adicionalmente, la yuca posee algunas características que dificultan la producción de semilla en mediana o grande escala.El material de siembra de yuca se deteriora durante el almacenamiento debido a la deshidratación de los tallos, pérdida de reservas por brotación y ataque de plagas y patógenos, lo cual ocasiona una disminución paulatina de la cantidad de estacas aprovechables, a medida que aumenta el período de almacenamiento.A pesar de los esfuerzos realizados por los investigadores, no se dispone hasta el momento de una tecnología que solucione estos problemas, pero se sabe que el potencial de almacenamiento es una característica varietal que permite, con algunos cultivares como el MCOL 1468, hacer almacenamientos tan prolongados como de 6 meses, mientras que otros como el MCOL 1684 se deterioran en menos de un mes.El hábito de crecimiento está relacionado con dicha diferencia varietal, ya que clones no ramificados o de ramificación tardía permiten mejor almacenamiento que los de ramificación temprana. Adicionalmente, hay indicios de que el estado nutricional de las plantas madres también afecta el potencial de almacenamiento de los tallos.En promedio, una planta madura de yuca en buenas condiciones sólo produce alrededor de 10 estacas comerciales de 20 cm, cifra que puede reducirse a 5 estacas o incluso menos, dependiendo de las condiciones de cultivo. Esto significa que de 1 ha sólo se podrían obtener en un año estacas suficientes para sembrar 10 ha nuevas, lo cual representa una tasa de multiplicación bastante baja si se compara con algunos cultivos de granos (Figura 4-1).Esta situación trae las siguientes consecuencias:1. Es muy difícil expandir rápidamente el área sembrada.2. Los gastos incurridos en 1 ha de cultivo deben dividirse entre un bajo número de estacas.3. El productor de semillas debe dedicar una gran cantidad de terreno a la obtención de material de siembra (Cuadro 4-1).El manipuleo y transporte de estacas de yuca son operaciones dispendiosas y costosas, debido a lo elevado de su peso y volumen. Una sola estaca de yuca tiene un peso equivalente al de 230 semillas de maíz; el material de siembra para 1 ha (10,000 estacas) pesa alrededor de 0.7 t y ocupa un volumen aproximado de 2 m 3 . Esta es una de las razones por las cuales muchos agricultores tienden a usar estacas Figura 4-1. Tasa de multiplicación de algunos cultivos.• Desea cambiar de variedad.• Desea aumentar considerablemente el tamaño de su plantación.El volumen de ventas de un productor de semilla de yuca está en función de las variaciones en el área sembrada que, a su vez, depende del comportamiento en el precio de las raíces.Para que la semilla sea un componente tecnológico altamente productivo, requiere poseer calidad. La experiencia ha demostrado que una semilla de buena calidad permite obtener buenos resultados en el campo, mientras que una semilla de mala calidad conduce a resultados pocos satisfactorios y fracasos.La calidad es un conjunto de cualidades genéticas, fisiológicas y sanitarias que dan a las estacas su capacidad para dar origen a plantas productivas. La presencia en niveles altos de estos tres componentes esenciales de la calidad, permite que la semilla se encuentre en su máxima calidad integral. Por otro lado, la debilidad de cualquiera de sus componentes introduce el factor limitante. Es así como genotipos perfectos no podrían expresar su verdadero potencial si la semilla está fisiológicamente deteriorada y muestra mala germinación.Los atributos cualitativos de una variedad, generada por los trabajos de mejoramiento genético, solamente serán transferidos al agricultor en el caso de que no haya deterioro de sus características de generación en generación en el proceso de multiplicación de semillas.Esta calidad se produce en la etapa de mejoramiento genético. Los trabajos de cruzamientos, selecciones y pruebas regionales están orientados a escoger aquellos materiales que contienen un programa genético apropiado para las condiciones encontradas en las diferentes zonas agroecológicas. Cuando los materiales seleccionados se cristalizan en variedades aceptables para los usuarios, se La mayor parte de la producción de yuca la realizan pequeños agricultores, utilizando sistemas tradicionales de producción y obteniendo rendimientos bajos, aunque estables. Las áreas yuqueras se caracterizan por tener poca infraestructura y sus suelos son generalmente pobres, llegando a considerarse, en algunos casos, como marginales para la producción agrícola.Esta pobre fertilidad del suelo conduce a la obtención tanto de una reducida producción de raíces como de un material de siembra de mala calidad, debido, principalmente, a su bajo contenido de reservas nutricionales. Estos cultivadores usan prácticas agronómicas que demandan el uso intensivo de mano de obra y tienen muy pocos recursos para trabajar.Los agricultores yuqueros habitualmente producen su propio material de siembra, ya que por ser un cultivo de propagación vegetativa, su siembra, generalmente, coincide con la cosecha del cultivo anterior.El agricultor que compra semilla de yuca se encuentra en una de estas circunstancias:• Siembra por primera vez.• Dejó de sembrar por un tiempo largo, durante el cual no pudo conservar su material de siembra.procede a recomendar su utilización masiva y comercial.Para ser útil a la comunidad agrícola serán necesarias cantidades masivas de estacas de dicha variedad, y es en el proceso de multiplicación cuando aparece la necesidad de mantener la identidad genética.La calidad genética se puede asegurar sembrando semillas auténticas, es decir, que el material de siembra se tome de cultivos certificados por entidades como el ICA, donde no haya mezclas varietales, y manteniendo esa autenticidad con metodologías preventivas (por ejemplo, evitando la siembra en terrenos que inmediatamente antes hayan sido sembrados con otra variedad de yuca) e inspecciones para eliminar plantas fuera de tipo.Los factores genéticos que más afectan la producción de semilla de una variedad de yuca son su vigor general y el hábito de ramificación. Mientras que el vigor incide en el crecimiento total de la parte aérea de la planta y, por lo tanto, en la cantidad de ramas de las cuales se pueden obtener estacas, el hábito de ramificación influye sobre la disponibilidad de tallos primario y secundario, que son las partes más usadas para material de siembra.En términos generales, las variedades vigorosas producen más estacas que las no vigorosas, pero la mayor diferencia radica en el tipo de ramificación, ya que en variedades con ramificación tardía, la proporción de tallos primario y secundario es mayor que en genotipos con ramificación temprana, obteniéndose, por lo tanto, un mayor número de semillas y de mayor peso promedio.El resultado tangible de la calidad fisiológica está en la facultad de la estaca de brotar y dar origen a una planta vigorosa. En la calidad fisiológica se incluyen los siguientes aspectos:El contenido nutricional de las estacas es fundamental para la iniciación de la nueva planta, ya que durante los 20 días siguientes a la siembra su crecimiento se realiza exclusivamente a expensas de las reservas Cuando esos tallos se utilizaron como material de siembra, se encontró que el porcentaje de germinación de las estacas era fuertemente influido por el nivel de K, así como por el equilibrio del K con el N y el P. Es importante resaltar que el hecho de sembrar las estacas obtenidas de un suelo, con o sin aplicación de fertilizantes, no incidió en su capacidad de germinación, ya que lo importante para este proceso fue la cantidad de reservas nutricionales que tuvo la estaca.Utilizando estacas con un alto contenido nutricional fue posible obtener plantas en una mayor producción de tallos aptos para usar como material de siembra; esto es muy importante para programas de producción de semilla, debido a la baja tasa de multiplicación que tiene la yuca (Cuadro 4-4).Adicionalmente, una fertilización de la parcela de semillas con énfasis en K, permitió que las estacas obtenidas produjeran, a su vez, una mayor cantidad de follaje, lo cual es un factor de especial interés en la realización de una agricultura sostenible en regiones de ladera, ya que al aumentar la cobertura del suelo, disminuye la erosión hídrica.Finalmente, el uso de estacas con un adecuado contenido nutricional permitió obtener aumentos en la producción total de raíces frescas, debido, principalmente, a un mayor tamaño de las raíces y, en menor grado, a un mayor número de raíces producidas (Cuadro 4-5).En la Figura 4-2 se aprecian dos plantas de la misma variedad (MCOL 1684) y de la misma edad (12 meses). La planta del lado izquierdo se originó de una estaca con bajo contenido nutricional (N 0 P 0 K 0 ), mientras que la del lado derecho se originó en una estaca con alto contenido nutricional (N 2 P 2 K 2 ). Ambas estacas fueron sembradas en un terreno ácido y poco fértil sin fertilización. Esto significa que la diferencia entre estas dos plantas se debe exclusivamente a la cantidad de reservas nutricionales que tenían las estacas.Por lo tanto, la utilización de estacas de buena calidad nutricional que permitan mostrar el verdadero potencial de rendimiento de las variedades es un componente tecnológico de bajo costo que permitiría a los agricultores aumentar la producción de yuca, con una adecuada conservación del suelo.Lo expuesto anteriormente tiene gran importancia en programas de producción de semilla, particularmente los dirigidos hacia regiones de suelos ácidos e infértiles clasificados, principalmente, como Oxisoles y Ultisoles, y que en países como Colombia, Venezuela, Brasil y Bolivia son áreas yuqueras actuales o potenciales.Una estaca de yuca normalmente produce de uno a cuatro brotes que forman los tallos primarios. La aparición de flores produce la ramificación de estos tallos primarios, con la consecuente formación de los tallos secundarios, terciarios y así sucesivamente, de acuerdo con el ciclo de floración y ramificación de la variedad.Por consiguiente, los tallos primarios de la planta representan el tejido de mayor edad, mientras que los tallos secundarios, terciarios y de formación más reciente representan el tejido más joven.El aumento en la edad del tejido trae como consecuencia un aumento en el grosor y estado de lignificación del xilema, junto con una reducción proporcional del tejido medular. Cuando este proceso ha avanzado lo suficiente, los tallos se consideran maduros y aptos para servir como semilla, ya que su grosor y lignificación les suministran suficientes reservas nutricionales y resistencia a la deshidratación.En realidad, cualquier sección de la planta, desde la parte basal hasta el meristema apical, permite la obtención de una nueva planta, pero en el ámbito comercial es conveniente descartar la parte herbácea que, por su bajo contenido de materia seca, tiene una alta probabilidad de deshidratarse en el campo después de la siembra; se utiliza el resto de la planta como materia de siembra.Sin embargo, parece que existe relación directa entre la edad de la semilla y el comportamiento de la nueva planta. La mayoría de los investigadores opinan que con estacas tomadas de los tallos primarios o parte basal se obtienen plantas con rendimientos más altos que los obtenidos con estacas de parte apical.Esta diferencia en los rendimientos podría atribuirse a diferencia en reservas nutritivas de las estacas, ya que la composición química de las mismas (N, P, K, Ca y Mg) varía entre diferentes secciones a lo largo del tallo. El aumento en rendimiento, a medida que aumenta la edad de las estacas, podría deberse entonces a una mayor concentración de elementos nutritivos, principalmente, N y K, y a un mayor contenido de materia seca, como se observa en el Cuadro 4-6 (Enyi, 1970). Así, la mayor cantidad total de N, P, K, almidón y fibra se acumula en la porción más vieja de los tallos.La viabilidad de las estacas está directamente relacionada con su contenido de humedad. En una planta de 10-12 meses, los tallos tienen alrededor de 70% de humedad, y las estacas que ellos produzcan tendrán viabilidad cercana a 100%. Una vez cortadas, se inicia la deshidratación de las estacas, que se acelera cuando son almacenadas en un lugar con alta temperatura y baja humedad relativa, y su efecto es tan severo que una disminución de 20% en el contenido de humedad puede ocasionar una reducción de 50% en la brotación de las semillas (Cuadro 4-7).Un indicativo visual para estimar el contenido de humedad y, por ende, la viabilidad de las estacas, es la velocidad con la que el látex característico de las plantas euforbiáceas fluye de una estaca recién cortada. Si fluye inmediatamente significa que tiene suficiente humedad y, por lo tanto, un buen poder de germinación. A medida que una estaca se deshidrata, se hace más lenta la aparición del látex y es menor su cantidad.En la producción del material de siembra se pueden presentar problemas sanitarios inducidos por patógenos (hongos, bacterias, micoplasmas y virus), y por plagas (insectos y ácaros), los cuales reducen la cantidad de estacas que puede producir cada planta, pero Cuadro 4-7.Influencia de la pérdida de humedad en la viabilidad de las estacas de yuca. también reducen la calidad del material de propagación, lo cual se refleja en bajos rendimientos. También representan un riesgo en las áreas donde se introduzca el material afectado (Lozano et al., 1986).La yuca puede ser atacada por varios agentes patógenos que se transmiten por medio del material de siembra y que están en capacidad de disminuir los rendimientos del cultivo por varias causas:• Disminución en la brotación de las estacas.• Muerte de las estacas después de la brotación.• Reducción en el vigor normal de las plantas.• Reducción en el número de raíces engrosadas.• Permanencia de inóculo potencial para siembras futuras.Dichos patógenos pueden ser sistémicos o localizados.Son aquellos capaces de invadir toda la planta. Generalmente no producen síntomas en los tejidos lignificados y maduros, lo cual dificulta la identificación del material enfermo una vez cortado. Casi siempre los síntomas se desarrollan en el sistema foliar o ramas jóvenes, poco lignificadas, o aun en el sistema radical (Lozano y Jayasinghe, 1982).Estas plantas constituyen la fuente del inóculo primario en una nueva plantación. Entre los patógenos sistémicos diseminados por el material de siembra están:Hongos. El patógeno fungoso sistémico más importante de la yuca es Diplodia manihotis, el cual produce estriados necróticos marrones a lo largo del sistema vascular afectado. Otros menos importantes son Fusarium solani y F. oxysporum. El hongo Sphaceloma manihoticola, causante del superalargamiento, aunque no es propiamente sistémico, produce una gran cantidad de esporas en chancros epidermales sobre los tejidos maduros del tallo, de un tamaño tan diminuto que hace inidentificable el patógeno, y el gran número de ellos lo hace parecer sistémico (Lozano y Jayasinghe, 1982).Bacterias. La enfermedad bacterial más importante y una de las más graves del cultivo es el añublo bacterial, causado por Xanthomonas axonopodis p.v. manihotis, el cual puede producir pérdidas económicas de más de 50%. Cuando las estacas de yuca están infectadas del añublo bacterial, pueden ocurrir pérdidas de germinación superiores a 25%. Este patógeno se restringe a los tejidos del xilema de los tallos inmaduros del hospedero, debido a que la bacteria es incapaz de degradar los tejidos lignificados del tallo; por lo tanto, es muy difícil detectar la presencia de esta bacteria en tallos lignificados que son los usados normalmente para la siembra, cuando ya han sido cortados para semilla. Además, la severidad de la enfermedad se reduce considerablemente durante los períodos secos del año; por lo tanto, en esta época, la selección visual de material de propagación sana procedente de una plantación infectada es a veces imposible. Considerando su capacidad diseminante (debido al efecto de la lluvia, insectos, herramientas y suelo infestado), la dispersión del patógeno puede ocurrir en períodos relativamente cortos a partir de unas pocas plantas enfermas (Lozano, 1982).Micoplasmas. El superbrotamiento, enfermedad causada por un micoplasma, se ha encontrado en Brasil, Venezuela, México y en la región amazónica de Perú. Aunque su incidencia no es de consideración, se ha encontrado que las plantas afectadas producen hasta 80% menos que las sanas (Lozano, 1982).Virus. Los virus pueden producir en las plantas síntomas foliares, como son el mosaico africano, el mosaico común americano, el mosaico de las nervaduras y el mosaico caribeño, o síntomas radicales, como el cuero de sapo. También hay virosis que no muestran síntomas visibles aparentes en algunos cultivares (portadores), limitándose a reducir paulatina y levemente su vigor normal y producción.Aunque se pueden producir plantas sanas, es conveniente probar su sanidad, mediante técnicas de laboratorio como serología, microscopía electrónica, hibridación de ácidos nucleicos, entre otras (Lozano y Jayasinghe, 1982).Son aquellos cuya capacidad invasora no es sistémica, o sea, que sólo invaden zonas o partes limitadas del tallo. Su presencia se caracteriza por la formación de chancros, agallas y áreas necróticas.Pertenecen a este tipo Erwinia carotovora pv carotovora (pudrición bacterial del tallo), que ocasiona degradación de la médula, la cual presenta una coloración amarillenta, rojiza o marrón oscuro; Agrobacterium tumefaciens (agalla bacterial del tallo), que produce agallas en los nudos del tallo; Colletotrichum spp. (antracnosis) y Phoma spp. (mancha de anillos circulares), que causan llagas epidermales y corticales (Lozano y Jayasinghe, 1982). Los patógenos localizados penetran en el tallo a través de las heridas causadas por medios mecánicos o por insectos, directamente por los estomas o por invasión de los pecíolos. La invasión por estos patógenos generalmente decrece a medida que el tallo se lignifica.Se puede usar como material de siembra toda porción del tallo que esté sana y, por consiguiente, al seleccionar las estacas se deben eliminar las porciones del tallo afectadas por estos agentes patógenos (CIAT, 1987b).Como norma general, el material de propagación de yuca debe colectarse de plantaciones aparentemente libres de patógenos sistémicos. Esta aparente sanidad es necesario verificarla mediante inspecciones a los cultivos en épocas con condiciones climáticas favorables al desarrollo de las enfermedades; por ejemplo, desde la mitad hasta el final de la estación lluviosa, los síntomas de superalargamiento, añublo bacterial y mosaicos causados por virus son más notorios que durante la sequía. Antes de hacerse la colección respectiva deben identificarse las plantas más vigorosas y sanas de las plantaciones (Lozano y Jayasinghe, 1982).Entre los daños que los insectos pueden ocasionar al cultivo de la yuca están la reducción en la germinación y el establecimiento de las plantas mediante el ataque al material de siembra. La diseminación de huevos de insectos y ácaros es más probable que la de larvas y adultos, ya que éstos vienen sobre la epidermis del tallo, lo cual hace que sean relativamente fáciles de detectar. Sin embargo, los barrenadores del tallo, los insectos escamas y los huevos de ácaros pueden diseminarse fácilmente vía material de propagación (Lozano, 1982).El riesgo de diseminar ácaros a otras regiones es mayor cuando ha ocurrido un brote severo en un área y se transporta semilla de dicha área a otra zona; es así como posiblemente se introdujo el ácaro Mononychellus tanajoa en Africa. Las escamas y el piojo blanco o harinoso también se diseminan de este modo. Según el grado de infestación, estos insectos pueden reducir la germinación de las estacas en 70%. Los huevos y las larvas de otros insectos, tales como los trips, también pueden encontrarse en las yemas del tallo y en las ramas, y se diseminan al transportar estacas afectadas (CIAT, 1987b).Acaros. Es, probablemente, la plaga más grave que tiene la yuca. Frecuentemente, atacan el cultivo durante la estación seca y causan daños severos en la mayoría de las regiones productoras del mundo. Las principales especies son M. tanajoa (ácaro verde), Tetranychus urticae (ácaro rojo) y Oligonychus peruvianus. Las infestaciones de ácaros en el CIAT incluyen estas tres especies y, experimentalmente, se ha detectado un pérdida en rendimiento de 20% a 53%, dependiendo de la duración del ataque (Bellotti, 1982).Escamas. Se han identificado varias especies de escamas que atacan el tallo de yuca en muchas regiones productoras del mundo, siendo las más importantes la escama blanca Aonidomitilus albus y la escama negra Saissetia miranda.Aonidomytilus albus se encuentra presente en, prácticamente, todas las regiones yuqueras del mundo. Este insecto, que pudo haber sido diseminado de un continente a otro en el material de propagación, se ha convertido en la plaga de yuca más ampliamente distribuida.El daño más grave, resultante del ataque de estos insectos, parece ser la pérdida de material de propagación, debido a la muerte de las yemas. Los estudios efectuados en el CIAT con estacas altamente infectadas con A. albus dieron como resultado una pérdida en la germinación de 50%-60% (Bellotti y Schoonhoven, 1978).Trips. Atacan las plantas en los puntos de crecimiento, siendo la especie más importante Frankliniella williamsi. La reducción promedio en el rendimiento para ocho variedades susceptibles en Colombia fue de 17.27% (Bellotti y Schoonhoven, 1978) y la reducción en la producción de material de siembra puede llegar a 57% (Lozano et al., 1986).Mosca de la fruta. Se han identificado dos especies de mosca de la fruta, Anastrepha pickeli y A. manihoti, las cuales atacan la yuca en América. Las larvas de esta mosca hacen túneles en los tallos de la planta de yuca, formando galerías de color marrón en el área de la médula. Un patógeno bacteriano (Erwinia carotovora pv. carotovora), frecuentemente encontrado en asociación con las larvas de la mosca de la fruta, puede causar pudriciones severas del tejido del tallo.Esta pudrición secundaria puede ocasionar disminución del rendimiento y pérdida de material de siembra, ya que la germinación de las estacas obtenidas de este material puede reducirse hasta en 16% y el rendimiento de plantas provenientes de estacas dañadas llega a ser 17% más bajo que el de plantas provenientes de material sano (Bellotti y Schoonhoven, 1978).En el material de siembra se han encontrado barrenadores del tallo, principalmente estados larvales de Coleoptera como Coleostermes spp. y Lagochirus spp. y de Lepidoptera como Chilomina sp., que, generalmente, causan daños esporádicos o localizados. La infestación puede ocurrir en las plantas en crecimiento, pero también durante el almacenamiento de los tallos, por lo cual el material de siembra se debe inspeccionar cuidadosamente antes de su utilización (Bellotti, 1982).Comejenes. Los comejenes atacan la yuca, principalmente en las tierras bajas del trópico.Se ha reportado como plaga en diversas regiones del mundo, pero principalmente en Africa. En Colombia, Coptotermes niger se alimenta de material de siembra, de raíces o de plantas en crecimiento que presentan partes en proceso de secamiento o de muerte, debido a condiciones climáticas desfavorables, patógenos o mala calidad de la semilla.En estudios efectuados en el CIAT, los comejenes destruyeron casi 50% del material de propagación almacenado, y las pérdidas en germinación oscilaron entre 25% y 30% (Bellotti y Schoonhoven, 1978). En la Costa Norte colombiana se ha observado que los comejenes pueden atacar tallos almacenados, causando gran pérdida de material de siembra, pero también disminuye la germinación y el establecimiento de las estacas cuando éstas se siembran llevando el insecto en su interior. Estacas libres de comején también pueden ser atacadas por este insecto cuando después de la siembra viene un período seco.El objetivo principal de un lote de multiplicación es obtener el mayor número posible de estacas por planta, evitando aquellos factores o circunstancias que, además de reducir el rendimiento de raíces de las plantas directamente afectadas, también reducen la capacidad del material de siembra obtenido de ellas para expresar el potencial de rendimiento de los genotipos.El manejo agronómico de los lotes de multiplicación implica el empleo de todas las prácticas de cultivo que se recomiendan para la obtención de alto rendimiento de raíces, realizándolas con los mínimos costos. Esto permite que con la venta de las raíces se obtengan ingresos suficientes para cubrir el costo de la producción, tanto de las raíces como de las estacas; generalmente, queda un margen de utilidad que es muy importante para los productores de semilla comercial y aún para el productor de semilla básica.Para alcanzar estos objetivos, los lotes de multiplicación de semillas deberían incluir las siguientes recomendaciones:Es deseable que el terreno para producción de semilla esté aislado de cultivos comerciales de yuca, con el fin de evitar riesgos de contaminación con insectos y, principalmente, con patógenos.No es recomendable utilizar terrenos donde se haya sembrado yuca durante 3 años consecutivos o más, ya que a largo plazo, con la siembra continua, se hace notoria la disminución de su capacidad para producir tanto material de siembra como raíces, independientemente del nivel de fertilidad del suelo. Esto se debe, probablemente, al incremento de patógenos del suelo y a la disminución de algunos microorganismos benéficos como las micorrizas. En estos terrenos lo conveniente es proceder, primero, a reducir el potencial de inóculo de patógenos presentes en el suelo, mediante la siembra de cultivos como sorgo y maíz, cuyos patógenos no son generalmente patógenos de la yuca, interrumpiendo el cultivo continuo de la yuca, al menos por un período de 2 años, o sembrar estas gramíneas durante 1 ó 2 años después de talar los cultivos forestales.A pesar de que tradicionalmente se ha considerado como normal un suelo con una conductividad eléctrica menor de 4 dS/m y una saturación con sodio menor de 15%, el comportamiento de la yuca se afecta con niveles mucho menores. Howeler (1981) señala como niveles críticos para este cultivo una conductividad de 0.7 dS/m y una saturación con sodio de 2.5%.Se estudió el comportamiento del material de siembra obtenido en parcelas con moderados niveles de salinidad, sembrando el cv. HCM-1 en dos tipos de suelo: uno, con conductividad de 0.5 dS/m y saturación de 1.3%, y otro, cuya conductividad era de 0.8 dS/m y saturación con sodio de 3.0%. Las plantas sembradas en las parcelas con mayor nivel de sodio no sólo presentaron un menor crecimiento, reduciéndose así la cantidad de estacas producidas (Cuadro 4-8), sino que cuando se utilizaron como fuente de semilla para una nueva siembra, dieron origen a plantas con una producción inferior, tanto de estacas como de raíces (Cuadro 4-9).Otras características deseables en terrenos que se destinen a la producción de semilla, son:1. Que sean propios: Cuando el terreno es alquilado y al cumplirse el contrato éste no se prorroga, se corre el riesgo de tener que arrancar la yuca anticipadamente, lo cual ocasiona pérdida de material de siembra en una cantidad proporcional al tiempo que permanezca almacenado.2. Que estén distantes del pueblo y la carretera, para evitar el robo de yuca por parte de vecinos y transeúntes, con la consiguiente pérdida de la semilla.3. Que estén bien cercados, para evitar daño por ganado, especialmente vacuno y porcino. La parcela de semillas se debe ubicar, preferiblemente, en un suelo de buena fertilidad natural. En caso contrario, se debe realizar una fertilización completa, ya que el nivel de fertilidad del suelo influye decisivamente tanto en la cantidad como en la calidad de la semilla producida.En suelos pobres, la producción de material de siembra es baja, pero se pueden obtener aumentos, tanto en el número como en el peso de las estacas mediante la aplicación de fertilizantes (Cuadro 4-10).Adicionalmente, en el estudio sobre la nutrición de la semilla, ya mencionado, se encontró que en comparación con la semilla de bajo contenido nutricional, la semilla de alto contenido nutricional sembrada en un suelo sin fertilizar permitió obtener 53% más de tallos aptos para usar como material de siembra, pero cuando ésta se sembró en un suelo fertilizado se obtuvo un 100% adicional de tallos (Cuadro 4-11).La tasa de multiplicación de la yuca se podría aumentar notablemente aumentando la densidad de siembra en las parcelas de semilla. Según Villamayor (1983), cuando se aumenta el número de plantas por hectárea, por encima de la población utilizada normalmente en cultivos comerciales, cada planta tiende a mantener estable su número de tallos primarios, lo cual permite obtener una mayor producción de estacas, aunque de un peso ligeramente menor; la razón es que los tallos crecen más delgados, a pesar de lo cual el rendimiento de los cultivos sembrados con estas estacas no se afecta.Sin embargo, con un aumento en la densidad de siembra, el tamaño promedio de las raíces se reduce. En las condiciones del Valle del Cauca, la máxima producción de raíces comerciales (con tamaño aceptado corrientemente en el mercado) se logra con 5000 plantas por hectárea en las variedades de porte alto ramificado y con 10,000 plantas por hectárea en las de porte bajo erecto y alto erecto (CIAT, 1975).La reducción en el rendimiento de raíces, ocasionada por la competencia de las malezas, es un hecho bien conocido tanto en yuca como en otros cultivos. Pero también es claro que un deficiente control de malezas también afecta en proporción similar la producción de estacas.En un ensayo, realizando diferentes niveles de control de malezas durante los 2 primeros meses de crecimiento (CIAT, 1983), se observó que de acuerdo con la eficiencia en el control de malezas, hubo diferentes niveles de competencia entre malezas y yuca, reflejada ésta por una reducción en el peso de la parte aérea de las plantas cuando disminuyó el porcentaje de control. El número de estacas producidas por planta fue proporcional al peso de la parte aérea.El hecho de no controlar las malezas redujo el crecimiento de la parte aérea a un nivel muy bajo y en estas condiciones, solamente una de cada tres plantas produjo una estaca de aceptable tamaño y calidad. Por otra parte, sin competencia de malezas se obtuvieron casi seis estacas por planta (Cuadro 4-12). Es, por lo tanto, de doble interés mantener un buen nivel de control de malezas cuando se desea optimizar, tanto la producción de estacas como de raíces.En relación con los costos directos, el control de malezas representa un rubro bastante alto, que varía considerablemente (entre 20% y 50%), dependiendo de la clase de malezas presentes, sus tamaños al momento de la siembra, densidad de siembra, calidad de la semilla y distribución de las lluvias durante los primeros meses de cultivo, entre otros factores.En condiciones normales, la aplicación de un herbicida preemergente, complementado con una o dos desyerbas manuales o aplicaciones de herbicidas posemergentes, debería ser suficiente para mantener el cultivo libre de malezas durante todo su período vegetativo.La mano de obra necesaria para aplicar con fumigadora de espalda el herbicida preemergente, se reduce a un jornal por hectárea si en una siembra realizada a 1 m x 1 m, y utilizando una boquilla de abanico TK5, se abarcan 2 m de ancho por pasada y se usa un volumen de 150 lt/ha. En las desyerbas manuales, el número de jornales depende de la clase de malezas, la altura de ellas y la herramienta utilizada (machete, pala, azadón), pero se puede presupuestar un promedio de 15 jornales por hectárea en cada desyerba. Es importante destacar que ninguno de los herbicidas recomendados para yuca, preemergentes o posemergentes (incluyendo el glifosato), causan daño alguno a las estacas sembradas horizontal o verticalmente, aun aplicados 8 días después de la siembra.La práctica de intercalar otras especies en un cultivo de yuca reduce, generalmente, la producción, tanto de las raíces como de la parte aérea, en proporción directa a la competencia ejercida por las otras plantas; además, reduce el peso promedio de las estacas.En el CIAT, en 1989 se realizó un experimento a nivel de finca con cinco agricultores, ubicados en diferentes zonas, durante 2 años. Con el fin de evaluar la influencia del intercultivo con maíz en la calidad del material de siembra de yuca, se tomaron, tanto de monocultivo como de intercultivo, estacas que en la siguiente temporada se sembraron en monocultivo. Se encontró que ni la altura de las plantas, ni la producción de ramas o de raíces se afectó por el origen del material de siembra (Cuadro 4-13).Esto demuestra que la calidad del material de siembra obtenido, tanto de yuca plantada en cultivo individual como en asocio con maíz, no es significativamente diferente. A pesar de que el intercultivo conduce a una reducción en la cantidad de estacas producidas, este sistema de cultivo corrientemente utilizado en muchas regiones del mundo podría ser también empleado en la producción comercial de semilla de yuca; así, en pequeñas empresas artesanales se podría obtener semilla tanto de yuca como de variedades de maíz. La yuca tiene reputación de ser un cultivo rústico, resistente a la sequía. En efecto, cuando comienza la estación seca, la planta disminuye la producción de nuevas hojas, mientas pierde continuamente las viejas. Si el período seco se acentúa, caen más hojas disminuyendo el área foliar a un nivel mínimo y llega a reducir su crecimiento, entrando prácticamente en un período de latencia.Cuando empiezan las lluvias, la planta utiliza sus reservas de carbohidratos para producir hojas nuevamente y así reiniciar su crecimiento (Cock, 1989).Sin embargo, a pesar de que la yuca no tiene períodos críticos en los que la ausencia de lluvias pueda ocasionar la pérdida total de la cosecha -a menos que la sequía sea tan prolongada que las plantas mueran-un período seco como el que ocurre normalmente en el occidente de Colombia, en la mitad del año, puede, en algunas variedades, reducir drásticamente la producción tanto de raíces como de material de siembra. Por ejemplo, un período seco de 10 semanas, empezando 12 semanas después de la siembra, cuando comienza el almacenamiento de almidón en las raíces, ocasionó en la variedad MCOL 22 una reducción de cerca de 30% en la producción de raíces, y de 50% en la producción de ramas y hojas (Figuras 4-3 y 4-4).Por lo tanto, aunque la yuca por tradición se ha cultivado dependiendo exclusivamente del agua lluvia, su pleno potencial de rendimiento sólo puede ser alcanzado si se incluye el manejo de agua entre las prácticas culturales. Se ha encontrado que si se suministra riego durante los períodos secos, a razón de 20 mm por semana, se aumenta el rendimiento de las raíces en cerca de 60% (Mohankumar et al., 1984).La cantidad de semilla que se puede producir a determinada edad está en función de un conjunto de factores determinantes, como son: el genotipo, las condiciones climáticas (con temperaturas altas, el crecimiento es más rápido), fertilidad del suelo, control de malezas y sistema del cultivo (la competencia ejercida por un cultivo intercalado retarda el crecimiento de la parte aérea).Pero independientemente de estas circunstancias, el número de estacas aprovechables por planta es muy bajo y va aumentando a medida que se lignifican los tejidos. En condiciones del CIAT, en Palmira, el número de estacas por planta en algunas variedades aumenta gradualmente, inclusive después de los 12 meses, mientras que en otras variedades después de esa edad comienza a Figura 4-3. Efecto de un período seco en la producción de ramas y hojas de yuca cv. MCOL 22. • Es conveniente que las ramas para almacenar se corten de la mayor longitud posible, pues a medida que avanza el período de almacenamiento, se hace inevitable eliminar una porción cada vez mayor de los extremos que se van secando, en especial, del apical, reduciendo así la parte central aprovechable. Mientras más corta sea la rama almacenada, esta parte central representará un porcentaje más bajo de la rama entera.• El almacenamiento de las ramas en posición vertical es preferible que en posición horizontal, ya que ocasiona una menor pérdida de material de siembra y una menor reducción en el peso de las estacas aprovechables (Cuadro 4-15).• El tratamiento químico con una solución insecticida-fungicida es una medida preventiva, que bajo condiciones desfavorables de almacenamiento puede ayudar a evitar el deterioro de la semilla (Cuadro 4-16).• En algunas variedades, la edad de la planta en el momento de hacer el almacenamiento afecta la proporción de material de siembra aprovechable (Cuadro 4-17). Si se espera hasta que la parcela de semillas complete 12 meses para su cosecha, se obtendría:• Semilla fresca al momento de la nueva siembra.• Máxima producción de estacas.• Máxima producción de raíces.Dado que lo más conveniente es maximizar los ingresos por concepto de la venta de las raíces, para poder fijar un precio razonable a las estacas, el productor de semilla debe decidir cuál es la época más adecuada para realizar la cosecha, ya que con las variedades precoces o con las tardías que se cosechan tempranamente, para aprovechar un alto precio de las raíces, se tiende a obtener un bajo número de estacas por planta.Si se decide realizar la cosecha antes de 12 meses, el número de estacas posibles de obtener disminuye mientras más jóvenes sean las plantas; por un lado, porque los tallos están inmaduros y, por otro, porque es necesario almacenarlos por más tiempo.Los problemas que se presentan durante el almacenamiento son deshidratación, pérdida de reservas por brotación y ataque de plagas y patógenos, los cuales ocasionan disminución paulatina del material de siembra, a medida que aumenta el período de almacenamiento. En la actualidad no se dispone de una tecnología que solucione estos problemas, pero sí se conocen algunos principios que ayudan a reducir sus efectos negativos: Figura 4-5. Variedad de ramificación tardía, con tallos primarios largos que facilitan el almacenamiento.Figura 4-6. Almacenamiento de tallos de yuca.• Las ramas se deben llevar al lugar de almacenamiento tan pronto como se coseche la yuca, ya que la exposición al sol en el campo reduce la capacidad de la semilla para ser almacenada (Cuadro 4-18).El almacenamiento de los tallos se facilita cuando se utilizan variedades de ramificación tardía. Tallos primarios largos (alrededor de 1 m) son fáciles de manejar, tienen buen rendimiento al cortar las estacas, facilitan el uso de sierras accionadas por motor y soportan mejor el tiempo de almacenamiento (Figura 4-5).En la Figura 4-6 se ilustra un almacenamiento vertical en un lugar semisombreado. Los tallos se apoyan en un soporte colocado en forma horizontal, a 60 cm sobre el suelo.Antes del almacenamiento, el suelo debe removerse ligeramente y humedecerse, para que cada tallo haga buen contacto con el suelo. Si en la región proliferan insectos de la madera (comejenes, termitas, etc.), se debe espolvorear un insecticida sobre el suelo.Alrededor de un mes después de iniciado el almacenamiento, comienzan a brotar las yemas apicales en todos los tallos, reiniciándose así el proceso de crecimiento del follaje. En el almacenamiento que se ve a la izquierda en la Figura 4-6, recién se está iniciando el proceso de brotación, mientras que las ramas de la derecha, con un mayor tiempo de almacenamiento, ya presentan un follaje denso.Cuando ocurre una temporada seca prolongada, este follaje se seca mostrando apariencia de quemado, por lo cual es necesario un riego cada semana. Si por el contrario hay una temporada de lluvia, se crea un microclima cálido y de alta humedad relativa, el cual favorece el desarrollo de enfermedades, por lo cual es conveniente aplicar fungicidas de amplio espectro.Cuando se da por terminado el almacenamiento y se procede a fraccionar el tallo, se debe descartar el extremo apical rebrotado. Es importante que los tallos queden en posición vertical porque así rebrotan únicamente 2 ó 3 yemas apicales. Cuando los tallos quedan inclinados hay tendencia a que broten todas las yemas, perdiéndose así toda la rama.Un ambiente adecuado para el almacenamiento de las ramas es el que proporciona la plantación misma, especialmente cuando se trata de variedades de ramificación tardía, ya que, además de las ventajas mencionadas anteriormente, este tipo de plantas permite que los operarios transiten dentro del cultivo sin enredarse en las ramas.Para este efecto, se deja sin cosechar una parte del cultivo, y las ramas que se van a almacenar se llevan a su interior, disponiéndolas en forma vertical como se indicó anteriormente.En este caso, el soporte para los tallos pueden ser ramas de yuca que se amarran de las plantas que están en pie (Figuras 4-7 y 4-8).Si el cultivo está sobre caballones se facilitan eventuales riegos para los tallos almacenados.Debido a su largo ciclo de crecimiento, la yuca está sujeta continuamente a presiones de factores bióticos (plagas y enfermedades) y abióticos (clima, suelo), factores que pueden disminuir la calidad del material de siembra.Las variedades tradicionales han estado bajo estas presiones bióticas y abióticas durante considerables períodos de tiempo y su efecto puede ser un decrecimiento acumulativo de la calidad del material de siembra después de muchos ciclos de propagación vegetativa (Lozano et al., 1984).El efecto de la mala calidad de la semilla sobre la producción es imprevisible, pero a veces reduce los rendimientos en mucho más de 50% (Lozano, 1987).Por lo tanto, se recomienda hacer una selección positiva de las plantas que van a suministrar el material de siembra para las parcelas de semillas. De acuerdo con CIAT, (1987a), los rendimientos, especialmente de las variedades tradicionales, se pueden aumentar con la sola utilización de material de siembra tomado de plantas vigorosas y, aparentemente, Figura 4-7. Almacenamiento de tallos dentro de la plantación.Figura 4-8. Detalle de la manera como se deben apoyar los tallos.Una planta madura tiene mayor número de nudos que una planta joven; adicionalmente, en las plantas maduras la parte basal tiene entrenudos más cortos que la parte apical.Teóricamente, para obtener una nueva planta sólo sería necesario sembrar un trozo de tallo del tamaño apenas suficiente para que contenga un nudo. Sin embargo, son muy escasas las posibilidades para que una estaca tan corta germine y enraíce bajo condiciones de campo, ya que para evitar la deshidratación sería necesario mantener constantemente una buena humedad del suelo durante las primeras semanas después de la siembra.En el caso contrario, estacas largas, de 60 cm o más, tienen altas posibilidades de enraizamiento y germinación, pero debido a su gran volumen presentan dificultades de manejo y transporte; además, de cada planta madre se obtendría un menor número de estacas.La influencia que tiene la longitud de las estacas en el rendimiento ha sido tema de investigación en varios países y los resultados muestran tendencias a rendimientos ligeramente mayores con estacas largas; la razón, probablemente, es que el mayor contenido nutricional permite un mejor crecimiento inicial de las plantas, lo cual incide en una mejor tuberización de las raíces.La mayoría de investigadores opinan que estacas de 20 cm y al menos cinco nudos tienen suficientes reservas nutritivas y un adecuado número de yemas para asegurar un buen establecimiento y rendimiento del cultivo.Se ha encontrado que estacas con menos de cinco nudos tienen menos raíces gruesas por planta y un menor peso promedio que las Sin embargo, plantas aparentemente sanas pueden estar infectadas con virus latentes (que no muestran síntomas visibles) o por hongos endofitos dañinos (Lozano y Laberry, 1993). También pueden haber sufrido afecciones tan recientes que en el momento no muestran síntomas.Por esta razón, cuando además del aspecto exterior, las plantas que servirán como fuente de estacas se seleccionan por una alta producción de raíces, se asume el principio simple de que las plantas con más alto rendimiento deben ser las más sanas (Lozano, 1987).El uso de este tipo de selección ha demostrado ser altamente exitoso y su ventaja es más efectiva para clones que son susceptibles a varias restricciones para la producción (Cuadro 4-20) (CIAT, 1987a).Corte. Para el corte de las estacas se deben tener en cuenta dos aspectos: la longitud y la edad o ubicación de la estaca dentro de la planta.La longitud de las estacas es importante por el número de nudos y por la cantidad de reservas nutricionales y humedad que contengan. El número de nudos está estrechamente relacionado con la variedad, la edad de la planta y de la estaca. siembra está libre de añublo bacterial, se debe tratar con fungicidas a base de cobre, los cuales inhiben la multiplicación de la bacteria (Lozano, 1991).Huevos y adultos de ácaros y de insectos como escamas, piojo harinoso (Phenacoccus sp.) y trips se pueden eliminar mediante inmersión de las estacas en una solución de insecticidas tales como el Malatión (CIAT, 1987b).• Proteger las estacas de patógenos e insectos en el sitio de la siembra. En el Cuadro 4-22 se relacionan algunos tipos de tratamiento a las estacas, incluyendo dos que no requieren la utilización de productos químicos.Las diferencias en producción atribuidas a la selección y al tratamiento de las estacas son más notorias cuando se utilizan clones susceptibles o afectados, que cuando se utilizan clones resistentes.Puede ocurrir, sin embargo, que con la selección y tratamiento de las estacas no se manifieste un efecto benéfico en los siguientes casos:• Cuando la selección y el tratamiento se hacen en tallos de plantas vigorosas que crecen en una región sin problemas patológicos, entomológicos o con problemas leves.• Cuando se utiliza para el tratamiento un producto inadecuado contra el patógeno que afecta la estaca o infesta el suelo donde se hará la siembra.En un cultivo destinado a producir material de siembra, los costos de producción, básicamente, son los mismos en que se incurriría para producir solamente raíces, excepto la protección adicional que se daría a la parte aérea, para garantizar que la semilla obtenida esté libre de plagas y patógenos.El control de enfermedades se hace, casi exclusivamente, en forma preventiva mediante la utilización de semilla sana y el tratamiento con  (Gurnah, 1974).Tratamiento químico. Las estacas, una vez sembradas, pueden ser atacadas por insectos y por agentes patógenos del suelo que, por lo general, afectan inicialmente las yemas; también pueden penetrar por las raicillas y la base de los retoños o por los extremos de las estacas y heridas causadas en el manipuleo.La selección del material de siembra, evitando su introducción desde regiones en que haya presencia de enfermedades o insectos que se transmitan a través de las estacas, y el tratamiento químico de las mismas son prácticas que ayudan a reducir el riesgo de daños causados por estos patógenos e insectos. El tratamiento químico puede actuar de varias maneras, según el caso:• Erradicar patógenos presentes. Aunque no se recomienda la utilización de material de siembra afectado por Sphaceloma manihoticola (superalargamiento) o por Diplodia manihotis (pudrición seca), cuando esto sea absolutamente necesario, se deben escoger las plantas menos afectadas y tratarlas con Captafol o con productos a base de cobre en el caso del superalargamiento y con Benomyl, en el caso de la pudrición seca. El Benomyl es un fungicida de acción sistémica, que también es útil en el tratamiento curativo de estacas afectadas por Fusarium spp. y por Scytalidium spp. (Lozano, 1991).• Inactivar un patógeno presente. Cuando no se tenga la certeza de que un material de fungicidas. En el campo, el costo adicional estaría representado por la eliminación de plantas contaminadas y la posible aplicación de insecticidas para controlar insectos vectores.El control de plagas, en cambio, requiere habitualmente utilización de insumos, bien sea biológicos o químicos. La obtención de semilla libre de adultos o huevos de insectos y ácaros, implica el empleo de, aproximadamente, 10% más de dichos insumos; pero como este rubro representa una proporción muy baja de los costos de producción (menos de 5%), esto significa que para establecer plantas adultas de yuca destinadas a producir semilla, el costo sería casi igual al de producción de raíces.Si el costo de producción de las plantas se sufraga con la venta de las raíces, el costo de producción de la semilla estaría entonces representado en las actividades de poscosecha (Cuadro 4-23), siendo menor el costo si el material se corta y empaca inmediatamente después de la cosecha, y mayor si es necesario almacenarlo.En el último caso, mientras mayor sea el tiempo de almacenamiento, mayor será el costo por estaca, debido a que el deterioro que sufren los tallos hace que se aumente la proporción de desperdicio.Aunque en el campo las mejores plantas pueden producir hasta 12 estacas a los 12 meses (2.3 ramas por planta y 5 a 6 estacas en cada rama), en la práctica, de una hectárea sembrada a 1 x 1 m no se obtienen 120,000 estacas por las siguientes razones:1. En los cultivos, generalmente, se encuentran algunas plantas con desarrollo inferior: una o todas sus ramas no reúnen las condiciones para ser utilizadas como semilla.2. No es práctico ni rentable esperar hasta cuando las plantas tengan 12 meses para efectuar la cosecha; por lo tanto, habría que iniciar el arranque alrededor de los 10 meses de edad para poder tener tiempo de realizar la cosecha y preparar el terreno para una nueva siembra. Comercialmente, lo que se consigue en una hectárea es alrededor de 17,000 ramas, de las cuales se obtienen unas 80,000 estacas (Cuadro 4-24).Si los operarios no tienen que recorrer mucha distancia, con 14 jornales se recolectan los tallos aptos para semilla que se producen en una hectárea (aproximadamente, 16,000 tallos).  CIAT, 1987a. b. Lozano, 1991. c. Alvarez et al., 1998. d. Alvarez (comunicación personal).Teniendo los tallos reunidos, se procede a cortarlos en estacas de 20 cm, para lo cual se utiliza un número de jornales que varía según el método empleado, así:• Con machete y sosteniendo el tallo en una mano, se pueden cortar por jornal 3000 estacas de variedades de tallo blando.• Con machete, pero apoyando el tallo sobre un madero, se pueden cortar hasta 8000 estacas por día.• Con una sierra circular, accionada por un motor de 3 caballos de fuerza, se pueden cortar entre 15,000 y 18,000 estacas por jornal, dependiendo de la variedad: son más rendidoras las que no ramifican o que, por ramificar tardíamente, tienen tallos largos.Es recomendable poner uniformemente el mismo número de estacas en cada saco, ya que esta medida facilita el control del número de estacas cortadas (total y por jornal), el número de estacas transportadas y el número de estacas sembradas (total y por jornal).La forma de empacar las estacas depende de la distancia del sitio de siembra. Así, la semilla que se va a utilizar a una corta distancia se puede empacar sin mayores precauciones, pero la que se debe transportar a sitios distantes es preferible empacarla en forma ordenada, como se ilustra en la Figura 4-9, lo cual permite colocar varios bultos de semilla, uno encima de otro, sin ocasionar daños físicos a las estacas durante el cargue, descargue y transporte.Con un jornal se empacan alrededor de 20,000 estacas en forma desordenada y 10,000 en forma ordenada.Las semillas mejoradas son el insumo biológico a través del cual se incorporan nuevas tecnologías biogenéticas a los sistemas de producción. Por consiguiente, su escasez puede constituirse en una barrera muy seria para la diseminación y utilización de nuevas variedades; por el contrario, su disponibilidad donde se las necesita y cuando se las necesita, pueden constituir un factor decisivo para la adopción de tecnologías y el desarrollo agrícola.El desarrollo de sistemas organizados de abastecimiento de semilla en casos de cultivos con mercados atomizados e inestables, es un campo subinvestigado, y en cultivos como la yuca, casi nulo. En el mejor de los casos se hace alguna investigación en las tecnologías biológicas para la producción y conservación de la semilla; pero pasa inadvertido el desarrollo de funciones esenciales que permitan instituir un sistema organizado, que acelere el flujo de las tecnologías genéticas de la fase de la investigación a la fase de utilización masiva.A esto se agrega que la yuca es un cultivo de agricultores con recursos escasos; el cultivo se incrementa muy lentamente (un año) y su índice de multiplicación es muy bajo (5-10 estacas por cada estaca sembrada). El sistema de abastecimiento es predominantemente tradicional, es decir, que el agricultor guarda su semilla y no existe tradición de compra ni venta de semillas. La naturaleza voluminosa de la semilla es poco conducente para su movimiento entre regiones y comunidades.La aparición de variedades mejoradas y la incorporación del cultivo a nuevos mercados industriales, constituyen factores positivos que permiten generar un interés en las semillas mejoradas. Pero dadas las características del cultivo y los sistemas de producción, es evidente que el sistema de abastecimiento de semillas, tanto en lo organizacional como en la tecnología de producción, debe ser ajustado para asegurar su funcionamiento bajo las condiciones reales del cultivo.Particularmente, debe evitarse imponer a la yuca las exigencias formales que existen para otros cultivos con muchos años de historial Figura 4-9. Las estacas se deben empacar en forma ordenada, como se ve en los sacos a la derecha.El material con el que se fabrican los sacos influye en el costo final de las estacas, debido, por un lado, al costo mismo del saco y, por otro, a la diferente cantidad de solución que se requiere.Aunque son muy apropiados para empacar estacas, los sacos de fique son los menos recomendables, debido a que tienen un costo cinco veces más alto, y absorben casi 10 veces más solución que los sacos de polipropileno.Así, usando sacos de fique, se gastan 35 lt de solución para tratar 10,000 estacas, de las cuales sólo 10 lt se usan realmente en el tratamiento de las estacas, ya que los restantes 25 lt se quedan empapados en el saco (1 lt por saco); mientras que empleando sacos de polipropileno se gastan menos de 15 lt para tratar las 10,000 estacas. semillero. La producción de semilla de yuca, evidentemente, no atrae capitales grandes como el maíz híbrido o el arroz, por lo cual habría que pensar en programas gubernamentales subsidiados para la producción y distribución de semilla, o en desarrollar sistemas sostenibles bajo las circunstancias del agricultor yuquero, poniendo especial atención a las condiciones socioeconómicas de éste, la naturaleza biológica del cultivo y su semilla, y la escasa disponibilidad de recursos humanos, físicos e institucionales en las regiones objetivo.El establecimiento de un sistema de abastecimiento de estacas de buena calidad es importante porque:• Aumenta la productividad del cultivo.• Reduce la diseminación de plagas y enfermedades.• Aumenta el ciclo de vida de los genotipos.• Permite un uso más eficiente de los insumos agrícolas.Por otra parte, si los agricultores disponen de una semilla de buena calidad, el trabajo de investigación en diferentes áreas (mejoramiento, entomología, patología, etc.) tendrá una mejor posibilidad de producir el impacto tecnológico y económico deseado.En términos generales, un programa de semillas determina la posibilidad de garantizar su abastecimiento en una región a través del establecimiento de procedimientos técnicos y de una organización que favorezcan una efectiva transferencia de tecnología con efectos positivos en la producción de yuca.En un programa de semillas son deseables las siguientes características:• Producir cantidades significativas de semilla que permitan la rápida expansión del área cultivada o de nuevas variedades.• Debe contar con un mecanismo eficiente de control de calidad.• Debe producir semillas de una calidad por lo menos equivalente a la mejor fuente disponible.• Debe vender las semillas a un precio aceptable para los usuarios.• Debe producir las semillas mediante un esquema organizacional autosostenido.• Debe contar con mecanismos eficientes de acceso a nuevas variedades, asistencia técnica y capacitación, entre otros.Parecía evidente que la producción de estacas de yuca de tan alta calidad, que pudiera alcanzar finalmente la categoría de certificada, debería encargarse preferiblemente a empresas de semillas ya establecidas que, por tener una buena organización para la distribución y por contar con un sistema de control de calidad, ofrecieran garantías para producir semilla de alta calidad.En su defecto, se podría encomendar este trabajo a agricultores progresistas, también, con experiencia en el área de producción de semillas.Para tal efecto, se redactó un documento en el que se establecían los requisitos mínimos que deberían tener las estacas de yuca de las distintas categorías (básica, certificada y seleccionada), y se inició la producción de este material de siembra. El funcionamiento de este esquema no fue satisfactorio, por los siguientes motivos: a. El precio de las raíces de yuca no es estable a través del tiempo. De acuerdo con la mayor o menor área sembrada, que conduce a una mayor o menor oferta, también cambia el precio de las raíces. Cuando el precio es alto y los agricultores prevén una alta rentabilidad del cultivo, aumenta la demanda por estacas, y los agricultores están más dispuestos a pagar por ellas. Pero cuando el precio de las raíces es bajo, no hay demanda de semilla, lo cual desestimula a los productores, quienes finalmente optan por abandonar la actividad.b. El agricultor que compra estacas de yuca por primera vez trata de seguir produciendo su propia semilla mientras le sea posible. Los productores convencionales de semillas prefieren los cultivos de los cuales puedan producir semillas híbridas que los agricultores no puedan multiplicar, manteniendo así \"cautivos\" a los clientes.c. La producción de semilla vegetativa de yuca es para los productores convencionales de semilla una actividad totalmente extraña, ya que no pueden emplear en ella su infraestructura de limpieza, acondicionamiento, secamiento, etc.d. Las empresas de semillas tienen centralizada la producción para abastecer grandes áreas, lo cual es razonable para los granos, pero no en el caso de estacas de yuca que, por su gran peso y volumen, dificultan el manipuleo y transporte; además, no pueden almacenarse por períodos prolongados.Las condiciones del mercado y la naturaleza biológica de este tipo de semilla indican claramente la necesidad de un sistema alternativo de producción y distribución. El esquema que se propone está concebido como un sistema organizado, en el que los diferentes participantes llevan a cabo funciones diferentes pero complementarias, y en conjunto persiguen un objetivo común: asegurar la disponibilidad de semilla de buena calidad en el momento oportuno y a un precio razonable.Estas funciones, que deben estar ligadas como eslabones de una cadena, son: generación de nuevas variedades, producción de semilla básica, producción y distribución de semilla comercial y utilización de la misma por parte de los agricultores.Está a cargo de las entidades nacionales e internacionales de investigación en fitomejoramiento. Incluye pruebas de adaptación a los diferentes agroecosistemas, resistencia a plagas y enfermedades, rendimiento, calidad de las raíces, entre otras.Esta labor debe realizarla la entidad nacional de investigación o de producción de semillas. Dada la adaptación de las variedades a regiones específicas y la naturaleza voluminosa y perecible de la semilla, sería preferible regionalizar esta producción. semillas es muy parecida a la que producen los propios agricultores.Debido a que la tasa de multiplicación tan baja de la yuca no permite suministrar en corto tiempo abundante cantidad de estacas de las nuevas variedades o de estacas sanas de las variedades tradicionales, se implementó una metodología que contribuye a resolver este problema.Aunque recientemente se han desarrollado otras variantes, la propagación rápida de estacas de yuca se puede realizar básicamente mediante dos sistemas:Consiste en la inducción de brotes y su posterior enraizamiento, a partir de estacas de dos nudos para este fín se utilizan plantas adultas de las cuales se obtienen alrededor de 100 estacas cuando se utilizan variedades de ramificación tardía, y unas 80 cuando se trata de variedades de ramificación temprana.Las estacas de dos nudos sembradas en cámaras de propagación producen brotes o retoños en cantidades que dependen de la variedad y del tipo de estaca utilizada. Así, algunas variedades poco vigorosas cesan pronto la producción de brotes, mientras otras continúan produciéndolos aun después de un año.En promedio, cada estaca de dos yemas llega a producir alrededor de ocho retoños en un año, cortando cada 20 días, en forma alterna, un brote de cada yema, por lo cual de una planta adulta de ramificación tardía se pueden obtener, en un año, hasta 800 retoños.Procedimiento. Consta de los pasos siguientes:• Se seleccionan en el campo plantas de alto rendimiento, sanas y maduras (alrededor de 10 meses de edad).• Se cortan estacas de dos yemas, utilizando una sierra desinfectada con hipoclorito de sodio, formol o alcohol.• Se hace tratamiento químico a las estacas durante 5 minutos en una solución de uno o varios fungicidas con insecticidas.• Las estacas se siembran en posición horizontal en un substrato compuesto de arena y suelo, colocado sobre una base de grava, con el fin de proporcionar un buen drenaje. El substrato debe estar contenido en camas de 2.2 x 1.2 x 1.2 m, rodeadas de una canaleta angosta, donde se deposita agua que, al evaporarse, permite mantener una humedad relativamente alta.• Se coloca un techo de plástico transparente, que cubra la cama y la canaleta, de tal manera que se forme una cámara de propagación, donde la alta temperatura, junto con la alta humedad relativa, estimulen el brote de las yemas (Figura 4-10).Figura 4-10. Cámara húmeda.• Cuando alcancen una altura de 5-10 cm, los retoños se cortan a 1 cm por encima del cuello, utilizando una cuchilla afilada que se haya desinfectado con uno de los productos mencionados anteriormente. Cada estaca de dos yemas puede proporcionar alrededor de ocho retoños, dependiendo de la variedad y el vigor de la estaca.• A cada retoño se le cortan las hojas, dejando únicamente las del cogollo para evitar el marchitamiento. Al tallito se le hace un corte definitivo, exactamente por debajo de una yema, con el fin de estimular el enraizamiento. Inmediatamente después, los retoños se colocan en un recipiente con agua hervida fría, para detener la emanación del látex (Figura 4-11).• Para su enraizamiento, los brotes se pasan definitivamente a frascos con agua, los cuales se colocan en una cámara de enraizamiento, consistente en una mesa provista de estructura de aluminio o de madera, para soportar un plástico a modo de cobertura.• A las 2 ó 3 semanas, los retoños están listos para ser sembrados directamente en el campo o en bolsas plásticas, donde se ambientan para su posterior transplante (Figura 4-12).La ambientación se debe hacer preferiblemente en una casa de malla especial, que impida el ingreso de insectos vectores de enfermedades causadas por virus, como es el caso de las moscas blancas (Figura 4-13).Se puede elegir entre dos modalidades de trabajo:• Producción continua del material de siembra Cada 3 semanas, que es la frecuencia de corte, se pueden ir llevando al campo los retoños ya ambientados, de tal manera que cuando ocurra el corte no. 18, un año después de iniciado el trabajo, los retoños del primer corte se habrán convertido en plantas adultas, obteniéndose finalmente un total de 8000 estacas de 20 cm a partir de cada planta madre.• Obtención de retoños durante 9 semanasSi tomamos como ejemplo la siembra en el primer semestre (abril-mayo), es necesario sembrar las cámaras húmedas en enero, ya que para esta época las plantas madre sembradas en la anterior temporada tendrán una edad de 8 a 9 meses.  Si la siembra de las cámaras se hace con mayor anticipación para realizar más cortes y obtener un mayor número de retoños, las plantas madres tendrán poco material de siembra.Sembrando en enero, el primer corte se hace en febrero, y si se continúan haciendo cortes cada 20 días, se alcanzaría a hacer un total de cuatro cortes de brotes, que estarían listos para sembrar antes de que termine el período de lluvias.En estas condiciones, se obtienen alrededor de 300 retoños que, convertidos en plantas y cosechadas todas simultáneamente 1 año más tarde, pueden producir 3000 estacas comerciales.Aunque se requiere más equipo que el sistema de retoños, su potencial de propagación es mucho mayor, ya que en 1½ años es posible producir alrededor de 60,000 estacas a partir de una sola planta madre.Consiste en inducir el enraizamiento de una yema que se toma con su correspondiente hoja. El procedimiento es el siguiente:• A plantas seleccionadas, de 3 a 4 meses de edad, se les cortan las hojas bien desarrolladas, con una cuchilla afilada y desinfectada. El corte debe incluir una pequeña cantidad del tallo. Los folíolos se recortan, dejando menos de la mitad de su longitud.• Los esquejes se colocan inmediatamente en un recipiente con agua hervida fría, para evitar el derramamiento de látex.• Luego se llevan a la cámara de enraizamiento, que consiste en una mesa metálica provista de una estructura de aluminio que a su vez se cubre con plástico. La cámara tiene dos lados donde el plástico se puede abrir a manera de cortina, para colocar o retirar el material y para permitir la aireación. En la parte alta de la estructura se colocan aspersores muy finos para mantener los esquejes bajo nebulización continua durante 12 horas diarias.• Los esquejes se siembran en bandejas de plástico o asbesto, cuyo sustrato es arena gruesa esterilizada; las bandejas se ubican sobre la mesa. Las hojas quedan inclinadas, apoyándose en hileras de alambre que se colocan a una altura de 20 cm sobre la superficie de la mesa.• A los 8-15 días, cuando las raíces tienen aproximadamente 1 cm de largo y se ha desprendido el pecíolo, los brotes están listos para ser sembrados en bolsas plásticas, para su ambientación durante 3 semanas en la casa de malla. Luego se llevan al campo y en 5 meses serán nuevas plantas madre, de las cuales se obtendrán más hojas para propagar.","tokenCount":"11085"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d92ee0832a86127850250b433e65962","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fafde4fd-65cd-4f55-a4a4-1b3dccb32cb4/retrieve","id":"-1772223977"},"keywords":["\"-.r -",", . , .... .,","_;,) f'~\"-,~, .. -,_(\"\"'J UNICA~","L: iO.:'.:.",",c,Ul Y"],"sieverID":"754a63b0-53f2-4f7a-9d8a-f649a75710b4","pagecount":"18","content":"The members of the EAC wish to thank the members of PROFlSMA and EMBRAP A for their warm hospitality during the course of the mission. In particular the EAC is grateful for the open and friendly manner in which PROFlSMA staff discussed their work with the EAC. While sometimes loud, the interactions were always positive, and contributed greatly to a successful review.There is a great need for environmentally sound crop protection for cassava, a staple food for millions of people, panicular! y the poor, in South America and Africa.Accordingly, UNDP approved in January 1993 a project to be executed by CIAT and llTA \"to develop, test and implement sustainable cassava protection technology for the most damaging insect (sic) pests found in nonheast Brazil and in the African countries\". (p.3. ofUNDP Recommendation to the Administrator appended to the PROJEcr DOCUMENT for GL0/91/013). (Ibis project is not restricted to insect pests, but also includes plant pathogens and weeds). The project, with a budget ofjust over $10 mili.(U.S.), aims to achieve by the end of its four year duration (p.20 of PROJEcr DOCUMENT):1) enhanced national research capability, 2) farmer knowledge through training, 3) technology adoption, and 4)improved yield and quality of cassava. These aims are to be attained through three \"interrelated and panially concurren! phases\" dealing with (p.18 of PROJEcr DOCUMENT):1)refining the e.xisting knowledge base through diagnostic surveys, •z)farrner panicipation in research and development of relevant crop protection methods, with concomitan! training of farmers, extension workers and researchers, and 3) evaluation of progress in achieving training and technology implementation.The South American pan of the project (PROFISMA) is administered pan! y by CIAT and pan! y by the Brazilian federal government's agricultura! research station (EMBRAP A) at whose research station (CNPMF) the project's principal activities are based. IICA is also involved insofar as the PROFISMA staff in Brazil are officially IICA staff. The African component of the project (ESCaPP) is administered separately by llTA and four panicipating governments.Although the project was approved retroactive to 1 January, 1993, the South American component was not initiated un ti! the Iast quaner of 1993. Thus this review occurred approximately one year after the project's inception.The terms of reference of the EAC included: 1) reviewing the quality, focus and progress ofthe project, with particular reference to research, training and collaboration,2) evaluating the management and administration of the project,3) providing suggestions to improve the probability that the project will have an importan! impact on cassava production, and 4) providing other relevant comments and suggestions.Because the EAC concurred strongly with the farrner-centered nature of the ' project document, it adopted as its principal criterion for examining project activities the implicit question \"what does this do for the small farmer?\" Although the project document does not use the term \"integrated pest management\" (IPM), the objectives are consistent with the principies of IPM. Hence during two days of field visits and three subsequent days of discussions with project personnel, the EAC conducted its review with these principies in mind.In the following review the EACs impressions of the key aspects of various components of the project are described. Specific suggestions are formulated in bold face• as 21 recommendations, although other suggestions may be embodied in the text.The report may contain sorne factual or interpretive errors. In large part any inaccuracy probably. was caused by the excessive amount of time required for Portuguese/English translations (and vice versa) of all discussions, allovting the EAC little opportunity to verify all of the contents of this re port.The EAC welcomed the program of field visits as proposed by PROFlSMA.These visits allowed first-hand observation of the efficacy of the project's farmercentered approach and the agro-ecological context in which PROFlSMA opera tes.On Monday, 29 August the EAC visited farms in the vicinity ofPiritiba, 300 km west of Cruz das Almas in the \"Agreste\" agro-ecological zone, intermediate between the humid coastal zone and the semi-arid \"Sertáo\" ofthe interior. The EAC observed severa! on-farrn trials and witnessed the explanation of these trials by PROFlSMA staff to farmers on whose fields they were conducted. Four pertinent points arose from this experience.• 1)The growers were attentive and interacted in a free and frank manner with the PROF1SMA team. They did not appear to be overawed by any of their visitors.2)The PROF1SMA professionals used plain, straight-forward Portuguese or even the growers' own idiom, and refrained complete! y from baffling \"techno-talk\".3)The growers evideñtly appreciated the chance to observe t1le experiments in progress and the invitation to be present when the experiments are evaluated after three years. A clever enticement was provided by the PROF1SMA team in that the growers will be welcome to obtain planting material at will from the plants after the experiments are completed.The local \"prefeito\" (approximately equivalen! to Mayor) attended !he field visit. Despite an impending election, he confined bis well-informed public remarks to agricultura! tapies, rather than electioneering, apparently reflecting his respect for agricultura! science and the PROF1SMA project.On Tuesday, 30 August, the EAC visited the \"Colonia de Roberto Santos\", a small-farmer settlementlocated in the coastal zone about 200 km northeast of Cruz dasAlmas. The growers in this community are part of the participating extension, training and survey components of the PROF1SMA program. In the field the EAC noted an interesting contras! in the altitudes of growers towards the extension staff. On being asked why they accepted the recommendation of the extensionists, sorne growers conveyed the impression that it would be unthinkable to do otherwise. This attitude possibly survives from previous authoritarian top-down relationships. On the other hand, one young grower was bold enough to state \"we believe the 'tecnicos' beca use they have done their experiments here with us\". This is the sort of reaction that the project is expected to generatel The EAC also observed two \"cottage-industry\", cassava-processing factories, where cassava roots are peeled, pulverized, pressed, dried/toasted, sized and bagged for sale as \"farinha\" (cassava flour). These factories are a mix of prívate enterprise capitalism and family-communallabor. The unit is owned by its constructor, who supervises the operations by each grower's family and friends, mainly women and children, in manual peeling and subsequent semi-mechanized steps. The owner receives payment as 20% of the product, which is currently worth ca. 20 Centavos of a Real per kg. There is great potential for improving the welfare of communities with such factories by improving tbe yield and quality of the raw product.Recommendation l. To recogníze their achievement, growers who complete a training program and participate with PROFISMA and extension staff in research and diagnostics should be presented witb a physical symbol oC recognition, perceptible to other members of their community, such as a T -shirt or cap bearing the PROFISMA logo. Growers who have become adept in training programs at diagnosing pest incidence and damage should be given a personal hand-lens as a working diagnostic tool that can be used in caringfor their crop.Recommendation 2. When scheduling permits, field visits for the EAC team should be planned before and arter formal discussions. The latter visit will aUow the EAC to reconfirm or amend its early perceptions prior to rmalizing lis report. Such visits need not be to the same areas. Rec:ommendation 3. Because ot the importance ot the lnitial dlagnostic work with growers, a concerted efrort should be made to accelerate the scientitlc valldation ot the grower dlagnoses and to complete the statistical analysls oC the results ot the . diagnostic study.The EAC again noted that in the second phase of the project \"farmers will participate in the development and testing of a range of crop protection technology components\" (p.l8 of PROJECf DOCUMENT). However, the entire project is projected to last only four years and there is relatively little time to initiate and develop the participatory research program. Moreover, although many of the researchers who appeared befare the EAC were working active! y with growers, none had any training in participatory research and none had yet been involved in such research as part of this project.Recommendation 4. In order to ensure that the participatory research efrort is successful, a smaU group of researchers, growers and extension workers should be brought together immediately to begin participatory research in a pilot p~oject involving an IPM component tbat is clearly ready for practic:al application.Cassava Green Mi te (CGM)CGM is a subject of critica! importance to the PROF!SMA effort, because its control is needed in the ]PM program, and the chances of its regulation by classical biological control are excellent. The two principal aspects of ongoing biological control work: are: 1) selection and release of predaceous, phytoseiid mites adapted to dry and humid cassava-growing regions, and 2) characterization, conservation, and perhaps importation into Africa, of Neozygites sp., a fungus which occurs naturally at epizootic levels in some cassava-growing regions of Brazil. Emphasis at present is on three species of phytoseiid mites currently in rearing at CNPMF, but releases of small numbers of these mi tes in fields heavily infested with CGM have apparently not resulted in their successful establishment.Reconunendation 5. Since there may be etrective and easUy reared predatory mites as yet undiscovered, survey lor other species and biotypes should be continued throughout the natural range of CGM, particularly In dry areas where NeozygiJes is not very effective.Thc rearing of largc numbers of predaceous phytoseiid mi tes for rclease in classical biological control is a critica! componen! of this projcct. Because this effort is limited at present by the inability lo rear largc numbcrs of cassava green miles in Brazil, thc EAC met separately with a small group of scienlists concemcd wilh Ibis problem.Thc scienlists' opinion lhal rearing of lhese miles sho11ld takc place at EMBRAP A in Cruz das Almas was supported by lhe EAC. In touring lhe station, thc EAC confirmed thal adequate facilities for rearing of predalors were available, that lhe principal scientists involved were highly compeleni, and lhal limited production of the cassava grcen mite was indeed a majar impedimenl The impedimenl would be relieved if a a dedicaled scrcen-house for rearing CGM were conslrucled. The enlarged prey and predalor rearing program would rcq~ire a full time Research Assistanl (not a degree-holding professional). A good phasc-contracl compound microscope is rcquired for confirmalion of the idenlity of predaceous phyloseiids in rearing, and for identifying new specimens from field colleclions. Such a microscope has been budgcled for, bul is nol yet purchased. Finally therc will be a need for ongoing malerials and supplies.The approximate costs (SUS) for lhese items are as follows: The EAC noted that nucleic acid or antibody-based identification of predator mites is possible. However, it felt that development ofsuch techniques is not immediately necessary if adequate microscopic capability is provided.Neozygires sp. is apparently already important in controlling CGM populations in humid to semi-humid regions of Brazil. This is a very interesting and importan! (hot) area of study. It m ay be of central importance in the overall UNDP project in that Brazilian strains may succeed in protecting cassava ftom CGM in Africa follo~ing widespread, classical biological control introductions. Considerably more information is needed on the biology and taxonomy of the fungus. Also practica! studies need to be carried out on schemes to mass produce and release this fungus into the field in an effective manner. These studies would include speed of spore germination as well as spore numbers and rate of spore production. The EAC noted that sorne of the research reported was directed toward sophisticated in vitro culture techniques that were beyond the province of the current PROFISMA project.Recommendation 8. Research on N eozygites sp. in PROFISMA should be llmited only to those propagation and re le ase techniques that ha ve immediate practica! potentiaL The PRQFISMA project may be used as a magnet to attract ancillary runding for more baslc, strategic research.The biological control of these three pests offers sorne unique opportunitics for PROFISMA. For example, the mealybug, Phenacoccus he\"eni, presents an opportunity to utilize classical biological control techniques developed in Africa for P. manihoti. Exploration in the probable site of origin has yielded a number of parasites and predators, plus a fungus. Three of these parasites have been selected for further study, including their interactions in caged environments at CIAT. The EAC especially approves of the recently initiated studies to track parasite spread following release in Brazil, and to make assessments of the environmental impact of these releases.Recommendatlon 9. Based on.the outstanding results otthe Atrlean projeet with parasites oC P. nuznihoti, PROFISMA should engage in an expanded release program of the parasites of P. he\"eni in Brazil. Coneurrently, the seareh should continue ror additional natural enemies.The biological control of cassava hornworm involves the use of a naturally occurring baculovirus, a group of insect-specific viruses of virtually no threat to nontarget organisms. This virus presents an excellent opportunity for participatory research and development with farmers. For example, grower cooperatives could produce and store virus preparations for use when needed by member farmers.Cladosporium sp. There is virtually nothing known outside of Brazil on this fungus. and studies on its biology,-production and applied use are encouraged by the EAC.The EAC commends PROFISMA for planning to conduct studies on the effect of their pest control efforts on non-target organisms. However, the proposed research appeared to be solely on negative effects, and also included laboratory tests on vertebrales.Recommendation 10. Be cause of the strong likelihood tbat none or the biological control agents under consideration will ha ve any adverse environmental impact, studies should concentrate on potential beneficia! impacts, as well as adverse ones, and should be structured so that the data collected are uselul to the overall biological control endeavor.Recommendation 11. Beca use of the requirements for registration or blological pesticides, any testlng of microbial or viral pestlcides on vertebrates, lt required, should be done In a laboratory certified by the appropriate registratlon agency.Extensive studies are underway by PROF1SMA in which pesticides (microbial and chemical) are used experimentally to kili ene or more pests selectively and to leave others on the test plants. These experiments require different treatments in different regions with different pest complexes. By selectively removing cenain pests, the impact of others can be determined. The EAC considers this. research to be importan! in providing area-wide baseline data on the impact of cassava pests. When analyzed statistically the voluminous data being collected can be used to justify research emphasis on the most importan! pests. They can also provide reference points against which new pest control treatments can be measured accurately, and they can be used as a basis for determining benefit/cost ratiosfor the IPM program.Recommendation 12. Statistical analysis of the data on pest-caused crop losses should be expedited.Root rots in the genera Phytophthora and Fusariam are predominan! among the plethora of organisms inhabiting diseased cassava roots, and are judged to be the cause of substantiallosses in certain circumstances. A long-standing research program at CNPMF has yielded a number of management methods that could readily be applied in growers' fields. These methods include: the use of toleran! varieties; compatible interplantings; treatments of cuttings with antagonistic microorganisms, mycorrhyzal fungi and endophytes; planting on furrowed ridges; and rotation with other crops to reduce inocula.Recommendation 13. Consideration should be given by PROFISMA to the rapid lncorporation of these methods into the IPM program In conjunctlon with methods to be used against other pests.This disease has caused a majar problem in the state oí Ceara, and could spread to other areas. Research to determine its vector(s), including ribosomal-based PCR analysis is well underway. In addition, a commendable project is field-testing five resistan! varietics with 70 farmers in 10 crimmunitics. Research is also continuing on disease distribution and yield loss asscssment.Cassava Vein Mosaic Virus (CVMV)The most serious foliar disease in the project region is CVMV. It differs substantially from the cassava mosaic virus in Africa,\" India and Sri Lanka in that it causes substantialleaf-vein clearing and stunting. The disease has been succcssfully transmitted experimentally only through infected stem cuttings and by top grafting. A recently-developed PCR-based detection technique will be useful in detecting virus in imported or exported cuttings, and may be used succcssfully in determining the vector(s). While crop losses due to CVMV have not yet been determined, they are hypothcsized to be substantial. Disease symptoms can be greatly reduced by the use of high-quality planting material. Rccommendation 14. Becausc apparcntly diseasc-Crce plants can be produced Crom high-quality planting material, tralning or growers in good propagatlon techniques should be lncorporated immediately in the participatory IPM program. The production oC vigorous plants may also reduce the impact or other pests.The objectivcs of weed management in cassava are to reduce production costs, increase productivity and preserve soil fertility. Additional outcomes are the prevention of water loss and soil erosion and the provision of reservo ir plants for beneficia! insects.Because the complex of weed species differs even between local arcas, continuing research into management systems will be needed.Recommendation 15. Because the potential galns are great and management techniques tor weeds are well advanced, weed management should be incorporated rapidly into grower participation IPM.• Recommendation 16. In addition to assessing the acceptability oC weeds for beneficia) insects occurring naturally in the tteld, collaborative research should be done which assesses the acceptability o{ various weed species as reservoirbosts for the phytoseüd mites being considered for classical biological control of the CGM.Because of the vigorous, ongoing research on agronomic practices, an E.\\4BRAPA plan! physiologist, who was not previously in PROFISMA, has been attracted to work in the proj ect. His work on the effect of various weed management regimes on the growth and water relations of cassava will assist in selecting the best cover crop treatment for improving the hydric conditions for the cassava crop.In the field and in formal discussion the effect of cassava in depleting soil nutrients, particular) y nitro gen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, was emphasized. Converse) y, great gains in productivity can be achieved by such techniques as mulching. The EAC was intrigued by the very positive results of an ambitious project involving many growers in Ceara, in which cassava crops are mulched with debris from camauba palm fronds harvested for their wax. It appears that such techniques-would b.e useful in other arid areas.In general, the EAC found that in a cursory examination the experiments being conducted by PROFISMA were of sound design. Yet virtually all biological scientists, including members of the EAC, ha ve encountered situations in which experiments that appeared to be of sound design, were rightly criticized for deficiencies found after the fact by externa) rcviewers. In most cases there was insufficient time for the EAC to examine experimental design dosel y. It might ha ve been useful had further discussion taken place when the EAC had concems about such factors as adequate replication, size of field plots, buffer zones, testing more than ene hypothesis in the same experiment, and the statistical analysis of data. The EAC noted that in most research groups, scientists discuss their proposed experiments with others (often heatedly), and in most govemment research stations in North America, the station statistician must approve the experimental design and the proposed altematives for statistical analysis of the data prior to initiating an experiment.Recommendatlon 17. PROFISMA should selecta small group o!scientists wbo are experfenced in experimental design and analysfs o! data to serve as a consulting group Cor other scientists. The objectives o!the consulting group would be to ensure that there is confidence in the expected results and that statistical analysis can be done rapidly and routinely after the experiment.PROJECf MANAGEMENT Throughout its mission, the EAC was aware that it was evaluating both CIAT and CNPMF activities. This was not easy for two reasons: 1) lack of physical presence of the EAC in Columbia for first-hand observations of GIAT operations, and 2) the apparently harmonious integration of the activiiies of both institutions, so that it was difficult at times to tell where the efforts by one institution stopped and those of the other staned. In pan the integration of activities has been facilitated by the fact that one of the two Scientific Coordinators and the Training Coordinator of PROFISMA are CIA T employees seconded to CNPMF. The successful integration has been further facilitated by the efforts of CIAT and CNPMF personnelto make their work truly intemational in its scope. However, future EACs would be well advised to compare progress, workplans and budgets to determine just how integrated the South American work really is. The project monies are necessarily administered in a tortuous fashion involving initial disbursement of funds to CIAT, and secondary disbursement of the Brazilian componen! toan account in Brasilia from which EMBRAPA can draw. CIAT charges 14% overhead on its ponion of the project budget and 4% of the EMBRAPA componeilt. Initially there was no overhead retumed to EMBRAPA, a 5% charge is now levied, and this may have to be increased in the future.Severe limitations in the progress of the PROFISMA effort have occurred in the inability of the EMBRAP A bureaucracy to respond to the PROFISMA need for rapid purchases of equipment, e.g. the phase-<:ontrast microscope needed for the predaceous mi te work ora rotary evaporator required in the weed science project. Various solutions Page 13 to this dilemma were explored, e.g. procurement through UNDP, or having CIAT make purchases and donating the items te EMBRAPA, with a corresponding reduction in the EMBRAPA componen! of the budget. Recommendation 18. EMBRAP A/CNPMF should do its utmost to streamline its procurement procedures so that PROFISMA activities are not delayed. lfthis is not possible, PROFISMA, with the assistance ofUNDP, shciuld flnd a way to bypass EMBRAPA.A review of the 1993 and 1994 budgets disciosed a substantial surplus from 1993 and projected under expenditures for 1994. These ha ve resulted from such factors as late start of the project (even though payment was made ri:troactive te 1 January 1993) as weil as delays in hiring personnel or retaining consultants for whom salaries had been budgeted, and correspondingly reduced needs for iogistic and material support. It was noted that UNDP permits the carry-over of budget surpiuses into succeeding years, and that the developing PROF1SMA program wiil easily absorb these surpluscs with cssential expenditures, e.g. the screen-house for mite rearing, and extra vehicles needed because of the huge geographic arca covered by this ambitious project.The degree of flexibility that PROF1SMA has with respect to reailocation of budget items was also explored. It was noted by the EAC that UNDP will tolerate approximately :!:5% leeway en expenditures for most budgeted items. However, further deviations, e.g. using money originaily aiiocated for consultants to purchase a vehicie, would require a revised budget, and if necessary a revised workplan, to be approved by UNDP befare any expenditures were made.The members of the EAC, who are al! scientists with experience managing very large research projects, felt that UNDP budgetary procedures were very restrictive. Most research granting agencies allow the researcher full budget flexibility. They \"audit\" projects primarily en whether or not the scientific and technological output is of the highest quality, in sufficient amount, and more or less en target. (Targets are often met incompletely because scientific research, unlike engineering, always has unanticipated uncertainties that redirect the course of an investigation). However, the EAC felt that in this case, it would be unwise to allow such flexibility in budget administration unless there was very rigorous examination by future EAC's to ensure that expenditures had been made en items that were truiy consisten! with PROF1SMA's objectives.Sorne problems associated with personnel were noted by the EAC. The delay in appointing a National Training Coordinator has impeded progress of the work by the PROFISMA Training Coordinator in grower-related projects. EMBRAPA hadan appointee selected who opted for another opportunity, anda renewed recruitment process is well underway.There is a particular problem with health care benefits for PROFISMA employees, who are administratively classed as employees of llCA, rather than EMBRAP A, and thus are ineligible for benefits. The altematives explored to date are prohibitively expensive, leaving most PROFISMA staff without coverage.Recommendation 19. PROFIS!'rWEMBRAPA should continue to search diligently for a solution to the health care plan dilemma for PROFISMA employees. One possible solution would be for the arrangement oC a special contract with EMBRAPA to cover beneflts only Cor the duration ofPROFISMA.During the hearings, the EAwitnessed two projects by collaborating scientists, a plant physiologist and a virologist, who had been attracted to work in the project by the opportunities for collaborative work in retum for minar supporting budgets, but not salaries. A large project like this can be a magnet for such collaborations, which in tum can provide useful retums to the project. Recommendation 20. As opportunities are disclosed during the course ofresearch, PROFISMA should seek further collaboration with extemal scientists in areas that would contribute to meeting the project's objectives. 'lbere should be sufficient budget flexibility anticipated by UND P to acconunodate provision oC funds Cor su eh collaborations.During the entire week of review, the EAC heard much of impacts caused by various practices and pests, and gains that could be achieved through a multitude of horticultura! and pest management tactics. However, almost never were there monetary values placed on such impacts. If available, such values would provide strong supporting evidence of the true value of the PROFISMA effort and would allow benefit/cost analysis to begin immediately. Recommendation 21. PROFISMA should consider hiriDg a pracdcaUy-orienud economist, perhaps as a consultant, to place monetary values on lmpacts and benefits associaud with the IPM program, and to i.D.itiau benefit/cost studles that can predict the future pay-off' oC the program.","tokenCount":"4241"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9a3c5f565e1e930f75971559a3feb18","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc78c4b3-8f65-4763-8b28-64814d3ec4ca/retrieve","id":"-613061678"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7650999-61b3-41c5-a351-2d2821484234","pagecount":"26","content":"• 3 components around human nutrition (IFPRI-led)• 1 component on prevention and control of agricultural associated diseases (ILRI-led) Objectives:• To assist rapid integrated assessment of food safety, zoonoses and nutrition in informal livestock value chains as one facet of a comprehensive value chain assessment • To report to livestock value chain managers Key outputs:• Systematic literature review on zoonotic hazards • Situational analysis of enabling environment • Qualitative (rapid) assessment• knowledge, attitudes, practices and incentives (KAPI)• Quantitative assessment• prevalence survey of selected hazards• questionnaire survey with value chain actors Key research questions I/III:• Food safety• What are the main hazards likely to be present in the value chain? • What risks do these hazards pose to value chain actors?• Food and nutrition security• What is the role of the animal-source food in question in diets of poor farmers and consumers? • What is the relationship between livestock keeping and livestock eating?In Uganda and Vietnam, we have completed phase 1 and 2The quantitative assessment, questionnaire survey (and biological sampling)• Producer• Trader (live pigs/pig products)• Bulking point (slaughter)","tokenCount":"176"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e6c52def9b6a7bba802fabd888260eab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bb3bf9af-833f-4aeb-a297-fc393a917bb6/retrieve","id":"1845530595"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0280a2cb-27fd-40be-be43-19b49f9f9834","pagecount":"32","content":"Regwnal networks ASARECA SACCAR AfNet ECABREN and SABRN (Afnca) SIGTTA (Central Amenca) REDBIO (Latm Amenca) CA TIE and EAP Zamorano (Central Amen ca) Cassava B10technology Network (CBN LAC) FLAR CLA YUCA CGIAR and /lltematwnal orgamzatwns CIP CIMMYT F AO IAEA !CARDA ICRISA T IFPRI liT A IPGRI IRRI TSBF WARDA CGIAR Challenge Programs HarvestPlus Generat10n Challenge Program CGIAR system hnkages Savmg BJOdJversJty (40%) Enhancement & Breedmg (40%) Tra111111g ( 15%) lnformallon (5%)ProJect DescnphonGoal To contnbute to the sustamable mcrease of producllv•ty and nutntwn of mandated and other pnonty crops and the conservatwn of agrob•od1versllyObjechve lntegrate genom1cs and cellular technolog1es wtth breedmg and the conservatwn of gen elle resources to 1) Conserve charactenze and enhance the gen elle d1versJty base needed for future development 2) tmprove the nutntwnal quahty of crops ach1eve and sustam a contmuous yteld mcrease to meet the food needs of a raptdly growmg populallon and 3) 1mprove the hvehhood of the rural poor who have not benefited so far from the technolog•cal advances Importan! Assumphons Pro acllve part•c•pallon of CIAT NARS and NGOs agncultural sc1enhsts bwlogtsts and development personnel Target Ecoregwn Worldwtde serv1ce but spec1al focus m developmg countnes of Latm A menea and Sub Saharan Afnca Benefic1anes and End Users Small farmers ofLatm Amenca Sub Saharan Afnca and Southeast As1a W11l use dozens of germplasm accesswns conserved by the gene bank as such or after •mprovement through btotechnology tools Sources of d1sease and pest res1stance wlll be •denllfied for curren! and future efforts m germplasm enhancement and plant breedmg Natwnal programs wlll have the1r na!lonal collecttons restored CIAT project hnkages Jnputs to SB 2 Germplasm access10ns from the gene bank proJect Segregatmg populat10ns from crop productlVIty proJects Charactenzed msect and pathogen strams and populatlons from crop protect10n proJects GIS serv1ces from the Land Use ProJect Outputs from SB 2 Management of Des1gnated Collectlons (gene banks) genetlc and molecular techmques for the gene bank crop produchvity and smls (mJcrobial) proJects Identified genes and gene combmat10ns for crop productlVIty and protect10n proJects Propagat10n and conservat10n methods and techmques for gene banks and crop productJv!ly proJects lnterspeclfic hybnds and transgemc stocks for crop productlVlty and IPM proJects ExplanatiOn of any ProJect changes (w1th respect to prev10us MTPs) The project takes mio account the recen! changes mtroduced by the Intemat10nal T reaty on Plan! Gene!Ic Resources for Food and Agnculture New collect10n efforts may now be poss1ble for cassava and beans w1th agreement w1th the countnes Tropical forages do not however enJOY facJhtated access status so distnbutlOn and conservat10n of forage genet1c resources reqUires bilateral negotiations on a country by country bas1s       The m1crosatelhte markers we have developed at CIAT have g1ven us the opportumty to d1ssect genet1c d1versl!y m common bean on a larger scale and lo a finer degree than has ever been poss1ble before The most polymorph1c and rehable SSR loc1 have been Jdenllfied based on a m1cro core of 44 CIAT parents and evaluatwn of !50 microsatelhte markers A manuscnpt was prepared on the d1scnmmatwn power and allehc d1versl!y values for all these m1crosatelhte markers and ws accepted m Theorellcal and Apphed GenetJcs The research was the bas1s for marker selectwn m addJtJOnal d1verslly stud1es carned out or fimshed dunng the year Two notable stud1es that were part of MSc degrees at the Umv Nac1onal extended the evaluallon ofthe loe¡ by testmg the rehabll1ty of 30 to 50 m1crosatelhte markers m detectmg race structure m common beans In these stud1es a total of 120 genotypes were selected to represen! the three races present m each of the gene pools of common bean (Andean and Mesoamencan) and race structure analys1s showed that commercJal seed class was a good pred1ctor of race structure and was better than morphologJcal d1fferences at d1stmgmshmg races As a result the pnnc1pal dJVISIOns m common bean can be descnbed as Durango Jahsco Mesoamenca Nueva Granada and Peru Races Chile and Guatemala appear to be adm1xtures of new alleles perhaps from WJ!d bean mtrogresswn Another mterestmg result was the findmg that for m1crosatelhte markers allehc dJvers1ty IS h1gher m the Andean gene pool than m the Mesoamencan gene pool a reversa! from prevwus stud1es w1th other types of markers wh1ch w11l allow the use of m¡crosatelhtes lo a greater degree to mvesllgate tral! mhentance m the Andean gene pool In parallel w1th !he work on race structure we are analyzmg data for the m1crosatelhte evaluatwns of the Andean and Mesoamencan core collectlons (350 genotypes each) and the nallonal or CIA T collectwns for BoliVIa Braz1l Chma Colombia and Cuba wh1ch were conducted as part of the Generatwn Challenge Program A pubhcatlon on the Colomb1an collectwn has been pubhshed and a mansucnpt has been prepared for the Mesoamencan racesWe hope to use th1s mfonnatwn for assoc1atwn mappmg stud1es and to gmde evaluatJon of other natwnal collectwns espec1ally m secondary centers of dJvers1ty such as Afnca and As1a N e\" genetlc markers for marker ass1sted selectlon of common beans at CIA T Marker ass1sted selectwn 1s a pnonty m the bean breedmg program because of the large number of segregants screened and the d1verse array of bw!lc and abJo!lc hmllatlons bemg tackled Unt1l recently all marker ass1sted selectwn m common beans was done w1th SCAR markers In th1s year s annual report we descnbe the development of CAPS (Cleaved Amphfied Polymorph1c Sequence) markers for Apwn godmam res1stance and the screemng ofm¡crosatelhtes for selectmg gemmiVJrus res1stance genes In addl!wn we evaluated COS (Conserved Orthologous Sequence) markers for use m mappmg of drought QTLs Th1s bmlds on expenence w1th low phosphorus tolerance wh1ch 1s a tra1t we ha ve completed a senes of QTL stud1es for and wh1ch ha ve been pubhshed m three consecutlve art1cles m Plan! and Soll Joumal of Functwnal Bwlogy (2004) and Crop Sc1ence (2005) Wh!le dJversifymg the types of markers m use at CIAT we contmue to vahdate SCAR markers m practica! real hfe plan! breedmg situa!Ions Notable for th1s year was the collaboratwn w1th Umv NaciOnal where we have mtrogressed the be 3 res1stance gene for BCMV and the Ca 4' and Co 5 res1stance genes for anthracnose mto large red seeded chmbmg beans for the Colomb1an market The combmatJon of markers was found to work well for chmbmg beans especJally for a shuttle breedmg program between CIAT and Umv Nacional that JS part of a Colciencias funded proJect In th1s proJect marker assJsted selec!Jon and phenotyp1c screenmg m both field and greenhouse Sites IS provmg to be complementary and effic1entTwo MS e students have been tramed from the Umv NaciOnal as part of th1s proJect and are formmg part of a cadre of local practJcwners of marker ass1sted select!On both WJ!hm the academ¡c and pubhc sectors bUJ!dmg on work we d1d m the prevwus two years With CORPOICA EvaluatJOn of nutntwnal quahty tra1ts m common bean Th1s year we report on methodologies we have developed for evaluatmg two an!J nutnents (tannms and phytates) m common beans from d1fferent commerc¡aJ seed classes and among parents of QTL mappmg populatwns In the case of tannms we developed separate cahbratwn curves for tannms Isolated from each commercial seed class We then apphed the cahbratwn curves to evaluate genotype x env1ronment mteractwn of total soluble and msoluble condensed tannms m Andean breedmg !mes grown at three locatwns m Colombia Wlule locatwn effects were found locatwn x genotype mteractwns were not s¡gmficant Furthermore genotyp1c d1fferences m average total condensed seed coat tanmns seemed not to be due to the genotype s seed color With red mottled and large red seeded vanehes havmg similar vanabiiity for tannm Fortunately breedmg for h1gher mmerals m the NUA h1gh mmeral Andean !mes seems not to have mcreased tannm levels Th1s IS Importan! smce these red mottled genotypes have been promoted and Widely tested m Colombia Bolivia and Eastem and Southem Afhca The NUA !mes are also the bas1s for a bwefficacy tnal With Uruv del Valle where they w¡ll be g1ven to pre school ch1ldren m a feedmg program m Cah As part of th1s proJeCt we have mcreased the amount of NUA seed to approx1mately 1 ton of gram both for dJstnbutwn and for the feedmg tnal In terms of seed phytates evaluated for a set of mappmg parents grown under h1gh medmm and low soii phosphorus the h1ghest accumulatmg genotypes were the P meffic1ent genotypes such s DOR364 wh!le the lowest phytate content were found m seed of the P effic1ent genotypes G2333 and G 19839 Th1s has been observed prevwusly m stud1es of low P tolerance where under low P condltions effic1ent genotypes produce a larger amount of gram for a g¡ven amount of sml PIn th1s study the same genotyp1c d¡fferentJatiOn was observed under both medmm h1gh and even low sml P levels especially for the genotype DOR364 although mterestmgly Gl9839 had h1gher phytate content m the medmm P than m h1gh P unhke G2333 that had h1gher phytate content m h1gh P compared to the medmm P treatment Our final goal With the tannm and phytate mformatwn 1s to better understand how to breed common bean for better nutntwnal quahty So far breedmg has been w1th the goal ofh1gher romeral accumulatlon (see th1s year s annua\\ report secuon on the development of the NUA !mes) but m the future we may try to reduce ant1 nutnent content However the results presented th1s year md1cate sorne of the difficulties that may be found With reductwn of tannm or phytate levels Effic1ent protocol for 1solatwn of m1crospores m cassava developed Cassava IS one of the most Importan! calone carbohydrate sources m the trop1cs adapted to a broad range of env1ronments mcludmg tolerance to drought and acidic s01ls Th1s Importan! staple food for subs1stence farmmg IS also becommg an Importan! raw source for mdustnal apphcations worldw1de Cassava breedmg IS cumbersome and meffic1ent compared to other crops Efficient breedmg 1s needed to mamtam cassava s competitiveness respect to other commodities The meffic1ency m cassava breedmg 1s mamly due to 1ts h1ghly heterozygous nature and mbreedmg depresswn affectmg the select10n of early generat10ns of breedmg matenals m rephcated field tnals The m vllro productwn of doubled hapl01ds (DHs homozygous) hnes would serve as a basehne for the development ofpopulat10ns allowmg the ¡denllfical!on ofvaluable recess1ve trmts and prov1dmg the opportumty for the mcorporat10n of molecular tools Th1s proJect seeks the development of an m varo protocol for the generat10n of doubled hapl01ds from cultured anthers or m1crospores v1a androgenes1s estabhshmg a suitable model system for d1fferent ecotypes of cassava Th1s Imllative IS bemg financed by the Rockefeller Foundatwn New York ZIL Sw1tzerland and CIAT Results and deta!led mformatwn are found m SB2 Reports from 2004 and 2005 Smtable genotypes for the development and standardizaiion of a protocol to generate doubled haplo1ds m cassava were Idenllfied after a pre select10n/ evaluatwn of 45 genotypes representmg broad env1ronmental adaptatwn accordmg to the CIAT breedmg program One of the mam bottlenecks affectmg m1crospore culture m cassava was elucidated wh1ch mcludes obtammg h1gh y1eldmg homogenous m1crospore suspens10ns allowmg culture at 10 5 cells/ml A methodology for VIabihty momtonng dunng m1crospore IsolatiOn and the standard¡zallon of protocols for selectmg opllmal plan! donor and l!ssue w1thm the plan! were estabhshed Low temperature has been proven to be a crucial factor for keepmg viabihty of cassava m1crospores dunng the flower bud harvest and IsolatiOn process Factors were Identified allowmg an effective flower bud sh1pment for collaborallon abroad M1crospore separat10n usmg Percoll grad1ent 30 40 50% allowed a cleaner and better separallon of m1crospores by s¡ze and developmental stages than a 50 60 70% grad1ent Results corroborated last year results md1catmg putal!ve cell divisions from pre ch11led tetrads cultured at 10 4 cell/ mi m 85 hqmd medmm at 26 C m the darkness Histological analys1s of cassava microsporogenesis was Imllated m September 2005 Improvements of the protocols were mtroduced and mformallon generated wiii be used to better des1gn a reproducible respons1ve m1crospore culture protocol Curren! work focuses on ta!lored cond11Ions for cultunng m1crospore suspens10n nch m selected type of stage of development The progress attamed and report herem 1s p10neer m the establishment of a reproducible protocol for the generat10n of doubled haplo1ds m cassava PhyhylogenetJc Patterns In The Genns Mamhot Mili (Euphorb1aceae) B10geography And Comparahve Ecology Of Mesoamencan And Southamencan Spec1es Evoluhonary relahonsh1ps among wlld Mamhot spec1es are stlll uncertam Curren! stud1es have emphas1zed on the ongm of cassava (Mamhot esculenta subsp esculenta) one of the most 1mportant crops m tropical countnes without regardmg the rest of spec1es In order to quanhfy mter speclfic genet1c vanab1hty among w1ld Mamhot spec1es and to estabhsh a molecular phylogeny of the genus three plast1d (accD psal spacer trnL F spacer and trnL mtron) and three nuclear DNA regwns (G3pdh CAMI and CAM2) were sequenced Cmdosco/us was mcluded as outgroup Tree topology and geograph1cal d1stnbut10n of spec1es were used to mfer a bwgeograph1c hypothes1s of the genus The age of the d1fferent nodes was eshmated by means of a molecular clock cahbrahon Ecolog1cal data obtamed from the last monograph of Mamhot was also used to mfer the adaptatwn process of the spec1es to the1r curren! hab1tats Nuclear G3pdh was chosen to mfer the evolutwnary relat1onsh•ps of the spec1es due to the lack of vanatwn of the chloroplast genome the possJbllity of gene duphcatwns m the CAMI regwn and the positJve effect of natural selectwn on the CAM2 regwn The phylogeny shows a Central Amencan clade s1ster to the South Amencan spec1es The diverslficatlon of the last clade began m Braz1l dunng the Ple1stocene followed by m1grat1on of spec1es towards other parts of the South Amencan contment Glacml and mterglac1al penods could play an 1mportant role modulatmg the adaptahon to dry hab1tatsThe predommance of shrub forms could occur early m the evolutwn of Mamhot spec1es although a better samphng of spec1es IS needed Molecular marker ass1sted selechon (MAS) for the 1mprovement of local cassava germplasm m Tanzama for pest and d1sease res1stanceThe low adopllon of 1mproved cassava genotypes commg from centrahzed breedmg programs m many Afncan countnes ha ve led to the proposal of a decentrahzed breedmg scheme mvolvmg molecular marker ass¡sted selectwn (MAS) and partiCipatory plant breedmg (PPB) to accelerate the 1mprovement of local farmer preferred vanetles for pest and d1sease res1stance Improved mtroductwns of cassava from CIAT havmg resJstance to the cassava mosa1c d1sease (CMD) and the cassava green m1te (CGM) were evaluated m the field and 80 genotypes selected S1multaneously 27 and 24 vanetles were selected from local var1et1es collected from the Southem and Eastem zones respectlvely From the CIA T mtroductwns and local variehes were estabhshed m a controlled and polycross crossmg block at Chambez1 expenmental statwn Situated about 60km North west of Dar es Salaam To date over 20 000 crosses have been made and at least 40 000 sexual seeds assummg an average of 2 sexual seeds per cross are expected PollmatiOn IS sllll on gomg to ach1eve a target of 60 000 sexual seeds m total The seeds w¡\\1 be planted m January 2006 and molecular markers wlll be used to 1denhfy d1sease and pest res1stant genotypes for transfer to the smgle row tnal stage S1mple sequen ce marker (SSR) evaluatwn of global germplasm resources m cassava Part of the actiVIhes of sub prograrnrne 1 of the Generatwn Challenge Program (GCP) 1s the charactenzatton of global crop genellc resources to define the genehc structure of germplasm collectwns as a first step to lookiDg for new genes and alleles that contnbute to solviDg the challenges of modem agr1culture A decJsion was rnade to analyze 3000 cassava accesswns 1500 accesswns frorn CIA T s world germplasrn collecllon 1000 access10ns from liT A s Afncan collecllon and 500 accesswns from EMBRAP A natwnal cassava gene bank w1th 36 SSR markers Data analys1s IDCludes assessment of genet1c structure usiDg pnnc1pal coordiDate analys1s (PCoA) and rnultldJrnenswnal scahng (MDS) based on mdiVIduals cluster analys1s based on country sarnples and an est1mat10n of genetlc diversity and al!ehc nchness Results obtamed so far are the SSR charactenzatwn of 2 575 genotypes w1th 30 SSR markers A cluster analys1s based on country of ongiD reveal a clear separat10n between access10ns from Afnca and the rest of the world confirmiDg findiDgs from prevwus studJes that shows that global cassava germplasm diversity 1s structured by regwn Sources ofth1s genellc differenllatwn could be seleclion for adaptatwn to agro ecolog1es partlcularly d1seases Other results me lude the Ident1ficat10n of a separat10n of sorne access1ons from Ghana N1gena and Central Arnenca The source of the observed structure could be selectwn m the Afncan accesswns and mtrogresswn frorn w¡Jd relatlves as well as IDdependent dornest1cat10n events for the Central Arnencan access1ons showed the htghest productlVlty Th1s clone was selected by farrners from T1erradentro Cauca and then was evaluated m a dtfferent locatton (Pescador Cauca) Th1s proJect had seta p1lot expenence that now w¡th fundmg from the Mm1stry of Agnculture compettttve gran! JS allowmg expandmg these findmgs to other lulo growmg regwns m Colomb1a mcludmg Valle del Cauca Caldas and Rtsaralda as well as gerrnplasm exchange between fam1ers from dtfferent regtons anda vehtcle to canahzed advanced breedmg lulo matenal from Corpotca lt JS also g1vmg the ground for a regwnal new ¡m!Ja!Jve under forrnula!lon seekmg fundmg from Fontagro that mcludes Ecuador G Problems encountered and the1r soluhonsAs acknow ledged by all the SB 2 staff has managed m the past decade to ratse CIA T profile w1th the research commumty and was successful to secure funds from a w1de range of donors by partiCipatmg m sorne very compe!Jttve grants As the results of the team efforts SB 2 has been able to contnbute stgmficantly to the econom1c health of the center However the d1sproportwnate percentage on overhead and mternal charges 1mposed on SB 2 proJects have stretched SB 2 staff capac1ty The concerns of the team are the curren! sttuatwn where SB 2 staff have a far larger borden than any other proJects to contnbute to the non core fundmg of the center wiii result m a reduced CIA T capac!ly to dehvery on prevwus commttments made to donors Such sttuatwn has affectmg the efforts of the tean1 to 1mprove the mfrastructure of the labs or to hue needed post docs budgeted m sorne spectal proJects D1scusswns wtth management are on gomg to seek a solullon to such problemThe iSsue was raised m 2002 To respond to the need of the proJect the director of research allocated from CIA T strategic resources funds to cover part of the salary of a post doc The rest of the needed funds carne from a small grant from the Generation Challenge Program However the allocatJon iS for one year and iS a temporary measure to address an expandmg need of the team for such expertise While the team has prepared severa! proposals tramed JUmor staff m b10mformat1cs and estabhshed alhance both m Colombia and with ARI the team iS not gettmg the needed support The only immediate solut10n iS to have a post doc for an additJOnal two years with full fundmg from the central strategic funds Need for pbysmlogy support Sb 2 staffhave been qUJte successful m the past three years m ra1smg funds for proJect on ab10t1c stress The proJects mvolve the mtegrahon of breedmg molecular b10logy and phys10logy Such success has pul a heavy burden on Dr Rao the only plant phys10logJSI currently based a headquarters A proposal made by semor management m 2004 to hJre a post doc to work w1th Dr Rao never matenahzed To address such hm1tat10n the team has expanded Jts collaboratwn w1th plant physwlogist workmg at IVIC m Venezuela and prepared a pro posa! that mcluded plant physwlog¡sts from CIRAD Stlil CIA T management needs to address such strategic iSsue at the Center leve! and not a proJect leve! Lack of structured pbenotypic databases One the maJor strength of the mtemahonal centers iS the wealth of phenotyp1c mformatwn on germplasm and breedmg !mes accumulated over the years Such umque sets of data are becommg key to gene d1scovery when mtegrated With CIAT molecular markers work Due to h1stonc reasons severa! of the data taken on beans cassava and forages are not complete! y depos1ted m structured databases that can be qUJckly quened The only viable solut10n to addressed th1s 1ssue 1s to have management 1mposed on the researcher a stnct deadhnes to mcorporate the data As part of the AgroSalud -CIDA bwfortificatwn proJect for LA the bean and nce team members will mercase their activiiies that mclude breedmg and marker assisted selectwn for key genes related to Iron and zmc The team Will also mteract With the partners of AgroSalud at CIP CIMMYT CLAYUCA and EMBRAPA to develop a diet based strategies for deployment of bwfortified crops The project wiii mteract With HarvestPlus and wiii demonstrate the capacity of CIA T to lead a project that can be considered as an example of collectlve action between CG and NARS mstitutwns AbiOtlc stress Generation Challenge Program Team members wiii Implement the three proJects (two Cassava and one on nce) funded by the Generation Challenge Program as part of the competi!lve grant system The team members will al so expand the work on gene discovery for drought as part of collaboratwn between the molecular bwlogy sectlon and severa! collaborator m ARI and NARS Bwsafet) SB 2 staff will be submittmg to the World Bank GEF a regional proJect to assisl Natwnal Programs m the techmcal Implementallon of the Cartagena protocol The World Bank had approved fund m 2005 lo prepare the proJect The countnes mvolved mclude Colombia Brazii Peru Mexico and Costa Rica In addllwn SB 2 staff wiii contmue their support to NARS by conductwn capacity bmldmg workshop Charactenzation ofw1ld relatJVes of crops m Central Amenca and Colombia The World Bank has approved funds for CIAT and IICA to develop a propasa! the Conservatwn and Sustamable Use of Neotropical Nallve Crops and Wild Relallves of Crops ProJect Team member wiii be prepanng the full propasa! m 2006 for submiSsion to the GEF The project Will mvolve among others the mam bwd¡verslly msiitutes m Central Amen ca and Colombia, the Museum of Natural h1story of the Smithsoman and severa! other research mstnutwns from the US Mex1co Central Amenca and Colombia • How can lhe poor benefit from the growmg markets for h1gh value agncultural products? October 3 5 2005 (37 partlc1pants) • USAID -Breedmg staple crops for 1mproved m1cronutnent value 400 000 uso (2002 2004) • Ecofondo -ManeJo del germoplasma local y aumento de la agrob1dod1vers1dad de fnJol y ma1z con vanedades bwfortlficadas para meJorar la nutncwn en comurudades rurales del departamento de Nanno -FIDAR w1th CIAT-• Fontagro -MeJoramiento de la nutncwn humana en comumdades pobres de Amenca Latma utilizando mmz (QPM) y mjol comun bwfort1ficados con m1cronutnentes• BwCassava Plus a proJect to develop new cassava cultlvars w1th 1mproved nutnuonal status for sub Saharan Afnca Gales Foundatwn US$260 000 for 5 years  ","tokenCount":"3814"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7152709c0fdce81ad8a0d5ce509b091b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/144aed5a-19d4-4b79-a819-e333c0e16aca/retrieve","id":"1864767515"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"afb53b33-19cf-414d-bd69-719203c12190","pagecount":"18","content":"El surgimiento de prolongados períodos de sequía, dada la irregularidad con que se mueven en los últimos años parámetros como la precipitación y la temperatura, ha afectado severamente a los productores de la zona norte de Nicaragua, y es más grave aún para los que se ubican dentro del Corredor Seco de Centroamérica, que se caracterizan por depender económicamente de la agricultura y por lo general integran familias muy pobres, por lo que están menos preparados para enfrentar una sequía extrema. La zona seca de Nicaragua cubre 23 de los 153 municipios del país y comprende los departamentos de León y Chinandega, al occidente; Estelí, Madriz, Matagalpa y Nueva Segovia, al norte; además de Boaco en la zona central (El Nuevo Diario, 2014).Según estadísticas del Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales (INETER), el Corredor Seco de Nicaragua se caracteriza por las pocas precipitaciones: la precipitación media anual oscila entre los rangos de 650 a 800 mm, concentrados en el período de invierno -que es de seis meses-, lo que provoca la escasez de este vital líquido en el período de verano; esta cantidad de agua proveniente de las lluvias se consideraría suficiente para uso en la producción agrícola y pecuaria, si hubiera la manera de retenerla, lo cual no estaba ocurriendo.Por otro lado, el despale indiscriminado, característico de la zona, ha provocado el incremento de la velocidad de las escorrentías (o corrientes) superficiales de agua de lluvia, que resulta en muy poca retención de humedad en el suelo y trae como consecuencia negativa adicional la erosión de los mismos. Estas altas velocidades de las escorrentías provoca la inexistencia de fuentes de agua superficiales, tales como ríos, lagos y quebradas, por lo que los productores dependen, en su gran mayoría, de las precipitaciones del período de invierno.El 25 de julio de 2014, el Nuevo Diario publicó lo siguiente: \"«Ya van más de 2.500 reses (muertas), es una situación difícil, sobre todo en la franja seca (de Nicaragua) porque los alimentos están escasos», dijo al Canal 2 de televisión local el presidente de Conagan, René Blandón\".Por su parte, Acción Contra el Hambre (2010) afirmó en su informe de seguimiento denominado Impacto de la Sequía en el Corredor Seco de Nicaragua, que: \"En todas las comunidades visitadas se recogió una misma pauta sobre las pérdidas en el ciclo de postrera: las pérdidas varían de acuerdo al cultivo (maíz, sorgo o frijol) y a la altura del terreno, pero éstas han sido mayores al 50% en casi todos los casos, lo que ha generado un fuerte impacto negativo a la economía de los hogares\".• 226.523 metros cúbicos de agua captados en invierno para ser utilizados en verano.• 45 pilas de captación de aguas desde manantiales establecidas.• 112 pozos excavados a mano.• 62 reservorios construidos en finca.• 16 lagunetas establecidas.• 354.953 dólares invertidos en este tipo de infraestructuras.Ejemplos como estos muestran que la seguridad hídrica es esencial para la resiliencia al clima, y que por lo tanto, es necesaria la inversión en obras de captación de agua, para que los productores puedan contar con una reserva que les permita complementar el abastecimiento durante esas intermitencias que se producen -e inclusive en el período de invierno-, y evitar así la pérdida de los cultivos. Este tipo de obras son implementadas para la producción agrícola, el consumo animal y el riego de pastos, e incluyen la construcción de reservorios, lagunetas, pilas para captación de agua desde manantiales y pozos excavados a mano. Este programa atendió a 4.700 pequeños y medianos productores agropecuarios en cuatro departamentos del norte de Nicaragua (Matagalpa, Jinotega, Madriz y Nueva Segovia) con el propósito de mejorar sus medios de vida, aumentar la productividad y expandir el comercio de sus productos. Las cadenas que apoyó fueron hortalizas y frutales, frijol y ganado de doble propósito (producción de carne y leche).Uno de los objetivos de PROGRESA era incrementar la producción agrícola y pecuaria, y una de las formas de contribuir al incremento de esa producción era mediante el aumento de la disponibilidad de agua, especialmente para los períodos secos. Por eso, parte del apoyo que este proyecto brindó a las familias productoras beneficiarias, mediante el programa rural de agua, fueron obras de pequeña infraestructura rural que permitieron mejorar la productividad agropecuaria mediante la implementación de Buenas Prácticas Agrícolas (BPA) y Buenas Prácticas Pecuarias (BPP). Así mismo, PROGRESA mejoró el abastecimiento de agua para el consumo humano mediante miniacueductos rurales, aunque este documento tiene como propósito compartir la experiencia de construcción de tres tipos de obras de captación de agua para su uso en la producción: obras para la cosecha de agua (lagunetas y reservorios), pozos excavados a mano y pilas de captación de agua desde manantiales.En el mes de junio de 2013 se realizó el estudio de la línea de base para el Proyecto PROGRESA, a una muestra de 576 unidades productivas; este estudio permitió conocer la situación inicial de los productores, para lo cual se utilizó la metodología de los Cinco Capitales . Del análisis de los resultados de este estudio se lograron identificar las principales necesidades de los productores; entre ellas, la de infraestructura para almacenamiento de agua (solamente el 13.02% de la muestra contaba con esta infraestructura), lo cual fue determinante para destinar recursos del proyecto a la construcción de obras de almacenamiento y explotación de agua para la producción, con el propósito de hacer menos vulnerable a los productores del Corredor Seco ante una eventual sequía como las que se venían presentando.Antes de iniciar el proyecto se observaron fincas en las cuales había problemas de producción agropecuaria (bajos rendimientos agrícolas y bajos índices productivos y reproductivos en ganado mayor). Como consecuencia de las sequías se habían producido grandes pérdidas en cultivos y la muerte del ganado, que se traducían en la disminución de ingresos y el incremento de la pobreza, puesto que los productores no lograban generar alimentos para el consumo propio ni para la venta en los mercados. Era muy frecuente encontrar a productores que comenzaban el ciclo agrícola con el uso de sistemas de riego, pero cuyas fuentes de agua se les agotaban antes de concluir el ciclo de los cultivos; y en consecuencia, perdían todo lo invertido, debido a que no contaban con obras de almacenamiento de agua ni recursos económicos para desarrollarlas.A esta situación se sumaba la falta de interés del sector privado para financiar la implementación de este tipo de obras, lo que imposibilitaba el establecimiento de alianzas con este sector. Y la situación se agravaba aún más debido a los insuficientes recursos disponibles a través de los organismos no gubernamentales y el gobierno en general, para atender la creciente demanda de estas obras (a pesar de que se han asignado recursos para enfrentar las adversidades en este contexto).Se ejecutaron tres tipos de obras de captación de agua para la producción: las de cosecha de agua (lagunetas y reservorios), las pilas para captación de agua desde manantiales y los pozos excavados a mano.La asistencia técnica para la construcción de estas obras fue fundamental para su éxito. Lograr la eficiencia de los recursos fue una función de la asistencia técnica, que se apoyó en la supervisión permanente y el control de la obra construida, con ayuda del productor beneficiario directo.El proceso de implementación de las obras inició con un plan de capacitación impartido por los técnicos de las organizaciones socias y los asesores de CRS, que estuvo dirigido a los productores para desarrollar capacidades en el uso y mantenimiento de las obras y los equipos. En estas capacitaciones se trabajó el concepto de gestión de los recursos hídricos, cuya aplicación se hizo mediante la realización de un inventario, por cada comunidad, de los recursos hídricos disponibles para enfrentar la crisis, lo que contribuyó a que los productores pudieran determinar la capacidad local para mantener animales y cultivos.Además de la gestión de recursos hídricos, otro de los principales temas impartidos fue el relacionado con los requerimientos hídricos de los cultivos más empleados por los productores. Esto permitió estimar, en cada caso, el aprovechamiento que cada productor le podía dar a las obras durante el período seco, según sus áreas de cultivo o número de animales (ver ejemplos en la Tabla 1). Durante el proceso de implementación también se involucraron actores locales, entre los que se encontraban las alcaldías de cada municipio donde intervino PROGRESA, y el Ministerio de Recursos Naturales y del Ambiente (MARENA), además de los productores como beneficiarios directos. Este proceso inició entre febrero y abril del año 2013, con una presentación por parte de los equipos técnicos de los socios de PROGRESA, ante los consejos municipales de cada alcaldía, en la que se les dieron a conocer cada uno de los componentes, objetivos y alcances del proyecto. Además, en estas presentaciones se destacaron los beneficios que se esperaban obtener respecto al incremento de la producción y sus impactos en el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de las familias; así como la importancia de las obras de captación de agua para la producción.Por su parte, el MARENA también apoyó en el proceso de selección de sitios para la construcción de obras de cosecha de agua; sus técnicos especialistas acompañaron a equipos técnicos de PROGRESA, ofreciendo sus habilidades y conocimientos para optimizar la selección de los sitios; principalmente de aquellos cercanos a las áreas protegidas o reservas, conocidas también como zonas de amortiguamiento, dado que en estos casos se corre mayor riesgo de provocar daños ambientales si el sitio no es seleccionado adecuadamente.La cosecha de agua es una tecnología mediante la cual se recolecta el agua proveniente de la escorrentía (o corriente) superficial de la lluvia para su uso productivo. La ejecución de obras de este tipo requiere el movimiento de tierra, con el uso de maquinaria pesada (tractores), para formar un vaso de tierra o pared (laguneta o reservorio, según su dimensión), cuyos muros están compuestos por material arcilloso o limoso (materiales finos e impermeables que evitan la infiltración) para retener la lluvia. Los reservorios son obras cuya inversión no supera los 1.200 dólares, mientras que las lagunetas son obras de mayor tamaño y capacidad, con costos de inversión mayores a los 5.000 dólares. Estas obras pueden ser aprovechadas para el uso agrícola (cultivos), para el consumo animal o para el riego de pastos para ganado.Como se mencionó anteriormente, se realizó un cuidadoso análisis para la selección de los sitios donde se construirían las obras, lo cual fue una actividad fundamental y decisiva para asegurar el éxito de la tecnología. Los siguientes son los parámetros más importantes que se tuvieron en cuenta para la selección:• Se buscaron zonas altas para represar el agua, de manera que se evitara el uso de bombeo eléctrico o combustible para llevar el agua hasta las áreas de siembra o destino final, lo que permitió disminuir los costos de producción.• Se priorizaron los sitios con topografía favorable, es decir, aquellos donde el terreno de manera natural presentaba la forma de un vaso (con paredes naturales en los laterales), para el almacenamiento de agua en cantidades suficientes que justificaran la inversión. La pendiente óptima del terreno natural debía estar entre el 2 y el 8%.• Se observó en cada caso el área de recarga hídrica, el volumen de precipitaciones y la evaporación (a una temperatura promedio de la zona de 25 a 30 º C se estima que se puede evaporar hasta un 30% del volumen de agua almacenado), ya que de estas variables dependía la cantidad de agua que se calculaba que podía llegar hasta el área destinada para el almacenamiento.• Se consideró también la textura del suelo, que es muy importante para la retención de agua; por ejemplo, en suelos arenosos o pedregosos hay mucha infiltración, lo que no asegura la retención de agua por mucho tiempo; en cambio en los suelos arcillosos o limosos (con granos de suelo muy finos) la retención es mayor, por lo que son ideales para este tipo de obras. Sin embargo, en algunos casos muy críticos se tuvo que utilizar geomembrana (material compuesto de plástico especial que no permite el paso del agua y que encima del suelo servía como impermeabilizante para evitar la fuga o infiltración del agua al subsuelo), pero poco a poco se fue descartando, debido a su alto costo 2 , que limitaba llevar el beneficio a un mayor número de productores (y no todos ellos estaban en la capacidad de asumir la contraparte, un tema que se abordará más adelante).• Para evitar exponer a las personas, y a las infraestructuras, a posibles colapsos de los reservorios por eventos naturales tales como huracanes, sismos, etc., se buscó que los reservorios quedaran ubicados en zonas alejadas de las viviendas, escuelas y tendidos eléctricos, entre otros.• Se evitaron sitios con mantos rocosos de afloramiento superficial, porque esto generalmente limita la profundidad del reservorio y, en consecuencia, representa un menor volumen de almacenamiento.• Se valoró además la finalidad del reservorio o laguneta (si tenía fines agrícolas o de consumo animal). La prioridad se dio a aquellos sitios donde existía un mayor potencial tanto en áreas cultivables como en ganadería.• Los sitios ideales debían evitar el corte de árboles para ser consecuentes con la política de CRS, sus socios y el proyecto en general, de no permitir el daño medioambiental; para soportar esto se elaboró una ficha de perfil y medio ambiental donde se identificaban los posibles daños durante cada una de las etapas del proceso de implementación (selección de sitio, diseño, construcción y operación, y mantenimiento) y las medidas de mitigación necesarias en cada caso, a las cuales se les dio seguimiento para asegurar su cumplimiento.• Si se trataba de zonas de amortiguamiento, las construcciones requerían una valoración especial del MARENA; sin su aprobación no se podían ejecutar las obras.• Otro aspecto que se tuvo en cuenta en el proceso de implementación fue que los beneficiarios de las lagunetas o reservorios se encontraran lo más cerca posible entre ellos. Esto ofrecía una ventaja adicional en cuanto a costos, ya que según las distancias de movilización de la maquinaria, el proveedor del servicio podía presentar ofertas más favorables para el proyecto.• Una vez seleccionado el sitio se recomendó la realización de calicatas (excavaciones en la tierra de un metro de largo, un metro de ancho y un metro de profundidad, para obtener un metro cúbico), con el propósito de determinar la textura de los estratos, el tipo de material encontrado, su profundidad y la velocidad de infiltración. Esta excavación se llenaba con agua para observar la velocidad con la que descendía; aquellos sitios donde el agua se consumía de inmediato o se infiltraba en poco tiempo (por ejemplo, en el transcurso de un día), eran descartados.En el caso de los reservorios se procuraba un volumen de almacenamiento aproximado de 1.000 metros cúbicos por cada uno; en el caso de las lagunetas se procuraba obtener un volumen de almacenamiento de 5.000 metros cúbicos, aproximadamente, por cada una. Sin embargo, una limitante fue encontrar, en el momento oportuno, al contratista ejecutor: se requería que el dueño de la maquinaria estuviera trabajando en la zona donde se construiría la obra, para disminuir los costos, y que además fuera período de verano, ya que una vez iniciado el invierno este tipo de obras son casi imposibles de ejecutar, debido al alto grado de saturación de suelos (por el exceso de humedad) que hace difícil la operación de la maquinaria.Una vez finalizadas las obras se le recomendaba al productor cercar el área del espejo de agua con alambre de púas y cercas vivas (postes de árboles de diferentes especies que tienen la capacidad de echar raíces con facilidad y son de rápido crecimiento), con el objetivo de reducir la posibilidad de contaminación microbiológica (con excremento u orina de animales).Otro tipo de protección que se recomendó fue la estabilización de los taludes de las paredes del reservorio, para evitar su derrumbe mediante la siembra de grama, que ayuda a amarrar el suelo y evita su destrucción con el exceso de agua retenida o de lluvia.Para ampliar el número de productores beneficiarios, PROGRESA implementó la política de que a cada persona que recibía este tipo de obras le correspondía aportar como contraparte el 30% del costo del reservorio o la laguneta. Esta política tuvo una excelente aceptación, lo cual se evidenció con el alto número de productores que solicitaron ser beneficiados con una obra de estas características.El uso de geomembrana fue necesario en los suelos altamente permeables (suelos arenosos y gravosos), en los cuales la pérdida de agua almacenada por infiltración era muy alta o era casi imposible almacenar un volumen importante de este recurso.La implementación de esta tecnología fue aplicada a manera de pilotaje en la finca de la productora Aura del Socorro Fernández Guillén, de la comunidad de Casilí Abajo, en el municipio de Telpaneca, departamento de Madriz. El costo fue de US$2.833 y cubrió un área de 490 metros cuadrados. Su alto costo y el bajo volumen de almacenamiento (86 metros cúbicos) hicieron que esta tecnología no fuera la más apropiada.Una vez finalizada la construcción de cada obra, se esperó la llegada del periodo lluvioso (regularmente de mayo a octubre), durante el cual se almacenó agua para utilizar tanto en el período seco como en la misma época considerada de 'invierno', puesto que los inviernos de los últimos años algunas veces se agotan en un solo día, durante el cual cae toda la lluvia que antes se producía durante un mes.Para el caso de las obras con fines agrícolas, además de la preparación de suelos o parcelas para los diferentes cultivos, se requería de un sistema de riego, tanto por goteo 3 (en el cual se usa principalmente la fuerza de gravedad y no se requiere mucha presión) como por aspersión 4 (riego en forma de lluvia artificial que sí requiere presión para llevar el agua almacenada en el reservorio hasta el área de siembra). El costo aproximado de estas tecnologías fue de US$1.700/ha, en el caso del riego por goteo; y US$933/ha, en el caso del riego por aspersión.La instalación de estos sistemas fue ejecutada por el equipo técnico de los socios, con el apoyo de los productores, y supervisada por los asesores técnicos de CRS. Se elaboró además un programa de riego para cada caso, con base en el caudal de la fuente, las presiones requeridas, las distancias entre surcos y el tipo de cultivo, pues era necesario regular el flujo de agua (cantidad de horas de riego por día) de acuerdo con la demanda del cultivo. En este proceso se acompañó a los productores con planes de capacitación para el manejo eficiente de estos sistemas, su mantenimiento y la aplicación de fertilizantes.Esta tecnología es sencilla y consiste en la excavación a mano del subsuelo, utilizando herramientas básicas como picos, palas, piochas, barras, baldes, cuñas y mazos para romper mantos rocosos. Durante este proceso de excavación se implementaron medidas básicas de seguridad como el uso de casco protector, guantes, gafas para proteger los ojos y arneses para sacar a quien realizaba la excavación, en caso de emergencia; los accidentes más comunes, pero que se lograron evitar, son los derrumbes de material inestable o arenoso, que pueden dejar pérdidas lamentables.Por eso también se usaron ademes (madera que se coloca para sostener las paredes de la excavación y evitar derrumbes).La profundidad de excavación de los pozos varió de acuerdo con el destino del agua, la profundidad del manto acuífero y los costos. Por ejemplo, la profundidad de los pozos para riego agrícola no excedía los 10 metros, mientras que los pozos para el consumo de agua del ganado podían llegar hasta los 25 metros de profundidad. Una vez se encontraba el acuífero y este producía un caudal suficiente para su explotación, se procedía a proteger las paredes de forma definitiva utilizando ladrillos de barro o piedra bolón (canto extraído de ríos o quebradas), los cuales se pegaban con mortero (mezcla de arena y cemento en proporciones 1:6; es decir, 1 parte de cemento x 6 de arena).Los diámetros de excavación variaban entre 1,5 y 3 metros, dependiendo el tope de contrapartida que podía aportar el productor (entre mayor era el diámetro y la profundidad del pozo, mayor cantidad de materiales se requerían para su revestimiento). Uno de los aspectos de diseño que se recomendó fue que los pozos tuvieran un brocal (pared que sobresale de la superficie del terreno natural) para evitar accidentes, y que fueran debidamente tapados para evitar la contaminación en su interior.Para la explotación del pozo generalmente se hizo necesario el apoyo de un equipo de bombeo, cuya capacidad dependía del caudal y de la distancia de las áreas de riego 5 . Para distancias cortas y superficies planas se utilizaron bombas de caudal, mientras que para distancias largas y donde se tenían que vencer grandes pendientes, se utilizaron bombas de presión.6 Un caudal se consideraba aprovechable cuando tuviera la capacidad de abastecer una pila de 16 metros cúbicos, que generalmente se llena por las noches para su posterior uso en el riego de cultivos (mínimo de 0,36 ha).Para la implementación de estas obras lo más importante fue identificar a productores que tenían en sus propiedades manantiales con un caudal aprovechable 6 para el uso en labores agrícolas. La obra consistía en una represa construida alrededor del manantial, cuyas paredes (hechas de ladrillos de barro, estructuras de hierro y concreto) tenían dimensiones no mayores a 4 metros de longitud y 1,5 metros de altura, de los cuales medio metro va enterrado en forma de diente en el terreno natural y 1 metro va por encima de la superficie del terreno. El agua es conducida del manantial a la pila por medio de mangueras de polietileno de una pulgada de diámetro. Luego, es llevada hasta el área de cultivo por medio de mangueras del mismo material, que varían de 1 a 1,5 pulgadas, según el sistema de riego y el tipo de cultivo.Un evento extraordinario que se presentó durante el proceso de implementación del proyecto fue una sequía severa -que tuvo lugar en los meses de mayo, junio y julio del ciclo agrícola del año 2014-, la cual afectó dos departamentos (Madriz y Nueva Segovia) de los cuatro atendidos por PROGRESA. Ante este panorama, se realizó un diagnóstico con el apoyo de los equipos técnicos de las 8 organizaciones socias del proyecto y los resultados fueron dramáticos.Se observó la disminución de los mantos freáticos (agua subterránea) de los pozos que se usaban para riego, algunos ríos y quebradas se secaron y/o disminuyeron su caudal, también hubo afectación de la producción de carne y leche y los índices reproductivos, mayor estrés calórico (alteraciones del bienestar animal por exceso de calor), abortos florales (los cultivos botan las flores y esto afecta la producción), pérdida total de cultivos, disminución de áreas de siembra, descapitalización de las fincas (venta de ganado a bajo precio), reducción de la producción de biomasa, bajos ingresos, plagas en pasturas y cultivos, migración de personas y ganado, y altos costos en la adquisición de suplementos de alimentación.Todas estas condiciones adversas se reflejaron en pérdidas lamentables de importantes áreas de cultivos de granos básicos como el maíz (640 hectáreas) y el frijol (638 hectáreas), así como pérdidas de áreas de pastos para ganado (41 hectáreas), lo que afectó la canasta básica y el bienestar de las familias de los productores, quienes también se quedaron sin recursos económicos para la adquisición de semillas e insumos para la siembra en época de postrera. Además, los animales se adelgazaron y fallecieron 1.119 por falta de forrajes. Esto vino a ratificar lo vulnerables que son los productores atendidos ante el tema de la sequía.El programa de agua constituyó una respuesta de PROGRESA al contexto en el cual se implementó y fue una importante medida que contrarrestó los efectos del cambio y la variabilidad climáticos en el área de intervención. Mediante las 235 obras construidas se aumentó la resiliencia de igual número de familias (1.092 personas beneficiadas en total) para hacer frente a eventuales sequías que podrían traer consigo, como ocurrió en el pasado, menores rendimientos en la producción de leche y carne, abortos florales, pérdida de los cultivos, disminución de áreas de siembra, muerte del ganado, descapitalización de las fincas, plagas, entre otros efectos adversos que terminan afectando directamente los ingresos de los productores.Estas obras fueron de mucha utilidad para mantener la suficiente humedad en el suelo y evitar la pérdida de los cultivos. En cuanto a áreas cultivadas, en el caso de frutas y vegetales el total del área cultivada fue de 873 ha; de ellas, 445,23 (el 51%) fueron producidas con el uso de sistemas de riego y 427,77 ha (el 49%) se produjeron bajo sistemas tradicionales.Es importante mencionar que las alcaldías constituyeron un fuerte aliado para el proyecto. En muchos de los casos, con el apoyo de ellas, se logró la ejecución de importantes obras complementarias, tales como el mejoramiento de las vías de acceso a los sitios donde se construyeron las obras, mejorando así las condiciones para sacar la producción al mercado.Una de las lecciones aprendidas tiene que ver con la necesidad de establecer alianzas con los distintos actores que se involucraron y que deben participar al ejecutar este tipo de obras. El primer actor es el beneficiario, ya que sin él, el proyecto no tiene razón de ser; sus aportes económicos (30% del valor de las obras) sirvieron como un importante complemento que permitió que se hicieran más obras que las planificadas y se lograra mayor cobertura en cuanto al número de beneficiarios.Por otro lado, las alcaldías y el MARENA jugaron un papel fundamental, pues no solo contribuyeron en la identificación de los sitios ideales para la implementación de las obras, y las aprobaron en su calidad de autoridades, sino que además en algunos casos se involucraron con aportes importantes, tales como plantas para la reforestación en las áreas de recarga hídrica (la alcaldía de La Concordia en Jinotega, por ejemplo, aportó más de 1.000 plantas para este propósito).Por otra parte, la disponibilidad de recursos financieros incide directamente en el tamaño de las obras, y además se deben tomar en cuenta los diferentes parámetros del entorno, tales como el clima, las condiciones de suelo, la topografía y el conocimiento de los lugareños, para obtener obras funcionales y minimizar los riesgos de colapsos que provoquen severos daños a la infraestructura y exijan invertir más recursos, como sucedió con un reservorio en el departamento de Nueva Segovia.En dicho caso, la obra se construyó en la propiedad del productor Ezequiel Rodríguez, ubicado en la comunidad de El Zapote, que se caracteriza por sequías severas; razón por la cual se consideró suficiente un vertedero (canal para evacuar el exceso de agua) pequeño, con una extensión de 1,5 metros de largo por 0,50 metros de ancho. Sin embargo, debido a la imprevisibilidad de las lluvias (lo que incluye aguaceros torrenciales), el vertedero colapsó durante el primer invierno de prueba y se tuvieron que implementar medidas correctivas que representaron mayores costos. Por lo tanto, los diseños deben prever estas situaciones, lo que implica destinar un mayor presupuesto para construir las obras con dimensiones acordes a las nuevas condiciones climáticas, o reducir el número total de obras, si los recursos son limitados.Otra lección aprendida como factor de éxito tiene que ver con el intercambio de experiencias y aprendizajes para fortalecer capacidades tanto en los productores como en las cooperativas y el personal técnico de los socios. El plan de capacitación que se implementó para conocer de cerca las tecnologías de captación de agua y que incluyó visitas a obras similares (especialmente de cosecha de agua, que son en alguna medida las más novedosas), enriqueció los conocimientos del personal involucrado (técnicos, asesores y productores) con aspectos que se debían repetir, como el correcto procedimiento técnico para la construcción de las obras.En cuanto a factores de riesgo para tener en cuenta dentro de futuras experiencias, algunas obras presentaron retraso en su ejecución debido a que no se aprovechó al máximo el período seco para construir. En el caso de las lagunetas y reservorios, se hace imposible operar con la maquinaria pesada requerida durante el período de lluvias, ya que los suelos se saturan de agua y dificultan la maniobrabilidad de la misma; además del riesgo que existe de destrucción o deterioro de la obra ya iniciada por efecto de las escorrentías.Por otra parte, hay mayor riesgo de obtener datos errados durante las épocas de lluvia en cuanto a la profundidad del manto freático (nivel del agua subterránea encontrada en la excavación) y el caudal; es normal que los niveles de agua subterránea suban en invierno y se encuentren a pocas profundidades, mientras que en época seca el nivel de agua baja y se encuentra a mayor profundidad; por lo que si el pozo fue excavado a poca profundidad, el agua ya no está disponible cuando más se necesita. Por lo tanto, estas obras deben construirse en el periodo seco para poder almacenar en invierno y empezar a hacer uso de ellas en el siguiente verano.","tokenCount":"4831"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"20cf748859dee6d0cc21caab807e6846","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9be88be8-9754-4a88-a49c-ac4d913ab01a/retrieve","id":"202280573"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a1672ded-0589-4c42-bfe7-15f284336338","pagecount":"10","content":"The proposed program targets both the availability and affordability of sources of animal 1 protein for the poor while also promoting greater participation by the poor in animal and fish production. The proposal clearly defines key constraints and opportunities for small-scale livestock and fish production systems in the developing world, which if alleviated, would make significant contributions to the CGIAR's SLOs of improved health and nutrition and poverty reduction. The proposal presents a good assessment of causes of failure of previous attempts to increase productivity and livelihood opportunities of small scale livestock and fish farmers in developing countries and clearly identifies opportunities for sensible investments in research and generation of science-based knowledge in this sector. It adopts a value chain approach to provide research for the development of a discrete set of prioritised value chains for animal products in selected countries. This approach was unanimously supported by the external reviewers who felt it has the potential to deliver impact.The first component on technology development, which takes a significant proportion of the budget, includes a strong element of upstream research as well as development of technologies to feed into the value chain development of the second component. The third component is cross-cutting, focusing on priority setting, gender and equity, and impact. The ‗whole', provides a coherent packaged approach that avoids the impression of business -as usual‖. The ISPC believes the approach -through analysis of value chains in areas of poverty -should lead to impact, through offering entry points for research that address social, economic and technical problems of subcomponents of the value chain. Selection and targeting of promising value chains has been included in the proposal, with appropriate attention to the specific needs of women farmers, women active in the value chain, and women consumers. The choice of value chains and research issues has been made through regional stakeholder discussions and other priority setting studies. The result is a focus on 5 system-specific value chains, spread across 10 countries. The ISPC commends this approach as well as the CRP's proposal of a competitive grants scheme to select partners.The ISPC does have some concerns with the approach, however, mainly in relation to delivery of relevant international public goods (IPGs). Two of the major issues posed by livestock, namely their multi-functionality in the development context and the potential for adverse environmental impacts, appear to receive relatively little consideration in the proposal. In particular, the impact of livestock systems on water and soil resources is not given much attention with regard to: (i) trends towards more intensive livestock feeding operations (e.g. south and East Asia, and perhaps at some point in Sub-Saharan Africa), and (ii) the impact and sustainability of extensive pastoral systems in relation to water and soil resources. While the intensification issues would best be covered in CRP3.7, there are research components on the environmental impact of livestock systems distributed across CRP1.1 Drylands, CRP1.3 Aquatic Agricultural systems; CRP6 Forestry, and CRP5 Water, Land, Ecosystems. There are clearly needs and opportunities to bring cohesion and coordination to CGIAR efforts on these cross-cutting topics which are not dealt with in the proposal as currently presented.Communication and knowledge management is a strong element of CRP3.7, and if implemented as planned, could allow some of the downstream work to be transformed into regional public goods, through extensive knowledge sharing.The ISPC recommends that the proposal is accepted with some revisions. It is a strong proposal with good integration of the natural and social sciences, which gains credibility through focus on a limited number of value chains. This approach is promising in terms of delivery of local and regional impact, but creates risks in terms of delivering IPGs. Attention to the following also is advised: Revisions should strengthen the description of how risk of failure to deliver broader IPGs using the value chain approach can be addressed, particularly in the areas of multifunctionality of livestock and the impact of both fish and livestock production on the environment (including competition for human food and natural resources).  Despite the new approach, the budget still allocates two-fold more resources to technological research compared with value chain approaches. While genetic enhancement of farmed tilapia has yielded substantial benefits from previous research, there is considerably less evidence of good returns from research investment on livestock disease. The proposal should therefore identify why this overall balance of program resources is expected to deliver greater impact on the livestock side than the CGIAR's track record in technological research to date. In relation to the specific value chains selected, the ISPC suggests the following revisions: A better description of the added value from further research in the area of dairying in India, given the considerable research effort (and success) already achieved with that value chain.  Researchable constraints are weak and should be strengthened for efforts on sheep in Mali and dairying in Tanzania.  External reviewers and the ISPC question the appropriateness of including the value chain of pigs in Uganda.  The rationale for excluding poultry as a specific value chain for study was noted, but the low competitiveness of poultry production in meeting increasing demand in Sub-Saharan Africa (as evidenced by imports) may justify re-evaluation of this decision in the future. The ISPC suggests consideration be given to using the Asian poultry value chain as a benchmark because of increasing importance of eggs and chicken in diets of many poor people.  Mention is made of evaluation of research progress, but nothing about how these evaluations will be used. While fundamentals of the -livestock revolution‖ seem robust, the data should be constantly reviewed and updated. Inclination of emerging value chains towards large scale producers, elite capture or swings in market demand could rapidly change the expected benefits to small holders in several of these commodity systems. It could be useful to be clear with partners and funders from the start that lack of progress or a change in external context away from the original selection criteria might alter the emphasis on specific value chains. An outline of how the evaluation process will lead to program modifications would be beneficial. While approving the simplicity of the three themes in CRP3.7, the ISPC has some concerns about the descriptions and suggest the following: The past livestock disease agenda be reviewed (and hence lessons learnt) to highlight which parts of the more basic research agenda have delivered impact and how. This should inform the basis for structuring longer-term research and prioritizing how the program will conduct disease research relevant to more immediate value chain requirements.  The ISPC also suggests re-consideration of the priorities for forages and feed research in order to focus on those most applicable to the value chains.Although the program proposal is not yet completely developed, value chain innovation is a participative on-going process and requires actions based on the needs of actors in the value chains.The approach described and the expertise of the four cooperating CGIAR partners provides confidence that a more mature and unified work plan can lead to positive outcomes for learning and sharing worldwide.This is a well written proposal and should be commended for its relative brevitythe key sections totalling just over 100 pages. This Program focuses on a few animal source food value chains, which have been carefully chosen (with stakeholder consultation) according to relevant criteria. The rationale for targeting a small number of value chains, and the specific relationship between country-level work and the production of global public goods are well-argued, with possible objections being anticipated and transparently discussed. For instance, the inclusion of multiple countries and regions, together with some common animal species, is anticipated to allow comparisons, cross-system learning and extrapolation of results beyond the target countries and regionsThe two main innovations and changes from past research efforts are the clustering of livestock (meat and milk) and fish under one program and focusing more on the whole value chain, not just increasing production per se. Both innovations are excellent and should provide a sound framework for future work. However, the document reflects some of the difficulties in the transition to this new alignment.It reads more as an -arranged marriage‖ rather than a -marriage of choice‖. For example, large parts of the text focus on farms and livestock value chains with no mention of fish until much later in the narrative (see Pages 55 to 60). It will obviously take time for the synergies to develop and these teething problems are probably indications of the large change in the CGIAR approach rather than any on-going future difficulties. Livestock and fish production from aquaculture value chains have many features in common and make a much more logical cluster than the normal fisheries and aquaculture approaches adopted by many Ministries and research institutes.In general the five value chains and target countries have been carefully chosen, according to transparent criteria. The ISPC respect the consultations that have taken place to inform the choice, but would like to receive further rationale about the prioritisation of dairy in India, since this value chain has been so widely studied and has already achieved wide success. Further explanation as to why this new work is expected to add significant value is needed. Similarly, the proposal omits poultry, the fastest growing value chain. The reasons given are noted, but there are significant issues of the competitiveness of commercial poultry in Africa that might been addressed. Even if poultry is to be excluded from CRP3.7 as a target value chain, it might be interesting to use poultry value chains as a benchmark. For two of the value chains reviewed, Sheep in Mali and Dairy in Tanzania, very few researchable constraints are identified, and it is not clearly demonstrated that these value chains would produce significant global public research goods, or represent good value for money. In addition, the Uganda pig meat value chain raises the fundamental question of whether there are sufficient incentives to upgrade what is currently a very low input system. Description of the selected fisheries value chain, makes mention of other value-chain analyses (e.g. USAID Lead (2010)) but little is said about their results or implications for the CRP.In general, the focus on informal value chains tends to provide a pro-poor approach for both the producer and consumer communities. In many cases, better linkages of these informal chains with formal value chains would improve overall efficiency and product quality. The ISPC suggests that the scope of the work cannot address the informal chains without looking at the wider sector in which they operate.The multifunctionality of livestock and its asset value is presented. Nevertheless little follow up is provided in the value chain presentations which appear solely production-and not risk-oriented. Poor women especially will tend to rethink the propositions to commercialise when there is no insurance against failure.The proposal is also disappointing at a strategic level in relation to the extent of coverage of livestock interactions with the environment/natural resources, given the global interest generated by Livestock's Long Shadow. Objective 5 on protection of the natural resource base is not adequately reflected in descriptions of the eight value chains. There was relatively little reference either to the impacts (positive and negative) of manure or the effect of the value chains on ecosystem services such as clean water. The proposal does mention that environmental issues could be addressed with additional funding, but it is surprising that these are not part of the core proposal or linked to research on related topics in other CRPs. This degree of focus runs the risk, therefore, of underplaying delivery of global public goods, a point recognised by the proponents, who have taken some actions -such as selecting 2 sites per value chain to cross reference research findings. It is difficult to see where else in the systemwide CRP portfolio issues such as trends in global markets for livestock products and the overall impact of livestock on the environment might be addressed. Because the proposed research focuses on local case studies, there is danger of missing the bigger picture of how these trends extrapolate to global impact. In fact, local effects may be misleading without linkage to a larger global context.There is also risk that economic changes may alter the relevance of some of the value chains selected, relative to the selection criteria, given that markets for animal protein are dynamic. There is a referenced assumption (p1) that smallholder producers will continue to compete strongly, but that reference is five years old and should be regularly challenged as markets respond. Awareness of global as well as local trends and awareness of emerging trends in larger-scale intensive production will be needed. Evaluation of whether the approach adopted is posing a risk is mentioned by the proponents, but there is little detail on what actions will be taken if small holder production systems become disadvantaged as markets evolve.Overall the natural and social sciences are well integrated. The goal of the program, and the description of the whole in testing a clear hypothesis, is compelling. The choice of research themes is coherent in pursuit of the goal, though the question could be asked (given the management structures proposed) as to why the 3 components of the Technology Development theme are not themes in their own right? The value chain approach is innovative and the choice of value chains provides a tight focus, provided the issue of the IPGs of environmental impact and multifunctionality are addressed.The strong emphasis on the development aspects and the track record of the participating Centers with development projects and the private sector gives confidence in delivery of impact. However, the strong budgetary emphasis on development of upstream technologies needs further justification. The prioritizing of value chains and the commodities to be considered was carried out using appropriate criteria, although attention has already been drawn to the need to revisit these during the 10 year duration of the program. Expectations of impact are conservative, but dependent on scaling out efforts.Communication and its quality i.e. disentangling the local characteristics from the generic public good lessons of the value chains, will be decisive. Comparative studies should assist to get the public good results identified.In the more detailed descriptions in Part 4 for each value chain, the CRP has provided detailed tables of research issues, the potential partners for the research, and outcome for each step in the value chain and address the overall potential for impact for each value chain. Some have set targets in terms of outcomes and impacts while others have not; some have provided simple pathways for impact while others have not; and some have provided indicators for monitoring and evaluation. More consistency in the analysis of impact would improve the Proposal. Thus it is difficult to conclude whether the estimated benefits are plausible. Trade-off analysis is not very prominent in the proposal but is needed to understand risk mitigation and the potential loss or gain of livestock assets when multifunctionality is lost through commercialisation. More emphasis is needed on environment. Frequently waste i.e. manure management is mentioned. Manure represents a valuable resource for soil fertility and may become competitive with high fertilizer prices. Labour has been problematic and technologies to solve this problem in manure collecting, processing and application would be useful but are not offered in the program. Intensification may have positive effects on GHG emissions from ruminants at higher production levels. All together environmental impact should be addressed in the whole value chains: productivity side by side with eco-efficiency. The program does not mention losses in the value chain in informal markets. These can be high, so a first approach could be to identify losses of product and by-products and solutions to gain efficiency overall. Resilience of the value chains has not been mentioned in the program. Which characteristics will determine the adaptability of value chains to new contexts? One can imagine in the future the effects of climate change, but also price volatility, will require appropriate responses in value chains. Efficiency is not the only response to survival of the value chain. What measures will be used for innovation or adaptability?The plans for gender and poverty analysis are clear. This approach provides the program a unique basis for change that will yield new information applicable to both poor producers and consumers.Overall the proposal's structure and the past history of the CGIAR proponents provide reassurance about the potential quality of science, although this is difficult to judge directly in an unfinished proposal. Hypotheses are appropriate in relation to the needs chosen. The literature is up to date and includes a number of very recent publications.Half of the funding is allocated to the technology development theme, recognising the important CGIAR expertise in this area. The health component is well developed in terms of the science, though for livestock it appears more historically science-driven compared to the research on biosecurity and fish health which derives more directly from value chain analysis. For instance, for animal health, more attention might be expected on zoonoses and diseases of intensification. Even overuse and misuse of antibiotics (in feed) has to be addressed in some value chains. The overall impression then is that distinct approaches will be pursued for livestock, separate from fish health which may be appropriate to some extent, but does it miss some potential for synergy?In relation to the component on forages and feeds, the constraints to increasing livestock production have been known for decades and are well documented. A vast array of research information and technologies is also available, much of this developed by three of the Centers involved in the Program.For example, there are some 70,000 accessions in the CGIAR forage germplasm banks, and much is known about their adaptation to climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, their uses and management. An interactive pasture selection tool entitled Tropical Forages is already available on CD, developed by a team that included ILRI and CIAT scientists. Accordingly, agro-ecological zone evaluation of forage accessions should be kept to a minimum. Breeding programs with pasture grasses and legumes are not justified at this stage. The ISPC suggests that there is adequate genetic variation available in the forage germplasm banks that should be initially exploited. Although seed production by CGIAR Centers is necessary in the early stages of new forage cultivar development, this is ultimately a private sector activity. There are myriad crop by-products already locally available in small-scale farming systems, which are under-utilised, wasted or disregarded.The genetics component appears reasonably well integrated (at least as described) both between disciplines and between livestock and fish. Conservation of animal genetic resources requires a clear cut strategy as part of the breeding inputs. Private breeders (international companies) often are not interested, but public support is also problematic. Can researchers offer an attractive commercial deal for both conservation and application (crossbreeding or other use)?The CGIAR has to cooperate with partners that are knowledgeable in the areas of the value chain where the Centers have less experiencesuch as post-harvest losses and processing. The ISPC notes the recognition of the need for research on the trade-offs between feed and food. There was surprisingly little reference to ecosystems, given the interest in other CRPs.The program should be able to provide a multitude of diverse outputs for scientists, for development specialists etc. in line with the great ambition of developing value chains for diverse animal food products. Much depends on the willingness of participating scientists to invest in communication skills and become partners in the process. The balance of more technically-oriented versus social scientists has to be correct, based on a shared interdisciplinary challenge. Moreover communication with, frequently, uneducated woman farmers and consumers requires different skills. Reflective thinking and participative discussions require training. In the program many skills have to be available, not only in the top management, the PPMC, but at all levels in the development of the value chain.The success of a value chain may be dependent on strong farmer organisations for inputs and for better priced products. The conduct of platforms and fora (i.e. negotiation) with all stakeholders including farmer organisations of the value chain to set priorities is essential for analysis and publication. This is a new area and the Program, by comparison of processes and by innovation, can contribute to new outputs. The focus on woman and poor producers and consumers is even more challenging. There is some concern that Subtheme 2.3 (value chain innovation) goes too far downstream and hence risks slipping into direct development work (note for example the statements as -we find it increasingly critical to help developand often create-small business services to support emerging production & marketing systems. This approach will be central to value chain development efforts‖ -page76). Care needs to be taken in development of the operational plan that this is avoided.In general, the researchable constraints and the approaches and methods (scientific and socialscientific) that will be used to address them are well set out and well-referenced. Noting the exceptions above, research activities are feasible and likely to lead to significant new knowledge. The CGIAR Centers have a track record in carrying out research such as that described in the proposal which is highly relevant in the case of Theme 1 and Component 3.1, and significant in the case of Theme 2. More specification of the composition and experience of teams working on Component 3.2 (gender) would be useful. The Proposal provides an analysis of risks inherent in the approach and the research, but this is rather superficial. This part of the Proposal would benefit from a more thorough analysis, perhaps after some of the initial familiarization of the selected value chains, partners and stakeholders have been identified. The critical factor will be the ability of the Program to bring together the good biological science, technology and the social science into a coherent delivery platform.CRP3.7 includes a focused and well-reasoned partnership strategy and allocates the intellectual and financial resources needed to leverage the strategy's full value. The strategy itself moves well beyond the general formulations on the subject of partnership to a much more realistic and disciplined approach to assuring that partnerships are cultivated and utilized effectively. Evidence for this is the inclusion of a Development Manager as part of the program management team who will provide the strategy with CRP-level leadership and coordination, and a recognition expressed in a number of places in the proposal that effective partnerships will require more skill and work than simply identifying the potential range and types of partners and expressing good intentions about their engagement. The inclusion of Capacity Development activities is welcome.The CRP proposes three broad research themes and proposes research on value chains in 10 countries. Each of the themes requires strong partnerships to realize their full potential, but the focus on meat, milk and fish value chains in specific countries is heavily dependent on strengthening existing relationships and cultivating new and meaningful relationships at every level-from -small scale producers, employees…, small scale entrepreneurs,…and consumers‖ through to development partners, and policy makers. The four CGIAR Centers that serve as core partners for the project bring long standing networks and relationships tied to existing projects within each of the seven countries, and also add to the strategy that relies on broader regional and international partners to facilitate investment and dissemination. The proposal clearly identifies the additional points in the program where CRP3.7 dovetails with other CRPs, particularly those dealing with integrated systems and policy. However, it is notable that ICRISAT, one of the CGIAR Centers with a research history in dual purpose crops in South Asia is absent from this proposal. Current research which is not, or may not, going to be prioritised by participants/players in the value chains may cause disillusionment.The proposal identifies two principal types of partners-strategic program partners and value chain partners-as well as a number of roles for partners-those who can advance research, a broad array with the potential to achieve the proposals development goals, and those with the expertise and access to facilitate communication and build broader uptake of the program's results. In addition the proposal highlights the multiple roles of the private sector as science partners and as business partners [p. [75][76]. The latter is defined inclusively to include businesses at every scale, from the small livestock keeper to the multi-national corporation. Close working with partners on specific value chains though may make it difficult to implement exit strategies from specific value chains should that prove necessary if external drivers change the threats and opportunities for individual value chains in relation to the program goal. The involvement of strategic program partners on the Science and Partnership Forum (p 74) is therefore important and could help to challenge the team of the need to generate global public goods.The partnership strategy includes a number of mechanisms to assure its effective implementation-an assessment process to identify the necessary partners, working groups for each value chain, and a recognition that the program staff will need to bring new skills to their assignments, including -interpersonal, facilitation, conflict management, feedback and negotiation skills [p.77].‖ Theme 3, in which monitoring and evaluation will take place, will also play a role by monitoring partnership processes and developing -incentives…for program teams to demonstrate the development and effective management of required partnerships.‖ The results of M and E are essential for comparisons of results across chains and for disentangling local from generic benefits. A basic agreement for data collection is needed and in addition specifics for the chain and local situation.The descriptions of the value chains vary according to experience in the particular country and area. In most cases partner inclusion is logical, but not definitive as the diagnostic studies will yield more contacts, potential organisations and focus. The program shows appropriate awareness of the role of research and development partners. However, as with the identification of previous relevant research, this seems to be still work in progress and the -Partnership Strategy will include an assessment of the actor (sic) and organizational landscape at the national and sub-national levels. Potential partners and their roles have yet to be finally identified from the long list of candidates.The program could pay more attention to basic research and adaptive and applied research phases. The more adaptive research (on farm testing) takes more time and is more costly and raises the question of who will take this on and how will extension, private industry involvement and government contribute? Policy and institutional changes are frequently addressed in the program. Sometimes legal changes are required 2 . Partners for legal change should become involved in the program and for IPR issues.The structure does attempt to address the tension of applying a consortium model to the program (which implies a consultative process of decision making and overall shared ownership of and responsibility for program success and outputs), while still retaining clear leadership roles, and specific accountability for designated elements of the program by each institution and team. The ISPC considers that CRP3.7 proposes a strong and efficient management structure. It demonstrates a realistic grasp of the level and focus of program-level management required to achieve the program integration and partnership goals required by its research structure.The program management staff include clearly identified positions to lead and manage critically important elements of the proposal-partnership development and management, knowledge management and communications, as well as internal monitoring and evaluation. These positions support implementation of the program, but also assure that the strategies for engaging significant new partners and leveraging outcomes have the expertise and attention they require to be successful.The Program Planning and Management Committee's initial membership signals the functionality of the committee. The proposal notes the assumption that the core CGIAR Centers will be adequately represented because of the role of their staff in program leadership. This relieves the committee of having to function as both a management entity and a representative body. The proposal mentions the potential inclusion of external partners who invest and play critical roles comparable to the core Centers. This may be a practical necessity and a good thing, but it may also compromise the focus, function and rigor of the PPMC if it becomes a mechanism for recognizing investors. A reassuring counterweight to this possibility is the care with which the proposal describes the working values that will guide the CRP. The CRP argues persuasively that the program's development and implementation reflect a commitment to -a consortium model [for] the partnership [p.69].‖ In pursuing this approach, the lead institution is not only required to engage in consultative, joint decision making with other core partners, but also -to generally cede a significant part of the strategic decision process to the partnership [p.69].‖ While this could be viewed as reassuring rhetoric, the overall structure, focus and tone of the proposal support the likelihood that this is not an empty commitment on the part of ILRI. The ISPC does not find it necessary to comment (as with many other CRPs) on the lead Center's relationship with the Program Director, both because the position has the necessary authority to deliver effective management of the CRP and because the Lead Center's DG is not given an out-of-scale role in program management. Whilst the role of the Program Director was clear and appropriate, the mechanism for appointing the leads of the 3 Technology Development components and the other 2 themes was not clear. For example, with respect to the Health component, the approaches for livestock and fish health seem very distinct; will one person represent both or will there be 2 representatives to ensure that World Fish has an adequate representation on the Committee?If the proposal has one management shortcoming, it is the lack of an integrated strategy for resource mobilization that is expressed as part of program-level management-although this may be a responsibility of the Development Manager. In the proposal, the program teams for the value chains are expected to identify partners who will invest in the program, and internal M&E will include this as an element in evaluating team performance. Also in the proposal, strategic partners are defined in part by the level of investment they make, and finally, the budget estimates include a -global budget‖ that identifies approximately $20 million in additional investments required to fully scale and implement the CRP. The program should articulate its goals and strategy for resource mobilization more clearly; partners and donors are conflated throughout the proposal-sometimes they will be one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. In a world in which significant investments of resources will be required (and are justified), the word -donor‖ is not unseemly.This committee has three functions-one is to provide strategic advice and oversight to the CRP, the second is to facilitate linkages with global and regional stakeholders, and the third is to report annually to the ILRI DG and Board as part of the CRP's accountability process. In its first two functions, it reports to the PPMC and Program Director and is intended to be a powerful contributor to strategy and prioritization by offering advice and independent assessment of science quality and impact. Its reporting relationship to both management and the Lead Center's governing body is potentially workable-providing independent oversight closely linked to the CRP without adding additional complexity to oversight. To make this work, it will be important to ensure that the committee is more clearly defined than it is now. Although the general framework for its composition is clear, the proposal does not indicate how its members will be appointed and for how long. There is no indication of its optimum size and, as now described, it has no Chair or similar leadership. Because the SPAC reports first to the PPMC and Program Director, and then to ILRI's Board, it is important that responsibility for identifying its members does not rest wholly on the Program Director. In addition, it will be important to identify the criteria for inclusion on the committee to avoid it becoming a high level holding area for partners and donors that need visible recognition and influence as a condition of their support and engagement.Financial Soundness: The budget narrative and projected income and expenses are clear, although program management and communications are combined in the budget presentation. While the overall allocation appears to be reasonable and consistent with other CRPs, the proposal describes a very extensive knowledge sharing and communication strategy that implies a substantial (and appropriate) investment. On a very minor note, the budget allocations for the individual value chains (which are aggregated into Theme 2) are clearly described in the narrative but would have had additional clarity if represented in a table.Over three years, the CGIAR Fund is projected to provide $35.2 million toward a total program budget of $99.6 million [Table 3.7,p. 97]. As noted earlier, the budget presentation includes a -budget for global outcomes‖ [Table 2.8], which argues for an additional $20 million investment in the program.The proposal includes a clear and persuasive rationale for what the additional investment would achieve and also notes that it -would require higher levels of funding from multiple sources [p.98].‖ It goes on to note that some aspects of the proposal assume greater capacity to raise additional resources (the value chain components) than others (technology development). This raises the question of whether the CRP is requesting sufficient support from the CGIAR Fund. It also raises the question of whether -global outcomes‖ are within reach, because the core partners have the capacity or have identified a strategy, to raise the balance, or their achievement is at risk. In a proposal that is generally clear and straightforward, this final section is less so. Does the proposal need more from the Fund than it indicates? If it is outlining the additional funds it will seek (with some confidence) from others, that should have also been made clearer. Finally, detail on how the competitive grant scheme would be operated was rather light.The Science and Partnership Advisory Committee has been referred to above. With some careful adjustments, this committee is in a position to provide the CRP with a mechanism for independent and effective oversight.","tokenCount":"5666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ad12bf688add27c8c18fc02a110e4642","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9ae9b195-4ce9-4287-879d-11918f08d68e/retrieve","id":"731053915"},"keywords":["Kepngop, L.R.K.","Wosula, E.N.","Amour, M.","Ghomsi, P.G.T.","Wakam, L.N.","Kansci, G.","Legg, J.P. Genetic Diversity of Whiteflies Colonizing Crops and Their Bemisia tabaci","KASP","Arsenophonus","Wolbachia","Rickettsia"],"sieverID":"66277291-ef31-4531-9e60-03324cb22f56","pagecount":"18","content":"Bemisia tabaci is as a major pest of vegetable crops in Cameroon, and several species have developed resistance against insecticides. Here, we investigated the frequency of infection by endosymbiont and the genetic diversity of whiteflies in Cameroon. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) markers and Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) were used for the characterization. Overall, an analysis of the mtCOI sequences showed six mitotypes of Bemisia tabaci, and two distinct clades of Bemisia afer and Trialeurodes vaporariorum. Bemisia tabaci mitotypes identified included: Mediterranean (MED) on tomato, pepper, okra, and melon; and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) groups and sub-groups (SG)-SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5, SSA3, and SSA4 on cassava. The six mitotypes of cassava B. tabaci were split into three SNP haplogroups including sub-Saharan Africa-West Africa (SSA-WA), sub-Saharan East and Central Africa (SSA-ECA), and SSA4 by KASP genotyping. The endosymbionts identified infecting the whiteflies were Arsenophonus, Rickettsia, and Wolbachia.The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is a significant pest that damages many plants worldwide such as ornamentals, vegetables, legumes, and cotton [1]. Whitefly species of this complex are extremely polyphagous insects, and they are found in greenhouses and crop fields in temperate and tropical regions [2,3]. In sub-tropical and tropical countries, B. tabaci is one of the principal pests, especially on the main food and cash crops such as cassava, cotton, sweet potato, tobacco, and tomato [4]. These whiteflies have a severe impact on the economic activity and food security of many farmers and populations, since agriculture is one of the main economic activities [4]. Bemisia tabaci whiteflies have the ability to carry viruses with semi-persistent and persistent mechanisms and can vector viruses belonging to at least five genera (Begomovirus, Crinivirus, Ipomovirus, Carlavirus, and Torradovirus) [5]. Their sap-sucking feeding also causes physical damage to plants, although the most damage caused is by the vectoring of over 300 plant viruses [1]. Economic losses due to B. tabaci were estimated at USD 10 billion from 1980 to 2000 [6] in the US, and over USD 1 billion annually on cassava in Africa [7]. Bemisia tabaci has been described as a cryptic species complex with more than 39 morphologically indistinguishable species [3,8,9]. Most of these species are localized in geographic regions [10] except a few, among which two occur worldwide and are invasive: the \"Mediterranean\" or \"MED\" species (previously referred as 'Biotype Q') and the \"Middle East-Asia Minor\" species (\"MEAM1\"-previously referred to as 'Biotype B') [2]. Among these whitefly species, there are many that colonize Solanaceae [11,12] and these have shown the ability to rapidly develop resistance to chemical insecticides [4,13]. In Africa, despite the harmful impact on potential natural enemies and on the environment, chemical pesticides are widely used to control B. tabaci populations. Whiteflies are infected with facultative endosymbiont bacteria that have been implicated in their pest status, as they have been shown to affect tolerance to insecticides [14], virus transmission efficiency [15,16], and high-temperature tolerance [17]. As with many other arthropods, endosymbiotic bacteria are also widespread in B. tabaci [18]. Endosymbionts are present in many parts of insects, such as the whitefly body cavity, hemolymph, or intracellularly in special cells called bacteriocytes [19]. Members of the Bemisia species complex carry a primary endosymbiotic bacterium called Candidatus Portiera aleyrodidarum [20,21], which is fixed in populations and confined to bacteriocyte cells, with a main role in the regulation of amino acid-deficient diets in all whiteflies [20]. This bacterium is essential for host survival and development and has a long co-evolutionary history with all members of the subfamily Aleyrodidae [20,22,23]. In addition to the primary endosymbiont, many different secondary endosymbionts may be present, such as Rickettsia [24], Wolbachia [25,26], Hamiltonella and Arsenophonus [20,21], Cardinium [27], and Fritschea [28]. These have been reported from Bemisia populations around the world. Several of these secondary endosymbionts interfere with host physiology, ecology, and reproduction [29][30][31], and they may have effects on rapid evolutionary shifts [32], thermotolerance [17], resistance to insecticides [14], host fitness [33], defense against pathogens [34], and virus transmission ability [15,[35][36][37].Several Bemisia mitotype populations around the world have been surveyed for infection with endosymbionts and showed a clear variation in the infection frequency within the Bemisia genetic groups [18,[38][39][40]. For example, in populations tested from China, Wolbachia, Rickettsia, Arsenophonus, Hamiltonella, and Cardinium were detected in MEAM1 and MED populations [41]. Arsenophonus, Cardinium, Rickettsia, and Wolbachia were detected in native whiteflies of Africa [39], China [38], and India [42], but not Hamiltonella and Fritschea. A study by Gorsane et al. [43] hypothesized that the presence of Cardinium in MEAM1 and Cardinium, Fritschea, and Wolbachia in MED may explain the differences in infestation status possibly due to plant host variability, site to site variations, and the influence of chemical insecticides. Also, Hamiltonella in MED and Rickettsia in MEAM1 populations are also reported to increase the acquisition, retention, and transmission of the Tomato yellow leaf curl virus [44,45]. However, recent work on cassava whiteflies indicated that the coinfection of Bemisia tabaci colonies of sub-Saharan Africa 1 sub-group 3 (SSA1-SG3) by two secondary endosymbiotic bacteria Arsenophonus and Rickettsia reduced their ability to transmit East African cassava mosaic virus-Uganda (EACMV-UG) and these whiteflies also showed lower adult emergence, slower development, and lower virus retention abilities than those free of bacteria [46]. Skaljac et al. [47] showed that Hamiltonella and Arsenophonus were strictly localized to the bacteriocytes during all developmental stages in T. vaporariorum. However, they are less likely to be able to manipulate their host's reproduction since this requires invading reproductive organs outside the bacteriocyte. This observation suggests that Hamiltonella and Arsenophonus in T. vaporariorum are involved in a functional advantage rather than its reproduction [47].For effective whitefly management, therefore, it is important to make the correct species identification, including the identification of intracellular bacterial communities. Many aspects of this species complex remain unknown, such as the degree of genetic isolation between some species, their geographical distribution, as well as the withinspecies genetic diversity and endosymbiont species being carried by whiteflies. Knowing which species of whitefly is present in Cameroon and its associated endosymbionts is crucial for the management of this pest. Because these cryptic species of whitefly are morphologically indistinguishable [3], we used molecular tools (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequences-mtCOI and Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR-KASP) for identification. In the study reported here, the endosymbiont colonization frequency and results from whitefly mtCOI sequencing and KASP were combined to provide an overall assessment of the genetic diversity of B. tabaci in Cameroon.Field surveys were conducted in four regions of Cameroon by using standardized diagnostic protocols described by many authors [48][49][50]. This involved collecting data and sampling (counting whiteflies and collecting specimens for molecular identification) from cassava, tomatoes, pepper, and okra young plants. The number and distribution of collection sites varied, according to the number of fields that were found in each location and the relative abundance of B. tabaci in those fields. A total of 24 fields were randomly chosen and surveyed from the four regions. Whitefly samples were collected from fifteen fields of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), four fields of tomato (4) (Solanum lycopersicum L.), three fields of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.), one field of melon (Cucumis melo L.) and one field of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) across twelve locations in three (monomodal rainforest, bimodal rainforest, and highland) agroecological zones across Cameroon (Table 1). The locations included Ngoa Ekelle, Minkoameyos, Awae, Bangangte, Manko'o, Mantem, Nyang, Ngohsi, Djibeeng, Balngong, Bandoumou, and Melen. Bemisia tabaci-colonizing tomatoes were collected from two locations and four fields (Manko'o in the highland agroecological zone and Awae in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone). Bemisia tabaci on cassava were sampled from 10 locations and 15 fields (Ngoa Ekelle, Minkoameyos, Awae, Balngong, and Bandoumou, all located in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone, Bangangte in the highland agroecological zone, and Mantem, Nyang, Ngohsi, and Djibeeng in the monomodal rainforest). On okra, B. tabaci were collected from two locations and three fields (Minkoameyos and Awae located in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone). On melon, B. tabaci were collected from one location and one field (Ngoa Ekelle in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone). On pepper, B. tabaci were collected from one location and one field (Melen in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone). In each field, 20 plants were randomly selected along two diagonal transects across the field and whiteflies were counted from the top five leaves of vegetable and for cassava. Approximately 40 B. tabaci adult whiteflies were collected from each field and all whiteflies collected from a single field were considered to be a single sample. Whiteflies were aspirated alive and immediately preserved in 95% ethanol in vials, before being stored in the freezer at −20 • C.DNA extraction was carried out in the molecular laboratory at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The insects (single female whiteflies) were added to 3 µL of lysis buffer in a 1.5 mL Eppendorf tube, then macerated and another 20 µL of lysis buffer was added. The lysis buffer contained 10 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0, 50 mM KCL, 2.5 mM MgCl, 0.45% Tween-20, 0.01% Gelatine, and 60 µg/mL Proteinase). The mixture was then vortex shaken and spun down and immediately incubated on ice for 15 min. This was followed by incubation at 55 • C in a water bath for 30 min. The lysate was then stored at −20 • C for downstream use. For PCR use, the lysate was diluted while using sterile diethylpyrocarbonate (DPEC) treated water in a ratio of 1:9.PCR products of the mtCOI fragment were produced using the forward primer 2195-Bt-F (5 ′ -TGRTTTTTTGGTCATCCRGAAGT-3 ′ ) and C012-Bt-sh2-R (5 ′ -TTTACTGCACTTTCTGCC-3 ′ ) [51] to target Bemisia whiteflies (~850 bp), and universal primers LCO-1490-F (5 ′ -GGTCAACAAATCATAAAGATATTGG-3 ′ ) and HCO-2198-R (5 ′ -TAAACTTCAGGGTGA-CCAAAAAATCA-3 ′ ) to target non-Bemisia whiteflies (~710 bp) using a thermocycler (Applied Biosystems™ GeneAmp R PCR system 9700, Foster City, CA, USA), under the following conditions: first cycle of denaturation at 95 • C for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 94 • C for 40 s, and annealing at 54 • C for 30 s, 72 • C for 45 s, and the final extension at 72 • C for 10 min. A total reaction mixture of 25 µL was made up of 1X QuickLoad Master Mix (New England Biolabs, Hitchin, UK), 1 mM MgCl, 0.24 µM of each primer, 2 µL DNA, and nuclease-free water.The PCR products were electrophoresed in a 1% agarose gel stained in GelRed (Biotium, Hayward, CA, USA) at 100 V for 30 min in gels buffered with a 1 × TAE buffer. DNA bands were visualized under ultraviolet light (UVP GelStudio PLUS, Analytik Jena, Upland, CA, USA) and only samples with intact bands were selected for sequencing. PCR products were sent to Psomagen Inc. (Rockville, MD, USA) for purification and direct sequencing. DNA sequences were manually edited using Ridom Trace Edit v1.1.0 software (Ridom GmbH., Würzburg, Germany). The sequences were assembled into contigs using CLC Main Workbench 22 (QIAGEN, Aarhus, Denmark). A multiple alignment of the edited sequences was performed using Clustal W in MEGA version 7 [52] and the sequences were trimmed. The construction of a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree was performed using MEGA with 1000 bootstrap replicates. Sequences were blasted using GenBank's (NCBI) Blastn and selected reference sequences with 99% to 100% identity to our mtCOI sequences were included in the phylogenetic tree for comparison with previously published haplotypes. The outgroup Bemisia afer was included in the phylogenetic tree for Bemisia tabaci, while the outgroups Bemisia afer, B. tabaci, and Aleurodicus dispersus were included for Trialeurodes vaporariorum.Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) was used to further distinguish the major genotypes of cassava-colonizing B. tabaci [53]. The KASP reaction mixture (10 µL) contained 5 µL 2X KASP master mix, 0.14 µL KASP primer assay mix, and 5 µL DNA template (  C) was used for the primer BTS613. The quality of genotyping cluster plots was visually assessed, and only samples in distinct clusters were considered for manual SNP calling, using the MxPro -Mx3000P software incorporated in the Strategene MX 3000P unit (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) and KlusterCaller (LGC Genomics, Teddington, UK). The KASP protocol for B. tabaci is described in detail in Wosula et al. [53].The DNA extracts from 75 whitefly specimens that were identified through mtCOI sequencing were used for bacterial endosymbiont diagnoses. The PCR was performed using a total volume of 25 µL containing 2 µL template DNA, 12.5 µL OneTaq Quick-Load 2X Master Mix (New England Biolabs, Hitchin, UK) with Standard Buffer, 0.6 µL of primer (0.25 mM) (Table 2), 1 µL MgCl2 (25 mM) solution, and 8.9 µL of sterile water. A total of 35 cycles of amplification were carried out in a Veriti 96-Well Thermal Cycler (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA), and conditions were the same for all sets of primers except for the annealing temperature (Table 2): denaturation at 95 • C for 3 min and 94 • C for 30 s, annealing temperature as showed in Table 2 for 45 s, and extension at 72 • C for 1 min, and a final extension at 72 • C for 7 min and held at 10 • C. Amplified PCR products were separated using 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, stained with GelRed (Biotium, Hayward, CA, USA) with a 100 bp ladder (NEB, England, UK), and then visualized under ultraviolet light (UVP GelStudio PLUS, Analytik Jena, Upland, CA, USA). All PCRs included a negative control (sterile water) to spot any DNA contamination, and a positive control to prevent false negatives.Mean whitefly counts varied with survey site (Table 3). The mean whitefly count per plant across the country was 8.0 for cassava, 29.7 for tomato, 31.6 for okra, 60.0 for melon, and 18.0 for pepper. At the regional level, the mean whitefly count varied from 2.9 in the Littoral region to 12.5 in the southwest region for cassava. In addition, mean whitefly counts on vegetable crops such as tomato, pepper, melon, and okra were high and ranged from 18 to 60. The highest whitefly mean count of 60 was recorded for the center region on Melon, while the Littoral region had the lowest mean (2.9) except on cassava. Field-level data showed many fields with whitefly counts higher than 50 per plant located in the center, southwest, and west regions. In total, 92 whitefly samples were sequenced, out of which 75 produced quality mtCOI sequences. There was a high level of diversity among B. tabaci populations that were collected from the sampled crop plants. The sequences obtained from whiteflies collected from pepper, okra, and melon were grouped into one phylogenetic group (MED), but whiteflies from tomato were grouped into two phylogenetically distinct groups: B. tabaci MED and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood). The sequences from cassava were grouped into five mitotypes of B. tabaci (SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5, SSA3, and SSA4) and two Bemisia afer (Priesner and Hosny) clades (Figures 1-3). These groups were identified based on the topology of the phylogenetic tree and the clustering of the sequences that were obtained from this study relative to the reference sequences retrieved from GenBank. The predominant B. tabaci mitotype MED had a total of 23 whiteflies, which accounted for 30.3% of all the whiteflies collected from the four host plants (tomato, okra, melon, and pepper) and they were distributed in the two agroecological zones where these samples were collected (bimodal rainforest and highland). The second most abundant B. tabaci mitotype was SSA4 with 17 whiteflies (22.4%), with all of them being found on cassava, and they were distributed in all three agroecological zones (monomodal rainforest, bimodal rainforest, and highland). The other mitotypes occurring on cassava were SSA1-SG1 (1.3%) (monomodal rainforest agroecological zone), SSA1-SG2 (4.0%) (monomodal rainforest and bimodal rainforest agroecological zone), SSA1-SG5 (1.3%) (monomodal rainforest agroecological zone), and SSA3 (2.6%) (monomodal rainforest agroecological zone). Bemisia afer had two distinct clades with 19 whiteflies, which accounted for 25.3% of the sequences. It was present on cassava in all three sampled regions (monomodal rainforest, bimodal rainforest, and highland agroecological zone). Trialeurodes vaporariorum (10 whiteflies accounting for 13.2% of the sequences) was present only on tomato in the highland agroecological zone. Sequences from this study were deposited in the NCBI database accessions PP580858-PP580933.    The KASP genotyping results are based on SNP genotyping, and it has been designed to discriminate between the major genotypes of cassava B. tabaci whitefly. Twenty-four whiteflies that were identified as cassava B. tabaci based on mtCOI sequencing were further characterized using KASP genotyping. The SNP genotyping clusters for the The KASP genotyping results are based on SNP genotyping, and it has been designed to discriminate between the major genotypes of cassava B. tabaci whitefly. Twenty-four whiteflies that were identified as cassava B. tabaci based on mtCOI sequencing were further characterized using KASP genotyping. The SNP genotyping clusters for the selected four primers for representative samples are presented in Figures 4 and 5.  KASP genotyping split the 24 cassava whitefly samples into three haplogroups: SSA-ECA, SSA-WA, and SSA4. Haplogroup SSA4 with 15 samples out of the 24 (62.5%) was the most frequent, and included mtCOI mitotypes SSA4 (10), SSA3 (2), SSA1-SG2 (2), and SSA1-SG5 (1). The haplogroup SSA-ECA was the second most frequent with five samples (20.8%), all of which were designated as mitotype SSA4. The last haplogroup SSA-WA had four samples (16.7%) that were designated as mitotypes SSA4 (2), SSA1-SG2 (1), and SSA1-SG5 (1). This is the first study to report the designation of mitotype SSA4 samples into SNP haplogroup SSA-ECA (Table 4).  SSA-ECA SSA1-SG1 SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG1/SG2, SSA4 [54][55][56][57]; in this study SSA-ESA SSA1-SG3, SSA1-SG2 [54,[56][57][58]; SSA-WA SSAA1-SG1, SSA1-SG5, SSA2, SSA4 [56,57]; in this study SSA-CA SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2[56] SSA2 SSA2, SSA3, SSA4 [54,56,57] SSA4 SSA4, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5 [56,57]; in this studyThe primary endosymbiont Portiera was detected in 77% of the whiteflies identified by mtCOI and KASP (75). Therefore, only whiteflies with at least three specimens and bearing Portiera were used to evaluate the presence of secondary endosymbionts. The secondary endosymbionts were found in 78% (45 whiteflies infected out of 58 tested) of the insects, and their frequency varied significantly across the different whitefly populations. The SSA4 mitotype showed the highest percentage of no secondary endosymbiont with 50% of non-infection. However, none of the whitefly samples showed an infection by the endosymbionts Hamiltonella and Cardinium (Figure 6). The identified SSA-ECA SSA1-SG1 SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG1/SG2, SSA4 [54][55][56][57]; in this study SSA-ESA SSA1-SG3, SSA1-SG2 [54,[56][57][58];SSA-WA SSAA1-SG1, SSA1-SG5, SSA2, SSA4 [56,57]; in this study SSA-CA SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2 [56] SSA2 SSA2, SSA3, SSA4 [54,56,57] SSA4 SSA4, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5 [56,57]; in this studyThe samples in the SSA4 group were from Ngoa Ekelle, Minkoameyos, Awae, Bangangte, Mantem, Nyang, Djibeeng, and Bandoumou located in the three agroecological zones. Samples in the SSA-ECA group were from Ngoa Ekelle, Balngong, and Bandoumou in the central part of Cameroon located in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone, while those in SSA-WA were from Mantem and Nyang in the monomodal rainforest agroecological zone of western Cameroon, as well as from Ngoa ekelle and Awae in the bimodal rainforest agroecological zone in the central part of the country.The primary endosymbiont Portiera was detected in 77% of the whiteflies identified by mtCOI and KASP (75). Therefore, only whiteflies with at least three specimens and bearing Portiera were used to evaluate the presence of secondary endosymbionts. The secondary endosymbionts were found in 78% (45 whiteflies infected out of 58 tested) of the insects, and their frequency varied significantly across the different whitefly populations. The SSA4 mitotype showed the highest percentage of no secondary endosymbiont with 50% of non-infection. However, none of the whitefly samples showed an infection by the endosymbionts Hamiltonella and Cardinium (Figure 6). The identified endosymbionts were more often in single infections in cassava-colonizing whiteflies than non-cassava whiteflies, except in T. vaporariorium where Arsenophonus singly infected 100% (7/7) of the specimens. In the MED mitotype, infection by the combination of Arsenophonus (A), Wolbachia (W), and Rickettsia (R) was the most represented (41%). Only A (18%) and W (6%) were identified in single infection and all other infections were in coinfection with Arsenophonus AR (23%) and AW (12%). Whiteflies collected on cassava and identified as B. afer had infections with all of the endosymbionts dominated by the single infections of A (38%) and W (23%). No triple infection was recorded but all possible double infections were detected as AR (8%), AW (23%), and RW (8%). The SSA4 mitotype was singly infected with Wolbachia (W) in 72% of the specimens followed by Arsenophonus (A) and Rickettsia (R) with 14% each. The SSA1-SG2 mitotype had single infections of W (33%) but 67% of this mitotype were not infected by the secondary endosymbiont (Figure 6). Considering only infected whiteflies, Arsenophonus (95.8%; 23/24) was the most frequently represented endosymbiont in non-cassava whiteflies (MED, T. vaporariorium). However, in cassava whiteflies (SSA4, SSA1-SG2, and Bemisia afer) Wolbachia was the most frequently represented (56.5%; 13/23).Insects 2024, 15, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 21 endosymbionts were more often in single infections in cassava-colonizing whiteflies than non-cassava whiteflies, except in T. vaporariorium where Arsenophonus singly infected 100% (7/7) of the specimens. In the MED mitotype, infection by the combination of Arsenophonus (A), Wolbachia (W), and Rickettsia (R) was the most represented (41%). Only A (18%) and W (6%) were identified in single infection and all other infections were in coinfection with Arsenophonus AR (23%) and AW (12%). Whiteflies collected on cassava and identified as B. afer had infections with all of the endosymbionts dominated by the single infections of A (38%) and W (23%). No triple infection was recorded but all possible double infections were detected as AR (8%), AW (23%), and RW (8%). The SSA4 mitotype was singly infected with Wolbachia (W) in 72% of the specimens followed by Arsenophonus (A) and Rickettsia (R) with 14% each. The SSA1-SG2 mitotype had single infections of W (33%) but 67% of this mitotype were not infected by the secondary endosymbiont (Figure 6). Considering only infected whiteflies, Arsenophonus (95.8%; 23/24) was the most frequently represented endosymbiont in non-cassava whiteflies (MED, T. vaporariorium). However, in cassava whiteflies (SSA4, SSA1-SG2, and Bemisia afer) Wolbachia was the most frequently represented (56.5%; 13/23). The current study confirmed that whiteflies occur widely on vegetables and cassava throughout Cameroon, and their abundance depends on the host plant species and agroecological region. The number of whiteflies was higher on vegetables compared to cassava; this could be attributed to the fact that the mitotype MED found on vegetables is an invasive species known for rapid resistance development to insecticides, hence high The current study confirmed that whiteflies occur widely on vegetables and cassava throughout Cameroon, and their abundance depends on the host plant species and agroecological region. The number of whiteflies was higher on vegetables compared to cassava; this could be attributed to the fact that the mitotype MED found on vegetables is an invasive species known for rapid resistance development to insecticides, hence high populations [3]. The abundance of whiteflies in vegetables is linked with increased spread and the severity of virus diseases [59,60].An analysis of the genetic diversity of the whiteflies collected showed that the three whitefly species commonly occurring on cassava and vegetables were B. tabaci, B. afer, and T. vaporariorum. Whilst B. afer and B. tabaci occurred widely throughout the agroecological zones sampled, T. vaporariorum was only reported from tomato in the highland zone. T. vaporariorum is commonly called the greenhouse whitefly and has a more temperate distribution than the two Bemisia species. In Africa, T. vaporariorum only occurs in high altitude and cooler regions [61].Bemisia afer accounted for 25% of the Bemisia spp in samples from Cameroon and it was identified in all of the agroecological zones. Although B. afer is not currently considered to be a significant threat to cassava production in Africa, it has been shown to be an economically important viral vector in other crops, transmitting the sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus in sweet potatoes in Peru [62]. This highlights the importance of careful monitoring of this second cassava-colonizing Bemisia species in Africa.The clustering of the cassava B. tabaci whitefly mitotypes SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5, SSA3, and SSA4 into a distinct major clade separate from B. tabaci whiteflies that do not colonize cassava is consistent with what has been reported in other studies of B. tabaci from various cassava-growing countries in Africa [57,63]. The grouping of the MED mitotype is also consistent with what has been reported in previous studies [63]. We found that B. tabaci MED was predominant on okra, pepper, tomato, and melon in all of the sampled locations. MED is a globally important B. tabaci mitotype, which is thought to have originated from countries neighboring the Mediterranean basin, which include Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, and Sudan in Africa [3,64]. Consequently, there are numerous other reports of its prevalence on a wide range of crop and weed hosts [55,63,[65][66][67]. B. tabaci MED has been reported to be extremely polyphagous and invasive [3], causing damage to both field and greenhouse crops [68]. It has also developed resistance to various insecticides under intensive production systems [69][70][71]. The mitotype B. tabaci MED was also the most abundant whitefly collected. As confirmed by the results on whitefly abundance, evidence elsewhere has suggested that begomovirus infection can increase B tabaci MED fecundity, which facilitates its spread [72]. The predominance of MED on major vegetable crops considered in this study confirms that this is the most important whitefly pest of vegetables in Cameroon.In the studied cassava group of B. tabaci, the largest number of samples based on mtCOI sequencing were in the SSA4 mitotype, and these were widely distributed across the sampled locations. SSA4 has previously been reported on cassava in Cameroon accounting for 15% [73] and 37% [56] of the cassava whitefly samples. The findings from this study suggest SSA4 is increasing in dominance compared to other mitotypes. SSA1-SG1 and SSA1-SG5 were less frequent, as they were only detected at a single location each. In another study, a similar trend was reported for samples obtained from cassava in Cameroon, where 7% were identified as SSA1-SG1, while none were identified as SSA1-SG5 [56]. These results differ from other recent findings from East and Central Africa, which have shown SSA1-SG1 to be the predominant B. tabaci mitotype on cassava [7,54,57,74]. SSA2 was not encountered in the current study, although this may be a consequence of the absence of samples from northern parts of Cameroon. A similar result was reported elsewhere [73], where only SSA3 and SSA4 were recorded, although other research on cassava B. tabaci in Cameroon, which included samples from the north of the country, recorded SSA2 making up 44% of the total types found [56]. This trend of presence or absence of SSA2 depending on the duration of the surveys is not unique; it has been observed in East Africa where SSA2 was reported as being absent in samples collected from cassava [75,76], and then reported present with subsequent surveys [51,56,57,77]. In South Sudan, SSA2 was reported as the most predominant mitotype on cassava accounting for 75% of the samples that were collected from the cassava plants [55]. Similarly, the current study noted the presence of SSA1-SG5 and SSA1-SG2, which were not found in previous studies [56,57], although, importantly, the sample collection locations differed between the studies. An accurate identification of these species is critical for the effective management of whiteflies both as pests and as virus vectors. The development of the KASP diagnostic method, based on a large SNP dataset for B. tabaci in Africa, provided important means for distinguishing between the major genetic groupings of B. tabaci occurring on cassava in Africa [53]. This method allows for the identification of these haplogroups in laboratory procedures lasting a matter of hours and with no requirement for sequencing. This study builds on the importance of adopting KASP as a diagnostic method for cassava B. tabaci whiteflies as it reports for the first time mitotype SSA4 samples designated as SNP haplogroups SSA-ECA and SSA-WA (Table 4). An important outcome of SNPs' analysis and the application of KASP has been the recognition of an association between the haplogroup SSA-ECA and regions currently affected by severe CMD and CBSD pandemics [56].The most common SNP haplogroup, however, was SSA4. For the first time, this haplogroup included samples that were designated as mitotypes SSA1-SG5 and SSA1-SG2. Previously, samples identified as SSA4 using KASP, based on SNPs' analysis, only had mitotypes SSA3 and SSA4 [53,56]. There were similar novel associations between SSA-WA and mitotype SSA4; previously, SSA-WA was reported to have mitotypes SSA1-SG5 (predominantly), SSA1-SG1, and SSA2 [56]. The present study also revealed that haplogroup SSA-ECA had all samples designated as mitotype SSA4. This is a first, as previously this SNP haplogroup only had samples of mitotypes SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2, and SSA1-SG1/SG2 [54][55][56]. Each of these sets of results provides further evidence of the weak association between identifications based on SNPs dispersed throughout the B. tabaci genome and identities derived from short, maternally-inherited mitochondrial COI sequences. Finally, this work shows, again, that there is not a good correlation between COI and KASP identities, which confirms the unreliability of using COI to identify B. tabaci genotypes.The identification of B. tabaci haplogroup SSA-ECA raises a concern about the potential future spread of cassava viruses in Cameroon, as SSA-ECA is predominant in areas associated with severe epidemics of CMD and CBSD in East, Central, and Southern Africa [54,56]. It is important to note, however, that CBSD has not yet been identified in Cameroon and has only so far been reported from East and Southern Africa. The most westerly report of CBSD has been made from the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [78].Microbial endosymbionts represent an important component of the biology and ecology of invertebrates like Bemisia. Major facultative endosymbionts Arsenophonus, Wolbachia, Hamiltonella, Cardinium, and Rickettsia were evaluated for all whitefly genetic groupings and the infection frequencies were significantly correlated with the whitefly genotype. The current study showed that cassava whiteflies are mostly infected by single endosymbionts rather than multiple infections, as had been observed from previous studies elsewhere in Africa [39]. However, MED, which occurred on crop plants other than cassava, showed a higher level of endosymbiont coinfection. In this study MED had diverse secondary endosymbiont communities comprising Arsenophonus, Rickettsia, and Wolbachia. Similar studies have reported the presence of these endosymbionts in this mitotype [4,11,[79][80][81][82]. MED individuals analyzed in this study were predominantly infected with Arsenophonus, which is comparable to findings from West Africa reporting a high prevalence of this endosymbiont in the ASL (=MED) mitotype [4]. By contrast, MED individuals collected from vegetables in Senegal were predominantly infected with Hamiltonella [11].The cassava B. tabaci cryptic species in this study had diverse endosymbiont infections comprising Arsenophonus, Rickettsia, and Wolbachia as reported in other studies [39,79,83]. The work of Ghosh et al. [39] showed that cassava whiteflies are infected by Arsenophonus, Rickettia, Wolbachia, and Cardinium with the predominance of Wolbachia in Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, and Nigeria. Tajebe et al. [79] reported Arsenophonus, Rickettsia, Wolbachia, Hamiltonella, and Cardinium, with Arsenophonus being the most prevalent in cassava B. tabaci whiteflies in Tanzania.Trialeurodes vaporariorum was only infected with Arsenophonus, as noted elsewhere [84]. Hamiltonella and Cardinium were not detected in this study, although they have been reported in other studies on whiteflies collected from Africa [4,39,79,83]. Secondary endosymbionts in B. tabaci have been shown to have an influence on whitefly biology, survival, fecundity, heat tolerance, resistance/susceptibility to insecticides, and virus transmission [85]. Tajebe et al. [79] noted that the most striking feature of B. tabaci individuals sampled from the cassava virus pandemic that affected parts of Tanzania was the virtual absence of Arsenophonus. Furthermore, Ghosh et al. [46] reported that cassava B. tabaci, infected by Arsenophonus and Rickettsia, had decreased fitness and virus retention compared to whiteflies of the same type that were not infected by either endosymbiont. In our study, there was, overall, a much greater frequency of Arsenophonus in non-cassava whiteflies and B. afer compared to those B. tabaci (SSA4 and SSA1-SG2) individuals sampled from cassava. However, larger sample numbers of cassava B. tabaci would be required to draw stronger conclusions about possible differences in Arsenophonus frequency amongst the cassava-colonizing B. tabaci genotypes present in Cameroon. Since the absence of endosymbionts has been linked to greater fitness and virus retention capabilities, however, it will be important to monitor endosymbiont occurrence in future studies. For these reasons, knowledge about prevailing endosymbionts in surveyed whitefly populations is critical for influencing future research on the role of these bacteria in whiteflies and their effect on virus epidemics.This work demonstrated the presence of six mitotypes of Bemisia tabaci, and two distinct clades of Bemisia afer and Trialeurodes vaporariorum on vegetables and cassava in Cameroon. Bemisia tabaci mitotypes identified included MED on vegetables and SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG2, SSA1-SG5, SSA3, and SSA4 on cassava. The MED mitotype was widely distributed in all sampling regions and is almost certainly the main phytovirus vector in Cameroonian vegetable cropping systems. For the first time, we found the haplogroup SSA-ECA on cassava in Cameroon. This is a concerning new development, as this haplogroup is predominant in regions currently affected by the severe cassava mosaic virus disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak virus disease (CBSD) pandemics in Eastern and Central Africa. The whiteflies in this study were found to be infected with endosymbionts from three different genera (Arsenophonus, Wolbachia, and Rickettsia). None of the insects were infected by Hamiltonella and Cardinium. Moreover, the Rickettsia species, which are implicated in the resistance of insects to insecticides, entomopathogens, and natural enemies, was recorded in all whitefly species at varying levels. MED mitotype whiteflies were predominantly infected with Arsenophonus, which is implicated in the adaptability of whiteflies. These findings add to the knowledge of the diversity of whiteflies and associated endosymbionts, which, when combined, can influence virus epidemics and responses to whitefly control measures especially insecticides.","tokenCount":"5627"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da7705cd7c61c3e3206dcefa89454632","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02f0513f-5cc0-41df-92b7-a4e4a5b80d37/retrieve","id":"-1971505462"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7cc619cb-b653-4fbb-b8fc-396e3176c4c8","pagecount":"11","content":"This work is part of the CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.About SAPLING: CGIAR's Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) is working in seven countries focusing on livestock value chains to package and scale out tried-andtested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems. SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; and reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Its seven focus countries are Ethiopia,In Ethiopia, the Sheep and Goat Community-Based Breeding Program (CBBP) was introduced in 2009 as an alternative approach to the previously unsuccessful centralized nucleus breeding scheme and crossbreeding program implemented in the low-input system. It aimed to shift towards a more participatory and communitydriven approach to genetic improvement in sheep and goats. Since its inception, the sheep and goat communitybased breeding program has achieved remarkable success in terms of genetic improvement, economic benefit, consumption of animal-source food, and stakeholder participation. This success is a testament to the potential for sustainable livestock development in Ethiopia. The program has not only provided a more viable and communitydriven approach to sheep and goat breeding but has also become a beacon of hope for the future of agriculture in the country. Community-based breeding programs (CBBPs) have then become essential for food security and climate change resistance in Ethiopia, where agriculture drives the economy and millions of jobs. These programs, led by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), bring researchers, farmers, and local communities together to enhance animal breeds for the country's specific agroecological circumstances. These programs use traditional knowledge and current science to generate high-yielding, climate-resilient breeds for smallholder farmers. Farmers participate in participatory selection and breeding to generate improved animal breeds that suit local conditions and preferences. The success of the sheep and goat CBBP has experienced significant growth and expansion. The program has successfully extended its reach to a remarkable 155 villages across the country, which is equivalent to 120,000 animals. The current reach has provided valuable insights and demonstrated the program's potential for wider impact. However, there is a need to scale out the program to benefit a larger population. The work has been ongoing for the past three years under the CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihood, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING).To deliberate on the possibilities and readiness of scaling up the programs, a workshop was held in Addis Ababa on 27 February 2024. This report delves into the insights gained from the workshop, identifying user needs and bottlenecks and, ultimately, designing an innovation package. The innovation package includes a set of tools, methods, and strategies to propel and sustain the gains made in scaling CBBP in Ethiopia. The goal is to ensure that by 2027, ICARDA/SAPLING and partners will work together in Ethiopia to link the existing 155 CBBPs to 750 production units to create a more efficient market for breeders and link the production units with local consumers and exporters for the commercialization of 972,247 male offsprings per year resulting in the improvement of the livelihood of 110,000 households. This will contribute to enhanced resilience and adoption of integrated technologies and best practices to achieve 25-30% improvement in sheep and goat productivity.o To assess the key challenges to the sustainable scaling of the CBBP and the needed complementary innovative package that could propel its dissemination.o To assess the bottlenecks and potential solutions that could ensure successful implementation and large-scale adoption of the complementary innovation package and hence facilitate the sustainable scaling of the CBBP in Ethiopia.o To assess the readiness of the complementary innovation package and its use.o To examine the scaling readiness of the complementary innovation package.o To agree on the next steps that should be taken to enhance the scaling readiness of the technology package.A welcoming remark was made by Barbara Ann Rischkowsky, who is the research team leader for the Resilient Agrosilvopastoral Systems Program (RASP) and Social Economic and Policy Research (SEP). She provided an overview of the journey of scaling CBBP in Ethiopia. The SAPLING co-lead Mourad Rekik made a brief introduction to SAPLING and its objectives. Participants included representatives from the public and private sectors, national research institutions and universities, CGIAR partners, extension agents, donors, and ICARDA staff who are knowledgeable and involved in the implementation processes of the CBBPs. The workshop facilitators, Ijudai Jasada (lead) and Bezaiet Dessalegn (co-lead) introduced the design component of the workshop.The innovation was introduced by Tesfaye Getachew, who is the research management coordinator for Resilient Agri-Food Systems at ICARDA. Getachew talked about the innovation, the scaling model, the focus regions, and the scaling ambition. The stated ambition was discussed in the plenary to ensure consensus among the different stakeholders and to assess its validity from various perspectives. Alternative views were also aired and discussed for future consideration. Key among the highlights made include:o The importance of branding -the need to also focus on meat quality (including taste) and not just quantity to be made available. Opportunities to target high-end markets in major cities like Addis Ababa could offer more sustainable market outlets. This will require increased attention to securing quality feed for the animals and reducing the cost of production and marketing (including transportation o Proper bundling of innovations across all CBBPs -the importance of policy engagement to ensure the inclusion of the smart pack in the national extension program and avoid differences in outreach across the regions. This will require investment in building the capacity of all actors involved in the process. Comment by Berhanu Belay, ICARDA.o Resource mobilization -to support the vast coverage envisioned in the stated ambition. The need for expanding the donor base and establishing effective partnerships with donors was emphasized. Comment by Biruktayit Assefa, World Bank.o Sustainable inclusion -ensuring equitable access and control over production and marketing benefits requires consistent efforts against cultural and other norms embedded in institutional structures. However, such gender transformative approaches require time and conscious investment to initiate and sensitize norm gatekeepers to influence change. Comment by Meseret Tsige, ICARDA, gender expert.o Others highlighted the need for -an improved input market and an effective and efficient extension system, which currently suffers from inadequate funding and high staff turnover (district and regional levels), which hinders the smooth transfer of knowledge, identifying alternative knowledge campaign partners to support scaling, organizing production units into larger/mega cooperatives, improvement in the effective implementation of laws and regulations that are in place. The community-based breeding program in Ethiopia represents a promising avenue for improving livestock productivity and resilience while promoting community involvement and empowerment. Many communities across the country currently adopt it, and it is being integrated into government extension systems (in some areas of the country) and even linked with university curriculums. However, more needs to be done to link the CBBPs with effective production units and market outlets to ensure its sustainable and large-scale dissemination. The latter was translated into a scaling ambition, which guided the discussions and assessments conducted in this exercise.The workshop allowed the core innovation team to assess the challenges in -and opportunities for -achieving the set ambition from the perspective of the different stakeholders represented. The team, along with their partners, were able to gauge the level of readiness of proposed solutions that need to be in place to achieve set targets and identify the ones that will require further investment and those that are readily available for use. The team will follow up with the respective group leaders to further explore and understand in greater detail the mechanisms for putting proposed solutions into action, the evidence for those that have been tested and documented, etc. ","tokenCount":"1326"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9131520b60031a736499bfc7cc43b056","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e4c61310-b61a-4bee-ac9b-bbe5fc2d1e93/retrieve","id":"-1516236560"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a7036a3-f259-4a28-bc82-f2175ef2c6aa","pagecount":"26","content":"The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works for better lives through livestock in developing countries. ILRI is co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, has 14 offices across Asia and Africa. ILRI is one of the CGIAR research centres, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR centres in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector.Africa RISING is a USAID funded program that operates in six African counties (Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia). The program aims to contribute to Feed the Future goals of reducing hunger, poverty and under-nutrition by delivering high quality research outputs that are relevant to these goals. In Ethiopia, the main aim of the project is to identify and validate solutions to the problems experienced by small-holder crop-livestock farmers. Africa RISING takes an integrated approach to strengthen farming systems. It conducts participatory research that identifies technologies and management practices that work for farmers and take account of contextual issues like markets for inputs and outputs, community and other institutions and policy environments that influence farm households.AICCRA is a three years (2021)(2022)(2023) project that operates in six African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal, Mali and Ghana. The project is supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank and enhances research and capacity-building activities by CGIAR and its partners. AICCRA in Ethiopia aims to strengthen the capacity of targeted national partners and stakeholders of CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) East Africa to access and implement at scale validated climate-smart agriculture technologies, climate information services, and climate-informed digital ag-advisories to build the resilience of agri-food systems. The AICCRA project in Ethiopia has eight research activities. Livestock feed and forage options value chain contributes to four of the eight activities, which include capacity building to support implementation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technology packages; identification of climate-and gender and social inclusion-smartness of CSA packages; prioritization and awareness increase of best-bet CSA options and approaches for key value chains; and integration of climate-smart options and tailored CSI advisory systems for specific value chains.In line with this, ILRI contracted a consultant to undertake media and communications related activities including media assessment, training of radio journalists on livestock feed and forage innovations and also impact assessment. As part of this, the consultant travelled to three regions of Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia and SNNPR) and made an assessment to identify appropriate regional radio stations. Following the assessment three media institutions are identified in the three regions and a partnership agreement was signed between ILRI and the media institutions to produce and broadcast radio programs on livestock feed and forage innovations. A two day media training workshop on climate smart feed and forage innovations were organized in Addis Ababa before starting working on the radio program production.-To increase the awareness of journalists on various livestock feed and forage innovations suitable for the Ethiopian highland mixed farming systems.-To enable journalists, appreciate the importance of feed and forage innovations for livestock development.-To help journalists identify issues / topics and develop contents that would help them produce and broadcast radio programs focusing on livestock related issues in general and feed and forage innovations.After the signing of partnership agreement with the identified media institutions, the consultant conducted discussions with the identified media institutions heads and ILRI / Africa RISING -AICCRA team to identify relevant training participants. Accordingly, the consultant in collaboration with the media institution identified 4 participants from each region (Head of the media institution, Editor and two radio program producers). In total 12 participants from the three regions attended the training workshop.The initial assessment report from the three regions; Amhara / Debre Birhan, Oromia/Bale and SNNPR/ Hossaenna showed that journalists' awareness on livestock feed and forage innovation is very limited.Many of them also responded that they have never produced stand-alone programs on both livestock and livestock feed and forage technologies. Thus, they requested an awareness raising training for them to understand the sector very well. In line with that, a two-day media training workshop on climate smart livestock feed and forage innovations was designed as follows:• Day One: Livestock production and feed and forage sources in Ethiopia; cultivated forage production and utilization in the Ethiopian highlands; fodder trees and shrubs in the Ethiopian highlands: service and product functions; post-harvest feed utilization; forage seed business and scaling; and issue identification and content development for the radio programs.• Day Two: Field visit to one of the project implementation areas, Debre Birhan / Amhara region.The training was jointly delivered by Africa RISING/AICCRA team and the consultant. The first day training combines presentation and a documentary film show entitled \"improved livestock feeding yields positive results for Ethiopian's farmers\". At the end of the first day, a Telegram group was created where all presentations and relevant materials were shared with the training participants/journalists.On the second day, the training workshop participants also visited one of the Africa RISING project implementation areas in Debre Birhan, Amhara region.The training workshop started with a brief welcoming remark by Kindu Mekonnen (Dr) who is the leader for the Africa RISING project in Ethiopia. In his welcoming remark, he mentioned that the training workshop on climate -smart livestock feed and forage innovations is supported by Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) and Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). He added that, Africa RISING is a research-for-development project supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program is working in six African countries, including Ethiopia. In the last 10 years, Africa RISING has been working in four regions of Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and SNNPR).Dr. Kindu also noted that in the first five years of the project (phase one), Africa RISING conducted a series of action research to evaluate different technologies on crops, livestock, and natural resources. In the second phase of the project implementation period, Africa RISING has been promoting and scaling technologies to different areas that were tested and validated in the first phase of the project. Currently, the number of woredas where the technologies scaled have increased from Regarding the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA), Dr. Kindu mentioned that the project is supported by World Bank and works in six African countries, including Ethiopia. The project is implemented in three regions in Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, and SNNPR. As he concludes his remarks, he reminded that the two projects have organized and supported the media training workshop on climate-smart livestock feed and forage innovations to create the awareness of the media personnel on various feed and forage innovations suitable for Ethiopian highland mixed farming systems, and to encourage journalists to produce and broadcast radio programs on feed and forage innovations. He finally noted that the two projects have targeted to reach a minimum of 10,000 beneficiaries through radio programs.Setting the scene: livestock production and feed resources in ethiopiaDr. Getnet started his presentation by highlighting some facts about the role of Livestock in the livelihood of most Ethiopian farmers and pastoralists. Ethiopia has the highest livestock population in Africa. Livestock provides food for the family, ploughing the land for crop production and provides manure. They are the source of fuel to cook, a source of income and social prestige, and transport goods and for human beings, they are the source of skin for clothing and shoe.Dr. Getnet also stated that the livestock sector contributes about 47% of the Agricultural GDP of the country.According to the presentation, livestock feed scarcity, genotype (breed); animal health; traditional management practices, and marketing are major challenges to the livestock sector in the country. Dr.Getnet also highlighted major feed sources available in the country.Increase efficient use of available feed resources, develop or adopt the successful practices and demonstrate and scale up / out of good practices are the possible strategies to alleviate feed problems in the country, He added. It was also noted that improved feeding is very crucial to transform livestock productivity. However, availing adequate and quality feed remains as a major issue. Forage crops are the most appropriate feed source in most parts of the farming system in Ethiopia.Dr. Getnet also highlighted some of the comparative advantages of forage crops which include:-Farmers can produce around their vicinity.-Productive and high in quality.-Could be integrated with Natural Resource Management (NRM) practices and many other options -multiple functions.-Diversified species and means of production.-Relatively cheaper.-Positive contribution to climate change -carbon sequestration.About available forage production packages, Dr. Getnet stated that many varieties/species are registered and recommended, productive and profitable agronomic practices are available, integration methods developed, major quality parameters are known and feeding strategies are available.He also said that intensification is a must to increase productivity due to the rapid changes in population, production practices, and investment. Demand for improved forage crops is increasing but still adoption is very low. This is because the dominant livestock production practice is still subsistence, scarcity of land, scarcity of seed and planting materials, and also traditional production practice.Finally, Dr. Getnet completed his presentation by recommending the following forage promotion approaches:1. Linking forage production to market-oriented livestock systems 2. Linking forage production to the current farming practice, NRM, marginal lands, etc.3. Strong extension system, support, and promotion 4. Establish efficient input/output supply and marketing systemsAberra started his presentation by highlighting feed shortage as the main constraint for livestock production in the country. Major feed resources are inadequate and poor in quality. And cultivated forage crops are potential options to increase feed availability and quality and transform livestock production.He indicated that cultivated forages are grasses, herbaceous legumes, shrubs/tree legumes, annuals, and perennials. They are easily accessible and affordable, high biomass yield, some are high-quality feed sources, and others are also very good sources of food for human beings and used as sources of firewood. They also provide ecosystem services, play a key role in integrated pest management initiatives, and are also used as cash crops.Abera also discussed the basic practices of cultivating forage crops, which are:A. Aberra also touched up on the on-farm evaluation of the performance of some selected forage varieties and on-farm evaluation of animal responses to some selected forage varieties as indicated below (Bezabih et al, 2017).Dr. Kindu started his presentation with fodder trees and shrubs. According to him, they are trees and shrubs that serve as important supplementary feed sources for livestock on top of providing various product and service functions in different agro ecologies/ farming systems of Africa and other continents.Leguminous and nonleguminous, fast-growing and slow-growing, exotic and indigenous, highland, mid-land, and low land, and palatable and less palatable are types of fodder trees, He added.He also highlighted the difference between Leguminous trees and shrubs and non leguminous trees and shrubs. Leguminous trees and shrubs are trees and shrubs that have high value in terms of biological, ecological, and agronomic contributions. They are also legumes that fix atmospheric nitrogen from the atmosphere and add to the system through symbiotic associations with nitrogenfixing rhizobia. Non leguminous trees and shrubs on the other hand mean trees and shrubs that don't fix and add nitrogen to the system. Some trees and shrubs scavenge nutrients and recycle nutrients into the system.Dr. Kindu also presented and discussed a number of potential fodder trees across different agro ecologies in the country.He also highlighted the characteristics of tree lucerne, one of the most adaptable fodder tree and shrub species in the highlands of Ethiopia. According to him, tree lucerne is one of the fewest leguminous and fast-growing exotic species adaptable in high-altitude areas. Africa RISING project has managed to undertake action research on tree lucerne with more than 250 farmers in Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and SNNP regions. The tree is native to Spain and exotic species to Australia, Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda, and New Zealand, He added.He also discussed to the training participants the service and product functions, growing ecology, establishment, management, and utilization of tree lucerne.Dr. Kindu concluded his presentation by delivering important tips about tree lucerne. He noted that tree lucerne plays an important role in bridging seasonal feed shortages and serves as a protein supplement to enhance the feeding value of local feed resources. Survival and productivity of tree lucerne can be improved if we protect planted seedlings from browsing, mulch during dry periods, practice clean spot weeding, and apply organic fertilizers at early growing periods of the plant (Mekonnen et al, 2019 andMekonnen et al, 2021) Scientific name Common/local name Geography/agroecologyDr. Melkamu started his presentation by highlighting some facts and figures on feed. Feed is the main input in livestock production and accounts for 40-70% of the total cost of production. Feed resources are limited and prices are increasing. Traditional feeding practices often incur large postharvest feed losses.According to Dr. Melkamu, feed losses start at harvest, continues during preservation practices, storage, feeding, and unbalanced rations. The economic and health implications of harvest and postharvest losses include increased feeding costs, the increased gap between feed demand and supply at the household level, fungal contaminations, human and animal health impacts, and labour and gender issues, He added. He also stated that improved feeding troughs and improved sheds are practical solutions for harvest and post-harvest losses. eases animal handling, and cleans barns. Improved sheds minimize contamination and quality loss. He also added that the use of improved feed stores and feeding troughs saves 30-50% of feed and reduces 10-20% of labour demand for feeding.Dr. Melkamu also highlighted other good practices in the area, including chopping and mixing before feeding, moistening dried residues with salt solution, preservation of excess feeds following recommended procedures, and harvesting crops before losing quality. As he concluded his presentation, as a key takeaways Dr. Melamu conveyed that crop residues constitute about half of the diet of ruminants in the Ethiopian highlands, feed sheds and feeding troughs play an important role in optimally using such dried, and in terms of cost it is worth investing.Dr. Million began his presentation by describing current challenges of producing forage seeds, separating them as technical challenges and market/institutional challenges. The technical challenges include, some forage such as grass are perineal and could be planted recurrently once farmers get the initial seed and Some seeds area easy to produce, hence, farmers save their own seeds. Finally, Dr.Million highlighted the role of media in forage seed sector and forage innovations scaling.On forage seeds, media could play a great role by creating space for deliberation among seed actors, advocating for transition from informal to formal systems and creating awareness creation on forage seed issues. On scaling, awareness is one critical ingredient of scaling scan. Knowledge is also another component hence, regular coverage of feed and forage issues on media would enhance their scalingHailemariam began his presentation with the question on why limited media coverage on livestockrelated issues in the country? Participants shared their views and mentioned that the government does not give enough attention to the livestock sector, due to journalist's limited awareness of livestock-related areas and low attention to the sector, limited interest in livestock experts to use/engage the media as an important stockholder. They also suggested the need to do further research to understand why of limited media coverage in the country.Hailemariam noted that mass media/ Radio is considered the most effective means to reach rural communities and to create awareness about new or existing technologies and practices. Mostly, agricultural and livestock development programs in developing countries largely succeed depending on the extent to which the media/Radio are engaged/used.Despite having Africa's largest livestock population, Ethiopia has not realized the full benefits of the sector, he said. Among the challenges includes the availability of the feed itself and also the low quality associated with feed and forage management. Under the Africa RISING projects, integrated feed and forage development showed promising results in improving Ethiopia's livestock feed system. However, many farmers have limited awareness of these feed and forage innovations. Therefore, journalists need to promote the livestock feed and forage innovations and make farmers aware of the benefits through Radio programs, He added.The presenter also discussed the media assessment which was conducted in three regions (Amhara / Debre Birhan, Oromia / Bale, and SNNPR / Hossaenna) to identify appropriate radio stations to produce and broadcast livestock feed and forage innovation-related radio programs. Based on the assessment, Debre Birhan Fana FM 94.0, Bale OBN FM 96.5, and SNNP radio and TV agency, Hossaenna FM 95.3 radio stations were identified. Following that, a partnership agreement was signed between the media and ILRI. This journalist training workshop is part of the agreement signed to capacitate media professionals so that they produce and broadcast radio programs focusing on livestock feed and forage innovations, He added.Another important topic discussed was radio issue/topic identification and content development. As opposed to top-down approaches in program production cycles, participants were given the opportunity to identify radio program issues/topics and contents to be produced and broadcast in each regional radio station. Accordingly, 10 issues were identified and discussed in each group. Finally, each group presented the identified issues in a plenary session and agreed to continue working on the content development for day two while they visit Africa RISING/AICCRA projects implementation areas.Q1: As stated, the livestock sector contributes about 47% of the GDP of the country. But the attention of the government given to the sector is low. What is the reason behind it?A1: The attention given to the livestock sector is limited. One of the reasons, may be investment is done on agriculture/crops the output is seen within a short period of time. On the other hand, when one invests in livestock it will be difficult to see the output within a short period of time. That may be the reason behind it, however, attention should be given to the livestock sector and we all should work together for this to happen.Q2: How can we give concentrate feeds to animals? Is there any idea /calculation?A: 2 With regard to concentrate feeds, we should give it to animals based on their production capacity.For example, we give a high amount of concentrate feed to the cow which gives 10 litres of milk per day, and less amount of concentrate feed for the cow which gives 5 litre of milk per day. We will not give an equal amount of concentrate feed for all cows/cattle.Q3: There are people, who use hormones to fatten their animals, if we eat the meat of this animal will there be any side effects on us?A: 3 With regard to hormones, giving hormones to fatten cattle is illegal and when you see such activity you should inform to concerned government bodies. Eating hormone-fatten animal meat has a negative impact on health, one of it is obesity.Q: 4 Is seed available for all cultivated forage innovations for all farmers?A:4 With regard to seed availability, during the first phase of the implementation period, we had been conducting participatory research that identifies technologies and management practices, and then in the second phase of the project implementation period, in collaboration with partners, we are working on scaling up the technologies to different areas. Of course, there are problems with seed availability but private seed producers are coming and we will support these private seed producers, we are also supporting farmers to produce seed by themselves.Q: 5 How can we scale up all the cultivated feed and forage technologies since we have limited land resources?A: 5 To overcome the challenges with the limited land resources we can use different options, like planting cultivated feed and forage innovations around our garden, at the entrance of our house, etc.Q: 6 Any information about poisonous plants which killed animals when they eat them?A: 6 Animals easily identify poisonous plants and most of the time they do not eat these poisonous plants. But we treat these poisonous plants for example through drying or boiling. When we dry or boil them they will not be poisonous. However, we recommend only non-poisonous feed sources and forage plants.Q: 7 Termite is one reason for feed loss during storage, how can we prevent this problem?A: 7 Yes termites are problems, but when we build our feed troughs we always should consider termites. We can use live poles or concrete, or we can cover the lower tip of the pole with plastic.Q: 8 When we feed cattle, which one is advisable? Feeding the dry or green grass /feed?A: 8 Most of the time livestock feeds loose nutrients during drying. But there are also cases when feeding dry feed is advisable. When we prepare dry feed we should prevent it from direct sunlight exposure, which will help the feed to remain full of nutrients.On the second day the training workshop participants travelled to Debre Berhan, which is the Africa RISING/AICCRA projects implementation area in Amhara region. The objective of the visit was to share the experiences of a farmer who has been implementing livestock feed and forage technologies.Gebeyehu Tadesse, a farmer living in Debre Birhan area, Angolela Kebele provided an explanation on how he is using the livestock feed and forage innovations to improve his livelihood. The farmer shared his testimonies to journalists on how engaging in livestock feed and forage innovations have changed his family significantly. The journalists were glad to visit and gain experience on what is going on at the ground level. They said that they saw everything that experts presented theoretically. They also interviewed the farmer to produce and broadcast his success story through their radio programs.After the field visit, participants continued discussing the draft contents developed during the first day and agreed to work on the following contents. With Africa RISING site coordinators• What is Africa RISING, since when has it been operational in the area?• Which of the feed and forage innovations have been experimented in the area?• Which of the feed and forage innovations are under a scaling stage?• What are some of the success stories from beneficiary farmers?• What are their messages to farmers on the adoption of feed and forage innovations?• What are their messages to farmers on the utilization of feed and forage innovations?✓ The joint Africa RISING and AICCRA supported improved and climate-smart livestock feed and forage innovations that have been found promising to narrow feed demand and supply gaps. ✓ What are some of the expert advice that farmers need to know in using cultivated forages?✓ What is expected from different actors' farmers, farmer organizations, extension, research, and political leadership?At the end of the field visit participants were asked to give comments on the training. They said that the training was so helpful and important to understand the livestock sector in general and in feed and forage innovations in particular. They said the livestock population we have is large but the benefit we got from the sector is limited. They recognized the low level of attention given by the media and other stakeholders. They commit to cover livestock-related areas. They promised to give enough media coverage to the livestock sector. Debre Birhan Fana FM head said that he will push the higher media management to have a weekly radio program on his station even without expecting external support.They have also requested livestock experts to work closely with the media and engage the media as an important partner.No ","tokenCount":"3908"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bcf770659cc940df5ad7c63af735ce57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/512745e1-11a6-4817-a241-c37f66026ca8/retrieve","id":"666432165"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"573f3ed1-4bc1-4f57-88aa-514e824eaa1e","pagecount":"89","content":"Cet Agrodok s'adresse aux personnes désireuses de se lancer dans la production à petite échelle de produits laitiers dans les pays en voie de développement. La brochure a pour but d'initier le lecteur à des techniques simples de production laitière à petite échelle et de donner un aperçu des possibilités offertes par la fabrication du fromage comme source de revenu. Comme de nombreuses connaissances sur la préparation des produits laitiers sont souvent disponibles au niveau local, il est conseillé de commencer par se familiariser avec ces méthodes. Il est recommandé aussi de ne pas introduire de produits laitiers occidentaux quand ce n'est pas nécessaire.Les auteurs ont utilisé les informations recueillies auprès de J.C.T. van den Berg de l'Université d'Agriculture de Wageningen, qui possède une longue expérience dans la préparation des produits laitiers au niveau industriel sous les tropiques. Les recettes données dans cet Agrodok sont tirées de plusieurs ouvrages. Nous vous serions reconnaissants de bien vouloir nous écrire pour nous faire part de vos expériences avec ces recettes ou avec toute autre recette locale.Cette sixième édition inclut les nouvelles connaissances techniques issues de la recherche sur les produits laitiers et les expériences acquises par les services de vulgarisation. Il est cependant tout à fait impossible de couvrir l'ensemble des savoirs sur les produits laitiers. Il faudrait que le lecteur possède des connaissances de base en chimie, physique et microbiologie laitière et que les fermes soient en mesure de respecter des conditions particulières d'hygiène et de manipulation du lait. Il faut donc considérer cette brochure comme une initiation. Les lecteurs intéressés pourront élargir leurs connaissances en consultant des ouvrages plus spécifiques et en suivant des formations sur d'importantes méthodes de fabrication de produits laitiers.1 IntroductionSous les tropiques, les gens élèvent du bétail pour diverses raisons : pour la force de travail des animaux, leur viande, leur laine, leurs poils, leur peau et leurs excréments qui peuvent servir de combustible une fois séchés. Le lait n'est souvent qu'un produit secondaire alors qu'il est en fait une précieuse denrée alimentaire. L'élevage d'animaux laitiers permet aussi de faire des économies car la vente de bétail peut fournir de l'argent en cas de besoin. Le bétail est donc une sorte d'assurance contre les maladies et les mauvaises récoltes.Ce n'est pas par hasard que l'on élève certains animaux produisant un certain type de lait dans une région donnée. Cela s'explique par : les conditions climatiques, les maladies locales prévalentes, le fourrage disponible, le niveau de prise de risques acceptable pour le propriétaire, les tâches supplémentaires attribuées à l'animal, la religion, les traditions et la préférence pour certains produits issus des animauxx.L'élevage d'animaux laitiers conduit souvent à un surplus de lait. Si, dans une région donnée, la production laitière est supérieure à sa consommation, le surplus peut être vendu sur le marché ou être transformé pour ne pas être gaspillé. Si la quantité de lait à transformer est faible (moins de 100 litres à chaque fois), cette activité est considérée être à petite échelle. C'est de cette activité de transformation du lait à petite échelle et avec des ustensiles simples dont traite cet Agrodok.? La plupart des produits dérivés du lait se conservent plus longtemps que le lait : il n'est donc pas nécessaire de consommer tout le lait immédiatement. ? La demande en lait frais est limitée : les laitages sont souvent plus appréciés. ? Lorsque la quantité de lait frais vendue quotidiennement est limitée, il est plus avantageux de transformer le lait en produits moins périssables, de les conserver pour les vendre plus tard en plus grandes quantités. ? Lorsqu'il n'y a pas dans le voisinage de marché pour écouler le lait frais, les produits conservés peuvent être vendus sur des marchés plus éloignés. ? On peut obtenir un gain financier plus important.Il faut savoir en outre que de nombreux groupes de population en Asie et y en Afrique ne peuvent pas, ou difficilement, consommer de lait à cause de ce qu'on appelle l'intolérance au lactose : le corps n'assimile pas, ou difficilement, le sucre (lactose) contenu dans le lait. Le lait ne peut être digéré qu'en petites quantités (pas plus de 200 ml à la fois) alors que les produits laitiers dans lesquels le sucre a été partiellement transformé (fromage, yaourt, babeurre) ne posent guère de problèmes digestifs.Avant de traiter le surplus de lait, il faut se demander si c'est rentable. Le traitement n'est pas toujours facile et il peut y avoir des pertes. Par exemple, le petit-lait, qui est l'un des résidus de la fabrication du fromage, contient de nombreux nutriments de valeur. S'il n'est pas utilisé, une partie importante des qualités du lait est perdue. De plus, une détérioration de la qualité du lait pendant le traitement est possible : le lait peut tourner. Ce n'est que lorsque le lait est bu immédiatement que l'on peut être sûr qu'il possède encore toutes ses qualités.Le traitement du lait à petite échelle est la transformation de petites quantités de lait (jusqu'à 100 litres) avec des ustensiles simples et un minimum de matériel spécial. Sous les tropiques, le traitement du lait pose parfois des problèmes à cause des températures élevées et de la forte humidité relative. Ces conditions climatiques influent sur le choix des laitages à fabriquer et sur leur durée de conservation. Il faut donc en tenir compte.Les hautes températures sont néfastes à la fabrication du fromage, surtout pendant la maturation. Les hautes températures favorisent la multiplication des bactéries. Le lactose tourne à l'acide et provoque le caillage du lait. Les bactéries de l'acide lactique responsables de la tourne ne sont pas dangereuses pour l'homme.Le nettoyage et la stérilisation des ustentiles et du matériel sont de première importance. C'est pourquoi toutes les personnes qui manipulent le lait doivent toujours veiller à respecter une bonne hygiène. Le manque de propreté permet aux bactéries de s'introduire dans le lait, ce qui le fait tourner et réduit sa durée de conservation. La prévention de la contamination est souvent difficile lorsque le lait est collecté à divers endroits pour être transformé dans une seule usine. Même une toute petite quantité de lait infecté peut contaminer tout le reste.Un autre problème est le manque de matériel. Il faut essayer de s'accommoder d'un matériel simple car il est souvent difficile d'acheter du matériel pour le traitement du lait à petite échelle. Comme l'électricité n'est généralement pas disponible, on ne peut utiliser de matériel électrique (pour le refroidissement par exemple), à moins d'installer un générateur. Sous les tropiques, les additifs, comme la présure pour la fabrication du fromage, sont souvent difficiles à se procurer.Figure 2 : Les brebis fournissent du lait, de la viande, de la laine, de la peau, de la fourrure et du fumier Les chapitres suivants traitent de l'importance du lait dans l'alimentation ainsi que des mesures d'hygiène et des méthodes de transformation du lait.La seconde partie de l'ouvrage donnent des règles générales sur le chauffage, le refroidissement, la fermentation et sur la fabrication de la crème, du beurre, du beurre clarifié, des produits laitiers acides et du fromage.Le lait contient des substances essentielles à l'être humain : protéines, hydrates de carbone, matières grasses, eau, toutes vitamines B, vitamines A et D, calcium et phosphore. Il fournit aussi de l'énergie.Une importante protéine du lait est la caséine qui constitue bien souvent 80% de la protéine du lait. C'est ce qui est à la base de la fabrication du fromage. La caséine est associée au phosphate de calcium, ce qui explique pourquoi le lait contient relativement beaucoup de ce sel, une substance nutritive extrêmement importante pour les humains et les animaux.Outre la caséine, le lait contient des protéines de petit-lait (20 % de la protéine du lait). Les protéines du petit-lait restent généralement dans le petit-lait et ne sont pas incorporées dans le fromage. Ces protéines (globulines et albumines) ont une très grande valeur nutritive.La protéine du lait est de bonne qualité, c'est-à-dire qu'elle peut être en grande partie utilisée pour la construction des protéines du corps. Les protéines des autres denrées alimentaires complètent son action.Combiné dans un même repas avec des céréales, des pommes de terre, de la viande, des oeufs ou des noix, le lait fournit au corps un pourcentage plus élevé de protéines.Outre le lait, d'autres sources de protéines animales (poisson, viande) et de protéines végétales (céréales, cosses) sont également importantes pour la construction des protéines du corps. Les protéines sont nécessaires à la croissance, au remplacement des protéines usées et à la production des composants nécessaires à l'organisme.Le lactose est un hydrate de carbone nécessaire au fonctionnement du corps humain. Le corps brûle des hydrates de carbone comme un four brûle du bois. Cette combustion libère de l'énergie que le corps utilise pour exercer toutes sortes d'activités.Les matières grasses du lait se présentent sous forme de globules, plus légers que les autres composants du lait. Les globules se rassemblent à la surface du lait de vache laissé au repos et forment une couche de crème. Il se forme également un peu de crème sur le lait de bufflesse laissé au repos mais pas sur les autres sortes de lait (brebis, chèvre). Dans ce cas, il faut procéder mécaniquement à la séparation de la crème et du lait. Les matières grasses du lait sont faciles à digérer. Le corps les utilise comme combustible ou les met en réserve. La composition diffère entre le lait de femme, de vache, de bufflesse, de chèvre, de brebis, de chamelle, de guenon et de lama, comme indiqué dans le tableau suivant. Le lait de bufflesse caille plus vite que celui de vache. Si la préparation n'est pas adaptée, le fromage de lait de bufflesse mûrit plus lentement et a une consistance plus sèche que le fromage de lait de vache. Le lait de chèvre a parfois une saveur déplaisante qui peut être évitée en faisant bouillir le lait immédiatement après la traite. Le goût du lait peut varier en fonction des chèvres ou des races de chèvres.Le lait de vache constitue 91% de la production mondiale de lait et les laits de bufflesse, de chèvre et de brebis respectivement 5,9%, 1,6% et 1,7%. Malgré les énormes différences régionales, on peut dire que les laits de vache et de bufflesse sont généralement préférés pour la consommation directe à ceux de chèvre et de brebis, ce à cause de leur goût plus neutre.Les laits de chèvre et de brebis sont plus appréciés pour la fabrication des fromages et des laitages aigres (surtout celui de brebis). Le lait maternel est parfaitement adapté aux besoins de l'enfant et contient certaines substances qui le protègent contre les maladies infectieuses. Il contient en quantité suffisante les nutriments nécessaires à l'enfant (sauf le fer et la vitamine C). A la naissance, l'enfant dispose d'une réserve de fer emmagasinée dans son foie. Cette réserve s'épuise en 6 mois environ.Une alimentation supplémentaire n'est nécessaire qu'après 3 mois, lorsque le lait maternel ne suffit plus à fournir tous les nutriments indispensables. Un supplément en vitamine C (jus de fruit, fruits écrasés) est nécessaire et un supplément en produits riches en énergie est souhaitable. L'ajout de petites quantités de lait en poudre à la nourriture écrasée permet d'améliorer considérablement la valeur nutritive d'un repas (surtout en protéine). Il est préférable de dépenser son argent pour des produits de première nécessité plutôt que pour de la nourriture artificielle, à moins que ce ne soit strictement nécessaire. Si un nourrisson ne supporte pas le lait, il faut lui donner des laitages ne contenant pas de lactose. C'est le cas de l'intolérance congénitale au lactose ; nous allons l'examiner maintenant plus en détail.On parle d'intolérance au lactose lorsque le corps ne peut pas, ou difficilement, digérer le lactose (sucre de lait) par manque de lactase, l'enzyme nécessaire à la digestion du lactose. Il existe diverses formes d'intolérance au lactose chez les enfants : ? L'intolérance congénitale : le nourrisson ne supporte pas le lait car son organisme ne dispose pas de lactase, nécessaire à la scission du lactose en glucose et galactose. ? L'intolérance des enfants (2-5 ans) : une forte baisse d'activité de la lactase se produit vers deux ans pouvant provoquer des problèmes de déficience à l'âge de 4-5 ans. La consommation de petites quantités de lait (un verre à la fois) ne pose généralement pas de problèmes. On s'évitera bien des soucis en donnant aux enfants des laitages fermentés dans lesquels le lactose a été partiellement transformé (fromage, yaourt, babeurre). ? L'intolérance due à une maladie intestinale et à la malnutrition, en particulier chez les nourrissons tout-petits. L'activité de la lactase est temporairement réduite. Il faut pendant quelque temps donner des laitages qui ne contiennent pas de lactose. Le fromage et les produits fermentés dans lesquels le lactose a été transformé (yaourt) conviennent également.La consommation de lait ne dépend pas seulement de l'intolérance au lactose mais aussi d'autres facteurs que nous abordons ici.On appelle \"régime alimentaire\" la façon dont les gens se nourrissent ainsi que les denrées alimentaires qu'ils utilisent. Le régime alimentaire dépend en grande partie des traditions et de la religion, de la situation économique, de la place dans la société et des possibilités offertes par l'environnement naturel. Il n'est pas surprenant que chaque groupe de population ait son propre type de régime alimentaire. Tout examen du régime alimentaire humain doit inclure celui de la consommation de lait et de laitages.Voici comment les facteurs mentionnés ci-dessus peuvent influer sur la consommation de lait et laitages : ? En Inde, la vache est un animal sacré : il est impossible de s'y procurer la présure nécessaire à la fabrication du fromage car elle est extraite de l'estomac de veau (caillette). ? L'achat de lait et de laitages nécessite de l'argent. ? Dans les régions à forte densité démographique, toutes les terres disponibles sont utilisées pour les cultures à grosses récoltes ou destinées à la consommation immédiate ; Il ne reste alors plus guère de place pour l'élevage. Voyons maintenant comment les micro-organismes attaquent le lait. Nous préciserons ensuite les précautions à prendre pour minimiser l'influence de ces facteurs et les règles à suivre en matière de nettoyage et de stérilisation.Les bactéries, levures et moisissures sont des micro-organismes.Les micro-organismes sont minuscules et invisibles à l'oeil nu. Il s'en trouve partout, dans l'air, l'eau et le sol ainsi que dans la nourriture et le lait. En général, les micro-organismes se multiplient très rapidement.Le lait contenu dans le pis d'un animal sain en est dépourvu. Le lait peut être contaminé par des micro-organismes nocifs au cours de la traite, de la manutention, du transport et du stockage. Les microorganismes contaminants peuvent provenir de la peau de l'animal, des mains du trayeur, des instruments de traite ou même de l'air.La plupart des micro-organismes sont inoffensifs mais certains sont susceptibles de provoquer des maladies comme la salmonellose, la dysenterie, la tuberculose (chez l'homme et l'animal), la diphtérie et la scarlatine. Ces micro-organismes sont appelés bactéries pathogèniques. Certaines maladies se transmettent par manque d'hygiène, d'homme à homme et d'animal à homme. Voir tableau 5.   Le nettoyage consiste à enlever la saleté, les restes de nourriture et les micro-organismes qui se trouvent à la surface du matériel. Les casseroles, les pots, le matériel de traite et les ustensiles doivent être nettoyés aussitôt après l'usage. Une solution de soude (carbonate de sodium) dans de l'eau chaude est un excellent détergent. Il faut désinfecter le matériel aussitôt après l'usage pour tuer les microorganismes nuisibles qui restent. On peut utiliser une solution de chlore telle que l'eau de Javel (hypochlorite de sodium). Les instruments bien nettoyés sont presque stériles, à l'exception de quelques bactéries. En les conservant secs, ils seront préservés des bactéries. Il n'est alors pas nécessaire de les désinfecter. Le lait se conserve plus longtemps lorsqu'il a été traité. Vous pouvez le conserver plus longtemps si vous maîtriser le développement des micro-organismes. Les méthodes de traitement choisies déterminent la durée de conservation du lait et des laitages. Il est important de respecter les règles suivantes lors de la production, de la conservation et du traitement.? Lavez-vous toujours bien les mains et ne touchez jamais le lait.? Nettoyez et désinfectez tout le matériel utilisé.? Veillez à ce qu'aucune saleté ou insecte ne s'introduise dans le lait.? N'utilisez pas d'ustensiles en cuivre si possible (le cuivre donne un goût désagréable au beurre et au lait). ? N'exposez pas le lait à la lumière et au soleil, conservez-le dans un endroit sombre. ? Utilisez un thermomètre. ? Assurez-vous que le lait de consommation a été bouilli ou pasteurisé. ? Ne conservez jamais de lait cru (n'ayant pas été chauffé) s'il n'a pas été refroidi immédiatement à moins de 4°C. ? Ne buvez jamais de lait cru car il peut contenir des bactéries pathogéniques transportant notamment la tuberculose et la salmonelle.Nous présentons dans ce chapitre les méthodes de traitement qui suivent : ? pasteurisation ; ? refroidissement ; ? acidification ; ? fabrication de la crème.Le chauffage et le refroidissement sont en fait des méthodes de conservation. Pour la facilité, nous les présentons avec les méthodes de traitement. La température de stérilisation du lait dépend du produit désiré : ? La pasteurisation basse est bonne pour le lait de consommation et le fromage ? La pasteurisation haute est bonne pour le yaourt, le beurre et le kéfir.Quand il y a pas une thermomètre à mesurer la température exacte, chauffez le lait jusqu'à le point de bouillir.La méthode A ci-dessous est appropriée lorsque l'on peut contrôler exactement la durée et la température. Les méthodes B et C sont plus hygiéniques, mais ne permettent pas de connaître la température exacte du lait.   La crème est constituée des graisses qui flottent à la surface du lait de vache. Une couche de crème contenant 20% de graisses se forme à la surface du lait de vache laissé au repos pendant au moins une demijournée. Elle est facile à recueillir avec une cuillère. Les laits de brebis et de chèvre donnent peu de crème. Le recueil de la crème nécessite l'utilisation d'un séparateur ou d'une écrémeuse centrifuge. Avec 10 litres de lait, on doit pouvoir obtenir 1 à 2 litres de crème.Le lait écrémé qui reste après le retrait de la crème a encore une grande valeur nutritive car il contient presque toutes les protéines du lait. Il peut être bu ou transformé en lait fermenté ou en fromage.La crème ou le lait aigres (fermentés) sont fabriqués par incubation de crème fraîche ou de lait frais inoculés. Cette inoculation se fait au moyen d'une culture de bactéries lactiques.  On distingue différents groupes de laits fermentés dont voici les principales différences : ? Les différentes sortes de lait : lait de vache, de chèvre, de brebis, de bufflesse, de chamelle et de jument. ? Type de flore de fermentation. ? La façon dont le lait est traité, avant ou après fermentation.Différentes sortes de bactéries produisent différentes sortes de lait fermenté. Le yaourt, le dahi, le laban, le nono et le koumis sont tous obtenus de cette façon mais ont des goûts, des couleurs et des textures différentes.  Le lait commence à fermenter après inoculation bactérienne. Le cycle de fermentation dure au total un à deux jours. Au cours de cette période, les bactéries se développent en quatre phases.Pendant cette période, les bactéries sont relativement peu nombreuses et doivent s'adapter à leur nouvel environnement. Leur multiplication est encore très lente. La durée de cette période dépend du type de bactéries, de leur qualité, de la température du lait et d'éventuels facteurs inhibant la croissance.Une fois adaptées à leur nouvel environnement, les bactéries se multiplient rapidement et commencent à transformer le lactose en acide lactique. Le lait s'épaissit suite à la coagulation des protéines et il prend une saveur aigre.Pendant cette période, le nombre de bactéries reste constant parce qu'elles ne peuvent se développer dans le lait fermenté.Suite à l'épuisement de la source alimentaire et à la production d'acide lactique, les bactéries deviennent inactives et finissent par mourir.Remarque : La baisse progressive de l'activité bactérienne explique pourquoi il ne faut pas attendre trop longtemps avant d'incorporer au lait frais une partie de la culture (inoculation) :On Chaque produit, par exemple le yaourt et le fromage, requiert une culture de départ différente. Si vous pouvez vous procurer une culture en poudre, suivez bien les indications inscrites sur l'emballage. Après ouverture de l'emballage, les bactéries ne survivent pas longtemps, en tout cas pas plus de 6 mois.Pour fabriquer une culture de départ, il faut : ? du lait frais ; ? un thermomètre ; ? une source de chaleur ;? une casserole de taille normale (1 à 2 litres) avec couvercle ; ? une culture de départ fraîche ou en poudre ; ? un endroit à température élevée constante (par exemple une boîte isotherme) ; ? une cuillère ou une petite mesure ; ? des pots en verre se fermant bien.Vous pouvez stériliser le matériel en trempant les cuillères, louches et couvercles dans de l'eau bouillante pendant au moins 5 minutes. La fabrication de la première culture nécessite l'utilisation d'une poudre achetée dans le commerce ou une culture liquide fraîche et active. Si vous utilisez une poudre : mélangez-la à une petite quantité de lait jusqu'à obtenir une pâte bien lisse (tout ce qui entre en contact avec la pâte de départ doit avoir été bouilli). Rajoutez du lait froid préalablement bouilli (suivez le mode d'emploi sur l'emballage) et laissez le mélange reposer à la température indiquée. Les cultures sèches sont généralement plus faibles que les cultures fraîches. Mieux vaut donc les inoculer une deuxième fois et les incuber à nouveau avant de les utiliser pour la fabrication d'autres produits (voir figure 13).En cas de culture liquide fraîche, ajoutez 1 à 3% de cette culture dans le lait pour l'inoculer. Pour les cultures en poudre, suivez les instructions fournies sur l'emballage. Le lait inoculé doit être incubé quelque temps à une certaine température (20 à 24 heures à une température de 18-20°C). Les bactéries ont ainsi le temps de se multiplier et le lait de fermenter.Des produits différents comme le fromage et le yaourt requièrent aussi différentes cultures de départ. L'incubation du yaourt dure beaucoup moins longtemps, de 3 à 6 heures pour des températures de respectivement 45 et 38°C.Les bactéries commencent à croître dès que la culture est mélangée au lait. Il faut alors maintenir la température constante. Il y a plusieurs façons de maintenir la culture à la température désirée : on peut verser le lait chaud dans une bouteille thermos ou utiliser une boîte isotherme contenant un récipient rempli du lait en fermentation. On peut aussi recouvrir la casserole fermée d'une couverture ou placer le pot fermé sous les couvertures du lit.Une fois la culture fermentée, elle peut être utilisée pour faire des laitages fermentés et du fromage.Le maintien de la culture nécessite son transfert quotidien dans du lait fraîchement bouilli et refroidi, écrémé éventuellement. Cette manipulation empêche les bactéries de trop s'affaiblir et de perdre de leur efficacité. Une partie de la culture existante sert à inoculer le lait frais qui est à son tour fermenté pour devenir la nouvelle « culture mère ». Le reste de la culture originale sert à faire des produits comme le yaourt, le fromage et le babeurre. Un ajout de 1 à 3 % de culture au lait est suffisant. Après incubation il faut faire refroidir le lait en le mettant par exemple dans le réfrigérateur où il incubera à nouveau pendant 20 à 24 heures. Si vous disposez d'un réfrigérateur, vous pouvez faire l'inoculation une fois par semaine mais il vaut mieux rafraîchir la culture deux fois par semaine. La culture mère doit être refroidie.Si toute la culture n'est pas utilisée immédiatement, le reste peut être conservé dans un endroit froid (réfrigérateur) pendant une semaine. Après un usage trop répété, elle s'affaiblit et sa qualité baisse. Elle perd son goût acide et frais. Si vous constatez après quelque temps une baisse de l'activité de la culture, utilisez une nouvelle culture fraîche.En règle générale, la culture est bonne à jeter s'il faut plus de 10 heures pour faire du yaourt à 40-45 °C ou plus de 30 heures pour que le lait s'acidifie après l'ajout de la culture (à une température de 20°C). Si Si la fermentation est lente et si le coagulé est peu épais et a perdu son un goût frais, vous pouvez être sûr que les bactéries ne sont plus très actives.Au lieu d'utiliser du lait de culture, on peut utiliser du lait en poudre. Il faut absolument dissoudre la poudre de lait dans de l'eau potable ayant bouilli. Au lieu d'une culture, on peut utiliser une petite quantité d'un produit frais (yaourt, lait acide ou babeurre) récemment fabriqué mais cette méthode n'est pas très sûre. Le moyen le plus sûr -mais, hélas, le plus coûteux -est d'utiliser chaque fois une nouvelle culture de départ, surtout quand on ne fait pas de laitages acides régulièrement (pas tous les mois). Cela évite l'inoculation quotidienne.Lorsqu'il est trop difficile de se procurer des cultures de départ, vous pouvez fabriquer vous-même de simples cultures d'acide lactique à partir du lait cru (voir figure 12). Conservez le lait cru à la température ambiante jusqu'à ce qu'il ait développé assez d'acide pour cailler : laissez par exemple 1 litre de lait frais cru pendant 24 à 48 heures à une température de 20 à 30 °C.Faites bouillir une seconde quantité de lait que vous laissez refroidir à la température à laquelle le lait fermente habituellement au cours du processus de production. Ecumez (et jetez) la couche supérieure du lait acidifié spontanément à l'aide d'une cuillère ou d'une louche (pour enlever les micro-organismes qui adhèrent aux globules de graisse). Ajoutez au lait bouilli une petite quantité (2-5%) de ce lait acidifié (appelé inoculum) et mélangez soigneusement.Après 24 heures d'incubation à la température ambiante, utilisez un peu du lait acidifié (1-2%) restant pour inoculer du lait frais bouilli à une température d'environ 20°C (voir figure 14). Répétez l'opération quotidiennement pendant une semaine.La fermentation prend place dans une bouteille fermée avec un bouchon désinfecté ou dans un pot hermétiquement fermé. Isolement et production d'une culture de départ simple ; la culture finale peut être utilisée pour une inoculation à 1-3%. Et ainsi de suite. Il est d'importance cruciale que tous les ustensiles et instruments utilisés (pots, cuillères, etc.) soient propres et désinfectés. Évitez la contamination après la désinfection ! Après cette période de mise en culture, le lait aigre peut être utilisé comme culture de départ car les bactéries lactiques auront supplanté presque toutes les autres bactéries. Certains problèmes de fermentation peuvent être dus aux causes suivantes : ? Le lait contient des antibiotiques comme la pénicilline (si la vache a été traitée aux antibiotiques). ? Le lait a été contaminé par du peroxyde d'hydrogène ou des désinfectants qui ralentissent la fermentation. ? La température d'incubation du lait est trop basse (inférieure à 18°C). ? La température du lait au moment de l'inoculation était trop élevée (environ 40°C).Le schéma 15 donne un aperçu des différents produits laitiers dérivés du lait. La plupart des recettes de laitages utilisent plusieurs méthodes de conservation (refroidissement, chauffage, séchage, acidication, salage). Les différentes sortes de lait donnent des résultats différents.Toutes les casseroles et tous les récipients et ustensiles utilisés doivent être très soigneusement désinfectés (voir chapitre 3).Il faut : du lait cru non bouilli et une source de chaleur. Un lait acidifié spontanément mais ayant conservé un bon goût et un bon arôme peut encore être baratté.La durée du barattage varie de 5 à 60 minutes selon certains facteurs, tels que : ? la sorte d'animal laitier ; ? le taux de graisse de la crème ; ? le traitement de la crème ; il faut laisser à la crème le temps (au moins 12 heures à 10-18°C) de cristalliser une partie des graisses avant de la baratter ; ? la nourriture consommée par l'animal qui influence la cristallisation (= point de fusion) des graisses ; ? la température pendant le barattage.Ce dernier aspect dépend également du point de fusion des graisses. Si la crème est trop froide, les particules de graisse ont du mal à s'agglutiner et le barattage prend plus de temps. Si la crème est trop chaude, le barattage est rapide mais les particules de graisse ne s'agglutinent pas non plus et le malaxage est impossible. La température de barattage doit être de 15 à 20°C.Le beurre a une durée de conservation limitée. Il peut moisir ou rancir. Un déplaisant goût de fromage peut se développer suite à la détérioration des protéines. On peut choisir de faire du beurre clarifié (voir ci-dessous) qui se conserve plus longtemps que le beurre. Le beurre clarifié s'obtient en retirant du beurre les dernières gouttes d'eau par évaporation après réchauffement, ou en faisant fondre le beurre et en l'égouttant pour séparer l'eau des graisses.Le babeurre est un produit secondaire de la fabrication du beurre. Son goût est plus ou moins acide en fonction de l'acidité de la crème ou du lait utilisé pour la fabrication du beurre et en fonction du degré d'acidification après barattage.Il est également possible de faire du babeurre acidifié avec du lait complet ou écrémé, en l'inoculant avec du lait aigre et en le faisant fermenter pendant une journée.Pour le lait aigre, il faut : du lait frais (écrémé) ; une source de chaleur ; une cuillère en bois ; du lait frais fermenté, du babeurre ou une culture de départ au choix ; une casserole à fond épais et un thermomètre.Chauffez le lait entier ou écrémé jusqu'à ébullition en remuant constamment. Refroidissez-le jusqu'à 18-20°C, par exemple dans une grande casserole remplie d'eau froide. Ajoutez 10-30 ml de lait aigre ou de babeurre ou d'une culture de départ par litre de lait (1%). Laissez reposer pendant 18-24 heures à une température ambiante de 18-20 °C. Au-delà de cette température, la fermentation se fera plus rapidement. Le lait aigre est alors prêt. Conservez-le dans un endroit frais (dans un cellier ou un réfrigérateur) afin de le conserver pendant plusieurs jours.Il faut : ? du beurre ; ? une source de chaleur ; ? une casserole ; ? une spatule métallique.Chauffez le beurre jusqu'à séparation de l'eau et de la graisse ; la graisse remonte à la surface. Il existe deux méthodes pour enlever l'eau : ? En continuant à chauffer jusqu'à évaporation de l'eau. ? En enlevant la couche de graisse avec une cuillère. Chauffez à nouveau cette graisse. Enlevez régulièrement la crème qui se forme, de préférence avec une écumoire. La couleur du beurre clarifié varie de presque blanc à brun foncé. Il peut avoir un goût un peu rance mais non un goût de brûlé. Dans ce cas, il doit être jeté. La préparation du koa prend beaucoup de temps (quelques heures) et nécessite beaucoup de combustible. En outre, un litre de lait ne produit que 0,4 litres de koa.Le rabi est du lait concentré sucré. On ajoute de temps en temps du sucre au lait pendant la concentration. Pour le préparer, il vous faut : ? du lait (non bouilli) ; ? une source de chaleur ; ? une casserole en fer propre, large, peu profonde à fond épais ; ? une surface métallique plate ; ? du sucre ; ? une balance.Ajoutez du sucre au lait qui chauffe (300 g maximum par litre de lait) et suivez le même procédé que pour le koa. On retrouve souvent des morceaux de sucre dans le produit fini.Le yaourt est le produit de l'acidification du lait par certaines bactéries lactiques se développant à des températures bien supérieures à la température de la pièce : 37 -45°C. Il faut d'abord chauffer le lait à 85°C ou plus. Une température de pasteurisation élevée (supérieure à 72°C) permet d'obtenir un produit final de meilleure consistance. Après l'acidification du lait, on peut utiliser le yaourt obtenu pour faire du yaourt plus frais en l'ajoutant à du lait frais.Il vous faut : ? du lait cru frais ; ? une source de chaleur ; ? une casserole ; ? une source de refroidissement (grand récipient rempli d'eau froide) ; ? une cuillère ; ? un thermomètre ; ? une culture de départ pour yaourt ou un peu de yaourt frais ; ? une bouteille thermos ou une boîte couverte d'une couverture ; ? un endroit froid (réfrigérateur ou cellier).Chauffez le lait à 85°C ou à son point d'ébullition et maintenez cette température pendant 3 minutes. Refroidissez-le à 45°C. Ajoutez 2 cuillères à soupe (30 ml) de yaourt par litre de lait ;le yaourt ne doit pas dater de plus de 2 jours. Si le yaourt est frais, vous pouvez utiliser une culture de départ pour yaourt. Mélangez le lait et la culture et laissez-le fermenter. Le temps nécessaire dépend de la température. A titre indicatif : à 40-45 °C, il faut de 3 à 6 heures ; à 35-37 °C, de 20 à 15 heures ; à 30°C °C, 24 heures environ.La température idéale pour obtenir un yaourt à la saveur agréable et de consistance ferme est 40-45°C. Il est impossible de fabriquer du yaourt à des températures inférieures à 30°C ou supérieures à 50°C. La bonne température peut être maintenue en mettant le récipient dans une boîte isotherme ou en le couvrant d'une couverture. Le yaourt est prêt pour la consommation lorsque la période d'incubation est terminée. Le yaourt se conserve au froid pendant une semaineChauffez le lait à 85°C puis refroidissez-le à 45°C. Versez 90% du lait dans une bouteille thermos bien rincée avec de l'eau chaude. Mélangez au lait restant 1 à 2 cuillères à soupe de yaourt fraîchement préparé (ou de culture de yaourt) et ajoutez-le dans la bouteille thermos. Fermez bien la bouteille et laissez reposer pendant 3 à 6 heures. Retirez le yaourt du thermos et conservez-le dans un endroit froid. Le yaourt de lait de brebis est trop épais pour être fait en bouteille thermos.Reconstituez le lait à partir du lait en poudre selon les doses indiquées sur l'emballage en ajoutant 10 à 15% de poudre en plus. Diluez le lait en poudre dans de l'eau, faites bouillir puis faites refroidir en dessous de 45°C.Incorporez 1 à 3 cuillères à soupe de yaourt frais ou de culture de yaourt par litre de lait. Couvrez la casserole et placez-la dans un endroit chaud et isolé. Après 3 à 6 heures, le yaourt (ferme et concentré) est prêt à la consommation.Pour faire du yaourt, il faut utiliser de préférence du lait frais mais on peut aussi utiliser du lait en poudre. Le lait stérilisé donne un yaourt plus fin que le lait pasteurisé. Après l'incubation, le refroidissement est souhaitable, si possible en dessous de 10 °C, pour arrêter l'acidification (le goût reste bon). Les bactéries restent viables et le yaourt peut être utilisé pour inoculer du lait frais.Veillez à ce que le lait s'acidie le plus vite possible, de préférence à 40-45°C plutôt qu'à 30°C. Les bactéries nuisibles se développent moins si la période de fermentation est plus courte. On obtient un yaourt plus épais en ajoutant 2 ou 3 cuillères à soupe de lait en poudre par litre de lait avant le chauffage à 85°C.Il est déconseillé d'utiliser comme culture de départ des yaourts aux fruits achetés dans le commerce car ils contiennent de nombreux additifs. On peut utiliser du yaourt nature acheté dans le commerce s'il n'est pas trop vieux. Le yaourt stérilisé ne convient pas car toutes les bactéries ont été détruites. Si on utilise comme culture du yaourt emballé dans du carton ou en pot, il faut d'abord en retirer la couche supérieure et prendre le yaourt du milieu : les bactéries y sont plus diverses et plus actives. Remuez le moins possible pour éviter le risque d'introduire des bactéries nuisibles.Comme le yaourt, le kéfir est un laitage traditionnel des tribus nomades des régions froides du Caucase. La fabrication du kéfir produit de l'acide, du gaz et un peu d'alcool. Comme le lait aigre et le babeurre, le kéfir a un goût spécial, différent de celui du yaourt. Il est fait avec une \"plante à yaourt\". Ce nom est trompeur car ce n'est pas une vraie plante et cela n'a rien à voir avec le yaourt.C'est en fait un amalgame en forme de chou-fleur de cristaux crayeux et de micro-organismes tels que les levures et les bactéries. Les levures produisent de l'alcool et du gaz et les bactéries transforment le lactose en acide lactique. Vous pouvez vous procurer un peu de culture de kéfir auprès de quelqu'un qui en fait régulièrement. Sinon, achetez sur le marché local quelques grains de kéfir séchés. Pour le préparer, il vous faut : du lait cru frais, une casserole, une source de chaleur, un thermomètre, un récipient propre, une bouteille à goulot large, une bouteille fermant hermétiquement, des grains de kéfir ou une \"plante à yaourt\", un tamis, une source de refroidissement, de l'eau propre, un torchon, un endroit froid pour le conserver. Le kéfir peut être laissé à mûrir pour donner lieu à la fermentation. Cette opération est essentielle pour obtenir les qualités caractéristiques du produit. Versez le lait dans une bouteille bien propre qui se ferme ou dans une bouteille à capsule fixe. Ne la remplissez pas plus qu'aux trois quarts, car du gaz se forme pendant la maturation. Maintenez la bouteille à environ 15 °C pendant 3 jours maximum. Vers la fin de la maturation, le petit-lait se sépare et peut être réincorporé en mélangeant et agitant la bouteille. Le produit fini est une boisson épaisse, crémeuse, mousseuse, au goût et à l'arôme acides, provenant du dioxyde de carbone produit. Si vous laissez mûrir le kéfir pendant plus de 3 jours, le lait risque de cailler et la boisson sera trop acide. La température et la durée de maturation sont importantes car elles déterminent le goût du produit. Le kéfir se conserve pendant quelques jours au réfrigérateur ou dans un cellier.Conservation des grains de kéfir Si vous arrêtez quelque temps la production de kéfir, faites sécher les grains de kéfir comme suit : mettez-les dans une passoire et rincez-les soigneusement avec de l'eau propre pour enlever tous les restes de lait. Déposez-les dans un torchon propre et laissez-les sécher dans un endroit propre, mais pas au soleil, jusqu'à ce que les grains soient recroquevillés. Vous pouvez alors les conserver dans une bouteille fermée dans un endroit froid pendant 12 à 18 mois. Les grains rincés peuvent se conserver au congélateur.On peut aussi les conserver dans un pot rempli d'eau à 4°C mais ils deviennent alors inactifs après 8 à 10 jours.Le risque d'échec est plus grand avec le kéfir qu'avec le yaourt. Le produit fini peut non seulement avoir un mauvais goût mais aussi être nocif. La production d'un bon kéfir demande une hygiène rigoureuse. Veillez aussi à ne pas travailler à des températures trop élevées.La durée de conservation du kéfir est la même que celle du yaourt et du babeurre : sa qualité peut baisser rapidement s'il est conservé trop longtemps. Les produits acides se conservent à 5°C pendant environ 10 jours et à 10 °C pendant 3 jours. 20°C est une température trop élevée.Le kéfir peut avoir un goût trop acide ou un goût de levure suite à un mauvais équilibre entre l'activité de la bactérie et celle des levures. Quand l'hygiène est insuffisante, la détérioration des protéines par des bactéries nuisibles peut donner un goût d'ammoniaque ou de poisson.Le koumiss est une boisson acide semblable au kéfir. Elle est fabriquée à partir du lait de jument. Le fromage est un produit connu depuis de nombreux siècles. Toutes les matières nutritives du lait ou presque sont concentrées dans le fromage (voir tableau 4).Les variétés de fromage sont extrêmement nombreuses et de composition variée. L'on distingue grossièrement les fromages frais des fromages à pâte cuite et les fromages à pâte molle des fromages à pâte dure. Les fromages frais peuvent être consommés immédiatement après la fabrication. Les fromages affinés en revanche doivent être conservés après fabrication pour obtenir le goût et la texture désirés. Les fromages à pâte molle contiennent plus d'eau que les fromages à pâte sèche ; le fromage sec (ou demi-sec) possède généralement une croûte propre et sèche. Les fromages à pâte molle ou sèche peuvent être mis à maturation pendant plusieurs semaines voire plusieurs années. Sous les tropiques, la production de fromage rencontre certains problèmes particuliers qui entraînent des modes de préparation et des produits finis différents de ceux d'Europe occidentale.? En effet, hors des zones tempérées, il faut compter avec des températures élevées et une forte humidité de l'air. Ces facteurs sont défavorables à la fabrication du fromage, spécialement à sa maturation. ? Bien souvent, le lait n'est disponible qu'en petites quantités et sa qualité laisse à désirer, surtout en ce qui concerne l'hygiène et la composition. ? Les fromages à pâte dure et mi-dure exigent un lait de bonne qualité et une préparation très hygiénique. Des températures modérées sont nécessaires à une bonne maturation et à la conservation de ces fromages. Dans les climats chauds et tropicaux, la fabrication de fromage se fait généralement à petite échelle et la conservation des produits est limitée. C'est pourquoi on y fabrique surtout des fromages frais. ? Dans beaucoup de pays tropicaux et subtropicaux, les fromages bien faits ne sont pas appréciés. Les consommateurs ne sont pas habitués à leur goût et à leur odeur très prononcés.La conservation des fromages varie de quelques jours à quelques mois, voire quelques années, selon le mode de préparation.Les fromages frais, comme les produits fermentés, ont une durée de conservation très limitée. Ils doivent être consommés immédiatement ou dans les jours qui suivent. On peut préserver leur qualité en les mettant au frais ou en les salant. Le fromage frais n'a généralement pas de croûte et est conditionné dans du papier ou en pot. La coagulation de la plupart des fromages frais se fait uniquement à l'acide ; les fromages ne peuvent pas mûrir et il faut les consommer dans les jours qui suivent de préférence.Les fromages à pâte molle sont obtenus avec de l'acide et de la présure ; ils peuvent mûrir pendant quelques semaines voire quelques mois. Les fromages à pâte molle possèdent généralement une croûte recouverte d'une flore microbiologique (Camembert, Brie).Les fromages à pâte mi-dure et dure se conservent pendant 3-4 mois voire plus. Les fromages qui peuvent continuer à mûrir ne doivent pas être conservés au réfrigérateur mais dans un cellier ou un endroit frais à 10-15°C. Nous indiquons dans les recettes présentées ici le mode et la durée de conservation des différents fromages.La fabrication du fromage se fait en trois grandes étapes : 1 Coagulation du lait (caillage), séparation du caillé et du résidu liquide, le petit-lait. 2 Préservation du caillé l'acidification du caillé et le salage sont importants. Le fromage doit aussi être bien enveloppé d'une croûte ou d'un emballage efficace. 3 Affinage (maturation) du fromage pour lui donner une bonne texture et de bonnes qualités organoleptiques.On distingue quelques manipulations de base pour la fabrication du fromage, à savoir : 1 La coagulation de la protéine du lait incorporant la matière grasse ; 2 Égouttage du petit-lait ; 3 Acidification du caillé ; 4 Recueil du caillé qui devient un fromage ; 5 Salage ; 6 Affinage.L'obtention du fromage frais (blanc) suit les étapes 1 à 3 ; celle du fromage affiné les étapes 1 à 6.Nous traitons dans ce chapitre des manipulations de base suivantes : ? le traitement et la qualité du lait utilisé pour la fabrication du fromage (pasteurisation et/ou standardisation) ; ? la coagulation du lait (formation de grumeaux) à l'aide d'un acide ou d'enzymes ; ? la séparation du caillé et du petit-lait ; ? le recueil et le traitement du caillé (chauffage, recueil, presse, salage) ; ? l'affinage (maturation) du fromage.La fabrication des fromages ne nécessite pas toujours tout le matériel mentionné ici. Avant de commencer, choisissez le matériel que vous allez utiliser et veillez à ce qu'il soit propre et rincé à l'eau propre. Utilisez de préférence du matériel en métal inoxydable ou en verre.Matériel nécessaire à la fabrication du fromage : 1 un thermomètre de 20 à 100 °C ; 2 un flacon mesureur ; 3 un seau pour le caillage du lait ; 4 des moules à fromage pouvant être faites de différentes manières (voir ci-dessous) ; 5 gaze, de taille adaptée à celle du moule ; 6 des couverts et ustensiles :? des cuillères pour calculer la quantité de présure et/ou d'acides ; ? un couteau pour couper le lait caillé ; ? une écumoire ou une passoire pour séparer le caillé du petit-lait.Les moules à fromage peuvent être faits de matériaux variés : en bois, en plastique ou en métal (mais alors inoxydable). N'utilisez pas de tuyaux en plastique destinés au bâtiment car ils peuvent exhaler des matières empoisonnées. Coupez les moules dans le sens de la longueur et faites des trous de l'intérieur vers l'extérieur On peut trouver dans le commerce des moules en plastique pour la fabrication de fromage à pâte molle. Les moules en bois font également l'affaire. ? les matériaux utilisés ne doivent pas être toxiques ; ? le matériel doit pouvoir être lavé et désinfecté facilement ;? la pression doit être suffisante (0,1 à 0,4 kg/cm2 ou 2 à 5 fois le poids du fromage).La fabrication du fromage commence par une traite pratiquée de façon hygiénique. La qualité du lait influe beaucoup sur l'arôme, le goût et la conservation des qualités du fromage. La composition du lait peut énormément variée : juste avant le tarissement (période pendant laquelle la vache n'est pas traite) et juste après le vêlage (naissance d'un veau), le lait a une composition et un goût différents. Le lait d'un animal ayant une infection du pis ne convient pas à la consommation humaine et ne convient donc pas non plus à la fabrication du fromage.Outre les mesures d'hygiène habituelles à prendre à la traite, il faut veiller aux points suivants : 1 le matériel doit être très bien nettoyé 2 après la désinfection, aucune trace de détergent ou de désinfectant ne doit rester sur les appareils. Les désinfectants freinent le développement de la bactérie de départ ou de l'agent de fermentation. 3 l'endroit où le fromage est fabriqué doit être très propre. 4 le lait destiné au fromage sera de préférence pasteurisé (15 secondes à 72°C ou 30 minutes à 63°C). Un chauffage plus intensif n'est pas souhaitable car il freine la coagulation du lait. il faut alors plus de coagulant ou de chlorure de calcium (CaCl2) 5 C'est pourquoi le lait en poudre fabriqué à très haute température convient moins à la fabrication du fromage. Seul le lait en poudre fabriqué à basse température peut être utilisé. 6 Du lait aigre neutralisé avec du bicarbonate de natrium caille mal.Le principe de la fabrication du fromage repose sur la coagulation de la protéine du lait contenant quelque 90% des graisses du lait. La masse coagulée est appelée \"caillé\". Le liquide restant est le petit-lait. Le caillé contient surtout les graisses et les protéines du lait (caséine), le petit-lait contient surtout de l'eau, les sucres du lait (lactose), des protéines (du sérum) et des vitamines B.Il y a deux manières de faire coaguler le lait : ? à l'aide d'un acide ; ? à l'aide de présure. Coagulation à l'acide La coagulation à l'acide est généralement appliquée pour la fabrication du fromage frais. L'acide peut provenir soit des bactéries d'une culture de départ, soit d'un acide ajouté. Lorsqu'on utilise une culture, le lait pasteurisé est inoculé. Les produits d'inoculation peuvent être une culture spécifique, du petit-lait ou du babeurre.La durée de coagulation dépend de la quantité d'agent d'inoculation (0,1-5%), de la température (20-35°C) et de la culture utilisée. La période de coagulation est de 2 à 16 heures. Le caillage est terminé lorsque le caillé est ferme.L'acide utilisé peut être : l'acide acétique pur, l'acide lactique, l'acide citrique ou tout autre acide organique inoffensif. On peut utiliser aussi un acide naturel comme du jus de citron. L'acide peut être ajouté goutte à goutte au lait chaud (environ 80°C-90 °C, juste après l'ébullition). Le lait coagule plus rapidement si la température est élevée.Le caillé est obtenu en pressant le lait caillé dans un tissu grossièrement tissé. Le caillé peut être ensuite pressé ou non. Ces produits sont consommés frais.Le coagulant utilisé pour la fabrication du fromage peut être d'origine animale, végétale ou microbienne. Le coagulant a deux fonctions : ? la coagulation du lait ; ? la dégradation des protéines du lait lors de la maturation ; il donne au lait un goût piquant.Le coagulant se présente sous forme liquide ou en poudre séchée. Etant une enzyme, donc un produit biologique, le coagulant liquide stocké perd de son activité. Il faut donc lui préférer la forme séchée.Le taux de concentration du coagulant est indiqué sur l'emballage. La quantité à ajouter dépend de son activité et de la sorte de fromage désirée. On n'a pas toujours besoin de coagulant pour faire du fromage à pâte molle. Si l'on en ajoute tout de même, il en faut très peu (0,1 ml de coagulant pour 10 litres de lait). Pour les fromages à pâte dure, il faut environ 1,5 ml de coagulant pour 10 litres de lait (la force du coagulant est de 1 : 10000).Avant ou pendant l'addition du coagulant, on ajoute presque toujours un acide.Les facteurs qui influencent la coagulation sont : ? La quantité de coagulant ou d'acide.? La température de coagulation. Si on utilise un coagulant, une légère hausse de température réduit considérablement la période de coagulation (de 30°C à 33°C par exemple). ? L'intensité de la pasteurisation. La coagulation diminue si le lait est chauffé à haute température. On peut annuler cet effet en ajoutant un peu de CaCl2 (7 g pour 100 litres de lait). ? Le pourcentage de graisses du lait. Si ce pourcentage est élevé, il y a plus de graisses à incorporer et la coagulation est plus lente. Il existe trois façons de séparer le caillé du petit-lait : ? Vous suspendez le mélange caillé/petitlait dans un torchon propre (voir figure 24). ? Vous déposez le mélange caillé/petit-lait dans des moules à fromage ou dans des faisselles (moules cylindriques aux parois perforées). ? Vous coupez et agitez le mélange caillé/petit-lait, vous mettez le caillé dans des moules à fromage et vous pressez le fromage.La première et la deuxième méthode sont généralement utilisées pour la fabrication du fromage frais. L'égouttage du petit-lait ramène le volume du caillé à la moitié du volume de départ. La dernière méthode devra être utilisée pour la fabrication de fromage bien fait pour extraire du caillé assez de petit-lait. Les effets du découpage et de la pression sont décrits plus bas.Le petit-lait est un sous-produit du fromage. Son acidité et sa composition dépendent largement de la sorte de fromage et du mode de fabrication. Le petit-lait provenant de fromages coagulés à la présure est moins acide que celui provenant de fromages coagulés à l'acide. Le mode de fabrication du fromage influe aussi sur la présence d'éléments solides. S'il y a beaucoup de particules solides, comme dans le cas du fromage de chèvre ou d'un traitement de caillé brut, ces particules peuvent être transformés en fromage de petit-lait. La Ricotta italienne est une sorte bien connue de fromage de petit-lait.Fabrication de la ricotta à partir du petit-lait 1 Chauffez le petit-lait acidifié à au moins 85°C ou faites-le bouillir jusqu'à ce que les protéines coagulent. 2 Ajoutez du sel (0,1%) si vous le désirez. 3 Récupérez le caillé coagulé en le filtrant à travers un torchon ou un filtre. 4 En pressant bien le caillé, vous obtiendrez un fromage à pâte dure.Si vous pressez peu ou pas du tout, vous obtenez du fromage frais. 5 Ajoutez du sel si vous ne l'avez pas encore fait et si vous le désirez. 6 Conservez le fromage dans le réfrigérateur.Les déchets de petit-lait pouvant être nocifs, il est grandement préférable de les donner en nourriture aux animaux. Le petit-lait a une grande valeur nutritive grâce à ses protéines. Il peut être donné aux cochons ou aux jeunes animaux (veaux, agneaux), et même aux vaches adultes ou de boucherie.Le petit-lait donné aux animaux doit absolument être acide (complètement acidifié) sans quoi le lactose qu'il contient pourrait causer des problèmes intestinaux aux animaux.La quantité de petit-lait (eau) dans le caillé influe beaucoup sur les propriétés du fromage. La teneur en eau détermine en effet le temps de maturation, le goût, la texture, la bonne conservation du fromage, etc.Le petit-lait contient du sucre de lait (lactose). Ce sucre doit être converti en acide lactique par les ferments lactiques de la culture de départ.Si beaucoup de petit-lait est extrait du caillé, le fromage contiendra peu d'humidité et donnera un fromage sec et dur qui devra être affiné assez longtemps. S'il reste beaucoup de petit-lait dans le caillé, le fromage contient beaucoup d'humidité : sa pâte est molle. Il a alors le plus souvent un goût aigre. Comme le traitement du caillé du fromage frais et celui du caillé du fromage affiné diffèrent passablement, nous les présentons séparément.Le caillé ne doit en aucun cas refroidir. Il doit rester à une température de 30-36°C. Vous pouvez commencer à traiter le caillé si le lait coagulé forme une masse bien ferme. Pour en être sûr, passez un fil à travers le caillé : si vous obtenez une coupure lisse bien nette, c'est que le lait est suffisamment coagulé.Pour le fromage frais, on extrait généralement peu de petit-lait. Après la coagulation du lait, la masse caillé/petit-lait est soit suspendue dans une toile, soit mise dans des petits moules à fromage. Après 24 heures, l'égouttage est suffisant et le caillé doit être refroidi. Le fromage est prêt à la consommation. On peut faciliter l'égouttage du petit-lait en entassant les toiles remplies les unes sur les autres pour exercer une pression plus forte.Après la coagulation du lait, découpez la masse en cubes d'environ 1,5 cm avec un couteau qui coupe bien. Voir figure 25. Il est important que les cubes soient plus ou moins de la même taille et que ce découpage se déroule calmement. L'opération dure environ 15 minutes.Après le découpage, laissez reposer la masse petit-lait/caillé 10 minutes environ puis remuez-la soigneusement. Après quelque temps, remuez un peu plus intensément. Retirez le petit-lait du bac à fromage et mettez le caillé dans des moules. Pressez le caillé (0,1 kg/cm2). Une heure plus tard environ, vous pouvez augmenter la pression jusqu'à 0,4 kg/cm 2 . Il est également possible de presser avec 2 et même 5 fois le poids du fromage. Le salage peut se dérouler de différentes façons : 1 Mélangez le sel au caillé (30 g de sel par kg de caillé). Cela diminue l'effet de la bactérie souche mais freine à un stade précoce le développement d'éventuels micro-organismes nuisibles.  Il existe de nombreuses variantes de la fabrication du fromage. Pour faire un bon produit, il faut en général légèrement ajuster la recette. C'est pourquoi il est bon de noter exactement sur un papier comment le fromage a été fait.Vous pouvez par exemple noter : ? la date et la température ambiante ; ? la qualité du lait et la température de pasteurisation ; ? la quantité de lait ; ? les ingrédients, la quantité de culture de départ, d'acide ou de coagulant ajoutée ; ? la température à laquelle ont été ajoutés la culture de départ, l'acide ou le coagulant ; ? la durée de coagulation ; ? les températures pendant le processus de fabrication ; ? la température en fin de coagulation ; ? la pression, la durée de la pression, etc. ; ? la durée du salage ; ? la durée et les conditions de stockage.Les recettes présentées ici doivent être considérées comme une introduction à la fabrication du fromage. A la place du lait de vache, vous pouvez utiliser du lait de brebis, de chèvre ou de bufflesse. Il est recommandé de commencer par une recette facile : yaourt, fromage frais, etc.Le fromage frais (non affiné) a un taux élevé d'humidité, d'environ 75%. Il peut être consommé immédiatement après sa fabrication. Le fromage frais est obtenu en extrayant le petit-lait du lait écrémé acidifié. La coagulation du lait a surtout lieu par acidification. On ajoute parfois un peu de coagulant pour faciliter l'égouttage du petitlait. Mais ce n'est pas indispensable.Une sorte bien connue de fromage frais est le fromage blanc (ou caillé), dénommée différemment suivant les pays : Frischkäse, kwark et baker's cheese. Ces fromages se différencient par leur taux de graisse.On fait du fromage blanc en laissant le lait frais, entier ou écrémé, surir et en faisant égoutter le lait aigre épais dans des gazes ou des sacs. Les sacs sont parfois entassés les uns sur les autres pour faciliter l'égouttage. Après l'égouttage, le fromage frais a une structure un peu friable. On peut le rendre lisse en remuant à la main ou au mixer. Il existe différentes sortes de fromage caillé en fonction de la teneur en humidité, en graisse, en sel et de la grosseur des particules de caillé.Le fromage frais a un goût frais et acide, surtout lorsqu'il est fabriqué avec du lait écrémé. Son goût sera plus doux et plus riche si on y ajoute de la crème.Le fromage frais se conserve pendant une période limitée et doit être gardé au frais. Une sécrétion de petit-lait a parfois encore lieu pendant la conservation. Cela peut être dû à une acidification tardive du produit.Pasteurisez le lait à une température de 63 °C pendant 30 minutes et refroidissez-le à 20 °C. Ajoutez ensuite, pour 10 litres de lait, un quart à un demi-litre d'acide, de lait aigre ou de babeurre, ainsi que du yaourt si vous le désirez. Ajoutez 2 gouttes de coagulant si vous en avez. Il est recommandé de diluer le coagulant dans quelques ml d'eau pour qu'il se répartisse mieux dans le lait.Après avoir bien remué, laissez reposer le lait inoculé pendant 24 heures à une température de 18/20°C. L'acidification et une certaine coagulation ont lieu pendant ces 24 heures, provoquant l'épaississement du lait. Cette masse épaisse est ensuite mise dans un torchon en coton ou en lin ou un sac à travers laquelle le petit-lait peut s'égoutter. Pour obtenir un bon égouttage, le torchon doit est étendu à l'avance dans une grande passoire ou un moule à fromage. Au bout de 24 heures environ, le petit-lait est suffisamment égoutté. Remuez intensivement le caillé restant, par exemple avec un mixer ou une cuillère, jusqu'à l'obtention d'une masse homogène. Le fromage blanc est prêt à la consommation. Il se conserve pendant 1 à 2 semaines au réfrigérateur.Il vous faut : une passoire, une petite corbeille ou un moule, une gaze ou un torchon. Laissez égoutter dans un linge 10 litres de babeurre à faible taux de graisse jusqu'à ce qu'il reste 1,5 litre de fromage en faisselle, ou caillé. Placez un linge dans la passoire, la petite corbeille ou le moule et pressez le caillé. Laissez égoutter pendant quelques heures et retournez. Vous obtenez alors environ 1,5 kg de fromage ne contenant pas de sel et presque pas de graisse. Ce fromage ne se conserve que peu de temps, 1 ou 2 semaines. Gardez-le au frais, de préférence au réfrigérateur. Il vous faut : du lait cru, une source de chaleur, une casserole, une cuillère, du jus de citron ou du petit-lait acide, une gaze, un récipient, un couteau et de l'eau très sucrée.Ce produit laitier sucré est orginaire de l'Inde. Il se présente traditionnellement sous la forme de boules de caillé doux. Le mode de fabrication suivant ne permet pas la mise en boules mais seulement le découpage en cubes.Faites bouillir le lait, en tournant constamment, avec du jus de citron (10 cuillères à soupe ou 150 ml pour 10 litres de lait) ou du petit-lait acide (1,5 litre pour 10 litres). Le petit-lait acide s'obtient à partir du lait acide égoutté, après la production du caillé. Séparez le caillé du petit-lait en versant le mélange dans une gaze placée au-dessus d'un récipient. Le caillé légèrement élastique est coupé en petits cubes de 2,5 cm de côté. Ces cubes sont ensuite cuits pendant une heure dans une solution très sucrée (600 g de sucre par litre d'eau). Il faut 1 litre de solution sucrée par kilo de caillé. Les cubes se conservent assez longtemps. Ils ont une saveur très sucrée.Il vous faut : du lait de brebis, de chèvre ou de vache, un acide ou du lait aigre frais, un coagulant, du sel de cuisine, un couteau, des faisselles, des gazes et des boîtes ou un récipient pour conserver le fromage.La feta est un fromage salé et piquant, originaire de Grèce, fait avec du lait de brebis ou de chèvre. On utilise parfois aussi un mélange de lait de brebis et de chèvre, ce qui fait perdre au fromage sa couleur blanche caractéristique. La feta se conserve dans une solution de petitlait et de saumure.Chauffez à 30 °C 10 litres de lait pasteurisé auquel vous avez ajouté 200 ml d'acide, de lait aigre ou de babeurre. Deux heures plus tard, ajoutez le coagulant : 2 ml pour 10 litres de lait Au bout d'une période de coagulation d'une heure environ, découpez le caillé en cubes de 2,5 cm de côté et remuez soigneusement pendant encore 20 minutes.Le transfert du caillé mou dans les moules recouverts d'une gaze doit être fait avec soin, soit en versant le caillé immédiatement dans les moules, soit en le laissant décanter, en vidant le petit-lait et en le mettant seulement ensuite dans les moules.Retournez les fromages au bout de quelques heures. Retirez soigneusement de la toile la masse caillée et replacez-la à l'envers. Après 24 heures, découpez les morceaux de caillé en cubes de 10 cm de côté. Le salage se fait en saupoudrant plusieurs fois les cubes avec du sel ou en les mettant dans une saumure pendant 24 heures.Pour conserver la feta pendant quelques jours (à 18 °C environ), il faut la retourner régulièrement et la laver à l'eau froide à la fin de la période de conservation. On peut la conserver quelque temps en entassant les cubes le plus possible dans un récipient et en les immergeant dans la saumure. La feta doit avoir une consistance lisse et douce.Le queso blanco est un fromage originaire d'Amérique latine. Il en existe de nombreuses variantes. Sa caractéristique est que le sel est ajouté directement à la masse petit-lait/caillé. Ceci a l'avantage de permettre l'utilisation de lait légèrement acidifié.Une méthode très courante est la suivante : Prenez du lait cru acidifié (non chauffé) à la température de 32 °C ou 10 litres de lait pasteurisé auquel vous ajoutez 50 ml de lait aigre, d'acide ou de babeurre. Ajoutez 1,5 ml de coagulant. Après 45 minutes, coupez le caillé et remuez. Laissez reposer le mélange petitlait/caillé pendant encore 30 minutes à 30-36 °C. Egouttez le petit-lait et pressez le caillé pour en extraire un maximum de petit-lait. Ajoutez au caillé 30-50 grammes de sel que vous aurez éventuellement dissous dans l'eau auparavant. Pour 10 litres de lait, il faut alors 100 grammes de sel dans 50 ml d'eau.Mettez le caillé salé dans des moules à fromage et pressez. Retournez le caillé plusieurs fois pendant la première heure. Il reste pressé ensuite jusqu'au lendemain. Pour améliorer la formation de la croûte, aspergez le fromage pendant la pression (après 1 heure) avec du petitlait chauffé à 50 °C. Le fromage fabriqué à l'aide d'un coagulant se conserve pendant 2 mois à 10-15 °C.Une variante de cette méthode consiste à remplacer la culture de départ par un acide, sans utiliser de coagulant. Prenez du lait cru, qui sera peut-être déjà un peu acide. Faites chauffer presque jusqu'à ébullition. Ajoutez pour l'acidification 300 ml de vinaigre pour 10 litres de lait. Il se forme alors un précipité. Pour neutraliser quelque peu l'acide, ajoutez éventuellement un peu de bicarbonate de soude. Egouttez le petit-lait. La suite de la fabrication est la même que dans la recette précédente.Fromage frais de chèvre (dans l'huile) Il faut : du lait de chèvre pasteurisé, une source de chaleur, une casserole avec couvercle, un thermomètre, du lait aigre (du babeurre ou une culture), un coagulant, une cuillère, une boîte isotherme/une couverture/des journaux, une gaze, du sel, des moules à fromage, un endroit frais et éventuellement du papier dégraissé, un grand pot, des herbes, de l'huile d'olive.Chauffez à 20 °C le lait de chèvre pasteurisé et ajoutez 1/2 litre de culture, de lait aigre ou babeurre pour 10 litres de lait. Diluez dans un peu d'eau 20 gouttes de coagulant (par litre de lait) et mélangez soigneusement au lait.Pour éviter au maximum le refroidissement, mettez la casserole dans une boîte thermos ou emballez-la dans des journaux ou une couverture. Contrôlez le lendemain si le lait est assez coagulé ; il y a alors un peu de petit-lait à la surface. Il faut : du lait de brebis pasteurisé, une source de chaleur, une casserole, un thermomètre, lait aigre (une culture ou du babeurre), un coagulant, une cuillère, un couteau, une passoire, une gaze, du matériel pour presser et des moules à fromage, du sel, un récipient à saumure fermant bien, une gaze grossière, un endroit frais. Dix litres de lait de brebis donnent environ 2 kg de fromage fait. Après l'ajout de 60 ml de culture ou de lait aigre (ou de babeurre), laissez reposer le lait à 30 °C pendant 1/2 heure ou 3/4 d'heure. Diluez seulement alors 6 gouttes de coagulant par litre de lait dans un peu d'eau et mélangez soigneusement au lait.Après avoir laissé coaguler pendant une heure, découpez le lait coagulé pendant 15 minutes jusqu'à ce qu'il se présente sous forme de particules de 1 à 2 cm. Remuez une seconde fois pendant 10 minutes. Videz la moitié du petit-lait et faites chauffer le caillé à 35°C en ajoutant de l'eau chaude à 80-100°C. Remuez encore une fois pendant 15 minutes puis laissez reposer le caillé pendant 30 minutes dans une casserole tenue au chaud, mais jamais placée directement sur le feu. Versez ensuite le petit-lait qui flotte à la surface et mettez le caillé dans une passoire avec le reste du petit-lait. Protex International / BIOPROX BP 177, F-92305, Levallois -Paris FRANCE (également au Maroc, au Royaume-Uni, au Portugal et en Espagne) T : + 33 (0) 1 41 34 14 00, F : + 33 (0) 1 41 34 14 16 E : postmaster@protex-international.com I : www.protex-international.com/products/food-flavouring.html Il est possible de commander des produits bio de BIOPROX pour l'industrie laitière (lait, fromage, beurre, yaourt) : culture lactique (mésophile et/ou thermophile) milieu de culture, facteur de croissance, correcteur pH, activateur de culture lactique, produits de nettoyage. ","tokenCount":"11129"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68b2ff0a7bbda6763b745eef7fed9c23","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5845f319-adf2-498c-a126-1fad66eced70/content","id":"888021589"},"keywords":["к ТсLr16","ТсLr19","ТсLr24","ТсLr26)","TCTTR (av: TcLr9","TcLr16","ТсLr19","ТсLr24)","TBTTR (av: ТсLr9","ТсLr16","ТсLr19","ТсLr24","ТсLr26) встречались во всех регионах. Фенотипы TQTTR (av: ТсLr19","ТсLr24","ТсLr26) и TGTTR (av: ТсLr9","ТсLr19","ТсLr24","ТсLr26) были общими для омской и североказахстанской популяций","а THPTR (av: ТсLr9","ТсLr11","ТсLr19","ТсLr24) и TCTTQ (av: ТсLr9","ТсLr16","ТсLr19","ТсLr20","ТсLr24"],"sieverID":"d3bf4628-da17-4f88-8c7d-2f10541835f6","pagecount":"7","content":"Листовые болезни яровой пшеницы -бурая ржавчина (возбудитель -Puccinia triticina), желтая пятнистость ( пиренофороз) (Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) и темно-бурая пятнистость (Сochliobolus sativus = Bipolaris sorokiniana) -относятся к группе распространенных и потенциально опасных болезней в западноазиатских регионах России и Северном Казахстане. Для обоснования стратегий генетической защиты пшеницы необходимы популяционные исследования фитопатогенов. Цель работыхарактеристика структуры популяций возбудителей бурой ржавчины и желтой пятнистости яровой пшеницы по признакам вирулентности и оценка распространенности возбудителя темно-бурой пятнистости в западноазиатских регионах Российской Федерации и Северном Казахстане в 2017 г. Источником инфекционного материала служили пораженные бурой ржавчиной и пятнистостями листья образцов яровой пше ницы, собранные в Челябинской и Омской областях и Северном Казахстане. Анализ вирулентности 109 изолятов P. triticina на 20 линиях-дифференциаторах показал, что все изученные монопустульные изоляты были авирулентны к ТсLr24. Изоляты, вирулентные к ТсLr19, выявлены только в челябинской популяции. Частоты вирулентных изолятов к ТсLr2a, ТсLr2b, ТсLr2c, ТсLr11, ТсLr15, ТсLr16, ТсLr20 и ТсLr26 были выше в омской и североказахстанской популяциях, а к ТсLr9 -в челябинской. При использовании 20 ТсLr-ли ний определено 27 фенотипов вирулентности P. triticina: 12 в омской, 19 в челябинской, 8 в ка захстанской. Феноти пы TLTTR (авирулентность (av)  Wheat diseases affecting leaves like leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), tan spot (Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) and spot blotch (Сochliobolus sativus = Bipolaris sorokiniana) are widely spread and potentially dangerous in the West-Asian region of Russia and North Kazakhstan. The study of these pathogens' populations is very important for genetic protection of wheat. The objective of this study was to explore the population structure of the causative agents of leaf rust and tan spot on spring wheat based on virulence traits and assessing the distribution of the causative agent of spot blotch in the West-Asian region of Russia and North Kazakhstan. The source of inoculum were wheat leaves affected by leaf rust and spot diseases collected in the Chelyabinsk and the Omsk region of Russia and in North Kazakhstan. Virulence analysis of P. triticina using 20 lines with known Lr genes demonstrated that all 109 monopustule isolates were avirulent on ТсLr24. The isolates virulent on ТсLr19 were identified only in the Chelyabinsk population. The prevalence of isolates virulent on ТсLr2a, ТсLr2b, ТсLr2c, ТсLr11, ТсLr15, ТсLr16, ТсLr20 and ТсLr26 was higher in the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population, while virulence to ТсLr9 was higher in Chelyabinsk. Using 20 TcLr-lines, we identified 27 virulent phenotypes of P. triticina: 12 in the Omsk, 19 in the Chelyabinsk and 8 in the Kazakhstani population. The phenotypes TLTTR (avirulent to TcLr16, TcLr19, TcLr24, TcLr26), TCTTR (avirulent to TcLr9, TcLr16, TcLr19, TcLr24), and TBTTR (avirulent to TcLr9, TcLr16, TcLr19, TcLr24, TcLr26) were observed in all the populations. The phenotypes TQTTR (avirulent to TcLr19, TcLr24, TcLr26) and TGTTR (avirulent to TcLr9, TcLr19, TcLr24, TcLr26, TcLr9, TcLr19, TcLr24, TcLr26) were common in the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population, while THPTR (avirulent to avTcLr9, TcLr11, TcLr19, TcLr24) and TCTTQ (avirulent to TcLr9, TcLr16, TcLr19, TcLr20, TcLr24) were common in the Omsk and the Chelyabinsk population. There was a high genetic similarity in virulence and phenotypic composition between the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population as well as between the Omsk and the Chelyabinsk population and a moderate similarity between the Chelyabinsk and the North Kazakhstani population. The prevalence of the spot blotch pathogen was higher in the material collected from the Omsk region, while none of this pathogen was identified in the NorthVavilov Journal of Genetics and Breeding • 2018 • 22 • 3 ской и умеренное между челябинской и североказахстанской популяциями. Распространенность возбудителя темно-бурой листовой пятнистости в Омской области была выше, чем в Челябинской. Из североказахстанских инфек ционных образцов листьев С. sativus не выделен. Возбуди тель желтой пятнистости обнаружен во всех изученных ре гионах. По признаку токсинообразования среди челябин ских изолятов P. tritici-repentis выявлено пять рас (р1 (PtrToxA, PtrToxС); р2 (PtrToxA); р7 (PtrToxA, PtrToxВ), р8 (PtrToxA, PtrToxВ, PtrToxС); р4 (не образует токсины)); среди омских -три (р1, р2, р3); среди североказахстанских -четыре (р1, р2, р3, р4 pring wheat is the main cereal crop grown in the Urals, West Siberia and North Kazakhstan. Wheat diseases affecting leaves like leaf rust, stem rust, spot blotches and tan spot significantly reduce wheat yields in these regions (Koishybaev, 2010;Shamanin et al., 2016;Belan et al., 2017). Leaf rust (caused by Puccinia triticina Erikss.) occurs annually with severity fluctuating from moderate to epiphytotic. The disease appears from flag leaf to ear-flowering stages. Stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis Pers. f. sp. tritici Erikss. et Henn.) develops later and prevails at grain ripening stages (Koishybaev, 2015). Until recently, glum blotch caused by Parastagonospora nodorum (Berk.) Quaedvl., Verkley & Crous (= Septoria nodorum Berk.) was the most important disease of wheat (Sanina, Pakholkova, 2002;Koishybaev, 2015). In the last ten years, however, the harmfulness of tan spot (caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechsler) has increased (Mikhailova et al., 2010(Mikhailova et al., , 2015;;Koishybaev, 2015). Under field conditions, tan spot and septoriosis are difficult to distinguish -even for experts. The spread of tan spot is promoted by the modern gentle soil treatment, after which a large number of plants remain on the surface and serves as a habitat for the wintering of P. tritici-repentis pseudotecia (Mikhailova et al., 2010). PtrToxA, PtroxB, PtrToxC exotoxins are the main pathogenicity factors of P. tritici-repentis. Ptr ToxA induces necrosis on susceptible plants, and both PtrToxB and PtrToxC induce chlorosis (Lamari et al., 1998). Spot blotch of wheat (caused by Сochliobolus sativus (S. Ito & Kurib.) Drechsler ex Dastur (= Bipolaris sorokiniana (Sacc.) Shoemaker)) is a more important disease in wet and warm years (Kuznetsova, 1987). These spots normally appear together at the wheat stalking stage (Koishybaev, 2010).Fungus population studies are important for improving genetic strategies of wheat protection. With these studies, the researcher can characterize the race composition dynamics, effectiveness of resistance genes at the host plants and evaluate the influence of commercial wheat varieties on fungus population changes. The population biology of leaf rust pathogens is the most studied. By virulence and microsatellite analyses, the existence of a common P. triticina population in the Urals West Siberia, and Kazakhstan (Mikhailova, 2006;Kolmer, Ordoñez, 2007;Kolmer et al., 2015;Gultyaeva et al., 2017) was shown, which should be taken into account when disposing varieties with Lr-genes. Annual virulence surveillance of P. triticina populations conducted by the Chelyabinsk Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture and the Omsk State Agrarian University allows the dynamics of pathogen variability to be monitored and breeding programs to be improved.First studies of P. tritici-repentis in Russia were carried out by Mikhailova et al. (2010Mikhailova et al. ( , 2015)). The existence of several P. triticirepentis populations in Russia (North Caucasian, Northwestern and West Siberian) was determined according to virulence frequencies in a special wheat differential set. An independent status of the Omsk P. tritici-repentis population was also confirmed by microsatellite markers (Mironenko et al., 2016).In the world literature, data about differential interactions between the plant host and С. sativus are controversial. The absence of differential sets significantly limits the population studies of the spot blotch pathogen based on virulence (Mikhailova et al., 2002). Mycological analysis is usually used to assess the spread of this pathogen and to estimate the prevalence of C. sativus isolates.Kazakhstani material. The isolates of tan spot were identified in all the regions. Five races of P. tritici-repentis were identified among Chelyabinsk isolates based on the toxins produced by the following pathogens: race 1 (PtrToxA PtrToxС); race 2 (PtrToxA); race 7 (PtrToxA, PtrToxВ), race 8 (PtrToxA, PtrToxВ, PtrToxС), and race 4 (does not produce toxins). Three races were identified in the Omsk region (1 -3) and four, in North Kazakhstan (1 -4). A total of 26 P. tritici-repentis phenotypes were identified by virulence analysis using 11 differential lines: two were present in all the populations; two. in Chelyabinsk and North Kazakhstan; one, in Omsk and Chelyabinsk; and all the others were original. A high degree of similarity between the obligate pathogen P. triticina and the saprophytic pathogen P. tritici-repentis in the West-Asian region of Russia and in North Kazakhstan demonstrates that this is one epidemiological region across this wheat production area. The presence of common phenotypes suggests there is a the possibility of gene exchange between the populations and this shall be considered while releasing genetically protected wheat varieties.Key words: leaf rust; tan spot; spot blotch; spring wheat; populations; virulence; Lr-genes. Most population studies of lead rust and tan spot pathogens have been carried out in independent experiments. It was relevant to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the structure of pathogens that differed in parasitic type (obligate vs. hemibiotrophic), using a similar infectious material collected in geographically remote regions. The objective of this study was to explore the population structure studies of the causative agents of leaf rust and tan spot on spring wheat based on virulence and to assess the distribution of the causative agent of spot blotch in the West-Asian region of Russia and North Kazakhstan in 2017.Wheat samples with leaf rust and leaf spot symptoms were collected from the Ural (Chelyabinsk) and the East Siberian (Omsk) region of Russia and North Kazakhstan in 2017. Leaf rust severity at the sampling locations ranged from moderate to strong and spots, from low to moderate.In the Chelyabinsk region, leaves were collected from 30 spring wheat samples in the breeding nursery of the Chelyabinsk Scientific Research Institute of Agriculture. In the Omsk region, leaves were collected from 40 wheat samples growing in the experimental fields of the Omsk State Agrarian University and Cherlak and Pavlodar state variety test plots. In Kazakhstan, infectious material was collected from commercial fields at seven points of the North Kazakhstan region and at two in the Akmola region.Leaf rust uredinia from dry leaves were renewed on a susceptible wheat variety and single pustule isolates were obtained. Isolates' multiplication for virulence analysis was carried out using a laboratory method of pathogen cultivation. Single uredinial isolates were tested for virulence to 20 near isogenic lines of Thatcher wheat that differed in single leaf rust resistance genes. Three seeds of each of these Thatcher lines were sowed to a pot filled with soil. Each set of 10-14 dayold differentials (the first leaf stage) was spray inoculated by urediniospores of each isolate (10 6 /ml) and kept in a Versatile Environmental Test Chamber (Sanyo) at optimal temperature (22 °С) and moisture (75 %) (Gultyaeva, Soloduhina, 2008). Virulent phenotypes were determined 10 days after inoculation using E.B. Mains and H.S. Jackson scale (1926), where 0 means no visible uredia; 0, hypersensitive flecks; 1, small uredia with necrosis; 2, small-to medium-sized uredia with green islands and surrounded by necrosis or chlorosis; 3, medium-sized uredia with or without chlorosis; 4, large uredia without chlorosis; Х, heterogeneous, similarly distributed over the leaves. The plants with infection types 0 to 2 were classified as resistant and infection types 3 to 4 and Х as susceptible.A differential set of 20 near isogenic TcLr-lines was used for studying the leaf rust pathogen's population structure. Each isolate was given a five-letter code based on virulence or avirulence to each of the five subsets of four differentials as adapted from the North American nomenclature for virulence in P. triticina (Long, Kolmer, 1989). The following order of sets was used: 1, Lr1, Lr2a,Lr2c,and Lr3а;2,Lr9,Lr16,Lr24,and Lr26;3,Lr3ka,Lr11,Lr17,and Lr30;4,Lr2b,Lr3bg,Lr14a,and Lr14b;5,Lr15,Lr18,Lr19, and Lr20. The first three groups were similar to the original differential set (Long, Kolmer, 1989) widely used for P. triticina population studies (Kolmer, Ordoñez, 2007;Kolmer et al., 2015). Thatcher lines highly informative for differentiation of Russian populations were included in the other two groups (Gultyaeva et al., 2017). Five-letter phenotype codes, virulence frequencies, Nei (Hs) and Shennon (Sh) indexes of population diversity were determined using Virulence Analysis Tool (VAT) software package (Kosman et al., 2008).Leaf segments with one infection spot surround by an area of green tissue were cut out for tan spot and spot blotch studies and put on agar medium V4 (Mikhailova et al., 2012). Dishes with leaf segments were incubated in a thermostat with UV lamps (LE-30) and at a temperature of 20 to 22 °С for three days and were then placed in a refrigerator (5-8 °С) for one day for stimulation of P. tritici-repentis conidia development.The frequency of P. tritici-repentis and С. sativus colonies obtained from different geographic populations was used as a criterion of the distribution of these pathogens.Reproduction of P. tritici-repentis fungus culture was carried out according to L.A. Mikhailova et al. (2012). Virulence analysis was carried out using methods of cutting leaves placed on the benzimedazole solution (0.004 %).The racial identity revealed by the ability of P. triticirepentis isolates to form the toxins Ptr ToxA, Ptr ToxB and Ptr ToxC was determined by inoculation of the cultivar Glenlea, lines 6B662 and 6B365, by the presence of necrotic and chlorotic spots on wheat leaves (Lamari, Bernier, 1989;Lamari et al., 1998).The virulence of P. tritici-repentis isolates was studied using the following set of cultivars: Allies (France); Norin 58, Satsukei 86, Hokkai 252, Komadi 3 (Japan); Riley 67, Clark (USA); Asiago (Italy); Salamouni (Egypt); and M3 (Canada), which differentiate the fungus isolates for their ability to produce necrosis and chlorosis. The type of infection caused by isolates was assessed using a five-point scale corresponding to the size of necrotic and chlorotic spots, according to Mikhailova et al. (2012). A comparison of the population samples on the basis of virulence was carried out according to the index of the average score of infection per isolate (the ratio of the sums of the points exhibited by isolates on tan spot wheat differential sets to the number of isolates). For the determination of phenotypes, only the indicator of the necrotic reaction evaluation was used, since it characterizes the result of the action of one (Ptr ToxA), and not two toxins, as in the case of a chlorotic reaction, when two independent traits appear that are identical in phenotype (Mikhailova et al., 2010). The results of the virulence evaluation of P. triticirepentis isolates were presented as a binary matrix: 1, virulence (scores 3-5); 0, avirulence (scores 0-2).The degree of genetic similarity between the Omsk, the Chelyabinsk and the North Kazakhstani populations of P. triticina and P. tritici-repentis for virulence was evaluated using Nei (Nei genetic distance, Nei D) and Fst indexes calculated by GenAlEx (Genetic analysis in Excel, 6.5 http:// biology.anu.edu.au/GenAlEx) software package.One hundred and nine single-pustule isolates -30 from Chelyabinsk, 45 from Omsk and 34 from North Kazakhstanwere characterized during the leaf rust population studies. All single-pustule isolates studied were avirulent to TcLr24.Isolates virulent to TcLr19 were detected in the Chelyabinsk population. The prevalence of isolates virulent to TcLr2a, TcLr2b, TcLr2c, TcLr11, TcLr15, TcLr16, TcLr20 and TcLr26 was higher in the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population and of those virulent to TcLr9, in the Chelyabinsk population (Table 1). A high virulence to Lr9 in the Chelyabinsk population in comparison to the other populations studied was due to a high prevalence (10 %) of varieties with this gene in the infectious material (3 % in the Omsk population).A high efficiency of the Lr24 gene in the regions of Russian Federation is due to the absence of commercial varieties with this gene. Nevertheless, at present, Lr24 donors are used in breeding in Russia (Tyunin et al., 2017). The world practice of cultivating varieties with the Lr24 gene shows that mass cultivation is rapidly followed the emergence of virulent races and the gene loses its effectiveness. Virulence to Lr24 occurs in P. triticina populations across North America and Australia, where wheat varieties protected by this gene are widely grown (McIntosh et al., 1995).Isolates virulent to the Lr19 gene were observed only in the Chelyabinsk population and were isolated from the line protected by this gene. They were not detected on any wheat sample carrying Lr19 and Lr26 at once -not, for example, on cv. Omskaya 37 or cv. Omskaya 38. Virulence to Lr19 gene is more often noted in the Volga region, where varieties with this gene are grown, but it can also occur in other regions (Kovalenko et al., 2012;Tyunin et al., 2017). All P. triticina isolates studied virulent to TcLr19 were avirulent to TcLr26. Similar observations were made for isolates virulent to TcLr9. Expanding areas with varieties carrying Lr9 provides for increase in the frequency of isolates with virulence to Lr9 in the West Asian regions of Russia, which are as powerful accumulators of infection (Meshkova et al., 2012, Tyunin et al., 2017). To stabilize the phytosanitary situation in the Urals and West Siberia, a strategy of pyramiding the Lr9 and Lr19 genes with Lr26 and other Lr-genes may be useful, because their effective combination will help prolong the \"useful life\" of new varieties.Twenty-seven virulent phenotypes (12 from Omsk, 19 from Chelyabinsk and 8 from Kazakhstan) were determined using 20 TcLr lines (Table 2). The phenotypes TLTTR, TCTTR and TBTTR were found in all the populations studied. The phenotypes TQTTR and TGTTR were common in the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population, while THPTR and TCTTQ were common in the Omsk and the Chelyabinsk population. A high degree of similarity by the virulence phenotypes indicates gene flow between pathogen populations in the study area in 2017. In general, no significant changes in the phenotypic composition of the Omsk and the Chelyabinsk population were observed in 2017 as compared to 2014-2016 (Tyunin et al., 2017).Analysis of the Omsk and the Chelyabinsk P. triticina population on similar sets of spring wheat showed their identical virulence on the susceptible varieties Pamyati Azieva, Omskaya 35, Saratovskaya 29 and Lutescens 857. Significant differences in virulence between the populations studied were observed for the following wheat samples: Lutescens 1103 (on the Tc-lines with genes Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr2c, Lr15, Lr16), Lutescens KS14/09-2 (Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr2c, Lr11,  Lr15, Lr20), Duet (Lr2a, Lr2b, Lr2c, Lr11, Lr15, Lr16, Lr20), and moderate differences, for Novosibirskaya 16, Lutescens 37-17, Erythrospermum 1119 (Lr16), Stolypinskaya 2, GVK 2127 (Lr16, Lr20), OmGAU 100 (Lr11), Tyumenochka (Lr11, Lr20) and Element 22 (Lr11, Lr16).The Nei (Ns) and Shannon (Sh) indices, which characterize the in-population genetic diversity, showed that the Chelyabinsk population was more heterogeneous for virulence (Ns = 0.21) and phenotypic composition (Sh = 0.82) compared to the Omsk and the North Kazakhstani population (Ns = 0.09 and 0.06, Sh = 0.51 and 0.49, respectively).Nei's genetic distance (N) indicated a high similarity between the Omsk, the North Kazakhstani (N = 0.03) and the Chelyabinsk population (N = 0.05) and a moderate similarity between Chelyabinsk and North Kazakhstan (N = 0.13). The results obtained in 2017 suggest there had been no changes in the structure of the populations studied compared to the previous time (Kovalenko et al., 2012;Gultyaeva et al., 2017;Tyunin et al., 2017).For population studies in P. tritici-repentis and C. sativus, we used wheat leaves with typical visual symptoms of the diseases being discussed. In the Chelyabinsk region, nine wheat cultivars were used as infectious material: Ural'skaya kukushka, Chelyaba rannyaya, Eritrospermum 59, Iskra, Rossiyanka, Izumrudnaya, Astana 2, Tyumenochka, Tertsia; in the Omsk Region, eight: Pamyati Aziyeva, Sibakovskaya yubileynaya, OmGAU 90, Chernyava 13, Uralosibirskaya, Duet, Grani and Katyusha. In leaf samples from the North Kazakhstan region, spots was noted in six samples.A total of 466 infected samples (segments of leaves with separate spots) were studied: 125 from Omsk, 215 from Chelyabinsk, and 126 from North Kazakhstan. The prevalence of C. sativus and P. tritici-repentis isolates was 12 % and 14 %, respectively, in Omsk samples; 3 % and 25 %, in Chelyabinsk; and 0 % and 43 % in North Kazakhstan. Thus, the presence of the causative agent of spot blotch disease of wheat was stronger in the Omsk than in Chelyabinsk region. In North Kazakhstani leave samples, C. sativus was not observed. P. tritici-repentis was noted in all regions. The prevalence of P. tritici-repentis isolates was higher in North Kazakhstani and Chelyabinsk samples and lower in Omsk.Nineteen Chelyabinsk, 8 Omsk and 27 North Kazakhstani isolates of P. tritici-repentis were used to analyze the population structure on the basis of virulence and toxicity. P. tritici-repentis races identified in the three populations by toxicity are presented in Table . 3. Five races were found in the samples of the Chelyabinsk population; three, in Omsk; and four, in North Kazakhstan.The racial structure of Omsk P. tritici-repentis isolates was characterized by a higher diversity in 2017 than 2007, when two races were found: race 2 and race 7 (Mikhailova et al., 2010). Races 1 to 4 of P. tritici-repentis, which predominate in the study populations, are also widely distributed in other Russian regions (Central European and North Caucasian) (Mikhailova et al., 2010(Mikhailova et al., , 2012)).In general, a high incidence of isolates producing PtrToxA (87-95 %) was noted (see Table 3), which indicates a potential harmfulness of yellow spot in the West Siberian and the Ural region of Russia and North Kazakhstan.Twenty-six phenotypes of P. tritici-repentis were identified by virulence analysis using 11 differential cultivars (on the  (Mikhailova et al., 2010). When studying the virulence of isolates on 11 tan spot wheat differential sets, it was determined that the values of the average infection type were similar in all collections studied: 1.69 (necrosis) -1.71 (chlorosis) in Chelyabinsk populations and 1.47-1.84; 1.71-1.55 in Omsk populations). The indices of genetic distances of Nei and Fst indicated a high similarity between the Chelyabinsk, Omsk and North Kazakhstani isolates of P. tritici-repentis (N = 0.02-0.05; Fst = 0.03-0.12). This indicates the presence of a shared epiphytotic zone of P. tritici-repentis in the study area.Population analysis of P. triticina and P. tritici-repentis, important wheat pathogens differing in parasitism type (obligate vs. hemibiotrophic), revealed a similarity of their structure in the West Asian regions of the Russian Federation and North Kazakhstan. Data obtained should be considered for territorial zoning of genetically protected varieties in these regions. The study of new varieties should be relevant to their resistance not only to local populations of the most prevalent pathogen in a region, but also to those races that can appear in the population due to a possible air drift from neighboring regions. Such a system of studying varieties is used in cooperation programs of the Kazakhstan-Siberian Wheat Improvement Network (KASIB). The best breeding material is tested annually at various environmental settings (the Volga Region, the Urals, West Siberia and Kazakhstan). Monitoring pathogen virulence allows coordinating strategies for placing new varieties in the study regions, prolonging their \"useful life\" and improving the ecological situation around wheat crops. ","tokenCount":"3708"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3caf676c0a83a00523315b55fcbe56ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/00836a92-0e06-4de1-8688-b0b2acfa5642/retrieve","id":"708127491"},"keywords":["Black Volta Basin","Crop","Dry season","Intervention","Livestock","Water productivity vii"],"sieverID":"5dd0e15d-a060-4f97-84ba-6176bb94dddb","pagecount":"73","content":"I dedicate this thesis to my loving parents, Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Quandzie, my sister Rosemond and brothers John and Anthony and my lovely Rita for their understanding, immense support and sacrifice throughout the period of my study.The Volta basin is the 9 th largest in sub-Saharan Africa (GEF- UNEP, 2002) and it is estimated to drain an area of about 400,000km² (Rodgers et al., 2007) into the Gulf of Guinea. The socio economic benefit derived from the natural resources provided by the Volta Lake is also worth noting. This basin makes up almost 28% of the total West Coast (FAO, 1997) and is shared by six riparian countries, of which Burkina Faso (46%) and Ghana (39%) share the major portion, while the remaining 15% is shared by Togo (6%), Benin (4%), Mali (3%), and Cote d'Ivoire (2%) (Barry et al. 2005). The main Volta basin is made up of four major subbasins which are the Black Volta, White Volta, Oti, and the Lower Volta sub-basins. The fresh water resources that contribute water to the Volta Lake originate from the tributaries that fall within the Volta basin. The estimated annual precipitation ranges from 1500mm per year in the south to about 400mm per year in the upper regions of the basin (FAO, 2001). Potential evaporation rates are high, ranging from 1,500mm in the south to more than 2,500mm in the north and less than 10% of the precipitation becomes useable as river flow (GLOWA-Volta, n.d.). This ultimately contributes to the somewhat perennial drought in the upper regions within the basin.The Black Volta sub-basin in the Volta basin is the study area for this research work, but will be referred to as the Black Volta basin (BVB) in the following write up. The BVB is subdivided into sub-catchments and these are the Nwokuy, Dapola, Bamboi, Noumbiel and Lerinord sub-catchments (Kirby et al. 2010). The BVB drains an area of about 149,015km²and receives an annual rainfall between 1023.3mm -1348.0mm. The mean annual flow of the Black Volta River at Bamboi measuring station is estimated to be about 200m³/s, out of which about 42.6% originate from outside Ghana (GEF-UNEP, 2002).This is an indication that a larger portion of the precipitation and its eventual runoff in the Black Volta River occurs inStephen Quandzie[2] MSc. Thesis, 2012Ghana, hence, the country as a whole and the Upper West Region in particular could maximize its benefit derived from the water resources available. In order to realize the full potential of the water resources in the BVB and in particular the portion in Ghana, the study seeks to concentrate on the Dapola, Noumbiel and Vonkoro sub-catchments which fall within the Upper West Region of Ghana. It cannot be said that the people in the Upper West Region are not benefitting from the water resources but the magnitude and impact that it is having on their lives is what must be looked at with the view of increasing it. There have been many social interventions in the region which have produced marginal benefits in the agricultural sector and economic well being of the inhabitants. Thus with all these interventions, the region according to the Ghana living standard survey ( 2008) is one of the poorest in the country. Hence, in order to better improve the livelihood of the inhabitants with particular reference to the local farmers and livestock owners, the option of providing solutions based on engineering research should be the way forward.The very crucial resource being considered has the Dublin principles (ICWE, 1992) clearly spelling out its importance; the declared principles that states that fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource essential to sustaining life and that its management should be based on participatory approach involving users, planners, and policymakers at all levels with particular focus on women and that its economic value among competing uses should be recognised. Thus agricultural water use should be managed with this in mind. Therefore, the productivity of it should be such that maximum benefit is realised at all times and its conservation promoted.This thesis aims at how best the potential of agricultural water productivity can be increased while assessing how the productivity of agricultural land in the Upper West Region of Ghana which falls within the Black Volta basin can also be enhanced.Stephen Quandzie[3] MSc. Thesis, 2012In most African and Asian countries especially sub-Saharan countries, the growth rate of the population outstrips gains made in agriculture productivity hence, exacerbating the already existing food insecure situation. Food insecurity exists when people lack access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food and therefore not consuming enough for an active and healthy life. This may be due to the unavailability of food, inadequate purchasing power, or inappropriate utilization at household level (FAO, 2002). It is known that food insecurity is progressive and occurs over a set of conditions from food secured situations to full scale famine. It can be classified as either chronic or transitory. Chronic food insecurity translates into a high degree of vulnerability to famine and hunger which mainly exist in poor developing countries.Worldwide, around 852 million people are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty, while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty (FAO, 2003). In Sub Saharan Africa, it is estimated that about 62% (IFAD and FAO, 2008) of the population live in rural areas, are poor and engage in subsistence farming as their means of livelihood.The linkage between the rural communities, poverty alleviation, hunger reduction and rising income levels through agricultural productivity cannot be overlooked in developing countries worldwide. Increased agricultural productivity enable farmers to grow more food which translates into better diets and under market conditions, that offers a level playing field resulting in higher farm incomes. With more money, farmers are more likely to diversify production and grow higher-value crops, benefiting not only themselves, but creating a rippling effect thus affecting the regional, continental and worldwide economy as a whole (IFPRI, 2004).Stephen Quandzie [4] MSc. Thesis, 2012The Black Volta basin falls within the Upper West, Northern and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. Poverty levels in these regions are high with particular reference to the Northern and Upper regions, which is an undeniable fact. This has led to the migration of the youth to the south of the country to seek greener pastures which are non-existent. Unreliable rainfall pattern and harsh climatic conditions in the basin have also affected the interest of the young and educated indigenes in engaging in agricultural production in the basin. Considering that the level of agricultural production has a direct link to income level, it presupposes that most of the people engaged in this sector are poor with an accompanying low purchasing power.Undertaking this study will seek to provide key findings on the avenues, processes and systems needed in the basin to increase the potential of agricultural water productivity.This research will also contribute immensely to achieving the targets set for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) One (1) target One (1) which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and target One (1) Goal Seven (7) which also seeks to ensure environmental sustainability. More specifically, these targets aim at integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources (UN, 2011). Policy formulation in the future can be based on this study in view of the fact that it is to assess the potential for increasing agricultural water productivity in an environmentally sustainable way.Stephen Quandzie [5] MSc. Thesis, 2012The overall objective of this research is to assess the potential for increasing agricultural water productivity for the dry season agricultural activities in the Black Volta basin, Ghana. Sources: 1 Senzanje and Chimbari (2002), 2 Mamba ( 2007) cited in Houenou 2010 It is also worth noting that from Annor (2007) small reservoir can be defined in terms of surface area coverage; that is water storage system with surface area greater than one hectare but less than a hundred hectares qualifies as a small reservoir. However, the volume of stored water in most small reservoirs varies with time mostly as a function of siltation, evaporation, seepage and availability of rainfall. But due to ineffective monitoring and de-silting, though some staff gauges have been installed in some small reservoirs with irrigation schemes, most of them cannot be relied on to determine the capacity due to the fact that they were not sited correctly. Hence, a definition based on capacity will be either incorrect or misleading. In the study area however, documentation is available for most of the dams thus the height of the dam wall is documented and therefore can be relied upon for classification of the dams. Thus from the identified constraint and the mentioned availability of data on the small reservoirs in the study area, the World Bank definition for small reservoirs will be adopted for this study.These are wells which are dug by hands or drilled with machines and may be lined or unlined.It has a depth range of between 1 -7m depending on depth of water table. These wells may be dug seasonally or permanently.Chapter 2Literature ReviewStephen Quandzie [8] MSc. Thesis, 2012It is defined as a small/large natural stream of water flowing in an unlined or lined channel to the sea, lake or into another river or reservoir.A pump can be defined as a device for lifting water from inside a well of lower elevation to the ground surface. According to Asawa (2005), water pumps can be classified as either shallow or deep pumps. It is said to be deep when it is installed within the well casing with its inlet submerged below the pumping level.The definition of productivity can be given in different contexts depending on the discipline and profession. Generally, it is said to be increase in outputs not traditionally accounted for by growth/increase in production inputs. Three of these definitions will be discussed here; firstly, in the field of economics, then secondly in business organizations and thirdly, as applied in agriculture and water issues. In economics, productivity is defined as the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Hence in the context of economics, it may be thought of as a measure of production efficiency whereas in business organizations, productivity is viewed as a ratio which measures how well an organization converts input resources (materials, labor and machines) into goods and services. The latter definition on productivity acknowledges that on its own, it is not a measure of how efficient the conversion process is. In all of the above given definitions, productivity can be defined as simply the ratio of output to input. Generally, productivity can be computed in either of two ways: total or partial productivity (Molden, 1997cited in Cook et al., 2006;Yamoah-Antwi, 2009;Adu-Dankwa, 2010;Houenou, 2010).Partial productivity is generally considered as the simplest type of productivity measure; a single type of key input factor is selected for the productivity ratio. Partial productivity can be Chapter 2Stephen Quandzie [9] MSc. Thesis, 2012expressed in a number of different ways such as value-added productivity, single-factor productivity, unit cost accounting and managerial control system and efficiency ratios. In this study the concept of single-factor productivity (SFP) is adopted.Total productivity is a productivity measure that incorporates all the inputs required to produce a product or provide a service. The inputs could be grouped into conventional and unconventional categories, for as long as they contribute to the total inputs required to produce an output. From Molden (1997), total productivity is defined as the ratio of total output to the total input and also from Houenou (2010), it is the ratio of total tangible outputs to total tangible inputs. Total input in this study are all tangible inputs used for farming under the particular agricultural water management intervention. These inputs include: water, land, labor, capital, fertilizer, improved seeds and pesticides. Water and land are basic fundamental inputs required for crop production. For good yields (production) [farmers must access capital (funds)] to purchase improved seeds to plant, fertilizer to improve soil fertility, labor to prepare the land and where this activity is beyond the physical strength of farmers, machinery is employed and lastly, pesticides to control pest attacks. If all these inputs are available and appropriately applied, then good yields and high productivity will be achieved. If not, the yields will be poor and productivity low.From Mahoo et al. (2007), the United States Department of Agriculture views water productivity in three ways, and these are: i) Water use (technical) efficiency, which is defined as the mass of agricultural produce per unit of water consumed, ii) Water use (economic) efficiency, which is defined as the value of product(s) produced per unit of water volume consumed, and iii) Water use (hydraulic) efficiency, which is defined as the ratio of volume of water actually used by irrigated agriculture to the volume of water supplied. Various stakeholders in the water sector define productivity differently as shown in  2003) modified and cited in Mahoo et al. (2007) Crop water productivity as defined by Molden (1997) is the mass of production or the economic value of production measured against gross inflow, net inflow, depleted water, process depleted water or available water. It can be determined as either the physical crop water productivity (PWP) or the economic crop water productivity (EWP). Thus;• Physical crop water productivity (PCWP) is computed by dividing the crop yield by the volume of water delivered during the crop's entire growth period.• Economic crop water productivity (EWP) is calculated by dividing the income realized from sale of the crop yield by the volume of water delivered during the crop's entire growth period.In this study, crop water productivity will be considered at field (farm) scale. The formula described by Lemoalle (2006), equation (2.1), will be adopted for the computation of the physical crop water productivity, where the denominator will be considered as the volume of water applied or delivered to the crop. For the economic crop water productivity the formula adopted by Faulkner et al. (2008), equation (2.2), will be adopted for this study.Chapter 2Stephen QuandzieLivestock water productivity in agricultural systems is the ratio of the sum of animal products and services produced to the amount of water depleted in producing them (Peden and Tadasse, 2003).The sources of livestock water consumption may be, cited as (Zinash et al., 2002):• Drinking waterLivestock product and services include among others meat, milk, hide, manure, ploughing, and transport. In this study, livestock water productivity (LWP) will be computed using the formula by Peden and Tadasse (2003), equation (2.3), and cited in Houenou (2010).Agricultural land productivity measures the crop yields (t) or the income generated on sale of produce from the piece of land. Yields obtained from a plot of land also depend on the nutrients in the soil. For higher yields, the appropriated inputs such as fertilizer, improved seeds, pesticides, and labor must be used to improve the conditions under which crops grow.In this study, the sum of individual farmers' crop yields is used in the computation of agricultural land productivity (ALP), as in equation (2.4).Stephen Quandzie[12] MSc. Thesis, 2012Crop water consumption factor (CWCF) is the ratio between net crop irrigation water requirement (NIR) and the volume of water that reaches the irrigation plots and that is effectively applied to the crops throughout its specified growth period (V app ) (Willardson et al., 2002;Clemmens and Burt, 1997;Molden, 1997) as indicated in equation (2.5). Crop water consumption factor is also known as water use efficiency (Oweis et al., 2003;Kijne et al., 2003;cited in Houenou, 2010). Thus:The net crop irrigation requirement (NIR) can be computed using the CROPWAT model. The The crop coefficient, k c is a fraction of the crop type and the period of the growing season. P eff is the fraction of the total precipitation, (P) that is available to the crop and does not run off. If the right hand side of equation (2.6), is greater than zero, i.e. NIR > 0, then for the particular crop, some amount of water would have to be supplied by some irrigation method to make up for the deficit which the effective rain (P eff ) was not able to supply. If the right hand side of Chapter 2Literature ReviewStephen Quandzie[13] MSc. Thesis, 2012 equation (2.6), is equal to zero, i.e. NIR = 0, then there would be no need to irrigate since the effective rain (P eff ) is equal to the standard evapotranspiration (ET c ) of the particular crop through its various growth stages. And in the situation where NIR < 0, it shows that the effective rain was more than the ET c , and irrigation would not be required. In other words the soil field capacity is likely to be exceeded and runoff or a waterlogged situation may come into existence.According to Smith (1991), effective rainfall can be calculated using common empirical methods that are based on actual rainfall data. These are:• Fixed percentage of rainfallWhere P eff is the effective precipitation; the fixed percentage is to be given by the user to account for the losses due to runoff and deep percolation, with typical values ranging from 0.7 to 0.9; and P is the measured or generated total monthly rainfall.• Dependable rainfall FAO developed this empirical formula to estimate dependable rainfall; it may be used for design purposes where 80% of probability of exceedance is required. Calculation is monthly step based.For P month ≤ 70mm; P eff = 0.6 x P -10(mm) (i.e. for a time step of every Ten-days) (mm/dec)For P month > 70mm; P eff = 0.8 x P -24(mm) (i.e. for a daily time step) (mm/day)The USDA Soil Conservation Service method for the calculation effective rain is indicated below. Calculation is monthly step based.For P month < 250mm; P eff = P month x (125 -0.2P month ) / 125For P month > 25mm; P eff = 125 + 0.1 x P monthWhere, P eff is effective rainfall and P month is total monthly rainfall (mm/dec).Chapter 2Literature ReviewStephen Quandzie [14] MSc. Thesis, 2012It must be clearly noted that for this thesis work the worst case scenario of assuming that there was no rains during the plant growing period was adopted, hence, P eff is assumed to be zero.That is the amount of water required by particular crops throughout their growing period is solely supplied by means of irrigation methods.Potential evapotranspiration, ET o is calculated using FAO Penman-Monteith equation (Allen et al., 1998) below with parameters of temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours, and wind speed. To compute the net crop irrigation requirement, CROPWAT model requires the data below from the nearest meteorological station and research station or field:• Crop data -the crop type and planting date.• Climatic data -mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures ( o C), monthly rainfall (mm), relative humidity (%), sunshine duration (hours) and wind speed (m/s).• Information on meteorological station; country, name, altitude, latitude, longitude.Chapter 3Stephen Quandzie[15] MSc. Thesis, 2012The portion of the Black Volta basin (BVB), in which the Upper West Region of Ghana is located is described in this chapter. The Location and Size, Population, Vegetation and Land use, Climate, Relief and Drainage, Soil characteristics, Geological Setting, HydrogeologicalSetting, and Socio-economic characteristics are described in this section.The BVB is located approximately between latitudes 7.5ºN and 11ºN and covers about 21% of the whole Volta basin (Mote, 1997). It is made up of five sub-catchments namely Lerinord, Nwokuy, Dapola, Noumbiel and Bamboi. The total catchment area of the basin is 149,015km² with about 23.6% of it in Ghana (GEF-UNEP, 2002). The BVR flows through these riparian countries: southern Mali (source), southwestern Burkina Faso, northeastern Ivory Coast and Ghana. These countries contribute portions of their national lands to make up the Black Volta basin. In Ghana, there are thirteen (13) main tributaries with its accompanying catchment areas draining into the BVR (Barry et al., 2005).The  Socio-demographic analysis for the BVB in Ghana specifically has not been done, since the basin encompasses wholly or partially some districts in the various regions contributing to the catchment of the BVB. The census done in the country is based on the administrative demarcation of regional lands. But Nabila (1997) in his report made some assumptions and presented Table 3 The vegetation of the BVB is that of the typical Guinea savannah according to Chipp (1922) and it's no different from what pertains in the UWR. The vegetation is characterised by short grasses (tussock grasses dominating) and from Agorsah (2003) in GWI (2009) the trees in the BVB are short (< 20m high), thick barks which are fire hardy with the ability to reproduce from dormant buds. Thus, it forms new leaves and some flower just before the beginning of the rains. Some trees with economic value can also be identified in the BVB and these include mango (Mangifera indica), shea butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Dawadawa (Adansonia digitata) and the Baobab. These attributes of the larger BVB can be said to apply to the UWR of Ghana. The majority of the land is rural and its main use is for agricultural production and free range livestock grazing. It is only in the district capitals that some lands are being used for commercial and industrial purposes. The BVB is characterised by a considerable variations in the relief system. A large portion of the basin in Ghana falls within the Guinea savannah zone which is characterised by gentle undulating slopes from north to south, hence promoting surface flow. Mote (1997) in GWI(2009) has it that the topography of the northern sector ranges between 300mm and 600mm above sea level. From the MWRWH (1998) the mean annual runoff of the Black Volta River (BVR) is 7,673 x 10 6 m 3 . The BVR together with its tributaries such as Kamba, Kuno, Bakpong, etc. drain parts of the Upper West Region (UWR).The BVB in Ghana and specifically the UWR is in the Guinea Savannah zone which according to Barry et al. (2005) contains much less organic matter, hence is lower in nutrients. The BVB in Ghana is underlain generally by three main geological formations, Chapter 3Stephen Quandzie[19] MSc. Thesis, 2012 namely: the Birimian, Granite and the Voltaian rocks formation and to a minor extent the Tarkwaian system (Barry et al., 2005). The UWR is underlain by the upper and lower birimian and associated granite and the granite formation. The soils in these areas mainly consist of savannah ochrosols and groundwater laterites (Andah et al., 2003) which give rise to the presences of sandy, sandy loam and laterite. According to FAO (1967), the floodplain soils along the BVR vary from brown sandy clays to silty clays loams. This patchy geology, according to Blench (2006) may well explain why farming systems are so diverse across the UWR.The geological formation of the BVB has a direct bearing on the groundwater occurrence. The rocks in the basin and the region are essentially impermeable and therefore lack primary porosity (Kortatsi, 1997). Secondary porosity development is responsible for the groundwater occurrence. Kortatsi (1997) has it that there are two main aquifer systems in the basin namely:weathered aquifers and the fissured aquifers.The weathered zone aquifers usually occur at the base of thick weathered layers which vary between 0 -100m (Barry et al., 2005). According to the MWRWH (1998) and also as cited in Barry et al. (2005) the yield of these aquifers rarely exceeds 6m³/h.The fissured aquifers are normally discontinuous and limited in area; their occurrence is in fresh rocks and is generally deeper and high yielding than the weathered zone aquifers. This is because fissured aquifers usually occur below the weathered zone.The BVB in Ghana and the UWR in particular is noted to be one of the poorest regions where indigenes live on less than a dollar a day, the standard set under the Millennium Development Goals. The inhabitants who are mostly farmers engage themselves in both minor and major season farming and also livestock rearing to generate income for their livelihood and sustenance.Chapter 3Stephen Quandzie[20] MSc. Thesis, 2012The tourism industry in the region is one of the less tapped potentials; the region is known to have a wide variety of cultural displays such as the Damba and Nandonei Bawa dance. The region is also known to have the hippo sanctuary at Wechiau where tourists can be exposed to viewing and some income generated from that.Commerce between the region and the neighbouring Burkina Faso cannot be over looked.Thus it's a location where trading activities between the southwestern Burkina Faso and the northwestern Ghana takes place, thus goods from the southern Ghana are sent to be sold. IntroductionThe study adopted the following research methodologies for the selection of Agricultural Water Management interventions, determination of crop water consumption factor, crop and livestock water productivities, and agricultural land productivity. These include collection of data through desk studies, reconnaissance survey, questionnaire administration, interviewswith key informants, focus group discussions, field measurement and observation and the use of secondary data.The    The definition for small reservoirs as indicated earlier in this document was used to select some small reservoirs in the BVB catchment portion of the Upper West region, and also these small reservoirs must have a multiple use character. The next was proximity and accessibility to these selected sites and the availability of some secondary data on these structures and sites. After extensive consultation with key high level officials of MoFA and GIDA, seven of these sites were chosen for detailed study.Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[23] MSc. Thesis, 2012The methods and strategies used in collecting data and vital information for this thesis work is described in detail below.High level stakeholder meeting was held at which regional directors and some departmental heads of some organisations involved in the agricultural sector attended. Interviews were conducted with key high level stakeholders which included; regional directors and some departmental heads of MoFA and GIDA on the selection of intervention sites, crop and agricultural land productivities. A follow up reconnaissance survey was conducted to the respective sites. At these sites, questionnaires were administered mainly to dry season farmers as indicated in Plate 1 below. This was done with the help and assistance of some AEAs who acted as translators. They assisted the farmers fill out the questionnaire to provide data on the various uses of the small reservoirs, the various crops grown in the dry season, the crops growing period, the crops yields, the irrigation methods used. Data on the various farm planting inputs used and their respective cost were also gathered.Plate4.1: Questionnaire Administration to Some Farmers at Gbetuore, Black Volta River BankChapter 4Stephen Quandzie[24] MSc. Thesis, 2012After the administration of questionnaire to the randomly selected farmers, the WUA's executives, the leaders of the farmers, some few farmers were brought together to have a FGD to discuss and verify the data gathered through the questionnaire administration at the particular intervention sites. The discussions bordered on issues such as labour charges, irrigation frequency for that site, time and days for irrigating and farm gate prices of crops in the 2011 dry season among others. Observational walks were conducted at the various intervention sites to confirm some of the information gathered through the interviews and FGD's.MoFA and GIDA provided some official records within which some data was extracted on some of the identified interventions in the study area. The data included some information on the full supply level (FSL), live and dead storages, storage capacity and size of irrigable area of the chosen small reservoirs. The type of crops, some market prices of crops and some intervention introduction dates were also obtained. Productivity standards for the crops were also obtained.The dimensions of some randomly selected farm plots, beds and planting ridges were measured on the field to get first hand information and also to confirm some of the information received from the WUA executives, MoFA and GIDA officials. Depth of shallow wells dug on the farms was noted. The farm gate weight of locally accepted standard means of selling produce was weighed and noted with its corresponding prices. The geographic locations of the various intervention sites was recorded using a hand held GPS set. At sites where farmers were using bucket and line/rope to draw water from the shallow wells located at vantage points on the farm and/or from the main canal and laterals unto their beds or ridges to water the crops, the volume of water fetched was randomly measured at three different At sites where the farmers were using motorized pumps to irrigate their farms, the pumping rates (discharge rate) for some of the pumps were determined through using containers that had been calibrated with standard one litre measuring cup to determine their volumes and a stopwatch to measure the time to fill up. The volume of water applied in watering the crops on the field for the entire crop growing period were determined using equation (4.1) below:Where V app = volume of water applied in (m³) or (cu.m), NID = number of irrigation days for entire dry season (days), Du = duration of irrigation per day (seconds/minutes/hours), PR = pumping rate (m³/s).At sites where farmers were using water released from small reservoirs by the opening of valves to allow water to flow through canals and laterals to fill furrows on the fields of farmers for irrigation, the volume of water applied was measured by firstly, taking the dimensions of the main canal and laterals of the particular scheme and recorded. The depth of flow and wetted perimeter were also measured and noted. The water surface velocity was Stephen Quandzie[26] MSc. Thesis, 2012 measured using the float method. Five readings were taken and the average found and used in the computation of the surface velocity. This was done using equation ( 4.2); it is a formula adopted from USEPA (1997) as indicated below:Where L = distance (m) over which the time 't' (s) was recorded and 0.8 is the reduction factor since not all the water flows with the same velocity both at the bottom and at the surface as in the JICA's technical guidelines for irrigated agriculture ( 2004) and cited in Adu-Dankwa ( 2010).The discharge (Q) of water was computed using equation ( 4.3) as indicated:Where A = flow area (m²) and V = average velocity (m/s) of flow as computed using equation (4.2) above.Note: the stop valve was fully opened to allow maximum flow as it is the normal practise on every irrigation day. And also it must be stated that the scope of the work did not include losses due to seepage and leakages, so were not considered in the computations in this thesis work. Since the study was done at the farm/field level, loss here may not be losses when viewed at the basin scale.The volume of water applied to the field was found using the relation in equation (4.1) above by replacing the pumping rate (PR) with the discharge rate in equation ( 4.3). The irrigation duration is the time taken for the furrows on the field to get filled up. At other plots and sites where this was not appropriate, dimensions of furrows were taken and the time it takes for water to fill up was noted and subsequently the volume found per the number of furrows on the field.Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[27] MSc. Thesis, 2012The crop water consumption factor (CWCF) is the ratio of the net crop irrigation water requirement (NIR) to the volume of water that is effectively applied to the crop on the field for the entire growth period specified (V app ). This ratio according to Oweis et al. (2003) and Kijne et al. (2003) is also known as the crop water use efficiency.The net crop irrigation water requirement (volume of water required by crops throughout its growth period) (NIR) was computed using the FAO CROPWAT 8.0 model, which is based on equation (2.6). This was done by accessing secondary climatic data of the Wa meteorological station from the FAO CLIMWAT 2.0 model. Intervention site specific coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude) were taken with the GPS hand held set which also served as input data for the CROPWAT 8.0 model. The effective rainfall for this study work was set at zero. This is to take care of a worst case scenario which is normally what happens in the dry season in that part of the country. The crop water consumption factor for the selected crops was computed using the relation in equation (4.4) above for the various specific intervention sites.Agricultural Water Productivity QuantificationThe crop water productivity for this thesis work was determined for both physical and economic (monetary) agricultural water productivities.Physical crop water productivity (PCWP) was computed using equation (4.5) below:Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[28] MSc. Thesis, 2012The crop yield (kg) for the dry season of 2011 was gathered through interviews, focus group discussions and physical measurement with digital scale at the farm gate. Gardeners estimated their yields in the locally accepted means such as crates, basins, sacks, and bowls. Some of the farm produce were measured at the farm gate to confirm the weights given by MoFA monitoring and evaluation officers at the various district offices. Also, local agricultural extension agents in these areas gave some information to corroborate what the gardeners had given in terms of yields. The economic (monetary) water productivity was computed based on the following relation:Income Obtained from the sale of the crop yield (GH¢) was computed as: Crop Yield (kg) x Price of crop per unit weight (GH¢/kg).Local economic situation influences the prices of the crops from season to season and the glut of a particular crop also reduces the market price. This also affects the type of vegetables farmers' plant in the subsequent seasons.The crop water productivity for the selected crops based on the various interventions was then computed. These were then compared with FAO values for same crops grown in semi-arid and arid regions under optimum irrigation water and agricultural management practises to see if there exist the potential to increase the agricultural water productivities. For this study, the assumption made is that all other factors contributing to the production of the crop were at the optimum level and the varying variable is the agricultural water. A common basis for comparison of agricultural water productivity is needed, so the FAO ranges for good yields in (t/ha) for semi-arid and arid regions were converted into physical crop water productivity (PCWP) by dividing the minimum value of the stated range by the net crop water requirement ¢ Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[29] MSc. Thesis, 2012(assuming a 100% crop water consumption factor). Table 4.2 shows the FAO ranges for good yields and physical crop water productivity. The livestock (cattle, sheep and goat) average selling prices for the past dry season were taken as the respective product revenue or income. The income realised from using cattle for other on farm and off farm activities were noted. This information was collected through interviews with livestock owners who are also mostly crop farmers, questionnaire administration, and focus group discussions. The volume of water consumed by the livestock in a day was also gathered through the same means as mentioned above.The livestock off farm activities income was for the entire season. And the matured age for the selected livestock ranged between 5 -5.5 and 1 -1.5 respectively for cattle and sheep/goat. The main focus of the work is on the 2011 dry season and also to create a uniform ¢ ¢ Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[30] MSc. Thesis, 2012 basis for comparison of productivities (crop and livestock), the average selling price of the matured livestock were divided by its age (months) to obtain the average annual cost. This was further reduced to five months, thus representing the dry season. Secondary data on estimated water consumption by livestock per day per head was obtained from the \"Water For Animals\" (FAO, 1986) which gave estimates for voluntary water intake of livestock under Sahelian conditions as 27 L/day/head for cattle and 5 L/head/day for sheep/goat. Also, according to estimates made in 2000 by ONEA (National Board of Water and Sanitation) in Burkina Faso and cited in Houenou (2010), water consumption for cattle per day per head is 39.2 L/day/head and that for sheep/goat is 4.3 L/day/head. Table 4.3 shows the computation of livestock water productivity.Note: This study takes into consideration only the amount of water consumed by livestock (drinking water) because the animals normally feed in the wild (free range).Chapter 4Stephen Quandzie[31] MSc. Thesis, 2012The agricultural land productivity is also a productivity indicator used in assessing agricultural farming systems or interventions. This is done by noting the crop yield in tonnes and the land size on which the yield was realised. The land size that is allocated to or plot size in the irrigable area were measured and recorded. This was done in two ways; measuring tape was used in areas where the boundaries of the farmland were accessible. And in areas where there were difficulty accessing farmland boundaries, the ridges or bed sizes were measured and the total number noted and also the furrow sizes measured and the total number on the farmland noted. These were finally added to arrive at an approximate farmland size. The agricultural land productivity was then computed using equation (4.8) below:Results and DiscussionsStephen Quandzie[32] MSc. Thesis, 2012The agricultural water management interventions being used in the Black Volta Basin portion of the Upper West region of Ghana were identified through desk studies, key informant interviews and high level stakeholder meeting organised for key organizations and governmental departments involved in the agricultural sector, after a reconnaissance survey and observational assessment was conducted at the intervention sites to acquire first-hand information. This process finally resulted in the selection of seven intervention sites and three crops for detailed studies. Table 5.1 below gives location, type of irrigation scheme, water abstraction method, and water delivery and application mechanisms. Table 5.2 below gives intervention sites and the major crops grown there. The CWCF gives indication of how the volume of water applied to the crops on the field based on the various interventions are performing. The FAO optimum level is set at 100%, so to give indication as to over irrigation or under irrigation, the CWCF field values were computed using equation (4.4) and the obtained values subtracted from the FAO standard to indicate actual levels of water deficit or over irrigation. Thus, from the CROPWAT model, the net irrigation requirement (NIR) for the crops taken into consideration, the specific locations for the various sites, specific values of the NIR for the crops were generated. So for the crops requiring the specific NIR and assuming that the same volume was applied on the field, then the CWCF for the FAO standard become zero, i.e. CWCF (Theoretical CROPWAT) -CWCF (Volume applied on field) gives indication of over irrigation or deficit water needed to be supplied. Hence for FAO standards, the value will be zero and will be the Results and DiscussionsStephen Quandzie[34] MSc. Thesis, 2012wastage. Thus for Babile and Yeliyili, the amount of water delivered to tomato and pepper are about 74% -87% more than it requires as indicated in Fig. 5.1 and 5.2 below. Thus with this intervention, water stress is not a problem hence, it's an indication that the agricultural water productivity can be greatly increased under this intervention. This can be achieved by giving the WUA executives training on good water management practises needed on such AWM intervention sites and farmers also trained on the required and needed agronomic practises which are prudent for such crops under this intervention.The AWM interventions under which the delivery and application of water to the crops on the field are undertaken with a line/rope, bucket and calabash are prevalent at the Busa and Bihee sites. It can be seen from Fig. 5.1 and 5.2 below that under this intervention, there is quite a good water volume applied. Although pepper at Busa site experienced water deficit of about 25.4% compared to the FAO standard, this needs to be supplied to prevent water stress, since once a crop undergoes water stress its yield is affected and reduced. This intervention gives the farmers the free hand to apply water to the crops whenever necessary. So they should be trained on the right agronomic practises to use with this intervention. This intervention has a lot of drudgery associated with it but this can be reduced by the use of the right type of treadle pumps which will re-channel the farmer's energy into increasing the crop water productivity at the sites.The intervention which makes use of motorized pumps, hoses, pipes and furrows as abstraction, delivery, and application mechanisms are used at two sites namely Siiru and Kunzokala. The intervention at Siiru has an earth lined main canal from which motorized pumps are used to abstract water onto the field for application. This system at Siiru has proven from the Fig. 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 below to be applying quite a good amount of water but for tomato, it can be seen that some amount of over irrigation is occurring. At the Kunzokala site, it was observed that there was no intake valve hence, no canal leading to the irrigable area. Thus farmers mount and pump water through pipes and hoses to far distances to apply to Chapter 5Results and Discussions the crops on the field, thus increasing the water losses through leakages along the pipes and hoses. This can partly be the reason for the site experiencing water deficit for both tomato and pepper. It was also observed that the irrigable area was gravelly in nature. The farmers at the site were actively practising mulching and the use of manure on their farms. Thus at this site the provision of an intake valve and a main canal will help reduce the water deficit being experienced.The riverine water intervention being practised along the BVR at Gbetuore has proven from Fig. 5.2, that the water deficit of about 8.17% being experienced can easily be supplied so that the optimum FAO valve for pepper can be obtained for maximum productivity of the river water being pumped. At this site, it was observed that farmers were farming close to the river banks with no buffer in place to protect the river and nature. The figures below are the CWCF for the various agricultural water management interventions with respect to the indicated crop. Results and DiscussionsStephen Quandzie[36] MSc. Thesis, 2012 Results and DiscussionsStephen Quandzie[37] MSc. Thesis, 2012Crop Water ProductivitiesFrom Table 5.3 below, it can be seen that the PCWP values differ from site to site with respect to the various interventions and crops. It is also clear that the obtained field values are very low as compared to the FAO standard values for semi-arid to arid areas. But the PCWP values with respect to the identified AWM intervention showed that the farmers in Busa and Bihee obtained higher values for tomato. Thus, these farmers using the shallow wells and buckets are making quite productive use of the available agricultural water. The worst performing intervention was at Babile and Yeliyili sites for the crops studied. Here the delivery of water to the field is by gravitational force. The present operational system in place is making a lot of water go to waste in terms of crop production. The farmers and the WUA executives should be trained properly and monitored on the use and amount of water required and delivered to the field for the various crops. Also the furrow dimensions which is appropriate and the planting technology needed to be used for the specific soil type in the area must be made known to the farmers. Thus under this system, greater improvement can be Chapter 5Stephen Quandzie[38] MSc. Thesis, 2012 made in the agricultural water productivity and crop productivity increased in proportional terms.The PCWP of interventions that involves the use of motorized pumps can also do better for the crops studied. The planting/cropping system to be used with this intervention with respect to the different crops can be made available to the farmers by either the irrigation agronomist or the agricultural extension agent whose territory these interventions are present, in order to attain the optimum FAO standards for all the crops. This intervention also allows the farmers the free will to decide when exactly to irrigate the fields and for how long.It must however be noted that the PCWP at all the intervention sites will be affected in one way or another by other factors such as soil type and corresponding soil nutrients, disease and pest attack and also soil and moisture conservation practices. Improved seeds and general farm maintenance such as weeds control also counts.The EWP is income realised from the sale of the crop yield divided by the amount of water measured on the field for irrigation through the entire growth period of each particular crop.As expressed in equation (4.6), the following values in Table 5.4 were obtained. From Fig. 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7 below it is observed that a high PCWP value corresponds to a high EWP value at all the intervention sites. The differences in the EWP values show that the local prices of crop produced differ from site to site and depending on the time of the season, the local market prices of some produce are worth more than others. But in general terms a good yield produces a better economic value when the market is right.Chapter 5Stephen Quandzie[40] MSc. Thesis, 2012 Stephen Quandzie [41] MSc. Thesis, 2012 From literature (FAO, 2010), tomato, pepper, and onion are said to be very sensitive to both over-irrigation and under-irrigation. In both instances, the yields of these crops are affected hence the optimum PCWP level will not be achieved. FAO (2010) suggests it that tomato is sensitive to variations in temperature, humidity, sunshine and wind speed. Thus high humidity increases pest and disease attack and fruit rotting. High humidity, strong winds and low sunshine leads to excessive vegetative growth, poor fruit production which culminates into reduced yields. There is also disease attack when waterlogging occurs. Water deficit immediately after transplanting and during flowering and fruit formation causes a reduction in the yield.According to (FAO, 2010), pepper suffers greater yield losses when there is water deficit just before and during the early flowering stage. This affects yield greatly and waterlogging also causes leaf shedding and poor fruit setting to the plant and also rotting during the fruit ripening stage. Onion is sensitive to soil salinity and over-irrigation and under-irrigation.Water deficit at the fruit formation stage and over-irrigation at all stages leads to the reduction in growth and poor yields.Chapter 5Stephen Quandzie[43] MSc. Thesis, 2012In Fig. 5.1 above, Kunzokala site shows a water deficit of about 10% of the NIR for tomato as Babile and Yeliyili gave indication of about 87% over-irrigation at both sites. This may be partly contributing to the low PCWP being realised at these sites. For Fig. From the questionnaire administered to farmers/livestock owners, key informant interviews, and organised focus group discussions it came out clear that the dominant livestock being reared were cattle, sheep and goats. The cattle mostly were kept for commercial as well as for other social functions. It was made known that depending on the herd of cattle a family or individual owns, the higher their social status in the community. They were also kept for prestige and pride and also as investment for the young members of the family to fall on in future when they need money. In communities visited as part of the studies, cattle was not used for transportation or ploughing as it is the case in other parts of the country. Here, owners keep them for their meat and for other social functions such as marriage.Occasionally, matured and healthy livestock are sold out to other farmers for breeding purposes.In computing the cattle water productivity, this study took into account the income made out of selling matured livestock and for ploughing during the main season. The other products such as milk and skin for leather were not considered because they are not sold but few of the Chapter 5Stephen Quandzie[44] MSc. Thesis, 2012owners and other individuals make use of them when necessary. In the case of sheep and goat they were kept and sold for supplementary income for the up keep of the home and also used for some customary rituals and ceremonies. It must be noted clearly that water for feed preparation and for slaughtered livestock processing to get the finished products for final consumption were not included in the computation of LWP because of lack of available data.From the analysis done in Table 5.5, sheep water productivity was higher than that of goats because they are preferred by Muslims for sacrifices and also because they are larger in size than the goats although their daily water consumption is approximately the same. Cattle had the highest water productivity of them all. The daily water consumption for these animals in the study areas showed no significant difference from similar works done by Houenon (2010) in Burkina Faso and Yamoah-Antwi (2009) in the Upper East region of Ghana and FAO (1986) in sub-sahelian countries. The water productivities per cattle, sheep and goat were found to be respectively: 84.5GH¢/m³, 32.43GH¢/m³ and 25.48GH¢/m³. With this, there is a clear indication that livestock water productivities under the prevailing conditions are higher than that of crops water productivities in the study areas.Chapter 5Stephen Quandzie  Livestock had high water productivity as compared to crops but it is worth noting that water for feed production and processing of livestock to get finished products were not considered.Cattle in this part of the catchment were not used for any farm base activity nor for transportation during the dry season.It also came out that the crops PCWP, EWP and ALP were generally low as compared to FAO standards for areas having such biophysical characteristics. It was noted that local market forces existing in an area influences the EWP of particular crops in that locality.This research can conclude that efficient application of agricultural water to crops at the right time produced good yields under good agronomic practices and that farmers' knowledge on crop water requirement for particular crops is virtually non-existent.Chapter 6Stephen Quandzie[48] MSc. Thesis, 2012From the study the following recommendations are made:• That GIDA and MoFA should employ competent water resources engineers and managers to help advice, design and develop strategies to improve and sustain agricultural water productivities for the country with the three northern regions in focus.• Training sections and seminars be organised for farmers, irrigation agronomist and agricultural extension agents on water management and crop water requirements to help reduce water wastage at the intervention sites.• Further research should be conducted at each specific intervention location to ascertain site specific biophysical parameters and impact of farmer attitude on the interventions in order to establish its influence on PCWP and develop strategies to boost EWP of crops grown in the dry season.• Further research is needed in the field of livestock water productivity which will take into consideration water used in producing livestock feed and water used in the processes to get finished products on to markets.","tokenCount":"8521"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"70342d02a7bbb1300f152c363aa63341","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fea9d4c8-2035-4339-b7e5-61c8b7c3f4b4/retrieve","id":"-133466162"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0ecb1570-b50e-44d8-abce-35aeb71c28df","pagecount":"21","content":"The capacity development need assessment initiative is part of the feed and forage innovation value chain of the Accelerating Impact of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) project of Ethiopian. AICCRA is a three years (2021-2023) project that operates in six African countries including Ethiopia. The project is supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank and will enhance research and capacity-building activities by CGIAR and its partners. AICCRA in Ethiopia aims to strengthen the capacity of targeted national partners and stakeholders of CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) East Africa to access and implement at scale validated climate-smart agriculture technologies, climate information services, and climate-informed digital ag-advisories to build the resilience of agri-food systems. The value chains considered for AICCRA project in Ethiopia include beans, wheat, small ruminant and livestock feed and forge options.The AICCRA project in Ethiopia has eight research activities. Livestock feed and forage options value chain contributes to four of the eight activities, which include capacity building to support implementation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technology packages; identification of climate-and gender and social inclusion-smartness of CSA packages; prioritization and awareness increase of best-bet CSA options and approaches for key value chains; and integration of climate-smart options and tailored CSI advisory systems for specific value chains. The current report on capacity need assessment is one of the three deliverables that the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Africa RISING research team promised to produce and submit for AICCRA-Ethiopia project in 2021.Despite having one of the highest number of livestock in Africa, the Ethiopian traditional livestock management system is not responding to the expected contributions of the sector. Difficulties of getting reliable and quality livestock feed resources, poor post-harvest feed handling, and utilization practices are critical constraints of Ethiopia's livestock sector, along with other key constraints such as animal health and breeding services (Mekonnen et al. 2021).The feed resource base in the mixed farming system of the Ethiopian highlands has been declining due to the continual conversion of grazing lands to arable lands and concomitant loss of fertility/land degradation on the remaining pasture lands. This has forced farmers to heavily rely on feeding crop residues to their livestock. For a sustainable improvement in crop-livestock productivity, it is therefore imperative to improve the feed resource base of the mixed farming system in the highlands by introducing well-adapted and high yielding fodder crops and efficient utilization practices (Mekonnen et al. 2021).The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project in the Ethiopian highlands has introduced integrated feed and forage development interventions such as cultivated forages, fodder trees, improved feeding troughs, feed conservation practices and storage sheds in the Ethiopian highlands to address livestock feed and forage related challenges that can contribute to the improvement of livestock productivity, income diversification and household nutrition (https://africarising.net/ethiopian-highlands/). While Africa RISING feed and forage research and scaling work reached significant number of beneficiaries, there are plenty of rooms for improvement and scaling. A recent paper by Mekonnen et al (2021) on Africa RISING achievements highlighted the importance of continued capacity building for farmers and extension staff to create awareness and build their technical capacity. The authors also highlighted the importance of taking an integrated approach that addresses policy, planning and operation related constraints of feed and forage innovations. Further scaling, the authors argued, also requires tackling critical bottlenecks such as the weak forage seed system requiring special attention.The AICCRA initiative aims at building on Africa RISING and related CGIAR based feed and forage innovations in Ethiopia and scaling them in wider geographies and beneficiaries. The feed and forage innovation scaling component of the initiative has various components including technical capacity building through tailored training, assessing climate-smartness and social inclusiveness of feed and forage innovations, developing risk communication materials for various media and platforms among others. This report presents scaling activities related to the first component of the initiative, capacity building through tailored training programs for farmers, extension, media and finance related partners. This report aims at reporting the results of the training needs assessment study conducted among various partners and the implications of the results for the training module preparation.Before starting off a training, trainers need to conduct training needs assessment even when the training needs seem apparent. Brown (2002) identified four reasons why it is worth to conduct training needs assessment. First, training needs assessment could help to identify specific problem areas in an organization that could get solved through training. Second, training needs assessments could help in securing essential management support for planned training programs. Third, when properly done, training needs assessments could help in data collection on changes brought about by training delivery. Finally, training needs assessments could help in justifying the benefit of training vis-à-vis the costs involved.A training need is said to be a gap between current and desired results. The needs may arise at outcome, output and/or product levels. Gaps could also be categorized in terms of 'means', including process and input. The process aspect includes methods, approaches, and interaction. The input aspect includes resources required. In broad terms training needs assessment is a process for identifying training needs and placing them in priority (Iqbal and Khan 2011).Depending on resources availability and buy-in from management, training needs assessment could take either light or deep forms. The light forms could be informal needs assessments through observation and informal meetings with employees and managers. The deep forms could take a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Both the light and deep forms of training needs assessment could be done at organization, task or individual levels (Priyadarshini and Dave, 2012). Qualitative data collection methods such as observations, key informant interviews and focus group discussions could be used to explore competency gaps and training needs. The findings of the qualitative study could then be used to generate quantitative data collection tools using survey methods (Brown, 2002).Training needs assessment also has its critics. On the one hand, organizations often use strategic business/organizational needs, not the results of a training needs assessment (TNA) to develop training plans. Hence, there is a need to convince line managers to conduct a training needs assessment even when it appears like they already seem to know the training they need for their employees. On the other hand, trainings are only one alternative to solve organizational problems. TNAs may lead to proposition of training as the only/main solution. That is why training needs assessments need to involve at least two phases. The study comprising of two phases. The first, diagnostic phase identifies inconsistencies among performance standard then ranks the inconsistencies by prioritizing them. The second curative phase finds out the root causes of the inconsistencies, and then decides on whether to use training, non-training or a combination of solutions (Iqbal and Khan 2011).The objectives of the training needs assessment were 1. To understand the technical capacity gaps of AICCRA climate-smart feed and forage sector partners 2. To get insight into the topics that need to be included in AICCRA training module preparation on climate-smart feed and forage innovationsThe training needs assessment study consisted of desk review, qualitative assessment and quantitative survey. The desk review looked into various Africa RISING related documents such as bi-annual reports, presentations, posters and briefs to identify technical gaps that challenge the feed and forage innovation partners. The study then went on with an exploratory qualitative study with key informants (KI). Actors for KI were identified from various sectors directly and indirectly linked with Africa RISING livestock feed and forage production and utilization research and scaling initiatives. Accordingly, 19 KIs were drawn from the following:• Forage producing farmers• Cooperatives/unions engaged in forage seed multiplication• Extensions offices at regional, zonal and woreda levels• Research centres (Areka, Debre Birhan, Sinana, Holetta)• Universities (Debre Birhan, Wachemo and Madda Walabu)• Non-governmental organizations (Inter Aide, Send a Cow, SNV)• Microfinance institutions and banks• Private seed suppliers• MediaThe qualitative study was followed by a structured survey. A structured web-based, quantitative survey questionnaire was developed using MS Forms and shared a link to respondents which can be easily opened on mobile phones or computers. A printed version questionnaire was also used to get the responses of farmers and other targeted stakeholders. The questionnaire included 14 broad questions and was categorized into two parts. The first part has covered general questions about respondents including their gender, age range, educational status, and contact details. The second part consisted of closed and open questions. The closed questions were designed to rate the 14 shortlisted training topics and to assess whether the respondents got training on the stated topics with 12 months. Respondents were asked to rate training topics using a five-point Likert scale, i.e., strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5) which have direct relevance and priority for their work. These training topics were summarized from the KIIs and considered important for multiple stakeholders to expand their knowledge, attitude and skills on the livestock feed and forage production and utilization.Besides, the open questions were devised to gather any training topics that might not be included in the list and any comments from the respondents. Descriptive statistics (i.e., mean and percentage) was used to analyse data from 109 respondents using MS Excel.The exploratory qualitative study multiple challenges and gaps associated with the livestock feed and forage production and utilization. The followings were the main points captured from the KIIs (see Table 1 and 2 for details).• Attitude related gaps: Examples include, extensionists deprioritizing forage, livestock experts taking a reductionist approach to forage and farmers do not allocate enough land for forage production• Institutions and linkages related gaps: Examples include, forage experts do not approach scaling systematically and forage seed sources not linked with local use• Technical gaps: Examples include, skill gap in forage seed production, systematically assessing and using locally available feed and forage options, knowledge gap on forage preservation, integration of forage production and farm enterprises, climate-smart forage production, frost resistant feed and forage options, knowledge gap on seasonality of forage availability and limited capacity to plan for scare periods, price setting factors for forage seeds and fundraising and financing forage related initiatives.The negative statements in the challenges identified were then turned into a positive statements to identify the desired state. The desired states then were further analysed to identify those desired states that could be achieved by technical training intervention and those which require a non-training intervention. After thorough discussions among the research team, the following training topic were generated to address the challenges indicated by key informants. These topics were grouped under four categories (Table 3). Note that some of the topics generated from turning the desired states into training topics (Table 2) were dropped. Some of the topics were found to be better solved with non-training interventions. Other topics were found redundant and were replaced by a broader training topic category. This is an essential step in a training needs analysis (Iqbal and Khan 2011). The quantitative survey returned responses 109. Out of the total respondents, 15% were female and 85% were male. Out of the total, 25% of the respondents were age 20-30, 33% age 31-40, 31% age 41-50, and 11% age 51-60 years old (see Figure 1). The educational status indicated, 15% Diploma, 35% BSc, 28% MSc, 5% PhD, and 17% other. Other educational status, which aggregates all the education status below Diploma, i.e. high school, and also adult educations. Professionally 20% were farmers, 20% DAs, 20% Zonal/district experts, 8% regional/federal experts, 14% researcher/Lecturers, 6% private sector, 6% media, 6% non-governmental organizations (NGO) (see Figure 2).  The analysis of the survey reveals that the listed training topics are agreed by 90% of the overall respondents (see Figure 3). This is not surprising given that the initial list for ranking was generated through an exploratory qualitative study. The result shows strong interest in getting evidence on the importance of livestock sector as an economic engine, making forage production climate-smart and means of securing more land for forage cultivation.  There is no great difference between men and women respondents in the overall importance of the different training topics identified in the exploratory. However, the visual data presented below shows some contrasts (Figure 4). For example, one could see a lot more men than women who responded  The age disaggregated data also showed a slight difference. Although it is in no way possible to claim statistical significance, the visual difference between the different age group shows that more and more older people felt indifferent about the importance of the training topics identified during the exploratory stage (Figure 5). This could be explained by the fact that the older respondents had more exposure for technical training than their younger counterparts. The disaggregation of training needs by professional category also shows a little bit of difference (Figure 6). As expected, those below a diploma status wanted most of the trainings. A little more people with BSc, MSc and PhD holders than diploma and less holders seem to rate training topics neutral or even disagree. However, note that these comparisons are not based on statistical tests. The final disaggregation was done along professional lines. This seems to be the more diverse categorization as the preferences of respondents in the different groups showed some variation (Figure 7). For example, for respondents in media, the topic on economic importance of the livestock sector scored high and technically topics such as crop residue treatment scored less. Respondents in the NGO sector disfavour the introductory sections and want more on areas of reducing the cost of production of forages.The private sector actors seemed to like more topics such as how to enhance their access to land and integrate forages in their farm enterprises and on climate proofing their forage production. They registered less interest particularly on crop residue treatment. For the researchers the topic on the economic importance of livestock were less favoured and topics in the areas of scaling and financing, climate proofing forage production and integration of forage in farm enterprises were more favoured. The farmer and extension groups have a more equivalent preference of all the topics identified in the exploratory needs assessment. Respondents were asked whether they took any training (at least one or more) related to the listed training topics within 12 months. About 41% of the respondents answered they received at least one or more refresher trainings (Figure 8). Out of these, most indicated \"Introduction to feed and forage technologies for better livestock productivity\". And the other 59% respondents didn't get any form of training related to the listed topics (Figure 8). It is important to note that topics such as finance and fund mobilization, forage planning tools, scaling approaches and costing forage production scored the lowest rating of pervious training attendance.   • For media people:o What is your level of knowledge of feed and forage options and their importance for livestock production?o What are the areas of knowledge that you would need to develop good stories about feed and forage production and utilization?• For finance people:o What are the business opportunities you see in financing feed and forage production?o What are the knowledge areas you need to design a viable financial product for feed and forage production and utilization? ","tokenCount":"2544"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"185e145a6e21c9a1e57675d4ecde3aea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a84f8348-0118-4128-b801-b6e152422be3/retrieve","id":"-2051952326"},"keywords":["Agricultural planning","Climate impacts","Climate resilience","Decadal variability","Stochastic simulation"],"sieverID":"453b7921-93ef-40d8-bb19-a1b9a5b1534d","pagecount":"48","content":"Climate prediction on decadal time scales is currently an active area of research. Although there are indications that predictions from dynamical models may have skill in some regions, assessment of this skill is still underway, and reliable model-based predictions of regional 'near-term' climate change, particularly for terrestrial regions, have not yet been demonstrated. Given the absence of such forecasts, synthetic data sequences that capture the statistical properties of observed near-term climate variability have potential value. Incorporation of a climate change component in such sequences can aid in estimating likelihoods for a range of climatic stresses, perhaps lying outside the range of past experience.Such simulations can be used to drive agricultural, hydrological or other application models, enabling resilience testing of adaptation or decision systems. The use of statistically-based methods enables the efficient generation of a large ensemble of synthetic sequences as well as the creation of well-defined probabilistic risk estimates. In this report we discuss procedures for the generation of synthetic climate sequences that incorporate both the statistics of observed variability and expectations regarding future regional climate change. Model fitting and simulation are conditioned by requirements particular to the decadal climate problem. A method for downscaling annualized simulations to the daily time step while preserving both spatial and temporal subannual statistical properties is presented and other possible methods discussed. A 'case-study' realization of the proposed framework is described.Some studies of potential decadal predictability (e.g., Boer and Lambert, 2008) suggest that skill in terrestrial regions is likely to be low. Other research (e.g., Teng and Branstator, 2010) has tended to focus on oceanic variables, perhaps based on the expectation that results are likely to be more promising than those obtained for land regions. In any event, reliable nearterm climate forecasts for terrestrial regions, particularly at local to regional scales, have not been demonstrated. Alternative methods for assessing near-term climate-related risks may thus have value.One technique that can be useful in this regard involves stochastic simulation: the creation of synthetic climate sequences having statistical properties representative of a region or locality of interest. Such sequences, while not forecasts per se, can nonetheless help to quantify ranges of uncertainty associated with near-term climate variability. Simulations may be structured so as to incorporate estimates of long-term trends associated with anthropogenically-forced climate change (including the uncertainty in these trends). The projected climate change signal then provides a slowly-changing background state on which decadal and higherfrequency fluctuations are superimposed. Together these influences provide a better description of the expected range of near-term climate variations, and their potential impacts on statistics of interest for agriculture or other applications, than either alone. It is the generation of such sequences that constitutes the focus of the present report.The discussion presented here constitutes an exploration of some of the practical considerations involved in generating such simulations. The general plan consists in decomposing regional climate variability into three components: A 'trend-like' component that may be associated with anthropogenically-induced climate change, an annual-to-decadal component, comprising variability on those time scales, and a subannual component, including the seasonal cycle and daily variability. As will be seen, this is a tidy description of what may turn out in practice to be a less-than-tidy procedure, but it can usefully serve as a template for simulation model development.The remainder of this presentation is organized as follows: In Section 2 we provide some theoretical background and describe the conceptual decomposition by time scale that underlies the proposed simulation methodology. Section 3 considers issues encountered in model design and specification. Section 4 presents a detailed framework for the construction of a simulation model, in light of the information presented in earlier sections. In Section 5 elements of a case study that illustrate one possible realization of the simulation methodology is considered. A discussion and summary follow in Sections 6 and 7, respectively.Climate variability is often parsed according to time scale, the various canonical scales corresponding approximately to different classes of climate process. There are at least two reasons for the qualifier 'approximately': First, changes in climate behaviour on different time scales may not be strictly independent: there is a possibility of cross-scale influence. Second, and particularly with regard to anthropogenic 'trends,' the separation of such trends from lowfrequency variability that may not be anthropogenic in nature is not always straightforward (Solomon et al., 2011).The above caveats notwithstanding, the simulation strategy to be discussed utilizes such a decomposition. The three time scales are treated quasi-independently, but without ignoring the possibility influence of climatic change on annual and subannual variability. The treatment of such interaction, as well as the so-called 'separation problem,' are discussed in the relevant sections of the report.On the longest time scales to be considered are the secular climate shifts referred to as 'climate change,' which play out over the course of a century or longer. These time scales involve, to first order, anthropogenic forcing of the climate through changes in the radiative properties of the Earth's atmosphere. One well-known result of this forcing is the rise in Earth's surface temperature owing to the increasing atmospheric burden of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gases. Because this forcing has an incremental character (see, e.g., Figure 2.3a in Solomon et al., 2007), we identify a 'climate change' time scale, and associate slow, trend-like components in the signals analyzed with it.At the opposite end of the spectrum we find subannual variability, including the seasonal cycle and daily weather fluctuations. Because the chaotic nature of the atmosphere limits weather prediction to a time horizon of a week or two, daily variability is often simulated for application purposes using stochastic daily weather generators (Wilks and Wilby, 1999;Wilks, 1999). This strategy is analogous to what we propose here for the annual-to-decadal scale, where predictability is also likely to be limited to time horizons shorter than those for which future information is desired. A brief consideration of weather generation schemes that might be utilized in conjunction with the decadal simulations is presented in Section 4.7.2.The annual-to-decadal time scale occupies a nominal middle ground between the climate change and subannual (weather to seasonal) scales. Natural climate variability on this broad range of time scales arises from a range of processes, including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, large-scale decadal 'modes,' filtering of high-frequency 'weather noise' via the large thermal inertia of the oceans, volcanic eruptions and solar variability. Anthropogenic factors such as land use/land cover changes and emissions of aerosols and certain other trace gases may also produce decadal-scale climatic responses.These processes are effective to differing degrees in different ocean basins, latitude bands and regions, resulting in a rich and complex mosaic of regionally-differentiated variability on annual and longer time scales.For the purposes of simulation it is the net effect of all of these processes, as expressed in the region of interest, with which we will be concerned. To the extent that it is possible to attribute specific components of variability to particular climate processes, such information may be useful in informing the generation of stochastic sequences, (this applies as well to trend or trend-like behaviour). Conversely, to the extent that attribution is unclear, ambiguities may remain, that the simulation process will need to take into account.A modeling issue of potential importance concerns the dependence of variability at one time scale to shifts or changes on other scales. Such dependencies are often framed in terms of the effects of slow anthropogenic climate change on the more rapidly-evolving interannual or subannual scales. One example of such a dependency is the widely expected increase in interannual precipitation variability as climate warms, owing to the rapid increase in water saturation vapor pressure with temperature. Shifts in daily rainfall statistics, such as wet-and dry-spell lengths or precipitation extremes, that might come about as a consequence of global warming are another possibility.In general, the dependency of decadal variations on climatic shifts is more difficult to evaluate, since longer records are required to characterize such dependencies with a comparable degree of uncertainty. There is no simple solution to this problem, but useful information may possibly be obtained from paleorecords or climate models.Issues that arise in the course of simulation design include the availability of suitable data to which to fit the statistical model (or models) utilized, characteristics of the regional climate and the requirements of follow-on applications models. These are discussed in turn.If the simulations are to have realistic properties, sufficient data, of reasonably good quality and of sufficient temporal and spatial extent, must be available to fit the statistical model that will be used to generate them. The primary source of such data over land regions, at least prior to the advent of satellites, is weather station records, derived from measurements made in situ. This means that regions in which station measurements are sparse may present greater modeling challenges than those for which extensive, high-quality records exist.Satellite data commence only around 1979, thus are rather short for the confident characterization of decadal signals. As an example, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the primary large-scale mode of sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the north Atlantic, exhibits what appears to be oscillatory behaviour (Figure 1). From the satellite perspective, that is, beginning in 1979, the series has the appearance of an upward trend, with little suggestion of this behaviour.Given the limited length of many observational records, one can imagine a role for paleoclimate data, which may extend hundreds of years or more into the past. Tree-ring reconstructions were used e.g. by Prairie et al. (2008), for stochastic simulations of Colorado River streamflow. The paleorecord in that case shows evidence of 'megadroughts' -dry epochs whose lengths greatly exceed those in the historical record. Beyond the obvious requirement that suitable paleorecords, applicable to the region under study, must be available, the introduction of such data raises calibration and other technical issues. If these can be resolved in a satisfactory manner, appropriate paleodata may prove of value in the characterization of decadal variability. (Tree-ring evidence was considered for the case study discussed in Section 5, but coverage in that case was deemed insufficient).Training data for the statistical model should be representative of the locality or region for which simulations are to be generated. However, these data also serve to characterize regional low-frequency variability. If the 'region' under consideration is too small, any low-frequency component that is present may be masked by the relatively larger local variability in the record. Decadal-scale processes tend to have relatively large-scale footprints. Modeled regions should be of sufficient spatial extent to capture such fluctuations, while also remaining representative of the study area for which simulations are to be generated.If the region of interest is climatically coherent it may be reasonable to model its spatially averaged variables directly. (This procedure is followed in the case study). However, if sufficiently extended it may be preferable to prefilter the data in terms of empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs), modeling instead a subset of the expansion coefficient time series. This would permit the statistical model to capture behaviour having more complex spatial signatures while also increasing the signal-to-noise ratio in the modeled data. In the more detailed discussions that follow we offer a conceptual description of such a strategy.We review here the three time scales referenced in Section 2, from a general modeling-based perspective.Trends represent nonstationarity in the mean: a local average, changing with time, around which decadal and higher-frequency signals fluctuate. Even if the character of these fluctuations changes little, a persistent trend will eventually bring about the occurrence of climate anomalies lying outside the range of the observational past. An agriculturallysignificant maximum temperature threshold may be crossed more and more often as climate warms, for example or a critical number of consecutive frost days may be exceeded less and less frequently. The inclusion of trends in simulated sequences is thus essential from the estimation-of-risk perspective.Observed trends may tell us something about regional sensitivity to anthropogenic forcing, particularly with regard to temperature. However the warming observed during the 20 th century has not been large compared with that expected for the future. In addition, certain anthropogenic inputs, such as aerosol or ozone forcing, may change in the future in ways that are not reflected in the 20 th century record. For these reasons it may be useful to also consider what climate models may have to tell us regarding future temperature and precipitation trends.A possible third source of information is the body of theoretical work that has developed in regard to future climate expectations. The expectation that global warming will bring about a poleward shift of the dry subtropical zones and mid-latitude storm tracks, for example, preconditions the discussion and may tilt the balance in favour of accepting, or at least entertaining, a projection that is consistent with such an outcome.We model annual-to-decadal variability as a combination of what can loosely be termed 'systematic ' and 'random' variations. In practice this means that we adopt, as a random climatic background, the first-order autoregressive, or AR(1) process. Because the model may comprise more than a single variable this background may be multivariate. Signal components that demonstrably do not conform to the AR(1) model are then defined as 'systematic.'Given the wide range of random process types from which one might choose, there would appear to be a degree of arbitrariness in the way this distinction is drawn. The AR(1) structure seems appropriate, however, because it is the simplest such process having 'memory,' and because it requires few assumptions about underlying physical mechanisms. As noted earlier, the AR(1) response can arise simply as a result of random high-frequency 'weather noise,'forcing a sluggish, high-inertia ocean, this in fact being the paradigm for the generation of low-frequency stochastic variability in middle and high latitudes. It is not accidental that AR(1) noise is often taken as the classical 'null hypothesis' for oceanic variability in these regions (Deser et al., 2010).In some situations climatic variations may follow 'regime-like' behaviour. Such behaviour is characterized by states having residence times that are long, compared with the time required for state-to-state transitions. Such behaviour might occur on the subannual scale, for example, in connection with transitions among a set of 'weather states,' or regimes, and state-based models have been utilized to good effect for the purposes of downscaling (e.g., Greene et al., 2008Greene et al., , 2011)). However, it may be difficult to distinguish between 'regime-like' and 'wavelike' systems: there is not a sharp demarcation, but rather an infinite range of gradations between the two types of behaviour (Rudnick and Davis, 2003;Overland et al., 2006).Ultimately, if it is decided that the system to be modeled is in fact regime-like on the annualto-decadal scale, a state-based model may prove more appropriate than one based on the systematic/random dichotomy described above. This sort of model is exemplified in the streamflow simulations of Prairie et al. (2008).Aside from the low-order physical justification, use of the AR(1) process clarifies the modeling framework, by providing a baseline statistical structure with which climate records that are candidates for simulation may be compared. Rejection of the AR(1) null hypothesis is then taken as evidence for the existence of a 'systematic' signal. Such a signal would require either a reconsideration of the basic structure of the data, or possibly an independent submodel, in the same way that seasonality requires its own submodel when analyzing data containing seasonal effects: The seasonal cycle is not AR(1). A modeling framework consistent with the systematic/random paradigm, wavelet autoregressive modeling (WARM) is described by Kwon et al. (2007Kwon et al. ( , 2009)).Seasonality is a significant factor in many, if not most, regions. In the simulation context it may useful to model only the rainy season, since this is likely also the growing season and outside this window little significant precipitation may occur. A variety of daily weather statistics, including distribution shape, extremes and spell lengths, for both temperature and precipitation, may be at issue, and the daily component of a complete simulation scheme should attempt to account for these.Since the simulation context is malleable and dependent on setting, it may prove desirable in some cases to produce simulations that are not daily-resolved. Agricultural models typically do require daily values of climate parameters, but there may already be an extant daily simulator (weather generator), for example, tuned to the localities of interest and designed to accept monthly mean values as inputs. In such a situation the simulation model can be modified so as to generate monthly sequences, for subsequent use in driving the weather generator.Ultimately, it is the application model that determines whether simulations need extend to the daily time step, and which data are to be simulated. If required variables have not been recorded, empirical rules, perhaps based on data from similar sites, may have to be devised in order to obtain values. An example would be the creation of two insolation distributions, for wet and dry days, in the case that adequate primary data are not available. Insolation would then be simulated by sampling from these distributions conditional on the occurrence of rain, as generated by the core simulation model.In some cases, such as the Colorado River streamflow mentioned earlier, univariate simulations are sufficient: A single variable encodes sufficient information for inference concerning relevant 'downstream' impacts. In others, such as the case study to be described, multivariate simulations are required; intervariable correlation on annual and longer time scales then becomes an important simulation target. Follow-on models will also play a role in determining simulation statistics of interest, and thus the generation of simulation ensembles.As with many statistical models, the machinery of simulation provides many 'knobs' that the experimenter can turn at will, generating in the process a potentially wide range of outcomes.We believe that it is most sensible, given such a choice, to focus on climatic shifts that external evidence informs us are likely to occur, or whose occurrence are supported by theoretical arguments. Otherwise the risk exists of generating scenarios that have little probability of actually coming to pass. In effect this is simply a recommendation for the principle of parsimony.Model development is keyed to the decomposition by time scale (or more or less equivalently, process class) discussed in Sec. 2, as conditioned by the contingencies discussed in Section 3.These include the availability of observational training data, requirements of agricultural or other follow-on models and the characteristics of regional climate variability. We note here the ways in which these contingencies affect the development of a suitable model.Model requirements may be expected to differ from setting to setting, and design must adjust accordingly. What is common is the separate treatment of trend, annual-to-decadal and subannual variability (considering possible cross-scale interactions), the introduction of climate information beyond that embodied solely in the datasets employed, and the use of an AR (1) model as random background on the annual-to-decadal time scale, against which systematic variations play out.First, we require a detrending procedure, to remove the estimated forced response from the observational data on which the decadal component of the simulation model is to be trained.Second, in the simulation step we require an estimate of how mean process levels will evolve in the future. Past and future trends need not be the same.There are many options available for fitting both linear and nonlinear trends to time series, the simplest perhaps being the straight line fit. Such a line can be extrapolated, providing a trend for the future. However, past and future trends may differ, rendering such an approach questionable. The use of nonlinear trends, using exponential or other parametric forms, does not address this problem. Further, trends computed as a function of time alone have no physical underpinning, being essentially numerical in nature.We propose instead to parameterize trend in terms of regional climate response to global The planet is not expected to warm uniformly; modeling local trends as dependent on the global mean temperature takes such spatial variation into account.For local temperature we model both past and future trends based on the assumption that it is the spatial pattern of temperature dependence, rather than the local rate of warming that is stationary. Thus, regional or local temperature trends are regressed on a global mean temperature signal, according towhere ! ! is the regional or local temperature record, ! ! is a multimodel-mean, global mean temperature signal, ! ! is an intercept term and ! ! represents the regional response to global temperature change. The fitted values ! ! are used to detrend the observed temperature record, while the ! ! and ! ! are used to project local temperature forward, based on the future global mean temperature signal. The multimodel mean global mean signal used as regressand is derived from an ensemble of GCMs participating in a recent IPCC Assessment Report.The assumption of a consistent relationship between both past and future local temperatures and the global mean temperature can be verified in the GCM domain. If the climate models do not confirm such consistency the modeler will have to consider the available information and make a reasoned choice about how to proceed. In the case study, temperature, but not precipitation trends were found to behave consistently across centuries. The manner in which(1)this inconsistency was resolved is illustrative, but not comprehensive, since many types of behaviour may be possible.The global temperature signal used as regressand is shown in Figure 2. To obtain this series the global mean temperature records for the 20 th and 21 st centuries from an ensemble of 14GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) were first concatenated into records spanning the years 1901-2095. Each GCM's record was then smoothed, using a Butterworth filter (Smith, 2003) of order five, having a half-power point, or 'cutoff,' at a period of 10 yr. (Results are not sensitive to the particular method of filtering.) The plot shows the average of the 14 smoothed series thus obtained.Internal variability is intrinsic to each of the GCMs but is largely incoherent among them.Averaging thus acts to suppress this variability, while enhancing that part of the signal that the GCMs have in common -that of climate change. Thus, model averaging enhances the climate change signal while attenuating 'internal variability noise.' The filtering further smooths this signal, suppressing residual high-frequency variability and short-lived transients such as the effects of volcanic eruptions (although the latter are still discernible in Figure 2, and may be reflected to a modest degree in inferred 20 th century trends). Volcanoes are treated here as unpredictable external forcing, unrelated to climate; no attempt is made to simulate their future effects. The simulations thus produced may be considered as representing a volcano-free perspective on the next few decades.When a local or regional signal is regressed on the series of Figure 2, the fitted values, now representing the local or regional climate change trend, appear as a scaled and shifted version of that series. This process and its result are shown in Figure 3, where we have taken as an example the AMO signal described earlier. The original signal is shown in panel (a), along with the fitted trend, which appears as a scaled and shifted version of the curve shown in Figure 2. Note that this trend, although linearly dependent on the global mean temperature signal, is not linear in time. In particular, because the globe has warmed (in GCMs, but also in reality) more rapidly toward the end of the century, the trend accelerates during this period.The effect is that a greater portion of the AMO signal is assigned to anthropogenic causes than would be the case if the AMO were linearly detrended. The response of precipitation to changes in global mean temperature has an important indirect component, in that it depends not just on shifts in temperature but also, and possibly in a significant way, on changes in atmospheric circulation. Thus, projecting forward the results of a 20 th century regression is a less certain enterprise than is the case with temperature.Additional evidence, in the form of GCM simulations, attribution studies or detailed model experiments may be helpful in informing the modeler's judgment in this case. Shin et al. (2010) present an attribution study along these lines. Ultimately it may be prudent to provide explicit uncertainty bounds when projecting precipitation trends. The objective now is to fit a statistical model to time series that correspond to what is shown in Figure 3b for the AMO-detrended sequences, comprising a possibly wide spectrum of variability on periods of one year and longer. If the data is determined to be regime-like, a hidden Markov model or some elaboration thereof might be considered (e.g., Norris, 1997).Such models are based on the idea that the underlying process is governed by transitions between well-defined 'hidden states,' that can be inferred via the observations. The strategy followed here is not state-based, but follows instead the systematic/random signal decomposition described in Section 3.2.2, by testing the candidate series against a red-noise null hypothesis.Wavelet analysis (see, e.g., Mallat, 1999) provides a way of examining variability in both the time and frequency domains simultaneously. The wavelet decomposition, or spectrum, as applied to a time series, is represented by a two-dimensional plot showing time along the xaxis and period (as in the period of an oscillation) on the y-axis. Examination of the spectrum reveals intervals when the signal variance is high in particular frequency bands, while a timeaveraged summary, the 'global' wavelet spectrum indicates whether frequency-specific behaviour differs significantly from AR(1) noise, the criterion we utilize for differentiating systematic from random variability. An example will illustrate the principle.Figure 4 shows a wavelet decomposition of the NINO3 SST index (Trenberth, 1976), with Figures 4a, 4b and 4c showing the NINO3 time series, the wavelet spectrum and the global wavelet spectrum, respectively. In the last of these three plots, the dotted line indicates the 10% red noise significance level. Spectral power exceeds this level in the ENSO band, corresponding to periods of roughly 2-8 years, meaning that the probability is less than 10% that ENSO-band signal variance represents the expression of an AR(1) process. Simulations generated by a red-noise model would not be likely to exhibit such a spectral peak. By our definition, a systematic component has been detected in the data.Figure 4 also shows that activity in the ENSO band has not been constant over time, with a period of relative quiescence between about 1920 and 1960. Assuming that systematic NINO3 variability can be modeled with a higher-order stochastic model of some sort, the modeler is now faced with a question: On which period should the NINO3 model be trained?Such a model might be based on the 'active' periods in the record, resulting in a relatively vigorous simulated ENSO. Alternatively, the 'quiet' period could be modeled, resulting in simulations having relatively weak ENSO variability. A second-order model might also be utilized, in which ENSO activity is amplitude-modulated on multidecadal time scales. In the latter case a decision would be required regarding the modeling of transitions between strong and weak ENSO phases: Should a regime-like model be used, or one in which transitions are more gradual? More generally, does the data permit differentiating between these alternatives? Because future climate behaviour is at issue, a role is suggested for GCM-based information that might help inform the modeler's decision. GCMs exhibiting realistic ENSO variability tell us only that anthropogenic influence on ENSO in the coming century is likely to be weak (Coelho and Goddard, 2009); the best alternative might thus be to include both strong and weak variability, in a model in which transition characteristics are to be determined.An objective method for decomposing signals using wavelets, identifying components that differ significantly from a red noise background, modeling those components individually as low-order autoregressive processes and combining results in order to generate simulations is known as wavelet autoregressive modeling (WARM) (Kwon et al., 2007(Kwon et al., , 2009)). Such a method is inherently consistent with our systematic/random decomposition. Kwon et al.discuss only univariate series, but extension to the multivariate case should not pose a significant obstacle to implementation. Thus, the combination of WARM with the other elements described herein could constitute a complete 'toolkit' for the generation of stochastic decadal simulations.Another option, also utilizing a sophisticated red-noise significance test, is Monte Carlo singular spectrum analysis (MCSSA) (Allen and Smith, 1996). The resulting spectral decomposition also resolves the target signal into systematic and random (red noise) components; the former can be projected forward using a technique called linear predictive coding (Press et al., 1986(Press et al., -1992)), while the multichannel variant of SSA (MSSA) offers an extension to the multivariate case. These methods are perhaps more appropriate when it is believed that the systematic component is at least quasi-periodic.As suggested in Section 4.3.1, a systematic component such as that represented by the 2-8year band in the NINO3 series might possibly be represented by a stochastic model of higher order than AR(1). Kwon et al. claim that the WARM decomposition performed better than a single model fit to those time series with which they have experimented, but for a given series this is a testable hypothesis, and in some cases a single model might provide a parsimonious alternative to WARM, in which every frequency component exceeding the global significance level is effectively assigned its own model.Since the source of much low-frequency variability is believed to reside in the oceans, predictability studies have tended to focus on oceanic variables, typically SST or upper ocean heat content (Knight et al., 2005;Newman, 2007;Teng and Branstator, 2010). Although such studies may be informative, for the purpose of simulating terrestrial variations it is ultimately necessary to deconstruct and model them directly. A consideration of the efficacy with which Evidently, systematic behaviour can assume many forms, this being one reason that a definitive formula for decadal simulation is difficult to specify a priori. If, however, as suggested by WARM modeling, most systematic elements can be represented, for the purposes of simulation, as the sum of low-order autoregressive components, the minimallysufficient model class would be limited to a reasonably small set. Application in a variety of simulation settings will help to delimit this class. We note in passing that the reports of Kwon et al. focused on the simulation of nonlinear elements, without specifically addressing regimelike behaviour.By construction, that part of the target signal not identified as systematic does not differ significantly from AR(1) noise. An AR(1) model is thus taken here as a basis for the random simulation component. Since this process has memory, it can generate 'slow' fluctuations, including potentially long spells above or below the mean (if the autoregressive parameter is large enough). However, although such processes may meander up and down, they are not periodic: The AR(1) spectrum has no peaks.Because agricultural or other applications models typically require multivariate input, we consider a natural generalization of the AR(1) model, the first-order vector autoregressive, or VAR(1) model:where ! ! is the process vector at time t, ! is a matrix of coefficients and ! ! is a stationary white noise process with expectation ! and covariance matrix = ! ! ! ! .Note that this is completely analogous to the univariate AR(1) model, the difference being that scalars have been replaced with vectors (or in the case of !, by a matrix). The process represented by (2)represents not only serial autocorrelation but also first-order lag correlations across variables.Nonparametric resampling techniques such as the k-nearest-neighbor (k-NN) method (Lall and Sharma, 1996;Rajagopalan and Lall, 1999) offer a possible alternative to (parametric) stochastic models for the annual-to-decadal component. The k-NN method can in theory account for serial correlation in the data, and because it 'blindly' mimics the target series without parametric constraints it is capable of generating simulations with distributional properties that might be difficult to reproduce with parametric methods. Using such a scheme it might even be possible to dispense with the disaggregation into systematic and random components, regenerating the statistics of the complete annual-to-decadal signal via resampling alone. Depending on the complexity of the target series, the method may require a large training set for reasonably precise replication of desired statistical properties.Experimenting with such methods may prove worthwhile, however.In generating the simulated sequences the decomposition process is reversed: The trend and annual-to-decadal components are simulated individually and the results then combined. In Section 3.1.3 we mentioned two possibilities: Treatment of the primary climate variables averaged over the simulation domain and prefiltering in terms of EOFs. Details will depend on which of these alternatives is adopted.If domain-averaged variables are utilized there will exist both a trend model and a stochastic simulation model for the annual-to-decadal component, both applicable to the domain as a whole, Both the projected trends and the simulated variability will presumably be multivariate; they are combined variable by variable, resulting in a regional-scale simulation that is temporally complete down to the annual level. This simulation will then be propagated to locations within the domain, effecting a spatial downscaling on the annual-to-decadal level.Prefiltering in terms of EOFs implies a domain of sufficient extent so that climate variability is better described in terms of patterns, as opposed to simple regional averages. Subject to experiment, detrending may be performed either at the local level prior to computing EOFs or on those of the principal component (PC) time series having significant trends. In either situation the relevant signals are regressed on the global mean temperature record, as with regionally-averaged variables. Operating on the PCs implies a stationarity assumption on intervariable trend covariance, establishing an internal control on future projections, but also may be viewed as entangling temperature and precipitation trends, thus enforcing a relationship that may or may not be appropriate for the future.As in the case of regionally-averaged variables, there will exist a model, or models, for annual-to-decadal variations, now applicable not to the regional climate variables but to thosePCs that have been retained as being statistically significant. Systematic, then random components would then be simulated and combined as before, again resulting in a simulation that is temporally complete down to the annual scale. However, the simulations in this case would already be spatially disaggregated down to the local scale (i.e., the spatial scale of the data on which the EOFs are computed).The resultant of the 'reaggregation' procedure described in Section 4.6 is a simulation resolved at the annual level. If domain-averaged climate variables have been utilized the simulation will apply to the region as a whole; if prefiltering by EOFs, the simulation will be expressed at individual locations, being already downscaled at the annual time step. In the latter case it is presumed that only a small number of EOFs/PCs are retained, according to some test of statistical significance (typically a 'stopping rule' in the case of PC analysis).Variance at individual locations will then have to be increased if it is to match that of the local signal being simulated. Since the 'discarded' PCs are assumed to represent noise, the missing variance can be consistently supplied by adding uncorrelated noise at each location.In the case that domain-averaged climate variables are modeled there will be a single (multivariate) simulation for the entire domain. This may be propagated to individual locations via linear regression, again adding uncorrelated noise to bring simulation variance into agreement with what is observed at the location.For either of the above strategies the result at this stage will be a fully spatially resolved simulation that incorporates both expected climatic trends and variability down to the annual level. Assuming that daily values will be required in the final simulation product, what remains is to disaggregate the annually-resolved signal to the daily time step. In doing so several data characteristics must be respected: First, the annual values generated by the simulation procedure up to this point must be reproduced. Second, spatial covariability at the daily level must be preserved. Note that this is in addition to the spatial coherence imposed at the annual-to-decadal level. Third, to the extent possible, future behaviour with respect to significant characteristics of daily variability, such as spell lengths and extremes, should be anticipated.Use of a nonparametric scheme, with specific reference to k-NN, was mentioned as a means of simulating annual-to-decadal variability. Use of such a method is also feasible for the simulation of daily variability. Spatial coherence may be preserved by resampling the entire domain at once. However, literal resampling of the observational data will result in discrepancies in annual values, since the available set of observational records is finite and will not in general comprise exact matches with the imposed simulation values. An additional shortcoming arises in the case where climate change measurably shifts the range of simulated values with respect to the range of the observational data. In this case there may not exist, in the observational record, values that are representative of the simulation. Resampled observations may be rescaled to match the imposed simulation, but this may have the undesirable effect of distorting daily distributions (of precipitation, for example). Moreover, rescaling does not account for potential changes in spell lengths. In spite of these shortcomings resampling methods may be acceptable in some circumstances. A k-NN scheme is utilized in the case study.Stochastic weather models offer an alternative means of generating daily weather sequences that are consistent with stochastic decadal simulations of interannual variability. The input parameters of a stochastic weather generator can be manipulated to reproduce synthetic weather having the statistical properties of interest. This approach is often used to provide daily weather inputs for agricultural or hydrological models for climate change impact studies, based on GCM or RCM simulations of future climate.Changing individual parameters can have unintended consequences on the statistical properties of simulated weather sequences because of the dependencies in time and among meteorological variables. For a class of relatively simple, parametric stochastic weather models, work by Wilks (1992); Katz (1996) and Mearns et al. (1997) are illustrative, and provide useful guidance on how to adjust parameters to approximate (with sufficient replication) target statistics.Adapting this approach to stochastic decadal simulations would be more complex than adjusting parameters to capture the statistics of a future climate: First, to capture trends and multi-decadal variability, the parameters would need to be adjusted for every year of each realization of the stochastic decadal simulation. Second, because stochastic weather models have their own interannual variability (although most tend to under-represent it),superimposing generated daily weather sequences on stochastic decadal simulations without correction would inflate the variability (in time and among realizations) of annual statistics and the uncertainty of the modeled agricultural impact.A more promising approach is to constrain the generated daily sequences to match target monthly or seasonal values. Generated temperature data can be rescaled to match a target mean through a simple additive shift. To avoid unrealistic combinations of rainfall frequency and intensity, rainfall can be constrained to a target value by iteratively sampling and testing generated sequences for a target period (e.g., month or season) until the total is acceptably close to a target value, then rescaling to exactly match the target (Hansen and Indeje, 2004;Kittel et al., 2004;Hansen and Ines, 2005). Advantages of this approach are: (a) it is easier to implement since it does not require complex parameter adjustments or a large number of replicates each year, (b) it would not inflate the variability of the stochastic decadal simulations, and (c) variation in rainfall frequency and mean intensity would be more realistic. Hansen and Ines (2005) describe an implementation built on the stochastic weather generator distributed with the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) crop modeling suite (Jones et al., 2003).Although the simulation model can be fit to annual mean values, this is not necessarily optimal. The rainy season, for example, may cross the calendar boundary from one year to the next, so it might be more sensible to define a hydrological year that differs from the calendar year. Modeling annual values for a specified season less than 12 months in length may also constitute a useful strategy, perhaps utilizing climatology for the portion of the year not simulated explicitly. In general, simulation design will be constrained by follow-on modeling requirements.We have assumed that simulations will be downscaled to daily time resolution, but this may not always be required. Some hydrological applications, such as reservoir management, may function adequately using monthly values. The strategies outlined above should be amenable to generating monthly outputs, if these are desired.A resampling method, used for downscaling to the daily level, may implicitly encode some dependence between climate change (i.e., trend) and subannual scales, via the selection of 'neighbors' from which the resampled statistics are ultimately drawn. Weather generators may include such linkages explicitly. However we have not described a mechanism for linking changes in climate to variability on the annual-to-decadal scale. An example of such a link would be an increase in interannual precipitation variance as global temperature increases. Such dependencies can be investigated with the aid of GCMs and, if deemed significant, incorporated explicitly in the simulation model.The end result of the above steps is a set of daily-resolved simulations that are spatially resolved at the station or gridbox level (depending on the nature of the training data). These simulations will include trends that may vary over the domain and that have been informed by observational data and/or GCM simulations of future climate, and possibly theoretical expectations regarding future climatic tendencies. Variability on both the annual-to-decadal and daily time scales, including spatial coherence over the domain, should approximate that represented by the observations, again as informed by information from GCMs and theory (insofar as the modeler has chosen to incorporate particular inferences in the simulation code).It will evidently be worthwhile for the modeler to validate the simulations, to verify that statistical properties are as expected. This can be accomplished through the usual statistical comparisons, in particular using simulations of the observational period. Assessments of simulation-model adequacy must take into account the degree to which any deficiencies identified are actually material with respect to eventual application.Finally, sequences can be generated that explore a range of plausible climatic futures for the region of interest. Since all of the variability is model-generated it becomes possible to quantify the likelihood of particular outcomes, either by direct computation or by the analysis of simulations, in the case that the model incorporates nonparametric elements. When translated, for example, into crop yields, through the agency of an agricultural model, resultsshould prove useful for purposes of planning or adaptation. This is the motivation for the methodology described in this report.Water Management Areas, Western Cape, South AfricaThe ideas and methods presented herein represent an attempt to generalize some lessons learned from both the implementation described in Greene et al. (2012) and ongoing work in implementing the method in other regions, including southeastern South America and parts of monsoonal Asia. We abstract here certain elements of the first of these implementations, to show how the framework described in the foregoing sections might be realized in a specific regional setting and application-model context. The treatment here is abbreviated; the reader is referred to Greene et al. (2012) for additional information. The code used to generate the subject simulations, along with a user guide, is available for download. See Acknowledgments for details.The study region (Figure 5), located in the Western Cape province of South Africa, comprises the Berg Water Management Area (WMA) and parts of the Breede WMA and covers ~19000 km 2 . The Berg and Breede rivers drain into the Atlantic and Indian oceans, respectively, but there are interbasin transfers between them, and the two WMAs are managed as an integrated system.In addition to economically significant agriculture, the WMAs provide water for industrial use and constitute the principal source of supply for the city of Cape Town (Figure 5). Urban water demand has steadily increased over the last three decades, tripling since the late 1970s, while there is a moderately strong consensus among the IPCC models (see, e.g., Ch. 11 in Solomon et al., 2007) that the region will dry in coming decades, with rising global temperatures. The combination of economic importance (in large part attributable to the production of high-value crops), rising urban demand and potentially decreasing supply has motivated intensive study and modeling of the region's water resources. Greene et al. (2012) constitutes a part of this effort.An agrohydrology model developed at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa), denoted ACRU (Schulze, 1995;Smithers and Schulze, 2004) has been used to model the WMAs. The simulations to be described were designed to drive this model, considerations ranging the use of input data keyed to subcatchments within the WMAs and the simulation of a minimally required suite of input variables, to the detailed file formatting requirements of ACRU. As its designation suggests, ACRU represents not only basic hydrological responses such as runoff and soil moisture, but also includes some crop modeling capabilities. Further along in the chain, a general equilibrium economic model, developed at the UNEP Risø Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (Roskilde, Denmark), is being used to assess potential economic impacts of the modeled climate fluctuations. It is worth noting that the existence of a comprehensive follow-on modeling framework is synergistic with the production of simulated climate sequences: It energizes and guides the generation of the simulations while also benefiting from them, in the context of an integrated approach to impact assessment.The WMAs have been mapped into 171 quinary-level catchments, for which a daily dataset spanning the years 1950-1999, including precipitation and maximum and minimum daily temperatures (pr, Tmax, Tmin), was available. These three variables represent the minimal set required for driving ACRU. The annual-to-decadal simulation model is based on a multivariate 'regional' signal consisting of the catchment-averaged variables, reduced to annual time resolution (Figure 6). Trend lines shown in the figure are based not on time, but on the regional response to global mean temperature change, as discussed in Section 4.2. It can be seen that upward tendencies for both Tmax and Tmin begin around 1970; the global signal also exhibits this behaviour, and provides a better fit to data than does a linear trend. (In the case of precipitation the trend is essentially null, and the shape of the regressand makes little difference).Simulations of temperature and precipitation for both the 20 th and 21 st centuries (the 'historical' and 'RCP4.5' experiments, respectively) were obtained from the most recent archive of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). These were utilized, at the regional scale, for inference regarding past and future trends. In addition, temperature was utilized at the global scale for detrending and projection, as described in Section 4.2.Use of catchment-averaged variables represents the approach whereby the entire region is modeled as a unit, rather than that in which the spatially-differentiated data is prefiltered in terms of EOFs. We believe the regionally-averaged approach is justified here because the study area -the combined WMAs -behaves coherently on the annual-to-decadal level. In propagating both trend and annual-to-decadal fluctuations to the catchment level, mechanisms are included that permit a degree of intercatchment dispersion, mimicking that in the observational record. To detrend the regional series, each component was regressed on the global temperature signal shown in Figure 2. The fitted values are overplotted on the regional series in Figure 6.The fitted trends are subtracted from the series to obtain the residual 'natural' component of variability. Like the regional series, this natural residual, which becomes the target for the annual-to-decadal simulation model, has annual time resolution.The wavelet spectrum of each of the three detrended variables (pr, Tmin, Tmax) was computed; these spectra gave no indication that the component series differed from red noise.In other words, systematic variability, as previously defined, was not detected in the regional record. Because of this, a modeling step accounting for such variability would have been superfluous. A significant degree of serial autocorrelation was identified in both of the temperature series; the red-noise model is thus not only sufficient for representing the statistics of these series, but also necessary. The regional precipitation signal was indistinguishable from white noise. The absence of a systematic element in the target records, by removing a degree of 'modeling freedom,' renders the method perhaps less interesting than might have been the case in other regions. A survey of annual and seasonal precipitation around the globe (not shown) suggests, however, that regions where significant deviations from a red noise (or, in the case of precipitation, even white noise) background occur tend to be the exception, rather than the rule. Reduction of the annual-to-decadal model to a VAR(1) structure may thus represent a widely applicable situation.A schematic of the case study simulation is provided as Figure 7. This is a simplified picture, in which some of the symbols have multiple levels of meaning. For example, the method of projection differs for temperature and precipitation trends, but only a single path is shown.Details are elucidated in the text, and in Greene et al. (2012).A first-order VAR model was thus fit to the detrended regional series. A single, very long simulation (500 ky) was then generated, using the inferred parameter values. This is equivalent to an ensemble of 10000 50-year simulations, many more than would be required for driving ACRU. However the abundance of simulation data is useful in that it provides a large 'library' from which shorter sequences having desired statistical properties can be extracted. Statistics computed on the simulated sequence indicate that it reproduces well the observed intervariable correlations as well as serial autocorrelation (thus persistence, or lowfrequency variability in the AR(1) sense) in the individual variables.For purposes of illustration we focus on deviations from the long-term trend of 10-year mean precipitation, modeling the 5 th and 95 th percentiles (for 10-year means). The simulated 10-year mean deviations are situated in the 2041-2050 decade; by this time the projected median trend results in a reduction in regional mean annual precipitation of about 10%.The very long simulation sequence permits fairly precise screening, enabling the identification of 10-year sequences for which the mean precipitation falls very near the specified percentiles, while corresponding means of Tmin and Tmax lie reasonably close (plus or minus about half a standard deviation) to their conditional means, given the specified value of pr. This second condition is imposed so that hydrology driven by the simulations will not be accidentally biased by atypical, if nevertheless possible, temperature values. In addition it was required that the 10-year mean pr anomaly during the preceding decade (i.e., 2031-2040) not be large, so as to avoid accidental bias owing to hydrologic memory.Analysis of the CMIP5 ensemble indicated that for temperature, 20 th and 21 st century regional trends behaved consistently with respect to the global mean trend, while precipitation trends diverged, the 20 th century trend being essentially null while the 21 st century trend was significantly negative. Because of this divergence the two variables were treated differently with respect to future trends.For the temperature components (Tmax, Tmin), each catchment's record was regressed on the 20 th century global-mean multimodel-mean temperature (Figure 2); the derived coefficients were then used, in conjunction with the 21 st century global mean temperature, to project temperature trends forward, enforcing consistent behaviour across centuries. For precipitation the 21 st century trend was computed using the GCM ensemble without reference to the observations. There is significant dispersion among the model trends, the multimodel ensemble mean and standard deviation amounting to -6.7% and 6.6% change in regional precipitation per degree global warming, respectively. Of the 14 models in the ensemble, three exhibit wetting tendencies for the Western Cape region, suggesting a distinct, if relatively small, probability of such an outcome. It is worth noting that a drying trend is consistent with theoretical expectations regarding expansion of the dry subtropics with global warming, with a particularly robust response occurring toward the poleward margins of the subtropical dry zones. Southwestern South Africa lies in just such a zone (See Figure 11.2 in Solomon et al., 2007). The temporal pattern of drying expressed by the model ensemble seems consistent with the poleward advance of a dry subtropical regime that reaches, and eventually overrides, the region of the Western Cape. Owing to the dispersion in ensemble precipitation response, it is left to the modeler to select a quantile for simulation from the multimodel distribution. This choice is made at runtime, as the simulations are generated.Modeling of the trend and annual-to-decadal components, as described above, produces an intermediate simulation product, applicable to the regional as a whole and resolved on the annual time step. Downscaling involves the propagation of these sequences to the individual catchments, as well as the generation of subannual variability:1. Subannual values are generated by resampling the observations in one-year blocks over the entire domain, then scaling observed values to agree, in the regional annual mean, with those of the imposed simulation, including both trend and annual-to-decadal variations. As a preliminary to this procedure the sequence of observed years corresponding to the simulated sequence is selected using a modified k-NN scheme.2. Temperature trends are propagated to the catchment level as described above, through linear regression on the 20 th century global mean, then projection using the 21 st century global mean. Because modeled regional values represent catchment averages the average of future catchment trends will approximate the imposed regional trend.3. The regional precipitation trend, as selected by the modeler, is imposed, but it would be unrealistic to simulate identical trends at all catchments. Thus the 20 th century precipitation trends are used to induce some scatter around the imposed trend value.Again, the average over catchments produces an overall trend closely approximating the imposed value (since the average 20 th century trend is near zero).4. Separately, imposed annual-to-decadal variations are propagated to the catchments via linear regression, uncorrelated noise (at the annual level) being added in order to replace variance lost to regression. 5. To generate subannual variability, resampled values at each catchment are rescaled -in one-year blocks -so as to match the simulated trend plus annual-to-decadal variations, as propagated to the catchment level. In effect subannual patterns of variability are preserved, but annual-mean amounts are substituted for the intrinsic observational mean values. Because the resampling is performed over the domain as a whole, spatial coherence is preserved at subannual scales.On the annual-to-decadal scale, both intervariable correlation and serial autocorrelation in individual variables were found to be quite well-simulated, justifying ex post facto the use of the VAR(1) model.Comparison of simulations for 1950-1999 with the observational record indicated that the k-NN scheme captured well the observed dependencies of daily precipitation statistics on annual mean precipitation, both for the study area as a whole and with respect to individual catchments. Statistics examined were wet-and dry-spell counts and lengths, wet-spell mean Figure 8 shows that both decadal and anthropogenic signals play out against a background of strong year-to-year variability. Planning for climatic stresses on interannual time scales thus remains an important consideration in the overall risk assessment profile.The methodologies we have discussed above comprise at least two levels of generality: The simulation framework itself is broadly sketched out, while realization at the level of the case study is considerably more particularized. Starting from a broad-brush outline, then, simulation details must be elaborated according to the available evidence and particularities of the setting under consideration. Evidence to be considered includes the observational record, information from GCMs, theoretical expectations and possibly paleorecords, if the latter are available. These sources must be weighed with respect to both content and reliability and a coherent narrative woven from the various evidentiary threads that they present. Constructing this narrative may not be a simple task.The simulation methodology described, like many statistical models, is computationally inexpensive compared with both global and regional dynamical models. It is also informed, as we have discussed, by a multiplicity of sources. It is both a strength and a weakness that the modeler can combine these sources according to their perceived degrees of reliability, arriving at a final structure that reflects a differential, and perhaps personal, view of climate information. Of course the metrics involved in information assessment are at least semiobjective, and every statistical model begins with some intuitive, if initially inchoate, sense of the relationships between covariates and predictand. In the end, the advantages of such models must be weighed against their inability to anticipate shifts or changes owing to processes or interactions that have not been accounted for in some way. This justifies reliance on a broad informational background during model design.An illustration of such reliance can be provided for the case of temporal precipitation variability. As a result of anthropogenic warming it is widely believed that this variability will increase, owing to the rapid increase of water saturation vapor pressure with temperature: A warmer atmosphere can transport more water vapor. Because of this it can rain more but also become drier, since atmospheric demand can also increase. There is no mechanism in the statistical model we have described that would act to bring such an increase about.Precipitation variability in southwestern South Africa in both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 simulations was analyzed, however, and found not to increase (or decrease) significantly during first half of the 21 st century. Thus no basis was found for including a cross-scale mechanism linking interannual precipitation variability in the subject region to global temperature change.The initialized decadal hindcast experiments being performed as part of CMIP5 were mentioned in Section 4.3.3. At present, predictive skill for SST appears limited to less than one decade in most oceanic regions, so the degree to which such simulations might help to constrain future terrestrial variations is not clear. However, ocean initialization has been limited by a lack of subsurface observations, a situation which is being remedied, and models are constantly being improved. There also may be particular regions where predictive skill is significant. While these outcomes remain to be determined, the potential for initialized forecasts to guide the evolution of modeled trend and low-frequency simulation components remains.We have described a framework for the generation of stochastic simulations, with the end in mind of driving agricultural or other applications models that require detailed climate information, including a realistic representation of decadal variability. The incorporation of such variability into impacts studies represents an advance over the simple comparison of mean states that has typically been performed in climate change impact studies.The approach presented is based loosely on classical time series analysis, in that an observational record, which is taken to represent regional climate variability, is decomposed into trend, systematic and random components, each of these being treated independently. An association is made between trend -a secular shift in the mean -and anthropogenic forcing. Accordingly, this component of variability is modeled by regression on a global mean temperature signal, meaning that it is modeled as a response to global temperature change, rather than simply as a time-dependent level. Detrending, as refracted through this procedural prism, then amounts to separating climatic changes due to anthropogenic effects, and natural variability intrinsic to the climate system itself. Possible problems that arise in attempting to effect such a separation using short time series were discussed.Trend having been removed, the residual variability is examined for evidence of systematic processes, in the sense that the residual variations differ significantly from AR(1) noise. If such processes are identified, they would be modeled as separate independent components, with the residual from this step modeled as an AR(1) stochastic process. This component of the analysis offers perhaps the widest latitude in the simulation scheme, depending as it does on the available climate records, which may exhibit widely varying characteristics. It was noted that the presence of regime like behaviour, although sometimes difficult to verify, may require state-based or other alternate model forms.It is hoped that the methodology outlined here will prove useful in delineating uncertainties owing to natural internal variability, in the context of a background climatic state undergoing secular forced shifts. Indeed, this is the situation in which we are likely to find ourselves in coming decades. The investigation and characterization of such uncertainties can play an important role in anticipating potential climate risks in the near term; the more confidently","tokenCount":"9993"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ba575b67892d004255d48e5317c2bb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0c28c885-c64e-4b43-815f-cbbc534e9c0a/retrieve","id":"1414286155"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"329af8ee-dbc4-4bdc-9fb6-2779329dd8c4","pagecount":"3","content":"Ramón Gualdrón /) C05~El establecimiento de pastos es un proceso que implica riesgo y el éxito a obtener depende de factores como: clima, suelo, topografía, vegetación a controlar, especies a sembrar, plagas y enfermedades, disponibilidad y calidad de insumos, equipo disponible, mano de obra y costos en general. El manejo racional de los s uelos es una estrategia que responde a estos factores y a sus interacciones. La selección del tipo de labranza más adecuada es parte de esta estrategia.A manera de introducción y con el objetivo de estudiar los efectos de tipos de labranza y control de vegetación, con o sin herbicidas, .'• con el uso de un herbicida (Glifosato). f. phaseoloides CIAT 9900 fue afectado seriamente en su población, y los resultados presentaron un coeficiente de variabilidad alto (67.35%). En todos los casos, el uso de labranza convencional (tres pases de rastrillo), práctica muy generalizada en suelos más arcillosos, produjo rendimientos inferiores a los obtenidos con otros tipos de labranza más restringida. En todos los tratamientos se observaron evidencias de erosión, aunque con mayor intensidad en el tipo de labranza convencional (erosión en surcos).Dado que los costos de preparación de suelo bajo el sistema convencional constituyen un porcentaje alto de los costos totales de establecimiento y no presentan ventajas comparativas con respecto a otros tipos de labranza menos intensivos, un refinamiento del tipo de labranza de acuerdo a las especies a sembrar y tipo de suelos se hace indispensable.El uso de herbicidas como reemplazo de la labranza, dependiendo de su disponibilidad y costos de aplicación, se presenta como una alternativa para suelos en donde no es posible utilizar maquinaria y equipo de labranza por limitaciones de disponibilidad o de altos riesgos y pérdidas por erosión.","tokenCount":"287"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ca9d5ff29bdf17c2e6dc21aeb9a9f132","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a04a55e4-4b7f-48e8-8008-d9357b6498f3/retrieve","id":"-1678685042"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ed5c49da-2786-45bf-9408-ac30cbb6de2d","pagecount":"8","content":"Policymakers and project implementers in Ghana recognize the need for gender and youth inclusion to harness opportunities in the agricultural value chain. However, this does not extend to the IVVC for several reasons. Vegetable production is seen as a secondary source of income for farmers and an alternative livelihood activity for vulnerable populations. Government interventions, therefore, focus more on growing cash crops, cereals, tubers and legumes, mainly in the rainy season. In addition, irrigated agriculture, including irrigated vegetable production, is mainly carried out in the dry season when government support is limited. Some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have collaborated with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to support irrigated vegetable production in the dry season. Many of these interventions target women and youth, helping to boost vegetable production and local distribution, and create market links including connections to export markets. However, challenges remain. Project sustainability is limited, collaboration between interventions is low, and institutional arrangements for implementing policies and interventions are inadequate.To provide a better understanding of the context in which women and youth are included in or excluded from the IVVC, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) carried out a comprehensive analysis of the policy framework and interventions (Ofosu and Minh Forthcoming). This work was carried out under the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) and Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) projects, and the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), which ended in December 2021. A previously developed enabling environment analysis tool adapted to the IVVC (Minh et al. 2021) (Figure 1) was used in this study.The policy framework encompasses relevant policies and regulations that establish the basis for gender and youth inclusion in agricultural value chains, and the behaviors and power relationships of actors in the chain that affect this inclusion. Meanwhile, interventions encompass programs and projects as well as services and support provided by the government, private sector and other practitioners that aid gender and youth inclusion in these agricultural value chains.In total, 36 policies and 32 interventions were analyzed and categorized into clusters based on thematic areas. Cluster and cross-cluster analyses were then conducted to identify the aspects that help or hinder gender and youth inclusion in the IVVC. Finally, the results from the policy and intervention analysis were synthesized as a basis for making recommendations. This synthesis analysis focused on the actor and stakeholder landscape, highlighting the barriers to and opportunities for an inclusive IVVC created by the policies and interventions. The main barriers and opportunities are discussed below.Cash crops, grains, legumes and tubers, which are considered strategic food security crops, dominate agricultural policies. As a result, strategies targeting vegetable production are minimal, limiting the development of the vegetable sector. This is evident in government input subsidy support programs, which are only provided during the rainy season, depriving dry-season irrigated vegetable farmers of much-needed financial support (Mendes et al. 2014;Dittoh 2020).In line with the government's agricultural focus, research institutions favor the development of different varieties of grains, tubers and legumes. Vegetable seeds are often imported, bought from other farmers or used from previous harvests. Imported seeds might not be suitable for local cultivation, while the continuous use of farmer-retained seeds often leads to low yields and disease outbreaks. Farmers in Ghana are also unable to compete effectively with vegetables imported from Burkina Faso, where vegetables with a longer shelf life are cultivated.Fragmented responsibilities for women and youth development lead to duplication. Women and youth development, including in agriculture, is the responsibility of multiple ministries and government institutions. Not only are the roles of each institution not clearly defined, but this fragmentation has led to the duplication of effort by institutions, which limits impact. Delayed and insufficient funding for state institutions restricts their ability to carry out their functions. This includes low capital investment, resulting in the use of outdated machinery and equipment.Poor regulation and monitoring of activities lead to low accountability and multiple NGOs. Several NGOs operate in Ghana at the local, national and regional levels. However, their activities are poorly regulated, sometimes leading to duplication, inefficiencies, concentration in particular zones and regions, and poor management of project funds.Interventions in vegetable production focus on growing exotic and high-value vegetables for local markets and export. As such, women who often grow green leafy vegetables for home consumption and sale receive limited benefits. Vegetables that are commonly grown as a result of interventions include cabbage, cucumber, lettuce and peppers.Interventions often target improved production among women and youth, including improved access to markets and services such as extension and finance. However, behavioral change projects fail to address social barriers such as low extension delivery caused by norms that restrict non-family male-female interactions and cultural barriers to women owning land. Women farmers often have poor access to credit because they simply do not have the necessary collateral. Cultural norms also prevent many married women from obtaining credit without the consent of their husbands (Anang and Asante 2020;Atuobi-Yeboah et al. 2020).Interventions are dominated by input subsidy programs that are not sustainable in the long term. This could create dependency, leaving farmers unmotivated to save money to buy inputs in the future. Government initiatives such as the Fertilizer Subsidy Program and the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative encounter input supply challenges because the government is slow to pay suppliers.Existing and extensive policies and laws on agriculture, irrigation, land and water resources. These serve as a guide for policy implementers in terms of value chain development. Additionally, the National Employment Policy, volume 1 (GoG 2014), National Youth Policy of Ghana (GoG 2010) and National Gender Policy (GoG 2015a) provide guidelines to mainstream gender and youth.Policy focus on agricultural intensification through quality planting materials. The government recognizes the need for good, affordable seeds and planting materials to intensify agriculture. The National Seed Policy (GoG 2013) and National Seed Plan (GoG 2015b) provide guidelines for the local development, importation and classification of seeds and planting materials. Specific institutions have also been tasked with regulating and enforcing standards for seeds and planting materials. This offers an opportunity to develop high-quality seeds and planting materials, including vegetable seeds.Policy focus on developing irrigation infrastructure. The policy framework supports the use of innovative financing options, including public-private partnerships and private, government and donor funding, for developing irrigation infrastructure. This presents an opportunity for investment in the irrigation sector to improve access for both women and youth. For example, the government is rehabilitating the Kpong Irrigation Dam with support from private investors. The government is also building community dams under the One Village, One Dam initiative.Women are recognized as key stakeholders in water management, especially in communities. This presents an opportunity to increase women's membership in water users' associations (WUAs) to improve their access to irrigation facilities and water for agricultural use.Existing institutions such as MoFA, technical and mainstream universities, and the Crops Research Institute and the Soil Research Institute, both under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Ghana, offer opportunities to find solutions to the challenges in irrigated vegetable production. This includes conducting research to identify high-yielding, climate-resilient and Vegetable interventions in Ghana mainly target high-value crops like cucumbers, while leafy greens receive limited support (photo: Nana Kofi Acquah).pest-resistant crop varieties, as well as finding innovative ways to deliver extension services and strengthen market links to increase productivity of the vegetable sector. The findings of this study show that the government is making significant efforts to develop agriculture, including irrigated agriculture, by formulating policies that regulate activities along the value chain. However, these policies focus mainly on inputs, irrigation and production. Collection and trade, distribution and consumption, and development of the entire value chain have yet to receive equal attention. Moreover, very few policies directly target vegetable production and, as a result, it has not gained importance in policy as a standalone sector. This results in gaps in the IVVC, limiting benefits to beneficiaries, including Public-private partnerships and flexible financing options like pay-as-you-go make irrigation technologies more affordable for women and young farmers in Ghana (photo: Hamish John Appleby/IWMI).women and youth. Unaddressed social and cultural barriers further inhibit gender and youth inclusion in the IVVC. While institutional arrangements to support vegetable production do exist, the lack of harmonization and coordination between institutions responsible for agriculture, energy and water management results in piecemeal development of the IVVC. To make the IVVC more inclusive and equitable for women and youth, the following are necessary:• Adopt integrated water resources management strategies.• Redefine the role of vegetables within the government's agricultural development strategy.• Enhance sustainable and inclusive interventions to support women and youth in the IVVC.• Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogues, interactive learning and collaboration.Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment (GWP 2011). Some recommendations in this area include the following:• Promote horizontal and vertical integration of sectors and institutions responsible for water management and water use. Policies and legislation should focus on integrating horizontal sectors that use water or affect available water resources. These sectors include agriculture, sanitation, environment, climate change, energy and industry. When accessing the water needed for agriculture, considering the needs of other sectors minimizes conflicts and ensures sustained use of the resource. Such conflicts often limit the ability of women and youth to engage in irrigated vegetable farming or related activities. In addition to horizontal integration, vertical integration is also required to coordinate efforts between local, national, regional and international water user groups and institutions. Interventions must be adaptive in nature to improve success rates. This includes taking into consideration male-female power relations, social norms on the use of water, cultural and religious beliefs, and social and cultural barriers to women and youth accessing productive assets.• Use full-cost pricing complemented by targeted subsidies.Farmers should pay the full price for water accessed for agricultural purposes. Where necessary, subsidies can be applied to improve access for vulnerable populations, including women and youth. This ensures that managers of irrigation facilities have adequate funds to maintain them. Additionally, it encourages farmers to adopt more waterefficient application methods and to reduce wastage of water, especially flooding of fields.• Strengthen the role of women and youth in agricultural water management. Women have traditionally been involved in managing water for domestic use at the community level.Because of male-female power relations, however, this does not extend significantly to the use of water for irrigation. Targeted efforts must be made to integrate women and youth into water management by placing them in managerial roles within WUAs. This helps to integrate their concerns into decision-making related to the use of water for irrigation.Vegetable production is seen as a secondary source of income for farmers and as an alternative livelihood activity for vulnerable populations. In addition, although vegetables have been exported regionally and internationally for several years, they are still classified as nontraditional exports. Therefore, development of the vegetable sector lags behind cocoa, coffee, tubers, grains and legumes. We recommend the following:• Prioritize vegetable production as a standalone sector.Vegetables for export and local consumption are increasing in importance because more consumers want to eat healthier meals. Offering the vegetable sector the same support as other crops in terms of inputs and extension services will help improve vegetable production and encourage women and youth to engage in on-or off-farm activities within the IVVC.• Set up research institutions for vegetables or vegetable research units within existing institutions. Cocoa and oil palm have dedicated research institutions that help produce suitable varieties for local production. Vegetables do not receive the same level of attention. Identifying vegetable varieties suitable for local production would minimize losses and encourage more women and youth to actively engage in the IVVC.• Strengthen vegetable associations to influence the objectives of policies and interventions. The Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association of Ghana has over 400 members who produce fresh vegetables for the national and international markets all year round. Government support in the form of training, creating market links and financial Irrigated vegetables are an important source of nutrition and income for women and youth in Ghana (photo: Hamish John Appleby/IWMI).assistance can help the association develop additional products for export, including green leafy vegetables, which are mainly produced by women. This also creates job opportunities for women and youth in the new value chains.Government and development partners acknowledge the need to help women and youth find employment or improve agricultural outputs. However, some interventions are irrelevant to the context, duplicated, uncoordinated or short term in nature, limiting the impact on beneficiaries. Recommendations include the following:• Scale context-relevant innovation bundles targeting smallholder women farmers and youth. Several interventions target the development of one aspect of agriculture, e.g., improving the availability of inputs or helping farmers to access extension and financial services. Research shows that bundling complementary and context-relevant innovationssuch as solar-powered pumps and affordable financing -are more likely to address farmers' needs and, therefore, improve uptake and use (IWMI 2021).• Accelerate sustainable financing to encourage inclusive investment in the IVVC. Youth and women's access to financing through informal channels such as village savings and loans groups and microfinance institutions is often not sufficient to increase their production and acquire technologies. The government can strengthen the capacity of the Agricultural Development Bank of Ghana to extend credit to women and youth in the medium to long term. This will support their acquisition of improved technologies for both on-and off-farm activities, including the cultivation of highvalue crops.• Facilitate private sector investment in and supply of irrigation equipment and services. Streamlining tax exemptions and making it easier for irrigation equipment suppliers to access these exemptions would reduce the cost of irrigation equipment by up to 19.5%. Moreover, measures to control the influx of cheap and inferior irrigation equipment -and thereby control unfair competition -would encourage the private sector to invest in local manufacturing. Additionally, data-driven tools can be used to support the private sector in tailoring their business to women and youth.For instance, IWMI partnered with Pumptech to segment its market in northern Ghana. With a clearer understanding of its customer groups, Pumptech modified its business model to include a pay-as-you-go or pay-as-you-own financing option that makes it easier for smallholders, including women and youth, to overcome the high upfront costs of buying a solar pump.• Several actors in the IVVC promote gender and youth inclusion with varying degrees of success. Regular meetings, interactions and collaborations give stakeholders the opportunity to learn from each other and work together to improve project impacts. We recommend the following: to share information on interventions aimed at supporting agriculture, including the IVVC, to improve access to project information. Further, standard templates for project reporting should be promoted. These will make it easier to compare impacts across projects and identify gaps in gender inclusion.• Encourage peer learning and information sharing. NGOs work in different parts of the country and gain knowledge and experience that can help other NGOs improve their efficiency and effectiveness. MoFA should organize regular meetings between relevant NGOs to share best practices in the IVVC and increase benefits to women and youth.• Multi-stakeholder dialogues. The challenges to developing the IVVC are multifaceted. IWMI organizes multi-stakeholder dialogues three or four times a year to discuss different aspects of these challenges (Minh et al. 2020). Focused on farmer-led irrigation, the dialogues provide an interactive learning and collaboration space for key stakeholders and actors to share experiences, insights and solutions, including ways to make the IVVC more inclusive for women and youth.","tokenCount":"2601"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de70d88d0234e65719a5c405b426b0a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/86e4892c-1465-40dc-8f44-40ecce8f10e1/retrieve","id":"-1233609856"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b3991046-45e8-4eb9-aa6b-7490706bc1c2","pagecount":"68","content":"Plan de acción estratégico para fortalecer la conservación y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos mesoamericanos para la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climáticoPlan de acción estratégico para fortalecer la conservación y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos mesoamericanos para la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático paem 2014 -2024A. Eje conservación 1. Estrategias para la conservación en finca e in situ de los RFGAA 1.1. Promover territorios bioculturales sostenibles, integrados en programas y sistemas de conservación existentes 1.2. Reconocer, facilitar e incentivar los sistemas locales de semillas 2. Implementación de una nueva arquitectura del sistema de conservación ex situ para optimizar y racionalizar la conservación de los RFGAA mesoamericanos y mejorar su acceso y utilidad para los usuarios 2.1. Reestructuración y fortalecimiento de los sistemas nacionales de conservación ex situ 2.2. Definición y fortalecimiento de la arquitectura regional de conservación ex situResumen ejecutivo Introducción Resumen del análisis diagnóstico Formulación del Plan de Acción Visión del PAEM Objetivo del PAEM Ejes, estrategias, metas y actividades del PAEM1. Disponibilidad de materiales diversos e información sobre su potencial de uso 2. Diversificar fincas introduciendo un mayor número de cultivos como estrategia de gestión de riesgos climáticos con beneficios en cuanto a generación de ingresos, salud y seguridad alimentaria y nutricional 3. Innovaciones para un mejor aprovechamiento de la diversidad intraespecífica El Tratado Internacional, es el único instrumento jurídicamente vinculante mediante el cual los países acuerdan establecer un sistema multilateral eficaz, efectivo y transparente para facilitar el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura (RFGAA) y compartir los beneficios de manera justa y equitativa. El Tratado tiene como objetivos la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA y la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios derivados de su utilización, en armonía con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, para una agricultura sostenible y seguridad alimentaria. A la fecha son 130 los países Partes Contratantes del Tratado Internacional.Para dar cumplimiento a estos objetivos, es necesario asegurar la existencia y disponibilidad de recursos financieros a nivel nacional e internacional de manera eficiente y complementaria. La Estrategia de Financiación del Tratado es un mecanismo para fortalecer los esfuerzos globales hacia la conservación y el uso sostenible de los RFGAA. A través de su Fondo de Distribución de Beneficios, el cual hace parte también del Sistema Multilateral del Tratado, se movilizan directamente fondos para apoyar proyectos para la conservación y el uso sostenible de RFGAA en países en desarrollo.El Fondo de Distribución de Beneficios del Tratado abrió su segunda convocatoria en el 2011 y aprobó la financiación de 19 proyectos (7 proyectos para la elaboración de planes de acción estratégicos y 12 proyectos de impacto inmediato). Uno de los proyectos aprobados y financiados por el Fondo de Distribución de Beneficios es el proyecto para la elaboración del Plan de Acción Estratégico para Fortalecer la Conservación y el Uso de los Recursos Fitogenéticos Mesoamericanos para la Adaptación de la Agricultura al Cambio Climático. (www.planttreaty.org).Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura y su Fondo de Distribución de Beneficios esoamérica, uno de los centros de domesticación y diversificación de cultivos de importancia mundial, alberga una enorme riqueza de recursos fitogenéticos. Como esta región también enfrentará desafíos sin precedentes, impuestos por el cambio climático, tiene en estos recursos fitogenéticos un medio fundamental para adaptar sus sistemas agrícolas a los cambios anticipados, y así garantizar la seguridad alimentaria de la población.El Plan de Acción Estratégico para Fortalecer la Conservación y el Uso de los Recursos Fitogenéticos Mesoamericanos para la Adaptación de la Agricultura al Cambio Climático (PAEM) es un mapa de ruta a diez años para fortalecer la conservación, el acceso y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos de Mesoamérica como elemento estratégico para la seguridad alimentaria y la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático y otras amenazas.El PAEM consta de seis ejes temáticos y sus actividades, a saber: (1) el eje conservación incluye, a) la conservación en finca e in situ de los recursos fitogenéticos, en donde se propone la creación y reconocimiento de territorios bioculturales integrados en programas de conservación existentes, y el apoyo a los sistemas locales de semillas, y b) un nuevo sistema de conservación ex situ eficiente, que permita un servicio óptimo a sus usuarios e inclusivo de los agricultores de pequeña escala;(2) el eje uso sostenible identifica medidas para facilitar la disponibilidad de variedades diversas sobre todo dadas las necesidades del cambio climático, para fomentar la diversificación de cultivos en las fincas, y para mejorar la difusión de variedades mejoradas;(3) el eje instituciones y políticas incluye las medidas de apoyo a los ejes de conservación y uso sostenible, los pasos hacia la implementación del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura en los países contratantes, y las medidas para implementar los derechos del agricultor; (4) el eje educación y fortalecimiento de capacidades describe acciones orientadas a permitir la plena y efectiva participación de organizaciones de agricultores, tomadores de decisiones, académicos y otros profesionales en la implementación del PAEM, así como acciones de divulgación para la sociedad en general;(5) el eje operacional identifica los marcos de articulación y mecanismos de coordinación regional necesarios para la ejecución del PAEM, los que incluyen la revitalización de las redes de recursos fitogenéticos y la coordinación con los organismos de gobierno regionales, entre otros; y (6) el eje financiación identifica las acciones necesarias para movilizar recursos en apoyo a la implementación del PAEM. Los ejes temáticos están interconectados entre sí y se anticipa que la implementación del Plan de Acción se hará de manera integrada.El Plan de Acción se ha formulado utilizando una metodología que combina el análisis de la evidencia científica acerca del estado actual de los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (RFGAA) en la región, los retos y oportunidades respecto al cambio climático, y un amplio proceso participativo de actores de la región. La compilación y análisis exhaustivo de la evidencia científica y políticas relevantes acerca de la conservación, acceso y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos fue complementada con un estudio de bancos de germoplasma y una encuesta a más de cien agricultores de toda la región. Toda esta información se utilizó para generar un diagnóstico del estado de los recursos fitogenéticos en la región. Para el diagnóstico, el PAEM ha tomado como ejemplo a diez cultivos mesoamericanos y sus parientes silvestres: maíz, frijol, yuca, camote, calabaza, amaranto, chile, papaya, aguacate y un forraje nativo (Tripsacum), priorizados por su importancia para la seguridad alimentaria local, regional y global, su aporte en la diversificación de las dietas, la generación de ingresos y su potencial para la adaptación a estreses abióticos. Sin embargo, el PAEM, sus estrategias y actividades son relevantes para todos los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura de la región mesoamericana. Los resultados de los análisis efectuados y los documentos utilizados en los análisis se encuentran a la disposición del público en el sitio web ITZAMNÁ http://itzamna-mesoamerica.org.El diagnóstico se compartió con actores regionales en la primera consulta regional del PAEM realizada en Guatemala, y fue usado como base para la identificación de las acciones prioritarias a ser incluidas en el Plan de Acción. Con estos insumos se procedió a preparar el primer borrador del PAEM que fue subsecuentemente revisado y discutido en la segunda consulta regional realizada en Costa Rica. esoamérica, la región que comprende el sur de México y los siete países de América Central, es una de las zonas del continente americano más sensibles al cambio climático. Casi todos los modelos climáticos pronostican una disminución de la precipitación y un aumento de la sequía en las siguientes décadas. De hecho, ya se ha observado un aumento en los eventos meteorológicos extremos en la región, que afectan seriamente la infraestructura de los países y sus sistemas productivos, como ocurrió con los huracanes Mitch en 1998 y Stan en el 2005. Las estadísticas agrícolas de los últimos años muestran altibajos productivos, debido en su gran mayoría a problemas de clima, exceso o falta de lluvias y la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades asociadas. Para poder mantener la seguridad alimentaria de la región, reducir su vulnerabilidad, y aumentar la resiliencia 1 de los sistemas productivos frente a la gravedad de las perturbaciones climáticas anticipadas, será crucial desarrollar estrategias y acciones de adaptación eficientes y adecuadas para el sector agrícola.1 En el presente documento, resiliencia refiere a \"la capacidad de un sistema de recuperarse tras fenómenos de perturbación importantes\" (Adaptado de Thompson, 2011). Por otro lado, el cambio climático no es del todo nuevo para la agricultura. La domesticación de plantas y el origen de la agricultura coincidieron precisamente con el calentamiento global que marcó el final de la última glaciación, hace aproximadamente 10,000 años. A lo largo de la historia, cientos de generaciones de agricultores modificaron y adaptaron sus cultivos a diferentes ambientes bióticos, abióticos y culturales, resultando en la rica diversidad de recursos fitogenéticos con la que contamos hoy. Ahora que los cambios que se vislumbran son de una naturaleza y escala nunca vistos en la historia de la agricultura, es precisamente esta diversidad que hemos heredado la que representa la materia prima para seguir mejorando las especies cultivadas, adaptándolas a nuevas condiciones climáticas y responder al desafío de alimentar a una población creciente usando cada vez menos insumos. El mejor aprovechamiento de la diversidad genética regional dependerá de la capacidad de usar enfoques multidisciplinarios que maximicen la sinergia de las prácticas agrícolas tradicionales con los conocimientos y métodos científicos modernos.Afortunadamente para los países que lo conforman, Mesoamérica es uno de los principales centros de domesticación y diversificación de especies alimenticias en el mundo. Entre ellos, el maíz, que constituye no sólo la base de la dieta sino de la identidad cultural de muchos países de la región, el frijol, importante fuente de proteína vegetal, y varias hortalizas, frutales y raíces como los chiles, el amaranto, las calabazas, el aguacate, la papaya, el camote y la yuca. La conservación y el uso sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos de estas, y otros cultivos nativos junto con sus parientes silvestres, son claves para la adaptación de la agricultura no sólo en la región sino también en los demás países que dependen de cultivos de origen mesoamericano para su seguridad alimentaria.Reproducido por M. Beltrán -Bioversity http://www/ccafs-climate.org/data/ Está claro que el cambio climático no respeta las fronteras nacionales. Del mismo modo, la conservación, adaptación y uso sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos regionales no son prerrogativa o responsabilidad exclusiva de un país u otro. Por lo tanto, la adaptación de los sistemas de producción agrícola que aproveche de esta riqueza en recursos fitogenéticos debe ser una iniciativa conjunta entre todos los países de la región, de tal modo que esta adaptación sea más rápida, eficaz y eficiente.De todas estas consideraciones, surgió la inquietud de elaborar el presente Plan de Acción Estratégico, que constituye una guía multidisciplinaria e integrada de acciones a diez años para fortalecer el papel de los recursos fitogenéticos conservados en Mesoamérica en la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático. ¡El momento de hacer mayores inversiones para salvaguardar nuestra seguridad alimentaria es ahora! Los recursos fitogenéticos mesoamericanos están actualmente conservados en colecciones de germoplasma nacionales o internacionales (en condiciones ex situ), en ecosistemas naturales (conservación in situ de los parientes silvestres) y en los campos de los agricultores (manejo de la diversidad cultivada en finca). Sin embargo, la conservación tanto ex situ como in situ y en finca de estos recursos es deficiente, y su uso en investigación y en producción es limitado, de tal modo que su potencial para responder a los desafíos del cambio climático presente y futuro está por realizarse.La conservación in situ y en finca de la agrobiodiversidad debería enfocarse en los paisajes agrícolas y territorios indígenas, e integrarse con acciones existentes de conservación de la biodiversidad silvestre. El papel de los agricultores en la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad y su mejoramiento en finca debe ser reconocido y fortalecido, y se deben buscar los incentivos para que las comunidades sigan brindando este servicio de conservación dinámica de los RFGAA.Para aprovechar más eficientemente las fortalezas que ya existen en términos de capital humano y de infraestructura en los bancos de germoplasma en los diferentes países, es preciso hacer una racionalización de las colecciones y establecer una mejor coordinación con entidades regionales e internacionales, así como con organizaciones comunitarias, con el fin de promover los flujos de germoplasma desde y hacia los bancos de conservación ex situ, para fomentar y agilizar su uso.Son necesarias iniciativas para la identificación de material promisorio que estén enfocadas en caracteres adaptativos y de resistencia para enfrentar perturbaciones bióticas y abióticas, las que están siendo exacerbadas por el cambio climático. Estas iniciativas agregarían valor al material conservado en los bancos, y mejorarían las perspectivas para su uso en programas de mejoramiento genético convencional o participativo. Un mejor acceso a datos climáticos de calidad reforzaría la capacidad de orientar los esfuerzos de conservación y mejoramiento de los recursos fitogenéticos de la región. Es también esencial que se disponga de mecanismos ágiles y flexibles para la distribución de una diversidad de semillas tradicionales y mejoradas, tanto para garantizar respuestas rápidas luego de desastres, como también la pronta adopción de materiales adaptados, para contribuir así al mantenimiento de la producción en condiciones de estrés climático.Para poner en marcha acciones integradas que apoyen la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA en Mesoamérica es fundamental crear un entorno institucional favorable, concientizando a los tomadores de decisiones de diferentes sectores (ambiente, agricultura, salud, cambio climático, entre otras) y elevando el perfil de los RFGAA en las múltiples estrategias e iniciativas técnicas e institucionales que se están llevando a cabo bajo el paraguas del cambio climático.El desarrollo del PAEM tuvo lugar a lo largo de un año, empezando con un diagnóstico del estado de conservación y uso de diez cultivos representativos para la región y de los marcos institucionales nacionales, regionales e internacionales relativos a la conservación y el manejo de los RFGAA. El diagnóstico, que fue compartido y validado por expertos regionales, llevó a identificar oportunidades y retos que están resumidos a continuación (el informe completo del diagnóstico se puede encontrar en el sitio web ITZAMNÁ (http://itzamna-mesoamerica.org, sección Proyecto PAEM), respetando la división en ejes temáticos adoptados durante el proceso mismo de formulación del PAEM.Estado de conservación en finca e in situ Análisis geoespacial• Bajo un escenario de \"business as usual\", el cambio climático causaría cambios sustanciales en la extensión y ubicación de áreas idóneas para el crecimiento de la mayoría de las especies cultivadas y sus parientes silvestres. • Las áreas idóneas para el cultivo de la mayoría de las especies consideradas en este diagnóstico podrían sufrir desplazamientos en el futuro. En áreas montañosas los desplazamientos serían mayormente altitudinales.Proyecciones climáticas para 358 especies de parientes silvestres• Para algunas especies cultivadas, la superficie de las áreas idóneas podría aumentar, pero para la mayoría de las especies los modelos predicen reducciones netas de las áreas idóneas actuales. Las reducciones podrían ser más severas para las especies cultivadas más importantes para la alimentación humana. • Para paliar las reducciones y desplazamientos de las áreas idóneas es preciso promover la identificación, movimiento y adaptación del germoplasma potencialmente adaptado ya existente en la región.• Para la mayoría de los parientes silvestres de las especies cultivadas los modelos predicen incrementos potenciales de las áreas idóneas. La conservación de la mayoría de parientes silvestres se beneficiaría simplemente de una mayor interconectividad entre las regiones ecológicas lo que permitiría su migración natural.Cambios en idoneidad ambiental desde el presente hasta el 2050Las proyecciones sugieren que la gran mayoría de áreas podrían tener condiciones idóneas -de celeste a azul-para la expansión de poblaciones de especies de parientes silvestres más allá de su distribución actual. Muchos lugares serían favorables para albergar hasta 69 especies más que en la actualidadElaborado por E. Thomas y M. Beltrán -Bioversity• El hecho de que casi todos los parientes silvestres podrían aumentar sus áreas idóneas bajo cambio climático indicaría que tendrían genes interesantes para el mejoramiento de las especies cultivadas. Actualmente, el potencial de los parientes silvestres para el mejoramiento de las especies cultivadas está subutilizado. • Las áreas protegidas actualmente en Mesoamérica tienen muy poca coincidencia con las áreas de mayor diversidad de especies y de los parientes silvestres considerados en este estudio, amenazando así su conservación.• Una estrategia más integrada e inclusiva para la conservación in situ debe enfocarse no solamente en la diversidad en recursos fitogenéticos, sino también en la diversidad cultural, porque son las poblaciones rurales y particularmente las comunidades indígenas y locales quienes conservan y son los guardianes de la diversidad de plantas cultivadas, y sin su involucramiento activo, la conservación in situ no puede funcionar.• Una estrategia de conservación en finca e in situ integrada tanto en las áreas protegidas existentes como en los territorios de comunidades indígenas y locales, lograría la adecuada conservación de la mayoría de los RFGAA de la región.• Para hacer seguimiento a las tendencias temporales y espaciales del estado de conservación de las especies cultivadas en finca e in situ hace falta reforzar los sistemas de monitoreo existentes en la región.Análisis geoespacial• Los datos de pasaporte de las accesiones conservadas en los bancos nacionales y regionales de Mesoamérica tienen problemas serios de calidad. Esto, combinado con la reducida accesibilidad a los datos complica la realización de ejercicios de análisis de vacíos o de priorización. Esta situación debe ser subsanada con prioridad para aprovechar efectivamente los recursos conservados en estos bancos• Existen vacíos geográficos significativos en las colecciones ex situ, para los RFGAA tanto cultivados como silvestres.• Dada la amplitud de los vacíos geográficos hacen falta estrategias de priorización para planificar más eficientemente las nuevas misiones de colecta, enfocándose en las plantas cultivadas y silvestres con mayor potencial de presentar atributos de valor o interesantes para la adaptación al cambio climático. Dichas estrategias deben aprovechar los conocimientos existentes de una variedad de disciplinas científicas, como la genética, la antropología, la ecología, la climatología, las ciencias agrícolas, entre otras.• La identificación de germoplasma promisorio es particularmente pertinente para los parientes silvestres, dado que algunos acervos genéticos cuentan con un número alto de ellos (Ej. Ipomoea spp., 169 especies) y hay que priorizar los que tengan utilidad o potencial directo para el mejoramiento de las especies cultivadas.• Los bancos en la región tienen diferentes propósitos y niveles de infraestructura que les permitiría jugar papeles diferentes y complementarios en una estrategia regional de conservación ex situ. • En comparación con el papel de los bancos internacionales que mantienen colecciones grandes de géneros de importancia global como fríjol, camote y yuca, los bancos locales y regionales tienen un papel crucial en la conservación de géneros regionalmente valiosos como calabazas, chiles, papayas y aguacates. • Existen colecciones grandes de maíz en bancos locales, regionales e internacionales. Habría que ver cómo optimizar la conservación ex situ de este género, en una estrategia regional coordinada con bancos internacionales.• Los programas públicos de mejoramiento genético en los países tienden a enfocarse en granos básicos, sobre todo maíz y fríjol, con relativamente poca inversión en otros cultivos. • Existe poca inversión, tecnología y capacidad técnica para que programas de pre-mejoramiento usen materiales disponibles en los bancos y en las fincas de los agricultores. La mayoría de los materialesCambios en idoneidad ambiental desde el presente hasta el 2050Las proyecciones sugieren que en la mayoría de áreas, de rosado a rojo, las condiciones climáticas podrían ser desfavorables para el cultivo de estas especies, con áreas donde hasta 14 especies no podrán cultivarse en comparación al presente. En ciertas áreas, de celeste a azul, las condiciones podrían ser más favorables para más especies que en el presente, hasta un máximo de nueve especies que antes no podían cultivarse en estas áreasElaborado por E. Thomas y M. Beltrán -Bioversity• Los bancos mesoamericanos tienen limitaciones para la distribución de material por falta de un sistema formal de solicitud y una baja cantidad de materiales conservados por accesión. La mayoría del germoplasma solicitado a los bancos por actores externos es usado directamente en el campo para producción e investigación. • Existen vacíos específicos en datos de pasaporte y clasificación taxonómica de géneros regionalmente importantes como calabazas, chiles, papayas y aguacates. Para maíz y fríjoles hay mayor avance en la caracterización y evaluación en comparación con los otros géneros. • Para maíz y fríjoles hay un vacío marcado en la evaluación de material para estrés biótico. Para los géneros que incluyen calabazas, chiles, papayas y aguacates hay vacíos de evaluación en cuanto a estrés abiótico y biótico.Cambios netos en las áreas idóneas para el crecimiento de especies cultivadas que luego se liberan como variedades en el país vienen de las instituciones internacionales y unos cuantos de organizaciones regionales (CATIE, Escuela Agrícola Panamericana El Zamorano).• Hay cierto énfasis en la búsqueda o el desarrollo de caracteres de adaptación al cambio climático en granos básicos, pero muy poco en otros cultivos.• Existe un programa regional de fitomejoramiento participativo que ha sido muy exitoso, tanto en el involucramiento y capacitación de los agricultores como en la generación de variedades relevantes para los sistemas productivos locales. También ese enfoque se ha centrado en maíz y frijol y según el país, en otros cultivos no nativos (arroz y sorgo). No se ha dado espacio todavía a otras especies nativas y de potencial valor para diversificar aún más los sistemas productivos.• A pesar de la importancia de los sistemas locales de semillas, sobre todo en algunos rubros, (frijol entre los granos básicos y otros cultivos) ninguna ley nacional reconoce estos sistemas ni se han adoptado acciones sistemáticas para promoverlos o mejorarlos a nivel nacional. Sin embargo, acciones asociadas a los programas de fitomejoramiento participativo tienden a fortalecer los sistemas de semillas informales o del agricultor y han permitido mejorar significativamente la calidad de la semilla que llega a los usuarios, sobre todo en zonas marginales y vulnerables.• Programas nacionales o regionales (como Semillas para el Desarrollo, coordinado por la FAO) han sido instrumentales en promover el desarrollo de sistemas de semillas flexibles y funcionales, al integrar elementos del sistema formal e informal.• En el marco de iniciativas de fitomejoramiento participativo o de respuestas a desastres, varios países en la región tienen experiencias muy valiosas de conservación comunitaria de semillas criollas. Aunque se enfoquen en granos básicos, hay un espacio para que se amplíe el portafolio de especies conservadas a corto plazo con ese mecanismo descentralizado de conservación para uso.• La cantidad y calidad de los datos meteorológicos es bastante deficiente para poder desarrollar modelos climáticos presentes y futuros específicos para la región. Para guiar mejor los esfuerzos de adaptación de la agricultura basados en RFGAA, que tome en cuenta la diversidad climática de la región, hace falta un esfuerzo importante para crear más datos meteorológicos de buena calidad y hacerlos disponibles. • Todos los países mesoamericanos que son partes contratantes del Tratado Internacional sobre RFGAA han participado en el desarrollo del PAEM y ellos también son Partes Contratantes del Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica. Sin embargo, los países han avanzado más en el desarrollo de legislación nacional bajo el CDB que bajo el TIRFAA. En muchos países esto resulta en cierto vacío e incertidumbre legal sobre cómo acceder a los RFGAA y cómo distribuir los beneficios asociados a ellos, tanto en condiciones ex situ como in situ. Tampoco se ha avanzado en otros aspectos de la implementación del Tratado, como por ejemplo el Art. 9 sobre Derechos del Agricultor.• Las políticas regionales y nacionales agropecuarias o de seguridad alimentaria contienen planes e iniciativas que incorporan, en medida más o menos explícita, la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA. En ese marco institucional caben muchas de las iniciativas de fitomejoramiento (convencional o participativo), de fortalecimiento de sistemas de semillas, de diversificación en los sistemas productivos, de agricultura orgánica y familiar. Sin embargo, no siempre se considera una visión holística del rol de los RFGAA, de un número más amplio de especies y sus variedades, aparte de los granos básicos.• Las políticas regionales y nacionales de gestión ambiental y adaptación al cambio climático no hacen referencia específica a la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA como herramienta clave para el desarrollo http://itzamna-mesoamerica.org/ Los resultados de este diagnóstico han sido el punto de partida para la identificación consensuada de las acciones que conforman el Plan de Acción Estratégico para Mesoamérica. El resumen esquemático se encuentra en el Anexo 2. La implementación del PAEM a lo largo de los próximos diez años, contribuirá al fortalecimiento de la conservación y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos en la región, y es armónico con el cumplimiento de compromisos internacionales adquiridos por los países, entre los cuales se destacan el Convenio de Diversidad Biológica, el Tratado Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura y el Segundo Plan de Acción Mundial para los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura.• Existe un desfase entre la riqueza en RFGAA cultivados y silvestres en la región, y la capacidad para utilizarlos plenamente.• En resumen, las necesidades de capacitación incluyen la facilitación de acceso a información de varias fuentes, interpretar esta información para que pueda ser aplicada, mejorar el uso del conocimiento generado para la toma de decisiones y la coproducción de conocimiento, lo que a su vez facilitaría la generación de innovaciones.• En general, el tema de conservación y uso de los RFGAA tiende a ser del dominio de un grupo de expertos bastante reducido y con necesidad de relevo generacional.• A nivel universitario, a pesar de que el tema de RFGAA se trata mayormente en las facultades de agricultura, este se beneficiaría de una mayor visibilidad y también se podría desarrollar o aprovechar más de acuerdos colaborativos entre instituciones de educación superior y otras entidades públicas encargadas de la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA, como los bancos de germoplasma, los programas de mejoramiento genético, convencional o participativo.• Se reconoce la falta de fitomejoradores y de una nueva generación de extensionistas, tanto para introducir en la agenda de trabajo en RFGAA el uso de herramientas tecnológicas y moleculares, como para fortalecer las investigaciones participativas con los agricultores.• Hay poco diálogo entre expertos en temas de ambiente, cambio climático y expertos en RFGAA, sobre todo en la toma y análisis de datos meteorológicos.• Los tomadores de decisiones tanto a escala nacional como regional no tienen mucho conocimiento sobre los RFGAA y así se pierde la oportunidad de incorporarlos en acciones eficaces en otros sectores, desde el desarrollo agropecuario y rural (incluso en cadenas de mercado), hasta la seguridad alimentaria, la adaptación al cambio climático y las respuestas a desastres.• Aunque los agricultores están muy conscientes de los cambios desatados por el cambio climático reclaman mayor información climática local, semillas adaptadas, y peritos que puedan asesorarlos en la interpretación de esta información.• El tema de los RFGAA está relativamente alejado de la atención y la apreciación de la sociedad civil, también por la falta de inversión en campañas de educación y sensibilización que muestren su relevancia cotidiana en la alimentación y la salud de estos recursos y traduzcan conceptos científicos y terminología técnica en un lenguaje de fácil comprensión.de acciones concretas en el terreno. Esto en parte se debe a una escasa coordinación entre las agendas de los diferentes Ministerios competentes en materia de ambiente y cambio climático (Ambiente) y de RFGAA (Agricultura). Los planes de respuesta a desastres incorporan aún menos el tema de los RFGAA no obstante algunas experiencias exitosas a nivel comunitario y local.l Plan de Acción Estratégico Mesoamericano se ha formulado con base en un análisis científico exhaustivo del estado de conservación y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos (el diagnóstico), evidencia que ha sido validada y enriquecida por medio de un amplio proceso participativo de consulta con actores regionales relevantes. Un Comité Asesor 2 compuesto por expertos en los temas del PAEM ha participado paso a paso en todo el proceso de formulación, desde la definición de las agendas de las consultas, la identificación de los participantes, hasta una intervención activa en las consultas regionales, y finalmente la revisión de las sucesivas versiones del borrador del PAEM.Los primeros seis meses del proyecto de formulación del PAEM, fueron dedicados a la compilación de información sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos en Mesoamérica. Este ejercicio de diagnóstico se enfocó en diez cultivos nativos y sus parientes silvestres(o sea los acervos genéticos) correspondientes a los siguientes géneros: Zea (maíz), Phaseolus (frijol), Manihot (yuca), Ipomoea (camote), Cucurbita (calabaza), Amaranthus (amaranto), Capsicum (chile), Carica (papaya), Persea (aguacate) y Tripsacum (forraje).Estos acervos fueron seleccionados teniendo en cuenta, entre otras cosas, (i) su priorización por expertos regionales, (ii) su importancia regional y global para la seguridad alimentaria (maíz, frijol, yuca y camote), (iii) su importancia para las comunidades indígenas y locales de la Región, (iv) su aporte en la diversificación de la dieta y generación de ingresos (papaya, chile, aguacate y calabaza), (v) ser cultivos subutilizados a pesar de su reconocido valor nutricional (el amaranto), y (vi) su potencial para la adaptación a perturbaciones donde son notables las generadas por el cambio climático. Se incorporaron en el análisis los parientes silvestres de estos cultivos por el gran potencial de sus genes para el mejoramiento de las mismas especies cultivadas, tanto en términos de adaptación al cambio climático como resistencia a plagas y enfermedades.Para tener una mejor idea del estado de conservación ex situ, in situ y en finca de los recursos fitogenéticos se ejecutó un análisis geoespacial que cubrió los siguientes temas: (i) el impacto climático potencial (proyectado hacia 2050) tanto para las especies cultivadas como para sus parientes silvestres; (ii) los vacíos en la diversidad de recursos fitogenéticos actualmente conservados en bancos de germoplasma (incluyendo una priorización de áreas para futuras colectas); (iii) la identificación de germoplasma con características potenciales de adaptación a las condiciones climáticas futuras que se encuentra conservado en bancos de germoplasma; (iv) el estado de conservación in situ de los parientes silvestres; y (v) la identificación de áreas prioritarias que conservarían la mayor diversidad de recursos fitogenéticos, cultivados y silvestres de la región. Las principales fuentes de datos usados para este análisis geoespacial fueron las bases de datos de los bancos de germoplasma de los Centros Internacionales del CGIAR (Genesys, ex Singer), datos de herbarios y del GBIF, y publicaciones científicas, entre otras. Un total de 384 especies: 26 cultivadas y 358 silvestres, fueron incluidas en los análisis. Los análisis geo-espaciales resultaron en un total de más de 3.000 mapas de estas especies cultivadas y sus parientes silvestres.Además de los análisis descritos en el párrafo anterior, y para evaluar el estado de conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos en los bancos de germoplasma mesoamericanos, se enviaron -en colaboración con CATIE-encuestas a 25 bancos, 17 de los cuales respondieron, desde México a Panamá.Con el fin de obtener una mejor idea del estado de conservación y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos por parte de agricultores a pequeña escala se llevaron a cabo encuestas con 144 representantes de comunidades agrícolas locales e indígenas en talleres organizados por ASOCUCH en Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua y Costa Rica.Discusión sobre el estado de conservación y uso de RFG por agricultores, Nicaragua ASOCUCH Los anteriores diagnósticos fueron complementados con una búsqueda de los dispositivos, regulaciones y leyes existentes en la región y los países participantes, relevantes para la conservación y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos, incluyendo la oferta de capacitación y entrenamiento disponible. Se recopilaron y revisaron publicaciones científicas, documentos de política, literatura secundaria y estadísticas nacionales, así como los informes de los países a la FAO para el Segundo Reporte del Estado Mundial de los Recursos Fitogenéticos.La formulación del Plan de Acción Estratégico que siguió a esta fase diagnóstica se llevó a cabo de manera participativa, con el concurso de la comunidad científica, académica, representantes de comu-Participantes en la segunda Consulta Regional, Costa Rica, 20133 Walter Quirós -Director Ejecutivo de la Oficina Nacional de Semillas de Costa Rica, Aura de Borja -Encargada del Banco de Germoplasma del Centro Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria y Forestal del Salvador (CENTA), Samuel Ajquejay -Auditor de Fitozoogenética del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación de Guatemala, Elizabeth Santacreo -Punto Focal de la Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria de Honduras y Roberto Mancilla -Coordinador del consejo para la protección de obtenciones vegetales del Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario de Panamá.nidades campesinas e indígenas, centros de conservación ex situ nacionales y regionales, autoridades nacionales de los países mesoamericanos en materia agrícola y ambiental, organizaciones de gobierno regional, organizaciones agrícolas regionales, centros de investigación del Grupo Consultivo de Investigación Agrícola Internacional, entre otros. Los detalles de este proceso se describen en los siguientes párrafos y la lista de todos los participantes y sus afiliaciones se encuentran en el Anexo 1.La selección de participantes en las consultas siguió un proceso iterativo, de consulta muy cercana, con los Puntos Focales del Tratado Internacional en los países 3 o sus designados, complementado con las sugerencias del Comité Asesor del PAEM. A finales del 2012, se llevó a cabo la primera consulta en la ciudad de Guatemala, con la participación de 73 representantes de los sectores mencionados, quienes durante tres días se abocaron a la tarea de revisar y avalar el diagnóstico, identificar información faltante y posibles fuentes para obtenerla. En enero de 2013 se inició la preparación del primer borrador del PAEM, teniendo como insumos los estudios de diagnóstico y los resultados de la consulta regional realizada en Guatemala. El Comité Asesor del PAEM lo revisó en marzo del 2013. El segundo borrador del PAEM fue presentado y discutido con 32 actores relevantes y autoridades nacionales de los países involucrados, durante una segunda consulta regional de formulación del PAEM llevada a cabo en Costa Rica. Posteriormente, este documento fue revisado de acuerdo con las recomendaciones y sugerencias recibidas durante esta segunda consulta y la versión consensuada fue enviada al Comité Asesor del proyecto y a la Secretaría del CAC.El Consejo Agropecuario Centroamericano-CAC en su reunión ordinaria de ministros, llevada a cabo en Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá el 1o y 2 de agosto de 2013, con la presencia de Ministros y Viceministros acordó respaldar el Plan de Acción Estratégico para fortalecer la conservación y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos de Mesoamérica como alternativa de adaptación al cambio climático (PAEM). El CAC instó e instruyó a la Secretaría Ejecutiva del CAC para que facilite la articulación del PAEM con el Grupo Técnico de Cambio Climático y Gestión Integral del Riesgo, el SICTA y otras iniciativas afines en el marco del CAC. Asimismo, el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura ofreció respaldo a la puesta en marcha del PAEM.Todos los análisis realizados para los estudios diagnósticos y los documentos se encuentran a disposición del público en el sitio web ITZAMNÁ, http://itzamna-mesoamerica.orgFormulación del Plan de AcciónDurante los próximos diez años se mejora la conservación, acceso y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos mesoamericanos, como elemento estratégico para la seguridad alimentaria y la adaptación de la agricultura al cambio climático y otras amenazas.del PAEMLos agricultores de Mesoamérica utilizan la riqueza de los recursos fitogenéticos para producir alimentos suficientes en sistemas agrícolas diversificados y resilientes ante el cambio climático y otras amenazas, teniendo acceso a estos recursos que están conservados adecuadamente para la región y el mundo.N. Palmer -CIAT Ejes, estrategias, metas y actividades del PAEM l eje conservación incorpora estrategias dirigidas a la conservación in situ y ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura. La conservación en finca de los RFGAA cultivados y sus parientes silvestres se fomenta con acciones concretas, integradas, en las que se reconoce el rol central que juegan los agricultores en interacción con su entorno, en territorios bioculturales que merecen ser establecidos y reconocidos de tal modo que los sistemas locales de semillas, que son el corazón de la agrobiodiversidad en estos territorios, se fortalezcan y continúen evolucionando. Para la conservación ex situ, se propone una nueva arquitectura que organice los bancos de germoplasma en red para así servir a los usuarios de los materiales conservados -incluyendo los pequeños agricultores-de manera eficiente y efectiva.A. Eje conservación E 1. Estrategias para la conservación en finca e in situ de los RFGAA Esta estrategia responde a la necesidad de fomentar la conservación in situ de los RFGAA cultivados y sus parientes silvestres, a través de intervenciones holísticas que tomen en cuenta la relación recíproca existente entre las sociedades humanas y los RFGAA. Se propone el establecimiento y el reconocimiento formal de territorios bioculturales así como su integración en las redes y programas nacionales de conservación existentes.El concepto territorio biocultural 4 se refiere al conjunto de los recursos biológicos, incluida la diversidad en RFGAA y los paisajes y ecosistemas de los cuales son parte, así como las tradiciones y buenas prácticas agrícolas de las poblaciones rurales, sumadas las comunidades indígenas y locales, que muchas veces son creadoras de los recursos fitogenéticos cultivados y guardianes de la agrobiodiversidad. El establecimiento y buen manejo de territorios bioculturales requiere tanto de información de línea base que describa todos los aspectos claves de dichos territorios, como de mecanismos de monitoreo que usen indicadores sencillos acordados regionalmente. Por lo tanto son considerados como partes integrales de las estrategias de conservación en finca e in situ.Para lograr una conservación efectiva de los RFGAA cultivados se considera clave fortalecer y reconocer los sistemas locales de semillas como elementos fundamentales para el mantenimiento de la agrobiodiversidad en territorios bioculturales.Meta: Territorios bioculturales sostenibles establecidos e integrados en iniciativas existentes de conservación en la región mesoamericana que contribuyen a una mejor conservación y uso in situ de los RFGAA y de los conocimientos, procesos de innovación y prácticas de la población rural, incluidas las comunidades indígenas y locales.Actividades a. Establecer criterios regionales armonizados, reconociendo las diferencias y las necesidades nacionales, para la identificación y delimitación de territorios bioculturales, incluyendo los casos transfronterizos.b. Establecer una línea base de conocimiento del estado de la conservación y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos cultivados y sus parientes silvestres, y de los conocimientos y prácticas tradicionales asociados a estos (cultural, ceremonial, culinaria, medicinal, etc.).• Identificar, desarrollar y adoptar indicadores sencillos a escala regional, relevantes para el establecimiento de la línea base y el monitoreo posterior, teniendo en cuenta temas de género, etnicidad y vulnerabilidad.Las áreas donde se superponen la mayor diversidad de cultivos, hoy y en el 2050, con la presencia de grupos lingüísticos ofrecen las mejores condiciones para priorizar la conservación en finca • Elaborar diagnósticos de los procesos agrícolas existentes, y en particular los vinculados a la conservación y uso de la agrobiodiversidad y su importancia económica y cultural para la población rural, con inclusión de las comunidades indígenas y locales. • Realizar inventarios nacionales de recursos fitogenéticos cultivados y sus parientes silvestres, involucrando actores locales relevantes, por ejemplo en la elaboración de registros comunitarios, y promover su sistematización a nivel regional. • Identificar áreas de alta riqueza de los RFGAA, tanto en finca como en hábitats silvestres.• Identificar las principales amenazas que enfrentan la conservación y uso de los RFGAA en finca y hábitats silvestres en los países de la región mesoamericana. • Utilizar Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) para mejorar el conocimiento acerca de las dinámicas temporales y espaciales, pasadas y presentes, de la agrobiodiversidad en la región mesoamericana.c. Crear incentivos dirigidos a pequeños agricultores, comunidades indígenas y locales que contribuyen a la conservación in situ y al uso de la agrobiodiversidad como componente central de su modo de vida, con énfasis en áreas de alta riqueza de RFGAA, que mejoren la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA cultivados y silvestres. 5 d. Fomentar la documentación, uso e intercambio de los conocimientos, innovaciones y prácticas tradicionales asociados a la agrobiodiversidad. 6Las accesiones de yuca colectadas en las áreas más secas y más calientes y conservadas en bancos de germoplasma internacionales podrían ser incluidas en futuros programas de cultivo y fitomejoramientoManihot esculenta Crantz e. Restaurar paisajes agrícolas degradados a través de la diversificación de los RFGAA en los sistemas productivos y el uso sostenible de la tierra, incluso mediante la repatriación de cultivos nativos y variedades locales y la aplicación de prácticas agrícolas sostenibles con el fin de (i) promover la conservación de los RFGAA mediante su uso; (ii) lograr resiliencia de los sistemas productivos; (iii) fortalecer la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, y (iv) reafirmar la identidad cultural de las comunidades.f. Incentivar o reforzar la conectividad ecológica en el conjunto de paisajes agrícolas y áreas protegidas (corredores biológicos) para facilitar la migración de los parientes silvestres y de los polinizadores indispensables para sostener la producción agrícola. g. Incluir la conservación in situ de los parientes silvestres en las estrategias nacionales de biodiversidad, y en particular en los planes de manejo de las áreas naturales protegidas. h. Elaborar planes de manejo de territorios bioculturales enfocados en RFGAA, en armonía con iniciativas internacionales relevantes. i. Fortalecer los sistemas nacionales de monitoreo para identificar y evaluar tanto las tendencias en la conservación in situ de los RFGAA, como el impacto de las prácticas actuales y nuevas intervenciones, mediante la creación y adopción de protocolos comunes en todos los países, mecanismos de coordinación nacionales y regionales, y el uso de herramientas analíticas, como los sistemas de información geográfica.Meta: Sistemas locales de semillas funcionales y diversos que facilitan el acceso, el uso y la conservación en finca de los RFGAA cultivados.Actividades a. Establecer una línea base de conocimiento sobre los sistemas locales de semillas.• Identificar, desarrollar y adoptar indicadores sencillos a nivel regional, relevantes para el establecimiento de la línea base y el monitoreo posterior. • Realizar inventarios nacionales de agricultores y de asociaciones líderes en conservación y uso de agrobiodiversidad. • Identificar los factores determinantes para asegurar la sostenibilidad y el fomento de los sistemas locales de semillas.7 Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad D.1.e de fortalecimiento de capacidades de organizaciones de productores en el eje de Educación y Fortalecimiento de Capacidades.b. Establecer bancos de semilla comunitarios, con la participación de líderes locales, en su mantenimiento y monitoreo.c. Fortalecer la conservación en bancos de semilla comunitarios, mediante la adopción de medidas técnicas y mejoras infraestructurales.d. Incentivar los sistemas locales de semillas a través de ferias de semillas, realización de eventos y días de campo, y socialización de experiencias para facilitar el diálogo e intercambio de semillas entre agricultores y otros actores relevantes.e. Concientizar y capacitar a las poblaciones rurales, incluidas las comunidades indígenas y locales, sobre la importancia de los sistemas locales de semillas para la conservación y uso de RFGAA. 7f. Establecer un sistema de monitoreo para sistemas locales de semillas.• Establecer o fortalecer y armonizar los sistemas nacionales de monitoreo, incluyendo el desarrollo y la implementación de protocolos para identificar y evaluar las tendencias, el impacto de las medidas o intervenciones implementadas sobre los sistemas locales de semillas y el establecimiento, uso y mantenimiento de bancos comunitarios.• Incentivar la colaboración entre todos los actores relevantes para el monitoreo de sistemas locales de semillas.2. Implementación de una nueva arquitectura del sistema de conservación ex situ para optimizar y racionalizar la conservación de los RFGAA mesoamericanos y mejorar su acceso y utilidad para los usuarios Meta: Un sistema regional de conservación ex situ formado por una red de bancos de germoplasma con funciones complementarias, que haga uso eficiente de los recursos disponibles para la conservación y que preste un servicio óptimo a todos los usuarios con inclusión de la agricultura a pequeña escala.Las estrategias para mejorar la conservación ex situ de los RGFAA mesoamericanos responden a la necesidad de adoptar una nueva arquitectura del sistema de conservación y uso de RGFAA en Mesoamérica que potencie las Banco comunitario de semillas, Guatemala M. Ramírez -Bioversity fortalezas de cada uno de los distintos actores involucrados en la conservación ex situ (bancos de germoplasma nacionales y locales, personas naturales, universidades, comunidades locales, entre otros) y promueva la cooperación entre ellos, evitando la duplicación de esfuerzos.La Figura 1 presenta la organización general de la nueva arquitectura y la interconectividad de los diferentes actores.A continuación se muestran las tareas y responsabilidades de los diferentes actores participantes en el componente ex situ del sistema mesoamericano de conservación y uso de los RGFAA.Figura 1. Nueva arquitectura de la conservación ex situ como componente del sistema de conservación y uso de los RFGAA propuestosBancos Institucionales con capacidad de conservación a largo plazo y de Respaldo RegionalBancos Institucionales a Nivel Nacional (bancos nacionales, privados, estaciones experimentales, universidades)• Multiplicación de germoplasma, a fin de aumentar su disponibilidad para los productores, particularmente en tiempos de escasez de semillas, por ejemplo después de desastres naturales. • Conservación a corto plazo de germoplasma ortodoxo local, y a largo plazo de germoplasma con semillas recalcitrantes, mediante colecciones de plantas \"vivas\" en campo.• Asegurar la calidad genética y fitosanitaria del germoplasma conservado mediante una documentación, caracterización y evaluación adecuada con aplicación de los estándares acordados.• Garantizar la conservación a mediano plazo de copias del germoplasma ortodoxo que está siendo usado por los bancos comunitarios.• Poner germoplasma de interés a disposición de los bancos comunitarios y otros usuarios, incluyendo materiales útiles para la producción directa, para la investigación o el fitomejoramiento, proveniente del banco base nacional o de otros bancos mesoamericanos o internacionales.• Asegurar la conservación a largo plazo de germoplasma no-ortodoxo, mediante colecciones de plantas \"vivas\" en campo.• Asegurar el mantenimiento de un duplicado de seguridad (respaldo) depositado en algún otro banco, aunque sea en condición de \"caja negra\".• Donde el contexto lo permite, realizar la multiplicación de germoplasma para su distribución a los productores, particularmente en tiempos de escasez de semilla, así como después de desastres naturales.Bancos institucionales a nivel regional con capacidad de respaldo y de conservación a largo plazo• Conservación a largo plazo de semilla ortodoxa de los cultivos regionalmente importantes (Ej. maíz, frijol, calabazas, chiles, etc.)• Prestar servicio de respaldo a bancos nacionales e internacionales.• Conservación a largo plazo de granos básicos (Ej. maíz, frijol), raíces y tubérculos (Ej. yuca, camote, papa) de importancia para la alimentación mundial.Meta: Sistemas nacionales de conservación ex situ fortalecidos, integrados y vinculados al sistema regional de conservación y uso de RGFAA de Mesoamérica.a. Hacer inventarios y diagnósticos nacionales de:• los actores (bancos de germoplasma, bancos comunitarios, autoridades nacionales competentes, tomadores de decisiones, universidades, escuelas agrícolas y programas de extensión, entre otros);• las capacidades de tales actores de contribuir a la meta;• infraestructura y redes de bancos existentes;• la disponibilidad y accesibilidad de materiales en colecciones de germoplasma ex situ y la cantidad distribuida de estos materiales;• políticas actuales y oportunidades de financiamiento ya existentes;• el estado de las colecciones y costos operativos relacionados con su documentación, caracterización, evaluación, análisis de vacíos, nivel de duplicaciones, representatividad de cultivos y parientes silvestres, entre otros.b. Desarrollar o fortalecer estrategias nacionales de conservación ex situ, aprovechando estructuras existentes, que incluyan la organización y formalización de las conexiones entre los actores relevantes nacionales, y con vista a la integración y conexión al sistema mesoamericano de conservación ex situ, basados en el diagnóstico.c. Identificar o nominar autoridades nacionales competentes para participar en las comisiones nacionales de RFGAA compuestas por expertos de distintas instituciones y sectores y encargarles gestionar la conexión del sistema de bancos nacionales al sistema mesoamericano de conservación ex situ. 8 d. Incorporar la estrategia nacional de conservación ex situ en los ministerios competentes, establecer una ruta con puntos comunes, definir acciones complementarias y coordinadas, y aclarar sus roles respectivos, dentro del marco de desarrollo de una estrategia regional.e. Realizar actividades colaborativas entre actores involucrados en la conservación ex situ, incluidos bancos comunitarios, bancos institucionales, organizaciones de productores, academia, sociedad civil, entre otros.9 Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando A.2.2.b de estandarización y acuerdo de diferentes actividades para la gestión de bancos de germoplasma en Eje Conservación y la estrategia de la nueva arquitectura regional de conservación ex situ.Estas actividades incluirían intercambio, respaldo, evaluación, caracterización, mejoramiento y regeneración del material conservado, estudios ecogeográficos y colectas de germoplasma, entre otras.f. Desarrollar y aplicar guías y estándares acordados a nivel regional para armonizar y mejorar la calidad y accesibilidad de los datos de pasaporte, de caracterización, de evaluación y de regeneración del germoplasma conservado en los bancos institucionales. 9g. Identificar, caracterizar y evaluar especies, variedades y accesiones, en particular las que tengan caracteres de adaptación al cambio climático y garantizar el acceso a éstas.h. Identificar e implementar un sistema de documentación unificado y sostenible, en cuanto actualizaciones y mantenimiento, utilizando sistemas existentes, por ejemplo GRIN-Global.i. Establecer o reforzar bancos comunitarios sostenibles para la conservación ex situ a corto plazo, o reservas de semillas de emergencia en lugares donde sean relevantes y existan vacíos, teniendo como referencia experiencias de países que ya tienen dichos sistemas, en colaboración con extensionistas y considerando las inversiones necesarias para establecer y mantener nuevos bancos.Número de especies observadas, pero no conservadas en bancos de germoplasma De acuerdo con los análisis espaciales, se podrían colectar hasta 73 especies de parientes silvestres por unidad de área que todavía no tienen accesiones conservadas en bancos de germoplasma j. Establecer o mejorar las condiciones para la regeneración, evaluación, multiplicación y distribución de germoplasma en los bancos de conservación ex situ institucionales, complementando el rol de los bancos comunitarios como multiplicadores de materiales y de las empresas locales de semillas. k. Vincular las actividades de evaluación, regeneración y distribución de germoplasma conservado ex situ con las necesidades de programas de fitomejoramiento participativo y convencional, y el uso de herramientas biotecnológicas. l. Asegurar la incorporación de nuevas variedades liberadas en las colecciones ex situ del sistema nacional, en línea con las normas nacionales y respetando los regímenes de propiedad intelectual sobre estas variedades.Meta: La coordinación y la toma de decisiones a nivel regional en relación con la conservación ex situ son oportunas, transparentes, participativas, eficaces y consensuadas por las autoridades competentes de los diferentes países.Actividades a. Estandarizar y acordar a nivel regional las diferentes actividades claves para la buena gestión de los bancos de germoplasma (caracterización, regeneración, evaluación, entre otras) y asegurar su uso a nivel nacional. 10 b. Con el propósito de reducir costos y hacer un uso más eficiente de la infraestructura regional existente para la conservación a mediano y largo plazo, establecer acuerdos entre entidades relevantes dentro y fuera de la región, para una división eficiente y complementaria de tareas de conservación ex situ según la cual los diferentes bancos de la región e internaciones se especializan en ciertos cultivos y actividades (por ejemplo, duplicados de respaldo, caracterización, regeneración, y conservación a corto, mediano y largo plazo).c. Promover y facilitar el acceso y distribución de germoplasma a los usuarios a través del Sistema Multilateral del TIRFAA u otra legislación nacional, regional o internacional pertinente.d. Adoptar un programa regional de colecta de germoplasma, con base en una priorización que surja de los inventarios y diagnósticos nacionales, en consulta con expertos y utilizando herramientas de Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), con énfasis en materiales amenazados o potencialmente adaptados al cambio climático.e. Desarrollar un programa regional para respaldar las colecciones en campo (de especies con semillas recalcitrantes) mediante metodologías como in vitro, crío-conservación, u otras herramientas biotecnológicas.f. Promover, en forma permanente, el conocimiento, la capacitación, y el intercambio de experiencias dentro y entre países, con el fin de estandarizar métodos y fortalecer los sistemas nacionales de conservación ex situ para facilitar su integración a la nueva arquitectura regional.a región mesoamericana incluye numerosos territorios rurales donde todavía persisten altos niveles de hambre, desnutrición y pobreza, a pesar de su gran riqueza en recursos fitogenéticos la que aún no se aprovecha de forma adecuada para atender estas grandes necesidades. Encima de estos problemas, el avance acelerado del cambio climático ya está amenazando la agricultura cada vez más y crea grandes retos para la adaptación de los sistemas productivos.Este PAEM propone aumentar la inversión en el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos porque pueden aportar un gran beneficio directo, particularmente para los sectores rurales de la sociedad, donde los problemas de hambre y pobreza son más agudos. Aumentar la cantidad y calidad de alimentos producidos y su contribución a una dieta saludable depende del uso inteligente y sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos. También es crucial aumentar la capacidad de adaptación de los sistemas de innovación agrícola y suministro de semillas para enfrentar el cambio climático. Existe amplia evidencia de la rentabilidad de las inversiones en fitomejoramiento para mejorar la producción agrícola, tanto en la región como en el resto del mundo.Se conocen además los beneficios de la diversificación de fincas y de productos. Sembrar distintos cultivos y variedades también ayuda a gestionar riesgos climáticos como la sequía y las lluvias excesivas, cada uno de los cuales afecta los diferentes cultivos y variedades de forma distinta. Para generar más ingresos y mejorar la calidad de vida debe priorizarse la diversificación de productos con valor agregado y fomentar los procesos de transformación y comercialización. Tanto el fitomejoramiento como la diversificación de la producción dependen de la conservación y uso sostenible de los RFGAA.Un problema en la región ha sido la falta de conexión entre la conservación de los RGFAA y el uso de estos recursos. La conservación tiene generalmente menos visibilidad y se da por sentada. El reto ahora es conectar de nuevo la conservación y el uso en un sistema integrado y efectivo de gestión de los RFGAA, donde parte del valor que genera su uso se reinvierta en su conservación para asegurar la sostenibilidad del sistema.Varias iniciativas han creado una capacidad para el mejoramiento genético de los cultivos para la agricultura a pequeña escala, donde el agricultor se involucra de forma activa en la selección de materiales mejor adaptados (fitomejoramiento participativo). También existe experiencia en la producción de semillas de calidad, destinadas a la agricultura en pequeña escala. La región está preparada para invertir más recursos financieros a fin de aumentar el alcance y la efectividad de estas actividades y sacar provecho de ellas para reducir el hambre, la desnutrición y la pobreza. Como parte de esta inversión, es importante mejorar el acceso y la disponibilidad de los recursos fitogenéticos para su uso en sistemas productivos, para la mejora genética de los cultivos, para fomentar la diversificación de fincas y para la diversificación de dietas.1. Disponibilidad de materiales diversos e información sobre su potencial de usoMateriales diversos e información disponible sobre ellos, respondiendo a las necesidades de los diferentes usuarios para lograr una agricultura sostenible en la región.Actividades a. Facilitar el acceso libre de los usuarios a la documentación de las colecciones existentes. b. Establecer colecciones de variedades diversas locales promisorias y promover su uso a través de la multiplicación y la distribución de semillas para responder a las necesidades de seguridad alimentaria, cambio climático, demanda del mercado, entre otros.c. Promover el suministro e intercambio de variedades diversas a nivel local con características de adaptación a las condiciones climáticas cambiantes tanto a través de diferentes eventos, como mediante un mejor uso de las colecciones ex situ existentes. d. Establecer reservas comunitarias y nacionales de semillas diversas para la resiembra post desastre con utilización de variedades adaptadas a las condiciones locales, y en coordinación con actividades de conservación desarrolladas en bancos comunitarios identificadas en la sección de sistemas de semillas en el eje de conservación. e. Mejorar los sistemas de registro de variedades locales, haciéndolos más inclusivos hacia las variedades desarrolladas por agricultores. 11 f. Adecuar el sistema de control de calidad de semillas a la situación de pequeños semilleristas, a través de la adopción de protocolos y mecanismos más apropiados. 12 2. Diversificar fincas introduciendo un mayor número de cultivos como estrategia de gestión de riesgos climáticos con beneficios en cuanto a generación de ingresos, salud y seguridad alimentaria y nutricional.Meta: Las fincas en Mesoamérica producen un número importante de especies comestibles, que benefician de manera directa a los productores, mejoran su dieta y promueven nuevas alternativas de generación de ingresos.a. Documentar el conocimiento local sobre los recursos fitogenéticos, complementarlo con información científica y promover su uso para impulsar una mayor diversificación con uso de prácticas agrícolas sostenibles. 13 b. Establecer una red regional científica sobre especies subutilizadas comestibles, liderada por centros de excelencia, que fomente la investigación en 20 especies de interés regional para aumentar su uso y movilizar recursos de manera coordinada.c. Fomentar la demanda por una mayor diversidad de cultivos o productos agrícolas con valor agregado, por ejemplo establecer y fortalecer cadenas de valor de productos locales y agregar valor a los productos mediante mecanismos como las denominaciones de origen, entre otros.d. Promover una mayor utilización de cultivos y variedades locales nativos en programas existentes de alimentación y de asistencia agrícola (por ejemplo, programas de agricultura familiar y de alimentación escolar). 143. Innovaciones para un mejor aprovechamiento de la diversidad intraespecífica.Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad D.1.f del eje de educación y fortalecimiento de capacidades, en donde el tema es considerado entre los temas prioritarios de capacitación mencionados.Actividades a. Impulsar el fitomejoramiento con aplicación de métodos participativos, convencionales y moleculares para la creación de variedades locales con características que permitan su adaptación al cambio climático y cumplan las diversas necesidades y preferencias de agricultores y consumidores.b. Identificar y adoptar métodos costo-efectivos para el intercambio, evaluación y adopción por pequeños agricultores de variedades diversas adaptadas a las diferentes condiciones geográficas y climáticas.c. Fortalecer las organizaciones de productores y su capacidad empresarial para la producción y venta de semillas y productos agrícolas, con énfasis en agricultores a pequeña escala y sus variedades locales.d. Crear la capacidad técnica en la región para captar, interpretar e intercambiar datos meteorológicos y facilitar su uso por agricultores, productores de semillas, fitomejoradores y otros actores involucrados en la conservación y uso de RFGAA. 15Tres generaciones de mujeres clasificando maíz, Quilico, Guatemala ste eje busca promover un marco institucional, nacional y regional, que garantice la efectiva implementación de las actividades propuestas en el Plan de Acción y promueva la coordinación entre los diferentes actores y sectores políticos. Es prioritario que la implementación del TIRFAA en cada país sea armónica con otros instrumentos complementarios. Este es un paso fundamental para crear un espacio institucional muy bien articulado en el cual anclar el nuevo sistema de RFGAA.Se proponen también acciones para fomentar interacciones inter-sectoriales que posicionen los RFGAA como elementos estratégicos de intervenciones en el área de la seguridad alimentaria, el desarrollo territorial sostenible y la adaptación al cambio climático. La sección de ITZAMNÁ (http://itzamna-mesoamerica.org) contiene una lista inicial de otros instrumentos, planes y programas nacionales e internacionales que deberán tenerse en cuenta a la hora de desarrollar las acciones descritas en este eje, con la intención de buscar sinergias y complementariedades y potenciar los resultados.Con la intención de facilitar decisiones efectivas que mejoren la conservación y uso de los RFGAA, el eje incluye acciones con miras al fortalecimiento de la capacidad de todos los actores del nuevo sistema de RFGAA mesoamericano, desde los agricultores a los científicos y a las autoridades a nivel nacional y regional. Además del fortalecimiento de capacidades técnicas, se delinean también acciones orientadas a acercar el tema de la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA al público común, a través de una estrategia de comunicación y sensibilización dirigida a amplios sectores de la sociedad, con el fin de conseguir su respaldo y propiciar acciones colectivas.Meta: Las acciones de fortalecimiento de la conservación y uso de los RFGAA descritas en el PAEM son sostenibles en el tiempo, gracias al apoyo de medidas de políticas públicas nacionales y regionales.a. Facilitar la coordinación entre los actores relevantes y los ministerios competentes en conservación, acceso y uso de los RFGAA, para apoyar la ejecución de las actividades colaborativas mencionadas en el PAEM.b. A nivel nacional, establecer o fortalecer la institucionalidad de las comisiones nacionales de RFGAA compuestas por expertos de distintas instituciones y sectores. Vincular sus acciones a las áreas de desarrollo agropecuario, seguridad alimentaria, salud, gestión de riesgos, respuesta a desastres, entre otros, así como a las organizaciones de la sociedad civil y a organizaciones de productores para integrar los RFGAA en estas áreas y facilitar actividades colaborativas. 16 c. Asegurar la participación de las comisiones nacionales de RFGAA en la definición de la posición nacional en negociaciones internacionales pertinentes, tales como las relacionadas con RFGAA, ambiente, propiedad intelectual, tratados de libre comercio y cambio climático.d. Tomar medidas oportunas tanto para aumentar la cobertura de la red meteorológica como para dar acceso libre a datos meteorológicos a escala nacional y regional para su aplicación en actividades de conservación y uso de RFGAA.Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad A.1.1.h del sub-eje de estrategias para la conservación en finca e in situ a través, por ejemplo, de planes de manejo de territorios bioculturales.18 Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad A.2.1.c de la estrategia de reestructuración del sistema nacional de conservación ex situ e incentivar de esa manera las actividades colaborativas.Agricultor revisando su cultivo de frijol, Jamastrán, GuatemalaFomentar la coordinación efectiva entre entidades encargadas de la meteorología y el cambio climático y las del sistema de RFGAA, reforzando las iniciativas existentes.a. Integrar el tema de RFGAA y el concepto de territorios bioculturales en políticas y planes de manejo de biodiversidad y áreas protegidas, en políticas, estrategias y planes de adaptación de los ecosistemas y la biodiversidad al cambio climático a nivel nacional y regional (Ej. el Corredor Biológico Mesoamericano), o internacional (Ej. la Iniciativa Satoyama), tal que se vea reflejado en los planes operativos y en los presupuestos.b. A nivel nacional, incorporar el tema RFGAA y el concepto de territorios bioculturales (por ejemplo, identificación de zonas de alta diversidad de cultivos), en procesos existentes de planificación/ordenamiento territorial, que se vea reflejado en los planes operativos y en los presupuestos.c. Vincular la conservación en finca de los RFGAA y el manejo de territorios bioculturales a iniciativas, movimientos y programas de agricultura ecológica y sostenible. 17a. Institucionalizar la nueva estructura de conservación ex situ, designando oficialmente las competencias de todos los actores relevantes a nivel nacional, incluidos los ministerios competentes, y estableciendo el modus operandi de sus interacciones con otros actores en la región, e internacionales. 18  Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad B.2.a del eje de uso sostenible y estrategia de diversificación en donde se aborda la documentación del conocimiento y su uso apropiado.b. Proveer apoyo institucional a los bancos comunitarios de semillas, por ejemplo a través de su inclusión en políticas y planes locales de adaptación al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria.c. Articular e implementar mecanismos efectivos y ágiles para atender las solicitudes y proveer acceso a germoplasma conservado en los bancos nacionales y donde sea relevante según las prescripciones del TIRFAA u otros mecanismos mutuamente acordados.d. Establecer en el reglamento de registro de semillas el requisito de depositar una muestra de semillas de nuevas variedades liberadas en el país, en el sistema nacional de conservación ex situ respetando los derechos y la legislación en materia de propiedad intelectual frente a la distribución.1.4. Políticas de apoyo al uso sostenible a. Integrar el tema de RFGAA en políticas y presupuestos de desarrollo agropecuario y agricultura ecológica u orgánica para aumentar las inversiones en programas de mejoramiento genético, diversificación de la producción y establecimiento de cadenas de valor basadas en agrobiodiversidad. 19   b. Establecer programas conjuntos entre entidades públicas y privadas para dar valor agregado y promover el uso de alimentos basados en RFGAA locales (por ejemplo denominaciones de origen, ferias gastronómicas regionales, agroturismo, turismo gastronómico, productos orgánicos y naturales).c. Integrar el tema de RFGAA en políticas y presupuestos de seguridad alimentaria o agricultura familiar, educación y salud, para promover el uso de RFGAA locales como alternativa saludable y nutritiva para la alimentación de la población, con especial énfasis en grupos vulnerables (por ejemplo a través de programas de desayunos escolares, provisión de alimentos a sectores de la población de escasos recursos, a grupos de madres cabezas de familia.d. A nivel nacional, establecer mecanismos de gestión integral del riesgo que incluyan medidas para crear y mantener reservas comunitarias y nacionales de semillas que contribuyan a la seguridad alimentaria y a la respuesta a desastres frente al cambio climático, con prioridad para las RFGAA locales.e. Institucionalizar sistemas descentralizados de multiplicación y difusión de materiales locales, diversos y localmente adaptados, incluso a través de iniciativas que apoyen el desarrollo empresarial, para reducir la dependencia externa a semillas y alimentos, y aumentar la resiliencia al cambio climático de los sistemas de producción, tomando como ejemplo iniciativas existentes como el proyecto regional Semillas para el Desarrollo y el programa colaborativo de fitomejoramiento participativo en Mesoamérica. b. Realizar actividades de coordinación a nivel nacional para la efectiva implementación del TIRFAA en armonía con el CDB y en su caso con el Protocolo de Nagoya, tanto en lo institucional como en los marcos jurídicos.Meta: Los derechos del agricultor son reconocidos y las medidas para su promoción son incluidas en instrumentos normativos, administrativos y de política a nivel nacional.a. Identificar marcos legales, administrativos y de política específicos al reconocimiento y protección de los derechos del agricultor, dentro del diagnóstico que se lleve a cabo para la implementación del Tratado.b. Implementar en los diferentes países de la región normas o medidas necesarias para el mantenimiento del conocimiento tradicional asociado con los RFGAA y su protección, de acuerdo con compromisos internacionales. 20 c. Revisar la legislación nacional existente y armonizar a nivel regional las normas o medidas nacionales establecidas para reconocer los registros o inventarios de variedades criollas o las generadas a través del fitomejoramiento participativo. 21 d. Reconocer los sistemas locales de semillas en las leyes de semillas nacionales, a través de mecanismos alternativos de registro y certificación de calidad, la facilitación de la legalización y el registro de empresas o cooperativas y el acceso a semillas de calidad por parte del agricultor a pequeña escala.e. Desarrollar mecanismos para garantizar el derecho de las comunidades que practican agricultura tradicional o a pequeña escala, a participar en actividades y toma de decisiones a diferentes escalas relacionadas con RFGAA, por ejemplo a través del fortalecimiento de las organizaciones de productores.f. Promover la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios derivados del uso de conocimientos tradicionales asociados a los RFGAA en línea con el Protocolo de Nagoya y otros acuerdos internacionales relevantes.g. Crear e incluir incentivos que mejoren la conservación y el uso de los RFGAA cultivados y silvestres, sobre todo por pequeños agricultores, comunidades indígenas y locales y con la participación de la sociedad civil, por ejemplo mediante programas de fitomejoramiento participativo, pagos por servicios de conservación de la biodiversidad agrícola, acceso facilitado a mercados, inclusión en cadenas de valor justas para nuevos productos, establecimiento de denominaciones de origen nacional o regional, entre otros.Agricultor preparando el suelo para la siembra de maíz, Alauca, Honduras n este eje se reconoce la gran necesidad de fortalecer y/o desarrollar recursos humanos y las capacidades nacionales para poder llevar a cabo las acciones del PAEM. Las necesidades varían desde la actualización y reemplazo generacional de profesionales activos en RFGAA, la formación de nuevas generaciones de proveedores de servicios similares a los de extensión pero con un mandato más amplio hasta el fortalecimiento de las organizaciones de agricultores para que hagan un mejor uso de la información para enfrentar el cambio climático mediante el uso de los RFGAA, hasta la capacitación de tomadores de decisiones a múltiples niveles para su participación informada en la implementación de los compromisos internacionales relevantes a los RFGAA. Si se aprovecha coordinadamente la oferta existente de educación y capacitación, actualmente dispersa en instituciones en los países de la región, existen buenas probabilidades de responder a esta urgente demanda.E 1. Estrategia de educación y fortalecimiento de capacidadesMeta: Actores nacionales relevantes en el área de RFGAA tienen los conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes necesarios para sostener y fomentar un sistema mesoamericano integrado de conservación y uso de los RFGAA.Actividades a. Incluir el tema de RFGAA en la educación universitaria y profesional de Mesoamérica de manera más prominente:• Promoviendo enfoques interdisciplinarios;• Respondiendo a la demanda del mercado laboral por profesionales en esta área;• Aspirando a la creación de un programa educativo regional desde el nivel primario al universitario sobre los RFGAA, su conservación y uso sostenible;• Aumentando la designación de becas al tema de conservación y uso de RFGAA, aprovechando los programas existentes.b. Tomar ventaja de las iniciativas colaborativas, intensificar las colaboraciones entre universidades e instituciones afines al tema de RFGAA a través de investigaciones que incluyan la elaboración de tesis de pregrado y posgrado, y prácticas profesionales.c. Fortalecer las capacidades de las organizaciones de agricultores a pequeña escala para que se empoderen e interactúen con el sistema formal de RFGAA de la región. 22 d. Formar la nueva generación de fitomejoradores y extensionistas que tengan la capacidad de gestionar la creación de capacidades y liderar la creación de plataformas multiactores.e. Desarrollar un programa de capacitación para tomadores de decisiones a nivel local, nacional y regional, sobre la implementación de acuerdos internacionales relevantes para RFGAA.f. Establecer un consorcio de instituciones para desarrollar un programa de fortalecimiento de capacidades en el tema de RFGAA en la región, que incluiría instituciones con fortalezas comparativas o el mandato respectivo como CATIE, la Escuela Agrícola Panamericana Zamorano, Earth University, Centros del CGIAR, Banco Nacional de Germoplasma de México, entre muchos otros. Este consorcio se encargaría de:• Establecer un repositorio central de materiales y oportunidades de capacitación en temas de RFGAA disponibles, integrándolo en la página web gestionada por el secretariado;22 Esta actividad se debe implementar considerando la actividad A.1.2.e de la estrategia de reconocimiento de sistemas locales de semillas.Eje educación y fortalecimiento de capacidades Muestras de frijol, banco de germoplasma del CIAT N. Palmer -CIAT• Basado en la demanda existente, diseñar o ejecutar cursos cortos, incluso en línea y de aprendizaje autónomo, aprovechando materiales ya desarrollados y la experiencia de centros nacionales e internacionales en temas prioritarios de capacitación.-Temas prioritarios para profesionales pueden ser: técnicas de conservación ex situ, manejo de bases de datos, uso de sistemas de información geográfica identificación de germoplasma con caracteres de adaptación a cambio climático, gestión de la conservación in situ y en finca y herramientas para el análisis y manejo de datos de biodiversidad. 23Meta: El PAEM se ejecuta de manera transparente, participativa, eficaz y consensuada a nivel regional y las instancias nacionales y regionales lo usan como herramienta clave en la formulación de políticas y planes de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, adaptación al cambio climático y desarrollo rural.Actividades a. Establecer el marco de articulación para la ejecución del PAEM formado por las secretarías ejecutivas de organismos regionales relevantes, entre otros CAC, CCAD, COMIECO, COMISCA; donantes y representantes de otros países relevantes en la región que no son parte de estos organismos.b. Establecer el mecanismo de coordinación regional para la implementación del PAEM a través de los grupos técnicos del CAC, en particular SICTA y el Grupo Técnico sobre Cambio Climático y Gestión integrada del Riesgo.c. Dentro del SICTA, fortalecer y asignar recursos a la Red Mesoamericana de Recursos Fitogenéticos (REMERFI), para que funcione como secretariado ejecutivo técnico del PAEM. Entre las funciones del secretariado figuran:• Asegurar el diálogo con entidades regionales y nacionales, en particular con las comisiones nacionales de RFGAA. Como fue reconocido por muchos de los asistentes a las consultas de formulación del PAEM, REMERFI tiene el desafío y la valiosa oportunidad de tomar un rol protagónico en la implementación del Plan de Acción Estratégico. Como tema inmediato es necesario llegar hasta la comunidad de usuarios, como fitomejoradores, agricultores y otros para que realmente los recursos fitogenéticos beneficien a todos, articulando conservación con desarrollo que responda a las prioridades de un amplio espectro de actores y decisores. REMERFI también puede aprovechar esta circunstancia para alimentar y desarrollar los mecanismos que permitan asegurar un apoyo gubernamental significativo a los recursos fitogenéticos.Existen también oportunidades de colaboración interredes, poco desarrollada hasta ahora. Por ejemplo, si se aprovechan los programas nacionales fuertes que forman parte de NORGEN (Canadá, USA, México) y de TROPIGEN y REGENSUR (Ramírez, 2008).• Establecer y proponer al CAC la agenda regional de trabajo anual para la ejecución del PAEM.• Monitorear la implementación del PAEM en los diferentes países.• Apoyar que las acciones implementadas bajo el PAEM estén en línea con otros instrumentos regionales e internacionales, en particular el Segundo Plan de Acción Mundial para los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.• Comunicar los avances y los resultados de la implementación del PAEM.• Facilitar la disponibilidad y la difusión de información relacionada con la conservación, uso y políticas del RFGAA y relevantes para la implementación del PAEM, incluso a través de la gestión de una página web dedicada.• Coordinar la formulación de proyectos regionales en línea con las acciones del PAEM.• Movilizar y gestionar recursos financieros para la implementación del PAEM en línea con lo mencionado en el eje de financiación.N. Palmer, CIAT.Preparación de tortillas con harina de maíz, El Salvador Meta: Las actividades previstas cuentan con un plan de financiamiento que permita su ejecución en los próximos diez años y que conduce a la sostenibilidad financiera del sistema mesoamericano de RFGAA.a. Elaborar un estudio de costos y beneficios de las actividades mencionadas en este PAEM, incluyendo una estrategia de distribución de los costos a lo largo de los diez años de implementación.b. Identificar posibles mecanismos de financiación para áreas temáticas o conjuntos de acciones identificadas dentro de este PAEM. Entre los posibles mecanismos a considerar están:• Impuestos nacionales a productos y servicios, iniciativas innovadoras de financiación, como por ejemplo movilización de fondos a través de los programas de responsabilidad social corporativa, pagos por servicios ambientales.• Reinversión de beneficios generados por la utilización de los recursos genéticos de los RFGAA regionales, como es definido en el Protocolo de Nagoya, y en armonía con el TIRFAA.N. Palmer -CIAT Terreno listo para siembra, Honduras c. Asegurar la disponibilidad de fondos específicos para RFGAA en los presupuestos nacionales y locales, entre otros, para el buen funcionamiento de la comisión nacional de RFGAA y los bancos de germoplasma bajo responsabilidad nacional o local.d. Establecer un fondo común regional que apoye acciones regionales dentro de la reestructuración del sistema de RFGAA y que financie:• El mantenimiento de colecciones ex situ a las cuales tienen acceso facilitado todos los usuarios regionales o internacionales, en armonía con los compromisos internacionales adquiridos.• La coordinación regional de actividades e intercambio de experiencias mencionadas en este PAEM.• Otras actividades relacionadas con la conservación y uso de los RFGAA, acordadas consensualmente por todos los países contribuyentes.e. Establecer una unidad estratégica de movilización de recursos financieros dentro del secretariado, que estará encargada de mantener proactivamente relaciones con donantes internacionales (GEF, PNUD, PNUMA, CO-SUDE, GIZ, BID, Banco Mundial), hacer seguimiento a convocatorias y coordinar la elaboración y aplicación de propuestas de proyectos, entre otras.Agrobiodiversidad: Incluye todos los componentes de la diversidad biológica pertinentes para la producción agrícola, incluida la producción de alimentos, el sustento de los medios de vida y la conservación del hábitat de los ecosistemas agrícolas (CIP-UPWARD, 2003).Bancos comunitarios de semilla: Son colecciones de semillas conservadas y administradas por comunidades locales. Estos bancos son creados con el fin de asegurar material de siembra para la próxima[s] temporada[s] y la disponibilidad de material genérico en caso de pérdida de variedades (Almekinders, 2001). A menudo son utilizados para la conservación a corto plazo, contribuyendo a la conservación in situ, los sistemas locales de semillas y como almacén de semilla local para respuesta a los desastres naturales.Banco de germoplasma: Centro para la conservación de los recursos genéticos en condiciones que permiten prolongarles la vida (Rao et al. 2007).Biodiversidad: Variabilidad de organismos vivos de cualquier fuente, incluidos, entre otras cosas, los ecosistemas terrestres y marinos y otros ecosistemas acuáticos y los complejos ecológicos de los que forman parte; comprende la diversidad dentro de cada especie, entre las especies y de los ecosistemas (CBD, 1992).Cadenas de valor: Estas describen un amplio rango de actividades en las cuales se requiere tener un producto o servicio que pase a través de diferentes fases de producción (combinación de transformación física y adición de varios servicios de producción), incluida la entrega a consumidores finales y su desecho (Kaplinsky y Morris, 2001).Conocimientos tradicionales: Son los conocimientos, innovaciones y prácticas de las comunidades indígenas y locales que entrañen estilos tradicionales de vida pertinentes para la conservación y la utilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica (CBD, 1992).Conservación en finca: Conservación in situ de las plantas cultivadas.Conservación ex situ: Conservación de la diversidad biológica fuera de su hábitat natural en el caso de los recursos fitogenéticos, puede ser en bancos de semillas, en bancos de germoplasma in vitro o como colecciones vivas en bancos de germoplasma en el campo. (Rao et al. 2007).Conservación in situ: Conservación de los ecosistemas y los hábitats naturales y el mantenimiento y recuperación de poblaciones viables de especies en sus entornos naturales y, en el caso de las especies domesticadas y cultivadas, en los entornos en que hayan desarrollado sus propiedades específicas (TIRFAA, 2009).Fitomejoramiento participativo: Es la aplicación de metodologías de mejora genética, con involucramiento y participación activa del agricultor en todo el proceso de innovación tecnológica (FAO, 2011).Germoplasma: Material de reproducción o propagación vegetativa de las plantas (FAO, 1994).Material genético: Todo material de origen vegetal, animal, microbiano o de otro tipo que contenga unidades funcionales de la herencia (CBD, 1992).Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (RFGAA): Cualquier material genético de origen vegetal de valor real o potencial para la alimentación y la agricultura (TIRFAA, 2009).Resiliencia: Capacidad de un organismo, ecosistema o comunidad de recuperarse tras fenómenos de perturbación importantes (Thompson, 2011).Semillas ortodoxas: Son aquellas que pueden permanecer viables en condiciones controladas de almacenamiento (Roberts, 1973).Semillas recalcitrantes: Son aquellas que no pueden ser almacenadas porque pierden rápidamente su viabilidad cuando son deshidratadas y mantenidas a bajas temperaturas (Roberts, 1973).Sistema Multilateral del TIRFAA: Es un sistema que permite el intercambio entre Partes Contratantes de diversidad genética y la información asociada a esta que se encuentren en sus bancos de germoplasma, además asegura la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios obtenidos del uso de dicho material (TIRFAA, 2013).Territorios bioculturales: El concepto de territorio biocultural fue elaborado en armonía con la definición de \"paisajes socio-ecológicos productivos\" de la Iniciativa Satoyama (2010), donde los definen como mosaicos de hábitats y usos de suelo dinámicos que han sido formados a través del tiempo, gracias a la interacción entre los humanos y la naturaleza manteniendo su biodiversidad y proveyendo a los humanos de bienes y servicios necesarios para su bienestar.Tratado Internacional de RFGAA (TIRFAA): Único instrumento multilateral que regula la conservación y el uso sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.Variedad: Agrupación de plantas dentro de un taxón botánico único del rango más bajo conocido, que se define por la expresión reproducible de sus características distintivas y otras de carácter genético (TIRFAA, 2009). Dependiendo del contexto, puede referirse a razas y variedades \"criollas\" o locales, así como a variedades mejoradas, híbridas, y comerciales. ","tokenCount":"13128"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"64b8256162575eca921eecafca5e4d4f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d00617da-e708-48b3-bbac-b95863f92bcc/retrieve","id":"-564730025"},"keywords":["COVID-19","seed security","poverty","seed systems"],"sieverID":"a2c5aab1-058d-433a-89fc-f5002d72032c","pagecount":"4","content":"Food security and seed security are closely linked, especially for poor smallholders in developing countries. The impacts of COVID-19 highlight the vulnerability of marginalized groups, and their exposure across multiple social and economic dimensions. Employing seed interventions as part of the COVID-19 recovery requires recognizing local social dynamics, or risks worsening the situation for the most disadvantaged.A great deal of COVID-19 related discussion addresses the stability of the global food system in continuing to feed the world. With global commodity stocks high and relatively modest disruptions to date in international trade, concern is refocusing on maintaining food production and processing value chains (e.g. Barrett, 2020). But how do things play out at the local and individual level for smallholder farmers?For the poor, COVID-19 only adds to a long list of uncertainties. Society's poorest are the least food secure, subject to high vulnerability and low resilience to shocks, as has been described in relation to the interacting factors of climate change (e.g. Almekinders et al., 2010;Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014). The concept of intersectionality highlights how the poorest are usually disadvantaged across a number of interacting social dimensions, subjecting them to different mechanisms of marginalization and clusters of interlocking disadvantages (Cleaver, 2005). Poor smallholders farm on marginal agricultural land where livelihoods are most severely affected by extreme weather, pests and diseases, shifts in markets, and natural or man-made disasters. By their nature, smallholders have limited access to resources and capital to withstand hardships, endure losses, or to adopt coping and mitigation practices.When considering the food security of poor smallholder farmers, seed security is a particular concern (McGuire and Sperling, 2011). For a large number of developing country smallholders, across the majority of food crops, saving one's own seed remains by far the most common sourcing practice, especially in the case of June 2020Food Chain Vol. 9 No. 2 self-pollinating crops like beans, rice, wheat, and vegetatively propagated ones like potato (e.g. Kansiime and Mastenbroek, 2016;McGuire and Sperling, 2016;Tadesse et al., 2016). On the surface, self-supply seems a resilient, self-reliant practice appropriate for poor or remote settings. It also seems technically straightforward: one can set aside and save a part of the harvest for next planting since for many crops the planting material is the same as the harvested grains, tubers or roots. However, this also increases the risk of seed being eaten or sold during periods of household food deficit or cash needs. This is exactly why many of the poorest farmers are seed insecure, and frequently need to source seed at planting time (e.g. McGuire and Sperling, 2016). Poor farmers often end up looking to buy whatever seed is available from small traders or local markets, risking getting stuck with low-quality seed, or relying on seed obtained from their social network, e.g. family or neighbours (e.g. Tadesse et al., 2016). Although a social network functions as a safety net, it is likewise a network of obligations (Cleaver, 2005;Pircher et al., 2013), a phenomenon that is also noted for seed systems (Coomes et al., 2015). Seed that is given often comes with expectations of providing labour in the future, or running errands in the time to come (McGuire, 2007;Tadesse et al., 2016).These aspects of seed security are consequential for a huge number of farmers.Out of a conservative global estimate of 570 million farms, 90 per cent are estimated to be family farms (primary reliance on family labour), and 85 per cent are smaller than 2 hectares in area (Lowder et al., 2016). An estimated 90 per cent of all seed supply takes place through informal channels (McGuire and Sperling, 2016). Poor smallholder households often face insufficient harvests to meet both household food and cash needs, and adopt livelihood strategies depending heavily on supplemental income from off-farm sources such as seasonal migrant work, day labour, and remittances -all at risk of interruption by policies implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19 quarantine policies have also exposed the frequent mismatch between social networks of rural households and administrative divisions. Quarantine measures are imposed on the basis of administrative boundariesstructures that are political in nature and often divide informal social networks that are important for labour, income, and food and seed security.Some clonally propagated crops may have a seed security advantage because the part of the plant that is used for seed is different from the part which is harvested for food. For example, cassava, sweet potato, and banana are propagated by stem cuttings, vines, and suckers, respectively, decoupling food production and seed supply. These crops may also make outsize contributions to local food security if their bulkiness and perishability keep them around in the production area. Evaluating the impacts of the COVID-19 quarantines on seed systems may also provide researchers with natural experiments. For example, strict plant material movement quarantines are often suggested to control crop diseases such as Sri Lanka Cassava Mosaic Disease (South-east Asia), Maize Lethal Necrosis (East Africa), and Fusarium wilt of banana (Latin America). COVID-19 border closures may provide a chance for researchers to evaluate the real effects of interrupting seed movement. Border closures also threaten formal seed supply by restricting inspection travel of seed certification officers and the movement of quality seed (FSC, 2020;OECD, 2020;SeedSystem.org, 2020). These interruptions to the formal sector may be very visible to researchers and policymakers, but how they affect seed access and use by different segments of the farming population using seed from formal and informal sources is unknown.Interventions in response to COVID-19, whether to bolster seed security or otherwise support the livelihoods of the poorest, risk missing the appropriate entry points and effects if they do not consider the totality of social differentiation and dynamics at the community level. Initiatives may connect with farmers who turn out to be part of a local elite, and use different seeds and inputs than the poorest (Pircher et al., 2013;Tadesse et al., 2016;De Roo et al., 2019). They may also not take into account local social networks and norms and values, eventually helping out the poorest but in other ways than perceived 'right' (Pircher et al., 2013, Shapland et al., in preparation). Insufficiently responsive interventions risk not only failing to be effective, but may in fact worsen participants' situations by exacerbating existing structural inequalities.While COVID-19 has only recently become a global phenomenon, the target beneficiaries of relief projects were already living with a list of socioeconomic disadvantages and perpetual food insecurity. For the poorest the adage is often true: when it rains, it pours.","tokenCount":"1079"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1decd3da3478e0effe60ffcf5931cd4e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2f87d20e-f5bf-4231-986d-f9c5cd3284b4/retrieve","id":"-1793205126"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b2f1c0c-96e4-4383-bea3-ebd655986878","pagecount":"26","content":"Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation) was established in 1983 under the Convention between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States and the European Union (EU) Member States.tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development , and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilize information in these areas. CTA's programmes are organized around three principal themes: strengthening ACP information capabilities, promoting contact and exchange of information among partner organizations, and providing information on demand.OAU-IBAR (The Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources of the Organization of African Unity) is a regional institute which operates within the organisation of African Unity. mandate is to control major epidemic diseases through regional projects, to support strategic research for livestock development, to establish documentation and information centres and to initiate policy reforms for the Livestock Sector in Africa.in the CGIAR system, ISNAR is the only one that focuses specifically on institutional development within national agricultural research systems.ISNAR assists developing countries in bringing about lasting improvements in the performance of their national agricultural research systems and organizations. It does this by promoting appropriate agricultural research policies, sustainable research institutions, and improved research management.services to national research are ultimately intended to benefit producers and consumers in developing countries and to safeguard the natural environment for future generations.Dr Christian Hoste was the scientific and technical adviser for the two seminars on livestock policies sub-Saharan Africa, the conclusions and recommendations of which served as a basis for the preparation of this publication. Dr C. Hoste prepared this document when he was senior scientist at ISNAR. OnAugust 1998 he was assigned to the NARS Secretariat under GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research).Poverty alleviation, food security, and sustainable natural resources management are at the heart of the research and development efforts of most developing countries. Livestock production contributes significantly to the first two objectives as this makes an essential contribution to the livelihoods of populations in poorer countries. Unfortunately, livestock production is often perceived as having a detrimental effect on the environment. This is especially important in sub-Saharan Africa with its extensive marginal land and marked climatic instability.In recent years, several international conferences have attempted to demonstrate that animal production can be expanded significantly without incurring negative effects on the environment. The scientific and technical constraints have received much attention, whereas limited concern has been focussed on the policies and strategies needed to promote livestock development whilst preserving natural resources.In this context, CTA decided to establish a task force to bring together a sub-Saharan Africa consultation on livestock development policies. This task force was composed of representatives of EU Commission and XII), ISNAR and a small group of other livestock specialists. One of the recommendations was to organise two separate seminars: one for the humid and sub-humid zones of West and Central Africa and one for Eastern and Southern Africa. The first seminar dealt with 18 countries of West and Central Africa and took place in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 5-9 February 1996. The second seminar was attended by representatives of 22 countries and took place in Mbabane, Swaziland, 28 July -1 August 1997. This seminar was scheduled immediately before an OAU meeting of the Ministers responsible for animal resources also organised in Mbabane, Swaziland.The seminars highlighted the lack or weaknesses of livestock policies as a major constraint to development. The highest priority was given to building capacity to develop appropriate policies, to formulate strategies and to evaluate their impacts. These seminars led to the formulation of specific recommendations which were translated into resolutions taken by the OAU Ministers responsible for animal resources. National, regional and international resources have to be pulled together to provide the enabling environment for the livestock sector to fulfil the needs and expectations of both the producers and the consumers. These seminars provided a solid foundation for such a transformation.The hospitality of the hosting countries authorities, the valuable inputs of the IBAR, and the contribution of all the participants, are warmly appreciated. We also thank the EU Commission and XII) and ISNAR for their support in the design and organisation of the meetings. Special thanks are due to Dr Christian Hoste for his contribution in bringing this synthesis report together.Director CTAIn sub-Saharan Africa probably more than in any other part of the world, the livestock sector is integral to the livelihood of the populations. It contributes significantly not only to food security and the nutritional quality of the diet but also to national economies. In addition, the demand for livestock products is increasing very rapidly in this region owing to a combination of population growth, rising incomes and urbanization.The formulation of policies and the implementation of strategies designed to meet these challenges is essential. Such policies and strategies should take into account all political, socio-economic, scientific and technical factors and pay special attention to the various interactions between livestock and natural resources management, wildlife and agricultural systems. These seminars were also organized to contribute to the current debate on strategies for agricultural and rural development. The most important and recent international forums which have dealt with these issues have been the World Food Summit (FAO, November the international conference on Livestock and the Environment en, June the 8th Global Biodiversity Forum (Montreal, August and the ongoing talks between ACP and EU member states on the follow-up of the Lomé IV Convention.Both seminars were scheduled to precede important meetings of policy-makers. The first seminar was scheduled just before a Conference of the West and Central African Ministers of Agriculture (Yaoundé, Cameroon, February 1996). Similarly, the second seminar took place just the week before the Fifth OAU Conference of Ministers Responsible for Animal Resources (Mbabane, Swaziland, August 1997). This timing allowed the conclusions and policy recommendations for an environment more conducive to livestock development to be immediately submitted, discussed and endorsed by the highest authorities concerned. As it will be noted from Part V, Decisions, this strategy has proved to be very useful.The overall objective of these seminars was to contribute to the ongoing debate on policies aimed at promoting effective, efficient and sustainable livestock development in developing countries while at the same time managing natural resources.The two seminars had basically the same three specific objectives:To build consensus views at both national and regional levels on the utilization of natural resources, economic and social policies and the institutional environment, in order to ensure livestock development on an effective, efficient and sustainable basis;To identify themes on which additional knowledge is required in order to facilitate the formulation of livestock development policies;To make policy-makers aware of the most important factors to be considered in formulating livestock development policies.The seminar for West and Central Africa lasted four and a half days and was structured around three themes: Economic and political environment; Technical environment; and Institutional environment. Keynote papers were prepared for each of these themes following guidelines suggested by the organizers, and were presented in plenary sessions. A full day and a half was devoted to discussions in working groups constituted around these three themes and to the presentation of their results. Country representatives prepared and presented posters illustrating the livestock development activities and policies existing in their respective countries.The seminar for East and Southern Africa kept to the same duration and the same time for working groups but structured the latter around five different technical themes: 1.Market orientation (livestock and livestock products); Livestock, environment and wildlife (extensive production systems); Crop-livestock interactions (intensive production systems); Animal health and genetic resources constraints; and Each group had to review for its theme the following six aspects: research and development needs; information needs; human resources needs; respective roles of the private and public sector; v) vi) national and regional perspectives.In addition, instead of preparing posters, country representatives were requested to prepare a country report addressing a few specific questions in a suggested format allowing for the preparation in advance of a synthesis which was presented during the seminar.institutional changes needed (organization and management); andProceedings of both seminars have been published by the CTA' and contain the keynote presentations, summaries of the general discussions, and the results of the working groups. Presented here is a summary of the main issues and conclusions which were raised by the participants at the two seminars. Sub-regional distinctions are no longer made as many commonalities can be found at the policy level, in spite of significant differences at the organizational, scientific, technical and managerial levels.The participants at both seminars expressed their serious concern about the overall decline in agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa often resulting from what and Dale called in Mbabane discredited policies and institutions. It was also acknowledged that livestock policies could not be studied in isolation as they are strongly influenced by other policies related to agriculture, the environment and natural resource management (including wildlife), land tenure, marketing and trade, transport, human resource development and institutional capacity-building, public health and food processing, and regional and international co-operation.As a consequence, the participants considered as a top priority the review of all existing agriculture-related policies in order to highlight and correct those which are inappropriate or which have a negative effect on agriculture and its livestock sub-sector. These include, for example, subsidies, taxation on agricultural inputs, price controls that favour consumers, unsustainable services such as free dipping, total reliance on importation in livestock and livestock products, and communal land ownership. Among these \"counter-productive'' policies, land-tenure policies were identified as probably the biggest constraint as they could inhibit human and financial investment in the livestock sub-sector. At the same time, specific policies have to be formulated and put in force to encourage animal production per se and to provide an enabling environment at the national, regional and international levels: Critical issues to be addressed at production level are: increasing productivity (through improved supply of inputs, animal health services, infrastructure, etc.) to create a sustainable marketable surplus; improving product quality (through extension, market information, etc.); and empowering the negotiation capacity of producers (through the creation or strengthening of farmers' associations, co-operatives, etc.) to guarantee them a fair price.Main issues to be addressed by national policies are related to: marketing infrastructure; market information; financing arrangements; grades and standards; and processing.At regional and international levels, the basic objective of the policies to be formulated is to address hindrances to trade and to adhere to rules of regional and international trade.The participants also mentioned that policy formulation and planning is usually done in the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Planning and they came to the conclusion that there is a need for close association with such ministries in the agriculture policy-formulation process.The participants realized that very few sub-Saharan countries have clear, detailed and coherent livestock development and research policies. In fact, for most countries, livestock development policies are mentioned only in the general agriculture sectoral policy document; very few specific national livestock policy documents exist. This lacuna is even more evident for livestock research policies: national agricultural research plans are scarcer than national development policy documents and, where they do exist, the livestock sub-sector is usually under estimated.The participants recognized that there was an inevitable shift of responsibility for livestock research and development from the public to the private sector. However, they were concerned that the transfer of functions from the State to the private sector is not being done gradually and smoothly. This was explained by several factors, among which is an inadequate legal framework to deal with new trends in the livestock sector. It is fully recognized that the private sector will take over only when an enabling policy environment (i.e. one which addresses institutional arrangements, financial capacity and economic feasibility) is in place. Finally, the participants clearly noted that many areas in the livestock sector may still not fully support private enterprises (e.g. animal health services or extension services) or must remain under government responsibility (e.g. quality of animal health services, public health, disease control, food quality control).There is a serious lack of national expertise and reliable livestock information in Saharan African countries that is needed to support the requisite livestock policy analysis and formulation. The livestock industry should train more livestock economists, environmental economists, production systems analysts and business engineersand both the public and the private sectors have a role to play in this. The need to take into account the non-monetary value of livestock activities in all economic analyses was also underlined as an additional livestock-specific difficulty. Another consensus which emerged, on human resources, was the need to adjust the curricula of veterinary schools to make them more responsive to the emerging challenges and to standardize and harmonize them in order to facilitate technical regional co-operation.The other major condition identified for formulating sound policies was building or strengthening capacity in information management and communication, as almost all countries are suffering from a deficit of information and from poor communication systems. The top priorities identified are to establish market (national and regional) information systems, to disseminate new or improved technologies, especially those related to processing and preserving animal products, and, in more general terms, to establish an inventory of livestock resources, production and utilization.It was agreed that research has a key role to play, but of particular concern are the heavy dependence of the national research programmes on donor funding (and the long-term unsustainability of this mechanism) and the shrinking of funding per scientist. The participants identified the need to develop research policies consistent with agricultural and livestock development policies and to re-examine seriously all organizational, managerial and programmatic aspects of national agricultural research institutions. They specifically suggested that consideration should be given to adding a policy research dimension to their programmes. They also reaffirmed national responsibilities in setting out research priorities in the newly emerging global system and the consequent need to improve co-ordination of their research efforts at the sub-regional and regional levels. Regional research organizations or associations such as ASARECA, CORAF and SACCAR and the newly-established FARA have a key role to play in co-ordinating livestock research in sub-Saharan Africa and deserve stronger support from national governments as well as from the international community.On the issue of institutional support, the participants noted that international and regional institutions do not usually provide adequate support to national institutions; they explained the reasons for this as competition for funds amongst institutions, poor co-ordination of their activities and by an inadequate level of representation of the African institutions in regional and international organizations. They also consider that donors should improve the co-ordination of their support and standardize their approaches to livestock development policies (e.g. from free drug delivery to full cost recovery and, in between, different levels of subsidies).Finally, participants at both seminars recognized that tremendous efforts towards regional co-operation and collaboration have been made recently but that there is still much to be done. The top priority remains to establish sectoral policies on harmonization of imports, exports and standards. A second key condition is a free flow of information among countries, in particular for the development and promotion of trade. This is particularly critical for the control of livestock movement, quarantine enforcement and epidemiological surveillance, for better understanding of the markets, and for the characterization and conservation of animal genetic resources. In addition, this free flow of information will help to break the isolation felt by professionals in the various countries.The main recommendations of both seminars have been amalgamated and classified. A distinction has been made between those which have to be implemented at the country level and those addressing the regional dimension. A few recommendations that apply at both the national and regional levels have been included in each part for comprehensiveness. These national and regional recommendations have been classified into five broad categories:General development policies; 2. Research needs; 3. Information needs; 4. Human resources; and 5. Institutional arrangements. Finally, within each category, the recommendations were grouped according to the four following technical themes: i) marketing and trade; ii) livestock production systems; iii) animal health and genetic resources; and iv) information management and communications.A quick analysis of these recommendations indicates that the participants clearly have a better understanding of what should be done at the national level rather than at the regional level (participants had three times more recommendations for the former). At the national level, they have formulated specific recommendations for each category and for almost all themes. Specific recommendations on what should be done to develop or strengthen regional co-operation are more scattered, with the notable exception of recommendations concerning animal health (50% of all regional recommendations).A high priority is to build the capacity of each country to develop appropriate policies, formulate strategies and evaluate their impact.Each country should develop a clearly stated and consistent policy for the development of the livestock sector. Frequent change of policy is to be avoided as it creates uncertainty and undermines the confidence of producers and investors. Existing policies which are not conducive to agriculture and livestock development should be reviewed as a matter of urgency. Governments should also prepare detailed national strategies and investment plans.Governments should promote capacity-building to understand and analyse marketing and trade issues better and to enforce anti-dumping mechanisms and countervailing duties as provided for under the WTO. Special attention should be given to the negative effects of food aid and food subsidies. Appropriate pricing policies should be implemented which establish a fair balance between the interests of the producers and the consumers. This could involve imposition of appropriate tariffs and duties on imports.Governments should encourage or strengthen the utilization of grading systems and standards for livestock products, promote the markets for quality products and meet consumers needs. Similarly, quality assurance should be put in place on inputs needed for livestock development.Governments should promote and regulate markets for livestock products but gradually withdraw from trading. Governments should formulate strategies to transfer some marketing responsibilities from the public to the private sector.Governments should promote competition in the supply of inputs. Provision of credit lines would help individuals to enter the business of input supply.The private sector should play a leading role in the establishment of storage and processing facilities.Credit regulations should be geared towards the promotion of livestock development.Measures taken to develop the livestock sub-sector should pay attention to the environment as a whole, both to ensure the sustainability of natural resources and to keep peri-urban pollution in check.Any improvement measures should be appropriate to the agricultural production system to which they are being applied. They should correspond to technical and economic elements specific to each livestock sub-sector.Governments of the region should correct the uneven distribution of bents of resources under extensive production systems and encourage the participatory management of resources at community level, and in collaboration with the private sector.Land-tenure systems should be adjusted towards ensuring appropriate measures for sustainable productivity. Specific issues to be addressed are: ownership of the land, grazing rights, methods of assessing communal resources and management.Public and private sectors should ensure integrated management practices that optimize the productivity of extensive productive systems.Combined production of crops and livestock should be promoted as a way of diversifying farm production and of ensuring better use of animal manure for soil improvement.Recognizing the trend towards livestock intensification in heavily populated areas, and in consideration of the risks of contacting zoonotic diseases, governments should promote awareness in order to minimize public-health risks.In recognizing the need for quality animal health services, governments should take into account the ability of the private sector to provide such services and should continue to support and strengthen privatization processes.While recognizing and appreciating the role of livestock owners' organizations and community animal health workers in the delivery of animal health services, governments should make deliberate efforts to promote these delivery systems whilst ensuring that the quality of the services is not unduly compromised, and that these delivery systems operate within an appropriate regulatory framework.Considering the persistent inadequate provision of financial resources by governments in animal health and the resultant insufficiently high status of disease and in recognition of the consequences thereof, governments should improve funding of core animal health functions while at the same time promoting systems.National genetic improvement plans should be designed to promote the conservation and use of appropriate breeds adapted to local production conditions.Immediate attention should be given to the identification, characterization and conservation of existing animal genetic resources, with particular emphasis on the respective environment in which these genetic resources are kept.Countries should develop, with the full participation of all stakeholders, particularly producers, research strategies consistent with agricultural and livestock development policies. All components of the national agricultural research system, i.e. government research departments or institutions, universities, and private organizations, should play an active role in identifying research priorities.Governments, in collaboration with the private sector, should promote market research. A market research unit should be established in each National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS).Governments should encourage policy research which includes integrated extensive production systems taking into account the protection of the environment. The benefits of integrated farming systems and equitable distribution of the benefits derived should therefore be emphasized.Assessing the disease risks associated with the interaction of livestock and wildlife in mixed farming is very necessary.Recognizing the importance of research in supporting animal health programmes, governments should promote and support the following activities: identification of research priorities through a participatory approach involving all stakeholders. development of research on diagnostic tools and vaccines for major livestock diseases; animal health services delivery systems; and genetic resistance to diseases. development of national, regional and international research, and establishestablishment and strengthening of research-extension linkages. v) evaluation of research programmes at regular intervals. ment / rehabilitation of diagnostic reference laboratories.Realizing the lack of information on the characteristics of local animal genetic resources and on their production environment, and that this information is critical for their use and development, govemments should promote and support the following activities:Applied research to develop and adapt methods which will facilitate rapid identification and documentation of existing animal genetic resources, characterization of breeds and their production attributes, and comparative evaluation of indigenous and exotic genotypes with particular attention to the respective production environments.Strategic research to identify uniqueness of populations using advanced molecular technologies; to exploit genetic variation in adaptive traits, including resistance to disease; and to speed up progress in breed improvement programmes and in facilitating ex situ cryo-conservation of endangered breeds by using biotechnology.Governments should develop information and communication policies sed on reliable data sources in order to strengthen the capacity of all national stakeholders to improve livestock production in a sustainable manner.Partnerships should be established between the public and private sectors in information and data collection, dissemination and utilization.The collection and dissemination of information associated with markets should be encouraged in order to guide the pricing of inputs and of livestock and 4.livestock products. Similarly, governments should reinforce marketing awareness in extension services. Improvements in methods of processing and preserving animal products should also be accompanied by better dissemination of information on technologies.In view of the importance of efficient information systems in animal health programmes, especially in regional or international collaboration, efforts should be made to strengthen establish information networks, both nationally and regionally, which will facilitate the flow and exchange of information between countries.An inventory of resources in the livestock sector should be developed for each country, and for the different regions.All levels of training should be adapted to the evolving needs of livestock producers.All institutions of higher education should take appropriate measures to adjust their curricula so as to make them responsive to the emerging needs of the livestock sub-sector.Governments should encourage the formation of farmer and trader ions to enable them to pool resources by mobilizing their own savings and credit for investment in the development of marketing infrastructure, particularly for the storage and processing of livestock products.Considering the importance of wildlife in the epidemiology of some of the major livestock diseases (for example, rinderpest and rabies), co-operation and collaboration between wildlife services and national veterinary services should be strengthened.Recognizing the important role of societies, co-operatives, breeders' associations and other similar organizations in livestock development and in representing the interests of livestock owners, governments should either create a favourable environment in which existing associations can function, or create such associations if they do not already exist.Consultation and co-ordination among donors and national and regional institutions should be promoted in order to develop joint strategies and programmes.Individual countries and African and regional organizations (such as the African Development Bank) should be encouraged to support livestock development by contributing to the funding of national research and development programmes.Regional policies for the promotion of trade must be strengthened. Therefore, countries should harmonize their import and export regulations as well as their policies on standards.All countries should comply with existing international agreements and conventions, and developed countries should empower the less-developed countries to implement and comply with them.A regional body should be identified or created in West and Central Africa to monitor and promote trade in livestock and livestock products between countries within the region.Considering that transboundary disease is a problem of major concern to the respective countries, the control of livestock movements, quarantine enforcement and disease surveillance should be strengthened by all possible means through regional co-operation.Considering the value of contingency and emergency plans in combating livestock diseases, each country should put in place as soon as possible such plans as to facilitate timely and efficient response to disease threat or outbreak.In recognizing the heavy tasks involved in vaccination campaigns against major epizootic diseases and the need to efficiently control or eradicate these diseases, governments should explore ways and means of intensifying vaccination campaigns against such diseases, including the participation of private narians.Considering the importance of wildlife in the epidemiology of some of the major livestock diseases (for example, rinderpest and rabies), the epidemiological surveillance of the relevant diseases should be enhanced through the involvement of regional and international governments and organizations.2.1 2.2.Recognizing that animal genetic resources are distributed across national boundaries and that the problems related to the use and conservation of animal genetic resources are common across countries, regional collaboration should be strengthened in the following areas: breed characterization; breed development and improvement; regional trade in local germplasm; and identification of medium-and long-term regional livestock development policies and market opportunities.Governments, in collaboration with the private sector and regional research organizations (ASARECA, CORAF and SACCAR), should promote market research to assess the regional and international market structure, its conduct and performance.Recognizing the importance of research in supporting animal health programmes, the following research activities should be undertaken at the regional level: i) identification of research priorities through a participatory approach involving all stakeholders.strong support of research on diagnostic tools and vaccines for major livestock diseases; animal health services delivery systems; and genetic resistance to diseases. support for the of national, regional and international research and diagnostic reference laboratories. iv) regular evaluation of the impact of research programmes.Governments should develop information and communication policies based on reliable data sources in order to strengthen the capacity of all stakeholders to improve livestock production at national and regional levels in a sustainable manner. Regional policies should be established to allow for the effective free flow of quality information among countries and to break the isolation of professionals in the various countries.Partnerships should be established between the public and private sectors in information and data collection, dissemination and utilization.In view of the importance of efficient information systems in animal health programs, especially in regional or international collaboration, the establishment of regional information networks which will facilitate the exchange and flow of information between countries should be promoted.Recognizing the inadequacy of trained manpower in veterinary sciences in some countries and the surplus in others, regional technical co-operation should be enhanced to allow the movement of trained manpower between member countries and the utilization of training facilities by needy member countries.All institutions of higher education should take appropriate measures to adjust their curricula so as to make them responsive to the emerging needs of the livestock sub-sector; they should also work towards the standardization and harmonization of their curricula for acceptance by all member countries and the facilitating of regional technical co-operation.International policies should be established to stimulate and promote North-South professional linkages.Recognizing recent global developments in the area of agro-biodiversity in relation to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the establishment of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on animal genetic resources under the Commission of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture within the FAO, and recognizing the role of as an inter-governmental body of African states, the meeting recommended that be included in these negotiations.Consultation and co-ordination mechanisms among donors and national and regional institutions should, by means of joint programmes, be enhanced so that they adapt their mandates to their intervention capacities.In close consultation with the countries, donors should improve their support co-ordination and standardize their approaches to livestock development policies. Specifically, they should consult regularly with one another and provide timely information to beneficiary institutions and governments.Individual countries and African and regional organizations (such as the African Development Bank) should show an increased interest in livestock development by contributing to the funding of regional research and development programmes. Donors, as well as international organizations and national governments, should offer more support to regional research organizations such as ASARECA, CORAF and SACCAR to enable them to engage in scientific development and to improve the co-ordination of livestock research in sub-Saharan Africa.Both seminars were followed immediately by meetings of the highest authorities in charge of the livestock sub-sector: a meeting of Ministers of Agriculture for West and Central Africa (Cameroon, February 1996) and the 5th OAU Conference of Ministers Responsible for Animal Resources (Swaziland, August which covers the whole African continent.As usual, the OAU Ministerial Conference was preceded by a meeting of the directors responsible for animal resources. These directors have the responsibility of preparing the documents to be discussed and approved by the Ministers and, in fact, most of those from the Eastern and Southern regions participated in the CTNOAU-IBAR seminar in Mbabane. The summary of recommendations of both the Abidjan and the Mbabane meetings presented above was tabled as a discussion paper to the Directors' technical meeting. In addition, a much shorter, more \"political\" statement targeted at the Ministers was also prepared for their consideration.The Directors' meeting discussed and endorsed the report and recommendations of the two seminars on livestock development policies in sub-Saharan Africa. The Ministers responsible for animal resources followed the recommendations of their directors and made several resolutions. These resolutions are quoted in extenso hereunder as they cover almost all the aspects discussed at the CTNOAU-IBAR seminars. Obvious references to policies are mentioned in italics.The Conference of Ministers Responsible for Animal Resources in its Fifth Ordinary Session in Mbabane, Swaziland, from 4-8 August 1997;Cognizant that livestock contributes up to 40% of agricultural GDP in the majority of African countries;Aware that there are few livestock development policies and strategies in place in African countries;Realizing that inter-and intra-African trade in livestock and livestock products should be promoted to improve self-sufficiency and to discourage dumping;Cognizantthat adequate human resources in the livestock sector are not equally distributed in all countries, and that educational curricula will need to be reassessed to meet changes in demand;Realizing that there is a necessity to protect the natural resource base and make more efficient use of resources especially through regional co-operation;Realizing that any policy should address the problems of poverty alleviation and food security especially with respect to women;Concerned that uncontrolled movement of livestock continues to be the main cause of epidemic livestock diseases;Recognizing the need for the continued supply of animal health services;Taking into account the richness and diversity of animal genetic resources of Africa THE CONFERENCE RESOLVES:Each country should develop and implement with the participation of all stakeholders a clearly defined policy together with the relevant strategies and investment plans with short-, medium-and long-term objectives for the development of the livestock sector.Taking into account the increased urbanization in Africa, the policy should, of necessity, address market demands.Aware of the fact that some countries already have existing policies, OAU and OIE should assist these countries to secure financial support to implement the policies.In defining and re-defining their national livestock development policy, governments should consider the comparative advantages of harmonizing and co-ordinating the national policies under a regional to be set up as a matter of urgency not only to encourage regional and trade in livestock and livestock products but also to address the problem of disease control and information exchange.The Conference calls on member states to:1. establishhe-establish a strong central veterinary authority with clear policies, effective systems of management and compliance at all levels of government and service provision from top to grassroot level;2 . develop emergency plans to deal with epidemic diseases and provide adequate funding for livestock services;provide adequate training programmes and resources, with the assistance of the OAU, OIE and other international institutions if required for veterinarians for efficient execution of their functions.3.The Conference requests member states:1. to take as a priority all measures to eradicate rinderpest from the remaining infected areas;not under immediate threat of rinderpest to cease vaccination and join the OIE \"pathway\" to freedom from infection;to ensure that all outbreaks of severe disease in wildlife be thoroughly investigated and that continuous sero-surveillance of wildlife populations be carried out, and that, to facilitate this, free-living wildlife populations must not be vaccinated against rinderpest;to initiate measures to improve livestock movement control.2.4.The Conference calls on the Secretary-General of the OAU to:1. take action and organize a pan-African programme to CBPP from Africa along the lines of the PARC programme; mobilize the necessary resources for implementation of the recommendation and prepare a report on its progress for the 6th Session.The Conference recommends that: adequate funding be made available to (a) collect, analyse and disseminate the required information on the positive and negative effects of livestock on the environment; and (b) develop and test the necessary tools for enhancing public awareness and improving capacities of all stakeholders in policies and technologies to promote sustainable livestock development;2. livestock-environment policy analysis be integrated in the national agricultural sector and environmental action plans.Resolution No. 6 -Food Security and Livestock AgricultureThe Conference resolves that: special attention should be paid to the maintenance and improvement of household resource security with the objective of alleviating poverty especially in the rural areas, and thereby improving the food security situation; livestock should have adequate emphasis in food security;governments should ensure that special attention is paid to gender issues in policy formulation for food security.3.The Conference calls on governments and OAU to:provide economic, technical and political support to individual countries and regional trade groups to enable them to:i. harmonize livestock production and trade policies;ii. create an appropriate policy and institutional environment;iii. strengthen their capacity to monitor livestock flows and prices and the impact of protective measures on regional market development;iv. initiate and implement actions to reduce marketing costs;promote private-sector investment in livestock marketing infrastructure;vi. foster bilateral negotiations and unilateral reductions of tariff and iff barriers within and between sub-regions;vii. facilitate financial transactions and improve commercial links between ensure that livestock products are of high quality to compete in world mardevise a mechanism for a continent-wide protection of markets from dumping of livestock products; bring together regional trade groups under one umbrella which will co-ordinate their activities and ensure that they have a strong bargaining power.countries; and kets.3.The Conference resolves that:1. each country should have commitment to research and should develop clear and consistent livestock research policies and research should be demand driven;livestock research be accorded high priority and be adequately funded; exchange research information and resources at regional and national levels;existing regional research co-ordination mechanisms be used to promote research for livestock development.3.Having formulated these sound recommendations and good resolutions is obviously not enough. The key question remains on how to implement them. In fact, this was one of the first questions raised at the Mbabane seminar by a participant who suggested that \"the organization of the seminar should be inclusive of means of promoting the implementation of policy recommendations\". The answer from both the CTA representative and the Director of OAU-IBAR was that the participants at the seminars were selected because they have the authority to implement any recommendations and resolutions after endorsement by the Conference of Ministers.While this comment is true, the recommendations and resolutions still have to be translated into action plans both for individual countries and regional organizations. This has to be done as soon as possible so as to not lose the momentum gained by the two seminars and the increased receptivity of the Ministers on these policy issues.The experience of ISNAR and other agencies is that action plans should be brief, make a distinction between not only short-, medium-and long-term actions but also between actions which need no, or a very small amount of, funds for implementation and those for which external assistance would be necessary. The responsible institution or individual for implementing each action has also to be clearly identified and mentioned. Finally, the best means for the governments to obtain the additional funds for the second set of actions is, of course, to demonstrate strong political will for change by starting to implement the first set.The institutions involved in organizing these two seminars appear to be the most suited to assist the governments and the regional organizations and associations, if they need external assistance for the preparation of such action plans. Among them, OAU-IBAR has probably the key and most difficult role to play in trying to keep the momentum. One of the most promising entry and leverage points to achieve this would be for OAU-IBAR to strengthen its collaboration with the existing regional research and development organizations.The overall objective of these seminars was to contribute to the ongoing debate on policies aimed at promoting effective, efficient and sustainable livestock development whilst managing natural resources in developing countries. This overall objective has been achieved, as well as the three specific objectives:Clear, precise and realistic recommendations were formulated. This was achieved mainly through the presentation and discussion of well-documented keynote papers, the extensive time spent in working groups and, equally importantly, through informal interactions during the seminar breaks and evenings which allowed participants to exchange views and information and to build a common vision of what has to be done to ensure livestock development on an effective, efficient and sustainable basis.The national dimension was apprehended better than the regional one but, even for the latter, clear priorities were set which, when implemented, would mean a significantbreakthrough. The dedication, the commitment, and the sense of responsibility of all participants were obvious and are highly commendable. The Director of OAU-IBAR, in his opening speech in Mbabane to the meeting of Directors Responsible for Animal Resources, also reminded the participants of the duty they have to convince their ments to put in place policies for the sustainable development of the livestock sector.The second major achievement of the seminars was to have identified the bottlenecks and key constraints which must be alleviated in order to facilitate the formulation of sound livestock development policies. The lack of expertise and of reliable information to analyse and formulate policies came top of the list. Immediately after it came the need to improve the flow of information between the different actors (public and private) in the livestock industry at both national and regional levels, and the implications in terms of harmonization of data collection, transparency in circulating information, access to and exchange of new technologies, and improvements in the modes of communication. The need to have clear research strategies and to carry out more research, not only on technical subjects like the characterization of the indigenous breeds, the study of disease resistance or the production of diagnostic tools and new vaccines, but also on policies, markets and the whole socio-economic dimension of the livestock sub-sector also came out very strongly. Regional co-operation, and the urgent need for the harmonization of imports, exports and standards policies, were also identified by the participants as two of the top priorities for action.Making policy-makers aware of the existence of, in some cases, counter-productive policies for 1ivestock development and, more generally, the absence of policies favouring an enabling environment for the private sector to play a more active role in livestock production were rapidly achieved mainly by planning the seminars to take place just before Ministerial meetings. The best evidence of this is the text adopted by the 5th OAU Conference of Ministers Responsible for Animal Resources, which really concentrated on policy issues.In conclusion, the two seminars demonstrated very clearly that in sub-Saharan Africa, just as in any other part of the world, sound livestock development policies are a prerequisite for promoting effective, efficient and sustainable development while managing natural resources. More importantly, these seminars have led to the formulation of sound recommendations which have been translated into resolutions taken by the OAU Ministers Responsible for Animal Resources. All national, regional and international resources now have to be pulled together urgently to provide the enabling environment for the livestock sub-sector to fulfil the needs and expectations of both the producers and the consumers. In this respect, the two seminars have launched a process with a solid foundation.","tokenCount":"6863"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e26821c7e00d1e2e3b2d6267f88d9e03","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H031914.pdf","id":"-1698202746"},"keywords":["nulriennl depletion","vegarable","farming. urhan agriculture","environmental pollution"],"sieverID":"328da4c4-cab7-442f-a0a7-56af71280979","pagecount":"7","content":"In a response to rapid urban growth in Africa, specialized urban and peri-urban vegetable production systems emerge and contribute significantly to urban food security. these production systems are dominated by smallholders and can achieve despite poor soils astonishing high profits. This, however, require intensive fertilization (e.g. 100-200 tiha poultry manure) and year-round irrigation of 600-1600 mm, which adds further nutrients but also contributes to nutrient leaching. In this highly dynamic input-output system fanners are demonstrating that ,,permanent\" cropping is possible on poor tropical soils but for the price of high N and K losses and water eutrophication. The situation is described for the case of lettuce, cabbage and spring onion farming in and around Kumasi, Ghana. Nutrient balances and depletion costs have also been calculated for the more conventional (rural) maize-cassava intercrop for comparison as well as rainfed tomato farming. From fanners point of view, the ,,costs\" of nutrient mining vary with the availability of farm land. In the conventional system, fanner still can to shift when soil fertility is low, thus pay only for the preparation of a new field. In the land constrained urban vegetable system the costs of nutrient mining can best be assessed through their replacement costs via poultry manure or mineral fertilizer. Additional off-site costs of the vegetable system might be balanced through the fertilizer value of the water (for irrigation) and appears in general marginal in comparison with water pollution through the urban run-off.Soil nutrient depletion is one of the most serious forms of land degradation in large parts of Africa where negative soil nutrient balances are a predominant feature (Stoorvogel and  Smaling, 1990, Smaling, 1998). Exceptions are compound farms, backyards or systems with external input, e.g. manure derived from off-farm grazing (Vlaming et al., 1997;Smaling and Braun, 1996). This paper has its focus on input intensive urban and pen-urban agriculture, which appear as response 10 rapid urban growth in large parts of Africa. These permanent farming systems are specialized on perishable crops, such as vegetables and can contribute significantly to urban food security. As nutrient balance data from such systems are hardly to find (Van den Bosch et d., 2001). this paper tries to compare nutrient depletion and its costs for the farmer in three selected urban, peri-urban and rural farming systems. It also tries to outline off-site effects on environment and health on the case of Kuinasi, Ghana MATERIALS AND METHODS Data on urban, peri-urban, and rural farming systems and lheir nutrient management (feertilizalion, residue management, etc.) were obtained through farm surveys addressing in total 238 farms around Kumasi and 100 open-space and backyard farins in urban Kumasi. The information obtained (yields, inputs used, etc.) was translated into nutrient in-and oulputs in kg per hectare and year using nutrient content data from standard literature (cf. Annex I). Data on erosion. nutrients in rainwater etc. were obtained From expert consultation, local literature and laboratory analysis. Data on nutrient leaching were estimated as 20% of applied potassium, which is a compromise between the transfer function given by Stoorvogel and Smaling (1990) and the results of Poss el al. (1997). For nitrogen leaching we applied the transfer function of Stoorvogel and Smaling (1990). For irrigated urban vegetable production we estimated the leachinghunoff figures through the comparison of laboratory data of farm and control plots under consideration of all other nutrient in-and outputs. Nutrient content of imgation water was analysed in the laboratory by standard methods and compared with data provided by Cornish et al. (1999). Data on soil nutrient pools in pen-urban Kumasi were taken from Quansah (2000) and IBSRAM/KNUST (unpubl.). Data on nutrients in ash from different 2-4 years old fallows were taken from Van Reuler and Janssen (1993) and Anthofer and Kroschel (2001). Nutrient recovery in ash was assumed as 5-7% o f N , 64-73% of P, 38-42% of K in fallow biomass following the same authors. The assessment of the fallow contribution and leaching losses would require more sophisticated field studies than it was possible so far.The costs of nutrient depletion were estimated using the replacement cost approach (Drechsel and Gyiele, 1999) and the land rental a farmer would have to pay to acquire (shifting cultivation) a new plot in rural and peri-urban areas (cf. Annex I).Among the various field types identified in and around Kumasi (Table 1) we focussed in this report on the following three:+ Intensive urban open-space mixed vegetable production (year round irrigated with drain water)+ Intensive peri-urban tomato production (rainfed) + Traditional rural cassava-rnarze production (for comparison)Less than 10% of the farmers use mineral fertilizers and if then only at a modest rate. Only a small minority of the farmers applies (poultry) manure. The nitrogen losses through harvest are not compensated for by these low nutrient inputs or through slash and burn, neither in an assumed low fertility/productivity nor a normal fertility/productivity scenario (Table 2). This exploitation of the soil nutrient pool requires to shifting cultivation. Ash depletion accompanied by the infestation of weeds is the main reason for abandoning a field after cassava harvest, and to open another field. As even the N input of a 20-yr fallow would not be sufficient to supply sufficient nitrogen (Van Reuler and Janssen, 1993) the incorporation of Mucuna for N-fixation might be an interesting option to balance the N outputs (Anthofer and Kroschel, 2001). It is interesting to note that not the low inherent soil P pool but nitrogen appears to be the limiting factor. In view of cost assessments, it would be inappropriate to use the replacement cost approach to assess the costs of nutrient depletion as long a s shifting cultivation is practised. The rental of a new plot is about 10-50 USD/ha depending among others on its proximity to the city. Clearing (slash and bum) would costs additional 40 USD/ha but this cost factor might be accommodated in the farming budget. A survey carried out by NRI and partners around Kumasi did not reveal a connection between land price (value) and presumed soil fertility (Adam, 2001, pers. communication). However, Nunan et al. (2000;p. 87) reported that land rental might differ according to soil quality. This might become more significant as fallow periods for soil regeneration are declining in the peri-urban areaAkumadan is a production area in the vicinity of Kumasi specialised on tomato farming. The data show that farmers use mineral fertilizer in excess of crop demand resulting in all scenarios we calculated in positive soil N, P, and K balances (Table 2). This confirms earlier results reported by Quansah (2000). To verify this assessment it ivould be necessary to get field data on nutrient losses through run-off However. it appears that this system does not produce on-site costs of nutrient mining but might cause off-site effects due to (ground-and stream-) water eutrophication (Kyei-Baffour and Mensah. 1993). On the other hand, irrigated farninz downstrean ofthis area might henelit from the increased nutrient load. This is a very in-and output intensive farming system as the nutrient flows show (Table 2). Poultry manure (PM) application rates are high as many soils are sandy and frequent irrigation is leaching the applied nutrients (Table 3). PM is applied over the year at a rate of 50t/ha on cabbage and 150 t/ha on lettuce and spring onions (range 100 -240 tnla). For NPK mostly a 15-15-15 blend was used, partly supplemented by Ammonium Sulphate. In general, urban farmers rely only on poultry manure except for cabbage which receives a certain amount of NPK while peri-urban vegetable farmers use low amounts of industrial fertilizer and add poultq~ manure as a supplemenl.  4) which contains especially downstream of the city significant amounts of nitrogen. In our calculations we used moderate (upstream) nutrient contents.Nutrient input through wet and dry deposition, on the other hand, is modest: 6 kg N, 4 kg P205 and 8 kg K20 (Anthofer and Kroschel, 2001). Nutrient losses through erosion are relatively small in this bed and furrow system but leaching rates are high due to the sandy soil texture.The high number of growing periods over the year and related high frequency of harvests is also significantly contributing to nutrient losses. Lettuce can be cultivated 9-1 1 timedyr, cabbage 2-3 times/yr, and spring onions 8-9 times/yr. As only 25% of all farmers interviewed leave vegetable residues on their fields another significant amount of nutrients, is lost with the residues (Table 2). In summary, the nutrient balances of easily leached N and K are negative while (non-leachable) phosphates accumulate in the topsoil. Irrigation downstream of the city could improve the negative N balance, however, not balance it. Only better residue management could turn the nepative N and K balances ofthis system into positive ones. Nutrient losses, however, concern leached N and K as well as accumulated (wasted) P. These costs account for 10 USD per ha and year if replaced with poultp manure (only N and K) or 79 USD if also P is considered.In input intensive (peri)urban farming, the high load of nutrients can be washed into streams or the shallow ground water andas stated earlier oncontribute to water eutrophication (Kyei-Baffour and Mensah, 1993). The nutrients might re-enter the system by providing a significant contribution to the nutrient requirements of irrigated crops. This is consistent with interviews held with farmers who believed the water provided a detectable fertilizer benefit to their crops (Cornish et al., 1999). Thus off-site costs due to water eutrophication might be balanced for by the fertilizer value of the water. In the rural-urban continuum, nutrient balance assessments confirm that the traditional rural staple crop production system is based on ash (and soil) nutrient depletion which the farmer is trying to counteract through continuous shifting cultivation. In intensive rainfed tomato production, on the other hand, farmers are apparently using too high fertilizer rates which results in generally positive nutrient balances (or over-fertilisation). Even more dramatic is the situation in irrigated urban vegetable farming. Here the dilemma of the urban farmers derives from the limited farming space in the urban context without options for shifting cultivation.Their output oriented cash crop production thus depends fertility. Farmers are in a vicious cycle again and again high rates of nutrients which they are leaching through high irrigation rates. At the end of the year, their systems show P accumulation and N and K mining. Offsite effects on water quality are likely through runoff and leaching of nutrients but more harm will derive from E. coli and pesticide contamination of water bodies (Drechsel et d., 2000).","tokenCount":"1744"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a7e60df7f62bd8d43710f02776158cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5447e64c-08f9-4850-86de-96fe0ccdd7ea/retrieve","id":"-1712061383"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58cb7191-237a-4716-bd17-68b2047a9c30","pagecount":"4","content":"The proposal for the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) provides a detailed analysis of the current state of African agriculture and the complex causal dynamics that underlie rural poverty on the continent. Volume 2 of the SSA CP proposal contains dozens of papers and reference documents that elaborate on problems and promising solutions in both scientific and policy domains. These papers were highly influential in stimulating discussions at the 2003 formulation workshop. Since many readers of this Brief will be familiar with the challenges facing African agriculture, we will not discuss problem analysis in detail, focusing instead on the innovative set of interventions proposed under the SSA CP. All three volumes of the SSA CP proposal are available in electronic form on the FARA web site (www.fara-africa.org) and as a CD ROM by request to FARASub-Saharan Africa has the tragic distinction of being the only region in the world where overall food security and livelihoods are deriorating rather than improving. In a region where 70% of the population live in rural areas, a structural food deficit has persisted for more than 30 years, leading to the highest levels of per capita food aid in the world. Looking to the future, a number of factors (including climate change, population growth, poverty, declining soil fertility and availability of water, rural-urban migration, HIV/AIDS, gender biases against women farmers, weak infrastructure and markets, and counterproductive policies) will worsen the situation still further, unless major efforts are made to arrest these trends.Moreover, problems at the farm level are becoming more complex, the global economic context is in a state of flux and the institutional environment within African nations is experiencing change. Africa needs to raise the productivity of its smallscale farmers at a time when world commodity prices are at an all-time low. Support policies, technical change and market efficiencies in more advanced countries have combined to increase competition in world markets and reduce the price of agricultural products. Limited government budgets will not support a return to the types of subsidies and market interventions that characterized the early part of the post-colonial period. Policies must therefore move away from price and market interventions and towards strengthening institutions, infrastructure and technical change processes if they are to foster profitable production and promote links between farmers and the urban and/or sub-regional markets. Such institutional innovations provide a new context for thinking about agricultural research and development.Recognizing the implications of these challenges, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), established in 2001, set itself the goal of increasing agricultural output by 6% per year for the next 20 years. To flesh out a strategy for achieving this goal, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) conducted an extensive consultation process between 2002 and 2004, with input from more than 100 scientists. This process identified numerous issues as potential constraints, with the following most frequently given highest priority: a) failure of agricultural markets; b) inappropriate policies; and c) natural resource degradation.Those involved in the planning process agreed that addressing these three issues in isolation has failed to raise the The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) shows how the principles of institutional learning and change (ILAC) can be applied. This Brief outlines the basic components of the SSA CP and highlights various ILAC features of the Program. These include an innovation systems orientation; an approach to 'thinking globally and acting locally'; the location of research within a broader context of policy, market and institutional change; and an emphasis on collaboration and learning among program participants and with other agencies involved in agricultural research and development in Africa.productivity and profitability of African agriculture to a sufficient extent or in a sustainable way. Although the traditional approach to agricultural research and development has brought about significant advances, its fragmented and reductionist nature makes it unable to deal with complex challenges. A new paradigm is called for that can foster synergy among disciplines and institutions, along with a renewed commitment to change at all levels -from farmers to national and international policymakers. The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) is based on such a paradigm, entitled Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D).The SSA CP has three major thrusts: 1. A set of principles for conducting research for development that squarely address the complexity and heterogeneity of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. 2. A new research agenda that recognizes the need for an integrated approach to research and addresses the interactions between natural resource management, production systems and agricultural markets and policies. 3. A focus on institutional change and new partnerships involving all stakeholders, especially smallholders and pastoralists, in addressing the problems of food production and maintaining the resource base for future generations. Through IAR4D, the SSA CP aims to transform the way that sectors and institutions approach agricultural research. Among other things, this will entail a shift from narrowly focused sectoral concerns to cooperative, gender-sensitive, integrated approaches, including publicprivate sector linkages. The Program will be characterized by a collaborative effort among researchers (national, regional and international), extension agencies, policymakers, the private sector and civil society. The approach will embrace an institutional innovation process in which participatory, action-oriented methods drive research for development to solve critical problems.The IAR4D paradigm draws on successful experiences in Africa with integrated natural resource management (INRM), which takes a systems approach to managing the interactions between soils, water, pests and human interventions in agriculture (IAR4D also draws on Farming Systems Research, Ecosystem Science, Sustainable Development, Participatory Research, Livelihood Analysis and Knowledge Management). IAR4D goes beyond INRM, however, to encompass the domains of policies and markets and the effects these have on the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture. Taking all these factors into account, the IAR4D agenda will focus on four objectives:• to develop technologies for the sustainable intensification of subsistence-oriented farming systems;• to develop smallholder production systems that are compatible with sound natural resource management;• to improve the accessibility and efficiency of markets for smallholder and pastoralist products; and• to promote the formulation and adoption of policies that encourage innovation and will lead to improved livelihoods for smallholders and pastoralists.These four research domains should not be seen as separate areas of intervention, because the interactions between them are as, if not more, important than the domains themselves. In particular, it is clear that intensifying agricultural production will only benefit the farmer if there is an accessible market, while natural resource management interventions and the policy sphere affect each of the other challenges in very influential ways. There are, therefore, quite deliberate overlaps in the actions proposed.Integrating research and action in these four domains already represents an improvement on current practice, but the IAR4D approach calls for an even broader scope of work. Four additional mechanisms or 'support pillars' are required to promote this new way of doing business and the out-scaling (to neighbouring villages or similar agro-ecosystems) and up-scaling (to connect with local, national and international governments and institutions and the private sector) of program outcomes. Figure 1 depicts the relationship among the various components of the IAR4D model and shows the components of the four support pillars.Because IAR4D represents a significant change from past approaches, it will be implemented in the SSA CP through a two-step process congruent with the principle of 'learning by doing'. For the first phase, pilot learning sites (PLS) have been selected by the three African sub-regional organizations: Conseil ouest et centre Africain pour la recherche et le développement agricoles (CORAF), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and the Southern African Development Community-Food and Natural Resources (SADC-FANR). One site per sub-region has been chosen, each characterized by a different but complementary set of constraints to sustainable development: the Kano-Katsina-Maradi transect in Niger and Nigeria; the Lake Kivu region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda; and a corridor from southern Malawi through central Mozambique into northeastern Zimbabwe. In each site, the most serious constraints faced by local communities have been identified and research hypotheses have been formulated to address these constraints.At the time of writing, pilot learning teams are being formed at each site to pursue the research hypotheses. These comprise representatives of stakeholder groups, including members from a variety of scientific disciplines (biophysical and social) and from diverse institutions (national agricultural research institutes, universities, centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research or CGIAR, advanced research institutes, extension agencies, the private sector and nongovernmental, community-based and farmers' organizations). The teams will have overall responsibility for identifying, developing and promoting adoption of innovations that emerge from their pilot learning sites.The three teams will begin their work with participatory problem identification with farmers. The problems will be addressed by task forces, who will pay particular attention to involving women -especially those who have been marginalized in past development efforts. Regardless of the particular focus of activities, all projects will include measures to meet the four overall interacting SSA CP objectives, i.e. intensification, natural resource management, policies and markets. Task forces will not only address matters of science, but will also focus on the institutional changes needed for effective functioning in IAR4D. Facilitation and mentoring services will be provided from the outset to ensure the teams work across disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and to foster broad changes in the institutional context. Team interventions will be driven by local needs, but they will draw on a significant amount of available knowledge and best-bet technologies, even while generating new methodologies and practices.The research conducted at the pilot learning sites will be organized to ensure that results can be out-scaled into neighbouring commu- nities and scaled up from local and national to international levels. Figure 2 illustrates the range of organizations and the roles they will play in scaling IAR4D up and out. The SSA CP will need to balance local tailoring of solutions with extrapolation of insights to other settings. This will require dissemination of information and capacity building to bring all players up to speed. Implementing and internalizing the IAR4D approach will draw on the innovation systems approach (Clark, 2001) and the principles of institutional innovation, self-directed learning and value addition that are intrinsic to the INRM framework (Campbell and Hagmann, 2003). As the African agricultural research community engages in mutual learning and dissemination of results, it should become a more interactive, interdependent and vibrant body of professionals with continental impact and recognition.Given the magnitude of the constraints to agricultural development, the innovative nature of IAR4D and the complexity of change dynamics, it will take at least 5 to 10 years to demonstrate the full impact of this new approach. However, experience (e.g. that of the African Highlands Initiative) suggests that within 1 or 2 years, tangible benefits will already be flowing from the work of the pilot learning teams. A preliminary evaluation of the Phase I work will be undertaken after the first year of operations to document the validity and challenges to implementing IAR4D in the initial three sites. Documentation of methodological innovations will also be included as part of this evaluation. Lessons learned will strengthen the approaches of the first three pilot teams, and contribute to the design of Phase II of the Challenge Program, in which it is hoped to launch an additional six pilot teams.Participation in the SSA CP is open to all stakeholders engaged in agricultural research for development in sub-Saharan Africa. Consistent with its mandate as the apex body for agricultural research in Africa, FARA will be responsible to these stakeholders for the overall conduct of the SSA CP. This will ensure the involvement of a broad range of institutions including advanced research institutions from the North and South, CGIAR centres, community-based organizations, farmer organizations, national agricultural research institutions, non-CGIAR international and regional agricultural research institutions, non-governmental organizations, private enterprise, sub-regional research organizations and other players in the production-to-consumption chain.The SSA CP is centred on a critique of the reductionist 'technology bullet' approach to problems in African agriculture. The IAR4D agenda meshes interventions in the agrobiophysical domain with those that address political, economic and social constraints. The focus on fostering organizational change and collaboration also aims to strengthen links among diverse institutions in the agricultural sector. In fact, part of the research agenda itself will be to improve understanding of how the four domains of research and diverse institutional players interact to facilitate or limit the development process, and what interventions are most effective at relaxing constraints.The overall agenda of the SSA CP is vast and complex, but the design is based on a set of simple principles: start small; start where the needs or opportunities are greatest; keep a sharp focus on what is required to resolve the problem; and treat all interventions as learning experiences. Given the great variety of opportunities and constraints at each of the learning sites, each teamin collaboration with local stakeholders -will conduct a participatory diagnostic process to identify a number of 'entry points' for launching research related to the four intervention domains. In this way, the research program will keep a systems perspective while taking tangible steps to address perceived problems.Science and research are essential, but are not the drivers: The CP appreciates the potential for increasing agricultural productivity through technological However, improved technologies are only one tool in an array of possible interventions. IAR4D promotes the concept that technological change will follow much more easily when conducive policies and market opportunities can be developed.Institutional theory defines the term 'institution' as 'cognitive, normative and regulative structures and activities that provide stability and meaning to social behavior' (Scott, 1995). In this sense, institutions comprise the 'taken-for-granted' context in which work is done. They help to define roles and guide expectations and interactions, but may also constrain actors from changing their behaviour. The SSA CP targets two types of institutions: organizational structures per se, and the 'rule systems' that govern interactions among diverse agencies working in the agricultural sector. The Program aims to improve the performance of African national agricultural research and extension systems and the way research organizations interact with stakeholders such as policymakers, extension agents, entrepreneurs and, of course, farmers. Policies, markets and legal frameworks are regarded as institutions and changing them (and the way they foster sustainable intensification of agriculture) is an important part of the IAR4D agenda.The CP targets the way stakeholders interact with one another at the individual level. Subtle biases and differences in problem perception can escalate into significant obstacles to collaboration across disciplines, organizations and sectors. Thus the Program will pay attention to team building and to fostering dialogue among stakeholders at all levels. Mutual understanding is seen as a prerequisite for joint learning, which, in turn, paves the way for change. The incentive structures of participating institutions may also require refining to ensure that scientists are rewarded for initiating and sustaining successful partnerships.Collaboration: From its inception, the SSA CP design process has been a collaborative one. The 2-year planning phase drew on extensive inputs from hundreds of scientists and other stakeholders, and the work at pilot site level will continue this tradition, involving male and female farmers and pastoralists, entrepreneurs, NGOs and community-based organizations, researchers, extension agents, politicians and policymakers. The scaling up and out of successful innovations will also rely on collaboration between pilot sites and with organizations and other stakeholders not directly involved in Program initiatives. Collaboration among pilot learning team members will also be essential; indeed, if they are not able to model collaborative practices, the credibility of the SSA CP will be called into question. The Program will explicitly target resources to support collaboration at all levels, and will document lessons learned so that effective processes can be replicated elsewhere.Learning: The innovative nature of IAR4D means that many of its features have to be tested and evaluated under different circumstances. In the context of the SSA CP, the term 'pilot' (referring to the learning sites and teams) is not used in the conventional sense. Rather, the term highlights the explicit intention of the Program to catalyse and capture lessons -not only about problems, but also about the implementation of IAR4D concepts and practices in the field. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems will be put in place to promote continual feedback for learning and performance improvement. M&E will be applied to both research interventions and to the processes followed by the pilot learning teams and the Program overall. Provision has been made for technical training and skills development for team members as the need arises. Finally, the SSA CP will devote considerable resources to documenting and publicizing its work. Campbell, B. and Hagmann, J. (2003) ","tokenCount":"2766"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ad8964622949a74f97e4323b4484e4f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b015bb57-409f-4e74-9ce0-ef1ffe5d64ce/retrieve","id":"-1944205417"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"44d7fe7f-8fb2-49c5-be0e-3927e88114d9","pagecount":"20","content":"Under an agreement, the Centre for Advanced Water Research (CAWR), one of the GRIPP partners, provides technical support on the online publication platform (https://journals.qucosa.de/gripp) for the GRIPP Case Profile Series, offers editorial support to editors and prospective authors, and registers the series with Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).Front cover photograph shows the collective monitoring of groundwater levels under the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems (APFAMGS) project in India (photo: Jacob Burke, formerly Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO]).The GRIPP Case Profile Series provides concise documentation and insight on groundwater solution initiatives from around the world to practitioners, decision makers and the general public. Each case profile report covers a contemporary intervention (innovation, technology or policy) or a series of applied groundwater management-related approaches aimed at enhancing groundwater sustainability from an environmental and socioeconomic perspective at local, national or international level. Integrated analysis of the approach, background, drivers, stakeholders, implementation, experiences and outcomes are discussed with a view to illustrating best practices, factors that could lead to success or failure, and wider applicability.Participatory Management and Sustainable Use of Groundwater A Review of the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project in IndiaEste Perfil de caso del GRIPP evalúa si la participación proactiva de las comunidades rurales en la gestión de las aguas subterráneas contribuye positivamente al uso sostenible del recurso. La evaluación utiliza como estudio de caso el proyecto de larga duración (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) sobre Sistemas de aguas subterráneas gestionadas por campesinos de Andhra Pradesh (APFAMGS) en la India. La evaluación, aplicada en siete distritos, se basa en la revisión crítica y síntesis de la bibliografía existente y en visitas adicionales sobre el terreno realizadas cinco años después de la finalización del proyecto. El APFAMGS tenía como objetivo concienciar y producir cambios de comportamiento para lograr un uso sostenible de las aguas subterráneas, principalmente para el riego. El enfoque se centró en la transferencia de conocimientos y el fortalecimiento de capacidades para establecer procesos participativos susceptibles de favorecer medidas de gestión informales, así como en las tecnologías de apoyo al seguimiento hidrológico participativo y a la evaluación de las necesidades de agua para los cultivos. Además, fue fundamental sensibilizar acerca de las opciones de gestión de la demanda y abastecimiento de agua. El análisis indica que el APFAMGS ha contribuido a colmar las lagunas de conocimiento e información sobre los recursos hídricos subterráneos entre las comunidades agrícolas locales. Se ha observado cierto grado de reducción a largo plazo del bombeo de aguas subterráneas, pero no está claro si esto es atribuible al proyecto, y los efectos en la reducción del descenso del nivel de las aguas subterráneas pueden ser limitados y localizados. El enfoque del APFAMGS para la gestión participativa de las aguas subterráneas presentó limitaciones en lo que se refiere a los aspectos de equidad, con implicaciones para la sostenibilidad institucional del enfoque. El estudio proporciona orientación para promover a mayor escala instituciones más inclusivas y basadas en la gestión participativa de las aguas subterráneas. The disconnect between natural ecosystems and human systems represents a major bottleneck for sustainable management of natural resources (Sayers et al. 2016). This is particularly apparent in arid and semiarid environments that are heavily dependent on groundwater resources for livelihoods based on irrigated agriculture. Despite being a common-pool resource, groundwater development is primarily in the hands of private individuals (i.e., people acting only through self-interest and not representing any group, company or organization), because groundwater rights are linked to land rights in India (Saleth 1996). As a result of this and the high capital investment needed, groundwater development is undertaken by landowning, wealthier households aiming to profit from irrigated agriculture. The adverse impacts of groundwater overexploitation are, however, often disproportionately borne by small and marginal farmers, because they cannot afford to drill deeper as groundwater levels drop (Reddy 2005). This is particularly the case in areas occupied by hard rock aquifers, where drilling costs are higher. The failure of groundwater wells, one of the reasons for farmer suicides in India, is, in part, an outcome of these externalities, especially in drought-prone areas (Deshpande 2002;Reddy and Galab 2006).Until recently, no concrete efforts were made in India to bring groundwater under an appropriate system of management.The national model groundwater bill of 1970 1 largely serves as a guideline for documenting and notifying the status of groundwater development, while any regulatory and enforcement mechanisms are under the authority of individual state governments. Still, at the state level, groundwater has not been included in the more important water management initiatives, such as water users' associations (WUAs). 2 However, with rapidly increasing groundwater use and mounting signs of widespread depletion, state policy interventions have attempted to better manage the resource. Related policy advances vary across different states and union territories depending on the status of groundwater development and the socioeconomic and policy context. 3 Various formal approaches and methods, including demand management 4 and supply management, 5 have been implemented to restore groundwater levels. Despite the greater focus on groundwater, the impact of those efforts has been limited primarily due to the lack of enforcement, and where successful, the scalability depends highly on the socioeconomic conditions and political environment (Shah 2014).The failure of formal regulatory approaches has led India to experiment with informal, participatory groundwater management (PGM) initiatives 6 over recent decades (Shah 2014). Various participatory or community-based groundwater management interventions have been tried in different parts of India (Box 1). While some of these initiatives are funded by state governments, others are funded by bilateral funding agencies and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).Although most of these are small-scale initiatives (Verma et al. 2012;Reddy et al. 2014;Shah 2014;Sravanthi et al. 2015), some state governments in India are taking a keen interest in supporting and scaling up these initiatives, but not through formal institutions. 71 The model groundwater bill was subsequently revised in 1972, 1996, 2005, 2011and 2017(GoI 2020a).2 Participatory irrigation (via WUAs) has become a widespread strategy in Asia, Africa and Latin America to facilitate decentralization of the role of governments and enhancing the role of primary stakeholders in irrigation management. This, in principle, reduces public expenditure on irrigation, improves productivity, and helps to maintain irrigation systems. In India, a number of states (e.g., Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha) initiated WUAs during the late 1990s and early 2000s. For instance, Andhra Pradesh has created 10,790 WUAs covering the entire command area (including canal and tank systems, but not groundwater irrigation systems) of the state at a cost of INR 5,000 crore (USD 710 million) with support from the World Bank (Reddy and Reddy 2005). 3 States such as Telangana continue to pursue supply side management (development of surface irrigation and recharging of groundwater), while some states, such as Andhra Pradesh, are supporting participatory groundwater management (PGM) initiatives. 4 Formal institutions for demand management include market-based approaches (e.g., private property rights, which respond to market instruments, pricing of water and energy, etc.), technology-based approaches (e.g., subsidies for micro-irrigation and other water-saving technologies), and nonmarket-based (direct and indirect) command-and-control regulations. Important regulations include institutional credit restrictions, minimum separation distance between wells, and registration of/licenses for well development and drilling companies. 5 Formal institutions for supply management include managed aquifer recharge (MAR) interventions, such as check dams, farm ponds, percolation tanks, etc. These are not referred to as formal institutions. They are mostly technical approaches, but adhering to the Indian strategy for MAR (CGWB 2020). 6 Informal groundwater management institutions are those that evolve at the local level through community initiatives and often promoted (supported) by NGOs. The scale of these institutions is typically limited to a few villages. Informal regulations include restrictions on the area under water-intensive crops (paddy, sugarcane, etc.), construction of new bore wells, etc. The APFAMGS project encouraged farmers to collect local data that can be used to make collective decisions on groundwater management.Other ongoing participatory approaches have been undertaken by, for example, the following:• Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), an NGO in Anand, India, focuses on the micro-watershed scale for water balance analysis and planning groundwater use along with communities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.• Advanced Center for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM), a civil society organization in Maharashtra, India, and Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS), a grassroots initiative in Madhya Pradesh, India, are working on knowledge-based, typology-driven aquifer management strategies similar to those of Pani Panchayats.• Barefoot College in Tiloniya, Rajasthan, focusing on social work and research, is making use of a water budgeting tool known as Jal Chitra.• Centre for World Solidarity (CWS), a voluntary organization founded as a Public Trust in Andhra Pradesh, focuses on the water-energy-food nexus in optimizing resource use and resilience for farmer communities (Mohan 2012).These participatory initiatives have collectively led to national-level policy changes and programs. In particular, a rebalancing from supply-side to demand-side management with a distinct focus on sustainability, multi-disciplinarity and multidimensionality in water sector institutions, such as the Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).Source: GoI 2011.Participatory Management and Sustainable Use of Groundwater A Review of the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project in IndiaThe Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems (APFAMGS) project 8 is the largest-ever and longest-running community-led participatory groundwater management initiative in India. APFAMGS was implemented between 2003 and 2013 and covered 650 habitations including 6,500 households in seven drought-prone districts (Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah [today referred to as Kadapa], Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Prakasam) in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh (Figure 1). 9 Due to its apparent success, principles and practices followed by the project are being integrated into new government programs in India (GoI 2011). A detailed examination of the impacts of the long-term APFAMGS initiative would help inform the discussion on the broader potential of the PGM approach to achieve sustainable use of groundwater.  The broad objective of this study is to establish whether PGM, as implemented through APFAMGS, has helped to promote sustainable use and management of groundwater through community empowerment in the form of knowledge sharing, awareness raising and capacity building. The specific objectives of the study are as follows:1. Examine the APFAMGS approach to PGM and evolution of interventions over the entire project duration (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013).2. Review the performance and efficiency of APFAMGS interventions, during implementation and up to 5 years after project closure, in stabilizing resource availability, building resilience among communities, and distributional (equity-related) impacts at the household level.3. Establish linkages with other existing or potential groundwater management and institutional approaches in India and derive insights for the development of appropriate (sustainable and equitable) resource management policies and strategies going forward.This study builds on earlier assessments of APFAMGS during the implementation phase or immediately following implementation. While the earlier studies could capture the potential impacts more clearly, they could not address the sustainability of the interventions. This study looks at whether the prolonged interventions associated with APFAMGS have helped to usher in sustainable groundwater management practices, which would in turn reduce the pressure on groundwater resources in the area and enhance the sustained socioeconomic benefits to the communities. This outcome could be expected through behavioral and institutional changes that persisted even after the project. The assessment focuses on both biophysical and socioeconomic aspects using a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches.The hydrogeological impacts were assessed using secondary data collected at the district level. Firsthand information and observations were collected from project villages in two hydrological units (HUs). 10 These HUs were purposively selected as they are situated in the most drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, i.e., Anantapur and Kurnool (for details, see Reddy and Reddy 2020). Besides interacting with village communities in the project areas, engaging with communities of neighboring villages offered counterfactual information. Apart from project documents and evaluation reports, a number of studies have reviewed and assessed the achievements and impacts of APFAMGS over the years (APFAMGS 2006;  AFPRO 2007; FAO 2008, 2010; World Bank 2010; Reddy 2012; Verma et al. 2012; Das and Burke 2013; Reddy et al.  2014; Sravanthi et al. 2015). 11 In this case profile, the cumulative and long-term impacts of the project were captured through interviews conducted with the coordinating NGO Bharati Integrated Rural Development Society (BIRDS) and other implementing NGOs. Personal discussions were held with office bearers of APFAMGS and other programs. Also, key informant interviews were conducted with project implementing agencies. This type of firsthand information was gathered from the communities of five villages in two HUs (Upparavanka and Vajralavanka) situated in Peapally Mandal of Kurnool district and Gooty Mandal of Anantapur district. During the field visits, discussions were held with communities and individual farmers from APFAMGS and non-APFAMGS villages following a checklist of enquiries. The study assessed the long-term impacts of the APFAMGS approach and its sustainability in particular focusing on livelihood outcomes and climate vulnerability. Addressing the sustainability aspects over the long term (including after project closure) and the comparison between APFAMGS and non-APFAMGS communities are the value additions of this study. The APFAMGS 'pilot project' facilitated the long-term initiative Andhra Pradesh Drought Mitigation Project (APDMP) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). IFAD provided a loan of USD 75.5 million with a matching contribution from the state government (total project cost of USD 151.9 million) to implement the project in the same five districts (Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Prakasam) for a period of 7 years (IFAD 2016(IFAD , 2017)).Raising awareness and capacity building of communities dependent on groundwater were at the core of the APFAMGS project. Thus, groundwater users, or rather, selected trained volunteers, within each HU were equipped with the necessary equipment, skills and knowledge to support the management of groundwater resources in a sustainable manner. This was mainly done through monitoring and managing demand in light of the seasonally variable water availability. The approach provided the necessary means (equipment and knowledge to collect and analyze rainfall and groundwater data) to increase community understanding of groundwater resources. In the process of capacity building by the representative NGOs, the need to create awareness about water-use efficiency through the adoption of watersaving technologies and agricultural practices was also raised (Box 3).12 Besides PHM, the project provided 3,462 groundwater irrigation facilities to small and marginal well-owning farmers, bringing an additional area of 35,000 acres (approximately 14,150 hectares) under irrigation and covering about 14,000 small and marginal farming families. Farmers were trained to collect the hydrological data on a regular basis. The data were processed and stored for future use. In fact, the data are the property of the communities and may be purchased by researchers and institutions (Reddy et al. 2014). However, the quality of the data was found to be inadequate for the purposes of this study. Awareness building components included the following:• Facilitated discussions on the local groundwater situation in the HU and at the village level.• Demystifying the science of climate and hydrology through farmer water schools.• Introducing the concept of groundwater as a 'common good' and not simply private property.• Carrying out participatory groundwater monitoring and crop water budgeting exercises and sharing this information across the HU. • Providing information to farmers to encourage voluntary adoption of sustainable practices (reduce pumping, water-saving technologies, impacts of drilling new wells, crop diversification, best agrochemical management practices, etc.).Capacity building components included the following:• Farmer water schools adopted an informal and participatory approach to information sharing, group learning, and improving the skills and capacities of farmers. A total of 10,000 farmers attended the 300 farmer water schools and meetings which were organized every 15 days over a period of 5 years in all seven districts. Through these meetings, farmers were able to understand groundwater dynamics in their respective villages and the entire HU. Based on the new understanding, farmers voluntarily adopted appropriate modifications in their agricultural practices with the potential to lead to significant reductions in groundwater use. It must be noted that the farmer water schools were not continued in the latter phases of the project (i.e., after the first 5 years).• PHM is a 'learning by doing' exercise that helps to create 'groundwater literacy'. Farmers were trained at farmer water schools to measure groundwater levels, rainfall, pumping capacity of bore wells and the water requirements for different crops. Fortnightly, water level monitoring was carried out by farmer volunteers (both female and male farmers) in 2,026 observation wells (around one well per square kilometer). Daily rainfall data were collected by farmers from over 190 rain gauge stations (one station per 5 km 2 ). Well discharge measurements were carried out by farmers in over 700 observation wells to assess the pumping capacity of the wells, well performance, etc. To become a PHM volunteer, farmers had to undergo training (covering four modules) at the farmer water schools, and only the successful candidates were eligible to become volunteers (unpaid). These volunteers were then provided with the necessary measurement tools, such as electrical water level indicator, stopwatch, calibrated bucket, etc. Hydrological monitoring records were maintained and exhibited for public viewing on display boards at strategic locations within the village. Additionally, seasonal groundwater quality monitoring (analyzing 16 parameters related to drinking water quality) was carried out in public drinking water wells and the results were displayed in public places in the village. In fact, these data are cleaned and digitized for future use and made available to others on a commercial basis. 12• Crop water budgeting is a technical exercise where farmers collectively make their crop plans each season based on water availability (groundwater for cropping and irrigation in both dry and wet seasons). The project did not advocate changes to the crops being cultivated and did not want to limit the crop choices available to farmers in a particular HU. Instead, the emphasis was on improving water-use efficiency. It was assumed that farmers have sufficient knowledge of crop management practices and markets to be able to make relevant decisions.• Groundwater management committees (GMCs) and hydrological unit networks (HUNs) were established at the village and HU levels, respectively. These institutions met regularly to discuss various aspects of groundwater and were able to advise farmers on changes to crop pattern and other practices.• Water-saving technologies, such as micro-irrigation, were promoted by linking with the government subsidy programs. State and central governments provide a subsidy on sprinkler and drip irrigation (75% to 90%). Despite the high subsidy, only large farmers could afford and avail the subsidy due to high capital costs of the irrigation systems. This in turn resulted in inequity in access to and adoption of the technology.• No formal or informal regulation mechanisms were put in place. No separate project-derived subsidies to promote the adoption of demand management approaches or groundwater use regulations (e.g., restrictions on the area under water-intensive crops, construction of new bore wells, etc.) through official or social controls were implemented.Participatory Management and Sustainable Use of Groundwater A Review of the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project in IndiaThe APFAMGS districts are predominantly underlain by variably weathered granitic basement rocks with groundwater found predominantly under unconfined conditions (Garduño et al. 2009). The extent and productivity of the groundwater resources of these crystalline rocks are determined by inherent factors that include weathering depth, clay content and degree of fracturing. In favorable geomorphological settings, weathering and fracturing processes allow continuous relatively productive aquifers typically up to 25 meters thick in topographic lows. In less favorable settings, aquifers are thin and patchy and not very productive. Annual average rainfall ranges from 600 to 1,000 mm and is concentrated almost entirely within the monsoon season from around June to October. Rainfall amount, its intensity (Asoka et al. 2018), topography, soil infiltrability, and any catchment management and 'rainwater harvesting' 13 initiatives are key factors in the replenishment of groundwater resources.In order to gain a degree of clarity on the linkages between groundwater resources and APFAMGS interventions, the most extensive groundwater monitoring data provided by CGWB were used. These data were from the five of the seven APFAMGS districts (Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah, Kurnool and Prakasam), which were situated within the recently redefined state of Andhra Pradesh. The dataset covers an 18-year period between 1999-2000 and 2016-2017. Given that APFAMGS interventions were limited to areas outside of major surface water irrigation commands, only data from noncommand (i.e., groundwater-irrigated) areas 14 are presented.The aggregate groundwater situation across the APFAMGS districts has not improved. In fact, groundwater levels have deteriorated overall, with an average decline of about 0.2 m per year in the pre-monsoon 3-year moving average assessment (Figure 2). Moving average values for rainfall reveal a decreasing trend up to around 2004, followed by a brief increasing trend up to around 2007 and, finally, a longer decreasing trend up to 2017. Over these periods, both pre-and post-monsoon groundwater levels show similar sequential decreasing, increasing and decreasing trends. The consistent correlation between the filtered annual rainfall and filtered groundwater levels suggests that climate and rainfall-derived recharge have an important control on groundwater storage. This indicates that the impact of changes in groundwater recharge or pumping due to APFAMGS interventions has not had an overriding effect on the expected natural larger-scale rainfall-recharge pattern.The number of wells in Andhra Pradesh (before the Reorganization Act, 2014) increased from 0.8 million (0.7 million dug wells and 0.1 million bore wells) in 1971 to about 2.2 million (1.0 million dug wells and 1.2 million bore wells) 15 by 2007 (GoI n.d.;GoI 1995;GoAP 2002GoAP , 2006aGoAP , 2006bGoAP , 2008aGoAP , 2008b)). The area under groundwater irrigation increased from 0.8 million hectares (Mha) to about 2.8 Mha over the same period  (predominantly in rain-fed areas and not involving the replacement of surface irrigation). The area irrigated per well was almost constant, but water was drawn from greater depths as wells were deepened in response to falling groundwater levels (Reddy et al. 2016). The average density of actively operating wells in the state increased from five wells per square kilometer to 10 wells per square kilometer over the period from 1984 to 2007. 16 However, in hard rock areas, characteristic of the APFAMGS districts, the figure was over 20 wells per square kilometer, and in some pockets, it was as high as 100 wells per square kilometer, indicating the high reliance on groundwater in the APFAMGS areas. Reddy et al. (2016) showed that average groundwater levels declined rapidly in these highly developed local areas.13 Rainwater harvesting and catchment management techniques strive to capture rainfall and maximize its retention in the subsurface (soil and groundwater) for ecosystem and human benefits, especially for agriculture (rain-fed or irrigated) (Sikka et al. 2018).14 Non-command areas account for about 25% of the net sown area at the aggregate level. Within the non-command areas, coverage of APFAMGS interventions account for less than 10% of the area. 15 The number of wells for both years include functional and nonfunctional wells.   ;GoI 1995;GoAP 2002GoAP , 2006aGoAP , 2006bGoAP , 2008aGoAP , 2008b;;GoAP and GoI 2011a, 2011b, 2012a, 2012b). For the later years, data are compiled from the Office of the Director, Department of Ground Water, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. (ii) Rainfall data: GoAP (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) and GoAP (2016GoAP ( -2018)). 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6 2 0 1 7 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 4 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 7 2 0 0 8 2 0 0 9 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2 0 1 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6 2 0 1 7Annual rainfall (mm) Over the period from 1985 to 2016, rates of groundwater pumping for irrigation in the five districts, analyzed and as an aggregate across shallow and deep wells, increased dramatically, with the largest increases evident over the period between 1993 and 2002 (Figure 3). Since about 2002, the quantities of groundwater pumped have stabilized and, if at all, decreased in subsequent years. This decrease is potentially due to the decreasing trend in rainfall since 2008, which includes recent droughts in 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 that have reduced well yields as a result of poor groundwater recharge. Despite the extended drought conditions, the number and depth of wells have continued to increase. Data source : GoI n.d.;GoI 1995;GoAP 2002GoAP , 2006aGoAP , 2006bGoAP , 2008aGoAP , 2008b;;GoAP and GoI 2011a, 2011b, 2012a, 2012b). For the later years, data are compiled from the Office of the Director, Department of Groundwater, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India.The available HU-level assessments in the APFAMGS areas do not provide a clear indication of an improvement in the groundwater situation. An independent study covering the period 2005-2008 identified that groundwater pumping had decreased only in 24 of the 63 HUs (Garduño et al. 2009). Another study examining the period from 2006 to 2011 noted a 20% or more decrease in groundwater pumping at 17 of the 63 HUs (Das and Burke 2013). The decrease in groundwater pumping was attributed to above-average rainfall over the period considered and not due to APFAMGS interventions. A groundwater balance analysis for the same period (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011) showed that 56 of the 63 HUs remained in a so-called 'nonsafe' state of groundwater development, indicating that abstraction exceeds 70% of recharge (as per CGWB protocols). Thus, evidence of the hydrological impact of APFAMGS interventions suggests that the project had insignificant influence within the respective HUs. Finally, a farm-level study conducted across five villages in Nalgonda district in 2014 showed no significant difference in groundwater use between APFAMGs and non-APFAMGS areas (Sravanthi et al. 2015).  1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008  Groundwater availability has a direct bearing on the areas under kharif paddy cultivation (July to November) and rabi cropping (December to March). Crop water budgeting helped farmers understand the constraints to water availability and the effects of highly water-intensive paddy cultivation. Farmers' experiences showed that they incur crop and hence income losses when they do not follow the collective advice, i.e., reduce the area under water-intensive crops due to seasonal water shortages. Having knowledge of the constraints to groundwater availability faced by farmers prior to the cropping season in the project areas prompted the GMCs and HUNs to develop crop plans that addressed issues related to water use. This was directly attributable to APFAMGS interventions. Interestingly, the shift away from paddy to the cultivation of less water-intensive crops did not trigger the expansion of the area under irrigation. As mentioned earlier, the increase in the number of wells was due to decreasing groundwater levels rather than changes in cropping patterns.Farmers have started to diversify cropping by shifting from paddy to alternative crops, i.e., pulses, oil seeds, fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. This is in response to water stress and to also make the best use of available soil moisture (Garduño et al. 2009). 17 Market conditions for some of the crops (e.g., fruits, vegetables) have helped improve household income. A comparative assessment highlighted that APFAMGS villages were more resilient to climate-related risks than neighboring non-APFAMGS villages. For instance, investments in new wells and well deepening in the non-APFAMGS villages only occurred in the latter years of the project. Similarly, adoption of micro-irrigation is higher in APFAMGS villages (Reddy and Reddy 2020). Thus, evolving farmer practices could be attributed largely to APFAMGS interventions.New government programs or initiatives are prioritizing APFAMGS villages due to the communities' higher capacities and awareness coupled with stronger community institutions, such as GMCs, guaranteeing better outcomes and more efficient use of resources. The concentration of follow-up programs in the APFAMGS villages after 2013 has helped to enhance the impacts of the project. After project closure, the state of Andhra Pradesh continued to include APFAMGS approaches under different projects (Box 2), which also covered most of the APFAMGS villages. These new initiatives are scheduled to continue until 2025 (IFAD 2017). The more recent projects strive to promote sustainable groundwater use and management following the principles and practices of APFAMGS and could, therefore, be considered as follow-up projects. Besides continuing the earlier initiatives, these projects have helped to increase awareness among the communities and improve other practices, such as multiple/mixed cropping, critical irrigation, 18 mulching, and the use of chemical fertilizers, manure (vermicompost) and other natural inputs. Crop diversification has been spreading fast throughout the region in recent years due to increased water stress and favorable market prices for nontraditional horticultural and other crops, coupled with unfavorable market prices for traditional crops, such as groundnut. These crop diversification practices have helped farmers to stabilize or increase their yields and incomes and are likely to be sustained given the continued water stress and market conditions. In essence, farmers under APFAMGS have been capacitated in maximizing the agricultural output (crop yields and incomes) per unit of groundwater available on their farms, while not reducing overall use of the resource.There is a firm basis for concluding that behavioral change among the communities in using and managing groundwater is a result of the project interventions and other contextual circumstances. Realization of the concept of sustainable groundwater use came earlier and to a higher degree in the APFAMGS villages than in other villages. Without the continuation of APFAMGS interventions after project closure and the favorable market conditions, these behavioral changes would likely not have taken place. The recent developments fostered through follow-up interventions (Box 2) have helped farmers to be aware and use the knowledge gained systematically. In some of these villages, farmers continue to make crop plans informally by applying the knowledge they gained from APFAMGS, even without collecting additional data. While these communities have the advantage of continued external support, no formal institutional arrangements are pursued, e.g., integrating GMCs with WUAs, giving WUA status to GMCs, or linking GMCs to the state groundwater department. The more recent APDMP being implemented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, through the line departments, has identified PGM as a best practice. However, there is a need to link the existingParticipatory Management and Sustainable Use of Groundwater A Review of the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project in India informal community institutions to a formal structure with provision for funding, in order to protect the institutional network at the village level (social capital) and the groundwater support systems (natural capital) created in the region. At the same time, the new projects, while scaling out the initiatives, need to include all the APFAMGS villages in the program with an adapted set of interventions. The interventions could be in the form of updating the technical information from the field and keeping the communities informed, and creating motivation for adopting PGM.The 'do it yourself' approach with enhanced scientific knowledge has improved the awareness of well owners. This has increased resource-use efficiency but has not translated into sustainable groundwater use at any level -household, village or district -over the time frame assessed. This could be due to the absence of formal or informal regulations and collective initiatives, such as increased investments in managed aquifer recharge structures or sharing of water. This has resulted in perpetuating inequity, especially during drought years when groundwater levels tend to be deeper (Reddy et al. 2014).Marginal and small farmers are the first to be impacted by groundwater depletion as they have shallower bore wells compared to large farmers, and this affects their water availability for both domestic use and farming. Due to the lack of access to water, poor farmers are the first to quit farming in search of alternative income-generating activities (Reddy et al. 2020). In the absence of any tangible improvement in the groundwater situation, and since the project only focuses on farmers owning wells, APFAMGS interventions have failed to achieve equitable outcomes for all farmers.More sustainable and equitable outcomes would require long-term support and formal linkages with relevant line agencies, such as the state groundwater department. Informal peer pressure from fellow farmers, convinced about the gains from sustainable groundwater management practices, did not work in the post-project period in the absence of any social or economic regulations. Moreover, since the APFAMGS approach does not include all farmers, the information-based awareness failed to reach the majority of farmers. This was because less than 50% of farmers in the region own a well, and was also due to the absence of water markets or water sharing arrangements (Reddy et al. 2016). This has an adverse impact on the sustainability of the approach, as the limited membership hinders the collective ownership and commitment to the common good, i.e., groundwater. Also, in the absence of any tangible benefits to farmers who do not own a well, they lack the incentive to support broader activities, such as rainwater harvesting.Some of the initiatives in Andhra Pradesh after APFAMGS project closure have integrated the knowledge-based approach with social regulation. These interventions include the Social Regulations in Water Management (SRWM) by the Centre for World Solidarity (CWS), and the Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiative (APDAI) by the Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) (Reddy et al. 2014). Though awareness building and data generation by the village communities were important components, the process was not adequate as evident from the issues of quality of data and its organization. The most important aspect of these two new initiatives (SRWM and APDAI) was to bring consensus among the communities to share water between well owners and non-well owners to protect their crops, especially during periods of highest water stress. Social regulations were put in place and included restrictions on the construction of new wells, and provision of protective irrigation to the plots of well owners and non-well owners through the irrigation backup 19 they receive in the event of failure of the groundwater well. Further, water losses during distribution were reduced by using sealed pipeline supply rather than open channels, and water-use efficiency was increased through the promotion of micro-irrigation at subsidized prices. Similar PGM approaches were implemented by two NGOs in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh -Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) and Jana Jagriti (JJ) -where awareness, regulation and incentives are combined. A recent study assessing the FES/JJ approach identified that groundwater management improves with increasing community awareness (knowledge about cropping patterns and the linkages to groundwater use) and social capital (where participants consider group gains) (Meinzen-Dick et al. 2016).In all three initiatives (SRWM, APDAI and FES/JJ), social regulations had a clear effect in stopping the construction of new bore wells and helped a larger number of households, especially the marginal and small farmers, to benefit from sharing water with well owners (Reddy et al. 2014). This has led to increases in the cropped area under protective irrigation, thus minimizing crop losses. This also resulted in equity in the distribution of water and overall welfare improvement that could enhance drought resilience. The success of these initiatives is mainly due to the commitment and effort of NGO partners in the absence of any contribution from the farmers towards irrigation infrastructure (pipelines, micro-irrigation, etc.).Communities are often lured by the incentives (subsidies for micro-irrigation and pipelines) rather than their ownership of the interventions and commitment to sustainable groundwater management. (f)This assessment clearly highlights that the PGM approach of APFAMGS has neither resulted in an improvement in the groundwater situation nor promoted sustainable groundwater management practices in the majority of HUs at the district level. The weight of evidence indicates that the APFAMGS approach has a positive influence on behavioral changes due to increased knowledge of groundwater among farmers that may bring about more efficient use of the resource and better and more secure crop production. This may have reduced overall pumping in project areas and slowed groundwater level declines, but the effect appears at best limited or localized. However, the approach falls short on goals of equity due to limitations associated with inclusiveness, incentives and social regulations. Recent experience from Andhra Pradesh with more integrated approaches indicates that knowledge creation together with regulations/incentives are required to make PGM effective in addressing increasing food demand and climate-related vulnerabilities in more equitable ways. Further, the role of women in the process needs further strengthening, as they play a significant role in farming, especially in the context of climate-induced crop pattern changes. In this regard, ensuring women's participation in village-level GMCs would help address gender-sensitive aspects of groundwater management. While incentives require a top-down approach (government providing necessary capital support, subsidies, agricultural pricing, etc.), social regulatory mechanisms should evolve from within the community. The experience so far indicates that the design of the approach needs to consider local needs in order to make it effective and suitable for scaling out. PGM is being scaled up at the national level in seven states under a new program Atal Bhujal Yojana with a focus on institutional strengthening and capacity building. This program has an estimated budget of USD 860 million with a matching contribution of USD 430 million from the World Bank over a period of 5 years (2020-2021 to 2024-2025) (GoI 2020b).This study raises the larger question of 'how participatory are participatory initiatives?' This needs to be understood in the changing socioeconomic and climatic context and community perceptions, i.e., participation is no longer viewed as a solidary activity by communities. Unless there are substantial economic gains to be made, proactive participation is difficult to materialize (Mansuri and Rao 2013). More importantly, factors related to political economy, which may include elite capture, regulatory capture, political discrimination or favoritism, etc., come to the fore as these initiatives expand. Social regulation is a difficult proposition in nonuniform communities, where politics and the common good may disconnect (Reddy et al. 2014). At the same time, it is also difficult to encourage farmers with larger landholdings, who are also politically more influential, to give up their higher degree of control on groundwater due to the awareness created.Externally induced participation is unlikely to be sustainable in the absence of sustained tangible benefits and policy-backed incentive and regulatory mechanisms. While improving communities' awareness and knowledge about groundwater is a necessary precondition, it is not sufficient to make communities engage over the long term. Policy and legal support systems are required to ensure enhanced benefits and equity in their distribution. These include addressing the policy distortions in resource pricing (water and energy), output prices that favor water-intensive crops 20 and clearly defined property rights in order to make groundwater serve as a common-pool resource. When adopting and improving PGM-based initiatives such as APFAMGS on a wider scale, state governments need to consider the following aspects:• Initiatives towards increasing the community's awareness and knowledge about groundwater by adopting scientific approaches with location-specific attributes is a precondition for improving the efficient use of the resource. However, it may not improve the groundwater situation over the long term, especially with continuing climate change.• Integrating top-down incentive structures and bottom-up social regulatory mechanisms together with awareness building is likely to be effective in the short to medium term. These include price incentives for less water-intensive rain-fed crops, price stabilization (lowering price risk) for horticultural crops, pricing of water and energy by treating them as economic goods, and regulating groundwater pumping through community-based approaches, etc.• Pricing policies still favor water-intensive crops, such as paddy, sugarcane and wheat. 21 These policies, complemented by free or subsidized power and water pricing policies, act firmly against the policy objective of sustainable groundwater management. • 20 Rice is still a preferred crop due to better market conditions. Only water scarcity can deter farmers from growing rice. 21 Though 14 crops are listed in the minimum support price policy, effective implementation is enforced only for paddy, sugarcane and wheat (Reddy and Chiranjeevi 2016).Participatory Management and Sustainable Use of Groundwater A Review of the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project in India• Linking community-based institutions (e.g., GMCs) and existing administrative institutions (e.g., groundwater/ irrigation departments) with funds, functions and functionaries that could help sustain PGM initiatives. In this case, state government departments can take the lead in promoting and supporting the community actions at the local level.• In the long run, ensuring equity in access to groundwater among farmers will require policy changes that recognize groundwater as a common resource. This calls for changing the property rights regimes and moving towards delinking land and groundwater rights. ","tokenCount":"6747"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f3fca42b8a7f47080699dd91e1cf449","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37380bcf-ccaf-42c2-9584-d1b0045778df/retrieve","id":"227512941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0b6b26cd-c280-4236-ac8f-eee4c059849a","pagecount":"36","content":"The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. www.alliancebioversityciat.org www.cgiar.org CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations, and the private sector.. Reasons for and levels of farmers' appreciation of improved forage varieties distributed under the project - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Figure 7.Figure 10. Distribution of forage varieties for on-farm monitoring among the beneficiary farmers across four counties in Kenya - ------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tables Table 1. Peer-farmer facilitators conducting on-farm data collection - -------------------------------------Table 2: Levels of appreciation for forage varieties by beneficiary farmers. ----------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------1. IntroductionIn the coming 30 years, the global population is expected to increase by 2 billion, from 7.7 billion to an estimated 9.7 billion people. Sub-Saharan Africa's population is projected to double by 2050 (United Nations, 2019). With this population increase, the consumption of milk and meat products will exceed supply (Miruka et al., 2012). To ensure there is a balance between demand and supply there is need to increase output of animal products. This is especially important since meat and milk are essential sources of protein. Moreover, livestock production provides direct and indirect employment, contributing 12% to Kenya's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 40% of the agricultural GDP (Behnke and Muthama, 2011). However, livestock production is constrained by inadequate livestock feeds (Herrero et al., 2013). The sector is characterized by a heavy dependence on rainfed agriculture for pasture growth, resulting in insufficient fodder for livestock, particularly during dry seasons (Ouda et al., 2005). Despite a wealth of research that has resulted in improved forage varieties that have demonstrated the potential to provide highly-nutritious animal feed, translating research station production levels of these forage grasses to the farm level has proven to be challenging. Improved pasture technologies are tested and developed mainly on research stations, within the confines of homogeneous, researcher-controlled environments, with little consideration of the heterogeneity that is present in farmers' fields (Vanlauwe et al., 2016). Giller et al. (2011) established that heterogeneity of socio-economic and agroecological production environments on smallholder farms has a direct impact on crop production. However, research, which includes forage agronomy, has often over-emphasized and focused on single factors, ignoring important aspects of variability such as soil, climate and farm management (Shallow et al., 2018). This may explain why technologies do not perform as well as expected once they are introduced into farmers' fields. Heterogeneity increases the variability of technology performance, especially in on-farm settings, thus discouraging farmers and limiting its adoption (Melesse, 2018). In contrast with traditional recommendations that are based on on-station trials, our study contributes to tailoring and scaling forage agronomy. Scaling-up agronomy requires consistent data -on how forages are affected by a variety of soils and different management strategies -generated from multiple locations across extensive study sites (Paul et al., 2020). On the other hand, participatory research -in which participating farmers are an integral part of the research process, making key decisions as individuals (Paul et al., 2016) -is considered more empowering, and therefore increases technology adaptation and ultimately adoption. The aim of this study was therefore to understand how on-farm heterogeneity affects Panicum and Brachiaria grass yields -for livestock rearing and income generation -when cultivated in onfarm conditions compared to its performance when cultivated at a research station in western Kenya.Dennis Nyongesa and his wife have boosted their farm's milk yield and income since using the new forage grass varieties introduced by the Grass2Cash project together with KALRO, Send a Cow and Advantage Crops. Georgina Smith/ Alliance of Bioversity International and CIATThe Grass2Cash project distributed a mixture of seed of two Panicum Grass varieties (P. maximum, Mombasa and P. maximum, Tanzania) and three Brachiaria Grass varieties (Cayman, Mulato II and Xaraes) to more than 1000 farmers within four counties of western Kenya, namely Busia, Kakamega, Bungoma and Siaya, between October 2020 and May 2021.Of the 1000 initial forage seed beneficiaries, a survey was conducted among 480 farmers who had received and planted seeds between July and September 2019 -as this was considered a suitable period to allow optimal forage plot establishment and for the farmers to gain experience in managing and harvesting the crop. These 480 farmers also received initial farmer-to-farmer training on planting and management of forages from peer farmers involved in activities being conducted in the region by the UK NGO, Send a Cow. The survey enabled the project to gauge the rate of establishment, quality and management of the forage plots, forage utilization among the farmer beneficiaries across all four counties and to select 169 farmers to participate in on-farm monitoring of forage plots across all four counties. Through the survey, participating farmers were selected based on whether they had:• received forage seed planting material from CIAT• an established a forage plot at the time the survey was conducted • planted the forages as a plot (not as a contour or boundary)• a forage plot planted as a mono-crop (not intercropped)• a performance score of >40% (from average to very good) during the survey evaluation, thus excluding poor to very poor performance.Farmers with plots that were planted in strips, intercropped or were performing poorly were eliminated from the selection process. Data was obtained from each of the participating farmers' forage plots, specifically from two randomly measured quadrats, each measuring one square meter (Figure 1). Soil samples were collected at a depth of 0-20 cm using simple random sampling. A composite mixture was obtained by mixing samples from different cores. The sample was then air-dried, crushed, mixed thoroughly and sieved using a 2 mm sieve and analyzed for pH, total organic carbon, phosphorous and nitrogen, using procedures established by Okalebo et al. (2002).Throughout the survey and on-farm monitoring, data were collected and recorded using Open Data Kit (ODK). Enumerators were trained in the use of ODK, including recording and submitting data, and on how to administer the survey questions to farmers. On-farm monitoring and data collection was conducted by 12 trained peer-farmers from Send a Cow who were responsible for following-up with participating farmers (Table 1) every six weeks during the recording of agronomic data; however, they were not responsible for instructing farmers in plot management practices. Farmers made independent decisions on how best to manage their forage plots. Since the plots were at different stages of growth when on-farm monitoring commenced, standardization of forage plots following specific harvesting or cutting times was essential; accordingly, the first harvest (H1) took place in October, the second (H2) in November 2020 (during the short-rains period of September-December), the third (H3) in January 2021, the fourth (H4) in February 2021, and both H3 and H4 during the drier seasons of January-March. Harvests five (H5) and six (H6) were conducted in April and May 2021, respectively, both during the long rains (April-June). Plant height was determined by measuring five plants in each of the two selected quadrats at six-week intervals (at weeks 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36). Fresh weight was determined by forage samples harvested in the quadrat (Figure 2); dry matter weight was obtained through the difference between sample fresh weights, sample dry weight and conversion using the dry matter percentage. Agronomic data on type of manure, frequency of manure application, rate of manure application, type of fertilizer, frequency of fertilizer application, rate of fertilizer application, weeding method and weeding frequency were determined by administering a structured questionnaire to farmers.  Plant height average was determined by variety across harvests in all four counties. Fresh weight averages of the two quadrats per plot was determined in each county per variety across all harvests. Extrapolation enabled expressing yield into t/ha. Dry matter percentage was used to express fresh weight into dry weight. To determine the dry matter percentage, the differences between fresh sample weight and sample dry weight was determined and expressed as a percentage calculated using the formulas below:Dry matter percentage = (Fresh weight-Dry weight)*100%Conversion of fresh weight into dry matter:Dry matter (t/ha=Fresh weight t/ha*Dry matter percentage)To relate on-farm yields against soil properties in various sites across different harvests, analysis of repeated measures was conducted as illustrated:Whereby: Y=Dependent variable, U=Means, ai=County, bj=Variety, abij=County*Variety interaction, Eij= Error term.a. Out of 480 farmers selected for survey, only 400 (83.3%) could be surveyed, due to several factors: some farmers were listed twice in the initial list of beneficiaries as they received various varieties, while most of those we eliminated were untraceable since they had either moved away or died in the past year or were not known by the peer farmer.b. Out of these 400 farmers, 391 farmers (97.5%) confirmed they had received seeds in 2019 from Send a Cow peer farmers. The number of interviewed farmers who received seeds across the sites differed.In Busia County, 99 farmers (100%) received seeds, followed by 100 farmers (99.1%) in Bungoma, 123 farmers (98.4%) in Kakamega County, and lastly 69 farmers (93.2%) in Siaya.c. Out of the total 391 seed beneficiaries, 38.5% received Tanzania variety, 28% Mombasa, 11.7% Cayman, 10.2% Mulato II, 0.7% Masaai, 0.4% Cobra, 8.5% Xaraes, 0.7% Basilisk, 0.2% Piata, while none received Mg4 variety (Figure 3). Of these farmers, 97.4% had received some form of training from peer farmers, while 2.6% had received no training. The average plot owned by farmers in the survey was 2.3 acres.A total of 425 entries were recorded in the database, since some farmers planted more than one variety of forage, each of which was considered as a separate entry during data analysis. Among the 391 farmers who confirmed receiving seeds in 2019, only 360 farmers (92.3.7%) planted the seed received. Reasons highlighted by the remaining 31 farmers (7.7%) for failure to plant ranged from misplacing the seeds, safeguarding the seeds in the house, social issues, climatic factors such as lack of rain, and inadequate land on which to establish a forage plot. The majority of farmers planted the seeds between July and September 2019. Some farmers waited for the short rains in October and November to plant, while others waited for the dry season between February and March 2020 and in April 2020 (at the start of the long rains), the latter group attributing this choice to inadequate rainfall that discourages the establishment of forage plots. Forage varieties:At the time of the survey, of the 391 farmers who had received seeds and of the 360 who had planted them, only 291 (80.83%) had well-established, well-tended forage plots, while 69 (19.16%) plots were absent, indicating that the farmers who had planted the seeds received had not been able to establish forage plots (Figure 4). Contributing factors to the absence of plots included:- Survey results indicate that 91.5% of farmers preferred hand-digging tillage to prepare the land before planting. Only 3.1% used an oxen-drawn plough, while 5.2% combined hand hoes and oxploughs to prepare land for planting. The highest percentage (39.8%) of the sampled farmers weeded their plots three times, while 22.1% weeded more than five times. Farmers who weeded 1-2 times and 4-5 times accounted for 17.3% and 18%, respectively. Only 2.8% of farmers never weeded their plots. Twenty-three per cent of surveyed farmers reported harvesting more than 5 times and 20% reported harvesting 4-5 times. Almost 18% harvested less than twice, while 4% reported never harvesting forages from their plots. Kakamega County had the highest number of farmers (38.9%) harvesting their forage plots 3-4 times, which is similar to the numbers in Bungoma (36.2%). In contrast, most of the farmers in Busia (29%) reported harvesting more than 5 times. In Siaya, farmers harvested 1-2 times or 3-4 times, both of which represent 33% of the farmer beneficiaries with plots.The majority of farmers receiving forage varieties were highly satisfied with the forage seeds received and scored them highly when asked about their appreciation of materials received (see Table 2).Table 2: Level of appreciation for forage varieties by beneficiary farmers. On a scale of 1-5, the highest percentage of farmers (51.1%) assigned an average rating of four out of five to the improved varieties of forage grasses, followed by 29.6% of farmers who assigned a top score of five; 16.2% of farmers scored them at three out of five, 1.7% scored them at two, and the lowest percentage of farmers (1.4%) scored them at one out of five. As an observation, most of the farmers who scored the forages at either one or two out of five either never harvested the grasses or felt discouraged after poor germination.Among the grass varieties distributed, Tanzania and Mombasa were mostly appreciated for their high yields, increased milk production and palatability. Brachiaria varieties, including Xaraes, Mulato II and Cayman, were highly appreciated since they are easy to handle and regrow quickly after cutting (Figure 6). Farmers often gave more than one reason for prefering the forage variety, among which the most common reasons were a combination of: high yield, palatability for cows, increased milk production, fast regrowth after cutting, higher yields and resistance to pests. More than half of the farmers attributed their varietal preference to income generation for the household as a result of increased milk production, with enough milk for the family and for the sale of surplus milk.Figure 7 presents the farmers' overall trait preferences. Good palatability for cows was ranked highest by 74.9% of farmers; increased milk production was reported by 64.4% of farmers; 54.3% appreciated the forages for fast regrowth after cutting; manageability was appreciated by 48% of the farmers who indicated the grasses were soft and easy to cut; 41.9% reported high yields, while resistance to pests and drought were reported by 28.86% and 18.2%, respectively. On average, each participating farmer had a plot size of approximately 197.2 m 2 . Two-hundred and seventy-two farmers (93.4%) had planted forage plots in one area/plot. This means that the forage plot was not established as a contour or a strip. 80.4% of farmers had established the forage plots as monocrops, while 15.8% mixed the forages with other crop species on the same plot; and 3.4% intercropped the forage plot with beans, sweet potatoes, cassavas and bananas.The large majority of farmers (86%) indicated that they use the harvested forages to feed their own cows, while 6% used the forages to feed cows that did not belong to them (Figure 8). A further 14% reported selling the forages for income, most of whom sold the surplus forages after feeding their livestock. Very few farmers sold the whole harvest for financial gain, with the exception of farmers who had no cows and therefore no need to keep the grass as fodder.Performance of the forage varieties distributed among farmers in the four Kenyan counties was assessed, ranging from 'Poor' (10-30%), 'Average' (40-50%), and 'Good' (60-80%) and 'Very Good' (90-100%) (Figure 9). Busia County had the best-performing forages, as assessed by the enumerator. The total percentage of 'Very Good' performing forages across the four counties was only 13%, while the poorest performing accounted for 14% of the forages. The largest number of forage varieties (41.6%) showed 'Good' performance, followed by 30.2% of the forage varieties showing an 'Average' performance. Forage performance was also linked to maintenance of the forage plots (see section 3.2.3) and was a key indicator of how well farmers had been managing the forage plot. It was further used as a selection criteria for the distribution of forages for on-farm monitoring (Figure 10)  Additionally, Panicum maximum grass thrives in soils that are well drained and fertile (Alves & Xavier, 1986). None of the three Brachiaria spp. varieties Cayman, Mulato II and Xaraes showed significant differences in plant height. While Mulato II reached the highest plant height among the three, it was on a declining trend from harvest 2 to harvest 5. The lowest recorded plant heights were reached in harvest 4 due to the drought conditions experienced in January and February 2020, hence slowing the regrowth vigour. Most of the western Kenya region experiences bimodal inter-seasonal rainfall patterns, with long rains from March to May and short rains from October to December. However, in the recent past, precipitation has become more erratic leading to prolonged dry conditions at certain times of the year (Herrmann & Mohr, 2011). The drier seasons of the year present unfavourable conditions for pasture and fodder growth. Mombasa and Tanzania varieties planted by Busia County farmers were recorded as having the highest plant height compared to all the other three counties; however, there was an insignificant difference between Mombasa and Tanzania across the county. The highest plant heights across all the harvests and all varieties were recorded in Busia County. Accumulated dry matter yields by forage variety is shown in Figure 13 and across harvests in Figure 14. Mombasa variety produced the highest dry matter content among Guinea Grass species and all other forages with cumulative dry matter of 1.5 t/ ha. Panicum maximum species have often been considered good alternatives to Napier or Elephant grass, due to their high-yielding nature and vibrant regrowth after cutting (Munyasi et al., 2015). However, there was insignificant difference between dry matter yield of Guinea grass varieties Mombasa and Tanzania and the Brachiaria grass Xaraes, yielding 1.4 t/ha, 1.3 t/ha and 1.3 t/ ha of dry matter, respectively. Dry matter content in Mulato II (0.95 t/ha) was higher than that of Cayman (0.6 t/ ha). In Busia County, Mombasa yielded 2.8 t/ ha dry matter, the highest dry matter accumulation among the five forage varieties planted in the county. This was in significant contrast with Tanzania that produced 1.8 t/ha dry matter in the same county. Among the Brachiaria grasses, within Busia County, Mulato II performed better with a dry matter count of 1.5 t/ha compared to Cayman (0.9 t/ha). In Bungoma, Brachiaria Cayman accumulated 1.4 t/ha dry matter in six cuttings, while Mombasa yielded 1.3 t/ha of dry matter. Mulato II accumulated 0.8 t/ha of dry matter, which was slightly lower than Xaraes at 1.2 t/ha. In Siaya, Guinea grasses generally performed better than the Brachiaria. Mombasa and Tanzania varieties showed insignificant differences in dry matter yields, producing 0.96t/ha and 0.97 t/ha, respectively. Cayman was the better-performing variety among the Brachiaria grasses yielding 0.48 t/ha compared to Xaraes, which yielded 0.46 t/ha dry matter. The tillering ability of Brachiaria species supports their survival under drought conditions and the accumulation of high dry matter content (Ondiko et al., 2016). This may explain why Brachiaria grass varieties were able to adapt well in Siaya county, despite its drier conditions. However, in Siaya, none of the participating farmers planted Mulato II. Weeding is a key agronomic practice on forage plots (Figure 15). To maximise production, weeding should be combined with occasional replenishment of nutrients by applying fertiliser and manure, and managing pests and diseases (Iqbal, 2015). In Bungoma, farmers who weeded at least once obtained better yields than those who did not weed at all. On average, most farmers across all four counties did not weed during the six-week data collection interval across all harvesting seasons. In Kakamega County, for instance, only 9.3% of farmers had weeded during the entire two seasons while 90.6% percent had not weeded at all. Among these, those who weeded at least once during each harvesting season had better dry matter production at 1.6 t/ha compared to 0.9 t/ha produced by farmers who had not weeded (Figure 16). Farmers who applied manure to their plots at least once after each cutting season had better yielding forage plots than those who did not apply manure (Figure 17). In Kakamega County, those who applied manure obtained a mean dry matter of 1.9 t/ha, almost double compared to those who did not apply manure, which yielded 1.0 t/ha dry matter. Bungoma plots, to which manure was applied, yielded 1.6 t/ha dry matter, while un-manured plots averaged 1.0 t/ha dry matter. A similar trend was noted in Busia and Siaya counties. These findings reflect those of Zhou et al. (2018) who reported a 10-80% increase in yield when using geneticallyadvantaged crops coupled with appropriate agronomic management practices. Higher yields can help to encourage adoption of new forage varieties among farmers. This therefore confirms that farmers should be keen to manure their forage plots after every cutting season. During the entire study period, a very large percentage of the farmers had not fertilized their plots. In Kakamega, 90% of plots went unfertilized while 9.3% were fertilized, which is a similar to Bungoma. Siaya had the largest percentage of unfertilized plots at 96.7%. This was especially during the initial stages of the study. In Busia 91% of the plots went unfertilized while 9% were fertilized. The interactions between fertilizer use on forage plots and forage yields played out as for manure application. Plots to which fertilizer was applied at least once after the cutting cycle provided higher yields (Figure 18). In Kakamega, fertilized plots yielded 2.6 t/ha dry weight compared to 1.1 t/ha from unfertilized plots. Fertilized plots in Busia yielded 2.3 t/ha, compared to the significantly lower yields (1.8 t/ha) on plots where fertilizer was not used. In Siaya, plots that were not fertilized yielded 1.8 t/ha compared to 1.5 t/ha on fertilized plots. In Bungoma, unfertilized plots yielded 1.1 t/ha, while fertilized crops yielded 1.6 t/ ha. These findings align with Wambugu et al. (2012) whose study focused on interactions between fertilizer application and varietal selection in western Kenya and who reported an 88% increase in crop yields. There was, however, a decline in dry weight yields of fertilized plots at harvest 4. Insufficient moisture in the soil during the drier months of January and February may have constrained mineralization, limiting the effectiveness or uptake of the fertilizer applied. Soil analysis is generally undertaken to establish the status of the soil, further confirming it as a potential source of variability in on-farm forage production. The soils in western Kenya are mostly Ferrasols and Acrisols, which are highly weathered and lacking in nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). Continuous cultivation of crops, without replenishing soil nutrients, has also contributed to the depletion of key soil nutrients such as N and P (Keino et al., 2015), as shown by the poor levels of N and P in the soils across all sites (Table 3). The impoverished condition of the soil may explain why fodder production levels in the study sites did not reach their full potential (Figure 19). Phosphorous plays an important role in pasture production, which generally increases with Olsen P availability (Edmeades at al., 2010). Table 3 illustrates soil conditions across the four counties, confirming the significant difference (<0.0001) in soil quality across the sites and heterogeneity with each county, causing variability in forage production. This difference in performance between counties is an indication of the varying response of varieties to available soil nutrients. On-farm resources used in farm management and access to inputs can differ considerably, even within the same community (Zingore et al., 2007). This is why research methods should factor in onfarm variability, including soil fertility. On-farm research enables us to understand the production potential of improved tropical forages under unguided farmer management practices in western Kenya. In this report, we present preliminary results from monitoring agronomic performance of project beneficiaries who received seeds of improved forage grasses. From our survey results, 70% of the farmer beneficiaries who received planting materials integrated these forages into their farming systems. Farmers are positive about the new varieties due to their potential to provide both high quality and quantities of livestock feed compared to their traditional livestock feeds. Preliminary analysis of the on-farm agronomic monitoring indicates differences in performance between counties, forage varieties and harvests. Differences in soil fertility and management practices (weeding and fertilization) affect the outcomes (number of harvests and yield). High variability in production and yields are observed, which can be attributed to heterogeneous agroecological environments and smallholder farmer management practices, explaining why forage technologies perform differently on-farm compared with research stations. Further analysis is needed to disentangle the interaction between genetic material, agroecological conditions, management factors and forage productivity. On-farm studies such as this provide insights into the production of forages under heterogeneous farmer environments, helping to guide scientists and policy makers in better targeting and scaling improved forage technologies, interventions and practices.Nelly Adhiambo has increased her farm's milk production in Busia, Kenya as a result of the forage grasses introduced by the Grass2Cash project, ","tokenCount":"4200"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68a56bdec90aeb3b55b4bcd82875cd60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1ae9ae52-8ff3-4bc8-b898-32944b1e59f4/content","id":"300759207"},"keywords":["wheat","Triticum aestivum L.","Septoria tritici blotch","QTL analysis"],"sieverID":"1cad72dd-c52d-44c6-b2e3-fd5311ddf859","pagecount":"12","content":"Septoria tritici blotch (STB) caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola, is one of the most destructive foliar diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) especially in temperate and humid regions across the world. The susceptibility of recently released varieties, evolution of resistance to fungicides and increasing incidence of STB disease emphasizes the need to understand the genetics of resistance to this disease and to incorporate host resistance into adapted cultivars. This study aimed to decipher the genetics and map the resistance to STB using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping population derived from 'Steele-ND' (susceptible parent) and 'ND 735' (resistant parent). The RILs were evaluated in three greenhouse experiments, using a North Dakota (ND) isolate of STB pathogen. The mean disease severity of parental genotypes, 'ND 735' (11.96%) and 'Steele-ND' (66.67%) showed significant differences (p < 0.05). The population segregated for STB and the frequency distribution of RILs indicated quantitative inheritance for resistance. The mean disease severity in RILs ranged from 0 to 71.55% with a mean of 21.98%. The genome map of this population was developed using diversity array technology (DArT) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The framework linkage map of this population was developed using 469 molecular markers. This map spanned a total distance of 1,789.3 cM and consisted of 17 linkage groups. QTL mapping using phenotypic data and the framework linkage maps detected three QTL through composite interval mapping. One QTL was consistently detected in all experiments on the long arm of chromosome 5B, and explained up to 10.2% phenotypic variation. The other two QTLs, detected in single environments, were mapped to 1D and 7A and explain 13% and 5.5% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. The map position of the consistent QTL on 5BL coincides with the map position of durable resistance gene Stb1 suggesting the importance of this region of 'ND 735' as a source of durable STB resistance for the wheat germplasm.Septoria tritici blotch (STB), a major leaf spotting disease of durum (Triticum turgidum L.) and bread wheat (T. aestivum L.), is incited by Mycosphaerella graminicola (Fückel) Schröter in Cohn (anamorph: Septoria tritici Desm.). It is one of the most destructive foliar diseases of wheat in temperate and humid regions (Eyal et al. 1987). In North America, STB occurs in association with other leaf spotting diseases including Stagonospora nodorum blotch (SNB), caused by Phaeosphaeria nodorum and tan spot caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Gilbert and Woods 2001;Singh et al. 2006). STB reduces the photosynthetic area of the leaves, causing a reduction in the amount of carbohydrates assimilation during grain filling that results in lower number and weight of kernels. Losses can be very high and may reach 50% under conditions favourable for disease development (King et al. 1983;Eyal et al. 1987). Further, STB causes significant losses in grain quality by black point, red smudge, and shriveled grain that causes reduced flour yield.In recent decades, STB has increased in importance worldwide because of the intensified wheat production, growing of cultivars susceptible to STB, and changes in cultural practices including adoption of conservation agriculture practices that have been gaining popularity for reasons ranging from the economics of production to protection of the environment (Eyal et al. 1987;Ghaffary et al. 2011). It is anticipated that due to climate change, further increase in incidence and severity of STB will occur. The most widely grown hard red spring wheat (HRSW) cultivars are susceptible to STB (Singh et al. 2006;Mergoum et al. 2007). Fungicides offer control, but when grain prices are low, their use is not cost-effective and detrimental to the environment. Additionally, the recent discovery of resistance to fungicide has reduced the efficiency of these fungicides over time (Gisi et al. 2000(Gisi et al. , 2005) ) and further increased interest in breeding and growing STB resistant cultivars. Therefore, the incorporation of host resistance and development and cultivation of durable resistant cultivars is the most effective, economical, and environmentally friendly strategy for mitigating the threat of STB.Understanding the mode of inheritance and mapping genes for STB resistance is paramount for breeders to develop breeding strategies for incorporation of STB resistance into adapted germplasm. The deployment of host resistance will prolong the latent period of STB infection as well as reduce the number and size of chlorotic and necrotic lesion formed in the leaf (Eyal et al. 1987;Kema et al. 1996;Somasco et al. 1996). The qualitative mode of inheritance was reported in studies of Arraianio et al. (2007), Brading et al. (2002), McCartney et al. (2002) and Somasco et al. (1996), wherein a gene-for-gene interaction has been suggested in the wheat-M. graminicola pathosystem based on significant cultivar-isolate interactions. To date, eighteen major genes conferring STB resistance (Brading et al. 2002;McCartney et al. 2002;Adhikari et al. 2003Adhikari et al. , 2004a, b, c;, b, c;Chartrain et al. 2004Chartrain et al. , 2005;;Arraianio et al. 2007;Ghaffary et al. 2011) have been reported and majority of them have been mapped using molecular markers. However, quantitative inheritance was reported in other studies (Jlibene et al. 1994;Simon and Cordo 1997;Zhang et al. 2001;Chartrain et al. 2004;Arraianio and Brown 2006). Quantitative resistance is generally isolate non-specific and provides resistance to wide variety of isolates. Partial resistance and tolerance mechanism to STB has also been observed. Additionally, QTL mapping studies by Eriksen et al. (2003) reported QTL associated with both seedling and adult plant resistance for STB in a double-haploid population from 'Savannah' and 'Senat'. They mapped six QTL including QTL associated with seedling resistance on chromosome 3A near the Stb6 locus and QTL for adult plant resistance on chromosomes 3A, 6B and 7B. Simon et al. (2004) using two different Argentinean isolates, mapped three QTL for seedling resistance to STB on chromosomes 1D, 2D and 6B and two QTL for adult plant resistance on 3D and 7B. This study also concluded that the position of the major QTL located on chromosome 7B is near or coincides with previously mapped gene Stb8 by Adhikari et al. (2003).Breeding for host resistance for STB disease is difficult due to the low heritability of non-specific resistance, lack of knowledge on the pathogen virulence spectrum, and scarcity of durable resistant source (Eyal 1999). Under field conditions, evaluation of wheat for resistance to STB is challenged by the variation in the environment, amount of natural inoculum, and competition between pathogen causing foliar diseases for healthy tissue to infect and colonize the plant (Gilchrist et al. 1999). Additionally, STB disease is seen as mixed infection with other leaf spotting diseases, making phenotypic evaluation difficult and erroneous. Studies have reported that evaluation of seedling for resistance to Septoria diseases under controlled conditions is accurate and reproducible, due to uniform disease pressure (Eyal 1999). Many studies have also reported a positive correlation between assessments of resistance at seedling level and adult plants under natural infection in the field conditions (Somasco et al. 1996).Several studies have shown that a particular trait could have different genetic control among different segregating populations, making it important to study the genetic control of a trait of interest in different backgrounds and to have a more complete knowledge of the genetic architecture of the trait of interest. This objective of the present study was to determine the genetic control of resistance to STB under greenhouse condition and to map genes/QTL in a RIL population derived from HRSW wheat cultivar 'Steele-ND' (Mergoum et al. 2005) and HRSW line 'ND 735' (Mergoum et al. 2006). The identified molecular markers associated with QTL for resistance to STB may prove useful in HRSW breeding programs aimed at developing cultivars resistant to STB through marker assisted selection (MAS).One hundred and twenty nine RILs were developed from a cross between HRSW wheat cultivar 'Steele-ND' (Mergoum et al. 2005) and HRSW line 'ND 735' (Mergoum et al. 2006). North Dakota State University (NDSU), Fargo, ND, released this F 2-8 RIL population in 2008 (Mergoum et al. 2009). The wheat cultivar 'Steele-ND' released in 2004 has the pedigree of 'Parshall' (PI 613587)/ND706, while line 'ND 735' is derived from the cross of ND 2709/3/'Grandin' (PI 531005)*3//'Ramsey' (CItr 13246)/ND 622/ND 2809.The cultivar 'Steele-ND' and line 'ND 735' show susceptible and resistant reaction, respectively, to major leaf spotting diseases including STB, SNB, all virulent races of tan spot found in ND, and to toxins Ptr Tox A (produced by races 1 and 2 of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis) and Ptr Tox B (produced by race 5) (Singh et al. 2006;Mergoum et al. 2007).To evaluate the 129 RILs and their parents, three independent experiments were conducted in 2009 under similar greenhouse conditions at NDSU, Fargo, ND. Each line was planted in plastic cones (3.8 cm in diameter and 20 cm long) filled with Sunshine mix blend #1(Fison Horticulture, Vancouver, B.C.). Fertilization was done using slow releasing fertilizer (3 g/l 15-30-15 Miracle Gro, Scotts, Pot Washington, NY). Watering of plants was done as required. Greenhouse temperatures were maintained in the range of 21-25ºC with 16 h photoperiod. Each experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replicates and four plants per cone formed an experimental unit. Additionally, 'Salamouni' as a resistant check and 'Glenlea' as a susceptible check were included in each experiment.Inoculums were produced using yeast sucrose liquid medium. The medium was prepared by mixing 10 g of yeast extract and 10 g of sucrose in 1 L of distilled water. From this solution, 100 ml medium was transferred to 250 ml capacity Erlenmeyer flasks and autoclaved for 20 min. After cooling, 200 µl of kanamycin sulphate was added to each flask. Approximately 1 ml of liquid culture of STB isolate Ma04-94 was transferred to each flask. Flasks were covered with cotton plugs and kept in an orbit shaker (Barnstead/Thermolyne, Dubuque, IA) at 150 rpm for 3-5 days depending up on growth of culture. After shaking, mycelia were removed by filtering the inoculum through 2-3 layers of cheesecloth. The spore suspension was counted using a haemocytometer and adjusted to 1.0 × 10 7 spores/ml before inoculation. Two drops of Tween 20 (polyxyethlene sorbitan monolaurate) was added per 100 ml of spore suspension before inoculation.Plants were inoculated with spores of M. graminicola nineteen days after planting using a CO 2 -pressurized hand sprayer until runoff. Inoculated plants were allowed to dry off before transferring them to the mist chamber under continuous leaf wetness for 60 h. The mist chamber conditions were maintained at temperature 20-23ºC, humidity 85-100%, and a photoperiod of 16 h. The mist chamber was kept open for 1 h every 24 h to allow proper ventilation and avoid yellowing of leaf. Subsequently, the plants were transferred to greenhouse benches at a temperature of 21-25ºC until disease symptoms were observed.Plants were assessed for STB symptoms three weeks after inoculation. One infected leaf from each plant was scored for disease symptoms. Reactions were scored visually for the disease severity on a scale of 0 to 100 percentage by estimating the percentage leaf area covered with necrotic lesions with or without pycnidia (Gaunt et al. 1986;Saadaoui 1987).In the present study, 469 molecular marker data on 118 RILs was used for construction of linkage maps. These include 429 DArT (Akbari et al. 2006) and 10 SSR markers described previously (Singh et al. 2010). Additionally, 30 more polymorphic SSRs were used as anchoring markers to reconstruct the linkage map for this population. DNA isolation and SSR analysis was performed as described earlier (Singh et al. 2010).The analysis of variance was done using the general linear model (PROC GLM) considering genotypes and environment as random effects (Statistical Analysis System version 8.2, SAS Institute 1999). Error homogeneity was tested using a factor of 10 test. The broad sense heritability was calculated based on the ANOVA analysis. The linkage maps were constructed using MAPMAKER v3.0 (Lander et al. 1987) with a minimum LOD score of 3.0 and using Kosambi mapping function (Kosambi 1994). The QTL analysis was conducted on individual experimental data with composite interval mapping (CIM), using Windows QTL Cartographer v2.0 software (Wang et al. 2004). In this method, model 6 with forward and backward step-wise regression with five markers as cofactors to control genetic background effects and a 10 cM genome-wide scan window, was used for the detection of QTL. A LOD score of 2.0 was used for determining the presence of a putative QTL.The parental genotypes of the RIL population showed contrasting reaction to STB and the RIL population was segregating for this trait. The susceptible parent 'Steele-ND' showed (Fig. 1, Table 1) a mean disease severity of 66.67% (range of 60% to 80%), statistically different (p < 0.05) from the resistant parent 'ND 735' which has a mean disease severity of 11.96% (range of 6.25 to 15.63%). The resistant check cultivar 'Salamouni' had mean disease severity of 2.17% (range of 1.25 to 2.75%) while, the susceptible check cultivar 'Glenlea' had a mean disease severity of 89.58% with a range varying from 83.75 to 98.75%. The mean disease severity of first experiment was low (14.01%) compared to other experiments. The highest mean disease severity (28.93%) and high pycnidial density was observed in the second experiment. The combined ANOVA for the three greenhouse experiments including the129 RILs, parents, the resistant and susceptible checks indicated significant differences (p < 0.0001) among the means of genotypes (RILs) for STB resistance (Table 2). The significant effect of genotype by location interaction indicates the high variability for this disease. The majority of lines showed transgressive segregation in the direction of resistant parent 'ND 735' and the frequency distribution in each greenhouse season indicated the quantitative nature of disease resistance (Fig. 1). The broad sense heritability was calculated to be 0.88 based on the estimation of the components of variance. Such higher heritability estimates are common in greenhouse based disease resistance studies. Collectively these results indicated significant variations for the STB resistance in the parental genotypes and the RILs of the mapping population used during the present study, thus, suggesting its suitability for conducting QTL analysis.A total of 469 polymorphic marker (429 DArT and 40 SSR) data on 118 RILs was used for the construction of linkage maps. Linkage maps, containing at least 3 marker loci, were  obtained for 14 chromosomes (Fig. S1*). The final linkage map contain 392 markers (364 DArT and 28 SSR) assigned to 277 unique loci. The total genetic length of the linkage map was 1,789.3 cM; with an average density of one marker per 4.57 cM (Fig. S1). The B genome had the highest number of mapped loci, while the D genome had the minimum loci. The map lengths were 840.3 cM, 788 cM and 161 cM for the A, B and D genomes, respectively. The B genome had 245 markers spread over 788 cM covering whole B genome with average marker density of one marker per 3.22 cM. The A genome had a total of 138 markers covering most of the A genome except chromosome 2A. The A genome had a map length of 840.3 cM with average marker density of one marker per 6.09 cM. The D genome had the least marker density (one marker/17.89 cM) and least map coverage (9 markers covering 161 cM map length only on chromosome 1D). The individual map lengths range from 42.60 cM on 5B to 201.60 cM on 7B and the number of markers in individual chromosomes range from 9 on 1D to 59 in 2B. The order of SSR markers and the DArT markers was mostly in agreement with the other published maps (Semagn et al., 2006;Francki et al., 2009).Results of QTL mapping conducted on individual experiment data as well as mean data is given in Table 3 and Figure 2. Composite interval mapping identified one stable QTL on chromosome 5BL that was mapped in all individual experimental data. This QTL on 5BL explained up to 10.20% of phenotypic variation. The other two QTLs were detected one each on 1D and 7A. These QTLs explained 13% and 5.5% of phenotypic variation, re-  spectively. The QTLs on 1D and 7A were detected only in the third experimental data. The position of QTL detected on 5BL was similar in all experimental data. This stable QTL was mapped on long arm of 5B flanked by two DArT markers (XwPt-7101/X377410). As the stable QTL only explained a maximum of 10.20% of the phenotypic variation, the rest of the variation could possibly be explained by the other QTLs and the interaction that may be present in unmapped linkage groups.The genomic constraints of the large hexaploid wheat genome as well as the lower level of polymorphism exhibited by common wheat compared to other cereals (Langridge et al. 2001) makes the molecular mapping efforts in common wheat very complex. Therefore, genetically diverse parents or inter-specific crosses have been utilized to create the mapping populations. However, these populations lack desirable trait variation that can be readily used in breeding program for commercial cultivars. Molecular mapping on populations derived from inter-varietal crosses were suggested to make the marker-trait association more relevant to the objectives of the breeding program (Varshney et al. 1998;Somers et al. 2004). This study involved a population developed from an inter-varietal cross, similar to their inter-varietal populations utilized by Liu et al. (2005) and Paillard et al. (2003) for developing genetic maps. The length of the linkage map (1,789.7 cM) developed during the present study was less than other published wheat maps, which could be attributed to low level of polymorphism for the D genome. The largest linkage group in our study was in chromosome 7B (201.60 cM), which is slightly larger than other published maps of Liu et al. (2005) and Paillard et al. (2003).  The line 'ND 735' showed a high level of resistance to STB. Additionally, Singh et al. (2010) studying the same RIL mapping population mapped resistance genes Tsr1 and Tsr6 for resistance to races 2 and 5 of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, cause of tan spot of wheat. The gene Tsr1 was mapped in 5BL and Tsr6 was mapped in 2BS, with DArT markers wPt-3049 (2.9 cM) and wPt-0289 (4.6 cM), linked to both genes, respectively. The same mapping population was used by Singh et al. (2011) for mapping Tsn1 locus in 5BL, which confers resistance to spore suspension and culture filtrate for Phaeosphaeria nodorum isolate Sn2000, the causal agent of Stagonospora nodorum blotch (SNB). The line 'ND 735' is also resistant to Fusarium head blight (Mergoum et al. 2007). The presence of the tetraploid wheat cultivar Ramsey as well as FHB-resistant Chinese wheat cultivar 'Sumai 3' in its pedigree makes 'ND 735' resistant to Septoria diseases and FHB (unpublished data). The cultivar 'Steele-ND' shows susceptible reaction to the STB, SNB, tan spot and FHB (Mergoum et al. 2005;Singh et al. 2010Singh et al. , 2011)), but is superior in many agronomic and quality traits. This shows that this RIL population segregates for a lot of traits, meaning that it is useful for identifying QTLs associated with disease resistance, agronomy and quality traits.The accurate phenotyping of STB is difficult in field conditions of ND, due to the mixed infection of various leaf spotting diseases as well as less favorable environmental conditions for disease development during the spring wheat-growing season. Therefore, most of the STB studies in ND (Mergoum et al. 2007;Ali et al. 2008), were conducted in greenhouse conditions at seedling stage. Previous QTL mapping experiments on STB (Eriksen et al. 2003;Simon et al. 2004;Simon et al. 2010) involved testing at seedling and adult plant stages. Simon et al. (2010) mapped two-linked isolate specific QTLs for seedling and adult plant resistance to STB using an Argentinean isolate. This further confirmed the positive correlation found in the studies of Somasco et al. (1996) and the efficacy of doing seedling stage evaluation for resistance to STB. However, seedling resistance is not always strongly associated with adult plant resistance for STB hence additional efforts are needed to identify and incorporate adult plant resistance into commercial cultivars.The majority of molecular mapping studies in STB confirmed the existence of major gene resistance following the gene-for gene-model. The QTL mapping studies of Eriksen et al. (2003), Simon et al. (2004), andSimon et al. (2010) found the position of major QTL coinciding with the position of already mapped major genes. During our study, the position of stable QTL was mapped to the long arm of chromosome 5B. Previously, Adhikari et al. (2003), mapped resistance gene Stb1 on the long arm of chromosome 5B using RAPD and microsatellite markers. The gene Stb1, originated from the wheat cultivar 'Bulgaria 88' was bred into the soft red winter cultivars 'Oasis' and 'Sullivan' in Indiana and is among the few genes that have provided durable resistance to STB in the central USA since its deployment in the early 1970s (Adhikari et al. 2003). Therefore, it seems the QTL found in this study is the same as Stb1, a durable resistance gene, which is more likely the major source of resistance to STB in the 'Steele-ND'/'ND 735' RIL mapping population. The identification of a QTL on 5BL at the same location where a major gene/QTL for STB had been earlier reported suggests the importance of this region in a variety of wheat germplasm and environments, but probably with various levels of expression in different genetic backgrounds. Previous mapping of several other disease resistance genes, like Tsr1 for resistance to race 2 Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, causing tan spot (Singh et al. 2010) and Tsn1 conferring resistance to spore suspension and culture filtrate for Phaeosphaeria nodorum isolate Sn2000, cause of Stagonospora nodorum blotch (Mergoum et al. 2009) in the same region suggests the importance of the this region of chromosome 5B.This study, utilizing 469 molecular markers observed 17 linkage groups across 14 chromosomes. The study identified one consistent QTL on long arm of chromosome 5B across environments and two QTL on 1D and 7A in only specific environments. This indicates that genotype × environmental interaction influence on QTL detection. Previous studies have identified genes contributing to STB resistance located on chromosomes 1D (Chartrain et al. 2005) and 7A (Goodwin 2007), however, further studies are needed to confirm the relationship. Additionally, since in this study involved markers located on 14 chromosomes hence there may be more loci present in the rest of the genome that may be contributing to STB resistance.The current study as well as previous studies by our research team (Singh et al. 2010(Singh et al. , 2011) ) confirms the presence of multiple leaf spot resistance in 'ND 735' and the effectiveness of the combination of DArT and SSR markers for molecular mapping of disease resistance genes. The line 'ND 735', in all likelihood possess durable resistance, a resistance effective over time and space, for tan spot, Stagonospora nodorum blotch and Septoria tritici blotch that can be easily utilized as a source for incorporating multiple leaf spot resistance into varietal development. Additionally, since 'ND 735' possesses good quality and agronomic characteristics, utilizing 'ND 735' in breeding programs will not bring undesired traits, due to linkage drag when using it as a donor parent.","tokenCount":"3819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a65e4916f22d9c93aba5fb528059660f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66c6ba3f-706b-476a-9459-1e31607697e3/retrieve","id":"830969881"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eb0e9bed-71ec-4529-acca-bc00a1e2eb22","pagecount":"6","content":"The potato was domesticated 7,000 -10,000 ago in the Andean highlands of South America, where it became a staple food. In recent times, potato production has grown slowly in the countries of this region and in some cases it has declined. A recent review of potato production statistics (Scott, 2011) indicates that annual growth rates for the potato crop in Latin America as a whole have lagged behind those for other developing regions, including Africa and Asia. In Peru, however, potato production has expanded dramatically in recent years. As Scott (2011: 148) notes, \"the renaissance in potato output and area planted in Peru over the last 15 years has been perhaps the most remarkable development in the region over the last half century. \"In this Innovation Brief, we examine recent trends in potato production in Peru and explore the role of native potatoes in the renaissance of Peruvian potato For the past half century, potato production has grown slowly in the Andean region of South America, where the potato originated and has long been a major staple food. The exception is Peru, where potato production has surged in recent years. Based on a review of official Peruvian statistics, this Innovation Brief documents trends in Peruvian potato production over the past half century, estimates production and marketing of native and improved potato varieties over the past decade, and identifies factors that have influenced these trends. The recent growth in Peru's potato production reflects changes in both supply and demand. On the supply side, the rapid expansion of Peru's road network, the increasing number and size of trucks, and the spread of cellphones have dramatically improved the links between highland farmers and dynamic urban markets and have reduced marketing costs. On the demand side, the image of the potato has changed from one of a \"poor man's food\" to one of an under-exploited national treasure and source of pride. The Project for Potato Innovation and Competitiveness in Peru (INCOPA Project) has promoted the cultivation and use of native potatoes through public-private alliances that pursue: innovations in production and marketing, policy changes, and public awareness. This initiative appears to have stimulated demand for native and improved potatoes and it has also contributed to the supply of new production technology. Many small farmers, including those who cultivate native potatoes, have benefitted from the recent increases in potato production, sales, and farm-gate prices. The main benefits of market chain innovation and increased market demand for potatoes have accrued to early innovators characterized by higher levels of education, larger land holdings, better access to credit and input supplies and to markets for their products, and superior endowments of financial and social capital and entrepreneurial capabilities.production. Specific objectives are to: document trends in Peruvian potato production over the past half century; estimate trends in production and marketing of native and improved potato varieties for the past decade; and identify key factors that have influenced these trends, and the policy implications.We use the terms \"native potatoes\" and \"native varieties\" to denote landraces or local potato varieties that have developed largely by natural processes, by adaptation to the natural and cultural environment in which they grow. Native varieties differ from \"improved varieties\", which are the products of formal potato breeding programs, which have been deliberately bred to conform to a particular official standard of traits, such as high yield and resistance to pests or diseases. Hundreds of native potato varieties are still cultivated in the highlands of Peru and other parts of the Andes. In poor and remote mountainous areas, \"the potato remains a key component in the livelihood systems of small-scale farmers, contributing to food security as a direct food source and as a cash crop\" (Meinzen Dick et al., 2009:235). In Andean highland areas above 3,500 m.a.s.l. the potato crop generates more added value and employment per hectare than any other food crop.Potatoes are grown throughout the Peruvian highlands and also in irrigated valleys on the central coast. Native potato varieties are typically grown by farm families on small plots of land above 3,500 m.a.s.l. The vast majority of Peru's potato producers are smallholder farmers, who cultivate less than a half hectare of potatoes. In contrast, improved potato varieties are typically grown on larger plots of land in better-endowed areas at lower elevations. Large-scale commercial farms are few in number and generally cultivate potatoes in fertile inter-Andean valleys and in irrigated valleys along Peru's coast.This Innovation Brief is based primarily on an analysis of statistics from Peru's Ministry of Agriculture. Beginning in 1950, Peru's Ministry of Agriculture has estimated national and departmentlevel 1 potato production, the harvested area, the number of farmers who produce potatoes, the volume of potatoes sold by farmers, and the prices received by farmers. More recently, the Ministry has estimated the same variables for each of Peru's districts 2 .We begin with an analysis of trends in national potato production, area, and yields over the last half-century . Beginning in 2000, we broaden the analysis to include potato marketing at farm level. We use district-level data to estimate production, sales, and prices of native and improved varieties in the following way: we use the altitude of each district capital to establish two sets of districts, (a) those with capitals at 3,500 m.a.s.l. or higher, and (b) those below this altitude. We assume that farmers residing in the first set of districts produce only native varieties and those residing in the second set produce only improved varieties. Based on these assumptions, we use the Ministry of Agriculture statistics for the two sets of potato-producing districts to estimate the following variables:• Production, harvested area, and yields for improved and native potato varieties (2000-2011)• Number of producers of improved and native potato varieties (2000-2011)• Volume of farm-gate sales of native and improved potato varieties (2000-2011)• Farm-gate prices for improved and native potato varieties, in New Peruvian Soles of 2011 (1991-2011) 3   We use results of the annual National Survey of Households to estimate the number of farmers who sell potatoes and the portion of their harvest that they sell.Summary statistics are presented in Table 1 and Figures 1-4. Time series of 3-year moving averages for all the variables analyzed appear in the Annex to the web version of this Brief, which is available from www.cipotato.org/resources/publications. In all the tables and figures, we present average results for the variables in question. Since the distributions of land holdings and market surpluses are highly skewed -more like \"power-law\" distributions than normal distributions -the averages may not represent the \"normal\" situation of most potato producers. The situation of the majority of producers -ones with very small land holdings -may be quite different from that of the few large producers, and arithmetic averages for all producers may differ from typical values for these two extreme types of farmer. For this reason, an important area for future research would be to analyze production and marketing data disaggregated by size of land holding.1 Peru has 24 departments, 19 of which produce potatoes. 2 Peru has 1,834 districts, of which 1,373 produce potatoes.3 Prices have been deflated based on Peru's consumer price index (Index 2011=100).Yearly prices are volume-weighted averages calculated with monthly data.Table 1 summarizes the main changes in potato production, marketing, and prices since 2000. Figures 1-3 show trends in potato production, harvested area, and yields since 1960. Figure 4 shows price trends since 1990.Total potato production. Over the past half century, potato production has expanded from about 1.2 million tons in the early 1960's to 3.7 million tons in 2009-2011. As Figure 1 shows, the growth in production has been anything but steady. Production increased during the 1960's and then stagnated during the 1970's.In the 1980s, production first declined and then increased. In the early 1990's, production plummeted back to the level it was at in the early 1960s. From around 1993 until 2000, potato production shot up dramatically. From 2000 to 2005, it expanded less rapidly, and since then, it has surged ahead rapidly again.The time series for harvested area has the same peaks and valleys as that for total potato production. But while the harvested area today is about the same as it was 40 years ago, production has doubled. Potato yields, which were just over 5 t/ha in the early 1960s, increased to about 7 t/ha in 1970 and to 8 t/ha in 1980. During the 1980s, yields increased and then fell back again. In the 1990's yields recovered and then shot up to nearly 12 t/ha in 2000. Since then, yields have increased gradually to their present level of around 13.5 t/ha.Production of native and improved potato varieties. Since 2000, production of native varieties has grown more rapidly than production of improved varieties (by 33% and 23%, respectively). The faster growth of native potato production reflects more rapid expansion in the area planted to them, which has more than compensated for the faster growth of yields for improved varieties.As Table 1 shows, fewer than 1 million Peruvian farmers produced potatoes in 2000. Of these, 650,000 produced improved varieties and 344,000 produced native varieties. Since 2000, the number of producers has increased by about one-quarter, with the proportions producing improved and native varieties remaining constant.The average farm area with potatoes is small and declining. In 2000/2002, farmers cultivated an average of 0.28 ha of improved varieties and 0.24 ha of native varieties. By 2008-2010, the average cultivated area of both types of potato had declined to about 0.23 ha. Given the skewed distribution of land holdings, most farmers cultivate much smaller plots of potatoes while a few cultivate much larger tracts.Since 2000, the number and the proportion of potato farmers who market potatoes have both fallen. At the beginning of the decade, two-thirds of the farmers who cultivated improved varieties sold part of their harvest; by 2008/2010, this proportion had fallen to one-third. Over the same period, the proportion of farmers who marketed a portion of their harvest of native potatoes declined from 40% to under 20%. As will be seen below, the decline in the number of farmers who market potatoes was accompanied by an increase in the number of farmers who produce potatoes and an increase in the volume sold. In other words, over time, a declining number of the potato farmers is producing and marketing an increasing share of the potatoes.The average farm-gate price of potatoes (in New Peruvian Soles of 2011) declined during the 1990's, with an uptick in the middle of the decade. Prices remained essentially flat from 2000 to 2005, and since then, they have climbed upward (Figure 2). The increases in potato prices have been particularly striking for native varieties.Since 2005/2007, average prices for native potatoes increased by 49%, while prices for improved varieties increased by 26%.Peruvian farmers cultivate potatoes to provide food for their families and also to generate cash income 4 . Household survey data shows that most of the harvest of improved varieties is sold; in contrast, most native potatoes are retained for household consumption and seed. In 2000/2002, farmers growing improved varieties sold 57% of their harvest, compared to only 20% for farmers growing native varieties. By 2008/2010, farmers growing improved varieties sold 60% of their harvest and farmers growing native varieties sold 28%. From these figures it can be seen that while the share of improved varieties that is sold increased by only 5%, the share of native varieties that is sold increased by 40% over an 8-year period.During the same period, the volume of improved varieties that was marketed increased by about one-quarter while the volume of native varieties that was marketed increased by three-quarters.Since farm-gate prices have increased in recent years, especially for native potatoes, the value of potatoes sold has increased significantly more than the volume sold. Since 2000, the value of sales of improved and native potato varieties has increased by 67% and 159%, respectively.As noted earlier, while the number of farmers who produce both improved and native varieties has increased, the numbers who sell potatoes has fallen. Consequently, the average value of sales for each farmer who sells potatoes has increased very sharply. Since 2000, the farmers who sold improved and native potatoes increased the value of their sales by 174% and 433%, respectively. In 2008/2010, farmers who sold improved and native potato varieties generated an average of 3,800 and 3,000 New Peruvian Soles (US$ 1,292 and $ 1,020 5 ) from their sales, respectively. During the last half century, Peru's agricultural sector was negatively impacted by disputes over land tenure (1960s), a traumatic land reform process (1970s), and terrorism (1980s). The collapse of potato production in the early 1990s reflected the grave state of rural insecurity that prevailed in the Peruvian highlands at that time. The defeat of the terrorist Shining Path movement in 1993 marked the beginning of two decades of sustained growth in Peruvian agriculture, which is reflected in recent trends in potato production.Other significant drivers of the recent expansion of potato production have been the pro-business policies of recent Peruvian governments, strong overall growth of the Peruvian economy, and political and budgetary decentralization. Peru's gross domestic product grew at an annual average rate of 6.3% from 2001 to 2010 (IADB, 2010: 7), and per-capita rural incomes have grown at an average annual rate of 5.1% since 1995, driven mainly by agricultural growth (Webb, 2013). The acceleration of road building and the wide diffusion of cellular phones have also contributed to economic growth and income improvements in the Peruvian highlands. Whereas Peru constructed on average only 1,000 km of new roads each year from 1950 to 2000, it has added 3,000 km of new roads each year since 2000. Rapid expansion of the road network coupled with an even larger increase in the number and size of trucks plying these roads has dramatically reduced the costs of marketing agricultural commodities produced in the highlands, such as potatoes (Webb, 2013). All of these factors have stimulated the growth of small towns and the small-farm sector in highland areas.Strong growth of the Peruvian economy has driven increases in per capita incomes and expansion of demand for foods, such as potatoes, which are consumed in diverse forms in homes and in restaurants. The rapid growth of food processing and consumption of convenience and snack foods has stimulated the demand for potatoes, which are a basic ingredient in the fast-food and snackfood industries. In a parallel process, growing concerns for nutrition and food safety have stimulated interest in native potato varieties, which are usually grown with less use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers than in the case of improved varieties.Recent recognition of Peruvian cuisine as one of the world's most sophisticated and high-quality, has also stimulated the demand for foods of Andean origin, such as native potatoes, the virtues of which have been featured in high-profile events such as the \"Mistura\", a very important and massive food festival (http://www.mistura.pe).Native potatoes are now viewed as a uniquely \"Peruvian\" food that is healthy, nutritious, good tasting, and diverse in its forms and uses.The recent surge in potato production coincided with the first comprehensive initiative to promote the production and use of Peru's native varieties, by exploiting the emerging market opportunities for these potatoes. • Support for policy changes including, for example, norms for wholesale markets and inclusion of native potato varieties in the National Registry of Commercial Cultivars. This initiative helped improve the image of native potatoes and link small producers to dynamic urban markets for potato-based products (Devaux et al., 2009).Official statistics and assessments of the potato sector support the hypothesis that in recent years there has been an increase in the demand curve for potatoes -in particular for native potatoes (Proexpansión, 2012). In the past, increases in potato production and sales -even moderate ones -were associated with reductions in potato prices. However, since 2005 both potato sales and prices have risen. One possibility is that, due to reductions in transport costs, farm-gate prices for potatoes increased but wholesale and retail prices declined. But information from Lima's wholesale market over the past decade indicates that both potato sales and prices have risen here too, implying that consumer demand for potatoes has increased.The expansion of national potato production has resulted mainly from growth in the cultivation of improved potato varieties, which feature in the fast foods consumed by a growing number of Peruvians. The small farmers who cultivate native potatoes have also benefitted from the rapid expansion of this crop. Lagging yields of native potatoes have reflected the historic focus of agricultural Research & Development (R&D) on genetic improvement and commercial farming in better-endowed regions and inattention to the needs of small and poor farmers who cultivate native varieties in remote highland areas. Triggered by the growing interest of supermarkets and large-scale processors in native potatoes and the development of new products (for example, colorful potato chips and gourmet restaurant dishes made with native potatoes), agricultural researchers and nongovernmental organizations are now paying more attention to native varieties. This foretells well for future productivity increases and continued expansion of native potato cultivation and marketing.The main benefits of market chain innovation and increased market demand for potatoes have accrued to early innovators who have higher levels of education, larger land holdings, better access to credit, input supplies and markets for their products, and superior endowments of financial and social capital and entrepreneurial capabilities. Families with the smallest landholdings, the least education, the least access to credit, and the least-developed social networks have benefitted less from the new market opportunities (Escobal and Cavero, 2012). As Peru's economy has grown in recent years, many of the rural poor have left the farm, seeking better opportunities in mines, construction sites, and commercial activities. Their family members who remain on the farm usually continue to grow potatoes for home consumption, but often reduce potato sales.","tokenCount":"2975"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40f72cd0fb4527a13f1885873640a345","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65e40125-f7ba-43db-b22f-e900839c2021/retrieve","id":"-986219794"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"843a663d-3167-443c-8a86-bb7963bbe5fd","pagecount":"16","content":"assessment of alternative innovations in RWS and CWS. The treatments in experiments were composed of a combination of CA-based practices, water-saving irrigation and N rates. Fourteen sustainability indicators computed from experiments and simulation were compared to evaluate the sustainability of those cropping systems and to reveal the potential of those practices for improving sustainability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the initial conditions, the soil salinity decreased in both cropping systems, while the reduction rate was much higher in RWS than CWS (by 28%). In RWS, the conventional treatment had the lowest salinity level, while in CWS, CA (permeant bed + residue retention) had the lowest. RWS raised the groundwater table by 25% compared to CWS. The long-term scenario analysis with Hydrus-1D demonstrated that, with increased irrigation water salinity and soil evaporation rates, soil profile salinity increases by 78% in RWS and 66% in CWS. RWS had a higher net profit (+81%) and soil organic carbon (SOC) (-15%), but lower water productivity (WP) (− 147%), nitrogen, and energy use efficiency (EUE) (− 46%) than CWS. The CA-based practices in CWS improved sustainability indicators with higher yield and net profit (+20%), WP (+26%), SOC (+456%), and EUE (36%) with decreased soil salinity than in the conventional system. SIGNIFICANCE: The study attempts to assess the effectiveness of resource conservation technologies such as choice of crop species and cropping systems, and tillage and water and fertilizer management practices for improving sustainability. This study showed the significance of agronomic, soil, and water management practices for minimizing soil salinity. Further, the findings from this study strongly demonstrated the role of CA in sustainable agricultural production particularly under CWS in salt-affected irrigated dryland.• Declining water quantity and quality are leading to increasing soil salinity and threatening sustainability of saltaffected irrigated drylands • Experiments, simulation, and multicriteria trade-off used for assessing sustainability of predominant crops and technologies • Accounting multiple approaches, cotton-wheat system has better environmental indicators than rice-wheat system • Increased irrigation water salinity and soil evaporation can increase salinity by 78% in rice-wheat and by 66% in cotton-wheat • Conservation agriculture combined with efficient irrigation and optimal nitrogen rate has potential to improve sustainability of cotton-wheat system CONTEXT: Declining water quantity and quality and poor land, water, and crop management practices are leading to increasing soil salinity, land degradation, desertification, and threatening the overall sustainability of the crop production system in irrigated drylands. Assessments of salinity dynamics and sustainability indicators under alternative agricultural practices are needed to identify the right combination of practices that improve sustainability while minimizing land and environmental degradation.The objective of this study was to assess the potential of conservation agriculture (CA)-based practices, water-saving irrigation, water quality, and nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates for improving the sustainability of rice-wheat (RWS) and cotton-wheat (CWS) systems in salt-affected irrigated drylands.The study included mixed-method approaches of two years of field experiments, soil profile and groundwater salinity simulation using Hydrus-1D model, and multi-criteria trade-off analysis for the holisticSoil salinization is a global problem that has affected 833 million ha of agricultural land in over 100 countries (Zaman et al., 2018). Globally, 833 million ha of soils are salt-affected (FAO, 2021). Approximately 20% of the world's cultivated lands and 33% of irrigated lands are saltaffected (Machado and Serralheiro, 2017). Soil salinization is spreading at the rate of 1-2 million ha year − 1 globally, affecting a significant portion of crop production and making land unsuitable for cultivation (Hopmans et al., 2021;Abbas et al., 2013).Irrigated agriculture plays a vital role in global food security, contributing to more than 40% of global food production (World Bank, 2021). To meet increasing food demand, the irrigated area needs to be expanded from current 202 million ha to 242 million ha in 2030 (Bruinsma, 2009; FAO News, 2021;Faurès et al., 2002). Moreover, the demand for irrigation is greater in arid-and semi-arid regions, where more than 90% of agriculture depends on irrigation. Also, these regions are more vulnerable to soil salinity and land degradation (Brady et al., 2008). In irrigated drylands, several factors, either in combination or independently, cause human-induced secondary soil salinization (Cuevas et al., 2019;Daliakopoulos et al., 2016;Qureshi et al., 2008). Prevalent improper land, water, and crop management practices include excessive use of poor quality (saline) irrigation water and poor drainage system (Wichelns and Qadir, 2015); inefficient use of chemical inputs (Gabriel et al., 2014); imbalance between rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, and water inputs (Minhas et al., 2020;Soni et al., 2021); intensive soil tillage, residue removal, and mono-cropping system (Abrol et al., 1988;Sarkar et al., 2020;Yang et al., 2006); and declining soil organic carbon and degrading soil health (SOC) (Lal, 2015;Cuevas et al., 2019).Situated in Central Asia and part of the Aral Sea Basin, Uzbekistan is one of the world's most seriously affected countries in terms of landdegradation, desertification, and abandonment (Hopmans et al., 2021). Here, more than 65% of arable land (Nkonya et al., 2012;Robinson, 2016; UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 2005) and more than 90% of the total irrigated land (Akramkhanov et al., 2018) is currently affected by various levels of salinization. About 20,000 ha of irrigated lands are lost due to salinity and invariably abandoned every year (Toderich et al., 2008). Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), rice (Oryza sativa), and maize (Zea mays L) are the predominant crops grown in 1.2, 1.4, 0.4, and 0.42 million ha areas, respectively (FAOSTAT, 2021). These crops are mostly grown under the RWS and CWS (Devkota, 2011a(Devkota, , 2011b)). As reported elsewhere, poor land and improper water management are the most important factors threatening the productivity and sustainability of those crops in Uzbekistan. Farmers in the country apply large quantities of irrigation water (>50,000 m 3 for rice and > 5000 m 3 ha − 1 for each cotton, maize, and wheat) (Devkota, 2011a(Devkota, , 2011b) ) with salinity ranging from 1 to 15 dS m − 1 . Excessive use of irrigation water raises groundwater tables (GWT), which has led to increasing secondary soil salinization, where 67% of the fields have GWT above the threshold level, which induces secondary salinization (Forkutsa et al., 2009;Ibrakhimov et al., 2007). Therefore, proper soil and water management strategies have been needed for sustaining crop production in such areas.In recent years, many attempts have been made from different sectors to prevent and manage soil salinity and rehabilitate the degrading land. Sustainable land and water management practices, such as CA practices (minimal soil disturbance, proper crop rotation, and the optimal amount of crop residues retention) combined with efficient irrigation water management, minimize the adverse effect of conventional practices (CT) (Devkota et al., 2015a(Devkota et al., , 2015b(Devkota et al., , 2015c;;Ondrasek et al., 2014;Sayre and Hobbs, 2004). CA-based practices counterbalance and combat soil salinity (Carrijo et al., 2017). However, soil salinity dynamics differ under different cropping systems, types of crop grown, amount and quality of irrigation water application, and adopted cultivation practices (Chen et al., 2010;Zhang et al., 2012).Hydrological models can provide a useful complement to the experimental results. The hydrological model, Hydrus-1/2/3D ( Šimůnek et al., 2013) has been used extensively in a wide range of irrigation management applications (furrow, surface, and subsurface pressurized irrigations). It has been applied in the evaluation of soil hydraulic properties, boundary condition, irrigation frequency, amount and discharge rate, water quality/salinity, the timing of nutrient application, drainage system, and crop type for optimizing soil and water management practices (Ajdary et al., 2007;Egea et al., 2016;Hopmans, 2008;Hopmans et al., 2006;Jian-jun et al., 2015;Ramos et al., 2012;Rezaei et al., 2016Rezaei et al., , 2017Rezaei et al., , 2021;;Selim et al., 2018). It can be used to quantify the long-term impacts of several agronomic innovations on soil and water productivity and sustainability.Sustainability is improvement in economic, environmental, social and institutional indicators (Corsin et al., 2007) for \"meeting society's present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\" (Bell and Morse, 2012;Ghelichkhan et al., 2018). Maintaining and improving the sustainability of degrading irrigated drylands is important for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (UNDP, 2017). The advantages of agronomic innovations for improving individual indicators have been reported (Devkota et al., 2013a(Devkota et al., , 2013b(Devkota et al., , 2015b(Devkota et al., , 2015c)). However, as soil salinity impacts soils, plants, and the environment, the holistic assessment of the innovations/ technologies is essential to assess their potential to improve the sustainability of crop production (Hopmans et al., 2021). Systematic quantification and comparison of multiple sustainability indicators, comparing different cropping systems, crops, and agronomic management practices, provide adaptation guidelines and ways-forward to improve the sustainability of degrading irrigated drylands. In addition, in many circumstances, coupling experimental, simulation, and multicriteria approaches are needed to improve sustainability. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the potential of CA-based practices (no-tillage, crop rotations, and residue retention) coupled with water-saving alternative-wet and dry (AWD) irrigation, and N fertilizer rates for improving sustainability of crop production in saltaffected irrigated drylands of Central Asia.The study was conducted at a field in the Khorezm region, south of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan (60.05 • -61.39 • N and 41.13 • -42.02 • E, 100 m asl), an area representative of the degrading saline irrigated arid and semi-arid region. The region has an arid continental climate, with an average annual precipitation of less than 100 mm, and the potential evapotranspiration always greatly exceeds precipitation (Forkutsa, 2006). The soil of the experimental site had Calcaric Gleysols \"Meadow soil\", which corresponds to Xerosols and anthropogenic Fluvisols according to USDA classification (Vlek et al., 2001), and is characterized by a shallow GWT often with elevated groundwater salinity (GWS), and salinization in the upper soil profile. During the crop growing period from March to October, the groundwater table rises up to 1.2-1.4 m and drops to about 1.8 m, and this rise in groundwater increases soil salinity by adding 3.5-14 t salt ha − 1 y − 1 (Ibragimov et al., 2007). The inherent soil organic carbon and fertility of Khorezmian soil is rather low. The experimental field had medium to high soil mineral nitrogen (N), NH 4 -N ranging from 4.4-6.5 and NO 3 -N 3.4-5.3 mg kg − 1 , low total soil N (0.04-0.05%), low SOC (0.30-0.36%), and a moderate range of available phosphorus 23.9-27.9 mg kg − 1 and exchangeable potassium (76.8-98.5 mg kg − 1 ). Soil salinity in the region corresponds to the electrical conductivity of saturated soil extract (ECe) of 6-16 dS m − 1 at the top 30 cm soil profile.Experiments in RWS and CWS were conducted during 2008-2010 at Cotton Research Institute (CRI), Urgench, in the Khorezm region of Uzbekistan. All abbreviations used in this manuscript are described in Table SI1.The experiment in this system was implemented with seven treatments in 2008 and eight treatments in 2009 using a randomized complete block design (Fig. SI1; Table 1). The treatments for RWS were from the combination of irrigation methods, i.e., AWD and continuous flood irrigation (FI); and three tillage methods, for example, raised permanent bed (PB) and zero tillage (ZT) planting on flat land with three levels of crop residue retention, i.e., residue harvested (R0), 50% residue retention (R50) and 100% residue retention (R100) (Table 1). In the conventional practice (third tillage method), previous crop residue was removed, then the soil was levelled after dry then wet soil ploughing (puddling). In WSR-FI, 24-h soaked and 48-h incubated pre-germinated seed was directly broadcast seeded into 5-10 cm standing water and, after rice emergence, FI keeping 5-15 cm standing water throughout the growing season (as in the farmers' practice) was applied. In the other six treatments, i.e., PB and ZT with three residue rates, rice was dry direct-seeded (DSR) using no-till seeder and AWD irrigation was applied (collectively called DSR-AWD (or CA) for those 6 treatments). In treatments of DSR-AWD, rice was flood-irrigated when the average soil matric potential at 20 cm depth was 20 kPa, which corresponds with the volumetric soil water content 5-10% below the field capacity. In RWS, surface-seeded wheat (SSW; broadcasting of sprouted wheat into the standing rice field 25 days before rice harvest) was grown in all treatments. Experimental details have been presented in Devkota et al. (2013bDevkota et al. ( , 2015a)).Twelve treatments − (Fig. SI1, Table 1) in each crop (cotton, wheat, and maize in rotation) from the combination of two tillage methods, i.e., permanent bed, PB (also called CA), and CT; two residue levels (residue retained, R100, and residue harvested, R0) and three N application rates (no N application (N0), and 50% less than and 50% more than the recommended rates) (Table 1) − were evaluated. The CA practices include raised permanent bed planting, crop planted/ seeded using a tractor-drawn seed drill machine under untilled conditions and residue retention. The experiments were implemented in a split-plot design with tillage methods in the main plot and six treatments from a factorial combination of three N and two residue rates randomized in sub-plot (Devkota et al., 2013c(Devkota et al., , 2015b(Devkota et al., , 2015c)). In the residue retained treatments (R100), 3 t ha − 1 wheat residues from an external  CT-R100-N125 CT-R100-N100 CT-R100-N100 12 CT-R100-N250 CT-R100-N200 CT-R100-N200 ¶Note: PB=Permanent bed also called conservation agriculture (CA), CT = conventional practices, R0 = no residue retention, R100 = maximum possible amount of residue retention; N = Nitrogen rate (kg ha − 1 ). source (initial external application), 6.6 t ha − 1 cotton residues, and 6.88 t ha − 1 wheat residues were retained during the cotton, wheat, and maize seasons, respectively (Table 2). In all residue harvested (R0) treatments, residues were removed from the field as per farmers' practice in both CA and CT plots. In CT plots, the soil was ploughed 2-3 times before seeding, crops were harvested from the base, and all residues were removed.Experiments were conducted in four replications, with an operational plot size of 480 m 2 for RWS and 550 m 2 for CWS. The RWS experiment was implemented for two seasons of each crop (2 years) and cotton-wheat-maize in CWS three crops. Once established in 2008, DSR-AWD treatments in RWS and CA treatments in CWS were permanently adopted.All crops were seeded using standard and recommended crop management practices. Rice variety Nukus-2, wheat Krasnodar-99, cotton Khorezm-127, and maize Maldoshki (hybrid) were used. The crop growing duration was June-October for rice; wheat October-May; cotton May-October; and maize June-September. Crop management practices adopted for both RWS and CWS are presented in Table 2, and details of these are explained in Devkota et al. (2015a) and (Devkota et al., 2013a(Devkota et al., , 2013b) ) for RWS, and Devkota et al. (2013cDevkota et al. ( , 2015bDevkota et al. ( , 2015c) ) for CWS.In both experiments, the amount of irrigation water applied was measured using standard Trapezoidal Cipolletti weirs (0.5 m crest width) with automated data loggers (Divers) for level measurement (DL/N-70), which measured the water level above the Chipolletti crest at a 1-min interval. The rate of water discharged (in m s − 1 ) from the respective Cipolletti crest was calculated based on the equation provided by Kraatz and Mahajan (1975).To assess the salt dynamics in the soil profile, soil samples were collected from the pre-determined sampling points for each plot (six points were fixed in each plot) during the entire crop rotation cycle in both systems.2.2.3.2.1. RWS. Soil samples were collected at 19 different dates from a rice field in 2008, 11 times from a wheat field in 2009, and times from a rice field in 2009. Soil samples were collected from 0 to 10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-50, and 50-80 cm depths before irrigation using a tube augur-sized 3 cm in diameter.2.2.3.2.2. CWS. Samples were collected from 0 to 10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-60, and 60-90 cm soil depths one day before irrigation and at each crop harvest. The samples were collected at 11 dates each during cotton and wheat season and 7 dates during maize season. In the PB system in both cropping systems, soil samples were collected from both tops of the bed and the center of the furrow to obtain the average salinity of the bed system.A total of 6083 soil samples in RWS and 4749 samples in CWS were analyzed. In both systems, the collected soil samples were analyzed for gravimetric soil moisture content and electrical conductivity (EC p ), which is the EC of 1:1 water: soil paste. The measured EC p was converted to the international standard EC value of the saturated soil extract (ECe; Rhoades et al., 1999), and derived from the equation as provided by Akramkhanov et al. (2009):To measure GWS and GWT, nine piezometers, i.e., six in the section of DSR-AWD irrigation and three in the WSR-FI, were installed (Fig. SI1), and 32 observations during rice 2008, 62 during wheat and 109 during rice 2009, were taken in RWS. In CWS, across the experimental field, 20 piezometers were randomly installed up to 2.75 m depth and 16, 20, and 21 observations were collected during cotton, wheat, and maize growing season, respectively. Groundwater measurement was not available during the freezing period (November to March) when the GWT depth dropped below the depth of the piezometers. Water samples were collected from each piezometer before and after irrigation in both RWS and CWS. GWT was measured using a hand-operated sounding apparatus with acoustic and light signals (Eijkelkamp Co.) and the groundwater was analyzed for ECe with a Hanna instrument (HI-98312 EC) in dS m − 1 .Simulation of water flow and solute transport which are assumed to be in the vertical direction in the vadose zone, was carried out for three crop seasons in both systems using Hydrus-1D version 4.17. The model uses the 1-D Richards equation (Eq. 2) for vertical water flow:Where, θ is the volumetric water content (L 3 L − 3 ), t is time (T), z is the radial and vertical space coordinate taken positive downward (L), K(h) is the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function (LT − 1 ), h is the pressure head (L), and S(h) represents a sink term (L 3 L − 3 T − 1 ), defined as the volume of water removed from a unit volume of soil per unit time.The model computes the solute transport using standard Hydrus solute transport module in a variably-saturated rigid porous medium in the liquid phase with root nutrient uptake as:where θ is the volumetric water content (L 3 L − 3 ), c, c and c r are solute concentration in the liquid phase (M L − 3 ), solid phase (M M − 3 ) and sink term (M L − 3 ), respectively, t is time (T), z is the radial and vertical space coordinate taken positive downward (L), ρ b is the soil bulk density (M L − 3 ), q is the volumetric flux density (LT − 1 ), the subscript k represents chemical species of major ions, and D represents the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (L 2 T − 1 ). The standard module takes into account the interaction between the liquid and solid phases of EC (Ramos et al., 2011).Due to the high fluctuation of GWT, the simulated soil profile in the model extended to 200 cm depth and was divided into two functional layers (0-60 and 60-200 cm). To solve Richards' equation (Eq. 2), the Brooks-Corey soil hydraulic model was used. The initial values of hydraulic properties were obtained from a neural network prediction implemented into the model based on soil texture and bulk density. The hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient was imposed as one-tenth of soil profile depth, i.e., 20 cm 2 day − 1 (Ramos et al., 2011). The initial soil water content distribution was adjusted uniformly and set to 0.20 cm 3 cm − 3 through all soil profiles. The EC of soil was used as the initial condition of solute concentrations of each layer. The upper boundary condition for water flow and solute transport were imposed from measured data of rainfall, applied irrigation water, potential evapotranspiration (ET o ), leaf area index (LAI), EC of applied water (cTop), and EC of groundwater (cBot). The meteorological data were obtained from the experimental station. ET o was calculated based on the FAO Penman-Monteith equation on a daily basis (Allen et al., 1998) using meteorological data. LAI was derived from the measured data from Devkota (2011aDevkota ( , 2011b)). The variable pressure head bottom boundary was imposed by setting measured groundwater table data. The Feddes' model (Feddes et al., 1978) as the sink term of Richards' equation Eq.(2), S(h) was used for the quantification of potential root water uptake and water stress as:Where, R(x) is the root distribution function (cm), T p is potential transpiration (cm h − 1 ), and w (h) is the water stress response function (0 ≤ w (h) ≤ 1) which prescribes the reduction in uptake that occurs due to drought/salinity stress. Crop-specific values of this reduction function were chosen from the default Hydrus data set.2.3.3.1. Model calibration. For accurate parameter estimation, a long period with several drying and wetting events was selected (from May 2008 to October 2009), i.e., two growing seasons as suggested by Rezaei et al. (2016). The model was calibrated for both RWS (480 days) and CWS (532 days). Time series observed data, i.e., 392 soil water content and EC records for RWS and 156 records for CWS, were used for four observation points/depths (as data for inverse solution). In the calibration, we optimized all hydraulic parameters as well as the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient for one CA treatment in each cropping system. Finally, the best performing parameter set − based on performance criteria, non-uniqueness of the parameter sets, and the visual inspection of simulated and observed soil-water content and EC data − was selected for validation using independent data from conventional practice treatment.The performance of Hydrus-1D in simulating water content and EC from the different cultivation systems was evaluated graphically (Rezaei et al., 2016) and a variety of statistics (Neuman et al., 2003). The root-mean-square errors (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and coefficient of determination (R 2 ) are popular and were used to evaluate the difference between observed and simulated values.Where, O and S are observed and simulated values at time/place i, respectively. |e i | is an arithmetic average of the absolute errors.In both systems, the model was run to analyze the impact of quantity and quality of irrigation water on soil salinity.2 To assess the broad-based sustainability of two cropping systems, four different crops, an alternative CA-based system with water-saving irrigation and N rates, and 14 sustainability indicators from economic, environmental and soil health and resilience were assessed (Fig. SI2). Those indicators include: 1. grain yield; 2. net profit; (3-5) nitrogen-, phosphorus-, and potassium-use efficiencies (NUE, PUE, and KUE); 6. water productivity (WP); 7. SOC sequestration; 8. soil salinity (ECe); 9. yield scaled greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity (GHGI); 10. GWT depth; 11. GWS; 12. drainage loss of irrigation water; 13. energy use efficiency (EUE); and 14. mineral nitrogen balance, were computed. The detail of the computation methods of all these indicators has been explained in Supplementary Information Appendix I.The GHGI was computed for all four crops and all treatments considering three components of GHG emission: (I) CO 2 -equivalent methane emission (in rice only), (II) direct CO 2 -equivalent emission from applied N, P, and K fertilizers; and (III) indirect CO 2 -equivalent emissions from N 2 O emission, N-volatilization, and N-leaching from applied N fertilizers (Supplementary Information Appendix I). The results expressed in GHGI (kg CO 2 equivalent emissions t − 1 grain or seed cotton) as suggested by Pittelkow et al. (2014), Sainju et al. (2014) and Snyder et al. (2009).The EUE was computed for all four crops and both cropping systems, as the ratio of energy output from grain or seed cotton and straw/stover divided by the total energy input in all production operations.Total energy output Total agronomic energy input (9) Partial mineral N balance was computed from the difference between output (uptake + mineral N left at harvest) and input (initial mineral N + N applied from fertilizers), the positive value indicates N loss. The amount of N fertilizers applied, initial and after crop harvest soil N content, and crop N uptake were measured in all crops in both cropping systems. The detail computation procedure of mineral N balance has been explained in Devkota et al. (2013a).Repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted for salinity measured over time during the crop growing period using R version 4.03. Linear regression was used to quantify the difference in soil salinity over time on different crops, cropping systems, CA-based practices, and irrigation management. The daily soil salinity and volumetric water content at 0-90 cm soil depth, and GWS and GWT dynamics as affected by CA-based practices, were simulated for CWS, and affected by water management practices (WSR-FI vs. DSR-AWD) were simulated for RWS. Multi-criteria trade-off analysis among sustainability indicators was used for the broad-based assessment of different cropping systems, crops, CA-based practices, water management methods, and N fertilizer rates for their potential for managing salinity in degrading irrigated drylands.Soil salinity varied across the sampling time in both cropping systems (Table SI2). The initial soil salinity at the top 30 cm soil depth decreased by 22% after leaching and laser-guided land leveling (just before the start of the experiment) (Fig. 1A). Compared to the initial level (3.28 dS m − 1 ), the soil salinity decreased in both cropping systems, while the reduction rate was higher in RWS (by 28%) than CWS. In RWS, the significant crop x treatment x sampling time, indicating salinity among the treatments, varied significantly with time and crops grown. In conventional practices (WSR-FI), compared to the initial condition (after leaching and before rice seeding), the salinity decreased by 48% in first rice and by 16% from wheat to second rice. In CWS, soil salinity was the highest (p < 0.05) in cotton, followed by wheat and then lowest in Greenhouese gas emisison intensity (GHGI) = Total CO 2 equivalent emission (kg) Grain or seed cotton yield (t)maize, where, compared to the initial level, it increased by 4% in first cotton, but decreased by 25% from wheat to maize. In CWS, CT had significantly higher salinity than CA and residue retention (R100) had significantly low salinity than residue removal (R0).In RWS, salinity was lower in the WSR-FI based system than under DSR-AWD, while in CWS, except in cotton, it was lower in the CA-based system than under CT (Fig. 1B). In RWS, compared to WSR-FI, an average of DSR-AWD (6 treatments) had higher salinity by 41% in rice season and 30% in wheat season. In 2009, WSR-AWD comparison with treatments of DSR-AWD showed salinity levels in those treatments were similar. In CWS, after three crops, CA practice (PB + residue retention) reduced salinity level by 3% in wheat and by 9% in maize compared to CT. The PB system without residue retention (R0) had a higher (+17 to +66%) soil salinity on the top of the bed than CT. Salinity level on the top of the bed increased by (+62 to +69%) than in the furrow when crop residues were removed. However, the bed system with residue retention reduced salinity by 15-31% compared to residue harvest (Fig. 2A). Similarly, in CA-based CWS, salinity level was reduced by 28-46% under N-applied treatments compared to the treatment without N application (Fig. 2B).As the soil profile was divided into two layers, all the soil hydraulic parameters and the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient of each layer were optimized (Table 3). The results of parameters optimized and its performance are shown in Tables 3, 4. There was a close matching of Fig. 2. Soil salinity dynamics as affected by different water management, tillage and residue treatments in rice-wheat (A) and cotton-wheat system (B). WSR-FI = wet-direct seeded rice with continuous flood irrigation; WSR-AWD = wet-direct seeded rice (puddled) with alternate wet and dry irrigation; ZT = zero tillage flat planting; PB = permanent bed; R0 = residue removed; R50 = 50% residue retention; R100 = 100% residue retention; SSW = surface-seeded wheat, all wheat in RWS was SSW after rice; CA = conservation agriculture; CT = conventional practices. N(med)= medium N rate. The 1st bar (with slanting lines) in each panel are the conventional (control treatment).Initial and optimized values of hydraulic properties and the hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient (D) of RWS and CWS rotation systems. θ r , θ s are residual and saturated water content, respectively; α and n are shape parameters for the Brooks and Corey equation. K s and L denote the saturated hydraulic conductivity and Tortuosity parameter in the conductivity function respectively. Parameters θ r (cm 3 cm − 3 ) θ s (cm 3 cm − 3 )   wheat, maize, and cotton). This suggests the model performed satisfactorily and predicted well for the soil salinity level and water content (Figs. 3,4); however, some fluctuation can be observed. Larger differences in simulated and observed EC can be seen in RWS compared to CWS. That is logical due to puddling where the soil was always close to saturation in rice field. In RWS, soil salinity was increased at the end of the wheat season (Fig. 3). In CWS, soil salinity was increased as soil water content decreased during the cotton season, but it was reduced significantly during wheat and maize seasons. Overall, the model performs well for the upper layer and its observation depths where the plant roots are concentrated, which is consequently the most critical in terms of irrigation and nutrition management. The validation results, using the optimized hydraulic parameters and hydrodynamic dispersion coefficient values (Table 3) of the calibration under different upper (rainfall and water supply, ET o , LAI) and lower (groundwater depth) boundary conditions, are shown in Figures 3 and 4. The results of parameter optimization performance, according to performance criteria, are shown in Table 5. Similar to Rezaei et al. (2016), model performance during the calibration was superior to the validation at all observation depths, particularly in RWS. The model underpredicted soil water content and consequently overpredicted soil EC in CWS, while soil water content was overpredicted and EC was underpredicted in RWS. These differences may be attributed to a large number of optimized parameters, different parameters values in the calibration and evaluation data, and also seasonal changes in soil hydraulic properties.During the entire crop growing period, GWT was shallower (1.14 m) by 25% in RWS than in CWS (1.52 m) (Fig. 5A). In crop comparison, GWT was 23% shallower in rice than in cotton during the summer season, while during the winter season, wheat in RWS had 7% shallower GWT than wheat in CWS. The coefficient of variation (CV) for GWT was higher in rice (37%) than in other crops (11-12%). In rice, variation in GWT was higher in DSR-AWD by 8% than in WSR-FI. Both simulated and measured results showed that GWT and GWS in rice were affected due to water management practices, where DSR-AWD had deeper GWT and higher GWS.Groundwater salinity was decreased with an increase in irrigation amount, where it was higher in CWS by 1.16 dS m − 1 (64%) than in RWS (1.83 dS m − 1 ) (Fig. 5B). Similar to GWT, variation in GWS was higher in RWS (CV-27%) than in CWS (CV-16%). Simulation results confirmed a significant increment in GWT and GWS in wheat after rice in RWS than in wheat after cotton in CWS. Irrespective of the treatment effect, both measured and simulated results found that soil salinity at the top 30 cm soil profile was higher (by 81%; 2.86 dS m − 1 ) in CWS than RWS (1.58 dS m − 1 ). Across the soil depth, soil salinity was higher by 73% at the top 10 cm, 92% at 20 cm, 81% at 30 cm, 8% at transition zone (80-90 cm) in CWS than in RWS (Figs. 3, 4). During the crop growing period, salinity level at all soil layers, including transition zone and at groundwater, was highest in cotton − followed by wheat and maize in CWS and the lowest in rice in RWS. The simulated result clearly proved that DSR-AWD rice had a higher salinity than WSR-FI at all soil depths. As the model does not have the option to simulate salt dynamics due to bed configuration and residue retention, we did not simulate the effect of CA on salinity dynamics.Results from daily water balance simulation (Fig. SI3) showed that a measurable amount of water input (irrigation + rainfall) was lost through sub-surface drainage, where 74% of total water input was drained from RWS (a significant amount of water was lost from WSR-FI (92%) followed by DSR-AWD treatments (65%), and no loss from wheat), while no drainage losses occurred from CWS (all three crops). The root water uptake in RWS was 794 mm in WSR-FI and 768 mm in DSR-AWD, while it was 1067 mm in CWS, across three crops in both systems (Fig. SI3).Results of different scenarios of the modeling approaches are shown in Fig. SI4 (for RWS) and Fig. SI5 (for CWS). With the current situation and conditions (same upper and bottom boundary conditions) − i.e., scenario 1, when the model ran for 10 crop rotations − unsurprisingly no significant changes in water content and soil EC can be seen in both cultivation systems. In RWS, when water application was reduced by half, the soil EC did not change significantly (only increased slightly). However, the quality of irrigation water has a significant consequence on predicted EC values when it is doubled (scenario 4). It can be noted that increasing ETo and decreasing water quality increased soil EC, especially in the upper layer. Similar results can be seen for CWS. Significant differences in changing soil EC by varying irrigation water quality and ETo are obvious in RWS compared to CWS. Overall, results of the scenario assessment indicate that soil salinity can be increased by 78% and 66% in RWS and CWS respectively when doubling irrigation water salinity and increasing ETo by 20% (Figs. SI4 and SI5). Under CT systems, the comparison of three crop seasons (two rice and one wheat in RWS, and cotton, wheat, and maize in CWS) showed that RWS had a higher equivalent yield (+23%), net profit (82%), SOC sequestration (+15%), and lower soil salinity (− 72%), with the trade-off of lower water productivity (− 150%), NUE (− 41%), EUE (− 31%) with higher GHGI emission (+223%) than in CWS (Fig. 6A; Table 5). Also, a significant amount of irrigation water drained out from the rice field which raised the GWT to a shallow level. Rice had the highest net profit followed by wheat (CWS), wheat (RWS), cotton, and the lowest in maize. CA practices (no-tillage bed planting with residue retention) with medium N rate had significantly higher positive sustainability indicators in CWS, where CA had high yield (+19%), net profit (+20%), WP (+27%), NUE (+20%), PUE (+18%), KUE (+20%), SOC (+456%), and EUE (+35%), with 7% low soil salinity and 12% lower GHGI than under CT (Fig. 6C). Also, the trade-offs among different indicators in different resource-saving practices in rice observed that WSR-FI had a trade-off for higher yield and profit with the lowest WP (− 51%), GHGI (− 48%), and EUE (− 24%) lower than DSR-AWD (Fig. 6D). In contrast to CWS, the CA-based practices in RWS (i.e., DSR-AWD-R100) had the lowest yield, N-, P-, and K-use efficiency, and profitability, but the highest amount of SOC sequestration with the highest GHGI.The trade-off among different sustainability indicators across three N rates in cotton, wheat, and maize crops showed an appropriate N rate is key for improving the sustainability indicators − wherein all three crops majority of the sustainability indicators were at the lowest level without N fertilizer application (0 kg ha − 1 N), but indicators improved with the application of high N rates. The response of N fertilizer rate was higher in CA-based practices than under CT. The highest N rate improved most of the sustainability indicators in wheat and maize crops, while the medium N rate (except carbon sequestration) improved in cotton (Fig. 7). In all three crops in both establishment methods, medium N rate had the highest NUE, while the highest N rate had the highest PUE and KUE and SOC sequestration potential, indicating increasing N application improved yield and biomass production through the better uptake and utilization of P and K. In all three crops and both establishment methods, medium N rate had consistently the lowest salinity while the lowest N rate had the highest salinity. Residue retention did not have an effect in cotton (might be due to transition season from CT to CA), while in wheat and maize, it increased yield (+10%), WP (+10%), SOC sequestration (+355%), and EUE (+16%), while reducing soil salinity (− 16%) and GHGI (− 15%). Even without residue retention, wheat and maize crops with PB increased yield (+18%), SOC sequestration (+22%), NUE, PUE, and KUE (+ from 18 to 22%), EUE (+38%) with reduced GHGI (− 18%), but with an increment of salinity (+20%) compared to CT.Our results from the mixed-method approach clearly indicated that the sustainability of salt-affected irrigated drylands can be improved through the combination of a better choice of crop and cropping system, crop-specific adoption of CA-based management, optimal use of irrigation water (amount and quality), and optimal N fertilizer management. These practices not only reduced soil salinity but also increased yield, profitability, and SOC sequestration (Figs. 6, 7). In the irrigated drylands, improving sustainability with better soil salinity management is vital for achieving SDG goals, such as #2, 6, 13, and 15 (Singh, 2021;UNDP, 2017). To meet increasing food demand, these drylands need to be managed while balancing gains in economic, environmental and soilAveraged   health and resilience indicators. Our findings help in improving sustainability through prevention and management of degrading soil in irrigated drylands.Soil salinity has been reduced through the optimization of irrigation water (quantity and quality) (Figs. SI4 and SI5) and the adoption of CAbased practices (minimum soil disturbance + residue retention) (Figs. 1,  2). Reduced water application lowered GWT depth (Fig. 5) and decreased sub-surface drainage loss of water (Fig. SI3). Similarly, permanent soil cover under CA minimized the increasing soil salinity level by reducing evaporation loss of water from the soil surface and minimized secondary soil salinization (Devkota et al., 2015a;Hasan et al., 2015;Kienzler et al., 2012). Reduced irrigation application (Nassah et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2019), decreased evaporative loss of water (Hou et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2019), and controlled GWT depth and GWS level (Soppe and Ayars, 2003), have been reported as the sustainable and rehabilitating technologies for salt-affected irrigated drylands.Lower soil salinity in RWS than in CWS in this study is mostly due to the high amount of water application (irrigation water salinity 1.2 to 2.4 dS m − 1 ). However, a high amount of water application shallowed GWT depth (Fig. 5) and increased sub-surface drainage loss (Fig. SI3), which enhances secondary soil salinization. The shallow GWT (Fig. 5) showed both systems might worsen secondary salinization, while the chance of worsening GWT is higher with RWS. Salt accumulation by soil evaporation and transpiration is generally higher when the GWT is less than 1.5 m below the soil surface (Hopmans et al., 2021). Furthermore, RWS had a lower irrigation water use efficiency (mainly in rice; 7% in WSR-FI and 23% in DSR-AWD) (Table 5), with a significant amount of water loss through sub-surface drainage (Fig. SI3) than in CWS. Also, in long-term simulation (Fig. SI4), RWS is considered an unsustainable system as it enhances soil profile and groundwater salinity if continuously practiced >10 years with current production practices. All these findings indicated that RWS is more vulnerable to salinization by enhancing secondary salinization compared to CWS.The water-saving method of rice cultivation (DSR-AWD) helped to reduce irrigation amount and sub-surface drainage loss by more than one-third (Fig. SI3) and increased water productivity, but had a trade-off with soil salinity, productivity, and profitability (Fig. 6D). A significant amount of water loss from the DSR-AWD (PB and ZT) also suggests the proposed alternative establishment method (DSR) and the water-saving irrigation (AWD) is inefficient in improving irrigation efficiency in rice. However, as DSR-AWD is cost-saving technology, upon the availability of suitable salt-tolerant aerobic rice varieties, it can be an alternative option in a water-scarce environment with low drained soil (Radanielson et al., 2018). Bed planting without retaining the crop residue as surface mulch increased soil salinity level in both RWS and CWS (Fig. 2). This could be due to the reduction in surface evaporation with surface mulch in residue retained treatment, whereas in RWS, residue retention reduced surface evaporation by 123 and 53 mm during rice and wheat seasons, respectively, compared to residue harvest.The simulated long-term scenario results (6 scenarios in RWS and 4 scenarios in CWS) demonstrated that irrigation water salinity (both canal and groundwater) and amount are key for the long-term sustainability of the irrigated drylands for minimizing salinization and land degradation. The simulation results, while doubling salinity of water input and increased evapotranspiration (Figs. SI4, SI5), showed climate change, global warming, and human-induced activities (over fertilizer/ solute application, mismanagement in irrigation amount and quality, and improper cropping systems) can further worsen soil salinization. Irrigation using groundwater or surface water with salinity levels higher than the soil salinity is risky, and a policy on the threshold of irrigation water salinity and restriction in the application of higher salinity irrigation water than soil salinity is required.The trends of declining freshwater availability, increasing salinity of fresh and groundwater, raising water table, and worsening drainage systems are increasing in irrigated drylands of the Aral Sea Basin (Kulmatov et al., 2020;Stavi et al., 2021), South Asia (Bhatt et al., 2021;Timsina and Connor, 2001), India (Singh, 2009), China (Huang et al., 2016;Li et al., 2014;Siyu et al., 1996), Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2014), Fig. 5. Measured and simulated (Hydrus-1D) groundwater table (m) in rice-wheat system (A), cotton-wheat system (B) and groundwater salinity (dS m − 1 ) in ricewheat system (C) and cotton-wheat system (D) in 2008-2009. WSR-FI = wet-direct seeded rice with flood irrigation; DSR-AWD = dry-direct seeded rice with alternate wet and dry irrigation; CT = conventional practices. The GWT depth is the averaged value from 6 piezometers in the DSR-AWD and from 3 piezometers in the WSR-FI in RWS and from 20 piezometers in CWS.Pakistan (Syed et al., 2021), Mediterranean region (Shahid et al., 2018;Tomaz et al., 2020), and several other irrigated dryland region and countries (Hopmans et al., 2021). In those regions, excessive use of irrigation water with marginal quality, rising water table, increasing salinity of irrigation water, climate change and rainfall variability are increasing risk of crop production, and the findings from this study might offer a risk minimization opportunities in those areas. In such conditions, secondary salinization can be minimized by: (i) AWD irrigation with a further reduced volume of irrigation water using cropdemand based surface, sub-surface, drip, mulched drip or sprinkler irrigation (Hopmans et al., 2021); (ii) adaptation of alternative crops other than rice, which requires low irrigation water and tolerates salinity; (iii) adapting cropping systems with salt-tolerant crop species; (iv) developing efficient drainage schemes in drylands, as reported by Jafari-Talukolaee et al. (2016) in Northern Iran; (v) and an improved sub-surface drainage system coupled with improved agricultural water management ('integrated on-farm drainage management'), as reported by Hopmans et al. (2021) to reduce the rate of soil salinization in California, USA.High productivity, profitability, and EUE with a reduced environmental footprint (GHGI) enhance sustainability in crop production (Devkota et al., 2020;Gathala et al., 2020). Fourteen performance indicators computed and compared in this study clearly showed the potential for improving sustainability through accelerated adoption of integrated soil, water and other agronomic practices. The increased system productivity, profitability, WP, NUE, PUE, KUE, SOC sequestration, and EUE with lower soil salinity (− 7%) and yield scaled GHGI (− 14%) than in CT practice (Fig. 6C), indicates that sustainability of existing CWS can be improved with the adoption of CA-based practices. In RWS, DSR with AWD improved water productivity, reduced water input, improved EUE and SOC sequestration, and lowered GWT depth. However, it could not prove superior to WSR-FI in yield and profitability, indicating WSR-FI still can be the choice if water is available as a free gift. However, in light of predicted future conditions regarding declining water resources in the Aral Sea Basin, rice cultivation with flood irrigation cannot be advised. Under the water-scarce conditions, low water productivity (− 147%); NUE (− 70%); EUE (− 46%) but with high GHGI (+220%), and increased GWT by 25% in RWS than in CWS (Fig. 6A), might offset the positive benefits from RWS, i.e., higher profitability with reduced salinity. In the drylands, long-term sustainability is more important than short-term economic benefit (e.g., rice production) (Schwilch et al., 2014). The high profitability of RWS was due to the higher yield and price of rice than cotton. A higher amount of SOC-sequestration in RWS was due to a higher amount of residue/straw Fig. 6. Trade-offs among sustainability indicators between RWS and CWS (A), among different crops (B), among conventional (CT) and conservation agriculture (CA)-based practices in cotton-wheat system at low and high N rates (C), and among the conventional (wet-direct seeded) method of crop establishment and flood irrigation (WSR-FI), dry-direct seeded with water-saving irrigation (DSR-AWD) with two residue rates (0 and 100%), and conventional method of crop establishment but with water-saving irrigation (WSR-AWD) in rice in rice-wheat system (D). Data combined over three crops (cotton, wheat, and maize in cotton-wheat and for two years in rice-wheat system. WP = water productivity; NUE = Nitrogen use efficiency; PUE = Phosphorus use efficiency; KUE = Potassium use efficiency; GHGI = GHG emission intensity (kg CO 2 t − 1 grain); SSDrain. = Sub-surface drainage of the irrigation water; SOC=Soil organic carbon sequestration (kg C ha − 1 ); ECe = Soil Salinity (ECe dS m − 1 ); GWT = Groundwater table depth (m); GWS = Groundwater salinity (dS m − 1 ); EUE = Energy-use efficiency; and N loss = Loss of mineral N (kg ha − 1 ). production by the rice crop than cotton. Although SOC is the major indicator of soil health (Giongo et al., 2020;Hopmans et al., 2021), higher SOC-sequestration through rice requires at least 3 times higher water input than in cotton (Devkota et al., 2013b(Devkota et al., , 2013c)).In crop-wise comparison (Fig. 6B), wheat (winter season) crop had the highest number (6) of positive indicators (yield, WP, NUE, KUE, SOC-sequestration, EUE) with the lowest GHGI, indicating its better resilience. Water productivity is the key indicator for crop production in the drylands, and it will further be important in the context of future climate change (Shi et al., 2021). Among the three summer crops (rice, cotton, and maize), rice had the highest profitability but lower value among other indicators. On the other hand, maize had the lowest value for the majority of sustainability indicators, suggesting cotton is still the best among the three crops. However, in comparison to other crops, an increase in soil salinity was seen with an increase in cotton cultivation (Figs. 1, SI5). Therefore, technologies mitigating salinity problems, for Fig. 7. Trade-offs among sustainability indicators across three N (no, medium, and high N rates) in cotton, wheat and maize crops under conservation agriculture (CA; A) and conventional practices (CT; B) practices in cotton, wheat and maize crops in cotton-wheat system in Khorezm region of Uzbekistan. Sub-surface drainage, groundwater table depth and groundwater salinity were not plotted as these indicators were not measured across three N rates. For the description of the figure symbols, Fig. 6. instance, CA with residue retention, or alternate-skip-furrow irrigation (Devkota et al., 2015c), are suggested for the sustainability of cotton planting in the region. Similar findings on the improvement of sustainability with a reduced environmental footprint (GHGI) using CA-based management practices were also reported by Jat et al. (2020) in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Further, lower GHGI or yield-scaled emissions with high EUE with CA-based practices in CWS indicated gains in agricultural productivity is also possible.NUE in rice remained critically low compared to other crops (Fig. 7), indicating the need for better N management for improving sustainability. In CWS, the optimal N rate increased many of the sustainability indicators and helped minimize the soil salinity (Fig. 7). However, under the highest N rate, 83 and 35 kg ha − 1 mineral N was lost from cotton and maize fields (Fig. 6; Table 5) and higher GHGI in CWS indicated that the N rate should be optimized based on the crop demand. A higher N rate alleviated the negative effects induced by salinity stress and helped to improve plant growth and yield by maintaining the integrity of the photosynthesis and chlorophyll inflorescence processes in oat plants in salt-affected areas of Ontario, Canada (Song et al., 2019). It was also reported that N fertilization improved salinity tolerance of cotton (Chen et al., 2010) and wheat (Elgharably et al., 2010), as N plays both nutritional and osmotic roles in saline conditions. The combinations of treatments comprising different cropping systems, crop species, level of irrigation, residue applications, and N fertilizer showed farmers can adopt all practices as a package for better sustainability, or either practice, considering possible trade-offs as well as affordability and acceptability. However, under resource-constrained conditions, the choice of crops and cropping systems using CA-based practices, followed by optimal water and nitrogen management, might be the technologies for consideration for saline conditions.The sustainability of crop production in salt-affected irrigated drylands is becoming challenging and further exacerbated by poor soil, water, and nutrient management. This study sought to understand how CA-based practices, coupled with adaptive management practices such as choice of crop and cropping system, water, and fertilizer management impact the sustainability of crop production in these conditions using mixed-method approaches (field experiments, simulation, and the multi-criteria analysis). Soil salinity dynamics differ with crop and cropping systems: RWS had a lower salinity than CWS. Significantly low WP, EUE, and NUE with high GHGI and a greater sub-surface drainage loss of water input, raised GWT depth and increased the probability of secondary salinization under RWS − indicating that CWS has a higher sustainability index over RWS. In rice, adoption of DSR-AWD technology saved water input, doubled the WP and SOC sequestration, improved EUE, and decreased the probability of secondary salinization, compared to WSR-FI − hence it can be an alternative under the water-scarce condition if RWS is the dominant system. Residue retention was found to be beneficial in the irrigated drylands in both RWS and CWS, where SOC content increased by more than 300%, offering the opportunity to improve soil health. In CWS, CA-based practices (no-tillage and residue retention) reduced salinity level, while CA with optimal N ha − 1 has the greatest potential for improving sustainability with resilience. A better choice of crops and cropping systems, CA-based management practices, appropriate N application rate, and water-saving irrigation, are critical to improving the sustainability of the agricultural production system in the salt-affected degrading irrigated drylands of Central Asia and the regions with similar conditions.","tokenCount":"8526"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e98a3f955b841b3f21fb959a9b2ca27e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3aacdaa2-4750-4380-aa86-15c6dd2fc5f7/retrieve","id":"-485549160"},"keywords":["Common bean","canning","hydration coefficient","visual quality","drained weight"],"sieverID":"19850be6-eade-4fa2-83ab-46504f2240d4","pagecount":"39","content":"Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes popular in eastern and central Africa were evaluated to determine their suitability for the canning industry. The genotypes were planted at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), Kawanda-Uganda in the second rainy seasons (July-September) of 2015, 2016 and off season of 2017 (November-February). Two samples per genotype were evaluated at the canning facilities at Kawanda and Michigan State University (MSU) using a protocol based on home canning. One sample per genotype from the 2017 harvest was evaluated at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre (AAFC-LRDC) using the industry canning protocol. Data (n=134) was collected on seed moisture content, dry and soaked bean weight, hydration coefficient (HC) and visual quality, including colour retention, appearance, brine clarity, bean splitting and freedom starch/clumps on replicated samples. Additional data on unreplicated samples were collected on 100-seed weight, seed solids for canning, hydration coefficient after soaking (HCS), hydration coefficient after blanching (HCB), drain weight (%), matting, appearance, seed color, texture, and cooking quality traits including hard seed and partially hydrated seed (%) and HC after cooking. Analysis of variance of data from MSU and Kawanda showed significant (P≤0.01) differences among genotypes for the assessed parameters. Majority of the genotypes expressed good soaking ability considering that their HC were above the 1.8 recommended for canning and 28% combined the two mentioned traits with good overall canning quality visual rating. Apart from 26, all other varieties had good HC based on data from Canada. About 24% of genotypes belonging to various market classes consistently combined this trait with good visual quality. The most outstanding genotypes based on these traits included SAB659 (red mottled), MAC44 (red mottled), NABE21 (cream), NABE12C (cream) and VAX5 (cream), KK8 (red mottled), Bihogo (yellow) and VAX4 (black). These genotypes were superior to the white beans: MEXICO 142, Awash1, and Awash Melka, that were considered as high-quality controls. Results indicated that genotypes of diverse backgrounds, with good canning quality traits exist among the currently utilised varieties and breeding lines. This diversity could be exploited for breeding and varietal promotion in the canning industry.Common bean is the most important directly consumed food legume in the world, and it is an important source of dietary protein in Africa where it feeds over 400 million people [1]. The crop is also an important source of energy, fiber and micronutrients especially iron, zinc, thiamin and folic acid [2,3]. Local consumers within the East African region majorly buy beans in a dry unprocessed form, which is 55% cheaper than the least expensive processed bean product [4]. However, the cost is only 15% cheaper if the cost of water and fuel used to prepare and cook dry beans are considered [4]. There is an increasing number of middle-income consumers in East Africa, who are majorly city dwellers and are willing to pay for the convenience of pre-cooked/canned beans. Canned beans are not only convenient in terms of time and fuel but are also safe, and have potential to be combined with other foods thereby creating new product lines especially for improved nutrition. This market segment is expected to expand considering the ever-growing urban populations and the current change in lifestyle [4].To be more relevant to the market, it is important for breeding programs to consider important canning quality traits. These include both processor and consumer preferred traits like short cooking time, high canning yield, bean texture and splitting after cooking, grain size and uniformity [5,6]. Good canning quality is imperative since a variety with poor culinary quality will be rejected by consumers and processors regardless of how agronomically superior it is [7]. It is for this reason that the popular bean germplasm in east and central Africa were evaluated for canning quality to assess the availability of beans possessing these traits among the preferred varieties and to better inform the breeding programs. Some varieties were identified and are being utilized in the canning industry in Ethiopia [8] and Democratic Republic of Congo [9]. In 2014, Warsame and Kimani [10] carried out a similar study, the first of its kind in over 50 years in Kenya and discovered three new small-seeded white beans superior in canning quality traits than the long-preferred variety, MEXICO 142. However, the identified genotypes do not capture the diversity in the market classes especially in grain color and size [10]. Also, the resilience of these genotypes to the prevailing biotic and abiotic stresses is important for canning industry sustainability.The canning quality of common beans is influenced by the genotype, environment and genotype by environment interactions, in addition to the seed handling and processing methods after harvest [5,11,12,13,14,15]. For most of these studies, variation due to genotype seems consistently higher than that of environment or genotype by environment interactions for most of the important quality traits. In a study of black bean populations, it was reported that selection for superiority in canning traits is unlikely to cause yield drag [16]. This is very important because yield is a key trait to both farmers and processors. To advance research and commercialization of canned bean, several protocols including Michigan State University (MSU) laboratory protocol based on home canning, industry method and near-infrared spectroscopy [12,17] have been developed. Canning quality traits in dry beans are affected by the calcium level in the soak water, blanch water and brine, as well as the soaking and blanching time used during evaluation [18]. The MSU home canning-based protocol, that adjusts for these variations, and industrybased protocol used at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Canada (AAFC-LRDC) were used to determine the canning quality of popular climbing and bush beans in east and central Africa as a background study to initiate selection and breeding for these traits.One hundred and thirty-four (134) genotypes, consisting of land races (6%), varieties released in some of the member countries (Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania) of the Pan Africa Bean Research Alliance; PABRA (https://www.pabra-africa.org) (66%), and breeding lines (28%) commonly used for varietal improvement were evaluated for canning traits (Table 1). Most (88%) of the evaluated materials were of bush growth habit and of medium (45%) and small seed size (40%). Red mottled, reds, speckled and whites were the most common seed colors in the evaluated panel (Table 1).Experiments were set at the Alliance for Bioversity and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) station in Uganda that is based at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories (NARL), Kawanda. The NARL is in Nabweru sub-county, Wakiso District about 13Km from Kampala city. It is located longitude 45˚N and latitude 48˚E and is 1190 m above sea level with an average temperature of 22°C and 1242 mm annual rainfall. Three trials that included i) second rain season (July-September) of 2015, ii) second rainy season (July-September) of 2016 and iii) off season (November 2017-February 2018) were used in this study. The trials were planted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. Plot size was 3 x 3 m. At harvest, seeds were sun dried to recommended moisture content (10-15%) and hand sorted to remove foreign matters, physically damaged beans and undesirable types.For canning assessments, the seeds harvested from the 2015 trial were sub divided into three: one set of 250 g of seeds per germplasm were shipped to USDA-ARS; Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit, East Lansing, Michigan, another set was assessed at CIAT-Kawanda, and the third set was field evaluated at Kawanda during the July-September rain season of 2016. The harvested seeds were subdivided into two: one set was tested for canning quality at CIAT-Kawanda and the other set including an additional 14 lines to make it 134 lines were replanted in the 2017 off season (November 2017-Februray 2018) and the harvested seed (500 g) sent to LRDC-Canada in April, 2018 and tested for canning and cooking quality. In summary, four sets of canning data: one from the Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit at MSU (2015), two from Kawanda-Uganda (2015 and 2016) and one from Canada (2017) were generated.The MSU bean canning laboratory protocol was based on a home canning method developed by Uebersax and Hosfield [19] and later designed to fit the United States and Canada canning industry standards [17]. The procedures involved cold and hot soaking of bean samples, brine preparation, autoclaving, storage and evaluation for consumer traits. Harvested seeds were sorted to remove any foreign matters, physically damaged beans and undesirable types. Sub-sampling was done for each sample to obtain 2 or 3 samples per experimental unit and samples labelled uniquely. For the first two analysis, only one sample per genotype was canned in each of the laboratories due to limited seed quantities, and thus laboratories were considered as duplicates. The moisture content of each sample was recorded using a DICKEY-John GAC 2500GMA and a SINAR Model 6095 AgriPro Moisture Analyzer at Michigan and Kawanda, respectively. For each sample an equivalent of 90 g of solid was collected. This is the fresh weight of beans equivalent to 90 g of total solids at a given moisture content that is estimated using the moisture content (%MC) of each sample, for example, 107.1 g of bean fresh weight at 16% MC is equivalent to 90 g solids, that is, Dry bean weight (weight for canning) in grams = 90 g (solids required)1 − ( MC% 100 ) (solids at a given moisture content)The dry beans were processed using a standard soak procedure. Seed samples were placed in heat resistant nylon mesh bags and designated into soak lots. Two soaks were performed: cold and hot soak. The soak solution comprised of 0.28 g of calcium chloride (CaCl2) dissolved in 1 liter of distilled H2O. Calcium ion influences the quality of processed beans and thus the MSU protocol recommends using 75-100 ppm of calcium ions. For cold soaking, CaCl2 solution was prepared by weighing 2.8 g of CaCl2 and dissolving it in 10 liters of distilled water in a plastic bucket. The mixture was stirred to obtain a clear solution before bean samples packed in heat resistant nylon mesh bags were immersed. White beans were soaked separately from colored or black beans. Seed color and type is known to influence cold soaking duration [17]. Therefore, navy (white), great northern, pink and small red beans were soaked for 30 min while red kidney, red mottled, cranberry, and pinto beans were soaked overnight (12-14 hrs) in large plastic buckets and at room temperature (25°C). Thereafter, hot soaking was done by transferring samples from cold storage into preheated CaCl2 solution; prepared similarly to the one for the cold soak, into a boiler. The bean samples were submerged in the solution for 30 min for all market classes. Thereafter, the samples in mesh bags were removed from the boiler and placed in a large container of cold tap water for 3-5 min and afterwards removed and spread out on flat perforated surface to facilitate uniform drainage for 10-15 min. The soaked seeds were then transferred into labelled, uniformly sized, heat resistant glass jars whose weights were determined by randomly weighing 5 empty jars and obtaining an average. The filled jars were then weighed and the glass jars were filled with hot brine that was prepared by mixing 2.8 g of CaCl2, 150 g of sucrose (sugar) and 10 liters of distilled water in a plastic bucket (that is for 1 liter of H2O use 0.28 g of CaCl2 and 15 g of sugar). The mixture was stirred and then boiled in a steel saucepan on a gas cooker until a temperature of 87°C was attained after which the brine was transferred into glass jars (fully filled leaving 2.5 cm headspace) containing beans using a measuring cup. To prevent glass jars from breaking, they were placed in hot water during the brine filling process. The jars were then sealed and autoclaved at 120°C for 30 min (F0 = 23.3 min) after which they were removed and transferred into cardboard boxes and stored at room (ambient) temperatures for a minimum of two weeks at MSU and four weeks at CIAT-Kawanda. The four weeks considered at Kawanda initially intended to capture the shelf life on the Ugandan market.Dry bean seed samples were processed at AAFC-LRDC using industry protocols. Seeds were stored in closed containers for about 1 week to equilibrate the samples for moisture. Three high quality canning checks were included: AAC Cranford (cranberry), AAC Expedition (pinto) and AC Black Diamond (shiny black). The percent moisture content (%MC) of the bean samples was determined using a Dickey-john 2500-UGMA Grain Analyzer.Based on the %MC, 90 g of dry bean seeds were weighed into a 1.2 L stainless steel beaker and soaked in 1 L deionized water at ambient temperature (21°C) for 16 hours, drained, weighed, then hydration coefficient was calculated. The beans were then blanched by placing the beakers onto a closable steam table and adding about 1 L of boiling water that was maintained at 93°C using a digital thermometer equipped with a thermocouple for 3 min. Cooling to about 50°C for about 30 min was performed by spraying with ambient water. The beans were then drained for two min, weighed to determine the hydration coefficient after blanching and then placed in 14 fluid oz (398 ml) cans. This was followed by different treatments for navy (white) and colored beans. Heated tomato sauce that consisted of 10% (w/v) tomato puree, 9% (w/v) sugar, 2% (w/v) salt, 2% (w/v) Colflo67 starch in 1 L of deionized water, was added to each can of navy beans allowing a headspace of about 10 mm. For colored beans, brine solution, which was a heated mixture of 1% salt (w/v) and water was used instead of tomato sauce. The cans were then sealed under atmosphere steam with a can sealer and processed at 121°C for 40 min for navy or 20 mins for colored beans at 4 rev min -¹ using a 2402 Multimode R&D Retort (Allpax Products, LLC, Covington, LA, USA). Cooling in cold running water for 20 min at 4 rev min -¹ was performed and the cans were then stored in a dry ambient store for at least 2 weeks before assessing the processing quality.Data were collected on percentage-soaked weight, hydration coefficient and then visual assessments were made on the canned beans. The percentage-soaked bean weight (SBW, g) which is the weight of a bean sample after soaking in cold and then hot was recorded. This weight is the measure of both the weight of water and weight of total solids in the sample. For visual assessments, the brine and seeds were poured in separate plates and assessed for color, appearance, brine clarity, bean splitting and free starch/clumps using 1 to 5 rating scale (Table 2). A single score for overall appearance was recorded considering all the above-mentioned quality traits [17,20]. This method made it easier to handle many samples. However, for the 2016 harvest, a 1-7 scale was used to rate each quality trait separately where: 1 = Unacceptable, 2 = Very bad, 3 = Bad, 4 = Fair, 5 = Good, 6 = Very good and 7 = Excellent. The 1-7 scale was used as it was found to be more informative since this trial was for confirmation [17]. Nonetheless, a 1-5 is recommended because there are less categories for raters to decide on, and they are more likely to use the full scale.Five to fourteen people visually rated the canned beans at both MSU and Kawanda, respectively and the averages were obtained for analysis. The visual quality assessment, which is also referred to as the processing quality index (PQI) is assessed subjectively by a trained panel of judges, typically on a 7-point hedonic scale. Using the PQI, six variables are considered and each is weighted for importance: (1) overall appearance, (2) splits, (3) clumps, (4) cooking broth viscosity, ( 5) cooking broth extruded starch and (6) seed shape, color and size [21].Data were collected on hydration coefficient after soaking (HCS), hydration coefficient after blanching (HCB), drain weight (%), matting (clumping), appearance, seed color, seed texture and the cooking quality. For HCS, a predetermined seed weight (that is, seed solids) based on the bean market class was soaked for 16 hrs in deionized water at room (21°C) temperature. The HCS was determined as:!\"#$%& () *(+,\"-.\"+/* ($)4\"#$%& () -3; *\"\"-($) . For HCB, soaked seeds were blanched for 3 min at 93°C and HCB was determined as:.To measure drained weight (%), colored bean seeds were processed at 121°C at 4 rpm for 20 min in brine while Navy bean seeds were processed at 121°C at 4 rpm for 40 min in tomato sauce. The can content was weighed and the drained weight of bean seed was determined after washing in tap water on an 8-mesh screen (Tyler series) positioned at a 15° angle. Percentage drain weight was determined as: Drain weight of 60% or higher was acceptable as indicated that 60% of the can content was bean seed. Matting (clumping) and appearance of seeds were assessed on a 1 to 4 scale, where 1 = none, 2 = trace, 3 = slight, 4 = moderate for matting, and 1 = excellent, 2 = good, 3 = acceptable, 4 = poor for appearance.The L* (light-dark), a* (red-green) and b* (yellow-blue) attributes of color were measured on dry and processed (canned) seed using a CR-410 Chroma meter (Konica Minolta Sensing Americas, Inc., Ramsey, NJ, USA). One hundred grams of processed bean seed were used to determine color after canning. Texture (firmness), measured in kg force 100 g seed -1 was determined by placing 100 g of washed drained bean into a standard shear compression cell (CS-1) of Texture Measurement System-Touch (TMS-Touch, Food Technology Corp., Sterling, VA, USA) and shearing them using a load cell of 255 kg force at a rate of 0.83 cm sec -1 . Comparison was then made with the check varieties.Cooking quality assessment was conducted to determine hard seeds and partially hydrated seeds. Two hundred seeds per sample were weighed and soaked in stainless steel beakers using deionized water for 16 hrs at room temperature (21°C), drained and reweighed. Deionized water was heated in a blancher (steam cauldron) to 95°C prior to cooking the seed samples in the beakers for 20 min at 95°C. The seeds were allowed to cool to about 50°C and drained. The weight of seeds after cooking was recorded per sample. The hydration coefficients before ( !\"#$%& () *(+,\"-.\"+/* ($)4\"#$%& () -3; *\"\"-($) ), and after cooking ( !\"#$%& () <((,\"-.\"+/* ($)4\"#$%& () -3; *\"\"-($) ) were determined. The number of hydrated and partially hydrated seeds before and after cooking were counted to determine percentage hard-seed and percentage partially hydrated seed.Data collected by MSU and CIAT Uganda were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) in Genstat software, release 19.1 [22] using ANOVA, REML or regression statistics model. The design was orthogonal for all variables; hence, the output was generated by ANOVA model. Correlations between variables were analyzed in the same software using mean data. Broad sense heritability (H 2 , repeatability) was calculated on entry mean basis as:where, VC = variance component, G = genotype, e = error and r = number of replications. In the case of LDRC, the data were subjected to Proc Mixed of SAS (version 9.3) for modified augmented design. Least significant difference (LSD (0.05)) was derived by Dunnett's Test in Proc Mixed to compare an entry mean with a check cultivar.In addition to other traits, the processing quality index (PQI), texture and washed drained weight of canned bean were captured to identify differences among the evaluated genotypes. The above-mentioned three variables have been shown to be most useful for selecting superior genotypes for canning quality [23] and were thus emphasized in this study.There were significant differences (P≤0.05) for most traits: hydration coefficient, moisture content, 100 seed weight and visual quality traits after canning among the genotypes (Table 3). Repetition effects were significant (P≤0.01) for all variables for the 2015 harvest evaluated at the two laboratories: CIAT and MSU. The confirmation trial (2016 harvest at Kawanda only) showed that replication effect was only significant in two attributes of visual quality (splitting and clumping).Replications were made to obtain reliable data. The same seed lot was used in the first two evaluations that were conducted in two laboratories and a different seed lot was evaluated as a confirmatory trial in one of the laboratories. The repetition effect was significantly different in all variables, possibly because the seeds were stored for about a year prior to the second evaluation, and visual quality rating was also carried after different storage periods: 14 and 30 days. Repetition effect in the confirmatory trial was only significant in two visual quality traits: splitting and clumping implying that there was less variation due to external factors in the data. Uniformity in canning procedure and consistent quality determined by visual rating was suggested as a necessity for a variety to be commercially successful because bean genuineness is assessed [24]. Although genotypes only significantly (P ≤ 0.001) differed in moisture content, weight of 100 seeds, hydration coefficient in the first two evaluations, significant differences (P ≤ 0.001) were observed in all traits except in moisture content in the third evaluation. The repeatability (broad sense heritability) for hydration coefficient and visual quality assessment for each attribute (and the averaged value) were generally high (> 0.6) except in color (Table 3). This indicated high potential to reliably select for genetic variation. This variation is vital for genetic gain during crop improvement because it creates a wide genetic base that is important for selection [25].There were significant differences (P≤0.05) among the laboratories and among lines for HC (Table 3). The high mean values (1.9 to 2.1) for this trait indicated that majority of the genotypes had a relatively high HC. The values varied between 1.6 and 2.3 at Kawanda (2015 and 2016), 1.0 and 2.2 at MSU (Annex 1). A value of 1.8 is acceptable by the canning industry because soaking uncooked beans normally causes a mass increase of 80% [18,23]. A high HC is preferred because such beans produce greater can quantity. A moderate positive correlation that existed between hydration coefficient (HC) [r = 0.53***] and 100 seed weight (Table 4) showed that larger beans absorbed proportionally more water during soaking. Out of 67 large (SW100 ≥ 35.0 g) and 54 small (SW100 < 35.0 g) seeded genotypes, 75% and 37%, respectively, had consistent HC of ≥2 (Data not shown). A high HC reduces cooking time and causes a quicker germination when seeds are planted, making it very desirable in the industry [8]. In general, of the 121 genotypes, 87 lines (72%) had HC greater than 1.8 in all the three evaluations, which indicated a high potential of finding industry acceptable genotypes based on further characterisation. Consistent superiority (HC >2.1) in this trait was observed in 27% of the lines; the exceptional ones were in VTTT923/10-3, GASIRIDA, NABE18, NABE19, K132 (CAL96), CODMLB001 and NABE26C, NUA8, KK8 and MAC44 (Annex 1).Considering data from LRDC-Canada, all large seeded varieties except for NUA45, had HCS and HCB above 1.8 indicating potential for canning (Annex 2). The varieties NABE29C and VTTT923/10-3 had HCS of 2.2 higher than the largeseeded check AAC Cranford (2.1) and equal to AAC Expedition (2.2). Four large seeded varieties: NABE11, VTTT923/10-3, NABE20 and KK8 had HCB of 2.4 greater than all the checks. Nine medium seeded varieties had HCS less than 1.8 while only one NUA689 had HCB less than 1.8. Fourteen small seeded varieties had HCS less than 1.8 while only two, VAX4 and TU had HCB less than 1.8 (Annex 2).Appearance of seeds was assessed on a 1 to 4 scale at AAFC-LRDC, Canada where, 1 = excellent, 2 = good, 3 = acceptable, 4 = poor) compared to 1-5 and 1-7 scales that were used in Kawanda and MSU.Based on canning tests conducted on the 2015 trial at Kawanda and MSU, the mean scores ranged from 2.5 to 5.1 and 15.7% of the lines scored above the mean. Out of the 87 lines, which were consistently superior in HC, 33 lines (37.9%) had average to excellent visual quality (Figures 1 and 2). In the 2016 trial, 13% of the lines were rated very good to excellent, 36% were rated good to very good (Figure 3). Although not very strong, HC positively correlated to visual canning score [r = 0.26***] (Table 4), which showed that genotypes with high values of HC tended to have good visual quality respectively. The following four large and one small seeded genotypes: MAC44, SAB659, NABE12C, NABE21 and VAX5, respectively, combined high (≥2) HC with superior visual canning quality across the two seasons at the two laboratories (2015 MSU and Kawanda, and 2016 Kawanda) (Annex 1). These were rated 4/5 and 6/7 on a 5-and 7-point scale, respectively, signifying very good to excellent canning quality basing on appearance, brine clarity, bean splitting and absence of starch/clumps in 2015 and 2016. About 9.9% of genotypes had higher scores than the check genotypes, MEXICO142, Awash1 and Awash Melka whose visual scores were 2.0/3.1, 1.0/3.8 and 2.0/3.3, respectively, in the first two evaluations. All these checks are white beans and only one genotype of the same seed type, Michelite (3.0/3.6), exhibited a slightly better quality.  Among the 134 lines evaluated in Canada, 18 were large seeded with the majority being of red mottled grain market class, 60 were medium seeded with the majority being of red mottled grain market class and 53 were small seeded with a number of them being white, black or red in color. Results showed that all the large seed varieties with the exception of G16157 had excellent to good appearance after canning (Figure 4) and were more superior to the checks. There was trace to no matting among these varieties. All the medium seeded varieties had excellent to good appearance after canning except GLP2 (Figure 4). Most of the small seeded varieties had good to acceptable appearance after canning, however, Maharage Soja had a poor appearance (Annex 2). Several genotypes were more superior to the above-mentioned check genotypes across the three laboratories (Table 5). The superior lines belong to several market classes and could have wide acceptability if promoted for canning. An old genotype MEXICO142 highly utilised in the canning industry in Kenya in the past years [10] was on average rated between fair and good. Though not white seeded like MEXICO 142, the genotypes MAC44 (red mottled climber), NABE12C/ SUG35 (cream seeded climber), BIHOGO (yellow seeded bush bean), VAX5 (small cream seeded bush bean), KK8 (red mottled bush) and NABE29C (small red seeded climber) were consistently very good/ excellent in visual quality. This showed the potential that exists in other non-white market classes, but also recognised a need for breeding for more white beans that are not only good for canning but also resilient in farmer fields. The genotypes Awash1 and Awash Melka that were also on average rated fair/ good in visual quality were among genotypes with the highest canning quality in a study carried out in Ethiopia [8]. They were evaluated together with other three white bean genotypes: Argene, Omer and Chercher and it was concluded that they together with Argene were suitable for canning. This study had a larger set of lines and MAC44, NABE12C/SUG35, BIHOGO, KK8, SAB659 and NABE21 were consistently superior. However, none of these are white and thus cannot feed in the current market segment. Two white beans: Michelite and CAB2 exhibited a relatively similar canning quality to these check lines. Small seeded white beans that are significantly better than the current ones demanded by the market were absent and thus breeding efforts need to be directed to this area.Studies have been done on several market types: black beans [16]; kidney beans [26,27] and white beans [11,8,9,10,28,29] which seem to remain the most popular in canning industry. In addition to white beans, other major market classes including red mottled, small reds, yellows and sugar beans are widely consumed in east and central Africa [30]. Beans belonging to these market classes like Masindi yellow short, Masindi yellow long, VAX2, MEXICO142, MAC44, KK8, SAB659, NABE29C, NABE8C, NABE21, et cetera, that retained their colors during canning process, and were superior in all or most of the other traits have untapped potential in this region if promoted, improved or used as parental genotypes for breeding. In addition, the superior lines are of both bush and climbing bean types indicating a broader potential for adoption by farmers if promoted. Growth habit and seed type are some of the key traits that have potential effect on connecting farmers/ seed producers to the market. These need to be considered early in the breeding pipelines to produce lines relevant to the market. Overall, this study showed the presence of genotypes possessing good canning quality in the germplasm popular in east and central Africa.A drained weight of ≥60% is acceptable and it indicates that ≥60% of the can content was bean seeds [18]. All large, seeded genotypes except for G16157 and NUA45 were acceptable although none outperformed the checks. Similarly, all small seeded genotypes except for Roba1, Maharage soja and NABE6 and all medium sized varieties except for GLP2, NUA689 and KATB9 were acceptable (Annex 2). There was no association [r = -0.03, ns] between washed drained weight (WDW) and weight of 100 dry bean seeds (SW100) (Table 4). As noted above, large, medium and small seeded genotypes performed similarly well in this trait. Test varieties were compared against industry checks and in summary the varieties NGWINXCAB2, NABE21, CODMLB001, NABE12C, Michelite, Awash1 and SELIAN97 (red kidney) exhibited excellent canning qualities with respect to HC, drained weight, matting and appearance from tests conducted at LDRC (Annex 2).Variability in texture ranged from 19.3 in CNF5520 to 114.7 in NUA689 with a mean of 49.9 kg force per 100 g processed seed (Annex 2), which indicated that majority of the genotypes were soft. The optimum canning requirement of firmness/texture is 55-65 kg force per 100 g processed seed based on processors and consumer preferences [31] and 91% of the genotypes met this requirement. However, beans should soften during processing, but not to disintegrate the bean contents [31]. Other studies report texture ranges of 38.5 to 48.7 for navy bean and 59.1 and 89.9 for small white [31,32] which are comparable to the values obtained in this study. Compared to the check genotypes, only CNF5520 was lower than AAC Cranford and AAC Expedition, and 14 other genotypes were lower than AC Black Diamond. The genotype CNF5520 was significantly (P≤0.05) different from AAC Cranford while NABE9C and MEXICO 54 did not significantly differ (P≤0.05) from AAC Cranford and AAC Expedition respectively (Annex 2). Texture is thought to be influenced by seed coat thickness among other traits, thus beans with thin seed coats like the navy type tend to have low texture to withstand the canning process [32]. For this reason, the type is canned in tomato sauce for acceptable texture and appearance [33] and a higher texture value of 72 kg force per 100 g processed seed is the industry standard for navy bean [31]. Texture was significant (P≤0.001) and negatively associated [r = -0.26 to -0.46] with all the different hydration coefficients (Table 4), which showed that beans with poor soaking ability required more force to penetrate. In addition, the higher the texture, the lower the SW100, appearance and matting but only the latter had a significant [r = -0.23**] association (Table 4). This indicated that beans with low texture (firmness) tended to clump easily.Color is an attribute of beans that influences the market based on consumer preference [30]. The color of dry and cooked beans is measured visually or by a chromameter using L * , a * , b * values. The L* indicates \"light-dark\" with higher values for lightness; a* indicates \"red-green\" with positive values for redness and negative values for greenness; and b* indicates \"yellow-blue\" with positive values for yellowness and negative values for blueness [34]. Based on the importance of color to the market, a positive correlation between the dry and the cooked bean is important. In this study, the positive and strong significant (≤0.001) correlations existed in the L*, a*, b* values of dry and canned beans (Table 4), which showed that majority of the genotypes retained their color during the canning process.However, compared among the three categories, beans with high positive b* values (yellowness) tended to lose more color during canning since its correlation [r = 0.63] was lower than the 0.89 and 0.80 obtained for L* and a* (Annex 2). Overall, the following 14 genotypes: RANJONOMBY, CAB2, RWV3006, G90, SAB712, CNF5520, VCB81013, Awash Melka, RWV3316, KATSW-12, KATSW-9, KATSW-10, UBR (92)25 and Awash1 were superior to all the three checks, AAC Expedition, AAC Cranford and AC Black Diamond in maintaining high L* and b* values in both dry and cooked beans (Annex 2). These could be used as parental lines for improvement of this trait but most genotypes including those previously identified visually retained color during canning.Thirty-seven genotypes (29%) were superior to the industrial checks in regard to having no or negligible proportions of hard seed after a 16 hr soak at 21°C and partially hydrated seed after a 16hr soak at 21°C (Table 6). Thirty-two lines (24%) had HC less than 1.8 after a 16hr soak at 21°C but all 130 lines had HC >2 after 20 min cooking time at 95°C. Only three lines: NUA689, RWV3006 and RWV3316 had >1% hard seed after cooking for 20 min at 95°C. Eleven lines remained partially hydrated after 20 min of cooking at 95°C. Eleven lines including BAT332, VAX5, UBR(95)25, KATSW9, KATSW10, KATSW12, NABE6, Kanyebwa, ECAPAN01, NABE29C and Masindi Yellow had good cooking qualities (Table 6).There was diversity among genotypes used in this study which can be further exploited to improve canning quality traits of common beans. There were no identified small white bean genotypes superior to the three small white beans popular in the canning industry in this region suggesting that more breeding effort is needed for this market segment. Nonetheless, the several identified genotypes could be promoted for canning purposes to capture the diverse market preferences in color that exist in Africa. Many of these genotypes are already with the farmers and their adoption by the processors could open a new market for the farmers, thereby increasing their income. Considering the three key traits for measuring canning quality [23], texture was weakly, non-significantly and negatively correlated to appearance. Similarly, appearance expressed weak negative nonsignificant correlation with washed drained weight. These indicated that beans with high firmness tended to exhibit better appearance and that better appearance was associated with high drained weight. While both were expected favorable associations, they were non-significant showing the need to phenotype for all the traits during evaluation.      , large seeded); AAC Expedition (Secondary check, 5 replicates, medium seeded); and AC Black Diamond (Secondary check, 5 replicates, small seeded). HCS = hydration coefficient after soaking, HCB = hydration coefficient after blanching, SW100 (g) = weight of 100 dry bean seeds, LSD = least significant difference","tokenCount":"5850"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1e143584ac4e10755c47ac0a0762713","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/db6336ce-c832-4dde-959d-87cb396294d8/retrieve","id":"727562106"},"keywords":["SDG1 No poverty","SDG2. Zero Hunger","SDG5. Gender Equity","SDG14. Life Below Water and SDG15. Life on Land"],"sieverID":"af38543e-a385-4d77-8572-14518fc9b5c4","pagecount":"35","content":"International Potato Center (CIP) and WorldFish. NPS initiative aims to improve the lives of millions of people by identifying ways of building stronger policies and strategies with greater coherence and capacity, helping countries address current policy demand and future development needs. Ben Mwongela is an independent consultant who worked with Agatha Thuo and Winnie Muya from the Agriculture Sector Network (ASNET), and Joseph Karugia from ILRI. We want to thank all key informants who participated in this study and multi-stakeholders who participated in the report sharing and validation of the workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. We are grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund contributors: www.cgiar.org/funders.Over the years, food markets have faced numerous challenges associated with the distribution of agricultural inputs and products. The retail price one pays for vegetables, animal products, cereals, fruits, and other items is influenced by a composite of factors such as input costs, transportation costs, cess tax, and market levies, all of which collectively contribute to over 50% of the total cost of a meal. However, despite their significance to revenue collection, these levies have been employed to the detriment of producers, traders, processors, and consumers, exacerbating the already high cost of living and hindering economic growth. The situation demands urgent policy reforms to address these issues and stimulate economic growth.Agricultural Produce Cess (APC) is a tax county governments impose on tradable commodities crossing county borders to raise revenue. Similarly, market cess or landing fees are imposed on agricultural inputs and commodities to raise revenue for destination counties where crops are landed, processed, or sold. Agricultural inputs and branded vehicles face additional charges when moving between counties, resulting in multiple taxation. There is a growing concern over the lack of transparency and accountability in utilizing these levies. The goal of improving physical infrastructure and enhancing farm productivity remains elusive, as little evidence proves that the funds collected are reinvested in the agricultural sector.Before the enactment of the Constitution in 2010, the collection of produce cess in Kenya was governed by the Agriculture Act (Cap. 318) of the country's laws. This Act granted local authorities the power to impose cess in consultation with and with the consent of the Minister in charge of Local Government. The establishment of 47 county governments marked a significant shift in the governance structure, and the Constitution now allows both the national and county governments to impose taxes. However, the legal foundation for cess is not well established. This has prompted various stakeholders to advocate for urgent policy reforms. The ongoing dialogue, coordinated by the Agriculture Sector Network (ASNET), underscores the pressing need to reform the structure and application of cess and market levy systems to ensure fair and equitable taxation that promotes sustainable agricultural development and benefits all stakeholders involved.Experiences from cess systems in other jurisdictions, such as India, Australia, and the United Kingdom, demonstrate the direct benefits of levies to both the payers and the broader community. These countries have adopted taxation policies that favour agricultural stakeholders by implementing minimum turnover thresholds before taxation, capping tax rates and providing specific exemptions to cushion producers from over taxation. Thus, Kenya could draw valuable insights from these practices to reform cess collection and usage.By fostering transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making in the cess and market levy policies, the Government of Kenya can create an enabling environment that facilitates agricultural productivity, stimulates investment, and ensures food security for its citizens. These reforms promise a more efficient and equitable agricultural sector, instilling hope and optimism among all stakeholders.1. IntroductionThe Agriculture Produce Cess (APC), also known as cess fees, is tax county governments impose on tradable commodities crossing county borders to raise revenue for the origin counties. The cess is applied to commercially produced or supplied agricultural inputs and products like cereals, livestock, vegetables, fish, fruits, coffee, tea, and flowers. It is levied based on the product's weight, packaging (e.g., per sack), or the carrying capacity of the transporting vehicle. Counties typically levy cess on goods produced within their jurisdiction. If agricultural goods' cess is paid in one county, some waive additional charges for goods passing through. However, evidence of cess payment in the county of origin is required.Similarly, market cess, or landing fees, is imposed on agricultural inputs and commodities to raise revenue for destination counties where crops and livestock are landed, processed, or sold. Apart from these, agricultural inputs and branded vehicles face additional cess charges when moving between counties regardless of levies charged at the county of origin. Other undeclared charges, like parking, branding, and advertisement costs, are also imposed, contributing to multiple taxation, thus adding to the financial burden during transit. These levies vary across counties.In partnership with its members, the Agriculture Sector Network (ASNET) has been working to review levies to establish what the membership has done on the subject. The review aims to provide a working document that would form a basis for advocacy by the ASNET membership on agricultural produce cess and other market-associated levies as they engage the county and national governments.With support from the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies and in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), various private-sector agriculture stakeholders, under the coordination of ASNET, initiated efforts to conduct a deep dive into APC and other market levies. ASNET also launched an advocacy process.The Agriculture Sector Network (ASNET) is the umbrella body of Kenya's agricultural sector. It was formed through a partnership comprising the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), and the SDG Partnership Platform of the United Nations, with support from the defunct Business Advocacy Fund (BAF), Elgon Kenya Limited, other like-minded business associations, private sector partners and other stakeholders. ASNET plays a crucial role in advocating for policy reforms and coordinating dialogue among various stakeholders in the agricultural sector. It was launched in February 2020 at a Safari Park Declaration.ASNET's key role is coordinating agriculture sector actors in Kenya through various mechanisms to engage in policy advocacy and value chain development that promote increased productivity and competitiveness and attract investments into the agriculture sector. The network endeavors to be the lead entity in advocacy for a competitive and enabling business environment for the agriculture sector at the county, national, regional, continental, and global levels. This is envisaged through solid partnerships with the national and county governments, development partners, and other stakeholders to revolutionize the agricultural sector, leading to growth, inclusive wealth, and ultimately creating jobs. The agricultural sector is the backbone of Kenya's economy, contributing approximately 21.17% (KNBS Economic Survey, 2023) of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022. The sector employs more than 40% of the total population and 70% of the rural population, accounting for more than 50% of the country's export earnings. 1Over the years, food markets have faced numerous challenges. To understand the cost of preparing a meal in Kenya, it is essential to grasp the cost framework associated with the distribution of agricultural products. Retail prices pay for vegetables, cereals, fruits, and other items and are influenced by various costs related to the distribution of agricultural products. These include transportation costs from the farm to the market, cess tax, brokers' fees, and market levies, all of which collectively contribute to over 50% of the total cost of a meal.  Source: https://medium.com/@shipsenga/the-cost-of-putting-food-on-the-table-the-taxing-nature-of-cess-fees-in-kenya-93bbefcbc0e6It is essential to understand that the Kenyan economy is tax-based, hence the need for the government to raise revenue for economic development. Cess is a levy on tradable agricultural produce imposed previously by local authorities (LAs) based on the Agriculture Act (Cap 318) and the Local Government Act (Cap 265). The implementation of cess before devolution was supported by its incorporation into agricultural sector policies and legislation. Local authorities could impose cess on tradable agricultural produce in consultation with the Minister. LA bylaws require any person within or outside an area to pay or deduct from the amount payable to the seller an equal amount of the required cess and remit it to the respective LA. Cess was intended as an earmarked levy to support the improvement of production and distribution of taxed agricultural produce. Eighty percent (80%) of the cess collection was used in maintaining roads and other services related to sectors in which it was levied.The remaining 20% was credited to the general accounts of LAs 3 .The Agriculture Produce Cess (APC) is a tax levied on tradable commodities by county governments to raise revenue for the origin counties where the crops are grown. Cess is applied to agricultural and fishing products that are commercially produced or supplied, such as maize, milk, cattle, vegetables, fish, fruits, coffee, tea, and flowers.The unit used to levy the cess is based on the product's weight, the package or container (e.g., per sack of the product), or the carrying capacity of the motor vehicle used for transportation. Cess is collected either at the source of the products or during transportation on designated county or national government roads. Typically, counties levy cess fees on products or goods produced or extracted within their jurisdiction. The funds are expected to be used to improve physical infrastructure such as roads and other assets that contribute to the enhancement of agricultural production services and facilitate marketing and distribution of these commodities.Market cess (landing fees) are fees imposed by county governments on agricultural commodities with the similar intention of raising revenue for the destination counties where the crops are landed, processed, or sold. Inputs such as seed are also subjected to cess charges, where the movement of seed from one county to another is subject to this taxation. This is coupled with fees charged on branded vehicles. These funds have been assumed to bear the same functionality as APC.Unfortunately, in both cases, these charges are not necessarily ploughed back to the sector in proportion to the amounts collected to meet the county government's intended purposes.In addition, cess accounts for a relatively small proportion of county governments' own-source revenue. In the financial year (FY) 2016/17, collections by counties amounted to KSh 1.2 billion, equivalent to 3.5% of aggregate Own Source Revenue (OSR).In FY 2015/16, KSh 1.3 billion was collected, which equaled 3.6% of total OSR. This excludes KSh 106.8 million in coffee cess collected by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB), which was subsequently released to 30 counties from which it was generated. 4 Low cess collections may indicate leakages or poor compliance, especially given the levy's weak connection with specific services. They may also signify negative yields resulting from high administration costs.While the Constitution provides a clear taxation framework, there have been contentious areas. One such area is the collection of agricultural produce cess. The repeal of the Agriculture Act (Cap. 318) in January 2013 through the enactment of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Authority (AFFA) Act (No. 13 of 2013) 5 added to the complexity. During the transitional period until September 2013, counties continued to impose cess under the Public Finance Management Act of 2012. Subsequently, most counties incorporated cess charges into their legal systems through statutes passed by their respective county assemblies.The legal foundation for cess is not well-established. While the Constitution provides guidelines on taxation powers for both national and county governments, there have been contentious areas and a lack of precise alignment regarding cess. The absence of harmonized legislation has led to high and multiple charges, plus numerous collection points, thus increasing costs for producers and traders, eventually hurting the agricultural sector's competitiveness. Different counties' use of different units of measurement for levying fees, such as tonnage, package size, vehicle type, and number of trips, has created trade barriers within the country.In the current Kenyan context, the county financial bills, where the agricultural cess and market levies are domiciled, have been used as the safest way for introducing new charges as opposed to addressing the agricultural issues through structured and harmonized laws and legal provisions that guarantee the longevity of the application. Each county has the discretion to determine the rate and/or computational formula for the fees based on the prevailing laws and regulations. Usually, the rates charged may be in the form of a numeric value or percentage with no clear justification of the process used to determine the values applied. Whatever the case, the computation of the final amount payable is based on the volume and/or value of the tradable commodity.There is a lack of understanding about the actual cost of revenue administration at the county level, hindering the development of efficient collection strategies. This deficiency, coupled with revenue losses during cess and other levy collections, underscores the need for a more streamlined and comprehensive approach to revenue administration within counties. Addressing these issues is crucial for fostering economic growth and reducing the burden on stakeholders in the agriculture sector.While appreciating the importance of the devolved system of governance that requires counties to have internal revenueraising abilities to bring services closer to citizens, the persistent concern about these fees is that they are unnecessarily high and change without due notice, thus making doing business unpredictable. The determination and calculation of cess charges lack clear policies and legislation. The formula for setting cess remains unknown, and rates vary significantly across counties and agricultural commodities.Another challenge is undeclared charges such as parking fees, branding charges, and advertisement costs, among others, which various industry stakeholders have considered as multiple taxation, where the same product is charged more than once by different jurisdictions while on transit across from the counties of origin to its destination. For example, branded seed companies' vehicles pay KSh 20,000-50,000, depending on capacity. This increases distribution costs by 0.8% and production costs by 0.2% for every 1% increase in cess, thus reducing seed affordability 6 . In addition, landing fees/market cess are charged on commodities depending on the destination market. This increases marketing costs, thus raising consumer prices and reducing food affordability.These levies, despite their significance to revenue collection, have been employed to the detriment of producers, traders, processors, and consumers. They continue to proliferate as each county has the discretion to determine the rates and formulas for these fees, often lacking clear justification for their determination, as per the provisions of county finance bills.Even though commodity traders mostly pay cess, the burden is still passed on to farmers as traders discount the cess charges on the final farm gate price. This practice reduces producer incomes and threatens the sustainability of agricultural production in Kenya.It is unfortunate that the erection of barriers on roads (including along key transport corridors and highways), disguised as points of cess collection, has become a common phenomenon all over the country. Cess fees for products moving between counties and not recognizing permits issued by other counties lead to double taxation and inflated transportation costs, resulting in higher product prices. The 'barrier' method of cess administration disrupts the free flow of goods between counties and may also contribute to high administration and overall economic costs. The practice of county stationing revenue clerks on barricades along transportation routes also leads to unnecessary delays.Cess is collected at the source (e.g., at the farm gate in the case of agricultural produce and at the production point in the case of manufactured goods). It is also collected at the end of the exit from the county. However, some counties do not charge additional cess for transporting goods through their territory. Instead, the transporter must provide evidence of having paid cess in the county of origin. Nonetheless, the transporter or trader is still required to pay market fees to access or sell the goods in the destination market, referred to as market levy.Hence, it is clear that cess significantly contributes to increasing the overall cost of doing business and restricts the trade of agricultural products, thus affecting market competitiveness. It may not improve the economy as intended. Cess collection across county borders means that final consumers are likely to suffer higher commodity prices even though producers are the ones liable to make payments.In practice, reinvestment of these levies is meant to improve physical infrastructure, thus facilitating marketing and distribution of agricultural commodities, and enhancing farm productivity. However, there is no evidence that such charges collected through APC and market cess get reinvested in the agricultural sector as intended. These have not only resulted in the denial of market access but have also significantly contributed to increasing the cost of doing business in the country.Reforms have yet to address the numerous and fragmented pieces of legislation, including on many supporting institutions. Authorities estimate that some 130 acts govern the agricultural sector 7 Therefore, it is imperative that sector players and all concerned policy-making organs consider condensing these into fewer than ten without undermining their completeness.The national policy on Agriculture Produce Cess remains unclear, and there is a vacuum in policy guidelines for collecting and utilizing the cess, even at the county level. Thus, reforms in Agriculture Produce Cess, including taxation and levies, will not only help ensure that the movement of farm produce from the farm to markets is freed up by eliminating the time spent and costs incurred but also lift the burden on value chain players, hence contributing to making agriculture more competitive and sustainable.The Agriculture Sector Network initiated an advocacy process on the administration of the Agriculture Produce Cess and other market levies. This concern was brought to the attention of the umbrella body by various Business Member Organizations. The Network has been dedicated to addressing issues surrounding the APC and other market-related levies in Kenya and has held several meetings and events. It has advocated for policy reforms through policy dialogue, consultations, and engagement with relevant government bodies. With support from the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies and in collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), ASNET conducted a review of existing documentation on APC and other market levies to establish what various members had done on the subject. The review was intended to provide a working document that would form the basis for advocacy by the ASNET membership on this issue, even as they engaged the county and national governments.ASNET then consolidated all the past work on APC and other market levies and made clear recommendations to enhance business competitiveness. Several consultative forums have been held since then.To consolidate the private sector position and build initial consensus on recommendations for advocacy, ASNET organized a workshop on 27-28 July 2023. During this event, the draft position paper was developed based on the findings gathered from the review of previous work done, and engagement with various stakeholders was presented. The paper was reviewed during the event. A road map of activities was developed to ensure inclusivity and stakeholders' buy-in. In addition, a sub-committee was formed to reconvene and create a list of stakeholders who needed to be involved in all future consultations. The team also developed and agreed on a plan whose activities ran from July to November 2023.Participants of the agriculture produce and other market cess review workshop at Naivasha. Photo by: Winnie Muya, ASNETOn 23 August 2023, about a month later, ASNET convened a meeting for the sub-committee appointed during the previous workshop to conduct a stakeholders' analysis. The team developed a list of all the institutions that participated in the initial meeting and identified a long list of additional stakeholders who should be incorporated into the process. The members were then each assigned a list of stakeholders. They were tasked to introduce the subject matter to them and extend an invitation to the next sensitization meeting. A stakeholder matrix was used to prioritize the additional stakeholders. The team was also requested to select some specific value chains with a priority focus on seeds, fertilizer, maize, onions, and cereals. The aim was to quantify the impact of cess using available data.A workshop for private sector players was held on 12 September 2023, with support from the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies, through collaboration with ILRI and USAID Feed the Future Kenya Crops and Dairy Market Systems (KCDMS). The half-day event brought together vital agricultural stakeholders from the private sector. Participants were drawn from KAM, KENAFF, CASK, STAK, RETRAK, AKEFEMA, KTGA, USAID, RTI International, AGRA, ASOK, CGA, EATTA, EAGC, NCPK, KFC, KCPK, LNGG, AEA, FPEAK, CKL Africa, Elgon Kenya, United Grain Miller's Association, Argo Processors Association of Kenya, Women Farmers Association of Kenya, Quality & Conformity International, Micro and Small Enterprises Authority, Agriculture Media Society, SUCAM, AAKGrow, Vegpro Group, Kenya National FisherFolk Association (KENAFA), Kenya Livestock Marketing Council, Aquaculture Association of Kenya, Kenya Tourism Federation, Kenya Transporters Association and the Kenya Coffee Platform, among others. Efforts were initiated to conduct a deep dive into the issue of APC and other market levies. The aim of the event was to build consensus on the work that the consultant had done. The Position Paper was also shared and discussed. It was also decided that the next step would involve consultations with public sector officials. The aim was to update participants on the activities that ASNET had implemented and to bring them on board. Sensitization to the challenges surrounding cess and other market levies was conducted, and both the public and private sectors Subcommittee members on stakeholder mapping. Photo by: Winnie Muya -ASNET Agriculture stakeholders workshop on produce and other market cess review. Photo by: Winnie Muya -ASNET Stakeholders at the consultative breakfast meeting. Photo by: Winnie Muya-ASNET agreed that there was a problem with the policy framework on cess. It was decided that legal experts from the government and private sector would hold a meeting to discuss the issues raised. It was also agreed that a workshop be held later to build consensus. The Legal team held a planning meeting on 5 October 2023 where the following issues were addressed: a schedule of key stakeholders to be included and who would participate in the Legal Technical Workshop on APC and other market-related levies, possible dates for the legal experts' retreat and a tentative program of activities. The team also agreed to consolidate and share the legal instruments and policy documents that will be used during the workshop. Earlier, the same group had met at the PETS offices to discuss various legal and policy issues related to produce cess and other market levies.With support from the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies through collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), ASNET organized a National Dialogue on 20 December 2023. The event's objective was to discuss and address the challenges posed by cess in the agricultural sector. Participants comprised government representatives under the coordination of the State Department of Trade and private sector stakeholders. Delegates discussed the recommendations made in the Position Paper and proposed that cess/fees, if any, should be paid at source and ploughed back into the agricultural sector, and that it should be proportional to the service offered and be justified by the cost of administration and collection of the cess/fees. Other recommendations comprised the following: harmonization and standardization of cess fees and laws; development of a legal document outlining the products subject to cess/fees for presentation to county officers and governments; collaboration with the Council of Governors to garner their support for discussions on cess fee amendments; and advocating for the abolition of market cess.The Legal Technical Workshop, which took place on 11-16 February 2024, was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry, and the President Economic Transformation Secretariat, with support from AGRA and GAIN. Participants comprised key public and private sector players. They were drawn from the Council of Governors, IGRTC, county governments' trade and agricultural departments, and the private sector. The objective of the meeting was to discuss various legal and policy issues relating to produce cess and other market levies. The team conducted an overview of the existing legal and legislative challenges of agriculture produce cess and other market-related levies and delved into the gaps in the existing policy and legislative framework. They developed a road map of the policy and legislative framework on cess and other marketrelated levies that will be used to guide the process. An Inter-Agency Technical Working Committee (ITWC) was proposed to lead the process of developing a Policy and Bill on the APC and other market-related levies. Among the recommendations made was that the ministry take over the process of transforming the advocacy process on the administration of APC into a legal and regulatory process.This event took place on 22-23 March 2024, with support from the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies through collaboration with ILRI. Participants, who were drawn from various sectors of the agricultural industry, convened to meet the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Blue Economy and the Committee on Delegated Legislation for an intensive two-day workshop aimed at addressing critical issues surrounding APC and associated market levies. It provided an opportunity for members of the committees to engage in constructive dialogue, share insights, and collaborate on potential solutions to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the administration of the agriculture produce cess and market-related levies in the counties. Presentations were made by stakeholders from ASNET, GAIN, AGRA, ILRI, PETS, and the Ministry of Trade.During the workshop, participants highlighted the critical role of agricultural policy reform in fostering sustainable development, improving livelihoods, and addressing cess-related issues to ensure food affordability and accessibility. Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, and the Blue Economy highlighted the role of their team in providing legislative oversight and policy guidance to promote sustainable agriculture development. They reaffirmed the committee's commitment to working closely with stakeholders to identify challenges and explore viable solutions.The team underscored the two options-taking the memorandum or the legislative proposal route. The Inter-Agency Technical Committee will draft a Policy on APC, constituted by the Principal Secretary of Trade and Investments in the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry. It is envisaged that a clear policy framework on APC and other market levies administration will not only further improve the business environment but also lower the cost of production and reduce the cost of major food items, hence improving food security in Kenya.Agricultural tax through the imposition of cess is a common practice in several countries. Overall, governments have relied on agriculture as a key sector to provide resources to develop their economies and have been using tax revenues from the sector to support industrial development. Some similarities and differences have been described in different systems of cess practiced across countries. Examples were drawn from Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Australia, India, and the United Kingdom (UK). Understanding the design and impact of such taxation regimes is essential for evaluating their impacts.In Tanzania, agricultural levying is implemented through the Local Government Finance Act, which caps the levying rate at 0-5% of the commodity's farm gate price. Cess rates have been varying at 5% from 2007 to 2009, 3% in 2010, and 3-5% in 2011. Local authorities consider cess part of their overall revenue and there is no direct ploughing back of such collections to the agriculture sector. However, a portion of overall revenue is used for the wards and village-level development activities in different sectors. Agricultural produce cess contributes only 2% of the total revenue of all local government authorities in the country and an average of 24% of aggregate own-source revenue 8.In Burundi, inputs for agricultural and livestock activities are taxed at 7%. The country also imposes a coffee cess, although the exact rates are unclear. 9.In Uganda, taxation rates differ between commodities and districts, distorting markets and prices. 10 Agricultural taxation by local governments has been characterized by leakages in revenue, negative impacts on income distribution, and negative impacts on economic growth due to distortion in relative prices of goods and services. The same study also showed that flatrate taxation was regressive because it disproportionately burdened small-scale traders. 11India is known for its thriving agriculture, which plays a crucial role in the country's economy and supports the lives of millions. In India, a well-developed three-tier taxation structure is based on the central, state, and local governments. The federal government does not levy income tax on agriculture; the state government imposes and collects these taxes. Legislative powers, including taxation, are distributed between the Parliament and the State Legislature.Tax incentives like tax holidays are common, and they help companies offset the cost of doing business, for example, inadequate public infrastructure. 12. India also has the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) established under the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Acts of the states pursuant to the model State Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act (Government of India, 2003), which provides for the following: o Single-point market fee levy in the country's entire marketing process, including inter-state trade; the market fee collection should be commensurate with services and facilities offered to the seller and buyer. Under this provision, the States charge a marketing fee of 1-2% on an ad valorem basis, with the proportion varying depending on the commodity.o Levying cess on primary agricultural produce and not on processed commodities, but user charges can be levied based on the use of the services and infrastructure.o Tax simplification. This provision uniformizes State-level taxation and fees paid on agricultural produce.o Public-private partnership for integrated agriculture infrastructural development and management.o Creation of market committee funds that cater to market establishment, market services, and infrastructural development expenses only 13 .In Australia, the levy is determined by industry actors who identify the specific need that the levy would address. Then, they would present a proposal to the members through the government department. Producers/value chain actors may pay more than one type of levy aimed at addressing a particular need in the industry. Some of the levies are:o Grain levies determined as the farm-gate value of the produce as a net of the marketing costs like storage, handling, and transportation14.o Beef production levy is charged at the abattoir, and if the carcass is condemned or rejected as unfit for human consumption or if the family consumes the carcass, then the levy is not paid.o Cattle and livestock transaction levy paid on each transaction where ownership changes.Poultry industry levies include a) An egg promotion levy payable to commercial egg production only. The producer pays the levy to the seller who submits the returns; b) Laying chickens levy payable on chicken hatched in a hatchery. The producer pays the levy through the hatchery proprietor, where the laying chickens are hatched. Levies are not paid if fewer than 1,000 chickens were hatched at the hatchery in the levy (financial) year or if laying chickens die or are destroyed within 48 hours of hatching. 15; c) Meat chickens levy payable on meat chickens hatched in a hatchery; d) Horse disease response levy paid to raise monies expended in response to an animal disease outbreak affecting horses.There are five statutory agriculture and horticulture levy bodies representing different agricultural commodity sectors. The bodies are funded by farmers and growers, who receive services like research and development, market information, marketing, and trade development. The AHDB is managed independently of the commercial industry and government, allowing for the segregation of funds collected from each commodity sector.Funds raised from each commodity sector benefit only that sector. Levying applies to primary producers and further up the supply chain, except for horticulture, where it applies only to primary producers. Producers pay the bulk of the levy. The levy payment is based on a certain turnover threshold (GBP 50,000), below which no levy is charged. 16.Systems in the non-African states, similar to the example of Tanzania, seem to have direct benefits to the levy payer and the community at large. The grain levy, for instance, in Australia, targets the promotion of the interests of the grain industry. The same applies to beef, poultry, and other levies. Targeting cess collections to provide services for the specific value chain payers is a direct way for stakeholders to finance their public good services.The taxation systems in these states not only present principles and practices that Kenya could benchmark to reform cess collection and use but have also led to the development and implementation of favorable taxation policies for agricultural stakeholders. These policies have proven beneficial in various ways, providing a strong case for their adoption in Kenya.Agricultural producers are cushioned from over-taxation by setting minimum thresholds of turnover before attracting tax, by capping taxation minimum and maximum rates, and by implementing specified exemptions. Agricultural taxpayers participate actively in determining levies and rates and also how the collections are utilized. In addition, the practices satisfy the sound taxation principles proposed by the World Bank, i.e., non-distortionary for markets, equity, efficient to administer, and not resulting in tax avoidance. 13 Government of India, (2013), Agriculture Marketing to Promote Reforms 14 Government of Australia, (2016b), Grain Trade Australia: Australian Grain Industry -Code of practice technical guide document No. 13, 2016 15 Government of Australia, (2017), Laying chicken levy 16 Van der Veen, (2007), Exploring agricultural taxation in Europe. LEI, The Hague India's practice of single-point levying, which ensures efficient tax administration, is a model of security and trust. This approach minimizes tax evasion and avoidance, as fees cannot be levied for a second time under any name, including cess, user charge, or service charge. The practice of tax capping further deters tax-evasive behaviour. The United Kingdom also follows a similar model, with a minimum turnover before taxation. However, it's important to note that the capping range must be narrow enough to minimize non-uniformity and market distortion, ensuring the system's efficiency and trustworthiness.The powers to impose taxes and charges are enshrined in the Constitution under Articles 209 and 210 to the national and county governments. Though devolution has empowered counties powers to collect revenue at the county level, they have experienced challenges because they have not enacted legislation to facilitate the collection of revenues. The rationale for collecting cess is that it is meant for the development and benefit of the county and is therefore collected to improve infrastructure and facilitate economic growth.The cess, a levy on agricultural produce, was initially collected under section 201 of the repealed Local Government Act Cap 256 and section 192 A of the repealed Agriculture Act to form part of the local authority revenue. The constitutionality of cess was determined in the case of the Cereal Growers Association and Hugo Wood vs. county governments of Narok, Nairobi, Nyeri, and eight others. The Court held that it was unconstitutional for county governments to impose and levy agricultural cess and related taxes without any supporting legislation.The team studied various documents in reviewing legislation (See Appendix II for details). Below are highlighted a few of these.Article 209 (3) stipulates that a county government may impose property rates, entertainment taxes, and any other tax authorized by an Act of Parliament. Parliament can authorize counties to impose a tax, which implies that a new county tax can be initiated by the National Government and through county legislation.The object and purpose of the Tea Act is to establish the Tea Board of Kenya to develop, promote, and regulate the development of the tea industry and promote accountability in the sector by promptly paying tea farmers and by giving them more power in the running of tea factories. The Act under section 3 establishes the Tea Board of Kenya, charged with the responsibility of, among others, advising county governments on agricultural cess and fees as stipulated under section 5(1)(s). It also stipulates that fees imposed by a county government shall not be prejudicial to national economic policies, economic activities across county boundaries or national mobility of goods, services, capital or labour.The Crops Act of 2013 states that a county Government may impose fees for the development of agricultural crops, issuance of trade licenses to any person trading in scheduled crops, and issuance of licenses for cooperative societies dealing with scheduled crops within the county. Section 17(3) provides that \"fees imposed by a county government shall not in any way prejudice national economic policies, economic activities across county boundaries or national mobility of goods, services, and capital.\" It is, therefore, clear that county levies on crops should be reasonably modeled to benefit the farmer and, at the same time, not affect the national economic policies, especially on exports.This provides that the Authority shall, in consultation with county governments, perform the function of advising the national and county governments on agricultural levies for purposes of planning, and enhancing harmony and equity in the sector.Section 4(1) provides that the county government shall collect a charge of 1% of gross sales on flower services within the county. In contrast, Section 4(2) states that the proceeds of the charge collected will be used for the infrastructural development of the area. In Section 12, the authorized officer shall ensure that the charge on flower service from the county on transit to other counties is collected at barriers set up at the points of entry as per regulations made by the Executive Committee Member and shall ensure that all the amounts collected are accounted for and remitted to the county government.The Act provides for introducing the Tea Cess and using and managing it. It states that the cess shall be deducted from the green leaf proceeds of each grower registered to a tea factory. The amount shall be determined by the County Executive Member for finance in consultation with the County Executive Member for agriculture and approved by the County Executive. It shall not exceed 1% of the green leaf payment.Part III of the Act provides for payment of cess. Section 6(1) states that \"the cess imposed under this Act shall be payable by the agricultural producer to the county government through the processing plant at the time when the plant takes delivery of the produce.\" Section 8 states that, \"The authorized officer shall ensure that cess on agricultural produce from the county on transit to other counties is collected at barriers set up at the points of entry and shall ensure that all the amounts collected are accounted for and remitted to the county government.\"Section 6 provides for payment of the cess, levy, and charges. These will be done at the place of production or any other place designated by the Executive Committee Member. In the case of products brought into the county from outside, payment will be made at the place of delivery of the product or as may be chosen by the Executive Committee Member. Section 8 provides that the money collected as cess charges shall be used to maintain county roads.Section 5(1) provides that APC shall not be levied on agricultural products that are declared essential. Subsection 2 stipulates that the County Executive Committee Member (CECM), in consultation with the CECM in charge of agriculture, may review, declare, and publish essential produce that, in their opinion, is necessary for purposes of this Act. Section 11(4) provides that payment of cess shall not apply to agricultural products not produced in the county that are on transit through the county on national trunk roads and to which cess has already been paid in another county.The County Finance Acts are expected to set the revenue raising measures by county governments in a particular year as stipulated under Section 132 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012. Article 210 of the Constitution provides that \"no tax or licensing fees may be imposed, waived or varied except as provided by legislation.\" In that regard, county governments are expected to enact enabling county revenue legislation before enacting the County Finance Acts to anchor their taxes, fees, and charges.6. Policy reviewKenya's Vision 2030 forms the primary basis for evaluating the country's economic policy and promotes community empowerment through increased efficiency and impact of devolved funds. It is proposed that this can be achieved by increasing the amount, efficiency, and impact of devolved funds and by increasing public participation and the voices of the poorest members of local communities so that development issues of concern to such members can be channeled into public policy.Vision 2030 is anchored on three key economic, social, and political pillars. Given that Vision 2030 will inform all the country's policies, it is of utmost significance that the county revenue legislation be drafted to implement and promote its long-term development blueprint.County governments are required to incorporate national policy and an enabling fiscal environment for economic transformation into their budgeting process and implement programs indicated in their County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs), County Fiscal Strategy papers, and Finance bills.For agriculture to play a pivotal role in trade development, coordination between the national and county governments is crucial. The National Trade Policy, therefore, envisions a situation where activities of the national and county governments are steered under a coherent framework that reflects the new constitutional dispensation to avoid institutional-related constraints in the process of promoting trade in agriculture and agro-processed products.The Cabinet approved this policy on 14 August 2018. It was occasioned by the need to address the underperformance of county governments' Own Source Revenue (OSR) caused by challenges in collecting and administrating decentralized taxes, fees, and charges. The policy aims to assist counties in optimizing OSR by setting up a standardized policy and the legal and institutional framework for local revenue-raising measures.This policy discourages the imposition of cess except for agricultural produce. That notwithstanding, counties intending to impose cess should develop supportive legislative frameworks indicating that the levy is for infrastructure development and that a percentage of collections will be ploughed back into the sectors from which it was generated. The policy also requires counties to develop a Tariff and Pricing Policy justifying the rationale for levying fees and charges as stipulated under Sec 120 of the County Governments Act.The marketing of agricultural produce often attracts several forms of taxation, including levies, Value-Added Tax, cess, export tariffs, and import duties. The imposition of levies across counties at numerous produce inspection stations hinders the movement of agricultural products to urban markets and reduces their competitiveness, both locally and internationally.This policy highlights the need to promote and facilitate agricultural trade and the marketing of high-quality agricultural products. It expects the two levels of government to ensure that roadblocks are controlled and gazetted to eliminate illegal taxation of agricultural produce and to continually monitor, evaluate, and regulate levies and taxes charged on such products. To promote and conduct effective capacity building programs in the counties to necessitate a good understanding of the law and how it can be applied. This involves:Unbundling cess and other market-related levies.Standardization.Establishing parameters for determination of cess and other market-related levies.Promoting clarity and understanding on cess and other market-related charges.Providing uniform standards, norms, guidelines, and practices when applying cess and other market-related levies.Eliminating arbitrary charges based on unjustifiable and non-scientific methods of determining the amount of cess and levies chargeable.Government is committed to improving awareness and understanding of cess and other market-related levies and their application to promote intercounty trade, enhancing free flow of goods and services; and making Kenya competitive in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).Government will work with counties and other stakeholders to develop the necessary policy instruments to enhance uniformity and standardization in using cess and other market-related levies.In consultation with stakeholders, the government will promote the use of scientific approaches in determining cess and other market-related levies.While reiterating the need for the government to raise revenue for economic development is a globally acceptable practice by law, there is a need to consider the net impact of tax regimes, especially when the taxes hurt most of the population (mainly consumers and producers who bear the cost). This is particularly important in Kenya, where agriculture is the backbone of the country's economy. Careful and strategic assessment of these charge provisions is paramount. It is crucial to strike a balance between revenue generation for county governments and supporting the growth and competitiveness of the agricultural sector.The burden of the cess and market-related levies has prompted various stakeholders to address the Government of Kenya and advocate for policy reforms. This ongoing dialogue process, which ASNET coordinates, underscores the urgency of reforming the structure and application of the system to ensure fair and equitable taxation that promotes sustainable agricultural development and benefits all stakeholders involved.Given the substantial impact of these cess regimes on consumers and producers in the vital agricultural sector, it is crucial that the country promotes an efficient and transparent system that bolsters the growth of the sector. Therefore, the Government of Kenya should develop a policy and reform legislation to rationalize the levels of cess, and regulatory licenses and permits in partnership with the private sector. This will serve to create a harmonized and non-distorted market environment. The proposed policy measures are essential for achieving fairness, equity, and effectiveness in taxing agricultural commodities and services.In line with these recommendations, the following policy actions should be taken:o Develop and enact a national legislation to harmonize the collection of cess and other market levies in the counties in line with Article 209 (5). Although counties have legislated on charges and levies as empowered by Article 185(2), these are in conflict and irregular. To harmonize the county-level laws, there is need for a national law to put in place standards and uniformity to avoid prejudicing national economic interests, economic activities across county boundaries, and the mobility of goods, services, capital and labour. It will address multiple taxation, distribution across counties, and vehicle branding challenges.o Address inconsistencies in current laws through amendments to align the laws with the assignment of functions between the national and county governments as provided in the Constitution of Kenya. This will streamline policies and practices at the county governments on developmental and regulatory responsibilities in the agricultural sector, with the National Government refraining from levying charges for functions delegated to the counties. It will foster better governance and resource management at the local level.o Implement a nationally applicable capping mechanism on the minimum and maximum charging rates to ensure uniformity and market stability while preventing undue burdens on stakeholders.o Establish a single point of cess collection within the value chain, preferably in the county of origin or destination, to streamline the taxation process and reduce transaction costs.o Base cess charges on the actual services provided to cess-payers while determining business and regulatory license fees according to the actual cost of services rendered. This approach promotes fairness and prevents overcharging.o Charging should only be done at the county level. The National Government and its agencies should leave developmental and regulatory aspects of the agricultural sector to county governments and not levy charges for functions in agriculture that have been devolved to these governments.o Consult with the Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) and the Council of Governors to build consensus and align with policy.o Ensure proper public participation during the county and national legislative process for cess, thus guaranteeing that county governments uphold the values of accountability and transparency in the administration of cess collections. Public input is essential for building trust and ensuring that cess revenues are effectively utilized to benefit the agricultural sector and its stakeholders.o Strengthening capacity to improve revenue administration, including cess and mechanisms for accountability at the county level, should be instituted.o Invest part of the agricultural levies and cess collected back into the agricultural sector, with well-defined guidelines on how to do this to enhance accountability.Even as discussions continue on the issue of APC and other market levies and how they impact the country's trade policy goals, there is a need to recognize the potential of these levies to generate revenue for county governments. However, ensuring they are implemented efficiently and do not stifle agricultural productivity and market competitiveness is equally important. Suppose the cumbersome and more restrictive double taxation and licensing regime is not in the country's best interest. In that case, there is a need to take a bold step of eliminating the bottlenecks to make it more effective.Studies conducted by private sector organizations and academia have revealed that businesses in Kenya, especially those engaged in trade and supply of goods or services across counties, are subjected to multiple taxation in relation to cess, distribution, and branding of vehicles. The multiple taxation has resulted in increased cost of living and cost of doing business, thus slowing business growth and employment creation.To find a permanent and workable solution to the issue of double taxation, several consultation forums coordinated by ASNET have been held, more so on the issue of cess and other market-related levies. These dialogues have resulted in developing a private sector-led position paper that strongly advocates for strengthening public-private sector dialogue to eliminate restrictive trade policies and practices, resulting in multiple licenses that hinder the free movement of goods and services throughout the country. Engaging in frequent stakeholder consultations helps in crafting inclusive and less combative solutions. Engagement with businesses, workers, unions, and civil society brings on board diverse perspectives and fuels better outcomes.By fostering transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making in cess and other market levies policy, the Government of Kenya can create an enabling environment that facilitates agricultural productivity, stimulates investment, and ensures food security for its citizens.8. Appendices ","tokenCount":"8168"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d05dc104631d5288664d9f0421accddf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H026314.pdf","id":"-796685990"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aa07923f-0d2d-4d79-9c32-fd54aebe1d9b","pagecount":"89","content":"I<cs~~cctctl S i r , i t is not an utitcsted systcm. Miills countries or the world, which carlicr ciii ph asi zctl Govcrii in c tit's rolc in the i rri ga t i oii 111 magctiicnt, arc now in t rod tic i iig participatory approaclies. The countries, which arc adoping lhia policy, inchide; Amcrica, Japau, India, China, l'liilippiiic, Egypt and Mcxico. Under thc new system the government iiiaiiagcs tlw dnms, hirriigcs atid main caiials but the adminisfrativc afrairs arc haiidlcd through Carincrs' prticiption arid consultation. The rnanagemcnl, repair and inaintctiance o f lowci-ticr syskm and thc asscssmcnt atid collection of charges are tlic rcsponsibilily of FOs. We arc also sctliiig up tlic system on tlic same lines. Democratically clecfed FOs are being forrnetl. Thcse FOs will cii-jop tlic powers of-Executive Engineer at clistrilnitary levcl. It will Iic a coiiiptctcly dcccn~ral i x d . piirt ic i pat nry and democratic systciii. I t I S iiiy slroiig hopc t i l i l t this systcm will yield good results. licspcclrtl Sir; 11 is a niattcr of great pleasure fbr 11s that you are iiiailguriitiilz tlic lirst Arcs Wiler thmf crcatcd at O H C p r t of the Lower Clicriab ('atiat (East) I,C'C. llie inflow a( tlic licad of tlic LCC' is I I 7 0 0 ctisecs. I1 irrigates I .6Om acres 111 thc districts of Faisalahatl, 'liha 'Tek Singh, 1 l a l i / a l m l and Slicikhupura. Eiicoui-aging fariiicr's participation in all irrigattmi related mattcrs and ovcrseciilg PO'S affairs iirc the primc rcsporisihilitics ofthe Area Watcr I h r d . Supplyiiig propodioriatc sh:ire o f water to tlic FOs at thc head of the distributary. advising 011 repair and maintcnancc nctivilics. at~tl nvcrscei fig Ilic asscssmcnt and collcction of abiana. are the other responsibilities of Ilic AWR. licsy~cclctl Sir, iniproved service delivery, swill anti bcttcr soluiiori o f l'ariiicr's day to day irrigation rclaicd problems, are the chief object ivcs of these cxycrimen~al i-crornis. C'onsidcring flic inipoi-laiicc o f f;iriiicr's participation, accordiiig to I'IDA Act, the cliainnnn of thc AWB will dcliiiitcty hc fioni fiil-tilers. Thcre will be at Icast 8 fanner incmbcrs in Ihe AWR. 7 hc numl,er or iron-fiirnicrs will uot cscccd {lie farnicrs'. In this way thc opinions and views o f fmiicrs will he protcctcrt i \\ d saPcg\\iiirtIed. Similarly, to proviclc VOICC to the tail end firiiiers, provision has becn mxlc iti the law that at lcast 3 fanner membcrs n.111 be from 111c tail end.from the old system. The project aims at making the irrigation system financially self-reliant. This will, considerably, reduce the burden on the government exchequer. Th farmers will prosper and the national income will increase.Respected Sir; 1, once gain, thank a11 of you on behalf of the PIDA for your participation in the workshop. I hope that you will provide us continuous support and cooperation. Let us together pray to Allah Almighty that the tree of reforms that is being planted today, remains protected. May Allah give us the courage and ability to raise this small tree to a gigantic tree?. May our nation reap the fruits and benefits of this tree.Honorable and respected Govcmor Pun-jab, Lt. General Rtd. M h m i m a d SaTdar, Minister Irrigation Sindh Mr. AN(; Ahbassi. Sec. Irrigation Puiijah, Mr. Suleinan Ghani. Managing Director PIDA Mr. Ziaullali Warraicli, Chief Exccuti\\.c AWB and rcspecred gucsts Asalm-o-Alaiku tii.It is a great honor and pleasure for riie that you have siven me the opportunity to cxpress m y vicws by invitiiis 171c on this nieniorahle occasion. I express my thanks to all the organizers. AlthouSh I have Reen imvjtcd Iicre as the representative of the World Bank, I feel p r o d to be participating in this cvent as a Pakistani citizen. Today can be considered a milestone in the history of Piinjab's Srcat irrigation and drainage system. It marks thc beginning of a new and prosperous era. The formation of AWB is not just the inception of a great department. Mr. Suleman Ghani has already givcn a detailed introduction of AWB; thcrcfore 1 will IiighliSht a few important features. First of' all I will briefly talk about tlie significance of' this clay. Tlw formation of AWB indicates the rccogiiition of. the golden principal of' dcccntralization and thc decision to irnplemcnt it. Establishing AWB is recogr.izing the basic principal that participation of beneficiaries is an important factor in the management of any organization. The Govcriinicnr hy forming AWBs recognizes that our hardworking and intelligent farmers have tlie abilities to manage the irrigation system.In my vicw the most important and inspiring aspect oftoday i s the establishmciit 01' AWR. It is a step loward keeping the promise of tlie Government to form dcpartments at grass root Icvcl. which i s the true spirit of democracy.On this occasion I briefly present certain features that have bucn obsct-\\,cd all o \\ x r the \\vc~rIcI. Pakistan's biggest asset is Iier hardworking people. Her second biggest assel is tlic largc irrigation system, u.liich is recognized as the food-prodiicing macliine of-R i \\ w Indus. l'liis ~nacliine is the backbone of our cconomy. To maintain this machine the participation of f'irmcrs i s very essential. Without tlicir participation it will not hc possiblc to operate it sustainably. Thc experiments to date have revcaled that decentralization or i n our language parlicipatory in-igation management does not only have experimental status. It is beiiig tiianagcd succcssfiilly in all tlic irrigation systcms of the world. Mr. Suleman Ghani has also pointed out this fact. The countrics where it is being practiced arc Mexico, Dominican Republic, Argentina. and Chile. 1 have not named tlic highly developed countries here. I am talking aboiil countries that are in tlie process of devclopmcnt or have not become developed as yet. Apart from these countries, In Europe Spain and Turkey. Soiith Ali-ica. and in our neighbouring countries India, Andlira Pradcsii. Nepal and the Eastern Paci tic countries are included in the list. Aiiothcr discovery is that n.lmievcithis system was practiced, tlie will and fimi decision of thc Government was bchind it. Without which i t s S L I C C ~S S would not have been possible. We are pleased that we arc getting fir11 cooperation of our government.Finally once again I lieartily congratulate all the fanners and organizations gatliercd lierc I pay tt-ihiitcs lo Mr. Sulcnian Gharii, PIDA. Mr. Mehtar. Mr. nil Muhammad. A4r. Isrur. and MI-.Mctiboob whosc hard work and drive made this program successful.. iRespected Governor I also thank you and the prominent officials who approved the program and assured us of their support.Good Morning Governor of Punjab, Minister for lrrigation Sindh, Secretary Irrigation Punjab and Mr. Usman Qamar, Ladics and Gentlemen: I wo~ild like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce our institute. IIMI operates under an Agreement with the Government of Pakistan. Our head office is based i n Colombo, Sri Lanka. In addition to these two main offices, currently IlMl is working in atleast 14 countries aroitnd thc world. I n Pakistan our head office is in Lahore. We have activities in Haroonabad of Punjab, and five small offices in Sindh from which we operate. For the last 4-5 years we have been initiating and testing whether famcrs organizations at distributary level can be forn?ed and whether tticrc is enough capacity among the farmers to undertake the tasks the current rcforms require. Wc have worked in about I5 distributaries and our finding is that they are in a position to take over the responsibilities and contribute the better management of the irrigation resources.I will briefly say few words about why the reforms in irrigation sector have been neccssitatcd and then say what kind o f conditions are required for successful reform in irrigation sector.When we talk about reforms in irrigation sector essentially in Pakistani context we are talking about involving fanners in participatory management process. So the key hcre is participatory management. In other words there has to be input from the beneficiaries as much as h c input from irrigation department and newly formed PIDAs. So the key word is the devolution of responsibilities and participation in management.The key reasons why these reforms have been initiated in any part of' thc world i n any country including countries like Australia and the Netherlands is thc tinancia1 viability of irrigation institution. The irrigation infrastructure is worth several billion of dollars, but they have to hc maintained properly. Otherwise they cannot deliver the water they arc destined for. Almost all countries including developed countries have dificulties in maintaining thcir infrastructure. So far, the evidence is that by involving the farmers the financial viability of irrigated agriculturc has been improving. One of the studies show that in Australia after devolution there is hardly any rise in the price of water but overall revenue has been increased in the water sector.The second reason why it i s important in the Pakistani context is that cquity in ternis 01' u'atcr distribution has improved. Equity has improved because the farmers took initiative in terms 01' operating and niaintaining the distributaries and the level of water theft has considcrnbly reduced .There are few precondition required from more studies around the world for refbrins.The first one is \"a firm consistent long term political commitment\". Fortunately in Pakistan \\2:c have it. Our experience of working with provinces and irrigation department wc scc tlic gciitiinc commitment politically and in the irrigation department to ensure that the refoniis proccss gets through. So we have this condition in place.The next requirement is \"clear ivater rights compatible with water dclivery systcms\". Tlic warabandi principles elislire clear water rights. So that also exists here in Pakistan.The next is \"legal and political recognition of Farmers Organizations including the right to raisc revenues, apply sanctions and enter into contracts\". Currently we are at this stage. By inaugurating the Area Water Board, legal and political recognition is being given. By establishing FOs and when transfer takes place they will get legal and political recognition.Finally, \"financially autonomy\" is required. The major task that FOs are required is abiana assessment and collection. It is our view the structure of the abiana by which water fee is collected should be reconsidered. It should be made as simple as possible for the FOs to assess, collect it and share their resources between PIDA and the FOs. We hope that initiative will be approved by the provincial Governments.Once the transfer takes place it does not mean that is end of the story. That is where story really starts, All the FOs will require some support services after taking over the responsibilities. This could come from PIDA staff. The other requirement would be to monitor whether their assets are maintained whether the water is delivered at equitably.Transferring the responsibility is the first stage, but then we need to make sure that the post conditions required are in place. Fortunately there is expertise to facilitate the process of transfer exists in Pakistan. lIM1 has worked in different countries in the past and we bring expertise from outside. There are guidelines for irrigation management transfer being published by IIMI and FA0 jointly.On-Farm Water Management Directorate has tremendous expertise in formulating water users associations at watercourse level and also formulating FOs at distributary level. They have worked in Punjab at Sirajwah, Bukhan distributary. We know that NRSP also have the expertise in mobilizing the farmers and to train them to bring a level so that they can take over ?he responsibilities. So, despite the fact that expertise are limited, the expertise does exist in Pakistan.I appeal to all of us that we work together with PIDA to make this reform a success.Thank you very much.The advantages of this new irrigation management system are no sccret. We pray to God for its success so that agricultural economy would progress and prosper. I am grateful to my fricnd and partner Mr. Suleman Ghani, who has worked hard to introduce this system.We are not only partners in this new irrigation system but arc also willing to give sacrifices for its success. The present Govcrnrnent has also shown commitment to the agricultural department of Pakistan. I would also like to mention the following points that can help bring a green revolution in Pakistan. The farmer has lost interest in agriculture because he does not receive appropriate returns from the produce. It is important to cull this tendency otherwise the consequences can be very negative.Your honor 1 belong to Toba Tck Sin~li. The misfortune of'the residents of Toba Tek Singh is that their farrns are located on thc plateaus of Jhang Branch, Burala Branch and Lower Gogera Branch where groundwater is mostly brackish and unfit for use. Canal watcr was not available from 1974-96 because of which this poor community has faced a great deal of suffering and hardship. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Mr. Suleman Ghani and his collcagues Mr. Abdul Ghaffar, Chief Engineer, Faisalabad, Mr. Ziaullah Warraich, SE LCC (East), Mr. Bashir Ahmad Zahid, XEN Lower Gogera and Mr. Anaitullah Cheerna, X E N Burala, this system has survived. Due to the shortage of time 1 would wrap up my comments and pray to God for the success of the system. exception, The reforms being introduced by the Government in irrigation and drainage aim at restructuring management functions in a way that the water users are considered partners and not recipients of the service.Through these reforms, financially autonomous Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority has been made responsible for all matters pertaining to the management of water at the provincial level. There will be Area Water Boards at the canal command level responsible for operation, maintenance, and management of the irrigation facilities. Initially, the government has decided to pilot test this structure and learn from the experience for future replication.The Distributary Level Farmers' Organizations will manage the secondary system and also participate in the decision making upstream. The necessary powers and authority will be devolved to them. The success in the reform efforts will be determined by the extent to which farmers genuinely participate in irrigation management. Extensive mobilization of farmers and enhancement of their awareness and capacity is required, at this stage, to ensure the farmers' contribution in irrigation management. We also need to let the farmers know very honestly and fkankly that the State can not manage the irrigation system sustainabely without their support and ownership.Unless farmers can reward the Area Water Boards for good performance and hold them accountable for bad performance, the reforms would remain meaningless. The service standards, therefore, also need to be defined and agreed between the Area Water Board and the Farmers Organizations and adhered to.Much effort would be needed to incorporate the concerns and fears of the poor and the small farmers. It is our duty to make sure that each one of the stakeholders is aware af the changes taking place and their participation is ensured. Our efforts have to be enabling not disabling, transparent not opaque, and facilitating not prohibiting.I now formally announce the inauguration of the Area Water Board. I wish all of you good luck in your endeavors to reform the management of a very crucial resource.Pakistan Paienda Bad. COORDINATOR, NATIONAL DRAINAGE PROGRAM, NWFP My friends from Balochistan have already talked about things that I wanted to say. 1 am thankful to them. We have a tradition that whenever there is a problem or a dispute all the people collect at one Hujra and resolve the problem through dialogue. The private channel or civil canal system also runs in line with this system. Any problem that comes up is sorted out by dialogue, Since this system is run collectiveIy by a committee (lirga) with representation of farmers, no one has the courage to defy the decision of the Committee and take advantage to steal water. In the same manner the farmers will havc to run this new system. You have been apprised of its organizational laws and your rights. We are also bringing these amendments in our province, A little while ago someone talked about increase in the amount of abiana. 1 want to say that the same has been applied in NWFP as in the Punjab. From now on this system will be in your hands. You wil1 be in control of all the expenses incurred on irrigation management. So there will be no reason for increase in abiana. You should dispel the fear that abiana will continue to rise in coming times. lfyou control your revenues and expenses it can even reduce.Finally I congratulate my brothers from Punjab who inaugurated their AWB in such an organized way. We are also planning to inaugurate our AWB in Mardan at thc end of February.Thc irrigation network ol' F'akistan, prcscnted by Mchriioocl Aslaiii tias 7 01-its hi-1-ages, 1 1 canals and approximately I200 minors in Sindh. There arc 44 thousand Mogas. Tli~-ougli this iicw system I20 million ;icrcs o f iaiid will heticfit in Siiidli. In the rcst o f 0.5 iiiillioii-acre ;irca [hcrc i s a iiccd tbr tlraitiagc fhcilitics. Since Siiidh is at the l o n u l icvcl li-om thc sea, drainagc i s rcquired the most and pcoplc ticccl l a tx tiiadc ;ware and ricecl to bc iinalvccl i i l tlic system. That is ivhy the hDP has t m t i acccptcd and la\\2-s o f SJDA liavc hecn fomiulaterl. 'I'tia laws of SIDA N ~T passed iti Scptciihx 1007. l~iiifortunatcly we ha\\.c not doiic iiiiich to introduce I l l i s iic\\\\' system iii ~h c four prminccs althoti~li t\\vo years and a half 1 1 3 1 ~ passcd.Whalevcr happened in the past can not bc changcci. But whatevcr w e did \\vcll in tlic past can hc laken forward and \\$hatcvcr iiijstakos wc iiiadc can be left bchind. I t i s ;I vcry big challcngc. Just by changing thc iiamc of' the department will not solve thc prohlcms. Wc will h a w lo cmphasizc 011 two things, sinccrity ofpiirpose and good \\?.,ill. Without Ihcsc \\\\'c caiinot x l i i c ~~ nnytliitis.We should itcccpt that OUI-irrigation systcm is iii a very bad sliapc. Wc rccciiul i t it1 good condition and we managed it wcll till 1905. Later it bccamc the tarset of'politics.An important k t o r o f this iicw system is thc participation o f farmers. Thc (;o\\xrnmcnt. Lhc farmers and we togcthcr iviII rut1 this program. Another factor is capacity buildiiig. Thc ciigincci-s of our irrigation dcpartnicnt (1 am an engineer by profession but I have bccomc : I niinistcr hy chance. I will consider Iiiyselr'an cnginccr for as long as I livc) have not hccn ahlc to kccp the standard required from thcm. Tlicre caii hc any reason lor this. Eitlicr thcy arc \\.ictiiiis of'p01itic.s or of their owti habits. C'apacity building is very necessary so that organiLatioiis ticitis fortiid under tlic iic\\v system can nianagc it efficicntly.  The progress for the Investment Component is as under. The present telegraph system will be converted into niodern tele-cominunication system for which the Consultants have proposed a plan for PIDA. The line plan for this modern telecommunication system is placed.at Annexure-I. The present mobile telephone companies have also been requested to come-forward with their proposals.The rehabilitation of main canals was planned to be accoimplished in two phases.Phase -I :    -41 12 1 ('onstruction ot I larripur & Dhudian Surface h a i n 13s.00I3 14 Let me now present you the benefits of the N D P Project in brief. These benefit are about Fanners and Canal Systems.Sector Planning and Research:NDP will enhance the Technical Foundation of Drainage. We will be able to manage our water resources better than previous. Improve the crop yield by 2% of the total canal command and 20% increase in tails reaches.We will be saving 5% of water due to canal lining. Selection criteria will be in favour of small land holders and tail enders.Revenue Impacts:Improvement in land revenue. Improvement in Abiana Collection.NDP will benefit to an area of 13.5 million acre.Reclamation of land will help benefit 17000 Farmers. Those who were to loose income due to waterlog and salinity will.also be saved.Apart from farmers other non-fanners will also be benefited.There would be decrease in poverty due to increase in agriculture income.There will be improvement in social life standards, hence Law and Order situation will also improve.For every 1 YO increase in farm income there will be 1.5% increase in no11 farm incomeImprovement of water logged lands, soil salinity, flood protection and afforstation.Respectable colleagues and guests, i f you have any question about the prcscntation. Please contact me in person and Iiavc your questions cleared.Syed Mubashir Hussain' and Asrar-u1-Haq3Pakistan has the distinction of having the largest contiguous gravity flow irriytion system in the world. The irrigation system serves as a lifeline for sustaining the agriculture in this part of the world, having arid to semi-arid climate. Irrigated lands supply niore than 90 percent of agricultural production, account for 25 percent of GDP, and employ 54 percent of labour force. They supply most of tlic country's needed food-grain and also are source of raw materials for major dorncstic industries, particularly cotton products, which contribute overwheliiiiiigly to Pakistan's exports.Irrigation in Indus Basin has a long history dating back to thc Indus Civilisntion. Irrigation development 017 a scalc unknown in history however started about tlie middle of 10\"' ccntury under British rule. The inundation canals wcrc first improved, and then gradually converted to properly-regulated pcrcnnial channels by means of weirs and barrages constructed across the rivers. Large inter-basin link canals and storages wcrc subscquently constructed as a consequence of Iiidus Water Treaty in 1960s arid the first half of 1970s. the construction of these storages and link canals allow operation of the Indus Basin Irrigation System in a morc integrated nianncr with geatcr control, although requiring more technical skills.The Puiijab Irrigation nctwork was designed with the objective of bringing as much land under canal command as possible. The designed annual cropping intensities wcrc generally kept low, at 60 to 80 pcrcent, and the diversion capacity of canals aimed at spreading tlie water thinly over ii large area equitably with miriimuni O&M costs. This policy was considered suitable for thc rcquircment of a sinall population at that time. Iiowever over decades of canal system operation and as a consequence of population growth it increased way beyond thc designed capacities.Tlic Punjab Irrigation network comprises irrigation canals. drains, tubcwells, srnall dams and flood protection infrastructure. There are 14 major barrages on the fivc rivers flowing in the heart of this valley, with a total off-take canal capacity of 1.2 lac. Cusecs of irrigation supplies, and another, about 1 . I lac. Cusec capacity of inter river links. The clossal network of over 23,000 ~niles of irrigation canals provides irrigation facilities to fertile lands in the Punjab. The salient data of tlie Punjab Irrigation systcni is exhibited in Table 1.The apparently declining irrigation performance in the country has becn drawing the attention of many national and international agencies. The under-perfonnance appears morc conspicuous when viewed in the context of the high performance standards o f the past. Tlic irrigation management issues are multi-faceted and niulti-diinensioiial in nature. Tlic present peribniiancc problems and issues facing the Irrigation Department have been four broad categories.Table 1 .Salient Features of Punjab Irrigation System.1.6.8. 9.10. 11. 12.13. Widening gap between revenue and expenditure En v j ronm en t al degradationThe need for improving irrigation management has been figuring high in the agenda of most national and international agencies in the recent past. This was triggered by the declining irrigation performance despite sizeable investments in the rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure. The international financing agencies, therefore, changed their strategy by arguing that institutional issues constrain the overall irrigation management in Pakistan. Initiated by a World Bank proposal in 1993 to privatize and commercialize the water service, the reform agenda has been the topic of an open, comprehensive and discrete public discussion. After extensive and thorough debate on the pattern, extent and feasibility of the Institutional Reforms in the irrigation sector, the following set of institutional changes was agreed upon in a high level meeting that was chaired by the President of Pakistan and attended by the Prime Minister and the four Provincial Chief Ministers in August 1995.The existing Provincial Irrigation Departments (PIDs) would be converted into autonomous authorities to be known as Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDAs). The Provincial governments in January 1997 proniulgated ordinances to this effect, which were subsequently legislated with some amendments as Acts by the Provincial Assemblies during mid-1 997. One of the existing Circles of PIDA would be transitioned to financially self-accounting Area Water Board (AWB) on a pilot basis. Further transitionins of AWBs would be planned depending upon the performance of the pilot AWE. Developing AWBs on the canal command basis is cxpectcd to allow integrated management and flexibility as well as decentralization and a basis for comparison of cost of delivery services.Foniiation of F a n e r s ' Organizations (FOs) would be promoted on a pilot basis. These organizations would play an increasing role in the operation and maintenance of distributaries and minors. Based upon results of such pilot projects, a workable model would be evolved for adoption on countrywide basis.The institutional reforms are considered to be the most vital intervention in the water sector and therefore all the donors closely review the pace of implementation. The recent World Bank Mission while recognizing the good progress made by Punjab in carrying out the refonns has reiterated the need of ensuring full compliance with PIDA Act and legal documents including operationalization of PIDA, pilot AWB and FOs. It is added that ail future foreign assistance in water sector is conditional to the satisfactory implementation of the reforms agenda.The Punjab Irrigation and Drainage authority (PIDA) The main provisions of the PIDA Act are presented below:The Authority shali be a body corporate (Section 2)2)).The minister for Irrigation and Power shall be the chairman of the Authority. The Authority members will be notified by the Government, such that not less than six members shall be farmers and the number of non-fanner members shall not exceed the fanner members (Section 3). Subject to the control and guidance of the Authority, the management of the affairs of the Authority shall be carried out by the Board of Management appointed by the Authority with the prior approval of the Government. The Board would comprise a Managing Director (MD) and three General Managers (GMs). The MD and GMs shall have technical backgrounds and practical experience in the profession relevant to their job description (Section 4).The Authority shall carry out all functions of the Irrigation Wing of the Punjab Irrigation Department. The powers and duties of the PIDA have been set out in Section 5 of the Act.All employees of the Irrigation Wing of Irrigation and Power Department, except such employees as may be specified by the Government in this behalf, shall become the employees of the PIDA (Section 11).And Authority Fund shall be established for financing the activities of the PIDA (SectionThe Government may establish Area Water Boards (AWBs) and Farmers Organizations (FOs) and assign to them such functions, as it may deem fit. The Authority shall, within one year of its establishment, devise and implement pilot programs and policies to form an AWB and FOs on a pilot basis in accordance with the relevant Bye-Laws and Regulations framed by the Authority (Section 14). The Rules shall be framed by the Government (Section 16). The Regulations shall be made by the Authority (Section 17).12).The major functions of the Authority would include the following:To perform all duties and functions of the Irrigation Wing of the I&P Department.To plan, design, construct, operate and maintain the Irrigation, Drainage and Flood control infrastructure located within its territorial jurisdiction.To improve effective and efficient utilization of irrigation water and its disposal, To introduce the concept of participatory management through the pilot AWE3 and FOs, to adopt and implement policies aimed at promoting, growth and development of FOs and monitoring of their performance.To take measures for reducing O&M expciiditure and improving iiiaintenanco planniiig.To take measures to improve asscssment and collcction of water ralcs and drainage costs.To make the Authority financially self-sustaining with rcgard to the O&M cost of' canal irrigation and drainage within a pcriod of 7 to 10 ycars. The composition of Authority and the proposed Area Water Bcards in the Punjab I'rovincc Is reflected in Table 2 and 3. The constitution of the authority is primarily aimed at dc-ccnti-alizing powers vested in the officers at the District and Provincial levels and to directly involve thc irrigators through participatory management for operation and maintenance of irrigation and drainage infrastructure. The final management strategy is to transform Provincial Irrigation Department into an autonomous body under statutory arrangements with complctc a~itonoiny ol' revenue collection and its spending with proper accountability.N urn her Jlescription 1 i I-armcl-s *At least three members from tail portions o r distributaries and niinoi-s.Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) refers to the association of fatmcrs in the operation and management of irrigation systems. The intensity of participatory nianagement may range from minimal user involvement to the transfer of nearly all management functions. The main objective of PIM is to improvc irrigation management by providing a bcttcr irrigation servicc to the farmers, ensure physical sustainability of the irrigation infrastructure, and to promote a sense of partnership between the farmers and Government Agencies. There are various aspects of PIM that include planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance, financing, and policy matters. Similarly, PIM can be implemented at various levels according to the environment, technical complexities of the irrigation system and needs of the society at large. These levels include quaternary, tertiary, secondaryimain, and project/sector, where PIM may be practiced.The examples of project level participatory management can be found in the United States, France and Japan, where irrigation users have largely replaced the state management, At the lower end of the spectrum, the state continues to dominate most aspects of irrigation down to tertiary or even quaternary levels, as in the case of Morocco, India, and Pakistan, etc. (World Bank, 1997).The farmers' participation in irrigation management can have a profound impact on irrigation management. The main reported advantages of PIM include: management efficiency, transparency, accountability, cost saving, higher fee collection rates, and a sense of ownership.On the other hand, the concerns about PIM include the difficulty of organizing farmers, particularly in the larger systems, Iack of technicaYprofessiona1 expertise with farmers, risk of manipulation by influential farmers, and the issues related to development of new institutions and their sustainability.In order to successfully implement participatory management, there has to be a conducive environment and enabling framework in position. The process of formulating a strategy that fits specific features of the country needs to be evolved in the context of the local environment. Towards this end, there are some common pre-requisites that include creating an enabling environment; the Iegal framework; and a gradual evolutionary process.Section 14 of the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority Act, 1997, provides that Government may establish Area Water Boards and Farmers Organizations and assign them such functions as it may deem fit. Section 14 of the said Act further provides that pilot Programs shall be launched by the Authority, whereunder it shall take steps for the formation of Area Water Board and Farmers Organizations which are to be vested with such powers and functions as would enable them to become financially self-sustaining and self-suficient within seven years of their estabIishment .In accordance with the provisions of the Act, LCC(East) Circle Faisalabad has been notified as Pilot Area Water Board. The Government has also nominated the members of the said Area Water Board, which have been notified separately.The detailed Rules for the operationalization f the Pilot Area Water Board ( A m ) including its functions and powers will be framed in due course of time after consultation with the Authority, members of the Area Water Board, Farmers and other stakeholders. The framework will be developed by the Institutional Reforms Consultants being hired under National Drainage Program.Till such time that the comprehensive framework is developed for functioning of the pilot AWB, it has been proposed that Pilot AWB may start performing a supervisory role in the interim phase. Thereafter in the next phase, the Area Water Board will be given more comprehensive functions and vested with powers compatible with the enhanced functions. It has therefore been proposed that during the initial phase, the present legal, administrative, accounting and financial arrangementslpowers may continue to remain in force till such time that an appropriate framework is evolved and approved by the Government. It is pointed out that this interim arrangement is in operation in case oCPIDA also.Subject to the supervision of the Authority, the Pilot Area Water Board has been proposed to perform the following functions in the interim phase:Approve and monitor the O&M work plan; Monitor the working of the Farmers Organizations; Perform such functions and exercise such powers which are incidental to the functions mentioned above.The functions of the Pilot Area Water Board and the Chief Executive shall be subject to the rules framed by the Government, from time to time, under the Act.The concept of Farmers Organizations is the most crucial component of the agreed reforms package as it seeks to mobilize farmers participation at the grass root level for improving irrigation management. The Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority Act, provides for the framing of Rules by the Government of the Punjab to carry out the proposes of the Act, Section 14, of the said Act provides that the Farmers Organization under the pilot Program are to be vested with such powers and functions as would enable them to become financially selfsustaining and self sufficient within seven years of their establishment. In view of the importance of the FOs in implementing the reforms agenda, intensive and extensive deliberations and consultations have been held with all the major stakeholders regarding legal framework for registration and functioning of FOs.The salient features of the Rules for FOs, approved by the Government, are as follows:a) Provisions have been made for constituting elected Farmers' Organizations at the distributary level.b) The Farmers' Organizations have been entrusted with functions pertaining to the management of the canal system at the distributary level. They will be exercising the powers of the Divisional Canal Oficers (Executive Engineers) under the Canal and Drainage Act, 1 873 within their respective jurisdictions. c) Provisions have also been made for the constitution of the Nehri Panchayat, IrrigationTribunals and Irrigation Appellate Tribunal to deal with disputes relating to irrigation management. d) A Farmers' Organization shall comprise a 'General Body' and a \"Management Committee.\" i) The General Body of a Farmers Organization shall comprise of the members of the Farmers Organization; ii) The Management Committee, of a Farmers Organization shall comprise of such ofice bearers of the Farmers Organization as may be prescribed by the Authority; iii) The Management Committee shall perform the functions and exercise the powers of aFarmers Organization except such functions and powers as are exercisable by the General Body of the Farmers Organization; iv) The Management Committee shall be elected for a period of three years by the General Body of the Farmers Organization in accordance with the Regulations. e) The Authority shall appoint a Registrar for an Area Water Board and a Registrar at its Head Office who shall perfonn all functions relating to the registration of the FannersOrganizations. f ) Subject to the overall control of the Authority and, where an Area Water Board has been established, the Authority and the Area Water Board will form a Farmers Organization and register it. Under the rules it may perform all or any of the following functions: i) Manage, operate, and maintain the irrigation infrastructure including any hydraulic structures located on it, for which it has been established. ii) Obtain irrigation water supplies from the Authority or concerned Area Water Board at its head regulator, and pay the agreed amount to the Area Water Board concerned or the Authority in the manner agreed between the Farmers Organization and the Area Water Board, or between the Fanners Organization and the Authority.iii) Supply the irrigation water equitably and eMicientIy to the Fanners and other water users within its area.iv) Assess the water rates and other irrigation related charges to be collected from the water users. v) Collect the water rates and other dues, fees and charges from the persons liable to pay them. vij Levy and collect charges for additional services rendered by the Farmers' Organization. vii) Collect surcharge from water users and drainage beneficiaries in case of default in payment of their dues. viii) Settle water disputes relating to the Farmers or other water users of the area. ix) Any other duty function or responsibility which is incidental to or implied in the duties, functions, and responsibilities of the Fanners Organization. The organizational structure of the PIDA and a pilot AWB;The rules, regulations and bye-laws of the PIDA, a pilot AWE3 and FOs; Establishment of Authority Fund and financial procedures of the PIDA, AWB and FOs;The monitoring arrangements for evaluating the performance of the pilot AWB and FOs.As mentioned above, the implementation of institutiona1 reforms will be phased over a long time period and would, therefore, call for commitment by all the key players, close monitoring of implementation progress and course correction by drawing on the learning experience. That the process involves the creation of new institutions in the rural areas of Punjab needs to be appreciated along with the issues of sustainability and replicability that appear to pose quite a few challenges, which will have to be addressed in a professional dispassionate and efficient manner.  clearly defined water rights high level support from the comrnunity/water users political will government support enabling rules and effective implementation well defined roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders transparency in organizational and financial matters effective accountability mechanism a capable, efficient management and staff; and effective support services after turn-over.Pakistan is a river born country and owns one of the world's largest irrigation networks known as \"Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS)\". The salient features of the system are three major storage reservoirs (Tarbela and Chashma on the river Indus, and Mangla on the river JheIum), 19 barrages, 12 inter river link canals and 43 independent irrigation canal commands. About 135,000 community watercourses (54,000 in the Punjab) of the IBIS convey water from canal 10 the farmers' fields. Total length of the main canals alone is 58,500 km. and watercourses comprise of more than 1,62 1,000 kms. This irrigation network was installed more than hundred years ago and now its efficiency has reduced to such an extent that more than 50% of the irrigation water is lost in transit due to improper O&M and during application to the crops. This fact was pointed out for the first time during 1970s when field investigations were undertaken at the Mona Reclamation Experimental Project (MREP) under WAPDA with the assistance of United State Agency for International Development (US AID). The major reasons of water losses i n tertiary network were found to be seepage, spillage, side leakage and operational losses, Other reasons were thin, distorted and silt load watercourse banks; elevated and blind reaches; zigzag sections with lot of kinks, trees, shrubs and vegetation growth; rodent holes; distorted sections due to animal crossings and bathing; and improper cleaning and maintenance.Colossal amount of water wastage in watercourse system, its inequitable distribution among the shareholders, and inappropriate use of this scarce resource demanded a change in management of the irrigation system to make it more beneficial for the farming community. The improvement cost of watercourses through traditional contractual system was worked out to be double without participation of the farmers. The problems of alternate arrangements for continuing the water supply, conveying the material at site, and alignment of the watercourses were also big tasks.Accordingly, a farmers' participated program was proposed by USAID which financed the pilot project during 1976-77. The farmers were organized into informal Water Users Associations, where they contributed skilled and unskilled labour for civil and non-civil works. The pilot project was successfully completed and its success, socio-political pressure from the farming community, and donor's interest led to the extension of OFWM Program countrywide. The Punjab Water Users Association Ordinance was promulgated in 1981 to provide a legal framework with an aim to clearly define roles, duties, rights, and responsibilities for these institutions. Since then, WUAs are organized on each watercourse and fornially regtstered prior to commencement of the improvement process on a watercourse to achieve envisaged objectives. The major functions of WUAs are to:  In order to create a sense of participation, possession, and ownership amongst the farmers, various modes of recovery of cost of construction material under various OFWM works have been introduced. The percentage of recovery amounts were not only gradually increased but method of recovery on installation basis has been switched to upfront cost sharing mechanism (details given below). This shows the degree of involvement of fmerdwater users in OFWM   'T'hc Icngth of the distributary including its two ininot-s is ar-ound fd1 ki lonmcrs. Tlic population is it niixtiirc of local residents, rnigixiits and scttlcrs. Ovcr 80'1.:) of tlic fai-iiicrs (iwn Icss Iliaii I0 acres o f latid. The area is charactcrizctl by high water (ahlcs anti soil salinity. This liirtlicr ncccssilatcs thc importance of irrigation water. Besick irrigation, the catial water also mccts otlicr watcr iiscs, such as drinking, cooking. bathing, and livcstock. very spccial rcaturc of the methodology W R S tlic assistance fiam thc Social iititcers (Hassan et. Al. 1996). The basic philosophy behind the organ projcct cffor~s was that it should lead to grcntcr rcplicability. For f nagciiicnt. In h i s way, the model can bc adopted cnsiiy by governmiit ngcnci Ic. Ilowcvcr, organizing around 5000 famcrs was a big task far a sniall ficld t c persons. Therefore, the strategy to supplenicnt the work of the team was to asetl vofimleers in social organization work. IJsing famcrs as social organize icccssfblly tested in the Philippines and Thailand. The rarmer-organizers, Iiowcve r these cflorts (Pradlian and Sharpies, 1989; C'd~layan, 1989). The strategy to use ascd volunlecrs is coiitrary to earlier experienccs. In the rcccnt approach, the f a m e s social organizers and their services were voluntary. Thc Gotunteers wcrc neitlicr. ivcn, any compcnsation for their efforts (Bandaragoda, 19%). cam was dcploycd io catalyze farmers' intcrcsts to organize tliemsctvcs I Initially, the project reference for these voluntcers was \"contact fanners\" as tlicir rolcs pivotal for developing contacts between the soflware group and the coniiiwtiify.uitable pcrsons from among the water users' cotntnunity as \"contact farmers'* was i reliniiriclry stcp in 11ic social organization proccss dong the Hakra 4-R Distritxit ork progressed, the term \"contact fanners\" was discovered to be popu influcntials\", big land owners and farmer leaders of tlic Training a rloptcd by the Agricultural Extension Departmcnt. Since thc use of these contact t rcsultcd in proper f~inctioning of the T&V systcm, the term had an unfavorahlc conn contact farmers used to be the bigger landlords who were dcplayccl to di cultural knowledgc gained from the agricultural cxtcnsion agents. However, I tact farniers wcre tiever seen doing the joh. Conscquently, Ihe corninon itiern niiing community did not consider the contact farmers to be efkctive tools Tor dis To avoid mistrust between community and the farmer volunteers from the start, the term \"contact farmers\" was replaced by the term \"Social Organization Volunteers\" (SOVs).Organizing people is a socially sensitive and politically vulnerable activity. This is not a task to be undertaken solely by an international institute like IIMI-Pakistan; rather, it should be the responsibility of the local people ( i z , local agencies and water users) themselves. An internally generated demand for social organization holds a greater chance of making these organizations productive and sustainable. IIM1-Pakistan, as an agent for change, or a catalyst, and with international experience could only play a facilitator's role in the process by helping the organizers to proceed with a professional and a systematic attitude. IIMI-Pakistan's decision to seek assistance from among the community itself to approach the community at large was compatible with the participatory approach. IIMI-Pakistan did not exclusively rely on the water users alone, but identified members from the community, in general, who were adequately informed about the community and its needs, and were prepared to assist IIMI-Pakistan's field team. The members of this extended field team based in the community, knew the people fairly intimately, and shared their language, beliefs, traditions, rituals, needs and problems.The credibility gap between the farmers and agency staff is prevalent in Pakistan because of mutual mistrust. This is because government agencies providing services usually behave like outsiders. They are more like \"rulers\" than \"public servants\". There is a prevalence of an \"uppers and lowers\" syndrome, whereby public servants are the uppers and farmers are the lowers. Communities never see agency staff visiting farmers for community benefit. Consequently, mistrust between agencies and farmers have grown to such an extent that farmers mistrust all outsiders approaching them for services of community benefit. Community-based volunteers can bridge the communication gap easily, as colleague-farmers trust them more than the agency staff, or outsiders.ORGANiZINC FARMERS: THE FIVE DlALOGiC STEPSBefore entering the area for the organizational work, process of SOVs identification and selection was undertaken through a set of familiarization meetings. These meetings and training workshops for SOVs had generated interest and cast off many misconceptions and apprehensions about the program. Therefore, for entering into a socially sensitive arena, a step-wise approach that is cautious, slow but gradually built on trust and confidence was used.SOs with active involvement and participation of Social Organizer Volunteers convened group meetings with water users at the village level for comprehensive farmer awareness covering clusters of watercourse commands. SOVs and SOs lead the discussion. The purpose of such meetings was rapport building with farmers, community, information sharing, concept clearing, and diffusing out misconceptions, doubts and rumors among the water users. Despite the invitation and rigorous contacts, the PIDA staff did not participate in these rapport-building meetings as observers or participants. The direct contact with masses in rural area helped in g fears and misconceptions of the people. But the absence of agency personnel vironment of mistrust among farmers and agency's staff. Efforts by a few members to politicize the organizations.donate one rupee per bag of fertilizer to the Organization, from which 25 paisas would be given to Federation and 75 paisas would be kept by the organization. The WUO is launching awareness activity in the area to expand the program.The Federation launches study tours for exposure. These study tours are at national and overseas tevel. The federation mostly provides finances for inland tours while the overseas trips are financed by the NGO. The purpose of the overseas trips is to see how farmers managed system works in other countries.The WUOs of Hakra 4-R distributary established a seven-member Inspection Committee. The purpose of the committee is to evaluate the performance of WUOs of record keeping of organizational and financial aspects, and prepare a critical report. The committee held three meetings to complete the task. in the first meeting, committee selected its president and developed nineteen parameters for the performance assessment.The committee inspected the record of all six WUOs, and evaluated them. The report indicates that the performance of the WUOs except WU02, related to organizational management was satisfactory. Those WUOs which meet frequently, scored better points as their office bearers had become more trained. The WUO2's poor performance in the organizational management is due to less work, i.e., comparatively less number of meetings. The performance of all WUOs, related to financial management was, however, regarded to be poor.The committee decided to submit the detailed report in the next round of WUO meetings. The committee was of the view that performance of WUOs may improve further if the committee is authorized to check the record at any time, for which approval will be sought from the WUOs general body.Federation is going to publish a newsletter on monthly basis. Action aid, an NGO has agreed to sponsor it. The purpose of the newsletter is to give information about the federation's activity to farmers at grass root level and to other relevant agenciesThe federation of Hakra 4R undertook series of capacity building activities and training with active support from IIMI Pakistan.12 training sessions spanning on four months were undertaken for department staff. The purpose of the training was to discuss water supply with the department and to monitor the equity of water distribution.One day training session for 23 members of the WUOs and WUF was undertaken. The purpose was to provide a basic understanding on accounting procedures to various WUOs tiers.One day training session of 23 members of WUOs and WUF was conducted to improve the skills of the WUO leaders in organizational development activities.Three training sessions on animal husbandry were undertaken at village level. A total of 144 farmers benefited by becoming aware of the causes and treatment of common livestock diseases.Four training sessions were conducted for 333 farmers. The purpose was to introduce impraved irrigation and agriculture practices (rate, timing, and input fiequency). The federation has three sets of bed shapers for growing cotton on bed-and-furrow technology. The federation also formulated the bylaws for the smooth running of the impfements.lnformal training activities were conducted, especially for general secretaries on maintenance of register of periodic meetings.Major achievement of the Federation is restoring the confidence of the fanners. Now Federation meets with the government officials more confidently. The Federation also launches and conducts large farmers' gatherings.Training is a very important factor in capacity buildiiig of an organization. Therefore, government should launch necessary training programs.After the formation of FO, transfer the responsibility to FO so that it has a sense of ownership to the organization. At initial stages the spirits are high among the FO members so they work with great enthusiasmThe joint management is a new experience therefore the concerned departments should cooperate with FOs effectively for the sustainability of the system.Under the institutional reforms in irrigation sector in the National Drainage Program, the water usersifarmers are involved in operation and maintenance of distributary, in effective use of irrigation water, in equitable distribution of water, in abiyana assessment and in collection and conflict resolution. In the past farmers were limited to watercourse level (tertiary level) for its operation and maintenance, whereas above the watercourse, responsibility was of the IPD staff. Management of irrigation system at watercourse level is not complicated because it involves a small number of water users. The distribution of water is well scheduled under \"Warabandi system\". The desilting of watercourse does not require much efforts and techniques. While taking responsibility of a distributary with a command area of 8,000-30,000 acres and dealing with large number of water users the task becomes complex and requires capacity building. Tlic farmers arc involved informally in irrigation management and social organization, but they need information, knowledge and skiIls to work in an institutional framework and at high level. For example, specific knowledge is required for how water should be monitored at head? How it should be distributed equitably among watercourses? How head-middle-tail gauges be maintained at proper levels?; How to run the FO and maintain its record? How to build effective communication between members of FO? IIMI started its action research in Sindh Province of Pakistan to organize water users under the FO for the above mentioned tasks. It also organized training events for members of FOs to build their capacity in performing such tasks.l2 The authors are workmg with International Irrigation Management InstituteYameen Memon and Mustafa Talpw3Farmers' community is playing a pivotal role in agricultural economy in the country. They are instrumental in producing food and fiber for a rapidly growing population. Despite their significance in irrigated agriculture dominated economy, fanning community has been neglected in the decision making process at various levels.Irrigation is a major input in agriculture production, The officials at all levels have always taken the decisions for irrigation development, whereas no fanners' participation was realized. Due to this several problems in the imgation system developed. These are problems of water distribution, operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, irrigation water theft, maintenance of distributaries and canals and revenue collection. In order to overcome these problems the Government of Pakistan has initiated process of reforms in the imgation sector.These reforms include the transfer of irrigation department to autonomous bodies called Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDAs) in each province of Pakistan through Acts passed by respective provincial assemblies during 1997. The authorities would be responsible for the whole system of irrigation in the provinces. Whereas at the canal level Area Water Board would be established and at distributary lcvel, farmer organizations would be established to operate and maintain the distributaries in their command area. The participation of members of farming community at all levels has been ensured through fhese reforms.In Sindh Province, Sindh Irrigation & Drainagc Authority (SIDA) has been established. As a piIot, the Nara Canal Area Water Board has been established and it is frinctional since July 1998. As a pilot initiative, the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) through its action research program has formed 8 farmer organizations (FOs).The motivation factor in the development of fanner institutions at grass root level is rooted in the participation of stakeholders' in irrigation system management. Thus conceptual framework focuses on:Organizing famiers at grass-root level to takc active part in management of distributary channel.Involving farmers in decision making process.Resolving conflicts relatcd to irrigation at local level.Mobilizing resources (cash, labor and kinds) for self-sustainability of irrigation system. Optimum use of available irrigation water and enhance agriculture production and yield. Increasing farmers' access to innovative knowledgehformation. The participatory approach with the idea of \"learning by doing\" has been adopted to develop a model institution. The actual idea of participation at gross-root level is based on lower unit of irrigation system i.e. water course. The watercourse is the last conveyance system in the delivery of water to the field, and farmers feel convenient to work as a group and manage it properly.Therefore, same approach has been used. The new farmer institute at watercourse level is then grouped at distributary level.The first step of the new institution is to motivatg farmers at watercourse level, pursue them to become organized at watercourse level and form watercourse association. Then all the watercourses of single system make a higher level institute as the next step.At each level, \"General Body\" that is a higher level decision-making body is formulated. All farmers with a right of water utilization can become its members. The number may vary depending on landowners at each watercourse. After filling the membership form, they became members and elect a management committee from among themselves. The management committee consists of office bearers including Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and four other members of the committee. Thc committee functions with the consensus of general body.Having coniplete organizational structure, watercourse association (WCA) elects one of its members, preferably, from office bearers to represent WCA at Farmers organization at distributary level. Thus all the representative of WCAs will constitute general body of FO which will be formed at distributary level. Similarly the general body of FO for its smooth functioning and day to day business will elect seven members management committee including three office bearers titled chairman, secretary and treasurer.The following benefits have been perceived from the two organizational systems:All dccisIons taken by FO, will be easily implemented at watercourse level by the organization.Farmers from watercourse level in organizational set-up will promote the idea of real participation.The sense of ownership among farmers will be developed.All the work o f FO will be started at watercourse level, such as water distribution, assessment and collection of abiana.The resolution of conflicts on distribution of irrigation water, etc.There was lot of apprehension on domination of big landlords and influential on these institutions and no protection for sinall landholders and tail-enders that always suffer in the system. For ensuring reasonable number of small landholdcrs and tail-cnders in the management comniittees of these organizations, the regulations under SIDA are quite clear. One small landholder with land of 10 or fewer acres and two members from the tail end portion of the watercourse or distributary would be included in the management committee of both WCAs and FO. In addition, the regulations prerequisite the inclusion of farmers either from tail portion or small landholdcrs as office bearers.For legal empowerment to FOs, registration with SIDA is of utmost importance. The FOs adopt the following procedure for registration:At least 80 per cent of landholders of particular watercourse become members of the association.Each member of WCA pays Rs. 1001as a membership fee. At least 80 percent of WCAs of particular distributary are ready to form FO Each WCA contributes Rs. 1 ,000/to FO in their joint bank account in the bank. At both levels, the democratic process for electing management committee is adopted. Proper record of membership, accounts and meetings is maintained.FO ofice has to be established at an accessible place.The progress so far achievcd towards new participatory irrigation management system is described below: For the transfer of irrigation system to farmers, the irrigation management transfer committee establishcd earlier has preparcd a draft agreenicnt. The draft requires vetting by the by SIDA board.With the facilitation of Inleniational Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), the FOs after P~ilfilling the criteria. were registered under SIDA Act. The profile of these distributaries is presented in Ihblc I . The registered FOs are anticipating the transfer of irrigation management of distributaries very soon.For sustainable institutional development, building of an institution at grass root level is inevitable. If the institutions are available at the very initial stage, various matters pertaining to field problems are decided at the very outset. The decision making and its implementation takes place at the site and it becomes workable in all conditions.The research has proved that if the institution is built and strengthened at initial level, then the building of the institution at some higher stage becomes easy. In fact, the farmers are organized at grass root level, they decide the matters related to their interest, resolve local level conflicts especially related to irrigation by themselves. With the help of these institutions, they mobilize the resources (cash, labor and kinds) in an organized way for self-sustainability of irrigation system. Optimum use of available water is also ensured and fanners' access to innovative knowledge information increases manifolds.Hence, it is proved that if the farmers' institutions are established and strengthened as watercourse associations (WCAs), and farmer organizations (FOs) at the distributary level, and if they are provided with an opportunity to participate in the decision making process these primary institution can successfully bring institutional reforms. The Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) takes off from River Chenab at Khanki and was opened for lrrigation during July, 1887. In the beginning it was a non-Perennial canal without weir control, Its discharse was 1800 Cs, designed to irrigate 5,63,840 Acre area. Later in 1890 it was switched over to weir control and its discharge was enhanced to 2350 Cs, to irrigate 6,40,000 Acres area.The whole area was divided into three categories.Represented old established villages and its intensity of irrigation was fixed as 40%.Pertained to old villages of Jhang District which also comprised of crown waste land. The intensity of irrigation of this category was fixed as 50%.Category 'C' was entirely of crown waste land lying below or to the South East of the Chiniot Khurrianwala Road, Its intensity of irrigation was fixed as 66.6%.The Lower intensities in category A and B were fixed on the consideration of rains, wells in sweet water zone etc. while the area under category 'C' was placed entirely on canal supply.Immediately after the commissioning of the canal in the year 1892 it was observed that the canal uses were much more than the designed limits and thus the demand of each channel was revised.The revised capacity of LCC was worked out as 10,325 Cs. The capacity was further enhanced to 10,730 Cs during the year 1900.Again in the year 1903 the capacity of the canal was revised keeping in view the supplies available. Subsequently in the year 1907 it was felt that the capacity of I903 was insufficient and was revised on the basis of different full supply factors for diflerent channels, and was readjusted according to the status of land varying from 40% to 75%. Accordingly discharge worked out was 11072 Cs for Kharifand 10591 Cs for Rabi at Head of LCC.From the year I907 to 1918 many changes took place in the field. Some distributaries had to be closed due to area being unfit for cultivation. Due to above reasons the channels arc running on rotational closure basis. Therefore, channels and other infrastructures are required to be remodeled for ensuring regular supply according to latest CCA for which water availability has already been committed.It has been widely reported that Pakistan's irrigation sector in difficulty, and in consequence the long tern1 sustainability of food security is precarious. Observers have noted that the quality of irrigation service has declined over time. The condition of irrigation and drainage infrastructure is deteriorating. Charges recovered from f m e r s for irrigation services are inadequate to meet the expenses of operating and maintaining the irrigation and drainage network. As a result, productivity is far below potential, salinity and waterlogging are spreading, over-exploitation of fresh aquifers is widespread, and excessive use is being made of poor quality groundwater to the detriment of the soils and the long term productivity of the sector. Therefore, present arrangements are not seen as sustainable.To address some of the biggest threats to the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Pakis the country's water sector is undergoing institutional reforms, whereby, the Provincial higation Departments (PIDs) have been restructured into financially autonomous Provincial Irrigation and Drainage Authorities (PIDAs). Below PIDA Pilot Area Water Boards at Canal Commd level and Fanners organizations at distributaryhinor level will be established. The first pilot water Board on LCC (East) Circle has been announced, whereby about 97 FOB will established (Table 2), trained and irrigation management constitution of the Area Water B I will be transformed with necessary powers to conduct the business. The Management Committee shall be elected for a perid of three years by t h Body of the Farmers Oi@nization in accordance with the Regulations. A person shall be disqualified to be elected as an office bearer of the Man% Committee if he: i) is below the age of 18 years on the date of his nomination; ii) has not paid his Water Charges within a period of three months afier the become due for payment; iii) has been declared insolvent; iv) has ceased to be a member of the Farmers Organization; v) is of unsound mind; vi) has been convicted of an offence which involves m o d turpitude unless a pgi vii) has been dismissed or removed from any public service unless a period of three y years has elapsed from the date of his conviction, or has elapsed since the said dismissal or removal. the General Body of the Fanners Organization has been formed under these Rules;The resolution to form the Farmers Organization has been passed by the majority of the total members of the general Body; The Management Committee of the Farmers Organization has been duly elected;The application is made by the Management Committee of the said Farmers 0% and is accompanied by the prescribed fee.Subject to the overall control of the Authority and where an Area Water Board has established, the Authority and the Area Water Board, a Farmers Organization formed registered under these rules may perform all or any of the following functions: Manage, operate, and maintain the irrigation infrastructure inchding any hydraulic structures located on it, for which it has been established; Obtain irrigation water supplies from the Authority or concerned Area Water Board at its head regulator, and pay the agreed amount to the Area Water Board concerned or the Authority in the manner agreed between the Farmers Organization and the Area Water Board concerned, or between the fanners Organization concerned and the Authority. Supply the irrigation water equitably and efficiently to the farmers and other wakr us within its area.Assess the water rates and other irrigation related charges to be collected from the water users.Collect the water rates and other dues, fees and charges from the persons liable to pay them.Levy and collect charges for additional services rendered by the Farmers Organization (1995) reports that before the irrigation managemerrt was recovering less than 30% of the O& ry of the O&M cost of irrigation system as a whole increased fko of the transferred systems is 100% in Mexico. Irrigation Project KRIP after irrigation management transfer ral Government of Nigeria and the International Irrigation mentioned that the impact on cost recovery was also ives of WUAs and the representatives of Hadejia-J (NJRBDA) admitted that the WUA contributed in mobilizing water charges even before the water was released to them. was below 50 percent before the turnover of an im ned explicitly the amount of increase in recovery of water charges, at there was distinct increase in the recovery of the water charges r presented at the Regional Workshop of the Farmerailand by U. Gautam (1990) describes the anagement in context of Nepal experience. of the user's tolis (associations) an ove out the assessment of the water cess. Before the water user's to ed with the assessment. L. Angeles reported that \"the ability to collect irrigation fees in Phil by one system where fee collection reached a rewrd 96 management, the rate of fee collection in that system was a little over 50 percent on Impacts on lticome of Farmers Kolaidli and Raju (1 0951 conducted a study on thc result of llic t t i t m n w of'puhlic tiihc iidls by GLi.irat M'ater Resources Dc\\-clopment Corporation. India rcports that \"thrcc svcictics \\\\ hich hiid reported his11 profit ranging from Rs SO00 to Rs I SO00 aririiially had brond hascd rcprcsontation arid appeared to be genuine cooperatiires.Nomian Uphoff ( 19S6) stated that \"in aggregated tci-tns. Lowdcrlilk ( 1085:2) rcporls Ihat fai-mcrs contributed $7.6 niillion n.ortli of labor in thc large ($42 million) program lo rchabilitatc tuinout areas (cliaks) in Pakistan.\" Musa ( 1995) examined financial sustainability for operation, maintenancc and mmagciiimt 011 Kano River Irrigation Project KRIP after irrigation management transfcr with the collaboration of the Federal Govertiment of Nigeria and the fntemational Irrigation Management liislitute IIMI. He mentioned the impact of irrigation management transfer on govcniment cxpciiditurcs. The government expenses 011 Operation. Maintenance and Management OMM of ii-rigalion systems in 1983 were close to US$750/ha/ year. While the irrigation watcr fees wcrc approxiiiiately US$95h/year, After the turnover the expenditures of OMM chipped in by tlic government has dropped to about US$l O/hdyear while the irrigation water fee is US$ZS/Iialyacr. IIMI ( 1995) reported that \"in southern L~izoii, Philippines. within 4 years the system's huctgct deficit declined from an annual average 1982-85 of Ps. 268,500 to an average of Ps. 7750 during 1986-89, the first four year after turnover.\"Waheed-uz-Zaman (1998) conducted a study on impacts of farnier participation in watcr resources management for the farmer organization of the Hakra 4-R Distributary belonging to the Fordwah Eastern Sadiqia Canal System in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. He reported that TIie famier organizations of the Hakra 4-R Distributary under took a five days maintenancc campaign. Its five sub-system level water users' organizations (WWOs), participated separately for onc day each in the maintenance campaign. A total of 794 farniers, and their leaders, participated. Also, 120 tractors, mostly with rear-mounted-scrapers were mobilized.The total cost of resources mobilized, including tractor traveling costs, iman hours and tractor hours at the site, is equivalent to Rs 124,000/= (or US$ 2,800/=). The estimated cost of the WUOs' maintenance activities was Rs 400,000/= (or US $ 9,032/=). This comparative estimate of the maintenance work was provided by the Sub-divisional Officer (SDO)  llM1 ( 1 995) reported that \"in a post-facto design about tumo along the Red River in Vietnam there was an increase in irrigation e There was also a decrease in water consumption per ha fro over a four year period after turnover.IIMI(1995) reported that \"in another post-facto report, system in the Dominican Republic increased between 25 under the On Farm Water Management Project.\"IIMI (1 995) reported that \"the turnover of a public tube water and electricity use efficiencies. Average pumping 42.4 to 39.3 hours per ha in Kharif season to 13.4 and 22 the first two years after turnover (I 992-94).\"Project studies in Malaysia indicate that after the Irrigation Management Transfer able to achieve higher paddy production and cropping intensity (Soon, 1995).With regard to impact on production after the Irrigation management transfer, rcports Prom Turkey indicate farmers' production has increased by 10-25% (Cagil, 1095).A research conducted by Aziz (1995) on irrigation managcment turnover to private water users associations related to three canal commands in Egypt shows that one to thrce scasons aftcr the turnover farmers estimate about 10% increase in cotton, 14% in maize and about 16.5'%, in sugarcane yields per hectare.The study on institutional management and performance changes in two irrigation districts in China indicates (Johnson 1995) that annual combined per ha production of wheat and maize has increased from 1125 kg in 1960 to 11905 kg in 1992 for Bayi ID. From 5250 kg in 1972 to 8500 kg in 1992 in Nanyao ID after the implementation of rural reforms.lIM1 (1 995) reported that \"in the Kano River irrigation Project in Northern Nigeria, taking over of management of distributary canals by farmers led to 12% increase in water volume reaching middle and tail ends of pilot canals, which resulted in an 80% increase in dry season cropped area.\" ITMI (1995) reported that \"in Uttar Pardesh, India, the average irrigated area in Rabi (winter) season was 103 ha during 1940-92 (before turnover) and 59.5 ha 1992-94 (after turnover).Cropping intensities were on average of 143% during two years before turnover and 162% afterwards. 'I Norman Uphoff (I 486) reported that \"in the Nong Wai scheme in Thailand, farmer organizations reportedIy raised cropping intensity from 50 to 90 percent in two years' time.\"In Bangladesh, after the irrigation management transfer, the irrigated area has increased due to the adaptation of the tube well technology. The cropping average intensity has also increased due to the vagaries of irrigation development where irrigation water is available. (Sarkar 1995).Turn over of the irrigation system in Indonesia to Water User's Associations resulted in better water management, increase in crop during dry season and adoption of high economic value crops. There was also significant improvement in cropping intensity from 194% to 282% and increase in crop yield during wet and dry season (Soenamo, 1995).After turnover of state tube wells to farmers' cooperatives, Tushaar shah et al (1995) have reported experiences from Indian Gujrat. The increase in area under irrigation in district Petland, India was 30% but in district Anand the increase was 4 times. The report, however, also indicated that performance of the cooperative tube wells (turned over tube wells) is much less than the private tube wells. GeneralIy the price of the private tube well water is higher but 20% more and irrigates 45% more area.Reports on Irrigation Management Transfer in Indonesia show that farmers participation in undertaking O&M operations have increased (Soenamo, 1995).The initial results of pilot test from Basut, Malaysia reports that after Irrigation ManagementTransfer the cooperation among farmers has increased and they have started adopting good water management and farming practices. Operation and maintenance efficiency has increased. (Soon,Musa ( 1995) studied financial sustainability for operation, maintenance and management on Kano River Irrigation Project KRIP after irngation management transfer with the collaboration of Federal Government of Nigeria and the International Irrigation Management Institute IIMT, He mentioned the impact of irrigation management transfer on Operation and Maintenance conditions of the distributary channels. There was a major improvement in maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure. The W A S of Bangaza were able to clean 70% of the distributary channels and 60% of the field channels. Similarly the WUAs of Agolas and Karfi cleaned 80 percent and 100 percent respectively.Impacts on Government Expenditure IIMI (1995)  ","tokenCount":"12071"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8dee278b55b8cb8935611cad9fda58de","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a9908ab9-6af2-49fb-aff8-69c32ee98d7a/retrieve","id":"-1902437843"},"keywords":["Ravichandran","T.","Teufel","N. and Duncan","A. 2016. MilkIT innovation platform: Changing women's"],"sieverID":"f61aadb6-9075-4e0e-9b1a-65ac301dbd12","pagecount":"14","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-ILRI Key themes covered  Institutional innovation: Productivity innovation  Multi-stakeholder participation  Well-designed platform innovation functions leading to impact Key learning outcomes  Use a real-life case to understand how an Innovation Platform (IP) took a cross sectoral, participatory approach to natural resource management.  Understand how to create buy-in for participants by balancing short-and long-term goals for all stakeholders.  Learn how IPs can facilitate multi-stakeholder participation and engagement in order to create robust IPs that solve complex challenges.  Discuss how collaboration and communication between multiple stakeholders can be increased to create positive outcomes within an IP.Target audience, teaching time and format of the case Target audience: the target audience for this case is development professionals or leaders of NGOs. They may or may not have worked with innovation platforms in agriculture before.Teaching time: this lesson plan is designed to be taught in a 90 minute session. For convenience, the lesson plan is divided into short sections of 10-15 min each. This makes the lesson plan easy to modify. The facilitator may thus pick and choose different sections depending on the abilities and needs of the audience.Format: this teaching note is divided into sections. Each section has a brief description of the key topics covered and their importance. A key highlight of the lesson plan is that every section comes with discussion questions and the answers that most often come up when the questions were asked in past sessions. The facilitator can ask 2-3 discussion questions (listed in Questions and answers file) after each section to generate more debate and active participation in the class.This case focuses on the MilkIT IP in India. The MilkIT IP improved livelihoods for dairy farmers in the Uttarakhand region of India, by improving the feedstock that farmers used and by increasing the farmers' linkages to the market enabling them to sell more milk. The case also presents a good example of how crucial well-facilitated multi-stakeholder participation is in building robust IPs.The facilitator may begin the session by discussing the learning objectives of the case and asking learners what they hope to get out of the session. This will help the facilitator modify the case according to the needs of the audience.The facilitator may then introduce the case study through the story of the protagonist Tulsi Devi, a beneficiary of the MilkIT IP. Tulsi Devi is a 39-year-old widow from the Baseri village in the Himalayan hills of Uttarakhand, India. After the death of her husband, she was left with just one cow, a buffalo and barely enough land to grow crops to feed her family. She was far off from the local market, making it impossible for her to sell any surplus milk. Seeing no other option, she sent her eldest son, who was only 15, to Delhi to work in a factory and continued struggling to string together enough money to send the rest of her children to school.After joining the MilkIT IP, she was able to generate a regular income and send all her children to school.The IP helped her sell more milk and gave her a source of regular income. There are many other women like Tulsi Devi whose lives and livelihoods have been transformed by the MilkIT IP in Uttarakhand (where the majority of men had migrated to cities for employment, leaving behind women who worked laboriously in dairy farming for little or no cash income).The two problems solved by MilkIT IP Why were women like Tulsi Devi not able to earn a decent living despite having assets (cows) that produced milk? There were two key reasons for this low income. First, poor quality livestock feed in the region led to low milk yield. Second, these villages were far away from milk buyers so dairy farmers faced huge costs for transporting milk.Past efforts to solve these two problems of low yield and high costs had not been tailored to the specific needs of the women, who are a majority in the Uttarakhand dairy industry. These solutions had also not done much to connect farmers to markets and were thus poorly adopted.The impact of the MilkIT IPThe MilkIT IP was founded by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in 2013 to solve these problems. The IP leveraged participatory action research to identify two efficient approaches for dairy development -developing market aspects of the dairy value chain and innovating with dairy feed. Through a multi-stakeholder participatory approach, the IP implemented new solutions that boosted milk production and sales. As a result, over 600 households in Uttarakhand increased their income thanks to the dairy productivity innovations implemented by the MilkIT IP. The major beneficiaries of the MilkIT IP were women, who were empowered to earn a regular income through their assets (cows). In the process of empowering dairy farmers, the IP also facilitated better collaboration among local development institutions and influenced key policy makers in the region.In order to highlight the importance of the case, the facilitator can point out that the MilkIT IP case study not only presents lessons specific to the dairy industry but also highlights the best practices of multistakeholder participation, detailed documentation and robust facilitation that are crucial for the success of any innovation platform. Thus, studying the MilkIT IP case can be a source of learning and reflection among IP practitioners and development stakeholders.How MilkIT designed a robust innovation platform (10 min)The section titled 'Grounding the innovation platforms,' on pages 2-3 of the case study, discusses how the MilkIT IP founders set up the innovation platform and how multi-stakeholder participation and documentation were key features of the design of the MilkIT IP. Facilitators can use this section to show how grass roots powered IPs can be created through well-designed platform functions.The starting point for setting up the MilkIT IP was organizing several villages into units called clusters, to leverage the power of collective action. Private stakeholders, who would not have paid attention to individual villages, were now attracted to the strength in numbers of village clusters. Fig 9.1 and Table 9.1 in the case study depict how the IP was organized in the districts of Almora and Bageshwar. The details of the IP's organization are not crucial to understanding the key lessons of the case, so facilitators can go over it quickly. The important point here is that IPs can leverage the power of collective action, especially in resource-constrained landscapes, to achieve favourable outcomes.The second crucial step in designing the IP was adopting a multi-stakeholder approach. Many IPs struggle because their institutional partners do not feel a direct incentive to work towards IP goals. The MilkIT IP tried to avoid such a scenario by including multiple stakeholders for whom the IP would be a strategic priority. The IP sought out these institutional members by conducting detailed interviews with personnel from diverse stakeholders, including government, private development organizations and NGOs. They also looked at the intervention history of the last decade to select actors who would have a direct stake in dairy development.The third key lesson was that they organized various kinds of meetings (core IP meetings, follow-up meetings at village level and participatory training sessions) to reach a larger number of farmers and stakeholders. Not all farmers could attend the regularly scheduled IP meetings. Thus, these outreach meetings and training sessions in villages were crucial to invoke a sense of ownership and participation amongst farmers. As a result, more farmers could understand the implications of key issues, take informed collective decisions and communicate with the IP more intimately. These meetings also built the capacity of farmers to apply and adopt new technologies. Much of the success of the MilkIT IP can be traced back to these grass-roots meetings.Lastly, the IP documented all meetings in great detail and shared them on an online platform for multiple stakeholders to access. This made the IP's workings transparent, thus boosting the trust of members and partners. It also ensured that the process of decision making within the IP was participatory in nature since everyone could access and give feedback on the IP's workings. Clear documentation is crucial for laying the groundwork for a robust IP and the MilkIT IP case study provides a clear example of this in action.After discussing how the Milk IT IP was set up, the case study then details how the IP went to work. Pages 4-7 of the case study showcase the two key constraints identified by the MilkIT IP and the solutions it implemented to overcome these constraints.First, the case study discusses how the IP identified and prioritized dairy development issues by surveying multiple stakeholders. Through focus groups, interviews and meetings using participatory discussion methods, the MilkIT IP narrowed down two key constraints and generated innovative, localized solutions.The first key constraint identified was the long distances between villages, which made it difficult and expensive for dairy farmers to transport and supply milk. The second big constraint was the poor quality of livestock feed which resulted in lower yield of milk.Constraint 1: Long distances, small yields and lack of sales opportunities (15 min)The biggest constraint identified was geographical in nature. Long distances between villages raised the transaction costs for transporting and selling milk. On top of this, each producer kept only a few dairy animals, with low yields. Their only option for selling milk had been the state dairy cooperative 'Aanchal,' however, this option too had become unfavourable due to management and pricing issues created by Aanchal.The IP developed the following four solutions to solve this complex, intertwined problem of low yields, high transaction costs and lack of selling opportunities:Solution 1: Forming a self-help cooperative to boost market linkages When efforts to work with Aanchal failed, the farmers decided to set up their own independent, self-help cooperative known as the Jeganath dairy cooperative. The cooperative, which was started in April 2013, covered 8-10 villages and quickly grew to over 100 farmers in just six months.Through this self-organized setup, farmers were empowered to implement key logistical and operational reforms. From establishing a physical stop to contracting a vehicle for milk delivery, the farmers took many steps to develop market linkages. They also elected group secretaries in each village, who received monetary compensation as an incentive for collecting milk. The case also provides a contrast to this self-organized response of farmers in Bageshwar, by discussing the decisions of the farmers from Sult, who were able to negotiate more favourable terms with Aanchal.For thinking about cooperatives, the instructor may bring up question 22. For more advanced class, the instructor may divide learners into small groups and run a mock development consulting competition, as outlined in Question 35.Solution 2: Boosting financial support to farmers After marketing arrangements were put into place, many production-oriented farmers wanted to buy higher-yielding animals. However, they were unable to get credit from regular banks because most farmers did not have assets to guarantee their loans. Through the power of collective bargaining, the IP was able to get credit for its members based on group liability instead of asset liability. The IP members also enjoyed subsidized interest rates and reduced red tape. This financial inclusion had a major impact on boosting milk yield since farmers could not invest in higher-yielding animals. It was only due to robust facilitation that the IP was able to match creditors with lenders and implement an effective financial solution.For sessions focused on finance, questions 23 and 24 (from the list of questions attached) will lead to an intriguing discussion.Solution 3: Overcoming power dynamics and taboos Distorted power dynamics and existing social constraints can inhibit innovation in an IP, which is why it is important to counteract these in innovative ways. Solution 3 focuses on how the MilkIT IP overcame taboos, local issues, hierarchy and social norms that were holding its members back.Many development projects struggle to incentivize, attract and increase private sector participation. Before the MilkIT IP, private traders had shown little interest in dairy farmers in these regions because of their small milk supply. However, due to the financial support to purchase cross-bed cows, the IP members were able to boost their yield and negotiate robust deals to sell their milk to private traders.Being organized into clusters also helped farmers leverage their bargaining power to get wholesale prices for feed from a private feed company.Constraint 2: Fodder scarcity (10 min)Pages 6-7 of the case study deal with the second constraint, fodder scarcity. Dairy farmers faced regular fodder shortage due to reasons like variable rainfall, wastage and lack of alternative feeding practices.The instructor should emphasize the participatory nature of research carried out by MilkIT in this section.The IP began by interviewing key farmers and development actors to analyse the past interventions made in the region and discovered that many previously distributed solutions were lying unused in farmers' homes.Through participatory research, the IP developed its own low-cost, simple tools to improve feeding practices and lessen the burden on women. It is crucial to note that IP facilitators did not impose these technologies on farmers, which could have had an adverse effect on adoption rates. Instead, they sought to promote joint learning, a prerequisite for successful innovation and showcased benefits of the tools through participatory trials, publicity campaigns and subsidies from financial stakeholders to buy these tools. These collaborative methods led to a significant adoption of these new tools and present a lesson for other IPs trying to introduce new tools within a community.The IP used demonstration plots to showcase some suggestions from its technical partners, like dual purpose cereal crops, to improve the availability of green forage in the off-season. These real-life demos led to widespread adoption by farmers.This section looks at the key impact of the IP. The facilitator can begin by emphasizing the human impact of the IP's work through a quote by Devki Devi, 'Now I earn more than 1500 rupees per month through transport of milk from my village to road. This income is helping me to get nutritious food for my kids and builds my confidence'.The facilitator may also share the story of Mahesh Tiwari (Box 9.1 in case study) in order to showcase the impact of the IP on individual farmers.The facilitator can then summarize the impacts of the IP in two key areas as per the table in Exhibit 1.Overall, MilkIT IP's interventions had a strong impact on the livelihoods of dairy farmers. It led not only to increased income and employment for these farmers, but it also boosted savings of participating households by five times. Most of this income went to women who further invested it into human capital development within their households. Aside from impacting individual lives, the IP also heralded an era of institutional change, facilitating greater communication between stakeholders and empowering women to make their voice heard.However, there were some limits to the impact of the IP. As page 9 of the case clarifies, despite all efforts, the IP still found that the state level actors did not interact with the project and that development actors still lacked a fluid level of coordination amongst themselves.For those using this case in an advanced session on IPs, questions 37-42 will all encourage learners to reflect on the limits of an IP and how communication between stakeholders can be enhanced, both within the IP and externally.Factors contributing to impact (5 min)The case identifies three contributing factors that were instrumental in MilkIT creating an impact in Uttarakhand. The instructor may briefly discuss the three factors outlined below:Firstly, the interest of smallholder producers to generate an income through dairy production was fundamental to the success of MilkIT. Only production-motivated actors, for whom the aim of the IP is a clear priority, will contribute effectively to the IP. IPs thus need to seek out areas where the fundamental motivations of the beneficiaries are aligned with the goals of the IP.Secondly, a supportive institutional landscape was instrumental in creating wider impact. As the case discusses credit and investment support from financial stakeholders like IFAD had as significant an impact on stimulating change as steps by government actors.Finally, the introduction of cross-bred cows by other stakeholders enabled a huge boost in productivity, showcasing how beneficial it is when active stakeholder institutions introduce complementary technologies, inputs and services.For more advanced discussion, the instructor may open up the discussion within the classroom if students wish to add more factors to the list of three mentioned by the case.Future and forward linkages (5 min)This section delineates how the MilkIT IP kept all stakeholders informed about the procedures and work within the IP and how these stakeholders created forward linkages to carry on the work initiated by MilkIT.The facilitator should emphasize that within the IP approach, more important than specific technologies or institutional innovation is coming up with an efficient process to identify and implement development interventions. The process used by the MilkIT team to identify interventions has been discussed earlier in the section titled 'Grounding the innovation platforms'. The MilkIT IP also held activities like sensitization workshops and y dialogue meetings, to keep stakeholders promptly informed of the IP's workings. policAs a result of these interactions, many of the technological and institutional changes championed by the MilkIT IP were then promoted and adopted into policy by other stakeholders like the local animal husbandry office and IFAD. Exhibit 2 details these forward linkages.Concluding thoughts and remarks (10 min) The open-ended question about key takeaways should elicit a variety of responses and the instructor can choose to briefly write them down on a flipchart. The facilitator can also refer to the PowerPoint for a summary of these key takeaways.Exhibit 1: Impact of the MilkIT IP Increased income, employment & savings  Over 100 farmers earn anywhere between INR 600 to 6000 per month through milk sales. Most of this income goes to women to invest in their household, educate their children and buy better feed.  7 people, including 4 women, are directly employed in milk collection, transport and retail.  In the Sult region, over 100 women and their households are availing the use of dairy collection centres.  As per an impact study in November 2014, families of those participating in IP meetings had 5 times more savings through milk sales than non-participating households.  Over a 12 month period, farmers participating in IP meetings fed their animals improved forage for 50 days compared to 12 days for non-participating households.Increased communication between stakeholders  The IP identified producer representatives and communicated feedback of IP meetings back into villages through them.  Women reported an unprecedented opportunity to communicate with representatives from other villages and with higher-level officers of stakeholder institutions.  Stakeholder institutions also valued the IP as an opportunity to efficiently access and engage with larger groups of development-oriented smallholder producers through structured dialogue.Exhibit 2: Forward linkagesThe Milk IT IP kept all stakeholders actively informed and engaged with the process of change. As a result, many stakeholders created forward linkages to carry on its work. These technologies and institutional linkages including the following:  The animal husbandry (AH) department has adjusted its policy formulation to include support for construction of fodder troughs, grassland improvement and improved buffalo breeding.  Various organizations such as the AH department and IFAD loan projects have expressed their interest in promoting the adapted fodder chopper and feed troughs.  The potential of dual purpose crops has been widely acknowledged by stakeholder NGOs and the AH department.  Aanchal is looking into wider application of how the village cooperative regulations adapted to the local situation. It is also looking at improved targeting of potential supplier communities and realizes that improved monitoring and transparency of payment systems is required to regain the trust of smallholder producers.Exhibit 3: Key takeaways from the MilkIT IP case Content matter  Institutional changes in milk marketing provided a major incentive for farmers to invest in feed and breed improvements, despite the associated higher input costs.  In regards to feeding, farmers preferred simple interventions like fodder troughs and concentrate feedings. These resulted in near-immediate benefits for farmers and were thus more attractive to farmers initially than more complex packages (such as grass-land development) which had longer time horizons. Actual changes differed considerably between the platforms, thus highlighting that the platforms should be left free to decide which interventions to prioritize.  It is important to support interventions through consistent documentation if they are to have wider acceptance.  It is crucial for IPs to enable farmers to have their voice heard, which will lead to more efficient development efforts.  The longer-term effects of IPs are chalked down not to any specific intervention but to better communication and collaboration between the various stakeholders.  IP partners have identified certain key lessons from the projects and are changing their own activities and approaches based on these while investing in wider dissemination, thus creating massive out-scaling potential.","tokenCount":"3519"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"49fdefbc99878f246299060bc8068b7f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c5880655-41a2-4746-ba6b-3b4c231eee0e/retrieve","id":"-292322285"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a94c25d3-f1e7-4494-bd75-1a11f026847d","pagecount":"30","content":"AgriLAC Resiliente es una iniciativa de investigación regional del CGIAR destinada a apoyar la legislación de cero emisiones netas, diseñar rutas de transformación para sectores como la ganadería, y realinear políticas e incentivos económicos para dirigir los Sistemas Agroalimentarios (SAF) en cinco de los países más vulnerables al clima y propensos a conflictos en América Latina y el Caribe (ALC): Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, México, y Perú. Su objetivo principal es fortalecer los sistemas de innovación agroalimentaria para aumentar la resiliencia, los servicios ecosistémicos y la competitividad de los SAF, abordando la seguridad alimentaria, la crisis climática y la migración.La iniciativa tiene un enfoque de escalamiento multidimensional, priorizando el aprendizaje colectivo y la creación conjunta de innovaciones sociales, ecológicas y tecnológicas (SET). Su trabajo se organiza en cinco grupos (PT): el PT1 identifica y promueve innovaciones que optimicen la productividad, equidad de género, biodiversidad y resiliencia climática en Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, y México. El PT2 desarrolla y escala servicios digitales agroclimáticos y de extensión para gestionar mejor los riesgos climáticos en Honduras y Guatemala. El PT3 crea marcos y estrategias que integran objetivos de bajas emisiones y cero deforestaciones en cadenas de valor en Perú y Colombia. El PT4 establece plataformas llamadas InnovaHubs, como sistemas de innovación para facilitar la adopción y difusión de tecnologías y prácticas innovadoras en Guatemala, Honduras, y México. Finalmente, el PT5 desarrollar herramientas y enfoques para mejorar y acelerar las inversiones públicas y privadas en desarrollo y resiliencia agroalimentaria, enfocado principalmente en Guatemala y en menor escala en Honduras. Además de estos grupos de trabajo, AgriLAC Resiliente incluye un componente de monitoreo, aprendizaje, evaluación, y evaluación de impacto (MELIA), que tiene la responsabilidad del monitoreo de las actividades, productos y resultados, y de implementar estudios de aprendizaje y evaluación. Uno de los estudios implementados por el equipo MELIA incluye la evaluación cuantitativa del impacto de la iniciativa a nivel de los productores beneficiarios. Para esto, en esta fase (2022-2024) se realizó el levantamiento de la línea base a nivel de productores en comunidades donde AgriLAC tendrá incidencia en Guatemala, y en comunidades donde no tendrá incidencia (grupo de control). En la siguiente fase, se planea implementar dos encuestas más (medio término y final). Esto permitirá una evaluación rigurosa y la atribución de los cambios observados a las intervenciones de la iniciativa. En la encuesta de línea base se recolectó información a dos niveles: hogares de los productores y comunidades donde los productores viven. La información a nivel de productores nos permitirá medir los cambios en los indicadores de interés, a este nivel, mientras que la información comunitaria nos permitirá controlar por efectos fijos que afectan por igual a los productores en cada comunidad. Los resultados de la encuesta de productores se presentan en un documento aparte.Dado que la información recolectada a nivel de comunidades es diversa y valiosa para los implementadores de la iniciativa y sus colaboradores, este informe detalla los resultados del análisis de estos datos. El objetivo principal es proporcionar una visión comprensiva de los medios de subsistencia, servicios, mercados, precios de productos agrícolas, y eventos climáticos más relevantes en las comunidades de interés. Esto permite tener una perspectiva integral sobre las características socioeconómicas de las áreas de intervención, comparado con áreas donde no se planea implementar actividades.Este informe está estructurado de la siguiente manera. En la siguiente sección presentamos un contexto breve sobre los granos básicos en Guatemala; seguido de la metodología implementada; la caracterización de las comunidades (que incluye características demográficas, medios de subsistencia, migración, acceso a servicios, acceso a mercados, uso de variedades mejoradas, incidencia de eventos climáticos, y acceso a servicios y herramientas digitales); y finaliza con unas conclusiones sobre los hallazgos del análisis.Informe TécnicoGuatemala, una de las principales economías de América Central, tiene una población aproximada de 17.6 millones de personas, con una distribución de género casi equilibrada (50.8% mujeres) y una alta población indígena, principalmente de origen maya (43.6%) (INE, 2020). El 46.2% de la población vive en zonas rurales, con departamentos como San Marcos, Huehuetenango, y Alta Verapaz presentando los mayores porcentajes de población rural (INE, 2019). Aunque la pobreza afecta a gran parte de la población, esto varía según el lugar donde se vive y la etnia. A nivel nacional, el 59.3% de la población vive en pobreza; siendo esto mayor en áreas rurales (76.1%) comparado con áreas urbanas (42.1%), y entre la población indígena (79.2%) comparado con la población no indígena (46.7%) (SEGEPLAN, 2022).El sector agrícola es muy importante para el país, representando el 9.3% del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) de 2022 (que fue de aproximadamente 94.9 mil millones de dólares), y más del 45% de las exportaciones totales (Diaz-Gonzalez et al., 2023). Además, el sector es una fuente importante de empleo, representando el 27% de los trabajos totales en el país (Banco Mundial, 2024). El país tiene una vasta vocación agrícola, con el 67.5% de su territorio (73,541 km²) destinado o con potencial para la producción agropecuaria (INE, 2020). Aunque la agricultura familiar representa el 86.5% de las explotaciones agrícolas, solo cubre el 16% de la superficie total, lo que sugiere que el sector está caracterizado por una alta concentración de la tierra (Salcedo & Guzmán, 2014). A pesar de su vocación agrícola, el país enfrenta serios desafíos en su seguridad alimentaria, ya que 2.9 millones de personas están subalimentadas y 8.7 millones sufren de inseguridad alimentaria moderada o severa (Diaz-Gonzalez et al., 2023;SEGEPLAN, 2022). Estos problemas se han agravado debido a la pandemia causada por el COVID-19 y los efectos del cambio climático, que impactan especialmente a los pequeños y medianos agricultores (Basterrechea & Guerra, 2019).En Guatemala, como en otros países de la región, los granos básicos son fundamentales para la dieta y la seguridad alimentaria de la población, ocupando una gran parte de la superficie agrícola. Sin embargo, la producción nacional no cubre la demanda interna, por lo que el país complementa su oferta con importaciones. En 2023, se cultivaron en Guatemala 1,155,600 hectáreas de maíz y 207,892 hectáreas de frijol, con una producción de 45,760,490 quintales de maíz, a un rendimiento promedio de 39.6 quintales por hectárea, y 3,092,385.68 quintales de frijol, con un rendimiento nacional de 14.88 quintales por hectárea. Además, se importaron 65,133 toneladas de maíz blanco y 16,194 toneladas de frijol, principalmente de Estados Unidos y Argentina. Estas cifras subrayan la relevancia de estos cultivos para la alimentación y la economía de Guatemala.El país enfrenta una alta vulnerabilidad ante los efectos del cambio climático debido a su exposición a fenómenos meteorológicos extremos y su limitada capacidad de respuesta. El aumento de las temperaturas, la variabilidad en las precipitaciones y eventos como sequías y huracanes han impactado gravemente a las comunidades rurales, especialmente a aquellas que dependen de la agricultura (World Bank, 2019;2021). Además, la creciente inseguridad alimentaria y la migración interna son consecuencias directas de la debilitada capacidad del país para adaptarse a los cambios climáticos (Madurga-Lopez & Penel, 2024). En respuesta a estos desafíos, se han desarrollado servicios climáticos innovadores (algunos apoyados por AgriLAC Resiliente) que pueden aumentar la capacidad para adaptarse y mitigar los impactos del cambio climático, por ejemplo, las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA), que facilitan el diálogo entre actores locales y científicos para generar recomendaciones agroclimáticas adaptadas a cada región, mejorando la toma de decisiones agrícolas (Castillo et al., 2024); la plataforma AClimate Guatemala, que, en conexión con el sistema de pronósticos NextGen y los productos del INSIVUMEH, ofrece pronósticos climáticos y agroclimáticos detallados para apoyar a los agricultores en la planificación de sus cultivos (Montes et al., 2022); y otras plataformas llamadas InnovaHubs, que promueven la innovación participativa y el escalamiento de soluciones sostenibles (Navarro et al., 2022).Los datos usados para este informe provienen de la encuesta de línea base implementada por la iniciativa para la evaluación cuantitativa, en 65 comunidades en el oriente y occidente de Guatemala. AgriLAC Resiliente tendrá incidencia directa en 99 comunidades de 22 municipios y 5 departamentos del país, en estas dos regiones. Este constituyó nuestro marco muestral inicial, para las comunidades beneficiarias. Dado que se diseñó una evaluación rigurosa que permita atribuir los cambios observados a las intervenciones de la iniciativa, también fue necesario identificar comunidades controles. Las comunidades de tratamiento son aquellas donde AgriLAC está llevando a cabo intervenciones directas, implementando programas y proyectos destinados a mejorar los medios de subsistencia, los servicios y los mercados locales. Las comunidades control son aquellas que no reciben intervención directa de AgriLAC. Para la recolección de datos se diseñó un cuestionario que incluyó preguntas abiertas y cerradas, así como preguntas de opción múltiple y de única opción. Las principales temáticas abordadas incluyeron información general sobre la comunidad; medios de subsistencia; acceso a servicios, mercados y precios; eventos climáticos que afectaron la comunidad; y servicios y herramientas digitales promovidos en la comunidad.La información general de la comunidad se enfocó en saber el número de hogares existentes, participación de mujeres en posiciones de liderazgo, el área destinada a la agricultura, y la producción de granos básicos. Sobre los medios de subsistencia se consultó acerca de la importancia de la agricultura, las principales fuentes de ingresos de los habitantes, y los cultivos más importantes en términos de área, venta, consumo y mano de obra demandada, con un enfoque especial en frijol y maíz. En la sección de acceso a servicios, mercados y precios se incluyeron preguntas sobre el acceso a la comunidad, medios de transporte, servicios básicos (electricidad, drenaje, agua potable, conectividad, educación, salud y servicios financieros), acceso a mercados para la comercialización de productos agrícolas, y las organizaciones y asociaciones presentes en el territorio, dedicando una sección específica para profundizar en la comercialización del frijol y el maíz.Los últimos dos módulos se centraron en la ocurrencia y afectaciones de eventos climáticos en los cultivos y la seguridad alimentaria; así como en la identificación de servicios y herramientas digitales promovidos en la comunidad, su acogida, y las principales barreras y desafíos que enfrentan estas herramientas y que deben ser abordados. Este cuestionario fue programado para registrar la información usando la herramienta ODK Collect, con tabletas.Para cumplir con las mejores prácticas de protección de sujetos humanos en la investigación y el manejo de datos, obtuvimos la aprobación del Comité Institucional de Ética de CIAT previo el inicio de las actividades de campo. La encuesta fue implementada por una empresa encuestadora contratada para este fin. Los encuestadores recibieron una capacitación en Quetzaltenango durante 6 días para asegurar la comprensión del cuestionario, el correcto registro de la información, y las técnicas de entrevista. Esta capacitación incluyó la revisión del cuestionario impreso, digital, juego de roles, y una prueba de campo donde los encuestadores practicaron la implementación de la encuesta. Al finalizar el entrenamiento, se hicieron ajustes menores al cuestionario, para incorporar mejoras sugeridas por el equipo de campo.Las brigadas de encuestadores estuvieron conformadas por cinco mujeres bilingües (español y un idioma maya local) con educación media y experiencia en encuestas agrícolas, y un supervisor hombre con experiencia en supervisión y uso de aplicaciones en tabletas. Las encuestadoras generaron confianza en la comunidad por su género y capacidad lingüística, facilitando las entrevistas. El supervisor proporcionó apoyo técnico y veló por la calidad de la información recolectada.Aunque se planeaba comenzar la encuesta en la segunda quincena de octubre de 2023, se enfrentó un retraso de 3 semanas debido a una huelga nacional llevada a cabo por la población, en reacción a acciones legales emprendidas por las autoridades de gobierno para evitar la toma de posesión de las autoridades nacionales recién electas en los comicios de agosto. Esta huelga afectó tanto zonas urbanas como rurales, e incluyó el cierre de carreteras y autopistas y las vías de comunicación desde y hacia la capital. Debido a esto encuesta se implementó en noviembre y diciembre de 2023.Para realizar la encuesta comunitaria, la coordinadora de campo obtuvo permisos de las autoridades locales, para poder ingresar a las comunidades. Esto requirió visitar a los alcaldes municipales y contactar a los presidentes de los Comités Comunitarios de Desarrollo (COCODEs). Además, en comunidades tratamiento, representantes de las organizaciones socias de AgriLAC fueron informados sobre esta actividad, para coordinar con los líderes comunitarios la visita. Con los permisos obtenidos, los equipos iniciaron la encuesta.Para recolectar la información de la comunidad, los encuestadores identificaron a un líder local para entrevista. Los lideres comunitarios entrevistados fueron predominantemente hombres (84.6%), especialmente en la región occidental (87.1%) vs. oriental (80.7%), y las comunidades tratamiento en la región occidental (90.4%) comparado con las de control en dicha región (83.3%) (Tabla 2). Estos líderes tenían una edad promedio de 49 años, siendo los líderes en las comunidades tratamiento dos años más jóvenes que los de las comunidades control. A nivel regional, los líderes en occidente fueron tres años más jóvenes que los de oriente, y en ambas regiones, los líderes entrevistados en comunidades tratamiento fueron más jóvenes.La mayoría de los líderes desempeñaban roles oficiales como funcionarios de COCODE, alcaldes o dirigentes (86.1%), con una mayor representación en las comunidades de tratamiento (88.5%). Pocos líderes entrevistados tenían otros roles en la comunidad. Estos resultados revelan que, entre los líderes identificados, hay una falta de inclusión de mujeres en posiciones de liderazgo en los COCODEs; y que los líderes se concentran en los COCODEs, resaltando la importancia de estos comités en las comunidades.  Información sobre las comunidadesLas comunidades en la región occidental tienen un mayor número de habitantes que en la región oriental (Tabla 3). Sin embargo, las diferencias en el número de habitantes entre las comunidades control y tratamiento son mínimas. La participación de las mujeres en posiciones de liderazgo es mínima (en promedio, 18 mujeres de 1,202 habitantes), aunque es mayor en las comunidades tratamiento, independientemente de la región. En promedio, las comunidades en ambas regiones tienen un número similar de hogares, de alrededor de 265 hogares, y la mayoría produce granos básicos. Sin embargo, los informantes estimaron que la producción de granos básicos es más común entre las comunidades tratamiento, donde el 94% de los hogares produce granos básicos comparado con 69% en comunidades control, y en la región occidental (86% vs 78% en el oriente). Además, la percepción de los lideres es que la cantidad de hogares que producen granos básicos ha disminuido en los últimos 10 años en la mayoría de las comunidades, especialmente en la Región Oriental, sugiriendo que en esta región los productores han cambiado de rubro.Aunque uno de cada tres informantes no pudo estimar el área destinada a la agricultura en su comunidad, y uno de cada cuatro el porcentaje de esta área que se destina a la producción de granos básicos, entre los que respondieron, estimaron que el área utilizada para la agricultura es mayor en la región occidental, y mientras que en la región oriental las comunidades tratamiento reportaron menos área dedicada a agricultura, en el occidente se estimó lo contrario. Además, estimaron que la mayoría del área se destina a la producción de granos básicos, especialmente en las comunidades de tratamiento en la Región Oriental.Los informantes estimaron que la mayoría de la tierra utilizada para cultivar granos básicos es de propiedad de los agricultores, especialmente en las comunidades de tratamiento de la Región Occidental. Finalmente, uno de cada cuatro hogares es liderado por una mujer, y aunque esto es similar en ambas regiones, que una mujer sea jefa de hogar es más común entre las comunidades tratamiento en la región oriental y las comunidades control en la región occidental. La agricultura es la principal fuente de ingresos en la mayoría de las comunidades (89.6%), especialmente en las comunidades tratamiento (94.4%). En las comunidades donde la agricultura no es la fuente principal de ingresos (10.4%), las ocupaciones alternativas más comunes son ser jornalero y albañil (Tabla 4).Tabla 4. Medios de subsistencia principales en las comunidades e importancia relativa de los granos básicosEl maíz y el frijol tienen una importancia vital en la mayoría de las comunidades no solo en términos de área sembrada (87.6%) sino en la cantidad producida para autoconsumo (96.9%). Aunque hay diferencias en la importancia de estos granos según el área sembrada, entre regiones (mayor en oriente) y tipo de comunidad (ligeramente mayor en comunidades tratamiento en oriente), la importancia según la cantidad producida para consumo es igual independientemente de la región o tipo de comunidad.Como fuente de ingresos, en el 47.6% de las comunidades estos granos se cultivan principalmente para la venta, indicando que el principal uso de la cosecha sigue siendo el consumo familiar. Hay una diferencia notable entre las regiones: mientras que en el 69.2% de las comunidades en la región oriental el maíz y frijol se producen para la venta, esto solo sucede en el 33.3% de las comunidades en la región occidental, reflejando posibles diferencias en el acceso a mercados o en las prioridades económicas locales.Además, el maíz y el frijol juegan un papel importante en la generación de empleo, con un impacto notable en dos de cada tres comunidades. Como fuente de empleo, estos cultivos son más importantes en las comunidades en la región oriental (84.6%), comparado con la región occidental (48.7%). Es crucial resaltar que el maíz, en comparación con el frijol, domina en importancia relativa en términos de área sembrada, producción para autoconsumo, generación de empleo y producción para venta. Aunque ambos cultivos también se comercializan en diversas comunidades, la diferencia en la importancia en términos de venta no es tan marcada (Figura 4). Este análisis destaca la importancia del maíz según diversos indicadores, y cómo el frijol gana importancia como fuente de ingresos.Al ser consultados sobre la migración en las comunidades, en los últimos seis meses, los lideres reportaron que esto es más común en la región occidental. Además, se observan diferencias según el tipo de comunidad. En el occidente, aproximadamente 50 personas migraron en las comunidades control, comparado con solo 15 en las comunidades tratamiento. En la región oriental, en las comunidades control 12 personas migraron comparado con 3 personas en las comunidades tratamiento. Este patrón puede ser indicativo de una disparidad significativa en las condiciones de vida y oportunidades entre las comunidades de control y tratamiento, siendo un poco más favorables entre las comunidades tratamiento. La alta tasa de migración en las comunidades de control podría estar relacionada con una falta de empleo, servicios básicos insuficientes o una baja calidad de vida en general, que impulsa a las personas a buscar mejores oportunidades en otros lugares.Al preguntar a los líderes comunitarios sobre las principales razones de migración, a pesar de incluir diversas opciones como inseguridad, falta de empleo, búsqueda de mejores oportunidades laborales, motivos familiares u otras causas, se identificaron únicamente dos razones principales, las cuales se detallan a continuación.Como se muestra en la Figura 5, la falta de trabajo es la principal causa de migración en ambas regiones (en el 60.4% de las comunidades se mencionó esto). En la región oriental, el 44.4% de las comunidades de control y el 37.5% de las comunidades de tratamiento mencionaron esta razón. En la región occidental, la falta de trabajo fue citada por el 78.5% de las comunidades de control y el 64.7% de las comunidades de tratamiento. Esto resalta un mayor desbalance de oportunidades laborales en comunidades control y en la región occidental, comparado con comunidades tratamiento y la región oriental.La búsqueda de un mejor empleo es otra razón significativa de migración (39.5% de las comunidades). Mientras que en la región oriental el 55.5% de las comunidades control y el 62.5% de las comunidades tratamiento mencionaron esta razón, en la región occidental solo el 21.4% de las comunidades de control y el 35.2% de las comunidades de tratamiento la citaron. En total, el consideraron la búsqueda de un mejor empleo como la razón principal de migración. Esto resalta que, aunque parece haber más oportunidades de trabajo en la región oriental y en las comunidades tratamiento, los trabajos parecen no ser los mejores. La percepción de la falta de mano de obra como un problema varía según la región y tipo de comunidad (Figura 6). Mientras que las diferencias entre regiones son mínimas (en alrededor del 50% de las comunidades la falta de mano de obra se considera un problema), siendo esto ligeramente más importante en la región oriental; las diferencias entre tipo de comunidad son más marcadas, siendo esto un problema más importante entre las comunidades tratamiento. Además, en la región oriental, este problema es más importante entre las comunidades tratamiento (64.2%) que las comunidades control (41.6%); siendo estas diferencias mínimas entre tipo de comunidad en la región occidental (47.6% de las comunidades tratamiento vs. 50% de las comunidades control). La Tabla A 1 proporciona información detallada sobre los desafíos que enfrentan las comunidades en relación con la migración y la mano de obra.Figura 6. Percepción de la falta de mano de obra como problema La mayoría de las comunidades cuentan con acceso a servicios básicos como electricidad (95.3%), agua potable (95.3%) y escuelas (96.9%). Sin embargo, hay una notable disparidad entre las regiones: en la región occidental, la cobertura es del 100% en electricidad y agua potable, y del 97.4% en escuelas, mientras que, en la región oriental, estas cifras son menores, con una cobertura del 88.4% tanto en electricidad como en agua potable, y del 96.1% en escuelas (Tabla 5). Además, en la región oriental, el acceso a servicios de agua potable y electricidad es mayor en las comunidades control, mientras que tener una escuela es más común en las comunidades tratamiento.El acceso a alcantarillado y centros de salud es más limitado, ya que solo el 16.9% de las comunidades dispone de alcantarillado, y el 56.9% cuenta con un centro de salud. Estos dos tipos de servicios son más comunes en la región occidental y entre comunidades control. La disponibilidad de servicios financieros también varía considerablemente entre regiones y entre comunidades control y tratamiento; siendo mejor en la región occidental, y entre las comunidades control en la región oriental y tratamiento en la región occidental.La señal de celular no presenta diferencias significativas entre regiones, aunque es más fuerte en las comunidades de control que en las de tratamiento, especialmente en la región occidental. En cuanto a la conexión a internet, esta es relativamente alta en ambas regiones, con una ligera ventaja para la región occidental. Estos resultados evidencian las diferencias en el acceso a servicios entre las comunidades de control y tratamiento, así como entre las regiones oriental y occidental. En la Tabla 6 se presenta información correspondiente a infraestructura y servicios de transporte disponibles en la comunidad. El análisis de las vías de acceso y medios de transporte en estas comunidades rurales revela una dependencia marcada de infraestructuras viales de terracería, lo que representa un desafío para la movilidad y el acceso a servicios esenciales y mercados. En ambas regiones, las vías de terracería predominan, especialmente en la región oriental (88.4% de las comunidades, vs. 76.9% en occidente), mientras que las vías de asfalto (11.5%) o concreto (23%) nos son tan comunes. Esta falta de infraestructura puede limitar la movilidad, aunque un porcentaje alto de comunidades tiene acceso en vehículo durante todo el año, particularmente en la región occidental, donde el 71.7% de las vías permiten tránsito continuo. El transporte en estas comunidades está dominado por el uso de carro particular, que es el medio de transporte principal en el 66.1% de las comunidades. Sin embargo, en la región occidental, el transporte público también juega un papel importante, especialmente en las comunidades tratamiento, donde el 38.4% de las personas dependen de él. La distancia promedio a una vía pavimentada varía significativamente según el tipo de vehículo usado, y el hecho de que la movilización en moto tome un 35% menos de lo que toma ir en carro, sugiere que las vías de acceso no son bien mantenidas. Finalmente, la disponibilidad de transporte público, con servicios que operan diariamente en la mayoría de las comunidades (90% en total), es un aspecto positivo que facilita la conectividad y el acceso.En cuanto a los servicios de asistencia técnica, proyectos y participación en organizaciones comunitarias, se observan diferencias significativas entre las regiones y entre tipos de comunidades (Tabla 7). En la región oriental, una proporción significativa de las comunidades (53.8%) recibe asistencia técnica de ONGs, comparado con solo 2.5% de comunidades en la región occidental. Estos resultados son inesperados, dado que se anticipaba un apoyo activo de parte de ONGs en ambas regiones. Sin embargo, esta disparidad resalta una brecha en el apoyo recibido de ONGs, lo que podría afectar negativamente el desarrollo agrícola y comunitario en la región occidental. En contraste, la asistencia técnica gubernamental muestra una distribución más equilibrada, ya que el 28.2% de las comunidades en la región occidental y 23% en la oriental reportaron recibir este tipo de apoyo.La presencia de proyectos o iniciativas de igualdad de género es prácticamente inexistente, con solo el 1.5% de las comunidades reportando este tipo de iniciativas. Esto indica una falta de enfoque en la promoción de la igualdad de género dentro de las comunidades estudiadas. A pesar de esto, se nota que la presencia de organizaciones donde hay igual proporción de mujeres y hombres es más común que asociaciones con mayoría hombres o mujeres. Esto varía por región y tipo de comunidad, siendo más común en la región occidental, y en las comunidades control de la región oriental y tratamiento de la región occidental. Finalmente, la presencia de asociaciones de productores es extremadamente limitada, con solo el 9.2% de las comunidades reportando su existencia, siendo esto más común en la región occidental (12.8%) que la oriental (3.8%).Al analizar la disponibilidad de mercados de insumos y productos también notamos diferencias según la región y tipo de comunidad (Tabla 8). En general, es más común que hayan mercados de insumos agrícolas que mercado de productos agrícolas, y la disponibilidad de bancos locales de semilla de granos básicos es baja. El acceso a mercados de insumos agrícolas es mayor en las comunidades de la región occidental (43.5% vs 7.6% en la región oriental), y entre comunidades tratamiento (34.2% vs. 23.3% control), especialmente en la región occidental. Los bancos de semilla de granos básicos son más comunes en las comunidades tratamiento, independientemente de la región. Esto presenta una oportunidad para contribuir a mejorar la infraestructura local de producción y almacenamiento de semillas, lo que podría ayudar a mejorar la resiliencia de las comunidades ante distintos desafíos (e.g., cambio climático, eventos climáticos adversos).Aunque la baja disponibilidad de mercados de productos agrícolas sugiere que los productores de granos básicos en la mayoría de las comunidades vende su cosecha a intermediarios en sus comunidades (dado que hay pocas asociaciones de productores y no hay mercados locales donde puedan llevar su producto), esto no es así, dado que en muchas comunidades se reportó vender grano en mercados cercanos, sugiriendo que los productores transportan su grano para venderlo, lo cual implica un aumento en los costos de comercialización y posiblemente una reducción de sus ingresos (a menos que el precio obtenido compense estos costos adicionales).La frecuencia de operación de los mercados de productos agrícolas varía entre las comunidades, sin importar su ubicación específica (ya sea dentro de la comunidad o en la más cercana). En general, el 83% de los mercados funcionan diariamente, con una mayor prevalencia de mercados operando de esta manera en la región oriental. En la región occidental, para compensar que algunos mercados no funcionan diariamente, varios mercados funcionan dos o tres veces por semana (17.9%). Esto sugiere que las comunidades de la región oriental pueden tener una ventaja en términos de acceso continuo a mercados para vender y comprar productos agrícolas, lo que podría influir en la economía local y en la seguridad alimentaria. Los mercados de granos básicos desempeñan un papel crucial en la economía de las comunidades rurales, ya que estas no solo dependen de la producción para el autoconsumo, sino también para la venta de excedentes como fuente de ingresos. Las dinámicas de estos mercados varían entre regiones y tipos de comunidades, influenciada por factores como el acceso a compradores, la determinación de precios y las fuentes de información disponibles.En promedio, una de cada cinco libras cosechadas de frijol se destina para la venta, y este porcentaje es ligeramente mayor en oriente y en las comunidades tratamiento (Tabla 9). En la región oriental, las comunidades tratamiento venden aproximadamente el 32.8% de la producción, comparado con el 13% en las comunidades control. En contraste, en la región occidental el porcentaje de la cosecha destinado a la venta es más homogéneo entre los tipos de comunidades--18.6% de la producción se vende en las comunidades tratamiento y 21.3% en las comunidades control. El tipo de comprador más reportado es el mercado local, sugiriendo que los productores transportan su grano a los mercados para venderlo (dado que en pocas comunidades se reportó la existencia de mercados), en lugar de venderlo en sus hogares a intermediarios. Sin embargo, es posible que estos intermediarios compren grano en estos mercados locales, pero no contamos con la evidencia para corroborar o refutar esta posibilidad. Además, en la región oriental, especialmente en las comunidades de tratamiento, existen otros compradores como los intermediarios, y las asociaciones de productores, que, aunque en menor proporción (7.1% cada uno), ofrecen alternativas a los productores para vender su producto.Aunque el precio puede determinarse por diversos factores, entre las características del grano que más determinan el precio está la calidad del grano, especialmente en oriente y entre comunidades tratamiento en esta región. Otros factores como el color o el tamaño del grano tienen un impacto menor en la determinación del precio. Esto resalta la importancia de que los productores adopten prácticas (de manejo y postcosecha) que contribuyan a producir un grano de calidad, para que el ingreso que obtengan no sea afectado por este factor. Finalmente, la información de precios se obtiene principalmente de la plaza local y de otros productores vecinos, lo que refleja una alta dependencia de fuentes informales para obtener esta información. El porcentaje de producción de maíz que se vende revela algunas diferencias tanto entre las regiones oriental y occidental como entre los grupos de control y tratamiento (Tabla 10). En la región oriental, las comunidades control venden alrededor del 8.7% de la producción, mientras que las comunidades de tratamiento no destinan ninguna parte de su cosecha a la venta (0%). Por otro lado, en la región occidental el porcentaje de la cosecha destinado a la venta es más equilibrado entre ambos tipos de comunidades: las comunidades de tratamiento venden un 7.1% de su producción, y las de control un 5.1%. Esto sugiere que en la región occidental, tanto las comunidades de control como las de tratamiento adoptan un enfoque más orientado al mercado en su producción de maíz.El tipo de comprador principal en estas transacciones, al igual que para frijol, es la plaza o mercado cercano (84.2% de las comunidades). Sin embargo, en la región occidental, un pequeño porcentaje (7.7%) vende a comercializadores conocidos como \"coyotes\", lo cual no sucede en la región oriental. Además, algunas comunidades de la región oriental recurren a asociaciones de productores para vender su maíz, lo que puede indicar un esfuerzo por obtener precios más justos o establecer relaciones comerciales más formales.Como en frijol, la determinación del precio del grano depende principalmente de su calidad, especialmente en comunidades en la región oriental (78.2% vs. 48.6% en occidente) y entre comunidades tratamiento en esta región. En la región occidental, aunque la calidad también es importante (48.6%), el color del grano tiene un peso considerable (32.4%), lo que podría estar relacionado con preferencias específicas de los consumidores de esta región. Al igual que en frijol, las principales fuentes de información de precios de maíz son la plaza local y otros productores vecinos. En cuanto a las variedades de frijol y maíz usadas, los resultados revelan patrones claros en el uso predominante de variedades tradicionales o criollas, y que el uso de materiales mejorados es más común en maíz. En el caso de frijol (Figura 7), en la mayoría de las comunidades (82.1%) se siembran principalmente variedades tradicionales, comparado con 7.1% de las comunidades donde se cultivan variedades mejoradas. Además, un 10.7% de los encuestados no tiene conocimiento sobre las variedades que se siembran en sus comunidades. Las diferencias en el uso de variedades mejoradas de frijol entre las comunidades control y tratamiento es mínima.Para el maíz, figura 9 y 10, aunque también predominan las variedades tradicionales (65% de las comunidades), existe una ligera diferencia entre las regiones. En la región oriental, un 30.7% de las comunidades utilizan variedades mejoradas, mientras que en la región occidental esta cifra desciende a solo un 5.4%. Esto sugiere una mayor adopción de tecnologías agrícolas en la región oriental, aunque sigue siendo limitada. Además, un 19% de los encuestados no sabe qué tipo de variedades de maíz se están sembrando, lo que nuevamente refleja un posible distanciamiento de los agricultores con respecto a las decisiones productivas.Estas preferencias no solo podrían reflejar una resistencia o falta de acceso a nuevas tecnologías agrícolas, sino también un profundo vínculo cultural y emocional con las semillas heredadas de sus antepasados. Los productores, en muchas de estas comunidades, desean preservar las semillas que han recibido de sus padres y madres, valorando su legado y la conexión con la tierra y las tradiciones. Figura 7. Uso de variedades mejoradas de frijol: control vs. tratamiento (izquierda) y occidente vs. oriente (derecha) Figura 8. Uso de variedades mejoradas de maíz: control vs. tratamiento (izquierda) y occidente vs. oriente (derecha)Se pregunto a los lideres comunitarios sobre el precio que pagaría un productor por una libra de semilla de frijol y de maíz que algunos productores guardan de su cosecha anterior para usar como material de siembra (Tabla A2).El precio por libra de semilla reciclada de frijol es ligeramente mayor en la región oriental (11.4 quetzales) en comparación con la occidental (14.1 quetzales). Sin embargo, el costo de la semilla reciclada de maíz es más alto en la región oriental (21.6 quetzales) que en la occidental (14.2 quetzales). Esto podría estar relacionado con las diferentes dinámicas del mercado local y la disponibilidad de semillas, así como con las diferencias en la adopción de variedades mejoradas en ambas regiones. La preferencia por semillas tradicionales y el uso limitado de variedades mejoradas tienen implicaciones para la productividad y resiliencia de los cultivos, especialmente frente a desafíos como el cambio climático y la variabilidad en las cosechas. El acceso a servicios digitales se separó del acceso a otros servicios debido a su naturaleza emergente y su impacto potencial en las comunidades y los productores. A diferencia de los servicios convencionales, las herramientas digitales representan una innovación relativamente nueva que, aunque prometedora, aún enfrenta desafíos significativos en cuanto a su disponibilidad (acceso), comprensión, y aceptación. Por esto, es necesario explorar con mayor detalle las barreras que podrían estar limitando su adopción y cómo estas herramientas se pueden usar para solucionar desafíos locales.De las 65 comunidades encuestadas, solo en dos (Tasharja Abajo y Tuipat, en los departamentos de Chiquimula y Huehuetenango respectivamente) se reportó que se han promovido servicios digitales relacionados con el clima, agronomía, gestión de plagas y otros aspectos de la producción agrícola. Ambas comunidades forman parte del grupo tratamiento. A pesar de esto, la percepción general en estas dos comunidades es que este tipo de servicios ha tenido una acogida baja entre sus habitantes, lo que sugiere la necesidad de estrategias más efectivas para fomentar el acceso, entendimiento y uso de estas herramientas.Al preguntar a los informantes qué desafíos las herramientas digitales deberían solucionar, se observan diferencias significativas entre las regiones (Figura 9). En la región oriental, los desafíos climáticos son los más destacados, con un 41.6% de los encuestados identificándolos como el principal problema que se debe abordar; mientras que un 41.6% adicional no está seguro de cuál es el desafío más relevante. El manejo de cultivos es una preocupación secundaria con un 16.6%, y muy pocos mencionan otros desafíos. En contraste, en la región occidental, el manejo de cultivos es el desafío más importante, mencionado por el 65.2% de los encuestados. Otros desafíos reportados incluyen problemas climáticos (34.7%), proveer información de precios (13%) y de mercados (8.7%). Estos resultados reflejan las diferencias en prioridades y contextos que enfrentan las comunidades en ambas regiones, sugiriendo que las soluciones digitales deberían adaptarse a las necesidades específicas de cada área. Las comunidades rurales estudiadas enfrentan desafíos distintos en términos de oportunidades económicas, migración, y clima. Las diferencias entre las comunidades de la región oriental y occidental son notables en varios aspectos, incluyendo la demografía, el acceso a servicios básicos y las dinámicas económicas. En términos demográficos, la región occidental tiene un mayor número de habitantes por comunidad. En esta región, el acceso a servicios de electricidad, agua potable, alcantarillado, y centros de salud, servicios financieros, y conexión a internet es mayor que en la región oriental. Existen diferencias entre las comunidades tratamiento y control, aunque varía según el tipo de servicio evaluado. Aunque la agricultura juega un papel crucial en ambas regiones, y el principal uso de la cosecha de frijol y maíz es el autoconsumo, la región oriental tiende a tener un enfoque más comercial.La migración es un fenómeno más agudo en la región occidental y entre las comunidades control. Estas diferencias reflejan las diversas realidades y desafíos que enfrentan las comunidades en cada región, lo que sugiere la necesidad de enfoques diferenciados en las políticas de desarrollo y apoyo.La participación de mujeres en posiciones de liderazgo es baja, aunque ligeramente mayor en las comunidades tratamiento. Aunque baja, esta mayor representación femenina en este tipo de comunidades es un paso positivo hacia la equidad de género y puede tener un impacto significativo en la toma de decisiones y en el desarrollo comunitario. Además, la presencia de proyectos o iniciativas de igualdad de género es prácticamente inexistente, lo que indica una falta de enfoque en la promoción de la igualdad de género dentro de las comunidades estudiadas. A pesar de esto, se nota que la presencia de organizaciones donde hay igual proporción de mujeres y hombres es más común que asociaciones con mayoría hombres o mujeres, especialmente en la región occidental y en las comunidades control de la región oriental y tratamiento de la región occidental.También se observan diferencias en la asistencia técnica recibida, y la fuente de esta asistencia. Mientras que en la región oriental se recibe asistencia técnica de ONGs y de programas del gobierno, en la región occidental la asistencia depende enteramente de los programas de gobierno. Sin embargo, en general, solo en una de cada cuatro comunidades hay apoyo técnico tanto de ONGs como del gobierno. Esto resalta el acceso limitado a asistencia técnica que puede contribuir a mejorar la productividad, y una mayor susceptibilidad de la región occidental, donde se depende de una fuente de asistencia técnica.La presencia de asociaciones de productores es extremadamente limitada (<10% de las comunidades reportó tener una asociación en la comunidad), pero un poco más común en la región occidental. El acceso a mercados de insumos en la comunidad es más común que el acceso a mercados de productos, y la existencia de bancos locales de semilla es baja. Esto posiblemente explica el bajo uso de variedades mejoradas, especialmente entre los productores de frijol. Aunque el acceso a servicios y herramientas digitales es prácticamente inexistente, hay oportunidad para que este tipo de herramientas provean información que contribuya a resolver problemas locales, como los relacionados a factores climáticos, manejo del cultivo, y asimetría de información de precios y mercados.La implementación de programas que fortalezcan la resiliencia agroalimentaria y promuevan la inclusión social, especialmente en términos de liderazgo femenino, son esenciales para mejorar las oportunidades locales, lo que puede fomentar un entorno más sostenible que contribuya a reducir la necesidad de migrar, y promueva el desarrollo local, incluyendo un aumento de la productividad de los granos básicos. ","tokenCount":"6628"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3631ae19de1e4707e645140bb368322b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/18a176f4-cec9-4616-9a76-91db185fb0af/retrieve","id":"1140188210"},"keywords":["time use","household task allocation","gender","South Asia v"],"sieverID":"e0dbf35f-05f5-4f81-bf5a-7431a9c0bc59","pagecount":"56","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.There is growing evidence that gender disparities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work impose constraints on women's well-being and livelihoods, reducing access to paid employment, and time for education, leisure, and social activities (Seymour et al. 2020). On average, women spend at least three times as many hours as men on unpaid work, and as a result, have a higher total work burden than men, when both unpaid and paid work are considered (United Nations 2015). Attempts to increase women's participation in market-oriented work or in remunerative activities have been stymied by the time they spend in reproductive and care work, and the possible toll that market work extracts on the welfare of women and their families. Yet, gender disparities in unpaid work often go undiagnosed by traditional household surveys. While time-use surveys are well-suited for measuring unpaid work, they are often expensive to administer and take substantial amounts of survey time, leading to respondent fatigue, particularly in multi-topic surveys where other outcomes are also being collected. There is therefore scope for innovation in cost-effective and nimble ways of collective time use data.Since 2012, time-use data have been collected as part of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) (Alkire et al. 2013) using a 24-hour recall time-use module administered to a female and a male respondent within the same household. 1 Although the WEAI has now been used by 255 organizations in 61 countries as of March 2024, many WEAI users cite lengthy interview time as one drawback of this approach. Early estimates of interview time per individual cited in Seymour et al. (2020) were 19.4 minutes in Bangladesh and 7.94 minutes in Uganda. A recent paper on Rwanda (Hickman et al. 2023) reports a mean of 8.89 minutes and a median of 8.33 minutes. To obtain a measure of intrahousehold time allocation, it is necessary to interview both the man and the woman within the same household. The task allocation module embedded in the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) Integrated Survey takes a novel approach to measuring the intrahousehold distribution of tasks. The task allocation module collects information on how household tasks are shared over the course of the year between household members and hired help. In contrast to the WEAI time-use module, the TAFSSA task allocation module only takes four to five minutes to implement and generates information on all tasks performed in the household (irrespective of who performs the task). We take advantage of datasets from the same countries collected using the two different methods to answer the following questions:Is there a gendered distribution of productive and reproductive work in South Asia? Do the two methods uncover similar patterns in the gendered distribution of work? Are the tasks in which women more involved also those that take the most time?What are the advantages and disadvantages of using either type of module to obtain insights into the intrahousehold distribution of tasks and time?In this paper, we compare data collected using the task allocation module in the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) integrated household survey and the time-use module in the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) survey. We begin by describing the methods used to collect the data in each of the surveys. We present an overview of the characteristics of the study sites in the TAFSSA integrated survey and sites in the same countries where the WEAI data were collected. We then present comparable data from each of the two methods. To ensure similarity, for the TAFFSA dataset we restrict tasks to those performed by the primary male and the primary female adults (and equally shared between them), so that we can compare tasks performed by them over a one-year recall period to the time reported by the primary male and female respondents in the WEAI survey over the last 24 hours.The TAFSSA data show similarities across the three countries despite some important differences: Bangladesh and India have more similar task allocation patterns compared to Nepal. The extent of female participation in agricultural tasks varies by the type of task. In households performing agricultural tasks, sole female participation in pre-harvest tasks is lowest in Bangladesh and highest in Nepal. For these same households, sole female participation increases for postharvest tasks and is highest for tasks related to livestock, especially in Bangladesh and India. Equal sharing of tasks is higher in India and Nepal compared to Bangladesh. However, in all three countries, a large number of agricultural tasks is performed by other household members (apart from the primary female and male respondents). On average, Bangladesh and India exhibit similar patterns in task allocation for food preparation activities. Nepali households have a lower rate of sole engagement of the primary female respondent in food preparation-related tasks as compared to India and Bangladesh. Only the food preparation tasks that involve going outside the homestead show higher exclusive male engagement, particularly in Bangladesh and India. Across the three countries, maintenance and care-related tasks are primarily performed by the female respondent.The WEAI data show that women not only perform a greater number of tasks than men but also that there are significant differences in the gender distribution of tasks. Women are more likely to perform tasks related to cooking, maintenance, and care. Interestingly, a higher proportion of women than men indicated participating in farming and fishing tasks. Men tend to be more involved in \"outside-facing\" activities like shopping or getting services, working as an employee, engaging in own business work, and traveling. There were some differences across the countries. Examining the time spent by men and women on each activity also reveals interesting insights. For example, in Bangladesh, although a higher proportion of women than men report undertaking tasks related to farming and fishing, men spent twice as much time on these tasks than women did in the previous day.A comparison of the gender distribution of tasks across TAFSSA and WEAI data suggests that women (female respondents) perform a variety of agricultural tasks in all three countries, but with substantial variations. In the TAFSSA surveys, for more than three quarters (78 percent) of households where agricultural tasks are undertaken, Bangladeshi women respondents report participating in these tasks, followed by 64 percent of Nepali women, and 50 percent of Indian women. In the WEAI time-use data, the largest proportion of women respondents reporting participation in agricultural tasks is in Nepal (88 percent), followed by Bangladesh (59 percent) and India (49 percent). However, there are subtleties revealed by the TAFSSA datasets owing to the possibility of reporting task-sharing between male and female respondents. There appears to be significant sharing of agricultural tasks between male and female household members in Nepal (45 percent), whereas in Indian and Bangladeshi households such sharing is reported by 38 percent and 36 percent of households. Even food preparation tasks, typically regarded as within the female domain, shows extensive task sharing in India (39 percent), and less in Bangladesh and Nepal (14 percent and 15 percent, respectively), within households undertaking these activities. WEAI datasets, however, shed light on the actual time spent on each activity, with one important exception: the broad categories of tasks that women undertake-food preparation, maintenance, and care-are also the tasks that require more time. The exception is agriculture, participation and time spent varies across the three countries.The TAFFSA task allocation module was fielded as part of the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) district agrifood systems assessment. This assessment is designed to be implemented in multiple years and aims to provide a reliable, accessible, and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management with gender as a cross-cutting issue in rural areas of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. The task allocation module obtains information on how different tasks are performed and shared within the household and how female respondents within these households perceive the notion of leisure, work pressure, and support with chores from other household members. The TAFSSA survey was administered using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) techniques, and based on time stamps, the time needed to administer the task allocation module in the survey ranged from 3.88 minutes in India to 5.02 minutes in Nepal. Findings on each of the TAFSSA study sites are presented in Banerjee et al. (2023aBanerjee et al. ( , 2023bBanerjee et al. ( , 2023cBanerjee et al. ( , 2023d, 2023e), 2023e); the analysis in this paper aggregates across sites within each country.Village and household sampling. The survey was implemented in two districts in Bangladesh (Rajshahi and Rangpur), one in India (Nalanda), and two in Nepal (Banke and Surkhet) in the first quarter of 2023 (see Table 1). Survey sites were selected from TAFSSA learning locations facing significant poverty, malnutrition, social inequity, environmental degradation, and climate risks, with potential for substantial development impact. (Gupta et al., 2022). Across all districts, 50 villages in Bangladesh and India, and 25 wards in Nepal, were selected within each district with a probability proportional to the number of households that reside in each village or ward. Within each village, a household listing was conducted to identify eligible households, that is, those with adolescents (10-19 years old). From the households with adolescents, 20 households were randomly invited to participate in the survey. If a household refused, that household was replaced with another randomly selected eligible household, to achieve a sample size of 1,000 households in the district. Thus, findings of the task allocation module are representative of rural households from this district that include an adolescent. 20+ years, and one adolescent aged 10-19 years were selected as survey respondents. In households with multiple adolescents, the oldest was selected. In some households, an adult male was not available, and thus the female was the only adult respondent (see Table 1 for respondent sample sizes). At the beginning of the interview, the adult in the household primarily involved in agriculture (either male or female) and the adult primarily responsible for food purchasing (either male or female) were identified as the primary respondents and answered different sections of the questionnaire. The TAFSSA task module was intended to be administered only to the adult female respondent, the designated proxy respondent, but is designed to capture task dynamics among all household members, including adult males and adolescents.Respondents are asked about who performs three types of tasks: agricultural tasks (19 tasks), food preparation tasks (13 tasks), and maintenance and care-related tasks (12 tasks). Launched in 2012, the WEAI measures women's agency and inclusion in agriculture across five domains-production, resources, income, leadership, and time-and is calculated based on interviews with women and men from the same households (Alkire et al., 2013). The WEAI comprises two subindexes: 1)the Five Domains of Empowerment index (5DE), which measures women's empowerment at the individual level, and 2) the Gender Parity Index (GPI), which directly compares the empowerment of women and men from the same households. Used in 61 countries and by 255 organizations as of March 2024, WEAI data provide a comprehensive picture of women's empowerment in agriculture and the empowerment gap between men and women across continents and contexts. Like the TAFSSA survey, the WEAI surveys, originally piloted as paper questionnaires, were implemented using CAPI.Sampling design. For comparability with the TAFSSA time allocation module, we use WEAI time allocation data from three separate surveys conducted in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. These surveys were conducted for different purposes, so sampling design varied across the three countries.The Bangladesh WEAI data come from the most recent (2018-2019) round of the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS), which is nationally representative of rural Bangladesh. The India data come from an impact evaluation of a nutrition-intensification intervention (Women Improving Nutrition through Group-Based Strategies (WINGS)) layered onto the standard livelihoods-oriented programming of a large nongovernmental organization, Professional Assistance for Development (PRADAN). The study was conducted in eight districts in the five eastern and central states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh; control and intervention blocks were chosen for the impact evaluation (Kumar et al. 2021) and included baseline, midline, and endline rounds. We use the endline round because it is closest in terms of time to the TAFSSA survey, but we pool control and treatment households in the current analysis. The Nepal data come from an impact evaluation of the UN Joint Program for Rural Women's Economic Empowerment (UN JP RWEE), which was implemented in ten municipalities of Madhesh Province, southeastern Nepal from 2015 to 2021. The data for the impact evaluation were collected only at endline, between January to February 2021. Similar to the India WINGS study, we pool both control and treatment households for our analysis. Only the Bangladesh data are statistically representative (of rural Bangladesh); the India WINGS and Nepal JP RWEE data, being collected for an impact evaluation, are not representative of the populations in their study sites.Respondent selection. In the Bangladesh survey, the primary female adult in the household and her spouse are the respondents. If the women's husband is deceased or does not live in the household (owing to migration), another adult male is interviewed (typically her adult son). In the India survey, the respondent was a woman of reproductive age and the male respondent was typically her spouse; similar rules for replacing respondents were followed if her spouse was deceased or unavailable. At baseline, only 60 percent of the households had both male and female respondents for the WEAI modules. Subsequent power calculations, based on the overall evaluation design with three arms and eight clusters per arm determined the minimum required sample size to detect reasonable changes in WEAI indicators, were 40 percent of the original baseline sample. During the midline survey, conducted from November 2017 to January 2018, the WEAI-related modules were administered to only that subsample of 1,674 households for which we had baseline data on the WEAI-related modules from both a female and male respondent. This served to reduce both the cost of the survey and the burden on respondents. These respondents were reinterviewed in the endline round in 2019, which we use in this study. In the Nepal survey, similar rules were followed: the woman interviewed was the beneficiary (participant) in the JP RWEE project and the man was her spouse.The time-use module in the WEAI is based on 24-hour recall and collects information for the following eighteen activities:• Personal activities: sleeping and resting, eating, and drinking, personal care, school (including homework) the home was less than usual, about the same as usual, or more than usual.Originally designed as a paper survey, the WEAI time-use module uses a format based on the stylized activity log proposed by Harvey and Taylor (2000). Rows, representing each type of activity, and columns, representing the previous 24-hours divided into 15-minute intervals, form an 18×96 grid (see Appendix A.2). Activities are recorded by drawing horizontal lines across the grid. By simply checking that a continuous (though staggered) line extends across the grid, enumerators can verify that the previous 24 hours have been counted fully and that no additional time has been recorded in the module. The WEAI time-use module has recently been adapted for use with CAPI software on a tablet or smartphone, replacing the grid format with nested \"drop-down\" menus that allow for greater specificity of listed activities, while also providing built-in accuracy checks. The CAPI version of the WEAI surveys were implemented in the datasets used in this paper.Slightly different versions of the time-use module were implemented across the three surveys. The BIHS used the original time-use module, in which time spent on secondary activities (activities performed simultaneously) was also recorded. The India WINGS and Nepal JP RWEE surveys used the time-use module from the project-level WEAI (pro-WEAI, Malapit et al. 2019), in which the only secondary activity collected is childcare. For comparability across the three WEAI surveys, we analyze only primary activities in this paper.Household characteristics from the TAFSSA and WEAI surveys are presented in the bottom half of Table 1 and individual characteristics in Table 2.Although only 56 percent and 50 percent of households in the Bangladesh and India TAFSSA surveys own land, a much higher percentage operate land-74 percent and 63 percent, respectively (Table 1). A higher percentage of Nepali households in the TAFSSA survey owns land-76 percent-and 80 percent of Nepal households cultivate land. In the WEAI samples, across the three countries, a much higher percentage of households own land, owing to differences in sampling design. TAFSSA survey households in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal have varying degrees of access to irrigation, with 72 percent and 77 percent of households in Bangladesh and Nepal having land with irrigation, and only 62 percent of households in India. We do not have comparable figures for irrigation in the WEAI surveys. Livestock raising is widespread; apart from the India TAFSSA site (62 percent), other sites report more than 80 percent of households raising livestock.One-quarter to almost 40 percent of households report crop cultivation as their main source of income in the TAFSSA datasets; in the India and Nepal WEAI datasets, approximately 16 percent and onethird of households report crop cultivation as their primary source of income, respectively. Business and wages are also important sources of income for Bangladeshi TAFSSA households, these are less important for Indian and Nepali households, although about a third of Indian TAFSSA households report that wages are their main source of income. We do not have comparable data for the WEAI datasets except for Bangladesh and India, where wage work is the main source of income of a very low percentage of households. Notes: In India, based on estimates from the WINGS dataset, out of 1,355 households, there are only 5 categorized as \"Woman only\" households (0.37%). For Nepal, estimates from the JP RWEE dataset indicate that out of 1,300 households, there are only 2 classified as \"Woman only\" households (0.15%). Rounding up these estimates results in a zero percentage of woman-only households in the sample.Table 2 presents characteristics of the adult males and females covered by both survey modules.The TAFSSA survey did not deliberately sample spouses, and while the WEAI surveys did, adult males in both surveys tend to be older than the adult females, reflecting the age gap between spouses at marriage.Both Bangladesh datasets show literacy rates from 82-91 percent for adult males and 84-95 percent for adult females; the percentage of females completing primary schooling or higher in the TAFSSA dataset is 78 percent and 60 percent in the WEAI dataset, respectively. Both are higher than their male counterparts (69 percent and 57 percent, respectively). The reversal of the gender gap in Bangladesh is manifested in women's higher literacy rates and primary schooling attainment, reflecting many years of investment in girls' schooling (Asadullah and Chaudhury 2009), particularly through programs to encourage primary and secondary schooling of girls. This contrasts with the larger gender gap favoring males in India and Nepal both in terms of literacy rates and primary schooling completion, which are found in both surveys. A high proportion of adults are married and almost all adult males live in a household with an adult male and female present in all countries and datasets analyzed. In contrast, a small but not negligible proportion of adult females live in women-only households in the TAFSSA dataset and the Bangladesh WEAI dataset.By sample construction, the India and Nepal datasets have close to 100 percent of both women and men in dual-headed households, since the sample in India was conditional on having both an adult male and female present. Similar guidelines were followed in Nepal.A high but not universal proportion of both male and female adults report living in an agricultural or farming household; interestingly, this proportion is lowest in the Bangladesh dataset, which, being nationally representative of rural Bangladesh, reflects the diversification of rural livelihoods therein.Neither the India nor the Nepal datasets are representative of their communities in terms of livelihoods as samples were designed for evaluating specific interventions. The non-representativeness is evident in the different literacy and education profiles of the Nepali respondents in the TAFSSA and JP RWEE surveys.The Nepal JP RWEE program was implemented in areas selected due to lower women's empowerment measures, the high prevalence of harmful traditional practices, and significant flood-related devastation (Quisumbing et al. 2022). In contrast, the TAFSSA Nepal sample, like those in other countries covered by the TAFSSA survey, was chosen using a probability proportional to the number of households in each ward.A household listing was conducted in each village to identify eligible households. Unlike the JP RWEE program, women's empowerment was not a criterion for the TAFSSA survey. Additionally, since the TAFSSA survey targeted households with adolescents, the women surveyed in the TAFSSA survey were, on average, younger than those in the JP RWEE sample, with mean ages of 37 and 44 years, respectively.The purposive targeting of JP RWEE to areas that were worse off may explain the lower rates of literacy and schooling in the JP RWEE compared to the TAFSSA sample. See Quisumbing et al. (2022) for more details on sampling. In all countries, a higher proportion of adult males reports working outside the home for money, reflecting barriers to women's labor force participation in South Asia. This difference is quite large in Bangladesh, which is surprising given the closing of the gender gap in literacy and schooling to favor females.Task allocation patterns in agricultural, food preparation, and maintenance and care-related tasks from the TAFSSA data, are presented in Figures 1, 2, and 3, respectively. These graphs present percentages of specific tasks performed by the primary female and male adults, tasks that are shared equally between them, tasks performed by other household members (male and/or female), and tasks performed by hired help. Since not all households perform all tasks listed, the sample sizes are shown in the parentheses next to the bars.Includes only households performing the task N1, N2, and N3 denote total surveyed households in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, respectively The lowercase \"n\"s in task labels indicate the total of task-performing households for all three countries combined. Source: Authors 0% 50% 100%India (N2=1,000) 0% 50% 100%Nepal (N3=998) 0% 50% 100%Preparing land (n=2938)Sowing/seeding (n=2949)Weeding ( n=2959)Harvesting food (n=2951)Postharvest processing (n=2929)Postharvest storage (n=2927)Taking the produce to market (n=2036)Caring for large livestock (n=2190)Grazing small livestock (n=1957)Washing/cleaning livestock (n=2518)Cleaning livestock shed/space (n=2832)Handling livestock dung (n=2559)Gathering food for livestock (n=2790)Cooking food for livestock (n=2598)Caring for poultry (n=2099)Taking livestock products to market (n=1763)Caring for small fishponds (n=236)Caring for large fishponds (n=165) Bangladesh (N1=1,997)Figure 1 shows some patterns that are similar across the three countries despite some important differences. Sole female participation in pre-harvest agricultural tasks is lowest in Bangladesh and highest in Nepal. For example, among households that report preparing land, in approximately 5 percent of the households in Bangladesh and India this is done solely by the female respondent, while the corresponding percentage for Nepal is 31 percent. Sole participation of the primary female respondent is higher for postharvest tasks and for tasks related to livestock, as compared to sole male participation in these tasks.Households in India and Nepal exhibit a higher prevalence of equal sharing of agricultural tasks compared to Bangladesh. However, an important common trend across all households undertaking these tasks in all three countries is the large number of agricultural tasks performed by other household members apart from the primary female and male respondents; for each task a significant percentage is performed by other household members (male and/or female). Includes only households performing the task N1, N2, and N3 denote total surveyed households in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, respectively The lowercase \"n\"s in task labels indicate the total of task-performing households for all three countries combined. Source: AuthorsBroadly, Bangladesh and India exhibit similar patterns in task allocation for food preparationrelated activities, while in Nepal there is significantly more sharing of tasks between the female and male respondents compared to the other two counties (Figure 2). For instance, in Nepal, fetching water is shared equally between female and male respondents in 20 percent of households engaged in this task, this figure stands at around 6 percent in India and 2 percent in Bangladesh. Furthermore, Nepal demonstrates a comparatively lower rate of sole female engagement in food preparation-related tasks compared to India and Bangladesh. Only tasks involving external purchases, such as buying perishable and non-perishable foods and obtaining fuelwood and other cooking fuel, show higher exclusive male engagement, particularly in Bangladesh and India. Across the three countries and all food preparation-related tasks, a sizeable proportion of households report that these tasks are performed by other household members (excluding the primary male and female respondents). Includes only households performing the task N1, N2, and N3 denote total surveyed households in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, respectively The lowercase \"n\"s in task labels indicate the total of task-performing households for all three countries combined. Source: AuthorsThe distribution of tasks related to maintenance and care is illustrated in Figure 3. Across the three countries, we observe that exclusive participation of female respondents predominates in these tasks, but there are important differences between countries. For instance, in Bangladesh, 81 percent of households have female respondents exclusively responsible for feeding young children, compared to 51 percent in India and 46 percent in Nepal. As observed for other task categories, a significant proportion of households report other household members (not including the primary female or male respondent) undertaking tasks related to maintenance and care, across the three countries. This is slightly more prominent in India and Nepal as compared to Bangladesh. In Nepal, equal sharing of maintenance and care-related tasks between male and female respondents is more prevalent than in Bangladesh and India. For example, caring for the ill is equally shared in 34 percent of the households in Nepal compared to 29 percent in India and 10 percent in Bangladesh. Sole engagement of male respondents is generally limited for maintenance and care-related tasks across all three countries, except for major and minor house repair tasks. The allocation patterns for these tasks also reveal that a significant percentage of households hire external help, particularly for major home renovations. In Nepal, approximately three-fifths of households solely rely on hired help for major house repairs, compared to 50 percent in India and 18 percent in Bangladesh.In Tables 3, 4, and 5, we summarize the distribution of activities performed in the 24 hours prior to the survey in each of the countries, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, as measured using the time allocation module in WEAI (Bangladesh) and pro-WEAI (India and Nepal). For brevity, we refer to these collectively as WEAI data. The activity list differs across countries owing to slight differences in the detail and disaggregation of the respective time-use modules across surveys-excluding the \"other\" category, Bangladesh has 17 activities and India and Nepal have 24. In all cases, the list is intended to be exhaustive, to cover all activities during the respondent's waking hours, and has an \"other\" or \"unspecified\" category. In all three countries, women perform a higher average number of activities than men. In Bangladesh, women undertake 8.3 activities compared to 6.8 activities undertaken by men in the previous 24 hours. Women in India perform 7.4 activities while men perform 6.6 activities in the previous 24 hours. In Nepal, women perform 7.7activities and men perform 6.7 activities in the previous 24 hours.Next, we categorize the activities from the WEAI time allocation module to align with the TAFSSA task allocation module to make comparisons across similar task or activity categories and to understand the extent of participation in these activities and the gender difference therein. The WEAI time-use module captures time spent in all activities in the previous 24 hours and is neither restricted to tasks in agriculture nor those performed within the household. Therefore, it includes activities like own business work, undertaking wage employment, going to school, and sleeping and resting, among others. Notably, the India and Nepal pro-WEAI surveys included activities related to participation in groups, which were the platform for intervention delivery. In Tables 3, 4, and 5, the activities that overlap with the TAFSSA broad task categories are shaded in grey.Tables 3, 4, and 5 show that women not only perform significantly more tasks than men but also that there are significant differences in the gender distribution of tasks. In Bangladesh (Table 3), women perform more tasks related to cooking, maintenance and care-related tasks (weaving, sewing, textile care, domestic work, care for children, adults, and the elderly). Interestingly, a higher proportion of women than men indicated participating in farming and fishing tasks. Among the activities that are not in the TAFSSA categories, more women than men tend to engage in more social and religious activities and are more likely to watch TV or listen to the radio. Men tend to be more involved in \"outside-facing\" activities like shopping or getting service, working as an employee, engaging in own business work, and traveling.In India (Table 4), among the activities common to TAFSSA and WEAI datasets, women are more likely to have undertaken poultry and small animal raising, and all categories of maintenance and carerelated tasks (weaving/sewing/textiles, domestic work, caring for children, and caring for adults). Men are significantly more likely to have been involved in staple grain farming, large and small livestock raising, and shopping and getting services. Outside the TAFSSA categories, men are more likely to work as employed, engage in own-business work, attend school, or do homework, engage in social activities, personal care, exercise, commute, and travel.Finally, time use in our Nepal sample (Table 5) shows that women are more likely to spend time in maintenance and care-related activities (all categories) and cooking, but, unlike women in the India sample, have higher involvement in some categories of agricultural work-gardens, large and small livestock raising, and poultry/small animal raising-partly because of the JP RWEE intervention that targeted women's farmers groups (Quisumbing et al. 2023). Among the activities that overlap with the TAFSSA list, men are more likely to be involved in staple grain farming, shopping, and getting services.Similar to the other countries, men are more likely to have engaged in employment, own business work, school/homework, social activities, and community activities, as well as exercising, commuting, and traveling. Tables 6, 7, and 8 present estimates of the average time spent by men and women in these activities in the past 24 hours. We present two sets of estimates: unconditional estimates, which are based on averages across all individuals, separately for men and women, regardless of their performing the activity, and conditional estimates, which are averages across all individuals who report performing the activity, separately for men and women. We present both estimates because they reveal different aspects of time use within households. Unconditional estimates include those who do not report performing the task because whether an individual performs an activity can be interpreted as a combination of individual choice and gender norms; conditional estimates are higher because they are restricted to those who are performing the task.Interestingly, activities in which men (or women) are most likely to report engaging are not necessarily those in which they spend the most time. Table 6 shows the average time that Bangladeshi men and women spent on the primary activity in the last 24 hours. Although a higher proportion of women than men report undertaking tasks related to farming and fishing (Table 3), men spent twice as much time on these tasks than women in the previous day (124 minutes vs. 64 minutes for unconditional estimates; 262 minutes vs. 111 minutes for conditional estimates). Similarly, a greater proportion of women than men report spending time on weaving, sewing, and textile care, but the gendered pattern of time use differs depending on whether unconditional or conditional estimates are used. For unconditional estimates (across the entire sample), women spent 11 minutes on this activity, compared to one minute for men, in the past 24 hours. However, restricting the sample only to those who perform the activity reverses the direction of the difference, with men reporting twice as much time in this activity. This probably reflects specialization of men in tailoring work, which can be a full-time activity, compared to sewing and textile care, which are women's activities that do not require specialization. While a greater proportion of women engage in social and religious activities than men, the latter spend more time in social activities. Women still spend more time in religious activities (for the unconditional estimates). Nevertheless, the gender division of time use suggests that men spend more time in \"productive\" and outside facing activities such as agriculture, own business work, and employment, whereas women spend more time in cooking, domestic work, and care work. Men also spend 9 more minutes sleeping and resting than women, a small but significant difference.Gendered activity patterns in the India WEAI data (Table 4) are mostly consistent with reported time spent in these activities, regardless of conditionality (Table 7). Except for poultry and small livestock raising, men spend significantly more time in agricultural activities than women. Interestingly, while unconditional estimates show no difference in sewing and textile care between genders, conditional estimates reveal some specialization in this activity for men, among respondents reporting this activity. As with the Bangladesh results, although a greater proportion of women report performing religious activities, men spend more time on them, and men also spend more time on \"outward facing\" activities such as nonagricultural productive activities, social activities, commuting, and traveling. Moreover, Indian men enjoy half an hour more of sleep than Indian women in our sample, although women spend more time on personal care, although both the time spent, and the magnitude of the difference are small.In the Nepal WEAI data, gendered activity patterns (Table 5) are mostly consistent with reported time spent in these activities, regardless of conditionality (Table 8). Across the entire sample, men spend more than twice as much time on staple grain farming than women do (101 vs. 48 minutes). However, unlike the other two countries, livestock raising-both large and small livestock-are activities in which a higher proportion of women participate and also spend significantly more time than men. Similar to the activity patterns reported earlier, women spend more time in maintenance and care-related tasks, and across the entire sample, men spend more time on shopping and getting services than women do. Both activity and time use patterns are consistent with the South Asian custom of men being involved and spending more time in public-facing activities, and women dealing mostly with the domestic sphere. Nepali men in this sample also enjoy more time sleeping and resting than women do-about 45 minutes more in the past 24 hours.Figure 4 compares the gender distribution of tasks across TAFSSA and WEAI data, for the broad task categories common to both datasets: agricultural tasks, food preparation related tasks, and maintenance and care related tasks. Across both types of datasets, it appears that women (female respondents) perform most types of agricultural tasks in all three countries, but with substantial variations. In the TAFSSA surveys, among households engaged in agricultural activities, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of Bangladeshi women respondents reported participating in agricultural tasks, followed by 64 percent of Nepali women and 50 percent of Indian women. In the WEAI time use data, the largest proportion of women respondents reporting participation in agricultural tasks is in Nepal (88 percent), followed by Bangladesh (59 percent), and India (49 percent). However, there are subtleties revealed by the TAFSSA datasets owing to the possibility of reporting task-sharing between male and female respondents. There appears to be significant sharing of agricultural tasks between male and female household members in households undertaking these activities in all three countries-Nepal (45 percent), India (38 percent), and Bangladesh (36 percent). Even food preparation tasks, typically within the female domain, shows extensive task sharing in India (39 percent) and less in Bangladesh and Nepal (14 percent and 15percent, respectively).Nepali households report that the primary male and female respondents share 42 percent of maintenance and care related tasks, followed by 26 percent in India and 21 percent in Bangladesh. We are unable to examine task-sharing using the WEAI datasets. WEAI datasets, however, shed light on the actual time spent on each activity (Figure 5). With one important exception, the broad categories of tasks that women undertake are also the tasks that require more time: food preparation-related tasks and maintenance and care-related tasks. The exception is agriculture, where there is variation in participation and time spent across the three countries. In Bangladesh, a higher proportion of women report being involved in farming/fishing, but men spend twice as much time than women do. This is probably because women may be involved in many distinct types of agricultural activities but may not spend a dedicated amount of time in them. Given women's limited mobility and exposure to the public sphere, they may do several agricultural tasks within the homestead that do not necessarily require a lot of time or that are compatible with doing other tasks. Men typically work in In the India sample, a higher proportion of men report being involved in agriculture and put in more hours worked in agriculture than women. Nepal is the outlier among the three countries: a greater proportion of women than men (88 percent compared to 77 percent) report being involved in agriculture, and the unconditional means indicate that women spend more time than men working in agriculture-related tasks.Although this difference is reversed using the conditional means, Nepali women appear to be more involved in various aspects of agriculture, especially livestock raising, compared to women in the other two countries. The WEAI surveys do provide insight into total average time spent by male and female respondents, including self-care activities, such as sleeping/resting, eating/drinking, personal care and exercising (Table 9). Table 9 confirms our earlier analysis: in all three countries, men spend significantly more time in productive and other activities, and women spend significantly more time in activities related to food preparation, maintenance, and care. Men in India and Nepal spend 30 minutes and 43 minutes more than women in self-care activities, respectively, while women in Bangladesh spend 15 more minutes in self-care activities than men. These patterns are confirmed in Figure 6, which shows the distribution of total time. We also note that the share of total time spent in self-care activities does not vary substantially across and within countries by gender, at about 50 percent. The analysis shows that the TAFSSA task allocation module and the WEAI time-use module collect information on similar aspects of household activities, but the specific data collected is very different. Table 10 compares several features of the TAFSSA task allocation and WEAI/pro-WEAI time-use modules. In terms of respondent selection, the TAFSSA task module was intended to be administered only to the adult female respondent but was designed to capture task dynamics among all household members, including adult males and adolescents (even children). WEAI and pro-WEAI datasets typically interview the primary female adult and her spouse/partner, if available, or the beneficiary of an intervention and her partner (in the case of pro-WEAI). The inclusion of adolescents in the TAFSSA task allocation module permits the analysis of intergenerational patterns of task allocation, which is not possible in the WEAI datasets. In addition, the inclusion of all female and male household members enables the examination of lateral and hierarchical task sharing within the same gender.Both modules also have different levels of detail and recall periods. The TAFSSA task allocation module has a total of 44 tasks (19 agriculture-related, 13 related to food preparation, and 12 maintenance and care-related tasks), while the WEAI time-use module ranges from 17 to24 activities. The recall period in TAFSSA is the past 12 months, and WEAI, the past 24 hours. It is difficult to ascertain the extent of recall bias because the surveys differ both in their recall periods and the detail of the task list. Seymour et al. (2020) compare differences between time-use estimates obtained from 7-day recall stylized questions and 24-hour recall time diaries using data from WEAI surveys in Bangladesh Uganda in which respondents were asked to answer both types of questions about similar reference periods. They find that stylized questions with a longer recall period involve a relatively greater cognitive burden placed on respondents than the 24-hour recall time diary because they to mentally aggregate their activities over seven days. Although TAFSSA has a much longer recall period than WEAI, we cannot conclude that it has a higher probability of recall bias because it compensates for the longer recall period with a much more detailed list of tasks and that it does not require the respondent to recall the amount of time spent on each task (but only asks about who within the household performed the task). The much shorter interview times in TAFSSA also reduce respondent burden, compared to the longer interview times using the WEAI timeuse module. The use of computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) in both surveys helps to ensure consistency, and in the case of the time-use module, that total time does not exceed 24 hours.Another important difference between the TAFSSA task allocation module and the WEAI timeuse module is that in the former the respondent reports for herself and all other household members and in the latter the respondents report for their own time allocation. This may also have implications for response bias when reporting for other household members.Both surveys also take different approaches to task-sharing and multi-tasking. The TAFSSA survey allows the respondent to indicate whether tasks are equally shared between any two household members (male or female) and includes responses for the use of hired labor. This option does not exist in the WEAI time-use module. However, the latter allows some measure of multi-tasking. The earlier version of the WEAI implemented in the BIHS collects information on primary and secondary activities; in pro-WEAI, respondents can indicate whether they were caring for a child while undertaking their primary activity. An important feature of the TAFSSA module is that it provides precise information on who within the household is performing the task because responses can be linked to the household roster. So, instead of analyzing the aggregate for all male and female household members, we can look within each gender to examine intrahousehold dynamics across ages and relationships. For example, does the primary female do the cooking but the sisters-in-law or the adolescent daughters help with other food preparation related activities while the mother-in-law does not do much work? If male engagement is observed in collection of fuel wood, are the adult men or the adolescent boys doing this task? These are some of the questions that we can answer using the TAFSSA data.The TAFSSA task allocation module covers both productive and reproductive work, but the WEAI time-use module has broader coverage, including time spent in non-agricultural (own business and employment), schooling, leisure, self-care, and other activities. Although TAFSSA was designed to obtain information on agrifood systems, it may be beneficial to include non-agricultural employment or nonagricultural business in the task list, because the non-agricultural sector is likely to grow as economies transform.What do both modules reveal about gendered patterns of task allocation and time use? Based on the comparison of common tasks and activities and restricting the sample only to the primary male and female, both the TAFFSA and WEAI modules indicate that a higher proportion of women than men report undertaking all three types of tasks: agriculture, food preparation, and maintenance and care. The TAFSSA module also indicates some degree of sharing of tasks between male and female household members. Timeuse data from WEAI confirms the large amount of time that women put into food preparation and maintenance and care activities. However, using the task allocation data from the TAFSSA and the proportion of women and men reporting the activity from WEAI will tend to overestimate the extent of women's involvement in agriculture. Another important aspect is that of seasonality-which is relevant to agricultural activities more than the other two categories. While the TAFSSA data measures involvement over the course of a year, the WEAI data captures it at a point in time. So, depending on when the survey occurs with respect to the agricultural cycle, the time use data may miss out on the true extent of women's involvement in some seasonal activities. For example, the TAFSSA findings show women's greater participation in post-harvest processing as compared to pre-harvest activities.The time use data from WEAI, across all three WEAI datasets, whether using conditional or unconditional estimates, reveal that men spend much more time working in agriculture than women do, except for Nepal. Women may undertake many different types of agricultural tasks, but these tasks tend to be smaller, discrete tasks (such as care of the home garden or livestock), unlike the substantial blocks of time that men spend. The WEAI time use data also reveal that men spend more time in public-facing work and social activities, commuting, and traveling, and more time sleeping and resting.The two types of data have different recall periods, which has implications for seasonality. Since the recall period is the past 12 months in TAFSSA and the past 24 hours in WEAI, the time use data in the latter is likely more susceptible to seasonality issues. The seasonal nature of agriculture implies that men's and women's time commitments vary throughout the year. For example, during planting and harvest seasons, women may allocate more time to farming, reducing their leisure and rest. Conversely, off-peak periods may shift their focus toward household and childcare responsibilities. These seasonal fluctuations may complicate data collection and interpretation, necessitating a nuanced approach to accurately capture women's contributions and empowerment. In contrast, the TAFSSA task allocation module, focusing on task distribution rather than time spent, is not subject to seasonality bias.This paper compares the TAFSSA task allocation and WEAI time allocation modules along several dimensions. Analysis of data collected in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal using the TAFSSA time allocation and WEAI time-use modules indicate a gendered distribution of productive and reproductive work in South Asia, with women undertaking the bulk of food preparation work and maintenance and care work. Both modules also indicate that women perform a majority of agricultural tasks, but analysis of time spent in agriculture indicates that, while women may report being involved in more tasks, in Bangladesh and India, men spend more time in agricultural work. Thus, it does not necessarily follow that tasks in which women report being more involved are those that take the most time, although women are both more involved in food preparation and care work and spend more time in those activities.The differences between the two modules indicate that they address different aspects of the intrahousehold distribution of tasks and time. TAFSSA provides a good picture of work, covering both productive and reproductive spheres, as well as their distribution within the household-not just between spouses. However, TAFSSA is focused more closely on agriculture, and does not include non-agricultural employment except in relation to food systems. Although WEAI initially started out as focused on agriculture, subsequent modifications of WEAI such as pro-WEAI have expanded its scope to include all livelihood activities. Thus, WEAI gives a more comprehensive picture of the allocation of time, including time for rest, leisure, self-care, and social and religious activities.Which module(s) are suitable for which type of investigations? As Seymour et al. (2020) suggest, the choice of method ultimately depends on the researcher and the research question-and the resources available to the researcher. If the researcher is interested in understanding how the tasks across the agrifood system are distributed within a household and is interested in going beyond the dichotomy of men and women, then the TAFSSA module is the right choice. It is also helpful because it identifies activities that are undertaken by hired labor, which may be relevant to understanding local labor markets. The TAFSSA module is also cheaper to implement as it takes about five minutes to administer to a single respondent within the household.However, if the researcher is interested in in women's and men's well-being more generally, capturing their time use may be a more concrete way to assess time burdens. This might be of particular interest in the context of interventions that are designed to sensitize communities (or couples within communities) towards a more egalitarian division of household tasks. Using the WEAI time-use module can inform program designers and implementors whether the intervention has changed time allocation and the distribution of work burden between spouses.","tokenCount":"8185"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8caa9adbb619963663a66125d6dea791","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/055ba2cb-2203-4d26-823b-b0bba57b8fbd/retrieve","id":"-2097051848"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"65d2ec40-f389-4fd7-8c3a-f3fafb45d92f","pagecount":"4","content":"A informação contida neste guia pode ser livremente reproduzida para fi ns não-comerciais sob condição que se mencione a fonte. Caso a reprodução se destine a fi ns comerciais, é necessária uma autorização prévia do CTA.1Em África são muitas as pessoas que dependem das fl orestas e das árvores para satisfarem diversas necessidades. Com o aumento populacional estes recursos estão a ponto de se esgotar. São muitos os agricultores que desejariam plantar árvores mas é difícil obter plântulas de árvore de alta qualidade. A criação dum viveiro de árvores pode ajudar a resolver este problema ligado a uma certa procura e servir, também, como fonte de rendimentos suplementares. Instale a cama de sementes de preferência num terreno ligeiramente inclinado. • A largura da cama de sementes não deverá ser superior a 1 m a fi m de facilitar o trabalho. • O comprimento não importa.Cave uma vala de cerca de 10 cm de profundidade ao redor de toda a cama de sementes. • Coloque, no fundo da vala, grandes pedaços de bambu ou de madeira, ou pedras achatadas, • até à altura de, pelo menos, 15 cm acima da terra.Estenda uma camada de 5 cm de cascalho grosso ou de pedrinhas no fundo da cama de • sementes para melhorar a drenagem. Acrescente uma camada de 5 cm da mistura padrão de solo em cima do cascalho grosso. • Sementeira Para as sementes grandes, como no caso do milho, a semente deve ser semeada em sulcos • equidistantes de 5-10 cm, traçados ao longo do comprimento da cama de sementes.As sementes mais pequenas, como sejam a do feijão nhemba, devem ser semeadas a lanço na • cama de sementes e comprimidas no solo com uma barra rasa.As sementes muito pequenas, como as do gergelim, devem ser misturadas primeiramente • com areia ou com terra antes de serem semeadas para possibilitar um espaçamento de germinação adequado.Cubra as sementes com uma camada fi na de terra ou de areia com cerca de 5 mm de • espessura.Regue duas vezes por dia (de manhãzinha e à tardinha). •A repicagem é o transplante das plântulas da cama de sementes para os vasos.A repicagem deve dar-se quando as plântulas têm três ou quatro folhas normais.Escolha um dia nublado ou uma hora tardia na tarde para evitar o emurchechimento das • plântulas devido ao sol.Regue bem as plântulas antes da repicagem. • Retire as plântulas do solo inserindo um pequeno pau plano por debaixo delas e eleveas-as • suavemente da cama de sementes. Tenha cuidado para não partir as pequenas raízes.4Coloque, imediatamente, as plântulas num tabuleiro com água para evitar que murchem. • Ponha as plântulas em vasos fabricados a partir de materiais disponíveis localmente, tal como • sejam folhas de bananeira ou caules de bambu, ou saquinhos de politileno negro, especiais para este fi m. Encha os vasos com a mistura de solo e faça um buraco com um pau do tamanho dum lápis. Controle a presença de insectos e de doenças • como sejam a murchidão das plântulas que pode destruir as plântulas. A murchidão das plântulas é provocado, essencialmente, por um excesso de plântulas. Tal pode ser controlado desbastando as plântulas para facilitar o movimento de ar entre elas. Trate as plântulas com pesticidas apropriados no caso de problemas parasitários. Endureça as plântulas reduzindo gradualmente a • sombra e o número de regas. Isto permite que as plântulas se habituem às condições naturais antes da sua transplantação. A maioria das plântulas estará pronta para ser plantada fora do viveiro com a idade de dois a seis meses, segundo o tipo de árvore. Depois do endurecimento, as plântulas podem ser plantadas em locais bem preparados, de • preferência no início da estação das chuvas. Tome cuidado para proteger as plantas contra animais herbívoros como sejam cabras.A enxertia permite aos agricultores produzir plântulas de árvores das quais é difícil obter sementes. Entre as espécies de árvores que deverão ser propagadas através de estacas conta-se o chá, a eufórbia (bico de papagaio) e a árvore de fruta pão.Corte as estacas dos ramos Para garantir um bom desempenho das plântulas:Preveja a sombra do viveiro na • direcção este-oeste para proteger as plântulas contra o sol. A sombra protegerá as plântulas contra o sol forte e contra chuvas torrenciais. Não coloque demasiadas plântulas na • cama de sementes a fi m de reduzir ao máximo a competição por recursos como sejam nutrientes e água.5 6O mesmo procedimento para a criação dum viveiro de árvores também se pode aplicar a qualquer outro tipo de viveiro, por exemplo um viveiro de hortícolas ou de plantas ornamentais para venda.","tokenCount":"768"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0248431abfd8e703641b0b53b1732288","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/692ba069-3995-4da7-8dc7-8ea312e68182/retrieve","id":"1056745970"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2c38c242-ba56-402c-bf09-cda4cb69371d","pagecount":"69","content":"used to provide regular information on the beans market and help to identify the best customers for individual transactions.The cassava component of the project will be very similar to the beans component but will work with farmers groups linked to a development project of the World Food Programme and associated NGOs in the Gulu District of Northern Uganda. These farmers' grow cassava partly as an 'emergency crop' and often have surplus product to sell. They are not as experienced nor as well organised as those associated with the IFCD project. It is envisaged that farmers and organisers in the cassava component will, therefore, be offered training (including training from farmers in the IFCD project) to improve their marketing skills.The knowledge gained by the organisers of the pilot project from the beans and cassava component of the project about individual contractual conditions, including price, and the activity of traders in these transactions, will improve the quality of information in the entire pilot project.The inclusion of all three components in the pilot project will enable IITA to gain experience of working with farmers with a differing organisational structure producing different commodities in different locations and agro-environmental zones.A 'listeners' group' will be selected, in the maize component, consisting of farmers, traders and processors. This group will be consulted on the methodology and implementation of the component and will be used to evaluate the usefulness and relevance of the project to stakeholders and to modify the service according to their advice.It is proposed that the pilot project be designed to continue for a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years in which time an independent evaluation will take place.At the Kampala stakeholders' meeting, December 1 st 1999, participants stated their interest in closely observing the project and in learning how they might replicate such services in other parts of the country.IITA are already making links with other market information services in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. They hope to integrate the Uganda service with others in the region to strengthen the quality of national services and to assist in the improvement of regional and international trade.In May 1999 the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture embarked on a programme to establish a market information service for agricultural products in Uganda.The Government of Uganda, in its 'Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture', has identified the need for a flexible, decentralised market information service for poor farmers.In June 1999 the CTA agreed to participate in this programme by funding a Preliminary Study of the Ugandan agricultural market and to assist IITA to design a pilot project to establish a market information service for farmers, traders and processors of maize.The Preliminary Study for this project, completed in November 1999, showed that agricultural markets in Uganda are characterised by long chains of transactions between farm gate and consumers, lack of competitiveness between traders and poor access to appropriate market information. The lack of market information represents a significant impediment to market access to smallholders, substantially increases transaction costs and reduces the efficiency of agricultural sector. This study (and another recent study undertaken by the Natural Resources Institute and the Ugandan Agricultural Policy Secretariat) has concluded that there is a crucial need for an agricultural market information service designed to provide appropriate information to all actors in Ugandan agriculture.The study concluded that a pilot market information project should be established with the objective of gaining the necessary experience to expand a service throughout Uganda.In December 1999 IITA hosted a stakeholders' 1 meeting in Kampala attended by farmers and traders and by representatives from relevant government agencies, development ___________________________________________________________________________ agencies, NGOs and radio broadcasters. In addition, a meeting was held with representatives of farmers' groups in South Western Uganda.Participants at the stakeholders' meetings unanimously agreed that market information was needed and were able to offer many suggestions on how this could be accomplished and how they could support and participate in the development of this project.The design for this pilot project was devised by Peter Robbins of CMIS and Shaun Ferris of IITA. Dr Ibrahim Khadar of CTA contributed a number of suggestions which have been included in this report.Maize was chosen because it is an important Ugandan agricultural product. It is consumed as a processed and unprocessed product. A significant proportion of maize production is consumed within the country but it is also providing an increasingly important contribution to export revenues. It has been chosen by the local Agribusiness Development Centre as a commodity to be developed for export. As a staple food, it is also important from a food security perspective.The Preliminary Study, however, revealed that maize farmers differ markedly in their capacity to market their goods successfully. Most maize farmers have not developed structures which would enable them to work with each other to market their products or obtain credit or inputs. They are, nevertheless, in great need of information about the prevailing market price for their goods, the grades of product needed by the market and the sources of assistance that may be available to them.The study showed that the markets of agricultural commodities in Uganda cannot be considered in isolation. Most farmers grow maize as one of a mix of crops partly to provide a mixed diet for themselves, partly to provide food in different growing seasons and partly as a security measure to ensure they have production if one crop fails. In addition, traders do not specialise in just one product. Traders in maize also deal in beans and sometimes other pulses, grains and other dry products. When the price of one food product increases, consumers switch, in whole or in part, to other food products information service. The group included agencies working to assist farmers, traders and processors of agricultural produce as well as relevant government agencies.Small-scale producers' relationship with the market varies according to the degree to which they co-operate with other producers, their geographical location (isolation, agro-Design options ___________________________________________________________________________ _______ environment) and the crop they produce.As the Preliminary Study also discovered, most Ugandan farmers are poorly organised (traders in Uganda work together more closely). There are, however, some exceptions where, often with the help of local and foreign development agencies, producers are developing strategies to cooperate with each other to sort, grade and collectively obtain credit and market their goods. This kind of development is being encouraged by government, the farmers' union and many development agencies and may represent a more common model for the development of farming in the future.In view of these findings and in the light of views expressed at the stakeholders' meeting, any pilot project design should not confine itself to the provision of information to actors in the maize market based in a single location.In order to reflect this degree of diversity and to strengthen the design model the pilot project should consist of more than one component. The work carried out in the Preliminary Study and the information received in feed-back from the stakeholders meeting and visits to farmers' groups and development agencies working in the field has helped to identify three possible components to the pilot project.The argument in favour of linking the project to the maize market, as outlined in the Preliminary Study, is strong and provision of information in this sector should form the basis of the pilot project. An area in eastern Uganda has been identified as a suitable location for this component of the pilot project.The IFCD-led marketing and credit co-operatives project in Rakai and Masaka Districts, in the south-west of the country represents the effort to adopt better strategies for strengthening the position of farmers. The IFCD project has been successful in marketing beans but needs 'eyes and ears', as one farmer put it, in the wider market. Provision of information to this group could be included as a component in the pilot project. Such provision would be relatively inexpensive as these farmers have developed their own communication system between each other and with local traders which can be linked by telephone and e.mail to an information collection and processing centre.Farmers' projects, linked to the work of the World Food Programme in Gulu District in the North of the country, are also trying to develop collective marketing schemes. They have not yet reached the capability of the IFCD-led groups and could learn from the experiences of these groups. The groups of farmers and NGO's associated with the WFP work are also developing a communication system between themselves through NGO-employed extension workers and lead farmers. The group has expressed an interest in trying to find efficient ways of marketing surplus cassava.These three components of the pilot project could be combined with the existing IITA macroinformation service to form a synergetic system. In this system market information will not only be collected by agents employed by IITA but also by the associated farmers groups and their NGO partners. The work with the IFCD and WFP groups will entail access to detailed information of actual transactions. Such information will help to double-check information received directly from market sources by IITA staff. In addition, feedback and participation of these groups will help the system to produce the type of information required by the targeted beneficiaries. As both these groups also produce maize, they will benefit from the component of the project designed to help actors in the maize market.The establishment and operation of these three components will generate the necessary experience to encourage the expansion of the service to other geographical areas, other groups with differing degrees of co-operation and in other commodity sectors.This component is designed to assist maize farmers, small-scale traders and processors of maize in a geographical location in the catchment area of three assembly markets in the important maize-producing eastern part of Uganda.. The three markets are located in the towns of Jinja, Iganga and Mbale. The catchment area of these three markets covers an area of approximately 200 kms x 100 kms. or approximately 8% of Uganda's land area. This territory contains over 100,000 production units where maize is grown in gardens, micro-scale farms, small scale production and a handful of larger farms (a few hectares). Approximately 40% of maize production is consumed by the producers themselves. Over the last year, a significant proportion of production from this area has been bought directly from these assembly markets by itinerant traders from Kenya for sale in the Kenyan market.The marketing periods for maize in this area is between early December and late March (short season) and mid-June to end October (long season).The three assembly markets are well served with trunk roads (to Kampala and other major national market centres) and by rail (to Kampala and Kenya). There is a large maize storage facility in Jinja.Farmers in this target area are, like most farmers in Uganda, poorly organised among themselves. Government extension services are poor but the Uganda National Farmers' Union is attempting to boost membership in the area. The population in the area speak three languages each of which is used to make broadcasts on the local Radio Uganda services. A commercial radio station, Capital FM, also serves the area. There is a wide ownership of radios. Access to telephone services is available in the three towns through telephone booths. Mobile phone networks cover the area but private ownership of telephones is extremely rare and confined to wealthy citizens and businesses. Design details of the proposed component of the pilot project targeted at this area are as follows: ___________________________________________________________________________ Information about the maize market will be collected on three days a week from all three assembly markets in the marketing seasons by employees of the service. These information reporters are already employed on a part-time basis by IITA's macro-information service but their work will be expanded to collect not only price information on maize but also:• information on the current transport situation (the state of roads, availability of vehicles, etc.). • an estimation of the market's turnover in maize.• description of the quality of maize being traded.• the activity of visiting buyers, including Kenyan traders and agents for large-scale buyers (WFP, private millers/traders, etc.). • any changes in market fees, local taxes, etc.• local availability of assistance including extension services and access to credit.• other information or opinion of relevance to target beneficiaries. These reporters will be equipped with small motorbikes and will make regular visits to farms within the area to gather information about the experience of maize producers and traders and to report activity from village markets.The reporters will also be equipped with mobile telephones and will report their findings to the The Information Processing Centre (IPC) in Kampala.The reporters will receive a period of specialist training in gathering accurate prices and other information and their work will be regularly cross-checked by IITA staff members. The IPC will be responsible for analysing information from reporters in the target areas. It will then combine this information with that gathered by IITA reporters from the other districts of Uganda who are already working to provide information for the macro-information service including information from wholesale markets and the markets in neighbouring countries of the region.The IPC will arrange for the appropriate price information from the target area and from the wholesale markets serving the target area to be broadcast on three days of the week in the marketing seasons. The broadcast is likely to be no longer than two minutes and will be made at times when farmers regularly listen to the radio. The Centre will also arrange for relevant non-price information to be produced as a 15 minute radio programme for broadcasting once a week. The programme will be produced in as entertaining a format as possible. It will impart as much of the information as possible in the form of interviews (or transcripts of interviews if there are language problems) with traders, farmers and other actors and experts. Depending on the amount and importance of the information in each broadcast, time will also be allocated to inform about the experience of farmers elsewhere in the country with different marketing strategies.The services of a professional radio producer will be engaged for this work and reporters will be required to assist him or her with this task. Radio Uganda will be used to broadcast the programmes in the relevant language services. The services of other commercial stations may be used depending on cost and listener profiles. In colonial times Uganda's farmers were organised, for administrative and commercial reasons according to geographical location into Primary Societies, District Societies and Regional Societies. Although this system maintained a degree of organisation in farming communities it was not designed to give farmers democratic control of their activities. After Independence the co-operativisation of farming was encouraged. A combination of internal conflict, mismanagement and the liberalisation of agricultural markets caused most co-operatives to collapse.The concept of co-operativisation based on the common ownership of land has been rejected by most Ugandans. Understandable as this may be, it has left farmers poorly organised and distrustful of each other. Without a semblance of co-operation farmers are unable to maximise income, purchase inputs efficiently nor to access credit. This problem has been recognised by the Uganda National Farmers' Union and some development agencies and NGOs. These organisations have supported projects to bring groups of farmers together to develop cooperative strategies, notably to develop capacity to obtain credit and market surplus products collectively.The Irish Foundation for Co-operative Development (IFCD) is one such NGO. Its Ugandan project supports 20 co-operatives in Rakai District and 10 in Masaka District. (Each cooperative consisting of between 50 and 100 families/farms). Co-operative strategies include extension services and the storage, sorting, grading and marketing of produce and the establishment of credit unions. Funding for this work comes from IFCD itself and from other donors, including US-AID and foreign micro-credit programmes.The co-operatives members have decided not only to market their own surplus products but also to offer a marketing service to non-members in the area.The co-operatives have succeeded recently in marketing beans. Prior to this initiative, these groups could only obtain about 60% of the true market value for their beans. Efforts were then made to contact major trading companies and in a series of subsequent transactions thegroup achieved sales prices in line with true wholesale prices in Kampala. Many local traders who once bought this produce were at first hostile to the co-operatives but since then have assisted by acting as the co-operatives' agents with non-member farmers.It spite of this success, the groups find it difficult to conduct transactions with such distant customers. They are not able to determine which of the several large dealers is paying the best price at any given time and they have no independent means of checking wholesale prices. Furthermore, they only have links with a few traders in Kampala. Buyers in other parts of the country and buyers from Rwanda are believed to pay better prices from time to time. In short, they need more market information.IFCD, together with the co-operatives have set up an efficient internal communication system between the groups. None of the groups own a telephone (although they do own radio receivers) but messages are communicated initially through the daily trips by vehicles of administrators, co-operative officers and extension workers and then, within the co-operative, by motorbike, bicycle or on foot. Messages can be sent and a reply received between any two points in the network within twenty-four hours.At present, links with potential customers are first established by telephone by the IFCDfunded administration office. Details of the traders proposed terms are then relayed to the individual co-operative interested in selling. Messages are then relayed back through the administration office to confirm, reject or amend the proposed terms.The Beans Component of the pilot project will be linked to the work of the administration office. The Information Processing Centre (IPC) of the pilot project will regularly e-mail market information about the market in beans that it has collected from around the country and the region, to IFCD's administration office which will keep the organisation informed about general trends in the market. This will represent very little extra work for the IPC as market information on beans is already collected for the macro-information service.The design will allow any co-operative which has decided to make a sale of beans tocommunicate details of its intentions to IFCD's administration office who will relay the details to the Information Processing Centre of the pilot project together with any specific questions it needs answering. The IPC will then make a more detailed survey of bean buyers' interests. The IPC will not be concerned with assisting the co-operative to negotiate any sales but will help to keep the co-operative informed about any market changes during the period of the negotiations. This component of the pilot project will not only assist the co-operative to make better transactions, it will also serve as a means of improving the quality of information to the entire pilot project.Information between the IFCD co-operatives and the IPC will flow in both directions. This means that the IPC will learn of the precise details of the final transaction including the price. This information can be used to check prices collected from the market (which will not necessarily be transaction prices but traders' estimates). In addition, the contact made between the IPC and traders (who do not confine themselves to beans) will assist reporters attached to the pilot project to build a closer relationship with the traders. The traders will, of course, have an interest in bidding for product from the co-operative and will, therefore, be encouraged to co-operate with the project. The World Food Programme (WFP) is active in Uganda on several fronts. Its most important projects have been to supply food to areas of the country suffering shortages. Fortunately, the incidence of food shortage has diminished over the last year with the reduction in fighting in the north of the country. The El Nino effect, however, has disrupted weather patterns and large areas of the country have been subject to drought.WFP strategy involves not just the distribution of food aid. It tries to obtain food supplies, when practicable, from farmers in developing countries. Unfortunately, local purchasing is not usually the most cost-effective way of obtaining supplies. Purchasing very large parcels of food (multiples of 1000 tons) from traders in more developed economies, such as USA, Canada and South Africa offers much better economies of scale than making purchases from typical African farmers who may produce less than one ton a year. The strategy is used, however, as a means of supporting marginal farmers.In this programme purchases of less than 50 tons are impractical. The WFP has, therefore, encouraged the formation of farmers' associations especially in the north of Uganda. In this effort, the WFP works with NGOs who are already working with farmers. The WFP is able to make funds available through initiatives such as its Food for Work programme to help the NGOs organise farming communities through provision of extension workers and training programmes.The northern regions of Uganda have suffered most from internal conflict and many farmers have been displaced over the last three decades. The farmland in this area is also the least productive and the margin between surplus and shortage is delicately balanced. The resettlement of land abandoned through war has allowed some larger farms to be established which has increased productivity by improving economies of scale. The marginal nature of farming, however, obliges farmers to opt for mixed crop strategies in which crops with a high tolerance of drought conditions, such as cassava, play an important part.The two NGOs working most closely with the WFP on this programme are World Vision and the Catholic Relief Service (CRS). Like IFCD, these NGOs have developed a communication system between themselves and farmers' groups through a system of extension workers and 'lead farmers'. Apart from some sales (50 ton parcels) of product to WFP itself (in times of surplus), the groups have not yet organised either sales to wholesale commercial traders nor collective credit arrangements. The NGOs used their own funds to purchase product from the farmers they work with before sorting, grading and packing the product for sale to WFP.In this respect, they are behind the IFCD project in terms of organisation. The NGOs concerned are, however, keen to develop the programme further. They have expressed an interest in developing their capacity to market surplus quantities of cassava.The model for this component of the pilot project is very similar to the Beans Component. It will be linked to the District of Gulu where most of this activity is centred. The farmers will be regularly provided with information about the cassava market in Uganda and the region and will receive more detailed intelligence during the period of the negotiation of sales contracts. In addition, details of sales will flow back to the Information Processing Centre which will improve the overall knowledge of the cassava market. The NGOs have also expressed a willingness to employ their own staff to act as reporters to the IPC in their local markets.It is envisaged that a training programme will be introduced into this component where farmers will be helped to understand how agricultural markets work. IFCD and its associated cooperatives have offered to take part in this training programme. Design of a market information system ___________________________________________________________________________IITA has already established an IPC based in its Kampala office to serve its macro-information project. The IPC consists of a full-time Co-ordinator and two Assistant Co-ordinators. In addition, IITA employ market reporters in 16 Ugandan Districts and in the two major wholesale markets in Kampala.Administration, fundraising and management of the service is carried out by the IITA Kampala office under Shaun Ferris.IITA is presently embarked on a project to co-ordinate market information systems in the region with its Ugandan macro-information service. Discussions are taking place between IITA, the government-controlled MIS in Tanzania, the Kenyan Agricultural Commodities Exchange and the EU-funded Rwanda MIS.Market information from Uganda is currently collected on a weekly basis on 21 different commodities (this number may be reduced slightly in the near future). IITA also has access to historical data on market prices collected over a number of years by the now defunct Uganda government-controlled MIS.The pilot project for a micro-information service will be integrated into the existing macroinformation project and will share the same management and IPC. The project will require the services of full-time reporters in Jinja, Iganga and Mbale. This can be accomplished by either upgrading the work of the present part-time reporters or replacing them. In addition, the IPC Co-ordinator will require more assistance.The services of a professional radio producer will be required for the weekly Maize Component broadcast. Several producers have been contacted and are available for this work at a modest fee. Transport will have to be made available for the use of the producer.The additional work required of the IPC to run the micro-system will consist of :-• Receiving and processing information on the maize market from the three full-time reporters on three days a week.• Planning and managing these reporters' work and training programme.• Preparing the price information radio broadcast three times a week and liaison with the radio station.• Managing the work programme of the radio producer for the weekly radio broadcast.• Communicating information to and from NGO partners of the Beans and Cassava Components.• Obtaining detailed information required by partners in the Beans and Cassava Components.The additional work required of IITA's management and administration for the pilot project will consist of:-• Raising and maintaining funding for the project.• Administration and accounting for the project.• Liaison with and reporting to stakeholders.• Organising training and workshops of stakeholders.• Devising and managing the evaluation mechanisms.All agricultural communities in developed countries rely heavily on market information and, in almost all cases, finance its provision themselves through subscriptions to information sources and membership of unions and associations which provide such information. From this evidence it seems clear that the provision and application of market information is as much a part of agricultural business as seeds or farm machinery.In Uganda, however, most farmers are too poor to provide for themselves information from beyond their immediate vicinity. It is, therefore, important for an agency such as IITA, that wishes to assist farmers in this way, to make sure that the information provided is relevant and useful. The pilot project is designed to provide the necessary information and experience to expand the idea to other agricultural sectors and areas of Uganda. The output of the service needs, therefore, to be closely monitored and evaluated.In their work on the theory of market information systems, Andrew Shepherd of FAO and Clemens Lutz and Aad van Tilburg of Amsterdam University, concluded that the provision of market information would bring about certain predictable changes in markets. This work was supported by observations made in Benin, where there is poor access to information, especially to small-scale actors, and in Indonesia where market information systems are more highly developed.The changes predicted as the provision of market information increases are as follows:-• New entrants into the market are encouraged. (Some farmers will be able to move beyond subsistence production.) • Farmers are strengthened in their negotiations with traders.• In the longer term, information should provide farmers with the opportunity to diversify their production in line with demand. • Farmers' incomes should increase.• The risk of traders losing money on transactions should be reduced.• Transaction costs should be reduced. (Lack of information about prices encourages traders to include high profit margins to cover risk.)• Spatial arbitrage should be improved. (The difference between prices traded for the same product in different market places should be reduced.) • The volume of trade should increase.• Traders' costs of collecting information for themselves' is reduced. (This should be of greatest value to relatively small traders who lack the resources to monitor markets on a regular basis.)In addition the study of markets in Ghana carried out by Dr Gyiele Nurah of Kumasi University concluded that, due to the lack of market information many producers avoided the risk of losing the cost of bringing their goods to market resulting in significant wastage.An independently-conducted survey of the effects of information provision needs to be built into the pilot project.The evaluation process should attempt to measure some expected changes quantitatively. If transaction costs are lowered and producers' incomes raised as a result of increased transparency, this should lower the difference between wholesale prices and prices received by farmers. If spatial arbitrage is improved the difference between prices traded for a particular product in different markets in the target area should be reduced. These differentials could be measured by analysing the collected price data over time.Other predicted effects, such as traded volumes and wastage, reduction in risk, and production diversification are likely to be more difficult to measure quantitatively. These parameters are affected by several other factors including the weather, land reform, the state of the roads, availability of transport, storage, credit, extension services and the performance of the wider economy. These factors need, therefore, to be evaluated qualitatively and should take the form of a survey to assess the experience of stakeholders themselves.The evaluation of the maize component of the project should be facilitated by identifying a 'Listeners' Group' of intended beneficiaries of the component consisting of farmers, traders and local processors throughout the area.This group should be brought together for a workshop on the function and purpose of the pilot project. Market reporters should interview members of the group on a regular basis to ascertain their views of the quality, type and usefulness of information provided and to receive their recommendations for modification of the service. This data should then be checked and assessed by independent evaluators.On the assumption that the three components of the pilot project are found to succeed in their objectives, i.e. that they can be operated successfully, that they are cost-effective, that the intended beneficiaries consider that they deliver appropriate and useful information which improves their livelihood and increases the transparency and efficiency of the market, then they should be sustained into the future beyond the duration period.Government and donor agencies have, at the stakeholders' meeting and other meetings, expressed their interest and willingness to see the project as the start of a wider programme of market information services for Uganda. It is likely that the necessary funding could be made available from these agencies to sustain the project beyond the recommended pilot project stage. Funding from a group of agencies and, possibly, from local and central government, will spread the burden of funding and help to ensure sustainability. In addition, efforts should be made to identify ways in which the stakeholders themselves could contribute directly or indirectly to the cost of maintaining the service thus increasing sustainability still further and conferring ownership rights on the beneficiaries. This could be done by raising a levy on market fees (market places will benefit from the service) and/or selling advertising to be linked with radio broadcasts.These services, and any others that replicate them in Uganda, will also be given greater strength by being linked to IITA's macro-information service.Uganda at this time is, in many ways, a suitable location for the establishment of a new, more flexible and decentralised model of a market information service to provide the information requirements of all the stakeholders in Ugandan agriculture. Since its own, centralised market information service has ceased to operate, the Government has initiated research which has identified the need for precisely this kind of new service.Government policy to liberalise the economy and initiate action to eliminate poverty provides the essential framework to support a market information service based on the full participation of civil society.Many development agencies and NGOs have recognised that an improvement in the population's welfare and in the economy as a whole can only come about by improving the performance and efficiency of agriculture. The sector consists, almost entirely, of small-scale producers, traders and processors who face significant difficulties in obtaining inputs, access to the markets for their products, credit and the information they need to produce and market surplus production. Programmes have been initiated by these agencies, with the support of the government, to address these problems. They have also immediately recognised the need for a market information service to augment their work.The advent of new technology in the form of a mobile telephone network and local FM radio stations improves the ability to gather and disseminate information.The major impediment faced by those wishing to establish an information service is the poor level of co-operation between farmers. Most public and private development agencies have recognised the need for the millions of micro-scale farmers to work together in groups to access credit, purchase inputs, improve economies of scale, sort surplus products to a marketable and heterogeneous grade and organise collective strategies for marketing these products. Unless this is done, they will not be capable of maximising their income or reducing the tremendous cost of the many transactions between producer and consumer. For this reason several initiatives have been made to encourage this type of co-operation.The formation of groups of farmers who co-operate in this way almost certainly represents the beginning of a general trend towards better organisation in the agricultural sector.An expansion of the original IITA concept of a pilot project to take account of this trend will increase the accuracy and value of information provided by including the intimate participation of the more organised farmers in Uganda. This addition should not increase costs unduly.The stakeholders' meeting and other meetings carried out during and after the Preliminary Study has ensured that all the important stakeholder groups are fully aware of the IITA initiative. Close contact should be maintained with stakeholders by keeping them informed of progress in establishing the service and eliciting their opinions and suggestions for improving and expanding the service.There is no doubt that all stakeholders contacted support the concept of the service and are likely to maintain a close interest in its progress. If it is deemed to succeed in its aims, it is likely that many interested groups will initiate an expansion and replication into other commodities, geographical locations and agricultural sectors on their own initiative and with the assistance of IITA.It may also be that the integration of this service into a regional dimension will enable agricultural information services to improve by learning from each others' experiences.The design of the pilot project has, therefore, taken account of these criteria as follows:-1) It must be compatible with the Government of Uganda's recommendations for a market information service.The Government's recommendations for a market information service are described in its draft Plan for the Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) as follows:-'The need for effective market information for improving market access is absolutely crucial. It is also clear that the different types of stakeholder require many different types of information on a timely basis in order to make informed decisions crucial for the success of their business operations. Based on a study by NRI/APSEC, a decentralised, flexible information system bringing on board all the major stakeholders (e.g. LG, private associations, NGOs, local radio stations etc.) will be adopted for implementation under the PMA.Annex 1 ___________________________________________________________________________ information to poor farmers where such services may be viewed as public good. The system will be demanddriven and reacting to the needs of the target population and starting with a needs assessment of the services.Local radios could be one of the principle means of disseminating such information.'The study referred to in this extract from the PMA was conducted by the Natural Resources Institute and the Agricultural Policy Secretariat of the Ugandan government. The study, which was completed in August 1999, included a field survey in which poor roads, inadequate market information and poor means of transport were identified as key constraints to market access.The report of the study states that:-Given the limited impact and lack of sustainability of most centrally organised market information systems, decentralised systems should be developed, involving relevant stakeholders. A pilot project is required to identify how systems should be set up at District level.2) It must comply with the recommendations for such a service made by the parties to this project.The terms of reference contained in the contract between CTA and IITA covering this project state that:-The service will comply with the CTA's general view that it should be a localised, demand-driven system serving a particular community or agricultural sector linked to and supported by local and central government and run by those groups which the system is designed to benefit.3) It must be capable of being fully integrated with the new macro-level market information system initiated by IITA.Further refinements to the systems are being undertaken. These include training workshops for reporters, the establishment of closer working relationships with traders associations, the definition of quality categories for more accurate commodity pricing, the evelopment of price cross-checking, a data base for processing historical data, trials for radio broadcasting and development of an Internet site for the dissemination of information.IITA have also begun to find ways to establish a mutually compatible system for linking the Ugandan service with market information services in neighbouring countries to form a regional market information system.The design for a pilot market information service targeted at small and medium-scale actors in the agricultural sector can be fully integrated with the macro-information service. Both services will share common data collection and central processing systems and a single technical management.4) It must meet with the approval of stakeholders in the project.The Design Phase of this project has been informed of stakeholder requirements through research in the Preliminary Study, a series of interviews with stakeholders including field visits to two target areas and a stakeholders' meeting.The Stakeholders' meeting took place in Kampala 1 st December 1999. Attendees at this meeting included farmers and traders and representatives from:-The idea of establishing a pilot project, from which the necessary experience could be gained to expand market information services, was also supported. It was recognised that the nature of information requirements and the degree to which information could be made use of differed between groups of actors in the industry.It was agreed, therefore, that the design of a pilot project should contain components that would target more than one geographical location, more than one commodity and more than one form of farming community.The meeting was fully aware of the limit on the resources available to establish and sustain any service. The requirement to make the project cost effective and sustainable was discussed at length. It was agreed, for instance, that the cost of recording farm-gate prices was considerably more expensive than recording prices in market places. Furthermore, farm-gate price vary considerably, according to the accessibility of the farm and the bargaining power of the farmer. It may be necessary, therefore, to concentrate resources on recording accurate assembly and wholesale market prices.It was also thought that, once the intended beneficiaries of the provision of information discovered its usefulness, they might be expected to contribute to its cost. A premium charged on market fees was suggested as a possible mechanism for achieving this. The feasibility of a pilot market information service YThe design stage of a pilot market information service ZSince the liberalisation of agricultural commodity markets in the early 1990s, which included the function of the state-controlled marketing boards being taken over by private traders,, the government of Uganda is embarking on a plan to modernise agriculture. The plan incorporates a requirement to support the establishment of decentralised market information services.The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture has recently established the first phase of a market information service which will replace the useful functions of the now defunct government service. This project provides information needed by planners in government and development agencies, including agencies dealing with food security.IITA wish to expand the scope of this service, however, to collect and disseminate information that is relevant and useful to the millions of other actors in Ugandan agriculture.This preliminary study has shown that agricultural markets in Uganda are characterised by long chains of transactions between farm gate and consumers, lack of competitiveness between traders and poor access to appropriate market information.Prices received by farmers for the sale of their goods are significantly less than the price they could have achieved if they had the means of transporting it themselves to assembly markets even after taking the cost of transport into account.This study has concluded that, if farmers were more fully informed about the markets for their crops, their bargaining position with intermediate traders would be strengthened, their income would increase and less produce would go to waste. In addition, more transparent markets would help to lower transaction costs, increase the volume of trade, offer greater food security, increase import substitution and lower consumer prices leading to greater benefits for Ugandan traders and processors and the economy as a whole.At present there is no service providing timely and relevant information needed by the many millions of actors in the Ugandan agricultural sector. There exists, however, the A Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ necessary institutional resources, communication systems, economic environment and legal framework to allow such a service to bring positive benefits.Before this study was carried out IITA decided that, in order to gain the necessary experience to initiate a country-wide market information service, it would first establish a pilot project targeted at actors in the maize market in one location in Uganda. The findings of this study show, however, that no agricultural commodity can be considered in isolation in the context of Ugandan production and marketing systems. It is also clear that different groups of farmers differ markedly in their ability to make use of market information.It is likely, therefore, that a pilot project will be established targeting groups of producers, traders and processors in more than one location and covering one or more commodities as well as maize.The design phase of this project is scheduled to begin with a stakeholders meeting in Uganda 1 st December 1999.In May 1999 the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture embarked on a programme to establish a market information service for agricultural products in Uganda. The first phase of this programme is designed to provide information about the prices of a large range of commodities required by agencies working to monitor the economy, develop medium and longterm strategies to improve agricultural performance and to ensure food security. This preliminary study is principally concerned with the second phase of the programme which will be designed to provide market information to farmers, traders and processors which could be used by them to enhance their incomes and to reduce transaction costs.In June 1999 the CTA agreed to participate in this programme by funding a preliminary study of the Ugandan agricultural market and to assist IITA to design a pilot project to establish a market information service for farmers, traders and processors of maize. The objective of the pilot project is to gain the necessary experience to expand the service to other commodities for the use of actors in the agricultural sector throughout Uganda. This report covers the findings of the preliminary study. The design phase of the project will begin at the end of November 1999.This study, which was carried out by Peter Robbins of CMIS and Shaun Ferris of IITA, began with a literature search together with the development of a work programme of interviews in Uganda. A series of non-structured interviews were carried out in Kampala with Ugandan government officials, agricultural development agency workers, academics, media and communication workers, bankers, NGO officers, farmers' Union officials, large-scale traders and market managers. A short visit to Jinja and Iganga was also arranged to meet small-scale traders, farmers and processors. Local market managers and local government officials were also interviewed.The government of Uganda has provided the economic environment to permit a competitive market in agricultural commodities to flourish. After an exhaustive programme of research and dialogue, the Government is on the point of publishing its 'Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture' (PMA) which will provide the framework for agricultural development well into the next century.The objectives of the PMA are based on the eradication of mass poverty and, hence, PMA preparation is deeply rooted in the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP).The Government is also in the early stages of implementing a programme of decentralisation.The British Department of International Development (DFID) and the Danish development organisation, Danida, have been instrumental in assisting the Ugandan Government with the development of the PMA. As part of this work DIFD commissioned a study, 'Community Access to Marketing Opportunities' (NRI) the findings of which form the basis for agricultural market reform under the PMA.During this study the NRI organised a series of workshops in five Ugandan districts which were attended by about 20 local stakeholders -farmers, traders, local government officials and NGO representatives. Each was asked to identify the three most important constraints to agricultural marketing. Poor roads, inadequate market information and poor means of transportation were identified as the key constrains on market access. The report of the study goes on to state:-Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ addition to prices, for example information on supply and demand, trade contacts, technical matters and new institutional arrangements brought about by decentralisation'.This description conforms exactly with the CTA's preferred model for such a service. The recognition of a need for this model and the high priority given to it in the PMA should esure support for the implementation of the envisaged IITA/CTA project to establish, in the near future, a pilot market information service targeted at small-scale farmers, traders and processors.Agriculture accounts for about half of Uganda's GDP, about 90% of employment and 90% of export earnings. Small-scale farms, averaging 0.3 hectares, produce almost 100% of the country's food crops. Only tea and sugar are grown on large estates. The major food crop is matooke (boiling banana). Others are cassava, sweet potatoes, millet, maize, beans and Irish potatoes. Rice, groundnuts, sesame seed, soyabean and various peas are grown in smaller quantities. Meat, dairy products and fish are also important components of Ugandan food production.Traditional export crops are coffee, cotton, tea and tobacco. Uganda has succeeded in boosting its exports of some non-traditional crops -maize, cut flowers and vegetables -in recent years.The system of agricultural markets in Uganda follows the same pattern as in many other African countries.Village markets function as outlets for local farmers, a retail market for local consumers and a bulking-up market for intermediary traders who tend to buy higher quality produce destined for district, urban or even export markets. There are about 3000 village markets in Uganda. Assembly markets are usually based in towns or villages located on trunk roads. They function as retail markets but they are also important as assembly points for lorry loads (10 to 15 tons) of produce to be transported to the main urban centres and, if it is of a heterogeneous and high enough quality, may be sold directly for export. Many assembly markets are open every day.Wholesale markets are based in the largest urban centres where produce from smaller markets is properly weighed and graded and sold to large-scale consumers, processors and for export.In addition, roadside retail markets perform an important function. These markets are a common feature of the major roads and act as an additional outlet for farmers.Direct trading also takes place where the largest traders and processors employ agents to purchase products directly from farmers or village markets for delivery to the buyers' warehouses and silos. In addition, farmers in some areas have the option to sell and deliver their products to traders who run local stores. These traders bulk up products just as traders do in formal markets.During the colonial period Ugandan farmers were organised on a geographical basis into primary societies (based on individual parishes), district societies and regional societies. This was done partly for administrative purposes and partly as a means of distributing extension services and other inputs as well as purchasing agricultural production. These structures remained in place until the early 1990s and were supported by a government ministry for co-operatives. Since that time, however, the government has instituted a F Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ programme of market liberalisation and many farmers' societies have vanished or become dormant, often through mismanagement and dishonesty. Some support for some remaining farmers' co-operatives has come from projects funded by NGOs in various parts of the country. Some of these projects have specialised in collective marketing programmes as well as pooling credit and input purchases. One group of 32 cooperatives supported by the Irish Foundation for Co-operative Development has successfully marketed beans, grown by members of the co-operatives and by farmers in the surrounding area, at considerably higher prices than could have been obtained from local traders. They intend to market their surplus maize as well as beans in the next season.The Irish NGO offers assistance to the members of the co-operatives in many forms. Their main contribution is administrative but they also provide training and help with sorting, grading and packing the products as well as with negotiations with large-scale traders in Kampala. The cost of this work is not factored into the extra income farmers enjoy.It is obvious, nevertheless, that collective marketing would be a successful strategy for farmers to follow if they wish to maximise their income. Indeed, the report on the recent NRI study, mentioned above, recommends that:-'Farmers should be encouraged to organise so as to reduce their constraints to market access, while taking care to avoid past mistakes in co-operative building'.There are several other successful examples of farmers organising themselves to obtain the necessary economy of scale to sell output, purchase inputs and obtain credit at market rates. Some areas in the North of the country, where resettlement has taken place after disruption by war, are working well and benefit from larger units of production. It is true to say, however, that these examples form only a small percentage of total agricultural production.In general, Ugandan farmers work independently of each other. Individually they produce only small quantities and have no access to credit. Several times, during this study, we were told that there is very little trust between Ugandans in the agricultural sector. J.R. Bibagambah, in his book Marketing of Smallholder Crops in Uganda (CTA 1996), identifies G Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ 'the lack of opaque trading practices and general mistrust among market participants' as a significant restraint in the agricultural sector. The problem seems to have been caused by the many years of civil war in the country and, more recently, the failure of many banks, including banks engaged in the agricultural sector.Although maize is regarded as a non-traditional crop in Uganda it has been grown there since before 1930. Almost all maize is grown in small-scale units, together with other crops. There are a few larger-scale maize farms in Uganda but the largest (known to those interviewed) was 150 acres. Maize is grown all over the country but the main producing areas are in the West and in the far North and East of Uganda.Maize is eaten in many areas of the country green or roasted on the cob or as a paste made from the flour called posho but cassava is preferred as a staple in many Northern areas. Matooke is preferred in the South but it is usually more expensive than maize in spite of being less nutritious, .Production increased significantly during World War II and again in the last decade. There is some dispute over the total quantity of maize produced. Official and FAO figures put production in the last few years at almost a million tons. Local experts, however, including the Ugandan Agribusiness Development Centre, put the figure at nearer 300,000 tons of which half is exported. Annual export sales figures, of between US$ 19 and 25 million seem to confirm these figures (at 250 Ush. per kilo).The main market for Uganda's maize exports is Kenya. Kenyan traders travel freely in Uganda searching for supplies. The current Kenyan shortage of maize, of approximately 800,000 tons, has stimulated Kenyan purchases and driven up the local price in Uganda. Other important purchases are made by the World Food Programme, the Red Cross and the UN High Commission for Refugees for food aid programmes in nearby African countries. These purchases are sometimes made directly from the larger Ugandan grain H Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ merchants but more often through multinational grain conglomerates such as André in Switzerland and Cagill. Large, domestic purchases are made by government-controlled Tender Boards who supply the army, police, schools and hospitals and by local millers and processors.Although about 43% of maize produced in Uganda is consumed by households on the farm, its importance to most farmers is as a cash crop. It has the advantage of being relatively nonperishable (if properly dried) and relatively easy to store and transport in bags.The maize market is structured in the same way as most other agricultural markets in the country. Most farmers produce only small quantities (one or two 100 kilo bags at a time). Farmers have several marketing options. They can deliver (usually by bicycle) to a local 'store' (small sedentary trader), if they are near one. Alternatively, they can sell to traders at the local village or district market. This can be done in two ways. They can deliver it themselves or take a sample to the market, agree a price with the trader and then allow the trader to arrange transport. Payment is rarely made until the trader has taken delivery of the goods.Very few farmers have the equipment to weigh or test the quality of their grain. Traders have scales (although it is widely believed by farmers that traders' scales are doctored). Traders lack sophisticated equipment for testing the moisture content of the grain but use popcorn machines to get a rough idea of moisture content. Traders will sometimes dry the product themselves to increase the value.The largest wholesale maize market is in Kampala but large-scale traders and millers have their own silos in, for instance, Kampala and Jinja and often purchase directly from village and district markets. There is a shortage of suitable storage space for maize in Uganda which tends to exacerbate any market fluctuations. Almost all grain dealers, large and small, deal in other dry products -especially beans. And beans are also grown by maize farmers in the main maize-growing areas.Since the liberalisation of agricultural commodity markets in the early 1990s the function of the state-controlled marketing boards has been taken over by private traders. There are many traders operating in the country, from the many thousands of individual retail stall-holders to a few large-scale merchant-houses.The prices of commodities are, in general, set by the forces of supply and demand. Certain aid programmes have the effect of distorting markets, however, by supplying cheap or free agricultural inputs and food.It is fully accepted that retail traders in any particular market at any given time collude with each other and post identical retail prices. These prices are based on the price of the last batch of the product to arrive at the market. Generally speaking, products are purchased and transported to the market by traders after prior negotiations with farmers. Alternatively, products may be delivered to the market by itinerant traders who then haggle with sedentary traders, based at the market site, to arrive at an agreed price. The sedentary traders then parcel out the product to a large number of retailers at a fixed price.Bargaining between traders for medium and larger scale parcels of goods is relatively competitive. Some traders in the privatised market places have a conflict of interest, however. Over the last decade the management of market places has passed from local government to private companies. These companies are required to compete with each other by public tender to win the management contract. Once appointed they are required to pay the local council a fixed fee. The management company recovers the fee by collecting market dues from stallholders and from traders delivering produce to the market. The company is also responsible for keeping the market tidy and providing security.Typically, these private companies have been formed by a consortium of the largest traders in the market.This consortium is often also engaged in trading as a group and in transportation. The combination of a market management role and a trading role gives the company considerable power if not a monopolistic position in the market. They are likely to be able to set prices not only for retailers but also for incoming produce. Some commentators have also complained that these consortia have no incentive to invest in improving the market site.More importantly, traders offer poor prices to farmers especially at the height of the harvest season. It is clear that, from the farmers' point of view, the agricultural markets in Uganda are not competitive enough to offer them a fair price. Reports have been received of farmers obtaining only between 50% and 80% of the prevailing wholesale price for their maize after transport and handing charges have been taken into account. Bean farmers in Rakai District were offered by traders only between 54% and 60% of the true value of their product. A 1997 case study showed that traders were purchasing sesame seed in Lira, Apec and Sirote Districts at only half the price they could have obtained if farmers had the means of exporting it themselves.[Perversely, the fact that very little credit is available to farmers means that traders are not able to use the farmer's debt to them as a means of reducing the prices they offer as is the case in many other African countries.]The market system in Uganda suffers from degree of collusion amongst traders facilitated sometimes by the lack of competition, especially in isolated areas. The trading business is also highly fragmented with up to five separate transactions taking place between different intermediaries to bring a farmer's product to the wholesale market.Although small and medium-sized traders have organised themselves within local markets into traders associations, they are poorly organised at a national level. The largest traders are organised into associations representing traders in several commodity sectors (e.g. coffee, tea, oilseeds), however.Ugandan commodity traders fulfil a vital role in the economy of Uganda. The free market system is a comparatively new concept in the agricultural sector, however, and it has not yet evolved the degree of transparency or competitiveness that would ensure fair prices for both suppliers and consumers.The Government MISThe Ugandan economy was liberalised in the early 1990s and state-controlled marketing boards lost their monopolies.A government-run market information service was established at that time with funding from FAO. Funding was taken over by US-AID in 1993 when the collection of data on weather and road conditions was added to data collected on the retail prices of agricultural products. Throughout its existence the service suffered from the same general problems. Information arrived late at the central collating office and payments to reporters were late and sometimes went astray causing disruptions in the flow of information. The information provided was of some use to planning institutions but of little use to farmers. Traders were, apparently, reluctant to give prices to the government-employed reporters as they suspected them of passing information to the tax authorities.The service was discontinued in May 1999.The Uganda National Farmers' Association (UNFA) has a market information service funded by Danida.Information is collected once every two weeks by the UNFA district co-ordinator in six districts (out of 22 in Uganda). Farm gate and wholesale prices are collected for maize, millet, sorghum, rice, peanuts, one colour beans, cassava chips, soya and beef. These prices are broadcast by Uganda Radio in four languages on 'The Rural Farm Programme'. Uganda Radio charge the union 4,320,000 sh. (US$ 2880) per quarter for air time and the union also has to pay a radio producer to package the programme.The Association recognises that farmers can receive a very poor price for their products. Farmers, they say, part with maize for as little as 90 Ush. per kilo in Masindi District at harvest time when the wholesale price has been 250 Ush.The Association also publishes 2000 copies of a 'production and marketing bulletin' in English twice a year. The latest edition (August 1999), however, reports commodity prices from June 1997. The bulletin also carries a list of 37 merchants based in consuming countries who trade in some of the products produced in Uganda. It also carries prices of farm chemicals, machinery and bags but no mention is made of how up to date these are. There are also some snippets of advice in the bulletin designed to help farmers market their products more efficiently. The text in this section is as follows:-Middle men offer unattractive and very often very low prices to farmers who have little or no negotiation skills/power. The farmers are easily exploited due to lack of unity.Farmers are advised to adopt the UNFA marketing strategy whereby the farmers get together, and participate in the drying, bagging and storage of the crops collectively. All the records must be kept. Once this is done, the unit costs of marketing is reduced. You can negotiate with the buyer on a good price. The basic idea behind collective marketing is to reduce the costs involved to the minimum and maximise profit. Both parties benefit from this arrangement. The buyer can be maintained (sic). The farmers can themselves form a marketing company to oversee the selling of the crops and ensure that the profits are evenly distributed.The UNFA are also training 50 extension-link farmers (again, funded by Danida) in each of ten districts to obtain prices and report them to the Associations' district co-ordinators. MPrice information offered to farmers only once every two weeks cannot be very useful as market prices can change significantly in a single day and are likely to become more volatile as the local and regional market becomes more liberalised. The Association's production and marketing bulletin would also appear to have very limited use as the price information contained is only of historic interest.In May 1999 IITA successfully applied for funding from Agricultural Co-operative Development International (ACDI) to establish an agricultural market information service in Uganda. ACDI is a Washington-based, non-profit-making organisation that administrates funding from the US Agency for International Development (US-AID). The funding for this project came from US-AID's PL-480 project.The objectives of IITA's market information project are:1. to provide information about the markets for agricultural commodities produced in Uganda for planning and food security purposes.2. to assist Uganda's farmers and other actors in the agricultural sector by providing them with the information they need to sell, trade and obtain Ugandan agricultural products more successfully.The need for such a service has become more acute since the government's own market information service was discontinued in May 1999.Objective A is well on the way to full implementation. In this objective IITA is working closely with two Uganda-based organisations, the Agribusiness Development Centre (ADC) and the Famine Early Warning Service (FEWS) based in Uganda. ADC and FEWS are also closely associated with US-AID. One of ADC's main objectives is to increase Uganda's export performance in agricultural products. Under its Investment in Developing Export Agriculture (IDEA) project, ADC has concentrated on assisting producers to export maize, beans, cut flowers and vegetables. The organisation has acted as a clearing house for information about Ugandan agricultural markets and regularly brings together traders,Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ farmers' union representatives and government agencies to exchange information. They also broadcast agricultural extension information to farmers all over Uganda. FEWS also needs detailed information about current supply, predicted yields, weather reports and the price of available stocks of food products.IITA has for some time been linking its work in Uganda to market conditions, concentrating research on products for which a market has been established and assessing the relative cost of competing food products.All three organisations, therefore, share an interest in gathering information about market conditions for use in their work. It is also likely that many other organisations could make use of market information gathered by the IITA project including government agencies, academic institutions, planners, donors, NGOs, large scale traders and processors and regional bodies.IITA has started to employ agents in 15 of the 22 Ugandan districts to gather price information and market news on 17 crop products and 5 livestock products from village, district and wholesale markets. Market information on 28 commodities is collected from Kamala's two main wholesale market in a daily basis. Some of the agents employed by IITA were once employed by the government MIS.Ugandans most in need of market information, however, are small-scale, isolated farmers, traders and processors. IITA's second objective is to provide a service for these groups.This preliminary study is focused on this objective but involves an investigation of how market information is gathered already and what changes or additions to this information will be needed for use in this objective.National responsibility for extension services is supervised by two agencies. A semiindependent body, the National Agricultural Research Board (NARO) and the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. These organisations have no capacity to deliver information on the markets of agricultural products, however.The Ministry of Agriculture employed Marketing Officers in each district of Uganda. People holding this post were responsible for supplying market information to a central office as part of the structure of the now defunct government MIS. This job was usually part-time and those functions of the work that remain are grossly understaffed and underfunded.The exchange of information about the markets for agricultural commodities takes place relatively efficiently between the largest traders and exporters. This is especially true in the case of information relating to the markets for tea and sugar, the only two products grown in Uganda on a large scale, and for coffee, Uganda's main export item. These larger traders are able to employ local agents throughout the country and to communicate with them by using the growing network of cellular telephone systems. At the village level too farmers, retail traders and small-scale processors are able to bargain freely to establish a market price for their immediate location.The exchange of information between market participants at the local level and the wholesale level, however, is poor. Farmers do not have the means or resources to travel widely to seek better markets for their goods. The main conduits of information are the highways of the country. Lorry drivers involved in the transportation of agricultural goods travel around the country from market to market exchanging information as they go. The lorry drivers are, however, almost invariably, employed by traders or are traders themselves. They have no vested interest in informing producers or customers of the true state of the market.English is the official language in Uganda but over twenty other languages are spoken. Most of these fall into three language groups which can be understood by many people speaking other languages in that group. Private and publicly owned radio stations broadcast in eight languages plus English. Uganda Radio is the state-controlled service for radio and television. It has three AM stations and two FM stations. The FM stations are funded by selling advertising and carry mostly light entertainment. The three AM stations carry 80% public broadcasting topics such as health, women, environment, career guidance, etc. and farmers' programmes. There are at least three farmers' programmes on each of the three channels every day. Some of this public broadcasting is paid for by development agencies promoting the particular project which a given radio programme covers.The three channels are:-The Red Channel -broadcast in English and languages spoken in Northern Uganda. The Blue Channel -broadcast in Central and Western Ugandan languages. The Butebo Channel -broadcast in Eastern Ugandan languages.Each channel is on air for 18 hours a day.A market information service is likely to have to pay for airtime on any of the state services, although this may be kept to cost price with government support. The estimated cost of airtime for a fifteen-minute broadcast on one of the AM channels would be Ush. 100,000 (US$ 66) and a further Ush. 40,000 (US$ 26) for production costs.In addition to the Uganda Radio service there are about ten commercial FM radio stations as well as some limited range community stations run by NGOs. The commercial stations Q Annex 2 ___________________________________________________________________________ cover most of the country although some have a larger broadcast area (footprint) than others. Each commercial station specialises in broadcasting in a particular location in the language used in that location. They earn their income from advertising and for broadcasting messages (funerals, weddings, etc.). They also charge for airtime for public broadcasting programmesthe charge for a fifteen minute programme is about Ush. 450,000 (US$ 300).A high proportion of Ugandans own radio sets. There is likely to be at least one in every village.Several newspapers are published in the country, mainly in English but also in one or two other languages. The adult illiteracy rate is about 50%, however, with lower rates of literacy in rural areas. Distribution of newspapers outside major towns is poor. This means that newspapers are unlikely to be of use to disseminate up to date market information to the population in rural areas.There are, at present, only 2.27 telephone lines per thousand of the population of Uganda. Mobile telephone transmitters are being installed, mainly in the more densely populated (and wealthiest areas). The cost of these phones (even without call charges) at US$ 200, however, is almost one year's income for the average Ugandan. It is still cheaper to deliver a message using public transport in Kampala than using the public telephone system. Uganda has 0.5 computers per 1000 people. These are owned almost exclusively by development agencies and state and public enterprises. There are 0.03 per 10,000 Internet users in the country.Uganda's postal service is too slow and variable to be of use for a market information service.Of the 8832 kms. of primary, secondary and tertiary roads in Uganda only 2105 kms. are paved. In addition, Uganda has approximately 20,000 kms. of feeder roads and 30,000 kms. of community roads. Almost all of these roads are unpaved. About 30% of all unpaved roads are unusable in wet weather. The level of maintenance on all roads is poor. The only means of transporting goods from many farms is by human porterage, bicycle or by tractor-drawn trailers. The use of pack animals is increasing but they are not yet a common sight in many parts of the country.Two railway lines cross the country to meet in Tororo in the east of the country from where the main railway export route to Mombasa begins. One line passes through the country diagonally from Arua in the extreme north-west. The other passes from the far south-east and through Kampala.Almost all deliveries of domestically produced goods are made to assembly and wholesale markets by lorry.Most commercial vehicles, except buses, are owned by private operators. Most lorries are imported second-hand from outside Africa. Many of the country's vehicles are old and in a poor condition and must be repaired regularly especially as the road system is so poor.Many of the large and medium-sized traders and processors of agricultural produce own their own fleet of lorries -usually of a ten ton capacity. There are also many small transport companies in the country -some hire out a single vehicle.The cost of loading and transporting 10 ton loads of beans from Rakai to Kampala -a journey of approximately 200 kms. -is, at present, 30 Ush. (2 US cents) per kilo.The mainstream banking system is reluctant to extend credit to anyone other than the largest agricultural producers, traders and processors. Sources of credit have been made available to the agricultural sector by at least a score of foreign governments, aid agencies and foreign NGOs. Most of these finance projects could be classified as micro-credit schemes. The funds are usually administered by foreign-controlled agencies and channelled through Ugandan banks to Ugandan-controlled microfinance institutions (MFIs). Most MFIs are private companies operating on a not-for-profit basis.Many foreign agencies administrating micro-credit schemes offer training to MFIs.The Ugandan bank most favoured by credit donors was, until its recent collapse, the Cooperative Bank. The demise of this and several other banks in recent months has reduced the already low level of trust in the domestic banking system. Some other Ugandan banks have now been selected for channelling funds to borrowers and these banks are subject to much stricter levels of control and supervision.Access to micro-credit is patchy across the country. In some towns several MFIs are in operation while in others there are none. A typical loan amounts to only 120,000 Ush. (US$ 80) for repayment over several months. Interest rates are high at between 25% and 40% p.a. given that the currency is relatively stable. High interest charges are attributable to the cost of administrating many very small sums.Many of these schemes lend only to women who are seen as most in need of credit and as more credit-worthy.Producers, generally have only limited access to even these sources of credit as some collateral is required to borrow funds. The group that appears to be able to make most use of these sources of credit are small-scale retailers who are predominantly women. They are not only in a position to turnover loans quickly but also to offer some collateral -their market stalls.For medium-sized traders the sums of credit available are too small to finance anything other than the small quantities of produce. Almost all trades in agricultural goods in Uganda are transacted in cash.The evolution of marketing structures for agricultural produce in most African countries has not yet achieved the necessary degree of competitiveness and transparency to ensure fair market prices for small-scale farmers, processors and consumers.There is a growing recognition among development agencies and governments that, if farmers were more fully informed about the markets for their crops, their bargaining position with intermediate traders would be strengthened, their income would increase and less produce would go to waste. In addition, more transparent markets would help to lower transaction costs, increase the volume of trade, offer greater food security, increase import substitution and lower consumer prices leading to greater benefits for the economy as a whole.The Ugandan Government has provided a framework to support the transition towards a liberalised economy. It has also decided to embark on a plan to modernise the agricultural sector in an effort to address the problems of rural poverty. Within this plan, the Government has recognised the importance of improving access to market opportunities for its rural community and to encourage the development of market information systems.The justification for establishing a market information service for all stakeholders in the Ugandan agricultural sector is clear. In their recent study of the access to marketing opportunities, the NRI recorded the findings of stakeholder workshops in five Ugandan districts. These included:-* Farmers in Rukungiri lack knowledge of prices in Kampala and in neighbouring countries like Congo and Rwanda. They also lacked knowledge on quality requirements of the various commodities.* In Lira participants said they needed information on the price of produce and the quantity and quality of products available. * In Kapchorwa farmers in remote areas are generally ignorant of prices prevailing in Kapchorwa Town, Mbale, Soroti, and Kumi, let alone Kampala. Traders tend to dictate the price due to farmers' ignorance. * Participants in Katakwi workshop complained about the lack of telephone and fax connections and noted that the only source of information was by people travelling from place to place.This preliminary study has shown that agricultural markets in Uganda are characterised by long chains of transactions between farm gate and consumers, lack of competitiveness between traders and poor access to appropriate market information.Prices received by farmers for the sale of their goods are significantly less than the price they could have achieved if they had the means of transporting it themselves to assembly markets even after taking the cost of transport into account.Small-scale traders have also recognised that they could improve their income if they had better means of communication with market centres. Even the largest traders and processors complain of a lack of information about regional markets. Some efforts have been made to offer access to relevant and timely market information to the bulk of stakeholders in Ugandan agriculture. It is clear, however, that these systems are inadequate and do not help in the day to day problem of making commercial transactions in agricultural goods. It is likely, however, that any new system would be more successful if it worked closely with other market information providers.The overall objective of this project is to establish a market information service for actors in the Ugandan maize market.The preliminary study has established a need for such a service for all actors in the agricultural sector and especially for small-scale farmers, traders and processors in remote areas.The recently established IITA market information service is replacing the useful functions of the, now terminated, government-run MIS. It is likely to be able to provide information needed by planners in government and development agencies, including agencies dealing with food security. The information is also likely to be of use to large private sector traders and the statecontrolled Tender Boards who procure supplies for government institutions.IITA wish to expand the scope of this service to collect and disseminate information that is relevant and useful to the millions of other actors in Ugandan agriculture.Fortunately, much of the apparatus for achieving this second component of a market information service is in place or could be put in place with very little additional cost. The main expenditure for this expanded service would be in collecting additional information and providing a means of dissemination.IITA have decided that a pilot scheme of the new service should first be established before committing the necessary resources to a full-scale project. In this respect they have come to the same conclusions as NRI researchers who have concluded in their recent report that ' a pilot project is required to identify how a system should be set up at a District level.'Prior to this preliminary study, IITA had decided that a pilot project designed to serve the market information needs of maize farmers in a single district of Uganda would provide the experience and feed-back data required to develop the service to other commodity sectors and other geographical locations. This limited pilot project could be funded without difficulty and managed without a strain on existing resources.Maize was chosen because it is an important Ugandan agricultural product. It is consumed both in its raw form and as a processed product. A significant proportion of maize production is consumed within the country but it is also providing an increasingly important contribution to export revenues. It has been chosen by the local Agribusiness Development Centre as a commodity to be developed for export. As a staple food, it is also important from a food security perspective.This study has, however, revealed that maize farmers differ markedly in their capacity to market their goods successfully. Most farmers have not developed structures which would enable them to work with each other to market their products or obtain credit or inputs. They are, nevertheless, in great need of information about the prevailing market price for their goods, the grades of product needed by the market and the sources of assistance that may be available to them. A minority of farmers have formed themselves into collective marketing associations, however. These farmers too need appropriate market information but are better organised to take advantage of the information they are given.This study has also shown that the markets of agricultural commodities in Uganda cannot be considered in isolation. All farmers grow maize as one of a mix of crops partly to provide a mixed diet for themselves, partly to provide food in different growing seasons and partly as a security measure to ensure they have production if one crop fails. In addition, traders do not specialise in just one product. Traders in maize also deal in beans and sometimes other pulses, grains and other dry products.When the price of one food product increases, consumers switch, in whole or in part, to other food products.It may well be, therefore, that the pilot project envisaged by IITA may expand slightly to include a product other than maize but one closely linked to the maize market. It may also need to serve more than one discrete community of stakeholders with differing marketing opportunities. In this way the experiences gained from establishing the pilot scheme, the development of the relationship between IITA and stakeholders and the feed-back of the targeted beneficiaries may be of more use than the original limited proposal.An expansion of the original idea to this limited extent should not increase costs unduly. Price information for more than one product can be obtained from the same group of traders and farmers and dissemination of information on more than one product can be carried out at the same time. Dissemination of information to more than one group of stakeholders is likely to increase costs, however.This study has established that there is a clear and perceived need in Uganda for information about commodity markets. It is also clear that the legal and economic environment are suitable for the development of more transparency in agricultural markets. Market information provision forms part of the Government's plan to modernise agriculture.Much of the mechanism for collecting price and other market data relevant to small-scale operators in agriculture is already in place. The means of communication of collected data, land-line and mobile telephones, and the dissemination of information, radio, is available.The institution that would be responsible for the establishment of the pilot scheme, IITA, is committed to the project and works closely with other institutions which will give support to the work.For these reasons, this study has concluded that the establishment of a pilot market information service targeted at actors in Uganda's maize market is both feasible and desirable. It has also concluded that some modification might be made to the original concept of a pilot service targeted at only maize farmers, traders and processors in one Ugandan district. This concept could be expanded to a very limited number of other products and to more than one geographical group with different abilities to make use of market information. A change of this kind in the concept model could be made without a significant strain on resources. This modification may offer better output data for use in expanding the service further.A pilot project model that has been proposed by IITA would consist of three components which would provide market information to actors in three separate agro-ecological locations on three different crops. These are maize grown in the east of the country, beans grown by a well organised group of farmers in the south-west and cassava grown by farmers in the north on large blocks of land.The design stage of this project will begin 1st December 1999 with a stakeholders meeting in Kampala. Participants in the meeting will include farmers, traders, processors and their representatives, senior government officials, development agencies, NGOs, media and communications organisations and regional MISs.Among the subjects discussed at this meeting will be:-• The type of information most needed by stakeholders that can be provided within the likely resources available. • The expected impact of such a service. Z• The most appropriate method of dissemination.• The target group of beneficiaries for the service.• The mechanism of decision-making to be employed in establishing and managing the project. • Potential partners in the project.• Sources of funding for the project and its expansion.• Methods of measuring the success or otherwise of the project.Before a final design can be completed discussions and negotiations will need to take place with government agencies, communication companies and potential partners and donors.","tokenCount":"13972"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7b9b51700e12a63fe9802371256064c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37117f8f-3889-4e19-8d89-ce2823d9dcdd/retrieve","id":"-920171013"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aa9c4040-a428-4606-856d-d6c2546e3c60","pagecount":"2","content":"2. Who can use this tool? Plant breeders and social scientists who work together in a breeding team.3. What is the result of using the tool? A gender impact score is generated for each trait being considered for inclusion in a breeding product profile. The score can be used to identify whether and why any trait assessed with the tool could benefit or harm women, men or another specific social group.At what scale does the tool work? The tool can be applied at any scale; this is defined by the size of the geographical area that breeders target, and it is likely to be large, e.g., the national or regional level.5. What type of data does the tool require? Primary or secondary data and expert consultations can be used to triangulate information as long as the data give a reliable representation of the targeted customer segment, whether this involves farmers, traders or processors, or women or men in any of these roles.6. What resources does the tool need? a. people: at least two members of a team including a breeder and a social scientist. b. equipment: the tool can be used manually, but requires expert judgments based on gender analysis. A laptop is desirable to use the G+SOP template forms to generate a Gender Report with the results. c. expertise: plant breeding and social science (e.g. anthropologist, economist, sociologist, cultural geographer). Knowledge of crops, varieties, and farming. d. data: data on gender analysis linked to trait preferences is required. Use already available information and data from impact, adoption or foresight studies when good information is available. Collect original data as needed.7. When to use this tool? At any stage of the breeding cycle, although by far the best time is at the beginning of a breeding cycle, before plant or animal breeders have started breeding a new product.8. How long does it take to apply the tool? The tool can be applied to assess a product profile with about 3-4 traits, by a social scientist and a breeder, or during a team meeting, in about 2 hours. This will produce a Gender Impact Score for each of the traits in the product profile if the team has suitable data on the customers, and their preferred traits. If data is incomplete, the tool will identify the specific questions related to the gender analysis for which more information is needed. The experts will need to decide whether this need can be met from existing data.9. What are the main steps in applying the tool? a. Identify a product profile proposal, specifying the target customer segment(s), and the traits to be evaluated. b. Define gender gaps that are relevant for trait analysis. c. Summarize gendered trait preferences. d. Conduct a \"do no harm\" analysis, of each trait's potential negative effects on women or other social group. e. Conduct a positive benefit analysis of the traits' benefits for men and women. f. Score the gender impact (combining do no harm and positive benefit analyses). g. Write the product profile, describing the traits in a breeding product that will benefit women, highlighting traits to avoid because of their potential for harm. Disclaimer: This document is intended to disseminate research and practices about production and utilization of roots, tubers and bananas and to encourage debate and exchange of ideas. The views expressed in the papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position of RTB, GBI, CGIAR or the publishing institution.","tokenCount":"580"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e8146dba7cb63636fa446d88cf3815f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/13983f81-95a9-49bc-99a3-9efe0327bb80/retrieve","id":"-864522457"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b7ae599f-4b1f-4060-b800-760b7b608477","pagecount":"34","content":"December 2023 SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS Seed Equal Work Package Three (WP3) Gender Workshop Report. Training in the application of gender responsive data collection tools and data coding, and the gender write shop.iii SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS   The One CGIAR Research Seed Equal Initiative aims to deliver genetic gains in farmers' fields. Work Package three (WP3) focuses on scaling and delivering Vegetatively Propagated Crops (VPCs) seed with a broad purpose to address farmer's limited access to and use of affordable quality seeds of well-adapted varieties with the desired traits. A Joint Training in the Application of Gender Responsive Data Collection Tools (with intersectionality Focus) And Data Coding (ATLAS) was held to enable researchers to understand the study scope, data collection tools and methods as well as the analysis of the collected data with emphasis on qualitative data.The training took place at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (ABC) Country Offices located at Kawanda from 26 th October to 1 st November 2023.Ms. Sarah Mayanja introduced the objective of the training and the expected deliverables. She mentioned that it was aimed at the researchers and enumerators obtaining knowledge on the use of the data collection tools used in quantitative and qualitative research with a deeper understanding of the research methods. Participantswere to obtain training on data analysis of qualitative data using the Atlas.ti tool to ease the analysis process hence saving resources spent in the manual analysis of the qualitative data. During the training, researchers would be given insight on the scope of the planned field study. Dr. Allan Bomuhangi gave a background of the WP6 objective, activities and deliverables mentioning that it majorly involved applying developing, and validating evidence-based strategies. Dr. Irene shared the study plan/scope indicating planned study areas including Nakaseke district in the Central region, and Kamuli and Bugiri districts in the Eastern region. She mentioned the different subcounties that had been agreed on in the scoping study, as well as the sampling framework to be used in obtaining respondents for the individual interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Mr. Edgar Tinyiro welcomed the participants to NARL-NARO, Kawanda, and shared the structure, therefore. He mentioned that NARO appreciated the Seed Equal project and all partners involved for their contribution to research and shared that the institute was willing to continued collaborating with the project.The session was moderated by Mr. Collins Ogara who urged the participants for rather a participatory training for smooth and productive outcomes. The moderator introduced participants to ATLAS-ti by highlighting the advantages and outcomes of the training of the software in qualitative data Analysis. ATLAS. Ti was introduced as a software program that supports multiple document formats, as well as one that is organized, transparent, integrated and grounded in evidence hence an important tool that supports the analysis and triangulation of qualitative data. The facilitator introduced the five core tabs of Atlas.ti including Home, Search project, Analyze, Import/ Export and Support.Participants installed the Atlas software on their computers while the moderator shared various useful videos for participants to have a feel of the application and appreciate its relevance. Participants embarked on hands SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS on session on how to create a project in ATLAS-ti, organize project data and coding data (This was aided by various videos for a n in depth understanding of the software. Members were introduced to the components of a project including transcripts, code books, memos, networks, nodes quotations. Participants also went through the steps followed in creating codes and Memos.Data cleaning was another aspect of the training program that involved removing duplicate data and identifying irrelevant information. The facilitator mentioned that data cleaning continues from the beginning of the data collection exercise and continues all through the analysis process. Data cleaning was said to be pertinent in the effective use of auto coding. The facilitator also took participants through an example of coding FGD data.Participants were taken through the differences between quantitative and qualitative data emphasizing that generalization is not required in qualitative interviews. These is because of the separate views drawn from qualitative research that give a general picture and picking out deductive narratives is required.The facilitator introduced the aspect of conducting Literature review in Atlas.ti. He also discussed the development of networks in Atlas.ti, where it was emphasized that to create a successful network, the research question needs to be of utmost consideration. Other subjects included clustering codes; inductive and deductive coding and the purpose thereof; creating memos which are nodes within a document that the researcher uses to describe information in the text; and groups and the purposes thereof; querying which involves retrieving quotations using the codes that they were associated with during the process; data import and export and creating copy bundles. There was a practical session by all participants on coding of shared transcripts by applying different coding functions and networking where participants successfully were able to create networks from the shared transcripts. The facilitator took participants through multiple coding, which included choice of patterns.Participants suggested that more practice was required in the areas of coding especially group coding, network creation and performing literature review with the Atlas.ti Software.Participants reported no major difficulties during the training session. The facilitators were so elaborate.However, the section of literature review required much time than anticipated.Participants were able to learn how successfully install Atlas.ti software on their computers and create projects using Atlas.ti at the start of data analysis, as well interface with the different features used in data analysis of qualitative data with the Atlas.ti software. The ease and speed with which the program could condense huge sums of raw qualitative data into meaningful conclusions, and visually appealing outputs was appreciated. Participant's perception of collecting and analyzing qualitative data changed. Previously, qualitative data analysis had been perceived as laborious and time consuming. However, interfacing with Atlas.ti provided a new way of analyzing qualitative data in a time saving manner. SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS CIFMS presentation EDITED BY -JMO-oc (1).pptx Members were asked to pay attention to where farmer's source seed and quality of seed for other seed users in the household, labor dynamics and household headship. Participants agreed that there would be a VPC of priority in each location that is; Kamuli (sweetpotato), Bugiri (Cassava) and Nakaseke (Matooke) districts. Participants agreed that each individual farmer would be asked about two VPCs. For education level, enumerators were to capture the number of complete school years beginning from primary one on account of the analysis being simpler with years of schooling.Regarding wealth status, this was to be identified from the focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). Participants agreed that self-assessment would be used in the individual interviews to determine wealth status. Questions surrounding wealth status questions included the purpose of the wealth status questions, the poverty score card and whether the information from the qualitative study would be used to inform the quantitative outputs. Suggestions were made to remove the poverty line from the individual interviews and to use other indicators drawn from FGDs and KIIs, as the poverty line creates bias, and raises expectations. As such it was suggested that wealth status questions would come at the end. Dollar rates were added to the annual income question for the sake of the non-Ugandan analysts.For questions requiring an explanation, enumerators were asked to write sentences rather than bullet points. Regarding seed access, enumerators were to assess aspects of seed access such as reliability, affordability, cleanliness of the seed as well as the distance from the seed source, rather than the seed quality such as drought resistance. Participants suggested that questions regarding proportions should be standardized for all the three crops.Respondents for the study such as IDIs, focus groups and key informants would be those that own a VPC garden, sell the crop, and source seed.During the training session, some changes were made in the different sections of the data collection tool in order to ensure collection of data that meets the objectives of the study.The day's training session comprised of further engagement with the data collection tool by Mr. Ogwal Martin, a session on qualitative and quantitative research by Ms. Sarah Mayanja, and session on \"Good practices\" by Dr.Lucy Mulugo. In the afternoon, participants pretested the revised tool with participants from National Agricultural Research laboratories, Kawanda.Focus Group composition and segregation was finalized with in order to allow the participants to agree on the selection of participants, the VPCs of interest, and the study locations in line with the study's objectives.This called for purposive selection of the districts, where Nakaseke was suggested for banana and one other VPC and to consider Eastern Districts of Kamuli for sweet potato and Bugiri for cassava. Dr. Allan Bomuhangi said that FGD participants should consist of a minimum of five and a maximum of eight participants. Dr.Lucy Mulugo asked members to ensure that the FGD participants be within the recommended numbers.• Explanations were sought and given to certain terms like share cropping where farmers rent land and share an agreed percentage of the harvest with the landowner.• Facilitators were also asked to pay attention to questions regarding land access and to put descriptions of the statements and words mentioned by the FGD participants.• Regarding wealth categories, a ladder depicting the perceived wealth status of the community would be drawn based on the responses from the FGD participants.• Facilitators of the FGDs were to focus on all steps below the poverty line and one step above the poverty line.• Questions 3 to 6.7 were to be repeated for all steps of the ladder.• For questions concerning wealth rankings of women, participants suggested that the question is also asked in the men's FGD. This was in order that the men's perspective and perception of the women's ladder would be got. The men would also be asked for an explanation of their rankings of women. The youths would also be allowed to talk about their crops.• A question would be included on new varieties and popular local varieties grown in the study locations, as well as the hows surrounding access of the new varieties.A pretest of the Individual interview tool with VPC farmers at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Kawanda was done. After the pretest, members shared feedback including their experience with the tool, suggested revisions and the interesting situations encountered during the interviews. The following feedback was shared by the participants.• Participants asked for clarification regarding education level.• Members inquired about the purpose of the wealth status questions.• Regarding the community poverty line in the IDIs, it was suggested that wealth perception be identified by using indicators from the FGDs and KIIs in order to avoid respondent bias and raised expectations.• It was suggested that self-assessment be done for the individual interviews.• The wealth categories question was to be transferred to the end of the questionnaire of the IDIs. SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS• Members suggested that an option of other household members be added to responses to questions concerning two crops.• Regarding obtained GPS coordinates, no internet would be required, but enumerators were advised to turn on the location tab.• Regarding the question on estimating annual income, participants suggested that enumerators ask about produce sale per person or/ and monthly income in case the respondent was not sure about their annual income.Ms. Sarah Mayanja presented and shared with the participants about qualitative research by highlighting the distinction between the two approaches, as well as their merits and demerits. Some qualitative research methods discussed included, narrative research, participant observation and outcome mapping.Data collection methods included key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The KIIs are used to triangulate information obtained in other methods such as the focus group discussions. The facilitator indicated that the FGDs should not be longer than two hours in case there is translation and less than two hours where there is no translation involved. She added that FGD tools should be drafted in such a way that they are easy to understand and that respondents should be purposively selected.Dr. Lucy Mulugo shared on one major component of qualitative research that is observation and active listening. She highlighted the various forms of observation and listening with their underlying advantages and their applicability in qualitative research. Observation method of data collection was referred to as a subjective method involving describing characteristics without using quantitative tools, but rather using one's senses. Observation was said to involve planning, taking notes using an experienced note taker, active listening and obtaining informed consent. For active listening, paraphrasing was said to be key. This also involved observation of the body language such as posture, eye contact. Clarifying, repetitions and prompt gestures were also said to be key in active listening.Good Practices-PPT (1).pptx The team used the role play approach to practically interface with the FGD tool. Emphasis was placed on the ladder of life and indeed participants appreciated the exposure and experience with new interfaces especially in qualitative research. For purposes of confidentiality in the case of recorded discussions, FGD facilitators were advised not to refer to respondents by their names, but rather use codes like R1, and R2. They were also encouraged to be courteous while asking questions and to keep referring to others in the community rather than the respondents directly.There was a session on planning for the field study including the logistics, dates, locations, target number and study populations. This was followed by conclusive remarks by Ms Sarah Mayanja who thanked the team for being patient through the training period and their immerse contributions during the sessions. She shared on the study plan dates, the number of FGDs, IDIs and KIIs to conduct each region. The training closed at 16:00hrs prompt.All training presentations were shared with the participants at the end of the training. Participants appreciated the knowledge and insights shared by the facilitators during the training program.Gender Writeshop Held at Horizon Hotel, Entebbe from 6 th to 9 th December 2023 Ms. Sarah Mayanja mentioned that the gender write shop followed a field study held in Central (Nakaseke district) and Eastern Uganda (Kamuli and Bugiri districts) that was aimed at understanding the dynamics of VPC seed access and decision making among households. FGDs, IDIs and KIIs were conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers during the field study. Stratified random sampling was done for the individual interviews to ensure that each crop had an equal number of interviews. For the FGDs, purposive sampling was done. The crop of focus for Nakaseke was banana, Cassava for Bugiri, and sweetpotato for Kamuli. She mentioned that at team of breeders, agronomists, food scientists, social economists, and gender specialists had been involved in the conceptualization, planning and execution of the study. She expressed gratitude to the partner institutes of the Seed Equal project including ABC, IIRI, WP4, and CIP that funded the study.Ms. Sarah Mayanja mentioned structuring the manuscript according to the journal as the main objective of the writeshop. The introduction and methodology were said to be essential irrespective of the journal. The importance of aligning the study objectives to the key messages was emphasized. The study objectives included the following.• Identify the dimensions of intra-household gendered decision making related to VPC seed and varietal acquisition and use.• Ascertain the needs and challenges curtailing seed access by the various gender categories in relation to their multiple social identities. SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS The outputs of the write shop included;• Building capacity of participants in developing publications that provide significant contributions to research.• Developing a draft manuscript based on the results from the study on VPC seed access geld in Central and Eastern Uganda.These outputs were to complement other ongoing studies on estimating seed demand, and the results would feed into development of gender responsive strategies to disseminate seed to the last mile.Dr. Jummai welcomed participants to the write shop in their respective capacities. She appreciated the data collection team for their efforts and urged the write shop participants to focus on making the most out of the data so as to develop a manuscript that contributes significantly to research.A panel comprising of Mr. Fahad Musaazi, Ms. Mary Namuddu, Ms. Sarah Kisakye, Ms. Maureen Asasira provided a brief overview of the study findings.Mr. Fahad Musaazi shared that information obtained from the adult men farmers regarding sweetpotato seed access revealed about three to four steps on the ladder of life. OFSP (Kipapaali) was identified as one of the common varieties of sweetpotatoes grown. The middle-and upperincome classes grew sweetpotato on about one acre of land. The decision-making process was influenced by the purpose of the crop in the household. For instance, for cash crops, men mostly made the decisions while women made the decisions regarding the food crops. Challenges experienced by farmers regarding seed information and seed access included the limited number of extension officers, segregation, inadequate supply of vines resulting in only a few farmers receiving the vines. Besides, the farmer-to-farmer response did not ensure quality and seed multiplication.Farmers also complained about lack of feedback from researchers. To address these challenges, village demonstrations were required, and Local Councils were suggested as better determinants and selectors of eligible families for seed access.Ms. Mary Namuddu shared the insights. The female youth FGD on cassava seed access in Bugiri district revealed three steps of the ladder. Regarding decision making on accepting use of new varieties, the female youths reported that both men and women were involved although sometimes women took the decisions on their own. The youth farmers were knowledgeable about the different new cassava varieties available in the community, like new Magana, China O, Kampi, Nigeria and Kasangati. They were very much aware on how to differentiate them and their quality attributes.Farmer characteristics/ step on the ladder of life played a role on the quality of seed accessed. For instance, they perceived that the best-off had the ability to source for good seed either from their own community or other places, while the worse-off accessed any available seed. They suggested SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS that access to seeds may occur through diverse channels depending on one's status/ step on the ladder of life, that is., farmer-to-farmer (mainly for the worse off and those at the middle step of the ladder of life), government sources like NAADs and extension officers (mainly the middle step and the best-off benefit from such sources). Inequality in the distribution of seeds. This was raised as a challenge to seed access. They felt that not everyone was getting a fair share of seeds since the extension officers only gave to their friends and family/relatives. The youths felt left out when it came to seed distribution. They were neither informed nor represented. They therefore proposed to form youth groups/ clubs and government interventions intended for the youths.Ms. Maureen Asasira shared the challenges faced in the banana growing seed system with regards to seed access including pests and diseases, information access, and difficulty in accessing improved seed. She reported that the women complained about their non recognition as contributors or participants in banana production. They also mentioned that they had more challenges with regards to seed access than men. The women felt left out during seed distribution because households were considered during the process. The women in the lower ladders found it difficult to grow bananas alone hence indulged inside relationships to get support. However, in most households, women reportedly had their own banana mats (plots) even when farming was done jointly. The men involved in banana farming were majorly involved in commercial production. Many respondents mentioned that there were no taboos or restrictions with regards to VPC farming in the different regions.However, it was noted in one FGD that knives used for cutting meat were not to be used for cutting seed. Some communities also believed that the new VPC varieties were aimed at wiping out their old varieties. The opportunities in the banana seed system included availability of social workers, and equal consideration during seed distribution.The most pressing issues with regards to seed access as obtained from the key informant interviews were shared by Ms. Sarah Kisakye. They included the following.• Unavailability of seed. Respondents in Bugiri district mentioned that nobody was bringing the seeds to them. They said that they hadn't received any new VPC varieties for about four years.They blamed these unaddressed challenges on the government as it did not give them priority in giving out improved VPC varieties. Where seed was available, there was limited supply among farmers.• Short life span of seed especially for cassava. Some vines also died out easily.• Lack of knowledge on the improved VPC varieties as well as their importance hence lack of interest among farmers in cultivation of improved VPC varieties.• Lack of VPC multiplication centres.• The VPC value chain not being well defined.• Unpredictable weather conditions.• Expensive transportation due to bad roads and long distances travelled.• Distribution of fake seedThere were some notable similarities and differences in the cassava, banana and sweetpotato seed systems obtained from the study.Participants highlighted the need to contextualise the issues of seed distribution and access to know which seed is being distributed by who and in which way. There was an observation that not so much information was available on the commercialisation of sweetpotato and cassava seed, yet some information was available regarding multiplication and sale of banana seedlings. It was mentioned that the wealthy had no interest in sweetpotato cultivation, yet they were interested in commercialisation of good banana seed. Banana seed although safer was reportedly expensive hence not easily accessible. Education/knowledge regarding banana production was said to be available.Participants shared that seed replacement was not common among farmers hence limited repeat buyers. The individual interviews revealed that farmers got seed from own farm or from neighbours.\"When its extinct, its extinct\", it wasn't accessible because it was unavailable even when they wanted it. The study revealed seed replacement to be more common in the Central than in the Eastern region.Dr. Allan Bomuhangi took the participants through the scope of the manuscript covering the important key messages, the intended audience, and the potential journals to target.Regarding key messages, he stated the need to understand information on the delivery pathways of the VPCs in the study regions. He pointed out themes in the FGDs on seed access, decision making and access to information and seed delivery structured along lines of the ladder of life. He mentioned variations between households at the different levels of wealth. In the lower steps, the decision-making process was taking a joint decision-making form given smaller units of production available. More separate plots at upper than lower levels. Pathways identified at different strata seemed to vary. Participants needed to understand the inclusivity of these pathways of the households in terms of gender. For example, \"are there differences in seed access among women and men headed households?\" The need to deductively look at the information was highlighted.The following ideas were suggested.• Who do we want to target? We'll be writing to different audiences such as our donors with knowledge on development of food systems.• Target journals (to be informed by type of content they publish e.g., those publishing about food systems, Agriculture; Turnaround time for the paper to come out). Suggested Journals include. The following issues were suggested;• The effect of intra household decision making in mediating seed acquisition and use.• What are the dynamics in the household decision making. Since decision making is a long process, the need to focus on how information about the seed and the seed delivery was received was emphasized.• The key dynamics are in how these delivery models and decision making are gendered• The decision-making processes should be fit into the ladder of life in order to come up with something new.The main drivers of the key messages suggested were;• Delivery models for VPCs-Access and availability of seed• How and where they are gendered• Fitting the decision making to the ladder of lifeThere were questions on whether working together implied joint decision making and on the value of the gender study. A participant suggested that in addition to developing the gender context on the second output, development of gender context specific strategies would be required. They said would be necessary that the design of interventions is specific to the needs of various categories of seed users and that the information regarding seed should give an idea on the shortage. The question was on the information affected the quality and quantity of seed?\" Another participant suggested that the key messages should be used to visualise the data. Participants suggested other important considerations including the gap being addressed, the crops of interest, context/ seed shortage of household typologies to address seed questions, connecting key messages.The following ideas were suggested with regards to the publications.• More than one publication should be considered.• There is a necessity of information on the potential for commercialisation, including the why and how.• The second paper should be a policy brief drawing from the first paper • There was need to provide guidance on the kind of literature to be used in the different sections• The RTB multi stakeholder framework would be used to guide the theoretical framework. For the methodology section, it was advised that a sampling framework and a justification for choice of sites be added. For the introduction section it was suggested that Gender issues come out a little bit earlier in the write up. A participant suggested that we work with non-generic introductions, adding that we should twist our introduction to our objectives, such as gender issues in seed systems and what has been done. We should be able to bring out the research gap already in the introduction. It was suggested that we could start from the assumption that yield could be attributed to equitable planting material. A member highlighted the need to understand the research question which will align to the objectives and frame the introduction along the research question. There was a question on how intra household decision making dynamics enable/ affect household seed access and use.The context section focussed on the theoretical framework and the household unitary model of decision making as well as decision making and linkage to the ladder. The context drafting team assumed that the major contribution of the paper would be that the ladder of life is a key influencer of access and utilisation of seed. It was observed that there were some important elements of the research design that seem to be missing in the household model. Participants agreed that the sections be overpopulated, and the paper broken into two.Some of the results from the data were presented. There was a need to first look at the data set, as this would help identify the variables of interest especially for the context section of the manuscript. There was an emphasis on the need to first see the highlights from the data so as to set a pace for the write up. A plan to have a subject matter expert (social economics) guide on data analysis and results, given the short time available was suggested. It was proposed that the format for presenting results could be based on overall, gender categories, age and income categories. The link for data access and exploring was shared with the participants.It was advised that the statement \"respondent alone\" be rephrased. Data analysts were asked to think of representation that is not confusing to avoid diving in the data first to understand the variable. Respondent alone could be removed because it's hard to tell the values of the rest of responses. There was an emphasis on the need to define the variable of interest.The following questions were asked• What value does it add such as age, sex variables?• What is the data providing?• Does adult child and female parent mean alone?• What is our interest in line with the conceptual framework?It was suggested that some of the variables could be collapsed and combined into others. For example, considering sole and collective decision making, it was advised that respondent alone be collapsed into those that are married and singles.A participant mentioned the need to consider the significance of those variables created. The data under the specific crop had been found to speak more for example, it could give a picture of the type of household such as joint with spouse and spouse alone. There was an emphasis on the importance of defining who the study respondent was, as well as having a study hypothesis to help align the questions on the variables.The need to pay attention to the numbers under overall in the presented table was also highlighted. It was mentioned that it could be better to present each crop alone, to differentiate the responses per crop, and necessary to qualify the percentages on decision making than using the numbers. There was notable subjectivity hence a difficulty in telling whether there was difference between them/ lack the absolute zero point.The context writing team suggested another model to consider besides the classic household unitary model of decision making. An alternative model \"targeted, reach and benefit/power concept\" that uses the feminist theory was presented. The team suggested a possibility of aligning the two models together assuming that the data fits with the assumption in conceptual framing. It was highlighted that the team will need help with constructing a conceptual framework/ coming out with a diagrammatic representation. A participant urged that the data could be lacking information for the benefit part of the concept. It was highlighted that the study was still at exploratory stage of the SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS theory of change, hence a little bit of challenge with benefit/empower component of the framework.There were some models said to be used to predict and get information and results that would fit the policy brief. There was a question on whether interventions were to be based on the data. A participant highlighted that it was required to have had interventions in order to come up with projected state of benefits and power. The theory of change was generally said to be important in visualising genetic gains at farmer level. However, the questionnaire had used the assumption that there are distribution channels, varieties.It was suggested that the anonymity of respondents regarding the GPS data should be considered.The team agreed to remove any personal information that could be used to trace the respondent such as names, telephone numbers and any other personal identifiers. There was a suggestion that tables be used to represent the sub-county and districts and number of the respondents. It was also advised that both survey and quality description should be put together to describe the study location.The data analysis team focused on exploring the data and looked at number of variables to align them with thoughts or context discussed. They explored the wealth perceptions of individual respondents, cross tabulated several variables, and focused on collapsing the variables under decision making (collapsed into those that take the decision alone and collectively). The team was able to identify a few variables such as sex that were found to be significant.It was agreed to explore more on the data available so as to determine if clustering/ collapsing the data is important. Ranking or giving weights to the variables to select the most important was to be considered. Participants agreed that the data should be explored so it may guide the thinking and direction of the manuscript.• Check or note if the codes on varieties/ practice is the same with that on information.• Add information on the VPC varieties.• Data mining should be done, and information on decision making and acquisition of resources at the different steps provided.The introduction section was reported to align to objectives and feed into the context.The context aligned with the introduction and the unitary decision-making model was accepted.Members suggested that we would start at step level, extract data on seed acquisition at that step, the text would tell us where the extract is coming from (type of FGD). SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS• Quantitative data: aspects of decision making aligned to dissemination pathways. Need for graphical presentation of the data (such as outcomes of seed acquisition drivers).• Look at decision making data before clustering.• Model and identify potential models from quantitative data research (integrate models in quantitative data set).• Decision making with in households on seed disaggregated into seed acquisition, seed type/ variety, variety replacement, marketing and sharing benefits and information access. Align the information with household typologies, intersectional identities and ladder of life.• The key aspect is what decision are being made and by who (who makes a given decision).• For the qualitative section, three codes were selected including acquired agricultural information, tools, tool sources. • Data should be explored to understand the direction and relevance of decision-making variables.• Use qualitative to explain results from quantitative.• Let the data inform the thinking, focus on exploring the data (both qualitative and quantitative).• Out puts from both quantitative and qualitative data should be presented to provide a background to the manuscript.• Include disparities regarding the type of crop and purpose.• The various variables were aligned to the decision-making processes and that it was a successful process.There were four sections under decision-making suggested including the following.• Seed acquisition.• Seed type/ Variety type.• Varietal replacement turnover.• Marketing and sharing benefits.The super decision-making variables were at two levels including;• Predominantly joint.• Predominantly sole.• Collapsing the rich data generated into two super variables would be a limiting factor.• The data should tell us what is in the data so we can make decisions on the significant areas in the data contributing to the knowledge. SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS• There was question on what determines why someone is in a particular ladder of life, and whether there is a linkage.• It would be great to rank the responses in order to determine the different categories.• All questions carry the same weight and should be given equal attention.The team handling qualitative data was asked to provide more details on ladder of life and their characteristics and should be aligned to decision making typologies and to check if aspects of seed access are common or different along the ladder of life. Data from decision making responses when its joint and separate was to be harmonised and disaggregated. Since over 70% of the data was said to be arranged by steps on the ladder of life, the analysts were asked to arrange the data by steps.Other comments included;• We need to focus and see where the linkages in quant and qual are.• Pull out opportunities separate from limitations.• Add descriptors to the transcripts.• Rename the documents.• The FGDs are based on the locations.• Add as much information regarding responses on the codes as is available.• The audio recordings should be shared with the data analysts.• Facilitators should probe as much as possible in order to provide in-depth data.During this session, participants were challenged to reflect on their achievements during the write shop, and on the aspect of the achievements that spoke most to the visualisation of the direction of the manuscript.• The 10% level of significance should be used.• What further analysis can we do that speaks to our paper.• Specify parameter for each table.• Add pie charts.• Integrate decision makers.• Change unknown to unspecified.• Let's have an idea of how many of the actual respondents said that they make decisions alone.• Find out the main themes coming out from our story that will contribute to knowledge• Reflect on our objectives, study tools and the results• What else directly regarding the VPCs is to be included? SEED EQUAL WP3 GENDER WORKSHOPS• There are differences s in wealth categories in both quantitative and qualitative data• We are using the ladder of life to determine the different players in decision making• We should start from the qualitative because that's where the real ladder is, we can have the quantitative speak to the qualitative.The themes coming out from the previous discussions included Variations within processes of seed access and how decisions are made along those lines, and decision making by the income categories and how it varies by VPC seed systems. From the results, there was more than decision making hence the need to expand the other sections like credit, variety types so as to expand the manuscript. It was suggested that understanding the decision-making processes was crucial because it fed into the objectives. Participants suggested that all the possible themes be developed as long as they speak to each other.The following ideas came out during this session.• Paper 1: Decision making dynamics with regards to seed access• Paper 2: The ladder of life and how people at those stages making decisions with regards to information access• Separate manuscripts by crop. A paper on these elements for banana, sweetpotato and cassava• There is rich information describing people in the wealth categories• The ladder of life is described by its characteristics/ community typologies and wealth• Decision making and how it varies by VPC seed systemSection (Paper 1) Decision making and how it varies by VPC seed system 1.1 Community typologies for each VPC seed system) quant data by district• Community Ladder of life -largely 3 steps in the VPC seed systems with 2 exceptions plus describe the characteristics of each step, for some communities the women were equally distributed but for some seed systems women in the VPC seed system were described and why?• Land access by women and youths (M & F); (Vulnerable gender categories and land access i.e.,), qual-share cropping; -Describe general women access aspects-using with family, rent, for each • Information may defer by crop• Do we build models by crop? Is it possible to have the 3 models separately but in the same paper.• Where's the diversity of the similarity ","tokenCount":"6299"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c34cb4729f03aaa68ac680fee9eb170d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/46952c63-c41b-4ea0-971e-3e67d041d798/retrieve","id":"-1134130983"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5592c053-ae11-4eb3-84cf-dc83bc900b51","pagecount":"9","content":"The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish started in January 2012. It aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable to poor consumers across the developing world.Drawing on recent lessons in researchfor-development, the Program applies a solution-driven approach to achieve the targeted impact. It has the following key features:• A value chain approach: The Program uses the value chain concept as an organizing framework, with improving the value chain as the objective. This means considering what is needed to make the value chain work more effectively as a system, exploring the full range of constraints it faces, from policies and institutional issues down to specific technological problems.• Focus: The Program works in a few value chains across the developing world. The initial set of value chains includes 3 smallholder dairy systems (Tanzania, India, Nicaragua), 2 small ruminant systems (Mali, Ethiopia), 2 smallholder pig systems (Vietnam, Uganda) and 1 aquaculture system (Egypt). All the research will address the constraints in these value chains.• Working with development partners: The program collaborates with development partners in each value chain so they are involved, co-creating, contributing to, drawing from, and testing the evolving research outputs.• Impact at scale: Working in a few value chains allows the Program to fully engage with the research and development partners in each chain to identify technological and institutional strategies and interventions, generate the evidence that they indeed work, and use this evidence to attract the development investment needed to take the intervention to scale.• A more relevant agenda of basic research: Research-for-development work in the selected value chains will be supported by technology development and basic research on the main productivity drivers of feeds, genetics and health.In 2012, the Program launched a series of planning meetings for each of its 'value chain development' components.The value chain development processes are intended to produce the following outputs (see figure ): • Output 1: Sectoral and economy-wide models established to evaluate propoor development scenarios in each target value chain -The situation analysis will be a first review to serve as the basis for developing sectoral and economy-wide models for simulation analysis • Output 4: Pro-poor, gender-sensitive technological and institutional options devised and validated for each target value chain -From the reviews and value chain assessment, we will identify best-bet options we can begin testing.• Output 5: Integrated pro-poor, gender-sensitive intervention strategies formulated and piloted in each target value chain -Validation of the best-bet options will provide the basis for developing our ultimate integrated intervention strategy to upgrade the value chain• Scoping R&D partners On 1 and 2 June 2012, the Program convened a meeting of ICARDA and ILRI staff to prepare an overall work plan for VCD activities in the Ethiopia small ruminant value chain. Information on the workshop is documented at http://livestock-fish.wikispaces.com/events. This document provides some background information and outlines the main activities discussed by the participants.The meeting aimed to:• Develop a common understanding of CRP objectives for the value chain and the proposed approach • Review and refine the implementation plan, including individual roles and responsibilities, and agree on the timetable for 2012 • Identify resource mobilization priorities and agree on responsibilitiesThe workshop began with a general introduction to the Program (for those people not familiar with it). It then discussed an initial 'situational analysis' giving an overview of the pig sector in Ethiopia and reviewed information on several ongoing projects related to the value chain. The different projects 'mapped' included: In addition, participants brainstormed aspects of gender, capacity development and partnerships that were considered important to the overall goal to transform the pig value chain. The notes from these discussions are at http://livestock-fish.wikispaces.com/Ethiopia_ruminants_vcmeeting2012.","tokenCount":"649"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b623961b6086813d9eaaa429e865685d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1fa26779-57a0-418f-8c5c-53414d0bef94/retrieve","id":"-2128884804"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dff1a8ce-bcf3-4156-ab19-e17603380da5","pagecount":"57","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-Land tenure security and governance dynamics in Gujarat, India: Pastoral women's perspectives   Table 9. Who made the decision to engage in this activity?Table 10. Summary of questions showing livestock-related management and other decision-making Table 11. Who gave the HH permission to use the land for cropping?Table 12. Land use classifications in Gujarat Table 13. Have any SLM investments been made in the individual/household grazing area in the last three years by the HH?Table 14. What are the challenges in making SLM investments in individual/household grazing land?Table 15. What would encourage you to make SLM investments in the individual/household grazing lands?Table 16. What is the type of grazing land?Table 17. Distance to grazing land from residence villages Table 18. Average amount paid by a HH for grazing in a season Table 19. Have any SLM investments been established or made on the common grazing land in the last three years by the HH?Table 20. SLM (land improvement) investments that have been made on common grazing land Table 21. What are the challenges in making SLM investments on common grazing land?Table 22. What would encourage you to make SLM investments on the common grazing lands?Table 23. Does the HH have land in an urban area?Table 24. Do you have equal access to the cropping land with your husband or other male members of your HH?Table 25. Do you contribute to the management of the cropping land?Table 26. Is the land well managed?Table 27. Why do you say the land is well managed?Table 28. Why do you say it is not well managed?Table 29. Do you feel that the HH cropping land belongs to you?Table 30. Does the HH have a landholding certificate for this cropping land?Table 31. Does having a land holding certificate make you feel you have more ownership over the plot?Table 32. Do customary institutions protect your agriculture land for you?Table 33. Have any SLM (land improvement) investments been established or made in your individual cropping land in the last three years?Table 34. SLM (land improvement) investments that have been made on individual cropping land Table 35. What are the challenges in making SLM investments on your individual cropping land?Table 36. What would encourage you to make SLM investments in the individual cropping lands Table 37. Does the HH use communal or communal cropping land?Table 38. What are the challenges in making SLM investments on your communal cropping land?Table 39. What would encourage you to make SLM investments in the communal cropping land?Table 40. Is the winter water point well managed?Table 41. Do you feel that this water point belongs to you or the community?Table 42. If no, why do you think this?Table 43. Did you undertake any investment to improve drinking water?Table 44. Have you done any type of improvements for livestock water source?   Figure 12. SLM (land improvement) investments that have been made on common grazing land.Common or communal grazing lands in India are a key resource for pastoralism and are managed through rich and diverse traditions of local communities and their indigenous knowledge. However, these commons are steadily disappearing due to development, legal and illegal land acquisition, 'land grabbing,' growing privatization and tremendous land speculation. The loss of the commons has forced significant changes in migratory routes and grazing patterns of pastoralists. Pastoralists are being forced out of pastoralism and/or to change their livelihood patterns and practices. So far, government policy has failed to address the impacts of these changes, and in many cases, policies unsuited to the livelihood practices and patterns of pastoralists have served to aggravate the situation. Many pastoralists have become destitute, which has decreased their social status and lowered their self-esteem.Women can be more vulnerable than men to these land use changes. Traditionally, pastoral women were the primary economic actors in the pastoral community, sharing responsibilities with men such as managing the commons as needed and were strongly involved in decision-making processes. However, with less secure access to the commons women's roles have been diminished. The entire discourse of women and land in India is around individual land rights promoted by both government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There is little understanding and/or appreciation of the rights that women currently have in the commons and how these rights are protected through customary practices, rules and regulations. These common rights are threatened by individualization and privatization processes, and the latter do not necessarily offer women sufficient and/or the right kind of protection in the face of new and developing challenges.This research attempts to improve the understanding of the sociopolitical, environmental and economic changes taking place in pastoral areas of Gujarat State from a pastoral women's perspective. The research was undertaken by researchers from a local NGO, MARAG (Maldhari Rural Action Group), who has been working with the community, especially women, for many years. Only women were interviewed in this study, which not only enabled women's insights and contributions to be central to the study, but also boosted their self-esteem and paved the way for women to continue engaging on these issues in the local community. A survey of 300 pastoralist women from different households was undertaken, together with focus group discussions and key informant interviews.Pastoralist women in Gujarat State are able to access and use the commons in the same way as men. In fact, for pastoralism to work effectively, women and men need to work together with complimentary roles and responsibilities. However, increasingly this access and use is being challenged due to the rapid encroachment and loss of the commons together with their conversion to other uses. Commons, and particularly common grasslands, do not receive the same legal protection as forests, and even where a degree of protection may exist on paper, this is rarely put into practice.One of the most important findings of the survey is the high dependence on the use of individual cropping lands for grazing in winter and summer seasons as more than 80% of pastoralists in Gujarat graze their livestock on the remains of crops (crop stubble). In the monsoon the dependence on cropping land is less but still substantial for 43% of families. The access to cropping land or grazing is governed by informal agreements between farmers and pastoralists, which are built on relations that the two actors have maintained over generations in many cases. However, the nature of these relationships is changing from social or in-kind, to monetary transactions.xi As a result of such socio-economic changes taking place, the status of women in pastoral communities is reducing, and among other challenges, it is now more difficult for them to access money required to purchase what they and their household needs. Whereas women have a wealth of knowledge and skills about livestock, it clearly emerged that women do not have the same knowledge and skills about crop farming as men and, as a result, crop management decisions are made by men.A meeting of pastoral women from 31 countries across the world that was held in Gujarat in 2010 clearly articulated what pastoral women need. However, little has changed in the last 10 years and women (and men) have continued to rapidly lose their access to the commons, as well as their social status and other benefits associated with these resources.In this context women do not feel tenure secure to grazing lands and are not investing in land improvements or resource management. Women feel greater security to individual cropping lands that are becoming increasingly important in the more integrated crop-livestock systems that are developing. However, as more land is turned to crop land, more grasslands are being ploughed up. There is little investment in sustainable land management practices though there are some traditional methods of doing this in which women play a significant role. If the rangelands of Gujarat are to be protected and reach their full potential, then pastoralists should be given assistance in expanding these practices and investing more in rangeland management and restoration activities. A process such as participatory rangeland management (PRM), would be a strong framework for developing and implementing this (see Flintan and Cullis 2010).In addition to the challenges that pastoralists in general are facing in terms of accessing land and resources, they also suffer from lack of government support and investments in areas such as veterinary services or markets for products such as wool, lack of economic opportunities, and insecurity during migrations etc. The majority of pastoralists, both men and women, want to continue the pastoralist way of life. In Gujarat, pastoralism provides women with clear roles and responsibilities and status, as well as control over resources such as finances and a voice in household decisionmaking. This should be the starting point for any support to women pastoralists, based on a good understanding of the local context and the changes taking place.1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDYPastoralism is a way of life for many communities across the globe whilst also supporting conservation of natural resources and biodiversity and contributing significantly to national economies (UNEP 2019). Common or communal grazing lands are a key resource for pastoralism and are managed through rich and diverse traditions of indigenous knowledge of local communities providing fuel, fodder, water, fruits and grazing to both primary and secondary users.In India, colonial laws criminalized several hunting and grazing groups, with the government considering pastoralism detrimental to its interests, particularly with regard to forests. The colonial state introduced the term 'wasteland' as a formal administrative category-a medieval English term for lands from which the government could not collect tax.Communities practising pastoralism and grazing have shared a long and difficult relationship with the colonial and the modern state. The innocuous sounding Cattle Trespass Act 1871 was one of the early laws that reflected the tensions between pastoralists and settled agriculture. It facilitated the establishment of pounds for stray cattle, the idea being to protect the interests of farmers or investors in agriculture who were authorized to impound stray cattle (plus camels, goats and sheep) that damaged their land. The Act was also meant to protect against damage from cattle to public roads, canals and embankments. This Act is still in force in many states of the country (FES 2010; Forest Survey of India 2011).Following independence of India, the implementation of land reform laws of the 1950s resulted in a decline in the availability of common lands. Government officials found it more convenient to distribute common grazing lands as private land 'pattas' or landholdings to the landless, rather than deal with the problems of powerful landlords. Millions of hectares of lands classified as 'wastelands', which were largely submarginal lands unsuitable for cultivation, were distributed and became privatized, 49-86% of which ended up in the hands of the non-poor (FES 2010).Those commons that survived have been steadily disappearing due to development, legal and illegal land acquisition, land grabbing,' growing privatization and tremendous land speculation (India Environment Portal 2006;Sharma et al. undated;Köhler-Rollefson 2017;Mahaptra 2012). In India, common land has deteriorated by about half over the past five decades because of encroachments, insecure tenure rights for local communities, and a lack of trust in communities in managing them, according to data from FES (Foundation of Ecological Studies). Many were classified as 'wastelands' or government land and diverted for quarrying, biofuel cultivation, mines, and other commercial purposes, displacing and depriving local communities. About half the country's rural households rely on forests and common land for their livelihood activities, and the loss of commons has hurt farmers, weavers, and potters, and triggered migration to the cities for jobs (Chandran 2017).The loss of the commons has forced significant changes in migratory routes and grazing patterns of pastoralists. There is no clear definition of commons in government documents: commons are defined and categorized in many ways including grazing land, pasture land, forest commons, non-forest commons, or wasteland. Without a clear definition of commons, it has been easy to change their land use, whilst it is also difficult for pastoralists and other land users to make a claim on them. In India the jurisdiction over commons differs, with pasture land jurisdiction vested in the 'Gram Panchayats' (the decision-making body of all the adult population of a village) but revenue wasteland under the custody of the Revenue Department. Though 'Panchayat Raj' (local self-governance) could be an advantage for local communities, the Panchayats are not clearly mandated about their responsibilities under any commons policy and thus these are often left to be defined according to the interests of individuals.For the most part, pastoralists get included as an afterthought in any discussion on policy, livelihoods or environment.The voluminous Farmers Commission Report (PRS Legislative Research 2006) for instance has but two pages on pastoralists (Section 1.7.2). While the suggestions made in these two pages are sympathetic and considered, they stand quite isolated from the rest of the report (Kavoori 2010). There is no national policy on pastoralism or mobility.The National Livestock Policy (Government of India 2013) refers only to farmers and does not include the word pastoralism. There are no official statistics about the number of pastoralists in the country. This is despite the fact that and estimated 70% of India's meat and more than 50% of its milk is produced in extensive grazing systems (Köhler-Rollefson 2016).But forests and the rights of those who use them are better protected. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 is a very progressive and powerful pro-people act, that gives stronger security of rights to forest communities dwelling in the and/or dependent on them, including community forest rights. However, still here the implementation of the Act has had numerous challenges, including for pastoralists trying to access the forests (FES 2010). For example, the Act requires the provision of proof of 75 years of dependency on a forest for the community to claim it. For pastoralists, showing this use, particularly where they have migrated, is highly challenging if not impossible.Though there have been some efforts to improve security of local communities to the commons, schemes to intensify fodder and feed supplies for livestock by establishing pasture plots or irrigation fodder production since the 1970s, for example, have largely failed (Kavoori 2010). Following a court case in 2011 1 concerning some evictions from common land, the Supreme Court of India concluded that all states must prepare schemes to restore land wrongly taken from 'Gram Sabha' (village councils) or Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers. In line with this, some state governments and courts have issued orders for safeguarding the commons. The Government of Rajasthan was the first state government that prepared a draft policy on common land where it placed the entire responsibility of identifying, developing and managing the commons with Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha. One significant part of the policy is to identify common land area for grazing based on the calculation that 1/8 of a hectare is required for each cow. This implied that more grazing land was required to match the increase of livestock that has happened over the years. However, in reality grazing land has been decreasing, coupled with increasing restriction on pastoralists to stay within state borders. 2With restricted mobility and rapidly shrinking common property resources and restrictions on movement, conflict with and/or dependence on farmers, forests and/or the government is increasing. Pastoralists are being forced out of pastoralism and/or to change their livelihood patterns and practices. So far, government policy has failed to address the impacts of these changes, and in many cases, policies unsuited to the livelihood practices and patterns of pastoralists have served to aggravate the situation. Many pastoralists have become destitute, and their social status and self-esteem has decreased. Due to the specificity of their skills and lack of formal education, when pastoralists are forced to give up livestock rearing they find it difficult to find alternative employment. Those that do find work tend to end up becoming wage labourers at construction sites or similar low-paid insecure jobs. And it not only men that are forced into hard labour-there is also a growing trend of pastoralist women taking up jobs as housemaids in cities and towns. Some pastoralists have managed to connect and mobilize themselves, campaigning for their rights to land and other resources, however examples of this are scattered.1 October 2011 case of Jaspal Singh & Others vs. the state of Punjab in Supreme Court.MARAG is drafting a national policy on the commons from the perspective of pastoralists -it remains to be seen if this will be taken up by government.Women can be more vulnerable than men to changes in land use rights, often because they are more reliant on the use of natural resources than men as well as having fewer social and economic development options open to them. Indeed, the impacts of the above rapid socio-cultural and socio-economic changes have been heavily felt by women, often with negative consequences. Traditionally, pastoral women were primary economic actors in the pastoral community sharing responsibilities with men including managing the commons as needed and were strongly involved in decision-making processes. However, with less secure access to the commons, women's role has been diminished as well as their connection with nature and their culture, resulting in a poorly defined self-identity and a loss of self-worth, confidence and respect. Women are increasingly left alone with responsibility for the children and older members of the family as men migrate to find pastures or work. Women's roles are often not recognized in the current neo-liberal development discourse.The entire discourse of women and land is around individual land rights promoted by both government and NGOs. There is little understanding and/or appreciation of the rights that women currently have in commons and how these are protected through customary practices, rules and regulations. These common rights are threatened by individualization and privatization processes, and the latter do not necessarily offer women sufficient and/or the right kind of protection in the face of new and developing challenges. This means that overall, women can be worse off and more vulnerable than men (as discussed by Köhler-Rollefson 2017). Indeed, women are now more likely to lose access to land and resources as the commons are privatized, with men usually the ones given land titles.Gujarat State in northeastern India has in the past attracted pastoralists due to its rich grasslands and its proximity to markets in towns. A popular pastoralist saying about the Panchal region for example goes thus: 'Khad pani ane khakhra nahi panano paar, chau paga charta fare na aave dukaad, vagar dive vadu kare pad joao Panchal.' (The land of Panchal region is such that one will find enough fodder, water, trees and rocks and where the animals can freely graze without any occurrence of famine, and the people do not need a lantern to get their food) (Venkatasubramanian and Ramnarain 2018).Pastoralists have had customary rights over the commons. In times past, the Raj of the area gave pastoral communities the rights to access and use the commons in the immediate vicinity. A few of these allocations were properly documented, but the demarcation of most of them has relied on word-of-mouth. Because of this, there is conflict among the pastoralists and other communities dependent on these lands.According to the policies of the state government of Gujarat, at least 40 acres need to be demarcated for every 100 animals that pastorals own but this rule has not been followed. However, the 'Management of Grazing Land Policy' or 'Gaucharni zameen na vyavasthapan karwa angeni niti' (Government of India 2015) does not support pastoralism, and rather promotes the privatization of land by fencing as exclosures, for cultivation and the growing and sale of grasses. It also promotes stall-feeding. Further, it sanctions land acquisition for development projects, with little room for public consultation. Moreover, the policy does not mention the role of women in local livelihoods including pastoralism, their use of commons, and completely ignores the traditional knowledge of women in developing and conserving the commons. Unsurprisingly women are not in any of the committees responsible for monitoring the implementation of the policy.Silica sand mining is rampant in the Vagad region of Gujarat. Thousands of acres of land have been acquired both legally and illegally, and encroached upon by the government and more affluent, powerful community members. This has forced some pastoralists to sedentarize, many of them working as labourers in the mining firms. Other examples of companies taking significant amount of pastoralist lands (mainly common land) include Solar Parks in Gujarat, the development of economic zones and the Narmada Dam (see Hemalatha 2019;Waikar 2019).According to one estimate from a MARAG survey of grazing land in Kutch, Surendranagar and Patan, up to 65% of common land in villages have been acquired for various uses (Venkatasubramanian and Ramnarain 2018). This stopped or changed migrations, with resulting reduction in livestock numbers as livestock management has become more expensive. A study by Venkatasubramanian and Ramnarain (2018), showed how Maldhari women describe a changing landscape that has impacted traditional pastoralism: several migration routes had now become busy state highways where fast-moving traffic poses risk of accidents for small animals. With no insurance for small stock, their injury or death receives no compensation. Due to the canal and more irrigated agriculture, seasonal cropping patterns and location of farms have changed and farmers, who once invited pastorals with their livestock for weeding and manure, now burn weeds, to keep away pastoralists.As described by Köhler-Rollefson (2017), for the Rabari (or Raika) women in Rajasthan, pastoralism is a family operation and dependent in equal parts on the contribution of women and men. Traditionally, women have had key roles in maintaining the biodiversity, and preserving the integrity, of the commons, and thus have participated in decision-making processes related to them. For example, women can control the cutting of plants and trees for fodder or fuel-the types that can be cut and when, where and how much is cut. For example, traditionally, a neem tree will never be cut during summer as it will dry out; it is cut in the rainy season when it flourishes. Cow dung collection has also been managed by women and their calculation of where and how much cow dung can be collected depends on the availability and the need for cow dung in a specific part of the rangeland. Sometimes children collect the dung under women's supervision, which is also a mechanism for passing on indigenous knowledge to the next generation.Normally, women accompany men during migrations with livestock. While some Rabari (Raika) women opt to live in urban areas, many women pastoralists prefer moving with livestock in search of pasture to staying in the villages because migration lowers their workloads; nevertheless they are concerned about security and the dangers of nomadism. 3 Women have tremendous indigenous knowledge on livestock, milk management and animal health, as well as breeding practices. Traditionally, women in Rajasthan manage livestock, make value-added milk products and sell them in the market, negotiate the price, and manage the income from livestock products. However, with the advent of the 'white revolution' (so called due to cross-breeding local and exotic breeds for more milk) women's role in livestock management is reducing as men take over the management of the resulting more commercialized and intensive production system. Specific grasses are required to feed these hybrid cows, which has promoted agriculture and a more settled way of living with knock-on negative impacts for those that try to remain mobile. It has been indicated that women pastoralists who settle down soon lose their knowledge, as well as status and clear roles and responsibilities in livestock and land management (Köhler-Rollefson, 2017).In the 1970s, the Government of Gujarat distributed land to landless people. 'Gopalak mandali' (pastoral committees) were formed in many pastoral areas giving pastoralists the management rights over the commons. However, none of these committees had women representatives and most of them are now defunct. A perverse shift to large stock requiring more care and the increased difficulty of migration that traditionally provided access to resources is now common in pastoral areas of the state. These processes have exacerbated work burdens of women pastoralists and increased anxieties related to livelihoods and nutritional security for pastoral families (Ramnarain 2019). However, though these general trends have been documented over the past few years, there has been little attempt to dig deeper into the lives of pastoralist women and understand the impacts of the changes on their lives and livelihoods including in relation to tenure security, and the use, access and management of the commons.This research attempts to improve the understanding of the sociopolitical, environmental and economic changes taking place in pastoral areas of Gujarat State from a pastoral women's perspective. It is anticipated that understanding how pastoral women access land and resources today, together with their perceptions of land and resource tenure security, and what implications this land security has on their relationship with land and resources, will result in better targeted land-and pastoral-related policies, legislation and development strategies.The research aims to understand the role and contribution of pastoral women in accessing, managing, preserving and sustaining rangelands. Key questions for the research were:1 What are pastoral women's rights to access and use the commons, especially rangelands? 2 What is pastoral women's role in pasture land management, preservation and sustenance, and their contributions, roles and responsibilities?3 What are the different types and degrees of tenure security that women experience and at what point do pastoral women feel 'tenure secure'?4 Once pastoral women feel tenure secure, what investments (if any) do they make in land and resources to, for example, improve productivity.In addition, the research aimed to build understanding of land and natural resource management and governance issues in communities as the research is undertaken, and to strengthen the capacity of pastoral women in land and resource management.The research was undertaken by researchers from a local NGO, Maldhari Rural Action Group (MARAG), who have been working with women in the community for several years. The trust that the NGO has built with the community made respondents feel comfortable to share their views and were thus more willing to speak freely. The MARAG team was supported by ILRI researchers in the planning of the research and analysing its findings. Only women were interviewed in this study, which not only gave room for women's insight and made their contribution central to the study, but also boosted their self-esteem and paved the way for women to continue engaging on these issues in the local community.The research in India is part of a cross-country study in Ethiopia, Tanzania and India on pastoral women and land tenure and governance, contributing to the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) Flagship 5 on natural resource governance and tenure and the Environment Flagship of the Livestock CRP.The research was conducted using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The major tools for data collection were a household survey, focus group discussions (FGDs), interviews and on-site observation.A survey of 300 pastoralist 'households' was undertaken to obtain information on the demographics of local populations, pastoral systems and changes in these, access to land and resources, decision-making processes and gender issues and land management investments. A household was defined as 'a group of people eating from the same kitchen.' The questionnaire covered topics such as household characteristics, income, livestock holdings, livelihoods, land and water access and investments in sustainable land management (SLM). Pastoralism exists across Gujarat, but it dominates in certain regions and this was where the study took place. The districts selected were Kutch, Patan, Rajkot, Botad, Banaskantha and Surendranagar (see Figure 1). The state of Gujarat is divided into 33 districts with each district further subdivided into blocks, and blocks divided into villages. The study took place in six districts, 15 blocks and within these, 56 villages. Thirty-nine per cent of respondents came from Kutch, 26% from Patan, 17% from Rajkot, 7% from Botad, 6% from Banaskantha and 5% from Surendranagar. The blocks percentage of those who came from each village were Bhachau (19%), Sami (18%), Vinchhiya (14%), Bhuj (12%), Santalpur (7%), Botad (7%), Danta (6%), Sayla (5%), Rapar (4%), Jasdan (3%), Lakhpat (2%), Nakhatrana (2%), Shankheshwar (2%), Dasada (0.3%), Patdi (0.3%) and other (0.4%).Research was carried out in areas where all forms of pastoralism are found including those based on sheep, goat, cow, buffalo and camel production. The villages and the timing of the research were selected in order to have the greatest chance of finding pastoralists back from their migrations. Households were selected according to who was available at the time of the research. 4 Over 95% of interviews were conducted at the residence villages 5 , with the remaining 5% carried out at the place of migration. Most pastoralists return to the residence villages from migration after the onset of monsoon rains in July/August and then restart with the winter migration in late October or early November after 'Dusshera' (a Hindu festival). The total migration period is usually around nine months. 6   The focus of the study was on pastoralists who still practice pastoralism (rather than agro-pastoralism or those that had 'dropped-out' or were 'transitioning out' of pastoralism), though the sample also includes 16 households who no longer keep livestock but are dependent on alternative livelihoods. In total, 300 women were interviewed in the survey. The decision was made to only interview women to ensure that their perspective was fully captured. 7 Over 26% of those interviewed were 15-35 years old, 60% were 36-59 years old, and 14% were aged 60 years and above. Amongst the respondents, 95.7% were married, 3.7% were single women (widow), and 0.6% unmarried. All those married had moved to the current place of residence after marriage. Those that were not married were young and were born in the place of interview.4This was because it was impossible to know who was available or not due to some families still being on migration, meaning that random sampling (e.g. from a village listing of households) would have been difficult.Normally when a husband and wife are interviewed together the husband dominates the conversation and the wife has little chance of sharing her perspective. As such the researchers made the purposeful choice of only interviewing women to overcome this challenge.In addition, over 25 FGDs were conducted with pastoral women, men, community leaders and others to understand different views on the role of pastoral women in maintaining the pastoral way of life, access to land and resources, and investments in land and resources management etc. Interviews with government officials were also undertaken. The majority of FGDs were conducted as mixed group FGDs as men and women prefer to discuss together, but on seven occasions it was considered more appropriate to have separate male and female ones. During the FGDs, women who no longer migrate or keep livestock were involved in the discussions. The FGDs provided a space for dialogue with and between men and women and gave good insights into the dynamics and influences of gender on livestock management.A team of 10 MARAG staff (mostly pastoralist themselves) were involved in the data collection supervised by a field coordinator to ensure quality data was collected. The survey was prepared with the help of ILRI. Data cleaning and entry was outsourced. Data analysis was carried out jointly by MARAG and ILRI. The team was aware of the biases that could come from they themselves conducting interviews and discussions with respondents due to their long association with the community. However, it was felt that the added value of them having good rapport and trust with the community was more beneficial than having outsiders carry out the data collection. The team was trained to avoid the potential biases, and several mock exercises were carried out with the team to practice framing and asking questions. The data was collected from August 2018 to early 2019 to catch the pastoralists after their return from the summer migration. The following sections provide the key results of this data collection, a discussion of the results and the study's conclusions.The people interviewed comprised the Rabari (66%), Bharwad (32%) and Jat (2%) communities. All three are traditional pastoralist communities of Gujarat. The pastoralist communities in Gujarat are referred to as 'other backward classes' (OBC). The OBC is an official classification for castes and communities that are said to be educationally and socially disadvantaged. There are no official population estimates of pastoralist communities in Gujarat (or indeed for any pastoralist groups in any other state in India). However, it is known that the Rabari are the largest pastoral group in Gujarat followed by Bharwad, with both being found all over the district. Jat pastoralists are more concentrated in the Banni region of Kutch and are found in small numbers in the Bhachau block of Gujarat. The study included four Jat families from the Bhachau block.The average household (HH) size is approximately five (see Table 1). The respondents were asked the question: Who is the head of the household? This is a contentious question in the patriarchal social set-up that exists in India. Despite this, 40% of women said that they are the head of the household, even though they were married. Interestingly, 56% of Bharwad women said they are the head of the household whereas only 32% Rabari women said this (Table 2). But conventionally, Bharwad women are considered more vocal and bolder compared to women from other communities in Gujarat. In the remaining 60% of households, the majority of respondents said that the household head is the husband and in a few cases a brother (2%) or father-in-law (1%). Not surprisingly, all the 'single' women said that they were the head of the household. The respondents were asked if they held an official position in the village, and only four respondents answered positively: one woman is currently the 'sarpanch' 8 of her village and three others were village panchayat members. This low number reflects the marginalization of the pastoralists generally from positions of status and power in the communities, and particularly of women pastoralists. According to the survey, the majority (96%) of women are illiterate, with only 3.7% saying that they can read and write, and only one out of the sample of 300 saying that she had studied to 10 th grade. In all villages, primary school exists up to 5 th or 7 th grade, but no secondary school. According to the last population census in 2011 by the Government of India 9 , the total Gujarat State rural female literacy rate is 61% and male literacy rate is 82%, which is higher than the national rural female literacy rate of 58% and male literacy rate of 77%. The extremely low literacy rate in the study areas could be a result of the double marginalization of pastoralist women, that is, being a pastoralist and being a woman.The majority (63%) of families in the sample were 'pastoralists' or 'agro-pastoralists' (37%). In this study, 'pastoralists' mean households who rely solely on livestock for their livelihoods and do not own land for crop farming. Agropastoralists depend on both crop farming and animal husbandry. Sixteen households interviewed do not own any livestock -not a single goat, which is unusual for households in the area. Thirteen of these households are involved 8 A 'sarpanch' is an elected head of the village level statutory institution of local self-government called the gram panchayat (village government). The sarpanch, together with other elected 'pancha' (members), constitute the gram panchayat. 9 MOPSI (2015).in the business of providing tractor rental services to farmers (or other large machinery such as a digger or plough). Indeed, there is an increasing, albeit still limited, trend in the region of households selling all their livestock to buy a tractor/digger. This trend started 10-15 years ago, mainly due to challenges faced in access to and availability of grazing areas. Ex-pastoralists 10 now migrate with a tractor or a JCB digger to find work, just like they had migrated with livestock in the past. A further three households rely on salaried work such as driving or wage labour on large crop farms.Ninety per cent of families live in their own houses (in the resident village), with the remaining two per cent in rented houses. When they go on migration, the houses are locked-up and left empty, though sometimes elderly parents remain behind and take care of the house. Around half (49.0%) of respondents have roofs made of ceramic tiles, locally called 'naliya'; cemented (22.3%); corrugated metal sheet (8.0%); stone (1.0%); thatch (1.0%); mud or sand (1.3%); and other materials (14.3%). The floor is normally made of cement (63.0%), with some mud floors (25.7%), ceramic tiles (10.3%), and other materials (1.0%).The type of roof and floor is an indication of the income levels of the family. A roof or floor made of mud, metal sheet, or thatch indicates low income levels. Ten per cent of families had spent money on house construction or renovations in the last one year ranging from Rs100 (USD1.42) to Rs500,000 (USD7,142). Over 13 families spent more than Rs100,000 (USD1,428) on house construction and renovations reflecting a trend in spending any extra income on housing improvements.Ninety-five per cent of families interviewed own livestock. The sample included sheep, goat, cow, buffalo and camel owners. There is no ownership of bulls and very few cross-bred cows. The bulls are not sold, they are either sent to 'panjrapole' (animal shelters) or given away to the 'vaghri' community who in turn, castrate them and set them to work on farms. Some pastoralists could exchange a good quality bull for cows or other livestock with other family members. The majority of the pastoralists keep a herd of mixed species of livestock having greater numbers of one or other of the small or large ruminant types. The type of dominant species depends on the region and geo-cultural preferences. Bharwad pastoralists primarily keep cows, goats and sheep whereas Rabaris primarily keep goats, sheep, buffalos and camels. Interestingly, the Bharwad all over Gujarat do not keep camels, and rather they use donkeys for transportation purposes. The Rabari primarily keep camels for transportation and some of them also have donkeys, although in the Vagad region the Rabari do not keep donkeys. A reason for these preferences was not identified. Some people suggested that the migration pattern of Rabari is more long-distance than that of the Bharwad and hence they keep camels rather than other livestock. However, there are some Bharwad who also migrate long distances but rely on their donkeys. There is also folklore around these preferences: according to one of the popular beliefs, the Bharwad are more devoted to the goddess Momai who is depicted riding a camel; in reverence to this, the Bharwad do not herd camels. Though the Rabari also worship the goddess, she is not as highly revered as among the Bharwad.Local breeds kept by pastoralists in the sample include 'kankrej' and 'gir' cow, the native breeds of Gujarat; 'patanwadi' (also known as 'desi', 'kutchi' or 'vadhiyari') and 'marwari' sheep; 'zalawadi' and other domestic breeds of goat; 'mehsani' (domestic) buffalo; and 'kharai' and kutchi camel. Only a few households keep Holstein Friesian cows (locally known as 'shankar').Table 5 shows the ownership of animals in the sample households. Goats and cows are preferred by almost half of the sample. Pastoralists said that it is easier to feed goats than sheep because goats can feed on more diverse plant material including leaves of bushes. Both goats and cows are preferred for milk, which is used mainly for domestic consumption. In the sample, 156 families herd goats and 131 herd sheep, with 109 families having both sheep and goats. There was one household in the sample with all types of animals-300 sheep, 100 goats, 2 cows, 2 buffalos and 2 camels. With this relatively high number of livestock, the household is considered to be 'rich'.As can be seen in Table 5 the pastoralists interviewed have a strong preference for sheep, with 133 households saying that they own sheep totaling 17,767 grown females and only 736 males. Though a greater number of households said they own goats and cows, the number held per HH is much smaller. As can be seen, very few people hold onto bulls and instead, as indicated above, give them away. Buffalos are shown to be important, with camels, donkeys and crossbreed cows less so. The few HHs that owned these less popular animals had a relatively high number of them.  All the families interviewed migrate in groups of 4-5 families including women and children. When the families reach a place that has grazing available all the family will help set up the hut. Once this is completed, then typically, the men go for herding and the women take care of household chores, and young and sick animals. The milking is done by both women and men but in HHs practising migration, it is normal for the women to sell the milk. Some families also hire herders, but only in the case of a household holding a large herd justifying the extra expense. Hired labour costs around Rs10,000 (USD141) per month, in addition to food, clothes, shoes, and any other expenses paid for during migration. The answer given then was that the man owns the land and livestock. The concluding sentiment during majority of FGDs was: 'Maliki ben ni che pan ben bhagdaar che,' which means 'Ownership (of livestock) is with men but women are partners.' This was backed up by information from the household survey, where the majority of respondents said that the husband 'owned' the livestock, though a significant number said both husband and wife do (see Figure 2). Very few said women alone own the livestock.Figure 2. Who owns the livestock?Though there was some confusion in the responses, what is clear is that women did not claim their sole ownership of the family herd. Amongst the Rabari and Bharwad in Gujarat, girls are given livestock as 'dhamena'. Dhamena is given to the bride by her parents as part of a marriage ritual known as 'jiyana', which is when a girl goes to her husband's house after the birth of their first child. She will take her dhamena livestock with her during that visit. The tradition of child marriage continues among the Rabari and Bharwad. A girl can be married to a man as early as the age of 7 years but is only sent to the husband's home after their first baby is born. Until then, she will stay with her parents. 11 Dhamena generally comprises of sheep, goats, local cows or buffalo depending on the livestock herd composition of the bride's parents. These days, cash is increasingly used instead of livestock, particularly where the household does not own livestock.Women own the livestock received as dhamena and the decision to sell these livestock is theirs and/or taken only after consultation with them. The average number of livestock owned by women alone is given in Table 7. The majority if not all the livestock listed here would have been received as dhamena. Dhamena is believed to be one of 11 This is similar to the Rabari (Raika) of Rajasthan, as described by Köhler-Rollefson (2017), where social repression of Raika women is clearly evident with regard to marriage customs. As is the case throughout traditional Hindu society all marriages in Raika society are arranged by parents and/or close relatives usually when girls are very young. The ceremony that confirms the agreement between the families is called 'viva'. There is a tradition of 'mass-marriages' in which all unmarried girls of a village are betrothed at the same time, with girls ranging in age from a few months to 18 years or so. However, the marriage is not consummated at that time, and before the couple starts living together there is another ceremony held, which is known as 'ana' or 'muklava'. This takes place when the girl is around 20 years old.the ways to conserve breeds -the best breed with the purest trait is given to the daughter. It is also supposed to ensure the food security of the daughters. Note: Women may also own a mix of the above livestock.Only a small number of respondents (n = 14) said that their HH participated in alternative income generation activities during the last year (Table 8). The decision to seek alternative livelihoods was either by the husband, the respondent or both together (Table 9).  10. Pastoralism is labour intensive with specific roles and responsibilities for women, men and children in the household. Indeed, pastoralism needs men and women to be equally involved and will not work well without this. Women are primarily responsible for the household chores, taking care of the young, newborn and sick animals, and also market-related transactions.The market related transactions are mainly the selling of the livestock products such milk, 'mawa' (condensed milk) and ghee (clarified butter). The herding of livestock is mainly a man's responsibility. Milking is done jointly between women and men.Over 47% women said that the management of sheep is undertaken by both wife and husband, 39% women said it is done by their husbands, and 10% women said it is done by themselves. Children tend to assist with the herding duties. The selling of livestock is mainly a man's responsibility, though, often, women will be consulted before animals are sold. In general, both husband and wife decide on how the money is spent from livestock including sheep sales.Overall, and including all types of livestock, around 50% of respondents said that the husband makes most decisions about livestock, and around 50% said it was both husband and wife; only a minority said that it was the wife only.Selling and buying of camels is particularly dominated by men (though not entirely).   There was also general agreement amongst both women and men during FGDs that the decision to buy and sell livestock products and services is taken by men, but usually after consultation with women. On the other hand, vahivat ben paase che (management of money is with women). The words vahivat (management) and vyavhar (cash transactions related to social customs and business) invariably came up in all discussions and interviews. Traditionally the household cash is kept and managed by pastoralist women because men go herding during the day and it may not be safe to carry it. This is why Rabari and Bharwad women in Gujarat, like the Rabari (or Raika) women in Rajasthan (see Köhler-Rollefson 2017), are referred to as 'household finance ministers' illustrated by the following responses:'Men will go grazing; we manage all cash transactions and other negotiations during the day.' FGD, Rabari women, Chaadvada village, Kutch District.'Earlier, even the shoes of our husbands were repaired by us, so that they can continue to go on grazing.' FGD, Rabari women, Ratadki village, Surendranagar District.However, while it is agreed that conventionally pastoralist women keep and manage cash, generally they do not make decisions alone on how to spend it and rather, this follows a joint decision between husbands and wives. As one FGD respondent said:'Bhaiyon ne to poochvupade (We have to ask our husbands)!' FGD, Bharwad women, Chandroni village, Kutch District.'Maliki bhai ni che, vahivat ben paase che.' (The ownership of livestock belongs to men, but management of money is with women). FGD, Bharwad women, Chandroni village, Kutch District.In summary, the study found decisions regarding selling and buying of livestock products and services are primarily taken by men but in consultation with women.Thirty-six per cent of families interviewed own land for cropping. During interviews and discussions with women, it emerged that women do not have the same wealth of knowledge and skills about crop farming as they do about livestock keeping-they do not understand seeds, what variety is better than another, how much agricultural inputs cost and so on. This indicates that they are not as involved in activities and decision-making processes related to crop farming as they are in livestock-keeping -verified in the HH survey (see Table 11, Figures 6-9). The household survey shows that in 64% of HHs, men alone decide what crops to grow (Figure 6); and in only 27% of HHs do both men and women decide. Similarly, in 61% of households, men decide about selling of crops and in only 30% of HHs do both men and women decide. As for money from selling the crops, in 49% of cases men decide, and in 37% cases both men and women decide.  The decision about selling livestock to start an alternative livelihood is also primarily taken by men. Some women opined that herding is a hard and challenging task and hence men have the right to decide to sell livestock and buy a tractor or JCB (digger) or to start another type of business. As one woman explained:'He [her husband] is abused all the time on the road, on farms while herding, and he goes out in search of lost animals, so he can decide to sell livestock and buy tractor.' FGD, Rabari woman, Ratadki village, Surendranagar District.Out of 13 families involved in alternative livelihoods nine families said that the husband and grown up children took the decision to engage in an alternative livelihood; and 11 families said that the husband and children decide on what to spend the money earned.In those families that do not migrate now because they have alternative businesses, the social dynamics in the family are changing. Whereas previously women tended to be 'the money managers,' in these families the money now tends to be kept and managed by their husbands. For example, the income from crop farming or from alternate livelihoods such as driving and rental of diggers or tractors, comes directly to the hands of men without passing through women's hands, and men tend to keep it. Men do not need money when herding (and as noted previously, it is unsafe to carry it in migrations) but in agriculture and other livelihoods, men regularly need money to buy seeds or fertilizer or make payments to hire a tractor, get repairs done or buy fuel.As such, as households have changed to alternative livelihoods and/or men have stopped migrating with livestock, women's authority and responsibility over household finances has diminished. Now it is common for men to undertake market-related transactions and hold on to the money received. Even where women take milk to the dairy on a daily basis, the payment is collected by men every 10 days. During FGDs, some women remarked that this has affected their status in the family.'Vat ochchu thai gayu. Maal bhi gayu, vat bhi gayu. Have behenon koi na pooche' (We lost livestock as well as our status. Now no one gives us importance). FGD, Rabari women who no longer migrate with sheep and goats but do keep a few cows and buffaloes; Sudamda village, Surendranagar District.'In the past we would negotiate for food grains with farmers and sell milk in the village. Now we have to ask men for even small sums of money.' FGD, Rabari women who no longer migrate, Noli village, Surendranagar District.Further, these changing roles and responsibilities may have greater and far-reaching impacts on the personalities of women as well as their position in the household. There is a common observation that women who used to migrate were not afraid of anyone or anything, unlike the women who never migrated. Not only do women who no longer migrate feel that their control in household decision-making has reduced, but they also feel that they have lost their distinct relationship with the animals, with milk, with wool, with farmers, with other communities and so on. These relationships are changing, so are the roles of women. Most women no longer process milk and prefer to sell raw milk to wholesalers. Indeed, many women have lost the skill to make ghee or mawa (condensed milk).4.3 Income from livestock and other sources 4.3.1 Income from livestock and livestock productsThe amount of annual average income received from livestock and livestock products and services is shown in Figure 10. The highest income comes from selling mawa where 34 HHs received an average income of Rs75,788 (USD1,070) per year, compared to the average income per year from raw milk (Rs74,612 or USD1,054) for 168 HHs. Livestock raised Rs61,268 (USD865) for 121 HHs, and small amounts were raised from sale of manure, buttermilk and ghee.Though mawa appears to be the most profitable product, only 34 women in the sample make it. Mawa or 'khoya' is used as a base for a variety of Indian sweets. One woman from Motamatra village has been making mawa for the last 18 years while on migration. She says 'roj naya gaon, roj naya chulha' (everyday a new village, everyday a new fireplace [to make mawa]). Five litres of milk is used for one kilogram of mawa, which sells for Rs170-180 per kilogram, whereas one litre of raw milk sells at Rs30 per kilogram. The women said she has the option to sell raw milk, but she prefers to make mawa. There are other families who prefer to make mawa only while on migration. Overall, however, the income from livestock products per year made by the pastoralists in the study is small highlighting the subsistence nature of their livelihoods. It should be noted that wool does not generate any income for the households. In fact, the wool is thrown away, with herders having to pay Rs 8-10 per sheep for shearing. In the past, wool was a major source of income -during the 1990s black sheep wool earned Rs1100 (USD15) for 20 kg, and white wool Rs800 (USD11) for 20 kg. But today the market has been flooded with cheaper alternatives such as synthetics, and there's no demand for wool. Almost every respondent requested the researchers to find a way to restart the wool market and to find some use of the wool. Without a wool market, and with an increasing need for meat, the livestock breeds kept are changing; instead of traditional wool breeds, now mixed breeds that produce more meat are reared. Gujarat recorded a decline of 15% in the population of indigenous sheep as compared to an 85% increase in the population of exotic/cross-bred sheep between 2007 and 2012 (Directorate of Animal Husbandry 2012).Because most pastoralist communities in Gujarat, including the Rabari and Bharwad, are vegetarian they do not eat meat and traditionally never sold the milk from their animals, only the wool. Hardly any Bharwad or Rabari livestock keeper will openly admit selling sheep or goats for meat, because it is a taboo. There are families who say they quit livestock keeping because they did not want to send their livestock to the slaughterhouse for income. However, driven by the collapse of the wool market, some pastoralists sell livestock knowing that it will be slaughtered and eaten. Where livestock is sold, pastoralists prefer to sell during migration and not in their own villages, so that they are not seen to be selling the livestock by those who know them.Increasingly, household income originates from sources other than livestock. Overall, the majority income comes from alternative sources including the renting of tractors or diggers (JCBs). Eight families involved in the JCB/tractor business have invested money ranging from Rs25,000-600,000 (USD335-8050) and two families have taken a loan from a bank/microfinance institution to start the business.Figure 11. Average income per household from agriculture, wages and other livelihoods.Note: The number above the column indicates the average amount received in Rs per household per year, and the figure below the column is the number of HHs that answered positively to the question concerning alternative non-livestock income sources.Land is increasingly being used for cropping with 110 families (37%) owning land used for growing crops. In addition, three families practise sharecropping. Eighty per cent (80%) of those growing crops sold part of their crop during the previous year. Main crops sold were cotton (60%), sorghum (42%), cumin (12%), pearl millet (12%), pulses (12%), groundnut and castor (6.5%), and wheat (3%).Forty-six per cent (46%) of households interviewed earned income from wage labour, out of which three-quarters (103 families) had a family member working as a farm labourer, 14 families had someone in skilled labour such as a driver, tailor, etc. and 10 families had a member working in professional employment such as teaching or other jobs. Private grazing comprises of grazing on agricultural land after crops are harvested. Grazing of cropping lands postharvest is important for supplementing the increasingly dwindling grazing lands. In winter and summer, more than 80% of pastoralists depend on the remains of crops (stubble) for grazing their livestock. In the monsoon, the dependence on cropping land is less but still substantial for 43% of families. Table 13 shows the high dependence on cropping land for grazing livestock after (or between) the harvest(s) in winter and monsoon. Cropping land tends to be private, individual land and the remaining categories such as forest, wasteland, gauchar, grass islands, while vidi or rakhal are common land. Only 14 respondents said that sustainable land management (SLM) investments had been made in individual/HH grazing areas in the last three years. The main challenge limiting SLM investments in the individual grazing lands is lack of support from government, community and other stakeholders. A small number (5-8% of respondents) said that the main challenge was lack of cash (Table 14), though on the other hand, 22 respondents (40%) said that having more cash would encourage them to make more investments (Table 15).  The main grazing lands are found on the common lands of gauchar and vidis or rakhals (Table 16). In addition, as explained previously, grazing of cropping lands post-harvest is important for supplementing the increasingly dwindling grazing lands. The increasing privatization and/or individualization of land for growing crops challenges the pastoral way of life and its dependence on the commons. The commons are declining rapidly in Gujarat. These include gauchars, 'padtars' (open wasteland), forests, vidis (protected grassland), and 'bets' (grass islands). As per the state government's own resolution of 1988 on gauchar management, 40 acres of land should be reserved in non-forest areas for every 100 heads of livestock in each village, and 20 acres reserved in the forest areas for every 100 heads of livestock. However this legislation is not implemented and where attempts have been made to implement it, these have resulted in gross irregularities, many of which have been reported in the media. For example, 'In the past three years Gujarat has sold 116,000 square metres of such land for various purposes, leaving 424 villages without any pastoral land. The state has just one-fifth of its required pastoral land' (Mahapatra 2012). Two years later, 'Gujarat recorded more than 11,950 registered encroachments on gauchar lands, of which the majority are more than five years old' (Dave 2014).The situation of areas categorized as 'wasteland' is the same. They are considered unproductive and unused despite local communities, including pastoralists, clearly using them. Hence, these lands are easily diverted for other purposes such as for construction of roads, factories or hotels and, unsurprisingly, without the consent of the people who depend on them.Bets are small natural grass islands in the saline desert of the 'Rann' or near the sea. They are a key source of fodder and water for the pastoralists of Gujarat during the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Geologically, bets are small silt depositions brought about by a nearby river or the sea, which makes them a unique ecosystem in the Rann in Gujarat. There are around 74 bets in the Little Rann of Kutch, which is spread over Kutch, Banaskantha, Patan, Surendranagar and Morbi districts. A large portion of it (nearly 5,000 km 2 ) has been managed as a Wild Ass Sanctuary since 1971. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for pastoralists to access bets. In the last five years, the Forest Department under the state administration has become more active in trying to block pastoralists' access to these bets saying that they need to be preserved as conservation areas.Vidis are protected grasslands where grazing is not allowed even though 10% of respondents said that they used them for grazing during the monsoon period. Saurashtra and Kutch regions have open scrub vegetation with a high proportion of graminoids, which is commonly referred to as scrub savanna that also integrates sparsely vegetated grasslands. These grazing lands, locally known as vidi have been used for livestock grazing for centuries. The grasslands in Saurashtra cover a total area of 1,810 km 2 contributing 20 % of the total grassland cover in Gujarat State. Gujarat Forest Statistics (2012-13) (Government of Gujarat 2013) reveal that vidis cover nearly 4% of the land surface in Saurashtra. Before India's independence, the vidis were under the control of former princely states. These grasslands were transferred to the national Forest Department in 1959-60. There are 106 reserved vidis and 434 non-reserved vidis in Gujarat. Grazing is prohibited in both types of vidis but despite this, pastoralists do sometimes take the risk of being caught and use them. There is a third type of vidis, private vidis, which are managed by individual owners. After independence, many vidis came under the control of the Darbar community (a dominant farming caste). The ownership status of vidis remains controversial, and the pastoralists continue to pay grazing fees to access the vidis.As per the annual 2014 administration report of the Forest and Environment Department, Government of Gujarat (in Mehta 2016) the main issues in grassland management today include encroachment, developmental activities, mining, fragmentation, illegal grazing, invasion of alien species, human-wildlife conflict and poaching. Seven hundred and eightynine (789) cases of illegal grazing were recorded in Saurashtra during the year 2012-13 in spite of an area of 3,820.74 square kilometres being kept open for grazing partly or throughout the year.Vidis are increasingly becoming inaccessible to the pastoralists and livestock, with them being accused of illegal grazing and destroying the vegetative cover in both vidis and bets. For information on grazing fees see Section 5.2.3.The grazing pattern of the pastoralists can be divided into three distinct seasons based on temperature and moisture conditions. Each season is three to four months long. The migratory pattern of pastoralists follows the cropping and harvesting seasons. In general, the whole family migrates together.The winter migration starts in late October or early November. The pastoralists from Kutch move towards North Gujarat (Patan, Mehsana and Himmatnagar districts) and those from Saurashtra move towards the Bhal Vistar region, which is spread across the districts of Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad and Anand. The winter grazing is mainly done in the cotton fields: the Bt cotton fields are available for grazing from November onwards and indigenous cotton fields are available from February onwards. After March, wheat and castor oil fields are available for grazing.If it rains on time, people return to their home villages with the onset of the monsoon in June, where they graze livestock in village gauchar, wasteland, hilly areas around villages and vidis. Many families, mainly from Panchal, who keep goats migrate to Kutch District in the monsoon, which has abundant 'wastelands' and also vidis and bets in some regions. The Saurashtra pastoralists, who migrate to Kutch in the monsoon go without the whole family-there are some men who migrate for a whole year to find grazing. As mentioned previously, some also migrate to sell livestock outside their home area so that they are not seen to be engaging in what is considered a taboo.The year 2018-19 was a drought year (some pockets of land had no rains and other areas had reduced rains), so several pastoralist families in Rajasthan and Gujarat did not return to their village during the monsoon period. Table 17 shows the average seasonal distance travelled by pastoralists interviewed. Pastoralists can cover more than 500 kilometres distance in a year in search of grazing, fodder and water (and to access markets). Nearly three-quarters of pastoralists move up to 10 kilometres distance during the monsoon and as shown in Table 17, the distances covered in winter and summer seasons are much greater. Note: Data is based on the number and percentage of HHs that responded.As already mentioned, some pastoralists have given up livestock keeping altogether and invested money in buying machinery such as diggers. The owners also take these on a type of migration around farms looking for jobs -the migration has changed from moving with livestock to diggers (see Box 1).Box 1. Migrating with diggers not livestock!In one of the villages during a field visit, it was found that 10 JCBs (diggers) had been bought by families in a month. Each JCB costs Rs25-30 lakhs (USD35,000-45,000). This kind of investment is partly raised by selling off livestock and partly from loans from a money lender, microfinance institutions or local financiers. The migration continues with the JCB but as a single household alone or in a group of two families.Increasingly, livestock keepers pay for their grazing needs and over the last decade these charges have increased significantly. For example, a vidi, which was available for Rs5,000 (USD70) for two months 10 years ago, now costs Rs25,000 (USD357) for the same period. This vidi sustains 100-150 goats and sheep.There is inconsistency in fees and rampant corruption in the form of bribes to allow grazing in demarcated forest areas, grasslands, vidis and bets despite the fact that pastoralists have been traditionally using these spaces for grazing for centuries. The fee paid to the owner of a vidi is calculated in several ways. It could be per animal -around Rs300 (approx. USD4) for a cow or buffalo, Rs30 (approx. USD0.5) for a goat or sheep; or a fixed lease for an agreed piece of land on an annual basis. For example, Gundanimoti vidi in Anandpur thirty kilometres from Panchawada village, is owned by a Darbar and is spread over 150 'bigha' (in Gujarat 2.5 bigha = 1 acre). It is leased by a Bharwad family with an annual payment of Rs180,000. About 25 cows and buffaloes and five calves graze in this vidi for about six months. They get water from a nearby farm in exchange for manure. Further there are cases where an entire village leases a vidi. During the research, an example was found where a village pays Rs500,000 (approx. USD7,000) for a season for a vidi and its use is divided amongst the herders of the village based on the number of animals grazed.Pastoralists are paying a grazing fee for grazing on cropping land as well. Many pastoralists take agriculture fields on a lease basis; there is a kind of auction in some places and the payment has exponentially increased in the last few years.In the study area, figures as high as Rs350,000 (USD5,000) have been paid for a season's rental (i.e. for a monsoon, winter or summer season). Table 18 shows the average amount paid by a family for grazing per season to farmers, private vidi owners and bribes to access 'illegal' or 'conserved' grazing. In case of grazing in cropping fields post-harvest, the amount is usually shared by a group of 5-6 families herding together. In a few cases, the cropping land of an entire village is hired or booked by a group of herders on a fixed payment for that year. The herders then camp in different farm plots of the same village every second or third night. Usually these are arranged through verbal contracts. Otherwise, herders keep moving from one farm plot to another and from village to village every second or third night. Though respondents quantified the amount of payment made (see Table 18) the payment is not usually made as cash and rather gets paid in-kind and in terms of the amount of animal dung/manure deposited by the animals (calculated on a nightly basis). At the end of the season any remaining debt is paid in cash, though generally this is not needed. In the past, this was a purely reciprocal relationship -farmers would invite pastoralists to pen their fields and receive milk, and in turn give grain. Though such a system does still exist in some parts, it is declining rapidly and being replaced by more cash-based transactions only.There were very limited responses to the question on investments related to SLM improvements of grazing land. One of the reasons might be that much of the grazing is done on cropping land where there is not much scope for land improvement particularly because it is another person's land. Of the 32 positive responses (Table 19), the main activities completed were establishing a pond, well or check dam said to be done without input of days or money, and clearance of bush or invasive species (see Table 20 and Figure 12). There was no mention of any customary norms being followed presently for the protection or improvement of common grazing land. Although there was mention that in the past land was usually left fallow for a certain period of time to allow grass to regenerate, this is rarely practised today. As described in Table 21, he main challenges to investing in SLM efforts are not having assistance from government or other players. Further, pastoralists said that more cash would encourage them to make more investments (see Table 22). A minority said that land tenure security (feeling that the land belongs to them) had an influence on SLM.    Though financial investments in the rangelands are rare, participants in the FGDs shared that steps are being taken to protect, conserve and restore the pasture lands. Women have a very significant role to play in this. As described previously, in Gujarat, during the short-route migration, pastoral groups depend on the pasture lands and the open farmlands for stubble after the harvesting. During the long-route migration, the groups depend on large rangelands. In both migratory patterns, pastoralists' unique practices help in restoring and conserving the rangelands. There are specific rules followed by the pastoralists in maintaining the rangelands, which women help to monitor and enforce, including:• Not allowing anyone to chop the grasses for grazing purposes.• Allowing grazing only after sown grass seeds have grown.• Leaving the livestock dung on the ground to fertilize the soil.• Allowing livestock to browse the living trees rather than cutting them so that they can regrow quickly.These practices help to keep the land and vegetation healthier and prevent degradation. However, it is sometimes difficult to enforce these practices without security of rights to the land, and clear and agreed roles and responsibilities of the land users.Increasing theft of livestock and associated violence while camping or while on migration is one of the biggest problems faced by pastoralists trying to access grazing lands in recent times. In many areas, there are organized armed gangs that come with pick-up trucks to steal livestock. In the past, such incidents usually happened in the night where thieves would sneak in to steal a few goats and sheep. Now these attacks can happen at any time, which increases security risks for women during the daytime when they are often alone in the camps. Some women said that they protect themselves and their livestock by keeping a pile of stones ready to hurl at the thieves, and always move in groups.The survey found only three respondents who owned urban land (Table 23) purchased for building a house: otherwise respondents did not own urban land.Table 23. Does the HH have land in an urban area? Altogether, 115 families (37% of respondents) own individual-held land used for cropping (for communal or collective cropping land see Section 5.4.2 below). Seventeen of these households reported activities like clearing stones and removing Prosopis juliflora (an invasive species) from agricultural fields with an expense of an average Rs62,000 (USD830).As can be seen in Table 24 women in those households that did have cropping land, the clear majority (85.2%) said that they have equal access to the land with their husbands (or other male relative). In most cases the land was accessed through the clan/customary leader or from parents. In a very few cases (8) land was 'owned' (self-buy).Decisions over what to grow and sell and what to spend the money on are made by the female respondent's husband in the majority of cases or are made together by husband and wife. In a much lesser number of cases the decisions are made together, and in a very few cases does the wife/woman make the decision (see Section 3.2). The majority of women who said that the HH used land for cropping contributed to the management of the cropping land (Table 25). The majority of respondents said that the land was well managed being of good quality (Table 26 and 27), because they put fertilizer on it and because there was no conflict. An additional reason was given that the cropping land was well managed because women are involved in its management. Those that said it was not well managed (Table 28) said it was because the land was degraded (Table 29). As described above in Section 5.2, there is high dependence on the use of cropping lands for grazing in winter and summer as more than 80% of pastoralists graze their livestock on the remains of crops (stubble). In the monsoon, the dependence on cropping land is less but still substantial for 43% of families. Respondent families depend more on private, individual cropping land of farmers than on common lands. The access to cropping or grazing land is governed by informal agreements between farmers and pastoralists, which are built on relations that the two actors have maintained over generations in many cases. However, the nature of the relationship is changing from social or in-kind, to monetary transactions. The dimensions of tenure security as it applies to customary or common land property does not apply to private cropping land.Most (83%) of the respondents with cropping land said that they felt that the land belonged to them (Table 29) with almost the same number (82.4%) stating that they have a landholding certificate for this land (Table 39). Having the landholding certificate helps respondents feel greater ownership over the plot (Table 31). In the majority of cases customary institutions are not involved in protecting the cropping land (Table 32). Of those with individual cropping land, 56% have carried out land management (improvement) investments during the last three years (Table 33). As seen in Table 34 the most common type of SLM implemented on individual cropping land is bush or invasive species clearing by cutting (or burning). Levelling the ground, enclosure of a water point (bandpada), and clearing of stones were also popular land management methods. The intervention on which most money was spent was the digging of wells for irrigation purposes with 17 being built at an average cost of Rs66,000 (approximately USD900).The main challenge in making SLM investments is the lack of cash (Table 35). This is followed by the scale of the job/ investment being too great for one person/household to manage, including without government, community or other help. Only 5% of respondents said that they did not make any investment because they felt that the land does not belong to them. Just over half of the respondents (52%) said they would make more SLM investments if they had more cash (Table 36), with others saying that they would do so if they received more assistance and/or knowledge. Twentytwo respondents (11%) said that they would make more investments if they had a stronger feeling that the land was theirs.  Twenty-five respondents said that they use communal or collective cropping land (i.e. land managed/used as a group) (Table 37). Though only 8% of respondents said they did this, such communal cropping is fairly unusual and a new situation. The average size of the communal area used is 11 hectares, though the size ranged from 1-70 hectares.Close to half (47%; n = 16) of those that used communal cropping land said that they had carried out SLM activities on it. The main challenge to making investments is that the job is too big for one person or HH alone (Table 38), though 8 respondents (35%) said that if they had more cash, then they would make more investments. Four respondents or 12.5% said that the main challenge is that feel that the land does not belong to them, with 7 respondents (30%) saying that they would invest more in SLM if they had a stronger feeling that the land was theirs (Table 39).  The main source of water for human consumption is the panchayat water tap. During the winter and summer dry season, people also use private borewells. For livestock, the main water source during the monsoon season are the 'avado' (common water storage tank) (52%) and seasonal ponds (38%). This is much the same all year round, with a few livestock keepers using canals or other water sources during the summer months. Most water sources used are constructed and not natural. The traditional water leader is the one who decides to build the water points, the construction of which some community members contributed to. The majority said that the water point is well managed (see Table 40). A significant proportion of people said that they felt that the water point did not belong to them or the community (see Table 41), mainly because they do not have a certificate of ownership for it (Table 42). Despite this, 31% said that they had made investments to improve the drinking water points (Table 43) and 27% said that they had made investments in improving the livestock water source (Table 44).  As described in this report, there are many social and land use changes taking place in Gujarat. Land is increasingly being privatized and/or individualized, migration is becoming more difficult and people more settled, and it is getting harder for pastoralists to access common areas. This means that some households have opted-out of pastoralism altogether and taken up alternative livelihoods that have led to significant changes in social relations and socioeconomic status of families -including a loss of the economic power and status that women used to enjoy in the past when livelihoods depended on livestock:'Pehla karta aadmi nu jyada chaltu thayu' (In comparison with the past men control in the family has increased). FGD, Rabari women, Ratadki village, Surendranagar District.In addition, the group social dynamics that livestock-keeping encouraged are breaking down. This can have fundamentally negative impacts on the collective nature of pastoral societies and their ability to cope with drought which rely on mutual support. As one respondent said:'Pehla bharat kaam, kilol, baatan, ghar ana jaaana' (Earlier we would spend more time together embroidering, gossiping, singing, moving from one place to another etc.). FGD, Rabari women, Sudamda village, Surendranagar District.Women said that their responsibilities have increased, especially in domestic drudgery whereas previously they would make livestock products for sale. They felt they are minimally involved in other occupations such as crop farming, and digger/tractor or wage employment, and because of these changes their roles and responsibilities as providers in households have been lost. Previously they would have responsibilities to negotiate with farmers and traders in selling some livestock products.'Maal ma haru, gaam ma hoye to kaam jyada. Poora din rasode ma nikli jaaye' (Migration with livestock is better, in the village there is more work and the whole day is spent in the kitchen making tea and food). FGD, Rabari women, Noli village, Surendranagar District.'Vagda rahu jyada game.Maal charta hoye, maal dekhta hoye' (We used to like to stay in open fields and watch livestock). FGD, Rabari women, Noli village, Surendranagar District.Some women also commented that now men spend more time at home and 'they meddle in every small matter.' These expressions are a reflection of changing spaces within and outside the home for women. Though there were some women who prefer the settled life in villages (mainly because of the increasing challenges and dangers while on migration), in general, if given a choice and the availability and access to grazing land is improved, both men and women would like to continue livestock keeping and the migration that goes with it. A general sentiment was that 'livestock keeps the entire household together.' A similar trend from small to large ruminants can be found in Ratadki village, where out of 250 Rabari households, only 25 families own sheep and goats, and migrate. The families who do not migrate keep cows and buffaloes for milk, which is sold to dairy cooperatives.There is also an aspirational shift when it comes to children's education. There is an impetus towards sending children to school, which is alienating children from their traditional pastoralist societies and occupations. This also affects household level decision-making processes related to herd size and herd composition as reflected in trends towards keeping more cows and buffaloes (instead of sheep and goats), which do not demand a continuous migratory cycle.The biggest challenge remains the increasing lack of availability of, and access to, the commons. The most common complaint from respondents in the FGDs was that the common land, which includes wastelands, fallow lands and ponds, has been encroached on by agriculture. In addition, traditional access to forests is declining and it is even more difficult to access agricultural land because canal irrigation has enabled more land to be farmed, in some cases for multiple crops in a year. The change in cropping patterns also affects the availability of cropping by-products for grazing.Unfortunately, the solution to these challenges is not as easy as selling off livestock to invest in alternative livelihoods.There might be an inclination towards selling livestock to buy diggers and tractors, but this change is not working well for all. One family said that they had sold livestock and taken out a loan to buy a digger 10 years ago but were not able to repay the instalments in time resulting in greater debts. The family recently sold the digger and is buying livestock again. They commented 'Maal ma devu na thaye' (Livestock does not bring indebtedness).Pastoralists in India have customary rights over the commons. In times past, the Raj of the area gave pastoral communities the rights to access and use the commons in their vicinity. A few of these allocations were properly documented, but the demarcation of most has relied on word-of-mouth. Because of this failure to document the rights of pastoralists, many of their lands have been left vulnerable to encroachment and excisement by other land users.Competition between land uses has also created conflict between the pastoralists and other communities dependent on the land. According to the policies of the state government of Gujarat, at least 40 acres need to be demarcated for every 100 animals that pastoralists own but this rule has not been followed. Further, the 'Gaucharni zameen na vyavasthapan karwa angeni niti' (Grazing Land Policy) (Government of Gujarat 2015) does not support pastoralism, and rather promotes the privatization of land by fencing as exclosures for cultivation and the growing and sale of grasses. It also promotes stall feeding. Further, it sanctions land acquisition for public development and infrastructure projects, with little room for public consultation. These and other pressures on land reduce the amount of land available for pastoralists to use and increases pressure on that which remains.Pastoralist women are able to access and use the commons in the same way as men: in fact, for pastoralism to work effectively women and men need to work together, with complimentary roles and responsibilities. However, increasingly, this access and use is being challenged due to the rapid encroachment and loss of the commons together with its conversion to other uses. Commons and particularly grasslands do not receive the same legal protection as forests, and even where a degree of protection may exist on paper, this is rarely effected.One of the most important findings of the survey is the high dependence on the use of cropping lands post-harvest for grazing in winter and summer with more than 80% of pastoralists grazing their livestock on the remains of crops (stubble). In the monsoon, the dependence on cropping land is less but still substantial for 43% of families. Clearly respondent families depend more on private, individual cropping land of farmers than on common lands.The access to cropping or grazing land is governed by informal agreements between farmers and pastoralists, which are built on relations that the two actors have maintained over generations. However, the nature of the relationship is changing from social or in-kind, to monetary transactions. The dimensions of tenure security as it applies to customary or common land property does not apply to private cropping land. The common land such as forest, wasteland, gauchar, grass islands and vidi is accessed for livestock grazing mainly during the monsoon season. The increasing dependence on private versus common lands and its impact on tenure security for pastoralist women is an issue that needs more research.Previously, where pastoralism was practised actively and the required migrations took place, women had a central role in livestock production and even more so in money management. However, as pastoralism has declined so too has women's role in managing money. With more reliance on cash transactions and shifts in income sources, men are taking more control of the finances. Increasingly, men now undertake market-related transactions and hold on to the money received. Further, pastoralists are finding themselves in debt which puts additional pressure on social relations.As a result of these socio-economic changes, women's status is reducing, and it is now more difficult for them to access money required to purchase livestock or household items. Whereas women have a wealth of knowledge and skills about livestock, it clearly emerged that women do not have the same knowledge and skills about crop farming as men, and as a result management and decision-making about farming activities is now being done by men. These changing roles and responsibilities may have greater and far-reaching impacts on the personalities of women as well as their position in the household. It was observed that women who used to migrate were not afraid of people or situations, unlike the women who never migrated. Not only do women who no longer migrate feel that their control in household decision-making has reduced, but they also feel that they have lost their distinct relationship with the animals, with milk, with wool, with farmers and with other communities. These relationships are changing and so are women's roles; many of them no longer process raw milk into other products and some have lost the skill to make ghee or mawa.In 2010, pastoral women from 31 countries who met in Gujarat articulated their needs including the recognition of their profession and contribution to pastoralism, the protection of grazing lands, the protection of mobility, the provision of security in nomadic areas including the enforcement of laws that guarantee the safety of women and ensuring proportionate representation of pastoralist women in all levels of governance (The Mera Declaration 2010 in IFAD 2012). However, despite this statement little has changed and pastoral women (and men) are rapidly losing their access to the commons, as well as their social status and other benefits associated with these lands.In this context, because women do not feel tenure secure to common lands, they are not investing in in land improvement or resource management. Women feel greater security to individual cropping lands that are becoming increasingly important in the more integrated crop-livestock systems that are developing. However, as more land is turned to crop land, more grasslands are being lost. If the rangelands of Gujarat are to be protected and reach their full potential, then pastoralists should be given assistance in expanding these practices and investing more in rangeland management and restoration activities. A process such as participatory rangeland management (PRM) (see for example Flintan and Cullis 2010), would be a strong framework for developing and implementing such restorative practices.Despite the challenges that pastoralists are facing in terms of accessing land and resources, lack of government support and investments (e.g. in accessing veterinary services or developing markets for products such as wool), lack of opportunities and insecurity during migrations etc., the majority of pastoralists, both men and women, want to continue the pastoralist way of life. For women in particular, pastoralism provides them with clear roles and responsibilities and status, as well as control over some finances and household decision-making. This highlights the need for greater investment in pastoralism which makes use of land and resources, suitable for little else. Pastoral women need to be supported as part of this: a good understanding of the local context and the changes taking place as described here for Gujarat, should be the starting point for this. ","tokenCount":"14775"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7957428b498196b64f1ed82f472ca4af","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/892ed217-8521-4d8d-8168-826c34caf45a/retrieve","id":"1839749010"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3967c698-649d-45f7-9c75-b45e9ea9f9d4","pagecount":"20","content":"to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Climatic change is a global issue that affects all countries and is expected to alter the frequency, intensity, and location of existing climatic risks, especially for individuals living in rural and remote regions (McMichael and Lindgren, 2011). In Southeast Asia, the Mekong Delta serves as a vivid example of the intricate interplay between nature and human civilization, confronting a pressing environmental dilemma characterized by twin climatic extremes-drought and flooding (Meehan et al., 2023). The ecological and socio-economic ramifications of these challenges are profound. Prolonged droughts have emerged as a growing and severe threat to the ecological integrity and socio-economic stability of the Mekong Delta. This intricate network of rivers, estuaries, and plains faces the consequences of shifting precipitation patterns and rising temperatures, leading to extended periods of water scarcity. Conversely, the Mekong Delta grapples with flooding, particularly during monsoon seasons. Intensified monsoons, compounded by rising sea levels, contribute to severe inundation, submerging agricultural lands, displacing communities, and disrupting the delicate ecological balance. The surge in water levels presents diverse challenges, requiring the implementation of adaptive measures to protect both ecosystems and human communities. Similarly, in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, climate change has significantly impacted people's livelihoods. Particularly in rural areas, frequent and unexpected rainfall, varying and shorter rainy seasons, and fluctuations in daily weather patterns have become common (Kanemaru et al., 2014). Recent studies project a continuous rise in temperatures and lengthening of dry seasons in Laos (Cosslett et al., 2018). As rainfall becomes more irregular, the prevalence of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods are expected to increase. These erratic conditions contribute to crop failure, waterborne infections, a scarcity of drinking and irrigation water, and the spread of infectious diseases like dengue and malaria (Miyan, 2015). The impact of climate change extends to economic sectors in Laos, with key industries like mining, hydropower, and wood processing heavily reliant on natural resources (Maniphousay, 2022). Farming, animal husbandry, forestry, and fisheries, dependent on land, appropriate temperature, and rainfall, are also vulnerable. Water shortage and groundwater depletion pose risks to agricultural production, potentially leading to food insecurity and increased poverty, given that the livelihoods of many Lao people depend on agriculture. These variations necessitate farmers to acquire new adaptive technical skills and innovations in an agricultural lifecycle that has been the cornerstone of community and household livelihoods in Laos for millennia (Bouapao et al., 2016). Despite a recent decline in GDP contribution, agriculture remains a vital component of the Lao PDR's economy (Park et al., 2011). The majority of the rural population in Lao PDR relies on agriculture for their livelihoods, food security, and the management of both irrigated and rain-fed water sources. However, farmers' dependence on traditional rainfall patterns is being disrupted by climate change, prompting the need for new coping strategies. Climate change projections indicate that flood-prone areas may face exacerbated challenges in the future (Park et al., 2011). The temporal variability of rainfall, which is defined by three indices, ie. onset, cessation and length of rainy season (LGP) are a critical determinant of cropping calendar activities in rain-fed farming systems. Spurring growth in agricultural production has made the sector to became a significant part of Lao's economy, and it presently contributes 15% of the country GDP and employs over 50% of the working population (Bounthone and Phouphet, 2023). Recently, Lao has become one of the leading global exporters of essential crops such as rice, coffee, cashew nuts, vegetables, and rubber. Although irrigation covers most of the total cultivated land, it is highly dependent on monsoon rainfall for provision of surface water. Consequently, rainfall seasonality is critical to the agriculture sector in Lao. Understanding the rainfall seasonality dates has significant practical significance for agriculture and other economic sectors. However, targeted studies analysing trends of rainfall seasonality dates in Lao PDR are limited. The onset of the monsoon season is critical for farmers in Laos. According to Marjuki et al. (2016), there is a negative link between paddy rice yield and a delayed start in various Southeast Asian countries. A delayed onset can prohibit a farmer from having three yearly crops, as predicted by models that evaluated different climatic scenarios (Naylor et al., 2007). Most paddy fields in Laos are rain-fed, hence crop yields are determined by rainfall. Upland rice is farmed in swidden agriculture, which is affected by meteorological conditions throughout the rainy (monsoon) and pre-monsoon seasons, particularly in the north. During the pre-monsoon season, trees and plants are cut and dried to enhance soil moisture before rice planting. However, significant heavy precipitation during monsoon period disrupts the drying process and makes it unsuitable for starting a fire. Furthermore, increased climate variability, which fluctuates from wet, normal, and dry seasons makes it difficult to determine the best time of sowing paddy. Predicting the start of the monsoon season is critical for timely planning of cropping calendar activities. Changes in rainfall seasonality in Lao PDR have received not much attention. Furthermore, there is no or less consensus in literature on the trends of three rainfall seasonality indices in the region. However, these are critical determinants for cropping season activities. In this study, satellite estimates of daily rainfall from CHIRPS-V2 was used to create maps of the onset, cessation, and LGP of the rainy season for the last 42 years over Lao PDR. The trends and interannual variability of three rainfall seasonality indices were generated. This study also explores the impact of extreme climate indices on the variability of rainfall onsets, cessations, and LGP.The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) covers a land area of approximately 236,800 km2 (Figure 1). Lao PDR is situated on the Indochina Peninsular (Mekong Region). The region is classified into three distinct climate zones based on altitude. The northern highland regions above 1,000 meters have a subtropical montane climate with rolling hills. The temperature ranges are lower than elsewhere in the nation (Guo et al., 2017). With an altitude range of 500 to 1,000 m, the middle mountainous regions of the Annamite Chain are distinguished by a tropical monsoonal climate with high temperatures and average rainfall totals (Guo et al., 2017). The Mekong River and its major tributaries' floodplains and tropical lowland plains are home to more than 50% of the country's population. Lao PDR has a tropical climate is affected by the southeast monsoon, which brings 70% of the country's yearly rainfall and significant humidity (Frazier et al., 2022). The monsoon (wet season) lasts from May to mid-October, and the dry season lasts from mid-October to April. The annual rainfall can reach 3,000 mm (Profile, 2022). The northern, eastern, and plateau mountainous regions recorded mean annual temperatures of 20•C, whereas the plains recorded higher temperatures between 25-37 •C. El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been demonstrated to affect temperature and precipitation rates, though generally to a smaller amount than in other Southeast Asian countries (Profile, 2022). Daily rainfall fields for 840 grid points over Ghana were extracted from the CHIRPS V2 rainfall data and applied to compute the three seasonality indices. The rainfall seasonality indices (onset, cessation, and LGP) were determined by adopting the percentage mean cumulative rainfall method described in Amekudzi et al. ( 2015) and Atiah et al. (2021,2023). The method has the advantage of directly using the rainfall data or rainy days rather than inferring the rainfall amount from other related parameters. Odekunle (2006) indicates that at any time and location where the method appeared to be less accurate in the determination of the onset and cessation dates of rainfall, the dry spells involved were very short (mostly less than five days), and the frequency of those dry spells was very low. According to Odekunle (2006), points of maximum curvature, corresponding to the onset and cessation of rainfall, are expected to be 7% -8% and over 90% of the annual rainfall, respectively. The LGP is then the difference of rainfall's onset and cessation dates (Equation 1).LGP = RC − RO + 1(1) Where LGP is the length of the growing period, RC is the rainfall cessation, and RO is the rainfall onset. The slope estimator Theil Sen (Theil, 1950) was used to determine the trends of the three seasonal rainfall indices. Furthermore, the significance of the trends was assessed by computing p values for all grid points and comparing them to significant values of 0.05 and 0.1 (95% and 90% confidence levels, respectively).  Figure 3 depicts the spatio-temporal climatology of rainfall cessation dates across Lao PDR over a 42-year period. In Eastern Champasak and certain areas of Bolikhamsai Vientiane, Xaisômboun, and Houaphan, the cessation dates for rainfall typically occur within the timeframe of August 31 to September 20. Conversely, in specific regions such as Bokeo, Louang Namtha, and Phôngsali, cessation dates are typically between October 10 and October 20. For a large part of the LPDR, the cessation occurs from September 20 to September 30. Notably, the southeastern portions of the country exhibit rainfall cessation dates from October 10 to October 30. Figure 4 shows the spatio-temporal climatology of the length of the growing period across Lao PDR over a 42-year period. The shortest Length of Growing Period is observed in the larger section of Champasak and Attapu provinces, spanning between 110 and 130 days. In a broader context, the western portions of the country consistently exhibit shorter LGP, ranging from 130 to 170 days, while the eastern half neigboring Vietnam tends to experience longer LGP, spanning from 170 to 230 days (Figure 4). Figures 5 -7 provides the spatial trends of rainfall onset dates, cessation dates, and LGP over Lao PDR for 42 years. Southern regions of the country exhibit delayed onsets, ranging from 0 to 5.67 days per year. Conversely, northeastern portions of the country also experience late onsets within the same timeframe of 0 to 5.67 days per year. On the other hand, northwestern sections are noted for early onsets, spanning 0 to 5.67 days per year. Particularly early rainfall onsets are observed in parts of Khammouan, ranging from 5.67 to 11.33 days per year. The northern-central regions of Laos and western Savannakhét are noted for their early cessation dates, falling within the range of 0 to 5.67 days per year. In contrast, the remaining areas of the country are characterized by late cessation dates, ranging from 0 to 11.33 days per year. The mid-central regions of the country are noted for having a long LGP, ranging from 0 to 17 days per year. In the southwestern parts, a shorter LGP is observed, ranging from 0 to 5.67 days per year. Specifically, sections of Houaphan, Louangphrabang, and Xaignabouri are noted for a shorter LGP, falling within the range of 0 to 11.33 days per year, while the remaining northern areas of Laos are observed to have a longer LGP. Conversely, in Bokeo, Luang Namtha, and Phôngsali, cessation dates are typically between October 10 and 20. For many countries, cessation occurs from September 20 to September 30. In the southeastern portions of Laos, rainfall cessation dates range from October 10 to October 30. The Length of the Growing Period (LGP) varies across provinces. Champasak and Attapu provinces have the shortest LGP, between 110 and 130 days. In a broader context, the western regions consistently exhibit shorter LGP, ranging from 130 to 170 days, while the eastern half, bordering Vietnam, tends to experience longer LGP, from 170 to 230 days. The coefficient of variation (CV) values for onset, cessation, and LGP were 1-22%, 1-8%, and 1-15% in Lao PDR, respectively. Notably, LGP variability was consistently higher than onset and cessation dates. The patterns of rainfall seasonality indices in Laos reveal distinct characteristics in different regions. The southern areas consistently demonstrate delayed onsets, ranging from 0 to 5.67 days per year. Similarly, the northeastern parts of the country also experience late onsets within the same timeframe of 0 to 5.67 days per year. In contrast, the northwestern sections are notable for early onsets, from 0 to 5.67 days per year. Notably, early rainfall onsets are mainly observed in specific areas of Khammouan, ranging from 5.67 to 11.33 days per year. The northerncentral regions of Laos and western Savannakhét consistently experience early cessation dates, ranging from 0 to 5.67 days per year. In contrast, the rest of the country is characterized by late cessation dates, from 0 to 11.33 days per year. The mid-central regions of the country exhibit an extended Length of Growing Period (LGP), spanning from 0 to 17 days per year. In the southwestern parts, a comparatively shorter LGP is observed, ranging from 0 to 5.67 days per year. Notably, Houaphan, Louangphrabang, and Xaignabouri sections are recognized for a shorter LGP, falling within the range of 0 to 11.33 days per year, while a longer LGP characterizes the remaining northern areas of Laos. Our study underscores the importance of investing in modern climate information services, such as an automated gauge network, to enhance and complement the existing local knowledge in forecasting rainfall seasonality in Laos. cgiar.org/initiative/mixed-farming-systems","tokenCount":"2259"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb11be1a041175fb71aa6baf28ee9776","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e32f5e7e-57ce-42db-8cbd-bfd09f8a49af/retrieve","id":"745040676"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1bdae7bd-f84c-4bfe-b171-a9da9d318c4c","pagecount":"13","content":"This study reports on the adoption and impacts of CGIAR-related maize varieties in 18 major maize-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during 1995-2015. Of the 1345 maize varieties released during this timeframe, approximately 60% had a known CGIAR parentage. About 34% (9.5 million ha) of the total maize area in 2015 was cultivated with 'new' CGIAR-related maize varieties released between 1995 and 2015. In the same year, an additional 13% of the maize area was cultivated with 'old' CGIAR-related maize varieties released before 1995. The aggregate annual economic benefit of using new CGIAR-related maize germplasm for yield increase in SSA was estimated at US$1.1-1.6 billion in 2015, which we attributed equally to co-investments by CGIAR funders, public-sector national research and extension programs, and private sector partners. Given that the annual global investment in CGIAR maize breeding at its maximum was US$30 million, the benefit-cost ratios for the CGIAR investment and CGIAR-attributable portion of economic benefits varied from 12:1-17:1, under the assumption of a 5-year lag in the research investment to yield returns. The study also discusses the methodological challenges involved in large-scale impact assessments. Post-2015 CGIAR tropical maize breeding efforts have had a strong emphasis on stress tolerance.Sustainably providing sufficient, nutritious, accessible, and affordable food supplies for a growing population of the Global South is a major challenge, which is aggravated by climate change (Connolly-Boutin and Smit, 2016). The pathways to increase food production include expanding the land area under cultivation (extensification), increasing the intensity of production per unit of land, and increasing production efficiency. As extensification of agriculture often implies unfavorable societal and environmental trade-offs (Johnson et al., 2014), sustainable intensification of existing production systems through technological change has become the focus of research-and-development (R&D) initiatives. Increased research investment and policies that enable structural changes in national and international agricultural R&D programs are essential, and it is equally important to monitor the effectiveness of these investments through rigorous impact assessments (Kubitza and Krishna, 2020). Here we examine the impact of CGIAR on improved maize germplasm with active investment and involvement of a diversity of national partners in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over a 21-year period .Globally, maize has strategic importance as a supplier of food and feed energy and protein (Poole et al., 2021;Erenstein et al., 2022). Technological innovations, combined with an expansion in the cultivated area, have enabled farmers to realize the global maize grain production of one billion tons per annum in 2013 and maintain a consistent, positive growth rate in yield (Byerlee and Edmeades, 2021). Despite the constantly increasing production, meeting global demand for maize from food, feed, and fuel markets has remained a major challenge for the producing countries, particularly in the Global South (Erenstein et al., 2022), where agricultural systems increasingly suffer from depletion and degradation of the resource-base, frequent pest infestation, and the vagaries of climate change (Challinor et al., 2016;Abro et al., 2021;Overton et al., 2021). The production conditions are particularly challenging in SSA for maize, with the increased intensity of biotic and abiotic stress factors, soils low in organic matter and other nutrients, and limited use of external inputs. As a result, African countries contributed only 7.5% of global maize production from an area share of 20.5% during 2010-2020 (estimated using data from FAOSTAT, 2022). Unlike the leading maize producers (e.g., the USA, China, and India), the yield growth registered in Africa has also been modest (12 kg ha − 1 y − 1 , during 2010-2020; estimated using data from FAOSTAT, 2022), with significant intra-continental heterogeneity. Against these challenges, CGIAR maize R&D has been generating and popularizing yield-enhancing, stress-resilient, and nutrient-rich varieties and improved farming practices in close collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), national breeding programs, the private seed sector, and other national partners (Jones--Garcia and Krishna, 2021).Against the context of drastic institutional changes in the international agricultural R&D and increasing intensity of biotic and abiotic stress factors limiting maize production, an examination of the role of CGIAR institutions in sustaining the maize yield growth in Africa is warranted. CGIAR, formerly known as the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, established in 1971, is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in agricultural R&D to \"deliver science and innovation that advance transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis\" (CGIAR, 2020, p. 17). The pro-poor impacts of research conducted under the aegis of CGIAR have been previously documented (Renkow and Byerlee, 2010).Historically, the maize breeding programs of CGIAR have been involved in developing new varieties with greater genetic yield potential (Byerlee and Edmeades, 2021;Masuka et al., 2017;Paudel et al., 2022), higher biotic and abiotic stress tolerance or resilience (e.g., drought-tolerant or DT maize; Katengeza and Holden, 2021;Prasanna et al., 2021), and enhanced nutrient content (e.g., quality protein maize or QPM; Goredema-Matongera et al., 2021;Maqbool et al., 2021) for farmers of South Asia, SSA, and Latin America. Development and dissemination of such varieties help adapt the maize production systems to climate change and to impart resistance to major biotic stresses, including diseases (e.g., maize streak virus, maize lethal necrosis, Turcicum leaf blight, grey leaf spot, tar spot complex, stalk rots, ear rots, etc.), parasitic weeds (e.g., Striga spp.), and insect-pests (e.g., fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda) (Prasanna et al., 2021;Gasura et al., 2022;Kamweru et al., 2022). Since 2015, marker-assisted forward breeding and marker-assisted backcrossing have been effectively used in eastern and southern Africa by CIMMYT to introgress resistance to maize streak virus and maize lethal necrosis into diverse genetic backgrounds (Prasanna et al., 2021). Significant strides have also been made in breeding elite maize lines and hybrids with native genetic resistance to fall armyworm in Africa, based on the strong foundation of insect-resistant tropical germplasm developed by CIMMYT scientists in Mexico. These efforts are further intensified to develop and deploy elite maize cultivars with native fall armyworm tolerance / resistance and farmer-preferred traits suitable for diverse agroecologies in Africa and Asia (Prasanna et al., 2022).Over the last three decades, the CGIAR R&D investment has shown a gradual but significant change in the regional focus. A \"pivot to Africa,\" as described by Byerlee and Edmeades (2021), was initiated from the funding crisis that CGIAR faced in the 1990s. The African focus on CGIAR maize breeding intensified even further after the establishment of the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), especially CRP MAIZE. A detailed history of the evolution of the maize breeding program in CGIAR is presented by Byerlee and Edmeades (2021), which started with an optimism that due to the increased R&D investment, the African countries might be realizing a long-awaited \"maize revolution.\" Despite the heightened Africa focus, CGIAR institutions continue to address the production constraints of smallholders in Asia and Latin America, with several maize varieties annually released in conjunction with public and private breeding institutions (Tesfaye et al., 2017;Guzzon et al., 2021).In this study, we estimate the impact of CGIAR germplasm on enhancing maize production in 18 target countries in SSA during 1995-2015. The effect of agricultural R&D under the aegis of CGIAR institutions has been closely scrutinized. Most of the past impact evaluations indicated favorable results. In one of the earliest global impact evaluations (Evenson and Gollin, 2003), the rates of returns on CGIAR investment in crop germplasm improvement were found to be within the range of 39% in Latin America to 100% in Asia over 1965-1998. In a meta-analysis, Raitzer and Kelley (2008) showed that the benefit-cost ratios of CGIAR interventions could range from 2:1-17:1. A recent assessment reiterated the financial advantage of CGIAR research programs, indicating that investment in CGIAR R&D resulted in a benefit-cost ratio of 10:1 (Alston et al., 2022). Despite the reported significant economic gains realized from past investments, the stagnation of international funding for agricultural R&D (Zeigler and Mohanty, 2010) can be viewed only as a paradox. Given the drastic decline in CGIAR funding after 2014 (Beintema and Echeverría, 2020), the systematic documentation of the economic effects of international agricultural R&D has become even more important.The present study updates the estimates of collaborative international maize breeding for earlier periods: 1966-1990(Lopez-Pereira and Morris, 1994), 1966-1998(Morris et al., 2003), and 1981-2005(Alene et al., 2009). Our conservative assessments point toward an overall benefit-cost ratio ranging between 12:1 and 17:1 for R&D investment in CGIAR maize breeding in SSA, highlighting the economic value of increasing the public R&D investment across the Global South.We focused on the 18 major maize-producing countries of SSA: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, from where data were available on varietal releases and their parentage. There was a steady increase in the aggregate maize area in these 18 countries during the study period, from 17 million ha in 1995 to 28 million in 2015 (FAOSTAT, 2021). However, maize yields in Africa remained low, with a significant inter-country variation. Among the 18 focal countries in 2015, the average maize yield ranged from 0.6 t ha − 1 (Zimbabwe) to 3.7 t ha − 1 (Ethiopia), and no country in the subcontinent had a yield above the global average (5.5 t ha − 1 ; FAOSTAT, 2021).For CGIAR centers, the enhancement of maize production in SSA has become a top priority since the mid-1980s (Byerlee and Edmeades, 2021). CIMMYT and IITA continuously exchanged improved maize germplasm and integrated novel tools and technologies to increase genetic gains in the stress-prone environments of the continent. CIMMYT, in particular, integrated doubled haploid technology, high-throughput, field-based phenotyping, and genomics-assisted breeding for the breeding pipelines (Chaikam et al., 2019). Since 2002, the two centers have intensified public-private partnerships to strengthen the maize seed systems in the target countries of Africa. Several third-party funded projects, such as 'Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa,' 'Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa,' 'Water Efficient Maize for Africa,' 'Improved Maize for African Soils,' and seed-sector-related investments provided a strong impetus to these R&D efforts (see https://www.cimmyt.org).Parentage or pedigree information for different improved maize varieties released between 1995 and 2015 was required to determine the contribution of CGIAR germplasm. However, the parentage of commercialized maize varieties, especially from the private sector, is often not disclosed for various reasons (Morris et al., 2003). Moreover, for a cross-pollinated crop like maize, it is not easy to calculate the percentage of germplasm contribution from different sources and provide the exact contributions of the different institutions involved in the varietal release. Therefore, we relied on the 'reported CGIAR germplasm contribution' from a purposive expert survey, especially for those varietal releases lacking exact pedigree information. A structured questionnaire was sent to public-sector agricultural research programs, including ministries of agriculture, research and extension institutes and agricultural universities, CIMMYT and IITA regional offices, and private sector scientists and managers operating in SSA, with a covering letter ensuring confidentiality. The questionnaire elicited the details at the individual variety level for the region or country, including varietal name, release year, pedigree, relation to CGIAR institutions, the main use of the variety in the country (food, feed, etc.), cultivar type (OPV, hybrid, etc.), maturity (early, late, etc.), grain color, suitable agroecology for the variety, nutritional attributes, and success rate in terms of adoption rate. The expert survey dataset was instrumental in estimating the CGIAR relationship in the varietal releases and for adoption estimation. 1  Based on the data obtained from expert surveys and secondary sources, maize varieties were assigned to five categories based on CGIAR germplasm relationship: (1) varieties with 100% CGIAR parentage (all parents derived from CGIAR germplasm), (2) varieties with significant CGIAR parentage (50-99%), (3) varieties with some CGIAR parentage (1-49%), (4) varieties with no known/reported CGIAR parentage, and (5) varieties of unknown parentage. Because of category (5), the estimates for the contribution of CGIAR maize germplasm to varietal releases reported in this study may be cautiously approached and understood as the lower bound values and a likely underestimation of the real impact. Varieties for which only qualitative information was obtained from the experts and/or literature (e.g., some sources revealed CGIAR germplasm parentage only as \"mostly,\" \"limited,\" etc.) are included in the best corresponding categories of (2) or (3). The category of 'CGIAR-related varieties,' which is the focus of the present study, is generated as the aggregate of (1)-(3). For a meaningful inter-country comparison, we estimated the annual varietal release intensities, calculated as the number of maize varieties released in a country per annum during 1995-2015 divided by the area under maize in the base year (1995).We gathered the adoption data from the 18 target countries for the study period from all available sources. As the foundation, we used an expert survey focusing on estimated varietal adoption for the most recent year (2015). We sent a semi-structured questionnaire to 71 maize scientists/ managers from private and public maize breeding programs in these countries in 2016 and received 43 respondents, resulting in a response rate of 61%. The dataset was further enriched with a list of improved maize varieties released during 1995-2015 from the seed catalogs, variety registers, and data collected from earlier studies, including that of Walker and Alwang (2015), peer-reviewed journal papers, and project reports. These sources also provided the pedigree information (i.e., CGIAR germplasm relationship) and the estimated area coverage of individual varieties. A list of reviewed studies is provided in Supplementary Materials S1. Of the total of 1548 variety-specific adoption data points over the study period, 27% were from published literature, 50% from unpublished project documents (especially CGIAR project, \"Diffusion and Impact of Improved Varieties in Africa,\" DIIVA; www.asti.cgiar.org/diiva), 12% from seed registries, and 10% from CIMMYT expert surveys. The adoption figures on OPVs relied more on unpublished data and literature review, whereas those on hybrids relied on unpublished reports and seed sales registries.Unlike the expert survey estimates, the reported adoption figures from the literature do not correspond to a single year. However, to estimate the CGIAR germplasm contribution to the varieties grown each year, we required data on annual adoption rates for individual varieties over the entire study period. The temporal adoption patterns were obtained by extrapolating data from different points in time for each released variety in use. We assumed a linear increase from zero in the year of release to the first observed average adoption rate. We assumed that the adoption rate would hold constant at the observed level for five years and then decline to zero over the next five years. The estimated diffusion rates were uniformly rescaled as needed to ensure the aggregate estimated adoption in a particular year did not exceed 100%. We acknowledge that the assumptions behind the extrapolation of temporal adoption patterns across sources are strong and also recognize that the estimates from different sources may vary in their robustness and representativeness. At the same time, the dependence on multiple sources for obtaining the adoption rates of individual varieties could result in more robust aggregate adoption estimates.The first step of the economic impact estimation of CGIAR germplasm on maize production in SSA is an assessment of the grain yield effects of CGIAR-related varieties. Panel data regression models with country-level fixed effects were employed to capture the effect of the change in acreage share of maize varieties with CGIAR parentage on national maize yield. National-level maize yield was used as the dependent variable, and the estimated share of maize area under the new and old CGIAR germplasm-related varieties as the key independent variables. The comparison is made amongst all alternative varieties (i.e., old/new non-CGIAR varieties and varieties without parentage information), and these varieties occupied nearly two-thirds of the maize area in the study countries in 2015.The conventional fixed-effects models control for cross-section heterogeneity and time-invariant unobservable factors while improving the efficiency of parameter estimates. However, to precisely estimate the relationship between maize yield and CGIAR germplasm contribution in varietal development, we must also control for unobserved time-variant heterogeneity. For this purpose, we used a Dynamic Panel Data (DPD) model with a balanced dataset between 1995 and 2015. Arellano and Bond (1991) developed a Generalized Method of Moments(GMM) estimator for the DPD model using the first difference of the equation. In our case, the model was estimated as:where y it is the national maize yield (kg ha − 1 ) in the country i in year t, derived from the FAOSTAT (2021) database. CGIAR it is the share of CGIAR-related varieties in the national maize acreage, C itk is the set of k 1 There has been relatively limited technology monitoring in relation to maize breeding programs in SSA, making information on varietal release and farmer adoption of individual varieties not easily available or limited in scope. At the same time, data collection from maize breeders and project managers was time-consuming and slow. Furthermore, there were several inconsistencies in the data initially collected, especially with respect to the adoption figures. The reiterative development of the database and methodological approach took about three years (2016-2018), and statistical analysis was initiated in 2019. country-specific variables (including gross cropped area, percentage share of maize area, percentage share of irrigated area, annual rainfall, chemical fertilizer use in the country), T is the dummy variable standing for the time of observation, and e it is the remainder disturbance that can vary over time and countries. In the variable set C itk , we included only the time variant elements that are available for the study period for all countries and have a potential effect on maize grains. All time-invariant country-specific variables will be omitted in the model estimation, and hence many policy-and market-specific variables were not suitable to include.Our primary focus is to estimate b 2 , the effects of CGIAR-related germplasm on national maize yield. Estimation of Eq. ( 1) requires an instrumental variable to correct for endogeneity, especially with the variable CGIAR it and for correlation between the lagged differences of the dependent variable and e it− 1 . Under additional assumptions, it is possible to construct an alternative GMM estimator that overcomes this problem. Here we follow Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond estimation (Arellano and Bover, 1995;Blundell and Bond, 1998), which is a linear DPD model with lags of the dependent and key explanatory variables. Similar models have been used by several researchers of agricultural economics to avoid endogeneity and to generate robust impact estimates (Klomp and Haan, 2013;Krishna et al., 2015). The yield effect size (b 2 ) is then compared with the farm-level impact of CGIAR germplasm from the literature.In some countries (e.g., Nigeria), a significant share of farmer acreage under maize in 2014 and 2015 was cultivated with 'varieties of unknown parentage' that might or might not include CGIAR-related varieties. To verify to what extent such measurement error affects the model estimates, we have re-run Eq. ( 1) with a reduced sample. Observations from years when varieties with unknown parentage were greater than 10% were excluded from the model estimation.The CGIAR adoption percentage may stand proxy for the changing breeding capabilities of the study countries, and hence, one may argue that our approach overestimates the effect size. We included the number of researchers and share of researchers working in the public sector with a 5-year lag (obtained from Beintema et al., 2012) among the explanatory variables in the regression function and compared the effect of CGIAR varieties across the two sets of regression models. An insignificant change in the CGIAR impact estimates would reject the hypothesis that the model estimates capture the effect of an increase in the breeding capacity of the study nations.Finally, we attempt to identify the sources of the CGIAR germplasm effect, hypothesized to be dependent on the type of varieties that were replaced due to the spread of CGIAR varieties: old non-CGIAR varieties (including local varieties) or new ones. Varietal age, germplasm adaptability to the local agroclimatic conditions, genetic potential, and seed quality generate the yield effect, had the old varieties been replaced. On the other hand, germplasm adaptability and genetic potential dominate when new varieties are replaced. Delineating these factors is a challenging task. We categorized observations into two groups, based on farmer adoption of new maize germplasm (both CGIAR and non-CGIAR, released after 1994) and taking the 50% adoption rate as the cutoff. The observations from 2006 to 2015 are analyzed using regression tools to see whether there is a significant difference in the effect size across the two groups. We excluded the 1995-2005 observations for not having information on non-CGIAR varieties released immediately before (e.g., varieties released in 1994, which would qualify as a recently released modern variety during that period). While a significant difference in effect magnitude across the groups would indicate the potential causal pathways, this approach has certain limitationsa reduced sample size, the lack of accurate data on old local varieties, endogenous factors (e.g., government policies) that affect general seed sector development, CGIAR institutional performance and maize productivity, etc. A more sophisticated approach would be allowing for a heterogeneous impact of CGIAR germplasm by including a quadratic term of share of maize area under CGIAR-related varieties in the regression analysis. We anticipate the marginal effect of CGIAR varieties to be high when its diffusion is low because there will still be a significant area share with low productive varieties in the comparison group. The marginal effect is expected to diminish with increasing diffusion as the lowest-yielding varieties are gradually ousted from the agroecosystems and the control group, and the comparison is made with the well-adapted non-CGIAR varieties that survived the competition from the CGIAR varieties for the cultivated area.To estimate the economic impacts of CGIAR-related germplasm through yield enhancement, we employed an equilibrium displacement model. The partial equilibrium framework has long been used in evaluating commodity-related technological progress in agriculture for impact assessments (Krishna and Qaim, 2008;Alene et al., 2018). The economic surplus changes due to intervention (for this study, CGIAR-related germplasm) were estimated based on a parallel shift in the supply curve of the commodity (for this study, maize grain). The economic benefits from CGIAR maize germplasm coupled with investments from the diversity of national partners and seed companies were estimated separately for each study country within a framework for the small open economy adapted for ex-post impact evaluation (Alston et al., 1995). However, since the 18 study countries taken together only represent a limited share of global foreign trade in maize: e.g., 1% of world import quantity and 0.5% of world export quantity during the second half (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) of the study period (FAOSTAT, 2021), we assume no spillover effects of the yield increase in SSA over to the global maize economy and other maize producing countries. The economic surplus attributed to CGIAR maize germplasm at the time t (ES t ) was estimated as:where P t and Q t are the average real-world market price of maize and the total maize production of the country in year t, respectively. For the present analysis, we used the international price of maize grain in 2015 and estimated the surplus values. The per-unit cost reduction results in a supply function shift of magnitude K t . Finally, ε is the price elasticity of the supply of maize grains. Using these parameters, the supply shift due to CGIAR-related germplasm was calculated as:ΔY/Y and ΔC/C are the average proportional change in yield and average proportional change in the variable costs per land unit associated with technology adoption, and A t is the adoption rate of CGIARrelated varieties (share of maize area in the country). The net yield gain for recent CGIAR-related varieties over others (including old CGIAR-related varieties, recent and old non-CGIAR varieties, and landraces) was derived from the regression estimates. We assumed that the cultivation of CGIAR-related maize varieties did not cause a variable cost change, making ΔC/C = 0 (i.e., the new CGIAR-related seed cost is the same as that of non-CGIAR varieties, and we assume no change in other input use). 2 2 The strong assumption of no cost increase is one of the limitations of our partial equilibrium framework estimates, which was included due to a lack of sufficient empirical evidence to assume otherwise. More socioeconomic studies are required to assess the effect of CGIAR germplasm on the production process at the farm-level, especially on external input use. Several of the CGIAR inventions are risk-reducing, and the increased certainty of production could generate a behavioral change in farmers to spend more on inputs.The details of improved maize varieties released during 1995-2015 and CGIAR germplasm contribution in their parentage are depicted in Fig. 1 (and Appendix I). During the study period, a total of 1345 maize varieties were released in the 18 focus countries. The average number of annual varietal releases varied from < 1 per annum in Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, Madagascar, and Senegal to 11-12 per annum in Kenya and Zambia (Fig. 1A). The release intensity was the highest for Rwanda (23 varieties per million ha) and Zambia (22 varieties) and the lowest for Nigeria and Cameroon (0.83 varieties) (Fig. 1B). Among all the maize varieties released between 1995 and 2015, about 60% had CGIAR inbred lines directly in their pedigree or had parental lines with some CGIAR origin (Fig. 1C). About 78% of CGIAR varieties with known parentage were developed by the public sector, 5% under public-private partnerships, and the rest (17%) solely by the private sector. In contrast, most (88%) non-CGIAR varieties were developed by private companies. We suspect a certain degree of under-reporting of varieties with CGIAR parentage, especially in the large maize producer countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc., where the share of varieties with unknown parentage was high. In these countries, a large share of varieties was developed as crosses of CGIAR and non-CGIAR germplasm (e.g., 42% in Kenya), pointing toward significant collaborative R&D efforts of the national public and private sector partners. However, all uses of CGIAR germplasm (and hence their presence in the parentage) might not always be (fully) acknowledged by the partner institutions.A negative relationship (r = -0.70, p < 0.01) is observed between the number of overall maize varietal releases and the share of CGIARrelated releases. The share of CGIAR-related releases was higher in countries with fewer aggregate releases, while the share decreased as the number of total releases increased. For example, almost all maize varieties released between 1995 and 2015 in Senegal and Benin had CGIAR parentage, although the annual varietal release was less than 1.0. Nonetheless, even in countries with high varietal release intensity, the share of CGIAR-related releases was not substantially low. A possible reason behind this pattern could be the presence of an active and welldeveloped private seed sector and the existence of strong public-private partnerships in the above-mentioned countries.Although most new varieties released during 1995-2015 were hybrids, the share of hybrids was significantly lower (64.5%) among CGIAR-related varieties than among non-CGIAR varieties (73.5%) (Table 1). The country-specific adoption of new hybrids (Supplementary Materials S2) further shows that hybrid maize adoption had been marginal in countries with less-developed seed markets (e.g., Mali, Benin, Senegal, etc.), where most of the maize varieties were derived from CGIAR germplasm. These patterns validate the research focus of CGIAR and partners on developing affordable OPVs for poor farmers where seed markets are less developed.The estimated share of area under improved maize varieties released between 1995 and 2015 in the target countries increased progressively over the study period, reaching 69% by 2015. Fig. 2 presents the temporal adoption of new and old CGIAR-related varieties by country over the 21-year period. The adoption of new, improved maize varieties increased at a rate of 3.5% points per annum overall. The adoption of CGIAR-related maize varieties (new and old) was faster than those of the non-CGIAR varieties (2.2% points vs. 0.9% points, respectively).The maize area in 2015 could be divided into three groups that are similar in size, viz. 'old' varieties, new CGIAR varieties, and the combination of new non-CGIAR varieties and unknown. The first group of 'old' varieties includes local varieties, landraces, and improved maize varieties released before 1995, whether related to CGIAR or not. The area cultivated with these varieties was estimated to be about 8.7 million ha (31% of the total maize area) in 2015. Of this, 3.3 million ha were covered with old CGIAR-related varieties released before 1995. In Cameroon and Ghana, the old CGIAR varieties were dominant in the farmers' fields even in 2015. The second group includes the new CGIARrelated improved maize varieties released after 1995 that covered about 34% of the total maize area in 2015, representing 9.5 million ha. These varieties are popular among smallholder farmers of various maizegrowing countries in SSA, including Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Senegal. The final group includes the new non-CGIAR varieties cultivated in 14% of the maize area in 2015 and varieties having no known parentage (21%) and accounted for 9.8 million ha. The area  The measure of row-column association, Pearson χ 2 , is 12.44 (p ≤ 0.01).under non-CGIAR varieties was particularly high in Zimbabwe and Zambia in 2015.In this section, we examine whether the adoption of new CGIAR germplasm-related varieties generated a significant yield effect compared to other varietal alternatives for maize cultivation in SSA. The regression model estimates from the complete dataset (n = 378) and the reduced dataset (n = 357, excluding years when varieties with unknown parentage exceeded 10% of maize area) are presented in Table 2. All models showed that the new CGIAR germplasm-related varieties released after 1995 had a significant yield effect, although the magnitude of impact varied in size. Under the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) framework, a 1% increase in the area under cultivation of these varieties increased the average annual national grain yield by 0.41% after controlling for other explanatory variables. The Fixed Effects and DPD models estimated effect sizes of 0.39% and 0.27%, respectively. When the reduced dataset was used for analysis, the OLS estimates increased to 0.57%, while the Fixed Effects and DPD model estimates were 0.40% and 0.29%, respectively. Adoption of old CGIAR-related maize germplasm had a significant effect on yield only in the OLS models (0.48%).We further tested whether the flow of CGIAR varieties stands proxy for the national capacity of maize breeding programs by including the number of research staff working in agricultural R&D and the share of public sector researchers with a five-year lag. The results are shown in Appendix II. Not only were the additional explanatory variables insignificant in the panel data models, but the effect size of CGIAR germplasm also did not change significantly from the main analysis.The sources of the yield effects of CGIAR-related varieties were identified by running regression models for 2006-2015 after grouping the observations with respect to the level of diffusion of new maize varieties. The regression estimates are provided in Appendix III. The effect magnitude was positive and statistically significant when the diffusion of new maize varieties was less than 50% and small and insignificant in the Fixed Effects model when the diffusion was 50% and above. While one may attribute the lack of statistical significance in the latter group to the reduced sample size, the pronounced yield effect of CGIAR germplasm in countries with nascent seed sectors and R&D institutions is verified by the regression analysis (Fig. 3). When a quadratic term of share of CGIAR variety adoption was introduced in the model, the marginal effect was shown declining with the diffusion of CGIAR varieties: 1300 kg ha-1 when the diffusion rate is 5%, zero yield effect at 72% diffusion rate, and negative above that. However, only a small share (<5%) of observations had the diffusion rate of CGIAR varieties above 72% of the national maize area, and the positive effect of CGIAR maize holds for 95% of observations. Together with the findings presented in Section 3.1, these two analyses provide ample empirical support and evidence for the high impact of CGIAR-related germplasm in countries with less developed seed markets.The aggregate impact of CGIAR-related germplasm in SSA was estimated for 2015. There is a possibility that the yield effect could vary over time as new breeding technologies are constantly introduced, new partnerships are evolved, and new traits (e.g., drought tolerance) are given emphasis in maize breeding. We re-estimated the regression models using data from the 2006-2015 period (n = 180 for the whole sample and 159 for the reduced sample) and found only a minor change in the estimated effects in comparison to using the entire dataset (Table 2). However, the estimated impact increased in magnitude in both Fixed Effects and DPD models when the reduced dataset was used. We consider the DPD model the most robust and use the corresponding estimates for our aggregate impact estimation. We thereby use a conservative yield impact size of 0.24 (24%) for CGIAR-related varieties (Scenario I, based on the DPD model using the complete dataset for [2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013][2014][2015]. Economic surplus values were also calculated under an alternative scenario with a more liberal impact magnitude of 0.35 (35%;Scenario II, based on the DPD model estimated using the reduced dataset for [2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013][2014][2015]. The validity of these impact magnitudes can be examined through a review of the literature on drought-tolerant (DT) maize in Africa. 3  Abdoulaye et al. (2018) and Martey et al. (2020) reported the yield effect of DT maize at + 33% in Nigeria and Ghana. Amondo et al. (2019) and Simtowe et al. (2019) estimated the impact of the same technology for maize cultivation at + 15% in Zambia and Uganda, respectively. Impacts of higher magnitudes were reported by Lunduka et al. (2019). In these micro-level studies, however, the reference group against which the impact was estimated includes both CGIAR and non-CGIAR non-DT (old and new) varieties. Hence the impact of new CGIAR-related varieties that we estimate is expected to be slightly higher than the DT maize impact figures.The results of the equilibrium displacement model to quantify the aggregate impact of CGIAR-related germplasm in SSA are presented in Table 3. The same table also contains country-specific information on the aggregate maize area, production, adoption of new CGIAR-related varieties, and value of economic benefits under two scenarios for 2015. Under the conservative Scenario I of a 24% yield effect, the annual benefits for 2015 accrued to US$1.1 billion. There was significant intercountry variation, with about 85% of the benefits accrued to six countries, viz. Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia that represented 52% of the maize area of the 18 countries. Inter-country inequality was more pronounced in Western and Central Africa than in Eastern and Southern Africa, with a single country (Nigeria) accounting for most of the economic benefits. Under Scenario II (of a 35% yield effect), the economic surplus estimate increased to US$1.6 billion. There was no marked change in inter-country inequality.The CGIAR germplasm effect is a joint product of the partnership between the National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS), the private sector, and CGIAR. Ideally, we would estimate the returns to the three jointly, but the missing cost (investment by NARS and private sector) data limits our ability to do so. We, therefore, assume that the CGIAR germplasm effect is attributed equally to the partnership between the NARS, the private sector, and CGIAR (i.e., 33.3% each). 4 The 3 The documented impact of DT maize from the literature is taken in particular for validating the observed effects of CGIAR germplasm, because DT is a technology developed mainly by the CGIAR institutions in SSA during the study period (Bänziger and Araus, 2007;Cairns and Prasanna, 2018). DT maize also has been the focal point of much of the CGIAR's SSA work in the recent past, resulting in increased varietal releases and promotion. Furthermore, there has also been an increase in the documentation of varietal use with respect to DT technology. On the other hand, innovations for genetic yield potential enhancement (e.g., conventional hybrids) are developed by both CGIAR and non-CGIAR institutions, and not many have compared the effects of CGIAR and non-CGIAR germplasm in the micro-level studies. 4 We opted to give equal weight to the three entities for the simple reason that each play a key contributionsine qua nontoward the final impact.Severe associated data limitations across the 18 countries during the study period limit the prospects of coming up with a more grounded attribution. The one-third benefit allocation to the CGIAR research program in maize was assumed after discussing with breeders given data limitations, and similar benefit sharing assumptions were used in previous impact studies, for example, Evenson and Gollin (2003). In our case, while about 80% of the parentage share of CGIAR-related varieties consists of older CGIAR varieties, the complementary activities of NARS partners and private sector companiesidentifying the varietal traits to target in the breeding, facilitating the partnership with CGIAR and other national partner institutions, developing congenial agronomic practices, popularizing varieties among maize farmers, etc. -are instrumental in generating the observed effect in national maize production. Having said that, the effect of these activities is not easy to quantify; data on investments made by the NARS and the private sector in maize breeding and agronomy are largely unavailable. While we followed an equal sharing of estimated benefits across R&D partners, a sensitivity analysis was additionally conducted by taking 25% and 75% benefit allocation for the CGIAR maize breeding program. The findings are provided in Appendix V. CGIAR investment in maize improvement was US$30 million in 2015 at the global level (Appendix IV), albeit the largest share was allocated to SSA. Corresponding estimates from other institutions involved in maize breeding, including NARS and the private sector, are not available. Considering the investment in global CGIAR maize improvement as the research cost, even the lower-bound annual disaggregated CGIAR benefit estimated for 2015 was US$ 374.4 million, representing a strong return (12:1) on the annual CGIAR investments. However, such a comparison should be made with caution as the cost and benefit figures are not directly comparable. Crop breeding is a pipeline with continuous annual investments and annual returns, but there is a significant lag between the investment cost and the returns in agricultural R&D (Alston et al., 2022). The current benefits reflect past investments, and current investments generate results in the future. In Appendix V, we provide a range of benefit-cost ratios derived under the assumption of 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year lags in research investment and 25%, 33.3%, and 75% allocation of total benefits to the CGIAR maize breeding program estimated under Scenarios I and II. The benefit-cost ratios were 12:1 for Scenario I and 17:1 for Scenario II, under the base assumptions of a 5-year lag in the research investment and 33.3% benefit allocation to the CGIAR maize breeding program to realize the observed yield changes. The benefit-cost ratios increased with further lags. Had we taken a   The 'new' are the varieties released during the study period . The estimated values are derived from the fixed effects model with a quadratic term of the variable \"Estimated adoption of new CGIAR varieties, released in 1995 or later (share of national maize area, 0-1)\". The associated regression model is provided in Supplementary Materials (S3). Notes: Estimated economic surplus represents the benefits associated with the adoption-induced production increase. Supply elasticity assumed is + 0.60. Effect size denotes ΔY/Y in Eq. (3).10-year lag in the R&D investment, the ratios would have become 19:1 and 27:1 in Scenarios I and II, respectively, because of the low research investment during the pre-CRP period. The estimated economic benefits never fell below 8:1 under any of the assumptions and scenarios. The recent advances in the CGIAR maize breeding program in the selected SSA countries are provided in Supplementary Materials S4. There we present the evidence from the literature for the benefits of stress-tolerant varieties released in collaboration between CGIAR, national breeding programs, and the private seed sector to stabilize maize production, reduce downside risk, and improve livelihoods in tropical and subtropical production environments of SSA.Smallholder maize farmers across Africa face many production constraints, including the increased frequency of occurrence of abiotic and biotic stresses and lack of access to improved seeds and other inputs (Prasanna et al., 2021). During the study period, CGIAR-NARS collaborative maize breeding strongly focused on developing improved maize varieties with stress tolerance and enhanced nutritional quality and delivering them in collaboration with the national and private seed sector partners, targeting critical benefits in sustaining rural livelihoods (Cairns and Prasanna, 2018;Prasanna et al., 2021). The present study estimated that CGIAR's involvement in maize germplasm improvement generated an economic surplus of US$ 0.37-0.53 billion in 2015 across the 18 study countries in SSA. The annual R&D investment at its peak was less than one-tenth of the estimated benefits. The observed significant inter-country variability in the magnitude of the impact of CGIAR germplasm could arise from differential varietal release rates and farmer adoption of new CGIAR-related varieties, and the status of development of the domestic seed sector. Zambia and Cameroon provide examples of the two extreme scenarios. Zambia's high varietal release intensity was underpinned by a vibrant private seed sector, fostered through the government's liberalization policies and a large-scale seed subsidy program (Blekking et al., 2021). The same study also concluded that \"the seed subsidy program has institutionalized hybrid-maize seeds as a key component for programs aimed at alleviating rural poverty and agricultural development in the country.\" On the other hand, in Cameroon, a formal proprietary seed sector had historically been missing, where government agencies and farmers remained the primary seed producers (Awotide and Tontsa, 2011).In most of the target countries in the second decade of the study, a pronounced increase in the rates of annual releases and farmer adoption was observed for the varieties having CGIAR germplasm. These patterns align with a substantial increase in available resources to support the R&D on stress-tolerant cultivars, which demonstrated superior performance over the existing varieties (Cairns and Prasanna, 2018;Byerlee and Edmeades, 2021;Prasanna et al., 2021). Especially during the second decade of the study, the number of released varieties containing CGIAR germplasm was substantially greater than the number of released non-CGIAR varieties. The effectiveness of CGIAR varieties in increasing the national yields was also higher in the last decade, as indicated by the regression analysis.One may note that the aggregate benefit estimates reported in this paper reflect the increase in grain yield alone. While yield improvement is indeed a key performance indicator, several other less-easily quantifiable performance indicators, such as access to improved seeds and inputs, better crop management practices, etc., add to the estimated impact of international R&D in maize breeding. CGIAR efforts typically complement public and private sector R&D investments in developing and disseminating improved tropical and subtropical maize germplasm with key traits of interest to smallholder farmers, besides developing the capacity of the NARS and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). During the study period, biofortified or nutritionally enriched maize varieties, such as provitamin-A (proVA) enriched maize and quality protein maize (QPM), started to gain importance in the research pipeline (Prasanna et al., 2020). Although the efficacy of biofortified maize has been demonstrated for QPM and proVA-enriched maize (Gunaratna et al., 2010;Gannon et al., 2014), their impacts on the nutritional status and health of target populations remain difficult to quantify (Byerlee and Edmeades, 2021).An assessment of the contribution and impact of CGIAR-related improved maize varieties should also consider yield stability in the stress-prone agroecologies. Besides aiming to increase grain yield under optimal environments, CGIAR maize improvement programs in SSA focus on providing yield stability through increasing abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, thereby contributing to the reduced downside risk of climate-induced effects on smallholder farmers. Drought tolerance was one of the primary traits pursued in CGIAR-NARS collaborative maize breeding efforts targeted at SSA since the mid-1990s, especially for stress-prone agroecologies. The effect of drought-tolerant varieties in ensuring yield stability through the reduction of unforeseen variance and downside risk has substantial welfare implications (Kostandini et al., 2013). As Byerlee and Moya (1993) highlighted, yield maintenance could contribute more gains to farmers than improved yield potential. Because such outcomes were not accounted for in the estimation, the reader may consider our economic surplus estimates as conservative, requiring revision through more advanced impact assessment studies in the future.A narrow yield focus also ignores the broader systemic impacts of maize germplasm improvement. Enhanced yield and resilience make maize more competitive and attractive vis-à-vis other land uses. The area under maize cultivation is rapidly expanding in many parts of the developing world, primarily due to its relative profitability and better access to output markets over other crop options (Jakobsen, 2019). Area expansion could have positive impacts on farm profitability and farmer economy but might also create undesirable environmental and social effects. The nature and magnitude of these impacts will differ across maize production regions, calling for more micro-level socioeconomics and systems research. Instead of a single evaluation at the continental level, several coordinated country-specific case studies could provide more robust estimates and insights for policymakers.A crucial limitation of our varietal adoption estimates, as for most global evaluations of agricultural research investments (Manyong et al., 2003;Kleinwechter et al., 2015;Lantican et al., 2016), is the (partial) dependence on expert surveys. Nationally representative data on varietal adoption are rarely available in lower-income countries, and it is expensive, time-consuming, and complex to carry out primary data collection from farmers or seed dealers across different study nations. While expert surveys remain as the only practical option to obtain information from multiple countries on varietal use, one may question the dependability of the derived estimates. Furthermore, getting a sufficient number of (reliable) experts in order to obtain regionally disaggregated data on varietal adoption is a challenging task. As per the recent studies using DNA fingerprinting, the adoption figures estimated using farmers' recall or expert opinion could provide a conservative estimate of the adoption of CGIAR-related varieties. A DNA fingerprinting study in Ethiopia showed that CGIAR-related maize germplasm was grown by 63% of maize-growing households in 2019, whereas self-reported data from farmers would have underestimated the adoption by 15% (Kosmowski et al., 2020). It may currently be practically impossible to conduct nationally representative and comparable studies with DNA fingerprinting across all lower-income countries simultaneously and regularly. However, supporting micro-level varietal adoption studies in selected intervention countries/regions using DNA fingerprinting would be valuable for obtaining more robust information on farmers' adoption of varieties and would help R&D institutions and programs better ameliorate different constraints in the seed value chains.The estimated economic benefits of CGIAR investments in maize germplasm improvement indicate that the return to investment exceeded 12:1 in 2015. These estimates are generated after accounting for the sine qua non contributions of R&D partners, in particular national breeding programs and the private seed sector. This finding is similar to that of the recent impact evaluation of CGIAR R&D programs that reported a median benefit-cost ratio of 12:1 for maize R&D investment in CGIAR and NARS stream for the period 1972-2016 (Alston et al., 2022). These findings highlight that the maize breeding and seed systems work undertaken by CGIAR, together with public and private sector partners, has built strong momentum in the diffusion of improved germplasm in SSA. Our analysis also demonstrates that farmers in SSA countries can gain considerably when they obtain access to the products of international agricultural R&D.The widespread positive impact of CGIAR investment on maize germplasm improvement masks a significant heterogeneity of the effect of varietal release intensity, farmer adoption, and resulting economic surplus across the study countries. The annual varietal release intensity during 1995-2015 ranged from < 1 variety per million ha in Cameroon and Nigeria to 22 varieties in Zambia. CGIAR institutions have been playing a particularly key role in countries where the private seed sector is relatively inactive. In about five countries -Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Kenya, and Zambiathe adoption of new CGIAR-related varieties was above 50% of maize area in 2015. Naturally, the estimated aggregate benefits were high in these countries. At the same time, in several other countries, the adoption of new CGIAR varieties was low (<10%), hence also the aggregate impacts. Since the adoption of new non-CGIAR varieties was also low in these countries, the weak seed distribution and extension systems could be the root cause. Historically, the CGIAR maize program has been investing primarily in developing improved germplasm, whereas complementary research on the seed value chains and adoption pathways for targeted dissemination of new varieties has received only modest support. Increased research attention and budgetary support for developing improved technology dissemination frameworks and addressing the institutional bottlenecks preventing smallholders from adopting improved germplasm are essential for even greater sustainable and equitable impacts.  Notes: The dependent variable is the log-transformed annual national maize yield (kg ha − 1 ). New varieties include CGIAR-related, non-CGIAR, and varieties with unknown parentage, released after 1995. *** : p ≤ 0.01, ** : p ≤ 0.05. OLS stands for Ordinary Least Squares regression model. Due to the small sample size, the DPD models could not be estimated.","tokenCount":"8125"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f97012bb9156265664563b5f42be7759","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1105ebb0-6446-4c24-bd11-51875e25850e/retrieve","id":"1939736640"},"keywords":["El Baouchi, A.","Ibriz, M.","Dreisigacker, S.","Lopes, M.S.","Sanchez-Garcia, M. Dissection of the winter wheat panel","genotype by environment interaction","sowing dates","climatic variables","quality","morphological traits","genome-wide association study"],"sieverID":"ff323230-fb40-4466-8864-4fa7e896492b","pagecount":"32","content":"To fulfill the growing demand for wheat consumption, it is important to focus on enhancement breeding strategies targeting key parameters such as yield, thousand kernel weight (TKW), quality characteristics including morphological traits, and protein content. These elements are key to the ongoing and future objectives of wheat breeding programs. Prioritizing these factors will effectively help meet the rising demand for wheat, especially given the challenges posed by unpredictable weather patterns. This study evaluated the morphological traits and protein content of 249 winter wheat varieties and advanced lines grown in eleven different environments in Morocco and Spain incorporating three varied sowing dates. The results showed considerable variability in morphological traits and protein content. Significant correlations were observed among various grain traits, with most grain morphological parameters exhibiting negative correlations with protein content. Differences across environments (p ≤ 0.01) in all traits, genotypes, and genotype by environment interaction were significant. A factorial regression analysis revealed significant impacts of environmental conditions on all grain morphological parameters, protein content, and TKW during the three growth stages. The study identified several high-performing and stable genotypes across diverse environments, providing valuable insights for wheat breeding programs such as genotypes 129, 234, 241, and 243. Genome-Wide Association Studies pinpointed 603 significant markers across 11 environments, spread across chromosomes. Among these, 400 markers were linked with at least two traits or observed in at least two different environments. Moreover, twelve marker-trait associations were detected that surpassed the Bonferroni correction threshold. These findings highlight the importance of targeted breeding efforts to enhance wheat quality and adaptability to different environmental conditions.Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important widely grown cereal crop grown with an annual production of 760 M tons [1], occupying the biggest land area under cultivation of one crop in the 21st century with more than 219 million ha planted annually. Wheat end-use products play an essential role in human nutrition contributing to up to Plants 2024, 13, 1477 2 of 32 20% of the daily intake of proteins and 21% of food calories. By 2050, the global population is expected to reach 9 billion people on Earth. The production and material to feed this number are not set up today, which will demand approximately a 70% increase in worldwide wheat production [2][3][4]. Wheat grain morphology traits are all grain parameters related to the physical characteristics of the grain. The size, color, and shape of the grain, as well as the ratio of grain width by grain length, can vary depending on the genotype and environmental conditions [5,6] and, therefore, can affect the nutritional content, processing quality, and market value. Grain morphology has been linked to thousand kernel weight (TKW), as well as flour yield and end-use quality [7]. In addition, grain length, width, and TKW influence directly test weight which determines flour quality grade and therefore impacts flour market price for millers [6]. Wheat yield is determined by several complex agronomic traits, such as plant height, earliness, vernalization and photoperiod response, resistance to abiotic stresses, etc. However, grain characteristics also play a major role in increasing yield [8], and are correlated with yield due to their stability and effect on grain weight [9][10][11]. Grain size and weight are considered as main components influencing wheat yield. Longer and wider grains do not only directly influence yield but also positively impact seeding vigor and early development, which in turn promote and stabilize yield potential [12]. However, it is important to consider the potential implications for seed cost. Larger seeds typically require more resources and may result in higher seed costs for farmers. All these morphological grain characteristics as well as TKW are traits highly influenced by the environment [13]. Usually, large grains contain more starch and nutrients than small grains, which leads to higher yield and more flour. To optimize yield and nutritional quality, scientists must consider these factors related to grain morphology by selecting genotypes with desirable shape characteristics for each specific environment to maximize yield, quality, and profitability. In wheat production, yield is influenced by several components, including the number of grains per plant, grain size, and grain weight [14]. For example, it could be advantageous to select genotypes with larger grains in an irrigated environment where water availability is more constant. These characteristics often correlate with higher yield potential and can contribute to better water and nutrient utilization, ultimately enhancing profitability. Conversely, in a rainfed environment where water availability fluctuates smaller genotypes may be more suitable due to their greater drought tolerance and higher water use efficiency, supporting yield stability and profitability. While cultivars with larger grains are not necessarily more drought tolerant, they may exhibit characteristics such as deeper root systems or greater water use efficiency, which can contribute to drought resilience [15]. Therefore, when considering drought tolerance, it is essential to evaluate multiple characteristics beyond grain size. Several environmental factors affect wheat productivity and quality; sowing dates emerge as the key determinant factor. The optimal sowing date in regions like Morocco and Spain usually starts in the second half of November. However, delaying or advancing sowing dates may impact significantly wheat growth, yield, and quality [16]. Early sowing dates may coincide with high-temperature stress during the initial developmental stages, which reduces germination rate and therefore reduces plant population and yield. Late sowing dates may coincide with terminal heat during the flowering and/or grain-filling period, which affect significantly the grain characteristics and therefore yield and quality [17][18][19][20]. Genotype by environment interaction (GEI) is a common phenomenon in all multi-environment trials. They represent a major challenge for breeders who want to develop and advance materials throughout generations that are more adapted to several environmental conditions. The statistical analysis of GEI is a widely used method to identify the optimum value of the targeted trait in several environments [21]. Understanding the GEI effect on grain morphology is therefore an important consideration in bread wheat breeding programs, as it affects not only the agronomic parameters but also quality parameters [22]. The objectives of this study were (1) to study the morphological parameters, including grain shape and size, and protein content of the Winter Wheat Association Genetics Initiative (WWAGI) panel under eleven environments (location × year × sowing date combinations) using Plants 2024, 13, 1477 3 of 32 multi-environment trial data and identify ideal genotypes with high performance and wide adaptability, (2) to disseminate the effect and importance of the climatic variables on each trait, (3) to identify molecular markers associated with morphological grain traits and protein content.A total of two experimental field stations located in two countries, three planting dates, and two years were used in this study, to characterize 249 modern winter wheat genotypes. Temperature and precipitation varied significantly among the 11 environments used. Weather data of all trials conducted in Morocco and Spain are shown in Table 1 and Figure 1.  In the early planting (E) treatment, ANN17 showed the highest precipitation with 1060 mm from planting to harvest, followed by ANN18 with 713 mm, LI17 with 295 mm, and LI18 with 263 mm. For the medium planting (M) treatment, ANN18 showed the highest water input with 628 mm, followed by 260 mm for LI18 and 231 mm for LI17, while for ANN17 the precipitation dropped dramatically to 184 mm as compared to the early planting. In the late planting (L), the highest amount was observed in ANN18 with 494 mm, followed by LI18 with 237 mm, LI17 with 223 mm, and ANN17 with 151 mm (Table 1). Overall, these trials could be identified as moderately cold winter with a maximum temperature not exceeding 21.9 °C and 8.2 °C for minimum temperature, gradually higher temperatures, and a reduction in rainfall from early planting toward late planting. Across all environments including locations, years, and sowing dates, the flowering of all entries occurred when average temperature among the stages increased by 1 °C from the period before heading (BH) to grain setting (GS). Additionally, a subsequent temperature rise of 3 °C was detected from grain setting to grain filling (GF) (Figure 1).The highest value for grain area was observed in LI17 during the early planting with 17.28 mm 2 . The same pattern was noticed for length, perimeter, TKW, and width with 6.76 mm, 20.69 mm, 44.55 g, and 3.265 mm, respectively, while the lowest value was detected in the late planting with 13.77 mm 2 , 18.63 mm, 30.23 g, and 2.84 mm for area, perimeter, TKW, and width, respectively, in ANN18L. In addition, the result revealed that all traits showed a significant decrease from the first date to the third date, except for grain protein content which was higher on the third date than on the first and second dates (Table 2). Considering all traits, the highest heritability was observed for grain length with a mean In the early planting (E) treatment, ANN17 showed the highest precipitation with 1060 mm from planting to harvest, followed by ANN18 with 713 mm, LI17 with 295 mm, and LI18 with 263 mm. For the medium planting (M) treatment, ANN18 showed the highest water input with 628 mm, followed by 260 mm for LI18 and 231 mm for LI17, while for ANN17 the precipitation dropped dramatically to 184 mm as compared to the early planting. In the late planting (L), the highest amount was observed in ANN18 with 494 mm, followed by LI18 with 237 mm, LI17 with 223 mm, and ANN17 with 151 mm (Table 1). Overall, these trials could be identified as moderately cold winter with a maximum temperature not exceeding 21.9 • C and 8.2 • C for minimum temperature, gradually higher temperatures, and a reduction in rainfall from early planting toward late planting. Across all environments including locations, years, and sowing dates, the flowering of all entries occurred when average temperature among the stages increased by 1 • C from the period before heading (BH) to grain setting (GS). Additionally, a subsequent temperature rise of 3 • C was detected from grain setting to grain filling (GF) (Figure 1).The highest value for grain area was observed in LI17 during the early planting with 17.28 mm 2 . The same pattern was noticed for length, perimeter, TKW, and width with 6.76 mm, 20.69 mm, 44.55 g, and 3.265 mm, respectively, while the lowest value was detected in the late planting with 13.77 mm 2 , 18.63 mm, 30.23 g, and 2.84 mm for area, perimeter, TKW, and width, respectively, in ANN18L. In addition, the result revealed that all traits showed a significant decrease from the first date to the third date, except for grain protein content which was higher on the third date than on the first and second dates (Table 2). Considering all traits, the highest heritability was observed for grain length with a mean H 2 of 0.81 among all environments, while protein content presented the lowest value of heritability with a mean H 2 of 0.43 (Table S1). The combined analysis of variance showed significant (p < 0.001) variation among genotypes, environments, and genotype by environment interaction (GEI) for all the traits as shown by \"genotype\", \"environment\", and \"GE interaction\" effects in Table 3, except for color. The GE interaction effect was the main source of variation of almost all traits and contributed up to 60% of the total sum of squares for protein, while for circularity, roundness, and volume, the environment was the main source of variation and contributed up to 53% of total variation. For genotype, the highest value was noticed for color with 40% of the total variation, while the lowest value was detected for protein with only 6%, indicating the highest impact of GE interaction on protein content. Moreover, grain width exhibited a comparatively higher percentage relative to the total sum of squares compared to grain length. This highlights greater responsiveness of grain width to environmental conditions, while the lower influence of GE on grain length suggests a more constitutive and stable genetic control over this particular trait. The evaluation of the mutual dependence between traits is shown in Figure 2. Across all environments, we observed that correlations between all grain traits were highly significant. The first and second axes of the principal component analysis (PCA) of traits explain 76% of the total variation (Figure 2A). Most grain morphological parameters were negatively correlated with protein content suggesting that longer, wider, and heavier grains exhibit a lower percentage of protein.  The highest correlation was detected between grain length and perimeter with an r = 0.96, p < 0.01 followed by r = 0.93, p < 0.01 between grain roundness and volume. However, a distinct pattern was detected when considering the relationship between protein content and most of the grain morphological traits exhibiting a negative correlation. Furthermore, the genetic regression analyses between grain length and width as compared to TKW were calculated per environment and expressed graphically using linear regression (Figure 2 and Table S2). The results showed that all environments were significant to highly significant for both traits. The relationships between grain width and TKW were highly significant across all environments, ranging from r = 0.64 to 0.93, suggesting a robust association between grain width and TKW, irrespective of the environmental conditions. The strongest correlation was detected in the late planting (environment with the highest drought conditions), registering an R 2 of 0.93 for LI17L, followed by 0.9 for ANN18L, indicating that grain width could be considered as a proxy for grain shriveling, while for the relationships between grain length and TKW, the association was not high but remained significant and ranged from r = 0.36to r = 0.8, indicating that while there may be some degree of variation, the relationship between grain length and TKW is still less impacted in different environments (Figure 3). The highest correlation was detected between grain length and perimeter with an r = 0.96, p < 0.01 followed by r = 0.93, p < 0.01 between grain roundness and volume. However, a distinct pattern was detected when considering the relationship between protein content and most of the grain morphological traits exhibiting a negative correlation. Furthermore, the genetic regression analyses between grain length and width as compared to TKW were calculated per environment and expressed graphically using linear regression (Figure 2 and Table S2). The results showed that all environments were significant to highly significant for both traits. The relationships between grain width and TKW were highly significant across all environments, ranging from r = 0.64 to 0.93, suggesting a robust association between grain width and TKW, irrespective of the environmental conditions. The strongest correlation was detected in the late planting (environment with the highest drought conditions), registering an R 2 of 0.93 for LI17L, followed by 0.9 for ANN18L, indicating that grain width could be considered as a proxy for grain shriveling, while for the relationships between grain length and TKW, the association was not high but remained significant and ranged from r = 0.36to r = 0.8, indicating that while there may be some degree of variation, the relationship between grain length and TKW is still less impacted in different environments (Figure 3). To explore the relationship between environmental variables and wheat grain development, we conducted a linear regression model using average, minimum, and maximum temperature and rainfall for the three main morphological parameters as compared to the three growth stages, (BH) 15 days before heading, (GS) grain setting 15 days after heading, and (GF) 30 days after heading across environments. Therefore, the average values across environments for both climatic variables and morphological parameters were used to identify which variable had the most significant impact on a particular trait. The results showed that minimum temperature during the grain setting stage had a significant negative influence on grain width, with a considerable impact of an R 2 of 0.38, suggesting that lower minimum temperatures during this stage tend to result in wider grains, while for length, significant negative associations between temperature and grain length at multiple growth stages were detected. During the grain setting stage, minimum, maximum, and average temperatures exhibited significant negative impact, with values of R 2 of 0.56, 0.37, and 0.52, respectively, indicating that higher temperatures during this stage tend to lead to shorter grain length. At same time, we found that both minimum and average temperatures during the grain filling period had significant negative impacts on grain length, with values of 71% and 62%, respectively. The relationship between environmental variables and TKW was not significant (Figure 4). To explore the relationship between environmental variables and wheat grain development, we conducted a linear regression model using average, minimum, and maximum temperature and rainfall for the three main morphological parameters as compared to the three growth stages, (BH) 15 days before heading, (GS) grain setting 15 days after heading, and (GF) 30 days after heading across environments. Therefore, the average values across environments for both climatic variables and morphological parameters were used to identify which variable had the most significant impact on a particular trait. The results showed that minimum temperature during the grain setting stage had a significant negative influence on grain width, with a considerable impact of an R 2 of 0.38, suggesting that lower minimum temperatures during this stage tend to result in wider grains, while for length, significant negative associations between temperature and grain length at multiple growth stages were detected. During the grain setting stage, minimum, maximum, and average temperatures exhibited significant negative impact, with values of R 2 of 0.56, 0.37, and 0.52, respectively, indicating that higher temperatures during this stage tend to lead to shorter grain length. At same time, we found that both minimum and average temperatures during the grain filling period had significant negative impacts on grain length, with values of 71% and 62%, respectively. The relationship between environmental variables and TKW was not significant (Figure 4).   To further explore the impact of climatic variables on grain morphological traits and protein content, a factorial regression analysis was employed. This analysis incorporated eight environmental variables: rainfall (RF), average temperature (Tav), minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), day length (DL), night length (NL), average radiation (RDav), and thermal inversion (TI). These variables were assessed at each growth stage of 249 winter wheat genotypes across 11 environments as shown in Figure 5. For grain area, the result revealed that rainfall during the grain setting stage had the most pronounced negative impact, accounting for a 25% variation, followed by the negative influence of rainfall before heading (15%) and day length (14%). Contrarily, the circularity of grain was positively affected by day length in the grain filling period contributing to 25% variation, followed by 18% for rainfall and 14% for average temperature in the grain setting stage. In terms of grain color, rainfall appeared as the primary influencing factor, accounting for 51% of the variation, with negative significant contributions during both the grain filling period (33%) and grain setting stage (18%); thermal inversion also negatively impacts the color with 15% in the grain filling period. Similarly, length was principally influenced negatively by the average temperature (51%) in the grain setting and grain filling period with 33% and 17%, respectively, followed by 13% for thermal inversion. Regarding the roundness, radiation and day length during the grain filling period (both 18%) influenced negatively, while rainfall during the grain setting stage (13%) had a positive effect. The analysis for grain perimeter showed that the average temperature in the grain setting period had a negative influence (15%), while thermal inversion during the same stage had a positive impact (15%), followed by minimum temperature in the grain filling period with 14%. Protein was most positively impacted by radiation in the grain setting period and negatively before heading with 19% and 13%, respectively, followed by rainfall in the grain setting period with 12%. In the case of TKW, rainfall during To further explore the impact of climatic variables on grain morphological traits and protein content, a factorial regression analysis was employed. This analysis incorporated eight environmental variables: rainfall (RF), average temperature (Tav), minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), day length (DL), night length (NL), average radiation (RDav), and thermal inversion (TI). These variables were assessed at each growth stage of 249 winter wheat genotypes across 11 environments as shown in Figure 5. For grain area, the result revealed that rainfall during the grain setting stage had the most pronounced negative impact, accounting for a 25% variation, followed by the negative influence of rainfall before heading (15%) and day length (14%). Contrarily, the circularity of grain was positively affected by day length in the grain filling period contributing to 25% variation, followed by 18% for rainfall and 14% for average temperature in the grain setting stage. In terms of grain color, rainfall appeared as the primary influencing factor, accounting for 51% of the variation, with negative significant contributions during both the grain filling period (33%) and grain setting stage (18%); thermal inversion also negatively impacts the color with 15% in the grain filling period. Similarly, length was principally influenced negatively by the average temperature (51%) in the grain setting and grain filling period with 33% and 17%, respectively, followed by 13% for thermal inversion. Regarding the roundness, radiation and day length during the grain filling period (both 18%) influenced negatively, while rainfall during the grain setting stage (13%) had a positive effect. The analysis for grain perimeter showed that the average temperature in the grain setting period had a negative influence (15%), while thermal inversion during the same stage had a positive impact (15%), followed by minimum temperature in the grain filling period with 14%. Protein was most positively impacted by radiation in the grain setting period and negatively before heading with 19% and 13%, respectively, followed by rainfall in the grain setting period with 12%. In the case of TKW, rainfall during the grain setting Plants 2024, 13, 1477 11 of 32 stage had a negative impact (29%), while day length during the grain filling period had a positive influence of a similar percentage, followed by a negative impact of rainfall before heading with 16%. For the volume, the result showed that average temperature in the grain setting stage was the most influencing variable contributing to 27% of the negative variation, followed by negative impact (25%) of the day length in the grain filling period. Grain width was primarily influenced by rainfall in the grain setting stage with a significant negative effect (30%), followed by positive impact of the day length and negative for rainfall before heading with 15% each (Table S3).Plants 2024, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 32 the grain setting stage had a negative impact (29%), while day length during the grain filling period had a positive influence of a similar percentage, followed by a negative impact of rainfall before heading with 16%. For the volume, the result showed that average temperature in the grain setting stage was the most influencing variable contributing to 27% of the negative variation, followed by negative impact (25%) of the day length in the grain filling period. Grain width was primarily influenced by rainfall in the grain setting stage with a significant negative effect (30%), followed by positive impact of the day length and negative for rainfall before heading with 15% each (Table S3). To evaluate the environment and genotype, discriminativeness vs. representativeness and GGE biplots were conducted only for TKW, grain length, width, and protein content. LI17L and ANN18E showed the highest discriminating capacity for length, TKW, and grain width across the eleven environments. Regarding the protein, LI17E and LI18L were the most discriminating environments (Figure 6). The representativeness of every environment is indicated by the angle between the average environment axis and the environment line. Except for the protein content, all other traits were more representative, exhibiting a narrower angle. For length, ANN18E and LI17L were the least representative while it was LI17L for TKW and LI17L, ANN17M for width. Based on which-won-where patterns in GGE biplots, environments were categorized into potential Mega-Environments (MEs), which will allow the identification of the best-performing and winning genotypes in each environment or group of environments To evaluate the environment and genotype, discriminativeness vs. representativeness and GGE biplots were conducted only for TKW, grain length, width, and protein content. LI17L and ANN18E showed the highest discriminating capacity for length, TKW, and grain width across the eleven environments. Regarding the protein, LI17E and LI18L were the most discriminating environments (Figure 6). The representativeness of every environment is indicated by the angle between the average environment axis and the environment line. Except for the protein content, all other traits were more representative, exhibiting a narrower angle. For length, ANN18E and LI17L were the least representative while it was LI17L for TKW and LI17L, ANN17M for width. Based on 'which-won-where' patterns in GGE biplots, environments were categorized into potential Mega-Environments (MEs), which will allow the identification of the best-performing and winning genotypes in each environment or group of environmentsThe GGE biplot captured 55%, 36%, 50%, and 47% of the total variation for length, protein, TKW, and width, respectively. Figure 7 shows genotype and GE interaction for every trial and environment clustered into groups with different winning genotypes. For length, the biplot suggests two MEs (Figure 7A); the first mega-environment (ME1) was represented principally by medium planting for both Annoceur (ANN) and Leida (LI) and during both years, the second mega-environment (ME2) was represented mainly by early planting, while the third mega-environment (ME3) was constituted from late planting. For TKW (Figure 7C), two MEs were identified, principally early and medium planting in the first mega-environment (ME1) and late planting in the second mega-environment (ME2). Regarding grain width (Figure 7D), the first mega-environment was represented primarily by Leida for the three sowing dates and two years. At the same time, the second mega-environment constituted of Annoceur during the cropping season 2018, while the third ME was represented by the medium planting of Annoceur in 2017. However, no clear pattern was detected for protein, suggesting that this trait was the most affected by the environment. According to Figure 8, genotypes 208, 147, and 185 were the bestperforming genotypes for grain length in ME1, ME2, and ME3, respectively (Figure 8A). At the same time, for TKW, genotypes 84 and 181 were the best-performing in the ME2, while genotypes 208 and 64 were the best-performing for ME2 (Figure 8C). Regarding width, the best-performing genotypes were 117, 64, and 183 for ME1, ME2, and ME3, respectively (Figure 8D and Table S4).  The GGE biplot captured 55%, 36%, 50%, and 47% of the total variation for length, protein, TKW, and width, respectively. Figure 7 shows genotype and GE interaction for every trial and environment clustered into groups with different winning genotypes. For length, the biplot suggests two MEs (Figure 7A); the first mega-environment (ME1) was represented principally by medium planting for both Annoceur (ANN) and Leida (LI) and during both years, the second mega-environment (ME2) was represented mainly by early ing genotypes for grain length in ME1, ME2, and ME3, respectively (Figure 8A). At the same time, for TKW, genotypes 84 and 181 were the best-performing in the ME2, while genotypes 208 and 64 were the best-performing for ME2 (Figure 8C). Regarding width, the best-performing genotypes were 117, 64, and 183 for ME1, ME2, and ME3, respectively (Figure 8D and Table S4).  [23][24][25][26], and across different environments, an ideal genotype is demonstrating both high stability and a superior average performance. The ranking of a genotype's performance is determined by its position close to the center of the concentric circles towards an absolute stable point (Average Environment Coordinate (AEC)). In our case (Figure 8), regarding TKW, genotypes 64, 181, and 243 were the most interesting as compared to the best of the four winter wheat cultivar checks (Nekota, OR9801757, Seri, and Sonmez). Genotype 64 showed a substantial 21% increase in the early planting, 18% in the medium planting, and an interesting increase with a value of 30% for the late planting, with a peak of 48% increase in LI18L, followed by 33% for LI17L. Similarly, genotype 181 demonstrated an increase of 11% for early planting, and 22% for both medium planting and late planting, with a maximum of 35% recorded in LI18L, followed by 34% in ANN17M. Genotype 243 showed an above-average increase of 14% for early planting, 15% for medium planting, and 22% for late planting, with a peak of 33% increase in ANN17M, followed by 32% in LI17L.For grain width, the most promising genotypes were 64, 117, and 243. Genotype 64 showed an increase of 7% for the early planting, 8%, and 10% for the medium and late planting, respectively. At the same time, genotype 117 exhibited a 4% increase in the early planting, and 10% for both medium and late planting, with the highest value of 17% registered in LI17L. Similarly, genotype 243 demonstrated an above-average increase of 6%, 8%, and 9% for early, medium, and late planting, respectively, with 17% as a maximum value recorded in ANN17M. Three outstanding genotypes were identified for grain length genotypes as the most promising: 208, 129, and 234. Genotype 208 demonstrated an increase of 9% for early planting, a remarkable increase of 17% for medium planting, and 8% for late planting as compared to the average of the four winter wheat cultivar checks (Nekota, OR9801757, Seri, and Sonmez), with 20% increase registered in LI18M followed by 19% for LI18L. Genotype 129 exhibited an above-average of 9% for the early planting, 8% for medium planting, and 7% for late planting as compared to the four checks, with a maximum of 13% increase registered in LI17L followed by 10% in LI18E. An increase of 7% for early planting, 14% for medium planting, and only 2% for late planting was observed for genotype 234 as compared to the four checks, with a maximum of 19% increase registered in ANN17M followed by 14% in ANN17E and ANN18E. For protein content, genotypes 241 and 243 emerged as the most promising. Genotype 241 showed an increase of 9% for early planting, 8% for medium planting, and 5% for late planting as compared to the average of the four winter wheat cultivar checks. At the same time, genotype 243 exhibited an improvement of 3%, 4%, and 5% for early, medium, and late planting, respectively. GWAS for all traits studied identified 603 significant markers associated with traits of interest with LOD score of ≥3.0 across the eleven environments. These markers were distributed among the A, B, and D genomes, with 160, 243, and 200 markers, respectively. The significant markers were located on all chromosomes, with 2B carrying the highest number (70 MTAs) and 4D holding the lowest number (one MTA). The percentage of phenotypic variation explained by significant markers varied from 5% to 44%. The highest percentage was observed for grain color in LI18M, while the lowest value was detected for grain area. In total, 400 markers were associated with at least two traits each or with at GWAS for all traits studied identified 603 significant markers associated with traits of interest with LOD score of ≥3.0 across the eleven environments. These markers were distributed among the A, B, and D genomes, with 160, 243, and 200 markers, respectively. The significant markers were located on all chromosomes, with 2B carrying the highest number (70 MTAs) and 4D holding the lowest number (one MTA). The percentage of phenotypic variation explained by significant markers varied from 5% to 44%. The highest percentage was observed for grain color in LI18M, while the lowest value was detected for grain area. In total, 400 markers were associated with at least two traits each or with at least two environments. The highest number was detected within environment LI17M with 78 markers, while the lowest number was noticed within ANN17M with only one marker. Among these markers, AX-94824017 in chromosome 3D was the most significant association (LOD = 6.4) and responsible for 40% of the phenotypic variation for color. In addition, this marker was associated with two traits (color and circularity) in seven different environments (ANN17E, ANN18L, LI17E, LI17L, LI17M, LI18L, LI18M) with an average LOD score of 4.3 and 29% of the total phenotypic variation. Followed by marker AX-94910107 with an LOD score of 6.04, responsible for 39% of the phenotypic variation for color and present in five environments (LI17E, LI18L, LI17M, LI17L, ANN17E). At the same time, marker AX-94828467 present on chromosome 5D was associated with three traits (area, perimeter, and length) in four environments (LI17E, LI17M, LI18E, LI18L), with more than 15% of the phenotypic variation and an average LOD score of 3.7 (Table S4). Twelve markers were above the Bonferroni correction threshold (−log(p) = 5.2) associated with three traits (color, TKW, and roundness). Among these markers, nine were located on chromosome 3D, and present in five different environments. The highest number of markers were associated with color (10 MTAs), while TKW and roundness were associated with one marker each (Table 4). Considering the four traits (grain length, width, TKW, and protein content), 275 significant MTAs were detected over all environments with 78 for length, 48 for protein, 72 for TKW and 77 for width. For grain length, the maximum number of significant markers (12 MTAs) was identified under environments ANN17M and ANN18E, while the lowest number was detected under ANN18L with only one marker. Similarly, for protein content, ANN17M contained the highest number of significant MTAs with nine markers, while LI18L presented the lowest number with only one marker. For TKW, fourteen significant markers were identified in LI17M as the maximum value followed by LI17L with twelve markers, while one marker was detected in ANN18L as the lowest number. Similarly, for grain width, the maximum value was detected within LI17M and LI17L with fourteen significant markers, while one marker was detected in ANN17M. Among these markers, 38 MTAs were associated with at least two traits each, with eleven markers associated in different environments (Figure 9 and Table S5). Interestingly, a total of 58 significant markers were simultaneously associated with grain length, width, and TKW across all environments with at least two of them at the same time. Out of these markers, ten were found to be collocated on chromosome 6D, comprising five markers linked to TKW, three to grain width, and two to grain length. Additionally, chromosome 1B revealed seven markers, of which four were detected for TKW, two for grain width, and one for grain length. Similarly, six markers were identified on chromosome 1D with three for TKW, two for grain width, and one for grain length, and five were detected on chromosome 5B with one for TKW for length and three for width. The remaining thirty significant markers revealed associations either with TKW and grain width or TKW and grain length (Table 5). To better understand the complex interactions between climatic variables and genetic markers governing key wheat traits, a comprehensive multi-environment correlation was conducted. The investigation examined the relationship between the allelic effect of significant markers and the climatic variables, which were assessed at fifteen-day intervals from sowing to harvest. The results revealed both newly identified and previously known genomic regions, with a specific focus on crucial grain traits including TKW, grain length, and grain width, which strongly influence yield. Twelve markers were identified to be correlated with climatic variables for TKW and either grain length or grain width (Table 6). Co-locations on chromosome 6D were the most frequent with three markers for multi-trait loci controlling the mechanism of climatic variables response. Among these, marker AX-94459169 exhibited the highest absolute value of the marker effect reaction to a climatic variable for TKW (88%), exhibiting a negative impact of rainfall at heading date on TKW, indicating the critical role of precipitation timing in influencing grain weight development, while the lowest absolute value was noticed for marker AX-95107580 with 67%, indicating an adverse effect of thermal inversion on TKW (Table S6). Furthermore, for grain width, nine markers were present associated with both TKW and grain width, suggesting valuable information on the shared genetic regulation of these traits. Marker AX-95139913 exhibited the highest absolute allelic effect, demonstrating a negative impact (87%) of average maximum temperature at 60 days after sowing. This suggests that warmer temperatures during this specific period negatively influence the lateral dimensions of grains. At the same time, the lowest absolute value was observed for marker AX-95224161 (1B), revealing a negative impact on grain width of average maximum temperature at 135 days after sowing. Regarding grain length, the highest allelic effect was observed for marker AX-95127531 with 81%, indicating a negative impact associated with the average temperature during the heading date.The results of the genetic dissection for the allelic effect at selected significant markers significantly correlated with climatic variables across environments for TKW, grain width, and length are presented in Figure 10. The genetic influence of allele T at marker AX-95223861 revealed a positive effect on TKW and grain width under high temperatures. At the same time, the effect of allele G at marker AX-94459169 exhibits a positive impact on TKW and grain width under drought conditions, while allele G at marker AX-94469815 showed a positive impact on TKW and grain width under long days and warmer temperatures. At marker AX-94958973, allele T presented a positive effect on TKW under low temperatures during the heading period. Allele C at marker AX-95127531 showed a negative impact on grain length under high temperature. The results of the genetic dissection for the allelic effect at selected significant markers significantly correlated with climatic variables across environments for TKW, grain width, and length are presented in Figure 10. The genetic influence of allele T at marker AX-95223861 revealed a positive effect on TKW and grain width under high temperatures. At the same time, the effect of allele G at marker AX-94459169 exhibits a positive impact on TKW and grain width under drought conditions, while allele G at marker AX-94469815 showed a positive impact on TKW and grain width under long days and warmer temperatures. At marker AX-94958973, allele T presented a positive effect on TKW under low temperatures during the heading period. Allele C at marker AX-95127531 showed a negative impact on grain length under high temperature. Wheat is a staple crop of global importance for a large portion of the worldwide population, contributing to up to 20% of its daily intake. In recent years, wheat breeders and scientists have achieved slow yield progress, and the yield plateau has become an alarming threat to food security. Wheat quality is a complex concept, including grain morphology and nutritional composition. Grain morphological traits are some of the most important quality characteristics due to their significant impact on grain weight, flour yield, and market value [27]. However, the negative relationship between protein content and grain yield components in wheats has limited the development of both traits [28,29]. The notable heritability of a wide range of grain quality traits in wheat renders it highly ame- Wheat is a staple crop of global importance for a large portion of the worldwide population, contributing to up to 20% of its daily intake. In recent years, wheat breeders and scientists have achieved slow yield progress, and the yield plateau has become an alarming threat to food security. Wheat quality is a complex concept, including grain morphology and nutritional composition. Grain morphological traits are some of the most important Plants 2024, 13, 1477 22 of 32 quality characteristics due to their significant impact on grain weight, flour yield, and market value [27]. However, the negative relationship between protein content and grain yield components in wheats has limited the development of both traits [28,29]. The notable heritability of a wide range of grain quality traits in wheat renders it highly amenable to DNA marker selection application. This technique allows for the simultaneous selection of varieties with high yield, as assessed through conventional field testing, alongside those with superior grain quality. Furthermore, resilience is vital for adapting to variable weather conditions. Aligning with this goal, our study is dedicated to the effective identification of markers that denote resilience in wheat, specifically relating to grain morphology and protein content. In the current study, we used GEI to understand grain morphology and protein content changes and performance of the genotypes (advanced lines and varieties) in winter wheat multi-environment trials. In our population, genotypes showed a significant level of variation for morphological grain size, TKW, and protein content with moderate to high heritability. In agreement with many previous studies, there was a significant strong positive correlation between grain morphological traits, and negative when they were compared to protein content [30,31]. Elsewhere [32], a significant negative correlation between TKW and protein content in a population of 194 of bread wheat was observed. Moreover, a strong positive correlation between grain size and weight in a population of 231 synthetic wheats has been reported [27]. Gao et al. [33] reported a strong correlation between grain area, perimeter, length, width, and TKW. Simmonds et al. [34] revealed that a mutation in TaGW2-A1 resulted in an increase in grain width and length, which in turn increased thousand kernel weight. The relationship between these traits, linking positively grain morphological characteristics and grain weight, and negatively with protein content, suggest that longer and wider grains have the capacity to store more starch and carbohydrates, which increases grain weight and results in the dilution effect for protein content. Kenzhebayeva et al. [35] reported a low association between grain shape and protein content using wheat transformed by radiation. The highest mean of grain length, width, and TKW was recorded in LI17E, the environment with the lowest rainfall and the highest number of days, as compared to ANN17 and ANN18, but with good monthly distribution, suggesting that this environment could be considered as favorable cropping season for these genotypes in relation to rainfall. At the same time, the late planting in ANN18 and LI17 exhibited the highest value for protein content, while all other traits showed a significant decrease from the early planting to the late planting. This increase in protein can be attributed to the dilution effect under the low-stressed conditions in the early and medium planting dates due to an increase in carbohydrates in the grain as suggested by the higher TKW. According to the ANOVA table, genotype, environment, and GE interaction were highly significant in all trials. An exception was noted for grain color, which was not influenced by GE interaction. This suggests that the ranking and the selection for grain color remain stable across locations and environments. Similarly, Zhao et al. [36] revealed no effect of genotype by environment on grain color using seventy-nine diverse spring wheat genotypes where the environment had the lowest impact on genotypic performance for color with only 17% of the total variation. The GEI significantly contributed to the variation in protein content, accounting for 60% and representing a tenfold greater effect than the genotype. Similarly, for length, width, and TKW, the GEI also captured the highest value of variation with 37%, 44%, and 45%, respectively, with moderate influence as compared to the environment and genotype effect. This pattern suggests that the genotype by environment interaction accounts for the highest source of variation for protein content and therefore drives protein content variability for our population. At the same time, the GEI followed by environment represents the main component of variation for width and TKW. The genetic influence is almost as significant as the environment and GEI when it comes to length. Similar research results about the comparative importance of environment, genotype, and GEI were reported [6,[37][38][39]. The substantial interaction observed between the genotype and environment results in reduced grain morphological traits and protein content stability in our panel. Thus, it is advised for wheat breeders to increase the number of genotypes in a mega-environment to identify the stable genotypes with better grain shape and optimal quality.The Mediterranean area, which includes Spain and Morocco, is renowned for having a very variable climate within and between the seasons. Therefore, more advanced statistical techniques than the conventional ANOVA are needed for a thorough assessment of GE interactions. Based on the GGE biplot analysis, a Mega-Environment (ME) can be determined when different genotypes are adapted to distinct groups of environments and the variance between groups is higher than within groups [23][24][25]37,40]. In our study, the different environments tested were clustered into two MEs for TKW and three for grain length and width. This result is in agreement with the result reported by [41] where two winter wheat MEs in Ontario were suggested after examining the ME analysis and test site for winter wheat in Canada. Similar conclusions were made by [42] in relation to winter wheat tested at eight locations who found between three and four MEs for grain yield. However, for protein content, the targeted region was not better presented as MEs but rather as a single environment, indicating that the evaluation of genotypes for this specific trait must be performed over years and locations. Therefore, the selection of future varieties adapted to the Moroccan and Spanish environments must prioritize genotypes with wide adaptability rather than specific adaptations or high protein concentration. The results of this study indicate that there was one or more promising genotype(s) for each group of MEs as the winning genotype(s) except for protein which was different every year. Genotypes 208, 129, and 234 were consistently the winning genotypes for grain length, while 64, 117, and 243 were the promising genotypes for grain width and genotypes 64, 181, and 243 for TKW. The definition of a ME states that a sufficient number of locations is necessary to confirm that genotype responses are consistent across locations within a ME [37]. However, in the case of protein, this study's limitation to just two locations, each with three sowing dates, made it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. Consequently, for more conclusive evidence of these MEs, future studies are recommended to include a broader range of locations. A study [32] reported an unstructured GEI for grain protein content in 194 F7 RILs of bread wheat. Altogether, these results suggested that the behavior of these traits can be complex and unpredictable across different environmental conditions and sowing dates. This further supports the need for extensive research across varied locations to decode the complexities of genotype and environment interactions.Climatic variables and weather conditions including temperature and rainfall during the heading date had probably the most significant influence on grain yield and quality. It is also responsible for controlling the adaptation of wheat to a broad range of environments [43][44][45]. Many key climatic variables influencing wheat growth development under Mediterranean climates in Morocco and Spain varied between the eleven environments used in this study. It has been shown that minimum and maximum temperatures during growth stages, rainfall, terminal heat stresses, and late frost are key climatic factors affecting wheat adaptation in Mediterranean environments [46]. For this scope, the impact of the climatic variables was assessed between and within each environment. Across environments, a high minimum temperature during the grain setting stage was identified as the key climatic variable negatively impacting grain width, while, for grain length, a significant negative relationship was detected with minimum, maximum, and average temperatures during the grain setting and filling stages. Moreover, our findings highlighted a greater influence of GEI on grain width compared to grain length. This could be attributed to the association of grain width with the plant's ability to effectively fill the grain, indicating a higher sensitivity of grain width to environmental variations, which may play a crucial role in shaping the lateral dimensions of developing grains. While grain length exhibits a relatively less sensitive response to environmental conditions, reflecting a more constitutive and stable trait, the relationship between climatic variables and TKW was not significant. However, using the factorial regression analysis, a negative effect of the average temperature on grain perimeter before heading raises the possibility of a relationship between lower temperatures and constrained grain spatial expansion. This indicated that heading is preceded by a temperature-sensitive period, during which the grain's structural development is influenced by lower temperatures, potentially changing the grain's overall size and shape. Furthermore, rainfall appeared as a key factor, negatively influencing grain area, color, width, and TKW during the grain setting stage. This may result in decreased grain expansion due to different sowing dates, which restricts roots from receiving enough key nutrients necessary for proper grain setting interfering with vital metabolic processes that facilitate grain expansion. Several authors suggested that the stem-elongation stage to anthesis and post-anthesis including the grain setting stage are the most sensitive times [47][48][49]. However, ref. [50] reported that drought after flowering resulted in a 5.2% decrease in TKW and 20% reduction in grain number using a bread wheat cultivar, while for the grain filling period, a dominant role of rainfall and average temperature negatively impacted grain color and grain length, respectively, indicating that high average temperature resulted in accelerating some metabolic processes, which might impact grain elongation. Conversely, a positive influence of day length on grain circularity, TKW, and width highlights the critical role of day length in producing rounded and heavier grain. The grain filling period has been subject to many studies to determine the environmental factors influencing grain shape and weight in wheat [16,17,51,52]. This is in agreement with the result reported by [44,53,54] where they showed that different genotypes tended to stop grain development early and accelerate physiological maturity when temperatures increased during the grain filling period resulting in diminished final grain weight.Given that GEI often impacts genetic analysis used to identify the genomic area for quantitative parameters across many environments, it is an essential criterion to assess the significance and dependability of certain loci. In our study, GWASs for grain shape, TKW, and protein content were conducted for the WWAGI population in each environment independently. Overall, 603 significant MTAs with LOD score of ≥3.0 across eleven environments were identified on all chromosomes. However, the most important MTAs are those identified for grain length, width, TKW, and protein content (275 MTAs) due to their immediate effect on improving grain yield and quality. In the current analysis, seventy-eight MTAs were associated with at least two traits each, with eleven markers associated in different environments. Numerous studies have reported mapping for grain weight and shape in wheat, but there are few that explain the variation and stability of grain weight, size, and shape across several environments [27,55,56]. The most important QTLs for grain length, TKW, and width were mapped on chromosomes 6D, 5D, and 2D [56]. However, in this study, significant SNPs on all other chromosomes, except 1A, 3D, 5A, 6A, 7B, and 7D for length, 1A, 2A, 3A, 3D, 4B, 5D, and 7D for TKW, and 3D, 4B, 5D for width, were identified. Chromosomes 2B and 5D exhibited the highest number of significant SNPs, each with seven SNPs for grain length. Regarding TKW, the highest number was identified on chromosome 6D and 1D with six SNPs each, while for grain width five significant SNPs were detected on chromosome 5B. Interestingly, we found nine chromosomes (1B, 1D, 2B, 2D, 3B, 4A, 5B, 6B, 6D) that showed an overlapping of significant SNPs with the three traits at the same time indicating these regions as stable. This is in agreement with the result reported [27] indicating a co-linearity of MTAs for different grain morphology traits on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 3A, 3D, and 5B with a complete region on chromosome 2B (51-69.9 cM) exhibiting 31 significant MTAs. Similarly, [57] reported a QTL on chromosome 1D for the grain length, width, and weight, while none of the other QTLs detected for grain length and width overlapped with grain weight. Furthermore, previous research on wheat RIL populations by [58] indicated an association between chromosomes 4D and 7D and grain width. In addition, QTLs for grain weight on chromosomes 1D, 2D, 5D, and 7D were reported by [32,55]. In our study, 130 significant MTAs affecting grain size and shape for more than two traits and/or environment have been identified across all chromosomes, and many of them were found within the same regions, suggesting that they may have novel allelic variability for grain size and shape and underlying the importance for meta-QTL identification for grain size, shape, and weight. Several QTLs and meta-QTLs were previously reported for grain weight, width, and length on different chromosomes. Zhang et al. [59] reported a meta-QTL for grain weight on chromosome 2D. Campbell et al. [60] highlighted QTLs on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 2B, 2D, and 3D, and chromosome 6D; [61] revealed a group of QTLs for grain length, width, and weight. Wheat grain color has been subject to many studies identifying three genes located on the long arm of homoeologous 3 (3AL, 3BL, and 3DL chromosomes) controlled by the R-1 (red) genes as the genes governing wheat grain color [62]. Similarly, our study identified 37 significant MTAs on chromosomes 3A and 3D, with the majority (34 MTAs) identified on 3D.The genetic dissection conducted in this study highlights the relationship between specific (SNPs) and climatic variables, illuminating their impacts on key morphological grain traits. The highlighted relationships play a crucial role in different developmental stages, ranging from the early vegetative to the late grain-filling period. Notably, the increase in grain width due to the negative effect of allele T at marker AX-95224161 when the average maximum temperature is low highlights the sensitivity of this developmental stage to high temperatures. This result is consistent with previous research that shows how temperature negatively affects grain size during grain filling [63,64]. When subjecting spring wheat to both day and night warming by changes in sowing date and additional infrared heating, [65] observed a 3% reduction in grain weight for every degree Celsius of post-anthesis mean temperature increase. Furthermore, allele A at marker AX-95141980 demonstrates a strong negative effect on TKW under long days, suggesting that photoperiod sensitivity plays a major role in determining grain weight and highlighting the significance of longer day lengths in affecting the length of the reproductive phase. Some studies [66,67] highlighted the relationship between shorter daylength and the increased number of spikelets per spike independently of the temperature, which may result in increased grain number. However, a negative association has been generally reported between TKW and grain number in wheat [68,69]. The genetic effect of allele G at marker AX-94459169 exhibits a positive impact on TKW and grain width under drought conditions. This marker could then be used, after validation, to increase grain width and therefore TKW and potentially flour yield under drought. A high negative correlation between yield and heading date under irrigated and rainfed environments was reported by [70].This study dissects the intricate relationship between genetic factors and environmental conditions in wheat modern and advanced lines, particularly focusing on grain quality traits such as grain morphology and protein content. With the significant heritability of these traits, the application of DNA markers emerges as a promising strategy, enabling the simultaneous selection of varieties that achieve both high yield and superior grain quality. The research underscores the importance of resilience, supporting the development of wheat varieties capable of adapting to variable weather conditions given the challenge of enhancing both protein content and yield simultaneously. The substantial role of genotype-environment interaction in trait variability highlights the dynamic relationship between genotypes and their environmental contexts, further emphasizing the need for a deep understanding of Mega Environments in selecting broadly adaptable wheat varieties. Insights from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) offer valuable markers associated with key traits, providing targets for breeding programs. Additionally, the study's exploration of how climatic variables like temperature and rainfall affect grain traits offers novel perspectives for breeding wheat varieties tailored to specific environmental challenges. Altogether, these findings mark a significant step forward to optimizing wheat quality and yield, ensuring the crop's resilience and adaptability across diverse growing conditions.A panel consisting of 249 advanced lines and varieties from the Winter Wheat Association Genetics Initiative (WWAGI) developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was used in this study. The panel was previously described by El Baouchi et al. [71]. The lines originated from thirty-two different countries and represent six distinct regions, Central and Western Asia, Europe, North America, CGIAR. As a result, diverse agro-ecological zones are represented. The highest number of genotypes was sourced from CGIAR (CGR) with 65 genotypes, followed by the United States of America (USA) with 61 and Iran, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Moldova with 27, 22, 10, 9, 6, 5, respectively (Figure 11). The WWAGI genotypes were grown during the cropping seasons 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 at the at Annoceur (ANN) INRA research station (33°41′05.2″ N4°51′19.9″ W) in the highlands of Morocco and at Lleida (LI) in the north-east of Spain (41°40′ N 00°20′ E). Experiments were planted in an augmented design using four checks (NEKOTA, SERI82, SONMEZ, and OR9801757) at three planting dates, Early (EP), Medium (MP), and Late (LP) in November, December, and January, respectively. Pests, diseases, weeds, and fertilization were managed according to the best usual agronomic practice.Daily data recorded from weather stations located at each site were used to calculate averages of environmental variables for each planting date (Table 6). The following variables were measured from sowing to harvesting, daily average, minimum, and maximum temperatures (Tmin, Tmax, °C), reference evapotranspiration (ET0, mm), and average  Experiments were planted in an augmented design using four checks (NEKOTA, SERI82, SONMEZ, and OR9801757) at three planting dates, Early (EP), Medium (MP), and Late (LP) in November, December, and January, respectively. Pests, diseases, weeds, and fertilization were managed according to the best usual agronomic practice.Daily data recorded from weather stations located at each site were used to calculate averages of environmental variables for each planting date (Table 6). The following variables were measured from sowing to harvesting, daily average, minimum, and maximum temperatures (Tmin, Tmax, • C), reference evapotranspiration (ET0, mm), and average maximum and minimum daily relative air humidity (Rhmax, Rhmin, %). In addition, the difference of day length (DiffDaylength) was calculated for every 15 days by subtracting the minimum value of day length from the maximum value of day length. Similarly, the accumulated day length (AccumDaylength) was computed by accumulating the difference of day length. Furthermore, a climate matrix was developed for every environment with daily average, minimum, and maximum and values were divided into three growth stages, (BH) 15 days before heading, (GS) grain setting 15 days after heading, and (GF) 30 days after heading [72,73].The morphological parameters and protein content characterization were performed at ICARDA Cereal and Legume Quality Laboratory. The Grain samples obtained from twelve spikes of every plot were all scanned using a flatbed scanner (CanoScan LiDE 220, Canon U.S.A., Inc. One Canon ParkMelville, NY 11747, USA). The images were processed for analysis using Grainscan software developed by CSIRO (https://data.csiro.au/collection/ csiro:8827 accessed on 2 February 2024) [74] and data were generated for every grain for area (mm 2 ), perimeter (mm), length (mm), width (mm), and color (Color2) which represents the green and magenta of the color a*. Additionally, the Thousand Kernel Weight (TKW g) was calculated based on the number of grains and the weight of the scanned dry grain and the roundness was computed by dividing the width by the length. Furthermore, the protein content for every plot was assessed by the Near Infrared spectroscopy (NIRS, Foss DS2500, Allé 1, DK-3400 Hilleroed, Denmark) method using an in-house calibration developed specifically for bread wheat.The 35K Axiom ® Wheat Breeder's Array (Affymetrix UK Ltd., Cheshire, UK) was used to genotype the WWAGI panel as per manufacturer's guidelines [75] with a total array of 35,143 SNP markers. The protocol, genetic diversity, and population structure were described previously by [71]. After the elimination of markers with minor allele frequencies (MAFs) less than 5% and markers with more than 10% missing data, 11,476 Axiom SNP markers were left in the refined set.Statistical analysis was performed using the RStudio spatial (row × col) analysis StatgenSTA package for each environment. The resulting table of Best Linear Unbiased Estimates (BLUEs) was used to model the GEI using \"StatgenGxE\" package (https:// github.com/Biometris/statgenGxE/, accessed on 29 February 2024) to test the significance effect of genotype and environment. The R studio \"GGEBiplotGUI\" package was used for GGE biplots. The graphical GGE biplot was used to explain G × E interaction and genotype, environment ranking based on mean and stability. The GGE biplot graphs are based on genotype evaluation (mean vs. stability), multilocation assessment (which won where), and winning genotype ranked for each trait per mega-environment. Singular-value partitioning = 2, transformed (transform = 0), environment-centered (centering = 2), and standard deviation standardized (scaling = 0) were used to create the biplots. Person correlation coefficients between all traits were computed and tested for their statistical significance using prcomp function. The PCA and heatmap were generated using RStudio visualization of corrplot and ggplot packages, integrated into the R software. Furthermore, SPSS V20 was used to evaluate the effect of climatic parameters on each trait during the three stages (BH, GS, and GF).The genetic diversity and structure described by [71] was used to genome wide association (GWAS) analysis. The filtered SNPs, gene-specific marker results, and the BLUEs for each trait in individual environment were used for the GWAS using GAPIT V3 (Genomic Association and Prediction Integrated Tool) in R [76]. Three models were performed; GLM [77], MLM [78], and CMLM [79] (https://github.com/jiabowang/GAPIT3 (accessed on 23 February 2024)). In addition to PCA, the relative kinship analysis was carried out to identify the genetic relationship between genotypes using the VanRaden method implemented in GAPIT [80,81]. Marker trait associations (MTAs) were declared if their −log10(p) value was higher than 3.0. The significance threshold for MTAs was elaborated based on Bonferroni correction of p ≤ 0.05/n, where n is the number of SNP markers used. A Q-Q plot with predicted vs. observed log10(p) value was used to determine the quality of the fitted GWAS model. Manhattan plots was drawn by the CMplot R package (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/CMplot/index.html (accessed on the 7 February 2024)) to visualize the MTAs. The QTL-Environment analysis was performed using the phenotypic data of the traits collected from individual environments, across multiple environments and their Best Linear Unbiased Estimates (BLUEs), to identify traits associated with QTLs.Wheat is a vital crop ensuring food security worldwide. The present work was conducted to characterize, evaluate, and explore the WWAGI panel across eleven environments for morphological traits and protein content, identifying genotypes with high performance and stability, and evaluate the impact of climatic variables on the different traits. Wide ranges of genotypic variability were present in the panel for all measured grain traits. The strong correlation between morphological traits suggested the possibility of improving simultaneously. Significant GEI interaction was found. Genome-wide association in the WWAGI showed significant associations for grain traits. Overall, 603 significant MTAs with LOD score of ≥3.0 across eleven environments were identified on all chromosomes. To validate the relative significance of the chromosomal regions linked to grain size, more research must be carried out. The results obtained would be an important asset for developing and implementing targeted breeding programs aimed at improving grain size, weight, and quality, alongside effective performance and adaptation in different sowing dates across the Mediterranean areas.The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https: //www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/plants13111477/s1, Figure S1: Genome-wide association scan for Area, Circularity, Color, Perimeter, Roundness, and Volume of the WWAGI panel across environments; Table S1: Heritabilities of studied traits across environment; Table S2: Pearson correlations between all studied traits across environment; Table S3: Forward stepwise regression result for significant climatic variables effects and importance on each trait; Table S4: Multi-Environments Trials and winning genotypes of all traits under this study; Table S5: Significant marker associations that passes common threshold across environments; Table S6: Significant selected marker associated with climatic variables across environment for TKW, Width and Length; Table S7: Significant selected marker for TKW, Width and Length.","tokenCount":"10631"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8d3448fd7a4ffb37ce9384fad656054","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4a39caec-0abc-4adb-a839-790782ba69d8/retrieve","id":"1797989915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a24f306-6cb7-4f63-82ad-a49ad41aed10","pagecount":"16","content":"El presente informe técnico fue redactado con base a un entregable de la Consultoría No. 13064690, ejecutada por el equipo técnico de Clima Soluciones SAS, contratada en el marco de la iniciativa del CGIAR AgriLAC Resiliente.El CGIAR es una asociación mundial de investigación para un futuro con seguridad alimentaria. La ciencia del CGIAR se dedica a transformar los sistemas de alimentos, tierra y agua en una crisis climática. Su investigación la llevan a cabo 13 Centros/Alianzas del CGIAR en estrecha colaboración con cientos de socios, entre los que se incluyen institutos de investigación nacionales y regionales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, el mundo académico, organizaciones de desarrollo y el sector privado. www.cgiar.org Agradecemos a todos los financiadores que apoyan esta investigación a través de sus contribuciones al Fondo Fiduciario del CGIAR: www.cgiar.org/funders.Para saber más sobre esta Iniciativa, visite esta página web.Para obtener más información sobre esta y otras iniciativas de la cartera de investigación del CGIAR, visite www.cgiar.org/cgiar-portfolio.2023 Organización del Sistema CGIAR. Algunos derechos reservados. Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional (CC BYNC 4.Los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) fueron adoptados por las Naciones Unidas (UN, por sus siglas en inglés) en el año 2015 y plantean metas para lograr un futuro sostenible en un mundo cambiante (Major, Lehmannm & Fitton, 2018). Con el enfoque global en el logro de los ODS, existe una mayor necesidad en identificar las prioridades de cada país, región y sector para enfrentar los desafíos particulares, con una perspectiva sistémica que vincule temas, actores y esfuerzos conjuntos como estrategia central para enfrentar los desafíos y poder cumplir eficientemente con las metas de la Agenda 2030.Las actividades humanas aumentan las concentraciones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) en la atmósfera, intensificando el efecto invernadero natural (UNFCCC, 1992). El sector Agricultura, Silvicultura y Otros Usos de la Tierra (AFOLU, por sus siglas en inglés) actualmente, representa aproximadamente el 25% de las emisiones antropogénicas de GEI (Bustamante. et al, 2014) y es único en el sentido de que brinda oportunidades para descarbonizar más allá de mitigar las fuentes de emisión (Smith et al., 2014). La descarbonización del sector contribuye a lograr múltiples Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (Haines et al., 2017) a través del crecimiento económico, la sostenibilidad ambiental, la reducción de la pobreza y del hambre, y el logro de la equidad y la seguridad alimentaria (Perfetti et al., 2013).Colombia, país signatario del Acuerdo de París, ratificó este acuerdo en el 2019 y actualizó sus Contribuciones Nacionalmente Determinadas (NDC, por sus siglas en inglés) en el 2020, dando a conocer su línea de acción para enfrentar el cambio climático en el periodo 2020-2030 con una alineación concreta entre los ODS y las metas y medidas que le apuestan al desarrollo sostenible, en especial desde el sector AFOLU (Urrea and Sandoval, 2015). Esta contribución, establecida a través de la Ley 1931 de 2018 de Cambio Climático, al igual que las estrategias nacionales de cambio climático y los planes integrales de gestión del cambio climático sectoriales y territoriales, hace parte de los instrumentos de planificación de la Política Nacional de Cambio Climático (Minambiente, 2017), en la cual se ratifica el compromiso del país en contribuir con las causas y los efectos del cambio climático y del logro de los ODS.En Colombia, el porcentaje de avance general de los ODS, con corte a diciembre del 2020, es de 54,83% respecto a la meta 2030 (DNP, 2021). De los 17 ODS1, el Objetivo 2, el 10 y el 13 presentan mayor rezago frente al cumplimiento de las metas propuestas a nivel país (DNP, 2021). Para hacer frente al logro de estos objetivos se requiere acciones que promuevan políticas contra la desnutrición, el progreso del campo, la disminución de las desigualdades y adaptación y mitigación a diferentes escalas por parte de las partes interesadas (DNP, 2019). El módulo AFOLU, tiene la mayor participación en las emisiones de GEI del país 59,1% (IDEAM et al., 2021) y es el único sector con la capacidad de absorción de GEI, adicionalmente, tiene la capacidad de ejercer múltiples funciones para el desarrollo que ver con el crecimiento económico, la seguridad alimentaria, la sostenibilidad ambiental y la reducción de la pobreza (Perfetti et al., 2013).En este contexto y dada la importancia del sector AFOLU, el objetivo de este estudio es identificar las preferencias de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de actores del sector y las sinergias a escala local en los Departamentos de Caquetá y Cesar.La metodología siguió cuatro pasos: (1) Identificación del área de estudio; (2) Priorización de ODS; (3) Priorización subnacional (4) Resultados y AnálisisEl estudio está enfocado en los departamentos de Cesar y Caquetá, Colombia. El Cesar está situado en la parte nororiental del país, en la llanura del Caribe y tiene una superficie de 22.925 km², que representan el 2% del territorio nacional (Gobernación del departamento del Cesar, 2016). El departamento está dividido en 25 municipios, 165 corregimientos, 3 inspecciones de policía, así como numerosas veredas, caseríos y sitios poblados (Gobernación del Departamento del Cesar, 2020).Las dinámicas en el sector del desarrollo sostenible son medidas por la vocación agropecuaria del territorio (Campo y Rivera 2019) del que deriva un 30% de sus ingresos. Según el DANE (2022) la actividad económica del sector de la agricultura, ganadería, caza, silvicultura y pesca tiene una importante participación porcentual dentro del PIB de 9.2%.El departamento del Caquetá está ubicado en la región sur del país cuenta con una superficie de 88.965 km² y representa el 7.8% de todo el territorio nacional (IGAC, 2015); es un territorio amazónico con gran potencial en recursos naturales, paisajes y climas. El departamento está dividido en 16 municipios, cuenta con 63 inspecciones de policía, así como numerosos caseríos y sitios poblados (Gutiérrez, Moreno y Barrera. 2019). La actividad productiva del departamento se ha basado históricamente en sistemas de producción tradicionales como por ejemplo, la ganadería extensiva y la agricultura (DANE y Banco de la República, 2015). La actividad económica del sector de la agricultura, ganadería, caza, silvicultura y pesca, al igual que el Cesar, tiene una importante participación porcentual dentro del PIB de 14% (DANE, 2022).Se implementó una encuesta en el evento de lanzamiento de las iniciativas de CGIAR realizado en Bogotá entre el 10 y 11 de octubre de 2022 en la que participaron actores de instituciones públicas, órganos administrativos y organizaciones que se desempeñan en el sector ambiental y agropecuario del país. La encuesta incluyó una pregunta específica destinada a identificar los tres (3) Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible prioritarios desde sus perspectiva como funcionario del sector AFOLU. Se realizaron ajustes a la encuesta de acuerdo con los comentarios de líderes del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y se aplicó en el marco del evento mediante un código QR. Se utilizó el software de administración de encuestas de Google Docs Editors basado en la web que ofrece Google.Se investigaron las rutas de financiamiento público en la contribución a los ODS y su alineación con las prioridades climáticas. En ese sentido, la consulta de los Planes de Desarrollo Municipales -PDM para los municipios en los departamentos de Caquetá y Cesar aportó la destinación de recursos económicos por cada entidad territorial a los ODS previamente priorizados. El proceso de asociación de destinación presupuestal y ODS priorizados contempló acciones como: (i) el establecimiento de palabras clave asociadas a los ODS priorizados, (ii) identificación de las líneas/ejes estratégicos propuestos en cada uno de los PDM, así como los diferentes programas asociados a estos últimos y (iii) identificación de los programas asociados a las palabras clave definidas para los ODS (1), ( 2), ( 13) y (15) con su respectiva destinación presupuestal. La formulación de líneas/ejes estratégicos propuestos en estos instrumentos de planeación territorial responde a las dinámicas particulares de cada entidad territorial siguiendo la realidad que cada una presenta frente a los ámbitos anteriormente mencionados.Así las cosas y reconociendo la importancia de los Planes de Desarrollo como instrumentos de definición y seguimiento de los objetivos de gobierno de los entes territoriales sobre los sectores y dimensiones objeto de su interés, se revisaron 32 PDD (incluyendo los departamentos objeto de estudio) y 41 PDD correspondientes a los municipios en jurisdicción de los departamentos de Cesar y Caquetá.Priorizar los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible posibilita un enfoque integrado para la acción climática y el desarrollo sostenible, particularmente en el sector AFOLU (De la O Campos et al., 2018). En este contexto, con el objetivo de identificar las preferencias de ODS, se realizó una encuesta utilizando un código QR a diferentes actores del sector AFOLU (22 personas respondieron la encuesta) en un evento de lanzamiento de iniciativas del CGIAR. En la Figura 1 se presentan los resultados de los cuatro (4) ODS preferidos por los encuestados, de los cuales, el 68,2% prioriza el ODS 2 -Hambre cero, seguido por el ODS 13 -Acción por el clima con un 54,5%, de manera similar al ODS 1. Fin de la pobreza con un 50% de los encuestados y finalmente el 36,5% de los encuestados reporta el ODS 15 -Vida de ecosistemas terrestres como uno de los más importantes.Figura 1. Resultados de la encuesta aplicada priorización de los Objetivos de Desarrollo SostenibleDada la importancia de los ODS, su priorización e impacto en las diferentes cadenas agroalimentarias es fundamental generar información que permita tomar decisiones a diferentes escalas hacia un enfoque integrado para la acción climática y el desarrollo sostenible, particularmente en el sector AFOLU (De la O Campos et al., 2018). En este estudio, se identificó que el ODS 2 -Hambre cero, resultó ser el ODS con mayor priorización por parte de los encuestados. Dicho ODS enfoca todos sus esfuerzos en \"Poner fin al hambre, lograr la seguridad alimentaria y la mejora de la nutrición y promover la agricultura sostenible\" (UN, 2015), según Bahar (2020), Tilman et al. (2011) y Crumpler et al. (2019), la contribución directa del sector AFOLU en el logro de las metas propuestas en el ODS 2 se da, por ejemplo, garantizando la seguridad alimentaria mediante acciones como el aumento del potencial de producción de los cultivos, con la reducción de las pérdidas y desperdicios de alimentos en la cadena de suministro y con el aumento de los sistemas multipropósito.El ODS 1 -Fin de la Pobreza, fue otro de los ODS priorizados por los encuestados (50%), referente a este Objetivo la FAO (2020) menciona que la ganadería es un recurso para la resiliencia económica y estimula la demanda de otros bienes y servicios. También mencionan, como la ganadería es un apoyo para la producción de cultivos gracias al estiércol utilizado como fertilizante, y cómo contribuye a acabar con el hambre y la desnutrición en la medida en la que permite el acceso a alimentos de origen animal que aportan importantes beneficios para una nutrición adecuada (ODS 2).Según Viana et al. (2022), las metas dirigidas a duplicar la productividad agrícola, asegurar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción de alimentos (Meta 2.3 y 2.4 del ODS 2) y fortalecer la resiliencia y la adaptación a los riesgos relacionados con el clima (Meta 13.1 del ODS 13 -Acción por el clima), se pueden alcanzar con estrategias como la agricultura en contextos urbanos y periurbanos, tendencia mundial que se ha impuesto para combatir el cambio climático, aumentar la seguridad alimentaria y hacer las áreas urbanas más habitables. Estos mismos autores resaltan que un aumento del 1% en la producción de alimentos reduce el 0,48% y el 0,72% de la pobreza en el sur de Asia y el África subsahariana (ODS 1). Adicionalmente, desde el sector AFOLU es indispensable integrar acciones que protejan los recursos hídricos, la silvicultura, el uso de la tierra y la gestión de tierras de cultivo, ya que esto contribuye a garantizar sistemas agrícolas sostenibles (Townsend, 2015;Viana et al., 2022).Entre las acciones del sector AFOLU mencionadas en literatura que están vinculadas al ODS 13 y ODS15 -Vida de ecosistemas terrestres (ODS priorizados por los encuestados), se encontraron estrategias asociadas a los compromisos de Colombia en el cumplimiento de los objetivos del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB) en donde se señala para la meta 15, encaminada a incrementar la capacidad de contribución de la diversidad biológica a las reservas de carbono, para la mitigación y adaptación del cambio climático y la lucha contra la desertificación, la formulación del Plan Nacional de Restauración-PNR para enfrentar la problemática de la degradación de los ecosistemas, además de trabajar en metas nacionales en el programa de Neutralidad de Degradación de las Tierras, para la Lucha Contra la Desertificación y la Sequía, así como la formulación de la Estrategia Integral de Control a la Deforestación y Gestión de los Bosques (CBD Sixth National Report, 2019)Desde la perspectiva de la cadena de suministro, Leal et al ( 2022) identificaron el vínculo entre los diferentes eslabones de la cadena (producción agrícola, ganadería, procesamiento, transporte y almacenamiento, venta minorista y eliminación de desperdicios de alimentos) y el cambio climático. Los autores encontraron que ocho (8) ODS sostienen una interacción directa entre la producción de alimentos y el cambio climático. Sin embargo, sólo cuatro de ellos están asociados con todas las etapas de la cadena (ODS 1, 2, 12 y 13) (Leal et al., 2022). ","tokenCount":"2193"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8a02ab22e3feb930d6e3c5141a78bdb5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b09e5271-3948-437d-82ba-eaefe7bc447c/retrieve","id":"-1700379191"},"keywords":["Youth","climate-smart agriculture","strategy","climate change","information and communication technologies","climate services","resilience","youth migration"],"sieverID":"0abf91cf-baac-4a9d-a569-642ed6c78f4f","pagecount":"58","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.to increase productivity and employment opportunities (CCAFS, 2016). This Strategy will ensure that CCAFS is well aligned with the urgent need to address youth issues globally, including young women and men's participation in, and potential to benefit from, CSA.CCAFS will engage youth in CSA by enabling access and control to productive assets, including natural resources, and improving their participation in decision-making at different levels to build the resilience of their household and communities. Investing and engaging young people in youth-responsive adaptation and mitigation strategies and climate-smart policies and plans will significantly increase the potential of young people to increase their climate resilience.The Youth Strategy is interwoven with the CCAFS Gender and Social Inclusion (GSI) Strategy (Huyer et al., 2016). It is integrated into activities across CCAFS and is an important aspect of scaling up CSA. CCAFS has also committed to target youth separately from gender-related activities through strategic research across FPs and regions. This builds on experience with youth in Phases I and II of the CCAFS program, and includes the following areas of focus:1. Identify CSA options and incentives that offer attractive opportunities for young farmers and youth entrepreneurs along value chains, including digital-based opportunities.2. Understand the relation and interactions of youth migration with climate change and related factors (e.g. food security, employment, disasters, and conflict).3. Explore the use of digital technologies and engagement processes to meet the CSA and climate information needs of youth to strengthen their entrepreneurship and climate resilience.4. Undertake strategic research on youth engagement in policy and how it can be improved at local, national, and global policy levels (e.g. through civil society organizations, social media, youth networks, and negotiation processes).5. Engage in the capacity development of young people, including through social media, webinars, participatory learning approaches (e.g. use of participatory video, theatre, and information and communication technologies (ICTs), climate change research opportunities, and access to professional networks.6. Include age-disaggregated indicators (data) in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) processes.There is a critical need to identify CSA options and incentives that create opportunities for young farmers and entrepreneurs along value chains. The research priorities outlined here will generate robust evidence to better support investment decisions and inform capacity building to support the design, integration, and development of youth in CSA policy and programming at local, national, and global levels.The Strategy advocates for approaches that build the agency of youth to navigate and negotiate opportunities for more sustainable futures. To understand youth, broader geographic characteristics that influence local opportunities for employment, including improving productivity and adaptive capacities, must be documented. While structural and rural transformation will interact with conditions for CSA initiatives, social factors must be equally considered for their inter-relation with youth's agency to pursue CSA options based in their own priorities and abilities. Socially inclusive and intersectional approaches provide a better understanding of the ways in which local and cultural contexts structure young people's opportunities and challenges in CSA. In addition, young people's relationships within families influence agency, particularly for those who are economically dependent upon their parents. The social networks that youth are embedded in often mediate agency and their ability to secure resources, both of which will be important to support their ability to kickstart, participate in, and benefit from CSA initiatives.Entry points for working with youth include ICTs, digital technologies, value chain approaches, collective action, and social platforms. Value chain approaches will be essential to simultaneously address finance and resource gaps, while supporting the potential for employment and climate change adaptation. The collective agency of youth, whether through groups or virtual networks, is also important for knowledge exchange and to build social capital, which can promote agency.The Strategy is organized as follows: We highlight commonly used definitions and concepts related to youth, climate change, and CSA and provide an overview of demographic and employment trends, all placed within global and regional policy. This section also draws attention to key issues that should be considered when promoting youth participation in CSA, including educational attainment, migration rates, which are predicted to increase as a result of climate change, and access to and ownership of assets and resources. A brief overview of methods (p. 34) is followed by research questions that can be used to guide CCAFS research. Examples of research which could support this agenda, include understanding contextual settings, youth awareness and knowledge of CSA, and their potential to create and seize opportunities in ICTs.The predicted effects of climate change in CCAFS regions and mandate countries will be significant. Simultaneous increases in youth populations, coupled with high youth unemployment rates, mean that a youth-specific lens is needed to focus CCAFS research and development. CCAFS youth-focused strategic research takes place across the FPs 2 and five regions, 3 with a targeted allocation of three percent of the CCAFS Phase II overall budget (estimated at USD 1860 million annually for youth across all budget categories 4 ).CCAFS has already engaged in youth-focused initiatives across the programme. For example, in the Philippines, high school students have engaged in essay writing contests, tree planting, and CSA awareness campaigns (Manalo et al., 2019). In East Africa, CCAFS focuses on training youth in CSA practices and technologies (Amsler et al., 2017;Mugo et al., 2019).Bullock and Crane (2020) explored the role of youth in a dairy chain with youth partners by creating a WhatsApp platform for networking and facilitating peer-to-peer learning sessions.They also supported youth participation at the Agtech Africa Summit, an international dairy conference, held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2019. Young people interacted with thought leaders, policy experts, researchers, and the private sector to discuss the potential of CSA and digital agriculture to attract young people. One young farmer turned his farm into a \"Climate-SmartAgriculture Excellence Centre\" (CSAEC) and now makes extra income from teaching farmers to adapt to perennial, climate-related hazards by adopting CSA technologies and management practices. 5 In South Asia, the facilitation of CSA employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth include the manufacturing of farm machinery and acting as facilitators in agro-service centres (Sharma et al., 2019).In the context of global trends, the CCAFS Youth Strategy focuses on the challenges that rural youth face in developing regions, with a particular emphasis on their roles, opportunities, and contributions to climate-resilient agriculture and value chains. assets, including natural resources, and improving their participation in decision-making at different levels to build the resilience of their households and communities. Investing and engaging young people in youth-responsive adaptation and mitigation initiatives and climate-smart policies and plans will significantly increase the potential of youth to benefit from climate resilience knowledge, skills, and opportunities.The Youth Strategy is interwoven into the CCAFS GSI Strategy (Huyer et al., 2016). The main goal of CCAFS' research in this area is to promote gender equality and social inclusion in CSA, food systems, and landscapes. GSI contributes to the three CGIAR gender and youth sub-IDOs 6 through research to inform, catalyse, and target CSA solutions to women and vulnerable groups, including youth, to increase their control over productive assets and resources and increase the participation of women and youth in decision-making at local and national levels (CGIAR, 2015). Gender, youth, and social inclusion are integral to the CCAFS Theory of Change (ToC) (Figure 1). The ToC outlines how large-scale CSA adoption might occur, building on four priority action areas intended to promote coordinated action by farmers, researchers, the private sector, civil society, and policymakers: (1) build evidence to support CSA; (2) increase local institutional effectiveness;(3) foster coherence between climate and agricultural policies; and (4) link climate and agricultural finance (Lipper et al., 2014).The CCAFS ToC (Figure 1), locates CCAFS activities within these four areas of action:(1) Working with partners, especially implementing partners and local organizations, to build field-based evidence (bottom left corner of Figure 1).(2) Working with partners, especially climate risk management service providers, to understand how to strengthen institutions and services through better use of climate information (top left corner of Figure 1).(3) Working with partners, particularly policy partners, to understand what works for coordinated policy and governance (top right corner of Figure 1).(4) Working with partners, particularly large agencies and companies which drive implementation, to understand what works for investment to reach scale (bottom right corner of Figure 1).The CCAFS GSI FP integrates gender and youth into the CSA areas of action as follows (Huyer et al., 2016):(1) Implementing a program of integrative and strategic research to \"build evidence\" that is informed by gender and youth research. CCAFS research within FPs and regions, as well as with partners, will build a field-based evidence base to inform, catalyse, and target context-specific CSA solutions. These solutions target women, youth, and other social groups while facilitating the scaling of CSA practices.(2) Ensuring that gender and youth empowerment are dealt with in coordinated climate and agricultural policy. CCAFS will work with multiple global and national policy partners to support policies and programmes to improve food and nutrition security and enable large-scale, low emissions development (LED).(3) Building mechanisms to engender finance. the sector also has the potential to increase employment and support livelihoods for youth, if their adaptive capacity is supported (IFAD, 2019).CSA is an approach to transform and reorient agricultural systems to better support food security under the new realities of climate change. CSA approaches guide actions needed to transform and reorient agricultural systems to effectively support development and ensure food security in a changing climate (Lipper et al., 2014). Youth play an active role in protecting the environment and implementing innovative climate change solutions, such as CSA (Mungai et al., 2018). Rural youth have demonstrated awareness and understanding of climate change, including how it will impact both themselves and future generations (Amsler et al., 2017). Governments, however, often provide few to no opportunities for direct participation in policy processes (te Lintelo, 2012) or in climate change adaptation processes.CSA has key three objectives, or pillars:1. To increase agricultural productivity to support increased incomes, food security, and development.2. To increase adaptive capacity at multiple levels, from farm to nation.3. To decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase carbon sinks (Campbell, 2014).An important aspect of CSA is to build the adaptive capacity of farmers and institutions to respond effectively to longer-term climate change and manage the risks associated with increased climate variability (Campbell, 2014). Adaptive capacity is described as the ''ability to experiment, innovate, and learn to act on new information in response to change and disturbance\" (Fernández-Giménez et al., 2015: 49), including climate change. 9 Adaptation is shaped by the goals, values, risks, and social choices that emerge from within society, all of which may differ according to different processes and power structures within society (Adger et al., 2009). Adaptive practices are essential to establish, maintain, and sustain capacities in the face of a more volatile future in agriculture and related sectors.Additionally, while identifying potential synergies and trade-offs between objectives is an essential element of CSA (Neufeldt et al., 2013), the relative priority of each objective varies across locations. For example, a greater emphasis is placed on productivity and adaptive capacity in low-input smallholder farming systems in least developed countries (LDCs).Improved adaptive capacity may include the diversification of farm enterprises, the sustainable intensification of livestock production systems, improved capacity of institutions to disseminate knowledge and manage local-level adaptation planning, or access to crop varieties that are more tolerant of heat, droughts, floods, and salinity (Bennet et al., 2014).Climate information related to planting dates, pest and disease control, water availability, social safety nets, and climate-weather insurance to manage risk are also important (Campbell, 2014).Adaptive actions are shaped through the interaction of physical events with social, political, and cultural systems. Different types of adaptation practice interact with social norms and cultural values in a particular setting, thus requiring \"highly situated climate adaptation strategies\" (Neef et al., 2018). It is also important to understand individual needs so that the social differences that shape livelihood decisions and outcomes are also understood (Carr et al., 2016). For example, greater attention to social context means tailoring climate and weather information needs to gender and other intersecting social factors to inform inclusive, climate-smart practices (Fisher and Carr, 2015). Carr et al. (2016) found that weather and climate information have different values for different users. Understanding the varied climate and weather information needs of these different users will produce more effective climate services. Context-specific gender differences in household responsibilities, access to technology and resources, social and gender norms 10 , decision making processes, differences in literacy rates, or male bias in extension services can also restrict the access of women and youth to channels of communication (Gumucio et al., 2020;World Bank, IFAD, FAO, 2015).9 Adaptation to climate change refers to long-term, permanent or ongoing changes made by groups to mitigate the impact of both slow and sudden-onset disasters (Neef et al., 2018).10 Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls, and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours, and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl, or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time (WHO, 2020). We draw on existing empirical research to identify and outline key areas where further research and action are needed to increase the potential of youth to contribute to, participate in, and benefit from CSA.While \"youth\" is commonly defined by age, age-based definitions differ across countries and development organizations and include diverse, complex, and sometimes turbulent, experiences and transitions -such as completing school, searching for work, entering into marriage, or starting a family. For example, the United Nations categorises youth as 15-24 years old (Gough et al., 2013), whereas many African countries expand the definition of youth into the mid-thirties, such as the African Youth Charter, which considers youth as people between 15-35 years of age. Age categories in CCAFS countries similarly vary by country and region, from the age of 12 up to 35 (see Table 1 in Annex). These various definitions for youth have subsequent implications for statistical cross-national comparability (Ayele et al., 2017). Access to capital and assets, which are needed to adapt to climate change, also vary within these categories. For example, those in lower age brackets, roughly between 15 and 24 years old, may depend more heavily on parents and have limited decision-making power when compared to those who are older, independent, and/or married.Additionally, age-based definitions, as commonly implemented in legal and policy contexts, do not capture the cultural realities of youth, providing little space for the notion of transitions, which is central to a modern understanding of young people's lives (Locke and te Lintelo, 2012). Frequently used alternatives to age-based definitions are the life stages, youth transitions, or youth culture perspective (MacDonald et al., 2001). Life stage and youth transition approaches categorise youth as a distinct stage between childhood, which is characterised by dependence and immaturity, and adulthood, characterised by independence and maturity (Gough et al., 2013). Although policy and law tend to assume that young people pass through life stages linearly, for example entering into employment after completing their education, many young people may assume economic roles at earlier stages (e.g. be financially independent or breadwinners during childhood) and may also revert back to assuming \"younger\" roles later on (Waage, 2006). Finding a job, leaving home, getting married, and becoming a parent may occur simultaneously or not at all. In other cases, youth may move back home in the event of becoming unemployed (Johnson-Hanks, 2002). In the Global South, where young people often traverse back and forth across boundaries of time and place, specific notions of childhood, youth, and adulthood can be fluid (Johnson-Hanks, 2002). For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), longer periods of educational enrolment may delay marriage and postpone entry into the labour force for young people (White, 2012).In the last decade, high youth unemployment rates have been the impetus for a surge in policy and programme attention in SSA (Ayele et al., 2017). In many instances, however, policies simply do not address youth issues or priorities (Sommers, 2011), in part because young people are marginalised from policy and programme development (Chinsinga and Chasukwa, 2012;Proctor and Lucchesi, 2012). For example, while youth access to land should be prioritized by governments, as well as international and national organizations (White, 2012), most policies and programmes focus on supply side issues, such as education, skills training, behavioural change, and, particularly, entrepreneurship (Flynn et al., 2017).Considered one of the strongest drivers of global job creation, \"with an important impact on economic growth and political stability\" (USAID, 2011), youth entrepreneurship is widely promoted as a solution to youth unemployment, especially in SSA, where the public sector is shrinking and the private sector offers limited opportunities for formal wage employment.There is insufficient evidence, however, that \"youth will engage with value chains that demand higher levels of management and greater attention to quality\" while integrating digital technologies into their enterprises (Sumberg and Hunt, 2019: 131). There is also limited support for the claim that young people are naturally entrepreneurial, that they have greater entrepreneurial capacity than adults, or that youth will naturally embrace new agricultural technologies, such as improved seeds, fertilisers, irrigation and mechanisation.Additionally, this entrepreneurial focus, as promoted by donor agencies and NGOs, operates on the assumption that young people are in a position to respond to market demands and to bear the associated risks. These expectations also follow the assumption that they have the individual freedoms and autonomy that enable them to improve their quality of life (DeJaeghere and Baxter, 2014) along with adequate resources to support the changes required to adapt to market conditions. Entrepreneurship, as a result, may not provide a way out of poverty if markets are not well developed. In turn, young people may find themselves \"entrepreneurially underemployed,\" without the ability to sell the goods and services they produce (Flynn, 2017;Yeboah et al., 2016;Ayele et al., 2017).In general, policy and programming tend to frame youth homogeneously, undifferentiated by ethnicity, gender, age, class, or religion. Despite their deep embeddedness in families, communities, and broader social relationships, young people are often considered independent of these entities, without regard for how these systems influence youth experiences and their ability to take advantage of agricultural opportunities. Interactions with parents, families, peers, and communities, as well as service providers (e.g. youth workers, teachers, and trainers), shape their opportunities (Chigunta et al., 2005). For example, young people in Tanzania are often unable to access and market coffee through cooperatives since their parents hold the household's membership and they cannot afford an annual membership on their own (Anania and Kimaro, 2016). Situations like these illustrate a common situation of limited agency when young people work within family enterprises. The view of young people as independent entities produces a significant mismatch between youth policy and anticipated positive youth outcomes (Anyidoho et al., 2012;FAO, 2016;Hajdu et al., 2013). This policy framing, in response to African agriculture's \"youth problem,\" is also hampered by a lack of research (Sumberg et al., 2012). To work with young people more effectively, it is imperative to better understand the wider contexts which influence youth agency.Achieving universal primary education was a critical Millennium Development Goal (MDG), leading to more children enroling in primary and secondary education than ever before (Gough et al., 2013). As a result, more young people are going to school and pursuing education for longer periods (Elder and Kring, 2016) African youth continue to exit the education system earlier than youth in the rest of the world, especially young girls. Reasons for lower educational enrolment of girls and young women include childbearing at a young age or social norms in rural areas that pressure them into early marriage (Mabiso, 2018;Blum et al., 2017). Parents may also prioritize investments in boys' education, often a result of male child preference or the expectation that, when married, young women will not have a need for employment. However, even in regions with lower enrolment rates, such as SSA, an estimated 59 percent of 20-24 year olds will attain a secondary level education by 2030, compared to 42 percent in 2012 (African Development Bank, 2012). While this is a positive development, there is little research on the types of knowledge and skills young people acquire through formal education and if those skills are useful in the labour market (Gough et al., 2013).While youth issues have been on the international community's policy agenda for decades,  With close to 70 percent of its population below the age of 25, Africa is the youngest continent in the world (Ackah-Baidoo, 2016). This demographic figure is often referred to as a \"youth bulge,\" which describes the existence of a proportionately large population of young people in an area or region and often frames policy narratives. A focus on harnessing youth abilities to contribute significantly to the economic development of a country can be conceptualised as the \"demographic dividend.\" The youth bulge can also be perceived as a threat to security and stability, since the presence of large numbers of unemployed, presumably idle, youth is associated with insecurity, urban social unrest, and political instability (Urdal, 2004). Youth employment improves the ability of young people to increase their productivity and resilience. Globally, however, youth unemployment rates are high and projected to increase. Over the last decade, renewed interest in youth is related to concern  Being young and female can serve as a double strike because young women tend to experience higher rates of unemployment. For example, in 2014, the labour force participation rate of young men was 16 percentage points higher than that of young women.Underlying causes for these differences include early childbearing and marriage, gender roles that ascribe responsibility for domestic work to young women, less access to productive resources, and persistent job segregation.Additionally, the situation of young women in rural areas is often characterised by less access to human and physical capital, lower rates of participation in the labour force, lower productivity, and associated lower welfare outcomes (Elder and Kring, 2016;IFAD, 2019). For example, in certain regions of Kenya, intersecting constraints related to age, gender, and ethnicity affected young women's economic opportunities in dairy production (Bullock and Crane, 2019). Leavy and Smith (2010) suggest that aspirations of young people are framed within the implicit and explicit expectations placed upon them by family and kinship networks which, in turn, are influenced by gender-based societal customs and norms. Girls may choose stereotypical occupations because gender norms dissuade young women from aspiring to occupations that are typically male dominated. Young women are less apt to enter into agriculture-related training globally, although there have been some increases in enrolment rates in some countries (Huyer, 2015). Such norms influence the ability of all young people to achieve their aspirations (Bullock and Crane, 2019;Elias et al., 2018).In many developing country contexts, young people, especially young women, do not have access to or rights over assets, particularly productive land (Amsler et al., 2017). Tensions exists between older generations looking to retain control of family or community resources and young people wishing to receive their share of resources, form their own independent farms and households, and attain the status of economic and social adulthood (White, 2012). Concerns about fragmentation of family land may cause parents and families to be less willing to divide land among their children. Increased rates of land fragmentation, due to inheritance, reduces the viability of the family farm as a livelihood strategy, potentially pushing some family members out of agriculture (Proctor and Lucchesi, 2012). On the other hand, the limited potential to inherit or gain access to land (e.g. Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) may also cause young people to leave agriculture (Asciutti, et al., 2016;IFAD, 2019).Young people experience considerable obstacles in gaining access to capital, land, and productive assets. Land ownership is especially tenuous for women. In addition to legal or culture restrictions on owning land in some parts of the world, when women do inherit land, gender-ascribed constraints are often deeply rooted in the norms, beliefs, and values that characterise family relationships (Kabeer, 2016). Benefit-sharing is often based on gendered intra-household and intra-community resource allocation and bargaining power (Quisumbing and Maluccio, 2003). Although laws asserting women's rights to property and land are in place in many countries, norms often persist over time and are slow to change (Deere and Doss, 2006).Young people are often marginalised from decision-making processes concerning community assets. In some cases, where land can be rented or sharecropped, youth are not included in decisions or are victims of land alienation, when household heads rent the land out to others (Asciutti et al., 2016). Marriage also has implications for asset transfers. Patrifocality, the term given to the social arrangement where women move to the home of their husbands upon marriage, often results in women giving up rights to own or access productive assets.In addition to land ownership, the profitability of farming and the potential to adapt to a changing climate will increasingly depend on the use of purchased inputs, especially when producing for dynamic markets, such as produce production for expanding urban areas (IFAD, 2019). The lack of collateral and ability to accumulate assets hinders long term access to financial services, savings, and loan opportunities, including credit. Access to credit is important for adaptive capacity and depends on access to resources such as land, credit, and insurance, aspects where rural youth are at a disadvantage (Yeboah et al., 2018). Barriers include financial illiteracy, a lack of social and financial capital and collateral, and failure to reach the \"underbanked,\" or those marginalised from formal banking systems (AGRA, 2015).In fact, young people make up a disproportionate share of the unbanked population worldwide (Gasparri and Muñoz, 2018).Rural youth, in particular, comprise the largest share of individuals without access to formal financial services. Forty-six percent of youth, aged 15-24, have an account at a formal financial institution, compared with 66 percent of adults. About 18 percent of youth report having savings in a formal financial institution in the past year (ILO, 2016). Regionally, SSA has the lowest levels of financial inclusion of youth, at six percent, and the second highest share of informal financial inclusion of youth, at 13.8 percent. It is the only region where the rate of access to informal financial services is higher than formal services. The highest rates of access by youth to both formal and informal financial providers are found in South Asia, at 26.1 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively. In LAC, three times as many youth have access to formal financial services compared to informal financial services (AGRA, 2015). To a certain extent, digital financial services, such as mobile money, can reduce age-related, gender-based, and rural-urban gaps in access to financial services and other resources (IFAD, 2019;Huyer, 2016). For example, mobile money has proven to be an effective strategy for moving female-headed households out of poverty in Kenya (Suri and Jack, 2016).Remittances, whether from internal or international migration, are important factors in reducing household poverty and can facilitate young people's access to finance. In a study of rural youth in developing countries, around 46 percent that received remittances possessed at least one financial product, the most common being a savings account (32 percent). They saved, on average, significantly larger amounts than those who did not receive remittances (IFAD, 2019;Orozco and Jewers, 2018).Young people, especially those from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, are the most likely to migrate, with an estimated 27 million young migrants in the world (ILO, 2013).Causes of migration include the effects of climate change, food insecurity, the search for employment, and a desire for better social status.Climate change will influence human mobility in all regions of the world, although the specific types of impact and magnitude depend on both biophysical and socioeconomic factors (Piguet and Laczko, 2013). Evidence shows that climate migration is already taking place across the world and is expected to grow dramatically in the future (Rigaud et al., 2018). Migration, in the context of climate change, has multiple causes. Climate-related risks, coupled with socioeconomic drivers, increases agricultural vulnerability, leading to livelihood loss. Migration is one of the coping strategies adopted in response to the threats of weather and climate extremes. While research on youth migration resulting from climate change factors is not well advanced (Bezu et al., 2019), the high rate of migration, coupled with the predicted impacts of climate change, indicates that these interactions deserve further attention.High rates of youth unemployment motivate, or necessitate, migration for millions of young people who are seeking improved job prospects (ILO, 2013). Since a country's level of structural and rural transformation sets the parameters for opportunities (IFAD, 2019), young people, especially those with higher levels of education, may find limited opportunities for employment or self-employment in rural areas. Where and why young people migrate is varied. Seasonal migrants tend to return to their places of origin and rebuild their livelihoods. Rural youth may migrate to urban areas within their own country or seek new opportunities in foreign countries (IFAD, 2019;Smith and Floro, 2020). They may migrate to cities to raise money to invest in agriculture (Asciutti, 2016). Youth migration to urban areas may be temporary, permanent, occur early in life, and/or occur periodically as part of an income diversification strategy or with longer-term intentions to return home to take up farming (Leavy and Smith, 2010;Sumberg and Okali, 2013). In Swidden societies in Vietnam, youth outmigration starts early, with parents sending children to boarding schools outside of the village. From this point on, young people generally seek off-farm work for months or years at time, eventually marrying and settling in urban locations. This leads to significant demographic shifts in which entire households and villages may relocate (Cramb et al., 2009).Migration may also be the result of an individual's desire to achieve improved social status (Proctor and Lucchesi, 2012). Increasingly, narratives about youth migration suggest that young people move out of agriculture because farming is seen as \"dirty work,\" with low economic returns and low status. Although agriculture is a significant employer of young people, many aspire for higher living standards that are not associated with agricultural livelihoods (Leavy and Smith, 2010;Sumberg and Okali, 2013). For these reasons, understanding non-pecuniary benefits of migration are important, as well as how they influence young people's occupation choices. Non-pecuniary benefits may include \"status, independence, and youth identity, closely connected to the question of aspirations and ambitions\" (Flynn et al., 2017). Young people may be willing to engage in certain types of agricultural activities if they are associated with high prestige or they can expect successful results. In Zambia, rural youth chose to stay in agriculture where they considered their prospects of success to be greater than if they were to migrate elsewhere, a choice that contrasts with that of young men in Uganda, who chose to migrate to urban areas in search of economic opportunities (Leavy and Smith, 2010;Kristensen and Birch-Thomsen, 2013).opportunities, which can also spark political violence (Urdal, 2006) or public demonstrations, such as those which led to the Arab Spring.While most young victims of violent crime live in urban areas, both urban and rural youth are affected due to the increasing connectivity between rural and urban areas (IFAD, 2019).Evidence from the Near East, North Africa, Europe, and Central Asia suggest that, rather than being instigators of conflict, young people are affected more often as refugees, with longlasting negative consequences on education and welfare (Baliki et al., 2018;Verme et al., 2015).For young people, whose livelihoods are dependent on natural resources, the effects of climate change and conflict are increasing. Climate change has been referred to as a security problem and, while there is growing concern that climate change will increase the risk of violent conflict, empirical evidence is limited (Barnett and Adger, 2007). Climate change undermines human security, both now and in the future, by reducing access to and the quality of natural resources, such as water (Barnett and Adger, 2007). The result is a surge in social conflict between different sets of people and between nation states (White, 2011). In communities where youth depend on natural resources to support their livelihoods, such as pastoralist communities, violence is emerging in relation to climate change impacts. For example, in South Sudan, cattle raiding has traditionally been a part of boys' transition from adolescence to maturity. Pastoral communities, living in arid floodplains, travel to areas with better sources of water for pasture. The increased competition over dwindling resources has contributed to an increase in the frequency of cattle raids (Ensor, 2013).Young women and men are affected differently by violence. Compared to young women, young men are more likely to be recruited into terrorist groups, drug trafficking, rebel militias, and gangs, resulting in the more frequent depiction of young men as perpetrators of conflict (Sommers, 2011). This, however, belies the fact that young men are affected more than women by violent crime in LAC, which includes seven of the most violent countries in the world (Giuskin et al., 2018). Primary factors influencing young men's participation in violence are economic exclusion, inequality, armed conflict, drug trafficking, and the loss of a sense of belonging (Trucco and Ullmann, 2015).The UN has identified gender-based violence (GBV) against women as a global health and development issue. At the same time, gender shapes the meaning of violent acts and often depends on situational and cultural contexts (Russo and Pirlott, 2006), resulting in a reluctance to change violent behaviour. For example, being beaten for burning a family meal may be viewed as acceptable by women in certain contexts (Schuler et al., 2011;Schuhmacher, 2011;United Nations 2015). Therefore, when introducing concepts such as CSA, it is important to consider how women-only activities may influence gender relations.While CSA adoption is related to gender equality (Huyer and Partey, 2020), women-only initiatives can cause men to resent privileges that they do not directly benefit from. Junior women household members may be in particular risk of GBV as a result. For these reasons, programmes should be designed with gender dynamics in mind, including male buy-in of female-led activities, so that programs do not cause or increase the likelihood of harm to participants (Kantor et al, 2015).CSA research needs to address youth-specific challenges and identify youth-tailored solutions. Young people's collective and individual agency can be supported by creating and sustaining youth groups, value chain approaches, and ICT initiatives and innovation. It is important to work with youth groups as strategic partners and to support participatory research approaches. Digital solutions can lower the transaction costs of market information and access, increase knowledge, and facilitate financial inclusion (Deichmann et al., 2016). Climate information services (CIS), disseminated through mobile phone platforms for better farming decisions, are gaining momentum across SSA. In Kenya, farming communities are exchanging information through mobile applications, such as WhatsApp, and receiving advice on best practices from agricultural experts through applications such as iShamba.Mobile phones are also important platforms for digital innovations, such as digital savings, credit, and insurance products, that provide safety nets in the event of climate shocks and medical emergencies (IFC, 2018). Young people's access to financial services is constrained by barriers that include lack of collateral and credit history, as well as regulatory issues, such as minimum age requirements for opening a bank account. Digitally enabled credit can allow young farmers to purchase inputs and control their incomes (Deichmann et al., 2016). While access to credit will not necessarily translate into agricultural investments, financial stability could result in increased resilience.New technology-enabled farming and marketing practices are increasing productivity and creating new ways of engaging with markets (Bello et al., 2015;Noorani, 2015) and agroadvisory services (Mittal, 2016). Some of the approaches for scaling CSA highlighted, by Westermann et al. (2018), include linking up multiple value chain actors and generating a platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and capacity building.Social capital is an important aspect of an individual and household's ability to adapt to climate change (Füssel, 2017). For example, a study in rural Ethiopia found that households with greater social capital tend to have more diversified livelihood options in relation to informal insurance schemes (Wuepper et al., 2018). Additionally, Martinez-Baron et al.(2018) found that social capital, through social networks, supports the scaling of CSA. Youth often lack sufficient social capital due their age and position in society, particularly where age-based hierarchies are common. Within the household, young people generally have low levels of social status and limited assets as well. The use of IT can support the creation of social capital, or networks of relationships among people in society.Cooperatives have been an effective mechanism for engaging young people in agriculture and increasing both on and off-farm employment opportunities (FAO, 2012). The collective action of young people through social media platforms can facilitate the establishment of agricultural cooperatives. Youth can also be encouraged to join existing farmers organizations or cooperatives, helping them to gain access to inputs, services, finance, and markets. The World Food Programme (WFP) has indicated that, when farmers work as a collective unit, their ability to negotiate is strengthened and crops increase in value. They may also negotiate better prices for agricultural inputs and benefit from lower interest rates on loans (Zhao, 2017).Other IT examples include drones, to collect real-time data on food and agriculture, and applications that facilitate access to information (FAO, 2017). Additional examples come from Sri Lanka, India, and Costa Rica, where young people used their digital experience to become infomediaries (Manalo et al., 2016). Finally, research approaches can incorporate ICTs to support knowledge sharing. Participatory video is an approach that identifies the needs and current knowledge of a community to create climate change strategies that may be adapted at different scales (Koningstein, 2015). Workshops that use this approach have facilitated the transfer of knowledge from parents to children. Television programmes are also shaping the image of agriculture by portraying it as a profitable activity (WFO, 2017).Specific examples shed light on the IT movement in farming that is gaining momentum and traction:• Precision agriculture, enabled by GPS, satellites, and drone monitoring, are increasing the availability of weather and climate information (WFO, 2017). The Indian enterprise, Flybird Farm Innovations, works to increase agricultural productivity and improve resource management through precision irrigation and fertigation, enabled by a sensor-connected, automated controller (IFAD, 2019).Similar approaches have been adopted by a number of African start-ups, such as AgriPrecise, UjuziKilimo Illuminum Greenhouses, and ThirdEye. 18• Hello Tractor, developed by young people in Nigeria, is a digitally-based enterprise, along the lines of a digital car-hire app, which makes agricultural mechanization more accessible to smallholder farmers (Cabral and Sumberg, 2017). The start-up sells monitoring devices to tractor owners willing to rent out their underutilized machinery. Young people across Nigeria were trained to identify potential users and sell the product services (Cabral and Sumberg, 2017). A farmer who is registered with Hello Tractor can send an SMS text to a booking agent who will locate and schedule a tractor to be sent to the requested location to complete any task that the farmer may need done, such as ploughing, tilling, or planting (IFAD, 2019).• Livestock owners can use sensor technologies to better understand the risk of heat stress in their herds (WFO, 2017). Other IT services, such as iCow, 19 improve dairy production. Iweigh, a web-based mobile application, enables users to estimate cattle weight using girth measurements and generates feed formulation details so that farmers can make more informed market and feed choices.Men and women of different ages face different opportunities and constraints to access and use information services. A gender digital gap in relation to mobile ownership, access, and 18 http://www.thirdeyewater.com/ use exists in many regions, particularly in rural areas (IFAD, 2019). Globally, there is still a gender gap of 10 percent in mobile ownership, a gap that increases to 15 and 28 percent in SSA and South Asia, respectively. The gender gap around mobile-based internet use is even larger, at 23 percent globally, with break downs of 20 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, 41 percent in SSA, and 58 percent in South Asia (GSMA, 2019). Ownership is an important factor in who makes decisions for mobile use, including the ability to choose when and where to use the phone and what the phone can be used for.In Ghana, men's and women's key challenges to accessing climate services through mobile phones included limited training, inability to interpret climate information, and application (Partey et al., 2018). Women reported limited access to mobile phones and a lack of funds for mobile credit (ibid). Such challenges and obstacles lead to lower rates of technology adoption and limited productivity in agriculture. Similarly, urban and rural locations can influence access.For rural youth to profit from new technologies, investments are needed to expand broadband and physical infrastructure in rural areas. Equipping youth with the cognitive and non-cognitive skills they need to realize the promise of these technologies, anticipate their perils (e.g. indebtedness as a consequence of the temptations of easy-access mobile finance), and use them to their benefit is also needed (IFAD, 2019). Young people with the necessary skills and training may become digital facilitators and developers. The lower rates of enrolment of young women in science and technology-related subjects at secondary and tertiary levels (UNESCO, 2013), however, means they may be at a disadvantage in taking advantage of digital opportunities. Young women need to be targeted for education, training, and resources to support their participation in digital agriculture. Finally, the regulatory environment for the implementation of safe, affordable, and rapid transfer of digital solutions must be put in place (IFC, 2018).\"Young rural women face gender-based constraints that may impede them from gaining the agency they need to prosper in the new economy. Economic and technological change often outpace changes in social norms. A young woman in a rural village in Bolivia, Cambodia or Niger with a smartphone has access to information, ideas and possibilities that her parents could not have dreamed of, but social norms may prevent her -more than they would a young man -from acting on these possibilities. There is a greater need than ever before for investments that will ease the triple burden of being young, being a woman and living in a rural area.\" (IFAD, 2019: 61)Value chain development is an important strategy to support local enterprises and improve market and wage employment opportunities (OECD, 2018). Strategies for supporting climate-smart value chains include improving access to input markets, supporting diversification and value addition, providing climate-smart production technologies, supporting access to CIS, and making financial and insurance services available. At the harvesting, processing, and marketing stages, strengthening farmer organizations, investing in roads and facilities for storage and processing, and improving access to markets are important (Mwongera et al., 2018).Entrepreneurial youth engagement in value chains is often difficult due to challenging market conditions, imperfect information on inputs and markets, as well as poor infrastructure, all of which increases transaction costs and creates significant barriers to youth entry. Climate risks increase the need for access to finance-particularly from droughts, unpredictable rainfall, and flooding-which affect production, as well as the postharvest stage, where traditional technologies may not be adequate to cope with changing climate conditions. The selection of value chains to be supported with CSA options needs to be based on the potential to increase the resilience of the poorest and most vulnerable associated with it, including young people.Young women and men often work in less remunerative, easy-to-enter positions in agricultural value chains. A study in West Africa found that an estimated 64 percent of youth work in agri-food systems, primarily in low-level positions of the value chain, such as agricultural production (OECD, 2018). Investments in local value chain development in the agri-food sector could generate employment opportunities and food security. Support to increase capital and credit can enable youth to more easily enter, profit, and sustainably participate in value chains.Research on youth engagement in Kenya's dairy value chain found that participation in dairy value chains is contingent upon a variety of geographic factors, such as roads and electrification, proximity to markets, availability of dairy infrastructure, and supporting institutions. These locally variable factors influence youth engagement in dairy and, without these fundamental pieces in place, dairy is not as attractive as a business opportunity (Bullock and Crane, 2020).An inclusive value chain development approach will need to engage and empower young people through youth-targeted approaches. Youth must be encouraged to innovate and fulfil roles as agents of change to actively transform agricultural markets (Pyburn et al., 2015). Along these lines, SNV recommends conducting sub-sector analyses to identify employment opportunities that may include processing, value addition, and potential areas for cross sector incubation (Parker-Twum, 2020). Njenga et al. (2011) recommend that youth specialise in specific components of the value chain and that organizations develop partnership programmes with financing institutions to ensure that resources are available for investment. Additionally, the potential of youth to develop, innovate, and take up technologies related to renewable resources is increasingly important.The ability of young people to choose, navigate, and negotiate their futures and develop their adaptive capacity is essential. Promoting agency will support young people to pursue CSA options based on their identified priorities. Agency is \"the ability to define one's goals and act upon them\" (Kabeer, 1999) and is constructed by, and interfaces with, social structures. Agency is a cornerstone of well-being for all individuals and societies and it is important that young people have the power to make decisions in their own best interest (IFAD, 2019). Young women and men negotiate choices and engage in bargaining in the context of specific social, political, and economic circumstances and processes (White and Wyn, 1998). Agency is influenced by many factors, but is also created and expressed through relations. While structural conditions influence youth agency and possibilities, youth should be regarded as active agents. In other words, \"they negotiate contemporary economic and social changes through new and diverse ways of related to traditional transitional processes\" (Wyn and White, 2000: 165). It is a useful starting point to consider the range of youth opportunities that exist, and the extent to which they can exercise choice through conscious actions and goal-directed activities, while embedded in cultural and relational networks (Wyn and White, 1998).An individual's agency is influenced and shaped by a multitude of geographic factors that interact across local, regional, and national scales. Sumberg and Okali (2013) use the term \"opportunity space,\" noting that geographic characteristics of a particular location, specifically the quality of natural resources and accessibility of markets, influence the types of viable work opportunities for youth. Social and relational factors, such as social difference, norms, and expectations, frame ways of being and doing in a community (Sumberg and Okali, 2013). For example, location, gender, and age intersect in ways that can severely curtail and create differences in young women's and men's agency.Young women and men, in rural and urban locations around the world, exercise profoundly different levels of agency because of community and family norms. These norms influence social relations in which inequalities, based on age and gender, are reproduced and reinforced. Although economies are rapidly changing, gender norms have persisted in the face of economic and technological change in many places around the world (Petesch et al., 2018;Bullock and Tegbaru, 2019).Community level norms influence social relations that shape young women's and men's agency in socially differentiated ways. Social relations in one's family, within kin networks and in the wider community, can perpetuate unequal power and benefits based on gender norms and age hierarchies that can significantly shape young people's lifelong abilities.Social norms regarding gender roles vary across geographies and shape livelihood options for young men and women as they transition into adulthood, especially in rural areas (IFAD, 2019). Being young, rural, and female may result in a \"triple burden\" that refers to having less human and physical capital accumulation, a lower labour force participation rate, lower productivity, and the associated lower welfare outcomes (IFAD, 2019).The elements of this conceptual approach may be similarly applied to understand how youth may engage in and with CSA opportunities. In the following section, contextual factors that influence youth's agency to navigate spaces of opportunity in their communities will be discussed. Context refers to both temporal and spatial dimensions of a place, that includes geographic and social interactions within, across, and between household, community, regional, and global scales.In almost all parts of the world, the transition to adulthood is more complex because of the speed of neoliberal economic and social reforms, which have a profound effect on young people's experiences, government disinvestment in welfare measures, transnational economic competition, high rates of unemployment, and economic recession (Jeffrey and McDowell, 2004). Many of the changes that have accompanied structural and rural transformations are unfolding at a faster pace or in different ways than in the past. These demographic, economic, environmental, and technological changes simultaneously open some opportunities, while closing off others (IFAD, 2019).These macroeconomic structures affect and constrain young people's opportunities (IFAD, 2019). Supporting agency is especially critical for the successful inclusion of youth in the rural transformation process, since rural youth tend to experience exclusion more than urban youth or adults (Trivelli and Morel, 2018).Social inclusion is an approach for designing development goals that focuses on reaching excluded groups. It is based on the premise that \"no person-regardless of ethnicity, gender, geography, disability, race, or status-is denied universal human rights and basic economic Social inclusion is defined as:• The process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society; and• The process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged, on the basis of their identity, to take part in society (World Bank, 2013: 3-4).This involves poverty reduction, access to opportunities, participation in political and economic life, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of age, gender, sexual orientation, or disability (Warschauer, 2003). In relation to youth, social inclusion addresses the poverty and other consequences of excluding youth from economic opportunities, governance, and other aspects of human development. For example, the Arab Spring was, in part, a consequence of the exclusion of educated youth from labour markets as well as political decision making and accountability (World Bank, 2013).\"An intersectional analysis of climate change illuminates how different individuals and groups relate differently to climate change, due to their situatedness in power structures based on context-specific and dynamic social categorisations\" (Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014: 417). Roles and responsibilities that influence a person´s ability to deal with climate-induced and other stressors emerge at the intersection of diverse categories of identity, including, but not limited to, gender, age, seniority, ethnicity, marital status, and livelihoods. The integration of intersectional conceptualizations into research on global climate change is still under-developed, although intersectional framings could be more effectively used to support adaptation planning and programming (Thompson-Hall et al., 2016).Intersectional approaches can be used to explore differences among any number of social categories. Developed by feminist scholars to better analyse the complexities of individual identities and social categories, such as gender, class, and ethnicity, they address how intersections among these categories give rise to multiple inequalities and oppressions, along with benefits and opportunities (Berger andGuidroz, 2009: Djoudi et al., 2016).Gender and age intersect and structure youth transitions and experiences (Elias et al., 2018).Gender is a critical factor in shaping the opportunities of young women and men, often articulated through social relations in the household and community and based on norms that tend to discriminate and disadvantage women more than men. Other categories, such as gender, education, or socioeconomic status, intersect with age as structuring young people's positions in society (Langevang and Gough, 2012).Norms are perpetuated through social relations that can limit the agency of young women and men, so that understanding the lives of young people entails an understanding of how they are positioned in, and relate to, families and societies (Gough et al., 2013). A relational approach highlights power relations and resource control across generations and genders, offering an approach to understand the diverse ways in which young people are situated in social institutions, how they shape their lives and opportunities, and the ways in which they negotiate life transitions (Wyn and White, 1997). Social embeddedness is also gendered in its influence on the opportunities available to young women and men (Flynn et al., 2017).Their situation within families affects young women and men's agency in significant ways, especially in relation to decision-making. Power dynamics structure intra-and intergenerational relations (Elias et al., 2018). Young people are embedded in social relationships that influence their choices and opportunities in relation to, for instance, starting up informal businesses and deciding how to run them, figuring out whether and how to migrate to urban areas, or engaging with savings and loans (Flynn et al., 2013). Land ownership, experience, and education can influence youth agency and decision-making power (Amsler et al., 2017). For instance, the vast majority of African rural youth in developing countries live as dependants in large families and the characteristics of their households also help to shape their opportunities and challenges (IFAD, 2019).Marriage is a significant relationship and life transition that has implications for agency and decision-making among young women. For example, in East African households, Amsler et al. (2017) found that perceptions of decision-making power differed between young women and men.Men said that women contribute to decision-making, with final decisions made by men, while women said that women and men consulted each other in making decisions. Women were the sole decision makers if their husbands were not present. Women and men participants explained that they had decision-making power in their household about certain agricultural practices, based on their expertise. Thus, knowledge and experience were deemed to be qualifying factors to be a decision maker in the household. Examples of this division of agricultural labour was most obvious in Lushoto, Tanzania, where both women's and men's groups agreed that, typically, men are responsible for cash crops while the women are responsible for, and thus have decision making power over, household gardens or subsistence farming close to the home (Tanzanian case study - Amsler et al., 2017).Research which explores the relationship between support for youth collective agency through groups and collective action is lacking. In Lesotho and Uganda, Hartley (2013) found that cooperatives encourage youth members to learn \"from\" and \"with\" each other, leading to new ways of thinking and action. These findings reinforce the need for a youth policy in the African cooperative movement. While the role of collective organizing for civic and political participation is well researched, there is less information about the role of youth groups in agriculture in the Global South and the roles these groups may play in supporting agency, knowledge, and access to skills. Research in East Africa has found that youth groups can support peer-to-peer learning, the pooling of resources, joint land rentals, engagement in mutual lending and borrowing, and the sharing of information (Bullock and Crane, 2020).Social platforms activated by youth can be important vehicles for promoting sustainable change. For example, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD), 20 \"an international movement made by young professionals for young professionals,\" is a global network with more than 15,000 members from 168 countries. In conducting youth research, different approaches are needed in different contexts. Youth research should, at a minimum, be disaggregated by age and sex. Mixed methods, or a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, should be used. Youth-responsive social analysis examines the youth dimension of social systems that are relevant to a project, to inform youth-responsive project design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (World Bank, 2006). Life cycle approaches and youth transition studies are also useful disciplinary approaches to understand transitions and economic aspirations and 20 https://ypard.net/ 21 http://csayn.org/ opportunities. A life cycle approach can also be useful to understand life transitions, ambitions, and related economic opportunities (World Bank, 2003).Participatory and action-based approaches may be useful in conducting youth and climate related research. Games can be used to stimulate action and the integration of real-life behaviour change, into and through gaming, is potentially an effective strategy (Vervoort, 2019). These approaches can highlight youth-specific issues in climate change as well as priority areas for engaging young people in CSA. Because of their interactivity and immersive narrative, games can be particularly useful to convey the problems that young people may face in the future and enable them to experiment with responses to these problems (Ouariachi et al., Olvera-Lobo and Gutiérrez-Pérez, 2017). The game sector can be used to engage players around issues of sustainability and future worlds, while encouraging them to engage in their own meaning-making (Bendor et. al., 2017). More research is needed to investigate how games add to social common understanding and this exercise can lead to behaviour change (Vervoort, 2019).Research should be action oriented and findings and recommendations shared within ","tokenCount":"9462"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a35db5676a3c57fdc1ccd641eef0ffed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/777b9b36-6e4e-4b05-93d5-f10391e8d134/retrieve","id":"1522677945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"10bc2ca6-5a67-40a2-80ae-0a38097ad1cb","pagecount":"6","content":"Increasing use of regionally and globally oriented impacts studies, coordinated across international modelling groups, promises to bring about a new era in climate impacts research. Coordinated cycles of model improvement and projection are needed in order to make the most of this potential.Climate impacts ensembles, usually comprising multiple impact models, are a promising tool for projecting future crop productivity [e.g. 1] and increasing coordination between international modelling groups, evident in Model Intercomparison Programs (MIPs), is producing high-profile multi-model studies [e.g . 2]. An increasing number of these studies are global in extent, while model accuracy and data quality are often better at local to regional scales. Here, we explore the implications of this trend for the design and coordination of future studies. We develop recommendations based on the assertion that a single model intercomparison study, if it is to avoid being unwieldy, can focus on either projecting impacts, or on model evaluation and model intercomparison, but not both. Further, we assess the suitability of global vs. regional studies for achieving each of these aims. Whilst our analysis is presented for agriculture, it applies to a range of climate impacts. We define global studies as those with full global coverage, and regional studies as those with limited geographic extent, such as a country or province. We also include in the latter the modelling of specific fields (i.e. local studies), since the ultimate aim of local-scale studies is often to draw conclusions for the region. The models used for the different studies may be the same, although in practice they often differ in complexity.The value of multi-model impacts assessments in quantifying uncertainty is increasingly well documented [3]. However, we cannot simply take our cue from the larger body of work on climate ensembles, since impacts ensembles are different: they involve calibration towards a small subset of variables which may depend on the output variable of interest (e.g. crop yield), as opposed to seeking to reproduce a broad set of properties of a closed system. For example, crop models are usually used primarily to simulate yield, which is only one of the many aspects of crop growth and development. Climate models, in contrast, are assessed on their representation of rainfall, temperature, wind (jet streams, monsoon circulations), ocean properties and a host of other physical properties Assessment of multiple properties of impact models is less advanced. This is not least due to differences in model structure constraining the identification of comparable properties, and difficulties in obtaining adequate data, particularly at regional scales. Whilst these problems are not insurmountable, the relative lack of progress means that, crop models are prone to often unknown compensation of errors, making on-going assessment of causal relationships in our impacts models particularly important. The same issue arises in other impacts models, for example modelling hydrology [4] and tree distribution [5] .Unpicking this compensation of errors is intractable in practice, since it involves separating calibration from tuning, and we do not often have the data to do this adequately. Thus a model can never be truly 'validated' for future use, only continually evaluated in the light of the most recent data. Thankfully, model evaluation is becoming increasingly coordinated amongst model groups, and increasingly sophisticated. Progress has been facilitated by greater international coordination, e.g. through the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) [6].The issue of compensation of errors is illustrated by a recent inter-comparison of 27 wheat simulation models, where parameter calibration led to a greater improvement in yield error than for any other variables, including leaf area index, harvest index and cumulative evapotranspiration [2]. Figure 1 presents further evaluation of the calibration procedure conducted for that study. There is no clear relationship between the total number of genotypic parameters -which can be taken as a proxy of model complexity -and the relative error of either harvest index or grain yield (panels 1a and 1c). This result suggests that the models have more degrees of freedom than can be constrained by experimental data. Subsequent calibration of the models using experimental data led to significant reduction of model error, although this improvement (y axis in panels 1b and 1d) was generally greater for yield than for harvest index, suggesting some compensation of errors. However, there was no relationship between the number of calibrated parameters and the reduction of model error (Fig. 1b); i.e. no evidence of model over-tuning. Detailed comparisons of a range of model variables are needed if we are to determine the nature of the compensation of errors -i.e. the extent to which the models are getting the right answer for what is, in part at least, the wrong reason. Multi-variable impacts studies could facilitate assessments of crop sustainability (through e.g. nitrogen and water use) and crop quality (through e.g. grain protein or mycotoxin concentration).Figure 1. Relationship between models relative errors and the number of genotypic and calibrated parameters for 27 wheat crop simulation models in The Netherlands, Argentina, India and Australia. Relative error of (a) harvest index and (c) grain yield, versus the total number of genotypic parameters. Also shown are the changes in relative error, due to model calibration, of (b) harvest index and (d) grain yield, versus the number of calibrated parameters. The experiments and the simulation protocols were developed by AgMIP and are described in [2].The above analysis of compensation error and model tuning has an important implication: it illustrates the value of exploring differences -and in particular the reason for differencesbetween models. Thus, as has been argued for climate ensembles, a focus on narrowing uncertainty -i.e. seeking consensus -is too limited [7,8]. The differences matter. Good quality observational data sets, for both agriculture and climate, are critical in determining and unpicking these differences [9]. Integrated analyses of model chains (e.g. from climate to bio-physical impact to economic consequences) are also important if model differences are to be understood. Impacts modellers should not be insular, but rather should recognise the benefit of engaging with the climate modelling community and with those who model other sectors (e.g. the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project, ISI-MIP).A second implication of model error and potential over-tuning is the need to be clear about how much can be achieved in any one study. In particular, how much of the globe can an ensemble study reliably assess? Global studies have the advantage of employing a consistent set of assumptions and therefore producing projections that are consistent and directly comparable, thus facilitating benchmarking across a range of environments. However, the datasets used to drive global models need to be both global in coverage and consistent, thus limiting the pool of available data. Consequently there will certainly be areas over which more comprehensive and reliable data are available. Furthermore, specific impacts models developed and/or evaluated using such data typically perform better than a global assessment does over the same region. This can be due to calibration and/or the incorporation of key processes (e.g. heat stress during anthesis) and interactions (e.g. between canopy temperature and transpiration) relevant to that region but not yet incorporated into global assessments.There is a question, then, of whether projections of climate change impacts are better made by ensembles that are global or regional in scope. The former can produce a single consistent and global evaluation -a significant advantage given the importance of quantifying uncertainty. However, we do not have data at the global scale to determine whether or not models are getting the right answer for the right reason (c.f. Fig. 1). Thus there is a danger that global simulations will appear robust, because of their consistency, whilst in fact lacking valuable regional specificity.. The end result in this case is that both future research agendas and policy may be misinformed. Whilst there is currently no evidence of such misinformation, in-depth analyses have rarely been performed.Clearly global and regional studies each have advantages and disadvantages. This invites two questions: How can MIPs be designed in a way that makes the most of both types of study? And how can the need for projections -generating and synthesising results based on impact scenarios -be balanced with the need for model intercomparison and improvement?Ensuring that detailed process research feeds through into improved projections requires strategic planning of MIPs that takes into account the different drivers of the component research. At the global level, policy makers are interested in the use of state-of-the-art models and methods to produce probabilistic projections of climate impacts. The ongoing increase in the use of land surface models for crop simulation [e.g. ref. 10] is underpinning progress in this area. At the regional level, it is critical to ensure that improved projections enable adaptation and deliver improved livelihoods. This focus has led to an increase in outcome-orientated research for development, for example within the CGIAR.The different drivers of global and regional research lead to different -if somewhat overlapping -communities. Modelling and international coordination strategies need to be carefully thought through if we are to make the most of the full range of models and researchers, rather than deepen the existing divide. Figure 2 draws on the reasoning above to conceptualise effective coordination of MIPs. This conceptualisation recognises that different MIPs might -indeed probably should -have different aims. Effective coordination involves the exploration of synergies between different MIPs and associated international programmes. For example, work that is focussed on livelihoods could make use of the broader global research base. Such multi-level analyses, at least at the regional-to-local scale, have been shown to support development outcomes that are consistent across different types of production systems [e.g. 11].The conceptualisation in Figure 2 also emphasises model improvement, underpinned by inter-comparison, as an important aim for MIPs. Thus studies should contain explicit statements on the assumptions made in the modelling, and they should report discrepancies in addition to agreement. Detailed modelling studies and experimental data are needed in order to understand response mechanisms and ensure they are included in models [e.g. 12]. Studies should also assess multiple variables, for example, nitrogen, water use and crop quality and yield. This not only provides stronger constraints on models, it also facilitates assessments of crop sustainability and crop quality.At the heart of Figure 2 is the concept of coordinated cycles of model improvement and multi-model projection. Quantifying the effect of model improvement on predictive skill will help to focus research efforts. For example, globally-oriented studies can incorporate key processes that have been identified by regional studies. Coordination efforts need to be underpinned by international data and modelling strategies, such as those being developed by Future Earth [13]. The projection phase of a MIP should be inclusive, by using systematic inter-comparison of impacts studies in order to synthesise knowledge and utilise new insights. For example, multi-model impacts studies [14] or meta-analyses [15] can be used to develop response functions, and associated uncertainties. These response functions quantify change in crop yield as a function of the changes in local temperature resulting from climate change.Finally, a critical component of coordinated MIPs is a full treatment of uncertainty, which goes beyond impacts models. Integrated treatments of climate and impacts model chains not only provide more accurate assessments of uncertainty; they can also lead to improved ways of presenting uncertain information [16,17]. Such methods contrast with the scenariodriven approaches that are still prevalent in impact MIPs. The recommendations we have outlined above are summarised in Box 1.  Use of systematic intercomparison of impacts studies to synthesise knowledge  Full treatments of uncertainty, which go beyond impacts models and include relationships between climate and its impacts","tokenCount":"1913"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d370588d2335d31bbbfc46891330c8f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_3528.pdf","id":"1063576407"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9365929-dbcd-49b1-8983-c82ac5f5a96d","pagecount":"56","content":"The research was carried out over seasons 2-4 of project operation; some additional data were available from project sources for season I . Water use was assessed by daily measurement of discharges at the head of the right bank main canal and at various distributary and field channels down the system. The analysis of water use was based on two parameters, the total depth of water applied per season (often referred lo as the \"seasonal duty\") and the maximum weekly demand. A measure of performance, known as the \"performance ratio\" was defined in two ways: 'IIMI, with USAID funding support, is assisting in the planning, design, implementation, and interpretation of the research component of the project. The objectives of the research component are to d o applied research to solve problems facing efforts to improve irrigation management, particularly under ISM, and to strengthen the capacity of selected national research organizations to carry out such applied research in collaboration with relevant agencies. Thus, under this project. IlMl does not carry out field research; rather it works in close collaboration with the national research organizations to develop appropriate research proposals and help to carry out the research; and it works closely with the government agencies represented on the ISM Research Advisory Committee. chaired by the IMD Director, to evaluate research proposals, and interpret and make use of the results.At its first meeting, on 14 September 1987, the Research Advisory Committee requested IlMI to carry out a research literature review to identify what has been learned to date, and what research questions emerge from that literature. This was a very useful suggestion since to our khowledge there has been no such review in recent years, despite the proliferation of irrigation management rescarch. This paper reports the results of that review. It is not intended to be comprehensive, either in terms of covering all topics or in terms of covering all the literature on particular topics. Rather, the review focuses on a few particular topics relevant to the ISM Project, and more broadly, to improving performance of major irrigation systems in Sri Lanka; and it attempts to identify the major works on the chosen topics. This paper reports on: I ) system operations and performance, 2) organization and management of irrigation systems, 3) rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation systems, and 4 ) resource generation and mobilization.The paper does not cover literature on village irrigation or on agricultural issues; the former is outside the purview of the ISM Project and the latter is not an integral part of its research componeni. However, llM1 has recently reviewed literature on crop diversification issues and that review is included as an Appendix. The paper also pays minimal attention to the literature on Mahaweli issues, except where particular works were thought relevant to the problems faced by the IMD and the Irrigation Department.Most of the literature reviewed here --and indeed most of the available literature --concentrates on the larger irrigation schemes. A major gap in the irrigation management literature in Sri Lanka is the area of medium sized irrigation systems, those that are roughly over X0 hectares (ha) but under 1,000 ha. There are about 250 such schemes, 223 of which are under 600 ha (Perera 1986): they constitute nearly 80 percent of allthe systems above 80 ha in size, though only :ihniit 21 pcrccnt of the total irrigated area under schemes having more than 80 ha.W e focus on literature since 1978, the year of Chambers' (1978) influential overview of water management issues in Sri Lanka. Chamhers noted the paucity of work on irrigation management questions, particularly in the Dry Zone. Since 1978 there has been a large volume of writing, some based on field research. The next landmark was the 1982 workshop at the Agrarian Research and Training Institute (ARTI). Although the Proceedings did not appear until 1986 (Abeyratne, Ganewatte, and Merrey 1986), that workshop brought many researchers and agency officials together and demonstrated that much interesting work was already under way. Some of the results went against prevailing assumptions, sparking lively debates during the workshop.In 1985, Wimaladharma (1985a) edited a volume containing a series of articles by officials on various aspects of irrigation management in settlement schemes with particular reference to the IMD's INMAS program. Although not based on research, these provide a good overview of the official point of view on how things are supposed to work. . Wimaladharma (1985b) has also published a comprehensive bibliography of 360 entries on irrigation and water management issues in Sri Lanka, demonstrating a remarkable explosion of writing on the subject. This bibliography remains an important starting point for any rescdrch on irrigation management topics in Sri Lanka. In 1986, the ARTI hosted a seminar on irrigation management and agricultural development, whose paper abstracts have been published (ARTI 1986). A comparison of the quality and range of coverage in this seminar with the 1982 seminar (Abeyratnc el al 1986) demonstrates the progress made in irrigation management rcscarch since then. ART1 began publishing a quarterly irrigation management newsletter called I)!i,oaoio in 1986. This carries short articles. summaries of larger works. and news 011 papers and publications. and is thus a useful source of work currently underway.Some of the literature reviewed here is not \"research\" in a strict sense. One interesting aspect of the irrigation management literature in Sri Lanka is the extent to which officials themselves have written of their effkrts to come to grips with the problems they face, their experience, and their reactions to research done hy others. Some of thir literature has been included here since it often contains very useful insights. and much of it is based on practical experience.The paper attempt3 to identify, for each of the four topics, the progress made and lessons learned. and to suggest research questions that ought be addressed. The authors hope that it will generate discussion and feedback a s well. We would like to hear from thosc who note any errors of omission from the literature reviewed or errors of commission where we may have misinterpreted or misunderstood the literature: iind w e \\vcIcome general critiques of the paper and suggestions for improvement for the future.The literature reviewed represents the experience of a selected number of projects in Sri Lanka in thc broad area of system management. It is by no means cxhaustive but provides a reasonahle picture of the lnature of the prohlenns addressed in various projects. The cases include Gal Oya. Kaudulla. Mahaweli, Mahakanadarawa. and Inginimitiya.T I M P Mahakanadarawa Tank Choo and Senthinathan (1986) describe the planning for introducing rotational irrigation in the Mahakanadarawa Tank of the Tank Irrigation and Modernization Project (TIMP) in llidul 1980/RI. A major objectivc of TIMP was to introduce water saving irrigation practiGs such a s I ) early dry sowing using early rainfall in maha. 2) cultivating rice varieties with short growing periods, and 3) rotational water distribution. Maha 1980/RI was a particularly difficult year with unusually low rainfall and only five water issues were made between December 29. 1980 and February IS, 1981.The preparation of water delivery schedules and operational guidrlines for introducing rotatinnal distribution.practices, training of farmers and officials of the Irrigation Department, the organization for the O&M of the system, and the problems of conveyance of water in a canal passing through four or five minor tanks are described in detail. The farmers are reported to have been generally cooperative and to have tried to follow the new water schedules when they developed confidence in the system. Particularly, the farmers of the tail end areas were encouraged by the equitable water supply.The paper makes ten recommendations for water management based on the maha 1980/81 experience at Mahakanadarawa. These include improving the main canals through by-passing minor tanks and double banking the reaches passing through depressions, lining where serious leakage occurs, and the absorption of the private farms irrigated from the tank and providing them with on-farm irrigation facilities to practice rotational irrigation on the same basis as the farm lots of the project.Gunathilaka (1986) describes the water management practices adopted in the newly developed lands under Kandalama, Dambuluoya and Kalawewa reservoirs in the Mahaweli H area. He describes the channel systems, the control devices adopted, the originally proposcd water distribution system as per the designed weekly water requirements, and the operational staff and their responsibilities. He also describes the practical difficulties in actual operation, as the cultivation calendar is not followed by the farmers for a variety of reasons.The author mentions that farmer education helps proper water management but by itself will not reduce over-consumption of water. In the absence of a system of water charges based on volume of water, he suggests that a farmer has no incentive to reduce his consumption of water. The problem of motivating the field assistants, the importance of having accurate measuring structures and gates, and the need for better methods of communication such as radios and telephones are discussed. The author emphasizes the need to deal decisively with the minority of farmers who break the law by taking legal action.An evaluation of the performance of water control structures was made in the early 1980s in representative turnout areas in several irrigation projects including Mahaweli System H, Mahakanadarawa, Kaudulla and Minneriya. Corey (1986) reports on the results of the evaluation, with special emphasis on the water control procedures in Mahaweli System H. In this system, detailed observations were made on all of the structures within seven turnout areas and less complete observations in several other turnout areas.Corey (1986) makes several critical observations of the water control situation in the seven turnout areas. These include:1.Not one of the weirs installed for the measurement of flow in turnouts was usable. The elevations of most of the turnouts were too low to permit weirs to operate normally;Out of the 83 allotments receiving water, only 40 received it through authorized project outlets; Boards for controlling water flow at the outlets were not being used; Concrete in the farm outlet head control structures was of very poor quality. Many of the structures were crumbling, cracking, or both; Many of the original farm outlets were placed at too low an,elevation to permit irrigation of the land intended to get water from these outlets; Rotation of water distribution, where practiced at all, was done in a haphazard manner with little supervision. Farmers at some of the turnouts tried to use a continuous flow system rather than a rotation. The turnorits at the upper positions of ditches removed too much ~a t c r Irom thc diicli when continuously open especially when enlarged by farmers. Adequate supervision to close these outlets was lacking;Of the 83 allotments receiving water from one distributary. 33 were operated (during that year) by renters and not owners of the land: 7.Maintenance of structures, as well as ditches and access roads, was virtually always poor;The problem of water supply for the system as a whole was being aggravated by the practice of issuing water to the turnouts for land preparation. The farmers were using too much water for ploughing and the \"mud plastering\" of bunds.Corey (1986) reports that the continuous flow system was working more smoothly in the older systems (Kaudulla and Minneriya) than in Mahaweli System H mainly because the farm outlets were designed for continuous flow [ i t 3 inch (7.6 cm) rather than 6 inch (15.2 cm) diameter pipes]. However, the lack of discipline among farmers due to renters and encroachers was very much in evidence.The turnout structures for the Mahakanadarawa project were modernized two years prior to this study. The system operation and water distribution seemed to have improved considerably after modernization. The author believes that this experience could be profitably adopted elsewhere.Gal Oya System Widanapathirana (1984) describes the Gal Oya Left Bank (LB) water management data for the 1 9 8 3 ~n h season. ART1 was involved in some aspects of the Gal Oya rehabilitation project. Two of these aspects were evaluation studies and monitoring the effects of the changes resulting from rehabilitation work, and research on water management. For this purpose, ART1 had been conducting a continuous farm record-kecping exercise for selected farmers in the left hank of the Gal Oya scheme since the 1979/80 maha season. The presentation of such data in summary form seasonally is useful for evaluation studies. This report for the yala cultivation in 1983 is the first of a series of such presentations by the ARTI. Data on reservoir storage and land authorization, water issues, rainfall, planning and staggered cultivation, resource use characteristics. and agricultural production supplemented with important aspects relating to systems operation are included id this rcport.The system of water delivery throughout the yala season was rotational after a continuous water issue for the first 23 days. In addition to one issue for land preparation and planting, there were nine individual rotations whose duration varied from two days onfour days off to I3 days onseven days off during the season. Not all the rotation schedules were conveyed to farmer\\ ill advance. As a consequence. there was some dissatisfaction among farmers in various areas of the scheme.The average (unweighted mean of a sample of 315 farmers) yield per acre in Gal Oya LB was 53 bushels (2.75 tons per ha). The cost of unmilled rice production per acre based on a sample of 270 farmers was Rs 2,234 (Rs 5.518 per ha) excluding family labor cost and Rs 3,059 (Rs 7,556 per ha) if family labor cost was included.The report provides a useful summary of water deliveries and agricultural production for one season.The paper by Wijayaratna (1986a) is a preliminary analysis of data based on the Gal Oya LB system prerehabilitation studies conducted by ARTI and Cornell University. The data collection scheme and the development of a Water Availability Index (WAI) are described. The paper focuses on the specific objectives oE a) the increased involvement of farmers in allocation, control and maintenance; b) improving the equity of water distribution; and c) increasing its reliability of timeliness all of which are of prime importance in water management.Some aspects of the past performance of the system are described. Important causal factors for uneven distribution of water are grouped tinder two heads, complexity of the system and physical constraints, and constraints related to resources and behavior of the participants (operators and users).Two intcr-related questions are addressed in discussing the implication of selected factors on system rehabilitation and modernization: are system operators actually able to control water at all levels in the system as intended; and can they reasonably delegate some of the responsibilities of management to the \"users\"?Four findings are discussed in answer to Ihe ahove qiiestioiis:Thc nature of system deterioratinn (ecpecially the rate at which it has occurred) and its \"status\" at the given time call for active involvement and collaboration of both the farmer and the irrigation bureaucracy at all stages. n;iinely that of dcsign, constructinn. and suhccqiient nperation and maintenance (O&M).Active pnrticipation of the users in system managrment is necessary because of the disparity between the \"planned\" and \"~ictual\" command area and increase in the number of operators and operational holdings.Investigations (if tlie time sequence of cultiviltion operations 011 individual farms in the Gal Oya LB system indicate the need for delegation of some system managemrnt responsihilities to f;irniers.Inadequacy of resources available to the system operatnrc (given the channel configuration of the LB system) also calls fiir delegation nf system management responsibilities to the Farmers.In his P1i.D. thesis. Wijayeratna (19X6h) takes his research on the Left Bank of Gal Oya much further. The objective of this Ftudy WBR to \"conccptu;ili-nd develop an analytical framework to assew the impacl of improved water management on the production pcrli)rmancc of an irrigation system\" (scc Wijayaratna I986h 10. 256). Although the rehabilitation program began in 1980. actual restoration of the physical system was delayed hy ~w n to three years. Hence the analysis in this study rcprcscnts the pre-rehabilitation situation. Based on research from 1980 to 1982. the W A I concept is developed further ;ind relined; thi\\ is hnscd on daily obscrvatiinns of water status on a large samplc nf paddy fields. broken into the begetalive and Iknweriii: st;iges. nnd recombined. A close positive correlation of yield and W A I is shown Analysis of the pottern ( i f distribution of \\rater over tiiiie and space on the LB reveals significant variations in W A I among seasons. within subsystems of the left hank. and among farms within suhsysternr. Using I \"nested model\" of the system. Wijayaratna found that there was a greater degree of variation in water supply between head and tail of subsystems (br:inch canals) and of distributary channels operated by the Irrigation Department than at lower levels of thc system managed by farmers. There was also :I large variation in water supply among subsystems. Since the main system contributes so much of the total variability in water distrihurioii. and the magnituda of variatinn:are ,so much higher at this level. he concludes that rciillocation of water at the subsystem and distributary channel levels would have the greatest impact inn yields.WIJayaratnu uses a number of sophisticatcd analytical t d s to estimate the yield gap -the gap hetween actual and potential yields -. :ind the contribution of water to this gap. These methods of analysis show that aggregate yields could he increased significantly through rearranging water distribution. with no significant impact on yields in water abundant areas.Since :ihout 40 pcrcent of the yield gap is due to \\hater. and the balance due to other factors. it is shown that although the rehabilitation of tlie system alone may he insufficient to increase yields significantly unleis other factors are also addressed, improved water distribution would proh:lhly have an interactive impact. so the rehabilitation and efforts to improve iiianapcmem arc more than justified. Goonasekera (1985) studied the case of Kaudulla irrigation scheme and its water management for his Ph.D. thesis. Based on several seasons' research at Kaudulla Scheme (Stage I), this is an attempt to be more comprehensive than an engineering study. The study reports on observations of problems in the scheme, measurement of irrigation system performance, and the socio-economic context and roots of the problems (with assistance from a sociological study reproduced as an Appendix). with particular emphasis on problems within the administration (Irrigation Department). Goonesrkera examines various alternative arrangements for improving the system by creating a greater sense of accountability for system performance, and introducing financial autonomy and viability and farmer responsibility with the state as behind-the-scenes benefactor and beneficiary. Some specific findings include unreliable and inadequate water supplies to the tail end, the result of severe deterioration of the physical system (inadequate controls, erosion and siltation of channels), as well as design problems (such as long channels). Poor maintenance was related to insufficient funds for maintenance. Serious water problems were experienced by 20-30 percent of the farmers. A hreakdown in institutions essential for the engineering system to function was identified as the major constraint causing irrigation difficulties and social inequalities at Kaudulla. While rehabilitation is feasible it can he justified economically only if the institutions for O&M are strengthened. .To d o this, motivation of managers, generation of finances from the system for maintenance, farmer organizations. and elimination of political constraints will be required.. Goonesekera's suggestions include: the need to develop more effective institutions for system management, including akcommunity level; the need to generate resources for maintenance of the system since the national economy cannot do this (he gives figures to show that if current O&M fees arc collected, they would he three times the present funds given by government for maintenance). He also shows that the evaluation of system performance. especially with limited resources, is very difficult. Some research recommendations include: the need to develop low cost electronic devices for flow monitoring; the need to develop an effective irrigation management extension service: the need for long term research efforts to evaluate the reasons for low productivity: the need for research into institutional and organii.ational aspects. farm level reuse of drainage, design of effective and economical flow control structures (including why present designs sometimes fail), alternative irrigation system layouts and management practices to promote cultivation of other field crops, and how to redesign old systems economically.AnoJher major study of irrigation water management at Kaudulla was done by the Overseas Development linit of Hydraulics Research, Wallingford, IJK in collaboration with the Irrigation Department, A report by Ahernethy (1982) reviews the measurements made during 1978-83 and, based on a detailed analysis. makes proposals for new management methods. There was also a series of interim reports prepared between 1979 and 1985 while the study was in progress. referenced in Abernethy (1985). A second report (Aherncthy and Weller 19x7) discusses the work that was continued for a further two years  and deals with the water distribution within small-scale farmer groups in selected tracts. The Kaudulla study and its two reports represent a major contribution to the understanding of the performance, operationa and the management of an irrigation system Major findings of these reports are briefly reviewed. Abernethy (1985) presents a concise factual review of the situation in Kaudulla. identifies the lessons learned from the measurements. and on thc basis of these. develops a proposal for a new set of management procedures in which a micro-computer would he used to assist decision making. S)stcni cfi~m'.. The field measurement program aimed to discovevhow much water was available to the system, and how it was being distributed within thc system. How inuch water do the crops at Kaudulla need? There was little variation from year to year in potential evapotranspiration (El). The maximum is 0.272 incheslday (6.9 mm/day) in August and the minimum 0.134 in/dny (1.4 mm/day) in December. The overall efficiency of the system, meaning the proportion of all water issued from the tank sluices that is eventually used by the plants, was 42.9 percent in yala, and 25.6 percent i n maha. The system makes little use of direct rainfall. The area cultivated tends to be less by about 20 percent oii average in yala than in maha. Even though rainfall in maha is four times more than in yala, and makes an additional 28,000 acre feet (3.453 ha meters) available, there is no reduction in tank issues, which average 38.083 acre fcct (4.697 ha meters) in yala and 39.625 acre feet (4,886 ha meters) in maha.Crop water requirements in both seasons are about the same at 19,324 acre feet (2,383 ha meters) in maha and 20,031 acre feet in yala. Thuc the water budget shows that the main deficiency of thesystem is in its inefficient utilization of rainfall. During the period of the study. savings of the order of 20,000-24,000 acre feet (2,466-2,959 ha meters) were achieved in the maha searon by the combined effect of earlier planting and rotation of issues. There is relatively little scope for improvement in the other losses. which do not seem unsatisfactory at their present level.Ifi'S ciiid p f i w I i i , i t ) , . The Relative Watc'r Supply ( R W S the ratio of water supplied to the crop requirement) as issued from the tank sluices, is in the range of 2.5-3.1 in the maha seasons and in the range of 1.3-2.4 in the yala seasons. The supply is inadequate in at least some yala seasons. The RWS at the tank sluice should be about 2.0 for adequacy.As to productivity, yields varied from 2.1 tons/ha to 5.8 t/ha. The average yield in maha is 3.93 t/ha and corresponds to : I productivity value of 0.252 kg per cubic iiieter of water supplied at the tract.Itwqdit!~. The question of inequality in the distribution of water received considerable attention and a new methodology and a new parameter were iised in this study. The field measurements have shown that there is significant inequality among the deliveries to the various tracts, and further inequality in the distribution within a tract; the scale of inequality is such that, on average. the most fortunate 10 percent of the land receives at least 2.35 times the water received by the least fortunate 10 percent. Deliveries are also not uniform in time, and fluctuate widely. To cope with the sources of inequality, there seems to need to issue from the tank sluices well over twice the theoretical needs,just to counteract the effects of unequal distribution. Such a policy would over-supply most of the land, and the excess supply to these fields would not be productive; the wastage doe to this problem is likely to be more than the losses due to seepage.Maiiagcmuit prqiosui. The main proposal for introducing new methods of management in the system is the suggestion of an on-site micro-computer at the Irrigation Engineer's office. It would enable him to make better-infornled decisions about water distribution, which should lead to reduction of inequalities, better response to rainfall, and reduction of total water demand. In the longer run, this should mean that Kaudulla would make less demand upon the supplies of the MahLweli system, with no loss of productivity at Kaudulla. It should be possible, with better control, lo improve yields with a reduced total water supply.To use a micro computer management information systems to its full potential, Abernethy (1985) says there are three main physical requirements in the field: water measuring facilities (preferably automatic); head-regulating structures; and better communications. Development and evaluation of such a system is expected to be a three-year program.The second report (Abernethy and Weller 1987) presents and analyzes field data collected in the two-year period April 1983 -March 1985 in.three small irrigated paddy-growing areas of 50 ha (120 acre) each within Kaudulla irrigation system. The data for the study were collected on site by Irrigation Department field staff. The objective of the work was to investigate the questions of adequacy, uniformity and timeliness of water supply within some land units of 50 ha each, within selected tracts.No flow measuring arrangements existed in any of the channels. The measuring system was based on water level observations at existing drop structures whic.h were calibrated. These flow measuring structures divide the study areas into 19 sub-sections, each of which receives all its canal water deliveries from outlets that lie between a certain pair of moasuring points. The average area in a sub-section is 19.2 acre (7.76 ha). Water levels were recorded at each of the measuring points once daily.The main conclusions drawn from analyzing the field data include:Adapacv. All three areas, and all 19 sub-sections, in all seasons of measurement, received sufficient water for the needs of a rice crop. In 95 percent of the data, the water supplies were significantly in excess of need, and must have led to significant wastage of water. The parts of the system that receive less canal water make better use of the available rain, but the proportion of rainfall that was effective for crop growth was generally quite small, and on average it was less than 20 percent. f y i i i y . Inequity of canal water distribution within each of the study areas was worse than in the Kaudulla main system.' When the contribution of retained rainfall is included, the inequity is reduced. Inequity is not a great social problem (since the supplies of water are generally adequate) but it implies waste of water where people receive more than they require. It is part of the reason why in some seasons, the volume of water in the tank after the maha season is not sufficient for a full yala cultivation.Timing. The timing of water deliveries was erratic. This may be a reason why farmen wish to keep high levels of water in the fields, and are therefore often unable to retain rainfall when it arrives. In the study areas, it appeared that in the great majority of cases farmers were keeping average standing water depths in excess of 2 inches (50 mm) for nearly all of the season, and in excess of 4 inches (100mm) for a substantial part.Inginimitiya Project Franks and Harding (1987) describe the results of research into water management practices during the commksioning of the Inginimitiya irrigation project in central Sri Lanka. This is a 2,500 ha newly-constructed rice irrigation settlement scheme. It is situated on the banks of the river Mi-Oya and is supplied by two main canals, one on each bank of the river, off-taking from a storage reservoir. The research was designed to provide practical answers to the following questions: * What, in terms of water use, can be expected to happen during the early stages of project commissioning?What management practices should be adopted, in the light of this? What effect will this have on long-term scheme viability? The result\\ suggest that an individual field channel command arra uses twice an much water in the first season of iirigation as forecast for full development. hut that i t thereafter use< iinly thc expected anlotint. This makes it possible to define a target phasing of land during commissioning. It was also concluded in the analysis that the phased introduction of newly irrigated land uould have had no significant effect m thi' : i w s i m w t :I[ the fcocihility stage of the project's viahilit!.Three import:int guideline\\ for ni;inagera involved u i t h commi\\sioning similar ncu schemes are suggested: 1) plan to irrigate 50 percent oi thc liiiid i n the fir51 re:rson: 2) iiistitutc t h r design w t e r ;illtre:ilion procedures a\\ soon as possihle:iind 3) aftcr the first \\ e a w i i oi irrig;itiiin. farmer5 should he free to cultivate their full area. or as much of their land as they feel ;ible to. w t h their hnowlcdgc o l t h c likely pattern of wiitcr ciipplies.The important finding\\ of the studies reviewed here have a number of comnion elements. These include: I .-.Monitoring and e v ~i l u a t i ~~i i of irrigation system performancc is difficult and very expensive in terms of resources. i.e. moncy. tiinc and effort. Gcncr:ill!. \\\\ater delijeric, are not timely. nut predictable. and iiot reliable. Water distribution is inequitable at the iiiaiii \\!~tci: I I :I\\ \\+ell as ;it the ?arm level. The iniportant c:ius~~I factor\\ for thip state of affairs are related birth t o the comple\\it! ol the system a n d physical constraintr. and the constraints related to resources, i m t i t d w x :iixl hd?:!? ior of the orwitors :~nd the uater user\\. Water measurement devices like weirs are not liked by farmers and are frequently damaged.Inadequate funds for maintenance and lack of motivation for system operating personnel are quite pervasive and lead to poor system performance.The reasons for low productivity at the farm level are very complex and result from interactions of physical, agronomic, economic, social and institutional factors.1.What methods, and conceptual basis for these methods, could he developed for assessing the performance of an irrigation system in a holistic sense without having to collect a lot of data?What operational and institutional assumptions are made in designing turnouts and field channels? Are they realistic? What is the impact of the design of field channels and turnouts on the operation of distributary canals.What alternative water distribution methods and practices that are easy to implement and that can lead to improved water delivery at the tertiary level could be introduced?What irrigation water distribution methods can farmers use that provide flexibility in operations when there is a mix of rice and diversified crops under the same turnout? What technical, financial and institutional innovations could lead to improved O&M of irrigation systems?This section reviews recent research and other literature on irrigation organization and management in Sri Lanka, under four major headings: policy and law, management at the agency level, management at the farmers' level, and other social issues. In each case it endeavors to identify the major work that has been done, the key findings or lessons learned, and the most important research questions and gaps in knowledge.Policy and legal issues are not a major focus of this review. This is not to say they are not important -they are indeed extremely important. Basic research on broad agricultural well as specifically irrigation-oriented policy options could make a very important contribution to future development of irrigated agriculture. However, the discussion here is limited to issues that directly affect progress on strengthening irrigation management institutions, both government and farmers'. Abeywickrema (1986) provides an up-to-date overview of the evolution and rationale for government policy in regard to participatory management. After explaining the relatively strong governmental role in the development of major irrigation schemes, he notes that in some respects government agencies have \"faired poorly\" in achieving their objectives. Hence government interest in participatory management of irrigation schemes fthis can he shown to he more effective. The result is a \"let 100 flowers bloom\" approach, that is, encouragement of a variety of institutional experiments, but no commitment to any particular approach.Alwis (1986) traces the history of legislation in regard to irrigation development and management since colonial times, and points out that legislation by itself cannot bring about farmer participation, supporting an argument presented several years earlier by Uphoff (1982). Nevertheless, laws can provide a broad framework to legitimize and strengthen such organizations; Alwis (1986) therefore recommends amending the turrent Irrigation Ordinance based on the lessons learned in recent years from efforts to organize farmers. More recently, Merrey and Bulankulame (1987) have suggested that Sri Lanka adopt as a long term goal the turnover of all small and medium sized systems, and the lower distribution portions of large systems, to farmers' organizations. Implementation of such a policy would require enabling legislation to provide the necessary framework.Sri Lankan policy in regard to the allocation of responsibility for irrigation system management between government and farmers has evolved considerably in the last decade. It would be useful to establish clearly the long and medium term objectives, and then carry out policy research on what the legal options are, what changes might he required in existing law and in the existing mandates of particular government agencies, and what would be the most effective strategy for achieving the objectives. Alternative models for irrigation management, such as irrigation agencies as public utilities, and turning system ownership and management over to farmers' organizations or farmer-owned companies could also he examined. Financing policies are critical at this level as well.Since all major irrigation schemes are owned, built, operated and maintained by government agencies in Sri Lanka, would expect that research to identify the impediments and opportunities to improve their performance would hegih with questions about the agencies' operations themselves. However, as is true in other countries, the study of the management agencies and their managerial performance is still rare. It is much easier to study either purely technical questions, or to study \"farmers\", with the implicit assumption that most problems are found at the level of the farmers. As a result, the behavior and performance of irrigation management agencies has remained a neglected subject, a veritable \"black box\" about which anyone may speculate hut few understand.Various studies show the potential for improvement in the performance of irrigated agriculture through management innovations above the farm level (see for example Bottrall 1981, Wade andChambers 1980). In most cases, such potential is demonstrated through a concerted effort by officials during a crisis period, or by researchers able to invest sufficient resources. However, it is difticult for agencies to sustain such extraordinary efforts over a longer period without implementing changes in the agencies themselves and the resources at their command. The question, then, is how can agencies develop a better capacity for sustained high performance management?In Sri Lanka, a number of articles have been wrjtten suggesting reasons for poor system performance that relate to agencies, or suggesting general approaches to improving agencies' management capacities. For example, in a report evaluating the original Appraisal Report for the Tank Irrigation Modernization Project (TIMP), Ranatunge et al (1981) suggest that the \"risk-averse strategy\" of the Irrigation Department is a key factor leading to late and unreliable water issues. They suggest the need for a strong comprehensive management strategy, involving cooperation between agriculture and irrigation and retraining of officials including engineers. Harriss (1977) discusses control and manipulation of the (irrigation) bureaucracy by local elites who thereby obtain a preponderance of the benefits. Chambers (1977) suggests that. on large systems jointly managed by farmers and an agency, an impartial and independent bureaucracy is needed to execute allocation of water among \"communities\" and for some provision for acting as a court of appeal, including the authority to police and prosecute infringements of the rules. \"The key lies in the reform of organiiation and operation --in short, in improved management of men\" (Chambers 1977:361). Karunanayake (19x2) also emphasizes the need for a water-specific system of justice --water courts. He also calls for a greater emphasis on system management, including regular policing at above-community levels, and a re-orientation of both training and incentives to emphasize ORrM.The major systematic study of a Sri Lankan irrigation agency published to date is the work of Moore (1980a andb, 1982) and based on research on the Irrigation Department nearly 10 years ago. His analysis is from the theoretical perspective of \"organizational theory.\" Broadly, Moore's papers attempt to identify the sociological factors underlying the low productivity of irrigation systems with special refercnce to the irrigation bureaucracy itself.' The reason for this focus is not that all the causes are within the agency, but that the main effort to improve irrigation management must come from a reformed bureaucracy. Only the bureaucracy, he argues, has the capacity lo intervene and change the other factors external tb itself.He identifies five major factors which discourage work performance (most are not unique to irrigation agencies). These are: patterns of recruitment that impede interaction between public servants and cultivators, patterns of recruitment and-rewards that inhibit internal communication in the agency. use of inappropriate indicators of management capability, lack of incentives for good management, and devaluation of management (O&M) as opposed to design and construction. In view of these, he suggests a number of strategies for improving performance (see especially Moore 1980bl. Moore (1982) notes that much of the pressure on established agencies like the Irrigation Department is the result of changing conditions and expectations. In this circumstance. organizations always try to perpetuate themselves either by attempting to defend their original functions and ways of doing things (\"natural conservatism\"), or by reorganizing and reorienting themselves. The Irrigation Department had in fact been responding by making changes, but slowly, since it seemed to Moore at that time to have a limited capability to change significantly.  provides a detailed study of the management of the Gal Oya system at the main system level, from a combined engineering and institutional (socio-technical) perspective. Building on Moore to some degree, he provides further details on the factors affecting the Irrigation Department's ability to respond to changing demands in the shortand long-term. For example, he finds that decisions made before the irrigation season, policies and pressure from outside the scheme, and the structure of the bureaucracy itself seem to have more effect on operations than changing water conditions within the scheme during the season. If changes in main system operations are contemplated, the consequences of such changes and the managerial and technical limitations of the department ring study of the operation of a major irrigation scheme.More recent work primarily related to the Water Management Project in Gal Oya suggests that in fact the Irrigation Department has changed more than Moore (and possibly Murray-Rust) might have expected. Uphoff (1985a andb, 1987) notes that a key objective of the farmers' organization program was in fact \"bureaucratic reorientation\", a change in the attitude, orientation, and performance of the Department. He lists the improvement in officials' attitudes and performance as one of the three major accomplishments of the work in Gal Oya (Uphoff 1987). Merrey and Murray-Rust (1987), based on interviews with key department officials involved in the Gal Oya rehabilitation project, plus the evaluations done by ART1 and independent consultants, confirm this perspective. They suggest that the Irrigation Department is presently in a transitional stage and h a t the present informal policies regarding a greater managementand farmer-orientation should be made explicit and clear, and should include specific incentives and training programs to make them more effective.Before the beginning of each cultivation season, the law requires that a cultivation (ham) meeting be held. All cultivators are invited to attend this meeting, which is chaired by the government agent or his designee, and attended by representatives of all the irrigation and agriculture-related departments. Murray-Rust and Moore (1983) analyze the cultivation meetings they independently observed at Gal Oya and Kaudulla. They show the cultivation meeting format is inappropriate and ineffective on large irrigation schemes, especially as a decision-making mechanism. They suggest a number of alternatives, including replacing such mass meetings with committees of elected representatives (ie. project committees) and concentrating attention on delivering water to distributary heads where farmers' organizations could take over, rather than facing the complexities of trying to deliver promised amounts of water reliably to field channels. One \"positive function\" mentioned is embarrassment of officials as a check on poor job performance, but this would not seem a very effective mechanism for performance monitoring.At present, research on agency-level management issues is shifting to a new approach! Whereas the work of Moore, for example, derives from sociological theory on organizations, tends to emphasize structural issues, and tends to be \"external\" to the agency in its perspective, recent research has attempted to examine the internal management procases based on methods and insights derived from modern management approaches. This work is done with the close collaborcy officialsindeed it cannot be done with-out this support. The role of the researcher in such work is closer to a management consultant-than to a traditional researcher. In principle, t h i s work can lead to identifying key impediments to an agency's ability to achieve its objectives, and to suggested means to improve the performance of agencies and their employees. Two examples of such recent work, not yet published, are Raby (1988) on the Irrigation Management Division (IMD), and Raby and Merrey (1988) on MEA's management system in System H.An evaluation of the effectiveness of the INMAS program within IMD is presentlymderway; and the studies on financing O&M discwed in another section of this paper are also relevant to defining issues and developing testable solutions in agency-level management. Evaluations, and \"conceptual\" studies from various theoretical perspectives (such as organizational theory, public choice theory) are valuable in defining larger policy and strategic issues, and suggesting broad solutions. \"Internal\" management studies are useful to identify and test ways to improve the effectiveness of organizations to achieve their objectives.The major research questions emerging from this review are: First, how can the effectiveness and performance of irrigation management agencies be improved? The objective would be to examine the present management systems, for example performance monitoring and control of personnel; recruitment, training, and incentives policies; communications (management information systems) both within the agency and between agency officials and clients; decision-making processes; and organizational goals, mission, and values (culture). The methods would include participant observation, interviewing, examination of files, etc. in the fiat stage, followed by a stage of collaborating with agency officials to develop, test, and evaluate alternative management procedures and methodologies, including those which have been used by other public and private organizations to change themselves.More detailed questions would emerge from the specific context to be studied. For example, the IMD has the responsibility for both coordination of agencies providing inputs for irrigated agriculture at the project level, and development of farmers' organizations. This is to be achieved by a \"Project Manager\", sometimes but not always assisted by an institutional derelopment officer and/or institutional organizers. Are the expectations regarding the project manager reasonable? Does the IMD system of performance monitoring, incentives and rewards, Colombo-field communications, etc. tend to encourage or discourage the performance expected? What kind of a management information system would be most appropriate for IMD? Similar detailed questions could be developed for other organizations. This section deals with both farmers' organizations, and the interface between fanners and irrigation agencies. Sri Lanka is well-known for a number of interesting experiments with promoting farmers' organizations, and there is a lot of literature on the subject, though not all of it is useful. Several authors have noted that the absence of effectivelocal level organizations and leadership is a major factor explaining disappointing irrigation system performance, and imped-, ing improvements (for example Karunanayake 1980and 1982, Moore 1980a, Alwis et al 1983aand 1983b, Chambers 1977, Gunesekere 1981). Some authors trace this absense of effective local organizations to the increasing intrusiveness of government in recent times which has under-mined the traditional system and engendered a dependency on outside forces, and to the changing policies and legal arrangements since Independence (e.g. Gunesekere 1981, Karunanayake 1980). Others suggest that the official control of settlement schemes has discouraged the development of local'organizations (Chambers 1978, Lundquist 1986).In his review of water management problems on large schemes, Moore (1980a) expresses strong reservations about the likely usefulness of promoting farmers' organizations as a means to improving irrigation system performance. He suggests that they: 1) will be unable to deal with local conflicts; 2) have a dismal record on sustainability; 3) are premised on a false image of the social composition of settlement schemes; 4) and would detract from the more crucial need, reform of the bureaucracy. Put another way, the concern expressed is the trade-offs between elected leaders who face limitations in what they can accomplish versus an impartial external authority able to impose discipline. Nevertheless; since the late 1970s, there have been a number of experiments with farmers' organizations that have generated considerable interest and been quite influential with Sri Lankan policy makers.An interesting pioneering effort that does not appear to have led to any permanent impact is the one at Thannimurripu, Vavuniya District, documented by Ellman and Ratnaweera (1973). An administrative board consisting of officials and elected farmer leaders was established to deal with system problems when the line agencies found it difficult themselves to solve them. Based on a rather short study 2.5 years after it was started, the study concludes the effort to date was a \"qualified sucms.\"There are several more recent and contemporaneous experiments that have had impacts beyond the system on which they were done. These are the Mahaweli Tumout Groups, the committees formed at Minipe, the Kimhulwana case, and the farmers' organization program as part of the rehabilitation project in Gal Oya. There have been other efforts, some discussed in papers in IIMI (1986), but these are the major influential cases.Mafuwdi twnout groups. The turnout group program was initiated in parts of System H in 1979. A concentrated effort was made to develop farmers' groups below the turnout to carry out irrigation tasks and to facilitate agricultural extension and training. These efforts are described by officials who had been involved in the program (see Karunatilake 1986, Jayawardene 1986). According to these authors the program is being implemented in the new Mahaweli systems (B, C, etc) as well. It is important to note that the original concept was limited to the turnout only; Karunatilake (1986) in fact expresses reservations about federating them at the distributary level. However, in System H today there are D channel representatives, though their functions are not clearly defined.Several authors have raised questions about the effectiveness of the System H turnout groups (see Karunanayake 1980;Lundquist 1986;Bulankulame 1986). Lundquist claims that despite the high hopes of the officials, after several years experience with turnout group leaders, a survey of farmers showed \"an overwhelmingly negative attitude toward them.\" Lundquist notes that even though the leaders are supposed to be elected by and from farmers, in fact they tend to be from more elite groups, and in many instances are nominated by the officials and are often extensions of the bureaucracy, doing things officials should do (Karunatilake, 1986, also mentions this problem). Bulankulame (198616) found that farmers are uncertain about the role of their representative, and often bypass him; further, members often do not see themselves as a group, in part because of residential dispersion.The K d d w a w . case. Kimbulwana is a medium sized scheme in Kurunegala District which was rehabilitated in the late 197Cdearly 1980s. The Irrigation Department's Technical Assistant (TA) in charge of the project spent some years developing a highlydisciplined approach to system management with the participation of the farmers. A video film has been made documenting the experience; an evaluation was written several years ago (Weeramunda 1985), and more recently with IIMI support the TA has documented his approach from his own perspective (Gunadasa 1988). Gunadasa's approach cannot be characterized as \"participatory\" in the usual sense; rather, he imposed a structure for consultation and decision-making and was able to impose the kind of discipline in water management that surveys often show farmers would prefer.It has come to be seen as a success story since as a result of these efforts, irrigation eficiency apparently improved, productivity improved, fanners have been able to get an extra crop occasionally, and the system is said to be wellmaintained. Weeramunda (1985) lists five major characteristics: it is disciplinarian in structure and character, it combines discipline with elements of participation, it is an efficient water management system, fanners and oficials both view it as a success, it is based on \"bureaucratic leadership\" in which a particularly dedicated official won the farmers' compliance, and its long term viability (sustainability) is doubtful.The last point is important; Weeramunda's (1985) evaluation suggests that the farmers' attitude is one of compliance and complaisance, younger and more critical people have been excluded, and there is a failure to develop local leadership independent of the TA. Gunadasa of wurse does not agree with this evaluation; it is difficult to evaluate the sustainability of the effort until Gunadasa leaves. A study to examine what lessons there might be at Kimbulwana that are transferable is needed: it is clear that farmers often prefer an impartial external authority to impose discipline, but could this be done effectively and fairly on a wide scale by the present government institutions?The Minip pxperknce. The case of the effort to organize farmers for water management at Minipe Scheme illustrates the problem of sustainability after the source of inspiration departs. The water management project at Minipe, initiated by the then Deputy Director of Irrigation for Kandy, N.G.R. de Silva, attempted to set up a committee system to enable farmer participation in system management. This has been described by de Silva (1981de Silva ( , 1985) ) and evaluated by Peiris (1987) after de Silva bad left. Peiris finds that while there had been some positive impact of the project, this was less than had been hoped. He attributes the lack of sustainability of the organizations to several factors, including problems of getting line departments to cooperate, problems in implementing project committee decisions, and problems arising from the agrarian social structure and the physical system's poor condition. Peiris expresses skepticism about the extent to which farmers can \"participate\" in matters that are part of the administrative domain.The Minipe experience is of particular interest for several reasons. It was the pioneering effort to use \"catalysts\" in initiating the transformation process among farmers -in this case young people fielded by the National Heritage Programme in a pilot area during the first year. Informal group representatives were elected from among the farmers to assist in water management, and coordinating committees were established. In a later stage of the project, a committee system with formal farmer representation was established throughout the system, but without the benefit of the catalysts. Farmers' representatives were elected by secret ballot under the Agrarian Services Act, and there were six Subproject Committees and one Project Committee on which both field officers and farmers sat.Tfw Gal Cya projtxt, From 1978-85, the Irrigation Department rehabilitated the Left Bank of Gal Oya, with funding and other assist USAID. An integral component of the project was an effort to organize farmers' groups which was implemented by ARTI with some assistance from Cornell University. This component of the project in particular has attracted wide national and international interest, and has had considerable impact on government policy and on donor policy as well. The team which did the final evaluation of the whole project termed this aspect of the program a success, but complained about the volume of reports on the project (ISTI 1985).The most useful discussions of this effort in our view are contained in the following: Wijayaratne (1985); Uphoff (1985aUphoff ( and b, 1986Uphoff ( , 1987)); Perera (1986); and Merrey and Murray-Rust (1987). The papers by Wijayaratne and Uphoff discuss the program from the point of view of the two key people who set up and guided it; Uphoff (1986) puts the effort into a broad comparative perspective; Perera's (1986) paper provides a useful overview but from a more critical perspective; while Merrey and Murray-Rust (1987) look at the impact of the program on the Irrigation Department from the perspective of the key Department participants in the project.An important feature of the program was the use of \"catalysts\" called Institutional Organizers (10s) to work with farmers in organizing groups.-The 10s were all graduates in social or agricultural sciences who were trained in various aspects of water management, group dynamics, and organizational methods. They resided in the communities and developed close personal relationships and an intimate knowledge of the communities. This enabled them to work effectively with farmers to assist them in forming field channel (FC) groups, and later larger organizations based on field channel representatives. The FC groups were expected to carry out FC maintenance, organize water sharing programs where needed, and work closely with the Irrigation Department engineers in the design and reconstruction of the FCs. One or more FC representatives was to be chosen by the farmers to be a spokesperson for them at distributary committees and Area Councils.According to the official evaluation, by late 1985,350 FC organizations had been formed over an area of 10,250 ha; above these were 27 D channel organizations, 6 area councils, and a project committee (ISTI: 1985). The evaluators felt the 420 farmers' representatives on the whole were responsive to farmers' needs and 60-80 percent of the farmers in the organized area were participating directly or indirectly in the FC organizations. According to a survey carried out by ARTI, both farmers and Irrigation Department engineers expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the organizations, and particularly with their representatives (see ARTI and Cornell 1986;Perera 1986).Unfortunately the prevailing conditions in Sri Lanka have prevented any recent evaluations of the Gal Oya farmers' organizations. But based on interviews with two key Irrigation Department offcials in mid-1987, Merrey and Murray-Rust (1987) found that the organizations had apparently endured even after the end of the project; and the improve ment in both discyhe among farmers and at the agency level and communhtion between farmers and agency, enabling more effective operation of the system, remained the key benefits in the eyes of these officials.Cornpanson of d'ijknt expuimmt.: Iwons and ruearch qiwtians. It is interesting to compare and contrast the experience at Gal Oya with the experience reported in other systems in Sri Lanka. Like the Mahaweli Turnout Groups program, this was an officially sponsored effort on a particularly large irrigation scheme. However, the Mahaweli program was implemented by a bureaucracy that is relatively dense and has multiple (integrated) responsibilities at the field level. It had a more limited objective -organizing at the turnout only --and limited expectations --the groups were primarily conceived as a mechanism for the agency to train farmers (one way communication). The Unit Managers, part of the bureaucracy, organized the groups. There was little emphasis on the pruce~s of organization and learning lessons from the experience as the process unfolded.At Gal Oya, there was relatively little coordination among line departments, and the Irrigation Department had a narrow range of responsibilities. Its staff was comparatively less dense per unit area or per farmer. The program was implemented by a research organization that could work in a flexible and decentralized manner. The objective was more ambitious than in Mahaweli System H -_ farmers were to be actively involved in the rehabilitation effort, including decision-making and contributing resources, and as the program evolved, in system management at various levels, not just the FCs. The 10s were on two year contracts with ARTI; they were not part of the bureaucracy.There was a great emphasis on \"getting the process right\" --the title and theme of Uphoff's (1986) book -and learning from the process.The effort at Minipe used catalysts, apparently successfully, in the beginning, but this did not continue. The farmers did respond to the opportunity to participate in improving and managing the system. However, the program was not sustained because the effort required to overcome the impediments in both the agrarian social and economic structure and the bureaucracy itself were not sustained. The Kimbulwana experiment was \"catalyzed\" by one dedicated person. The notable contribution here is the acceptance by farmers of a high degree of discipline imposed from outside, plus a considerable degree of collective responsibility for system maintenance. The question of sustainability is a serious but unanswerable one at this stage.These experiments suggest a number of key lessons, but raise further issues requiring applied research. The lessons include:1.Farmers will respond to opportunities to take greater responsibility for system O&M in cooperation with government officials.The use of specially trained catalysts, deployed in communities with a mandate to spend a couple of years working with farmers is an effective method for organizing responsible and useful farmers' organizations.The presence of such legitimate and effective farmer organizations leads to improved cooperation among farmers, and improved cooperation and communication between farmers and agency officials. This in turn makes the agencies' jobs easier, and increases the incentives of official5 to be responsive. These improvements in turn can lead to improved system performance on a sustained basis.The development of farmers' groups and changes in irrigation management agencies are mutually supportive; in the long run, both must occur, and changes in one have a strong impact on the other.Numerous research issues also arise from these experiences, including:1.3.What What modifications from the Gal Oya model would be required for success in systems where conditions are different from Gal Oya [e.g. different ethnic groups, already existing organizations requiring strengthening, different management agency such as Mahaweli Economic Agency (MEA)] or where the project objectives are different (e.g. not a rehabilitation project, shifting a system from rice to mixed cropping, improving efficiency on a water short system, improving maintenance).Are there alternative methods of organizing farmers' groups that would he effective and perhaps less costly financially and in terms of management intensity in achieving program objectives? For example, can IMD Project Managers, or Unit Managers in Mahaweli systems, implement such a program effectively on their own? If so, under what conditions?What is the most appropriate division of responsibilities and overall relationship between the existing agencies and farmers' groups in the short run (say five years)? What would be the most appropriate mixture of roles, and types of organizations to be developed in the long run? For example, can/should distributary groups take over both operational and maintenance responsibilities on their distributary? Would an organizational frame work in which there is a contractual relationship hetween a farmers' group and an irrigation service agency be more appropriate in the long run? What role can farmers' representatives play in overall policy and decision making on large irrigation systems? What factors inhibit and what factors encourage such participation?There are a number of other social issues that are not directly irrigation management issues, but that relate very closely, either in terms of their impact on efforts to improve irrigation system performance, or in terms of the potential broader impact of improved irrigation performance. These issues include (hut are not limited to) the following: concentration of other productive factors necessary for agricultural production, such as land, access to credit and inputs, and farm power; land tenure issues and settlement policies (residence dispersion for example) and their relationship to irrigation management; employment generation, especially as it relates to second generation settlers; and the relationship between family size and structure, including particularly women's roles, and irrigated agriculture.Concentration of land control has been reported on settlement schemes, (Abeysekera 1986) but not welldocumented. Concentration of farm power has been documented (see Abeyratne and Farrington 1986). The farm power study carried out on three major schemes in 1979-80 documented the interactions between unequal access to water of head and tail farmers and unequal access to farm power. Since such interactions can lead to a situation of increasing inequality, which in turn could make efforts to use management and organizational interventions to equalize water deliveries problematical, further research is required. A high degree of social inequality will make development of effective farmers' organizations difficult.There are a lot of issues related io trends in land tenure and the relationship between settlement polici& and practices, and irrigation management. Studies of settlement schemes consistently find very high levels of leasing, mortgaging, tenancy, fragmentation, and outright but non-legal sales (see Bulankulame 1986, Ekanayake and Groinfeldt 1987, Abeysekera 1986, and other references in Stanbury 1988). These have very important impacts on the effectiveness of farmers' organizations; for example, should non-allottees be excluded? If they are, and if more than half the cultivators on a channel are non-allottees, how can such an organization be effective? A recent literature review (Stanbury 1988) has highlighted land tenure and other settlement-related issues requiring further study in terms of their impact on irrigation management.The problems of the second and subsequent generations of settlers in terms of their limited access to land and employment, and the impact of this limited access on the resource base in Gal Oya, was studied by Abeyratne (1982). She documents the adaptive strategies of such families, given their limited opportunities, and notes that under-and un-employment, poverty, and lack of access to resources, the very conditions settlers came to the Dry Zone to escape, are repeated in the next generation. This major study on this subject confirms the common perception. It relates more broadly to the question of the role and potential impact of irrigation management in trying to reduce poverty, especially among those with limited access to irrigation resources. Research on these problems goes beyond irrigation management, but the issues are crucial to the long term viability of irrigation schemes.Finally, another under-studied topic is the relationship between family structure and irrigated agriculture, and in particular, the impact on, and role of, women. The study by D. de Silva (1982) provides an overview of women's adaptation in a Mahaweli scheme, while Kilkelly's (1986) survey in Polonnaruwa provides interesting data but little analysis. Although studies of women in development have very rightly and rather belatedly become more common, no one has yet identified specific research problems related to irrigation management in Sri Lanka.Selected papers and reports on the major rehabilitation experiences in Sri Lanka in the last decade are reviewed. The cases include the Tank Irrigation Modernization Project in the northern part of the country and the Gal Oya (left bank) Water Management Project in the east of the country. There is a considerable body of written material on the subject. According to the final evaluation report on the Gal Oya Project (ISTI 1985), a bibliography on that project prepared by ART1 lists 159 separate studies and reports. This review attempts to identify the principal results of the rehabilitation experiences to help formulate research questions for studying the rehabilitation process in other projects.TIMP was the first major rehabilitation program in Sri Lanka and introduced several innovations in agriculture and irrigation, together with supporting institutional arrangements. Abeysekera (1986) documents the limited impact of the TIMP on one system, Mahavilachchiya, and attempts to explain why this ic so. He discusses the social, economic and demographic background of Mahavilachchiya, showing that high population growth in the context of a limited land base and highly uncertain water supply have resulted in very slow increases in production and income, increasing economic stratification as shown by the increases in landlessness, mortgaging of land, and indebtedness. Major changes in the irrigation system and agricultural production system were attempted under TIMP, with unsatisfactory results. The fanners are said to have rejected the agricultural innovations.Abeysekera does an economic analysis of these and other possible innovations, including dry sowing, advancing the sowing time, using short season varieties of rice, crop diversification, and saving water from maha to enable a yala crop. He finds that in all cases, under present conditions, the highest long term income comes from the current conventional practice of planting a long season variety of paddy late in maha.He suggests a number of implications for Mahavilachchiya, including the need for long term government policy changes to promote economic growth, the importance of involving farmers in irrigation management, the need for agricultural practices more compatible with farmers' interests and resources, and the need for institutional support for marketing aad credit. In future rehabilitation projects he suggests looking beyond purely engineering solutions and focusing on building farmers' organizations, providing more adaptable agricultural technologies; and incorporating fanners' knowledge and experience in designing rehabilitation projects.The report by Ranatunge, Farrington, and Abeysekera (1981) attempts to draw together some of the broad themes and lessons from the baseline studies of the five tanks rehabilitated under the TIMP in 1977-83. It re-examines the original World Bank Appraisal Report regarding the problem and the proposed solutions, and points out the inadequacy of the Appraisal on several issues. It suggests, based on the data from the baseline studies and other sources, that the issues sutrounding early tilling and sowing were not identified clearly, which led to a misdirection of investments toward Cwheel tractors and, more important, to ignoring the management support system that would be required to implement early tilling and sowing.On crop diversification, the Appraisal inadequately identified the roots of the problem. Ranatunge et al. (1981) believe this will require a long term multi-pronged effort. Finally, on the tail end problem, the report suggests that there is considerable scope for improving crop intensity and yields (at the tail), but other problems such as poor roads are as important as water. The report claims the monitoring of TIMP's impact was inadequate.The single main theme underlying the staggered mudland tillage system is identified as mn$dew, and therefore also motivation. It attributes much of this problem to the highly risk-averse strategy of the Irrigation Department, which leads to late and unreliable issues of water in early maha for example. It suggests the need for a strong, comprehensive management strategy, that would involve cooperation of agriculture and irrigation, intensive field efforts, re-training of o!Xcials.including engineers, and assistance from political authorities. The organizational efforts required are said to have been neglected in the appraisal.Murray-Rust and Rao (1987a and b) also examine the TIMP case. The experience and lessons learned in TIMP have influenced the planning and design of the Major lmgation Rehabilitation Project (MIRP) which is currently being implemented in some of the seven tanks included in this project. They emphasize the important innovations attempted in TIMP, the experience gained, and the modifications introduced in MIRP, partly as a result of the experience with TIMP.TIMP had a number of substantial objectives aimed at water conservation in both wet and dry seasons: 1.increasing cropping intensity through crop diversification in the dry season;early land preparation for wet season rice, based on mechanmtion and dry seediog, to use early rainfall and conserve tank water for the following dry season; use of short duration rice varieties in the wet season; improved equity of water distribution through introduction of strict rotational delivery schedulq and redesign of the conveyance system, lining distributary and field channels, introduction of water measurement capability within the system, and construction of cros regulators in main channels.AgmdduuwWum. Dry tilIage> dry seeding, and short duration varieties constituted a package requiring mechanization, timely water supplies, and varieties that ripen in 3.0-3.5 months. Tractors were made available, but water conditions were never such that farmers were induced to change from traditional practices. Dry sowing is now rare.Farmers seem to prefer to ensure one good wet season rice crop, use irrigation water for land preparation and crop growth, and plant 4.0-4.5 month rice varieties.Uncertainty over water and lack of marketing arrangements were major constraints to crop diversitication and adoption of non-rice crops. Water management was Micult since it had to be adapted to two markedly different sods under a turnout.In MIRP, mechanization for dry tillage is given up, crop diversification is limited, and the package of dry tillage, dry seeding and short duration varieties are not insisted on, though still recommended.Irrigation uuwWum. Large scale adoption of parallel, lined rectangular one cusec (28.3 liters per second) channels serving head, middle and tail end areas separately and independently was a major innovation attempted. When the agricultural innovations were not adopted and land preparation for wet sowing of rice brought peak water demands, the one cusec channels proved unsatisfactory. Therefore, in MIRP, the channels are designed to carry up to two cwem if all freeboard is used. Lining is to be done only where needed and channels will be earthen and trapezoidal in crm-section.The original design in TlMP limited irrigation deliveries to 12 hours per day, so that no farmers would have to irrigate at night. Rotational schedules were prepared to achieve this objective but it proved impossible to operate the systems in daylight hours only. Rotations were later changed to 24 hour irrigation for a set number of hours per week. The rotational schedule was modified for MIRP by rescheduling discharges to permit all gate operations to be in daylight hours.The installation of cross-regulators has been a major benefit to water on control in the main channels of the systems.Cross regulation is being provided in MIRF' and several other systems at the present time.TIMP relied very heavily on weir boxes for measurement at distributary and field channel Iqvels. They were perceived by farmers as restricting flows and were widely damaged. MIRP is moving towards installing broad crested weirs, which, although mom. expensive, are more durable.IWtiWkdituUMItMls . The transfer of design activities in TlMP from Colombo to a town nearer to the projea is the first case of major devolution of design in Sri Lanka, and has been adopted in Gal Oya and MIRP.-2 1 -The establishment of Tank Committees under TIMP was the first major effort in Sri Lanka to involve farmers formally in managing major irrigation systems. The tank committee structwe has evolved into the project manager system of INMAS, the national effort to improve water management through the IMD. This system has also been adopted for all MIRP tanks. TIMP had no plans to organize farmers. vd ~' I ~I E were used to undertake several water management tasks, including implementation of the rotational schedules, representation of the farmers at the tank committee, and liaison with government officers. It was not satisfactory. Later, efforts were made to organize field channel groups with contact farmers in a system parallel to the contact farmer for the training and visit (T&V) system. These efforts were largely introduced after all design work had been completed.In MIRP, farmer organization is a specific objective of the early phase of the project. Institutional organizers (10s) whose task is to organi7.e farmers into field and distributary channel groups have been hired. In MIRP, there has already becn a substantive effort to involve farmers in planning and redesign. The different approach to institutional arrangements in MIRP can only partly be attributed to the experiences of TIMP. There have also been inputs from the Gal Oya experience.TIMP has contributed significantly to improved understanding of the requirements of rehabilitation projects in Sri Lanka. Many lessons learned have been incorporated into planning and implementation of some subsequent rehabilitation projects like MIRP.Five reports and papers representing the views of a mid-term evaluation review team, the contractor for implementation of rehabilitation, researchers, and the final evaluation review team are chosen as a basis for reviewing the Gal Oya experiedce.A study of the Gal Oya Water Management Project was conducted by a Review team of five members (Keller et al. 1982) at the request of USAIDISri Lanka. It was intended to serve as a project review document and includesthe team's conclusions and recommendations with supporting background statements. The team identified and pinpointed the constraints which slowed the development of the project and reduced its effectiveness and then developed aset of recommendations for overcoming them.The concept of pragmiitic rciw6liitatim was the main outcome of the review. Instead of using the \"textbook approach\" to specifying rehabilitation requirements, a more relaxed design approach was recommended and utilized. This approach is to set up standards and criteria in order to do the minimum work necessary to get the desired results in terms of canal safety, stability and carrying capacity. This approach reduces surveying, design and construction costs considerably.The team also emphasized institutional development and the importance of socioeconomic research and water users' associations. This was a fundamental component of the Gal Oya water management program. Neither the rehabilitation of the water storage and delivery system nor the proposed new rational and comparatively stringent O&M measures can ever achieve their purpose unless accompanied by institutional improvements. Assistance is needed to guide and enforce the recommended management measures and to gain the enthusiastic participation of the ultimate users of the project, the farmers. The team endorsed the consultant's (PRC) view that if the Irrigation Department was unwilling to accept the responsibility for integrated water management, then perhaps efforts should be made either to find another agency that would accept this responsibility, or create a new agency.The report contains many recommendations which led to a redirection of the rehabilitation effort of the Gal Oya project and extension of the project life by about 21 months. PRC Engineering Consultants International (1985) was the contractor for the Gal Oya Water Management Project with responsibility primarily for planning, modemization/rehabilitat~on, O&M, and training. The final report prepared by the contractor provides an account of the activities under the prqect, the project outputs, the problems encountered, and the findings that could be useful for future rehabilitation projects.The findings cover a wide range of issues. The following are the points the contractor believed are most important for modernization and/or rehabilitation, and project O&M (PRC 1985):1.Inputs from water users' associations (WUA) are not necessary for the rehabilitation of conveyance systems but would be advantageous. The exception is that the farmers' input is required in the preparation of the general management and work plan. The rehabilitation of a field channel must have farmers' participation, with or without a WUA.The general O&M procedures that will be implemented following rehabilitation should be determmed as part of the general management and work plan. Specific requirements of the operations plan which will affect water control must be included in the design criteria.Training of the project's O&M staff should be implemented as early as possible.The training of non-Imgation Department personnel, particularly local officials and other influential individuals in the community will greatly help the acceptance of water management as a needed means of helping the farmers. It should have a long term effect in maintaining the WUAs as viable organizations and may assist in their federation and the formation of an advisory committee to assist the project manager in setting policy. This is a useful and informative report presenting the contractor's overview of the project and the problems encountered.In a comprehensive case study, Wijayaratna (1987) analyzes the rehabilitation effort and experience of the Gal Oya Left Bank System. The paper highlights the innovative and successful approaches used in various phases and activities of the project. It also examines the constraints encountered and deficiencies observed in all stages of the project. This review draws upon these aspects as they have lessons appricable to future rehabilitation endeavors.The innovative elements identified are the following:The pragmatic approach to design and construction was considered successful in practice. Thi basic concept of the pragmatic approach was to \"...conduct a physical inspection of the system and to determine what was needed to be done to ensure hydraulic efficiency and to stabilize the canal banks. This approach had to rely heavily on the judgment of the design engineers.\" This is quoted approvingly by Wijayaratna (1987277) from the final evaluation of Gal Oya.Mobilization of local knowledge and farmer participation in system management. Farmer involvement in the design process through group mechanisms no doubt improved the quality of Gal Oya rehabilitation work. At the early stages of the redesign process, each of the farmer groups had two rounds of meetings with the design -23 .engineers. Later, due to time constraints, these group meetings were replaced by walk-along-thechannel meetings between fanner groups and design engineers. Fanner organizations are now said to be functioning BS real organktions with viable operating stTuctures and continuous records of their efficient involvement in water management.Computer model for system operation. There is no doubt that this has been helpful in enhancing the efficiency of water scheduling and operational decisions. However, this will not compensate for inadequacy of data on extents cultivated under different off-takes and on drainage.The following constraints are identified and discussed t I .Unrealistic assumptions during the planning phase. In the author's opinion, one of the major gains expected by the sponsoring agencies from the proposed farmer organizations was to get farmers to take responsibility for rehabilitation work in the field channels. However, farmers were never consulted about this in advance and no agreement was reached before hand. hadequate data. For example, the lengths of different categories of channels were not known, much less the extent of cultivated area. Inadequate attention was paid to drainage, re-use and soil characteristics.Limited impact of rehabilitation on production. As the direct major influence of the rehabilitation program is limited to system-wide improvements in water availability, such a program may not provide solutions to the non-water factors responsible for the yield gap.Overseas training. Over the project period, 133 participants were sent abroad for short-term training and nine were sent for long-term training. Despite the fact that some of these contributed positively to the project's success, most were of very little value to the project or to water management improvements in the country as a whole.The use of original design specifications in rehabilitation. The initial conception of the Gal Oya left bank rehabilitation was to restore the physical system to original design specifications. However, this was not possible because the latter could not be found. Some of the original specifications may not be appropriate for the changed conditions of the project --the actual command area had increased significantly over the past three decades. Rehabilitation should provide an opportunity to benefit from changes in technology that have occurred since the inception of a project.Coordination among line agencies. The work required by the local agencies (other than the Irrigation Department) to achieve the project objectives was not adequately defined in the project paper. In addition, lack of proper t 2.6.coordination and cooperation among agencies was observed to be a constraint during project implementation.Limitations in benefit-cost evaluations of rehabilitation efforts. Calculations of benefits and costs in these studies (ex-ante and ex-post), depend on assumptions about the area that could be irrigated, the yields that could be obtained after the project is completed, the extent lo which the benefits are correlated with a project's implementation, and so forth. The difficulty in substantiating such assumptions has been demonstrated by the author. Benefit-cost evaluations, therefore, could be misleading at times. The internal rate of return calculated for the Left Bank system rehabilitation varied from 47.4 percent (ISTI 1985) to 17 percent (ART1 evaluation).On the whole, Wijayaratna's paper is a very useful case study especially in planning for new rehabilitation efforts in other projects.The final evaluation of the Gal Oya Left Bank Rehabilitation Project was conducted hy the International Institute for Science and Technology (ISTI) in 1985. A six member multi-disciplinary team carried out the evaluation. The team's evaluation methodology included a review of available documents, interviews with USAID and government dfcials in Colombo, and a week long field visit to Amparai.The overall assessment of the project is that, by any reasonable standard, the project as a whole hag definitely been a success in spite of some mistakes made in the design and execution. The achievements listed are: I) a badly detericrated major irrigation scheme has been rehabilitated in a cost-effective manner, and is operational; 2) fornied and are functioning despite a fragmented social structure; 3) changes in agronomic practices, increased yields and increased cropping intensity, all due at least partly to improved water delivery and reliability, have combined with an increase in irrigated area to produce an internal rate of return of 47.4 percent. ISTI (1985) concluded the project has substantially achieved its purpose of developing an institutional capability, which can be replicated to manage large irrigation schemes in Sri Lanka more efficiently and effectively with active farmer assistance. The capability and methodology developed at Gal Oya can and should be extended to other schemes, but this will require adaptation to different physical and social environments.One of the most important outcomes of the project is the change in attitude, communication and behavior among farmers and government personnel that has occurred at Gal Oya. All the available evidence points to a major change in this regard (see Merrey and Murray-Rust 1987). This is a very important project achievement and should not be underestimated.The factors that contributed to the overall project outcome according to the review are: 1) the improved reliability of water delivery as a result of rehabilitation; 2) the Institutional Organizer program and the farmer organizations it created; 3) the leadership of the Project Director, who actively promoted communication by direction and by example; and 4) the training program (which Wlj'ayaratna [ 19871 criticizes).Ethnic disturbances have adversely affected the project and have retarded rehabilitation of the tail end of the system.On the project strategy and components, the review contends that the strategy, as it evolved, was appropriate for the project's goals and purpose, but that it differed significantly from the strategy set forth in the original project design.The original project paper included: 1) an overemphasis on heavy equipment -the equipment was provided, but utilization was very low and maintenance was a continuing problem; 2) an overemphasis on detailed planning and the preparation of master plans. The adoption of the pragmatic approach to design and construction, as suggested by the mid-term evaluation, was a key element in the successful rehabilitation; 3) an overemphasis on research and testing; and 4) the absence of a specific plan and specific funding for rehabilitation of distributary and field channels. Distributary channels and structures in field channels were provided for in the amendment to the project paper. Who would do the field channel earthwork remained unsolved. Both the original and the final strategy paid inadequate attention to maintenance.Merrey and Murray-Rust (1987), based on interviews with two key Irrigation Department officials two years a k r the end of project evaluation, report that these officials confirm the general evaluation of the imporlance of the farmers' organizations and other institutional efforts in the rehabilitation project, the usefulness of the pragmatic approach to rehabilitation, and most important, the farmers' organizations' continued existence and operation.Just as the MlRP was developed based on experience with the TIMP, with funding from the World Bank and other sources, the Irrigation Systems Management (ISM) Project has been developed from the experience with the Gal Oya Project. The ISM Projed has funding from USAID, and is designed to continue testing and improving the approach used for organizing fanners at Gal Oya, and to test a rehabilitation approach called essential structural improvements (ESI) that is thought to be even more cost-effective than pragmatic rehabilitation. The original project concept was in fact not as a rehabilitation project p a se, but as a project to develop a capacity and a process in the Irrigation Department to carry out continuous maintenance and upgrading of irrigation systems that would not stop at the end of the project. In addition, the project aims to strengthen the IMDs capacity to implement the INMAS program, particularly in developing strong farmers' organizations, and in developing a performance and fmancial monitoring capability. Implementation of the project has just begun.To date, Merrey (1987) provides the only attempt to do a comparative analysis of Sri Lanka's imgation system rehabilitation and modernization experience. He describes an analytical framework for comparing the degree to which rehabilitation projects focus on institution-building, and applies the framework to six Sri Lankan rehabilitation projects, to test the hypothesis that those projects which build strong responsible farmers' organizations supported by management agencies responsive to the needs of these organizations are more likely to exhibit s u w m h [ e improvements in productivity and equity than those that primarily emphasize physical reconstruction.The experience gained by an organization in implementing innovations in a rehabilitation project was utilized in making modifications in the design of a subsequent rehabilitation project.Standard approaches to designing irrigation projects may not be appropriate for some rehabilitation projects, and innovative and pragmatic rehabilitation approaches may be called for. Design engineers should be prepared to innovate to suit the context of a project.A mid-term evaluation by competent experts can lead to appropriate mid-course corrections and redirection of a rehabilitation effort. Unrealistic assumptions made during the planning and design phase with limited data can be checked and corrected.Farmer involvement in the design process through group mechanism can improve the quality of rehabilitation work; it can also lead to farmers taking greater responsibility for system O&M after rehabilitation.The use of specially trained catalysts like Institutional Organizers (10s) to develop farmers' organizations has had a very beneficial effect and has been adopted on a wider scale.The projects reviewed vary considerably in terms of their emphasis physical improvements versus institutional strengthening. It appears likely that institutional strengthening is extremely important if physical improvements are going to be used effectively by farmers, and for long term sustainability of the improvements. However, thii questioh deserves further research as well.What mechanisms can be developed to improve communication among agencies (even in countries such as Sri Lanka), donors, and other interested parties to spread the rehabilitation lessons learned in different projects? Donors and lending agencies seem to have their own.preferences for different mixes of hardware (physical rehabilitation of a system) and software (the organizational and institutional dimensions of a system). Questions are often raised on the appropriateness of the mix. More research is needed to help answer the question.More specifically, in relationship to the question of hardware versus software, some literature suggests that systems require rehabilitation or improvement in part because of institutional weaknesses (ineffective organizations, poor farmer-agency communications, inadequate O&M resources). If this is so, what emphasis should be given to institutional strengthening, and how should this be related to physical improvements? Would institutional strengthening lead to more susiaiwbk improvements in irrigation system performance?The rehabilitation process, the decision making, and the interactions among the various interested parties, is an area which is not much researched and deserves greater attention, in order to understand better why rehahilita: tion projects are designed the way they are, and to suggest alternative approaches. Some literature suggests that more appropriate methods are required for evaluating rehabilitation project options, and evaluating the long term benefits of such projects afterwards. What would be appropriate criteria for such analyses and evaluations, and what methods would be required to base analyses on such criteria?Generating resources for irrigation O&M2 is crucial to achieving the objectives of irrigation for several reasons. One concern is mobilizing sufficient rewurces to enable the desired level of O&M. According to Perera (1986), almost all major irrigation schemes in Sri Lanka have suffered from poor maintenance due to lack of sufficient funds during the past years. According to Gunesekera (1985), Rs 120 million (USS3.75 million) is needed per year for O&M of systems outside of the Mahaweli. The Irrigation Department budget allocation is only half this. The government cannot afford to pay full O&M costs and achieve other social welfare goals.Perera (1986) says the farmers have been badly affected due to the poor performance of the irrigation systems as a result of inadequate maintenance. Goonesekera (1985) found poor physical maintenance to be the most important technical constraint in Phase I of the Kaudulla irrigation system. He attributed this to the decline in funds available for maintenance. The funds allocated for maintenance were primarily used for wages, travel expenses, and supplies. Only Rs 300,000 -400,000 (US$9,375 -US%12,500) were available for actual maintenance, and this was not sufficient for even minor repairs.As Small et al. (1986) concluded, the institutional arrangements for mobilizing resources also affect the performance of irrigation systems. These arrangements determine the incentives that irrigation agency staff have to proyide good irrigation services. Another of Goonesekera's (1985) conclusions was the need to provide irrigation managers with financial incentives to provide good management. The institutional arrangements also influence farmers' willingness to participate in the O&M of systems through paying irrigation service fees and contributing labor.Under conditions of water pricing, the irrigation charge can also provide an incentive for farmers to use water more efficiently. Karunanayake (1982) advocates volumetric pricing of water to promote more efficient use. He recognizes that this requires a great deal of control over the water to supply it on demand, and accurate measurement of the supply to each farmer. In some systems, chargingon a volumetric basis would not be possible without major rehabilitation of the system. An alternative would be wholesaling water in bulk at the tum-out level and allowing the farmers' organization to distribute it and collect from individual fanners. This requires much less measurement, but viable farmer organizations are a necessity.Historical Reviews Thompson (1987) examined imgation fmancing policies primarily in the British period through a study of documents in the archives. Ordinance No. 14 of 1848 permitted the colonial government to charge six days of compulsory labor per year for repair and upkeep of roads and irrigation works. Ordinance No. 21 of 1867 introduced the first irrigation rate of British times. The purpose was to recover the cost to the government of improving imgation facilities. Beneficiaries were required to pay the cost of a project in 10 annual installments. The amount was decided beforehand, and cost overruns could not be included in the rate charged. A maximum water rate of six shillings/me/year was established, with maintenance and repairs to be undertaken and expenses defrayed by the government.In 1872 beneficiaries were given a choice of paying the 10 installments or paying in perpetuity for interest on the capital cost plus maintenance. Under this option the annual assessment was not to exceed Re l/acre or seven percent of the Cost of the works. Annual payments could be in cash or kind.Authorization to collect a mavlteMflce h g e was extended to government-aided works in Ordinance 42 of 1884. This applied in c a w where the capital cost was being repaid in 10 equal installments. The in-perpetuity payment option already included maintenance costs. Funds were used to maintain the system from which it was collected. The maintenance charge was not to exceed 75 cents/acre/year and was due 1 April each year. Land could be repossessed by the government for non-payment of capital or maintenance costs.In 1889 the maximum maintenance charge was reduced from 75 cents to 10 cents/acre/year with assessments to be revised every year. Movable property of defaulters had to be sold before land. In the 1890s a concern of the Central Irrigation Board was that collection of monies to be repaid to the Irrigation Fund was not being enforced.Ordinance 10 of 1901 raised the maximum rate to be levied in perpetuity from Re 1 to Rs 2 per acre (to cover interest on capital expended and maintenance). The maximum rate for maintenance on system that were being repaid in 10 installments was raised from 10 to 50 centslacre. A four percent interest charge was added to total costs repayable plus the maintenance charge beginning at completion of construction instead of the end of the ten year repayment period.By 1910 the Irrigation Department had 151,253 acres (61,236 ha) in major works. During that year it had expended Rs 10,999,149 on restoration or construction and Rs 2,151,208 on maintenance and repairs, and had recovered a total of Rs 1,046,632 in perpetuity and maintenance rates and Rs 14,674 in repayment installments.In 1914 the Irrigation Department reported that the maintenance rate was Rs I.O7/acre whereas the government's mt was Rs 1.54/acre exclusive of staff charges, plant, etc. In 1915, the government recovered a maintenance rate that averaged 70 cents/acre. The Committee on Food Production in 1919 noted that the program on new irrigation works had been virtually suspended during the past ten years because of government policy relegating the Irrigation Department to a revenue earning department with all operations considered from the perspective of commercial profit. It recommended that the -2 8 -Irrigation Department be reclassified as a spending department and that the current irrigation rate of approximately Rs 2 be suspended for five years to stimulate rice cultivation; these recommendations were accepted.An irrigation rates committee was established in 1926 to determine the mean maintenance rate of the systems maintained by the Irrigation Department. Two types of works were examined: 1) works whose repayment scheme was in perpetuity, and 2) aided works (where owners had agreed to pay the construction cost in annual installments plus an annual maintenance fee). It concluded that proprietors under the \"perpetuity\" works who had originally been assessed an irrigation rate of Re 1 were in a favored position. It also concluded that fanners in large schemes in the dry zone were unable to pay a perpetuity rate or a construction rate and maintenance rate of more than Rs Z/acre per annum due to production risks and labor scarcity. The committee recommended that rates be assessed on all irrigable land, not just that irrigated in a particular season. Land cleared from the jungle should not be charged a rate until after three years. Crop lands should not be sold for nonpayment of rates; these should be recovered by selling the crop or if there was no crop, by leasing the land. Thompson (1987) presents data from 1869-1984, with the exception of a 20-year period from 193837 for which she apparently could not locate the data, which show that in most years there was some collection of irrigation fees. Even in the period 1970-77 when irrigation charges were supposedly suspended, there was some revenue.Silva (1986) conducted a study of the evolution of policies relating to the recovery of water charges from farmers, covering the period 1931-84. This study, based on published and unpublished reports and documents of the Sri Lanka government, looks at this subject within the broad framework of rural development and land settlement policies.Historically there was no tradition of making land and water available free of charge. F-njdqa, an arrangement whereby wages were paid in land and rent was paid in labor, was a system of reciprocal obligations between the king and the people. The British outlawed rajakariya, which destroyed the mechanism for maintaining irrigation systems.Ordinance No. 32 of 1946 as amended by Act No. 48 of 1968 provides for: I.the imposition of an irrigation rate upon lands benefited or to be benefited under any scheme; levying of contribution in labor upon allottees and tenant cultivators and, where there are no allottees or tenant cultivators, the proprietors of those lands for the purpose of construction or maintenance of the irrigation work and for the payment on an irrigation rate by way of labor contribution; and levying of special irrigation rates in respect of water derived by seepage, mechanical appliances or other special means.In the late 1960s in negotiations with the World Bank for financing of the initial stages of Mahaweli, the govemment had agreed that after completion of the project an annual rate of at least Rs 4O/acre of cultivated land would be charged. This became an issue in the general election of 1970, and it is believed that this went against the UNP in the election which they lost.The SLFP government in 1970 announced in the first Throne Speech the abolition of irrigation rates and that the state would undertake restoration and maintenance of village tanks and minor irrigation works. This labor, termed wewa mj -, had formerly heen the responsibility of the farmers. In place of irrigation rates, a Land Betterment Charges Law No. 28 to recover cost of irrigation was passed in the National State Assembly in 1976. This, however, was not implemented, and the government changed in 1977.From 1978 under the UNP government, O&M costs were to be recovered through the following charges:Rs 30/acre in major schemes with over 150 percent cropping intensity, Rs 20/acre in major schemes with less than 150 percent cropping intensity and minor schemes with more than 150 percent cropping intensity, and Rs lO/acre in other minor schemes.According to Silva (l986), this policy was actually implemented for only a short period in 1981-83 in major schemes, but collections were minimal3.Regarding land taxes there have been two persistent trends: concern about laud revenue and large-scale noncollection. Currently, the government does not collect any land tax, and Silva argues that it never effectively collected land tax. He concludes that both in assessing the land tax and implementing its recoveries, the policies have been ritualistic.Silva. ( 1986) concludes that the recovery of irrigation charges has also been consistently ineffective. The collectioncost has not been computed, but he argues that it would be higher than the meager sums collected. The charging of an irrigation fee has been a political issue, and many members of parliament have opposed it. He concludes that one of the reasons the government did not vigorously enforce payment of irrigation fees is that they were dealing with an impoverished peasantry which, due to low agricultural production, was unable to produce a surplus that would enable them to pay the fees. While the government has always provided the legal authority for charging beneficiaries a fee for irrigation, for several reasons, including its social welfare ethic, it has not enforced collections with any vigor.However, now the climate regarding charging irrigation service fees has changed according to Silva 1.The government recognizes that systems must at all costs be properly maintained. The Kantalai Tank failure in 1986 drove home this point.The government's resources are extremely limited. It has to borrow from international lending agencies. National policy regarding irrigation service fees is influenced by the policies of the donor agencies.There is new thinking about the management and development of major schemes.There is greater emphasis on forming farmer organizations 2.4.These factors have affected the development of policy concerning collection and management of the present irrigation O&M fee in the major systems managed by both IMD and MEA.The most comprehensive and focussed study on the current policy concerning resource mobilization for O&M of major irrigation systems is the S e ofRec.TTent Cost ko6[ems in Irrigation Systems undertaken by Engineering Consultants Ltd. and Development Planning Consultants Ltd. for USAID (USAID 1985). This study was conducted in 1984 shortly after implementation of the new O&M fee to be charged to all farmers benefitting from major irrigation systems whether under IMDIIrrigation Department or MEA management. The researchers reviewed relevant documents and interviewed officials in Colombo as well as in four major systems and a sample of 94 farmers in these major systems.Based on a study in 1981 of 16 selected irrigation systems -one in each range -the Irrigation Department estimated that on average Rs 200/acre (about US$15.40 per ha) was needed annually to operate and maintain major systems. (Earlier it had estimated the cost at Rs 80/acre, or about US$6.00 per ha.) A high proportion of this m t is for labor becauie the Irrigation Department has a large labor force. The actual cost in a particular system may deviate considerably from Rs 200.In the government's opinion, it could not provide adequate funding for O&M, and a policy was adopted that farmers should be responsible for full cost of O&M, but none of the capital or rehabilitation m t . An O&M fee of Rs 100/acre (about $7.70 per ha) of asweddumked paddy land per year was introduced in 1984. This is not considered a water charge or levy to recover cost of construction or rehabilitation. It is an annual contribution that farmers are required to pay for proper 0 & M of major systems. The balance of the O&M cost was to be allocated by the government through the normal budgetary process. The initial policy called for the O&M fee to be increased by Rs 20 each year for five years, whereupon farmers would be paying Rs 200/acre, the estimated full cost of O&M. According to the study, the differences between this fee and past policies were:1.The amount of the charge was based on the actual cost of O&M It was not considered an irrigation rate or water charge, but a contribution farmers were expected to make to maintain systems in good condition; and Funds were earmarked to be spent in the system from which they were collected, 3.The agency responsible for collection of the fees in systems managed by IMD/ID is the government agent (GA) of each district. He uses field officers of the Land Commissioner's Department such as colonization officers and field instructors to do the actual collecting, Collection of O&M fees is based on a Specification Register for each imgation system, prepared under supervision of the GA. It gives the name of the legal allottees and tenant cultivators, extent of their paddy holding in the system, their location, and other relevant particulars. This register is intended to include all irrigation beneficiaries, including settlers in pumm villages and regularized encroachers. Unregularized encroachers pay a fine of Rs 125/acre/year. It is unlikely that any of the Specification Registers are accurate and up-to-date. Instructions were issued to update them. These funds are not credited to the government consolidated fund, but are reserved for the major irrigation system from which they are collected. Allocations are made annually by the Ministry of Lands and Land Development through the IMD for regular O&M to be decided upon at the system level in consultation with farmers and farmer organizations.In Mahaweli systems, the unit manager under the supervision of the block manager and resident project managerThe authors conclude that MEA has achieved a higher rate of collection because only one collects the fees' . organization is involved. In IMDIID systems collection efficiency depends on coordination of different field officers from different departments.The GA is empowered to file cases against farmers who do not pay and to recover the fee as if it were an outstanding loan owed to the government. He may also deduct the unpaid fee from payments made by government to a farmer for sale of produce or other purpose. In the case of cultivators of private land, the GA may seize and auction property to recover outstanding fees.The study lists problems associated with collecting O&M fees including: 1.Farmers do not understand the purpose of the fee Specification registers are not up-todate. Not all beneficiaries are charged the fee 3.Farmers are charged for incorrect areas Some farmers get water, if at all, only in maha. They should not have to pay the same rate as those who get water for two seasons.The fee is not waived in case of crop failure. The ministry maintains that farmers can insure their crop.Maintenance cost is less than Rs 200/acre in some systems.Perera, the first Director of the Irrigation Management Division, in a paper describing the INMAS program (1986) outlines the functions of IMD, the Project Manager, the sub-committee of the District Agriculture Committee, the Project Committee, the Farmer Organizations, and the Farmer Representatives. All of these play a role in the mobilization and allocation of resources for system O&M.Perera points out several changes that have been made in the policy since its initial implementation. A decision was taken to limit the fee to Rs 100/acre for farmers cultivating two seasons per year and Rs 60/ acre for those cultivating only one season. To allow farmers to get used lo the idea of contributing to the O&M fund, it was decided to suspend for the present the decision to increase the fee each year by Rs 20. Also it was decided to limit the collection of O&M fee to systems with more than 200 hectares. Systems smaller than that were considered too small to warrant the effort in collections. In these systems, farmers are encouraged to maintain the distribution network themselves with assistance from the Irrigation Department.He presents data on collections compared to assessments in the years 1984, 1985, and 1986. The proportion collected has declined drastically according to these data. However, since it is not clear when collections were mademoney collected in 1985 and 1986 may have been credited to 1984 collections if it was the first time a farmer paid -it is not possible to'tell whether the amount collected in a given year has actually decreased as drastically as it appears.Gunesekera (11985) reports that although farmers were accustomed to receiving irrigation free of charge with no responsibilities for maintenance of systems, the early experience was that after proper explanation of the importance of the payment and the program, the farmers did not disagree with it. He reports that the following contribute to fanners' resistance to pay:-32 Pmpagnnda ngntnst recovery. Some groups have actively campaigned against payment. This had been a political issue in the recent past and collection efforts had been half-hearted.Luck c$ confidena m o@m. A few corrupt and irresponsible officers have caused farmers to mistrust government Officials.Fahrt to 6 adion against df$uftm. Lack of action against defaulters in the past made farmers think they could get away with not paying. But according to Gunesekera they will be prosecuted under Section 78A of the Irrigation Ordinance in future.Historical studies show that the government in Sri Lanka has always provided a legal basis for charging fanners for irrigation services. During the British pencd there was a policy that beneficiaries pay for irrigation services, including the capital cost at a subsidized rate. At least for part of the period, the Irrigation Department was intended to be a revenue earning department, and it was argued that this greatly inhibited the development of irrigation. At the same time there was a concern that considerably less than the $11 amount that was due was actually being collected from farmers.Since Independence, the irrigation ordinance has always provided for charging farmers a water rate, but collection has not been vigorously promoted. The issue of irrigation rates has been and remains a political issue, and at times the government has followed a policy of not attempting to charge farmers for irrigation services.With the implementation of the O&M fee in 1984, the government appeared determined to make up for the shortfall in resources for irrigation O&M through gradually transferring the burden of the full cost of O&M to the beneficiaries. The Silva (1986) study on implementation of the O&M charge was completed the s , a m year in which the O&M fee was first imposed. There is, thus, limited information on the actual experience of collecting fees, managing the funds collected, and allocating and spending them.Research into these aspects of resource mobilization now that there have been several more years of experience is needed to understand better both the process and the performance of mobilizing resources for O&M of major systems. Have the amounts paid actually been spent in the system from which they were collecp3? How are decisions about allocating the maintenance budget made? How much do farmers participate in these decisions? Have farmer organizations been able to take maintenance contracts? What is the relationship between the development of effective farmer organizations and the rate of resource mobilization from fanners? What is the sanction process for farmers who do not pay their O&M fee? Is it effective? Karunanayake (1982) advocates the constitution of special Water Courts to adjudicate irrigation violations including failure to pay irrigation fees. He maintains the normal judicial process is too cumbersome to settle cases, and authorities are reluctant to prosecute violators.Silva (1986) concluded that MEA achieved higher collection rates because of its unitary management structure. A comparative study of policies and procedures in MEA and IMD may be useful. Has MEA continued to achieve these higb rates? Are there differences in incentives for those responsible to collect fees to do so? Are there differences in Earmen' incentives to pay? The Department of Agrarian Services is responsible for systems up to 80 ha and the Irrigation Department and IMD for larger systems. However, a decision was taken not to collect fees from farmers in Irrigation Department systems of less than 200 hectares. The farmers in those systems are encouraged to maintain them under the supervision of the Irrigation Department. They may be left to their own resources, and the farmers have likely either developed means of maintaining them or they are deteriorating badly. Little research has been done on the O&M of these medium-scale systems.The issue of wholesaling water at the turn-out or distributary canal level as suggested by Karunanayake should be investigated, Is it feasible? What technological and institutional improvements would be required to implement such a scheme?IThis finding is in contrast with the pre-rehabilitation situation at Gal Oya, where greater inequalities were reported along the main canals and distributaries (Wijayaratne 1986b). The difference may relate to the fact that Kaudulla is a water-surplus system, while Gal Oya is water-short.*The focus of this review and the ISM project is primarily on mobilizing resources for system O&M with less concern for the mechanisms for financing initial construction. southern Dry Zone, the differences, even though small, may have significant effects on the water requirement of crops in the latter; particularly because the Kirindi Oya project extends into the southern semi-arid zone (DL5').The Dry Zone has an undulating landscape with a definite ridge and valley pattern. The northern Dry Zone (DL1) has relatively low ridges and broad flat valleys while the southern Dry Zone, due to differences in erosion, shows a less mature landscape with less broad valleys. In such a landscape the topographical position of the soils determine their hydrology, hence the cropping pattern, management, and irrigation regimes.  (1967,1978) and Somasiri (1981). For the Kirindi Oya area, detailed reconnaissance and semi-detailed soil surveys and land classification studies carried out by the Land Use Division of the Irrigation Department provide essential information for irrigated agricultural development. The soil survey and land classification reports are available at the Land Use Division, Irrigation Dcpartment.The current major objectives for crop diversification are to:Select and match crops for different topographical band classes to optimize water use efficiency and economic returns to farmers: 2.Prevent over-production of rice. considering that self-sufficiency in rice has almost been achieved; and.Grow non-rice crops during the dry season (yala) when stored water in reservoirs is inadequate for rice cultivation Three aspects of crop diversification require special attention: 1) the place of rice cultivation in the,dry zone, 2) crop selection and potential returns. and 3) land preparation and on-farm water management.llploiid I<IW The term \"upland\" rice in the context of the dry zone refers to dry-tilled, dry-seeded rice on bunded land with or without irrigation. In the coastal plains of the northern and eastern provinces there is no provision for irrigation. With the rains and conscquent rise in ground water the land is saturated and the rice crop raised in standing water. This is referred to as \"Manawari\" or rainfed rice.The term upland rice can also he applied to bunded rice land with limited irrigation supply. These lands are located in the lower aspects of the topography in the broad inland valleys of the Dry Zone where the watertable remains at or close to the surface during the wet maha season. The land is dry-tilled with the first rains in October and rice. is dry-seeded, either broadcast or row-seeded without puddling. The crop is raised using rainfall and limited irrigation. This is locally referred to as either \"dry sown\" rice or \"non-puddled rice cultivation. It is essentially confined to the imperfectly and podrly-drained soils.Lowhnd iirc This is traditional puddled rice cultivation on poorly-drained LHG soils in lowland valleys, using broadcast sprouted seed or transplanting. The water supply is the seasonal rainfall supplemented with irrigation. Planting is generally done from late October to December. The crop i s heavily dependent on irrigation from land preparation to maturity. In the major irrigation systems, puddled rice cultivation is practiced on both the welldrained RBE and the poorly-drained LHG soils.Uphnd fir? Cdtn~atiuri. The seasonal rainfall in the dry zone is erratic, unpredictable. and poorly distributed. Hence, pure rdinfed rice without supplementary irrigation is highly unstable with frequent crop failures of varying magnitude. Alles (1967), working on rainfed rice research at Maha Illuppallama for five consecutive years . reported highly variable yields of 1,530: 3,621; 408; and 2,040 kilograms per hectare (kglha) for each successive year. The main problems were poor rainfall, both in quantity and distribution. and heavy weed growth.At Walagambahuwa, a typical northern Dry Zone ( D L , ) tank village, owing to water scarcity a succeasful rice crop was obtained only once in four or five years. In this village the'Depnrtment of Agriculture (DOA) undertook a cropping systems research program from 1976-81. with the objcctive of increasing waler use efricicncy and land use intensity. Upasena (1986). reporting on the findings, states that with dry tillage and dry seeding done prior to the main maha rains (i.e., September or early October, rather than the customary sowing in November to December), and with a short-term duration rice variety (3 month), sufficient water could he saved in the tank for raising in yala a second low water-consumption non-rice crop such as pulses. However. extending the findings to other areas through the Tank Irrigation Modernization Project (TIMP) did not prove popular among farmers (Ministry of Lands 1983;Abeysekera 1985). The main reasons were the high cost of dry tillage using tractors. heavy weed infestation and high cost of weed control, and uneven plant stand due to erratic early seasonal rains. In summary. the high cost and risks were unacceptable to small farmers. Dimantha and Ranjith (1982) carried out a series of investigations at the On-farm Water Management Research Project (WMRP), Kalankuttiya. on cultivation and on-field water management of upland rice and non-rice crops. Short.and medium duration rice varieties were grown in early maha ( i t . mid-Septenihcr to late Novcmber) with the objective of making maximum use of the seasonal rainfall. The land was prepared with prc-irrigation. dry tilled and dry sown. It was found that considerable savings in irrigation wilter was possible. The water use cfficicncy for upland rice ranged from 5 kg grain/105 liters of applied water (B.M..) to 179 kg grain/l0' liters of a . w compared with 32-99 kg grain/l05 liters of a.w. in the case of lowland rice.The wide range in water use efficiency in upland rice, an indication of instability, was mainly due to fields where the yield was low owing to heavy weed infestation. Moreover, with the crops planted earlier there was a saving in water but the yields were low, ranging from 1,342-1.900 kg/ha. The crops planted later (i.e., late Octohcr to late November) used more water hut gave higher yields; 2,870-3,110 kg/ha (Dimantha and Ranjith 1982). The latter was most likely due to the crop heading and ripening during January and February Mlhen solar radiation is high.Thus, there appears to be a trade-off between water use and yields. The seven day irrigation interval rcsultcd in fields running dry and contributed to heavy weed growth and possibly to water stress as well. A three day water Studies on the economia of diversified cropping under irrigation were carried out by llMl at Dewahuwa and Kalankuttiya (Mahaweli area) in 1985 and 1986 yala (Panabokke et al. 1987). The findings show that non-rice crops such as chillies, greengram, and soybean gave higher net returns (Rs/ha) than rice. Furthermore, the cost of production (i.e,, theinitial investment of farmers on chillies, the crop which gave the highest net return in Rs/ha), was two to three times that of rice --Rs 8,386 and Rs 13,010 for chillies compared with Rs 3,661 and 4,339 for rice (Table 5). These data are consistent with those reported by Dimantha and Ranjith (1982) (Table 3). This reason, among others, may explain why some farmers are reluctant to non-rice crops. Moreover, a study of cropping in relation to drainage conditions in yala 1985 and 1986 indicates that farmers' decisions on crop selection takes into consideration the importance of soil drainage conditions; see Table 6. Similar results were obtained at Kalankuttiya as well.  ","tokenCount":"19502"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"93d4be0316e2c2d63bfe4cb24fd840f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9573961b-54f6-46b5-9976-6c1caacd6c9d/retrieve","id":"419450042"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d7e9101-7e0c-4d5d-9034-96a30df0edac","pagecount":"2","content":"A digital catch documentation system combined with tamper-proof, solar powered trackers (developed by partner Pelagic Data Systems) provides near real-time small-scale fisheries production and effort information to government fisheries managers on a decision dashboard using open-source software New Innovation: No Innovation type: Research and Communication Methodologies and Tools Stage of innovation: Stage 4: uptake by next user (USE) Geographic Scope: National Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • Timor-Leste Outcome Impact Case Report: <Not Defined> Description of Stage reached: National level uptake of the innovation by the government of Timor-Leste in May 2019 as their official fisheries monitoring system. 359 solar-powered tracking devices were installed on fishing boats in Timor-Leste.\" plan to install 500 in 2020. Name of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: WorldFish -WorldFish Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage: • Wilderlab • PDS -Pelagic Data Systems Milestones: • 3.1.4. Successful piloting of five Inspire grantees in Africa and South Asia, and up to four new pilot Inspire projects around Big Data related innovations assigned.","tokenCount":"174"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ee7ff294e53d66f909d46d6efd9b82ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd2fee19-2801-4887-915d-8ec00bf94622/retrieve","id":"-301514517"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4c59f72f-13a3-41d0-bf20-c108f8a711d6","pagecount":"123","content":"The European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) is a collaborative programme among European countries aimed at ensuring the effective conservation and the sustainable utilization of forest genetic resources in Europe. It was established to implement Resolution 2 of the Strasbourg Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe. EUFORGEN is financed by participating countries and is coordinated by IPGRI, in collaboration with the Forestry Department of FAO. It facilitates the dissemination of information and various collaborative initiatives. The Programme operates through networks in which forest geneticists and other forestry specialists work together to analyze needs, exchange experiences and develop conservation objectives and methods for selected species. The networks also contribute to the development of appropriate conservation strategies for the ecosystems to which these species belong. Network members and other scientists and forest managers from participating countries carry out an agreed workplan with their own resources as inputs in kind to the Programme. EUFORGEN is overseen by a Steering Committee composed of National Coordinators nominated by the participating countries.The geographical designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these participating organizations.Four years after the establishment of the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN), the second Steering Committee meeting was held from 26 -29 November 1998, in Vienna, Austria. National Coordinators from 23 participating countries (Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine) attended the meeting, as well as national focal persons from 11 non-participating countries and 12 resource persons and observers. The four additional countries participating in EUFORGEN (Latvia, Luxembourg, Monaco and Switzerland) were unable to attend.The main objective of the Steering Committee meeting was to review the progress made since the establishment of the Programme in November 1994 and to outline future activities. EUFORGEN was developed as the implementation mechanism of Strasbourg Resolution S2 (Conservation of forest genetic resources) adopted at the first Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.The meeting was opened by Mr Rudolf Themessl, Ministerialrat, Forestry Department, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He welcomed the participants and expressed the continuous support of Austria to international collaboration on the conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe. He wished the participants a successful meeting.In his introductory remarks, Dr Geoffrey Hawtin, Director General of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) said that the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources was a subject of global concern. The networking initiative of European countries gave substance to the implementation of Strasbourg Resolution S2, was essential for increasing the scientific knowledge in this area, and stimulated cooperation between national programmes in Europe and other regions. Ms Christel Palmberg-Lerche, Chief, Forest Resources Development Service, Forestry Department, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also addressed the meeting. She underlined the importance of developing a coherent, country-driven global framework for the conservation, management, sustainable use and enhancement of forest genetic resources.The first day of the meeting consisted of two technical sessions. Ten papers were presented and discussed. The first two papers focused on the history and role of genetic resources issues as they have been addressed in the process of Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe. The following four papers reviewed the trends and developments in conserving, monitoring and enhancing genetic diversity of forests in Europe. The last four papers complemented these contributions by referring to the examples of collaborative activities undertaken in the Trans-Caucasus, Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and North America and examined their links with the networking in Europe.The papers offered a broad overview of the current developments in the area of forest genetic resources and provided a basis for the further discussions specifically related to the role, orientation and management of the EUFORGEN Programme in the future. The workshop papers are published in this volume.Dr Jozef Turok presented a comprehensive report covering the first four years of the EUFORGEN activities (Annex I and II). A total of 27 countries joined the Programme during the period from November 1994 to November 1998. Five Networks have been established, and a total of 18 Network meetings were organized. There has been a generally increasing number of participants (attending members) in the Networks.The Steering Committee acknowledged the substantial output from the Networks as well as the role of the Secretariat in achieving these results. The EUFORGEN activities are financed through contributions from participating countries. Concern was raised with regard to delayed payments from some of the countries. The EUFORGEN Coordinator informed that the budget and accounts are regularly audited as part of IPGRI's external auditing procedures.Collaborative linkages developed between EUFORGEN and other regions, with particular reference to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, as well as other international organizations, were noted.It was stressed that EUFORGEN should follow closely and participate in the current discussions concerning the development of Criteria and Indicators for sustainable forest management, particularly with regard to the genetic components of biological diversity.Brief statements were then presented describing the five EUFORGEN Networks:• Populus nigra Network (François Lefèvre, Chair)• Noble Hardwoods Network (Gösta Eriksson, Chair)• Picea abies Network (Veikko Koski, Chair)• Quercus suber Network (Maria Carolina Varela, Chair)• Social Broadleaves Network (Ladislav Paule, Vice-Chair).These contributions (Annex III) circulated to members of the Steering Committee before the meeting, provided a synthesis of the Networks' activities, including their evolution, potential and perspectives for the future as well as linkages between the individual Networks. Mechanisms to encourage further interaction and information flow between the Networks need to be explored.Collaboration with IUFRO Working Groups was emphasized.Themes of common interest to all the Networks were mentioned, e.g. population genetic concepts, role of tree breeding in genetic conservation, global climate change, conservation of associated species in ecosystems, species hybridization. The need for exchanging information and coordinating approach to address these issues in general was expressed. One item of particular interest to some present was the development of a glossary of terms and definitions relating to forest genetic resources (FGR).The afternoon of the second day of the meeting was devoted to a detailed consideration of the Coordinator's report on EUFORGEN during Phase I. Following discussion, participating countries unanimously approved the report. All countries and organizations present took part in the discussion of the report, which focused on the aspects presented below, in which the combined responses of participating countries (23 present), non-participating countries (11 focal persons present) and international organizations, initiatives and programmes (5 observers present) are summarized.Non-participating countries expressed their gratitude to EUFORGEN for providing the opportunity to attend not only this Steering Committee meeting but also to participate in Network meetings and activities and in particular for the partial financial support they had received for these purposes.It was felt that much had been achieved and that the objectives of the Resolution had been clearly followed. The specific expectations of a number of countries had been met. EUFORGEN was recognized to have developed a good reputation in the short period of time it has been in operation.The influence of EUFORGEN was felt to have already had a major effect in some countries and many anticipated positive steps in the implementation of national FGR programmes in the near future. The participation of national governments in EUFORGEN had a positive influence on the focusing of attention on the importance of the conservation of FGR. It was felt that in a number of instances much less would have been achieved without the structure of EUFORGEN to support it. The effects had included the release of increased funding for conservation of FGR, the acceptance of such conservation as an integral part of sustainable forest management and the consolidation of genetic conservation principles into recent forest law.National Coordinators are commonly not drawn from those organizations or sectors of government, which have the responsibility of paying for EUFORGEN membership. This applies to those who have not yet joined as well as to already participating countries. Both groups saw the need to relate activities and outputs to S2 objectives as important ways of convincing the respective funding (implementing) agencies that membership involves value for money. This is particularly true for countries that have high contributions. The importance of monitoring and documenting progress in FGR conservation resulting from EUFORGEN activities to national governments needs to be stressed.Networks were recognized as an effective mechanism for coordinating the implementation of S2 objectives. Their main activities have been exchange of data and information, dissemination of knowledge, development of strategies and technical guidelines, common minimum information standards, databases, preparation of joint project proposals, exchange of genetic material and the initiation of joint field trials. Although some participants felt that Networks should remain restricted to their original species, there was stronger support for their extension into wider species groups. An interest in joint meetings was also expressed. Concern over increase in the size of Networks was recognized. A joint \"Inter-Network Group\" consisting of Chairs and Vice-Chairs of all Networks together with two Management Committee members was proposed and discussed. This group, rather than the Steering Committee, will have the responsibility of harmonizing the direction and activities of the Networks.There was commendation of the quality of publications that were felt to be appropriate and well produced. However, it was recognized that they served a more specialist audience such as Steering Committee and Network members or their scientific colleagues. Some members considered publications appeared too slowly after meetings. Two areas in particular were felt to warrant more attention. Firstly, executive summaries of larger publications in generally more lay terms would be useful for policy-makers and nonscientific levels of government. Secondly, this material and other more specific information would also be useful to be produced in further languages. The production of technical guidelines for the management of forest genetic resources by each of the Networks was seen as a key output of the Programme.In specific cases, Networks have been effective fora in developing proposals for external funding of cooperative projects among a number of countries. EUFORGEN has the potential to enhance greater collaboration between European Union countries and non-EU members mainly from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It was also recognized that EUFORGEN had played a major role as an example for similar genetic resources initiatives in other regions of the world and that it could continue to do so in areas where such work has not yet been developed.Raising awareness about the importance of forest genetic resources in the pan-European process on forests and at other political fora was confirmed to be one of the objectives of EUFORGEN. It was felt that EUFORGEN was well equipped to take on the task of promoting better awareness, particularly among decision-makers and forest managers in European countries. It was recognized that there was a specific need to provide better understanding of the effects of using the product of tree breeding and improvement in relation to genetic conservation principles and to try to bridge the gap between forest managers and environmentalists in the same subject area.There was some discussion of training needs with a firm interest shown by a number of countries in the prospects of training courses at general, species and national levels. There were problems in budgeting for such work; a decision was made on this topic when Phase II was discussed (see below).One of the main challenges that will face EUFORGEN in the future will be the implementation of the technical guidelines developed by the Networks. Several participants expressed concerns about how this implementation will take place at national level.The EUFORGEN Coordinator presented results of the survey on the status of the conservation and management of FGR in Europe, which was conducted prior to the meeting (September-October 1998). It was divided into three parts (conservation of genetic resources in the forestry practice, coordination at national level and international coordination). Response was received from 37 countries. The European Forest Genetic Resources Workshop held in November 1995 in Sopron, Hungary had, among others, recommended that each country develop a national strategy for the conservation of FGR. One of the objectives of the survey (part II) was to assess how that recommendation was being implemented in the participating countries. While considerable differences were evident among countries, all reported some advances ranging from the development, and in some cases, implementation, of comprehensive national forest genetic resources programmes, to initial steps taken towards this goal. Major challenges for the national strategies/programmes were to ensure that genetic considerations be integrated into national forestry policies and practices, to involve all relevant stakeholders and achieve efficient coordination among their activities.While recognizing that the present survey was the first of its kind and that no previous baseline data with which to compare the results therefore existed, the Steering Committee requested that the Secretariat extract highlights from the survey and from other available sources and, based on quantifiable data, provides a summary of the progress made for the attention of Committee members and for decision-makers in EUFORGEN countries. The Committee further recommended that the Secretariat regularly monitor progress in important criteria (e.g. establishment of a formal national programme, commitment, coordination, links, impact) against the baseline data, paying due attention to varying initial levels of development in the national forest genetic resources strategies/programmes. Several members stressed that, in addition to its technical and scientific value, such factual analysis of progress was likely to also strengthen or motivate the necessary political commitment of signatory governments of Resolution S2 to forest genetic resources.The third part of the survey focused on international collaboration, including a question about the effectiveness of EUFORGEN in contributing to the conservation and management of forest genetic resources in Europe. It was noted that countries, in general, had rated highest those activities that had been originally specified in its programme, i.e. the objectives of Resolution S2. Results of the survey also indicated areas in which EUFORGEN might become involved in the future. Providing a regional forum for the exchange of experience, knowledge and information; planning and implementation of joint Network tasks; and thus encouraging countries to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of their FGR received the highest rating.There was unanimous support for a second Phase of EUFORGEN. The increasing number of participating countries during Phase I, the technical outputs provided and their impact as well as the need for further coordinating and promoting the gene conservation efforts made by European countries provide strong justification for the continuation of EUFORGEN. A new Letter of Agreement for the Phase II will need to be formally approved by governments. This will cover the period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2004. Some participants mentioned that there might be difficulties with seeking formal approval for a new agreement, especially if the existing one (Phase I) was made only recently. It was recommended that the Secretariat prepares and submits the new Letter of Agreement well in advance of time during 1999 (last year of Phase I), in order to allow the necessary procedure at the national level. The accompanying correspondence should make it clear that the second Phase is an expected extension of the existing Programme, and not a new mechanism.It was agreed widely that EUFORGEN should concentrate all efforts on implementing the original objectives stated in Strasbourg Resolution S2, refer to them and avoid expanding work into new areas which are not directly associated. The objectives of Resolution S2 were discussed at length. It was noted that there has been a clear distinction regarding the commitment made by signing S2 between national responsibilities and the international implementation.While EUFORGEN is directly responsible for implementing the international collaboration aspects of Resolution S2 (see Annex IV), it is recognized that decisions on forest genetic resources, their management and financing are entirely under the responsibility of the national programmes. EUFORGEN assists countries to develop and implement effective national strategies/programmes.The Steering Committee requested the Secretariat to compile an overview of the outputs provided during the past 4 years against the operational objectives of EUFORGEN (expectations based on S2). This would help to illustrate the progress made at both national level and internationally. Such overview would also clearly present the needs for continuation and lay down the concrete operational objectives for Phase II. It is important to have a baseline because different countries are in different stages of developing their national programmes on forest genetic resources (see above section). It was recommended that a report on what was achieved in the implementation of S2 by countries (at the national level) and by the EUFORGEN Secretariat (at the international level) be prepared for each Steering Committee meeting.It is described in the \"EUFORGEN Document\" which forms part of the Letter of Agreement and is regularly reviewed at Steering Committee meetings (Annex IV). It was discussed on the basis of the proposal prepared by the Secretariat and sent to members of the Steering Committee in advance before the meeting. The recommendations resulting from this discussion are incorporated in the version endorsed (Annex IV). Some members raised their concern over relatively little time devoted to this item at the meeting.The main level and tool for implementing the objectives of EUFORGEN remain to be the species Networks. The Steering Committee stressed that this was a practically oriented, well-established approach. The participants were reminded that the species chosen for the individual Networks were \"pilot\", i.e. representing different gene conservation problems and situations and hence not based on criteria such as the level of threats to individual species. The broadening of the scope of the Networks with regard to species should be driven from within the Networks, under the overall guidance by the Inter-Network Group. It was noted that Networks already made first steps towards broadening their species scope: Quercus suber Network and Mediterranean oaks, Populus nigra Network and P. alba, Picea abies Network and other conifers. The Steering Committee expressed satisfaction with these developments. Some participants raised concerns about the increased size of meetings associated with the broader scope of Networks involving more countries. The mechanism adopted in the EUFORGEN Document was considered adequate to ensure a good balance. A survey will be conducted before the next Steering Committee meeting in order to re-assess the priorities given by countries to species that have, or have not been covered by the EUFORGEN Networks.While it was agreed that synergies should be created between all the EUFORGEN Networks in addressing certain themes (such as genetic resources in view of the global climate change, common methodologies), thematically-oriented Networks should not be developed. The Steering Committee recommended to further incorporating the most pertinent themes into the context of ongoing activities of the Networks. This arrangement takes into consideration the fact that the five Networks are differently advanced and may work with different intensity. The Inter-Network Group will also be responsible for harmonizing thematic priorities and action among the Networks. The Steering Committee encouraged that occasional joint Network meetings (two or more Networks) are organized, according to the needs and operational possibilities.The Steering Committee requested that each Network provide a brief overview of its objectives, workplan with milestones and outputs. These will enable to indicate progress, separately for Phase I and expected for Phase II (especially the three Networks with changing scope).It was agreed that Chair of a Network is to be elected for a period between 3 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) years, depending on the frequency of meetings. A new Chair and a new Vice-Chair are not to be elected at the same time so as to avoid any disruption in the Network's leadership.It was suggested that the possibilities of electronic media (particularly Internet) be further explored to improve the communication and exchange of information by the Networks.The motivated involvement and various inputs in kind by a large number of Network members in fulfilling the tasks of the workplans were acknowledged by the Steering Committee.The possibility for developing \"complementary modules\" was proposed to the Steering Committee by the Secretariat with the intention to mobilize additional resources in support of the tasks of the workplans in individual Networks, organize training etc. First option foresaw that funding for these activities are raised independently from the annual financial contributions of participating countries and on a voluntary basis. Second option foresaw funding of the modules from increased annual contributions. While some countries confirmed that additional resources for increased contributions might be available for Phase II, it was decided not to change the present mode of operation and not to introduce complementary modules into the structure of EUFORGEN.The annual budget and contributions for Phase II as given in EUFORGEN Document were endorsed by the Steering Committee (Annex IV).The revised EUFORGEN Document was circulated. It was discussed and endorsed by members of the Steering Committee with modifications (see Annex IV).Dr Thomas Geburek, Austria's National Coordinator, chairing the final session, thanked all participants for their work and all the inputs during the meeting. Dr Geoffrey Hawtin expressed his wish to see the collaborative work on forest genetic resources in Europe continued and further strengthened.The Steering Committee thanked the host and the organizers for their arrangements of the meeting.Ten years ago, in 1989, we started to be aware of the major threats affecting forests and forest biodiversity: acid rain, uncontrolled forest genetic erosion, forest fires, decline of mountain forests, lack of research and scientific knowledge about forest tree physiology and forest ecosystems. But at the same time, European countries realized that they could share their experience regarding all these problems, with the common will to solve them, and the opportunities of using similar analyses and common strategies to reach this aim. Owing to these reasons, Finland and France agreed to convene a Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe in Strasbourg in December 1990. It was the beginning of a long and innovative process; but at first there were countries and people who were sceptical about its chances of success.Nevertheless, it was the first time that the need to protect European forests was recognized at the ministerial level. Ministers responsible for forests committed themselves to technical and scientific cooperation, through a clear programme that could be periodically evaluated.This programme focused on a limited number of actions, scientifically relevant and politically attractive, illustrated by six different resolutions, with a follow-up process:• This resolution dealt with the conservation of forest genetic resources and contained three parts:The Signatory States and international institutions \"commit themselves to implement in their own countries, using whatever methods seem most appropriate, a policy for the conservation of forest genetic resources.\"The principles • Immediate actions without waiting for all the scientific answers • Simple, stable and long-lasting methods • Conservation of the total genotypic variability (between species, races and individuals)• In situ conservation emphasized and integrated in the field of forest management, combined when necessary with ex situ conservation • Preserving also forest ecosystems and rare forest species• Practical recommendations on the silviculture practice in each country • Adequate financial support to the national programmes dealing with conservation of forest genetic resources.During the two pre-conferences in Geneva, the national delegates agreed on the need for a functional but voluntary instrument of international cooperation, from the existing relevant organizations \"to promote and coordinate:• in situ and ex situ methods to conserve the genetic diversity of European forests • exchanges of reproductive materials • monitoring of progress in these fields.\"The way followed since the Strasbourg Conference (1990) The Ministerial Conference of Strasbourg adopted six basic resolutions to protect the forests in Europe. At this stage, the commitments were general and needed complementary thoughts to become operational.Regarding Resolution 2 and the conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe, this work was conducted by the Follow-up Committee composed of four members: M. Arbez (France), Chair, V. Koski (Finland), Co-Chair, M.C. Varela (Portugal) and J. Matras (Poland). The Committee met three times (Warsaw 1991, Rome 1992and Brussels 1993).It was assisted in its mission by several personalities from the Forestry Department of FAO (C. Palmberg, O. Souvannavong), IBPGR (E. Frison) and the European Commission (F. Kremer, DG VI). This group also received help and advice from scientists (H. Muhs, G. Eriksson). To clarify the actual situation of forest genetic resources in Europe, to identify the most threatened resources and the nature of their threats, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to all national coordinators of the 31 signatory countries of Resolution S2.The analysis of the corresponding results and their use for further recommendations benefited from technical and financial support from the Forestry Department of FAO and from the Commission of the European Union (DG VI). The work was performed by the group, first between December 1990 (Strasbourg Conference) and June 1993 (Helsinki Conference) using two pre-conferences in Geneva and a general meeting of the Follow-up Committee in Lisbon.The analysis of the results from the Resolution S2 questionnaire was presented to the national coordinators attending the second pre-conference of Geneva. According to the information obtained, some important forest species appeared to be threatened in some countries at the population level, which required urgent measures to be taken for their preservation. The species most frequently mentioned were: Ulmus sp., Picea abies, Abies nebrodensis and Abies alba, several noble hardwoods especially the wild fruit trees Rosaceae, Populus nigra, Quercus sp., Pinus nigra, Pinus sylvestris and Taxus baccata.From this survey, it appeared that: • human activities are most often responsible for the threats to forest genetic resources • national programmes specifically aimed at medium and long-term conservation were scarce and often very recent (Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, etc.) • most of the forest stands declared as in situ genetic reserves were combining conservation and other objectives (performance evaluation, wood production, seed production)• most of the signatory countries of the Resolution S2 also declared their will to cooperate in a European programme focusing on forest genetic resources conservation. Keeping in mind the principle according to which every country is responsible for its own forest genetic resources, the added value of a European collaborative programme would be mainly networking among national programmes, common passport data, databases, and creation of optimal conditions for a continuous progress in forest gene conservation methods.To cover most of the scientific and operational problems to be solved at the level of the national \"species-oriented gene conservation networks\", the idea was to choose a very limited number of species, representative of the different geographic, biological and genetic situations. With such an approach, and taking into account the information obtained and the national priorities identified through the analysis of the questionnaire, four case study or 'pilot' species (including one group of species: Norway spruce, cork oak, black poplar and Noble Hardwoods) were then proposed. The national delegates participating in the second Geneva pre-conference accepted this proposal, which was consequently endorsed by the Second Ministerial Conference in Helsinki, in June 1993.• Norway spruce (Picea abies) has a large distribution in northern and central Europe. It occurs in dense forest stands, at low elevation in the North and high elevation in the South (Alpine and Carpathian ranges). It is a monoecious, wind-pollinated conifer, often represented in large and continuous forests. With regard to the large area covered, this is a major species for its ecological and economical importance. Severe decline due to acid rains has occurred in central Europe, and genetic conservation measures must be undertaken urgently. On the other hand, severe damages due to global warning could be expected in boreal areas and marginal high elevation populations of the alpine zone. Old international provenance experiments exist (established in 1938 and 1968). Results from old progeny tests are also available in various countries, providing interesting data on which to base the conservation strategy.• Cork oak (Quercus suber) has a typically western Mediterranean distribution. The economic importance of the species is great in some areas (Sardinia, southern Spain and Portugal, northwestern Morocco). This species is presently endangered by a complex decline, extended to most of these areas. This is also a monoecious wind-pollinated species, with heavy seeds closely dispersed around the mother trees (when not planted). Only limited data are available about the structure of the genetic diversity in this species, and urgent conservation measures are needed. The advanced genetic studies performed on Quercus petraea would provide a useful model. New opportunities for close links could be developed with the recently established Social Broadleaves Network (European beech and oaks).• Black poplar (Populus nigra) is an original model species with linear repartition along rivers; it is dioecious with wind pollination. Black poplar is a pioneer species, expected to be a good case study for the metapopulation genetic model. Local populations are often threatened in their natural habitat by riverside management; they are pollinated by the closely located cultivated and genetically related Euramerican hybrids. From the economic aspect, Populus nigra populations provide a gene source to improve disease resistances and to create new hybrids. Populus nigra could be a good model to develop dynamic ex situ conservation strategies.• Noble Hardwoods: numerous species with valuable timber used mostly for furniture are often known under this common name. Among them, the wild forest fruit trees from the family Rosaceae are the most homogeneous group regarding biological and genetic characteristics. The species belonging to the Prunus, Sorbus, Malus and Pyrus genera are all characterized by scattered spatial distribution and insect-pollination. Fruits are eaten and spatially dispersed by small mammals or birds. These tree species, often threatened by a recent evolution of the silvicultural practices (even-aged monospecific forests) are particularly important to maintain a sufficient level of biodiversity within the temperate forest ecosystems. These four pilot forest gene conservation Networks proposed initially were established and developed within the EUFORGEN Programme. A fifth Network, concerning Social Broadleaves was created some years later (1997).The Second Ministerial Conference in Helsinki endorsed the proposals prepared by the Follow-up Committee of Resolution S2, and endorsed the EUFORGEN project presented by IBPGR (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, now IPGRI) and the Forestry Department of FAO. This project was prepared and presented by E. Frison (IPGRI) and C. Palmberg (FAO), then developed with success by J. Turok at IPGRI since 1995.This short travel back to the initial Strasbourg Resolution S2 helps us to measure the progress achieved during eight years. Thanks to IPGRI and FAO, EUFORGEN became the efficient tool for international cooperation in the field of conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe. We must continue in the same direction for the coming years.But beside this impressive work at the international level (motivating and strengthening national programmes, encouraging collaboration between countries, improving strategies and methods, providing scientific information) we must not forget that the most important job remains the conservation of genetic diversity itself, to be done within and by each country.To 'conserve' the full efficiency of EUFORGEN, the programme should not be requested to focus on too many new species of interest. The pilot species were chosen to represent as many biological and genetic situations as possible. Thanks to the work already achieved within each Network, significant progress has been made with regard to this aim.We should probably identify general themes of common interest for the different Networks and hold joint meetings between the Networks. The species groups could then be concentrated on specific themes most relevant for each group alone.The work undertaken with the minor or economically less important species seems to me particularly relevant, with special mention of the Noble Hardwoods.We have numerous subjects to explore together, both from the scientific and practical perspectives:• Establishment in each country of a safe system to ascertain the regeneration and the continuity of our gene resources and tree seed banks • Initiation of national research projects to predict the impact of global change on the evolution of the forest cover and its genetic composition and structure, and to predict the effects of silvicultural practices on the genetic diversity in the production forests, as well as in the gene conservation units • This will be achieved thanks to increased linkages between genetics (population genetics, marker genes) and ecosystem studies.Rather than accepting without scientific proofs that strict protection and natural regeneration only are always the best tools for genetic conservation, let us think about new scientific approaches and experimental designs; let us think dynamic conservation, integrated in production forests, with relevant consideration of the possible silvicultural practices, the parallel tree breeding programmes and the possible impact of national and international rules for collecting, trade, and use of forest genetic materials.Beside genetic conservation methods proper, first applied to forest gene reserve management, to be efficient we also need to integrate these methods in our regular activities within the forest and wood production context. In our old continent, the forests are essentially cultivated and most of them are small forests, privately owned: such an important social aspect needs to be integrated into our communication strategy.Private forest owner associations as well as national forest services must be considered to improve professional awareness about forest genetic resources conservation and management.Finally, EUFORGEN was and remains an excellent tool to cooperate and to transfer operational and scientific information towards non-EU countries, especially those in eastern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin. This is also its mission and a challenge for the future.Environmental issues have attracted increasing interest throughout the world, largely as a result of serious concern that the Earth's biological system is of fundamental importance to humankind. The augmenting public awareness has finally resulted in several international legally-binding instruments, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.In the forestry sector, strategies for biodiversity conservation to slow down the loss of biodiversity and to enhance its contribution to a further development should embrace (1) the preservation of biodiversity, (2) the sustainable use, and (3) the equitable sharing of benefits. In Europe, these objectives should be attained through the implementation of politicallybinding resolutions (soft laws) adopted at three Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe. These agreements have been known as the Strasbourg, Helsinki and Lisbon Resolutions according to the location where the respective Ministerial Conference was held.Biodiversity has been given high attention in this pan-European process (Lust 1995, Turok 1997, Geburek 1998). Thus starting with the First Ministerial Conference in Strasbourg (Anonymous 1990), the conservation of forest genetic resources has been explicitly mentioned in Resolution S2. Specific actions such as (1) in situ and ex situ measures, (2) the exchange of genetic material, and (3) regular assessment of progress should strengthen the conservation of biodiversity at the genetic level. Technically, the S2 Follow-up Process on European level has mainly been implemented via the European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) and its network activities (see Turok 1997). The Second and Third Ministerial Conferences in Helsinki and Lisbon have also tackled the problem of forest biodiversity conservation (Anonymous 1993a(Anonymous ,b, 1996a(Anonymous , 1998a,b),b).Decision-makers have realized that forest genetics play an important role when sustainability of forests in Europe is at stake, and forestry policy and science deal increasingly with biodiversity related issues (e.g. Glück 1984Glück , 1998)). This becomes lucid because sustainable use of forests is impossible unless forest genetic resources are sufficiently regarded and several Resolutions directly address issues related to forest genetics. The objective of this paper is to point out these aspects of the Resolutions agreed upon during the last two Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe.The role of the Conference was twofold: (i) it was a forum for the assessment of the Followup Process of its predecessor; (ii) it was an opportunity to consider the implementation of the H1, H2 and H3 were signed by 37 European countries and the EC, while H4 was not signed by France and Sweden. Albania, Macedonia FYR and Moldova did not sign the resolutions. All the Helsinki Resolutions are relevant from a genetic point of view. Although terms like 'genetic diversity' or 'genetic resources' are rarely used as such, it has to be pointed out that whenever the term 'biodiversity' is used in the official documents this term also refers to genetic diversity. This is particularly so because the Ministerial Conference adopted the definition of the term 'biodiversity' as provided in the Convention on Biological Diversity. The term thus comprises genetic and interspecific diversity as well as the variability of ecosystems. \"Biological Diversi ty m eans the var iability among living organi sms from al l sou rces including, inter al ia, terrestrial, marine and oth er a quatic ec osystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.\" (...) (Anonymous 1993b: p. 26) Unfortunately, 'biodiversity' is frequently interpreted as diversity of species. In order to further clarify the genetic component of biodiversity, its significance in the ecosystem function, i.e. the role of the single specimen, must first be understood. It is self-evident though rarely clearly recognized that single trees and not species act in forest ecosystems. Single trees live or die, capture energy and serve as energy supply for other individual plants or animals. Individuals (genotypes) interact with their environment (genotype-environment interactions) and/or can serve as an environmental factor for others. Ecological communities (e.g. forest vegetation types) are rarely recognized as assemblages of individuals of a single species but rather as species assemblages. Species are not monolithic, invariant or static, but are constantly changing ecological entities. Although a more individual-based ecology is slowly emerging (e.g. Rose et al. 1993), the individual (genotypic) role is still insufficiently understood. Moreover, the significance of genetic diversity is not limited within a single species, but through intraspecific and interspecific genetic adaptation it influences the emergence and functioning of higher order ecological systems.Regrettably, these evolutionary aspects -the intra-and interspecific genetic functions and processes -are not explicitly mentioned in the CBD definition of biodiversity (cf. definitions of biodiversity in UNEP (1995), chapter 2).The overall objective of this Resolution is the implementation of the non-legally-binding authoritative statement of principles for global consensus on the management of conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests (UNCED) in Europe. In a number of statements, the Signatory States and the EC pointed out that sustainable forest management has to be carried out in such a way that biodiversity is secured over the long term. The concrete requirements are as follows:• Genetic selection (...) should not favour performance traits at the expense of adaptive ones, except in particular cultures where intensive care may protect them against damage • Native species and local provenances should be preferred where appropriate. The use of species, provenances, varieties or ecotypes outside their natural range should be discouraged where their introduction would endanger important/valuable indigenous ecosystems, flora and fauna. Introduced species may be used when their potential negative impacts have been assessed and evaluated over sufficient time (...)• Whenever introduced species are used to replace local ecosystems, sufficient action should be taken at the same time to conserve native flora and fauna.It should be stressed that the implementation of these commitments at the national level is difficult in some cases. The existing Council Directive on the marketing of forest reproductive material (66/404/EEC) authorizes a Member State to prohibit the marketing of forest reproductive material only if there is reason to believe that the use has an adverse effect on forestry in all or part of the Member State (Anonymous 1966). This authorization requires a procedure, which has not been implemented so far. The problem is that the single Member State has the burden of proof and the statement on that matter is based on very limited knowledge. There are non-binding provenance recommendations for foreign tree species, for instance in Austria (e.g. Raschka 1997). However, there is no information as to which extent their growth endangers indigenous tree species or if a potential risk to the indigenous flora would be justified because of higher yield. In most cases only small-scale growth of foreign tree species will not cause a risk, or threat, to the indigenous tree species. In certain cases, however, for instance in the case of growing black poplar hybrids in a riparian forest where also Populus nigra occur, this cannot be called in accordance with the Resolution (cf. Heinze submitted). Further, it seems difficult to interpret the regulation that local provenances should be preferred to foreign provenances. From a technical viewpoint, it should be noted in this context that, contrary to the common view in forestry, local provenances do not necessarily have the highest degree of adaptedness to the respective environmental conditions (e.g. Mátyás 1991Mátyás , 1996)). This means that local provenances may be replaced by non-autochthonous material, for instance in cases where the genetic adaptedness of the future stand has to be valued higher than the conservation of the naturally occurring population. With a view to the climate change, this possibility should be critically examined.Sustainable use of forest genetic resources means the use of forest tree populations in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of genetic diversity, thereby maintaining its gen etic potential t o me et needs an d aspirations of pr esent and futur e generations. Th is do es not entail th at genetic d iversity ca n b e h anded o n t o futur e generations completely unchanged, since virtually all forms of forestry management lead to so me changes or l osses. However, t he long-ter m g enetic adaptability o f fo rest tre e populations must re main unaffected by the us e of for est tree populations. No ting that where there is a threat of significant r eduction or loss of ge netic div ersity, lack of full scientific certainty should not be us ed as a reason for postponing meas ures to a void or minimize such a threat (precautionary principle).Regarding forest genetics, this Resolution is clearly most comprehensive. The General Guidelines of H2 include:• The conservation and appropriate enhancement of genetic diversity should be an essential operational element in sustainable forest management, (...) in forestry policies and legislation. For instance, Austria has tried to satisfy this requirement, in connection with the forest law provisions on the transportation of forest reproductive material by the introduction of statutory minimum numbers of seed trees to be harvested and establishment of the additional category \"Increased Genetic Multiplicity\" (Anonymous 1996b,c)• The conservation and appropriate enhancement of genetic diversity should be based both on specific, practical, cost-effective and efficient biodiversity appraisal systems, and on methods for evaluating the impact on biodiversity of chosen forest development and management techniques • The conservation of genetic resources of forest species, both those currently exploited for economic purposes and those considered secondary or rare as detailed in Resolution 2 of the Strasbourg Conference, and (...) the protection of threatened forest species and ecosystems, as listed nationally or locally, in the formulation of national forest policies • The Signatory States and the European Community will establish at national or regional levels a coherent ecological network of climax, primary and other special forests aimed at maintaining or re-establishing ecosystems that are representative or threatened.Apart from national measures taken to conserve forest genetic resources and the activities within the framework of EUFORGEN, several Signatory States are currently building ecological networks of climax, primary and other special forests. These networks can also strengthen forest gene conservation. However, the objective of ecological networks is often the conservation of certain types of forest vegetation; species diversity is thus more to be to the fore. In many cases, certain forest reserves are established without sufficient consideration of genetic aspects. Selection criteria of the forest sites are the sizes of the forests stands, their numbers and distribution, statistical sampling, and other features. Species are not infrequently seen as static entities and thus reserves cannot always fulfil genetic demands. Especially small forest reserves (<5 ha) covering several species are of limited use for the conservation of intraspecific variability. The minimum size of a forest reserve is often determined pragmatically. Recently the potential use of nature reserves has been discussed thoroughly by Frank (1998), also in view of the conservation of genetic diversity.In Austria, the size of forest reserves is mainly determined in a way that all stages and phases of forest succession are continuously present (Koop 1989). Hence, this size depends on the forest vegetation type (species composition) and results, for instance, in 10 ha for linden-hornbeam mixtures or in 40 ha for certain beech-oak stands. Ecological forest networks, if not designed for genetic purposes, are of varying value. In principle, every single specimen as a carrier of genetic information is a genetic resource. However, when gene resources of forest tree populations are to be conserved, small areas are of limited value. This means that with decreasing size of the reserve the certainty and/or time scale within which the given conservation purpose can be fulfilled are diminishing. Hence, sizes of 10 to 40 ha may be appropriate for social broadleaves and most conifers when a mid-term (100 years) gene conservation purpose of that particular local population is aimed at. The above-mentioned size frame may however be inappropriate when genetic resources of scattered tree species are concerned, the time scale is prolonged, or no other supplementary action (e.g. sustainable forest management) is carried out.This Resolution is laid out in a particularly heterogeneous way, making an effort, in accordance with the Framework Convention on Climate Change of the United Nations, to contribute particularly by means of a coordinated research, to a reduction of the effects caused by the climate change. H4 comprises seven research areas:1. Linkages between climate change and forest ecosystems.2. Role of forests in the global carbon cycle.3. Studies on genetic variability of regionally important tree species in response to changes in climate and increased concentration of carbon dioxide, and on the degree and rate of evolutionary processes and adaptation, by means of genetic changes.4. Studies on the dynamic equilibrium of host-parasite relationships in new climatic environments. 5. Studies on soil formation processes, including the mineralization of organic matter and leaching, in response to climate change. 6. Development of process-based predictive ecosystem models. 7. Forest management systems to optimize adaptation to climate change.In order to identify knowledge gaps in research area 3, a small working group of forest geneticists (H.-R. Gregorius, Cs. Mátyás, J. Turok, G.G. Vendramin, Th. Geburek) was formed. This working group has elaborated the following research proposals described in greater detail by Gregorius and Geburek (1998). The research goals were to orientate themselves by the fact that ecosystem stability depends considerably on the adaptive potential of the dominant species in a system (Templeton 1995, Gregorius 1996). Because forest tree species take this key position in forest ecosystems, the investigation of their genetic potential to adapt is in the forefront. Physiological mechanisms and their genetic conditions and mechanisms therefore have to be investigated at the population level; how genetic polymorphisms and, consequently, genetic adaptive potential can be maintained over many generations is of particular importance. In the case of forest trees, adaptation processes and their essential components are still inadequately known. So far, short-term studies on the genetic structures of seed trees/sources of seed material have been carried out, comprising seeds and seedlings, provenance tests and investigations on the genetic distinction between different tree groups. These investigations have permitted interesting insights. However, the testing and/or modelling of adaptive processes to the climate change is extremely difficult.The focus was thus put on the following areas of forest genetics: 1. Evaluation of provenance tests and of studies on the reproduction, norms of reaction, glacial migration, the transfer of seed material, etc. with respect to their significance for adaptive processes. 2. Further development of genetic criteria, indicators, and verificators, including geneticdemographic properties or other surrogates, identification of genetic properties which can serve as indicators for specific evolutionary processes of adaptation. 3. Investigations on the heritability of properties relevant for adaptation. 4. Initiation and advancement of long-term experiments suited to indicate trends and directions of adaptive processes.The first two of these are of particular importance. Research area (1) provides insight into the physiological homoeostasis, which can be described by the extent of a population's phenotypic stability over different environments, whereas research area (2), by the survey of different genetic and genetic-demographic indicators, aims at the collective or genetic homoeostasis. Research area (1) thus describes the norms of reaction when rather constant genetic structures are provided, while research area (2) aims at quantifying environmentrelated changes. Four indicators with their respective verificators are proposed for evaluating whether genetic sustainability has been achieved also under the warning of climatic change. In this context, an indicator is defined as a variable which serves to examine a particular development, condition, or other facts. A verificator can be used to check if there is an indication of something, i.e. a certain variable which serves in particular to examine a certain indication. This procedure is based on a proposal worked out by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) with substantial contribution of Canadian and Australian forest geneticists (Namkoong et al. submitted). For many detailed questions (e.g. critical limits of the verificators) no final answers are available from research yet, not even experts being of the same opinion.The approach of research area (3) is based on the fact that evolutionary processes proceed faster when the genetic component of the variance observed with an adaptation-relevant trait is high than when the environment is the main modifying factor of the trait. In this context, adaptation-related traits are defined as phenological, morphological and physiological properties enabling the population to survive over the generations, under the existing environmental conditions. Research area (4) comprises long-term experiments which, by means of surveying genetic changes over the time, leads to quantitative-genetic statements on adaptive processes.In 1998, the For the implementation of H1 and H2, a pan-European cooperation was previously initiated (Anonymous 1998b). The most significant achievements included the development and adoption of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. These were accepted at two Expert Level Follow-Up Meetings of the Helsinki Conference held in Geneva (1994) andAntalya (1995). Finally, the criteria, indicators and operational level guidelines for sustainable forest management were adopted as L2.Out of the six criteria for sustainable forest management, the criterion 'Maintenance, Conservation and Appropriate Enhancement of Biological Diversity in Forest Ecosystems' is of particular relevance to forest genetics.Under the concept area 'General Conditions' indicators are described as follows:• Existence and capacity of an institutional framework to maintain, conserve and appropriately enhance biological diversity at the ecosystem, species and genetic levels • Existence of informal means to implement the policy framework, and the capacity to:-develop new inventories and ecological impact assessments on biological diversity, and -develop tools to assess the effect of forest management on biological diversity.From a genetic point of view the Concept Area 'Threatened Species' and 'Biological Diversity in Production Forests' is of importance. Quantitative and descriptive indicators to be periodically reported should pinpoint at biodiversity changes and trigger action.• Existence of an appropriate legal or regulatory framework that provides legal instruments • Existence and capacity to develop and maintain the institutional framework • Existence of economic incentives • Existence of informal means to implement the respective policy framework, to protect threatened species or to ensure biological diversity in production forests.As quantitative indicators are mentioned: 1. Changes in the number and percentage of threatened species in relation to total number of forest tree species. 2. Changes in the proportions of stands managed for conservation and utilization of forest genetic resources (gene reserve forests, seed collection stands, etc.); differentiation between indigenous and introduced species. 3. Changes in the proportions of mixed stands of 2-3 tree species. 4. In relation to the total area regenerated, proportions of annual area of natural regeneration.The UN-ECE/FAO has cooperated with the pan-European process in the collection of information on these quantitative indicators by adapting the ongoing Temperate and Boreal Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (TBFRA). Nevertheless, information on some indicators could not be collected, chiefly because it became clear that harmonized reporting was not possible.Ad 1. Reference lists such as the IUCN Red Books and the IUCN Categories of Endangered Species should be used. The IUCN categories have already been accepted by different governmental organizations and other NGOs to asses locally (e.g. Gunatilleke and Gunatilleke 1991) or on a more global scale (e.g. Farjon et al. 1993) the risk driving tree species to, or close to, extinction. The TBFRA data on this issue are questionable. At a first glance, it looks simple to harmonize reports but the TBFRA has reported on this issue that in the UK 140 forest tree species occur in total, of which one species is endangered, while in Ireland 1000 different forest tree species should occur in total, none of them being close to extinction (Anonymous 1998b). These contrasting figures demonstrate the difficulties in reporting and make comparisons among different countries tricky.Ad 2. Problems may occur when proportions of area are compared among Signatory States. Management intensities of gene conservation stands may vary from strictly protected stands (cf. IUCN category I -strict nature reserve) to forest stands which have to be naturally regenerated but are still utilized according to local standards (cf. IUCN category IVmanaged resource protected area). To harmonize reporting, Signatory States have to develop commonly accepted technical terminology, for instance it has to be agreed upon when the term forest gene reserve can be used.Conditions to be checked when forest gene reserves were pragmatically declared:• Secured long-term ownership -Can we expect continuity in the status of ownership? Would securing by contract help and, if so, how can this be done with due regard to the accruing costs? How do we consider the right of access to the gene resource? • Continuity of natural regeneration -Is the existing extent of regeneration sufficient?Is it necessary to introduce measures supporting regeneration (e.g. fencing, reduction of game stock)? • No goals that conflict over the medium term -Are there goals which conflict with forestry, the protection of nature, or any other forms of utilization requiring space (settlements, traffic)? • Sufficient representativity for certain provenances -Are there sufficient numbers of stands for areas considered substantially homogenous (provenance region)? • Autochthonous origin -Is it possible to provide information on the autochthonous/indigenous origin of a stand? • High degree of hemeroby -How should the existing stock be assessed with regard to the natural plant association? • Reasons of exclusion due to earlier forms of management -In which way(s) was the stand managed in the past? Are selective uses and/or forms of management with low numbers of trees potential reasons for exclusion?• Necessity of coordination with international programmes and networks aiming at the conservation of genetic diversity -To which extent do the pending measures complement international efforts?Genetic conditions to be assessed when forest gene reserves are declared: • Sufficient genetic variety with respect to fitness-relevant properties -Are results from field experiments available and in which ways can the findings contribute in the selection of the resource populations? • Sufficient size of stands -Which size does the stand in question have? Will it be necessary that small stands, or even groups of trees, are also considered for conservation because of the rarity of a tree species? How many seed trees are involved in natural regeneration (census of the seed-bearing trees)? How many trees provide pollen (census of the male reproductive trees)? • Location of the stand within its natural habitat -What is the exact location of the stand at our disposal? Can we expect high adaptive potential because of the stand having an optimum location, or rather high adaptedness because the stand is located at the natural fringe of an area? • Measures of conservation consider sufficiently tree-specific variation patterns -In which ways are clinal and/or ecotype-specific variations with different properties considered in gene conservation measures? • Isolation -How is the location of the relevant stand with respect to other stands of the same tree species? Is migration desired or rather undesired? How are pollen and seed vectors to be assessed and in which ways could such assessment influence the selection of the necessary buffer zone? Is the non-availability of the buffer zone the decisive factor regarding its value for conservation? • Sufficient genetic variation of adaptive genetic markers -Are there results from genetic inventories regarding adaptive genetic markers? In particular, qualitative or at least pronounced clinal differences between regions can be very valuable. • Sufficient genetic variation of selective neutral genetic markers -Results from inventories including neutral genetic markers can be used to subdivide existing regions into smaller conservation units. Findings about the post-glacial immigration and the degree of migration can indirectly contribute to the selection of the resource populations.The above list demonstrates how manifold the requirements are that have to be examined prior to the selection of in situ stands that are worth conservation. Simply reporting the area designated as gene reserve in a Signatory State does not make sense unless the quality of in situ means are mentioned. The list also makes clear that the implementation of national and international gene conservation programmes meets with numerous difficulties. Relying on schematism, there will probably not be an optimal realization of any of the programmes. Each of them will need the setting of priorities, thereby taking account of the country-specific requirements of each programme.As far as reporting on changes in seed stand proportions is concerned, similar problems may occur. Among EU-Member States, which comprise approximately one half of all Signatory States, harmonization has been realized because the EC Directive 404/66 (Anonymous 1966) has been brought into force by national laws. However, comparisons of data derived from Non-Member Signatory States with data originating from Member States remain vague. Harmonization in this matter is a must. This task should be implemented as soon as possible in the course of Expert Level Meetings in the framework of the Ministerial Conferences and in close cooperation with EUFORGEN.Ad 3. This refers to species diversity and is of less genetic relevance. Data on area and spatial distribution pattern of rare species are meaningful. However, it may be very difficult to report reliable data on this issue. In those Signatory States where forest inventories were performed periodically, data will be available whilst in countries where this information is gathered based on national-wide forest management working plans or based on other descriptions (e.g. flora description), travel reports reliability of data is much more questionable.Ad 4. The degree of natural regeneration of a forest is doubtless a good indicator of sustainable forest management. The ability of forest tree populations to produce viable seeds and to create a viable new tree generation is extremely important. Trees may be badlyshaped or may not produce desirable wood products, but provided they are able to exist over generations by transmitting their genes, undesirable traits are meaningless from an evolutionary point of view. Since under appropriate environments also well-shaped trees have these capabilities of regeneration, the genepool in naturally regenerated stands is well conserved. Although this theorem has not yet been studied over full generations, the current state has not falsified this view.However, the same reluctance concerning the trustworthiness of data reported by Signatory States as mentioned above (Ad 3) is certainly advisable.As descriptive indicator is mentioned \"Existence of a legal/regulatory framework that provides for legal instruments to ensure regeneration of managed forests\". In many Signatory Countries the respective Forestry Act ensures that clearings or stands after clear felling or selective cutting are to be reforested.Political decision-makers have realized that a broad genetic basis is indispensable for the long-term stability of forests. Hence, many of the Resolutions agreed upon at the two Ministerial Conferences held in Helsinki (1993) and Lisbon (1998) are of conspicuous relevance to forest genetics, i.e. the Helsinki Resolutions H1 (General Guidelines for the Sustainable Management of Forests in Europe), H2 (General Guidelines for the Conservation of Biodiversity of European Forests) and H4 (Strategies for a Process of Long-Term Adaptation of Forests in Europe to Climate Change) as well as the Lisbon Resolution L2 (Pan-European Criteria, Indicators and Operational Level Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management) refer to genetic diversity of forest tree populations. While H1 addresses mainly the preservation of wellfunctioning forest ecosystems through the use of appropriate forest reproductive material, H2 focuses on the conservation and enhancement of biological diversity per se. H4 encourages research in forest genetics related to adaptation processes under the scenario of a global climate change. Lisbon Resolution L2 describes criteria and indicators on an operational level. Due to pragmatic reasons, these criteria and indicators mainly aim at species diversity; however, the criterion Maintenance, Conservation and Appropriate Enhancement of Biological Diversity in Forest Ecosystems is of particular genetic relevance because certain indicators, such as the existence and capacity of the institutional framework to conserve and enhance genetic diversity, or the periodical reporting of changes in the proportion of stands managed for conservation of genetic resources, are outlined in L2. While implementation of the Lisbon Resolutions cannot be expected yet, progress in the follow-up action of the Helsinki Resolution is still unsatisfactory. Maybe this is linked to specific genetic problems or due to the fact that conferences more and more become political and that the technical implementation of the solutions of problems identified is dealt with in course of follow-up processes.For a long time foresters were regarded as trustees of sustainable forest management in the sense that provision of timber is sustainably ensured by appropriate management of forests. The notion of sustained timber production and its practical application had an extraordinarily stimulating effect on the development of forest sciences, particularly forest inventory, forest growth research and forest economics. In the context of the environmental movement of the 1960s, the timber-oriented perception of forests was challenged by an ecosystem-orientation focusing on the maintenance and enhancement of biological diversity. The environmental movement that not only seized the management of forests, but comprised all natural resources, peaked in the UN-sponsored Conference on Man and the Environment in 1972 in Stockholm. It reflected the high common concern for the protection and conservation of the global environment by establishing a new UN agency, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In the follow-up of the Stockholm Conference, ministries of environment were established in almost every country around the world. In concurrence with environmental NGOs the strength and power of these ministries increased significantly over the years, and they now play a central role in formulating and influencing national and global policies related to forestry. Since the Stockholm Conference, forest politics at the national, European and global levels has been characterized by two stances with different interests in the use of forests: the economic interest in timber production and the ecological interest in maintaining and enhancing environmental values such as biological diversity. The following policy analysis aims at detecting options for bridging the gap between these two positions.Forests produce not only timber but a whole variety of other goods and services (Table 1). Some of them are marketable, such as berries and Christmas trees, others are not marketable or not easy to sell, such as biodiversity or protection against avalanches. The marketability of goods is a given physical fact having to do with the exclusion of the goods and the rivalry of consumers. If one can easily exclude those from consumption, who do not pay (\"free riders\"), one can market a good. This is the case for private goods as well as for club or toll goods. Club goods differ from private goods in that they are non-rival in part. Examples are recreation facilities, national parks, and forest roads, since exclusion can be practiced and, although non-rivalling at low levels of usage, they are partially in competition because crowding occurs with more intensive use. The second feature determining the type of good, the rivalry in consumption of the individual consumers or the clubs, has an impact on the price. Rivalry in consumption triggers scarcity of a good which is an incentive to produce more of it -or to increase the price.Biological diversity means \"the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the technological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems\" (Art. 2 of the Convention on Biological Diversity). As we can see from Table 1, biodiversity is a public good. Once biodiversity is provided, it is difficult or costly to prevent others from enjoying it. If one benefits from biodiversity, there is no rivalry in consumption, assuming there are no crowding effects which turns biodiversity into a common-poll good (McKean 1998: p. 26). In most cases public goods including biodiversity result from the fact that they occur as positive externalities of production or consumption processes which have positive impacts to third parties. It follows that the market may fail in providing sufficient quantities of public goods of a certain quality. If more of these goods are needed, the welfare-optimizing state has to intervene by appropriate means, unless nongovernmental organizations take care of their provision, e.g. by means of forest certification (\"private policy-making\"). However, the latter aspect is beyond the scope of this paper. Intervention of the welfare-optimizing state into forest management will depend on the paradigm of forest management. In the prevailing forest paradigm of multiple-use forestry the objective function is to maximize periodic benefits minus costs of sale of wood and nonwood goods and services. State intervention has to ensure the minimum supply of nonmarketable forest services such as protection against erosion and biodiversity. The opposing environmental paradigm of forest ecosystem management is based on the principle of ecological sustainability. The objective function is to maximize resistance and resilience of forest ecosystems (including conservation of biodiversity) subject to minimum requirements of timber and non-timber products and services such as game and recreation which have to be ensured by legal regulations.The constraints aiming at the maintenance and enhancement of health, vitality and biological diversity of forest ecosystems, laid down in national forest and nature conservation laws, have been under development for centuries. They reflect the will of society to ensure positive and avoid negative externalities of forest management. From 1972 until recently this development has been strengthened at the European and international levels by legally-and non-legally-binding instruments related to forests (Table 2), which have a more or less severe impact on the results of the objective function through national legislation. In the follow-up of the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED, held 1992 in Rio de Janeiro) most of the forest acts of European countries were changed (Anonymous 1998: p. 7). In the following, the most significant international and European policy means which were initiated by one of the two camps are presented (see Tarasofsky 1995).Faced with the global problems of deforestation and forest degradation, since the 1970s the environmentalists were proactive in passing legally-binding instruments and non-legallybinding initiatives pursuing the objectives of preservation, conservation and protection of forest ecosystems. They developed massive pressure at the international and European levels.  1997-2000 (1997) International legislation began in 1972 with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands which promotes the conservation of listed wetlands and the \"wise use\" of wetlands. In the same year the Stockholm Conference passed two international conventions, namely the World Heritage Convention and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The former provides for the protection of such heritage which is of \"outstanding universal value\" from several points of view, the second focuses specifically and exclusively on trade. International legislation of biodiversity peaked in the 1993 when it adopted the Convention on Biological Diversity which is the global treaty with the most significant potential effect on the conservation and sustainable management of forest resources. The preamble of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states that the conservation of biological diversity is a \"common concern of humankind\", and that, while nations have sovereign rights over their biological resources, they also bear a responsibility for conserving their biological diversity and sustainably using their biological resources. The CBD imposes obligations in relation to in situ conservation (within natural surroundings) and ex situ conservation (e.g. botanical gardens and genebanks) of species, habitats, and ecosystems. The implementation of the CBD is facilitated by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) as well as by new and additional financial resources to be provided by developed countries and administered by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The funds should primarily enable developing countries to meet the requirements of the CBD.At the European level, the European Council has passed the Fauna and Flora Habitats (FHH) Directive 92/43 which should effectively supplement the preceding Birds Directive 79/409. Both form the legal framework for the establishment of a coherent ecological network of special protection areas in all of Europe, better known as Natura 2000.Not less important than the legally-binding instruments on forests is the \"soft law\" of the environmental paradigm. The World Charter for Nature was proclaimed in the United Nations in 1982. It is the first international instrument that is intended to protect nature holistically for its own sake. The Statement of Forest Principles of UNCED is a breakthrough in the new understanding of sustainable forest management. It comprises the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests \"(...) to meet the social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations. These needs pertain to forest products and services, such as wood and wood products, water, food, fodder, medicine, fuel, shelter, employment, recreation, habitats for wildlife, landscape diversity, carbon sinks and reservoirs, and other forest products.\" Although time was not yet ripe to achieve consensus on a global forest convention, the forest principles and norms based on the inclusive understanding of sustainable forest management had far-reaching effects on the international deliberations on forests.Chapter 11 of Agenda 21 on Combating Deforestation of UNCED strives to promote efficient utilization and assessment in order to recover the full value of the goods and services provided by forests (part C). Forest resources should be managed in a manner that is compatible with environmental conservation (par. 11.20). Improving recognition of the social, economic and ecological values of trees is one of the objectives (par. 11.21.a).In 1994, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) with the assistance of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) published the Guidelines for Protected Area Management consisting of six categories which replace the former 10 IUCN categories published in 1978. These categories imply a gradation of human impacts: while the categories I-III are mainly concerned with the protection of natural areas where direct human intervention and modification of the environment has been limited, in categories IV-VI significantly greater intervention and modification has taken place.The Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy was adopted by the ministers of environment of 55 European countries in 1995 in Sofia, Bulgaria. It aims to reduce the threat and increase the resilience of Europe's biological and landscape diversity, to strengthen the ecological coherence of Europe as a whole, and ensure full public involvement in the conservation of the various aspects of biological and landscape diversity. In order to reach these aims, a sophisticated planning process is proposed, which mobilizes efforts and initiatives at all levels under one umbrella and breaks down a 20-year vision into 5-year Action Plans. The Action Plan 1996-2000 refers to 11 action themes; six of them deal with landscape and ecosystems (and one with forest ecosystems).Faced with the environmental activities for anchoring the new understanding of \"sustainable forest management\", the forest community tried to avoid too severe restrictions of efficient timber production by taking its own initiatives. Thus its activities were more reactive than anticipatory in the biodiversity issue.In the last 20 years two legally-binding instruments were passed or negotiated at the international and European levels. In 1983, the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) was adopted and renegotiated in 1994. The ITTA is primarily intended to be a commodity agreement between producer and consumer countries, and has established the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO).The European Protocol on Mountain Forests of the Alpine Convention (1991) which is still not in force seeks to ensure healthy and stable mountain forests and provides financial incentives for appropriate mountain forest management.Non-legally-binding initiatives were driven by the Statement of Forest Principles which strongly influenced the Resolutions H1 and H2 of the Second Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe 1993 in Helsinki signed by 34 European countries and the European Union. Helsinki Resolution H1 on Sustainable Forest Management accepts and further develops the term \"sustainable forest management.\" It \"means the stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way and at a rate that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.\" Helsinki Resolution H2 on Conservation of Biodiversity accepts the CBD's definition of biological diversity and states that the conservation and appropriate enhancement of biodiversity should be an essential operational element in sustainable forest management. In the follow-up of the Helsinki Conference, political agreement was achieved on six pan-European criteria and 20 indicators of sustainable forest management at the national level. Criterion 4 deals with the Maintenance, Conservation and Appropriate Enhancement of Biological Diversity in Forest Ecosystems which is measured by five indicators.The political agreement on sustainable forest management at the national level was the basis for the Lisbon Resolution L2 on Pan-European Criteria, Indicators and Operational Level Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management of the Third Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe held in 1998. It provides guidelines for sustainable forest management planning and practices at the sub-national level. The voluntary guidelines follow the pan-European criteria for sustainable forest management. The guidelines can be used as a reference tool for advising forest owners and forest managers in planning forest practices and supervising their implementation. It is planned that the Pan-European Forest Certification (PEFC) will refer to these guidelines.Both Pan-European Processes on the Protection of Forests and the Environment agreed in 1997 to a Work-Programme on the Conservation and Enhancement of Biological andLandscape Diversity in Forest Ecosystems 1997-2000. It should be noted that the European Union has signed all the international and European initiatives on sustainable forest management. Thus, the obligations to ensure sustainable forest management and biological diversity are integral parts of the Forestry Strategy for the European Union and the Regulation on Support of Rural Development (see below).The regulation activities from both the environmental and forest sides at the international (global), European and national levels cannot hide their underlying differing interests in forests which will certainly influence implementation and, therefore, policy impacts and outcome. As long as both sides seek to maximize their short-term self-interest and are not prepared for compromises, societal dilemma situations occur which leave all participants worse off than feasible alternatives. Rational choice theory, common-pool regimes, and the belief systems approach are three theoretical approaches that help to understand and overcome such situations.It does not make sense for an individual forest owner to employ silvicultural measures for the maintenance or even enhancement of biological diversity on its own, unless all competitors in the timber market do the same. As there is a free world market for timber, the efficiency of the individual owner's costly measures could be annihilated due to the impact of low-priced timber from competitors with environmentally harmful production methods. The egoistic rational behaviour of individual participants leads to a result which is not desired by any of them. The behaviour or the \"moves\" of each participating player depend on the moves of the other. It is true that the best collective result can only be achieved by cooperation, but the individual participant is even better off, if the others cooperate and he does not. As a \"free-rider,\" he would benefit from the advantages of cooperation without having to bear the cost. As everyone thinks accordingly, cooperation does not arise, and this is the worst collective variant. The individual forest owners are captured in a prisoner´s dilemma situation.There are several possibilities for overcoming such a dilemma situation. If there is a central authority, the provision of public goods can be ensured by state intervention, either by regulatory, economic and/or informational instruments. For forest issues, there is a central authority at the national, but not yet at the pan-European -it is the EU Council for the level of the European Union -and international levels.At the national level the provision of public goods can be enforced by means of the forest law, nature conservation law, hunting law etc.At the pan-European level the Work Programme of the Pan-European Processes is a promising departure for cooperation. It forces the environmental and forest parties to formulate a common report on the achievements as regards biodiversity, but it does not intend to become a central authority for mitigating conflicts of forest uses.Finally, at the international level the situation is further developed. From the preparatory meetings of the UNCED until the international forest policy dialogue within the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) and its follow-up, the Intergovernmental Forum an Forests (IFF), the topic of an international legally-binding instrument for forests has been on the agenda. Although there is no central authority at the international level, there is an incentive for a group of states to overcome the problematic situation through agreement to adhere to common principles and norms, rules and decision-making procedures (Krasner 1982: p. 186). Such an agreement constitutes an international regime (Glück 1994: p. 85). The international regime on forests in a wider sense consists of the sum total of international instruments and institutions that create the framework for international activities as regards forests (e.g. Ramsar Convention, ITTA, and the Convention on Biological Diversity). In a narrower sense, the international forest regime would be the global forest convention which is still under discussion.Although there are many options for strengthening the existing international regime for forests (Glück et al. 1998), many European states as well as the European Union endorse a global forest convention. It is argued that a global forest convention would be the most inclusive international instrument on forests, because it comprises not only sustainable management, but also the conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. A convention could fill in the gaps left by the existing international instruments for forests and, in particular, it could address problems of coordination. If no agreement on standards for the maintenance and enhancement of biodiversity in the context of sustainable forest management can be achieved, this could be left to the conference of parties. For the purpose of coordination national forest programmes would be extremely useful.National forest programmes (NFPs) can be described as a generic expression for a wide range of approaches to the process of planning, programming and implementing forest activities in countries. The novelty of NFPs constitutes their focus on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of forests and a comprehensive policy framework applicable at the national and sub-national levels. The latter consists of basic principles developed by FAO (1996) and the IPF process, such as participation, continuous interactive planning process, and a holistic and intersectoral approach. NFPs are the revival of the old concept of policy planning in order to render politics more rational, long-term oriented and better coordinated (Glück 1998, Glück 1999).Just recently, NFPs received special attention by the European Union for the coordination of forest uses as well as of impacts from other sectors of the economy (e.g. industry, agriculture) on forestry. National forest programmes serve the European Union to enforce the obligations which the European Union has taken by signing the international documents on forests. The EU Council Resolution on a Forestry Strategy for the European Union identifies under point 5d \"the implementation of international commitments, principles and recommendations through national or sub-national forest programmes or appropriate instruments developed by the Member States\" as substantial elements of the common Forestry Strategy. Furthermore, the EU Regulation on Support of Rural Developments demands the elaboration of national forest programmes for the provision of financial incentives (Art. 29, par. 4).We know from forest history of European countries that mountainous villagers engaged in collective action to sustainably manage their forests for timber and protection against torrents and avalanches without an external authority to offer incentives or impose sanctions. In the course of time, by trial and error the villagers have found a particular property rights arrangement, in which a group of resource users share rights and duties toward a resource. McKean (1998: p. 28) calls such social institutions a \"common-property regime\" and asserts that \"common-property regimes may be what we need to create for the management of common-pool resources, at least if we can identify the factors and conditions that lead to successful regimes\" (McKean 1998: p. 30). Common-property regimes are also promising institutions for reconciling the forest use in a restricted area for timber and biodiversity.In the traditional forest thinking it is difficult to grasp forests as common-pool resources like groundwater aquifers or any environmental sink over time. The reason is that foresters are not used to separate the physical characteristics of a good from the type of a right (private or public) and the owners of rights (private or public body). If one looks at the physical characteristics of forests, one will find that it is difficult or costly to exclude those from the use of forests who are interested in public goods such as protection against natural forces, amenity values or biodiversity. Furthermore, due to the competing relationships of timber production and other forest services there is rivalry in consumption of the various goods and services. The attribute of competing uses and high population pressure requiring coordination among users to cope with externalities makes vesting property rights in group more efficient than vesting those rights to either in a single individual or trying to parcel the resource into individually titled patches (Gibson et al. 1998: p. 6). It is important to point out that common property is shared private property, although in Switzerland the \"Burgergemeinden\" are allocated to public forests in the forest ownership statistics. The property rights in a common-property regime fulfil all the requirements of private property rights: they can be clearly specified (are not vague), they are secure (not subject to whimsical confiscation) if they receive appropriate legal support from governments, they are by definition exclusive to the co-owners of the rights (others than the members of the group are excluded from benefits), and in some settings they are fully alienable through sale or bequest (McKean 1998: p. 31).In comparison to individual private property or public property rights, according to McKean (1998: p. 32), common-property regimes on forests have some advantages. Firstly, they are a way of providing the rights to goods (e.g. timber, protection against natural forces) without privatizing or parcelling the rights to the resource itself. The group members \"share ownership of the productive stock without chopping it in half, and they parcel the flow of use units into individually owned rights (equivalent to shared private ownership, or common property)\" (McKean 1998: p. 33). Secondly, by leaving forest unparcelled and managing them in large units, common-property regimes multiply public goods such as biodiversity, compared to managing the same area in separated parcels. Thirdly, in a common-property regime the multiple negative externalities that are implicit in forest management can be internalized by making forest management decisions jointly. Then the uphill forests will be managed in such a way that the gain in protection of the downhill village against natural forces will be greater than the sacrifice of timber.\"Joint resource management through common-property regimes may enhance efficiency by internalizing externalities, just as Coaseian exchange permits people to enhance their joint efficiency by dealing directly with an externality\" (McKean 1998: p. 34). The difference between both collective actions is that the actors of Coaseian negotiations hold their individual property rights whereas the members of a common-property regime adhere to a particular property-rights arrangement. Both approaches share the high transaction cost for achieving a compromise. Common-property regimes have the additional weakness of internal collective action problems, because they are comprised of more than one individual owner. Temptations to cheat on community rules may arise inside a common-property regime.Supervision by state officials and financial incentives can reduce these shortcomings. Then, productive efficiency through team production and economies of scale may outweigh losses due to shirking and cheating.Based on the work of Ostrom et al. (1994) and others, McKean enumerates a series of attributes of successful common-property regimes which she summarizes in the following propositions for devising common-property regimes (McKean 1998: p. 43):• Community of users is already accustomed to negotiating and cooperating with each other on other problems • Existing, but recently weakened institutions where the habits and techniques of negotiation and compromise are still in evidence • Local and national elites, or significant portions of them, are sympathetic to the attempt • Financial support is probably undesirable because it might well undermine local cooperation • To create non-overlapping commons for different communities is preferable rather than to have several communities sharing a single huge commons.A common-property regime promises to be a highly efficient tenure system for simultaneously managing a forest resource for private and public goods within a certain area. Although most of the existing common-property regimes on forests aim at sustained yield of timber, and in some cases also sustained protection against natural forces, their objectives can be expanded to also cover other public goods such as biodiversity.A third promising theoretical approach to explain the activities of the two camps is Sabatier´s (1988) Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). It is a theoretical concept to explain policy change within a time perspective of a decade or more. It emphasizes the importance of values and beliefs of the participating actors and asks about the conditions for their development and change (Hogl 1999: p. 166). The focus is on policy subsystems, which are defined as the interactions of actors from different institutions seeking to influence governmental decisions in a given policy area, e.g. forest policy. Within the subsystem, the ACF assumes that actors can be aggregated into a number (usually two or three) of networks, so called \"advocacy coalitions\", composed of people from various governmental and private organizations who share a set of normative and causal beliefs and who often act in concert (Jenkins-Smith and Sabatier 1994: p. 180). In the forest policy area we can find again our two camps in the \"timber production coalition\" and the \"forest conservation coalition\" (see Hogl 1999, Elliott 1999).Sabatier distinguishes between three categories of beliefs which are organized into a hierarchical structure. He calls the highest level the \"deep core\" of the belief system, which includes basic ontological and normative beliefs. On the next level are \"policy core\" beliefs which represent a coalition's normative commitments and causal perceptions across an entire policy domain or a sub-system. The third level consists of \"secondary aspects\" of a coalition's belief system. They comprise policy preferences regarding desirable policy regulations and the design of specific institutions etc., for pursuing the policy core.In general, deep core beliefs operate across all policy subsystems; they function almost like a religion. Examples are the beliefs in democratic values such as freedom, equality and solidarity, the limitation of natural resources, etc.A coalition´s policy core beliefs represent a coalition´s basic normative commitments and causal perceptions across a subsystem. They include fundamental value priorities, such as primacy of timber production of the timber production coalition (Glück 1987) or environmental protection of the forest conservation coalition.Beliefs in secondary aspects of a coalition within a specific subsystem comprise a large set of narrower beliefs concerning the seriousness of the problem or the impacts of policy means (e.g. appropriate certification approach for ensuring biodiversity).Each coalition attempts to influence the behaviour of one or more governmental institutions in order to make them more consistent with its policy objectives. In the case of conflicts \"policy brokers\" may occur whose main concern is to find a compromise. This is possible because the coalitions are prepared to learn from experience. Jenkins-Smith and Sabatier (1994: p. 182) call that \"policy-oriented learning\" and assume that the reluctance to change decreases from the deep core beliefs to the secondary aspects of a coalition. Whereas deep core beliefs are very resistant to change, change of policy core beliefs can occur if empirical accumulation of evidence reveals serious anomalies. Beliefs in secondary aspects are assumed to be more readily adjusted in the light of new data, experience, or changing strategic considerations. To sum up, policy-oriented learning is an important aspect of policy change, and can often alter secondary aspects of a coalition´s belief system, but changes in the policy core aspects of a governmental programme are usually the results of perturbations external to the subsystem (Jenkins-Smith and Sabatier 1994: p. 183).The probability of policy-oriented learning is a function of three variables: the level of conflict (hypothesis 6), the analytical tractability of the issue (hypotheses 7 and 8), and the presence of a professional forum (hypothesis 9). In detail, the ACF hypotheses are as follows.Hypothesis 6: Policy-oriented learning across belief systems is most likely when there is an intermediate level of informed conflict between the two coalitions. This requires that (i) each have the technical resources to engage in such a debate; and that (ii) the conflict be between secondary aspects of one belief system and core elements of the other or, alternatively, between important secondary aspects of the two belief systems. Hypothesis 7: Problems for which quantitative data and theory exist are more conducive to policy-oriented learning across belief systems than those in which data and theory are generally qualitative, quite subjective, or altogether lacking.Problems involving natural systems are more conducive to policy-oriented learning across belief systems than those involving purely social or political systems because in the former many of the critical variables are not themselves active strategists and because controlled experimentation is more feasible.Policy-oriented learning across belief systems is most likely when there exists a forum which is (i) prestigious enough to force professionals from different coalitions to participate; and (ii) dominated by professional norms. Elliott (1999: p. 429) found in his analyses of the development of certification programmes in three countries (Indonesia, Canada and Sweden), using the ACF as a theoretical reference framework, that referring to hypothesis 6 \"there has clearly been policy-oriented learning across belief systems in Sweden as evidenced by the identification of biodiversity conservation as a key issue. Both coalitions had the technical resources to engage in the debate and the level of conflict was generally intermediate\". As regards hypotheses 7 and 8 he ascertains that \"the collection of quantitative information on biodiversity conservation by scientists and NGOs catalyzed changes in policy core beliefs in both coalitions.\" As to hypothesis 9 he states that \"the Swedish FSC working group provided such a forum, and its effectiveness can be attributed in large part to the fact that it met both these criteria\". The four hypotheses on policy-oriented learning are also supported, at least in part, by Indonesia and Canada.Although this paper deals only with biodiversity, there is an increasing demand and even pressure on forest management to provide more public goods of a certain quality than are provided as positive externalities of exclusive timber production. This development raises a series of questions with potentially far-reaching impacts. Some of them are the following: Will the market forces meet the increasing demand? Are institutional consequences as regards forest tenure to be expected in the long term? Is mediation possible between the traditional and new forest uses? Does international and European forest policy benefit from this development? The three theoretical approaches discussed above allow us to draw some conclusions, at least about the direction in which the development goes.The market mechanism fails in the appropriate production of public goods. As their price is zero, the forest owner has no incentive to produce more of them than is supplied as positive externalities of timber production. However, some of the forest public goods are transformed into impure public goods (local public goods and club goods), for which a price can be charged, but this does not hold for all of them. Furthermore, if society demands timber from sustainably managed forests, the societal demand could be reflected by a market demand for certified timber. However, as existing surveys have found (Pajari et al. 1999), the consumers do not take much care from which forests the commodities come from. Thus, the conclusion can be drawn that the market potential should be fully utilized, but it cannot solve the sufficient provision of additional demands for all forest public goods.These findings have unavoidably triggered discussions on the appropriate combination of property rights and forest goods. There is an overwhelming consensus among economists and social scientists that private property is an inadequate arrangement for public goods for the above reasons, but an appropriate one for private goods such as timber products. As timber will not lose its economic importance in the future, but the relative importance of public goods will increase, new forms of forest ownership such as common-property regimes may develop. Such an institutional change in property rights on forests depends on the extent to which (i) private and public forest owners do not meet the new demands, (ii) the new demands on forest public goods increase, and (iii) the attributes of successful commonproperty regimes will be investigated.The latent conflicts between the timber production and the nature conservation network should not be underestimated. They are based on ideological beliefs on both sides and, therefore, difficult to change. However, the advocacy coalition framework assumes that the coalitions are prepared to learn from experience and to make compromises. This process can be supported by independent mediators (\"policy brokers\"), professional discussion forums as well as by empirical, scientifically based studies on the issues in question.The international instruments, initiatives and discussions on forests reveal that (i) many forest issues, such as pollution of forests or loss of biodiversity in forests, are global issues which affect the common heritage of mankind (\"common public goods\") which cannot be left to national jurisdictions, and (ii) the sovereign states were not able to solve these issues. An internationally-binding instrument on forests could certainly be an appropriate option when sufficient agreement is achieved on the content of obligations intended to be legally-binding.In this context national forest programmes gain importance for the implementation and evaluation of internationally achieved agreements. As regards the European Union, the employment of NFPs provides the European Union with additional influence in forest policy issues.The environmental conditions under which species exist are a result of the ambient abiotic conditions as well as the biotic components of that ecosystem. As components of an ecosystem, trees and other living organisms are continuously exposed to global changes. The changes connected with a greenhouse effect are more a question of degree than of new types of genetic processes differing from those occurring under \"normal\" environmental changes.During the first part of my presentation I shall comment on the dispersal ability which has been much discussed by ecologists. Secondly I shall discuss the ability to acclimate in a broad sense and finally I shall discuss the ability to respond genetically. Most of the time will be devoted to the genetic ability. Any of these abilities may help a species to survive in the long term. However, the ability to acclimate has its greatest significance for short-term survival. After that I will briefly discuss methods of gene conservation.Before discussing the different abilities it is useful to present some definitions. Fitness is the contribution of an individual to the next generation in relation to the contribution of others to the next generation. Adaptability is the ability of a population to respond genetically or phenotypically to any change in the environment. Adaptation is the process of becoming adapted.The dispersal ability is dependent on the vectors transferring the seeds, acorns, nuts, or other propagules. Generally, species with wind transfer have the capacity to spread their propagules over wider distances than species with animals as vectors. There is no definite border between the two. Also the size or the weight of the propagules will influence the dispersal ability.In many papers treating the ecological consequences of global warming the dispersal ability takes a prominent position. In my opinion many treat the consequences in a very simplistic way. Mostly the question is \"Where will the present climatic conditions be found after global warming?\" Based on this, the new distribution area is predicted without any consideration of the potential to acclimate or to evolve. Generally it is a question of pushing the southern border of a species northward as in the case of Norway spruce which in one prediction will have its southern border in Scandinavia close to latitude 60ºN instead of 56ºN which is the border today.Many ecologists fear that most species will not be able to migrate fast enough to cope with the speed of change in the environment expected after global warming. This is based on knowledge about previous rates of migration of different species. If this is true species mainly have to rely on the ability to respond genetically.As seen from Figure 1 phenotypic plasticity is the amplitude of a trait that a genotype can take when studied in several different environments. There is a variation in phenotypic plasticity among traits. The stronger the genetic control of a trait, the less the phenotypic plasticity. Trees with their indeterminate growth have a large potential to develop large phenotypic plasticity in growth traits. It is generally assumed that generative traits show a lower phenotypic plasticity than growth traits.Growth over a broad span of site conditions will probably contribute to the development of phenotypic plasticity. If this is accompanied by a continuous distribution and wind pollination the ideal combination for development of a large phenotypic plasticity prevails. Under such conditions phenotypic plasticity is expected to contribute to fitness. There is probably a difference between annual plants and long-lived tree species because the former can respond genetically to the changes in environmental conditions between years. Phenotypic plasticity does not contribute to fitness in annual plants in the same way as it does for tree species which have to endure large fluctuations among years in environmental conditions. Based on these assumptions it is expected that long-lived tree species such as Norway spruce, Scots pine and birches have a large phenotypic plasticity, since they are wind-pollinated with a continuous distribution and they grow over a broad range of climatic and sometimes edaphic conditions. Tree species with scattered distribution, with shortflying animals as pollen vectors, and which are demanding with respect to site conditions will probably have less phenotypic plasticity. Thus through adaptation they might have become specifically adapted to particular site conditions, which means that various ecotypes might be found in such species.The role of phenotypic plasticity is complex since it may be regarded as a disguise of the genotype, in this way so to say 'fooling' natural selection. Natural selection is most efficient when there is a close relationship between genotype and phenotype. In recent decades it has become more and more evident that not only traits are regulated genetically but also their phenotypic plasticity as well.It is assumed that phenotypic plasticity contributes to fitness in species with certain combinations of ecological characteristics. This is why there is a dashed arrow in Figure 1 pointing from the ability to acclimate to the ability to respond genetically.Environmental gradientFig. 1. Sche matic illustration of the ab ilities ne eded for sur vival under global war ming w ith speci al emphasis on phenotypic plasticity.This ability is dependent on the presence of additive variance. Additive variance is that part of the genetic variation that can be influenced by natural selection. (According to the definition additive variance is the variance of breeding values. The breeding value of a genotype is the double deviation of its progeny from the global mean of all progenies tested in the same experiment.).From Figure 2 it is evident that available additive variance depends on genetic drift which is a random process leading to homozygosity. It increases exponentially with decreasing number of mating individuals. Increase in homozygosity at the cost of heterozygosity reduces the amount of additive variance. Genetic drift is a strong evolutionary force in populations with less than 20 mating trees. In principle inbreeding causes the same effect as genetic drift. When genetic drift or inbreeding dominate, the amount of additive variance is low. In this context it might be of interest to discuss how many mating trees are needed for a good sample of additive variance in a species. This number is also dependent on random genetic drift which at high numbers does not influence additive variance much. Thus a random sample of 500 mating trees will capture 99.9% of the additive variance while addition of another 500 trees will only raise this figure to 99.95%. Therefore, some population geneticists talk about the magic number of 500. This figure has recently been challenged because some of the additive variance might reduce the fitness of its carrier. To overcome this, 5000 trees would be a better estimate of the number needed. On the other hand, directional selection over 100 generations in much smaller populations than 500 has resulted in a continuous response to this kind of selection. It indicates that enough additive variance was available during all these generations. If one prefers a conservative approach to sampling, then the larger number is needed. However, this means that enough trees will seldom be available for gene conservation of rare and less common tree species. Mutations at individual loci occur at a low rate, varying between one per ten thousand to one per million per generation. Therefore, mutations give a small contribution to the additive variance. However, the summed mutation rates in all loci influencing a quantitative trait are estimated to be several times higher. Fertilization with pollen coming from other populations may increase the additive variance considerably. This is referred to as geneflow.A species with continuous distribution before global warming may be fragmented owing to global warming. Therefore, species with this kind of distribution are more likely to be affected by global warming than species with an already scattered or disjunct distribution. Fragmentation may influence the genetic drift, inbreeding, and geneflow.A schematic illustration of the effect of fragmentation is given in Figure 3. The two central populations become extinct after global warming. The strength of the geneflow is indicated by the breadth of the arrows. The figure illustrates that the strength of the geneflow decreases with the distance between the populations. There is no geneflow between the two most distant populations before fragmentation. Intuitively it is believed that such fragmentation will lead to a complete isolation of the two surviving populations with an accompanied decrease of additive variance. However, there are a few investigations showing that there was a stronger geneflow between previously isolated populations. In consequence, fragmentation will lead to increased additive variance in the remaining populations. Therefore, we cannot state that fragmentation is detrimental in all cases for the continued survival of a species.if the populations are small genetic drift random loss of genes Increased variance through \"forced \"geneflow between the populationsChanged environment leading to loss of central populations Even if I have praised additive variance as most essential for the ability to respond genetically in changed environmental conditions, there is another side of the coin. In the short run a homogeneous population without any additive variance may be more competitive in a specific environment than a heterogeneous one. The additive variance might be regarded as a genetic load in the short term. When the environmental conditions are expected to change dramatically, extra concern for the vegetatively or asexually propagated species with limited additive variance is justified as regards priorities in gene conservation. This may be relevant for some tree species belonging to the Rosaceae family.Adaptive traits may be positively or negatively correlated with each other. If the correlations are negative, progress in one trait results in recession in the other trait. Therefore, in such a case the ability to respond genetically in both adaptive traits is considerably constrained (Fig. 4). The stronger the positive correlation is between two adaptive traits, the greater the possibility for genetic response. From the above discussion it is obvious that either the dispersal ability or the ability to respond genetically has to be larger than the speed of the environmental change in order to guarantee the survival of a species (see Fig. 5). The ability to respond genetically depends largely on the presence of additive variance. The ability to acclimate is mainly of importance in the short-term perspective. It is also evident that a long-generation species must contain more additive variance than an annual species to cope with the change genetically. One way of classifying gene conservation methods is to distinguish between static and dynamic methods. Above I have strongly emphasized the need for species to be able to respond to the expected changes in the environment. This means that any static method for preservation of the present genetic structure is not useful. Seed banks are excluded. More than 20 years ago the North American scientist Gene Namkoong developed the concept of multiple populations in tree breeding to cope with changes in trait values and environmental changes. Later on he extended the concept of Multiple Population Breeding System (MPBS) to encompass both breeding and gene conservation. Some 15 years ago he showed that breeding, if carried out according to this concept, takes care of gene conservation. The essence of MPBS is that the combined breeding and gene conservation population is subdivided into approximately 20 subpopulations. These subpopulations are distributed over a broad array of site conditions and during the course of the development of the subpopulations their genetic structure may be changed by natural selection, i.e. adaptation has taken place in the subpopulations. One schematic example of the principles and merits of the MPBS is given in Figure 6.Besides the advantage of being dynamic, the MPBS method increases the amongsubpopulation additive variance over generations while keeping the within-population additive variance at a satisfactory level. The speed of response to selection may also be faster in several small populations than in one large population. If the sampling of the subpopulations incorporates the span of site conditions existing over the distribution area of a species, then it is a guarantee for capturing low-frequency genes. In Figure 7 one difference between dynamic and static gene conservation is illustrated. Static gene conservation is widely accepted as regards agricultural crops. The objective of gene conservation in crop plant species is mostly to have a material ready for breeders who want to transfer a desired gene into a high-yielding variety. This can be accomplished by 7-8 generations of back crossings, a technique that is beyond the possibility for long-lived forest trees. If the forest tree breeder's objective is preservation of the present genetic constitution as a reference for future comparisons, then ex situ storage of seeds or other propagules is the most efficient method.  The essence of dynamic gene conservation is to promote adaptation by exposing the gene resource population to natural selection. It should be noted that this might be obtained both by ex situ and in situ methods. Educated guesses about future environmental conditions can help to prepare the gene resource populations for adaptation under the new conditions. A prerequisite for natural selection to be operative is that the gene resource population is large enough to avoid genetic drift. Since additive variance is another prerequisite for natural selection, the sampling should be carried out such that maximum additive variance is captured. To achieve sampling without any genetic knowledge, educated guesses about existing genetic variation must guide the sampling. If successful we shall be close to the maximum of the genetic part of the adaptability.A fulfilment of these requirements is part of adaptive genetic management. As regards natural populations that have been designated as gene resource populations, it is obvious that dynamic gene conservation requires that the gene resource population is regenerated. We have seen too many cases where a gene resource population is being replaced by a population of another species owing to a don't touch attitude to gene resource populations. Such an attitude means that the designated gene resource population is a dead end. Thus, active measures should be taken whenever there is a need for maintenance of the gene resource population over generations. It is expected that there will be a strong pressure on forest land in future. Therefore, it is important to evaluate whether or not a potential gene resource population has its long-term existence threatened before it is designated as a gene resource population.The multiple population breeding system (MPBS) is the best method for a dynamic forest tree gene conservation.Either the dispersal ability or the ability to respond genetically has to be larger than the speed of change for a species to survive under environmental changes. As regards the genetic part there is no principle difference in the processes going on under more \"normal\" environmental conditions than under global warming; it is rather a question of degree. Under rapid environmental change dynamic gene conservation becomes more important than ever before. The Multiple Population Breeding System is a good system to apply. It should be emphasized that measures should be taken to guarantee regeneration of the gene resource populations.There are numerous reasons for concern with regard to the future of global forest resources. The general public perceives three main problem areas:• The destruction and degradation of forest cover in developing countries both in the arid and humid tropical/subtropical zones • The loss of biological diversity due to non-sustainable forest management practices • Consequences of expected environmental changes, especially climate change on forest ecosystems.The possible effect of environmental changes on forest ecosystems is treated by many authors as a problem of stability, determined by the diversity of the communities. It is widely believed that in natural conditions diversity (mostly understood as species diversity) is ecologically balanced and optimized. Accordingly, natural processes of selection and succession follow and buffer environmental changes even in worst-case scenarios, such as elevated temperatures and increasing aridity at medium latitudes. Mediterranean-type vegetation is forecast in large parts of western Europe as well as the northward advance of deciduous and boreal forest zone limits.The underlying concept is that these processes function best in natural-state communities where the genetic diversity of natural species contains an optimum of adaptive potential to effectively counterbalance unforeseeable changes. The restoration of natural diversity conditions, of natural plant communities appears to be a logical and sound measure to take. In this respect, however, questions to be addressed are:• Is diversity per se a goal, which warrants stability and adaptability? In addition, are all elements of diversity equally important? • Should human interference in forest ecosystems (e.g. change of dominant tree species composition, artificial regeneration, selection through intermediate cutting) be regarded as necessarily destructive?Presuming an effective functioning of ecological optimization (i.e. adaptation), ecotypic variation has to be anticipated at the within-species level, which means in genetic terms:• Small effective population sizes • Relative reproductive isolation • Existence of site-specific alleles.In case of relatively fast environmental changes, locally adapted population structure would lead to acclimation problems, causing irreparable loss of certain alleles and adaptation stress. If this holds true, a need for immediate action arises in areas where significant climate changes are anticipated. On the other hand, genetic research results from the last decades show that:• Much of the observed genetic variation pattern is adaptively not interpretable • Effective population sizes are unexpectedly large • Geneflow between populations is strong • Acclimation of introduced species or of transferred populations is fast• Most of the genetic variation is found at the within-population level • Epigenetic effects seem to provide a yet unknown potential for plasticity • Few cases of environment-specific allelic distribution could be verified.The above facts support the opinion that there is a significant genetic buffering capacity in the investigated forest tree species, which means at the same time that precise adaptation to local site conditions is improbable due to constraints of the genetic system. From the point of view of gene conservation, this picture implies that in general, changes in environmental conditions do not cause an immediate emergency situation, such as irreparable losses of unique vital alleles.Then, what triggers mass mortality phenomena observed in the last years for a number of tree species? The genetic and ecological causes have to be investigated thoroughly because the results contribute significantly to our perception of the response of natural ecosystems to changing conditions. Valuable information can be gathered from:• Common garden experiments, i.e. provenance tests • Time series on mortality with regard to climate extremes.When investigating causes for ecosystem or population-level adaptation constraints, the following main effects should be pointed out:• Limitations in migration • Exhausted buffering capacity • Distribution pattern of the species • Human interference.Migration speed of forest tree species, in terms of expanding distribution limits, has been explored from paleobotanical data. In general, the average advance velocity, following large-scale interglacial warmings, seems to fall between 100 and 400 m per year for most species. In a worst-case scenario for Central Europe, i.e. a warming of 2.5 o C in 35 years, the northward switch of isotherms would be much faster. The south-north horizontal movement might be 1.5 to 3.5 km per year. This is a magnitude faster than indicated by paleobotanical data. In vertical direction, the increase in temperature requires a much slower pace, i.e. around 15 m in altitude per year.The given figures refer to the migration of species in form of seeds. No data are available about the velocity of geneflow by pollen, i.e. how fast alleles migrate within the distribution area of the species. Given the high intensity of geneflow, the speed must probably exceed seed migration by 2 magnitudes.The above speculations imply that with changing conditions the allelic frequencies of populations might be adjusted relatively fast, however it has been also shown that this has only limited importance.On the southern limits of the deciduous forest belt, on the edge of the continental steppe zone, the situation is different. It has to be said clearly that in these areas the problem is first of all that there are no alternative tree species that might take over the successional positions of species which have reached the limits of their tolerance and disappear from the ecosystem.Even in less threatened positions migration by natural means is hampered by human interference. Climate change scenarios calculate with unconstrained natural succession; in reality forests in Central Europe are under intense silvicultural management, where artificial regeneration leaves little space for natural processes. Even if this were the case, the fragmentation of the forest cover limits the migration of species.Mass mortality phenomena have been experienced in Central Europe in connection with a series of drought years, stressing especially the populations planted outside of their original area of distribution. A good example is the fate of Norway spruce in West Hungary. But even within natural distribution areas, \"Waldsterben\" was proven to be triggered first of all by low rainfall and high summer temperatures, such as in the case of oaks.Fragmentation and regulated forest management affects nearly all the forest cover in Central Europe. This leads not only to restriction of species migration, but in case of \"minor\" species to reproductive isolation and interception of geneflow, even to local extinctions.For widely distributed, economically important species these threats are not relevant except for the populations at the southern/low elevation limits of the distribution area. As species occurrence in these areas is restricted by the genetically limited tolerance of the species, any significant unfavourable shift of environmental conditions triggers first a productivity loss, followed by increased mortality.Even before the appearance of \"Waldsterben\" symptoms, sexual reproduction and regeneration are increasingly hindered. Vitality loss and mortality affects the older age classes first, resulting in fructification decline and loss of seed viability. Regeneration conditions become increasingly difficult not only because of more infrequent and lowvitality seed crop, but also due to microclimate change on the ground (decreasing topsoil moisture, weed and shrub competition due to canopy gaps).Expected climate instability threatens first of all the southern, low elevation, and continental climate peripheries of the distribution area of the main forest tree species. To a lesser extent, populations growing in smaller mountain ranges, where no \"reserve altitude\" is available to migrate into, are also endangered. Species with scattered or restricted distribution, as well as those with low-density occurrence are more threatened than the main tree species.In view of expected climate stress conditions, gene conservation programmes should consider for economically important species the northward relocation of breeding populations and the evacuation of valuable, threatened outlier populations on the southern fringes of distribution.For species with restricted distribution and low density, evacuation into archives or new habitat is necessary. Admixed species occurring in stands of economically important tree species should be included into the gene conservation efforts.It should be made clear that in areas threatened by unfavourable climate changes, human interference is indispensable. The policy to lower management intensity and to leave adjustment of forest communities to natural forces will generally not be applicable. The interference of foresters to maintain forest cover and to keep adaptable populations is an important contribution to the stability of forest ecosystems.Targets of conservation and evacuation measures should be populations with high phenotypic plasticity, growing on favourable, sufficiently variable sites. Priority should be given to stability over autochthonous origin, both on genetic (population) and community (species) level. This implies that the maintenance of adaptively less important diversity within and between populations is of secondary importance.Forest management in the threatened zones should be understood as the stewardship of a stable forest cover in the interest of maintaining the vital ecological functions of the forest in the human environment. In most countries, however, society is not readily acknowledging the obvious need for supporting these activities by external funding.The maintenance of biological diversity has become an important element of sustained forest management. The aggressive realization of this basically correct policy provokes, however, certain questions especially in Central Europe, where human interference in forest ecosystems shaped the genetic resources of present stands and plant communities, and where ecological consequences of civil engineering measures of the past (first of all changes in hydrological conditions), as well as expected climate changes, threaten the future of the forest resources.The development of criteria and indicators for assessing the sustainability of forestry practices is an international process, where several organizations are at work either for temperate and boreal or for tropical forests. The criteria span biological, economical, sociological and legal issues.The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the population genetics foundations behind genetic criteria and indicators. I will first review some basic relevant aspects in population genetics, then I consider the application of these principles for tropical forestry (Namkoong et al. 1996;Namkoong et al. submitted), and last I will discuss the relevance of these criteria for temperate and boreal forests.We first consider the evolutionary forces that govern the genetic variability in populations. These are mutation, the mating system and recombination, genetic drift, migration, and selection. We know quite well the basic principles of population genetics which determine how these forces influence variability and its distribution in populations (Kimura andCrow 1970, Gillespie 1998). It is always necessary to consider the balance of evolutionary forces. In the simplest case (with no selection), mutation and drift will determine the level of variability. The expected heterozygosity at some locus, H, will be 4Nµ/(1+4Nµ), where N is the effective population size and µ the mutation rate. The commonly used genetic markers are often considered to be only weakly if at all influenced by selection, and thus governed by this equation. As an example, we know that the North American red pine (Pinus resinosa) has very low variability at marker genes (Fowler and Morris 1977), whereas Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is one of the most variable organisms; for review, see e.g. Muona (1990). Since there is no reason to suspect that these two species would have very different mutation rates, the conclusion is that red pine has a much smaller (maybe two orders of magnitude) effective population size. Noting that the current distribution range of red pine is large, what counts here is a bottleneck in an earlier time, the effects of which are still being seen. This also illustrates that historical effects can have large influence on genetic variability (Nei et al. 1975, Fowler andMorris 1977). Further, this shows that we cannot point to some level of variability at marker genes that pine trees would need to survive. For a long time, red pine has been a successful species, despite lack of variation (but not favourite of tree breeders!). Genetic variability in Australian Acacias (measured as expected heterozygosity at the same set of loci in different species ) ranged from about 0.02 to more than 0.30 (Moran et al. 1989). Again, historical effects are likely to account for these differences between species with rather similar life histories.Many of the factors listed, genetic drift, migration and mating system will affect, on average, all loci in the genome in a similar way. An important exception is selection, where the effects are highly locus-specific. To illustrate this principle again with Scots pine, the autumn frosts in northern Europe will certainly distinguish the genotypes which are dormant and frost-resistant from those which continue growth too late. However, all genotypes at a marker locus might have equal probabilities of survival in the face of such frost. The effects of the selection depend on the balance between migration and selection. If selection is strong, relative to migration, the populations will differentiate, as is found with respect to frost tolerance in Scots pine in Finland (Hurme et al. 1997). If migration is extensive relative to selection (Koski 1970), then no differentiation is expected to occur, as is found at marker loci, also in Scots pine (Karhu et al. 1996).From basic population genetics theory, we also understand how changes in the evolutionary factors will influence genetic variability. For instance, increased genetic drift will reduce variability within a population, and increase variation between populations. Or increased directional selection would alter the gene frequencies, as well as reduce variation. Increased migration will render populations more homogeneous (at least if selection is not considered). Many population genetics textbooks describe these principles (Gillespie 1998).There are about 100 000 species of trees, of which nearly 10 000 species are threatened. Forestry is one of the causes threatening these species. Forestry is often combined with other threats to the species as well: changes in climate, altering patterns of land use. Sustainable forestry does not only refer to the forest tree species, but the health of the whole ecosystem must be addressed.Gene Namkoong led a process aimed at developing criteria and indicators for mainly tropical forestry, under the auspices of CIFOR, the Center for International Forestry Research based in Indonesia (Namkoong et al. 1996;Namkoong et al. submitted). A set of criteria was developed in a workshop held in Indonesia in 1996, and these were later tested in Cameroon.Genetic sustainability could be construed as maintaining current genetic variability. However, there is no possibility to obtain such baseline data on all relevant species. Also, as discussed above, there is no minimum level of genetic variability that can be designated as necessary for the genetic health of the species, even among species with similar life histories. Thus, the criterion for genetic sustainability of forestry was chosen to be \"Conservation of the processes that maintain genetic variation\".It is evident that we cannot directly see the processes, but they are reflected in various ways in the genetic composition of the populations. Observing changes in such processes is even more difficult. The effects of the changes in processes become visible over long time spans. A further constraint is that current population genetics is a high-tech labour-intensive effort, the criteria developed for practical silviculture must be easy to assess, by people who are not fully trained geneticists, but more likely forest technicians in tropical countries.The use of forest resources can take several forms: logging, grazing, harvesting of nontimber forest products. Rather than trying to directly relate their consequences on genetic variability, we need to consider the effects on the evolutionary factors. For instance, if a population of 1000 trees is thinned to one tenth of its density, how will genetic variability be affected? If we assume that there are no other effects besides the density reduction, then the change would be through an increase in genetic drift. Drift depletes genetic variation at the rate of 1/(2N) per generation. Instead of losing 1/2000 of variability per generation, the rate of loss of genetic variation would be 1/200 per generation, one half of one percent, a difference so small in one generation as not to be detectable, nor worth the concern to try to detect it.Silvicultural measures can be classified with respect to what kinds of changes they are likely to cause in the evolutionary processes. In most cases the effects will not be as simple as above, because many silvicultural measures could have effects on many factors, e.g. a reduction in the density of trees could also influence behaviour of pollinators, and thus cause a change in the mating system. Such complex interactions are perhaps especially likely in tropical ecosystems where animal pollination is frequent, rather than in wind-pollinated conifer forests. The proposal by Namkoong et al. (1996) tabulates various silvicultural measures with respect to their effects on evolutionary factors.We then developed five indicators of the genetic processes for assessing the effects of forestry management. These are: level of genetic variation, directional changes in gene or genotypic frequencies, gene migration between populations, mating system, and as a fifth indicator, feasibility of preventive of restorative actions (Namkoong et al. submitted).All of these indicators are accompanied by verifiers, which are actually measured in the forests. For most of the genetic indicators, there are two levels of verifiers. Demographic verifiers are easy and cheap to measure, and we hope have predictive power for the real genetic verifiers. For instance, the demographic verifiers for level of genetic variability are: number of sexually mature individuals (N>50), the number of reproducing individuals (N>30), and the phenotypic coefficient of variation. If there are enough reproducing individuals, we would not worry about the effects of genetic drift. The phenotypic variation could suggest that there is also genetic variation. If these verifiers were to fail, then it would be necessary to go to the genetic verifiers, and measure numbers of alleles or gene diversity at marker loci, or measure additive genetic variation for quantitative traits. We also tried to include critical levels for the different verifiers (above in parentheses).Likewise, demographic and genetic verifiers were developed for all indicators.It is evident that this process is not finished. The applicability of the system has been tested in Cameroon, after which the details were further defined, but more tests will be necessary. Research into the relationships between the demographic and genetic verifiers is needed. There are solid theoretical predictions, the accuracy of which needs to be tested in field situations.The population genetic principles governing genetic variability hold equally in tropical and temperate or boreal forests. There are still many important differences between the ecosystems and forestry practices that need to be considered. The relatively low numbers of tree species in the boreal and temperate forests are largely wind-pollinated. For some species, human influence has lasted for thousands of years, such that hardly any natural populations are left. Other species, at least in some areas, are just entering the phase of intensive domestication and improvement. Thus, \"forestry\" in a broad sense does not just concern logging operations. We also need to consider gene reserve populations, breeding populations, multiplication populations, and actual production populations. For many such species, there are large amounts of data available.We have suggested that at least boreal conifers are, from the population genetic aspects, rather robust in the face of forestry (Savolainen and Kärkkäinen 1992). The forestry practices and their consequences are rather well understood. There is, however, an important limitation. Most of the work is based on marker genes, and quantitative variation has not been directly studied.Within the framework of EUFORGEN the emphasis is on genetic variation in forest trees. However, forestry has its most significant effects elsewhere. For instance in Finland, forestry practices endanger many other plant species and animals, as old forests become rare. Many of these species will also face genetic consequences of losing their habitat.The European temperate and boreal forests provide excellent opportunities for studying and understanding the relationships between forestry practices and genetic variation in the widely used species. This understanding can then be applied to Europe's less studied species, and for species in other biogeographical areas.Karen Ter-Ghazaryan Forest Research and Experimental Centre, Ministry of Nature Protection, Yerevan, ArmeniaThe Trans-Caucasus sub-region is situated in the southern part of the former Soviet Union (FSU), covering an area of 186 340 km 2 between 38°26' and 43°34' of the northern longitude, and 40º00' and 50º20' of the eastern latitude.There are three former Soviet Union countries located in the sub-region: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.In Armenia, the agricultural sector (which included forestry up to 1995) accounted for 38% of GDP in 1996, and employed about 25% of the active labour force. The land reform in 1991 has resulted in the privatization of most agricultural land (tilled land, not grazing areas) and livestock, resulting in an estimated 325 000 new landholders (1997), most of whom lack experience or skills in modern agriculture and sustainable land-use practices.Soil erosion is a major problem, affecting 60% of the agricultural land. This is due mainly to poor agricultural practices, such as the use of livestock manure as household fuel, and the uncontrolled overgrazing of pasture lands. Grazing also takes place on forest lands, and is a major impediment to natural forest regeneration in some areas.The possibilities for effective nature protection are good, as the nature in the country is exceptionally rich and diverse. There are still areas practically undisturbed by man in the remote mountains. The advance of illegal forest harvesting is endangering the existence of the old-growth forests, especially indigenous coniferous (pine, juniper) forests.Due to its position at the meeting point of three diverse biogeographic regions and the mountainous nature of its landscape, the country sustains high biological diversity and a number of endemic species of the Caucasus. Approximately 11% of the territory is covered by forests, at altitudes from 500 to 2700 m asl, characterized by more than 200 species of trees and shrubs (Ter-Ghazaryan 1998).One fundamental problem in Armenia's forestry is that environmental impact analysis has not been carried out for methods used in logging and forest regeneration. For instance, new methods were used without any prior knowledge of their effects on the environment. Well-known examples of this are soil scarification by means of ploughing and harrowing, or use of chemicals. Non-native tree species and provenances have been introduced without first establishing what the environmental consequences would be.Natural forest ecosystems are increasingly being replaced by artificial forests, thus endangering forest genetic resources. Deciduous forests are in general replaced by conifers and marginal agricultural land is planted with fast-growing hybrid exotic poplars. Planted pines replace natural mountain oak forests. The area occupied with mixed forests is slowly declining. Virgin old-growth forest is decreasing, upon which many species of plants and animals depend.Forest roads are built without permits or adequate planning, which often results in fragmented forest landscapes. This may threaten certain species of plants and animals sensitive to such disturbance.As a result of the economic collapse, which severely affected wood processing industries, the reported contribution of the forestry sub-sector to the national economy has shrunk to less than 0.5% of GDP. In reality, forests are a source of timber, fuelwood, non-wood forest products (NWFP), game meat and recreation for a large number of people whose salary levels are inadequate for household requirements. Particularly in rural areas have forests been of great importance for people's survival and well-being during recent years. The forests represent also other environmental utilities, like greenhouse gases sequestration and carbon storage. These forest services are not included in the GDP calculations. Azerbaijan is predominantly a mountainous country. Yet, along with high mountain ridges, there are vast plains and lowlands. Eighteen per cent of the country's territory is situated below the sea level. The climate varies from subtropical and dry in central and eastern Azerbaijan to subtropical and humid in the southeast, temperate along the shores of the Caspian Sea, and cold at the higher mountain zone. Most of country receives scant rainfall (152 to 254 mm annually).A key aspect of the government's reform programme is land reform and farm restructuring. The Land Reform Law from July 1996 aimed to transfer land to private ownership.The country is rich in biodiversity. The flora is represented by 4300 species of which 240 are endemic. The fauna encountered more than 600 species of vertebrates.Fourteen state reserves with a total area of 191 200 hectares which comprise 2.2% of the total area of the Republic are in place in Azerbaijan. They include all major natural landscapes and contribute to the preservation of the biodiversity of the Caucasus. The total forest area is 1 213 700 ha, of which 989 300 ha are covered with forest. Ten percent of the forests are considered as primarily water protective, 70% as soil protective, sanitation belts 12%, and 8% as special forests.During the last six years quite large forest areas were damaged by illegal cutting. It is reported unofficially that the quantity of the trees felled is as high as 20% of the total amount of trees. Roads were built through pristine areas.Air and water pollution are widespread and pose great challenges to economic development.Major sources of pollution include oil refineries and chemical and metallurgical industries.During the Soviet era, Georgia was an important exporter of wine, tea, fruits and vegetables. Land use favoured the production of citrus, grapes, tobacco or tea in large plantations, and agroindustry accounted for about two-fifths of total industry output in Georgia.Political events and disruption of trade have seriously disturbed the balance. Agricultural production in 1995 was about half of its 1990 level. About 80% of the required food grain are imported.Despite that the energy crisis has reduced overall air pollution during the last few years, it has also made some other environmental problems more acute.In Georgia the soil erosion is one of the most serious problems. Deforestation and improper agricultural practices, in addition to its detrimental results, negatively affect the fertile soil layer. According to the last available information, about 1 million hectares (33% of total agricultural land area) were eroded during last decades. During the last seven years the amount of arable lands has been reduced by 11 000 ha due to this erosion.Saline soils are another serious problem, specifically in the eastern lowlands.Local sources of water contamination, such as the sewage system in Tbilisi, Batumi and some other main cities, many of which pour untreated into water, also cause concern. Other main pollutants of water and soil are normally agricultural activities, but due to reduction in the use of chemicals and mineral fertilizers, the situation is relatively better than before the economic crisis.The forests cover 38% of the territory of Georgia, from 500 to 2300-2500 m asl. Beech, oak, hornbeam, chestnut, ash and maple are predominant broadleaved species. Georgia's forests are rich also with coniferous species: Nordman fir, Eastern spruce and Caucasian pine. Almost all forests are located on mountainous sites.About 500 000-600 000 ha of forests are considered as not accessible, and thus completely undisturbed by man. Mean growing stock is 300 m 3 /ha.In Georgia 14 state reserves covering 168 000 ha were established with the forest as a main landscape type. Many endangered tree species are under special protection, in particular native oak species, junipers, and yew.Georgia supports a rich biodiversity that includes about 4500 species of vascular plants. Endemic plant species constitute about 9% of the total flora. Georgia is characterized by a wide variety of plant communities, with examples of almost all of the main habitat types found elsewhere in Europe.No reliable information as to the amount or distribution of illegal felling is available, although the situation can improve as the German Development Agency (GTZ) currently undertakes independent aerial observations. It is reported that the amount of registered illegal cuttings reached 50 000 m 3 in 1995, but in reality this figure could be much higher. The World Bank (WB) represents a largest donor in the entire sub-region. Its lending to Armenia is designed to help the government to accelerate the transition to the market economy and to alleviate the large pockets of poverty that have emerged over the last years.The emphasis so far was on the promotion of the private sector development and the establishment of a targeted system of social security. The WB's assistance programme aims to support Azerbaijan in its transition by providing policy advice with supporting economic and sectoral work, through adjustment and investment lending, and through aid coordination.The objective of WB's assistance to Georgia is to help reverse the economic decline of the past few years, assist the transition to a market economy, and help alleviate poverty. In addition to promoting private sector development and supporting infrastructure, the WB's assistance will also improve public management, develop human resources and institutional capacities, strengthen the social safety net, and promote regional environmental initiatives.Stemming environmental degradation in the newly independent states remains a difficult task in view of limited domestic resources. The World Bank has supported efforts to tackle this issue by helping governments to develop national environmental action plans (NEAP), which emphasize sustainable policy changes and further institution building.The financial assistance targeted to halt the degradation of the environment and forest resources in the sub-region should still be raised. At present the level of the financial support for these areas does not exceed 1% of the total WB lending. Moreover, in 1997 there were no allocations made for these areas. This hardly can coincide with the strategy of the WB, which basically should balance economic, social and environmental needs of the countries. The issue of effectiveness also must receive greater attention in terms of the focusing on the greater success areas. Partnerships should be developed with the players in areas where they have a comparative advantage.The concept of forest policy adopted at the workshop that took place in Yerevan, Armenia (May 1995) is one that aims to satisfy objectives related to environmental protection, economic and rural development, and land use. The principles upon which forest policy is based are conservation, afforestation and regeneration, sustainable and multiple use of forest resources, and maximum participation of private and non-governmental organizations in the forestry development. The last two principles represent major departures from past policy, which did not address timber production use of forests as well as non-governmental participation in forest activities.Cooperation with the UN Agencies in Azerbaijan enabled a number of international organizations to cooperate in the field of environmental protection. Negotiations have been held with UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank, and environmental organizations from USA, UK, Germany, Turkey, Iran and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The \"Agreement on cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental protection\" was signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey. A \"Protocol on Cooperation between the Environmental Protection Ministry of the UK and the State Committee for the Environment\" and an \"Agreement on cooperation between the British Petroleum Company and State Committee for the Environment in the field of Ecology and Environmental Protection\" are also in effect.A National Environmental Action Plan supported by the UNDP and World Bank is under preparation.The Government of Georgia prepared the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), which will identify priorities and set goals for environmental management, regulatory policy and related institutional development. Forestry is one of the components in this national planning activity.The reforms in the fields of forest policy and legislation are more important than ever before. The overall economic and social changes together with the increasing need for sustainable forestry development urged the countries to develop their own forest policies and legislation to meet the requirements of the market economy in a pluralistic political system.Before independence the international cooperation in the forestry sector of Armenia was planned and implemented by central institutions of the FSU. Rather strong links were maintained between Armenian and Russian forestry institutions. The Trans-Caucasus regional workshops were promoted on a periodical basis. The proceedings of such research workshops and seminars are available in Russian. Armenian foresters participated also in all-Russian symposia and conferences. On the other hand, the linkages with western partners and institutions were incomparably weak.Since 1998 the Forest Research and Experimental Centre is operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Nature Protection. The Centre coordinates activities related to the promotion of foreign cooperation and assistance, and is involved in donor relations and screening process as well as mobilization of financial support. A similar agency was established also in Georgia.Although workshops and seminars were considered as the most important means of transferring knowledge and information, the donor and recipient countries expressed concerns regarding insufficient follow-up actions.As it became evident during the transition period, the existing capacities are not able to address all problems under the new circumstances, not even those institutions which were very efficient in the previous system. Especially the institutional framework of forest management, the forestry extension service, and the statistical and information systems need to be strengthened. There is an urgent need also to design and implement the national strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of the forest and agroforestry genetic resources.The environmental and forestry development issues are one of the main elements in the entire framework of the projected development assistance to the countries in transition, and particularly to Trans-Caucasus countries. Nevertheless, multilateral agencies keep their differences while addressing the issues mentioned. In particular the WB, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) are stressing the introduction of environmentally sound approaches in the overall economic and sectoral development policies over the transitional period. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) following its global mandate is emphasizing the capacity building programmes. The United Nations Environment Programme, the European Union/Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (EU/TACIS), the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are mainly dealing with conservation and sustainable use of natural resources including forests. The International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) major policy being to eradicate rural poverty and hunger at a global scale and to ensure food security, is addressing the environmental/forestry policies indirectly.The largest donor NGOs (WWF, IUCN, Ford Foundation, and Soros Foundation) are mainly stressing the objectives of nature conservation, larger involvement of communities, and sustainable and equitable use of resources.Just a few of the multilateral and bilateral donor agencies are mentioning forest development issues as their priority field of intervention. Among these are:• WB -Forest management Many funding agencies are dealing with forestry development issues indirectly, through more generalized programmes, like natural resources sustainable use, biodiversity protection, transfer of technology and know-how, etc. It is evident that the resources earmarked for the forestry development projects in this case will be considerably small.Given the considerable extent of the forest resources in the Trans-Caucasus and its potential as a contributor to the socioeconomic development in the region, and taking into consideration the vastly changed economic situation compared with FSU times, there is an urgent need for a broadly based both national and regional debate on the development of the forestry sector, leading to the formulation of national forest programmes. The latter would, inter alia, be necessary as a basis for attracting foreign participation and assistance. It would also lead to proposals for the most critical issue of the conservation and sustainable use of the forest genetic resources.According to the State Committee on Forests of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the total forest area was 8 285 300 ha (\"forest fund\" as of 1 January 1995) or approximately 19% of the country's territory. The area covered by forests was 1 945 600 ha (5%).Owing to the variety of natural conditions, several forest types are distinguished: mountain forest, desert forest, valley forest and riparian forest (called \"tugay\"). The major part of the area designated as forest fund is concentrated in deserts (6 971 300 ha) and mountains (1 185 100 ha), whilst valleys (171 100 ha) and the tugay zone (57 800 ha) harbour a smaller proportion of forests in Uzbekistan.Insufficient forest protection in the past, as well as the current absence of economic use of many forest areas, unlimited pasture and fires have led to a decrease of forest resources. Consequently, forests do not cover a significant proportion of the territory, are scattered in small areas far from settlements and mainly found in almost inaccessible places. Thus, the weakening of forest ecosystems through the loss of species or at least through the impoverishment of the genepool of their populations occur under the influence of anthropogenic factors. The situation is alarming. An urgent action is required in order to conserve the genetic potential of remnant forests in Central Asia.Priority species in the plan for conservation of biodiversity and genetic resources in the mountain forest zone are: junipers (Juniperus sp.), Persian walnut (Juglans regia), pistachio (Pistacia vera), almond (Amygdalis sp.), apple (Malus sieversii), local species of hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), maple (Acer sp.), ash (Fraxinus sp.), pear (Pyrus sp.), plum (Prunus sp.), apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris) and shrubs: barberry (Berberis sp.), rose (Rosa sp.) and commonsea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides). Juniper stands formed by three species are the basis of mountain forests.The desert forest is formed basically with two species of saxaul: white saxaul (Haloxylon persicum) and black saxaul (H. aphyllum). Other priorities for the conservation of forest genetic resources in the desert are saltworts (Salsola richteri and S. paletzkiana), calligonum (Calligonum sp.) and tamarix (Tamarix sp.).The wild white poplar (Populus alba) does not occur as native species but is widely cultivated on the territory of Uzbekistan. Black poplar (P. nigra), which is found in Central Asia at the border of its natural distribution area, is widespread. Priorities for the conservation of genetic resources in the tugay zone are Populus pruinosa and P. diversifolia. These are known under the common name \"turanga\", which forms thickets on islands and along the banks of Central Asia's rivers, penetrating deep into valleys where they grow together with psammophytes.Biological diversity and genetic variation are effectively preserved in areas specifically aimed at the conservation of genetic resources (genetic reserves), but these have not yet been designated in Uzbekistan. The total area set aside for nature protection is 2 052 000 ha or approximately 4.6% of the whole territory of the Republic and is concentrated in nine forest reserves, two national parks and a number of nature monuments.However, only 822 500 ha (1.8% of the territory) are set aside with strict or permanent type of protection attributed to IUCN categories I and II. The most strictly protected type of territory are forest reserves, which occupy 227 400 ha (nearly 0.55% of the country's territory). In Uzbekistan, which is notable for its broad range of natural conditions, the network of specifically protected areas requires expansion and completion. For instance, although the area of wild pistachio is more than 27 000 ha, no forest reserves aimed specifically at the protection of this species have been declared yet.An important role in the conservation and rational use of genetic resources is assigned to botanical gardens, which alongside with multidisciplinary studies, provide collections of native and introduced species and varieties, accumulate and save their genetic diversity. Only small part of the species' genepool, which obviously cannot represent the entire genetic variation found in the natural range of a species, is present in botanical gardens. In spite of that, botanical gardens are considered to provide good potential for the search of valuable genetic forms and varieties.At present, work on the conservation of forest genetic resources and tree improvement have been conducted basically through species introduction, plus tree selection and seed supply. Many introduced tree species are intensively used in forestry, landscape gardening and in the amenities.The tree improvement work, started in 1945, has included genetic and breeding evaluation of more than 20 tree species. These activities are carried out by the Uzbek Research Institute of Forestry, the Institute of Horticulture and Viticulture, the Tashkent Botanical Garden and the Agrarian University in Tashkent.Efforts to create and use permanent forest 'seed-breeding plots' (for the production of selected basic material) are also an important part of the conservation and use of forest genetic resources.The establishment of field trials with reproductive material derived from selected populations of different geographic origin is seen as a highly effective way to conserve and use genetic diversity of the species concerned. By observing growth performance under different site conditions, the phenotypic plasticity can be assessed, useful climatypes, ecotypes and populations most productive under local conditions identified, and the genetic collections conserved. In Uzbekistan, provenance research has started but has not been sufficiently developed because of a number of reasons. The first experiments gave promising results (e.g. the identification of Jondor form of saxaul in the Bukhara region).Genetic reserves are the most important way of conservation of forest genetic resources. Their designation has not been carried out yet in Uzbekistan, but some plans have been developed. At one time a 'breeding reserve' of Juniper zeravshanica was designated (1260 ha). There are also plus trees, plantations of their progeny (550 ha), field trials and clonal archives with genetic resources of this important species in Central Asia.Future needs and perspectives of the conservation and use of forest genetic resources are presented in the following plan: 1. To develop a status report and a plan on the designation, conservation and sustainable use of the forest genetic resources in Uzbekistan, in conjunction with the other four countries of Central Asia. 2. To develop methodological guidelines on the selection of existing plantations and assess their potential as gene reserves in order to provide suitable varieties and provenances for the entire range of natural conditions. 3. To organize field inventories, focusing on the specifically protected areas in mountain and desert forests and in the tugay, in order to prepare proposals for the designation of forest genetic reserves of the relevant tree species. 4. To revise the dendroflora in order to identify rare and threatened species, subspecies and distinct populations of forest tree species, and to reveal new provenances and unique genotypes. To develop recommendations and establish arboreta (species collections) for their conservation and use. 5. To continue genetic and breeding evaluation of native and perspective introduced forest tree species. To develop early testing for genetic characters.To develop recommendations and establish clonal archives and field collections, including provenance trials. 6. To develop methods of long-term conservation of seeds (if needed of other reproductive material) and create a seed bank to conserve valuable genotypes of forest tree species.Geographically, sub-Saharan Africa extends from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape in South Africa. This zone can be subdivided into three main floristic regions:• The Sudano-Zambezian region with three zones • The Congo-Guinean region with two zones • The Afro-Alpine region.Little work has been done to cover these floristic regions with systematic inventories. Few inventories have been carried out and allowed each country to conduct a broad assessment of its forestry resources. The floristic abundance is only partially known. New plant species continue to be discovered and classified.For the Sahelian zone, more than 1200 species have been described up to now; 40 of these species are strictly endemic to the zone. In the Sudan zone, 2800 species have been identified. For Eastern Africa, it is the region of prevalence of endemic species with 1300 out of 2500 species endemic to the region.If inventories are easy in the dry regions, they become more difficult in the humid zone owing to the abundance of plant species, resulting in the closure of the forest cover. Data available on total plant species are approximate and should be analyzed with care. Nevertheless, timber tree species are better known. In the Guinean and Congo zones of Cameroon, 600 timber tree species can be counted, while Gabon counts on its territory more than 200 timber tree species.The Sahelian zone is characterized by an abundance of spiny plant species of the genus Acacia. Many Combretaceae can also be found (Combretum spp., Guierea senegalensis and Piliostigma reticulatum).The Sudan zone is a woody savannah. Less homogeneous plant communities composed of Combretaceae (Anogeissus leiocarpus), Sapotaceae (Butyrospermum parkii) and Meliaceae (Khaya senegalensis) replace Acacia.The Zambezian zone is an open forest dominated by the genera Brachysteria, Isoberlinia, Baikiaea, Burkea and Crytosepalum.The Congo zone is a semi-deciduous dense forest, dominated by Entandrophragma spp., Khaya ivorensis, Triplochiton scleroxylon (Ayous), Terminalia superba (Frake).The Guinean zone is a humid evergreen dense forest rich in Cesalpiniaceae, (Mimosaceae, Fabaceae) and Ochnaceae. The most frequent genera are Afzelia, Berlinia, Gilbertiodendron, Lophira and Pycnanthus.In the Afro-Alpine zone, up to 2000 m altitude, the flora is similar to that of the neighbouring plain. Above 2000 m the vegetation is composed of many Gymnosperm species such as Podocarpus and Juniperus.Forest products have multipurpose uses including firewood, timber, food products, medicinal products and fodder products. Some species serve a great number of purposes; others have a very specific utilization.With a few exceptions most of the species are used as firewood. In Africa, firewood satisfies 80% of energy requirements. The quantity of wood needed as energy source is estimated at 1 m 3 /person/year. This represents an annual consumption of about 472 million m 3 of wood.Although the volume of logged trees remains lower than what has been observed in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, there is an increasing trend not only of the area, but also of the volume exploited, even more so after the devaluation of the CFA Franc in 1994. In fact, this volume (FAO 1995) was still below 20 million cubic meters between 1986 and 1990 with an increasing rate around 1 million cubic meters/ha/year. We should note the particularity of logging practices used in Africa. It consists of the selection in a given country of less than 100 commercialized tree species according to the international market. The choice of the tree species to be felled on the list of 100 depends on the market demand. All exploitation of timber tree species can be based on a very low number of tree species, which are sometimes exploited right to extinction.Wood is also used as material for construction. Even though the exploited volume is low, the logs selected are those with a diameter comprised between 10-40 cm. This could represent a handicap for the regeneration of the selected species.The forest provides not only directly consumable products for the population, but it is also a reserve of land for agriculture (food crop and cash crop cultivation).Fruit consumption could be a threat for regeneration of some species such as Irvingia gabonensis, Baillonella toxisperma, Tamarindus indica, Balanites aegyptiaca and Annona senegalensis. The fruits of these species are consumed and commercialized.Distinction should be made between herbaceous and woody forage. The daily need to feed a Tropical Animal Unit (cow 250 kg in weight) is around 6.25 kg dry matter. The pastoral area in Sudan and Sahelian zones of Cameroon with 7 million ha was supporting 160 000 cattle in 1974 (USAID 1974). We have noticed that the animals appreciate more than 60 tree species, such as Stereospernum kuntianum, Combretum aculeatum, Ficus spp. The impact of animals on the flora is double: the consumption of flowers, fruits, leaves and tree bark but also destruction of the herbaceous cover.The economic crisis and above all the devaluation of the CFA franc have doubled the price of pharmaceutical products. This has brought about a desertion of chemist shops and an increase in the market of traditional medicines from plants. Unfortunately, this exploitation is not carried out according to the regulations. There is no control; the trees are victims of mutilations, which can lead to their death. This is the case with Garcinia lucida, Khaya senegalensis, etc.We can distinguish two important threats: climatic disturbances and human practices.The interannual variation curve for rainfall (Catinot 1988) shows that the zone faced dry periods during the beginning of the 1970s and mainly in the 1980s. A consequence of these droughts was the modification of the Poaceae composition. The perennial species (Andropogon gayanus) were replaced with a vegetation of mixed composition with occurrence of annual species such as Cenchrus biflorus and Sida cordifolia. As for tree species, their resistance to these successive drought periods varied from one species to another. Chad has observed considerable losses due to the dry spell on its Acacia senegalensis, Anogeissus leiocarpus and Khaya senegalensis populations. But it is above all the combined effect of drought and human practices which is the principal cause of the high mortality either of some individuals of a given species or of entire populations. Sometimes the entire ecosystem is lost. It was estimated that in countries like Cameroon and Senegal the annual rate of disappearance of the dry savannah is 100 000 ha. The species concerned are Acacia nilotica, Acacia senegalensis, Pterocarpus lucens, Sclerocarya birrea, Prosopis africana, Lannea microcarpa and Dalbergia melanoxylon. Edaphic dryness adds to the effect of climatic drought, due to the increase of salt concentration in the soil. This is the case with \"tannes\" or salty soils in Senegal and also with \"hardés\" sterile soils in Cameroon. The combination of dryness and saltiness of the soil has brought about the disappearance in Senegal of the Cayor Hyphaene thebaica plantation and of some oil palm plantations in Casamance.Logging FAO (1995) estimated that between 1981 and 1990 all the concerned regions in Africa lost 4.1 million ha of their forest area. This represents an annual regression estimated at 0.7%. The loss of forest area has induced a loss of 2% timber species.It has been estimated that 480 000 out of 1.8 million km 2 of the Guinean area are composed of fallow lands more or less covered with forests (FAO 1995). Around 40% of the forest area have been converted into agricultural lands between 1981 and 1990.In 1974 Cameroon had 160 000 cattle with 7 million ha of pasture lands. Today the number of cattle has been multiplied by 8, with around the same grazing area (6.5 million ha) (Donfack 1998). We can easily imagine the impact on the species.Experimental observations on the semi-deciduous forest of Côte d'Ivoire have shown that the number of species decreased from 117 to 20 after 50 years of yearly burning of the forest during the dry season.This practice can have a direct and indirect impact on the species concerned:• Direct impact with extraction of reproductive parts (flowers, fruits and seeds). It concerns mostly Acacia species of which the flowers and fruits are eaten by animals. The seeds of Khaya senegalensis, Parkia biglobosa, Vitellaria parkii and Baillonnella toxisperma are used for oil production for various purposes. Fruits of Sclerocarya birrea, Ximenia americana, Coula edulis are consumed by humans. The fruits of Acacia nilotica are used as tannin for leather. • Indirect impact concerns the extraction of non-reproductive parts (leaves, roots, cambium), which has an impact on the flowering and/or fructification of the individual tree.In situ conservation The first step in a conservation strategy adopted by most countries was to designate forest lands as permanent forests. The majority of the states adopted that 30% of the national territory should be classified as permanent forests. There are several types of classified forests; the two main types are (i) protected areas for wildlife and (ii) forest reserves. FAO (1995) mentions that at the end of 1990, African countries had designated 84.2 million ha as permanent forests (for logging and protected forests). This represents 3.8% of the land area.The second step has consisted of enhancement through planting of some forest reserves impoverished by logging activities. These plantations have brought out the development of a seed production and conservation technology.The third step in the strategy developed by African countries concerns tree plantations, gene conservation as seeds or in vitro conservation. In 1990, the rate of tree plantations in African countries was 90 000 ha per year (FAO 1995).The conservation plots and arboreta established concerned mainly exotic species. The same situation is found with genetic improvement programmes focusing on Eucalyptus and Pinus species, for which many provenance trials have been conducted.Except for a few inventory activities, very little research work has been carried out on intraspecific diversity. The few existing studies concern Parkia biglobosa and Acacia albida. The cost of molecular and isoenzyme analyses is a limiting factor.The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) guidelines provide that by the year 2000, all commercialized timber from member countries should come from managed forests.If we should praise the fact that forest management plans, mostly for productive forests, ensure sustainable forest production at a certain level, it should be underlined that this framework could be improved by integrating considerations for the conservation of intraspecific variability, such as the critical threshold (minimum number of individuals for a given population of tree species). Such notions should be taken into consideration, if the data are available at least for a certain number of important tree species. A good knowledge of the forest genetic diversity is indispensable.The collaboration among African countries should start with the harmonization of forestry laws. All countries have not yet formulated their laws so that they take into account treaties or international conventions, whereas these treaties and conventions have not yet been ratified by all African countries.Regional and sub-regional cooperation is carried out through a number of projects, organizations and institutions. The cooperative mechanisms mostly group the countries situated in the same geographical region. The Organization of African Unity regroups all African countries. Sub-regional mechanisms include: Apart from these organizations at the policy level, there are also technical networks. For example IGAD for East Africa, CILSS for the Sahelian countries, the Sahara and Sahel Observatory, the Neem (Azadirachta indica) Network, the Fallow Network for west African countries. The sub-Saharan Africa Forest Genetic Resources Programme (SAFORGEN) networks are under establishment.Many meetings of the specialists responsible for forest resources have been held in the past. They mainly concern forest management in general rather than forest genetic resources in particular. Two meetings on forest genetic resources took place in Ouagadougou in March and September 1998.The objective of the workshop held in March 1998, organized by IPGRI in collaboration with FAO, the Danida Forest Seed Centre and CIRAD-Forêt, was to provide training for participants from west and central African countries and Madagascar on forest genetic resources. This workshop brought together 54 participants from 19 countries and 3 subregional and international organizations. The main conclusions of this meeting were:• To continue the joint efforts for increasing opportunities to train African scientists in the area of forest genetic resources. Training courses should be organized on the basis of modules with practical sessions • To make operational the SAFORGEN Programme which should play an important role for the collaboration among African countries • The participants recommended that SAFORGEN start with three networks: forest fruit species, fodder species, timber species and non-timber forest species. A list of priority species has been established (Ouédraogo and Boffa 1999).The meeting held in September 1998 was organized by FAO in collaboration with IPGRI and ICRAF. It brought together 35 participants representing 15 countries and 6 international agencies for regional and bilateral cooperation. The objective of the meeting was to elaborate under FAO aegis a Sub-regional Plan of Action for conservation, management, sustainable use and enhancement of forest genetic resources in the Sahelian and North Sudan zones.It was agreed to define priorities and to undertake collaborative actions within the countries on the basis of the priorities established. IPGRI in general and the new SAFORGEN Programme in particular were requested to ensure the follow-up of these recommendations and also to serve as a platform for overall coordination of activities in order to achieve the objectives.Europe can bring its support to the development of sustainable management practices for genetic resources of African forests. The top priority areas of collaboration are as follows:• Training of researchers and technicians: group training (seminars and workshops) as well as individual training (schools and laboratories) • Technical assistance: this can be done within joint projects where transfer of technology is a major componentThe breadth of the topic, scarcity and clumped distribution of available information, and subjectivity of both the terms 'status' and 'collaboration' combine to make this paper a challenge. In the absence of complete and objective information, the author attempts to:1. Offer some information on the conditions (e.g. biological, social, political) that underlie the genetic diversity and status of forest tree species in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. 2. Comment on some of the issues concerning genetic diversity and provide a few case studies to illuminate linkages between genetic conservation and political/biological conditions. 3. Offer possibilities for collaboration with EUFORGEN and European countries in general, on a country-by-country (within North America) basis. 4. Review some of the (most relevant to EUFORGEN) recommendations from a North American workshop held in 1995 that focused on the genetic status of North American temperate forest tree species. This is not a comprehensive report on the status of forest genetic resources in North America. Much of the information for this report, unless otherwise referenced, is drawn from a report based on a workshop with a similar theme -The Status of North American Temperate Forest Genetic Resources -held in Berkeley, California in 1995 (Rogers and Ledig 1996). Note that for both that publication and this report, there is a disproportionate amount of information available for Canada and the USA.Containing over 416 million hectares of forest land -10% of the world's forests -Canada has considerable forest genetic resources. The socioeconomic impacts of these resources are significant: over 120 million hectares are currently managed for timber production. Conservation is a concern, with over 50 million hectares (12%) protected from harvesting by policy or legislation (Mosseler 1995). Of the 135 native forest tree species, 31 are coniferous and 104 deciduous. In general there are few boreal species ( 24), but these tend to be widespread. Towards the south, the number of species (temperate) increases. Forest regions in Canada are generally organized as boreal, subalpine, montane, temperate, and grassland (Rowe 1972).The historical patterns of settlement were generally south to north, and east to west, with colonization in the 17th century beginning on the east coast and quickly extending into Quebec and Ontario, accessible through the Great Lakes -St. Lawrence system. Most forest land is owned by provincial governments (71%) and recently many provincial governments have been reducing their staff, in some cases dramatically. Federal and territorial ownership covers 23% of the forest land, with only 6% in private ownership (Natural Resources Canada 1998). These patterns of forest land ownership are not consistent from province to province. For example, there is no private forest in the Yukon or Northwest Territories and the eastern (Maritime) provinces have the highest concentration of private forests (where 'private forests' refer both to company and individual holdings).In terms of species endangerment (i.e., listed as threatened, vulnerable, or endangered), the country's forest genetic resources are not in crisis: as of 1995, only six species were listed (Table 1). All are temperate-zone species. The reason for their listing status varies from hybridization with exotics to the Canadian populations being the northern limits of the species' range, but mostly due to loss of habitat or fragmentation. Vulnerable 1985 Only three populations are known in Canada, all in southern Ontario. 1 The list includes all woody species. The last two species on the list are often considered to be shrubs. 2 En dangered = a s pecies f acing i mminent extirpation or extinction. Threatened = a s pecies likely to b ecome endangered i f li miting factors are n ot re versed. V ulnerable = a s pecies of s pecial c oncern b ecause o f characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events. It includes any indigenous species of fauna or flora that is particularly at risk because of low or declining numbers, occurrence at the fringe of its range or in restricted areas, or for some other reason, but is not a threatened species. (This category includes species that had previously been designated as rare. The rare designation was abolished by COSEWIC in 1990). 3 Date of designation by COSEWIC.However, loss of the entire species is at the extreme end of the spectrum of genetic depletion. Other lesser but significant genetic consequences for these species are not well known. For example, the widely occurring boreal gymnosperms are seemingly well buffered from consequences due to their expansive ranges and northern distributions (i.e., in relatively undeveloped areas). However, many of these species have been under forest management for some time so the genetic consequences from forest practices -including harvesting and replanting practices -while not well understood, may be substantial.Southern deciduous species may be more at risk due to settlement patterns. Early agricultural settlement and more recent urban and industrial development have led to loss of habitat and most likely accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Examples of species that have suffered large habitat losses are sugar maple (Acer saccharum -the national symbol) and black walnut (Juglans nigra).In recognition of the possible genetic impacts on even widely distributed forest tree species, in view of the scarcity of data, and in consideration of the need to set priorities for genetic conservation due to limited financial and human resources, forest genetic professionals in the province of British Columbia set out to establish a ranking system to identify their forest tree species of greatest genetic conservation concern. Their criteria include natural distribution of the species (e.g. widespread versus narrow), capacity of the species for natural regeneration, status of provenance testing, representation in ex situ and in situ reserves, etc. (Yanchuk and Lester 1996).In Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) -the government agency charged with managing much of that province's public forest land -was taken to court by a coalition of environmental groups, charged with mismanagement of forest resources. The environmental coalition won the case and the OMNR has been instructed to prepare a new plan for managing natural resources. However, dramatic downsizing of public employees over recent years has left the agency with a little flexibility to rise to these new challenges. Thus, forest genetic resources in Ontario and elsewhere are susceptible to threats from loss of appropriate professionals to plan for their conservation, from discontinuity in political administrations, and to changing priorities.Aboriginal issues may play an increasing role in the management of Canada's forests. Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on an historic Aboriginal land claim in British Columbia, where it found that Aboriginal title to land exists where a First Nation occupied lands before the Crown (federal government) asserted sovereignty (Natural Resources Canada 1998). Most of the forest land of British Columbia is subject to similar claims, leaving much uncertainty about the future responsibility for and actions towards genetic conservation of forest tree species in that province.Canadian forestry professionals are proud of their commitment to sustainable forests that predates the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Since then, the Canadian Council of Forest Ministries has accepted a criteria and indicators framework -including six criteria, one of which is conservation of biological diversity of which genetic diversity is one element (Fig. 1).1. Genetic status of forest tree species is strongly influenced by the east-to-west, and southto-north pattern of settlement, resulting in loss of habitat and fragmentation effects for many of the southern and eastern angiosperms, and as yet unknown or poorly understood forest management effects on the more northern and widely occurring boreal species.2. Strong influence of land ownership on opportunities for collaboration in genetic conservation: a) Federal government (e.g. Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada) owns and manages relatively little forest land. It plays mainly roles of research, coordination of national strategies among the provinces, trying to encourage national standards and collaboration through funding and other incentives and some direct seed inventory and ex situ conservation activities (e.g. National Tree Seed Centers). Thus, European countries can request seed from nationally-controlled collections. There are some forested areas in nationally administered parks (Parks Canada). b) Although strong provincial ownership of forest genetic resources makes it difficult to have national-level standards or conservation plans, ironically this situation may lead to a strength in conservation planning. The reasoning here is that, for example, a widely occurring species would experience different environmental and management impacts across its range (i.e., differences in ownership and management may result in a diversified conservation approach, lower risk.). And the dominance of (provincial) government ownership should facilitate development of genetic conservation plans at provincial level (i.e., relative to a situation with more diverse and private ownership). There are approximately 800 forest tree species in the United States. The forest landbase falls under a diverse range of ownership (many federal and state agencies -e.g. the National Park Service and the National Forest Service; non-profit organizations -e.g. The Nature Conservancy; industrial -e.g. Weyerhaeuser Corporation; and private ownership). The diversity in ownership and management underlies the difficulty in compiling similarly structured statistics to comprehensively present the status of forest genetic resources. Geographic distribution of the forest resources at the species level is well known: genetic diversity of the resources is imperfectly known. Amounts and patterns of genetic variation have been outlined for many species; nevertheless, genetic diversity of most taxa is imperfectly known and the impacts of anthropogenic influences are not well understood (Rogers and Ledig 1996).As in Canada, the east-to-west historical settlement pattern in the United States has consequences for the status of forest tree species. For example, National Forests and Parks cover much more land in the western than in the eastern United States (Fig. 2). Thus, species with western distributions are more likely to be represented on federal lands with some conservation conditions than are eastern species. Not only were forested areas converted to agriculture and other types of development early in the country's history, lessening the opportunity for such forest reserves, but also this intensive and early impact is now reflected in other threats to remaining forests. The threats that are particularly evident in the east include decline due to exotic insects and diseases (e.g. chestnut blight affecting American chestnut, blister rust affecting white pine, gypsy moth affecting many hardwood species, Dutch elm disease affecting elms, and more recently, the Asian long-horned beetle affecting maples and other hardwoods); direct loss of habitat and potential genetic consequences from fragmented populations; changes in disturbance patterns (e.g. impacts on natural drainage systems and natural fire disturbance); and cumulative impacts from many human-caused and natural threats (e.g. 'northern hardwood decline' in the Southern Appalachian Mountains where beech/birch/maple forests are suffering mortality that may be linked to demographic factors, Armillaria root disease, pollution, drought stress, etc.) (US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Web site information).In the west, exotic invasions are also a serious problem for forest tree species. For example, Miconia (Miconia calvenscens) is an invasive tree species now found on four of the five main Hawaiian Islands. Estimates of its coverage suggest it now dominates two-thirds of the forest canopy on these islands, competing with native species (USDA Forest Service, Web site information). As in Canada, there are few forest tree species that are in danger of extinction in the near future: seven species are listed (federally, according to the Endangered Species Act). Consistent with the earlier statements about historical patterns of development, most of these species are located in the east (Table 2). The term Threatened species me ans a ny species which is lik ely to become an e ndangered s pecies wi thin t he foreseeable f uture throughout all or a significant portion of its range.\" \"The term species includes any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct po pulation s egment of any species of v ertebrate fish or wildlife which in terbreeds w hen ma ture\" (Endangered Species Act of 1973).We do not know the genetic status of most species, but there are reasons for concern, even in what might be considered the 'less affected' species in the western part of the country. Three case studies presented below give examples of the types of issues that are arising with western US species.Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum): traditionally an important timber species, giant Sequoia is increasingly valued for non-consumptive purposes -recreation, aesthetic purposes, and spiritual rejuvenation. Approximately 90% of the current natural distribution of the species is under public ownership and approximately 53% of the current giant sequoia area has been continuously protected from logging and has been managed within a policy context of fire suppression for the last century (Stephenson 1996). Due at least in part to the fire suppression policy, these groves now have an unnatural age structure, with lower natural regeneration and fewer trees in the 1-100 year category, than expected under natural conditions. A recent pilot study of genetic diversity and structure within two groves shows a correlation between age class (as represented by diameter class) and genetic structure, suggesting that this practice of fire suppression may indeed have had genetic consequences regardless of the attempt to 'protect' the habitat (Rogers 1999, unpublished report for the USDA Forest Service). This is one example of how management policies and management of natural disturbances, in particular, can be manifest as genetic consequences.Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis): this subalpine coniferous species has a wide-ranging and sometimes disjunct occurrence in the western United States and Canada. Fire disturbance is a natural component in many parts of its range, and this species, too, may be negatively affected by fire-suppression policies as well as decline from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and introduced white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) (Tomback et al. 1993). However, fire suppression and other management practices may have as yet undocumented genetic impacts. In particular, we know little about fine-scale genetic structure in many western conifers that have been studied at regional levels and hence have not fully explored management impacts at this level. In a recent study, the fine-scale genetic structure of whitebark pine was investigated at nested geographic levels from watershed to adjacent stems in the eastern Sierra Nevada Range of California (Rogers et al. 1999). Characteristics of whitebark pine that may be related to its fine-scale genetic structure include wingless, bird-dispersed seeds; having the reputed capacity to reproduce vegetatively; and forming distinct growth morphologies at different elevations in this part of its natural range. Genetic differentiation, as measured with 21 allozyme loci, between upperelevation prostrate krummholz thickets and lower-elevation upright tree clump growth forms was modest (F st =0.051). Much stronger differentiation was measured among the individual thickets and clumps within their sample sites (F st =0.334). Genetic structure is apparently profoundly influenced by the seed-caching behaviour of Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana). Western (US) pine species typically show little among-population differentiation and high levels of within-population genetic variation. In whitebark pine in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California, genetic variation is highly structured, especially within the natural groupings -krummholz thickets and upright tree clumps. Management impacts on this level of genetic structure -for this or other forest tree species -are not yet understood.Monterey pine (Pinus radiata): highly valued in other countries as a commercial species, growing on over 4 million hectares of plantations worldwide, Monterey pine is not, nevertheless, grown domestically for commercial purposes except, for example, to a modest extent in Christmas tree plantations. This species has a very restricted natural range along the central coast of California and on two small Mexican islands. It is valued domestically more in terms of its aesthetic and symbolic value, enhancing expensive real estate along the central California coast and defining small remaining forested areas in a region with high levels of development, high per-capita incomes, and high levels of environmental activism.This pine has suffered from recent and dramatic impacts from pitch canker disease, a fungal (Fusarium subglutinans f. sp. pini) disease vectored by an insect that was introduced to California over a decade ago. This disease has triggered local concern, not only because it may potentially impact the more widely occurring native pines, but also because the mortality is in rather scenic and wealthy areas of California. The disease and subsequent mortality in Monterey pine have also triggered international concern because of the threat to native Monterey pine genepools. A pitch canker task force -involving state and federal government agencies, non-profit environmental groups, researchers and others -was organized to help determine strategies to control the disease and deal with related issues. Internationally, the concern over native genepools and potential impacts for exotic plantations of the species has resulted in a major international workshop (November, 1998 in Monterey, California). It was hosted and organized by research and industry collaborators (Australia, New Zealand, Chile, United States) to discuss the current understanding of the disease and to develop a broad-scale initiative to establish Monterey pine field trial in California to provide a means of selecting resistant genotypes and further studying the disease.There is no genetic conservation plan for Monterey pine at present. However, funds associated with a State Senate Bill that was shepherded by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (among others) to fight the disease, have been earmarked for the development of such a plan. The genetic conservation plan will be coordinated by the Genetic Resources Program of the University of California and will receive input from university scholars (genetics, paleohistory, ecology, etc.), state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, related industry researchers and others. Thus, although there is no genetic conservation plan in place for this (or any other) California forest tree species, the combination of a threatening introduced disease and the species' various social and ecosystem values have provided the will and means by which to prepare one in the near future. Unfortunately, reactionary plans may have fewer opportunities for genetic conservation than proactive plans.One additional concern related to the status (and future health) of forest genetic resources in the US is erosion of the infrastructure for educating forest geneticists. For example, at the University of California at Berkeley -once one of the top forestry schools in the countrythere is no longer a forest geneticist on faculty and forest genetics courses are no longer taught (and have not been for the past five years). Increasingly, 'forest genetics' is disappearing from university curricula. Other disciplines and degree programmes, including conservation biology and restoration ecology, may provide some of the education needed for conservation management of forest genetic resources but are not likely to provide all of the insight and educated foresight needed to wisely manage these resources in the long term.1. Unlike Canada, there are significant forest lands and forest reserves under federal ownership and management here (e.g. National Park Service and National Forest Service) so direct collaboration on a national level is possible.2. For many of the forest tree species, there is little or no genetic information. Genetic information is concentrated on the commercial species and the rare/endangered species. Effects of forest management activities are presumed but not well understood, and impacts at the level of fine-scale genetic structure are even less well known. Speciesbased and range-wide genetic conservation plans are virtually unknown.3. Reduced budgets for research and reduced educational opportunities in forest genetics specifically may have impacts on how genetic diversity is recognized, valued, and managed in the long term.Mexico is rich in forest tree species diversity -with perhaps 2000 to 3000 species in temperate and tropical zones -and in intraspecific genetic variation. For example, nearly half of the extant species of pine are native to Mexico. Little genetic information is available for these species: in most cases even distribution maps are incomplete. Most genetic reserves are maintained by federal or state agencies and by universities and research institutions.Approximately 160 forest tree species are considered rare and endangered. Some species and populations have become increasingly threatened in recent decades from population growth and economic pressures that involve land conversion, habitat degradation, population fragmentation, and dysgenic selection. In natural areas, there is evidence of fragmentation and reduction in population sizes of several endemic forest species such as spruce species, Gregg pine (Pinus greggii), Chihuahua pine (Pinus leiophylla), Maximino pine (Pinus maximinoi) Chiapas white pine (Pinus chiapensis), Mexican weeping pine (Pinus patula), Apache pine (Pinus engelmannii), etc. Loss of habitat is a severe threat -particularly for Chihuahua pine, Pseudotsuga species, and Chiapas white pine. In 1995, it was estimated that approximately 0.65% of the temperate forest area was converted to some other land use annually. Other threats to genetic integrity, in increasing order of importance, are pathogens, insects, and selective removal of trees. Recently, a problem has emerged with an introduced pest (wood borer) in exotic poplars which may spread to Mexico's native poplars. National parks and other large reserves at present cover most of the major forest ecosystems throughout Mexico, and there are policies on protection of native, endemic forest species in natural forests, particularly for those at high risk of loss. These policies are established at both the federal and state level. Several thousand hectares are designated as 'conservation areas', in addition to the traditional national parks or other large reserves (i.e., Biosphere Reserves). Conservation areas are scattered throughout natural forests to protect rare, threatened, or endangered species and some unique populations. Harvesting is forbidden in these conservation areas, but seed collections are permitted for valid research or ex situ conservation activities. However, most of these areas are still vulnerable to natural (destructive) disturbances as well as human encroachment and may not be large enough to maintain viable populations in the long term (Rogers and Ledig 1996).Anthropogenic pressures, leading to habitat loss and population fragmentation and degradation, are large and increasing. The delineation of conservation areas is recent, and it is unknown whether the current areas are adequate to protect the genetic integrity of populations or whether they can be enforced. Political unrest and insufficient funding for conservation and research activities further undermine the infrastructure for genetic research and conservation. The lack of information -even species level diversity is not well studiedis of particular concern, leading to a recommendation at the (1995) workshop to give research priority to Mexico (see recommendation number 5, below). Some information on the status of forest genetic resources in the tropical states of Campeche, Veracruz, and Yucatan is available from the FAO.The following is a list of consensus recommendations developed by the participants in the Workshop on North American Temperate Forest Genetic Resources, Berkeley, California 12-14 June, 1995 (Rogers and Ledig 1996). These address both the genetic status of forest genetic resources as well as, in some cases, the opportunities for and interests in collaboration with other countries outside of North America.1. We recommend the development of national programmes to address issues in the conservation of forest genetic resources. Due to the complexity of land ownership patterns and land management objectives within and among Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America, coordination on the national level is necessary. All of those directly involved with forest land ownership and/or management should be actively involved with the national programme -contributing to databases, participating in conservation planning, and implementing action plans for conservation of forest genetic resources. These programmes should include the exploration, inventory, documentation, and monitoring of forest genetic resources, both in situ and ex situ. Both exotic forest tree species growing in North America and native North American species growing elsewhere should be considered in national programmes. Furthermore, because species cross national borders, coordination and cooperation among nations will be required.2. We recommend that conservation of forest genetic resources be addressed by multiple approaches, and that, whenever possible, they should include ecosystem reserves. We recognize, that for non-commercial species, ecosystem reserves may be the only economically practical method of conservation. We recognize that while biotechnology can be useful in many ways, it is not a substitute for an adequately funded, field-oriented genetic conservation programme.3. Recognizing that many North American temperate forest tree species are important plantation species on this and other continents, and that it may be necessary to draw upon these forest genetic resources in the future, we recommend that Canada, Mexico, and the United States conserve these resources in situ. We assume that other countries outside North America will reciprocate with regard to their native genetic resources.4. We recommend an increase in funding for research on conservation of forest genetic resources. This research should involve, when appropriate, interdisciplinary, interagency, and international collaboration. Some (non-prioritized) examples of research needs are: a) Exploration and inventory of species' distributions and patterns of spatial genetic structure within species. b) Development of more efficient methods of evaluating genetic variation for adaptive traits. c) Evaluation of the relative utility of various types of genetic data in the development of sampling strategies for conservation. d) Analysis of the impacts of sociopolitical structures on the effectiveness of programmes for the conservation of genetic resources. e) Analysis of factors influencing population viability. f) Analysis of the effects of habitat fragmentation, forest management practices, and environmental change on genetic resources.Recognizing the high level of species and genetic diversity in Mexico and the extreme lack of information on this resource, we recommend that research on Mexican tree species should receive special attention.6. Recognizing that forest management practices may have positive or negative impacts on genetic diversity and population viability and, in fact, that some form of management will be necessary to maintain genetic resources, we recommend a research emphasis on the consequences of forest management practices. We encourage the use of reference populations within long-term ecological research sites, 'model forests', and research natural areas for studies on the effects of forest management.7. We recommend that the FAO encourage the development of a centralized metadatabase of genetic resources. We see this as composed of local databases, coordinated through a network and designed to facilitate exchange within the international community.8. We recommend that member countries request FAO, through their Regional Forestry Commissions, to promote and coordinate national forest genetic resource conservation programmes, and their integration into forestry practices. 9. Recognizing that private sector owners and managers play an important role in in situ conservation of forest genetic resources, we recommend that the FAO and conservation agencies explore a range of incentives and agreements (e.g. tax incentives, easements, and land trusts) to foster conservation of forest genetic resources by the private sector.10. Recognizing that effective genetic conservation programmes are very long-term in nature, we recommend that the FAO encourage and assist in the education of natural resource professionals and the lay public to foster a conservation ethic.11. Recognizing that species introductions affect native ecosystems and local cultures and economies, we recommend the development of guidelines for the introduction of species. These guidelines should include general procedures for conducting risk analyses for biological, social, and economic factors as well as general procedures for monitoring the species after introduction.12. Recognizing the importance of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the benefits of unrestricted exchange of germplasm, and the distinction between forest genetic resources and those of domesticated crops, we recommend that the forest genetic community provide leadership in addressing the emerging issues of intellectual property rights, indigenous peoples' rights, and plant breeders' rights as they pertain to forest genetic resources.In summary:• We do not have comprehensive genetic information for most of the forest tree species in North America. This information is disproportionately available for commercial species, often conifers. • In Canada and USA, the threat -for the majority of forest tree species -is not of extinction, but genetic consequences from continuing and accumulative impacts from forest management activities and other human land-use activities that fragment or potentially degrade the genepool.• Also of concern in these two countries is loss of infrastructure and funding for forest genetics education and research.• In Mexico, the threat of extinction is greater. There is not even basic information on all species and their distribution. Other significant genetic effects can be anticipated due to continued large-scale loss of habitat.• The opportunities for collaboration with Europe differ among these three countries, due to differences in political structures and forest ownership, for example. Funding for research and conservation activities is needed in Mexico. Opportunities for collaboration with North American countries are perhaps most obvious for species that are native here and grown as exotics in Europe (e.g. Pinus radiata, Robinia pseudoacacia, Pseudotsuga menziesii) or vice versa (e.g. Pinus sylvestris, Juglans regia, Populus nigra). Here, the mutual concerns over genetic conservation are obvious. Other opportunities for collaboration, already well demonstrated by much experience, include sabbaticals across the Atlantic, training and development in genetic conservation, and collaborative research. The need to strengthen efforts on the conservation of forest genetic resources 2 in European countries was recognized during the late 1980s, when a number of countries developed and started to implement national strategies to specifically address these issues as part of their forest management programmes. The principal concern requiring a better conservation of the genetic resources of forest tree species within their distribution areas has been the forest decline attributed to rapid environmental changes. Threats leading to the loss of genetic diversity in European forests have been identified as transboundary atmospheric pollution and intensive forest management, including the replacement of mixed forest stands with monocultures, fragmentation, loss of local ecotypes, artificial selection and uncontrolled movement of reproductive material. Despite that the risk of the actual loss of species is low, these threats to genetic diversity within species became very urgent. Conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources has also gained attention due to the genetic potential of forests to meet the increasing demands for high-quality timber and other forest products and to provide environmental and social benefits. European forests share the influence of similar traditions in silviculture and overall forest management. These provide a common basis for jointly incorporating genetic resources concerns into forestry practice.The call for increased international collaboration and coordination of efforts in this area was realized through the adoption of Resolution S2. The representatives of 31 signatory countries made a commitment towards further development and implementation of their national strategies. They also decided to follow a concerted policy for the conservation of genetic resources and to establish an international monitoring structure.\"…a functional but voluntary ins trument of international c ooperation should be f ound among existing r elevant organizations, in o rder to promote and c oordinate (i) in sit u a nd ex s itu methods to conserve the genetic diversity, (ii) exchange o f reproductive materials and (iii) monitoring of progress in those fields…\"This international commitment was reconfirmed at the Second Ministerial Conference (Helsinki, 1993) where four further Resolutions with components relevant to genetic resources and their conservation were agreed. Within the follow-up to Resolution H1 4 it was, for example, proposed that one of the Indicators of sustainable forest management be the proportion of stands managed for the conservation and use of genetic resources. Resolution H4 focuses partly on research into the genetic effects of global climatic change on forest tree populations.The European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) was endorsed at the Second Ministerial Conference in Helsinki as the instrument of international cooperation for implementing Resolution S2 (Arbez 1994 5 ). Its development and overall management has been undertaken by IPGRI 6 in collaboration with the FAO Forestry Department 7 . The Programme aims at ensuring the conservation and the sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe. It became fully operational in October 1994. international agricultural research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. 7 Food and Agriculture Organization as the United Nations agency entrusted by the world community to deal with issues on food and agriculture including and forestry and forest resources.Prior to esta blishing EUFORGEN, the S2 Follow-up Committee (composed of France, Finland, Poland an d Portugal) c onducted an inte rnational surv ey on the status of for est gene tic resources in Europe and prepared the basis for collaboration in networks. Following the results of the survey (Arbez 1994), fou r 'pilot' networks were established to focus on a selected set of species. These not only reflected national priorities for the conservation of the most threatened genetic div ersity (Fig. 1 ) and it s actual or potential u se, b ut it a lso c overed different types of ecogeographic and gen etic d istribution p atterns. Th e n etworks init ially selected were: Picea abies (Norway spruce -a wind-pollinated, widely distributed and intensively managed conifer), Quercus suber (cork oak -a valuable species in southern Europe, with diversity under threat), Populus ni gra (b lack poplar -a characteristic ri parian s pecies with sp ontaneous in terspecific hybridization) and Noble Har dwoods, a group of 'overlooked' species with scattered distribution patterns and high-quality timber. EUFORGEN is financed by participating countries and the coordinating secretariat is hosted by IPGRI. The Programme is operated as a multilateral trust fund which functions through individual Letters of Agreement with participating countries. Most countries which signed Resolution S2 are participating in the Programme (Table 1). Individual countries formally join the Programme by signing a Letter of Agreement, specifying the financial contribution to be made and nominating a National Coordinator. Contributions to the trust fund are made on an annual basis and cover the cost of meetings, publications and overall coordination. The financial contributions are based on the UN assessment rating of countries. Letters of Agreement are signed for the current phase which lasts five years. The Programme is overseen by a Steering Committee composed of National Coordinators from all participating countries. As formal representatives of their countries, the National Coordinators act as a link between the coordinating secretariat and national institutions involved in the activities on forest genetic resources. They seek to commit all relevant institutions within their country to carry out the agreed tasks and liaise between them (Fig. 2). The Steering Committee meets every three years to review the progress made, discuss issues relevant to gene conservation in Europe, make recommendations for the future of the Programme including new networks and to approve the budget. The first meeting, attended by representatives of 27 countries was held in November 1995 (in Sopron, Hungary). While the objectives and the overall structure of the Programme were confirmed, the meeting recommended further development of activities on the conservation of forest genetic resources in addition to networking. EUFORGEN thus aims at providing a contribution to various international collaborative initiatives, raising public awareness and facilitating information flow among countries 8 . The species-based approach was considered to best accomplish the overall role. A new network on Social Broadleaves (temperate oak and beech) was initiated. The National Coordinators emphasized the continuing interest of their countries in this type of international collaboration. Providing guidance for the development of national policies and encouraging long-term national strategies and activities on forest genetic resources continue to be the most important impact areas of the Programme. 8 Report of the first Steering Committee meeting. 1996 (see Annex V, List of publications).Steering CommitteeManagement CommitteeQuercus suber NetworkAttended by Na tional Coo rdinators and resou rce persons from three European countries and Canada, the European Forest Genetic Resources Workshop, which was held concurrently with the Steering Committee meeting in 1995, also provided several technical recommendations with regard to the conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe. For example, it was recommended that the a ctivities on g enetic reso urces an d their co nservation be in creasingly in tegrated in to a pplied silviculture an d forest management systems. R ecognizing the b asic link b etween c onservation, tree improvement and managed use of forests, the Workshop also recommended that a balance be sought between in situ conservation and sustainable forest management on the one hand, and management of protected areas on the other, and that conservation and management of genetic resources in s itu an d ex s itu, and tree impr ovement activities be co nsidered c omplementary strategies (IPGRI/FAO 1996) 9 .The EUFORGEN Management Committee composed of two representatives of FAO and two representatives of IPGRI was set up and meets twice a year to provide technical and scientific advice to the secretariat. The coordinating secretariat (EUFORGEN Coordinator and part-time assistant) acts as a facilitator of the activities, ensures the implementation of the Programme in accordance with the mandate given by the Steering Committee, provides logistic support to networks and ensures that the agreed workplans are carried out, reports on the activities, prepares financial reports, maintains contacts with the National Coordinators and assists with the search for donors to support tasks of the workplans.EUFORGEN operates through networks in which forest geneticists and other forestry specialists work together to analyze needs, exchange experiences and develop conservation strategies and methods for selected species (Picea abies, Populus nigra, Quercus suber, Noble Hardwoods and Social Broadleaves). The networks also contribute to the development of conservation strategies for the ecosystems to which these species belong.Two different levels of involvement in the networks are distinguished: attending members, who participate in the meetings and corresponding members, who exchange information but do not attend the meetings. Both attending and corresponding members receive all related information and are expected to facilitate the implementation of tasks given in the workplans. This arrangement contributes towards maintaining network meetings reasonably small and dynamic, and ensures that each country is represented in the networks according to its needs. All network members are nominated by the respective National Coordinator. This structure is flexible and allows for modifications whenever additional networks are established.Network meetings are held at regular intervals (Table 2). They review the progress made, set priorities, establish and update workplans and plan further collaborative activities accordingly. A chairperson is elected within each network. Despite differences between the networks' focus and needs, their members chose a similar approach to solving common tasks. The collaborative activities of the networks typically include regular exchange of information, development of conservation strategies and technical guidelines, common descriptors and databases, identification of common research needs and preparation of joint project proposals, exchange of genetic materials, literature overviews, public awareness activities, etc. Network members, in collaboration with other scientists and forest officers from participating countries, carry out the tasks of agreed workplans with their own resources as inputs in kind to the Programme. Many practical outputs have been produced by the networks to date (Table 3). Members of all the networks exchange information about the status of genetic resources, conservation, breeding and research activities, methods, legislation, constraints, needs and priorities. This is considered very helpful for developing the national strategies. Country reports were presented during the first network meetings and brief updates were then provided and discussed at the subsequent meetings. They are published after the meetings (see Annex V, List of publications). The information obtained on individual species enables to produce overviews and analyses of data and to monitor the progress made. An important role of the networks is also to disseminate information about the use of advanced methods and technologies in genetic conservation.Long-term European gene conservation strategies are developed for the individual species or groups of species. The Noble Hardwoods network identified species which need attention according to the priorities given by all participating countries. The main objective of the strategy for Noble Hardwoods is to create good conditions for future evolution. The steps suggested for better conserving the diversity within entire distribution areas of elms, maples, mountain ash and wild fruit trees include ecogeographic and genetic surveys, preservation and enhancement of variation in small local populations, improvement of methods, creation of a European network of gene conservation stands and regulations on the transfer of reproductive material. When suggesting a network of stands, it is important to take into consideration many factors such as the occurrence of genetic diversity under marginal environmental conditions, representativeness for certain areas and minimum population sizes. According to the strategies, in situ and ex situ conservation measures should be integrated. For example, the conservation approach to rare wild fruit trees requires the establishment of breeding populations as essential part of the strategy.The network emphasizes that existing activities should be better linked to each other and that joint European strategies serve as orientation and support for the implementation of national or regional programmes. The development of these strategies also illustrates the consensus building role of the networks.The need for practical guidelines on the management of gene conservation stands in particular, and on genetically sustainable forestry in general, has been recognized since the establishment of EUFORGEN. A first booklet with technical guidelines was produced by the Norway spruce network 10 , followed by cork oak and Noble Hardwoods networks (in preparation). They aim at providing advice to forest officers and authorities responsible for gene conservation. The guidelines for Norway spruce are divided into chapters on in situ conservation and ex situ conservation in populations, collections and in genebanks. The black poplar network produced a set of guidelines which focus on the management of different types of genetic collections.Data about genetic resources, including gene conservation stands and clone collections, are stored in databases that vary in format, structure and information level. In order to ensure better access to this information, as well as comparability of data, attention has been given to standardization of databases. The first step towards harmonizing data from different countries and on the various species was to develop lists of descriptors. Simple lists of descriptors have been agreed so far by the four networks (Table 3). In addition to the common minimum descriptors (geographic position, responsible institution and ownership, type and function of gene conservation unit, genetic evaluations, etc.) each country or institute registers a number of complementary data for various purposes (e.g. threats, detailed ecological site descriptors).The next step undertaken by networks, where relevant, is to link the existing data in joint databases. A database of black poplar clones available in European countries was established. There are currently more than 2000 entries and the database has been used successfully for the identification of duplications in national collections. It is maintained as an input in kind by a voluntary institute and has been made available on the internet through the coordinating secretariat.Regular meetings of the networks provide an opportunity to plan and develop joint project proposals. Network members often work together with, or as partners involved in different ongoing research projects, discuss the application of results and complement the approach taken. The cork oak network, for example, developed an EU-funded FAIR project for the evaluation of genetic resources in this species. Provenance tests in seven countries have been established within this effort. Close collaboration exists between the black poplar network and another EU/FAIR project on genetic diversity in riparian ecosystem. Members of the Noble Hardwoods network work together with a genetic resources project on elms 11 . A collaborative project on genetic resources of broadleaved species in southeastern Europe was developed with contribution of the Noble Hardwoods and the Social Broadleaves networks. These examples illustrate the role of the EUFORGEN Programme for mobilizing funds for tasks carried out by the networks and for gene conservation activities in general.The conservation and use of locally adapted genetic resources is considered very important for forest tree species in general. The networks have frequently pointed at the risks associated with the transfer of reproductive material with unknown properties or from unknown sources. Nevertheless, small quantities of genetic material have been exchanged among the members of the cork oak and black poplar networks for experimental purposes.Reference clones were exchanged and a core collection of clones established by the black poplar network. The core collection includes representative clones from the entire distribution area 12 . It aims at providing a tool for standardized evaluation of national collections. The collection is propagated and sent to any interested institute on request. The origin and other data for all clones are given according to the common descriptor list developed previously by the network.During the first years of the existence of the Programme, it was realized that the tasks of conservation of genetic resources are insufficiently known and often unclear to the general public. Therefore, the networks devote time to discussing and developing tools for raising public awareness. Besides presentations and publications on this subject by the network members in their countries, joint outputs of the networks, which contribute to the task, are leaflets, slide collections, posters etc. The organization of network meetings itself (see Table 2) is also a contribution to raising awareness in the respective countries. An internet site was launched which describes the objectives of Resolution S2, informs about activities of the EUFORGEN Programme and makes the outputs of the networks available (<http://www.cgiar.org/ipgri/euforgen>). The EUFORGEN logo became part of the public awareness role played by the networks (Fig. 3).Overviews of literature with regard to genetic resources of species are a regular task of the networks. They are reviewed during meetings and subsequently completed and published in the reports of network meetings. Particular attention is paid to unknown manuscripts and 'grey literature' with limited diffusion.EUFORGEN collaborates with other regional initiatives and organizations involved in the conservation of genetic resources. In particular IUFRO 13 working groups on research into conservation, genetic resources and breeding provide a basis for complementary activities. The networks have established informal links with the relevant working groups.Exchange of information takes place with the secretariat of the Pan-European Strategy on Biological and Landscape Diversity. EUFORGEN activities as such contribute toward its implementation.The first meetings of the cork oak network were organized jointly with FAO's programme \"Silva Mediterranea\", which also helped to involve Morocco and Tunisia in the network later on. The black poplar network benefited from the meetings and activities of the International Poplar Commission of FAO.These two networks developed their strategies (see above) in collaboration with non-European countries in the distribution area of the species and equally concerned with their genetic conservation and use. Links have been sought between all the networks and adjacent regions, particularly with countries in North Africa, West and Central Asia and North America.Most countries from the European part of the former Soviet Union participate actively in the EUFORGEN networks. Special efforts are being undertaken to assist the newly independent states, through international collaboration, in strengthening their programmes on forest genetic resources in light of the political and economic changes.A works hop was convened in Belar us (in S eptember 1996), to provide an over view o f th e current activities, to reassess needs and priorities, and to emphasize the interest and capacities of these c ountries to be proactive in international c ollaboration. A number of p ossible collaborative projects were proposed and further developed later. They led to the establishment of colla borative m echanisms in C entral Asia and the C aucasus, r egions which are h ome t o genetic resources of importance to many tree species occurring in Europe.One of the key problem areas identified by east and central European countries within the follow-up to Helsinki Resolution H3 ('Forestry cooperation with countries with economies in transition') was forest genetic resources and conservation. The activities described within the framework of EUFORGEN provide an opportunity for links with that Resolution.Since its establishment in 1994 EUFORGEN has become fully operational and has received the practical endorsement of participating countries. A major contribution of this networking Programme towards implementing Resolution S2 is the technical and political impact it has on the development of national programmes and strategies in the long term, fully recognizing that the responsibility for decisions on the management of genetic resources and their financing lies entirely with each country.It is hoped that all signatory countries of Resolution S2 join EUFORGEN in the future. The mode of operation through several species oriented networks reinforces the basic role of individual countries and their national genetic conservation programmes. The participating countries determine priorities for common tasks in the networks according to their needs. The five networks for 'pilot species' have been developed taking into consideration the priorities of countries and the actual possibilities of the Programme. It is often requested that new networks be established or additional species be included under the scope of the existing networks. Any changes regarding the scope of the networks and other important decisions lie with the Steering Committee of National Coordinators as the officially nominated representatives of their countries.The networks bring together partners with different interests and priorities but their outputs provide a stimulus for activities in all participating countries. This requires networks to maintain a flexible organization and that the effectiveness in accomplishing the common tasks is higher than if members had tried to reach them individually. The actual implementation of network tasks relies on the willingness to provide various contributions in kind of individual countries to the networks. In order to increase these contributions, and thus to strengthen their impact on national activities, it is desirable to involve decision makers further. Further attention to the follow-up work by European agencies and organizations would be beneficial. The 'multiplier effect' of network activities for stimulating development of national and various international projects has been shown.EUFORGEN as a specialized programme could provide a linkage and increasingly harmonize efforts related to genetic resources and conservation among the different Ministerial Resolutions. It is essential to avoid any duplication of efforts in this area. The Programme should also continue to act as a contribution towards implementing the Pan-European Strategy on Biological and Landscape Diversity and the Convention on Biological Diversity (COB) in general.Collaboration with other regions outside of Europe is also very important and should further be strengthened, considering the necessity to conserve and sustainably use the genetic diversity of forest tree species in their entire distribution areas.Mediterranean oaks would enable the Social Broadleaves Network to concentrate its efforts on temperate species.Almost all field trials within the provenance experiment have now been planted. Most countries reported severe difficulties with finding suitable, sufficiently homogeneous and available land. It was stressed that experience obtained from establishing the trials must be well documented. It will be essential not only for the further management of these trials but also useful for setting up similar experiments in the future. A handbook will, therefore, be developed for this purpose in the framework of the EU/FAIR project.To complement the approach taken in the handbook, concise Technical Guidelines on the conservation and management of cork oak genetic resources are currently being developed by the Network. These will aim at forest officers and national agencies responsible for genetic resources and will consist of 4 chapters. The first draft will be presented and discussed at the next Network meeting in 1999.Several documents were exchanged among Network members after the meeting, including the assessment of needs and priorities for gene conservation of Mediterranean oaks throughout the region. An updated version of the Bibliography on cork oak genetic resources (first published in 1997) has been uploaded on the Internet.The third Picea abies Network meeting was held in Opocno, Czech Republic, 26-29 April 1998. The participants discussed the progress made in the implementation of national strategies and focused on the role of genetic resources in view of the global changes of the environment and air pollution. It was recognized that each country had a national strategy on Norway spruce genetic resources either in preparation, or already in place. The main purpose was to outline gene conservation as part of the overall national forestry policy. No serious constraints or difficulties in developing the national strategies were reported. It was stated that further exchange of experience and the support from the Network would be needed for their practical implementation.It was noted that gene conservation of Norway spruce in the different regions of Europe has different objectives and subsequently requires different approach and methods. For instance, the main argument for gene conservation in central and eastern Europe is the threat to genetic diversity posed by air pollution. Genetic resources of Norway spruce in areas affected by air pollution were discussed in detail during the meeting. The economic importance of Norway spruce and its wide use in afforestations was mentioned as the main argument for gene conservation in Belgium, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and other countries. The main task is to ensure sufficient genetic diversity in the managed Norway spruce stands for their dynamic development.The participants stressed that a common information source/database of Norway spruce genetic resources is essential to monitor the progress made in each country and to provide up-to-date information about the coverage of the genetic variation in the species' distribution area by gene conservation measures. Using the Network's common minimum descriptors, summary information sheets were compiled after the meeting. Links to the national databases will be provided through the Network's Internet home page. The Report of the meeting (including brief progress reports) has been published on the Internet and printed copies are available on request. It was also agreed to regularly update the Technical Guidelines that were produced by the Network in 1997. A list of items to be added or updated was agreed upon.In addition to Norway spruce, it was suggested that Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) serve as a model species with continuous distribution, since the gene conservation measures for both species are often very similar. It was agreed that the scope (and name) of the Network should be changed to Spruce and Pine Network.The Bibliography on genetics, breeding and genetic resources of Norway spruce is currently being prepared in close collaboration with the IUFRO Working Party 2.02.11. As a first step, search runs were conducted in existing literature databases and several files were sent to the contact persons identified previously in each country. The lists of references already available were also established on the Internet in order to facilitate the process of collecting and compiling references by the national contact persons. Format and outputs/file types were specified. It was agreed that files should be sent by each contact person to IPGRI before 1 December 1998. The Bibliography will be published electronically as an on-line searchable database in 1999. It will be accessible from the home pages of both the IUFRO Working Party and the Network.Members of the Noble Hardwoods Network met in Sagadi, Estonia, 13-16 June 1998. Participants reviewed the progress made in their countries since the last meeting (March 1997) and agreed on the further development of a number of practically oriented activities: longterm European gene conservation strategies, technical guidelines, bibliography, documentation of genetic resources and research. Several outputs resulting from these activities are included in the Report of the meeting which has been compiled and will be available in early 1999. The Report of the second Network meeting and a leaflet about their gene conservation in Europe were produced during the year. The need to raise awareness of policy makers, foresters and the general public of the role and potential of the often overlooked species covered by the Network, was re-emphasized.Discussions during the Network meeting focused on the strategies and methodologies for the genetic conservation of the species covered. The strategies, previously developed for maples (Acer), elms (Ulmus), rowan (Sorbus) and the wild fruit trees, are concerned with a number of issues from inventories of occurrence and abundance, genetic variation and variation patterns, breeding and reproductive systems, to regeneration, silviculture and sustainable use of the species. It was confirmed that \"rareness\" of species, a term often associated with Noble Hardwoods, was a relative concept because most, if not all, species become \"rare\" at the extremes of their distribution range.Strategy documents on ash (Fraxinus), chestnut (Castanea) and lime (Tilia), prepared and circulated by Network members to all participants in advance before the meeting, were adopted and will be published in the Report. With regard to chestnut, it was stressed that appropriate institutional and professional links need to be forged between horticulturists and foresters to ensure the mutual support and collaboration of both groups.The core of any conservation strategy for Noble Hardwoods is their silvicultural management and sustainable use, carried out with due attention to genetic principles. An overview paper on this topic was presented. Technical Guidelines, aimed at forest officers responsible for genetic conservation in European countries, will be produced by the Network and their outline was agreed upon during the meeting. The basis for concern related to global climate change must lie in ensuring availability of genetic variation in tree populations which will allow them to adapt to changing environments. A special paper was prepared and discussed at the meeting.The Network also discussed information management on Noble Hardwoods genetic resources in Europe. The common descriptors, previously proposed by the Network, should be kept to the very minimum. If countries wish and are able to record additional variables, this would be an advantage but should not necessarily be coordinated at an international level. While the development of national databases was encouraged, the issue of a common, centralized information system on Noble Hardwoods would need to be further discussed. In the meantime, a link page will be set up on the Network's Internet site, which will include a list of the agreed common descriptors and electronic links to existing national databases as requested by the countries concerned.The Network decided to regularly update the overview of ongoing national and international research projects. The possibilities of securing additional EU funding for some of the Network activities were noted, including shared cost projects (EU Framework Programme V, INCO-Copernicus etc.). The participants also expressed their wish to strengthen the links between EU-funded research projects and scientists in non-EU countries. It was stressed that priority should be given to research on reproductive biology of the Noble Hardwood species, as a basis for the development and implementation of long-term genetic conservation strategies. A meeting to discuss the possible submission of a project proposal was held in Sweden at the end of October.Following the meeting in Sagadi, countries participating in the Network updated and added new information to the table of priorities concerning species considered important for gene conservation. This information, so far contributed to by 27 countries, has been made available on the Internet.The EUFORGEN Populus nigra and Social Broadleaves Networks did not hold a meeting during the period (April to November 1998), but progress in their activities was made through correspondence and exchange of data and information. The Reports of the previous Network meetings were published and distributed to almost 800 addresses in the case of the Report of the fourth Populus nigra Network meeting and 500 in the case of the Report of the first meeting on Social Broadleaves. Network members also represented the Networks at a number of international meetings (Black poplar meeting in Germany in May 1998; IUFRO Division 2 Conference in China in August 1998).The Third Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe was held in Lisbon, 2-4 June 1998. The ministers responsible for forestry adopted two resolutions concerning socioeconomic aspects and the pan-European criteria, indicators and operational level guidelines for sustainable forest management. EUFORGEN reported on the implementation of Strasbourg Resolution S2.The Conference was attended by 37 Signatory States, the European Union, 5 observer countries and a number of international governmental and non-governmental organizations. The General Declaration and two \"Lisbon Resolutions\" adopted by the Conference emphasized the need to strengthen the links between the forestry sector and society, increasing dialogue and mutual understanding, and further enhancing the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the sustainable management of forests.Within Resolution L1, the Signatory States committed themselves, inter alia, to maintaining and developing frameworks conducive to enabling and motivating all forest owners to practice sustainable forest management; to adapt education and training systems for the development of a highly skilled, multidisciplinary workforce; to promote the improvement and application of appropriate safety and health standards and practices, professionalism of forest owners, workers and contractors, and skills certification.The 'Pan-European Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management', previously developed by expert level follow-up meetings to the Second Ministerial Conference, were endorsed in Lisbon (Resolution L2). These represent a basis for the development of national criteria and indicators and for international reporting in six areas: forest resources, health and vitality, productive functions of forests, biological diversity in forest ecosystems, protective functions and other socio-economic functions and conditions. Criteria and indicators will be used as a tool for policy analysis and formulation at the national level. Regular reporting will give the possibility of detecting trends and changes at an early date, thus providing valuable information on future developments in each Signatory State. As part of Resolution L2, 'Operational Level Guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management' were also endorsed, a rather general framework of recommendations for use on a voluntary basis.Several indicators are relevant to forest genetic resources and one of them ('Changes in the proportions of stands managed for the conservation and utilization of forest genetic resources') directly concerns the assessment of gene reserve forests, seed collection stands etc. While it is widely recognized that management of forests should also be genetically sustainable, the genetic criteria and indicators will require further development and concrete application by European countries during the coming years. The main challenge for our Programme within this process is to harmonize efforts related to genetic diversity among the different resolutions and initiatives.An in-depth internally-commissioned external review of IPGRI's activities in Europe was carried out in September 1998. The review panel consisted of Dr Eva Thörn, Director of the Nordic Gene Bank, Sweden; Dr Michel Arbez, Director of Forest Research Station INRA, Bordeaux-Cestas France; and Prof. Ivan Nielsen, Department of Systematic Botany, University of Aarhus, Denmark. The review, conducted every four years, covered IPGRI's work in both forest and crop genetic resources areas, in eastern and western Europe. The work of IPGRI on forest genetic resources in Europe is largely carried out through EUFORGEN. The review provided a critical analysis of the adequacy, quality and effectiveness of activities in addressing overall institutional objectives and strategy; achievements and impact; complementarity and linkages with partners; constraints and priorities for future work. Several National Coordinators were contacted by the review panel members.The review panel developed several recommendations with relevance to EUFORGEN. The main outcomes, applicable to EUFORGEN, are as listed below.• The need for an increased autonomy of the activities carried out within the individual Networks was expressed by the panel. The number of participating countries is high and is expected to increase further, which means an additional workload for the coordination of EUFORGEN.• The review panel recommended that close attention be paid to the need for building strong national programmes in the eastern but also western European countries (mainly by improving public awareness about the importance of creating national programmes). • IPGRI's Regional Office for Europe has a responsibility for mobilizing expertise and funds in Europe for the benefit of other regions. It was recommended that the level of fundraising activities for collaboration with other regions be increased in Europe, and that IPGRI involves National Coordinators in the process.• The self-sustainability of EUFORGEN in terms of its financing from the participating countries is rather unique within IPGRI's system of operations. With a stronger commitment from the countries, increased participation and activities in the Networks, there will be a need for increased funding for plant genetic resources in the region. It was noted that the possibilities for receiving funds from the EU programmes have not yet been fully exhausted. The review panel recommended that IPGRI make further efforts to investigate the potential sources of funding within the EU programmes, in particular INTAS, INCO, PHARE and TACIS.• During the take-off phase of EUFORGEN (1994EUFORGEN ( -1998)), the number of species of concern, as well as the number of participating countries has increased, but the amount of staff time available for the coordination of the Programme has not increased. It will be necessary to stabilize the number of Networks and/or reduce the frequency of meetings, or even leave some Networks after they become sufficiently autonomous, in order to be able to transfer some time to new activities proposed by the participating countries. The review panel suggested not to embark on many new species (Networks), but to pay attention to the issues associated with the continuity of gene reserves and regeneration.• It was recommended that more community ecology expertise be included in the EUFORGEN Networks.• The panel recommended that the proposed training course on forest genetic resources be organized in the near future.• The review panel recommended that contacts with developing countries, especially those of the Central, West Asia and North Africa region be further strengthened, for example by inviting institutions and students to participate in the relevant activities of the European Networks. Collaboration with the countries of this region should be increased for both scientific and development reasons.• EUFORGEN should develop collaboration with institutions working with long-term regional effects of climate change on European forests as well as its consequences for longterm gene conservation. The role of the European Forest Institute (EFI) was emphasized in this regard.• The review panel recommended that particular efforts be made to promote plant genetic resources programmes in the countries of the former Soviet Union and to mobilize funding for these activities.During 1997, IPGRI initiated a three-year project on Broadleaved Forest Genetic Resources in Southeast Europe (Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania). The activities undertaken with financial assistance of Luxembourg include the development of maps of distribution areas, the compilation of databases of seed stands and in situ gene conservation units, as well as the development and application of advanced micropropagation techniques for priority species. Experiments on in vitro rooting of oaks (Quercus spp.) and Sorbus domestica were prepared and conducted jointly by scientists from the Forest Research Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria and the Centre de Recherche Public-Centre Universitaire in Luxembourg. Scientists from Luxembourg and Romania focused on developing techniques for somatic embryogenesis of Quercus robur. The results obtained, to be published in scientific journals, will contribute to making ex situ conservation and use of the genetic resources in the region more effective. An inventory, carried out in three neighbouring southeast European countries during the past year, led to the establishment of comprehensive electronic databases and the construction of maps of distribution areas for Quercus robur, Q. petraea and Fagus sylvatica. Several practical recommendations on the genetic principles of sustainable forest management, partly resulting from this inventory, were provided to the respective state forest services. The second meeting of partners was held at the end of September 1998 in Chisinau, Moldova. They discussed the progress made and agreed on the activities to be carried out during the second year. More attention will be given to studying the adaptation processes of populations. Among other outputs, a monograph on beech (Fagus spp.) genetic resources in the region will be published. A scientific workshop is also planned in Bulgaria in May 2000.A database on in situ forest genetic resources in the Russian Federation has been initiated by the Russian Tree Breeding Centre (CENTRLESSEM) with technical and financial support from IPGRI. Currently, the considerable amount of information resulting from the work of forestry research institutions in identifying valuable in situ forest genetic resources in the Russian Federation is not readily accessible to other scientists and forest officers responsible for gene conservation. This includes, for in situ conservation activities, information on designated gene reserves and gene conservation stands, plus trees, seed stands, valuable provenances, populations, seed orchards, clonal archives etc. The establishment of a computerized database will allow efficient storage, retrieval and dissemination of this information, which will thus be made available to the national and international scientific community. At national level, it will also improve the monitoring of the forest genepool and its appropriate conservation, and will facilitate the use of forest genetic resources. It includes a training component and will result in the establishment of the database structure, purchase of the necessary equipment (computer, software) and starting data entries by the end of 1998.The EUFORGEN Populus nigra Network results from a convergence between the objectives of Resolution 2 and the recommendations of the International Poplar Commission (IPC/FAO). During its 19 th Session in Zaragoza (1992), the IPC recommended to work actively on the genetic conservation of Populus species. In 1993, P. nigra was chosen as a pilot species for one of the EUFORGEN Networks. There were a priori many reasons for creating the P. nigra Network:• Poplar is a highly domesticated forest tree of economic importance all over the world, and poplar breeders, using advanced strategies based on recurrent selection and clonal varieties, are concerned with the long-term preservation of genetic resources • The survey carried out by Resolution 2 confirmed the status of P. nigra as a threatened species mainly due to the alteration of the riparian ecosystem under human activities, and to the interactions between wild and cultivated genepools • P. nigra may also be considered as a model species for biological reasons: dioecy, pioneer behaviour, sexual versus vegetative propagation.The fact that ex situ conservation of P. nigra had already started in many countries with support from poplar breeding programmes facilitated the Network from the outset. Indeed, at least 15 of the 19 countries, which have so far participated in the Network, are represented by research organizations also involved in breeding. Four of them are even specialized \"poplar institutes\".A general framework for the conservation of P. nigra in Europe, based on the very diverse situations and strategies developed at national level, could be established from a synthesis of 17 national reports (Lefèvre et al. 1998). The first priority was to ensure the coordination of ongoing ex situ conservation activities. Agreement among all participating Network members was easily obtained, probably due to their previous involvement in collaborative activities. Guidelines and lists of descriptors were developed; reference material exchanged among Network members and a core collection of clones established. The database of European clone collections was set up which now contains entries from 18 national collections. Available on the Internet and updated regularly, it is a tool of major interest for poplar breeding purposes worldwide. Of course, the exchange of poplar germplasm for breeding already occurred before EUFORGEN, but this database should make it more efficient, by providing up-to-date information on the material available throughout Europe, and allowing to easily detect duplicates among different collections. Recently, even Chinese and North American colleagues contacted Network members, asking for P. nigra pollen for their breeding programmes.The difficulty sometimes lies in achieving the implementation of the agreed tasks, for example, many more accessions could be entered in the database, but compilation and collection of data are time consuming and costly. We have reached a fair level of coordination of ex situ activities over Europe, but a final implementation in all participating countries would require additional financial and technical input.Concerning the in situ strategy, a synthesis of ongoing activities has so far been provided. The identification of P. nigra in the wild was identified as a key concern for conservation activities and a practical leaflet for non-specialists was published (now translated in 8 languages); a list of stand descriptors was also prepared. In comparison with the ex situ activities, in situ conservation has been looked upon from a methodological point of view rather than applied. This is because we generally lack inventories of riparian forests and of P. nigra in particular. Also, the riparian area may have different (specific) ownership patterns and forest services are not the only organizations involved in their management. Finally, the biology of a pioneer species makes it difficult to define concrete operational conservation action, because the management does not only concern the species itself but also, and probably mainly, the whole ecosystem. The dynamics of P. nigra is highly dependent on the water regime, but its conservation is obviously not the first priority in the management of river systems.A joint research proposal came out of the Network discussions and was accepted for funding by the EU in 1997 (EUROPOP: Genetic diversity in river populations of European black poplar for evaluation of biodiversity, conservation strategies, nature development and genetic improvement). This project will provide a standardized evaluation of the genetic diversity within participating countries (both natural populations and ex situ collections).Public awareness was also identified as a key task for the Network, probably because of the particular status of the species: with regard to poplars, the question of clonal forestry, interspecific hybridization, exotic germplasm and ecology of riparian sites is raised. We are convinced that sustainable management of the resource is possible, but it requires people with different interests (wood production, gene conservation, ecology, landscape etc.) to discuss on a reliable scientific basis.This Network should continue its activity on P. nigra, with 2 objectives in the short term:• To ensure the further coordination of ex situ conservation activities at the European level in the long term • To facilitate the in situ conservation activities at the European level.The first objective deals with the conservation of the diversity and its use. This will be useful not only for Europe. The strategy is well defined and its implementation has already begun in most countries. The first point is to complete the European database. In any case, it will be necessary to clarify the responsibilities for the maintenance and updating of this database. Ex situ conservation is \"easy\" with black poplar as it allows for an immediate use of germplasm (in breeding or restoration of riparian sites), but it cannot alone ensure the long-term genetic conservation. Dynamic strategies are needed: in situ or breeding populations.The second objective is increasingly demanded by countries participating in the Network, which have already started in situ conservation or plan to do so. This area is particularly interesting for managers of riparian sites who want to monitor the consequences of their activities. Beyond methodological questions, the Network is also an opportunity to set up an applied in situ programme at the European level: EUFORGEN as such is an important motivation for many countries and, considering the situation of black poplar, motivation is deeply needed to support the existing plans and projects.Concerning ex situ conservation, the Network should focus on the evaluation of genetic diversity and facilitate germplasm exchange when needed, either for poplar breeding or non-commercial plantations. For P. nigra, the diversity has prevailingly been assessed at the individual (clonal) level. This is probably a sound approach since we do not know exactly what is a provenance in this pioneer species (structure of diversity for adaptive traits, small linear \"populations\", decay of riparian sites). As a first step, the EUROPOP project will give an evaluation of the genetic diversity maintained in national clone collections compared with the diversity found in wild populations in Europe, after which decisions will be made about the need for further collecting. In fact, EUROPOP was initiated within the Network and the Network will benefit from its scientific results. The Network and the EUROPOP participants will join in a large panel of experts to define appropriate strategies for in situ conservation and re-introduction. The challenge is then to extend the work carried out also to non-EU member countries participating in the Network. Close links are certainly needed; the Network should help non-EU countries to achieve the evaluation of their collections following common standards. The Network should extend the current European database of passport data to characterization. The inclusion of more material from outside Europe should also be given attention.To develop the in situ strategy, we will first have to identify a network of conservation sites over Europe, and then define management rules within and among the sites. Initially, the Network could at least identify a list of riparian areas considered by each country as essential for the genetic conservation of P. nigra and define their status (ownership, management, protection). A database of in situ conservation units should be organized after joint discussions between EUROPOP and the Network. Some of the Network countries have a long-term breeding strategy for poplars, which includes breeding population. This can be considered as a dynamic approach to conservation, and a certain level of coordination among European breeding programmes might be useful. Concerning the selection of Euramerican hybrid clones (P. deltoides × P. nigra), the Network should actively promote the diversification of the genetic base used in the different poplar breeding institutes.Finally, an evaluation of the costs of ex situ, in situ and breeding populations would be of great interest for the submission of research or applied conservation projects.The Network is involved in the coordination of practical conservation activities but scientific discussions are also needed. One task for the Network is to submit joint project proposals, and therefore scientific discussions are needed prior to submission. Moreover, when a research project is accepted, a close link should be maintained with the Network, as is the case with EUROPOP, in order to enlarge the audience for both groups and exchange more ideas effectively in both directions. The Network will also benefit from the outcomes of the research projects.During its fourth meeting (October 1997), the P. nigra Network decided to extend its scope to P. alba. This matter will be further discussed during the next meeting. Not all countries are interested in this species and, initially, the activities will be limited to the application of the ex situ guidelines also for this white poplar. In the future, we can imagine two directions for the further extension of the Network: the first based on taxonomy (Salicaceae), the second based on ecology (riparian forest ecosystem).The Network participants now represent a good coverage of the species distribution range. A closer involvement of Mediterranean countries, including North Africa, would be of great interest not only to the P. nigra Network, but probably also to other Networks.Two meetings of the Network were satellite to IPC Sessions (Izmit 1994 andSarvar 1996); one followed the final meeting of an EU/FAIR project on poplars (Casale Monferrato 1995). This was a way to broaden the scientific scope of the meeting but, in fact, some countries still have difficulty in joining extra meetings. A joint meeting with the EUROPOP project is planned in 2000.Internet is of great interest for most members and for the dissemination of results worldwide and much has already been done by the Network in that direction. This effort should continue (a more exhaustive database of Network participants, links with homepages of connected research projects etc.), bearing in mind that some partners still need other (non-Internet) access to this information. Concerning a forum of discussion, care should be taken not to overlap with other existing groups (Forestgen, Dendrome…).Links with the other EUFORGEN Networks, but also networks dealing with wild relatives of cultivated crops, would be useful to enrich the discussion.Scientific exchange among EUFORGEN Networks should be developed. Obviously, a joint meeting of Chairs and Vice-Chairs would be easy to organize, but a joint conference of a wider range of Network members could also offer a good opportunity to exchange new ideas, and particularly among people who are not all used to collaborating in the frame of EU research projects. Most of the Network members are poplar breeders and geneticists. The ecology and landscape management perspectives could be better represented. We should be able to invite these specialists to our meetings and facilitate a continued Network discussion.The Strasbourg Resolution S2 Follow-up Committee became interested in Noble Hardwoods partly owing to the reduction in the distribution area of these species due to silvicultural activities, mainly in central European countries. In contrast to the two first selected species, Norway spruce and cork oak, most of the species in our Network are characterized by scattered distribution patterns and some of them are rare.At the first Network meeting (March 1996) a clear objective of the Network was stated: \"Identification of minimum gene conservation activities in the long term from a European perspective\". Tasks were given to different Network members and focused on developing strategies for the different Noble Hardwoods species and genera. These tasks will hopefully be completed in 1999. Many Network members have contributed in an excellent way to this work. A special paper on management of genetic resource populations was developed. A general presentation on evolutionary genetics as a basis for sound gene conservation was prepared, as well as on sampling in the absence of genetic knowledge. Another presentation dealt with consequences of global warming for the species.A concise leaflet aimed at raising public awareness of the need for genetic conservation was published. A database of \"grey\" literature has been developed, as well as minimum standard descriptors for genetic resource populations.Classification of different developmental stages during bud burst and in-wintering has been documented. An EUfunded applied project on genetic resources of elm species has been actively working together with the Network.When the publication of technical guidelines for the conservation of the mandate species is ready, our main task will have been accomplished. Once this has been reached, it is important to follow-up the applied gene conservation activities in individual countries. Moreover, an effective gene conservation must rely on genetic knowledge, which is largely missing for most of the Noble Hardwoods. The Network could serve as a platform for the development of coordinated research. Initiatives in this direction have been taken on several occasions. The latest is to develop a joint proposal on mating patterns in some of our mandate species.As regards the balance between theoretical and applied problems, it should be noted that a sound application must be based on solid evolutionary genetic knowledge and not emotionally motivated. Even if our task is purely applied, it must be based on scientific knowledge. Therefore, it is important that both the scientific and applied sides cooperate within the Network. In this regard, I see the technical guidelines as the primary task of the Network. Besides, it is important that the Network members communicate in their countries with the authorities in charge of applied genetic conservation.A table listing all species and the priorities assigned to them by individual countries was compiled. This was necessary in order to identify common priorities. Similarly, after the extension of the Quercus suber Network to other Mediterranean oaks, that Network has encountered problems common to those of our own Network.With regard to the mode of operation, the meetings have been very constructive and most Network members delivered their reports on time. Meeting once a year might be regarded as a slow process and once every 6 months would certainly speed up the work. On the other hand, most of the Network members have many other duties, so once a year might be close to what is attainable. In my opinion the EUFORGEN Coordinating Secretariat has kept us very well informed about what is going on in the other Networks.Links with other Networks I do not see the need for every forest tree species that is growing in Europe to be considered. The principles for genetic conservation of Norway spruce are certainly valid for Scots pine as well. Perhaps more general issues such as the consequences of global warming for genetic conservation of tree species, the role of tree breeding in gene conservation and a thorough scrutiny of urgent research needs might be more relevant than species oriented work. Similarly, the role of forest tree gene conservation for the non-forest tree species dwelling in our ecosystems and dependent on our forest trees for their existence is important for EUFORGEN to address. Traditionally, these species were treated by ecologists with limited or no connection to forestry.Tree breeders are poorly represented in the Network. Perhaps contacts with breeders would be more useful than meetings between Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Network.When discussing the species to be taken as pilot cases for gene conservation networks in Europe, it was agreed that attention should not only be paid to rare and endangered trees. Widely distributed and commercially important species are, in fact, more significant from the viewpoint of genetic conservation in forest ecosystems, as well as tree breeding.Pollution has caused considerable damage to Norway spruce forests in several countries. Extensive seed transfers also changed the natural structure of populations. On the other hand, simple and inexpensive in situ methods can be used in most cases for effective gene conservation.Publication of the Technical Guidelines is perhaps the most concrete and useful accomplishment. Many countries have their own gene reserves, including nature protected areas, clonal banks or special gene conservation stands. The \"handbook\" will hopefully help national authorities to evaluate the gene reserves and offer practical advice to the forest officers responsible for their management. A common database of gene conservation units and a bibliography on Norway spruce genetics, breeding and genetic resources are underway.Due to various reasons, progress on conservation of forest genetic resources is not as rapid as we would like. Forest genetics and tree breeding are under heavy pressure in many countries. Without the active efforts of those concerned (forest geneticists), often shortsighted commercial policies may lead to genetic erosion. Commitment at a political level, actively supported by international collaboration, is necessary. In this regard, a time span of 10 years might be beneficial for EUFORGEN. If European countries can set a good example, hopefully other countries will accept gene conservation as a part of their national forestry policy. For the future I see the continuity and regeneration of various gene reserves as the crucial issue of genetic conservation. Most countries have their conservation populations, but perhaps no definite plans on how to regenerate them. A national plan on forest genetic resources and the commitment of the respective authority in collaboration with all key players would be the means to achieve them. Some members would like to see a theoretical, purely scientific agenda during Network meetings. However, there are many other, more appropriate fora, such as IUFRO meetings, for scientific discussions. We have been supportive of the idea to occasionally invite a speaker presenting results of new and significant research. It should not be acceptable to say that practical operations can only be started after we have a complete genetic map and/or knowledge of the population structure at our disposal. There is wide support among colleagues for the fact that we must undertake actions with limited genetic knowledge.The original EUFORGEN Picea abies Network aimed to provide a \"pilot case\" for other conifer species with similar characteristics. To my mind, all such species with current, or at least potential value ought to be gradually included. There is a lot of work to be done. As agreed during the third Picea abies Network meeting (April 1998), we suggest broadening the scope to include other spruce and pine species. The Network will first accomplish the tasks it has started on Norway spruce.The number of countries participating in EUFORGEN has increased rapidly, and there is a particular interest if more species are included in a Network. This means that the active participation of all the Network members in meetings becomes difficult and the discussion tends to spread over miscellaneous issues. On the other hand, it is essential for each country to be present and to have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. A possible solution would be to subdivide the Network into small groups (during meetings), with one or more participants who could then summarize the outcomes of the group discussions in the plenary sessions. Such smaller groups would be more efficient, but it would be difficult to select countries or people. This is also to some extent a political issue and we must not discriminate.It may be a little disappointing that the activity of Network members decreases between meetings. Colleagues are quite active and critical in the meetings, but then deadlines for a number of agreed tasks are not maintained. The tasks given are usually not very time demanding, e.g. when updating the guidelines.The distribution of information and encouraging a more active participation of the Network members is a challenge. There is a general consensus that the receipt of various kinds of advertisements, information leaflets, electronic messages etc. is time demanding and even counter-productive. We cannot compete with commercial firms in quantity and, therefore, high quality and well focused information effectively distributed to the persons involved or concerned is necessary. Internet is very useful, but we must not build too much on it. Not all members have access and the updating of homepages seems to be neglected by many organizations.Links and cooperation among Networks are necessary. There are currently links through (a very few) persons who belong to more than one Network. General and/or scientific issues could be dealt with in joint meetings or workshops; these are usually not specifically related to only one species or a group of species. Furthermore, efforts to appeal to the decision makers would be more effective coming from EUFORGEN as a whole rather than through individual Networks.Cork oak is an important Mediterranean species with natural distribution range confined to the western part of the Mediterranean basin: Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia.Thanks to the joint efforts by various countries, FAO, IPGRI/EUFORGEN and EU financed projects, concerted activities on the management, genetic research and conservation of genetic resources in cork oak have been developed during the past few years. Several relevant initiatives should be mentioned:• Séminaire méditerranéen sur la régénération des forêts de chêne liège dans les pays méditérranéens -held in Tunisia, in 1996 • G.R.A.M. -Groupe de Recherches Agronomiques Méditérranéennes/Ressources Génétiques Forestières -a French initiative for the enhancement of the scientific cooperation among Mediterranean countries. GRAM meetings provide opportunities for contacts, discussion and further cooperation • Séminaire sur l'Amélioration, la Conservation et l'Utilisation des Ressources Génétiques Forestières Marocaines -held in Morocco, in 1997.The following Quercus suber Network meetings were held so far: 1. December 1994, Rome, Italy. The cork oak focal point of the S2 Follow-up Committee organized the first meeting on this species in Lisbon, in July 1993. The meeting discussed issues related to gene conservation of cork oak in Europe and produced a document \"Recommendations of the scientific advisory group for the conservation of the genetic resources of Quercus suber\".Through the EUFORGEN Network, with the overall support of FAO Forestry Department, collaborative project proposals for the conservation of genetic resources of cork oak were jointly prepared and submitted for funding to the grant programmes of the European Union. A concerted action and a research proposal guided by the need of deeper genetic knowledge for sustained conservation of genetic resources of cork oak were submitted. The proposal for a concerted action was adopted for funding (FAIR 1 CT 95 0202).The implementation of the concerted action and the collaborative tasks of the EUFORGEN Network, supported by the links with FAO, provided an excellent basis for work in synergy among all participating countries.These include France, Italy, Portugal (coordinator) and Spain, as well as experts from Germany and Sweden. Three North African cork oak countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) also joined the project with complementary support from the European Union.Following recommendations by the National Coordinators, a fifth Network was created in EUFORGEN concerning Social Broadleaves. For the time being the Network addresses Quercus petraea, Quercus robur, Fagus sylvatica and Fagus orientalis. Other species may be added in the future.The first meeting of the Social Broadleaves Network was held in Bordeaux, 23-25 October 1997. Participants were representing 23 countries at the first meeting. The meeting permitted to draw a general picture of the status of genetic resources available in Europe on oak and beech and to construct a joint workplan.During the first meeting in Bordeaux, common needs and objectives were identified and tasks were discussed that should be addressed in the next future. Common needs concern particularly:• To improve information flow among countries • To harmonize research priorities and disseminate available research results• To address legislation-related issues • To develop joint, long-term, practically-oriented strategies and standardize or develop methodologies • To raise awareness of decision-makers, the general public and forest owners about the necessity of conserving genetic resources of Social Broadleaves.The participants developed a common workplan with shared responsibilities, which aims at strengthening collaboration among European countries by providing practical outputs such as technical guidelines for the sampling, design and management of gene conservation units, databases, information resources and public awareness tools.During the first meeting, the development of gene conservation strategies was identified as a fundamental task of the Network. As a first step, the current state of the art in the different countries has been assessed. Information about methodologies currently used for in situ and ex situ conservation in European countries will be gathered through a questionnaire. This basic information will lead to preparing a background document to be presented at the next Network meeting. The response to the questionnaire will help to identify topics where additional research is needed (e.g. spatial and genetic structure of diversity in gene conservation units, influence of silvicultural practices). The ultimate objective of the activity is to provide technical recommendations (guidelines) for the sampling, design and management of gene conservation units in beech and oak. It is expected that the research needs identified will be a basis for collaborative research projects to be submitted to different agencies. Strong interface and interaction between the Network and EU supported research projects will be tied, in order to promote dissemination of scientific results useful for promoting and implementing conservation strategies.Information flow among countries on the genetic resources available throughout Europe, their evaluation in provenance tests and in genetic diversity surveys, will be improved by completing current databases.The Network agreed that the species covered by the activities should be Quercus petraea, Quercus robur, Fagus sylvatica and Fagus orientalis. However, concerns were raised about introducing other species (Q. pubescens, Q. pyrenaica, Q. cerris…). Future inclusion of the new species should be considered according to the needs expressed by the different countries.Most west and east European countries participate in the Networks. However, some important geographic areas, where refugial zones have been described are missing: several countries from the Balkan Peninsula, and from the Caucasus.Meetings every 18 to 24 months have been planned. The next meeting will take place in June 1999 in Birmensdorf (Switzerland). This meeting is planned as a joint meeting with the EU supported FAIR project entitled \"Synthetic maps of gene diversity and provenance performance for utilization and conservation of oak genetic resources in Europe\". The creation of an Internet Web site may be considered as an effective tool for exchanging information among participants.In the long run links with the Quercus suber Network may be mutually beneficial, especially with regard to gene conservation of those south European oak species which can hybridize with temperate oaks. Generic meetings between the two Networks that include oaks may be beneficial for discussing common topics as practical conservation strategies. At one point, the need of a general technical meeting across all Networks may appear in order to share different opinions on conservation strategies, and to discuss common technical concerns related to the management of gene conservation units.Annex IV. European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) -Proposal for a Phase II 15 (1 January 2000 -31 December 2004)The signatory states of Resolution S2 and participating international institutions at the First Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (Strasbourg, 1990) committed themselves to implement in their own countries, using whatever methods seem most appropriate, a policy for the conservation of forest genetic resources. Resolution S2 called for the development of an instrument for cooperation on conservation of genetic diversity of European forests:\"To facilitate and extend the efforts undertaken at national and international levels, a functional but voluntary instrument of international cooperation should be found without delay from among the existing relevant organizations to promote and coordinate:1. in situ and ex situ methods to conserve the genetic diversity of European forests; 2. exchanges of reproductive materials; 3. the monitoring of progress in these fields.\"The European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) was established in October 1994 as the implementation mechanism of Resolution S2 (Table 1). The overall goal of EUFORGEN is to ensure the effective conservation and the sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe.  (Second Ministerial Conference in Helsinki, 1993 andThird Ministerial Conference in Lisbon, 1998).As a coordinated European effort, EUFORGEN promotes the establishment and implementation of national programmes on forest genetic resources and facilitates the development of common minimum standards and determination of mechanisms for priority setting.EUFORGEN is financed by its participating countries and is coordinated by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). The Programme is overseen by a Steering Committee of National Coordinators nominated by the participating countries.EUFORGEN operates through a small number of Networks focused on species or groups of species; presently five Networks are operational. Network members from participating countries carry out agreed activities using their own resources, as inputs in kind to the Programme.It was originally agreed that EUFORGEN be established for an initial phase of five years (October 1994 to October 1999).The first Steering Committee meeting, held in Sopron, Hungary, 19-20 November 1995, endorsed the mode of operation for EUFORGEN. The second Steering Committee meeting, in Vienna, Austria, 26-29 November 1998, reviewed the progress made and recommended that a second Phase of five years be launched starting from 1 January 2000.In this second Phase, EUFORGEN should be further developed in support of meeting the objectives outlined in Resolution S2. It was agreed that the main level for implementing the overall objectives remained the species oriented Networks.The EUFORGEN Programme operates as a multilateral trust fund. Individual countries formally join EUFORGEN by signing a Letter of Agreement with IPGRI, in which the financial contribution to be made to the Programme is specified.The Agreement will be deemed invalid if the country does not meet its financial obligations for two years.When joining EUFORGEN, each country is requested to nominate a National Coordinator as the official contact person between the Secretariat and the participating country for all matters relating to the Programme. A Steering Committee composed of the National Coordinators of all participating countries has the overall responsibility for the Programme and meets twice during a Phase to:• review the progress made, discuss and decide upon further activities • set priorities • review the audited financial reports prepared by the Secretariat • approve the budget of the Programme • make recommendations and decisions regarding the future activities • review the concurrence of Network activities with the objectives of EUFORGEN • discuss issues relevant to the conservation of forest genetic resources in Europe.If there is a strong need to convene in a time period shorter than three years, an additional ad hoc Steering Committee meeting will be organized.Decisions at Steering Committee meetings are usually taken by consensus. If necessary in certain cases, the procedure of voting by Steering Committee members will be followed.The role of the National Coordinators is to:• participate in the Steering Committee meetings • ensure that necessary resources are chanelled to the Programme • liaise between the Secretariat and the sponsoring ministry(ies) • liaise between the Secretariat and the national institutions involved in the EUFORGEN activities • nominate attending and corresponding members to the Networks and maintain regular contacts with them • assist national institutes in carrying out the activities of the Programme.EUFORGEN operates through Networks in which forest geneticists and other forestry specialists work together to analyze needs, exchange experiences and develop conservation objectives and methods for selected species. The Networks also contribute to the development of conservation strategies for the ecosystems to which these species belong. Network members and other scientists and forest managers from participating countries carry out agreed workplans with their own resources as inputs in kind to the Programme.Five Networks are operational:• Conifers (started as Picea abies Network)• Mediterranean oaks (started as Quercus suber Network)• Populus nigra (and P. alba)The concurrence of Network activities with the objectives of EUFORGEN is reviewed by the Steering Committee.Two different levels of involvement of countries in the Networks are distinguished: attending members, whose participation in the Network meetings is financed by the Programme and corresponding members who provide and receive information to the Network but do not attend its meetings. Both attending and corresponding members of a Network receive the meeting's report and are expected to facilitate the implementation of workplans given therein. Attending and corresponding members are listed and their contributions published in the reports. This structure contributes towards maintaining Network meetings reasonably small and therefore dynamic and ensures that each country has its (attending or corresponding) representative for each species or group of species.Attending and corresponding members are nominated by the National Coordinators. The Network members should be identified according to the concerns and interests of individual countries and from those institutions which are recognized as playing (or prepared to play) a major role with regard to the species concerned. It is understood that this structure is flexible. The Networks meet (attending members) and exchange information (attending and corresponding members) at regular intervals in order to:• set priorities within the Network • plan collaborative activities such as inventories of the situtation regarding the genetic resources of the species concerned, long-term conservation strategies and technical guidelines, European databases and lists of descriptors • establish and implement workplans • identify common research needs • prepare joint project proposals • agree on the sharing of responsibilities for individual tasks • contribute to raising public awareness • monitor progress made. ","tokenCount":"44247"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35e5d7330b9adcf7d8c705416f857021","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6bd1e4cd-c2f8-4f52-a5ab-474c8f37fb47/retrieve","id":"29045946"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8c7e0af1-eb10-41a4-985f-216bd9419c36","pagecount":"12","content":"• Definición: \"capacidad de competir\"• Ventaja competitiva: poder ofrecer las cuatro 'Ces': • Alcanzar una orientación al mercado.• Que esté organizado.• Establecer sistemas de producción sostenibles.• Definición: \"La producción de bienes y servicios cuidadosamente investigados y diseñados para atraer a los clientes en el mercado\" (Kovacek).• Se produce lo que se puede vender y no viceversa.• Consta de tres componentes: orientación al cliente, orientación a la competencia, y coordinación interfuncional (Narver).Se promocionan los productos • Que el PPR pertenezca a una organización con sentido empresarial, para así:• Mejorar poder de negociación.• Organizar uniones de compra y de venta.• Responder a demandas de cantidad y continuidad.• Tener acceso a servicios de apoyo.• Que la organización obtenga o tenga acceso a información de mercados.• Que la organización identifique ventajas competitivas. ","tokenCount":"128"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"434480b1def2a600b4afe382b27264f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd0d623a-07ce-4dec-927e-5ffe109d74f2/retrieve","id":"-425771170"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a0a04df-08ef-4c2f-92e0-2f397e6895eb","pagecount":"9","content":"Wheat is a commodity of great social and economic importance, equal to rice as a global food security crop. The proposal for CRP 3.1, WHEAT, argues convincingly for a collaborative international research effort to achieve sustainable wheat production systems and improve access to and affordability of wheat as a major food for poor consumers while reversing environmental degradation. To this end, the proposal brings together CIMMYT and ICARDA with other major players in a comprehensive global research program. The track record of these partners is impressive. The proposed program, however, takes on too large an agenda without sufficient supporting analysis of constraints and opportunities for wheat research. It does not sufficiently prioritize activities in order to focus on areas where plausibility of impact is greatest.Defining the case for CGIAR research on wheat is more nuanced than for maize and rice because wheat is produced largely in middle income countries. Furthermore, it is a highly tradable commodity and therefore production increases do not necessarily result in lower consumer prices in the country where it is produced. These issues should be explicitly recognised and a reasonable framework developed to identify research issues and geographic regions that deserve focus of CGIAR wheat research. Regarding the expected negative effects of climate change, there are likely options such as adaptive agronomic management, crop substitution, consumption substitution and wheat imports not considered in the proposal and which would mitigate at least partially the effects of climate change.The steady decrease in rate of gain in wheat yields, and the fact that on a global level the rate of gain is now less than required to meet projected wheat demand, is given as a major justification for this CRP. Although in some major wheat producing countries wheat yields have plateaued or have stalled significantly, the underpinning causes of these yield trends are not considered. The ISPC believes the causes need to be understood, or hypotheses put forward to explain them, to help guide research prioritization on the productivity enhancement components of this CRP.The CRP consists of 10 Strategic Initiatives (SIs), which are generally appropriate and well articulated. The SI outputs are aligned with the System Level Outcomes of the CGIAR Strategic Results Framework (SRF). While impact targets are provided for all SIs there are no analytical justifications or assumptions for these quantitative targets. Lack of explanation about how these targets were derived reduces their credibility. Further, program-level integration, development and delivery strategies are lacking, and the management framework does not appear strong enough for integration of component elements within and across SIs for enhancing program-level outcomes. For example, the lead Center, CIMMYT, has notable dominance in program management. The Management Committee is the CRP executive and below that there is little leadership. It is not clear that this management arrangement can support program-level synergy and cohesion through integration of program components. With CIMMYT and ICARDA having responsibilities for their current regions there is risk that the new program will not bring the needed integration to the two Centers' programs. Likewise, the CRP lacks a strong mechanism for independent oversight and evaluation.CRP 3.1 -WHEAThas a clear vision of the challenges ahead to ensure: (1) increasing wheat demand is met and food is affordable for poor consumers, (2) wheat-based farming systems are more sustainable and resilient, (3) increased wheat production in developing countries is achieved mainly through higher yields, thus lessening pressure on area expansion (4) poverty and malnutrition are reduced, (5) disadvantaged farmers and countries gain better access to cutting-edge proprietary technologies, and ( 6) a new generation of scientists and other professionals guide national agricultural research across the developing world.A central argument put forward by the proponents is that wheat is extremely important in the developing world as a food security crop but its production is threatened by climate change, a host of disease and pest problems, and a steady decrease in rate of yield gain. A global initiative is offered to address these wheat production and productivity challenges building on the past successes of CIMMYT and ICARDA and their partners. While the case is strong for such a program, prioritization of the proposed research agenda is weak. In particular, the proposal has not sufficiently considered the context of the current global wheat research portfolio, recent advances in science and how they affect the prioritization within WHEAT and feasibility of success.Several key issues that underpin justification for CRP WHEAT are not adequately explored. Wheat is produced in middle-income countries, many of which have substantial research capacities. It is also a largely tradable commodity, which means that productivity increases do not necessarily result in lower grain prices for poor consumers in the country that produces it (India being a possible exception).The effects of climate change on wheat yields are estimated to be astonishingly large, but they are likely overestimated because farmers' adaptation was not considered in the cited studies. It would seem that the degree to which the negative impact of climate change can be mitigated by adaptive management is an important researchable issue, especially for South Asia where wheat is grown in multiple cropping systems like the rice-wheat rotation. In the absence of such an analysis, the CRP focuses research efforts on genetic solutions to climate change with little effort on potential for adaptive management. Likewise, in the face of negative climate impacts both producers and consumers may seek alternatives to wheat, and wheat demand could be met by imports. CRP3.1 has a comparative advantage to improve the understanding of likely climate change impacts on global wheat production, the associated impact on food security, nutrition, and poverty alleviation, and using this knowledge to help catalyse global wheat research to mitigate negative impacts. Such work would contribute to research in CRP7 and must be coordinated with it. Until this research is further along, investment in genetic solutions to climate change are premature unless they can be justified as a priority to address major constraints to wheat production and resilience of current wheat systems.Decreasing yield gains are a major justification for CRP3.1 and it is proposed that underinvestment in wheat research is a cause of the trend. The situation is actually worse than this because in a number of major wheat-producing countries and regions (e.g. India and Mexico) yields have plateaued or have stalled abruptly. Lack of understanding the underpinning causes of these trends greatly reduces capacity for good research prioritization on productivity enhancement components within WHEATboth in terms of research on genetics and NRM.There are ten Strategic Initiatives (SI) linked to impact targets that address the SRF's SLOs, particularly on food security. The complement of SIs is generally appropriate, but the SIs are of variable strength and not sufficiently integrated (as discussed below). Furthermore, the SIs are comprehensive rather than strategic, and the strategic coherence at the program level is missing.The revised proposal needs to elaborate on justification for addressing the CGIAR SLOs through research on wheat productivity and wheat systems. Arguments about why wheat research is important for the CGIAR's mission should focus on the comparative advantage and value added of this program in the context of some strong national programs in both the North and the South. The proposal should present realistic propositions regarding probabilities of success for the different research components, and set clear priorities among the totality of alternative interventions. While the geographic priority on South Asia is appropriate, the emphasis on consumption and trade should be stronger. Following such a long history of wheat research, much more quantitative information should be available for prioritization, for instance among crop diseases.The proposal emphasises delivery and impact pathways, and each SI has detailed estimates of expected impact. The plausibility of impact is not well addressed. There are variable levels of uncertainties related to SI success, which have not been elaborated. Some SIs depend on success of other SIs, and there are complex issues conditioning CRP outcomes and impacts that have not been well considered. Thus, the proposal does not provide a strategy to compile the SI component outputs into more aggregated program deliverables consistent with the CGIAR System-Level Objectives (SLOs). Development and delivery plans and associated schedules are not described, and they are complex, particularly for integrated management systems that target resource-limited farmers.The proposal lacks a framework for prioritizing wheat research according to likelihood of success and potential impact and outcomes. Research targets are generally too vague, timeframes are unclear and productivity is used as a metric without clear definition of the productivity benchmark or units. For example, in SI2 the targets relate to total farm productivity, which is undefined and there is no timeframe. The quantitative impact estimates given for the SIs (Table 3) are not explained and methods or source of these estimates are lacking, which reduces their credibility. More clarity is required regarding estimation on productivity increase, number of farmers affected etc. and how sensitive the estimates are to underpinning assumptions.Gender is systematically included for each SI and there is an appropriate emphasis in -understanding livelihood strategies, the resource constraints encountered by women and men, and the roles of women and men in wheat (seed) production‖. For example, consideration of women's role in SI8 is appropriate. However, further development of gender research would be worthwhile to focus on alleviating constraints faced by women and for improving the well-being of women in wheat farming systems. For instance, what are the gender issues associated with feasibility and adoption of CA practices?The impact assessment plan to benchmark and establish baselines for performance metrics in targeted regions is commendable. This will be a major task. In the case of benchmarking current use of wheat germplasm, for instance, there is little available data on varietal releases and adoption in most countries. While impact pathways for crop genetic improvement are quite clear, there is no discussion of the more complex impact pathways for systems-level and NRM research. The CRP will be challenged to identify relevant benchmarks for metrics and benchmarking for systems-level performance and NRM impact. Are there lessons learned from CIMMYT's efforts on CA over the past 15 years? The proposal lists key performance indicators (KPI) for each SI that are not always consistent with the aims of the SI (in SI3, for example, the KPIs focus on N/fertilizer use efficiency but the aim is increased yield through better nutrient and water management). Furthermore purely quantitative publication targets without quality considerations present an incomplete performance metric. While a generic list of performance indicators is also provided (Table 6), these are very -activity oriented‖ and rather than focused on metrics associated with greatest potential for impact. Greater effort should be given to identify more appropriate metrics that capture quality, relevance, and potential for impact and outcomes.The WHEAT proposal would benefit from more detail about the science behind the SIs. What are the current knowledge frontiers and where new research initiatives can make a difference? What differentiates this CRP from previous research or research done elsewhere? In many cases researchable issues are presented as lists with little or no background justification, and there are few hypotheses, for instance regarding the underpinnings of yield trends (as discussed above). SI1 on social science and targeting provides -the social science context‖ for the CRP. Part of the research on wheat markets (price stabilization, reserves, trade, etc), input markets, and risk management seems outside the capability of the proponents, and already a major focus of CRP 2 on policies. SI1 should be refocused on things that CIMMYT and ICARDA do well, and better integrating these activities the other SIs of this CRP. Important issues include institutional and policy constraints in the target regions and clarifying the role of policy/institutional interventions vs. technological ones. Strong partnerships will be needed with CRP 2 on policies and with CRP 7 on climate change issues.Combining SI2 and SI3 seems justified because management of tillage, water and nitrogen are interlinked and there can be significant trade-offs among management options. In addition, both SI2 and SI3 require crop and ecosystem modelling to strengthen the potential to generate IPGs and for extrapolation of site-specific results to wider inference domains. Justification for SI2 is challenged by the highly site-specific nature of research on conservation agriculture (CA), and it is unclear what is new. Although limitations on adoption of -CA packages‖ are recognised, why not shift from the -technology package approach‖ to researching and testing the principles that affect soil erosion, and labour and fuel demands? The plan to test large numbers of genotypes with conservation management practices would benefit from an organizing hypothesis to help guide measurements that deepen understanding of G x M x E interactions. Likewise, the impact of weeds seems to be underplayed given their importance in general and as a serious obstacle to adoption of CA systems in particular. For crop rotations, a broader range of break crops might be considered, in addition to legumes, and the limitations of crop simulations models to capture tillage, residue and rotation effects should be recognised.There is little theoretical or actual evidence to suggest promise for success in genetic improvement of N use efficiency. This component of SI3 should be dropped unless stronger scientific justification can be made. N efficiency is improved indirectly, but significantly, through genetic improvement for yielding ability and higher harvest index associated with it. Efforts on innovative crop and soil management that improves congruence between N supply and demand would appear to be a better bet, and WHEAT could collaborate with GRiSP on this research. The -more crop per drop‖ slogan is narrow and overlooks the importance of improved water capture. The impact of water and N management options are interactive with CA practices and are generally confounded by other environmental higher order interactions. Trade-offs must be considered to quantify the potential for greater production and profit. Much of the water related research seems better done in CRP5, particularly considering complex policy and institutional issues of water. Scientific justification for research on mycorrhizae and root exudates is weak; ambiguous results from a large body of research suggest unlikely progress. SI4 is a key initiative for the entire program as it assembles new genetic materials and outputs derived from SIs 5, 6 and 7. SI4 is an area where the research partners have a strong track record and a worldwide network exists for developing, testing and distributing wheat germplasm. Investigating the underpinning causes of declining trends of wheat yield growth rates and yield plateaus need to be included for prioritizing research on productivity enhancement. The proposed research needs better strategic focus. For instance, there is still considerable emphasis on breeding to deliver finished products to NARS and a proposal to develop hybrids (SI7) without elaboration of how the CGIAR's comparative advantage has changed, given past failures with hybrid wheat. Because this varies depending on individual NARS capacity, more detail about country-level focus should be given. SI5 on wheat diseases is critical to world food security. In SI5 work needs be prioritized according to the prevalence and severity of various wheat diseases and insect pests, which differ in importance by orders of magnitude. Table 5.1 can be built on for this prioritization. The importance of maintenance breeding should be emphasised as that has major consequences for sustaining wheat yield increases. For trait enhancement, transgenic options should be considered in light of their potential and the recent progress with transformation of monocotyledenous crops. SI6 presentation is vague regarding its strategic approach, researchable issues, quality of science, and pathways to delivery and potential impact. -Adaptation to warmer temperatures‖ is a meaningless target without specificity and scientific justification. How specific traits might confer heat tolerance should be discussed and justification given for selected genetic targets. What about the potential to adjust genetically the thermal development clock that governs development rate so that higher temperatures would not result in such a short grain-filling period in wheat, which is a major cause of lower yield with high temperature?There is a strong case for continuous work in lifting wheat yield potential as described in SI7 although the 50% target is completely unrealistic. This is the core business of CIMMYT and the team has expertise in key areas ranging from molecular sciences to crop physiology and breeding. New models of grain yield allow for integration and reflect the current understanding of wheat yield determination. There is a well established network and infrastructure to characterise the elusive GxE component of grain yield, and new technologies seem to be used with clear, breeding-driven focus. Enhancement of photosynthesis through manipulation of Rubisco is a weak component of this SI. Trade-offs and scaling up issues remain fundamental scientific roadblocks to this objective; without addressing them the approach is not likely to succeed and should be dropped.Seed systems issues are presented comprehensively in SI8. After decades of wheat breeding and success in spreading improved varieties to nearly all major wheat growing areas in the developing world, it seems unlikely that seed supply would remain the major constraint. More careful analysis and diagnosis may reveal the problem is in the demand for seed due to information gaps on the part of farmers. Furthermore, the problems related to dependency on public sector for varietal release processes and seed certification are generic to all crops in many developing countries. Therefore the efforts to change seed policies should be common for all CRPs under CRP 3, and be integrated with CRP2 on policies.SI9 with focus on conserving and exploiting genetic resources and characterization is well matched to WHEAT objectives. The emphasis on open access to the raw materials for crop improvement, i.e. genes and knowledge, is timely and relevant. In addition to links with SI5-7, SI9 proposes valuable linkages with S1 and S10. Efforts to refine phenotyping techniques and inclusion of field phenotyping are commendable for closing the gap between the fast advancing molecular sciences and conventional breeding.Enhancing the research capability of partner organisations and training a new generation of scientists, technicians and farmers in SI10 is critical to WHEAT objectives and likely to generate long-term impacts. SI10 is appropriately linked to the other SIs.This CRP builds on current strong partnerships between the lead Centers and NARS, ARIs and the private sector. The CRP guidelines for identifying partners (pgs 30-31) are good. Appropriate partners are essential for success as most SIs depend on partnerships at both early-stage research and at the evaluation and product development phases. Existing networks are of great value to SI10 in training scientists and technicians in developing countries. The Borlaug Institute for South Asia is an exciting new collaborative initiative yet to be established. In general, however, the level of commitment from partner organizations cannot be determined from the proposal. Presumably the CRP will be drawing on outputs from partners produced outside of WHEAT.Regarding partnership structure, three levels of potential engagement are considered-primary research partners (PRPs) that play a role on both the Management Committee and the Oversight Committee (substantial resource commitments and research contributions to the program); research partners and development partners (awarded performance contracts); and stakeholder partners (participants in priority setting and review but not under performance contract). Most of the partnerships, other than PRPs, will evolve from the strategic initiatives. A long list of partners is given for each SI, but many others are envisioned to evolve as research progresses. Within the SIs, research partners are active in planning, implementation and evaluation of the initiatives as part of formal threeyear and annual planning processes. The large number of WHEAT partners (more than 150 organizations worldwide) could lead to trade-offs between management costs and coordination requirements to avoid duplication of activities and preventing important issues falling through the cracks.The proposal includes an extended description of the potential for public-private partnerships (p.19). While the value of these partnerships is evident, it is not clear how they will be developed and incorporated into management and oversight functions.Management and oversight are heavily controlled by the lead Center CIMMYT. Although a program management unit will be formed, its role appears facilitative and no particular staff expertise is identified. The CIMMYT DG, along with the Center's director of research and partnership, are responsible for leading the program both internally and externally. This is worrisome, given that one of only three risks identified in the proposal is -inept or seriously inefficient CRP management combined with inept or seriously inefficient oversight functions‖ (p.58). The research agenda is divided to represent the respective institutional strengths and comparative advantages of the two Centers, but ICARDA's role in the management of the CRP appears to be only somewhat more influential than other PRPs. The danger with this arrangement is that these two Center-driven programs continue to stand as if CGIAR reform never happened. A more proactive management framework is needed to ensure that synergies and cohesion are properly leveraged in this CRP.Questions about the plausibility of impact have been raised above. The description of the program management does not add confidence. The CRP seems to lack sufficient active management to integrate the component elements of individual SIs to design and develop deliverable products. A well established portfolio management process is lacking. Having a CIMMYT staff member chairing the Management Committee has the risk of preventing a distinct identity for the CRP. Cost savings do not justify lack of a dedicated position. It appears that delivery of specific outputs would be delegated to partners, with only annual planning meetings to exchange knowledge on progress. The fact that individual SIs do not have clear leadership of their own, and thus budgets, reduces confidence that WHEAT can become an integrated and cohesive program. Budgets are presumably controlled by the respective Center leaders. The size of the SI teams and whether the teams will have leaders and access to specific management support (communications, technology, etc.) is not spelled out in the proposal. We conclude that overall management at the CRP-level as well as roles for the Management Committee and SI leadership should be strengthened and clarified in the revised proposal.CRP3.1 WHEAT and CRP 3.3 MAIZE assume most of CIMMYT's budget (at 2009 level). The proponents state that implementation of WHEAT (and also CRP3.3 MAIZE) would be put at risk without management costs being covered by the CRP (p.61). This is difficult to understand, however, because these management costs are currently being covered within CIMMYT's budget. Between the two CIMMYT-led proposals, the CRP-accrued management costs total approximately $3.4 million a year. It appears that none of the research conducted by the partners prior to this CRP (largely the same as proposed) had any management costs associated with them other than overhead. Thus it seems unreasonable to claim that the new funding scheme will require substantially more or different management than CIMMYT required in 2009 with a similar level and mix of unrestricted and restricted funding from multiple sources.The gap between what is described as full funding for the proposal from 2011-2013 ($259.5 million) and even the most positive budget scenario for the same period ($150.7 million) exceeds $100 million (Table 7, p.61). Nevertheless, fund raising to bridge this gap is not addressed in management terms. Given the gap between projected and full funding, primary research partners are clearly expected to bring substantial resources to the table. For instance, the inclusion of GDRC of Australia, BBSRC of the UK, and ICAR as potential PRP members assumes relatively large investments from these partners to the CRP. Primary research partners, who are defined by their level of commitment to the project, will play influential roles in priority setting and resource allocation, most directly through membership in the Management Committee. It is emphasised in the proposal (Table 7) that the influence of the CGIAR is proportionate to Window 1-3 funding, which is estimated to be 33% (at most) in the budget scenarios and would plummet if the program were to be fully funded. The proposal would have benefited from a budget illustration showing the program at full funding, indicating either the allocation of additional resources by SI or by region. Although Table 3 includes estimated impacts of full funding, there is no way to gauge whether the addition of resources in one area or another would provide significant leverage in achieving these results. Risks are cited for funding at less than 75% of estimated budget (which is itself less than 60% of full funding), but the strategy and priority for adding funds above the amounts requested, would be useful to see.The CRP lacks a strong mechanism for independent oversight and evaluation. The composition of the Oversight Committee is largely driven by geographic region. Although nominations will emerge from partners and stakeholders, no criteria for membership are listed, nor the terms of reference. The committee has no chair or other designated leader who can provide a measure of balance to the influence of the lead Center's DG or its staff, or provide an independent and knowledgeable level of scrutiny to the work of the Management Committee.The Oversight Committee could play a critical role in fulfilling the need for more independence and fewer conflicts of interest if the proposal included:  A mechanism by which the six regional members can be nominated and appointed in a manner not wholly influenced or controlled by the lead Center  Term limits or a similar mechanism that provides for turnover among regional representatives and encourages individual performance  A committee chair that is nominated from among the committee members and serves for a fixed term  The ability to meet more than once each year, even if one meeting was a video conference  The authority to commission periodic external evaluations of the CRP, including its management and governance","tokenCount":"4254"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"54c11cc31e58dd5ad8cbc6290a2cd4f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1fca34f7-62de-438a-9d1a-ce51c273fe18/retrieve","id":"-1006594565"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b2031d08-d11e-48cd-b546-54d942ff0e64","pagecount":"5","content":"PART 1: Description and all information of the outcome/impact reported OUTCOME STORY/IMPACT STATEMENT Market and consumer-oriented product development and optimization interventions encompassing rapid market assessments, sensory evaluation and consumer acceptability, food safety and nutrition quality assessments, processing and production factors assessments, and willingness to pay studies were implemented through private-public partnerships in Malawi and Zambia. Seven small-scale processors improved their product production and marketing -four processors adopted improved and optimized product formulations; one newcomer (processor) entered the bean-based food market; and two improved their processing procedures, production capacity, and marketing process.A rapid market assessment (RMA) conducted by the project observed that very few micro, small and medium enterprises are processing beanbased food products. Lack of bean-processing skills, limited supply of beans, and inadequate awareness about existing bean-based products were indicated as reasons for not producing bean-based products [1]. To change this narrative, the few bean-based food products identified in the RMA conducted in Malawi and Zambia underwent nutritional, sensory, microbial, and functional property analyses [3,6,7]. The rationale was to establish gaps that likely affect their nutritional quality, food quality and safety concerns, potential consumer acceptability, and eventual upscaling and commercialization efforts. Findings from these analyses informed the reformulation of 11 beanbased food product prototypes at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). The 11 potential prototypes were grouped into four categories: i) three bean-based blended flour formulations; ii) two bean-enriched thobwa beverage formulations; iii) four different precooked, dehydrated beans; and iv) two bean paste formulations [2,3]. These innovations/products are in various stages of development along the project life cycle [10]. The second and fourth category of bean-based products, namely beanenriched thobwa beverage formulations and bean paste formulations, could both be placed at stages 3 (proof of concept) and 4 (validation). These products have potential and have shown consumer acceptability, so require further testing and validation to be propelled to the next project life-cycle stages. The third and first category of bean-based products, namely pre-cooked dehydrated beans and bean-based blended flours, could be placed on stages 5 (selection) and 6 (release). These products have been released and seven processors have adopted them [3,10].Bean-based food products identified during a rapid market assessment in Malawi and Zambia were subjected to nutritional, sensory, microbial, and functional property analyses. Findings from these assessments informed modifications and reformulation of 11 bean-based food product prototypes at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). The 11 potential product prototypes are grouped into four categories, as follows: i) three beanbased blended flour formulations; ii) two bean-enriched Thobwa beverage formulations; iii) four different precooked, dehydrated bean treatments; and iv) two bean paste formulations [1,2,3,6,7,10]. Another innovation developed at LUANAR, in collaboration with the bean processor Nouriceutic Foods Ltd, is a simple cabinet dehydrator (drier) that uses light bulbs and a fan, as well as other readily available and cheap materials [3,10]. The drier is meant to dry pre-cooked dehydrated beans and other related products. The rationale behind this innovation is to ensure bean drying even during the winter and rainy season for continuous product processing. Processing protocols for pre-cooked beans and bean flours were developed by the project and distributed to processors in Malawi and Zambia [3,10,11]. To understand customers of processed beans at Stage 7 (commercial introduction) of the Project Life Cycle, an experimental auction was conducted on two products: 1) Dehydrated, pre-cooked beans in Malawi and Zambia, and 2) Hydrated, ready-to-eat beans in Zambia. In Malawi, a total of 392 consumers were selected from five districts based on a proportional to size multistage sampling procedure, while 360 consumers were selected in Zambia using similar selection criteria [10]. The experimental auction followed the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism, an incentivecompatible method, to elicit participants' willingness to pay (WTP). In both countries, major consumers of dehydrated pre-cooked beans were identified as bean consuming households with medium income. In Malawi, major customers of dehydrated beans are likely to have a medium-level monthly income (between MK100,000 and Mk 300,000) and a bean consumption frequency of more than twice per week and reside in the central region. For Zambia, processed beans have a broader customer base, starting from low-medium to highmedium monthly income levels. There is a consistent pattern with WTP increasing with income up to the fourth income quintile (ZMW 75001-10,000/month) where it starts to diminish. Consumers with very low monthly income (below ZM 2500) and those with very high monthly income (ZM 10,000) are less likely to be important customers. Women and customers in urban areas are the highest consumers of processed bean products in Zambia [10].Gender relevance: 2 -Principal. Amongst the targeted 7 SMEs, 3 are owned by women. Gender analysis and mainstreaming training were conducted to processors in Malawi and Zambia. Reference: 9a2, 6, 7, 11 Cap Dev relevance: 2 -Principal. The project is also centered on building youth capacity through academic supervision, mentorship and coaching. Reference: 9a2, 6, 7, 8 Climate Change relevance: 2 -Principal. The project is promoting value addition among early-maturing, and drought-and disease-tolerant bean varieties for products that are also climate sensitive. Again, beans, like all legume crops, nourish the soil increasing resilience to climate change. For instance, dehydrated cooked beans cook faster, using less energy during cooking, thereby making them friendly to both the environment and deforestation. Reference: 9a2, 10, 11 Youth relevance: 2 -Principal. All private-sector project partners are youth or have a special focus on promoting youth in their business strategy. Amongst the seven targeted SMEs, four are youth owned. Reference: 9a2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 8, 11Has the effect on different social groups (for example laborers vs landowners, different ethnic groups etc.) been analyzed? Another intervention carried out by the project was a review of policies related to legume processing and value addition with a focus on common beans. Through this intervention the project identified policy gaps related to legume production, processing, value addition, and commercialization. Policies were mainly promoting maize, soybean, and groundnut production. Common beans, pigeon peas and cow peas were not mentioned at all or were passively mentioned in policies for both countries. As a result of the project's policy review activity, two policy briefs (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) and two press releases (one for Malawi and another for Zambia) were developed by the project team. The policy briefs and press releases were disseminated to relevant stakeholders in a bid to create a conducive environment and policies supporting the success of micro-, small-and medium-scale processors.Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise, in Malawi, has now replaced its pure bean flour product with beanbased blended flours because they have found that this replacement drastically reduces production costs, while increasing nutrient density, consumer acceptability, and financial returns [3,5]. Nouriceutic Foods, a new player in the processing industry, has adopted the pre-cooked dehydrated beans and is now distributing its product in Malawi [3,10]. In Zambia, Trinity Super Foods were influenced to adopt optimized recipes and processes when producing its bean-based blended flour and pre-cooked dehydrated bean products [3,10]. Full commercialization efforts (stage 7) are currently being conducted by these processors. For the simple cabinet dehydrator (Drier), only one processor (Nouriceutic Foods) is currently using this innovation [3,10]. Although the drier is already in use, stages 4 (validation) and 5 (selection) need to be applied again to ensure efficient commercialization of the product. There are other products that are already optimized at processing plants such as pre-cooked wet beans and those that are yet to be optimized such as bean-based corn flakes and bean noodles [8]. Processors who are already processing pre-cooked wet beans include Sunfresh Africa in Malawi, and Don Products and Beyond Bridge in Zambia [9,10,11,4,2]. The project assisted these processors in perfecting their processing parameters and improving their supply chain models and capacities by linking them to farmers to source high-quality bean grain and assist them with marketing efforts to enhance production. Agriche Foods is interested in venturing into bean-based corn flakes and bean enriched noodles, and they have already developed their own prototypes (stage 2). However, they have already diversified their product portfolio as they have also started processing the blended-bean flours [8].End hunger for all and enable affordable healthy diets for the 3 billion people who do not currently have access to safe and nutritious food. Reduce cases of foodborne illness (600 million annually) and zoonotic diseases (1 billion annually) by one third.Lift at least 500 million people living in rural areas above the extreme poverty line of US $1.90 per day (2011 PPP).Reduce by at least half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.Close the gender gap in rights to economic resources, access to ownership, and control over land and natural resources for over 500 million women who work in food, land, and water systems. Offer rewarding opportunities to 267 million young people who are not in employment, education, or training.Implement all National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement.Equip 500 million small-scale producers to be more resilient to climate shocks, with climate adaptation solutions available through national innovation systems.Stay within planetary and regional environmental boundaries: consumptive water uses in food production of less than 2500 sq. km. per year (with a focus on the most stressed basins), zero net deforestation, nitrogen application of 90 Tg per year (with a redistribution towards low-input farming systems) and increased use efficiency, and phosphorous application of 10 Tg per year.Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed genebanks at the national, regional, and international levels.PART 3: One CGIAR Alignment SDG TARGETS 2.4 -By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding, and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.2.5 -By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed. ","tokenCount":"1709"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"45c0fc764bb8e89b1e4efb043ee5ef4a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/784f58a2-b080-458f-a687-9d6d615b82df/retrieve","id":"2137490598"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b1040d6-360c-4668-b3f6-276e8c6f85e8","pagecount":"2","content":"April 5 th , Nairobi, Kenya. A new research project to tackle malnutrition among Kenya's poorest communities will be launched in Nairobi today. The three-year initiative targeting = women and children aged 6−59 months, aims to make quick-to-cook porridge from at least four food groups, affordable for poor communities.Low dietary diversity among the poor is a key contributor to malnutrition, said the research group. Non-staple grains and legumes like beans can increase diet diversity for a more balanced diet, yet they are often neglected.\"While a family may not have the resources to cook dry beans, vegetables, and cereals three times a day, they can boil this porridge which is bean-based and nutrient dense, affordable, as an ideal supplements in the diet,\" said Christine Chege, an agricultural economist and nutritionist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Nairobi.Researchers aim to benefit 50,000 rural and urban consumers, reaching around five million smallholder farmers in Uganda and Kenya by the end of the project. The goal is to make an affordable, nutritious porridge, while linking farmers with processing companies like East Africa Basic Foods and Lasting Solutions to reach low-income consumers.An analyses of business bottle-necks to bring down costs along the value chain -for example using low-cost, energy-efficient dryers instead of electricity -will be made, and bean farmers will be linked with processors who will buy their products at reasonable prices.Collecting data to get the bigger picture \"Beans are a nutritious food, and provide a low-cost protein for low-income consumers. That's why they are often called a 'poor man's meat',\" said Chege. \"Our research aims to combine beans with other less-known but nutritious foods like amaranth leaves.\"One cup of amaranth leaves -cooked, boiled, and drained -contains 73% of the daily requirement of vitamin A, 90% for vitamin C, 28% for calcium, and 17% for iron. In addition, beans are a good source of vitamins A, K, B6, and C as well as riboflavin, folate, and dietary minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese.If agriculture is to play a stronger role in improving nutrition, then research must focus more on what happens between production and consumption, say researchers. Evaluating the whole value-chain from farmer to consumer is vital to supply nutritious foods to the poor and evaluate their demand for these foods.","tokenCount":"383"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2189436140.json b/data/part_2/2189436140.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e86e30d154e85c5513f29d6851f5bbccd7fa124a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6292ff02fdb4bf33d68d14fea5c996dc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8c6afa1e-0588-43eb-96e5-26c1c9dddae0/retrieve","id":"831911616"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ddf6b8ba-d2f6-425a-b842-413f4e8f1de0","pagecount":"22","content":"Mechanisation is back among top development policy priorities for transforming African smallholder agriculture.Yet previous and ongoing efforts ubiquitously suffer from lack of scientific information on end-user effective demand for different types of mechanical innovations to inform public investment or business development programmes.We assess smallholder farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for two-wheel tractor (2WT)-based ripping, direct seeding and transportation using a random sample of 2800 smallholder households in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Applying the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak Mechanism (BDM) experimental auctions, we find that at least 50% of sample households in Zambia and Zimbabwe were willing to pay more than the prevailing market prices for ripping. In nominal terms, sample households in Zimbabwe were willing to pay more than those in Zambia for the different services. Empirical results suggest that wealth is the strongest driver of WTP for tillage and seeding 2WT services while labour availability and using animal draft power reduce it. These findings imply a need to (i) raise awareness and create demand for 2WT-based services in an inclusive business manner thatMechanisation is back among top policy priorities to transform African agriculture after a long period of attempts and partial failures. From the assumption that mechanisation can help change (e.g., reduce drudgery by retiring the hoe), intensify and improve agricultural productivity and production in sub-Saharan Africa (Baudron, Misiko, et al., 2019), African heads of state and government affirmed their commitment to include mechanisation as a core component for ending hunger by 2025 during the Malabo declaration in 2014. 1 In this sense, and to transform mostly smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa, mechanisation is viewed as key to agricultural development. Pingali (2007) characterises past mechanisation efforts in Africa into three epochs between 1945 and 1980s. These mechanisation epochs were led by governments (colonial or post-independence) and provided tractors to individual farmers and in some instances through cooperatives, government-run mechanisation programmes, credit schemes or government hire services. These interventions failed primarily because they only focused on the supply side where the main emphasis was to make tractors available (Pingali et al., 1987), without first understanding farmers' effective demand for tractors and availability of ancillary support services. As a result, and because the demand side for spare parts and after-sale services was largely ignored, the number of tractors plummeted, mechanisation efforts stalled with most of these tractors abandoned (Pingali, 2007) and in some instances stripped for scrap metal. Interest in mechanising African agriculture waned for much of the 1990s and early 2000s (Baudron, Misiko, et al., 2019;Diao et al., 2016;Pingali, 2007). It could be argued that there were no well-thought business models through which tractorisation could be achieved.Given prior challenges, the current drive to mechanise African smallholder agriculture is cautious and aims to address both supply and demand side factors. On the supply side, there is an emphasis on scale-appropriate mechanisation where machines adapt to prevailing farm sizes in the region (Baudron et al., 2015). It is argued that the large four-wheel tractors tried in the past were only suitable for large-scale commercial farming but not suitable for the smallholders. Instead, two-wheel tractors (2WTs) were considered fit for the purpose given the small average farm sizes in the region, low purchase and maintenance costs (Baudron et al., 2015). There are also efforts to develop markets for appropriate machines by supporting research and development (R&D), linking local companies to global suppliers, capacity development and training of private sector to adapt machines and to fabricate some attachments locally to minimise lead times in the supply chains and to provide effective after-sale, maintenance and repair services. Other complementary efforts include creating enabling policy frameworks that address rampant market failures (e.g. unavailability of credit caused by information asymmetry) in the mechanisation subsector and creating 1 31247-doc-malabo_declaration_2014_11_26.pdf (au.int) does not create perverse incentives and (ii) better target mechanisation to operations with comparative advantage, using approaches that bundle 2WT-based and other mechanisation services with asset-agnostic credit schemes or other interventions meant to overcome asset-mediated barriers.demand, mechanisation, targeting, two-wheel tractor, Zambia, ZimbabweQ12, Q18 incentives for private sector participation. An example is facilitating access to credit for machinery and tax rebates on machinery imports (Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019).On the demand side, a major focus is on demand creation through demonstrating the use and versatility of 2WTs and by making these machines accessible in the local communities through encouraging the establishment of local service providers. To avert disappointments encountered in prior mechanisation efforts, there are suggestions that donors, development partners (NGOs, research organisations) and governments should play facilitatory and supportive or catalytic roles and provide financing options, R&D and an enabling policy and institutional environment that facilitates mechanisation in the initial phases, while the private sector should drive the mechanisation agenda (Baudron et al., 2015;Daum & Birner, 2020;Diao et al., 2016;Pingali, 2007;Pingali et al., 1987).There are several reasons for the current push for mechanisation in Africa. National governments are geared to intensify agricultural production given rising land pressures and food demands amidst climate change, and climate smart agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture are part of national policies in most countries in the region (Giller et al., 2015). One consequence of these efforts is an increase in land prices arising from active land markets (Jayne et al., 2021), rising rural wages (Daum & Birner, 2020) driven in part by out-migration and increased demand for agricultural labour and high land-labour ratios (Diao et al., 2016). Another potential driver for mechanisation is the increased push for conservation agriculture whose minimal land disturbance practices can be accomplished by 2WTs more efficiently while reducing drudgery (Baudron et al., 2015). Other potential drivers include the rapid increase in medium-scale farms (5-100 ha) who are better resourced and the developing rural nonfarm sectors (Jayne et al., 2016). The emergence of medium-scale farms and burgeoning rural nonfarm sectors is absorbing labour in most places, leading to labour scarcity and rising opportunity cost for family farm labour (Jayne et al., 2016). These changes offer great opportunities to leapfrog mechanisation.In sum, these unfolding labour and land market changes in Africa favour capital-using and labour-saving mechanisation options. In addition, improving market access conditions in the region and a nearly doubling of growth in agricultural production value between 2000 and 2018 in sub-Saharan Africa (Jayne & Sanchez, 2021) and improved availability of 2WTs from local private sector dealers (Baudron et al., 2015) can facilitate mechanisation. This optimism is, however, juxtaposed by debates on the extent of the effective demand for mechanisation in Africa (Pingali, 2007) given, for example, rising land-labour ratios and low cropping intensities (Baudron, Misiko, et al., 2019;Binswanger-Mkhize & Savastano, 2017;Sims & Kienzle, 2015). Thus, it is of policy relevance to first ascertain the extent of the demand for 2WT-based mechanisation prior to full-scale interventions. This will also serve to inform spatial targeting on what operations need to be mechanised and where the best-bet interventions sites are. In essence, this analysis provides some guidance in terms of where mechanisation is likely to succeed in southern Africa, using the cases of Zambia and Zimbabwe.While this analysis focuses on 2WTs, we recognise that animal traction is still very common in these countries and it will remain an important source of farm power. As such, we agree with Daum et al. (2022) in stating that animal traction will remain an important part of smallholder mechanisation and with Baudron, Nazare, and Matangi (2019) that animal traction is part of appropriate scale mechanisation. Although evaluating the merits of 2WTs over animal traction or the profitability of 2WTs (see Baudron, Nazare, and Matangi (2019)) or whether 2WTs should leapfrog animal traction (Daum et al., 2022) is beyond the scope of this paper, motorised sources of farm power are becoming more relevant in the context of rising animal diseases and declining animal herds in southern Africa (Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019). It should also be noted that animal traction is not ubiquitous in southern Africa. Cattle, which is mostly used for traction, are most prevalent in southern Zambia and the central plateau of Zimbabwe (Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019).Given that the success of any mechanisation effort hinges on there being effective demand for it (Pingali, 2007) and since the service provider model is more appealing than individual ownership of tractors (Baudron et al., 2015;Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019;FACASI, 2016), we explore the extent to which smallholder farmers are willing to pay for 2WT-based land preparation, direct seeding and transportation services in Zambia and Zimbabwe. This assessment combines what Pingali (2007) calls 'power-intensive operations' such as land preparation (ripping and transportation using a 0.5-ton trailer attached to a 2WT within a 20-km radius) and 'control-intensive' activities such as ripping and hand seeding, and direct seeding. We estimate wilingness to pay (WTP) using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism (BDM) (Becker et al., 1964) which is incentive compatible because it induces truth-telling and allows individuals to reveal their maximum WTP amounts (Horowitz, 2006). BDM auctions have been used to access WTP in various contexts; for example, see De Groote et al. (2011), Morawetz et al. (2011) and Lusk and Shogren (2007).We contribute to existing literature on smallholder mechanisation in southern Africa by assessing WTP for mechanisation in the context of conservation agriculture systems using an approach that simulates a real market for 2WTs. This approach is necessary given that 2WTs are still not very common in southern Africa and, therefore, allows an ex-ante assessment of potential effective demand. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to use the more efficient, incentive compatible BDM approach to assess WTP for mechanisation in the context of conservation agriculture in the region. This is in contrast to Paudel et al. (2019) who used contingent valuation in a similar analysis in Nepal.Zimbabwe and Zambia are appropriate for this analysis given their long history with agricultural mechanisation from the pre-to post-independence times. Governments led early mechanisation efforts in both countries by providing subsidised or free tractors (Pingali, 2007). To the best of our knowledge, these noble efforts were not informed by rigorous demand estimation. Interest in mechanisation was rekindled in the two countries in the late 1990s and early 2000s driven in part by development organisations, donors, private sector and governments. National credit schemes were setup to help farmers access credit to finance the purchase of agricultural equipment and inputs. An example is Lima Bank in Zambia, which would later close operations in 1997 due to nonperforming loans. Besides, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have been at the forefront of promoting appropriate scale mechanisation in the region (e.g. FACASI, 2016;FAO and AUC, 2019).In Zambia, the Farmer Input Supply Response Initiative (FISRI) project and its successor, the Conservation Agriculture Scaling Up (CASU) project implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture with technical support from FAO facilitated access to 60 hp tractors for selected services providers and provided electronic vouchers to participating lead farmers which could be redeemed for tractor-based ripping services and other inputs and implements at participating agro-dealers (Sims & Kienzle, 2015). 2 The projects also provided market linkages for participating farmers. The Conservation Farming Unit partnered with AFGRI Equipment Zambia and John Deere to provide tractors on loan to selected lead farmers who would provide ripping services to other farmers in the vicinity from about 2011. About the same time, the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) launched a revolving fund that provided loans to farmers to help them acquire agricultural machinery (Sims & Kienzle, 2015). In 2008, the ZNFU partnered with some commercial banks to launch the Lima Credit Scheme which provided loans to smallholder farmers, including for buying machinery (WorldBank, 2019).Experiences from these mechanisation schemes in Zambia are mixed. While some closed due to nonperforming loans, for example, the Lima Credit Scheme (WorldBank, 2019), others have had significant impacts on beneficiaries.For example, Adu-Baffour et al. (2019) found that farmers who received mechanisation services from the AFGRI-John Deere tractor scheme in Zambia significantly increased their household incomes and yield, and were more willing to invest in other inputs like fertilisers. Omulo et al. (2022) also found that hiring four-wheel tractors to mechanise conservation agriculture was more profitable than conventional tillage, again highlighting the potential for mechanisation hire services.Zimbabwe followed a somewhat different trajectory of agricultural mechanisation than Zambia. There have been and still are several agricultural mechanisation programmes focused on large four-wheel tractors and accessories (Shonhe, 2022) in Zimbabwe compared to Zambia. Following pre-independence mechanisation efforts that were tilted towards white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe (Pingali et al., 1987), the post-independence government introduced several initiatives to mechanise smallholder agriculture including the group tractor programme, district development fund, and the agricultural rural agencies (Shonhe, 2022). There have been other schemes introduced more recently, for example, one by AFGRI and John Deere-like the one in Zambia, 3 the farm mechanisation programme funded by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Belarus farm mechanisation facility to mention a few. 4   Overall, structural adjustment programmes of the early 1990s, the land reforms initiated in the 2000s and other related challenges hampered the success of most of these mechanisation initiatives in Zimbabwe (Shonhe, 2022).Both Zambia and Zimbabwe have benefited from the current surge in 'appropriate scale' mechanisation focusing on 2WTs led in part by international R&D partners and national governments. For example, CIMMYT implemented the Farm mechanisation and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project to promote appropriate scale mechanisation in East and Southern Africa including in Zimbabwe. 5 The project run from 2013 until 2019. 2WTs were part of the mechanisation options promoted by the project through facilitating the establishment of service providers in the project areas. Since then, CIMMYT has implemented other projects that promote the use of 2WTs in conservation agriculture systems including the R4 Rural Resilience project in Zimbabwe and the Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder farming Systems (SIFAZ) project in Zambia. Some of the current efforts are geared towards synthesising and consolidating this large body of information to inform current and future mechanisation efforts in the context of conservation agriculture, sustainable intensification and mechanisation efforts therein. The project from which data for this paper were generated, the 'Understanding and Enhancing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Smallholder Farming Systems of Southern Africa (ACASA)', is designed to help understand these complex drivers and codify them into actionable information for research, policy and practice in Southern Africa.These projects and those by other partners like FAO address both demand and supply side constraints to agricultural mechanisation. They focus on demand creation on one side while concomitantly working with suppliers to develop their capacity to offer after-sale maintenance and repair services in the region. The Zimbabwean government has since bought in and plans to invest USD 5 million to import 2WT mechanisation packages to support scaling of conservation agriculture activities in the country. 6 Most of the donor-supported initiatives in Zambia and Zimbabwe aim to crowd in private sector participation to ensure sustainability. Empirical evidence on whether this has been the case remains scanty. Thus, while Zambia and Zimbabwe followed somewhat different trajectories in pushing agricultural mechanisation, both countries have had experiences with government-led and private sector innovations. Both countries currently are focus areas for appropriate scale mechanisation that includes 2WTs. This makes Zambia and Zimbabwe appropriate places to assess demand for 2WT services.The theories of induced innovation (Ruttan & Hayami, 1973) and the evolution of farming systems (Boserup, 1965) can explain mechanisation development and its potential demand. According to the induced innovation theory, changes in the prices of the main factors of production-land, labour and capital-lead to the substitution of scarce and more expensive factors with abundant and cheaper factors. Changes in factor prices lead to innovations that use more of the cheaper factor and less of the more expensive ones. In the case of mechanisation, rising population and the resulting increase in the demand for food, developing rural nonfarm sectors and out-migration work in tandem to raise land and labour prices. In turn, according to the induced innovation theory, this would require substituting capital-using technologies like machines for land and labour using alternatives like hand hoeing and conventional ploughing. This proposition finds support in the different mechanisation trajectories followed by densely populated countries like Japan [and, China and Bangladesh] where labour was abundant and cheap in the 19th century compared with other less densely populated countries in Europe and the US (Binswanger, 1986). Thus, it can be conjectured from the foregoing that labour and land endowments and access to capital matter in farmers' decisions whether to mechanise or not.The Boserup hypothesis suggests that land scarcity will only trigger innovations beyond a threshold that is determined by population pressure. In the absence of population pressure, farmers tend to extensify production before they intensify (Boserup, 1965). The two theories are thus complementary in predicting that mechanisation is only likely to occur with labour scarcity and high land to labour ratios. Other important drivers for mechanisation include demand for labour in nonagricultural enterprises, improved market access (both local and international), demand elasticity for agricultural produce and access to capital (Binswanger, 1986;Diao et al., 2016). We follow the induced innovation theory and the evolution of farming systems and conceptualise that farmers' WTP for 2WT mechanised services is a function of land, labour and capital, market access and other farm and socio-demographics factors.Data used in the analysis were obtained from household surveys conducted in Zambia and Zimbabwe under the ACASA project. A multistage sampling scheme was used. In stage one, one to two districts were selected per agro-ecological zone per country based on the presence of ongoing or past CA interventions. To the extent possible, the two districts were selected to have contrasting market access conditions. In stage two, two or three camps/ wards and villages were selected per district using the criteria above, and in stage three, a random sample of a predetermined number of households was selected for interviews using sampling frames or lists of households per village drawn from village heads and agricultural extension officers.Stages one and two were done in consultation with various national CA stakeholders and government agencies.Study areas in Zambia were selected in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Conservation Farming Unit (CFU), whereas those in Zimbabwe were selected in consultation with the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX) and the National CA Task Force.Overall, the study covers 17 districts with 7 in Zambia (Mpongwe, Serenje, Mumbwa, Kaoma, Choma, Siavonga and Chipata) representing three agro-ecological zones and 10 districts in Zimbabwe (Bubi, Chiredzi, Gokwe South, Kwekwe, Masvingo, Matobo, Murewa, Nyanga, Shamva and Zaka) representing five agro-ecological zones. The final sample includes 2862 households of which 1407 households were interviewed from 56 sample villages in Zambia and 1455 from 60 sample villages in Zimbabwe. Sample households were well spread across the countries (Figure 1). Suffice to emphasis here that the surveys were done in areas known to have had large CA investments in the target countries. Such interventions were either ongoing at the time of the survey in 2021 or were active within the past 10 years.There are four outcome variables of interest. These include WTP amounts per ha for ripping only, ripping and seeding, direct seeding and WTP amounts for transportation per 0.5 ton and within a 20-km radius (Table 1). Because BDM auctions simulate a real market, summary statistics (discussed latter) are the most available revealed preferences of the respondents for the services offered and give unbiased WTP estimates, in the absence of actual observations (Lusk & Shogren, 2007).Following the conceptual framework developed above, we controlled for several covariates within the limits of the available data. Even if we do not have factor prices in the data, we attempted to test the induced innovation and Boserup hypotheses by controlling for labour availability (number of adults and number working off farm), whether a household faced labour challenges during land preparation, planting and weeding and whether a household accessed credit. We also controlled for wealth variables using an asset index and a social network index to check if social capital would directly influence WTP. We also controlled for several other socio-economic and demographic variables.Because cognitive ability influences WTP (Lusk & Shogren, 2007), we controlled for whether a household is aware or knows about 2WTs. Since animal draft power is the most prevalent source of farm power in the study countries, we also controlled for whether a household has ever used animal draft power for tillage, planting, weeding and transport. We also controlled for whether a household used minimum tillage (MT), the main component for conservation agriculture. In the spirit of the induced innovation and Boserup hypotheses, we expected households facing labour challenges and land constraints, those who accessed credit and are wealthy to be willing to pay higher amounts. We expected education and age to increase WTP given a higher comprehension capacity and reduced physical strength associated with these variables, respectively. However, the effects of these demographic variables are ambiguous a priori on WTP for transportation. A priori, we expected access to animal traction to reduce WTP for 2WTs.We estimated WTP for appropriate mechanisation in CA systems using BDM auctions. BDM is a simple and intuitive, incentive compatible method used to elicit WTP in applied economics. At the core of BDM is the expected utility hypothesis which suggests that if utilities associated with alternative possible outcomes are known for a given subject, then it is possible to predict their choices (Becker et al., 1964;Kahneman et al., 1990). BDM is thought to be incentive compatible because it induces truth-telling and allows individuals to reveal their maximum WTP amounts (Horowitz, 2006;Lusk & Shogren, 2007). The procedure is simple. After a detailed activity description with examples and trial runs, an individual is asked to 'bid' for the activity. The activity's price is then randomly drawn from a distribution of prices. This distribution of prices is based on actual market prices and is not known to the respondent. If the bid amount is above the price, the individual wins the activity and pays the drawn price or loses the activity, otherwise. Unlike contingent valuation which is hypothetical, BDM simulates a real market where goods and services are exchanged with real money, and therefore, decisions made by participants have consequences (Lusk & Shogren, 2007).To accommodate mechanisation activities and given the scarcity of 2WTs in the study areas and the fact that the survey was done during the dry season, we modified the standard BDM procedures and monetised the services that farmers won. The BDM procedure included 2WT-based per ha ripping, ripping and seeding, direct seeding and transportation for 0.5 tons within a 20-km radius. The modification is such that if farmers won the ripping service, they do   not get the actual service but instead win a nontrivial amount of money (about $5) that is enough to cover rural daily wage labour. Here are the steps followed in conducting the BDM exercise with farmers:• Step 1: We described a farm operation service (ripping, ripping and seeding, and direct seeding) including how long it will take to do the operation per ha and transportation of 0.5 ton within a 20-km radius. We showed farmers pictures of operations in case they were not familiar with the services described. This process continued until farmers were comfortable with the four options.•Step 2: We then asked farmers to bid for each service. That is, farmers indicated how much they can pay for the service, considering how much it would normally cost to do the same using alternative means, for example, manual labour or animal draft power.• Step 3: Once steps 1 and 2 are completed for each service, one of the services was randomly picked to be played for real money. Here, farmers randomly selected a number between 1 and 4, where 1 was for ripping, 2 for ripping and seeding, 3 for direct seeding and 4 for transportation.•Step 4: Once a service is randomly selected to be played for real cash in step 3, a price for the service is drawn from an unknown (to the farmer) distribution of prices for the service. 7 If a farmer's bid is higher than the randomly drawn price, she/he wins a token worth $5. Thus, farmers had an incentive to bid their true WTP.Because BDM auctions do not give starting values, the WTP amounts given by respondents are dispersed (Table 1).We can write a parsimonious estimable function of WTP as follows:The distribution of prices is unknown to the farmers but not the researcher. These were constructed based on prevailing average prices gathered for the four services in the study areas prior to the survey. Only 15%, 17%, 11% and 48% won bids for ripping, ripping and seeding, direct seeding and transportation, respectively. The n reduced after trimming off the top 95th percentile for Zimbabwe and 99th percentile for Zambia who WTP amounts seemed implausible. Retaining these in the analysis does not significantly change the empirical results. The social network index is a composite of variables including the numbers of years the household head has lived in the current village, the number of relatives and nonrelatives that a household can rely on in and outside their village, number of friends in leadership positions, membership to a farmer organisation and whether the household head or spouse is related to the chief/headman. Both indices were constructed using factor analysis.Abbreviations: MT, minimum tillage; WTP, willingness to pay.a The asset index is a composite variable constructed from ownership of productive assets such as ploughs, oxcarts, rippers, hand hoes, knapsack sprayer, shovel, bicycle, vans/lorry, ax, and so on.where WTP ij is the willingness to pay for household i for mechanisation services j, j = 1-4. The vector W captures labour availability, wealth (asset index) and X includes all socio-economic and demographic variables. Credit, laborC, know, landh, socialk adp and used_MT capture access to credit, labour constraints, knowledge on 2WTs, landholding size, social capital, use of animal draft power and min till, respectively. We also controlled for country and district dummies to capture fixed effects, for pooled and country specific regressions. All variables in Equation ( 1) are as defined in Table 1.Because all outcome variables have a few zeros and are very dispersed and because the price ranges were set within what was reported in pilot projects and by the nascent service providers, we estimated Equation (1) using the Tobit regression model with both below and upper censoring. The lower censoring point is zero while the upper censoring point is the 95th percentile of each outcome variable for the pooled sample and for each country. We considered observations above the 95th percentile to be outliers and possibly are protest bids.Prior to assessing demand for mechanisation, we first assess labour shortages for different farm operations among sampled households and the prevalence, use and knowledge of different kinds of mechanisation options among sample farmers.Weeding and land preparation are the top farm operations for which most farmers face labour constraints (Table 2).About 62% and 43% of sample farmers in Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, faced labour constraints during weeding. This is followed in second place by land preparation for which 50% and 20% of the farmers faced labour constraints in Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively. In Zambia, between 20% and 32% of farmers interviewed faced labour challenges for transportation, harvesting, planting and fertiliser application and shelling and/or threshing.Harvesting and planting and fertiliser application are the other important farm operations where at least 14% of sample farmers faced labour shortages in Zimbabwe.Labour constraints for land preparation appeared more of a problem in Serenje and Mpongwe districts in Zambia, and in Murewa and Bubi districts in Zimbabwe. Weeding-related labour constraints were more prevalent in Kaoma and Serenje in Zambia and Nyanga and Murewa in Zimbabwe. In terms of what to mechanise and where, these findings imply that weeding and land preparation should be prioritised in both countries and in districts where these are major constraints if there is enough demand (more later). Thus, both power-and control-intensive operations need to be looked at simultaneously instead of the former first and then the latter, as suggested in Pingali (2007). Addressing both power and control intensive operations simultaneously makes sense in the context of conservation agriculture systems where labour bottlenecks are a huge challenge in the absence of herbicides or when herbicides are improperly used leading to low efficacy in controlling weeds.Draft animal power remains the most known, used, owned, accessible and affordable form of farm power in Zambia and Zimbabwe (Table 3). Over 90% of the sample farmers have used draft animal power. About 37% and 57% of interviewed households in Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, own draft animals. Despite being widely known by more than 90% of the farmers, only about 15%-16% of interviewed households have ever used four-wheel tractors and about 1% own these tractors in Zambia and Zimbabwe.The 2WTs are more popular in the study areas in Zambia, known by some 62% of the sample households compared to only 32% in Zimbabwe. However, only about 2% of the sample households have ever used 2WTs and less than 1% own them. These findings have three implications on the current push for 2WTs in southern Africa.First, there is need for more work to raise awareness about and create demand for 2WTs in the region, as suggested by others, for example, Daum and Birner (2020)  Note: Usage (ever used) and ownership are computed for those who know a particular farm power. Accessibility was computed for those farmers who did not hire mechanisation services for 2020/2021 season but have used before, while affordability was computed for those who know about the mechanisation option and think it is possible to hire. ^ statistically invalid, n < 30.development partners can play this catalytic role in this initial phase, but they need to let the private sector take over once effective demand is created. Second, because animal draft power is still widely used in the region, getting farmers to transition to 2WTs will require demonstrating the added benefits associated with the switch and making more 2WTs available to rural service providers. These added benefits could be in terms of time saving, incomes and land and labour productivity realised from using 2WTs in contrast to the status quo (e.g. Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019). Assessing the added benefits of 2WTs compared with animal draft power is beyond the scope of the current paper but a good research area for future work. Readers are referred to Baudron et al. (2015), Baudron, Misiko, et al. (2019) and Baudron, Nazare, and Matangi (2019) on why 2WTs and some benefits of 2WTs. Our analysis focuses on 2WTs and not large four-wheel tractors because the former are more suitable for small landholdings and are more affordable (Baudron et al., 2015). Moreover, four-wheel tractor operators face higher transaction costs in providing services to dissipated smallholder farmers (Adu-Baffour et al., 2019).Of course, rising labour wages and land scarcity may quicken the transition to more intensified forms of production. But the current low cropping intensities and land-labour ratios (Baudron, Misiko, et al., 2019;Binswanger-Mkhize & Savastano, 2017) and the perception that land is abundant cast doubts. And lastly, drawing from the power shifts in Europe, Japan and United States (Binswanger, 1986), it can be conjectured that 2WTs even if adopted widely will co-exist with animal draft power for some time. In this case, mechanisation should be targeted for specific operations where there is the highest comparative advantage. Clarifying this will require more comparative research on returns to animal draft power-versus 2WT-based as well as 4WT operations, and not comparing returns from 2WTs versus manual systems.On average, the sample households in Zambia were willing to pay USD19, USD28 and USD26 per hectare for ripping, ripping and seeding, and direct seeding, respectively, and USD6 for transportation per 0.5 ton within a radius of 20 km (Table 1 and Figure 2). Farmers in Zimbabwe were willing to pay more in nominal terms at USD51, USD69 and USD58 per hectare for ripping, ripping and seeding, and direct seeding, respectively, and USD12 for transportation of 0.5 tons per 20-km radius. Overall, at least 50% of sample households in Zambia and Zimbabwe were willing to pay more than the prevailing market prices for ripping, and 5%-10% were willing to pay more for direct seeding in the F I G U R E 2 Average willingness to pay (USD/ha) for different mechanisation services in Zambia and Zimbabwe.two countries. Our WTP estimate for 2WT ripping of USD19 is much lower than the USD31 per ha for 4WT-based ripping, but our WTP estimate for 2WT direct seeding of USD26 is close to the estimate USD31 service charge per ha for 4WT direct seed in Zambia (Omulo et al., 2022).District level WTP amounts add some nuances. In Zambia, the sample farmers in Kaoma, Mpongwe, Mumbwa and Serenje were willing to pay higher amounts on average for ripping and seeding, and direct seeding than in any other districts (Figure 3). This is not surprising as these have been among the districts where recent mechanisation initiatives in the country were implemented and where more than 50% of sample households lacked labour for land preparation (Table 2). Interviewed farmers in Kaoma, Mpongwe, Mumbwa and Serenje were on average willing to pay USD15-USD25 per ha for ripping, ripping and seeding and direct seeding (Figure 3) and have the highest WTP amounts for all field-based operations. Despite over 30% of farmers in Choma and Chipata districts indicating that they lacked labour for land preparation (Table 2), they have the least WTP amount at about USD17 per ha for ripping.Prevalence of animal draft power in these districts could partly explain the results. The WTP for transport of 0.5 tons within a 20-km radius hovers between USD5 in Chipata district and USD11 in Mpongwe, where 15% and 34% lacked labour for transportation during the 2020/2021 cropping season, respectively.There are small differences in the WTP amounts between districts in Zimbabwe. Bubi, Matobo and Murewa districts, where more than 24% of farmers interviewed lacked labour during land preparation (Table 2), had the highest WTP for ripping of over USD50 per ha. Farmers in the same districts and Shamva were willing to pay higher amounts for ripping and seeding and direct seeding than farmers in other districts (Figure 3). Despite 23% of farmers in Chiredzi district indicating that they lacked labour for land preparation (Table 2), they have the least WTP amounts for all 2WT-based tillage systems. This could be explained by the higher cattle density in Chiredzi District and lower value of crop production given that the district is mostly arid. These findings have implications for targeting of mechanisation for the types of services analysed in this paper.In terms of where to target, Kaoma, Mumbwa, Mpongwe and Serenje are good candidate districts in Zambia given that farmers in these districts are willing to pay higher amounts for ripping, ripping and seeding, and direct seeding.Among study districts in Zimbabwe, the niche seems to be in Matobo, Bubi and Murewa districts. When compared with provisional engineering costs (minimum industry estimates of service price to cover fabrication costs and mark ups for engineering and service providers) and market prices (actual prices obtained on the market for the service) for the different services, the WTP estimates for ripping are 27% higher than existing market prices in the sample districts of Zambia (Figure 4). The WTP for ripping is 21% higher than the market price in Zimbabwe. These WTP amounts for 2WT ripping are slightly higher than market prices for animal traction in Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Zambia, animal traction ripping costs about USD15 per ha compared to a WTP of USD19 for 2WT ripping. Farmers in Zimbabwe are willing to pay USD51 per ha for 2WT ripping, and animal traction ripping costs USD43 per ha. However, market prices for animal traction ripping and 2WT ripping are virtually the same in within the study areas in each country. When considering market fundamentals and based on the best available market data, these findings suggest that 2WT-based ripping services have a business case given that the WTP amounts are higher than market prices in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Farmers in Zambia and Zimbabwe are willing to pay 27% and 18% more per ha for 2WT-ripping than the existing market prices for animal traction ripping services.Based on the market data gathered, transportation and direct seeding services are not considered viable in the areas where the survey was conducted in both countries. These findings merely show that farmers (or customers)interviewed have lower WTP for transportation and direct seeding. A major limitation for transportation is that while our survey only shows a snapshot of farmers' WTP for transportation for a single service at the time of the survey, in reality, transport services are offered throughout the year. As such, the average WTP estimates for 2WT-based transport services mask a lot of variability, and the cumulative income from transport services per year might be substantial. The findings here do not invalidate the potential of transportation services from a service provider perspective who would offer such services throughout the year as opposed to seasonal tillage and seeding services. The demand curves are downward slopping as would be expected for all the 2WT-based services (Figure 5), implying that the proportion of farmers willing to pay for these services reduces as the payment amount increases.As stated before, the average WTP amounts are higher in Zimbabwe than in Zambia.Several factors determine farmers' WTP for mechanisation in the pooled sample (Table 4), in Zambia (Table 5) and Zimbabwe (Table 6). As expected, education is associated with higher WTP for direct seeding in the pooled sample (Table 4) and transportation in the Zimbabwe sample (Table 6). Educated households are also expected to have a better ability to process new information and gain faster understanding of innovations such as mechanisation, leading to higher WTP for such. As such paying for 2WT-based services maybe a preferred option for such households. The age of the household head is negatively associated with WTP for ripping and transportation in the pooled sample (Table 4) and in Zambia (Table 5), ripping and seeding in Zambia (Table 5) and for transportation in Zimbabwe (Table 6).This suggests that households headed by younger and perhaps more enterprising heads are more likely to use 2WTsfor MT services and transportation.Households headed by females are willing to pay significantly lower amounts for ripping and seeding and direct seeding. This could be explained by the fact that either these activities are deemed to be male dominated activities or perhaps, that female headed households do not have as many endowments or control over funds as do male headed households to afford to pay for these services. This result is suggestive of gendered effects on farmers' WTP for 2WTs-based mechanisation services that should be addressed at promotion ensure gender and social inclusivity.This is contrary to Baudron, Misiko, et al. (2019) who found no gendered gaps in labour and land productivity (and not WTP), but it is consistent with other literature that confirm the persistence of gender gaps in agriculture in the region (Andersson Djurfeldt et al., 2013;FAO, 2011).Households with more adult males are willing to pay significantly lower amounts for ripping and ripping and seeding in the pooled sample and in Zimbabwe (Tables 4 and 6). This finding suggests that labour availability reduces the willingness to pay for 2WT-based ripping services. In a sense, this is in line with predictions of the induced innovation hypotheses-even if our analysis uses only proxies of factors prices (Hayami & Ruttan, 1971). Off farm work can have contrasting effects on WTP for mechanisation. It is expected to increase WTP in places with high opportunity cost of labour and to lower WTP in places where the opportunity of labour for working on the farm is low. Our results for the Zambia subsample conform to the first line of thought. Having more household members working off farm significantly increased WTP for all services offered (Table 5). Another possible explanation for the positive effects is that off farm work helps improve liquidity and raises the opportunity cost of family labour. This in turn enables and induces farm households to hire in 2WT-based services. While positive for transportation in Zimbabwe, off farm work significantly reduces WTP for direct seeding (Table 6). This is suggestive of low opportunity cost of labour for direct seeding done with different options such as manual labour or animal traction in Zimbabwe.T A B L E 4 Tobit model average partial estimates of the determinants of smallholder farmers' WTP for 2WT-based services, pooled sample.( Wealth is the most significant driver of which seems logical as those households with more wealth assets can afford to outsource 2WT-based services. Households with a high asset index are willing to pay significantly more for all 2WT-based services in the pooled sample (Table 4) and for ripping and seeding in Zambia (Table 5) and ripping, ripping and seeding and direct seeding in Zimbabwe (Table 6). This is an important finding and implies a need to deliberately craft inclusive business models for 2WT-based and other mechanisation services to farmers. If access to these services remains wealth-/asset-mediated (implying binding liquidity constraints that only asset-endowed households can overcome), business models that bundle these services with asset-agnostic credit schemes or other interventions meant to overcome asset-mediated barriers should be considered. This is key for the sustainability and profitability of the current wave of scale-appropriate mechanisation in the region. However, if viewed from another angle of gender and social inclusion, this finding calls for innovative approaches to ensure that mechanisation is accessible to  As expected, having ever used animal draft power for tillage and transportation services significantly reduces WTP direct seeding and transportation (Tables 4-6). Given the prominence of draft power as a source of farm power in Zambia and Zimbabwe (Table 1; FAO and AUC, 2019), this result suggests that animal traction and motorised mechanical options will co-exist in the study countries depending on the context. This finding is in line with suggestions by Daum et al. (2022) who argue that 'there is no blue-print for best technologies but only best-fits' and that animal traction remains relevant in the ongoing mechanisation drive in sub-Saharan Africa.In line with a priori expectations, we find that farmers that used MT, the main component of conservation agriculture, were willing to pay significantly higher amounts for 2WT-based ripping, and ripping and seeding services in the pooled sample and Zambia subsample (Tables 4 and 5). This could be explained by the fact that such farmers are already aware of conservation agriculture and the benefit of 2WTs in implementing CA practices and therefore maybe more willing to pay for mechanised MT and seeding services.The effects of access to credit, our measure of capital, are mixed. It increases the WTP amounts for ripping and seeding in Zambia (Table 5) but reduces WTP for direct seeding in the pooled sample (Table 4) and in Zimbabwe (Table 6). Because this measure of access to credit does not really say much about the cost of capital, it is difficult to read much into its effects. Suffice to mention that it would appear ripping and seeding requires more cash outlays than direct seeding.The findings in this paper reflect demand from the perspective of clients or customers, that is, how much customers would be willing to pay for 2WT-based mechanised services at the time of the survey. These results should not be conflated with profitability assessments from the perspective of 2WT owners or service providers who, for example, might provide transportation services throughout the year as opposed to season tillage and planting services. Mechanisation is back among top policy priorities for transforming African agriculture. Past failures in mechanising smallholder agriculture imply a need for systematic analyses to guide policy on targeting and assessing where and for what operations there is effective demand. This paper used the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism experimental auctions that simulate a real market to assess farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for Two-Wheel Tractor (2WT) -based mechanisation services in 7 and 10 districts of Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, with a random sample of about 2800 smallholder households. We focused on ripping only, ripping and seeding, direct seeding and transportation using a 2WT.We found that weeding and land preparation are the top two farm operations where most farmers face labour constraints and therefore need to be mechanised. About 62% and 43% of sample farmers in Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively, faced labour constraints during weeding, while 50% and 20% of the farmers faced labour constraints during land preparation, respectively. These differences are observed across districts and between the study Despite the 2WTs being more popular in Zambia where they are known by some 62% of sample households compared with only 32% in Zimbabwe, only about 2% of sample households have ever used 2WTs and less than 1% own them in study areas across the two countries. On average, the sample households in Zambia were willing to pay USD19, USD28 and USD26 per ha for ripping, ripping and seeding and direct seeding, respectively, and USD6 for transportation per 0.5 ton within a radius of 20 km, whereas those in Zimbabwe were willing to pay more in nominal terms at USD51, USD69 and USD58 per ha for ripping, ripping and seeding and direct seeding, respectively, and USD 12 for transportation of 0.5 tons per 20-km radius. About half of sample households in and Zimbabwe were willing to pay more than the prevailing market prices for ripping, and 5%-10% were willing to pay more for direct seeding in the two countries. Among the study districts, the most promising districts for 2WTs (where demand is highest) include Kaoma, Mpongwe, Mumbwa and Serenje in Zambia and Bubi, Matobo and Murewa districts in Zimbabwe.Compared with market prices for the different services, the WTP estimates for ripping are 21%-27% higher than existing market prices in the sample districts in Zambia and in Zimbabwe. Thus, when considering market fundamentals, these findings suggest that there could be a business case for 2WT-based ripping services in Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, animal traction remains the most prominent source of farm power, and market prices for animal traction ripping and 2WT ripping are virtually the same in both countries. We also found that farmers that have used animal draft power before are willing to pay significantly less for 2WT-based services.Wealth and binding labour constraints are the strongest drivers of farmers' WTP for 2WT-based mechanisation services. Familiarity with conservation agriculture practices and off farm work is associated with higher willingness to pay. These findings call for action on several fronts: First, there is need for more work to raise awareness on mechanisation and create demand for 2WTs in regions where there is comparative advantage. Given disappointing results for conventional demand creation models, this calls for different approaches. Where WTP is already high and is consistent with potential market price, the activities should be on inclusive market deepening and business development, whereas in areas with low WTP, focus should be on early demand creation based on inclusive business models that do not create perverse incentives or expectations or stunt effective demand. Because animal draft power is still widely used in the study countries, 2WTs will likely co-exist with animal traction for long given the low WTP for 2WTs in areas where animal traction is prevalent.Second, since 2WTs will likely co-exist with animal draft power systems for some time, mechanisation should be targeted for specific operations where there is the highest comparative advantage. Clarifying this will require more economic analyses on returns to animal draft power-versus 2WT-based operations. Third, as weeding was rated to have the most labour constraints, there is need to develop appropriate machinery and tools for mechanical weed control beyond herbicides, cultivators and hand hoeing (even if that is construed as shallow weeding) to address labour bottlenecks and to assess the most cost-efficient method to control weeds. Finally, there is need to target farmers who can pay for the services. This will crowd in private sector players who are crucial for sustainable smallholder mechanisation in the region. In doing so, other models such as group hire services and/or incentives to tractor owners can be pursued for more inclusive mechanisation. This implies a need to deliberately craft inclusive business models for 2WT-based and other mechanisation services to farmers. If access to these services remain wealth-/asset-mediated only, business models that bundle these services with asset-agnostic credit schemes or other interventions meant to overcome asset-mediated barriers should be considered. A conducive policy environment that facilitates mechanisation through tax incentives and smart subsidies is required to sustain the current appropriate scale mechanisation in the region.There is scope for more work on the economics of 2WT hire services. While there are positive indications (e.g.Baudron, Nazare, & Matangi, 2019) and positive demand in this paper, there is need to evaluate the profitability of 2WT hire for the full range of land preparation, planting, weeding, postharvest and transport services. This should be compared with similar services provided by animal draft power where applicable, to address the main question of whether 2WTs can leapfrog animal traction.","tokenCount":"8161"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6b7f5744e0aed54ca26eab8069beee3c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9971cc6b-c692-4140-b036-a0edf1403d62/retrieve","id":"624670363"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7303c1b-d3cd-47bf-8a35-6aeee97d81f7","pagecount":"12","content":"All varieties in this catalogue are orange-fleshed, palatable, with medium to high dry matter content and high in beta-carotene, the vitamin A precursor. Children like these sweetpotatoes as they are not very dry.Except for Zondeni, all varieties are early to medium maturing and tolerant to sweetpotato viruses and weevils.Mitundu ya mbeu ya mbatata yofiira mkati imeneyi inapangidwa ku Malawi konkuno ndi Department ya kafukufuku mu unduna wa Zamalimidwe. Boma linabvomereza mitundu isanu mu chaka cha 2011, ndipo Zondeni mbeu yomwe inali ndi alimi kale inabvomelezedwa ndi boma mu chaka cha 2008. Mayina a mbewu zimenezi anaperekedwa ndi alimi mogwirizana ndi kayikidwe, kakomedwe komanso kawonekedwe ka mtundu wa mbewu iliyonse.Mitundu yonse ndiyofiira mkati, yaufa, ndiponso ndiyotsekemera tikamadya. Kuonjezera apo, ili ndi michere ya Vitamini A yochuluka.Kupatulapo Zondeni, mitundu yonse ndiyocha msanga komanso yopilira ku matenda ndinankafumbwe wa mbatata.All the varieties were bred in Malawi by DARS and released in 2011. The variety names were given by local farmers and they relate to behavioral characteristics of each variety.Mitundu ya mbatatayi inapangidwa ku Malawi ndi DARS mu chaka cha 2011. Mayina a mbewu zimenezi anaperekedwa ndi alimi mogwirizana ndi kayikidwe komanso kawonekedwe ka mtundu wa mbewu iliyonse. One small sweetpotato is enough for a child. For 6 month babies, try mashing and feeding boiled orange-fl eshed Sweetpotato.Vitamin A is essential for everyone, to build their body, improve their vision and protect them from illness. Vitamin A is found in foods such as orange-fl eshed sweetpotatoes, dark green leafy vegetables, mangoes, pumpkin, eggs, liver, milk, fortifi ed sugar, and fortifi ed cooking fat and margarine. Sweetpotato leaves are rich in vitamin A, B, iron and proteins.Adding a small amount of oil or foods with fat, like avocados and groundnuts, to vitamin A rich foods helps the body to use more of the vitamin A found in these foods.Kudya mbatata ya kholowa yofi ira mkati imodzi ya sayizi yapakatikati tsiku lililonse ndi yokwanila kuti ipeleke vitamini A amene amafunika kwa munthu wamkulu. Mbatata imodzi yaying'ono ndiyokwanira kwa mwana.Mwana akakwanitsa miyezi 6, mukhoza kumukanyila ndi kumudyestsa mbatata yophika.Vitamini A ndi ofunikila kwa aliyense, kuti amange matupi, maso aziwona bwino, komanso kuteteza ku matenda.Vitamini A amapezeka muzakudya ngati mbatata ya kholowa yofi ira mkati, masamba obiliwira, mango, mawungu, mazira, chiwindi, mkaka, shuga wolembedwa tseketseke ndi mafuta ophikira ndi sitoko owonjezeredwa vitamini A. Masamba a kholowa ali ndi michere ya vitamini A, B ndi ironi yambiri. Kuwonjezelako mafuta ophikira pang'ono kapena zakudya ngati mapeyala ndi mtedza, ku chakudya choti chili ndi vitamini A wambiri, zimathandiza kuti thupi ligwiritse bwino ntchito vitamini A amene amapezeka mu chakudyacho. ","tokenCount":"428"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"db2b5b7fa15436467c19124734408b94","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/57833d53-8e02-47e5-8696-222bb476c5bf/retrieve","id":"1089348499"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"16dd9473-1129-40d9-a0e2-00a60fc217a7","pagecount":"55","content":"research and technological innovation system. The strategic objectives of FECYT are: (1) to contribute to the course of the scientifi c and technological progress of the Spanish system in order to improve the communication among all agents in the system; (2) to act as a platform of encounter, analysis and interdisciplinary and intersectorial debate for the scientifi c, technological and business communities in the country; and (3) to promote the dissemination of knowledge in matters related to science and technology with the goal of creating a scientifi c and technological culture among citizens.It is more than 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick published the now famous double helix structure of DNA, and almost 40 years since the plant breeding efforts that started the Green Revolution. In the meantime, much has changed both in molecular biology and in plant breeding. Molecular biologists can now read the genetic instructions of any organism almost at will. With the advent of novel tools such as DNA microarrays and massively enhanced computing power they will be able to move rapidly from the sequence to a good understanding of the organization and function of the genome underlying specifi c metabolic pathways. Plant breeders have developed unprecedented abilities to create novel genetic combinations, using both updated traditional breeding methods and more direct manipulation of the DNA. They have also adopted molecular tools such as markerassisted selection to speed the development of improved varieties.As plant breeding comes to make more and more use of molecular biology, it is becoming clear that the fundamental science may also have a much greater role to play in the use, conservation and management of plant breeding's raw material: genetic diversity. The inherited differences between individual plants or groups of plants are the basis of all improvements sought by plant breeders. Much of that diversity is threatened by changed farming practices and environmental changes and, perhaps ironically, by the spread of the very improved varieties whose existence depends on this diversity.IPGRI has always been dedicated to the conservation of diversity, not for its own sake but so that it can be used by farmers, breeders and others to improve the productivity and sustainability of farming systems and thus to make a contribution to the well-being of people, especially in developing countries. Having helped others to establish and maintain collections of diversity-ex situ in genebanks and in situ and on farms-we now accept that in future the effective use of this diversity is going to assume greater importance. Molecular techniques have a lot to offer.With this in mind, it seemed opportune to convene a meeting of experts from both ends and the middle, as it were, of the spectrum. Genebank curators and molecular biologists, and representatives of other interested disciplines, came together to exchange information, to listen to each other's requirements and capabilities, and to sketch out ways in which they could be useful to one another. This publication represents some of the fi rst fruits of these collaborations, setting out paths and directions that participants can explore together.I am confi dent that these collaborations will be of mutual benefi t in the future, making both the use and conservation of genetic resources more effective. I hope too that when our successors 50 years from now look back they will see this meeting as something of a turning point too. Together, natural diversity and molecular methods will help national agricultural research systems, including their conservation programmes, as well as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research to achieve their goals: to increase food security, to alleviate poverty and to do so in a sustainable manner.This presentation is a product of three days of discussion held during an expert consultation meeting in November 2002 in León, Spain. The meeting was organized by IPGRI for the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP). It brought together scientists from different CGIAR centres, national agricultural research programmes, universities and the private sector.The meeting's participants agreed to make the topics discussed available to a wider public by publishing in IPGRI's series Issues in Genetic Resources. Together with Coosje Hoogendoorn and Jan Engels, we put together an outline covering the main topics and recommendations that had arisen in the meeting's discussions. Contact was made with participants interested in contributing a paper or willing to provide consultancy.The presentation aims to cover those signifi cant issues that developed as a result of introducing molecular technologies into the fi elds of germplasm and genebank management in such a way that they are likely to affect the future strategies and activities of these disciplines. We hope the ideas presented in this publication will help develop a vision of the genebanks' future role in an era of enormous development in molecular biology and genetics.We would like to give special thanks to the contributors of the papers in this publication: C. Richards, R. Ortiz, J. Engels, A. Graner, K.J. Dehmer, T. Thiel, A. Börner, S. Hamon, E. Frison, L. Navarro, T. Fulton and S. Kresovich. We also extend our appreciation to those participants who, although they did not contribute papers, provided signifi cant input by offering their perspectives to the discussions held during the meeting: J.I. Cubero, O. de Ponti, E. Dulloo, M.E. Ferreira, P. Freymark, C. Hoogendoorn, J.L. Karihaloo, J.M. Martínez Zapater, W. Roca, N.R. Sackville-Hamilton, B. Skovmand, V. Villalobos and X. Zhang.We also extend our appreciation to IPGRI's Communications Services, who helped bring the publication into being, Lynn Menéndez at CIAT's Communications Unit and Elizabeth McAdam who helped with the production of this document.Ex situ collections of plant genetic resources (PGR) began with the botanic gardens of the Middle Ages and evolved during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries into so-called 'introduction stations'. At that time, no special criteria existed for conservation methodologies, given that the intention was essentially to use germplasm rather than conserve it.The advent of modern plant breeding brought with it a greater need for diversity in breeding materials. Concurrently, novel varieties, particularly hybrids, became widely used because of their higher yields. This, in turn, led to large-scale replacement of traditional varieties, even crops, and rapidly diminishing on-farm sources of potentially valuable genetic resources. This genetic erosion raised concerns for the future availability of PGR.In response, the introduction stations became genebanks, which gave plant breeders easier and quicker access to a wider spectrum of genetic resources. Genebanks began to take on the additional role of being repositories of threatened germplasm materials likely to be useful to humans. Several national genebanks were established, among which were the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR, St Petersburg, Russia), fi rst established in 1894; the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK, Gatersleben, Germany) in 1943; and the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA) in 1947.In the 1960s, the fi rst international genebanks, like those of the CGIAR, were created. In 1974, the IBPGR (now IPGRI) was established and, with it, a coordinated effort to collect threatened germplasm. A network of base collections was set up, and a start made to develop information systems to enhance germplasm use by facilitating its distribution and exchange.Germplasm collection evolved from unsystematic, opportunistic and ad hoc approaches to well-planned, ecoregional or crop-oriented initiatives. Generalized germplasm explorations developed into well-informed, targeted collecting activities with specifi c purposes. Many countries set up national genebanks to service their public breeding programmes. Extensive ex situ collections became established for small, easy-to-store seeds, such as those of major cereals. Signifi cant advances were made in developing storage methodologies for recalcitrant seeds and vegetatively propagated species. Even so, these collections are still relatively limited both in number and in the genetic variation they represent.Since the late 1980s, the fi elds of molecular biology and genetics have undergone signifi cant developments, most of which have offered new ways of solving biological questions in general and those of agricultural sciences in particular. At fi rst, technologies to assess polymorphism-that is, the genetic variation among samples or individualswere designed. They permitted analysis of genetic diversity and, thus, the creation of modern linkage maps, which became increasingly saturated, as more powerful marker tools became available.Genetic maps led to the development of physical maps and the construction of many types of DNA libraries, all with the main goal of speeding up the cloning of individual genes of agronomic importance. Simultaneously, much progress was made with high-throughput technologies for gene expression analyses that helped uncover candidate genes involved in central metabolic pathways. DNA sequencing technology also improved from manual to sophisticated automated methods, facilitating increased throughput of efforts to decipher genomes of organisms from all kingdoms. Consequently, gene function could be better studied, and advances were made in bioinformatics, the discipline of I. Introduction Maria Carmen de Vicente generating, collecting, storing and using data from genomic projects to achieve research objectives.Knowledge has also expanded in areas such as understanding the potential of wild species to signifi cantly contribute to traits of agronomic importance. A large array of possibilities has also opened up through the disciplines of comparative genetics and genomics. These new opportunities allow us to envisage a signifi cant impact on germplasm conservation activities, which would certainly benefi t from better-informed management and increased use of PGR.When considering these circumstances, in 2002, IPGRI called for a meeting of experts to consult them on the implications that developments in molecular genetics may have for the future of ex situ germplasm collections. The meeting brought together 22 participants, all experts in germplasm, genebanks or molecular genetics. They came from universities, research institutes, national seed repositories, the private sector, IPGRI and four other CGIAR centres (CIMMYT, CIP, IITA and IRRI). The countries they represented were Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA.The meeting dealt with various aspects of the evolving role of genebanks with respect to developments in the molecular sciences, including: (1) extending the concept of 'client' to include not only the plant breeder, but also the basic scientist and molecular geneticist; (2) issues of intellectual property protection of genetic components of accessions; (3) the need to standardize molecular technologies; (4) the prospects of genebanks developing new services; (5) the range of germplasm materials that future users are likely to need; (6) comprehensive capacity-building; (7) the impact of scientifi c advances on the technological divide already existing between rich and poor countries; (8) networking needs; (9) the importance of continued phenotyping by genebank curators; (10) the need for increased documentation capacity; (11) access to information; and (12) the role of CGIAR in general and IPGRI in particular.At the end of the meeting the experts compiled 18 recommendations, which refl ect the likely trends in future management of ex situ conservation of genetic resources. These recommendations are listed below, according to the four main areas as given in the meeting: research and management of genebanks, information technologies and bioinformatics, training and capacity-building, and policy and intellectual property rights (IPR).• The effi cient and effective exploitation of the genetic diversity found in large genebank collections consumes considerable time and resources. Hence, molecular technologies should be used to create representative subsets of either the entire or a core collection. However, phylogenetic characterization should continue to be done for the whole collection, not just for the core or subset.• Advances in genomics of major crops and model species should be applied to improve understanding of intraspecifi c variation in species, and to cover new species.• Marker-based technology should be implemented in genetic resources management. Robust and affordable technologies should be promoted to improve genebanks' quality of output. In certain cases, the private sector could be approached to collaborate in cropcentred consortia and to provide information on reliable markers for their use in the public domain.• In certain cases, it is advisable to wait before molecular techniques are implemented. This would allow costs to come down and throughput capacities to increase further, hence preventing loss of resources through investments made in acquiring technologies that might rapidly become obsolete.• Studies should be carried out to defi ne the total variation of a given species so that at least the smallest possible set of representative individuals or accessions is conserved. Such core collections, however, do not remove the need to maintain large, or larger, collections to cover variation at all levels (e.g. genes, individuals). In addition, priority in conservation should be given to materials that contain alleles that are locally common, but globally rare.• Because (1) wild ancestors of cultivated species contain vast amounts of additional genetic diversity, and (2) the effi ciency of transferring their desired genes is significantly increased by applied marker-assisted backcrossing, efforts to collect, characterize and evaluate accessions of wild relatives of crops should be substantially increased.• Because neither conserving all living species ex situ nor converting the planet Earth into one protected area is feasible, well-defi ned regions in different parts of the world (i.e. the 'hot spot' zones) should be designated as protected areas. Better links must be established between in situ and ex situ conservation.• Precise and extensive phenotyping (i.e. the characterization and evaluation of morphological, agronomic, physiological, pathological and biochemical traits) should continue to be a major activity of genetic resources repositories. Molecular technologies must be adopted as a supporting tool that complements phenotypic screening, but does not replace it.• No single organization can be expected to do everything. Hence, genebank curators must seek to implement new molecular technologies through collaboration with each other and with molecular geneticists, bioinformaticists and public-private crop-centred consortia.• Consortium networks between genebanks, breeding and molecular genetics programmes must be promoted and established. Such collaboration is essential to efficiently exploit genetic diversity in wild relatives of crops. It is expected that genebanks will receive an increased number of requests for wild species.Novel genebank services • In the future, emphasis in requests is expected to increase on specifi c traits, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and alleles. Genebanks must be prepared to expand their documentation and service tasks accordingly, for example, by providing not only information, but also DNA samples, as well as seed samples.• Substantial progress has already been made in bioinformatics outside the genetic resources community. Curators should seek collaboration with existing bioinformatics programmes to integrate molecular data (both marker and sequence data) with phenotypic and genebank management data.• Genebanks should seek to cooperate with each other across national boundaries to develop central germplasm databases, including both traditional germplasm data and molecular data for individual crop genepools. Comparative genetics will most likely play an important role in germplasm management, characterization and use if this information is well organized and becomes publicly available.• Action should be taken to promote the synthesis of ongoing work and implement fi ndings and practices gathered through the use of model and globally important species.• Crop-centred consortium networks should be organized to promote the use of common molecular technologies and their standards in genebanks. In addition, specifi c bioinformatics applications will be needed to create common standards of germplasm data management and documentation.• Comprehensive training should be offered and implemented in developing countries to build up genebank human resources in molecular genetics. Courses should include basic principles of biology, genetic resources management, experimental design, data analysis and genomic sciences.• Regional collaboration among institutions in the South should be promoted. The CGIAR, as a partner in consortia of germplasm and genomic projects, should provide leadership in the appropriate integration of modern genetics and genomic developments and tools into the conservation, characterization, evaluation and utilization of crop genetic resources.• New issues related to access and benefi t sharing will undoubtedly arise as a consequence of research and information generated that result from the application of molecular technologies to germplasm materials, as well as tools. Consequently, timely workshops must be held to generate the appropriate knowledge for addressing these issues, thus helping to solve confl icts that may prevent germplasm materials from fl owing.Many issues were discussed in our experts' meeting, which can be considered fundamental in defi ning IPGRI's approach to the role of genebanks in the next 10 years and, as such, are deeply embedded in IPGRI's overall strategy as an international centre with a mandate for conservation and use of PGR. The following fi ve papers will be a valuable reference for those interested in genebanks and their relation with the modern, fast-moving fi elds of the molecular sciences. Brief summaries of the discussion papers that follow this introduction and that arose from the 2002 experts' meeting are presented below:Chapter II aims to justify the incorporation of molecular technologies into genebank management activities as the only means by which to comply with the objective of making genetic diversity useful for plant breeding and basic research. It points out the significance of discovering meaningful variation in wild species, and the value of using marker techniques to organize germplasm. The effects of these techniques on guiding collection strategies and data distribution are described. The potential of comparative genetics, the need for well-established databases and data standardization are discussed, together with the role of comparative genetics in accelerating useful gene discovery. These activities should always be backed by good phenotyping and traditional breeding programmes.Chapter III examines how molecular technologies may help discover the relevance of hidden characters in germplasm, especially in wild and weedy germplasm. Such discovery, in turn, determines the importance of maintaining germplasm in ex situ collections worldwide. From a wider perspective, the paper focuses on different aspects of germplasm management that, with the aid of molecular tools, will benefi t decision-making on the extent and composition of collections.By using real examples and figures, Chapter IV deals with novel solutions to traditional germplasm management practices such as taxonomic identifi cation, duplication of accessions and verifi cation of identity after regeneration or multiplication. The paper also points out the importance of taking into account those technical aspects involved in the effective management of molecular resources and data. Finally, the paper reflects on unsolved questions and issues such as the technological divide between developed and less developed countries, the fact that most available fi nancial resources are poured into only a few major crops, the need for appropriate guidelines and international coordination, the likelihood that genebank services will extend to provide DNA samples as well as traditional materials, the need to create links between different sources of genebank documentation and, lastly, bioinformatics.Chapter V discusses the need to build networks, and indicates how important is the role of the genebank curator, who has a central position in relation to the community of users. Simultaneously, the diffi culties of linking with different scientists and conveying appropriate information are recognized. Consequently, on studying recent examples in genomics, suggestions are made to reduce existing gaps and ensure desirable connections between curators, breeders and molecular scientists.Capacity-building is the topic of Chapter VI, which demonstrates a clear need for it in light of the expanding genebank clientele.Comprehensive training for curators and related staff is essential to help close the technological divide. Networking is seen as having a special role, and as being effectively conducted by the CGIAR centres.In a real sense, genebanks are a study in contingencies. The fact that heritable genetic variation is the basis for adaptation (and crop improvement) has served as a rudimentary and diffuse guide to the assembly of the large ex situ collections developed over the last century. In many respects, the acquisition and maintenance of genetic diversity has been motivated more by the certainty of loss of local landraces and the vulnerability of wild populations in the face of increased habitat loss than from any specifi c evidence for agricultural worth. Moreover, the cost of storing and maintaining large collections is an investment that seems particularly cost-effective, compared with the risk of losing these valuable genetic resources (Pardey et al. 2001).While Vavilov's original premise-that the collection of wild relatives is critical for agricultural improvement-has greatly infl uenced the scope of worldwide collecting efforts, the active use of these resources to develop modern varieties has been largely unsuccessful. Reasons may include the need for prebreeding lines that serve as a fi rst step in backcrossing programmes and the inadequate characterization of germplasm. The net result is that, for most domesticated crop species, pedigrees can be traced to a handful of genetic lineages.Genebanks have an obligation to make their genetic diversity useful and accessible for breeding and research. Large collections are under increasing pressure to become efficient at reducing redundancy, and documenting the variation they contain, lest they become relegated to the level of 'seed morgues'. Increasingly, this assessment has been augmented by the use of molecular markers that quantify the genetic diversity within and between accessions. Several works have detailed the philosophy behind optimizing collections to ensure diverse genetic representation through either the creation of core collections or some form of hierarchical sampling (Crossa et al. 1994;Brown and Marshall 1995;Hayward and Sackville-Hamilton 1997).This paper aims to highlight several technical and analytical advances that have enormous potential in promoting the use of this diversity for breeding. It also identifi es several points of synergy between large-scale genomic projects and genebank management and use.Mather and others (Mather 1941) put forward the paradigm that most complex traits are under the control of many genes with small additive effect. This paradigm has yielded to a more nuanced one of molecular characterization of phenotypic traits (Mackay 2001). Empirical data suggest that the allelic effects on a trait value are distributed as an exponential function, where a few genes control most phenotypic effects and other associated genes have an increasingly smaller effect.High-density linkage maps have enabled researchers to identify genes having major effects (i.e. QTLs) on several complex plant traits (Tanksley 1993). Large-scale sequencing efforts to compile the complete Oryza and Arabidopsis genomes have provided more than just data on these species; they have also provided a framework for a whole host of associated inquiry that will have impact on the way genebanks provide information.As large biological databases of genomic linkage maps and expressed sequence tag (EST) sequences become more accessible, the technical process of locating QTLs in model systems has become routine. These advances have proved to comprise a powerful new tool in characterizing plant genotype-phenotype relationships. Overall, empirical evidence suggests that much of the genetic variation useful to agricultural improvement is not recognizable in the plant phenotype. Instead of screening for promising phenotypes, the future may rely more on allele mining of wild germplasm guided by some information on phylogeny, population structure and genetic diversity. Most modern varieties have a very narrow genetic pedigree and use exotic germplasm.National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, USDA-ARS, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA Although labour intensive in a breeding programme, alleles of wild germplasm have the potential to produce substantial payoffs in phenotypic response.Examples of breeding for a particular trait by searching for alleles of the underlying QTLs in phenotypically unpromising wild germplasm have underscored the critical importance of wild germplasm and the genetic diversity it represents to agriculture (Tanksley and McCouch 1997). While alleles of important QTLs are not restricted to the genepools of domesticated taxa, their phenotypic expression in wild genetic backgrounds may be variable. The fi eld of quantitative genetics has moved from an era where complex statistics were used to physically locate these loci to the more complex task of dissecting their epistatic interactions in different genetic backgrounds (Mackay 2001).Genebanks offer a key link in this process by providing the raw material for these kinds of breeding programmes. However, the relationship between genome projects and genebanks can be even more synergistic. The increased pace of plant genomic studies offers genebanks a set of useful, well-characterized loci to characterize more accurately standing diversity, and to detect historical relationships among lineages and patterns of molecular evolution and selection that have occurred at the DNA sequence level. Indeed, it is only through an evolutionary framework that the signifi cance of these large genome initiatives will be realized (Charlesworth et al. 2001). Signifi cant advances in the fi eld of comparative genetics, molecular phylogenetics and coalescence theory will all affect the way genebanks collect and distribute data.Although relatively few plant taxa have yet been intensively sequenced and mapped, Brassica, Populus (poplar), Medicago and Lotus are being sequenced. Oryza and Arabidopsis serve as primary templates for the plant genome. The completed sequences have yielded a wealth of molecular marker polymorphisms, including insertions of transposable elements, small insertions or deletions, tandem repeats and single nucleotide polymorphisms that are useful for fi ne-scale mapping of phenotypic traits in these species.A powerful tool of genomics, and the hallmark of bioinformatics, is the ability to effi ciently compare the sequence of any gene to that of any other. Effi cient query and comparison software, increases in database sequence holdings and large increases in computer-processing speed have all contributed to substantial changes in the way data are annotated, analysed and disseminated. One profound result of the mapping effort in cereal crops, including wheat, maize, rice and other grasses, is the remarkable conservation of gene content and gene order through the 60 million years of speciation events in the Poaceae. The exact collinearity of these genomes is perturbed by translocations, deletions, duplications and other mutational events over time, but large regions of chromosomes show high degrees of similarity (Gale and Devos 1998;Paterson et al. 2000).This homeology (vestiges of direct sequence homology from these species' common ancestor) suggests that intensive sequence analysis in one species can have benefi cial effects on the mapping of other species. The comparative method can be used to infer physical map locations of genes in other taxa (Brueggeman et al. 2002). As genetic maps from a variety of species are aligned, the patterns of similarities and differences emerge. These comparisons have important implications for understanding the evolutionary trajectories that shape genetic diversity in plants.Research initiatives such as the development of comparative database structures systematically exploit molecular linkage map and sequence data from different taxa to understand several evolutionary mechanisms, including the rate of heterogeneity among lineages, convergent evolution among genes and functional genomics of orthologous genes in different taxa (Ware et al. 2002). The prospect of regions of synteny among diverse taxa bodes well for gene discovery and may greatly affect the speed and effi ciency of mapping studies in wild taxa that previously had no genomic analysis.One particularly profi table use of comparative genomics contrasts wild and domesticated sister taxa to identify genes that may have undergone strong selection during domestication (Vigouroux et al. 2002). Domesticated lineages have several selected phenotypic traits that may become manifest in genomic scans for selection. These types of comparisons are possible only with sophisticated analytical tests for neutrality of polymorphisms at the sequence level. When studying molecular evolution, one assesses changes in sequence divergence to accept or refute patterns consistent with neutral variation at equilibrium between drift and mutation. Inferring processes that give rise to observed patterns of polymorphisms is a central objective of molecular evolutionary biology.Selective, demographic and random processes can all play important parts in shaping DNA sequence polymorphisms. Several tests have been developed to detect the effects of some of these processes (Tajima 1983;McDonald and Kreitman 1991;Fu and Li 1993). In addition, a stochastic model of genealogical descent known as the coalescent provides a framework for analysing the polymorphism data currently observed. This analytical approach puts forward a null model based on a continuous-time Markov process for generating random genealogies under certain population parameters.Gene genealogies produced in this way are random outcomes of an underlying evolutionary process that can be compared with the observed sequence polymorphisms. This enables the researcher to accept or refute specifi c models of evolutionary change and, as such, the genealogies comprise a powerful simulation tool for hypothesis testing and exploratory analysis. In the study mentioned above by Vigouroux et al. (2002), both neutrality tests and coalescent simulations were used on simple sequence repeat (SSR) polymorphisms within EST sequences in maize and teosinte. Their data identifi ed several genes that were implicated in the domestication of maize and therefore had important agronomic value.It is noteworthy that in crop species under artifi cial selection, numerous QTLs have been attributed to regulatory genes (not just structural genes), demonstrating the ability of plant regulatory genes to infl uence quantitative phenotypic variation, in addition to their previously demonstrated impact on discrete traits (Doebley and Lukens 1998). By extension, in natural systems, intraspecific phenotypic variation important to ecological interactions may also be controlled by regulatory loci. Regulatory alleles affecting ecologically important traits such as fl ower shape and symmetry, infl orescence architecture, corolla pigmentation pattern, fl owering phenology and fruit size have been identifi ed. Experiments are being conducted to examine the micro-evolutionary processes affecting the distribution of these alleles (Purugganan 2000).Molecular marker technologies are increasingly being used in the genetic resources arena to quantify the levels of genetic diversity within and among accessions and to increase the effi ciency of collection management (van Treuren et al. 2001). These techniques usually rely on the frequencies of neutral markers such as those generated through random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplifi ed fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP), SSR and other sequencebased methods that seek to quantify variation at variable loci. This distinctly prospective method is used to cluster the current genetic diversity in a way that facilitates representation in ex situ collections (Bretting and Widrlechner 1995;van Hintum and van Treuren 2002).The data from these studies have had signifi cant impact on our ability to infer genetic relatedness, and demographic histories of populations and species. In wild lineages, the pattern of neutral variation captured through these markers may provide a framework for ex situ management but the functional 'ecotypic' variation-the potentially adaptive variation among accessions-may not be so easily revealed (Reed and Frankham 2001; but see Merilä and Crnokrak 2001).In a sense, neutral variation has been widely used as a tractable surrogate for the functional genetic variation that underlies quantitative traits associated with adaptation and future evolutionary potential. Although molecular characterization of the plant phenotype is still emerging (Purugganan and Gibson 2003), comparative approaches and the development of large bioinformatics data sets in model systems will enable the execution of population genetic studies of ecologically or agronomically important traits.In terms of genebank management, emphasis will increasingly be given to maintaining genetic diversity at key loci that control important traits of agronomic interest. Molecular tools may not only infl uence the assessment of broad patterns of genetic diversity but may also be critical in modelling gene genealogies of key functional loci that have been shaped through selection and drift in natural systems (Hey and Machado 2003). As comparative studies increase and more traits are genetically dissected, the panels of functional genes used to screen germplasm will increase. Analytical techniques for revealing the signature of selection at these loci may not only be important in choosing unique accessions to include within an ex situ collection, but may also be important tools for ensuring that diversity is maintained at an acceptable level over time.Because seeds deteriorate during storage, samples must be regenerated before viability becomes critically low. Each round of regeneration exposes the accession to sampling error, causing genetic drift (loss of alleles), possible selection (changes in specifi c allele frequencies) and contamination (novel alleles introduced). Comparisons between diversity measures across regeneration cycles are few (Wu et al. 1998;Chebotar et al. 2002), but they demonstrate that collections are not static and even accessions of domesticated species can show substantial genetic changes within a few generations. The challenge to genebank managers is to disentangle the stochastic and deterministic elements in these dynamics.While breeding structure and demographic histories (such as rapid changes in effective population sizes) are expected to affect all markers in similar ways, functional loci (expressed or regulatory), subject to selection, show high rates of gene-to-gene variation. Comparisons among species with different breeding systems and life history traits may offer genebank managers important conceptual guidelines about which type of accessions are particularly prone to genetic erosion and which are not. The benefi ts of undertaking genetic diversity studies in functional genes in model systems may be better management practices that maintain long-term accession integrity (van Tienderen et al. 2002).The acceleration of genomic data puts genebanking in a particularly vital position for future gene discovery and agricultural improvement. The linkage of model systems to wild germplasm can be thought of as an iterative process. Model systems provide a framework for gene identifi cation and synteny. These loci will become increasingly incorporated in marker panels to monitor and maintain diversity in a variety of accessions. Both neutral marker and specifi c loci are used to infer the historical genealogies of these loci and also to refi ne phylogenetic relationships between taxa. The use of novel QTL alleles retrieved from wild germplasm may implicate additional loci critical to some phenotypic trait such as another gene in a metabolic network that can be subsequently mapped and characterized in the model system.With increasing sequence-based information of QTLs of agronomic importance, genotyping panels for genebanked accessions will greatly increase the accessibility and the effi cient maintenance of large ex situ collections.The future will bring an increase in genotypic data, but the critical importance of plant phenotyping and traditional plant breeding will not diminish. Without expert evaluation for traits in the fi eld, mapping studies cannot proceed. In addition, the critical need for prebreeding lines in which to evaluate the effect of novel QTL alleles will only increase. Molecular marker-assisted breeding can be highly effi cient, but it is breeding all the same and requires the skill of researchers with whole plant and breeding experience.The use of genomic data in genebank management also puts a heavy priority on bioinformatic solutions that incorporate data from sequences to fi eld characters and descriptor data. The ability to link heterogeneous data sets requires a high degree of data standardization. Sequence data may become the gold standard, rather than genotypes based on fragment analysis. Similar database structures are currently being implemented in medical applications where the connections between clinical and genetic data are vital to therapeutics and gene discovery.In the plant germplasm community, it may only be a matter of time before these database structures are used routinely to weave together data from the NCBI, Gramene, SINGER and GRIN databases. Whatever the eventual data retrieval system, molecular technologies will continue to play an important role in making genebanks accessible for agronomic improvement.Genebank curators are interested in ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources because genetic diversity is continuously being lost in farmers' fi elds and in nature. Genebanks are reservoirs of biodiversity and sources of alleles that can be relatively easily retrieved for genetically enhancing crops (Ortiz 2002). Efforts have been made to collect threatened landraces, cultivars that were becoming obsolete, genetic stocks and, increasingly, wild relatives of cultivated species. All these materials are important for crop improvement because breeding gains rely largely on access to genetic variation in the respective crop genepools. If genes available in wild species are to be put into a usable breeding form, then the long-term research agenda must include the development of advanced breeding lines with the desirable genes in a suitable genetic background (i.e. prebreeding must be carried out).Ex situ collections are usually established either through collecting or assembling through exchange with existing collections, followed by rejuvenation or regeneration of seed and other propagules. Traditionally, the routine operation of genebanks also includes activities such as characterization, evaluation and documentation (Engels and Wood 1999;Ortiz 1999;Engels and Visser 2003). Frequently, though, characterization and especially evaluation were left to plant breeders and other users of germplasm. The lack of relevant information on the material for potential users has been judged to be the cause of the low use of accessions conserved in genebanks. This, together with the fact that accessions with proper characterization data increase the interest of the molecular geneticists, is leading to renewed attention by genebanks to characterization activities. To facilitate this work IPGRI, in collaboration with researchers from other organizations worldwide, has developed descriptor lists for about 90 crop species (for example Allium: IPGRI/ ECP/GR/AVRDC 2001).Analysis of genetic variation in germplasm collections generates an added value for genebanks, making this research a good investment. Well-documented analysis of the number and types of useful polymorphisms allows genebank curators to offer specifi c accessions with the desired characteristics to plant geneticists, who can then select materials tailored to their objectives and needs.Despite the relatively high costs as well as the technical challenges involved, regeneration and multiplication are accepted as routine and essential activities by most genebanks. In more recent years, several genebanks have made signifi cant investments to determine their collections' genetic diversity to improve germplasm management, including the establishment of core collections and the development of improved parents and sometimes even of new cultivars.An adequate documentation system is an essential prerequisite for the effective management and subsequent use of genetic resources. Faster and more reliable computers allow researchers to manage and analyse larger amounts of data more easily, and publish catalogues and reports. Genebank documentation has been further enhanced with advances in information and geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Computerized documentation systems, and additional information obtained through GIS and/or from DNA marker technology, can help plant explorers search for sites where specifi c genes may be found. The increasing opportunities of linking different types of data from unrelated sources for one and the same accession or species greatly facilitate the use of conserved genetic resources for crop improvement and other research activities in general.In summary, genebank curators can signifi cantly contribute to the use of the conserved wild and cultivated genetic resources through adequate management practices. An increased application of molecular genetic III. Genebank management and the potential role of molecular genetics to improve the use of conserved genetic diversity Rodomiro Ortiz † and Jan Engels ‡ tools will further facilitate the use of germplasm in breeding efforts and add new value to the existing collections.Over the past 15 years or so increased attention has been given to the conservation of genetic resources in their original habitats surroundings where the material obtained its distinctive characteristics, i.e. in situ and onfarm, respectively. In particular, the conclusion of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1993 gave a boost to in situ conservation efforts. The conservation of crop genetic resources in farmers' fi elds allows continuing selection in diverse environments and with different selection pressures, and has relatively low direct costs. It also allows people to maintain control over their genetic resources.In situ conservation can help preserve the co-evolutionary dynamics between crops and their wild relatives and pathogen populations of pests and diseases, which is maintaining the dynamic genetic interactions that permit micro-evolutionary changes in the host-disease system. Indeed, the co-evolution in a wild host and its resident pathogen population runs parallel to evolutionary changes in the pathogen population infecting crops. Such changes can be a response, for example, to the introduction of new cultivars containing introgressed wild resistance genes (Prescott-Allen and Prescott-Allen 1988). Likewise, pathogen biotypes from the wild alternative host can invade crops, eliciting a response reaction by wild resistance gene(s), already incorporated into improved cultivars, to the new crop pathogen population.In view of the fact that most of the crop genetic resources are still being 'conserved' in farmers' fi elds and that the capacity of genebanks is usually limited, the linkages between on-farm conservation activities and genebanks are increasingly being recognized to be of critical importance. As a consequence, an active facilitation of germplasm movement between these two systems is of vital importance to both.In the past, genetic diversity in wild relatives of crops and, to some extent, in wild species was predominantly the basis of the search for useful genes in resistance breeding (Lenné and Wood 1991), particularly when resistance levels to pests and diseases available in the primary (and sometimes secondary) genepool were low. Cooper et al. (2001) demonstrated the importance of using germplasm from wild relatives in base-broadening efforts through population management. Discovery and incorporation of new genes from wild relatives therefore provides perhaps one of the few means of sustaining crop improvement in the longer term. Although durability of resistance cannot be predicted (Johnson 1992), the use of increased genetic diversity through preventive breeding as part of the crop improvement effort may help buffer against crop losses arising as the pathogen population changes (McIntosh 1992).Germplasm enhancement using genes from wild relatives is not an easy process, but many parents with wild genes have become available (Ortiz 2002). Backcrossing followed by selection has been the most common method for introgressing genes from wild germplasm into breeding materials. This activity has been termed 'prebreeding' or 'germplasm enhancement', an essential step in crop improvement, as well as the most promising route to increasing the use of wild germplasm. However, problems occur such as linkage drag, sterility, small sample size of the interspecifi c hybrid populations obtained and restricted genetic recombination in subsequent generations.Despite its constraints, genetic enhancement using wild germplasm shows some success. For example, the ICRISAT genebank maintains about 2500 accessions (i.e. about 2% of all accessions) of wild relatives, and wild and weedy species of sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, chickpea and pigeon pea. Screening of this germplasm has identifi ed several sources of resistance to important pests and diseases. Transfer of new cytoplasmic male sterility to pigeon pea and pearl millet, and the development of chickpea with enhanced yields and pigeon pea with high protein were achieved through conventional backcrossing at ICRISAT (Ortiz 2002).Another good example is the conservation and use of wild and weedy genetic resources of rice at IRRI. Numerous disease-resistance genes have been incorporated, together with other traits, into breeding material that IRRI distributes to national rice research institutes worldwide for further use. All recently released breeding material from IRRI contains one or more genes from wild relatives of rice (R. Sackville-Hamilton, IRRI, pers. comm.).The importance of wild and weedy germplasm for breeding programmes is demonstrated by the fact that more than 15.7% of germplasm accessions with known status and maintained by CGIAR centres are either wild relatives or weedy materials (S. Gaiji, IPGRI, pers. comm.). According to data from the SINGER database maintained by IPGRI (Table III.1), a signifi cant fl ow of wild and weedy germplasm moves from the CGIAR genebanks to users worldwide. It is acknowledged that the relative importance of wild and weedy germplasm is rising, possibly because of the new opportunities that molecular genetic tools offer to exploit genetic diversity. In addition, marker-assisted backcrossing substantially increases the effi ciency of this breeding approach for transferring desired genes and helps preventing linkage drag (Tanksley et al. 1989).Mendel discovered the principles of heredity at the end of the nineteeth century and, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the world has seen genetics rise as a scientifi c discipline. Among its outstanding discoveries were DNA as hereditary material (1944), the double helix structure of the DNA molecule (1953), cracking of the genetic code (1966), isolation of genes (1973) and application of DNA recombinant techniques (from 1980 onwards) (Ortiz 1998;Engels and Visser 2003).Allozymes were available as the fi rst biochemical genetic markers in the 1960s and were amply used by population geneticists in their early research. In the 1970s, restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and Southern blotting were added to the geneticists' toolbox. Taq polymerase was discovered in the 1980s, and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) developed shortly afterwards. Since then, marker analysis, based on PCR, has become routine in plant genetic research (Ortiz and Crouch 2001).Furthermore, new marker systems have been developed based on high-density arrays or 'gene chips', allowing thousands of genes to be arranged in small matrices (or chips) that are probed with labelled cDNA from a tissue of one's choice. DNA chip technology uses microscopic arrays of molecules immobilized on solid surfaces for analysis. An electronic device connected to a computer may read this information and analyse it. We may speculate that in the future this technology will also facilitate genetic resources management in genebanks.Genomics research integrates genetics with informatics and automated systems to elucidate the structure, function and evolution of past and present genomes. Among the most dynamic fi elds of agriculture and crop improvement are the sequencing of plant genomes, comparative mapping across species with genetic markers, and objectiveassisted breeding after identifying genes or chromosome regions in accessions for further research.Likewise, molecular markers are becoming 'descriptors' that offer reproducible results for characterizing genotypes. Molecular markers are important tools for genebank management, particularly because they can be used to estimate genetic relationships between accessions within a germplasm collection. Unique genotypes can be identifi ed and preserved, or gaps in the collection identifi ed with the aid of DNA markers, which can be used to optimize the management of genetic diversity. Moreover, as mentioned above, DNA markers provide a means of monitoring and facilitating the introgression of genes from wild species into cultivated genepools.Furthermore, knowledge on conservation of gene order, advances in genomics and bioinformatics will allow a much better understanding of available genes and their function in well-studied crops or gene discovery in other research-neglected tropical crop species (Mahalakshmi and Ortiz 2001;Mahalakshmi et al. 2002). For example, researchers might be able to identify and characterize useful genomic regions conferring a specifi c trait in crops. Then, appropriate test materials would be chosen to assess the relevance of these genomic regions in each targeted crop in relevant environments.As a result of the present knowledge, the concept of genepools now includes transgenes, as well as native and exotic genepools that are becoming available through comparative analysis of plant biological repertoires. Gene chips and transposon tagging will provide new dimensions for research on gene expression. Molecular biologists study not only individual genes but also how circuits of interacting genes in different pathways control the spectrum of genetic diversity in any crop species. Genomics may accelerate the identification of important genes available in genebanks, and facilitate their utilization through transformation, without barriers across plant species or other kingdoms of living things. Perhaps, one day, it will be possible for the genes providing extreme drought tolerance of pearl millet or cowpea to be introgressed into other cereals or legumes to achieve more water-effi cient crops. This will have great consequences for the way genebanks operate.The sequencing of entire crop genomes opened new frontiers in the conservation of plant biodiversity and crop genetic enhancement. Recent advances in gene isolation and sequencing in many plant species seem to justify a futuristic vision that, within a few years or possibly decades, genebank curators will complement their large cold stores of seeds with crop DNA sequences that will be electronically stored and easily accessed by users through the Internet (Ortiz 1998(Ortiz , 1999)). This form of characterization of plant genomes will ultimately create a true genebank, possessing a large and easily accessible inventory of major genes of today's largely non-characterized crop genepools.Nonetheless, collections of seeds and other propagules of comprehensively studied stocks should be maintained because plant geneticists, the main direct users of germplasm maintained by genebanks, need such germplasm for their work. In fact, known important genes are only a small percentage of the total genetic information that makes up a crop plant, including gene complexes that are not yet understood and will be diffi cult to 're-compose' if not available as genetic stocks in genebanks.Likewise, fi nding new genes in not-yetcharacterized germplasm that is maintained in one or more of the about 1300 genebanks or germplasm collections in the world adds value not only to that collection or collections, but also to the electronic sequence data that could make up the genebanks of the future. Genetic resources available in genebanks are the best source for gene discovery, especially if and when the traditional collections have been phenotypically characterized and additional relevant information is properly documented.Unknowingly, and usually unintentionally, accessions can be duplicated within a collection, between collections and between genebanks. These duplicates should be identifi ed if and when economically defendable to avoid waste of capacity (Engels and Visser 2003). Putative duplicates can be identifi ed on the basis of passport data, but additional assessment or confi rmation of the duplication status will be needed through phenotypic and genotypic characterization, using descriptor lists in the fi eld and biochemical or increasingly DNA fi ngerprinting in the laboratory (Lund et al. 2003). Such duplicated accessions may need to be bulked to prevent loss of alleles in case the duplication is only partial or if absolute duplicates are to be eliminated (Sackville-Hamilton et al. 2002).Networking will help genebanks to share responsibilities, resources and costs (Frison et al. 2003). For example, a national or regional genebank with limited fi nancial resources can focus on the genetic diversity occurring in its own geographic domain, and/or it may agree to duplicate collections for reasons of safety in another, better endowed, national or international genebank.Repatriation of originally native germplasm that is available only from 'foreign' ex situ germplasm collections can be an important activity for those genebanks with a national or regional mandate and determined to provide better services in germplasm of their own regions. This activity may be followed by germplasm restoration whereby such material is reintroduced to sites from where it was originally collected and has since been lost for in situ conservation or onfarm management.Many genebanks have large germplasm collections, which are often ineffi ciently managed and are therefore seldom accessed by plant breeders. A systematic assessment of the genetic diversity in such collections can help establish core collections. These subsets of large collections contain a limited number of chosen accessions that capture most of the genetic variability in the entire collection while representing, for example, about 10% of the total collection (van Hintum et al. 2000). Developing a core collection therefore improves the management and use of a germplasm collection.A core collection is assembled by taking into account the hierarchical structure of the genepool. The entire collection can be stratifi ed into groups sharing common characteristics according to taxonomy, geographic or ecological origin, and neutral or non-neutral descriptors. Samples are then taken from these groups. Using this process, core subsets can be identifi ed. Genetic studies in selected crops have shown that widespread and localized alleles occurring in the entire collection are usually contained in the core subset, with only rare localized alleles excluded. The core subset often provides an entry point to further study of biodiversity of the entire collection or to the use of these resources (Hodgkin et al. 1995;Johnson and Hodgkin 1999;van Hintum et al. 2000).Genebanks can signifi cantly contribute to the use of conserved wild and cultivated genetic resources through adequate management practices. Increased application of molecular tools will further facilitate the use of such germplasm in crop breeding efforts and add new value to the existing collections. In particular, the identifi cation of specifi c traits in wild relatives of crop species and their transfer into genotypes with a desirable genetic background is a fi eld in which genebanks can play an important role. Furthermore, the new technologies will allow genebanks to contribute to more cost-effi cient conservation efforts and to more rational conservation approaches. The increased opportunities to transfer genes across unrelated species might well have an infl uence on the type of germplasm collections that genebanks want to establish in the future, e.g. trait-specifi c collections might be added to the traditional crop, species or genepool focused collections. About 100 years ago, the rediscovery of Mendel's principles of heredity turned genetics from a mystery into a serious science. By 1980, the deployment of DNA marker technologies had ushered in a new era in the fi eld of genome analysis, which has culminated in the determination of the complete sequence of complex organisms, including higher plants. The rapidly expanding knowledge of the structure and function of genomes will increase our understanding of the role of individual genes and their orchestrated interplay in a cell, tissue or organism. Molecular genetics will also open up new avenues for studying genetic diversity to understand the dynamics of evolution and for using the genetic diversity currently locked in genebanks to improve cultivars.The ex situ conservation of about 6 million accessions of PGR represents an essential contribution to the conservation of both intraand interspecifi c diversity of crops and their wild relatives. The establishment and management of ex situ collections are complex, relying largely on empirical procedures. Hence, only circumstantial evidence has been gathered on the comprehensiveness of individual collections, as well as on the redundancy within and between collections. Similarly, the genetic integrity of individual accessions and changes in their genetic make-up have escaped closer examination. Moreover, systematic approaches for using genetic resources require extensive phenotypic evaluations, which are time consuming and expensive.Many of the above-mentioned issues can be addressed in more detail by using information derived from DNA markers. Based on the current state of DNA marker technology, the present paper aims to highlight its potential impact, as well as its limitations, on managing and using genetic resources. Hammer (2001) estimates that 7000 cultivated plant species exist, including their wild relatives. To provide ex situ conservation for all of them clearly exceeds the current capacities of genebanks. Hence, the dilemma of almost any genebank lies in fi nding a compromise between the number of species to be conserved (biodiversity) and the number of accessions of a given species to be kept (genetic diversity). As a result, most conservation efforts have focused on agriculturally important species. About one third of all ex situ accessions represent just 5 specieswheat, barley, rice, maize and Phaseolus beans-and the remaining two thirds cover only 30 species.The relative overrepresentation of these agriculturally important species does not necessarily mean that their genetic diversity has been fully covered. Certain geographical regions are still not well represented in collections. By complementing geographic and ecological information, molecular marker data may help determine the extent to which accessions from diverse regions represent distinct samples (e.g. Ordon et al. 1997).This approach, however, requires that marker data are available for reference from all existing accessions. For the 'top 30' crops, a substantial fi nancial investment will be needed to generate the corresponding data sets. For example, fi ngerprinting the estimated 370 000 barley accessions (Hordeum ssp.) with 28 genetic markers (i.e. 2 markers per chromosome arm) would require €5 million (at an estimated cost of €0.50 per data point). This is a prohibitively large amount of money. However, with decreasing costs per data point and the potential spin-off effects (some of which are described below), the investment for systematically fi ngerprinting complete collections may be justifi ed over the medium term.Similarly, DNA marker data may provide invaluable information for taxonomic issues. The taxonomic determination of PGR is essential, for both their conservation and their use. Currently, it is mainly based on morphological descriptors and requires extensive expertise, particularly for intraspecifi c resolution. Figure IV.1 illustrates how amplifi ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker data provided important clues on the taxonomic status of several hitherto undetermined entries of the diffi cult Solanum nigrum complex (nightshade) (Dehmer and Hammer 2004).Basically, a DNA marker-based taxonomy can be developed for any given genus to at least the species level. In many cases, congruency was shown between the DNA-based and classic systems, whereas, in other cases, the taxonomy has had to be revised according to DNA marker and sequence data. In such a context, DNA sequence and marker data are of particular value for understanding the phylogeny of polyploid species, as recently shown for the genus Hordeum (F. Blattner In addition to taxonomic studies, the effect of plant breeding on the formation of genepools can be evaluated and quantifi ed, as has been done for barley, resulting in European barley cultivars forming distinct groups of spring and winter types. The latter are further subdivided into two-rowed and six-rowed barleys (Thiel et al. 2003), a population structure that resulted from crossbreeding activities. In genetic diversity studies, major emphasis is given to the quality and quantity of DNA marker data, because insuffi cient marker numbers result in uneven genome coverage, which may yield unsatisfactory results. Finding congruencies between molecular marker data and classical taxonomy will also become diffi cult if several incompatible schools are in use, as is frequently the case.The management of genetic resources includes all activities ranging from seed storage (or conservation in a vegetative state), through multiplication of seed to provision of genebank accessions on request. The genebank at IPK dispatches an annual average of 17 000 seed, plant and tuber samples, leading to a need for subsequent multiplication. Hence, about 5% of the seed collection is multiplied every year, translating into 7200 accessions that must be planted and monitored in the fi eld or greenhouse. Meticulous precautions are undertaken to prevent contamination of accessions during multiplication, whether by use of particular agricultural practices, permanent control during the vegetative period, or establishment of herbarium collections. This last may serve by offering reference samples to check the authenticity of individual accessions.Measures to check the authenticity of an accession are based on morphological characters, such as the descriptor traits that have been defi ned for many agriculturally important genera. Obviously, the descriptors to be recorded must be limited to a manageable number for each species. Also, the inheritance of many descriptor traits follows a monogenic inheritance (e.g. two rows vs six rows, long awns vs short awns or fl ower pigmentation), critically limiting genome coverage. Molecular markers, as tools for probing additional loci in a genome, can thus check for possible changes during multiplication that may otherwise, because of a lack of a visible phenotype, have gone undetected by morphological inspection in the greenhouse or fi eld.In a pilot study to check the quality of collection management of an inbreeding species, several accessions of the wheat (Triticum aestivum) collection at the IPK were fi ngerprinted with a set of simple sequence repeat (SSR, microsatellite) markers (Börner et al. 2000). No changes were detected in the accessions examined, which had been multiplied from 2 to 24 times over 50 years. The results underscored the effi ciency of the precautions taken by the IPK genebank to preserve the genetic integrity of inbreeding collections.However, SSR fi ngerprinting of a set of barley cultivars revealed unexpected differences between different accessions of identical cultivars (Figure IV.2). Because of the inbreeding nature of barley, identical genotypes are to be expected under the same cultivar name. Most of the 'duplicated' samples had been obtained from different donors, and seed lots may have been confused or wrongly named before the genebank received the samples. Although DNA markers help unveil such cases, identification within a set of homonymous accessions of the most original sample may remain difficult, although Lund et al. (2003) recently proposed a statistical approach.The propagation of inbreeding crops is straightforward, but outbreeding species, both wind-and insect-pollinated, must be propagated as populations. An outbreeding population can be described in terms of its allelic frequencies, and the major objective of any conservation effort is to keep the genetic make-up of a population unaltered. To this end, insect-pollinated plants are grown in isolation chambers and wind-pollinated species in pollen-proof growth chambers or fi eld plots that are suffi ciently isolated from other accessions of the same species. Populations must be suffi ciently large to prevent genetic drift. Environmental effects need to be eliminated to prevent selection.Marker analysis of rye accessions, regenerated 2 to 13 times under standard conditions, revealed extensive shifts in allelic frequency (Chebotar et al. 2003, Figure IV.3). With some markers, a decrease, even loss, of alleles was observed, whereas with other markers, even new alleles were recorded, indicating pollen introgression from other populations. Principally, the extent of observed changes seemed to be a function of the number of multiplication cycles. Thus, molecular marker data provided clear hints for the need to revisit the conservation management of outbreeding species.In some cases, the multiplication of a species is impaired by its lack of adaptation to the environmental conditions prevailing at the location of its genebank: for example, soils, occurrence of specific pathogens or pests, suboptimal temperatures, or inappropriate photoperiod. These problems can be alleviated by subcontracting seed increase to a collaborator or commercial partner with access to a more appropriate site. To monitor the subcontracting, DNA fi ngerprints of the samples fi rst dispatched and those received after the increase is completed will provide the necessary documentation for authenticating the samples. DNA fi ngerprints may also constitute a tool for monitoring multiplication within a genebank, which becomes a crucial issue once ISO certifi cation or similar standards are to be achieved.Despite the accuracy of DNA marker technology, two major questions must be solved:• What percentage of bands should be identical before two accessions are identifi ed as duplicates?• What changes in allele frequency are acceptable in outbreeding populations? To fi nd answers to these questions, pilot studies need to be performed to generate a database that will adequately allow the establishment of meaningful threshold values.Numerous molecular marker technologies are used for DNA fi ngerprinting in plants.To discuss the merits and demerits of any individual marker system is beyond the scope of this paper, but microsatellite and AFLP markers have been preferred in many diversity studies. Attempts have been made to fi ngerprint comprehensive collections of as many as 1000 accessions: for example, Huang et al. (2002) for wheat. However, because few attempts have been made to establish a reference marker set for use in parallel studies, the results of most marker studies for a given species cannot be readily compared and integrated.Despite worldwide activity in DNA fi ngerprinting of ex situ germplasm, the integration of data in corresponding genebank documentation systems is so far insignifi cant. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to develop databases and software tools to visualize and analyse DNA fi ngerprinting data. In this context, fi ngerprinting data based on DNA fragments (e.g. AFLPs or SSRs) can be documented either as gel pictures or as tables containing the length of individual DNA fragments. For the latter, mandatory and extensive internal controls would be needed to obtain accurate estimates of fragment sizes for cross-referencing between experiments and laboratories.The increasing availability of sequence information for various plant species enables direct analysis of the point mutations that give rise to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Point mutations are the most frequent type of intraspecifi c DNA variation (polymorphism), and can be detected in more or less unlimited quantity. Together with insertions and/or deletions, other marker systems also detect point mutations but, because of technical limitations, only a tiny subset of the SNPs present between two genotypes can be detected with these systems. To study the principal equivalency of SNPs identifi ed in several barley genes with gene-derived SSR or RFLP markers, a set of six barley lines was analysed in parallel with all three types of markers (Figure IV.4). The results revealed their principal equivalence, because the correlation of the corresponding similarity matrices ranged from 0.87 to 0.93, being signifi cant in all cases. Because SNPs can be described in an alphanumeric manner according to the four nucleotides, their documentation is simple and straightforward.Given that the same SNP loci are being studied in different laboratories, the corresponding results form compatible data sets that can be combined and analysed in a decentralized process. The analysis of SNPs currently requires expensive detection platforms that are not available to all laboratories and may result in considerable costs per data point (Kota et al. 2001;Jenkins and Gibson 2002). However, the development of bioinformatic tools to facilitate exploitation of available DNA sequence databases is bringing down the costs of identifying SNPs. The technology will become more widespread. In addition, many of the SNPs that were mapped in the barley genome affect the recognition site of restriction enzymes and thus can be assayed as simple CAPS (cleaved amplifi ed polymorphic sequence) markers, requiring a minimum of technical equipment.With the present state of knowledge, SNP markers seem best for meeting the requirements for marker-assisted management of genetic resources. In the short term, these markers will be developed in amounts suffi cient only for major crop species. Thus, the marker-assisted management of species that are less important in developed countries needs to be studied, using conventional marker systems. In these cases, however, intra-genebank management issues may be more important than inter-genebank issues: for example, intra-laboratory performance of a given marker system may be more important than inter-laboratory standardization and compatibility.Systematic fi ngerprinting of germplasm collections will provide additional knowledge in terms of molecular diversity and genetic relationships, both within and between genepools and at both genome and gene levels. Although DNA fingerprinting is usually performed at the genome level, gene-based strategies may help analyse collections for the presence of specifi c alleles. For example, barley collections may be searched for the presence of distinct alleles of the enzyme ßamylase, which differ in terms of thermostability (Malysheva et al. 2004).In the future, collections may be screened for the presence of new alleles at a given locus. These alleles could later be assayed for their functional value. This approach would require the prediction of a gene's phenotype from its DNA sequence, a capacity that is still to be reached. However, recent advances in the analysis of linkage disequilibrium may help identify genes underlying traits of interest by association mapping (Rafalski 2002). This approach obviates the requirement for experimental populations, and genetic studies could be performed directly on the plant material available at a genebank. The time span from identifying a target gene to its deployment in a breeding programme might be reduced, thus further increasing the value of germplasm collections.As a result, implementing analytical tools based on molecular markers may cause a shift in paradigm on the use of genetic resources: in the past genetic resources were used in terms of knowledge of the phenotype but, in the future, genebank collections will be increasingly searched for specifi c genotypes or even structural features of a specifi c gene. Genebanks may extend their services from mainly providing seed samples to providing DNA samples. Currently, however, implementation of marker-assisted germplasm management and use is on a minor scale. For successful large-scale implementation, major interaction between the areas of bioinformatics and genebank documentation is needed to generate the required infrastructure to handle and deconvolute the large amount of data.Despite the exciting potential of molecular marker technologies, several issues on technological impact assessment need to be considered:• What are the social issues if marker technologies become available mainly for agriculturally important species? • Does the additional funding required for deploying marker technology increase the gap between rich and poor genebanks? • Who will take over the costs for improved management: donors or clients?Notwithstanding these questions, DNA markers are about to make their way into genebank laboratories. The outcome, however, will depend mainly on the ability of individual laboratories to generate compatible data sets. This is both a chance and a challenge, which requires international coordination on the issues of a standardized marker system, standardized laboratory protocols and quality checks, and standardized data management. The adoption of appropriate guidelines will ensure that the added value of marker-assisted management of genetic resources will materialize, to the benefi t of all.Most current germplasm holdings began in the 1960s as a result of breeders' demands and the development of genetic resources networks in western Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the USSR. During the 1970s, regional approaches, based on Vavilov's concept of centres of diversity, were adopted. An increasing concern in the international community about the need to conserve, for future generations, genetic resources that were in danger of disappearing also helped to establish several germplasm banks. A huge number of collecting missions were planned and constitutions of genebanks were established (Frankel 1974;Brown 1989).In the early 1990s, there were technical and political revolutions. The discovery of the PCR was the starting point for rapid development of new molecular techniques in the genomics area. Political change began with the signing of the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the introduction of the 'Sovereign Rights' concept. Since 2000, the distance between the needs of end users and basic science programmes has progressively increased.Currently, plant molecular tools are usually regarded as being able to improve the effi ciency of breeding programmes but, more critically, form a link between different scientifi c and technical approaches. On one hand, many curators have little awareness of the possibilities offered by molecular genetics and genomics, and, on the other hand, these scientists are not aware that end users exist and need accessible data from them. This information exchange, between basic scientists and end users, is far from being a direct one-step process. Consequently, the collection curator, who is still in a central position, fi nds it diffi cult to link the two worlds.The world of plant genetic resources (PGR) is criss-crossed with more or less efficient networks, developed during recent decades (Pistorius 1997). The genomic world has recently and rapidly set up genomic initiatives, although only in a few crops, and frequently focused on one particular aspect (Plant Physiology 2003).With respect to plant germplasm management and use, there is no connection between basic scientists and end users such as farmers (Figure V.1). The curator, managing base and core collections, seems to be strategically placed, being located at the top of a hypothetical triangle with putative relationships with the other two extremes. In practice, however, the curator relates, more or less directly, with breeders and molecular geneticists but is distant from both farmers and basic scientists. Likewise, geneticists establish contacts in both genomics and genetic resources, but rarely relate with basic, or fundamental, scientists. Breeders, in their turn, tend to relate only with geneticists, curators and end users.In reality, the information flow between molecular geneticists and traditional breeders is highly inefficient. This is not so much because of how the system is organized but because of the highly specialized nature of the different parts, and their different centres of interests and languages. The curator cannot acquire knowledge and V. Connecting plant germplasm collections and genomic centres: how to better link curators, molecular biologists and geneticists? Serge Hamon † , Emile Frison ‡ and Luis Navarro § † UMR 1097, IRD-Centre de Montpellier, France, ‡ INIBAP, Parc Scientifi que Agropolis, Montpellier, France and § IVIA, Department of Plant Protection and Biotechnology, Mondaca, Valencia, Spain understanding of either fast-moving area without appropriate help.The traditional perception of the curator working only with plants and phenotypic evaluation is changing, or it should be. Firstly, more than one scientist may work in a germplasm bank, permitting the required specialization on new areas. Secondly, many germplasm banks are located in research institutions where scientists specializing in the new areas may be working and could collaborate with curators. Curators thus have, as a signifi cant part of their job, the task of establishing close links with scientists of other disciplines to improve the maintenance and use of germplasm resources. Obviously, such activities are much easier for germplasm banks located in developed countries and, to a certain extent, in international agricultural research centres (IARCs). The objectives of germplasm banks should also change to integrate new technologies into their management.Consequently, the current challenge facing the use of genetic resources remains focused on improving the management of genetic resources and their effi cient use. But the curator must understand and integrate new data and technologies coming from molecular geneticists and biologists.In this paper, we fi rst summarize how PGR networks, genomic programmes and biological databases are organized. We then suggest improvements in organization, using the current examples of Vitis and Musa as illustrations.Plant genetic resources networks PGR networks vary in complexity from simple bilateral agreements to complex international networks that include different levels such as national networks, subregional programmes and regional networks (Frison et al. 2002). At the national level, PGR activities involve a wide range of people: policy-makers, scientists, universities, agronomy schools, breeders, rural communities and, in developing countries, NGOs.In some countries PGR activities are supervised by a specifi c institution such as the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research (IBCR) in Ethiopia. In other countries, the system is catalysed by a small group of scientists such as those located in the French Bureau des Ressources Génétiques (see the BRG Web site).* The BRG organizes discussions at the national level on the genetic resources of animals, plants and microorganisms. Recently, a project, developed with the participation of stakeholders, was written into the National Charter for the Management of Genetic Resources (BRG 1999). The BRG also organizes seminars and thematic conferences to promote scientifi c, socioeconomic and legal research in the fi eld of genetic resources, and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Other countries, such as Spain, have national programmes to conserve PGR, involving all the country's research institutions.At the subregional or regional levels, countries often share ecogeographic similarities and may have many crops in common. The clear benefi ts of collaboration between these countries include sharing conservation facilities and common objectives. For example, the Nordic Genebank (NGB Web site) has the mandate to conserve and document the genetic variation in Nordic plant material useful to agriculture. The NGB also aims to rationalize cooperation between Nordic countries wanting to use PGR for breeding and research. Stored material is made available for breeding, research and, in other countries, fi eld use. At present, only some of the NGB's databases are directly searchable over the Internet, but effort is being made to provide all available information through an interactive interface.* For details on this and other databases, see the respective entries in Web Site Addresses of Databases on page 43.The NGB material is divided among three databases (NGB Web site):• Taxon Database, which describes taxa within the NGB's mandate and species that are threatened or protected in Nordic countries • Culton Database, which is an inventory database of commercial and primitive cultivars of taxa within the mandate • Accession Database, which contains information about accessions in the NGB seed store.Member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) established a similar system, known as the Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC Web site), as a non-profi t intergovernmental institution. Its headquarters are near Lusaka, Zambia.Another approach used in sub-Saharan Africa seeks to assist the region's countries to build up their capacities for research, conservation and use of both crop and forest germplasm through viable national programmes, subregional networks and selected crop networks such as those for coffee, coconut, Musa and yam. The project (details at the Wisard Web site) provides support for training and documentation of PGR activities at national and regional levels, and helps raise public policy awareness on the region's PGR issues. The strategy, implemented during the 1980s in West and central Africa, needs consolidating, considering that most countries lack the capacity to develop independent, fully functional systems.At the moment, the most successful example of regional collaboration is the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR Web site) in which 35 countries and 10 networks participate. Some networks are plant specifi c such as the Cereals Network, Forages Network and Fruit Network, whereas others are mostly thematic such as the Documentation and Information Network, In situ and On-farm Conservation Network, and Inter-regional Cooperation Network.The ECP/GR networks are concerned with long-term in situ and ex situ conservation of PGR, and increasing the use of PGR in Europe. Data for fi ve types of descriptors are collected: passport, management, environment and site, characterization and evaluation. Recommendations are made to produce information that closely follows the descriptor lists in terms of ordering and numbering descriptors, and using specifi ed descriptors and recommended descriptor states. These descriptors lists, however, were established without reference to molecular data. None of the programme's eight missions focuses on integrating and using molecular and/or genomic data. Consequently, the networks, even though they are very well organized and effi cient, do not directly relate to genomic data.International crop networks are certainly the best way to bring together specialists from different fi elds. The European Barley Database (EBDB Web site) contains 92 000 accessions from 36 institutions in 29 countries. One of the fi rst world core collections, the International Barley Core Collection (BCC), was constituted from data available in the 1990s (van Hintum 1995).The importance of PGR centres, networks and databases as essential elements in the collaboration and effective use of genetic resources is evident. However, they pay little attention to the new areas of molecular markers and genomics. One reason for this is that these networks were mostly set up during the 'golden' period of genetic resources-the 1960 to the 1980s-before the molecular sciences took off.Another reason is that, during the 1990s, in terms of the broad objective of improving tools for analysing genetic diversity, the technical race was fast and seemingly endless. For example, PCR-derived techniques evolved extremely quickly, from RFLPs in the early 1990s to single sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the late 1990s. During that period, other markers such as random amplifi ed polymorphic DNA fragments (RAPDs) and amplifi ed fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) came and went, inducing a degree of complexity for users and uneasiness among curators and the scientists involved in genetic resources studies.During the 1980s and 1990s, lists of morphological and agronomic descriptors were published without reference to common sets of molecular markers. Base collections or subsets of collections were evaluated with highly pertinent descriptors, and databases were built up. In contrast, the samples studied with different types of markers for purposes such as phylogeny, population structure and plant reproductive behaviour were tiny and inadequately standardized, and the data poorly stored. In addition, some types of markers (i.e. RAPDs and AFLPs) were not easily transferred from one laboratory to another or were used only on small sets of genotypes.The potential usefulness of genomics arose through the idea that genetic diversity could be used beyond specifi c boundaries. In practice, genomic programmes could be divided into at least six categories (Figure V.2): (a) developing effi cient markers and high-density maps, (b) assessing the relationships between genetic and chromosome maps, (c) elaborating physical maps, (d) studying gene expression, (e) conducting functional analyses of genes and (f) bioinformatics. Until recently, only category (a) was taken into account. Now, genetic diversity can and must be observed, not only at the DNA level, but also at the expressed level. Categories (a), (d) and (e) are therefore of major interest to curators, who could broaden their knowledge through networking.Many molecular markers have been produced to analyse genetic diversity. Their characteristics and availability have dramatically evolved during the last decade.Currently, codominant markers are preferred, with microsatellites being of particular interest (Goldstein and Schlötterer 1999). Such markers are easy to use, can be extrapolated to closely related species or genera, and, through sequencers, can be readily used automatically.Another family of markers of increasing interest is expressed sequence tags (ESTs). EST programmes permit identifying families of genes expressed under different conditions, such as drought resistance, cold resistance or pathogen resistance, and help explain the differential behaviour of different genotypes at a higher integrative level. Developing these markers is more expensive than for the others mentioned, necessitating sharing and exchange through networks and consortiums to reduce redundancy and optimize budget use.High-density maps are constructed on the basis of recombination frequencies of chromosomal markers, either genes or DNA markers (e.g. RFLPs and SSRs). In applied genetics, the breeder may benefi t by knowing links with neutral or adaptive characters. Knowing recombination frequencies may facilitate planning of population sizes for selection. A reference population must be prepared (i.e. crossing between distinct genotypes) and enough progeny must be available (a minimum of 200 individuals). Where possible, such populations must be duplicated and their references kept in a unique place. These populations could be sent to any user, either as plants or as DNA. The developed markers would be SSRs or SNPs.For any one crop, the minimum reference needed is a saturated map where all linkage groups are identifi ed and 200-300 markers are available. Combinations of desirable genes are most helpful for introgressing characters from distant species. Syntenic groups of genes are often observed. For example, comparing genetic maps within Poaceae was greatly facilitated by conserving, in order, markers and genes along chromosomes (Devos and Gale 2000).Curators are increasingly interested in having information on the location of markers in linkage groups. The main problem is being able to compare different maps. Hence, establishing consensus maps is frequently the top priority of networks. When a group finally obtains a consensus map and the different marker types, the next diffi culty is to build up a database that is accessible to every member of the consortium, preferably through the Web, using access names and passwords. Finally, to develop markers, coordination of activities is a must.New programmes tend to search for relationships between physical and recombination maps. Distribution of genes along chromosomes is not uniform, with no direct correlation between recombination and physical maps. In such a context, identifying a genotype of particular importance or having specifi c attributes is essential, that is, researchers and teams must identify and develop particular genotypes (e.g. dwarf architecture or short seeding cycle).Such reference maps must each be elaborated in only one place. The bacterial artifi cial chromosome (BAC) library varies, according to the precision required, from 5 to 20 copies of the genome equivalent. The higher the number of copies, the more precision generated, but also the more expensive and time consuming. If the goal is to prepare genome sequencing or anchor specifi c genes or ESTs, the number of copies required can be changed. Integrated collaboration between teams is essential for success.To summarize, a standard genomic programme has a minimum of six activities:• developing effi cient markers and highdensity maps • assessing the relationships between genetic and chromosome maps • elaborating physical maps • studying gene expression, • conducting functional analyses of genes • bioinformatics.Without data harmonization and intergroup collaboration, using the products is nearly impossible. Major crops now have several thousands of EST sequences coming from different plant organs or developmental stages. If these sequences are to be used, they must be structured into effi cient and available databases. Over the last two decades, databases have become essential resources for biologists worldwide.Molecular biological databases have emerged, but mostly unrelated to the world of PGR, largely because this revolution was initiated through the Human Genome Initiative. This initiative produced new databases such as the human gene prediction database maintained by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI Web site). This non-profi t academic organization forms part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL Web site), and is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics. The EBI manages databases of biological data, including nucleic acid and protein sequences and macromolecular structures. Its mission is to ensure that the growing body of information from molecular biology and genome research is placed in the public domain and is freely accessible to all sectors of the scientifi c community, thus promoting scientifi c progress.EBI's goals are to build, maintain and provide biological databases and information services to support data deposition and exploitation. The best known is the EMBL Nucleotide Database, Europe's primary collection of nucleotide sequences. EBI collaborates with GenBank of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Bethesda, MD (NCBI Web site), and the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ Web site) to contribute to ENSEMBL (ENSEMBL Web site). This database provides up-to-date data on completed genomes and the best possible automatic annotation.Other EBI databases include Swiss-Prot, which provides complete annotated protein sequences; the Macromolecular Structure Database, a European project to manage and distribute data on macromolecular structures; and ArrayExpress for gene expression data.Other initiatives were set up for the sequencing of microorganisms and animal models such as Drosophila melanogaster or Caenorhabditis elegans, leading to, respectively, the FlyBase Consortium and the WormBase Web sites.Despite their different functions, all these databases consist of three tiers of software: a database management system, database access software and Web server, and the Web browser. Even so, this is not suffi cient to have an integrated system. Some databases do not recognize orthological relationships (i.e. homologous genes derived from speciation by vertical descent). Others do, but do not integrate map positions. The diverse databases reflect the expertise and interests of the groups maintaining them.Among the problems reported is the clash of concepts that users come up against as they move from one database to another. This can be important: for example, the allele concept varies in meaning according to scientifi c community; it can mean 'any genomic variant, including parts located outside genes' or 'the variant that changes only genes'. Another severe limitation is the continual change that occurs as new data types are added, and fi elds and nomenclature are altered. Recently, considerable effort was made to create the Gene Ontology Database (see Web site), which currently holds three ontologies-'structured, controlled' vocabularies that aim at precision and consistency in defi nitions of gene functions, processes and terms. Such vocabularies help facilitate integration.To overcome problems of integration, several approaches have been suggested, including that of 'knuckles and nodes' (KN) suggested by Stein (2003). In this system, the source databases, as we have now, form the nodes, each of which uses a distinct and independent data model. These nodes are richly detailed. In contrast, the 'knuckles' are carefully maintained curator services that provide the information needed to relate data from one node to another. They are restricted to a single task and constrained to use standard interfaces. For example, one 'knuckle' may service only orthological relationships. It will also ensure that the symbols used for a given species are translated into those used for another.Although awareness and concern for postgenomic possibilities are increasing, plant genomics remains underdeveloped. Only genomic programmes on model plants have developed applications (Cronk 2001). For example, The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR Web site) is a database for Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae), which structures information into four categories: advanced search; analytical tools; external links; and Arabidopsis information. Each category encompasses several smaller databases (TAIR Web site).For other crops, such as tomato, potato, barley and maize, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR Web site) centralizes gene indexes and offers database searches according to nucleotide or protein sequence, identifi er, gene product name and EST annotations. A plant family integrated project is exemplifi ed by the Gramene Initiative (Web site). Its objective is to provide comparative mapping resources for monocotyledons. Database searches include the rice genome browser; rice blast; maps; markers, proteins; phenotypes; ontology; literature, including a capacity to download physical maps; genetic maps; in silico data; microsatellites; phenotype data; and protein databases.How can curators be helped to use the new information? An application of the KN approach for connecting PGR is suggested in The French Vitis collection, located at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA Web site) in Vassal, southern France, is internationally signifi cant for this genus, and is very well documented. The collection contains about 7500 accessions, corresponding to 210 species originating from 35 countries. The collection includes 4850 Vitis vinifera corresponding to 3000 cépages (or vine types) and 1300 hybrids. Each accession is represented by fi ve plants. Each cépage is carefully described according to a descriptor list, and its genetic history is elucidated, using molecular markers (Bowers et al. 1999). The team is now developing an automatic system for a high-output genotyping system.The genome size of Vitis vinifera-about 480 Mbp-is similar to that of the rice genome. To develop Vitis genomic resources, the international scientific community has decided to create the International Grape Genome Program (IGGP Web site) to optimize technical and  In Europe, the IGGP is strongly connected with genetic resources collections, and the research teams, involving 19 participants, are working on this plant through the European Vitis Database (Web site).The high-genetic density map will be developed on a reference hybrid population (Cabernet S × Riesling). So far, 200 descendents are available, and the number is increasing. A reference population was created and is kept in the USA. Duplicates will be sent to genetic resources centres, and DNA samples are available for all teams wanting to participate in increasing the number of molecular markers. For the fi rst round, microsatellites were selected because they are codominants and easily manageable with automatic genotypers. Currently, 200 microsatellites have been located on the map (Riaz et al. 2003). Through the Genoplante Initiative (Web site), INRA has sequenced a new set of 200 microsatellites.Three teams are now involved: the Istituto Agrario San Michele (ISMAA), Italy; the Institute for Grapevine Breeding (IGB), Geilweilerhof, Germany; and INRA-Vigne (Web site). They are also developing other sets from ESTs. The first development towards the physical map was selecting for a 13X Cabernet BAC library using three restriction enzymes. The fi rst markers and/or genes will then be anchored onto BAC clones to connect the genetic and physical maps. The BAC clones will then be fi ngerprinted.For expressed genes, different teams started years ago to sequence ESTs. Currently, about 30 000 Vitis sequences are available in the genebank. Discussions have started on preparing 10 000 gene microarrays, using data from different international groups: the University of California-Davis, University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) (both in the USA), INRA, ISMAA and IGB. Collections of full-length cDNA, the foundation of functional gene analysis, were initiated with two projects, one at UNR and the other at the French Genopole System (Web site).Workers at the Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia have selected a dwarf genotype of Vitis that is homozygous and has a short biological cycle. This grape will be used by the network. INRA-Colmar has also produced near-isogenic genotypes derived from a black Pinot. At the UNR and INRA-Montpellier, proteomic and metabolomic platforms are being developed. In Australia and France, research programmes are under way to analyse natural mutants found in collections. To regroup all this information, a specifi c Web page, covering recent and available molecular data, has been created by TIGR (TIGR Vitis Web site). To harmonize data, a bioinformatic seminar was organized in 2003 at UNR (UNR Web site).An initiative to apply genomics technologies to the sustainable improvement of banana (Musa spp.) was launched in July 2001. Researchers from the world over came together to form a consortium. Their aim was to develop freely accessible resources for Musa genomics and use new knowledge and tools to help improve the crop through both targeted conventional breeding and transgenic strategies. The end result will be new high-yielding Musa varieties that will respond to local needs and ever-changing environmental challenges.Deciphering the banana genome is an enormous task that requires the full participation and collaboration of many scientists. The Global Musa Genomics Consortium (Web site) functions under the guidance of a management committee within the framework of the Global Programme for Musa Improvement (PROMUSA). The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP Web site) functions as secretariat, and assumes the responsibility for external communications, including the development of an Internet portal that makes current results and information available to the wider world.The Musa Consortium brings together expertise from 28 publicly-funded institutions from 15 countries. As well as providing close collaboration, all members agree to share materials and resources, including sequence data and enabling technologies. The sequences produced by the Consortium are placed in the public domain and any new varieties are made freely available to smallholders.INIBAP set up an e-mail list server for the Musa Consortium to encourage members to exchange information. A Musa Genomic Resources Centre was created, and resources such as BAC and cDNA libraries are being made readily available to members of the Consortium. The protocol for producing transformed plants is well established and is now applied for promoter tagging. The Consortium is also developing a strong bioinformatics component. The genomic data assembled and analysed will also be made available in a user-friendly fashion through a Web-based integrated Musa information portal, together with other relevant public knowledge on Musa.The Consortium's overall strategy is to adopt a stepwise approach, focusing on comparative genomics and targeting early gene discovery. As a monocotyledon that is taxonomically distantly related to rice, Musa is ideal for studying synteny between distantly related species. Indeed, Musa is now being recognized as a powerful model for studying fundamental aspects of plant genomes. The Global Musa Genomic Consortium is attracting new partners who, through their more upstream research, will provide considerable information and results that will greatly strengthen the Consortium's more appliedoriented research goals.Genomic and molecular markers projects are quickly developing new tools that have the potential to greatly improve the management and use of PGR. However, in practice, applying the new developments for routine use on a large scale in germplasm banks is often very diffi cult for the following reasons: • Availability of permanent scientifi c staff is often restricted to the curator, who usually specializes in phenotype characterization of accessions-still a priority task for germplasm banks.• Diffi culty in using, or even being aware, of new genomic technologies. Molecular markers come and go very quickly, making the selection of marker types for application to all accessions of a given crop very diffi cult. A task lasting several years may fi nish with data considered obsolete by the rest of the scientifi c community.• Molecular markers are expensive to use and often beyond the resources of most germplasm banks.To solve these problems is not easy, and will require a multi-pronged approach. Curators are still in a strategic position to link research activities between geneticists and breeders, thus approaching basic science to end users. However, their traditional role of working only with plants and phenotypic evaluation will have to change to include activities oriented towards establishing close ties of cooperation with scientists of other disciplines. Good examples are the Grape Genomics Consortium and the Citrus Genomic Functional Project in Spain (Genomica Web site) where the germplasm banks have been playing an important role since the project's beginning, thus guaranteeing that results will have direct application to the better management and use of genetic resources.While getting geneticists involved in developing and using molecular markers for small sets of accessions for different research purposes is relatively easy, getting them involved in the routine application of markers to characterize the entire germplasm bank is very diffi cult. Hiring permanent scientifi c staff specialized in these new areas would help solve this problem, but such an action requires a signifi cant increase in the budget, which only rich germplasm banks can afford.An alternative approach would be to establish regional networks, and even worldwide networks, with the specifi c objective to characterize the germplasm of specifi c crops through molecular markers. Such networks would facilitate the use of the most appropriate tools, reduce costs for individual parties and improve strategies for conservation and use. Obviously, intellectual property rights will have to be taken into account in these possible networks. International agricultural research centres such as IPGRI are in the best position to take these types of initiatives.The changing role and increasing potential of genebanks in the 'genomics age' Recent advancements, particularly in the fi elds of molecular and population genetics, biotechnology and genomics, have greatly expanded the potential use, quality and impact of genebanks. Since the inception of genebanks, with their aim to formally acquire germplasm resources, their main goal was to conserve and store these resources for current and future use. Curators of these genebanks did not necessarily require a high level of scientifi c research knowledge, and the user community consisted mainly of farmers and plant breeders wanting various accessions. This situation began to change, however, with the advent of molecular techniques during the 1980s and even more so with the new genomics tools during the late 1990s.Among the many benefits that these techniques brought was the comparative ease with which scientists could incorporate genes from wild relatives into new cultivated varieties. This led to greatly increased demand for accessions that had previously been seen as undesirable or even useless (Tanksley and McCouch 1997). Such increased demand for germplasm resources has been exacerbated by the global food security situation and attempts to alleviate hunger through crop improvement.Concurrently, the user community became more diverse, ranging from plant breeders wanting to screen material to molecular geneticists looking for alleles for introgression and crop improvement, and now, even to genomics scientists wanting to sequence additional alleles of genes of interest. Although not always cost-effective, new DNA technologies have also made possible the examination and comparison of accessions in a genebank at the molecular level, identifying precise genetic differences or redundancies among accessions. DNA sequencing could, one day, make knowing the entire sequence of each individual in a collection possible, thus establishing a true 'genebank'. Thus, the plant germplasm resource community is expecting more and is asking questions on handling the increasing demand for germplasm resources. The community is also querying whether genebank curators should be taking advantage of the new techniques to improve or streamline the collections. Answering these questions, however, is compounded by decreases in funding for many genebanks, the diffi culties curators face in learning or even keeping abreast of the quantity of new technologies, and the complexities of selecting those technologies most likely to answer specifi c biological questions.These new technologies often come with a high initial price tag, primarily associated with acquisition of equipment. In addition, the fast pace of new developments related to these technologies requires frequent retraining of personnel and upgrading of equipment and software. Both factors make the technologies inaccessible to most developing countries, leading to the unfortunate effect of increasing the technological divide-the gap between the technical capabilities of developing and developed nations-at a time when much effort has been invested to decrease it.Louise Fresco, Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), warns of an increasing 'molecular divide' between between developed and developing nations, meaning that the promise and potential of new technologies are not being shared equally (Fresco 2003;Northoff 2003). Developing countries are not able to take advantage of the full range of biotechnology tools to harness the value of their genetic resources. Fresco fears that biotechnology could actually aggravate current global inequalities unless something is done to bridge this gap (Fresco 2003).While eliminating or at least minimizing the technological or molecular divide is laudable, attempts to do so have been, to date, largely unsuccessful. A major reason for this VI. Capacity-building and training Theresa Fulton and Stephen Kresovich Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA is the lack of comprehensive training. Isolated training of a few individuals who are then sent back to their home laboratories to put their newly learned techniques into practice, alone and unsupported, is ineffective. Data are generated and, unfortunately, not analysed. Even more disappointingly, little of this information is used to improve the quality or use of collections.Another challenge in bridging the technological divide is another apparent 'divide' in the perception of how biotechnology should be used in this task. On one side of the perception divide are many researchers who feel that cutting-edge technology is an absolute must for conducting top scientifi c research. On the other side are those that feel that biotechnology is simply the latest 'toy', unaffordable and inaccessible to all but the wealthy few. In fact, biotechnology is neither-rather, it is one of the many tools available to those working in the fi eld of conserving plant genetic resources. Biotechnology should never be thought of as an end in itself, but as something that can be effi ciently targeted to solve real curatorial or user needs.Comprehensive training is the foundation on which to bridge the technological divide and effectively use biotechnology in germplasm resource management. Although necessary in some instances, buying new equipment and installing new facilities in developing countries is not enough. Also essential are researchers who can think critically and independently about the objectives of their research programmes and the biological questions being addressed. The goal of training programmes is to produce such researchers.Researchers and curators must be able to make the best choice of strategy and technology for each particular biological question. They must be able to interpret the data that they generate and understand how best to use the knowledge gained. Thus, training cannot be limited to instructions on how to use new equipment and follow new protocols.For long-term effectiveness, training must emphasize basic scientifi c concepts in biology, genetics, genetic resources management, experimental design, data analysis, statistics and genomic sciences. This training should begin at, but not be limited to, the graduate student level. However, given the speed at which technology and biological sciences are moving and the pace that data are being generated, training cannot stop on the receipt of an advanced degree. New scientists must receive continuing education and ongoing support, especially those in developing countries who may not have access to adequate local support networks.Continuing education can be made available through many mechanisms. An example is the training materials available online from IPGRI's Web site and through such publications as Karp et al. (1997). IPGRI and the Institute for Genomic Diversity (Cornell University) have collaborated to produce a new training module on molecular markers, soon to be available online, which will be continually updated to include new technologies and information on, for example, differences in cost between the many molecular marker techniques (de Vicente and Fulton 2003).The Internet is a good medium for people who cannot afford to travel and thus cannot access institutions that host molecular science training workshops and other learning experiences. However, many studies have shown that most deep learning, that is, learning that includes true understanding and not mere memorization of facts and protocols, occurs only in hands-on sessions (Deboer 1991;Lederman 1992;AAAS 1993). Thus, where practical, training must be conducted through hands-on laboratory workshops rather than through books, lectures, or the Internet.Ongoing support must also be available to help scientists implement the concepts and techniques that they have learned. Feedback, including from responses to survey questions, indicates that a key barrier to effective impact of many training programmes comprises the problems encountered when trying to put newly learned concepts and protocols into real practice at the home laboratory. One way of overcoming this barrier is to encourage the development of 'cohorts', people with common backgrounds, training and interests who can be called upon when questions and problems arise.A Rockefeller-funded programme at Cornell University is establishing the African Food Security and Natural Resources Management Doctoral Training Program (see their Web site). The goals of this project include training interdisciplinary teams to conduct research, providing education on topics relating to agricultural productivity in Africa (especially soil degradation problems) and examining how to encourage African scientists to continue these activities once they return home (AfricaGrant 2001). So far, the programme has gone very well: six of the eight students have already passed their preliminary exams (at the time of writing, the other two were scheduled for examinations) and one student won a Heinz award. These students will soon be returning home to Kenya to do their fi eld work, where they will receive some follow-up supervision and encouragement to network among themselves (Alice Pell, pers. comm.).For germplasm curators, a community of other curators with whom to discuss current issues and coordinate efforts is especially important. This should be done not only by offering workshops and training, but also by encouraging frequent contact through conferences, reciprocal visits and online resources such as list-servers and bulletin boards.CGIAR networking has played and will continue to play an important role in promoting comprehensive training towards bridging the technological divide in several ways. First, the CGIAR should promote regional collaboration not only across borders, but also and particularly among institutions within developing countries. Germplasm resource centres in resource-poor nations should be encouraged to help and support each other, to make the best use of their fi nite resources, both material and human. Systems should be set up to facilitate sharing of expensive equipment and expertise.Second, a special strength of CGIAR networking is and should be that it allows the development of excellence in a particular niche. No centre can be expert on all topics and do everything well. Instead, each centre should be recognized as having a particular area of expertise. Centres should be ready and willing to share their complementary expertise and collaborate on projects to form a united front in the challenge of keeping up with cutting-edge science.Most importantly, the CGIAR centres should coordinate information sharing. In this age of an ever-increasing pace in new developments in research, many CGIAR constituents and national programmes remain aware of advances only with diffi culty or not at all. Yet to make appropriate choices on new technologies, researchers must keep informed. Of particular importance to those at genetic resources repositories are current issues related to access, benefi t sharing and intellectual property rights, which continually change. The CGIAR centres must take responsibility for holding appropriate workshops to discuss and update constituents about these issues.Researchers in developing countries, especially those working on 'orphan crops', must be aware of current research in related crops so they can take advantage of this information from a comparative genomics perspective. Genebank scientists should stay informed on current use so they can be fl exible and adapt to their changing role as the user community sees it. The CGIAR centres should also form a coordinated network where equipment and expertise is available for shared use.For many research laboratories, new technologies such as DNA sequencers are expensive and technically diffi cult to maintain, and usually not used at a high enough rate to make their purchase worthwhile. A much more effi cient approach would be to buy and maintain this type of equipment at a few centralized locations, thus leaving the laboratories with more fi nancial resources for other purposes, more fl exibility and increased currency in an ever-progressing fi eld.Outreach and public awareness should also continue to be important functions of CGIAR networking. The general public must realize the importance of conserving and understanding the earth's genetic resources. Not only will this ensure that funding the centres remains a priority but it will also encourage young people to consider the fi eld as a viable career option.Attracting young students to careers in plant genetic resources conservation and plant breeding is increasingly diffi cult, probably because these fi elds are seen as unglamorous or obsolete compared with biotechnology, or as too diffi cult because of the broad knowledge base needed to be successful in these fi elds. The future of plant genetic resources conservation depends on young students continuing to see this fi eld as signifi cant, as well as providing rewarding career options. Thus, it is in the best interests of the CGIAR to promote the importance of plant genetic resources conservation and foster a supportive and encouraging environment for both new researchers in the fi eld and those already in the system.","tokenCount":"17809"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0e34d80e4be093b1149e39e2b6a7938","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e09b2a15-62b7-488d-b14c-da22ac444960/content","id":"1571583271"},"keywords":["Apomixis","Genetic engineering","Asexual reproduction","Sexual reproduction","Biotechnology","Chromosome translocation","Molecular genetics","Genetic variation","Genetic control","Genomes","Tripsacum","Zea mays","progeny forms","Plant breeding","Breeding methods CIMMYT, IRD, European Commission AGRIS Category Codes: F30 Plant Genetics and Breeding Dewey Decimal Classification: 631.523 ES -embryo sac","1-inner integument","IA -initial cell of oposporous embryo sac","IE -integumentary embryo","M-micropyle","MC -meristematic cell","MIT -meristematic inner integument tissue","EN -endosperm","PN -polar nuclei","5-synergid","T-tetrade of megaspores","Z. zygote","ZE . zygotic embryo","SE -synergid embryo","FA -filiform apparatus","CW -cell wall","C-cuticle","M-mitochondrio","N-nucleus","P. plastid","PD -plasmodesmata","V-vacuole"],"sieverID":"6109a91b-1514-46f7-8e3e-8b1307148840","pagecount":"258","content":"Institut de Recherche pour Ie Developpement (IRD) is a French public research institution under the auspices of the ministers in charge of research and cooperation. For the last 50 years, it has conducted important research in tropical and subtropical areas. With an annual budget of US$160 million, IRD employs approximately 750 scientists (of a total of 2,300 employees), with more than 250 of them on long-term aSSignments in 26 different countries.The European Union (EU) is the result of a process of cooperation and integration that began in 1951 between six countries and today has 15 Member States and is preparing for its fifth enlargement. The EU's mission is to organize relations both among the Member States and their 374 million citizens in a coherent manner and on the basis of solidarity. The main objective of the European Union's Research, Technology, and Development (RTD) program FAIR (Agriculture and Fisheries) is the promotion and harmonization of research in the major European food and non-food production sectors of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, fisheries, and aquaculture. The program seeks to promote links between research and the input and processing industries, with rural economic activities, end-users, and consumers.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYf)@ (www.cimmyt.org) is an internationally funded, nonprofit, scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, CIMMYT works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 food and environmental organizations known as the Future Harvest Centers.As implied by the title of the book-\"The Flowering of Apomixis: From Mechanisms to Genetic Engineering\"-this complex and mysterious aspect of reproduction is beginning to yield its secrets to more than a century of scientific inquiry by researchers from around the world. Building on this foundation of knowledge, and by using the rapidly advancing tools and techniques of biotechnology, we are probing the intricate processes of apomixis more deeply and broadly than ever before. Consequently, our grasp of the mechanisms of both asexual and sexual reproduction has expanded tremendously in the last decade. And though timetables for research discoveries cannot be dictated, the promise of applying apomixis technology to real world needs and issues has never been brighter.One of the most urgent applications for the technology will be feeding and raising the standard of living for the burgeoning populations of the developing world. It is fitting that in the book's opening chapter, Gary Toenniessen, Director of Food Security for the Rockefeller Foundation, succinctly sets forth the magnitude and gravity of the situation we face, and the tremendous potential apomixis holds for helping to meet those challenges. By producing crops that produce asexually through seeds, we can greatly hasten the development of new higher-yielding hybrid varieties, a keystone of past productivity gains and one that will be required to boost productivity in coming years. With costs of development coming down, seed prices to farmers may also decrease. Of particular import to small-holder farmers, apomixis will allow scientists to efficiently breed varieties specifically tailored to a multitude of niche environments, many of them situated in the most marginal agricultural areas. Finally, because apomictic seed is selfreplicating, developing world farmers should be able to recycle seed without losing valuable hybrid characterrstics. Furthermore, the technology could be used in such a way that farmers may be able to better fix the traits they deem desirable within their own indigenous varieties and landraces. Needless to say, however, there is work yet to be done.In the following chapters, the authors follow two complementary paths in the ultimate quest to produce apomictic food crop plants. One path is to either transfer the apomictic trait from a wild apomictic relative into a crop plant or change sexual genes into apomictic genes in the crop plant itself. This research is currently being conducted in important A surplus of food in many of the world's wealthier countries has led to a certain complacency there about future supplies and availability. But for the vast majority of the world's people, who live in poorer developing countries faced with growing populations and increasing demand for food, concern rather than complacency is the order of the day. For the nations of the South, the task of feeding their future generations presents a critical and formidable challenge for agriculture over the next half century or longer.Fortunately, there are reasons to be optimistic that an end to population growth is finally in sight, albeit at some distance (Lutz et al. 1997). The rate of world population growth peaked around 1970 and has been steadily declining since then. As societies have moved from dependence on subsistence agriculture to more intensive agriculture and more modem economies-in the process providing improved nutrition and health care and expanded educational opportunities to their girls and boys-desired family size has dropped. A family planning revolution in the developing world, under way now for more than two decades, has lowered the average number of children in a family from six to three, which is reflected in a respective decline in annual population growth from 2.5 to around 1.8 percent (United Nations 1997). Contraceptive use by women of child-bearing age in developing countries has risen from about 10 percent to more than 50 percent during the last three decades; and it is estimated that there are at least an additional 100 million women who wish to regulate their fertility, but who are not now using contraceptives. If effective family planning and reproductive health services were provided to all those wishing to use them, demographers now predict that replacement level fertility could be reached as early as 2020 and that the world's population would stabilize at 8-11 billion people near the middle of the 21st century (Bongaarts 1994;Lutz et al. 1997).Although the task of curbing population growth will be arduous, generally speaking the agencies and institutions that provide family planning services have the technical know-how required to achieve this goal; now they are working on mol5ilizing the necessary financial resources and political commitments. To complement this effort, the agricultural sector must provide the basic nutrition and economic growth needed to fuel the desire for smaller families and the requisite family planning services, until the time that replacement level fertility is reached.These encouraging population trends will, over the long term, be good for agriculture, as they imply that sometime during the next century the ever-increasing demand for greater food production should finally stabilize. The downside is that even given these positive trends, the developing world will need to produce two to three times as 2 Gary H. T....i..... much food as it does today. In many developing countries, more than half of the people are just entering or are still under reproductive age. Even if these people were to have only two children per family, a near doubling of total population is inevitable. In addition, economic growth will further increase the demand for food.The challenge facing agriculture in the first half of the 21st century is formidable. It must provide adequate nutrition for billions more people and contribute to their economic development, thereby stoking the desire to limit family size. Furthermore, agriculture must accomplish this without jeopardizing the capacity of the natural resource base to meet the needs of future generations. Currently, agriculture does not have the technologies to double or triple food production in developing countries, and so the threat arises that farmers will irreparably damage the natural resource base in their efforts to feed growing populations-this scenario is already becoming a reality in certain locations. Meeting the food challenge will demand the discovery of new knowledge and the development of innovative technologies, which, combined with the broader adaptation and application of existing technologies, will allow greater intensification of production on a sustainable basis.Many of the institutional structures and financial support systems needed to address the food challenge are already in place and can rightly claim an impressive record of accomplishment. International cooperation in plant breeding has been particularly successful in producing improved crop varieties that benefit the developing world. When combined with appropriate management practices, these modem varieties have substantially increased productivity and contributed significantly to food self-sufficiency and economic development in many countries of Asia and Latin America.In Asia, farmers have for centuries used irrigation, organic fertilizer, and hand weeding on their small holdings. More recently, they have readily adopted modem varieties and, using their traditional intensive management practices together with purchased inputs, have in many locations pushed yield per hectare close to the maximum potential. Modern varieties of rice and wheat are now grown on nearly 70 percent of the area planted to these crops in Asia. Because many of these varieties have short growing seasons, farmers can obtain two or three crops per year on fertile land under irrigation. Improved varieties have also been produced for the poorer upland and seasonally flooded regions of Asia, however their performance and rates of adoption have been less dramatic. During the past 20 years, the proportion of the Asian population affected by inadequate nutrition declined from 40 to 19 percent. Nevertheless, Asia still has the greatest number of chronically undernourished people, 528 million, and the largest projected increase in population (FAO 1992;Bongaarts 1994;Lutz et al. 1997).In Latin America, modem varieties have made an enormous impact, however, due to the highly skewed and inequitable distribution of land ~n the region, it is primarily the commercial farmers (who control most of the fertile land) that have adopted them. Production on the larger farms has increased significantly and consumers have benefited from lower prices. However, the majority of Latin American farmers, who work small holdings on less fertile land in the highly heterogeneous hill regions, have not gleaned the benefits offered by modem crop varieties. Developing improved varieties for them is a difficult task and only limited progress has been made. No single elite breeding line is Feedlog rIoo World io tltt 2111 ''''.ry: Pl••IB,eedi.g. 8Io1....oIogy, IIIId Iitt Pot..tlol KIlt of Aponi.1s 3 broadly applicable across such diverse agronomic and socio-economic conditions, and plant breeders are just beginning to provide improved varieties tailored to a few of the multitude of niche environments found in the region.Of the major developing regions, improved varieties have had the least impact in sub-Saharan Africa; food production there has lagged behind rapid population growth. In Africa as a whole, more than 168 million people are chronically undernourished, and, alarmingly, nearly a fourfold increase in population, from 740 million in 1996 to 2.8 billion by the end of the 21st century, is now projected (FAa 1992(FAa , 1998;;Bongaarts 1994). The defining characteristics of African agriculture are its complexity and heterogeneity. Most farmers have small holdings on which they grow a variety of crops, often intercropped with one another. In each of the continent's countries, soils and climate are highly diverse and variable. Economic realities limit the development of irrigation and other forms of yield enhancing and risk averting infrastructure. As in much of Latin America, no elite breeding lines are broadly applicable and improved varieties with specific characteristics need to be Foreign genes and modified genesI I G,\"\" J.. developed for many different types of agronomic and socioeconomic niches. Such niche breeding has been successful in a few locations and has potential for expansion, but it is a slow process when based on conventional breeding technology. Notably, while there is no such thing as low input/high output agriculture, average yields in Africa are so low (often less than It/ha) that a doubling or tripling of production should be possible with locally well-adapted varieties using just minimal inputs. Undoubtedly, better management practices would help boost yields (the use of nutrient and SOil-enhancing crop rota tions and associa tions looks especially promising), but over the long term, greater use of inputs, particularly fertilizer, will be necessary.Modem plant breeding, which revolutionized agriculture in the 20 th century, is now on the verge of significantly extending its technological potential. New genetic monitoring and manipulation tools, in aggregate commonly referred to as biotechnology, are becoming available as a result of advances in molecular and cellular biology. As indicated in Figure 1 4 Gary H. Toe\"'... breeding: the evolutionary phase, in which variable populations are produced, and the evaluation phase, in which desirable genotypes are selected.Variability, at the heart of the evolutionary phase, traditionally has been created by hybridization and to a lesser extent by mutations. Wide hybridization through embryo rescue or somatic hybridization, somaclonal variation, and genetic engineering are biotechnology tools that can dramatically expand the range of variability available to breeders. Genetic engineering, especially, should make the process of generating desirable variability much more predictable and help obtain other goals that are beyond the reach of conventional techniques. Meanwhile, the evaluation phase will become much more efficient through the use of the  1.2 Institutions facilitating the application of biotechnology to international agriculture ISAAA -International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, Ithaca, New Yark, USA, is a not-for-profit international organization committed to the acquisition and transfer of proprietary agricultural biotechnologies from the industrial countries for the benefit of the developing world. It assists in identifying biotechnology needs and opportuni~es, evaluates the availability of proprietary lechnologies, serves as an \"honest broker\" that malches needs with available technology, and when necessary mobilizes the financial resources required to implement brokered proposals. ILTAB . International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology, SI. Louis, Missouri, USA, is a unit of the Dan forth Plant Science (enter. Technology is transferred first from the center, where scientists are engaged in pioneering work on the development of disease resistant plants, to five ILTAB scientists and fellows from developing countries. These scientists use the technology to produce new sources of disease resistance in tropical crops including cassava, rice, sweet potato, and yam. CAMBIA -(enter for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture, (anberra, Australia is a research and technology transfer organization committed to the applica~on of biotechnology to international agriculture. It specializes in producing inexpensive biotechnology tools that can be effernve~ u~lized in developing countries. ICGEB -International (enter for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology was established by the United Na~ons Industrial Development Organization. It has headquarters and information gathering and dissemina~on facili~es in Trieste, Italy, and agricultural biotechnology research and training facilities in New Delhi, India. ABSP . Agricultural Biotechnology for Sustainable Productivity, East Lansing, Michigan, USA, is a project headquartered at Michigan Slate University and funded by USAID. It is a unique bilateral program in that it supports research at and technology transfer from public and corporate sector crop research insntu~ons to developing countries. IBS . Intermediary Biotechnology Service, The Hague, Netherlands, is a unit of the International Service for Na~onal Agricultural Research (ISNAR). It provides national agricultural research agencies with informa~on, advice, and assistance to help strengthen their agricultural biotechnology capacities and to enable them to establish collaborative arrangements with international biotechnology programs. BA( . Biotechnology Advisory (enter, Stockholm, Sweden, a unit of the Stockholm Environmentlns~tuIe, is an independent resource for impartial biosafety advice. It was established to help developing countries assess the possible environmental, health, and socioeconomic impacts of proposed biotechnology introductions.6 Gary H. T....it....this system together and assuring that it The potential role of apomixis in boosting functions effectively. This system has the yields in the developing world is considerable ability to take relevant scientific discoveries and varies according to region. From a plant from the \"ivory towers\" of academe and, breeding perspective, Asia most needs new through a series of technology transfers and varieties of its staple cereal crops that have collaborative research projects, incorporate the significantly higher yield potentials tha n new knowledge and technology into today's high-yielding varieties. Africa and improved seeds that will be sown in fields Latin America most need a large number of throughout the developing world-and to do improved varieties of food crops, each wellso in an amazingly short time frame. The suited for production in one or more of the improved cultivars and agronomic practices many ecologically and/ or socioeconomically generated by this system have helped literally unique niches that can be found in these billions of people who daily consume the end continents. products. If over the next century we are to Asia must more than double its cereal achieve a stabilized world population fed by production over the next fifty years and do it sustainable agriculture, this unique public on the same or less area than is currently in sector research establishment must also be production. Accomplishing this will require sustained, both financially and technologically.Institutes even more double and triple annual cropping cycles and more extensive use of yieldenhancing technologies such as hybrid seed, by the overwhelming majority of farmers, including those with limited purchasing power. Hybrid seed's potential to increase production has been demonstrated by hybrid rice in China. From 1980 to 1990, China increased its rice production by roughly 32.5 million tons, or 22 percent, while decreasing the area planted to rice by roughly 2.2 million hectares, or six percent (FAO 1990). Yuan Longping, the \"father of hybrid rice\" in China, speculates that full exploitation of the heterosis available in rice could provide another 3D-50 percent increase in yield (Yuan 1993). New hybrid lines that are suitable for other regions of Asia are slowly becoming available. Biotechnological tools (such as genetically engineered male sterility systems for elite breeding lines) and the use of molecular markers to select parental lines that combine high levels of heterosis with other desirable characteristics can accelerate this process and make the use of hybrid rice technology more broadly applicable. And, as reported later in this book, progress is being made on using apomixis as the ultimate tool for fixing heterosis in cereals, thereby making the benefits of hybrid seed available to farmers at minimal cost.African and Latin American farmers could also benefit from hybrid seed that self-replicates tlvough apomixis, although the application of apomixis to niche breeding could yield even more consequential results. If apomixis can be introduced into staple food crops, cultivars that perform well under local conditions could be genetically fixed early in the selection cycle.Under this scheme, variability would be generated through traditional hybridization or any other technique noted in the evolu tionary phase (see Figure 1.1). The resul ting population of plants would be grown and evaluated under local conditions, and the plants that performed best could be selected and quickly developed into genetically stable superior cultivars by incorporating the gene(s) for apomixis. For crops that are normally reproduced from tubers or vegetative cuttings, apomixis would enable the multiplication and dissemination of improved varieties as true seed.In short, apomixis has the potential to make a significant contribution toward meeting food production demand throughout the developing world in the 21sl century. Because of its limited profit potential, this technology will probably not be fully developed in the private sector. Therefore, if the full potential of apomixis as a breeding tool to help the poor is to be realized, the necessary research and development must be undertaken by the public sector international agricultural research system-and the results must remain freely available to public sector crop breeding programs.Apomixis is a mode of reproduction (asexual propagation through seeds) that exists in many plants from different botanical families (review in Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1997). It is most frequent in the dicots Rosaceae and Asteraceae and in the moncot Poaceae. Some of these Poaceae genera are tropical forages with wide colonizing ability, e.g., Panicum maximum. From its center of origin in East Africa, through human activities it has expanded to West Africa, where it can be found colonizing roadsides, and to tropical regions of the Americas and Asia.Apomixis attracts considerable theoretical interest as it may help us better understand the sexual mode of reproduction. It is also of practical interest to breeders as a means of genetic fixation, potentially offering the capability of indefinite multiplication of heterotic genetic combinations. In the case of apomictic tropical forages (see Valle and Miles,Chap. 10), the problem faced by breeders is how to overcome apomixis to take advantage of genetic recombination in order to create new genetic combinations to be maintained through apomixis. Another challenge is to transfer apomixis into crops in which heterosis has been well documented. Research projects focused on this goal are underway for pearl millet, Pennisetum glaucum (Hanna et al. 1993) maize (see Savidan,Chap. 11), and wheat (Carman 1992). Rice breeders are also interested as F] hybrids in rice show heterosis (sef~ Toenniessen, Chap. 1). Some scientists have solely pursued the simplest model of apomixis, that with a complete lack of sexuality, i.e., no possibility of recombination and evolution. In this case, population genetics models show a diffusion of apomixis genes into natural populations without a need for some form of selective advantage (Pemes 1971;Marshall and Brown 1981). If this holds true, transferring apomixis to crops could ultimately decrease genetic diversity in those crops and pose a threat to the environment. From modern apomictic varieties, the apomixis gene could move to land races and wild ancestors in their center of origin. In a recent review of apomictic risk, van Dijk and van Damme (2000) based their discussion almost entirely on this model. However, before overstating this possibility, one should know more precisely how apomixis functions, what diversity is conserved in wild populations where apomixis is the dominant mode of reproduction, and how apomixis could be transferred to land races.To address these issues, this chapter discusses (i) genetic variation observed in progeny of apomicts, (ii) diversity observed in wild apomictic populations, (iii) evolutionprocesses of agamic complexes, and (iv) the possibility of transferring apomixis from synthetic apomictic crops to landraces and wild relatives. (RAPDs) have been used (Huff andBara 1993: Barcaccia et a1. 1994). It is difficult to find detailed results of progeny analyses in the literature. Frequently, only morphological distinctions between true (maternal) and offtype progeny are reported.Data on Panicum maximum (Combes 1975) are presented in Table 2.2. In the F 2 generation of a P infeslum x P maximum cross (T19 progeny), frequencies of plants produced through sexuality and of haploid plant production were high. In one case (progeny from T19-36-5),40% of a 177-plant progeny were off-types, including seven haploids. F 2 progeny from other crosses involving accession T19 were less variable; ,only four haploids (n + 0) were found out of 1,500 observed. In P maximum, the proportion of off-types, including 2n + nand n + 11 was 3%, based on a total of 2,100 progeny observed. We can therefore conclude apomixis in P maximum is facultative.For the Parlhenium (Asteraceae) species, Guayule and Mariola, frequencies of the four categories of progeny (Table 2.3) were extracted from Powers and Rollins (1945). Haploid plants were produced at a low rate. Most plants were produced from unfertilized unreduced female gametes, however, the 10M.. Be,th.d categories n + nand 2n + n appeared at signifi-presented in Table 2.5. According to the table, cant rates. Stebbins and Kodani (1944) showed it appears that within one species, but in a frequency of occurrence of 2n+n progeny of various populations, the rate of 2n + n 5.6%, ranging from 0.14% to 49%. Thus, progeny is variable and significant, being apomixis in Parthenillm is largely facultative.quite high in the case of population #39 \"La Toma.\" Experiments are in progress to In Tripsawm we found an average 2.7% (n + analyze the effect of the environment 11) progeny, 8.1% (2/1 + 11), and 89.2% (2n + 0) (flowering and pollination) on the stability of progeny (Table 2.4). From seeds collected in these parameters. wild populations, we analyzed the occurrence of 2n + n progeny (it is difficult to test for n + nFor Dichanthium and Bothriochloa (Poaceae), progeny in this situation because clones are Harlan et al. (1964) reported rates of 211+11 distributed in small niches of land and progeny from crosses between tetraploid interpollination occurs from identical species. These combinations, however, are genotypes, making detection of new isozyme interspecific and therefore are difficult to patterns difficult). The frequencies for three compare with the former examples. Bashaw wild populations of TripsaCllm we observed are et al. (1992) showed that in crosses between from parthenogenetic development of a red uced egg cell, which is the result of meiosis and recombination. When apomixis is active, sexuality is not eliminated but rather distributed over several generations. This topic is discussed in greater detail below.Populations Pernes (1975) described polymorph isms observed in wild populations of PaniclIm maximllm in East Africa, which is the center of diversity for this species. He identified three types of populations: (i) monomorphic populations; (ii) polymorphic, with disjointed variation and distinct genotypes; and (iii) polymorphic, with discrete variation.The latter was discovered in zones where sexual diploids and apomictic tetrap)oids were sympatric. The IRD-CIMMYT team's observations during collections of wild TripsaCllm led to the same typology. In the case of TripsaCllm, however, different species can coexist in the same population. Diploid populations are more frequent than in PaniCllm, and several ploidy levels in within species have been discovered in the same populations.Three different species were found to coexist in a multispecific wild TripsaCllm population (\"La Toma\" population #39) near Tequila, jalisco, Mexico: T pi/osllm, a diploid sexual species, and two apomictic tetraploid species, TbmvlIm and T dacty/aides mexicamlm. Using fingerprinting, restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and isozymes, M. Barre et a1. (personal comm.) identified most of the diploid plants. Plants belonging to the two tetraploid species were distributed in clones of variable size (Table 2.7). The genetic diversity in this population was distributed among 54 different diploid plants, six triploid clones (11 plants), and 18 tetraploid clones (83 plants). We conclude that there are almost no \"widespread\" genotypes in these populations.Moving from one population to another, new genotypes of the same species are found. In Mexico, populations #38 and #39 ar e about 10 km apart and both contain T bravum and T dactyloides mexicanum. Nevertheless, their genotypes are distinct. As a rule of thumb, the probability of finding distinct genotypes within a distance of 50 to 100 m is quite high.In population #38, we analyzed 94 asexually reproducing triploid and tetraploid plants, distributed in 24 clones, i.e., four plants per genotype on average. Ellstrand and Roose (1987) observed 5.9 plants per clone in a literature survey of studies involving asexually reproducing plants. Wild populations of dandelion (Taraxacum sp, Asteraceae) and Antennaria sp.(Asteraceae) are comparable (Lyman and Ellstrand 1984;Ford and Richards 1985;Bayer 1990).Table 2.7 Distribution of dones in Tripsacum wild population liLa loma l lChromo-Chromo-Type* some no. Size Type* some no. Size In summary, studies of wild populations demonstrate that apomixis does not produce the uniformity that is often simplistically suggested. Diversity is maintained in these populations. Mechanisms generating and maintaining this diversity may involve genetic exchanges between different Tripsacum types and genetic recombination as previously described.In agamic complexes, two pools exist: one is sexual diploid and the other is apomictic polyploid (very often triploids and tetraploids). Plants considered to be apomictic present a certain amount of sexuality, at a rate we will call \"k.\" Authors of reviews on apomixis (Nogler 1984;Asker and Jerling 1992) conclude that facultative apomixis is the most common. Obligate apomixis, when found, occurs when k = 0, and is under the same genetic control as facultative apomixis.In many cases, apomixis and pseudogamy (endosperm produced after fertilization by pollen) are found together. Pseudogamy is the rule for apomictic Poaceae, Rosaceae, and Ranunculaceae. In Taraxacum (Asteraceae), fertilization is not needed for endosperm development (Ford and Richards 1985), while in Part~enium, which belongs to the same family, seeds are produced only after pollination, demonstrating that fertilization is needed for endosperm development (Powers and Rollins 1945).Taraxacum and Parthenium Agamic Complexes (Asteraceae)Taraxacum sp. is present on five continents and about 2,000 species have been described. The base chromosome number is eight, and diploid and tetraploid forms exist. Diploid forms are sexual and, depending on the species, self-incompatible or self-compatible.Polyploid forms are autonomous apomicts, either facultative or obligate. Fruits (propagules) can be obtained without pollination, after eliminating anthers and stigmas (Mogie and Ford 1988).In Parthenillm (Asteraceae), diploid forms with 2n = 2x = 36 are sexual, and polyploid forms with 211 = 54, 72, 90, or 108, are apomictic. In this genus, pseudogamy is prevalent and therefore fruits are not produced in the absence of pollen (Powers and Rollin 1945). Ploidy buildup occurs through production of 211 + 11 progeny (Powers and Rollins 1945), and production of haplOids from hexaploids has been documented (Powers 1945). In this case, a cycle exists between tetraploids, hexaploids, and triploids, with a possibility of incorporating diploid forms into the cycle through their production of 211 + 11 progeny with 54 chromosomes.Agamic Complex (Poaceae)The genera of Capi/lipedium, Dichanthium, al1d Bothriochloa are distributed over Europe, the Mediterranean region, Asia, Australia, and the New World, and have been studied in detail by Harlan, de Wet, and coworkers. De Wet (1968) described a possible evolution in the genus Dichanthium based on ploidy cycles involving diploids, tetraploids, and haploids. In a broader approach, de Wet and Harlan (1970) described the interrelationships between species of the three genera of this agamic complex (Figure 2.1). The most common ploidy levels are 2x, 4x, 6x, as well as some pentaploid forms. Diploids are sexual, and polyploids are apomictic. However, forms from the New World are sexual and polyploid. Triploid forms are not mentioned. Gene flow occurs in several directions, but in some cases is limited by incompatibility barriers. Genetic exchanges between Capillipedium and DiclulI1thium are effective only when species of Bothriochloa are involved as genetic bridges.Apo\";xn ood ,~. M\"\"ogemeo' of 60..,;, Di..,,~y 13Haploid production was detected experimentally and haploid plants were found to be either sexual or sterile. Tetraploid plants can be recovered from these dihaploids through the formation of 2n + n progeny, with n proceeding from pollen of tetraploid plants. Rates of 2n + n production of up to 15% have been observed.\"Guineagrass\" has its origin in East Africa.It has colonized West Africa as well as the tropical areas of the New World. This agamic complex includes three species: Panicum maximum, P. trichocladum, and P. infestum (Combes 1975). Panicum maximum is Widely distributed and sexual diploid forms have been identified (Combes and Pemes 1970), though they are very rare, having only been found in three very limited areas in Tanzania (Combes and Pemes 1970;Nakajima et a!. 1979). The other forms are tetraploid and facultative apomicts. Occasionally, pentaand hexaploid forms have been detected.  • 3x ploidy level not found in wild populations •• 5x and 6x overrepresenled in Ihis collection (from over•collecting in these populotions)Table 2.8 shows the distribution of clones according to their ploidy level in a collection established in Cote d'Ivoire.Triploid plants have been experimentally obtained from hexaploids (n + 0 progeny) as well as from diploid x tetraploid crosses. (Poly-) haploids also have been experimentally obtained from tetraploids, and the resultant plants have been either sexual or sterile (potentially apomictic as shown by embryo sac analyses). These findings led Savidan and Pernes (1982) to propose an evolutionary scheme based on ploidy cycles involving di-tetra-haploid levels as in the Dichanthium complex. The change from diploid to tetraploid is realized through 2n + n hybridization with pollen from tetraploid plants. In this system, sexuality is maintained at the diploid level. Contact between diploid and tetraploid plants allows genetic exchange between these pools (compartments) and creation of sexual tetraploid plants, allowing the release of new genetic diversity at the tetraploid level.The center of diversity for the genus Paspalum is in South America. Studies conducted by Quarin (1992), Norrman et al. (1989) and collaborators at the Instituto de Botanica del Nordeste, Corrientes, Argentina (IBONE) show that many species in this genus have genetic pools at two or more ploidy levels (Table 2.9).ln the pool with the lowest ploidy level, plants are sexual and self-incompatible, while in pools with higher ploidy levels, they are apomictic and self-compatible. In many cases, the two pools are at the diploid and tetraploid level (group 3 ofTable 2.9). In some species, however, the sexually selfincompatible plants are tetraploid and the selfcompatible apomictic plants are hexaploid or octoploid (group 6 ofTable 2.9).Some species that are sexual and selfcompatible at the tetraploid or hexaploid level (groups 5 and 7 of Table 2.9) are not apomictic at higher ploidy levels. In other species, triploids are often apomictic and are found in species with sexual diploids and apomictic tetraploids.As with previously cited agamic complexes, sexual forms are found at the lowest ploidy level and apomictic forms at the other levels. However, in this example, the relationship includes the incompatibility system. Apomictic plants are self-eompatible and the corresponding sexual plants are selfincompatible. Experiments should be conducted to determine whether this also occurs in other agamic complexes.The Tripsacum genus is restricted to the New World, from 42°N to 240$. Its center of diversity (or origin) is located in Mexico and Guatemala, and 11 of the 16 species described for the genus are found in this region. These 11 species show different ploidy levels both within and among themselves. The collection the team assembled from Mexico displayed the following distribution (unit = one ploidy level of one species in one population): diploids, 16.4%; triploids, 7.9%; tetraploids, 72%; penta-and hexaploids, 3.7%.When compared to other agamic complexes, a high frequency of triploid plants in the Tripsawm complex was observed. These wild triploid plants are apomictic, produce fertile pollen, and set good seed. All of the natural polyploids we observed were apomictic (Leblanc et al. 1995;and unpublished data).Diploids are sexual, and progeny with 211 + 11 chromosomes from apomictic plants occur at a significant frequency (Tables 2.4 and 2.5). Through this mechanism, many hexaploids were produced experimentally or detected in seeds collected from a wild population. Natural hexaploid plants in wild populations were observed at a lower frequency than in the seed progeny we analyzed.Triploid plants can be obtained in four ways: (i) from 211 + 11 hybridization within diploids, (ii) from crosses between diploid and tetraploid plants, (iii) from haploidization of hexaploids (/1 + aprogeny), or (iv) from asexual propagation of apomictic triploids. Evaluation of these possibilities is currently underway. In addition we have observed the presence of triploids, tetraploids, and hexaploids, and absence of diploids in some wild populations, which suggests that some triploids could have originated from haploidization of hexaploid plants. In populations containing diploids and triploids, there is a possibility of 2/1 + n hybridization, with 2/1 from the triploid female and 11 from a diploid male leading to the production of new tetraploid plants. We have documented such an event in seeds from one wild population. This event shows one possible route of gene exchange from the diploid to the tetraploid genetic pool. We did not discover any sexual tetraploid TripsaCLlm, but In all agamic complexes, two different ploidy pools are found: a lower ploidy pool (usually diploid) with sexual forms and a higher ploidy pool (usually several ploidy levels, the most frequent being the tetraploid level) with apomictic forms. Absence of apomixis at the diploid level is thought to be due to either a lack of expression of this trait at this ploidy level or to an absence of transmission through haploid gametes (Nogler 1984;Grimanelli et al. 1998). The sexual pool is where most of the genetic recombination occurs and is therefore the pool where most of the selection on new combinations is acting. Gene flow from the diploid to the polyploid pool is realized in several ways. Diploid sexual plants, in some cases, can produce 2/1 female gametes (Harlan and de Wet 1975). If these gametes are pollinated by pollen from tetraploid plants, tetraploid progeny will be produced that will be sexual to a certain extent, providing an opportunity for a new burst of diversity to be tested at the tetraploid level. Another flow, as discussed earlier, comes from the pollination of unreduced eggs from triploid plants by normal pollen grains from diploid plants. The triploid plants can result from crosses between diploid and tetraploid plants. As can be seen, many opportunities exist for the diploid pool to contribute to the genetic diversity of the apomictic tetraploid pool. In the A/1tl?l1/1aria complex, several genomes from diploid species can be accumulated in polyploid species (Bayer 1987).In the polyploid apomictic pool, new genetic combinations may also arise through residual sexuality (n + /1 progeny). We have also seen evidence that sexuality is distributed over several generations by creation of 2n + n progeny in one generation, followed by n + 0 progeny in the next generation. By permitting some perenniality for each stage of the sexual cycle, this wealth of genetic recombination is favored by apomixis, and it may be characteristic of the apomictic mode. More experimental data and modeling are required to isolate all of the factors involved in the genetic recombination of apomicts.In the breeding of apomictic forage grasses, sexuality is involved at different steps and permi ts genetic recombination (Valle and Miles 1992; see Valle and Miles,Chap. 10). Released varieties are apomictic and have been distributed mainly outside their centers of diversity. In this instance, breeding activity is generating new genetic diversity.Because projects are now underway to transfer apomixis to pearl millet, maize, wheat, and rice, we must consider the consequences of apomixis on the diversity management of landraces and that apomixis drastically reduces the recombination rate. It is important to remember that these landraces and their wild ancestors represent our current reservoir of genetic diversity. Thought should also be given to conserving the diversity of wild ancestors that grow near fields planted with apomictic varieties, which could be recipients of apomixis genes through naturally occurring gene flow.Projects to transfer apomixis to pearl millet and maize have reached an intermediate stage: advanced generations of interspecific hybrids between apomictic forms and cultivated species have been produced that retain the apomictic trait. In the case of rice, possible sources of apomixis are yet to be identified. For wheat, F} and BC l hybrids between Triticum and Elymus have been produced (Peel et al. 1997;Savidan et al., Chap. 11). Pearl millet and maize are allogamous crops and so methods must be developed to maintain genetically adaptative processes once this new mode of reproduction is introduced. In its current deSign, the Penl1isetum project considers the creation of tetraploid apomictic varieties of pearl millet (Dujardin and Hanna 1989). Upon release, the distinct ploidy levels of currently cultivated millet and the tetraploid apomictic new varieties will act as a genetic barrier between them. Dissemination of apomixis gene(s) from the tetraploid to the diploid levelApooni.~ aod I~. Maoogo....'.f Geoeti< D1ve\"ity 17would involve production of triploid plants, which are usually male sterile; so dissemination through triploids should be negligible. However, in agamic complexes, apomixis seldom occurs at the diploid level. Some mechanism may suppress the expression of apomixis or impeach transmission to the diploid level. In the pearl millet program, there is no clear evidence that apomixis can be expressed at the diploid level. In contrast, a few BC 2 diploid-like hybrids in the maize-Tripsacum program were found to express apomixis (Leblanc et al. 1996). These plants are 211 =28 with x =10 from maize and x =18 fromTripsacum. Furthermore, triploid Tripsacum are male and female fertile. Thus, tetraploid apomictic varieties of maize will probably not restrict diffusion of apomixis gene(s) to other maize lines or its wild ancestor, teosinte. Therefore, the models of diffusion of apomixis discussed below are based on diploidy.Apomixis fixes heterosis, thereby presenting two options for its use: (i) to produce apomictic F 1 hybrids through breeding programs and release them to farmers as end products; and (ii) to release to farmers apomictic varieties that would be used to transfer (diffuse) gene(s) to landraces, which would eventually become apomictic. In the latter case, breeding for apomixis would be a local activi ty. In fact, these two options are complementary and related as they pertain to the diffusion of apomixis gene(s). F1 apomictic hybrids could be released in an area where landraces and wild relatives still exist. The transfer of the gene to these landraces and wild relatives will depend on the parameters cited above in option 2.We deduce from Sherwood (see Chap. 5), that apomixis is probably initiated by one dominant gene (see also Valle and Savidan 1996). The active A allele of this \"apomixis gene\" would be found mostly in the heterozygous condition (Aa). The homozygous stage (AA) has been considered lethal in some cases (Nogler 1984). Nevertheless, in discussing apomixis transfer, we will consider three models: (i) apomixis is active as a dominant trait, either heterozygous or homozygous (Aa or AA) with the recessive homozygote (aa) being sexual; (ii) apomixis is active only as a heterozygote (Aa), with the recessive homozygote (an) being sexual; and(iii) apomixis is only expressed as a recessive homozygote (ss), while sS and SS are sexual. We will also consider a residual rate of sexuality, k, in apomictic plants, with 0 < k < 1.Simple models of population genetics predict, in the absence of selection, the diffusion of the apomixis gene (Pemes 1971;Marshall and Brown 1981). According to the models, it is possible for the apomixis gene to transfer to land races, such as maize or pearl millet, and to inadvertently move to wild relatives (Pemes 1971;van Dijk and van Damme 2000).In model 1, there is one dominant allele for apomixis and three categories of genotypes at generation n: AA (apomictic) at a frequency of P n . Aa (apomictic) at a frequency of 2Qn, and aa (sexual) at a frequency of R n . Gametes for generation n+1 are distributed according to the following frequencies: male gametes A have a frequency of P n + Q n and gametes a have a frequency of Q n + R ; female gametes A have n a frequency of 0, gametes a, a frequency of R n , gametes AA, a frequency of P n , and gametes Aa a frequency of 2Qn' Three genotypes will appear at generation n + 1 with the following frequencies (random mating of gametes): AA at a frequency of P n + I = P n , Aa at a frequency of2Q n + 1 = 2Q n + Rn(Pn + Qn)' and nn at a frequency of R nWith Pn+ 2Q n + R n =1, we obtain Q =1/2(1n Pn-R n ) and the recurrence relation:Equilibrium is reached for R = 1, the population being entirely sexual, or for R = 0, the population being completely apomictic. This model is identical to the model proposed by Fisher (1941) for autogamy. In fact, apomictic plants self-reproduce, however they simultaneously release pollen with the dominant allele to the sexual plant forms; consequently, a portion of the progeny of sexual forms becomes apomictic.If we take into account a rate of residual sexuality, k, the variation in frequency for A allele becomes Pn+ 1 + Q n + I = (Pn + Qn)(1 +1/ 2(l-k)R n ) (pemes 1971).The change in frequency of allele A from generation n to generation n + 1 is a function of Rn, the frequency of the recessive allele, and a function of k. A zero value for k (obligate apomixis) maximizes the frequency of A, while higher values of k reduce the frequency of A. This variation would be zero if k = 1, i.e., when all plants are sexual with either the A ora allele.In this model, we assume random mating of gametes. Transfer would be favored if an apomictic variety, homozygous for A, were interplanted with the variety (land race) to be modified. In the case of maize, by detasselling and harvesting only the land race, only heterozygous progeny would be produced. These new plants would be apomictic and genetically fixed. Their ability to evolve would rely on'the rate of residual sexuality, k. A proportion k of the apomictic forms can be ferti lized by pollen from other sources. Moreover, pollen from the first generation of apomictic forms can be used to pollinate the landrace. After several cycles of suc!\"1 backcrossing, the new variety will be identical to the land race except that it carries the apomixis gene. Evolution in these \"new\" landraces will depend on the rate of residual sexuality that is retained at the end of the transfer process.In model 2, apomixis is active in plants with the Aa association of alleles. The aa genotypes are sexual. If Rn is the frequency of aa genotypes (sexual) and Qn is the frequency of Aa genotypes (apomictic), frequencies in the next generation (n + 1) will be R nIn this case, the apomixis allele, A, diffuses in the population as 1 + 1/2Rn >1 and Qn + 1>Qn.We can use this model to define conditions of equilibrium between sexual and apomictic forms if a differential fitness exists between the two forms. With a fitness of 1 + S for the an and 1 for the Aa, the frequency changes from generation n to generation n + 1 are as follows:In this case, equilibrium between sexual and apomictic forms will be reached for s = 1/1 + R. Initially, when apomixis starts to be established in a population, R is close to 1, and equilibrium can be reached with s values close to 0.5. The fitness advantage of the sexual forms in relation to the apomictic forms has to be at least 1.5:1 to reach the equilibrium. Once apomixis is widely established, R is lower, and equilibrium will be reached only with higher s values. In the extreme case of Q close to 1, equilibrium will be reached with s values close to 1. In this instance, sexual forms will have to produce twice as many seeds as apomictic forms to survive in the successive generations.If model 2 applies to apomictic varieties, transfer of apomixis to land races could be accomplished according to the process found in model 1; but the transfer will take longer (at least one more generation) because the first generation will be made from Aa x aa crosses producing Aa and aa genotypes, not from AA x aa crosses, which produce only Aa progeny. In model 3, apomixis is active only in plants that are homozygous for the recessive allele s. In this case, 55 (sexual) has a frequency of Pn, 5s (sexual) has a frequency of 2Qn, and ss (apomictic) has a frequency of Rn. Using this model, it can be shown (Pemes 1971) that the frequency of 5 behaves as follows:The frequency of 5 is reduced from one generation to the next, as 1 -1/2Rn is always lower than 1.If the genetic control of apomixis follows this model, then transfer of apomixis will require at least two generations. The pathway to transfer can be imagined as follows: The apomixis gene can diffuse within the population through backcrossing between plant& from the first generation and the donor variety as male parent. In order to have apomixis transferred within a reasonable timeframe, the donor must be used as the male variety of each generation. After several backcrosses, the local variety will be transformed to an apomictic variety, but it will be almost identical to the donor variety. Therefore, if apomixis is active only when recessive alleles are present, it will be difficult to transfer apomixis to land races while at the same time maintaining the original traits of these landraces. It would require (i) the use of markers to retain the a allele, (ii) the production of near isogenic lines through backcrossing with the landrace, and (iii) the selfing of isogenic, heterozygous (Aa) lines to produce aa apomicts.In Tripsacum, we saw an average of 10% of progeny come from 2n + n hybridization; in some samples, this rate rises to 35%. Crosses between apomictic species of Pennisetum also produced this type of progeny (Bashaw et al. 1992). These forms are less frequent in other species, such as Panicum maximum. If this trait is inherited during the transfer of apomixis, what behavior can be expected from cultivated apomictic forms?The transfer projects now underway consider a type of apomixis linked to pseudogamy. Once apomictic varieties are produced, most probably they will be also pseudogamous. In this case, we are concerned with the ratio between embryo ploidy and endosperm ploidy, as it has been often reported that a ratio different from 2:3 (or 2:5) would introduce some developmental incompatibility at the seed level and a loss in productivity (endosperm development also depends on maternal:paternal genome ratio; see Chap. 6,11,12,and 13). However, for the Tripsacum, we observed that triploid plants produce seeds even when their pollen environment comes mostly from tetraploid plants. In this case, the ploidy ratio between embryo and endosperm is 3:8. The 2n + n progeny we detected were from normal seeds with normally developed endosperm. In Tripsacl/m, the 2:3 ratio (or 2:5) between embryo ploidy and endosperm ploidy does not appear to be necessary for seed filling. In general terms, we have two hypotheses to consider:1. Endosperm development is deficient when the ratio of embryo ploidy to endosperm ploidy is different from 2:3 (or 2:5). In this case, ears display poorly filled kernels (with 2n + n embryo) at harvest time. There is a potential loss of production due to the presence of these 2n + n embryos, but these kernels would not be selected as seed for the next generation. 2. Endosperm development is not affected by a ratio of embryo ploidy to endosperm ploidy different from 2:3 (or 2:5). In this case, kernels with 2n + n embryos would go undetected and could be used as seed for the next generation. Apomictic plants obtained from such embryos are triploid; they may produce normal seeds but the pollen could be sterile, which could limit field production. If the pollen is still fertile, as noted with triploid Tripsac!lm, no loss in production should be detected. However, ploidy buildup will occur, and many different ploidy levels will be stored in the same variety. This ploidy buildup could raise chromosome numbers to levels far above the optimum for productivity, potentially resulting in lower production. In nature, 211 + n progeny production is a strategy that takes advantage of genetic recombination, as these plants would give rise, after meiosis, to some haploid progeny by parthenogenetic development of reduced embryo sacs. In the case of an apomictic crop, it is a trai t tha t should be reduced or eliminated.For the purpose of discussing the relationship between wild relatives and apomictic varieties, we will use the maize-teosinte model, however, it is our belief that it can be extrapolated to pearl millet in instances where wild relatives are still in contact with cultivated plants. Teosinte is only found in Mexico and Guatemala. Relationships between wild relatives and maize are not identical over the distribution area of teosinte. The variety paruiglumis may be found in southwest Mexico and is considered to be a very wild form, with almost no link to modem maize. In the states of Michoacan and Mexico, teosinte should be considered a weed. An incompatibility system exhibited by these weedy teosintes, which efficiently controls gene flow from maize to teosinte, has been detected and analyzed (Kermicle and Allen 1990). Moreover, as described by Wilkes (1967), teosintes generally have a flowering period that is distinct from maize. These mechanisms limit gene flow between this wild relative and maize.If we use model 1 to explain the transfer of apomixis from apomictic plants to landraces, we can envisage the following process. The first generation hybrid between teosinte (sexual, aa) and apomictic maize (AA) would be apomictic (Aa), and BC I plants with teosinte as female would produce Aa (apomictic) and aa (sexual) progeny. At each generation, the apomictic forms are fixed but they still participate in the next generation from sexual plants through their pollen, which can transfer the apomixis allele to sexual plants. Therefore, a portion of each generation's progeny becomes apomictic. We can then deduce that the apomictic allele will diffuse into the wild population. However, the assumptions made to simplify the model may not prove accurate when applied to the relationship between cultivated plants and wild relatives.Cultivated maize and its wild teosinte relatives are, morphologically, widely distinct. Apomictic maize x teosinte F] hybrids will be apomictic and will breed true. Sexual maize x teosinte Fls are known to have a low fitness due to their intermediate morphology and adaptation, and they are easily recognized morphologically. When they grow in a field, they are not harvested. However, if the hybrid is apomictic, its pollen will transmit the A allele at a rate of 50%. Pollination efficiency depends on synchronization between flowering of these Apooohis aod Ih ......,.1 Gnelk DivenIty 21 hybrids and the wild relatives. As a lack of synchronization between the two types of plants is anticipated, the gene flow between them should be minimal. These observations deviate considerably from the assumptions posited in the model in which apomictic plants are expected to engage in pollination in proportion to their frequency in the population. Moreover, in the long run, the apomictic intermediate forms should have a lower fitness than the sexual forms, because the latter can take advantage of more new recombinations and adapt faster to environmental changes. As noted earlier, a stable polymorphism between sexual and apomictic forms is possible when fitness values of the two forms reach a certain ratio. We have also observed that the speed of apomixis diffusion is a function of the rate of residual sexuality-a high level of residual sexuality will slow apomixis diffusion.We base our models for apomixis diffusion on the hypothesis that this mode of reproduction is under a simple genetic control. Current knowledge about the mechanisms underlying apomixis, however, is very incomplete, especially regarding the expression of an apomixis gene in a new genetic background, as would be the case with a Tripsacum apomixis gene transferred into a maize background. If genetic control of apomixis in landraces and new varieties involves several genes or a major gene and modifiers, the dynamics of diffusion will be more difficult to describe and transformation of current varieties to apomictic varieties would have to be carried out by professional breeders. In this instance, apomixis could be used as a genetic fixation tool and new varieties with a complex genetic structure could be created and released. Such varieties would contribute to the maintenance of diversity at the farmer's field level.Furthermore, if apomixis is controlled by multiple genes, the probability of diffusing this trait to wild relatives is extremely low. A wild plant would need to receive several genes (probably on several different chromosomes) from the cultivated plant to become apomictic. This transfer would certainly lower its fitness to a value unacceptable for survival in the wild.If apomixis is under a simple genetic control, diffusion of apomixis to landraces and wild relatives is possible. Apomixis reduces recombination rates and could be perceived as a danger for conservation of genetic diversity of wild relatives and landraces. In actuality, current genetic diversity is the result of a long process of domestication, which is still underway in some regions of the world, especially where wild and cultivated plants continue to exchange genes, often within a traditional agricultural system. Somewhat surprisingly, it is in regions where traditional agriculture prevails that apomixis could be the most helpful. We know that obligate apomixis is an exception and facultative apomixis is predominant (Asker 1979). If during the transfer of apomixis to crops, residual sexuality is also transmitted and expressed in the new apomictic crop, we could rely•on the rate of recombination inherent in this process to generate new genetic combinations. Even at low rates, new combinations may be interesting to farmers who could select and propagate them easily. As long as apomixis is not obligate, landraces can still evolve. It may also be possible to introduce new genes from \"exotic\" and modem sexual varieties. Crosses will occur only in the proportion k (rate of residual sexuality). But if these new products can be detected by markers or by their hybrid vigor, following selection, they could serve as an important source of seed for the next generation. The possibility and rate of evolution of these apomictic varieties will eventually depend upon the rate of residual sexuality; therefore, it will be important to consider this paramet-er when transferring apomixis from wild apomixis donor plants to first apomictic varieties. This rate of residual sexuality may depend on genetic factors. Controlling these factors, in order to adapt the value of this parameter in new apomictic varieties, could be extremely useful as we seek to conserve the genetic diversity of landraces and allow for their continual evolution.Areas of traditional agriculture are repositories for most of the genetic diversity of crops. The conservation of this diversity is threatened, however, by changes in technical practices that can suppress current gene flow and by the introduction of new modern varieties with limited genetic diversity (e.g., F j hybrids). Producing new varieties from local germplasm may be advantageous to farmers, and it could be more easily accomplished if apomixis is incorporated into the breeding scheme (see Toenniessen,Chap.1). In this scenario, landraces with high genetic diversity would be maintained in these farming systems, thus limiting the diffusion of varieties with low genetic diversity. This diversity would serve as a reservoir for future evolution.Apomixis has traditionally been separated into asexual seed production (agamospermy) and replacement of flowers by vegetative propagules (vivipary). In practice, many researchers define apomixis as agamospermy, which in turn is divided into adventitious embryony and gametophytic apomixis. Adventitious embryony is the formation of somatic embryos from ovular tissues outside the embryo sac, although endosperm in the embryo sac usually is necessary to support their maturation, and the resulting somatic embryos sometimes compete with a zygotic embryo within the same ovule. Gametophytic apomixis is, at the least, a two-step process involving the production of a 2n megagametophyte, whose egg develops without fusion of egg and sperm nuclei; other aspects of fertilization can be completely normal or completely missing, depending on the type.Adventitious embryony can be divided into nucellar and integumentary embryony, depending on where the embryos arise. According to Naumova (1993), adventitious embryos in nature always originate from single cells, termed embryocytes, which can differentiate in the nucellus or integuments, before or after fertilization of the embryo sac. As summarized by Naumova (1993), the early organization of adventitious embryos characteristically differs from that of zygotic embryos, possibly because space is constrained and the mechanical stress field in the nucellus differs from that in the embryo sac. Multiple adventitious embryos can develop asynchronously within the same ovule (Gustafsson 1946), whereupon competition and packing further affect their morphology. Polyembryony is very frequent in most cases of adventitious embryony, and fertilization of the central cell is generally necessary for seed set. The developmental interpretation of adventitious embryony is simple: the embryocytes are induced to act like zygotes. The number of ways in which this induction can occur is not known, but they all must cause repeated mitosis.In gametophytic apomixis, 2n embryo sacs can arise in at least nine different ways, depending on the species. The embryo and endosperm in such embryo sacs can develop in at least five ways. Therefore, at least 45 types of gametophytic apomixis are theoretically possible, but only half of these account for nearly all cases of naturally occurring gametophytic apomixis. The nine types are schematically diagrammed in Figure 3.1, which lays out their proposed developmental basis. The types are described below (references are given afterward as part of a historical perspective). Note that \"strike\" (nondivision or precocious degeneration of nuclei in the chalazal end of developing (1a\"lfi<atio••f Apornklk M.doa.lsms 25 embryo sacs) is not mentioned in these2) The Taraxacum-type. In the Taraxacumdescriptions, but it regularly occurs in a type, meiotic prophase I and metaphase I number of angiosperm families and is generally lack chiasmata. The condensed expected to affect sexual and apomictic species univalent chromosomes congregate and equally.decondense, resulting in a restitution nucleus, The megasporocyte then undertakes the Nine Types of Embryo-Sac Development second meiotic division normally, and the 8-1) The Allium odorum-type. In the Allium nucleate embryo sac develops through three odorum-type, the megasporocyte undergoes rounds of mitosis from the chalazal member endomitosis and then proceeds through a of the ensuing 2n megaspore dyad. mechanically normal development of the Allium (bisporic)-type. The endomitosis is not Type mei I mei II mit 1 mt III org specific to the mega-sporocyte, and many of Polygonumthe nucellar cells also\\~)The 2n number of , \\.,:/ '(\",l\"bivalents is observed at Toroxacum [;' 1all seem to involve formersister chromatids, and ',.genetic segrega tion is ....,   3) The Ixeris-type. The Ixeris-type follows the Taraxacum-type through the formation of a meiotic restitution nucleus. The next nuclear division is not followed by formation of a cell wall, nor is the division after it. Cell walls form only as the embryo sac matures after the third round of divisions. All daughter nuclei from the restitution nucleus contribute to the mature, 8-nucleate embryo sac.4) The Blumea-type. In the Blumea-type, a more or less mitotic division of the megasporocyte yields a dyad of 2n megaspores. The chalaza} megaspore gives rise to the mature, 8-nucleate embryo sac. The development is identical to the Taraxacumtype after the restitution nucleus has formed. Therefore, existence of the Blumea-type must be demonstrated by the absence of the restitutional stages of the Taraxacum-type; this proof requires careful, thorough sampling and ordering of all the meiotic stages.5) The Elymus rectisetus-type. In Elymus rectisetus, three interrelated developments occur that superficially resemble the Blumeatype. The megasporocyte nucleus enlarges and is deformed in all three types. The nucleus appears to be under tension, as evidenced by parallel alignment of its chromatin, and by its chalazally pointed or occasionally waspwaisted shape. Triads and dyads with unequal nuclei indicate amitotic division in a very low percentage of megasporocytes. The first visible prophase follows the nuclear deformation episode and leads to wha t could be considered, more or less, a mitotic division. Here the three subtypes diverge: this division can result in a dyad of completely separated cells, a hemidyad of incompletely separated cells, or a binucleate embryo sac. All three behaviors can occur on the same individual. The chalazal-end nucleus in all three cases often undergoes a milder form of the deformation seen in the megasporocyte. The fate of hemidyads and directly binucleate embryo sacs has not been thoroughly investigated, but the chalazal member of dyads typically undergoes three rounds of mitosis and forms the mature, 8-nucleate embryo sac. The micropylar nucleus of hemidyads sometimes degenerates as if it had been completely cut off.6) The Antennaria-type. In the Antennariatype, there are no meiotic stages. The megasporocyte undergoes three rounds of mitosis, typically after an initial period of enlargement and vacuolation. The mature embryo sac has eight nuclei, which are arranged as in the conventional Polygonumtype.7) The Hieracium-type. In the Hieraciumtype, one to several nucellar cells enlarge, become vacuolate, and go through three rounds of mitosis, resulting ideally in a conventionally organized 8-nucleate embryo sac. The megasporocyte undergoes meiosis in some species and degenerates in others. In some cases, reduced and unreduced embryo sacs can coexist in the same nucellus. The ability to form multiple embryo sacs in the same ovule increases the frequency of polyembryony.8) The Eragrostis-type. In the Eragrostis-type, there are no meiotic stages. The megasporocyte undergoes only two rounds of mitotic division, leading to a 4-nucleate embryo sac with an egg, two synergids, and one polar nucleus, or alternatively, to an egg, one synergid, and two polar nuclei. The original description of the type also included bipolar sacs with more than four nuclei, which at that time were interpreted as modifications of the Antennaria-type (Streetman 1963). Such sacs may instead represent facultative occurrence of the Polygonum-type. 9) The Panicum-type. In the Panicum-type, one to 25 nucellar cells enlarge, increase in vacuolation, and ideally divide twice mitotically, although some divide only once and others not at all. The mature embryo sac has an egg, two synergids, and a polar nucleus, or else, an egg, one synergid, and two polar nuclei. The megasporocyte can undergo meiosis or degenerate, depending on the species. The potential for polyembryony is high in this type.Most of these developments were discussed by Battaglia (1963), who also discussed various aberrations, and later by Nogler (1984) and Asker and Jerling (1992). Descriptions were first published for the Antennaria-type in 1898 (JueI1898), the Taraxacum-type in 1904 Quel 1904), the Hieracium-type in 1907 (Rosenberg 1907), the Ixeris-type in 1919 (Holmgren 1919;Okabe 1932), the Allium odorum-type in 1951 (Hakansson andLevan 1951, 1957), the Panicum-type in 1954 (Warmke 1954), the Eragrostis-type in 1963(Streetman 1963;Voigt and Bashaw 1972), and the Elymus-syndrome in 1956 (Hair 1956), with significant amendments in 1987 (Crane and Carman 1987). The Blumea-type, described for Erigeron ramostls by Holmgren (1919), was later generically refuted (Fagerlind 1947) and finally rehabilitated for Blumea eriantha (Chennaveeraiah and PatiI1971).A number of previous classifications, e.g., Asker and Jerling (1992), have recognized automixis, which is the fusion of nuclei in the same gametophyte to produce a 2n, homozygous egg cell. Automixis has been purported in several species of Axonoptls (Gledhill 1967), but the evidence can easily be reinterpreted as early degeneration of one of the synergids in the Polygonum-type before fertilization. Like gametophytic selfing in ferns, the mechanism would produce individuals that are completely homozygous within genomes. There is no genetic evidence for or against apomixis in the affected Axonopus species. Automixis has also been claimed for Rtlbus caesitls, as discussed by Ool$ifit.tIo. of Apoonktk MedIa.lsms 27 Asker and Jerling (1992), but the case is scarcely closed. The evolution of automixis is implausible in angiosperms, because autogamy evolves easily in most groups and has the same genetic result over the course of generations.Embryos. Apomictic embryo development from egg cells has been summarized in earlier research, e.g., Asker and Jerling (1 \"92) and Battaglia (1963). There are three major types: pseudogamy, semigamy (= hemigamy), and autonomous parthenogenesis. There is no tradition for naming these last three developments for the type genera in which they occur. The developments differ in the order in which egg and primary endospermatic nuclei divide, the ability of the central-cell nuclei to divide without fertilization, the number of polar nuclei that contribute to the endosperm, and the ability of the egg cell to undergo plasmogamy. Pseudogamy is traditionally defined as asexual seed set that requires pollination and does not involve adventitious embryos. However, a more restricted definition seems preferable: pseudogamy is seed set through fertilization of the central cell, but not the egg, in the absence of adventitious embryos.Semigamy is seed set with full fertilization of the central cell and only plasmogamy in the egg, ~here the sperm nucleus can be walled off, or divide one to several times, or contribute equally to chimeric or twinned embryos. The last of these behaviors is not found routinely in recurrent apomicts, but is typical of the Se mutant in cotton (Turcotte and Feaster 1969), in which the sectors can be easily visualized with leaf-color mutations. In Se cotton, complex chimeras with maternal haploid, paternal haploid, and hybrid sectors are frequent; they probably arise from coalescence of one pair of adjacent spindle poles upon simultaneous division of the proximate egg and sperm nuclei in the zygote (Turcotte andFeaster 1973,1974).Autonomous parthenogenesis is the formation of embryo and endosperm without fertilization of either the egg or the central cell; such apomicts require no pollination for seed set and frequently are male-sterile. Autonomous endosperm formation has also been reported in a case of adventitious embryony, namely Euphorbia dulcis (Gustafsson 1946).2) Endosperm and embryo development. Pseudogamy and autonomous parthenogenesis can be subdivided on the basis of their capacity to form embryos in the absence of endosperm. The apomictic egg divides autonomously in Potentilla (pseudogamy) and Wikstroemia (autonomous parthenogenesis) (Gustafsson 1946). The egg divides after the first endosperm nucleus in Themeda (pseudogamy) and Crepis (autonomous parthenogenesis), although the potential for its eventual division in the absence of endosperm has not been critically evaluated in most cases. In semigamy, the unfertilized egg degenerates without dividing (Crane 1978), contrary to an earlier report of eventual division (Cae 1953). There is also variation in the fusion of the polar nuclei with each other in apomicts. In autonomous parthenogenesis, the polar nuclei can fuse before dividing (e.g., in Taraxacum, Elatostema, and most Alchemilla species), facultatively fuse (e.g., in Crepis), or divide without fusing (e.g., in Antennaria) (Gustafsson 1946). In pseudogamy, the polar nuclei may (Ranunculus auricomus ;Nogler 1972) or may not (Amelanchier; Campbell et al. 1987) fuse with each other when the central cell is fertilized. Both polar nuclei contribute to the endosperm in semigamous Cooperin and in the Se mutant of cotton (Crane 1978;G. L. Hodnett, unpublished).The standard classification of apomictic embryo sacs (e.g., Asker and ]erling 1992) has followed Edman (1931) and Gustafsson (1946) in recognizing embryo sacs that arise from diploid megaspores (diplospory) and embryo sacs that do not arise from megaspores (apospory). Under this scheme, the Hieracium-and Panicum-types are aposporous, and the remaining seven types are diplosporous (Note: Types that were undescribed at the time of these old papers (Eragrostis, Panicum, Elymus, and Allium odorum) have been assigned on the basis of the classifying paper's underlying concepts). Fagerlind (1940Fagerlind ( , 1944) defined diplospory to be the production of diploid megaspores from meiosis, in effect restricting it to the Taraxacum-, Ixeris-, and Allium odorum-types. He termed purely mitotic developments apospory, which could be generative (Antennaria, Eragrostis) or somatic (Hieracium, Panicum). The Blumea-and dyadforming Elymus-types felI into a halfway category, semiapospory. Battaglia (1963) also recognized apospory for purely mitotic developments and differentiated gonial and somatic subtypes. However, he grouped all modifications of meiosis under aneuspory. Thus he considered the AlIium odorum-, Taraxacum-, Ixeris-, Blumea-, and dyadforming Elymus-types to be fundamentally similar in that they involved modified meiosis. Conseq'uently, one issue that has emerged is the definition of a megaspore: is it more fundamentalIy the product of a megasporocyte or the product of female meiosis? Many other terms have been defined and redefined, leading to terminological and conceptual confusion. For example, ]ohri et al. (1992) speak of \"apospory of the Taraxacumtype\" in Balanophora globosa. The major problem has been an absence of hard evidence as to what genetic changes are necessary to establish apomixis and what the relevant gene products do. Furthermore, the traditional Edman terminology reflects an outlook in which the site of gene action is more important than the type of gene action, and this outlook has probably inhibited comprehension of apomictic development. Until the arrival of suitable optics (especially Nomarski differential interference contrast) and clearing media for the rapid, accurate analysis of statistically meaningful numbers of intact ovules, it was difficult enough to accurately describe apomictic development, such as the maximum extent of prophase I chromosome contraction or the relative sequence of division and apparently restitutional stages.The computer program is a good, although imperfect, paradigm for understanding apomictic developments. In many computer programs, statements are executed in a definite order, and calls to a later statement prevent execution of intervening statements. Because control passes to the later statement, the computer program is a direct counterpart to heterochronic developmental changes, in which development abruptly jumps to a later stage, and to homeotic developmental changes, in which development in one cell type or organ abruptly switches to a pathway found in another cell type or organ. As outlined below, most aspects of apomixis can be speculatively rationalized in this way, however, some cannot. Some developments require parallel operation of steps from different programs, as would occur in a computer with multiple processors running in parallel.Programmatic behavior is consistent\" with a cascade of sequential inductions of gene expression, in which each gene activity is induced only by some condition unique to the preceding step in the development. Until better evidence becomes available about the molecular function of apomictic genes, the The basic and most frequent embryo-sac development in flowering plants is the Polygonum-type. Its developmental program can be represented by a sufficiently detailed list of events: differentiation of the megasporocyte from parietal or other nucellar cells, commitment to meiosis 1, premeiotic DNA synthesis, premeiotic G 2 phase, leptotene, zygotene, pachytene, diplotene, diakinesis, metaphase 1, anaphase 1, telophase I, meiotic interphase, prophase II, metaphase II, anaphase II, telophase II, tetrad stage, germination of the surviving megaspore, first embryo-sac mitosis, binucleate embryo sac, second embryo-sac mitosis, tetranucleate embryo sac, third embryo-sac mitosis, and cellularization. One reasonable, but unproven assumption is that DNA synthesis requires a checkpoint for chromosomal singlestrandedness, such that already doublestranded chromosomes are not re-replicated. Such a checkpOint would suffice to prevent DNA synthesis during meiotic interphase and allow the second meiotic division to be bypassed without affecting the ploidy of the mature embryo sac. Another assumption, supported by the pattern of numerical abnormalities observed and not observed in mature embryo sacs of Cooperia drummondii (Crane 1978), and consistent with the developmental sisterhood of synergids (Cass et al. 1986), is that embryo sacs differentiate through progressive capacitation of individual nuclei at each interphase, rather than simultaneously upon cellularization. At the micropylar end in the tetranucleate stage, one nucleus is already committed to differentiating synergids, and the other one is committed to differentiating the egg and micropylar-end polar nucleus. The egg cannot form if the third mitotic division does not occur; its precursor defaults to being a polar nucleus. Thus meiosis II and the first embryo-sac mitosis can be skipped without affecting female fertility or offspring ploidy, as in the Adoxa type of sexual embryo sac, however the last divisions are critical for female fertility. The details of the numerical abnormalities observed in Cooperia, and their implications for the evolution of sexual embryo sacs, are reported elsewhere. Following are the author's interpretations of the nine apomictic types of embryo sacs.Endomitosis in the Allium odorum-type would result from relaxation of the chromosomal double-strandedness checkpoint postulated above for DNA synthesis. Endomitosis can occur in a wide variety of plant cells, including, most relevantly, the anther tapetum (Crane et al. 1993), which is homologous to cells in the nucellus. Megasporocyte endomitosis does not affect the morphological course of meiosis; it can precede any of the sexual types of embryo-sac development, and it is probably underreported. One consideration is how the chromosomes behave after chromatid separation and secondary replication in the premeiotic G z nucleus. If they scarcely move, the former sister chromatids would lie in close proximity as pairing begins in leptotene, and --mttltiva!en!? rarely, if ever, would form.The Taraxacum-type results from induction of the meiotic interphase during the prophase or metaphase of meiosis 1. The contracted chromosomes are thus induced to decondense and await the second meiotic division. Another possible explanation for the Taraxacum-type is induction of an Elymusstyle \"waiting state\" (see under Elymus below) during prophase I, with recovery in time to undertake meiosis II, although this induction would not necessarily result in a restitution nucleus. Direct induction of meiotic interphase would likely accelerate megasporogenesis relative to sexual ovules, whereas entering a \"waiting state\" would cause a significant delay.Induction of meiotic interphase also explains the Ixeris-type, but in this case the induction is superimposed.on a bisporic or tetrasporic type of reduced embryo sac, e.g., the Fritillqriatype in Rudbeckia (Ba ttaglia 1946(Ba ttaglia , 1963)). Assuming a checkpoint for chromosomal double-strandedness, bisporic and tetrasporic types lack the second meiotic division, and thus have their own induction of megaspore germination after the first meiotic division (bisporic types) or during the first meiotic division (tetrasporic types). Accordingly, the restitution nucleus awaits the first embryo-sac mitosis rather than meiosis II in the Ixeris-type, and there is no cross-wall to separate 2n \"megaspores.\"In the Blumea-type, meiotic interphase is induced in the premeiotic megasporocyte. Its genetic basis could be the same as in the Taraxacum-type, and the two types could coexist in the same species or individual if the timing of induction varied. PrOVing the existence of the Blumea-type is intrinsically difficult because it must be shown that the restitutional stage of the Taraxacum-type is absent. Therefore, measuring the frequencies of these two types in a polymorphic individual might not be feasible with microscopic techniques that kill the ovule before it is examined. The outcome of superimposing the Blumea-type on a bisporic or tetrasporic sexual type remains unknown. It might superficially conform to the Antennaria-type.The Elymus-type appears to result from incomplete differentiation of the megasporocyte from the nucellus. Not only is its callosic wall deficient, but the pattern of vacuolation and the occasional presence of an oxalate crystal in the megasporocyte conform to typical behaviors of the adjacent nucellar cells. The ex ten t to which this similari ty causes the wall to be deficient is not clear, nor is the degree to which the deficiency prevents a necessary physiological isolation for full differentiation of the megasporocyte. The cytoskeleton of the megasporocyte is disturbed, as evidenced by frequently oblique division planes and the deformation of the nucleus. Perhaps the meiotic spindle apparatus is not completely suppressed, and so interacts with the preapomeiotic nucleus. But this does not explain the second deformation in the chalazal 211 megaspore. Another feature of the E1ymus-type is the need for parallel control of development. The megasporocyte enters a \"waiting\" state and variably emerges in time to undertake meiosis II, the first embryo-sac mitosis, or an intermediate condition, respectively accounting for dyads, directly binucleate sacs, or hemidyads. During the \"wait,\" a master \"clock\" continues to run, albeit abnormally slowly in comparison to the Polygonum-type in related sexual genotypes; this clock allows recovery from the wait.The Antennaria-type can be explained in two ways: by induction of megaspore germination in the megasporocyte or as a much belated recovery from an Elymus-style waiting cq'\"ndition. The frequently abnormal ehlargement and vacuolation of the megasporocyte are consistent with the latter explanation, but intraspecific polymorphism for the Antennaria-and Hieracium-types in tetrasporic sexual types also involve induction of megaspore germination during meiosis I, and that having tetrasporic sacs does not seem to predispose individual taxa to evolve the Antennaria-type or vice versa. Thus different, separately inducible aspects of megaspore germination might impact meiosis in different ways, or the event that calls up megaspore germination might fun<tamentally differ between the Antennaria-and tetrasporic sexual types.The Hieracium-type results from induction of megaspore germination in the affected nucellar cells. The ability of an induced embryo sac to mature is related to its position, the time of its induction, and the number of competing sacs. In theory, Hieracium-type sacs can coexist with the Polygonum-type, resulting in polyembryony and facultative sexuality. One would expect apomicts with the Hieracium-type to accumulate mutations that debilitate the Palyganum development and permit a single, unreduced sac to mature.The Eragrostis-and Panicum-types share induction of the second embryo-sac mitosis (or its preceding interphase), respectively, in the megasporocyte or in one to many nucellar cells. The single nucleus is induced to behave like the micropylar-end nucleus at the binucleate stage in the Polygonum-type. These types are known only from related subfamilies of grasses and possibly share the Same genetic basis, modified only for site of induction. From a developmental viewpoint, they are related to the sexual Oenothera-type, in which a megaspore behaves as if it were a binucleate embryo sac.In a broad sense, apomictic egg cells are induced to act like zygotes, with the possible exception of semigamy. The question about semigamy is whether it functions exclusively in the embryo sac; anecdotal examples of haploids from normal cotton plants pollinated with semigamous pollen have been reported (Turcotte and Feaster 1963). In the absence of such rare haploids, one is tempted to presume that semigamy results from induction of a subset of zygotic behavior that prevents karyogamy but not plasmogamy. If semigamy were found to function in both eggs and sperms, one would instead suspect a general defect in fertilization capacity.The variation from autonomous to pollinationdependent embryo induction in pseudogamy suggests that embryos can be induced in more than one way. Perhaps one way triggers full embryonic development, while another merely primes the egg (or sexual zygote) to respond to a stimulus from the dividing endosperm. In the latter case, the apomictic egg of an unfertilized ovule would degenerate without ever dividing, whereas in the former case, the apomictic egg would eventually divide, even if it does not regularly do so before the primary endosperm nucleus divides or before unfertilized embryo sacs degenerate. Savidan (1989) has proposed that because pseudogamous Panicum maximum undergoes such early induction and maturation of the embryo sac, the egg cell completes its cell wall before pollination. While the formation of the egg wall is progressive in grasses (Cass et al. 1986), it is not clear that old eggs inevitably would complete their wall. In vitro fusion of egg and sperm protoplasts of maize leads to rapid cell wall formation (Breton et al. 1995, and references cited therein), suggesting that induction of zygotic behavior is responsible for the physical barrier to fertilization of pseudogamous eggs.Autonomous parthenogenesis would seem to require separate inductions of endosperm division and either the \"triggered\" (Wikstroemia) or merely the \"primed\" (Crepis) condition. Yet separate inductions would imply that the genes for each could be separated and that genotypes lacking the autonomous endosperm induction would be fully pseudogamous. This is possible in genera where instances of pseudogamy and autonomous parthenogenesis are known, e.g., Poa and Crataegus, but it is inconsistent with unreduced autonomous parthenogenesis in the absence of pseudogamy in apomictic Cichoreae (Taraxacum, Chondrilla, Crepis, and Ixeris).Genomic imprinting of gametic nuclei is another consideration in the developmental interpretation of apomictic embryogenesis. In the Polygonum-type, the endosperm has a 2:1 maternal:paternal genome ratio; deviations from this ratio frequently cause endosperm abortion in interploidy crosses. In semigamous Cooperia, the reduced sperm nucleus fuses with both unreduced polar nuclei (Crane 1978), resulting in a 4:1 maternal:paternal ratio in the endosperm, which functions adequately for seed germination in this genus. In pseudogamous Rtmunculus, both sperm nuclei can fertilize the central cell, resulting in a 4:2 maternal:paternal ratio and normal endosperm function (N ogler 1972). In pseudogamous Crataegus, the polar nuclei do not fuse with each other, and a sperm fuses with only one polar nucleus, resulting in the normal 2:1 maternal:paternal ratio (Campbell et al. 1987). The situation in autonomous parthenogenesis is not clear, because the number and biochemical effect of imprinted loci is not obvious. Imprinting of a tubulin locus (Lund et al. 1995) and the dzrl locus (Chaudhuri and Messin 1994) has been documented in developing maize endosperm, and it is possible that the number and sex-speCificity of imprinted loci vary greatly among plant species. What matters here is the numbe~ of loci that orchestrate the imprinting pattern. Since the evolution of apomixis is easier if fewer loci control it, one might expect one or a few key loci to affect this pattern. Ehlenfeldt and Hanneman (1988) analyzed the crossing behavior of diploid hybrids between two diploid, sexual Solanum species that differ in endosperm balance number, and they concluded that three unlinked loci controlled it. Obviously, comparable evidence is needed for the immediate relatives of autonomously parthenogenetic apomicts.The speculative nature of the preceding discussion emphasizes how little is experimentally known about meiosis, megasporogenesis, gametogenesis, and fertilization in sexual plants, and how little of the diversity of apomictic behaviors has been studied with modern methods of genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology. Most apomicts are polyploid, perennial herbs with long generation times, and the effort to maintain suitably large, uncontaminated populations of advanced generation hybrids has repeatedly defeated even rudimentary attempts to understand the inheritance of apomixis. The pattern of genomic affinity is not known for most pseudogamous or semigamous apomicts; recombination between the centromere and the causative loci can further change the expected segregation. The general problem is that more than one equally bestfitting model can be found for the same segregation data, especially when multiple allelism and complex dosage requirements are considered and advanced generation selfs and backcrosses are not available. Since the number of developmental inductions is constrained by the number and interaction of causative loci, the difficulty in completely understanding the genetics of apomixis has hamstrung the more direct developmental approaches. This is particularly true for the relationship among imprint able loci, endosperm function, and embryo induction in autonomous apomicts. Endosperm Clanllkatlo. of Apamictlc ~is .. 33 imprinting relationships might well become the biggest obstacle to the utilization of apomixis in sexual crop species.At the level of cell and molecular biology, critical questions remain regarding the sequential and parallel nature of clocks that govern the relative and absolute duration of events in the Polygonum-type, and thus the number of control points and interconnections that suffice to push the whole program along. Diagnostic mRNA or protein suites have not yet been recognized for the steps in the Polygonum-type and applied to recognize parallel steps in apomictic developments. The promoters, reading frame sequences, and action of genes at control points remain a mystery. Thus the basis of one of the main assumptions in the preceding developmental interpretations, namely that the induction of late steps cancels intervening steps within the Polygonum-type, has yet to be justified.Natural apomicts are difficult experimental subjects, but they provide embryological behaviors that might be even more difficult to screen from mutagenized populations of Arabidopsis thaliana or annual crop species, especially if the appropriate mutations require gains in function. Apomictic studies might contribute significantly to our future understanding of sexual plant reproduction and to the successful utilization of apomixis in currently sexual crops.Apomictic development can be studied with any of the tools used to study other plant anatomical problems. Particularly useful tools include thick and thin sections, clearings, flow cytometry, and Feulgen microspectrophotometry. Clearings have played a prominent role in recent studies because they allow characterization of large, reproductively heterogeneous samples. Sections and clearings allow the positions and divisions of nuclei and protoplasts to be observed directly; sequences of nuclear divisions and movements can be inferred by observing the set of still images. In this respect, both are inferior to cinematography of living embryo sacs in ovules suspended in silicone oil (Erdelska et al. 1971(Erdelska et al. , 1979)), but the latter technique has not been widely applied because of the usually insufficient transparency of the nucellus and integuments. Flow cytometry provides information on the DNA content (ploidy) of embryonic and endospermatic nuclei and thus on the frequency of apomixis and the role of the sperm nuclei in apomictic endosperm development. The older technique of Feulgen microspectrophotometry provides this same information for species or developmental stages in which there are too few nuclei for flow cytometry or for which positive identification of all nuclei is desired. Except for cinematography, these methods require fixation of the specimen to stop all divisions and preserve the cells of interest in a sufficiently \"lifelike\" condition. The type of fixation limits the quality of the resulting data. The researcher's objectives (both scholarly and microscopic) determine the image quality that is needed and therefore the time and labor that are required; screening a segregating F 2 population for the Panicum-type does not require ultrastructural preservation or freedom from plasmolysis. Clearings usually require less effort than embedding and sectioning, but the overall quality is limited by the amount of visual information that can be accrued in a single optical section (plane of focus) before the ovule as a whole is rendered opaque. Objects can be seen because they differ from their surroundings in color or refractive index; the latter causes light to bend at the surface of the object. Clearing media are designed to closely, but not perfectly, match the refractive index of cell walls or organelles; an object becomes invisible when immersed in a medium of equal refractive index. Variation in refractive index among cellular components assures that some aspect of the specimen will always be visible when the refractive index of the medium is close to that of the bulk specimen. Furthermore, many structures, such as cell walls, starch grains, and oxalate crystals, vary internally in refractive index as the light path moves relative to their crystal axes. This property is termed birefringence, and it can be a severe nuisance in examining cleared ovules.Specimen thickness, refractive index, and information content (organelle or nuclear frequency per unit thickness) determine the optimal refractive index of a clearing medium. Single cells can be successfully examined in water, and a movie has been made of nuclear movements and divisions within viable ovules of Jasione montana (Campanulaceae) immersed in silicone oil (Erdelska et al. 1971). \"Normal\" ovules and grass ovaries require a considerably closer matching of refractive index, i.e., greater loss of visual information from individual planes of focus, for successful visualization of their interiors. Information content reflects organellar preservation and thus depends on the type and duration of fixation. The organellar refractive index appears to respond to hydration, and thus the optimum refractive index differs between hydrous and anhydrous 36 GaOO F. er... media. There may also be a statistical correlation of optimum refractive index to DNA content per chromosome, with large genomes tending to require a higher no' For example, Zephyranthes can be cleared in methyl salicylate (no = 1.537), but Nothoscordum (which has bigger chromosomes) requires a higher no' as provided by 2:1 benzyl benzoate: dibutyl phthalate (no = 1.542). Possibly this correlates more directly to G-C content, pitch of the double helix, or degree of cytosine-methylation in heterochromatin, than to total DNA content; the smaller genomes simply carry less heterochromatin.  Herr 1971 and1974) and aromatic esters (Crane 1978;Young et al. 1979;Crane and Carman 1987). The latter have been combined successfully with staining in hemalum (Stelly et aI. 1984) or azure dyes (G. L. Hodnett, personal comm.) for brightfield observation. The Herr media do not fully dehydrate the ovule because of the 15% water in commercial lactic acid, and organelles and cell walls therein seem to clear optimally around no 1.51, whereas the optimum in aromatic esters is around no 1.53 or 1.54. A third class, nearly saturated sugar solutions, has been used to document callose deposition (Peel et al. 1997), with lesser success in displaying nuclear and cellular locations. A fourth class, salts in glycerol or sugar solutions, remains to be tested, but appropriate refractive indices have been obtained for high-quality clearing (Table 3.1).Both of Herr's 4-1/2 media contain chloral hydrate, a federally controlled substance that sometimes presents legal problems for institutions that possess it. They also contain eugenol, which turns yellow upon exposure to light, and phenol, which likewise discolors and is a chemical contact hazard. On the other hand, excellent photographs have been obtained with Herr's media in appropriate species, and their refractive index probably can be adjusted upward without  (Fredrikson 1990), but its usefulness on thicker specimens remains untested, and it is not widely accessible because of its expense. Nomarski interferencecontrast has been applied successfully to apomictic amaryllids (Crane 1978) and panicoid grasses (Young et al. 1979). Both of these methods create a very shallow depth of focus that helps to eliminate information from outside the focal plane. Hoffman modulationcontrast is a less expensive alternative to interference-eontrast. Phase-contrast provides \"optical staining\" that can help distinguish nuclei from similarly sized vacuoles, but it requires a closer match between the sample and the medium in refractive index. Staincleared specimens (and many unstained specimens) can be examined satisfactorily under brightfield optics once the medium is properly matched to the specimen in refractive index. Brightfield is also insensitive to birefringent cell walls or crystals in the specimen, which greatly degrade an interference-contrast or phase-contrast image.Specimen orientation is frequently critical to easy and correct interpretation of cleared embryo sacs. Ovaries of pooid grasses typically are laterally compressed and present a nearly end-on view of the embryo sac when they are allowed to lie flat. Standing them on edge in a sawtooth cut in index card or aluminum foil yields the desired sagittal optical section. Stelly et al. (1984) observed that squa~hing cleared ovules was generally counterproductive; the image got worse instead of better as more visual information was crammed into nearly the same plane. Thus clearings are often examined with \"Raj\" slides (Herr 1974), with which the cover slip is supported by underlying adjacent cover slips that are conveniently held in place with \"Superglue\" (G. Hodnett, personal comm.). Since the first applications of electron microscopy to the observation of plant tissues, numerous studies have focused on the ultrastructural characteristics of sexual reproduction in flowering plants (Jensen 1965;Jensen and Fischer 1968). In many species, a wealth of information has been presented on the morphology of the female gametophyte (megagametophyte or embryo sac) before and after pollen tube arrival (Russell 1985;Mogensen 1988;Russell 1992;Huang and Russell 1992). Valuable contributions to the understanding of double fertilization have also emerged from studies that combine light and electron microscopy with technological advances on the in vitro isolation and fusion of gametes (Kranz et al. 1991;Faure et al. 1994). Nevertheless, the fundamental mysteries involving cell to cell signals and interactions during me,gagametogenesis and fertilization in sexual and apomictic species are still unsolved. These enigmas include the nature of the movement of sperm cells within the egg apparatus, the specific recognition of male and female gametes, the molecular nature of plasma membrane adherence, and the association, fusion, and activation of parental nuclei (Gerassimova-Navashina 1957;Russell 1992).Despite the increasing scientific interest in apomixis (Asker and Jerling 1992;Vie lle-Calzada et al. 1996a), few studies have characterized the fine structure of megagametophytes involved in apomictic reproduction. Cytological studies based on light microscopy have identified the fundamental differences existing between the general organization of sexual and apomictic female gametophyes in different genera (Bashaw and Holt 1958;Voigt and Bashaw 1972;Philipson 1978;Campbell et al. 1987;Crane and Carman 1987;Burson et al. 1990). The fine structure of nucellar and integumentary embryony has been investigated in some detail for a limited number of species (Naumova and Willemse 1982;Wilms et al. 1983;Naumova 1993), and ultrastructural studies of diplospory have been initiated in only a few apomicitic species of Poa (Naumova et al. 1999). In addition, a few ultrastructural characterizations of megagametophyte development and fertilization have been conducted in some aposporous members of the Poaceae (Chapman and Busri 1994;Naumova and Willemse 1995;Vielle et al. 1995),The occurrence of apomixis in species that have conserved the ability to reproduce sexually provides unique opportunities for comparative ultrastructural studies. The formation of sexual and apomictic megagametophytes can simultaneously occur in the same genotype or in different genotypes of the same population. Ultrastructural comparisons of megagametogenesis and early fertilization events in sexual and apomictic ovules of the same species can be used to obtain mechanistic information on specific cellular differences that distinguish these developmental processes. Although the number of species in which ultrastructural studies have been conducted remains limited, recent electron microscopy studies in some aposporous grasses have provided new information on megasporogenesis, aposporous initiation, the organization of the differentiated megagametophyte, and the autonomous division of unreduced egg cells.During integumentary or nucellar embryony (also called adventive embryony), asexual embryos are formed from inner integumentary or nucellar cells that are differentiating in tissues external to the meiotically derived megagametophyte. Nucellar or integumentary cells that give rise to adventive embryos are called embryocytes. A comprehensive review of adventitive embryony provides significant ultrastructural information about this process (Naumova 1993) by summarizing light and electron microscopy observations and reviewing embryological information on representatives of more than 250 species of flowering plants.The first morphological evidence of embryocyte differentiation is usually observed after the initiation of megagametogenesis. As the nucellar cells divide, they invade the central cell of the sexually functional embryo sac. The formation of viable seed from nucellar embryos usually requires fertilization of the polar nuclei and subsequent development of the endosperm; however, autonomous endosperm formation sporadically occurs in some species. Nucellar embryos are usually initiated independently of pollination. Polyembryony, the formation of several embryos in a single ovule, is characteristic of Ultra,t..\"\"aI AIlaly,l, af Apamktk O...Ia,...., 45 adventive embryony. Several ultrastructural investigations have improved our understanding of embryocyte differentiation and early adventive embryogenesis (Naumova 1978;Naumova and Wi1Iemse 1982;Wilms et al. 1983).Embryocytes are generally characterized by a dense cytoplasm, an irregularly shaped nucleus, and a larger volume than most of the nucellar cells present in the ovule. The abundance of polysomes, free ribosomes, mitochondria, and plastids suggests high phYSiological activity in embryocytes. Their cell walls are significantly thickened and lacking plasmodesmata. In the genus Sarcococca, the number of plasmodesmata gradually decreases during embryocyte differentiation (Naumova and Willemse 1982). Using light microscopy, Kol tunow et al (1995) found that the nucellar initials form a thick cell wall in Citrus sinensis. They also found a localized degeneration of the nucellar tissue at the chalazaI pole, a region where nucellar adventive initials are confined. In Sarcoccoca, the general organization of the embryocyte cytoplasm is modified during consecutive stages of mitosis, undergoing events similar to those characterizing the dedifferentiation of pre-meiotic megaspore mother cells (MMC) in sexual species (Dickinson and Potter 1978). In Euonymus macroptera, integumentary embryo formation occurs in tenuinucellate ovules. Asexual embryos originate from two or three cell layers enveloping the micropylar region of the sexually functional megagametophyte (Figure 4.1a,b,c;Naumova 1990). Integumentary embryos coexisting in a single ovule usually develop asynchronously (Figure 4.1d,e). Plasmodesmata are not present in the embryocyte cell wall or in the integumentary wall that is in direct contact with the central cell (Figure4.1f,g). The transversal cell wall that separates sister integumentary cells varies in thickness (Figure 4.1h,j).The ultrastructure of both cells contained in a two-cellular adventive embryo is extremely similar: their external cell wall remains thick and lacks plasmodesmata. Young adventive embryos also lack a distinct polarity, and no regular cell divisions can be discerned; a suspensor is frequently missing. Nucellar embryos do not arise synchronously, and their early development can be severely delayed. Whereas some embryos can appear to be composed of only a few cells, others in the same ovule may already be undergoing organogenesis. Adventive embryos are able to penetrate into the adjacent central cell of a sexually derived megagametophyte.In diplosporous species, the megagametophyte is formed from an aberrant meiotic cycle that prevents reduction and recombination. An ul trastructura Icharac-terization of d iplospory has only been initiated in two apomicts: Poa pa!lIslris and Poa nemoratis (Naumova et al. 1999). In these two species, diplospory is characterized by a complete omission of meio~is; the unreduced megasporocyte develops into an embryo sac after gradual vacuolation and three consecutive mitotic divisions. In the young developing ovule, the archesporial cell progressively differentiates into a diplosporous precursor or diplosporousembryo sac megaspore mother cell (DMC). Subsequently, after three mitotic divisions, the DMC develops into an 8-nucleate embryo sac of the Antennaria-type.In contrast to nucellar cells present within the developing ovule, the archesporial cell of both species is characterized by a large nucleus with decreased chromatin contraction in regions having close contact with the surface of the nucleolus. Numerous poorly differentiated mitochondria and plastids are uniformly distributed in the enlMged cell. Interestingly, isolilted enclil\\\"es of cytoplasm containing multiple membranes are often observed, whereas the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is poorly developed. Compared to the DMC, vacuoles are also abundant but small and located mainly at the micropylar and chalazal poles of the cell.Significant cellular elongation marks the transition from archesporial cell to DMC. Whereas the archespore is 160 J.lm on average, the DMC is about 350-380 J.lm long, with little or no changes in width. This increase in size is associated with a reduction in chromatin condensation and nuclear volume. In the DMC, the nucleus is positioned at the micropylar end of the cell and becomes elongated and irregular in shape. There is a substantial increase in the population of ribosomes, polysomes, dictyosomes. At this stage, the vacuoles fuse into two large ones located at the micropylar and chalazal poles, and there is an obvious increase in the thickness of the cell wall. The transition from DMC to a noncellularized embryo sac is also characterized by a gradual increase in cell length to about 500 J.lm. The nucleus becomes irregular and lobbed, with numerous protuberances in the nuclear envelope. Several nucleoli differing in size and shape can be simultaneously observed. There is also a marked increase in the population of mitochondria and plastids that often form clusters heterogeneously distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Contacts between the external membrane of the nuclear envelope and granular ER cisternae are often observed. Additionally, series of concentric membranous structures were also observed in the cytoplasm. The cell wall became slightly thick during the change of the DMC into a one nucleate embryo sac. Nucellar cells adjacent to the developing diplosporous embryo sac showed signs of degeneration, with an electron-opaque cytoplasm and highly condensed nuclei.Apospory is a form of apomixis in which sporophytic cells in the ovule give rise to unreduced female gametophytes (Gustafsson 1947). The autonomous division of aposporous egg cells generates viable embryos without fertilization; however, the majority of aposporous species are pseudogamous and require fertilization of the polar nuclei for endosperm development (Nogler 1984).An ultrastructural characterization of aposporous megagametophytes has been conducted in PaniCllm and Penniselum. In these two grass genera, the mechanism of aposporous female gametophyte formation is very similar. Early during megasporogenesis, the orientation of the ovule changes within the ovary, and the integuments progressively enclose the nucellus. The ovule becomes anatropous as it rotates toward the base of the pistil, leaving the micropyle facing away from the style. In PaniCllm maximllm and PenlJiselum ciliare (syn = Cel1c}zYlls ciliaris L.), sexual megagametophyte development is monosporic; a single meiotically derived megaspore gives rise to the embryo sac. The functional megaspore enlarges, and its nucleus divides mitotically three times to form the megagametophyte. Buth species develop a sexual megagametophyte of the PolygolJlIm type: two synergids, the egg cell, a binucleate cen tra I ce II whose n uc lei fuse prior to fertilization, and three antipodals that proliferate to give a cluster of cells at the chalazal pole. After fertilizatio:1 of both the egg cell and the central cell, the ovu Ie develops into a seed.Whereas sexual ovules only develop a meiotically derived megagametophyte, in aposporous plants one or several nucellar cells acquire a reproductive fate and are able to pursue growth and differentiation while megasporogenesis proceeds. The spatial and temporal patterns of megaspore mother cell Aposporous development requires the differentiation of nucellar cells into unreduced organized female gametophytes. In most aposporous species, the differentiation of the MMC appears to take place in a subepidermal la yer of the n ucell us, and follows morphological characteristics that have been previously described in many sexually reproducing angiosperms (Huang and Russell 1992). In Panicum maxim 11m, the MMC is characterized by a centrally located nucleus containing a conspicuous nucleolus and dense cytoplasm. In contrast, the nucellar cells surrounding the MMC have thinner cell walls and numerous plasmodesmata that share ultrastructural similarities with young meristematic cells. In aposporous genotypes, meiotically derived dyads and linear tetrads often degenerate during megasporogenesis. Aposporous initials usually differentiate adjacent to degenerating megaspores or onenucleated sexual embryo sacs. Chalazallylocated nucellar cells assume vacuolized spherical shapes and increase in volume (Figure 4.2a,b,c). Their cytoplasm contains numerous plastids and mitochondria, and plasmodemata are scarce or appear to be filled with a cellulose-like matrix. The degeneration of meiotically derived megaspores and early stages of aposporous initiation has recently been investigated in Brachiaria brizantha. In this grass, aposporous initials appear to contain dedifferentiated organelles reminiscent of organellar populations found in pre-meiotic MMCs (A.c. Guerra de Araujo and V. Carneiro, personal communication).Several aposporous embryo sacs can develop in a single ovule (Figure 4.2d). Aposporous female gametophytes show a different orientation with respect to the micropylarchalazal axis, and usually differentiate heterochronically with respect to each other. The transition from aposporous initial to onenucleated embryo sac is characterized by an increase in cell size (Figure 4.3a). The first signs of cellular polarity are the consequence of vesicular fusion; two large vacuoles are formed at opposite sides of a centrally located nucleus. Cell wall thickness also increases, and no plasmodesmata can be discerned (Figure 4.2d,e). In Pennisetum ciliare, the nucleus migrates to the periphery of the cell before dividing (Figure 4.3b). The first mitotic division is perpendicular to the long axis of the cell and usually close to the micropylar region of the one-nucleated embryo sac (Figure 4.3c). The second mitotic division is synchronous in both sister nuclei, giving rise to a four-nucleated type of embryo sac that lacks antipodals at the chalazal pole (Figure 4.3c,d).The second mitotic division is followed by the cellularization of individual nuclei. Little is known about the processes that regulate celll;llarization and differentiation of aposporous megagametophytes.ln Pennisetllnl ciliare, as in most reported aposporous species, female gametophytes usually contain two synergids, an egg cell, and a single polar nucleus in the central cell; however, a variable number of female gametophytes (up to 20% in certain genotypes) may be composed of a single synergid, an egg cell, and two polar nuclei. On rare occasions, embryo sacs containing three polar nuclei and no synergids have been observed. This variable organization appears to be associated with the localization of nuclei prior to cellularization, and suggests that positional information plays a role in gametophytic cell specification.In all aposporous grasses ultrastructurally examined to date, the egg apparatus differentiates with morphological characteristics similar to those found in sexually functional synergids and egg cells. These cells are attached at the micropylar apex, but the triangular organization of the egg apparatus is not necessarily conserved, as the unreduced egg cell may appear in a more lateral position with respect to one of the synergids. Except for the presence of the filiform apparatus, few differences are found in the ultrastructural constitution of the synergids and the egg cell in unpollinated pistils of Panicum maximum. The three cells appear vacuolated, with a centrally located nucleus, and organelles preferentially located in the n:icropylar pole (Figure 4.2f,g,h). Naumov'a and Willemse (1995) characterize<=: the ultrastructure of aposporous embryo sacs, but only observed events prior to pollination. In unpollinated pistils, the egg cell and synergids were similar to the egg apparatus of an embryo sac of the Polygonum-type typically found in the grasses. The egg cell wall showed variable thickness, and the chalazal plasma membrane surface of the egg, central cell, and synergids were in direct contact (Figure 4.2f,g,h). Chapman and Busri (1994) described the ultrastructure of mature         aposporous embryo sacs in the progeny of a Pel1l1isetl/ni glal/cum (sexual) x Pennisetllm sqllaml/latl/m (obligate apomict) interspecific cross. In facultative apomictic genotypes, they compared sexual and aposporous embryo sacs in the same ovule. Particular attention was given to the distribution of internal cell wall ingrowths (transfer walls) in the central cell. Many wall projections were observed in the micropylar region, but few ingrowths were found in the chalazal region of both sexual and apomictic megagametophytes. Plasmodesmata were present in the cell wall that separates the central cell from the antipodals, but appeared to be absent at the chalazal pole of aposporous embryo sacs.In Pennisetl/m ci/iare, most genotypes reproduce by obligate apospory. Breeding efforts are based on the identification of rare genotypes that have completely lost the ability to differentiate aposporous megagametophytes and only form sexually functional, reduced (haploid) embryo sacs of the Polygonum-type. The comparison of the egg apparatus in sexual and aposporous megagametophytes of P. ci/iare offers an opportunity to analyze the cellular dynamics of fertilization in apomictic plants. Such a comparison is particularly valuable if conducted where independent genotypes of apomictic and sexual germplasm are available within a population segregating for method of reproduction.In P. ci/iare, fertilization occurs 3-4 hours after pollination. The examination of thE' egg apparatus of buffelgrass at several time intervals after pollination has provided some information on the structural and functional features that distinguish sexual and apomictic development (Vielle et a!. 1995). Compared to the synergids of the sexually derived egg apparatus, the degenerative process in one or both aposporous synergids appears to be accelerated. Prior to pollination, the cytoplasm Ullra.'nd\"aI Analy.i. of Apolllidic D ...lop....' 57 of both cells contains small vacuoles, and few organelles can be identified. In general, the cells are similar in appearance to the sexual synergids during the first two hours following pollination, but before pollen tube arrival.During the first two hours following pollination, the cytoplasm of one of the synergids becomes electron-dense, the plasma membrane appears disrupted, organelles cannot be identified, and the nucleus is irregularly shaped and pressed to the plasma membrane. Increased amounts of vesicular traffic are observed. Later, the cytoplasm of the second synergid also shows signs of degeneration. Two to three hours after pollination, the degenerated synergid has entirely collapsed and its remnants appear as an electron-dense fringe closely associated with the egg cell. The time of initiation of the degenerative process is variable in both sexual and aposporous embryo sacs, and in some cases, highly degenerated synergids are present in unpollinated ovules during or just after embryo-sac cellularization.Significant differences are also observed between the aposporous and the sexual egg cell. After cellularization but before pollination, the aposporous egg cell is characterized by a conspicuous centrally located nucleus that contains a single nucleolus (Figure 4.3e). The nucleus of the sexually derived egg cell is gener-ally centrally located, but has a smaller nucleolus. The chalazal vacuole present in the sexually derived egg cell is replaced by several smaller vacuoles that restrict the cytoplasm to a region located around the nucleus. In contrast to the sexual egg cell, the cytoplasm contains abundant mitochondria and polysomes, but few Golgi bodies and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can be observed. At the micropylar region, both sexual and aposporous eggs share common cell walls with both synergids, but these walls disappear in the middle portions 58 Tamara N. N....... Old JOGO-PUIp,. VIeIle-CAbada of the cell. The plasma membranes of the egg and synergids are in direct contact at the chalazal pole.Three to four hours after pollination, striking changes are detected in the ultrastructure of the aposporous egg cell. A cell wall without a middle lamella has covered the chalazal region of the egg plasma membrane, separating the cell from the degenerated cytoplasm of a collapsed synergid (Figure 4.4a,b). No cell wall covers the chalaza I end of the sexual egg cell, even after pollen tube discharge. The aposporous egg cell cytoplasm appears vacuolated and contains numerous undifferentiated plastids preferentially organized in clusters at the periphery of the nuclear membrane. A thin layer of central cell cytoplasm is associated with the external surface of this de novo formed cell wall (Figure 4.4c,d). The central cell cytoplasm contains a large number of Colgi cisternae and mitochondria, particularly in the so-called apical pocket, a region of the central cell formed by the proximity of the egg apparatus to the central cell wall (Figure 4.4d). The unreduced polar nucleus usually contains more than one nucleolus. In some rare occasions, a multicellular embryo can be present before pollen tube arrival into the micropyle.Apogamety designates the formation of embryos from a cell of the megagametophyte other than the egg. Even if this phenomenon has rarely been reported in sexual and apomictic species (Asker and Jerling 1992), it implies the autonomous activation of reproductive cells and can be considered a nonrecurrent form of apomixis.The fine structure of synergids undergoing autonomous activation has been described in Trillium camschatcense Ker. Caw!., a species that is endemic to the extreme eastern region of the former USSR. Synergid embryos develop in more than 80% of the embryo sacs investigated in this species (Naumova 1978(Naumova , 1990)). Light microscopy studies have shown that the egg cell and the synergids undergo limited differentiation. They are characterized by a centrally located nucleus and no central vacuole. The three cells appear similar in size and shape, but the presence of a conspicuous filiform apparatus is characteristic of the synergids. Differences between their cytoplasmic constitution can only be discerned at the ultrastructural level. In contrast to the egg cell, synergids are rich in endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi cisterneae. Plastids, mitochondria, and polysomes are abundant in the egg cell. Before pollen tube arrival into one of the synergids, the three cells have an incomplete cell wall at their chalazal pole (Figure 4.5a,b).Following fertilization of the egg and central cell, drastic ultrastructural changes occur in the persistent synergid. An increase in the nuclear and nucleolar size is followed by a complete reorganization of the organellar population, which becomes similar to the one present in the egg cell before sperm cell delivery. Mitochondria with numerous cristae and plastids dense in stroma are abundant. .... Whereas the sexually derived embryo is already surrounded by a thick cell wall devoid of plasmodesmata, the cell wall of the 2cellular embryo derived from autonomous synergid activation thickens (Figure 4.5c,d) and becomes progressively isolated through the loss of all plasmodesmata. In summary, the ultrastructural transformations taking place in embryogenic synergids of T. camschatcense are comparable to the changes occurring in the egg cell during the gametophytic to sporophytic transition of sexual flowering plants.Comparisons between sexual and apomictic megagametophytes represent an ideal system to start dissecting the cellular and molecular differences that distinguish sexuality from apomixis. Sexual reproduction is strictly dependent on the production and fusion of haploid male and female gametes. In contrast, apomictic reproduction is dependent on the formation of unreduced female gametophytes, the autonomous activation of the egg cell, and the eventual fertilization of the polar nucleus (or nuclei). Regardless of the reproductive method, the megagametophyte forms entirely within the nucellar tissue and is dependent on the sporophyte for its development and function. UI trastructural analysis of apomictic development has provided new, but limited, information on the developmental particularities of adventive embryony and gametophytic apomixis. So far, results have mainly described specific aspects of differentiated embryocytes and aposporous initials, and the fine structure of cellularized megagametophytic cells before and after parthenogenetic activation.The similarity of ultrastructural characteristics shared by adventive embryocytes and aposporous initials deserves special attention. The presence of a thick cell wall appears to be prevalent around embryocytes and aposporous initials. An extensive survey of the gametophytic-sporophytic junction in land plants reveals that the two generations of the sexual angiosperm life cycle are almost invariably separated by thickened cell walls lacking plasmodesmata (Ligrone et aJ. 1993;Bell 1995). The presence of a conspicuous boundary surrounding the megagametophyte of some mosses and ferns of the early Devonian (Remy et aJ. 1993) suggests that gametophytic cell isolation may have 3 crucial function of fundamental importance for the evolution of the angiosperms. Some also suggest that a combination of hyd rated polysaccharides and callose in the cell wall of meiotically derived megaspores may act as a molecular filter that impedes the transport of low molecular weight peptides and/ or nucleic acids expressed in nucellar cells, since their presence may represent a threat to the initiation of gametophytic development (Knox and Heslop-Harrison 1970). In sexual plants, the presence of callose surrounding degenerating megaspores (but not viable ones) suggests that callose may be suppressing the nonfunctional megaspores by isolation. In lower plants (mosses and ferns), selective permeability of thick wall boundaries allows only the transport of minerals and simple sugars (Bell 1988(Bell , 1992)); plasmodesmata appear to be completely absent. Callose deposition was detected in adventive embryocytes in young Citrus seeds (Wakana and Uemoto 1987). Carman et al. (1991) compared the distribution of callose in sexual and apomictic megaspores of Elymus recticetus and found that, contrary to normal meiosis, the cell wall of diplosporous MMCs invariably lacks callose. These results have been confirmed in several diplosporous grass genera (Leblanc et at. 1995;Peel et aJ. 1997; see also Leblanc and Mazzucato,Chap. 9). The drastic cytoplasmic transforma tions occurring in young embryocytes and aposporous initials may depend on a developmental program that is only initiated in the absence of informative molecules originating in the nucellus. A recent hypothesis postulated by Carman (1997) suggests that the role of isolation during megasporogenesis may depend on expression of duplicate genes, especially in polyploids in which the time and duration of specific cytological events could be the cause of anomalies during megasporogenesis. Needless to say, the role of cell wall thickening and callose deposition during megasporo-genesis, diplospory, aposporous initiation, or nucellar embryony remains an unsolved problem.The examination of the apomictic megagametophyte in some aposporous grasses illustrates many ultrastructural characteristics that are conserved in the angiosperms. Ultrastructural comparisons to sexually functional megagametophytes do not always distinguish facultative apomictic genotypes (with sexual and aposporous embryo sacs in the same ovule or inflorescence) from obligate apomictic ones (aposporous embryo sacs exclusively present). In addition, the distinction between the ultrastructural observations of unpollinated or pollinated pistils has rarely been reported. In PalliCllm maximllm (Naumova and Willemse 1995) and Pellniseillm interspecific progeny (Chapman and Busri 1994) the general organization of the egg apparatus appears to be very similar to that of corresponding sexual megagametophytes.The ultrastructural comparison of the sexual and aposporous egg apparatus in Pell/lise/llm ciliare raises questions regarding the role of synergids and the nature of the signal that triggers egg cell parthenogenesis. The severe signs of synergid degeneration present in some unpollinated pistils indicate that a certain flexibility characterizes the timing and duration of megagametophytic development in sexual and apomictic ovules, and suggest that the fate of the degenerating synergid might be independent of pollen germination or pollen tube growth. The spatial association between the egg cell and the degenerating synergid is particularly close and suggests a possible involvement of the degenerative events in the activation or repression of the egg cell. In the sexually derived egg cell, the low frequency of endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi bodies, and polysomes, together with the small number of cristae present in the mitochondrial population, suggests that the cell is in a rather quiescent physiological state, presumably prolonged until pollen tube arrival into the micropylar vicinity. A quiescent egg cell prior to fertilization has also been described in several sexual species (Diboll 1968;Schultz and Jensen 1968). In contrast, the large amount of ribosomes and polysomes and large number of cristae in mitochondria suggest that the mature aposporous egg cell is in a highly active metabolic state even before pollination.The changes that occur in the egg cell several hours after pollination are likely to be the result of an important reorganization of the cytoplasm that occurs during cell wall formation. The chalazal portion of the egg cell wall is synthesized de novo and does not depend on cell division or the formation of a cell plate. The completion cf the egg cell wall _ lacking plasmodesmata is presumably the result of a previous activation process; however, a role for cell wall completion in the induction of egg cell division can not be discarded. Some researchers suggest that a cell wall might impede fusion of the sperm and egg plasma membranes (Savidan 1982;Asker and Jerling 1992). The ultrastructural observations in Pennise//lm ciliare represent the first direct evidence demonstrating the presence of a complete egg cell wall before pollen tube arrival (Vielle et at. 1995). The abundance of Golgi bodies in the apical pocket suggests that the central cell may be responsible for the synthesis and transport of polysaccharides necessary for the formation of this unique portion of the egg cell walt. Whereas it is unlikely that a chalazally-located wall is the only factor preventing egg cell fertilization, it is worth mentioning that fertilization of apomictic egg cells occurs at variable frequencies in the grasses, and that precocious pollination increases the frequency of this phenomenon (Martinez et at. 1994). The presence of multicellular embryos in unpollinated pistils suggests that autonomous egg cell activation may also be independent of pollination (Naumova et al. 1992;Naumova and Matzk 1998). In the case of apogametic development, synergid activation appears to depend on cytological modifications that mirror events occurring in fertilized egg cells.The number of studies dealing with ultrastructural analyses of apomictic development is extremely limited. Even if some insights have been gained on the fine structure of adventive embryocytes and aposporous initials, the characterization of the mechanistic events that distinguish apomictic initiation from sexual megasporogenesis is far from complete. Additional descriptions of early megasporogenesis in members of dicotyledonous apomicts would be very valuable. Low-magnification electron microscopy could provide a better understanding of the sporophyticgametophytic junction, and of the general distribution of aposporous initials differentiating in the nucellus. Whereas the deposition of callose has provided an excellent cytological marker to distinguish normal meiosis from diplosporous differentiation (Carman et al. 1991), a detailed ultrastructural analysis of diplospory and all its variants is urgently needed. A description of apomeiosis at the ultrastructural level could provide unique insights about the specifc frequency of chiasma formation for different species; this type of analysis has been extensively used to characterize mutants affecting female meiosis in maize (Golubovskaya 1979;Golubovskaya et al. 1992).Electron microscopy investigations can now be combined with immunocytochemical approaches that take advantage of a wide range of monoclonal antibodies raised against specific components of the plant cell surface. The use of monoclonal antibodies represents a valuable alternative to the scarce eDNA  Calzada et al. 1996b; see also Chapter 12). Of particular interest are probes that identify specific glycoproteins involved in events such as positional sensing and cell determination (Knox 1992;Pennell 1992). The establishment of a reproductive lineage can be associated with changes in the distribution of glycoprotein epitopes present at the outer face of the plant cell plasma membrane (Pennell and Roberts 1990;Pennell et al. 1991). These and other discoveries (Knox et al. 1990) suggest that cell surface arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) participate in the local control of reproductive transitions, from a sporophytic to a gametophytic development during gametogenesis, and from a gametophytic to a sporophytic condition after fertilization. In this regard, plasma membrane AGPs bear comparison with components of animal cell glycocalyx and suggest a functional similarity between plant and apimal cell surfaces (Pennell 1992). These/particular patterns of AGP distribution seem to be the consequence of a reproductive cellular commitment associated with gametophytic gene expression. The investigation of these proteins in apomictic ovules could provide valuable information on the mechanisms that regulate megagametophyte development in the angiosperms. In Pennisetum ciliare for example, AGP epitopes recognized by JIM13, a monoclonal antibody implicated in embryogenic cell specification (Pennell and Roberts 1990), are. abundantly localized in the plasma membrane of sexual and aposporous synergids. This localization is conserved in aposporous megagametophytes aberrantly positioned with respect to the micropylar-chalazal axis, suggesting that the sporophytic tissue is unlikely to playa fundamental role on the specification of the egg apparatus (J-P Vielle-Calzada and K. VandenBosch, unpublished results). The comparison of early fertilization events in PellllisetllnJ ciliare has identified ultrastructural differences related to the control of egg cell parthenogenesis, an essential event in the apomictic life cycle that is absent from sexual rep rod uction; however, the dynamics of pollen tube arrival and sperm cell delivery have not been investigated. Further ultrastructural studies will be necessary to determine if sperm cell delivery and movement are equivalent in sexual and aposporous female gametophytes. The nature of the signal that activates the aposporous egg cell and the fate of the sperm cells after pollen tube delivery remain to be elucidated. Levels of calcium and other elements have never been measured in synergids of apomictic embryo sacs (Chaubal and Reger 1992). Additional studies should include three-dimensional reconstruction of egg cells during the first hours following pollination and quantitative information on the pattern of synergid degeneration and on the specific fate of sperm cells within the megagametophyte. Attempts to follow the movement of fluorochromatically-stained sperm cells in sexual embryo sacs have been limited, and the reliability of such studies using conventional clearing techniques is questionable; however, in vitro analysis of sperm nuclei movement within isolated embryo sacs has been accomplished (Faure et al. 1994). Isolation and fusion of gametes can now be used to compare the interaction of sperm cells with sexual or aposporous egg cells, in order to determine if cell to cell interactions impede the fusion of sperm nuclei with an ilpomictically-derived egg cell. Finally, some \\'ery enlightening findings may be l'btilined in the near future by following on the pioneering work of Olga Erdelska (Skwakian Academy of Sciences, Bratislilvil). Recent investigations in Torellia jOllmieri have shown that, at least in certain species in which the megagametophyte can be readily dissected or is partially uncovered by the integuments, some unique discoveries can be made by observing the process of double fertilization in vivo (Higashiyama et at. 2000). Microinjection and cell ablation technology may soon be combined with microcinerr:atography to investigate sexual and apomictic megagametophyte development in vivo.Geneticists interested in analyzing the inheritance of apomixis face challenging problems. Apomixis overrides certain processes essential to the analysis of inheritance, i.e., it usurps meiotic megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis. Obligately apomictic plants cannot serve as maternal parents in hybridization. However, since apomixis normally does not prevent meiotic pollen formation, apomicts can be used as male parents in crosses with sexual or facultatively apomictic female parents. When facultative apomicts function as maternal parents, three types of progeny may be formed (see Berthaud, Chap.2), and each type must be distinguished when testing genetic models, i.e., normal B II hybrids from fertilization of reduced embryo sacs, apomictic progeny from parthenogenetic embryogenesis of umed uced eggs, and B m progeny from fertilization of unreduced eggs by reduced pollen yielding nonmaternal types at an increased ploidy level. Sexual reproduction is unknown in some apomictic species, accordingly, sexual plants must be found or created before genetic manipulation is possible. Sexual members of agamic complexes usually are at a different ploidy level than the apomicts. The polyploid, highly heterozygous nature of most apomictic plants complicates genetic analysis (Stebbins 1950;Nogler 1984a).Early reports indicated that apomixis is heritable, but did not point to specific genes or genetic systems (Gustaffson 1946--47;Nogler 1984a). Successful hybridization was difficult, and methods for classifying progeny were tedious and unreliable. Discovery of the cytologically distinctive Panicum-type of apospory in the 1950s fostered the beginning of creditable inheritance studies. Pistil clearing techniques were introduced in the 1970s (see Crane, Chap. 3) that permitted the classification of large numbers of progeny. More recently, the application of molecular technology to characterizing, locating, and isolating apomixis sequences has augmented our understanding of the regulation of apomixis (see Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6). Presently, it appears that the expression of aposporous apomixis requires a dominantly acting master gene or linkage unit; roles have been indicated for dosage, additivity, recessive lethality, and modifying genes. The limited data available for diplosporous taxa indicate that diplospory also may be regulated by a dominant linkat with modifiers. Applied diligently, the methods suited to hybridization and classification of apomictic plants described below can lead eventually to a resolution of these difficult problems.This section discusses methods for selecting parents, characterizing parents and progeny, and making crosses of apomictic species. Chapters 2, 6, 9, and 10 should also be consulted. Chromosomal constitution, reproductive behavior, and phenotype of both parents must be completely known.Chromosome counts in progeny are essential when the parents are at different ploidy levels, whenever aneuploidy is suspected, and for detecting BIll hybrids. When facultative apomicts are used as the maternal parent, the non maternal progeny, or a sample thereof, should be examined for their chromosome numbers to determine whether they are B or n BIll hybrids. Counts are made from anaphase figures of root tips using standard techniques (Sherwood et al. 1980;Dujardin and Hanna 1989;Hignight et al. 1991). Some 2n + 1 aneuploid plants have a tendency to eliminate one chromosome in root tips, making detection of aneuploidy difficult (Nogler 1989).Flow cytometry is useful in determining approximate ploidy levels (den Nijs 1990; Huff and Bara 1993;Naumova et al. 1993;Mazzucato et al. 1994;Leblanc et al. 1995a;Leblanc and Mazzucato, Chap.9). Ploidy level of individual reproductive nuclei can be determined with image cytometry of Feulgen stained sections (Sherwood 1995) or photocytometry of DAPI-stained isolated embryo sacs (Naumova et al. 1993). Cell cycle stages must be accounted for when applying flow cytometry or photocytometry.Chromosome pairing and disjunction usually can be determined by examining microsporogenesis (Hignight et al. 1991;Burson 1992). Pollen viability is determined using 1 2 KI stain, fluorescein diacetate stain, or germination tests (Dujardin and Hanna 1989;Hill et al. 1989). Female fertility is estimated by determining percentage of seed set per 100 florets in open or self-pollinated inflorescences (Hignight et al. 1991).Progeny testing originally was practiced as whole plant morphological comparison of progeny with the maternal parent. Broadly speaking, comparative analysis of any trait Getoetk AooIysls ., Ap••obls 65 including cytological and molecular markers constitutes progeny testing. Identity of offspring with the maternal type in all respects indicates possible apomictic origin (Bashaw 1980). However, maternal appearance can also stem from matrocliny and from selffertilization of highly homozygous parental material, as found in advanced generations of naturally inbred plants (Asker 1980).It is necessary to recognize all stages of normal meiotic megasporogenesis and megagemetogenesis, as well as the stages of apomeiotic megasporogenesis and gametogenesis. Luckily, the number of different types found among species for which inheritance studies are feasible is small compared with the total range displayed by angiosperms. For about 90% of genera known to reproduce both sexually and apomictically, normal meiotic reproduction is based exclusively on formation of the Polygonum-type of embryo sac. About 10% of the genera commonly have bisporic or tetrasporic sexual embryo sac development (Carman 1997). Fortunately, most apomictic species exhibit only one type of apomictic sac from among the four types described below (Nogler 1984a).The distinction between meiotic (= sexual) and apomeiotic (= apomictic) events becomes cytologically discernable after differentiation of the, megaspore mother cell (MMC) in all ovules (see Leblanc and Mazzucato,Chap. 9). In the normal monosporic Polygonum-type meiosis, walls of megasporocytes and megaspores (tetrad cells) become invested with callose. It is a simple matter to visualize this cage-like indicator of meiotic activity using fluorescence m\"icroscopy of intact, aniline blue treated pistils (see Leblanc and Mazzucato,Chap. 9). The fully differentiated Polygonum-type sac is based on an 8-nucleate scheme, with an egg apparatus, polar nuclei, and antipodal cells.66 Robe\" T. SherwoodIn mitotic diplospory and restitutional diplospory, the MMC is diverted into functioning as an unreduced, apomictic embryo sac initial. Its size and shape may vary from those of reduced megasporocytes and provide fleeting evidence for diplospory that is tedious to acquire. Illustrations are given by Gustafsson (1946Gustafsson ( -1947)), Hair (1956), Battaglia (1963), Rutishauser (1969), Nogler (1984a), and Crane and Carman (1987). A much more convenient test for diplospory is based on the absence of callose deposition in pistils during diplosporous megasporogenesis (Carman et al. 1991;Leblanc et al. 1995c).Monopolar aposporous embryo sac (= Panicum-type embryo sac) formation follows a 4-nucleate scheme. Panicum-type sacs are known only in the Panicoideae and Arundinaceae (Brown andEmery 1958, Nogler 1984a). Illustrations are given in Fisher et al. (1954), Snyder et al. (1955), Bashaw andHolt (1956), andBashaw (1962). Each embryo sac develops from a somatic cell (usually a nucellar cell) about the time that meiosis begins in the MMC. Meiotic and apomeiotic features, including callose deposition around tetrads, occur in the same ovule. The mature Panicumtype sacs lack antipodals and usually can be distinguished from sexual sacs by this feature. Occasionally, large antipodals of sexual sacs can be mistaken for multiple aposporous sacs. Aposporous activity usually crowds out sexual sac formation. However, some pistils of facultative plants eventually may contain a fully differentiated sexual sac, or even sacs of both types (Sherwood et al. 1980). Bipolar aposporous sacs and diplosporous sacs form antipodals and at maturity closely resemble the sexual sacs (Nogler 1984a).The reproductive mode can be classified by examining diagnostic stages of megasporogenesis and / or megagametogenesis in cleared or sectioned pistils. In monopolar (Panicumtype) aposporous species, the pistils can be examined at any stage after embryo sac enlargement has begun. In other species, stages of megasporogenesis are examined. To accurately determine whether embryo sacs of a plant are exclusively or predominantly sexual or apomictic, at least 20-100 pistils from the plant should be viewed. A few pistils will be unclassifiable.Sectioning paraffin embedded pistils is technically demanding and time-consuming. Early studies were based on sectioning and only small samples of ovules were examined, consequently, facultativeness was not readily detected. However, sectioning remains useful for classifying certain species (Burson 1992). Spikelets of Erngroslis have multiple florets with a range of developmental stages. Careful sectioning of a spikelet permits observation of developmental sequences and assists in interpretation in facultative apomicts in which diplospory affects timing of meiotic events relative to those of normal sexual development.Clearing methods are much faster and easier than sectioning. Nuclei and walls of reproductive cells can be visualized in their proper relations in intact pistils or ovules. Several c1earants and protocols are available (Herr 1971(Herr , 1982;;Crane 1978;Young et al. 1979;Crane '1.nd Carman 1987;Nogler 1990, Savidan 1990a;Crane, appendix of Chap. 3;Leblanc and Mazzucato, Chap, 9), Users must determine which clearant provides the best results for their material; they should also be familiar with sectioned material of the species,Aside from their effects on embryo-sac formation, parthenogenesis, and conservation of the maternal genotype, apomixis genes have no known effect on plant characteristics-nor have transcripts or other direct products of the genes been located. No conventional morphological, agronomic, or physiological traits are specifically associated with apomixis. The lack of linkage information is hardly unexpected given the obstacles to traditional mapping in species that have the barrier to crossing imposed by apomixis and for the most part are alloploids with indistinguishable chromosomes, irregular chromosome duplication, and secondary economic status.Conventional, unlinked, monogenically inherited traits have been used as markers to distinguish maternal from hybrid progeny. If the maternal parent is homozygous for a recessive trait, and the pollen parent is homozygous dominant, uniformity of progeny for the maternal marker suggests maternal inheritance. Homozygous or heterozygous dominant markers in the pollen parent have been employed to reveal hybrid Fls (Hanna et al. 1970;Hanna and Powell 1973;Dujardin and Hanna 1989;Hignight et al. 1991).Isozyme polymorphism has been used to characterize variability in apomictic parents and progeny (Marshall and Downes 1977;Hacker 1988;Cruz et al. 1989;Roy and Rieseberg 1989;Bayer et al. 1990;Kojima et al. 1991;Poverene and Voigt 1995;Gustine et al. 1996;Berthaud, Chap. 2;Leblanc and Mazzucato, Chap. 9).Several molecular markers that apparently are linked with apomixis genes have been found (Leblanc and Mazzucato,Chap. 9;Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6). Ozias-Akins et al. (1993, 1998) and Lubbers et al. (1994) described a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker and a sequence-tagged site (STS) marker tightly linked with apomixis in Pellniseillm species. Gustine et al. (1997) described two additional linked RAPD markers in P cilinre and derived a preliminary linkage map of three markers with the apospory locus. Leblanc et al. (1995b) prepared three restriction fragment Ge••ti< Alaly.;'.f Apamil;' 67 length probes (RFLP) from a maize-TripsnCllm dnctylaides F\\ population that cosegregated with diplospory. They also were linked on the long arm of chromosome 6 of maize. Matzk (1991a) devised an auxin test for detecting parthenogenetic capacity. Unpollinated plants are treated with DIC; 2,4-0; 2,4,5-T; or CPAA. Parthenogenetic individuals form grains with a mature embryo but no endosperm. Results are positive for parthenogenetic mutants of nonapomictic species (barley, wheat) and for apomictic plants of apomictic species. The test can be used to screen for parthenogenetic plants in sexual species and to detect sexual plants in apomictic populations. It has proven useful in characterizing Pan pmlensis lines that vary in degree of facultative apomixis (Matzk 1991b;Mazzucato et al. 1996). Naumova et al. (1993) described a cytological test for quantitative analysis of parthenogenesis in Pan pmlensis. Embryo sacs were isolated mechanically and examined for spontaneous embryogenesis.Allillm II/beros/lm (Kojima and Kawaguchi 1989). Up to 80% of apomictic embryos, but no sexual embryos, showed development on the medium.Combined Cytological, Progeny, Biological, and Marker Testing When used alone, none of the progeny testing methods discussed above can unequivocally establish the reproductive status of every plant. Two or more approaches applied together are more informative (Naumova et al. 1993;Mazzucato et al. 1996).Whole plant progeny testing views the end product of seed formation and is the ultimate test of whether apomixis is functional. Cytological examination of ovules during megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis tests whether the plant has a capacity for apomictic embryo-sac formation and how strong that capacity may be relative to the sexual alternative, but it does not indicate whether the unreduced sacs will form functional seeds. Cytological and whole plant methods must be used in tandem to characterize parents (Savidan 1992).Comparisons of methods of classification generally show good agreement. Cytology and whole plant progeny testing give similar results for most lines of Eragrostis curvula (Voigt and Burson 1983) and Panicum maximum (Nakajima and Mochizuki 1983). In Brachiaria, Miles and Valle (1991) found correspondence between the two methods in claSSifying 54 Fls as sexual and 37 Fls as apomictic, however, 10 plants that appeared sexual in progeny tests were facultatively apomictic in embryo-sac analysis, i.e., progeny testing underestimated the genetic potential for apomixis. Cytological analyses generally reveal higher sexual potential than is indicated by whole plant progeny testing (Savidan 1982a;Mazzucato et al. 1996).When apomixis is essentially obligate, progeny tests are considered as reliable as cytological analyses (Savidan 1982a). In facultative lines with high levels of apomeiosis, progeny testing in conjunction with a determination of chromosome levels of off-type progeny may be efficient in detecting sexuality (Sherwood et al. 1980;Savidan 1982a). Progeny tests are unreliable in detecting low levels of apomixis in a predominantly sexual line (Savidan 1982a;Voigt and Burson 1992). Heterogeneity within a progeny cannot be considered proof of the absence of apomixis (Yudin 1994).Early identification of nonmatemal plants in progeny of facultatively apomictic Poa pratellsis has been facilitated by isozyme and RAPD markers (Huff and Bara 1993;Mazzucato et al. 1995). Estimates of the degree of apomixis or parthenogenesis in P pratensis were higher with progeny testing than with embryo sac analysis (Mazzucato et al. 1996). The auxin test gave similar or higher estimates than embryo-sac analysis. It is necessary to examine a large sample of ovules or seed (upwards of 100 individuals) from each potential parent to detect any tendencies toward facultativeness.Accidental self-or cross-pollination can dramatically influence genetic inferences, especially when wide ratios are being tested. Unintentional self-fertilization will skew ratios in favor of the phenotype of the maternal parent. Markers to recognize hybrid or selfed progeny should be used when available.Several approaches have been used to reduce unwanted fertilization in apomixis research:1) Protogyny. If the inflorescence exserts receptive stigmas before anthers are exserted and dehisce, stigmas can be pollinated before the maternal floret sheds pollen (Voigt and Bashaw 1972;Hanna and Powell 1973;Voigt and Burson 1983;Bashaw et al. 1992;Valle and Miles, Chap. 10). Extraneous pollen is excluded by covering the head with a paper or glassine bag prior to stigma exsertion and continuing until seeds are set. 2) Suppressed anther dehiscence. Dehiscence of exserted anthers can be suppressed by maintaining high humidity. Humidity chambers (Taliaferro and Bashaw 1966), glassine bags (Hanna et al. 1973), and glass bottles lined with moist filter paper (Sherwood et al. 1994) have been used for that purpose.3) Hand emasculation. Emasculation prior to opening of flowers, followed by bagging, has been practiced for Potentilla (Asker 1970a) and Ralllll1CltIlls (Nogler 1984b). Valle et al. (1991) showed that emasculation and bagging of Brachiaria did not totally prevent selfing. Techniques have been published for emasculating small flowered grasses (Burson 1985(Burson ,1992;;Richardson 1958). 4) Male gametocide. Young inflorescences of Pennisetum ciliare were sprayed with a male gametocide (Bashaw and Hignigh 1990;Hignight et al. 1991). 5) Self incompatibility. Self incompatibility of sexual female lines has been used to advantage in Taraxacum (Richards 1970), Paspalum notatum (Burton and Forbes 1960), and Hieracium (Gadella 1987). Dujardin and Hanna (1989) used male sterile pearl millet (Pennisetum glallcum) as a female parent. Selfincompatibility is incomplete in guineagrass (Panicum maximum); the degree of cross fertilization depends upon the procedure practiced for isolation (Savidan et al. 1989;Savidan 1990b). Because genotypes can vary in degree of spontaneous selfing, it may be necessary to use control tests to establish reliability of each female parent (Matzk 1989;Valle et al. 1991).Reciprocal crossing detects nuclear and cytoplasmic maternal effects (including matrociiny). The apomixis gene(s) has such a powerful maternal effect that geneticists have been discouraged from using this technique, bu t apomixis need not be a deterrent to its use.It is feasible to use one or two facultative parents in the crossing scheme (Savidan 1981). Nogler (1984b) conducted reciprocal backcrosses with a sexual diploid genotype as the male or female in pairings with facultative lines. Jassem (1990) used reciprocals in beets.It is best if both parents are at the same ploidy level. The tetraploid level seems to be the natural milieu for expression of apomixis, whereas apomixis is rarely confirmed in Goottk AIaIy,Is .f Apolllilis 69 diploids. If fully sexual tetraploids are not available, they may be produced by various strategies. Colchicine treatment of sexual diploids has created sexual tetraploids used in hybridizations (Burton and Forbes 1960;Richards 1970;Savidan 1981;Miles and Valle 1991;Valle et al. 1991). Leblanc et al. (1995a) treated embryogenic calli of sexual diploid Tripsacum with colchicine to induce chromosome doubling; the regenerated tetraploid plants reproduced sexually. However, when a sexual line of Paspalum heXilstachium was doubled, the tetraploid was facultatively aposporous (Quarin and Hanna 1980). Asker (1967) started with an apomictic diploid (possibly a dihaploid?) biotype of Potentilla argentea and obtained a partially sexual tetraploid. Thus colchicine doubling may reveal latent capacities for apomixis or sexuality.Tetraploids can be created by hybridization. Harlan et al. (1964) selected a completely sexual tetraploid of Bothriochloa grahamii from a cross between two facultatively apomictic tetraploids. Savidan's (1981) crosses of facultative tetraploids of genotype Aaaa yielded sexual:aposporous (S:A) progeny in the ratio of 1:3, indicating that the sexual progeny were genotype aaaa. The genetic analyses of Harlan et al. (1964) also used a sexual tetraploid Dichanthium annulatum accession that originated from a BIll hybridization of an emasculated diploid sexual plant with a tetraploid male. Burton and Hanna (1986) grew diploid sexual Pensacola bahiagrass (Paspa/um notatum) in isolation with an apomictic tetraploid to produce a triploid B hybrid. Open pollination of the triploid m with Pensacola bahiagrass yielded Bill hybrids at the tetraploid level. These facultatively apomictic lines could be used as maternal parents in crosses and selfs to create sexual tetraploids. Quarin (1992) successfully used a similar scheme.Interspecific or intergeneric crosses have provided evidence for apomixis genes in a genome or chromosome unique to one of the parents. Sexual tetraploid vaseygrass (Paspalllnl lIrvillei) with the genomic formula IIJJ was hybridized with hexaploid P. dilatatllnl biotypes with genomic formulas of IIJJXX and IlJJXX 2 (Burson 1992). The pentaploid hybrids were facultative apomicts, indicating a gene(s) controlling apomixis was located in the X genome.Examinations of aneuploids indicate that genetic control for apomixis may reside in one chromosome (Sorenson 1958;Nogler 1984b;Mogie 1988). This also appeared to explain introgressive transfer of apospory into a sexual Pennisetllnl glallCllnl background (Dujardin and Hanna 1989). It appeared that the apomictic 29 chromosome BC) plant received 28 chromosomes from pearl millet and one, bearing an apomixis gene, from Pe/wisetllnJ sqllanJlIlatllnl; however, molecular data of Ozias-Akins et al. (1993) did not support this assumption.RFLP markers were used successfully to locate a portion of a sexual maize chromosome homologous to the TripsaCllnl chromosome bearing the diplospory gene (Leblanc et al. 1995b;Grimanelli et aI., Chap.6). Three RFLP probes cosegregated with diplospory in a maize-TripsaCllnJ F) population that was segregating for mode of reproduction. The markers also were associated with the long arm of maize chromosome 6.Starting Point Genetic relatedness, chromosomal balance, and sexuality of the maternal parent are the primary considerations in selecting parents (Savidan 1990a). Generally speaking, the best situation is to use intraspecific crosses; interspecific crosses are a second choice, and intergeneric crosses are a poor third alternative. Interspecific and intergeneric crosses of distant parents usually create abnormalities that interfere with reproduction. Selection of genetically close parents, however, must be tempered with consideration of natural crossability rather than arbitrary taxonomic distinctions. Interspecific crossing has been relatively successful among some species of the Dichanthillnl / Bothrioclrloa / CapillipedillnJ complex (de Wet and Harlan 1970) and within Brachiaria (Valle and Miles,Chap. 10). On the other hand, a composite species such as Potentilla argentea may constitute a complex aggregation of sexual and apomictic biotypes that do not readily interbreed (Asker 1970a, b).Crosses between plants at the same ploidy level are preferred in order to reduce meiotic disturbances and sterility. Hybridization across ploidy levels leads to intermediate, and often unstable, chromosome numbers. Triploid hybrids resulting from crossing diploid and tetraploid parents can express apomixis, but they will not be desirable for further crossing or selfing except for developing aneuploids.Sexual parents should be devoid of apomixis alleles. Savidan (1990a) warns of hidden apomixis within naturally occurring tetraploids that appear to be sexual. He sugges,ts that sexuality in natural tetraploids could be facultative, even if it looks obligate in a progeny test, because of modifying factors that influence expression of the apomixis gene. Savidan goes on to recommend creation of totally sexual tetraploids by colchicine doubling of sexual diploids.All apomixis inheritance studies published to date have included crosses between sexual maternal parents and apomictic pollen parents followed by characterization of the Fl' Usually, severa I crosses were made, and fi rst selfed generation SI plants of sexual parents were analyzed. Information from Fls and SIS has only limited power for testing alternative genetic models. Interpretations can be strengthened using advanced generations, as in studies by Burton and Forbes (1960); Nogler (1984b); Savidan (1981); and Valle and Miles (Chap. 10).How should facultative progeny displaying various degrees of apomixis be grouped when testing segregation ratios? Current practice places all plants showing any apomixis into one group (deemed apomictic) and all plants devoid of apomixis into a second group (deemed sexual) (Savidan 1981;Voigt and Burson 1983;Miles and Valle 1991;Sherwood et al. 1994). Most facultative plants produce far more apomictic sacs and progeny than sexual sacs or nonmatemal progeny, and classification is relatively straightforward. With only two groups being recognized, it is inevitable that the genetic models are for Simple gene action with Mendelian interpretations. Unimodal distributions of reproductive types indicative of quantitative or polygenic inheritance have not been tested.All reasonable genetic models and permutations of genotypes should be tested. Predicted ratios should consider the effects of number of loci, dominance, epistasis, and lethali ty. If the degree of alloploidy versus autoploidy of tetraploids is unknown, both disomic and tetrasomic inheritance and both partial and complete random assortment of chromosomes or chromatids should be considered (Sherwood et al. 1994).Literature on inheritance of apomixis has been re\\'iewed by Stebbins (1941), Gustafsson (1946Gustafsson ( -1947)), Asker (1980), Nogler (1984a), Bashaw and Hanna (1990), and Asker and Jerling G...1i< loaly,i, .f Apomixi, 71 (1992). Reports issued since 1950 are summarized here, with a reinterpretation of some of the results. Symbol \"AU is used to denote the dominant allele of the putative apomixis gene regardless of the symbols used in the original reports.Monopolar Apospory (Gramineae-Panicoideae) Paspaillm notatum (bahiagrass). Burton and Forbes (1960) crossed colchicine-ind uced sexual autotetraploid lines of Pensacola bahiagrass with an apomictic tetraploid line. Progeny were classified only by whole plant progeny testing. The crosses produced sexual:apomictic (S:A) segregation ratios near 3:1. Selfing the sexual progeny gave an F 2 with a ratio near 35: 1. Selfing the apomictic progeny gave only apomictic F 2 progeny. Burton (1992) postulated an A gene dominant for apomixis and an independent 5 gene dominant for sexuaJi ty. He aSSigned genotype Aaaassss to MH, and genotype 111111115555 to the sexual parents. Some progeny from selfing sexuals appeared apomictic based on their uniformity but actually may have been sexual; this could give rise to the 35:1 ratios. In the crosses giving 3:1 ratios, some facultatively apomictic hybrid F I progeny may have been inadvertently classified sexual, skewing the ratios in favor of high numbers of sexual progeny. More recent data support the view that apomixis is coded for by dominant genes (Burton and Hanna '1992). The bahiagrass system deserves reexamination using modern classification methods.Dichanthium-Bothriochloa (bl uestem). Harlan et al. (1964)  we postulate that the tetraploids were tetrasomic with genotype AAoo, the observed ratios fit ratios expected for the assumption of random chromatid assortment (1:3.67) or the assumption of a recessive lethal effect of the A allele (1:4) (Sherwood et al. 1994).Pennisetum ciliaTe (buffelgrass). A naturally occurring tetraploid sexual plant, designated B-1S, was selfed and crossed with two aposporous biotypes by Taliaferro and Bashaw (1966). The S:A ratios (near 13:3 for SIS and 5:3 for Fls) suggest two disomic independent genes with the dominant allele of gene A being required for apospory, and the dominant allele of gene B being epistatic to A and conferring sexuality. Sexual parent B-1S was assigned genotype AaBa. Further evaluation of Fls, F 2 s, and a BC I from B-1S, identified true breeding sexual progeny of apparent genotype aabb and apomictic plants of putative genotypes Aabb and AAbb (Read and Bashaw 1969;Bashaw et al. 1970). Crane (1992)   (1991( , 1992( , 1993, and Chap. 10, and Chap. 10) conducted obtained and used to initiate three generations extensive studies of Brachiaria along the lines of reciprocal backcrossing to the sexual diploid. of Savidan's (1981)   in the gametophyte, is lethal to the gametophyte; there are no functional A, AA, or AAA gametes because of recessive lethality.Gametes must carry the wild type a allele to be viable. Several lines of evidence point to lethality, including failure to find aposporous diploid hybrid progeny. A highly aposporous 211 + 1 aneuploid, line T, was believed to have originated from an a egg and an Aa sperm and have genotype Aaa. Line T transmitted a and Aa gametes, but not A gametes. The data, for the most part, did not permit testing of segregation ratios, but cross aa x Aaan and its reciprocal did yield 1:1 ratios as expected.[n trisomic ilpomictic lines assigned genotype Aaa, there was declining strength of apomixis with advance from BC l to BC,. Nogler believed this might be due to modifying genes for sexuality that increased with each generation of backcrossing. Within generations there WilS a dosage effect; for example genotype Aaa showed greater apospory than Aaaa. Some plants were identified as dihaploids with genotype Aa and were highly aposporous. Dihaploids are formed by parthenogenetic development of reduced Aa eggs of facultatively apomictic AAaa or Aaaa tetraploids; in other species, dihaploids usually are sexual (Nogler 1984a).Line T expressed low parthenogenicity. Nogler (1984b) postulated that parthenogenicity was coded by a separate gene closely linked to A.Later tests revealed that apomictic line T transmitted genes for parthenogenicity. Therefore, it was not necessary to insist that apomixis and parthenogenesis were coded by separate genes (Nogler 1989(Nogler , 1995)). Nogler's (1984b) study encountered all the problems anticipated from interspecific crossing at different ploidy levels-poor fertility, poor seed set, facultative expression, aneuploidy, and ambiguous segregation ratios-but succeeded because of exceptional effort and insight.There are several inconclusive and contradictory reports on inheritance of apomixis in Kentucky bluegrass. Bluegrass populations have complex arrays of polyploidy and aneuploidy, with chromosome numbers ranging continuously from 24 to 124.In addition, somatic cells within plants may vary by as many as 30 chromosomes (Huff 1992). Plants vary widely in the degree of apomixis. Almgard (1966) concluded that the presence of aposporous embryo sacs showed dominant inheritance, but retention of the maternal phenotype (functional apomixis) was recessive. Matzk (1991b) explored regulation of the parthenogenetic capacity of P pmtclIsis using the auxin test. He concluded that the apomictic parents were heterozygous for one or more dominant alleles for parthenogenesis. The results were consistent with expectations for a single major gene.Study of the genetic regulation of facultative expression (Nogler's modifying genes for sexuality) may be feasible using molecular and biological probes developed for P. pmtel1sis (Huff and Bara 1993;Naumova et al. 1993;Mazzucato et al. 1995;Mazzucato et al. 1996).There is also an interesting report of Hieracium-type embryo-sac formation in diploid specimens of three Tribalill11l species (Poaceae) (Visser and Spies 1994).Hiemcil/m (hawkweed, Asteraceae). From a cross of diploid sexual H. allriCll/a x tetraploid apomictic H. allrl1lltillCIIIII.  found 32 sexual and 27 apomictic progeny, a ratio that fits the expected 1:1 if the male has a single dominant allele for apomixis. Gadella (1987) believed results from a cross of tetraploid sexual H. pi/ascI/a with a pentaploid apomict could be explained by monogenic dominant inheritance with the pentaploid having genotype Annnn. However, the observed ra tio 36:annn:8Annn:5Annaa:2nannn did not fit the expected ratio 3:2:3:2. Bicknell and Borst (1996) observed segregation for sexuality and apomixis among tetraploid regenerants of H. pilosel/n derived from reduced calli of an apomictic biotype. They considered this evidence for dominant inheritance of apomixis. Bicknell (1994, and Chap. 8); Koltunow et al. (1995) believeHierncilllli can be a model system for studying molecular genetics of apomixis.Most reports on diplospory, summarized below, were handicapped by lack of suitable sexual parents and by unavailability of convenient classification techniques.Eragrostis curvlIla (weeping Iovegrass, Poaceae). Crosses of naturally occurring tetraploid sexual plants with tetraploid and hexaploid apomicts gave F I progeny test segrega tions ind ica ti ng tha t a pom ix is is monogenic and dominant (Voigt and Burson 1983). Results of a cross with an aneuploid indicated possible dosage effects, but may have been confounded by Bill hybridization or chromosome elimination.Tripsacllm dactyloides (Eastern gamagrass, Poaceae). Sherman et al. (1991) crossed a sexual diploid female parent with a triploid apomict. Forty-six hyperdiplOid progeny were identified as hybrids. All but two of these showed cytological indiCations of apomixis; the degree of diplospory ranged from predominantly sexual to highly apomictic. The authors believed this indicated that apomixis is incompletely dominant, or that minor additive genes on various chromosomes affect penetrance of apomixis.Recent production of sexual tetraploids by colchicine doubling should facilitate future study of inheritilnce. The tetraplOid T. dnctyloides parent genotype is simplex for the Ge••ti< loal\"is 01 Apomixi. 75 diplospory allele. Maize-TripsnclIlIl Fjs segregated 1:1 for mode of reproduction (Leblanc et al. 1995b).Partllcllillln argelltatllln (guayule, Asteracae). Gerstel and Mishanec (1950) reciprocilily crossed a sexual diploid (2/1 = 36) with il facultiltively diplospofOus hyperdiploid (2/1 = 37). With the sexual plant ,~s the milternal parent, all F] diploid hybrid progeny (21 plants) were sexual. In the reciprocal, most progeny, as expected, were maternal or polyploid apomicts, but four diploid sexual F1s were formed (Gerstel et al. 1953). They concluded that apomixis genes acted recessively but additively and postulated that polyploids with two ilpomixis genomes and one sexual genome were apomictic.There is an alternate interpretation. The starting materials and results with Pnrti/(:/Iilllll resemble those of NogleI' (1984b) for aneuploid plant T of Rail I III CII Ills (Figure 5.1). The Parilic/lilllll results may indicate the same control as in Ralill/lwllls, i.e., a single factor dominant for apomixis, that acts as a recessive lethal, with the polyhaploid parent being genotype Ann and the diploids being nn.Taraxacum (dandelion, Asteracae). Eutriploids (211 = 24) and many hypotriploids (2/1 = 23) have facultative diplospory. Certain 2/1 = \"23 aberrants are primarily sexual (Sorensen 1958). Mogie (1988) offered the following interpretation of earlier studies. Expression of apomictic phenotype in TI1rt1XnCfllll depends on one or more genes located on one chromosome and on dos,lge. At least two copies of the mutant apomixis allele are required to obtain apomixis; the allele prevents meiosis in diplosporous apomicts. The dominance relationship between the wild type and mut,mt allele is determined by balance and environmenl.Perhaps the most significant aspect of the hypothesis is.that Mogie deduced that the wild type (a) allele of the apomixis locus has an essential function in the plant. He suggests that it codes for meiotic reduction and that it is also involved in the control of mitosis, which would be disrupted by the expression of the mutant allele in somatic cells.Beta (beet, Chenopodiaceae). At least two species in the section Corollinae form multicellular archesporia that show both diplosporous and aposporous development. Jassem (1990) conducted extensive analyses of crosses involving sexual and apomictic species, across ploidy levels, including F 2 and BC l generations. Bill hybridization and aneuploidy complicated the results. Although unable to draw unequivocal conclusions, she believed that apomixis genes were partly dominant and acted in a complementary fashion.Sorbus (mountain ash, Rosaceae). Liljefors (1955) used leaf morphology and chromosome pairing to deduce genomic formulas of aposporous polyploids in the agamic complex SorbllS. He assigned the genomic formula BB to totally sexual S. aucuparea. Species assigned genomic formulae AAAA, AAAB, and AAB were fully aposporous, and AABB was facultative. He postulated that a gene or genes for apomixis were associated with genome A, and that expression was dosage/balance related. However, species with genomic formulae ABBB and ABB were also highly apomictic, and he had to postulate exchange of the gene into the B genome. Liljefors' observations may be equally well explained using a one major-gene model with facultative expression, and postulating that genotypes AAnn, Annn, and Aan are aposporous.Inheritance of apomixis has been explored in relatively few species, yet several genetic models have been put forward that differ widely in postulated number of loci and nature of gene action (Bashaw and Hanna 1990;Asker and JerJing 1992;den Nijs and van Dijk 1993). Is the seemingly capricious occurrence and regulation of apomixis in different taxa to be attributed to independent, random mutations at various reproductive loci leading to similar phenotypic consequences? Is there a single apomixis locus or linkage group shared by all apomicts? The reality lies somewhere between these extremes.Monopolar (Panicurn-type) apospory occurs commonly throughout Panicoideae and Arundinaceae and is found nowhere else. This indicates a common genetic basis. Brown and Emery (1958) postulated that coding for the monopolar pattern arose early in the evolution of the group. Inheritance data for all the Panicoid species studied have been interpreted as indicating that expression of apomixis requires a major locus, with apomixis behaving as a dominant trait. Common gene action and phenotype in related species indicate the same linkage grouP. may be involved. The molecular evidence for one linkage group in Pennisetum is impressive. However, C. F. Crane (personal comm.) cautions that this does not necessarily imply that the monopolar type evolved only once and spread laterally among related genera that are well populated with sexual species. He considers it more likely that the ancestor of the A-a locus hi,ls become Widespread in the panicoids and chloridoids, and that apospory has emerged repeatedly by mutation of the wild type locus. Savidan (1991aSavidan ( , 1992)), Peacock (1993), and others suggest that a single master gene is responsible for induction of embryo-sac formation. They view induction as triggering a cascade of events that requires direction by many genes with a potential for modifying the end result. Savidan (1989) suggests that several genes controlling apomixis may be linked on one small chromosome segment or Iinkat. Jefferson (1993) suggests tha t apomixis involves phenotypic mutations at several loci acting together as a non-recombining unit and having the appearance of a single gene. Accordingly, classical genetic observations of segregations might be less informative than expected (Grimanelli et al. 1995, and Chap. 6). Some early studies on Panicoideae interpreted the data as indicating not only a locus for apospory, but also a second, independent locus that affected sexuality (Burton andForbes 1960, reinterpreted by Burton 1992;Taliaferro and Bashaw 1966). In the Taliaferro and Bashaw (1966) report, the gene was postulated to be epistatic to the apomixis allele. Hanna et al. (1973) proposed two loci with genes acting additively to confer sexuality. These interpretations followed observations that selfing of apparently sexual parents gave progeny segregating for mode of reproduction. The data sets from these three studies could not be fitted to the single tetraploid apomixis gene model or to any other cited model (Sherwood et al. 1994). Savidan (1982b) noted some rare facultative genotypes of Pal1icum maximum with nearly 90% sexuality. Later, Savidan (1991a, b) proposed a technical explanation for the observation of apomictic progeny when naturally occurring tetraploid sexual parents were selfed in the earlier studies. He believes the tetraploid parents were facultative apomicts of genotype Aaaa with a high frequency of sexual reproduction and that the parents were mistakenly classified sexual because of the G...tk holy,1s OfApoonllls 77 limitations of the sectioning and progeny testing techniques used at the time. However, selfing or crossing Aaaa parents should give 51 progeny of 1:3, S:A (Figure 5.1), not the reported ratios of 2.5:1 or 13:3, so the matter is not yet resolved.Alternatively, the data of Hanna et a!., Taliaferro and Bashaw, and those of all other studies on Panicoideae can be accommodated in one genetic model that postulates two tetrasomically inherited loci-the A locus with a gene dominant for apomixis (and recessively lethal), and a B locus with the dominant allele epistatic to A (Sherwood et al. 1994).Recent studies indicate that segregation for diplospory in maize-Tripsacum progeny involves a single Mendelian factor, with perhaps some modifying factors (Leblanc et al. 1995b;Grimanelli et al. 1995;Savidan et al. 1995). The factor appears to be an apomixis linkat. Savidan et at. (1995) stated they \"may now have a series of concrete reasons to believe that apomixis is indeed controlled by something more complex than this dominant gene, including at least one recessive factor which prevents apomixis expression in diploids.\" See also Grimanelli et al. (Chap. 6).All apomictic species for which inheritance data are available show facultative expression. DegreE!'of apomixis could be due to dosage or penetrance effects of a major gene and / or to modifying genes. Data for Ramll1culus (Nogler 1984b) and Paspalum (Quarin 1986(Quarin , 1992) ) indicate that penetrance of the A allele is incomplete; degree of apomixis may increase with increased number of A alleles. Quarin and Hanna (1980) suggested that a certain genetic threshold must be reached for apomixis to be expressed in some Paspalttm. A single dose of the A allele is sufficient to support a high level of apomixis in Pel111isetum (Sherwood et al. 1994) and Pal1icum (Savidan 1981).Environment plays a role in expression (Nogler 1984a;den Nijs and van Dijk 1993). A short photoperiod increases the frequency of aposporous vs. sexual embryo sacs in Dichal1thil/m aristattlm (Knox 1967) and Paspall/ni chromyorrhizol1 (Quarin 1986). Salt stress affects facultative expression in P ciliare (Gounaris et a!. 1991).Harlan et a!. (1964) accurately assessed the relation between sexual and aposporous reproduction. \"Apomixis (read apospory) and sexual reproduction are not alternative modes of reproduction, either genetically or operationally, but are simultaneous and independent phenomena. The genes controlling normal sexual reproduction are not allelic to those controlling apomixis in the conventional sense.\" This accounts for facultative expression of apospory. In aposporous lines, meiotic reduction of the archesporial nucleus and apomeiotic induction of apospory in nucellar cells go forward at about the same time. Aposporous ini tials and umed uced embryo sacs normally crowd ou t the red uced megaspores and sacs.Facultatively displosporous plants also possess all of the genetic information required for completion of both meiotic and apomeiotic embryo sacs. However, in contrast to facultative apospory, the two events cannot proceed simultaneously in a facultatively diplosporous ovule, for they compete for the same site in the ovule. Events beginning in the megaspore mother cell can proceed only towards normal meiosis or apomeiosis, but not both. Variability within facultative diplosporous or aposporous types indicates that the entire apomictic developmental process cannot be explained on the basis of a single gene (Grimanelli et a!. 1995;Savidan et a!. 1995). Nogler (1984b) concluded that functional gametes of Rammcl/lus contain a copy of the wild type a allele. Noirot (1993) reviewed evidence that the A allele may act adversely in Pal1iCllm maximum; his report focused on male and female sterility. Male and female sterility is encountered in spontaneous dihaploids and trihaploids of Pal1icl/n1 of putative genotypes Aa and Aaa, respectively (Combes 1975). Mogie (1988) proposed that the wild type a allele has a function that is essential to normal plant processes. If gametophytes and gametes bearing dominant allele A must also bear the wild type a allele to remain functional, this would account for the observa tion (H arlan et a I. 1964) tha t aposporous apomicts invariably are heterozygous at the apomixis locus. No apomict has ever transmitted an exclusive capacity for apomixis to the offspring; a capacity for sexual reproduction is always also transmitted, al though it may not surface until later generations. Heterozygous Aa gametes can be formed by dihaploids, triploids, or tetraploids. In the case of the dihaploid, the Aa gamete'is from an unreduced (apomictic) sac, and the progeny are either maternal (no fertilization) or Bill hybrids (fertilization), as shown for the dihaploids of Ralll/I1Cl1Il/s (Figure 5.1). In the case of triploids and tetraploids, the Aa gamete occurs in sexually reduced (meiotic) sacs, and the egg is usually fertilized (B II hybridization), but occasionally may parthenogenetically form an Aa dihaploid as part of a diploidtetraploid-dihaploid cycle (de Wet and Harlan 1970;Savidan and Pernes 1982). Insofar as sexual transmission of A is concerned, the parent must be polyploid and heterozygous; for asexual transmission, the parent must be heterozygous.Geoelk Ao.lysis of Apomi.is 79The results of the maize-TripsoCllnJ Summary backcrossing effort conform with the idea of a The results of all published studies on recessive lethal factor linked to a dominant inheritance of apospory are compatible with diplospory gene (Savidan et al. 1995). No the hypothesis that expression of apospory apomictic representatives were found in Be 2 requires the dominant allele of a major gene progeny with 211 = 38= 20M+18T chro-or Iinkat. There is no species for which the mosomes produced from F of 211 = 56 hypothesis of a major dominant apospory for diplosporous species also suggest a single master gene or linkat (Savidan 1989); its =20M+36T chromosomes. See also Grimanelli Richards (1996) postulates that lethal recessive pOSSible correspondence to the apospory mutants might occur at loci linked with the linkat is entirely unknown. Some reports dominant apomixis locus and accumulate in indicate that degree of expression is regulated heterozygotic apomictic lines without being by modifying genes that promote sexuality; expressed. These harmful recessive genes may the apomixis gene(s) may show dosage effects, be expressed in haploid gametophytes (i.e., and environment may influence expression. pollen and embryo sacs) resulting in their Several lines of evidence indicate that the wild abortion. The implied corollary is that the type allele of the apomixis gene plays an apomixis allele is not, of itself, the source of essential role in cell function and that its recessive lethality. The evidence from studies presence is required for survival of the by Nogler (1984b), Mogie (1988), Sherwood et gametophyte. There is no clear evidence for a al. (1994), and others still points to the major gene for parthenogenesis independent apomixis gene as being recessively lethal.of the major gene(s) for apospory or Segregation ratios from the facultative diplospory (Nogler 1984a(Nogler , 1995; Leblanc et al. populations cited above show an absolute lack 1995b; Mazzucato 1996). Recombination of recombination of recessive lethality vis a vis within the linkat is rare or nonexistent. The the apomixis linkat on the male side, but not linkat encodes sufficient information to direct on the female side.the complex sequence of developmental events in embryo sac initiation, differentiation, maturation, and function.--. Sci. 153: 46~70.Apomixis in higher plants refers to a wide range of mechanisms of asexual reproduction through seeds (Nogler 1984a). It is found in at least 400 wild species belonging to 35 higher plant families (Richards 1986;Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1997). The modalities of apomictic development in the wild are nearly as diverse as the number of species studied, but in most cases, apomictic processes completely bypass meiosis and egg cell fertilization, and produce offspring that are exact genetic replicas of the mother plant.Two major types of gametophytic apomixis have been described, namely diplosporous apomixis and aposporous apomixis, based on the origin of the megagametophytes. In aposporous apomicts, one or more unreduced female gametophytes form mitotically from somatic nucellar cells while the legitimate sexual line generally aborts. Diplospory results from meiotic failure in megasporocytes that directly develop into mature unreduced female gametophytes through three or more mitoses. Typically, apomixis is a facultative phenomenon, and an apomictic plant usually produces both asexually (apome;otic) and sexually derived embryos.Apomixis, for the most part, is found in wild species. In contrast, major crop plants are sexual, with only rare exceptions such as some prominent tropical forages. This could be conceived partly as a consequence of crop domestication because the process necessarily implies that early farmers had access to variability and segregation among the wild types. In modern agriculture, however, the ability to fix superior genotypes through generations would offer numerous advantages. Recognition of these advantages has led to a growing interest in apomixis research, and indeed, many scientists have extolled the tremendous potential that apomixis holds for plant improvement (this volume; Jefferson and Bicknell 1996;Grossniklauss et al. 1999;Savidan 2000).Various strategies are being considered by a growing number of research groups around the world to introduce apomixis into major food crops. The oldest efforts were directed toward the introgression of the genes for apomixis from wild species into cultivated relatives (see review by Savidan 2000). As an alternative approach, the de novo synthesis of apomixis in sexual plants through genetic engineering is now underway through a number of intiatives Oefferson and Bicknell 1996; Grossniklaus et al. 1999;Luo et al. 2000).Despite this growing interest, surprisingly little is known about the biology of apomictic plants. This is certainly the primary reason why attempts to manipulate apomixis have failed to yield useful products to date, and it is clear that harnessing the potential of apomixis will strongly depend on our ability to develop a reliable understanding of the basic features of the biological processes of apomixis and its genetic control. The emergence of powerful tools in molecular genetics now offers new approaches to gain much needed knowledge about the regulation of apomixis. In this chapter, we discuss, in detail, potential applications of molecular genetics to apomixis research. First, we define the biological aspects of the genetics of apomicts that lend themselves to analyses using molecular genetics. A discussion about different strategies for tagging or manipulating the corresponding genes then follows. However, those results, both on diplospory and apospory, fail to provide information about the fine genetic control of nonreduction followed by the failure of fertilization and the induction of embryogenesis. In brief, it remains unclear whether all three events rely on distinct, but linked, genetic factors, or on a single gene controlling their successive induction as a pleiotropic effect. Both hypotheses have been defended logically, but whatever the number of genes specifically transmitted to an apomict, they should either behave genetically as a single locus, or manifest as a monomorphic trait in both sexual and apomictic ecotypes.If the genes were independent, upon segregation such mutations would rapidly be eliminated because of their low individual viability. Note that exceptions to this principle have been reported (Nogler 1984b;Asker and Jerling 1992;Kojima et al. 1994;Noyes and Riesberg 2000).In work on Rammculus species, for example, Nogler (1984b) first reported a trisomic hybrid lacking the ability for parthenogenesis, despite being highly aposporous. A similar case was described by Kojima et al. (1994) for Allium species, and by Noyes and Rieseberg (2000) for Erigeron annUU5. In addition, apomictic plants usually produce \"off-type\" progenies, in which one of the two steps is skipped. This results in dihaploids, in which there is reduction but also parthenogenesis, or in 2n + n off-types, in which there is nonreduction but fertilization. Such cases do not necessarily require different genes, but they least entail the independent expression of the putative developmental components.Finally, it should be noted that in the case of grasses, it may not be neccesary to transfer specific genes for parthenogenesis, since it is apparently a latent ability in most of them.Whether one or several genes are involved in apomixis, many questions remain about their mode of expression and regulation. Early results from Pllniwm (Savidan 1982) and Ral1l1ncuhts ssp. (Nogler 1984b) indicated that although the induction of apospory is under simple genetic control, the overall apomictic behavior of these aposporous species is more quantitative as evidenced by the relative proportion of ameiotic and meiotic embryo sacs, some environmental effects, etc. Modifier effects that need to be identified include the number of genes, their relative importance, their dominance relationships, epistatic effects, pleiotropic effects, possible allelic diversity, chromosomal localization, maternal and/or paternal effects, and environmental regulation.A remarkable aspect of apomixis is its relationship to polyploidy. Except in rare cases, apomicts are polyploids while sexuality in the same species, if known, is usually found at lower ploidy levels. It is widely accepted that some type of mechanism protects diploid sexual populations from being \"invaded\" by apomixis.Three broad types of hypotheses have been proposed concerning that mechanism. One school of thought assumes that the alleles controlling apomixis could eventually be transmitted to diploid plants, but that the expression of the trait is restricted to polyploids; the penetrance of the character depending on dosage effects between the various alleles at the locus or loci controlling diplospory (Mogie 1992;Noirot 1993). Noirot, assuming a single allele A controlling apomeiosis in a dominant manner, proposed that not more than one copy of the A allele would be found among every four alleles (a ratio between A and a not to exceed 0.25). The hypothesis contradicts reported cases of apomictic triploids, trisomics, and dihaploids (a ratio of up to 0.5) (Leblanc et al. 1996;Nogler 1982). Mogie (1992) proposed a different though related dosage model for the regulation of diplospory in Taraxacum, in which the dominance relationship between the wild type (a) and mutant (A) alleles is determined by their relative copy numbers: avoidance of meiotic reduction occurs when the mutant allele is present in more copies than the wild type aallele. Mogie also assumes that the g locus plays an important role in mitosis and meiosis, thus explaining why A is not The second hypothesis (Nogler 1982) is based on the assumption that apomixis is usually not transmitted to diploids. In Nogler's work with RanunClllus hybrids, the A factor was not transmitted through haploid gametes, presumably because of a lethal effect of the allele when present under haploid conditions. Noyes and Riesberg (2000), working with Erigeron, proposed a more complex but related explanation, in which the absence of diplospory in diploids is best explained by both the combined effect of a recessive lethal gametophytic selection against a unique parthenogenetic-controlling locus, and univalent inheritance of the region responsible for diplospory. Related data was also obtained in Tripsacum (Grimanelli et al. 1998a), showing that apomeiosis was generally not transmitted via haploid gametes. In Hieracium, however, Bicknell et al. (2000) suggest that diplosporous apomixis can be transmitted both by diploid and haploid gametes, and that the absence of diploid apomictic progenies is caused by selection against the survival of diploid zygotes, rather than against the elimination of haploid gametes. Once more, as with the contro'l of apomeiosis, it is hard to define a model that fits all apomicts. Whether those differences are due to experimental bias or simply to more fundamental differences in the nature of the various forms of apomixis has not yet been determined. Carman (1997) puts forward a third general hypothesis that cites differences in rates of reproductive development between different ecotypes as being responSible for multiple reproductive anomalies, among which is 86 Do.lel Griome/I-, Joe To~ ...., ood Diego GOllcil.,-<t...Lt•• apomixis. In his hypothesis, Carman assumes that polyploidy may result in asynchronous expression among the genomes contributed to the polyploid of different genes regulating megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis, and that this asynchrony might be responsible for the apomictic phenotype. According to Carman, polyploidy, or at least the existence of multiple copies of asynchronously expressed genes, is a causal factor for the expression of apomixis.Endosperm Development Dosage studies, mainly in maize (reviewed by Birchler 1993), have shown that a major factor influencing endosperm development is the dosage effect between the relative contributions of the male and the female genomes in the endosperm. In maize, a genomic ratio of 2 maternal doses to 1 paternal (2m:lp) is required for normal development, and even limited perturbations around that ratio can have strong deleterious effects on endosperm development and thus on the viability of the embryo. By contrast, apomictic plants seem to develop normal embryos with a great variety of maternal and paternal contributions that can strongly differ from the 2m:lp ratio needed in many sexually reproducing plants. In Tripsacum, for example, the endosperm seems to develop normally, even though the ratio of genomic contributions deviates from the 2m:1p ratio (Grimanelli et al. 1997). Indeed, ratios of 2:1, 4:1, 4:2, 8:1, and 8:2 can be observed, depending on both the ploidy level of the parents and mode of reproduction. Autonomous apomicts, in which the endosperm develops without fertilization of the central cell, also provide striking evidence that some adaptation to dosage response exists in apomicts.Surprisingly little has been published about this specific aspect of apomictic reproduction.It is clear, however, that understanding the basis of endosperm development in apomicts is a critical step toward the utilization of apomixis in food crop production. Recent publications concerning the induction of seed and endosperm development in Arabidopsis thaliana (Grossniklaus et a1. 1998;Vielle Calzada et al. 1999;Luo et al. 2000) and the specific role of Polycomb group-like proteins in the process have intensified interest in this issue. The application of these data to the production of apomictic plants, especially monocots, remains uncertain.The Single-Gene Model Revisited Most likely, many genes act to insure the viable development of an apomictic embryo. Most, if not all, of those genes also playa role in the development of sexual embryos, and so should be common to both apomictic and sexual development. But one or several aJleles of some of these genes, or alternatively their regulation, must be specific to the apomictic plants. The chaJlenge here is less that of understanding the fine genetic control of apomixis (the genes acting during the apomictic process), rather than identifying the specific alleles that must be transmitted to, or altered in, sexual plants in order to induce an apomictic mode of reproduction. The identification of these alleles is important for understanding the process of apomixis and crucial for the ultimate introduction of apomixis into crops.Despite)he complexity of the developmental process of apomictic reproduction, most genetic analyses of apomixis conclude that a simple mode of inheritance is involved. Studies on Panicum, Ranunculus Hieracium, Tripsacum, Erigeron and Brachiaria (see earlier references) show that apomixis segregates as a single, or eventually a few dominant loci. Such conclusions, however, should be taken with caution. The cited genetic analyses have been conducted mainly by crossing apomictic and sexual genotypes within species or genera, and they are not necessarily informative when it comes to manipulating apomixis genes beyond their respective species. Indeed, it could well be that a single mutation in those species gave rise to an apomictic genotype. This does not rule out the possibility that several other genetic factors may be required to ensure the expression of apomixis. Such factors would not necessarily be detected through classical genetic analysis, simply because of a lack of polymorphism for those characteristics, but the factors would be revealed by manipulating apomixis beyond the limits of specific species or genera. Those characteristics, necessary but not sufficient, probably would have accumulated during the evolution of those species prior to their switch from sexual to apomictic modes of reproduction.Several observations support this hypothesis.During various attempts to transfer apomixis from wild relatives to cultivated crops, the observed transmission of apomixis through generations of backcrossing did not conform to a simple genetic model. In the case of the maize-Tripsacum system, genetic data show that the expression of functional apomictic reproduction depends on a complex mode of inheritance (Leblanc,personal comm.;Savidan,Chap. 11). The conditions of endosperm development in pseudogamous apomictic grasses is another strong illustration of this hypothesis. Angiosperm apomicts evolved from sexual ancestors that may have been subject to dosage effects in the endosperm, as apparently many angiosperms have to a variable degree (see Birchler 1993). This suggests that some adjustments in the mechanisms governing endosperm development might have accompanied the evolution of apomixis; because the switch from sexual to apomictic reproduction simultaneously changes the genomic ratio of the AppW.liol. 01 Mole<.lar Geoetks I. Apomixis R....rdl 87 endosperm, dosage requirements would have acted as a barrier against the emergence of apomixis by preventing endosperm formation. Hence, only families in which the regulation of endosperm development had somehow been modified would have been prone to the emergence of apomixis.By the same token, it is conceivable that different families would have been inclined to different types of apomixis. Strong supporting evidence that different species are compatible with different forms of apomixis can be found in the phylogenetic pattern of distribution of the various forms of apomixis (Richards 1986;Asker and Jerling 1992;Mogie 1992;Carman 1997). Most apomictic taxa (75%) belong to only three families: Asteraceae, Poaceae, and Rosaceae, which together comprise no more than 10% of angiosperm species. Diplospory is common among the Asteraceae, but less so among the Rosaceae and the Poaceae, while apospory is common among the Rosaceae and the Poaceae, but less so among the Asteraceae. Autonomous apomixis appears to be restricted mostly to the Asteraceae and is found only infrequently in the Poaceae and Rosaceae. Clearly, the occurrence of apomixis and the distribution of its various forms are not random (Carman 1997). This might reflect (i) that not all taxa are compatible with the emergence of apomixis, and (ii) that different taxa are not compatible with the same types of apomixis.Hence, introducing apomixis into otherwise sexually reproducing crops may depend on more than the few genes responsible for polymorphism in modes of reproduction within agamospecies. Other factors may need to be considered, such as the endosperm, that represent necessary conditions for the successful expression of the apomictic genes per se.What Material? It could be speculated that the diffusion of apomixis in crops could be achieved through the isolation and manipulation of genes from a well-chosen model system. It is worth considering, then, whether this model could be defined for apomixis research. But is there solely one \"universal apomixis,\" despite the amazing diversity of apomictic processes? In other words, should we consider the different types that have been described in the literature as different expressions of the same genetic components, or should different sources of apomixis be studied as distinct and unrelated processes? According to Sherwood (Chap. 5), a single gene might be responsible for the induction of both diplospory and apospory. Still, apomixis has occurred in a seemingly independent fashion in various taxa during their evolution through different processes, which might also be viewed as evolutionary convergence. Although answering these questions is undoubtedly an important longterm goal, given our current knowledge, the choice of a model system for apomixis research is more a matter of technical considerations. Some of those considerations are proposed by Bicknell (Chap. 8) in this volume, and include the ability for both in vivo and in vitro culture, a short generation time, easy hybridization, the availability of related sexual and apomictic biotypes, good characterization at the genome level, and ability for transgeny. Another important consideration is that using diploid apomicts greatly simplifies genetic analyses. Furthermore, access to efficient mutagenesis procedures, including transposon mutagenesis, would provide attractive tools for functional analyses.While no known taxon fulfills all of the above criteria, researchers working on the genetics and molecular biology of apomixis have considered two alternatives. The first alternative is to use existing apomictic species that fulfill, as much as possible, the criteria described earlier. Bicknell proposed Hieracium as a model system and has been developing a transposon tagging approach for aposporous apomixis in that species (Chap. 8). On the other hand, the wealth of genetic information available in the grass families, including the remarkable level of genomic synteny found in the Poaceae (Bennetzen and Freeling 1993; Ahn  and Tanksley 1993; Moore et al. 1995), make apomictic grasses an attractive model because the various forms of apomixis can be compared.The second alternative relies on generating or transferring the components of apomixis into a well-eharacterized, easily handled organism, such as Arabidopsis or maize.Three approaches for this alternative have been proposed: (i) the transfer of apomixis from a wild species to a related and genetically well-studied crop through sexual hybridizations, (ii) the de novo generation of apomixis in normally sexual organisms by mutagenesis and manipulation of gene expression, and (iii) the de novo generation of apomixis through wide hybridization after selection of the appropriate parental reproductive phenotypes (based on Carman's hypothesis [Carman 1997, Chap. 7]). A review and discussion of the first two approaches follow later in this chapter. A description of the third approach may be found in Chapter 7.Most current work in apomixis research essentially focuses on the very first event in the apomixis mechanism, i.e., the failure or absence of meiosis. This is partly a consequence of the prevailing hypothesis that apomixis processes in their entirety, or at the very least, apomeiosis, might depend on a single-gene regulation. As opinions evolve regarding this regulation, more effort will be directed toward identifying the components required for the expression of functional apomixis and dissecting their genetic basis. Most of the works presented herein deal with apomeiosis. The strategies described, however, apply to most aspects of apomictic development.The first molecular work on apomixis essentially focused on the development of molecular maps and the localization of the DNA regions that control apomixis in various organisms. Part of the interest in developing genetic maps lays in the nature of molecular markers; their Mendelian inheritance is independent of either environmental conditions, or our ability to actually observe a given phenotype. Therefore, by studying their cosegregation with any trait of interest, one can identify and characterize chromosomal regions that playa role in the expression of that trait. Once mapped, any trait can theoretically be studied or followedregardless of its expression and with a known confidence level-by detecting and analyzing the segregation of linked molecular markers.Chapter 10 is devoted to the genetic improvement of apomictic cultivars. Most applications of molecular maps in plant improvement are also relevant to apomicts, and comprehensive reviews on such applications are readily available. Note, however, that molecular markers are particularly valuable for studying characters that are expressed late in plant development, such as apomixis or other reproductive traits. By using DNA markers, reproductive behavior can be rapidly predicted at the seedling stage, with confidence levels that depend mainly on the linkage between the marker and the mapped gene(s). Moreover, as opposed to cytoembryological tests, molecular marker analysis is not destructive.  Akins et al. 1998;Pessino 1997;Leblanc et al. 1995;Grimanelli et al. 1998b;Noyes and Rieseberg 2000). Interestingly, these diverse reports reach common conclusions about several aspects of apomixis. Taken together, they demonstrate that apomeiosis is likely controlled by one or several genes located on a single chromosome segment. Furthermore, reports on Tripsacum (Grimanelli et al. 1998a) Pennisetum (Ozias Akins et al. 1998) and possibly Erigeron (Noyes and Riesberg 2000) indicate that this segment might be characterized by a very strong restriction to recombination. In Tripsacum, where the mapping data could be compared between apomictic and sexual accessions, this restriction to recombination appears to be apomict-specific; while in the sexual forms the mapped alleles underwent a significant rate of recombination, complete linkage was observed in the apomict for the alleles detected by the same probes. Clearly, recombination is restricted at the tetraploid (apomictic) level as opposed to the diploid (sexual) level in both Tripsacum and maize, as seen in their RFLP maps. In Pennisehtm, the segment itself seems to be apomixis specific, as revealed by Southern analysis.Becaus~ the specific chromosome segment shows a restricted level of recombination, the classical model of monogenic inheritance for apomixis probably warrants a careful review, because regardless of the number of genes involved, they behave as a single locus in segregating populations. This number of genes might be particularly important within the framework of a gene isolation program. Cloning the Apomixis Gene(s) Using Molecular Genetics Tools A major difficulty encountered by those interested in cloning \"apomixis genes\" is simply defining what they are. Introducing apomixis into crops implies that specific genes are transferred or altered and expressed in the target crops. Most likely, not all of the genes involved in the apomictic process should be targeted: most, if not all, of them should already be present and playing a role in sexually reproducing plants. The issue then is which alleles of pertinent genes must be transmitted or manipulated for the induction and successful development of apomictic embryos and seeds. To date, all efforts to tag apomixis genes, including those presented in this paper, have focused on the mechanism of nonreduction, mainly because it is an excellent indicator of apomictic development and it is probably the easiest one to score. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that apomixis is probably more complex than the Simple process of nonreduction. The importance of this constraint will likely emerge when attempts are made to synthesize de novo apomicts in sexual organisms \"Map-based\" cloning in apomictic species. Once a gene has been located on a genetic map, subsequent efforts to specify its position can ultimately lead to its isolation (for the first su~cessful efforts in plants, see Giraudat et al. 1992;Martin et al. 1994). The recent development of powerful new approaches for physically mapping chromosome segments combined with the ability to clone large DNA fragments (Burke et al. 1987;Shizuya et al. 1992), and progress in genome sequencing techniques have created new and higher standards for positional cloning in plants. It is still a laborious and risky task outside of a few well-characterized model genomes, but the number of genes cloned in this manner are rapidly increasing. However, positional cloning for apomixis is not very promising because most, if not all, of the candidate species for a map-based cloning project are highly heterozygous tetraploids, for which little genomic characterization exists.Furthermore, when attempting positional cloning, the first step is to identify a chromosomal region, defined by two or more molecular markers, that flanks the gene under study. The precision of the estimated position of the gene is therefore limited by the smallest measurable recombination unit, meaning one recombinant in a given mapping population.Hence, the recombination level around the apomixis gene(s) presents another significant challenge: positional cloning will prove efficient only insofar as recombination can be observed near the locus of interest. As mentioned earlier, recombination near the apomictic alleles is very likely restricted, at least in Pennisetum and Tripsacum. Consequently, the smallest recombination unit defined by two markers that encompasses the apomixis locus might well be a relatively large amount of DNA.Transposon tagging of apomixis genes. Some model plants, such as maize, rice, tomato, Arabidopsis, and Petunia have undergone extensive genome characterization. Specific approaches are available for gene tagging these plants that might be considered for tagging apomixis gene(s), provided that components of apomixis occur in one of these organisms.A very promising approach is that of transposon tagging. Transposable elements are short DNA sequences that have the property to transpose to more or less random locations in the genome (see Walbot 1992, for a review). They were discovered in maize, but have since been identified or introduced in very diverse organisms. They have been used in a wide range of genetic studies, and have been found to be highly effective for gene tagging and cloning.Transposon tagging in apomicts presents some constraints, including access to transposable elements and the genetic control of the trait. To the best of our knowledge, transposon activity has not been demonstrated in apomictic species. This might be overcome by introducing functional transposable elements into apomicts, either through transformation (as in Hieracium, Bicknell,Chap. 8) or through hybridization with a close relative (as with maize and Tripsacum, Grimanelli 1997). In both cases, maize transposable elements were successfully introduced into an apomictic background, and transposable activity was demonstrated.In our view, the main issue concerning transposon tagging of apomixis is genetic control of the trait. While this approach is efficient for phenotypes controlled by single genes, it might yield no, or disappointing, results if apomixis is genetically more complex. But taken further, it would at least provide an elegant method to determine whether apomixis is controlled by one or several genes: if a single allele controls the trait, then a single mutation should allow complete reversion to sexuality; if a more complex system is involved, then individual mutations should lead to abnormal or only partial expression of the trait. Candidate gene approaches. Although apomixis is unknown in major crop plants or other genetically well-characterized organisms, useful information can be derived from detailed analyses of the reproduction processes of select sexual organisms. For example, genes involved in the control of ovule development, the initiation of meiosis, embryogenesis, and endosperm development have been described in various organisms, and a close look at these genes might provide useful information about the regulation of apomixis. Such genes, but not necessarily their App/kaliold of Mol...lor Ge..tks I. Aporixls R....... 91 respective alleles, might represent prospective \"candidates\" for the apomixis gene(s), i.e., the gene(s) that would code for identical functions as their apomicitic counterparts. The best, though not the only, candidates are the yeast genes responsible for the induction of meiosis and the meiotic mutants identified in higher plants.Major biochemical pathways involved in the regulation of the cell cycle and meiosis appear to be relatively well conserved between distant organisms such as yeast and higher plants, and the advance of whole-genome sequencing puts provides complete catalogs of putative candidate genes. This progress offers great promise, but it is tempered by the fact that it is usually difficult to verify whether a yeast gene of known function plays a similar role in plants. One powerful way to corroborate such gene functions is the so called \"reverse genetics\" strategy, using either insertional mutagenesis or homologous recombination. When based on transposon or T-DNA insertions, reverse genetics (or sitespecific transposon mutagenesis) implies that transposon tagging is performed to identify individuals carrying a transposon insertion in a gene of known sequence. The expected function of that given gene can then be corroborated by confirming that its disruption leads to the loss or alteration of the expected function. Powerful reverse-genetic systems are av'ailable in various plant species, including maize, Arabidapsis, and tomato.A specific candidate gene strategy based on comparative mapping can also be undertaken within the grass family. The identification of orthologous genes between species (i.e., genes that diverged from a common gene at the time that the species harboring them diverged) could be used to understand the relationships between the genes responsible for various c0mponents of apomixis in apomictic plants, and meiotic or developmental mutants that are well characterized in sexual plants. Numerous mutants are known in grasses, especially in maize (Neuffer et a!. 1997), for various aspects of sexual reproduction. Furthermore, large numbers of such mutants can be generated through classical (e.g., chemical) or transposon mutagenesis. Recent results of comparative mapping among grasses (Bennetzen and Freeling 1993; Ahn and Tanksley 1993; Moore el a!. 1995) demonstrate that most grasses probably share the same basic set of genes, and that the obvious differences separating the species are based on allelic variations and not on their relative gene combinations .. Therefore, we suggest that the genes whose actions produce an apomictic phenotype in some grasses almost certainly can be found in sexual species. In this instance, comparative mapping could be used to identify genes in maize or some other sexual grass that are orthologous to the apomixis genes, and then use them to isolate their counterparts in the apomictic species.The process of identifying maize orthologs of genes responsible for apomixis involves three successive steps: (i) candidate genes are identified through phenotypic characterization and genetic mapping; (iJ) promising candidates are then isolated in maize; once cloned, lhe isolated genes are sequenced, and lhe sequence information is used to clone orthologous genes in the apomicts; (iii) the relationship between the alleles isolated in the previous steps and the expression of apomixis is confirmed using a reverse genetic strategy in apomictic plants. For step iii, the construction of transposon tagging populations in apomicls are of great interest to R. Bicknell and the CIMMYT apomixis team.Three criteria can be employed to select candidate genes: (i) because apomixis often affects only the female function, we propose that the gene(s) responsible for the failure of meiosis have a megasporogenesis-specific phenotype, meaning that mutants of interest should affect only the female function; (ii) as in diplosporous plants, the candidates should affect early stages of meiosis, ideally, the induction of meiosis; meiotic mutations acting at later stages in meiosis are probably not directly related to apomixis; and (iii) interesting candidates should be able to produce unreduced gametes, (thus, as in apomictic plants, the completion of unred uced gamete formation implies that the checkpoints (Hartwell and Weinert 1989), which usually act during the meiotic cell-cycle to ensure the production of normally reduced haploid gametes, failed to override abnormal behavior. With aposporous-Iike mutants, obvious phenotypes relate to the induction of megagametogenesis in somatic cell. Sheridan et al. (1996) describe a remarkable example of this type of mutant.To date, this is probably the most widely used approach for developing apomictic cultivars, (details are discussed elsewhere in this volume). Current work centers on large-scale mutant screening in Arabidopsis and Petunia Gefferson and Bicknell 1996;Ohad et a!. 1996;Chaudurhy et al. 1997;Grossniklaus et al 1999;Luo el al. 2000}. The best prospecl from these approaches would be the engineering of a mode of apomixis that betterCmeets the requirements of agricultural production than the apomixis mechanisms found in the wild (see Jefferson and Bicknell 1996, and Chap. 8). The remarkable results obtained recently with a sel of mutations in Polycomb-related genes in Arabidopsis (Grossniklaus et a!. 1998;Luo et a!. 2000) are very encouraging. They demonstrate that phenotypes related to apomixis may eventually be obtained by manipulating the expression of genes involved in sexual reproduction, without reference to apomixis as seen in the wild. only serve as preliminary and somewhat academic steps toward the long-term goal of Our understanding of the genetics of apomixis introducing apomixis into farmers' fields. To is changing rapidly, from the idea that a simple reach the distant goal of deployment to genetic system might control the whole farmers, future research should include an developmental process, to a more integrated assessment of the social and economic impact conception and sophisticated models. Part of of apomixis, and a definition of adequate that evolution stems from the application of deployment strategies. These critical elements molecular genetic technologies to the study of will strongly influence the biological aspects apomixis. Still, many important questions and of apomixis research and what \"kind\" of problems remain unresolved; there is no apomixis should be targeted for development shortage of challenges in the field of apomixis and deployment. research. Many serious research efforts mayIn the vast majority of angiosperms, female meiosis results in the formation of a tetrad of mononucleate megaspores, of which three degenerate and one forms the geneticallyreduced 8-nucleate female gametophyte (Polygonum-type embryo sac). Consistentlyexpressed cytological deviations from this norm occur in certain species in 506 of the 13,479 genera of angiosperms recognized by the Kew Botanical Gardens (Carman 1997). However, most species in most of these 506 genera reproduce normally. Thus, the percentage of species consistently expressing reproductive anomalies (probably < 0.3 %) is far less than the percentage of genera (3.8 %) currently known to contain anomalous species. Reproductively-anomalous species occur in at least 184 families, which is 53 % of those in which some embryological analyses have been reported, and are much more abundant in some families than in others (Carman 1997).The reproductive anomalies considered in this chapter generally belong to three categories: gametophytic apomixis, polyspory, and polyembryony. Gametophytic apomicts produce unreduced embryo sacs that contain parthenogenetic eggs, are generally polyploid, and occur in at least 33 of 460 families of angiosperms. Diplospory and apospory are two major subdivisions of gametophytic apomixis (referred to as apomixis hereafter) and occur when unreduced embryo sacs form precociously from ameiotic megaspore mother cells (MMCs) or nearby somatic cells, respectively (Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1997;Peel et al. 1997a, b;Crane, Chap. 3). Polysporic species (bisporic or tetrasporic) are sexual and occur in at least 88 families. As in diplospory, embryo sacs of polysporic species form precociously from MMCs, but only portions of meiosis not critical to genetic reduction are affected (Battaglia 1989;Johri et al. 1992;Carman 1997). Polyembryony involves the formation of embryos from cells of other embryos, synergids, antipodals, nucelli, integuments, and even leaves (Tisserat et al. 1979;Johri et al. 1992). Like parthenogenesis in apomicts, polyembryony often begins before pollination (Naumova 1993). This chapter summarizes these anomalies in terms of developmental similarities, phylogenetic associations, and gene effect hypotheses, and it discusses implications of the gene effect hypotheses for future research and plant improvement. It concludes that a major purging of some widely accepted dogma concerning the evol ution and genetic regulation of apomixis will probably occur as the mechanisms involved give way to more accurate evolutionary, developmental, and molecular characterizations.At the developmental level, some apomictic mechanisms resemble sexual polysporic mechanisms more than other apomictic 96 10k. G.(o,.,.. mechanisms (Figure 7.1). For example, Antennaria-type diplospory is identical to tetraspory (sexual), except that the nuclear divisions leading to a tetranucleate embryo sac are meiotic in tetraspory but mitotic in Antennaria-type diplospory. Both Antennariatype diplospory and tetraspory occur in Antennaria, Erigeron, Limonium, and Rudbeckia (Carman 1997). In both anomalies, MMC lack callose (Peel et a1. 1997a). Ixeris-type diplospory is even more similar to tetraspory because, as in tetraspory, a meiotic prophase occurs. However, in the diplosporous mechanism, a first division restitution ensues. Ixeris-type diplospory is identical to bispory (sexual) except that meiosis I fails in the former (Figure 7.1). Both Ixeris-type diplospory and bispory (and apospory and tetraspory) occur in Erigeron. Allium odorum-type diplospory and bispory differ only in that a chromosomal endoreduplication occurs in the former. Both are found in Allium. The recognition of these developmental similarities and phylogenetic associations led Carman (1997) to analyze taxonomic data for all known species that express these anomalies. It was found that apomictic, polysporic, and polyembryonic species are polyphyletic and tend to be phylogenetically related. Many highly significant associations were discovered.The variation represented in Figure 7.1 is somewhat continuous. For example, Antennaria-type diplospory is similar to both tetraspory and apospory. In some families, both species and genera span this continuum.  families. Differences between observed and expected values for these associations, assuming independent distribution, were highly significant (Carman 1997). Such developmental similarities and phylogenetic associations suggest that the gene effect mechanisms responsible for apomixis are in some way mechanistically and evolutionarily related to those responsible for polyspory and polyembryony. Hence, gene effect hypotheses that explain apomixis should also explain the related anomalies.Two other female anomalies appear mechanistically and phylogenetically related to apomixis and polyspory. Both repeat a segment of female development in an asynchronous manner. The first, preleptotene chromosome condensation, inserts an additional mitotic prophase between premeiotic Sand leptonema. The chromosomes condense to a mitotic metaphase state, decondense, and resume meiotic prophase (Bennett and Stern 1975). This phenomenon is similar to Allium odorum-type diplospory (see Crane, Chap. 3) in that a segment of the cell cycle (prophase, not S) is duplicated before meiosis.Preleptotene chromosome condensations occur in certain species of Li/ium, Tradescantia, Trillium, Fritillaria, Nicotiana, Vicia, and Psi/otum, with the first five also containing polysporic species.In the second anomaly, observed in Rosaceae, an apparently normal MMC forms, degenerates, and is subsequently replaced by one or more secondary and fully functional MMCs. This anomaly occurs in A/chemilla, Cotoneaster, Sorbus, Rubus, Aphanes (Davis  1966) and Wa/dsteinia (Czapik 1985), all of which also contain apomictic or polysporic species (Czapik 1985;Carman 1997) High chromosome base numbers (x ;:: 10) suggest paleopolyploidy, which means polyploidy followed by diploidization with or without ascending or descending aneuploidy. Multiple base numbers per genus reflect diploidization following ascending or descending aneuploidy and is further evidence of paleopolyploidy (Goldblatt 1980;Lewis 1980). Carman (1997) found chromosome base numbers for 80% of all genera identified as containing apomictic, polysporic, or polyembryonic species. Statistical analyses indicated that polysporic and polyembryonic species are generally paleopolyploid (x = 15.7 and 13.2, respectively), while many apomicts, which are generally polyploid (Asker and Jerling 1992), contain primary genomes (x = 9.6). Furthermore, genera with polysporic but not apomictic species have more x values per genus (2.7 ± 0.4 SE) than genera with apomictic but not polysporic species (1.7 ± 0.1). This means apomicts tend to have balanced sets of duplicate genes (primary genomes) and polysporic and polyembryonic species tend to have imbalanced sets of genes (paleopolyploid genomes, i.e., partially duplicated or triplicated due to aneuploid series formation followed by diploidization). Thus, a distinct divergence in genome composition occurs between apomixis on the one hand and tetraspory and polyembryony on the other, even though these anomalies are phylogenetically and mechanistically related. Hence, gene effect hypotheses attempting to 98 Jolo.G.(_ explain the existence of apomixis must also address these highly significant peculiarities in genome composition, phylogenetic relatedness, and developmental (or mechanistic) affinities.Other genome-related factors may abnormally affect female development in polyploids or paleopolyploids. For example, meiotic rates are linearly correlated with DNA content, but the regression line is much steeper in polyploids. And, meiosis in tetraploids usually requires the same period of time as in related diploids containing half the DNA. This occurs because genes for meiosis in polyploids are duplicated (Bennett 1977). That the meiotic rate to DNA content regression slopes in paleopolyploids reflect either a diploid or a polyploid condition may be critical to the evolution of apomixis and related anomalies, Examples include Scilla nonscriptus, 2/1 = 2x = 16, which belongs to an aneuploid series with x = 6 to 9, 15, and 17 as stabilized base numbers, and Convallaria maja/is, 2/1 = 2x = 38, with a sole base number ofx = 19. Both arepaleopolyploid diploids with large quantities of DNA, but their meioses occur in only 50% of the time predicted for nonpaleopolyploid diploids with similar amounts of DNA, i.e., they behave as polyploids. In contrast, Omit/roga/um virens (2/1 = 6), which is at the bottom of a descending aneuploid series in which x = 3 to 5 and 7, Allium cepa (2/1 = 16), which is at the middle of an aneuploid series with x = 7 to 9, and Fritillaria me/eagris (2n = 24), which is at the top of an ascending aneuploid series with x = 7, 9, and 12, are paleopolyploid diploids with slow meioses that is indicative of diploids with considerable DNA. Duplicate genes for meiosis in these species have either been lost through aneuploidy or genetically silenced. Hexaploid nulli 5B tetra 5D wheat is another example. Meiotic rates in this line reflect a tetraploid, not a hexaploid, probably because of imbalanced sets of meiotic genes (Bennett 1977).Several questions relevant to the evolution of female developmental anomalies can be formulated from this information. For example, how is the synchrony of female development affected when some of the duplicated genes responsible for megasporogenesis, embryo-sac development, and embryony from one of two genomes are silenced or lost during diploidization (paleopolyploid formation)? What happens when there are duplicate doses of genes for certain stages of meiosis or embryo sac development and not other stages, as is anticipated in highly aneuploid paleopolyploid polysporic species? Could such imbalances cause some of the anomalies of embryo sac development observed in polysporic species, such as a precocious gametophytization of the MMC or the formation of 4 to 32 nucleate embryo sacs? Total quantities of DNA also influence the types of life cycles angiosperms assume. For example, species of Fritillaria (many of which are polysporic paleopolyploids) have large amounts of nuclear DNA and their meioses may require 3-4 weeks to complete. In contrast, annuals have little DNA and very short meioses (Bennett 1977), and apomixis and related anomalies are rare among them (Asker and Jerling 1992). Hence, a minimum threshold in duration of meiosis may be a prerequisite for the evolution of certain reprod~ctiveanomalies.Reproductive anomalies in angiosperms might also be influenced by differences in meiotic durations between genders. In cereals, female and male meioses are generally synchronous and similar in duration. However, in species in which female meiosis occurs later than male meiosis, differences in duration may be as great as 50 % (Bennett 1977). Such differences might encourage anomalous development in one gender but not the other.Finally, ecotype divergences resulting from divergent selection pressures associated with high versus low latitudes (flowering responses to specific photoperiods), high versus low elevations, highly shaded versus full sun conditions, or moist versus dry conditions may contribute to the evolution of apomixis and related anomalies. Many plants have been categorized according to their response to photoperiod. For example, long-day plants are adapted to higher latitudes and flower in the spring and early summer when days are long. Short-day plants are often found in lower latitudes (tropics) and often flower during the tropical \"winter\" when days are short. Dualday-length plants require either short or long days to induce reproductive bud formation, followed by long or short days, respectively, to cause the formed buds to mature into flowers. Intermediate-day plants will not flower if days are too long or too short. Dayneutral plants show little adaptation to day length and flower induction occurs under a broad range of day lengths. In addition, several other specialized categories exist. Salisbury and Ross (1992) selected 78 species from among approXimately 300 species of plants studied for flowering responses to different photoperiods. These 78 species were chosen independently of any reproductive anomalies that might be expressed either within themselves or within other species in the genera they represent. In contrast, they were chosen to distinctly represent specific photoperiod response categories. Sixty-seven different genera are represented by these 78 species. It is interesting to note that 33% of these genera (22 of 67) contain species with female reproductive anomalies (gametophytic apomixis, polyspory, or polyembryony; compare Salisbury and Ross 1992,   photoperiod responses, i.e., only 3.8% of genera are known to express reproductive anomalies. Thus, if reproductive anomalies occur independently of distinct adaptations to photoperiod, then only 3.8% (not 33%) of the genera identified as containing species with distinct photoperiod adaptations should have also expressed reproductive anomalies. This 33% breaks down as follows: 12% contain gametophytic apomicts (compared with 1% of all angiospermous genera, i.e., a 12-fold increase); 13% contain polysporic species (compared with 1.6% of all angiospermous genera, i.e., an eightfold increase); and 7.5 % contain polyembryonic species (compared with 1.7% of all angiospermous genera, i.e., a 4.4-fold increase). These associations between genera containing species that express reproductive anomalies and genera containing species that express distinct adaptations to photoperiod (different latitudes, etc.) should be studied in more detail, as they suggest that photoperiod responses either contribute to the evolution of reproductive anomalies or are at least correlated with unknown causal factor(s) (see Carman 2000).These data indicate that apomictic polyploids could contain interracial or interspecific genomes polygenically \"coadapted\" (Wallace 1991)   7.1 Phylogenetic, genomic, and developmental peculiarities that hypotheses for the genetic regulation of apomixis and related reproductive anomalies must explain Phylogenetic Apomixis, po~spory, and po~embryony are rare yet polyphyletic Apomixis, pa~spory, and po~embryony tend to ocwr in the same species/genera/families IAMC degeneration/replacement acwrs in apomictic or polysporic genera \" Preleptotene chromosomal condensations tend to ocwr in polysporic genera The majority of apomicts evolved during the post three million years, i.e., during the last 2% of the evolutionary existence of angiosperms (see Carman, 2000).Chromosome bose numbers are low in apomicts and high in polysporic/po~embryonic species Apomicts tend to be genome-balanced, polysporic/polyembryonic species tend not to be Apomixis, palyspory, and polyembryony are general~ absent in annuals (low amounts of DNA/rapid meioses) Paleopolyploids may behove as diploids or polyploids with respect to meiotic duration Polygonum-type reproduction is fawltative in apomictic, polysporic, and polyembryonic species Tendencies to apomixis are observed in some wide hybrids including Raphanabrassica (consistent aposporous embryo soc formation) Male and female meioses in some species start at different times and have different durations Apomixis, polyspory, and polyembrony tend to ocwr in genera capable of strong adaptations to photoperiod Apomixis, polyspory, and polyembryony are characterized by asynchronausly•expressed substitutions, replacements, or duplications of discrete reproductive phases Most apomicts display relaxed endosperm balance number requirements (see Grimanelli et 01., Chop 6; Grossniklaus, Chop 12) Since these first reports, the absence of callose around diplosporous MMCs has been documented in Paa nemoralis (Naumova et al. 1993), various Tripsawm species (Leblanc et al. 1995;Peel et al. 1997a), Eragrastis curvula (Peel 1997a), and Antennaria rasea (Carman, unpublished). Although usually present, callose envelopment of MMCs is often abnormal in aposporous apomicts (Naumova et a1.1993;Naumova and Willemse 1995;Peel 1997a), and these abnormalities maybe related to the time at which aposporous embryo sacs are initiated (Peel et aI1997a).The callose hypothesis states that a genetic lesion(s) frequently prevents or reduces callose deposition in the walls of MMCs. This causes apomixis by allowing developmental signals to move in a less restricted manner through the ovule, thus confusing development. If this underlying concept is correct, i.e., if a role of callose is to contain developmental signals, we would expect to see this mechanism associated with other reproductive anomalies. However, MMC callose is generally not lacking in apospory or bispory, and no apparent connection exists between absence of MMC callose and parthenogenesis or the proliferation of embryo-sac nuclei. in various forms of tetraspory (Johri et al. 1992). The callose hypothesis also fails to address (i) genome differences between apomicts and polysporic or polyembryonic species, and (ii) the occurrence of \"tendencies for apomixis\" that occur in many wide hybrids (Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1997).That apospory is caused by the precocious and ectopic expression of a normal master gene for embryo sac formation (embryo sac induction gene, Est) was proposed by Peacock (1993), who suggested that the precocious expression of Esi may be caused by a single mutation. If this is correct, inducing mutations in maize, rice, or Arabidapsis could produce The G... EHo<t Geo.... Collsloos ..dApomiJll. 101 apomixis. The precocious induction hypothesis is attractive because it explains precocious initiation of embryo-sac formation in apospory, diplospory, tetraspory, and bispory. However, the single-mutation-based induction of Esi fails to explain other features of female reproductive anomalies not temporally or spatially associated with embryo-sac induction (Koltunow 1993).In many reproductive anomalies, two or more developmental processes occur simultaneously and asynchronously (Figure 7.1). During apomixis, meiosis and embryo-sac formation often occur Simultaneously, and parthenogenesis is often initiated before fertilization of the central cell. Preleptotene chromosomal replications and condensations, MMC abortions and subsequent replacements, and elimination or duplication of nuclear divisions resulting in from 4 to 32-nucleate tetrasporic embryo sacs would require additional mutations. The mutation-based nature of this hypothesis also fails to explain why reproductively-anomalous taxa are phylogenetically related and why apomicts are generally polyploid with balanced genomes and low chromosome base numbers, while polysporic and polyembryonic species are typically paleopolyploid with unbalanced genomes, high chromosome base numbers, and multiple base numbers per genus (see Table 7.1 for other phylogenetic, genomic, and developmental correlations and phenomena not readily explained by simple mutation). Thus, while the developmental displacement component of this hypothesis is intriguing, its mutation-based explanation is questionable.The hybridization-derived floral asynchrony (HFA) theory expands on the developmental displacement component of the precocious induction hypothesis but suggests a nonmutation origin. The foundation of this theory 102 1010. G.(arma.was developed in 1994 by the author while attempting to reconcile simple inheritance for apomixis (the prevailing opinion at the time; Nogler 1984;Asker and Jerling 1992;Mogie 1992) with (i) the many apparent asynchronous replacements, competitions, and duplications of discrete developmental segments in rep rod ucti ve Iy-anoma lous species (Figure 7.1; many phenomena in addition to embryo-sac induction), and (ii) the fact that nearly all apomicts are polyploid. The author concluded that such a reconciliation is unreasonable. According to HFA theory, apomixis occurs when hybrids are produced from ecotypes that are distinctly divergent with respect to their start times and rates of MMC formation, meiosis, embryo sac formation, and embryogenesis relative to gross ovule development. Such \"genome collisions\" (terminology suggested by Sven Asker, personal comm., 1997) explaill the abundant duplicity and asynchrony of development depicted in Figure 7.1.In 1994, the author conducted a preliminary search of the literature to determine if polysporic and polyembryonic species contain multiple genomes, i.e., whether they are polyploid. A negative result was soon obtained, which seemed to deal a fatal blow to this fledgling multi-genome \"asynchrony hypothesis.\" However, in studying the genome composition of the polysporic and polyembryonic diploids, it was found that these \"diploids\" generally have high chromosome base numbers indicative of paleopolyploidy. The author concluded that if the HFA theory is correct, the base number trends observed in the preliminary 1994 study should hold in a large-scale study of all known apomictic, polysporic, and polyembryonic species. The theory survived the large-scale examination, was refined, and additional hypotheses concerning the origins of apomixis and its role in the evolution of some reproductively-novel polysporic and polyembryonic species and genera were developed (Carman 1997;Peel et al. 1997a, b).The HFA theory states (i) duplicate sets of genes encoding female developmental pathways exist in interracial or interspecific hybrids, polyploids, mesopolyploids, and paleopolyploids; (ii) polygenic \"heterozygosity\" for photoperiodic floral induction and start times and durations of MMC formation, megasporogenesis, embryo-sac formation, endosperm formation, and embryony, is the primary cause of apomixis, pOlyspory, polyembryony, and related anomalies; (iii) allopolyploidy or segmental allopolyploidy is often required for apomixis because it prevents or greatly reduces the incidence of genetic recombination between genomically-isolated sets of parental genes, which otherwise would lead to recombination among the many genes required for apomixis, resulting in reversion to sexuality (Carman, in preparation); (iv) polyploidy also influences apomixis by influencing the timing and duration of meiosis (Bennett 1977) and because divergent genomes are probably more prone to be physically partitioned in the nucleus (Leitch et al. 1990) when present as homologous pairs and thus more functionally independent (Carman 1997);and (v) mutations are of secondary importance and may improve reproductive fitness through null-allele formation in one or both genomes. This theory is consistent with current models of developmental gene expression, including (i) the ABC model, in which floral genes from a B cassette are expressed only when genes from an A cassette are expressed (the expression of C genes requires expression of B genes, etc.) (Theissen et al. 2000), and (ii) checkpoint models, in which precocious expression of checkpoint genes causes developmental phases to be skipped, e.g., fusing G]-phase yeast cells with M-phase cells causes G] nuclei of  effects), which could be caused by differences in genetic background, or (ii) envirorunental factors that reduce the degree of asynchrony by accelerating or decelerating gene expression from one genome relative to that of another (photoperiod or temperature responses, e.g., as occurs in Dicanthium, Themedtl), thus allowing sexual development to occur facultatively (Carman 2000).According to the HFA theory, polyspory and polyembryony result from the competitive expression of grossly imbalanced genomes (incompletely duplicated sets of reproductive genes) in which some checkpoint systems are missing. In contrast, competitive expression among genomes is terminated by checkpoint genes in apomicts, which generally contain balanced sets of reproductive genes (Carman 1997), thus allowing a somewhat smooth transition to apomixis (Figure 7.2).Apomixis is much more prevalent among outcrossing species than inbreeding species (Asker and Jerling 1992). This is consistent with the HFA theory because outcrossing species are much more prone to form interecotypic or interspecific polyploids when secondary contacts occur, e.g., during the numerous major. climatic shifts associated with the Pleistocene glaciations (Frakes et al. 1992;Carman 2000). Likewise, more apomicts are aliopolyploid than autopolyploid because polyploidization by Bill hybrid formation is expected to occur more frequently in nature in interspecific hybrids than interracial hybrids. Similarly, the chances of Bill hybrid formation occurring in interecotypic or interspecific F 1 hybrids that are sterile and annual are low compared to their formation in sterile perennials, which may flower annually for many years. This factor limits the chances of annuals becoming apomictic and explains their low frequency in nature.The HFA theory also predicts ambiguous outcomes regarding the sexuality of progeny when an apomict is crossed with a sexual or with another apomict, regardless of the closeness or wideness of the cross. The mode of reproduction expressed in the progeny will depend on how the added or removed genome(s) affect asynchrony, and this cannot be predicted without some a priori knowledge of the female developmental schedules encoded by the involved genomes (Carman 1997). That these many inconsistencies in the apomixis literature are explained by the HFA theory is strong evidence for its validity.If Many criteria should be considered in testing for such asynchrony. First, it would be desirable for the apomict to (i) be allotetraploid with known sexual diploid progenitors, (ii) contain well-mapped genomes, (iii) be amenable to transposon tagging, (iv) be easily grown with a short vegetative phase, and (v) have ovules readily accessible to cytological analyses. At present, no apomict meets all of these criteria. Second, molecular probes that recognize mRNAs specific to different developmental stages would need to be produced, and the genes from which they are developed would need to contain adequate intergenomic sequence divergence such that probes unique to each genome could be produced. Such probes may currently be under development.Portions of meiotic prophase and early embryo-sac development occur simultaneously in most aposporous apomicts and all Taraxacum-and Ixeris-type diplosporous apomicts (Carman 1997;Peel et al. 1997a). The HFA theory would be confirmed if the following two conditions are observed: (i) a probe unique to meiotic prophase of genome A plus a probe unique to early embryo-sac development from genome B detect their respective genome-specific mRNAs in ovules fixed and sectioned during meiotic prophase, and (ii) the probe for meiotic prophase from genome B does not detect its respective genome-specific mRNA product (or vice versa). This would confirm that one genome codes for meiosis (but not embryo-sac development) at the same time the other genome is coding for embryo-sac development. This test would not be valid if the mRNA synthesis identified by the respective probes is produced in response to transacting regulatory genes.If the HFA theory is correct, much of the apomixis literature will need to be reinterpreted. This includes interpretations of how apomixis evolved, the role of apomixis in evolution, the genetic control of apomixis, and how apomixis might be transferred to (or induced to occur in) sexual species.According to HFA theory, many secondary contacts must have occurred between ecotypes (or closely related species) that had been isolated from each other for many years along latitudinal or other ecological gradients. Major climatic shifts could account for such seconQary contacts (Carman 2000). The distribution patterns of most apomicts indicate a Pleistocene origin (Stebbins 1971;Asker and Jerling 1992), i.e., the geographic distributions and centers of diversity of many apomicts are centered near the margins of the Pleistocene glaciations, but their ranges often encompass the ecological ranges of the putative sexual progenitors, which lie north and south of the glacial margins. Eight major glaciations, which covered as much as 20% of the earth's surface, occurred during the Pleistocene. These were separated by warm interglacial periods lasting for several thousand to a hundred thousand years each. Likewise, most of the major glacial events consisted of glacial advances interrupted by minor interglacial periods that lasted for a few thousand years (Frakes et al. 1992). Hence, during the Pleistocene, the high latitudes of both hemispheres were repeatedly deglaciated and revegetated by cosmopolitan taxa capable of adapting to cool climates, long days, and short growing seasons.A long-day flowering response and a precocious meiosis and embryo-sac development in young ovules of sexual Anlennaria, and probably many other taxa, are adaptations to short summers in high latitudes or altitudes (Carman, unpublished). Glacial advances, which followed the numerous interglacial periods, cooled the midlatitudes, permitting higher latitude flora to invade midlatitude flora. This provided opportunities for ecotypes with a putatively-precocious female development (from higher latitudes or elevations, i.e., temperate to arctic climates) to form polyploids with ecotypes (or related species) with a putatively-delayed female development (from lower latitudes, i.e,. tropic to full-sun temperate climates). Such polyploids may have given rise to modern apomicts (Carman 1997(Carman , 2000)).This interpretation is consistent with the observed effects of climatic factors on facultativeness in certain apomicts. For example, exposing Dicnnlhillm a11l1ll11111lm, D. illiermedillm, and Themedn lrumdm to short days and low temperatures increases the frequency of apospory. The opposite conditions increase the frequency of sexuality in a partially-sexual Dicnllihilim hybrid (reviewed by Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 2000). Such shifts in facultativeness are expected if signal transduction pathways vary among genomes in sensitivity to morphogens (hormones, etc.) that accumulate in response to changing seasons and photoperiods.Once asynchrony is initiated, further shifts in facultativeness might occur in response to growing conditions. G. Ledyard Stebbins (personal communication, 1997) suggests that conditions favoring rapid growth (high temperatures, moisture, and light) might enforce competition between asynchronous genomes causing an increased frequency of apomixis. This prediction was observed in clones of F 1 hybrids obtained between wheat and diplosporous Elymlls recliselus. Clones grown under favorable conditions (high temperatures and light intensities) produced more apomeiotic-like MMCs (Peel et al. 1997b).Additional research should be conducted to elucidate such effects on facultativeness (Asker and Jerling 1992). Such research could provide clues concerning the nature of the divergent parental phenotypes that may have produced apomicts upon hybridization and polyploidization during the Pleistocene.The HFA theory also suggests that the role of apomixis in evolution is more prominent than previously supposed. What happens if some of the many checkpoint g-enes permitting a reasonably smooth replacement of developmental segments (resulting in apomixis) are mutated or lost during diploidization? Phylogenetic and genomic evidence suggests that such confusions of development may manifest themselves as polysp~ry or polyembryony. Thus, apomixis, instead of being an evolutionary dead end, may occasionally serve as an evolutionary springboard in the evolution of normal or developmentally-novel paleopolyploid sexual species and genera (Carman 1997).Essentially all Mendelian analyses of apomixis face reinterpretation if the HFA theory is correct. Data from a variety of apomicts have on one or more occasions (or when grown in certain environments) tended to fit a tetrasomic inheritance model with apomixis conferred by a single dominant gene \"A\" (or linkat). The putative linkat encodes sufficient information to \" •,-.t embryo-sac formation and function (Sherwood,Chap. 5). However, such \"segregation ratios\" are in some cases influenced by the environment in which the putative segregants are grown, much like the Dicanthium hybrid (reviewed above), which is sexual when grown in one environment and facultatively apomictic when grown in another. Dujardin and Hanna (1983) concluded that Pennisetum squamulatum is heterozygous for apomixis because some Fls in a cross between aposporous P. squamulatum and sexual tetraploid inbred pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum) were mostly sexual. This conclusion may not be warranted. Six of 20 Fls obtained in the study were highly apomictic, but 13 of the 14 remaining Fls were facultative apomicts with, on average, 3.2% of nonaborted ovules containing aposporous embryo sacs. No aposporous embryo sacs were observed in one of the 20 Fjs, but only 64 nonabortive ovules from this F I were studied. It is possible, given the small sample size and the possible influence of environment on facultativeness, that this F I also was facultative.Many published studies may prove useful in interpreting how genetic background and environment shift degrees of facultativeness.According to HFA theory, if genetic background favors the expression of one genome over another, sexual development will be favored. A genetic background favoring both genomes would favor apomixis, and a genetic background that completely silences reproductive signals from one genome would enforce sexuality.In the Dujardin and Hanna (1983) study, a third category consisting of about five of the 20 Fls was observed. This category occurredprimarily among weakly apomictic Fls and was defined by a very high level of ovule abortion (48-68%). The apomictic P. squamulatum parent is an autoallohexaploid and contains four copies of the S genome and two copies of an S' genome (Patil et al. 1961).The sexual inbred autotetraploid pearl millet parent contained four copies of the A genome. From this information, several reasonable scenarios involVing \"intergenomic heterozygosity\" could be proposed for the expression of apomixis in the Fls.One scenario is that the A and S genomes are similar with regard to reproductive timing, but both differ from the S' genome. Thus, the F I genome combination AASSS' would be apomictic. However, because the S genomes in P. squamulatum are heterozygous, shifts in facultativeness are expected because of recombination among S genome chromosomes prior to fertilization. This may explain the three reasonably distinct reproductive phenotypes observed: strongly apomictic (6 of 20 Fls, both genomes strongly expressed); weakly apomictic/highly abortive (5 Fls, one genome expressed more strongly than the other); and weakly apomictic/weakly abortive (9 Fls, one genome expressed much more strongly than the other). In this regard, it is interesting that most of the apomictic progeny are late-maturing relative to pearl millet (Hanna et al. 1992), which suggests they are expressing intermediate phenotypes with regard to reproductive development.Replicated Mendelian analyses with consistent segregation ratios have been conducted in Panicum (Savidan 1982), Tripsacum (Leblanc et al. 1995b), and Brachiaria (Valle and Miles 2000, Chap 10), and each study suggestsapomeiosis (detected cytologically) is controlled by a single dominant allele. However, other recent studies challenge this conclusion, e.g., the apomeiosis \"allele\" in the Tripsacum accession studied by Leblanc et al. (1995b) is part of a large linkage group in which recombination is suppressed (Grimanelli et al. 1998), and a similar linkage group appears to exist in apomictic Pennisetum (Grimanelli et al. 2000, Chap 6), Cenchrus (Roche et al. 1999), and Brachiaria (Pessino et al. 1999). Such linkage groups may contain multiple genes required for apomeiosis (Grimanelli et al. 1998(Grimanelli et al. ,2000)).Two groups are introgressing apomixis into maize from Tripsacum, and nei ther has reported its expression in addition lines with less than nine Tripsacum chromosomes. In one group, two apomictic maize triploids containing nine Tripsacum chromosomes (3x + 9) were produced. Cytogenetic and molecular studies strongly suggested that the nine Tripsacum chromosomes in each line were the same (Kindiger et al. 1996). A third triploid addition line, again with nine Tripsacum chromosomes (3x + 9), was produced by the same group. However, many of the nine chromosomes in this line differed from the nine chromosomes of the two former lines. The maize chromosomes were the same for all three lines. The latter 3x + 9 plant was also apomictic, but the frequency of apomixis was only 10-15%, compared to 95-100% for the two former lines (Victor Sokolov, personal comm., 1997). These data and unpublished findings from the other group attempting to transfer apomixis to maize (Grimanelli et al. 2000, Chap. 6) suggest a much more complex mode of inheritance for apomixis.In another study, sexual T dactyloides diploids were crossed with highly apomictic T. dactyloides triploids (%) to produce aneuploids. All but three of 46 Fls showed tendencies for apomeiosis (determined cytologically). However, the highly apomeiotic FIS contained seven or more chromosomes above the diploid level, and all Fls with chromosome numbers near the diploid level were sexual (Sherman et al. 1991), which also suggests complex inheri tance. Finally, genes essential to the expression of apomiXis in artificially produced Tripsacum triploids cosegregated with five Tripsacum linkage groups that are syntenic with regions from three maize chromosomes (Blakey et al. 1997).These latter studies infer (i) the interaction of multiple genes from multiple chromosomes (at least in Tripsacum) is required for the expression of apomixis; (ii) many genes affect facultativeness and behave additively; (iii) some Tripsacum chromosomes affect facultativeness much more than others; and (iv) alleles from at least three maize chromosomes fail to substitute for their homeologous (syntenic) counterparts from Tripsacum in conferring apomixis. These inferences evoke the following questions: How many genes are required to efficiently express apomixis in an alien genetic background? What selective pressures cause the accumulation of appropriate combinations of alleles that confer apomixis and regulate facultativeness? Can such selective pressures predispose sexual plants to apomixis upon inter-ecotypic hybridization? What role does polyploidy play? Does mutation play any role at all? The HFA theory answers these questions.That Mendelian analyses of some apomicts consistently result in expected ratios does not prove apomixis genes exist. Apomixis in such species may be largely controlled by one recombi{lationally-isolated linkage group with many minor unlinked genes affecting facultativeness (Carman 2000). According to HFA theory, such linkage groups do not contain apomixis genes per se and will not confer apomixis when syntenic regions of a sexual species are thereby replaced. Such linkage groups mimic heterozygous dominant gene action because of genomic configurations that isolate them from recombination. This isolation maintains the intergenomic (or intersegmental) polygenic heterozygosity required for apomixis and is critical to the stabilization of apomixis, i.e., the ability of apomicts to t\" .:ltatively produce progeny sexually without such progeny being sexual revertants (Carman, in preparation) Apomixis is a diverse topic of study, encompassing the cellular and sub-cellular events associated with the trai t, its inheritance across taxa, the taxonomic, ecological, biogeographica I and evol u tionary consequences of its expression, and the potential economic impacts of its incorporation into crop species. For each intended purpose, different characteristics are required in the study material, so the choice of an experimental system will vary between research groups. Historical reasons, access to material and expertise, and funding opportunities are clearly also critical factors in such decisions. For this brief chapter, I intentionally restricted my focus to the choice of model systems for studying the developmental biology of apomixis and the genetics underlying its expression and inheritance. Furthermore, characteristics of experimental merit have been ranked above those with more immediate commercial value.It is appreciated that this introduces a bias that is not appropriate for all researchers, however, it is hoped that the considerations discussed remain relevant across different program aims.Until very recently, most published studies regarding apomixis focused on either describing the cellular mechanisms underlying asexual seed formation or on the ecological implications of the trait for many different species. Much of the available data on apomixis are therefore quite diverse. This has been valuable for identifying elements common to different types of apomixis, however, it has also led to difficulties when comparing results from widely disparate systems. Consequently, it now seems appropriate to concentrate research effort on a smaller number of systems that may serve as models for the trait. The benefits of using model systems are clearly recognized in most fields of biology. Concentrating on a single system makes it possible to establish research networks; accumulate information on the experimental manipulation of the organism; develop genetic maps; maintain repositories for associated materials (such as genetically characterized plants, DNA libraries and probes); and to devote limited resources to developing a comprehensive understanding of a representative system(s).As other chapters in this book make clear, many critical questions in apomixis research remain unanswered, such as the number and nature of the major genes involved and the role of epistasis, with regard to modifiers and the interaction with polyploidy. Temporal and spatial gene regulation clearly occur within the ovule to determine tissue fate, and timing appears to be critical in determining the relative importance of the meiotic and apomeJotic pathways of seed formation in facultative systems (Savidan 1989; Koltunow 112 a... A. 8icUeI 1993). Before the trait can be successfully commercialized, more information is required about the impact of environmental variables on the expression of apomixis and their interaction with sexuality, particularly with regard to fertility and resource allocation. Ultrastructural studies are also required to more clearly elucidate the cytological and histological events involved in apomixis, such as the role of differential callose deposition (Carman et al. 1991;Leblanc et al. 1995a;Peel et al. 1997).The innate advantages and limitations of any system will dictate the available research opportunities and impact on the rate of possible progress. Therefore, before discussing candidates, it is helpful to consider the features that would facilitate their use, specifically in a study of the developmental biology and molecular genetics of apomixis.To facilitate experimental progress, there are a number of cultural characteristics to consider in choosing a model system. For simplicity, the plant should be easy to cultivate, both in vivo and in vitro. Ideally it should also be a perennial that can be easily propagated vegetatively to permit the maintenance of sterile or self-incompatible sexual biotypes. A small, compact plant stature, which does not require training, will facilitate the manipulation of large populations, such as those used during mutant screens and inheritance studies. For the rapid turnover of experimental populations it is convenient to use a species with a short generation time, abundant seed set, and adequate seed fertility. This is particularly important for studying apomixis because plants are assessed at the time of flowering or seed formation. For the evaluation of apomixis, it is advantageous to use a species in which apomixis can be easily assessed, preferably in a format that can be quantified, to facilitate the study of allelic differences and epistasis.The inheritance of apomixis is typically assessed by crossing sexual and apomictic biotypes, often using the sexual plant as the maternal parent. Although it is usually also possible, and sometimes necessary, to perform the reciprocal cross, it requires the separation of recombinant (B II and B hybrids) from nonm recombinant (maternal and polyhaploid) progeny. Inheritance studies, therefore, require that cross-compatible sexual and apomictic biotypes are available, and if a sexual recipient is used, that microsporogenesis and microgametogenesis are functional in the apomictic biotypes used. Sexual biotypes are also useful in molecular studies for assessing the developmental importance of reintroduced, putative control sequences.Two prinCipal mechanisms of apomixis have been reported: (i) adventitious embryony, in which the maternal embryo arises directly from a somatic cell, and (ii) gametophytic apomixis, in which the maternal embryo is derived from an egg cell within an unreduced embryo sac. Gametophytic apomixis is further divided into diplosporous and aposporous mechanisms, depending on whether the unred~ced embryo sac arises from a modification of the meiotic apparatus or from a separate cell, respectively. Intermediates between the two forms of gametophytic apomixis have been reported (Gustafsson 1946), indicating that they possibly represent modifications of a single developmental mechanism. For more detailed descriptions of mechanisms, see Nogler (1984a) and Kol tunow (1993). Most current research efforts on native apomixis focus on gametophytic mechanisms, including studies of both aposporous and diplosporous species.For an experimental system using a native apomict, it is convenient to use a facultative species in which both maternal and nonmaternal (\"aberrant\") progeny can be harvested from the same plant. Rutishauser (1948) identified three aberrant types among the progeny of these plants: B lI hybrids, derived from the fusion of a reduced egg cell and sperm nucleus; Bill hybrids, derived from the fusion of an unreduced egg cell and sperm nucleus; and polyhaploids, which arise through parthenogenesis from a red uced egg cell. Aberrant progeny are often very useful for studying the genetics of apomixis. Hybrid progeny permit the evaluation of cytoplasmicinheritance and the hybridization of pollensterile biotypes such as interspecific hybrids (Savidan et al. 1994). Similarly polyhaploids have been used to study the expression of apomixis in diploids (Nogler 1982;Bicknell 1997).Competence to form both meiotic and apomeiotic seed is also invaluable for mutation screening. Dominant inheritance (see below) suggests that the selective inactivation of either developmental pathway by a mutation will lead to the exclusive expression of the other. This dual competency provides a useful internal control. The continued formation of at least one class of seed indicates that the mutation(s) is specific to an event(s) associated with apomixis and that related requirements for floral development, megagametogenesis, and embryogenesis remain intact. Similarly, as facultative mechanisms incorporate a balance between the utilization of parallel developmental pathways, they can be used to study factors that influence that balance, such as the impact of physiological stress and of interactions between genetic modifiers. The formation of the endosperm may also be an important consideration in the choice of an experimental system. The endosperm may either form spontaneously, as in \"autonomous\" apomicts, or require the fertilization of the polar nuclei by a sperm nucleus (pseudogamy). As pseudogamy only requires spontaneous embryogenesis and not spontaneous endosperm formation, pseudogamous species may be considered potentially simpler models to study. This possible advantage, however, is offset by experimental constraints associated with pseudogamy. In these plants, pollination is required for seed formation, so it becomes necessary to demonstrate that the applied pollen led only to the fertilization of the polar nuclei and not of the egg. This difficulty has been largely overcome, however, in species that can be assessed for apomixis using a correlated cytological character, such as callose deposition in diplosporous species of Tripsacum (Leblanc et al. 1995a) and four-<:elled embryo-sac formation in aposporous species of Panicum (Savidan 1980). Finally, there may be end uses for which autonomous apomixis is more suitable, such as the production of male sterile or self-incompatible lines, the avoidance of pollinators, or for crops in which the endosperm is commercially important, such as grains.Apomixis appears to be relatively simply inherited either as a one-or two-gene trait, at least in the small number of cases studied.Examples include apospory in Ranunculus auricomus (Nogler 1984b); Pan icum maximum (Savidan 1980(Savidan , 1982)); Pennisetum squamulatum (Dujardin and Hanna 1985); Cenchrus ciliaris (Sherwood et al. 1994); Brachiaria sp. (Valle and Savidan 1996); Hi.:racium (Gadella 1991;Bicknell et al. 2000); and diplospory in TripsaClim dactylaides (Leblanc et al. 1995b;Grimanelli et al. 1998);TaraxaClim (van Dijk et al. 1999); and Erigeron (Noyes and Rieseberg 2000). Earlier work by Dopp (1939) indicates that it may even be true for the fern Dryapteris.Simple inheritance would be particularly valuable for analyzing the molecular biology of the trait.For the advancement of a molecular research program, it is particularly advantageous if a model system can be genetically transformed. This permits the introduction of marker genes to follow segregation and recombination and mutagenic sequences such as T-DNA tags and transposons to assist in the cloning of sequences associated with the expression of apomixis. Furthermore, transformation permits expression studies about putative regulatory elements by their fusion to marker sequences and the functional testing of putative control genes by their introduction into sexual or mutant genotypes.It would also be preferable to use a species with a small genome size, such as Arabidapsis, to facilitate the identification of critical loci.Similarly, an ideal system would already be characterized with respect to genomic sequence and mapped morphological and molecular markers (deletions, translocations, RFLPs, RAPDs, transposons, etc.) for the localization of loci. Finally, it would be advantageous, although not essential, to use a crop species to assist in the transfer of research findings into practical outcomes.The success of any program on apomixis will depend on both the natural attributes of the species used and on the power of the techniques available to manipulate it experimentally. For some species, techniques have already been documented, while for others they would need to be established. Tissue culture and transformation techniques are particularly valuable. They permit the rapid micropropagation of selected types, the retention of somatic genotypes through in vitro shoot regeneration, and the maintenance of valuable genotypes through long-term cold storage. It is also possible to recover interspecific hybrids using embryo rescue, and to manipulate ploidy in culture through the use of anther or microspore culture to isolate reduced genotypes and by colchicine application for chromosome doubling.As the initiation of the embryo sac is the first decisive event of the female reproductive phase, a thorough embryological analysis is an indispensable base for an investigation of apomixis, while embryology continues to be necessary at all stages of the research. Reliable cytological techniques are therefore essential for this work. Fortunately, this is one area of apomixis research that is well documented, particularly with respect to the use of versatile, routine clearing techniques (Leblanc et al. 1995a) that enable the use of thick sections to visualize the complex internal structure of the ovule.Most studies of apomixis require a method for determining the presence of apomixis, and when possible, for quantifying its extent, either with respect to prevalence in a population or level of expression in a single genotype. Measuring apomixis, however, is a difficult task. When considered as a genetic event, apomixis is reproduction through seed without either allelic segregation or recombination. Assessment, therefore, should be strictly based on whether allelic rearrangement occurs. This is seldom practical experimentally and most systems for assessing apomixis use a correlated character. The reliability of these correlations is clearly an important concern in interpreting data collected from any system. For example, in most apomicts demonstrating apospory of the Panicum-type, maternal embryos typically arise from four-celled, unreduced embryo sacs, while reduced embryo sacs are usually eightcelled. Apomixis can therefore be readily scored in these plants by determining the relative abundance of the different structures.The correlation between the form of the embryo sac and nuclear state appears to be very good, but the technique is also based on the assumption that the number of unreduced embryo sacs is a direct reflection of the number of maternal embryos that will reach maturity.As the assessment is conducted before the requisite events involved in apomixis have occurred, an overestimate of intact apomixis is possible. In contrast, asexual seed forms without pollination in autonomous apomicts, therefore, apomixis can be quantified in these species from the seed that sets without pollination. This is attractive experimentally, but it presents a conservative bias because individuals with only partial apomixis are easily scored as either sexual or sterile. It is clear in every case that results should be verified by either using more than one method for quantifying apomixis or by establishing the credibility of the results with either an embryological or a genetic study of the system.Two approaches have been taken in developing model systems for studying apomixis: (i) the modification of an established model plant species, and (ii) the experimental maniplliation of a known apomict.The first approach has the advantage of immediate access to extensive records on the genetics, biochemistry, and developmental biology of the system. induced mutation or by the accumulation of mutant alleles. A second approach has been to attempt the transfer of the trait by introgression from an apomictic relative.Two important advantages of mutagenesis are that it can be conducted on a species without any known close apomictic relative and it has the potential to rapidly provide the experimental material required in a characterized genetic background. The principal difficulty with this approach is that methods must be developed for screening mutant populations for apomixis without any foreknowledge of the developmental mechanism(s) that will arise. In particular, it is not known whether a single mutagenic event can cause an unambiguous phenotypic change that can be identified as either an intact apomixis or a recognizable component of the trait. The screening technique must therefore be based both on the appearance of developmental anomalies that are characteristic of apomixis and, ultimately, on the retention of the maternal genotype. One good example of this approach is the mutant screening of Arabidopsis thaliana for mutations leading to the formation of seed without fertilization (fie and fis mutations) (Ohad et al. 19%;Chaudhury et al. 1997). The screens were based on the identification of plants that developed elongated siliques without prior fertilization. The advantages of Arabidopsis for this approach are highlighted by the authors' use of male sterile mutants (popl and pistillata) to avoid self-fertilization, and the use of GUS as a paternal marker in test crosses with the mutants. The description of these mutants is a particularly exciting outcome, providing evidence for the involvement of chromatin remodeling factors in the control of cell division at the time of fertilization (Grossniklaus et al. 1998;Kiyosue et al. 1999). Furthermore, recently reported data indicates that methylation is critical to the regulation of these genes, specifically with their expression during gametogenesis and early embryogenesis and that this may be associated with mechanisms of maternal inheritance (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1999).When mutations that alter megasporogenesis, megagametogenesis, and embryogenesis are already known, it may be possible to create an apomictic mechanism by the accumulation of appropriate alleles within a single genotype. In potato, the homozygous representation of the ds-l allele Significantly reduces chiasmata frequencies on all chromosomes during both megasporogenesis and microsporogenesis, leading to high levels of 2n gametes through first division restitution (FDR) Oongedijk et al. 1991). If this could be combined with parthenogenesis, true potato seed could be generated through a synthetic diplosporic mechanism (Hermsen et al. 1985).When an apomictic relative is available, it may be possible to transfer the trait into a characterized system by introgression. This typically involves a backcrossing program using the sexual species as the recurrent parent. Introgression has been used to attempt the introduction of apomixis into several crop species, normally as part of a crop improvement program (Asker and ]erling 1992). Examples of this approach include attempted transfers from Pennisetum squamHlatum to cultivated pearl millet (Dujardin and Hanna 1985), Elymus rectisetus to Triticum (wheat) (Torabinejad and Mueller  1993), and Tripsacum dactyloides to Zea (maize) (Leblanc et al. 1995b). Similarly, it may be possible to transfer the trait from apomictic crucifers, such as Arabis holboellii (Roy 1995) or Draba oligosperma (Mulligan and Findlay 1969), to Arabidopsis thnliana to take advantage of the versatility of this model system. Unlike syntheSiS, transfer has the advantage that the program is based on a known, functional apomictic mechanism. Furthermore, the inheritance of that trait can be monitored through each generation, providing information on its genetic basis in the system under study. Finally, as indicated above, when the recipient species is a crop, the product may be of immediate commercial value. The principal disadvantage of transfer is that the availability of apomictic relatives typically dictates the mechanism used. It has also proven difficult to incorporate the trait into obligate sexual crops with a significant level of expression. The reason for this difficulty is unclear. It may be associated with the inheritance of modifiers or an important association with polyploidy, which is lost during the backcrossing program. Alternatively, the difficulties encountered may be more a problem of experimental scale. Most crop species do not have a close apomictic relative so introgression requires wide crossing. This often results in poor fertility among the progeny and little, if any, crossing over during meiosis. Large populations need to be formed and assessed for ploidy and apomixis, but traditional methods of chromosome counting and thin sectioning are too labor-intensive to be practical for most research teams. Recent advances in DNA quantification through flow cytometry and analytical cytology using clearing techniques are overcoming these difficulties. Over the past two years, researchers in the maizeI Tripsacum program have screened more than 200,000 plants for chromosome number using flow cytometry (Savidan, personal comm.) and the experimental populations have been advanced to the BC s generation.Apomixis occurs throughout the plant kingdom. Species utilizing various forms of asexual reproduction that involve gametopnytic structures have been recorded among the algae, pteridophtyes, and in more Which is the best to study? Different species clearly have different advantages. The unique biology of ferns, for example, presents some unusual opportunities to study apomixis (Sheffield and Bell 1981). The events of megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis are physically separated in these plants, permitting the study of the individual component processes of apomixis in isolation. Unlike the angiosperm embryo sac, the free living fern gametophyte is isolated from parental influence, and, in some systems, parthenogenetic development of the sporophyte can be induced in vitro (Sheffield and Bell 1987). Furthermore, the sporogenic tissue is relatively exposed in ferns, simplifying the study of events associated with the avoidance of meiosis. It is interesting to note that Manton (1950) reported that unreduced spores of Crytomium arose from tissue immediately adjacent to meiotic tissue in the sporangium, a situation closely analogous to the development of aposporous initials in the angiosperm ovule. Finally, as the fern sporophyte develops without the need for an endosperm, difficulties associated with the development of that tissue do not arise. There are, of course, several limitations in using ferns as model systems, particularly for a molecular study of development. They are often large slow-growing plants that can be difficult to cultivate, and they present some real challenges when cond ucting con trolled fertilizations with motile sperm cells. Finally, very little is known of the molecular biology of this group, which would impede progress in any molecular study of apomixis.Apomixis occurs throughout the angiosperms including representatives of both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous genera. Many of the most comprehensive 118 Ron A. Mlltll studies of apomixis used monocotyledonous species, principally relatives of the cereals, such as ELymlls (Torabinejad and Mueller 1993), Tripsacum (Leblanc et al. 1995a), Panicum (Savidan 1982), and important forage grasses, such as Pennise/um (Dujardin and Hanna 1985;Ozias-Akins et al. 1998)), Brachiaria (Valle et al.  1994), and Paspalum (Bonilla and Quarin 1997).The inheritance of apomixis has been particularly well characterized for Panicum maximum. Savidan (1990, 2000) partially ascribed his succe~~with this system to the use of apomicJic-aria~exual forms from within the sqmespecies and at the same plOidy level. This important advantage is shared with only a very small number of studied apomictic taxa. In contrast, most known apomictic species appear to have either evolved away from their immediate sexual progenitor(s) or their progenitor(s) no longer exists. As a result, apomicts have often been crossed wi th a related but distinctly different sexual species. In such studies, the subsequent analysis of the progeny must consider the inheritance of the breeding system while also allowing for unrela ted effects resulting from interspecific hybridisation. Despite this caveat, however, mapping strategies have led to the isolation of molecular markers linked to apospory in the grass genus Pennise/um (Ozais-Akins et al. 1993, 1998). In a similar approach, colinearity between grass genomes has also been used to propose a linkage to apomeiosis in Tripsacum (Leblanc et al. 1995b) and Brachiaria (Pessino et al. 1997; see Grimanelli et a!., Chap. 6).Po/en/ilia (Rutishauser 1948;Asker 1970Asker , 1971)); Taraxacum (Richards 1973;van Dijk et al. 1999); Hypericum (Noack 1939); Rammculus (Nogler  1984a); and Hieracium (Bicknell et al. 2000). The inheritance of apospory in Ramll1cultls has been particularly well studied (Nogler 1984b) through four generations of crosses and backcrosses. The results indicate that apospory is inherited as a simple dominant Mendelian trait in this system, however, the allele conferring apomixis could only be transferred in a diploid or polyploid gamete. Nogler noted that this mechanism could explain the very close association observed between polyploidy and apomixis in native systems. In contrast, recent results with the diplosporous genus Taraxacum (van Dijk et al. 1999) indicate that a two loci model better fits the data obtained from controlled crosses within this taxon. Taraxacum is an attractive experimental system because it is a well studied ecological model (Richards 1986) and it has also been successfully transformed (Song and Chua 1991).One dicotyledonous taxon that appears to be well suited for use as a model system is Hieracium subgenus Pilosella (Koltunow et al. 1995). The plants are small herbaceous perennial daisies that are easily propagated and maintained in the greenhouse. Hieracium is a long-day plant, flowering in response to extended photoperiods (Yeung 1989). Photoperiodicity is a very useful experimental tool as it enables the programmed production of flowers at any time during the year using day-length extension lighting. Both H. pilosella and H. auran/iacum set seed within 3-4 months of germination, allowing 3-4 generations per annum, (Bicknell 1994a).Pilosella develop seed by facultative apospory coupled to autonomous endosperm development. Pollination is therefore not required for the formation of maternal seed, and apomixis can be scored by quantifying the seeds that set after the excl usion of pollen. As with Taraxacum, the simplest method of excluding pollen is to decapitate the immature bud, removing both the anthers and stigmas (Ostenfeld 1906;Richards 1986).The embryology of Hieracilln1 is now well documented (Koltunow et al. 1998) and a range of tissue culture techniques have been described, including methods for shoot regeneration from leaf tissue (Bicknell 1994b), the recovery of reduced genotypes from anther culture (Bicknell and Borst 1994), and an efficient genetic transformation system (Bicknell and Borst 1996).The choice of experimental system is a fundamental decision in any research program. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the chosen system determine the opportunities available to the researcher, and often dictate end uses for the information gathered. Although different research objectives often lead to the selection of different systems, there is a need to develop either one, or a small number of, model system(s) for studying the developmental biology and molecular genetics of apomixis. Several systems have been proposed for this purpose, including some modified sexual systems such as Arabidopsis, and others that are naturally-occurring apomicts. Irrespective of the plants used, it is important that collaborative links are established and maintained between teams working on apomixis research in order to expedite the advance of our knowledge in this fascinating field.Mendel was no doubt puzzled when he studied the progenies from crosses in the Hieracillm species to confirm his Pisum experiments: F 1 families were highly variable and some F] hybrids produced homogeneous progenies (Mendel 1870). So what about the world famous laws of inheritance worked out on Pisum? In fact, the laws still held. What the great geneticist did not know was that he had made the first progeny tests with apomictic species.The term \"apomixis\" initially covered all of the mechanisms of asexual reproduction (Winkler 1908), bu t today it is applied strictly to asexual reproduction through seeds (NogleI' 1984). There are two main types of apomixis, based on the origin of the embryo: adventitious embryony, in which the embryo forms directly from the sporophyte (the gametophyte phase is bypassed), and gametophytic apomixis, in which the embryo develops parthenogenetically from an unreduced female gametophyte (Gustafsson 1947;Stebbins 1950). Apomictic developments bypass meiosis and fertilization, the bases of sexual reproduction and genetic recombination, and therefore, offspring are genetically identical to the mother plant.Apomixis has been widely identified in the plant kingdom (Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1997), and occurs in families of economic importance (Rutaceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae). Moreover, it appears to be a very common mode of reproduction in the Panicoideae subfamily of Poaceae (Brown and Emery 1958), which includes several major grain crops. Apomictic processes are still poorly understood, but the potential impact of apomixis on agriculture appears great, provided that it is proven to be ecologically safe (Vielie-Calzada et a1. 1996; van Dijk and van Damme 1999; Toenniessen, Chap. 1). Identifying sources of apomixis, understanding its inheritance, and breeding and manipulating apomictic species will require reliable and efficient procedures to screen for mode of reproduction. This chapter concentrates on identifying and quantifying gametophytic apomixis, but for the most part, the procedures are the same for adventitious embryony. After presenting basic features of apomixis, screening proced ures for the reproductive mode are described and the various challenges encountered by scientists working with apomixis are discussed.Seed production through gametophytic apomixis requires production of embryo sacs with unreduced nuclei unreduced female gamete (no red uction of chromosome number or apomeiosis), followed by embryogenesis without fusion of nuclei of the male and female gametes (parthenogenesis). The regulatory and quantitative aspects of parthenogenesis in unreduced egg cells have been poorly 122 Olivier L.bla.,.ncI A.d,ea M.nu,ol. documented (Asker 1980;NogleI' 1984;Mogie 1988), but fertilization-independant mutants for both seed and endosperm development, recently described in Arabidopsis fhaliana (Ohad et at. 1996;Chaudhury et aJ. 1997;Grossniklaus et at. 1998), might provide new insights into embryogenesis in apomicts. Pseudogamy is the most common path of seed development, but autonomous apomixis occurs in some cases (NogleI' 1984). By contrast, apomeiosis is well documented and may follow different pathways. Several reviews (NogleI' 1984;Asker and Jerling 1992;Koltunow 1993;Crane, Chap. 3) provide detailed descriptions of most types of apomixis that occur in the wild.The two types of apomeiosis-apospory and diplospory-and their characteristics are briefly described in this chapter in order to highlight differences with sexual reproduction that are pertinent for the development of screening tools. In adventitious embryony, both megasporogenesis and mega game-0... or ...oral .omatk n ~2 togenesis are bypassed; this type of apomixis has been extensively reviewed by Naumova (1992) and Koltunow et at. (1995a).Sexual reproduction starts with the differentiation of one hypodermal archesporia I nucellar cell into a megaspore mother cell (MMe). See Figure 9.1. This MMC enlarges and produces a dyad of megaspores through the first meiotic division and a tetrad of megaspores through the second division. At least two biochemical pathways have been reported as critical to or associated with meiosis: callose synthesis throughout megasporogenesis in angiosperms that produce mono-and bisporic ESs (Rodkiewicz 1970), and altered expression of plasma membrane arabinogalactan protein (Pennell and Roberts 1990).Mature meiotic ES structure varies among taxa, but it generally displays antipodal cells, two polar nuclei within the central cell, synergid(s) and one egg cell (Polygon urn-type development). All nuclei from the meiotic ES are reduced (n chromosomes). Double fertilization is required for embryo and endosperm development to begin. Each of the sperm cells is involved in different fusion events: fusion with the egg restores the sporophytic chromosome number, and fusion with the central cell produces a nutritive tissue, the endosperm.In diplospory, meiosis is totally omitted (e.g., Antennaria-type) or perturbed (e.g., Taraxacum-, Ixeris-or Allium-types). In both cases, ESs form through three or more mitoses: (i) from MMCs behaving as unreduced megaspores (Antenna ria-type); (ii) from unreduced megaspores after restitution nucleus (Taraxacum-and Ixeris-types); or (iii) from 2n megaspores after premeiotic chromosome doubling (Allium-type). The characteristic meiotic sequence (MMC, dyad, tetrad) is absent and callose deposition does not occur (Naumova et at. 1993;Leblanc et al. 1995a) or is strongly disturbed in diplosporous pathways (Carmanet al. 1991;Peel et al. 1997).Lack of callose deposition also has been reported in meiotic mutants of Medicago saliva that produce unreduced embryo sacs (Barcaccia et a!. 1996) and in apomictic Antenl1aria hybrids obtained from parents displaying floral asynchrony (Carman 2000).In apospory, several ESs generally differentiate from nucellar (somatic) cells. In contrast to diplospory, which seems to result from genetic lesions directly affecting meiosis, some authors have stated that meiotic and apomeiotic developments are independent in apospory (Harlan et al. 1964;Nogler 1984)  Naumova et al. 1993;Peel 1993;Peel et al. 1997), but little light was shed on their reproductive behavior. (Peel 1993;Peel et al. 1997). However, recent studies on callose deposition patterns and the dynamics of beta-1,3-glucanase (HpGluc) expression in aposporous Hieracium provide new insights into the role of callose (Tucker et a1. 2000): both altered patterns and persistence of callose during megasporogenesis occur in apomictic plants when compared to sexual ones. In addition, the HpGiuc enzyme might also play a role in promoting the aposporous pathway over megasporogenic callose dissolution.Megagametogenesis in apomicts and in their sexual counterparts is usually similar. There Panicum-type. To standardize time of 1994; Pessino et aJ. 1997, 1998; Paa: Barcaccia sampling, pistils can be classified according to et aJ. 1998; Erygal1: Noyes and Rieseberg 2000), pollen developmental stage if the t10wers are and in diplosporous Tripsacllm dactylaides hermaphrodite, or by size if they are (Leblanc et al. 1995b;Kindiger et al. 1996; monoecious. In pseudogamous species Blakey et al. 1997;Grimanelli et al. 1997a).showing early embryo divisions before anthesis and endosperm formation 2. Cytoembryology. Cytoembryological (precocious embryony), cytoembryological differences between sexual and apomictic observations within ESs can also help identify developments appear at different times.and quantify parthenogenesis (Kojima and Observations to determine the origin of ESs Nagato 1992a; Naumova et al. 1993). are therefore based on differences in Clearing procedures combining aqueous solution (sucrose, KI) and aniline blue have recently been developed for observation of callose deposition during megasporogenesis (Carman et al. 1991;Leblanc et al. 1995b;Peel et al. 1997).3. Egg cell parthenogenetic capacity. Egg cells produced through apospory or diplospory should be better able to differentiate parthenogenetically than those produced through sexual development, because of the apparent linkage between the two steps of apomictic development. Matzk (1991) recently proposed a new procedure to identify and quantify parthenogenesis for a wide range of cool season grasses. The technique, known as the auxin test, involves applying a synthetic auxin compound a few days before anthesis to induce parthenocarpic development in unpollinated ovaries. Auxin induced grains will lack endosperms, because the fusion of the sperm and polar nuclei is no longer possible, but egg cells with parthenogenetic capacities will develop into embryos. Studies in Poa pratensis using the auxin test to estimate the degree of parthenogenesis in various genotypes showed good reliability and low variation across years and environments (Mazzucato et al. 1996).In classical progeny testing, one compares the mother plant with its offspring and/or evaluates heterogeneity within progeny.Offspring from apomictic plants are expected to be genetically identical to the mother plant; therefore phenotypic identity with the maternal type suggests apomictic reproduction, whereas variations indicate sexuality, recombination, and/ or fertilization.Traditionally, progeny tests based on gross morphology have been used in apomixis research because they are easy to perform (e.g., Duich and Musser 1959;Burton et al. 1973;Cadella 1983), but many other descriptors may 5treenlng P'o<ed\",es I. Identify \"\"\" Quanllfy Apomixis 127  128 or..Ie, leblal( allll Aodrea Mam\"',\"be useful for progeny tests and should therefore be considered, Progeny tests are usually performed on seedlings or fully-grown plants, but other tissues from earlier developmental stages, such as ovaries, endosperms or seeds, can also be used.1. Analysis of pollinated ovaries or seeds. Determining ploidy levels in pollinated ovaries or seeds (albuminated) provides information on both reduction (meiosis) and fertilization events. Ratios between endosperm and embryos and between female and male contributions to the endosperm in apomicts often differs from those in sexual plants except for the Panic urn-type a posporous development (Figure. 9.1). For many other apomictic pathways, these ratios differ. For example, endosperms found in tetraploid diplosporous apomicts are higher than in their sexual tetraploid counterparts for identical pollen donors (i.e., lOx versus 6x if the pollen is 2x); endosperm/embryo ratio for autonomous apomixis is 2:1 and 5:2 [(4x + 4x) + 2x / 4x + OJ for tetraploid pseudogamous apomicts (tetraploid pollen donor). Fertilization by unreduced pollen (Chao 1980;Huff and Bara 1993) and endopolyploidization, which sometimes occurs during endosperm development, is also possible and may further complicate analyses. However, endosperm ploidy level(s) may suggest apomictic reproduction or allow the quantification of facultative apomixis. Nevertheless, it cannot reveal the precise nature of the apomictic mechanisms involved.Ploidy level in fertilized ovaries or immature seeds cannot easily be determined using classical chromosome counting methods, but flow cytometry now permits rapid measurement of DNA content in a variety of plant tissues, including single embryos, young endosperms, or seeds (Galbraith et at. 1983;Kowles et al. 1990;Hignight et al. 1991). Analyses in numerous apomictic species have proven flow cytometry to be a rapid and reliable procedure for determining the mode of reproduction (Mazzuca to et al. 1994;Brautigam and Brautigam 1996;Grimanelli et al. 1997b;Gupta et al. 1998;Naumova et al. 1999;Matzk et al. 2000). Another option for DNA content estimation of the endosperm nuclei is to combine staining with 4'-6diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), Huoresence microscopy, and image analysis (Naumova et al. 1993;Sherwood 1995;Caceres et al. 1999).2. Ovule regenerated plants. In tetraploid accessions of AIlium tuberosum, Kojima and Kawaguchi (1989) reported a high frequency of tetraploid regenerated plants from unpollinated cultured ovules, suggesting apomixis expression. This indicator could be applied in screening because, in similar culture media, sexual plants would generate few (poly)haploids, whereas apomeiotic ovules would grow mostly into plantlets with the same number of chromosomes as the mother plant.3. Analysis of progeny plants. Progeny tests must clearly identify either hybrid offspring (n + 0 types are generally poorly represented) or seed production in absence of pollination when pseudogamous apomixis or autonomous apomixis, respectively, are suspected. Hybrids can be identified using (i) morphological descriptors, (ii) cytological data, and/ or (iii) marker analyses, if the origin of the progeny is appropriate.Remarks on progeny size. The use of progenies from controlled crosses is recommended. Male parents bearing discriminating traits (dominant traits, different chromosome numbers, etc.) should be chosen when available, limiting possible confusions between selfed and hybrid progenies. However, open pollinated progenies can be used when mother plants are sufficiently heterozygous to detect segregation after selfing and when there is significant diversity in the surrounding field collection, as is the case for most apomictic species, which are generally polyploid, polymorphic, and highly heterozygous.Identifying or quantifying apomixis does not require the same number of progeny. To detect apomixis, a relatively small number of progeny (15-25) can be analyzed. Aberrant rates typically are a:n ratios with 'n' the progeny size and 'a' the number of aberrants observed in the progeny. Statistically, such samplings are binomial; 'p' (aberrant rate) is the ratio to be estimated for a given value of n (progeny size) on the basis of an observed value for a (number of aberrants detected within the progeny). Confidence limits for p in a binomial sampling are given in Figure 9.4 for various values of n (a = 0.025). Note that for n>30, confidence limits can be estimated using formulas for the normal S\"...iog Pro...,.. ' 0 Idnllfy ood a.aotlfy Apomixis 129 distribution. Curves shown in Figure 9.4 clearly indicate that, up to n = 100, the information obtained is poorly signjficant regardless of the value of a. Finally, to obtain good estimations of aberrant rates (i.e., less than 10% confidence limits), it appears that a high number of individuals is required.Chromosome number determination within progenies. The sexual or ;:lsexual origin of offspring is not detectable from crosses made at the same level of ploidy, but 2n + nand n + 0 off-types are easily detected even at the seedling stage. lnterploidy-Ievel crosses could be used to detect all classes of offspring, but information can be biased by disturbances caused by unstable ploidy levels or ploidy barriers. Chromosome counts can be made from root tips, microspores, or any somatic tissue using flow cytometry (Hignight et al. 1991).Detection of seed production in absence of pollination. Species carrying nonhermaphrodite flowers obviously represent the easiest situation, the only precaution required being to avoid pollen contamination. Contrarily, emasculation will be required unless an appropriate genetic system that ensures male sterility can be developed. Such systems require thorough knowledge of the genetics and genetic stocks of the material under study, making their application very limited in natural populations. They have been exclusively developed In experimental mutagenic populations of sexual model species (Aradidopsis tha/ulna, Petllnia hybrida), with the aim of identifying mutants that reproduce through autonomous apomixis (Koltunow et al. 1995b;Chaudhury et al. 1997;Ramulu et al. 1997).Markers lor hybrid dete(tion. Traits under simple genetic control are ideal for progeny testing by crossing recessive maternal genotypes with homozygous dominant testers (Hanna et al. 1970;Bashaw and Hanna 1990). Models for estimating levels of apomixis by following marker segregation have been developed (Marshall and Brown 1974), however, recombination can occur without fertilization, and the presence of dominant traits in progeny tells nothing about the origin of the off-types (n + n or 2n + n) in the absence of cytological data. Moreover, identification of such \"ideal\" markers in apomictic species or agamic complexes is not necessarily easy, because traits in polyploid apomicts are difficult to analyze genetically.Morphological descriptors are the easiest means for conducting progeny tests. If the tester (pollen donor) differs significantly from the progeny-tested plant, hybrids will vary sufficiently from the maternal type to allow detection. In the case of selfing, because apomicts are generally highly heterozygous, offspring arising through sexuality will vary sufficiently from the mother plant to be scored as off-types. In most species, (poly)haploids are easily detected because of their pa,:ticular phenotypes and the low vigor they exhibit (Asker and Jerling 1992). However, when using morphological descriptors, it is often not po.ssible to distinguish between sexuality (n+n) and genomic accumulation (2n + n). But when morphological and cytological (chromosome number) data are combined, the identification of all classes is theoretically possible. Analysis of seedlings has the major advantages of timeliness and saving space, but the most informa tive descri ptors for screening purposes are usually expressed at maturity. There are few reports of successful progeny testing for morphology on seedlings after interspecific crosses (Williamson 1981).Isozymes or molecular markers can be used to assess variation in progenies (fingerprinting analyses; Nybom 1996). Finding good polymorphic isozyme systems, RFLP probes, or primers for peR as candidates for fingerprint experiments is not a major obstacle. Although genetic analysis is still hindered by polyploidy, any variation in isozyme or DNA patterns indicates off-type production, provided that somatic recombination does not occur frequently in the material under study. Esterase and peroxydase were the first systems used to isolate sexual plants from Panicum maximum (Smith 1972). Apomixis expression was also confirmed or quantified using isozymes in Taraxacum (Ford and Richard 1985), Arabis holboellii (Roy and Rieseberg 1989), Allium tuberosum (Kojima et al. 1991b), Poa pratensis (Wu et al. 1984;Barcaccia et al. 1994), Tripsaatm spp. (Leblanc 1995), and Malus sp. (Ur-Rahman et al. 1997). Mazzucato et a1. (1995) showed a slightly higher capacity of RAPD markers in discriminating off-types in progenies from the same species, when compared with three polymorphic isozyme systems or with analysis of traditional morphological traits. Although still seldom used, molecular markers have been successfully used for progeny fingerprinting (e.g., Poa pratensis: Huff and Bara 1993; Barcaccia et al. 1997;Paspalum notatum: Ortiz et al. 1997).rAnalyses at the Plant Level versus Progeny Tests 1. Nature of the information obtained. Apomixis results from apomeiotic processes (apospory or diplospory) that produce unreduced ESs, and parthenogenetic embryo development from unreduced eggs. Although nonreduction and parthenogenesis are thought to be closely linked in apomicts, observations and/ or analyses of the plant itself obviously provides insights only about apomeiotic or meiotic events, not about the complete process of apomixis. Data on the next generation (progeny test) must be collected to study fertilization and parthenogenesis events as well as the degree of apomixis. The choice of the level of analysis (apomeiosis / parthenogenesis / apomixis) depends on the objectives of the research, i.e., whether one wishes to determine only cytological processes, study parthenogenesis, or investigate apomixis in its entirety. (Voigt and Burson 1981), Allium tuberosum (Kojima and Nagato 1992b), and Tripsacum spp. (Leblanc 1995). By contrast, the situation in aposporous species appears more complex: cytoembryological analyses generally revealed higher sexual potential than did morphology-based progeny tests in Panicum maximum (Savidan 1982b), Poa pratensis (Nygren 1951), and Bothriochloa-Diclumthium (Harlan et al. 1964). The same tendency was also observed by Mazzucato et al. (1996) in Poa pratensis, when auxin tests and field data were compared. However, using progeny tests on more than 100 Brachiaria F1s, Miles and do Valle (1991) classified ten plants that were highly facultative apomicts as sexual, according to cytoembryological tests. Sexual potential in aposporous tropical grasses has generally been scored according to the formation of 8-nucleate ESs that may develop concomitantly with several apomeiotic (4nucleate) ESs. The competition among ESsmore favorable to apomeiotics (Savidan 1982a)--and the possible weakness of certain hybrids that are eliminated early, may explain the overestimation of sexuality in facultative Sueeolog P........,.. r. Idootily ood Qoaotily ApMixIs 131 apospore as measured using cytoembryology (Clausen et al. 1947;Kojima and Nagato 1992b). This was confirmed by Savidan (1982a) Panicum maximum accession: sexual potential was estimated using a clearing procedure at 22.5%, but only 3% of the open pollinated adult progeny, were off-type5. Elimination of hybrid offspring occurred at germination (-7%) or after transferring plants to the field (-12.5%), because of their inbred nature (resulting from selfing or hydridization with genetically close genotypes in the collection). On the other hand, after self-or sib-pollination, the lack of heterozygous loci in segregation may cause an overestimation of apomixis, with progeny tests showing the presence of \"apparent apomixis\" (Bayer et al. 1990).Until recently, screening tools for mode of reproduction were limited to easy-but-late morphological progeny tests or skilldemanding and time-eonsuming cytological sectioning methods (see Table 9.3). During the past 15 years, new tools in molecular and cell biology have made screening for mode of reproduction more efficient, rapid, and reliable. These techniques include ovary progeny testing, flow cytometry for determining ploidy level, auxin test, and molecular markers that cosegregate with reproductive mode. The major disadvantage of the new methods is their expense. In addition, though the methods seem to agree with cytological and/or field observations, additional data are needed to confirm their reliability.Apomixis identification and characterization. As mentioned, apomixis may be detected in various ways, but cytoembryological observations are ultimately needed to confirm the origin of the ES and to determine the type of apomixis. Clearing techniques are now quick and easy but require the use of phase-contrast or differential interference contrast optics, both entailing However, these tests do not require much considerable expense. Stain clearing equipment or technical skill, and can thus be techniques that allow observation of ovule managed everywhere. Their main drawback details under traditional optics are less is that they produce frequent errors because expensive. Molecular markers that cosegregate facultative apomixis occurs more often than with apomixis, which enable analysis at earlier previously thought. Moreover, progeny with growth stages than cytoembryology, require sexual origin may resemble the mother plant the development of special plant materials and in morphology, leading to misclassification protocols, and the cost of associated supplies and to an overestimation of the degree of is often beyond the means of many research apomixis. The existence of this gray area in groups. Moreover, they may not be used with progeny plant classification was reported by materials that differ in origin from the Williamson (1976), after extensive progeny materials used to identify the markers, testing in Paa sp. This makes morphological especially in the case of the highly cross-progeny tests unreliable when apomixis is specific RAPDs (Williams et al. 1993) required to indicate apomixis and determine the nature of the hybrids detected. RFLPs and RAPDs can also be used in the same way, but at greater expense.2. Degree of apomixis expression. Many offspring are needed to obtain a good estimate of the degree of apomixis. Both auxin tests and flow cytometric analyses of pollinated ovaries or seeds provide good estimates of sexual potential, though distinguishing 2n + 0 from n + n offspring might be difficult in certain cases. In contrast, systematic chromosome counting within progenies is useful for detecting 2n + nand n + 0 off-types, but it does not separate 2n + 0 from n + n offspring, and without flow cytometry it becomes tremendously time consuming. Progeny tests combining cytology and marker analyses represent the best option for identifying the different classes of offspring within apomictic progenies. To limit cytology work (when flow cytometry is not available), markers can be applied first to separate maternal offspring from (poly)haploids or hybrids. The origin of the latter may be determined according to the patterns they produce (i.e., 2n + n off-types must carry all bands from the mother plant, plus extra bands from the pollen), and then cytologically confirmed.There are four main areas of apomixis research, each with distinct constraints and objectives: (i) the search for apomixis or elements of apomixis in new taxa, coupled with genetic studies in wild populations, (ii) germplasm characterization of apomictic species, (iii) genetic and biological studies for further manipulation of apomixis, and (iv) breeding of apomicts and introduction of apomixis into sexual crops.Since gametophytic apomixis is formidably limited to perennial, polyploid, and outcrossing species, the search for apomixis in Su...I.. P........ to ldeollly.od \"\"'.liIy Apollllxls 133 additional species should begin with taxa presenting these traits. The very first screening can be based on the expression of the already mentioned \"indicators of apomixis,\" while more discriminative procedures may be applied to promising specimens. For germplasm evaluation, a representative sample of the collection must be chosen on the basis of morphological and cytological data, and traits of agronomic value such as disease resistance. Chromosome number, repro-d uctive development, and degree of apomixis are the primary [actors for which basic data must be collected to develop strategies for further research. Genetic studies also may be attempted to genetically dissect apomictic mechanisms (number of genes involved and their effects). Following this preliminary work, appropriate tools for larger-scale screening should be developed or chosen according to the apomixis characteristics of the collection (e.g., callose patterns for diplospory, ES clearing for apospory of the Panicum-type, etc.).Sexual parents involved in crosses for apomixis inheritance studies must be carefully chosen using cytoembryology. Highly facultative apomicts are easily misclassified as sexuals using progeny tests. This causes distortions of segregation ratios for mode of reproduction among progeny. In the same way, looking for differences between sexual and apomictic development at the molecular level requires the analysis of genotypes that are well characterized for mode of reproduction. This may allow the development of near isogenic lines, an important step in identifying the gene(s) controlling apomixis.Before apomixis can be transferred into crops or used in breeding programs, researchers need procedures to identify apomictic genotypes (see do Valle and Miles,Chap. 10;Savidan,Chap. 11) and to quantify apomixis in genotypes selected for varietal release. Progeny testing in such programs may help identify in most species apomixis and sexuality do not apomixis, because offspring are necessarily express at the same ploidy level, estimating produced as part of breeding schemes, but an chromosome number within progenies using entire plant cycle must pass before data are flow cytometry allows easy identification of obtained (a serious drawback in the case of apomictic genotypes in early backcross annual plants). Notwithstanding, in some generations, but becomes less effective when cases-especially when low female fertility is chromosome numbers close to that of the affecting the plants (e.g., interspecific or recurrent parent are recovered. Appropriate intergeneric hybrids)-this may be the best cytological procedures or marker-assisted way to test for mode of reproduction. Because selection may also be used to identify apomixis.From a plant breeding perspective, apomixis may restrict genetic recombination, but it also provides a unique mechanism for developing superior cultivars and preserving these genotypes indefinitely. Apomictic plants, like sexual plants, develop seed in the ovule of the flower, but egg and sperm nuclei do not fuse to form an embryo. Therefore, the embryo of an apomictic plant receives all of its chromosomes from the mother plant. Unlike most asexually propagated plants-such as banana, potato, or horticultural crops that are propagated from vegetative parts of the mother plant-an apomictic plant is propagated through the very convenient vehicle of seed.Early investigators (e.g., Darlington 1939) were led to believe that apomixis was an evolutionary \"blind alley\" due to the apparent lack of variation in natural apomictic populations. Indeed, obligate apomixis poses a formidable barrier to plant breeding: without the new gene combinations that result from sexual cross breeding, genetic improvement cannot occur, except by rare, random, and generally deleterious mutations. In truth, sexual or partially sexual plants have been found in native populations of most apomictic species, generating sufficient genetic variation to maintain the species under changing environments and providing germplasm for plant improvement.Aside from citrus fruits (which exhibit apomictic reproduction through seed, but are generally propagated vegetatively), only a few forage and turf grasses have active apomictic breeding programs; these include species of Eragrostis, Paspalum, Poa, Panicum, Pel1niselum, Cel1chrus, and Brachiaria. These species (or agamic complexes) have many common attributes, which will be addressed in a general manner la ter in this chapter. Bashawand Funk (1987) reviewed many aspects of breeding apomictic forage grasses, and recent papers have specifically considered plant breeding in the genus Paspah,m (Savidan 1987;Burton 1992); in Cenchrus ciHaris (Bashaw and Funk 1987); in Panicum maximum (Savidan et al. 1989); in Pennisetum (Hanna et a1. 1992); and most recently in Brachiaria (Miles and Valle 1996). In this chapter we focus on the Brachiaria breeding programs in Brazil and Colombia to illustrate pertinent aspects of apomixis vis a vis breeding programs.Beef production, especially in the tropics, largely depends on pastures, either native or planted to superior introduced species. Scientific research on forages is relatively recent compared to field crops. Experience with tropical forages is even more limited; the few commercially available cultivars are little more than \"side of the road\" collections, which were often accidentally introduced, mostly from Africa, evaluated in small plots, and then multiplied for release.  1986). Other important apomictic tropical forage genera (Hyparrhenia, Melinis, Urochloa, Cenchrus, and Penniselum) still need to be collected to broaden variability and to identify sexual accessions to facilitate breeding.Surveys of closely related species are relevant when sexual plants are not available in the apomictic species of interest or when other desirable traits cannot be found in the primary gene pool. In sexual crops, the search for apomixis may involve other species or genera in order to find cross-compatible wild relatives, as seen in the Zea x TrypsaCllm transfer program (Savidan,Chap. 11). To accomplish hybridization, research is needed to establish phylogenetic relationships and to overcome differences in ploidy level, genome relationships, and gene pools (Hanna and Bashaw 1987). If the species relationship is sufficiently close, and given that apomixis tends to restore fertility, one should be able to prod uce useful obligate apomictic, interspecific hybrids with good seed set.An extensive species relationship survey was carried out on Paspalum, a large grass genus with tropical and subtropical adaptations (Burson 1983;Quarin and Norrmann 1987;Burson 1989;Quarin 1992). Two species are particularly important as forage grasses, P. nolalum and P. dilalatum, and several others have shown promising results in agronomic and grazing trials (Grof et al. 1989b;Fernandes et aI. 1992;Pizarro and Carvalho 1992;Batista and Godoy 2000). Approximately 400 species have been described taxonomically, and about 80% of these are polyploids. The genus has sexual diploids and apomictic and sexual polyploids, which range from triploids to 16x (Quarin 1992). Diploid species reproduce sexually and have regular meiosis (bivalent chromosome pairing and normal distribution). Polyploidy, apomixis, and irregular meiotic chromosome associations are highly correlated (Quarin and Norrmann 1987). Valuable information has been gathered about this genus, leading to more effective interspecific hybridization that may result in superior apomictic genotypes (Quarin 1987).A second fundamental prerequisite for breeding is adequate knowledge of biology, cytology, and reproduction of the material at hand (Asker and Jerling 1992). Breeders have long been challenged by the problems of reproductive isolation resulting from apomixis and polyploidy. Efforts directed at determining the genetic basis of apomixis in several species have generally shown it to be under simple genetic control (see Sherwood, Chap. 5), e.g., Bothrioc\"loa-Dichanthium (Harlan et aI. 1964), Panicum (Savidan 1982), CenchYlls (Sherwood et aI. 1994), Paspalum (Burton andForbes 1960), Brachiaria (Ndikumana 1985;Valle et aI. 1993b;Valle and Savidan 1996), TripsaCllnl (Leblanc et aI. 1995b), and possibly Eragrostis (Voigt and Burson 1992). Hence it should be possible to manipulate apomixis in a breeding program once cross-compatible sexual or highly sexual facultative apomicts are found (Harlan et al. 1964;Voigt and Bashaw 1972;Bashaw 1980;Savidan 1983;Hanna and Bashaw 1987).Differences in ploidy level are common among sexual and apomictic species of tropical grasses (Burton and Forbes 1960;Carnahan and Hill 1961;Dujardin and Hanna 1983;Norrmann et al. 1989). However, in groups in which apomixis is found, diploid accessions are generally obligatory sexual while polyploids display different degrees of apomixis ranging from essentially sexual to obligate apomicts (de Wet and Harlan 1970;Quarin and Norrmann 1987;Valle et al. 1989;Valle 1990; Asker and Jerling 1992). In species with higher ploidy levels (6x or 7x), such as B. humidicola, sexuality may be found at the tetraploid level (Valle and Glienke 1991).Sexually reproducing genotypes in the tropical forage grasses outcross and are highly heterozygous (Bashaw and Funk 1987). Some degree of self-incompatibility or strong inbreeding depression is common (Bashaw and Funk 1987) A general selection and breeding scheme for apomictic forage species is presented in Figure 10.1. Note that Brachiaria serves as the example for the topics under discussion.Brachiaria is native to the tropical savannas of Africa (IBPGR 1984), encompassing about 90 species with wide morphological and phenological differences (Clayton and Renvoize 1982;Ren voize et a!. 1996). Apomictic cultivars of some of these species, derived directly from natural germplasm, are widely sown because of their excellent adaptation to infertile acid soils, good forage value, and abundant seed production (Bogdan 1977;Keller-Grein et al. 1996). Cultivated pastures cover more than 45 million hectares of acid savannas in Brazil alone (Anwirio Estatfstico do Brasil 1995) and cultivars of two Brachiaria species (B. decumbens cv. Basilisk and B. brizantha cv. Marandu) are grown on more than 85% of that area. Genetic uniformity (associated with inability to generate new genotypes due to apomixis) resulted in a massive failure of cv. Basilisk in the Brazilian Amazon, stemming from its susceptibility to spittlebugs (Homoptera: Cercopidae), (Seiffert 1984).In the B. decumbel1s-B. brizal1tha agamic complex, we are seeking apomictic genotypes adapted to, and persistent on, low-fertility acid soils, with high levels of antibiotic resistance to a range of species and genera of spittlebug (Homoptera: Cercopidae). For continuously grazed pastures, stoloniferous growth and strong competitive ability are desired. If a new Brachiaria cultivar is used in a lay farming system in rotation with annual crops, genotypes with less \"weedy\" characteristics may be preferred (Valle, unpublished). Forage yield and quality are clearly important attributes of any forage plant cultivar, especially tropical grasses.Achieving breeding objectives depends on the ability to reliably measure attributes of interest in large segregating populations. For example, a greenhouse screening methodology for resistance to spittlebug was developed at CIATabout a decade ago (Lapointeet al.1989(Lapointeet al. , 1992)), but its utility for breeders was limited by its low capacity. More recently, an improved methodology was implemented to allow faster and more efficient screening for spittlebug resistance (CIAT 1998;Cardona et al. 1999). Another line of research now being pursued is based on identifying molecular markers that cosegregate with the resistance to spittlebugs (CIAT 1998).Screening for nutritive value and consumption potential is also a laborious, costly, and timeconsuming endeavor, many times depending on grazing trials. New procedures are being developed in an attempt to identify promising genotypes early in the breeding program. Such identification entails correlating measures of physical traits (shearing strength and grinding resistance), anatomical characteristics (patterns of lignin deposition and cuticle and epidermis width), and gas production potential with nutritive value (Hughes et al. 1998(Hughes et al. , 2000;;Sabatel et al. 1999).Plant introduction programs and subsequent agronomic evaluation were required for Brachiaria, as they are for most tropical forage grasses. Prior to 1984, the small \"world collection\" of Brachiaria accessions numbered no more than 150 (Keller-Grein et al. 1996), and the desired combination of attributes had not been identified. As accessions were transferred to CIAT-Colombia and released from quarantine, large portions of this collection were subsequently forwarded to Brazil (approximately 400 accessions), Costa Rica (approximately 280 accessions), and Peru (approximately 260 accessions) for agronomic evaluation (Grof et al. 1989a;CIAT 1992). Because large numbers of accessions were involved, evaluation methodology needed to be simple and efficient, such as that proposed by Toledo (1982), in order to discard poorly performing materials. Since then, more detailed and intensive evaluation has been conducted at the Embrapa Beef Cattle Research Center in Campo Grande, MS, Brazil. Agronomic evaluation began with accessions planted in small plots with three replications. A periodic cutting regime was imposed for three years to estimate overall and seasonal production, regrowth vigor, seed production, and resistance to spittlebug and diseases (Valle et al. 1993a). At one harvest each year, samples were analyzed for crude protein content and in vitro digestibility. The range of variation observed within this collection is remarkable (Table 10.1). Nineteen selected accessions were then evaluated in regional trials in different ecosystems and superior genotypes were identified (Valle et a1.1 997). The next evaluation step involved studying the effects of livestock on the pasture. Eight apomictic accessions were compared in paddocks to the commercial cultivar. Four of these were selected (Euclides et al. 2001) to undergo animal performance trials, the last step prior to release as a new cultivar. Morphological characterization, applying numerical taxonomy and using 26 descriptors, was carried out for all 340 accessions in the Brazilian Brachiaria collection (Valle et al. 1993c). The objectives were to study the diversity of the accessions, analyze the dispersion and genetic distance between accessions and species, and organize the Breedllt of Apomktk Species 141 germplasm into groups of morphologically similar accessions, regardless of taxonomic classification. This type of study helps researchers define closely related accessions within and among groups from which individual progenitors may be selected for future crosses. This analysis revealed the continuous polymorphism that exists among three species (B. deCllmbens, B. bri:mntha, and B. ruziziensis) and clearly separated typical accessions of B. humidicola, B. dictyoneura, and B. jubata (Figure 10.2). The selection of accessions for pasture trials was based on an association of agronomic traits with morphological characteristics.Basic information about mode of reproduction and cytogenetics of sexually reprod ucing accessions was also ascertained from the    (Valle 1990).Chromosome counts were taken on microsporocytes of various sexual accessions using traditional acetocarmin squashes. It was determined that the one sexual B. brizantha and all sexual B. decumbens accessions were diplOids, whereas the majority of apomictic accessions of these two species were tetraploid. The sexual B. humidicola accession is tetraploid, with regular bivalent pairin~ whereas the few apomict B. humidicola examined are hexaploid (Valle et al. 1989;Valle and Glienke 1991). These materials are relevant for breeding purposes and also for studies of phylogenetics and polyploidization within the genus.More  (Valle et al. 1991;OAT 1992). The objectives of these hybridization programs were to explore the potential for manipulating apomixis in applied Brachiaria breeding programs, to study the inheritance of mode of reproduction, and to enlarge the tetraploid sexual pool of Brachiaria. To this end, the experimental scheme crossed different clones of sexual tetraploid kept in vases of water. On the day of pollination, inflorescences were shaken over petri dishes to collect pollen, which was used on flowers from which stigmas had just extruded. The inflorescence from the sexual plant was prepared by removing unopened and old flowers. After brushing the turgid stigmata with pollen from the apomictic parent, the racemes of the sexual plant were individually bagged and labeled. Bags were collected when seed shattering started. Scarified seeds were individually germinated 4-6 months later in styrofoam trays with a sand:perlite mixture (2:1) or in petri dishes, and then transferred to plastic bags with soil, from which they were later transferred to the field (Valle et al. 1991). f------4n apomictic 4n sexual ....--L----.agronomic evaluations Figure 10.3 Hybridization scheme for breeding Brachiaria (adapted from Gobbe et 01. 1983).Studies conducted at CIAT identified an alphabeta esterase system capable of discriminating among putative hybrids of carefully selected progenitors (Cruz et al. 1989a(Cruz et al. , 1989b;;Calderon and Agudelo 1990).Second generation crosses in Brazil included sexual x apomictic backcrosses, crosses between half sibs, full sibs, selfing of sexual F\\s, 3-way hybrids, and facultative apomictic x apomictic crosses. Results from this experiment (Table 10.3) point to a single dominant gene determining apomixis, as proposed for Panicum maximum (Savidan 1983), for Brachiaria (Ndikumana 1985), and Cenchrus (Sherwood et al. 1994). The excess number of sexual plants observed in some crosses may be due to crossing procedures; sexual maternal plants were not emasculated, and no special precautions were taken to avoid pollen circulation in the greenhouse, except after pollination when flowers were bagged.  At CIAT and the Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), Aberystwyth, Wales, U.K., a molecular marker for the apomixis gene(s) is being sought, which could prove potentially useful for determining reprod uctive mode. Pessino et al. (1997), using a bulk segregant analysis and RFLPs and RAPDs, were able to identify molecular markers cosegregating with apomixis in a small' (n = 43) Brachiaria F1 population. Two clones (umc147 and umc72) belong to a duplicated linkage group that maps to the distal part of maize chromosome-1long arm and chromosome-5 short arm. Another, (OPC4), previously reported as a potential marker for apospory in Pennisetum, also cosegregated well in Brachiaria. In later work, Pessino et al. (1998), using RFLPs and AFLPs, generated a complete map for the region in maize chromosome 5, identifying at least two markers closely linked to the apospory region. Markers PAM52-5 and PAM49-13 were located respectively at 1.2 cM and 5.7 cM, on either side of the target locus. The map shows close synteny to regions of maize chromosome 5 and rice chromosome 2. If proven that apomixis is, in fact, conditioned by a single dominant gene, and these markers prove to be tightly linked, then it should be possible to determine the reproductive mode of a hybrid plant before flowering or even before transplanting into the field. This would substantially improve the genetic efficiency of breeding schemes (see also Leblanc and Mazzucato,Chap. 9).Brachiaria breeding involves interspecific hybridization because compatible sexual plants could not be found in the agronomically important species. Wider crosses may also be required to transfer important traits (such as complete antibiosis present in one accession of apomictic B. jubata [Lapointe et al. 1992]) to the commercially important apomictic cultivars, using sexual plants of different species as \"bridges.\" B. humidicola, for instance, is well adapted to waterlogged soils, however, it has proven impossible to hybridize the only sexual tetraploid B. humidicola accession with the tetraploid apomictic varieties of B. decllmbens and B. brizantha. further phylogenetic studies need to be conducted to determine possible compatible materials with which to attempt crosses.When conventional sexual hybridization is impossible, direct transfer of DNA between species may be considered. Protocols for callus induction and regeneration have been developed for five Brachiaria spp. (GAT 1993) and a system for genetic transformation using particle bombardment has been established (Lennis 1998;Galindo 1997).The delineation of clear breeding objectives, the identification of sources of desired attributes in apomictic Braclliaria accessions from the newly enhanced germplasm collection, and the creation of a crosscompatible sexual material has led to the possibility of developing large-scale, applied plant breeding projects for this important forage grass.The fundamental objective of any plant breeding program for an apomictic species in which genetic recombination can be achieved is the identification among segregating progenies of superior, true-breeding apomictic genotypes suitable for cultivar status. Breeding plans that are being implemented for Brachiaria assume (i) simple (probably monogenic) control of apomixis and (ii) predominantly allogamous reproduction with high levels of self-incompatibility or strong inbreeding depression.Information regarding inheritance of traits is limited to recent data showing a strong correlation between the reaction of spittlebugs to a series of parents and their top-cross progenies (Miles et al. 1995). Eleven apomictic accessions, chosen to represent a range of spittlebug reactions, were each crossed to the same susceptible sexual clone to generate 11 segregating, F 1 families. Spittlebug reaction was assessed on apomictic clones and on ten random sibs in each of the 11 top-cross families. The close parent-progeny correlations found for percentage of nymphal survival [r = 0.95 (P<O.OOOl)] or duration of nymphal stage [r = 0.83 (P<O.OOl)] suggest strong genetic control of spittlebug resistance. We assume that spittlebug resistance and most, if not all, additional attributes of interest are of complex quantitative inheritance. Hence, the basic approach has been the development and improvement of broad-based Brachiaria populations through various recurrent selection schemes.Most of the small number of plant breeding projects conducted (or proposed) for apomictic species rely on large-scale hybridization between sexuals (facultative apomicts) and obligate apomicts to produce large populations, from which superior apomictic hybrids are isolated (e.g., Burton and Forbes 1960;Taliaferro and Bashaw 1966;Gobbe et al. 1983;Bashaw and Funk 1987;Savidan et al. 1989). Three-way or double crosses involving more than one apomictic male may be required, depending on the distribu'tion of desired attributes among available apomictic genotypes. These schemes will require careful selection of parents and the evaluation of large populations to find the desired combination of characteristics in a true breeding apomictic genotype, Such approaches offer the opportunity to generate novel apomictic genotypes, however, they are essentially conservative in the longer term because the opportunity for genetic gain is eventually exhausted, To continue genetic advances, a systematic scheme for recycling selected hybrid genotypes will be required (i.e., population improvement by recurrent selection). Any Brachiaria breeding population must obviously include sexual genotypes to ensure genetic recombination. An important consideration in the development of populations is whether to attempt to include and maintain apomictic genotypes in the populations. Several authors have suggested improvement of a sexual population (e.g., Pernes et al. 1975;Miles and Escandon 1997). The scheme for sexual population improvement proposed by Pemes et al. involves recurrent crossing to elite apomicts. Therefore, the superior sexual hybrid genotypes in each crossing cycle n~ed to be identified to resynthesize a fully sexual pool. Miles and Escandon (1997) proposed recurrent intrapopulation improvement of a heterogeneous sexual population developed from sexual segregants selected from progeny Iroodlog .f Apoonictk Specie. 147 of an initial series of crosses of a sexual tetraploid biotype with apomictic genotypes.In the case of Brachiaria (and other species with a similar genetic control of reproductive mode), the second scheme would have the important advantage of obviating the need to determine reproductive mode in each generation. As the frequency of favorable alleles is increased in the sexual population, hybridization with elite apomictic genotypes will generate an array of improved apomictic and sexual segregants while the sexual population remains fully sexual, i.e., advanced from purely sexual clones selected from within the population. Superior apomicts in the hybrid populations would be candidates for cultivar release. They could also be used in the subsequent cycle of sexual x apomictic crosses, although it would not be expected that crossing back to the parental sexual pool would lead to maximum expression of heterosis. A sexual population based on selected first cycle sexual x apomictic hybrids is being developed at CIAT. Thirty-two such hybrids, involving a total of ten apomictic paternal parents crossed to the same sexual tetraploid B. ruziziensis, were initially selected. The selection was subsequently reduced to 30, when it was determined that one clone was very susceptible to a virus and another exhibited a low, but consistent, percentage of apomictic embryo sacs. Each clone was vegetatively propagated ten times and genotypes were planted in random spacing in an isolated field plot. This population will be managed by standard half sib or mass selection (Figure 10.4).A second population containing both sexual and apomictic genotypes has been formed from sexual x apomictic hybrids (Figure 10.5). In each generation, two types of progenies are planted in alternating positions in a square grid: (i) apomictic progenies of selected apomicts (reproductive mode determined byInterspecific hybridization has been used extensively to transfer agronomically important genes that control resistances to diseases and insect pests. Recent advances in tissue culture, especially in molecular biology, have further widened the scope of alien gene transfer-and the outlook for wide hybridization in crop improvement seems more promising than ever. But does that outlook also apply to the transfer of sequences involved in plant reproduction, especially those involved in apomixis?The interface between conventional cytogenetical approaches and new molecular techniques makes the \"conventional\" wide cross approach very competitive when the trait is simply controlled and the gene(s) to be transferred is (are) available in a species that belongs to the secondary gene pool. The genetic analyses reviewed by Savidan (2000) and Sherwood (Chap. 5) suggest that apomixis a good candidate and offer support for the ongoing wide cross projects. Such projects have encountered unexpected difficulties, and several papers have questioned the ultimate likelihood of transferring apomixis to any crop. Nevertheless, knowledge gathered through the quest for wide crossing apomixis into useful crop species, which relates to the genetic control, transmission, and expression of the trait (Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6), has proven extremely valuable for those investigating other approaches. Accordingly, three paths are now being pursued in the effort to introduce apomixis into major crops: (i) the wide hybridization, (ii) the identification, isolation, and manipulation of sequences from wild apomicts, and (iii) the creation of an apomictic reproduction de novo, from individual mutations (Grossniklaus,Chap. 12;Praekelt and Scott,Chap.13). In this chapter, I review progress to date and the problems or questions that have emerged from work aimed at wide crossing of the apomictic trait.Scientists have tried for decades to use wide crosses to transfer the apomixis trait into valuable food crops, including wheat, maize, and pearl millet. The first attempt involved maize and was initiated approximately forty years ago (Petrov et al. 1979(Petrov et al. , 1984)). Crossing a tetraploid maize (2n =4x =40) with a tetraploid Tripsacum dacty/aides (2n =4x =72), the Russian scientists successfully produced maize-Tripsacum Fls and BC l hybrid derivatives that, according to progeny tests, reproduced apomictically. The BC l plants combined 20 maize chromosomes with one complete set (18) of Tripsacum dacty/aides chromosomes. Efficient techniques for evaluating chromosome numbers, embryo-sac analysis, etc., were not available, making screening of large numbers of progenies for apomixis difficult. Consequently, little progress was made in this transfer effort. Recently, the Russian materials were transferred to the United States, and introgression efforts were reinitiated. An important piece of information generated by these renewed efforts relates to the facultativeness of apomixis: because maize-Tripsacum hybrids and hybrid derivatives are completely male-sterile, progress in backcrossing is linked to the degree of facultativeness, and especially the presence of B or n + n off-types as a requisite for a possible return to a normal maize chromosome number. According to Kindiger and Sokolov (1995) and Kindiger et al. (1996), the Tripsacum dac/yloides lines they are using never produce such off-types, making the transfer impossible by conventional means only.A program initiated in pearl millet at the end of the 1970s may still be considered the most advanced and possibly the most promising (Hanna et al. 1993). Early constraints to the program (the availability of genetic resources of the apomictic wild relatives and the limitations of the available screening tools in the 1970s) slowed progress in its early years. Recent molecular mapping activities, however, have provided intriguing new data (Ozias-Akins et al. 1993, 1998;Leblanc et al. 1995;Grimanelli et al. 1998a, and Chap. 6) and offered encouragement to scientists working in this area.Efforts to wide cross apomixis to wheat have struggled to bypass crossing barriers and very low apomixis expression in the wheat genome background. Carman (1997, Chap. 7) now concludes that apomixis can only be expressed from interspecific hybridizations using progenitors with contrasting timings of megagametophyte development.The maize-Tripsawm introgression project developed jointly by IRD (formerly ORSTOM) and CIMMYT, which serves as the focus of this chapter, has passed the BC s generation. Early steps and progress are reported in the following pages, as are several fundamental questions that must be addressed before apomixis can be successfully transferred to major crops.Basic Traits to Consider Identifying a material for molecular studies, especially for apomixis gene isolation, is discussed in other chapters (especially Bicknell,Chap. 8). Choosing a progenitor specifically as a source of apomixis for wide cross transfer, however, is a somewhat different venture. In this instance, such work should take into account the following:1. Genetic resources available. With only a few exceptions (Elymus reclise/!ls, Tripsacum spp.), collection of the wild apomictic relatives of important food crops has been notably inadequate. Consequently, wide cross projects have been forced to rely on a limited number of introductions. This in turn means that the diversity present in the wild relatives may go undetected, and that scientists do not gain access to the components of this diversity that offer optimum crossability with the crop species. A preliminary effort to collect such genetic resources of interest is critically needed in most cases.2. Chromosome number of the potential donor species. An important factor for wide crossing apomixis is whether the basic chromosome number is the same in the donor and crop species. Crosses between related species with different basic chromosome numbers are generally considered less likely to succeed. Ploidy level is another point to consider, since wild apomixis is found almost exclusively in polyploids (for exceptions, mostly in the dicots, see Asker and Jerling 1992).3. Genome homoeology. Chromosomal exchanges are more likely to occur when the chromosomes of the two species show some degree of pairing. Molecular genetics, seldom available at the beginning of such projects, can likely provide more detailed information about chromosome homoeology than classical cytogenetics, e.g., in Tripsacum, Galinat (Galinat et al. 1970;Galinat 1971) described four maize chromosomes that are capable of pairing with Tripsamm chromosomes. Meanwhile, mapping analyses (Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6) suggest a more widespread colinearity between the maize and Tripsacum genomes.4. Pollen fertility. Except for the highly facultative apomicts, first generation hybridizations between the crop and donor species must use the latter as male. Several apomictic species have been described with greatly reduced male fertility (e.g., Elymus rectisetus, the apomictic wild relative of wheat); in such cases, a preliminary selection is needed. 5. Type of apomixis. Apospory has always been presented as an easier type of apomixis to work with, being associated with 4-nucleate embryo sacs in tropical and subtropical grasses and transmitted as a single dominant gene (Savidan 1982a;Nogler 1984;Asker and Jerling 1992;Savidan 2000). Recent studies on diplospory in Tripsacum strongly challenge this view, bolstered by flow cytometry, which can be used to analyze modes of reproduction (Grimanelli et al. 1997), and screens that use different types of molecular markers. Nevertheless, the type of apomixis must still be considered, as different types of screens may be applied to different types of apomixis. Whether one type of apomixis than another is more likely to be expressed in a particular crop background is still largely speculative.6. Degree of apomixis (or degree of facultativeness). The degree of apomixis appears to be a major factor related to the feasibility of wide cross transfer of apomixis. An obligate apomixis cannot be used unless some degree of male fertility is recovered in the F1s, which is seldom the case in interspecific hybrids; but to produce near obligate apomictic crops, facultativeness must be low and well controlled. This factor is addressed in more detail later in this chapter. T,..,fe, .f Apomixis ,.,... WIde Cro\"e, 155 7. Agronomic characteristics. A species with poor agronomic traits will produce hybrids and hybrid derivatives that may conserve undesirable traits for several generations, slowing the progress of the transfer.8. Previous knowledge. Previous knowledge concerning the interspecific or intergeneric hybridization under consideration is a definite advantage. For example, knowing the number of backcrosses needed to go from the maize-Tripsacum Fls to a 20-chromosome recovered maize (Harlan and de Wet 1977) was important in developing the first work plan for the lRD-CIMMYT apomixis team and in maintaining its confidence about the feasibility of its approach.Case History: Pennisetum Prnl1isetum glaucum, a cultivated pearl millet, has a basic chromosome number of x = 7. The only known and widespread tetraploid wild species with the same basic chromosome number is P. purpureum (211 = 4x = 28). Though described as aposporic by Brown and Emery (1958), this species appears to be entirely sexual, as confirmed by a cyto-embryological survey made in morphologically uniform wild populations from West Africa (Y. Savidan, unpublished). Apomixis has been described in several other Pel1l1isetum species, all of which belong to the secondary or tertiary gene pools and share a basic chromosome number of x = 9. Dui.ardin and Hanna (1989) demonstrated that three out of the seven apomictic species tested were capable of producing F I hybrids with pearl millet. The genus Pel1l1isetum, however, is one of the most complex in the grass family. In addition, the number of species varies greatly according to the taxonomist, the most conservative estimates being approximately 100 different species (Purseglove 1972), most of which are perennial, polyploid, and likely apomictic. Because of a lack of available germplasm, no extensive search for an opitimum apomictic donor for pearl millet has been cond ucted. Three species studied by Dujardin and Hanna (1989) that show crossability with the crop are Pennisetum orientale, a tetraploid with 211 = 36; P. setaceum, a triploid with 211 = 27; and P. squamulatum, a hexaploid with 211 = 54. They all reproduce apomictically and their apomixis was described as obligate, which means that 100% of the observed progeny appeared to be maternal in field tests (Dujardin and Hanna 1984a, b).Advantages of P. squamulatum as a donor species for apomixis include good pollen fertility, 4-nucleate embryo sacs, and a unique Issue # 1. Obligate vs. Facultative Apomixis: An Artifact?The facultativeness of apomixis has been considered to be a disadvantage (Bashaw et al. 1970;Bashaw 1975) because (I) it may result in W1controlled variation in the progeny while farmers require homogeneous varieties and (ii) it i apparently quantitatively inherited, i.e., under a c mplex, yet unknown genetic control. evertheless, acultativeness may be need d in attempts to transfer apomi is to crops through wide hybridization. Wide cro ses gen rally produce highl terile hybrids that can only be backcrossed by Llsing them as female. If these hybrids are obligate ap micts, the wide cross approach for transferring ap mixis is a dead end. But is obligate apomiXis ever totally obligate? Asker (1979)  Recent data (Hanna el al. 1993) showing high degrees offacultativeness in later generation hybrid derivatives can possibly be reinterpreted in the light of this hypoth is. Modification of the genetic or epigenic background is known to affect facultative apomixise pres ion, with an extremely high rate fs xuahty p ibly being observed. This wa\" n in guin agrass (PauiCilm maximum),In ne natural interspecific hybrid with P. iufes/llm (see al Berthaud, Chap. 2).Though apllmi i is probably always facultative in the wild to some extent, the facultativeness f the donor specie in a transfer attempt should be limited and/or controllable for apomixis to be properly manageable in agriculture. Therefore, a compromise must be found between the facultativeness required for male sterile hybrids to be backcrossed, and the final objective of relative homogeneity in the farmers' fields. potential, among the few species tested, for giving some female and male fertility to the FIS. Disadvantages include the requirement of a bridge species, P. purpureum, the different basic chromosome number (x = 9, as compared with x = 7 in pearl millet), and the hexaploid level of ploidy. Progress made on mapping apomixis in Pennisetum and its implications for our understanding of the genetic control are presented in Grimanelli et al. (Chap. 6).Case History: Tripsacum Numerous maize x Tripsacum hybrids have been produced since the pioneering research of Mangelsdorf and Reeves more than 70 years ago (Mangelsdorf and Reeves 1931). Extensive hybridization studies have been carried out by Galinat (1971), Harlan and de Wet (1977), James (1979), andBernard andJewell (1985), among others. The main objective of these studies was to evaluate the potential role of Tripsacum in maize evolution and / or the feasibili ty of gene transfer, though not necessarily for apomixis. Claims of introgression have been made (Simone and Hooker 1976;de Wet 1979;and Bergquist 1981), but the Tripsacum progenitors involved were not tested beforehand for the target traits; consequently, the same traits could presumably have been present in neighboring maize collections. However, all these studies showed that from a maize-Tripsacum F I hybrid it was possible, in a few generations, to recover a 20-chromosome maize with some morphological features that were not present in the original maize progenitor. Most of these studies were based on using a diploid sexual Tripsacum, and most concentrated on a single species, T. dilctylaides. Between 1990 and 1992, maize was successfully crossed with 66 apomictic populations, representing eight different species and intermediate forms between species (Table 11.1); 895 F I hybrids with 2n =46 =10M + 36Tr were obtained from these crosses. Most of these (598, or 66.8%) involved T. dactylaides subspecies or Tra.sf.r .f Apomixis tllroogll WIde Cross.. 157 interspecific-like accessions involving some form of T. dactylaides. This confirmed high crossability for T. dactylaides. The number of PI plants per number of pollinated ears, however, showed a higher crossability between maize and T. wpilatense, which has the smallest area of distribution in Mexico (being found only in the Canon de Zopilote, between Mexico City and Acapulco).Advantages of using T. dilctylaides as the donor species include good pollen fertility and an apomixis characterized by an absence of callose around the megasporocyte and subsequent cells, which is easily detected in fluorescence microscopy (Leblanc et al. 1995b;Leblanc and Mazzucato, Chap. 9). Diplospory is further characterized by endosperms with a ploidy level different from that of sexual seeds, resulting from the fertilization of two 158 Yv•• Savid.. unreduced polar nuclei. This trait can also be used for screening modes of reproduction in segregating populations by means of flow cytometry (Grimanelli et al. 1997). Previous studies showing that 5-6 backcrosses are needed to produce introgressed 20chromosome maize plants provided another advantage to using this species. Disadvantages include total male sterility, which is seemingly retained until reaching addition forms with very few Tripsacum chromosomes, and the difference in basic chromosome numbers (x = 18 compared to x = 10 in maize).Several procedures are available to produce hybrids between cultivated and distantly related wild species. Special techniques, including chromosome manipulation, bridging species, hormonal treatment, embryo rescue, ovary culture, and in vitro pollination, are available for overcoming the cross incompatibility and the sterility of the F1s. The presence of apomixis makes the cross more difficult because it can only be performed in one direction, with the apomixis progenitor being used as pollinator. Therefore, the donor must exhibit good pollen fertility. Because most apomicts require fertilization with reduced pollen to produce endosperm, pollen quality is generally not affected by apomixis. An exception to this rule is Elymus rectisetus, in which male infertility is a problem with most accessions O. G. Carman, personal comm.).Most of the crossing techniques are common to intra-and interspecific crosses. A prerequisite is good knowledge of the selfsterility or self-incompatibility systems existing within the crop. For most crops, however, hand emasculation is preferred.Crossing species with different flower sizes and shapes may require special tricks, e.g., in the case of maize x Tripsacum, more hybrids are produced if the silks are shortened to about 2-3 cm. Most wide crosses require embryo rescue techniques, using classical media such as MS (Murashige and Skoog 1962) or N 6 (Chu et al. 1975). Small embryos from maize x Tripsacum F1s grew better on 50 gil sucrose as compared with standard embryo culture medium containing 30 gil sucrose. Several environmental factors can further affect the production and culture of hybrid embryos. As a result, the production of hybrids may be good one year, but poor the next.When apomixis is not found in wild relatives, transfer may be attempted from a more distant apomictic species by using protoplast fusion. Such a transfer was started for sorghum using apomixis from Cenchrus ciliaris (Bharathi et al. 1991). However, no reports of plant regeneration have surfaced to date, apomictic or not, from such protoplast fusions. A more recent approach, developed by Ramulu et al. (1996), explores the prod uction of microprotoplasts containing only one or two alien chromosomes and the direct production of monosomic addition lines after fusion with protoplasts from the receptor species.Sterility in interspecific and intergeneric F1s and supsequent backcross generations is a characteristic of wide crosses. Restoring fertility of the F] hybrids through chromosome doubling is the most common approach. In both pearl millet and maize transfer attempts, however, F1s from some wild species accessions were totally sterile, while those obtained from other accessions showed some degree of fertility, making the chromosome doubling unnecessary.The transfer programs in pearl millet and wheat have produced F 1 hybrids with some degree of male fertility. However, as described below for Tripsacum, this is not an absolute requirement. Nevertheless, it obviously helps, because the F]s generally have morphological features close to that of the wild progenitor, e.g., a limited number of fertile flowers to pollinate. In maize, the Fls have less than 20 flowers per inflorescence, while the recurrent maize parent, if it could be used as female (i.e., if the Fj hybrid had some male fertility), would offer hundreds.Pennisetum setaceum (2n = 3x = 27) was the first apomictic species crossed with pearl millet. F] hybrids had 2n = 25 chromosomes, were male sterile, but reproduced apomictically (Hanna 1979). This interspecific cross was abandoned because of male sterility. Pennisetum orientale (2n = 4x = 36) was then crossed with pearl millet. F j hybrids had 2n = 25 = 18 P. orientale (Or) + 7 pearl millet (Pm) chromosomes (Hanna and Dujardin 1982). They were male sterile, but backcrossing was attempted using pearl millet as the pollinator.Pennisetum squamulatum (2n = 6x = 54) was successfully used to pollinate tetraploid pearl millet. Crosses with diploid pearl millet failed (Dujardin and Hanna 1989). Of 20 F j hybrids, 15 were facultative apomicts, based on embryo-sac analyses. One F j was classified as an obligate apomict, although 35% of the ovules were considered aborted. This may possibly be interpreted in another way if the timing of sexual and aposporic pathways of development is different (see Issue # 1). Pollen fertility of this hybrid was surprisingly high (66%) and therefore it was used to pollinate tetraploid pearl millet to produce aBC] progeny. The BC] plants were totally male sterile. The breakthrough was found in making a tri-specific hybrid. The pearl millet x P. squamulatum male fertile F] (classified as an obligate apomict) was used to pollinate a pearl millet x napier (P. purpureum) F], and According to J. G. Carman (personal comm.), the crossability between wheat and apomictic Elymus rectisetus as measured by the same Fjs/ ear ratio was less than 1%. Differences in crossability may possibly be due to relative differences in genetic distance between the crop and its wild relatives or to genetic effects.Facultativeness becomes especially important when interspecific or intergeneric hybrids are totally male sterile. Dujardin and Hanna (1989) considered male sterility as an impediment to the transfer of apomixis because their progenitors were apparently obligate apomicts. This was certainly reasonable based on the available techniques and limited number of plants used for analysis at the beginning of their project in the early 1980s. In the progenies of the maize x Tripsacum BC 3 Bashawet al. (1970) and Ba haw (1m) presented facultative apomixis as a difficult trait to manipulate in breeding because of uncontrolled variation (off-type frequency) that may result from crossing such apomicts with sexual plants. Our experience with aposporous Panicum maximum suggested that facultative apomixis, when the rate of facultativeness was low (1-5%), could be maintained with the same or even lower rate of sexuality through consecutive generations of hybridization. In such cases, the FI and Bel hybrids between sexual and apomictic guineagrass accessions had the same degree of facultativeness as their apomictic progenitor (Savidan 1982b). On the other hand, crossing a highly facultative apomict with sexual guineagrass accessions produced hybrid derivatives, only 0.9% of the plants apparently resulted from fertilization of a reduced egg cell, i.e., the rate of diplospory in BC 3 s was 99.1%, which would probably not be detectable if only 30 or 40 plants were analyzed in a progeny test.The obligate nature of apomixis may be overestimated because of the population size, e.g., Burton et a!. (1973) classified approximately 80% of their Panicum maximum accessions as obligate apomicts based on 10plant progeny tests. Savidan (1982b), however, found only 20% of such obligate apomicts using a 100-ovary embryological analysis for each accession. Therefore, the male-sterile apomictic interspecific F I hybrid may probably always be used as female in the backcross, provided progenies of sufficient size can be screened. One can expect that a few off-types will be produced from sexual reproduction (n + n combinations) to help bypass the sterility barrier. Some may reproduce apomictically, assuming the apomixis \"allele\" is dominant and simplex, as observed in all sexual x apomictic hybrids produced so far in the grass a large variation for the rate of facultativeness among the apomictic hybrids (Savidan 1982b). Whatever the complexity of the genetic control of facultativeness, it seemed to be transmitted as a cluster along with the control of apomeiosis (Savidan, 1982).Tripsacum diversity was not screened for facultativeness, Whether sexual x apomictic Tripsacum intra-or interspecific crosses may result in a similar conservation of the degree of facultativeness is therefore unknown. Maize x Tripsacum hybrid derivatives could exhibit contrasting rates of facultativeness, despite having originated from the same apomictic F I hybrid. Given our current state of knowledge, this may be either a characteristic of Tripsacllm apomixis or only a consequence of the intergeneric, genetic, and/ or epigenetic backgrounds.family (see Nogler 1984 for review; Sherwood, Chap. 5). In Pennisetum, male sterile apomictic hybrids could have been a good starting point for the transfer of apomixis if flow cytometry had been available for screening of large progenies, but the technology only became available to plant scientists several years after the project began (Galbraith et al. 1983).The BC I plants from pearl millet x Pml1isetum orimtale hybrids had 23, 27, or 32 chromosomes. The latter were 2n + n off-types with 25 + 7 Pm, as pear! millet was used as pollina!or. The 23-chromosome plants were described as facultative apomicts, with a low rate (or expression) of apomixis.From the crosses with P. setaceum, a 211 = 27 BC I plant appeared to be totally male sterile, but could be pollinated by pearl millet or P. setaceum. Pollination with pear! millet produced no seed, while pollination with P. setaceum produced four plants, three maternal and one 2n + n. The P. orimtale pathway was considered unsuitable for apomixis transfer because of the low expression of apomixis or complete male sterility in the BC l derivatives.Hybrids that are totally male sterile and obligately apomictic are indeed dead ends: pollinating such hybrids with the crop pollen will produce only maternal offspring, i.e., perfect copies of the sterile Fl' However, if apomixis is slightly facultative, off-types can be produced, some of which maybe n + nand still apomictic, representing progress toward a return to the chromosome number of the crop. The rate of facultativeness has to be low, however, if one expects the backcross procedure to eventually produce an apomictic crop germplasm with a high degree of apomixis. Analyses made on Panicum maximum (Savidan 1982a,b) show that the rate of facultativeness, and more precisely of n + n off-types, may remain relatively conserved through generations of hybridization. It was Yraosfer of Apomilis 1~ ...gIt WIde Cro.... 161 therefore suggested that a limited range of variation could possibly allow selection back to obligate apomixis. In the intergeneric background of maize x Tripsacum hybrid derivatives, the variation observed (Table 11.3) appeared less stable, possibly because the apomictic Tripsacum progenitor was already much more facultative than the guineagrass accessions used by Savidan (1982). By selecting among Tripsacum accessions for their ability to produce hybrid derivatives in backcrossing Fls with maize, the team possibly selected one of the most facultative of the apomictic tripsacums.Table 11.4 shows the cumulative result of the analysis of approximately 6,000 progenies produced from maize x Tripsacum BetS with Issue # 3. Can apomixis be expressed at the diploid level?In the wild, apomixis is found only among polyploids (although a few, questionable exceptions have been cited, see Asker and Jerling 1992). Population geneticists have suggested that sexuality would be eliminated if apomixis could be expressed at the diploid level (Pemes 1912;Marshall and Brown 1981). Nagler (1984) claimed, with little evidence to support it, that apomixis is probably linked to a lethal factor expressed at the haploid (gamete) level only. After obtaining 23chromosome pearl millet x P. orientale Be, plants, Hanna et aI. (1993) stated that polyploidy is probably not needed for the expression of genets) controlling apomixis, because these 23-chromosome plants had only one (simplex) set of nine P. orientale chromosomes. The genomic structure of these plants is likely 14 Pm + 9 Or however, suggesting that the locus involved could possibly be present in triplicate. Another such case of apomictic expression in a nonpolyploid form was previously reported (Dujardin and Hanna 1986), which related to a polyhaploid plant from a pearl millet x P.squamulatum p) hybrid which had 2n =41 = 14Pm + 27Sq. This haploid had 2n =21 chromosomes. Again, as the 2n = 21chromosome plant likely had seven chromosomes from pearl millet and 14 from the wild species that had a basic chromosome number of nine, the locus involved was possibly in triplicate and not in duplicate.In the Tripsacum project, a few polyhaploids were obtained in the progeny of 2n =56 = 20m + 36tr BC)s (Leblanc et al. 19%). These plants have ne set of maize and one set ofTripsacll/ll chromosomes, as confirmed by in situ hybridization (Leblanc et al. 1996), and some .of them could express apomixis. Whether they represent exceptional cases of recombination between apomixis and a lethal system linked to it is open to speculation (see Grimanelli et al. 1998b). Grimanelli et al. (1998b) suggest, however, that apomixis can be expressed even when the allele(s) involved are in a duplex situation, a position that rej«ts the hypotheses of dosage effect presented earlier by Mogie (1988) and Noirot (1993), and suggests that the transmission barrier, whatever its nature, may be overcome through haploidization to produce functional diploid apomicts.162 hOI Scrvidao 211 = 56 chromosomes, i.e., 20 maize + 36 to be apomictic, while a 211 = 38 maize x Tripsacum chromosomes. Note that the Tripsacum BC hybrid that produces progeny average rate of facultativeness at that level ranging from 211 =22 to 2n = 32 is sexual. An was very close to that of the Tripsacum alternative can be offered by using markers progenitor, although variation was important.linked with apomixis, provided that apomixis is indeed controlled by one gene or small A few dihaploids have been obtained from segment of DNA, and that such markers are the progeny of 211 = 56 BCls, as 11 + 0 off-types closely linked. (Table 4). They grew well, flowered, and prod uced a good seed set. Their progeny were A 1:1 segregation for apomixis and sexuality 80% maternal and 20% 211 + 11 hybrids with was observed among maize x Tripsacum Fls, 211 = 38 chromosomes.as 31 hybrids were classified as apomictic and 30 as sexual, based on embryological analyses. The backcross series was continued in an These plants were used for a bulk segregant attempt to recover apomictic maize plants analysis (see Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6) aimed with only a few Tripsacum chromosomes. At at identifying molecular markers that each generation, plants were screened for cosegregate with apomixis. Three RFLP apomixis and chromosome number. Embryomarkers were first identified as linked with sac analyses, which have been used apomixis; these belong to the same linkage extensively in several genetic analyses group in maize and are located on maize (Sherwood,Chap. 5), cannot be applied to chromosome-610ng arm (Leblanc et al. 1995). intergeneric hybrids or hybrid derivatives in Other markers were subsequently added which inflorescences are too precious to be (Grimanelli et al. 1998a, and Chap. 6). destroyed. Modes of reproduction are therefore estimated using progeny tests, e.g., Using both flow cytometry and markera 211 = 38 maize x Tripsacum BC hybrid that assisted screening for apomixis, rare but useful produces mostly 211 = 38 progenies is likely apomictic plants can be selected among many at each generation. A source population must be grown to  -T.d-,-o-cty-l,-oi-:-de-s-----------------useful   Increasing the progeny size did not change the chromosome numbers ranging from 2/1 = 20 trend, an observation suggesting that the to 2/1 = 36. Modes of reproduction could be original transfer scheme (Figure 11.2) had to being determined for some of them by RFLP be reconsidered, especially since its 38markers linked with apomixis, by progenychromosome plant step could not produce the tests, or by ploidy of the endosperms addition lines that were expected. evaluated through flow cytometry (Table 11 Possibilities Associations between maize and Tripsacum chromosomes have been reported to increase with each BC generation (Engle et at. 1973), however, they seem to involve a limited number of maize chromosomes.Addition lines with 211 = 21 to 24, whenever and whatever way they are produced, are expected to show some degree of male fertility, as observed in all previous studies. Levels of fertility may vary according to the number and quality of these alien chromosomes. Most of their progeny, using them as male, will likely be 211 = 20 because of chromosome elimination and pollen competition. Dominant marker systems would be useful in screening between plants derived from fertilized eggs and those derived from parthenogenetic and unreduced eggs. Adequate stocks can be built up, taking advantage of available maize collections.Is the transfer of apomixis to maizE' through wide hybridization feasible? Could it possibly result in a functional diploid apomictic germplasm? When? These questions remain Issue # 4. Can a diploid apomict produce a normal seed?M st \"pomi ts require fertilization of the polar nu lei t produce a viable endosperm, a process !<n(lWn as pseudogamy. Few others,Ill( tly Asteraceae, do pmduce endosperm in the absence of f rtilizali n, a process known as aut n mous apomixis. The latter, to our knowledge, i not found jn the gra family, where fertilization of the end perm Is an absolute requirement reIat«l to dosageeffects between alleles of matemal (en) vs. patemal (p) origin (2m:Ip ratio) (for review, see Birchler 1993).Experiments on wild apomictic.grasses have revealt!d several types of endosperm f rmatlon. Interestingly, apomixis is especially frequent in th Panicoideae subfamily, in which embryo sacs are 4nucleate, a single polar nucleu i fertilized, and the 2ln:1p ratio I nserved. Other cases reported in the literature ( ogler 1984; Savidan 2(00) in which the 2m:1p ratio is recovt!red, found that even in the presence of two unreduced polar nuclei (i) they remain unfused and are fertilized by one male nuclei each Or (iJ) the fused p lar nuclei are fertilized by two male nuclei (d uble-fertilization).Jn both cases, an Interesting consequence is that the most frequent off-types, the B m or 2n + n hybrids, are eliminated from the progenies with the two male nuclei being used for endosperm fonnatlon.Wild apomictic TripsaCTIm form 8-nucleate embryo sacs and the endosperm results from a simpl (single) fertili:zati 11, making the ratil) belw en maternal and paternal c()mponent either a\\::2x (or 4m:J p} when the tetraploid apomict is fertilized by the p lien of another t .trapI id or its own p lien, or a.-dx when the pollinator i a neighboring diplOid. AcampI . tie> oHhi rali t:iln b found in a TriPSIICllII1 nursery where Ie t:!1s of ploidy from 2\\\" to 6x are mixed tog ther without significantly affecting the I::l set and gennination. Therefore, Tripsac/lTtI seems unaffected by an aim rmal dosage effect, contrary HI most other grasse (Grimanelli eta!' 1997).A few BC~ plant with high seed set were anal zed. Preliminary data suggest that endu penn could result from a d0ublefertilization of the polar nuclei (Figure Ie). Part f the Be; seed already exhibited this endosperm Iructure. An attempt to correlate pre ence/absence of such an endo perm structure with grain gross morphol()gy, however, proved disappointing_If creating an aull'ln(1moUS apunUx' lie /IOiX1 is possible, which I still in question given the apparent complexity elf th ontml in wild apomicts (as suggested by m lecular analyses) (Grimanelli etaL,Chap. 6), it is alsc: questionable wh ther it could be satisfactorily expressed in any g~'S 'pedes, especially the grain crop species, because of their imprinting requirements.unanswered. However, more progress has and manipulation of its components. Another been achieved toward producing an apomictic promising avenue, approaches based on grain during the last ten years than ever before, mutagenesis, is discussed in the following two mostly because of the development and chapters. These approaches will undoubtedly application of new techniques. As molecular better our understanding of the regulation of dissecting tools continue to improve, we will reproduction as a whole. In the end, apomixis see great progress in our understanding of certainly cannot be manipulated without a how apomixis is controlled and the isolation thorough understanding of how it is controlledSexual reproduction usually produces genetically diverse progeny, a feature that has been exploited in the selection and improvement of agricultural crops over the centuries. In contrast, apomixis results in the production of genetically uniform progeny. Apomictic embryos are derived from an unreduced cell lineage and develop independent of fertilization (Gustafsson 1947;Nogler 1984a, b;Asker and Jerling 1992;Koltunow 1993). Thus, apomictic seeds are genotypically identical to the mother plant and usually form a genetically stable clone.The clonal nature of apomictic offspring bears tremendous potential for seed production and crop improvement. It offers the possibility for the immediate fixation of any desired genotype and its indefinite clonal propagation. The transfer of apomixis to sexual crops will completely transform current breeding strategies and seed production (Hanna and Bashaw 1987;Savidan 1992;Savidan and Dujardin 1992;Dickinson 1992;Jefferson 1993;Hanna 1995;Koltunow et al. 1996;VielJe-Calzada et al. 1996;Jefferson and Bicknell 1996;Grossnik.laus et al. 1998a;Savidan 2000). The resulting agricultural, commercial, and social benefits for both industrialized and developing countries would be enormous (Jefferson 1994;Koltunow et al. 1995;Grossniklaus et al. 1998c;and Toenniessen, Chap. 1).Apomixis is an asexual form of reproduction through seeds and occurs in more than 400 species (Bashaw and Hanna 1990;Asker and Jerling 1992;Carman 1995Carman , 1997)). Having been described in plants belonging to almost 40 different families, it is thought to have evolved independently in several taxa from sexual ancestors. Apomixis can be viewed as a developmental variation of the sexual reproductive pathway in which certain steps are short-circuited (Koltunow 1993;Vielle Calzada et al. 1996;Grossniklaus et al. 1998a). Thus, apomictic and sexual reproduction are closely related to one another and share many regulatory components. It is very likely that the genes controlling apomixis also play crucial regulatory roles during sexual development.Therefore, the engineering of apomixis will require a better understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms that control sexual plant reproduction. Whereas megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis have been studied extensively at the morphological and ultrastructural levels (e.g., Cass and Jensen 1970;Willemse and van Went 1984;Russell 1985;Mogensen 1988;Huang and Russell 1992;Schneitz et al. 1995;Christensen et al. 1997), the molecular and genetic basis controlling these key steps in sexual reproduction are almost entirely unknown.The engineering of apomixis in sexual crops will only be possible through an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach to studying the regulation of reproduction at the genetic and molecular levels in both sexual and Apomictic reproduction is under genetic control (Nogler 1984a;Savidan 2000;Sherwood, Chap. 5). In studies on its genetic regulation, it was found to behave as a single dominant Mendelian trait (Nogler 1973(Nogler ,1975(Nogler , 1984b;;Savidan 1980Savidan , 1982;;Gadella 1987;Ozias-Akins et al. 1993, 1998;Miles et a!. 1994;Sherwood et a!. 1994;Leblanc et al. 1995;Kindiger et al. 1996;Pessino et al. 1997;Grimanelli et a!. 1998;Barcaccia et a!. 1998;van Dijk et al. 1999;Bicknell et a!. 2000;Noyes and Rieseberg 2000). Ideally, the gene(s) controlling apomixis would be isolated and characterized in an apomictic species. However, molecular genetic analysis in apomicts is difficult because of their poor characterization at the molecular and genetic levels, and the obstacles posed by their clonal mode of reproduction. Genetic analysis, which relies largely on recombination, can only be studied in hybrids of sexual and apomictic genotypes between species or genera. Moreover, apomixis is tightly associated with polyploidy, thereby making genetic analysis difficult. The advent of physical mapping has had a great impact on work on apomictic species and their relatives. Recent advances in the establishment of molecular marker systems and the development of apomictic model systems are discussed elsewhere (Savidan 2000;Grimanelli et aI., Chap. 6;Bicknell, Chap. 8).In this chapter, I focus on efforts to use wellestablished sexual model systems to elucidate the molecular mechanisms controlling plant reproduction. A better understanding of the genes and molecules involved in the sexual pathway and the isolation of mutants relevant to apomixis will play an important role in the transfer of apomixis to sexual species. Since this chapter focuses on the use of sexual systems, the developmental events occurring during sexual reproduction and their genetic control will be reviewed in detail. I compare sexual and apomictic reproduction and discuss mutants relevant to these developmental processes. Then, some of the recent advances in the molecular and genetic characterization of sexual reproduction in Arabidopsis tlulliana will be described. Finally, various approaches to introducing apomixis into sexual species are surveyed and the implementation technologies required to engineer apomixis in a useful manner are identified.The plant life cycle alternates between a diploid sporophytic and a haploid gametophytic generation, a feature with important implications for the formation of the gametes and embryogenesis (Walbot 1996).The meiotic products of plants undergo several division cycles to form a multicellular haploid organism. The gametes differentiate later in gametophyte development. In angiosperms, double fertilization concludes the gametophytic phase and marks the beginning of the next sporophytic generation. In angiosperm apomixis, the plant life cycle is short-circuited and an unreduced cell lineage gives rise to a megagametophyte (gametophytic apomixis) or directly to an embryo (sporophytic apomixis). Because of the close developmental and evolutionary relationship between apomictic and sexual reproduction, a better understanding of the fundamental biological principles governing female gametogenesis and seed development will provide invaluable tools for the manipulation of the sexual reproductive system towards apomixis.Two well-established sexual model systems,Arabidopsis tlwliana and Zea mays (maize), and a rapidly emerging system, Oryza siltiva (rice), are of particular interest for genetic and molecular investigations. All three are well characterize~at the genetic level and offer a vast array of powerful genetic and molecular techniq ues (Free ling and Walbot 1993;Meyerowitz and Somerville 1994;Tanksley and McCouch 1997;McCouch et al. 1997). Versatile transposon systems for insertional mutagenesis and gene tagging are available and offer the opportunity for reverse genetic approaches (Walbot 1992;Dellaporta and Moreno 1994;Feldmann et al. 1994;Shimamoto et al. 1993;Shimamoto 1995;McKinney et al. 1995;Sundaresan 1996;Parinov et al. 1999;Speulman et al. 1999;Tissier et al. 1999;Meissner et al. 1999;Krysan et al. 1999).Maize, as an agriculturally important member of the grass family (http://www.agron. missouri.edu), has some advantages for apomixis research. It can be hybridized with its apomictic relative Tripsacum dactyloides (e.g., Mangelsdorf and Reeves 1931;Harlan and de Wet 1977;Petrov et al. 1984;Savidan, Chap. 11), and the extensive synteny among the grasses (Bennetzen and Freeling 1993;Moore et al. 1995;Gale and Devos 1998;Keller and Feuillet 2000) allows for comparative genomic analyses between sexual and apomictic grass species. The Mutator transposon system offers highly efficient methods for insertional mutagenesis (Chomet 1994) and for sitespecific transposon mutagenesis by reverse genetic approaches (Das and Martienssen 1995; Bensen et al. 1995;Mena et al. 1996;Rabinowtiz and Grotewold 2000), originally pioneered in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (Ballinger and Benzer 1989).The small plant Arabidopsis tlwliana, a member of the Brassicaceae, has been widely adopted as a model system for the developmental biology and genetics of flowering plants (Meyerowitz 1989). The small size of the plant, its rapid life cycle, and the large number of seeds it produces make it ideal for the isolation and study of mutants that affect biochemical and developmental pathways. The small genome size (-125 Mb), high percentage of single copy DNA (Pruitt and Meyerowitz 1986), large number of molecular markers (http://www.arabidopsis.com). and the complete genome sequence (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative 2000) make Arabidopsis a powert'ul system for molecular studies. Highly efficient T-DNA-based transformation methods (Bechthold et al. 1993) and heterologous transposon systems for targeted gene tagging, genome wide insertional mu tagenesis, and reverse genetics are available (Feldmann et al. 1994;McKinney et al. 1995;Sundaresan 1996;Parinov et al. 1999;Speulman et al. 1999;Tissier et al. 1999;Meissner et al. 1999;Krysan et al. 1999). The Arabidopsis genome is the first plant genome to be completely sequenced (Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000). In light of existing synteny between dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous taxa (Paterson et a1. 1996), this genome infonnation will also be of great importance for molecular studies in cereals.The amenability of Arabidopsis to genetic and molecular analysis makes it an ideal system for the identification and molecular isolation of genes controlling sexual reproduction and for the isolation of mutations that interfere with this developmental process.That said, however, attention should be drawn to the previously mentioned efforts in rice, which have been greatly stimulated by the Rockefeller Foundation's International Program on Rice Biotechnology. Rice has many of the advantages of Arabidopsis, including a very small genome (-400 Mb), a true diplOid genetic constitution, a rapid life cycle, and well developed genetics (http:/ lars-genome. cornell.edu/grasses.html). In addition, rice not only shows synteny on a broad scale, but microsynteny with all the grasses, ranging from apomictic forages (e.g., Brachi1lria) to other important grain crops such as maize, wheat, barley, and sorghum (e.g., Kilian et a1. 1995).The rapid adoption of rice as a model plant and private and public sector work on the rice genome will result in rice being the second completely sequenced plant genome. Given the importance of endosperm development and the peculiarities associated with cereal endosperm, similar developmental genetic studies on rice offer even more direct advantages for investigating the control of apomixis when the technologies are similarly mature. Existing technologies in rice are now approaching those of Arabidopsis, including low-copy Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, transposon insertional mutagenesis, and high-density maps of molecular markers required for positional cloning (e.g., Shimamoto et al. 1993;Shimamoto 1995;McCouch et al. 1997). The formation of ovules, where megasporogenesis, megagametogenesis, and double fertilization occur is a key step in sexual reproduction. For more than a century, much attention has been given to the structure and development of the ovule and female gametophyte (e.g., Hofmeister 1849;Maheshwari 1950;Jensen 1965;Russell 1985;Reiser and Fischer 1993;Herr 1995;Schneitz et al. 1995;Gasser et al. 1998;Schneitz 1999).In maize, rice, and Arabidopsis, as in the majority of all angiosperms, monosporic development leads to the formation of an embryo sac of the Polygonum-type (Maheshwari 1950;Russell 1979;Bedinger and Russell 1994;Webb andGunning 1990, 1991).1. Megasporogenesis. Within the developing ovule primordium, a single hypodermal cell enlarges to form the archesporial cell. The archesporium differentiates directly into the megaspore mother cell (megasporocyte) and undergoes meiosis to produce four megaspores (Misra 1962;Davis 1966;Webb and Gunning 1990;Huang and Russell 1992;Hill and Lord 1994). Although usually only a single cell adopts a meiotic cell fate, about 5% of Arabidopsis ovules contain two megasporocytes, but only one appears to form a functional megaspore since twin-embryo sacs are not observed (Schneitz et al. 1995; U. Grossniklaus and J. Moore, unpublished data).Where'as the Arabidopsis megaspore mother cell is in direct contact with the epidennal cell layer of the nucellus (tenuinucellate), the megaspore mother cell in maize becomes more deeply embedded in the nucellar tissues (crassinucellate) as a consequence of divisions in the epidermal layer (Randolph 1936;Kiesselbach 1949;Maheshwari 1950;Misra 1962;Figure 12.1a, d). At maturity, the megasporocyte is characterized by a polar distribution of the organelles that accumulate at its chalazaI pole (Russell 1979;Webb and Gunning 1990). The megaspore mother cell is surrounded by extensive callose depositions, which isolate it from the sporophytic tissues of the ovule (Rodkiewicz 1970).In Arabidopsis, the two meiotic nuclear divisions occur before cytokinesis, leading to the formation of tetrads with a multiplanar or, more rarely, a linear arrangement (Webb and Gunning 1990;Schneitz et al. 1995). In contrast, cytokinesis accompanies meiosis in maize, first producing two dyad cells and finally the four megaspores, which form a usually linear tetrad (Figure 12.1) (Weatherwax 1919;Kiesselbach 1949;Russell 1979). Little information is available on rice megasporogenesis, but its development is likely to be similar to that observed in maize. Only the chalazal-most megaspore survives (functional megaspore) whereas the other three undergo programmed cell death and degenerate. A certain variability with respect to the form of the tetrads and cytoplasm allocation to the functional megaspore has been observed (Webb and Gunning 1990;Bedinger and Russell 1994).Degenerating and surviving megaspores are initially similar at the ultrastructural level except for an enrichment of organelles in the functional megaspore. However, only the degenerating megaspores are surrounded by a callose rich cell wall, whereas the functional megaspore remains in direct contact with nucellar tissues (Rodkiewicz 1970;Webb and Gunning 1990;Russell and West 1994). It has been proposed that the pattern of callose deposition during megasporogenesis plays a crucial role for the differentiation and survival of the chalaza I megaspore, which eventually forms the megagametophyte (Haig and Westoby 1986).2. Megagametogenesis. The functional megaspore gives rise to a mature embryo sac of the Polygonum-type by three consecutive mitotic divisions that occur in a syncytium (Randolph 1936;Kiesselbach 1949;Misra 1962;Poliakova 1964;Diboll and Larson 1966;Russell 1979;Huang and Sheridan 1994;Webb and Gunning 1994;Schneitz et al. 1995;Christensen et al. 1997;Moore et al. 1997;reviewed in Grossniklaus and Schneitz 1998;Drews et al. 1998). After the first division, the nuclei migrate to opposing poles of the developing megagametophyte, and a prominent large vacuole forms in its center. A second vacuole at the chalazal pole is found in Arabidopsis and some genotypes of maize (Vollbrecht and Hake 1995;Christensen et al. 1997). As the embryo sac enlarges, the integuments grow to envelop the nucellus. Asymmetric growth of the integuments gives the Arabidopsis ovule its characteristic anatropous shape (Misra 1962). The nuclei at each pole undergo two synchronous divisions to form the 4-and 8-nucleated embryo sac. A single nucleus at the chalazal pole starts migrating toward the micropylar pole and becomes one of the two polar nuclei in the central cell. Cellularization leads to the formation of seven cells: an egg cell and two synergids at the micropylar pole, three antipodals at the chalazal pole, and a central cell harboring the two polar nuclei (Figure 12.1). In Arabidopsis, the nucellar tissue is absorbed as the embryo sac grows and expands. At maturity, remnants of the nucellus are only present at the chalazal pole. The endothdial tissues, which are in direct contact with the megagametophyte, are of integumental origin. In maize and rice, ovule morphogenesis is characterized by an initial intensive proliferation of the nucellar tissue, such that at maturity the embryo sac is still embedded in this tissue.The two synergids and the egg cell are arranged in triangular configuration at the micropylar pole to form the egg apparatus (Mansfield et al. 1991;Webb and Gunning 1988;Diboll and Larson 1966;Russell 1979; from Sexuolity ' 0 Apomi.il: Molo<.lor and G...,. App'-'\" 173Vollbrecht and Hake 1995). The synergids are The egg cell is located at a slightly chalaza I highly specialized cells thought by some to position with respect to the synergids. The provide constraints for pollen tube attraction distribution of the egg cytoplasm is and the transport of the sperm cells to the egg asymmetrical with a highly vacuolated and central cell (Huang and Russell 1992). Their micropylar pole (or a single large vacuole in cytoplasm is highly polarized with a chalazally this position) and a chalazally located nucleus located vacuole and, typically, a centrally (Russell 1993). In rice, the nucleus is in a more located nucleus. A highly specialized cell wall, central posi bon and the egg appears less the filiform apparatus, is associated with the polarized than in other species Oones and Rost micropylar-most region of the synergids 1989). Nevertheless, the micropylar-chalazal Uensen 1968; Mogensen 1988;Russell 1993). (proximo-distal) axis first eminent when ovule One of the synergids typically degenerates primordia emerge is maintained throughout prior to fertilization, but the moment for megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis at initiation of the degenerative process varies the level of the megasporocyte, the embryo sac, (Russell 1992;Christensen et al. 1997).and its constituent cells. The polarity of the egg cell may have important implications for early 174 UeIGr......... embryogenesis, which is initiated by a highly asymmetrical division of the zygote (Willemse 1981;Willemse and van Went 1984;West and Harada 1993).The large central cell is highly vacuolated and contains the two polar nuclei originating from opposite poles. It shares a common cell wall with both the egg apparatus and the antipodals. The polar nuclei will fuse prior to fertilization to form the homo-diploid nucleus of the central cell; in maize and rice, nuclear fusion is partial and is not completed until the arrival of the sperm cells.Three antipodal cells differentiate at the chalazal pole. In Arabidopsis, they usually degenerate after the fusion of the two polar nuclei (Webb andGunning 1988, 1990;Murgia et al. 1993;Schneitz et al. 1995;Christensen et al. 1997). In contrast, the antipodals of the Poaceae are the only cells of the megagametophyte that proliferate after cellularization. In maize, they form a cluster of up to 40 cells that are often cytoplasmically connected (coenocytic) to some degree (Kiesselbach 1949;Diboll and Larson 1966;Vollbrecht and Hake 1995). In rice, 10 to 15 antipodals, which appear to have a highly active metabolism, are present in mature embryo sacs (Jones and Rost 1989). The ephemeral nature of the antipodals in Arabidopsis is intriguing and a clear function of these cells has not yet been established.3. Double fertilization. At fertilization, the pollen tube penetrates the receptive synergid and delivers the two sperms cells (Russell 1993). They migrate to the chalazal pole of the synergid to fuse with their targets, the egg and central cell. Prominent actin coronas at the presumptive site of fusion indicate a possible involvement of actin filaments for sperm cell migration and fusion (Russell 1993). Subsequently, fertilization of both the egg and central cell gives rise to the diploid zygote and the triploid primary endosperm nucleus, respectively. The site of gametic fusion is characterized by poorly developed cell walls, such that the cell membrane of the synergid is in direct contact with the membrane of the egg and central cell. After fertilization, the cytoplasm in the zygote undergoes extensive reorganization Oensen 1968;Olson and Cass 1981;Russell 1993). The zygote elongates but does not divide for some time. In contrast, the primary endosperm nucleus divides syncytially a few times before the first asymmetric division of the embryo occurs (Randolph 1936;Kiesselbach 1949;Jones and Rost 1989;Mansfield and Briarty 1990a;Sheridan and Clark 1994;Schneitz et al. 1995;Berger 1999). The development of the endopserm is initially syncytial. The nuclei then migrate to characteristic positions at the periphery of the embryo sac and finally cellularize in a distinct developmental pattern (McClintock 1978;Marsden and Meinke 1985;Mansfield and Briarty 1990a,b;Walbot 1994;Berger 1999;Olsen et al. 1999). Successful seed development requires the coordinate morphogenesis of embryo, endosperm, and the integumental cell layers that form the seed coat (Rutishauser 1969).During apomictic reproduction, the sexual pathway described above is short-circuited. A subseq~ent developmental event is initiated before the previous one is completed. This developmental heterochronicity is a hallmark of apomictic reproduction and various models have been developed to account for the developmental displacement of events during megasporogenesis, megagametogenesis, and fertilization (e.g., Mogie 1992;Peacock 1993;Koltunow 1993;Carman 1997;Carman, Chap. 7). The developmental processes leading to apomictic reproduction are diverse and have been described in detail elsewhere (Nogler 1984a;Asker and Jerling 1992;Koltunow 1993; From Suoolily to Ap.....i1: MoIet.lar ..dGtto.,k Appr-N' 175 Naumova 1993;Crane, Chap. 3). An ultrastructural characterization of apomictic development is discussed by ). Here, I will briefly describe the main developmental features of apomixis in order to facilitate a comparison with the sexual pathway.Two fundamentally different classes of apomictic development can be distinguished (Gustafsson 1947;Nogler 1984a;Koltunow 1993) (Figure 12.2). In sporophytic apomixis, an embryo forms directly from a nucellar or integumentary cell in the ovule (adventive embryony). Although adventive embryos are not derived from gametophytic cells, their development depends on the presence of a megagametophyte, because they usually rely on sexually derived nutritive endosperm tissue. Sporophytic apomixis will not be considered further in this chapter because an engineered switch between sexuality and gameotphytic apomixis appears more attractive for breeding purposes. However, it should be kept in mind that in sporophytic apomixis only embryo initiation is affected and, thus, it may be easier to tackle sporophytic apomixis at the molecular level.In gametophytic apomicts, the embryo results from the parthenogenetic development of an egg cell produced by an unreduced embryo sac. The unreduced gametophyte can originate either directly from nucellar cells (apospory) or from a megaspore mother cell that has undergone no or an aberrant meiosis resulting in the formation of one (mitotic diplospory) or two unreduced megaspores (meiotic diplospory). Aposporous embryo sacs form mitotically from nucellar cells that develop during or after megasporocyte differentiation and are similar in appearance to the megaspore mother cell. Often several aposporic embryo sacs are present in a single ovule in addition to the sexually derived one. In diplosporous development, a variety of cytologically distinct processes lead to a failure in meiosis; the megasporocyte switches from a meiotic to an Unreduced cells are in rectangular boxes, reduced cel~ are in oval boxes and key events are in dark~ shaded boxes. In sexual plants, the megaspore mother cell undergoes meiosis and one of the reduced megaspores forms the embryo soc. Embryo and endosperm are formed by double fertilizotion. In gamelophylic apomixis, reduction is avoided and embryo soc development initiated from on unreduced diplospore or on aposporic initial cell. The embryo develops parthenogenetically from the unreduced egg while the endosperm forms eilher aUlonomous~ or through fertilization of the central cell (pseudogamy). In sporophytic apomixis, the embryo forms directly from on unreduced nucellor initioIcell. The opomictic embryo relies on sexually produced endosperm. apomictic pathway with the net result of prod ucing an umed uced functional megaspore (see Crane,Chap. 3).Unlike in sexual development, the megaspore mother cell of diplosporous spe;:ies is not surrounded by callose. In apospoTOUS species, callose deposition around the sexual megaspoTOcyte can be abnormal (Crane and Carman 1987;Carman et al. 1991;Leblanc et al. 1993;Naumova et al. 1993;Naumova and Willemse 1995;Peel et al. 1997). As is typical for the functional megaspore in sexual~, aposporic initials, which will form apomictic embryo sacs, are devoid of callose (Naumova and Willemse 1995). The marked difference of callose deposition between sexual and diplospoTOus species is intriguing, but most likely is not causal, instead being the consequence of a more fundamental lesion (Crane and Carman 1987;Carman et al. 1991;Carman, Chap. 7).The unreduced megaspore of diplosporous apomicts divides mitotically to give rise to a mature embryo sac. Usually, only one megaspore of the dyad initiates embryo sac development and the other degenerates, but bisporic development, in which two unreduced nuclei are present in the same spore, also occurs (Ixeris-type). In some apomicts, the developing megagametophyte undergoes only two mitoses to form a 4-nucleated embryo sac where no antipodals form (Panicum-type) (Gustafsson 1947;Nogler 1984a, b;Crane, Chap. 3). For instance, sexual megagametophytes in Pennisetum ciliare are of the typical seven-celled Polygonum•type, whereas aposporic embryo sacs carry only four nuclei and typically form one egg cell, two synergids and one polar nucleus (or a variation thereof) but no antipodals (Taliaferro and Bashaw 1966;Vielle et al. 1995). The egg cell of an apomictic embryo sac initiates embryogenesis autonomously in the absence of fertilization. In Pennisetum, the aposporic egg cell is completely covered by a cell wall (Vielle et al. 1995) whose presence may prevent the fusion of the apomictic egg with a sperm cell (Asker and Jerling 1992;Savidan 1992). Some apomictic species are truly autonomous and do not require fertilization at all; both embryo and endosperm develop autonomously. In contrast, seed development in most apomicts depends on the fertilization of the central cell to produce the nutritive endosperm, which is required for successful seed production (pseudogamy) (Nygren 1967;Asker 1979Asker ,1980;;Nogler 1984a;Richards 1986;Bashaw and Hanna 1990;Asker and Jerling 1992). Unlike in sexual species, the apomictic egg cell often initiates embryogenesis before the first endosperm division occurs.Sexual and apomictic reproduction are developmentally and evolutionarily related. Apomixis can be viewed as a developmental variation of the sexual pathway. Apomictic and sexual modes of reproduction are not mutually exclusive. Whereas obligate apomicts produce exclusively clonal progeny, both forms of reproduction coexist in facultative apomicts (Asker 1980;Richards 1986;Bashaw and Hanna 1990). They form both reduced egg cells that are fertilized to produce genetically diverse progeny as well as apomictic embryo sacs that give rise to clonal offspring. Apomictic and sexual embryo sacs occur in the same plant or even within the same ovule (Asker 1980;Nogler 1984a;Vielle et al. 1995). Facultative apomicts, benefiting from the advantages of both modes of reproduction, may have an evolutionary advantage and are more common than obligate apomicts (Nogler 1984a;Richards 1986;Asker and Jerling 1992). The degree of sexuality versus apomixis in facultative apomicts is influenced by a variety of environmental factors, the effects of which on the reproductive system are not well understood (e.g., Knox and Heslop-Harrison 1963;Knox 1%7;Frost and Soost 1%8;Cox and Ford 1987;Hussey et al. 1991).The developmental regulation of sexual reproduction appears to be preserved during apomixis. Although an apomictic gametophyte or embryo has a distinct developmental origin, the sexual developmental program is largely conserved: megagametophyte development, embryogenesis, and the development of the endosperm and seed coat are identical in sexual and apomictic genotypes. At the level of gene expression, very few differences can be detected between obligate apomictic and sexual genotypes of Pennisetum ciliare (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1996). In apomixis, the sexual pathway is altered at the transitions between the two phases of the plant life cycle, meiosis and double fertilization (Figure 12.2): (i) meiosis is aberrant or absent leading to the production of an unreduced cell acting as the functional megaspore; (ii) the egg cell initiates embryogenesis parthenogenetically or embryos form directly from a sporophytic initial (adventive embryony); and (iii) the endosperm develops either autonomously or, in pseudogamous species, fertilization of the central cell is required for endosperm formation and successful seed development. In pseudogamous species, special adaptations may be required for successful endosperm formation. Thus, apomixis can be viewed as a short-circuited sexual pathway (Koltunow 1993;Vielle-Calzada et al. 1996;Grossniklaus et al. 1998a) in which part of the sexual developmental program is initiated at the wrong time or in the wrong cell. Thus, apomixis is characterized by a relaxation of the spatial and temporal constraints on the reproductive developmental process. It is likely that apomictic reproduction results from the heterochronic or heterotopic expression of regulatory factors that control megasporogenesis, as well as egg and cen tral cell activation in sexual species (Mogie 1992;Peacock 1992;Koltunow 1993;Grossniklaus et al. 1998a).Whereas nonreduction and parthenogenetic embryogenesiS as two of the key components of apomixis have been discussed extensively, endosperm formation has attracted less attention. In pseudogamous apospecies, mechanisms preventing the fertilization of the egg cell but allowing fusion of sperm and central cells may rely on the formation of a complete egg cell wall prior to sperm arrival (Savidan 1992;Vielle et al. 1995). However, specific adaptations to maintain the endosperm balance number Oohnston and Hanneman 1982; Ehlenfeldt and Ortiz 1995) may be required to ensure normal seed development. In maize, endosperm formation is strictly dependent on the presence of matemal and patemal genomes in a ratio of 2m:1 p, due to differential imprinting of the parental genomes (Lin 1984; Kermicle and Alleman 1990). This requirement is likely to exist in many plant species, but may be relaxed or absent in some (Haig and Westoby 1991;Messing and Grossniklaus 1999). Since apomictic species produce normal pollen, the fertilization of an unreduced central cell with a single reduced sperm cell would violate the endopserm balance number and lead to seed abortion. Endosperm forma tion is an important process that must be considered for the tra~sfer of apomixis into sexual species (Grossniklaus et al. 1998a;Spillane et al. 2000;Savidan, 2000;Grossniklaus et al. 2001;Grimanelli et al., Chap. 6).A developmental analysis of apomictic events clearly indicates that several developmental processes occur simultaneously or asynchronously. Meiosis and embryo-sac formation may occur at the same time: the apomictic initial initiates embryo-sac development withou t entering meiosis or after premature meiotic abortion and nuclear restitution (Crane,Chap. 3). Likewise, parthenogenetic embryogenesis is usually initiated prior to anthesis and often before fertilization of the central cell in pseudogamous species. Thus, it appears as if specific developmental events are initiated prior to completion of the previous ones. Heterochronic development is a hallmark of apomixis, with which specific developmental events are replaced asynchronously or coexist and compete with events occurring in normal sequence.In addition to a change in the temporal order of developmental processes there is also a relaxed constraint on cell fate decisions. Whereas in sexual species a single nucellar cel1 is usually committed to the meiotic pathway, several nucellar cells in apomictic species have the potential to form unreduced gametophytes. The regulation of individual developmental events appears to be conserved between apomictic and sexual pathways. Therefore, it is likely that key regulatory genes playing essential roles in sexual development are misregulated in either space and/or time leading to the developmental alterations observed in apomicts. Precocious initiation of mega gametogenesis and the premature activation of the egg cell could be caused by misexpressed regulatory genes that perform the same functions during sexual reproduction. Thus, the gene(s) control1ing apomixis does not necessarily encode altered gene products, but rather could be under relaxed or aberrant temporal and/or spatial control.Several models accounting for the precocious induction of developmental events and the interrelationship with the sexual pathway have been proposed (Peacock 1993;Koltunow 1993). Developmental checkpoints similar to the ones proposed to control proper progression through the cell cycle (Hartwell and Weinert 1989;Murray 1992) may ensure a strict sequential order of developmental steps during sexual reproduction. In apomicts, developmental checkpOints and feedback mechanisms may be ignored or altered, leading to the initiation of a developmental event before the completion of an earlier one (Koltunow 1993).Alternatively, rather than misexpression of regulatory genes in the nucellus, more general changes in the cellular machinery could cause apomixis. For instance, an increase in the duration of the cell cycle may allow genes to be expressed at an earlier time in development than usual. Such a situation has been observed for genes with large introns in Drosophila. The genes knirps (kni) and knirps-related (knrl) encode highly similar proteins, but knrl contains a large 19 kb intron (Nauber et al. 1988;Oro et al. 1988;Rothe et al. 1989). Thus, knrl is only functional at nuclear division cycle 13 during cleavage, when the cell cycle has become long enough to allow RNApolymerase to transcribe the entire knrl transcription unit before the initiation of Mphase (Rothe et al. 1992). In contrast, kni is expressed already at nuclear division cycle 9. An intron-Iess knrl gene can fully rescue the kni embryo lethal phenotype (Rothe et al. 1992). Two mutants have been isolated that allow for the functional substitution of kni by knrl. Both act by lengthening the cell cycle and, thus, al'1ow knrl to be transcribed at an earlier stage of development than usual (Ruden and Jackie 1995). A similar situation may be encountered in apomictic species, with duplicated genes being activated heterochronically. The duplicated genes may be paralogs present in the same genome or orthologs from two genomes brought together through hybridization. The models discussed above do not take into account the tight association of apomixis with polyploidy, although they are certainly compatible with it. Several models that consider the relationship between polyploidy and apomixis have been put forward (Nogler 1982;Mogie 1992;Noirot 1993;Carman 1997;Grimanelli et al., Chap. 6). For instance, an al teration of cell cycle length as hypothesized above may be caused by polyploidization or wide hybridization. In many species with isolates of several ploidy levels, diploids are usually sexual and polyploids apomictic (Asker and Jerling 1992;Leblanc et al. 1995). Autoploidization of sexual diploids has resu Ited in apomictic tetraploid plants in some species (Burton 1992). It is attractive to speculate that the cell cycle length is altered in response to changes in ploidy. However, no experimental data is available to support this hypothesis since essentially nothing is known about the regulation of the cell cycle during reproductive development in plants. The association of polyploidy with apomixis may, however, be a secondary effect caused by deleterious mutations that accumulated in the genome of apomicts. This is supported by the recent isolation of diploid apomicts in Hierncium and Allium (Bicknell 1997;Kojima and Nagato 1997). These and earlier findings suggest that polyploidy is not an absolute requirement for apomixis (Savidan 1980;Nogler 1982;Hashemi et al. 1989).An attractive hypothesis, which takes both developmental and genomic peculiarities into account, has recently been proposed by Carman (1997;Chap. 7) based on earlier models put forward by Ernst (1918). In short, the duplicate-gene asynchrony hypothesis states that duplicate sets of genes regulating reproductive development exist in polyploids. Polyploidy originally arose through hybridiza tion, such that the regulatory control of development originating from the two genomes may not be in synchrony. The resulting intergenomic regulatory conflict may then lead to the developmental aberrations From Su.oIily ' 0 Apomixis: MoJ...lar .nd Gen.t. Appr••d,•• 179 observed in apomicts and other reproductive anomalies. An important aspect of this theory is that apomixis results from the conflicting action of genes that usually playa regulatory role during sexual development, i.e., the same wild-type genes (not mutant forms) control both sexuality and apomixis. This reinforces the need for a better understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of sexual reproduction for the engineering of apomixis in sexual crops.Another consideration that could influence research strategies was raised by Jefferson and Bicknell (1996). At present, there is no evidence to indicate that apomixis is controlled by a trans-acting gene product rather than by a cisacting element. One can envision an alteration of a cis-acting element, for instance a binding site for a trans-acting factor (e.g., for a transcription factor or chromatin component), with altered affinity or copy number that could cause apomixis by changing the concentration of the trans-acting factor in the cell. For example, the factor could be titrated out by an increase in the copy number of its binding sites, which in turn would result in precocious or inappropriate development of the embryo sac. Thus, a dominant locus could readily be explained. The recent observation that large genomic regions that are associated with the inheritance of apomixis are not present in sexual relatives (Ozias-Akins et al. 1998;Roche et al. 1999) is consistent with such a mechanism.To date, no fully apomictic mutants have been recovered in sexual species, however, several mutants and spontaneously occurring variations of sexual reproduction display individual components of apomixis. These include the production of unreduced spores (Rhoades and Dempsey 1966;Franke 1975;Harlan and de Wet 1975;Jongedijk 1985;Kaul and Murthy 1985), the formation of parthenogenetic haploids (Kimber and Riley 1963;Turcotte and Feaster 1963;Sarkar and Coe 1966;Chase 1969;Hagberg and Hagberg 1980), and the autonomous activation of endosperm development (Ohad et al. 1996;Chaudhury et al. 1997;Grossniklaus and Vielle-Calzada 1998; D. Page, R. Pruitt, S. Lolle and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). The versatility found in sexually reproducing plants suggests that sexual and apomictic modes of reproduction share many genetic regulatory components. The engineering of apomixis will require a better understanding of the regulatory control of female reproductive development in sexual plants at the molecular and genetic level. What determines the commitment of a cell to a particular developmental pathway such as meiosis or megagametophyte development? What are the events leading to egg cell activation and the initiation of embryogenesis? How are these processes connected to the control of the cell cycle? Answers to these and related questions will constitute an important step for our understanding of the reproductive system and its manipulation. Genetic analysis of female reproduction has mainly focused on the characterization of female sterile mutants that disrupt morphogenesis of the sporophytic tissues of the ovule (Robinson-Beers et al. 1992;Lang et al. 1994;Leon-Klosterziel et al. 1994;Modrusan et al. 1994;Ray et al. 1994;Gaiser et al. 1995;Reiser et al. 1995;Klucher et al. 1996;Eliottet al. 1996;Villanueva et al. 1999;Schiefthaler et al. 1999;Yang et al. 1999). Whereas these studies have led to the formulation of genetic models for ovule development (Angenent and Colombo 1996;Schneitz et al. 1997;Baker et al. 1997;Grossniklaus and Schneitz 1998;Gasser et al. 1998;Schnei tz 1999), the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms controlling megasporogenesis, megagametogenesis, and fertilization are almost completely unknown. This section reviews some of the genetic components involved in female gametogenesis, with a particular emphasis on mutants that are relevant to apomixis research.Megasporogenesis is a complex process characterized by the determination of the megaspore mother cell, meiosis, and the selection and differentiation of the functional megaspore. Gametophytic apomixis involves the production of an unreduced gamete and its parthenogenetic development either with or without fertilization of the associated central cell to produce the endosperm. Thus, an important developmental decision is whether the megaspore mother cell or its apomictic counterpart undergoes a reductional division.To better understand the nature of the \"decision\" to undergo meiosis, it is helpful to consider two aspects. The first is the positional aspect of how a nuceJlar cell is selected to commit to the meiotic pathway. The second pertains to what steps in the meiotic pathway are essential to its irreversible commitment for further development into a functional megaspore and eventually an embryo sac. The first issue is muque to seed plants, and has little in common with organisms with dedicated germ lines, or those in unicellular models, such as yeast. The second point, which may be causally linked to the first, can be rephrased in the terminology of the cell cycle: Are there developmental checkpoints during megasporogenesis that can be simulated or bypassed to induce an unreduced cell to initiate megagametogenesis? InSights into the early steps of megagametogenesis can be gained from an analysis of mutants affecting megaspore mother cell differentiation and meiosis. Despite the isolation of a large number of female sterile mutants in maize and Arabidopsis, relatively little is known about the genetic control of megasporogenesis. Recently, the isolation of 270 Arabidopsis mutants with defective spore development (megasporogenesis-defective, msd) was reported (Schneitz et al. 1997). Mutants of the msd class do not produce a megagametophyte, however, sporophytic ovule development proceeds normally. The developmental defects during megasporogenesis have not been characterized in detail. All of these mutants also affect microsporogenesis and, therefore, are male and female sterile. They may affect meiosis per se rather than female specific processes.Usually, only a single archesporia I cell, and consequently a single megasporocyte, differentiates in an ovule. However, the occurrence of multiple megaspore mother cells in some species (Eames 1961;Walters 1985;Sumner and van Caseele 1998) and of two megasporocytes in abou t 5% of the wild type Arabidopsis ovules suggest that several nucellar cells have the potential to enter the meiotic pathway. Once a cell is committed, it appears to inhibit neighboring cells from doing the same (Grossniklaus and Schneitz 1998). This view is supported by a recently identified mutant in maize. Plants homozygous for multiple archegonial cellsl (mac1) contain between three and 21 megasporocytes in a Single ovule (Sheridan et al. 1996). Thus, mad is only likely to be involved in megaspore mot~~r cell determination. The phenotype shows certain similarities to apospory, in which multiple aposporic initials form around the sexual megaspore mother cell. However, unlike in apomicts where microsporogenesis is usually unaffected, mad mutants also show abnormal male sporogenesis (Sheridan et al. 1999).The genetic regulation of meiosis has been extenSively studied in maize and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Golubovskaya 1979;Golubovskaya et al. 1992;Mitchell 1994;F.... S....lity to \"\"'Iis: Maleu. oat! Geoetk \",....., 181 Roeder 1995). In yeast, a large body of knowledge on the molecular mechanisms controlling meiosis has been amassed. Many yeast mutants that regulate the entry into meiosis and differentiate between meiotic and mitotic division have been isolated. These mutants share some characteristics with apospory or diplospory of the Antennaria type (Koltunow 1993), and their plant homologs could be instrumental in the engineering of apomixis.Many genes that play roles in yeast meiosis have been characterized, generally by identifying mutants with specific meiotic defects and studying the level of transcripts of the corresponding genes during meiosis (Mitchell and Bowdish 1992;Mitchell 1994). These meiotic genes act at different stages of meiosis. Genes acting early in the pathway and regulating the decision between mitotic and meiotic divisions are of particular interest. Among the products of early meiotic genes, the meiotic activator IMEl is a master control gene required for the expression of the genes acting in the early phase of meiosis (Kassir et al. 1988;Smith and Mitchell 1989;Mitchell et al. 1990;Kawaguchi et al. 1992). To be functional, IMEl has to become phosphorylated by RIMll (Bowdish et al. 1994). Upon phosphorylation, the early meiotic genes are activated and a starved diploid cell undergoes meiosis to produce four haploid spores. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the Mei3 gene is induced by nutrient deprivation. Mei3 inhibits the protein kinase Pat1, that then triggers the entry into meiosis (reviewed by Yamamoto 1996). The Patl kinase, in tum, represses the Mei2 protein, which is an essential positive factor for entry into meiosis. Thus, regulatory networks involving phosphorylation and dephosphorylation events responding to environmental signals playa crucial role.in the commitment to the meiotic pathway.Meiosis is an almost universal feature of eukaryotic organisms, suggesting that the key regu Ia tory even ts are conserved a t the molecular level. A search for homologs of the meiotic genes in yeast could prove particularly useful for the engineering of apomixis. Indeed, a putative RIMl1 homolog from rice has recently been isolated by polymerase chain reaction (peR) Gefferson and Nugroho 1998). The deduced amino acid sequence is 68% similar and 50% identical to yeast RIMl1, with conserved protein kinase subdomains. Experiments to investigate expression and function of RIMll in rice are ongoing and will reveal whether this gene plays the same regulatory function in plants and yeast (S. Nugroho and R. Jefferson, personal comm.). However, there are a very large number of kinases that are similar to RIMll in the Arabidopsis genome, indicating that the identification of the ortholog will require a detailed analysis and functional tests. Similarly, several groups aimed at the isolation of Mei2 homologs (Hirayama et al.  1997; 1. Siddiqi, personal comm.; B. Tinland,  personal comm.), but the presence of eight homologous genes in the Arabidopsis genome complicates the identification of the functional homolog. Despite the conservation of some meiotic genes between yeast and plants at the sequence level, it should be remE:mbered that the molecular aspects of the control of meiosis are not conserved between S. cerevisiae and S. pombe and that the regulatory mechanisms in plants could be completely different.In maize, mutants that influence the \"decision\" between meiosis and mitosis have also been identified, but their molecular nature is unknown. In plants homozygous for the ameiotic 1 (aml) gene, meiosis does not occur and is replaced by a mitotic division (Palmer 1971). The aml gene appears to control the switch from the mitotic to the meiotic cell cycle and is important for the initiation of meiotic prophase I (Golubovskaya et aI.1992). In plants homozygous for certain aml alleles, the megasporocyte does not divide at all, whereas in others meiosis is replaced by one or several mitotic division cycles (Golubovskaya et al. 1993(Golubovskaya et al. , 1997)). In absence of first division (afd) mutants, the first meiotic division IS replaced by a mitosis (Golubovskaya 1979). This reversion to mitosis of a cell already committed to meiosis shows similarity to apomixis characterized by a restitution nucleus at meiosis I (Taraxacumand Ixeris-type).Several mutants in plants and yeast produce two unreduced spores reminiscent of diplospory. The yeast mutant spo12 (Klapholz and Esposito 1980), the elongatel (ell) mutant of maize (Rhoades 1956;Rhoades and Dempsey 1966) and triploid inducer (tri) in barley (Ahokas 1977;Finch and Bennett 1979) affect the second meiotic division. Thus, they produce genetically diverse progeny. Whereas ell affects both sexes, tri is specific to the female and regular reduced pollen is produced leading to the formation of triploid embryos upon self-fertilization. In Arabidopsis, the dyad mutant produces a dyad of megaspores rather than a tetrad (Siddiqi et al. 2000). Based on microscopical analysis of chromosome segregation and the expression of meiosisspecific markers, the first meiotic division seems to occur normally in dyad mutants but then m~;osisarrests (Sidd iqi et al. 2000). To my knowledge, dyad is the first Arabidopsis mutant affecting sporogenesis in a sex-specific manner. Unlike in ell and tri where unreduced viable megagametophytes are produced, dyad mutants are fully female sterile. Although the megaspores of the dyad sometimes undergo additional divisions, no functional embryo sacs are formed (Siddiqi et al. 2000). Based on its genetic mapping position, dyad may be identical to the female-specific switchl (swil) gene whose megaspore mother cell undergoes mitotic divisions similar to the phenotype described for aml in maize (Motamayor et al. 2000). The difference in phenotype may be due to allelic variation as was observed for aml, in which different alleles have quite distinct phenotypes, or to genetic background effects.In the yeast mutant spo13, meiosis I is omitted and a dyad of unreduced spores is formed by an equatorial division (I<:lapholz and Esposito 1980) in a process closely resembling the Taraxacum-type of diplospory (Koltunow 1993). To date, no homologs of spo13 have been reported in other species, and we could not detect cross-hybridizing DNA in Arabidopsis or the closely related budding yeast Kluveromyces lactis by low stringent hybridization (H. Sims and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Indeed, no sequence with Significant homology is present in the Arabidopsis genome. Other approaches such a functional complementation with eDNA expression libraries (Minet et al. 1992;Hirayama et al. 1997) may be successful for isolating plant homologs of yeast meiotic mutants. It is important to stress that although meiosis in spo13 mutants closely resembles an apomictic process, recombination still occurs. Therefore, the progeny are genetically diverse if the parental diploids show a certain degree of heterozygosity. Only a combination of spo13 with a recombinationless mutant would produce clonal offspring. Mutants that reduce the frequency of recombination have been extensively studied in yeast (e.g., Malone et al. 1991), and homologs of DMCl have recently been isolated from Lilium longiflorum (Kobayashi et al. 1993(Kobayashi et al. , 1994))) and Arabidopsis (Sato et al. 1995;Klimyuk and Jones 1997;Doutriaux et al. 1998). Mutants in the Arabidopsis AtDMCl gene affect male and female meiosis, and the presence of 10 univalents in dmc1 meiocytes suggests that DMCl is required for bivalent formation and/ or stabilization and, thus, indirectly for recombination (Couteau et al. 1999). Transmission studies of chromosomal deletions (Patterson 1978;Coe et al. 1988;Buckner and Reeves 1994;Vizir et al. 1994) and deficiency analysis in maize (Vollbrecht and Hake 1995) suggest that a large number of loci essential for embryo-sac development are dispersed throughout the genome. Nevertheless, gametophytic mutants have rarely been isolated and little is known about the genetic control of morphogenesis and differentiation in the megagametophyte. Such mutants are of great relevance to apomixis research because the genes that lead to heterochronic initiation of megagametogenesis and embryogenesis in apomicts are likely to act in the megagametophyte of sexual plants.Mutants affeCting the megagametophyte are characterized by semisterility and non-Mendelian segregation, phenotypes that allow the efficient isolation of mutants affecting the gametophytic phase of the life cycle by insertional mutagenesis (Feldmann et aI. 1997;Moore et al. 1997;Bonhomme et al. 1998;Christensen et al. 1998;Howden et al. 1998;Grini et al. 1999). During the last few years, we have used a transposon-based mutagenesis system (Sundaresan ~t al. 1995) to identify mutants that affect megagametogenesis. Nearly 60 mutants have been identified, 15 of which have been characterized at the genetic and cytological level. They affect the various developmental steps of female gametogenesis: initiation of megagametophyte development, free nuclear divisions cycles, nuclear migration and differentiation, cellularization, and double fertilization a. Moore and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished results). A characterization of these and other mutants currently being isolated in several laboratories will shed light on the molecular mechanisms controlling the initiation of megagametogenesis, the specification of the gametophytic cell types, and their specific functions for fertilization and seed development.To date, the phenotypes of about a dozen megagametophytic Arabidopsis mutants have been described in the literature (reviewed in Drews et al. 1998;Grossniklaus and Schneitz 1998;Yang and Sundaresan 2000). In Gametophytic factor (Gf) (Redei 1965;Christensen et al. 1997), andarta (Howden et al. 1998), tistrya (Howden et al. 1998),female gametophyte2 ifem2) and fem3, gametophyte factor4 (gfa4) and gJa5 (Christensen et al. 1998), the functional megaspore does not initiate megagametogenesis. In prolifera (pr/) (Springer et at. 1995), cdc16 (Yang and Sundaresan 2000), and hadad (hdd) (Moore et al. 1997), the syncytial mitotic divisions are affected and embryo sacs show an early developmental arrest. PRL as a member of the MCM2-3-5 family and a putative component of DNA Replication Licensing Factor, is an essential gene required in all dividing cells (Springer et al. 1995). CDC16 is another gene required for the normal operation of the cell cycle machinery. In gfa2, gfa3, and gJa7 mutant embryo sacs, the two polar nuclei do not fuse, a phenotype also observed in some of our mutants 0. Moore and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished results).In maize, megagametophytes carrying indeterminate gametophyte (ig) or the r-X1 deficiency undergo abnormal mitotic divisions and are transmitted through the female gametophyte at a reduced frequency (Kermicle 1971';Lin 1978Lin , 1981;;Weber 1983;Huang and Sheridan 1996). We identified an Arabidopsis mutant, haumea (hma), sharing some of these aspects with ig, namely additional division cycles during megagametogenesis G. Moore and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Embryo sacs mutant for lethnl ovule (/01 and 102) do not produce viable seeds (Singleton and Mangelsdorf 1940;Nelson and Clary 1952). The 102 embryo sacs show a defect in nuclear division and migration, and arrest predominantly at the 1-and 2-nucleate stages, although some 102 megagametophytes undergo all three division cycles (Vollbrecht 1994;Sheridan and Huang 1997).In hdd embryo sacs, nuclear divisions at the micropylar and chalaza] pole are asynchronous, and some of the mutant megagametophytes cellularize prematurely. Thus, nuclear division and cellularization are regulated independently. However, these cells do not differentiate into a particular gametophytic cell type, suggesting that cell specification may depend on the correct spatial context and lor the presence of neighboring cells. Prema ture cell ulariza tion and asynchronous divisions at the poles have also been observed in segmental deletions in maize (Vollbrecht and Hake 1995), suggesting that several loci, including hdd, are involved in the spatial and temporal coordination of cellularization, nuclear division, and migration. Whereas these processes are normally tightly coordinated, they are uncoupled of each other in hdd mutant embryo sacs, indicating that several independent developmental programs control the different processes during embryo-sac development. They are usually highly coordinated, possibly by checkpoint mechanisms and regulatory feedback loops. Developmental aberrations may relax this coordinated control, and the various developmental programs can occur independently of their normal context.Fertilization and egg activation have been studied extenSively in animal systems at the physiological, cellular, and molecular level (reviewed in Nucitelli 1991; Whitacker and Swann 1993;Jaffe 1996). Numerous studies have shown that the adhesion of the sperm to the egg cell triggers a transient rise in free calcium ions and initiates a cascade of downstream events after fertilization Gaffe 1991Gaffe ,1996;;Whitacker and Swann 1993;Homa et al. 1993). The release of calcium ions is absolutely essential for egg activation. Case in point: the introduction of calcium into the egg is sufficient to induce parthenogenetic activation of sea urchin and mammalian eggs (Steinhardt and Eppe11974;Urangaetal. 1996). Recently, in vitro injection experiments with mouse oocytes have shown that a truncated cki t receptor tyrosine kinase leads to parthenogenetic egg activation that requires both calcium and phospholipase C activity (Sette et al. 1997).In plants, our understanding of the events following fertilization is very limited. Experimentation with angiosperm gametes has been difficul t beca use of their inaccessibility and the complex milieu within the megagametophyte where double fertilization occurs (Russell 1993;Dumas and Mogensen 1993). Specific fusion of isolated maize gametes has recently been achieved and offers great promise for the study of molecular and cellular events underlying fertilization and egg activation in vitro (Faure et al. 1994;Dumas and Faure 1995;Tirlapur et al. 1995;Kranz and Dresselhaus 1996;Rougier et al. 1996). One of the first visible changes after fertilization of an isolated maize egg cell is the formation of a cell wall (Kranz et al. 1995). In the brown algae Fucus, cell wall secretion depends on an increase in the cytosolic calcium concentration (Roberts et al. 1994;Roberts and Brownlee 1995;Belanger and Quatrano 2000). A transient rise of the cytosolic calcium concentration has recently been reported for the first time in angiosperms after in vitro fertilization of a maize egg cell (Digonnet et al. 1997;Antoine et al. 2000). These observations suggest that plant and animal egg activation may be similar, however, the role played by the release of calcium in the fertilized plant egg and what events it triggers are currently unknown.Parthenogenetic egg activation is a key component of apomixis and occurs in many plant species, both spontaneously (Kimber and  1963;Turcotte and Feaster 1963;Chase 1969) and after induction in isolated ovaries and ovules. Certain genetic backgrounds and mutants produce a high percentage of parthenogenetic haploids in their progeny. A better understanding of the genetic basis of parthenogenetic development will prove instrumental for the engineering of apomixis. In maize, parthenogenetic haploids are produced spontaneously at a frequency of about 0.1 % (Chase 1969), and as high as 3.2% in certain genetic backgrounds (Coe 1959;Sarkar and Coe 1966). In plants homozygous for ig, the frequency of maternal hapl.oids is increased fourfold to 0.6% as compared to isogenic lines homozygous for the wild type Ig allele (Kermicle 1969). Interestingly, ig also conditions the production of patroclinous (androgenetic) offspring at a frequency of more than 2% as compared to 0.001% (1/80,000) in wild type stocks (Chase 1963;Kermicle 1969Kermicle , 1994)). Thus, ig not only permits extra rounds of mitosis in the embryo sac (Lin 1978(Lin , 1981;;Huang and Sheridan 1996) but it also promotes the formation of embryos in the absence of karyogamy. Extremely high frequencies of haploid production are found in barley plants homozygous for haploid initiator (hap) and in the Salmon system of wheat. The hap mutation conditions the formation of 30% haploid embryos when homozygous (Hagberg and Hagberg 1980;Asker et al. 1983). The sperm is prevented from fertilizing the egg by an unknown mechanism whereas the central cell gets fertilized normally to produce the nutritive endosperm (Mogensen 1988).Salmon. wheat lines can produce up to 90% parthenogenetic haploids (Matzk 1995). Both cytoplasmic and nuclear determinants are involved in parthenogenetic activation: the presence of the wheat-rye translocation chromosome 1BL-1 RS in the Aegilops cytoplasm of caudata or kotschyi Salmon leads to haploid production, whereas either the translocation or the Aegilops cytoplasm alone 186 Uei Gr....lIa.. do not display parthenogenetic properties (Kobayashi and Tsunekami 1978;Tsunewaki and Mukai 1990;Matzk et al. 1995;Matzk 1996). The nuclear factors involved in the Salmon system have been defined genetically and shown to involve Pig, a gene that induces parthenogenesis, and a Spg, a supressor of parthenogenesis. Successful parthenogenesis depends on the presence of the Aegilops cytoplasm and Pig, and the absence of Spg. The Salmon system offers unique opportunities to study parthenogenesis at the molecular genetic level by comparing isogenic lines carrying either the Trilicum (sexual) or Aegilops cytoplasms (parthenogenetic); various approaches to studying the molecular basis of parthenogenetic activation have been initiated (Matzk et al. 1995;Matzk 1996;Matzk et al. 1997).Double fertilization involves two pairs of gametic cells. One sperm cell fuses with the egg to form the diploid zygote whereas the other fuses with the central cell to generate the usually triploid endosperm. The endosperm provides nutrients during seed development and synthesizes storage reserves required for post-germination development. Different modes of endosperm development have been described (Vijayraghavan and Prabhakar 1984), the most common of which is nuclear. The primary endosperm nucleus undergoes several division cycles without cytokinesis to form a large number of free nuclei, which then migrate to the periphery of the central cell and cellularize in a specific developmental pattern, usually from the periphery to the center. The nuclear type of development is typical of cereals such as maize and rice (Brink and Cooper 1947) and also for the model plant Ambidopsis (Mansfield andBriarty 1990a, 1990b). The interactions between embryo, endosperm, and maternal tissue are a complex and poorly understood aspect of seed development. There are many developmental patterns of endosperm development and the relative importance of the different components in the seed with regard to nutrient synthesis and acquisition varies accordingly. The origin, development, and function of the endosperm has recently been reviewed in detail (Lopes and Larkins 1993;Berger 1999;Olsen et al. 1999). In this section only aspects of endosperm development that are of direct relevance to apomixis research are discussed.1. Interrelationship of embryo and endosperm development. In apomictic species, normal development of the endosperm is required for the formation of viable seeds. Although recent studies suggest that the morphogenesis of the embryo is largely independent of endosperm development (Sheridan et at. 1995), endosperm forms in all apomictic species studied to date. This is not only true for gametophytic but also for sporophytic apomicts, in which adventive embryos depend on a sexually produced endosperm for their pre-and/or postgermination development (Asker and Jerling 1992). Endosperm formation is achieved either by allowing fertilization of the central cell (pseudogamy) or by autonomous division of the polar nuclei to form the endosperm tissue. It is likely that the formation of a complete cell wall around the egg cell prior to anthesis prevents the egg from being fertilized (e.g., Vielle-Calzada et al. 1995), but allows the fertilization of the central cell in pseudogamous apomicts. In addition to this spatial block there may also be important temporal controls. For instance, the fertilization of the central cell occurs after the parthenogenetic activation and autonomous divisions of the egg cell in many apomicts (Asker and JerJing 1992). This is in contrast to sexual species, in which the endosperm nucleus divides several times before the first zygotic division. In autonomous apomicts, the central cell develops parthenogenetically and the developmental program for endosperm development is activated in the absence of fertilization.It is possible that the same genetic control is responsible for autonomous endosperm and egg activation. This would be in agreement with the hypothesis that the endosperm is evolutionary and derived from a second embryo, as first proposed by Sargant (1900). This hypothesis is supported by morphological analyses of fertilization in nonflowering seed plants of the genera Ephedra and Gnetum (Friedman 1990(Friedman , 1992;;Carmichael and Friedman 1995). In addition, molecular and genetic investigations have shown that there is a large overlap in gene activity between the endosperm and embryo. For instance, among the 855 characterized defective kernel mutants in maize (representing about 285 loci), the vast majority affect both the embryo and endosperm and very few are potentially endosperm-specific (Neuffer and Sheridan 1980). Similar results were obtained in a study of defective kernel mutants in barley (Bosnes et al. 1987), suggesting that a very large percentage of seed-specific genes are expressed in both embryo and endosperm, despite their different development and physiology. In contrast to this extensive overlap in gene expression between embryo and endosperm, studies on several recently isolated Arabidopsis mutants that allow fertilization-independent endosperm formation but not embryogenesis suggest that endosperm activation may be controlled by different developmental programs (Ohad et al. 1996; Chaudhury et al.  1997; Grossniklaus and Vielle-ealzada 1998;  Luo et al. 1999; Kiyosue et al. 1999; D. Page, R.  Pruitt, S. Lolle, and U. Grossniklaus,  unpublished data).The importance of the endosperm for seed development varies among species depending on its developmental pattern. In some species of the Orchidaceae the endosperm undergoes only a few division cycles or does not divide at all. In many dicotyledonous species, including Arabidopsis, the endosperm forms but is essentially degraded by the time seed maturation is initiated. In contrast, the endosperm of cereals is persistent and of great economic value. Therefore, an engineered apomixis in grain crops will have to allow for normal development of the endosperm. In an ideal situation, endosperm formation in engineered apomictic crops could be induced autonomously. However, successful formation of endosperm in cereals depends on the specialized cytoplasm of the central cell and requires contributions from both maternal and paternal genomes. This may be because some genes are imprinted, that is their activity depends on their parental origin (Kermicle 1970;Kermicle and Alleman 1990;Messing and Grossniklaus 1999). Thus, engineered apomictic grain crops are likely to require the fertilization of the central cell. The vast majority of apomictic Gramineae are pseudogamous; possible autonomous apomixis has been observed in very few species, including Calamagrostis, Poa nervosa and Nardus stricta Oohri et al. 1992).2. Genomic imprinting. Imprinting in plants is usually regarded as specific to the endosperm (Kermicle and Alleman 1990;Walbot 1996;Alleman and Doctor 2000). Forma~ion of androgenetic and gynogenetic haploids in many species (Kimber and Riley 1963;Sarkar and Coe 1966;Kermicle 1969) and of asexually derived embryos in apomicts suggest that imprinting does not playa crucial role for embryogenesis in these species, although it may exist in •'Jhers. The development of embryos from somatic tissue (Zimmerman 1993;Mordhorst et al. 1997) and through anther culture (Zaki and Dickinson 1990) is taken as further evidence that imprinting is not involved in plant embryogenesis. However, the initial development of such embryos is distinctly different from sexually derived embryos and it is not clear whether the same developmental programs control embryogenesis in these different contexts. It is possible, for example, that imprinting requirements are suppressed under certain culture conditions. Furthermore, it is likely that the importance of imprinting for embryo and endosperm will differ among species depending on the respective roles of these tissues in the production and acquisition of nutrients (Messing and Grossniklaus 1999). For instance, the Arabidopsis gametophytic maternal effect mutation medea (mea) drastically affects cell proliferation in embryo and endosperm, resulting in seed abortion (Grossniklaus et al. 1998b). Genetic and expression studies suggest that MEA is regulated by genomic imprinting and expressed in both embryo and endosperm at early stages of seed development (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1999). At later stages, the imprint at the mea locus occasionally breaks down, but reports as to which tissues are affected differ (Kinoshita et al. 1999;Luo et al. 2000). That the genetic background has strong effects on the mea phenotype suggests that these differences may be ecotype dependent (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1999;Grossniklaus et al. 2001). Currently, however, it is not clear which fertilization product is primarily affected, but it is likely that MEA is required in both the embryo and endosperm. Genetic interactions of mea and similar mutants with mutants that affect DNA methylation and/or chromatin remodeling have been reported (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1999;Luo et al. 2000;Vinkenoog et al. 2000;Grossniklaus et al. 2001). We are currently using mea as a starting point to isolate additional genes involved in the genomic imprinting process through second-site modifier screens. Genomic imprinting has not been studied in many plant species, but it has been unequivocally demonstrated in the endosperm of maize at the genomic, chromosomal, and individual gene levels (Kermicle and Alleman 1990;Messing and Grossniklaus 1999). In maize, proper development of the endosperm is strictly dependent on the presence of maternal and paternal genomes in a ratio of 2m:1p (Lin 1982(Lin , 1984;;Birchler 1993). Any deviation from this ratio leads to a failure in endosperm formation and consequently to seed abortion. Interspecific and interploidy crosses suggest that this is likely to be true for other species including most agriculturally important grain crops (Nishiyama and Yabuno 1978;Johnston et al. 1980;Haig and Westoby 1991). In contrast, endosperm development in Arabidopsis does not require a 2m:1 p ratio because interploidy crosses involving diploid and tetraploid plants prod uce v iable seeds (Redei 1964;Grossniklaus et al. 1998b), but there are distinct parent-of-origin dependent effects on seed size in interploidy crosses (Scott et al. 1998).3. Imprinting barriers to the introduction of apomixis into sexual species. Imprinting phenomena may be behind the high degree of sterility observed in hybrids between sexual and apomictic genera, and so, should be given consideration in efforts to introduce apomixis into sexual species. In gametophytic apomixis the female reproductive cells are unreduced whereas microsporogenesis is unaffected and the male gametophytes are reduced. Thus, fertiliz~tionof the central cell generates a ratio of 4m:1p, which is expected to result in seed abortion. However, apomictic species do not show strongly reduced fertility, suggesting (i) that the constraints for imprinting are relaxed in apospecies or (ii) that the mechanisms of fertilization have been modified. Apomicts do indeed show a relaxed requirement for imprinting, which is supported by the finding that the ploidy level of the endosperm in apomictic species can be quite variable Oohri et al. 1992). A recent study by Grimanelli et al. (1997) clearly demonstrates that endosperm development in TripsaclIm is normal under a wide range of ratios of maternal to paternal genomes. Similarly, apomictic Paspaillm species are insensitive to an imbalanced genome ratio in the endosperm while the sexuals maintain this requirem~nt (Quarin 1999).Altered modes of fertilization that are expected to maintain the endopserm balance number have been reported in several cases. This can be achieved if either both sperm cells delivered by the pollen tube fuse with the central cell, or if only one of the two polar nuclei and a single sperm nucleus participate in karyogamy (Rutishauser 1954;Reddy and d'Cruz 1969;Nogler 1972Nogler , 1984a)). Alternatively, unreduced pollen could serve as the male parent (Chao 1980). As a very successful alternative to relaxed imprinting requirements, many apomictic grasses show apospory of the Panicum-type, where 4-nuclea ted embryo sacs are formed, which most often contain only one polar nucleus that fuses with a single sperm nucleus (e.g., Savidan 1980). Sexual individuals of these agamic complexes usually produce 8nucleated Polygonum-type embryo sacs with two reduced polar nuclei. Thus, fertilization of both sexually and apomictically derived central cells produces endosperms with balanced parental genomes (Reddy 1977).Apomictic species may be evolutionarily derived from predisposed genera that had relaxed imprinting requirements or, alternatively, evolved specific adaptations of the fertilization mechanism that maintained the imprinting requirements (see also Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6). Such predispositions and adaptations are not thought to exist in most sexual species and imprinting may pose a serious problem to the introduction of apomixis into sexual crop plants (Grossniklaus et al. 1998a;Spillane et al. 2000;Savidan 2000;Grossniklaus et at. 2001). Indeed, apomictic maize-Tripsawm and pearl millet-Pennisetllm hybrids show a high degree of seed from Sexuality t. Apomixis: MoIeatIor ..d Gtto.tk Ajlpr_lIe. 189 abortion (Grimanelli et al. 1995;Dujardin and Hanna 1989) tha t is likely to result from a genomic unbalance in the endosperm (Grossniklaus et al. 1998a;Morgan et al. 1998). Crosses with pollen donors of higher ploidy that maintained the endosperm balance number could possibly restore fertility. At present, our understanding of imprinting and its importance for seed development is very limited. A sustained effort toward a better understanding of the genetic and molecular basis governing imprinting is required to overcome the potential constraints to the engineering of apomictic crops.In previous sections, I discussed a number of genes that control sexual development that could serve as powerful tools for the engineering of apomixis. As an alternative, a screen for mutants that display apomictic traits in a sexual species could directly lead to the identification of key regulatory components (Peacock 1992). This approach has been taken in several laboratories using Arabidopsis as a model system. Although no apomictic species have been described in this genus, the close relative Arabis holboelli is apomictic (Asker and Jerling 1992). While direct experimentation with Arabis is difficult because of its poor genetic characterization and long generation time, its close relationship to Arabidopsis may be useful for comparative and wide hybridization approaches.Screens for Arabidopsis mutants that allow seed development in the absence of fertilization have been performed in several laboratories. These screens take advantage of male sterile mutants and aim to identify second site mutations that pseudo-suppress sterility. In Arabidopsis, unpollinated pistils do not elongate, so that pistil elongation is an easily scored phenotype correlated with seed development. Different male sterile mutants have been used, including pistillata (pi), a homeotic flower mutant that lacks stamen (Chaudhury and Peacock 1993;Koltunow et al. 1995;Chaudhury et al. 1997); the wax biosynthetic mutant eceriferum6 (cer6) (Dellaert 1979;Preuss et al. 1993;HUiskamp et al. 1995), a conditional male sterile that is fertile under high humidity (Ohad et al. 1996); and the temperature sensitive mutant TH154, isolated in R. Pruitt's laboratory, which is male sterile at 25°C but fully fertile at 18°C (D. Page, R. Pruitt, S. Lolle, and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished results). Silique elongation under the restrictive condition indicates an asexual mode of reproduction with full or partial seed development, or the development of a fruit without concomitant seed production (parthenocarpy).Using this type of screen with more than 15,000 M1 plants, we identified three classes of mutants (D. Page, R. Pruitt, S. Lolle, and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished results): (i) mutants suppressing the male sterility defect, which can easily be identified because they produce functional pollen (some of these will be true revertants of TH154); (ii) mutants displaying parthenocarpy; and (iii) mutants displaying apomictic traits with autonomous development of seed-like structures in the absence of pol1en production. The latter are rather rare and, to date, mutants in only three loci have been reported. These have been characterized in more detail at the genetic and morphological level. In the fertilizationindependent endosperm (fie), mutant endosperm develops autonomously to the free nuclear stage, the seed coat develops normally, but no embryo forms (Ohad et al. 1996). Likewise, fertilization-independent seed mutants (fisl, fis2, fis3) form autonomous endosperm, which was shown to be diploid and can progress to the cellular stage in fisl and fis2. The seed coat develops properly but no embryos form (Chaudhury et al. 1997). Structures that resemble an elongated zygote have been observed infisl andfis2 at a low frequency. In fieffis plants, the mutant allele is either very poorly transmitted or not transmitted at al1 through the female gametophyte and can only be recovered through the pol1en, because pol1inated seeds derived from a mutant megagametophyte abort (Ohad et al. 1996;Chaudhury et al. 1997). Thus,fie/fis mutants display a gametophytic maternal effect on seed development, which is similar to the phenotype observed for mea that also shows fertilization-independent endosperm development (Grossniklaus et al. 1998b; Grossniklaus and Vielle-Calzada 1998). Indeed,jisl and two other mutants were found to be allelic to mea (Kiyosue et al. 1999;Luo et al. 1999), as were fis3 and fie (Chaudhury et al. 1997;Ohad et al. 1999).MEA and FIE encode members of the Polycomb group, proteins thought to regulate gene expression by modulating higher order chromatin structure (Grossniklaus et al. 1998b; Ohad et al. 1999). FIS2 encodes a putative DNA binding protein with a Zn-finger domain (Luo et aI.1999). As with their animal counterparts, the MEA and FIE proteins interact directly in a protein complex (Luo et al. 2000;Spillane et al. 2000;Yadegari et al. 20(0). The function and regulation of MEA, FIE, and FIS2 have been extensively reviewed (Goodrich 1998;Ma 1999;Preuss 1999;Mora-Garcia and Goodrich 2000;Russinova and de Vries 2000;Grossniklaus et al. 2001) and will be summarized only very briefly. MEA was shown to be regulated by genomic imprinting, thus explaining its maternal effect on seed development (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1999;Kinoshita et al. 1999). While FIS2 also seems to be regulated by genomic imprinting (Luo et al. 2000), FIE appears to be expressed biparentally later during seed development (Luo et al. 2000;Yadegari et al. 2000). At earlier stages, a FIE::GUS fusion protein was not expressed from the paternal allele, as was observed for a large number of genes expressed early during seed development (Vielle-Calzada et al. 2000), but paternal FIE::GUS activity becomes detectable later on (Luo et al. 2000), suggesting that it is regulated in a manner different from MEA.Although the mea, fie, and fis2 mutants do not produce fertile asexual seeds, they show characteristics of autonomous reproduction. It is pOSSible that some of the yet uncharacterized mutants with fertilization-independent endosperm and maternal effect seed abortion will not only allow the autonomous e iosperm formation, but also full or partial L.nbryogenesis. Alternatively, the mea,fie, and fis2 mutants can be used as the starting material for second site modifier screens that could eventually lead to the identification of additional mutants that allow the formation of fertile seeds.Although the engineering of autonomous apomixis in which both embryo and endosperm develop without fertilization might be considered the ideal situation, it may be extremely difficult to achieve in cereals. As outlined earlier, autonomous apomixis is rare in nature and the imprinting requirements for successful endosperm development pose a serious barrier to the introduction of a.utonomous apomixis into sexual crops. Therefore, the engineering of apomixis in sexual species will have to target a pseudogamous mode of apomictic reproduction. A search for apomictic mutants in sexual model systems that allow fertilization of the central cell may be more appropriate than screens for fully autonomous apomicts. Arabidopsis, however, makes such screens labor intensive because they are based on outcrossing and scoring the progeny for exclusively maternal inheritance. In maize, similar screens are greatly facilitated by the natural outcrossing mode of reproduction, the availability of embryo-specific markers that can be scored on whole kernels, and the multitude of genetic tools available to the geneticist. Over the last few years, I have developed maize stocks to perform a genetic screen aimed at isolating mutants with characteristics of pseudogamous apomictic reprod uction.The screen is based on the Mutator transposon system, which is used as a potent mutagen and allows for easier cloning of newly isolated mutants (Chomet 1994). The genetic screen exploits the imprinting barrier for endosperm development and an easily scored embryo and endosperm marker. Lines that are homozygous for a recessive allele of the red color or r locus and have Mutator activity serve as female recipients. An allele of the r locus, which pigments both the crown of the kernel (aleurone layer of endosperm) and the embryo Figure 12.3,p. 197), is used as a dominant paternal marker. Screens aimed independently at nonreduction and parthenogenesis have been devised. Both rely on the R-nj paternal mark~r gene in tetraploid configuration. If a mutation causes nonreduction during meiosis, the resulting central cell carries four maternal genomes, and only endosperms. receiving two paternal genomes (from the tetraploid pollen donor) maintain the endopserm balance of 2m:1p (here 4m:2p) and develop normally. All seeds derived from a reduced female gametophyte will abort such that only kernels derived from a nonreduccd embryo sac will develop (or a seed, where the requirement for a balanced genome ratio in the endosperm has been abolished). Thus, the imprinting requirement provides a powerful selection system to identify mutants that lead to the formation of an embryo sac from an unreduced cell lineage. In addition, full-sized kernels can be scored for absence of the dominant paternal R-nj marker in the embryo, which indicates parthenogenetic development.Because obtaining a mutation that causes both nonreduction and parthenogenesis may be extremely difficult, a second screen aimed at the isolation of parthenogenetic mutants has been developed. It makes use of the el1 mutation, which, when homozygous, produces a large fraction of unreduced embryo sacs. In el1 homozygotes, independent assortment during meiosis I is not affected and the resulting gametes are not genetically identical (Roades and Dempsey 1966). Nevertheless, it provides a reliable source for unreduced female gametes. Lines homozygous for rl and el1 and displaying high Mutator activity have been constructed to serve as female recipients. Kernels derived from crosses with a tetraploid R-nj pollen donor can be scored for rejection of the R-nj marker, i.e., for the maternal phenotype, in order to identify embryos that developed without a paternal contribution. Such embryos will be diploid (through the action of ell), which greatly facilitates subsequent genetic characterization. These genetic screens aimed at the isolation of mutations that lead to nonreduction, parthenogenesis, or a combination of both aspects wtll provide useful material to further our understanding of these processes at the molecular and genetic level.The molecular and genetic bases of megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis are poorly understood. To date, only one female-specific mutant that affects sporogenesis has been identified (Siddiqi et al. 2000;Motamayor et al. 2000) and attempts to isolate genes that regulate the developmental events initiating female gametogenesis and embryo development are just beginning. As an alternative to the isolation of mutations, we identify genes expressed specifically during megasporogenesis and megagametogenesis. The inaccessibility of the developing embryo sac and the small number of cells involved make this a difficult undertaking using conventional molecular methods such as differential screening techniques. Therefore, we use a novel technology, enhancer detection, which allows the identification of developmentally regulated genes based on their pattern of expression. Enhancer detection is one of the most powerful tools to identify tissue specifically expressed genes and their regulatory sequences. Application of this approach in angiosperms will lead to the identification of many genes that control gametogenesis and cellular differentiation in the female gametophyte. In addition, it will identify many cell type-and tissue-specific regulatory regions that will be required to express candidate genes in a precise temporal and spatial fashion.Enhancer detection was first developed in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and relies on a mobile genetic element carrying a reporter gene under the control of a weak constitutive promoter (O'Kane and Gehring 1987). This minimal promoter is usually not active but ideally it can be activated in all tissues and at all developmental stages. If it comes under the control of genomic cis-regulatory elements such as enhancers, the reporter gene is expressed in a specific temporal and spatial pattern (Figure 12.4,p. 197). This pattern reflects the expression of a nearby gene controlled by the same regulatory elements and, thus, allows the identification of genes based on their pattern of expression rather than on a mutant phenotype (Bellen et al. 1989;Bier et al. 1989;Grossniklaus et al. 1989;Wilson et al. 1989). Enhancer detector screens have been extremely successful in Drosophila developmental genetics and similar approaches were rapidly adapted to other model systems. Because of the large intergenomic regions in mice, gene traps were developed that depend on a modification of this approach involving the generation of transcriptional fusions to the reporter gene (Gossleretal.1990;Skarnes 1990;Friedrich and Soriano 1991). In Arabidopsis, similar systems based on T-DNA insertional mutagenesis (Topping et al. 1991;Fobert et al. 1991;Kertbundit et al. 1991) or the AciDs transposable element system from maize (Sundaresan et al. 1995;Springer et al. 1995;Smith and Fedoroff 1995) have been developed.Enhancer detection and gene trap systems offer an added benefit: they allow the identification of genes that are not readily amenable to classical genetic analyses (Bellen et al. 1989;Bier et al. 1989;Grossniklaus et al. 1989;Wilson et al. 1989). They have been especially useful in studying developmental processes occurring late in development, i.e., after the effective lethal phase of a corresponding mutation. For example, a gene that is required for essential steps during both embryo and ovule development would be identified as an embryo lethal mutation and its function during ovule development would be masked. Enhancer detection allowed identification of the first embryo lethal genes in Drosophila that are also required for oogenesis or eye development (Grossniklaus et al. 1989;Mlodzik et al. 1990). The dissection of processes characterized by functional redundancy and high complexity is also greatly facilitated by enhancer detection (Wilson et al. 1990;Bellen et al. 1990). Enhancer detection has some important advantages over classical genetic screens for the identification of genes required in the gametophytic phase of the life cycle: (i) many genes that encode components of the basic cellular machinery display a gametophyte lethal phenotype if disrupted. Essential genes are expected to show widespread although not necessarily ubiquitous expression, whereas expression in particular cell types of the megagametophyte suggests a function in cell specification and differentiation; (ii) genes required for both micro-and megagametogenesis can be isolated, because a large percentage of enhancer detector insertions do not disrupt gene function. Mutants affecting both male and female gametophytes can usually only be recovered as rare partially penetrant mutations or in genomic regions that can be covered by a duplication (Vollbrecht 1997); (iii) enhancer detection is the only efficient technique that allows the identification of genes expressed in very few or even single cells. By focusing on the cells and tissues where a gene is expressed, subtle phenotypes can be identified that may not easily be recognized in phenotypic screens; and (iv) most importantly, enhancer detector and gene trap transposons greatly facilitate the molecular cloning of genomic sequences flanking the insertion site. In addition, they allow a detailed genetic analysis of the detected gene through remobilization and the recovery of additional alleles, regional chromosomal rearrangements, and revertant sectors (e.g., Grossniklaus et al. 1992;Springer et al. 1995;Tsugeki et al. 1996;Grossniklaus et al. 1998b).To identify genes involved in female gametogenesis, we have generated nearly 4,300 lines carrying randomly inserted enhancer detector or gene trap transposons (U. Grossniklaus, J. Moore, W. Gagliano, J-P. Vielle Calzada, unpublished data). We are using the system developed by Sundaresan et al. (1995), which is based on the Ac/ Os transposon of maize and allows the recovery of unlinked transposition events throughout the Arabidopsis genome. In brief, an enhancer detector or gene trap transposon is mobilized by crossing a starter line homozygous for Os to a line carrying a stable Ac transposase source. Self-pollination of the F] plants, which contain both the Os starter locus and the Ac transposase construct, results in some F 2 progeny carrying a transposed Os element (transposants). By pOSitively selecting for the presence of Os but negatively against the donor Os locus and Ac, unlinked stable transposition events can be recovered (Sundaresan et al. 1995). Negative selection against the donor locus ensures the recovery of unlinked or loosely linked transposition events, a prerequisite for genome-wide random insertional mutagenesis. Similar strategies are currently being developed for rice (Chin et al. 1999;R. Jefferson, personal comm.).Using six independent starter lines, we generated approximately 45,000 Fjs, of which more than 35,000 were grown to maturity to harvest their F 2 seeds. About 23,000 of the F 2 families have been put through the positive/ negative selection process to recover transposants. Between 20% and 25% of the F2 families yielded an unlinked transposition event. The transposant library of about 4,300 lines that we generated serves as the basis for four large-scale screens aimed at identifying genes involved in female reproduction.Two of the screens we are performing are designed to identify genes expressed during ovule and megagametophyte development. The first one targets early ovule development, which encompasses the key events of megasporogenesis (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1998). More than 1,000 transposants have been screened and about 30 lines have been identified with a restricted expression pattern in young ovule primordia O-P. Vielle Calzada and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Many of the expression patterns reflect the highly polar organization of the ovule and may be involved in establishing or interpreting positional information. Other patterns are associated with the meiotic cell lineage and are of particular interest to the engineering of apomixis. The second screen is aimed at the identification of genes expressed in individual cell types of the embryo sac and concentrates on late stages of ovule ontogeny, including post-fertilization stages (R. Baskar, J. Moore, w. Gagliano, U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Some of these patterns are specific to the individual cell types of the embryo sac including the egg cell and will serve as important tools to direct expression of candidate genes to the megagametophyte. The results of this screen are discussed in more detail in the next section. Independently, our transposant library is being used for classical genetic screens to isolate insertional mutants that affect fertility. The first phenotypiC screen identifies mutants that disrupt the development or function of the female gametophyte. These mutants are identified in a two-step screen for reduced fertility and a non-Mendelian segregation ratio, both indicating a gametophytic defect (Moore et al. 1997;Feldmann et al. 1997;Howd~n et al. 1998;Christensen et al. 1998;Bonhomme et al. 1998;Grini et al. 1999). In a second screen we identify families segregating sterile plants that show a sporophytic requirement. Of 3,200 families that were screened, nearly 40 sterile mutants were identified (Vielle-Calzada et al. 1998).Reciprocal outcrosses to wild type showed that most of these mutants are male sterile or affect both sexes, but six were found to be femalespecific. These recessive female sterile mutants affect ovule morphogenesis or megasporo-genesis and are currently being analyzed in more detail at the molecular and genetic level (J-P. Vielle-Calzada and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data).For the rapid isolation and sequencing of genomic regions flanking the Os insertion we adapted a PCR-based procedure, TAIL-PCR (Liu et al. 1995), to be used in conjunction with Os elements (see also Tsugeki et al. 1996). Using a set of Os-specific primers (GrossnikJaus et al. 1998a) in combination with arbitrary primers, we isolated at least one flanking fragment for more than 150 lines tha t we identified in various screens. Using two sets of arbitrary primers, the success rate was greater than 95% (GrossnikJaus et al. 1998a). We have identified insertions into a multitude of genes that encode essential proteins involved in basic metabolic and cellular processes, putative regulatory proteins, and several novel sequences of unknown function. Based on sequence information, the majority of the detected genes appear to be involved in gene regulation and signaling processes.Very few genes expressed in the megagametophyte have been described (Nadeau et a1.1996;Belostotsky and Meagher 1996), and genes expressed in individual cells of the embryo sac have not previously been identified and characterized. Recently, cDNA libraries obtained from isolated egg cell and in vitro fertilized zygotes of maize have been generated, leading to the identification of genes expressed in the embryo sac and embryo (Dresselhaus et al. 1994(Dresselhaus et al. , 1996(Dresselhaus et al. , 1999a,b),b). Although no cell type-specific genes have been isolated yet, this approach holds great promise for the identification of embryo sac-specific genes. We use enhancer detector and gene trap transposons carrying the uidA reporter gene encoding b-g1ucuronidase (GUS) Oefferson et al. 1986;Jefferson 1987). The expression of GUS f..... s....Ii,y 10 Apalllhls: MoIeaoIar .d GHtlk Appr-MS 195 can be visualized by histochemical staining Oefferson et al. 1987;Kavanagh et al. 1988). To identify genes expressed during ovule development and female gametogenesis, we analyzed GUS expression in maturing ovules of about 2,300 transposants (R. Baskar, J. Moore, W. Gagliano, U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Between 9% and 10% of the enhancer trap lines and 2% to 3% of the gene trap lines show spatially restricted GUS expression in mature ovules. Approximately half of these enhancer detector lines show expression restricted to sporophyte and gametophyte, respectively, whereas very few show regional expression in both gametophytic and sporophytic tissues.Although many Arabidopsis promoters have been found to be highly compact (e.g., Dwyer et al. 1994;Thoma et al. 1994;Xia et al. 1996), enhancers that drive reporter gene expression could be at a considerable distance from the site of insertion. This makes the isolation of the detected gene and its promoter more laborious, requiring that the expression pattern of an isolated gene be confirmed. To date, we have analyzed the expression of three genes expressed in the megagametophyte; in situ hybridization indicates that they are indeed expressed as expected (Vielle-Calzada et al. 2000; R. Baskar, J-P. Vielle-Calzada and U. GrossnikJaus, unpublished data). It would be preferable to identify gene trap insertions with cell type-specific expression because they have to be inserted within the transcription unit in order to function. However, because gene traps must integrate within the gene in the correct orientation (Sundaresan et al. 1995) and GUS activity is often weak, the frequency at which highly specific expression patterns are recovered is very low. The screening process for cell-type specific expression in the ovule and megagametophyte is extremely laborious, requiring preparations for highresolution light microscopy. Therefore, we 196 Ud Gro...ild... concentrate our current screens on enhancer traps because the recovery of highly specific patterns using gene traps requires screening a many more transposants. About half of the enhancer transposants with GUS activity in the ovule are expressed in the megagametophyte. Some are expressed in all cells of the embryo sac (Figure 12.5,p. 197), whereas in others, GUS expression is shared by only a subset of cells, for example, the three cells of the egg apparatus. Most importantly, we also identified transposants with expression in individual cells of the megagametophyte, such as the synergids, the egg cell, and the antipodals. More lines were expressed in the synergids than in any other cell type of the embryo sac. This finding is consistent with earlier reports suggesting that the synergid is, metabolically, the most active cell of the megagametophyte Oensen 1974; Russell 1993). The synergid serves important functions in pollen tube guidance, sperm discharge and transport, and fertilization Oensen et al. 1985;Dumas and Mogensen 1993;Russell 1993). Egg cell-specific expression and expression in the central cell are very rare. Some of the genes expressed in individual cell types of the female gametophyte may serve important regulatory functions during sexual reproduction and could be involved in cell specification and differentiation processes. If the corresponding genes control important developmental decisions during megagametogenesis, as suggested by their expression pattern, mutant phenotype and/ or sequence, they may be useful for the engineering of certain aspects of apomictic reproduction. Most importantly, the regulatory regions of these genes will prove to be invaluable tools for the misexpression of candidate genes in particular cell types. Regulatory regions that direct embryo sac-, egg apparatus-, and egg cell-specific expression have been identified (R. Baskar and U. GrossnikJaus, unpublished data; W. Yang, R. Jefferson, and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). We intend to use these to probe the potential of the egg cell for autonomous activation through misexpression of candidate genes such as cell cycle control genes and growth regulators. Enhancer detection is the most promising technique for providing numerous temporally and spatially regulated promoters for use in modifying the reproductive system.The introduction of apomixis into sexual crop plants can be achieved through two distinct routes: (i) the study of the genetic control of naturally occurring apomicts could provide us with the molecular tools necessary to introduce apomixis into sexual species, or (ii) apomixis could be engineered by synthesizing individual traits such as nonreduction, parthenogenesis, and normal endosperm development through the introduction of mutations and/ or transgenes controlling these processes. The versatility of the reproductive system and the interrelationship between sexuality and apomixis suggest that this can be achieved even if naturally occurring apomixis is controlled by an entirely different and possibly complex mechanism(s). However, knowledge of the genetic and molec\\llar basis controlling apomixis and sexuality does not directly lead to the ability to manipulate or reconstruct the trait in a sexually reproducing plant. The technological constraints to implementation are substantial and must not be underestimated in development of a suitable research strategy.The introduction of apomixis to sexual species through classical genetic means is particularly attractive because it does not require prior knowledge of the molecular nature of the gene and can be achieved even if the genomic From Sexuality la Apomixis: Molerolar and Geneli, Approa'hes 197 (a) Bath embryo and endosperm carry the R-nj marker and show anthocyanin pigmentation. [b} Only the endosperm carries the R-nj marker while the embryo does not, i.e., is nof pigmented. This kernel was obtained from a mixed pollination through heterofertilizatian, but a parthenogenetically formed embryo will also lack the paternal R-nj marker.  regions controlling these traits are physically very large. Three different approaches that rely on classical breeding are being pursued: (i) introgression of apomixis from wild apomjctic relatives through wide crosses (Savidan,Chap. 11); (ii) generation of apomicts through hybridization of sexual progenitors (Carman,Chap. 7); and (iii) construction of apomixis' by combining reproductive mut'lnts that display. certain aspects of apomixis (Asker et al. 1982). Except for the second strategy, these approaches are only applicable if wild apomictic relatives or mutants displaying apomictic characters are available for a given crop species. Thus, a broad introduction of apomixis into sexual crops will depend on biotechnology and isolation of the genes that manipulate the reproductive system.Although apomixis is found in many plant families, it has been described in only a small number of agriculturally important species. These include several forage grass crops (Bashaw and Hanna 1990;Savidan 2000;do Valle and Miles, Chap. 10), horticultural crops such as CitnlS, apple, mango, and mangosteen, as well as orchids (Wakana and Uemoto 1987;Naumova 1993;Koltunow et al. 1996). Importantly, apomixis has also been described in relatives of a few important grain crops, notably maize, pearl millet, and wheat (Bashaw and Hanna 1990). Several breeding programs have focused on the introgression of apomixis £Com wild relatives through wide crosses (Dujardin and Hanna 1989;Petr~)V et al. 1994;Savidan and Berthaud 1994;Savidan 2000;Savidan, Chap 11). AHhoJ.lgh apomictic maize-Tripsacu1Jl and J~i:arl rri;ll~t-Pennisetum hybrids have been generated they are characterized by a high degree of seed abortion, which is likely caused by an endosperm defect stemming from an endosperm imbalance (Grossniklaus et al. 1998;Morgan et al. 1998;Grimanelli et aI., Chap. 6). Imprinting-related phenomena in -,';.sexual crops will pose a $erious barrier to the introgression of apomixis and musf~e addressed atthe genetic and molecular levels to make both introgression and biotechnological approaches possible. The genetic synthesis of apomixis by combining reproductive mutants that display nonrecurrent forms of apomixis has been attempted in barley by Asker et al. (1982). A mutant that produces a large number of unreduced gametes, fri, was combined with hap, a mutant that gives rise to parthenogenetic haploids at a high frequency. Although the tri mutation is not suitable for the fixation of heterosis (because of restitution at the second meiotic division) and no apomictic double mutants have been generated, plants showing aspects of both phenotypes have been recovered. It should be noted, however, that very few reproductive mutants have been described to date and that it is essential to systematically search for additional mutants that affect megasporogenesis, parthenogenesis, and endosperm development. To my knowledge, no systematic screens directly targeted at nonreduction or parthenogenesis have been conducted in angiosperms and the mutants described so far have been identified fortuitously. Well-defined sexual model systems are best suited for such screens. Rather than performing large-scale genetic screens for reproductive mutants in many different crop plants, it may be easier to isolate the relevant genes from Arabidapsis (or maize) and mimic the mutant phenotype in crops through genetic engineering.As outlined above, the introduction of apomixis into a wide variety of sexual crops will be most efficiently achieved through genetic engineering. To maximize its usefulness and versatility in a bioengineered form apomixis will have to be dominant; otherwise the fixation of hybrid genotypes will be very slow. The engineering of apomixis through biotechnology will require a concerted effort in three main areas: (i) the identification and characterization of candidate genes that can be used to manipulate the reproductive system; (ii) the isolation of promoters that allow a precise control of gene expression at the spatial and temporal levels; and (iii) the development of efficient technologies to introduce and control transgenes and/or to perform targeted mutagenesis of endogenous genes.The identification of regulatory genes that can be used to control apomixis is being pursued by a variety of approaches using both apomictic and sexual systems. Insertional mutagenesis in Hieracium and Tripsacum (Bicknell,Chap. 8;Grimanelli et  In addition to regulators of the sexual pathway, many other genes may be useful for the engineering of apomixis. Such genes include glucanases that degrade callose, the absence of which serves as a consistent indicator of cells initiating megagametogenesis. Genes promoting cell wall formation could also be useful to prevent fertilization of the egg cell and promote parthenogenesis. Another important class is made up of genes that control the cell cycle. Heterochronic or heterotopic expression of such regulators could potentially be used to trigger cell division and initiate developmental events such as megagametogenesis and embryogenesis. Recent studies in Arabidopsis have shown that misexpression of eye/inlAt in root cells can trigger extra rounds of cell division (Doerner et a!. 1996) and that eye/inD controls the growth rate irftobacco (Cockcroft et a!. 2000). It will be interesting to see whether similar experiments can induce cell proliferation in the egg cell. Other growth regulators, such as plant hormones, have not been studied in detail during sexual reproduction, but may play crucial roles in initiating developmental programs relevant to apomixis.Targeted misexpression of candidate genes will require well-defined regulatory sequences that can be used to drive transgene expression. To date, only a few promoters have been 200 UtlG09\".ila,n described that are active in the ovule, and promoters specific to the gametophyte and its constituent~ells have just been isolated (R. Baskar and U. Grossniklaus, unpublished data). Enhancer detection bears great potential for the identification of genes that play crucial roles during sexual reproduction, and also because it serves as an entry point to isolate a multitude of highly specific promoters that are restricted to specific cell types and regions of the ovule and female gametophyte.Although the introduction of transgenes is now readily achieved in many crop species, present technology only allows for the introduction of dominant traits. Transgene activity is based either on overexpression or on homology dependent gene silencing phenomena, such as antisense suppression or sense cosuppression (e.g., Matzke and Matzke 1995;Jorgensen 1995;Jorgensen et al. 1996). By virtue of the epigenetic nature of these phenomena, it may prove difficult to effiCiently and stably introduce the traits that control apomixis. Currently, it is not routinely possible to disrupt endogenous genes, and the lack of efficient homologous recombination techniques, which would allow us to mutate or otherwise modify endogenous genes, remains a serious obstacle to genetic engineering in plants. However, recent reports on successful homologous recombination in Arabidopsis (Miao and Lam 1995;Kempin et al. 1997) may soon lead to the development of more efficient protocols for targeted gene disruption. In Arabidopsis and maize, gene disruption by site-specific transposon mutagenesis has become an efficient way to inactivate specific genes. Although this approach has been adapted to rice (Izawa et al. 1997), it is unlikely that it will be implemented in a wide variety of other crop species.To maximize benefits, it will be necessary to control the expression of apomixis such that a choice can be made between the sexual and apomictic modes of reproduction at any stage of a breeding program. Apomixis as a constitutive trait could potentially pose a threat to genetic diversity, which would preclude the use of apomixis for crop improvement in a versatile and creative way. For instance, apomixis would constitute the default condition, wherein application of an exogenous condition or compound would suppress apomixis to allow for sexual breeding to introgress new germ plasm and create segregating populations. Alternatively, sexuality could be the default condition, addressing the concern that apomixis could pose a threat to biodiversity (van Dijk and van Damme 2000), and apomixis would only be induced at specific steps of the breeding program and for seed production.Although several inducible systems have been described and shown to work efficiently under laboratory conditions, none of these systems would allow the induction or suppression of a trait under field conditions. These systems allow either repression or induction of a gene upon addition of a compound. All of the existing inducible (suppressible) systems, including the tetracycline repressor (Gatz et al. 1992;Weimann et al. 1994), the copper inducible system of the yeast metallothionin gene (Mett et al. 1993;Mett et al. 1996), and the glucocorticoid receptor (Schena et al. 1991;Aoyama and Chua 1997) have serious drawbacks for field use, although they are potent systems for use in the laboratory and greenhouse. These systems often have a high background of noninduced expression and use expensive and/or environmentally unacceptable inducers that often have poor mobility in the plant.As a prerequisite for the use of apomixis in the field, optimal control systems will have to be developed that have low background activity but that can get potently induced. As outlined by Jefferson and Nugroho (1998), the inducer should be water soluble, stable, readily translocatable, and should not impair the fitness of the plant. The inducer should also be safe to use, biodegradable, and have no adverse affects on the ecosystem. Recently, two inducible systems that may be developed into agriculturally applicable systems have been described. Research at CAMBIA focuses on the development of a system that is based on the glucuronide repressor, gusR, which is a potent repressor in the absence of gJucuronides but disengages from the DNA when a wide variety of glucuronides are added (Jefferson and Nugroho 1998). Glucuronides meet many of the criteria for ideal inducers being inexpensive, benign, stable, phloem-mobile, soluble, and not endogenous to plant cells. Another recently described system that has potential for field use is the ethanol inducible system derived from the ethanol regulon on Aspergillus nidulans (Caddick et al. 1998). The system is based on the alcA promoter and its transcriptional activator AlcR, which was shown to lead to about a hundredfold induction upon the addition of ethanol in transgenic plants. Whether it will be practicable to spray or water plants with ethanol in the field is not known, but the fact that AlcR responds to a variety of other alcohols and ketones opens many possibilities for adapting this system for field use (Gatz 1998).The introduction of apomixis into sexual crops will require a multifaceted approach that builds on the use of both sexual and apomictic systems. It is very likely that genes involved in the sexual pathway are also from S...a1ily 10 Apomb<is: Moleulor oad GeI.til App.-H. 2a1 crucial for apomictic development. Therefore, genetic and molecular studies that concentrate on the dissection of the sexual pathway will provide invaluable tools for the engineering of apomixis through biotechnology. Several longneglected aspects of sexual reproductive development will have to be addressed, such as the control of megasporogenesis, egg activation, and imprinting requirements for endosperm development. Studies on the control of reproductive development in apomictic species such as Hieracium and Tripsacum will have to be complemented by a detailed characterization of the developmental events during sexual reproduction and the molecular mechanisms controlling them.Even if apomictic species have evolved complex and elusive mechanisms that control apomixis, which have no immediate molecular counterpart in sexual relatives, as suggested by recent findings in Pennisetum and Cenchrus (Ozias-Akins et al. 1998;Roche et al. 1999), apomixis could be engineered through a synthetic approach by targeting the key regulatory steps. This view is supported by the recent findings that the genetic control of apomeiosis and parthenogenesis can be separated in Taraxacum and Erigeron (van Dijk et al. 1999;Noyes and Rieseberg 2000). The engineering of individual elements of apomixis will require a sustained effort to identify more reproductive mutants that affect the relevant developmental processes in those sexual model systems that are easily amenable to molecular techniques. Classical genetic screens targeted at nonreduction, parthenogenesis, seed development (mea, fie, fis2 mutants), and regulators of imprinting hold great promise for identifying the candidate genes required for the introduction of apomixis into a wide variety .of sexual crops. Enhancer detection provides a powerful alternative to classical genetic screens and allows rapid cloning of genes involved in sexual reproduction and their promoters. Two additional points should be stressed. First, the technologies needed to engineer and control apomixis under field conditions are not yet available and must first be developed, a point that cannot be overstated as the identification of potential regulatory genes progresses rapidly. Second, this review of plant reproduction has focused on a genetic perspective with Mendelian traits controlling sexual and apomictic development. However, gene regulation by genomic imprinting may not be the only epigenetic mechanism that should be considered. Current knowledge of the regulation of apomixis is fully compatible with an epigenetic view of this trait and we should keep our minds open to alternative explanations that are epigenetic in nature. If apomixis is, for instance, due to epigenetic .in teractions between genomes, the engineering of apomixis in sexual species will be much more complex.Finally, the accessibility of apomiXIS technology to a broad community of plant breeders in the public and private sector worldwide must be ensured. If universal and equitable access to apomixis technology cannot be achieved through innovative patenting and licensing, then the e.xciting science discussed in this volume will have little positive impact (http://billie.btny.purdue. edu/ apomixis/).The ability to manipulate reproduction in crop plants from the sexual to the apomictic mode, and vice versa, is highly desirable (Hanna 1995;Jefferson and Bicknell 1996). Several chapters in this volume deal with the various approaches that have been taken toward this goal. The most promising sh'ategy so far has been the transfer of natural apomixis genes from wild species into related sexual crop plants by introgression (Hanna et al. 1992;Leblanc et al. 1995;Savidan, Chap. 11). Unfortunately, this is likely to remain limited to those crops that have apomictic relatives, and therefore will not be widely applicable. In light of this situation, efforts are being made to identify the gene(s) that confer apomixis, both to gain a better understanding of the genetic regulation of the trait and to eventually facilitate transfer to a wider range of species by genetic engineering methods. As described by Grimanelli et a!. (Chap. 6), one key step toward gene isolation is the genetic mapping of apomixis genes, and considerable progress has been made with some species (Kindiger et al. 1996). However, because of the intrinsic difficulties in mapping apomicts, and because recombination around the apomixis locus appears reduced (Grimanelli et a!.,Chap. 6), map-based cloning of the apomixis gene(s) is likely to proceed slowly.Recently, an alternative approach, using mutagenesis, has been considered by several groups both for the identification of natural apomixis genes and for the de novo induction of apomixis in sexual plants (Koltunow et al. 1995). Mutagenesis has been widely and successfully applied to the study of many aspects of plant growth and development. Thanks to rapidly advancing methods in all ilTeas of DNA technology, improvements in plant transformation methods, and the accumulation of mapping and sequencing data, the isolation of genes via their mutant alleles has become a feasible approach in many areas of plant research. Bicknell (Chap. 8) describes the development of Hieracium as a model apomict (see also Bicknell 1994a,b,c;Bicknell and Borst 1994). The aim is to induce reversion tosexual reproduction by insertional mutation of the responsible gene(s) and to isolate them via the inserted sequence.In this chapter we describe the reciprocal approach, the mutagenesis of a model sexual plant in an attempt to induce apomixisde novo. Mutated alleles conferring apomixis or indi vid ua 1 components of apomictic development can be identified with relative ease in a model plant, and the cloned genes would then be available for transfer to other species. The possibility of a mutagenic approach resulting in the isolation of the desired mutants greatly depends on the methodology employed. Therefore, in order to maximize the opportunities for the induction and detection of these mutants, several considerations must be taken into account. Details of the mechanisms of apomixis have been described elsewhere in this volume, therefore only a brief summary is given here of the individual components of apomictic versus sexual development that could be separately affected by mutations. We summarize some of the earlier work with mutagenesis and describe some of the most interesting mutants with elements of apomixis that have been isolated in various plants. The fact that none of these potentially useful mutations has been characterized at the DNA level underlines the importance of using wellcharacterized model plants for this work. The feasibility of obtaining mutants of Arabidopsis with apomictic characteristics has been confirmed recently by the identification of several mutants with partial seed development. We describe the various approaches currently underway in several laboratories, which are aimed at the induction of apomictic characteristics in model sexual plants.The two major types of gametophytic apomixis that can be distinguished, diplospory and apospory, differ from sexual development in more than one aspect (for reviews see Asker 1980;Asker and Jerling 1992;Nogler 1984;and Crane, Chap. 3). Since mutants with individual components of apomixis have been identified previously, and can be expected in future mutagenesis experiments, the main differences are summarized briefly. Also, as pointed out below, apomictic tendencies are occasionally observed in sexual plants and can be influenced by environmental stimuli. followed by equational division of the entire chromosome complement in the second meiotic division. Subsequent development leads to the formation of a functionally normal embryo sac with an unreduced egg and central cell. Sexual plants occasionally produce unreduced gametes, and through fertilization these give rise to the polyploid series that can be observed in many plant species (Asker 1980). The production of unreduced embryo sacs in some plants, including Brassica species, is revealed after distant or \"prickle\" pollination (which stimulates parthenogenesis; see below) by the appearance of matromorphous progeny at considerable frequencies (Eenink 1974a).2. Fonnation of aposporous embryo sacs. In aposporous apomicts, unreduced embryo sacs arise directly by mitosis from nucellar cells, usually in addition to a sexual, reduced embryo sac with normal meiosis. In facultative apomicts, sexual and apomictic embryo sacs develop side-by-side or in separate ovules and give rise to a mixture of sexual and maternal progeny. Although female meiosis is mostly normal, in many cases the aposporous embryo sacs, which are not delayed by meiosis, develop at a faster rate than the products of meiosis, which frequently degenerate at the megaspore stage.3. Parthenogenesis. The unreduced egg cell in both diplosporous and aposporous embryo sacs d~velops directly into an embryo, without fertilization by a sperm nucleus. It is not clear whether fertilization is prevented actively or as a consequence of precocious parthenogenesis. Again, parthenogenesis occasionally occurs in sexual plants, and can be induced in many plants by certain stimuli such as prickle pollination. Of particular interest to the present investigation is the frequent occurrence of matromorphy, or diploid parthenogenesis, in Brassica oleracea, a species that belongs to the same family as Arabidopsis, the Brassicaceae.Crosses with pollen from different species result in various proportions of matromorphs arising from the parthenogenetic development of unreduced egg cells (Eenink 1974b). Thus in Brassica, two of the most important ingredients of apomixis are revealed by distant pollination: (i) the presence of unreduced embryo sacs, and (ii) the inherent capacity for parthenogenesis. Haploid parthenogenesis has recently been induced both in Arabidopsis and in Brassica juncea by the application of brassinolide, a steroid hormone first isolated from Brassica pollen (Kitani 1994).4. Endospenn development. In autonomous apomicts, endosperm development occurs spontaneously, but in the case of pseudogamous apomicts, it depends on fertilization of the central cell nucleus by a sperm nucleus. In some cases, pollination without fertilization has been suspected of triggering endosperm development. Endosperm plays a crucial role in the formation of viable seed, and requires special consideration in the design of a mutagenesis screen. The problem of the endosperm is discussed later in more detail.With perhaps one exception (Carman 1997;  Carman, Chap. 7), it is now generally accepted that apomixis has evolved from sexual ancestors by mutation rather than being a consequence of polyploidization and heterozygoci ty. This is an important assumption for mutagenic approaches to the study of apomixis. Much discussion focuses on whether apomixis is regulated by a single gene and could therefore be induced by a single mutation in a sexual plant. Given the different components of apomixis, it seems more likely that a number of mutations were needed in the evolution of a viable apomict from a sexual ancestor. The apparent single locus inheritance that has been reported in several cases could be explained by the tight linkage of several genes, a possibility that is consistent with the lack of recombination observed between molecular markers associated with apomixis (Grimanelli et a!.,Chap. 6). Even if a Single mutation, perhaps resulting in the inhibition of meiosis, was responsible for the evolution of apomixis, it is likely to have occurred in a background that permitted its expression (Mogie 1988) and has therefore evolved only in a subsection of genera and families. For these reasons, we do not expect that a single mutation in a sexual plant could result in the prod uction of viable seed in the absence of fertilization. However, given the variety of apomictic forms that can be distinguished, such as in diplospory and apospory, apomixis has probably arisen independently in different species and perhaps involves different genes in each case. Consequently, there may be ample opportunities for the induction of some element of apomixis in a sexual plant by mutations in a number of different genes.An important aspect to consider is the apparent dominance, in many cases, of apomixis over sexuality (Nogler 1984;Mogie 1988;Leblanc et al. 1995). Mutations that completely abolish gene function, such as deletions, can be dominant only if expression of that gene is subject to gene dosage. One of the hypotheses that have been put forward on the control of apomixis is that the responsible gene(s) encode regulatory functions that initiate or repress certain developmental programs (Koltunow et al. 1995). If apomictic development is repressed in sexual plants by a negative regulatory protein whose concentration is crucial, then a reduction in the level of this protein could be sufficient to induce a developmental pathway that is suppressed only when two copies of the gene are present. The fact that many apomicts are facultative, and that the proportion of apomictic progeny can be influenced by environmental factors, supports the hypothesis of a finely tuned regula tory function for apomixis genes.An alternative route to a dominant allele is a mutation leading to a change in function of the protein, e.g., an altered specificity. Mutations of this type could be very rare indeed. However, many regulatory proteins are active only after forming a complex with other proteins, and changes in many amino acid residues, particularly those exposed on the surface, could alter their binding affinity, resulting in reduced activity of the entire complex. These possibilities have to be taken into account in the design of any mutagenesis experiments, as they may influence the choice of mutagen (see below).The majority of apomicts are polyploid. If polyploidy is a prerequisite for apomixis, as has been suggested by some researchers, screening for apomictic mutants in a diploid species is not a promising proposition. Fortunately, there are a few examples of diploid apomicts, the most relevant to this work being Arabis, a genus comprising species with a range of base numbers and ploidy levels (Bacher 1951;Carman 1997). Some of the diploids are sexual, while others are pseudogamous diplosporous apomicts. The observed variation in ploidy of pollen nuclei of sexual and apomictic species, and the occasional occurrence of unreduced embryo sacs in the sexual species, form the basis for the evolution of this agamous complex, and support the view that polyploidy is a result, rather than a prerequisite, of apomixis. However, according to Carman (personal comm.), care should be exercised in assigning a particular ploidy to sexual or apomictic plants because an apparently diploid species may represent a diploidized polyploid (paleopolyploid). Notwithstanding this cautionary note, one of the most encouraging examples of apomixis at the diploid or near diploid level is the recent IId.cllo••f ApOllllxl. 10 Sex..1Pia.,. by MII......i. 215 development of a polyhaploid hybrid between diploid (sexual) maize and tetraploid (diplosporous) Tripsacum, containing one complete set of chromosomes from each of the parent species. Although male-sterile, this autoallotriploid hybrid (three genomes) reproduces apomictically after pollination with maize, demonstrating that a genetic locus conferring apomixis normally in a tetraploid can also function in a diploid(-like) background (Leblanc et al. 1996).In addition to being a consequence of apomixis, polyploidy has an important function in apomicts. As discussed by Nogler, the apospory \"factor\" or allele in Ranunculus auricomus can only be transmitted by diploid or polyploid gametes, and acts as a recessive lethal factor in haploid gametes. Apparently, the normal (sexual) allele is required for some aspect of gamete formation or function. This suggests that, while not essential in an individual plant that produces unreduced gametes heterozygous for the apomixis allele, polyploidy may be important for the maintenance and spread of apomictic populations.There is overwhelming evidence for the importance of a balanced ratio between the maternally and paternally inherited genomes in the endosperm of many species. Endosperm is usuplly triploid, resulting from the fusion of two maternal polar nuclei with one pollen nucleus, producing a ratio of two maternal to one paternal genome (2m:1 p). Deviation from this ratio often leads to embryo abortion or to subfertile, abnormally shaped seed. The most plausible explanation for these observations is the parental imprinting of genes, which, unlike in animals, does not affect the embryo but does affect the endosperm of the developing seed. Various strategies seem to have evolved during the evolution of apomixis to ensure normal endosperm development. In a minority of apomicts, endosperm production is autonomous, i.e., it does not require fertilization, and here the endosperm is diploid with no paternal contribution. However, the majority of apomicts are pseudogamous and require fertilization of the central cell. Because most apomicts produce normal reduced male gametes, the expected m:p ratio in these endosperms is 4m:1p, given that the polar nuclei are diplOid. This ratio, however, has not been observed in many of the examined cases, and it appears that the correct (ancestral) ratio is obtained in a variety of ways. In Diclumthium annulatum, the unreduced polar nuclei remain unfused at fertilization and either (i) a reduced sperm fuses with only one polar nucleus and the other polar nucleus degenerates, or (ii) each polar nucleus is fertilized with a reduced sperm (Reddy and d'Cruz 1969). Similarly, in Ranuneulus auricomus, two fused unreduced polar nuclei are fertilized by two reduced sperm (Rutishauser 1954). Acommon strategy among apomictic grasses is to produce unreduced embryo sacs with four rather than eight nuclei; the Single polar nucleus is fertilized by a reduced sperm (Warmke 1954).These observations are probably the most convincing evidence that the evolution of both autonomous and pseudogamous apomicts must have occurred in a genetic environment containing either pre-adaptations or additional mutations. Autonomous apomicts may have evolved in a background where the stringent requirement for a balanced endosperm had been relaxed.It was recently shown that in Arabidopsis the presence in endosperm of maternal or paternal excess, resulting from reciprocal crosses between diploid and tetraploid parents, greatly affects seed size (Scottet aI.1998). Seeds with maternal excess (4m:1p) are smaller, but seeds with paternal excess (2m:2p) are larger than normal. However, these seeds have normal viability. As indicated earlier, haploid seeds can be induced in Arabidopsis and Brassiea juneea by the application of brassinolide to the stigmas of emasculated flowers. Endosperm formation in these seeds occurs in the absence of any paternal contribution, and as expected, the seeds in both cases are smaller than normal diploid seeds; however, they give rise to stable haplOid plants. These are important observations with respect to the screens for apomixis in Arabidopsis, because they suggest that, should a mutation lead to parthenogenetic embryo development, an imbalance in the m:p ratio of the endosperm should not hinder viable seed production, provided of course that the endosperm prolifera tes and supports seed production. The effect on seed size by an imbalanced endosperm could, furthermore, be exploited for the screening of mutants. However, a mutation resulting in parthenogenetic embryo development does not necessarily induce endosperm proliferation. This may require an additional stimulus, such as that normally provided by pollination or a second mutation.The problem of the endosperm is one of the most important aspects to consider in a mutagenesis program, and because of it, we do not expect to be able to induce viable forms of apomixis by a single round of mutagenesis of sexual plants. The aim of several mutagenesis and screening programs currently in progress is to facilitate the identificlltion of mutants that have only some characteristics of apomixis, such as parthenogenesis or autonomous endosperm development, and which do not necessarily produce fertile seed in the absence of pollination.The choice of mutagen is an important consideration because it determines the types of mutations obtained; here we need only distinguish between the two categories of \"change of function\" and \"loss of function\" mutations. Change of function •mutations are the result of amino acid substitutions or of changes in gene expression level. Loss of function mutations abolish the gene product altogether. As discussed earlier, apomixis may be induced by a dominant allele, and this is more likely to be the result of a change of function mutation. There are numerous reports of dominant mutations resulting from single amino acid substitutions that have been obtained by EMS or by in vitro mutagenesis (e.g., Hemerly et al. 1995;Kim et al. 1996;Wilkinson et al. 1997). For this reason, it could be important to use a mutagenic agent that can induce subtle mutations. Ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) has been shown to be the most versatile mutagen, as it causes point mutations at a high frequency, and whilst most of these should result in amino acid substitutions, they may also create stop codons, and thus lead to loss of gene function (for a summary and references, see Feldmann et al. 1994). However, as already described, some useful mutants have been obtained by radiation treatment, which frequently causes large deletions, and therefore the value of mutagens that can cause gene disruptions or deletions should not be dismissed.A widely used method of mutagenesis is insertional inactivation, or gene tagging, with T-DNA or transposons (Feldmann 1991;Lindsey et al. 1993;Bouchez et al. 1993;Aarts et al. 1995). As with deletions, this type of mutagenesis most likely will create loss of function mutations due to insertion into the coding region of a gene, although it is conceivable that changes in gene expression levels could result from insertion into a gene promoter. However, a major advantage of gene tagging is the ease with which the mutated gene can subsequently be identified. Its application to the study of apomixis in Hieracium is examined by Bicknell (Chap. 8). We briefly summarize below the work by Ramulu (1997) on transposon mutagenesis in Arabidopsis and Petunia. For the purpose of inducing apomixis in Arabidopsis, it may be important to choose a mutagen that is capable of producing change of function mutations. Arabidopsis is the best-characterized plant species, and map-based cloning of nontagged mutant alleles is no longer a major obstacle.Improving cultivars of apomictic crop species by breeding is difficult, and therefore many attempts have been made to increase the frequency of sexual reproduction in apomicts by mutagenesis (Bashaw and Hoff 1962;Hanson and Juska 1962;Gustafsson and Gadd 1965;Asker 1966). Complete reversion to sexuality was not observed in any of these studies. In the few cases where sexuality was observed, it was transient and plants reverted to apomixis in subsequent generations. A number of factors probably contributed to this lack of success. First, the induction of mutants in polyploid species is inherently difficult because mutations can be masked by additional copies of wild type genes. Second, in many experiments, the number of seeds mutagenized and screened (200 per treatment in one case) was probably inadequate for detecting potentially rare mutations. Whether the choice of mutagens, in most cases irradiaJion, also contributed to the lack of success depends on whether a change of function rather than a loss of function mutation would be required for a reversal to sexuality. We do not believe that the lack of success to date indicates that efforts to induce sexuality in apomictic species must necessarily fail. Researchers will need to work with a much larger number of mutants, to choose an apomict that has a low ploidy level, and perhaps to use a more subtle mutagenic treatment that induces both change and loss of function mutations.1. Meiotic mutants. Mutants have been induced in crop plants for many years, and, more by serendipity than design, several interesting mutants with characteristics of apomictic reproduction have been discovered. Because of the numerous genes that control meiosis, mutants with defects in meiosis are frequently obtained in any screening program, where they are easily recognized as segregants in the M 2 generation, with reduced fertility or often complete sterility (Gottschalk and Klein 1976;Curtis and Doyle 1992). The largest proportion of meiotic mutants are defective in the first meiotic division, as a result of either asynapsis (the complete or partial failure of homologous chromosome pairing) or desynapsis (the failure of chiasma formation following normal pairing of chromosomes) (Baker et a\\. 1976). Both of these defects are normal for those diplosporous apomicts that form first division restitution nuclei, and are therefore constituents of apomixis.Attempts have been made in several plants to utilize such mutants as the basis for the \"synthesis\" of apomixis, by combining them with the other required elements. For example, the desynaptic ds-l mutant of potato (Jongedijk and Ramanna 1988) has been combined, by conventional crosses, with factors that increase the production of unreduced megaspores Qongedijk et al. 1991). Although pseudogamous seed development could be induced by \"distant\" pollination with marked S.phureja, the establishment of pseudogamous apomixis would require the addition of genes controlling pseudogamous seed production. Three asynaptic mutants have been characterized from Brassica campes/ris (rapeseed) (Stringam 1970), in which restitution nuclei are formed following failure of synapsis. Unfortunately, in this case, only microspores were investigated and no information is available on megasporogenesis. If the megaspores are functional and embryosac formation is complete, then crossing with a tetraploid plant for the production of tetraploid progeny is a possibility.In maize, at least 20 loci have been identified that directly affect meiosis, most of which were originally isolated by virtue of their reduced male fertility (Curtis and Doyle 1992). Of particular interest are four mutants, ameiotic-1 (amI), ameiotic-2 (am2), desynaptic (dsy), and plural anomalies of meiosis-l (pam]), which produce unreduced eggs at high frequency. These unred uced eggs were recovered as occasional triploid progeny after crossing with diploids. Significantly, after crossing with tetrapJoids, their recovery in the form of tetraploid progeny was dramatically increased, presumably due to the formation of genomically balanced hexaploid endosperm.Another maize mutant, elongate (el), produces unreduced eggs in various proportion with haploid eggs (Rhoades and Dempsey 1966;Nel 1974). When fertilized by haploid pollen, the unreduced egg produces a triploid embryo, and the resulting kernel is shriveled and has low viability. When fertilized by diploid pollen from a tetraploid plant, on the other hand, a plump kernel with tetraploid embryos is obtained.The triploid (lri) mutant of barley is very similar to the maize el mutant (Ahokas 1977;Finch and Bennett 1979). Homozygous /ri mutants produce triploid and normal diploid progeny in approximately equal proportion. The triploid seeds are easily recognized by their shrunken endosperm, which was found to be pentaploid, presumably resulting from fusion of the unreduced polar nuclei with a haploid pollen nucleus. This mutation specifically affects female gametogenesis as meiosis on the male side is normal.The above mutants of maize and barley illustrate that mutations at a number of loci can induce one element of apomixis-the formation of unreduced gametes. Further development is dependent on fertilization, and normal endosperm development depends on a balanced maternal to paternal ratio.The preferential detection of unreduced eggs by crosses with tetraploids is a useful reminder of the importance of choosing a suitable pollen parent for mutagenesis studies involving pollination. On one hand, mutants with unbalanced endosperm may be difficult to isolate initially because of low viability; on the other hand, the shrunken endosperm phenotype could serve as a useful criterion in the selection for meiotic mutants.2. Parthenogenetic mutants. The EMS-induced hap mutant of barley was initially isolated in the form of a chlorophyll deficient mutant containing at least three linked mutations, tig, let (pollen lethality), and hap (Nielsen 1974). Presence of the hap allele results in a low frequency of haploid progeny. After separation of hap from the other two mutations, Hagberg and Hagberg (1980) showed that hap is incompletely dominant over the wild type allele: heterozygous (hap / +) plants produce 3-6% haploid progeny, whereas homozygous (hap/hap) plants produce up to 40% haploid progeny. Perhaps not surprisingly, crosses between a homozygous mutant (hap/hap )and wild type (+ / +) plants prod uce different results in the F I , depending on whether the mutant is the male or the female parent: a hap/hap female plant pollinated by wild type (+/+) pollen results in a high frequency of haploid F I progeny, whereas no haploids are produced when a wild type (+ / +) female plant is crossed by a hap/hap male. This indicates that the hap locus acts only through the maternal tissue, either to prevent fertilization of the egg cell or to stimulate the egg cell nucleus to divide prematurely. In this mutant, parthenogenesis is the only element of apomixis that has been induced. The formation of a perfectly welldeveloped endosperm, which supports the production of a viable seed, is presumably facilitated by normal fertilization events in the central cell that result in a genomically balanced endosperm.3. Aposporous mutants. In pearl millet, two mutants that produce aposporous embryo sacs have been reported. The first,Jemale sterile (js), is a recessive mutation induced by radiation treatment (Hanna and Powell 1974;Arthur et al. 1993). Homozygous mutants are femalesterile but produce normal viable pollen. Mutant ovules are small and immature compared with the wild type, and only about half of them contain embryo sacs. Of these, the majority are multiple embryo sacs that appear to be aposporous, although sexual embryo sacs are observed in some ovules. Only a very small proportion of ovaries display any endosperm or pro-embryo development, and all ovules degenerate five days after pollination. Pollen tube growth in the mutant is abnormal, and the inhibition of fertilization has been proposed to explain the absence of seed set.The second, stubby head, was discovered in progeny of seed treated with both thermal neutrons and diethyl sulfate (Hanna and Powell 1973). This recessive mutation causes a pleiotropic phenotype, including twin ovules, shortened internodes, flattened stems, and a stubby inflorescence. It produces both normal sexual embryo sacs in some ovules and multiple embryo sacs, which arise from nucellar cells, in others. Test crosses confirmed that stubby head is a facultative apomict, producing maternal progeny at frequencies ranging between 23% and 77%. Mircrosporogenesis in this mutant is normal, however, seed set is low; this has been attributed partly to nonfertilization because of competition between the multiple embryo sacs.Stubby head could indeed be a very useful mutant, as it produces viable seed by apospory. Although the nature of the mutation is not known, the mutation affects several elements of apomixis in a single step. Whilst this could be due to a single gene mutation, the pleiotropic nature of the mutant phenotype could well indicate that it is caused by a deletion encompassing a number of genes.The above examples of m u tan ts with apomictic characteristics illustrate a number of points relevant to mutagenic approaches in model plants.The most important conclusion is that all the elements of apomixis can be induced by mutation in sexual plants. In one case, stubby head, several elements were induced simultaneously to produce a viable form of facultative apospory. It would be very interesting to analyze these mutants at the DNA level, but the isolation of genes from these crop species would not be a Simple task. Unlike Arabidopsis, the cloning of genes via their mutant alleles is not routine. None of the mutants described herein were originally isolated in screens for apomictic characteristics. The majority were isolated as reduced fertility mutants and some as pleiotropic mutants. Therefore, it seems worth considering which kinds of mutant phenotypes, other than apomixis itself, could be screened for in Arabidopsis. First, it might be worthwhile to screen for reduced fertility mutants, a simple screen that would involve testing for seed set in the M 2 . A large number of male-sterile mutants have been isolated from Arabidopsis. Some are present in the collection of T-DNA tagged lines (available from the Arabidopsis Stock Centers at Nottingham, U.K. and in Ohio, U.s.A.); these could all be screened for maternal progeny after pollination with a dominantly marked paternal line. Second, the tri and el mutants both give rise to shrunken seeds, and since it has been shown that an unbalanced ratio affects seed size in Arabidopsis too, this phenomenon could be used as a screen for the isolation of Arabidopsis mutants that produce unreduced egg cells.The most important precondition for the largescale screening of apomictic mutants is the availability of male sterile lines that do not set seed in the absence of pollination. Arabidopsis is ideally suited for such an undertaking because it offers several ways of establishing male-sterile lines. The most useful of these causes conditional male sterility, which allows the propagation of homozygous seed by selfing under permissive conditions. In addition, Arabidopsis provides easily scored dominant and recessive markers for subsequent screening of mutagenized progeny.The most obvious screen for apomictic mutants of a male-sterile sexual plant is for seed set in the absence of pollination. However, there have been no reports of mutants (in any model plant) that produce viable seed in the absence of pollination. This may well be because the number of progeny screened in this way was not large enough to detect such mutants, as these could indeed be very rare. For the reasons already outlined, however, it also seems likely that more than one gene mutation is required to induce a viable form of apomixis.Current efforts in several laboratories are directed toward the induction of partial apomictic development. Basically two main types of screens are being conducted. The first identifies mutants that show partial development of fruits in the absence of pollination. Normally, the pistils do not elongate in unfertilized flowers of Arabidopsis, whereas fertilized flowers produce long fruits (siliques). In the expectation that partial seed development would lead to visible silique elongation, the screen is simply for elongated siliques on male-sterile plants under nonpermissive conditions. Whether these are due to autonomous embryo or endosperm development or both must be established by further cytological analysis of the siliques. The second screen is for mutants that produce autonomous embryos but which require fertilization of the polar nuclei for endosperm development, i.e., for pseudogamous apomicts. The screen is simply for maternal progeny among a population of male-sterile mutants that are pollinated by pollen with a dominant marker.Two laboratories have recently reported the isolation of Arabidopsis mutants that show partial seed development in the absence of fertilization (Ohad et al. 1996;Chaudhury et al. 1997). In one case, the parental material was a conditional male-sterile popl mutant, which is fertile at high humidity but does not produce functional pollen at low humidity (Ohad et al. 1996). Homozygous popl seeds were mutagenized with EMS, and 50,000 M, plants were screened for silique elongation under nonpermissive conditions. A total of 12 lines were isolated, each of which had partially elongated siliques appearing as sectors on the M] plants. The characteristics of one of these mutants, fie (for fertilization independent endosperm), were described in detail. Because this mutant, now called fie3, as well as two more fie mutants now appear to be allelic to the mutants subsequently obtained by Chaudhury, they will not be described separately. Chaudhury used as the parental plant a pistil/ata (Pi) mutant, which has no petals or stamens. Since this plant is male-sterile in all conditions, it was mutagenized in the heterozygous F] population after crossing to a wild type. Again, 50,000 plants, in this case the petalless portion of the M 2 generation, were screened for elongated siliques, and six mutants were obtained. Three of these ({isl to fis3-fertilization independent seed) were characterized in detail.All three fis mutations are gametophytic, giving rise to seed-like structures from 50% of ovules in heterozygous fis/FIS plants. These mutant seeds contain diploid endosperm that develops up to the stage of cellularization and then atrophies. The majority of mutant seeds have no embryos, and only a small proportion of fis1 and fis2 seeds contain proembryos arrested at the globular stage. However, after pollination of mutant flowers, each of the mutant seeds contains an embryo at the more advanced torpedo stage, including fislfie3, which shows no embryo development in the absence of fertilization. By testing for a dominant pollen marker (GUS), it could be shown that these torpedo-stage embryos consist of a mixture of zygotic and maternal embryos. Even after fertilization by a wild type sperm nucleus, the resulting embryo is aborted, suggesting that the wild type FrS/FIE allele is essential for female gametophyte development. Thus, the fislfie mutations can only be transmitted via pollen, by fertilization of a wild type ovule. Ohad had previously shown that the endosperm of fie3 too is fertilized in the presence of pollen, suggesting that the mutation does not present a block to fertilization, either of the egg or the central cell.The primary effect of the fislfie mutations is the premature proliferation of the endosperm in the absence of pollination. A secondary effect is the formation of a normal seed coat from the integuments of the ovule and the elongation of the silique. As discussed by Ohad et a!., these two processes both involve maternal developmental programs that must be induced by signals from the developing gametophyte. The discovery of embryoless seeds with normal seed coat and elongating siliques suggests that the signal originates in the endosperm rather than in the embryo.It is not clear what the relationship is between fislfie and the genes controlling apomixis. The fact that the mutations affect a late developmental stage after embryo-sac differentiation make it unlikely that they are alleles of the apomixis genes per se. They could, however, be the targets of apomictic regulatory genes. It is noteworthy that fislfie are female lethal mutations, as this is consistent with the observation that apomixis appears to be controlled by a dominant gene, the recessive (sexual) allele of which may be required for some function in development. It would be interesting to test the effect of these mutations in a tetraploid background to see if diploid embryo sacs heterozygous for fis/fie have autonomous endospenn development and are able to transmit the mutant allele.The three mutants described above were identified in two independent large-scale screens of M] and M 2 progeny, respectively; each mutant was isolated in the fonn of several allelic mutations, suggesting that the level of mutagenesis must have been near saturation. The fact that all mutants detected in these two screens show autonomous endosperm, and that many of the seed-like structures contained no embryos, could mean that a mutation resulting in autonomous embryo development, but one that does not activate endosperm, would not be detected in a screen for elongated siliques.Finally, a screening program for elongated siliques in Arabidopsis has been described by Ramulu et al. (1997). Again, the conditional male-sterile seed parents are waxless eceriferum mutants, cerl and cer6-2 (popl), which are selffertile at high humidity and male sterile at low humidity. M] plants have been screened for sectors with elongated siliques, and M 2 families derived from selfed individual M] plants have been screened for segregation of plants containing elongated siliques.We are currently conducting a screen for dominant mutations that result in the production of autonomous embryos but that may require fertilization of the central nucleus for the development of endosperm. Although most natural pseudogamous apomicts have fertile pollen, induced mutations that give rise to autonomous embryos as a result of meiotic disturbances could also have defective pollen. Such mutants would not be recovered in the M 2 genera tion after selfing. For this reason, and to take advantage of the smaller number of plants that need to be screened to obtain a mutant, we decided to screen in the M 1 .In one version of the screen, mutants are detected in the form of maternal progeny after pollination by a pollen parent containing a dominant marker. This screen depends on the formation of fertile seed and would not detect mutant apomictic seeds that fail to germinate. Therefore, we devised a second version that allows thee detection of autonomous embryos at an immature seed stage, and which can be employed should the first version fail.The seed stock used for mutagenesis is a conditional male sterile line (OTA 03) in the Arabidopsis C24 background. This line is homozygous for a transgene encoding a temperature sensitive diptheria toxin under the control of the tapetum-specific promoter A9. Growth at 18°C results in male sterility due to the absence of functional pollen. At 26°C, the plants are fertile, allowing the propagation of homozygous seed by selfing.Seeds were m u tagenized wi th EMS for 6 hours, washed, and dried for storage on filter paper. The seeds were sown in batches of 100-200 at regular intervals, and seedlings were grown to flowering in individual pots. After growth at 18°C for at least one week, the plants were cut back to two mature flowers on a single inflorescence. These M j flowers were pollinated by a transgenic line in the WS background homozygous for a Basta herbicide resistance gene. Progeny resulting from crossfertilization are resistant to Basta, whereas maternal progeny are Basta-sensitive (Figure 13.1). However, since Basta-sensitive plants cannot be rescued, this selection presents a problem in cases in which only a small number of seeds are available. We are therefore currently using a simplified selective criterion, spoecifically, the dominant leaf morphology of resulting in a diploid seedling; and (iii) selfing of the conditional male-sterile plant by infrequently fertile pollen. As illustrated in Figure 13.1, haploid parthenogenesis arising in the M 1 should produce equal frequencies of maternal and hybrid progeny. In the case of diploid parthenogenesis resulting from a dominant mutation, all progeny could be maternal. However, in both cases the expected frequency would be less if the mutation results in facultative parthenogenesis or if the mutation had incomplete penetrance.Considering pseudogamous development of the endosperm, both haploid parthenogenesis and selfing would result in a balanced maternal: paternal ratio, and therefore the size and shapes of seeds are expected to be normal. However, in the case of diploid parthenogenesis, the endosperm may have either a balanced or unbalanced m:p ratio, depending on whether one or both sperm nuclei fertilize the central cell. Therefore the resulting seed could be either of normal size or smaller (maternal excess phenotype). Small seeds might be distinguishable at the time of sowing, and appropriate steps could be taken should they not readily germinate on normal soil.The scale of any screening program involving pollination is limited by its labor intensity and by the space required for growing the progeny. For future screens, we have therefore incorporated a recessive marker into the seed parent that is detectable at a very early stage of seedling growth. We crossed the conditional male sterile line DTA Q3 with the thiamine auxotrophic tz mutant, and selected progeny homozygous for both conditions (DTA tz). After pollination with wild type pollen, heterozygous progeny are thiamine prototrophic, but maternal progeny are auxotrophic (Figure 13.1).Homozygous tz mutants emerge with green cotyledons, but the first true leaves are white. These seedlings can be rescued by spraying with thiamine. The advantage of this system is the early detection of maternal progeny that allows screening at a much higher density and provides results soon after sowing. If this screen for maternal progeny mutants is not successful, the second version is employed that allows the identification of autonomous embryos (Figure 13.1). For this purpose, mutants are pollinated by a pollen parent transgenic for an embryo-specific GUS reporter gene (Topping et al. 1994). GUS expression is easily detectable in the developing seeds from eight days after pollination, well in advance of seed ripening. GUS-negative embryos again could arise from haploid or diploid parthenogenetic egg cells or from selfing of the plant.In principle, the viable and nonviable seed screens could be carried out Simultaneously by combining the use of the thiamineauxotrophic male-sterile seed parent with a pollen donor containing the embryo-specific GUS reporter. One of the siliques resulting from the cross could be stained for GUS activity at an immature stage and the other left on the plant until seed maturation.Putative apomictic candidates can be further tested to confirm whether endosperm development is autonomous or pseudogamous (Figure 13.1). For this purpose, a pollen donor line has been established in the ecotype WS that is transgenic for an endosperm-specific marker gene, the GUS gene ~nder the control of a high molecularweight glutenin wheat gene (Colot et al. 1987). This is expressed only in the cells of the developing endosperm. After crossing with this marker line, GUS expression is tested in siliques at an immature stage, before endosperm absorption. This system could also be used to screen for autonomous endosperm mutants independent of embryo formation.If the cited screens for viable and nonviable apomictic seed prove unsuccessful, a screen involving pollination will be conducted in an M 2 . This allows the detection of recessive as well as dominant mutants. Also, it is well known that mutations occur in sectors of M] plants, and by screening only a single inflorescence per plant, many mutants may be lost. This loss can be avoided by screening in theM 2Transposon mutagenesis, like T-DNA tagging, creates mutations by insertion of the transposon into a gene. Its advantage is that tagged genes can be isolated by using the inserted sequence as a molecular probe. Also, a large number of mutants can be produced simply by repeated selfing of the plants. This approach is currently being applied to Arabidopsis and Petunia, as described in detail by Ramulu et al. (1997). We shall briefly summarize the main points.For Arabidopsis, a two-element system, derived from the maize transposable element En-[, was used (Aarts et al. 1995). The maize transposon has a 13 bp inverted repeat at each terminus and encodes a transposase required for transposition. The two-element system consists of a nonautonomous \"wings-elipped\" En-transposase under the control of the CaMV 355 promoter and a nonautonomous mobile I-element with flanking inverted repeats that has been inserted into a kanamycin resistance (nptII) gene. Both elements are contained within a T-DNA that also carries a hygromycin resistance marker for selecti on of transformants. Several lines that contained about 20 I-elements and the En-transposase were crossed with homozygous cerl and cer6-2 mutants, and homozygous male sterile lines were selected from the segregating F 2 population. Propagation of these lines for several generations under permissive conditions is expected to create a large number For transposon mutagenesis in Petunia, Ramulu et al. (1997) are using a two-element transposon system found in Petunin, which consists of a nonautonomous element, dTphl, and an autonomous element carrying the transposase, ACTl (Doodeman et al. 1984;Gerats et al. 1990). A line containing more than 200 copies of dTphl, which produces a high frequency of unstable mutations in selfed progeny, was used to establish a number of transposon genotypes, which were each crossed with a conditional male-sterile plant. Male sterility in this line results from the absence of flavonols, which is caused by a chalcone synthase antisense gene (Ylstra et al. 1994). The application of flavonols, which are required for pollen tube growth, restores fertili ty and allows selfing. Plants homozygous for the male sterility phenotype will be selected in F 2 populations, and screening for apomictic mutants will be conducted on a large number ofF 3 and F 4 plants in the absence of flavonols.A benefit of mapping data from several important crop plants and from Arabidopsis has been the discovery that groups of genes within large segments of the chromosomes are arranged in the same linear order between related species regardless of differences in genome size (Flavell and Moore 1996). In many cases, molecular markers identified for one species are found to map to corresponding locations in a related species. This high level of synteny can be exploited for the isolation of genes from species with large genomes. The homologous gene can first be isolated from a related species with a small genome, such as Arabidopsis, where fine mapping and chromosome walking are feasible; it can then be used as a probe for direct isolation of the gene from the species of interest.226 Uta P,..kelt ..dRod S<ott Of particular relevance to our current efforts is the observed synteny between the genomes of Arabidopsis and Brassica, a genus that contains many important crop species and, like Arabidopsis, belongs to the family Brassicaceae (Kowalski et al. 1994). By extension, we expect that there is synteny between Arabidopsis and Arabis, another genus of the Brassicaceae containing several apomictic species. We have initiated a molecular study of Arabis with a view to exploit the mapping data available from Arabidopsis to isolate the apomixis gene(s).The so-called Arabis holboellii complex is a collection of closely related species at several base numbers and ploidy levels from diploid to triploid, tetraploid and hexaploid. Apomicts are common, particularly in the triploid species, but are also found at the diploid (2n = 14) level (Bacher 1951;Roy 1995). However, as pointed out by Carman (personal comm.) this diploid species is likely to be paleopolyploid. Apomixis is of the diplosporous type, and endosperm formation is pseudogamous. It is not clear, however, whether pollination results in fertilization of the endosperm nucleus or is only required to trigger endosperm development (Roy 1995).Pollen viability is high in apomictic Arabis spp., and therefore the diploid apomict would be an ideal candidate for the establishing mapping populations with the sexual species, such as A. drllmmondii. The collection of molecular markers available in Arabidopsis can be used to identify markers associated with apomixis in Arabis. Alternatively, if none of the Arabidopsis markers show heterozygocity between the Arabis species to be mapped, new markers can be identified in Arabis and subsequently mapped to the Arabidopsis genome. Much of the Arabidopsis genome is already available in the form of yeast or bacterial artificial chromosomes (YACs or BACs), and sequencing of the genome will be complete in a matter of a few years. Therefore, it will be possible to use the markers that cosegregate with apomixis in Arabis for the identification of the sexual alleles corresponding to the apomixis locus, and consequently, the apomixis genes themselves.The various examples of mutants in nonmodel species and the recently discovered Arabidopsis \"autonomous endosperm\" mutants illustrate a number of points about mutagenesis for the induction of apomixis in sexual plants. First, it seems that all elements of apomixis can be induced in sexual species by mutagenesis. Which element of apomixis can be identified is clearly dependent on the kind of screen employed. Many serendipitous discoveries have been made from pleiotropic effects of the mutations, such as shriveled seed, small plant size, or male sterility, which suggests that these parameters should be included in screening programs. In Arabidopsis, previous efforts have relied on screens for elongated siliques and have resulted in a single category of mutants that produce autonomous endosperm. Whilst these mutants have provided important insights into the interrelationship between fruit development and endosperm proliferation, they illustrate the necessity for more sophisticated screens to isolate mutants wit~ autonomous embryos. One of ~hese, involving post-mutagenesis pollination, has been described in detail and is expected to identify new mutants not related to fislfie.Evidence gathered so far from mutants in the Brassicaceae suggest that (i) the diplosporous type of apomixis could be ind uced more easily in Arabidopsis than apospory, since diplospory is found in Arabis , and (ii) the Brassicaceae may be predisposed to the pseudogamous type of apomixis as found in Arabis. That Arabidopsis might be predisposed to pseudogamy can be concluded from the induction of haploid parthenogenesis at high frequency by the application of brassinolide, the steroid hormone present in pollen that may be the trigger for endosperm development following normal pollination (Kitani 1994).The fact that to date mutagenesis has not resulted in fertile maternal seed confirms the hypothesis that viable apomixis can only be obtained in species that have acquired the necessary preadaptations. A long-term consideration in our pursuit of apomictic mutants in Arabidopsis may well be to combine mutations obtained from different screening procedures. For example, it is possible that a mutation that produces unreduced embryo sacs, in combination with a ftslfie mutation (perhaps in the heterozygous state), would result in a viable form of apomixis. Although such experiments could be carried out without further knowledge of the genes involved, an important step toward a controllable system of apomixis will be the isolation and characterization of the mutations and their wild type alleles. The mutant genes could be transferred to normal Arabidopsis via T-DNA, to determine what effect they have in a background where the wild type allele is also present. It would be interesting to determine if the ftslfie mutations are transmissible by female gametes and, if dominant, give rise to seeds with autonomous endosperm and embryos.Efforts to identify apomixis genes from Arabis, as well as other apomicts, should eventually come to fruition. An intriguing area of inquiry, when that comes to pass, will be the nature of the relationship between these natural apomixis loci and any mutations conferring apomictic characteristics that have been identified in the related sexual species. The combined strategies of mutagenesis in sexual plants to induce apomixis, and in apomictic plants to identify natural apomixis genes, According to projections, world population will increase from six billion people today to eight billion in 2020, stabilizing at 9-11 billion people around the middle of the 21 '1 century (Lutz et al. 1997;Evans 1998;Toenniessen, Chap. 1). Profuse quantities of high quality and safe food products will be required to feed this growing population. At the same time, strong pressures are at work demanding that this food be produced in an environmentally friendly manner, e.g., using less agrochemicals. In Europe, agricultural production has steadily increased while population has begun to decrease, resulting in an overproduction of food products. By contrast, the developing world will need to produce two or three times as much food as it does today (Toenniessen, Chap. 1). By 2020, cereal production, for example, will need to increase by 41 %, and root and tuber production by 40% (Spillane 1999). To meet this dramatically increasing demand, new plant varieties are needed that are both higher yielding and better adapted to specific climatic conditions. Essentially, this challenge must be met without a significant expansion of agricultural area.Although less agricultural prod uction will be needed in the developed world, new products, so-called 'novel foods,' 'functional foods,' 'designer foods,' as well as renewable raw materials will soon gain more agricultural market share. It is expected that most of these new products will be produced through biotechnology. Therefore, it is not surprising that the global market for agricultural biotechnology products is expected to increase from US$500 million in 1996 to US$20 billion within the next 15 years Games 1997).One biological process in particularapomixis---could revolutionize 2pt century agriculture in both developed and developing countries. The harnessing of apomixis is expected to launch a new era for plant breeding and seed production. Mastering apomixis would allow (i) immediate fixation of any desired genetic combination (genotypes, F ls included); (ii) propagation of crops through seed that are currently propagated vegetatively (seed is easier to transport and to sow); (iii) faster and less expensive plant breeding and seed production (e.g., hybrid seeds could be easily produced); (iv) a larger pool of germplasm to be used to create more locally adapted varieties (once apomixis is integrated into breeding schemes); and (v) a carryover of beneficial phytosanitary side effects through seed propagation, because very few pathogens are transferred through seeds (Grossniklaus et al. 1998a;Bicknell and Bicknell 1999). Furthermore, exploiting apomixis would allow breeding with obligate apomictic species (e.g., Pennisetum spec.), where introgression of new traits is currently very limited (do Valle and Miles,Chap. 10), and the use of male sterile plants for seed production. In tum, this would prevent the migration of transgenes from crop plants to wild relatives. All these advantages taken together undoubtedly would lead to large increases in agricultural production and prompted VielIe-Calzadaet al. (1996a) to coin the term\" Asexual Revolution\" to describe the potential impact of the technology.The possible economic benefits of the technology are also considerable. In rice, added productivity would total more than US$2.5 billion per year (McMeniman and Lubulwa 1997). It is prOjected that the heterosis effect alone would result in yield increases of more than 30% (Yuan 1993;Toennissen, Chap. 1). Of today's US$15 billion global market in commercial seed, hybrid seed accounts for 40% of sales (Rabobank 1994), a further indication of the enormous economic potential of apomixis for agricultural enterprises.Unfortunately, scientific and economic potential shed little light on the actual intricacies of how the genes involved in apomictic reproduction work. Many have concluded that the genes that control apomixis are also crucial for sexual development, indicating that apomixis is a short-circuited sexual pathway (Koltunow et al. 1995;Grossniklaus, Chap. 12). The genetic engineering of apomixis, therefore, requires a better understanding of both apomictic and sexual pathways of reproduction.In general, apomixis is thought to occur in polyploid species (Asker and Jerling 1992), especially in the Rosaceae, Asteraceae, and in the Poaceae (for review see Berthaud, Chap. 2). For most species in which apomixis has been described, diplOids reproduce sexually, while polyploids of the same species are apomictic. Most natural apomicts reproduce through facultative apomixis (Asker and Jerling 1992;Berthaud, Chap. 2). The degree of apomictic reproduction is influenced by the genetic background, ploidy level, modifier genes, and the environment. There is also a great diversity of apomictic behavior: nine types of gametophytic apomixis have been described in addition to sporophytic apomixis (adventitious embryony) (Crane,Chap. 3).Unfortunately, apomixis is not found in the most important cultivated crops, which could be a resul t of crop domestication, selection, and segregation analysis (Grossniklaus, Chap. 12). There are three main options for the engineering of apomixis into sexual crops: (i) transfer the trait into crops from wild, naturally apomictic relatives through numerous backcrossings, (ii) screen sexual crops for apomictic mutants, and (iii) de novo synthesize the apomictic trait directly into crops. These approaches will be discussed in the following pages.Breeding and Introgression from Wild Relatives Generally, breeding apomictic species is very difficult, consequently, there have been only a few breeding programs, and these focused on a very limited number of tropical grass species. The basic structure of such breeding programs is described in this book, using Brachiaria as an example, an important forage grass in South America, (do Valle and Miles,Chap. 10). Obligate apomicts cannot serve as maternal plants and breeding of such species is therefore impossible. The polyploid and highly heterozygous nature of most apomictic plants further complicates genetic analysis. In addition, controlled pollination is needed to analyze reproductive behavior (methods are described by Sherwood,Chap. 5). Additional techniques are needed to monitor reproduction behavior in progeny plants of new varieties. Such techniques are described in this book by Berthaud (Chap. 2), Crane (Chap. 3), and Leblanc and Mazzucato (Chap. 9). The techniques described include chromosome counting, flow cytometry, clearing and G...Ii, Elgil..';\"!!o/ Apomlxl. i. 5....1Cropo: ACr~iuII A.....me.t of the Apanixl. w ..1ogy 231 squashing techniques, sectioning, molecular markers, and the \"auxin test.\" Ultrastructural studies using electron microscopy Chap. 4) reveal even more information, but are very laborious, timeconsuming, and poorly suited to large-scale progeny analysis. Flow cytometry analysis of seeds is a fast and easy tool and thus probably the method of choice for first progeny testings. This is because large numbers of progeny populations have to be produced and investigated at each generation in order to analyze reproductive behavior (Matzk et al. 2000;Savidan, Chap. 11).Several sexual crop plants are closely related to wild apomicts, and introgression of the apomixis trait through wide crosses has successfully been performed with wheat, maize, and pearl millet (reviewed by Bicknell,Chap. 8;Savidan,Chap. 11). Nevertheless, there are some limitations: total male sterility was observed frequently in F j hybrids of wide crosses, representing a dead end once the apomixis trait is obligate. In wide crosses between Tripsacum and maize, fertile apomictic BC 4 with less than 11 Tripsacum chromosomes could not be identified (Savidan,Chap. 11), resulting in maize lines devoid of agronomic value. Another disadvantage of this approach is that transfer of natural apomixis genes from wild species into related sexual crops by introgression is likely to remain limited to those crops that have apomictic relatives and so will not be applicable to other species.Mutagenesis approaches have been described in great detail earlier in this book by Grossniklaus (Chap. 12) and Praekelt and Scott (Chap. 13). Therefore, we will discuss only the main conclusions here.The basis for all mutagenesis approaches is the assumption that apomictic reproduction pathways are developmental variations of the sexual pathway, thus a short-circuited sexual pathway. Mutant screens have therefore been designed to induce sexuality in apomicts and apomictic mutants in sexual plants by the inactivation of genes. Many mutants were identified as being defective in meiosis, megasporogenesis, and gametogenesis (for review, see Yang and Sundaresan 2000;Grossnikiaus, Chap. 12). Mutant analysis of megagametogenesis, for example, suggests that a large number of loci are essential for embryo-sac development. Other mutants are described as displaying autonomous embryo and/ or endosperm development. The corresponding genes have been recently cloned. Mealfisl (medea/jertilization independent seed 1) is a gametophyte maternal effect gene probably involved in regulating cell proliferation in the endosperm and also partially in the embryo (Grossniklaus et al. 1998b;Luo et al. 1999). Fis2 shows a similar mutant phenotype and encodes a putative zinc-finger transcription factor (Luo et al. 1999). Autonomous endosperm development was observed in the fie (fertilization independent endospermlfis3) mutant. Mealfisl and fie/fis3 display homology to Polycomb proteins (Grossnikiaus et al. 1998b;Ohad et al. 1999), which are involved in long-term repression of homeotic genes in Drosophila and mammalian embryo development (pirrotta 1998).The most important conclusion derived from the des~ription of these mutants is that all the elements of apomixis can indeed be induced by mutations in sexual plants. In addition, it is obvious that more than one mutation will be necessary to obtain vital apomictic seeds in sexual crops. Nevertheless, a combination of such isolated genes could be used for known gene approaches, but additional genes will be needed to obtain fully developed seeds. Until now, most mutagenesis screens have concentrated on the partial or complete inactivation of the genes that are needed for progression or inhibition of development. Future screens will also include activation tagging in order to induce genes under a spatial, temporal, or developmental regime that differs from that in the sexual wild type plants.Known genes used for genetically engineering the apomixis trait should lead to the following biological processes:(1) avoidance and bypassing of meiosis (apomeiosis); (2) formation, ideally, of one functional unreduced embryo sac within each ovule; (3) autonomous development of the unreduced egg cell by parthenogenesis; (4) development of a functional endosperm-this could be autonomous or pseudogamous after fertilization of the central cell; and (5) an inducible/repressible system that is necessary to switch between apomictic and sexual reproduction pathways, because sexuality and recombination will be required for the introduction of new traits into crops, which will result in new and improved plant varieties. Based on analyses of mutants in apomictic and sexual plant species, it is unlikely that the apomixis trait can be engineered using a single gene. Tms is supported by the fact that in most cases apomixis is facultative and that the proportion of apomictic progeny can be influenced by different factors, e.g., by environmental factors. Variability witmn the different apomictic reproduction pathways further indicates that asexual seed development cannot be explained on the basis of a single gene.One possibility for engineering apomixis is based on isolating the apomixis gene(s) from natural apomicts and inserting them into sexual crops. Molecular mapping of apomixis genes and gene isolation by map-based cloning or transposon tagging (described by Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6) are performed in various laboratories, but until now no apomixis genes could be isolated and markers still lie within cM distance. One major problem with several apomicts is suppression of recombination around the apomixis loci (e.g., Pennisetum and Tripsacum; Grimanelli et aI.,Chap. 6). In addition, apomictic species do not belong to the classical model plant species, and therefore positional cloning is difficult because of the relatively low number of available markers, which are needed to \"walk\" to the apomixis gene(s). Transposon tagging is not possible for most apomicts (TripsQwm is an exception because it can easily be crossed with maize lines carrying active transposon elements), and for the near future, T-DNA tagging will remain restricted to dicotyledonous apomicts such as Hieracium, which are accessible to Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation (Bicknell,Chap. 8). Moreover, it is also possible that because of the polyploid nature of natural apomicts, no such phenotype exists.Known genes/promoters from sexual species that could be used for genetic engineering include those involved with (i) ovule development, (ii) initiation of meiosis, (iii) female gametophyte development, (iv) parthenogenesis, and thus autonomous embryo development, and (v) initiation of endosperm development. Grossniklaus (Chap. 12) specul~tes that the genes controlling apomixis are under relaxed or aberrant temporal and/ or spatial control, thus developmental checkpoints and feedback mechanisms may be ignored or altered, leading to precocious development of the megaspore mother cell and/or the unreduced egg cell.Ovule-and nucellus-specific genes/promoters are now available as tools (see Tables 14.1 and 14.2). The molecular control of meiosis is well characterized in yeast (Vershon and Pierce 2000) and some animal systems, e.g., be used as a tool to induce parthenogenetic development of sexual eggs, and perhaps those same genes might be useful for inducing endosperm development. Although the existence of repressor molecules that prevent unfertilized eggs from initiating embryo development has not been proven, it is reasonable to postulate their reality. Once isolated, they might be a useful tool for engineering parthenogenetic embryo development as a component of apomixis.Induction of endosperm development will probably be the biggest obstacle to the utilizing apomixis in sexual crop species (discussed further under \"Main Limitations\"). Nevertheless, an in vitro system for endosperm development in maize was reported recently (Kranz et al. 1998), providing impetus to molecular investigations about gene expression and regulation during the earliest steps of endosperm development.Tremendous progress has been made in plant genetic engineering since the first reports of successful plant transformation appeared in the early 1980s, and many commercially relevant genes have been transferred to crop plants (Christou 1996). Agrobacteril/mmediated transformation has been the method of choice for introducing exogenous DNA into dicotyledonous plants. Agrobacteril/m transformation has proven difficult with cereals, and consequently, alternative methods such as particle bombardment have been employed. Nevertheless, because Agrobacterillm-mediated gene delivery offers many advantages (easy protocols, often low-or even single-copy integrations, mostly full-length integration of transgenes, short or no tissue culture period), considerable effort has been dedicated to establishing this method for cereals (Komari et al. 1998). Agrobacteril/m transformation of rice is now routine, while successful transformation of maize and wheat has also been reported (Ishida et al. 1996;Cheng et al. 1997). Even so, particle bombardment of wheat and maize immature scutellum tissue remains the most widely used method in most public laboratories. Relatively efficient transformation systems are now available for all major crops as well as some forage grasses (Spangenberg et al. 1998). Development of transformation systems for apomictic species is in progress, and transformation protocols for pearl millet will be established once interesting apomixis genes become available (P. Ozias-Akins, personal comm.). Transformation of Brachiaria and Tripsacum are foci of apomixis programs at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), respectively.A major problem related to transgene activity is the instability of expression Oorgensen 1995; Matzke and Matzke 1995). Often inactivation of transgene expression is accompanied by an increase in DNA methylation (Meyer 1995). In addition, transgenes may be integrated in hypermethylated chromosomal regions displaying a spatial and temporal change of methylation during plant growth and development (position effect). Transgenes with homologous sequences to endogenous genes may be silenced through the cosuppression effect Oorgensen 1995; Matzke and Matzke 1995). All the same, plants stably expressing the transgenes can be selected over generations, although this is time-consuming and expensive. Suggestions have been made as to how vectors used for genetic transformation can be optimized in order to minimize the cosuppression effect (Meyer 1995). Single-eopy integration of transgenes will be enabled by the deployment of Agrobacterillm-mediated gene delivery. This in tum will increase the rate of plants that stably express the transgenes. Gene targeting by homologous recombination, i.e., the G ...1i< bgl...n.g.f A,oooixis io S.loaI Crops: ACritkal A.....'_t .f tH Aponll. TeO..1ogy 237 generation of null mutants, is probably the ideal way to stably silence genes. The deployment of this approach, however, is still relatively limited for higher plants (Puchta 1998). An alternative is homology-dependent gene silencing (HOGS; for review, see Kooter et a!. 1999), especially through the use of double-stranded RNA (RNAi: RNA interference technology) as a template for gene silencing (Bass 2000). Gene silencing at rates up to 100% was reported with transgenic plants using the latter approach.Inducible/repressible systems are necessary to engineer the apomixis trait, because genetic recombination through sexual crossing will always be required for the introduction of new traits into crops. In a panel discussion with industrial representatives during the Third European Apomixis Workshop (April 21-24, 1999, Gargnano, Italy), it became very clear that inducible systems for engineering the apomictic trait are highly desired (http:/ / www.apomixis.de;seeworkshops).mainly because they serve as a natural means of protecting intellectual property rights (see \"Intellectual Property Rights,\" this chapter). The question is whether such systems are practically possible, given the problems encountered with the application of gametocides. Various chemical inducible systems have been reported, e.g., the tetracycline inducible/inactivatable promoter system, and steroid-, copper-and ethanol inducible promoter systems (for review, see Gatz and Lenk 1998). Whether these systems are applicable and acceptable for use under field conditions is doubtful; spraying antibiotics, steroids, and heavy metals is enVironmentally unacceptable. Ethanol systems might offer an alternative. Most of these systems, however, are leaky and have some background activity, or they may be too sensitive. In addition, there is the question of how homogeneously the induction works in different organs, especially in embedded cells like megaspore mother cells and the cells of the embryo sac, which are the main target cells for the genetic engineering of different apomixis components. Seed producers anticipate efficiency rates as high as 99% for such systems (http://www.apomixis.de; see panel discussion during the Third European Apomixis Workshop). EXisting systems, therefore, must be optimized, or preferably, new systems using natural, easily biodegradable, and harmless chemicals as inducers must be developed to satisfy seed producer demands and environmental necessities.Perhaps the biggest obstacle to genetically engineering apomictic grain crops is that fertilization of the central cell is likely to be required because of dosage effects (Birchler 1993;Savidan, Chap. 11) and because au tonomous endosperm development occurs at low frequenCies in cereals. A balanced maternal:paternal genome ratio (2m:1p) is an absolute requirement for endosperm development in cereals- (Birchler 1993). In most cases, deviation from this ratio leads to embryo abortion or seeds with diminished fertility (Birchler 1993;Praekelt and Scott, Chap. 13). In contrast to cereals, Scott et al. (1998) have shown that in Arabidopsis, 2m:2p, 4m:1p and 4m:2p ratios are allowed. Also observed in most pseudogamous apomicts are ratios of 4m:1p and 4m:2p. In apomictic lines of the maize relative Tripsacum, Grimanelli et a1.(1997) identified 2m:2p, 4m:1p, and 8m:1p ratios. Imprinting of gametic nuclei is the genetic reason behind this phenomenon: one set of alleles is silenced on the chromosomes contributed by the mother, while another set is silenced on the paternal chromosomes. Each genome thus contributes a different set of active alleles (Vinkenoog et al. 2000;Alleman and Doctor 2000). A few imprinted loci have 238 T1tonoas Dr......... Joino G. 'arJnlIlI, aod Yv.. S.vidao been investigated in plants (e.g., Kinoshita et al. 1999;Vielle-Calzada et aI. 2000;Alleman and Doctor 2000;Crane, Chap. 3), but we are just beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes. Nevertheless, the combination of maternal hypomethylation in combination with a loss of fie function was recently shown to enable the formation of differentiated endosperm without fertilization in Arabidopsis (Vinkenoog et aI. 2000). It remains to be demonstrated whether this approach is also feasible for crops, especially cereals, but it represents a promising step in assembling the many components needed to engineer apomixis into sexual crops.Another obstacle that needs to be overcome is the relatively high number of genes/ promoters that are required; in addition to inducible/repressible systems, it is likely that the precise and controlled interaction of many genes will have to be engineered. In natural apomicts, genes from different chromosomes are required for the expression of apomictic reproduction pathways. Blakey et aI. (1997) have shown that in apomictic Tripsacum, genes required for seed set are located on at least five Tripsacum linkage groups, which are syntenic to four maize chromosome arms. Sherwood (Chap. 5) observes that the expression of apospory requires the dominant allele of a major gene or linkat and that the degree of apomixis may be further influenced by many other genes (e.g., modifiers). Fewer data are available for diplospory, but in this case as well, a single master gene or a number of genes that behave as a single locus may be required for the expression of apomixis. The technical difficulties of introducing multipl~ genes within a single transformation event were successfully resolved recently using Agrobacterium-transformation with rice (Ye et aI. 20(0). Four genes were integrated on one construct; by crossing transgenic lines carrying other transgenes, a whole biosynthetic pathway was engineered into rice endosperm (Ye et aI. 2(00).To sum up, our understanding of the molecular regulation of apomictic and amphimictic reproduction pathways in crops, especially cereals, is still in its infancy, and thus, due to the complexity of these biological processes, modifying or controlling the pathways will probably not be achieved within the next five years.Intellectual property rights (IPR) are a means of promoting commercially relevant innovation and for sharing resources. The IPR owner obtains the right to use the intellectual property (IP) exclusively, license it, or not use it at all for a limited period (e.g., 20 years). In agricultural biotechnology and plant breeding, both scientific knowledge and its commercial applications are increasingly being claimed by companies, but also by public institutions such as universities and research centers (Spillane 1999). With hundreds of millions of dollars invested every year in plant biotechnology and breeding research, companies need effective IP protection to provide an incentive for niaking large research investments. These research results offer enormous benefits for agrochemical and seed companies, farmers, and the society as a whole. In the United States, c IPR include (i) geperal utility patents, (ii) Plant Variety Protection (UPGV), and (iii) plant patents for asexually repro.duced plants Uondle 1999).Given this context, it is not surprising that IPR for methods and .genes/promoters that are useful for the genetic engineering of apomixis have been claimed (Table 14.2). Most of the patents were filed during the last five years, probably because of improvements in plaJilt gene technology and in recognition of the enormous economic potential of utilizing apomixis for crop improvement. These apomixis patents raised concerns about the use of apomixis technology. The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), a nongovernmental organization, recently expressed the concern that apomixis IPR could wind up in the hands of only a few dominate global agrobusiness players, and that farmers in both developed and developing countries might become totally dependent on their seed products. Other concerns are that genetic diversity could significantly decline and that developing countries will not have access to this technology because they will be unable to afford the required rights and licenses (RAFI 1998). The latter concern is shared by leading apomixis researchers and was formalized in 1998 in the Bellagio Apomixis Declaration (for full text, see http:/ / billie.harvard.edu/apomixis). Signatories to the declaration were interested in how to develop novel approaches for generating the enabling technology, and how to patent and license it. Currently, patents related to apomixis enabling technology are dispersed among many parties (Table 14.2). Furthermore, it is expected that the number of patents will greatly swell as numerous public and private research institutions continue investigating different aspects of apomictic and amphimictic reproduction pathways using different species and approaches (see e.g., Bicknell and Bicknell 1999).Another negative impact stemming from apomixis patents is that communication of research results to the scientific community is either delayed until patents have been filed or they are Simply not communicated at all. A Widespread phenomenon in today's biomedical research is that while IPR is growing rapidly, scarce resources are poorly utilized because too many patent owners are blocking one another. Paradoxically, more IPR may lead to fewer useful products for the improvement of human health (Heller and Eisenberg 1998). In regards to apomixis, it is unlikely that the situation will change in the near future because it is still pOSSible to file very broad apomixis patents.The question of whether farmers in developing countries will get access to disclosed apomixis technology remains unanswered. One can hope that many of the relevant patents will be secured by public organizations such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and other public institutions (see Hoisington et al. 1999), thus giving interested parties in developing countries the possibility of acquiring free access to this powerful technology. Certainly, the public image of the big agrobusiness players would benefit from freely licensing the technology to CGIAR institutions or directly helping farmers in developing countries use this technology. The bulk of profits, after all, will be earned in the more developed countries. Introducing the apomixis trait into local varieties would give farmers in developing countries access to powerful and productive hybrid technology (Hoisington et al. 1999). To some extent, these farmers should have the right to save seed for subsequent replanting, thus allowing them to significantly increase their crop yield and personal income.Risk assessment research and studies relate to the use and or release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment. Since the first release of genetically m•odified plants (GMPs) some twelve years ago, many shortterm studies have been conducted (de Vries 1998). Short-and long-term risk assessment studies are also needed to evaluate the environmental implications of novel apomictic crops. One key issue for investigation is whether the apomixis trait can move to the land races and wild ancestors of food crop 240 no-P,ossdlaos, Jo. G. ' -.... Y.os ScrrioI.. plants, and if so, what would be the impact. This issue is especially important in the centers of origin for the crop plants. Furthermore, the issue of how apomixis might affect genetic diversity, and whether it would increase or decrease monoculture farming needs to be explored. Based on field studies on herbicide and/or insecticide resistant plants, we can probably expect engineered apomixis genes to move through vertical gene transfer (transfer of a gene from plant to plant via sexual reproduction/pollen) (Lutman 1999). The rate of horizontal gene transfer (asexual gene flow between organisms) is relatively low and the risk negligible, however, microbiological risk assessment studies in this area could be useful (Syvanen 1994). Given our current knowledge, it appears unlikely that microorganisms could gain some advantage over wild relatives after uptake of apomixis genes.If apomixis is controlled by multiple genes, the probability of diffusing this trait to wild relatives is extremely low. The transfer of several genes to a wild plant should lower its fitness to a level unacceptable for survival in the wild (Berthaud, Chap. 2). If apomixis is controlled by a single gene, which would result in obligate apomictic wild races, these races would lose their potential to evolve. If dominant, an apomixis gene could rapidly become fixed in an outcrossing sexual population. Therefore, in theory, apomixis transgenes could possess advantages that might result in the uncontrollable spread of the transgenes (van Dijk and van Damme 2000). Inducible apomictic systems and male sterility might circumvent these problems. Nevertheless, the described possibilities indicate that risk assessment studies and research to investigate the ecological implications of novel apomictic crops (once available) to the environment are an absolute necessity. In addition, socioeconomic studies on the positive and negative implications of this technology for breeders, seed companies, and farmers-in both developing and developed countries (see also IPR) will be required, and the research results should be communicated to all potential users.The extensive introduction of apomixis into sexual crops will undoubtedly rely on genetic engineering, as we anticipate that more candidate genes (especially regulatory genes and tissue/cell-specific promoters) and enabling techniques will be identified and developed in the near future. Transformation technology for all major crops is now available and inducible systems are currently being developed and optimized, allowing the control of transgene expression and activity even under field conditions. Adventious apomixis using already described or novel genes under the control of ovule-, nucellus-or archesporespecific promoters is probably the easiest way to engineer the apomixis trait. Plant breeders and seed producers would like to generate inducible obligate mitotic diplospory in combination with autonomous endosperm development. The latter is probably the most difficult aspect of engineering apomixis, espeCially for cereals such as wheat, rice, and maize, because of dosage and imprinting effects.Although apomixis is a hot topic in plant research, our current understanding of both apomictic and amphimictic reproduction pathways in higher plants is still extremely limited. The economic potential of apomixis might provide the impetus to bring apomictic crops to the marketplace, and in the process it may well contribute significantly to our future understanding of the molecular regulation of the many different sexual and apomictic plant reproduction pathways.International and interdisciplinary approaches and efforts are now needed to study and manipulate seed reproduction. It will be necessary (i) to characterize the genetic reproduction through seeds in apomictic regulation of apomixis and isolate the systems and sexual crops,\" coordinated by T. responsible genes, (ii) to analyze the genetic Dresselhaus). In 1999, a transatlantic and molecular bases of sexual reproduction consortium was initiated between two public and to isolate the corresponding genes, and institutions (CIMMYT and IRD) and three (iii) to produce the tissue/cell-specific and private companies (pioneer Hi-Bred, Novartis, inducible/repressible promoters that will be and Group Limagrain). This is just a beginning needed to control the expression of the target and more concerted projects are needed in genes. Concerted international research efforts order to reach the ambitious aim of have been made in Europe aimed at manipulating the apomixis trait in crops. understanding apomictic and sexual Apomixis technology will offer many exciting reproduction pathways in order to develop opportunities for the agriculture of the 21 sf tools for the manipulation of the apomictic century, and indeed many patents already trait (e.g., an E.U. Research Technology and have been filed with many more yet to come. Development (RTD) project entitled \"The It is critically important that these patents be manipulation of apomixis for the held and used for the good of all. Public improvement of tropical forages,\" coordinated institutions in particular must safeguard the by M. D. Hayward; a RTD project entitled access of developing countries to these \"Apomixis in agriculture: a molecular enabling technologies. In all likelihood, approach,\" coordinated by M. van Lookeren constraints to the broad and generous use of Campagne; and a Concerted Action Project apomixis technology will be political and entitled \"Introducing and controlling asexual economic rather than technical in the future.Blakey, CA., CL Dewald, and S.L Goldman. Colombo, L, 1. Franken, A.R. Von der Krol, PE.","tokenCount":"86106"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2200358488.json b/data/part_2/2200358488.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84139809453d1e176d85d546e90d7eeb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7af49974-7940-402a-9e37-b6af3081ba23/retrieve","id":"620612030"},"keywords":["RiceAdvice Lite Validation Training RiceAdvice Lite","validation","site specific fertilizer recommendations","training","field demonstration"],"sieverID":"da15c65d-05fc-4d67-bda7-3e270ae878af","pagecount":"10","content":"Capacity building to NARES and private sector in RiceAdvice Lite deployment and validation in irrigated and rainfed lowlands in Mali. Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA)] Acknowledgements Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. We would like to thank all participants who participated in this workshop. PhotosThis report provides an overview of the RiceAdvice Lite validation trial (RAL VAT) protocol activities conducted from May 24th to June 16th, 2024, under the AICCRA project. The objective of these activities was to train partners from the Syngenta Foundation and the Institut d'Économie Rurale (IER) in Mali on the RiceAdvice Lite validation trial protocol for the 2024 wet season. The training sessions were designed to equip participants with the necessary skills to effectively set up and manage trial plots, as well as to collect and analyze data using the RiceAdvice Lite application.   The following steps will be taken to ensure the continued success of the RiceAdvice Lite validation trials :1. Monitoring Visits: The first monitoring visits will be conducted to follow up on the setup of trial plots and verify the data collected, focusing on the treatments applied to the 10m x 10m plots.A second set of monitoring visits will take place during the rice maturity stage. These visits will include field training on the use of harvesting ropes to ensure accurate harvesting of the 5m x 5m net plots aiccra.cgiar.org info@cgiar.org CGIARAfrica","tokenCount":"278"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2208527708.json b/data/part_2/2208527708.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1fd3fa496bb3e0e407a5ec2d8b696da5f27e6b16
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6adb2e82159155d97660b9e5627fe80","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0095e1f2-bcfb-42b5-b07c-9109ff47acba/content","id":"-1724413260"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"405281ff-d77f-4ed4-9c5f-23304c3e1777","pagecount":"6","content":"Agriculture takes place in a social context. South Asia is a large and heterogeneous region of mixed farming systems and different cultures and social systems, which can enable or constrain opportunities and outcomes differently, for different social groups. Gender and other social relational factors have direct implications for who is able to learn about, try out, take up, and benefit from agricultural research for development (AR4D). Aimed at researchers working with climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asia, this resource suggests a set of issues to consider in relation to the integration of gender in climate-smart agricultural research for development.CSA practices address production challenges through a variety of short-and long-term strategies that aim to increase resilience to extreme weather and decrease agriculture's contribution to climate change, while meeting people's food security needs. Conservation agriculture (CA) has received considerable attention as a cost-saving set of practices that can promote conservation of soil, energy, and labor in farming systems around the world. CA is also widely considered as having an important role to play in strategies contributing to global food security as well as improving resilience and adaptation to climate change. Built around a core set of interlocking soil and water conservation practices that help to create a closed and interdependent farming system, CA's core practices include minimum tillage, soil cover (e.g., retention of residues), and crop diversification. However, current adoption rates in South Asia are often low and weakly sustained beyond the lifetimes of CA projects.Climate change often exacerbates the problems and inequities that poor rural women face. Their roles and livelihoods are highly dependent on the natural resources most threatened by climate change. The feminization of agriculture underscores the need to ensure that both men and women are able to learn about, try out, take up, and benefit from improved agricultural technologies, including climate-smart practices.What we know so far Mechanized CA is men dominated Men form the majority of farmers targeted for mechanized land preparation options (though a few projects seek to target women). As a consequence, women and men in the same households may employ different farming approaches, with women engaging in traditional farming practices and men using mechanization options.Women's and children's labor are often perceived as \"free,\" even though time spent on farming may be diverted from childcare, household maintenance, and other income-generation opportunities. At the household level, decisions about whether or not to purchase herbicides appear to focus not only on cost but also on willingness to pay.Agricultural demonstration events and training, including on CA/CSA, are sometimes hosted by or delivered through lead farmers. However, lead farmer selection criteria often exclude the majority of women and poorer men in the community from acting as lead farmers or demonstration hosts. An example is the need in some projects for lead/host farmers to demonstrate land ownership, which women can rarely do. When CA/CSA is introduced through the example of wealthier male farmers, poorer farmers -whether women or men -may feel that the technology is not relevant to them.Increasingly, selection criteria target women for training, but this does not necessarily mean that women are able to apply the lessons they have learned. Women-headed households often have potential to be early adopters, yet are rarely specifically targeted.There is limited evidence on the degree to which CA supports health and food and nutrition security objectives. Legumes are sometimes planted as an intercrop, or as a sequential crop. More needs to be understood about whether crop choice within a specific CA system supports household food objectives, by whom and with what logic such choices are made, and what happens when there is a conflict of interest.To develop a broad evidence-based understanding of how gender CSA technologies interact, studies are needed to provide detailed empirical knowledge from a number of sites across South Asia. These will build up the body of evidence required to fully understand how gender relations influence adoption decisions. This evidence can then be used to improve extension service delivery and policy.Comparative gender studies would help draw together commonalities in relation to smallholder systems targeted for CSA interventions, including CA, as well as to develop understandings of critical gender variations. In all cases, it is necessary to distinguish -within the diversity of households in any location -between women-headed households and women in male-headed households (and other household typologies as relevant). Attention can focus on differences in access to and control over resources, and intra-household decision-making between different household arrangements. Considering the costs and benefits to children in households is also important because changes in practices may affect their labor contributions to the farm, as well as their health status and the time parents are able to spend with them. Focusing on the opportunities and constraints offered by CSA/ CA to young men and women farmers, and also to hired labor, could form further research projects. Finally, given that the benefits of CA appear to improve with increasing investment, particularly towards mechanization and herbicides, it is important to establish the overall capacity of smallholders to invest, and specifically by gender.Evidence-based comparative gender studies will help track short-to medium-term outcomes of innovation technologies, policies, and organizational interventions in agriculture. This will contribute to establishing gendersensitive business model frameworks implemented through service providers and which women are able to access. Such models should identify gender-responsive interventions that assist in taking CSAs to scale. This would be achieved within the framework of integrating CSA into village development plans, using local knowledge and expertise and receiving support from local institutions.What criteria do smallholders apply in intra-household decisionmaking processes regarding selecting and implementing CSA/ CA technologies? What roles do men and women play in meeting household nutrition requirements via livestock, poultry, kitchen gardens, and foods purchased through crop sales; and how can improvements be made in securing a nutritious food basket?Gender Dynamics at the Household LevelTo what degree are community resources (land, water, trees, and sources of fodder, and wild foods -both animal and plant) managed in gender-equitable ways? What can be done to make management processes more equitable? How do share-cropping, landrenting, or community-managed land allocation systems affect the ability of women and men to invest in and implement CSA-related technologies?How is adoption of CSA by women perceived in the wider community, and how can negative community attitudes be influenced to become more positive?Research on specific practices: mapping involvement, knowledge, access to and impact of technologies, for example precision land levelling, mulching, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), bundling, micro-irrigation, and their related gendered differences.What are the gendered differences in women's and men's ability to access services and inputs (extension services, fertilizer and herbicide, credit, etc.) and invest in various CSA/CA technologies? To what extent does the acquisition of particular technologies impact women's and men's ability to deepen and expand their asset portfolios?What are the opportunity costs of specific technologies to women's, men's, and children's labor at the household level? How can improved farm accounting skills strengthen capacity of women to participate in intra-household decision-making in male-headed as well as female-headed households?Gender differences in women's and men's ability to invest financially in CA technologies, particularly in mechanization with contribution to other livelihood opportunities; effects of using particular CA technologies on other farm operations.Do contracting services for hire of specific machinery provide opportunities to overcome genderbased constraints to mechanization in CA, both for women heads of household, and for women within male-headed households? Do institutional arrangements, such as women-led machinery rental groups, encourage women to rent machines? How do women and men perceive the opportunities and constraints of mechanization? What sustainability measures are women practicing?What are the ergonomic effects on women when using particular options? Many women and men appreciate that mechanization reduces their workload. But others can lose their livelihood when mechanization displaces wage labor. Are there mitigation measures to lessen the negative impacts of labor displacement in CA?Awareness mapping of men and women on how residue retention and reducing burning improves soil health, thus strengthening productivity and combating human health hazards.What are the trade-offs, for women and men, of using residues for surface mulch?In what ways does residue retention affect livestock keeping practices and related income by women and men? What is the potential for building on-farm fodder banks using improved species? And what, if any, would be the trade-offs of this for women? And for men?What are the gendered opportunities, constraints, and trade-offs of CA-based crop diversification/rotation? What sources of knowledge do women and men access regarding crop varieties? What factors explain gendered differences in selection and adoption?Which criteria do women and men bring to bear around decisions of whether to diversify crops, and if so, which crops in CA systems? Do the crops selected for system diversification support improvements in food and nutrition security for all household members? If external actors (agronomists, development agencies, health workers) are involved in influencing crop selection in CA programs, to what degree do they consider (i) intra-household food and nutrition security requirements, (ii) development and promotion of value chains in targeted crops, and how to support women's participation in these, and (iii) intra-household decision-making processes around expenditures?How and to what extent are women able to access and control the additional income earned from crop diversification? How does diversification affect the availability of nutritious food for different household members?A whole nexus of questions can be built around the extent to which information and training programs on CSA/CA are gender responsive. Do they map and respond to women's and men's potentially different information and investment requirements (based on their existing roles and knowledge in the farming system)? In what ways do they work with, support, and extend women's and men's often different learning and knowledge exchange networks? Areas of inquiry include:Photo credit: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT.","tokenCount":"1613"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3793341348a0a03963f8ad5220403f51","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4c92eef3-d0e7-434b-b76f-23aaa286651d/retrieve","id":"537853662"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"585becd4-4e14-4cf9-8722-b63cf78638b1","pagecount":"40","content":"Incrementar la productividad en los sistemas alimentarios sin salirse de los límites ambientales y manteniendo la biodiversidad.Más del 25 % de la población mundial vive con menos de USD$ 3,2 al día, lo que hace que una dieta saludable sea inasequible para más de 3 mil millones de personas.Poner fin al hambre y permitir dietas seguras, asequibles y saludables para las personas más vulnerables del mundo.Cerrar la brecha de género y mejorar las oportunidades para los jóvenes en los sistemas alimentarios, terrestres y hídricos.Mejorar la resiliencia de los pequeños productores y reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de los sistemas alimentarios.• Se identifica en el objetivo general = 2 • Se identifica en el objetivo específico =1• No se identifica en el objetivo general = 0 • No se identifica en el objetivo específico = 0• Se identifica en el objetivo general = -1 • Se identifica en el objetivo específico = -1 Nota: El proceso de calificación se realiza a partir del análisis de texto de los objetivos (general y específicos); razón por la cual, se puede presentar sesgo de calificador, debido al entendimiento de cada calificador. Para reducir el sesgo, se realiza el proceso (de manera individual) por los cuatro miembros del equipo investigador, y se asigna el puntaje más frecuente.Relación neutra Relación negativa Nota: El proceso de calificación se realiza a partir del análisis de texto de las líneas estratégicas razón por la cual, se puede presentar sesgo de calificador, debido al entendimiento de cada calificador. Para reducir el sesgo, se realiza el proceso (de manera individual) por los cuatro miembros del equipo investigador, y se asigna el puntaje más frecuente.Metodología -Análisis de líneas estratégicas  El OG busca mejorar la seguridad alimentaria en las dimensiones de disponibilidad, acceso, utilización y estabilidad, y fomenta una adecuada calidad, variedad e inocuidad de los alimentos para la toda población colombiana.El OG propone la AdT* como un instrumento para la productividad y competitividad agrícola. Sin incluir consideraciones de sostenibilidad ambiental, esto puede significar una amenaza para los recursos hídricos y los suelos.Fuente: Elaboración Centro de Investigación en Sistemas Agroalimentarios. Las líneas estratégicas de la política incluyen componentes de:• Garantía de acceso a los alimentos.• Acceso a factores productivos a la población vulnerable. Las líneas estratégicas de la política incluyen componentes de:• Modelo de cofinanciación con entidades territoriales para el desarrollo de proyectos de AdT. El OG busca implementar un modelo de economía circular para garantizar la disponibilidad de agua en el largo plazo, y la prestación de los servicios de agua potable y manejo de aguas residuales en condiciones de calidad y continuidad.Espacio de política de agua -FormulaciónLas líneas estratégicas de la política incluyen componentes de:• Uso eficiente y sostenible del agua.• Reducción de la contaminación del recurso hídrico. • Manejo de conflictos que surjan en torno al uso, accesibilidad y/o asequibilidad del recurso hídrico. • Caracterización y cuantificación de la demanda del aguaLas líneas estratégicas de la política incluyen componentes de:• Mejorar la gestión de los prestadores de servicios de agua potable.• Incrementar el tratamiento de aguas residuales. • Instrumentos para la regionalización en la prestación del servicio de acueducto y alcantarillado.Espacio de política de agua -Impacto Formulación Impacto Política de Recurso de Hídrico Formulación Impacto Política de Economía CircularEl OG busca implementar un catastro multipropósito, completo, actualizado y confiable para mejorar la gestión del recurso tierra. La correcta gestión de la tierra promueve condiciones de:• Formalización de la propiedad • Priorización de municipios para el levantamiento catastral. • Fortalecimiento de los procesos de ordenamiento territorial.El OG busca implementar estrategias para el control de la deforestación y la gestión de los bosques para impulsar el uso sostenible del capital natural y el desarrollo comunitario en los núcleos de alta deforestación.Las líneas estratégicas de la política incluyen componentes de:• Priorización de municipios para el levantamiento catastral (20 ANM, Zonas PDET).  • En términos de coherencia Normativa. No existe una correlación directa entre formulación e implementación (impacto) en las políticas del sistema agroalimentario en Colombia en los sectores de agua , tierra y alimentos.• Las políticas públicas de los sectores de agua y alimentos son los que tienen mayor coherencia normativa en términos de formulación e impacto en las áreas de pobreza y adaptación y mitigación al cambio climático.• Sin embargo , cuando observamos los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible en Colombia. Se observa que el país tiene un rendimiento negativo en el objetivo 1. Fin de la pobreza. Lo que muestra el diferencial entre formulación y diseño de las políticas con su implementación efectiva.Caso de studio: ¿Son las políticas públicas agrícolas congruentes con la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero?• Explorar la coherencia entre las políticas públicas agrícolas y las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero con el valor económico generado por varias cadenas de valor agrícolas relevantes, mostrando en qué medida las transferencias de políticas son consistentes con los niveles de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en Colombia.• Aquellos sectores agricolas que reciben la mayor cantidad de transferencias, son al mismo tiempo, los que mas contribuyen a las emisiones de GEI?• De alguna manera, ¿son las políticas agrícolas consistentes con los objetivos de mitigación de reducir las emisiones de GEI de estos productos agrícolas?Datos IDEAM (1990IDEAM ( -2018) ) -50 0 50 100 150 200 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008  • El resultado del estudio revela que, en primer lugar, la carne, la leche y el café contribuyen al 77% de las emisiones durante el periodo 1992-2018, lo que equivale a 794 millones de toneladas de CO2eq. En Segundo lugar, los sectores con mayor valor de producción son el café, la carne y la leche componen el 40% de la totalidad de productos agrícolas medidos. Finalmente, la leche, el arroz y el azúcar representaron el 55% del total de transferencias de políticas públicas agrícolas.• Las transferencias de políticas públicas agrícolas tienden a apoyar productos que emiten más GEI de lo que generan en términos de valor económico, como el arroz, el azúcar y la leche, este último, a pesar de las transferencias, ocupa el tercer lugar en términos de valor. Mientras tanto, productos como el café y la carne, con la mayor parte del valor de producción, no son los que reciben gran parte de los valores de transferencia de políticas en comparación con los productos básicos mencionados anteriormente.Gracias! a.buritica@cgiar.org Hans.Nasner@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"1067"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86d760a3d4e7ed3dceb70934da7ac5fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8742a9ed-45d3-4076-9638-082c5414d060/retrieve","id":"443310721"},"keywords":["New Innovation","No Innovation type","Research and Communication Methodologies and Tools"],"sieverID":"b6bd7988-6ace-4470-8fc2-1d63af423189","pagecount":"2","content":"P328 -Methods, metrics and tools for assessing and analyzing diet-food system linkages Description of the innovation: Contribution to food system assessments in the four key countries: food flow in Ethiopia; urban-rural transects in Vietnam. This work is fed into the Compendium of food System Indicators (ready in 2020) and subsequent food system country briefs (piloted in 2019).• CIAT (Alliance) -Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT -Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)• Validated metrics and tools for assessing diet quality and characterizing food systems applied by 10 research organizations (partner and external organizations) across the 4 focus countries• 15 -Increased access to diverse nutrient-rich foods • 43 -Enhanced institutional capacity of partner research organizations 1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:34 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"123"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2262763308.json b/data/part_2/2262763308.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3ec539a15093ada5475fde1aacc18578b7c5fcc1
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21188f0b57700f93ebfb1f93e344aa50","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0898a78c-8953-4bb8-9dd4-4171d43022fb/retrieve","id":"-653880371"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78a77d58-d8b3-40dc-a7ca-683c91a561a1","pagecount":"135","content":"© Le code de la propriété intellectuelle interdit la photocopie à usage collectif sans autorisation des ayants droit. Le non-respect de cette disposition met en danger l'édition, notamment scientifique, et est sanctionné pénalement. Toute reproduction même partielle du présent ouvrage est interdite sans autorisation du Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20 rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris 6 e .A propos du CTA Le Centre Technique de Coopération Agricole et Rurale (CTA) a été créé en 1983 dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé signée entre les États du groupe ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) et les États membres de l'Union Européenne. Depuis 2000, le CTA opère dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-UE. Le CTA a pour mission de développer et de fournir des produits et des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural. Le CTA a également pour mission de renforcer les capacités des pays ACP à acquérir, traiter, produire et diffuser de l'information pour le développement agricole et rural.Le CTA est financé par l'Union Européenne. Fiche 1La collection « Agricultures tropicales en poche » a été créée par un consortium réunissant le CTA, les Éditions Quae et les Presses agronomiques de Gembloux ; elle est liée à la collection anglaise « The Tropical Agriculturalist », publiée par Macmillan et le CTA. Elle comprend trois séries : productions animales, productions végétales et questions transversales. Cette dernière innove en abordant des sujets généraux touchant au développement rural, tels que l'appui aux organisations paysannes, le financement de l'agriculture paysanne et le conseil aux exploitations agricoles.Cet ouvrage consacré au diagnostic des systèmes de production inaugure la série « transversale ». L'analyse-diagnostic, qui permet de mieux comprendre l'agriculture familiale, prélude en effet à la majorité des travaux de terrain pour le développement. La démarche présentée ici par une équipe de l'Institut des régions chaudes (IRC, ex-Cnearc) propose une nouvelle posture aux agents de développement et autres acteurs du monde rural. Elle met les producteurs au coeur du travail de diagnostic, en vue de permettre une meilleure compréhension des pratiques paysannes et de produire une connaissance partagée. L'objectif est de construire, avec les agriculteurs, le diagnostic et des solutions pour améliorer leurs systèmes de production.Cette démarche est illustrée, dans un cédérom, par une étude en Haïti qui montre, étape par étape, la façon de conduire ce type de diagnostic et son intérêt pour les personnes concernées, y compris les techniciens appelés à accompagner le développement de telles régions. Le cédérom comprend d'autres études de cas réalisées sur différents continents, ainsi que quelques documents de référence sur ce thème. Il donne ainsi accès à des aspects complémentaires et illustrés de la démarche qui est exposée de manière condensée dans l'ouvrage.Pourquoi s'intéresser à l'agriculture familiale ?Le développement de services de qualité, au bénéfice des agricultures familiales des pays du Sud, revêt un enjeu économique et social considérable.Tout d'abord, parce que l'agriculture familiale rassemble une grande partie de l'humanité. En effet, au sein de la population rurale mondiale, qui représente encore 41 % de la population de la planète, 43 % des actifs travaillent dans l'agriculture, soit environ 1,4 milliard de personnes, et 96 % résident dans les pays du Sud. Dans l'immense majorité des exploitations agricoles, ce sont les membres de la famille qui constituent la force de travail.Ensuite, parce que l'agriculture familiale concentre la majorité des pauvres de la planète. Un milliard d'entre eux ne disposent que d'un outillage manuel pour produire, et plus de 700 millions d'agriculteurs sont sous-nutris. Il est maintenant admis que le désengagement des États prôné dans les années 1990 a largement contribué à cet appauvrissement croissant des campagnes. Dans le cadre des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement, les mesures de soutien aux politiques de lutte contre la pauvreté menées depuis 2000 dans de nombreux pays ont amené les États et leurs partenaires à se pencher à nouveau sur l'agriculture familiale. Mais c'est en tant que pauvres, et non en tant qu'acteurs de la sphère productive, que les agriculteurs ont longtemps été considérés. D'autant plus que pour beaucoup de responsables politiques, seules les exploitations à haut niveau capitalistique, basées sur le salariat, sont susceptibles d'impulser le développement agricole d'un pays.Pourtant, l'agriculture familiale rend de nombreux services à la société : production alimentaire, création d'emplois en milieu rural, équilibre des territoires. Dans des contextes d'échanges et de production de plus en plus défavorables -témoin les crises alimentaires que tra versent de nombreux pays -, elle démontre sa flexibilité et ses capacités d'adaptation ; sa part dans les échanges marchands et dans l'approvisionnement des marchés nationaux augmente. Ce constat, initialement porté par les organisations professionnelles agricoles, est désormais repris par des bailleurs de fonds tels que la Banque mondiale et par les gouvernements qui, à nouveau, voient dans le secteur agricole familial un des principaux leviers de développement économique et social des pays les plus pauvres.Le désengagement des États du secteur agricole, qui s'est accru dans les pays en développement sous l'impulsion des politiques d'ajustement structurel des années 1990, a laissé une large place à la société civile et aux organisations professionnelles dans la gestion et l'animation du développement. De nouvelles formes d'appui au monde agricole, basées sur le partenariat, ont émergé. Il ne s'agit plus tant de transférer vers les agriculteurs des paquets technologiques plus ou moins complexes, élaborés dans les centres de recherche. L'enjeu aujourd'hui est de les accompagner dans leurs prises de décision pour concevoir et opérer les changements techniques et organisationnels les plus adaptés à leurs moyens et à leurs objectifs, dans des contextes économiques et écologiques de plus en plus contraignants.Les nouvelles fonctions de l'agent de développement, qui résultent de ces conceptions revisitées de l'appui aux producteurs, sont résolument fondées sur une posture de compréhension et de dialogue avec les agriculteurs ; elles exigent de nouvelles compétences. Dorénavant, le technicien doit être capable de comprendre les choix des producteurs en matière de production, de transformation et de mise en marché, et d'identifier les moteurs techniques, économiques et sociaux qui les amènent à se consacrer à telle ou telle activité, à adopter telle ou telle technique. Ces compétences reposent à la fois sur la maîtrise d'outils d'analyse systémique des exploitations agricoles et sur des capacités d'observation et d'écoute active. Ce manuel méthodologique s'adresse à ces agents de développement d'un nouveau type ainsi qu'à leurs formateurs. Il vise à renforcer leurs capacités à décrire les pratiques des agriculteurs, à en comprendre les cohérences et à en évaluer l'efficience et la durabilité. Les outils qu'il présente doivent permettre à tout un chacun de produire une connaissance partagée à partir de données recueillies au plus près des agriculteurs. Cette connaissance pourra, à son tour, être le support d'échanges pour un diagnostic construit avec les agriculteurs et pour la recherche de solutions en partenariat.Notre approche : l'analyse-diagnostic des systèmes de production De nombreux enseignants et chercheurs ont contribué à la construction d'approches systémiques en agriculture. Nous ne les citerons pas tous ici. Cependant, nous souhaitons mettre en exergue les apports fondamentaux de la chaire d'agriculture comparée de l'Institut des sciences et industries du vivant et de l'environnement (AgroParisTech) et du département Système agraire et développement de l'Institut national de la recherche agronomique (Inra). Menés sur des champs d'étude situés dans les pays du Sud, les travaux d'équipes du Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad) et de l'Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) ainsi que ceux des enseignants de l'Institut des régions chaudes (IRC, anciennement le Centre national d'études agro nomiques des régions chaudes ou Cnearc) ont également permis d'enrichir les propositions méthodologiques rassemblées dans cet ouvrage (Cochet, 2005).xxw L'agriculture, un objet complexe Le premier contact avec l'agriculture d'une petite région suscite généralement une impression de grande complexité. Les processus biologiques à l'oeuvre au fil des saisons semblent -ou sont -soumis à de nombreux facteurs tels que la nature des sols souvent très hétérogènes, la pluviométrie parfois capricieuse et les températures qui varient avec l'altitude ou avec l'exposition. Par ailleurs, l'éventail des pratiques des agriculteurs est souvent bien large. Les résultats qu'ils o btiennent sur leurs parcelles et avec leurs troupeaux sont quant à eux très dépendants des marchés des produits, des semences, des engrais, des équipements.Les exploitations agricoles sont elles-mêmes souvent très diverses : certaines reposent essentiellement sur le travail d'une famille, d'autres ont recours à une main-d'oeuvre salariée abondante. Elles ont souvent des niveaux d'équipement et des disponibilités foncières très disparates et mènent des activités d'élevage et de culture souvent distinctes. Certaines sont spécialisées dans les cultures annuelles, d'autres se basent avant tout sur les cultures pérennes ou sur l'élevage, d'autres encore combinent ces différentes productions.xxw L'agriculture, une réalité dynamique La conséquence directe de cette diversité est que les agriculteurs ont des contraintes multiples et des intérêts parfois contradictoires. Compte tenu de l'accès au marché, des surfaces, de la main-d'oeuvre et des équipements disponibles, certains agriculteurs peuvent avoir intérêt à développer l'élevage bovin, par exemple, ou à se consacrer à la riziculture. D'autres n'auront peut-être pas d'autre option que de céder leurs terres pour chercher un emploi plus rémunérateur en zone urbaine.L'agriculture n'est jamais statique. Le jeu des intérêts et des contraintes des différentes catégories d'agriculteurs entraîne des évolutions permanentes et souvent plus rapides qu'on ne l'imagine.xxw Les fonctions du diagnostic Les agronomes et les techniciens travaillant dans le développement agricole doivent donc être en mesure d'appréhender les conditions complexes dans lesquelles les producteurs opèrent, et de comprendre leurs intérêts et leurs contraintes. En fonction du rôle qu'ils sont amenés à jouer, des capacités d'observation et d'analyse sont nécessaires dans de multiples situations professionnelles, notamment : pour établir un dialogue permanent avec les agriculteurs, dans un dispositif d'appui à la formulation de leurs problèmes et à la recherche de solutions ; cela peut concerner aussi des chercheurs et des formateurs ;pour envisager, dans la préparation d'un projet de développement ou d'une politique, des thèmes et des modes d'intervention raisonnés, dans la mesure où ils se fondent sur une connaissance préalable de la réalité et visent à lever des contraintes ou à modifier des intérêts individuels tout en gardant un objectif d'intérêt général.xxw Une démarche systémique La démarche proposée ici pour connaître et comprendre le fonctionnement des exploitations agricoles est systémique. C'est-à-dire qu'elle mobilise différentes disciplines comme l'agronomie, l'économie et la sociologie, mais ce n'est pas là sa véritable originalité. Elle repose surtout sur le postulat de l'interaction de tous les éléments qui composent la réalité que l'on étudie. L'analyse systémique porte donc autant sur les interactions que sur les éléments eux-mêmes.La démarche va du général au particulier. Elle comporte différentes étapes qui portent sur des échelles d'analyse de plus en plus fines.Chaque étape apporte une série de questions qui ne trouveront de réponse qu'en changeant d'échelle d'analyse. Le niveau de détail que l'on recherche à chaque étape est ainsi déterminé par l'étape précédente.Nous serons donc amenés à conduire les observations en considérant au moins quatre échelles, entre lesquelles des allers et retours se feront en permanence : la région, pour identifier les bassins d'activités ou les centres urbains et, en allant parfois jusqu'à explorer l'échelle nationale et/ou internationale, pour connaître l'organisation spatiale, économique et sociale des filières et des marchés ; le village ou, selon les pays, la communauté ou la commune qui constitue une unité territoriale et humaine où s'établissent des règles de gestion des ressources fondées sur l'organisation politique et administrative locale ;l'unité de production -, au niveau de laquelle nous pouvons appréhender d'autres formes d'organisation sociale, souvent familiales, qui régissent en grande partie les choix de production, la gestion de la maind'oeuvre, la mobilisation des outils de production et du patrimoine ; la parcelle et/ou le troupeau, où sont décrits et analysés les itinéraires techniques mis en oeuvre par les agriculteurs, et les résultats qu'ils en tirent.De la même façon, pour éviter de collecter des informations inutiles, la compréhension qualitative précède toujours l'évaluation quantitative. La quantification (des quantités produites, des quantités de biens, de services et de travail utilisées, et de leurs prix) représente l'étape la plus lourde. Il est donc souhaitable d'en limiter l'ampleur par une bonne compréhension préalable des mécanismes en jeu.xxw Une démarche de dialogue… Au-delà de la méthode développée et des savoir-faire qui y sont liés, la démarche requiert des attitudes particulières, propices à la construction collective des connaissances, ainsi que de nouveaux comportements professionnels avec les agriculteurs.En effet, dans le développement rural il n'y a pas un savoir détenu par quelques-uns, que des répétiteurs seraient chargés de diffuser auprès d'exécutants. L'agriculteur est également détenteur et producteur de savoirs et de savoir-faire. Cela suppose d'envisager le temps d'enquête non comme un interrogatoire, mais comme un moment d'écoute active qui permet à l'agriculteur de s'exprimer sur sa situation et, de ce fait, de prendre du temps pour le recul et la réflexion.En outre, dans la définition de politiques ou de stratégies de développement agricole, les décisions sont trop souvent prises loin des réalités du terrain. Les agronomes doivent désormais s'attacher à prendre en compte les conditions réelles dans lesquelles les agriculteurs exercent leur métier. Formés à l'analyse-diagnostic de systèmes de production, les techniciens pourront forger leur jugement sur la situation vécue par les producteurs, à partir de leurs propres observations et de l'analyse d'informations qu'ils pourront recueillir eux-mêmes au gré de leurs activités professionnelles.Une originalité de la démarche est qu'elle permet de mener des diagnostics dans des régions où aucune information préalable n'existe, en se fondant sur les deux sources d'informations que sont les observations directes et les enquêtes auprès des agriculteurs.Heureusement, dans de nombreux endroits, des écrits existent. La consultation de ces documents peut faciliter le travail. Cependant, le technicien doit être suffisamment initié à l'exercice pour être capable de faire la part entre les écrits de réelle valeur scientifique et ceux qui ne sont porteurs que de jugements de valeur. De bons travaux de géomorphologues, d'historiens ou d'agronomes peuvent apporter beaucoup. Les données statistiques, quant à elles, doivent être utilisées avec énormément de précautions. Il est généralement difficile de déterminer à l'avance et sans a priori les axes pertinents vers lesquels orienter la recherche bibliographique. Il arrive que l'on se « perde » dans des lectures qui se révèlent inutiles finalement. En revanche, une fois l'étude amorcée, il est intéressant, et nécessaire, de rechercher des documents complémentaires. Les consultations bibliogra phiques apportent d'autant plus que nous savons ce que nous cherchons (hypothèses à vérifier, données historiques difficiles à obtenir par enquêtes) et que, ayant construit notre point de vue, nous disposons d'un regard critique sur les informations secondaires et sur les analyses portées par autrui.Quoiqu'il en soit, sans une présentation claire des objectifs poursuivis aux agriculteurs et villageois, le diagnostic risque fort d'être peu 1. Introduction fructueux. Il est indispensable, avant de se lancer dans l'exercice, de se présenter aux autorités villageoises et d'expliquer le but des observations et des entretiens. Il peut être utile de demander aux représentants d'avertir l'ensemble de la communauté de votre présence sur le terrain et d'en préciser les motifs, le respect de ce protocole garantissant le bon déroulement de l'étude. Enfin, au début de chaque entretien, les objectifs du travail ainsi que les grands traits de la démarche et du traitement qui sera fait des informations doivent être présentés. Ce n'est pas du temps perdu, il en va de la qualité des échanges par la suite.Le manuel propose donc une démarche et des outils permettant de décrire, de comprendre et de comparer le fonctionnement et les résultats des exploitations agricoles d'une petite région. Nous entendons par petite région l'espace qui constitue le plus fréquemment l'échelle de travail d'un agent de développement : un ensemble de villages, un bassin versant, une commune rurale. Nous nous situons donc dans les ordres de grandeur de plusieurs dizaines, voire centaines de kilomètres carrés.Pour des raisons pédagogiques, la démarche est présentée selon une suite logique de différentes étapes. En réalité ces étapes ne sont pas cloisonnées. Sur le terrain, elles peuvent être menées de façon itérative : les acquis de l'étape n + 1 peuvent amener à questionner les résultats de l'étape n ou n − 1, et les enrichir. Ce manuel est illustré par des figures issues, pour la plupart, d'une étude de cas réalisée en Haïti, au lieu-dit Lakou Cadichon sur le Plateau central, en partenariat avec les étudiants et les enseignants de la Faculté d'agronomie et de médecine vétérinaire de Port-au-Prince (FAMV). Six fiches techniques visant à faciliter le recueil de données jalonnent le manuel.L'ouvrage est accompagné d'un cédérom qui comprend l'intégralité de l'étude de cas haïtienne. Ce document suit le même plan que le manuel. Le lecteur pourra ainsi facilement y trouver une illustration du type de résultats auxquels la démarche permet d'aboutir, ainsi qu'une proposition de mise en forme de ces résultats (tableaux, graphiques ou autres) pour la rédaction de rapports. Le cédérom contient également neuf monographies réalisées par des étudiants de l'IRC dans différentes parties du monde, trois articles extraits de revues scientifiques et une bibliographie organisée par thématique correspondant aux étapes du diagnostic.Notre porte d'entrée : le paysage Il peut être tentant de vouloir rapidement s'entretenir avec les premières personnes rencontrées, mais il est bien difficile de discuter d'un objet que l'on ne connaît pas. C'est pourquoi il est opportun de commencer l'étude par l'observation des paysages. Ces premières observations peuvent rapidement constituer la base d'entretiens avec les agriculteurs, rencontrés soit sur le terrain au gré des observations, soit lors des enquêtes suivantes.Par ailleurs, en tant que forme d'exploitation par l'homme d'un ou plusieurs écosystèmes à des fins de production animale et végétale, l'agriculture est par définition une activité économique dont la particularité est de s'ancrer dans un milieu biophysique et climatique donné. Connaître ce milieu est nécessaire pour en comprendre les formes d'artificialisation.Lors de cette première étape, l'objectif est donc de dépeindre l'environnement biophysique des exploitations agricoles, d'en identifier les différentes unités et de décrire la manière dont les agriculteurs les exploitent. Il s'agit de collecter les informations sur les facteurs d'ordre physique et agro-écologique (topographie, géologie, pédologie, hydrographie, climat, botanique). Ces facteurs, combinés les uns avec les autres et, ultérieurement, avec d'autres éléments techniques et socio-économiques, pourront contribuer à expliquer les différents types de cultures, de champs, de pâtures et de parcours observés, ainsi que leur localisation (Lizet et de Ravignan, 1987). Comment procéder ?Avant de s'attarder sur des détails, il est préférable de s'intéresser aux grands ensembles du paysage, ou unités de paysage, considérés comme des espaces homogènes du point de vue de leur modelé et de l'apparence de la végétation cultivée et spontanée (couleurs, aspect). Il est important de les identifier et de les situer les uns par rapport aux autres. Cette démarche revient à émettre des premières hypothèses sur les relations existant entre le milieu physique et l'occupation du sol.Pour ce faire, nous conseillons d'exploiter les cartes topographiques existantes, puis de parcourir à pied la zone d'étude avec comme premier objectif de réaliser des observations à partir de points hauts, s'il en existe dans l'espace étudié ou à proximité.La fiche 1 explique comment tirer parti des cartes topographiques dans notre démarche de diagnostic. La figure 1 (planche 1, cahier horstexte) illustre une façon de procéder pour choisir les points hauts.Ensuite, il est nécessaire de mener des observations détaillées pour mieux caractériser les différentes unités de paysage préidentifiées, pour vérifier ou infirmer les hypothèses construites à partir des points hauts (par exemple, telle culture est majoritairement présente sur les fortes pentes, telle autre auprès des cours d'eau) et pour en émettre de nouvelles. Il faudra pour cela sillonner le terrain. Les circuits ou transects sont choisis de façon à observer la plus grande diversité possible d'ensembles agro-écologiques, perçue au travers des lectures de paysage et de l'analyse des cartes. Pour cette raison, les parcours ne se font pas obligatoirement selon un trajet linéaire. Il est conseillé de se déplacer lentement pour avoir le temps d'observer et de noter tous les indices du paysage qui renseignent sur le milieu et son exploitation.Enfin, en prenant de nouveau de l'altitude, c'est-à-dire en retournant sur des points hauts ou en reprenant les cartes, il sera possible de vérifier à plus large échelle les observations et les suppositions faites dans les parcelles et d'émettre de nouvelles hypothèses.Les observations à partir de points hauts, ou lectures de paysage, ne sont pas toujours aisées. C'est le cas dans les pays au relief particulièrement peu accentué (Sahel) ou « encombré » de végétation haute et dense (forêt équatoriale). On peut alors rechercher des bâtiments ou des antennes qui permettent de prendre un peu de hauteur. Même si rien de cela n'est possible, l'important est de respecter la démarche allant du général au particulier et de tenter, essentiellement par l'étude de cartes et de photos aériennes ou satellites et par des entretiens avec des personnes connaissant bien la zone étudiée, d'identifier les grands types de modelés et d'écosystèmes dans la zone étudiée, avant de mener des observations détaillées. • Le relief : localisation des montagnes, coteaux, dépressions, plateaux, gorges, plaines, terrasses alluviales, modelés et pentes, altitudes • L'emplacement des sources et des cours d'eau (ruisseaux, rivières, fleuves), leur régime et le sens d'écoulement des eaux • Les modelés, dont l'examen, combiné avec celui du réseau hydrographique, nous renseigne sur les types de roche en place • La localisation des zones d'habitat et leur mode de répartition, concentré ou dispersé • Des informations sur les grands types de végétation existante • Parfois la forme et la taille des parcelles • Les noms de villages et de lieux-dits (toponymie), qui nous éclairent parfois sur le milieu ou sur l'histoire du peuplement vaut par exemple décrire précisément une formation végétale, en relevant les espèces et leur importance relative, plutôt que de qualifier rapidement la parcelle d'« abandonnée » ou de « mal entretenue ». L'enjeu n'est pas de nommer à tout prix tous les sols rencontrés à l'aide des classifications existantes, ou de les qualifier de riches, pauvres ou fertiles, mais bien d'en donner une description la plus détaillée et utile possible : couleur, profondeur, texture, structure, charge en cailloux, richesse en matière organique. La toponymie et le vocabulaire des langues locales sont généralement très précis ; il est nécessaire de les consigner avec rigueur. En cas de doute, des échantillons de roche ou de végétation peuvent être prélevés pour être identifiés ultérieurement avec des personnes ressources ou à l'aide de flores.Des entretiens avec les agriculteurs, menés face au paysage ou lors d'un transect, permettent d'aiguiser le regard et de percevoir des différences ou des nuances de sol, de végétation ou autre, qui peuvent se traduire par des différences dans les modes d'exploitation et qui n'avaient pas été perçues dans un premier temps (le cas des zones pastorales est exemplaire à ce titre). Ces observations peuvent être reportées dans des tableaux : en lignes, chaque station d'observation et en colonnes, les différentes rubriques. Des croquis sont souvent utiles. Ils aident à rendre compte, par exemple, de la végétation sur chacune des unités de modelé observées depuis un point donné, ou de décrire une association particulière de végétaux (espèces, étages, disposition) dans une parcelle. Mais que faut-il observer ?xxw La morphologie du paysage et l'agencement des espaces cultivés et « naturels » Il existe d'étroites relations entre le relief (ou l'altitude) et les potentialités agronomiques d'un milieu. Pour bien les mettre en évidence, nous suggérons de commencer par identifier et décrire les grands ensembles topographiques tels que vallées, plateaux, plaines et chapelets de collines. Ces ensembles sont considérés comme autant d'unités ayant une morphologie (une forme, un modelé) donnée. Autour d'eux s'organisent les écoulements d'eau, les migrations d'éléments et l'accu mulation des matériaux qui forment progressivement les sols. Pour mener l'observation des formes générales du paysage, les décrire puis les nommer, l'utilisation des termes proposés par la géomorphologie est très utile.Les parcelles cultivées sont repérées dans le paysage et décrites : taille, forme, proportion des unes par rapport aux autres. On identifie de la même façon les formations végétales arborées, arbustives et herbacées, en prenant soin de différencier la végétation spontanée de la végétation cultivée et les espèces pérennes des espèces annuelles. À l'échelle des parcelles, lors des parcours, on relève les caractéristiques physiques des sols (charge en cailloux, structure, texture), l'appréciation possible de la fertilité (teneur en matière organique, couleur de la terre, accumulation de sols en bas de pente, griffes d'érosion), les ressources en eau, les aménagements, les espèces végétales présentes cultivées ou non, etc., afin de comprendre comment les différentes activités agricoles s'agencent dans le milieu.La saison à laquelle le parcours est réalisé a une grande influence sur les observations effectuées. En période de cultures, il est possible de noter directement la localisation des espèces et des variétés en fonction des sols, de la pente, de l'altitude, et parfois d'observer certaines pratiques paysannes. En saison sèche, on obtient d'autres informations, par exemple ce que les agriculteurs font des résidus de culture ou les lieux où ils emmènent les animaux pâturer. Quelques indices demeurent, mais l'observation du milieu apporte beaucoup moins qu'en saison des pluies. Là encore, les entretiens sur le terrain avec des agriculteurs ou des éleveurs permettront de surmonter en partie cet obstacle.Une source d'informations abondante et riche s'offre à l'observateur qui traverse les villages. Tout d'abord, la position des villages dans le paysage doit être relevée. Sont-ils implantés dans les vallées, sur les coteaux ou, au contraire, au sommet des montagnes ? Sont-ils situés à proximité des cours d'eau, des sources, des grands axes routiers, des marchés ? L'agencement des maisons les unes par rapport aux autres, la densité des habitations, la dispersion ou au contraire le regroupement de l'habitat, le nombre et l'emplacement des cases au sein d'une concession sont autant d'informations sur la structure de la société et sur son fonctionnement. Si, par exemple, les concessions isolées comprennent plusieurs maisons mitoyennes, l'observateur peut se demander si ces différentes unités de résidence correspondent à différentes unités de production, indépendantes les unes des autres, ou si l'ensemble de la famille travaille de concert sur les mêmes parcelles. Des entretiens avec les villageois à cette étape de l'investigation apporteront l'éclairage nécessaire pour valider ces hypothèses émises au gré des observations. L'aspect général des habitations, la taille et le nombre de cases dans une concession ainsi que les matériaux de construction peuvent être également des indicateurs du niveau de revenu des agriculteurs. Les matériaux de construction témoignent aussi de la diversité des roches et des matières (argile, bouse, terre, joncs, paille, branche, bois) disponibles dans la région.Les équipements agricoles disposés à proximité des maisons fournissent des informations sur les produits agricoles importants, ainsi que sur le niveau de capitalisation des agriculteurs : repérage des aires de stockage, des silos ou des greniers et du gros outillage agricole ( motoculteurs, motopompes, pulvérisateurs ou autres).Les parcs à bétail et le nombre de têtes de bétail, aisés à repérer autour des cases ou dans le paysage, livrent des informations sur les types d'élevage menés. La présence d'animaux de trait renseigne sur l'utilisation de la culture attelée dans la région.La fiche 2 rassemble les éléments constitutifs d'un paysage sur lesquels l'observation de terrain doit porter.Les figures 2 et 3 (planches 2 et 3, cahier hors-texte) montrent comment, lors d'une lecture de paysage, des liens peuvent être relevés entre unités topographiques, habitat et espèces cultivées.Les éléments constitutifs du paysage : guide d'observation 1. La géomorphologie, l'hydrographie et les sols• Quelles sont les formes du relief : bas-fonds, interfluves, glacis, replats sommitaux, affleurements rocheux ? • Quelles sont les ressources en eau : cours d'eau permanents ou saisonniers, variation des niveaux et sens des écoulements, sources, ravines ? • Comment se présentent les sols : couleur, texture, profondeur, humidité, structure, pierrosité, caractéristiques de la roche mère ?Les observations géologiques et pédologiques peuvent être faites à partir de coupes et d'affleurements naturels, par exemple en bordure des rivières, sur le bord des routes et des chemins, et aux endroits où la végétation a en partie disparu en raison des activités de l'homme ou de l'érosion. • Les cultures pérennes : vergers, haies ou arbres disséminés dans les champs ou pâturages. Quels types d'arbres ? Quelles localisations ? Quelle densité ?• Les cultures annuelles : taille des champs, type de cultures et associations, densités culturales, travail du sol, pratiques culturales et stade végétatif le jour de l'observation. Quelles sont les proportions relatives des formations végétales ?• Les champs sont-ils fermés, ouverts, en lanière, dans le sens de la pente ?• Y a-t-il des talus, des fossés, des rigoles, des drains, des infrastructures et des pratiques d'irrigation, des captages de sources, des clôtures, des haies, des murs secs, des rampes ? • Les traces de pratiques culturales : traces de défrichages (souches) ou de brûlis (cendre, charbon), traces de travail du sol tel que labour à la charrue, à la houe, désherbage, taille.• Comment est construit le village ? De quelles infrastructures bénéficie-t-il (électricité, forage, dispensaire, école ou autre) ?• Comment est organisé l'habitat ? Quels matériaux de construction ? • Y a-t-il des constructions hors du village ? Quelles sont leurs fonctions (parcs à animaux, campement ou autre) ?• Combien y a-t-il de routes et de chemins ? Quel est leur état ? Sont-ils accessibles aux véhicules toute l'année ? • Y a-t-il des aménagements tels que digues, forages, clôtures ?• Les animaux sauvages éventuels (gibier, poisson) • Les animaux d'élevage : type (espèces et races), nombre, localisation, habitat (écuries, étables, enclos, parcs, clôtures, etc.), magasins et matériels (stockage, harnachement, piquets et cordes, outils de culture attelée, charrettes, etc.)Les allers et retours entre lectures de paysage à partir de points hauts, parcours et cartes topographiques permettent petit à petit de définir des constantes. Par exemple, telle partie de la topo-séquence (basfonds, bas de pente, milieu de pente, replat, plateau, sommet) est le plus fréquemment occupée par tel type de culture ou tel type de végétation spontanée. Peu à peu, il devient possible d'élaborer le zonage agro-écologique de la région étudiée. Par zonage agro-écologique, nous entendons non seulement l'identification des unités de l'écosystème exploitées de manière similaire, mais aussi la caractérisation biophysique et agronomique de chacune de ces unités et leur localisation les unes par rapport aux autres. Il s'agit donc d'une construction abstraite qui peut être restituée sous forme de coupes schématiques en deux dimensions, de blocs diagrammes en trois dimensions -pour les bons dessinateurs -et de tableaux. Dans ces tableaux seront reportés, en colonnes, les différentes unités rencontrées et, en lignes, les différents éléments de caractérisation : topographie, géologie, sols, végétation spontanée, végétation cultivée, taille et forme des parcelles, cours d'eau et systèmes d'irrigation, aménagements, habitat. La figure 4 (planches 4 et 5, cahier hors-texte) donne un exemple de coupe schématique situant différentes zones agro-écologiques en fonction de leur situation topographique.Même s'il n'est évidemment pas possible de saisir toute la complexité de l'agriculture par simple observation, l'analyse de paysage permet de formuler de nombreuses questions et hypothèses qui guideront la suite de l'investigation. C'est aussi un excellent point de départ pour enclencher les échanges avec les agriculteurs. En effet, beaucoup de questions demeurent concernant les relations existant entre le milieu et les modes de mise en valeur, la fertilité des différentes parties de l'écosystème, leur utilisation par l'homme au fil des saisons et des années. Même si l'attitude et les outils de l'observation que nous venons de décrire doivent être mobilisés tout au long de l'étude, il nous faut maintenant passer à une autre étape. des phases de recomposition et d'émergence de nouvelles agri-cultures, en réponse à des crises plus ou moins longues, plus ou moins violentes. Elles sont vues comme des phases où l'agriculture pratiquée ne satisfait plus les besoins de la société qui en vit et ne permet plus d'assurer le renouvellement de l'écosystème cultivé (crise de fertilité), ni le renouvellement des moyens de production. Ces crises apparaissent sous l'effet de dynamiques internes telles que la croissance démographique, combinées avec des événements et processus externes (tendances relatives des prix des produits agricoles, des intrants et des salaires, changements de politique agricole, urbanisation ou autre).Cela nous amène à porter une attention particulière aux aspects méthodologiques suivants.L'identification de périodes est délicate, car la notion de stabilité d'une agriculture est toute relative. Cette opération dépend du degré de finesse que l'on souhaite et que l'on peut atteindre. Que l'histoire d'une agriculture -l'objet de l'étude -soit déclinée sur plusieurs siècles (ou millénaires) ou ne s'attarde qu'aux 60 ou 80 dernières années, le nombre de périodes définies dépend en grande partie du temps et des moyens (archives accessibles, sources bibliographiques, moyens d'enquête) dont on dispose. Poussé à l'extrême, le découpage en périodes pourrait être infini. Cependant, il convient, dans un premier temps, de s'éloigner du détail pour comprendre les grandes phases de l'histoire agraire. Dans tous les cas de figure, les périodes sont définies à partir de la reconstitution des activités agricoles et d'élevage et de leurs transformations, en relation avec les évolutions et les événements sociaux, économiques et politiques.Les périodes de recomposition sont des moments charnières où des formes d'exploitation régressent et d'autres émergent, où des mouvements sociaux importants s'opèrent. Dans l'histoire, il est important de faire la part entre les moments où les signes précurseurs d'une transformation apparaissent (par exemple, telle nouvelle variété est « introduite », telle innovation est « adoptée » par des paysans « pilotes ») et le moment où le changement se généralise.Enfin, il faut être très prudent quand on se risque à expliquer les changements et donc à établir des relations de cause à effet. Fréquemment, des explications simples, mono-causales, sont avancées pour expliquer, par exemple, la disparition d'une culture. Prenons l'exemple, souvent rencontré en Haïti, de la production de cacao, dont la disparition dans certaines régions est imputée par de nombreuses personnes, y compris les agriculteurs, au passage d'un cyclone. Même s'il y a en effet concordance dans le temps entre ces deux événements, une analyse approfondie montre que la disparition de cette culture est liée à la conjonction d'éléments tels que la diminution tendancielle des cours du cacao, la baisse de la fertilité du milieu et l'apparition de nouvelles opportunités de marché. L'action mécanique d'un cyclone a précipité le déclin du cacao. Si seul un événement conjoncturel comme le cyclone avait été en jeu, les cacaoyères auraient été replantées, comme elles l'ont été à d'autres moments dans l'histoire. C'est donc chaque fois un ensemble d'éléments de nature économique, technique et sociale qu'il faut mettre en perspective.Dans un premier temps, des entretiens avec les agriculteurs les plus âgés permettent d'appréhender les transformations de l'agriculture depuis deux ou trois générations, telles qu'ils les ont vécues. Dans un deuxième temps, des enquêtes historiques avec des agriculteurs encore en activité peuvent aussi se révéler indispensables pour affiner la compréhension des événements les plus récents avec lesquels les agri culteurs âgés sont moins familiarisés. D'autres personnes apportent aussi beaucoup d'informations sur l'histoire agricole locale : par exemple les autorités locales, les instituteurs, les missionnaires, les techniciens, dès lors qu'ils peuvent parler d'une histoire qu'ils ont euxmêmes vécue. Enfin, il est possible que les questions que l'on se pose ne puissent trouver d'explication que dans des périodes antérieures auxquelles la mémoire des anciens ne peut remonter. Dans ce cas, il est nécessaire de réaliser des recherches dans les archives et dans les ouvrages à teneur historique, s'ils existent.Les entretiens peuvent porter sur deux champs d'investigation complémentaires : la description par la personne enquêtée de l'évolution de l'agri-culture dans le territoire étudié ; pour les agriculteurs, le récit de vie, la trajectoire personnelle et celle de la famille, sans perdre de vue que l'objectif est de reconstituer une histoire régionale ; il est donc important de pouvoir situer socialement l'interlocuteur et les particularités des informations qu'il nous livre au regard des autres situations vécues. Fiche 3 L'entretien de compréhension « Le questionnaire provoque une réponse, l'entretien fait construire un discours. » (Blanchet et Gotman, 2007) Dans un questionnaire, le champ proposé à la personne enquêtée est déjà structuré par les questions de l'enquêteur. L'enquêté ne peut répondre qu'aux questions qui lui sont posées dans les termes formulés par l'enquêteur, lequel détient le monopole de l'exploration. Dans l'entretien de compréhension, l'enquêteur aide l'enquêté à formuler ses propres questions, à structurer progressivement son discours, à progresser dans sa réflexion et à dire comment il voit les choses et les vit, de son point de vue et du point de vue de la culture dont il est un représentant. L'entretien de compréhension s'impose chaque fois que l'on ignore le monde de référence ou que l'on ne veut pas décider a priori du système de cohérence interne des informations recherchées. Le questionnaire, en revanche, implique que l'on connaît auparavant le monde de référence ou qu'il n'y a aucun doute sur le système interne de cohérence des informations recherchées. L'attitude de compréhension a pour but de rétablir une forme d'égalité en donnant de la valeur à la parole des paysans. Cette mise en valeur a pour effet de mobiliser les potentialités de l'individu au profit de la recherche de solutions à ses difficultés. Un entretien de compréhension n'est pas : -un interrogatoire ou une discussion au cours de laquelle il y a échange d'arguments et confrontation sans finalité précise sauf celle d'avoir raison ; -une discussion en vue de résoudre des problèmes ou de donner des conseils. Nous conseillons au lecteur qui souhaite approfondir ces questions méthodologiques de consulter le Guide de l'enquête de terrain de Beaud et Weber, 2003. • Comment était le paysage de l'époque dans les différentes unités agro-écologiques identifiées lors de la première étape (milieu physique, sol, eau, végétation, faune sauvage, cultures, habitat, réseaux routiers) ?xxw Des entretiens ouverts Comme il est difficile de formuler des questions précises, les entretiens seront ouverts, sans qu'il y ait recours au questionnaire (voir la fiche 3). Entretien « ouvert » ne signifie ni conversation décousue, ni monologue de l'agriculteur ; c'est un entretien guidé par les questions de recherche telles que formulées dans la fiche 4. La situation idéale consiste à réaliser les enquêtes sur le terrain, face au paysage qui sert de support et de référentiel commun à l'enquêteur et à l'enquêté.Les entretiens individuels sont préférables. En effet, dans un entretien collectif, il faut pouvoir déceler les idées censurées ou déformées sous contrôle social, ce qui semble difficile à ce stade de l'étude.Il est bien rare que ces entretiens suivent la chronologie des événements relatés. Néanmoins, les faits présentés doivent être datés ou tout au moins replacés les uns par rapport aux autres dans une sorte de frise chronologique qui s'appuie autant que possible sur les dates marquantes pour les agriculteurs. Ponctuer l'entretien de questions sur la vie personnelle de l'agriculteur (mariage, naissance des enfants) ou sur de grands événements historiques (avant ou après l'indépendance) est souvent très utile pour mieux dater les faits qu'il évoque. Il est en effet fréquent que les agriculteurs les plus âgés « glissent » d'une période de référence à une autre au fil de l'entretien.• Quelles étaient les espèces végétales exploitées, les espèces spontanées, les variétés dont disposaient les agriculteurs ?• Où ces espèces étaient-elles cultivées ? Comment étaient-elles réparties dans l'espace ?• Quels étaient les modes de conduite des différentes cultures, les rotations pratiquées ?• Quels étaient l'outillage et les équipements utilisés ? • Quelles étaient les espèces et les races animales exploitées ? Quelles étaient les ressources fourragères ? Quel était le mode de conduite des troupeaux ?• Comment la fertilité des différents types de parcelles était-elle entretenue ?• À l'échelle des villages, combien d'habitants y avait-il ? De quelle origine étaient-ils ?• Que consommaient-ils, que mangeaient-ils ? (Cette question aide non seulement à définir les besoins, mais aussi à mieux définir les productions, la part autoconsommée et la part vendue.) • Quelles étaient les autres activités non agricoles pratiquées dans le village (chasse, cueillette, artisanat, industries locales, autre) ?• Comment étaient constituées les familles ? Qui faisait quoi sur les exploitations ? De la main-d'oeuvre externe était-elle employée ? À quelles tâches ? À quels coûts ? • Comment était géré le foncier ? Y avait-il des espaces collectifs ? Qui étaient les propriétaires ? Quelle surface était exploitée par une famille, dans quelles parties de l'écosystème (se référer au zonage agro-écologique) ? Quels étaient les différentes parcelles et les espaces qu'une famille exploitait ? • Quelle était la destination des produits ? Quels étaient les rapports de prix (prix relatifs entre produits agricoles, intrants, biens de consommation) ?• Quelle était la diversité des exploitations, en fonction de leurs caractéristiques foncières, de leur équipement, de leur main-d'oeuvre, de leurs activités agricoles, de transformation et extra-agricoles ?• Quelle était la nature des échanges de terre, de main-d'oeuvre, d'eau, de capital (équipement ou autre) entre les différents types d'exploitants ?Les résultats attendus À l'issue de cette étape, les différents systèmes agraires qui se sont succédé sont situés dans le temps et caractérisés. Il en va de même des phases de transition. Nous sommes à même d'expliquer comment la différenciation entre les exploitations s'est opérée au cours de l'histoire, en fonction des surfaces exploitées, des outils et équipement utilisés, du matériel végétal et animal utilisé et des techniques employées, au gré des évolutions démographiques, des événements économiques et politiques, ainsi que des recompositions sociales. L'observation du paysage et les entretiens historiques permettent de répertorier, dans le territoire, différentes cultures et façons de cultiver. Cependant, la diversité apparente des champs cultivés, aussi grande soit-elle, n'est pas illimitée. L'analyse du paysage a permis en partie d'expliquer, et donc de simplifier, cette réalité complexe : les caractéristiques du climat de la région, la topographie, la localisation par rapport à l'habitat et aux voies de communication ainsi que la nature des sols conditionnent les pratiques culturales, les rendements des cultures et leur répartition spatiale. Grâce à l'analyse historique, nous avons pu mettre en évidence les conditions d'émergence et de développement de ces différentes cultures. Nous avons ainsi pu identifier des facteurs d'ordre politique, économique et démographique qui expliquent la présence de ces cultures dans la région et des pratiques qui leur sont liées.Cependant, même si la diversité des cultures et des façons de cultiver est en grande partie liée aux caractéristiques du milieu biophysique et à la succession des événements historiques, d'autres facteurs sont à l'oeuvre : des facteurs agronomiques bien sûr : un certain nombre de condi-tions doivent être remplies pour que la durabilité des cultures, et notamment la reproduction de la fertilité des milieux exploités, soit assurée ; on ne peut exporter des éléments minéraux sans que ces pertes soient jamais compensées ; des facteurs sociaux et économiques également : si des agriculteurs de la région étudiée pratiquent telle ou telle culture, c'est qu'ils la considèrent comme « rentable » au regard de leurs besoins et des ressources et moyens de production auxquels ils ont accès.Une grille de lecture facilitant la description des pratiques et leur mise en relation de même que des outils permettant d'évaluer les performances agronomiques et économiques des différentes cultures et des façons de les pratiquer sont donc nécessaires.Pour mener ce type d'analyse, nous proposons de mobiliser le concept de système de culture, vu comme « […] l'ensemble des modalités techniques mises en oeuvre sur des parcelles traitées de manière identique. Chaque système de culture se définit par : la nature des cultures et leur ordre de succession ; les itinéraires techniques appliqués à ces différentes cultures, ce qui inclut le choix des variétés pour les cultures retenues. » (Sébillotte, 1976) En se basant sur cette définition, il est possible de dresser une première liste des systèmes de culture à partir des observations réalisées au cours de l'étude du paysage (types de champs observés) et de la reconstitution de l'histoire de l'agriculture (différentes techniques culturales apparues au cours de l'histoire, modes de renouvellement de la fertilité tels que jachères et rotations). Cette liste provisoire de systèmes de culture sera complétée et affinée au cours des enquêtes auprès des agriculteurs.Pour mener à bien la caractérisation d'un système de culture, nous nous fonderons sur des entretiens avec plusieurs agriculteurs pratiquant le système de culture en question. Nous mènerons autant d'entretiens que possible compte tenu du temps et des moyens disponibles, et autant que nécessaire pour pouvoir rassembler tous les éléments permettant de décrire et de comprendre les choix dans la conduite des différentes cultures, et d'en évaluer les résultats.Avant de présenter les différents éléments de caractérisation d'un système de culture, il importe de rappeler que l'objectif poursuivi n'est pas uniquement de décrire les pratiques, mais également de commencer à émettre des hypothèses sur les raisons qui poussent les agriculteurs à opérer certains choix. Ces raisons sont souvent multiples et complexes. La préférence pour une espèce végétale, par exemple, peut être liée aux caractéristiques des terrains disponibles, à la quantité de travail que sa culture requiert, à la sécurité des débouchés, à la place de la récolte dans le calendrier alimentaire de la famille, à son influence sur les autres espèces en présence dans la parcelle ou à ses sous-produits utiles pour les animaux.Pour connaître les déterminants de ces pratiques, qui sont nombreux, complexes et en interaction, nous recommandons de recourir au « comment faites-vous ? » plutôt qu'au « pourquoi ? », au moment où, dans l'entretien, on invite les agriculteurs à décrire la façon dont ils s'y 4. Comprendre les pratiques culturales prennent pour mener à bien leurs cultures. Ainsi, les interlocuteurs, en décrivant leurs activités, formulent les éléments qu'ils prennent en compte dans leurs choix et expriment la façon dont ils analysent leurs conditions et moyens de travail. Le « pourquoi faites-vous comme ça ? » peut parfois les amener à donner une explication « parce qu'il faut bien en donner une », sans que la complexité des facteurs qu'ils prennent en compte en réalité ne nous soit donnée.Les enquêtes auprès des agriculteurs pratiquant un système de culture donné devront permettre de rassembler les informations techniques suivantes.xxw Les espèces cultivées, les successions culturales et les rotations Ce qui fondamentalement contribue à définir un système de culture, c'est l'ordre dans lequel les espèces cultivées, annuelles ou pérennes, se succèdent dans le temps sur une même parcelle. Une étape clé de la caractérisation des systèmes de culture est de comprendre ce qui amène les agriculteurs à implanter, sur une même parcelle, telle espèce après telle autre ou, par exemple, une culture donnée après un temps de jachère. Est-ce qu'ils considèrent l'effet positif de la culture précédente sur l'état du sol, la présence d'adventices et la pression des parasites, par exemple ? Une culture insérée dans une filière donnée permet-elle de bénéficier d'intrants (comme le coton en Afrique de l'Ouest) ? Les légumineuses jouent-elle un rôle dans le maintien du taux d'azote ? Un projet ou une politique « imposent-ils » une succession donnée ? Ensuite, les entretiens devront, a contrario, permettre de comprendre ce qui amène parfois l'agriculteur à ne pas opérer les successions « idéales » : indisponibilité ou coût élevé des semences, manque de temps pour emblaver une culture, ou autre raison.L'ordre dans lequel les cultures se succèdent peut se répéter dans le temps. On parle alors de rotation. L'exemple ci-dessous permet de définir ce que l'on entend par succession et rotation de cultures, et leur lien avec l'assolement, c'est-à-dire avec la répartition des différentes cultures dans l'espace. Il existe en effet une relation logique entre ces deux éléments.Prenons le cas simple d'une parcelle emblavée d'espèces annuelles (figure 6).Si l'on pouvait observer cette parcelle (appelée parcelle 1) pendant cinq ans, on noterait la succession de deux cultures A et B les deux premières années, suivies d'une friche F de trois ans.Si, au bout de trois années de friche, l'agriculteur implante en année 6 la culture A sur sa parcelle et ainsi de suite, la succession se répète de façon périodique. L'agriculteur pratique une rotation culturale (encadré en pointillé). Nous symbolisons cette rotation de la façon suivante :Sauf à ne récolter que du A une année sur cinq et que du B une année sur cinq, et de n'avoir aucune récolte trois années sur cinq, l'agriculteur doit chaque année reprendre cette succession sur une parcelle différente. Pour avoir du A et du B tous les ans, il lui faut donc cinq parcelles menées de la même manière, selon la même rotation, mais simplement décalées d'un an les unes des autres.L'année de réalisation de l'enquête (année n), nous observons sur les terres de l'agriculteur enquêté une répartition de ses cultures telle que nous la montre l'encadré en traits doubles : c'est l'assolement. Pour une année donnée, des parcelles conduites selon le même système de culture n'en sont pas au même stade.Concrètement, afin de pouvoir, lors des entretiens, reconstituer les successions culturales et, le cas échéant, les rotations, il nous faut connaître sur une parcelle donnée non seulement la culture pratiquée dans l'année, mais également les cultures précédentes et les suivantes.Nous proposons de représenter chaque système de culture par sa succession (ou rotation) caractéristique comme suit : [A/B/F1/F2/F3], xxw Les associations culturalesIl importe de décrire précisément, le cas échéant, les proportions entre les différentes espèces et variétés au sein de la parcelle, leur disposition dans l'espace et leur agencement dans le temps. Pour rendre compte de ces associations, trois types de schémas peuvent être très utiles : un calendrier positionnant les différentes époques de semis et d'arrivée à maturité des différentes espèces et montrant les phases des cycles lors desquelles certaines espèces sont en présence les unes des autres ;un croquis en deux dimensions montrant la position relative des différentes espèces sous forme de plan ; un schéma explicitant l'architecture de l'association selon les dif-férents étages occupés ; ceci est particulièrement utile dans le cas de systèmes agroforestiers.Là encore, les entretiens ont pour but d'identifier avec les agriculteurs les éléments qu'ils prennent en compte pour mettre en place ces associations, sachant qu'elles sont souvent pratiquées sur de petites surfaces. En effet, en comparaison avec la culture pure et juxtaposée des mêmes espèces, elles optimisent l'accès à la lumière, à l'eau et aux minéraux et donnent donc une plus grande valeur ajoutée par unité de surface. Les associations peuvent avoir d'autres avantages : le contrôle des adventices par couverture du sol ou par interaction négative avec les « mauvaises herbes », et des interactions positives entre espèces cultivées (association de légumineuses avec des graminées, association avec des plantes insecticides, espèces « tuteurs »).La figure 7 montre différents cas susceptibles de se présenter lorsque l'on prend en compte à la fois les successions intra-annuelles de cycles, les successions interannuelles et les associations.xxw Les itinéraires techniques Il importe de se faire décrire précisément l'ensemble des tâches que les agriculteurs réalisent. On ne se contentera pas, par exemple, d'évoquer la « préparation du terrain », mais on cherchera à connaître en détail en quoi elle consiste : réparation des clôtures, coupe à la machette du recrû de l'année, regroupement des résidus en tas à l'aide de bâtons, brûlis, confection de cordons végétaux en ligne de niveau à partir de certains branchages, ou autre. L'important est de comprendre les fonctions de ces différentes opérations et, notamment, leur action sur l'état du milieu. Par exemple, il est fréquent que certaines opérations manuelles soient rapidement qualifiées de « sarclage » ( fonction : enlever les adventices) alors qu'en réalité il s'agit également de binage (aération du sol afin d'augmenter sa capacité à retenir l'eau de pluie).Une attention particulière peut ici être prêtée à la question du choix des variétés semées. Les agriculteurs citent souvent le milieu (nature du sol, climat) et le comportement de ces variétés dans ces conditions pédoclimatiques. Mais d'autres éléments pourront être considérés pour le choix des espèces et variétés : la date d'arrivée à maturité et le calendrier des disponibilités alimentaires de la famille, la durée des cycles et la date d'arrivée des produits sur le marché (donc le prix de vente), la qualité organoleptique des produits ou leur aptitude à la conservation, leur résistance à certaines maladies, etc. Il s'agit de comprendre les critères de choix de l'agriculteur. Ainsi, l'agriculteur peut choisir une variété de céréale tant pour son rendement en grain que pour son rendement en paille qui servira à nourrir le bétail. Une fois connues les caractéristiques des variétés, on s'intéressera aux quantités de semences utilisées. D'où proviennent-elles ? Les questions de l'approvisionnement en semences ou en plants et des difficultés éventuellement rencontrées à ce niveau peuvent également surgir.Outre les semences, l'agriculteur utilise-t-il des engrais, des herbicides ou des pesticides ? Quelles sont les doses de produits utilisées ? L'agriculteur connaît-il des difficultés pour s'approvisionner en semences ou en intrants et pour avoir accès au matériel et aux services ? A-t-il recours à un matériel spécifique, un pulvérisateur par exemple, qu'il doit louer ? De manière générale, les outils et équipements utilisés pour chacune des opérations sont-ils disponibles à tout moment ?Un élément central de la caractérisation de l'itinéraire technique est le positionnement dans le temps des différentes opérations réalisées sur la parcelle. Il importe d'être précis dans la définition des moments auxquels l'agriculteur mène ses opérations. Par exemple, il ne suffit pas de noter que « le premier désherbage du maïs a lieu au mois de juin » ; le fait qu'il doive être réalisé « au plus tard quatre semaines après le semis » est tout aussi important. L'enjeu est de savoir si la date à laquelle a lieu l'opération doit être absolument respectée ou si elle peut être flexible. Cette flexibilité peut être utilisée par les producteurs pour entreprendre des travaux culturaux urgents, ou d'autres activités.Cela nous amène à définir la fenêtre de temps pendant laquelle chacune des opérations peut et doit être menée. Certaines opérations comme le semis et la récolte doivent en effet être réalisées sur des périodes extrêmement courtes, alors que d'autres telles que le défrichement peuvent s'étaler sur des périodes plus longues. Cette information sur la souplesse du calendrier cultural est indispensable pour identifier les pointes de travail. Une opération peut en effet demander beaucoup de travail sans pour autant constituer un goulet d'étranglement nécessitant le recours à l'entraide ou à la main-d'oeuvre salariée, si l'on dispose d'une période de temps suffisante. À l'inverse, une opération peut demander relativement moins de travail que les autres, mais constituer une pointe car elle doit être réalisée dans un laps de temps très bref. La souplesse ou la rigidité du calendrier cultural est généralement dictée par les saisons, car certaines opérations techniques ne peuvent être réalisées que si les conditions climatiques optimales sont remplies (début de la saison des pluies, par exemple). Là encore, il est utile de disposer des données ombro-thermiques pour bien analyser l'itinéraire technique.Il est donc nécessaire d'évaluer le temps de travail requis par chaque opération. L'unité de mesure du temps de travail est l'homme-jour. Cette unité correspond au travail d'un actif agricole pendant une journée. Dans l'enquête, cette évaluation suppose de poser deux questions : « Combien de jours de travail sont-ils nécessaires pour réaliser cette opération ? » et « Combien de personnes par jour ? ». La quantité de travail investie dans une opération est en effet la même, qu'il s'agisse d'une personne travaillant 30 jours ou de 30 personnes travaillant une journée. Par ailleurs, pour pouvoir comparer les systèmes de culture il convient de rapporter le temps de travail à la surface et de raisonner en homme-jour par hectare. Notons que pour certains systèmes de culture il peut être nécessaire d'évaluer le temps de travail en heures par jour. C'est le cas des cultures maraîchères, où un travail quotidien est investi sur de très petites parcelles.Les tableaux 1a et 1b donnent des exemples d'itinéraire technique et précisent la notion de fenêtre de temps et de temps de travail à partir de quelques opérations culturales rencontrées à Lakou Cadichon (Haïti).Itinéraire technique, fenêtres de temps et calcul du temps de travail. Association de maïs, sorgho, niébé, haricot, igname et bananier en culture continue sur un hectare. Les parcelles, situées sur un replat d'altitude, sont éloignées du domicile.  Quels sont les sous-produits et leur destination ? Dans certaines cultures comme le maïs ou le riz, les résidus de culture, les tiges et les feuilles ont une importance non négligeable. Quels sont leurs usages ? Sont-ils laissés sur la parcelle ? Sont-ils enfouis lors du « labour » en guise d'engrais vert ? Sont-ils brûlés ? Servent-ils de litière ? Ou servent-ils à nourrir des animaux ? Les pailles servent-elles à couvrir les toits ? À confectionner des clôtures ? Les palmes servent-elles à construire des cloisons ?Il faut prendre bien soin de relever tous les produits exportés de la parcelle et pas seulement ceux issus des espèces cultivées. Il se peut que les mauvaises herbes, arrachées ou coupées, soient ensuite apportées aux animaux ou utilisées pour faire du compost. Il se peut aussi que les agriculteurs tirent des fruits, du bois ou des feuilles des haies ou des arbres qui ont poussé spontanément au coeur de la parcelle. L'enjeu est de pouvoir comparer les systèmes de culture à partir de l'intégralité des produits et des sous-produits, et de commencer ainsi à analyser les choix des agriculteurs.Le volume de production le plus facile à connaître est bien entendu celui de la récolte de l'année précédant celle de l'enquête. Cependant, il convient de s'assurer auprès des agriculteurs que cette année peut être considérée comme normale. En effet, les récoltes obtenues sont généralement assez variables -mauvaises certaines années à la suite d'incidents tels que sécheresse, inondation ou ravageurs, ou parfois exceptionnellement bonnes.On cherche donc dans un premier temps à évaluer le niveau de production en année « normale », c'est-à-dire lorsque les conditions de production ne sont ni particulièrement mauvaises, ni particulièrement bonnes. Cette notion d'année normale ne correspond donc pas à une année moyenne au sens mathématique du terme, mais plutôt aux conditions de production le plus fréquentes.C'est dans un deuxième temps que l'on évalue le niveau de production dans les années « extrêmes », c'est-à-dire lorsque la campagne est particulièrement bonne et lorsqu'elle est particulièrement mauvaise. Notons que, dans ce dernier cas, il arrive que pour certaines cultures une mauvaise année se traduise par une production nulle. Quoi qu'il en soit, il importe de bien identifier la fréquence et les facteurs explicatifs de ces variations. L'étude de la variabilité des rendements et de leurs causes est une entrée pour identifier avec les agriculteurs les éléments qui ont une incidence importante sur leurs productions et leurs revenus.Il est parfois difficile d'estimer la production lorsque la récolte s'étale sur un mois ou plus, ou lorsque, comme pour certains tubercules tels que l'igname ou le manioc, on ne récolte que quelques racines sur une plante en la laissant en terre. Il arrive également que l'on récolte le maïs en fonction des besoins du ménage, au cours de sa maturité.Si cette récolte est vendue, dans la plupart des cas les agriculteurs connaissent leur production. Si, en revanche, la production est autoconsommée, il faudra recourir à des moyens indirects pour estimer la part d'autoconsommation.On peut par exemple s'informer sur les pratiques alimentaires. À quelles occasions et à quelle fréquence les mères de famille préparent-elles le tubercule, le fruit ou le légume en question ? Quelles sont les quantités préparées à chaque repas ? Pendant combien de temps dans l'année ce produit est-il consommé ?On peut également estimer la production à partir de la surface du champ de maïs et des rendements moyens obtenus dans la région dans des conditions comparables. En recoupant les deux méthodes, on arrive à des chiffres assez fiables.Dans le cas des cultures pérennes, il ne faudra pas oublier les sousproduits, ni le bois des arbres. L'estimation de la production annuelle de bois s'obtient en divisant les quantités produites sur une coupe par le nombre d'années attendues avant d'abattre les arbres.On discutera avec l'agriculteur des pertes après récolte (stockage, transport), des problèmes de commercialisation et des variations de prix de vente.Le rendement est la production par unité de surface. Il faut donc connaître les surfaces pour évaluer les rendements. Les agriculteurs connaissent en général la surface de leurs parcelles en mesure locale. Sinon, il est possible de les estimer sur place en les parcourant à pied avec les agriculteurs. En général, les superficies des cultures pérennes sont connues, mais celles des champs vivriers ou des cultures annuelles, qui peuvent varier d'une année à l'autre, sont plus difficiles à déterminer.Lorsque l'on connaît les densités de semis, il est possible d'évaluer la surface d'un champ à partir de la quantité de semence totale utilisée par l'agriculteur. C'est d'autant plus facile pour une plantation d'arbres, dont on peut apprécier la surface en multipliant l'espacement entre les plants par le nombre de pieds sur la parcelle.Il est parfois plus aisé et pertinent d'évaluer non pas le rendement par unité de surface, mais le « rendement semence », c'est-à-dire la quantité produite par unité de grains semés, ou par pied dans les plantations pérennes, par exemple.Le rendement s'exprime en unités de poids ou de volume par unité de surface. La comparaison des différents rendements obtenus chez plusieurs agriculteurs qui pratiquent le même système de culture peut permettre de discuter avec eux de leurs pratiques culturales. Mais attention, le rendement n'est pas toujours, loin de là, le ratio agronomique que les agriculteurs cherchent à maximiser. C'est en effet la production globale finale, annuelle, d'une parcelle qui compte : les rendements atteints par chacune des espèces au sein d'une association sont certes plus faibles qu'en culture pure, mais le volume ou le poids de l'ensemble des productions par hectare sera sans doute supérieur à celui d'une seule des espèces de l'association menée en culture pure. De même, les rendements de céréales obtenus quand on pratique deux cycles par an sur une même parcelle sont sans doute plus faibles que si un seul cycle avait été pratiqué, mais à la fin de l'année la terre aura produit plus.xxw Le maintien de la fertilité Il est important de ne pas confiner l'analyse aux seules évaluations des performances techniques actuelles d'un système de culture. Dans quelle mesure ces performances pourront-elles être maintenues à long terme ? Quelle est la capacité du système à régénérer les conditions du milieu (fertilité chimique, taux de matière organique ou autre) nécessaires pour atteindre ces résultats ? À ce stade de la caractérisation d'un système de culture, il est bon de faire le point sur les informations déjà recueillies, quitte à avoir un échange complémentaire avec les agriculteurs, pour comprendre la façon dont ils maintiennent la fertilité des parcelles consacrées au système de culture étudié.Des temps de jachère ou de friche interviennent-ils dans la reproduction de la fertilité d'une terre ? Des espèces spécifiques telles que des légumineuses sont-elles utilisées en vue de régénérer la fertilité ? Y a-t-il des transferts verticaux de fertilité grâce aux arbres, ou horizontaux grâce à des apports alluvionnaires par exemple ? La préférence pour des opérations manuelles, et non chimiques, de désherbage n'est-elle pas aussi à relier à la volonté de maintenir le taux de matière organique dans la parcelle ? L'élevage participe-t-il d'une façon ou d'une autre à la reproduction de la fertilité des champs (pâturage des chaumes, parcages, transfert de poudrette ou fumier) ? Des microaménagements tels que terrassements ou cordons faits d'alignements de pierres ou de résidus et de branches sont-ils réalisés pour retenir les limons ou pour maintenir une certaine profondeur de sol et améliorer ainsi leur capacité de rétention d'eau ?Les informations à recueillir pour caractériser un système de culture sont rassemblées dans la fiche 5. • Pour chacun des cycles culturaux de la rotation, quelles sont les opérations réalisées sur les parcelles, dans l'ordre chronologique ? À quelle période sont-elles réalisées par rapport aux saisons et aux stades végétatifs des cultures, et comment ? Il s'agit de comprendre comment l'agriculteur utilise la force de travail dont il dispose (familiale ou salariée), ses outils, ses animaux et les intrants, de la préparation du sol à la vente des produits. S'agit-il de travail manuel ? D'équipement attelé ou motorisé ? Quelles sont les opérations qui font l'objet d'un investissement prioritaire en équipement ? Pourquoi ?• Discuter du choix des variétés : le choix est-il lié au cycle des variétés ? En quoi la durée des différents cycles est-elle importante ? L'agriculteur essaie-t-il de « caler » plusieurs cycles dans une année sur une même parcelle ?• Quelle est pour chaque opération la fenêtre de temps disponible ? La quantité de travail nécessaire ? Qui la réalise ? À quel coût ? Quelles sont les contraintes que l'agriculteur rencontre dans la mise en oeuvre de différentes opérations ? Y a-t-il des variations en fonction des années ? À quoi sont-elles dues ?• Utilisation d'engrais ou de fumier, associations de cultures, temps de friche ou de jachère, parcage d'animaux, utilisation des termitières : quels sont les moyens de transport utilisés pour les transferts de fertilité ?• Pour chaque culture, lister avec l'agriculteur les produits et les sous-produits finaux, sortis du champ, qu'ils soient destinés à l'autoconsommation de la famille, à la vente, à l'alimentation des animaux, à la construction, ou autre.• Quels sont les volumes produits au sortir du champ ? Ces volumes peuvent être évalués par exemple à partir des quantités autoconsommées, des quantités vendues ou des rendements obtenus par quantité de semences.• Y a-t-il des pertes au transport ? Au stockage ? • Quelle est la destination des produits : part autoconsommée, part vendue, part donnée, part destinée à la rémunération en nature de la force de travail extérieure, part gardée pour la semence, pertes ? Au-delà des quantités produites, nous devons aussi mesurer la valeur de ces productions et pour cela en connaître le prix.xxw Le produit brut Une fois la production mesurée en volume, il faut évaluer sa valeur en termes monétaires. Pour cela, il faut se renseigner sur le prix de vente des produits agricoles vendus. Mais quel prix retenir ?L'évaluation des prix des produits agricoles, qui pourrait sembler simple, présente souvent des difficultés. En effet, les prix varient selon le lieu et l'époque de la mise en marché. Ils sont plus élevés sur les marchés urbains qu'aux abords des villages. En pleine saison de production, le prix de vente des produits de consommation courante destinés aux marchés nationaux chute, car l'offre est élevée. Hors saison, il augmente, car les volumes offerts sont faibles. Il est donc nécessaire de reconstituer l'évolution intra-annuelle des prix des produits du système, à partir des déclarations des agriculteurs, croisées éventuellement avec des enquêtes rapides sur les marchés ou auprès des collecteurs ou des négociants. Il s'agit avant tout de se faire expliquer par les agriculteurs les modes de mise en marché, les périodes de commercialisation et les quantités concernées à chaque période, pour ensuite leur affecter le prix correspondant.Certains producteurs choisissent de conserver leur production pour la vendre à un moment de l'année où le prix leur est favorable. Cela est possible si les besoins monétaires ne sont pas trop importants au moment de la récolte, et si les producteurs disposent de moyens de conservation efficaces (frigos, greniers, bâtiments de stockages, produits de conservation). Ces dispositifs ont un coût direct ou réparti sur plusieurs années (amortissements) que l'on prendra en compte par la suite. Il s'agit là d'une véritable stratégie de « production-vente » dont le bénéfice, s'il y a, est exprimé au travers du prix de vente. Nous ne pouvons donc pas effacer les différences qui existent entre les producteurs à ce niveau, puisque les conditions de commercialisation et les prix de vente sont une caractéristique du système étudié lui-même. Néanmoins, à défaut d'explications sur les différences de prix déclarés par les producteurs, il se peut que l'on soit amené à harmoniser les chiffres considérés pour comparer les systèmes de culture entre eux.Comme nous l'avons vu, nous devons tenir compte des quantités autoconsommées pour estimer les performances agronomiques des systèmes de culture. De la même façon, nous devons en évaluer la valeur, car la part autoconsommée constitue, dans certains cas, la totalité du revenu agricole. Le prix de ces productions autoconsommées est celui que l'agriculteur aurait dû payer s'il ne les avait pas produites. Il s'agit donc du prix d'achat sur le marché le plus proche. Notons que ce prix d'achat est différent du prix de vente pour un même produit, cette différence s'expliquant par l'intermédiation des commerçants.Comme pour les quantités vendues, différents prix devront être retenus en fonction des périodes auxquelles les produits sont consommés. Une famille qui a pu préserver ses stocks pour consommer ses céréales en période de soudure, au moment des prix hauts, a de fait un revenu plus élevé que celle qui n'a pu faire autrement que de vider les greniers rapidement.On s'appliquera également à calculer la valeur des sous-produits pour lesquels il existe un marché et qui ne sont pas dédiés à l'intraconsommation, c'est-à-dire qui ne sont pas destinés à être réutilisés dans le système de production.Par exemple, on prendra en compte la valeur économique de la paille du riz dans le calcul du produit brut si elle est vendue à des éleveurs, mais on ne comptera pas celle qui est brûlée sur place.Le produit brut (PB) correspond à la valeur de production annuelle finale du système de culture, c'est-à-dire aux quantités produites finales, ramenées sur un an et multipliées par le prix unitaire de chaque produit. PB = production finale annuelle × prix unitaire D'une manière générale, l'évaluation économique, basée sur un an, d'un système de culture doit tenir compte de l'ensemble des cultures ou associations de cultures intervenant dans la succession intra-annuelle (les différentes cultures se succédant dans l'année) et dans la rotation (les cultures ou cycles de cultures tout au long de la rotation) et donc du nombre d'années n que comprend la rotation : PB = [(productions × prix unitaire de chaque produit) en année 1 + (productions × prix unitaire de chaque produit) en année 2 + … + (productions × prix unitaire de chaque produit) en année n]/n Ce calcul (où  est le symbole de la somme) est interprété comme la moyenne des produits bruts des cultures qui se succèdent sur une parcelle sur plusieurs années ou comme la moyenne des produits bruts des parcelles de l'assolement correspondant pour une année.Dans le cas où des associations de cultures sont pratiquées, ce sont les volumes produits pour chacune des espèces associées qui seront considérés et dont on sommera les valeurs : PB association = productions × prix unitaire de chaque produit Exemple d'une association de mil et de niébé : PB = (quantité de mil récoltée × prix unitaire du mil) + (quantité de niébé récoltée × prix unitaire du niébé)Là réside une grande différence avec les modes comptables classiques de calcul, et notamment les notions de recette et de marge, qui sont des ratios établis pour des cultures et non pour des systèmes de culture. Vu que notre objectif est de tenir compte de la complexité des facteurs en jeu dans les choix des agriculteurs et des interactions entre les cultures au sein d'un système, seuls des ratios s'appliquant à l'échelle de ces systèmes sont pertinents.Le fait de ramener le produit brut annuel à l'hectare (PB/ha) nous permettra de comparer les produits de différents systèmes de culture.À ce propos, notons que pour une rotation incluant cycles annuels de cultures et années de jachère, ces dernières doivent être prises en compte dans le calcul du produit brut du système de culture ramené à l'unité de surface. xxw Les consommations intermédiaires  De même qu'on ne peut comparer la quantité de travail exigée par deux systèmes de culture qu'en la ramenant à l'unité de surface, de même le jugement des performances économiques suppose de comparer des valeurs comparables. Il est nécessaire de ramener la VAB à la quantité de terre nécessaire pour la produire :VAB/unité de surface = VAB totale produite par système de culture par an/surface consacrée au système (mesurée en unité de surface)Cette variable nous permet de comparer des systèmes de culture sur le plan de la richesse produite par unité de surface. L'unité est le plus souvent l'hectare, mais ce peut en être une autre, comme le carreau ou l'are, dans les systèmes pratiqués sur de très petites surfaces, tel le maraîchage. Il suffit de retenir la même unité pour tous les systèmes comparés.Appelé « productivité de la terre », cet indicateur permet de comparer l'efficacité des systèmes de culture, en particulier dans les situations de pénurie foncière -quand la terre est un facteur limitant. Un agriculteur qui dispose de très petites surfaces a intérêt à pratiquer des systèmes de culture valorisant au mieux cette terre de surface limitée, c'est-à-dire qui produisent une forte VAB par unité de surface. Cependant, lorsque les agriculteurs travaillent eux-mêmes sur leur exploitation avec leur famille, leur intérêt est avant tout de valoriser au mieux leur force de travail, de choisir les systèmes de culture assurant une production de richesse élevée au regard du travail requis. Ainsi, si leurs surfaces ne sont pas trop limitées, les agriculteurs familiaux auront peu intérêt à mettre en oeuvre des systèmes de culture qui requièrent beaucoup de travail, même s'ils produisent une forte richesse par hectare. Leur intérêt sera plutôt de choisir des systèmes offrant une bonne production par rapport au travail investi, quitte à ce qu'ils ne soient pas le plus productifs à l'hectare. Là réside le fossé d'incompréhension qui a longtemps séparé les agronomes en quête de rendements toujours meilleurs et les agriculteurs dont les choix sont en réalité guidés par d'autres considérations, notamment la productivité de leur travail.La valeur ajoutée brute par unité de travail, ou productivité brute du travail, se calcule de la façon suivante, en considérant l'homme-jour (h.j) comme unité de mesure du travail investi :VAB/h.j = VAB annuelle pour un système de culture sur une surface donnée/temps de travail total requis par an sur cette même surface (mesuré en homme-jour)Cette productivité du travail correspond à la richesse obtenue pour chaque journée de travail qui est consacrée à un système de culture donné. Ce critère permet de comparer ce que « rapporte », en termes de création brute de richesse, une journée de travail consacrée à tel ou tel système de culture.La rémunération brute du travail familial, ou marge brute, est calculée en retirant de la VAB totale le salaire des ouvriers qui ont travaillé dans le système de culture en question, et en ramenant la marge ainsi calculée au nombre de journées de travail familial (le nombre de jours de travail des membres de la famille dédiés au système de culture étudié).Rémunération brute du travail familial = (VAB/an − total salaires versés/an)/temps de travail familial (mesuré en homme-jour)  Si, à ces questions, les agriculteurs répondent qu'ils pourraient cultiver plus, il faut alors se demander si le système étudié requiert des terrains spécifiques (type de sol, possibilités d'irrigation, altitude) auxquels les agriculteurs ont un accès limité, ou bien si le mode de faire-valoir constitue un frein à l'extension du système. Il est par exemple fréquent que les cultures pérennes soient réservées aux seuls propriétaires.À partir des observations et des premières enquêtes historiques, il est possible de dresser une liste des types de champs rencontrés.Les critères de différenciation sont la position dans l'écosystème, les cultures pratiquées, les modes de conduite. Cette liste est par la suite amendée : après avoir soumis aux agriculteurs rencontrés les types de cultures déjà identifiés, on peut leur demander s'ils connaissent des personnes qui mènent des cultures différentes. On leur demandera aussi s'ils connaissent des agriculteurs qui pratiquent les mêmes cultures que les leurs, mais de façon différente, dans des endroits différents de l'écosystème. Toutes ces questions permettent de cerner la diversité des situations pour la prendre en compte lors de l'échantillonnage. Un autre élément important doit être pris en compte pour le choix des agriculteurs : il vaut mieux dans un premier temps privilégier les exploitations « en vitesse de croisière », c'est-à-dire celles qui ne se trouvent pas dans une conjoncture particulière au niveau du ménage (accident, maladie ou autre) ou en phase de reconversion par exemple.  Un premier inventaire des systèmes d'élevage peut être réalisé en exploitant les résultats des études paysagères et des entretiens historiques. Ces résultats sont éventuellement croisés avec des entretiens spécifiques auprès d'éleveurs ayant un point de vue assez large sur le territoire étudié et sur les différentes formes d'élevage qui y sont pratiquées. Nous nous attacherons pour cela à distinguer les espèces et races élevées, les modes de conduite selon les saisons (au piquet, en divagation, en parc, en stabulation ou autre) et les produits finaux (veaux de huit jours, veaux sevrés, veaux lourds, broutards, taurillons, lait, fromage, fumier, services de traction animale). Ces trois éléments ne se combinent pas de façon aléatoire, mais forment des « tout » que nous analyserons comme des systèmes : certaines races sont conduites d'une certaine façon pour certains produits finaux et certains niveaux de production.Tous les systèmes d'élevage devront être pris en considération, y compris ceux qui, de prime abord, apparaissent comme négligeables ou difficiles à appréhender : les quelques volailles élevées par les femmes dans les cours, les deux ou trois chèvres en divagation, le jeune bélier engraissé dans un coin de la concession. L'étude de ces petits ateliers dévoilera bien souvent le rôle important qu'ils jouent dans l'économie de certains types d'exploitation. Bien entendu, l'établissement d'une typologie des systèmes d'élevage est un processus progressif et itératif. Le premier inventaire n'est qu'un premier jet, qui sera affiné au fur et à mesure des entretiens de caractérisation menés auprès des éleveurs.Dans beaucoup de situations, les acteurs en présence autour d'un troupeau peuvent être nombreux, et leur rôle doit être précisément connu, notamment afin de définir correctement les interlocuteurs pour mener les entretiens de caractérisation. De la même façon que certains agriculteurs ne sont pas propriétaires de leur terre, il arrive que certains éleveurs ne soient pas propriétaires de leurs animaux. Il importe donc au préalable, lors de cette phase d'identification des systèmes d'élevage, de connaître les différentes formes de tenure des animaux. De plus, la prise de décision quant à la reproduction, à la conduite des troupeaux et à l'usage des produits peut aussi être répartie entre différents acteurs. Par exemple, la traite et la vente du lait sont faites par les femmes, la conduite du troupeau et l'exploitation des animaux sont sous la responsabilité des hommes. L'objectif étant de bien connaître et comprendre les pratiques d'élevage, il faudra veiller à mener les entretiens avec les bons interlocuteurs : on peut être amené à rencontrer plusieurs personnes pour caractériser un seul système d'élevage.Il sera mené autant d'entretiens que possible compte tenu du temps et des moyens disponibles, et autant de fois que cela sera nécessaire pour rassembler tous les éléments permettant de décrire et de comprendre les choix dans la conduite des animaux ainsi que d'en évaluer les résultats. Le principe de triangulation impose de mener au moins trois entretiens par type de système d'élevage, sauf, bien entendu, si un système particulier n'est pratiqué dans la région que par une ou deux exploitations. Cela peut être le cas de systèmes récents et innovants.Au préalable, insistons sur quelques précautions méthodologiques importantes.La première difficulté méthodologique de l'étude des systèmes d'élevage familiaux réside dans le fait que les effectifs sont rarement stables et que les variations semblent de prime abord assez aléatoires. Cependant, les modes de conduite des animaux ont une cohérence interne qu'il nous faut décrire et comprendre. Le troupeau a-t-il une fonction spécifique d'épargne sur pied, mobilisée pour investir dans l'exploitation ou dans d'autres activités, ou pour augmenter le niveau de vie ou de prestige des familles (déstockage important à l'occasion de grandes fêtes ou de funérailles, par exemple) ? Les pratiques d'exploitation du troupeau sont-elles à mettre en parallèle avec des baisses saisonnières de disponibilités fourragères, ou avec des besoins de trésorerie pour d'autres activités de l'exploitation ? Ou encore sontelles à relier à des opportunités de marché ? Une deuxième difficulté méthodologique réside dans le fait que nous ne pouvons baser la caractérisation d'un troupeau sur la « photo » que nous pourrions en faire au moment t où l'enquête est menée. Il se peut fort bien que l'éleveur enquêté vienne juste de vendre deux des quatre vaches qu'il possédait et qu'il en rachète deux prochainement : faut-il en déduire que l'effectif du cheptel reproducteur est de deux ? Recueillir les caractéristiques d'état du troupeau n'est donc pas suffisant. Un troupeau est constitué de différentes classes d'animaux que l'on distingue selon l'âge, le poids, le sexe, la phase de la fonction productive et l'activité sexuelle. Par conséquent, leurs effectifs respectifs varient dans l'année, selon une logique qu'il faut justement découvrir en s'attachant à décrire les caractéristiques dynamiques du système d'élevage.Nous sommes ici amenés à distinguer les élevages qui ont une activité d'engraissement des troupeaux comprenant des reproductrices (et parfois des reproducteurs) et qui ont donc une activité de naissage, souvent combinée avec une activité d'élevage des jeunes et parfois d'engraissement. Bien entendu, chaque type d'élevage peut également combiner d'autres activités telles que la production de lait ou de laine. Enfin, d'autres types d'élevage peuvent être fortement intégrés au système de production et avoir essentiellement une fonction de traction ou de transport, ou encore de production de fumier.La structure des élevages strictement engraisseurs repose sur une gestion des animaux en bandes. Pour la caractériser, il suffit de connaître les périodes d'achat des jeunes, les caractéristiques des jeunes, la durée de présence sur les exploitations et la façon dont les bandes sont constituées (en fonction du poids, de l'âge ou du sexe). Il arrive bien souvent que, dans les exploitations les plus petites, la bande se résume à l'unité.Nous décrirons de façon plus approfondie le cas des élevages naisseurs, car ces élevages sont bien plus complexes, la fonction de naissage pouvant être combinée avec d'autres fonctions.xxw Les pratiques de reproduction et la productivité numérique Le choix des races et la conduite de la reproduction L'important n'est pas seulement de relever le nom des races élevées ou les croisements éventuellement opérés, mais également de décrire les caractéristiques recherchées par l'éleveur. Recherche-t-il des races très fécondes, ou prolifiques ? Ou est-ce le critère de rusticité qu'il privilégie ? Ou encore, la productivité bouchère ou laitière, le comportement au dressage, la qualité des produits ? Dans le cas des élevages naisseurs, il faudra également connaître les techniques de mise à la reproduction. À quel âge se fait la première mise à la reproduction des femelles ? Les éleveurs adoptent-ils l'insémination artificielle ou la monte naturelle ? Dans ce dernier cas, quel est le degré d'intervention des éleveurs ? Contrôlent-ils les accouplements ? Comment choisissent-ils les reproducteurs ? Ont-ils recours à d'autres éleveurs pour maintenir ou accroître leur capital génétique : achat de saillies aux voisins, jeunes femelles acquises auprès d'autres exploitants ou sur les marchés ?Dans les troupeaux naisseurs, l'unité de production est la femelle reproductrice (vache, brebis, chèvre, poule, truie, etc., mise à la reproduction). Une fois connu le nombre de femelles reproductrices présentes en année normale, il faudra chercher à recueillir auprès des éleveurs  (c) À l'arrière-plan, dans le prolongement de la plaine arborée, on distingue une vaste étendue herbeuse. S'agit-il d'une zone où les arbres ont été abattus ou d'une zone où les arbres poussent moins bien ? Ou, au contraire, l'espace boisé est-il en train de s'étendre dans cette direction ? Quelles sont les dynamiques à l'oeuvre dans ce paysage ?  En quelques lignes : l'habitat est concentré dans les mornes, sur les platons, où de petits producteurs cultivent le maïs, le haricot et un peu de caféiers et de cacaoyers sur les abords des ravines. En quelques lignes : l'habitat est regroupé près de la route nationale. Les parties hautes ont subi un profond déboisement. Les pentes continuent à être cultivées sur des friches de très courte durée (un ou deux ans maximum). Les champs des replats et de la plaine sont désormais, pour la plupart, labourés à la charrue tirée par des boeufs et laissés quelques mois en jachère pâturée par des animaux menés au piquet. Les clôtures en cactées ont presque disparu, sauf autour des champs de case et de quelques parcelles cultivées en saison sèche (lorsque des animaux sont placés dans les champs pour profiter des résidus de culture), comme les bananeraies et les quelques petites parcelles de canne à sucre qui subsistent.  Le taux de fécondité est le nombre de jeunes nés vivants par femelle mise à la reproduction ; il peut aussi être défini comme le produit du taux de mise bas par le taux de prolificité du troupeau.Taux de fécondité = taux de mise bas × taux de prolificité ou Taux de fécondité = nombre de petits nés × 100/nombre de femelles mises à la reproduction On privilégie souvent l'estimation et l'utilisation de ce taux de fécondité qui est réellement la première et principale composante de la productivité numérique du troupeau. Chez les bovins, le taux de fécondité est très proche du taux de mise bas, puisque les naissances multiples sont très rares (prolificité voisine de 1). Ce n'est pas le cas des autres espèces telles que les petits ruminants (ovins et caprins) et les porcins.La productivité numérique au sevrage du troupeau (PNS) est un paramètre essentiel. Elle revient à évaluer le nombre de jeunes sevrés produits par mère. On peut aussi la calculer en retranchant de la fécondité le nombre des jeunes morts avant le sevrage. Cette mortalité des jeunes comprend la mortinatalité (mort-nés) et la mortalité entre la naissance et le sevrage.Taux de mortalité des jeunes = nombre de petits morts × 100/nombre de petits nés PNS = taux de fécondité × (100 − taux de mortalité des jeunes) Selon l'hypothèse d'une sex-ratio de 50/50, le nombre de jeunes mâles et de jeunes femelles sevrés produits par an dans le troupeau est de PNS/2.Afin de pouvoir comparer les systèmes d'élevage, il est important de connaître la productivité des mères sur un même laps de temps, en l'occurrence sur un an : tous les critères zootechniques définis plus haut devront être ramenés à l'année. Or les cycles de reproduction des animaux -les intervalles entre deux mises bas pour les mammifères ou entre deux cycles de ponte pour les volailles -peuvent être soit supérieurs ou égaux à un an (pour les bovins par exemple), soit inférieurs ou égaux à un an (petits ruminants, porcs, volailles, etc.).Pour des espèces telles que les porcs ou les volailles, il est fréquent que toutes ces informations soient recueillies pour un cycle. Or le nombre de cycles par mère n'est pas de un par an. Il nous faudra donc diviser les ratios définis plus haut par l'intervalle entre deux mises bas mesuré en années (ou les multiplier par le nombre de mises bas ou de cycles de ponte par an) pour obtenir des paramètres annuels, notamment la productivité numérique (PN) des mères, par an :PN annuelle = PN pour un cycle/intervalle entre deux mises bas mesuré en années Une fois connue la productivité numérique des mères, il nous faut connaître leur devenir (mortalité, réforme) et leur mode de renouvellement. Qu'en est-il de la mortalité des femelles adultes ? Quelles en sont les principales causes ? Le taux de mortalité peut être discuté avec l'éleveur en fonction des aléas et de leur fréquence, en bonne année et en mauvaise année. De même, les pratiques de réforme devront être analysées : qu'est-ce qui pousse l'éleveur à réformer les femelles ? À quelles occasions le fait-il ? Les femelles sont-elles vendues ? Sontelles abattues et consommées ? Quels effectifs cela représente-t-il, en fonction des années ?Connaître la mortalité des adultes et la durée de la carrière d'une femelle mise à la reproduction permet d'évaluer le nombre de jeunes femelles nécessaires pour le renouvellement. Si, par exemple, les vaches sont réformées au bout de dix ans de carrière en moyenne, à compter de la date de la première saillie, le taux annuel de réforme est de 1/10 de l'effectif total de reproductrices. Si les agriculteurs renouvellent leurs troupeaux à partir de la descendance de leurs vaches, ils doivent, pour maintenir les effectifs, conserver tous les ans, en moyenne, un nombre de génisses équivalent à 1/10 du nombre de reproductrices.Dès lors se pose la question des pratiques des éleveurs pour le renouvellement de leur « capital reproducteur ». Les éleveurs conservent-ils une partie de leurs jeunes femelles pour le renouvellement, et dans quelle proportion ? Les achètent-ils ? Comment, à qui ? S'il apparaît qu'ils n'achètent jamais de jeunes femelles, et si l'effectif de reproductrices est stable, le nombre de mères réformées ou mortes par an est égal au nombre de jeunes femelles conservées pour le renouvellement.xxw Toutes ces informations permettent d'établir les effectifs des différents lots ou ateliers qui composent les troupeaux : le nombre de reproductrices (taries ou en lactation), le nombre de génisses de moins de un an et de un à deux ans gardées pour le renouvellement, le nombre Une mère de 2 à 12 ans + 0,4 jeune de 0 à 10 mois + 0,1 génisse de 9 à 24 mois Il est possible, si l'on dispose de tables adéquates, de donner un poids relatif à cette suite en utilisant une même unité. Par exemple, l'unité utilisée pour les ruminants est l'unité de bétail tropical (UBT) qui équivaut à un bovin de 250 kilos. Cette mesure permet de comparer le « poids » des mères et de leurs suites dans différents systèmes d'élevage. Elle permet aussi de rendre compte de façon synthétique de l'impact des choix des éleveurs, concernant le renouvellement et l'exploitation des jeunes, sur les besoins alimentaires globaux de leurs troupeaux.Une fois établies les proportions moyennes des différentes catégories d'animaux, il importe de chercher à comprendre, avec les éleveurs, les variations d'effectifs qui peuvent survenir d'une année à l'autre ainsi que leurs causes. Il faudra ensuite évaluer l'incidence de ces variations d'effectifs et de productivité des animaux sur les revenus (voir la section « Estimer les performances économiques »).Combinée avec la productivité numérique du troupeau, l'estimation des paramètres d'exploitation nous permettra finalement d'évaluer l'ensemble des quantités de produits finaux par an et par mère.Un premier paramètre d'exploitation a été présenté dans le paragraphe précédent : l'âge, ou le poids, à la vente ou à l'abattage. Ici, nous préciserons avec l'éleveur si le produit final (sortant de l'exploitation) La première étape consiste à connaître les disponibilités en aliments et en eau. Il faut pour cela recenser avec les éleveurs les différentes parties de l'écosystème (déjà caractérisées, notamment du point de vue botanique) exploitées spécifiquement pour leurs animaux : parcelles de cultures fourragères et ressources spontanées telles que prairies naturelles, parcours, jachères, bords de chemin, arbres et arbustes fourragers situés en bordure de parcelle ou en brousse. Ensuite, il convient de répertorier les espaces utilisés de façon secondaire, notamment pour le pâturage ou pour le ramassage des résidus de récolte, ainsi que les ressources extérieures aux exploitations mobilisées pour cet élevage, telles que les aliments achetés ou les déchets ménagers. Sur la base des observations faites pendant la première étape du diagnostic, et des dires des éleveurs, chacune des unités de milieu exploitées pour les animaux doit être décrite : flore et biomasse présentes au fil des saisons, durée et fréquence de pâturage pour les parties livrées à la dent des animaux, quantités ramassées (si possible évaluées en matière sèche) et destination des fourrages. Comme chaque espèce a sa physiologie propre, la flore pâturée n'est pas accessible de la même manière à toutes les espèces. Les caprins, à la différence des ovins, ont accès aux arbres ; les ovins délaissent les herbes hautes broutées par les bovins. Les différentes espèces botaniques n'ont pas non plus la même appétence pour tous les animaux. Des complémentarités entre espèces animales peuvent être relevées. Par exemple, des ovins, des bovins et des caprins lâchés sur un même espace ne vont pas exploiter les mêmes espèces botaniques. Un parallèle peut être fait ici avec les associations de culture.Ces disponibilités alimentaires seront mises en regard des besoins des animaux grâce à un calendrier fourrager. Le calendrier fourrager est un outil important de caractérisation d'un système d'élevage. Il consiste à établir un tableau sur lequel on reporte, du début à la fin de l'année et pour chaque catégorie d'animaux présente dans les troupeaux, les espaces utilisés et la nature des ressources alimentaires consommées, en distinguant celles qui sont pâturées de celles qui sont affouragées (légumineuses, graminées, feuilles, foin, ensilage, mauvaises herbes, céréales, avocats, mangues, déchets ménagers) et si possible leurs quantités.Si l'on a pu estimer les surfaces fourragères utilisées pour l'alimentation des animaux, il peut être intéressant d'évaluer le chargement animal afin de pouvoir comparer ensuite les systèmes d'élevage. Il s'agit en fait de ramener à l'unité de surface le nombre d'animaux estimé en UBT, sur la base de la structure du troupeau, c'est-à-dire de la suite type des reproductrices qui aura été construite au préalable grâce à la démarche expliquée au début du chapitre.xxw Les pratiques sanitaires • Les animaux appartiennent-ils à un seul ou plusieurs propriétaires ? Y a-t-il une répartition des rôles entre les membres de la famille pour l'exploitation du troupeau ? Quelle est la nature des contrats des bergers ou des gardiens ? En fonction de ces premiers éléments, cibler le ou les interlocuteurs auprès desquels mener les entretiens.• Monte libre ou monte contrôlée ? • Âge de la mise à la reproduction ?• Période(s) de mise bas ? Groupées ou non ? Des difficultés ? • Critères de choix des reproducteurs ? • Âge à la réforme des mâles, des femelles ? • Intervalles entre mises bas ? • Durée de la gestation ?• Nombre de petits par portée ? • Taux de mortalité avant sevrage ? • Taux de renouvellement des femelles reproductrices ? Ou durée de carrière des mères avant réforme ?Pour chaque produit et sous-produit du troupeau, tenter d'identifier les quantités obtenues et leur destination -autoconsommation (famille), vente, dons sociaux ou religieux, sacrifice, intraconsommation (fumier, transport) -et de se faire décrire les pratiques d'exploitation du troupeau par l'éleveur.• Les périodes de lactation sont-elles groupées pour tous les animaux ou échelonnées ?• Combien de mois dure la lactation ? Mois de début et mois de fin ? • Comment évolue la courbe de lactation ? • Quelle quantité moyenne de lait une femelle produit-elle par jour ? • Quel est le mode de traite ? • Quelle est la qualité du lait ? • Quel est le prix du lait en fonction de la qualité ?• À quel âge ou poids les mâles sont-ils vendus ? Et les femelles ? La vente se fait-elle à date ou poids fixe ou à date ou poids variable ? Comment est prise la décision de vendre ? • Quel est le prix de vente à chaque âge (par animal vif, par carcasse ou par kilo de poids vif ou de poids carcasse) ?• À quel âge les mères sont-elles réformées ? Et les mâles ? Comment est prise la décision de réformer ? • Quelle est l'estimation du prix de vente des animaux de réforme (poids vif, poids carcasse) ?• Combien d'oeufs par poule ? • Combien d'oeufs mis à couver ?• Combien de poulets élevés par ponte ? • Les oeufs sont-ils consommés ? Vendus ? À quel prix ?• Y a-t-il production de laine ? Combien de tontes par an ? Quantité de laine et prix ?• Cuir ? Peaux ? Plumes ? • Déjections animales ? Litières (à mettre en relation avec les systèmes de culture) ?• Quel est le travail fourni par les animaux sur l'exploitation ? Quelles tâches ? Quelle fréquence ? Ce service est-il vendu à d'autres exploitants (location de paires de boeufs) ?• Quelles sont les sources d'abreuvement et leur mode d'accès - rivière, lac, barrage, forage, abreuvement au parc ? Déplacement du troupeau ou apport d'eau aux animaux ? Qui s'en occupe (les enfants…) ? Combien de temps cela prend-il ?• Identifier au fil de l'année tous les espaces exploités pour l'alimentation du troupeau : prairies naturelles et temporaires, parcours, bords de chemin, champ de case, champs de céréales récoltés, haies, cultures fourragères ou autre.• Les localiser dans l'écosystème (zonage agro-écologique) et en relever les caractéristiques biophysiques et botaniques (composition et évolution de la flore utile pour les animaux au cours de l'année).• En déterminer le mode d'exploitation, en distinguant les différents ateliers ; pâture (période, durée, fréquence), production (recueillir toutes les caractéristiques d'un système de culture), stockage et distribution des fourrages, ramassage, cueillette.• Relever les temps de travail correspondant à toutes ces opérations et la répartition du travail.• Connaître le mode d'accès (propriété, location, droit d'usage) aux différents espaces et, si possible, en évaluer la surface.• Prairies naturelles et temporaires : quelle en est la flore ? Sontelles pâturées par les animaux ? À quelle fréquence ? Durée ? Quels animaux ? Sont-elles fauchées ? Sont-elles fertilisées ? Avec quoi ? Quand ? Temps de travail ? Coupe des refus ? Entretien des clôtures ? Arbres présents ? Exploités ?• L'éleveur doit-il acheter des fourrages ou des compléments ? Utiliset-il des résidus de culture, des sous-produits domestiques et agroindustriels ou autres ? Décrire les quantités, les périodes, les animaux bénéficiaires, le temps de travail.• Qui garde les animaux ? Y a-t-il embauche de main-d'oeuvre supplémentaire ? L'éleveur a-t-il investi dans des clôtures ? Quel est le temps de travail nécessaire à leur entretien ?• Y a-t-il des problèmes ou des « risques » sanitaires ? De quelle nature ?• Comment l'éleveur prend-il en charge les animaux malades (quels traitements curatifs assure-t-il) ?• Fait-il des traitements préventifs selon un calendrier saisonnier ? Vaccine-t-il ses animaux ?• Les animaux sont-ils parqués ? • Ont-ils un enclos pour la nuit ou un enclos saisonnier ? • L'éleveur a-t-il construit des bâtiments pour les bêtes, de quel type ? • L'éleveur dispose-t-il de bâtiments de stockage pour le fourrage, la paille ?• Les bâtiments permettent-ils de faciliter ou d'accroître la productivité de certaines tâches ? Lesquelles ?• Combien de personnes sont-elles nécessaires, pour quelles tâches ? • À quel moment de l'année ? • Combien de temps durent les opérations ?Quelles sont les contraintes à lever pour que l'éleveur puisse développer son élevage ? • Ressources fourragères insuffisantes, limite de marché ? • Manque de logement des animaux ? Manque de magasin de stockage pour les fourrages ? • Saturation en temps de travail pour une opération donnée ? Laquelle (traite, abreuvement) ?• Pression sociale (dégâts aux cultures) ? Risques sanitaires ? Difficultés de trésorerie ?xxw La reconstitution de la cohérence interne du système d'élevage Il s'agit maintenant de commencer à établir des liens de cohérence entre les choix opérés par les éleveurs pour la reproduction, l'alimentation, les soins, l'exploitation, la valorisation. Pour ce faire, une démarche opérationnelle consiste à mettre en parallèle différents calendriers : le calendrier fourrager, le calendrier des opérations d'élevage et le calendrier des pratiques de production et de gestion des ressources fourragères.Le calendrier des opérations d'élevage situe dans le temps les opérations menées pour l'alimentation, la reproduction, l'exploitation, l'hébergement, l'hygiène et les soins de santé ainsi que l'entretien des infrastructures d'élevage : apports de fourrages, gardiennage, traite, aide à la mise bas, alimentation des veaux, abreuvement, vaccination, déparasitage, nettoyage, paillage, entretien de bâtiments et de clôtures. Ce calendrier donne également le temps de travail exigé par chaque opération et la répartition du travail.De même, le calendrier des pratiques de production et de gestion des ressources fourragères permet d'ordonner dans le temps les pratiques d'entretien des parcours, les opérations culturales, de récolte, de transformation et de stockage des cultures fourragères, l'entretien des clôtures, le ramassage des fourrages aériens spontanés, etc.Mis en parallèle, ces calendriers permettent de déceler les liens existant entre les périodes d'abondance de ressources ou les périodes de pénurie et les pratiques des éleveurs destinées à surmonter ces difficultés. Soit les éleveurs augmentent les disponibilités de fourrages (pratiques particulières de gestion des parcours, achat, ramassage de résidus de récolte, de feuilles, etc.), soit ils diminuent les besoins (décisions de vente d'animaux, choix d'espèces et de races, mise à la reproduction des femelles ou sevrage des jeunes). Cette démarche permet également de rendre compte de l'organisation du travail des agriculteurs, en montrant les complémentarités dans le temps ou les concurrences entre les différentes opérations de conduite du troupeau, Pour avoir une idée de la création de richesse annuelle créée par un élevage, nous proposons d'estimer l'accroissement annuel de la valeur du troupeau à partir des performances zootechniques.L'évaluation doit se baser sur les niveaux de productivité établis lors de l'étape précédente de caractérisation du fonctionnement du troupeau. Il est conseillé, dans le cas d'élevages naisseurs, de se fonder sur les quantités produites par mère et par an, pour ensuite multiplier ces chiffres par le nombre de reproductrices que compte le troupeau. Ce procédé permettra plus facilement de comparer les résultats des systèmes d'élevage.xxw Le produit brut Le produit brut (PB) est égal à la somme des valeurs de tous les produits finaux (on ne prend donc pas en compte le renouvellement) issus annuellement du troupeau : jeunes, mères réformées, lait, oeufs, fumier, laine et services (de traction, de transport, de saillie), sans oublier les animaux de réforme. Comme pour les cultures, on veillera à prendre en compte tous les produits, qu'ils soient vendus, donnés, sacrifiés ou autoconsommés. Il existe deux façons d'opérer pour estimer, sur la base d'entretiens, les quantités produites annuellement. On peut recueillir ces quantités pour une année donnée, en demandant à l'éleveur de se remémorer tous les produits tirés du troupeau, les quantités, etc. En général, cela n'est possible que pour l'année précédente, sauf si l'éleveur tient un registre. Or il est fort possible que cette année soit particulière. Une autre façon de procéder, que nous avons tendance à privilégier, est de se baser sur la compréhension que nous avons acquise des pratiques de l'éleveur et des performances zootechniques du troupeau. À partir des différents taux de productivité établis avec l'éleveur et des autres informations que nous avons sur la gestion de la reproduction de son troupeau et de son exploitation, il est possible d'approcher ce produit brut. Prenons l'exemple d'une vache. À la valeur des veaux produits ramenés à l'année s'ajoute la valeur du lait obtenu dans l'année grâce à la traite, la valeur de la vache en fin de vie (réforme) divisée par la durée de sa carrière ainsi que, éventuellement, la valeur du fumier vendu.La figure 9 (planche 8, cahier hors-texte) montre comment on peut calculer ce produit brut, sur la base des différents taux de productivité du troupeau et des pratiques d'exploitation du troupeau.En toute rigueur, les animaux reproducteurs pourraient être considérés comme du capital et leurs coûts d'acquisition (quand ils ne sont pas nés sur la ferme) comme devant être décomptés sous forme d'amortissement. La valeur des animaux réformés viendrait diminuer le montant de ces coûts, de la même façon qu'un agriculteur achète du matériel et peut le revendre d'occasion. Cependant, à la différence d'un outil qui se déprécie à l'usage, un animal reproducteur peut prendre de la valeur grâce au travail de l'éleveur. Pour cette raison, et afin de simplifier les calculs, on considérera la vente des animaux de réforme comme un produit brut et l'achat des animaux comme des consommations intermédiaires. Cependant, on prendra bien sûr la précaution de diviser la valeur d'acquisition de ces animaux par le nombre d'années de présence sur l'exploitation.Les consommations intermédiaires comprennent : les coûts annuels d'achat d'aliments non produits sur l'exploitation, ainsi que les coûts spécifiques d'achat d'intrants pour la production de fourrages ; les coûts des produits et soins vétérinaires ; -les coûts liés à la reproduction, comme les saillies, ou au renouvel-lement du troupeau ; les coûts annuels d'acquisition des animaux pour l'engraissement ; les autres produits achetés pour l'entretien des logements, des équipements ou autres.Dans le cas où les agriculteurs produisent leurs fourrages, il est possible qu'ils doivent acheter des consommations intermédiaires pour mettre en herbe les prairies et pour les entretenir, pour récolter ou pour stocker les fourrages. Nous prendrons alors en compte ces consommations intermédiaires. Mais le fourrage produit par les cultures étant entièrement consommé par les animaux, ce produit du système de culture fourrager constitue une consommation intermédiaire pour le système d'élevage : il s'agit d'une intraconsommation. Dans cette étude il n'est donc pas nécessaire de chercher à estimer la valeur économique du fourrage produit. En revanche, si un excédent de fourrage est vendu chaque année, il sera considéré comme un sous-produit du système d'élevage et sa valeur devra être prise en compte dans le calcul du produit brut.Toujours dans un souci de comparaison, ces consommations intermédiaires peuvent être ramenées à l'animal engraissé ou à la mère.xxw La valeur ajoutée et la productivité des systèmes d'élevage La valeur ajoutée brute par animal et par an La valeur ajoutée brute (VAB) par animal et par an a la même signification que la VAB pour les systèmes de culture. On la calculera par mère dans le cas des élevages ayant des reproductrices et par animal engraissé pour les élevages seulement engraisseurs. Dans le cas de systèmes d'élevage intégrés dans le système de production, dont les produits ou services constituent une intraconsommation (animaux de trait ou de transport), il n'est ni utile ni pertinent de calculer cette VAB.Lorsque l'éleveur n'est pas le propriétaire des animaux, il doit reverser au propriétaire une partie des produits, c'est-à-dire de la richesse créée. S'agissant de redistribution de cette valeur ajoutée, ces coûts liés au confiage ne sont pas pris en compte lors du calcul de la VAB par animal. Ils seront retirés ultérieurement, lors du calcul du revenu.Lorsque l'exploitation comprend des surfaces fourragères, la valeur ajoutée brute par unité de surface (VAB/ha) peut être un indicateur de comparaison pertinent pour les exploitations d'une même région. Cet indicateur exprime la productivité de la terre pour un système d'élevage donné. On peut à juste titre comparer la productivité de la terre de cultures de rente ou vivrières avec celle d'un troupeau. Cependant, les systèmes d'élevage pastoraux, ou fondés sur l'usage de parcours au moins sur une partie de l'année, sont nombreux en zone sahélienne et soudano-sahélienne. Pour ceux-là l'outil de comparaison pertinent reste la VAB par mère ou par unité de temps de travail.Sur la base des calendriers établis lors de la caractérisation technique du système d'élevage, il est possible d'évaluer le temps de travail que les agriculteurs consacrent à la conduite de leurs troupeaux ainsi qu'à l'entretien et à l'exploitation des espaces destinés à l'alimentation des animaux. Cela permet de calculer la productivité du travail d'un système d'élevage donné. La productivité du travail peut être à la base de la comparaison entre les systèmes de culture (différents des systèmes fourragers) et les systèmes d'élevage.Pour évaluer avec les éleveurs cette limite technique supérieure de développement d'un système d'élevage donné, il faut faire la distinction entre : d'une part, les contraintes purement techniques renvoyant à une saturation du calendrier de travail à un moment donné, pour une opération donnée. Par exemple, la traite limite le nombre de vaches qu'un éleveur peut conduire seul ou avec sa famille en système de traite manuelle. Cette contrainte ne pourra être levée qu'en passant à un équipement différent, donc en changeant de système. C'est ce nombre maximal de têtes de bétail dont un éleveur peut se charger, déduit du calendrier de travail sur l'exploitation, que nous désignerons par « limite technique ». Elle est propre à chaque système d'élevage ; d'autre part, les contraintes liées aux conditions d'accès aux res-sources foncières (les surfaces fourragères suffisent-elles ?) ou financières (des bâtiments sont-ils trop petits ? L'éleveur souffre-t-il d'un manque de trésorerie pour acheter des aliments ?). Qu'est-ce qui, par exemple, pousse certains agriculteurs, à un moment donné de l'année, à allouer préférentiellement leur main-d'oeuvre à la récolte de telle culture plutôt qu'à l'implantation de telle autre ? Quelles priorités les agriculteurs se donnent-ils ? Pourquoi conserver dans l'exploitation une culture qui apparemment ne procure pas une valeur ajoutée très élevée ? Quelle est la place que tient chacune des activités dans l'exploitation ? Quels éléments les agriculteurs prennent-ils en compte? D'autres questions demeurent en suspens, concernant l'efficacité de leurs activités par rapport aux besoins des familles et aux autres opportunités offertes par les différents secteurs économiques. Quel est le devenir de ces exploitations ? Des évolutions sont-elles prévisibles ? C'est pour répondre à ce type de questionnement que nous mobiliserons le concept de système de production. Ce concept s'applique à l'échelle de l'unité de production et est défini comme la combinaison des facteurs de production (terre, travail et capital) en vue d'obtenir diverses productions.Nous avons, dans les étapes précédentes, montré une grande diversité de systèmes de culture et d'élevage. Cependant, la majorité des exploitations ne limitent pas leurs activités à un seul système de culture ou d'élevage, mais en combinent plusieurs.Les systèmes de culture et les systèmes d'élevage constituent donc les composantes d'ensembles plus vastes et plus complexes, repérables à l'échelle de l'exploitation : les systèmes de production. Un système de production correspond à une association spécifique de systèmes de culture et d'élevage, mise en oeuvre par les agriculteurs en fonction des parcelles disponibles et de leur localisation, des équipements utilisés (outils, moyens de transports, bâtiments d'élevage ou de stockage, etc.), de la force de travail familiale ou mobilisable, des opportunités de crédit et de vente sur les marchés, etc. Nous proposons de retenir la définition suivante : un système de production est un « […] mode de combinaison entre terre, force et moyens de travail à des fins de production végétale et animale, commun à un ensemble d'exploitations. Un système de production est caractérisé par la nature des productions, de la force de travail (qualification), des moyens de travail mis en oeuvre et par leurs proportions. » (Reboul, 1976) En résumé, dans notre étude nous considérerons qu'un système de production est une façon de combiner les facteurs de production commune à un groupe d'exploitants.L'analyse d'un système de production consiste à : étudier non seulement chacun des sous-systèmes qui le composent, mais surtout leurs interactions et leurs interférences ; comprendre les choix d'allocation des ressources, c'est-à-dire les facteurs de production de l'exploitation, entre les différentes activités (systèmes de culture et d'élevage) pratiquées.La figure 10 représente de façon schématique ces éléments structurant l'analyse d'un système de production. Un système de production étant considéré comme une façon de produire, de combiner les facteurs de production, il en découle qu'un système de production donné sera mis en oeuvre par un ensemble d'exploitations ayant accès aux mêmes types de ressources, dans des proportions équivalentes. A priori, il pourrait exister un très grand nombre de combinaisons possibles. Mais force est de reconnaître qu'en un lieu donné, compte tenu des caractéristiques propres à chaque système de culture et d'élevage et des facteurs de production dont disposent les exploitations, ce nombre de combinaisons est en réalité relativement limité.En effet, les activités de production végétale et animale peuvent présenter des complémentarités vis-à-vis de certaines ressources et être concurrentes pour d'autres, qu'il s'agisse du travail exigé à telle ou telle période de l'année, des besoins de trésorerie, des types de terrains requis. Par ailleurs, elles sont parfois liées par des flux de matière ou d'énergie, par exemple quand les produits ou sous-produits de l'une constituent une ressource pour l'autre.De plus, les agriculteurs n'ont pas tous les mêmes possibilités d'accès aux mêmes facteurs de production : les disponibilités de terre -(quantité, qualité et localisation dans les différentes parties de l'écosystème) ne sont pas les mêmes pour tous ; la force de travail mobilisable (qu'elle soit familiale ou extérieure à l'exploitation) varie d'une exploitation à l'autre ; enfin, l'accès au capital de production -(outils, intrants, liquidités) diffère aussi selon les unités de production.Ces éléments propres aux structures des exploitations limitent d'autant plus le nombre de combinaisons possibles de systèmes de culture et de systèmes d'élevage.Les enquêtes historiques réalisées antérieurement seront d'une grande utilité pour repérer les principaux systèmes de production pratiqués aujourd'hui dans la région. La dynamique de peuplement et l'origine des producteurs, l'arrivée de nouveaux migrants, les vagues de mise en valeur de nouvelles terres ainsi que l'histoire des mouvements fonciers et des rapports de production permettent de distinguer des catégories d'agriculteurs en fonction de l'accès qu'ils ont à la terre, en quantité et en qualité. La connaissance des différentes phases de développement des productions végétales et animales, des dates et circonstances de l'apparition et surtout de la généralisation de nouvelles variétés, de nouvelles races, de nouveaux outils et de nouvelles technologies aide également à identifier différentes catégories de producteurs en fonction de leur dotation en capital. On se base ici sur l'hypothèse qu'aucun progrès technique n'est neutre et qu'il s'accompagne en tout temps et en tout lieu d'une différenciation entre ceux qui « adoptent » la nouveauté et ceux qui en sont exclus. On le voit, l'histoire aide à repérer et à expliquer les différentes situations rencontrées par les familles d'agriculteurs. Elle facilite ainsi l'identification des systèmes de production actuels.Une typologie provisoire des exploitations en fonction des ressources dont elles disposent et des systèmes de production qu'elles pratiquent peut donc être établie à l'issue des enquêtes historiques.La figure 11 montre comment une prétypologie dynamique des systèmes de production peut être construite lors de l'étape historique, à partir de la reconstitution des trajectoires des exploitations.Cette prétypologie permettra de construire l'échantillon d'exploitations auprès duquel l'enquête de caractérisation des systèmes de production sera menée : les exploitations enquêtées seront choisies de façon « raisonnée », de telle sorte que l'ensemble des systèmes de production identifiés soit couvert. Cette classification provisoire sera validée, réorientée et affinée au cours des enquêtes qui suivront.La caractérisation technique et économique des systèmes consiste à effectuer à la fois : la description précise des structures d'exploitation, c'est-à-dire des facteurs de production nécessaires pour mettre en oeuvre le système d'activité agricole étudié ; la description et l'analyse du fonctionnement de ces exploitations, c'est-à-dire des différents sous-systèmes de culture et d'élevage et de leur combinaison ; l'évaluation des performances économiques de ces combinaisons. - Il nous faut connaître le nombre de membres de la famille, nucléaire ou élargie, qui sont mobilisés et nécessaires pour mettre en oeuvre le système de production. Il s'agit de les répertorier (père, mère, enfants selon l'âge, grands-parents, neveux et autres) et de connaître leur disponibilité pour travailler sur les exploitations, au regard des autres obligations telles qu'études, tâches ménagères, et autres activités professionnelles.Il est important également de connaître la répartition des tâches agricoles entre les actifs : à quelles périodes de l'année le père, la mère, les grands-parents, les enfants, en fonction de leur âge et de leur sexe, travaillent-ils sur l'exploitation, et pour quelles tâches ?On cherchera à identifier dans la famille les membres dont la présence physique est absolument nécessaire au fonctionnement de l'exploitation. De combien de personnes a-t-on besoin simultanément pour mettre en oeuvre la combinaison d'activités qui caractérise le système de production étudié ? Chacun de ces individus compte pour un actif.On recense ici le nombre et la qualité des personnes auxquelles il est fait appel dans : l'entraide -(dès lors qu'il y a réciprocité parfaite des échanges de main-d'oeuvre). Cependant, au moment de décompter les temps de travaux, la main-d'oeuvre fournie par l'entraide sera comptabilisée comme de la main-d'oeuvre familiale, puisque l'agriculteur consacre autant de journées à ses coéquipiers à d'autres moments de l'année. L'usage de l'entraide est en réalité une façon de lisser, d'étaler les pointes de travail sans avoir recours à du salariat ; les rapports salariés (attention, le salaire peut être versé en nature) ; d'autres rapports de production, tels que le colonat (échange de travail contre de la terre) ou l'échange de force de travail contre de l'eau, du matériel ou une paire de boeufs ; l'accueil de stagiaires, ou autre. -   La terre L'inventaire des terres disponibles doit s'appuyer sur les résultats de la première étape, c'est-à-dire sur la caractérisation des différentes unités de l'écosystème exploité. On s'intéresse à tous les types de terrains utilisés pour le système de production étudié, y compris les bords de route, les parcours collectifs, les parcours de transhumance, les parcelles éloignées et celles qui ne sont pas cultivées actuellement mais qui l'ont été ou ont des chances de l'être.Quelles sont les quantités de terres utilisées ? Dans quelles zones agro-écologiques sont-elles situées ?Quelle est la qualité de ces terres ? Quelle est la nature du sol ? Quelles sont sa profondeur, sa structure, sa texture, sa charge en pierres, la matière organique présente, sa capacité à retenir l'eau, à s'engorger ou, au contraire, à se dessécher ? Quelle est la pente ? On cherche à connaître les contraintes et les atouts de ces terrains vis-à-vis du travail du sol : temps et pénibilité du travail requis, possibilités de mécanisation.  Les opérations de préparation du sol et de semis en mai, sur les champs de maïs, sorgho et légumineuses, ainsi que le premier sarclage, limitent la surface cultivable par actif à moins de 1 hectare. par un système de péréquation, d'augmenter globalement la surface totale exploitée par les actifs engagés dans le processus de production, même si cela ne correspond pas au maximum réalisable pour chacun des sous-systèmes pris isolément.Le calendrier de travail permet également de percevoir les périodes difficiles de pointes de travail et les périodes de relative disponibilité de la main-d'oeuvre. Il peut être un support très productif de dialogue entre agriculteurs et entre agent et agriculteurs. La démarche de construction est proche de celle du calendrier de travail. La différence est que l'on rajoute des lignes correspondant à la sphère du ménage et des autres activités économiques, et que l'on construit un graphe symétrique par rapport à l'axe des abscisses (celui du temps), pour pouvoir mieux distinguer les flux relatifs à des recettes ou à des rentrées en nature des flux relatifs aux sorties. Une suggestion de support pour l'élaboration d'un calendrier de trésorerie est donnée dans la figure 13.Ce calendrier permet bien sûr de situer les moments de grands besoins de trésorerie et les périodes de recettes. Il devient ainsi possible de comprendre le choix de certaines cultures qui, de prime abord, n'apparaissent pas des plus rentables, mais qui sont en réalité guidées par le souci de disposer, à un moment précis, d'une trésorerie pour une autre activité. Le moindre produit brut concédé au niveau de l'activité A est compensé par le gain réalisé en s'affranchissant d'emprunts coûteux pour l'activité B.La construction de ces calendriers est particulièrement pertinente et éclairante dans les situations, très fréquentes, où les exploitants n'ont pas accès à une offre de crédit de campagne ou à la consommation Le schéma de gestion de la fertilité du milieu Mobilisant certaines des informations précédemment évoquées, le schéma de gestion de la fertilité du milieu exploité vise à rendre compte de l'ensemble des processus (transferts horizontaux et verticaux) qui permettent de restaurer la fertilité du milieu, à l'échelle des exploitations pratiquant un système de production donné. Cette restauration est plus moins complète et peut être inégale en fonction des unités de l'écosystème exploitées. Cet outil permet à la fois :de montrer des relations entre les sous-systèmes ; de décrire les processus fondamentaux sur lesquels est basée la reproduction de la fertilité et, en quelque sorte, les facteurs importants dont dépend la durabilité « écologique » du système en question.Évaluer les performances économiques des systèmes de production L'évaluation des performances économiques de chaque système de production contribue à éclairer leur fonctionnement. La comparaison de la valeur ajoutée brute par actif ou par journée de travail dans différents systèmes de culture et d'élevage permet d'ores et déjà de comprendre comment se font les choix d'affectation des ressources disponibles. La productivité du travail obtenue par les différents systèmes de production permet de comparer leur efficacité économique. Ensuite, la comparaison du revenu agricole avec un seuil minimum de survie, qui correspond aux besoins de consommation incompressibles d'une famille, ou la comparaison avec le salaire que l'on peut se procurer dans d'autres secteurs d'activité de la région permet de répondre aux questions sur l'évolution probable des différents systèmes de production. Mais comment en arriver là ?xxw La valeur ajoutée nette et l'amortissement économique Le produit brut total de l'exploitation (PB) correspond à la somme des produits bruts des différents systèmes de culture et d'élevage. Nous ne reviendrons pas ici sur les modalités de ces calculs.Les consommations intermédiaires (CI) totales dépensées au sein de l'exploitation correspondent à l'ensemble des biens et services intégralement dégradés pendant un cycle de production sur l'ensemble des systèmes de culture et d'élevage. On obtient cette valeur en sommant toutes les CI spécifiques aux différents sous-systèmes et en y ajoutant les CI utilisées pour différents sous-systèmes (carburant par exemple).La valeur ajoutée brute (VAB) du système de production est donc égale au PB total moins les CI. Elle permet de mesurer la création brute de richesse à l'échelle de l'exploitation.La valeur ajoutée nette (VAN) est calculée en prenant également en compte, dans les charges du système de production, l'amortissement économique du capital fixe (outillage manuel, matériel de traction attelée, véhicules et machines, bâtiments spécifiques pour le matériel agricole, matériel de transformation des produits agricoles, aménagements) et du capital biologique (coût de la mise en place d'une plantation pérenne, notamment) nécessaires au fonctionnement du système.Cet amortissement économique représente l'usure des équipements au cours de chaque cycle de production et la part de la valeur ajoutée qu'il faut conserver pour assurer le remplacement du capital à l'identique. Un sac d'engrais disparaît avec le cycle de production et, de ce fait, nous l'avons comptabilisé comme consommation intermédiaire. Mais une houe par exemple, même si elle ne disparaît pas avec le cycle de production, ne s'en use pas moins et il convient de tenir compte du coût que représente cette usure et donc du remplacement de l'outil : c'est l'amortissement. Les éléments constitutifs d'un revenu sont représentés dans le schéma de la figure 14.Les enquêtes « système de production » seront menées chez les exploitants avec lesquels nous avons pu, dans les étapes précédentes, analyser les différents systèmes de culture et d'élevage identifiés dans la petite région. Il est important d'élargir ensuite l'échantillon des exploitants enquêtés, afin de : confirmer nos hypothèses relatives aux interactions, aux synergies et aux complémentarités existant entre les sous-systèmes ;  prendre en compte l'ensemble de la gamme d'exploitations prati-quant un système de production donné : l'étude de cas « extrêmes » nous permettra de mieux caractériser le fonctionnement des exploitations les plus petites, dont l'enjeu est de se maintenir, et celui des plus grandes, susceptibles, du moins théoriquement, d'évoluer vers de nouveaux systèmes de production ; asseoir nos calculs économiques. -Lors de ces enquêtes complémentaires, il ne sera pas nécessaire d'évaluer de façon aussi détaillée chacun des systèmes de culture et d'élevage, et notamment les temps de travail, l'objectif de compréhension des cohérences internes de ces sous-systèmes étant déjà atteint.Une fois que chaque système de production a été caractérisé et validé, on peut s'interroger sur l'importance relative de chacune des catégories d'exploitation. Une première approximation peut être faite par enquête auprès d'agriculteurs, de techniciens ou de responsables professionnels connaissant bien la région étudiée. Si une estimation plus précise est requise, une manière de procéder consiste à définir, sur la base de toutes les enquêtes réalisées de façon approfondie, les Une fois que les systèmes de production ont été identifiés, décrits et analysés et que les revenus qu'ils procurent à chacun des exploitants enquêtés ont été calculés, il s'agit d'évaluer la durabilité de ces systèmes, de repérer leur fragilité ou, à l'inverse, leur capacité à se maintenir, voire à se développer dans le futur.Pour se maintenir à long terme, une exploitation doit posséder la capacité de régénérer les potentialités du milieu qu'elle exploite. Cette capacité est évaluée, lors de l'enquête de caractérisation du système de production, au moment où l'on tente de recueillir le point de vue de l'agriculteur sur l'évolution de ses rendements et de comprendre la façon dont il gère la fertilité de ses sols, ses pâturages ou ses ressources en eau, etc., ainsi que les difficultés qu'il rencontre. Si l'on souhaite s'armer d'éléments quantitatifs pour mieux cerner l'ampleur des déséquilibres, il devient nécessaire de recourir à des analyses approfondies, externes, qui peuvent permettre d'enrichir le diagnostic mené avec les agriculteurs. Ce peut être des réalisations de profils culturaux, des analyses de sols et des bilans de fertilité, des suivis des pâturages (pour des systèmes d'élevage pastoraux) ou encore, pour des systèmes irrigués, des études agronomiques plus précises sur les besoins des cultures, sur les pratiques de gestion de l'eau dans le sol, sur l'évolution des ressources en eau.Cependant, cette dimension agronomique ou écologique de la durabilité des systèmes de production est fortement dépendante des résultats économiques des exploitations, eux-mêmes liés aux rapports sociaux dans lesquels l'exploitation est immergée.En effet, dans l'agriculture familiale, le système d'activité déployé par l'ensemble des membres actifs de la famille doit pouvoir satisfaire à très court terme les besoins physiologiques élémentaires qui permettent de reproduire leur force de travail à l'identique : besoins alimentaires fondamentaux, besoins de protection (logement, habillement) et de santé. À moyen terme, les revenus doivent permettre à l'exploitant de remplir les exigences minimales de la société pour s'y maintenir : offrandes, dîme, cotisations, impôts. Pour satisfaire ces besoins incompressibles, l'exploitant n'a souvent d'autre choix, quand son revenu est insuffisant, que de surexploiter le milieu en mobilisant à court terme le temps ou les moyens qu'il aurait dû consacrer au renouvellement de ce « capital-fertilité », parfois construit, à force de travail, depuis de multiples générations.Il est important de connaître ces besoins afin de pouvoir évaluer l'efficacité des systèmes de production du point de vue des familles, et donc leur durabilité.Nous considérerons ici la sphère du ménage, et non plus l'unité de production, comme échelle pertinente pour étudier des besoins et pratiques de consommation. C'est à ce niveau qu'il nous faut identifier les personnes dépendant des revenus tirés de l'exploitation (composition de la famille, âge des individus, activités menées, travail hors exploitation, études) et calculer l'ensemble des besoins minimaux de la famille : c'est le seuil de survie. De plus, il existe un seuil de revenu nécessaire pour pouvoir non seulement assurer les besoins biologiques des actifs agricoles et de leurs dépendants, mais aussi assurer leur insertion sociale : c'est le seuil de reproduction sociale.xxw Le calcul du seuil de survie Le seuil de survie correspond au revenu minimal par actif, le minimum nécessaire pour faire vivre un actif et les inactifs qui dépendent des fruits de son travail. C'est une valeur régionale qui sera la même pour toutes les exploitations. Pour l'approcher, il faut procéder en deux temps :1. Estimer le nombre moyen de dépendants par actif dans la zone étudiée. Il suffit pour cela de faire la moyenne du nombre des membres des familles qui ont été enquêtées et de la diviser par la moyenne du nombre d'actifs dans chacune de ces familles. On peut en première approximation considérer qu'un homme ou une femme adulte équivaut à une bouche à nourrir, et qu'une personne âgée ou un enfant de moins de 10 ans équivaut à 0,5 bouche à nourrir. Pour subvenir à leurs besoins incompressibles et à ceux de leurs dépendants, les deux actifs doivent donc avoir un revenu de l'ordre de 480 dollars, soit 240 dollars par actif par an ou 66 cents par jour. L'alimentation représente 75 % des coûts.xxw Le calcul du seuil de reproduction socialeLe seuil de reproduction sociale est le revenu minimal par actif permettant de faire face à un certain nombre de coûts nécessaires au maintien à moyen terme dans une société donnée. Il s'agit non seulement de pouvoir assurer la reproduction biologique de la famille, mais également de pouvoir « sacrifier » une partie de ses ressources pour satisfaire certaines exigences qui permettent de se maintenir dans le groupe, dans le village, dans la localité, dans le pays. En retour de ces « cotisations », la famille pourra prétendre aux services de solidarité assurés par la collectivité. Il peut s'agir de la capacité de prendre en charge certaines dépenses minimales occasionnées par des fêtes religieuses ou rites ( baptêmes, funérailles), à payer une dîme ou à verser un impôt. À titre d'exemple, prenons le cas de Lakou Cadichon, en Haïti ; les exploitants de cette zone ont la possibilité de partir travailler en République dominicaine. Nous avons demandé à ceux qui ont l'habitude d'émigrer en République dominicaine combien un journalier peut gagner. La rémunération de la journée de travail varie selon le type de travail : sarclage dans les plantations de riz ou de canne, coupeur de canne : -75 gourdes, plus le repas et le logement ; manoeuvre dans le secteur de la construction : de 125 à 200 gourdes -(le salaire peut varier en fonction des relations entre employé et employeur).Nous avons considéré que la période pendant laquelle il est facile de trouver du travail pour un Haïtien sarcleur ou coupeur de canne en situation irrégulière dure six mois. Autrement dit, un ressortissant de Lakou Cadichon travaillant en République dominicaine peut gagner : 6 mois × 26 jours × 75 = 11 700 gourdes.Il faut parfois « aller chercher loin » : le salaire minimal d'un ouvrier non qualifié aux États-Unis constitue le coût d'opportunité de nombreux actifs agricoles dans certains pays d'Amérique du Sud. Il s'agit ici de prendre en compte les opportunités réelles : la perspective pour des jeunes ruraux sénégalais d'obtenir un jour un emploi d'ouvrier en France ou en Espagne ne s'ouvre qu'aux enfants issus des familles les plus riches, donc à certains systèmes de production.Une fois estimées ces nécessités et ces opportunités, les revenus agricoles générés par les différents systèmes de production peuvent être comparés entre eux et au seuil minimal de survie, au seuil de reproduction sociale ou au salaire qui peut être obtenu dans d'autres secteurs d'activité. Cette analyse comparative permet d'esquisser l'évolution probable des différents systèmes de production.Pour poursuivre la comparaison des systèmes de production, chaque exploitation peut être figurée par un point sur un graphe où l'on reporte, en abscisse, les surfaces agricoles utilisées (SAU) et, en ordonnée, les revenus dégagés par les différents systèmes de production. Pour que les comparaisons soient possibles, il est nécessaire de ramener la superficie cultivée et le revenu au nombre d'actifs de chaque exploitation étudiée.Les exploitations pratiquant le même type de système de production mettent en oeuvre les mêmes systèmes de culture et d'élevage et disposent des mêmes combinaisons de moyens de production (terres, matériel et force de travail de nature et en proportions équivalentes). Il est intéressant, pour la suite de l'analyse et comme l'illustre la figure 15, de matérialiser ces groupes d'exploitation appartenant à un même « type » par une même couleur ou un même symbole, ce qui se traduit visuellement par différents nuages de points.Ce mode de représentation permet deux types de comparaisons et d'analyse : la comparaison des résultats des différents systèmes de production et l'analyse des causes de ces différences : cette étape amène à se pencher de nouveau sur le fonctionnement technique des exploitations et à identifier les éléments clés (telle culture, tel outillage, tel mode et prix de vente, accès à tels types de sols) qui déterminent de grandes différences de revenus ; l'évaluation de la durabilité des différents systèmes de produc-tion, en comparant chaque nuage de points au seuil de survie et au coût d'opportunité d'un salaire minimal possible dans la région ou à l'étranger.Lorsque les revenus dégagés semblent tous inférieurs au seuil de survie, les exploitations pratiquant ce système ne peuvent à court terme survivre avec les seuls revenus agricoles. La reproduction de la force de travail requiert donc : soit l'exercice d'activités para ou extra-agricoles complémentaires en temps de travail, telles que l'artisanat, le salariat occasionnel et le petit commerce ; la durabilité des systèmes de production est donc aussi liée au devenir de ces activités extra-agricoles ; soit la décapitalisation, par la vente d'animaux, d'outillage, de terre ou autre.Lorsque les revenus dégagés par les exploitations agricoles sont compris entre le seuil de survie et le seuil de reproduction sociale, on peut estimer que la durabilité à moyen terme de ce type d'exploitation agricole n'est pas assurée. Les membres de la famille pourront certes renouveler leur capital et assurer leur survie biologique, mais ils ne pourront pas satisfaire les obligations sociales minimales exigées. Enfin, si les revenus dégagés sont inférieurs au salaire non agricole minimal accessible aux jeunes de la région, la question de la pérennité à long terme du système de production est posée. Le graphe précédent est un support intéressant, comme le montre la figure 16, pour identifier avec les agriculteurs les éléments de la dynamique entre catégories d'exploitations. Or bon nombre de ces rapports s'établissent entre exploitants agricoles de différentes catégories. Ils peuvent concerner l'échange de produits et sous-produits agricoles entre exploitations : achat ou échange de paille, de semences, de fumier, d'animaux reproducteurs, etc. Ils peuvent également s'organiser autour de l'échange plus ou moins inégal de facteurs : terre contre force de travail, terre contre capital, eau contre terre, force de travail contre engrais. Le destin de certaines exploitations sans terres peut être lié au devenir de grandes exploitations pourvues d'« excédents » en terre, à la quantité de force de travail dont elles disposent pour exploiter ces terres, aux salaires agricoles et aux coûts de l'équipement de traction animale. Les évolutions des systèmes de production étudiés ne peuvent donc être considérées isolément les unes des autres dès lors que des rapports de production et d'échange s'établissent entre ces systèmes.La restitution, une attitude permanente À ce titre, le deuxième passage d'une enquête auprès d'un agriculteur dont on cherche à analyser le système de production ne doit pas se dérouler de la même façon que le premier. Il peut être introduit par une présentation, sous un format adapté, du traitement des données collectées lors de la première visite. L'agriculteur pourra visualiser l'utilisation qui est faite de ses dires -et donc se rassurer -, corriger des incompréhensions, valider certains résultats ou, au contraire, apporter de nouveaux éléments qui permettent de préciser les calculs et les interprétations.Ainsi mené, ce deuxième passage d'enquête n'apparaîtra comme « pesant » ni pour l'enquêteur, ni pour l'agriculteur. Il deviendra au contraire une opportunité de coconstruction et d'appropriation du diagnostic.Même si la restitution continuelle des résultats intermédiaires aux personnes enquêtées est un leitmotiv de l'étude, la réunion finale de restitution reste incontournable. En effet, elle permet de remplir les objectifs suivants : mettre à la portée de l'ensemble des agriculteurs toutes les infor-mations et analyses faites pendant l'étude, et non pas seulement celles qui concernent leurs propres exploitations. Il faudra juste prendre garde à respecter pendant la mise en commun la confidentialité des informations et l'anonymat des sources ; livrer une analyse dynamique et comparative à l'échelle régionale : cette démarche diffère d'une approche globale qui limite le diagnostic aux exploitations prises individuellement. La partie historique, l'analyse des processus de différenciation des exploitations, la comparaison des résultats des différents systèmes de culture et d'élevage ainsi que le graphe final permettant de comparer les systèmes de production et leurs revenus sont autant de résultats à portée régionale qui susciteront un débat collectif.Pour que cette réunion soit une réussite, il faut veiller à : choisir une date et un horaire compatibles avec les activités des agriculteurs ; concevoir des exposés dont la durée n'est pas trop longue : 3/4 heure à 1 heure maximum pour réserver du temps pour les discussions. Selon les cas, il peut être envisagé de scinder l'exposé en deux ou trois temps suivis chacun d'un débat, pour alléger la séance ; faire les exposés dans la langue comprise par le plus grand nombre, et parfois même dans plusieurs langues ; prendre le temps de rappeler les objectifs et de présenter la démarche suivie, notamment les modes de calcul ; opter pour une forme simple et concrète, richement illustrée, sans perdre toute la richesse des informations données par les agriculteurs ; le vocabulaire trop abstrait sera évité, les mots scientifiques seront traduits ou expliqués.Il n'existe pas de plan type pour ces restitutions. Cependant, le principe général reste d'aller du général au particulier, de terminer par un retour à l'échelle régionale, d'asseoir toutes les affirmations sur des démonstrations claires et de faire la part, au cours de l'exposé, entre ce qui peut être affirmé et ce qui reste à l'état d'hypothèses et doit être formulé sous forme de questions.Enfin, il ne sera pas superflu de rappeler aux participants qu'ils sont à la source, et l'unique source, avec les observations de terrain, de toutes les informations qui ont servi à l'analyse. Il faudra leur rappeler, parce que cela reste encore inaccoutumé, que l'intention n'est pas de porter un regard d'expert et de délivrer des recommandations. Prendre le temps d'expliquer ce que l'on a compris des situations vécues, des contraintes rencontrées et des choix faits, c'est poser les bases d'un véritable dialogue qui doit permettre de poser les bonnes questions et de rechercher ensemble des pistes de solution.Assolement : répartition des surfaces, à une période donnée, entre les différentes productions végétales (à ne pas confondre avec la rotation culturale).Atelier : « En élevage ce terme désigne non pas un ensemble d'animaux, mais un sous-système caractérisé par un mode de conduite et un type de production particuliers. Par exemple, en élevage laitier, on peut distinguer l'atelier de production (les vaches laitières), l'atelier d'élevage (les génisses) et l'atelier d'engraissement des veaux. » (Landais cité dans Lhoste et al., 1993) Autoconsommation : part de la production agricole finale directement consommée par la famille de l'exploitant et non vendue sur les marchés. Elle doit être distinguée de l'intraconsommation.Champ : étendue de terre cultivable.Confiage : action de confier une femelle reproductrice (vache, jument, chèvre…) à un éleveur. Celui-ci est chargé d'entretenir la reproductrice et sa descendance ; en contrepartie il reçoit une partie des produits (lait, certains des jeunes nés, ou autre).valeur des biens et services achetés à d'autres entreprises et détruits lors du processus de production ou incorporés au produit : matières premières, combustibles, produits d'entretien, intrants divers tels qu'engrais et pesticides, emballages, services fournis par des entreprises extérieures. Les consommations intermédiaires ne comprennent pas l'amortissement du  (Dufumier, 1996) Exploitation agricole familiale : exploitation agricole dans laquelle les membres de la famille du chef d'exploitation fournissent l'essentiel de la force de travail utilisée pour la mise en oeuvre du système de production.exploitation agricole dans laquelle seule une main-d'oeuvre salariée fournit la force de travail utilisée pour la mise en oeuvre du système de production.Extensif : qualifie un système de production agricole qui exige peu de travail et peu d'intrants à l'unité de surface. Les systèmes de production extensifs ont une faible valeur ajoutée annuelle à l'hectare (voir, par exemple, les systèmes d'élevage pastoraux ou les systèmes de cultures dans lesquels la reproduction de la fertilité est assurée par les friches de longue durée). Friche : formation végétale résultant de l'arrêt des cultures.Intensif : qualifie un système de production agricole qui exige de grandes quantités de travail et d'intrants à l'unité de surface. Ces systèmes dégagent généralement de très fortes valeurs ajoutées à l'hectare.Intraconsommation : ensemble des biens produits sur l'exploitation agricole, tels que semences, paille, fumier et tiges de mil pour clôture, utilisés à leur tour à des fins de production agricole. L'intraconsommation doit être distinguée de l'autoconsommation. Prairie : « Végétation continue, composée essentiellement de plantes herbacées, principalement des graminées ou des cypéracées ; les ligneux sont absents comme dans les prairies inondables ou marécageuses ou les prairies montagnardes. » (Mémento de l'agronome, 2002) On distingue : -des prairies permanentes, dont la durée est indéfinie et qui sont composées de plantes très diverses ; en France elles sont souvent dénommées STH (surfaces toujours en herbe) ; -des prairies naturelles, établies souvent sur des sols difficilement labourables ; -des prairies temporaires, ensemencées en graminées, avec ou sans légumineuses, qui durent de 1 à 6 ou 7 ans ; -des prairies artificielles, temporaires et ensemencées exclusivement en légumineuses (trèfle, luzerne, sainfoin ou autre). (Soltner, 1999) Productivité du travail : « Valeur ajoutée par unité de travail. La productivité du travail peut être calculée par travailleur disponible ou rapportée à la durée effective du travail. L'augmentation de la productivité du travail dans une entreprise peut se manifester par un accroissement des valeurs ajoutées et/ou une diminution du nombre total de travailleurs nécessaires. Il importe alors d'examiner si les travailleurs dont l'entreprise n'a plus besoin sont à même de retrouver un emploi productif par ailleurs, au risque sinon de voir diminuer la productivité par travailleur disponible dans la société toute entière. » (Dufumier, 1996) Produit brut : valeur de la production finale, c'est-à-dire des quantités finales produites (une fois ôtées les intraconsommations) multipliées par le prix unitaire de chacun des produits. Seuil de reproduction : « Niveau de revenu en dessous duquel il n'est plus possible pour l'exploitant agricole d'assurer à la fois le renouvellement du capital d'exploitation et la subsistance de sa famille. » (Dufumier, 1996) Seuil de survie : revenu minimal qu'un actif doit dégager de son exploitation pour satisfaire ses besoins physiologiques incompressibles (alimentation, soins, protection) ainsi que ceux de ses dépendants, c'est-à-dire des personnes non actives qui sont à sa charge (enfants en bas âge, infirmes, personnes âgées).Soles : ensemble de parcelles dévolues à une culture dans une exploitation ou dans un finage à un moment donné. La combinaison des différentes soles dans l'espace cultivé constitue l'assolement. Valeur ajoutée brute : produit brut diminué de la valeur des consommations intermédiaires. Valeur ajoutée nette : valeur ajoutée brute diminuée de la dépréciation du capital fixe au cours d'une période donnée. Végétation spontanée : par opposition à la végétation cultivée ; l'adjectif « spontané » est préféré à « naturel » pour qualifier un milieu où les interventions humaines sont si anciennes qu'elles sont peu perceptibles. Zonage agro-écologique : construction abstraite, restituée sous forme de schémas (transects, blocs diagrammes), présentant l'identification des unités de l'écosystème exploitées de manière similaire, la caractérisation biophysique et agronomique de chacune de ces unités et leur localisation les unes par rapport aux autres.","tokenCount":"23650"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"89d66201c0d0676de753217623b08599","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5f492ab3-8b53-41e8-92be-76624f984df7/retrieve","id":"-192262544"},"keywords":["beeswax","production","quality","market chain","Wollo ix"],"sieverID":"5bc7ff51-e1bc-4b4f-8251-67dd5389cc99","pagecount":"145","content":"The study was conducted in three ILRI-LIVES intervention districts of South Wollo Zone, Tehulederie, Kalu and Dessie Zuria, which represent proximity to honey and beeswax marketing and processing routs. The objective of this work was to assess the status of beeswax production, its quality state, market chain and main actors. Likewise, opportunities and constraints of beeswax production, quality and marketing were identified. This research was conducted through field survey and laboratory analysis. For the household field survey 135 farmer beekeepers were selected from three purposively selected districts and 9 kebeles. Beeswax samples were collected from honey extract, 'Tej sefef', old combs and beeswax blocks from agricultural offices. Laboratory diagnosis was conducted according to the standard protocols of the Ethiopian Beeswax specification ET-1203ET- -2005   developed by Quality Standard Authority of Ethiopia QSAE, 2005. The survey result revealed that the honey produced in the study areas was provided to the market as crude, and there is no trend of beeswax production at the beekeeper's level. Through the field survey, it was understood that producers have little knowledge on the importance and economic benefits of beeswax, its quality and marketing aspects. No formal beeswax market and linkage was created so far that the main actors identified in the beeswax market chain are only beekeepers and 'Tej' brewers. The laboratory result showed that the compositional content of beeswax collected from the study areas falls within the range of good quality parameters set for national and world standards. The mean value for each parameters are specific gravity (0.9552±0.0034), melting point (61.5628±1.5008 0 C), refractive index (1.4439±0.0004), ash content (0.0345±0.0429%), total volatile matter (0.5491±0.2488%), acid value (18.9155±2.7735), saponification value (91.19±22.3015),  ester value (72.0619±20.2859), ester to acid ratio (3.7211±0.8569), fats and fatty acids (passed), and paraffin and other waxes (passed). However, melting point, saponification value, ester value and ester to acid ratio values of beeswax samples from agricultural offices and old combs show lower result than the national and international limit. In general, this study identified opportunities and constraints in the study. Hence, beekeepers should be assisted by extension and training on beeswax collection, extraction, storage and marketing. Quality checkup and control must be taken on purchasing of beeswax in bulk.Predominantly, I would like to thank the Almighty God for blessing invaluable gifts of health, strength, believes, love, hope, patience and protection to me and my families throughout my study. Had not been the will of God, nothing would ha ve been possible for all my aspirations to come in to reality. Sekota Dry land Agricultural Research Center (SDARC) staff members have a titanic share of thanks for their courage, hospitality and material support during my stay at the center. Especially, Alemu Tsegaye, Yesuf Ibrahim and Belaynesh Asgedom, their contribution in laboratory analysis and in building this thesis have no substitute. Yewagnesh Abebe (Kombolcha), Feleke Abegaz and Mulu Wondimu (Dessie) with their gorgeous family have to take their immense thank s for their fill at home hospitality and courage during my stay at South Wollo for the survey work. My keen mother Yenenesh Eshetie (Tamtrey) deserves a special appreciation for her daily prayer, appreciable support and care she gave me during my stay at Dessie. My optimistic mother Debisa Ambaw, my dependable sisters Ayehush Bihonegn, Hareg Demeke, Mihret Neway and Tsega Bekele please take my premier gratitude with pleasure for your understanding, courage and taking care of my family during my stay out circumstance. A person in need is a person indeed! My sons, Beniamer Addisu, Lealem Addisu and Gizie Addisu have also a share of gratitude for their patience and passing hard times craving for my presence.Many people have contributed to this thesis work like Tizita Yesuf (Adigrat Animal health expert), Bekele Tesfaye (Sinana ARC researcher). Therefore, I have no other opportunity or platform than this page to forward my special thanks to those who deserve it, for their contribution to the realization of this work.Finally, but most extensively, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lovely and lively wife W/ro Fetlework Hadera Berhie and my family for being with me all the time providing a moral support and encouragement. Really, without Fetlework's committed support and shouldering the responsibilities of family affairs, it would have Honey market  In Ethiopia, agriculture is the major economic activity on which more than 80% of the population is reliant, accounting for 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 83.9% of exports (UNDP, 2014). It also contributes about 90% to the total export earnings and 70% of the raw materials to agro-industrial sector (Atsbaha Gebre-selassie and Tessema Bekele, 2012). However, it is still dominated by the smallholders who generate more than 95% of the overall national agricultural outputs (Pica-Ciamarra, 2005).As an important component of agriculture and rural development program, beekeeping plays a role in providing nutritional, economic, and ecological security. The business almost requires less land, capital, and does not take much part of the farmers' time, and does not compete with other farming systems for resources (Meaza Gebreyohannes, 2010).It can be a fascinating hobby, a profitable sideline, or a full-time occupation (Collison, 2004), undertaken by the young and old, men and women; it is a gender inclusive activity (Meaza Gebreyohannes, 2010).Beekeeping is important because it directly contributes to the values of the outputs produced, including honey, beeswax, queen and bee colonies, pollen, royal jelly, bee venom, and propolis in cosmetics and medicine (Adjare, 1990;Workneh Abebe, 2007).The honeybee products are non-perishable commodities that can be marketed locally or abroad (Adjare, 1990).Another very important contribution of beekeeping is it serves as a source of additional cash income (Abebe Jenberie et al. 2014) and plays a significant role through plant reproduction and conservation of the natural environment, and can be integrated with agricultural practices like crop production, animal husbandry, horticultural crops, and conservation of natural resources ( Abebe Jenberie et al., 2014;Hossam and Abou-Shaara, 2015).Beekeeping is an ancient practice in the Ethiopian farming communities (Tessega Belie, 2009;Tewodros Alemu, 2010;Assemu Tesfa et al., 2013). According to Johannes Agonafir (2005), the country has substantial potential in beekeeping with rich flora and fauna, proper ecological and climatic conditions that favor the existence of enormous bee colonies (Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010;Tolera Kumsa and Dejene Takele, 2014) and honeybee subspecies (Amssalu Bezabih et al., 2004). Beekeeping is significantly contributing to the beekeeper's livelihood and to the country's economy. At different levels significant number of people are engaged in trading of honey and beeswax and selling of local honey wines ('Tej') which create job and self employment opportunities for large number of citizens (Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010).In Ethiopia, about 1.9 million farm households are involved in beekeeping and there are about 10 million colonies out of the total colonies about 5.92 million are hived (CSA, 2016) and it is estimated that, the country has the potential to produce 500,000 tons of honey and 50,000 tons of beeswax per annum. Gifted with diverse agro-climatic zones, the average honey and beeswax production estimates about 45,000 and 5,000 tons per year (FAOSTAT, 2016). Such an amount puts the country 10 th in honey and 4 th in beeswax production worldwide (Belets Gebremichael and Berhanu Gebremedhin, 2015).Within 2005-2013, Ethiopian honey production increased 20% from 36,000 MTs to 45,000 MTs (FAOSTAT, 2016). Moreover, the recent production is 50,790.58 tons of honey in 2015/6 CSA (2016) and about 5,344 tons of beeswax in 2013 (FAOSTAT, 2016). This shows that, though increasing, the country is producing about 10% of its potential. With more than 1,328,235 honeybee population yearly producing 19,890,422 kilogram of honey (CSA, 2016), beekeeping is a very long-standing and deep-rooted household activity of the rural communities of Amhara region (Assemu Tesfa et al., 2013).Beeswax is one of the most valuable and oldest bee products primarily used to construct foundations in beekeeping (Nuru Adgaba, 2007;Ayalew Kassaye, 2008;Gemechis Legesse, 2014). Besides, it is still being used by mankind in various fields such as cosmetics, foods, pharmaceuticals, engineering and industry (Gemechis Legesse, 2014).South Wollo is one of the major potential zone endowed with diversified honeybee flora, 186,977 beehives, 14.08% of the regional share, of which 183,090 (97.92%) are traditional (CSA, 2016). About 1,137,859 kg of honey was produced in 2014/5 with productivity of 7.10kg/hive/annum (CSA, 2015). According to Awraris Getachew et al. (2015) traditional hive types can be good source of beeswax production in order to fulfill beekeepers beeswax demand in national and world market. Therefore, the traditional production system is an opportunity for beeswax production.Indeed, beeswax is one of the primary exportable agricultural products of Ethiopia (Dayanandan, 2015). The country has been well known in beeswax trade for a long time and is one of the four biggest wax exporters to the world market amounting to on average about 347 tons per year in increasing trend from time to time (FAOSTAT, 2016). This demonstrates that less than 10% of the total estimated beeswax production of the country is exported. The remaining larger portion of it is either used in local market or wasted.The local demand is higher for beeswax (SOS Sahel Ethiopia, 2005). Majority of the produced wax is used for domestic use as candle making in religious purposes. About 80% of the total Ethiopian honey production goes in to the local honey wine preparation called 'Tej' (Hartmann, 2004), which is an opportunity to make use of wax p roduction out of 'tej' leftover if we opt to change the situation. Generally, beeswax productivity and product quality has always been low, leading to high domestic utilization and low export earnings. Hence, the beekeepers in particular and the country in general are not benefiting from the sub sector. For that reason, to fully take the advantage of opportunities in beekeeping sector, and specifically to beeswax, interventions to address constraints and opportunities are very crucial following the market chains.So far, little research works have been done and no compiled information on beeswax production, its quality and market chain aspect in South Wollo zone. No records reveal the exact production quantity at the farmers and zonal level. The quality standard of beeswax in the study areas needs to be verified towards national and international standards.Beekeepers were not benefitted from the existing honey and beeswax supply to the extent that should be. In addition, the beeswax market chain derivation and destination together with its main market actors are not clearly characterized.The general objective of this study is to deliver basic information on the current beeswax production, with its quality status and market chains in selected districts of South Wollo zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia. To assess the current beeswax production status,  To identify opportunities and constraints,  To verify the quality of beeswax,  To identify the beeswax market chain and main actors in the market chain.What is the current status of beeswax production in the study areas?What seems the quality of beeswax produced in the study areas?How the marketing of beeswax is undergoing?Who are the main actors of the beeswax marketing?What production and quality challenges and opportunities exist in the study areas along the market chains?CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEWBeekeeping is an applied science and art of rearing honeybee colonies for man's economic benefits (Qaiser et al., 2013). Studies revealed that beekeeping offer different kinds of products that include honey and beeswax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly etc (Koshiyama et al., 2011), contributes cash income for beekeeper's (Mwakatobe and Machumu, 2008), for poverty reduction, sustainable rural development and natural resources conservation (Ogaba, 2010;Tewodros Alemu, 2010;Shehadeh, 2012). Moreover, countries earn foreign exchange from export of bee products (Bradbear, 2009;Meaza Gebreyohannes, 2010).Beekeeping provides an excellent bonus to humans because only bees are capable of harvesting nectar and pollen that otherwise would be inaccessible to people (Adjare, 1990;Bradbear, 2003;Melaku Girma et al., 2008;Tewodros Alemu, 2010). Since the honeybee produces non-perishable marketable commodities, beekeeping is said to be essential economic sector, which directly contributes in the values of the outputs like honey, beeswax, queen and bee colonies, pollen, royal jelly, bee venom, and propolis in cosmetics and medicine (Adjare, 1990;Workneh Abebe, 2007).Honey is the most important primary product of beekeeping. The bees collect from the nectar of plants (mainly composed of complex mixture of carbohydrates) by reducing the water content, store and leave it in honeycombs or honey pots to ripen and mature for their own consumption (Gebreegziabher Gebremedhin et al., 2013;Oyerinde et al., 2014).Next to honey, beeswax is an important bee product secreted from the wax gland of bee workers (Boukraâ et al, 2013). It is a mixture of esters, fatty acids, higher alcohols and saturated hydrocarbons in addition to aromatic substances and pigments (Ghanem, 2011).Beeswax is one of the most valuable and oldest bee products to be used by mankind (Nuru Adgabe, 2007;Ayalew Kassaye, 2008;Gemechis Legesse, 2014) and still being used in various fields such as cosmetics, foods, pharmaceuticals, engineering and industry (Gemechis Legesse, 2014).2. 1.1.3. Pollen Pollen contains the male gametophytes (Bogdanov, 2015b). Pollination occurs when pollen is moved within flowers or carried from one flower to another of the same species by bees and other pollinators (Akangaamkum et al., 2010). Pollen can be collected by pollen trap from the hive entrance or inside the hive from the comb cells and used as a dietary supplement and has a history in traditional medicine (CBI, 2009). Pollen is the bees' main source of proteins, minerals, fats and other substances (Bogdanov, 2015c).Propolis is a resinous substance collected from plant sap and resins (Segeren, 2004;Tsutsumi and Oishi, 2010) to seal cracks, reduce openings, and strengthen the base of comb attachment (Bradbear, 2003;Tsutsumi and Oishi, 2010). Propolis displays strong wide spectrum antimicrobial activity and has been used as a chemotherapeutic agent since ancient times and still used as treatment agent for numerous diseases including veterinary medication (Bogdanov, 2015a). Its treatment is under study for HIV and cancer (Tsutsumi and Oishi, 2010).2.1.1.5.Royal jelly or 'bee milk' is a thick milky white liquid substance derived from the pharyngeal glands of the honeybee that feeds bee larvae. Besides, predominantly valued as a medicine, bio-stimulating, immuno-modulating effects and anti-aging activity for human beings (Bogdanov, 2015b). The effect of the royal jelly on the human organism in prevention, prophylaxis and treatment is proved (Menkovska, 2013). Since Royal Jelly is the only food that queen bees take, and because a queen lays over 2,000 fertile eggs in a single day, it must be highly rich in nutrients (Alive and Well, 2014). Therefore, royal jelly helps as diet and prophylactics that it influences different systems of the body as, cardiovascular, nervous system, heart and blood circulation, respiration, and is more efficient in curing diabetes, cancer, infertility, wounds (Folayan and Bifarin, 2013;Bogdanov, 2015) asthma, hay fever, liver disease, pancreatitis, sleep troubles (insomnia), premenstrual syndrome (PMS), stomach ulcers, kidney disease, bone fractures, menopausal symptoms, skin disorders, and high cholesterol. It is also used as a general health tonic, for fighting the effects of aging, and for boosting the immune system (WebMD, 2015).2.1.1.6.Honeybee venom, produced by a pair of glands near the sting apparatus in worker bees (Tsutsumi and Oishi, 2010), is useful for treatment of rheumatism, eye and skin diseases (Folayan and Bifarin, 2013) since it contains several physiologically active components.like phospholipase A2, hyaluronidase, acid phosphomonoesterase, α-Dglucosidase, and lysophospholipase (Boukraâ et al., 2013).Beekeeping allows to utilize natural resources that otherwise would be wasted, and contributes to the national food products through pollination services, without affecting other agricultural activities (Melaku Girma et al., 2008). Although beekeeping is considered as minor industry, its role of pollination is much higher than purely the value of the beeswax and honey produced annually. This is due to the rationale of its interrelationship with agriculture and dependency of growers on honeybee pollination service (Collison, 2004). Plant-animal interactions are very vital for sustaining biodiversity. Bees are recognized as the incredibly important pollinators in almost all ecosystems where flowers occur (Solomon and Aluri, 2013). They use pollen as a protein source (Bogdanov, 2004a;Burlew, 2010) and nectar as an energy source (Sara et al., 2007). The mutual assistance of honeybees and plants is important for both of them (Abou-Shaara, 2015).Therefore, without bees there would be no flowering plants, and vice versa (Bradbear, 2003;2009).Many agricultural crops depend on pollination. Almost one-third of all plants or plant products eaten by humans rely directly or indirectly on bees for their pollinat ion. Above all, Bradbear (2009) emphasized that without bees biodiversity would not be so reality.Due to the bee's nature, many ecosystems depend on the pollination of bees for their existence and for increasing their genetic diversity (cross-pollination). A decline in bee colonies and bee species could therefore threaten the survival of plant species that depend on the pollination services of bees. Some types of plants depend uniquely on bees pollination (Litaer, 2009). Therefore, beekeeping contributes significant role to the earth in conserving the natural resources and from first to last environmental protection (Abebe Jenberie et al., 2014). In the global stock, the managed honeybees, are the predominant and most economically important group of pollinators in the growing cultivation of highvalue, pollination-dependent crops (Greenpeace Research, 2013).Although not quantified for local conditions (Desalegn Begna, 2015), the economic value of bee-affected pollination is great (Richards and Kevan, 2002) and its estimation is highly variable depending on the crop and the market conditions (Hein, 2009). Even though the value of honeybees in crop pollination is underestimated, it has a significant role in increasing national food production and regeneration of plant species. As most important pollinating agents in the world, their pollination service is estimated to be worth over 15times the value of all hive products together, yet, it is much more difficult to quantify their benefit (Save the Children UK, 2006;Match Maker Associates, 2007;Tessega Belie, 2009). Worldwide annual total economic value of crop pollination has been estimated to be €153 billion (Gallai et al., 2009). The leading pollinator-dependent crops are vegetables and fruits, representing about €50 billion each, followed by edible oil crops, stimulants (coffee, cocoa, etc.), nuts and spices. The area covered by pollinator-dependent crops has increased by more than 300% during the past 50 years (Van et al., 2009;Mariken et al., 2011).Ethiopia is endowed with huge potential of favorable environment and range of ecology (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007;Taye Beyene and Verschuur, 2014a), diverse honeybee source plants (Haftu Kebede and Gezu Tadesse, 2014), about 5.92 million hived honeybee colony (CSA, 2016) about one million beekeepers (Tessega Belie, 2009) and considerable amount of honey and beeswax production. Despite this potential, the sector was not benefited through production of its maximum potential.As it is acknowledged in different researches, (Tessega Belie, 2009;Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010) beekeeping appears as ancient history with long-standing practice in the rural communities of Ethiopia. Owing to adequate natural resources (Dayanandan, 2015), beekeeping in Ethiopia has a long tradition and indigenous culture (Melaku Girma et al., 2008;Tessega Belie, 2009;Tewodros Alemu et al., 2015). Honey and beeswax have also extended traditional and cultural values (Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010).Though there is more to be done to develop the sector into a robust industry offer ing significant income-generating opportunities, Ethiopia, as stated in (BfD, 2008), is a regional leader in Africa in terms of volumes of honey and beeswax harvested and traded, and levels of investment in the formal sector.Even though migratory beekeeping is practiced in some areas of the country (Kerealem Ejigu, 2005;Solomon Bogale, 2009), majorly, three honey production systems are practiced in the country. These are traditional, transitional and modern based production systems (Melaku Girma et al., 2008;Assemu Tesfa et al., 2013;Haftu Kebede and Gezu Tadesse, 2014). According to Melaku Girma et al. (2008), the current on-farm yields do not exceed 5 kg, 15 kg and 20 kg, respectively however having a respective potential annual yields of 10 kg, 40 kg and 60 kg per hive. A sample survey result of CSA shows that from 5,916,100 beehives in the country, 5,706,959 are traditional which accounts for 96.46% of the system with its complex limitations. Whereas, transitional and frame hives are newly introduced in the system accounting only for 70,753 (1.20%) and 138,888(2.34%) respectively (CSA, 2016). Accordingly, more than one million households are involved in honey production (Awraris Getachew et al., 2012) with an average honey productivity of 8.30, 18.28 and 15.5kg/hive/year for traditional, transitional and frame hives respectively (CSA, 2016).The major honeybee products produced and sold in Ethiopian context include honey and beeswax. There is little or no information about the other hive products production and utilization so far. Other bee products include pollen propolis, royal jelly, bee venom, bee brood, and package bees (Caroll, 2006;Tewelde Gebremichael, 2006;Gallmann and Thomas, 2012;Qaiser et al., 2013;Taye Beyene and Verschuur, 2014b;Haftu K. et al., 2015). These products have privileged demand globally, and they are not yet exploited in the country (Workneh Abebe, 2007). The quantities needed by the market are too small for cost-efficient production and marketing (CBI, 2009). Moreover, no research has been donein Ethiopian condition except at Holleta Bee Research Center on the effect of pollen trapping on brood rearing and honey yield (HBRC, 2012). The study showed that, without significantly affecting honey yield, considerable amount of pollen can be collected. The average pollen yield obtained per colony were varied fro m 24.34 gm to 201.58gm with mean of 98.9gm per month during flowering periods. However, no information is available on processing, handling and marketing of pollen grain in Ethiopia.Currently, in Ethiopia as well as in the international market, there is an increasing demand for honey and beeswax (Save the Children UK, 2006). Ethiopia has an ample population of bees ready to meet the growing demand of honey and beeswax. Bee products are highly distributed across the different regions of Ethiopia. However, the most important honey producing regions are Oromia (3,009,745), Amhara (1,328,235)  (Solomon Bogale, 2009;CSA, 2016). Opening and manipulationis not as such easy in locally made traditional hives that, beekeepers failed to harvest ripe, pure and sufficient honey from the traditional hive (8-13 kg of crude honey) (Tolera Kumsa and Dejene Takele, 2014). Due to this, the quality of honey is generally poor (Bezabih Emana, 2010). The quality deteriorations and lower yield may arise from the challenges of poor technical know-how on the part of bee-keepers on appropriate bee-hive management and harvesting techniques (PCI, 2013a), farmers mainly use much cow dung smoke during harvesting to subdue and push away the bees (Awraris Getachew et al., 2012).Poor packaging (Bezabih Emana, 2010), storage and transport (Melaku Girma et al., 2008) also negatively affect quality of honey. Use of heating materials and then squeezing honey by hand exposes the product to dust and other foreign materials. Honey often exposed to contamination due to the method of post harvest and storage (Melaku Girma et al., 2008).None conducive tools are commonly used as honey containers in Ethiopia include skin, hides, clay pots, gourd pots and tins that have negative effect on the quality of honey because they absorb moisture and raise the moisture content of the honey, lack cleanliness and add undesirable odor to honey (Melaku Girma et al., 2008). Farmers do not process honey, but they chunk the comb honey into a liquid mixture before sale (Haftu K. et al., 2015). Even though semi-processing increases the values of honey, due to existing substantial demand for the honey in its crude form, unions are not engaged in processing (PCI, 2013a).For most beekeepers, the main challenge for their beekeeping business develop ment to invest on improved honey production technologies, storage, processing facilities and packaging is lack of adequate financial resources (Haftu K. et al., 2015). When they pay money for, people wish for honey and not sugar mixed (Gentry, 1982). Due to this challenge, in some parts of the country, selling comb honey is very common. This method of selling honey is not prone to adulteration problem (Melaku Girma et al., 2008). Even if the beekeepers are not involved in the adulteration, they get the ultimate blame and loss, for it is their product which loses credibility (Gentry, 1982).Beeswax is a natural product (Mutsaers et al., 2005: Bogdanov, 2009) produced by worker honeybees from special glands and molded through the use of their mouthparts, into combs (MAAREC, 2005). When produced, beeswax is white but quickly darkens from contamination with pollen and with the bees in the beehive. Beeswax taken from the bees, melted and cleaned by the beekeeper generally is light lemon yellow in color (Bogdanov, 2004b;MAAREC, 2005). Ethiopia, having a huge apicultural resources, is the leading beeswax producer in Africa, and one of the important beeswax exporter to the world market (Tessega Belie, 2009;Gemechis Legesse, 2014  (Dayanandan, 2015).Rural beekeepers are the sources of beeswax production in Ethiopia. In addition, the local honey brewery industries for making ''Tej'' and 'birth' are primary suppliers of beeswax (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007;Ayalew Kassaye, 2008). Beeswax is largely collected from traditional hives rather than moveable frame hives and the beeswax produced is estimated to be 8-10% and 0.5-2% of crude honey produced from traditional and movable frame hives respectively (Johannes Agonafir, 2005). Beeswax is collected in its 'sefef' or 'keskes' from 'Tej' brewers throughout the year after the beverage production (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007;Nuru Adgaba, 2007a). During the non-honey seasons, beeswax purification and marketing will be the business's activity.The country follows majorly traditional system of beekeeping that has significance in wax production (Mekonen Teferi et al., 2011;Awraris Getachew et al., 2012;Yetimwork Gebremeskel et al., 2014)  (Krell, 1996). The methods in use are solar-wax-melters, steam-wax-melters, wax presses, wax and honey separators and electric melters (Bradbear, 2009). Due to lack of knowledge and skill of honey production, honey and beeswax extraction is still very traditional in Ethiopia (Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010). Old combs collected from traditional hives or 'sefef' and 'keskes' collected from 'Tej' leftover is cleansed and formed in to blocks. The beeswax block, especially rendered by solar melter, is less viable to be affected by the wax moth (Bogdanov, 2009a).  et al., 2008). Traditional beeswax extractors are also the other intermediate sources who process the 'sefef' partially to rough beeswax blocks.Beeswax produced by the bees immediately used for construction of comb is white in color. It turns to yellow when the comb is filled with pollen, silk and larval debris (Krell, 1996). It is a highly appreciated product, but it does face competition from substitute products. Beeswax is a natural product (Mutsaers et al., 2005) and no additives are allowed (Bogdanov, 2004b). Wax adulteration can be detected by different methods. The sensory characteristics of beeswax are an important quality criteria. Measures of sensory and physico-chemical characteristics are adulteration detection methods. Beeswax should contain minimal amounts of contaminants, as it is used for in cosmetics, food a nd pharmaceutics (Bogdanov, 2016a). Adulteration and toxic contamination are the main quality issues nowadays. Unfortunately, there are no maximum residue limits for contaminants. Thus, beekeepers should keep the use of synthetic chemicals at a minimum (Bogdanov, 2004b).Adulteration of beeswax with animal fats and petroleum has also become a great threat to the industry (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007). Lack of traceability is one of the major challenges attributing to the increasing adulteration of beeswax with cheap materials like animal fat in addition to the ever increasing price that draws attention of the people involved in the mischief (Gemechis Legesse, 2014). A small part of the beeswax market consists of organic beeswax, but data are not available on the volume of organic beeswax (EPOPA, 2006).The two tests (melting point and saponification cloud point tests) are supporting each other to confirm beeswax adulteration with animal tallow tested at Holleta Bee Research Center (Nuru Adgaba, 2007b). According to the result, as beeswax samples adulteration with animal tallow increased, the melting point and saponification cloud point drop down.Moreover, Out of 8 samples that failed to meet the requirements, three of them were from intermediary collectors and the remaining was from final processors. This shows that, adulterations mainly occurs at intermediary processors levels and appear at final processors (Nuru Adgaba, 2007b).Ethiopian government set quality standards for beeswax produced in the country regardless of the type of hives; Ethiopian beeswax is recognized as potentially of high international quality Gezahegn Ayele et al. ( 2006) do fit to the internationally required qualities if properly handled (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007). The quality criteria required are sensory and physicochemical parameters. The color of quality beeswax should be yellow to yellowish brown; the odor of pleasant and honey-like when heated as well as it should not stick to teeth and the knife up on cutting (Table 2. 1). The physicchemical properties of beeswax are described as melting point should range between 61 and 66 0 C, density 0.950-0.965 g/cm 3 , refractive index 1.440-1.445, Saponification value 87-104 0 C and it should be free from acaricide residues (Table 2. 2). There are no regulatory institutions whose responsibility is to control the overall quality issues along the value chain. Weak quality control and standardization is the main challenge that has to be solved from production to utilization. The current process of quality standardization takes place through Quality Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE). Another organization is located at HBRC for laboratory testing of quality in honey and beeswax. Beeswax is a very stable substance, and its properties change little over time. It is insoluble in water, resistant to hydrolysis and natural oxidization (Bogdanov, 2009a;Bradbear, 2009).Beeswax is brittle at a temperature of below 18°C, solid at room temperature, becomes soft and pliable at 35 to 40°C and melts at a point of 61-65°C; it does not boil but decompose at 120 o C. There are 74 major and 210 minor components in beeswax. It is composed of four main types of long chain carbon compounds (Hydrocarbons, Organic acids, Alcohols and Esters) and 50 aroma compounds (Table 2. 3).Beeswax is an inert material with high plasticity at a relatively low temperature (around 32 o C). Upon heating the physical properties of wax changed. At 30-35 o C it becomes plastic, at 46-47°C the structure of a hard body is destroyed and between 60 to 70°C it begins to melt. Heating to temperature of 95-105 o C leads to formation of surface foam, while at 140°C, the volatile fractions begin to evaporate. After cooling down beeswax shrinks by about 10% Heating at 120°C for at least 30 minutes causes an increase of hardness due to the removal of the remaining water (Bogdanov, 2016a). Beeswax is also insoluble in water and resistant to many acids. It is soluble in most organic solvents such as acetone, ether, benzene, xylol, toluene, chloroform, tetrachlormethane. However, at room temperature it does not fully dissolve in any of these solvents, but upon heating above the wax melting point it is readily soluble in all of them, and also in ethanol (ibid). Source:- (Bogdanov, 2016a) 2.3.2.5.Beeswax storage should be in cool dry places and never in the same room with any kind of pesticide. Wax will slowly crystallize over time and consequently become harder, but this process is reversible without any damage, just as with crystallized honey. The white bloom, i.e. dust that sometimes appears on the outside of a wax cake or candle consists of small wax crystals. When melted or pressed with the rest of the wax it reverts to normal beeswax without any residues or impurities. Wax can be stored for very long periods of time without losing its major characteristics (Krell, 1996). Beeswax withstands the atmospheric influence and does not need any special storage facilities (PCI, 2013b).Combs in storage are ideal grounds for the breeding of wax moths. A beekeeper should take preventive action to protect his unused combs against wax moth attack during storage to avoid losing valuable combs. Storing combs in moth-tight cupboard or keeping them in sealed polythene bags (Hamdan, 2016). Beeswax should only be stored in its rendered, clean form. Before rendering, it will quickly be attacked by wax moths, which are able to destroy large quantities of wax in short periods. Clean wax in large blocks is not attacked by wax moths that is common in raw wax materials (Krell, 1996;PCI, 2013b).Globally, the market for organic beeswax forms a small part of the total beeswax market and expected to grow (CBI, 2009). Ethiopian beeswax is demanded in the local and export market, but majority of it is devoted in the domestic market (Gezahegn Ayele et al., 2006).Ethiopian beeswax has a good quality of pliability and yellow coloration so that it is highly demanded in the global market for blending beeswaxes from other sources (Gemechis Legesse, 2014;Nuru Adgaba, 2007b). However, beeswax marketing in Ethiopia is very complex and difficult in matter of traceability (Gemechis Legesse, 2014).There are no strong producer-buyer relationships in terms of working linkages (Gezahegn Ayele et al., 2006). Of the total beeswax produced per year, on average about 347 tons has been exported every year. Ethiopia earns an average of 1.6 to 2.7 million USD every year from the export of beeswax to international market within the years of 2009-2013 with increasing trend (Table 2. 4). Even though, Ethiopian beeswax is highly demanded in the local and global market and Ethiopia earns an increasing trend of export value, no quality control system applied yet in the local market and international export channels. The constraints to marketing of beeswax in the country include lower quality of products, lack of market information, absence of organized market channel, transportation problem, lack of appropriate technologies for collecting, processing, packing and storage to keep its natural quality, lack of government support in promoting market development, and low involvement of private sector (Meaza Gebreyohannes, 2010). The trouble of adulteration and traceability also irritated the challenges of marketing channel of both the local and international beeswax trade (Gemechis Legesse, 2014).Market chain is the term used to describe the various links that connect all the actors and transactions involved in the movement of agricultural goods from the producer to the consumer (Lundy et al., 2004;Surbhin S, 2017). The honey market chain clearly indicated no defined links established between main actors so far.In areas where most or all of the honey produced is consumed locally, and where there is no local use for beeswax, pieces of wax comb are often discarded (Bradbear, 2009).Therefore, a small portion of the produced beeswax is delivered to the market. Beeswax which otherwise could be collected by beekeepers is wasted (Dayanandan, 2015). Majority of the wax harvested after rendering used for many purposes in the country. It has become a traditional religious practice for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers to burn candlesticks called 'tuaf', during church ceremonies (Gezahegn Ayele et al., 2006).Utilization of beeswax for foundation sheet currently creates a local demand (Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007) due to the introduction of improved frame hives. The amount and its economic value of beeswax utilized in the religious practice for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers are not yet determined. Therefore, it is a researchable issue to make use of its economic benefits. Internationally, at present, beeswax is used as foundations, cosmetics, pharmacy, candles, food processing, physiotherapy and other purposes (Bogdanov, 2016b). (For detailed global utilization, see Appendix Table 1). Malede Birhan et al., 2015;Shibru D. et al., 2016), lack of processing and packaging equipment supply, low productivity, lack of technical knowledge on honeybee management, lack of skill on how to process, honey sold with wax as crude due to lack of trust by buyers and adulteration, and lack of honey and beeswax cooperatives (Abrehet Gebrekristos, 2015). Moreover, smallholders' inability to access markets, lack of market linkage, lack of appropriate market channel, lack of market infrastructure are market related challenges (Tezera Aweke, 2013;Sisay Fikru, 2015). Lack of research conducted to characterize and document the apicultural resources and associated constraints Sisay Fikru (2015), poor access to trainings and technical assistance, lack of special skills and research (Gidey Yirga and Mekonen Teferi, 2010), high cost of modern hives with accessories, shortage of bee forage and low quality of products are main challenges to be managed (Taye Beyene and Verschuur, 2014a). Low quality beeswax supply (Abrehet Gebrekristos, 2015), adulteration of beeswax with animal fats and petroleum, lack of traceability, lack of quality control and maintenance training and very few quality control private laboratories, with limited capacity has also become a great threat to the industry (Gezahegn Ayele et al., 2006;Beyene Tadesse and Phillips, 2007;Hilmi et al., 2012).There are currently only limited financial services available from mainstream financial institutions for co-operatives and unions, while trade barriers can prevent small producers from developing their own brands and market promotion strategies (Oxfam GB, 2011).Generally, Less attention is given to the sector specifically to beeswax production and quality.Generally the country has a huge potential of beekeeping as major opportunities to engage on beekeeping clearly evidenced by availability of diversified natural bee forage, suitable agro-ecology, indigenous knowledge and experience, increasing market demand of honey and bee products due to increasing population in urban and rural areas (Tezera Awoke, 2013;Abrehet Gebrekristos, 2015;Shibru D. et al., 2016). In addition, existence of flowering plants, ample source of water, availability of honeybee colonies (Tezera Awoke, 2013;Malede Birhan et al., 2015;Shibru D. et al., 2016). Socio-economic value, and emerging beekeeping approaches like organized unemployed youth groups engaged in integrated beekeeping with watershed play significant opportunistic roles for beekeepers to join the sector (Tezera Awoke, 2013). Traditional way of production system specifically favors beeswax production (Awraris Getachew, 2015). The traditional religious practice of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church followers religious practice of burning candle sticks called 'tuaf'' and the intensity of the improved beekeeping extension in the main beekeeping potential areas of the country launched by government and NGOs has created a huge demand of beeswax for foundation sheet making for frame box hives (Gemechis Legesse, 2014).Beekeeper: It is first and basic link in the marketing chain analysis of bee products.Beekeepers are the primary sources of the products and supply to the second agent. From the movement he/she decides what to produce, how to produce, how much to produce, when to produce, and where to sale.Tej bre wers: they are the major source of supply for beeswax. They purchase the crude honey from the beekeeper or wholesalers. Sell the 'Tej' leftover to the retailers or wholesalers as 'Sefef' or 'Keskes' or after semi processing to molded beeswax.Traditional beeswax extractors: During processing, beeswax, often in straw form, remains as a by-product. Traditional beeswax extractors are intermediate source. They supply the beeswax in rough blocks, and they have processed the raw material once already.Wholesalers: they provide the optimum combination of functions and services for different kinds of retailers, and perform desired distribution functions for processors.Retailers: Middlemen, which includes supermarkets and other large-scale retailer who divides large-scale shipments of produce and sell it to consumers in small units. The basic function they provide is bulk breaking.Processers: a chain that practice further processing or semi processing and sale for the final consumers or like exporters, consumers. Processers ma y purchase a bulk of semi processed beeswax and proceed a final processing.Exporters: deliver beeswax originated from all over the regions from traditional beeswax extractors, retailers or wholesalers. Exporters may be processers.The last link in the marketing chain. The participants may be beekeepers, BoA, NGOs, Research Centers, pharmaceutical and food processing industries.The study was primarily conducted in the three ILRI-LIVES Project intervention districts of South Wollo zone (Tehulederie, Kalu and Dessie Zuria). Even though most of the beekeeping practice in these areas still exercised in traditional way, the three districts were selected for this study due to the huge potential and relatively better experience in beekeeping. In addition, they are close to honey and beeswax marketing and processing routs. Moreover, these districts are ILRI-LIVES Project intervention areas, which is the main financial source to conduct this research.    , 2016). Of the total bee colonies, 183,090 (97.92%) are kept in traditional beehives. South Wollo zone covers 17462 Km 2 accounting 10.79% of the regional share and possess 14.08% of the regional bee colony resources. The area also has highest density of 10.71 bee colonies per Km 2 from Eastern Amhara.This research was conducted being divided in to two main components: component one was household survey and component two was sample collection and laboratory analysis of beeswax quality. Primary data were collected from the respondents using semistructured questionnaire (for beekeepers), key informant interview (for other actors) and from the laboratory analysis. Secondary data were collected from available sources: books, journals, proceedings, thesis, reports and related research publications and internet.The survey covers three purposively selected districts of South Wollo zones according to their beekeeping potential, experience and access to bee products marketing points. These districts are Tehulederie, kalu and Dessie Zuria. From each district, three kebeles were selected purposively according to the above criteria. From each kebele, 15 farmer beekeepers were purposively selected based on owing bee colonies and experience in beekeeping using systematic random sampling technique. Generally, from 9 kebeles, 135 beekeepers were selected for the household field survey.Pretested and modified semi-structured questionnaire (Appendix Table 4) was prepared to obtain information on the basic demographic data, the current beeswax production status, trend, and opportunities, constraints and factors affecting beeswax production and quality.The questionnaire was also aimed to identify beeswax-marketing system and identify the main actors, through primary data collected from farmers focusing on factors affecting beeswax market supply, size of output, market information, credit access, access to market, number of beehives owned, beeswax production cost, annual return from beeswax, extension service and annual income from other source.All the available honey and beeswax actors (traders and 'Tej' brewers) along the market chains of the study areas have been included for key informant interview. Open-ended checklist was prepared for discussion with each of the actors systematically to get relevant information. More specifically, the checklist for traders tried to include type of business (wholesaler, retailer, assembler, etc.), buying and selling strategies, source of market information, and other related data were collected.Following the market chain of the three districts to the main town, beeswax samples were collected from beekeepers and different market actors including 'Tej' brewers. No samples have been taken from cooperatives, local collectors, honey and wax processors and exporters due to their absence in the study areas. Crude honey and old combs were collected from beekeepers as well as 'Keskes' or 'sefef' purchased from 'Tej' brewers then extracted and analyzed in the laboratory. Purchased extracted beeswax blocks at Agriculture offices ha s also been included in the analysis.Before processing beeswax, dark combs and ''Tej sefef' were first soaked for 24 ho urs in water to remove non-wax components (honey, pollen, impurities etc) and minimize the formation of wax emulsion in the water while melting. The soaked materials were put into large metal container filled with water, left until all the material were melted and the contents were poured into sack held by two people and firmly pressed in opposite direction. The wax and water runs out through an opening from the sack and presser. The heating and pressing procedures were repeated to drain out almost pure beeswax.Honey samples from beekeepers, old and broken combs from beekeepers, 'keskes' or 'sefef' from ''Tej'' brewers and rendered beeswax from office of agriculture were collected. Samples so obtained constitute an individual sample representing the actor and type of sample source. Composite sample of 500 gm were prepared from each of the samples and divided into two equal parts. O ne for the laboratory analysis and the remaining is for reference placed at laboratory. The samples were collected with clean, dry and airtight containers to minimize adventitious contamination and labeled with appropriate format (QSAE, 2005).Before physical and chemical analysis, samples were rendered, refined and purified.Physical and chemical analysis was done at Sekota Dry land Agricultural Research Center.  , 2005).Where, M1 mass in g of the material in air, d specific gravity of rectified spirit, and M2 mass in g of the material in alcohol.Melting point, 0 CThe thermometer was dipped and withdrawn at the melted material so as to get the bulb thinly coated with the wax and let stand for 24 hours. This thermometer was inserted into the test-tube through the bored cork and then the test-tube was placed in the water-bath.The temperature gradually rose, at the rate of 1°C in 3 minutes. The temperature at which a transparent drop forms on the end of the thermometer bulb was recorded as the melting point of the sample. 3.2.4.4. Ash, % by mass, max.The platinum dish was heated to redness, cooled to room temperature in a desiccator and weighed. About 50 g of the material was taken in a watch-glass and weighed accurately.About three-quarters of this quantity was transferred to the platinum dish and heated on a hot plate so that the material burns gently at the surface. When about half of the material is burnt away, heating stopped, cooled and the remainder of the material was added. The dish heated again, as before, until the material completely charred. After that, the material was incinerated in a muffle furnace at 550°C to 650°C for 1 hour, cooled to room temperature in desiccators and weighed. Incineration, cooling and weighing was repeated until the difference between two successive weightings was less than one milligram. The ash content of the sample was calculated with the following formula (QSAE, 2005).Where, M2= mass in g of the ash, and Ml = mass in g of the material taken for the test.3.2.4.5.Total volatile matter, % by mass, max.About 10 g of the material was weighed accurately in a suitable dish ,previously dried and weighed, and placed in an oven maintained at 105 2 0 C for 6 hours. After 6 hours, the dish was cooled in a desiccator and weighed. The dish heated again in the oven for 30 minutes.The process repeated until the loss in mass between two successive weightings was less than one milligram. the lowest mass obtained was record as the total volatile matter of the sample taken with the following formula (QSAE, 2005).Where, M1 mass in gram of the dish with the material before heating M2 mass in gram of the dish after heating M3 mass in gram of the empty dish 3.2.4.6.Acid value, max.The material was mixed to make entirely liquid and accurately about 5 g of the material was weighed in a 250-m1 conical flask. 75 ml of a mixture of two parts of benzene and one part of rectified spirit was added. The sample was heated under reflux until it dissolved, allowed to cool to room temperature and titrated with standard potassium hydroxide solution using phenolphthalein as indicator until pink color is observed. The acid value (in mg KOH/g) was calculated by the following formula (QSAE, 2005).Where, 56.1 is equivalent weight of KOH V volume in ml of standard potassium hydroxide solution used, N normality of standard potassium hydroxide solution, and M mass in g of the material taken for the test.3.2.4.7. Saponification cloud value, min.Accurately about 2.0 g of beeswax was weigh in a tarred conical flask, 25 ml of methyl ethyl ketone added, followed by 25 ml of alcoholic potassium hydroxide solution. Few pieces of pumice stone were added and the reflux condenser was connected to the flask.The flask heated on a water-bath or electric hot plate for about 2 hours to boil steadily but gently. The inside of the condenser washed down with about 10 ml of rectified spirit after the flask and condenser have cooled. 1 ml of phenolphthalein was added and the residual potassium hydroxide was titrated with 0.5 M standard hydrochloric acid. A blank assay or titration was also performed with 25 ml of 0.5 M alcoholic potassium hydroxide. The a. The liquid does not become cloudy at a temperature higher than 61°C but becomes cloudy at a temperature between 61°C and 59°C, and b. Precipitation of large flocks occurs at not more than 2°C below the temperature at which the liquid becomes cloudy.The collected data were coded and tabulated in Microsoft Excel worksheet for analysis.The statistical analysis used in the study varied depending on the type of variable and Generalized Linear Model at P<0.05 level was used to separate the means whenever ANOVA showed statistically significant difference. The following analysis of variance model was used for data analysis.Where Among 135 sample households interviewed to generate qualitative and quantitative data on beekeeping, 126 (93.3%) were male headed and the rest 9 (6.7%) were female-headed (Table 4. 1). The very limited number of female participation in beekeeping in the study areas might be due to beekeeping is considered as the work of men. Also, women might not be economically empowered through beekeeping and due to limited number of interviewed female-headed household that is also reported in most research findings (Abebe Jenberie, 2008;Adebabay kebede et al., 2008;Kerealem Ejigu et al., 2007;Haftu Kebede and Gezu Tadesse, 2014). There is also a report indicating cultural barrier to women to undertake honey harvesting (Hartmann, 2004;Workneh Abebe, 2007). Of the total households interviewed, 92.59% are married while 3.7%, 2.96% and 0.74% are widowed, single and divorced respectively (Table 4. 1). Based on the results of this study, even the participation of women is minimal people regardless of their sex and marital status undertake beekeeping activities in the study areas. There is no significant variation (P>0.05) between districts in terms of sex and marital status involved in beekeeping activity. than the lower literacy levels (Table 4. 3). For that reason, the higher the literacy level, the more the number of colony holding. On the contrary, the number of respondent beekeepers were significantly (P<0.05) lower for literate than illiterate ones (Table 4. 3). The average land holding of the respondents was 1.24±0.72 hectare (Table 4. 4) which is within the national average land holding of 1.0 -1.5 hectors/family. However, this result is lower than the regional average of the Amhara region 1.7ha (Kerealem Ejigu et al., 2009) and Burie district of Amhara region, 1.77±0.91ha (Tessega Belie, 2009). The average land holding result of the study areas was also higher than the results obtained from Lasta district of North Wollo (0.5-0.65ha) (Tezera Awoke, 2013) and South Wollo and Wag Himra Zone (0.6±0.4ha) (Alemu Tsegaye, 2015). Majority (85.19%) of the beekeepers have lower total land holding (< 2ha) with lower number of bee colony holding per household. Moreover, the few beekeepers having > 2ha of total land have a better colony holding per household (Table 4. 4).The average cropland holding of the sample respondents was 0.79±0.48 hectors. Farmers from Kalu district have higher cropland holding (0.94±0.49) than Tehulederie and Dessie Zuria district farmers (Table 4 Besides livestock, beekeeping tackles immediate need of cash income for households.Accordingly, the study result indicated the mean honeybee colony holding of respondents was 5.13±5.2 per household (Table 4. 5). During the survey, it was noted that, there are many beekeepers in the districts with a colony number of 1 to 43 per household demonstrating that the area is suitable for beekeeping development. The majority (76.3%) of the farmers participated in the study have a colony number below six. While, 17.78% and 5.93% of the farmers have six to ten and above 10 colonies per household respectively (Figure 4. 1). The mean honeybee colony holding per household was lower than the result from Kaffa, Sheka and Bench-Maji zones, which was 14.67 per household, (Awraris Getachew et al., 2012). However, the result was very comparable with the results from Kilte Awlaelo, Sekota and Burie districts reported as 5.79, 5.9 and 6.48 colonies per household respectively (Abebe Jenberie, 2008;Tessega Belie, 2009;Yetimwork G/Meskel, 2015). The variation could be due to the vegetation cover, rainfall distribution and availability of different species of honey bee plants favour for the higher colonies to exist in Kaffa, Sheka and Bench-Maji zones than Kilte Awlaelo, Sekota, Burie and South Wollo.  Moreover, from my observation during the study period, more experienced beekeepers have better understanding and they are more curious about their colony management like pest and predator prevention, shelter preparation, provision of dearth period supplementary feeds, swarm management, quality honey production and other seasonal management. This result was in line with the results of Adebabay Kebede et al. (2008) and Alemu Tsegaye (2015). According to the survey result, as beekeepers acquire experience they keep a better colony number and gain enhanced honey production than the less experienced ones (Table 4. 6).  4. 2). According to the discussion made with beekeepers, newly engaged beekeepers that get their starter colony from their parents have more experience than those started from training or by their motivation. Where people are actively engaged in helping older beekeepers from an early age, they accumulate experience from fellow beekeepers and gradually become independent beekeepers (Adebabay Kebede et al., 2008).According to this study, 94.1% of the respondents agree that colony selling is practiced in the study areas with an average current price of 936.22 ETB. The price of an established traditional colony differs from kebele to kebele or farmer to farmer ranging from 300 to 1500ETB (Figure 4. 3). According to the discussion, beekeepers agree on the increasing trend of bee colony price from time to time due to the increasing demand of bee colony and the decreasing trend of bee colony in the study areas (Table 4. 10). To increase their bee colony majority (75.56%) of the respondent beekeepers acquire through catching swarm bees and the rest through buying, splitting, overcrowding and/or the comb ination of them (Figure 4. 4).    The average honeybee colony holding of the sample respondents were 4.1, 0.21 and 0.81 for traditional, top bar and moveable frame hives respectively (Table 4. 8). Even though the product volume and quality of product is low (Miklyaev et al., 2014;Tessega Belie, 2009), beekeepers preferred traditional hives for its low input price and low wage rate (Miklyaev et al., 2014), availability (Adebabay Kebede et al., 2008), convenience to construct, quantity of wax produced and less dependency on external inputs and convenient to be used as a bait hive (Tessega Belie, 2009). Almost 80% of the hives in the study areas were traditional (Table 4. 8) and the figure is higher (88.83%) in Tehulederie than Kalu (81.85%) and Dessie Zuria (72.18%) districs (Table 4. 8). The ratio of traditional beehive in the study areas seems low probably due to the selected beekeeper respondents are engaged with better number of frame hives. In the study areas, three beekeeping production systems were identified: traditional, transitional and modern honeybee production systems. Accordingly, 79.94%, 4.04% and 16.02% of the honeybee colonies of the area were kept in traditional, transitional and frame hives respectively (Table 4. 8). Alemu Tsegaye (2015) also reported the same result of 74.02% of honeybees were kept in traditional hives. Adebabay Kebede et al. (2008) report was higher (99.7%)for Amhara region. However, the regional higher figure might be due to the production system is dynamic that there were changes through time. reported that the beekeepers at each of their respective study districts kept majority of their colonies around the backyards of their homestead. Backyards are easier for frequent inspection and other hive managements (including swarm prevention, pest and predator control and honey production quality and quantity) compared with free apiaries (Kerealem Ejigu et al., 2009). No beekeepers put their hives inside their house and hang on trees in forests (Table 4. 9). No respondents identified disease as a threatening factor for colony decline in the study areas (Table 4. 10) and this might be due to they didn't observed or no disease occurred so far. These agree with the results of Alemu Tsegaye (2015), Adebabay Kebede et al. (2008), Kerealem Ejigu (2005), Tessega Bellie ( 2009) and Tewodros Alemu (2010) who reported the decreasing trend of honeybee populations and their products in Wag Himra and South Wollo zones, Amhara Region, Enebse, Bure and Sekota districts respectively due to multiple reasons.Unwise application of agro-chemicals is a very significant threatening factor for the decline of many bee colonies particularly in the study areas (Alemu Tsegaye, 2015) and in the region/country at large (Desalegn Begna, 2015). According to the discussion made with beekeepers, extension agents and district experts, agro-chemical regularly applied by the time of July to November to control and/or treat animal and crop pest and diseases.The result of Desalegn Begna (2015) also showed that more than 80% of pesticides applied in March, June, July, September and October. According to this study, the intensity of chemical application is higher in Kalu following the prevailing irrigable area.The application time is set by Knapsack owners or renters (Desalegn Begna, 2015).Nevertheless, respondents have also complained that they were facing a threat from wider agro-chemical application by non-beekeepers. However, 82.4% of the respondent beekeepers in South Wollo and Wag Himra zo ne (Alemu Tsegaye, 2015) and 54% of the respondent beekeepers in Mecha, Dangla and Guangua districts (Desalegn Begna, 2015) were using agro-chemicals in their localities. Honeybee colonies abandon their hive at any season of the year for different reasons (Bradbear, 2009). Absconding is a common phenomenon, especially in case of ill management as a response to disturbance (Saha, 2005). The study revealed that absconding is very serious and 98.52% of the respondents in the study areas agreed the existence of absconding in their site/ locality due to many reasons. The major reasons being pest attacks, unknown reasons, drought, management problem, chemical application, feed shortage and traditional belief taking the share of 28.99%, 20.03%, 17.92%, 14.98%, 4.23%, 3.91% and 3.91% respectively (Table 4. 11). Pest attack, mainly wax moth, is prominently serious problem so that the study areas can be identified as a hotspot area for wax moth infestation that was observed from the absconded colonies.Appendix Picture 9 supports the summarized result. The report by Assemu Tesfa et al.(2013) indicated the causes of absconding to be incidence of pests and predators, poor management, and excessive weather conditions (sun, wind and rain). The report by Adebabay et al. (2008) supports this finding as the main causes for colony absconding were incidence of pest, poor management, bad weather and others. The respondent beekeepers also indicated that absconding was more prevalent at dearth period especially from April to June, which lined with the result of Alemu Tsegaye (2015) reported as prevalent at March to June with a peak time at June. During prolonged dearth periods, most weak hives that could not be kept strong enough throughout the year abscond in relation to the scarcity of bee forage.The mean number of bee colony absconded in the sample respondents was 2.23 per household with a minimum of 1 colony and maximum of 26 bee colonies within the last three years (Table 4. 11). This figure agrees with the result of Tessega Belie ( 2009), 2.6 bee colonies absconded per household. From the total of absconded colonies, 81.2% were from traditional hives due to the reasons of inconveniency for management, easily attacked by pests, large volume and unknown reasons (Table 4. 11). Frame hives (9.02%)were also absconded because they were blamed to be infected by pests like wax moth, get cold and cannot be sealed if cracked. However, this may not guarantee that because the proportion of traditional hives was 80% (Table 4. 8). Beekeepers in the study area tried to control absconding through frequent inspection (21.80%), feeding and watering (17.59%), pest control (11.09%), cleaning sites (10.90%) and other options focusing on minimizing the risk and increasing the strength of colonies. However, more number of beekeepers (19.50%) used no control option for their bees to save them from absconding ( Table 4.There is a traditional belief of \"chereka bikult\", calculation of working date related to the onset of moon, which most of the beekeepers don't know how they can count or calculate but knowledgeable people can be consulted if beekeepers need to get in to their hives for honey harvest or any management. Therefore, according to the discussion made with beekeepers, timing of beehive inspection is a vital issue to minimize the risk of \"chereka bikult\". Beekeepers believe that if they open their hive without calculation of \"chereka bikult\", Ants and wax moth attack the colony and cause bees abscond. The issue might be new question that needs a research.  2009) also reported ways of swarm control at Burie district to be removal of queen cell (46.2%), killing queen of swarm and reuniting colony to its mother (28.2%), suppering (2.6%) and use large volume of hive (1.7%).There are traditional thinking that bees get sterile and become honey producers when smoked with different kinds of ingredients like white 'Adrus', camel dung, mule bone, bamboo root, 'kosso' tree flower. Very few beekeepers tried 'Adrus' but most of the beekeepers did not try but they believe about it. Generally, the honeybee's life and their product are endangered and more specifically the honeybee production system of the study areas reported to face with multitude challenges and among which pests and predators are major threats, which leads the colonies to abscond or die (Table 4. 11). Many research findings also confirmed pests and predators as a major threatening factors for honeybees and beekeeping business (Adebabay Kebede et al., 2008;Assemu Tesfa et al., 2013;Alemu Tsegaye, 2015;Guesh Godifey, 2015;Haftu K. et al., 2015;Teklu Gebretsadik, 2016).The results from the survey study have identified birds, ants, wax moth (Galleria mellonella), lizards, honey badger (Mellivora capensis), spider, wasps, beetles, bee lice (Braula coecal.) and termite are the major honeybee pests and predators in order of their decreasing importance (Table 4. 14). The cross sectional study results of Alemu Tsegaye (2015) from South Wollo zone and Wag Himra zone have indicated that the major pests and predators were ants, wax moths, bee eating birds, varroa mites, wasps, lizards, spiders, bee lice, death head hawks moth and hamagot in order of importance. Ants, birds, spiders, mites, wax moth, beetle, bee mice, honey badger, cat worm and lizards were identified as major bee pests and predators at Asgede Tsimbla district of Tigray region (Gidey Yirga, 2012). Ants, wax moth, bee-eater birds, spider, bee lice, honey badger, termite, small hive beetles and snake were the most harmful pests in order of importance in Amhara region (Adebabay Kebede et al., 2008). Guesh Godifey (2015) identified Ants (24.8%), wax moth (24.7%), bee-eater birds (15.9%), honey badger (13.7%), spiders (12%), parasitic mites (9.9%), lizards (9%) and dead hawks moth (5.4%) as most harmful pests from selected zones of Tigray region. Teklu Gebretsadik (2016) also identified ant (80%), honey badger/Hamagot (74%), Beetles (57%), birds (51%), wax moth (50%), spider (45%), mites (43%), lizard (35%), bee lice (30) and Toads (23%) in Sidama and Gedeo zones of Southern Ethiopia. From all the above research findings birds, ants, wax moth were top three threatening honeybee pests and predators that need prompt action to control or manage their consequence.  The distribution of training was not fair that some of the beekeepers take up to four training and experience sharing in different time and places while others take once or not at all. Bureau of Agriculture (50.7%), LIVES Project (38.03%) and other NGOs predominantly organize beekeeping trainings to the beekeepers of the study areas (Table 4. 15). The honey production in the country is increasing though it is in a state of traditional low productive systems (Gemechis Legesse, 2015). However, in the study areas, as per the interviewed respondents, the honeybee colony number (Table 4. 10), honey production and productivity per hive are in a decreasing state due to many reasons. Alemu Tsegaye (2015) also reported 84.9% of the respondents have agreed on a decreasing trend in the number of honeybee colonies and their products from time to time due to the availability and occurrence of various threatening factors at South Wollo and Wag Himra zones.The overall mean productivity of all types of colonies in the study areas is 7.14kg/hive/year. The average annual honey production of traditional, transitional and frame hive was 5.99±18.2, 7.86±13.24 and 14.47±69.88 kg per hive respectively (Table 4.). This result is lower than the national report of 5-8 kg (crude honey/hive), 10-15 kg (crude honey/hive, and 20-25 kg/hive respectively Nuru Adgaba (2007a). However, it is lower than the result reported from Central zone of Tigray region, which was 22.6±13.2, 20.0±0.0, and 31.2±13.3 kg of honey for traditional, transitional and frame hives respectively (Haftu K. et al., 2015).Beekeepers failed to harvest ripe, pure and sufficient honey from the traditional hives. The traditional hive's honey production is lower than the result obtained from Kilte Awlealo district of Tigray region (7.66±4.03 kg) Yetimwork G/Meskel (2015) and the national average of 8.3 kg of crude honey per colony per harvest (CSA, 2016). As per the discussion made with beekeepers, no / less pure honey harvested from frame hive by honey extractor, rather beekeepers experience cut harvesting techniques like in the case of traditional beehives.The frequency of harvest per season or year depends on the availability of flowering plants, length of flowering time and rainfall patterns in the study areas. September, October, November and December (more dominantly October) were the main flowering months of the year and regarded as the main honey flow and harvesting season whereas, April, May and June (more dominantly June) were considered as the minor honey flow season if there exist a rain in their preceding months (Figure 4. 6). Based on the results of this study, within these major harvesting periods, 11.85%, 77.04% and 11.11% of the respondents harvested once, twice and three times a year respectively (Figure 4. 5), which indicated the presence of high potentiality of the area for beekeeping and honey production. The honey harvesting frequency of Kilte Awlealo district was once (61.5%), twice (36.5%) and three times (1.9%) a year (Yetimwork G/Meskel, 2015) and similarly 60.3%, 32.8% and 6.2% of the respondents from selected districts of Tigray region harvested honey once, twice and three times respectively (Guesh Godifey, 2015). Assemu Ethiopia.In the study areas, about 91.94% of the respondents reported to sell their produce retaining some of it for their home consumption (Table 4. 17 equivalent figures of about 97%, 95.8%, 85% and 80%, respectively, of their respondents sell their honey. All of the respondents in the study areas consume honey at home as food, medicine, beverage and cultural and ritual ceremonies at a ratio of 31.25%, 56.25%, 6.25% and 5.83% respectively (Table 4. 17). Even though, the amount used at home depends on the produce they get each year, 11.85% of the respondent beekeepers use all of their honey produced at home with their family members while 8.15% of the respondents do not know the amount they used for their home consumption (Table 4. 17    Sample respondents of the study areas were asked \"Do you strain honey from traditional and transitional hive?\" and most of them (91.85%) responded as they were producing and selling only crude honey or comb honey without straining/extraction. Lacks of awareness (66.67%), lack of straining materials (51.85%) and consumers' preference to buy crude honey (24.44%) were described as the main reasons for not straining honey in the study areas (Table 4. 18). Nevertheless, some of the beekeepers 7.41% put the honey under the sun and filter with a sieve mostly for home consumption. According to the discussion made with beekeepers, the main rationale behind using or selling crude/comb honey were the honey easily harvested and prepared for sale, the honey cannot be stored for long time without losing its feature, local consumers and traders prefer to see the comb honey as harvested and this type of honey fetches a premium price. Moreover, this is the only way of communication that the consumer can be sure the honey is not adulterated in any way.Out of the total beekeeping respondents of the study areas, only 28 (20.74%) of them have a frame hive. Those beekeepers with frame hive were also asked whether they use extractor or not and 25 (89.29%) of them replied 'No' for that reason, no extraction method they exercise for frame hives (Table 4. 18). Accordingly, beekeepers cut and use/sell the honey as crude or comb the same as that of traditional or transitional hive honey harvesting. The discussion made with beekeepers revealed that, even though most of the beekeepers agreed cutting combs of frame hives was a major problem, which leads to decrease the productivity of the hive and worse the adoption of the frame hive.Beekeepers are not willing to use extractor because no or less extractor was available in the study areas and they were not easily accessed. In addition, beekeepers blame the poor extension, training and follow up of extension agents (See Section 4.2.9 Extension and training). According to the survey result from the study areas, 64.66% of the beekeepers sell their honey immediately after harvest as per the preference of the consumers because the honey cannot be stored for longer time as it is harvested crude. However, 9.02%, 19.55%, and 6.77% of the beekeepers store their honey 3-6 months, 9 months to 1 year and 1 to 2 years respectively. The main storage containers were plastic containers (84.93%), stainless steel (8.99%), paint containers (4.79%) and can (1.37%) (Table 4. 18).In the study period and areas, the average, minimum and maximum price of honey per kilogram was 146.50, 90 and 200 ETB travelling about 7.89 km to sell their product in nearest market place (Table 4. 19). Their most important buyers were direct consumers (82.12%), traders (16.56%) and 'Tej' brewers (1.32%) in the nearby markets. The local 'Tej' brewers also buy directly from market during market days of the area and might be considered as traders. Beekeepers that sell their honey from Dessie Zuria fetch relatively better price (Table 4. 19). Similarly, in Adwa and Ahferom Districts of Tigray region, majority (62%) of honey production sold to consumers directly (Abrehet Gebrekristos, 2015). This is resulted from the lack of formal market linkage between all other market actors. Majority of honey is sold for individual consumers and 'Tej' brewery at lower price in the local market of Lasta district, Amhara region (Tezera Awoke, 2013).Majority (45.97%) of the honey harvested in the study areas was sold at home while the remaining (54.03%) was travelled to the nearby markets of the district towns, namely, Dessie, Harbu and Haik cities with a ratio of 41.79%, 29.85% and 28.36% respectively.Mostly October was the main honey-marketing month, which accounts 70.16% of the beekeepers response (Table 4. 19). There are few licensed honey traders in the study areas stationed. Even though there are many honey traders that sell at Dessie collecting from different places, only three legally registered honey traders were included in the target group discussion. The honey market chain clearly indicated no defined links and proper market channels established so far in the study area. Internationally beeswax has many uses, as an ingredient for a wide variety of consumer and industrial products. In Ethiopia, the most important users of beeswax are candle producers and \"tuaf \" producers. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church uses beeswax made 'tuaf' every day. On the other hand, in the study areas 41.56% of the respondents do not know its importance (Table 4. 20). As to my observation, the reason not to know the importance may be, most of the respondents were Muslim religion followers so that they never used 'tuaf' at all. However, few of the respondents know that beeswax is used for frame hive foundation sheet making, for candle or 'tuaf' making, smoking hives to catch swarms, smoking died bodies to soften and put for some time, and casting gold and metal objects in the ratio of 13.64%,12.34%,10.39%,5.19% and 5.19% respectively (Table 4. 20). Generally, it is difficult to estimate beeswax production directly. Nevertheless, it can be calculated from the assumption that the beeswax production in a traditional beehive is 8 to 10% (Johannes Agonafir, 2005) of the honey yield. In the study period, there were 554 traditional hives in the study areas and the average honey production per traditional hive was 5.99 kg (Table 4. 8). Therefore, the annual beeswax production of the respondents in the study areas can be estimated as- The current beeswax price in the area ranges from 250 to 300 ETB. Average cost of beeswax produced can be calculated as (taking the minimum price): From respondents having frame hives (28), 75% of them give no beeswax foundation sheet for their frame hives but honeybees build by themselves. Moreover, 10.71% 7.14%, 3.57% and 3.57% of them obtain beeswax, for their frame hive foundation sheet making, from their own hives and government, from own hive, from government, and from own hive and neighbor respectively ( Beekeepers were asked whether there is any wax adulteration practice in the areas or not and only 4 (2.96%) know with low extent while majority (97.04%) of the respondents do not know the existence of beeswax adulteration at all (Table 4. 23). The main reasons of adulteration were increasing the volume of beeswax sold and getting extra money. All of those beekeepers, who know little about adulteration, agreed that merchants from other cities are the main adulterators of beeswax. Nevertheless, the figure is very low to conclude that merchants are the only adulterators of beeswax. Beeswax purchased from merchants of other cities by bureau of agriculture and given to beekeepers for the foundation sheet making was the main challenge in adulteration that bees refuse to build foundation sheet and abscond. Majority of the respondents (50%) observed the adulterated beeswax purchased by agricultural offices and 25% of the respondents do not know the season of adulteration (Table 4. 23). This distribution system is fragmented chain that renders traceability a significant challenge. From those who know about adulteration, 75% of them agreed that adulterants and beeswax mixed by melting together. Beekeepers try to differentiate adulterated and pure beeswax by its color (27.27%), casting (27.27%), odor (18.18%), burning (18.18%) and bee visit (9.09%) (Table 4. 23). The main challenges of beeswax quality are little is known about quality issue and its detection techniques by the beekeepers and other actors in the study areas.There are no strong producer -buyer relationships in terms of working linkages and no processors and exporters of beeswax exist in the study areas (SWZDoA, 2015 unpublished). No beeswax marketing information was gathered regarding where they sell, who are buyers, who determine price, when they sell with the reason they choose this season, the seasonal price fluctuation with its lowest and highest price season and reason for seasonal fluctuation, price of crude and extracted beeswax, annual income from beeswax. This is because almost all (93.75%) of the respondents do not sell beeswax at local market (Table 4. 22), rather crude honey was sold immediately after harvest (Table 4. 19). Therefore, to this fact, there are no more actors involved in beeswax market other than beekeepers and the local honey ''Tej'' and 'birth' brewers.The study areas have untapped potential of traditional beekeeping, they are close to the main market rout and beeswax is not used as 'Tuaf' which is an opportunity to be engaged in beeswax marketing. The main challenges of beeswax marketing in the study areas include absence of supply and demand or nonexistence of buyer and seller (36.30%), no one is involved in buying of beeswax (25.19%), knowledge gap about importance (17.78%), lack of market information (16.3%), no established beeswax marketing system at all (8.89%) and others in order of their importance (Table 4. 24). The specific gravity of beeswax is the ratio of the mass of the sample specimen at specific temperature to that of an equal volume of rectified spirit (alcohol) at the same temperature.The change in specific gravity of beeswax indicates the contamination with other materials. The specific gravity of sample collected from the study areas range from 0.9485 to 0.9624 with mean value of 0.9552 (Table 4. 25). The sample collected from old combs (0.9514) and beeswax blocks of agricultural offices (0.9534) was significantly lower (P<0.05) than honey extract (0.9565) and ''Tej sefef' (0.9566) (Table 4. 26) showing that specific gravidity of beeswax influenced by its origin. However, there were no significant difference (P>0.05) between beeswax samples collected from the three districts of the study areas (Table 4. 27). Bekele Tesfaye (2015) reported similar result (0.9598). SolomonGetachew (2007) also reported lower result for specific gravity of 0.9497 for beeswax from honey extract but similar result of 0.9619 for beeswax from ''Tej sefef' respectively.The present result well met the national and international standards (Table 4. 28).The melting point is an important physical property of a beeswax used to identify as an indication of its purity. The melting point of solid is defined as the temperature at which the solid exists in equilibrium with its liquid under an external pressure of one atmosphere (Bonvehi and Bermejo, 2012). The melting point of average of triplicate from each sample beeswax was measured as 61.56 0 C ranging from 58.3 to 68.5 0 C (Table 4. 25). The result indicated no significant difference (P>0.05) in melting point among the samples collected from the three districts of the study areas ( The refractive index determination is a method to measure the ratio of the velocity of light in air to that in the sample. Generally, when light proceeds from one medium into another, the direction changed at the boundary surface. This phenomenon is refraction. The mean refractive index of beeswax samples collected from the study areas was 1.4439 at 75 0 C (Table 4. 25). Bekele Tesfaye (2015) reported similar figure of refractive index of 1.4426.According to the result, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between districts (Table 4. 27). However, there was significantly (P<0.05) lower refractive index (1.4434) of beeswax obtained from old combs than beeswax from ''Tej sefef' (1.4440) and honey extract (1.4440) (Table 4. 26). Generally, the current study indicated that the result was within the limits of Ethiopian and International quality standards, (Table 4. 28) showing it was free of contamination.4.5.4. Ash content, % by mass, max.Ash is as inorganic substances remaining in the residue after ignitio n. The ash content is calculated after burning and weighing (MHPRC, 2010). Ash content determination of beeswax is important because it represents its mineral content (Nyau et al., 2013). The maximum ash content allowed for refined beeswax by the Ethiopian standard was 0.2% by mass (QSAE, 2005) and 0.6 for Kenyan standard (KBS, 2013) and Tanzanian standard (TBS, 2010) (Table 4. 28) The mean value of current study result showed wa s by far below the maximum limits, 0.0345% ranging from 0.006% to 0.1899% by mass (Table 4.. There was significant difference (P<0.05) in ash content between beeswax from Tehulederie (0.5794) and Dessie Zuria (0.0173) (Table 4. 26). Moreover, there was significant difference (P<0.05) in ash content between beeswax sample obtained from old combs (0.0853), beeswax block (0.0110) and honey extract (0.0213). However, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between beeswax obtained from beeswax block (0.0110) and honey extract (0.0213) (Table 4. 28). The higher ash content in old combs may be due to the higher accumulation of minerals for the eggs laid for the successive generation of honeybees. Similarly, Solomon Getachew (2007) reported ash content of 0.0367 and 0.0267 for honey extracted comb and 'Tej sefef' respectively. 4.5.5. Total volatile matter, % by mass, max.In beeswax, volatile matters are those substances, other than moisture, that are given off as gas and vapor during combustion in dry oven out of air contact. Results might be influenced by differences in temperature and in time or rate of heating beyond permissible tolerances (Rees et al., 1957). The total volatile matter of the collected beeswax samples ranged from 0.2331 to 1.2450% with mean value of 0.5491% (Table 4. 25). The mean result fulfills the national and international standard, 0.75% and Tanzanian standard, 1%(Table 4. 28) (QSAE, 2005). Falling into the required national and international standard limit suggests that the beeswax produced in South Wollo zone is of required quality.Bekele Tesfaye (2015) reported comparable result (0.3335). The current result indicated beeswax from 'Tej sefef' (0.8077) was significantly higher (P<0.05) from beeswax blocks of agricultural offices (0.3101), old combs (0.5246) and honey extract (0.5491) (Table 4. 26). The result indicated no significant difference (P>0.05) in total volatile matter among the samples collected from the three districts of the study areas (Table 4. 27).4.5.6. Acid value, max, (mgKOH/g)The acid value is the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide (KOH) required to neutralize the free acids in 1 g of sample. The current mean beeswax acid value result was 18.92 ranging from . Beeswax from the study areas is natural with no/less contaminants that the test results fall within the range of national and international requirements, 17-24 mgKHO/g (  Adgaba, 2007b).However, the result cannot confirm the amount and type of adulterants used so that it requires further detailed analysis.  4. 27). However, numerically, the average ester value of beeswax collected from Tehulederie district (67.69) was lower than the lower limit of national and international requirements (70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80). The average ester value of beeswax collected from honey extract (81.49) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than beeswax blocks of agricultural offices (55.76) (Table 4. 26). Moreover, beeswax samples collected from beeswax blocks of agricultural offices (55.76) and old combs (59.10) show lower value than the required national and international limit (70)(71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80) showing that beeswax from these sources or district contains less amount of saponifiable matter. The ester value show similar trend with saponification value because both of the values are dependent on the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide (KOH). Nevertheless, generally, the overall mean ester value result of the current study meets the quality standard limits of national and international (Table 4. 28).The ratio of ester values to acids, a parameter determined in the pharmacopoeia gives information whether pure natural beeswax is changed significantly by prolonged or excessive heating leading to greater degradation and loss of esters (Tulloch, 1980). The value is determined by dividing ester value to acid value. The mean value of ester to acid was 3.72 ranging from 2. . The eater to acid ratio of beeswax samples collected from honey extract (4.17) was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of beeswax samples collected from beeswax blocks of agricultural offices (2.85) (Table 4. 26). The result indicated no significant difference (P>0.05) in ester to acid value among the samples collected from the three districts of the study areas (Table 4. 27). The mean result falls within the Kenyan standard limit, 3.0-4.3 (Table 4. 28).All of the beeswax samples collected from the study districts, boiled with 10% NaOH, show clear solution after acidification with 4N HCl and passed the test (Table 4. 25) falling in the standard of national and international requirements (Table 4. 28).   Even though it is still traditional, beekeeping in South Wollo zone is an ancient activity as a sideline with other farming activities, performed by economically active age groups (20-60 years), regardless of their sex and marital status but with higher illiteracy level. Less number of women participates in the sector. Majority of the beekeepers had more than 15 years of beekeeping exercise and most of the beekeepers got their colony through catching swarm. In the study areas, three beekeeping production systems have been identified.These are traditional beekeeping practiced in back yard, transitional and frame beehive beekeeping.According to the results of this study, there is a decreasing trend of bee colony and the main reasons were chemical application, lack of management, predators, pests and drought. Absconding is also a major bottleneck for beekeeping in the study areas.Beekeepers rarely inspect their colonies by considering the onset of moon to decide the date of inspection and this practice is believed as 'Chereka bikult'. This traditional belief has significant negative effect on management of honeybees. Beekeepers fear to inspect due to wax moth and ants attack if unknowingly inspected. Swarming is prevalent mostly in traditional hives due to overcrowding effect of its small volume and the temperature maintenance quality of the hives constructed locally. The results from the survey study have identified birds, ants, wax moth (Galleria mellonella), lizards, honey badgers (Mellivora capensis), spiders, wasps, beetles, bee lice (Braula coecal.) and Termites were the major honeybee pests and predators. The beekeeping extension service delivered is unsatisfactory that, majority of the respondents did not receive any beekeeping extension service.The country at large and specifically the study area experience traditional beekeeping production system, which is a big opportunity if beeswax production is the ultimate output besides honey production.Based on the findings of this study, majority of the respondents did not collect beeswax at all (those collect beeswax discard after some time) due to lack of awareness, knowledge gap about the use and economic value, and lack of market that collect beeswax from producers. Moreover, 91.85% respondents produce and sell only crude honey without straining/extraction and most of the beekeepers sell their honey immediately after harvest with no value addition including honey straining/extraction. Therefore, the beeswax to be produced is still wasted.According to the study results, majority of the beekeepers do not use beeswax foundation sheet for their frame hive rather, honeybees build by themselves. This is due to the reasons of lack of awareness, lack of casting mold, lack of interest, and fear of absconding.Beekeepers and other actors in the study areas know very little about beeswax adulteration, quality issue and its detection techniques.The major challenges of beeswax marketing were absence of supply and demand or nonexistence of buyer and seller, no one is involved in buying of beeswax, knowledge gap about importance, lack of market information and no established beeswax marketing system at all. There is no defined beeswax-marketing channel, information and tradeoff and no defined market chain established so far. Based on this, it can be concluded that beekeepers did not fully benefited from this sub-sector. In addition to the beekeepers, the local honey brewery for making ''Tej'' and 'birth' are primary suppliers of beeswax. No other actors are involved in beeswax production and trade.The laboratory result showed that the mean values of compositional content of beeswax in the study areas falls in the range of good quality compared to national and world standards set for quality determination. However, beeswax samples collected from beeswax blocks purchased by agricultural offices from city markets and delivered to beekeepers and beeswax collected from old combs show lower values of melting point, saponification value, ester value and ester to acid ratio.According to the present study results, the following points can be forwarded and recommended Great emphasis should be given to training and extension programs for the community focusing on the practical aspects of general beekeeping, and more specifically on honeybee management, pest and predator prevention and/or control, beeswax collection, extraction, storage and utilization.Timing of beehive inspection is a vital issue to minimize the risk of ants and wax moth attack of the colony due to \"chereka bikult\". The issue might be new question that needs further research on its relationship.Adoption, promotion and scaling up of beeswax processing technologies and establishing honey and wax processing facilities plays a paramount importance in improving production and productivity of beeswax.Encourage agents and investors to be engaged in beeswax production and trade and avail every honey and beeswax market information at institutional level. The beeswax marketing system will be established by then.Quality control and standardization is the main challenge that has to be solved Generally, an integrated effort of different stakeholders is required in improving the quantity, quality and market of beeswax produced a nd awareness creation should focus on the importance, market value and economic benefit of beeswax to the country for the local beekeepers, extension agents and higher officials.","tokenCount":"14525"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1fd8cfec6d0fa1d152d088d8425a51a1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ea080bf3-b362-486a-ad2b-55981fb5d0c8/retrieve","id":"78276613"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"feaf30e3-edfc-41a3-ba5c-05878b621331","pagecount":"6","content":"Oriental beech or eastern beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) belongs to the family Fagaceae. It is a deciduous broad-leaved tree which reaches height of 30-40 meters. In rare instances, trees up to 50 meters in height can be found. Stem diameter can reach about 1 m at breast height. Height growth of oriental beech at early ages is slow. The maximum growth rate is usually achieved at the age of 30-40 years, but under shelter, this could take longer, even 60 years. If oriental beech experiences fast growth during the early stages, then growth will end at about 100 years of age, whilst for stands growing more slowly over the early stages, the growth will continue until the age of 160-200 years.In general, oriental beech has a similar appearance to European beech (Fagus sylvatica). Both beech species are characterized by their smooth and silver-grey stem. The stem colour of oriental beech is a lighter grey than European beech. The leaves of oriental beech are egg-shaped without any lobes or peaks and have a short stalk. The leaves are alternate, simple and whole, or with a slightly crenate margin, 7-15 cm long and 5-9 cm wide, with 8-13 veins on each side of the leaf (compared with 5-8 veins in F. sylvatica). The buds are long and slender, 15-30 mm long and 2-3 mm thick, but thicker (4-5 mm) where the buds include flower buds.Oriental beech is a monoecious species (having the female and male reproductive organs separated in different floral structures on the same plant). The male flowers hang as small catkins and the female flowers are erect inflorescences that appear at about the same time as the leaves begin to emerge in spring. Oriental beech is a wind-pollinated species. Fruit maturation occurs in October, 5-6 months after pollination. The endocarp is thick, smooth and a shiny dark brown colour, hairy These Technical Guidelines are intended to assist those who cherish the valuable oriental beech gene pool and its inheritance, through conserving valuable seed sources or use in practical forestry. The focus is on conserving the genetic diversity of the species at the European scale. The recommendations provided in this module should be regarded as a commonly agreed basis to be complemented and further developed for local, national or regional conditions. The Guidelines are based on the available knowledge of the species and on widely accepted methods for the conservation of forest genetic resources.Gaye Kandemir 1 and Zeki Kaya 2 inside the husk. Its colour lightens as the beechnut dries. The seeds are small triangular nuts 15-20 mm long and 7-10 mm wide at the base; there are two nuts enclosed in a spiky cupule. The cupule differs from that of European beech in having flattened, slightly leaf-like appendages at the base (slender, soft spines in European beech). A good seed crop of oriental beech occurs about every 2-5 years. Fresh seeds, which are non-endospermic, contain about 25-30% water and cannot tolerate desiccation to a moisture level of less than 10-12% at room temperature. For spring sowing, seeds can be stored at 3˚C for 5-6 months. However, seeds can be stored for 1.5-2 years at -5˚C with 12-17% moisture content. Oriental beech seeds have a dormancy mechanism. Therefore, to induce germination, seeds need to be stratified for 9-14 weeks at 3˚C. Seeds are rich in edible oil. If seeds are dried and ground into a powder they can be used to make bread and cakes.Phytophthora omnivora is the main defective fungus of beech seedlings. Starting from the germination period, especially at the appearance of the cotyledons, the fungus starts to affect seedlings by causing first browning and wilting, then death. Beech bark disease and bleeding canker, caused by Phytophthora fungus, are the principal diseases affect-ing beech trees. Phytophthora kills localized areas of the bark and sapwood especially on the root flare and lower trunk. Reddish-brown liquid issues from lesions, thus giving rise to the common name \"bleeding canker\".Oriental beech is indigenous to the Balkans in the west, through Anatolia (Asia Minor), to the Caucasus, northern Iran and Crimea. In the central-east and east region of the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece, extensive hybridization zones are observed between oriental and European beeches. In Turkey, the species is distributed in Trachia and in the south of Marmara Sea and throughout the Black Sea Regions where it is possible to find oriental beech both as pure stands and mixed forests with conifers and other deciduous broadleaves. There are also isolated natural populations of the species north-east of the Mediterranean Sea on the Amanos Mountains (Turkey). These populations are known as the most southerly populations within the species' distribution. In Iran, the distribution of the species is limited to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and it occurs as mixed forest with Carbines in the northern slopes of the Elburz Mountains. Oriental beech also occurs naturally in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. Oriental beech is found between 200 m and 2200 m above sea level. The distribution patterns of the species in the south-eastern Balkans suggest that F. orientalis may occur on drier and warmer sites than F. sylvatica.The wood colour of oriental beech ranges from reddish to white. Reddish-brown heartwood formation occurs when the trees reach 80-100 years of age. Beech wood is classified as a medium density wood (0.66 g/ cm³). As a hardwood species, the wood is heavy, hard, strong and highly resistant to shock. Thus, it is suitable for steam bending. Oriental beech wood is principally used for fuel, but there are other uses such as particleboard, furniture, flooring veneer, mining poles (props), railway tiles and paper.Molecular marker studies revealed that the differentiation of F. orientalis and F. sylvatica as separate species is a relatively recent event. The high number of chloroplast types in the northern Turkish populations of oriental beech indicates a possible glacial refuge in this area.The magnitude of genetic variation among populations of oriental beech is considerably higher than that of European beech. Also, adative trait related studies indicated that there is a discontinuous pattern of variation due to adaptation to certain local conditions, such as elevation, aspect, soil pH value and frequency of wet snowfalls. However, a continuous variation in other characters, as in the time of leaf flushing, was reported.The results of studies dealing with genetics of oriental beech reported the presence of higher genetic diversity in oriental beech than in European beech. This suggests that oriental species may be the ancestral species within the European beech complex.Beech bears both male and female flowers on the same individual and is a wind pollinated tree species. This characteristic and reduced spreading of the seeds produce distinct family structures within natural stands. Thus, further genetic studies covering the whole range of oriental beech are needed and these characteristics should be taken into consideration during sampling of populations.Oriental beech does not produce suckers like some other beech species. Mass propagation by means of vegetative propagation (cloning) is generally possible, but it is not practiced due to the high costs involved since cuttings are generally difficult to root. Genetic improvement of beech has been limited to seed stand selection and seed collection from them. A simple stand selection system is usually applied. The system relies on stand quality characters such as average growth increment, good health, good phenotypic appearance of most trees and a large number of seed trees for designation. The area of a seed stand should have a minimum core size of 10 ha. Most selected seed stands of oriental beech in Turkey, including core and buffer zone, are greater than 100 ha unless this is restricted by natural stand sizes. There are selected seed stands and gene conservation forests of oriental beech. However, currently none of the material from the seed stands has been tested. Also, no seed orchards exist. Beech grows in sites favourable for agriculture. Therefore, in the past, beech forests have been cleared for agriculture, probably causing some genetic resources to have been lost. Dense vegetation cover (like Rhododendron) and steep slopes cause problems for the natural regeneration of oriental beech. Although total beech forests cover about 1.7 million ha in Turkey, the difficulties for natural regeneration of oriental beech forests, low quality of wood for pulping and the paper industry, as well as land clearing and plantation of conifers (European black pine and Scots pine) have led to a fragmentation of the beech forests in the country.To reduce the effects of threats on the genetic resources of oriental beech, seed stands and gene conservation forests have been established in many countries. For instance in Turkey, there are 28 seed stands, representing the natural range of the species and covering 3700 ha.There are also 23 gene conservation forests covering 3100 ha. Additionally, there are numerous national parks and nature conservation areas where oriental beech is naturally found as mixed and pure beech forests. These figures suggest that conservation activities for this species, at least in Turkey, are adequate to secure the genetic resources of oriental beech for future uses.Conservation of oriental beech genetic resources is carried out mainly by setting up seed stands and gene conservation forests as part of in situ programmes. Seed collected from these areas can be used for reforestation following the seed transfer zones. Furthermore, there are other conservation programmes such as national parks and nature conservation areas which harbour oriental beech stands that can be used as seed sources. There is no information concerning ex situ conservation of oriental beech genetic resources. In reforestation programmes the minimum requirement should be that the origin of the reproductive material is known and its adaptive characters should be appropriate for the ecological conditions at the regeneration site. For this purpose, the \"Guidelines for oriental beech seed transfer zones\", (Atalay, 1992) based on climate, soil and bedrock characteristics could be used until new seed transfer guidelines are prepared. These guidelines were prepared for the natural range of oriental beech in Turkey, but could be used as a reference by neighbouring countries.A system for the control of reproductive material should be applied and recommendations for proper use of different reproductive mate-Threats to genetic diversityOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orient rial should be developed. The Council Directive 1999/105/EC on the marketing of forest reproductive material provides basic definitions of current categories of reproductive material. In years with abundant seed of oriental beech, seed lots should be harvested and stored in sufficient amounts, even though it is expensive and difficult to maintain the viability of seeds in storage.Seed stands alone may not fulfil the actual requirements for the conservation of genetic resources of oriental beech, especially those populations located in extreme habitats and refuge areas. Therefore, there may be a need for gene conservation forests to be set up from natural stands and managed according to proper silvicultural plans, to ensure the potential for successful natural regeneration. The objective is to maintain the potential for continuous future evolution of the population. It has been suggested that gene conservation forests should cover certain minimum areas in order to maintain sufficient amounts of genetic variability. An approximate estimate would be 100 ha including core and buffer zones. However, the area could be smaller to conserve locally adapted populations. Such forests may also contain other tree species if they are admixed with oriental beech.The establishment of ex situ conservation plantations of oriental beech may be necessary in order to conserve the genetic variation of threatened populations that cannot be maintained at the original site, such as relic populations. The objective will be to establish a new population that maintains as much as possible of the original genetic variability and allows long-term adaptation to the local conditions at the planting site. It can be established by planting seedlings, but also by direct sowing. Stands of 10 ha are generally recommended for this purpose.Distribution range of oriental beechThis series of Technical Guidelines and distribution maps were produced by members of the EUFORGEN Networks. The objective is to identify minimum requirements for long-term genetic conservation in Europe, in order to reduce the overall conservation cost and to improve quality standards in each country.Citation: Kandemir G. and Z. Kaya. 2009 EUFORGEN Technical Guidelines for genetic conservation and use of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis). Bioversity International, Rome, Italy. 6 pages. Drawings: Fagus orientalis, Giovanna Bernetti © Bioversity, 2009. ISBN 978-92-9043-804-5 ","tokenCount":"2062"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"89ba0c60cbf586b8e8b88ef0c48f62a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7a7ec7b3-8d8f-4232-a9ec-1c379fd3dea2/retrieve","id":"1176515857"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"27a2cbd1-42f3-4272-b3dc-562136e91663","pagecount":"20","content":"• Financed by Grand Challenges Program of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • 1 st phase started in May 2014, ends November 2015 (18 months). • Total budget: 100.000 USD • Right now in process of applying for 2nd Phase • Pilot site: Lushoto, Tanzania • Pilot Project: IFAD: \"Increasing food security and farming system resilience in East Africa through wide-scale adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices\" • Team: Andy Jarvis, Anton Eitzinger, Fanny Howland, Jennifer Twyman, Manon Koningstein, Nadine Andrieu, Tenesia Benjamin• Please open up the link in the google doc • 5qict4d.geocitizen.orgThe 5Q idea   We ask the farmer about his \"knowledge\"We identify \"skills\"We identify \"attitudes\"Compare different data collection methods voice surveys • Advantage of already existing database • Initially about 500 farmers registered.• Managed to include over 900 farmers, both men and women. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_gtkYv60sk• Local extension agents trained on using the tablet to conduct the 5Q survey through online manual and face-to-face capacity building of our team members in the field.• The knowledge question related to specific CSA practice aimed at during the demonstration plot training • The Attitude (measured in perception of the benefits of doing this practice/utility), • The Skills necessary to conduct this practice.• Sharing of information, want/need for more information and intention of long term adoption. • Share info with technicians using an infographic, asking for their involvement in the workshop preparation and local appropriateness of the information. • Share information concerning feedback from the different stakeholders. • Concerning the current projects in Lushoto (Tanzania) and Cauca (Colombia) • Information on the methodology used • First step in the direction of the business implementation of 5Q, in order to make it a self-sustainable approach.• In start-up some issues with technology, for the company used had no experience in Africa. • The project implementer did not understand the use of 5Q.• The host project was not able to keep the deadlines.• Using the ToC it appeared that did not have its objectives and activities very clear. • 5Q needs to develop criteria for evaluation, determining whether project is achieving its objective or not (success indicators) and/or whether the feedback provided is useful. • Assuring inclusion of gender: not always sure of the accessibility of women to mobile phones. • Safeguard simplicity of 5Q, where each round of questions turns into more groups.This is how a 5Q survey tree design can look like • http://www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/tag/5q-approach/ • http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/smart-development-in-5-questions/ • http://dapa.ciat.cgiar.org/less-is-more-ideo-on-the-5q-approach/","tokenCount":"403"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da2107535d550b635a23b1385966dc4e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dffc2ccb-27b8-4c3f-916b-b74eaf22d906/retrieve","id":"-1823461241"},"keywords":["Mineral fertiliser","Organic inputs","Soil carbon sequestration","N2O emissions"],"sieverID":"f8d7206b-e1c8-4868-9714-f3f3b2b2e2a7","pagecount":"23","content":"Current initiatives to store carbon in soils as a measure to mitigate climate change are gaining momentum. Agriculture plays an important role in soil carbon initiatives, as almost 40% of the world's soils are currently used as cropland and grassland. Thus, a major research and policy question is how different agricultural management practices affect soil carbon sequestration. This working paper focuses on the impact of mineral fertiliser use on soil carbon sequestration, including synergies with the use of organic inputs (for example crop residues, animal manure) and trade-offs with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Findings from scientific literature show that fertiliser use contributes to soil carbon sequestration in agriculture by increasing biomass production and by improving carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratios of residues returned to the field. The use of mineral fertiliser can also support the maintenance of carbon stocks in non-agricultural land if improved fertility on agricultural land reduces demand for land conversion. Combining organic inputs with mineral fertiliser seems most promising to sequester carbon in agricultural soils. Increasing nutrient inputs (either organic or mineral fertilisers) may however lead to trade-offs with GHG emissions such as N2O.Improving the agronomic nitrogen use efficiency of nutrient inputs (i.e., additional grain yield per kg N applied) can alleviate this trade-off. While soil carbon sequestration can benefit soil fertility under some conditions and compensate for some GHG emissions related to agriculture (first assessments indicate up to 25% of the emissions related to crop production, depending on region and cropping system), it seems unlikely it can compensate for GHG emissions from other economic sectors. If soil carbon sequestration is a policy objective, priorities should be areas with higher storage potential (wetter and colder climates) and/or regions where synergies with soil fertility and food security are likely to occur (for example farming systems in tropical regions, on sandy soils and/or when cultivating more specialized crops). However, regions with the highest storage potential most likely do not overlap with regions where the largest benefits for soil fertility and food security occur.Renske Hijbeek (renske.hijbeek@wur.nl), Marloes van Loon (marloes.vanloon@wur.nl), and Martin van Ittersum (martin.vanittersum@wur.nl) are based at Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University & Research; P.O. Box 430, 6700 AK Wageningen, the Netherlands.Since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988, soil carbon sequestration in agriculture and nature has been included under climate change mitigation. In the first IPCC assessment report (Melillo et al. 1990), scientists did not think that soil carbon could be sequestered in agriculture through human intervention, and soil carbon sequestration therefore was not listed as a potential measure. Rather, it was considered a positive unintended effect of the increased use of mineral fertilisers in the Northern hemisphere. This was summarized as: \"this increased nitrogen availability may result in net carbon storage in plants and soils\" (Melillo et al. 1990).This view changed by 1992, when an assessment of the potential of different management options to increase soil carbon in agricultural soils was proposed, to include reduced or no-till practices, cover crops, green manures and animal manure, and reducing fallow land (Barnwell et al. 1992). Soon after, it was understood that storing carbon in soils is only a temporary measure for mitigating climate change, as there are limits to how much carbon can be stored in soils, and that the change in management needs to be permanent in order not to reverse the carbon flux (Ingram and Fernandes 2001). Rattan Lal (2001) explained the role of soil carbon sequestration in climate change mitigation in a keynote speech in the same year: \"The potential of C sequestration… is finite and can be filled within 25 to 50 years. The long-term solution to the risk of potential global warming lies in finding alternatives to fossil fuel.Therefore, the strategy of soil C sequestration is a bridge to the future\".Organic carbon in soils is the main element of soil organic matter (SOM); thus, increasing soil carbon is equivalent to increasing SOM. SOM is composed of plant, microbial and animal debris in various stages of decomposition and includes the living organisms in the soil (Oades 1988). SOM is an important indicator of soil fertility, as it improves soil structure and nutrient supply for crop growth. The specific contribution of SOM to crop growth depends on the farming system (van Noordwijk et al. 1997). In general, crops cultivated in more intensively managed farming systems (with more use of fertiliser, irrigation and tillage options) depend less on SOM for soil fertility. Yet, even intensively managed farming systems can benefit from adding organic matter inputs, especially on sandy soils or when cultivating specialized crops such as potatoes or sugar beets (Hijbeek et al. 2017).Extensive soil analyses of long-term arable farming across five Canadian Prairie sites showed that \"…management for optimum soil fertility may not produce the highest C sequestration\" (Paul et al. 2004). A study in the Midwest United States, however, showed that most soil carbon was gained at agronomic nitrogen rates optimal for yields (Poffenbarger et al. 2017).These contrasting findings indicate that in some cases farmers might need financial support to increase soil carbon stocks as synergies between soil fertility and soil carbon sequestration do not always occur. In the tropics, there might be relatively more soil fertility and yield benefits from increasing SOM (Vanlauwe et al. 2011, Hijbeek et al. 2018). However, in the tropics, higher temperature leads to faster decomposition of SOM, thereby reducing the potential for carbon sequestration and limiting the scope of this win-win situation.Despite the stated limitations, efforts to store carbon in agricultural soils can contribute to climate change mitigation, especially in situations with 1) high potential for storage (for example colder and wetter climates); 2) soils with high risks of losing much carbon (for example peat soils); and 3) cases in which increased carbon sequestration are tied with improving soil fertility. Different management practices can be used to sequester carbon in agricultural soils, including cultivating green manures, reducing fallow land or following reduced or no-tillage regimes, although the effects of the latter remain unclear (Baker et al. 2007, Luo et al. 2010).In this review, we focus on examining the effect of mineral fertiliser use on soil carbon sequestration in agriculture. We examine potential relations between fertiliser use and climate change mitigation in Section 2; the effect of mineral fertiliser use on soil carbon sequestration in Section 3; trade-offs with GHG emissions in Section 4; and conclusions, limitations and opportunities in Section 5.At first sight, one might think that the more mineral fertiliser is used, the higher the GHG emissions will be, as each kg of nitrogen (N) applied results in an estimated 0.01 kg of direct N2O emissions (De Klein et al. 2006), although exact magnitudes of N2O emissions can vary widely by location (Rochette et al. 2008). In addition, each kg of fertiliser produced causes CO2 emissions, depending on the production process. Estimated rates are 0.8-1.3 kg CO2 emissions per kg NPK in Europe and 0.9-3.0 kg CO2 emissions per kg urea in China (Zhang et al. 2013, Stork andBourgault 2015). These processes have been well documented, and related emission factors are included in IPCC reporting guidelines (Eggleston et al. 2006) and are under review.Focus on these emission factors has led some to argue in favour of agricultural systems without mineral fertilisers, such as regenerative agriculture (Hawken 2017). Regenerative agriculture aims to sustain soil health by using a combination of no tillage, diverse cover crops, multiple crop rotations and in-farm fertility (in which no nutrients are imported from outside of the farm). While some aspects of regenerative agriculture (such as diverse cover crops and multiple crop rotations) can increase soil carbon and benefit crop yields under specific conditions -especially true for places with degraded soils -crops still need nutrient inputs to sustain yields.In agriculture, there is an inherent loss of nutrients from a farm or field by both exporting the edible part or other products from the field and leaching and gaseous emissions. This loss needs to be replaced if yields are to be maintained and soil mining to be prevented. Mineral fertilisers can replace these exported or lost nutrients. Without the use of mineral fertiliser, there would not be sufficient nutrients globally to meet current and growing food demands (Dawson and Hilton 2011), especially considering current production and distribution systems and without full recycling of nutrients from waste streams. In addition, supplying nutrients by other means than mineral fertilisers does not necessarily result in less GHG emissions. For example, direct N2O emissions from animal manure are similar to mineral fertiliser per kg of N applied (De Klein et al. 2006).To avoid mining of soil nutrients, nutrients lost during fertilizer application or exported from the field as produce need to be replaced with either mineral and/or organic fertiliser. Ten Berge et al. ( 2019) defined the minimum amount of nutrients needed to meet a certain target yield to minimize losses as much as possible. Estimates for sub-Saharan Africa can be found at www.yieldgap.org. Assuming a certain food demand, applying less than the optimal amount of nutrients may result in either farmers expanding agricultural area to meet food demands or increasing food insecurity. Neither is a desirable alternative.The discussion above shows that from a systems perspective, the relation between fertiliser use and climate change is more complex than only the emission factors related to production and application. Reducing production or application of fertiliser might seem a logical way to decrease GHG emissions, but if yields decrease as a result then such reductions may have unintended and undesirable consequences including deforestation or food insecurity (Burney et al. 2010). On the contrary, when use of mineral fertilisers leads to increased yields, more biomass becomes available to increase carbon in agricultural soils (Han et al. 2018). As described here, indirect effects of fertiliser use include positive effects on carbon stored in soils, forests and grasslands either through increased productivity or avoided area expansion.  Considering equal demands for agricultural produce (food as well as feed, fibre and fuels), increased yields can lead to less expansion of agricultural land into forest or savannah areas (arrow 4). This relation is uncertain and difficult to quantify, as it depends on enforcement of policies prohibiting or controlling deforestation when agriculture intensifies. In 2007, global forests stored approximately 479 + 37 Pg C in above-and below-ground biomass, litter and deadwood (Pan et al. 2011). In addition, forest soils contained about 383 ± 30 Pg C in the upper meter of soil (id), which could partially be lost if converted to agriculture. In total, the carbon stored in forests (862 Pg C) in 2011 was similar to the total carbon in the atmosphere (829 Pg C) (Ciais et al. 2013).Increased yields lead to increased availability of biomass, which can be returned to the field andwith the appropriate C:N ratiossequester carbon in soils (arrows 5 and 6). Increasing soil carbon in agricultural soils may create a positive feedback loop with yields in cases where nutrient use efficiency or attainable yields are increased (arrow 7). However, increasing soil carbon may also lead to increases in (indirect) N 2 O emissions in the long-term (arrow 8), as each year more SOM decomposes, and associated nutrients released are not necessarily taken up by the crop.Increasing the agronomic nutrient use efficiency from either mineral or organic fertilisers (defined as the kg additional yield per kg nutrient applied) is central to climate change mitigation, as it means fewer nutrient losses and thus less N2O emissions (Powlson et al. 2018). Especially under tropical conditions, the agronomic nitrogen use efficiency of mineral fertilisers can be increased when applied in combination with organic fertilisers, such as farmyard manure (Vanlauwe et al. 2011). Agronomic nitrogen use efficiency can also be increased through improved agronomic management practices such as weed and pest control, using lime on acid soils, optimizing rate, timing and placement of fertilisers or using nitrification inhibitors.While the magnitude and processes of relations 1 and 2 (GHG emissions from production and application of mineral fertilizer) are relatively well-known, the magnitudes and processes involved in relations 3 to 8 are less well understood. In the following section, the existing scientific literature is reviewed to gain insight into the relationship between mineral fertiliser use and soil carbon sequestration.The stock of carbon in a given soil depends on 1) the annual amount of carbon inputs (biomass added to the soil each year) together with the rate at which the carbon inputs are transformed into SOM (composition rate) and 2) the amount of SOM which is decomposed each year (decomposition rates). Composition and decomposition rates mainly depend on biophysical factors (soil texture, climate), while the amounts and types of biomass added to the soil each year largely depend on land use (types of crops or vegetation) and management (e.g. weed and pest control, irrigation, fertiliser use). Colder and wetter climates slow down decomposition rates (Gonçalves andCarlyle 1994, Verheijen et al. 2005) while soils with more clay particles have, on average, a higher potential to store carbon (Reeves 1997, Körschens et al. 1998).As such, the carbon stock of a soil depends on biophysical factors, land use and management.Of these, only land use and management can be altered on a human time scale. A given change in land use or management will slowly lead to a new soil carbon stock equilibrium (a new equilibrium between carbon inputs and outputs). When the new equilibrium is reached, no additional carbon is stored or lost unless land use or management is changed again. Any measure to sequester soil carbon is therefore time-bound. Annual increases in soil carbon only take place in the initial years after changes in land use or management, and until a new soil carbon equilibrium is reached.Fertiliser use can increase soil carbon stocks by 1) increasing the amount of annual carbon inputs (crop residues) due to more biomass from higher yields; and 2) improvement of stoichiometric relations of crop residues returned to the soil, thereby increasing the formation rates of SOM. The first mechanism includes cases in which mineral fertiliser increases crop yields and availability of organic residues increases, which can increase soil carbon stocks if returned to the soil directly, after composting or as animal manure. The second mechanism may require more explanation. Here, stoichiometric relations refer mainly to the ratios between C and N in crop residues and soil. In straw, for example, the C:N ratio is around 70 (Lal 1995), while SOM typically has a C:N ratio of 12 (Batjes 1996). This means that to sequester carbon from straw in the soil; additional N is needed (van Groenigen et al. 2017).Using a modelling approach Lugato et al. (2018) showed that more carbon is sequestered in soils when using residues from N-fixing cover crops with a lower C:N ratio (more similar to the C:N ratio of SOM) than when using crop residues with a higher C:N ratio. In the latter case, using mineral fertiliser can add N to the soil and enhance soil carbon sequestration (Kirkby et al. 2016).Actual impacts of mineral fertiliser on soil carbon can be assessed by analysing long-term trends from national survey data or by analysing data from long-term field experiments. Two recent meta-analyses based on 64 and 114 field experiments across the world found that SOM content was on average 8.5% and 8% higher in the topsoil of fields with mineral fertiliser application compared to unfertilized plots (Ladha et al. 2011, Geisseler andScow 2014). In the large majority of these studies, soil was sampled between 0 and 15-30 cm, though sampling depth varied. Similarly, using soil surveys in China, Gao et al. (2018) found that long-term increases in soil carbon were associated with improved agronomic management, including increased fertiliser use.To assess which combinations of nutrient inputs (mineral fertiliser, organic inputs or a combination of both) contribute most to soil carbon sequestration, more in-depth analyses of long-term experiments is helpful. In the interpretation of results of such experiments, the initial SOM content is an important aspect to consider. When an experiment is set up on a field with previous grass or forest, the SOM content will decrease in all treatments, but a more optimal combination of nutrient inputs will lead to a smaller reduction in the soil carbon stock. Alternatively, if the SOM content at the start of an experiment is relatively low, particular combinations of nutrient management might be able to increase soil carbon stocks.A long-term experiment in Muencheberg, Germany shows that after 41 years the carbon stocks of the soils were higher when organic inputs were combined with mineral fertiliser, compared to only organic inputs or only mineral fertiliser (Figure 2). This is most visible in the treatment with a yearly addition of 4 t/ha straw alone. Adding straw for 41 years did not lead to a different carbon stock compared to the control treatment. However, a combination of the same amount of straw application with NPK mineral fertiliser did lead to an increase in carbon stock. A long-term experiment in Bet Dagan, Israel shows similar results. After 30 years, soil carbon stocks were higher when organic inputs were combined with mineral fertiliser, compared to only organic inputs or only mineral fertiliser (Figure 3), of which the difference can only partially be explained by the additional nutrients applied. As described in the previous section, carbon can be sequestered by using mineral fertilisers, organic inputs or a combination of both. However, soil carbon does not exist in solitude, and it is not a stable compound in the soil. Soil carbon is part of SOM, which decomposes over time, releasing CO2 and N2O, which might negate the benefits for climate change mitigation.The previously mentioned modelling study by Lugato et al. (2018) found that incorporation of residues from N-fixing cover crops (with a lower C:N ratio) increased soil carbon sequestration, the associated increased N2O emissions outweighed the mitigation potential.A model-based study in the Netherlands resulted in similar findings (Bos et al. 2017). Soil carbon increased by using solely mineral fertiliser, and more so by combining mineral fertiliser with slurry or compost, but at a certain point (depending on fertilisation and yield level) associated N2O emissions outweighed climate change mitigation from carbon sequestration (Figure 4). The modelling study in the Netherlands only assessed trade-offs at field level. The additional GHG emissions associated with fertiliser production and transport (CO2) and/or GHG emissions associated with storage and transport of manure were not included. These findings raise the question of how far soil carbon sequestration can compensate for GHG emissions in agriculture when looking at the farm or regional level. Can soil carbon sequestration be used as a negative emission technology to achieve carbon neutral agriculture? A recent study in China showed that -across a range of different cropping systemssoil carbon sequestration compensated for less than 10% of the total GHG emissions (N 2 O, CH 4 , CO 2 ) associated with these cropping systems (Figure 5 Gao et al. 2018). Powlson et al. (2011) reported similar outcomes using data from the Broadbalk experiment in the UK. They found that soil carbon was increased by mineral fertiliser use, but that associated GHG emissions of all cropping management aspects (tillage, fertilisers, irrigation, crop protection, etc.) were four-fold higher. Interestingly, across the Chinese cropping systems investigated, N2O emissions were of the same order of magnitude as CO2 emissions (Figure 5), corresponding very well with the modelling study for the Netherlands (Figure 4). These findings show that while soil carbon sequestration might have a role to play in mitigating climate change, it cannot compensate for total agricultural GHG emissions, neither in the short or long-term, and it cannot compensate for GHG emissions from other economic sectors. In this light, it is also relevant to highlight that agronomic management has to be changed permanently to maintain a new soil carbon equilibrium, while the contribution to climate change mitigation only occurs in the first decades when the soil carbon stock is increasing. This means that when the new soil carbon equilibrium is reached, the changes in agronomic management have to be maintained while no additional carbon will be sequestered.Reducing N2O emissions on the other handby increasing nutrient use efficiencyalso requires a shift in agronomic management but gives a contribution to climate change mitigation every year that the shift in management is maintained.","tokenCount":"3379"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f9aa7d00524a0550d5c8b7a0b20733d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/51633593-1da6-48c1-9b0e-0ae0cfb4849e/retrieve","id":"1491238149"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aa692fa9-ab29-40a1-89e3-16a649503621","pagecount":"7","content":"Ms. Hadja Talatu Idrissa (Fig. 6.1), a community women leader, is the chairperson of the Bunkure women group that is active in groundnut production and oil processing. The group which counts 25 members joined the TL projects' family 4 years ago. They started growing a small seed pack of 5 kg in their community farmland.\"It was the harvest of this seed pack that we revolved and planted in a bigger farm plot in the following year,\" reported. Hadja. On 1 ha plot, the Bunkure women harvested a total 25 bags of the improved variety SAMNUT 24 against 13 bags they got from 1 ha plot with the old variety.In addition, the group made more money out of the haulms of the improved variety SAMNUT 24. \"We sold the haulms of the improved variety up to 30 000 Naira against 12 000 Naira of the local variety,\" says Idrissa (1USD equals 360 Nigerian Naira during that period). \"The improved variety, SAMNUT 24, has higher haulms yield and is much appreciated for animal feeding because of its taste and digestibility which is better,\" she adds.In 2017, the Bunkure women group produced about 3.5 tons groundnut. The grain is used for household consumption, while the groundnut haulms are sold and the money was used to start dry season groundnut production in 2018. \"We don't sell our grain produced, rather, we keep it and process part of it into oil and many by-products which we further sell. Apart from money made from the processing activities, individual members contribute 200 Naira on a weekly basis for the savings box. A weekly savings of about 5000 Naira is kept into the group's bank account.\"The interest from this saving permitted the group to conduct many activities to help the community as a whole, including restoring the community health center and its primary school. \"We use part of our savings to clean up the community health centre and pay for basic products to sustain the centre. The hospital is now cleaner than before and offers heal thier working environment to staff and to the patients. Before, people were afraid of visiting the hospital because it was in a bad condition which would expose them to other infections caused by insalubrity of the hospital rather than getting treatment. Also, the compound of the hospital was so weedy, that the nurses could not stay overnight as they were afraid of many animal attacks. Now that we have cleaned up the hospital, they are no longer afraid of staying for long hours in the hospital. As a matter of fact, the health centre now offers 24 hours full services and the nurses are ready to attend the patients at any time, day and night.\" The women group contributed to repair the beds in the hospital, and this offered a more convenient place for admitted patients including pregnant women. The group also contributed to restoring the doors and windows of the community's primary school.Ms. Hadja Talatu (Fig. 6.2) says that the group has contributed to improving the education of children within the community of Bunkure. \"Before, most of our children used to school up to primary level. Now, we have children at Universities in capital cities.\" At a more personal level, Ms. Hadja Talatu says she was able to attend the pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is proudly happy to say how much progress the women group was able to make from groundnut grain production and processing as well as from groundnut haulms business. \"I have a lawyer, a doctor and even an agricultural extension worker.\"In a country where women access to land is still a major issue, Ms. Hadja Talatu and many other members of the Bunkure women group are now happy owners of farm lands and many working bulls.Happiness have different meanings to all and Hadja Talatu (Fig. 6.3) together with the Bunkure women group seems to have reached their goal. Tropical Legumes projects have put a smile on their faces which they have gratefully translated into their community in many ways. The group was recognized in 2015 by the State Governor for their substantial contribution to the development of the entire community.A Breakthrough in Seed Systems with Maina Seeds and GreensporeMaina Seeds Ltd. and Greenspore Ltd. are two seed companies based in Kano, Northern Nigeria. Both seed companies have an equal partnership and hence benefit equally from the Tropical Legumes projects, specifically groundnut and cowpea seed production. Tropical Legumes projects (I-II-III) and other various projects have created awareness and raised capacities along the value groundnut and cowpea value chains, including seed companies.Many farmers were afraid of embracing cowpea production because of the Maruca infestation which caused closer to total loss in the fields and made the farmers poorer, says the late Awalu Balarabe, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Maina Seed Limited company ( Fig. 6.4). The project came with technologies for Maruca control along with promised varieties that are higher yielding, relatively resistant to some biotic and abiotic stresses. It introduced improved storage bags for cowpea which helped a long way. Also, extension services were provided by our Agricultural Development Program (ADP). In the seed industry, we felt comfortable because we knew that the did not abandon us. felt comfortable in going into larger production and getting more seed out-growers, he explained. Improved varieties are now made accessible and sold out to farmers using small seed pack of 1, 2, and 5 kg. Another benefit is the improved linkages with more agro-dealers and seed out-growers into the seed value chain and the fact that several farmers attached to the project were linked to seed companies and have become immediate sources of certified seed for seed companies.Before the projects, farmers were cultivating cowpea and groundnut which were limited to their personal uses. The TL projects came with improved varieties which saved farmers from cropping the same varieties years after years, with poor yield. Farmers were convinced with demonstration plots and accepted new technologies, and by doing so they were able to increase their yields. \"It gave reasons to the seed companies to go into mass production of this cowpea. Maina Seeds used to produce less than 2 tons of cowpea per year. Since 2015, before my engagement with the Tropical Legumes projects, I got very low yield, in 2008 for instance I planted 192 kg of RUDD Red groundnut and only managed to harvest 1600 kg, the yield was very discouraging and that's when I switched to the new varieties of groundnut. We produced up to 30 metrics tons. In years 2016 and 2017 Maina Seeds has seen production reach up to 40 metrics tons of cowpea,\" adds the late Awalu.In the same way, new groundnut varieties (SAMNUT 24, SAMNUT 25, and SAMNUT 26) were promoted through demonstration plots and field days were conducted over the years in farmers' fields which they adopted. \"For the first time through the project, we have access to breeder seed of improved groundnut varieties,\" says the late Awalu.Such support including trainings on seed production techniques of both cowpea and groundnut, quality control including aflatoxin pre-and postharvest management support, were given to seed companies. Other capacity building focused on business skills and seed entrepreneurship \"We have also scaled down such trainings to our out-growers,\" adds the late Awalu.Greenspore Agri Limited is a seed company based in Kano State operating in eight states in Nigeria. The company started with groundnut and cowpea seeds at a very low level, because primarily there were no sufficient foundation seeds for these crops and there was need for promotion of these crops. \"We are so lucky to have become collaborators in the Tropical Legumes projects II and III,\" notes Mr. Shehu (Fig. 6.5). \"We didn't have enough access to foundation seed, with less breeder seed in stock. More foundation seed and breeder seed became available and gave us an advantage of extrapolating and increasing our production and yield. We have at least 3 new varieties and the farmers have been very happy because most of them are resistant to leaf diseases, including rosette. With regards to cowpea production, greenspore started with a little amount of foundation seed that was available. Now that we have more foundation seed available, we can produce more certified seed.\"As the availability of the foundation seed increased, the seed companies were able to promote them among a network of out-growers, thus improving their revenue and capital. A good case study is the Maina Seeds Company which according to 6.2 Seed Companies Helping to Lift People Out of Poverty: A Breakthrough in Seed… the Managing Director, the late Awalu the capital increased from 1 million naira to 250 million naira in \"When we started, we had no office to call our own, today we have established a permanent office, a showroom, a shop, an agricultural laboratory, and a conference room. We were using laborers and horses to cultivate our farm; today, by the grace of God, Maina Seeds Company has its own tractors, a combined harvester and threshers. We were enhanced and definitely this project has helped,\" testifies the late Managing Director of Maina Seeds.\"Our biggest success with Tropical Legumes projects is the introduction of the company to scientists and to extensionists. They have exposed us to many other players with several best practices in the seed industry. The benefits are many and beyond mere finances. We have been enhanced as a company,\" the late Awalu concludes.Long ago Nigeria was known for famous groundnut pyramids. The country is also among top producers and consumers of cowpea worldwide. However, the market demand is very high and seed companies are still making great efforts to meet the demand. \"Although breeder seed is now available in the system, it is not enough,\" says the Managing Director of Maina Seeds. \"We need more of breeder and foundation seeds.\" the late Awalu added that despite the company is increasing its production to 30 metrics tons, he is still not able to meet the demand of the market. \"With the local demand being high, there is need for a concerted effort to increase the delivery of breeder and foundation seed to the seed companies, so that we will be able to produce more, sell more to farmers and reach out to other states outside our immediate operating states.\" \"If seed companies continue to get the right support in getting breeder seed our scientists get more support to produce more breeder seed and foundation seed, the seed companies will scale it up and farmers will take in large quantities,\"-believes the late Awalu.Efforts are being made to bring the Nigerian groundnut pyramids back and farmers are being encouraged by the new SAMNUT 24, SAMNUT 25, and SAMNUT 26 which are high yielding. Also, millers sprinkled, and the food is using the produce to make various snack. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.","tokenCount":"1871"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50eef91af55598f4d96fa5e4f37a0a2d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/21569046-3d50-44c0-9dd7-ae0b85b4b858/retrieve","id":"128443429"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c6137e1-afdb-410f-8799-b1f8761a0e99","pagecount":"1","content":"National and regional stakeholders consultation forum. o Participatory approach to establish new sets of biophysical monitoring stations to improve the gap of onsite monitoring stations and decision making beyond the level of the farm. o Satellite imagery and analysis for land use/land cover mapping. o Modelling from farm to watershed scale using hydrological and crop simulation models.o Significant variation (p-value 0.018) exists in runoff rate from fields treated with Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) practices (24 to 26%) and control fields (39 to 43%). o Runoff response from the experimental stations was quick to rainfall events and runoff rate is always lower in the case of treated fields with SWC (Fig. 2). o The investigation on 259 shallow wells revealed that well depths vary greatly (p-value 0.032 with mean value of 18.5 m). However there were no water level variations in different seasons (p-value 0.996 in dry season & 0.707 in rainy season).Watershed management research contributes towards sustainable agricultural development and hence livelihood improvement through: (i) conservation, up-gradation and utilization of natural endowments such as land, water, plant, animal and human resources in a harmonious and integrated manner with low cost, simple, effective and replicable technology, (ii) generation of massive employment and (iii) reduction of inequalities between irrigated and rain-fed areas.Monitoring stations were established to capture biophysical variables over time. The watershed work consists of experimental stations to evaluate the impact of SWC practices on agricultural productivity and eco-system services. Historical changes in land use and land cover over time are studied to evaluate land degradation and changes in cropping pattern over the years. The modeling work from farm field to watershed scale enables to define appropriate sites for natural resources management and evaluate impacts of upstream intervention practices on downstream water use and irrigation. All these works need to continue in the second phase. ","tokenCount":"305"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"94cc20eb53b0f80d427a0c64f4f5eada","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9866c28b-5f58-4587-9dfe-410886bec273/retrieve","id":"1884893940"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0563e81-a816-4305-82ab-ba9fc9908699","pagecount":"10","content":"Rich HH: 2.5 kg Middle HH: 1.5 kgRich: Once in 2 weeks Middle: Once in 3 weeksMainly controlled by womenPrivate traders and direct to consumers Opportunities for improving gender equity in marketoriented sheep production  Mainly for market, but sold as processed product  Women mainly responsible for processing and storage  Need for high yielding breeds which are disease resistant  Need for improved technologies for processing and storage  Enhancing feed availability and improved quality of natural pastures will allow better production for the market  Facilitation of access to credit sources is required  Organisation of women's groups for processing and marketing to enhance bargaining power is another option  women should be targeted for training in processing, storage and marketing  grown primarily for market by richer households and for firewood for home consumption by poor households  availability of good quality seedlings and regular technical advise on tree cultivation is necessary  training of women in tree crop production , processing and marketing is essential to make this a viable activity  facilitation of credit for buying inputs will go a long way in intensification of fruit production  small women and men producers could be organised into production, processing and marketing groups to enhance their bargaining power  new crop mainly grown primarily for consumption now, no active marketing yet  facilitation of access to water and easer watering methods will help women reduce their drudgery  availability of good quality seedlings and regular technical advise on fruit tree cultivation is necessary  training of women in fruit production , processing and marketing is essential to make this a viable activity  facilitation of credit for buying inputs will go a long way in intensification of fruit production  processing technologies and facilities will make the bargaining power of women stronger and help them make most of this perishable produce, in the absence of reliable transportation infrastructure  small women and men producers could be organised into production, processing and marketing groups to enhance their bargaining power  the red variety mainly grown for consumption and white for the market by all types of households  the focus should be to facilitate improved market linkages for both women and men  small women and men producers could be organised into marketing groups to enhance their bargaining power  women and poor households would benefit from access to a timely supply of institutional credit  improved weeding, harvesting and post harvest technologies that would reduce women's workloads  women and female headed households should be targeted for training and skill development in haricot bean cultivation and marketing  the crop is a cash crop and grown for market by all types of households  the focus should be to facilitate improved market linkages for both women and men  small women and men producers could be organised into marketing groups to enhance their bargaining power  women and poor households would benefit from access to a timely supply of quality seed (improved and disease resistant varieties), fertiliser and institutional credit  improved drying and cleaning technologies that would reduce women's workloads  women and female headed households should be targeted for training and skill development in pepper cultivation, processing and marketing","tokenCount":"546"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2365963978.json b/data/part_2/2365963978.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"705615e1d532395fe2befbe285bc39c5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7030574c-3591-4446-b384-8c07bc6130ce/retrieve","id":"-1942553744"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"abc91344-8e26-478f-bd98-559866ca751d","pagecount":"3","content":"Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a foundational approach centered on meeting user needs in product and service creation. As an open-ended, iterative process, HCD seeks to creatively address problems with solutions that are desirable, technically feasible, and financially viable. In CGIAR digital innovation development, our focus is on systematically integrating and scale HCD into innovation design to overcome challenges such as high investment costs, low adoption rates and low inclusivity. We do this by focusing on 1) Creating an enabling environment for HCD in CGIAR and 2) Systematically integrating HCD in innovation processes. To reach 1) we design capacity building and training programs, we adapt and develop tools and resources to support researchers in making their processes more human-centered. For 2) we work directly with selected projects and use cases, contributing to the human-centered innovation design process. CGIAR researchers and their partners are primary users of the innovation.The nature of this innovation isInnovations that already exist and undergo constant, steady progress and improvement.CGIAR Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness (IPSR)This innovation is characterized asInnovations that strengthen capacity, including farmer, extension or investor decision-support services; accelerator/incubator programs; manuals, training programs and curricula; online courses.The innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled conditionsThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled conditionsThe innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled conditionsThe innovation's key concepts have been validated for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled conditionsThe innovation's key concepts are being formulated or designedThe innovation is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled conditionsThe innovation's basic principles are being researched for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innovation is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled conditionsThe innovation is at idea stage ","tokenCount":"319"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2375950231.json b/data/part_2/2375950231.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ddf8a2d18cb71e93c2bd6da423f3230d58bd0653
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c0cca0ffd1e0b0fa05f1f7717712976","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa4dbce0-1660-482f-8f46-97894239e6c1/retrieve","id":"-513121256"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1fb5ad17-fde4-42c9-9716-24d45fa774c2","pagecount":"12","content":"T he climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs), and require planning to address tradeoffs and synergies between these three pillars: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation [1]. The priorities of different countries and stakeholders are reflected to achieve more efficient, effective, and equitable food systems that address challenges in environmental, social, and economic dimensions across productive landscapes. While the concept is new, and still evolving, many of the practices that make up CSA already exist worldwide and are used by farmers to cope with various production risks [2]. Mainstreaming CSA requires critical stocktaking of ongoing and promising practices for the future, and of institutional and financial enablers for CSA adoption. This country profile provides a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion, both within countries and globally, about entry points for investing in CSA at scale. The identification of suitable CSA options can be enhanced by development and access to Integrated Decision Support Systems that compile and analyze weather, agronomic, and market information, and deliver results to a range of stakeholders and decision makers.Adoption rates of CSA practices among small-scale farmers can be increased by expanding extension services and investing in research and development to identify and validate \"farmer-friendly\" techniques.Participation in emissions trading schemes would generate additional income from plantation agriculture and agroforestry that could be used to finance CSA initiatives.The formal adoption of a climate change strategy that incorporates CSA would provide a policy framework to facilitate access to additional international funding for CSA.Adoption of no-burn agricultural practices is essential for protection of soils against extreme climate events (e.g., erosion by extreme rainfall events).Landscape restoration and watershed protection play an important role in contributing to the resilience of agricultural systems to extreme weather events. Drought-resistant systems and practices that capture, store, and conserve water and watersheds are important for responding to more frequent and intense drought and increasingly irregular rainfall patterns over large parts of the country. Priority options include efficient irrigation systems, cutand-carry stabling systems for dairy goats, nutmeg plantation recovery, beekeeping, and landscape restoration.Organic mixed cocoa plantations are resistant to extreme weather events, increase economic security by incorporating diverse fruit species, and produce quality certified cocoa for export, making them a priority CSA option for Grenada. The formal adoption of a The formal adoption of a Jobs [4 [4 [ ] Scale [5 [5 [ ,7]   Nutrition [6 [6 [ ]    Agriculture, including fisheries, currently accounts for 5% [3] of Grenada's gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 13% [4] of the economically active population. The sector contributes 2.4% and 11.2% [5] to the total value of the country's total exports and imports, respectively (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). Tourism is the mainstay of the country's economy and to some degree serves as a market outlet for agricultural products.Despite its small size, the agricultural sector has experienced more growth over the past few years than other sectors, it grew 10% per year between 2009 and 2011, with its share of GDP rising from 4% to 4.5% between 2010 and 2011 [5].Grenada is known as the Spice Island, and historically, spices such as nutmeg and mace have been the country's principal export. However, hurricanes Ivan and Emily in 2004 and 2005 destroyed 90% of the nutmeg plantations on the island, and production has still not recovered to pre-hurricane levels. While nutmeg remains a principal export crop, it is currently second to fisheries as a source of export earnings. Cocoa, on the other hand, is a dynamic sector and is growing in importance as an export product [5].  Land Use [5]  Main CropsNational context: Key facts on agriculture and climate changeGrenada retains considerable natural forest cover in highlands, which is important for the protection of watersheds that serve as sources of irrigation in periods of water scarcity. Forest and protected areas cover 30% of the main island, with perennial crops (spice and fruit plantations) accounting for a further 31%. Annual crops cover just 5% of land area and there are no permanent pastures [8]. 2 A notable feature of Grenadine land use is the large amount of unproductive land, i.e., abandoned cropland and shrub and grassland, which account for 20% and 5% of the total land area, respectively. On the second largest island, Carriacou, the climate is drier and almost 60% of the island is classified as shrub and grassland. Pasture and grazing accounts for almost 25% of land area, and forests only 5%.Agriculture in Grenada is carried out mainly on small-scale, family-run farms, many on untitled informally occupied land [9]. The few large estates on the island of Grenada (over 100 acres or 40.5 hectares) were only partially dismantled and/or converted to Crown estates by the land reform program of the revolutionary government of 1979-83 [10].The principal permanent crops on Grenada in terms of production value and land-use coverage are nutmeg and mace, other spices, tropical fruits, and cocoa. In 2011, production of nutmeg was twice as high as in the aftermath of the hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Emily (2005), but still less than 15% of 2003-2004 volumes. In contrast, cocoa production had almost recovered to pre-hurricane levels by 2011 [11]. 3 The other principal agricultural products are fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers, and livestock. Livestock (goats) is the principal agricultural activity on the island of Carriacou.Over 80% of farmers in the fruits, vegetables, and roots and tubers subsectors are considered small-scale farmers, i.e., farming on less than half an acre or 0.2 hectares [11]. Production of fruits, vegetables, and roots and tubers at this scale is primarily for subsistence and occasional sale in local markets, and there are just a few larger, commercial growers. Nutmeg and cocoa are commercial products, for export, and, in the case of cocoa, for the tourist market. These crops are cultivated alongside tropical fruits in more extensive plantations in upland areas, typically 5 to 7 ha in size [12].[ Important Agricultural Production Systems Productivity Indicators GHG Emissions [14]  Agriculture GHG Emissions [14]   The area of agricultural land has fallen markedly since the 1960s due to conversion to manufacturing, tourism, and residential uses, as well as abandonment of lands owned by absentee landlords [13]. For many smaller landowners, farming is no longer their principal economic activity.The main emissions contributing sector in 1994 was waste (93%) [14]. The agricultural sector makes a minor contribution to Grenada's GHG emissions, accounting for less than 1% of the total. Most of the agricultural emissions are from synthetic fertilizers (75%). By constrast, permanent crops, such as spices and fruits, are a store of carbon, thus agriculture is not considered a net emitter of GHG [14]. The 5% of total 1994 national emissions were mitigated by forests reserves, a 92 Gg carbon dioxide sink [14].Challenges for the agricultural sector• Family farms predominate, but, outside of the spice sector, many are not economically viable. Among the multiple problems facing small-scale farmers are: lack of credit, fragmented and informal land tenancy, mountainous topography that limits the use of machinery, small size of the local market, high costs of energy and other inputs, and widespread praedial larceny.• The sector's lack of competitiveness is reflected in the large amount of land with agricultural potential that is currently underused or neglected entirely. Young people have little incentive to get involved in farming, and the population of active farmers in Grenada is aging [10,12].• Capacity building is required to improve skills in quality control, business management, and marketing, and to increase access to and use of climate information as a basis for informed decision making.• In this context, a specific challenge for the sector is to develop the food processing industry, to increase value-added products, to stimulate demand for a more diverse range of agricultural produce, and to incentivize professionalization of the farming sector.• 4 See Annex V. 5 Projections based on RCP 4.5 emissions scenario [17] and downscaled using the Delta Method [18], agricultural areas from [9]. 6 See Annex VI.  Projected Change in Temperature and Precipitation in Grenada by 2030 5   As a small island developing state (SIDS), Grenada is one of the world's most at-risk countries for climate change. A one meter sea level rise would destroy the country's airport, major ports, and 11% of the tourism infrastructure [15]. Rising sea levels are already leading to increased coastal erosion in some areas. Due to the mountainous topography, direct effects of rising sea levels on agriculture would be less severe; 3% of the agricultural land would be lost if sea levels rose by one meter [15]. However, more widespread damage to agricultural systems can be expected as a result of saline intrusions into coastal aquifers, a problem that is already being experienced in some areas.Grenada is located to the south of the hurricane belt. However, the country was severely affected by two hurricanes in consecutive years (2004 and 2005), the first for more than half a century. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 caused a total of almost US$900 million in damages [16], twice Grenada's GDP at the time. Grenada is expected to be increasingly vulnerable to hurricanes as a consequence of the increased intensity and changed distribution of tropical cyclones associated with rising sea temperatures.Grenada is also likely to be affected by changing and increasingly erratic temporal rainfall patterns and overall trends towards higher temperatures, higher evapotranspiration, and longer and more severe dry seasons. 4 Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which have few surface water resources, will be severely impacted by these trends. In 2010, the country suffered the first drought in its history, with serious effects on agricultural production.Both changes in precipitation and temperature raise concerns as to water availability for agriculture. The adoption of CSA practices by all sectors will be a key element in a successful response to the multi-faceted challenges outlined above.CSA technologies and practices present opportunities for addressing climate change challenges, as well as for economic growth and development of agriculture sectors. For this profile, practices are considered CSA if they maintain or achieve increases in productivity as well as at least one of the other objectives of CSA (adaptation and/or mitigation). Hundreds of technologies and approaches around the world fall under the heading of CSA [2] .In Grenada, the largest agricultural production systems, namely nutmeg and spice production, are inherently \"climate-smart.\" These arboreal crops sequester carbon, make a vital contribution to soil and watershed protection in upland areas, and are relatively drought resistant. However, shallow-rooted nutmeg trees are vulnerable to hurricane damage. Farmers have responded to this threat by diversifying into alternative export crops, including cocoa and tropical fruits. Beekeeping is another promising option for productive use of lands occupied by forests and perennial crops.For growers of fruits and vegetables, water scarcity is the most immediate challenge posed by climate change. Although interest in water capture and irrigation techniques, including the use of solar powered systems, is growing, adoption rates remain low for all but larger commercial producers. The difficulty of obtaining imported irrigation equipment is a major limiting factor.Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns pose a number of challenges for Grenadine farmers. Heavy rains erode agricultural soils and damage crops. They can also increase fertilizer runoff, threatening the integrity of the island's protected marine areas. Droughts can lead to temporary food scarcity and reduced productivity of grazing pastures.On the other hand, favorable weather can result in a glut of produce that exceeds demand from the country's small domestic market.Despite attempts by the goverment to prohibit agricultural burning, the practice is still widespread among small farmers. As well as increasing the risk of soil erosion, burning is the cause of bush and forest fires that destroy beneficial habitats for bees and other pollinating insects. Moreover, bringing these fires under control places further strain on scarce water resources.CSA practices that could address these challenges include the cultivation of roots and tubers, intercropping, improved controls on agrochemical use, and cut-and-carry pastures for the livestock sector 6 . Adoption rates for these practices are still relatively low, indicating the need to expand extension services, invest in research programs to identify and validate \"farmer-friendly\" techniques, and provide management and marketing support services.A key policy response to the variability of production and small size of the local market is the development of the food processing industry, where good progress is being made. There is potential to develop links with a growing number of organic agricultural producers in response to the demand for certified products from the tourism and export markets. Carbon capture through increased tree cover and soil conservation.Productive use of otherwise marginal uplands; high-quality products for export.The graph above displays the smartest CSA practices for each of the key production systems in Grenada. Both ongoing and potentially applicable practices are displayed, and practices of high interest for further investigation or scaling out are visualized. Climate smartness is ranked from 1 (very low positive impact) to 5 (very high positive impact).The assessment of a practice's climate smartness uses the average of the rankings for each of six smartness categories: weather; water; carbon; nitrogen; energy; and knowledge. Categories emphasize the integrated components related to achieving increased adaptation, mitigation, and productivity. Organic cocoa plantations in Grenada Organic cocoa plantations are established in association with banana to provide shade. The bananas are retained as a component of the mature plantation, alongside other fruit and shade-producing species. Leaves and flowers that droping from shade trees, as well as undergrowth that is cleared at the end of the dry season and left in situ, act as a mulch. The organic mulches help prevent soil erosion and retain soil moisture.Cocoa is a deep-rooted species that is resilient to tropical storms. Because it is a permanent plantation, organic cocoa captures carbon and is relatively resistant to drought. The fruit trees provide a diversity of produce over the course of the year, including export crops, such as cashew nut, cinnamon, golden apple (Spondias mombin), and soursop (Annona muricata). Thus organic cocoa is an integrated, climate-smart farm system that provides benefits related to production, adaptation, and mitigation.Organic cocoa production also has benefits for the wider economy and helps raise awareness of climate change issues. The Grenada Organic Cocoa Farmers Co-operative Society consists of about 12 farmers who have received organic certification through the German company Ceres. They have formed a strategic partnership with the Grenada Chocolate Company, using local labor to make premium quality dark organic chocolate for export and to supply the tourism industry. Cocoa production and processing facilities are themselves a tourist attraction and are becoming part of the wider agritourism experience offered on some Grenadine estates.Climate change is a cross-cutting issue that influences all aspects of policy and much of daily life in Grenada. Institutional stakeholders in the agricultural sector and elsewhere have no doubt that climate change poses significant and imminent threats to both human livelihoods and the environment. Thus almost all CSA-related institutions are contributing to adaptation efforts. Less emphasis is placed on the mitigation pillar, given Grenada's limited potential as a small island economy to contribute to global mitigation efforts. Key national institutions for CSA are shown in the diagram on the right, They are organized in relation to their principal areas of activities among the three CSA pillars: adaptation, mitigation, and productivity. At a national level, the key state institution is the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (MAG). This Ministry is responsible for both agriculture and the environment, thus avoiding possible conflicts of interest between these two sectors. However, the multitude of tasks assigned to this Ministry, in combination with complex decision-making structures, can act to slow down policy development.Overall, climate change policy is coordinated by the recently created Environment Division within MAG. The Division's focus is on coastal and marine areas under the guiding principle of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation, and a multi-sectoral National Climate Change Committee has been set up but is not yet fully functional. Grenada's business community, including agriculture and agroprocessing, is represented by the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GCIC). For CSA, two key partner organizations in the private sector are the Belmont Estate and The Chocolate Factory, producers of organic cocoa and organic chocolate, respectively.Among non-government organizations (NGOs), the regional NGO Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) has an office in Grenada. Its activities are focused on research for productivity of the fruit, vegetable, and livestock sectors, but without an explicit focus on adaptation to climate change. The regional NGO CARIBSAVE (part of the global INTASAVE partnership), whose focal areas include climate change adaptation and governance, as well as green growth and the blue economy, currently operates three projects in Grenada and Carriacou. The Grenada Project, an NGO with offices in Grenada and the USA, supports a range of CSA activities.The NGO sector also contains many of the agricultural producers associations on the island, including locally based groups and national organizations, such as the Grenada Community Development Agency (GRENCODA), the Grenada Agricultural Forum for Youth (GAFY), and the Grenada Network of Rural Women Producers (GRENROP). The principal objective of these associations is to support agricultural production and livelihoods.Local NGOs with a more explicit orientation towards CSA include the Grenada Organic Agriculture Movement (GOAM), the Grenada Association of Beekeepers (GAB), and the Grenada Goat Dairy Project.The small island states of the Caribbean have established a number of regional organizations to coordinate policy and facilitate participation in global initiatives, including climate change initiatives. Grenada is one of the nine members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), a regional group that coordinates several important climate change projects funded by multilateral and bilateral aid agencies. Grenada is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has established a number of agencies to coordinate the regional response to climate change, including the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF). As a member of CARICOM, Grenada has played an active role in the development of regional climate change policy, as set out in the Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015).Also at the regional level, important progress has been made towards the development of comprehensive policies for climate risk insurance through the CCRIF, which offers member countries, including Grenada, the option of purchasing insurance against earthquakes, hurricanes and, most recently, excessive rainfall. The insurance coverage will increase the climate resilience of agriculture along with other sectors of the economy. Another regional group that is relevant for CSA is the Caribbean Meteorological Organization (CMO), which is responsible for the operations of the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH).At • Plant propagation programs for distribution of nutmeg, cocoa, and fruit plants to producers.• The Farm Labor Support Program, which provides free labor to rehabilitate nutmeg and cocoa fields.• Donation of equipment, loans, and technical and financial advice for irrigation installation. Water harvesting and irrigation are priorities on Carriacou and Petite Martinique [8].As of yet, there are no broadly applicable financial mechanisms in place for scaling up CSA.As a SIDS, Grenada is a priority country for multilateral climate change adaptation funding. The Caribbean Regional Climate Centre of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC-CRCC) is located on the island. Grenada also participates in and receives funding for regional group memberships, including the OECS and the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP).Finance for climate-change-related activities over the past ten years (including regional initiatives in which Grenada has participated) has focused on coastal ecosystems, disaster risk reduction, and economic resilience. As a SIDS, Grenada is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change, especially rising sea levels, increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, and a likely increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. A coordinated response to these multiple challenges is required on the basis of a comprehensive climate change strategy that incorporates CSA. Appropriate measures to promote the adoption of CSA practices include incentive schemes, capacity building, improved access to climate information as the basis for informed decision making, expanding extension services, and investing in research programs to identify and validate \"farmer-friendly\" CSA techniques for the island. Development of the food processing sector is an essential component of CSA in Grenada in response to the variability of production and the small size of the local market. There is potential to develop links between food processing and organic agricultural producers to meet demand for certified products from the tourism and export markets.The plantation-based agriculture typical of Grenada's producers predisposes the sector towards eligibility for carbon financing and trading mechanisms and the broad international donor network that accompanies them. Most importantly, the formal adoption of a climate change strategy that incorporates CSA would provide a policy framework to facilitate access to additional international funding to make the widespread adoption of CSA feasible in the Grenadine context.National Funds s s  Funds for Agriculture and Climate Change","tokenCount":"3495"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"325b592f3add051ea77d4ccebdce1df0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77854b53-f477-49e0-aef0-7be7a4a1a5e3/retrieve","id":"36477824"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7ee155a9-7065-41a3-97f8-debd6c83bfa0","pagecount":"54","content":"improved. Filed officers have been visiting the homes of small holder farmers and they witnessed that these farmers are bringing positive changes towards balanced diet consumption, good hygiene and sanitation and lower workload on women. For these results to be recorded, weekly nutrition education sessions, cookery sessions, home to home visits, theatre for nutrition and behavioral change communication, joint financial planning and budgeting and male sensitization were used as approaches.empowerment of women in decision-making around chicken production and sale; and home gardening to produce nutrient-dense vegetables to improve dietary diversity within the household.It is worth mentioning that ACGG's intervention to increase chicken production helped to improve the nutritional status of women and children through increasing access to chicken meat and eggs for household consumption and empowering women by giving them access to income, which could be used for purchase of other nutrient-dense foods. However, increasing production and income alone may not necessarily translate into improved diets or nutritional outcomes.  When agricultural investments seek to integrate nutrition interventions, appropriate approaches are often unknown to them or, if they do integrate nutrition, results are often not measured robustly enoughbut often they are not measured at all. The link between agricultural investments and nutritional outcomes has not been robustly demonstrated. The evidence base of agriculture investments which have had positive nutritional or health impact is not strong.Many of these investments are small; tend to focus solely on production and economic welfare and not on population health; are usually designed and implemented as pilots; and do not take into account the impact pathways and the barriers inherent in them. There has been insufficientinvestment in generating such evidence and capacity building to understand and leverage on this linkage. In response to this fact, the project tried to produce:• Robust evidence influencing decision-making at household, project/practice and policy levels (i.e. advanced knowledge and tools of how to maximize the impact of agricultural investments on nutritional outcomes).• Increased agricultural productivity (e.g. chicken) and improved nutritional status contributing to breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition at family and societal levels.• The empowerment of women beneficiaries with the capacity to influence behavioral change and nutritional outcomes for their families and the wider community.• Evidence of the importance of gender as a higher-level investment priority to government, multilateral institution and civil society interventions.• Increased knowledge among farmers on the importance of livestock products for improving nutrition outcomes and the adoption of newly promoted behaviors at household level.The ACGG-ATONU approach details the research questions that could be addressed, explains the impact pathways and possible tailored nutrition interventions, described the theory of change, outlined the work packages, described the ATONU institutional arrangements, described the inception and feasibility phase, and painted a picture of what the success of the project would looked like. ACGG-ATONU had implemented and tested five pathways integrating tailored nutrition interventions as explained and depicted below, figure 1.Pathway 1: Food production for the household's own consumption -is the most fundamental and direct pathway by which increased production translates into greater food availability and food security. Food production affects the food availability for household consumption as well as the prices for diverse foods. The different types of foods produced determine the impact of the production increase on diet quality. However, it is not always possible for a household to produce all the food they need. Most rural poor households and smallholder farm families end up as net buyers of food. Some households may, for instance, meet their staples requirements themselves while depending on markets for other products such as fruits and vegetables. Others may rely mainly on home gardens for fruits and vegetables. Whatever role production-for-income plays in this scenario is secondary to the primary purpose of producing food to meet the household's own food requirements.Pathway 2: Income-oriented production for Food and Health -this pathway assumes that nutrientdense, diverse foods are available and affordable in local markets. As agricultural households become more market oriented, production-for-own-consumption becomes less significant relative to income from the sale of what is produced. The extra income is then used to buy more food of higher-quality and nutrient-dense. The balance between quantity and quality affects the final impact of this additional income on the household's consumption of energy and micronutrients.The effect of income on nutrition is not always linear or easy to predict -it is always modified by nutrition knowledge, social and behavior change, social marketing, what is available, affordable, and convenient to purchase; who decides what is purchased; and the myriad factors that drive that decision. The translation of increased income into better child nutrition, in turn, depends on a series of intra-household factors and processes. These include women's status, education, knowledge, health-related practices, decision-making power, income, and access to and use of health and sanitation services.The empowerment of women -is a pathway that carries special significance for household nutrition outcomes and in particular for children's health. Women's empowerment incorporates multiple aspects including the decision-making power related to income, time, labor, assets, and knowledge or preferences of female community members. Women have consistently been found to be more likely than men to invest in their children's health and well-being, and the income and resources that women control wield disproportionately strong effects on health and nutrition outcomes generally. Women who are reached by agricultural programs that relay information on nutrition issues appear to be particularly effective at delivering improved nutrition outcomes, and the effects appear to be most pronounced among the lowest income groups. Taken together, these characteristics make women natural priorities for agricultural interventions that aim at improving nutrition. However, agricultural development interventions have also been found to strongly affect women's use of time as well as increasing their labor burden.Pathway 4: Lowering food retail prices by increasing food production is another pathway linking agriculture to nutrition and is especially important in areas in which markets are less integrated.This is a policy level pathway. For net consumers, reduced food prices enable greater access to food and essential nutrients, resulting in better health and productivity for the general workforce while also freeing additional household resources from food to other expenditures, including productive investments.Pathway 5: Nutrient Sensitive Agricultural growth -Overall agricultural growth at the macro level itself represents an indirect pathway to better nutrition through its contribution to macroeconomic growth and higher levels of national income, which can support nutritional improvements by reducing poverty. Increases in agricultural productivity have been vital factors in building sustained economic growth in both developed and developing countries and have major impacts on poverty. The project had been leveraged on the ACGG activities as an entry point which has provided each participating household with 25 imported tropically-adapted and farmer preferred chicken strains and locally-developed indigenous strains. The project used this entry point to promote the consumption of chicken meat and eggs as a nutrition-sensitive intervention to their exiting agricultural system. Each household further benefited from 'behavioral change communication' training administrated by field staffs focusing on:• Promoting nutrition and hygiene to improve consumption of diverse foods, including chicken meat and eggs at household level.• Influencing expenditure patterns of beneficiaries on income generated from sale of chickens and eggs to ensure purchase of other/complementary nutritious dense foods/ to improve household diets.• Promoting gender empowerment and equity in chicken value chains to improve women's participation in joint household production, utilization and time use.• Establishing household vegetable production to improve consumption of green leafy vegetables and dietary diversity.NSIs had been undertaken in all four regions of the country. ACGG-ATONU team had been working on social and behavioral change communication (SBCC) interventions that encourage consumption of chicken products (meat and eggs); good water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) practices in poultry production; use of income from sale of chicken products to improve household nutrition; and the empowerment of women in decision-making around chicken production and sale. The team also had been working on the other intervention areas of the project: encouraging small-scale home gardening activities to produce nutrient-dense vegetables and improve dietary quality within the household.Family nutrition education being SBCC package was a focal point for enhancing awareness of beneficiaries about health and nutrition. On course of this, a total of 400 group sessions were conducted in all 4 project regions of Ethiopia (figure, 2). During these sessions, 11 thematic areas were covered. Farmers were able to learn about nutrients, the basics of malnutrition, balanced diet, basics of chicken management, why families need to eat well, the importance of planning and budgeting, how to preparing good family meals (cookery sessions), seed bed preparation and vegetable cultivation, food processing, and about the factors that affect attainment of good nutrition.   Promotion of vegetable production and consumption was the third NSI where small holder farmers were encouraged to prepare small plot of land in their backyards, to make water available for the vegetables and to protect it from animals' contact. In this regard, all households in Ethiopia and Tanzania had passed through this trial and it was implemented succefully. The project beneficiaries had been provided with practical sessions called, cookery sessions, whereby they learnt how to scale up a recipe, how to replicate the kind of food prepared in a group at home and how to prepare diversified meal for their children and mothers of reproductive age. The cookery sessions were undertaken after participants had brought different food items from the six-food group. There were 400 cookery sessions given in all project villages where there were 4990 (2935 Females) attendants participating in the sessions as shown in figure 5 above and figure 6 below. In order to check the level of beneficiaries' practice, field officers had been undertaking home to home visits. The detailed purpose of the visit was to check whether farmers were able to practice the hygiene and sanitation lessons lernt, such as hand washing before and after food cooking and  The visit was also to support farmers on how they can feed nutritious food for their children and women of reproductive age (figure 7). During their visits field officers had also checked household budgeting practices. During the lifetime of the project in both countries, a total of 8395 (4330 female) beneficiaries were visited and supported in 3715 households (HHs) as shown on table1above. Country specific data shows, 4555 beneficiaries were visited and supported in Ethiopia as compared with 3840 in Tanzania.   The transplantation process was assisted by the development agents who had taken ATONU vegetable trainings (figure 10). Once vegetables were matured, they were used as supplementation for ATONU plate enabling households had vitamin source foods on their back yards (figure 11).In this regard, the project achieved its target of encouraging small-scale home gardening to produce nutrient-dense vegetables to improve dietary quality within the household. As part of the capacity development, field officers with the help of beneficiaries selected, trained and graduated ten champions from each village in both countries who easily adopted the ATONU tools and who have brought behavioral changes following a year and half stay with the project.The selection of champions backed to easily scale up the project to the other villages within the districts and for sustainability for more years to come. Subsequently, there were 200 champions in each country who had started teaching other beneficiaries (Figure 12). Besides this, men were resensitized to facilitate the selection and training of ACGG-ATONU champions. For the scalability and sustainability of the project, it was decided to use school children for promoting nutrition education via clubs. In this regard, field officers have identified nearby elementary schools, formed ATONU school clubs, selected member students and assigned teachers for the clubs (figure 13). ACGG-ATONU school club was formed in 35 primary schools based in Ethiopia and Tanzania having 875 member students. Among all, almost 53% of them are females (464). This was a good number for the women empowerment component of the project.  2, figure 14 and 15). These categories were elder men, elder women, young men, young women and officials from the regions, agro ecological zones, districts and villages. After each performance, participants had been given the chance to evaluate the performance and the whole ACGG-ATONU implementation procedures and outcomes based on four given parameters: good things to be continued, bad things to be stopped, areas to be improved and the commitment they should promise for the project life ahead or the behavior they promised to improve. A total of 5729 participants (Ethiopia and Tanzania) were able to attend the theatre among them 981 were government officials who promised to take over the project for its scalability and sustainability.   A series of questions regarding knowledge, attitudes and practices about nutrition and health was also asked of respondents at midline and endline, but not baseline. These questions were added in order to better understand how knowledge about nutrition was changing over time, and how this knowledge related to outcomes. As can be seen on table 3 below, knowledge, attitude and practice about nutrition was higher in ACGG+ATONU as compared with other arms as we shifted from midline to endline. This showed that the ATONU intervention had brought tremendous outcomes on the KAPs of the respondents. Overall, we see that knowledge of anemia seems higher than knowledge of vitamin A deficiency. Respondents were more likely to say that they had heard of certain topics than they were to say how to prevent it or provide examples. Knowledge regarding exclusive breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices seemed very high across time and treatment arms and improvements showed on ACGG+ATONU arm. As part of the women empowerment intervention, the men sensitization program had been undertaken where men were educated separately about the workload women have had at home on monthly basis. This process helped ease the joint financial decision program taken place at household level. There are stories of change recorded following the men sensitization programs showing that men are sharing the workload at home and on farms, making joint financial decisions with their wives, enabling women have equal access and control over the resources. 600 men were participated in the eight times men sensitization program delivered by ACGG-ATONU field officers. We assessed women's empowerment using the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) tool, which is used to assess empowerment through women's participation and contribution to decision making in agriculture and related economic activities in the household.We adopted the WEAI decision making module to be more relevant to the project. Women were asked about their participation, input into decision making, and perceived extent to which they felt they contributed to decisions on the following 14 activities: chicken production (daily tasks, feeding, watering, cleaning), chicken input use (feed, medicine), use of eggs for home consumption, marketing of eggs, slaughter of chickens for home consumption, marketing of chickens, crop input (seeds, fertilizer, pesticide), daily tasks (home consumption, weeding, watering), daily tasks for crops that are grown primarily for sale, use of food crops for home consumption, marketing of food crops, marketing of cash crops (chat, coffee, fodder, tobacco), non-farm economic activities (small business, self-employment, petty trade), and food expenditures. Figures 16 showed women's participation in some agricultural activities at baseline, midline and endline. Women's participation was higher at endline compared to midline and baseline for most agricultural activities. Women's participation was lowest for crop production input use (52%, 59%, 62% for baseline, midline and endline) and income generating activities (76%, 73%, 70% for baseline, midline and endline). Women's participation was highest at all three time points for chicken related production activities and use of eggs for home consumption and chick production and marketing of eggs with more than 90% of women reporting participation in these activities. Women's participation remained consistent across activities throughout the intervention period, and there were slight increases in women's participation in non-farm income and cash crop marketing activities the ACGG+ATONU arm (figure 16). To assess the pathway between chicken production and consumption, women were specifically asked about egg consumption and cooking methods. Figure 17 describes egg production, consumption, sale, giving away, and retaining for chick production. The survey questions on which this section is based asked specifically about the previous seven days. Looking at endline data, we see that the ACGG and ACGG+ATONU arms are producing approximately twice as many eggs at endline as the Control arm, and more eggs than at baseline. At endline, the average number of eggs produced in the last week was 9.9, 8.5, and 4.5 for ACGG, ACGG+ATONU, and control arms, respectively as shown on figure 17 below. We also see that in each arm, similar numbers of eggs are consumed at home as are sold.Overall, while household consumption of eggs produced on-farm was low and not different among arms at baseline (p>0.05), the ACGG and ACGG+ATONU arms had higher household egg consumption (approximately 4 eggs/week) than the Control arm (approximately 2 eggs/week) at endline (p<0.05) (figure 17). The graph showed that the consumption pattern for ACGG+ATONU is a bit higher than the ACGG arm. Dietary diversity for children in the study population was assessed based on the consumption of eight food groups: grains, roots and tubers; legumes and nuts; dairy; meats; eggs; vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables; other fruits and vegetables and fats and oils. We also used a seven food group indicator that excludes the fats and oils group. The most commonly consumed food groups in the 24 hour recall were staples, other fruits and vegetables, and dairy at baseline. The consumption of fats and oils increased at midline (Error! Reference source not found.) and end line (figure 19) and this was most pronounced in the Control group. When comparisons are made at endline, the 7day FFQ shows greater diversity in child dietary intake compared to 24 hour recall as expected. The study findings in Ethiopia indicated that on average children consumed 2.9 food groups (standard deviation [SD] 1.9) out of eight possible food groups, or 2.5 food groups (SD 1.6) out of seven, in the preceding 24 hours at endline. This is compared to a mean of 2.7 food groups (SD 1.5) out of eight food groups and 2.4 (SD 1.3) out of seven food groups in the preceding 24 hours at baseline. Thus, there was a slight but non-statistically significant improvement in reported child  On average, child dietary diversity improved from baseline to endline across all treatment arms (Error! Reference source not found.). There were minor differences between treatment arms at endline. It is, however, evident that using a seven food group index results in lower dietary diversity scores compared to the eight food group index.  In the previous 7 days, 27.5% of children had consumed eggs at endline compared to 24.2% at baseline. Consumption of eggs appeared to be greater for the ACGG+ATONU arm at endline compared to other arms (  Children's consumption of chicken meat remained low across all arms that needs further intervention, while egg consumption by children increased across time for all arms. Results from the 24 hour recall indicated that chicken meat consumption for children was low throughout the study with less than 1% of children consuming chicken meat in the previous 24 hours (table 5). In the 7 day food frequency questionnaire, chicken meat consumption increased marginally to 2.7% at endline from 1% at baseline. Egg consumption by children was more frequent, with 15.4% of the children consuming eggs in the previous 24 hours at endline compared to 12% at baseline. In the previous 7 days, 27.5% of children had consumed eggs at endline compared to 24.2% at baseline. Consumption of eggs appeared to be greater for the ACGG+ATONU arm at endline compared to other arms (table 5).Table 5: Children's consumption of chicken meat and eggs in the previous 7 days and 24 hours When we compare children's consumption of chicken meat across arms shifting from baseline to endline, ACGG+ATONU showed much improvement on both 7 days and 24 hours recall period.  ). Scores were highest in the ACGG+ATONU group and lowest in the Control group. However, regional differences persisted, with most diversified diets observed in Oromia (mean 3.6, SD 1.3) and lowest dietary diversity in Tigray (mean 2.9, SD 1.0)and Amhara (mean 2.9, SD 1.2). These findings, however, should be interpreted with caution as they may account for changes due to seasonality and may not reflect consumption of additional food groups due to the intervention. On average, 11.5% of women reported consumption of eggs in the 24 hour dietary recall at endline, compared to 6.9% at midline and 4.6% at baseline. Comparatively, 32.8% of the women reported consuming eggs on at least one occasion in the past 7 days, compared to 25.4% at midline and 19.4% at baseline. At endline, 1% of women reported consuming chicken meat in the previous 24 hours compared to 0.5% at baseline; 5.4% ate chicken meat on at least one occasion in the past week compared to 2.2% at baseline (table 8 below). Chicken meat consumption remained very low throughout the study, while egg consumption showed marginal increases in all arms.Consumption of eggs appeared to be greater for the ACGG and ACGG+ATONU arms at endline compared to the Control arm (table 8).  Women's consumption of egg in the previous 24 hours showed greater increase on ACGG+ATONU arms compared to 3.2% at baseline and 14.4% at endline (table 9) than other arms. This implied that the weekly nutrition education sessions impacted for getting this big change. A progressive increase (22.6% at base line to 30.7% at midline and 40.8% at endline) was also observed on women's consumption of eggs taking the previous 7 days. The percentage change on consumption of eggs reported by women both for last 7 days and 24 hours had shown greater increase than the other two arms did. The number of children who were fed more than four food groups increased between endline (75%) and baseline (48%). At endline, the ACGG+ATONU treatment arm had a higher proportion (80%) of children who received more than four food groups compared to ACGG only (78%) and Control (70%) treatment arms and zones (Figure 24). Almost all treatment arms and zones had the same proportion of children who were fed less than 4 food groups at baseline (Figure 25). At endline the proportion of children fed more than 4 food groups in all the treatment arms increased (Figure 27). In the control treatment arm it increased to 71% from 29% at baseline. At endline, all zones showed a significant proportion of children who were fed more than 4 food groups compared to those who were given less than 4 food groups (Figure 26).Figure 24: Food groups consumed by children across treatment arms at endline and baseline was no longer significant (p=0.1213) after adjusting for zone, endline family wealth index and endline nutrition knowledge.  In this survey, the nutrition knowledge was measured using four questions, namely meaning of nutrition, meaning of malnutrition, causes of malnutrition and ways to eradicate malnutrition. The meaning of nutrition question consisted of 7 possible answers, of which 4 were correct answers.Meaning of malnutrition item consisted of 3 correct answers out of 5 responses. Likewise, causes of malnutrition had 8 responses of which 7 were correct. Regarding the ways to eradicate malnutrition, there were 10 correct answers out of 12. Each correct answer was given a score of 1for the right and 0 score for the wrong answer. These four questions were summed to a maximum score of 24, indicating the highest level of general nutrition knowledge, which was then classified into the following three knowledge quintiles: Low, middle and high levels. The proportion of respondents who were in the high nutrition knowledge quintile increased from 30% at baseline to 40% at endline (Figure 27). This was an increase of 9.5 percent points. The ACGG+ATONU treatment arm showed the highest (19%) increase in the proportion of respondents who were in the high nutrition knowledge quintile from 29% at baseline to 48% at endline. This could be a witness for the impact of the project's implementation and the awareness created by the project staffs all over the project sites. The ACGG treatment arm showed an increase of 10% from 33% at baseline to 43% at endline. For the control treatment arm, the proportion of respondents in the high quintile decreased slightly from 28% at baseline to 27% at endline. The proportion of respondents in the low nutrition knowledge index quintile in the ACGG+ATONU treatment arm decreased from 43% at baseline to 29% at endline. For the control and ACGG treatment arms, the corresponding quintile decreased from 43% to 41% and 38% to 33%, respectively at baseline and endline.score at baseline did not vary significantly with treatment arms. It was 2.  13 and 14). Based on this finding, it could be said that respondent's knowledge on the ACGG+ATONU treatment arm is significantly higher as compared with the mean general nutrition knowledge score and with the other arms. Similarly, agro-ecological zones showed slight improvement in the mean nutritional knowledge scores between baseline and endline.  The Z scores for male and female children below two years of age improved at the endline, whereby mean Z-scores were positive for all indicators and in all treatment arms (Figure 29). Mean HAZ scores for female children at the endline improved in all treatment arms from -1.59 to 1.19.At baseline, mean HAZ for male children below 2 years of age was -0.12 and -0.32 for control and ACGG treatment arms, respectively, and +0.27 for the ACGG+ATONU treatment arm. At the endline, mean HAZ scores for male children changed to 0.5, 1.0 and 1.81 for the control, ACGG and ACGG+ATONU treatment arms respectively. This does mean that, stunting within the age group of 0 to2 years of age is reduced as a result of the project's execution. At baseline, mean WLZ for male children was positive in all treatment arms and the mean WLZ for all female children in all treatment arms was negative. Mean WLZ in male children in the control treatment arm decreased from 0.68 at baseline to 0.32 at endline, indicating deterioration in nutritional status.In the ACGG and ACGG+ATONU treatment arms, mean WLZ scores at endline were positive.Changes in WLZ were higher among female children than male children (Figure 29). ","tokenCount":"4346"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1616869f589f592979a5ee8e6a29393b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3a5a850-5e00-4649-ac0c-c3a564ba3245/retrieve","id":"489543751"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b51e9d8-38d4-42f8-9ad3-6c9b197ea306","pagecount":"1","content":"Progression in the technological facets such as, remote sensing, machine learning, big data analytics, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) etc. have unraveled a new domain of sensor-based, non-invasive, fast, and near-real time assessment of crop conditions for efficient site-specific management. Present study attempts to map plant nitrogen (N) for rice crop in spatial scale in the experimental farm of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) integrated with multispectral sensor. Five different treatments of nitrogen (No-N4 corresponding to 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 kg N ha-1) were imposed to generate the variation in plant N content in the rice field. Four customary machine learning algorithms, namely, artificial neural network, support vector machines, random forest and multivariate adaptive regression splines regression ha red edge technology. The approach developed can be upscaled to the ve been implemented to retrieve N content. Evaluation of different machine learning algorithms led to development of optimized workflow for concurrent estimation of N content with reasonably good accuracy with the multispectral sensor using red edge technology. The approach developed can be upscaled to the farmer's field to ensure feasible solutions for the prevailing challenges.The present study exploits spectral datasets collected from imaging sensors on UAV platform to predict nitrogen content of rice crop. The approach performs an exhaustive comparative assessment of machine learning multivariate models for nitrogen estimation and promotes the application of UAV-based hyperspectral remote sensing for the same at field scale for site specific nutrient management.    ","tokenCount":"247"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6959abd6f073005d503c8f9b70619c60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cd9eef3d-2b39-43a6-ae89-c7214f001160/retrieve","id":"456415752"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"513f24f9-5877-43dc-8d38-c71e8d8a7de3","pagecount":"16","content":"Lebanon that will contribute to the sustainable transformation of the agri-food system. | P a g eThe opening welcome was addressed by Dr. Rola El Amil, Head of the Plant Breeding department of LARI and the F2R-CWANA Focal point. Dr. El Amil represented LARI's Director General who sent greetings and thanks to all stakeholders for their presence and their enthusiasm to join the meeting and wishes for fruitful brainstorming.Dr. El Amil highlighted the role of ICARDA in Lebanon since its establishment in 1975. In this 40-year journey, the impact in the country has been seen in the highly vulnerable smallholder farmers in rural communities, the technologies introduced, and finally, the capacity building of national early and mid-career scientists has been remarkable.Theme: New ICARDA Initiatives to strengthen the resilience of the seed sector in Lebanon: F2R-CWANA.Dr. Machlab gave a brief of ICARDA's global and regional mandate and main activities and the formulation of the new portfolio of 34 Initiatives with three thematic areas: Genetic Innovation, Resilient Agri-Food Systems, and Systems Transformation.ICARDA leads the Regional Integrated Initiative F2R-CWANA that specifically addresses needs of Central Asia, West Asia, and North Africa (CWANA) regions.Dr. Machlab explained that the NAS is under WP1: Innovations in partnerships, policies, and platforms for the efficient, inclusive, and climate-resilient transformation of agrifood systems. He highlighted that under WP1 there are two outputs. The National Alliance of Stakeholders (NAS) and National Innovation Platforms (NIP). The NAS will be the forum by which national issues, priorities, and innovations will be discussed and worked out. The assumption is that key partners will want to join and participate in the NAS because it will provide them with the opportunity to meet and influence other stakeholders while setting the priorities and direction for important national issues related to transforming agrifood systems whereas the NIP will serve as physical \"Living Labs\" situated on the ground in the agro-ecologies, and | P a g e communities, and partnership networks that are necessary to enable testing of technologies, tools, approaches, and ultimately innovations, developed by F2R-CWANA and other CGIAR Initiatives, for the people in CWANA. The Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness work will be undertaken through NIPs. By setting up/strengthening NIPs, thereby providing excellent conditions for government, private sector, civil society, and INGOs to work together, it is anticipated that actors will work together to create efficient, inclusive, and resilient national agrifood systems.Theme: 1-The current status of research results on resilience cereal crops and seed multiplication at LARI 2-Importance of the NAS for the seed sector in LebanonThe National Agricultural Strategy (2020-2025) states that \"Wheat yields are relatively high, which might be in part explained by government support of this staple and its production is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the wheat support program administered by the Ministry of Economics and Trade is responsible for wheat imports as well as monitoring silos and the milling sector.Total cereal production remained under 200,000 tons and had increased from less than 50,000 tons in 1988 to over 175,000 tons in 2012. This increase is directly linked with ICARDA-LARI's success story in seed production in 2012 reaching 8,000 tons of wheat (80 % durum wheat and 20 % bread wheat), barley, chickpeas, and lentils.Unfortunately, the process of seed production collapsed totally in 2019 with the currency devaluation and the action taken in pricing by the government was not aligned with the black-market price and this discouraged them from selling their production to the seed multiplication center.Dr. El Amil explained to the audience the varieties demand creation, registration, release, and seed production process in detail. Wheat was just a fraction of the agricultural production over the last years, with a preference for durum wheat over bread wheat. Therefore, the release of varieties was focused on durum wheat mainly and little interest was given to bread wheat due to its susceptibility to yellow rust and farmers were more confident in growing durum wheat over the bread wheat, especially in the Bekaa region. LARI has been closely cooperating with ICARDA on | P a g e variety testing and release and most of the released varieties belonged to ICARDA germplasm. Since 2020, the Lebanese Multi-Locations Variety Trial (LMVT) has been designed to assess the performance of grown varieties within time, to assess the best genotypes from ICARDA based on product profile, and to replenish the Lebanese seed stock with superior new varieties. Yield and agronomic characteristics, and rust assessment are recorded to release superior varieties. 'Margherita', 'Zagharin-02', and 'Red Grain' were released in 2020 and 2021 showing superiority in yield advantage of 6%, 3-5%, and 5 % respectively.Before the multiple back-to-back crises hit the country starting in 2019, there were no worries about Lebanon's dependency on bread wheat imports. The situation became shaky when Lebanon failed to secure foreign currency. Food prices gradually increased by 400 percent between January and December 2020; plus, the geo-political status in the region and the Ukraine-Russia war. Likewise, Lebanon imported 83 percent of its consumption of cereals (bread wheat mainly) in 2018-a high proportion considering that cereals represent the products most consumed by the population (42 percent of their daily diet).Dr. El Amil explained that NAS is a group of key stakeholders that will work together to reach a common understanding of the needs of farmers and rural smallholders for better agrifood systems (defined by LARI as: farms and firms on the production side, and households on the consumption side) transformation. Moreover, the idea of the wheat sector came up from the shortage of wheat for human consumption and the absence of formal and informal seed systems in a country where back-to-back crises started in 2019 such as the Beirut blast, economic crisis, the flux of refugees, local currency devaluation, and lately the conflicts and the high geopolitical risks in the region.Dr. El Amil highlighted the importance of collaboration as it is a key to success for any partnership and listed the main points for the brainstorming:• Institutional and political constraints of the cereal seed sector in Lebanon.• Mapping the major stakeholders and major innovations in the seed sector.• Seed sector in Lebanon: challenges, constraints, and factors affecting the seed sector in Lebanon. | P a g e• Wish list of important traits of major stakeholders and demand creation.• Potential of LARI-ICARDA promising lines.• Adoption and registration.• Opportunities for the private sector in the seed sector in Lebanon.• Financial gaps and financial opportunities to support the cereal and seed sector in Lebanon (Financial and Development organizations -WFP, USAID, CGIAR, etc.). • Seed production and market impact,• Incentives, joint planning,• Joint planning: Value Chain management, and• The situation of the seed sector in Lebanon.Mrs. Sara showed a correlation between the groups of the surveys and concluded with the following points:• Policies and legislation should focus on the price, market, and farmers' protection,• Farmers should be aggregated under unions, associations for lobbying and create a robust network that secures the market information, and• LARI should enhance the seed production revival with key farmers and support them with inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and fuel for irrigation.Following the presentations, the discussion session started among participants in a frank and calm atmosphere. The summary of suggestions, recommendations, and observations by stakeholders are as follows:The mills Representatives:Mr. Alex Keushkerian highlighted the following bottlenecks:• Not satisfied with the quality of the locally grown wheat and it contains too much of impurities such as stones, weed grains, etc.• Lack of silos and storage buffers in the country after Beirut blast.• High prices compared with imported wheat.• Lack of consistency in both quantity and quality (grain size, grain color, and high impurities in local wheat).As the representative of Bakalian mill, he encouraged the Syndicate of cereals and grains to produce good quality and showed the will to buy the Lebanese wheat grain. | P a g e Mr. Dori Abboud mentioned the lack of availability and consistency in local bread wheat; for durum wheat, the Crown mill is buying from the local market, and they were satisfied with the quality of semolina production.Mr. Najib Fares stated many challenges facing the cereals sector:• Climate change is affecting crop yields, especially rainfed when supplemental irrigation is not possible.• High cost of production.• Absence of extension service in the country and farmers are victims of inputs suppliers.• Absence of efficient and effective agricultural strategy; farmers are not protected and are struggling with no support from the government and limited support from NGOs or UN agencies.As a farmer, Mr. Sakr raised the seed purity and pricing explaining that purity is very important to increase the yield and reach uniformity in grains especially durum wheat for processing pasta, burghul and semolina. He also mentioned the \"contract farming\" to link farmers with processors and reach a win-win alliance. Hence, contract farming needs deep reviews, legally, to protect farmers and processors equally. As he is working with a private seed company, he shows interest with ICARDA-LARI varieties after carrying out a demo-plot of Zagharin 02 on his lands. The company is seeing a potential in producing durum wheat seeds of their French varieties and exporting them to surrounding countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia.Mr. Abou Jaoudeh stated that he was newly appointed to the position. He is in favor of good coordination between ministries for the wheat sector and better to be managed by one entity from production to milling. He added that this sector is lacking seed law (policies and legislation). The MOET is not in favour of promoting or increasing the production of bread wheat; it is in favour of concentrating on improving the production | P a g e and quality of durum wheat, exporting the surplus to Jordan, Italy and Turkey for pasta making, and using the foreign exchange to import bread wheat from the Black Sea region.Mrs. Siblini assured us that the seed law draft was withdrawn from the parliament for revision and update. She invited all stakeholders to participate in improving the draft and adding their comments. She also added that LARI's laboratory is equipped to carry out ISTA tests: Germination, purity, TKW, etc. She also mentioned that the Lebanese Official Catalogue should be updated.Mrs. Soha Nasser stated that Berytech's vision is to support innovative companies to scale up and shape the technology and innovation scene in Lebanon and the region with the goal of creating jobs and offering the right ecosystem for innovative entrepreneurs to create and develop their startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), fostering innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.For the wheat sector, they tried to identify the challenges and find solutions. For farmers struggling with bird damage, they have already developed an environmentally friendly solution -a revolutionary bird-saver -a bird repellent technology to create a safe and effective barrier, warning birds from damaging wheat fields. Another major challenge is the market and price; they are trying to work legally on the \"contract farming\" to link farmers with processors. Mrs. Nasser showed her interest in scaling any technology in the seed sector to increase the farmer's profitability.Professor Bashour highlighted the importance of the meeting and the idea of putting people together. He pinpointed the subsidies that used to be operational in the past, but it needs to be studied and should adopt a new business model to revive the seed multiplication to help farmers and eventually improve food security. He added that cereals are very important crops in crop rotation and both durum and bread wheat are known for their wide adaptation to various agroclimatic zones and soil types (0 to 1500 m.a.s.l. in Lebanon). | P a g e He added that climate change will negatively affect crop yields in many areas, mainly due to higher temperatures affecting crop phenology and the shortening of the crop growing season. Supplemental irrigation will be needed for most crops, although the shortening of the growing season could reduce irrigation needs in some cases; here climate resilient genotypes are needed for the farmers.Mrs. Nadine Khoury stated the main challenges for cereal wheat sector and mainly the high cost of production. She indicated that this sector needs to be restructured with a legal framework. She added that certification is primordial for them in the case of exporting. As a private company, they can support the public in demo-plots in different agroclimatic zones to promote the dissemination of new and performing varieties.Mr. Khaled Sinno highlighted the lack of data availability in the country as the agricultural census was carried out in 2010 after thirteen years with all the changing socio-economic factors affecting the country. He also indicated that we need more innovation in Agriculture such as digital consultation, water efficiency, climateresilient varieties, etc. He also wished that the Initiative would bring science-based solutions, scaling up and out the best bet solutions for rural smallholder farmers facing climate change.Mr. Elie Choueri stated that FAO is focusing on the analysis of the wheat value chain using a nutrition lens including the potential for local production of alternative grains that can substitute wheat in bread, or alternative staple food, describing the food environment regarding consumption including consumer behaviour as well as the institutional, governance and policy aspects of the study. Moreover, FAO will help LARI in seed multiplication Center revival, extension service, farmers awareness, etc.He recommended more coordination between all stakeholders to have an internal brief of their activities together and all this would be done to avoid overlapping in projects.Mr. Dominique Choueiter explained that UNDP is in a preparation phase for a new project to support seed multiplication in Lebanon and implemented by LARI. This new project will be implemented in six stations across the country. The first phase of the project is more for land reclamation, land rehabilitation, and irrigation infrastructure. | P a g eThe second phase will be mainly about seed multiplication of resilient and productive varieties of cereals and legumes already evaluated by LARI exclusively.Mr. Jbeily expressed his thanks to be present in this meeting and happy to see so many stakeholders in wheat chain. For IRI, they can work closely with LARI on technological traits for both bread and durum wheat and this will ensure that the farmers will grow the right varieties for processors, and this is a win-win procedure for both. He pinpointed that some varieties are not meeting the standard technological traits and are still in farmers' hands. Consequently, it would be better to raise awareness and withdraw these varieties from the market.Dr. El Amil indicated to the audience that the crop improvement program did not stop after 2019. LARI is still jointly working with ICARDA trials on durum and bread wheat in many locations. LARI is conducting variety demand creation based on product profiles and trying to disseminate the new performant varieties with farmers in many locations.At the end of the discussion session, some practical ingredients to include the road map for Lebanon with strong commitment from all stakeholders:• Follow up closely with the Ministry of Agriculture about the seed law draft and coordinate with all stakeholders to add their comments.• Review the release and registration mechanism. As LARI oversees testing so an outsider committee is recommended for release and registration.• Update the Lebanese Official Catalogue with local and imported varieties and withdraw susceptible varieties from the market.• Scale up and out the best bet solutions for seed producers like the smart climate resilient packages (from the seed to post-harvest) and engage more farmers with the National Innovation Platform for quick dissemination and adoption.• Engage more relevant stakeholders for instance the Directorate of Cooperatives to enhance the informal seed sector in the country.","tokenCount":"2592"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"49055acaacaa059bbf4b7d9255b4e1fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/273282fe-7a03-4529-bbee-48044c9d2b1f/retrieve","id":"304584672"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"377b5f22-eb9d-4a60-b3af-8a352bc9068a","pagecount":"12","content":"The Feed the Future Kenya Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program seeks to widely apply technologies and innovations for livestock, dairy and staple crop (root crops and droughttolerant crops) value chains in order to competitively and sustainably increase productivity, contributing to inclusive agricultural growth, nutrition and food security in 23 counties in the country.Livestock feed availability is currently a major constraint to increasing livestock production and productivity in many developing countries. This can be attributed to a wide array of factors ranging from rising demand for livestock feed resources as a result of increasing livestock population, effects of climate change, changing livestock production systems amongst others. It has brought about several challenges with regards to feed availability, quality and quantity and more so in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) (FAO, 2012).Turkana is one of the ASALs: counties in Kenya which is located in the North Western part of the country. The main livestock production system is extensive pastoralist and agropastoral systems characterized by swards of rangeland pasture, small pockets of irrigated pasture and pastures along the riverine areas. Also, livestock movement (mobility) over large areas rangelands with variable and relatively low quantity and quality forage is another feature of ASAL. These factors converge into a diverse and complex system with a wide variety of animal feed resources and types that can be evaluated using diverse data from household surveys, agricultural statistics, markets and land use studies.In order to develop appropriate livestock feed interventions for Turkana, the Accelerated Value Chain Development program -Livestock Component (AVCD -LC) conducted an accurate assessment of existing livestock feed system in Lokapel sub-location of the Katilu location in Turkana county. The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) available at www.ilri.org/feast was used in this assessment. The main aim was to assess the availability, accessibility and utilization of livestock feed resources in the pastoral and agropastoral production systems of Turkana where there is great potential for establishing sustainable pasture and fodder value chains. In addition, recommendations/interventions that will improve the current and future supplies of livestock feed for improved livestock productivity were identified based on the findings of the study.Lokapel is a sub-location in Katilu Ward located about 127 kilometers South of Lodwar town along river Turkwel, Kenya. It lies at latitude 3.1071296 North and longitude 35.5967291 East. It has an estimated population of 15,000 with approximately 2,500 households. It comprises of 20 villages, namely; Akarakaraite, Naperebei, Naturomwar, Napekwen, Kalokoda, Kimerik, Elemsekon, Nakwalele, Lokapel, Kaibachar, Kaimojo, Akou-Etom, Ekoropus, Ayanae-Elim and Soweto. The households in these villages are mainly agro-pastoralists practicing mixed crop farming and extensive pastoralism.The study was carried out in August of 2016. The quantitative data collected from participatory rural appraisal (PRA) surveys and individual interviews were entered into the FEAST excel template (www.ilri.org/feast) and analyzed. Results are presented in tables, graph pies and bar charts.The FEAST methodology as described by Duncan et al., (2016) was used for this study. It is a Farmer-Centered Diagnosis approach which involves PRA tools. Firstly, focus group discussions with groups of 16-25 farmers using structured questionnaires to provide an overview of the farming system and livestock feed resource availability and use, secondly, simplified individual farmer interviews with questionnaires administered to nine (9) farmers (representing the various wealth endowment categories) in order to generate quantitative and qualitative data on livestock feeds availability and utilization at household level. Furthermore, key informant interviews, scoping survey using transect walks, farm visits and data from secondary sources were used to triangulate the collected data.The main sources of income for households in the area are cropping (35%), livestock (33%), off-farm business enterprises (24%) and labour (8%) (Figure 1). However, casual labour is commonly hired during cropping or planting season. Informal sources of credit such as merry-go-round saving scheme and friends/relatives are the major sources of credit in the area. However, formal sources such as Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), Uwezo fund and Equity bank are available in the area but not easily accessible due to stringent lending requirements. Farmers in the area are mainly agro-pastoral practicing mixed cropping and extensive livestock production systems. The main cropping system is through flood irrigation, but rain fed crop production is also practiced. The land is communally owned where extensive livestock production system is practiced. However, households are allocated land in the irrigation scheme where mixed cropping using flood irrigation is practiced. Figure 2 shows the farmers perception about landholding in the irrigation schemes by households. About 80 % of the households have farms in the irrigation scheme and the main crops grown in the irrigation schemes are maize, cow peas, sorghum, green grams, kales and tomatoes (Figure 3). Crops are mainly grown for subsistence with no surplus for sales. The cropping season is mainly during the wet season (Akiporo and Naiti) although rainfall pattern in the area is unpredictable and unreliable. It is nominally bimodal with long rains (Akiporo) occurring between March and June and short rains (Naiti) between October and November (Figure 4).Figure 4: Seasonal rainfall pattern in the Lokapel/Katilu Village Workloads are at their greatest during planting season and food shortages are also high during this season since the harvests have not come in. However, this is complemented by better milk production as the rainy season progresses. For livestock keepers, labour is required throughout the year with heavy workloads being experienced during the dry season when herds migrate for pasture and water. Labour cost varies depending on the type and intensity of work with the cost of herding ranging from KES 3,000 (USD $ 30) to KES 5,000 (USD $ 50) per month in addition to the provision of food. Manual labour to open 0.4 hecatres of land is variable based on the thicket. In the respondents' context removal of one palm tree costs KES 1,000 (US $ 10) per person.The main livestock production system in the area is open grazing and the predominant livestock species are; local dairy cows, goats, sheep, camel, fattening and draught cattle and donkey. Sheep and goats are the most important livestock species being kept by almost 100 % of the households mainly for milk, blood, meat, hides and cash income.  The livestock management practices in the area are similar across households. Large stock i.e. cattle, camel, and donkey are not housed while small stock i.e. sheep and goat and local poultry are partially housed. The housing of small stock is mainly through enclosures made using locally available materials (local shrubs and bushes). Feeding troughs and bedding are not provided in the enclosures. Young lambs and kids are separated from the main herd during grazing and when housed.There are seasonal differences in grazing areas where during the wet season, livestock is grazed away from reserved areas while during the dry season the animals are brought back to utilize the reserved forage and crop residues at Lokapel hills. The average trekking distance for water during the dry period is approximately 8-10 kilometers. Watering of animals during the dry period is difficult and can be done once after 2 days. In extremely bad years the livestock migrates beyond these traditional dry grazing areas along the riverine and Lokapel hills.There are no livestock feed processors in the area and neither do farmers use concentrates to feed their livestock. However, weak and sick animals are fed using collected fodder such as acacia pods, kitchen leftovers and maize near homesteads. ","tokenCount":"1222"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2520541911.json b/data/part_2/2520541911.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9a7028f1614bf48d7447c439045c1fdfa7ba2a28
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bb5c1c183725cbe4ac6d2f983c8b2db2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/87ba874b-3945-4d03-9643-a434f852fc8a/content","id":"-1419874331"},"keywords":["metadata","interoperability","data management","reusability","JSON (Java Script Object Notation)"],"sieverID":"00ccde8f-643c-4f84-b670-f12167a95cf9","pagecount":"18","content":"This paper presents a lightweight, flexible, extensible, machine readable and human-intelligible metadata schema that does not depend on a specific ontology. The metadata schema for metadata of data files is based on the concept of data lakes where data is stored as they are. The purpose of the schema is to enhance data interoperability. The lack of interoperability of messy socio-economic datasets that contain a mixture of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data means that many datasets are underutilized. Adding a minimum set of rich metadata and describing new and existing data dictionaries in a standardized way goes a long way to make these high-variety datasets interoperable and reusable and hence allows timely and actionable information to be gleaned from those datasets. The presented metadata schema OIMS can help to standardize the description of metadata. The paper introduces overall concepts of metadata, discusses design principles of metadata schemes, and presents the structure and an applied example of OIMS.Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been estimated that international agricultural research for development (specifically CGIAR) alone collected household survey data from a quarter-million farmers each year. Along with the data collected by other entities and published in open access, such as the World Bank LSMA ISA datasets (https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/lsms/initiatives/ lsms-ISA), the FAO household data (https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dataset/household-surveydata-portrait), these datasets can potentially provide valuable insights into smallholder farming and key aspects of agri-food system transformation. However, interoperability of these datasets is a major challenge. In socio-economic data, there is a notable lack of widely accepted standards. Standardization of both questions and the way they are asked is challenging. Questions are often context specific related to the location and cultural context in which the data is collected and the specific research questions underlying the data collection.There is an increasing requirement for publicly funded research organizations to make the data they collect available as global public goods. While this is the main driver behind many open access/open data initiatives, there are other more compelling reasons to work toward well-organized data repositories. The cost of collecting data (again) often outweighs the costs of organizing it. Once it is well-organized the data can be repurposed for other research purposes. Very often, only a part of the data collected is actually used in the research for which it was initially intended. Making the data accessible can create value beyond its original purpose for more researchers than those who originally collected and/or analyzed the data. To be able to use and re-use data effectively and efficiently, and to provide data to the world as a global public good it is imperative to implement user friendly data management systems.Agile, data-oriented research tools can help to overcome these challenges. The term \"agile\" in this context is used to imply methods that are designed to be easy to use, which entail some degree of flexibility in terms of adaptation to local conditions and integration with other tools or methods. This helps to address the major challenges facing smallholders in the context of agrifood system transformation. Smallholders face complex dynamic circumstances, and the data for analysis of those circumstances are also dynamic and complex. Standardization is often lacking, and approaches are needed to ensure interoperability of the various datasets needed for actionable research.It is very important to distinguish between data and metadata. In the original FAIR data guidelines (Wilkinson et al., 2016) data and metadata were grouped. FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. Not distinguishing between data and metadata has a certain appeal because metadata itself is a form of data. While that makes sense for the human intelligible aspects of making data FAIR it has a different connotation for the machine-readable aspects of the standards. Because we focus on the standardization of metadata instead of the data it describes, we must be meticulous about our metadata definitions.We, therefore, need to make a distinction between different types of metadata (Cundiff, 2004;Cantara, 2005). There are three main types of metadata with some subtypes: descriptive metadata, structural metadata and administrative or technical metadata. These concepts are very often used interchangeably leading to poorly defined metadata and hindering open and FAIR data. This will be discussed in some more detail in the next section on design principles. In this context, the notion of structural metadata referring to the actual content of datasets is vitally important. Being able to readily use datasets to address issues related to agri-food system transformation requires a metadata schema that is flexible and extensible.Both in the private sector as well as in not-for-profit organizations, the issue of data management in relation to the ever-increasing amount of data is a hot topic. In the domain of agricultural research this is no different, data from different scientific domains are present and increasingly there is a need to combine data from different domains to glean new insights. There is a heated and ongoing debate on the concept of data lakes and its usefulness for managing the ever-increasing volume, variety, and velocity of data. All organizations must adopt data management strategies that keep up with the advent of big data if we hope to conduct research effectively and accurately. In the private sector, data management is often referred to as master data management (MDM) (Rittman, 2008) which comprises the processes, governance, policies, standards, and tools that consistently define and manage an organization's critical data to provide a single point of reference. Metadata is an essential component of data management. In the context of international agricultural research for development, data management complexity is even greater as data is coming from many different sources.Twentieth century data management strategies focused on ensuring data was made available in standard formats and structures in databases and/or data warehouses (Inmon, 1992;Russom, 2013)-a combination of many different databases across an entire enterprise (Oracle, 2002). The major drawback of the data warehouse concept is that it works like a straitjacket acting as a disincentive to corporate level data repositories.One alternative storage and retrieval system that can handle high variety data is the data lake. It is one of the newest flavors in MDM (O'Brien, 2012;Cap Gemini Pivotal, 2013;Knowledgent, 2014;PWC, 2015). While it is still a controversial concept it is the most promising for research purposes. Data lakes are a store-everything approach to big data, and is a massive, easily accessible, centralized repository of large volumes of structured and unstructured data. The Data Lake is a datacentered architecture featuring a repository or set of repositories capable of storing vast quantities of data in various formats. Data from many different sources such as webserver logs, data bases, sensors, satellites, surveys, social media, and third-party data is ingested into the Data Lake.However, without metadata-information that describes the data we are collecting-and a mechanism to maintain it, data lakes can become data swamps where data is murky, unnavigable, has unknown origins, and is ultimately unreliable. Every subsequent use of data means, scientists and researchers start from scratch. Metadata also allows extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) processes to be developed and take place, which retrieve data from operational systems and process it for further analysis (Lane, 2005). The data collected in international agricultural research often resembles a data swamp instead of a data lake. Data sets often lack adequate metadata. If metadata is present, it tends to be limited to descriptive metadata. In the case some detailed structural metadata is provided, this is often in the form of an idiosyncratic data dictionary.In international agricultural research for development focusing on the transformation of complex dynamic agri-food systems, data from many different domains are used from genomic data, remote sensing and satellite data, and crop management data to socio-economic data. Some of these data have some level of standardization like genomic data, while for instance socio-economic data consisting of high variety structured, semi-structured and unstructured data suffers from an almost complete lack of standardization.In this paper, the first version of a light-weight metadata schema is presented that is flexible and extensible so that it can be used for the wide variety of household-level datasets used for the analysis of smallholders and agri-food system transformation. In the next section, the design principles are discussed, followed by the structure of the metadata schema. The approach and metadata schema are then used to tag a portion of a farm household dataset as an example.As mentioned earlier, metadata can be subdivided into categories (Cundiff, 2004). The first type of metadata is administrative metadata. Administrative metadata relates to the technical source of a digital asset. It can be subdivided into three subtypes: technical metadata which we define as information necessary for decoding and rendering files; Preservation metadata which is defined as information necessary for the long-term management and archiving of digital assets; and rights metadata defined as information pertaining to intellectual property and usage rights.Descriptive metadata is essential for discoverability and identification of digital assets. This is the most common type of metadata used for finding relevant data assets in open data repositories. It describes the data asset in terms of concepts such as \"author, \" \"title, \" \"publisher, \" \"abstract\" and \"keywords, \" to name a few. This is the most common type of metadata attached to research data information products. Examples include Dublin Core metadata schema (https://dublincore.org/) and the CG Core metadata schema (Devare, 2017).Structural metadata is data that indicates how a digital asset is organized and that act as identifiers and descriptors of the data. Structural metadata facilitates content reuse by providing detailed information about the structure of the content of the digital asset. It can therefore be defined as data defining the logical components of complex or compound objects and how to access those components. Structural metadata comprises most of what is traditionally considered metadata that is organized as the data dictionary, and can include: data element information, table information or record structure information, depending on the data asset.The lack of structural metadata in an easily accessible way that allows searching high variety datasets is arguably the greatest challenge to turning existing data into new actionable information (Rasmussen, 2018). Metadata schemas tend to be focused on specific domains (Canham and Ohmann, 2016), stop at a very high conceptual level (Shukair et al., 2013) or focus on descriptive metadata with a fixed structure (Devare, 2017;Labropoulou et al., 2020). Specific metadata schemas exist for specific datasets. For socio-economic datasets the Document, Discover and Interoperate (DDI) approach (https://ddialliance. org/) exists (Rasmussen, 2014).The DDI/XML approach to managing metadata is elegant and comprehensive, but due to its complexity, very difficult for individuals to manage on their own, because it usually requires large scale projects to implement with varying success (Vardigan et al., 2015). DDI as a metadata schema for socio-economic data was first developed in the mid-1990s (Vardigan, 2014). A key example of successful implementation in the domain of smallholder agriculture is the World Bank LSMS ISA datasets that use the metadata approach. In agricultural research for development, there are seldom sufficient resources to implement a heavy weight approach like DDI. Moreover, investment in a heavy-weight approach makes more sense when the same types of data are collected on a regular basis in multiple settings by the same organizations managing the data assets. The key lesson that can be drawn from the DDI experience is that there is a need for a light-weight approach that is compatible with other approaches.A Data Entity, is a top level container of information (Esteva et al., 2019). From a machine perspective it is most relevant as a data object that has a unique uniform resource identifier (URI) (Berners-Lee et al., 2005) and at least some technical metadata. From the human perspective, the relevancy of a data entity is that of a data concept, something that has meaning for humans and hence has some descriptive metadata. Data objects and data concepts can coincide but do not have to do so necessarily. An example of a data entity as a concept and not an object is a data collection. A data collection is defined here as a number of datasets that are somehow related. The datasets are data objects with a distinct URI. The data collection encompasses data objects but is not a data object itself.Data entities can have parent child relationships. An example is a dataset. A farm household-survey dataset in an open-access repository is an example of a data entity, it typically has metadata describing the study, study area, authors, and contributors. It is a parent with children. The children are for instance the various data files in the dataset. Household surveys often have numerous data files covering the various interlinked tables. It is these data files that require a flexible metadata schema to describe their contents.Data entities can also be the various supporting documentation files as well as all the relevant metadata files.Structural metadata describes the contents of a data file. An example of a structural metadata file is a data dictionary. Statistical software packages such as STATA (https://www.stata. com/) commonly used for farm-household data analysis actually contain some of the basic structural metadata:• Name: variable names • Label: short description of the variable • Type: data type • Format: specific format of the variable Other metadata is not included in the STATA metadata but is essential to understand the structure and content of files. Examples of key metadata that cannot be gleaned from the STATA data files include information on primary and foreign keys and information on controlled vocabularies when code books have been used. Some metadata fields may be relevant in some cases but not others such as the way information was captured, if a variable contains restricted information, such as personally identifiable information or information on data quality.What is deemed useful metadata depends on context, international best practices, and organizational data policies. Therefore, the metadata schema must be flexible and extensible. The flexibility also pertains to the fact that some of the metadata may actually be included in the data file in another field. While this is perfectly understandable for a human, it can be tricky to program machines that parse datasets. It is therefore important to include this kind of information in a standardized way in the metadata file.In recent years, within the realm of data management for agricultural research for development, a strong focus has been placed on ontologies (Arnaud et al., 2020). Ontologies are important components of formal descriptions of knowledge. They are useful where there is strong agreement about terms and their relationships. Ontologies are important, arguably necessary but are in themselves not sufficient for data interoperability. Ontologies can provide structured content in terms of values used in the metadata.Formalized definitions of concepts are essential for interoperability across high variety datasets. Ontologies can play an important role in that formalization. Many different pre-existing domain-agnostic standards in terms of ontologies exist as well as domain-specific ones. Creating interoperability requires ontology term mappings when different ontologies are used to tag concepts. Within a metadata schema that does not depend on a single ontology, it therefore becomes essential to identify which ontologies are used to tag concepts.In summary the following design principles emerge for a metadata schema that can be used easily for the high variety datasets that characterize the domain of small holder farming and agri-food system transformation analysis.High variety implies that the schema must be flexible to accommodate all kinds of data. The schema must be extensible to address new issues, including demands for different types of metadata that currently are not prioritized. Metadata approaches such as DDI provide that flexibility and extensibility but are cumbersome to use and the metadata is not very userfriendly or human-intelligible (Amin et al., 2012). A lightweight approach that is human-intelligible is therefore the way forward. Obviously, the approach should be machine-readable, requiring a formalized structure in a generally accepted format. We are not operating in a vacuum, so the metadata approach should take advantage of any work already done. Ideally allowing for the automatic incorporation of existing and new data dictionary approaches. While formalized knowledge in terms of ontologies is an essential component of interoperability the approach should not be dependent on a single ontology. Being ontologyagnostic and able to incorporate existing metadata approaches is part of the flexibility and extensibility already highlighted as design criteria. For reproducibility, a versioning system must be included. For transparency, the information about the schema must be available in open access with relevant documentation. Furthermore, transparency requires a method that allows comments to be included meant for humans and not machines.The DDI/XML approach was designed to allow interoperability with other metadata schemas. The same principle was used for OIMS. This implies that in principle, metadata should be exchangeable between the two approaches. Obviously, this comes at some cost as it requires a metadata schema to be described in terms of the other schema.The fundamental discussion between flexibility and standardization is at the core of the way OIMS is structured. The questions we asked are provided here.1. Would be possible to describe datasets that already have data dictionaries or other metadata without having to redo all the work data managers have already put into the process? 2. If we wanted to add another metadata element to a data dictionary, how can that be done without overturning everything?The metadata as description of the data itself is less domain specific and less context specific as the data itself. So, if we can standardize the way we describe the metadata in such a way that it can describe any metadata field, we have the standardization we want and the flexibility. If we want to add a metadata field to a data dictionary, the OIMS schema allows us to describe the field in a standardized way.In the following subsections we provide some of the technical details that allow this flexibility and standardization.For the metadata to be machine readable, it needs to be in a format that is standard and flexible. JSON (Java Script Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate (http://www.json.org/). The JSON format allows both single objects as well as arrays. See Figure 1 for a graphical representation of JSON.The DDI metadata approach uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language). JSON and XML are comparable in flexibility and use. The main reason for choosing JSON is that parsing JSON is much faster than parsing XML.As mentioned earlier metadata is data itself and hence should have metadata attached to it. In order to describe a metadata schema, we need a format for doing so.Each metadata field can be described with the following elements• AttributeName: the identifier of the metadata field is a required element both for machine-readability (MR) as well as it being human-intelligible (HI)• AttributeDescription: A short description of what the metadata field entails is a required element for HI• DataType: the data type of the contents of the metadata field. This allows consistency checking in automated quality assurance tools and is handy for data management purposes • Multiple: does a metadata field allow multiple entries or not.Multiple has two possible values: TRUE or FALSE• OntologyTerm: attribute value identifier is a compound field consisting of several sub-elements.• OntologyTermName: ontology term • OntologyTermDescription: short HI description of the ontology term as defined in the relevant ontology• OntologyName: The name of the ontology in which the term is defined• OntologyTermID: This is a MR element • OntologyTermURL: This provides the link to the ontology term through a persistent identifier• OntologyTermQuality: This provides information on how well the ontology term fits the metadata fieldIf the data type is enumeration, then there is a controlled vocabulary linked to that field• ControlledVocabulary: This is a compound element providing the description of the controlled vocabulary• VocabularyElementID: element identifier of a unique element of the controlled vocabulary• VocabularyElementDescription: description of the element• OntologyTerm: element identifier is a compound field consisting of several sub-elements. For their description see above.We can therefore describe the elements of the metadata-metadata in the same terms as well, albeit that these may contain different elements depending on the schema. In the end we can describe the elements of the metadata-metadata-metadata in terms of themselves which then becomes the basis for the description of any metadata schema. This is a standardized approach to describing metadata, in other words a standard metadata of metadata (data dictionaries). Because it can describe any metadata field in a standardized way, the schema is both flexible and standardized.So, at the highest level of abstraction, we have a metadata schema that describes itself. We can use this schema to describe any metadata of metadata schemas that may contain additional elements. It is more intuitive and more self-contained than for instance the RDF schema (Dan Brickley and Guha, 2014). Besides describing the OIMS metadata schema, the self-describing OIMS schema can also be used to describe any other metadata schema. Besides describing already existing data dictionaries, OIMS can be used to describe for instance data entities and their relationships as well as ETL procedures.In addition to the eight attribute attributes there is one more that we use, namely the attribute \"//\" in our JSON files which we use as a comment. This allows us to add user friendly information that is not needed by a machine parsing the metadata file.For ontology terms we have mostly used the very complete and comprehensive NCI Thesaurus OBO Edition (http:// www.obofoundry.org/ontology/ncit.html) accessed through the EMBL-EBI ontology look-up service (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols/ index). In the OIMS approach multiple ontology terms can be attached to an attribute and this is expected to happen in next versions. In the next subsections we provide a description of each of the elements of the self-describing metadata schema. For the description of the schema in JSON format, see the Supplementary Material: \"data sheet 1.docx.\" In Figure 2 we see a schematic diagram of the self-describing metadata schema.The description of the self-describing metadata is purposely done in a way that closely resembles the structured format underlying the schema instead of a more narrative-like approach. The importance is to provide the definitions of all the elements as highlighted in Figure 2.The diagram in Figure 2 demonstrates that each attribute in the blue boxes has at least the first seven attributes. The attribute data type can have the value \"controlled vocabulary.\" In that case an additional attribute is needed to describe the controlled vocabulary. It has the specific attribute value elements linked to controlled vocabulary as well as the more general attribute ontology term. Ontology terms have specific attribute value elements as well-related to ontology terms. These are two examples of compound attributes and hence they have the related attribute that captures these compound elements. Note that this schema is somewhat different from a standard database schema. It defines everything that can then be used in the metadata schemas describing actual data.Take for instance the concept AttributeName. It can be described in terms of the major attributes:The words or language units by which a thing is known• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C42614• OntologyTermUR: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_ C42614• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmedIn a similar vein, AttributeDescription can be described in terms of the major attributes:• OntologyTermName: Description • OntologyTermDescription: A written or verbal account, representation, statement, or explanation of something.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C25365• OntologyTermUR: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_ C25365• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmed.DataType is a bit more complex as it has a controlled vocabulary that needs to be defined. It can be described as:• AttributeName = DataType • AttributeDescription = The datatypes of the various fields of the self-describing metadata schema• Simple character string defined as VocabularyElementID: Simple character string VocabularyElementDescription: simple machinereadable language independent sequence of characters OntologyTerm:• OntologyTermName: Simple Character String Data Type• OntologyTermDescription: A data type comprised of a text string that can be displayed, or machine processed, and which has no language.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C95682• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary. org/obo/NCIT_C95682• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmedVocabularyElementDescription: An expression consisting of a linear sequence of symbols (characters or words or phrases). OntologyTerm:• OntologyTermName: String • OntologyTermDescription: An expression consisting of a linear sequence of symbols (characters or words or phrases).• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C45253• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary. org/obo/NCIT_C45253• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmedVocabularyElementID: Boolean VocabularyElementDescription: The type of an expression with two possible values, \"true\" and \"false.\" OntologyTerm:• OntologyTermName: Boolean • OntologyTermDescription: The type of an expression with two possible values, \"true\" and \"false.\"• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C45254• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary. org/obo/NCIT_C45254• OntologyTermQuality: exact • OntologyTermName: Optional • OntologyTermDescription: Possible but not necessary; left to personal choice.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C25603• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary.org/ obo/NCIT_C25603• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmed• OntologyTerm = no ontology term available Note that some of the ontology terms are missing for this attribute. This does not imply that this is a new term. It is used in the JSON metadata file of DataVerse (https://dataverse. org/), an open access data repository system commonly used for international agricultural research for development.The attribute type class can be described as follows:• AttributeName = TypeClass • AttributeDescription = if the attribute is compound or primitive • OntologyTerm = no ontology term available Note that some of the ontology terms are missing for this attribute. This does not imply that this is a new term. It is used in the JSON metadata file of DataVerse (https://dataverse.org/).The attribute multiple can be described as:• OntologyTermName: Multiple • OntologyTermDescription: Having, relating to, or consisting of more than one individual, element, part, or other component; manifold.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C17648• OntologyTermUR: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_ C17648• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmed This attribute is also used in the JSON metadata file of DataVerse (https://dataverse.org/).Controlled vocabulary is the code book of a specific controlled vocabulary used in an attribute. It is linked to the data type Controlled Vocabulary. It is an array of values that have multiple attributes themselves. The attribute, controlled vocabulary, can be described as:• AttributeName = ControlledVocabulary • AttributeDescription = controlled vocabulary definition if data type is controlled vocabulary also known as an enumeration or a factor in R.• AttributeValueElements = when a data type is compound the array elements of the compound data type must be described:• OntologyTerm = combination of• OntologyTermName: Controlled vocabulary • OntologyTermDescription: A set of terms that are selected and defined based on the requirements set out by the user group, usually a set of vocabulary is chosen to promote consistency across data collection projects.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C25704• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ NCIT_C25704• OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmedThe specific attribute value elements linked to the compound data type of a controlled vocabulary include the identifier of a controlled vocabulary element• AttributeName = VocabularyElementName • AttributeDescription = the element identifier in a controlled vocabularyThe specific attribute value elements linked to the compound data type of a controlled vocabulary include the description of a controlled vocabulary element• AttributeName = VocabularyElementDescription • AttributeDescription = the description of an element in a controlled vocabulary in human-intelligible termsOntology term is described elsewhere in section Structure of OIMS. However, ontology term in the context of a controlled vocabulary has a special significance. Ontologies are as said before the formalization of knowledge at a conceptual level.When dealing with the variable names, ontology terms provide the conceptual basis for semantic interoperability. When dealing with the values of the variables, many alternative classifications exist and are used. The lack of standardization hinders interoperability. To improve interoperability various classifications of possible values can be mapped onto each other creating the basis for interoperability of actual data. The details of the processes and procedures related to the creation of such concordances goes beyond the scope of the current paper.Ontology terms can be added for semantic interoperability.Modern data portals such as GARDIAN (https://gardian.bigdata. cgiar.org/), rely on formalized ontology terms for enhanced data interoperability. An ontology is a formal representation of a body of knowledge within a given domain. Ontologies usually consist of a set of classes (or terms or concepts) with relations that operate between them. Ontology terms can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyTerm • AttributeDescription: the ontology term for the relevant attribute • OntologyTermQuality: to be confirmed Note that we provide two ontology terms for the attribute ontology term.The attribute OntologyTermName which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyTermName • AttributeDescription: the identifier of an ontology term for the relevant attributeThe attribute OntologyTermDescription which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyTermDescription • AttributeDescription: the description of an ontology term for the relevant attribute in human-intelligible termsThe attribute OntologyName which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyName • AttributeDescription: the name of the ontology that describes the ontology termThe attribute OntologyTermIdentifier which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyTermIdentifier • AttributeDescription: the unique identifier for the term within the ontologyThe attribute OntologyURL which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:The attribute OntologyTermQuality which is part of the compound datatype of the value of an ontology term can be described as:• AttributeName = OntologyTermQuality • AttributeDescription: the degree to which the ontology term covers the attributeVocabularyElementID: exact match VocabularyElementDescription: the ontology terms match the attribute exactly OntologyTerm: no ontology term available• To be confirmed VocabularyElementID: to be confirmed VocabularyElementDescription: the quality of the ontology term in describing the attribute needs to be confirmed OntologyTerm: no ontology term available• OntologyTerm = no ontology term availableWhen a data type is compound the array elements of the compound data type must be described. The attribute AttributeValueElements provides that list. And can formally be described as:• AttributeName = AttributeValueElements • AttributeDescription: Attributes that are part of a compound attributeAs we mentioned earlier, we include a comment attribute. This allows us to add comments to improve transparency and understandability of metadata files. When parsing the JSON file, comments can be skipped by the machine reading the metadata.• OntologyTermName: comment • OntologyTermDescription: A written explanation, observation or criticism added to textual material.• OntologyName: NCIT • OntologyTermID: C25393• OntologyTermURL: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ NCIT_C25393• OntologyTermQuality: exact matchAs an example, we use a small section from a household survey file containing household rosters identifying household composition and household member characteristics, see Figure 3 for a screenshot from STATA data viewer.We observe the following variables:  • Household_IDThe STATA file itself already contains some key metadata (see Figure 4):Moreover, extracting the metadata from the STATA file allows us to create a list of the elements of enumerations. However, these enumerations are locally defined classifications that do not necessarily have a relationship with some standard classification.To enhance the reusability of the data CIMMYT, the holder of this particular dataset, is encouraging tagging data with rich metadata including but not limited to:• Key: whether a variable is a primary key, foreign key, or a regular variable. A primary key is used to ensure data in the specific column is unique. A foreign key is a column or group of columns in a relational database table that provides a link between data in two tables. It uniquely identifies a record in the relational database table. Only one primary key is allowed in a table. schema in JSON format, see the Supplementary Material: \"data sheet 4.docx.\"Turning the Information Into Machine Readable FormTurning the example into a machine readable JSON format requires three steps. The first step is formalizing the information in each table into JSON format. The second step is the provision of a header into the JSON file. The header is crucial as it provides the information where the metadata structure can be found. The third step is creating a parent-child relationship table that links data files in a dataset.The JSON format as highlighted in section Metadata Schema Format is a flexible standard for data exchange across platforms and systems.The information in Table 1 can therefore be transformed into JSON format. In Figure 5 we see a portion of that transformed table (see Supplementary Material for the full JSON file: ExampleDataDictionary.JSON).In a similar vein, the information in the description of the data dictionary found in Table 2 can be transformed into JSON format (see Supplementary Material for the full JSON file: ExampleDataDictionaryMetadata.JSON).In the example, we purposefully did not use the exact same terminology as in the self-describing schema at the highest level of abstraction. This implies that we need one additional metadata file that links the terminology used in the data dictionary metadata to the standard OIMS terminology (see Supplementary Material for the full JSON file: ExampleDataDictionaryMetadata2OIMS.JSON). This has the added benefit of being able to define specifically all relevant elements such as data types that may be specific for a given dataset or metadata schema.Obviously, the self-describing metadata schema presented in section Self-Describing Metadata is also available in JSON format (see Supplementary Material for the full JSON file: OIMS_vers.JSON).The header in any OIMS JSON file provides crucial information to place the metadata file in context. The header should contain the following information.• Name of the metadata file • Version of the metadata Ideally the header should also contain some descriptive information on the creator, the affiliation and some contact details so interested users can get in touch.This paper does not deal in detail with the way the data entities are managed in terms of metadata within the context of the OIMS metadata philosophy. A separate paper on this topic is in preparation. For interoperability of datasets, it is essential, and it builds on the concepts laid out in this paper. Key element in the use of data entities in conjunction with OIMS are the parentchild relationships that exist. Datasets have one or more files containing data. These data files have associated metadata files as well as Supplementary Material. The data entity approach enhances data interoperability through the structuring this type of information and storing it in a way compatible with the OIMS metadata schema.  This paper presented an internally consistent approach to providing metadata for data files when standards are missing. The approach is flexible and extensible so it will not be obsolete before it is implemented at scale. The approach is based on the concept of data lakes where data is stored as is. To ensure that data lakes do not become swamps, metadata is indispensable (Ravat and Zhao, 2019). The OIMS metadata schema approach can help to standardize the description of metadata and thus can be considered the fishing gear to extract data from the data lake. Past approaches have been comprehensive but cumbersome. That could be the reason that for instance DDI is limited to some large-scale data projects. Currently researchers can collect data which is not compatible (e.g., because questions were phrased differently, or amounts were measured using different methods). A flexible metadata schema like OIMS does not disallow this in contrast to efforts at data standardization. This begs the question whether the development of an incredibly flexible meta-data schema simply facilitate the collection of disparate data sources. Interoperability in general is much better served by data standardization. Many high variety data sets already exist and hence the highly flexible approach of OIMS serves to tag those data sets with metadata in a standardized way. The agile nature of the approach will support the uptake of OIMS.The example in the paper illustrates the potential of the use of OIMS for making datasets interoperable and hence reusable. We are in the process of tagging several datasets with rich structural metadata and placing that in the OIMS metadata schema, this will be reported on in due time. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Over the next years, as requirements for interoperability in relation to open and FAIR data are likely to become more stringent, the OIMS metadata schema can be a useful tool. Existing data dictionaries can be described in terms of the OIMS schema without altering the data dictionaries themselves. This implies that datasets themselves also do not need to be changed. The additional information can be provided at a fairly high level of aggregation. The next steps include demonstrating how this schema can be used to link multiple datasets, covering different topics, to use the analogy of a data lake, demonstrate how the schema can be used to fish data from the lake.In the paper the importance of ontologies as formalized knowledge and relationships within knowledge domains was mentioned. For socio-economic household data a socioeconomic ontology is under development, commonly known as SEOnt (Arnaud et al., 2020;Kim et al., under review), that initially links to a set of standardized survey questions, commonly known as 100Q (van Wijk et al., 2019), that builds on the RHOMIS approach (Hammond et al., 2017). SEOnt is a socioeconomic ontology of controlled vocabularies, classifications, and concordances that allow standardization of key indicators, including gender-related indicators. The ontology has been developed by CGIAR researchers and collaborators as part of the activities undertaken in the CGIAR Platform for Big data in Agriculture.In a setting where the data are standardized, there seems less urgency for flexibility in the metadata schema. However, evolving insights on data and its uses, can and should lead to the tagging of existing datasets even if they are based on a standardized format with additional metadata. Hence the flexibility in the metadata schema is useful for highly standardized datasets as well.For data interoperability in general one can argue that standardization of the data is the most straightforward way of creating interoperability. However, in some domains, such as the social sciences, including economics, standardization is not a realistic option given the high variety of research questions and related data needs. If the data is high variety than the next best way of standardization for enhancing data interoperability is by standardizing metadata schemas. In summary this implies that we strive for standardization where possible and flexibility where necessary.As part of the on-going work of the community of practice on Socio-economic data of the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, implementation of the OIMS metadata schema approach on datasets that can create indicators highlighted in the 100Q approach with linkages to SEOnt is envisaged. This will provide datasets with enhanced interoperability.With more and other datasets also using the OIMS approach in the near future, it will become possible to turn what is currently a socio-economic data swamp into a data lake that can provide timely actionable information to support the agri-food systems transformation and support efforts to assist smallholders to generate a living income while staying within planetary boundaries.Implementing OIMS in practice requires data managers and scientists that collect the data to actively engage in providing the relevant metadata. As mentioned before, some of the metadata can be gleaned from the software solutions the scientists use already. As these are structured metadata, they can be extracted by machines. Often it does require curation by the scientist involved, especially when the software solution does not provide key information that the scientist has at hand but is not documented in a machine-readable way already.The development of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) and tools to convert existing data dictionaries into OIMS compatible JSON format will enhance the user friendliness of the schema. We will report on the development of these tools separately.Making data interoperable and accessible offers scope for data reuse. However, this comes with a caveat. Not all data can be reused for all purposes. Messy socio-economic datasets can come with numerous biases, including sampling bias and recall-bias to name a few. Ideally information on these issues should be included in the metadata of the dataset.Developing standards for reporting such important issues can be helpful and the information can be added to any OIMS compatible metadata schema as the relevant fields can be described flexibly. The standardization of the way metadata is documented is the key to interoperability. It allows for reuse of efforts such as reuse of mappings between different representations and ontologies.","tokenCount":"6643"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e12d439384120169af608f8197af629f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ae4ce17d-2e71-4ca9-ba53-9dbb74439b68/retrieve","id":"-36967932"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"99d0c298-6c86-41d8-b2e6-ddd4f3545f33","pagecount":"4","content":"The five-day training-cum-study tour, comprising stakeholders from ten African countries, was organized under the auspices of Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) project. The project aims to generate an inclusive research and innovation ecosystem that facilitates uptake, adaptation and adoption of solutions to issues that can be addressed by an OH approach.It emerged, during the workshop, that inadequate coordination of OH activities and lack of decisive leadership are some of the key impediments to formulation and adoption of evidence-based OH strategies and policies.Experts' ineffectiveness to influence OH-related policies was another concern raised during the workshop. In keeping with COHESA's objective of addressing policy gaps by increasing the relevance of OH research and policies, stakeholders were capacitated with requisite skills for development of impactful policy briefs.\"Policy briefs are powerful decision-making tools that provide advice or raise awareness on an issue. OH stakeholders and partners should utilize this tool to offer recommendations and influence policy actions in favor of interventions that address OH challenges,\" said Mary Mbole-Kariuki, a Technology and Innovations Expert at the African Union Inter-African Bureau of Animal Resources. She challenged the participants to start building relations with stakeholders in the OH policy cycle within their respective countries.The workshop was part of a series of trainings whose goal is to equip COHESA partners with effective communication and policy advocacy skills that will enable them effectively communicate OH issues and solutions to non-technical audiences, including the media and policy makers. Project partners comprising key players from key line ministries (Health, Agriculture and Environment), academia, and research institutions, took part in the workshop.The training also equipped the partners with effective media relation skills and enhanced their understanding of how media relations can enhance OH interventions and solutions. Through rigorous scenario settings and practice, the stakeholders demonstrated improved confidence in engaging the media and handling challenging media situations.ISAAA AfriCenter Director and COHESA consortium co-lead Dr. Margaret Karembu called on OH partners to proactively engage the media as an important actor in addressing One Health related issues. \"Look for opportunities for media interviews and talk shows to enhance relations with the media and sensitize communities on OH issues,\" she advised.The training also strengthened partners' skills on development of responsive messages. Through a series of participatory exercises, participants also developed model OH organograms for their current or prospective national OH platforms.COHESA multipliers, whose role is to drive and implement the project in their countries, were challenged to utilize the lessons learnt and recommendations, to build synergies towards strengthening operationalization of OH in their countries.The project partners participated in an OH study tour for experiential learning on the outskirts of Nairobi City as the curtain came down on the experience-packed five-day event. The first site was at the interchange of two major metropolitan transport corridors located 5.6km south-east of Nairobi's CBD. Here, partners explored the impact of rapid urbanization on biodiversity, and how wildlife-livestock-human interfaces increase chances for emergence and cross-species transmission of zoonotic diseases.Participants during the study tour The next stop was at Mlolongo, a suburban village characterized by a dense urban population with a semi-arid ecology. This site presented an interesting example of a typical growing suburb where anthropogenic activities put pressure on land to produce vegetables to feed the urban population. It was a special site for COHESA partners to observe and interrogate any health risks presented by suburban ecologies that depend on polluted rivers and tributaries for irrigation of crops that get back into the city's food systems.\"Anthropogenic pressures, including activities at a camel abattoir located not far from here, have created interfaces for concentration of wild animals and roaming dogs within this environment. This situation presents a risk for emergence of zoonotic diseases and thus a serious OH response is required,\" observed Dr. James Hassell, an epidemiologist and wildlife veterinarian at the Smithsonian Institute of Conservation Biology.The partners concluded the tour at ILRI's Kapiti Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy located approximately 43km south of Nairobi. This is a 13,000-hectare facility for conducting research, promoting conservation and practicing commercial livestock ranching. The facility is a model for effective habitat conservation allowing coexistence between livestock and wildlife in the face of land fragmentation and other human activities that continue to threaten wildlife habitat. \"At Kapiti, we want to show there is a sustainable way of managing wildlife and livestock together,\" said Dr. Sonja Leitner, a Biogeochemist at ILRI.Using the expansive ranch-cum-conservancy, scientists at ILRI are studying how livestock-wildlife interface can present a risk for disease transmission from wildlife to livestock. The experience at the ILRI facility was an eye-opener for COHESA partners to contemplate on human-livestock-wildlife interfaces. Overall, the tour presented a unique opportunity for partners to discuss appropriate OH interventions in the face of rapid urbanization and climate change.The training-cum-study tour was organized by ISAAA AfriCenter and ILRI.This article was written by Walter Langat, a communications associate at ISAAA AfriCenter","tokenCount":"811"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c757318d1714fb02d8ee83420b24b416","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0a438f38-1ee3-4e06-8d67-fda0992a94ec/content","id":"1277636321"},"keywords":["Wheat","Maize","Varieties","Agricultural development","Economic analysis","Agricultural policies","Agricultural research","Production economics","Data collection","Statistics","Prices","Yields","Developing countries FAOSTAT AGRIS category codes: E14 Development Economics and Policies","E10 Agricultural Economics and Policies Dewey decimal classification: 338.91"],"sieverID":"8d8597fb-3a66-4e21-a3e9-97a7c0d6c750","pagecount":"33","content":"This study makes extensive use of a data set on the diffusion of modern crop varieties compiled by Bob Evenson. I gratefully acknowledge the permission to work with these data. This study was initiated by Michael Morris and supported successively by Erika Meng and John Dixon. This study also draws, albeit indirectly, on my interactions over the years with many outstanding social scientists who have been based at CIMMYT, including Mauricio Bellon, Paul Heisey, Prabhu Pingali, and Melinda Smale. I have also appreciated the patience and cooperation of many other current and former CIMMYT scientists, who have attempted to explain breeding strategies and scientific concepts to me.Table 1.        Valuing these reductions in yield variability requires assumptions about society's willingness to trade off risk against return. Using a standard analytic framework, the study finds that the realized reductions in variability are worth the same as small increases in average yield. Assuming a moderate level of risk aversion on farmers' part and taking the preferred coefficient estimates for the magnitude of reductions in yield variability, the results suggest that the realized reductions in yield variability due to MVs are worth about 0.3% of annual production in the case of wheat and 0.8% of production in the case of maize. These appear to be small effects, but the sheer scale of wheat and maize production in the developing world means that the benefits from improved yield stability are large in absolute terms.At appropriate world prices, the benefits are about US $143 million for wheat and about US $149 million for maize, on an annual and recurring basis.The benefits are not attributed to any particular research theme or program. Instead, they reflect longstanding efforts in breeding for disease and pest resistance, drought tolerance, and improved cropping systems, to name a few. By reducing the fluctuations in maize and wheat grain yields, scientists have played a vital role in making modern crop technology attractive, accessible, and beneficial to farmers and consumers around the globe.Modern crop varieties developed through scientific crop breeding clearly produce higher yields than farmers' traditional varieties. But critics have long suggested that, in developing countries, yields of modern varieties vary more from season to season than farmers' traditional varieties, thereby exposing consumers and producers to greater risk.Drawing on country-level data for the diffusion of modern wheat and maize varieties (MVs) compiled by Robert Evenson of Yale University, as well as aggregate data on production and yields from FAOSTAT, this study makes novel use of the Hodrick-Prescott filter to disentangle changes in trend from annual fluctuations. The results depict changes in national-level yield stability for wheat and maize across developing countries and relate them directly to MV diffusion. The outcomes strongly suggest that, over the past 40 years, there has actually been a decline in the relative variability of grain yields-that is, the absolute magnitude of deviations from the yield trend-for both wheat and maize in developing countries. This reduction in variability is statistically associated with the spread of MVs, even after controlling for expanded use of irrigation and other inputs.maize across all developing countries and to relate them directly to modern variety diffusion.The study also introduces a new technique for measuring yield variance. Specifically, it uses a Hodrick-Prescott filter to disentangle changes in trend from annual fluctuations. This technique is particularly well suited to working with the data available. It has been widely used in other areas of macroeconomics and statistics (Hodrick and Prescott 1981;1997) A further limitation of the paper is that there is no clear way to disentangle the impact of agricultural research carried out by individual 1 For simplicity, most of this paper will use the terms \"yield variability\" and \"yield stability\" in their relative sense. In other words, \"yield variability\" will be measured as the coefficient of variation (standard deviation divided by mean) or a similar measure that controls for mean values. To use an econometric term, the identification strategy for the paper is to take advantage of the fact that modern varieties (MVs) were developed and introduced at different times and with different degrees of success in different countries.An underlying assumption is that the diffusion of modern varieties was effectively exogenous to individual countries. This is not a perfect assumption, but from the perspective of many small countries that received modern varieties only when the international research system delivered them, it is a reasonable approximation of reality. Even for large countries (India, China, Brazil), the assumption only requires that the timing of MV diffusion is not influenced specifically by a country's efforts to reduce yield variability. Since most countries were far more concerned with yield levels than with yield stability, this seems like a defensible proposition, though certainly not an irrefutable one.The conclusion of the analysis is that there has been a significant and valuable improvement in yield stability. Although much attention has been given to international agricultural research and its achievements in boosting the yield levels of wheat and maize in the developing world, its impact on yield stability has been equally remarkable. One measure of yield variability is the coefficient of variation of yield. This is defined as the standard deviation of yield over some time period divided by the mean yield over the same period. Specifically, let y it be the yield realized in region i at date t. 3   Consider, say, a 10-year period leading up to date t.The average yield for this period is simplywhere k indexes time. The intertemporal variance of these yields is given byThe standard deviation of yields is simply the square root of the variance, and is denoted by s it . This measure reflects yield variability over time. Now define the coefficient of variation of yields in region i at date t as This measure will vary across regions and over time. 4   One disadvantage of the measure is that it does not account for any trend in yields. For instance, suppose yields were to grow at a steady rate g over the 10year period. The faster the growth rate, the greater would be the dispersion in observed yields over the period, and hence the measured CV for the period would be higher. Thus, this measure tends to show higher variability in countries with rapid yield growth than in countries with slower yield growth.Correspondingly, if growth rates were changing over time, this measure would show changes in yield variability that would, in some sense, be spurious.Consider a country where wheat yields were growing over time at a positive but declining rate, with no variability whatsoever from this growth1 10trend. Using a CV measure, it would appear that variability was initially high but falling over time, suggesting a decline in yield variability where the driving force was in fact a declining rate of yield increase.To avoid this problem, an alternative approach is to use measures that attempt to control for trends in the data. Two such measures are used in this study.An alternative measure of yield variability is the average percent deviation from a geometric trend in yields. This is a measure that explicitly addresses the problem of computing variability in a trending data series. Suppose analysis reveals that growth in yields is occurring at approximately a constant rate g, such that y t = y t -1 (1 + g), t. As is well recognized, we could arrive at an estimate of g by regressing the log of yield on a time trend variable.In this case, we could observe, for each date t, the actual yield, y t and compare it to the predicted yield, which might be estimated as y ˆt = y 0 (1 + g).(There are other slightly different ways of estimating predicted yield, using different base years and functional forms.) The percent deviation from trend is thus:Denote this measure as δ t . Because these deviations are in percentage terms, they are comparable across time, even in a context of rising yields.To compare yield fluctuations across time, we could compare the average of these deviations over some number of years. For example, define the five-year average percent deviation from trend at date t as:If we found that this value appeared to be falling over time, we might conclude that yields were growing ever closer to a trend growth rate.A difficulty with this measure, of course, is that it makes sense only when a strong and relatively constant trend growth rate is present. If growth rates are rising or falling markedly, the deviations from trend growth will be inaccurately estimated, and it may appear that deviations are rising or falling when in fact the trend growth rate is rising or falling. Moreover, if the movements around the trend are sufficiently noisy, then this may not be a very useful measure.An alternative approach involves measuring the percent deviation from trend, using a nongeometric approach to computing the trend. There are many widely used statistical approaches for deriving a trend from a noisy data series, including exponential smoothing, Kalman filtering, and others. Perhaps the most widely used in many branches of economics is the Hodrick-Prescott filter, which is a technique for separating a trend from fluctuations in a noisy data series (Hodrick and Prescott 1981;1997). The underlying assumption of HP filtering is that we observe a time series such as realized crop yield, which embodies both a trend and a shock. Thus, imagine that y t is a time series for yield. We believe it to consist of a non-stationary growth trend (denoted g t ) and a stationary residual (denoted c t ) so that y t = g t + c t . Neither g t nor c t is directly observed, so the challenge is to take the observed series y t and to separate it into its components. Since c t is assumed to be stationary, we can take y t as a noisy signal of g t . How do we allocate the observed fluctuations to \"signal\" and \"noise\"? The HP filter allows for a continuum of possible weights, denoted by λ, inx 100. y t -y ˆt y ˆt interpreting fluctuations as signal. The two extreme cases are those in which all the observed fluctuations are thought to represent changes in trend (i.e., y t = g t ) and the alternative extreme in which all the change is taken to be noise, in which case the filter generates a least squares line through the data, with zero time trend. These two cases correspond to and λ = 0 and λ = ∞, respectively. In general, the choice of λ reflects the properties of the data and the \"true\" characteristics of the noise. For annual data series, it is common to set λ = 100 (Backus and Kehoe 1992), although much lower values have also been proposed (about 6.5 to 8.5, according to Ravn and Uhlig 1997).Using the HP filter, it is possible to decompose time series data for yields into a trend component and a fluctuation component. We then want to measure the magnitude of the fluctuations, relative to the trend. The procedure for this follows exactly the procedure described above for computing the magnitude of deviations from a geometric trend.The only difference is that the trend component is now given by the HP filtered data. Thus, y ˆt = HP (y t ), where HP(y t ) is the HP-filtered estimate of trend yield at date t. As before, the percent deviation from trend is thus:Denote this measure as δ t . To compare yield fluctuations across time, we could compare the average of these deviations over some number of years. For example, define the five-year average percent deviation from trend at date t as:The advantage of using the HP filter is that it allows us to handle time series for yield that display changes in the trend growth rates. In this sense, it is superior to assuming that the data reflect a single geometric growth rate over an entire 40-year time period. However, the filtering procedure imposes some structure and assumptions that we might be concerned about. In particular, an extended period of bad yields might be interpreted as a change in the trend, rather than as a sign of high variability. Thus, the \"trend\" might in fact be misidentifying persistent shocks as changes in trend.The bottom line for this discussion is that there is no single measure of yield variability that is unproblematic. The three measures described here all have advantages and disadvantages. To make sure that the results are not driven primarily by the chosen method of computing variability, this study has attempted to use more than one measure for each set of results. For the most part, the results reported below are quite robust to changes in the method of measuring variability.As noted above, this study will focus on yields aggregated at the level of a region or country group. Within the region, there may be an entirely different level of variance across farms or plots, and changes in the aggregate variability may be entirely different from changes in the spatial variability. For example, we can imagine a situation in which average yield remains constant over time in a region (and thus the variance is zero) but the variance of yields across farms is increasing, as (for example) productive farms achieve ever-higher yields and unproductive farms achieve ever-lower yields. In the same way, it is possible for spatial variance to be zero (all farms have the same yield in a given time period), Since the initial development of improved varieties for the tropics in the 1960s, researchers have sought to assess the yield stability of farming systems that use these varieties. A substantial literature has accumulated over time.Several useful surveys of concepts and measurement approaches have been published, beginning with Anderson, et al. (1977) and extending to Barry (1984); Hardaker et al. (1997); Harwood et al. (1999); and Hardaker et al. (2004).Other works focus on risk aversion in decisionmaking in non-agricultural contexts (Anderson and Hardaker 2003).A small set of works has examined patterns of yield variability at the country or global levels. An A subsequent chapter by Hazell (1989), echoing Hazell (1985), suggested that world cereal The  At the level of aggregation reported here, yield variability has not changed much; there is no obvious visual pattern in the magnitude of the fluctuations. We can quantify this observation by looking at several measures of yield stability.As noted in the introduction, one widely articulated goal of CIMMYT's crop improvement efforts since the 1960s has been to reduce the variance of yields, or equivalently to increase yield stability. 8Have breeders been successful in this effort? We know that new varieties of CIMMYT-derived wheat and maize have been adopted extensively across all regions of CIMMYT's mandate area.Presumably this reflects farmers' choices and revealed preference for the new varieties. But do we observe increased yield stability in the data?  As noted above, one such measure is the coefficient of variation of yields; that is, the standard deviation divided by the mean.Table 2 summarizes changes over time in the CV for wheat for a number of regions; Table 3 shows the same data for maize. The standard deviation used for each year is the computed standard deviation of yields within each region over the preceding 10-year period. 9 This is divided by the mean yield within each region over the same 10-year period. The    general terms, that deviations from trend yields have been relatively constant in magnitude across region and time. There is some evidence that deviations are persistent: an increase above trend in one year is likely to be followed by another positive deviation in the succeeding year. But there is no strong suggestion for either crop that deviations from trend are becoming larger over time.Consider first the case of wheat. For Latin America and the Caribbean (top left panel of Figure 3),  4 and 5).  In a series of regressions, these average deviations were taken as the independent variables and were regressed on a set of independent variables that included the fraction of national wheat area planted to modern varieties at the start of the fiveyear period and the contemporaneous fraction of agricultural area under irrigation.The descriptive analysis of yield variability at the To address these questions, it is useful to consider country-level data. As noted above, the data for this analysis consists of observations at five-year intervals for a number of countries. For each crop and for each country at each date, we observe the yield variability-measured either by a CV or an average percent deviation from trend-along with the proportion of MV area for that crop and the proportion of the country's agricultural area under irrigation.Consider first the case of wheat. As noted above, of the 91 countries in the Evenson data, 58 cultivate wheat. For each of these countries, a smooth yield data series was computed using a Hodrick-Prescott filter with the smoothing parameter set to 100, the standard value for annual data series. (See Figure 5 for an illustration of how the HP filter with this degree of smoothing addresses a noisy data series. Figure 6 shows the deviations from trend that result from this analysis.) The deviations from this trend were then computed for each year, as a percentage of the trend value. For each five-year period, the average percent deviation was computed; thus, for 1965, the average percent deviation over 1961-65 was used as a measure of yield variability in 1965. Finally, a dummy variable was included for countries that produce very small volumes of wheat; such countries might face production constraints that differ from those confronting larger volume wheat-producing countries. In most regression runs, the dummy variable was set to distinguish between countries with more than 50,000 hectares of wheat area and those with less. In some runs, it was set for a cutoff of 100,000 hectares.In all the regression runs the fraction of MV wheat area was negatively associated with yield variability. In other words, the higher the fraction of wheat area planted to modern varieties, the lower the deviations from trend yield. As expected, irrigation also leads to smaller deviations from trend. In some specifications, the time trend is also associated with a smaller deviation from trend, indicating that yield variability is getting smaller over time, even after controlling for irrigation and modern varieties. The dummy variable for \"small producers\" also shows up fairly consistently as significant.Consider Table 6, which lists the results of one regression. In these results, the coefficient on the percent of wheat area planted to MVs is -0.00036, which is strongly statistically significant (at the 5% level). Evaluated at the mean, this implies that the diffusion of modern varieties onto an additional 20% of wheat area in a country is associated with a 6.4% reduction in average deviation from trend yield. This is a substantial reduction in yield variability, though not as large a reduction as would be achieved by a major increase in irrigation: the results suggest that irrigating an additional 10% of agricultural area would be associated with a 10% reduction in average deviation from trend yield.Table 7 shows a similar regression, in which a squared time trend is included to capture any effects on variability that are growing at a geometric rate. Both the linear time trend and the squared time trend show up as strongly statistically significant, as do the irrigation variable, the dummy for small producers, and the MV variable. Quantitatively, the coefficient on the MV term is little changed by adding the square term.  Do the same results hold for maize?The data suggest that the relationship between maize MV diffusion and yield stability is weaker than for wheat.     What are the economic benefits resulting from this decline in yield variability? To address this question, it was necessary to make some assumptions and impose some strong theoretical structure on the problem.The approach taken in this paper is as follows.First, for each country and crop, it is possible to use the estimates described above to compare the current level of yield variability with an alternative scenario in which modern varieties had not reduced yield variability at all. In other words, suppose that modern variety adoption had occurred but had not influenced deviations from trend yield. People in this scenario would prefer either a less risky production system or one with a higher average yield. There is an equivalence between these two desiderata: a variance reduction is as good as an increase in mean yield. We can measure the value of the less risky scenario fairly precisely by asking how much additional yield would be needed to compensate people for the higher variance associated with the risky scenario. This is the approach followed here to compute the benefits of MV-induced reductions in yield variability. Thus, the question we can ask for each country is: if modern varieties had not been accompanied by declines in yield variability, how much worse off would people be today?Using a mean-variance utility specification, it is possible to translate reductions in yield variance into the equivalent increases in mean yield that would leave people comparably well off. These country-level mean yield gains can in turn be aggregated and averaged in various ways.Specifically, suppose that countries have preferences over yield levels and yield variance that take a standard exponential form, such that u(x) = a + be -γ x , where γ is a risk aversion parameter. This specification implies that where x is drawn from a distribution, we can calculate the \"certainty equivalents\" of CE (x) = x -γ , where the first term is the mean of the distribution and the second term includes both the risk aversion parameter and the variance of the distribution. 11Next, note that the analysis of Section 6 suggests that for each country and crop, we observe the variance of production from its trend. Let s 2 i denote this variance for country i, as measured for the year 2000. We know from the regression results of Section 6 that MV diffusion is associated with reductions in the deviations from trend yield for wheat and maize. Using the regression coefficients, it is possible to compute an estimate of the variance that would have pertained in 2000 for each country and crop, in the absence of modern varieties. Note that this approach ignores the impact of MVs on the levels of yield, focusing instead on the variance of yield. i Ỹi is the total across all countries of these output equivalent benefits, and Ỹ/ Y is the aggregate output equivalent gain that is derived from reductions in yield variance. It is straightforward to report these gains as tons of grain or as dollar values.Table 11 reports the results of these calculations for wheat. The table summarizes calculations using an estimate for β that averages the values found in Tables 6 and 7 (0.00038). It also reports estimates using values of this coefficient that are one and two standard errors higher and lower, based on the regression results.  $225,136,350 $298,514,100 $276,825,900 $160,867,200 contributions to yield variance reductions. These are large impacts, and note that they already adjust for the variability-reducing effects of irrigation and other inputs, as well as for the direct yieldincreasing impact of MVs.Table 12 reports similar calculations for maize.Recall that the regression estimates of MV impacts on deviation from trend were somewhat less robust. This leads to a wider range of estimates for potential impact than for wheat. The coefficient estimate for β used in the analysis: was β = -0.0052, with this coefficient applied to the natural logarithm of MV diffusion instead of the absolute level. Results are reported for this value of β, as well as for one and two standard errors above and ","tokenCount":"3955"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f20e244d1c0e334c7c038ed54ef59368","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f985c224-a475-45fc-ab07-ed6f598e2a6c/retrieve","id":"243462205"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"38ebaae4-2be3-4ba2-83bf-63f47a7b2a80","pagecount":"6","content":"Food systems face multifaceted challenges ranging from inadequate supply of nutritious food products to a range of negative environmental impacts (Fable et al., 2020;Rockström et al., 2020;Willett et al., 2019). Functional agricultural biodiversity has emerged as an important consideration that, if carefully managed, could help to improve food system outcomes through several pathways including production risk mitigation, increased and diversified incomes and liveihoods, and potentially as a contributor to healthier diets (Gaitán-Cremaschi et al., 2018;Klerkx & Rose, 2020). However, large-scale regional patterns and drivers of agricultural biodiversity in South Asia remain largely underexplored.To address this gap, TAFSSA is producing a regional agricultural biodiversity database that will support researchers and policy makers in better understanding diversification in the food system and the relationships between agrobiodiversity and key food system outcomes. The current dataset contains regional district-level production data from 2019-2022, depending on availability, and includes a dietary groupings of food groups. Preliminary results show that cereals are by far the largest food category, but also highlight spatial variation in the diversity of food production. Bangladesh, Pakistan, Northern and Eastern India, and Nepal appear to be more diverse and dedicate larger shares of cultivated land to cereals than Western and Central India. After fully harmonizing the data sources, this dataset will help to identify hotspots of agrobiodiversity including diagnostics and drivers of diversification that can inform sustainable food system transitions.Photo: Diversity in smallholder farm production landscapes as shown in Bangladesh, Photo credit: Abdul MominCrop production statistics across South Asia are highly heterogeneous -both in quality and resolution -and are associated with high uncertainties in vegetable production. Methods for data collection vary substantially across countries and also at sub-national levels. Nevertheless, most countries provide at least some indicator of production and area of major crops and crop types at the district level. We integrated these into a common dataset and mapped the production patterns at regional scale. The crop area and production data are collected from multiple national level government department's statistics reports [1-8] from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.TAFSSA's preliminary analysis (Figures 1, 2 and 3) visualize the spatial extent and resolution of the regional dataset and highlight current data gaps. The crop area and production data are shown at district level within the most recent year available, ranging from 2019 to 2021 depending on the country. Importantly, detailed horticulture data for India is not yet fully integrated in this analysis, as the research team is still working to compile available data sources. Data shown in these figures nonetheless does include vegetables as a major crop group.   Figure 2 shows that cereals are by far the largest food group that is being produced in each country of South Asia in terms of production levels, followed by fruits and vegetables. However, many of the surveys from which we complied data are more representative of farm households rather than the area upon which crops are produced. In other words, all sampling methods reviewed in the assembly of data have some degree of extrapolation, which can increase uncertainty and error in datasets. As such, these results should be treated with a degree of caution.The farm household focus of many surveys and secondary datasets available can also result in under-reporting of some crop types. For example, plantation and highly commercial crop are potentially underrepresented. Importantly, the share of vegetables of the total area of production shows substantial spatial variation that may be indicative of variation in the ways in which data on horticulture were collected during primary surveys. Future research will need to grapple with these topics as a unified and defensible dataset for the region is needed. Research will also need to identify how this spatial diversity in agrobiodiversity does or does not affect other food system components, particularly diets. Subsequently, focusing on cases with especially high or especially low diversity could provide avenues for further diagnostic research that helps to understand why some places are already more diverse than others and thus inform food systems transitions.We collected publicly available area and production data at the district level for four countries in South Asia (Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India) from official government reported production statistics. We then categorized the crops within the dataset based on major dietary crop categories. Specifically, we used the category list from the Minimum Dietary diversity for women (MDDW) and Household Diet Diversity Score (HDDS).We further added two categories to meet our crop variety needs for crops like ginger, different spices, cotton, and tobacco that did not fit within the existing categories. These crops roughly fit two classification scheme that we added (1) spices and (2) non-healthy cash crops.This research notes reports on the initial steps for producing a regional and harmonized meso-level dataset on agrobiodiversity across South Asia. Additional research will be required to adequately validate dataset after which it will provide a unique resource for studying agrobiodiversity and its role in the food system within South Asia. Specifically, TAFSSA will be working in the coming year towards representing geographical patterns in nutritional yield (cf. Defries et al. 2015), and examining how the production of key macro-and micronutrients varies in time and space across the region.TAFSSA is a CGIAR regional integrated initiative to support actions that improve equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, improve farmers' livelihoods and resilience, and conserve land, air, and water resources in South Asia.CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future. Visit https://www.cgiar.org/research/ cgiar-portfolio to learn more about the initiatives in the CGIAR research portfolioTo learn more about TAFSSA, please contact: t.krupnik@cgiar.org; p.menon@cgiar.org ","tokenCount":"920"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae2d2806f4aa4a2ea12d8a0df61650c9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/449a022f-d33e-418b-8e4e-b3c494134c5c/retrieve","id":"-608320163"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"974315ee-14ea-4a0b-b7a6-3fca56141a10","pagecount":"20","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food-secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock provides research-based solutions to help smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists transition to sustainable, resilient livelihoods and to productive enterprises that will help feed future generations. It aims to increase the productivity of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together five core partners: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants and dryland systems; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) with expertise particularly in animal health and genetics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which connects research into development and innovation and scaling processes.The Program thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust FundTable 2: Men and women's participation and labour inputs in forage production, use and sale in Uganda . 6 Table 3 Decision-making, access to information and control of benefits in forage production and use ....... 9 Table 4: The participation of men in forage production, feed processing and feeding of pigs .. Pig production has become an increasingly important activity among smallholder farmers in Uganda over the past three decades. There has been a dramatic rise in the pig population from 0.19 to 3.2 million linked to increased pork demand due to consumer preference changes among other factors. The per capita consumption of pork is estimated to be 3.4 kg/person/year representing a ten-fold increase over the last 30 years. Pigs are an important asset for generating income to meet planned and emergency household financial needs (Ouma et al., 2013). Pigs are therefore a risk diversification and livelihood security strategy for many smallholder and poor households in Uganda. Despite the importance of pigs to rural livelihoods, pig productivity remains low in the smallholder pig systems of Uganda. This is linked to feed shortages especially in the dry seasons, poor and variable feed quality, the high cost of feeds, disease burdens, and poor prices of pigs on the markets.In the rural and peri-urban smallholder production systems, pigs are traditionally offered a variety of forage-based diets comprising cassava leaves, sweet potato vines and peels, weeds, young pumpkin leaves, banana peelings, fresh bean leaves, cooked sweet potato tubers, Napier grass, avocado fruit, and papaya fruit. These feed types comprise 52-55% of pig diets in these systems with the remainder coming from grazing natural pastures (Lukuyu et al., 2017). Smallholder farmers gather most of the feeds off farm for several hours each day and feed pigs that are often tethered in homesteads. Occasionally pigs are allowed to scavenge for feeds within the village. Generally, there is an overreliance on feeding pigs on collected feeds which, usually does not meet the nutritional requirements of pigs, and results in slow growth rates (Maass, et al., 2014). Women, youth and children provide most of the labour for collecting forages, feeding and watering pigs.The high prices of commercial feed concentrates, poor quality and variable availability discourage farmers from using them resorting to locally available feed options to feed pigs. Climate smart livestock production practices such as formulating diets based in local feed resources and planted forages suitable for pig feeding have been identified as solutions to increasing pig productivity on smallholder farms. Planted forage legumes have been evaluated as one option for small and medium size pig producers (Heinritz et al., 2012). Research has shown that grazing pigs gained 113 kilograms more daily and were ready for market 24 days earlier than those having no forage. The green feed not only stimulated the appetite and caused the pigs to consume a larger amount of other feed but also enabled them to produce greater gain in live weight per kilogram of grain or concentrates consumed. When saving in feed per unit of gain is considered it shows gazing on high quality forage can be more beneficial. In Uganda, research has shown that there was considerable weight gain among the pigs fed on the locally formulated forage-based diets (local and silage diets) compared to those fed commercial feed diets (Carter et al., 2015). Despite the demonstrated benefits of planted forages as pig feed, the adoption rate has remained low due to lack of understanding of problems faced by farmers. The present study investigated the gender aspects of introducing improved planted forages suitable for pig feeding in Kamuli, Hoima, Masaka, and Lira districts of Uganda in 2016/17 by the Livestock CRP project.This study focused on what happens beyond just farmers planting forages. We investigated the gender dynamics and social implications associated with the introduction of improved planted forages in piggery systems of Uganda. The following research questions addressed were:What are the social implications and gender dynamics of planted forages, especially regarding land and labour allocation between women, men and youth/children in the household? (ii) What are the gender roles in decisions over forages and adoption of forage technologies? Specifically: a. How does forage production increase women's inclusion into the pig value chain and how do they benefit from it? b. How much time do cultivating improved forages save compared to collected forages? c. How does relieving the labour burden of collecting forages by women and youth/children affect different domains of women's social and economic empowerment? d. How do planted forages affect men's participation in pig and cattle feeding? e. What are the actual constraints and opportunities for women to engage in forage production, use and sale? f. How have planted forages affected household food security, depending on whose land they are planted?A qualitative study design was used. The Focused group discussion tool was pretested once and revised to improve clarity, and to ensure cultural connotations are captured. This study was conducted in Hoima, Kamuli and Masaka districts in Uganda in 2018. A total of twelve genderseparated focus group discussions (FGDs) with 4 men and 4 women groups and 4 mixed-men and women. The FGDs were conducted in venues in villages near participants' homes. A total of 98 farmers received forage seeds of Brachiaria Hybrids -Cayman, Cobra and Mulato II, in all project sites in 2016 for planting. In addition, farmers received training on forage production and use. District veterinary officers (VO) listed potential participants who received forage seeds for planting and or received training on forages residing within the VO's jurisdictional area Kamuli district (n = 38 = 17 men and 21 women participants), Hoima district (n = 49 = 23 men and 26 women participants), and Masaka district (n = 47 = 23 men and 24 women participants). The inclusion criteria were farmers who had planted and used improved forages, a mix of both women and men, and different age groups. VOs orally informed potential participants in person that they were invited to participate in the FGDs and were informed about the venues.Each FGD was led by a team comprising of lead facilitator, observer facilitator and a note taker, a timekeeper and translator where necessary. The team was trained on the questionnaires and FGD procedures before conducting the exercise. All discussions were conducted in Luganda, Lunyoro, or Lusoga languages, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and translated into English. Field notes were taken by a second facilitator who observed the FGD. All FGDs opened with a prayer and a consent note was read to the participants in either Luganda Lunyoro, or Lusoga languages.Participants we asked to decide if they wanted to voluntarily participate in the discussion or opt out at this point. All invitees agreed to participate. Permission was also sort from them to take photographs. No participants refused to have their photos taken. The FGD questions investigated the improved forage type adopted, labour burden and/ or relief of improved forage to women and youth/ children, effects of forage adoption on men's involvement in pig feeding, actual constraints and opportunities for women to engage in forage production, use and sale, perceived costs, benefits, and effects on the existing roles and responsibilities for men and women with respect to improved planted forage adoption. Each FGD lasted for about two and half hours. The responses and comments from each FGD were organized into spreadsheets following the order of guiding questions and modules to enable cross-group (gender) and cross-district comparison. Data were analyzed using NVivo 10 for Windows.Participants the FGDs are shown in (Table 1). FGDs were held in two villages in Hoima and Masaka districts; and in three villages in Kamuli district. FGDs took place in Lunyoro, Luganda and Lusoga languages in Masaka, Hoima and Kamuli respectively. The results from the five communities revealed findings in relation to costs and benefits of planted forages, associated shifts in power dynamics of households and decision-making in the production of forages; and access to opportunities following the adoption of improved forages. The findings revealed that both men and women had adopted various varieties of improved forages and fodder trees such as Brachiaria grass cultivars Mulato I and II, Mulberry trees (Morus species), velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens), Desmodium species, butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea), Lablab purpureus, Canavalia brasiliensis and Sesbania sesban. The sources included CIAT, ILRI and Kawanda Agricultural Research station. Results indicated that the costs and benefits as a result of adopting improved forages are unevenly distributed among men and women in the households. The following sections present the findings on gendered themes highlighting the environmental, human and social (access to and control over income, livestock and changes in decision-making), economic and productivity benefits/ impacts of improved planted forage adoption.Gender roles and labour input in forage production, use and saleMen and women farmers in the separate and mixed focused group discussions listed key activities performed in the production, sale and use of improved planted forage. The activities and the participation of men, women, and children are presented in Table 2. In general, men, women, and children are involved in activities associated with forage production, sale and use. However, children are more involved in activities such as digging, harvesting/collection of forage and weeding in Kamuli district which was not the case for other study sites. The results showed that both men and women across all sites jointly perform most of the tasks involved in forage production including ploughing/ land tillage, manure application, planting forages, and transplanting of seedlings. However, men in Hoima district tended to be more involved with activities such as slashing, conserving forages, selling forages, spraying of forages. On the other hand, women farmers contribute more in activities like weeding and irrigating forages where applicable, harvesting, chopping and feeding pigs.Table 2: Men and women's participation and labour inputs in forage production, use and sale in UgandaParticipation by gender ActivitiesNotes: M = Male, F=Female, J = Joint, X= Not applicable Source: FGDs survey, Uganda, December 2018The discussions on forage adoption and subsequent changes in women and men's daily activities revealed mixed responses amongst men and women participants. Both men and women participants reported that adopting improved planted forages saved them labour time they would have otherwise used to fetch feeds often too far away from their homesteads. Both men and women concurred that because improved forages are planted closer to homesteads, they are motivated to feed pigs due to easy access, hence saving time. Men and women farmers used the saved time on different social economic and personal activities. Women reported using the saved time to do other activities e.g. craft work that earns them extra income. This also affords them rare time to rest from their busy schedules of domestic chores. Unlike women, men used the time saved to engage in business activities such as shop keeping, fishing, trading in coffee etc. A few farmers reported experiencing no change due to the use of forages. One man suggested that chopping of forages has increased demand on his time. Some women also expressed concerns that although they have adopted improved forages their routine woman's daily activities have remained the same. One woman noted \"As women we have a daily calendar, from bed, you know what you must do throughout the day and this is a women's daily life. I personally don't see the impact of forages as my daily activities have remained the same\". Further probing revealed that these are farmers who have planted tiny portions of forages on their farms.However, both men and women participants expressed concern that the establishment of forages occurs at a time when there are competing labour demands for various activities on farms. They said establishment of forages often coincides with the other food crop farming activities such as land cultivation, sourcing and application of manure and planting food crops. In addition, farmers still must carry out other regular livestock activities such as harvesting and chopping forages etc. However, participants added that while there is added labour demand for planting of forages, the demand eases off significantly once the forages are established. Participants reported that when feeding of forages begins, they get an opportunity to harvest forages in bulk and feed pigs over several days releasing more time for other farming activities.'Planted forages also save us time to do other income generating activities, adds another female farmer' (Namasagli, Kamuli district).A woman farmer feeding a tethered pig on forages in Kamuli district, Uganda. Photo by Ben Lukuyu, 2018.To understand better men and women's decision-making roles in forage production, and their access to and control over benefits accruing from forage adoption, participants were tasked to compare their roles and access to opportunities before and after adopting forages (Table 3). The findings show that prior to forage adoption, men dominated most of the decision-making over forage production -where to plant, how much land to commit to forages and the number of animals to keep; access to fodder markets and the use of income from fodder. Findings show that forage adoption has influenced women's decision-making roles, with most decisions on forage production being taken jointly with men. Women have the decision power over when to plant forages and have better access to training and information of improved forages before and after the adoption. Men, however, still retain the access to fodder markets and control over income from fodder and the decision on land usage after the adoption of forages.Our study demonstrates that forage adoption presented a shift in rights and changes in household decision-making because planted forages are a new crop to most farms and are being introduced for the first time. This introduction required households to decide on several management issues including -where to plant forage, size of land to use, how many pigs to keep and how to use forage.Participants explained that this required households to discuss and find the best option(s) of introducing the forages in their farming systems. This has forced a joint decision-making process to happen in most households.One man said that 'Before the introduction of forage, we didn't have plots dedicated for forages. We used to feed our pigs on crop resides, sweet potato vines, collected amaranth species (cultivated as leaf vegetables) and kitchen waste which was mainly the work of women. \"When the forages came, my wife and I sat to agree on where to plant the forages and the number of pigs to keep. So, there is some change in decision making\". Both women and men agree that because they have small land sizes, they needed to use them very well and that requires careful consideration of how much land to plant forages to, where to plant forages and how many pigs to keep without facing difficulties of feeding. Men reported that although they have the right to land use, the benefits of improved forages to pig production are now bringing about \"joint\" decision-making over land use and particularly the number of pigs to keep. \"Traditionally, land belongs to the men and women would not discuss land matters but because now the pig business benefits the whole family, we sit and agree\" said a farmer from Bugulumbya, Kamuli. District'. Men farmers perceive decision making in pig production to be changing since they jointly decide where and how much fodder to plant. In most cases farmers prefer to plant fodder as close to the pig sty as possible to reduce the distances of transporting forage to pig sties.Although, some women confirmed the assertion of men allowing them to make decisions in certain aspect of forages management and use, they reported that because of the principal role of men as household heads, they still influenced some of the decisions they make jointly. One woman posed 'Men decide where to plant forage. What do you make of the fact that most farmers with small land sizes plant forages on farm boundaries in Masaka district?' Where to plant foragesWhen to plant foragesSize of land used for foragesAccess to information on livestockNotes: M = Male, F=Female, J = Joint. 'Before' and 'After' refers to the adoption of forages Source: FGDs for men and women, Uganda, December 2018Access to and control over land, livestock and incomeThe narratives of women across all sites demonstrate that the adoption of planted forage has had little or no effect on their access to and control over land and livestock, stressing that men still held management rights over land and livestock. Women ascertained that culturally, it is men who own land and any decisions about land use are directed to men. Women however acknowledged that men are allowing them permission to plant forages on certain portions of land that would otherwise be reserved for food crops. Contrary to reports from women, male participants explained that although they have management rights over land, planting of forages have forced them to make \"joint\" decision-making over land use and the number of pigs to keep as earlier observed. One man said that allowing women permission to establish forages on certain portions of land over a long period of time gives them the access to control and use those portions of land. Men agreed that they are motivated to allow women rights to land use for establishing forages particularly next to the pig sty so that they don't have to walk long distances to search for pig feed which is often the role allocated to men.On access to livestock, again traditionally, livestock belongs to men. However, both men and women agree that there is an emerging change of men consulting women on pig management because its normally a women's role to take care of pigs. Most men acknowledged the fact that they consulted with women on the number of pigs to keep matching the amount of feed they can produce on farm which gives them a feeling of greater ownership and control. This also ensures the pigs are fed well.Both men and women also agreed that planting forages encourages them to confine animals as they were able to cut and feed the forages. One man said 'This costs more money. When our pigs were scavenging and gazing naturally, I would just buy pigs or piglets and bring them home without worrying about whether feed is enough or not'On access to income, participants agreed that men have traditionally had a bigger control on income from livestock activities. However, they noted there is some change especially with the use of income from piggeries since women are responsible of taking care of pigs. Since there is equal division of roles of managing pigs, men and women jointly agree on income use. One woman said, 'Before men used to sell the pigs and disappear with the money'.The study participants attributed the adoption of planted forages to their increased access to trainings on forage production, management and use offered through the project; and the fact that they can sell excess fodder to neighbours. The farmers acknowledged that training workshops have offered them an opportunity to learn about forage production and related benefits. Both men and women, agreed that initially training workshops were left mainly to women. However, it was clear from discussions that men are increasingly beginning to participate in order to manage the forages better.Farmers It was evident that men have sole decisions over marketing of fodder. Both women and men however agreed that although forage trading was emerging in rural areas, it was not common, and buyers are offering low prices. Nevertheless, they ascertained that women are always home, so they hardly get information on fodder markets. In addition, they don't have strong bargaining power so they can easily be cheated. However, discussions did not reveal any increased access to market opportunities as a result of planting improved forages for women. Asked why they have little access to market opportunities, women attribute it to their limited mobility, limited access to market information and perceived weak bargaining power as compared to men. In Kamuli and Hoima districts, men however, reported the increased market opportunities in terms of higher price for pigs that are fed well. In particular, pigs fed on forage-based diets are perceived to have better meat quality (lean, less fat content and marbled) compared to commercial feeds. Farmers reported that traders appreciate pigs fed on forage and offer an additional UGX 30,000 -50,000 in price (10-17% of the total price). Farmers also reported that they no longer sell young pigs but keep them to slaughter weight when they have enough forages to graze pigs on How planted forages affect women and men's participation in pig feedingOur findings show that men did not participate much in feeding pigs. However, there has been a significant increase in men's involvement in pig feeding following the introduction of planted forage on farms and particularly in Kamuli district (Table 4). Asked why planted forage has affected men's participation in pig feeding, both men and women participants agreed that men have now taken up the tasks of harvesting and chopping Napier grass which are perceived to be one of the hardest jobs. They also said that men's increased involvement was due to the convenience of easy access to planted forages which meant less time having to fetch feed. Men also sometime participate in feeding the pigs. One man said, \"We would give ourselves a rating of 7/10 for our involvement in pig feeding after forage adoption'. Before the introduction of planted forages pigs were freely grazing in the open and fed on kitchen waste and collected feeds, tasks that were normally performed by women.However, in Hoima district women participants intimated that apart from the reasons given above, men's increased participation is associated with the benefits that are now coming from the pig enterprise after the adoption of planted forages i.e. from the sale of pigs or forages. One woman explained that her husband picked up interest in forage production because he derives some benefits from it such as income form sales and also it freed him some time from fetching feed.Without an outright opposition, the men confirmed women's voices that their involvement is as a result of the profit that is directly or indirectly related to forage production on farms. In Hoima, men stated that: \"The increased availability of planted forages has boosted the growth of pigs and other livestock, hence there is increased income from pigs and milk as well. Because of the increased income, men are more involved in the piggery business\", a male participant reported. Men and women participants agreed that in general the increased prices of pork have also influenced men's' involvement in pig management. Notes: M = Male, F=Female, J = Joint. Ranking of participation: where 1 = low/ no participation; 5 = medium/partial participation and 10 = high/full participationParticipants enumerated the benefits of planted forages on pig productivity (Table 5). Both male and female participants revealed that the main environmental benefits of planted forages are that pigs fed on planted forages yield more and high-quality manure; and the resulting manure is important in improving soil fertility on farms. Planted forages can also withstand drought. However, participants reported planted forages harden the soil. A range of economic benefits of planted forage were elicited by the participants. The narratives of both men and women farmers indicated that planted forages present opportunities for them to generate more income and/or make savings either through the sale of planted forage, reduced expenses on commercial feeds (maize, potato, etc.), that the healthy and heaver pigs fetch higher prices and labour savings due to easy access to planted forages. One farmer reported \"I don't have pigs, but I have a lot of forages which I sell for income\".Table 5: Farmers perceived benefits of planted foragesThe pigs grow faster and are healthyPigs come on heat for mating timely Pigs are less fatty and result in higher pricesPigs fed forages produce more manure for application to crops-soil fertilityThe manure from pigs fed on forage is of good quality Forages are planted on steep slopes to control soil erosion Some of the planted forages withstand the dry season wellForages reduces on expenses incurred to buy commercial pig feeds. Savings made could be used to buy other inputs for pigs You can produce much more feed from a small land area of improved forages compared to natural pasture Farmers without pigs can sell forages for incomeConstraints on women's engagement in forage production, use and saleDespite the observed benefits of forage adoption, the discussions show that both men and women face different types of constraints to forage adoption (Table 6). Men's constraints were linked to forage production and training. However, women's constraints were mainly linked to land use, training and climate related constraints. The purpose of this study was to explore gender dynamics and social implications of improved planted forages. The study involved qualitative analysis from focus group discussions (FGDs) with 12 gender separated FGDs in Uganda. It explored land ownership, land use, control and access, division of labour, decision-making, the distribution of cost and benefits, constraints and opportunities related to forage production on smallholder farms. The findings revealed that men and women are active participants in forage production on smallholder farms. Additionally, planted forages present differential costs and benefits for men and women farmers including changes in decision-making in forage management, reduced labour for sourcing feeds, more and less costly feeds leading to increased savings; time relief from sourcing for feeds that is converted to engagement in other economic and leisure activities, women's increased access to trainings and information; and men's increased involvement in feeding, increased access to the sale of forage and healthier livestock for income.The study revealed that men and women perform tasks related to improved forage production, sale and use. Generally, men's involvement was prominently associated with land preparation activities including slashing and bush clearing, digging and cultivating land. They are also partly involved in feed mixing, feed storage, feeding pigs and fodder selling. Women farmers on the other hand, are more active in planting and weeding forages, chopping feed, feeding, and irrigation where applicable. However, women's increased labour could be partially explained in terms of added roles of other forage production related activities to their daily household activities. This finding indicates the critical role women play in forage and pig production and its consistent with the findings of Arora et al., (2017) and Njarui et al., (2012) who found that women significantly participate and provide labour in forage and livestock production.This study also showed that planting improved forages on smallholder farms has increased men's participation in feed preparation and feeding of pigs. However, it emerged that men's involvement is somewhat motivated by the emerging potential benefits and profitability of planted forages. This finding, therefore, suggests that women may be less likely gain the full privileges and benefits of improved planted forage as men gradually intercede. This result is consistent with findings of Quisumbing &Kumar, (2011) andvon Braun &Webb, (1989) who found that women have limited access to, and loose full rights over, economic activities that appear profitable and have the potential to increase the income status of women. Despite women's active participation in forage production, our findings showed that there is a gender imbalance in women's access to fodder markets and income from the sale of planted forages. Men attributed this to women's limited access to market information and weak bargaining power. Again, men's intervention in the potentially profitable sale of fodder is a pointer to women's limited benefit or elimination from market participation altogether. This finding suggests that there may be unequal distribution of benefits coming from planting of improved forages, with women mostly losing out. This finding is consistent with the findings of Arora et al. (2017) and Theis et al. (2018). Given the big role of women in forage production in Uganda, this trend may affect the adoption of planting forages in the long run. Indeed, Theis et al. (2018) points out that men who usually have access to the market and control the proceeds from a technology will mainly use the generated income to meet their needs, rather than that of women and/ or the household.There is evidence in the literature that shows that new technologies can either reduce the labour burden especially for women and/ or exacerbate their time burden, subsequently, affecting their well-being and development (Arora et al., 2017;Benard, et al., 2016;Theis et al., 2018). The findings of this study reinforce these observations because the introduction of improved forages brings additional labour and results in time savings for both women and men. Men adopters of improved planted forages reported an additional labour burden of preparing land for planting forages and chopping forages for pigs but at the same time they save time that they use to engage in economic activities such as business, other farming activities etc. Women on the other hand, face an increased labour burden by participating in activities that are associated with forage production and use such as cultivating, application of fertilizer, weeding and harvesting but they also save time which they use to engage in craft work that earn them extra income and also affords then rare time to rest from their busy schedules of domestic chores. Most importantly, women pig farmers in Uganda carry out forage-related activities concomitantly with their daily activities, hence, bearing the double burden of reproductive and productive work as reported previously (Arora et al., 2017;Benard, et al., 2016).It is therefore important to bear in mind that improved planted forages can potentially reduce the labour burden and save time for women to participate in other economic activities but may also be a constraining factor if not planned well.One of the major findings of this study is the variation in men and women's participation in decisionmaking for forage production in terms of management rights-size of land to use, where to plant, when to plant, how many pigs to keep (use) etc. Generally, adoption of improved forage appears to promote joint decision-making where women are jointly active participants with men on decisionmaking as compared to when they did not plant forages. This implies women are now empowered to bargain with men for their preferences and needs of forage production to be considered. However, it is important to note that men have a stronger and reserved management rights over land use, which will continue to limit women's ability to express their preferences and needs in forage production Thus, in the context of Uganda where women have limited access to land, their preferences and needs in forage production are more likely to be affected. This finding concurs with that of Theis et al., (2018), who reported that in cases where women face several bundles of hindrances in management rights, it reduces the ability of women to adopt a technology compared to men.Economically, improved planted forages ensures the availability of forages for livestock production and reduces time spent sourcing feed off farm and hence alleviates feed shortages on smallholder farms in Uganda. In addition, planted forages have the potential to increase household income. This finding agrees with similar work of Lukuyu et al., (2017). Overall, farmers who adopt improved planted forages can reduce feeding costs, improve nutritional value of pig diets and ensure a constant supply of feed throughout the year.This research is one of the few that highlights women's critical roles in forage production, sale and use on smallholder farms. This study has contributed to the knowledge of how gender dynamics influences the growing of improved planted forages. The study focused on what happens beyond smallholder farmers just planting and using planted forages. Overall, the findings show that, there are gendered dynamics and social implications during and beyond planting of improved forages.There has been a significant increase in men's involvement in pig feeding following the introduction of planted forage on farms in Uganda.Results indicate that the costs and benefits as a result of adopting improved forages are unevenly distributed among men and women in the households. Prior to forage adoption, men dominated most of the decision-making over forage production -where to plant, how much land to commit to forages and number of animals to keep; access to fodder markets and use of income from fodder.Women have the decision power over when to plant forages and have better access to training and information of improved forages before and after the adoption. Men, however, still retain the access to fodder markets and control over income from fodder and the decision on land usage after the adoption of forages.","tokenCount":"5561"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"93bea596cc8fe47f302c44be19b9a7ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/94dfbd14-4c2f-44f5-9731-c6e79e26d759/retrieve","id":"1828152545"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"06981677-c536-4c44-94dd-953cd9229296","pagecount":"6","content":"Nombre del proyecto: Monitoreo y seguimiento de nieblas con instrumentos de bajo costo Descripción de su proyecto El desarrollo de estos instrumentos de bajo costo tienen la finalidad de habilitar una vía de instrumentación meteorológica de la cual se puedan registrar variables meteorológicas que estén relacionadas con el tema de interés que se planee observar como un monitoreo de nieblas, heladas o sequías a un bajo costo de elaboración del instrumento; ya que para estos casos de estudio se requeriría una estación meteorológica que suele costar un gran monto fuera del alcance económico del investigador. Por ello, se emplean materiales que reemplacen las funciones estructurales de dicha estación automática y sean más ventajosos de usar por el bajo costo de construcción como beneficio.1. Desarrollar prototipos para el registro de nieblas en las zonas de las lomas costeras 2. Registrar información de viento, humedad del aire, humedad del suelo, radiación y visibilidad en las zonas de las lomas costeras 3. Analizar la intensidad y frecuencia de las nieblas sobre el desarrollo de la vegetación II.Impacto Social: La innovación de nuestro producto puede ser usada en rubros agrícolas, ganaderos, ambientales y meteorológicos, investigadores de instituciones que participen en proyectos de bajo financiamiento, ya que esto sería el atractivo para los usuarios que muestren interés en esas ramas mencionadas y; por ende, armen dichos instrumentos.La implementación de estos instrumentos nos ayuda a determinar si se puede recolectar agua a partir del agua precipitable existente de la formación de nieblas mediante el famoso \"atrapanieblas\" y con este instrumento de bajo costo podremos determinar en qué zonas de las lomas c puede establecer su instalación para mejorar la eficiencia de la recolección de esta agua precipitable. Además de que el agua recolectada, puede ser destinada para la seguridad alimentaria ya que una vez recolectado este recurso hídrico puede ser destinado a un fin agrícola en épocas de estiaje, donde los campos agrícolas sufren la ausencia de agua. Esto mejoraría su resiliencia ante las temporadas de sequías y se crearía un sistema de irrigación a partir del almacén de estas aguas precipitables recolectadas.Nos basamos en los patrones de humedad relativa, agua precipitable, radiación y vegetación que existen en el área de estudio que dan la formación de las nieblas. Según Cereceda ( 2008), la variabilidad temporal y espacial de las nieblas en los 3 niveles nos ayudará a determinar la intensidad de la niebla gracias al instrumento aprovechando la temporada de lomas en la cual el ecosistema presenta las condiciones favorables para su formación.III.Pasos para el armado de la placa stevenson.-Creación de un modelo 3D para la impresión de la placa stevenson.-Soldadura del cable RJ45 para la conexión de los sensores de Temperatura-Humedad, sensor de luz y sensor de radiación. -Conexión sensor de Luz (BH1750), el sensor de radiación (GY ML8511) , sensor de temperatura y humedad (DHT 22). -Probar las conexiones de los sensores y generar el código para su funcionamiento.Pasos para el armado del anemómetro.-Impresión del modelo de la base y de las cazoletas para el anemómetro.-Armado y conexión del sensor de velocidad de viento (Sensor de efecto hall).-Prueba del código para su funcionamiento.Pasos para el armado del instrumento de Humedad el suelo.-Conexión del sensor de humedad del suelo (Soil moisture sensor 1.2V).-Prueba del código para su funcionamiento.Pasos para la conexión de los 3 instrumentos.-En la placa general de todos los instrumentos se conecto lo siguiente: para la transmisión se utilizó el arduino esp32 wroover module, para la recepción se utilizó el arduino esp32 wroom y también para la captación de señal se utilizó el dispositivo Lora. -Conexión de todos los sensores en la placa general.-Prueba de un código general que unifique todos los sensores.-Resultado del instrumento de humedad del suelo Conexión del sensor de humedad del suelo con el arduino.-Resultado de la placa madre de todos los sensores. Se conectaron los sensores de las variables a analizar y después se probó el código de los sensores de arduino.Conclusiones y tareas pendientes:-Se requiere el armado de la base de todos los instrumentos, para ello se necesitan tubos de gran dureza que servirá como base para los instrumentos. -Se necesita conectar la fuente de energía, que en este caso es el panel solar.-Se necesita instalar el prototipo como tal en las lomas para poder comprobar su efectividad y también el funcionamiento de la conexión.IV.Completar la información de todos los integrantes del equipo, tanto alumnos como docentes, sean o no parte de un círculo de investigación, agregar más filas en caso sea necesario. ","tokenCount":"747"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d640809d17c0c7b108a6dbe719297908","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/560a62d9-d77b-468f-8432-2fca636c6912/retrieve","id":"1291192453"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8e1549ac-b26f-42c5-b3e3-4268968d0710","pagecount":"1","content":"Space-time analysis ❑ Space-time cube ❑ Getis-Ord Gi* statistics ❑ Emerging Hot Spot analysis ❑ Mann-Kendall statistics ❑ Descriptive analyses ❑ Data summaries ❑ Regression models ❑ Logistic model ❑ Negative binomial model ❑Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a disease of small ruminants ❑ Caused by PPR virus, a negative sense morbillivirus ❑ Global Annual economic losses ~USD 1.5 -2.1 billion ❑ An effective PPR vaccine is commercially available ❑ There is need to devise efficient vaccination strategies ❑ To guide risk-based PPR vaccination programs, we fit a purely spatial model to identify high risk PPR zonesJoseph Nkamwesiga 1,2 , Fedor Korennoy 3 , Paul Lumu 4 , Peninah Nsamba 5 , Frank Nobert Mwiine 5 , Kristina Roesel 2 , Barbara Wieland 6,7 , Andres Perez 8 , Henry Kiara 2 , Dennis Muhanguzi 22 September 2022ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.❑ This may be used to guide targeted vaccine-distribution to maximise the impact of vaccination while reducing costs ❑ These findings provide a basis for a more robust timing and prioritization of control measures to contribute to the global goal of control and eradication by 2030  ","tokenCount":"202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"541e3211f0a1497d29478eef4f6ebeb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e0b19fc-f943-476c-bec7-6c9790d16c8c/retrieve","id":"-672427194"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6f4f5566-2844-42df-b902-299787805cc5","pagecount":"15","content":"In 2021, 12 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and four CGIAR Platforms came to a close. This summary report presents an overview of the work of the CGIAR Genebank Platform between 2017 and 2021 and highlights its key achievements over this five-year period.Led by the Crop Trust, the CGIAR Genebank Platform enabled the 11 CGIAR genebanks to fulfill their legal obligation to conserve and make available accessions of crops and trees on behalf of the global community under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). The Genebank Platform was an essential component of a global system on the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).The Genebank Platform was part of the Crop Trust's overall effort to safeguard globally important ex situ collections and promote a rational, efficient, and sustainable global system. The Crop Trust provided oversight of the Platform. Day-to-day implementation of the Platform's activities was performed by the managers of the CGIAR genebanks and germplasm health units (GHUs), and by CGIAR policy experts.Through the Genebank Platform, the CGIAR genebanks responded to thousands of requests for germplasm from users worldwide every year. The Genebank Platform took an active approach to fostering two-way engagement between genebanks and users -the genebanks supplied germplasm and information, and users provided new information on the germplasm they received. Links with the CGIAR agrifood system (AFS) CRPs, the Excellence in Breeding Platform, and the Big Data Platform featured prominently in this exchange.Within CGIAR, all CRPs and Platforms made use of the services provided by the Genebank Platform. The Genebank Platform facilitated the work of breeders by developing tools that allowed researchers to find the necessary germplasm more easily.Outside CGIAR, the Genebank Platform received requests for germplasm and support from universities, national agricultural research systems (NARS), advanced research institutes, genebanks, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), farmer groups, and the private sector. The Genebank Platform consolidated and expanded partnerships with these groups to bring in new users and to encourage a more productive two-way flow of information.In 2017, the CGIAR Advisory Services (CAS) Secretariat Evaluation Function coordinated an evaluation of the Genebank Platform to serve as a baseline. Evidence from the evaluation was integrated in the Platform's design and implementation from 2017 onward.The work of the Genebank Platform aimed to ensure that: ▸ Germplasm accessions were healthy and available for immediate distribution.▸ Germplasm accessions were safety duplicated.▸ Germplasm accessions were documented to facilitate their use.▸ Quality management systems were in place in all genebanks and GHUs.▸ Genebank processes complied with international policy.Overview CONT'DThe Genebank Platform consisted of three modules: Between 2017 and 2021, CGIAR genebanks distributed a total of 473,621 germplasm samples (3.8 million accessions). Consistently over the five-year period, germplasm distribution to requesters outside CGIAR exceeded distribution within CGIAR (Figure 1). Of all requested samples, 212,930 (39%) were provided to CRPs, and 260,691 (61%) were distributed to non-CGIAR recipients in 139 countries.External distributions varied by user from 2017-2021.In 2021, 34% of external distributions were made to NARS and national genebanks, 51% to advanced research institutes and universities, and 7% to the commercial sector, NGOs, farmers, and individuals (Figure 2).  In terms of distribution by crop, 24% of distributed samples were rice, 15% were wheat, and 14% were chickpea (Figure 5).Between 2017 and 2021, the Genebank Platform reassessed its priorities and focus as a result of changing circumstances, opportunities, and challenges. Notable adjustments and pivots included:▸ In 2018, resources were pooled between seven genebanks, and samples from multiple crops were sent to Diversity Arrays for DArTseq genotyping. The project focused on assessing the genetic heterozygosity within and between seed accessions to inform managers and users on patterns of diversity within collections. The project succeeded in sending 15,000 DNA samples from 865 accessions to Diversity Arrays. In 2020, the data derived from these samples generated 526,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms and provided a striking picture of the distribution of diversity within collections.The study helped to guide improvements in collections and genebank processes for specific crops.▸ In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required genebank and GHU staff to shift to remote work. In addition to keeping staff safe during lockdowns, all genebanks focused on avoiding the loss of accessions by sustaining sufficient numbers of staff in the laboratories, screenhouses, and fields to carry out critical operations. These processes included monitoring cold rooms, subculturing in vitro accessions, and processing seed from harvest to cold room. Harvests were lost in a small number of cases only. Genebanks and GHUs continued to prioritize requests for germplasm and phytosanitary testing. Although germplasm distributions declined by around 50% compared to pre-pandemic years, more than 90% of requests were fulfilled.▸ As a result of One CGIAR developments and other considerations, the Genebank Platform adopted one data management system for all CGIAR genebanks. This was more ambitious than the original proposal, which aimed to support the adoption of GRIN-Global in six Centers. Piloting of GRIN-Global was completed in 2021. ▸ Sharing benefits from the use of genebankassociated sequence data.Tensions surrounding this debate risked undermining policy support from the ITPGRFA for CGIAR Center operations, as well as any publicly funded initiative to sequence genebank collections and make data available.In response, the Genebank Platform submitted a detailed paper to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat in 2017 highlighting the benefits of genetic sequencing to the conservation and use of genetic resources. The Genebank Platform also continued its engagement in international policy discussions.▸ Security of collections.In two cases, political measures prevented the distribution of materials that should have been available in accordance with those Centers' ITPGRFA Article 15 Agreements. To address this, Centers engaged and negotiated with the countries in question. By 2020, the importance of safety duplication was acutely apparent following the use of Svalbard Global Seed Vault deposits to reconstitute the seed collections at ICARDA after its move from Syria, and the use of safety duplicates in tissue culture collections to replace cultures that could not be subcultured quickly enough in lockdown conditions.▸ The system for tissue culture collections was at serious risk of collapse due to lockdowns and reduced staff capacity. In response, several Center genebanks used cryopreservation to ensure that accessions remain viable for decades and only require replenishing if the sample is used. The Clonal Crop Community of Practice developed a Global Cryopreservation Initiative to advance work on cryopreservation and provide support to national genebanks to cryopreserve their collections. The Crop Trust is helping the group to raise funds with support from BMZ.▸ Institutional financial management practices constrained the management of genebank budgets and the pursuit of cost efficiencies. Constraining issues arose from general financial management practices, attribution of full-cost recoveries, effectiveness of data management tools, procurement practices, and the effects of unexpected and last-minute changes in institutional income.▸ Weakness of data management systems.The legacy of documentation significantly affected knowledge of the identity, health, and viability of individual accessions.The introduction of a quality management system and performance targets improved documentation and critical review of processes.Using one data management system instead of multiple systems streamlined improvement efforts and facilitated the implementation of stronger data management practices and tools.  Funding and Finance  8). The Genebank Platform's top funder (Figure 9) was the CGIAR Trust Fund for Windows 1&2, followed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Germany, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Genebank Platform was implemented by AfricaRice, the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IITA, ILRI, and IRRI, with the Global Crop Diversity Trust as the lead institution (Figure 10). ","tokenCount":"1248"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e7fd49e1a2a2e16942c1a468b6b026ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/818ebe13-0237-4e46-ab7f-a1e5adb9331e/retrieve","id":"1875662505"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a4ea548-6bb0-4205-b0a7-462d854dbd62","pagecount":"2","content":"Soil depth, water availability, management practices etc. also impact crop responses to water deficit. Conceptualizing a drought-adaptive ideotype optimized for many scenarios may not be possible. But distinct traits related to drought adaptation, which are similar across species grown under diverse conditions, could be used as targets for custom-designing crops. Developing designer crops that integrate individually strengthened leaf and root systems, can be simplified by implementing recent technical breakthroughs. Combining genetic resources and transformative capabilities (e.g. genomic breeding, synthetic biology, etc.) will be essential for tailoring crops. The context-dependent effect of each trait, multiplicity of combined traits, and genotype × environment interactions for each trait necessitates the use of modeling innovations, to derive a probabilistic approach for identifying the most desirable allelic combinations.Comments: <Not Defined> 1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:13 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4821af810b538d3c674cfd5c9a87ff71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/853ec3c3-25ef-4cb7-b454-b1c45c11efc9/retrieve","id":"-44481412"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c5600903-8199-45ad-8d33-3ac9b46f14ff","pagecount":"174","content":"The project team would greatly appreciate Prof. Rathinasamy Maria Saleth, formerly a Principal Researcher at IWMI and currently the Director of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, for leading the research and synthesis for this volume. The project team, along with Prof. Saleth, would also like to thank the authors of different chapters for their timely and thoughtful contributions to the research reported in this volume.We also appreciate the guidance of the project advisory committee-the chairman Prof. M.S. Swaminathan and others including Prof.The symptoms of an ever growing gap between water supply and demand, which are already visible in a few regions around the country, are soon expected to assume a national proportion and become a permanent feature of the Indian water economy. While water demand is growing fast due to population growth and economic expansion, water supply is not growing at the same level due to constraints in expanding supply and also due to the ultimate physical limit for supply expansion. Although water resources developed at present, i.e., 644 billion cubic meters (bcm), constitute only 57 % of the ultimate utilizable potential (1,122 bcm), augmenting supply beyond this level is going to be increasingly constrained by investment bottlenecks, environmental concerns, and political and legal snags. In this respect, the country's ability to meet the increasing water demand in the next few decades will be a major challenge. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, the total demand is projected to increase to 694-710 bcm by 2010 to 784-850 bcm by 2025 and to 973-1,180 bcm by 2050 (Ministry of Water Resources 2000). A recent analysis of water demand and supply scenarios, which accounts for the major changes in the key drivers of water demand and supply, also confirms this demand trend (Amarasinghe et al. 2007b). Particularly, this study projects that under 'business-as-usual' water use patterns, nine basins amounting to over four-fifths of the total water use in India, shall face physical water scarcity by 2050.From a larger perspective, water scarcity of this magnitude will constrain the ability of the country in meeting the increasing food, livelihood, and water supply needs of an increasing population. Such an inability for a monsoon-dependent and rural-based economy such as India is likely to have devastating social, economic, and political consequences unless water demand is managed through well-designed and implemented policies for improving water use efficiency and productivity, particularly in the irrigation sector, which accounts for the most water consumption. As the scenario facing the Indian water economy is rather grave, any policy prescription would obviously call for a radical change in the development paradigm governing water resources development, allocation, and management. Supply-side solutions based on physical approaches towards supply augmentation and system improvement, though essential in certain contexts, cannot be the exclusive basis for water sector strategies. A paradigmatic shift is needed for seeking durable solutions rooted in water demand management options, particularly in the irrigation sector that accounts for more than four-fifth of the total water withdrawals in the country. It is even more important as we consider the fact that the consumptive use fraction of the irrigation deliveries at present is only about 40 % (Amarasinghe et al. 2007a).The demand management options that we consider here for evaluation are well known in literature and practice on water policy. These options include water allocation and management tools such as: (a) water pricing policies that cover both the level and structure of water rates and also the criteria used for fixing them; (b) formal and informal water markets occurring at the micro and macro levels; (c) water rights and entitlement systems for setting access and volumetric limits; (d) energy-based water regulations such as power tariff and supply manipulations; (e) water-saving technologies that cover drip and sprinkler systems as well as crop choice and farm practices; and (f) user and community-based organizations, covering water user associations, panchayat organizations, and informal community groups. Although adoptions of these options are critical, what is more critical is the creation of the supportive institutions to ensure their operational effectiveness and water saving performance.While the importance of demand management options can hardly be disputed, there are still a number of questions that are to be answered from a practical policy perspective in the context of each of the six demand management options. For instance, what is the present status of these options in the irrigation management strategy in India? What is the extent of their application? How effective are they in influencing water use decisions at the farm level? Are there active policies in promoting them at the national and state level? Are there cases of success and best practices in demand management? If so, what are the lessons for policy in up-scaling them? What are the bottlenecks and constraints for promoting them on a wider scale, particularly within the irrigation sector? What are the present potentials and future prospects for these options as an effective means for improving water use efficiency and water saving, which are sufficient enough to either to expand irrigation or to reallocate water to nonagricultural uses and sectors? To explore these and related questions in the context of each of the six demand management options, IWMI has commissioned six separate papers 1 prepared by some of the leading experts on the Indian water sector. These papers were prepared with a common analytical structure to specifically address some of the most relevant practical questions and policy issues (see R. Reddy 2008;Palanisami 2008;Narain 2008;Malik 2008;Narayanamoorthy 2008;and V. Reddy 2008).The main purpose of this paper is to: (a) set the basic economic logic of demand management options; (b) provide an overview and synthesize of the option-specific papers prepared by experts; (c) indicate the key differences and common features emerging from the practical experiences of the demand management options; (d) present an analytical framework that will help understand the operations and linkages among the demand management options and their underlying institutional elements; (e) outline a generic strategy that can better exploit the inherent synergies among the demand management options and align them with the underlying institutional structure and environment; (f) discuss how such a strategy can be effectively promoted within the technical, financial, institutional, and political economy constraints; and (g) conclude with practical insights and policy implications of the discussions in this synthesis paper and in all the six option-specific papers. As to the focus, the discussion on demand management options is specifically confined to the irrigation sector. However, the general implications, especially those related to the institutional dimensions, can also pertain to demand regulations in other sectors, though the relevant options may be different.Although the adoption of demand management options on a wider scale is slower than needed, given the changing water supply and demand realities both at the national and local levels, an increasing reliance on these options is inevitable, especially in the irrigation sector and in basins where physical water scarcity is already evident. Considering the predominant share of the irrigation sector in total water use and the small consumptive use factor of irrigation withdrawals, the potential of this sector for water savings and efficiency gains from demand management options are obviously immense. Similarly, larger basins with excessive water withdrawals for agricultural uses also offer a better scope for achieving use efficiency and water savings. Besides their implications for the scope and focus of demand management, the current and prospective physical and economic realities of the water sector also provide the basic rationale for promoting demand management options and strategies.The total water withdrawal for all uses at the national level in the year 2000 was estimated to be 680 bcm (Amarasinghe et al. 2007a). But, if the 'business-as-usual' path of water management and water use pattern continues, water demand is expected to increase by 22 % by 2025 and 32 % by 2050. With such a demand growth, more and more basins are likely to face physical water scarcity, i.e., water withdrawal exceeding 60 % of the potentially utilizable resource. Since withdrawal exceeding this level is expected to be both financially costly and environmentally difficult, more basins are also likely to face economic or financial water scarcity as well. As can be seen in Figure 1, many basins in India are expected to be in this predicament of physical and financial scarcity by the year 2050, if not before. As these basins account for close to three-fifth of the country and cover agriculturally the most important basins, including the Indus, Ganges, Cauvery, and Krishna basins, they will have a pernicious effect on the food and livelihood as well as political fronts. As can be seen in Table 1, which depicts total water withdrawals by use, source and basins in 2000, the irrigation sector accounts for 89 % of the total withdrawals at the national level. Such a dominant share of irrigation is also evident in most of the basins. Despite such a large share of water withdrawal, the actual consumptive use-the portion that is actually used for the net evapotranspiration of crops-is only 41 % at the national level. The fraction of consumptive use varies from 12 to 59 % across basins, depending obviously on factors such as crop and land use patterns as well as irrigation efficiency at project and farm levels. It is the difference between this consumptive use and the total water withdrawal that provides the physical basis for achieving water use efficiency and water savings through demand management both at the national and basin level. Admittedly, it will not be possible to realize this entire potential for water savings due to various physical, technical, economic, and institutional reasons. But, it is certainly possible to achieve, say, a 20% of this potential water savings with proper targeting of regions for concerted demand management policies and investments. Notes: 1 Total includes withdrawals for irrigation, domestic and industrial sectors 2 Figures more than 100% also include recycling 3 NET is the net evapotranspiration of all irrigated crops 4 It relates total groundwater withdrawals to the total groundwater availability through natural recharge and return flows 5 WFR1 is west flowing rivers of Kutch, Saurashtra and Luni; WFR2 is west flowing rivers from Tapi to Kanayakumari; EFR1 is east flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar and EFR2 is east flowing rivers between Pennar and KanyakumariIn view of the possibility of greater technical control over the volume and use, the scope for realizing water savings is more in groundwater areas than in surface water areas. Notably, in groundwater areas, where irrigation efficiency is already higher than in canal areas, further efficiency improvements are possible, that too, mainly through policy and institutional changes. In contrast, efficiency improvements require mainly technical changes, especially involving a massive redesign of water conveyance and delivery systems, though policy and institutional changes are also essential to enhance and sustain the efficiency gains. As a result of their differential policy and institutional requirements, efficiency gains are relatively more immediate in groundwater areas and would also involve relatively smaller public investments on physical structures. Using this fact taken with the dominant (i.e., 60 %) share of groundwater in total irrigation, it is possible to realize the overall irrigation efficiency targets with a greater attention on the groundwater areas, particularly those with severe depletion problems.Besides their immediate impacts on agricultural productivity, improvements in irrigation efficiency will also have a direct effect on the irrigation water demand and, hence, on the water savings necessary for meeting urban and environmental needs. As can be seen in Figure 2, if the overall irrigation efficiency in canal regions can be raised from the current level of 40 to 50 % and in the groundwater regions from the present level of 60 to 80 %, the future irrigation demand, even with the larger irrigated area, will not exceed the present level of agricultural water withdrawals. But, if the surface irrigation efficiency is increased by an additional 10 %, i.e., to 60 %, while keeping groundwater irrigation efficiency at 80 %, there will be a reduction in irrigation demand to the tune of 43 bcm (Amarasinghe et al. 2007a). If it is possible to raise groundwater irrigation efficiency by an additional 5 %, i.e., 85 %, then, the total reduction in irrigation demand can be as high as 63 bcm. Notably, this reduced irrigation demand or irrigation water savings is close to the total nonirrigation demand in 2000, i.e., 79 bcm. In a sense, this represents the true magnitude of the potential for water savings that exists in the agricultural sector at present. This potential can be realized gradually though the implementation of demand management strategies involving the judicious application of options such as water pricing, water markets, water rights, energy regulations, water saving technologies and user organizations. Source: Amarasinghe et al. 2007b The immediate goal of demand management is not just the reallocation of water away from irrigation but also to set the conditions for a long-term improvement in the productivity and efficiency of irrigated agriculture. In fact, an excessive focus on water reallocation often creates resistance and constraints for the promotion of the demand management options. In reality, the improving efficiency is the most immediate and central goal, whereas the reallocation is only a secondary goal, which flows as an outcome of the former, that too, within a voluntary and compensation-based incentive framework. This point, though seems to be simple and hence, remains often underestimated, is rather crucial, especially from a political economy perspective of creating the necessary economic and institutional conditions for the application of demand management options.The macro-logic for demand management is clearly underlined by the increasing water supply-demand gap at the national level. There are also other equally compelling reasons-both the macro and micro ones-for the urgency of promoting these options in Indian agriculture. One of them relates to the food and livelihood implications (see Palanisami and Paramasivam 2007). The total food grain area in India has increased about 1.2 times between 1950 and 2005, i.e., from 97 million ha (mha) to about 121 mha whereas the food grain production has increased by 4.1 times, from 51 million tonnes (mt) to 208 mt (GOI 2007). Irrigation has been a major source of determinant for the productivity increase, where the irrigated area under food grains has increased by 3.0 times, from 18 to 54 mha between 1950 and 2005. Over the same period the total or gross irrigated area has increased by 3.6 times from 22 to 80 mha. This shows that while irrigation has been playing a major role in increasing food grain productivity and production, the demand for irrigation for nongrain crops is also increasing.It is expected that the water demand of nonfood grain crops will further accelerate with changing consumption patterns (Amarasinghe et al 2007a;2007b). This, along with the increasing water demand of domestic and industrial sectors will have significant implications for increasing food grain productivity and the food security of India. For instance, given the current level of food consumption and the expected population of around 1.6 billion, India is projected to have a food grain demand of about 400 mt-about twice the present food production-by 2050. Unless an increase in water productivity is realized, meeting this food demand would entail the provision of irrigation to an additional 60 mha more than the current irrigated area. The expanded level of irrigation required to meet the food security targets is clearly impractical to achieve through the usual approach of supply augmentation because of the double whammy effects coming from the binding limits for adding new supplies and the increasing inter-sectoral competition over existing supply itself.A much more potent argument against the additional allocation for irrigation however, comes from the serious magnitude of water use inefficiency found within the irrigation sector itself. It is a well known fact that the average water use efficiency is rather low in irrigation, ranging from 40 % in the canal regions to about 60 % in the groundwater regions (see Amarasinghe et al. 2007). Such a magnitude of water use inefficiency does suggest the existence of a hidden irrigation potential and such a potential can be realized with improved efficiency in water application, as achieved through the use of demand management options. Simplified estimates, made a few years ago, suggest that it is possible to effect a 10 to 20 % improvement in water use efficiency, on an average, over a 5-year period and such improvement would release an additional 10-20 mha of irrigation potential within the existing level of water use (Saleth 1996). This is very close to what is achieved in an entire 5-year plan period through new supplies obtained with spending so much time and investment. If this time and investment spent on the supply-side solutions are redirected towards the demand side options, it is equally possible to irrigate more areas with the same or, even, a reduced level of water use. This indeed is the central logic for promoting the adoption of demand management options. What is needed, therefore, is not a fringe investment on demand management but rather a major policy and investment shift from supply augmentation to demand management.As to the focus and coverage, some of the demand management options are contextspecific, whereas others are applicable in a more generic context. For instance, water pricing is a tool that is largely applicable to canal regions, whereas the option involving energy regulations-involving both supply and price manipulations-is largely applicable to groundwater contexts, though they may also be relevant in canal regions to the extent water lifting is involved there. This is also true in the case of the options involving both the water markets and water saving technologies, as they occur predominantly in the groundwater regions. 2 But, the options involving water rights and user organizations are relevant in the context of both canal and groundwater regions. Similarly, some of the options are more direct and immediate in their impacts on water demand, while others have an indirect and gradual effect and, that too, depends on a host of other factors. For instance, water rights and water saving technologies have a more direct effect on water demand, and the options involving user organizations and energy regulations only have an indirect effect.More importantly, the demand management options also differ considerably in terms of the scope for adoption and implementation, especially from a political economy perspective. Among the options, water rights system is the most difficult one followed by water pricing reforms and energy regulations, but those involving water markets and user organizations are relatively easier to adopt, though their implementation can still remain difficult. Water saving technologies, though politically benign and not controversial, still require favorable cropping systems and effective credit and investment policies. The differences in their application context, political feasibility and the gestation period of impact are very important and should be understood because such factors will determine the relative scale of application and the overall impact of the demand management options.Before developing the analytical framework that shed light on the strategic and institutional dimensions as well as the dynamics and impact paths of demand management, it is useful to provide an overview and synthesis of the six demand management options (Reddy 2008;Palanisami 2008;Narain 2008;Malik 2008;Narayanamoorthy 2008;V. Reddy 2008). Since these papers provide a comprehensive evaluation of the present status and effectiveness of the individual demand management options in the particular context of irrigation sector, an overview of them can be helpful both to highlight the main issues and challenges, and also to explore the possible avenues for enhancing the individual and joint coverage and demand management performance. With this point in mind, let us provide a quick overview and synthesis of the potential, present status, problems and prospects of individual options as presented in each of the option-specific papers.Ratna Reddy (2008), in his most comprehensive review of water pricing as a demand management option, concludes that the ability of water pricing to influence water use in India is severely constrained both by the nature and level of water rates as well as by the lack of effective institutional and technical conditions. Although successive Irrigation Commissions have recommended to base water rates on benefits or gross revenues rather than simple provision costs, the prevailing rates in most states are tuned more to cost recovery than to income or benefits. Even this cost focus is also restricted to operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, and in most states the water rates were able to cover no more than 20 % of these costs. Notably, Ratna Reddy (2008) argues that such lower rates are more to do with technical and political factors than with willingness to pay issues, as farmers willing to pay more, especially with an improved supply and service quality, is well documented across the states.Besides the lower level, the nature and structure of water rates also make them ineffective both in their cost recovery and allocation roles. Since water rates are charged in terms of area, crop and season (or combinations thereof), they fail to create enough incentive for water use efficiency. While water rates in groundwater areas are relatively higher, they also related to average pump costs rather than water productivity or economic value (see R. Reddy 2008 -Table 3). Under this condition, it is farfetched to expect the present water pricing policy to play the much needed economic role of water allocation. Based on a careful review of both water pricing literature and actual experience in India and abroad, Ratna Reddy (2008) argues that water pricing policy can be an effective tool to manage demand, if it is designed within a marginal cost principle, volumetric allocation and block or tier structure. Besides the design aspects, he has also elaborated on supportive institutional conditions such as the user organizations, locally managed water rights, water markets and system redesigns to improve conveyance and delivery.Although Indian experience shows that water pricing is largely ineffective in influencing water use, there are interesting examples, which, in fact, show the importance of the necessary technical and institutional conditions. While water pricing has not been that effective, its effectiveness can be enhanced with the proper level and structuring of water rates. For instance, in Israel, marginal cost pricing followed within either the block rate structure or the tier rate system has been successful in reducing water consumption by 7 %. Similarly, pricing policy, when combined with supply regulations either directly or though water rights, can also be very effective. For instance, the Krishna Delta farmers in Andhra Pradesh received 40 % less than the normal supply during the drought of [2001][2002][2003][2004]. Interestingly, they have not only managed well with this lower supply but also reported a 20 % improvement in the yield (Reddy 2008). Although this case shows the efficiency and water saving benefits of an accidental supply reduction during drought, it does demonstrate the potential of direct supply regulations in canal regions. The experience in cases such as Australia and California in USA shows that, the effectiveness of water pricing in demand management can be attributed to the supporting institutions such as volumetric allocation, water rights and water markets.In his critical review and evaluation, Palanisami (2008) highlights both the opportunities and challenges involved in using prevailing water markets as a demand management option in irrigation. He has compiled extensive empirical evidences on the efficiency and equity roles of water markets both in the groundwater and tank regions. But, at the same time, he also notes the negative social and resource effects due to the monopoly tendencies and groundwater depletion. While there is scope for considerable net positive effects of water markets on water use efficiency, he reckons it to be rather small for two major reasons. First, although water markets are observed widely, the area they cover or influence are small and they occur mostly in groundwater regions mainly on a sporadic basis. The estimated area served or influenced by water markets varies widely in a range of 15 to 50 % of the total irrigated area in the country. But, given their seasonal character, transitory nature and concentration in few regions, the actual area affected by water markets is likely to be close to the lower bound of this range. Second, since these markets operate without any volumetric limits or other regulatory framework, there is only very little incentive for increasing water use efficiency or water saving. Although water rates vary across markets, the dominant practice of fixing them based mainly on pumping and other operational costs reduce their role in reflecting the scarcity of water.Due to the size, coverage and nature of functioning, the ability of water markets to perform their economic and efficiency roles is considerably limited in the Indian context. On the other hand, there are evidences for the increasing depletion and economic loss of production due to groundwater mining. In the case of inter-sectoral water markets around peri-urban areas, where water is moved directly from irrigation to urban water supply, there can be serious livelihood issues when urban migration is low and urban-based livelihoods do not increase concurrently in the long-run. Moreover, as Palanisami (2008) argues, this problem is not due to water markets per se but due to the technical and institutional conditions in which these markets operate. Specifically, he mentions the absence of volume-based water rights, spatial issues limiting competition and regulatory framework, including energy supply and pricing regulations and community involvement in local water withdrawal decisions. One can also add here the distorting role of land tenure that tends to link water control with land ownership, especially when there are no volume-based water rights. Similarly, the absence of well-spacing and depth regulations also leads to the crowding of wells in agriculturally productive regions. The successful cases of water markets in countries such as USA, Australia and Chile are provided to underline the importance of supporting institutions such as volumetric allocation, water rights and water regulations to protect equity and environment.Against a detailed conceptual and legal analysis of water rights within a new institutional economics framework, Narain (2008) evaluates the potential and prospects for its utility and applicability as an option for managing irrigation demand. For water rights to be effective and enduring as an institutional system for managing water, in general, and irrigation, in particular, he suggests the necessity of converting the abstract notion into an operationally applicable practical tool with a clear delineation and quantification of the volume of water. This is not going to be easy in view of the understandable legal, technical, institutional, and political challenges. But, at the same time, there are also considerable potentials for creating a volumebased water rights system as there are growing compulsions from the emerging water demandsupply realities and the attended water-based conflicts at various levels. The arguments also make it clear that the costs and difficulties involved in establishing a water rights system can be more than offset by the potential but definite long-term benefits for the society. Considering the existing legal and institutional potentials and the emerging realities on the resource and technology sides, the development of water rights system will not be as difficult or costly as it is made out to be in current public discourse. In fact, water right systems of various forms are already in operation both at the macro and micro levels in India.Based on the review of the literature, legal and policy documents and field level perspective of water rights, Narain (2008) concludes that while there is a clear need and basis for establishing water rights systems, it will, however, be unrealistic to contemplate a single form of water rights systems applicable to all contexts. Diverse forms of water rights are needed to suit the location and context-specific realities, though there are common principles of equity, legal pluralism and negotiation. Besides the lease-based water rights issued by government in the Gangetic Delta regions and the macro-level rights implicit in sectoral priorities, there are also semi-legal and informal rights linked to land such as the groundwater rights-based on the legal principle of easement, and canal water rights-based on the location-related principle of fixed-tenure (Saleth 2007). But, the most important ones, which are socially recognized, locally managed, and operating on a larger scale, especially in the north-western and eastern states are the water rights based on time (as in Warabandi system) and on volume (as in Shejpali system). 3  Narain (2008) provides field evidences for their role in facilitating negotiation, water allocation and use efficiency.Although the semi-formal and locally-managed water rights systems have an effect on water allocation and use efficiency, their impacts are not that large to perceptibly influence water demand. Obviously, this is mainly due to the absence or ineffectiveness of supportive institutions, particularly the absence of legal and institutional mechanisms for monitoring, sanction and enforcement at the top and technical and organizational arrangements to facilitate a more accurate and responsive water allocations based on time, volume or both. In view of this institutional and technical vacuum, there is neither sufficient incentives for efficient use nor adequate compensation for water saving. Unless this serious gap is addressed quickly, these water rights, though helpful in water allocation, cannot be effective in demand management. For performing this economic role, these local water rights systems should be structures within a 'public trust framework', where the user groups, officials, and stakeholder at different levels of the system could work together within a framework of regional, sectoral and tributary and outlet level water quota system (see Saleth 2007). The transaction costs of creating this framework are obviously high because it entails tremendous information, technical and organizational demand as well as an extraordinary level of bureaucratic and political commitment. Yet, the demand management impacts water rights system cannot be ensured without this framework.Energy regulations, covering both the price and supply of electricity and diesel for irrigation purposes, are relevant for influencing water use mostly in groundwater regions, though they are also relevant even in canal areas involving lift irrigation. Malik (2008) evaluates the potential ability and actual impact of these regulations on demand management using an extensive but in-depth review of available literature and empirical evidences. The evaluation suggests that the efficacy of energy regulation as a tool for demand management depends on their intrinsic nature and enforcement as well as a number of related farm and regionspecific factors such as well ownership and depth, farm size, cropping pattern, groundwater marketing possibilities and the groundwater hydrogeology itself. Energy regulations involving relatively higher and metered or use-based tariff will be more effective in controlling water withdrawals as compared to the ones based on fixed and flat rates. Similarly, regardless of the rates, direct supply regulations involving rationed and fixed hours of supply will be more effective, provided farmers do not have multiple wells, resort to illegal use of power with phase converters, or substitute or complement electric and diesel power. Considering the scope for bypassing supply regulations, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, particularly with local involvement as well as a coordinated regulation of electric and diesel pricing and supply are critical.There are limits within which energy pricing can be increased, and such limits are set by the economic theory and political feasibility. While the efficient use of energy and water will require the tariff to reflect the opportunity cost or, at least, the cost of alternative energy sources, political considerations lead to tariffs that not even reflect fully the production costs. Therefore, in order to achieve the financial goals in the energy sector and the efficiency goals both in the energy and water sector, there is an urgent need for a major change in the tariff level and structure, especially in the irrigation sector. Citing other studies (e.g., Saleth 1997;Bhatia 2007), Malik (2008) argues that for energy regulations to be effective in affecting water withdrawals, the tariff level and structure need to reflect the value of marginal productivity of energy, discriminate crops, consumption levels and locations, and be accompanied by supply rationing. But, changes in the power tariff level and structure, though critical, are not sufficient given the critical roles played by institutional and technical conditions involved not only in the transmission and distribution of energy for agricultural uses, but also in determining the access to groundwater itself.Energy regulations do have the potential to influence water withdrawal and irrigation demand and also to improve the efficiency and financial viability of the energy sector itself. But, these roles cannot be expected to be automatic under the current conditions of tariff level and structure, bureaucratic management and unregulated groundwater access conditions. There is a need for major reforms both in power and water sectors. Malik (2008) outlines some key components of these reforms. First, considering the practical limits to which power rates can be raised and also the difficulties for them to effectively influence water withdrawal directly, it is reasonable to use them mainly to achieve the financial goals. Second, the policy of metered rates varying with consumption and crops has to be combined with supply regulations so as to directly influence water withdrawal. Third, the successful experiences in China and US and also in the piloted experiment in Gujarat suggest that the state electricity boards have to bulk distribute power to local organizations such as panchayats (an elected governance body at the village level) and rural electricity cooperatives for them to retail power among users and collect charges. Finally, besides these changes related to the power sector, there are also changes needed in the water sector, especially the strict enforcement of spacing and depth regulations as well as the whole host of institutional and technical aspects related to establishment of legally sanctioned but locally enforced and managed volumetric water rights. When these conditions are created, energy regulations can be a powerful tool within an overall strategy of irrigation demand management.The water saving technologies cover not only the methods related to water application (drip, sprinkler and micro-irrigation) but also those related to crop choice and farming practices. Unlike other demand management options, this option has a direct and immediate effect on water consumption and irrigation demand. Having reviewed the available evidences on the extent and impact of water saving technologies, Narayanamoorthy (2008) shows that these technologies can raise water use efficiency to the level of 60 % (sprinkler) to 90 % (drip) in irrigation. Besides the obvious savings in water that may depend on the extent the saved water is available for use elsewhere, these irrigation methods also provide additional savings in terms of energy and labor costs. Empirical studies in India establish that these irrigation technologies save 48 to 67 % of water, 44 to 67 % of energy costs, and 29 to 60 % of labor costs. Overall, private benefit-cost ratio, which depends on the value of water productivity and the underlying role of crop prices, is impressive, ranging from 1.41 for coconut to 13.35 in crops such as grapes. In view of these economic and productivity benefits, these technologies remain highly viable in a range of crops from sugarcane, banana and grapes to even field crops such as wheat and bajra (Narayanamoorthy 1997;Kumar et al. 2004). Since these technologies are scale-neutral, they are also beneficial to farmers even with less than one hectare (Narayanamoorthy 2006). Notably, much more than the private benefits are the social benefits in terms of water savings and input use efficiency (see Dhawan 2000).Unfortunately, despite the enormous scope and the impressive performance in terms of both private and social benefits, the spread of water application technologies is rather slow and their application is largely confined to a few states and crops. For instance, the total area under drip irrigation is not more than 500,000 to 600,000 ha. Over 85 % of this area is also confined to the groundwater dependent hard-rock states, i.e., Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Although the technical and economic viability of this irrigation method is established, as many as 80 crops, more than four fifths of the current application is restricted to vegetable and horticultural crops, including mango and citrus. Notably, coconut, banana and grape together account for approximately half the area under drip irrigation. The issue of low level of application and extent of coverage also applies equally to other water saving technologies related to the selection of water conserving crops and farm practices such as crop spacing, use of plastics and deficit irrigation. The common reason for this low level of adoption is the absence of binding incentives, which emerge not just from the expected benefits of adoption but also from the resource-based compulsions reflecting the real scarcity value of water. Under conditions of unregulated water withdrawals, the latter never enters into the irrigation use decision of farmers.While it is true that the water saving technologies have the most direct and immediate impacts on irrigation demand, the major problem is that these impacts are limited mainly due to the limited extent of their application and the limited environment within which they are operating at present. Narayanamoorthy (2008) elaborates, then, the policy measures needed both to expand their coverage and also to improve the supportive institutional arrangements. One of the main problems with irrigation technologies such as drips and sprinklers relates to the need for high initial investment. Although state subsidy can be helpful, this is not the only factor in view of the role of other factors such as extension and the need for the involvement of the technology firms as well as other actors such as the sugar factories in the targeting and active promotion of adoption. In this respect, beside the subsidy directed to farmers, it is also necessary to extend tax relief or other incentives for the technology firms and sugar factories. Equally, if not more important, however, is the need for other direct and indirect regulation on the water resource side such as water rights and energy regulations that will reflect the scarcity value of water to the farmers. Field studies reveal that the availability of cheap canal water and unregulated groundwater supply do not provide the farmers with the much needed economic compulsion for adopting the drip irrigation technologies. At the same time, adjustments in farm price and input policies are needed to bolster water conserving crops and farming practices.User organizations as well as community organizations play a major role in water allocation and demand management in the irrigation sector. They cover both the formal ones such as WUAs and panchayats as well as the implicit and informal ones such as those in Shejpali and Pani Panchayats systems, including those promoted by NGOs and other stakeholders in rural areas. Although the general attention is focused mainly on WUAs and canal irrigation contexts, other organizations and their roles in groundwater irrigation and energy distribution are also equally important. However, a careful evaluation of the WUAs, which are created and promoted under various forms of irrigation management transfer programs in the canal regions of many states, can provide an indication of the overall status and ability of user and community organizations in demand management, either directly or indirectly in terms of facilitating other options. Venkata Reddy (2008) has made such an assessment based on a critical review of the available literature and field evidences on the status, problems and prospects of WUAs, particularly in the canal irrigation sector.As in the case of other options, the two most important factors that will determine the extent of demand management impacts of user organizations are their area coverage and their design and effectiveness. Despite user participation policy being promoted since the command area development programs of the 1960s and the user organizations being currently promoted actively in almost all states in India, the number of formal WUAs created so far and the extent of area under their influence remain extremely low. According to Palanisami and Paramasivam (2007), the total number of formal WUAs in the country is only about 15,000 and the area they cover is not more than about 500,000 ha. Obviously, these figures do not cover the 800 WUAs created in Rajasthan and also many informal and implicit water-related organizations involved in the Shejpali, Pani Panchayats and Warabandi operating in parts of Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana. While Warabandi system covers most canal areas in Punjab and Haryana, there are no clear estimates for the number and area coverage of the other informal systems, especially for Maharashtra. However, according to the estimates for Orissa, there were 13,284 Pani Panchayats covering a total area of over 800,000 ha in 2002 (R. Reddy 2008). Even risking a rough estimate, the total areas under the Shejpali and Warabandi systems cannot be more than 3 to 4 million ha, representing only a fraction of the total canal irrigated area in India.Much more serious than the low area coverage are the weak design and operational effectiveness of the user organizations. In view of their central institutional role, user and community organizations are where the whole effort to promote demand management strategy is to begin first. Unfortunately, these organizations, especially the WUAs, as they exist today, are designed more to focus on the limited roles of local maintenance, cost recovery and water distribution rather than the broad and long-term roles of being the organizational basis for developing higher levels of economic and institutional functions. As a result, the ability of WUAs to influence real water allocation and demand management is considerably limited. This does not, however, deny their positive roles in cost recovery, system maintenance and service quality in some contexts. In this respect, it is also important to note that the current policy of Maharashtra to introduce bulk water rights at the sectoral and tributary levels and involve local user organizations to retail water is likely to strengthen the kind of institutional role that is needed for demand management.Similarly, one cannot also deny the effective role of informal organizations, which are well documented by Venkata Reddy (2008), Ratna Reddy (2008) and Narain (2008) in the context of different states. Although their impacts are highly location-specific and also confined only to a few regional pockets, the key for policymakers is to learn the social and resource-related incentives behind these success cases and try to replicate in the case of formal organizations. While having democratic elections and improving farmers' participation are important, much more important and challenging are the policy and institutional aspects of creating effective incentive systems for collective action. In this respect, the creation of volumetric water rights and volume-based water pricing, for instance, can create the necessary incentives for collective action and water use efficiency. This is an interesting case of structural linkages among the demand management options, where the effectiveness of user organizations depends on other institutional options such as water rights and pricing, which, in turn, depends on the effectiveness of the organizational aspects.The central message of the review of demand management options is rather clear. Although some of the options have immediate effects and some others have the potential to influence water allocation and use, these effects are rather too meager to have an impact of the magnitude that is needed for generating a major change in water savings and allocation. The two central problems limiting the impacts of demand management are their limited geographic coverage and operational effectiveness. Concerted policies are also lacking in really exploiting their demand management roles. All these options are pursued as if they are separate and essentially in an institutional vacuum because the necessary supporting institutions are either missing or dysfunctional in most contexts. To see why the demand management options are effective and to know how their effectiveness and performance can be improved, we can develop an analytical framework capturing the linkages and dynamics among these options and their underlying institutional structure.Although the demand management options appear to have important differences in terms of the nature, mechanics and the gestation period of their impacts, there are fundamentally important operational and institutional linkages among them. Operationally, these options are not independent but linked due to their mutual influences on each other. Similarly, there are also intrinsic linkages among the institutions that support each of these options. A clear understanding of these operational and institutional linkages is so vital not only for designing an integrated strategy for demand management but also to determine its effectiveness and impacts on water management and economic goals. For this purpose, we can use Figure 3 depicting the analytics as well as the institutional ecology of demand management options and their joint impact on sectoral and economic goals.Before proceeding, it is instructive to note few key aspects of Figure 3. First, the institutions and their linkages noted for each of the options are not exhaustive but only illustrative to highlight some of the most important and immediate ones among them. This also applies to the effects or impact pathways identified both in the sectoral and macro-economic contexts. Second, since the institutions and their linkages form together the 'institutional ecology' of demand management, Figure 3 does capture the 'institutional structure'. But, the 'institutional environment' of demand management, as defined by the joint role of hydrological, demographic, social, economic and political factors, though not a role of hydrological, demographic, social, economic and political factors, though not explicitly specified, actually operate beneath Figure 3 and, hence, will have major effects on the entire system presented therein. From the perspective of the demand management strategy, the elements defining the institutional environment are the exogenous factors, whereas the elements forming the institutional structure are the endogenous factors.Despite its limited coverage, Figure 3 is able to place irrigation demand management in the strategic context of water and agricultural institutions as well as in the larger context of water management and economic goals. As can be seen, there are five analytically distinct but operationally linked segments. The first segment shows the sequential linkages among demand management options, where the options that form the necessary conditions for other options and those having the most intense linkages with others are shown. The next segment captures the joint effects of these options on the irrigation sector, where the water savings effected through an improved irrigation efficiency lead to either/both expanded irrigation with existing supply or/and increased water savings. The third segment shows the sectoral and economy-wide effects of the initial effects on the irrigation sector, which are captured through increased water transfers and higher agricultural production and productivity and converted finally into the food, livelihood, water supply and environmental benefits. The remaining two segments relate to the institutional dimension of demand management and cover respectively, the immediate institutional structure and the fundamental institutional environment. Notice that the institutional structure covers not only water-related institutions but also those related to agriculture, market and technology. Although the institutional environment is not specified in Figure 3 to avoid clutter, it plays a critical role in terms of providing the economic, resourcerelated and political compulsions both for the adoption of the demand management options and for the creation of their supportive institutions. Figure 3 highlights several important points. While all the demand management options are important, the sequential linkages among them suggest that some are obviously more important than others. As noted already, this is either due to their role of being the necessary conditions for others (e.g., user/community organizations) or due to the extent of linkages with others (e.g., water rights/quota system). The options also differ in terms of their nature and magnitude of their impacts on irrigation efficiency and, hence, on water saving and productivity. For instance, the direct effects of user organizations, water pricing and energy regulations will be neither immediate nor substantial partly because of the longer gestation period involved, and partly because its ultimate efficiency effects depend on the effects of related options and the existence and effectiveness of supportive institutions. But, water saving technologies will yield more immediate efficiency benefits, though the extent of such benefits depends on their geographic scale and crop coverage.Obviously, the options also differ in terms of the institutional, technical and political requirements for their adoption and implementation. For instance, while it is easy to create user organizations, it is more difficult to create the necessary conditions such as the incentives for collective action and the establishment of the volumetric delivery, water quota and lossfree conveyance systems. Thus, the ability of an option to manage depends not just on how efficiently it is designed and implemented but also on how well is it aligned with other options and how effective are the supportive institutional and technical conditions. This fact highlights another strategic feature of the options. Considering the fact that institutions, including water institutions, are defined by the interactive roles of legal, policy and organizational aspects (Bromley 1989;Saleth and Dinar 2004), all options, except water saving technology, are also institutions in themselves. In this sense, the linkages among user organizations, water rights, water markets, water pricing and energy regulations are actually part of the larger institutional setting of demand management. Major institutional issues are involved both in terms of the functional linkages among the options as well as in terms of the structural linkages within the supportive institutional structure.It is also clear from Figure 3 that the institutional structure for demand management covers not only the institutions that are directly related to individual options but also those that are related to farm input and extension delivery systems, agricultural markets and price and investment policies. Responsive input and extension systems, favorable market and price conditions and well planned investments in volumetric delivery systems and user organizations are vital for the performance of demand management options. Since these sectoral and macro economic policies affect the returns of farm level water saving initiatives, they determine the level of economic incentives and technical scope for the adoption and extension of demand management options. Just as the demand management options cannot operate effectively in the absence of supportive institutions, so cannot the institutions in the absence of these sectoral and macro policy measures. But, unfortunately, the way the demand management options are operating at present suggests that there is a clear disconnection between these options and their institutional and policy environment. Indeed this is the epicenter of all problems related to the poor performance of demand management options at present in India.From an impact perspective, it is clear that the overall performance of a demand management strategy depends on the way it is designed and implemented. In this context, the strategy has to exploit well the functional and structural linkages among the options and also benefit from the synergies of the sectoral and macro-economic policies. For instance, the efficiency and equity benefits of water markets can be increased manifold when such markets operate with a volumetric water rights system and are supported by effective user organizations. There are also second round institutions that can emerge through the interface among water rights, water markets and local organizations. They relate not only to the conflict resolution roles of user and community based organizations, but also the water brokering and water delivery-related technical activities of other private agencies that are expected to thrive under mature institutional conditions. Likewise, water pricing policy can be more effective, not only in cost recovery but also in influencing water use, if it is combined with volumetric delivery, use based allocation structures and improved system performance and service quality. Similar results can be expected also with other options, when they are aligned with other options and supported well with relevant institutional and technical conditions.The ultimate impact of demand management can be measured in terms of the nature and scale of water savings obtained within the irrigation sector. Even when water savings are substantial, the social impact can still be low, unless the saved water is properly reallocated either within agriculture or to other sectors. The economic and welfare impacts of such reallocation can be enhanced with additional but higher level institutional and policy aspects such as sectoral water markets and agricultural input and price policies. Thus, the final impact of demand management options within irrigation depends not only on the scale and gestation period of their sectoral impacts but also on the facilitative roles of macro-level institutional and policy aspects. Besides the issues of scale and gestation period, there is also another major issue related to the inevitability of vast uncertainties both in the full implementation and in the expected benefits of demand management options.The overview of the current status and performance of the demand management options, particularly in the light of the analytics of the institutional ecology and impact of demand management presented in Figure 3, makes it clear what are the missing elements in the current policy in this respect. To be real, a concerted policy for demand management in irrigation is conspicuous for its absence both at the national and state levels. Instead, what is being witnessed is a casual and ad hoc constellation of several uncoordinated efforts in promoting the demand management options. In most cases, these options are pursued lesser for their demand management objectives than their other goals such as cost recovery and management decentralization. Even here, the policy focus is confined to only few options such as pricing, user organizations, energy regulations and, to a limited extent, water saving technologies. Although several policy documents and legal provisions clearly imply water rights system, there are no explicit government policies either as to its formal existence or its implementation, except for the recognition of the need for volumetric allocation and consumption based water pricing. This is also true for water markets, though their existence and operation across the country is well documented. Considering the critical importance of water rights and water markets for their direct effects on demand management and their indirect effects in strengthening other demand management options, it is important that they are formally recognized and treated as the central components of a demand management strategy.As we contrast the present status of demand management policy and the ideal demand management approach evident in Figure 3, we can identify several key points useful for the design and implementation of a well coordinated and more effective and demand management strategy. The functions linkages and the institutional character of the demand management options clearly underline the need for the strategy to treat these options as an interrelated configuration functioning within an institutional environment, characterized by the overall legal, policy and organizational factors. Since the changing economic, technological and resource conditions will tend to alter the political and institutional prospects for demand management, it is important to align the policy for it to benefit from the potential synergies from institutional environment as well. Given such an overall character and thrust of the strategy, the next step is to create technical conditions and strengthen the institutions-both formal and informal ones. The technical conditions include, for instance, the modernization of water delivery system, introduction of volumetric allocation and installation of water and energy meters. Similarly, the institutional conditions will include, among others, the public trust framework for the joint management of users, officials, state, and communities, the creation of a separate but an embedded structure of sectoral, regional, and user level water rights within the overall supply limits at the respective levels, conflict resolution mechanisms and incentives for collective action.The institutional and policy requirements for demand management identified above are varied and wide ranging. Considering their extent and coverage, what is needed is nothing short of some fundamental changes in the existing institutional arrangements built around the supply-oriented paradigm of water governance. This fact clearly underlines the logical link between the implementation of the demand management strategy and the necessity of broad water sector reforms. Indeed, demand management forms the spearhead around which water sector reforms are to be planned and implemented. While the strategic and institutional logic of designing demand managed strategy in itself as part of a larger program of water sector reforms is clear, its implementation is certainly not easy and quick. But, neither the stupendous nature of the task nor the heavy economic and political costs involved in transacting such a change in the current context can be a source for alarm or complacency.There are well-tested reform design and implementation principles that can assist policymakers in overcoming the technical, financial and political economy constraints and, thereby, effectively negotiating the demand management strategy and the institutional reforms. The reform design and implementation principles are simple yet powerful when used carefully within a well-planned program and time frame. These principles relate to the prioritization, sequencing and packaging of institutional and technical components based on impact, costs and feasibility considerations. Besides these design-related principles, there are also principles related to implementation, which cover strategic aspects such as timing, coverage and scale. As can be seen, these principles essentially try to exploit the basic features of institutions such as path dependency, functional linkages and institutional ecology, in addition to the inherent synergies and feedbacks that institutions receive from the larger physical, socioeconomic and political environment. The theoretical rationale and the institutional basis for these principles are explained by Saleth andDinar (2004 and2005), and how they have been applied in the practical context of reforms in selected countries and regions are discussed by Saleth and Dinar (2006). Here, we can discuss briefly how these design and implementation principles can be used for the planning and implementation of the demand management strategy and its underlying institutional reforms with minimum transaction costs and maximum effectiveness.As can be seen in Figure 3, there are sequential linkages among the demand management options as well as among the institutions. For instance, we have seen user organizations remain the basis for the operation of water rights, water markets and water pricing (and also for energy regulations). Similarly, water rights are critical for the effective functioning of water markets and could also provide the incentives for the application of water saving technologies and improve the effectiveness of even energy regulations. Clearly, since the user organizations are the foundation for the emergence and operation of other institutions and do not involve much political opposition, they should receive top priority from the long-term perspective. But, in the short-term, the promotion of water saving technologies with the immediate and direct impact should receive priority. Since the establishment of a water rights system involves major legal, technical and political challenges, the focus here should be in creating some of the basic conditions for its emergence, such as the modernization of the water delivery systems and introduction of a volumetric allocation. Along with their roles in facilitating the eventual introduction of water rights system, these conditions will also have direct roles in improving the effectiveness of water pricing. Besides these ways of sequencing and prioritizing demand management options and their institutional components, there are also instances for packaging programs such as the system modernization to be combined with management transfer and improved supply reliability and service quality to be accompanied by higher water rates.Since the design principles involving sequencing, prioritizing and packaging work on the sequential linkages and path dependent nature of institutions, they help to reduce the transaction costs of creating each of the subsequent institutions. Also, in view of the institutional ecology principle, when a critical set of institutions are put in place, other institutions or new roles for existing institutions can develop on their own. For instance, when volumetric allocation is introduced, it would be possible to negotiate limits for water withdrawals, which can eventually lead to the emergence of water quota systems. Similarly, when water rights are in place, real water markets centered on established water entitlements can emerge. With these emergent institutions, the roles of user organizations will also expand considerably to include new functions such as monitoring and enforcement, forum for negotiation and conflict resolution and brokering and facilitation of water markets. More importantly, all these institutional changes will tend to expand the application of demand management options and reinforce their effectiveness and impacts on water allocation and use. The main point to note here is the importance of identifying the key institutional and technical elements that will form the core components of reforms. This can be done with an understanding of the technical needs, operational linkages, financial costs and feasibility criteria, using a framework similar to the one in Figure 3.While the design principles do affect implementation, the principles related to the timing, coverage and scale have a more strategic role. This is because they work on the synergies and feedbacks emerging from a larger environment within which the institutional structure is operating. These synergies and feedbacks can relate both to exogenous factors such as macro-economic crisis, energy shortage, droughts and floods, political change and the influence of external funding agencies as well as to endogenous factors such as water scarcity, status of water finance and the physical conditions of water infrastructure. Appropriately seizing these opportunities with proper timing is critical for the success and effectiveness of reform programs. Beside the anticipation and choice of the right time, the issue of time is also significant for another important but least appreciated reason. This relates to the selection of a suitable time frame for the execution of the demand management strategy and its institutional program. Since institutional change is only incremental and slow, a longer time frame involving, say, a 10-year period is to be considered. But, within this frame, time dated reform initiatives with clear prioritization and financial allocations can be planned for sequential implementation. The issue of scale and coverage is mainly determined by financial and technical considerations. Although there are economies of scale in undertaking demand management reforms, this policy cannot be ideal in all contexts. Ideally, it would be useful to prioritize regions and areas where different demand management options and initiatives can be introduced. For instance, while water pricing policy and energy regulations can cover a larger area, it is useful to target scarcity areas so that these options can have a significant impact.The urgent need and compelling rationale for demand management in the irrigation sector can hardly be overstated, especially given the binding limits for supply expansion and the persisting levels of water use inefficiency. But, unfortunately, the present status and performance of individual demand management options leave much to be desired. While there are cases of limited success in efficiency improvements, especially in the case of demand management options such as user organizations, water saving technologies and water markets, they are too few to have the magnitude of efficiency and water saving benefits that are needed at present. The overview of the performance of demand management options clearly shows how their extent and effectiveness are constrained by several institutional, technical and financial factors. But, a much more serious issue is the absence of a clearly articulated policy for water demand management both at the national and state levels, even though demand management has been very much in policy discourse for a long period. Even though there are policies for promoting user organizations, water saving technologies, water pricing or energy regulations, they are implemented mostly in an ad hoc or partial manner.The formulation of a demand management policy cannot be considered as a ceremonial need because it is the policy statement that provides the basis for the much needed financial and political commitments for implementing demand management programs. Such a policy can also represent a formal shift from the outdated supply-oriented paradigm that has governed water development, allocation, use and management so far. Since an effective demand management strategy can both expand irrigation and also release water for other productive uses even at the current level of water use, it is logical to divert, at least part of the investments that are currently going into new supply development. Although some of the demand management initiatives have a long gestation period, this may not be as high as that which is associated with new water development projects, especially considering the delay caused by environmental problems and inter-state water conflicts. Besides the direct returns from demand management investments, there are also long-term effects since demand management options and their institutions can enhance the efficiency and sustainability benefits not only in the irrigation sector but also in the water economy as a whole.An analytical framework similar to the one presented in Figure 3 can help to understand the analytics and dynamics of impacts of a demand management strategy. As we have shown, this framework provides considerable insights on the operational linkages among the options and functional linkages in the underlying institutions. A demand management strategy delineated in the lights of these linkages, formulated within a more realistic time frame and implemented with the design and implementation principles can be more practical and effective in achieving the efficiency and water saving goals within the irrigation sector. Broadly, this strategy involves a sequencing, prioritization and packaging of demand management tools and also their institutions. Similarly, the principles involving the issues of timing, scale and coverage can also be used for planning the implementation of the demand management strategy. While implementing the strategy, areas and regions can also be prioritized in terms of their relative feasibility and also the available financial resources for investment on demand management. The central idea is to achieve immediate efficiency benefits as much as possible while gradually paving the way for institutional and technical foundation for similar benefits in the long term. The approach of gradual, sequential and consistent implementation of demand management strategy within a well-planned time frame is likely to neutralize possible resistance, minimize transaction costs and maximize long-term impacts.While India has to go a long way in formulating and implementing a demand management strategy as discussed here, one cannot be that pessimistic given the recent trends of institutional changes observed in India (see Saleth 2004). Although the observed changes are slow, partial and inadequate, their direction and thrust are on the desired lines. Several states have raised the water rates and there has also been a gradual and steady improvement in cost recovery. The issues of volumetric allocation and water entitlements have also been receiving increasing public and policy attention in recent years. In Maharashtra, the policy of volumetric allocation on a bulk basis has been introduced. Many policies that were once considered as anathema, such as water markets, privatization and de-bureaucratization are already a reality in India's water sector. There are also constant pressures from factors both endogenous and exogenous to the water sector (e.g., the physical limits for supply augmentation, food security compulsions, water supply challenges and energy issues) for further changes in water policies and institutions. Since the path dependency properties of institutions will ensure that it is costlier to return than to status quo than to continue to proceed with the reform path, the institutional environment is going to favor the formulation and implementation of the demand management strategy sooner than later. Obviously, there is a clear policy demand for more research-based studies for exploring still further the design and implementation properties of irrigation demand management strategy.Agriculture is the single largest consumer of water. Agriculture accounts for more than 70 % of the total water demand globally and its share is as high as 90 % in developing countries like India. In this context, even a marginal saving in irrigation water use can release substantial amounts of water for agricultural expansion as well as for meeting the needs of other sectors like domestic water demand. Unfortunately, irrigation water is one of the most ill-managed resources, which creates a severe scarcity of water, both for drinking and irrigation, as well as environmental problems such as waterlogging in endowed regions and desertification in fragile regions. Of late, there has been great emphasis on the judicious management of water at the policy level. Pricing and institutional (user participation) approaches are suggested to overcome the strident problems. So far, even these policy changes have been limited to surface irrigation. An important segment of water resources (groundwater), which covers most of the rain-fed regions, is more or less neglected. In the absence of any effective policy measures, groundwater regions are plagued with water scarcity, inequitable distribution of water and environmental degradation. The situation seems to have aggravated during recent years, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions across the world.For, hitherto policymaking towards water, in general, and irrigation management, in particular, is based on the philosophy of supply side management to the neglect of demand side aspects. Demand management involves increased water use efficiency, recycling, promotion of water saving technologies etc. Though supply is a major constraint in many cases, the major problem that leads to water shortages is the wastages through distributional and transmission losses, overexploitation and inequity in the case of groundwater, practices of inefficient use etc. As the wastages of water workout to be very expensive, the investments in leak detection and leak proofing may prove to be more productive than the investments in supply expansion. This, coupled with an efficient distribution network and sustainable extraction of groundwater, would not only help increase the supplies but also lead to a more equitable distribution. Even the investment required for improving the supply network is substantial and, hence, resource (both financial and natural) availability is the major constraint in this regard. In this context, demand management becomes critical for sustainable management of the resource.In spite of the rapidly increasing value for water resources, irrigation water demand functions are totally ignored in the major policy formulations. In most of the cases the projections of irrigation water demand are in terms of crop water requirements. Therefore, the effect of price and other variables on the use of irrigation is not properly evaluated. The most important application of demand functions is in arriving at alternative projections of water use by systematically varying the factors that influence the demand for water. Moreover, the demand function provides a basis for evaluating whether specific investments in flow regulation and inter-basin transfers are justified (Thampson and Young 1973). Lacking in scientific estimation of demand functions, the estimated projections so far are based on cropping pattern and acreage projections along with their normative requirements. However, the literature on water demand estimates for other countries, mostly developed, indicate that the quantity of water demanded has been found to be significantly affected by the price of water and other socioeconomic factors in a number of studies (for a review see Reddy 1996).Although factors influencing irrigation demand can be categorized under (i) economic, (ii) technological and (iii) environmental, the price of water falling under the economic category has received greater attention as a major irrigation demand management tool. The discussion on price as a demand management variable has been highlighted in a number of studies (see for recent reviews, Molle nd; Dudu and Chumi 2008;Johansson 2005;Tsur 2005). In fact, an unsettled controversy is still going on regarding the specification of price variables and what should comprise the water price. Whether marginal price specification is appropriate or average price specification is appropriate for estimating the water demand function is one of the key issues in this debate. Similarly, the inclusion of implementation costs is another issue. Though the arguments in support of and against these issues are very interesting, we restrain ourselves from entering into this debate and concentrate on the price as a demand management variable.This paper attempts to explore the intricate issues that prompt the dynamics of water pricing in irrigation demand management. The focus of the paper is on the irrigation sector, both surface and groundwater, and mainly draws from existing literature and studies. It is argued that water is increasingly becoming a political good rather than an economic or a social good. Water pricing has become a political live wire mainly due to the asymmetry in information across the stakeholders. Information asymmetries are often created by the selfseeking interest groups like the water departments / bureaucrats or contractors. This is despite the fact that water bureaucracy is often involved in the reform process. The absence of a comprehensive water policy that clarifies the rights and entitlements of water resources at the central or federal levels appears to be the main bottleneck in the smooth implementation of the reform initiatives. The following section reviews irrigation water pricing policies. Section three discusses the role of pricing in irrigation demand management. Some evidence pertaining to the impact of pricing on irrigation demand is presented in section four while the conditions irrigation water pricing are discussed in section five. And the last section makes some concluding remarks.There is now consensus at various levels that water is scarce and needs to be treated as an economic good. Though pricing is considered to be crucial for efficient allocation of water, allocation of water as a pure economic good is more complicated than other goods and services. This is mainly due to its public good nature and externalities associated with it. The critical linkages between water and poverty, food security brings the equity dimension in to its allocation. This has led to bringing irrigation water largely under public administration across the countries. The various problems viz., inefficiency, poor planning and enforcement, etc., associated with public administration has often ended up treating water as a social good rather than an economic good. Treating water as a social good has led to a financial burden on the state and resulted in unsustainability of the supply systems in the long run.Financial burden of the supply agencies is reflected in the poor health of irrigation infrastructure resulting in leakages, which are estimated to be in the range of 60 % in most of the areas. A substantial portion of these losses is technical. Any improvement in the system could result in substantial gains in terms of total water supplies. And, even marginal savings (say 5-10 %) in irrigation water could release enough water to meet the needs of other sectors. Financial compulsions force price reforms and, often reforms are initiated to avert extreme crisis situation ('crisis hypothesis'). Pricing decisions are always considered as politically infeasible and, hence, avoided with the excuses of lack of willingness and ability to pay. A number of studies have shown how wrong these perceptions are. In fact, it is argued that it is 'willingness to charge' rather than 'willingness to pay' that is blocking price reforms (Reddy 1996;DFID 1999). People are willing to pay higher tariffs irrespective of resource endowments of the region (scarcity or abundant water resources).Countries follow different pricing mechanisms for irrigation water though most of them do not adopt any economic principle strictly. For, the first best solutions are often complicated as far as implementation is concerned (Johansson 2005). Pricing of water has five important objectives (Boland and Whittington 2000). They are: 1) revenue sufficiency; 2) economic efficiency; 3) equity and fairness; 4) income redistribution; and, 5) resource conservation. Designing of price policies and tariff structures should take the following considerations into account in order to make the reforms feasible. These include: public acceptability, political acceptability, simplicity and transparency, net revenue stability and ease of implementation (Bolland and Whittington 2000 -p. 222). However, some of these considerations like political and public acceptability may clash with the basic objectives of pricing. For instance, for achieving economically efficient water allocation (that gives highest return to the given water resource), the price of water should be equal to its marginal cost of supply plus its scarcity value. Often, this results in the setting high tariff structures, which are acceptable neither to the public nor to the politicians.The prevailing pricing mechanisms across nations can be grouped under three categories viz., a) volumetric pricing; b) non-volumetric pricing; and c) market based pricing (Johansson 2000). In volumetric pricing water use is measured and charged. In the case of non-volumetric pricing a number of variants are used in irrigation water (Table 1). These include flat rates, per acre rates, crop-wise rates etc. Market-based pricing follows the price determination based on demand and supply of water in a market environment. Markets can be formal or informal. In the Indian context most water markets are informal (Shah 1993;Saleth 1996). On the other hand, formal water markets require tradable property rights (Saleth 1998) in water that are conspicuous by their absence in most other countries. Water rights also help reduce poverty, improve productivity and resource conservation (Burns and Meinzen-Dick 2005). Water markets may not exist or function in scarcity conditions, as the available water is not enough to meet the needs of well owners. Water markets are also observed to shrink in the context of power regulation for groundwater extraction (Shah and Verma 2008). More importantly, water markets may not be sensitive to resource degradation and equity concerns. Short-run Difficult Nil for governmentSource: Adopted with modification from Johansson (2005) Theoretically, marginal cost pricing is the most efficient and considered the first and best option. Whether marginal price specification is appropriate or average price specification is appropriate for estimating the water demand function is being debated empirically. Though the arguments in support of and against these variables are very interesting, we restrain ourselves from entering into this debate here. There are studies using average price alone and others using only marginal price (for a theoretical exposition on long run marginal cost pricing see Munasinghe 1990), while some used both in order to test the specification bias of pricing in the water demand (for a detailed review see Reddy 1996). In fact, increasing block rate tariffs (IBT) are considered to be equivalent to marginal cost pricing though there is no agreement in this regard (for detailed exposition on this see Boland and Whittington 2000). Boland and Whittington (2000) argue that IBTs introduce inefficiency, inequity, complexity, lack of transparency, instability and forecasting difficulties. They suggest uniform pricing with rebate (UPR), which is capable of achieving the benefits of IBT without adopting a block tariff structure. And the popularity of IBT is attributed to the water professional's ignorance or neglect of the adverse effects of IBT on poor households (Boland and Whittington 2000 -p.234).As far as irrigation water is concerned, there are wide variations in water rate structures across countries and the rate per unit volume of water consumed varies greatly for crops. In some states irrigation charges vary from project to project depending on the mode of irrigation.The rates vary widely for the same crop in the same state depending on season, type of system etc. There are no uniform set principles in fixing the water rates, a multiplicity of principles are followed such as recovery of cost of water, capacity of irrigators to pay based on gross earning or net benefit of irrigation, water requirement of crops, sources of water supply and its assurance, classification of land linked with land revenue system and combination of various elements. In some states water cess, betterment levy etc., are also levied. There is no consistency or uniformity regarding how these factors are used in arriving at water rates.A number of irrigation water pricing mechanisms have been adopted across the countries (Table 2). There are also variations within each country like India where different mechanisms are adopted across geographic locations. Water prices are charged according to local conditions and costs of production. In some countries like Jordan and Turkey, groundwater supplies are priced, while in others like India, groundwater is left to private management. The variations in irrigation water rates are quite substantial across the countries. Despite the adoption of volumetric and other theoretically efficient pricing mechanisms water is under priced in most of the countries (Tsur and Dinar 1997). As a result water prices neither reflect its scarcity value nor allocated efficiently. Source: Compiled from Tsur and Dinar (1997) and CWC (2004) Irrigation water prices vary across states in India and prices are below working expenses in all the cases (Table 3). While Punjab has abolished water rates in 1997, water rates were last revised decades back in some states like Tamil Nadu (1962) and Kerala (1974). Similarly, no water rate is levied for agricultural purposes in most of the north-eastern states except for Manipur. In Orissa, a flat basic compulsory water rate is charged for the staple crop of paddy under the command area of major and medium projects irrespective of water used or not, while crop-wise rates are charged in the case of other crops. In West Bengal, water from minor systems is supplied only on pre-payment basis. In Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, West Bengal and Kerala variations in water rates appear to be marginal. In most of the southern states of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Tamil Nadu (TN), Karnataka and Pandicherry water rates are clubbed with land revenue and land is assessed as wet and dry. The difference between the dry and wet assessment is taken as water rate. In most of the states public water supplies for irrigation are levied on the basis of area irrigated ( in the case of surface irrigation), while water charges are levied on the basis of the number of hours of watering or volume of water (in the case of public tubewell irrigation). The rates for perennial and defussal crops are often higher than those of other crops (www.mowr.gov.in/problems/pricing.htm). A cursory look at the economic performance of the water sector across the states in India reveals the poor status of the sector. All the states are overburdened with the financial gap (measured as the difference between expenditure on and recovery from the sector) and resorting to heavy borrowings from private sector and multilateral agencies. None of the states are covering the operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, which in itself is an efficiency indicator in most developing countries. Scarcity or incentive gap is the difference between the scarcity value of water and the actual value of water. 1 In the case of irrigation, the price gap is substantial and widening in all the states. (Figures 1 and 2). 2 Operation and maintenance cost recovery in irrigation is less than 5 % in the majority of the states (Figure 2).  (1976-1977; 1999-2000).Source: CWC (2004)Figure 2. Percentage of cost recovery of O&M in irrigation and multipurpose river valley projects in selected states (1999)(2000).Source: CWC ( 2004)1 For an excellent treatment of water sector assessment see Saleth and Dinar 2004.  2 The sudden increase in the gap between gross receipts and working expenses after 1986-87 is due to the change in the O & M costing methodology (Narayanamoorthy and Deshpande 2005).Theoretically demand for any normal good is inversely related with its price, and positively related with individual income, ceteris paribus. All the studies testing these two hypotheses have revealed ample evidence supporting the theoretical propositions, though the magnitude of their estimates varies among the studies (Dudu and Chumi 2008). Pricing of water on cost basis is essential because it not only helps in resource (financial) generation but also results in the efficient usage of water and discourages wastage of water. It is often observed that the decision-makers, in the event of resource constraints, opt for permitting shortages and allocating water by non-price means of supply regulations when the existing capacities are on the verge of full utilization. Though this has become a norm in most of the developing countries, supply regulation is considered to be an unsatisfactory permanent policy. Often pricing policies are thwarted with the excuse that farmers are unwilling to pay for irrigation water. Contrary to this general belief users are willing to pay substantially higher prices for improved water supplies. On the other hand, users tend to pay more than the actual cost of water in the event of supply regulation under a flat rate pricing mechanism (Reddy 1998).Therefore, willingness to pay is not a bottleneck for charging higher prices. In fact, it is the willingness to charge, which is the main obstacle. While pricing could be an effective tool of demand management, we do not have many instances of getting the prices right to the level that results in efficient allocation of water, as the price does not reflect the scarcity value of water and also does not include the implementation costs in the case of volumetric pricing. Implementation costs could be very substantial in the case of volumetric pricing where metering and monitoring costs are quite high. Though volumetric pricing is implemented in the USA and Australia, the prices do not include these transaction costs (Molle nd). In other countries like Jordan where volumetric pricing mechanism is adopted, irrigation water is under priced by the authorities for the reasons of social welfare and equity (Tsur and Dinar 1997). Often one finds that the impact of volumetric prices on irrigation water demand operates only at the margin, as they do not reflect the real prices. The threshold level prices are quite high when scarcity values and implementation costs are included, making the public administration weary of imposing high prices. Such high prices could adversely affect the social welfare function of water pricing due to its social acceptance and equity concerns.Efficient allocation takes place as long as prices affect demand. Most of the pricing mechanisms appear to fulfill this condition (Tsur and Dinar 1997). Volumetric pricing based on marginal cost-pricing achieves the first and best efficiency in the absence of implementation costs and scarcity value of water. In the event of under reflection of the actual value of water, volumetric or marginal cost-pricing of irrigation water does not prove to be efficient when compared to other pricing mechanisms like area-based or crop-based or quota systems (Tsur and Dinar 1997). Public administrators opt for quota or regulatory mechanisms, which are easy to adopt, to address scarcity issues. Pricing is never used to regulate irrigation water demand. While setting the right prices is very difficult, implementing the price policy is equally challenging. Pricing cannot operate in a vacuum. Proper implementation of pricing policies requires institutional arrangements for enforcing the price mechanisms.However, under the existing institutional arrangements, pricing on a cost basis may not lead to sustainability of the water systems in terms of efficient allocation of water or financial viability. In the given institutional set up in the Indian irrigation systems, for instance, recovery rates are very low and declining. Percentage of recovery at the all India level (ratio gross receipts and working expenses) has declined from 92.9 % in 1976-1977 to 5.7 % in 1999-2000. When the interest on capital outlay is included, the recovery rates have declined from 36.4 % in 197636.4 % in -197736.4 % in to 5.7 % 199936.4 % in -200036.4 % in (CWC 2004). The story is no different even at the state level, as the average recovery is less than 5 % in most of the states. In addition, the gap between demand and actual collection of irrigation charges is quite substantial in a number of states. Except in the case of Punjab and Haryana, collections are less than the demand in all the states -ranging from 34 % in West Bengal to 92 % in Uttar Pradesh (Deshpande and Narayanmoorthy 2006). Given the political and institutional conditions it is unlikely that higher water rates would lead to better recovery. This point has been proved in the case of Andhra Pradesh, where increased water rates are accompanied by declining recovery rates despite the advent of institutional changes at all levels (Reddy 2003). Absence of devolution of powers to water user associations (WUAs), in terms of assessment and fee collection etc., are observed to be the main reasons for this trend. Given this background, adoption of first best solutions like volumetric pricing based on marginal cost calculations appears to be a far cry.Groundwater management is the most challenging part of the water-pricing reforms. Hitherto, groundwater policies are in the lines of encouraging overexploitation. These policies are in the nature of providing incentives for groundwater development such as subsidized credit, and for groundwater exploitation such as subsidized power or diesel / kerosene. While these policies helped in promoting groundwater development in the regions where groundwater development was below potential, they have led to an overexploitation of the resource in fragile resource regions. The first victims in this process are the poor (small and marginal farmers). While small and marginal farmers own mainly open wells, medium and large farmers dominate the ownership of bore wells. As a result of degradation majority of small and marginal farmers have lost or are loosing access to water, as the water tables go down. Even when they own bore wells they can't compete with medium and large farmers in deepening their wells (Reddy 2005). As a result, these farmers are denied of their genuine share in the common pool resources. It is observed that groundwater markets will take care of the equity problems to a large extent (Shah 1993). But, evolution of water markets is possible only in the regions where groundwater is available in sufficient quantities. Markets do not evolve when there is not enough water to share or sell (Reddy 1999). This is true in many regions where groundwater markets do not operate, as the available water is not enough to irrigate the well owner's land. Pricing of groundwater has a greater potential for achieving equity and resource conservation objectives. Being the single largest source of irrigation and domestic water supplies, reforms in groundwater governance assumes importance and urgency.In general, communities perceive that the improved availability of water for irrigation significantly enhances their livelihood security. The poverty goal necessitates a focus on the specific needs of the poor, especially women and landless and land-scarce families. The latter group often includes rain-fed farmers. The issue of how to secure the rights and entitlements of poor people to access water resources needs to be resolved. Unfortunately, there are no policies so far that address the equity and management aspects of water, in general, and groundwater, in particular. Though there are regulations on groundwater exploitation they are inadequate and ineffective. Even the so-called water reforms are in the lines of regulation rather than designing innovative policies that would integrate market and institutional dimensions of resource management. The water sector reforms in some of the states have failed to address the real issues and take the hard decisions. These reforms are often limited to half-baked institutional reforms, where new institutional structures were created without devolving powers. As a result, pricing of water has always taken a back seat in the reform agenda.Water pricing has become hackneyed and ritual. Everybody supports but nobody implements. While some progress has been made in the case of domestic (urban) water, very little is being done in the case of irrigation (especially canal). Even in the reforming states like Andhra Pradesh (India) very little is done in this direction. Artificially kept low water prices fail to provide any incentive to improve the systems, technically or institutionally, as the economics of transaction costs go against it. Present prices do not even cover the O & M costs in many cases. On the other hand, some argue that pricing based on O & M may amount to penalizing the farmers for the inefficiencies of the department i.e., escalation of working expenses (Deshpande and Narayanamoorthy 2001). The second irrigation commission has suggested that the water rate should relate to the benefits accruing to the farmers rather than the costs incurred by the department (GoI 1972). In any case, the main bottleneck is the lack of political will to take the hard decisions though the constraints for taking hard political decisions may ease when water rates are fixed on the basis of returns.Often pricing policies are thwarted with the excuse that farmers are unwilling to pay for irrigation water. Contrary to this general belief, farmers are willing to pay substantially higher prices for improved water supplies (Reddy 1998). Hence, willingness to pay is not a bottleneck for charging higher prices. Therefore, rational pricing of water on the basis of benefits accruing to the farmers is essential because it not only helps in resource generation but also enables the efficient usage of water while discouraging wastage. For example, paying for water on a cost basis could be as low as the O & M costs, which are beyond the control of the farmers. And these costs are always increasing irrespective of the returns to farming or efficient delivery of water, due to salary and other components (Deshpande and Narayanamoorthy 2001). It is often observed that the decision-makers, in the event of resource constraints, opt for permitting shortages and allocating water by non-price means of supply regulations when the existing capacities are on the verge of full utilization. Though this has become a norm in most of the developing countries, supply regulation is considered to be an unsatisfactory permanent policy.While pricing can result in an efficient allocation of irrigation water perfectly at the theoretical level, impact of prices on irrigation in the practical world operates only at the margin. This is mainly due to the distortions in pricing coupled with lack of institutional mechanisms to support the high threshold levels of pricing. While the high prices that reflect the scarcity value of water and implementation costs could prove to be unviable and iniquitous, they may also adversely affect the social welfare objective. Inter-and intra-regional inequities in access to water have made water a political good rather than an economic good. The approach is to meet the demand for water at any cost. This does not make economic sense but makes enormous political sense. In a number of cases, where irrigation development is based on political consideration, the cost of irrigation provision is too high to make agriculture viable. Implementation of such high prices is neither politically feasible nor helpful in ensuring food security. For, at such high prices water has to be reallocated to more productive sectors, e.g., industry. One way out is to improve water productivities in agriculture.Similarly, groundwater pricing does not reflect its scarcity value. Often groundwater use is regulated through power pricing. While, cost-based power tariff is useful in checking overexploitation, adding a scarcity of water rent to the tariff would be more appropriate. A pre-condition for this is to minimize the risk and uncertainties in groundwater and power availability. Large-scale public investments towards replenishing mechanisms like renovating traditional tanks, rainwater harvesting structures, etc., are necessary. These investments could be cross-subsidized from the revenues generated in the canal command areas. More importantly, institutional arrangements such as making groundwater a real common pool resource and exploiting it on a community basis are critical for equitable distribution and sustenance of the resource.Technologies are often given little importance in the demand side management of irrigation water. This is mainly because of the reason that the area covered under water saving technologies is negligible. One reason for this is the distorted water tariff structure (Repetto 1986). Of late, more and more area is being brought under these technologies in order to tackle the scarcity conditions. The most important among the irrigation water saving technologies are sprinkler and drip irrigation techniques, also known as micro-irrigation systems. Of late, these technologies are spreading to a diversity of crops instead of being limited to horticultural crops as was the case in the past. In Gujarat, farmers use micro-irrigation systems on various crops such as wheat, bajra, maize, groundnut, cotton, castor and vegetables in addition to horticultural crops (Kumar et al. 2004).And in Maharastra, drip systems are used even on water-intensive crops e.g., sugarcane (Narayanamoorthy 2006).It is estimated that micro-irrigation systems save 48-67 % in terms of water, 44-67 % in terms of energy and 29-60 % in terms of labor. Farmers have also reported a low incidence of pest attack, reduced weed growth, improvement in soil quality and increased yields. As a result net incomes have increased substantially. Farmers are interested in investing on their own without any subsidy (Kumar et. al. 2004). Cost-benefit analysis of drip irrigation in Maharastra revealed high economic viability for banana, grapes and sugarcane (Narayanamoorthy 1997 and2006). The economic viability seems to hold good even in the case of smallholdings of just one hectare (Narayanmoorthy 2006). Despite the high economic viability the spread of these technologies is limited due to high initial cost and lack of awareness. The rationale of subsidies for these technologies is valid not only for spreading of these technologies but also due to the reason that social returns are far in excess of private returns accruing to drip investors (Dhawan 2000). Besides, there is a need for strong extension support for better adoption rates (Narayanamoorthy 2006).Provision and clarity in water rights is expected to result in efficient use of water. Water rights are seen from many perspectives viz., riparian, federalist, formal law, civil society, stakeholder, human rights, environment and economic (Iyer 2003). The best way to deal with water rights would be the integration of all these perspectives. However, converting this theory to practice is going to be rather difficult. For instance, right to use of water is tied to the ownership of land along rivers and groundwater aquifers. As a result common pool resources are used as private property. This is the root cause of all the problems related to equity and sustainability. Furthermore, rights on water use are not clearly defined thus allowing for indiscriminate exploitation. The existing riparian rights while ensuring the natural right of people on water thwart the main objective of equity and sustainability. On the other hand, water rights from an economic perspective would adversely affect the interests of those whose ability to pay is minimal. There is a need to find a middle path that would ensure equity and sustainability of water resources. The recent water policy of South Africa is an interesting case in point.South Africa (SA) has effectively abolished the riparian system, as it was racially biased (GoSA 1998). In SA the state has become the custodian of all the water bodies in the country. No ownership of water is allowed. Water rights are provided to individuals / firms on a 5-year contract basis (to a maximum of 40 years depending on the use). The rights are allocated by the State. However, water for basic needs and environmental sustainability is given as a right. All other uses will be subject to a system of allocation that promotes optimality for achieving equitable and sustainable economic and social development. This would have an important bearing on the equity, sustainability and efficient use of water, as water allocations keep altering users and uses across locations depending on the scarcity conditions.On the whole, pricing has the potential to achieve efficient allocation of irrigation water, but its effectiveness in the real world depends on a number of other factors. These include: a) proper valuation of water resources (i.e., use value + scarcity value + existence value); b) institutional mechanisms like water user associations to support implementations of pricing policies,; c) technologies to enhance water productivity as well as viability of agriculture and; d) property rights in water so that water is tradable and reallocated for other productive uses.Volumetric pricing is expected to be effective in conserving water and improving water use efficiency. However, volumetric pricing is followed in very few cases (Table 4). This is mainly due to the high costs associated with fixing water meters and monitoring them. Even in the few cases where volumetric pricing is adopted, water is often under priced with little impact on water demand. In other words, as long as volumetric pricing is not equated with marginal cost pricing, pricing is not going to be an effective tool of demand management. This is mainly due to two reasons: (i) that marginal cost based pricing is often found to be politically unacceptable; and (ii) it may also impose undue burden on the marginal sections of the farming community. In the absence of volumetric pricing water pricing on the basis of acreage is found to be the easiest way of implementation administratively. As far as the impact on water use and efficiency are concerned, evidence across the globe indicates that quotas are more effective in regulating demand when compared to other pricing mechanisms. Similarly, supply regulation is observed to be more effective in controlling demand. Supply regulation though found to be inefficient in the long run, it happens to be the most preferred option among the administrators. Quotas or supply regulation arises due to resource shortages. Less water is distributed equally among all the farmers in the years of water scarcity. In the case of groundwater it is often the shortage of electricity that prompts supply restrictions and reduced exploitation of water. The mixing of power pricing with supply regulation is found to be effective in groundwater management. During the drought years between 2001 and 2004 the Krishna Delta farmers in Andhra Pradesh were provided with 40 % less supply of water when compared to normal years. Farmers not only managed with low supplies of water but also reported 20 % higher yields. This reveals the extent of water wastage and inefficiencies during normal years. Hence, quotas lead by shortages are more preferred to volumetric or marginal cost based pricing.Irrigation reforms in Andhra Pradesh, India are among the few success stories. Water sector reforms in Andhra Pradesh were also aimed at financial sustainability of irrigation systems through price reforms. Though water rates were increased initially by three times, they are still short of O&M expenditure. Though user contribution of 15 % is inherent / included in the Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) Act, there is no evidence of any contribution from farmers. In fact, there are no efforts to collect this contribution. On the contrary, it is indicated that often only 60 % of the irrigated area is reported for the collection of water charges, and the officials take 20 % of the charges on the area as their share. Effectively, the farmer will be paying only for 80 % of the area irrigated by him. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement. These arrangements are widespread in the regions where WUAs are not strong. In fact, it was observed that in some cases the irrigation department has not yet revealed the details of the command area under each WUA. There is a widespread feeling that the department is not keen in strengthening the WUAs, as their continuation will go against the department's interests. In some regions WUAs have turned into mere political entities. Moreover, in the majority of cases contractors have turned into WUA presidents. As a result, WUAs have become money-making ventures (Reddy 2003).Though some benefits in terms of increased area under irrigation in canal systems and improved quality of irrigation are evident, the sustainability of these benefits is rather uncertain in the absence of efficient institutional structures. While it appears that an opportunity to build stronger and sustainable irrigation institutions has been floundered, the opportunity is not totally lost, as the WUAs are still in place. It is observed that formal institutions are too rigid and rule-bound. Equity in the management and distribution of water is not addressed. No proper incentive (positive and negative) structures were designed and placed to support rule compliance (Reddy and Reddy 2005).In Rajasthan, though more than 800 WUAs were constituted and elections were conducted almost 5 years back, the progress is very tardy. Water rates were revised only once during 1999. So far no devolution of powers has taken place, though the irrigation department appears to be keen in devolving the powers. These associations should be made autonomous, under the guidance of the irrigation department, and should be entrusted with rights and responsibilities of water distribution, O&M, fixing of water prices, collection, etc. Unless WUAs are fully evolved in these aspects they remain ornamental. Conducting of regular elections is one way of keeping them alive. But, they should not be made dependent on external funds (Reddy 2006).The Government of Orissa aims to handover the irrigation projects to 'Pani Panchayats' in a phased manner under the scheme started in 2002. So far 801 thousand hectares of irrigated command areas have been handed over to 13, 284 Pani Panchayats registered under the Registration of Societies Act. The government claims that the PIM program allows farmers to take decisions regarding distribution and management of water resources. In reality, however, the program has created a divide between the large, and small farmers and the landless. The landless are not even members of the Pani Panchayat. The rotation of canal water use resulted in poor farmers being able to harvest their rabi crop only once in 2 years. Consequently, people rebelled against the program and the model has collapsed, but not before causing much misery (Das 2006). Therefore, the experience and evidence on the impact of pricing on irrigation demand even in an institutional context is marginal. This is mainly due to the ineffective or lopsided functioning of the formal institutions.In the context of groundwater, the water demand is controlled mainly through electricity. Though electricity pricing on cost basis is difficult politically, groundwater demand is often curtailed through regulation of the power supply. It is observed in the case of Gujarat, that increase in the flat rate of power has reduced the subsidy burden of the government though power is still subsidized (Shah and Verma 2008). While the threshold level of the power price that would reduce water demand is quite high, regulation of power supply could be used as an effective demand management tool. It is argued, \"…effective rationing of power supply can indeed act as a powerful, indeed all powerful, tool for groundwater demand management\" (Shah and Verma 2008 -p.66). Similarly, metering of the power supply has shrunk the water markets, thus reducing the amount of water extraction. The combination of metering with regulation of supply seems to be more effective in managing groundwater demand.There is no 'silver bullet' for making and implementing appropriate water pricing policies. There is a need for an integrated approach of markets, institutions and policies. The effectiveness of market mechanisms like full cost pricing, marginal cost pricing, etc., depends on the existing institutional and policy environment. Often price policies are adopted due to compulsions rather than due to conviction. For instance, in order to tide over the increasing financial burden, a number of states in India have initiated price and institutional reforms. In most of the cases these initiatives are induced rather than germane. Conditions for water pricing are determined by policy environment, institutional environment and technological options available.Perpetuation of the supply-side approach has often prompted the exploration of possibilities of meeting the increasing demand for water through enhanced supplies from far off places at huge costs. In the absence of financial self-sufficiency of the supply agencies, they resorted to external funding. These funds, especially from the international agencies, often come with conditionalities in order to ensure repayment. World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID, European Commission, etc., are among the important agencies that are pushing reform agendas in some of the states. World Bank is the largest lender in the water sector covering both drinking as well as irrigation water. Although India is the second most important borrower from the World Bank, its investments in the sector account for only 10 % of the total investment (Pitman 2002). Of late, most of the lenders and donors are following the sectoral approach rather than the project approach. Sectoral approach takes an integrated view of the entire sector and initiates corrective measures instead of focusing on specific projects in specific areas. But, state governments are not very enthusiastic about the sectoral approach, as they are happy tinkering with small or little changes rather than embarking on major reforms like adopting a comprehensive water policy, providing legal rights and entitlements to water and establishing enforcement mechanisms, etc. Despite the best efforts of some of the donors, sectoral reforms are getting a lukewarm response and are adopted in a piecemeal manner at best.The new initiatives in the irrigation sector are mainly institutional in terms of participatory irrigation management (PIM). Under this, some states in India (viz., Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, etc.), have brought in legislations making water user associations (WUAs) mandatory for managing the public irrigation systems. One of the main objectives of PIM is to enhance the financial sustainability of the irrigation projects by ensuring parity between expenditure and revenue. Water user associations, through their involvement in planning, management and assessment in their locations are expected to smooth out the cost recovery process and move towards volumetric pricing in the long run. Though these reforms are having wider political support, in most of the states the progress regarding implementation of the reform components is not only tardy but also raising doubts regarding the overall sustainability of these initiatives in the long-run. In some cases these new institutional arrangements have fallen prey to the 'elite capture' (Reddy and Reddy 2005), in others the inequity in the distribution of water has led to rebellion and abandoning of the reform (Sainath 2006). On the whole the performance of these initiatives is not satisfactory. As per the World Bank evaluation based on aggregate project performance indicator combining the individual ratings for outcome, institutional and sustainability, (Pitman 2002). And irrigation sector is the worst among all the water sector projects, as only 40 % of the irrigation and drainage projects had satisfactory outcomes.The fault, however, does not lie in the policies per se. The problem is lack of conviction at the policy-making and implementation levels. The new initiatives somehow are not fitting into the overall framework of self-seeking interests of various stakeholders like political entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, contractors etc. High subsidies and poor quality of delivery seems to serve their self-interests better. The gap between demand and actual collection of water charges is increasing even in reform states due to laxity in enforcement. As per the committee on the pricing of irrigation water during the 1980s, the gap between assessment and collection was in the range of 27 to 70 %. Accumulated arrears were found to be three to four times those of the annual demand in several states (Vaidyanathan 2003). This trend seems to be continuing, as evident in the field studies. The gap is as high as 60 % in the Chambal command of Rajasthan (Reddy 1996). In Andhra Pradesh, the increase in water rates has led to collusion between farmers and officials, with little impact on recovery rates.Institutions or institutional reforms are critical for the success of irrigation water pricing. It is often argued that the reason for the ills of irrigation management is the alienation of farmers from the process of planning and imple mentation. Maintenance and management of irrigation systems through user societies and participatory process is expected to bring in efficient and equal distribution of water resources. But such processes often remained at the micro-level as experiments, and were often found to be difficult to replicate. Of late, participatory irrigation management is being scaled up at a wider scale in countries like India. Though flow of funds is the main factor in generating such a response, it is necessary to support the ailing systems in order to generate trust among beneficiaries. For, over the years, farmers have lost faith in the government and are in not inclined to respond to the false promises. Therefore, the initial boost was necessary to regain the lost credibility and build confidence. Once this is in place, implementation of institutional reforms from the top becomes smooth and much easier. But it is necessary to understand the direction in which the reforms are progressing. This direction would ultimately determine the strength and sustainability of the reforms.Inequity in the distribution of water is the main cause of conflicts. Conflict is pervasive mainly due to historical reasons i.e., some regions are endowed with rivers and others are not. While it is difficult to avoid conflict altogether, it can be minimized through prioritization of the resource distribution. Water pricing also should take the equity concerns in to account. Discriminatory pricing policies would help overcome equity issues to a large extent. The much acclaimed electricity and groundwater management program in Gujarat (Gujarat's Jyotigram Scheme) also encountered equity problems. The scheme that helped reduce power subsidies, water demand and incidence of water markets has, however, adversely affected small and marginal farmers. Metering of power has led to the shrinking of water markets that were instrumental in providing groundwater access to small and marginal farmers (Shah and Verma 2008). This is mainly due to the bundling of water and land rights and the lumpy nature of capital requirements for groundwater exploitation. Discussion on legal aspects of water rights is crucial. De-linking of water rights from land rights would go a long way in addressing the equity issues in the distribution of groundwater. Allocating the rights to the community under the supervision of PR institutions could be a feasible option in this regard. Scarcity regions should be guaranteed with minimum levels of water in the case of regional allocations.One of the main reasons for the chequered performance of the water sector in India is the absence of scientific information on the status of water resources. In the absence of such information there is widespread misunderstanding about access to water resources and constraints on using them. This is more so in the case of groundwater where farmers tend to mine groundwater in the absence of information on the availability of groundwater in their specific location. Similarly, farmers in the canal commands tend to misuse water and farmers in the dry regions presume that water can be brought from any distance, as they are not aware of the costs of irrigation development. Awareness campaigns should focus on presenting a realistic picture and future consequences if the present trends continue.Water auditing and budgeting are crucial in minimizing the misconceived notions about water. Though water budgeting needs to be carried out at the village level, to start with, this exercise should be initiated at the watershed or river basin level following a holistic approach. For this purpose, integration of departmental expertise (groundwater, drinking water, irrigation, agriculture, animal husbandry etc.,) at the district level is recommended in providing a blue print on the ecological and livelihood potentials and constraints. The information should include the extent of irrigation that is possible (surface and groundwater), suitable cropping patterns, possibilities for livestock development, non-farm livelihood options, cost of provision, available water saving technologies and the benefits from their use etc. This message should be made transparent, simple and understandable to the people by displaying the information in prominent places like village panchayat office and should be disseminated in a campaign mode.However, campaigning alone may not be effective unless fostered with the intended policy changes. An aggressive campaign on pricing should be followed by price hikes. Similarly, advocacy on cropping pattern changes should be accompanied by removing the distortion in output prices. For, ultimately it is the price that brings in the behavioral change. A campaign only helps in understanding the situation and prepares the communities for change.In other words, it facilitates a smooth transition in to the structural adjustment. The campaign should be carried out in a professional manner, i.e., preparing different modules for multiple stakeholders and resources. And it should be planned to ensure long term sustainability (at least 10 years).The bottom line for water management is privatization of water resources or commodification of water; pricing of water use. This is another extreme of the South African (SA) model, which treats water as a public good. While there is no clear agreement in this regard, privatization of water, especially sources, would have a serious impact on the poor. Even in the absence of privatization the poor are paying more for water. However, the rich depriving the poor, often corner the benefits from the social good. Here the state should ensure and protect the entitlements. In the case of irrigation, privatization could help improve the situation by increasing the financial viability. In these cases water can be treated as an economic good. The third option is the middle path i.e., private public partnership in water resource management. This approach is expected to integrate the good aspects of social and economic goods. However, a cautious approach is required given the strident nature of the resource. Understanding the nature, structure and process of such partnership (adopted mainly in the developed countries) and its adaptability to the developing country context is a precondition for adopting such an approach.While the SA model (discussed above) and the Chinese model (Vaidyanathan 1999) present a centralized public management of water resources, the Dutch model (van Dijk 2006) illustrates the relevance of different types of public-private partnerships in the water sector and who the participants would be. However, water utilities in the western countries are different, both in form and functions, to those in countries like India. The implications obviously are manifold but vitally influence the methods for raising resources. Besides the differences, there have been attempts by government departments in India toward enlisting private participation as well as in raising money for initial and working capital expenses such as Narmada Bonds issued by Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam (Corporation) Limited of Gujarat, India. It is interesting to observe that even in the Netherlands one-third of the Water Board's budget comes by way of loans every year. Even in the other two-thirds component, pollution tax appears to be the principal factor. In a country where pollution laws are in a nascent stage but not integrated to water management institutions there is no immediate logical case on which an argument could be made for an integration. Similarly, 'who benefits pays and also have a say' model have equity dimensions in smallholder-dominated agriculture. The equity aspects need to be resolved in an amicable manner.Irrigation water pricing is one of the most discussed and little acted upon issues in the policy discourse. While pricing, as a demand management instrument is the prima dona of a policy economist, it has become a political nightmare for the policy implementers. Pricing of irrigation is critical from many angles: a) more than 70 % of the total water resources are used for irrigation and, hence, takes a lion's share in the public investment; b) irrigation generates surpluses to the farmers and, hence, an economic good; c) irrigation also attracts substantial private investments, especially groundwater; d) improvements in irrigation efficiencies could result in substantial resources, physical as well as financial; and e) irrigation investments are becoming increasingly capital intensive and can no longer be considered as social welfare measure, e.g., food security.Though price is an important demand management variable in a strict economic sense, the criticality of water for irrigation makes it inelastic to price. As a result, the threshold levels of pricing that are required for making irrigation demand sensitive are very high. Even in the case where water is priced volumetrically, the prices fixed are often below the threshold levels. This is true even in the case of water markets. As a result, no evidence could be found on the effectiveness of price as a demand management variable. Institutional reforms have failed to address the pricing issue effectively i.e., moving towards cost-based / marginal-cost pricing. Moreover, the feasibility of pricing on a cost basis has been diminishing over the years in the context of agrarian crisis and globalization. Increasing input costs has been identified as the main reason for agrarian crisis in countries like India. Globalization has brought in the contrasts in the agriculture subsidies across countries, further strengthening the demand for subsidies in the developing world. The recent growth spurt in economies like India has pushed the cost-based pricing issues to the margin i.e., subsidies are no longer a big burden on the exchequer. In fact, allocations for expensive and unviable irrigation projects have gone up in the recent years (Reddy 2006). This appears to be a politically correct strategy, at least in the short run.Provision of irrigation has become a major political concern rather than an economic issue. Irrigation needs to be provided at any cost to sustain agriculture, and agriculture continues to support 50 % of the population in countries like India. Since water is not a finite good, demand management becomes critical for judicious management and equitable distribution of water resources across regions and communities. Pricing of water is not an effective instrument of demand management as long as prices do not reflect the actual costs of provision. At the same time pure supply management may not be efficient in the long run. As evident from the literature available it is the combination of demand management and supply regulation that is more effective. In the given socioeconomic and political context, (cost-based) pricing though necessary is not a feasible option for demand management. And the present level-pricing is not sufficient to effect demand management on its own. On the other hand, supply regulation has been the main strategy of the irrigation administrators for demand management, especially to address scarcity. But, often supply-side management is used to the neglect of demand-side management pushing the departments into debt.Pricing in the present context need to be considered to the extent of generating resources in order to meet the O & M costs and reduce the financial burden on the exchequer. Pricing is also needed to emphasize that water is not a free social good. Supply regulation should be fostered and perhaps linked with pricing i.e. prices may vary as per supply. But in any case supplies need to be measured at the level closest to the actual users. In the Indian context supplies should be metered at the water user association (WUA) level. The WUA should take the responsibility of distributing the water equitably among its members and collect the water charges. For this, metering of supplies and strengthening of WUAs is mandatory. As evident in the case of Gujarat, metering of power along with supply regulations alone could not address the equity issues in groundwater distribution. Institutions should make equity issues integral to overall resource management. This is being tried in a project in Andhra Pradesh where groundwater is managed at the community level in 638 villages (APFAMGS 2008).Pricing becomes affordable if the land and water productivities are enhanced. This coupled with effective institutional arrangements could pave the way for full-cost or marginalcost based pricing in the long run. Water saving technologies like sprinkler and drip systems need to be promoted through institutional arrangements rather than through subsidies. WUAs need to be encouraged and capacitated to promote these technologies. Of late, labor saving technologies like mechanical threshers and harvest combines are promoted through WUAs in Andhra Pradesh, India (Deshpande et. al. 2008). Either way, institutional strengthening holds the key for effective demand management of irrigation.Water resources development and management have been the common policy agenda in many developing economies, particularly in arid and semi-arid tropical countries. Both the physical and economic scarcity of water across regions made the water resources economists and policymakers critically analyze different options to manage this precious resource. A study by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shows that around 50 % of the increase in demand for water by the year 2025 can be met by increasing the effectiveness of irrigation. Most of this gain in irrigation effectiveness would be in countries with a high percentage of irrigated rice. India and China together would account for as much as one-half of the world's total estimated water savings from increased irrigation effectiveness. Therefore, the capacity of large countries like India and China to efficiently develop and manage water resources is likely to be a key determinant of global food security in the twenty-first century (Seckler et al. 1998). In countries like India, almost the entirety of the easily possible and economically viable irrigation water potential has already been developed, but the demand for water for different sectors has been growing continuously (Saleth 1996;Vaidyanathan 1999). Moreover, the water use efficiency in the agricultural sector, which still consumes over 80 % of water, is only in the range of 30-40 % in India, indicating that there is considerable scope for improving the existing water use efficiency.Moreover, in recent decades the issue of inter-sectoral water demand and allocation poses challenges to water economists and policymakers alike. Burgeoning population, expansion in the urban sector of the economy and increase in the industrial sector led to an increase in demand for water in domestic, industrial and, of course, in the irrigation sector. The problem is further compounded by environmental pollution. Under these circumstances, it is more important than ever before to use water efficiently. The existing literature on water resources management shows that the solution to the problem of growing groundwater scarcity is centered on two strategies. First, the supply side management practices like watershed development, water resources development through major, medium and minor irrigation projects. The second is through demand management by efficient use of the available water both in the short-run and long-run perspectives. Though there are a number of demand management options available, one of the demand management strategies adopted either formally or informally across regions by water markets is by reallocation of water, particularly in regions where groundwater scarcity is acute.The water policies of many developing countries including India show that the existing policies on irrigation are mainly supply-side oriented rather than demand-side. Policies such as tariff rate, power pricing in the irrigation sector and institutional components for supplying irrigation water are far too inadequate to effectively manage the scarce water resources. Moreover, the command and control mechanism does not adequately reflect the farmers' preferences because the farmers' preferences are determined by various physical, socioeconomic and contextual factors. Under these circumstances, informal water markets emerged in order to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of water, and these markets continue to exist in many parts of the country and elsewhere as well. (Venkatachalam 2008).Water markets have been considered as a coping strategy for managing water scarcity and reallocation of water from surplus to scarcity regions/localities/farms. Evidences show that the groundwater markets play a significant role in India's groundwater economy (Bhatia et al. 1995). It is found that in Gujarat, for instance, the value of groundwater extracted and used per year is worked out to be in the range of Rs.5,000 to Rs.6,000 million. Of the total water transacted, about 40-60 % of water is sold to the resource-poor farmers who experience the capital requirement as a major constraint in establishing their own water extraction mechanisms (Shah and Raju 1988). Evidences also show that well-developed groundwater markets have existed in Gujarat for as long as 70-80 years. Groundwater markets assume importance for three critical reasons. (i) They enable marginal and small farmers to enjoy the benefits of groundwater lifts and, thereby help enhance their incomes. (ii) Groundwater markets help their owners to improve the economic viability of their lifts and, thereby enhance their incomes. (iii) These markets help the society by minimizing investments in groundwater lifts. Under these situations, groundwater markets are considered as one of the best demand management strategies (Narain 1997).In this context, it is argued that the markets can increase economic efficiency by allocating resources to their most valuable uses, i.e., markets create adequate incentives and lead to efficient water use (Mohanty and Gupta 2002). With only limited scope for further expansion in irrigation potential, the formal or informal water markets can play a crucial role in water allocation across villages and regions. Therefore, the study of water market and its nature, function and role in water resource management assume importance. Recognizing the importance of water markets as a strategy for managing scarce water resources, this paper analyses how water markets can be an option for managing the ever increasing demand for water.The literature on water markets in India dates back to as early as the 1960s. The term 'water market' has been widely used in regions where water selling and buying takes place. Literature suggests that the term has been used to describe a localized, village level institutional arrangement through which owners of the Lift Irrigation Schemes (LIS) supply irrigation service to other members of the community at a price (Shah 1986). The markets for water function in a slightly different manner to markets for other commodities and inputs. As indicated earlier the emergence of markets for water is determined by several socioeconomic and cultural factors. The water markets are typically spontaneous (initiated by private individuals to achieve mutual gains), informal (transaction of water takes place without any legal bindings and to get mutual benefits between the buyers and sellers), unregulated (no strict regulation is followed), localized (mostly functioning at the village level), fragmented (geographical separation of sellers) and seasonal (demand varies across seasons)- (Shah 1986).Studies on groundwater markets are not a new development as many have attempted across regions and countries to address the wide range of issues such as functioning of water markets, equity and efficiency in water sales, size and structure, allocative efficiency, monopoly power and determinants of monopoly power, impacts of water markets and policyoriented issues such as power pricing and so on. Studies have also attempted find out the conditions under which water markets emerge. For instance, studies have revealed that markets for groundwater have emerged where well-owners have a surplus of water and there is high demand for irrigation water (Kolavalli and Chicone 1989).Water markets are actually not uncommon. Wherever people have more water than they need they sell it to others. In the USA, rural water markets have become institutionalized, with farmers' associations selling water to each other and to urban centers in need of water. Farmers' markets exist in India where prices are fixed through negotiation, and payments are made by different modes such as cash or kind. Water sales by well-owning farmers have occurred as long as wells have been in existence, but the first reports of widespread sales appeared in studies of well irrigation in the1960s (Moosti 1970;Patel andPatel 1969 cited in Kolavalli andChicone 1989). The main focus has been on the monopoly power of the water sellers / well-owners and the impact of high-priced water sales on the non-well owners or the poor (Asopa and Tripati 1975;Shah 1985). However, much deeper examination of the operation and functioning of water markets were formally done by Shah (1985) and Bliss and Stern (1982). The water markets in India are highly imperfect and the prices are determined by the marginal cost of pumping and elasticity of water demand (Shah 1985).Experiences show that the key determinants of monopoly power in groundwater markets are rainfall, cost of water extraction mechanisms, density of water extraction mechanisms, spacing norms, cropping pattern, access to canal water and electricity and lined water conveyance system (Shah and Raju 1988). Empirical evidences confirm that the water markets in rural areas fairly reflect natural oligopolies (Shah 1986). Of course, there are several reasons to support these types of markets. The density of LIS tends never to be so high as to make the individual water sellers completely powerless. Topographical barriers and seepage losses through unlined channels prevent the sellers from enjoying full monopoly power, and the huge capital investment acts as a natural barrier in preventing the entry of new firms to the market. Moreover, enforcement of spacing norms and electricity boards either directly or indirectly limit the operation of water markets and, thereby make water markets operate as oligopoly markets.In places where there are fragmented holdings and parcels of land (far from each other), often coupled with the surplus of water in the wells, well-owners are motivated to sell their surplus to the neighbors (Kolavalli and Chicone 1989). Similarly, groundwater markets emerge in regions where well-owners have a surplus of water and an increasing demand for water due to the growing of water-intensive crops and adoption of improved agricultural technologies such as high-yielding modern varieties, fertilizers and plant protection chemicals etc. (Abbie et al. 1982). Since, the buyers seem to be price takers and primarily depend on sellers' decisions; the sellers enjoy the monopoly power as there is no immediate alternative available for the buyers. In addition, the price discrimination is also observed in the form of different prices for crops of different value, seasons, and locations. A study conducted in the Gujarat State of India, found that the capital appears to be the major constraint for the emergence of water markets in groundwater abundant areas. The lack of capital is seen as the primary barrier preventing smallholders entering the water market. It is also found that the water sellers are unable to enjoy a monopolistic position because of the simultaneous existence of many markets in the rural areas (Kolavalli and Chicone 1989).Experiences from different parts of the country and elsewhere show that water markets function in varying size from much localized areas to regions. Though the water markets are prevalent in many parts of India such as Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, they are most developed in Gujarat. The extent of area irrigated through water markets, which is often considered to be a surrogate for the magnitude of water traded, varies across regions as well as over time, influenced by many factors like rainfall, groundwater supply, cropping patterns, and the cost and availability of electricity (Saleth 1994). As such it is difficult to assess the size and nature of the groundwater market as a whole. The major part of the problem is the limited attention paid to this issue in the past. Whatever is known, however, indicates that up to half or more of the land area served by private modern water extraction mechanisms (WEM) in many parts of India is likely to be owned and operated by the buyers of water themselves (Shah 1993).Earlier estimates have shown that over 12 million private WEMs, which depend on small surface water bodies and on groundwater, serve a gross irrigated area of some 30 mha at an average of around 2.5 ha per WEM. Field studies indicate that the actual gross area irrigated by both WEM owners and water buyers from WEMs is often two to three times greater, especially in water abundant (WA) areas indicating the intensive use of land and water with certainty of water supplies. In the Allahabad District of Uttar Pradesh, Shankar (1987) studied over 150 private WEM owners and found that the average gross area irrigated by them was 24 ha. In Punjab, Jairath (1985) found the average gross area irrigated by a sample of diesel and electric WEM owners in Ludhiana and Amristar districts to be 5.7 ha in case of diesel WEMs and 9.6 ha for electric WEMs. Evidence from West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh shows that small 5 -7.5 hp pumps on private bore wells are providing intensive irrigation for crops like paddy, banana and sugarcane on an average of 3.5 ha per WEM. However, the same study showed that electric WEMs in the Kheda District of Gujarat as providing irrigation to an average of over 20 ha of gross irrigated area. Some private WEMs sampled by them in Gujarat irrigated as much as 50-60 ha of gross area (Shah and Raju 1986).These studies show that the sellers provided sustained intensive irrigation to those who have no access to irrigation water. Often, a seller may provide small amounts of irrigation to a large number of buyers who use this irrigation to grow an additional crop in critical periods of moisture stress. Water selling by private WEM owners can have a dramatic beneficial impact on the community in such a context. Water sales is a pervasive feature where large as well as poor WEM owners are selling supplementary irrigation to their neighbors at prices ranging from Rs.8 to Rs 25 per hour from 5 hp diesel or electric WEMs in the tribal regions of West Bengal (Pant 2004). The seller made a tidy profit of some Rs.3,000 per year but the tribal who could grow an additional potato crop on their land gained much more (Shah 1987). The average number of buyers with whom a WEM owner deals is another indicator of the significance of water markets. As discussed elsewhere in the 'Groundwater Markets and Irrigation Development-Political Economy and Practical Policy' book (Shah 1993), the figures range from 2-3 to 70-80 across regions. In the coastal Andhra (West Godavari), and Uttar Pradesh, the number of buyers per WEM is typically smaller, whereas in Gujarat, the number of buyers per WEM tends to be large. Likewise, a typical WEM in a water-scarce area can serve a smaller number of buyers than in water-abundant areas.The studies on water markets mostly concentrated on water-scarce regions than waterabundant regions. The reason may be mainly to cope with the increasing water scarcity. Though it is hard to define the size of the water market and though water is unlike other commodities, researchers defined the extent of the spread of the water market as one to be measured in terms of breadth and depth, which Shah and Ballabh (1997) define, respectively, as the proportion of farm and farm lands that come into the beneficial ambit of the water market. At the regional level, water markets have acquired tremendous breadth as shown by multi-village studies conducted by Mukherji and Shah (2002), e.g., in villages where groundwater irrigation is prevalent, groundwater market is all-pervasive. At the micro-level, there is evidence to show that breadth of water markets has increased over time. Evidences show that the breadth of water markets in terms of percentage of irrigated area served by the water sales varied from 20.8 % in Eastern Uttar Pradesh to 100 % in West Bengal.There are several factors that contribute to the breadth of water markets and, generally, it is seen to be inversely related to the existence of other modes of cheap irrigation, e.g., public tubewells and canals. Another dimension in the size of water markets is the depth of the water market defined in terms of the intensity of water transactions. The depth of a water market is defined as the ratio of average hours of operation of the Water Extraction Mechanism (WEM) per year to the average hours of water sold per year, higher the value the greater the depth of the water market. The depth of a water market ranged from as small as (0.17) in Bihar to as large as (0.68) in Bangladesh (see Mukherji 2004). .The water is charged in different modes and it varies across the region. The water charges are paid in terms of cash, kind (agricultural output, labor etc.), and crop sharing agreements between the buyers and sellers. Evidence shows that cash transaction (Clay 1974cited in Mukherji 2004;Shah 1991;Shah and Ballah 1997;Fujita and Hossain 1995) is very common in water markets. Shah (1991) viewed these kinds of cash transactions as an indicator of market maturity for groundwater. There were also situations where water sale through cash transaction accounted for only 3 % of the total area irrigated in Bangladesh, while the major portion was accounted for by tenancy contracts between landowners and WEM owners (Fujita and Hossain 1995). Sometimes, water sales are dominated by seasonal cash contracts (Lewis 1989). Pant (2003), Ballabh et al. (2002) found that in many of their study villages, water sales are carried out by hourly payments of both in cash and kind. WEM owners are also seen to adopt leasing in and leasing out practices for transactions in the water markets. A review of these studies conducted therefore indicates that there can be two types of transactions in the water market : first, is the outright sale of water (against cash, kind or a mix of both, either at hourly or seasonal rates); and the second, is some kind of tenancy arrangement under which the WEM owner can either lease in land from other landowners or lease out land in lieu of a certain return, either fixed (in terms of money or in kind) or share of the produce (Mukherhji 2004).Experiences from the earlier studies show that the prices charged by the sellers vary significantly across regions, crops etc. The hourly price ranges between Rs. 3 in the West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh to Rs. 45 in the Mehasana District of Gujarat (Shah 1993). Non-cash contracts, which typically take the form of sharecropping (i.e., seller collects a water rent in the form of a share of the buyer's output), are not uncommon. They have been found to be incentive compatible (Aggarwal 1999). However, this practice is found in Tamil Nadu, particularly in tank and canal command areas, where the well-owners sell water to the non-well owners for supplemental irrigation requirements. The payment is made in the form of kind, i.e., paddy outputs. These contracts work as a 'double-sided' incentive, providing the seller an incentive to ensure that the water supply is timely and reliable, and providing the buyer an incentive not to shirk the application of labor. In Tamil Nadu, there are cases where water buyers have to offer labor services such as operating the pump and irrigating the well owners' fields for a paltry sum or no remuneration at all (Janakarajan 1993).In the midst of growing water scarcity, increased emphasis has been given to market-based instruments to solve the scarcity problem. The advantages and disadvantages of water trading, the nature of functioning and impacts of water markets at different levels have been well documented, argued and debated with evidence from field experiences. When we look at the impact of groundwater markets, the literature ranging from highly positive ones that confirm the groundwater markets are the 'vehicle of poverty alleviation' to those which accuse groundwater markets of 'creating water lords' and appropriating the surplus from the poor. There are two major ways in which the impact of groundwater markets are manifested; first, in changes in cropping pattern and cropping intensity among the buyers and sellers; and second, in terms of employment generation among the landless (Mukherji 2004).The emergence and existence of groundwater markets could be viewed as a response to the nature of groundwater use, extraction and management in the country. The water markets ensure efficiency and equity and, thereby generate adequate social benefits to the society. Efficient functioning of a water market implies the narrowing of margins of the price charged by the seller and price paid by the buyers. In other words, in efficient water markets, sellers sell water at a price close to the average economic cost of pumping. This ensures larger irrigation surpluses and more livelihoods for the resource poor and the landless (Shah 1986). In such a situation, the water markets have beneficial effects: (i) higher and more risk-free income flows from farming for non-well owners who have no access to water; (ii) appreciation of non-well owners land; and, (iii) increased wages, and adequate employment opportunities for the land owners.Water markets promote higher efficiency because water users can sell any surpluses they create or use them to increase their production, such as by experimenting with a new crop grown under a different irrigation system. Groundwater markets contribute significantly to agricultural production and growth in a region. In Bengal, private shallow tubewells (STW) diffused very rapidly during the 1980s, which contributed to the high agricultural growth rate and in the reduction of poverty in rural areas. The major reason why tubewells diffused rapidly, in spite of the lack of progress of land consolidation projects was the emergence of a groundwater market.In the event of an absence of property rights mechanisms, the water markets may play a crucial role in reallocation of water from surplus regions to scarcity areas and have significant positive impacts and help achieve administered efficiency pricing (i.e., pricing marginal unit of water at marginal cost)- (Mohanty and Gupta 2002). Furthermore, studies show that farmers are sensitive to changes in water price -increasing the price of agricultural water by 10 % decreases demand by 20 %. In other words, the demand is price-elastic. Thus, a marginal reduction in subsidies for agricultural water would reduce its use by this sector. It is not necessary that agricultural output would decline as a consequence. Increasing the price of agricultural water would simply give agricultural communities an incentive to use water more efficiently, e.g., by using new technologies and planting high-value crops such as nuts, fruits and vegetables that are less water intensive (Fowler 1999).Moreover, even if water markets reduced agricultural production, such a reduction would probably be seen in marginally productive lands and crops. In this context, it has been estimated that agricultural water use could decline by as much as 15-20 % through conservation without significant decreases in production (Wahl 1989). Numerous trends indicate that a significant reallocation of water from agricultural to urban regions occurred in western states, and a reallocation of as much as 15 % of agricultural usage is plausible (Haddad 2000). It is also increasingly clear that markets will play an important role in this reallocation.Water quality improvement is also achieved through water markets. In water surplus areas with high drainage problems, the water markets transfer the surplus water to scarcity areas and, thereby reduce many quality-related problems, e.g., salinity (Weinberg et al. 1993). Water markets could also be considered as the best solution to achieve the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater. A study conducted by Kolavalli and Chicone (1989) has been successful in creating an understanding of how farmers in different parts of the canal command supplement canal irrigation with their own or purchased groundwater to obtain better results.Water markets lead to high water productivity. In areas where irrigation is done through water markets, the buyers can get the water that they need, when they need, and the water productivity will be high as markets fulfill the requirements in the most crucial stage of crop growth. Evidence shows that the water markets led to additional crop cover of 50-80 acres of 35-40 buyers land. The water seller earned an income of Rs.3,000 per year and the water buyers gained much more with the increase in crop production (Shah 1988). Since water is purchased in a market, the buyers use water more efficiently and judiciously. Thus, the water markets play a vital role in improving efficiency in agricultural production, ensuring equity in resource allocation, managing demand and promoting the conjunctive use of both surface and groundwater, particularly in command areas and improving water quality.In spite of the positive impacts, water markets significantly generate negative externalities or other ecological and equity problems also.Easy access to buy water and the huge initial investment linked with water extraction mechanism have dissuaded farmers from owning such a mechanism. It is also found that the use of unlined channels to transport water to buyers' fields results in seepage losses as high as 30 to 40 %. This implies that buyers who are at some distance from the owner' tubewell incurred an effectively higher price, which has resulted in the emergence of localized monopolies (Shah 1993).Water markets sometimes lead to adverse effects in the agricultural sector. For instance, the water market in the Tirupur and Coimbatore districts of India has emerged as a major threat to the irrigated agriculture. Due to labor scarcity, high wage rates and inadequate water storage, farmers prefer to sell their water rather than engage themselves in actual farming work. Moreover, the extensive water use in dying and bleaching industries has resulted in making water transfer from agriculture to industry become more significant. Consequently the value of production loss in agriculture also has become significant as indicated below (Table 1). The water markets will lead to social inequity in a situation where water sellers have a monopoly of the market. In this case, the water sellers will have the major share of the buyer's profit too through water sales. As more people resort to water selling, water markets can cause excess pumping of water, making groundwater aquifers more prone to depletion This will pose challenges to achieve sustainable water management, and to ensuring intergenerational equity to resource access, particularly in water-scarce regions. It is evidenced that water markets generate negative externalities such as inequity in agricultural productivity, reduction in efficiency and reduction in agricultural production both at the farm level and regional level.In spite of various negative externalities generated by water markets, it could be viewed best as a demand management tool as it helps in a big way in reallocation of water from surplus to scarcity areas/regions.Water markets and associated trading of water has been practiced in many parts of the world since a long time ago. Not only in developing countries but also in many developed countries like Australia and the USA, the water markets function either formally or informally. The functioning of water markets in few countries are discussed below.Evidence shows that the Western United States (California, in particular) is one of the earliest instances where water markets have played a role in managing water scarcity. Many argued that water markets are the key to redressing the imbalance and achieving a more efficient allocation of water. Irrigators in California have been trading water among themselves for years, both formally and informally, and trading even occurs in some districts that are supplied with federal water. Members of the Westland's Water District (WWD), for example, negotiated roughly 4,500 transfers during 1990-91. In March 1996, WWD introduced an electronic bulletin board system that enables farmers to buy and sell annual entitlements to federal water using a personal computer and a modem (Anderson and Snyder 1997). Perhaps the most established market for federal water operates in the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District near Fort Collins, Colorado. Annual water entitlements within the district are freely transferable. About 30 % of the water delivered to the district each year passes through the rental market, with rents ranging from US$ 5-7 per acre-foot (Wahl 1989). There are also numerous examples of water trading between agricultural and urban users in western United States in the states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. For instance, groundwater in Arizona was made freely transferable by law in 1980. Following this the cities of Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa and Scottsdale acquired more than 50,000 acres of farmland in order to leave the fields fallow and to utilize the water. A study by researchers at the University of Arizona found that during the late 1970s and during the 1980s there were about 6,000 transactions in Utah, 1,455 in New Mexico, and 1,500 in Colorado (Steinhart 1990 cited in Mohanty and Gupta 2002).Water sector in Australia has moved to the forefront of national policy debates aimed at meeting expanding social, economic and environmental objectives. The proportion of water used for agriculture is ever increasing both in absolute and relative terms.  (Hussey and Dovers 2006).Australia is also one of the pioneering countries where water trading has been practiced since a long time ago. Australian states have started allowing transfers of water entitlements through markets. Transferable rights were a response to increasing scarcity of water. As in the case of India, informal markets had already evolved before the state enacted legislation during the 1980s that codified water trading. Prior to this, farmers transferred water entitlements through 'dual ownership' whereby they purchased two landholdings and transferred water from one to the other. The fact that they chose to do this despite the high transaction costs associated with such transfers indicates the value of the gains that can be obtained from water trading. It has been estimated that water transfers along the Murray-Darling River Basin stretching over 2,500 kilometers led to a significant increase in farm incomes. In 1988-89 this increase in income was US$5.6 million through 280 transfers of 85,000 mega-liters of water. In 1990-91 the increase was US$10 million comprising 437 transfers of about 120,000 megaliters (Sturgess andWright 1993 cited in Mohanty andGupta 2002). Market-based tradable permits, i.e., transferring of water rights, have assumed importance in Australia and are being widely adopted in different states.Recognizing the importance of water trading, Chile established secure and transferable water rights. With these rights, individuals can buy or lease water quite easily. The aim is to strengthen private property, increase private autonomy in water use and favor free markets in water. Water rights in Chile are now completely separate from land ownership and can be freely bought, sold, mortgaged, and transferred like any other piece of real estate. The Chilean experience with water markets is one of mixed success and is \"something for other countries to learn from rather than to copy\" (Bauer 1997 cited in Mohanty andGupta 2002). The lesson that emerges from the Chilean experience for India is that water users strongly favor the increased legal security that private property rights provide. Not only have stronger property rights increased the autonomy of local canal associations, they have also encouraged investment in agricultural water use, particularly by those growing high-value export crops like fruits.Meinzen-dick (1997) analyzed the functioning of groundwater markets in Pakistan and their impact on agricultural productivity and incomes. The effects of the physical, social and agro economic environments on the density of private tubewells and the activity of water markets were studied, including the participation in groundwater markets. Furthermore, the determinants of tubewell ownership and groundwater purchase at the micro-level were identified using data from a household survey. The impact of groundwater markets on productivity and incomes were analyzed comparing the extent of irrigation acquired by farmers through surpluses attributable to water from canals, purchased groundwater and their own tubewells (Meinzen-Dick 1996). As per the study by Weinberg et al. (1993), in addition to improving the allocative efficiency of water use, water markets reduce irrigation-related water quality problems. This potential benefit is examined with a nonlinear programming model that was developed to simulate agricultural decision-making in an area with experienced drainage problems in California's San Joaquin Valley. Results indicate that a 30 % drainage goal is achievable through improvements in irrigation practices and changes in cropping patterns induced by a water market. Although water markets will not, in general, achieve a least-cost solution, they may be practical alternatives to economically efficient, but information-wise intensive, environmental policies such as the Pigouvian taxes.Water markets in India are quite informal, localized and spontaneous as indicated by Shah (1993) and others. However, the water markets in India are functioning in varying size and degrees across the regions. As far as water markets are concerned, numerous studies were conducted in India by different authors over a period of time. A recent study by Abijit et al. (2006) made an attempt to analyze the institutions and markets that govern groundwater allocation in the sugarcane belt of Uttar Pradesh, India. One of the findings was that plots are water-rationed owing to the inadequate supply of power. Rationing and the village-level mechanism of water sales lead to a great misallocation of water across the plots, and result in large crop losses for plots that irrigate with purchased water. The existence of a social contract will mitigate these potential losses in the study area to a remarkable extent. However, in the absence of such a contract average yields are estimated to be lower by 18 %.The domestic requirements of the Bhavani River basin as well as the adjacent Noyyal Basin are met partly by surface water in the Bhavani River. The river provides water to several municipalities, town panchayats and village panchayats for domestic consumption. The municipalities pump water for domestic requirements directly from the river. The annual draw from the river for the existing schemes and the schemes that are proposed in the future by the TWAD Board is in the order of 174 MCM. There are two water supply circles for household water requirements in the Lower Bhavani Basin As such, nine schemes are running to provide drinking water supply to the 'Coimbatore Circle'. The total draw from the Bhavani River for this circle is 378.50 mld (0.38 MCM) and yearly 138.5 MCM. Among the nine schemes, five schemes are running to give 335.86 mld (0.34 MCM) and yearly 122.58 MCM of water to the Noyyal Basin. There are 32 schemes running to give drinking water to the 'Erode Circle'. The total draw from the Bhavani River in this circle is 97.126 mld (0.09 MCM) and yearly 35.45 MCM. Hence, the total drinking water drawn from the Bhavani River is both for Coimbatore and Erode circles, which is 475.626 mld (0.48 MCM) and yearly it is 173.60 MCM. About 400 tankers are operating daily in transferring water from the agriculture sector to urban sectors. The price charged at the farm level is about Rs.100/tanker (13,000 lit). and it is sold to the industries at Rs. 400-600/tanker. Source: Palanisami (2005) Pant ( 2004) traces the evolution of water markets in eastern and western Uttar Pradesh. He observed a surge in investment in privately-owned tubewells and in the demand for electricity. The surge is attributable to the demands placed by the high-yielding variety of seeds and the consequent need for timely and reliable water supply, coupled with farmers' drive to maximize the yield. Pant concludes that growth increased the demand for power, which while available in plenty in the 1970s, has now become a constraining factor. Transactions in groundwater are noted for their importance in elevating the position of the small farmer by providing access to water.Continued progress in water resources development in Tamil Nadu, India, will require that the state's existing irrigation potential be used more efficiently. Only 15 % of surface water potential in Tamil Nadu remains unexploited, and the rapidly escalating construction cost constitute a growing drain on state finances while increasing the already high financial subsidy given to irrigated farms. Further complicating matters the private exploitation of groundwater by individual farmers has tended to result in an indiscriminate and unregulated proliferation of wells, which has lowered the water table in several regions of the state. Additionally, increasing demand for nonagricultural purposes has compelled the government to divert adequate water supplies from the agricultural sector to nonagricultural users on a priority basis. Increasing water scarcity in Tamil Nadu has caused the development of informal water markets, both within the agricultural sector and between the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors.Informal water trading in agriculture is often initiated by the selling of a small plot of land adjacent to a river to people who can dig a well and pump the water either from a shallow well or directly from the river through underground pipelines to fields 5 to 15 km away from the well. This practice is illegal, however, because wells within 200 m of the river are considered to be recharged directly from the river. Thus, by pumping from these wells, pump owners divert water to which they have no rights. In most cases, farmers who pump water from riverside wells use diesel pump sets to do so. However, some farmers use electricity by transferring their existing electric connections to these new wells. This practice further compounds the illegality of river pumping, selling water from pumps using electrical power is prohibited, because electricity is provided free for direct agricultural purposes only.Informal inter-sectoral water markets are also operating in and around the major river basins in Tamil Nadu. Well-owners sell water to truckers, who in turn transport the water to urban centers. Two locations, i.e., Coimbatore City and Tiruppur Town in Tamil Nadu have particularly active water markets. In informal markets, well-owners pump water using diesel or electric motors (the latter, again, being illegal) and sell it to middlemen for US$0.08 to US$0.10/m 3 (The middlemen -bullock-cart owners and lorry tanker operators -are the main distributors of water to households and other customers. This cost of water to the end consumer averages approximately US$0.75m 3 more than 10 times the subsidized rate paid by households connected to the public distribution system. (Relatively well-to-do households served by the public water system pay only US$0.06/m 3 ).Despite significant restrictions on the tradability of water in Tamil Nadu, the state's informal water markets have developed in response to increasing water scarcity and to the differential value of water across the sectors. Particularly active trading takes place between the agricultural and urban sectors. The markets serve a useful function of supplying water to users who otherwise would not be served by the highly subsidized municipal water system. However, the markets would be far more effective if the legal restrictions and excessive electricity and municipal water subsides were removed. Especially, the subsidized municipal system, which leaves out many of the poor, has negative welfare implications. The reform of water laws and water allocation systems in Tamil Nadu to permit more flexible water trading could greatly benefit the state.No doubt that irrigation water plays a crucial role in agricultural production, and many claim that the irrigation water in most of the water-scarce regions are allocated through water markets (Shah 1997;Palmer Jones 1994 cited in Mukherji andShah 2002). The size, nature and functioning of water markets significantly vary across hydrogeological and socioeconomic and cultural conditions. A study conducted across regions in South Asia confirms the proposition that the dimensions of water markets vary across regions.The differences are observed in proportion to well-owners selling pumped water, average number of buyers and sellers, hours of sale per year, proportion of well-owners who bought water, number of hours bought and the area irrigated with purchased water. Considerable variations are found across regions. For instance, average number of hours bought per year varied from 31 hours in Nepal Terai to as high as 140 hours per annum in Bangladesh. Similarly, average annual hours of sale per seller varied from 72 hours in Coastal South India to 680 hours in Western India (Table 2). It is thus clear that the size and functioning of water markets significantly vary across regions and are influenced by different factors. Several micro-studies illustrate the degree of variation in the use of water trading in India. In terms of area irrigated through groundwater markets, estimates vary from 80 % for Northern Gujarat (Shah 1993) to 60 % in the Allahabad District in Uttar Pradesh (Shankar, in his 16village sample study in 1992) to 30 % in the Vaigai Basin, Tamil Nadu (Janakarajan 1993).There is no systematic estimate at the national level of the magnitude of water trading. The area irrigated through water markets has been projected to be about 50 % of the total gross irrigated area with private lift irrigation systems (Shah 1993). Other estimates, using a methodology based on pump set rental data, put the figure at 6 million hectares or 15 % of the total area under groundwater irrigation (Saleth 1999). Assuming a net addition to output of US$230/ha/ year (based on the difference between the average irrigated and rain-fed yields as reported by the Government of India), the total value of the output due to water sales is estimated to be US$1.38 billion per year (Mohanty and Gupta 2002). Though water markets are not new and the fact that they have evolved over time and for several reasons across the regions, being an important institutional mechanism for managing water scarcity, it would be important to identify the potential areas where the markets for water could be extended or promoted. The size, nature and extent of development of water markets depend on factors such as cropping pattern, water availability, type of water extraction mechanisms installed, irrigation potentials, socioeconomic conditions and the sources of irrigation. Experiences from many parts of India reveal that, water markets are mostly well developed where the groundwater scarcity is predominant. Few studies also attempted to study the functioning of water markets in the command areas where the non-well owners buy water from the well-owners for supplemental irrigation. However, the water markets or trading of surface water in India is rather limited or not well studied. There is significant potential for studying water trading in the surface irrigation system where water is tradable through permits. Shah (1986) studied the nature and pattern of the development of water markets across regions of India considering the lift irrigation potential as a major criterion. The pattern of development of water markets varies across regions based on the lift irrigation potentials and the extent of utilization. Shah considered mainly five criterion to classify the development of water markets, and they are: (i) mode of transactions (cash or kind); (ii) proportion of water sold by the well owners; (iii) differences in cropping pattern, input use and technology adoption between the well and non-well owners; (iv) percentage of non-lift irrigation systems' owners and percentage of their land that uses purchased water; and (v) objective function of the sellers. In low lift irrigation potential and low utilization areas like many hard-rock areas where well yields are very low, there is only limited scope for development of water markets. For instance, in Karimnagar District of Andhra Pradesh (Shah 1986) where there is limited potential for lift irrigation system, the development of water market is still at the primitive stage.Regions with low lift irrigation potential and high utilization coupled with wider adoption of modern crop production technologies have greater scope for the development of water markets. Regions such as Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and other regions of Saurashtra, Gujarat and southern Tamil Nadu apparently have developed water markets in spite of having low water potential. Contrary to the above, in regions where there is high potential for lift irrigation system but with low utilization, such as the regions of Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal, in spite of having huge groundwater reserves, the groundwater markets remain highly underdeveloped. The reasons attributed to this negative trend in the development of water markets in these regions are: a) poor infrastructure development; b) slow rate of rural electrification; and c) irrigation being dominated by the traditional water lifting systems.The existing literature on water markets and groundwater economy suggests that challenges to manage the groundwater differ across the regions. In spite of the abundance of groundwater resources in water surplus regions such as eastern Indian states like Bihar, the state is yet to solve its problem of poverty and achieve economic growth and development at a much faster rate. Contrary to the above, in water-scarce regions like Peninsular Southern India and Western Indian states, the groundwater resource degradation is alarming and it is imperative that the water markets should be promoted in regions where supplies are rechargeable with the available surface water.Scholars like Shah and Saleth projected the size of the water market in terms of the area covered under the market. Based on the estimated projections, an attempt has been made to assess the size of the water market across regions of India. The size of the water market would be quite larger in Western Indian states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and also in Madhya Pradesh and Southern Peninsular states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (Table 3). In the face of growing water scarcity, encouraging water markets in these states would be a viable option to manage water scarcity and in the efficient allocation of water resources.The earlier researchers projected the size of water markets based on the area under groundwater irrigation only. It is mainly based on the perception that the water markets in India operate where the lift irrigation system is a common one coupled with water scarcity. However, there is also another area one has to focus on, i.e., the surface irrigated areas. In areas where the surface irrigation is predominant, water sharing issues often arise between the water users. At most times the head reach farmers enjoy maximum benefits of increased crop yield due to irrigation supplies and tail end farmers face acute water scarcity. This is also a common phenomenon in a chain of tanks which share water from a common source (Palanisami and Suresh Kumar 2004). In this case, the tradable water rights can be introduced so that the water savers would get an incentive for saving water. The surplus water could be sold to the scarce regions at a price accepted by the farmers in the surplus region. Thus, the size of water markets should allow for the total area under irrigation rather than the area under groundwater irrigation only. The studies on tradable permits are rather limited in India and there is scope for introducing such institutional mechanisms to manage the growing water scarcity. Based on the assumption that 50 % of total gross irrigated area is with private lift irrigation (Shah 1993) 2 Based on the assumption that 15 % of the total area under groundwater irrigation (Saleth 1999)Market-based instruments are proving to be an effective mechanism for increasing the productivity of water and reallocating the water saved. Experiences from many parts of the country and elsewhere clearly show that there are no formal water markets functioning in India and also that there is no legal binding for such formal water markets. Another important issue that emerges is that no defined property rights system is followed. In spite of these lacunas, the emergence and existence of informal water markets were noticed across the regions. In these circumstances, it is essential to identify the supportive conditions which are needed to transform the water markets into an effective demand management tool in the event of growing water scarcity. Hence, the water market reforms may include the property rights, water charges and the tradable water rights.Unlike in other countries, there is no proper property rights system that exists in India.Traditionally, the water resources have been managed either by the State or State Agencies or through property systems that focus on land ownership. Issues relating to ownership of water are not only complex but also different from other resources. In India, the use, control, management and ownership of water is linked to the other resources like land in the case of groundwater and irrigation structures in the case of surface irrigation. Thus, appropriating and defining property rights in water is complex in the present day context and, as such, need to be dealt with separately for groundwater and surface water. Though no property rights system for water exists, establishment of some sort of water rights and responsibility system, specifying the withdrawal or entitlement of water, is crucial for the development and promotion of water markets in a much more formalized manner.The study revealed that there are no institutional arrangements in place to: a) govern water rights; b) property systems; c) control the functioning of informal water markets; d) pricing in informal water markets; and e) resolving conflicts. Furthermore, institutional arrangements are needed for resolving conflicts over water rights. There is an increasing emphasis today on the formation of water markets, and many experiments are underway. However, effective water markets do not emerge naturally from local systems of exchange or from individual market behavior. Legally protected water rights for all water market actors depend on state institutions above the local level. Informal and traditional systems of rights in local systems of collective management often rest on traditional power structures, which do not provide solid foundations for effective water markets. Thus the legal formalization of property rights in water is the necessary basis for effective water markets.The introduction of a system of trading in water rights will provide opportunities for individuals who own water rights to trade that property right to other potential users anywhere within the basin. At present, there are opportunities for owners of property rights to trade within the catchment in which they operate and in some cases between catchments. There is limited opportunity for individuals to trade between states. From a national perspective, it is argued that the best economic returns from water resource will be generated if it is allowed to move to its highest value use. For this to occur, the necessary infrastructure, and water itself, must be available. This is not always the case. Existence of a water trading market would mean water could be purchased from elsewhere and thus make the venture feasible. The introduction of a market for water could provide substantial assistance for some irrigators: in situations where the demand for water is not high in a region because of shallow water tables, or the need to maintain minimum flows, irrigators could both reduce environmental impacts and generate income by selling their water rights to a user in another area.Pricing is an effective strategy for demand management as long as the water-rate structures contain strong incentives to conserve water. The development and implementation of pricing strategies aimed at achieving economic efficiency and demand management could become the most important option for balancing water supply and demand in the future. Water providers can encourage consumers to conserve water by reforming water rates or introducing surcharges to deter high usage of water, or by establishing fines as a deterrent to wasteful practices of water use. A major shortcoming of the literature on groundwater prices in India is that it generally does not record prices per unit volume of water; obviously a volumetric measure is necessary for a variety of reasons, including the assessment of the efficiency of water allocation within and across river basins. The percentage of area covered under water market as per the studies conducted in the Bihar and Uttar Pradesh states of India varies from 23 to 90 % in Bihar and 55 to 80 % in Uttar Pradesh.In India, the water rates presently being charged from the users are highly subsidized and have resulted in low revenue realization. The revenue realization from water charges has proved inadequate and has been meager, and much less than even the recurring O & M charges, thereby adversely impacting the satisfactory nature and adequacy of maintenance. There is an urgent need for a review and to restructure the water rates to ensure full recovery of recurring O & M cost initially, and a part of the capital cost subsequently. Although states are giving due considerations to the cost aspects and crop water requirement etc., in the fixation of water rates, in reality the rates fixed by the states seem to be restricted ultimately to the paying capacity of the farmers. No doubt the paying capacity of the farmers cannot be ignored altogether, but if the water rates are to ensure full recovery of recurring O & M cost initially and a part of the capital cost subsequently as stressed in the National Water Policy Statement 2002 and also recommended by various Finance Commissions and Official Committees, the alternative may lie in adopting differential water rates as per the holding size of the cultivators.In most cases in India, water is charged on crop basis and it also incorporates the cess and surcharges using the crop water rate as the basis. For instance., in the case of Lower Bhavani System, the water charge is Rs. 37.5/ha and the cess is the same and the cess surcharge is five times this rate thus making the total charge as Rs. 187.5 /ha (see Table 4). In the case of the tank irrigation systems of South India, the water market works in the later part of the crop season (see Table 5). The rate varies from Rs. 20 to 50 /hr depending on the crop period and the demand. Normally, about 2-3 buyers are covered under single well-owner (Palanisami 2004).Water Demand Palanisami et al. (2000) made an attempt to project demand for water among competing uses using the SHACOWAR model in the Bhavani Basin of Tamil Nadu, India. It was found that the nonagricultural demand will increase from 6.56 TMC to 13 TMC in 2010 and 16.86 TMC in 2015 and the revenue from water will be about Rs.1,062 million and Rs.1,382 million (Table .6). In the case of the Bhavani River, which has the riparian rights, the supply of water will be constant over the years. However, in the case of Lower Bhavani Sector the total water demand in odd season is estimated to be much higher than in the even season. Since, it is impossible to operate the second season without the required water supply of 8 TMC, the second season may be abandoned from 2010 onwards. The rice area will be reduced only marginally whereas the other irrigated crops will decline dramatically. In these circumstances, the groundwater use should be encouraged in the turn of seasons because with future energy pricing, the water use will not be much affected, as the energy is found to be inelastic or much lower.  The inter-sectoral water allocation can thus be defined under the framework of a water market, as the nonagricultural sectors are paying the agreed charges to the canal authorities, including the industries which are also paying the rate fixed by the government departments. Under these circumstances it should be carefully examined how in the future the inter-sectoral water allocation could be covered under the framework of a water market. Thus, even in the command areas, there is potential for promoting groundwater markets as groundwater plays a crucial role in supplementing the surface water. This is further supported by another research on estimation of the 'Stabilization Value of the Groundwater' (Palanisami et al. 2008).The stabilization value of groundwater is about 19 % higher than what it is now in the tank systems. Furthermore, the higher stabilization value may be acting as an indirect incentive to the non-well owners to buy the groundwater even though the well-owners are increasing the selling price during the peak demand periods. However, this also will encourage more large farmers to invest in wells. The stabilization value of groundwater will be always higher (19 %) even if a charge is levied on electricity, indicating the importance of the conjunctive use of tank and well water in the tank command as without the groundwater supplementation, the crop yield will be much less or in several cases crop failures will be seen. Since rice yield response to supplemental irrigation is attractive to farmers, efforts should be made to augment groundwater supplies to enhance the rice yield by providing technical and financial assistance to small and marginal farmers. This will also reduce the demand for as well as the price of groundwater in the long-run.Increasing the water supplies in the tank through sluice management strategies (where about 20 % saving is possible) is looking very attractive. Furthermore, this could be achieved with lesser investment. The stabilization value of groundwater will also be very high (77.5 %) when tank water is used at higher levels thus minimizing the groundwater use. This also will have more implications for the sustainability of tanks, in that since a greater number of wells in the tanks always results in poor tank performance, improving the tank management will enhance tank supplies, which in turn will reduce the demand for a greater number of wells in the tank command. Hence, efforts should be made to improve the system efficiencies through tank modernization strategies. Since the tank management by the farmers will be a more attractive proposition, efforts should be made to strengthen the water user's organization at the tank level. Since most of the water user's organizations at the tank level are informal, it is important to make them formal, so that they could handle financial transactions when undertaking tank improvement activities. In a conservative estimate if we take the entire tank systems in southern India, the potential for localized water market will be about 2 mha. This estimate assumes the potential for water markers in non-system tank areas, which accounts for 80 % of the total tank area of 2.5 mha. Besides encouraging the urban (domestic) water allocation with different pricing regimes, stabilization value of groundwater is also justified in big cities like Chennai in India, where increased water pumping is realized from tank commands in a radius of about 50 km for domestic uses. The stabilization value there is high since, without the groundwater, people get lesser surface supplies without meeting their demand. This is also an interesting area to be examined under the framework of water markets.In summation, market forces, which treat water as a commodity, offer an effective way of reallocating limited water supplies among competing uses. Both the rights to the use of water and the actual volumes of water can be exchanged in market transactions within regions. This will facilitate better allocation of scarce water resources across different sectors so that the overall developmental objectives could be achieved at a much faster rate.The debate on water markets as an option for demand management has diverging views. Water markets have been in operation in many parts of the world including India. Although informal water markets have been in existence for decades, formal markets with clearly assigned, private and transferable water rights are of relatively recent origin. In Chile, Western USA and Australia, where there are developed formal water markets, there have been significant gains from water trading, particularly from trades between agricultural and urban users as water gets reallocated to more productive uses. International experiences also show that formal and developed water markets strengthen the incentives for conservation and more efficient use of water. For example, farmers have responded by switching to water-saving technologies and high-value, less water intensive crops. The Indian experience with water markets has been positive, although there have been only limited gains, because markets have remained informal, localized and primitive. Thus, while these markets have led to some efficiency gains and have expanded the scope for many resource-poor farmers to access irrigation, inter-sectoral water transfers have not taken place so far.The current challenge in India and similar countries, where no such formal water markets have been established, is therefore to establish formal water markets, which will facilitate the trading of water and help achieve inter-sectoral water allocation. Furthermore, since formal water markets have a legal basis, effective regulation can be designed to address the issue of environmental sustainability. Formal water markets not only can provide low-cost solutions for quick augmentation of water supply, but be a viable demand management tool as farmers could use the water efficiently thus resulting not only a saving in water use but an increase in water productivity as well. So far a wealth of studies has been carried out on water markets and their implications in water-scarce regions. However, the water markets in water surplus regions are limited or rather water markets are not pervasive in these regions except in West Bengal, India. Hence, the development and promotion of water markets in the water surplus regions should be encouraged. In the water surplus regions, groundwater markets can transform a stagnant agricultural economy into a vibrant one, with positive productivity and equity impacts.Like in Australia, market-based instruments such as tradable permits could be introduced, particularly in the surface irrigation areas. This could be introduced either at the basin level or at the sub-basin level. As the tradable water rights provide incentives for the water conservators, this would be the best bet option for managing the increasing demand for water in surface irrigated areas. Assigning separate rights to groundwater would be the first step needed for the development of water markets. Under the riparian system being used in India, ownership of groundwater accrues to the owner of the land above. This constrains the potential for inter-sectoral allocation. To establish an active water market, rights to water use must be authorized separate from the land.Growing water demand in nonagricultural sectors may demand more water diversions from irrigation. There is evidence that payments to the irrigation water are justified for increased water diversions, besides National and State Water Polices too give priority for domestic water use. The related issues once defined will strengthen the case for encouraging water markets. Formal institutional mechanisms at different levels must be established so as to govern the functioning of water markets. Furthermore, institutional arrangements are needed for resolving conflicts over water rights. The Water Users Associations (WUAs) can be involved in this process. The role of such groups would depend on how clearly water rights are specified and how well they are established and distributed to users. If water rights are unclear and hence, allocation is contentious, conflicts would become complicated and difficult to resolve. In such cases, courts rather than committees of users will become the conflict resolving forum.Irrigation is the predominant user (more than 80 %) of water resources in India. Of the total net irrigated area (NIA) of 58.54 million hectares (mha) in the country during 2004-05, almost 64 % was irrigated by groundwater. The NIA by tubewells and wells is almost double the net area irrigated by canals. During 2003-04 more than 50 % of NIA in Bihar, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, around 50 % in Haryana and Tamil Nadu and close to 40 % in Orissa and West Bengal was irrigated by wells and tubewells. Increased reliance on groundwater for irrigation has led to an increase in the demand for energy, i.e., electricity and diesel for pumping groundwater. At the all-India level, of the total electricity consumption of 411,887 Gwh during 2005-06, consumption for agricultural purposes accounted for about 22 %. In a number of states electricity used for pumping groundwater constitutes more than 30 % of the total electricity consumption. The electricity consumption for irrigation pumping over the years has been increasing both as a result of an increase in the number of tubewells and an increase in electricity consumption per tubewell. The latter has partly been on account of the larger amount of electricity required to pump groundwater from greater water depths as a result of a decline in the water table.Groundwater irrigation has been a preferred source of irrigation for the farmers. Irrigation with groundwater not only enables individual farmers irrigation 'on demand', which few surface systems can offer, it is also generally more productive compared to surface irrigation. In general, one cubic meter of groundwater applied to crops is more productive than one cubic meter of surface water. Some of the available evidence in India suggests that crop yield/cubic meter on groundwater irrigated farms tends to be 1.2-3 times higher than on surface water irrigated farms (Dhawan 1989). A study conducted by IWMI indicates that farmers with wells obtain 50 to100 % higher value of output per acre compared to canal irrigators (quoted in Shah et al. 2003). As a result, the rapid expansion and increasingly greater reliance on the use of groundwater for irrigation has contributed significantly to agricultural and overall economic development of India, thereby providing stability to agricultural production and contributing towards reducing the incidence of poverty. It is estimated that about two-fifths of India's agricultural output comes from areas irrigated with groundwater (World Bank 1998).The increased dependence on groundwater has largely been necessitated by the poor performance of the existing surface irrigation water infrastructure. Furthermore, its limited coverage and lack of extension to newer areas over the years; huge financial requirements and long gestation period required for its construction; inadequate availability of water in the available canal network; and its inability to meet the time-specific irrigation water requirement of the water-intensive and water-sensitive crops have all been attributed as negative factors associated with surface irrigation, which have compelled farmers to opt for groundwater irrigation. Most of the groundwater development has taken place through the private initiative of millions of individual farmers, though the government has facilitated this development through provision of several incentives and concessions such as subsidized credit, subsidized diesel, and extensive coverage of rural electrification, and also by making electricity available at highly subsidized rates with liberal tariff charging policies.The creation of an enabling environment for development of groundwater has succeeded in: a) the proliferation of tubewells; b) in extending irrigation to newer areas; c) in accelerating the pace of food grain production and contributing to its stability; and d) in providing significant economic benefits. However, in the absence of any strategy to monitor, regulate or restrict the growth of tubewells and the amount of water that can be extracted from these structures, the amount of water that is being currently extracted from these structures in several parts of the country far exceeds the amount of water that should be extracted for promoting sustainable use of groundwater. Table 1 gives an overview of the extent of over development of groundwater in some of the important groundwater using states of India, while Figure 1 gives a pictorial view of the regions of over development of groundwater. As a result of over development of groundwater, the groundwater tables are falling rapidly in several regions raising serious concerns and posing major challenges, which require to be addressed both to sustain the benefits of groundwater irrigation and to ensure the sustainability of gains in agricultural production. A quarter of India's harvest may well be at risk from groundwater depletion (Seckler quoted in Shah et al. 2001).Based on a review of some of the available literature, the present paper attempts to synthesize the experiences gained from some of the attempts made at limiting groundwater overdraft through intervention of energy supply and/or pricing policies. Based on the experiences gained from these exercises the paper attempts to suggest some alternative interventions, which in isolation and/or in combination with energy policies can help achieve a more sustainable use of groundwater.Developing effective management systems for groundwater, unlike surface irrigation systems, is beset with problems. The lack of information and understanding regarding groundwater availability and its dynamics presents a major challenge. Without both the data and a shared understanding of the problems, those engaged in developing solutions and evolving social consensus needed to implement such decisions are finding it difficult to promote a more sustainable use of groundwater. Nevertheless, given the concerns over falling water tables, promoting more sustainable use of groundwater has attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers not only in India but in several other countries around the world, which are also confronted with problems of groundwater overdevelopment. A number of direct and indirect demand-side management and supply-side augmentation approaches have been suggested in the literature and tried in various parts of the world at different points in time in order to address issues relating to groundwater overdraft and its more sustainable use. Some of the approaches that have been employed include regulatory, participatory community-based management, augmentation of groundwater supply through artificial recharge, and energy supply and energy pricing policies. While the impact of these approaches, in isolation and/or in combination, and in the short-term and the long-term, on groundwater management has varied in different locations, in the prevailing underlying conditions in general, none of these approaches have been uniformly effective in controlling excessive groundwater abstractions at different locations. We briefly review the salient features of three of the approaches that have often been attempted.The regulatory approach to bring groundwater extraction down to sustainable levels envisage putting direct restrictions on the amount of groundwater that can be extracted -through metering of all wells, establishment of formal water rights, issuing of permits, administrative controls including regulatory and economic mechanisms etc. The direct approach to groundwater management thus requires putting in place a legal and regulatory framework to allocate, administer and enforce the requirements of the approach. Sometimes very innovative regulatory approaches have been used to curb groundwater extraction. For example, to conserve groundwater, the Government of Punjab would not start paddy procurement operations at a time when early sown paddy, which requires more water than paddy sown at normal time, arrive in the market after harvest. However, this did not work. The Punjab Government has recently introduced the Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Ordinance 2008, which prohibits the planting of paddy by the farmers in the state before June 10 to conserve groundwater. The ordinance provides for the government agencies to plough the area with the standing crop of such farmers who transplant paddy before the notified date. The effectiveness of this order in dissuading farmers to sow early paddy and thereby conserve groundwater is, however, yet to be seen. However, the effectiveness of their implementation and enforcement is not known.While some success in reducing groundwater draft through some such and similar regulatory measures have reportedly been made in a few water-scarce countries such as Jordan and Israel, the situation is more complex in countries such as India where millions of individual private tubewell owners, dispersed through the length and breadth of the country with varying groundwater availability and demand conditions, are engaged in groundwater extraction. Putting into effect such an approach and overseeing its implementation in a country of the size of India is nearly impossible. The Chinese, with stronger state commitment to groundwater regulation, with a more elaborate reach and local authority structures have still found it impossible to regulate groundwater overdraft in North China Plains (Shah, Giordano and Wang 2004). Nor have the Americans been able to implement real groundwater demand management with their elaborate structure or water rights and groundwater districts, nor have Spaniards and Mexicans with their efforts to promote groundwater user associations.As an alternative to state regulation of groundwater, some experts have suggested community management of groundwater, similar to community involvement in management of surface water irrigation projects. Though this approach in its various formats has been tried at a number of locations in several countries of the world, the global experience on the outcome of this approach is limited and is conditioned upon conditions prevailing at a very local level. In India such an approach is being tried in the seven drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh under the Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater System Project (APFMGS). However, the effectiveness of this approach in promoting sustainable use of groundwater is still not known. Attempts at managing groundwater have, therefore, relied more on indirect management approaches.Several indirect approaches have been employed in the past with varying degree of effectiveness in different regions at different points of time. Some of these approaches include: restricting institutional credit for installation of tubewells and denying new electricity connections for tubewells. For example, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has been using 'control of institutional financing for development of wells' in overexploited areas. But this approach has by and large been ineffective in checking overdraft due to large-scale private financing in the development of wells. Similarly, the State Electricity Board's denial of new agricultural power connections in overexploited areas, and in critically developed areas when regulations in relation to spacing of wells are violated, has been ineffective due to the use of old power connections for newly drilled wells (Gass et al. 1996).Since groundwater development depends directly on energy, management of energy supply and pricing have often been suggested as more effective indirect options for controlling groundwater extraction. In what follows, we elaborate further on these two approaches and examine the likely efficacy of energy management in reducing groundwater withdrawal and slowing down the rate of decline in the water table.The two primary sources of energy for groundwater pumping are electricity and diesel. The regulations governing the use of energy basically relate to pricing of energy and its supply. We briefly describe these below:To encourage development and use of groundwater for irrigation, the government has been providing to the farmers both electricity and diesel for irrigation pumping at prices which are far lower than their supply costs. However, the level of subsidy in the two cases differ, and as a result the energy cost for a given amount of groundwater extraction using electric tubewells is much lower than that of a diesel pumping set. Coupled with problems in availability of diesel; ease in operation, lower running, repair and maintenance cost of electric tubewells; the technological superiority of electric tubewells in drawing water from deeper aquifers; the general preference of the farmers in areas which have access to electricity is to use electricity operated tubewells. However, in areas with poor or no rural electrification or where electricity supply is severely restricted or uncertain, the farmers have no choice but to use diesel pumping equipment either as a stand alone device or as a standby arrangement with electric tubewells. Diesel pumping sets also offer a choice in areas with a shallow groundwater table. In fact, most of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Basin and parts of the western Indo-Gangetic Basin rely on diesel pump-sets for groundwater pumping.The subsidy on electricity works not only through the lowering of the price of electricity per se but also through the way the electricity is charged from the farmers. The government has been charging farmers for electricity on very liberal tariff terms. Electricity for irrigation is charged either on the basis of a flat rate (FR) tariff structure or on a pro-rata basis on the actual metered consumption, though some states also provide free electricity. The system of charging for electricity on FR basis, wherein an electric tubewell owner is charged for electricity at a flat monthly/annual rate per horsepower of the electric motor installed regardless of the number of hours for which the electric motor is actually used or could be used (due either to availability of electricity or crop water requirement), is the most widely practiced power tariff system.While some states charge uniform per HP tariffs irrespective of the size of the motor, some may charge on the basis of a 'stepped-up-flat-rate-system' where higher horse power motor owners pay a higher per horse power charge. In this method, since the marginal cost of pumping additional water is almost zero, the farmer has incentive to pump more for his own use or for sale to other farmers. At the same time farmers do not have any incentive to use either the available electricity or groundwater more efficiently. Abbie et al. (1982) argue that the fixed cost of electricity (FR) \"… provides no incentive for efficient use of energy, and hence water.\" The Rajadhyaksha Committee (1985) report on efficient generation and use of power has indicated that FR policy of electricity invariably encourages wasteful use of electricity since its marginal cost becomes zero for the owners of water lifting tubewells. . According to the working group of minor irrigation for the 'Eighth Five Year Plan' the introduction of a FR tariff of electricity would make farmers waste water and take to crops that require more water.While charging for electricity on a flat rate basis has often been criticized for promoting inefficient use of groundwater and electricity, and for the mounting losses of the SEBs, these tariffs have also been credited with resulting in a significant growth in the market for pumped water. Empirical studies record some form of exchange of groundwater in Gujarat, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. (Dubash et al. 2000). According to Shah (1993) although flat rate system of pricing electricity would produce a low level of efficiency in the use of energy, it would produce higher levels of social welfare as compared to a pro rata system of pricing due to the incentive it offers farmers to resort to pump more water and the incentive to sell water at any positive price given the zero marginal cost of pumping water. This has enabled even those farmers who could not buy a pump to benefit from subsidized power supply and has made it possible for the power subsidy to reach even small and marginal farmers who do not own pump-sets.It has also been suggested that the flat tariff regime is wrongly maligned; in fact, the flat tariff that South Asia has used in its energy-irrigation nexus so far is a completely degenerate version of what might otherwise be a highly rational, sophisticated and scientific pricing regime. A zero tariff is certainly not a rational flat tariff; nor is a flat tariff without proactive rationing and supply management. To most people, the worst thing about a flat tariff is that it violates the marginal cost principle that advocates parity between the price charged and marginal cost of supply. Yet, businesses commonly price their products or services in ways that violate the marginal cost principle, but make overall business sense. Flat rates are often charged to stimulate use to justify the incremental cost of providing a service.However, in regions with limited groundwater availability, the flat tariff system has widely been argued to be regressive and inequitable towards small landowners and irrigators. According to Bhatia (2007), although small and marginal farmers, generally, operate pumps with lower hp in absolute terms, there appears to be an inverse relationship between the farm size and the horsepower per hectare of gross cropped area, i.e., small farmers tend to invest in higher hp per unit of cultivated area relative to large farmers. For farmers who use electric pumps only, under the flat rate system of electricity pricing in Haryana, electricity tariffs for small and marginal farmers, 1 accounted for more than 13 % of the gross farm income compared with only 6 % of the gross farm income for large farmers (see Figure 2). According to the World Bank ( 2001) study, \"to gain more insight into the regressive nature of the flat rate tariff, it is useful to compare the share of electricity tariffs for electric pump-set owners with the share of diesel costs for non-electric diesel pump owners.\" For non-electric diesel pump owners, the share of diesel costs account for an average of 7 % of the gross farm income compared with electricity charges that constitute 13 % of the gross farm income for small and marginal farmers using electric pump-sets only. The highly regressive nature of the electricity tariff cost share, as opposed to diesel cost share, arises due to the flat rate tariff structure of electricity pricing, wherein farmers pay on the basis of installed hp rather than on the basis of per unit consumption (as in the case of diesel pumps).Under a metered or pro-rata tariff system, an electric pump-set owner is charged for actual (kWh) power consumed on the basis of metered consumption of electricity. Some of the states, which charge for electricity on a flat rate basis, too offer farmers a choice for paying for electricity on an actual metered consumption basis rather than on a flat rate basis. While a majority of the farmers prefer the flat rate basis for payment, some farmers (between 10 to 15 %) in some states use the metered tariff. For example, in Haryana, electricity supply to almost 90 % of agricultural consumers is unmetered. In Maharashtra, metered connections used 865 million kWh or 11 % of the total agricultural consumption of 7,757 mn kWh in 2002-03. In no state in India is electricity consumption to the agricultural sector charged wholly on the basis of metered consumption. The tariffs even in the case of metered consumption are also highly subsidized and are nowhere near the true cost of generation and distribution of electricity. Many researchers argue that pro rata electricity tariff, with built in positive marginal cost of pumping could bring about an efficient use of the resource (Shah 1993;Moench 1995;Saleth 1997;Kumar and Singh 2001). Nevertheless, some argue that the levels of tariff at which demand becomes elastic to pricing are too high to be viable from political and socioeconomic points of view (de Fraiture and Perry 2002). Shah (1993) opines that while the pro rata system of pricing might induce higher efficiency in the use of energy and water, it will produce lower level of social welfare including farmers' economic surplus as compared to a flat rate system of pricing due to the reduction in demand for groundwater, and the increasing marginal cost of supplying energy. Electricity for the agricultural sector, like any other electricity consuming sector, was charged from farmers, up to around mid-1970s, on the basis of actual metered consumption. During the mid 1970s and 1980s, most of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) shifted away from metering of electricity sales to agriculture consumers and introduced flatrate tariffs based on the capacity of the pump-set (Shah 1993;World Bank 2001). This was mainly on account of the difficulty in monitoring the large number of pump-sets and the very low collection rates. This shift was apparently a matter of administrative convenience, meant to minimize transaction costs involved in metering, billing and the collection of bills from agriculture consumers scattered in remote areas. This practice was put in place due in part to the numerous complaints about the harassment of farmers by the SEB field staff.Of late, however, in spite of most Indian states offering major inducements to tubewell owners to opt for metered connections, only a few have taken to them. . In Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala all moves towards metered power consumption have met with farmer opposition on an unprecedented scale. In other states of India, however, farmers' opposition to metered tariff has been partly due to the subsidy contained in the flat tariff and also because they find the flat tariff more transparent and simple to understand. It also spares them the tyranny of the meter readers. Moreover, there are fears that under a metered tariff system, SEBs will start imposing all manner of new charges under different names. In addition, groundwater irrigators raise the issue of equity with canal irrigators, arguing that if the latter can be provided irrigation at subsidized flat rates by public irrigation systems, they too deserve the same terms for groundwater irrigation.Due to the existence of an overall demand-supply gap in the electricity sector, electricity supply to the agriculture sector is generally restricted and falls far short of the sector's requirement. Already the SEBs in almost all the states are supplying electricity to agriculture only for a limited number of hours -generally on an average between 2 to 8 hours per day. Even this limited supply is often provided during night hours. The quality of supply, e.g., certainty, reliability and voltage stability leaves much to be desired. The reason for the supply of electricity to the agriculture sector generally during night hours is because of the low demand of electricity from other sectors of the economy at that time and, as such, the opportunity cost of power is lower at that time than its supply cost. It is, however, very unlikely, that some SEBs are deliberately restricting the supply of electricity to agriculture to conserve groundwater.To partially circumvent the constraints created by the shortages/uncertainties in the availability of electricity, a number of farmers have installed electric motors of higher horse power than is required in order to draw the requisite quantity of water during the restricted hours of supply of electricity. In addition they have installed an automatic switching mechanism to turn on the tubewell as and when electricity is made available. A number of farmers have also invested in diesel operated pumping equipment as a backup arrangement or use even their tractors in place of a diesel engine to draw groundwater. Those who cannot invest in any backup arrangement try to apply more than the required water during the period when the power supply is available, reduce the area under water-intensive crops, apply the available water thinly over larger areas and accept lower crop yields, attempt to buy water from neighbors, or simply take the risk of letting the crop ruin for want of water. Such an electricity-water supply scenario has led to: a) overcapitalization of agriculture; b) constrained the growth of agriculture; c) resulted in inefficient use of water, energy and equipment; d) led to a reduction in farm profitability; and e) has increased pollution through increases in CO2 emissions into the environment from the burning of diesel. Such a supply scenario has also disproportionately affected the marginal and small farmers and other farmers who do not have a tubewell of their own and therefore, depend on buying water from their tubewell-owning neighborhood farmers.While the prevailing electricity supply scenario might have succeeded either marginally or not at all in restricting the groundwater withdrawal in water-scarce areas, it has hurt badly the area where groundwater availability scenario is not stressed. Some of the available estimates suggest that the shortages in and poor quality of the supply of electricity for irrigation pumping causes huge private and social losses every year in terms of foregone agricultural production and frequent burn-out of transformers and electric motors. While no economy wide estimates of the impact of shortages/ unreliability of electricity on the agricultural sector are available, some of the available estimates of power restrictions suggest a cost to the agriculture sector in the range of Rs. 9 to Rs. 14 /kWh (at 1995-96 prices) against the true resource cost of generating and distributing electricity in rural areas, which is estimated at between Rs. 3.50 to Rs. 4.00 /kWh and actual cost to the farmer of about Rs. 0.20 /kWh (Dhawan 1999). Other available evidence suggests that voltage fluctuations cause tubewell electric motors to burn-out at least twice in a year resulting in an annual repair cost of more than Rs. 2,000 per tubewell. Depending upon the type of strategy adopted, the capital cost of back-up systems to cope with the prevailing power situation could vary over a wide range -from a minimum of Rs. 10,000 to more than Rs. 100,000 per farm.While energy pricing policies have contributed positively in promoting the development of groundwater and in extending irrigation to hitherto unirrigated areas, it is now increasingly being suggested that these same energy pricing policies, especially that of electricity, have also been responsible for the overdevelopment and unsustainable use of groundwater, leading to a decline in the water tables in many parts of the country. It has, therefore, been advocated that increasing the price of electricity for irrigation pumping, with or without a change in the system of charging for electricity, can curtail the demand for electricity and thereby lower groundwater withdrawals and promote more efficient use of electricity and groundwater. The question that needs to be addressed is: can raising the price of electricity, with or without a change in tariff charging regime, curtail groundwater withdrawal? If so, at what level of price increase this can happen? Does increased electricity price also imply improved equity and improved efficiency in the use of electricity and groundwater?In India, pricing of power to farmers has always remained an important issue -for power sector reforms, for agricultural policy and also as a politically tempting ploy. The issue of using power pricing policy as an instrument for electricity and groundwater conservation in the farm sector in India has been extensively debated, and continues to be the focal point of the many discussions that take place in the country. However, there is an absolute paucity of sufficient empirical data to compare and analyze the differential impacts of different levels of pricing of electricity on water and energy demand and productivity. Due to lack of data and the complexity of the issues involved, divergent views have emerged on the efficacy of raising electricity prices in influencing the withdrawal and use of groundwater and/or in promoting its equitable, efficient and sustainable use (Shah 1993;Palmer-Jones 1995;Saleth 1997;Kumar and Singh 2001;IRMA/ UNICEF 2001;de Fraiture and Perry 2002).In most of the discussions on the impact of increasing electricity price on groundwater extraction, it is assumed that the demand curve for power is continuous and presumably its shape convex throughout its entire range, and that all increases in price of electricity lead to a reduction in the electricity demand and, therefore, a fall in groundwater extraction. This assumption has often been made without reference to the groundwater availability scenario, electricity availability scenario, the depth to water table, the prevailing price of electricity or the level of price increase envisaged, the relationship between electricity prices and diesel prices and the relationship between price of surface water and groundwater. Most of these one to one relationships between increase in electricity prices and a reduction in groundwater withdrawal implicitly assume that all other factors remain unchanged and do not influence the water use decision of the farmer. This line of discussion also does not take in to consideration the purpose (crop) for which the groundwater is being used and the prevailing agricultural production scenario aside from availability of and price of groundwater. Any discussion on the likely impact of increased electricity price cannot be constructive if this discussion is divorced of the purpose (crop) for which the water is being extracted from the use of that electricity, or the marginal value of production that is being derived from the use of this electricity/ groundwater.Electricity for irrigation is one of the many inputs that go into the agricultural production process. From the government's perspective, electricity price is one of the many policy interventions that it makes, in isolation or in combination with other inputs, in promoting the growth of the agricultural sector, in general, or any region or crop, in particular. Similarly, from the farmers' perspective, electricity price is one of the many factors that goes in to the decision-making process in regard to deciding on optimal factor and product combinations, in particular, which crops to grow, how much area to allocate to different crops, and what production inputs to use and in what quantity. Additionally, for many groundwater irrigated crops, cost of electricity for irrigation pumping may constitute a small component of the total cost of production (Naraynamoorthy 1997). If one were to take these broad decision-making factors into consideration, probably one may find that increases in electricity price per se over a substantial range may not necessarily make any impact on a farmer's decision relating to groundwater draft. In all probability so long as the marginal value product of groundwater is positive, any increase in the price of electricity will not lead to a reduction in use of electricity or of groundwater.Perhaps, in one of the most comprehensive and systematic analysis of the issues involved, Saleth (1997) opines that the nature and magnitude of efficiency, equity, and sustainability impacts of power tariff policy depends on the nature and shape of the power demand curve, both at the individual and aggregate level that links power tariff and power consumption on the one hand and power consumption and groundwater use on the other. Saleth (1997) suggests that the power demand curve is not continuous throughout its range, but actually has a 'kink' or discontinuity, the position of which is determined by a combination of economic, agronomic and hydrological and even technological factors. The presence of kink in the power demand function implies that within a certain range of power tariff, power consumption (and hence groundwater withdrawal) becomes insensitive to variations in power tariffs. First, the larger the size of the kink, the lesser will be the scope for making groundwater withdrawal sensitive to changes in the power tariff. Second, if at all the farmers are responsive to tariff changes there is a point in which they will switch to diesel pump-sets provided the groundwater table and diesel availability make such energy switching technically and economically feasible. Thus, to the extent power tariff changes trigger energy switching, electricity tariff changes become still less effective in controlling groundwater withdrawal. Saleth (1997) concludes that there is no way we can avoid either the kink in the power demand both at the individual and aggregate contexts or its multifarious implications for water withdrawal and use. The persistence of the kink under the current power tariff structure and power supply conditions clearly suggests how ineffective a power tariff could be as an instrument of groundwater regulation. It is, however, important to empirically estimate the level at which the kink appears under standardized conditions, and according to Saleth (1997), policy-wise this is the most relevant issue for further empirical research.There are essentially three criterion which can rationally be employed to fix upper limits of electricity tariffs -(1) on the basis of the cost of generation and distribution of power; (2) on the basis of parity with diesel prices -in terms of what it would cost to draw an equivalent amount of water using a diesel pumping set; and (3) in terms of opportunity cost of electricity used for pumping groundwater. However, if the government wants to cross-subsidize other power consuming sectors at the cost of the agricultural sector, which may perhaps never be politically or otherwise feasible, or forcefully discourage withdrawal of groundwater by farmers, it can raise electricity price to a level even beyond the three stipulated criterion.Fixing electricity prices on the basis of its opportunity cost has problems. The opportunity cost of electricity can vary substantially depending upon several factors such as the extent of shortages in availability of electricity, the alternative uses to which the power diverted from irrigation pumping can be put, place, time of the year and time of day etc. No estimates of opportunity cost of electricity are generally available, and this criterion has never been used for fixing power tariffs in agriculture. The maximum tariffs thus can be fixed in terms of the remaining two criteria. According to Saleth (1997), so long as the marginal productivity of power in the reckoning of farmers remains higher than the full cost price of power, full cost tariff would not be effective in controlling power consumption, and hence groundwater withdrawal. Under the second option, he argues that, farmers could as well shift to diesel pumps, which could have positive efficiency effects but tariff fixation based on the price of diesel would certainly have some adverse impacts on small and marginal farmers, visà-vis income from irrigated crops, and access and equity in groundwater.To illustrate, with any increase in the price of electricity, even up to the level equivalent to its cost of generation and distribution or to the level of price comparable to the corresponding cost of diesel, as long as the marginal value product of water is positive the farmer will continue to extract groundwater. And so long as cultivation of a given water-intensive crop (say Paddy in Punjab) is more profitable than the cultivation of the next most profitable crop, irrespective of the water requirement, say Maize, a rational farmer will continue growing water-intensive paddy. Increases in price of electricity will, of course, narrow down the profitability gap between the two crops as also the absolute profitability of the farmer from cultivation of paddy. As a result there may occur some saving in groundwater extraction and electricity consumption owing to an improved efficiency in the use of electricity and groundwater. But this minor efficiency-induced water conservation is unlikely to make any significant change in groundwater withdrawals, not least the kind envisaged through an increase in electricity tariffs.It is also frequently argued that as a result of an increase in electricity prices and the increased cost of water, farmers may switch their cropping pattern in favor of high-value crops by which they could keep the 'marginal value productivity' of power and water, high (Saleth 1997). However, in practice such switching of crops may not happen. Even if the cultivation of high-value crops such as horticultural, sericulture, or floriculture is more profitable than cultivation of say, paddy, at higher prices of electricity, such a switching may not take place if the supporting infrastructure for disposal of such specialized high-value crops (such as marketing, processing, cold storages etc) is not available. If these crops are more profitable than say, paddy at a higher price of electricity, then they are more profitable at lower prices of electricity also. So if a farmer were to switch his cropping pattern in favor of high-value crops in response to an increase in electricity prices he could have done so even at the subsidized price of electricity. If that were so, diversification in cropping patterns and savings in water would have occurred even at lower prices of electricity.Under such circumstances, to make a dent on the withdrawal of groundwater, electricity tariffs may need to be raised to a level so as to completely appropriate the difference between the marginal productivity and marginal cost of power. While such a rate would be in the responsive region of the power demand curve that can alter power demand and groundwater use, there are high chances of poor social viability and political acceptability. Poor social viability is owing to reduced net returns. Whereas political risk is owing to the fact, that the tariff regimes which run into the responsive region of power demand curve would be different for the various geohydrological environments. Apart from political difficulty in raising the power tariff for agricultural users, it is also unfair to do so as long as canal water continues to be given at a low rate (Saleth 1997).Realizing both the political problems of raising the power tariff for agricultural users and also the unfairness of doing so when canal water continues to be given at a low rate, the Planning Commission in a recent study, without elaboration, suggested that in order to make farmers account for the marginal cost of pumping water, the farmers may be given an entitlement upfront of say, Rs.6,000 corresponding to 3,000 kwhr at Rs.2/kwhr. The charges for their consumption will be deducted from this amount and the surplus, if any, will be handed over to the farmers at the end of the year. This approach may be tested on a pilot basis to examine if the transactions costs of implementation can be kept manageable (Planning Commission 2007).Given the likely limited effectiveness and political sensitivity of raising the electricity tariffs, it is often suggested that tariffs remaining the same, restricting the quantum of electricity supplied to farmers would constrain the farmers from operating the tubewells and, thereby help in lowering the withdrawal of groundwater. This would also help the SEBs in containing their losses on account of supply of electricity to the agricultural sector. In fact, the current electricity supply scenario to the agricultural sector in most of the states in India is already one of restricted supply. The restrictions on supply of electricity are, however, partly due to the overall demand-supply gap in the availability of electricity and partly due to the desire of the SEBs to contain the level of subsidy. In practice, however, the restrictions on availability of electricity operate not only in terms of fixed hours of supply during the day or night following an announced supply schedule (the hours and period of supply), but is often random and decided at the last minute by the SEBs. Furthermore, it is not only the hours of electricity supply that matter, but also the quality of the electricity supply (voltage of supply and fluctuations in voltage) during those hours that is equally important in determining the quantum of the groundwater withdrawal that can be made during this period. It is not known if these restrictions on electricity supply in any state have been made with the deliberate aim of reducing groundwater draft.Power rationing is an important instrument that could definitely help reduce water withdrawal. To partially circumvent the constraints imposed by the restrictions/uncertainties in the availability of electricity, a number of farmers have, however, installed: a) more than the required number of tubewells; b) installed electric motors of higher than required horse power to draw the requisite quantity of water during the restricted hours of supply of electricity; c) installed automatic switching mechanism to turn on the tubewell as and when electricity is made available; and d) have invested in diesel operated pumping equipment as a backup arrangement or use their tractors in place of a diesel engine to draw groundwater (see among others, Saleth and Thangaraj 1993). Those who cannot invest in a supplementary/backup arrangement try to: apply more than the required water during the period when the power supply is available; reduce the area under water-intensive crops; apply the available water thinly over larger areas and accept lower crop yields; attempt to buy water from neighbors; or simply take the risk of letting the crop get ruined for want of water.The decision on the appropriate response action by the farmer is, of course, governed by the relative economics of investing in / adopting alternative strategies and the likely marginal returns from adopting such a strategy. Such an electricity-water supply scenario has, nevertheless, led to an overcapitalization of agriculture; constrained the growth of agriculture; resulted in inefficient use of water, energy and equipment; and, has led to a reduction in farm profitability. Such a supply scenario has also disproportionately affected the marginal and small farmers and such other farmers who do not have a tubewell of their own and depend on buying water from their neighbors who own tubewells. It is, however, not known if these restrictions on the supply of electricity have been able to make any reduction in groundwater draft. In a recent study, Planning Commission opined that restricted power supply can help in some situations but not across-the-board, However, with time, farmers, like others, will demand supply for longer hours and eventually on a 24X7 basis (Planning Commission 2007). The benefits of restricting groundwater use through restricting electricity supply, if any, will then disappear.Given the likely limited or possibly no impact per se of either altering the price of electricity for irrigation pumping or of restricting the supply of electricity on groundwater pumping, some researchers have suggested intelligently combining electricity supply restrictions with suitable adjustments in electricity pricing as a possible solution to restricting groundwater withdrawal and in lowering the rate of fall in the water table. In a comprehensive analysis of the issues involved, Shah 2 et al. (2003) have suggested that the flat-tariff option, combined with intelligent power supply rationing, is a logical, viable alternative that could cut wasteful groundwater extraction and reduce power use in groundwater extraction. The approach involves: (1) gradually raising flat tariffs to cut power utility losses; (2) supplying farms with fewer hours of power per year, but ensuring a quality power supply during periods of moisture stress; and (3) metering at the feeder level to measure and monitor farm power use, to allow better management of agriculture power supply and use. Pitching for a flat rate tariff setting the authors argue that \"the metered and flat-tariff regimes are not simply alternative pricing policies-they are completely different business philosophies.\" Using a metered tariff, a power utility can, of course, recoup its costs and supply the customers with as much power as they want, when they want it. The flat tariff, by contrast, allows power utilities to use sophisticated management to provide a high-quality, but carefully rationed, power supply and yet remain viable. According to the authors, \"the key to making a flat tariff work is supply rationing.\"For example, Gujarat does not need to supply 3,000 hours of farm power per year. It can make its farmers happy (and cut its losses) by supplying only 1,200 hours, provided those 1,200 hours are made available when most needed. It is thus suggested that the rational tariff with intelligent power supply rationing to the farm sector holds out the promise of minimizing the wasteful use of both resources (water and power) and of encouraging a technical change towards water and power saving. It has been suggested that \"with intelligent management of power supply, it is possible to satisfy irrigation power demand, e.g., by ensuring 18-20 hours of power a day for 40-50 key moisture-stress days in the kharif and rabi seasons (around 2 and 5 weeks, respectively).\" Providing an order of magnitude figures on the likely savings in groundwater extraction and power consumption following such an approach, the authors assert: \"our surmise is that such a strategy can reduce annual groundwater extraction in western and peninsular India by 12-18 km3 per year, and also reduce power use in groundwater extraction by around 2-3 billion kWh of power, valued at Rs. 40-60 billion per year\" (Shah et al. 2003). It is, however, not known how practical and effective this approach is to groundwater management and, whether this approach has been tried anywhere. In a subsequent paper, Shah asserts that the 'Jyotigram Yojana', wherein the Government of Gujarat has separated the feeder line for agriculture consumers from the domestic line in some parts of Gujarat, is premised on the suggested approach to co-manage groundwater and electricity.Other researchers (e.g., Kumar 2008, personal communication), however, do not share the perceptions of Shah on both the practicality of the suggested approach to groundwater management in Gujarat as well as the suggestion that this groundwater management approach formed the basis of 'Jyotigram Yojana'. The viability and feasibility of separating the agriculture supply network from other rural supply networks has been questioned. On the approach to groundwater, it has been argued that practically, with supply of full power for 30-40 days of the year, no crop except some very short duration ones can survive in the semi-arid and arid regions, where groundwater use is intensive. Even in winter for crops like wheat, irrigation is required for more than 90 days as the crop water demand is more or less evenly distributed over the season. This is because there is a significant time lag (nearly 30-45 days) between the farmer who does sowing first and the one who does sowing last. Also, at a given point of time, macro-level power rationing cannot simulate the micro-level demand, which varies from farmer to farmer depending on the area irrigated, crop type, date of sowing, climate etc. Kumar also argues that the main idea behind 'Jyotigram Yojana' was to boost and vitalize rural small industries with 24-hour supply of good quality 3-phase power for the domestic sector. Fearing that it would encourage farmers to run their agro-pumps round the clock, the GEB separated the feeder line for agriculture from the domestic one. It continues to ration the power supply to agriculture to about 8 hours per day throughout the year as it has been doing for more than 2 decades now. And, there has been no change in the power supply hours.This Yojana seems to help only the farmers in some places (in alluvial areas with plenty of groundwater), who used to indulge in power theft using converters, use power beyond the official supply hours, and stopped power theft with feeder line separation. But, they are now using higher capacity pumps to abstract more water, and are often under-reporting the 'connected load'. 3 In any case, in the hard-rock areas, the power rationing is unlikely to have any impact either way. In these areas, the open wells and bore wells yield 3-4 hours, and farmers do not need power for several hours. Hence, it does not matter even if GEB 'reduces' the supply to 8 hours per day. In fact, contrary to the findings of Shah, after Jyotigram, the groundwater draft in Gujarat has gone up substantially, if GEB data on electricity use in the farm sector is any indication. Again, the reason is more groundwater is available for pumping owing to good monsoons. Kumar also opines that the suggested approach, though not helping to solve the problem of over-draft, would, at the same time, make access to groundwater more inequitable. The reason is that the rich farmers would find ways to overcome the constraints of reduced power supply hours and would eventually increase their monopoly power, but it is the resource-poor farmers who would bear the brunt.While it is important to combine power pricing with supply regulations, it is necessary for power pricing to be based on progressive rates rather than fixed and flat rates. This is in view of the serious limitations of flat rates in managing groundwater draft. In a critical examination of the groundwater management approach based on flat rates suggested by Shah et al. (2003), Bhatia (2007) argues that flat rate tariff combined with rationing of power may not be the ideal way to make optimum use of scarce resources. Bhatia's articulates his reservations on the following counts.It is important to recognize that the 'allocation' of power to the agricultural sector has to be seen in a 'power systems' perspective and also take in to recognition the opportunity cost of allocating power to agriculture during the peak periods (during the day or season). Allocating 18-20 hours of power a day for 40-50 days in a year will deprive other users of this critical power for their priority uses during these periods. While it is difficult to estimate the 'opportunity cost' of this type of management of power, the 'benefits foregone' in alternative uses may be so high that from a societal perspective the allocation of power to agriculture may not be an optimum use of the scarce peak power. Alternatively, the costs of coping strategies for users other than agriculture may be so high that this will raise the total system costs to a high level.In the ongoing power sector reform process, it would not be possible to ensure that farmers will get the power that they need, at the time when they need it because that will be against the philosophy of revenue maximization that is being suggested for power supply companies.Accepting the system of flat rates for electricity use will provide incentives to managers in the power sector to 'minimize' supply of power to the agricultural sector as the revenue from an additional unit of electricity will not only be negative but will reduce the total revenue for the power company. Under a flat rate tariff system, the power supply to agriculture during the peak period is likely to be reduced by about 50 % of the power availability from the current level. 4  This will result in the type of 'de-electrification' that occurred in the East UP during the 1980s and 1990s (Shah 1993;2000), since power distribution companies will avoid supplying power to the farm sector.In a large number of states, state electricity regulatory commissions (SERCs) have been set up as a part of the reforms process to rationalize tariffs and improve the power supply. Some of these SERCs have mandated/suggested the installation of meters for all consumers. Flat rate tariffs will go against the mandated requirements imposed by the SERCs. Reducing subsides through raising flat rates will be politically unacceptable, since this will involve raising fixed rates to very high levels. For example, to comply with the demands from the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission., Gujarat's board intends a 350 % price-hike on the supply of power to the farmers, raising the annual charge from Rs. 500/hp (unchanged since 1989) to Rs. 1,700/ hp and, eventually to Rs. 2,100/hp (Shah et al. 2003).Although small and marginal farmers generally operate pumps with lower hp in absolute terms, there appears to be an inverse relationship between farm size and the horsepower per hectare of gross cropped area, which small farmers tend to invest in higher hp per unit of cultivated area relative to large farmers. As a result the flat rate tariff structure of electricity pricing, where farmers pay on the basis of installed hp rather than on the basis of per unit consumed, becomes regressive in nature. As against this regressive tariff structure under the flat rate system, electricity regulatory commissions may devise 'life-line rates' under metered tariffs for some categories of users (up to a given level of electricity consumption).Like metered tariff systems, flat rate tariff systems too are not free from administrative problems. For example, in a recent study (World Bank 2001) of the flat rate system in Haryana, a number of problems have been noted including the detection of illegal connections and the presence of discrepancy between the hp record of the utility and the actual pump size hp. The readings of 78 electronic meters installed on agricultural pump-sets showed that, on average, the actual connected load is about 74 % higher than the official utility record. The implementation of unmetered tariffs is seen to result in a significant loss of revenue for the utilities due to under-reporting of the actual capacity of pumps by farmers. This tends to allow the utility staff discretion in how they monitor and verify the capacity of pump-sets in the field at regular intervals, which may in turn result in increased collusion between consumers and utility staff and ultimately lead to corruption. 5In the flat rate system of electricity pricing, once the user pays the charges as per pump capacity, the marginal cost of electricity for operating the pump-set is zero, and the farmer can pump more water subject to availability of power and water. In areas of relative water abundance (e.g., east U.P., Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal), this may be a good thing since additional water supplies can be used for irrigating crops on the farm or water may be sold to farmers who do not own electric motors. However, in areas of relative water scarcity (western India and peninsular India), this will create problems since there is no incentive for energy (and groundwater) conservation.Based on the points noted above, Bhatia (2007) argues that for energy regulations to be an effective indirect means for groundwater management, power supply regulations should be combined with metered rather than the flat rate electricity tariff. When electricity is metered, farmers would learn the real cost of power and water and be forced to economize on their use. Plus, the power utilities would gain valuable information on actual power usages (essential for efficient management and cutting commercial losses). Furthermore, in addition to charging for electricity based on metered consumption, innovations in metering (including 'Smart Cards') and charging for power consumption should be scaled-up so that charging separate tariffs for peak and off-peak power is possible. Efforts should be made to have a politically acceptable solution where off-peak power is charged at very low rates (to cover marginal cost of supply) and peak power is charged at its opportunity cost, which may be higher than its cost of supply. This will provide the right price signals to consumers to use power when it is most valuable for them. Also, it will maximize the revenues of producers since they will allocate power where it brings best value.Coupled with these efforts, Bhatia (2007) suggests that innovations in institutional mechanisms for power distribution in agriculture (e.g., making village Panchayats responsible for power distribution) should be tried. Bulk power could be supplied to persons (as in China) or community organizations and they, in turn, can be responsible for its distribution and collection of revenues. As a part of the Orissa power sector reforms, village committees were setup in a number of villages to facilitate interaction between utility and consumers, redressing grievances, bill distribution, and metering and cash collection. Such village committees are expected to perform like a cooperative where they will be billed based on the transformer readings, and the entire responsibility for collection will be transferred to them. In Gujarat, a MOU has been signed among GEB, GERC and IRMA for the pilot project, which has been given to IRMA for a feasibility study and for identification of co-operatives in each of the five zones of GEB, so as to facilitate the handing over of the distribution system to local bodies/ consumer co-operatives. According to Shah et al. (2003) there are also institutional solutions to this that are not receiving sufficient attention. In the early decades of this century, USA resolved this problem by promoting Rural Electricity Co-operatives (RECs); India also tried these in the 1960s but only half-heartedly. RECs are interesting because they target precisely the problem that makes power supply to South Asian agriculture costly and unprofitable. If the village buys power in bulk and retails it to its members, the transaction costs of power supply can be reduced dramatically.Sustainable management of groundwater is a key challenge in a large number of countries facing overexploitation of groundwater. Given the strong linkages between groundwater and energy, energy management obviously holds an important, though definitely not the sole, key to face this challenge. Although the debate on the efficacy of energy management in controlling groundwater overdraft continues, recommended policy alternatives, as discussed above, have tended to be ineffective. Several additional complementary policy measures suggested for regulating groundwater overdraft, such as enacting and enforcing groundwater laws, establishing clear tradable property rights of water, pricing of groundwater, installing licensing and permit systems, have also not proved to be effective in checking groundwater overdraft. Saleth (1997) opines that even an imperfect system of water rights will have much more sustainable benefit than the most perfectly designed but ineffective instruments. While nobody disagrees with the need for some measures, nothing has yet worked on the ground, and as a result the groundwater situation continues to degenerate from bad to worse.It is important to underline that mere availability of groundwater coupled with sufficient or insufficient availability of energy on the one hand, and availability or non availability of subsidies on energy for groundwater pumping on the other hand, does not constitute a sufficient condition for either extraction or overextraction of groundwater. It is the return from the use of the groundwater that primarily drives its extraction, though prevailing energy prices themselves may, in part, determine the profitability from the use of groundwater. If the cost of groundwater extraction at unsubsidized energy prices is uneconomical, provision of subsidies may help in bridging this gap and encourage groundwater extraction. If, however, the extraction of the groundwater at unsubsidized, prices is economical, the subsidy on energy prices may increase the returns from the use of groundwater not necessarily only by the amount of the subsidy on electricity, but by a much larger amount, if the subsidy encourages shifts in cropping patterns.The current situation of overextraction of groundwater in many regions obviously has occurred, because the yield derived from the use of groundwater is more than the cost of its extraction. The yield derived from the use of groundwater cannot, however, be attributed as the yield of groundwater as groundwater is one among many other factors acting either independently or jointly in conjunction with several other factors, which culminate in determining this return yield. There is, however, no denying the fact that water productivity in groundwater irrigation is higher than that in surface irrigated and rain-fed areas. Given the multiplicity of factors determining the yield of groundwater irrigated areas and returns from the use of groundwater, it is not surprising that energy management policies per se either via manipulation in energy prices or supply controls, as discussed above, may have made limited or possibly no impact in farmers' decision regarding limiting the extraction and use of groundwater to sustainable levels. As such, they are unlikely to contribute towards a meaningful solution to overextraction and excessive groundwater irrigation. When groundwater use is influenced by a multiplicity of factors, it is clear that no single factor can alter the nature of groundwater use. Saleth (1997) also concludes that power tariff policy alone cannot be an effective tool for achieving efficiency, equity and sustainability in groundwater use.Efforts aimed at controlling groundwater extraction, to bring it closer to sustainable levels of development, have to be made simultaneously on a number of fronts, including through development and more intelligent execution of policies -supply, pricing, regulatory, participatory -affecting groundwater-energy nexus. Perhaps a change in demand behavior of agricultural users, brought about through encouragement of shifts in cropping patterns in favor of less water using crops, can play a more important role in bringing down the level of groundwater extraction. This would, however, require action on a number of fronts. The first, and most important, is demystifying the science of groundwater hydrology and empowering groundwater users at the micro-level to understand the dynamics of groundwater availability, the process and sources of groundwater recharge, and the sustainable level of groundwater yield available for use in a year. This would create a much better appreciation of the problem at the ground level and create awareness and a need for conserving groundwater, and prepare the basis for introduction/adoption of new crop varieties, which are less water intensive and/ or for better ways of water application, without any shifts in the crops cultivated or sacrificing the crop yields. It could, additionally, lay the basis for bringing in shifts in cropping pattern towards less water intensive crops. Encouraging such shifts in the cropping pattern, however, would require engineering shifts in relative crop profitability in favor of crops intended to be introduced. Apart from other factors, this would require interventions on two important issues: 1) realignment in output pricing policies; and 2) ensuring market support for the new crop.To substantiate the relevance of the two factors listed above, it is important to cite an example. Concerned by declining groundwater tables, several half-hearted interventions have been made in different states in India to bring about shifts in cropping pattern towards less water using crops. For example, a few years ago, in Haryana, cultivation of sunflower as a substitute for paddy was encouraged to conserve groundwater. Due to the relatively higher profitability of sunflower, a small number of farmers responded to this initiative and shifted partly from cultivation of paddy to sunflower. The next year, through the demonstration effect, some more farmers followed suit. In the following year too, some more farmers made these shifts in their cropping pattern. As a result of increased production, and lack of market support, the output prices crashed and relative crop profitability again tilted in favor of paddy. The farmers again switched back to cultivation of paddy and, thus the efforts aimed at conservation of groundwater through shifts in cropping pattern ended.Hence, given the importance of a large number of factors in influencing extraction and use of groundwater, efforts aimed at promoting more sustainable use of groundwater must take a system's view of the situation and not try to limit solutions to only those arrived at through improved management of groundwater-energy interactions, though improved management of groundwater-energy nexus will continue to be central to any other complementary strategy adopted. Given the differentials in ownership and access to different factors of production by different categories of households, any interventions aimed at promoting more sustainable use of groundwater must evaluate the differential implications such an intervention makes on different sections of the society, and the trade-offs involved in conserving groundwater vs. food security, environmental sustainability and other social impacts.Studies from different countries including India have corroborated that irrigation plays a paramount role in increasing the use of yield increasing inputs and enhancing cropping intensity as well as productivity of crops (Dhawan 1988;Vaidyanathan et al. 1994). Irrigation development also helps to increase employment opportunities and the wage rate of the agricultural landless laborers, both of which are essential to reduce poverty among the landless labor households (Narayanamoorthy 2001a;Bhattarai and Narayanamoorthy 2003;Narayanamoorthy and Deshpande 2003;Saleth 1997;Saleth et al. 2003). Nevertheless, water is becoming increasingly scarce worldwide due to various reasons (Rosegrant et al. 2002). With the fast decline of irrigation water potential and continued expansion of population and economic activity in most of the countries located in arid and semi-arid regions, the problems of water scarcity are expected to aggravate further (see, Biswas 1993 and2001;Rosegrant 1997;Rosegrant et al. 2002). Macro-estimates carried out by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) indicate that one-third of the world population would face absolute water scarcity by the year 2025 (Seckler et al. 1998 and1999). The worst affected areas would be the semi-arid regions of Asia, the Middle-East and sub-Saharan Africa, all of which are already having heavy concentrations of population living below the poverty line.Though India has the largest irrigated area in the world, many regions are already reeling under severe water scarcity problems, partly because of the inefficient use of water. Owing to various reasons, the demand for water for different purposes has been continuously increasing in India, but the potential water available for future use has been declining at a faster rate (Saleth 1996;CWC 2004). The agricultural sector (irrigation), which currently consumes over 80 % of the available water in India, continues to be the major water-consuming sector due to the intensification of agriculture (see, Saleth 1996;MOWR 1999;Iyer 2003). In spite of having the largest irrigated area in the world, the coverage of irrigation is only about 38 % of the gross cropped area as of today in India. One of the main reasons for the low coverage of irrigation is poor water use efficiency under the flood (conventional) method of irrigation, which is predominantly practiced in Indian agriculture. Available estimates indicate that water use efficiency under the flood method of irrigation is only about 35 to 40 % (Rosegrant 1997).Considering the availability of water for future use and the increasing demand for it from different sectors, a number of demand and supply management strategies have been introduced in India to augment the supply as well as to control the demand for water. One of the demand management strategies that was introduced recently to control water consumption in Indian agriculture is the drip method of irrigation (DMI). Unlike the flood method of irrigation, drip method supplies water directly to the root zone of the crop through a network of pipes with the help of emitters. Since it supplies water directly to the crop and not to the land as followed in the flood method of irrigation, the water losses occurring through evaporation and distribution are completely absent (INCID 1994;Narayanamoorthy 1996;1997;2001;Dhawan 2002). The on-farm irrigation efficiency of a drip irrigation system that is properly designed and managed is estimated to be about 90 %, while the same is only about 35 to 40 % for the surface method of irrigation (INCID 1994).Among the various reasons for the slow progress made in the adoption of this new technology, its capital-intensive nature seems to be one of the main deterrent factors. Drip irrigation technology requires fixed investment that varies from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 55,000 per hectare depending upon the nature of crops (wide or narrow spaced) and the material to be used for the system. Since the Indian farmers have been getting water at a low cost from the public irrigation system and also from well-irrigation (because of the introduction of flat-rate electricity tariff), there is less incentive for them to adopt this capital-intensive technology unless it is absolutely necessary. Moreover, since it involves fixed investment, farmers often ask questions like what will the water saving and productivity gains be? Is investment on drip irrigation economically viable? What will be the pay back period of the drip investment? These issues are raised because of the lack of sufficient credible field-based studies on DMI covering different regions of the country. Some of the studies have shown that the results derived from research station data are substantially different from that of survey data (see, Narayanamoorthy 2001).In the absence of reliable field studies, it is difficult to judge the actual economic viability of drip method of irrigation (DMI). Keeping in view the various issues of drip method of irrigation, an attempt is made in this paper to review the adoption and impacts of water saving technology namely, drip method of irrigation in India using secondary data and available case studies. Specifically, the study discusses (a) the scope and rationale for the adoption of water saving technologies; (b) the government policies and programs being pursued to promote this technology; (c) the nature and extent of their actual adoption in different regions and cropping systems; (d) its impacts in terms of water saving and crop productivity; (e) economic viability of drip investment; and (f) the major issues and questions that require attention for future research and policy.Data for this study has been used mainly from secondary sources published by government and other agencies, particularly, reports of the Indian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (INCID), the Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP), the National Committee on Use of Plastics in Agriculture (NCPA) and the report of the Task Force on Micro-Irrigation (TFMI). In order to explain the farm-level issues and the position of drip method of irrigation, the author's own studies on three different crops namely, sugarcane, banana and grapes, which were carried out in Maharashtra (an advanced state in terms of using drip irrigation) and Tamil Nadu, have been utilized (Narayanamoorthy 1996;1997;2001;2005).The primary objective of introducing DMI is to reduce water consumption and increase water use efficiency in agriculture. However, it also delivers many other economic and social benefits to the society. Reduction in water consumption due to the drip method of irrigation over the surface method of irrigation varies from 30 to 70 % for different crops (INCID 1994;Narayanamoorthy 1997;Postal et al. 2001). According to data available from research stations, productivity gain due to drip method of irrigation is estimated to be in the range of 20 to 90 % for different crops (see INCID 1994). While increasing the productivity of crops significantly, the system also reduces the cost of cultivation substantially, especially in laborintensive operations. The reduction in water consumption in drip method of irrigation also reduces the energy use (electricity) that is required to lift the water from irrigation-wells (see Narayanamoorthy 1996;2001).A few studies have been carried out focusing on the impact of the drip method of irrigation on various parameters in different crops over the last 10 years or so. Studies, by and large, have focused mainly on the impact of the drip method of irrigation on water saving, including water use efficiency, productivity of crops and cost of cultivation. While some have studied the impact of DMI on electricity saving, others have studied its economic viability in different crops, using both experimental and field survey data. Results of experimental data reported in INCID (1994) show that water saving in DMI over the method of FMI varies from 12 to 84 % in different vegetable crops. In the case of fruit crops, the lowest water saving was found to be 45 % (pomegranate), whereas the highest water saving is estimated to be 81 % (lemon). Water saving was also found to be 65 % in sugarcane and about 60 % in coconut. As in the case of INCID results, various studies reported in CBIP (1998 and2001) also indicate a similar level of water saving in different crops. Similar to experimental data, studies carried out using field level data in Maharashtra also show that the water saving due to DMI is about 29 % in banana, 37 % in grapes and about 44 % in sugarcane (Narayanamoorthy 1996;1997 and2001).Though DMI increases the crop productivity and saves a substantial amount of water, it requires relatively larger fixed investment to install the system in the field. Therefore, some studies have attempted to find out whether the investment in drip irrigation is economically viable or not in regard to different crops. While some have estimated benefit-cost ratio including water saving as well as excluding water saving (INCID 1994), others have estimated benefitcost ratio and net present worth both with and without a subsidy condition (Narayanamoorthy 1997;2001;2004). The benefit-cost ratios provided for different crops in INCID (1994) indicate that investment in drip irrigation is economically viable, even after excluding water saving from the calculation. The estimated benefit-cost (B-C) ratio comes to 13.35 in crops like grapes and 1.41 in the case of coconut. However, it is not clear whether the B-C ratios presented in INCID (1994) are estimated using discounted cash flow technique or not. Unlike INCID estimates, using discounted cash flow technique and that too, utilizing field survey data covering three crops namely, grapes, banana and sugarcane, Narayanamoorthy (1997;2001;2004) estimated B-C ratio and net present worth. The results of these studies suggest that the investment in drip method of irrigation is economically viable even without a subsidy.In spite of having many economic advantages over the method of flood irrigation, the coverage of area under drip method of irrigation is not appreciable in India except for a few states as of today. The area under DMI has increased from a mere 1,500 ha in 1985 to 70,859 ha in 1991-92 and further to 500,000 ha as of March 2003(INCID, 1994;GOI, 2004). India has enormous potential for DMI. INCID (1994) report, which presents an overview about the development of drip irrigation in India, indicates that about 80 crops, both narrow and widely spaced crops, can be grown under DMI. Although DMI is considered to be highly suitable for wide-spaced and high-value commercial crops, it is also being used for cultivating oilseeds, pulses, cotton and even for wheat crops (INCID 1994). Importantly, research suggests that DMI is not only suitable for those areas that are presently under cultivation but it can also be operated efficiently in undulating terrain, rolling topography, hilly areas, barren land and even in areas which have shallow soils (Sivanappan 1994).Given the fast decline of irrigation water potential and increasing demand for water from different sectors, there is a need to conserve and increase the efficiency of water use so as to avoid a water crisis in the future. Drip irrigation technology is proved to be an important watersaving technology and, therefore, there are many justifiable reasons for adopting drip method of irrigation in countries like India. Some of these reasons are related to water availability and capital cost of irrigation, while others are related to production and productivity of crops, etc. The first and foremost reason for adopting DMI is the fast decline of irrigation water potential and growing demand for irrigation water. Up to 2001-02, about Rs. 1,360.65 billion (in current prices) have been spent exclusively for the development of irrigation by the government sector alone. As a result of this, area under irrigation has increased from 26.61 mha in 1950-51 to 86.67 mha in 1996-97, an increase of 2.60 % per annum. Despite the substantial increase of area under irrigation, the share of irrigated area to gross cropped area is only about 40 % as of today.One of the main reasons for the limited expansion of area under irrigation is the predominant use of flood method of irrigation (FMI) for cultivating crops, where water use efficiency is very low due to various reasons. Water use efficiency under flood method of irrigation is estimated to be only around 40 % mainly due to huge losses through evaporation, conveyance and distribution (Sivanappan 1994;Rosegrant 1997;Rosegrant and Meinzen-Dick 1996). Unlike FMI, water use efficiency can be achieved over 90 % in DMI (see, Figure 1). Since water is supplied directly to the root zone of the crops using pipe network under DMI, the evaporation and distribution losses are completely absent under this method. Though FMI has been followed predominantly all over the world for cultivating crops, it is no longer desirable for countries like India, mainly due to the limited availability of water resources and growing demand for water for irrigation and other purposes. Therefore, for achieving sustainable agricultural development, it is essential to increase the existing water use efficiency for which drip method of irrigation can be one of the viable options.India has the largest irrigated area in the world, but its water potential available for the future use of irrigation has been declining at a rapid pace since independence owing to various reasons (Saleth 1996;CWC 2004). As per the estimate of the Central Water Commission (CWC 1996;2004), India's total irrigation potential is 139.9 mha. Of this total, about 58 mha (41.46 %) can be utilized from major and medium irrigation (MMI) sources and about 81.40 mha (58.54 %) can be utilized from minor irrigation (MI) sources. Up to 1999-2000, we have created about 94.73 mha of irrigated area, which accounts for about 67 % of the total potential (see, Table 1). Researchers have been cautioning that any additional creation of irrigation facility by constructing new major irrigation projects would not only require a huge cost but would also create adverse environmental problems (Singh 1997). However, considering the growth of population and the requirements of foodgrains in the future, 1 there is a need to increase the area under irrigation. One of the options available before us is increasing the existing water use efficiency in all sources of irrigation. Though many programs have been introduced to improve the existing water use efficiency under FMI, they have not been successful in bringing about the desired results up to now.   The irrigation potential available for future use has also been declining in many states. In fact, the condition is precarious in agriculturally advanced states like Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu. The irrigation potential created to the total potential of MMI up to the ninth plan ranges from 69 to 103 % in states like Haryana, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Similarly, the irrigation potential created to the total potential of MI also varies from about 53 to 123 % in states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (see, Narayanamoorthy 2002). Further exploitation of water through MMI and MI sources from these states certainly would create adverse environmental problems. Therefore, cultivating crops with the flood (conventional) method of irrigation is no longer desirable.The state of groundwater is also precarious. The available groundwater for the use of irrigation has also been steadily declining in most of the agriculturally advanced states. The New Agricultural Technology (NAT) introduced during the mid-1960s has significantly increased the demand for irrigation water, which ultimately resulted in overexploitation of groundwater in many parts of India. Again the principal reason for the overexploitation of groundwater is the predominant cultivation of water-intensive crops under the flood method of irrigation. A recent state-wise estimate on groundwater potential and utilization has shown that the use of groundwater is going beyond the socially acceptable limit in many agriculturally advanced states (see, Figure 2). As a result of this, there is tremendous pressure on water resources now more than ever before, but the quantum of available water is fast declining. Another important reason for adopting WST in India is to reduce the ever increasing capital cost of surface irrigation development. A massive investment has been made exclusively for the irrigation development in India by the public sector over the years. As a result of this massive investment on irrigation, the total area under irrigation has increased from 22.61 mha in the pre-plan period  to 86.26 mha in 2001-02. Though the massive investment on irrigation was justified by many experts in view of the nature of the Indian economy, capital cost required to create one hectare of irrigation has increased substantially, especially after the fifth 5-year plan. For instance, the requirement of investment (in current prices) for creating one hectare of irrigation in the MMI sector was only Rs. 1,513 in first 5-year plan, but the same increased to over Rs. 2,37,729 in 2001-02 (Gulati et al. 1994;Narayanamoorthy and Kalamkar 2004). One of the main reasons attributed for this huge increase in the requirement of investment per hectare is that the new irrigation projects are more capital intensive, as most of the easily available potential has already been exploited (Vaidyanathan 1999;Gulati et al. 1994). 3 Besides involving higher financial investment, the major irrigation projects are also capable of creating many social and environmental problems (Singh 1997; Rosegrant 1997). 4  Though drip method of irrigation is a capital-intensive technology, its capital requirement per hectare is relatively less when compared to the same required for MMI projects. In addition to this, the operation and maintenance costs of MMI projects have also been increasing due to various reasons (Gulati et al. 1994). Though drip irrigation cannot be a substitute for MMI projects, the cost-related problems associated with the large irrigation projects could be reduced to some extent by adopting drip method of irrigation at a large scale.Third important reason for adopting WST is to increase production and productivity of agricultural commodities. Although the new agricultural technology has helped to increase production of food grains impressively from about 72 million tonnes in 1965-66 to over 211 million tonnes in 2001-02, the achievement in production of non-food grain commodities such as oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, etc, is not very impressive (Kumar and Mathur 1996). 5 Despite various efforts made by the policymakers, production (supply) of non-food grains is much less when compared to the domestic demand (Kumar and Mathur 1996). This has forced the government to import these commodities from other countries to meet the domestic requirements. Since most of the non-food grain crops mentioned above are cultivated predominantly under rain-fed conditions, where moisture stress is common, production of these commodities could not be increased to a desired level. Unlike FMI, the crops cultivated under DMI do not face any moisture stress as water is supplied on a continuous basis at the required level. The yield increasing inputs (e.g., fertilizers) applied for crops cultivated under the flood method of irrigation also do not fully reach the crops, due to leaching and other reasons. As fertilizers (liquid) can be supplied through water (which is called fertigation), the loss of fertilizers by way of leaching and evaporation is very less, hence high-level input 3 The cost of irrigation per hectare in real term has also substantially increased over the years. The reasons for increasing real capital cost of new irrigation projects in different countries are discussed in Rosegrant (1997). 4 It is reported by studies that though the benefits from Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) are large, the environmental and human costs of construction of dam are also estimated to be large. Some estimates indicate that SSD would flood about 37,000 hectares of forest and farmland (Rosegrant 1997). 5 Even in cereal production the position is not very comfortable. Recent estimates relating to future demand and supply of cereals show that India will have cereal deficits of 36 to 64 million tonnes per year by 2020. A detailed account on India's cereal supply and demand is available in Bhalla et al. (1999).use efficiency is possible under DMI. Since both moisture level and input use efficiency are maintained at a higher level under the drip method of irrigation, productivity of crops cultivated under the drip method of irrigation is significantly higher than those crops cultivated under FMI.The production of foodgrains and other agricultural commodities have to be increased keeping in view the pace at which the population increases. The growth in foodgrains productivity was already very low during the 1990s (1.52 % per annum) when compared to the growth in the 1980s (2.74 % per annum)- (GOI 2002). Experience indicates that production of foodgrains also goes down sharply whenever fluctuations occur in rainfall. New areas with irrigation facility need to be brought under cultivation so as to avoid this problem. With the limited irrigation potential, creating irrigation facilities through MMI projects would cost more for the exchequer and also take a longer gestation period. Using the already exploited irrigation potential, the area under irrigation can be expanded further if drip method of irrigation is followed, as it requires less water when compared to flood method of irrigation. 6 Apart from water saving and productivity-related reasons, large-scale adoption of WST would also solve the ever increasing problems of electricity (energy) scarcity, waterlogging and other environmental problems, all of which one way or the other are associated with the present conventional method of irrigation.Since drip method of irrigation is a new technology in India, introduced relatively recently, government-supported promotional programs have been in operation since the sixth plan. In fact, the promotional programs have made significant impact on the adoption of drip irrigation in India over the years, especially in states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, both of which are operating specific state supported schemes for promoting drip method of irrigation. Drip method of irrigation was introduced in India during the early 1970s at the Agricultural Universities and other Research Institutions. The scientists at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, who are considered to be the pioneers in drip irrigation research in India, have conducted large-scale demonstrations in farmers' fields for various crops, which received encouraging responses from the farmers (INCID 1994). However, the adoption of drip method of irrigation was very slow till the mid-1980s, mainly because of the lack of promotional activities from the State and Central Governments.The formation of the National Committee on the Use of Plastics in Agriculture (NCPA) by the Ministry of Petroleum, Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India, during 1981 under the Chairmanship of Dr. G. V. K. Rao is termed as the first milestone for the development of micro-irrigation in India (GOI 2004). With the establishment of 17 different Plasticulture Development Centers (PDCs) across different agro-climatic regions in the country, the NCPA has played a crucial role in the technological development of micro-irrigation in India. 7 Besides recommending policy measures to the government, the NCPA also played an important role in 6 According to an estimate of the World Bank, with a 10 % increase in the existing water use efficiency, India could add 7-8 mha of irrigated area without utilizing additional water resources (World Bank 1998). 7 NCPA was later renamed as the National Committee on Plasticulture Applications in Horticulture (NCPAH) due to the prominent role plasticulture plays in the productivity of horticultural crops.promoting drip method of irrigation through conducting seminars focusing on micro-irrigation and its beneficial impact (GOI 2004).Apart from the government efforts, some research institutes and private drip set manufactures have also been playing an important role in promoting drip method of irrigation in India. For instance, The Report of Task Force on Micro Irrigation mentions \"Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., Jalgaon has been playing a pioneering role since its inception in 1989 for promoting micro irrigation\" (GOI 2004 -p. 124). The establishment of the Jain Irrigation Systems Limited in 1988-89 marked a watershed in the spread of this technology. Their approach was unique, committed, scientific and persistent. A 'systems approach' from concept to commissioning was adopted by them. Learning from the mistakes and the short-comings of the past, this new company undertook extensive surveys in the market, interacted with scores of customers who had installed drip irrigation systems in their fields, critically evaluated its ills and took systematic and determined steps to remove these ills. The concept, in fact, was pioneered in the country by the Jain Irrigation, Jalgaon. A decade ago, the company established a 600-acre agro-related research and development farm at Jalgaon, where experiments on various aspects related to agronomy, irrigation, water management, watershed and wasteland development are now conducted on a regular basis.Since drip irrigation is a new technology and a capital-intensive venture, the government operates schemes for drip irrigation with a subsidy. In states like Maharashtra, both the Central and State Governments are operating schemes for promoting the drip method of irrigation. Central scheme was started during 1982-83 (during the Sixth Plan) by the Ministry of Water Resources (Minor Irrigation Division), Government of India. Through this scheme, the Government of India provided a subsidy of 50 % to the farmers with a matching contribution from the State Governments for installation of micro-irrigation devices. Of the total amount of subsidy, 75 % was allocated for small and marginal farmers and the balance of 25 % for other groups of farmers. The Government of Maharashtra has made pioneering efforts for the successful adoption of drip irrigation system. For example, to make drip irrigation costeffective, it provided subsidies to small and marginal farmers to the extent of Rs. 2,282.35 lakhs during the period 1986-1993(INCID 1994)). As per the latest information available from the Economic Survey of Maharashtra: 2002-03, an amount of Rs. 432 crore (Rs. 332 for drip irrigation and Rs. 100 crore for sprinkler irrigation) have been distributed to the cultivators in the form of subsidy by the government to promote micro-irrigation up to March 2002(GOI 2003). Central scheme for drip irrigation was also introduced in the Seventh Plan with the following modifications:a) The non-conventional energy devices like solar pumps and windmills were excluded from this subsidy scheme, as the same were included in the other schemes operated by the Department of Non-Conventional Sources of Energy;b) The subsidy was limited to the small and marginal farmers only, excluding other farmers from the scope of the scheme;c) The percentage of subsidy eligible under the scheme was on par with the on-going Integrated Rural Development Program; d) Farmers growing horticultural crops like grapes, papaya, areca nut and coconut were also eligible for the subsidy; and e) SC and ST farmers belonging to small and marginal categories of the size of land-holding and co-operative community schemes of small and marginal farmers were provided with 50 % subsidy under the scheme.However, the central scheme of drip irrigation did not get a good response during the Seventh Plan since the subsidy was limited to only small and marginal farmers. Furthermore, due to capital paucity this group could not afford the drip systems even at the subsided rate. After knowing the ground realities, many new measures were incorporated under the new schemes introduced during the eighth plan. Under the new schemes, the subsidy amount is limited to either 50 % of the cost or Rs. 15,000/ha, whichever is lower. The Government of India has contributed the entire 50 % of the subsidy up to the financial year 1994-95. Thereafter the state governments have contributed 10 % towards the subsidy for the years 1995-96 and 1996-97, which, in fact, added up to 50 % with the center's contribution of 40 %. However, a beneficiary can avail a subsidy for a maximum area of one hectare only.The subsidy scheme has undergone lot of changes over the years. During the period 1999-2000, the Government of India provided assistance for installation of drip for horticultural crops at 90 % of the cost of the system or Rs. 25,000/ha, whichever is less for small and marginal, SC/ST and women farmers, and 70 % of the total cost or Rs. 25,000/ha, whichever is less for other category of farmers. Assistance was also provided for drip demonstration at Rs. 22,500 or 75 % of the system cost per hectare, whichever is less (GOI 2004). It is to be noted that the rate of the subsidy tends to vary with the schemes implemented by the state. While most of the horticulture crops are included under the subsidy scheme, waterintensive crops such as sugarcane are excluded from the subsidy scheme supported by the Central Government. However, states like Maharashtra have been providing a subsidy for the sugarcane crop, because of the increase in the consumption of water by sugarcane when cultivated under the surface method of irrigation.Drip method of irrigation was initially introduced in the early 1970s by the agricultural universities and other research institutions in India, with the aim of increasing the water use efficiency in crop cultivation. The development of drip irrigation was very slow in the initial years and significant development has been achieved, especially since the 1990s. Due to various promotional schemes introduced by the Government of India and states like Maharashtra, area under the drip method of irrigation has increased from 1,500 ha in 1985 to 70,589 ha in 199170,589 ha in -92 and to 246,000 ha in 199770,589 ha in -98 (INCID 1994;;AFC 1998). According to the latest information, the area under DMI is estimated to have been increased to about 450,000 hectares, which includes about 350,000 hectares covered under the Government of India Schemes (GOI 2004-p. 130). This estimate is based on the information available from GOI departments, which have been operating subsidy schemes for promoting the drip method of irrigation. However, as mentioned in the Report of the Task Force on Micro-irrigation, a large number of institutions, commercial organizations, universities, large public/private sector companies, NGOs, etc., in the country have taken up drip irrigation for their farms/crops, which does not get reflected in the data available with GOI departments. Therefore, approximately, another 100,000 hectares are covered under the drip system by these organizations, whereby the total area under the drip irrigation system in the country would be about 500,000 hectares as of March 2003(GOI 2004-pp. 130-131). In spite of having many advantages over FMI, the development of drip irrigation does not match the expectations in most of the states. Table 2 presents state-wise area under drip method of irrigation for three time-periods namely, 1991-92, 1997-98 and 2000-01. It is evident from the table that the drip irrigated area has increased substantially between 1991-92 and 2000-01 in all the states of India. In all three time-periods, Maharashtra State alone accounted for nearly 50 % of India's total drip irrigated area followed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. 9 Over the last 10 years, significant growth has been achieved in 9 There are many reasons for the rapid development of drip method of irrigation in Maharashtra. First, the state government is very keen in promoting drip irrigation on a large scale by providing a subsidy along with technical and extension services to the farmers. The Maharashtra Government has been providing a subsidy from 1986-87 onwards through state schemes. Second, the area under irrigation from both surface and groundwater is quite low and hence, many farmers have adopted the drip method of irrigation to avoid water scarcity, largely in divisions like Nashik, Pune, etc. Third, owing to continuous depletion of groundwater, farmers were not able to cultivate widespaced and more lucrative crops like grapes, banana, pomegranate, orange, mango etc., by using surface method of irrigation in many regions. As a result, farmers had to adopt drip irrigation as these crops are most suitable for it. Importantly, the farmers who adopted drip irrigation initially for certain crops have realized the importance of drip irrigation in increasing the water saving and productivity of crops. This has further encouraged many farmers to adopt the drip method of irrigation in some of the regions in Maharashtra.the area under the drip method of irrigation in absolute terms in many states. However, drip irrigated area constitutes a very meager percentage in relation to the gross irrigated area and also in relation to its total potential area, which is estimated to be 27 mha by the Task Force on Micro-Irrigation (GOI 2004). For instance, during 2000-01, the share of drip-irrigated area to gross irrigated area was just 0.48 %, and about 1.09 % in relation to total groundwater irrigated area of the country.Although over 80 crops are suitable for the drip method of irrigation, only a few crops have been dominant in the total area under drip irrigation so far. As of 1997-98, crops like coconut, grapes, banana, citrus, mango and pomegranate together have accounted for nearly 67 % of the total drip irrigated area (see Figure 3 and also Table 3). States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka account for a major share of the area in all these crops. More importantly, out of the total area of 26,460 ha of the banana crop, the Maharashtra State alone accounted for as much as 93 % at the end of 1997-98. It shows that the adoption of drip method of irrigation is very much concentrated only in a few states despite many different regions in the country experiencing severe water scarcities. It is essential to bring more water-intensive crops under the drip method of irrigation so as to avoid aggravating the supply-demand gap in irrigation water in the future. Who is using DMI in India? Do farmers use DMI without a subsidy being given by state agencies? Unfortunately clear answers are not available for these questions from the existing reports and studies, despite the fact that the drip method of irrigation has been promoted by the government over the last 15 years or so. However, a nationwide study carried out by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC1998) reveals that the drip method of irrigation is still essentially considered to be the scheme of the government. As of 1997-98, the area under DMI other than government schemes (without subsidy) accounted for only about 18 % of India's total drip irrigated area, indicating that farmers are reluctant to adopt drip irrigation without subsidy. Studies need to be carried out as to why the individual farmers without subsidy are not willing to adopt DMI, despite the substantial benefits that can be derived from it.It has been proved by some studies that the drip method of irrigation helps to save water and improves water use efficiency, reduces the cost of cultivation and increases productivity of crops and farm income (INCID 1994). While reducing water consumption, it also reduces by a substantial amount, the electricity required for irrigation purposes, by reducing the number of working hours of irrigation pump-sets (Narayanamoorthy 1996a). Normally, the impact realized using experimental data may not match the field data because of varying agroeconomic conditions between the two-settings. Therefore, we have discussed the impact of DMI on different parameters using both the experimental and field data. One of the prime advantages of drip irrigation is that it saves a substantial amount of water as compared to conventional methods of irrigation. Though studies using field level data are rarely available, focusing on water use efficiency and water saving of DMI, many research stations situated in different parts of the country have evaluated the water saving capacity of DMI for different crops. We have presented the water requirements, saving of water and water use efficiency under DMI and FMI for different crops in Table 3 based on the data from experimental stations. The water saving capacity of DMI is expected to be different for different crops as the consumption and the requirement of water varies from crop to crop. As expected, the water saving for vegetable crops varies from 12 to 84 % per hectare over the conventional method of irrigation. In fruit crops, water saving varies from 45 to 81 % per hectare over the conventional method of irrigation. In crops like cotton, coconut and groundnut, water saving varies from 40 to 60 % per hectare. Importantly, water saving in sugarcane, which is one of the water-intensive crops, is over 65 % per hectare when compared to the conventional method of irrigation.Similar to the results available from INCID (1994) report, various experimental studies carried out by the Precision Farming Development Centre (PDCs) also clearly demonstrate that water saving due to DMI is substantial over the method of surface irrigation in different crops (see, GOI 2004). Water saving under the drip method of irrigation occurs mainly because of three reasons. First, since water is supplied through a network of pipes, the evaporation and distribution losses of water are minimal or completely absent under DMI. Second, unlike FMI, water is supplied under DMI at a required time and required level and thus, over-irrigation is totally avoided. Third, under the conventional method of irrigation, water is supplied for the whole of cropland, whereas DMI irrigates only the plants. Though the results of the experimental data discussed above clearly suggest that water saving due to DMI is substantial, one cannot completely rely on these results because the environmental conditions that are prevailing under experimental stations are totally different the conditions prevailing at the farmers' field. Therefore, we discuss below the water saving including its efficiency under DMI using farm level data in the context of three crops namely sugarcane, banana and grapes.Water consumption per hectare for any crop is determined by factors like horse power of the pump-set, water level of the well, capacity of the pump, size of delivery pipes, condition of the water extraction machineries (WEMs), distance between place of water source and field to be irrigated, quality of soil, terrain condition etc. These factors vary considerably across farms. Pump-sets with higher horse power (HP) lift more water per unit of land compared to the pump-sets with lower horse power. Most of the studies based on research station data have measured water consumption in terms of centimeter (CM) in drip irrigation. But, in practice, measuring water in terms of CM is not an easy task at the field level as HP of the pump-sets and water level of the well changes considerably across the farms. In order to avoid these difficulties, water consumption is measured in terms of horse power (HP) hours of irrigation. 10  Table 4 presents per hectare consumption of water in terms of HP hours for drip and non-drip adopters for all three crops-sugarcane, grapes and banana. It is clear from the table that the consumption of water by crops under the drip method of irrigation is significantly less than that of the flood method irrigation (FMI). While water saving in sugarcane comes to about 44 %, the same is estimated to be about 37 % in the case of grapes and about 29 % in the case of banana. Among these three crops, water saving in terms of HP hours is much higher for the banana crop as compared to the other two crops. Drip method saves about 3,245 HP hours of water per hectare for banana, while it is about 1,412 HP hours for sugarcane and about 1,968 HP hours for grapes. The requirement of water varies for each crop depending upon the soil quality and other factors and, therefore, the saving of water due to DMI is varied among the three crops discussed. As mentioned earlier, unlike flood method of irrigation, since water is supplied only at the root zone of the crops and that too at a required quantity, water losses occurring in the form of evaporation and distribution are completely absent under DMI. This helps DMI adopters to save water considerably as compared to the non-adopters of DMI. Though there are differences in water saving between the three crops, the study shows that drip technology helps saving relatively more water in water-intensive crops like banana. Source: Calculated from Narayanamoorthy (1996Narayanamoorthy ( , 1997Narayanamoorthy ( and 2001) ) While the consumption of water per unit of area is a good indicator to measure the efficiency of water use in drip and non-drip crops, water consumed to produce one unit of crop output is the most appropriate method to judge the efficiency of water consumption in DMI and FMI. In order to study the water use efficiency under the two methods of irrigation, we have calculated water consumption required producing one unit of output under drip and non-drip irrigated conditions. As reported by experimental data based studies, the results of field data also show that water use efficiency (WUE) is substantially higher for drip-irrigated crops as compared to the same cultivated under flood method of irrigation (see, Table 5). The analysis shows that sugarcane cultivated under drip method of irrigation consumes only 1.28 HP hours of water to produce one quintal of output when compared to 2.83 HP hours of water for producing the same quantity of output under non-drip irrigated condition, i.e., to produce one quintal of sugarcane under non-drip irrigated condition about 1.55 HP hours of additional water is consumed. Similar to sugarcane crop, water required to produce one quintal of output in banana and grapes is also found to be substantially lower under DMI as compared to their counterpart. Under DMI, banana consumes only 11.60 HP hours of water to produce one quintal of banana output as against the use of 21.14 HP hours of water for the same quantity of yield under nondrip irrigated method. In the case of grapes, each quintal of output involves the use of just 13.60 HP hours of water under DMI as compared to the use of 25.84 HP hours under non-drip irrigated method. The fact that comes out clearly from the analysis is that DMI not only reduces the per hectare consumption of water but also reduces the water required to produce one unit of crop output substantially when compared to the flood method of irrigation.Along with water, electricity (energy) used for lifting water from wells is also saved considerably due to the drip method of irrigation. Water saving and electricity saving are highly interrelated under DMI and, therefore, an analysis on electricity use under drip method is presented in this section. It is observed in the foregoing section that HP hours of water used per hectare of crop under DMI are significantly less than those of FMI. Therefore, it follows simply that the consumption of electricity also reduces significantly under DMI. We have estimated electricity consumption based on the hours of pump-set operations for both the drip adopter and the non-drip adopter groups. For estimating the quantum of electricity saved, it is assumed that for every hour of operation of a pump-set, 0.750 kwh of power is used per HP. 11  Since all the farmers in both the groups have used only electrical pump-sets, we have simply multiplied HP hours of water with assumed power consumption of 0.75/kwh/HP to arrive at the per hectare electricity consumption. The estimated consumption of electricity (in kwh) presented in Table 5, clearly depicts that farmers using DMI utilized a lesser amount of electricity as compared to FMI farmers in all three crops. Farmers who cultivated sugarcane under DMI could save about 1,059 kwh of electricity per hectare as compared to those farmers who cultivated sugarcane under FMI. Similarly, while the farmers cultivating grapes could save about 1,476 kwh/ha of electricity due to DMI, the saving of electricity is estimated to be about 2,434 kwh/ha in banana in comparison to the farmers who cultivated the same crop under FMI with a similar environment. The substantial amount of electricity saving due to DMI is not a surprising result, because any reduction in consumption of water would ultimately lead to reduction in the consumption of electricity.Farmers with drip irrigation operate pump-sets for a fewer number of hours and therefore, consumption of electricity is quite low. Since the saving of electricity through the drip method of irrigation is very high, it would help to reduce the total electricity bill to be paid by the farmers. We have estimated the money saved in the total electricity bill per hectare through energy saving. Since Maharashtra State Electricity Board supplies electricity on a flat-rate (FR) basis for agriculture, it was not possible to get per kwh price of electricity. Therefore, we have assumed Rs. 3.26/kwh, which is the current average cost of electricity supply in Maharashtra, as a nominal rate to estimate the saving of electricity in monetary terms. In accordance with this, on an average, about Rs.3,454/ha can be saved on the electricity bill alone by cultivating sugarcane under the drip method of irrigation. Similarly, farmers cultivating grapes and banana under DMI can save about Rs. 4,811and Rs. 7,934 per hectare, respectively. It suggests that the drip irrigation technology helps to reduce the cost of cultivation enormously by reducing the cost of electricity besides helping to save precious inputs like electricity and water.As in water consumption, the energy used to produce one quintal of crop output is computed by dividing the per hectare energy (electricity) consumption by yield of each crop per hectare. Electricity consumed to produce one quintal of sugarcane is quite low for drip adopters in Maharashtra. For instance, on an average, sugarcane cultivators under DMI used about 0.968 kwh to produce one quintal of sugarcane, whereas the same is estimated to be about 2.121 kwh for those who cultivated sugarcane under FMI. This means that for every quintal of sugarcane production about 1.163 kwh of electricity can be saved through drip method of irrigation. Electrical energy consumed to produce one quintal of crop output is also found to be low for drip adopters in banana and grapes as well. While grapes cultivators under DMI used about 10.21 kwh to produce one quintal of grapes, the non-drip adopters have used about 19.37 kwh. A similar trend is observed in the case of banana crop as well. Obviously, higher productivity and relatively low amount of water consumption have reduced the per quintal requirement of electricity significantly in drip irrigated crops.Drip method of irrigation also helps to reduce the cost of cultivation and improve productivity of crops as compared to the same crops cultivated under the flood method of irrigation. In this section, using both the experimental and field level data, we discuss the impact of DMI on the cost of cultivation and productivity of crops. First, we discuss the productivity enhancement in different crops due to DMI using experimental data and then we study the impact of DMI on the cost of cultivation and productivity of crops using field level data pertaining to three crops namely sugarcane, grapes and banana. It can be seen from the results of the experimental station data presented in Table 3 that the productivity of different crops is significantly higher under DMI when compared to FMI. Productivity increase due to drip method of irrigation is noticed over 40 % in vegetable crops such as bottle gourd, potato, onion, tomato and chilies, while over 70 % increase in many fruit crops. In the case of sugarcane, productivity difference is found to be over 33 %. Specific experiments carried out at Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola, (Maharashtra State) on vegetable crops such as cauliflower, tomato and brinjal also suggest that productivity enhancement due to DMI is substantial (see, INCID 1994). Similar kinds of results have also been noted at different experimental stations located in different states. 12  Though various studies using experimental data reported that DMI increases the productivity of crops, none of these studies seem to have compared the productivity of crops with the cost of cultivation. This is one of the major limitations of the existing studies, which are based on experimental data. There is a possibility that productivity of crops under DMI may be higher due to higher use of yield increasing inputs. Therefore, in order to find out the real impact of DMI on productivity of crops, one needs to compare the cost of cultivation of crops with the productivity of crops. Keeping this in view, an attempt is made below to relate the cost of cultivation with productivity of crops under DMI and FMI in the context of sugarcane, grapes and banana.Studies carried out using experimental data in different crops underline that the DMI can reduce the cost of cultivation, especially in labor-intensive operations like weeding, irrigation, ploughing etc (see, INCID 1994;Dhawan 2002). When the labor cost reduces, the total cost of cultivation also reduces, because labor cost constitutes a considerable portion in the total cost of cultivation. Let us first study the cost of cultivation in the sugarcane crop. It is clear from Table 6 that drip irrigation reduces the total cost of cultivation by about Rs.6,550/ha (nearly 13 %) for the adopters as compared with the non-adopters with regards to the sugarcane crop. Though the total cost saving in terms of percentage is not very high in aggregate, it varies across different operations. Among the different operations, cost saving is very high in irrigation, furrows and bunding followed by seed and seed sowing. Saving under cost of cultivation is also found in fertilizers (about 8 %). This is because of the reason that some of the adopters have used liquid fertilizers and thus, the cost incurred on fertilizers is relatively less. Source: Calculated from Narayanamoorthy (1996Narayanamoorthy ( , 1997Narayanamoorthy ( and 2001) ) Notes: a -Includes operation and maintenance costs of pump set and drip set; b -Costs of harvesting, transport and marketing are not included since sugar factories have incurred these costs; IUPP -Included under ploughing and preparation; DNC -Relevant data could not be collected as grape gardens are very oldA few earlier studies have reported that the drip method of irrigation also reduces the cost of fertilizers enormously as it can be supplied along with water -liquid fertilizers. Some of the farmers have argued that even without using the liquid form of fertilizers, the same can be reduced by avoiding wastage under the drip method of irrigation. Since water is supplied through a pipe network under the drip method of irrigation, it does not require more labor. 13  But, in the case of the surface method of irrigation, labor input is necessary to control water supply (changing course of water from one field to other) and to govern leakage and seepage. In addition to saving in the cost of labor, cost incurred on account of electricity (for operating pump-set) is also less as drip irrigation requires less amount of water when compared to flood method of irrigation. Under DMI, a saving of about 17 % in the cost of cultivation is noticed in ploughing and preparatory operations. This is because of the fact that the drip method of irrigation does not warrant much ploughing as it supplies water at the root zone of the crops. As indicated by earlier studies, the cost saving is also very high in weeding operation under DMI, which comes to about 12 % over the cost incurred by the farmers who cultivated sugarcane under FMI. Cost saving in weeding operation is high because it does not allow weed to come up in the non-crop space by not supplying water beyond the root zone of the crop. It should, however, be noted that the cost of cultivation varies with situational factors like soil quality, condition of the terrain, farmers' approach etc.Farmers who cultivated grapes and banana under DMI have also incurred relatively lower cost of cultivation. In the case of banana, drip irrigation reduces the total cost of cultivation by about Rs. 1,300/ha as compared to the farmers who cultivated the same crop under the flood method of irrigation. Among the different operations, cost saving is very high in irrigation. Second highest saving under the cost of cultivation is noticed in the ploughing operation. This is because of the fact that drip method does not warrant much ploughing as it supplies water at the root zone of the crops. The cost saving is also high in weeding operation as indicated by earlier studies. Gain in cost of cultivation is relatively higher in grapes as compared to banana. In banana, cost saving due to DMI was only about 2.50 %, whereas the same is nearly 10 % in grapes. As in the case of banana crop, cost saving varies with operations in grapes as well. Cost saving is found to be higher in operations like weeding, irrigation, fertilizers and ploughing. On the whole, the major difference in cost of cultivation between the adopters and the non-adopters of DMI is observed in irrigation, weeding and inter-culture, ploughing and preparation, and seed and sowing. Now let us turn our discussion to productivity gains using field data. One of the important advantages of the drip method of irrigation is productivity gain. Most of the time yield is affected because of moisture stress faced by crops. It is difficult to maintain water supply constantly for crops by the surface method of irrigation due to various reasons. Studies related to the drip method of irrigation have confirmed that the problem of moisture stress is completely reduced by providing irrigation through drip, as it supplies water at the root zone of the crops at a required frequency and quantity. As a result, the yield of crops cultivated under the drip method of irrigation is much higher than the crops which are cultivated under the surface method of irrigation.Productivity of crops presented in Table 7 shows that it is significantly higher for the farmers who have adopted the drip method of irrigation as compared to the non-drip adopters in all the three crops selected for analysis. The yield difference in absolute terms between the adopters and the non-adopters of drip method of irrigation comes to nearly 259 quintals per hectare for sugarcane, a gain of 23 % over non-drip irrigated crop. In the case of grapes, the productivity difference between DMI and FMI adopters comes to about 19 % and the same comes to 29 % for the banana crop. The important point to be underlined here is that despite incurring more cost on yield increasing inputs, productivity of crops cultivated under FMI is significantly lower than that of DMI. Source: Computed from Narayanamoorthy (1996Narayanamoorthy ( , 1997Narayanamoorthy ( and 2001) ) There are three main reasons for higher yield in drip irrigated crops. First, the growth of crops cultivated under DMI is better because of lower moisture stress, which ultimately helps to increase the productivity. Second, unlike the surface method of irrigation, drip does not encourage any growth of weed, especially in the non-crop zone. But under the surface method of irrigation weeds consume a considerable amount of yield increasing inputs and thereby reduce the yield of crops. Third, unlike in the surface method of irrigation, fertilizer losses occurring through evaporation and leaching through water are less in the drip method of irrigation as it supplies water only for crop and not for the land. Though the expenditures incurred by the non-adopters on different yield-increasing inputs are more than those incurred by the adopters in all three crops, this ratio of expenditures does not coincide with the increased yield of crops. Therefore, one can conclude that this productivity enhancement in all three crops is the result of using the drip method of irrigation.Besides increasing productivity of crops, DMI also increases cost efficiency, i.e., it reduces the cost required to produce a unit of crop output. This can be seen in Table 8. The estimated per quintal cost (calculated by dividing the total cost of cultivation with per hectare yield of three crops) shows that the non-adopters spend nearly Rs.13 more than the adopters to produce every quintal of sugarcane in Maharashtra. Likewise, in grapes, the non-adopters have incurred over Rs. 171 per quintal over the adopters, and in banana, the non-adopters have incurred nearly Rs. 30 to produce one quintal of output over their counterparts. It suggests that apart from increasing the productivity of crops, the drip method of irrigation also increases cost efficiency more substantially than the flood method of irrigation. On the whole, the analysis carried out using both the experimental and field level data clearly suggests that the drip method of irrigation increases productivity of crops, and that too with reduced cost of cultivation. It is clear from the above that drip method of irrigation reduces costs of cultivation, saves substantial amount of water and electricity and also enhances productivity of crops. Despite this, one of the important questions often asked about the drip method of irrigation is whether or not drip investment is economically viable to farmers cultivating crops using this new water saving technology. This question arises mainly because the drip method of irrigation requires a relatively large amount of fixed investment to install it in the field and, therefore, everyone (from policymakers to farmers) wants to know its economic viability in different crops. Though quite a few studies have analyzed the impact of drip method of irrigation on different parameters, not many studies have attempted to look into the economic viability of drip investment even by using experimental data. Some estimates on benefit-cost ratios are available from three secondary sources namely, INCID (1994); Sivanappan (1995) and AFC (1998). Although it is not clear whether the estimates available in these three studies were obtained using the discounted cash flow technique, let us discuss the results of these studies before going into analyzing the estimates made using field data.The capital cost required for installing DMI for different crops has been increasing over the years due to the increase in the cost of materials used for manufacturing the drip system (GOI 2004). The capital cost of drip system largely depends upon the type of crop (whether narrow or wide-spaced crops), spacing followed for cultivating crops, proximity to the water source (distance between the field and source of water) and the materials used for the system. Wide-spaced crops, generally, require less capital when compared to the crops having narrow space, as the latter would require more laterals and drippers per hectare. INCID (1994) results, which are reported in Table 9, clearly indicate that the requirement of capital cost is much higher for banana (Rs. 33,765/ha) as compared to the same required for mango (Rs. 11,053/ ha), which is a wide-spaced crop. As regards B-C ratio, the results available from INCID (1994) show that investment in drip method of irrigation is economically viable, even if it is estimated without taking into account the subsidy given to farmers. The B-C ratio estimated, excluding water saving, varies from 1.31 in sugarcane to as high as 13.35 in grapes. Obviously, the B-C ratio increases significantly further, when it is estimated after including the water saving. Various case studies reported in INCID (1994) also indicate that investment in drip irrigation is economically viable for different crops. Similar to INCID (1994), Sivanappan (1995) also estimated B-C ratio for different crops cultivated under DMI using data pertaining to the year 1993. It also suggests that the investment in drip irrigation is economically viable for different crops since the B-C ratio estimated was more than one. While the B-C ratio for pomegranate was estimated to be 5.16, the same is estimated to be 1.83 for cotton, which is a less-water intensive as well as a narrow-spaced crop.Unlike the results reported in INCID (1994) and Sivanappan (1995), AFC (1998) estimated B-C ratio using field survey data collected from 3,850 sample farmers, consisting of beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers. The survey covered 26 sample districts in 6 states. While the B-C ratio provided in AFC (1998) does not show the picture clearly, using the same data Dhawan (2002) has estimated B-C ratio for different crops at 12 % discount rate. Though the estimated B-C ratio appears to be very high, it is found to be relatively higher in all those districts belonging to the Maharashtra State as compared to the districts considered from other states. The inter-district variation in B-C ratio is possibly caused by inter-districts variation in the crop composition. The overall B-C ratio for the 21 sample districts or a drip investment of Rs. 27,000 is about 10, which is by any measurement extremely very high and attractive (Dhawan 2004).Though B-C ratio available from different sources suggests that the investment in drip irrigation is economically viable for farmers, one cannot completely rely on these results because of the following reasons. First, the studies discussed above have not clearly mentioned as to how the income stream is estimated during the entire life period of a drip irrigation set. Second, studies, especially by Sivanappan (1995) andINCID (1994) have not mentioned the methodology that is followed for estimating the B-C ratio for different crops. These estimates also appear to be output-input ratio, but not Benefit-Cost ratio estimated using discounted cash flow technique. Third, the past studies on this aspect have been carried out either by a B-C analysis without proper methodology or relied on the experience of one or few farmers adopting DMI. Fourth, none of the above studies mentioned the assumptions that are followed for estimating B-C ratio. In view of the limitations of the available studies, there is a need to empirically evaluate the economic viability of DMI within a relatively more systematic methodological framework.In order to evaluate the economic viability of drip investment in the context of three crops, we have computed both the net present worth (NPW) and the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) by utilizing the discounted cash flow technique. Since the NPW is the difference between the sum of the present value of benefits and that of costs for a given life period of the drip set, it collates the total benefits with the total costs covering items like capital and depreciation costs of the drip set. In terms of the NPW criterion, the investment on drip set can be treated as economically viable if the present value of benefits is greater than the present value of costs. The BCR is also related to NPW as it is obtained just by dividing the present worth of the benefit stream with that of the cost stream. Generally, if the BCR is more than one, then, the investment on that project can be considered as economically viable. A BCR greater than one obviously implies that the NPW of the benefit stream is higher than that of the cost stream (Gittinger 1984). The NPW and BCR can be defined as follows:Where, B t = benefit in year t; C t = cost in year t; t = 1, 2, 3 ….n; n = project life in years; i = rate of interest (or the assumed opportunity cost of the investment).Since drip irrigation involves fixed capital, it is necessary to take into account the income stream for the whole life span of drip investment. However, since it is difficult to generate the cash flows for the entire life span of drip investment in the absence of observed temporal information on benefits and costs, we need to make few realistic assumptions so as to estimate both the cash inflows and cash outflows for drip investment. These assumptions are:1. The life period of the drip set is considered as 5 years for sugarcane and banana, but 10 years for grapes as followed by the INCID study (1994) as well as the experience gathered from the field.2. The cost of cultivation and income generated using the drip method of irrigation is assumed to be constant during the entire life period of drip set in all three crops.3. Differential rates of discount (interest rates) are considered to undertake the sensitivity of investment to the change in capital cost. These are assumed at 10 %, 12 % and 15 % as alternatives representing various opportunity costs of capital.4. The crop cultivation technology is assumed to be constant for all three crops during the entire life period of drip set.As a backdrop to our benefit-cost analysis of DMI, we first briefly discuss about the gross cost of production, profit without discount, capital cost (without and with subsidy) and the amount of subsidy received by the farmers. Table 10 presents the details of production, gross income and other details for the three crops namely, sugarcane, grapes and banana. To complete the analysis of the relative economics of DMI and FMI, we have calculated the relative profit levels of the three crops for the adopters and non-adopters of DMI. Profit of a crop is not only determined by its total quantity of output but also its quality. Prevailing market conditions also play a crucial role in determining the price of agricultural commodities. It has come out from the earlier studies that the drip method of irrigation not only helps in increasing the yield of the crops but also improves the quality of the product and fetches a higher price in the market (INCID 1994;Sivanappan 1994;Narayanamoorthy 1997).Let us study how profit (undiscounted) varies between drip and non-drip irrigated crops in our study. While calculating profit, the total cost was calculated by considering only the variable costs but not the fixed cost components like interest rate and depreciation. 14 To calculate per hectare profit, we subtract the total cost of cultivation from the total income for the group of adopters and the non-adopters. The gross income (in rupees) is calculated by multiplying total yield with price received by the farmers for their crop output. It can be seen from Table 10 that per hectare profit 15 of the adopters in sugarcane is Rs. 27,424 higher than that of the non-adopters. In terms of percentage, profit of the drip adopters is higher by about 74 % over the profit of the non-drip farmers. This is not surprising, because on the one hand drip irrigation reduces the cost of cultivation of sugarcane and on the other hand it increases the yield of sugarcane.  Narayanamoorthy (1996Narayanamoorthy ( , 1997Narayanamoorthy ( and 2001) ) Notes: a -production cost (A2) includes the operation and maintenance cost of drip set and pump-set; b -This is the difference between gross value of production and production cost (A2) and c -it does not include pump-set costIn crops like grapes and bananas, the average profit among the drip adopters is significantly higher than that of the non-drip adopters. The profit level among drip adopters in grapes is Rs. 50,187/ha higher than that among non-adopters, whereas the same is about Rs. 32,400/ha for banana. While the profit differential is substantial for drip irrigated crops, it cannot be taken as a conclusive indicator of the comparative advantages of the new irrigation technique, as our profit calculation is based only on the variable cost but ignores fixed cost components like depreciation and interest accrued on the fixed capital while calculating the net profit. The life period of drip-set is one of the important variables which determines the per hectare profit. Moreover, since it is a capital-intensive technique, the huge initial investment needed for installing drip systems remains the main deterrent for the widespread adoption of DMI. To what extent this discouragement effect is real and to what extent such effect can be counterbalanced by a government subsidy are some of the important policy issues requiring empirical answers.Fixed capital is needed for installing the drip method of irrigation. The magnitude of capital requirement varies with each crop depending upon certain factors as indicated earlier.Generally, wide-spaced crops require a relatively low-fixed investment and narrow-spaced crops need a higher-fixed investment. Besides the crop type, the proportion of the fixed capital requirement is also sensitive to the quality of the materials used for the systems as well as the distance between the water source (well) and the field (NABARD 1989). Let us now evaluate the empirical pattern of capital cost of the drip system, production cost (cost of cultivation) of crops and the amount of subsidy received by the sample farmers. Table 11 presents the details of capital cost and subsidy for all three crops. Since DMI is a capital-intensive technology, government provides nearly 50 % of the capital cost as subsidy to encourage the adoption of drip irrigation in crop cultivation. The average capital subsidy comes to Rs. 19,263/ha for sugarcane, Rs. 11,359/ ha for grapes and Rs. 12,620/ha for banana. As a proportion of the total capital cost of drip set, subsidy amount accounts for about 35 to 37 % among the three crops, which is within a limit of provision made by the government. With this background, let us analyze the benefit-cost pattern of drip investment using the discounted cash flow technique. Source: Computed from Narayanamoorthy (1996;1997;2001) In order to assess the potential role that subsidy plays in the adoption of DMI, we have computed both the NPW and the BCR separately by including and excluding subsidy in the total fixed capital cost of drip set. Financial viability analysis under different rates of discount will indicate the stability of investment at various levels of the opportunity cost of investment. Although the BCR is sensitive to discount rate and the degree of such sensitivity depends on the pattern of cash flows, it is interesting to observe the sensitivity of the BCR when there is a simultaneous change in both subsidy and discount factors. Table 11 presents the results of a sensitivity analysis for sugarcane, grapes and banana crops computed under the assumption that there will not be any change in the cost of production and gross income during the entire life period of drip set.As regards the sugarcane crop, the NPW of the investment with subsidy is marginally higher than that of a 'no subsidy' option. At 15 % discount rate, the NPW of drip investment is about Rs. 169,896/ha without subsidy and Rs.186,655/ha with subsidy. This means that the subsidy enables the farmers to get an additional benefit of Rs. 16,759/ha. It can also be observed that the difference between the NPW under 'with subsidy' and 'no subsidy' scenarios is decreasing along with each increase in the discount rate. For instance, the NPW under without subsidy increased from Rs. 169,896/ha at a 15 % discount rate to Rs. 226,951/ha at a 10 % discount rate. Similarly, under subsidy, the NPW increased from Rs. 186,655/ha at a 15 % discount rate to Rs. 244,481/ha at a 10 % discount rate. Similar to this, under without subsidy condition, the BCR also increased marginally from 1.909 at a 15% discount rate to 2.095 at a 10 % discount rate. The higher BCR under subsidy suggests the positive effect of subsidy on the economic viability of the drip method of irrigation in sugarcane.The NPW and BCR, which are estimated separately for banana and grape crops, reveal that the NPW of the investment with subsidy is marginally higher than that under `no subsidy' option for both these crops. For instance, at a 15 % discount rate, the NPW of drip investment for banana is about Rs. 247,753/ha without subsidy but Rs. 257,635/ha with subsidy. This means that the subsidy enables farmers to get an additional benefit of Rs. 9,882/ha. It can also be noted that the difference between the NPW under the two scenarios is decreasing along with each increase in the discount rate. The difference in NPW for the two scenarios which is Rs. 10,325 for banana and Rs. 11,471 for grapes at a 10 % discount rate declines to Rs. 9,882 and Rs. 10,979 for Banana and Grapes, respectively at a 15 % discount rate. This differential behavior of NPW across discount rates for the two crops is attributable to the observed differences in cash flows and cultivation practices and the assumed difference in drip set life span for the two crops. As can be seen from Table 11, the BCR without subsidy for banana is about 2.253 at a 10 % discount rate, and the BCR slides down to 2.228 at a 15 % discount rate. For grapes, in contrast, the BCR declines only marginally as the rate of discount increases. Although the same pattern of decline in BCR is observed across the discount rates even under the alternative scenario of cash flows with subsidy, the BCR is higher with subsidy than otherwise. This suggests the positive role that subsidy plays in improving the economic viability of DMI for our sample crops irrespective of the time preference of the farmers.An important policy issue in the context of DMI adoption is the number of years needed to recover fully the capital costs involved in drip installation. The year-wise computation of NPW for sugarcane, banana and grapes clearly shows that farmers can recover the entire capital cost of the drip set from their net profit in the very first year itself. This finding contradicts with the general belief that the capital cost recovery for drip investment takes more time. More importantly, when farmers can recover the capital costs within a year, the role of the discount rate as a device to capture the time preference of farmers seems to be of considerably lesser importance than one might think. However, in order to have more definite answers to the economic and social viability of DMI, we need a social rather than the private cost-benefit evaluation that is being attempted here. A comprehensive evaluation can be done by incorporating both social benefits such as water saving, additional irrigation, lower soil degradation and retention of soil fertility, as well as the social costs in terms of the negative food and fodder in the crop pattern shift and labor displacement. On the whole, the BCR under different discount rates indicates that drip investment in three crops considered for detailed analysis remains economically viable even without subsidy.The study clearly demonstrates that micro-irrigation has many advantages over the method of flood irrigation that is followed predominantly in India. The drip method of irrigation reduces cost of cultivation, weed problems, soil erosion and increases water use efficiency as well as electricity use efficiency, in addition to being a useful devise in reducing the over-exploitation of groundwater. However, despite providing substantial amount of subsidy, the spread and coverage of drip irrigation in India is not very encouraging today due to various reasons. There is a feeling among some quarters of policymakers and researchers that the adoption of the drip method of irrigation cannot be increased without providing a subsidy because of its capitalintensive nature. It is true that drip irrigation is a capital-intensive technology, but it does not mean that its adoption cannot be increased without a subsidy.Subsidy can be a necessary condition for encouraging the adoption of drip method of irrigation but cannot be a sufficient condition for sustaining the growth of it, as many other factors determine the growth of drip irrigation adoption. Studies carried out using field level data covering three important crops clearly show that the investment in drip irrigation is economically viable even without the government subsidy. The estimated benefit-cost (BC) ratio varies from 1.73 to 2.23 among the three crops under 'no-subsidy' scenario. Even though subsidy is not needed to enhance the economic viability of the drip system, it is still needed to enhance the incentive for the widespread adoption of DMI, particularly among the resourcepoor farmers (marginal and small categories). Subsidy can be phased out eventually once the new irrigation technology covered an adequate enough area to expand subsequently through the demonstration effect. The most important task standing before the policymakers is to find out ways and means to convince farmers about the economic and social feasibility of drip method of irrigation. Since it involves a relatively higher amount of investment, farmers often ask questions such as: What will be the payback period? Whether investment will be viable? How much will be the water saving? What will be the productivity gains? It appears that these questions arise mainly because of poor awareness about the social and economic advantages of drip technology. Therefore, efforts are needed to convince the farmers through the quality extension network. Many policy initiatives are needed to expand DMI in India, specifically, the following are critical.First, by recognizing drip industry as an infrastructure industry as well as announcing a tax holiday for specific time periods to all those drip set industries, which produce genuine drip materials. Finally, the competition can be increased to bring down the cost of the system. The economic and environment viability of the low cost drip irrigation system being introduced by some companies should also be evaluated using farm-level data.Second, the present subsidy scheme, which provides a uniform rate of subsidy for all crops, needs to be restructured taking into account the water consumption of the crops and level of groundwater exploitation of the region. A higher subsidy should be given for waterintensive crops, including sugarcane. Also areas with overexploitation of groundwater (dark areas) and water scarcity should be given a higher subsidy than water-abundant areas.Third, for a speedy growth of drip irrigation, an interlinked special package scheme can be introduced. In such a scheme, priority must be given to providing bank loans for digging wells and electricity connection (pump-set) for those farmers who are ready to adopt the drip method of irrigation for cultivating any crop.Fourth, sugar industries should play a proactive role in increasing the adoption of drip irrigation in sugarcane, using their close contract system with the cultivators. In spite of the fact that sugarcane consumes the bulk of the irrigation water in different states, 16 serious efforts are not taken to bring the sugarcane under the drip method of irrigation. Some target must be fixed for each sugar industry to bring the cultivation of sugarcane under the drip method of irrigation within a specific period.Fifth, inadequate information about the operation, maintenance as well as usefulness of drip irrigation is one of the main reasons for its uneven spread across regions in India. Even the adopters do not know fully how much of subsidy is available per hectare for different crops. Owing to poor exposure, farmers are reluctant to invest such relatively large amounts of money on drip irrigation. In fact, many farmers do not know the fact that drip irrigation can also be used efficiently and economically for crops like sugarcane, cotton, vegetables, etc. The extension network, which is currently operated mainly by government agencies, does not seem to be making any significant impact on the adoption of this technology. Therefore, there is a need to revamp the extension network to drip set manufacturers (public and private partnership) in order to improve the quality of the extension service.Sixth, groundwater is the only source of water being used for drip method of irrigation in India. Since water use efficiency under surface sources (canal, etc.) is very low owing to heavy losses through conveyance and distribution, farmers should be encouraged to use water from surface sources for the drip method of irrigation. This can be done by allocating certain proportion of water from each irrigation projects exclusively for the use of micro-irrigation.Seventh, one of the important reasons for the low spread of this technology even in the water-scarce area is the availability of highly subsidized canal water as well as electricity for irrigation pump-sets. Appropriate pricing policies on these two inputs may encourage the farmers to adopt this technology.Eighth, though drip irrigation has been in use in different states since the mid-80s, no agency has a clear idea about the potential of micro-irrigation in each state. Therefore, it is essential to prepare a state-wise and crop-wise potential area for DMI. A detailed estimate on the state-wise potential would be useful to fix the target to be achieved and also formulate schemes for the promotion of the drip method of irrigation.Finally, state-sponsored schemes are not formulated in most of the states except in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. All other states have been operating schemes mainly with the support of the central government (known as centrally-sponsored schemes), which started in 1990-91. Considering the water scarcity, it is essential to have separate state-sponsored schemes in each state to promote micro-irrigation by following the experience of Maharashtra State.With regards to future research, more and more research studies need to be carried out pertaining to its economics and adoption using field survey data to strengthen the policy decision and provide feed-back about the issues pertaining to the drip method of irrigation to policymakers. The research findings available at present on drip irrigation are not adequate enough to provide answers to questions such as: Who are the adopters of drip method of irrigation? What are the characteristics of the adopters? Can small and marginal farmers adopt drip irrigation without subsidy? What are the problems of the present subsidy scheme and how to revamp the same? Why do farmers not adopt drip irrigation for cultivating crops like pulses, oilseeds and other similar crops? What is the economic and environmental impact of DMI? Can DMI be used to solve the problem of overexploitation of groundwater? What is the economic viability of different crops cultivated presently under DMI? Unless adequate answers are made available to these questions, we may not be able to make judicious policy decisions to expand the adoption of this water saving technology at a fast rate.This paper examines the potential, problems and prospects of introducing a water rights system as an option for managing irrigation demand. The paper is divided into six broad sections. Section 1 introduces the concept of a water rights system as an option for managing irrigation demand. Different conceptual perspectives on water rights are briefly reviewed and their implications for the introduction of a water rights system are examined. Section two describes various forms of water rights that have existed in different parts of India with some illustrations. Section three examines the rationale for the introduction of a property rights structure, in surface irrigation and as well as groundwater irrigation that has formed the basis of proposals for the introduction of a property rights structure. In addition, the public trust doctrine is also briefly reviewed. Section four reviews the international experience with the introduction of a property rights structure and its efficacy as a tool for demand management. Section five provides a review of the conditions-hydrological, technological as well as institutional-which are needed for the introduction of a water rights system and its smooth functioning. In the light of these conditions, section six examines the specific contexts in which the introduction of such a system might be feasible in the Indian context as a tool for demand management, and concludes with a summary of the main messages of the paper.Three distinct approaches that have influenced the analysis of water rights can be discerned. These approaches, which have specific bearing on how we approach the subject of a water rights structure from an analytic as well as public policy perspective, are the new institutional economics approach, legal pluralism perspectives, and the socio-technical approach.In the New Institutional Economics, institutions are defined as rules of the game that structure human interaction (North 1990); they could be formal as well as informal. Institutions include law, property rights, social relationships, values and belief systems. They are distinguished from organizations -that are defined as bodies of individuals with a specified common objective. For example, organizations could be political organizations (political parties, governments, ministries), economic organizations (federations of industry), social organizations (NGOs and self-help groups) or religious organizations (church and religious trusts)- (North 1990;1986;2006).Institutions such as property rights are seen as a way of structuring human interaction of a repeated nature. They are seen as a way of reducing transaction costs inherent in human exchange. Transaction costs are the costs of dealing with the market -the costs of information, contracting and enforcement. By providing a structure and predictability to human interaction, institutions reduce the inherent transaction costs. Some economies are understood to perform better than others because they have property rights structures and legal systems that are efficient and, as such, keep transaction costs low (North 2005;2006).When this understanding of institutions and property rights is applied in the context of natural resources such as water, the reference is to conventions and practices that structure human interaction with such resources. Agarwal (1999) defines institutions as sets of formal and informal rules and norms that shape the interaction of humans with each other and with nature (without them social interaction would not be possible). Institutional arrangements could thus be defined as rules and conventions, which establish people's relationships to resources such as water, translating interests into claims and claims into property rights. More specifically, water institutions can be defined as rules that together describe action situations, delineate action sets, provide incentives and determine outcomes both in individual and collective decisions related to water development, allocation, use and management (Saleth and Dinar 2005). 1  From a New Institutional Economics Perspective, thus, property rights in water are seen as an institution that serve as a source of incentives for individual and group behavior governing water use. They serve as a mechanism for avoiding externalities in the use of water and averting what is popularly called the tragedy of the commons (Hardin 1968). They generate incentives for efficient resource use and for avoiding depletion and overexploitation. Thus, they are seen as a means of addressing what is called the 'incentive gap' in Indian irrigation (Saleth 1996;2005).A fourfold classification of property rights is generally understood as: i) distinguishing state property; ii) common property; iii) private property; and iv) open access. Sweeping statements regarding the property rights status of water, however, though often made, are best avoided, as it is the specific context of water use that defines the property rights regime; the property rights regime may change as water flows from one point to another. For instance, in India, water in a river, large dam or reservoir is State Property, by virtue of the Easement Act of 1882. However, when it flows past an outlet on a watercourse serving a group of farmers it is accepted that those farmers have a defined right to use it and, as such, it becomes their common property. But, when it reaches the fields of individual farmers and given the way the farmer's access is defined, it acquires the status of a private property.As against new institutionalist perspectives, legal anthropological approaches view property rights from a perspective of how different sources of property rights co-exist at the same time or confront the same user, as well as the relationship among them. In legal anthropological approaches, property rights are approached from a perspective of legal pluralism. Benda Beckmann F von (1988) reserves the concept of legal pluralism to denote the \"duplicate nature of institutions, rules, and processes, as also the relationship between different normative systems.\" Legal pluralism is an umbrella concept indicating the condition that more than one legal system or institution co-exists with respect to the same set of activities (Benda Beckmann F von 1999). For instance, statutory law may co-exist along with customary law and socially accepted conventions and practices. 2  Several points merit attention when we approach water rights from a perspective of legal pluralism. First, the premise of legal pluralism shifts focus from the legal or property rights system to the individual. Thus, the focus is not the legal system or property rights system per se, but the individual, who is confronted with different legal or normative systems pertaining to the use of water. Second, a legal pluralistic premise requires the recognition of different bases of legitimacy. State law and property rights emanating from the state have their legitimacy in the state; customary law, conventions and practices, have their legitimacy in a system of social sanction. Essentially, a perspective of legal pluralism sensitizes us to the fact that there may be more than one source of water rights. 3 Customary rights are often found to co-exist along with rights sanctioned by the state. This can, and has often been, a cause of conflict over water. Furthermore, legal pluralism helps us question the premise that no property rights exist. A situation where there are no state sanctioned rights could be interpreted to be a situation of 'no property rights existing', when in practice, there may be a system of rights and mutually constitutive obligations devised and followed by the community, as often observed in community-based systems of irrigation management. 4 Finally, legal pluralism can be applied to a gendered analysis of property rights, in how men's and women's access to water may be socially differentiated.While new institutionalist perspectives emphasize the need for creating a property rights structure in order to correct the incentive structure facing water users, legal pluralistic perspectives sensitize us to the fact that more than one set of property rights might co-exist. Therefore, any effort at creating a new property rights structure must be cognizant of how it will articulate pre-existing notions of property rights. In this context, there is a need to distinguish between water allocation and distribution, or between concretized rights and materialization of rights. Statutory rights may be granted by the state. However, individuals may mobilize social relationships in order to make these rights more effective. Water rights may be defined by state 2 Three major ideas run in the writings on legal pluralism. First, there is a questioning of legal centrism, namely, that all legal ordering is rooted in state law (Merry 1988;Griffiths 1986;Spiertz and Wiber 1996). Furthermore, what is considered to be a legal system is hardly a system because it is not coherent or complete (Spiertz and Wiber 1996). The second idea, which is related to the first, is that of the coexistence of several normative orders. An individual finds himself at the converging point of multiple regulatory orders (Vanderlinden 1989). There is an interplay of plural normative frameworks in society; rules, law and institutional frameworks are independent social resources that actors mobilize to accomplish their ends (Spiertz and de Jong 1992). Third, there is recognition that legal pluralism is all pervasive (Merry 1988;Griffiths 1986). Legal pluralism is present in all societies; the difference being only a matter of degree. 3 A good synthesis of cases analyzing water rights from this perspective is provided in Bruns and Meinzen-Dick (2000). 4 Specific instance of water rights systems in community-managed irrigation systems in India are presented later in this paper.law, but realized through another normative system, based on social relationships. This has been observed, for instance, in the warabandi system of irrigation prevalent in the Northwest Indian state of Haryana (Narain 2003), as also revealed by similar studies in Pakistan (Merry 1986a and b;Meinzen-Dick 2000).A useful distinction is provided in this context by Molle (2004), who distinguishes between rights by prescription and rights by negotiation. The definition of water rights by prescription is an approach whereby the state defines the priorities to be given to different uses, while users are considered the recipients of the formalization process. These rights may be permanent, or granted for a number of years; they may be conditional upon productive use or be inalienable. Another alternative is to conceive water rights from the bottom-end users. Because many local, formal or informal rights pre-exist, it would be more apt to construct rights gradually, through step by step negotiation between those parties concerned with the management and use of water. It is important to bear in mind that water rights are not static entities, but are in a constant state of flux. There are several contexts in which water rights are negotiated and renegotiated, and water users deploy a wide range of strategies to extend their water rights or make them more effective. These include political pressure, persuasion, petitions and written applications (see Box 1.) They also include tampering with outlets such as breaking outlet locks and gates (Mollinga 1998).The members of the Sitapur Village exercise different forms of power to justify their claim over water. This includes going up the minor head, and making appeals to political and administrative authority. On April 16, 2000, when I arrived in the Sitapur Village, I learnt that a group of village folks had gone up the minor to ask the beldaar to release more water. The water supply at the tail of the minor was only 1 foot, way below the authorized discharge. There was an acute scarcity of water and the farmers complained that their johads (village ponds) were dry and the livestock was dying. I learnt that at that point of time, farmers had inserted siphons at four places along the minor. This had disrupted the supply of water to the village. There was some negotiation with the 'Regulation Beldaa'r who relented to remove one more kadhi; this released enough water to fill one johad.The farmers in the Sitapur Village also turn to different levels of administrative and political authority to justify their claim over water, though, with little sustained corrective response. They have written and sent petitions to the SDO, XEN and JE (position holders in the Irrigation Department). They have also made representations to the present and previous chief ministers of the state. In September 2000, the Chief Minister of Haryana, O P Chautala, was passing by the village on one of his 'sarkaar aap ke dwaar' (government at your door-step) program tours. A large group of farmers assembled along the minor to stop his fleet of cars and to draw their attention. The usual response of the farmers to how effective this strategy is thus: \"for some days, water flows as per the desired standard, then it is back to normal.\" Source: Narain (2003) The socio-technical approach to irrigation developed at the Wageningen University, in the Netherlands (Kloezen and Mollinga 1992). This approach essentially sees water management and distribution practices as socio-technical constructs and phenomena, shaped by the interface of technology and institutions. There are three premises that support this theory -that technology has social requirements for use; technology is socially constructed; and that technology has social effects. This approach has been applied to, among other subjects, situations of irrigation management transfer (Narain 2003;Khanal 2003); analysis of marketoriented reforms in irrigation (Kloezen 2002); the social construction of tank irrigation technologies (Shah 2003); and of canal irrigation technology (Mollinga 1998).When viewed from this perspective, water rights are seen essentially as a certain configuration of technology or the design of canal irrigation and concomitant social infrastructure and relationships. The relevance of socio-technical perspectives on water rights is that they sensitize us to the fact that water rights do not exist in isolation, but instead are embedded in technology and social relationships. For instance, water rights in the warabandi irrigation system of Northwest India, defined in terms of the time for taking water, are the result of a certain technology for water distribution that seeks to ration out scarce water supplies among a large number of farmers in proportion to the size of their landholding (Malhotra 1998;Narain 2003;Narain, forthcoming). Once a water right is defined in this sense in terms of a time for taking water as laid out in the warabandi schedule, farmers deviate from it by exchanging turns, on the basis of informal relationships (see Box 2).Box 2. Visit to Kishan's Fields While I was sipping my tea at the dhaaba (road-side eating joint), a man called Kishan introduced himself. He had 5 kilas (acres) of his own land and had taken 16 kilas of land on contract. We then reached his fields at about 10.45 a.m and started walking towards the point where his field channel took off. His awsara (turn for taking water) started at 10.50 a.m. When we reached the head of his field channel, he showed water flowing to his neighbor's fields. A small embankment of mud lay across the head of his field channel. All he had to do was to break that embankment and insert that mud over the head of his neighbor's field channel so that water would start flowing to his fields instead. They conversed with each other and I started inspecting his fields. Kishan said then that we should go back. I was surprised, I looked at my watch and said \"but your awsara (turn for taking water) has started. It is past 10.50. I have come to see you irrigate.\" \"No,\" he said, pointing to his neighbor, \"he is taking my share of 50 minutes today.\" At this point in time, his neighbor intervened, \"next time, I will give him my 50 minutes. Then, he will have a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes to irrigate.\" I was quite impressed. The entire transaction had taken place in front of my eyes with great felicity and smoothness and I was amazed at how little effort was involved in it.Source: Narain (2003).This could be contrasted with water rights in the shejpali system of western India, where farmers apply for irrigation water in each cropping season, and these applications are granted by the irrigation department based on the availability of water stored in the reservoirs. 5  Water rights in these systems take the form of irrigation passes that are sanctioned by the Irrigation Department in response to applications for water received and the availability of water stored in the reservoir. Thus, water rights in the warabandi and shejpali systems take a different form in response to the differing types of irrigation systems, namely the design and characteristics of the irrigation infrastructure, and the concomitant institutional framework for water delivery.The relevance of these approaches to the analyses of public policy interventions for creating a water rights structure needs to be appreciated. While new institutionalist perspectives that have dominated the current thinking on water rights in India emphasize the creation of a water rights structure to ameliorate the incentive structure facing water users, and have formed the basis of much of the policy prescription in favor of instituting a water rights structure through public policy intervention, socio-technical and legal pluralistic perspectives urge us to be cognizant of existing notions of water rights as embedded in technology and social relationships. Proposals for water rights reform and market creation need to take into account existing notions of property rights, rather than start from a premise that no property rights exist, or that they are ill-defined or insecure. Any new system of water rights that is imposed will articulate with existing systems and notions of water rights. It is important to be conscious of how this articulation would take place, and what its effects would be.The second significance of this analysis is that it may be in the long run, futile, and perhaps inappropriate to think of 'a' property rights structure for India; instead, it is more appropriate to think of differentiated property rights suited to different technological, social and hydrogeological conditions. Besides, given that property rights are not static entities, but constantly in flux, being negotiated and renegotiated, and that there is a discrepancy between the concretization (or definition) of water rights and their materialization (or realization), it questions the efficacy and potency of a property rights structure as a tool for accomplishing specific public policy goals, such as the management of irrigation demand.Water rights systems of various kinds are known to have existed in India for a long period of time under various kinds of community-based and state-managed irrigation systems. These systems have emerged in response to different local, social and hydrogeological conditions, and have existed, in some cases, for centuries. It is important to note that in these systems, water rights are defined differently; this may be in terms of a time for taking water, on the basis of crop water requirements, or family size. Some of them have had an in-built element of flexibility to respond to seasonal variations in water supply, even as crop-water requirements are known to have been the basis for the determination of the water right. A case in point is the phad system, which is known to have existed in western Maharashtra for several centuries (Box 3). In other systems, water rights have been defined in terms of the time for taking water, in proportion to the size of landholdings, as seen in the warabandi system of irrigation prevalent in Northwest India (Box 4), and also referred to earlier in this paper.The community-managed 'Phad Irrigation System', prevalent in northwestern Maharashtra, came into existence some 300-400 years ago. The system operates on three rivers in the Tapi Basin, Panjhra, Mosam and Aram -in Dhule and Nashik districts. A series of bandharas were built in these rivers to divert the water for agricultural use. Variations in the supply of water are managed annually by demarcating the command into two categories. Assured irrigation is so limited that in most years it can be irrigated without much difficulty. In years of water scarcity, irrigation is done by extending the rotation period in summer, with less strain on the system. Division of the command into phads and planting of only one crop in each phad helps in the management of irrigation application. The water requirements for a phad are the same, and the entire area in a phad'can be treated uniformly for water application. Sharing of water among the phads'can also be varied according to different water requirements for different crops. Thus, a phad with a wheat crop can be allotted a higher share of water (per hectare) than a phad with a sorghum crop. The sequence of irrigation in a phad is from head to tail. At the head, farmers receive irrigation water first, and the water application is relatively high. When the upper farmers irrigate, excess flows reach the lower farms. To ensure adequate supply of water to the tail reaches, a second watering to the farmers at the top is not allowed until all farmers along the canal have received irrigation water.Source: Agarwal and Narain (1997) Box 4. Water Rights in the Warabandi System of Northwest India Warabandi, prevalent in Northwest India and Pakistan, is a system of water distribution that is designed so that every farmer is entitled to receive a pre-determined share of water in proportion to the size of his landholding. 'Wara' means turn and 'bandi' means fixation. Thus, warabandi means fixation of turns. It implies a rotational method of water distribution. The cardinal principle underlying the warabandi system of irrigation management is that the available water, whatever its quantum, is intended to be allocated to cultivators in equal proportion to their Culturable Command Area (CCA), and not to meet their total demand. This imposes water scarcity conditions in the command area. The theory of the warabandi arrangement is that each cultivator is assigned a turn, represented by the specific period of time--a time share--and the volume of water available during that slice of time is his to use. This time share becomes a property right legitimized by the state through the creation of a formal and legal warabandi roster for the delivery channel in question. The warabandi share, as a property right, then serves to organize the social relations of irrigation among the cultivators and between them and the irrigation agency.Sources : Coward 1986;Malhotra 1998;Narain 2003 An alternative basis of allocating water rights has been on the basis of the size of the family, as seen in the Pani Panchayats of western India. An important feature of this experiment was the separation of rights in water from rights in land; the agreed principle was that water sharing would be on the basis of the number of members in each family. Each member would be entitled to half an acre of irrigation with an upper ceiling of two and a half acres for a household. The water rights would not be attached to land. The Pani Panchayats have existed outside a statutory organizational set-up, based on locally evolved norms and regulations regarding water use. Thus, they are essentially self-governing institutions formed to govern water management based on mutually agreed norms. They have existed for sharing water mainly among small and medium farmers belonging to a single caste. Thus, they have been characterized by an element of social and economic homogeneity among their members.The failure of the Pani Panchayats to define a family or household resulted in making the water distribution rule more favorable to farmers with large families (Keremane et al. 2006). There has been only scant evidence of any landless receiving water since the formation of the first Pani Panchayat in 1979, demonstrating the impracticability of the principle of separating rights in water from rights in landholdings. Furthermore, these Pani Panchayats have been on the decline on account of several factors such as the existence of internal disputes among members, absence of explicit conflict resolution mechanisms and the policies and the lack of support from the government. 6 It is possible to locate many other systems of water rights in India. 7 The existence of such systems is often used as a basis for evidence in favor of introducing and institutionalizing a property rights structure, on grounds that a water rights structure is compatible with the Indian ethos. However, it is important to bear in mind that they emerge in response to specific local social, hydrogeological and technological conditions and, as such, make much more a case for the existence of varying property rights regimes rather than 'a' property rights structure. Furthermore, the reason that they have existed is their compatibility with local conditions, and that does not in itself provide evidence that a property rights structure created through top-down, public policy intervention will meet with the same success and acceptability.Why is a property rights structure needed? The basic underlying rationale for the establishment of water rights, from a policy perspective, is that a clear definition of who is entitled to use a certain amount of water, with the specification on when and where this is possible, will reduce uncertainty and conflicts (Molle 2004). A water constraint experienced by individual users will compel them to use water more efficiently. And this practice will have a significant impetus when they have the option of an economic exchange for the water thus saved (Saleth 2005). In the Indian context, current debates on water rights in the context of groundwater revolve around addressing the incentive problem associated with overexploitation, the functioning and regulation of water markets and addressing equity issues, both at the intra-generational as well as inter-generational level. In surface water, too, rights in water have been tied to rights in landholdings, and the need to separate the two has been considered necessary from an equity perspective.Though India does not have at present any explicit legal framework specifying water rights, various 'Acts' in existence have the basis of defining such rights (Saleth 2005). Early British legislations did recognize customary water rights of individuals. However, with the Easement Act of 1882 and the Madhya Pradesh Irrigation Act of 1931, the state's absolute rights over all rivers and lakes were firmly established. In surface irrigation, the case for a property rights structure as a tool for demand management has been linked closely to a case for market creation (Narain 2003). The premise is inspired by fundamental neo-classical economics: well-defined, secure property rights in water will, through an invisible hand, lead to a situation where water is allocated to the highest valued uses, and a price will emerge that is a market clearing equilibrium price. Furthermore, this price, when constituted through the interface of the forces of demand and supply, will convey the scarcity value of water (Rosegrant and Binswanger 1994;Meinzen-Dick and Mendoza 1996;Anderson and Snyder 1997). This, in turn, could serve as a potent tool for curtailing demand.It is argued that excessive resource depletion and environmental degradation are the result of misleading price signals, which result from the absence of markets and secure property rights in resources and environmental assets. Establishment of secure property rights should lead to the emergence of markets and scarcity prices for the resource in question. With exclusive and secure property rights, resource depletion would be internalized (Panayotou 1994). Once the water rights systems are set up, water markets in water-scarce areas will establish the market value of water, which is also a reflection of the opportunity cost of water (Kemper and Olson 2000).Second, secure property rights are advocated on grounds that they could empower users (Rosegrant and Binswanger 1994). Security of tenure could lead to long-term investments in water saving, cause users to consider the opportunity costs of water and to use it efficiently, and gain additional income from the sale of water and internalize externalities. It would be more responsive to changes in water values as demand patterns and comparative advantage change. Third, it is argued that when water can be made available to meet demand through water markets, it reduces the need for constructing costly supply-oriented infrastructure and leads to a more rational and economically viable allocation of water resources (Kemper and Olson 2000). Markets can allow rapid changes in allocation in response to changing demands for water and can stimulate investment and employment as investors are assured access to secure supplies of water (Thobani 1997).Another reason that the subject of water rights in surface irrigation has acquired some prominence in recent years is in the context of debates on irrigation management transfer. Water rights have been identified as a subject that has been overlooked in the design and implementation of programs for irrigation management transfer (Mollinga 2001). On the other hand, water right is a subject that such programs need to explicitly address. A pertinent issue is: why would farmers come together to form a water users' association unless they see a perceptible difference in how water rights are defined (Narain 2000;2003)? Does the formation of water users' associations strengthen farmers' claim over and access to water, or does it maintain the status quo?The case for a property rights structure has been a prominent subject in debates in the realm of groundwater governance and policy for over two decades. Such authors as Shah and Raju (1988) have referred to the need for a well-defined rights structure in the interest of equity among users. Dhawan (1975) has argued for such a structure in the interest of sustainability. Similarly, Moench (1994) has argued for a similar system for the successful functioning of water markets and water user groups. A property rights structure has been seen as a viable alternative to other policy interventions for groundwater management, which have been unsuccessful in their impacts (Narain 1998(Narain , 2000;;Kumar 2000;Saleth 1996Saleth , 2005)). These measures have included licensing and credit or electricity restrictions for the construction of wells or spacing norms (Shah 1993). None of these measures have had a significant impact.There has been a tendency to scuttle licenses issued by the state's groundwater departments for electricity connections by the rich and influential farmers. In the event of credit restrictions, the well-off farmers are known to have resorted to informal sources of credit or to even self-finance their structures. Similarly, when the water table is high enough, in the face of electricity restrictions, the affluent farmers have been known to get away with diesel connections. Besides, these measures have sought to regulate only the establishment of groundwater structures, rather than the quantum of water extracted. The policy and institutional framework for groundwater, then, has been considered not only peripheral to the sector but also regressive in its impact, favoring the pre-emption of the resource by the rural elite.There are no de jure rights in groundwater; but de facto, all land-owners have the right to groundwater underlying their land. The Easement Act (1882) allows private usufructuary rights in groundwater by viewing it as an easement inseparably connected to land. The Transfer of Property Act 1882 provides that easements (in this case groundwater) can be given to one only if the dominant heritage (in this case land) is also transferred. Conversely, the Land Acquisition Act asserts that if some one is interested in getting rights over the groundwater, he would have to be interested in the land. Thus, groundwater is viewed essentially as a chattel attached to land. There exists, at the same time, no limit to how much water a landowner may draw, in contrast to a legal structure that specifies property rights setting absolute limits to collective and individual withdrawals. Once again, the legal framework is conducive neither to equity nor to sustainability.Post-colonial efforts at legislation have been made through the Model Groundwater Bills of 1970 and 1992. The central focus of these bills has been in the creation of a groundwater authority comprising essentially representatives of the government and the technocracy for giving clearances for the installation of water extraction structures (Narain 1998(Narain , 2000;;Kumar 2004). However, once again, they seek only to regulate the creation of water extraction mechanisms, rather than the quantum of water withdrawn. Besides, there has been opposition to the bills on the grounds that like the past record with the system of licensing, they would tend to breed corruption and inequity. It is also felt that such an approach ignores the possibility of successes through localized, participative approaches and adopts a simplistic, centralized approach that fails to consider the wide array of management options suited to diverse sociological as well as hydrogeological contexts (Narain 1998;Kumar 2004). While some states have made certain efforts to tinker with and to implement this legislation, it is felt that even if they would succeed, there would be no significant impact on promoting either sustainability or equity. In 1996, the Supreme Court of India declared the Central Groundwater Board as India's authority that would take custody of her groundwater resource and arrest overexploitation of the resource. After as much as a decade, Shah (2008) notes the inability of the body to register, let alone regulate, the over 350,000 domestic wells scattered even through the capital city.More recently, the subject of the need for a property rights structure in groundwater has acquired significance in the context of localized struggles for water rights and more so in rights to development. The pre-emption of scarce groundwater supplies for industrial use, such as for manufacturing beverages brought popular attention to the subject of use and ownership rights over water (Drew 2008). This has taken the form of public vs. private ownership of groundwater, as in the case of Plachimada, in Kerala, wherein the Perumatty Panchayat chose to support the tribal women who were conducting an infinite sit-in to stop the loss of an estimated 1.5 million liters of water a day. After filing a Public Interest Litigation in the Kerala High Court, the Kerala Chief Minister ordered the closure of the plant on February 17, 2004. The Perumatty Panchayat has continued to withhold permission of the company to resume operations (Ranjith 2004). Another context in which the subject of a property rights structure for groundwater will assume significance now is in terms of growing rural-urban conflicts over water. With the advent of urbanization, as water is diverted to urban uses, rural water supplies for agriculture will come increasingly under threat; conflicts and social and political unrest will intensify in the absence of well-defined rights to groundwater use.Given the failure of past efforts to regulate groundwater withdrawals through a wide range of legislative and regulatory measures, and with growing struggles and pressures over groundwater use, a property rights structure has been seen as a viable alternative, for addressing equity, efficiency and sustainability concerns in groundwater use (Saleth 1996). Saleth (1996) advocates a water rights structure specifying individual and collective limits to water withdrawals under which water resources would be held by the state under the 'public trust doctrine'. Under such a structure, the state is seen as a trustee of the country's water resources under a premise of stewardship; equity can then be achieved at the stage of distributing individual and collective water rights, efficiency can be enhanced by permitting the exchange of water rights, and sustainability can be ensured by limiting overall water withdrawals by specifying absolute limits, collectively as well as individually. Under the public trust doctrine, the overall water allocation, regulation, and management are with the state, and community organizations under the influence of the public trust whereas field level water allocation and use are under private hands and market influence (Saleth 2005). The government at the appropriate level has the responsibility to establish the legal framework for the water rights system including formal mechanisms for conflict resolution at the regional level. According to Saleth (2005), a water rights structure could be a rare policy instrument that accomplishes the three policy goals -sustainability, efficiency and equity, simultaneously and effectively.Several countries have made a move towards market-based allocation of water based on a property rights structure, as against command and control measures in response to varying levels of physical, institutional and financial scarcity (Venkatachalam 2008). However, there seems to be a difference in terms of the factors that have led to the movement towards an adoption of a property rights structure. In developed countries like USA and Australia, water scarcity is known to have lead to its evolution. On the other hand, in developing countries like Chile, Mexico and Morocco, the move towards a property rights structure was part of overall economic reform processes.On the whole, the experience of countries such as Australia, Chile, and the western parts of the US suggests that once the Water Rights System is established, economic incentives emerge for the development of more robust but less costly water measurement technologies (Saleth 2005). The experience with these countries also suggests that once the rights over most of the resources are already claimed, meeting the rights of new entrants is met by reallocating the existing rights mostly through markets or state-managed compensation procedures. As seen in Chile, these rights may not necessarily be ownership rights; they could as well be usufructuary rights.Studies have shown that a move towards a property rights structure does result in increased water use efficiency and productivity and lower transaction costs, even as the outcomes depend on the political set-up, historical factors, institutional and policy aspects (Samad 2005). One critique of the limitation of the functioning of a property-rights based market structure, however, comes from questioning the functioning of property rights and water markets as purely economic phenomena. This is borne out, for instance, by the evidence of market-oriented reform policies in Mexico (Kloezen 2002). Kloezen argues that costrecovery; financial autonomy and water pricing and marketing need to be seen as sociopolitical constructs. The behavior of actors in settings of market creation is not purely guided by conditions of economic rationality, but also shaped by social and political factors. In Chile, while formal water markets are known to have improved the economic efficiency of water use and stimulate investment as demonstrated by Thobanl (1997), Bauer (1997) shows how sales in canal water tended to be limited on account of several geographical, local and cultural factors. In general, the Chilean model of water resource management shows the need for a more institutional and interdisciplinary approach to the economics of water (Bauer 2005).Given a convincing rationale for creating a property rights system as a tool for demand management as well as the existence of water rights systems already in different parts of the country, and some evidence in support of a water rights structure from international experience, what supportive conditions are needed to institute such a system, and do these conditions exist in Indian settings? The issue of defining and enforcing such rights in the context of water with its fluid and fugitive characteristics requires indeed specific technical, organizational and infrastructural conditions (Saleth 2005). Reidinger (1994) argues that three conditions are essential-water rights must be clearly specified and legally enforceable, water supplies should be reliable and delivered on a volumetric basis and there must be some form of water user organization.To begin with, defining quantitative rights requires a very sound knowledge and control of the hydrology of the basin, its water balance and its surface and underground flows (Molle 2004). Data collection and processing must not only be of a high standard but also be made transparent and accessible, so that users may make sense of the share of water that they are able to access. The most immediate technical requirement is to establish a water balance for each appropriately defined hydrogeological unit under use and source-wise disaggregated conditions as well as alternative scenarios. It is believed that meeting this requirement for most areas in India is not difficult, given the availability of information and technical expertise (Saleth 1996;2005). While the establishment of the water rights system is likely to generate new demand for additional and more refined information, the existence of the necessary technical capacities and organizational preconditions can enable most states to meet such information needs. More than a decade ago, Saleth (1996) demonstrated that India indeed had the technical capability, institutional capacity and the adaptability to implement and monitor such a system and that the technical and institutional capacity would only further improve in the years to come.Enforcement of a property rights structure, monitoring and conflict resolution at the basin and local levels further require decentralized arrangements such as basin organization, local governments, community organizations and user-based arrangements. In India, there is evidence of local community-based institutions' involvement in allocating and managing water, as seen above. More promise on this is provided by recent efforts directed at management decentralization through water user associations. However, the validity of several of the other conditions that are necessary for the functioning of a property rights structure and the consequent emergence of water markets, as a potential tool for managing irrigation demand, has been widely challenged (Young 1986;Bolding, Mollinga and Straaten 1995;Moore 1989;Narain 2008). It is argued that water markets of the kind envisioned by neo-liberal enthusiasts based on a property rights structure would not emerge in Indian canal irrigation. Several factors are known to restrict trade in water. These inhibiting supply characteristics include mobility, economies of large size, uncertainty and variations in supply and availability of alternative sources of supply. Other factors include high costs of storage and conveyance and high transaction costs relative to likely gains from potential exchange. 8Important constraints emerge from the wide variations in the availability of the water supply in Indian irrigation systems. The definition of entitlements and allotments implies that the corresponding amount of water can be delivered during a specified period (Molle 2004). Depending upon the size of the basin and the degree of technical control on flows, this assumption may be too optimistic. Uncontrolled water pumping or diversion may affect flows; conveyance and control structures may be manual and rudimentary; low water levels and low heads in dams or canals may not allow managers to ensure planned discharges; rainfall and side flows permanently alter the effective flow at different points in the system; and conjunctive use of water blurs assessment of demand and contributes to the deregulating of cropping calendars by allowing farmers to be more flexible.Under conditions of protective irrigation in India, where water is 'scarce by design', the possibilities of water markets emerging are very limited (Narain 2003;Narain 2008). 9 In fieldwork in the warabandi system of irrigation in North-West India, for instance, it was found that while there were some sales of canal water among users, they were confined geographically, and were on a very small scale. The basis of a water sale is a surplus; a farmer would choose to sell his water right only after he had met his own requirements. When a farmer's water right is inadequate relative to his requirement, as is the case here, there is no saleable surplus. Thus, the basis for the sale of a water right is limited. Where groundwater supplies are inadequate and/or of an inferior quality, as quite often they are, dependence on canal irrigation shall continue to be high. Thus, while theoretically the argument in favor of property rights reform and market creation may sound neat and appealing, this argument acquires a new dimension when placed in the context of the design characteristics of canal irrigation.Apart from economic values, communities associate a certain sense of security and control with water over and above its direct economic significance, which may cause the emergence of a market to be 'sluggish'. Farmers have been found to have a psychological resistance to selling their water share (Narain 2003). It is something that is just 'not done'. Narain found that when a farmer did not need his water share, he chose to lend it instead of selling it. This is because lending his water share created a basis for a future claim, since the borrower was obliged to return it.The presence of many small farmers and political risks in creating the legal and organizational apparatus and conceptual or information problems in defining water rights in physical and legal terms constitute major challenges in moving to a property rights structure in water (Saleth 2005). Perhaps the most important constraint in this context is likely to be the high transaction costs of dealing with millions of farmers scattered geographically over large areas (Shah 2008). This is where the Indian conditions are most unique, particularly with regard to groundwater irrigation. Shah notes that India's groundwater economy is characterized by some 20 million small well-owners, scattered over a vast countryside, supplying groundwater irrigation service to another 30-40 million marginal farmers. While the volume of groundwater India diverts every year is only a little over twice what the USA does, the number of independent users are over a 1,000 times the number in the western USA. Defining rights also means that there is a political will and a legal capacity to act against those who disregard them, to control new users and limit corruption (Molle 2004). Poor stakeholders may be unaware of their rights, unfamiliar with administrative or legal processes and have an instinctive (and understandable) reluctance to engage in them.Given that certain conditions are needed for the institutionalization of a property rights structure in water, are these conditions met to the extent that a water rights structure can be successfully instituted? The institutionalization of property rights structure is, in principle, very much possible at the level of user groups in the shejpali system of irrigation prevalent in western India (Gujarat and Maharashtra). The institution of property rights and creation of water markets is technically feasible at the collective or group level, given that it is possible to deliver volumetric supplies of water to farmers and to outlets, for instance on the basis of season-wise quotas; irrigation systems are fitted with volumetric devices such as the V-notch and standing wave flume. Indeed, volumetric water supplies have been tried in several experiments in Maharashtra as part of the programs for IMT (Irrigation Management Transfer). 10 However, given that water rights at an individual level are defined in a strict sense only after the farmers have made applications and these have been sanctioned by the Irrigation Department, it is hard to think of a long-term institutionalization of water markets in these systems at the individual user level.In the warabandi irrigation system that is prevalent in northwest India, (namely, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana), water rights are already defined in terms of the time for taking water, and farmers exchange their time slots to suit their convenience. So, a water rights system is already in place, concomitant and in fit with the physical infrastructure (Narain forthcoming). One critique of this system, however, is that the rights are defined in terms of the time for taking water, rather than the volume, making the system inequitable across head and tail reaches. Thus, the system rations the time for taking water rather than water itself. Any effort at reforming this system from a rights perspective would be motivated more by considerations of equity, rather than those of demand management. Irrigation systems here are fitted with outlets such as the APM (adjustable proportionate module) and the open flume 11 , wherein discharges vary with upstream water flows and, therefore, volumetric-based rights are a technical impossibility. In any case, since water rights are defined in terms of time for taking water, rather than volume, and users exchange their time slots to suit their convenience, it is hard to think of a water rights system as a potent tool for managing irrigation demand in these systems.In South Indian canal irrigation systems, as in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the dominant practice is localization. Localization can be looked at as a rights system, wherein certain plots of cultivated land or farmers have the right to irrigation by virtue of an administrative order. However, that right tends to be rather weak, and not necessarily, actually, experienced as a right by farmers. 12 It is probably better seen as a regulation mechanism for the government, in which respect also it has tended to be weak. 13 Essentially, the 'rights' that localization has established are not enforceable; neither for farmers, nor for the government. Therefore, actual practices take the form of some kind of anarchy at the field level.Given this context, a study on the Tungabhadra Canal (Mollinga 1998) showed that in practice, there was extensive rule-making at all levels. These rules tended to create de facto rights. The process of negotiated rule-making emerged as the core process -that lead to rights, in whatever way they would be defined or understood. While it is true that rights principles were present in such negotiations, but so were location-based advantages, physical force, management styles of bureaucrats and local relations of power. In these conditions, therefore, it is unrealistic to see 'rights' per se as an important factor organizing irrigation practices, or influencing irrigation demand. As regards groundwater, though the arguments in favor of a groundwater structure are quite convincing and several of the technical and institutional conditions are known to exist in the Indian settings, perhaps the most important constraint is likely to be the high transaction costs of dealing with millions of farmers scattered over large areas. Even as rights-based institutions for groundwater governance are known to have successfully existed in the west, the distinguishing characteristic of Indian settings is the large number of scattered users, extracting water over a large geographical area that is likely to make the introduction of a water rights structure problematic.In conclusion, this paper has three main messages to articulate. First, that it is perhaps unrealistic to think of 'a' water rights structure in Indian settings, given the diversity of technological, social and hydrogeological conditions. On the other hand, there is merit in recognizing a differentiated rights structure in alliance with local conditions of the kind described in this paper. Second, a rights structure is likely to play a more important role in organizing access to water, namely, defining who gets water, and how much rather than as a means of managing or curtailing irrigation demand, as a top-down public policy measure. 14 Third, the large number of groundwater users spread over large areas, making monitoring difficult, and the design characteristics of Indian canal irrigation systems as described in this paper are likely to pose significant constraints in introducing a water rights structure as a tool for managing irrigation demand.User Organizations as a Demand Management Option:Potentials, Problems and Prospects M. Venkata Reddy Team Leader, Consulting Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd., BangaloreIn the wake of emerging economic reforms and structural adjustment programs in most parts of the world, the statistic models of development that are followed by the public sector are increasingly subjected to public scrutiny, and for which the irrigation sector is no exception.water is the crucial input for increasing crop intensity and productivity, the demand for it has been increasing year after year. Among the competing demands for water, irrigation accounts for 75 % of the contemporary world's total use of water. At present 40 % of all food production comes from 17 % of agricultural land that is irrigated and irrigation water provides employment for about 2.4 billion people (DFID 1997). Globally, the amount of irrigated agricultural lands has increased almost by 2.4 % in the 1970s, to an additional 1.4 % during the 1980s and the late 1990s. It is projected to increase further by 0.4 % per annum for the next 34 years (FAO 2000). The challenge, then, before the irrigation planners is how to manage this growing demand for irrigation, given the finite physical availability of water in each country.Before we discuss about the suitability of different organizational options necessary for managing irrigation demand, it is better to understand the dynamics that warrant demand management, more importantly in the context of major irrigation projects. Irrigation projects are supposed to have been designed scientifically, based on sound engineering principles, to meet crop water requirements in a given project area, which is called a culturable command area (CCA) in irrigation parlance. The experiences and results distilled from empirical research on a wide range of irrigation systems have shown that the designers and planners laid more emphasis on sound engineering principles for designing and building dams and did not pay necessary attention to the much more important long-term institutional role of water distribution, allocation and management (DAM) aspects. It was, perhaps, perceived that the construction of dams, storing water and releasing it to the fields through a network of canals as end of the problem, taking the timeliness, dependability and equity in sharing water and the consequent flow of benefits are granted with water releases to the field. But in reality that has not taken place.Inequitable distribution of water has almost become an accepted norm, leading to a total alienation of tail-end farmers, which has created scores of social and economic problems (Reddy 1995). Irrigation projects should, therefore, be characterized not as hydraulic systems to be run according to engineering principles, but as socioeconomic systems, where all participants -farmers, managers and politicians -presently maximize their private interest with respect to the cost of social goods and activities (Caruthers 1987). Caste, class and factional ties and antagonisms become relevant in the delivery of any goods and services to the community. It is essential to underscore this point, for irrigation systems tend to be viewed as complete in all respects, as mentioned earlier, when the channels reach the fields. In a very important sense, this only marks the beginning of the problem and not its end (Srinivas 1984).Reforms in the irrigation sector at present should, therefore, be on improving water distribution, allocation and management, which has hitherto been neglected or not given the required attention. Lack of clarity on the roles, rights and responsibilities of all the stakeholders on the one hand and their respective accountabilities on the other, seem to be the root causes for many of the shortcomings and problems in the irrigation sector, more importantly in major irrigation. The successful management of irrigation demand depends upon, among other factors, motivation, commitment, cooperation and mutual understanding of two groups of stakeholders namely, irrigation engineers and farmers. Both groups have developed strong mindsets over time, perceived as appropriate and necessary to optimize the benefits from irrigation. The primary task in the demand management process is, therefore, to transform the mindset of the engineers and farmers, which calls for a thorough understanding of the caste, religion and faction-related dynamics in the community and mobilize them to undertake the task of irrigation management. This is possible only through community-centric approaches, something a local organization or an NGO will be able to do effectively. This is because of the fact that the region needs to integrate the technical, institutional, managerial, social and economic aspects of water resources management. This new approach for sustainable water supply and demand management depends on local involvement, solutions, and knowledge within an overall framework of local planning and operation.The government will have several advantages in promoting local or community involvement from the inception of a reform process. Normally small water bodies like tanks, natural springs and other such systems tend to be widely scattered and their management by the government becomes cost ineffective because of the huge transaction costs involved in the management and supervision of the day to day operations of the systems. Local communities can understand better the rural dynamics that provide information on customary rights and responsibilities in managing seasonal water demands for different crops depending upon the fluctuations in water availability due to the vagaries of the monsoon. The ability and willingness of the local communities to take on the management of the system and distribution of water depends, however, on several factors, such as organizational capacity for system management and resource mobilization, economic and social incentives to sustain participation and well articulated rights, responsibilities, conflict resolution and other related operational norms and procedures to take care of the demand for water, arising out of fluctuations in the supply due to natural factors.How to balance demand and supply of water under constantly emerging and difficult conditions is the major challenge before the water planners and managers across the globe, especially in the less developed countries. The policies, institutions and planning procedures in place at present to manage water are not well suited to ensure efficient and equitable distribution of water between inter-and intra-sectoral demands. This is because irrigation projects are constructed and managed by the government departments, because of their heavy capital requirements and the complicated technical inputs that are required. This governmentdominated approach may be referred to as the supply-oriented management of irrigation systems. Due to a wide range of political economy factors, the government management of irrigation systems has deteriorated leading to several socioeconomic problems in the rural areas. The need for transferring management to user associations has, therefore, gained importance. For development does not start with goods; it starts with people and their education, organization and discipline. Without these, all resources remain as a latent, untapped potential (Schumacher 1975). Farmers who depend on irrigation water for their livelihoods have a strong incentive to manage that water very carefully. The government agency could never match the discipline that farmers impose on themselves when they manage their own system. Under the demand management approach, users through their associations make management decisions for distributing water, maintaining systems and collecting fees, while government plays a supportive role (Groenfeldt 1996).The blue print approaches (top down) followed by the public agencies so far have not yielded the expected results in terms of equity, dependability and productivity of irrigation water. The success stories of community participation, which are few and far between, tend to vanish the moment the agency withdraws the incentives, whereas the participatory systems that have evolved through local initiatives and involvement, can be sustained for generations. This is because these participatory systems are built on local knowledge, wisdom, culture and locally available resources. It is in this context the user and community organizations become effective tools for the efficient management of water for irrigation and also for other purposes. This is due to the fact that the structures are based on strong social engineering principles, quite different from the public agency-centric ill-perceived operational rules.Farmers' participation in irrigation management is not an alien concept in India. Historically, one could trace the trajectories of the evolution of local organizations and initiatives to harvest surface and ground water for irrigation (Reddy 1991). The existence of tank panchayats, spring channels associations (locally called Kaluva Gonchi in Andhra Pradesh), management of tank and canal systems (Kudimarammath in Tamil Nadu), Kuhls in Himachal Pradesh, where a typical community provide Kuhl services to 6 to 30 farmers, irrigating an area of about 20 hectares and diversion weirs (called as Bandharas in Maharashtra) just to mention a few, were all traditional water harvesting systems that were evolved collectively by communities based on local needs. The community was involved right from the design of the project till the completion of the physical infrastructure, and the projects identified clearly articulated roles and responsibilities for different stakeholders, and operational rules and regulations, in order to enforce user rights.There are also informal conflict resolution mechanisms, including social sanctions for non-compliance with the agreed roles of individuals and rules of the association. For instance, the khuls were constructed, operated and maintained by the village community. At the beginning of each irrigation season, the water tender or water man, who operates the system, would organize the irrigators to construct the head wall and repair the khul and make the system operational. The water man plays almost the role of a local engineer. Any farmer refusing to participate in construction and repair activities without a valid reason would be denied water for that season. Subsequently a religious sanction evolved, which was initiated by the community and followed strictly to date without any excuse or favor, irrespective of a person's social and economic status. Such practices are many across the country, called by different names in different states (for details see Sengupta 1991).Similarly, eris (tanks) in Tamil Nadu, were maintained by the local communities. Some historical data available from Chengalpattu District indicates that in the eighteenth century about 4 to 5 % of the gross produce of each village was allocated to maintain eris and other irrigation structures. Some lands, called manyams, were assigned to the village functionaries (Neerugantis or water men) to maintain the tank system and distribute water. This was the practice even in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This can be termed as the era of the farmernature friendly irrigation systems evolution. These systems have been owned, operated and managed by the local institutions effectively and efficiently for generations. Even to this day they are as efficient as they were at the time of starting, maybe even 100 years ago in some cases. With the advent of British rule, and subsequent political economy considerations in the post-independence period, on-farm water problems and reliable supply of water led to enormous expropriations of village resources by the state, which in turn gradually disintegrated the traditional society, its economy and polity.The traditionally evolved participatory culture seems to have been gradually diluted, due to a whole range of natural, social, economic and most importantly political factors, especially during post-colonial or post-independence period. For instance, tank systems, especially in the southern parts of India, which had a long history of community management, the government took over the responsibility of managing such systems after independence. Given the bureaucratic culture, they were unable to provide timely assistance to maintain the tank infrastructure. And as a result, physical infrastructure deteriorated over a period of time, leading to a gradual reduction in storage capacities of tanks and the consequent reduction in the area irrigated under tanks. Furthermore, due to natural factors like reduction in the runoff (due to changes in rainfall pattern), the widespread implementation of watershed programs in tank catchment areas, siltation and weed infestation of feeder channels, and also encroachment by the neighboring farmers, the frequency of water filling and tanks surplus had come down drastically. The tanks, which used to have a surplus every year, are not filling now even once in 5 years, in some cases not once even once in10 years and in some others even longer periods. The shift from more dependable water availability to uncertain and undependability has had a negative impact on farmer's interest in tank management, and had also resulted in the gradual disappearance of the traditionally evolved demand management strategies. The state governments now have realized the importance of and the need for reviving or restoring community management of tank systems and initiated steps to handover tanks to the user groups.The process of reinventing the wheel of community management is in progress in several states, like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and many others. The tank systems are being rehabilitated to the originally designed standards and handed over to the communities, by building the required capacity to operate and manage them on a sustainable basis. The capacity building includes identifying cropping pattern and planning suitable to different levels of water storage in the tanks to ensure effective demand management. The initial indications of this approach are quite encouraging, in spite of some threshold problems and teething troubles.Groundwater development and lift irrigation offer a wide range of opportunities to tap water for irrigation purposes. Traditionally, dug wells were constructed by the farmers, either individually or in groups, depending upon the size of their landholding, and water lifted through animal-drawn water-lifting devices. These practices are widely prevalent in South India and also in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and other states. For instance, an open well with multiple owners called 'Saza Kuva' (Saza means partner and Kuva means open well) is an important source of irrigation in the Aravalli hills in Mewar, eastern Rajasthan. The construction is generally taken up by a group of farmers with adjacent landholdings, and water is shared on the pro-rata basis of the size of the holding. Protection of well and annual repairs and desiltation is taken up collectively by all the partner farmers. Similar practices are found in Andhra Pradesh. Farmers manage the groundwater in the wells by resorting to an appropriate cropping pattern, depending upon the monsoon and the consequent depth of water available in the well. Water is shared on the basis of the landholding. This is allocated in proportion to the land area owned by the farmer with well as the source of irrigation (Reddy 1994).Similarly, spring channel irrigation associations in Andhra Pradesh that flourished once, have now become dysfunctional because of the reduced flow in the channels that is created by frequent droughts in several parts of the state. Some of them are, however, still functional with the same efficiency and effectiveness with which they had been working for more than 100 years. The traditional systems evolved through users' initiatives have stood the test of time and continue to function in diverse forms across the country. Because of natural constraints and limitations however, some of them could not be sustained. Even otherwise, the contribution of farmer-managed irrigation systems per se in the country, to the total irrigation potential is very limited. Though the contribution of groundwater irrigation is significantly more, it is mostly owned and managed by the resource-rich farmers.Given the status of traditionally evolved users' associations and their contribution to the total irrigation requirements, the emphasis now is on farmers' participation in irrigation management in the agency-operated large and medium projects. This is because management of water distribution in large surface irrigation systems in India rests with the Irrigation Departments of the State. Most of the irrigation systems are supply-based, designed for a given cropping pattern, with estimated crop-water requirements. The literature available on irrigation impact clearly brought out the mismatches between the expected and actual impacts of irrigation on economic, social and environmental conditions. The need for and the significance of farmers participation in irrigation management under the agency owned and operated large surface irrigation system was realized all over the world. The attempts were, however, not systematic and sustainable. Except for a few isolated attempts, sustainable efforts have hardly been made due to a variety of political economy factors.The Irrigation Commission 1972 has expressed concern about the need for the creation of an efficient and effective utilization of potential irrigation. It has, therefore, recommended an institutional set up at the state level to coordinate the activities of different departments as well as those of the user farmers. Based on the recommendations of the Commission, Command Area Development Authorities (CADAs) were constituted at the project level. This is, in a sense, a landmark beginning in India to provide scope for farmers' participation in irrigation management. But not enough attention was paid to the farmers' participation per se in the command areas. As a result, the demand management strategies were hardly adopted in these areas. This has led to inequitable distribution of water, depriving the legitimate right of the tail-end farmers to use irrigation water, and paved the way for the consequent social and environmental problems. For instance, water-related squabbles and litigations among farmers have increased, as have environmental problems like waterlogging, salinity, alkalinity and related health hazards to the rural communities.Special efforts were, therefore, made in the 1980s in several states in the country to develop demand management, a non-structural approach, in the agency-operated canal command areas. For instance, the warabandi system of water distribution, which was effectively implemented in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP, was also introduced to the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka later. While it was sustained in the northern states, the impact of the warabandi system in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka was short-lived. Same is the case in many other states, including Maharashtra. However, Maharashtra made an attempt to organize village level committees for water distribution in the Girna project. But the village irrigation councils established in the project could not function properly and therefore could not be maintained (Lele et al. 1994). Institutional sustainability depends upon establishing sets of ordered relationships among people, which define their rights, creates awareness on the rights of others, and on each others' privileges and responsibilities. Unfortunately, the institutional approaches adopted by several states, have not been sufficiently grounded in social realities; instead they are mostly based on a short-sighted political economy considerations.The big-bang approach adopted by the Andhra Pradesh to establish Water Users Associations covering all the irrigation systems -major, medium and minor -had raised high hopes of setting direction to enforce participatory irrigation management (PIM). The Government of Andhra Pradesh had passed an Act namely 'Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems Act, 1997' to facilitate the transfer of irrigation systems in the state. While some studies have shown the impacts as promising and encouraging (Jairath 1999), some others have brought out the limitations entailing the successful and sustainable functioning of WUAs (Reddy et al. 2007). The present status and features of irrigation management transfer in India can be seen in Tables 1 and 2. The institutional structure and policies of WUAs are not uniform; they differ from state to state. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh it is based on a three tier structure, i.e., outlet, distributory and the project, with clearly demarcated rules and responsibilities. Though the tier system is introduced in other states, the operational area is fixed. In Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu the operational area is fixed as 500 ha, whereas it is 10,000 ha in Bihar. While O & M responsibility is entrusted to WUAs in all the states, the water tax collection rests with the agency. And in some states the choice to collect money for O & M from the users is left to the WUAs. However, the systems were not rehabilitated fully to the originally designed standards, before handing them over to the farmers or associations. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh O & M grants were promised to WUAs every year. This has prompted the farmers associations to look for government grants even after the systems were handed over to them, instead of exploring different sources of revenue generation for their day-to-day operations. The participation is in a sense incentive-induced. Incentive here is government support for O & M. \"It was reported by some farmers that Rs.50,000/-can be spent by the association for canal repairs and maintenance without calling for any tenders or other formalities. This according to them is an incentive, especially for office bearers of the association. If the funds are not made available, the interest in the association will be eroded making it non-functional.\" (Personal discussions with some groups of farmers in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh).The available literature shows that most of the studies of WUAs in different states have mainly focused on understanding the transfer processes and not necessarily on their benefits and sustainability, particularly in terms of an equitable and dependable supply of water to all the farmers, irrespective of their farm location in the service area of WUA (Singh 2000). Some of the studies have brought out the efficiency of WUAs under private owned systems, especially in groundwater and pump irrigation systems (Shah 1993) highlighting relative advantages. Some other studies have revealed that the WUAs have limited success in terms of participation as well as impact (Brewer et al. 1999;Parthasarathy et al. 2000). While the impacts or experience at the aggregate level are generalized and documented, micro-level observations based on the ground realities in different socioeconomic and environmental settings are not executed systematically.In order to ensure that WUAs, especially in the agency-managed large irrigation projects, function effectively on a sustainable basis, local dynamics associated with the operation and management at the farm level should be integrated right from the design and Farmers basically are not interested in keeping irrigation engineers totally off the field and become their substitutes. And it is neither possible nor advisable. All that farmers want is a timely, dependable and adequate supply of water to optimize productivity. However, the water distribution network that has been planned and designed by the irrigation engineers is based on certain water duty assumed for a crop or set of crops. In doing so, they seem to have taken for granted and treated as rational, and therefore expected behavior, the tendency of farmers to follow the designed cropping pattern in a given irrigation project. Any deviation from the designed cropping patterns creates problems of inequity. But in reality, the designed cropping pattern has been hardly followed, and the indiscipline in water use has increased. This has resulted in a 'laissez-faire' system of water use, which the rich and influential farmers exploit to their advantage.The primary task of ensuring the sustainable functioning of WUAs as effective agents of demand management entails a transformation of the mind-set of the engineers and farmers to meet the requirements of the prevailing situations. This calls for the identification and establishment of a mutually agreeable and facilitative interface between the irrigation department and farmers or WUAS. One of the important aspects that merit attention for establishing an interface is the water distribution system improvement or rehabilitation, as none of the distribution canals and hydraulic structures have the originally designed standards. It must be considered and noted that farmers, to start with, do not generally posses technical skills and financial resources to restore the system to the designed standards, without which efficient distribution and utilization of water remains an elusive concept. The spread and scale of the proposed system of rehabilitation should, to the extent possible, take local conditions and stakeholders' views and suggestions about the ways and means of restoring the system, including the placement of irrigation structures, to ensure efficiency and sustainability are taken into account. This helps to create a sense of accountability and ownership of the system among the farmers, a prerequisite for institutional sustainability, when the system is handedover to the association.The traditional wisdom and past experiences show that an institution borne out of users' interests endures for generations, while those created by an external agency (top down blueprint approach) are invariably short-lived with limited success. A set of conceptual themes, like defining water as an economic good, decentralized management, delivery structures, user principles and levels of stakeholders' participation need to be well articulated, informed and implanted in the mind-sets of the irrigation engineers and user farmers. The status of water availability for irrigation, after taking other competing demands into account, should be made clear and the limitations to increase water supply beyond the designed capacities need to be explained to the farmers to prepare their mind-set. The responsibility of supplying a mutually agreed quantity of water at the interface cut off point -a distributory or an outlet, as the case may be -from where farmers or the WUAs take the responsibility of management, should be the exclusive duty or responsibility of the irrigation department. The WUA should be vested with the right to demand for the quantity of water they are entitled to, under the normal monsoon conditions. The absence of commitment to honor this agreement by both the parties makes the WUA unsustainable.The WUA establishment process should be participatory, based on a logically framed stepwise approach, where entry and exit points for water users, irrigation engineers and allied agricultural extension agencies are clearly spelt out. The concerned stakeholders and agencies must be reconstituted to take charge of the new roles with responsibility, accountability and commitment. The proposed new role models for farmers and government agencies need to be supported by well-articulated, systematic and location-specific change processes that ensure the operational feasibility of the new strategies and plans, in order to facilitate their effectiveness. The reform processes should be broad-based and maintain a balance between political exigencies, social needs and ground realities. It is, therefore, essential and necessary to consider the social mobilization and stakeholder analysis as the beginning or an entry point for the building users' association to manage irrigation water. In order to ensure a built-in sustainability of the new paradigm, the past experiences in the agency-managed large irrigation projects, the socioeconomic contexts where the alleged adverse effects have taken place and the field realities should form the basis and not the formal perspective approach, hitherto followed by the line departments.The role of farmers or WUAs should be clearly articulated and discussed in the social mobilization process to ensure mutual acceptability. The issues may include, among others, water use priorities, crop planning, sharing of system rehabilitation and maintenance costs, selection of operation and management interventions, with a built-in flexibility to meet the location-specific conditions and requirements. The role and usefulness of a common sense approach, besides a techno-centric professional approach, needs to be given due consideration in order to promote and ensure sustainability. Otherwise, the subsidy-driven approaches to establish WUAs will invariably be short lived and the dependency syndrome among farmers becomes perpetuated.A brief overview of the critical factors necessary for the successful organization of WUAs, especially in the agency-managed large irrigation projects, has been presented in the preceding section. Given the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustainability, it may be useful to examine some of the existing systems. The traditional systems evolved by the farmers, have been maintained in several parts of the country. But the coverage and scales of operation are meager, when compared to the needs of demand management in the contemporary scenario of irrigation projects. Though efforts had been made to transfer irrigation management to the user farmers in the 1950s in some of the countries, it became a national strategy in most of the developing countries only in the 1980s and 1990s. Organized and systematic efforts to transfer irrigation management to the farmers have started first in the Philippines in the early 1980s, particularly the farmer-managed irrigation systems. The strategies and modus operandi were, however, not exactly what they required in other parts of the world, more importantly in the Indian context.Different countries have followed different strategies. Even within the countries, the approaches and methods were different. The initial success stories reported and publicized seem to be short lived, because of weak organizational foundations. The water rights and corresponding responsibilities of the WUAs and its members were not defined, and also there was no enabling legislation or legal backing to make them functionally effective. Hence this apparent lack of a comprehensive policy resulted in about 225 WUAs, in the mid-1990s, that were created in major and minor irrigation projects, becoming defunct. Keeping the above scenario as a backdrop, an attempt has been made to present some of the existing systems as examples of better WUAs in different socioeconomic and cultural contexts.In India, the success stories are many among the smallholder traditional irrigation systems. In drought-prone districts of southern India, particularly in Andhra Pradesh there were many groundwater open-well irrigation systems that operated on a time-sharing basis. The gradual decline in groundwater and consequent drying up of shallow open wells has led to the disappearance of a participatory culture (Reddy 1994). The resurgence of some of the systems is, however, worth mentioning as an illustrative example. Anantapur is one of the backward districts in Andhra Pradesh, where participatory open-well irrigation systems were in plenty. Because of natural factors and constraints over a period of time, most of them have disappeared. In recent times some NGOs have tried to revive, and rebuild such practices. For example, an NGO called the Rural Integrated Development Society (RIDS) has tried to organize farmers for the demand management of groundwater for irrigation in one of the villages called Madirepalli, through social regulation. It began in 2003 when the area was hit by a severe drought. There were about 139 tubewells in that village, of which 75 have dried up. Nevertheless, the rat race for digging tubewells continued. The indebtedness among the farmers was on the increase due to failure to strike water, and the investment in the tubewells became unproductive. At this point of time the NGO (RIDS) entered the scene and became a catalyst to rebuild the participatory culture that once existed in the village. Historically, Madirepalli had a track record of sharing surface water flowing in a stream, through a traditional 'Gonchi' system (see Box 2).Due to resource pressures and other attitudinal changes, the system, which was dormant, if not extinct, needed rekindling. RIDS played the much needed catalytic role. The community was motivated through several rounds of meetings and discussions. There is no irrigation project in the vicinity of the village, nor any reliable surface water resources. The only sources of water for crops, livestock and drinking are the rains and the groundwater. As a result, there has been a heavy pressure on the wells. RIDS prepared a water balance sheet (supply and demand for water) for the village, and placed it before the villagers. The road map was cleareither to go ahead with indiscriminate digging of tubewells and end up in debts and misery or to be wise and share the available water with those who did not have. The initial reluctance of the owners of live tubewells did not last long. The hard facts -that there was not enough water for every one in Madirepalli and that if every other farmer dug out his own tubewell, the water in the live wells would also run out soon -were gradually realized by every one. Subsequently, 'water-haves' and 'have-nots' agreed to come to terms in sharing the available groundwater.Box 2. 'Gonchi' Systems for Surface Water Sharing 'Gonchi' refers to collective community efforts in bringing water from a stream and distributing the same equally to irrigate a stipulated 'ayacut' area. This system has been in practice in parts of Andhra Pradesh for well over a century. A users association manages Gonchi. The association lays down norms for use and maintenance of the system. One of the major activities is desilting of various channels through which the water is brought and distributed. Water is blocked by constructing a temporary structure and then diverted from the main stream, this helps to take up repairs all along the channels. Users contribute labor or compensate with wages towards the operation.A natural stream called \"Akuledu Vanka\" serves a few of the Madirepalli farmers. It receives a reasonable quantity of water, besides seepage from the Tungabadra high-level canal, when water is released into the canal. Villagers have built a separate diversion canal to allow the stream water to flow into their fields by gravity. Generally, paddy is cultivated for one season in these fields.Water is distributed by placing wooden gates called 'anthams 'across the flow. The water flow is monitored by a designated person called Neerugant; who is compensated for his service by providing a designated share in the harvested crop. The functioning of this system is governed by the rules and norms set by the users association. Violation is curbed by fines and strictures. (c) Every one in the village would do his/her best to protect and augment groundwater resources;(d) Farmers having water in their tubewells to share a reasonable quantity (enough at least for 0.5 acre) of water with fair neighbor;(e) Use water saving devices like sprinkler and drip systems for irrigation.All these resolutions have been written on the walls of the village 'Chavadi' (a community centre where villagers gather). These regulations are in force in Madirepalli since 2004, and the impacts are tangible. There is no drinking water issue even in the drought years. The cultivated area has increased from 339 acres in 2003 to 516 acres in 2006, though there was a marginal increase in the rainfall from 255 mm to 297 mm in the respective years. This is due to sharing of water between haves and have-nots, ban on cultivation of paddy and using sprinkler and drip systems. Farmers, 33 in number, who irrigate their 113 acres, have shared water with another 33 farmers, who were able to irrigate 66 acres of dry land. This has become a model village to spread water literacy in terms of awareness on conserving and sharing the available water.Another surface irrigation system managed by the farmers is functioning effectively in the same district. There are no recorded evidences to show as to when it was started. Some village elders say it is more than 100 years old. The beauty of the system is that, the same rules and regulations which were evolved by the founders are followed even today, without diluting even a single aspect. The source of water for the systems is a natural spring located about 6 kms from the village. Water flows through a ravine called Kutalamadagu nala up to the village tank. The tank has a separate sluice to allow the water to the farmer's fields coming under Kutalamadagu nala. The association has fixed a proportional distribution weir to ensure an equitable distribution of water. This has been prepared by the farmers themselves, without any engineering help. Neeruganti (water man) will operate the system. The committee will meet before the start of the irrigation season and decide the cropping pattern to be followed by all the member farmers, taking into account the availability of water. Nobody can violate the cropping pattern decided by the committee. Maintenance of the main nala and field channels is the collective responsibility of all the farmers, by contributing labor in proportion to the land owned by individual farmers. Social sanctions are built into the system management rules and regulations. All the farmers should obey and follow the rules strictly. There have been no problems at any time in managing the system. It continues to be the model for the participatory management of water (Reddy 1989).The story of WUAs and their sustainability in the major irrigation projects of Andhra Pradesh is different. For example, farmer's organizations known as 'Pipe Committees' were first started in one of the major irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh in 1976, namely the Sriram Sagar Project. The Pipe Committees worked effectively with several advantages to the farmers. Subsequently the 'warabandi' system of water distribution was introduced in the 1980s, as a tool for the demand management of water, resorting to the rotational supply of water. This has brought about a lot of discipline to water use and ensured equitable distribution of water even to the tail-enders. But the success was short lived due to a number of socioeconomic problems and also because of the lack of a strong institutional base. The same is the case with the WUAs that started after the enactment of A.P Farmers Management of Irrigation Systems Act in 1997. Though WUAs are legally constituted, their effective functioning and advantages to the farmers are very few and far between. scarcity of drinking water.\" Such was the condition of water availability in the village, though it is about 3 to 4 kms away from the Krishna River.The farmers were told by the neighboring Maharastra farmers (the village is located in Maharastra border), they are lifting water from the Krishna River for irrigation purposes. A group of farmers visited some of the villages in Maharastra where river pump systems were in operation and discussed with the Maharastra farmers and observed the system operation. Then they called for a meeting of like-minded farmers and discussed the proposed lift irrigation schemes. After ironing out all the initial apprehensions about their technical capabilities for putting the system in place and other related financial issues, they resolved to go ahead with the registration of the society and named it as 'Kalpatharu Lift Irrigation Society'. The initial seed money was raised through personal contributions from the member farmers and the rest of the money was borrowed from a banking institution. An open well at a distance of about 2 kms from the river bed was constructed, and a pump in the river bed was installed to lift water from the river. A big tank, in an area of about 1 ½ acres, was constructed to store water. First, water was to be pumped from the river to the constructed open well, and then from the open well to the tank for storage. Water stored in the tank was to be distributed to member-farmers through the underground pipes, by gravity flow. The entire water collection system from the river to the well and on to the tank was operated through under ground pipes. The piped water distribution system has been laid in such a way that every farmer is provided with a gated inlet to take water. The water inlet is locked and will be operated by the waterman, appointed by the society, on the scheduled day and time of the farmers' turn to take water.Water entitlements of all the members, their roles and responsibilities, water tax to be paid, clauses of penalty for violation of rules and taking water out of turn or wasting, rights of way for farmers to transport inputs to and outputs from the farms to the village, have all been written down and the by-laws were framed accordingly. The farmer who donated land for construction of the tank will be given water to his remaining land free of cost to the rest of his life. Irrigation schedules, depending upon the nature and type of crops they plan to grow, will be prepared and circulated to all the member farmers. The waterman will operate the distribution systems; the concerned farmer should be present in his field to take water on the scheduled day and time. The waterman will open the lock and allow the water to flow through. After irrigating the said farmer's field, the pipe outlet will be locked and the next farmer in turn will be given water. Farmers have been operating this system for over 20 years and even now it is functioning as effectively as it had been when it first started. The demonstration effect of these systems is very wide. Many societies have come up now after seeing the success and operation of these systems and are themselves functioning well. The environment of the village of today is completely changed. The drinking water problem has been solved and the village micro-climate itself has changed because of the greenery all through the year; thanks to the irrigated agriculture, facilitated by the lift irrigation society.Participatory irrigation management (PIM) per se has not been successful enough in India, though it has become a wide spread strategy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The governments are trying to reduce their role in the large irrigation projects and promoting the participation of primary stakeholders in a number of piloting areas. The results from Maharastra, Gujarat and in a few other states seem to be encouraging. But the scaling up of these success models needs, among others things, political will to introduce a few tough policy interventions to turn over the system to the user association. Otherwise, taking off from the piloting stage is likely to evolve into a mirage.In various countries where PIM has been adopted as a national strategy, there has been a mixed trend of results. The transfer processes have been relatively smooth and fast. The costs of self-managed irrigation systems have become relatively less. In this context, one of the most successful examples is Mexico (see Box 3). The financial crisis of the 1980s has compelled the Mexican Government to enforce a number of structural adjustment programs. The transfer of management responsibility of irrigation districts to the farmers was a significant reform. This was adopted due to absolute necessity. The government made it clear to the communities that they have to either take on the management responsibility or suffer the consequences due to unreliable water supplies in poorly managed irrigation systems. This tough stance taken by the government made farmers to accept the responsibility of managing their respective irrigation systems.The Mexican Government adopted carrot and stick approach. The carrot was management autonomy and the transfer of mechanized equipment from the agency to the farmers association. The farmers would become the owners of this equipment, and would be free to set their own rules for cleaning the canals, water distribution norms and procedures, and the appointment of the required technical staff. The canal would be theirs on 20 years concessions, which in practice is a transfer of ownership. They have also used a 'stick'. If farmers refused to take over management, the government could offer no assurance that the canal network could be kept in repair. The government in effect threatened to default on its conventional understanding with farmers regarding levels of subsidy in the irrigation sector. Many farmers, particularly the commercially-oriented ones, could not accept the risk that the irrigation infrastructure might collapse. They preferred to take over the management, and with a few exceptions, they have not looked back. They are paying much more for their water without the government subsidy. But the reliability and responsiveness of their new management structure is well worth the prices they pay. For them it has been 'Win' situation, and for the government as well.Source: Groenfeldt and Sun (1996). Hand Book on participatory Irrigation management. World Bank/EDI, Washington.DC.The first irrigation district was transferred to the users in 1990. By 1995, more than two-thirds of the country's 3.2 million ha network consisting in 80 irrigation districts, had been transferred to 316 irrigation associations (Groenfeldt 1996). The work involved countless meetings at various levels, from discussions with leaders of producers and marketing associations to one-on-one discussions with users. The transfer program was initially focused on the most productive irrigation districts, with the most commercially-oriented farmers. The important criterion for selecting districts was the potential of the user organization to become financially self-sufficient, with users paying the fees to cover the costs of operations, maintenance and administration.A few illustrative examples cited above underscore the diverse range of socio-cultural factors, political economy dynamics, institutional and organizational capabilities contributing to the sustainability of different types of irrigation associations. While the traditional associations borne out of the relentless efforts of a few committed local leaders, collective efforts of a community, revival strategies facilitated by NGOs etc., stood the times of test and remained as islands of participatory approaches, the agency-sponsored blue-print top-down approaches, are yet to take off from the piloting phase. The irony here is the need for and importance of users' participation for demand management is gigantic in the agency built, operated and managed large irrigation systems. The present efforts to implement PIM in major irrigation projects is, however, less than a scratch, in the given gigantic task, in terms of scaling up the spread and operation.This is a very broad and difficult question to tackle in the context of India, which is of continental dimensions in spread, endowed with a diversely ranging resource base, socioeconomic and cultural differences, political economy considerations and above all, dominating self-interest of the elite class in rural areas. The strategies should, therefore, be broad based to develop the culture of 'consumerism' cutting across the given socio-political diversities, taking the location or area-specific ground realities into account. While almost all the states have made a beginning to introduce the demand management strategies in the agency-managed large irrigation projects, the success and sustainability is yet to be seen. The prioritization of the regions for rekindling participatory culture as an effective tool for demand management should be based on the status of the resource (water) availability, extent of its utilization, past attempts made to promote user associations and other related factors. In northern states like Punjab, Haryana, western UP, the demand management strategies in the form of warabandi and other systems of irrigations have been implemented fairly well, when compared to southern states.There are a number of traditional small-scale irrigation systems, as mentioned earlier, successfully managed for generations in the southern states. The demand management through user association in the agency-managed large systems has hardly made any impact. It is, therefore, necessary to promote, user associations in southern states, particularly Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, for demand management of irrigation water. The frequent inter-state water disputes in these states makes the need for demand management much more significant. Identification of surplus and deficit zones within an irrigation project, taking the existing cropping pattern and crop-water requirements into account, is necessary to plan for demand management. Benchmarking of water delivery status at different points of the water distribution network starting from main canals, distributaries and up to minors and farm outlets is essential. This helps to prepare a road map of water availability and the status of its utilization, which can be placed before the concerned communities to explain the implication of water use and change their mind-set.Andhra Pradesh has an edge over other states for demonstrating user associations as effective agents of demand management since the state has been performing experiments to introduce participatory management system from the early 1980s. It was started with Pipe Committees and warabandi system, followed by a big-bang approach, under which all the irrigation systems were brought under WUAs. But the impacts are not clear and mixed as revealed by some empirical studies. Furthermore, the present government has taken up irrigation as the main agenda for development under the 'Jalayagnam' program, with a huge investment. It would be more appropriate to study the existing systems in place for demand management, problems and constraints, if any, for their successful implementation.The estimated water resource available in the state is about 108 bcm (billion cubic meters) of which about 57 % (62.3 bcm) is currently being utilized for irrigation and other purposes. The state comes under a water-stressed category with a per capita annual water availability of slightly more than 1,400 m 3 . The total irrigation potential created is about 3.6 million hectares, of which almost 50 % is under major and medium projects. At present, efforts are being made to increase the irrigation potential by completing all the ongoing projects and starting new projects. There is, however, a wide gap-estimated to be at about 0.4 million ha, (22 % of the potential created) between the irrigation potential created and its utilization under the major and medium irrigation projects. This is mainly due to poor systems management and low on-farm water-use efficiencies. In spite of handing over the management to WUAs, the water use efficiency has not improved, and the potential created continues to be under utilized or misused. It is, therefore, important and necessary to reexamine the demand management strategies and formulate new paradigms by considering the experiences in different agroclimatic, socio-political, and cultural contexts.It is equally important to conduct water balance studies and research on water use efficiency in the Cauvery Basin projects of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. There are no scientific studies to estimate water requirements of the crops grown and water released or made available at different reaches and locations to judge whether water released at present is adequate or not. Creating an institutional paradigm in these regions to create effective and efficient WUAs will have far reaching impacts on the frequently arising water disputes between the two states. There are allegations and counter allegations about the use and abuse of water by the farmers, and wasting the scarce resource. Benchmarks about the water release and utilization at different locations in the basin should first be established before WUAs are put in place on an experimental basis. Taking the lessons and impacts of these pilot experiments into account, the scaling up of strategies can be worked out to sustain the proposed new paradigm of water management.The task of creating effective community-controlled social organizations has become a widely advocated development strategy in many developing countries. While this strategy is espoused by some as a means for the disadvantaged groups to acquire a larger share of the benefits of development, others stress the importance of local organization in sustaining the productive use of land and water resources. This has led several states to experiment with building user organizations as one approach to reduce government expenditures for recurring costs of irrigation system management. Because, irrigation water rates, in general, do not even meet the costs of O&M. Even the low water rates are not regularly and fully paid by the farmers. The inadequate finance has led to lesser and lesser allocations for O&M in successive years and the consequent system deterioration has caused a decline in the delivery of services.Community organizations are, therefore, inevitable to meet the challenges of water demand management in the future. This calls for designing irrigation systems that are responsive to farmer's needs, matching supply and demand as closely as possible, with minimum losses of water and providing for flexible cropping patterns. The ramifications of water resources development over the years have given rise to a number of theoretical and empirical questions. It is said that environmental problems like waterlogging, salinity, alkalinity, water-borne diseases and other socioeconomic adverse effects are due to the disjunction between increasingly largescale complex and modern irrigation network and still largely traditional peasant farm users of that system. The human dimension has almost remained outside the ambit of water resources planning and, therefore, led to a number of avoidable adverse effects. The institutional backup necessary to equip farmers to operate and manage an irrigation system, beyond the main system, has remained far from satisfactory. In order to maximize welfare it is necessary to analyze farmers' perceptions about the potential benefits from user associations and complex processes involved in the operation, maintenance and distribution of water under the newly built management paradigm.The institutional approach for integrated planning and demand management of irrigation water through WUAs on a sustainable basis has gained adequate ground. As mentioned earlier, the institutions emerging at the grass roots levels on account of peoples' own initiatives to manage natural resources have endured for generations, while those built by the bureaucratic interventions have not been so sustainable. How does the collective action emerge at the local level? What factors contribute for its sustainability? These are the two important issues that need to be addressed. There are various schools of thought which explain collective action. One of the recent ones draw on the institutional economics of local forms of cooperative action to derive generalized principles for collective actions. This analysis uses a formal model derived from the theory of repeated games to challenge the dominant thesis on the unlikelihood of collective actions among rational self-interested individuals. Focusing on costs and benefits to individual actors, incentives and penalties, institutional support demonstrates the economic rationality of cooperation and possibility of cooperative equilibrium outcomes from competitive games (Ostrum et al. 1994;Sengupta 1991). Institutional economic analysis therefore, offers the possibility of the kind of prediction and generalization of theory of cooperative action, which WUAs require in order to generate predictable or excepted outcomes from planned inputs.The empirical studies in India and at the global level on the effectiveness of community organizations for demand management of irrigation water, especially in the agency-managed large irrigation projects have brought out several limitations and constraints for their sustainability. They could broadly be classified as follows:(a) Social dynamics of the primary stakeholders.  The available literature has brought out clearly how the problems related to the aspects mentioned above have individually and collectively contributed to less sustainability of WUAs created in different irrigation projects.Social engineering encompasses the attitudes, behavioral understanding, cooperation, leadership and other cultural factors of a given community to take up the system management. The agency-sponsored approaches do not normally take this aspect with the required seriousness. The top-down blue-print elite-centric approach of the bureaucracy may lead to immediate short-term gains due to construction and other incentives-induced participation in the initial period, but can never be sustained. Community mobilization, therefore, becomes central for building the new systems management. Awareness building about the relative advantages of WUAs, the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders to prepare the mind-set of the community to take up challenges is very crucial. This is where NGOs come into the picture -to motivate the community. For, the agency will have neither the required man power nor the ability to do this, under the given bureaucratic set up. The evaluation studies carried out in some of the agency-managed projects have clearly brought out that majority of the farmers who were not aware of the concept of WUAs and its advantages.Identification of leadership during the social mobilization process is most important as the success and sustainability of an institution depends upon the quality of leadership. There are a number of standing examples, historically and in the contemporary period, where committed leadership has proved to be the most crucial factor for the successful and sustainable functioning of an institution. Stakeholder analysis is necessary to identify the group interests and factionrelated dynamics. The need for cooperation and collective approach and its advantages to different stakeholders, their roles and responsibilities to realize the expected benefits have to be clearly told to the community to promote a participatory culture. A road map of the irrigation system proposed to be handed-over to a community has to be prepared, highlighting the existing problems and short-comings in terms of water availability, inequitable distribution of water and irrigation-related squabbles, and then be placed before the community so that they can come out with their suggestions to improve the system management. This will create a sense of involvement and accountability, both of which are crucial for the sustainability of WUAs.Most of the irrigation projects are supply-based. The canals are designed to carry a particular quantity of water, for a predetermined cropping pattern, based on an estimated water duty, by taking the crop-water requirements (Crop delta) into account. The successful demand management depends upon, among other factors, farmers adhering to the designed cropping pattern. Next in line is the appropriateness and conformity of water duty assumed with the field situation. It is natural that there will be wide variations in soil characteristics across a given project, and the uniform water duty assumed may not work. This leads to inequitable distribution of water. What is required is a volumetric supply of water to the community, based on the potential area to be irrigated under a given outlet, minor or a distributory from where WUA takes water. The option about a cropping pattern to be followed should be left to the association. They should, however, be guided with the given quantity of water, what type of crops can be grown and what measures should be taken to ensure water use efficiency. Without a mutually agreed schedule of volumetric supply of water between the irrigation department and WUAs, the sustainability cannot be ensured.A paradoxical situation often observed is that the informal user associations work more efficiently than the formal association. Paradoxical because, the formal association created with all the necessary procedures and formalities do not endure, because of improper and inadequate legislative and legal back up, which gives room for political interference. Whereas informal institutions are socially embedded, based on local needs, culture, customs and practices. The legal backup provided for the formation of user associations should ensure a political base, where politics whether local, state, or national-do not interfere in the management. This calls for a strong political will, without which the institutions cannot be sustained.The agency-created user associations, as mentioned earlier, are mostly incentive-induced. In order to motivate the community, they give financial incentives like providing a grant for construction and repair works and other related subsidies. But the temporal and spatial limitation up to which such assistance will be provided and the scale of assistance are not made clear in the beginning. The community, therefore, expects the assistance to continue and a dependency syndrome develops. This happens particularly in the donor agency supported projects. The ways and means of mobilizing financial resources to meet minor expenses should be properly explained to the community and their capacity should be built. Lack of financial resources, after the withdrawal of support from the government, is one of the main reasons for malfunctioning of WUAs, after the initial success. Politicians try to push their elite clan during the incentive phase as the leaders, to develop user association. The moment that phase is over the politically-supported leaders withdraw, after however, spending the resources provided, and ask others to take up the responsibilities of management. In that situation nobody will come forward, because there are no financial or other resources to manage. This situation tends to create indifferences among members and makes the institution dormant.The National Irrigation policy makes very clear the need for and importance of promoting water use efficiency in the country, more importantly in the agency-managed large irrigation projects. PIM has been accepted as a national policy and the legislation to transfer irrigation management to the users has already been passed in some of the states. But the ground realities observed so far are far from the expected outcomes from user associations. Many states to-day are facing a dilemma regarding the demand management of irrigation water. Dilemma because, on the one hand they are not able to meet the increasing costs of irrigation system management and on the other, the alternatives for taking up management tasks to reduce the burden on the government are found to be not effective enough. In order to reduce the growing dependency syndrome among the communities and to change their mind-set, promoting community organizations is the only alternative. The micro-level experiments of demand management through community organizations, both in the agency-managed large systems and farmermanaged small systems, the results are encouraging in terms of ensuring the equitable and timely supply of water. The replication and scaling up has remained as a challenge.The scaling up is inevitable and, there is no scope for a second opinion about it. But what is required at present is to take the lessons from the micro-level experiments, identify the constraints and adopt area-specific people-centered approaches by putting flexible policy options in place. The prospects for scaling up user associations depend essentially on the following factors.(a) Awareness building about the importance of and the need for demand management among the community, by adopting systematic processes for mobilization, capacity, buildingtechnical and managerial skills and cooperation.(b) System improvement before handing over to the community is the second prerequisite. Most of the canals and irrigation structures have been damaged due to lack of timely and adequate maintenance. The system should be rehabilitated to originally designed standards and handed-over to the user association, because the community will not have the required technical skills and financial resources. The association members or stakeholders should be involved fully in all the processes associated with the system improvement and reconstruction. Their views have to be taken into account.(c) It is essential to release the designed discharge of irrigation at the interface point for handing-over the distributory, minor or outlet, depending upon the status of water availability. The unit of operation should be a hydraulic boundary. Volumetric supply of water as per the mutual agreement is very crucial. Mechanism for dispute managementregarding water release distribution should be in place.(d) The sustainability depends upon financial adequacy and stability. The responsibility of water tax collection and the proportion of sharing have to be clearly articulated, informed and recorded. There should be no room for confusion on this account. Awareness and capacity of the association to generate financial resources, other than water tax, through plantation along the canals bund, common lands and other related avenues has to be developed.(e) Requisite legal back up for institutional sustainability has to be provided. Norms for decentralization of rights and responsibilities, water rights to the association from the irrigation department, water rights to the farmers within the association have to be clearly articulated with built-in penal clauses for not respecting the rights and consequent losses to the farmers due to crop failure.(f) Integration of main system management with the tertiary systems handed-over to the community is essential to meet the on-farm water distribution requirements.The sustainability and scaling up of WUAs depends largely on the organic linkages between various factors mentioned above. It is important to strengthen the distribution, allocation and management norms, procedures and plans to ensure effective demand management through user and community associations. This aspect should form as an integral and important component of an irrigation project's design in future. Irrigation projects should transform into social systems after completion of the construction phase.","tokenCount":"72916"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a078f35c6404975e4a4d7a1514af6d32","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2d3ffbec-8358-46bf-958c-35c35ea2cf87/retrieve","id":"-1596167510"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4f677139-b409-4315-86e6-cc2b6cc01328","pagecount":"1","content":"We present here evidence on gene flow between wild and cultivated forms of common bean in Costa Rica in addition to our previous work (González-Torres et al. 2003).Seeds were collected from natural populations in the Central Valley of Costa Rica (Figure 1) as previously reported (González-Torres et al. 2003). We focus on 226 'weedy' or 'intermediate' materials initially selected on morpho-agronomic characteristics, which phenotype is inherited from possible hybridization between wild and cultivated materials. A similar procedure has been used by Papa & Gepts (2003). The analyses were conducted on: 1) morpho-agronomic evaluation; 2) biochemical analysis of phaseolin by SDS-PAGE (Gepts et al. 1986), and isozymes: diaphorase (DIA) and peroxidase (PRX) according to Ramírez et al. (1987), and 3) molecular marker analysis: eight microsatellite primers reported by Gaitán-Solis et al. (2002), and cpDNA polymorphisms by PCR-RFLPs following the protocol of Chacón-Sánchez (2001).The wild populations showed mainly two phaseolin patterns, S-4 and S (Table : morphological, biochemical and molecular markers used and No. individuals analyzed for each parameter). In cultivated materials, the phaseolins T, Sb and S-4 were also observed although in low frequency.In individuals 1 and 2, all the evaluated parameters are \"wild\" and they have a hybrid SSR locus, which suggests a recent crossing of wild material with pollen of cultivated material. Seed size of individual 3 could be a phenotypic consequence of more than one past event of gene flow from cultivated material into the wild form, because all evaluated parameters are \"wild\" including hypocotyl color (purple), purple flower, 85 days to flowering and growth habit IV. Besides, its F2 displays a weight of 10.3 g, which suggests that it has kept \"wild\" characteristics and acquired a \"cultivated\" seed size. Individual 8 has hybrid isozymes, \"wild\" microsatellites and phaseolin, but it has a \"cultivated\" chloroplast haplotype.Individual 9 has the same characteristics as individual 8 but it has \"wild\" isozymes. These materials may represent cases of repeated gene flow of cultivated materials crossed with wild forms. Individual 14 is hybrid (PRX enzyme and one SSR locus), meaning that it comes from recent flow of \"wild\" pollen into a cultivated form. The evaluation of 22 cases from Costa Rica indicates that all materials are indeed product of a hybridization showing that the methodology implemented in the selection of the intermediate materials was the appropriate one. Papa & Gepts (2003) found in intermediate materials of Mexico that the contribution of cultivated parental population was significantly higher than the wild parental one. So far, for these materials of Costa Rica, we have found a more important gene flow from wild material into the cultivated type. ","tokenCount":"433"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e99a15f287c01163506a4e38b4213e8e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/33780bdf-999f-435b-876f-4055975211fa/content","id":"1516844184"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"067dee8c-8b8a-4293-b31c-1ffd0799411b","pagecount":"12","content":"Key message Sparse testing using genomic prediction can be efficiently used to increase the number of testing environments while maintaining selection intensity in the early yield testing stage without increasing the breeding budget. Abstract Sparse testing using genomic prediction enables expanded use of selection environments in early-stage yield testing without increasing phenotyping cost. We evaluated different sparse testing strategies in the yield testing stage of a CIMMYT spring wheat breeding pipeline characterized by multiple populations each with small family sizes of 1-9 individuals. Our results indicated that a substantial overlap between lines across environments should be used to achieve optimal prediction accuracy. As sparse testing leverages information generated within and across environments, the genetic correlations between environments and genomic relationships of lines across environments were the main drivers of prediction accuracy in multienvironment yield trials. Including information from previous evaluation years did not consistently improve the prediction performance. Genomic best linear unbiased prediction was found to be the best predictor of true breeding value, and therefore, we propose that it should be used as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages. We also propose it as a proxy for assessing prediction performance to mirror breeder's advancement decisions in a breeding program so that it can be readily applied for advancement decisions by breeding programs.Communicated by Huihui Li.Genomic prediction (GP) is a statistical method to predict the genetic potential of unobserved lines based on genomic information. It has been identified as a viable tool to accelerate genetic gain and to reduce phenotyping costs in plant breeding programs, particularly as genotyping costs become cheaper than phenotyping costs (Crossa et al. 2010;Juliana et al. 2019;Santantonio et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021a). GP is a flexible approach that can be implemented at different stages in a breeding program and for different purposes, depending on the objectives and overall breeding strategy.The CIMMYT global spring wheat breeding program uses two yield testing stages to identify parents for the next breeding cycle and promising candidates to advance based on high and stable yield across managed selection environments (SEs) (Suppl. Figure 1). These candidates are then tested internationally through collaborative trials with partners selecting elite lines for use as parents in national breeding programs and/or for variety release. The SEs are defined by varying sowing time and management conditions in a single location (Ciudad Obregon, Mexico). Although the SEs were defined within a single location, they are constructed to predict the performance in global target populations of environments (Crespo-Herrera et al. 2021). In the initial yield testing stage (denoted PYT, or stage 1), lines with desirable agronomic and grain traits, and resistance to diseases, especially rusts, are evaluated for yield potential in an optimal five irrigations bed planting environment to discard low yielding lines while maintaining a range of maturity. Accurately capturing genotype x environment (GxE) interaction is critical in identifying promising lines with the greatest potential to perform in international trials (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Cooper et al. 1995;Mohammadi and Amri 2011). Therefore, selected lines from stage 1 are further evaluated in a subsequent Elite Yield Trial (denoted EYT, or stage 2) in six SEs. This two-stage process of identifying superior performing lines is time consuming and costly, requiring two consecutive cycles of yield testing. Therefore, a key objective of the CIMMYT spring wheat program is shortening the selection cycle by advancing lines directly to multi-environment trials in year 1 using GP to discard lines with low genomic best linear unbiased predictions (GBLUPs) for grain yield and other relevant traits (Suppl. Figure 1).Sparse testing, in which the phenotyping of lines is split across environments, is a robust strategy to help achieve two objectives, specifically (1) increased number of lines tested across multiple, diverse environments and (2) increased number of testing environments while maintaining the same selection intensity (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021b). The latter is the proposed usage of GP in CIMMYT spring wheat breeding where phenotypic data across SEs serve as a calibration model to predict GBLUPs to make earlier selection of promising lines for international trials (Suppl. Figure 1).The size of the full-sib family in the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program in the early yield testing stage is relatively small. Therefore, the dataset used in this study, individuals within a family were likely to be absent across environments (contrary to Atanda et al. (2021b)), and the size of the calibration set is relatively small in each environment. Both factors are likely to influence the prediction accuracy when applying sparse testing in the early yield testing stage. Good prediction accuracies have been reported within bi-parental populations and lower prediction accuracies across populations due to inconsistent quantitative trait loci (QTL)-marker linkage phase across populations (Clark et al. 2012;Lehermeier et al. 2014;Brandariz and Bernardo 2019;Atanda et al. 2021a). However, in a scenario where the prediction and calibration set are heterogeneous, the effect of changes in LD-marker phase across populations on prediction accuracy might be minimal. Consequently, we evaluated the efficiency of sparse testing with GP when the prediction and calibration set are heterogeneous using different sparse testing strategies defined by the proportion of overlapping lines across SEs to identify an optimal strategy without sacrificing selection accuracy. The sparse testing is implemented in stage 1 (where current stage 2 will become stage 1), and thus the dataset used here mimics the data architecture expected in direct stage 2 by skipping stage 1 when GBLUP will be used to select promising lines for further testing (Suppl. Figure 1). In addition, past breeding lines with genotypic and phenotypic data in relevant environments constitute a resource to increase the size of the calibration set (Mangin et al. 2019;Brandariz and Bernardo 2019;Auinger et al. 2021;Atanda et al. 2021a). Here, we also evaluate the merit of using past breeding information to increase the size of training set without increasing costs for sparse testing using GP.In most plant breeding programs, the genetic value of genotypes is estimated through adjusted best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Santantonio et al. 2020;Bernardo 2020;Lell et al. 2021). Theoretically, breeding value is a predictor of selection candidate potential to produce superior progenies in the next generation. However, true breeding value is unknown; thus, the efficiency of the advancement decision depends on a selection metric that is predictive of the true breeding value. In animal breeding, GBLUP estimated from phenotypic information of an individual and relatives using a marker or pedigree relationship matrix in mixed model equations is widely used as a selection metric for candidates (Zhang et al. 2011;Junjie and Shengjie 2019). Recently, adoption of GBLUP as a selection decision metric is gaining traction in plant breeding (Bernardo 2020; Lell et al. 2021), Therefore, we propose and test the use of GBLUP as an advancement decision metric for low to medium traits heritability, especially in the early yield testing stages in order to improve selection accuracy.Prediction accuracy is often assessed as Pearson correlation between predicted GBLUP and the BLUE (Crossa et al. 2014;Zhang et al. 2019). However, this more closely reflects predictive ability rather than accuracy, and a proxy for prediction accuracy is needed to reflect the breeding program advancement decision strategy. Therefore, we assessed the prediction performance of sparse testing aided GP as the proportion of lines that overlap between select top 20% lines using the Smith Hazel selection index (Smith 1936;Hazel 1943) with GBLUP from the prediction model and GBLUP estimated from full data across the SEs.Using breeding data from the CIMMYT spring wheat program the overall objective of this study was to test sparse testing strategies using GP via a number of approaches, namely: (1) highlighting selection accuracy using GBLUP as a selection metric for line advancement decisions in direct stage 2 skipping stage 1 testing; (2) determining the optimal sparse testing aided GP strategy in direct stage 2 trials; (3) determining the contribution of historical data to increasing the calibration set size and improving prediction accuracy of untested lines across SEs without increasing cost; and (4) determining the appropriate method for evaluating prediction accuracy to closely mirror breeder advancement decisions.The genetic material used in this study consisted of F4:8 (stage 1) and F4:9 (stage 2) CIMMYT spring wheat breeding lines. The genetic material was classified into three datasets (denoted DS1, DS2 and DS3). DS1 consisted of 1260 stage 1 lines grouped into 45 trials, each with 28 entries and two checks, evaluated for grain yield (GY) and other agronomic traits in an optimal five irrigation bed planting SE (B5IR). Each trial was planted in an alpha-lattice incomplete block design with two replicates in the 2019-2020 crop season at Norman E. Borlaug research station, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (27° 29′ N, 109° 56′ W). DS2 consisted of the 280 stage 2 lines advanced from the DS1 1260 lines based on GY performance, agronomic, disease, grain zinc and processing quality traits. They were evaluated in six SEs at the same location in the 2020-2021 season. In each SE, the lines were grouped into five trials, each with 56 entries and 4 checks, and the trials were planted in an alpha-lattice incomplete block design with two replicates.The SEs were defined by a combination of factors including planting date, irrigation, and planting condition (flat or bed) as follows:1. Optimal planting date and five irrigations bed planting (B5IR). Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. Optimal planting date implies planting during the third week of November to first week of December. 2. Optimal planting date and five irrigations flat planting (F5IR), with the same total amount of water applied as B5IR, through drip irrigation. 3. Optimal planting date and two irrigations bed planting (B2IR). Approximately 250 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. 4. Optimal planting date and drought stress flat planting (FDRIP). Approximately 180 mm of water applied through drip irrigation. 5. Early heat stress bed planting (BEHT). Lines were planted about 3 weeks earlier (1 st week of November) than the optimal planting date with the aim of evaluating the lines for heat tolerance during the early growth stage.Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. 6. Late heat stress bed planting (BLHT). Contrary to BEHT, lines were sown 90 days after optimal planting date to evaluate the lines for heat tolerance during the flowering and grain filling stages of the plant. Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation.DS3 consisted of the stage 2 lines advanced from 2018-2019 stage 1 (data not used) and consisted of 253 lines evaluated in six SEs at the same location in the 2019-2020 season.To account for spatial variation in the field, the trials were sown as a grid of (6, 8, 6) rows and (15, 15, 15) columns for DS1, DS2 and DS3 data, respectively.DS2 advanced lines from DS1, and DS3 lines were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and 93,349 SNP markers were generated. After removing SNPs with more than 20% missing values and with a minor allele frequency less than 5%, 20,985 SNPs remained and were used for the analysis. Missing SNPs imputed with Beagle 5.1 (Browning et al. 2018).We evaluated the efficiency of two sparse testing GP scenarios based on the approach reported by Jarquin et al. ( 2020):1. Phenotyping a different set of lines in each SE, i.e. lines were not repeated across SEs. In this scenario, the 280 lines in DS2 were divided into six unique sets with some SEs having 46 lines, while others had 47 lines in the calibration set (Fig. 1). Therefore, the prediction set in each SE consisted of 234 lines where 46 lines were considered tested, and 233 lines when 47 lines were considered tested in the SE. Splitting of lines across the SEs was repeated 30 times. 2. A subset of lines overlapping across the SEs to allow borrowing of information across SEs while varying the number of lines that serve as connectivity across the SEs. We considered the following sets of lines as overlapping across SEs: 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the DS2 (n = 280) (Fig. 1B and Suppl. Figure 2:3). When 10% of the total lines overlapped across the SEs, the remaining 252 lines were divided into six unique sets. Thus, in total 70 lines were used as a calibration set in each SE to predict the genetic value of the prediction set (210 lines) in each SE. For 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the total DS2 lines, 58, 88, 112 and 142, respectively, overlapped across the SEs. The calibration sets for each SE for the four different overlapping sizes were 95, 120, 140 and 165 lines, respectively. The prediction sets in each SE for the four overlapping scenarios were 185, 160, 140 and 115 lines, respectively. Again, the process of line allocation across the SEs was repeated 30 times for each overlapping size scenario.For all the cross-validation schemes, DS1 and DS3 were used separately to increase the size of the calibration set. The contribution to accuracy of prediction in each SE was then evaluated independently for both DS1 and DS3.We report two measures of the prediction accuracy: firstly, the Pearson correlation of the predicted GBLUP or PBLUP and the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUE) calculated using all observed records of tested and untested lines in each SE. Secondly, we used a Smith-Hazel (SH) selection index (Smith 1936;Hazel 1943) to define the top 20% of candidates based on GBLUP of the lines estimated from full data and GBLUP (estimated and predicted) of lines in the six SEs obtained from the prediction model. Accuracy was estimated as the proportion of lines that intersected between individuals selected using the GBLUP estimates of the lines from full data and the GBLUP obtained from the prediction model. To calculate the SH index, we used the genetic (from Eqs. 1 and 2) and phenotypic variance-covariance matrices and vector of economic weight (0.25, 0.1, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, 0.05) that optimized the ability to select promising candidates across the SEs, thus maximizing genetic gain. The latter method was used to reflect the advancement decision strategy in the early yield testing stages in the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program (Suppl. Figure 1).To assess the accuracy of GBLUP as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages, we estimate the BLUE and GBLUP of the 1260 DS1 lines and the 280 DS2 advanced lines using the full data set. Given that the 1260 DS1 lines were only evaluated in a single SE (B5IR), only information from this SE was used for this analysis. We calculated the Pearson correlation of the GBLUP obtained for the complete 280 DS2 lines as well as BLUEs in the two stages of yield testing. We also measured accuracy as percentage of lines that intersect between select top (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) lines in the two testing stages to account for possible selection intensity in the early yield testing stage.We fitted a multi-environment linear mixed model in ASREML (Gilmour 1999) for the sparse testing aided GP analysis using DS2, combined DS1 and DS2 as well as combined DS2 and DS3 as follows:For single-environment analysis, to evaluate the efficiency of GBLUP as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages we fitted a linear mixed model as follows:where y (n × 1) is the vector of phenotypes of the lines measured in the environments (1…k), μ is the overall mean and n (n × 1) is a of vector ones, b 1 is a fixed effect of replication, u 1 is a random effect of SE, u 1.1 is the random effect of the genomic effect of g-th line, u 2 is the random effect of the interaction between the genomic effect of g-th line and k-th SE, u 2.1 is the random effect of replication nested within trial, u 3 is the random effect of the trial, u 4 is the random effect of replication nested within SE and trial, u 4.1 is the random effect of replication nested within SE, trial and year for the multi-year dataset, u 4.2 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication and trial, u 5 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication, trial and SE, u 5.1 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication, trial, SE and year for the multi-year dataset. The number of fixed and random effects are represented as n and p, while X n and Z p are incidence matrices for fixed and random effects, respectively. The variance of the random effects u 2 , u 2.1 , u 3 , u 4 , u 4.1 , u 4.2 , u 5 and u 5.1 was assumed to be distributed as:where I p and 2 up are the identity matrix and variance of the p-th random effect expect u 2.1 where I is either genomic (G) or pedigree (A) relationship matrix. In Eqs. 1 and 2, the random GEI effect u 2 is defined as the Kronecker product (1)( ⊗ ) between G or A relationship matrix with dimension g × g and the k × k variance-covariance matrix of the genomic effect of lines in and between SEs ( G o ). For combined DS1 and DS2 analysis, the G or A relationship matrix is a block diagonal matrix such that only 280 lines that overlap across the two datasets were used in the analysis as the remaining 980 lines do not have marker information.The covariance of the genomic effect of the line u 2 in multi-environment model can be represented as:where G o G o G o represents the k × k variance-covariance matrix of the genomic effect of lines in the SEs. The diagonal of the G o matrix is the additive genetic variance σ 2 g k within the k-th SE. The off-diagonal ( g 1k ) elements represent the genetic covariance between SEs.The factor analytic (FA) model which is a parsimonious approach for fitting GEI and complex covariance structure among environments (Piepho 1998;Smith et al. 2001;Crossa et al. 2004;Oakey et al. 2016;Smith and Cullis 2018) was used in this study. We use the extended FA (XFA) model that allows a non-full rank variance matrix for the GEI effects; therefore, the mixed model equation is sparser, resulting in reduced computational requirements compared to the standard FA model, as reported in Thompson et al. (2003) and Meyer (2009). In general, FA identifies one or few factors underlying the correlation among environments by their relationship to unobservable latent variables. Thus, GEI is modeled as an interaction between the genomic effect of the g-th line and one or few factors underlying the environmental influences on the line (Piepho 1998;Smith et al. 2001;Crossa et al. 2004;Kelly et al. 2007).FA model for Cov(u g , u ′ g ) is expressed as:where Λ is a k × m matrix of loading factors and the columns of Λ are associated with the environmental loadings for the m-th latent factor. Ψ is a k × k heterogeneous diagonal matrix with specific environment genetic variances k on the diagonal and zero covariance between environments.The residual variance for Eqs. 1, 2 and 3 can be specified as:(5)where R is a block diagonal matrix with the error variances within SEs expect for Eq. 3. To allow separate spatial covariance structure within SEs, R for each SE was defines as: 2 k is the spatial residual variance in k-th SE and 1 p ⊗ 1 p r is the Kronecker product of firstorder autoregressive processes across columns and rows, respectively.Plot-level heritability for k-th SE was derived from the variance components obtained from the model as: Best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) for the lines were computed using Eqs. 1-3 while allowing u 2 and u 2.1 to be fixed instead of random. The BLUEs were used as reference genotypic value to compare the PBLUP or GBLUP models.As expected, GBLUP was found to be a more effective metric for line advancement from stage 1 (DS1) to stage 2 (DS2). The GBLUP correlation between the two yield testing stages was 0.45 compared to 0.35 when BLUEs were used as the advancement decision metric (Fig. 2). GBLUP consistently improved selection accuracy compared to BLUE as the selection decision metric based on the proportion of lines that overlap between the two testing stages for the select top (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) of lines (Suppl. Figure 4).The plot-level heritability for SEs in DS2 (stage 2) ranged from moderate to high except BEHT which had a low plotlevel heritability value of 0.18 (Fig. 3). Similar results were obtained in the analyses when DS1 or DS3 were used to augment the calibration set in DS2 (Suppl. Figures 5 and  6). The genetic correlation between SEs in DS2 ranged from − 0.04 to 0.67. Furthermore, when SEs were defined acrossyears (B5IR, F5IR, B2IR, FDRIP, BEHT, BLHT and B5IR*; with B5IR* representing the B5IR SE in DS1 (stage 1)), the genetic correlation between SEs ranged from − 0.05 to 0.85 (Suppl. Figure 5). The genetic correlation between B5IR* and B5IR was high and positive (0.80), whereas that between B5IR* and B2IR, and FDRIP was negative (− 0.11 and − 0.05, respectively). In the analysis where DS3 was used to increase the size of calibration set in DS2, most of the SEs in DS3 denoted by (**) suffix have moderate to high genetic correlation with SEs in DS2 (Suppl. Figure 6).Predictive ability increased with higher heritability and genetic correlation between SEs. The BEHT SE had the lowest plot-level heritability (0.18) and had consistently low predictive ability irrespective of the sparse testing strategy and prediction model used (Fig. 4). Higher predictive ability was generally observed in each SE with increased number of genotypes overlapping across SEs. For instance, using only the DS2 the predictive ability increased by 42, 111, 59, 64, 989 and 67%, respectively, when 50% of the genotypes overlapped across the SEs (B5IR, F5IR, B2IR, FDRIP, BEHT, BLHT) compared to non-overlap of genotypes across the SEs. However, the predictive ability did not increase linearly with expansion in the number of lines that connected the SEs. The augmentation of the calibration set with DS1 or DS3 improved predictive ability of untested lines for some SEs, especially with DS1 using only the 280 lines evaluated in the B5IR SE. For example, when lines were not repeated across SEs, the predictive ability of the 234 lines in F5IR SE increased by 21 and 1% using DS1 and DS3, respectively, to augment the calibration set. While it increased by 5 and 8% in FDRIP SE using DS1 and DS2, respectively, to increase the size of the calibration set. In general, the use of DS1 to augment the calibration set improved predictive ability in each SE compared to DS3. However, the result of the population structure of the datasets assessed by spectral decomposition of the genomic relationship matrix of the lines in DS2 and DS3 shows significant overlap across the datasets (Suppl. Figure 7). This possibly indicates that genetic correlation between environments influences predictive ability in multi-environment genomic prediction.The prediction performance of the PBLUP model was similar to the GBLUP model which is not surprising as DS2 consisted of multiple populations with family sizes that ranged from 1 to 9 (Suppl. Figure 8). However, the predictive ability was lowest when DS3 was combined with the calibration set in each SE. For example, with no overlapping lines across SEs, using the DS3 to increase the calibration set size resulted in a predictive ability obtained from the PBLUP model across the SEs ranging from 4 to 31%, while the prediction ability obtained from the GBLUP model ranged from 9 to 46% across the SEs.The prediction performance improved with increasing size of the calibration set, further corroborating the importance of genetic connectivity across SEs/environments in sparse testing (Fig. 5). Contrary to the prediction performance in each SE, prediction accuracy was higher using DS3 to increase the size of the calibration set compared to DS1 which suggests the relevance of including information from all SEs. In general, the addition of DS1 or DS3 to increase the size of the calibration set did not consistently improve prediction accuracy. This prediction accuracy method reflects the advancement decision strategy in early yield testing stage of the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program utilizing GBLUP and selection indices to select parent for the next breeding cycle and candidates for further testing. Genomic prediction is a powerful tool to reduce selection cycle time and increase selection intensity (Meuwissen et al. 2001;Burgueño et al. 2012;Jacobson et al. 2014;Oakey et al. 2016;Crossa et al. 2017;Santantonio et al. 2020). This study aimed to examine sparse testing using GP for increasing first-year yield trial testing across SEs with lines advanced based on GBLUP without increasing breeding costs. Sparse testing using GP in which new lines are evaluated in different but genetically correlated environments relies on utilization of information from closely related individuals within and across environments using multienvironment models (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021b).The multiple populations with small family size ranging in our study from 1 to 9 individuals imply individuals within a family are likely to be absent across environments and this might suggest low predictive ability observed when non-overlapping lines were randomly distributed in different SEs. In this scenario, genetic correlation between pairs of SEs was estimated through replication of alleles across SEs. Generally, increases in genetic connectivity across SEs improved modeling of the genotype by environment interaction. This gave more efficient correlation estimates and consequently better use of information from related lines tested in correlated SEs. Therefore, the improved predictive ability with increased number of lines connecting the SEs suggests that the efficiency of sparse testing aided GP relies on leveraging information within and across environments (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020). Jarquin et al. (2020) reported improved predictive ability by increasing the number of lines that overlapped across three environments. Due to the data structure, our study did not exclusively investigate factors that might contribute to the proportion of lines that should overlap across the SEs to obtain optimal predictive ability, and this is acknowledged as a key limitation of the study. We hypothesize factors such as population size, the number of crosses per parent, number of half-sib families, yield testing stage and expected predictive ability might largely influence the proportion of lines that overlapped across SEs. Further studies are required to examine the magnitude of each individual factor and their combinations on the fraction of lines that overlap across environments. This will enable optimal/desired predictive ability when implementing sparse testing using GP in breeding.Given the multiple populations that constitute the datasets used in this study, we suspect differences in QTL-marker linkage phase across the populations might affect the predictive ability. The observed predictive ability might be due to the number of QTLs segregating across the population limiting the influence of QTL-marker linkage phase. Although this assumption was not evaluated here, it was previously reported by Schopp et al. (2017). The authors reported improved predictive ability obtained for half-sib families compared to un-related families due to higher segregation of QTLs among half-sib families rather than consistency of QTL-marker linkage phases across the families. Theoretically, predictive ability improves with increased size of the calibration set. Previous studies (Habier et al. 2007; Clark et al. 2012;Riedelsheimer et al. 2013;Lee et al. 2017;Campos et al. 2013;Atanda et al. 2021a;Lopez-Cruz et al. 2021) have emphasized the influence of size of the calibration set and the influence of degree of relatedness between calibration and prediction set on predictive ability. Considering the degree of genetic variation in the prediction set, there is minimal possibility of improvement by applying genetic optimization criteria accounting for relatedness between prediction set and the individuals in DS3 in our study. This is because it is unlikely to have the same QTL segregating across all the populations in the prediction set. In Atanda et al. (2021a) and Brandariz and Bernardo (2019), historical data were optimized around each bi-parental population. The optimized individuals from historical data were assumed to be in the same QTL-marker LD phase with fullsibs in the prediction population resulting in improved predictive ability. However, in the current study the prediction set comprised several populations with few progenies per cross; therefore, relatedness between individuals in DS3 and the prediction set was ambiguous and did not consistently improve predictive performance.Unsurprisingly, the predictive performance of the PBLUP model was similar to the GBLUP model. For across population predictions and based on the architecture of the dataset used in this study, the predictive ability depends largely on the variation in genomic and pedigree relationship between families. Therefore, the PBLUP model was able to track segregating QTLs across the families and thus explained a large proportion of the genetic variance among the families. This result agreed with previous studies (Crossa et al. 2010;Albrecht et al. 2011;Schopp et al. 2017;Basnet et al. 2019;Calleja-Rodriguez et al. 2020).In a breeding program, accurate estimate of selection candidates' breeding value is critical as a predictor of genetic potential and the ability to generate superior progenies in the subsequent generation (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Gall and Bakar 2002;Zhang et al. 2011;Crossa et al. 2021). In practice, programs are unlikely to have an estimate of true breeding value of genotypes; however, GBLUP can be used as a surrogate of true breeding value. This is especially true for traits with inherent low to medium heritability such as grain yield (Henderson 1975;Gall and Bakar 2002;Zhang et al. 2011;Lell et al. 2021) particularly in the early yield testing stages where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments. According to Lell et al. (2021), the use of GBLUP or BLUE as selection criteria will be influenced by the reliability of the available information (evaluation stage) as well as whether the assumption of genotype independence can be valid in the evaluation stage. As a result, GBLUP superiority over BLUE or BLUE superiority over GBLUP cannot be generalized across evaluation stages. The model underlying BLUE assumes all lines were independent, while GBLUP model incorporates genomic relationship between lines allowing use of the phenotypic information from individual lines and relatives (Henderson 1975;Lell et al. 2021). In the early yield testing stage where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments, our results indicate GBLUP improved selection accuracy compared to BLUE as selection decision metric. Other factors that contribute to phenotypic expression such as environmental variables can also be adjusted for in the GBLUP model to achieve estimation of genetic merit of lines that is potentially close to the true breeding value of the lines (Jarquín et al. 2014;Monteverde et al. 2019;Costa-Neto et al. 2021;Crossa et al. 2021).The results from our study show that GBLUP should be used as an advancement decision metric and parental selection criteria in the early yield testing stages, where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments. For programs implementing sparse testing GP for multi-environment yield trials, consideration should be given to the proportion of lines that overlap across environments in the early yield testing stages to increase the size of the SE or selection intensity. Our study suggests including a substantial number of common lines across environments to ensure precise estimation of genetic correlation between environments and to enable improved modeling of GxE interaction effects. In general, sparse testing using GP is a promising strategy for increasing genetic gain in a breeding program by optimizing testing across SE while keeping the breeding costs constant.","tokenCount":"5240"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6b842635d7bb4680bcc786450653cc6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9fa02c40-8efd-483c-9bcf-7d241199a73a/retrieve","id":"1946370982"},"keywords":["combining ability","grain yield","heterosis","maize synthetics","provitamin A"],"sieverID":"008761d1-6b1c-48ef-ad43-2fbbdad673c6","pagecount":"17","content":"Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and other parts of the world. Understanding the effect of marker-based improvement (MARS) of two maize synthetics (HGA and HGB) representing different heterotic groups on their agronomic performance, carotenoid content, and combining abilities could help identify suitable sources to develop divergent inbred lines for optimizing heterosis. This study involved three selection cycles each of the two synthetics and their nine varietal-cross hybrids together with a released check variety was conducted across four diverse locations in Nigeria in 2018 and 2019. Environment and hybrid effects were significant on grain yield and other agronomic traits as well as provitamin A content and other carotenoids. Genetic improvement per cycle of MARS in the parental synthetics was 15% for provitamin A, 25% for β-carotene and 26% for lutein in HGA and 4% for grain yield, 3% for zeaxanthin and 5% for α-carotene in HGB. Grain yield and agronomic traits of the two maize synthetics were controlled by additive and non-additive gene effects, while provitamin A content and other carotenoids were mainly controlled by additive gene effects. Some selection cycles which were high in grain yield and provitamin A content were identified as potential sources of new and divergent maize inbred lines in maize breeding programs. Some varietal-cross hybrids expressed significant mid-parent heterosis for grain yield and moderate mid-parent heterosis for provitamin A, β-carotene and xanthophylls. These hybrids could be commercialized at reasonable prices to small-scale farmers in rural areas that are most affected by vitamin A deficiency.Maize is the second most widely grown cereal in the world next to wheat, with an estimated total production of over one billion tons per annum [1]. Maize and its products constitute 30% of the food supply in the Americas, 38% in Africa and 6.5% in Asia [2]. It is the most important staple crop widely consumed in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) supplying daily energy, protein and mineral nutrients. Maize provides the highest percentage of calorie in the national diet of over 16 African countries [3]. Due to the prevalence and adverse effects of vitamin A deficiency in SSA, maize has been targeted as one of the food crops for Provitamin A (PVA) enrichment through plant breeding under the HarvestPlus challenge program [4,5].Provitamin A carotenoids are precursors of vitamin A, which cannot be synthesized de novo in the human body but could be obtained from consumption of balanced diets and food supplements [6]. Yellow and orange maize naturally accumulate provitamin A carotenoids, including α-carotene, β-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin, which can be transformed into vitamin A in the human body [7]. Lutein and zeaxanthin (xanthophylls) are also important carotenoids in maize endosperm, although they have no provitamin A activities [8]. Vitamin A is essential in regulating key biological processes in humans and its deficiency is associated with health disorders including night blindness, retarded growth, depressed immune response, poor lactation in breast-feeding mothers and high infant mortality [9,10].Significant breeding investments have been made to improve the provitamin A content in maize and other staple crops to combat vitamin A deficiency (VAD). The maize improvement program in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaborations with its partners have over the years screened maize germplasm of tropical, subtropical and temperate backgrounds and developed inbred lines, hybrids and synthetics with favorable alleles for provitamin A carotenoids [11][12][13][14]. The rapid progress in molecular techniques and discovery of the genes Lycopene Epsilon Cylase, (LCYE) and β-carotene hydroxylase1 (crtRB1), which are key in provitamin A carotenoids accumulation, have led to significant improvement of provitamin A in different maize germplasm [15][16][17][18]. The carotenoid biosynthetic pathway has been well characterized and allelic variations in key genes have been exploited for DNA maker developments and validations [17,19,20]. These molecular markers are routinely deployed along with phenotypic quantification of carotenoids using such tool as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to select high provitamin A maize lines [6].Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) is a breeding procedure that accumulates favorable alleles using molecular markers linked to target traits [21]. The utility of MARS in the improvement of grain yield, drought tolerance and resistance to Striga hermonthica in maize has been reported [22,23]. Ref. [24] reported a two-fold genetic gain through MARS in grain yield of some maize populations relative to phenotypic selection. Breeders at IITA developed two maize synthetics (HGA and HGB) representing two heterotic groups and subjected them independently to two cycles of marker-based selection to increase favorable alleles of provitamin A carotenoids. The effects of using such high throughput provitamin A markers on genetic improvement in grain yield and other traits have not been studied. [25] reported that the frequency of four favorable alleles of crtRB1 KASP markers as well as the fixation index increased in the two synthetics after the two cycles of MARS. These led to 40% increase in β-carotene and 30% increase in provitamin A in HGA, but a 20% increase in α-carotene and a 5% increase in β-cryptoxanthin in HGB.The development and marker-based improvement of HGA and HGB maize synthetics was designed to create source populations for extracting divergent parental lines with high provitamin A content and superior agronomic traits to develop provitamin A enriched hybrids. Understanding the effect of marker-based improvement of the two synthetics on their combining abilities for grain yield and other desirable agronomic traits as well as provitamin A carotenoids can provide useful information on the genetic control of these traits and facilitate the identification of suitable source populations for divergent parental lines with good general and specific combining abilities (GCA and SCA) to optimize expression of heterosis in hybrids. Few studies, mainly in maize inbred lines have reported combining ability for grain yield and provitamin A carotenoids [26][27][28][29]. However, the combining ability and heterosis for grain yield, agronomic traits and provitamin A carotenoids in maize synthetics improved using high throughput marker assisted recurrent selection has not been reported. Ref. [30] attributed the gene action controlling β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lutein and zeaxanthin to additive effects while [27,29] reported that both additive and non-additive gene effects control maize carotenoids. In contrast, ref. [31] reported the predominance of non-additive gene effects on all measured carotenoids in some tropical maize inbred lines. These conflicting reports in these studies highlight the need for further investigations into the mode of gene action controlling carotenoids in maize.Heterosis has been exploited for grain yield and agronomic traits in commercial maize hybrids [32]. However, heterosis for grain carotenoids is reported to be rare and infrequent in yellow and dent maize [33]. Significant SCA effects among genetically divergent parents are important for assessing the potential heterosis that can be attained in maize [32]. Consequently, ref. [27] proposed exploitation of heterotic groups to maximize heterosis for provitamin A content. This study was thus conducted to assess the effect of MARS on (i) agronomic performance and provitamin A carotenoids and (ii) combining ability and heterosis of grain yield and provitamin A carotenoids of the two maize synthetics.Two maize synthetics belonging to different heterotic groups (HGA and HGB) and their advanced cycles were used in this study (Supplementary Table S1). The two maize synthetics were each developed from eight elite maize inbred lines with intermediate to high provitamin A content and were then independently subjected to two cycles of marker-assisted recurrent selection at IITA. Three gene specific markers (crtRB1-5 TE, LycE-3 Indel, LycE-SNP-216) were initially used for cycle selection based on PCR and gel electrophoresis [20]. Subsequently, 7 KASP-SNP assays linked to crtRB1 gene, made available through CGIAR collaboration, were used for high throughput genotyping at Intertek for verification (Supplementary Table S2). A total of 167 KASP SNPs (14-23 per chromosome) were then used to assess genetic diversity and changes in allele frequencies caused by MARS after two cycles of selection [25] In the present study, cycle 0, 1 and 2 of HGA were crossed with cycle 0, 1 and 2 of HGB using North Carolina Design II to generate nine varietal-cross hybrids. The three cycles each of the two synthetics, nine varietal-cross hybrids plus a released provitamin A enriched maize variety, PVASYN13 (Supplementary Table S1) were evaluated at four locations in Nigeria, namely Ikenne (3  [34]. Study locations belong to different agroecological zones of Nigeria, receiving different amount of rainfall, temperature, solar radiation and relative humidity each year (Supplementary Table S3). The trial was arranged in a 4 × 4 incomplete block design with four replicates. Plots consisted four rows 5 m long with inter-and intra-row spacing of 0.75 m and 0.5 m, respectively. The recommended fertilizer rate was applied and field management practices for optimum maize production were carried out at each test location [11,35]. Agronomic and yield data were recorded from the two middle rows while the two outer rows were self-pollinated for carotenoid analysis.Days to anthesis (DA) and days to silking (DS) were recorded as number of days from planting to when 50% of the plants in a plot shed pollen and had emerged silks, respectively. Anthesis-silking interval (ASI) was calculated as the difference between DS and DA. Plant height (PHT) and ear height (EHT) were measured in cm as the distance from the base of the plant to first tassel branch and the node bearing the upper ear, respectively. Plant aspect (PASP) was scored on a 1 to 5 scale; where 1 represented uniform, clean, vigorous and good overall phenotypic appeal, while 5 represented weak, diseased and poor overall phenotypic appeal [12]. Symptom severity of major foliar diseases (southern corn leaf rust, southern corn leaf blight and maize streak virus) were scored on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represented slights leaf infection and 5 represented severe leaf infection. Husk cover was rated on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represented tightly arranged husk tip and 5 represented loose and exposed husk tip. All ears in the two rows were harvested to determine grain yield per plot. Ear aspect (EASP) was scored on a 1 to 5 scale, where 1 represented clean, well filled, uniform and large ears, while 5 represented diseased, poorly filled, variable and small ears. Ears harvested were shelled and grain moisture content of shelled grains was measured using a portable Dickey-John moisture tester. The grain weight and moisture content were used to compute grain yield adjusted to 15% moisture.For each location and year, self-pollinated plants from each plot were harvested separately and a minimum of ten clean ears were selected, air-dried under ambient temperature, shelled and the grains bulked. Samples drawn from the bulk grain were analyzed for carotenoid content at the Food and Nutrition Laboratory of IITA using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine (Water Corporation, Milford, MA, USA). The extraction followed a modified procedure described by [13,36]. Ten gram of grain sample was drawn for each entry in two replicates and ground using a knifetec 1095 small mill (FOSS, Eden Prairie, MN, USA). A 0.6 g ground sample was weighed and transferred into a 50 mL glass centrifuge tube. Six milliliters of ethanol containing 0.01% butyl hydroxyl toluene was added and mixed with vortex at 1000 revolution per minute (rpm) for 15 s. Samples were then incubated in water bath at 85 • C for 5 min. Samples were taken out of water bath and 0.5 mL of 80% potassium hydroxide was added and mixed with vortex at 1000 rpm for 15 s. Samples were placed in water bath at 85 • C for 5 min. Vortexing and incubation in water bath were repeated. Samples were immediately transferred into ice and 3 mL cold deionized water was added, capped and mixed with vortex for 15 s. To each sample, 200 µL of internal standard β-Apo 8 -carotenal and 3 mL of hexane was added, vortexed for 10 s and then centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 10 s. The upper phase of the solvent was pipetted into 50 mL concentrator tube for each sample. Extraction of the samples with 3 mL of hexane was repeated thrice. Extracts were dried under nitrogen gas at 40 • C for 25 min using a concentrator (Organomation Associates, Inc., Berlin, MA, USA). Samples were then reconstituted in 1 mL of 50:50 dichloromethane/methanol and vortexed for 10 s. Samples were transferred to HPLC vials, placed in auto-sampler tray and slid into the HPLC machine. For each sample, 50 µL aliquots were injected into the HPLC system and run for major carotenoids based on the calibration of the standard of each carotenoid. Carotenoids were separated by C 30 Column (4.6 × 250 mm; 3 µm) eluted by a mobile phase using methanol/water (92: 8 v/v) as solvent A and 100% Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) as solvent B. The flow rate of solvent was 1 mL/minute and absorbance was measured at 450 nm for carotenoid detection. Chromatograms (Supplementary Figure S1a,b) were extracted after the runs and major carotenoids were identified. Concentration of each carotenoid was calculated following the procedure of [37] as:where C X and A X were concentration and peak area of carotenoid X, while C s and A s were the concentration and peak area of the standard. Total carotenoid was computed as the sum of concentrations of lutein, zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene and β-carotene (13-cis, trans and 9-cis isomers) while provitamin A content was calculated as the sum of β-carotene and half of β-cryptoxanthin and α-carotene [38].Each location-year combination was considered an environment in the combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) using PROC MIXED procedure in SAS version 9.4 [39]. Entry was considered as fixed effect while environment, replication (environment), block (replication), environment × entry were regarded as random effects. The significances of entry and interaction effects were tested using the appropriate mean squares. Mean separations were done using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at 0.05 level of probability. For each trait, cycle means of parental synthetics were regressed on cycles of selection (C0-C2) using PROC REG in SAS 9.4 [39]. Genetic gain per cycle was calculated as the regression coefficient (b) divided by the corresponding cycle zero (C0) mean [40]. Proportions of each carotenoid in the parents and varietal-cross hybrids were calculated as:× 100After the removal of the check variety from the entry list, analysis of variance based on North Carolina design II was carried out using a modification of DIALLEL-SAS program developed by [41]. Entries were considered as fixed effects, while environment and effects nested within it were regarded as random effects. Significant mean square of each main effect was tested using its respective interaction with the environment; whereas HGA × HGB × environment mean square was tested using the pooled error mean square. The GCA and SCA effects of the parental synthetics as well as the variance components for each trait were calculated with Analysis of Genetic Design (AGD-R, V.5.0) [42]. Variance components were based on Restricted Maximum Likelihood Method (REML) in AGD-R [42]. The significance of GCA and SCA effects were tested using t-statistic. The relative importance of GCA and SCA also known as predictability ratio was calculated following the procedure of [43] as:where, σ 2 GCA and σ 2 SCA were variances due to GCA and SCA, respectively. Repeatability values and narrow sense heritability for each trait were calculated in AGD-R [42] Mid-parent heterosis (MPH) was calculated according to [44] as:Significance of heterosis was tested with t-statistic as:where F 1 , MP were the means of crosses and mid-parents, respectively. Tmp was calculated t of MP, while EMS was error mean square [32].In the combined analysis, both environment and hybrid had significant effects on all measured agronomic traits (Table 1). The HGA cycles (GCA) was significant for grain yield and days to anthesis and silking, while HGB cycles (GCA) and SCA effects were significant for most or all agronomic traits. In contrast, the interactions of hybrids, HGA cycles (GCA), HGB cycles (GCA) and SCA with the environment were not significant, except for days to silking (Table 1). Significant effects of the environment and hybrid were also found for all or most carotenoids (Table 2). Although the effects of both HGA cycles (GCA) and HGB cycles (GCA) were significant for almost all the carotenoids, the SCA had no significant effects. Repeatability estimates for agronomic traits and carotenoids were generally high (Tables 1 and 2). Narrow-sense heritability estimates were moderate to high (0.50-0.82) for most agronomic traits and high (0.79-0.98) for all carotenoids except for α-carotene which was zero (Table 2).  Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) had little effect on grain yield and agronomic traits of the maize synthetics in this study (Table 3). The three selection cycles of each maize synthetics produced significantly less grain yields than the released provitamin A enriched maize variety (PVASYN13). However, MARS increased provitamin A and β-carotene content in HGA but not in HGB (Table 4). The changes in provitamin A and β-carotene content in HGA were associated with increase in lutein but decreases in zeaxanthin and β-cryptoxanthin. The changes in HGB with MARS did not follow any consistent trend for lutein, zeaxanthin and β-cryptoxanthin (Table 4).  There was no significant difference among five varietal-cross hybrids in grain yield, but all produced significantly higher grain yields than the released provitamin A enriched maize variety, PVASYN13 (Table 5). These varietal-cross hybrids did not show marked differences in other agronomic traits except PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC1 which significantly differed in ear aspect (Table 5). They were also found to be competitive with PVASYN13 in other agronomic traits. In the present study, lutein followed by provitamin A, zeaxanthin, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin and α-carotene accounted for 28%, 22%, 22%, 17%, 8% and 3% of the total carotenoid (Supplementary Figure S2). Three varietal-cross hybrids did not differ significantly from PVASYN13 in their provitamin A content, with PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC2 having 0.4µg/g more provitamin A than PVASYN13 (Table 6). Crosses of PVASYNHGBC0 with PVASYNHGAC0, PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGAC2 had higher provitamin A and β-carotene content as opposed to other varietal-cross hybrids, except PVASYNHGBC2/PVASYNHGAC2. All varietal-cross hybrids with high provitamin A and β-carotene also had higher lutein content (Table 6).  LSD: Least significant difference, CV: Coefficient of variation.The synthetic parent PVASYNHGAC0 and selection cycles PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGBC2 had significant and positive GCA effects for grain yield, whereas PVASYNHGAC2, PVASYNHGBC1 had significant and negative GCA effects for this trait (Table 7). PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGBC0 had significant and negative GCA effects for anthesis and silking days, whereas PVASYNHGAC2 and PVASYNHGBC1 had significant and positive GCA effects for these traits. PVASYNHGBC1 also had significant and positive GCA effects for plant aspect and ear aspect scores, which are undesirable. The only selection cycles with significant and positive GCA effects for provitamin A, β-carotene and lutein content were PVASYNHGAC2 and PVASYNHGBC0, while others had significant negative or no effects for these traits and other carotenoids. Also, PVASYNHGAC2 had significant and negative GCA effects for zeaxanthin and β-cryptoxanthin (Table 7). There was an inverse relationship between GCA effect for grain yield and GCA effect for provitamin A in HGA but not in HGB. Amongst the nine varietal cross hybrids, four (PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC0, PVASYNHGBC2/ PVASYNHGAC0, PVASYNHGBC2/PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGBC1/PVASYNHGAC2) combined significant and positive SCA effects for grain yield with desirable SCA effects in other agronomic traits (Table 8). Almost all the carotenoids including provitamin A had no significant SCA effects in the present study. Predictability ratio which shows the relative importance of GCA over SCA in the inheritance of each trait in the hybrids was moderate for grain yield and other agronomic traits and high for provitamin A and other carotenoids (Table 8).Five varietal-cross hybrids had significant mid-parent heterosis (MPH) for grain yield, while three other hybrids had non-significant MPH for the trait (Table 9). Although MPH for all carotenoids including provitamin A was not significant, however, PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC0, PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC2 had positive MPH for provitamin A. Two of these varietal-cross hybrids PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC0 and PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC1 combined significant positive mid-parent heterosis for grain yield with positive MPH for provitamin A content (Table 9).  This study was carried out to examine the effect of MARS on agronomic performance, carotenoid content, combining ability and heterosis of maize synthetics, which were improved with selection for provitamin A through high throughput markers. Results showed that environmental differences significantly induced genotypic variations in grain yield, agronomic traits and provitamin A accumulation, possibly due to differences in climatic and edaphic factors in the different environments [12]. The non-significant genotype × environment interaction for grain yield indicated that the synthetics and their cross hybrids were stable across test environments, suggesting that they have broad adaptation to diverse field environments [45]. In addition, the non-crossover genotype × environment interaction for provitamin A and β-carotene indicate that the synthetics had consistent ranks in the different environments, consistent with the findings in other studies [11,27,30].MARS was effective in improving provitamin A, β-carotene and lutein content in HGA. However, MARS decreased zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin and α-carotene in HGA and Provitamin A, β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin in HGB, suggesting that MARS increased favorable alleles of crtRB1 and LCYE more in HGA than in HGB, consistent with the earlier report of [25]. As grain yield and other agronomic traits were not targeted during the improvement of the two maize synthetics using MARS, there was no apparent improvement in grain yield in HGA but there was a 4% increase in grain yield per cycle in HGB, signifying the needs for further improvements of these traits in the two maize synthetics. Genetic gain in grain yield in HGB was lower than the results obtained by [46]but higher than the gains in two open-pollinated maize cultivars studied by [14]. It is difficult to compare the genetic gain in provitamin A obtained in this study with those of other studies as there are no reports of maize improved for provitamin A through high throughput provitamin A markers. However, the result is consistent with the findings of [14]who used S 1 selection method to improve provitamin A and other carotenoids in open-pollinated maize cultivars. The increase in provitamin A content with either improvement or little change in grain yield in the present study, was contrary to the results reported in other studies indicating undesirable association between the two traits [14,47,48]. Consequently, simultaneous improvements in grain yield and provitamin A can be made through combined use of marker-based and phenotypic selections to develop desirable source populations.The observed significant GCA and SCA effects for grain yield and other agronomic traits in our study indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of these traits [32]. Conversely, the significant GCA but non-significant SCA effects for provitamin A and most carotenoids indicated the predominance of additive gene effects in their inheritance, consistent with the results reported in other studies involving maize inbred lines [26,28,30,49,50]. This, however, contradicts with the results of [27,29] who reported the presence of additive and non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of Provitamin A while [31] reported the preponderance of non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of provitamin A and other carotenoids. In spite of the conflicting reports obtained in studies involving maize inbred lines with different genetic backgrounds, our study had provided additional information on the mode of gene action controlling the inheritance of provitamin A and carotenoids in maize synthetics.The presence of additive and non-additive gene effects for grain yield and agronomic traits in the current study suggests that the maize synthetics could further be improved through recurrent selection to increase the frequency of favourable alleles [27,51]. Both additive and non-additive gene effects are important for exploitation of heterosis in hybrid development [52]. The cycles of selection of HGA and HGB with significant positive GCA effects for both grain yield and provitamin A carotenoids could be selected as potential testers to detect differences among testcrosses of new maize inbred lines in provitamin A content and agronomic performance. Such selection cycles of the two synthetics can also be targeted for further improvement using reciprocal recurrent selection to develop source populations for divergent maize inbred lines that optimize expression of heterosis in both grain yield and provitamin A content. Furthermore, the predominance of GCA over SCA effects highlights the potential that exists for effective evaluation of early generation lines to identify promising hybrids for further testing [51]. The preponderance of additive gene effect for Provitamin A and other carotenoids indicated that the favorable alleles of CrtRB1 and LCYE could be accumulated for enhanced provitamin A content in varietal-cross hybrids [50]. The varietal-cross hybrids PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC0 and PVASYNHGBC2/PVASYNHGAC0 which had positive SCA effects for grain yield and provitamin A could be improved further using reciprocal recurrent selection to develop new and divergent maize inbred lines for optimizing heterosis in hybrids.The observed significant MPH for grain yield in most of the varietal-cross hybrids could be attributed to the presence of additive and non-additive gene effects arising from significant GCA and SCA effects. Conversely, the low and non-significant MPH observed for provitamin A and other carotenoids could be due to the non-significant SCA effects for maize carotenoids. Hybrid vigor in maize is manifested in the offspring of inbred lines with high SCA effects [32]. Therefore, the lack of significant SCA effects for provitamin A and β-carotene is an evidence of lack of dominance effects of favorable alleles in the maize hybrids. [53] stated that, to achieve significant heterosis for provitamin A in maize, non-additive gene effect is required. However, the positive heterosis for provitamin A and β-carotene observed in crosses involving PVASYNHGBC0 could be due to its significant GCA effects. It thus appears that PVASYNHGBC0 carried favorable alleles that could result in heterosis when crossed with other genotypes with high provitamin A contents. The relatively low level of heterosis for provitamin A and other carotenoids recorded in most of the varietal cross hybrids in the current study is consistent with the results of [33] who reported that heterosis for provitamin A carotenoids is rare and infrequent in yellow or dent maize. Although the genetic basis of heterosis is yet to be unraveled [54], [33] attributed heterosis for maize carotenoids to being influenced by QTLs' affecting the total flux through the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway as well as QTLs that favor flux to one branch of the pathway over the other branch. Based on the results of the current study, continuous selection for favorable alleles of β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin of the β-branch of the pathway with corresponding reduction of flux into the α-branch could further increase heterosis of provitamin A in the maize varietal-cross hybrids [2,8,55].The five varietal-cross hybrids which had significant MPH for grain yield produced significantly higher yields in comparison to the released provitamin A enriched maize variety (PVASYN13). In addition, two of the varietal-cross hybrids had positive MPH for grain yield, provitamin A and β-carotene content. This demonstrates the genetic potentials of the varietal-cross hybrids for grain yield and provitamin A. Xanthophylls (Lutein and Zeaxanthin) constituted 50% of the total carotenoids in this study, consistent with carotenoid profiles of commonly reported in tropical maize germplasm [12,27,31,33]. The relative proportions of provitamin A (22%), β-carotene (17%), β-cryptoxanthin (8%) and α-carotene (3%) obtained in kernels of the genotypes included in this study were higher than the corresponding values commonly reported for yellow maize by the USDA National Nutrient Database (ndb.nal.usda.gov). In addition, previous authors [11,12,15,17,[26][27][28][29]31,56] had reported lower levels of provitamin A, β-carotene and lutein than obtained in this study. This implied that the maize synthetics and their varietal-cross hybrids in our study contained appreciable levels of provitamin A carotenoids and xanthophylls that could be deployed in breeding programs to combat vitamin A deficiency and other related diseases in SSA.Marker-assisted recurrent selection was effective in improving provitamin A, β-carotene and lutein in HGA and zeaxanthin and α-carotene in HGB. The study demonstrated that grain yield and agronomic traits of maize synthetics were controlled by additive and non-additive gene effects, while provitamin A and associated carotenoids were predominantly controlled by additive gene effects. This was important in identifying parents that could be sources of inbred lines combining high grain yield with high provitamin A content in maize breeding programs. Some varietal-cross hybrids had significant mid-parent heterosis for grain yield and moderate mid-parent heterosis for provitamin A, β-carotene and xanthophylls. The synthetic parent PVASYNHGBC0 and varietal-cross hybrids PVASYNHGBC0/PVASYNHGAC0 and PVASYNHGBC2/PVASYNHGAC0 which combined well for both grain yield and provitamin A content could be advanced in breeding programs for inbred line development. Other parents such as PVASYNHGAC0, PVASYNHGAC1 and PVASYNHGBC2 which combined well for grain yield and agronomic traits, and PVASYNHGAC2 which combined well for provitamin A content could further be improved to develop source populations for divergent maize inbred lines.The following are available online at http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/11/1625/s1, Table S1: Two provitamin A maize synthetics, their selection cycles, varietal-cross hybrids and a check variety included in the present study, Table S2: crtRB1 Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) assays used to improve provitamin A carotenoids in two maize synthetics (HGA and HGB) evaluated across eight environment in Nigeria, Table S3: Agroecological zones, average rainfall, temperature, relative humidity and soil type of the study locations, Figure S1a ","tokenCount":"4797"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"74ab86cf5500b2e4060cba40110cb10c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/347ae068-fa0c-4a92-81bd-003c2412aab0/content","id":"534861303"},"keywords":["BLUP, best linear unbiased prediction","BV, bivariate prediction","CT, canopy temperature","GNDVI, green NDVI","GS, genomic selection","HTP, high-throughput phenotyping","ISE, indirect selection efficiency","MT, multitrait","MV1, first multivariate prediction","MV2, second multivariate prediction","NDVI, normalized difference vegetation index","RNDVI, red NDVI","RR, random regression","SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism","SR, simple repeatability","UV, univariate prediction"],"sieverID":"2a10d308-05ad-4606-b4d0-705e0ebb2793","pagecount":"12","content":"High-throughput phenotyping (HTP) platforms can be used to measure traits that are genetically correlated with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield across time. Incorporating such secondary traits in the multivariate pedigree and genomic prediction models would be desirable to improve indirect selection for grain yield. In this study, we evaluated three statistical models, simple repeatability (SR), multitrait (MT), and random regression (RR), for the longitudinal data of secondary traits and compared the impact of the proposed models for secondary traits on their predictive abilities for grain yield. Grain yield and secondary traits, canopy temperature (CT) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), were collected in five diverse environments for 557 wheat lines with available pedigree and genomic information. A two-stage analysis was applied for pedigree and genomic selection (GS). First, secondary traits were fitted by SR, MT, or RR models, separately, within each environment. Then, best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) of secondary traits from the above models were used in the multivariate prediction models to compare predictive abilities for grain yield. Predictive ability was substantially improved by 70%, on average, from multivariate pedigree and genomic models when including secondary traits in both training and test populations. Additionally, (i) predictive abilities slightly varied for MT, RR, or SR models in this data set, (ii) results indicated that including BLUPs of secondary traits from the MT model was the best in severe drought, and (iii) the RR model was slightly better than SR and MT models under drought environment.W ith the advent of next-generation sequencing technology, GS becomes feasible, making it possible to accelerate breeding cycles over traditional approaches. Genomic selection aims to take advantage of low-cost, genome-wide molecular markers to increase genetic gain of complex quantitative traits (Poland et al., 2012), and it has been applied in wheat (Rutkoski et al., 2011(Rutkoski et al., , 2012;;Poland et al., 2012). On the other hand, there is increasing focus on HTP platforms (Araus and Cairns, 2014) that are capable of measuring large-scale, high-density phenotyping across time at high accuracy and low labor intensity (Yang et al., 2014). If the traits collected from HTP platforms are genetically correlated with the primary trait, such traits could be considered as secondary traits to improve rates of genetic gain for the primary trait in GS. In addition, using secondary traits collected from HTP platforms would also be useful to predict primary trait at early growth stages, as they could be phenotyped ahead of the primary trait like grain yield.Grain yield is a complex quantitative trait that is controlled by many genes and is influenced by environment (Narjesi et al., 2015). Traits like CT and NDVI can be measured from HTP platforms continuously across plant growth stages. They are genetically correlated with grain yield and have been applied to predict grain yield in previous studies (Labus et al., 2002;Mason and Singh, 2014;Quarmby et al., 1993;Rees et al., 1993). The negative correlation between CT and grain yield can be used as a selection criterion in wheat breeding (Rees et al., 1993;Mason and Singh, 2014), particularly under heatstressed environments (Mason and Singh, 2014). The green NDVI (GNDVI) and red NDVI (RNDVI) are vegetation indices calculated by the difference between nearinfrared reflectance and green-red reflectance (Gitelson et al., 1996;Tucker, 1979), and wheat grain yield could be well estimated before harvest using NDVI based on a linear relationship between yield and the index (Labus et al., 2002;Quarmby et al., 1993). Multivariate pedigree and genomic prediction models have been shown to improve prediction accuracy when there is a strong correlation between secondary traits and a primary trait (Pszczola et al., 2013;Guo et al., 2014). Rutkoski et al. (2016) found that including CT and NDVI as secondary traits for grain yield in a multivariate prediction model could improve prediction accuracies vs. a univariate model.In GS, it is more computationally efficient and simpler to use two-stage analysis than a one-stage analysis. Therefore, prior to using the secondary traits in prediction models, secondary traits could be first fit with the models that are able to handle data from HTP platforms. Canopy temperature and NDVI from HTP platforms are measured at many time points throughout the growth cycle and can be considered as longitudinal data. Such data sets are common in animal breeding for traits such as body weight of cattle growth. Models generally applied to longitudinal data in animal breeding include the SR (also named repeatability model in animal breeding), MT, and RR models. Rutkoski et al. (2016) used the SR model for secondary traits collected across time points by considering each time point within a growth stage (either vegetative or grain filling) as a repetitive collection for the same trait and incorporated best linear unbiased estimates of secondary traits from the SR model into multivariate pedigree and genomic prediction models. However, the SR model assumes constant variance and correlation at or between measurement dates, which may not be realistic for longitudinal data collected at different time points especially when time points span growth stages (Meyer and Hill, 1997). In the MT model, secondary traits at different time points are considered as multiple response variables for each line. However, a high correlation between consecutive measurements and computational requirements can restrict the application of the MT model (Speidel, 2011). The RR model has been applied to capture the change of a trait continually over growth stages with fewer parameters than the MT model in animal breeding. Furthermore, the assumptions for constant variances and correlations are not required in the RR model compared with the SR model (Meyer, 2000). A covariance at or between each time point can also be fitted in the RR model using different functions, typically Legendre polynomials (Meyer, 2005). Nonetheless, it has been observed that high-degree Legendre polynomials rapidly changed at the extremes, causing poor estimates of genetic parameters and variance components (Boligon et al., 2012;Meyer, 2005;Misztal, 2006). Compared with Legendre polynomials, spline functions with fractional polynomials are less prone to those problems because the growth curve is joined smoothly by short segments and each segment is only determined by each coefficient of the spline function (Boligon et al., 2012;Meyer, 2005;Misztal, 2006).The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate statistical models that could efficiently handle the longitudinal data for secondary traits from HTP platforms by comparing SR, MT and RR models and (ii) test the impact of the proposed models for the secondary traits based on their heritabilities, genetic correlations with grain yield, and genomic predictive abilities for grain yield.In our study, the data set was the same as reported in Rutkoski et al. (2016). We used 630 wheat inbreed breeding lines for subsequent analysis, and they were from the 2013-2014 growing season at the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Obregon, Mexico. Those lines were grouped into 21 trials, and each trial includes 28 lines and two checks in an -lattice design with three replicates and six blocks. The trials were planted in five diverse environments: optimal, early heat, late heat, drought, and severe drought. The sowing and irrigation conditions in each environment have been described in Rutkoski et al. (2016). High-throughput phenotyping data (secondary traits: CT and NDVI) were collected by the hyperspectral and thermal camera in an aircraft over wheat growth stages, and grain yield for those lines were evaluated. The number of dates available for each secondary trait varied in each environment. There were eight, seven, three, five, and six time points available for optimal, early heat, late heat, drought, and severe drought, respectively, and all time points were considered in either vegetative or grain filling stages.Genome-wide genotyping of lines were based on genotyping-by-sequencing. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were filtered, resulting in 12,083 SNPs available for 557 individuals. The criteria for filtering were as follows: the markers were removed if >80% of the individuals had missing data for a SNP, or if >20% of individuals were heterozygous for a SNP, and lines had >80% missing markers were removed. In addition, markers were also filtered for minor allele frequency <0.01, and missing data were imputed based on the mean of markers (Rutkoski et al., 2016).Two-step GS was applied in this study. In the first step, BLUPs of 630 lines were predicted for grain yield and secondary traits, separately. The BLUPs of secondary traits were predicted from the first two replicates, and the BLUPs of grain yield were predicted using the third replicate. Using BLUPs of secondary traits and grain yield in different replicates for model training and validation ensures that the genomic prediction accuracy for grain yield from secondary traits will not be inflated by the sharing of specific-environment effects.For grain yield, BLUPs of each genotype were predicted based on a simple mixed model using the data from the third replicate within each environment, the matrix notation is as follows:where y is the vector of observations for grain yield; X, Z, W, and Q are incidence matrices corresponding to the fixed effect (b), random genetic effect (g), random environmental trial effect (t), and random environmental block effects (p); and e is the random residual errors. The variance and covariance structures are based on the following assumptions:( ) ; s 2 g is the genetic variance; s 2 t and s 2 p are environmental variances; s 2 e is the residual variance; and I is the identity matrix.For secondary traits, CT and NDVI, BLUPs of each genotype were predicted by fitting three models (SR, MT, or RR spline models) separately using the first two replicates. Since available time points varied for each secondary trait under each environment, three models were also fit for each trait within each environment.Data collected at each time point in the SR model were considered as repeated records of the same trait for each line. The SR model was the same as Eq. [1] with the fixed effect for time point and additional random effect for replicate, the matrix format is as follows:where y is the vector of observations for secondary traits; X, Z, W, S, and Q are incidence matrices corresponding to the fixed effect for time point (b), random genetic effect (g), random environmental effect for trial (t), random environmental effect for replicate (r), and random environmental effect for block (p); and e is the random residual errors. The variance and covariance structures are based on the following assumptions:( ) For the MT model, data collected at each time point was considered as a single trait. The MT model in matrix form was expressed as the following:where y i is the vector of observations for the secondary trait at ith time point; X i , Z i , W i , S i , and Q i are incidence matrices relating the observations in y i to the fixed effects in b i , random genetic effects in g i , random environmental effects (trial, replicate, and block) in t i , r i , and p i , respectively, at ith time point; and n is number of time points for each secondary trait in each environment. The variance components are defined as, where K g is a covariance matrix of random genetic effects, K t , K r , and K p are covariance matrices of random environmental effects; R is a covariance matrix of random residual effects; I is an identity matrix with different orders for different random effects; and ⊗ denotes the Kronocker product. In addition, K g and R are assumed unstructured variance-covariance structures in the model, and K t , K r , and K p are diagonal variance-covariance structures. The overall BLUP for each genotype in each environment from MT model were averaged over time points in each environment.Let y ijklm be the observations for secondary trait for jth line, kth trial, lth replicate, and mth block at time point i. The following model is derived from White et al. (1999), which is equivalent to a RR model (Meyer, 1998(Meyer, , 2005)), and additional permanent random environmental effects was included. The model was fitted using a cubic smoothing spline in ASReml-R (Butler et al., 2009). A spline is a curve that is joined continuously by multiple polynomial segments, and each joint is referred to as a knot (Meyer, 2005). A cubic smoothing spline consists of piecewise cubic functions, and a roughness penalty is imposed to determine the balance between smoothness and reliability of the data (White et al., 1999). Green and Silverman (1994) discussed details about cubic smoothing splines:where t ijklm is the time point i for line j at trial k, replicate l, and block m and b 0 (intercept) and b 1 (slope) are the general linear regression over time t ijklm as fixed. The rest of terms in Eq. ( )is a mean spline deviation, z n (t ijklm ) is the function of time points as covariables, cubic smooth spline function was implemented in this model, v n is the regression coefficient for each spline function z n (t ijklm ), and q is the number of regression coefficients (number of knots for spline in this model) fitted for genetic and environmental effects;( )and other similar terms, ( )(block  spline), are deviation from the mean spline for additive genetic effect of line j and permanent environmental effects including trial k, replicate l, and block m for line j; and  ijklm is the residual error term. In this model, number of knots was the same as the number of time points for each secondary trait under each environment. Detailed information about this model can be found in White et al. (1999).The matrix notation for RR model is (Mrode, 2005):where y is the vector of observations for secondary traits, X is the incidence matrix corresponding to fixed effects and fixed regression coefficients, b is the vector for fixed effect and fixed regression. The matrices Z, W, S, and Q are covariable matrices relating to random genetic, random environmental trial, replicate, and block effects; and g, t, r, and p are vectors of random regressions for genetic and environmental effects. The variance components are assumed as:( ), N e I K , where K g , K t , K r , and K p are covariance matrices (of the order equal to the order of the spline polynomial fitted) between random regression coefficients for random genetic and random environmental (trial, replicate, and block) effects, respectively; I is the identity with different orders corresponding to genetic and environmental effects, and Ä denotes the Kronocker product.The predict function implemented in ASReml-R was used to calculate the BLUP for each line at each time point. The overall BLUP for each line was averaged over time points in each environment, which was the same approach used for the MT model.Variance components for narrow-sense heritability for each secondary trait and grain yield in each environment were estimated using the following model:where y is the BLUPs of genotypes from SR, MT, or RR spline models for secondary traits or BLUPs of genotypes from the mixed model Eq.[1] for grain yield; X and Z are incidence matrices corresponding to the fixed effect (b) and random genetic effect (g); and e is the random residual errors. The variance and covariance structures are based on the following assumptions:where G is the genomic relationship matrix, orwhere A is the pedigree relationship matrix and s 2 a is the additive genetic variance;s 2 e ~(0, ) N e I , where s 2 e is the residual variance; and I is the identity matrix. Narrowsense heritability was calculated asVariance and covariance components for correlations were estimated using the multivariate model (Eq.[5]) in Rutkoski et al. (2016) in each environment. The response variables (y) were the BLUPs of genotypes from SR, MT, or RR models for secondary traits and BLUPs of genotypes from the mixed model (Eq. [1]) for grain yield. Genetic correlations between secondary traits and grain yield were calculated as follows:var ST var GRYLD r where r g(ST,GRYLD) is the genetic correlation between a secondary trait (either CT or NDVI) and grain yield, var g (ST) and var g (GRYLD) are the genetic variances of secondary trait and grain yield, respectively, and cov g (ST,GRYLD) is the genetic covariance between a secondary trait and grain yield. Phenotypic correlations between secondary traits and grain yield were also calculated based on Pearson correlations. Indirect selection efficiency (ISE) was estimated based on Falconer and Mackay (1996) under the assumption of the same intensity for both direct and indirect selection:where 2 ST h is the narrow-sense heritability for a secondary trait (CT or NDVI), 2 GRYLD h is the narrow-sense heritability for grain yield, and r g(ST,GRYLD) is the genetic correlation between a secondary trait and grain yield estimated either using genomic or pedigree based relationships.In the second step of GS, the BLUPs of 557 individuals from the SR, MT, or RR model for secondary traits or from the mixed model (Eq. [1]) for grain yield were used as dependent variables in the genomic prediction modeling. As the lines in this data set are replicated the same number of times in each environment, differential shrinkage of the BLUPs used as the dependent variable for genomic prediction is not an issue in this case. Four different prediction models (Supplemental Fig. S1) were used to compare SR, MT, and RR models and to check the efficiency of genomic and pedigree prediction with secondary traits.The univariate prediction (UV) model with grain yield only is the same as the model expressed in Eq. [6], where y is the BLUPs of genotypes from the mixed model (Eq. [1]) for grain yield only.Two multivariate genomic prediction models were applied to identify the improvement of genomic prediction for grain yield with additional secondary traits in the model fitting. For the first multivariate prediction (MV1) model, three secondary traits were included in both training and testing population (Supplemental Fig. S1). For the second multivariate prediction (MV2) model, three secondary traits were only included in the training population (Supplemental Fig. S1). The model was as follows:where n is the number of traits (here n = 4, including three secondary traits and grain yield); y i are BLUPs of genotypes from SR, MT, or RR spline models for secondary traits and BLUPs of genotypes from the mixed model Eq.[1] for grain yield; X i and Z i are the fixed and random effects design matrix, individually, b i , g i , and e i are vectors of fixed effects, random genetic, and residual effects for each trait, respectively. Variance components were estimated by assuming ( )where G or A is the genomic or pedigree relationship matrices, and H is the variance-covariance matrix for traits; and( ), where I is an identity matrix, and R is the residual variance-covariance matrix between traits. Both H and R are assumed as unstructured.In addition to those prediction models, the improvement of predictive ability from a single secondary trait was also tested. Bivariate prediction (BV) model, which included additional single secondary trait in both training and testing populations (Supplemental Fig. S1), was the same as MV model (Eq. [7]). The number of traits (n = 2) includes grain yield and one of the secondary traits in the model.Five-fold cross-validation was applied for all predictions. For each fold, predictive abilities were calculated as the Pearson correlation between BLUPs of grain yield from mixed model (Eq. [1]) and estimated breeding values of grain yield from the above prediction models in the testing population based on either genomic or pedigree relationship matrix. Cross-validation was conducted within each environment.Data analysis was implemented in the R environment (R Development Core Team, 2010), and all models were fitted in ASReml-R (Butler et al., 2009). Genomic relationship matrix was calculated according to Eq. [15] in Endelman and Jannink (2012) using the R package rrB-LUP (Endelman, 2011). The pedigree relationship matrix was estimated as 2 the coefficient of parentage using the International Crop Information System.The heritability estimates for grain yield (Table 1) were lower than those of NDVI (Table 2) in all environments, whereas they were higher than the heritability estimates of CT (Table 2) in late heat and severe drought environments. Among five environments, relatively high heritabilities for secondary traits and relatively low heritability for grain yield were both observed in the optimal environment. Among SR, MT, and RR models, higher heritability estimates for secondary traits were observed using BLUPs from the MT model than the SR and RR models under most environments except severe drought. In addition, heritability estimates using the genomic relationship matrix were higher than those using the pedigree relationship matrix for both grain yield and secondary traits under all five environments.Correlations (Table 3) between secondary traits and grain yield varied across environments. Canopy temperature showed a higher correlation with grain yield than NDVI in most environments except severe drought, where NDVI had higher correlation with grain yield than CT. Among five environments, the highest correlations between secondary traits and grain yield were observed in the late heat for CT and in the severe drought for NDVI. Among SR, MT, and RR models, higher correlations between secondary traits and grain yield were observed using BLUPs from SR and RR models than MT model under most environments except severe drought where MT model was better than the other two. For CT, higher correlations with grain yield using the genomic rather than the pedigree relationship matrix were observed under late heat and drought, and for NDVI, this was observed in late heat and severe drought environments.Four different prediction models (Supplemental Fig. S1) were tested in this data set. The multivariate MV1 model outperformed the MV2 model and the UV model; however, the MV2 model showed similar predictive ability as UV even though secondary traits were included in the training population for the MV2 model. From the comparison between prediction models UV and MV1 (Fig. 1; above MV1), the average improvement of predictive ability for grain yield over UV was 70% based on either genomic or pedigree relationship matrix. Besides, the predictive ability from the BV model with a single secondary trait (Fig. 2) was superior to the UV model as well, and including CT in BV provided better predictive ability for grain yield than NDVI in all environments except droughtstressed environments. Additionally, positive relationships were observed between predictive ability gained from a single secondary trait and ISE of single secondary trait from SR, MT, or RR models (Fig. 3).For secondary traits included in either multivariate or BV models, we used BLUPs of secondary traits from SR, MT, or RR models, individually. Based on the predictive ability from the multivariate MV1 model with all three secondary traits, among SR, MT, and RR models, MT and SR models performed slightly better than RR model in the heat-stressed environments (Fig. 1; above MV1). However, predictive ability based on BLUPs from the MT and RR models were superior to SR model in drought-stressed environments, where MT model was the best in severe drought environment and RR model was slightly better than others in the drought environment (Fig. 1; above MV1).It was reported in previous research that taking advantage of correlated and high heritability traits improved the prediction accuracy of low-heritability traits in a multivariate prediction model based on simulation (Jia and Jannink, 2012). In our data set, the heritability estimates for grain yield were only based on one replicate of the data, which resulted in a lower heritability estimate for grain yield in the optimal environment using the pedigree relationship matrix (0.09). Nevertheless, the rest of heritabilities were still moderate from 0.22 to 0.47. In contrast to the heritability of grain yield, the heritabilities of secondary traits were relatively high, which should be beneficial to the predictive ability for grain yield. In this study, the relatively high heritabilities of secondary traits contributed to substantial improvement of predictive ability for grain yield in the multivariate prediction model. For example, among five environments, although secondary traits only had moderate correlation with grain yield in the optimal environment, we observed the greatest improvement of predictive ability for grain yield in this environment (84% in genomic relationship, 101% in pedigree relationship), which should be a result of the higher heritabilities of secondary traits and the lower heritability of grain yield. In addition, even when the heritability estimate of the secondary trait was lower than the primary trait, the predictive ability was still improved as a result of the high correlation between those two traits, for example, CT in late heat environment. However, the amount of improvement was indeed affected by the heritability. Accordingly, both heritabilities and correlations of secondary traits with grain yield played significant roles to improve predictive ability for the primary trait in the multivariate prediction model. This was reflected in Fig. 3, where ISE calculated based on the square root of heritability ratio and correlation of secondary traits and grain yield was associated with the improvement of predictive ability.Multivariate prediction models take advantage of genetically correlated secondary traits (Guo et al., 2014). Hence, including secondary traits in both training and test populations improved the prediction accuracy for grain yield by efficiently employing strong genetic correlations between secondary traits and grain yield. However, we also found that predictive abilities were not increased when the secondary traits only existed in training population (Fig. 1; below MV2), which was also reported by Pszczola et al. (2013) and Rutkoski et al. (2016). Based on previous studies, a multivariate prediction model would be superior to a UV model when the trait of interest has low heritability, missing data, or large differences in genetic and residual correlations compared with the secondary traits (Guo et al., 2014;Pszczola et al., 2013). One possible reason mentioned in Rutkoski et al. (2016) was the moderate heritabilities of grain yield in this data set resulted in the ineffectiveness of multivariate prediction model when secondary traits only in training population. However, it could be favorable in breeding to include secondary traits to make selections when the primary trait is difficult to measure under circumstances including severe weather  conditions, limited seeds, or expensive cost of phenotyping (Guo et al., 2014;Rutkoski et al., 2016). In this study, the BLUPs for secondary traits and grain yield were predicted separately with data in different replicates (environments). The predictive ability of the UV model was slightly lower when only one replicate was used for grain yield (0.29 on average) than using all three replicates (0.34 on average). However, the predictive ability comparison between the UV model and the multivariate prediction models would be more robust as the environmental covariance between secondary traits and grain yield should be avoided based on data in different environments for them in the multivariate prediction models.Heritability and correlation varied for each secondary trait in each environment, resulting in different predictive abilities for each secondary trait. Canopy temperature predicted grain yield best in the heat-stressed environments, which was consistent with the conclusion of Mason and Singh (2014), and NDVI predicted grain yield better than CT in the drought-stressed environments. In addition, we observed that including all secondary traits in the pedigree and genomic multivariate prediction model did not necessarily improve the predictive ability for grain yield compared with only a single secondary trait, indicating that the predictive ability in the multivariate prediction model was mostly determined by the secondary trait with the highest ISE. Therefore, a single secondary trait could be selected in different environments, based on the ISE, to provide the best prediction accuracy using a simple BV model. However, if computational resources allowed, incorporating all secondary traits in the prediction model would ensure stable and high prediction accuracy across all environments.Both pedigree and genomic prediction models were compared in this study. Among five environments, the heritability estimates for grain yield from genomic data were higher than those from pedigree based relationship, whereas predictive abilities for grain yield from pedigree performed better than those from genomic based relationship in the UV model and even in the MV2 model in early heat and severe drought environments. Furthermore, including secondary traits in the MV1 model also resulted in similar or only slightly higher prediction accuracy from genomic than pedigree based relationship in all environments as was observed by Pszczola et al. (2013). We observed different scales in genomic-and pedigree-based relationship matrices (Supplemental Fig. S2), which could influence the comparability of heritability estimates from two relationships in this data set.In addition, CIMMYT has a reliable and deep pedigree database extending over several generations that contributes to predictive ability. Also, 557 lines were derived from 332 families in this population, giving an average of one to two lines per family. One advantage of genomic relationship vs. pedigree relationship is that it captures the variation within family as a result of Mendelian sampling (Pszczola et al., 2013), and the variance within family in this population may be very limited because of small family sizes compared with the variance among families. However, the relatively higher association between gains in predictive ability and ISE of a single predictive trait using genomic instead of pedigree based relationship indicated the gain in predictive ability from secondary traits was greater when genomic relationships were used.Best linear unbiased predictions of secondary traits from the MT model provided higher heritability estimates than the other two models, SR and RR, under most environments except severe drought. Similar results were observed in previous studies (Ahrabi, 2015;Iwaisaki et al., 2005;Menéndez-Buxadera et al., 2008;Oh and See, 2008). In contrast to heritability estimates, the correlations between grain yield and secondary traits from the MT model were lower than the other two models under most environments except severe drought. Opposite trends for heritability and correlation were observed by comparing SR, MT, and RR models. Relatively higher heritability estimates of secondary traits among the three models were coupled with relatively lower correlations with grain yield.In this study, we observed that predictive abilities for grain yield using BLUPs of secondary traits from the RR model was only slightly better than the SR and MT models in the drought environment. However, in other studies, the RR model was considered to be superior to the SR and MT models. The number of time points in this data set might influence the growth curve adjustment of the RR model, particularly for those regions where data changes rapidly (Kranis et al., 2007;Mota et al., 2013).Increasing number of the time points will cause overparameterized analysis in the MT model (Oh and See, 2008). Thus, the small differences between the MT and RR models might be caused by the few time points available in our data set. As for the SR model, it also showed accuracy similar to the other two models. The correlations between BLUPs of secondary traits from three models were close to one, particularly for those between the SR and RR models. This was also reported in a cattle study using those three models (Gernand and König, 2014). The repeatability of secondary traits was high and similar across time points in our data set, which could be another reason for these results. Although the SR model is a simple and fast approach, it may not always be desirable to apply the model in longitudinal data because of limiting assumptions (Kranis et al., 2007). Since the RR model is attractive for longitudinal data because of the advantages of handling many unequally spaced time points and capturing the covariance between or at each time point (Huisman et al., 2002;Meyer, 2005), it would be valuable to investigate this model further using other data sets. Several directions could be taken for the RR model in the future: (i) evaluate the RR model using a data set including more time points to check if it would better model the genetic variation over time (Kranis et al., 2007); (ii) explore the number and location of knots for the spline RR model to improve the accuracy of the growth curve fit (Speidel, 2011); (iii) instead of using information from all time points, analyze estimated breeding values from each time point separately to select the optimum period in genomic prediction for grain yield; and (iv) incorporate genotype  environment effects in the prediction model to capture the relationship among environments.The predictive abilities for grain yield were improved ~70%, on average, by including BLUPs of secondary traits from the SR, MT, or RR models in the multivariate pedigree and genomic selection models. In this data set, our results showed that the RR or MT model was superior to the SR model in drought-stressed environments, and using a simple SR model for longitudinal data does not negatively affect the predictive ability for grain yield in MV models. However, more studies are necessary to further evaluate these models in other data sets. The advantages of the RR model over the SR and MT models might be more apparent for other data sets from HTP platforms that have more data collection time points within vegetative and grain filling stages. In addition, we observed that the predictive ability would only be improved if both training and test populations contain secondary traits. Single secondary trait could be selected to fit a simple BV model based on the highest ISE for a secondary trait, and this had similar prediction accuracy as when using all secondary traits in a multivariate prediction model.","tokenCount":"5540"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a09b7173a74d8196b7106d0731217f83","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fa81d092-6570-4302-9961-6ba808489693/retrieve","id":"101286610"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4431ebb9-9657-41c5-8243-4ab7311c9311","pagecount":"88","content":"Additional support was also recieved from A4NH. As part of the donor financial support to the CRPs, we especially recognize earmarked DfID support to gender research. Critical additional funds were also provided during data analysis by the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation. Authors would also like to thank men and women farmers in Malawi,RTB (http://www.rtb.cgiar.org/) is a CGIAR Research Program involving a collaboration of five research centers. It is led by the International Potato Center (CIP), and includes Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). More than 300 million people below the poverty line in developing countries depend on root, tuber and banana crops for food and income, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is working globally to harness the untapped potential of those crops in order to improve food security, nutrition, income and climate change resilience of smallholders, especially women and youth. Humidtropics was a CGIAR Research Program led by IITA that aimed to transform the lives of the rural poor in tropical Americas, Asia and Africa. It used integrated systems research and unique partnership platforms for better impact on poverty and eco-systems integrity. Core program partners were: AVRDC, Bioversity International, CIAT, CIP, FARA, icipe, ICRAF, IITA, ILRI, IWMI, and WUR. This report was made possible through the financial support of the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and the CGIAR Research Program on Humidtropics. Additional financial support was received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Editor Gordon Prain Section Authors Section 1: Gordon Prain, Patti Petesch, Nozomi Kawarazuka, Netsayi Mudege, Anne Rietveld, Lucila Rozas, Amare Tegbaru Section 2: Netsayi Mudege, Gordon Prain, Lucila Rozas Section 2: Anne Rietveld, Marlene Elias, Renee Bullock Section 4: Nozomi Kawarazuka, Lucila Rozas Section 5: Gordon Prain, Netsayi Mudege, Anne Rietveld, Nozomi Kawarazuka Correct citation: GENNOVATE RTB-HT team (2017). Gender in Agricultural Change: Towards more inclusive innovation in farming communities. GENNOVATE  Table 1.1 Location and characteristics of the RTB-HT case sample Table 3.1 Good male farmer characteristics, source: Poor and middle income Adult FGDs (Pg.17) Table 3.2 Good Female farmer characteristics, source: Poor and middle income Adult FGDs (Pg.18)Figure2.1: Top two innovations self-selected by men and women's groups (cited in FGD) in all case sites (Pg. 1) Figure 2.2a Top two innovations self-selected by women's groups (cited in FGD), by regions (Pg. 2) Figure 2.2b Top two innovations self-selected by men's groups (cited in FGD), by regions (Pg.2) Figure 2.3 Frequency of inclusion of the Focal Innovation as one of the top two innovations for all FGs in the communities where they were introduced (%) (Pg.5) Figure 2.4: Top factors supporting innovation mentioned in better off FGDs (Pg.13) Figure 2.5 Top factors hindering innovation mentioned in better off FGDs (Pg. 15) Figure 3.1 Number of women out of 10 who can move freely on their own within their village's public spaces, according to young women (n=20) and young men (n=20) (Pg. 23) Figure 3.2 Top occupational aspirations cited by young women's (n=24) and young men's (n=24) FGDs (Pg. 30) Figure 3.3 What young women and men should do once they finish their secondary studies, according to young women's (n=24) and young men's (n=24) FGDs? (Pg.34) Figure 3.4 What young women and men actually do once they stop studying, according to young women's (n=24) and young men's (n=24) FGDs? (Pg.34) Foreword GENNOVATE, Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation, is a qualitative comparative research initiative which brought together researchers from 11 of the Phase 1 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs). Together the GENNOVATE research team is advancing a two-track strategy of building an authoritative qualitative portfolio of research results and second, catalyzing gendertransformative change in international agricultural research for development (AR4D).This report forms part of a set of GENNOVATE research reports which pull together CRP-specific findings about how gender norms influence local level development dynamics, including the ability of individual men, women and young people to learn about and engage in innovation processes in agriculture and natural resource management. The findings presented in this report are primarily targeted to CRP research managers, scientists and research teams, and are meant to inform theories of change and intervention strategies, and to help identify opportunities for enhancing impact of agricultural research and development through the integration of gender transformative approaches.Across the broad GENNOVATE initiative researchers from different CRPs are working, both independently and collaboratively, on additional in-depth analyses of GENNOVATE results. Please be on the lookout for this follow up work in journal papers, books, briefing notes and other outreach products.We hope you enjoy the report.Chair, GENNOVATE Executive Committee Strategic Leader for Gender Research, CIMMYT viiGender is important in agricultural research, innovation and development. Gender norms may influence access to technology, resources, information and services and this can affect the extent to which men and women participate in and benefit from agricultural change. The role of agriculture in achieving women's empowerment and the contribution of empowerment and increased gender equality to better agricultural and nutritional outcomes has been explored primarily through small-scale studies that are difficult to generalize and with limited capacity to convince policymakers to support greater gender equality. The work on which this report is based, carried out in Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam, seeks to fill this void by using a comparative qualitative case study methodology across different communities, cultures and continents to detect commonalities and differences regarding the way gender norms and agency affect and are affected by agricultural innovation. This will allow us to identify key areas for coalition building across different cultures and to help develop strategies for gender mainstreaming in CRP RTB.During the development of the report there was always tension over whether to focus on the differences between countries and cultures or to focus on the similarities. In many discussions there was uneasiness, for example, of combining findings from Nigeria with those of Bangladesh because of the different contexts in the two countries related to gender gaps, women's empowerment and levels of physical mobility. To resolve this tension, the report adopts a two-pronged approach using \"wide\" and \"deep\" analysis. The wide analysis draws on the commonalities between the different case studies -through coding of all the qualitative data in Nvivo, a software tool to accomplish that -whilst the deeper analysis digs into individual case studies and also seeks to explain differences and even contradictions between cases. This has implications for example on development of CRP gender strategies. It is clear from the wide analysis that a single gender strategy for RTB can be drawn and applied to all regions, but there will also be need to acknowledge and address with specific interventions some regional variations. Another key insight from the wide analysis is the social and institutional as well as technical dimension of agriculture. For example, across all continents family harmony was regarded by women as important for them to benefit from agriculture and agricultural innovation.This report also has a section on youth which provides insights into how young men and women view agriculture as well as how parents view the acceptability of agriculture as a future option for their children. It also looks at the intergenerational handover of resources. There was some debate in the team regarding the meaning of 'youth'. Is the category 'youth' defined by chronological age or by life's experiences? These are difficult conceptual issues that were not fully resolved during the study precisely because youth is a transitional category and in communities where we were studying the boundaries can be fluid. Additionally, we also realize that the youth we were able to interview are those that still reside in the rural areas whilst those who left were not part of the study and this may introduce some bias in the results. However, what is clear from both youth and parents was that agriculture was not the preferred occupation but rather in most cases an occupation of last resort due to many reasons which are discussed in the report.ixThis report examines how innovation processes in locations where the CRPs on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and on Humidtropics (RTB-HT) have conducted R&D activities, both shape and are shaped by gender. It is part of GENNOVATE (\"Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation\"), an unprecedented global research collaboration involving 11 CRPs and 9 Centers involved in 137 case studies in 26 countries. GENNOVATE examines the interaction between agricultural and natural resource innovation, the expected behaviors of women and men and their \"rules of engagement\" -what we refer to as gender norms -and the levels of agency among adult and young women and men. It generates analytical findings about men and women's capacities to innovate are often differentially shaped by particular norms. RTB-HT undertook 24 case studies between 2014 and early 2016 in ten countries in SSA, Asia and Latin America. The results of case studies derive from a contextually-grounded, comparative and collaborative methodology that are expected to contribute to the CGIAR's efforts to strengthen 'systems thinking' in the new SRF and through the establishment of Agri-food Systems CRPs. The study aims to inform the design of CRP research strategies and interventions for more gender equitable adoption and adaptation of technologies and practices.The report begins with an introductory section that describes the background and key concepts, summarizes the research and sampling methods and provides the context for the 24 case studies undertaken. The following three sections present the main research findings. Section two discusses what unleashes agricultural innovation among women and men; section three develops a deeper understanding of how norms interact with and condition innovation choices and how they are changing; and section four which looks at the social conditions (the \"opportunity structure\") that enable women and men and communities to leverage opportunities for innovation and how innovation processes can be more inclusive. A stand-alone section 5 synthesizes key messages from the preceding sections.What unleashes agricultural innovation is firstly about the innovations themselves. New varieties and better quality seeds of key crops are of major importance for men throughout the sample and for women farmers in Africa. This preference often included RTB crops and improved management of these crops was a priority for women in Africa. The most important innovations for all women are associated with livestock. This preference reflects their limited access to agricultural resources and their reproductive responsibilities which, sometimes combined with normative restrictions, limits physical mobility. Contrary to some stereotypes about men and machines, women in some locations identified equipment as priority innovations. Women and men often under-or overestimate the importance of innovations for the opposite sex, which can lead to misguided agricultural interventions if these are gender blind.Although many of women's innovation preferences were driven by concerns for food and nutrition security their choice of top two innovations also responded strongly to income opportunities. This was the key driver for men, but their preferences also included food security concerns. This underlines the importance of also engaging and targeting men and young boys in nutritional education. The difference between women and men was the way gender norms governing access and control strongly influenced women's choice of innovations in terms of what could most realistically provide income, food security and other desirable benefits to them. These other benefits included greater independence and decision-making -the preference for livestock and innovations related to home gardens responded to this factor -less drudgery and interactions between technologies and practices leading to whole system benefits.Family harmony and positive personal traits were identified as key elements by women across all cases in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These enabled women to be more economically x active. However it underlines the power differences between men and women in terms of access to and control of key productive resources. Although in Vietnam women had more independence in some economic spheres than in other case contexts such as Bangladesh, men could withdraw their labor and withhold use of family finances if they were not happy with the woman's choices or behavior. Women had to deploy negotiation and deference as strategies under this normative environment. The results of this study indicate that those engaged in R&D interventions need to pay more attention to social relations and intra-household decision-making and not just the technology to achieve successful and equitable innovation and adoption.This analysis also shows that targeting women for certain innovations can allow innovation to spread through social networks. For example in relation to innovations such as small livestock and vegetables, women in Africa and Asia often talked about giving others in their community or their close kin vegetables and poultry in order to cement and build social networks in the community. This allows innovations to more easily spread within and across communities. This contrast with the situation of men who more often relied on networks outside the community, including accessing loans and capital.Both women and men identified the availability of assets, especially financial capital and land as primary factors enabling innovation. Men's greater opportunity to take advantage of sources of credit can be an important advantage and their greater control of access to land has implications for the types of crops men and women grow. Cash crops like banana and coffee are perennial, needing stable use rights over land and are capital intensive, requiring access to credit. In livestock, a similar situation arises with large animals such as new breeds of oxen and dairy cows, which demand large outlays of cash. In the case studies examined, men were predominantly responsible for these crops and animals. The implication is that not every innovation provides the same kind of opportunities for greater equity and gender transformation. One approach involves developing low cost technologies that require limited capital investment, basically intensifying those agricultural activities where women already have access. RTB crops are important in this respect. For example, in Bangladesh, Uganda and Malawi women often mentioned OFSP as low cost both in terms of monetary investments and time. Gender training for both men and women farmers could in the long term help to challenge certain gender norms and stereotypes. In these same contexts, it would be important to strengthen the linkages between crops and small livestock, through better use of crop byproducts as feed and better use of animal by-products for fertilization and for sale.A second approach is to challenge the gender norms that promote men's control of cash crops while also working to help women gain access to capital to invest in these crops. This approach could be appropriate in Vietnam where women are already engaged in most aspects of agriculture, including raising large livestock, but are subject to their husband's normative control of assets.Among factors that women and men identified as hindering innovation, both cited labor constraints and the limitation this presents in the amount of land that can be cultivated and the types of crops that can be grown. It was a factor in constraining their progress on the \"ladder of power and freedom\". For poor women, this related to their need to combine domestic with agricultural tasks. It accounted for their interest in harvesting machinery in Bangladesh for example when there is a high demand for their labor. Labor saving technologies should be a key consideration when developing new interventions. For RTB and HT, crop related techniques for reducing labor and simple cheap and effective equipment should be prioritized.Norms surrounding what is a good man and woman farmer underline the idea that women have a supporting role in agriculture, that they exist \"in men's shadows\". However, this has different meanings in the African compared to Asian or Latin American contexts. In Africa, where women are semi-independent managers of their own farms and households, they have a more xi clearly defined farming role, especially related to ensuring household food security. In Bangladesh and Vietnam contexts, women are expected to contribute to a family farm run by the male household head. This is strongly expressed in Bangladesh, more nuanced in Vietnam. Yet even in Africa, women are constrained in their own farms because of lack of access to land and through obligations to work on their spouses' farms. The notion that a good woman farmer has a vegetable garden and looks after small animals is a widespread norm in Africa as well as Asia. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between normative expectations and what happens on farm in practice. Banana is \"a man's crop\", but under certain circumstances it is cultivated also by women.There are wide differences in the understanding of gender equality, gender difference and what is changing among men and women. Although many participants focused on biological difference to justify inequality of opportunity, others suggested that greater equality can lead to greater development at all levels, from the household to the country. Greater gender equality can also come from interventions by external agencies, many of which target benefits to women. This can sometimes end up being counterproductive, if men are not involved to understand the overall benefits from these kinds of interventions.Agency and empowerment were found to be affected by many aspects of the normative environment. Limitations on physical mobility directly affects women's agency. Across the sample there was a lot of variation, from highly constrained mobility in Bangladesh to high mobility in Vietnam, even more so that in many African cases. But even in Bangladesh there is evidence of change in the extent of constraints, observed both by young men as well as women. Gender norms surrounding household leadership in Africa affect agency. Men \"inherit\" agency through titles such as household head. Women have to earn agency over time through negotiation, use of available spaces and resources and in many cases just be growing older. Compared to ten years ago, both men and women feel more empowered across most of the cases. Some of this can be accounted for by the greater power that comes with growing older, but improvements in family livelihoods was also identified as a factor. This is also linked to improvements in education. A third reason for feeling more empowered was identified as increased support from a changing external environment. New laws against domestic violence in some African countries was an important example, but also the actions of development agencies involving training and specific support to women.In relation to youth, young men and women's interest in agriculture can be increased by direct application of knowledge and skills gained through formal education, and by recognition of the knowledge-intensive nature of many aspects of agriculture. If agriculture is viewed as a low status occupation appropriate for those with limited formal education, it will be stigmatized and will not appeal to youth.Gender and inter-generational relations curtail the ability of young women and men to catalyze innovation. Once they get married, women are under their husband's authority, and he may feel threatened if she adopts innovations and makes money. When still under their parents' control, both young men and women have curtailed decision making power. This, again, suggests the need to focus on more than just technical aspects of agricultural innovation but also social aspects related to agriculture. If young people view gender equality in a negative light, it can curtail young women's ability to make decisions.Young men and women are both highly focused on earning an income, albeit for different reasons. If young men and women can seize agricultural entrepreneurship opportunities and make a good living, they may be interested in doing so. Good income prospects from agriculture may also remove the stigma associated with the occupation.Previous sections show that men and women have different ways to access the resources on which a particular innovation depends, and therefore have different opportunities of benefitting from it. This means that innovation is not an even process undertaken by targeted households to xii help increase production, incomes and nutrition. There is considerable intra-household variability and this section explores the social conditions that enable women and men and communities to leverage opportunities for innovation. This section identified four key points that facilitate this process.First, the facilitation of interventions that bridge formal institutions and informal social networks are very helpful, as they can open up new opportunities to those who have had few chances to participate in past interventions. The conventional formal innovation opportunities provided by formal institutions such as extension workers, government institutions and private sectors are more accessible for those who have agency, confidence and social connections. However, while women and men with limited agency have limited access to both formal and informal institutions for learning new agricultural activities, they still learn new technologies from their friends and relatives. Therefore, interventions that provide a bridge between these formal and informal resources should be prioritized.Second, innovation processes need to fit well with the context-specific expectations and demands of women farmers so that they are more likely to participate and benefit. Innovation can strengthen women's and men's subjective notions of power, and thereby increase their selfconfidence, and hopefully encourage them to seize further opportunities for innovation. However, the pathways through which they gain power are very different, being closely associated with social expectations of how women and men should be. Therefore, if innovation activities do not fit with women's empowerment pathways, only the men benefit from them. Since across the target sites, men's power is associated with material assets and economic independence, mechanization and intensification of agriculture can directly help strengthen their power and confidence. On the other hand, in some social contexts women feel empowered and confident when they play a supportive instead of a central role in economic activities, as being independent from their husbands is not a socially desirable situation. Innovation is embedded in socially constructed family relations, and only when it satisfies the needs and expectations of women farmers are they likely to adopt the activities, taking the first step to empowerment and thereby stronger agency to seize further opportunities in the future.Third, despite the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women's innovation opportunities, women do have a space for taking up innovation within their own domains in everyday agricultural activities where they already have autonomy over changing current practices and taking a risk. Identifying their autonomous domain, which may be very small as in Bangladesh, consisting of livestock raising and a small vegetable garden, or larger independent farms run by women in African sites, can be an entry point to facilitate women's participation in innovation, even under on-going, restrictive patriarchal structures.Finally, we emphasize that families or communities are not homogenous units of innovation. Without understanding the social power dynamics at play, interventions will tend to support only those who already have significant power. If interventions specifically target the disempowered without awareness of those social dynamics, there is the risk of provoking jealousy and tension within families and communities. Considering the social power dynamics helps us to think about how and to whom new technologies are introduced. Successful interventions that engage with and support multiple members of communities can strengthen collective capacities for innovation.This report examines how local innovation processes in sites where CRPs on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and on Humidtropics (RTB-HT) R&D has been undertaken or in key tropical agri-food systems where RTB crops are of major importance both shape and are shaped by gender. The report is part of GENNOVATE (\"Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation\"), an unprecedented global research collaboration involving 11 CRPs and 9 Centers in the analysis of 137 case studies in 26 countries. The project examines the interaction between agricultural and natural resource innovation and gender norms and agency, concepts which are elaborated further in Box 1 and throughout this report. The approach taken in all case studies involves a contextually-grounded, comparative and collaborative methodology which seeks to inform the design CRP research strategies and interventions for more gender equitable adoption and adaptation of technologies and practices.Overall, across all of the GENNOVATE village-level case studies, men and women report growing power and freedom to shape their lives as well as declining poverty in their villages. Improvements in rural livelihoods due to agricultural innovation contributes importantly to these promising trends on the ground. Yet, beneath these broad patterns, the GENNOVATE data show strong variability in how men and women-and their communities-experience and benefit from local innovation processes.The study rests on the understanding that for agricultural innovation to be effective the primary stakeholders -adult and young women and men on the ground -must exercise agency and be active participants in learning about, testing and adapting new technologies, practices and institutional arrangements to their needs and context. Nevertheless, gender norms, or the daily roles and behaviors expected of each gender, differentially shape men's and women's capacities to innovate. Across most rural contexts worldwide, it is still more common and acceptable for a man than a woman to exercise the power to be a shaper of beliefs, behaviors and events, including taking the initiative to become knowledgeable about and test new technologies. Yet, if women as well as men could similarly engage with and adapt new agricultural options, innovation processes would be much more efficient. Of special concern is the fact that a growing body of literature is finding that new agricultural technologies and practices which are gender blind risk worsening the poverty, workload, and wellbeing of poor rural women and their families (e.g. Cornwall and Edwards 2010;Okali 2011Okali , 2012;;Kumar and Quisumbing 2010). The conditions under which both women and men adopt and benefit from agricultural and NRM advances, however, remain poorly understood.To address this knowledge gap, GENNOVATE's primary focus is systematic learning about people's own perceptions and lived experiences about agriculture. The study also examines how local conditions-especially the normative environment governing gender roles-affect and become affected by agricultural innovation processes. In focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews, gender-balanced research teams engage with equal numbers of women and men in reflecting on questions such as: What are the most important new agricultural practices and technologies for the men of the village? And for the women?  What qualities make a woman a good farmer? And a man a good farmer?  Do young people in this village follow local customs of women doing certain agricultural activities and men others? Why or why not?  Are there differences between a woman who is innovative and a man who is innovative?RTB-HT research teams participated in intensive trainings on the study's protocols and standardized package of data collection instruments during 2014 in Uganda, Colombia, Malawi and Bangladesh. The RTB and HT teams carried out 24 \"case studies\" during 2014 and 2015 across countries in SSA, Asia and Latin America (see Sampling sub-section below). Each case study was undertaken in a specific community, where field teams conducted two single sex focus groups with young (ages 16 to 24) women and men, and four single-sex focus groups with adult (25 to 55) women and men from poorer and better off households in their communities. In addition, semistructured individual interviews were conducted with local agricultural innovators (2 women, 2 men) and with individuals representing different trajectories of wellbeing, or movements out of and into poverty according to measures derived from local focus groups (2 women, 2 men). Annex 1 provides an overview of key protocols which guided the study's sampling, data collection, and analysis.Since the RTB-HT cases target agri-food systems or intervention domains of relevance to the CRPs involved, the quality of the fieldwork is greatly enriched by being able to draw on existing relationships with and knowledge of many of the targeted sites. These relationships, however, may also prompt concerns for bias in the findings due to factors such as an underrepresentation of difficult places, or study participants being too accommodating, overstating benefits of or downplaying difficulties with interventions, or expecting some kind of benefits. These concerns are not unique to these kinds of qualitative samples and we have applied social science techniques of critical self-reflection and triangulation between the different tools to reduce bias in interpretations and findings. GENNOVATE's large comparative dataset, which asks many of the same or similar questions to different population groups within the same community, provides numerous opportunities to cross-check data which may be partial, confusing or contradictory.It is also important to keep in mind that this RTB-HT report, as with the broader GENNOVATE study, was not designed to assess the performance of or outcomes associated with any particular technology or practice, although study participants do engage in exercises which ask them to identify and assess particular innovations with which they have experience. As will be shown, these testimonies provide a rich and compelling basis for exploring and comparing men's and women's capacities for agricultural innovation and the normative dimensions of these processes.Gender norms refer to the gender dimensions of social norms. Social norms: govern social relations and establish expectations as to how we are to act in our everyday affairs. They facilitate continuity across generations and among changing populations, and constitute an ongoing record of the history of social practices in a community. They structure social interactions in ways that allow social actors to gain the benefits of joint activity. And they determine in significant ways the distribution of the benefits of social life. (Knight and Ensminger 1998, page 105).As Ridgeway (2009, 145) explains, \"gender is a primary cultural frame for coordinating behavior and organizing social relations;\" and despite technological and institutional change in a society, \"genderframing\" persists in shaping social life-e.g. stereotypical beliefs of men's greater authority and competence than women are often \"reinscribed into new organization procedures and rules that actors develop through their social relations in that setting\" (152).Agency is \"the ability to define one's goals and act upon them\" (Kabeer 1999, 438), either independently or jointly with others. GENNOVATE's conceptual framing positions agency as a process which is mainly embedded in and conditioned by local formal and informal institutions, although the agency and empowerment of disadvantaged groups can also transform constraining institutions and their rules.Innovation in this study is defined expansively to encompass agricultural technologies, natural resource management practices, learning opportunities, relationships, and institutions which are new for the study communities sampled. These innovations may be locally devised or externally introduced. Our understanding of innovations and innovation systems is also informed by Berdegue's (2005:3) helpful synthesis of thinking on this topic, defining innovation to be \"social constructs, and as such, they reflect and result from the interplay of different actors, often with conflicting interests and objectives, and certainly with different degrees of economic, social and political power.\"For this report, the sample draws on a subset of 24 GENNOVATE case studies which were sponsored by RTB and HT and conducted in 10 countries. The choice of countries was strongly driven by CRP presence and activities, as were the possible sites for the cases themselves. Almost all cases were conducted in sites where RTB and/or HT were active, either the place-based research of HT (DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and one case in Uganda) or commodity-linked research, for example that focused on OFSP in Bangladesh, Uganda and Malawi. Vietnam was an exception, because of lack of RTB activity and cases were selected based on varying role of RTB crops and different types of economic dynamism. In all the target countries, cases were selected purposively to introduce some variance on economic dynamism and extent of gender gap in assets and capacities 1 (Figure 1.1). At the same time, political considerations had to be factored into some of the site selections, for example, the choice of sites with special importance for the CRP.Following overall methodology, contacts were made with local facilitators to assist in gaining initial approval from the community for conducting the study and with these facilitators, key informants and potential members of FGDs were selected.Throughout the different sections, when quantitative data are presented, they are based on the number or frequency (as specified) of focus groups in which a specific thematic response was provided.The relation between gender norms and agricultural innovation, which is the focus of this report, is shaped by a range of endogenous patterns and exogenous drivers of change, which manifest themselves in different ways and with variable force in different case contexts.This study has clearly identified the social structural and cultural variability and patterning across the regions covered by the study which influence the changing relationship between gender and innovation. A key social practice present across many of the African case studies is the relatively independent agricultural production by women. This is part of a broader set of social configurations and cultural patterns involving the control of land, labor and the inheritance of property, attitudes to sexuality and marriage, and the organization of households and reproduction (Tambiah et al 1989). Many of the gender norms surrounding different parts of this complex have emerged in this study and contrast with the situation elsewhere. In Asia and Latin America rural households tend to be single units of agricultural production under different levels of male control. In some locations, especially in the Bangladesh cases, this is related to the control of property and women's sexuality rather than her labor with marriage as the transfer of control over women's sexuality from parents to husbands and in-laws. Whereas women's agricultural labor is a central part of African farming, both on her own plot and on her spouse's plot, women's labor in Bangladesh is more related to domestic responsibilities, with agricultural work seen as a support to, or \"in the shadow of\" men's agricultural work. In Vietnam, where the household as a single agricultural unit is strongly held, women must also defer to men as household heads, main decision makers and controllers of most agricultural resources. This is the case even if women are in practice more economically active than men. Furthermore, in relation to the control of sexuality, settling of newlyweds in the family of the groom is very common in Vietnam, providing a strong role for parents-in-law in the policing of gender norms in relation to daughters-in-law.Among exogenous factors which are of importance in the study sites, urbanization is a powerful driver affecting and changing gender relations, agency and innovation processes. It contributes to shifting demand for agricultural products, rural job seeking and resulting migration, and influences rural aspirations, especially among young people. East Africa is one example of growing urban demand for agricultural commodities with importance for gender norms and agency, such as the demand for dairy products in Western Kenya which offers new economic opportunities for women through zero-grazing, and growing urban demand for cooking banana in Uganda, shifting the normative arrangements around this \"male\" crop. In Nigeria, massive growth of urban centers (African city populations are expected to triple in the next 40 years and Lagos is now the largest) and high levels of rural-urban temporary and permanent migration by both men and women affects inter-generational and gender relations and local agricultural opportunities. In Vietnam, high levels of migration and economic dynamism are distributed unevenly and in complex ways among the majority population and ethnic minorities, but offer greater opportunities for women to be economically dynamic, even though negotiating the persistent presence of patriarchal norms.The commercialization of agriculture and its industrialization in some countries especially in Asia and Latin America, is a driver of change also related to urban growth and with gender implications. It involves the move to larger scales and the connection with mechanized processing into products in large-scale urban demand. Men and women have differential access to these commercial processes, with better-off men having had privileged access in cassava production and processing in Colombia and Vietnam. Nevertheless, the influence of such processes on both men and women is variable over time due to local factors. For example, in Colombia, other agro-industrial opportunities have resulted in a decline in interest in cassava by women and increased economic involvement in the alternative crop.Whilst increased economic activities drive changes that affect women and men differently and result in different livelihood opportunities, malnutrition is an insidious, persistent driver of illhealth and weakened future potential affecting many communities and countries and this creates special conditions in some of the case locations. Bangladesh, Malawi and Uganda are all countries still experiencing significant levels of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and GENNOVATE cases have been located in these countries where CRP innovations have been targeting VAD. In many instances confronting VAD has opened new opportunities for women to take up nutrition-sensitive agricultural activities with economic benefits. Some of these activities have come into conflict with existing gender norms. A cereal based food system with important role for root and tuber cropsSection 2: What unleashes agricultural innovation among women and men?The section describes and discusses the similarities and differences in the agricultural innovations that adult and young women and men consider the most important for them. Livestock emerges as the most important area for women and new varieties and seed, especially of RTB crops is the most important for men and for women in SSA. It also reviews what men and women understand about the innovation priorities of the opposite sex and there are significant over and underestimations of priorities for both men and women. We then look in more detail at the \"focal innovations\", those new technologies or practices which are part of RTB or HT intervention processes and find that these are commonly among the top two innovations in the case study sites. We try to understand the reasons men and women give for choosing particular innovations and find that both men and women prioritize innovations that raise income, though food security is also important for both. Other gendered reasons include increasing women's independence, reducing drudgery and providing whole system benefits. The final section analyzes the factors that support or hinder innovation processes for men, women and youth and with what implications for development outcomes.Below we identify some of the stand out innovations which women and men considered important for themselves across all regions (Figure 2.1).Overall, men rate improved varieties, especially related to RTB crops, and cultivation practices as the most important innovations for their villages. Women instead stress livestock related innovations, although women in Africa also highly rate improved varieties and seed Improved crop varieties as well as quality seed of those crops was the most frequently cited of top two innovations by men and one of the most commonly cited by women. Within this category, improved varieties of RTB crops, including improved banana, potato, sweetpotato, and cassava were mentioned by 23 out of 144 focus groups. Another 31 groups mentioned new varieties of maize, rice, legumes and vegetables among their top two innovations. Livestock related innovations were most frequently mentioned by women as among their top two. Livestock was less commonly mentioned by men, but when mentioned it usually related to large animals such as new breeds of oxen in Vietnam.Both men and women's groups frequently considered new and improved cultivation methods in their farming practice to be among their top two innovations and for women improvements in RTB-related practices was especially important. Sixteen men's focus groups mentioned inputs among their top two innovations, usually fertilizer. This was mentioned in only 9 women's groups. Almost twice as many women's groups mentioned equipment compared to men, which goes against stereotypical association of men with machinery. This issue is discussed in more detail below.We can also look for any significant divergences by region keeping in mind the distribution of RTB-HT cases described in Section 1: 14 cases in SSA, 6 in Asia and 4 in Latin America.Women's identification of innovations in livestock raising is most marked in Colombia, considering the small number of cases. Almost 100% of women's FGDs mention different kinds of livestock raising as among their top two innovations and in some groups different types of livestock raising were their only top two. Livestock is mentioned by about a third of women's groups in SSA and Asia as among their top two, and in SSA (Uganda and Kenya) there is a higher level of diversity of types of animals mentioned than in other regions, including zero-grazed dairy cattle and different small livestock.Figure2.1: Top two innovations self-selected by men and women's groups (cited in FGD) in all case sites Note: Other types of top two innovations were mentioned infrequently by 12 women's groups and 10 men's groups. Types of InnovationNote 2: There are 42 women FGDs considered in SSA, 18 in Asia and 12 in LAC. Where both top two selections come from the same category, for example animal raising, this counts as two citations, so that in some cases there could be more citations than the number of focus groups. This occurs in Colombia with animal raising.Figure 2.2b Top two innovations self-selected by men's groups (cited in FGD), by regions Note 1 Other types of top two innovations were mentioned infrequently by 5 groups in SSA, 2 in ASIA and 3 in LAC.Note 2: There are 42 men's FGDs considered in SSA, 18 in Asia and 12 in LAC. Where both top two selections come from the same category, for example animal raising, this counts as two citations, so that in some cases there could be more citations than the number of focus groups. This occurs in Colombia with animal raising.In relation to new varieties and seeds, there is a major divergence between women in SSA compared to Asian or LAC cases, which is due to the different position women have in agriculture in those regions. Women's more autonomous involvement in agricultural activities in the SSA cases reflects a strong interest in varieties and seeds. In contrast in Colombia, women are less involved in cultivation of cassava which is one of the major crops in the location. In the Asian cases in Vietnam and Bangladesh, varietal renewal still seems to occur primarily through men's connections. For men in the three regions, their interest in new varieties and quality seeds is very similar, reinforcing the point just made.In SSA women mentioned improved cultivation practices more frequently than in other regions, though RTB cultivation methods are mentioned about equally in SSA and in Asia. This is probably due to the importance of sweetpotato as a homegarden crop for women in Bangladesh and as a source of animal feed for women in Vietnam. In SSA, especially in Uganda, women are concerned with cultivation methods for a range of RTB crops, which are key components of food security.Institutional innovations were very little cited by either men or women or in any regions among their top two innovations. This may be because even among facilitators, innovation was much more strongly understood in technical terms.Women more frequently identified equipment or machinery as among their top two innovations than men Though not among the most frequently identified, nevertheless it is significant that more women's groups than men's group identified equipment or machinery as among their top two innovations. Among the five women's groups in SSA who identified equipment, all were in Nigeria, with women's groups prioritizing machinery for oil palm processing and cassava processing. In Asia, Bangladeshi women mentioned threshing machines, rice harvesting equipment and sprays as top two innovations. These findings contradict gender stereotypical ideas about machinery as a male preserve. This will be discussed in the final part of this section.Women and men under or overestimate each other's priority innovations which may have negative implications if research for development interventions are gender blindWhen we look at the data on cross-sex perceptions of highest ranking agricultural innovations, we find that there is some overlap between own innovation priorities and those attributed to the opposite sex. From the 72 focus groups in the sample conducted with women, a little under half (46%) had at least one top rated innovation overlapping between themselves and their perceptions of men's priorities. For men, the overlap was almost the same (47%). In other words about half of the groups considered that the opposite sex had similar priorities to themselves. However, these assessments were not always accurate.One area where both middle class and low-income men correctly attributed high priority among women was for food security crops and the establishment of household gardens. However, they considerably underestimated the importance for women of innovations in small livestock, despite their ubiquitous presence around rural homesteads.The women's groups on the other hand were often unable to identify the priorities of men. This was strongly the case with underestimation of the importance of new varieties and use of new inputs. There was also overestimation of the importance of livestock innovation and the use of equipment. There is also an apparent lack of knowledge among women about men's investments in agricultural inputs and also their prioritization of new crop varieties. This especially applies to crops that are managed by men, such as coffee, banana and rice in Africa.Why are these findings relevant? These results may signal greater segmentation of roles in agriculture with less flow of knowledge than is implied for example in the idea of \"the family farm\". The consequences of these results for RTB and other agricultural research organizations are far reaching. For example, priority setting exercises that do not seek information from both men and women may end up setting gender blind priorities which may not be able to address the needs of men and women. Thus it is critical to engage both men and women in research exercises and technology design to ensure that they both have a voice in the way research priorities are set and technologies designed.Most of the cases in this study were selected in relation to particular interventions and innovations being undertaken as part of the RTB program (referred to in the study and henceforth as \"focal innovations [FI]). Discussion of these FIs was introduced into FGDs, and there are many questions in the research tools focused on collecting information about them. Though most cases considered just one FI, some listed up to three and some, because of choice of location or for other reasons, did not identify any FI, concentrating instead on innovations mentioned by the community. The latter situation applies to the 4 cases of Vietnam, one case from Rwanda and one from Democratic Republic of Congo and these are excluded from this analysis.A caveat before considering the data from the remaining 18 cases concerns possible bias in the responses, given that in some situations those facilitating the process were known to be involved in the promotion of the FI. Use of triangulation techniques and confirmatory follow up questions were applied to try to reduce this bias.While some of the FIs were displaced in importance by other innovations that were internally developed or brought by other external agents, others were well received and adopted in the communities where they were introduced. It is therefore useful to identify the cases where the FIs were ranked as one of the top 2 innovations in the different FGDs. For this exercise, we only consider the first listed FI where more than one was mentioned.The first listed FIs for the 18 RTB-HT cases are the following: orange fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), cassava processing varieties, banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) control, hybrid maize, new potato seed varieties, cocoa, oil palm, integrated systems (livestock, banana and fodder crops for improved soil productivity) and improved pig breeding. Each of the percentages in Figure 2.3 are calculated taking into account the total number of FGDs in whose communities the particular FI had been introduced. For example, OFSP was introduced into 5 of the 24 cases of the RTB-HT sample, so the total number of FGDs considered to establish the percentage is 30). Hence, the results show the frequency with which the FI is mentioned as one of the top 2 innovations for men and women, in communities where it was introduced.FGs in the communities where they were introduced (%) Figure 2.3 indicates that, except for cassava varieties, all the focal innovations were mentioned as top 2 innovations in 50% or more of the FGDs. For example, oil palm is mentioned as one of the top 2 in all of the six FGDs included in one of the cases from Nigeria. OFSP, which was the focal innovation for 5 of the cases in the RTB-HT sample in Malawi, Uganda and Bangladesh, was rated in the top 2 in almost three quarters (73%) of a total of 30 FGDs. Overall, in two thirds of the108 FGDs (that is, in 72 FGDs), focal innovations were selected by women and men as one of their top 2 innovations.Even though several of the focal innovations were explicitly targeting women, such as OFSP, there was very little difference overall in the extent to which men and women included focal innovations in their top two. This suggests that in some cases men and women may be recognizing the importance of a focal innovation even though they are not directly benefiting, because of its importance to their spouses. This requires more detailed analysis of particular cases, since there is also evidence of negative reactions from men to innovations targeting women . Disaggregating by class and youth it was found that youth were much less likely to include focal innovations in their top two (young women and men accounted for 13% and 15% respectively of FGDs including focal innovations in their top two). It was also noted that among the low-income FGDs both men and women frequently mentioned improved RTB varieties (banana, potato, sweetpotato, and cassava) together with livestock related innovations among the top two innovations. In the following section there is a discussion of the importance of the system potential of certain innovations, especially for women.The previous sub-section identified similarities and differences among women and men in both the selection of top two innovations and the extent to which communities included among their most important innovations the new technologies or practices which RTB and Humidtropics have been evaluating and promoting. What explains those similarities and differences? This section explores the question through several key messages that have emerged from the substance of these studies which have different implications for : Innovations contributing to increased income were included in top two, but gender norms governing ownership rights determined particular crop or animal preferences  Technologies contributing to food security and nutrition were favored by both men and women  Women identify innovations that improve their independence and decision making power  Women and young men prefer technologies that reduce drudgery  Top innovations identified by women have stronger whole system benefits Innovations contributing to increased income were targeted for top two, but gender norms governing ownership rights determined specific crop or animal preferences Men, women and youth mentioned an increase in income as a reason for ranking some innovations among the top two. The meaning of income has important differences for different groups. For many women's groups, especially in SSA, innovations were identified as a source of personal income, separate from that earned by the spouse and thus a source of increased agency. Overall, there seems little difference between women and men in the importance they give to this reason for selecting an innovation. Using \"yield and profitability\" as a key proxy for income in the qualitative data analysis, women had 117 references out of a total of 207 references. On the other hand, a simple word search of text about reasons for choice of innovations for the term \"income\" and derivatives, produced 128 references for men and 112 for women.Among the RTB case studies, both men and women identified RTB crops among their top ranked innovations because of their potential to earn income. This was especially the case with new crop varieties and both men and women farmers in Uganda for example mentioned OFSP as an important innovation because the varieties were faster maturing than local varieties. It seems to be the case that innovations that give quick returns are more important for poor men and women farmers while better off farmers will be able to wait for a bigger payoff.Other types of innovations were also identified because of their income-earning potential, especially their capacity to produce income quickly. In Uganda, budding and grafting innovations for citrus leading to more rapid fruit development, were valued by poor men farmers as important because of the quicker returns. Among the low-income men's group in Burundi, men also stated that they ranked hybrid pigs as their top innovation because the pigs reproduce and mature more quickly than local breeds, enabling them to get money quickly back from their investment.Consistent with the frequency with which women identified new livestock breeds and practices among their top two innovations, they also more commonly recognized livestock as having high potential for income generation. This was especially the case for small livestock across all regions, but also zero-grazed dairy animals in Kenya for milk sales. The involvement of women in the low investment low return business with small livestock and animal by-products contrasts with the more common citation by men of commercial raising and selling of cattle, such as hybrid oxen in Vietnam or cows in Kenya. In both countries women emphasized milk sales. This is related to the fact that the purchase and sale of large livestock involves large investments which men as household heads are able to manage:We can make decisions on plants. But if we want to buy a cow, we must ask our husbands because \"a water buffalo can start a whole fortune\". Women can decide to buy a pig, but a cow costs tens of millions of dongs, so I must ask my husband. In general, if it involves tens of millions of dongs, I must ask my husband; for things below 10 million dongs, I can make decisions myself. (Middle class women FGD, Vietnam)However, matters such as cows, house, and land are important matters, which are decided by the husband. Even if there's something I know but the husband doesn't know, I still have to ask him. (Middle class women FGD, Vietnam)Women youth in Uganda stated that OFSP was beneficial to women since they get money from it. Both men (Malawi) and women groups (Uganda) also mentioned selling sweetpotato vines as a source of income and this is also mentioned by women in Bangladesh. But men in these countries also can access cash through this innovation. However there are some technologies that are more clearly gendered in terms of access to cash. For example, some young women's FGDs in Uganda and middle class women in Burundi stated that banana was important for men and not for women as a source of income:Bananas are important for men because men dominate bananas although women work there most times. Most women do not have banana plantations and even when they hire land they only plant seasonal crops because the land owners do not hire out land for planting bananasThe man is responsible for all activities related to banana and rice from planting, crop management, harvesting and selling, and also the use of money from the sales of the 2 crops.(Middle class women, Burundi)Young women in Uganda say they prefer annual crops such as beans and maize compared to perennial crops such as banana to help them have access to cash and be able to buy clothes for their children. Access to land is also an important factor in determining this crop preference and opportunity. Semi-permanent crops like banana can only be planted land you own, which is not usually the case for women. Widows who inherit land do sometimes plant and sell banana for income. As will be discussed in a later section, crops requiring high financial investment like coffee, tomato and citrus are also often not available for women, despite their high income-earning potential.These examples of livestock and types of crops as sources of income are related to social considerations about ownership rights and decision-making rights over certain assets, especially finance. As women in Vietnam stated, important things and things that can affect the household wealth either in a positive or negative way have to be decided by men as the household heads. Men in Vietnam put hybrid cows as among their top two innovations because according to them cows have high economic value. In Kenya cattle have both economic and cultural significance. Men use them for bridewealth payments and in other rituals and they are therefore under men's control. Control over the income is a key element in the choice of top ranked innovations. As expressed below by woman belonging to a group that had listed poultry in the top two innovations in Kenya:Poultry because we can use at home and easily sell. Also, in many families these are not restricted so women can raise and sell without having to ask the man's permission. (Woman Ladder of Life FGD participant, Kenya) This is also reported in Bangladesh, where low income and middle class women emphasize the cultivation of vegetables next to the house as a small source of personal income.Closely linked to improved income as a reason for preferring a technology is higher yield. Lowincome men's FGDs in particular showed strong interest in high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of key crops, including RTB crops. The same applies to the identification of new breeds of small and large animals, including hybrid oxen in Vietnam. Also linked to increased yield is the choice of improved fertilizer applications. Decreased soil fertility and small land sizes were often mentioned to explain why fertilizers were needed to increase yield.In Bangladesh young men mentioned that pre-mixed fertilizers were very important because while farmers do not really know the amount of fertilizer to use for rice, wheat and sweetpotato, the use of premixed fertilizers made application easier, even for women. In Rwanda men mentioned fertilisers as a key innovation since it increases their yield.Also young men in Rwanda stated that it was easy for them to adopt fertilizer use because of government support and subsidy. In this respect, government support was important for youth to adopt fertilizer because of the high cost involved. None of the women mentioned fertilizers in terms of increased yield and this raises the possibility of their limited access to finance to buy even subsidized fertilizer or access to outlets to buy them or that fertilizer is only applied on cash crops which fall under the control of men rather than food crops which fall under the control of women.Technologies contributing to food security and nutrition strongly favored by women, but also by men Both men and women farmers identified the contribution of technologies to food and nutrition security as an important reason for their choice, but women gave this reason more frequently than men. This was the case for women in SSA and in Asia, but was almost absent as a reason for choice of top two for women in Colombia. Women also identified household gardens which are also tied to food security as important to them. One woman from Malawi explained why irrigation was among her top two innovations:When we irrigate our crops we can grow crops throughout the year. And every woman wants to have a household with enough food. If there is no food, she suffers because she has to think about what the children will eat.(Women Innovation FGD Participants, Malawi) Women in different FGDs often mentioned that technologies that increased food availability were good for them in the event that their husbands were unable or unwilling to provide for the family. In Burundi, middle-class women identified improved cassava varieties (Manihot esculenta) because of their ability to last longer in the soil after maturity which made it possible for them to harvest continuously improving the household's food security.Men also stated that technologies that helped fight malnutrition were good for women because it is their role to ensure good nutrition for the family. For example, the introduction of home gardens were stated by middle class men in Rwanda to be helpful for women to ensure household nutrition. The availability of vegetables from newly established home gardens were also highlighted by poor and middle class women in Bangladesh and the same role was mentioned by men there. In various discussions with low-income and middle class women in Bangladesh and in Malawi, innovations such as OFSP were lauded for their nutritional benefits. Low income women in Bangladesh specifically identified it as a source of vitamin A. women in Kenya, concerned with ensuring food for their home, identified improved varieties of maize (Zea mays) as an important part of her provisioning strategy. Women often referred to their role in household food provisioning when discussing their top two innovations.Malawi women felt that the way the new innovation of OFSP had been introduced was also conducive for creating collaboration between men and women in terms of household nutrition. For instance, some women stated that the nutritional training they received also allowed men to recognize the benefits of OFSP and the importance of vitamin A. This might indicate the necessity of also targeting men in innovations focused on nutrition, in order to have an impact on the entire family.Women ranked some technologies and innovations among the top 2 because of their production and post-production characteristics which can contribute to food security. For example, women mentioned the benefits of delayed harvesting of cassava and the processing of OFSP into various products including bread, floor and porridge. In Kenya women preferred maize because it could be stored over long periods of time ensuring food availability. Some innovations are prioritized for food security, but have a less direct contribution. Men in Burundi and Vietnam, and both women and men in Malawi, stated that long dry spells and unpredictable weather puts irrigation technologies in their top innovations as it ensured food production and food availability throughout the year. Furthermore, it was also stated that smaller land sizes in both Malawi and Burundi meant that food produced during the rainy season was usually not enough to guarantee a family's food security. Irrigation ensured continuous production.The importance for women of independent personal income can be seen as part of a broader interest in innovations that increase independence and decision-making, an interest also shared by some men's groups. Whereas men mostly mentioned that cash income helps them to move out of poverty, women frequently emphasize access to personal income. In some cases earning their own income is a protection in case their husband is not responsible and stops contributing income to the family:We depend on potatoes to take care of our families. If a woman has her own plot, and works hard on it, she will harvest more and be able to stand on her feet.If her husband is not forth coming with his money, you know you have somewhere to bank on (Low income women FGD, Malawi)Vegetables and potatoes give little money regularly and the girls always need small amounts continuously money for their daily needs (Young man FGD, Burundi) Thus women preferred technologies where they could control access to benefits from marketing thus increasing their autonomy in decision making.Women also referred to the choice of crops that they can easily adopt and cultivate independently and that do not require a lot of space or dependence on men. The frequent high rank of vegetables among women's groups in Bangladesh for example, supports this idea. While high market demand was mentioned by the women's groups as a reason why vegetables were among the top two innovations for them, what was really important for women was also that they could cultivate the vegetables by themselves. As one woman commented: \"Women can do it!\"In Burundi, women also described their independent cultivation of maize:Maize, even before maturity the woman can pick fresh cobs without asking permission to the husband.Even after harvesting she can decide how much to sell, to keep for home consumption and for seed. (Women Innovation FGD participants, Burundi).Women also referred to irrigation technologies that they can operate alone, making the treadle pump, which were mentioned by men in Malawi as widely used, problematic compared to electric pumps for example. Innovations that do not require extensive movement are also valued, especially in contexts where physical mobility is restricted. So homestead gardens and small animals have an important role in Bangladesh.Whether an innovation has a ready and easily accessible market is another criterion affecting women's independence which was highlighted by both women and men's groups. For example in Uganda, women noted that there is a ready market for citrus, \"they just come to your garden and harvest and buy from you\" (Low income women FGD, Uganda). In Bangladesh, where gender norms lead to restrictions on women's ability to market their product, for selling women develop social networks for sale of chicken and ducks. Women invite guests to their house and gift the poultry to the visitors.Middle class and low income women and young men most frequently mentioned innovations in terms of their reduction of labor and the most common types of innovation involved equipment and machinery and herbicides. For example, in relation to potato farming men farmers stated that different kinds of water pumps helped since they reduced the labor needed to water the crops manually. But although the treadle pumps common in Malawi are better than manually irrigating, they were not appropriate for women because they still required a lot of energy. Electric pumps are considered much more women friendly.In Bangladesh out of six women's FGDs, three from low-income, middle class and youth chose equipment as their top two innovations and cited reduction of drudgery as the reason:At past we had our leg tired. But now we have rice flicking machine (Middle class women FGD, Bangladesh)They also noted additional social and economic benefits such as the reduction of quarrels in the home because work is finished on time and the ability to use time saved in other economic activities open to women, like rearing ducks. Bangladeshi low income men also identified sprayers as a key innovation because they saved men's labor in spraying rice fields.Young men in Vietnam were the only youth that mentioned use of machinery as labor-saving and resulting in high economic benefits. This may be because in Vietnam, through government investment in new industries such as cassava processing, new employment opportunities are opening up.Where herbicides were mentioned as a top innovation, it was usually as a technology that is important for men. This may be related to the kinds of crops that men cultivate, involving higher investment. However even when stating that herbicides were important for men, women in Uganda stated that use of herbicides promoted an increase in land under cultivation since one will not rely of manual labour for weeding:The workload in terms of weeding has also greatly reduced, now men grow acres and acres of maize and have increased yields (Low income women FGD, Uganda)Women were also heavily engaged in weeding thus such technologies as herbicides also drastically reduced their labor burden. Men who listed herbicides as an important innovation also had similar assessments of why it was important to them:Using herbicide helps you to increase the cropped acreage, resulting into increased yields to feed both people and animals (e.g., maize bran) (Low income men FGD, Uganda) Through using herbicides, some farmers have earned lots of money they had never dreamt of. For example one can get about UGX 500000 in a season (Young men FGD, Uganda) Some agricultural innovations are considered less or more labor intensive and are ranked accordingly. OFSP was identified by women in Uganda and young men in Bangladesh as demanding low labor. In Uganda, men considered that women could not be involved in animal grazing because water sources were far away and women had domestic chores to carry out. Thus, women in Uganda and other locations highly rated zero-grazing as a flexible, labor-saving practice.Farming and food production are part of systems, involving interactions between crops and animals and the natural resource base of soils, water and biodiversity. Some of the important innovations that are highly ranked, especially by women's groups, seem aimed at realizing system benefits. Out of 19 instances of groups prioritizing these kinds of benefits, middle class women and young women account for 13. A key area for these whole systems benefits derives from women's consistent selection of innovations in livestock as among their top two. This includes use of maize stalks for animal feed, use of animal manure on small plots and use of agricultural by-products like maize stalks as mulch. While both men and women mentioned the importance of hybrid maize only women's groups mentioned maize stalk as an important source of manure, animal feed and mulch.It is only women who have animals who can use own manure, but for others we use it minimally (Women Youth FGD participants, Uganda) Zero grazing, mentioned by women's groups in Uganda and Kenya as one of their top two innovations, has significant system-wide benefits. In Kenya women mentioned that they could sell milk to get cash to pay for household expenses and children's school fees and could use manure to improve fertility on their farms. In Rwanda men also mentioned that zero grazing was important for women because it complemented their home gardens in their fight against malnutrition. It is also adaptive for enabling women to carry out their role as carers, even involving children who were out of school to look after the cattle. Women in Kenya also stated that they could save money from milk sales using table banking groups and then access loans for other farm activities Hens also produce very good manure and reproduce well for a good business for eggs and meat. You can sell chickens and their products and buy even a cow (Young woman FGD, Kenya)Women like breeding and raising animals, they are better at that. \"Even when my wife is absent and I stay home, I may not feed the pigs\", \"Men go watching cock fight, women stay home to feed chicken\" (Young men FGD, Vietnam)Thus women could use money from selling their small livestock to invest, strengthen their social ties as well as get manure for their gardens.Having looked at similarities and differences in top ranked innovations between men and women and at the drivers of their decisions, we now look at the way the opportunity structure supports or hinders innovation differentially for men and women.Just under a third of mentions of top two factors supporting innovation related to assets, especially land and capital (Figure 2.4). Women mention this factor slightly more than men, though men are the predominant owners of key agricultural assets in most of the case studies. Women, like men, recognize the importance of land, and the challenge of accessing it.\"The land is where she cultivates whatever she wants to cultivate. When it rains it is in the land you will cultivate. And when you have the land you can do all the activities on time and you will have high yields and enough food in the home.\" (Middle class women's FGD, Uganda)\"Land is the primary raw material as such in absence of this no activity will be done\" (Men's FGD Malawi) It seems likely that many men and women considered land an ultimate factor underlying the possibility of innovation, with other factors as proximate factors. Men producing banana in Uganda stated that if you only have access to rented land this limits innovation because the land owner will not rent out for perennial crops like banana. It was also mentioned that those who had land were not poor since they could use their land for income generating purposes.Both men and women regarded access to money and other financial services and markets as key to innovation. Money supported innovation through the ability to buy land, inputs or pay for labor and generally by increasing a farmer's ability to invest in agriculture. In Vietnam both men and women mentioned access to low interest bank loans as well as access to agricultural inputs on loan as important financial backing that allowed them to be innovative and to adopt new technologies.Money is so important, that it has a place right under god himself (Middle class women FGD, Bangladesh)Money is the most important factor because once a farmer has it he can afford to obtain almost everything that is required to support innovation (Men's FGD, Malawi)For men and women personal/individual traits are major factors in innovation Behaviors, attitudes and family relations were mentioned repeatedly by both men and women's FGDs as important factors supporting innovation. they account for about 20% of mentions of top factors supporting innovation, with women more frequently citing this factor. Individual traits that helped build trust from other members in the community can help with innovations, especially innovations that require cooperation from other people. Community integration and being a person of good standing in society was regarded as important. Men in Malawi mentioned interest, good conduct in their communities and not being alcoholics which allowed them to cultivate networks which are helpful towards being innovative. Male innovators in Vietnam and Bangladesh also mentioned good community relationship as important for them.Middle class men and women refer similarly to positive personal traits, like being hard working, cooperative, disciplined, resourceful, committed and having a strong will. Nonetheless, men were more likely to mention traits as disciplined and committed, while women were more likely to mention resourcefulness as a good trait that allows them to be innovative in the absence of land. They talking about dedication and hard work included knowledge, labor commitment and \"daring\". Men also included \"bravery\" along with the other factors mentioned above.The most important thing is I have is a great passion to work. I was born into poverty so I was determined to work and gain success. Success will come only when we dare to think, dare to do. We will never be successful if we are frustrated and give up right after we see some difficulties (Middle class men FGD, Vietnam) Thus while personal traits were important for both men and women, some times there are differences in the type of traits considered as importantIn the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi women also mentioned peace and security as promoters of innovation among women. These two countries have suffered from decades of conflict and civil strife which could explain why women mentioned these as key facilitatorsHarmonious family relations are key in supporting women's innovation particularly support from husbands or in-laws Women referred more than men to family relations supporting innovation. A supportive husband was mentioned in many women's groups as a key factor that supports innovation among women. Some women in Bangladesh regarded their husband's support and help or the help of parents in law as the most important factor to support innovation. Some women were also able to get land from their husbands to implement various new activities. In Uganda women innovators stated that with a supportive husband it was easy to be innovative since a wife could discuss with such a husband and reach an agreement. Supportive husbands could also help the wife with some tasks such as clearing the land and weeding which could be useful in a successful innovation experience. In Vietnam women stated that even if the husband does not agree they could go ahead and plant what they want but they would have to invest more on hired labour since the husband could withdraw his labor if not happy.A supportive husband facilitates a wife's access to training and to acquire the knowledge and also access the land they need to be innovative as stated by the woman innovator below:It is because I was living in harmony with my husband -he allowed me to go for trainings, he allowed me to handle income from sales. Without this, I would not have been able to adopt OFSP and benefit from it (Middle class women FGD, Uganda) Husband's encouragement (1): Happiness in the family is the most important. If the husband doesn't feel comfortable, the work won't go well. (Middle class women FGD, Vietnam) Some men also demonstrated understanding of this reality, and how women may need to negotiate to strengthen their ability to innovate:[good relations in the household are] important for women because the men are the owners of the land and make the last decisions on what to be done on their land. It is important for a woman to have a common understanding with the man if she is to introduce something new in the household (Middle class men FGD, Uganda) In specific contexts, the support from external partners and services is recognized as a key contributor to innovation for men more than women Men's groups identified more strongly than women the importance of different kinds of institutional support from external actors as a contribution to innovation. This probably reflects the lower access of women to external agencies demonstrated in the study.However, among individual innovators in some countries more women than men mentioned access to extension services and information as key support for innovation. Women regarded extension as important because they learn how to do things.Agricultural knowledge, education and skilled application of practices was also seen by men in particular as an important factor in innovation.Knowledge is a must. Without knowledge one couldn't know when to sow, irrigate or apply fertilizer (Men's FGD, Bangladesh)Being able to acquire knowledge and to apply it in the field is regarded as the key factor for large numbers of men and women in agricultural innovation. The men and women's groups Included in this factor the importance of receiving formal education so as to better understand new technologies (\"Well educated people can study, innovate and apply technological advances in practice\" -Men-s FGD Vietnam), but also participation in trainings on specific innovations. Knowledge is also seen as offering opportunities to strengthen other aspects of livelihoods:I learned many things while cultivating sweet potato that will help me in different ways. For example, I can now give advice to others about agricultural activity. From training my status got increased, I can now start any new cultivation easily. (Women's FGD, Bangladesh)Knowledge can also be shared, benefitting relatives and neighbors and building up an important type of human capital -prestige.Both men and women recognized physical technologies as their top factors for innovation, especially in the sense of obtaining agricultural products that increase yields (new varieties, quality seed, fertilizers etc).Some groups linked the availability of technologies to reaching a market and earning money and that that contributes to innovation:If resources are available, and we see profits in the work we do, we are encouraged. Women need good profit so that they are able to become independent…If it is not profitable, you leave it like we left growing wheat. We adopted the wheat and grew it on a large scale only to be disappointed that there were no markets for this crop. (Women innovation FGD participants, Malawi)Many of the factors hindering innovation are the reverse of those that were identified as supporting it. So the most common hindrance is seen as lack of assets, especially land, and lack of capital. This is not just about not being able to purchase inputs, but of creating a situation where men and women are unable to apply the personal characteristics of drive and determination referred to in in Section 2.3, because of the negative effects of poverty. Slightly more men than women mentioned this as the top hindrance, but clearly women recognize the need for access to land and also access to finance, even though they are likely to invest in less capital-intensive innovations than men, as mentioned above:Lack of funds like if you need money for fertilizer will make one to use manure instead hence poor results (Middle income women FGD, Kenya) Lack of financial support [is the biggest hindrance] because without money you cannot do anything.\" (Middle income women FGD, Kenya) Another factor clearly identified as an obstacle to innovation were negative attitudes and an unhelpful family situation. Women mention the consequence of this reality in terms of lack of autonomy in decision making and restrictive gender norms creating stress and conflict in the household limited access to resources and sometimes restrictions on physical mobility:Women can contribute to the household development, but when they want to bring in new varieties for example of beans, the husband can refuse her to try the new variety.\" (Middle class women FGD, Burundi)The biggest challenge is husband's objection because he is head of household, every decision depends on him\" (Middle class women FGD, Vietnam)The women may ask the husband for a portion of land to grow something he will just keep quiet and not reply and the woman goes ahead to grow the crops on that piece, later on the men will come and plant their bananas in that same plot (Middle class women FGD, Uganda) Finally, though not identified by many as a top factor hindering innovation, both women and men commented on the constraint women faced through lack of formal education or of having the chance to attend trainings. Some men commented that women may be less innovative or less abe to understand new innovations through lack of access to formal education.If one is not intelligent enough she will not able to go further. So [education] is needed (Middleincome woman's FGD, Bangladesh)[Main hindrance is] lack of the skills and ability. Sometimes you want to see how one farmer will succeed first so you lack the initiative and have fear (Middle-income women's FGD, Kenya)For both men and women livestock related innovations and improved crop varieties were consistently ranked as top two innovations, with RTB crop improvement especially important in African case studies. Women had a strong interest in better equipment in some locations. Those innovations that increase food security and income are most likely to be chosen by both men and women as their top innovations. However, there were some significant differences among regions and also between men and women. Women in Africa mentioned a greater diversity of livestock related innovations compared to women in Asia, but women in Colombian groups were most consistent in identifying the importance of livestock. Women in Asia, especially Bangladesh, were more likely to mention family relations as being most supportive of innovation compared to African case studies. This underlines the need to consider place-based issues related to specific innovations because different environmental, social and political contexts affect how innovations are socialised or which innovations are prioritized.The main factors supporting women's and men's opportunities for being innovative are access to resources. Lack of access to resources leads to a vicious cycle of poverty, indebtedness and more marginalisation. Access to money was clearly important for both men and women, but land use was repeatedly mentioned and this is subject to gender norms. For instance, while men talked about ownership and control of land women tended to talk mostly about being able to gain access and use land. Men are more in control of financial and physical assets than women. Poverty and lack of money for men and women thus can have different causes and mean different things. It is critical to unpack these causes and implcations if meaningful innovations that respond to men and women's needs are to be developed. Personal characteristics and family relations were cited by all groups, but especially by women as crucial for successful innovation. For women, access to resources are often mediated through their dependence on male relatives, mostly spouses. An uncooperative spouse or stresses and tensions in the family can prevent access to resources and agricultural innovation. To achieve a positive personal and family environment for innovation women often require negotiation and skillful management.The previous section explored the key question of \"what unleashes innovation\" for women and men and we looked at similarities and differences in prioritized innovations, motivations surrounding the RTB-HT innovations and then at factors which support and hinder innovative behavior by men and women. In this section, we seek a deeper understanding of the norms underlying choice and motivation for choosing innovations. The analysis also explores in more detail levels of agency which are linked to the normative setting and which help to explain the supporting and hindering factors for being innovative.3.1 Farming roles in RTB and HT systems: what constitutes a good farmer according to women and men?In this sub-section we provide evidence on the diverse ways in which women and men engage in RTB agriculture and humid tropical production systems and how they perceive their own agricultural roles and the normative expectations of the society. What does it mean for women and men to be a 'good farmer'? How do they perceive themselves in this role and how do they perceive the opposite sex?Perceptions on what constitutes a 'good man farmer' and a 'good women farmer' reflect commonly held norms that refer to character, skills and knowledge and asset endowments. Such information provides an understanding of feminine and masculine identities and socially acceptable behaviors that directly and indirectly affect an individual's ability to innovate in agriculture. We identify similarities and differences in gender-specific patterns and trends across countries. Perceptions were grouped into five emergent, key categories: 1) Knowledge and skills related to crop management, 2) Behavior, attitude and community interactions, 3) household interactions in relation to decision-making and work, 4) responsibilities to the household, and 5) Resource endowments.In all regions, both women and men judge a male farmer primarily on his knowledge and skills (cat 1) and on his position in the community (cat 2). It is for instance good for a man to share his farming knowledge with other people in the community and he should not have conflicts. Only women in Africa mention that a 'man who is a good farmer' makes decisions concerning farm management, sales and expenditure together with his wife (cat. 3). The role of men as provider to the family is emphasized only in Africa by both women and men (Cat. 4). And also only in Africa resource endowments of men are mentioned respondents often expect male farmers to own farming equipment and livestock (cat. 5). Specifically in Uganda, men are expected to own land (Cat. 5). Women farmers should support their husband in farming and farm independentlyThere is a stark difference between 'African' views about the position of women in farming and the views expressed by men and women in Vietnam, Colombia and Bangladesh. Though there are many differences among those three countries, married women are hardly ever conceived as independent managers in the farm or the household. Rather, they play a supportive role to their husbands that might include working in the field with the husband on his plot, to assist him (Table 3.2, cat 3). Their 'caring' role is emphasized for instance by taking care of the husband when he returns from a day of work. In Central Vietnam a woman farmer is expected to be able to replace her husband in his absence and should therefore have knowledge and skills on common farming practices (Table 3.1, cat 1).In Africa married women also have an obligation to their husband to work on his plot and crops. These crops can be either staple or cash crops and can be destined for both sales and household consumption. Women and children's labor is often prioritized for husbands' plots and crops over their own plots and crops (Table 3.2,cat 3) (Nigeria and Uganda). But although married women are expected to contribute to their husband's farm enterprises, they usually farm independently on a plot they primarily manage themselves as well.A good woman can sell some food and encourages entrepreneurship to supplement the man's income; does not just depend on the man for food. She should not be lazy and her work should speak for itself. (Low income women's FGD, Kenya)This does not mean they own the land they farm, land ownership is generally in hands of men. In some African countries, women gave accounts of their husband supporting them on their plots, indicating that there are mechanisms for intra-household reciprocity and negotiation. Women farmers tend to exist in men's shadowMen farmers are judged in their communities primarily on basis of their skills, knowledge and position in the community. Men that share knowledge and resources have improved social status in the community, valued by men and women alike. For women it is often seen as more important to provide support to the husband in farming then to take a leading role in agricultural production themselves. But, especially African, women also employ farm activities independently and therewith contribute to household food consumption in addition to selling surplus for personal or household's expenditure. This is often not accompanied with concomitant ability in decision-making power or resources control however and therefore likely to result in compromises in farming activities as time and resources are limited.Women frequently manage and grow vegetables in a home garden, while men focus their efforts on staple and cash crop production. The notion of what is a 'vegetable' is quite broad and can often include non-staple starchy crops such as sweetpotato grown on small scale in or around the home compound. The intensity of vegetable cultivation varies for women across the different sites but was described as important for women in almost all regions. It was usually described as a specific 'female practice' with limited or no involvement of men. Three main reasons where provided to explain this gender division:  Women grow vegetables because it is often their responsibility to provide tasty and nutritious meals to their families. In Africa, men are often responsible for providing the staple food for household consumption e.g Cooking banana and/ or maize in East Africa, while women provide sauce ingredients: vegetables, such as leafy greens, egg plants and condiments [See box 1]. Women emphasize the importance of vegetables for family high-quality and nutritious meals in Kenya and Rwanda;  There are social norms that restrict female mobility. Social norms prohibit women to go to the field for farming in Bangladesh. The home-garden is an accessible farming site for them;  Vegetable gardens offer women opportunities to sell part of the yield. Vegetable sales are specifically mentioned as women's business in various African countries. The mode of production is small-scale with limited use of inputs. Men do not have much interest in this activity precisely because it is small-scale and with limited returns. Where there are restrictions on women's physical mobility this also influences how women sell their vegetables. Clearly not all residential locations have land for a vegetable garden. However the constraining factor of land was not mentioned specifically in discussions of this issue.We describe women and men's diverse roles in RTB farming and tropical agricultural systems compared to the normative and cultural narratives of their participation in these systems and the normative roles RTB crops play in providing food and income to households for a few selected countries in our sample.Root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops are important crops in most of the sampled sites. Cassava is listed as an important crop in 17 out of 24 sites, sweetpotato in 12, banana in 8 and potato in two and yam in one site. Especially in East and Central Africa, it is common to find at least two but often three or four RTB crops on the same farm.In both sites in Burundi (Cibitoke and Gitega districts) banana and cassava are very important crops and sweetpotato is also cultivated, though in these sites it is of lesser significance. Banana is considered by women and men as the most important crop for men in both sites. Banana is important for all social ceremonies, for which banana is consumed either in the form of cooked food or beer. One man from Gitega says \"banana is our life and a family without banana is vulnerable\". In terms of volume produced, banana is much more important in Cibitoke however. The banana and its productsWoman 1) \"I don't think there is a big difference between a good man farmer and good woman farmer\" Woman 2) \"No, there is a difference; a good male farmer should have a big and well maintained garden while a female farmer should at least have a vegetable garden.\" Woman 3) \"A woman farmer's main concern is food for the household but the man's concern is selling and they mostly grow maize while women grow beans and other crops\" Focus group discussion -Central Uganda [banana-beer] are strongly associated with men and masculinity and men are expected to cultivate banana and own a plantation. Women in Cibitoke said they [women] don't know anything about banana management and in Gitega women mention that a woman can never harvest a banana-bunch or the husband should have migrated away or be dead. Individual accounts of women however do speak of themselves managing the banana crop, investing in banana [beer] business or sometimes harvesting a bunch to cover for their own expenses. Individual men also mention that their wives contribute labour to banana management. Actual practice in banana farming seems to be inconsistent with the normative ideas women and men express with regards to banana.In Cibitoke, cassava is primarily a food crop whereas in Gitega it is also grown for sales. In Cibitoke cassava is mainly grown by women. It's a key crop for household food security and preferred over maize for eating. In Gitega, cassava is grown for household consumption and for sale by both men and women.In the Kenya sites (Busia and Vihiga country in the western region) RTB crops are of secondary importance after the staple maize crop and key-income generating activities such as dairy farming. Cassava is likely the most important of RTBs here, grown in both sites on a small scale. The norm around cassava in Vihiga is that it is a crop grown by women for household consumption. In Busia cassava is also considered to secure household food security because available year-round and additionally it is considered a crop appropriate for poor people because it is not necessary to take a loan to start cultivating cassava as is needed for (hybrid) maize. But these norms are shifting in the younger generation. Young women describe it as 'traditional' and no longer interesting for the new generation.In Rwanda, both men and women consider banana as the most important crop for the community in Kayonza. Both also agree that banana is especially important for men. Like in Burundi and parts of Uganda, having a banana plantation is associated with livelihood security. In reality however, maize is emerging as a main food security crop in this site because of the increasing pressure on banana production from diseases. This is a new development and maize clearly does not equal the cultural significance of banana.Banana is important for food and income; cooking varieties being cultivated mainly for household consumption and controlled more by women and beer-varieties either sold raw or processed into beer with income belonging mostly to men. Although beer-banana is considered as men's business, quite a number of women report banana-beer sales as a (secondary) income generating activity.Cassava is produced mainly for household consumption. Young men consider cassava cultivation as men's business. Individual women however also describe how their cassava production and sales were essential for livelihood improvements because it provides both food security to the household and income. So in practice, cassava is a key food security for women as well as men.RTB crops in Uganda play major roles in the farming systems of all the four sites in Uganda (Mukono and Kiboga district in central Uganda, Isingiro district in Western Uganda and Serere district in Eastern Uganda). In Isingiro in Western Uganda cooking-banana is the main cash crop occupying most of the cultivable land. Ownership of a banana plantation is a strong normative indicator of male status in the community and is therefore perceived as very desirable by poor and young men. In this site, the reality is that cooking banana is indeed mainly controlled by men who also own the land and thus the banana plantation. There is no rule that women cannot produce banana though, widows who have inherited banana plantations from their late husbands for example can and do control banana plantations. But banana is also important for land-ownership issues; as a perennial crop planting banana is a way of claiming ownership of a plot of land. Because of this, women with mere access to land via their husbands or via renting arrangements, cannot plant banana -the land does not belong to them! Commercial banana production is labor-intensive so men rely heavily on unpaid female labor. Women contribute labor, mainly for hand-weeding. It is expected that women will provide labor to their husband's (banana) plot before working on their own plot.Brewing banana is considered more important for men and cooking varieties are more important for women and these are the preferred food crop. Although there are normative restrictions around who produces banana, this does not seem to be the case with processing of brewing banana, especially in Kiboga where trade in banana-beer and gin is common and involves both men and women.In Central, Western and Eastern Uganda there are few normative ideas around cassava production, except for its association with poorer families. Both women and men grow the crop mainly for household food security but sometimes also for sales. Nevertheless, in Eastern Uganda cassava does seem to be rather more important for men and the importance of cassava vis-à-vis other crops such as millet is increasing. The gender division of labor in this site is as follows: Land preparation and harvesting are primarily done by men. Both men and women do planting and weeding. Processing is almost exclusively the domain of women. Men are only involved in chipping and drying when machines are used. Both men and women can sell but it is noted that women usually sell small quantities whereas men are responsible for sales of large volumes. Women mention earning income also from selling cassava chips or for working on cassava for other people (weeding, peeling) or from selling cassava cuttings. They also use cassava flour to make chapattis and bread for sale. In this site it is possible to produce cassava on rented land.Sweetpotato, which is grown in all four sites, sometimes as an important staple (Serere, eastern Uganda), is frequently described as a \"woman's crop\". This narrative seems to be shared by both men and women in Mukono in Central Uganda, where the crop is especially important. In Isingiro it is mainly men who mention sweetpotato as important for women instead of women themselves. Young men in Isingiro elaborate how sweetpotato doesn't provide enough income for men to be worth their time and also the seasonality is considered a disadvantage (in comparison to banana and cassava). The reality appears to be that in all locations sweetpotato is primarily grown on a small-scale by women, mainly for household consumption, but with some small sales of surpluses. Despite being normatively considered a woman's crop, men do conduct specific tasks in crop management such as clearing the land and making ridges and mounds. Women are responsible for planting, weeding, harvesting and cutting vines in addition to processing, for example into flour in Eastern Unganda, and marketing.In particular locations and sub-regions, some crops carry much greater cultural significance than other crops. This is the case of banana in most of the East-African highlands. The cultural significance or value of such as crop can persist even if the economic significance or the value for food security is decreasing, as in the case discussed above of Kayonza, Rwanda where maize was replacing banana as the main food and cash crop. The social and gender norms associated with such a crop, equally tend to be more explicit and strict than those for other crops. Changes in cropping patterns and specifically switches to other, 'new' crops can therefore considerably change gender dynamics and possibly create opportunities for either gender.Perceptions about the meaning of gender equality, gender difference and changes in gender relations is vary variable Gender equality and women's empowerment are high on the agenda of many governments, national and international organizations and in many countries and regions policies and strategies are developed to promote these. It is relevant to know how people on the ground or the 'target population' think about these concepts in order to develop policies and strategies that are relevant and suitable.We found that perceptions strongly diverge on what gender equality means. Many men and women emphasize the 'differentness' of men and women, referring mainly to biological differences and how this inevitably makes men and women do different things. For instance, a young man says that \"There is no point in comparing a horse with a sheep because the two animals are not comparable.\" (Burundi). Gender inequality is often presented as something natural and unavoidable, resulting from biological differences. In some regions (notably East-Africa and Bangladesh) religion is used to support the idea that gender inequality is natural -and the superiority of men is emphasized by both men and women -and sometimes religious arguments are also used to illustrate how women and men 'are the same' (Kenya).When talking about gender equality people often raised concerns about its effect on the integrity of the family. They felt that it could lead to diminished respect between spouses, leading in turn to conflict. It's a common perception, especially in Africa, that a household cannot have two heads.On the other hand, many men and women felt that greater gender equality can lead to development at the household, farm, community and country levels. Men expressed a sense that work can be accomplished faster because it is shared, that planning together can make family affairs (education, agriculture, business) easier, that finances can improve when spouses contribute to family income, and that equality can reduce tensions and disagreements. Women, also perceived gender equality as a decrease in domestic violence (Uganda and Vietnam), as more considerate husbands (Malawi, Vietnam, Kenya), and as greater freedom and independence for women (Kenya, Vietnam, Malawi). In Kenya, a young women defined gender equality as \"a situation where the man can be housekeeper and the woman bread winner and vice versa. Both can take care of the family and when it comes to the kids both boys and girls receive equal education\". This response demonstrates an understanding that gender equality is not only about women accomplishing certain normatively defined male roles, but also about men also taking up normatively 'female' tasks within the household. It is also not only about the adult generation, but also about equal opportunities for girls and boys.When women were seen to have equal or even greater opportunities than men, womenspecific projects and programs were cited as an explanation. This was particularly the case in Africa, where women-specific opportunities are channeled through the state, NGOs and farmers' collectives. At the same time, however, women mentioned organizations and projects in which women are most active. In Rwanda, young men but not women mentioned state-led programs for women that 'exclude' men. In DRC, young men mentioned receiving instructions on the advantage of spouses working together and disapprovingly reported that women are now milking cows even though their culture forbids it. In Nigeria, men in one village mentioned mixed gender membership in the farmers' union, stating that this gives men and women equal opportunities. These examples demonstrate how interventions can catalyze change in the gendered farming landscape, not only by targeting women but by making their involvement in certain income generating activities more acceptable in the community. This is not always the case. There are also challenges from men that accompany such changes, including a hardening of the gender gap in some cases. There are also interventions, such as mentioned by men in Kenya, where NGOs prefer involving boys rather than girls, thus consolidating genderMany social norms surround the extent of women's physical mobility within and beyond the home and this has implications about their freedom to engage in daily livelihood and social activities. Across the case studies in RTB, the situation is highly variable.In just under a third of study villages women felt that a majority of women were constrained in their physical movements (more than 5/10 women in the exercise). In another third or so of villages, women judged that between a half and 70% of women did have freedom of movement. The information provided by young men and women showed little difference about physical mobility of women, estimating 65% and 60% respectively having freedom of movement. However as Figure 5 indicates, there is a lot of variability around these averages.The highest mobility reported was among the Kinh in central Vietnam, where youth of both genders believed that nearly all women could move freely on their own. The lowest reported mobility was in one Bangladeshi village, where both young women and men believed that only about 10% of women can move freely (Figure 3.1). This is in line with the practice of female seclusion (purdah) present as a norm throughout Bangladesh. Textual comments by young women in particular confirm that this norm continues to be widely practiced and is especially practiced in relation to visiting markets and more strongly enforced against women selling than against them buying. Young men more than women commented that things were changing, that some families do allow daughters to go out. Even within a given village, norms may vary across religious or socio-economic groups, with poorer women sometimes being able to move around more freely than those better off economically due to the necessity of making a living forcing greater flexibility in the interpretation of norms. In a number of countries, young men and women consider that physical mobility is linked to marital status, with unmarried women moving around more easily because they do not have to seek consent from their husband or the pressure of the father-in-law. Women's reduced mobility limits their developmentWomen's freedom mobility has clear implications for the ability to learn about (exposure to information and trainings) and adopt new innovations and require careful consideration in the context of AR4D. For instance, innovations requiring women's participation in new markets may be compromised by their mobility constraints. Both men and women across cases perceived limitations on women's ability to travel to the market, and advanced many reasons for this restriction. These include family and community disapproval and risks to women's reputation, husband's jealousy and the fear of seduction by other men, safety, and the risk that she will neglect other (household) duties, as well as the lack of means of transport. In Bangladesh, it is normatively a man's duty to earn money and women's to watch over the house and children. If a woman goes to the market, her husband will be viewed as incapable. In other countries (Uganda, Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam), too, household duties were mentioned both by men and women as a reason why women do not go to the market. In other places, however, women and men were particularly vocal on the importance of the market for women (Malawi and Kenya). Women describe the market as an important social scene and men acknowledge that women know the marketplace and deal with business better than men. Therefore among both genders, in Malawi and Kenya women were described as being allowed to go to the market to conduct business provided they communicated adequately with their family, husband and limited movements to an appropriate time of day.Norms around mobility are changing in many places. Drivers of change are interventions of NGOs (Malawi), migration of fathers and husbands (Bangladesh and Kenya) and education of girls (Bangladesh). Individual differences can be explained through level of trust in conjugal relations (Nigeria, Uganda), life-cycle -older women can have more mobility than young women -(East-Africa) and individual agency 'being brave' (Bangladesh).Norms around property titles and status titles such as head of the household enable men to \"inherit\" agency In many case studies men felt empowered to make strategic decisions on behalf of the household, emphasizing their role as 'the head of the household' and 'in charge' in this context of decisionmaking. This process of \"inheriting agency\" occurs over time as men transition through life stages. In Nigeria men assert their agency with explanations how they inherited their father's land and are therefore secure in their livelihoods (see also sub-section 3.6 below). Situations where men lack agency despite these supportive norms are mostly explained through poverty and their exclusion from control over resources, sometimes due to actions of external agencies. For instance, in Kenya, men complain about the difficulties and high costs to obtain formal titles to land they have traditionally cultivated: \"We're like squatters\" one exclaims.In all regions, the man or husband is described in words to the effect of being in charge of the family. In eastern Africa men are considered to make decisions on all aspects of life. Women report not feeling free and only being able to make minor decisions for instance concerning the content of meals. Women also reflect on the importance of age; elder women can make more decisions than those in the first years of marriage and domestic violence inflicted by their husbands tends to decrease with age. One reason for this is that adult children will protect the mother 'against the violence of the father' (Burundi). For some of these women, growing older is in itself empowering.Respect and support from their spouse is important for both men and women in relation to agency. Having support within the household is described as 'empowering' by women whereas men refer more often to the situation of people [HH members] looking up to them as empowering. Both men and women emphasize that good intra-household relations are important for the development of the household.\"Those days, life was hard we were still young and poor and he was always in control but when we started developing we also started to work together and listening to each other's ideas.\" (woman, Uganda)Losing a spouse is also mentioned as a factor that enables women to empower themselves; they describe in similar ways how their freedom increased after the death of their husband (Kenya, Malawi and Uganda). Sometimes agency of widows is dependent on the sex and age of their children; older boys would effectively take the place of their father and become head of the household whereas the widow would be head of the household in case the children are young or all girls (Burundi).Women and men generally feel more empowered than compared to 10 years ago According to the \"ladder of power and freedom\" tool used in this study (see Section 1 and Annexes), the majority of both women and men consider that they have increased their own agency compared to 10 years back. There are several reasons for this 1) aging, becoming older and more developed and respectful 2) improvement of family livelihoods/financial situation and 3) changing external environments, including new policies and the loosening of some social norms. These three reasons largely reflect different scales: the personal or individual scale; the household or family scale; and the wider social environment or institutional landscape Increased agency for both women and men is often related to improved livelihoods which in turn depends on access to education Many women paint a picture of being ignorant and invisible 10 years back (Bangladesh, East-Africa, Malawi). In current perspectives, although women often continue to see themselves as controlled by their husband to a greater or lesser degree, they consider that they have more options to gain an income and join in decision-making within the household and the community. In all discussions about empowerment and agency men and women make frequent reference to economic factors: assets, income-generating activities, successes and failures in farming and business. A major driver of livelihood improvement, mentioned over and over again, is education, training and extension. Both women and men mention the importance of education, not only formal education, but also training and learning resulting from engagement with NGOs, farmers' groups and other local institutions such as extension officers. Both women and men describe how they are increasingly involved in (commercial) farming and income generation in general and have improved their livelihoods. Many women and men express how they feel 'empowered' because of this development. But especially women acknowledge that this is quite a difference compared to the situation a decade ago. For instance from western Kenya women explain that \"Ten years ago women were just housewives with nothing to do\"[..]\"women were restricted by men, even family members like in-laws were not for the idea that a woman should work. In such a case, can one really progress?\" This change is largely attributed to the changing environment.In different countries men and women make reference to factors behind the livelihood improvements and perceived increases in agency: national policies on inheritance, marriage and domestic violence and representation of women in government; increased exposure to NGOs advocating for women's rights but also providing training in agricultural technologies among others things; and improved infrastructure and access to its use in education, health services and markets.In Rwanda women explain how new laws on inheritance and land ownership have given women 'rights'. In several countries it is mentioned that women are now represented in parliament and local government. These changes challenge normative ideas about women held by both men and women. They show that women are capable of speaking in public and making strategic decisions. Laws on domestic violence have also been cited as transformative (Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda). For different reasons, women and men are highly focused on this law and its enforcement, especially in Uganda. Whilst women are generally positive about the changes brought about by the new law, men are ambiguous at best. They express feelings of losing power within their households and complain about the government meddling with their rights as men and husbands.'Visitors started coming to enlighten us' is the way that Kenyan women describe another key driver, the promotion of new agricultural technologies and the associated training offered by NGOs. Better infrastructure can literally 'open up the world' to men and women. In Vietnam women explain how new roads have increased their mobility: \"Thanks to the road, they can learn how to ride motorbike so that they can go buy things themselves\".The primary reasons given by young men for a low sense of agency was that their parents (and other elders) make important decisions for them. The lack of financial independence and few employment opportunities also curtail their sense of power and freedom. Young Kenyan men cited the lack of land ownership, as land is still held in their fathers' name, and Nigerian men mentioned limited mobility, perhaps due to lack of transport. Those who feel empowered suggest that there are now more opportunities for young people to voice their opinions than a decade ago (Burundi), that they do have some responsibilities and can make certain decisions (including what to wear, eat and where to go-Nigeria) or suggestions at home (Uganda) and that they can participate in village meetings (Vietnam). In Colombia, one young man states that \"As long as you assume responsibility, you can make decisions\".Young women provide the same primary reason for a lack of agency: they remain under the authority of their parents or elders until marriage. Unlike young men, however, upon marriage they do not become autonomous but must seek permission from their husband (Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam) or in-laws (Vietnam). Some young women add that they may lack confidence to make decisions for fear that they might make mistakes, and specify that their parents decide on whether they should go to school, which places they can frequent, and who they marry. In contrast, most indicate that they gain a sense of power from being consulted by their parents or able to decide themselves about marriage (who or when they should marry) (Bangladesh, Burundi, DRC, Malawi, Nigeria-although there were some different opinions within the groups), about being to attend school (DRC, Vietnam), and about more minor decisions such as what to wear or purchasing basic necessities. In Vietnam, Uganda and Nigeria, young women mentioned the possibility of making some decisions around what to plant, process or sell, and in Vietnam about farming inputs. Young Vietnamese women also mentioned making joint decisions with their husband about farming and family planning. They specified that if women have money, their husband will be more receptive to their opinion.Norms about 'working women' are observed to be relaxing in several countries, but relaxation is qualified by norms affecting men, by age and family situation Both men and women's expectations about men needing to earn are clear. Expectations about women's work are more varied. Men in the Kenyan case studies often mentioned that a \"good wife\" must assume economic responsibilities. Nevertheless, in most cases women framed their economic activities in raising crops and livestock as supplementing their husband's income. Her money may be shared with her husband, especially to pay school fees.Women's access to paid work outside the household are almost always circumscribed by norms related to mobility and male headship. In the household, husbands often have the authority to stop a wife from accessing earning opportunities. However, case studies in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi show that growing economic pressure to cover household expenses is leading to a shift in norms that a decade ago prohibited married women from working outside the household. These shifts though are not straightforward and are continuously contested as exemplified by women in Western Uganda:\"Sometimes the men fail the woman like refusing them to go look for work or work in someone's plantation because the village members will talk badly about the men for failing to cater for his home and sending the wife to work in other people's plantations; some woman just escape from their homes to go and work on someone's plantation without the consent of the men because they do not allow them.\" (Poor women's FGD, Uganda)In some of the East African cases, a man's position in the household as \"head\" is felt to be threatened by a woman having paid work, or he may feel overpowered. A further aspect of these shifts in norms affecting relative power is that if a woman is able to seek paid work, she is often discouraged from earning more than her husband. This relates to men's desire to maintain the norms around the male provider role, avoid gossip and the potential for conflict in the household. Men also expressed concerns and worry that a woman working outside the home may be planning to leave for another man. Women's increased mobility is frequently associated with suspicions that a woman is being promiscuous.Norms In Bangladesh are most restrictive in controlling women's physical mobility and possibility of engaging directly in economic activity. Women are discouraged or forbidden from going to the market, with men selling produce off-farm and buying food in markets.Friends of (the husband) will disgrace (the husband) as well as insult and hate. They will say why you let your wife go to market to sell vegetables even (in) presence of you, are you dumb? (Better off men's FGD, Bangladesh)In Vietnam, villagers may gossip about those (women) who sell all day. Vietnamese men would not let her sell, if he the husband is found selling, people think there is something wrong with the wife, or with him.Norms about women's paid work also differ for single, married, and widowed women. It is more common and accepted in many case study locations in Eastern and Southern Africa that young single women perform wage labor. However, as was noted in Kenya, young women often still live with their parents and so do not yet exercise complete economic freedom. Young women have more time than married women with children, who are expected to fulfil most responsibilities associated with childcare and food preparation. Women's paid work activities are often in addition to her household tasks and responsibilities. Married women who have children are criticized if they are seen to prioritize paid work over childcare. At the same time, the FGD discussion showed that women often sympathize and recognize that mothers must work when their husband is ill or to make ends meet in the household. As noted in Vietnam and Malawi, childcare responsibilities often interfere with their time to look for work. Widow's work in wage labor activities is more common since they must often work out of necessity make ends meet.Men and women often work in informal sectors such as transport and domestic labor. The jobs men take are sometimes considered \"men's work\" because women are perceived as not having the appropriate labor or skillset. Women may not perceive that they have the same abilities as men. Men also work as casual laborers, but not in all countries. In Vietnam, woman reported that men \"rarely work for others\". They work as traders and often handle money because \"they calculate better than women\". Similarly, in Uganda, men are more mobile and herd cattle to remote water sources. Men also work in construction.Women are often supportive of their husband's work, since providing for the household is a commonly held expectation of a good husband. Although women are actively earning income in most cases, men do not always support their wife's enterprises. Reasons for this are that men are often concerned about what community members will think and the reputation of the man. In some cases, a man's position in the household as \"head\" is threatened, or he may feel overpowered. Men also expressed concerns and worry that she is planning to leave him for another man. Women's increased mobility is frequently associated with suspicions that she is being promiscuous.Many decisions surrounding sales and use of income are managed by men. Husbands and wives occasionally make joint decisions about selling crops. Poor women in Bangladesh may help their husbands to make important decisions about crops, such as buying and selling to get the \"right\" price. More often, however, women have little to no say in selling decisions.In the majority of adult FGDs it was reported that men frequently make decisions about income. While some amount of consultation may occur, the final decision-maker is often the man in the family, owing to his title of \"head of household\". Men take the money, reported by women in Kenya and Uganda, in which case they divert money for their purposes and do not share information on how money is spent with their wives. Further, women are often not financially compensated for their labor contributions; According to young women in Uganda, men will say that \"A woman has no need for money; she should not have money like a man\".Men are generally considered to be in charge of household income and expenditures and this is associated with their control over key productive resources, e.g., land.An individual's asset ownership influences their bargaining and agency in the household. Men generally are the landholders, and, as such, exercise authority in decisions related to production and sale of harvested products. Men often own larger plots and put more of their land into cash crop production. In the rare cases in which a woman owns her own land, her potential to make autonomous decisions often increases. However, in Uganda and Kenya cases, she is still expected to consult with their husbands.. Whether or not women decide to sell, they often still have an important responsibility to support food provision in the house, often on smaller plots of land.Although both men and women mention shared decision-making between husband and wife as an option, it is still mostly expected for men to have the final word. Men's position as the main decision-maker is associated with 'being the head of the household' and strengthened by their general larger access or control over land in comparison to women. In some countries such as Uganda, strict norms surround women in relation to money/ income. Increased control over money by women is said to lead to household conflicts, threatens the husband's position in the household and might lead women to invest in their parent's household over their own. The situation is especially precarious when women earn more money than men.It is widely held that youth around the world do not aspire to farm. Yet, specific pathways into agriculture for young women and men are poorly understood. As shown below, the 'youth' comprises actors differentiated by gender, culture, capacities and aspirations. Current approaches to addressing the 'youth in agriculture problem' focus on including more 'youth' in farming (much like the 'women in development' approach did with 'women' in the 1980s) rather than examining the social relations and norms that shape their interests in and capacities to participate in agriculture. This study shifts the question from how to engage youth in agriculture to how young women and men perceive their futures and how they can catalyze innovation in agriculture and natural resource management, considering their relations among themselves and with the older generation. Education, communications technologies and migration opportunities, underpinned by gender norms and gender-specific opportunities and constraints, are changing rural landscapes. Young people may catalyze agricultural innovation in ways that extend beyond their direct involvement in farming, through agribusiness, investments and other ways that reflect their aspirations, knowledge, resources, and the enthusiasm they bring to other ways of being and doing. It is not possible or desirable to develop a one-size-fits-all solution to include 'youth' in agriculture, but necessary to expand the range of options and space for this diverse group to gain a sense of agency, opportunity and fulfilment in the rural and urban areas where they make a life for themselves.In this sub-section, we consider young men's and women's perceptions of the gendered opportunities, constraints and appeal of agriculture and other types of employment as a way of life in the 24 RTB-HT case studies.In summary, we found that young women and men across the cases aspire to skilled blue collar and white collar occupations and that farming is indeed often stigmatized as an occupation for those who have not done well in school or succeeded professionally. It follows that education is highly valued by both young women and men and there are generic and gender-specific reasons for stopping studying. Poverty is the main reason affecting all young people, but unplanned pregnancy and marriage are also important factors affecting young women. When we compare parental aspirations with those of their children we find they prioritize the pursuit and strengthening of virtuous behaviors and harmonious lives in their children. They also want their daughters and sons to be educated and they see farming as a fallback option. Parents also want their children to enjoy a good livelihood in the village rather than migrating to the cities.The reality for most young men and women who remain in the village contrasts with their own and their parent's aspirations. Those that are no longer students farm or find an alternative job, often related to farming. Women often appear to 'dive' into family life with marriage curtailing their studies. Dissatisfaction for men and women stems from having to carry out jobs for which their formal education is seen as unnecessary. Farming is perceived as one of those jobs. Repositioning agriculture as an occupation requiring high knowledge and skills can turn it from a job into a more attractive profession for youth.Young women and men across the cases aspired to a range of skilled blue collar and white collar occupations.The number of desired professions mentioned was high, with 28 occupations named in total. Figure 1 displays the top-named occupational aspirations for young men and women. For young men, engineer, farmer, teacher and businessman (merchant) topped the list followed by medical doctor. Beyond the occupations shown in Figure 3.2, the following occupations were cited by young men only once across the focus groups: professor, driver, mechanic, merchant, pastor and even neurosurgeon. Young women's top cited profession was nursing, followed by teaching (Figure 3.2). Out of the approximately 240 young women who participated in the 24 FGDs, only three women aspired to be medical doctors and only two wanted to pursue a business, with other professions such as esthetician, dentist, hairdresser, journalist, lecturer, seamstress, social worker, secretary and magistrate named only by one group. The large number of white collar and skilled blue collar occupations mentioned by both men and women, many of which are found mainly in urban areas, is notable. Yet, young people did not explicitly indicate that they would like to migrate to the cities. Aside from getting a job, both young men and women desire to help their parents and family with farm work, to improve their socio-economic conditions, and to help them build a home. Others aspire to contribute to the well-being and development of their community by providing community service, helping those less fortunate, building schools, serving as role models and working with youth. In Bangladesh, young men and women expressed a desire to improve their nation.Farming is often stigmatized as an occupation for those who have not done well in school or succeeded professionally.When asked if, when they were younger, they had a special goal for their future when they finished their studies, young women's and men's aspirations mainly pertained to obtaining an education, employment and entrepreneurship, providing service to their parents and communities, and family formation. Young men and women focused on 'getting a job' in white collar professions that require a high level of formal education. In only 12.5% of the focus groups-nearly exclusively young men's-was there interest shown in farming or other agricultural endeavors as a way of life.In Bangladesh, a young man explained that \"Those who can't study far, they usually do agricultural works\", suggesting that farming is perceived as an occupation for low scholastic achievers. There was a prevalent sense that farming is one of the only available opportunities in the study villages, especially for those who do not achieve high education qualifications, as this quote from a young men's group in Vietnam illustrates: \"[farming] is the only thing I can do when I don't go to school.\" These quotes reiterate that the sample of youth who participated in the study may not have achieved high educational qualifications. Results are to be understood in this context.Education features predominantly in the aspirations of youth, regardless of gender, across all cases. It is considered the main pathway for achieving career goals and gaining financial security, which is also expressed as a main goal in life. Young men and women indicated their desire to continue studying, pursue a college education or even a PhD. Young women recognize the value of education for being better caregivers, farmers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and for improving their marriage prospects. In Malawi, young women perceive that education can help women gain autonomy, even from their husband. Young men were also articulate about why education matters: for improving one's quality of life, creating job opportunities, making joint decisions among spouses, fostering social harmony, gaining new skills and perspectives, stopping early marriages, and avoiding \"bad behaviors\", such as participation in armed groups. (young men's group, DRC).There are gender-specific reasons why young women and men stop studying. The top reason among both genders is poverty. Unplanned pregnancies also stand out as a top reason for young women Across all cases, lack of money is described as one of the two main factors preventing the continuation of girls' and boys' education. For young women across cases, an unplanned pregnancy is a close second. Additional barriers to young women finishing their schooling are early marriage and parents not recognizing the value of their education. In Bangladesh, the fact that young women will leave their parents and marry into another family dissuades parents from investing in their daughters' education.Young women consider that marriage can be an obstacle to achieving their aspirations.Marriage was cited as an aspiration in only a few FGDs (17% of young women's and 13% of men's). In some cases, such as in Colombia, marriage was referred to as a factor impeding women's aspirations and scholastic achievements, as \"if the husbands are macho they will ask their wives 'why go to school?' since their duty is to be in the home\". Marriage and pregnancy were also top-cited reasons why young women abandon their studies Young women and men face bigger constraints in Africa to complete their education, compared to both Asia and Latin AmericaThe level of education achieved varies across countries, villages and genders, and influences options, aspirations and expectations. According to key informants in Bangladesh and Vietnam (in Asia) as well as Colombia (in Latin America), almost all girls and boys complete both elementary and high school. In contrast, in the African case studies, key informants indicate that almost no girls and boys receive a high school education (as in some cases in Malawi) or that it is almost exclusively boys who attend high school (as in Uganda or Burundi). These differences reinforce the fact that it is inappropriate to talk about 'the youth' as a homogeneous group with one common set of skills and interests.Parents' aspirations for their daughters and sons are related to pursuit and strengthening of virtuous behaviors and harmonious lives Aspirations of poor mothers and fathers for their sons and daughters reflect the normative environment that conditions the aspirations of young men and women. Parents aspirations are less specifically focused on professions than the younger generation's, and include more aspects of virtuous behaviors and harmonious lives. For example, women and men want their daughters to be respectable, avoid early marriage as well as domestic violence and prostitution, be good mothers, respect their husbands, dress appropriately, maintain their virginity, be appreciated by society, and be healthy. Some parents simply wish their daughters to be 'successful' and to 'have a better life'. Parents also showed a desire to see certain norms changed, however. For instance, both poor men and women in Bangladesh would like to see the end of the dowry.Mothers and fathers generally aspired for their daughters and sons to be educated, and perceived farming as a fallback option Middle-income women and men expressed similar aspirations for their sons. They wished them to find a good wife, avoid vices such as drugs, drinking, gambling and promiscuity, be responsible and good husbands, respect others, work hard to help their parents, and achieve 'success'. They also hoped their sons would find jobs, earn money, and be entrepreneurial. Poorer adults sought equal opportunities for their daughters and sons, sufficient food, better futures, local development, and especially a life close to God.Among both parents and youth, education is seen as the first (and most important) step toward achieving a better life. As is the case among the youth, parents do not aspire for their children to farm, but consider it a secondary option for them if all else fails. Agriculture and agri-business and other professional 'jobs' were mentioned by only two adult focus groups (one men's and one women's).Parents wish for their children to find good livelihoods in the village rather than migrating to the cities.Men in Colombia want their children to continue farming so they will not have to migrate to the cities to work, and in Uganda (men) and Bangladesh (women) wish their children to learn good farming skills that will allow them to have better livelihoods. In the migration questions, youth mentioned migration to the cities in search of work as not so much a desire but a fall back given the lack of other opportunities. Parents' desires not to have their children migrate seems to be in line with this and to also underline their aspirations for the children to lead virtuous and harmonious lives, which urban life is seen to threaten.Most young men and women who remain in the village and are no longer students farm or find an alternative job, often related to farmingThe picture looks different when considering what most young men and women actually do with their lives when they are no longer students. Young women consider that when girls finish their education they typically 'find a job', farm or start a business. For their own gender group, most young men's groups cite farming as the main activity pursued, followed by finding a job. Aside from farming per se, agricultural activities such as rearing livestock and pursuing an agri-business are prevalent occupations. More than half of the women's groups cited 'starting a business' as a common undertaking, and in 85% of cases indicated that this business would be related to agriculture. Among young men's groups, more than half of those who said young men typically start a business referred specifically to agri-business.Women 'dive into family life' when they are no longer students, and marriage is a reason for women to abandon their studies.Aside from agriculture, young men pursue jobs as car or motorcycle taxi driver, or working in 'low profile jobs' such as hotels or restaurants (Bangladesh, Rwanda) and carpentry (Malawi). Young women sew or tailor, or work as housemaids (Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda) and hairdressers. A number of groups mentioned that young men remain 'idle' when finishing their studies, as they have nothing to do (e.g. Kenya, Colombia). Vices such as drinking were mentioned particularly for men (Colombia), and prostitution was cited as an occupation for young women in Malawi and young men in Kenya. It is worth noting the sentiment raised by a Rwandan female participant that young people feel shame in pursuing certain jobs such as construction once they have a certain level of education.In half of the focus groups, young women discuss getting married and \"diving into family life\" (Bangladesh) when they stop studying. In fact, marriage is often the impetus for young women to abandon their studies although as mentioned earlier, some young women see abandonment of studies through marriage in a negative light. With marriage comes a great deal of housework (young women's groups Burundi, Colombia). In contrast to women, only 12.5% of young men's groups discuss marriage, in Uganda, Burundi and Vietnam. More young women (25% of the groups) than men (12.5% of the groups) mention migrating to cities or other countries in search of a job, particularly in Kenya, Colombia, Malawi and Nigeria. In general, however, those leaving the village are reportedly a minority, as the majority remains to work on the farm or in day jobs.Dissatisfaction stems from having to carry out jobs for which a formal education is not perceived as necessary. Farming is perceived as one of those jobs.When young women and men are asked what young people should do when they stop studying, both stress the importance of finding a job. Finding a job within the sector in which one has studied is considered the ideal, but women and men describe the difficulty of finding such employment. A feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration comes through as a result of having to carry out jobs in which a formal education is not needed; and there is a perception that this is the case for farming. In Burundi, young men state that, \"It should not be this way. We would like everyone to find work that matches their competences\", but they indicate that due to corruption, only children of the rich can find work. This feeling of injustice in relation to opportunities to access already scarce jobs is reiterated in other cases. Hence, there is a gap between what youth feel they should do (Figure 3.3) and what they actually do (Figure 3.4) due to limited employment opportunities.Marriage is cited prominently across different cases as something that young women should do, lest they should become \"left over ladies\" (young women, Vietnam). Marriage is also expected of young men, but only after they have found a job or earned enough money. This helps to explain why farming on their parents' farm, an activity from which they may not earn their own income, may not appeal to young men. As a young man from Vietnam explains, \"I will earn money in order to marry a wife, if not who would give me a wife if I cannot offer anything?\" So, only 4% of young men's groups mentioned farming as an occupation they should pursue.Figure 3.3 What young women and men should do once they finish their secondary studies, according to young women's (n=24) and young men's (n=24) FGDs? Figure 3.4 What young women and men actually do once they stop studying, according to young women's (n=24) and young men's (n=24) FGDs?Repositioning agriculture as an occupation requiring high knowledge and skills can render the profession more attractive to youth.While working in agriculture is described as an option for both men and women, it was only mentioned by 33% of young men's groups and 17% of women's groups as a sector young men and women, respectively, should engage in. In some cases, such as Burundi, women explicitly state that finding a job outside of the agricultural sector is preferable. In Uganda, however, a young woman explains that, \"it is still okay to do farming since most people in the village who have money got it from farming\". These findings suggest that repositioning agriculture as a knowledge-and skill-intensive occupation, which can be improved with formal education, can render agriculture more attractive to the youth. As shown earlier, a good male or female farmer is highly knowledgeable, and a lack of knowledge is commonly used to explain low productivity in agriculture. Hence, bringing skills acquired through formal education to agricultural endeavors will not only help 'rebrand' the profession, but can also improve the success of the farming enterprise.Many gender norms hinder young women's opportunities to learn about and try out new agricultural innovations.Young men and women were almost equally divided about whether they believe that opportunities for women and men to learn about and try out new farming practices are equal or different. However, there is important variability within these groups and across villages. While in many cases women would state that opportunities were, in theory, equal, they would go on to list reasons why opportunities actually differed. Across most cases, there was a sense that \"boys have more freedom and power than girls\" (Nigeria, young women's group) and that \"culture favors boys\" (Kenya, young men's group).Participants identified several factors linked to social norms affecting young people's and parental attitudes and access to assets that typically favor adult men's ability to capture opportunities over women's. Top-cited factors were that: 1) In some cases, women do not go to the field to farm (e.g. in Bangladesh); and there are certain specifically male dominated agricultural domains; 2) Women have chores to do at home which limits their involvement in farming 3) Parents and husbands prevent women from attending trainings; 4) Women (specifically) have no money to try out new practices; 5) Women have limited access to land; 6) Women's mobility is limited; 7) Women do not hear about opportunities because they are at home; 8) Women are not decision-makers in their own home.Normative personal attributes and levels of agency ascribed to women can influence women's ability to innovate.Perceptions about attributes limiting women's opportunities included the belief that girls have less energy and lack physical strength; girls are less organized; and girls are distracted by boyfriends; that girls are less keen to learn. In contrast, men were perceived to have more opportunities because they are \"keen to attend agricultural meetings\" (men's group, Kenya), although young women in Uganda also stated that boys may be more concerned with games than with trainings. Young African women stressed that if motivated, women have the ability to tap into opportunities, as: \"If you are hard working, there is nothing that can stop you\" (Malawi, young women's group) and \"We are also capable to represent our families or parents in meetings and receive knowledge on different practices when the agronomist come to our villages. We can go and explain these things to our parents\" (Rwanda, young women's group). In Vietnam, too, men expressed that women \"can do anything the men can do\", although women felt that they had fewer opportunities than their male counterparts.The study was not primarily focused on understanding the gender dimensions of migration, which is a complex phenomenon with multiple meanings (seasonal, temporary, overseas etc) and contexts. We did try to understand how men and women perceived the option and experience of migration in general and how gender norms affected the uptake of this option because of the importance of migration for agriculture.When asked about the ease with which women and men can \"move away to live and work in a city where there were more opportunities\", young men generally considered it common practice among themselves to migrate and their mobility was not considered to be a problem. He can find transportation relatively easily and can stay with his relatives in town. As a young Bangladeshi man states, \"there is nothing to be afraid of with men\". The family will support a male migrant, but he will be welcomed back \"if he comes back with money\" (young men, Nigeria). Nevertheless, there are challenges for men considering migration: some men may lack confidence to leave, they may not be supported by their parents, they may be received as failures upon their return if they have not made money and there may be suspicion around what they did while they were away. We already identified above the negative parental attitudes to \"city life\" expressed in many case studies.Young women considered that although women are migrating to find work, it is less common that for young men, since they considered that they face higher barriers. They identified many of these barriers: girls may lack education, they may lack courage, especially if they do not know anyone or what to expect in the city. They have many responsibilities at home and they risk having a bad reputation when they return and for these and other reasons they may lack their parents' support. Educated women may find it easier to migrate, and would be more respected for doing a job other than housework (Rwanda). Ultimately, however, and as with men, the acceptability of migration seems to depend on the 'success' of women's experience abroad. In Uganda, a young woman indicates that \"if you are better looking and have money [when you return], you are welcomed but if you are worse off you are blamed and criticized\".Men and women farmers are subject to a normative framework defining the kinds of agricultural roles that are appropriate, describing the crops or livestock that should be raised and the tasks s that should or should not be undertaken. Crops like banana are normatively associated with men, sweetpotato with women in East Africa. Evidence shows however that the reality does not always conform to the norms . The 'gendered' production of these crops should therefore never be taken for granted. In most of the case studies, men are expected to take a lead role in farming and especially in the Asian or Latin American cases, women's role is to support their husband. In Africa women are often expected both to support their husband in his farming activities and to farm their own plots, though their access to agricultural resources such as land, inputs or even labor is often limited. Restrictive norms were identified that limited women's options to cultivate cash crops.As well as sex, wealth and age are also important factors in determining agency. Men are usually considered the 'head of the household' and this status enables them to set limits on the mobility, decision-making and income generation opportunities for women in the household.Men and women are both expected to make contributions to the household. Working for an income is considered normal and even essential for men. For women, views about if and how women should and can work for an income vary and gender norms tend to be less straightforward and sometimes even contradictory. Norms surrounding working women tend to vary for marital status, age and having (young) children.Young women and men have aspirations for their future which are mostly outside farming. Both give importance to finishing their education. Farming is perceived as an occupation not requiring education, so there is a perceived contradiction between the desire for finishing their schooling and becoming a farmer. Parents have aspirations for their children which includes living a harmonious life as well as achieving economic success.Change is occurring in many domains in many of the case sites. Both women and men generally feel more empowered than 10 years ago. Exposure to media, examples of women in powerful positions, increased mobility and interaction with peers through farmers, youth and women's groups and new laws that spell out women's rights, are all mentioned as drivers of change.Our findings from previous sections show that men and women have different ways to access the resources on which a particular innovation depends, and therefore have different opportunities of benefitting from it. These findings question assumptions that technologies are evenly adopted by targeted households to help increase production, incomes and nutrition intake. This section explores social conditions that enable individuals and/or a community to leverage opportunities for innovation. We identified four key points that facilitate this. Interventions that bridge formal institutions and informal social networks are very helpful.They can open up new opportunities to those who have had few chances to participate in and benefit from project interventions. Conventional innovation opportunities provided by formal institutions such as government extension systems or private sector input sales networks are more accessible for those with agency, confidence and status. Women and men with limited agency have often been marginalized from group activities associated with these formal systems. However, they still learn new technologies from their friends and relatives. Therefore, interventions that provide support for informal networks are very important.Transforming the dissemination of technologies from using a formal school-like teaching method to embracing informal networks and informal learning practices can be a first step for expanding target populations to the marginalized groups. Monitoring and evaluation tools also need to be redesigned to allow tracing of how far technologies are being disseminated through informal networks. Innovation processes should engage with the context-specific expectations and wishes of women farmers so that they are more likely to adopt them. Innovation can strengthen women and men's perceptions of their own power, and thereby increase their selfconfidence, and hopefully encourage them to seize further opportunities for innovation. However, the pathways through which they gain power are very different, being closely associated with social expectations of how women and men should be and act. Therefore, if innovation processes do not fit with women's empowerment pathways, only the men benefit from them. Since across the case studies men's power is associated with material assets and economic independence, mechanization and intensification of agriculture can often directly help strengthen their power and confidence. On the other hand, in some social contexts such as Vietnam, women feel empowered and confident when they play a supportive instead of a central role in economic activities, as being independent from their husbands is not a socially desirable situation. In these cases innovation is embedded in socially constructed family relations, and only when it satisfies the needs and expectations of women farmers are they likely to adopt the activities, taking the first step to empowerment and thereby stronger agency to seize further opportunities in the future. Women have a space for innovation within their own domains where they already have autonomy over whether to take risks and change current farming practices. Despite the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women's innovation opportunities, identifying their autonomous domain can be an entry point to facilitating women's involvement in innovation. Successful innovation that supports more people in the same family and community requires the recognition that a family or community is not a homogenous unit of innovation. Without understanding the social power dynamics at play, innovation supports only those who already have significant power, potentially creating jealousy and tension among the family and the community. Considering the social power dynamics helps us to think about how and to whom new technologies are introduced. This can strengthen collective capacities for innovation.The following sub-sections elaborate further on these four key learning points.Taking up opportunities for agricultural innovation requires agency, and while conventional analyses tend to focus on the economic capacities of individuals as a critical factor for innovation, this study reveals that social factors such as self-confidence and social relationships are also significantly interrelated with individual's capacities for taking a risk with innovation. It is therefore important to understand the social dimensions of opportunity structures that better facilitate innovation. This sub-section discusses how we can expand opportunities for innovation to those who have limited agency. It begins with briefly describing what agency means for men and women and how it changes. It then looks at how men and women with higher and lower agency take up opportunities for innovation, and proposes intervention designs for expanding opportunities to those who have limited agency.Women's power and freedom has increased more significantly than men's in the past 10 years and this is associated with other changes in their circumstancesThe degree of agency, the perception of one's own power and freedom to make major life decisions, is central in individuals' decision-making in agricultural innovation. Many men and women in this study perceive that their degree of power and freedom increased over the decade (Figure 4.1). In particular, women's perceived power and freedom increased significantly in the past ten years, and this change appears to be associated with many other changes in women's situations such as increased physical mobility and more involvement in economic activities.  There is a correlation between decision-making power and level of engagement with formal organizations and networks related to agricultural innovation for both women and menThe study found that men and women who have limited decision-making power have also less engagement with formal and high-status organizations and networks related to agricultural innovation than those who have more decision-making power. Current agricultural interventions favor those who already have power and freedom. They are more confident about taking risks and have more opportunities for interacting with other innovative people, thereby having higher agency to seize opportunities for innovation. Expanding opportunities for the 20% of the population who have limited power and agency is a big challenge in current agricultural interventions, but before exploring their challenges and potential, we begin with looking at men and women who can take advantage of innovation opportunities.Men with more decision-making power have more connections within and outside the village with those who are related to innovation such as traders, factory owners and national and local government agencies such as extension, credit and legal procedures. These people and entities provide information, further useful connections, subsidized inputs and loans for investment such as in irrigation, trading and marketing. More powerful men can also quickly seize new opportunities Women with better connections to civil society organizations and more active social networks also have better decision-making powerWhile women have less formal and high-status connections than men inside and outside their village, those who are better able to make decisions do tend to be well connected to formal organizations that target women such as women's unions, which are often an entry point for women to participate in agricultural innovation. They are also actively engaged with organizations such as NGOs, churches and self-help groups. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, membership of churches and/or self-help groups opens up opportunities for innovation because interventions are operated not only through those organizations but also through more informal linkages with friends and relatives who are in the same group. Similarly, in Bangladesh and Vietnam, NGOs and women's unions operated by the local government respectively play a significant role in women's participation in innovation.While membership in different kinds of social groups is a core of the opportunity structure for innovation, both men and women with lower decision-making power tend to be marginalized even from more informal groups and much more so from more formal institutions. If agricultural innovation aims to be more socially inclusive, we need to understand better the social relations of the less empowered and their ways of learning new practices.Why do men with limited decision-making power have limited social networks? The findings show that they face more or less similar challenges across the countries. They have limited land and resources and tend to both farm and work as wage laborers for wealthy men who make most decisions for them. Under this social hierarchy, they have less confidence and are socially disconnected from the groups of innovators who facilitate innovation and exchange information and knowledge with each other.However, when interventions engage with their interests and social network, men with limited power are more likely to take advantage of innovation opportunities. Small-scale innovation and informal social networks with their peers appear to be the keys for expanding opportunities for them. For example, sweetpotatoes require little input and can be harvested within a short time compared to cereals or other rootcrops, and this is attractive for men with limited resources. Selling the produce involves fewer interactions with powerful traders or middlemen from outside the village. In Bangladesh and Uganda, some men grew OFSP after observing the success of their neighbors or friends. Learning from peers in a similar socio-economic situation is very effective for those who are not directly connected to active innovators' social groups. Furthermore, observation of what others are doing is almost as important as participating in a formal training course. It is a powerful means of obtaining knowledge and information, while the success stories of neighbors and relatives are most trusted since they prove the adoptability of new technologies in their economic conditions. Also, those men who have limited power seem to adopt innovations from women. In the above countries, male producers have adopted OFSP innovations from female relatives such as their sisters and married daughters.Women with limited agency tend to have less confidence and have limited social interactions outside their family and neighbors. Yet they still learn about new agricultural technologies such as new varieties, new planting methods and livestock disease control from their same-gender friends and family members such as sisters. Both new technologies of cassava and sweetpotatoes rapidly spread after the first harvest season through informal networks such as sisters and close friends. In Vietnam, for example, cold-tolerant sweetpotatoes from other villages were brought to the village when female villagers visited their birth homes or relatives' houses. In Bangladesh, some women tried growing OFSP after learning from their female relatives and close friends. What they learn from their sisters and friends is not simply about the technologies themselves but how it makes sense of everyday productive and reproductive work, as well as gendered norms and relationships. Therefore, the success of farmers with the same gender and a similar socio-economic status could encourage female farmers who do not have enough confidence to participate in innovation through more formalized community-group activities.In this way, expanding opportunities for innovation to the less empowered 20% of the population requires transforming the dissemination of technologies from reliance on formal extension approaches using conventional teaching methods to embracing social learning approaches that take advantage of informal networks. This implies that not only intervention planning and implementation but also evaluation and monitoring need to be redesigned by moving beyond examining the impact on the primary target to toward tracing how technologies are disseminated through informal networks.Innovation activities need to fit well with the context-specific social expectations and wishes of farmers of both sexes so that they are more likely to adopt them. To address this, in this subsection, we look at how their adoption of agricultural innovation is associated with societal understanding of what empowerment means for men and women. The findings show that women's notions of empowerment are more diverse than men's, and only when innovation satisfies women's context-specific expectations for empowerment are they likely to adopt the activities, taking the first step to stronger agency and further opportunities in the future.Across the cases in Asia, SSA and Colombia in Latin America, men are interested in innovation that produces high yields, cash incomes and agricultural assets such as land, equipment and livestock. This may be because material wealth represents the masculinities by which they distinguish themselves from women and poorer men. In fact, many men attribute their increased power and freedom to their increased earning, yield and/or material assets.In contrast, women's empowerment pathways are more diverse and complex. For women, gaining material assets and being an economically independent farmer is not the only key to climbing the ladder of power for women. Three types of empowerment pathways were identified among the complex and sometimes contradictory and overlapping individual empowerment pathways (Figure 4.3).What do these different pathways mean for gendered opportunity structures for agricultural innovation? How does agricultural innovation influence and is influenced by those different pathways? The following sub-sections discuss them in detail.Women's empowerment pathways are diverse and context-specific, and economic power is not necessarily a route up the ladder. In some contexts, women value family harmony, and their interests in innovation are shaped by their hierarchal relationship with their husbands and the gender divisions of labor therein. In Asia (Bangladesh and Vietnam), women tend to have a strong sense that resources and labor are shared within the household, although wives and husbands play different roles in farming and non-farming activities. In these case studies, women indicate that they try to contribute to the household within their defined roles by expanding their autonomous domains little by little. In this conjugal relationship, harmony is very important for women in order to have favorable resource redistribution within the household, and therefore they strategically behave modestly and try to avoid directly challenge their husband's patriarchal positions. As such, their interests in agricultural innovation are in those smaller activities which do not affect their restricted gender norms as well as their domestic responsibilities which are central to being a good wife. In Bangladesh, although women's innovation activities are small and limited to within the home garden areas, their contribution to the family is well accepted by their husband, and this helps women to increase their sense of power and freedom however small their income is. In this respect, it is not yield or the scale of production that encourages women to innovate. Women can increase the chances of participating in innovative opportunities only if their husbands support their activities and accept their contribution, which indicates the importance of considering women's interests and strategies under the restricted gender norms.In contrast, in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, women are proud of having a certain level of economic independence from their husbands and sometimes able to invest their earnings in innovative activities of interest to them. So women, like men, also move up the power ladder through economic activities, and some women who have their own land and capital are interested in investing in new technologies even if they were originally men's domain and require intensive labor and skills (commercial crops such as banana and maize, and livestock such as dairy cattle). In this situation, opportunity structures for women and men can be very similar, and in some cases, they are competing with the same interests in innovation, and therefore careful attention is needed to the gender divisions of innovation opportunities (see section 4 below).For some women, their perceptions of their own power and freedom are very subjective, more associated with their own awareness of gender inequality, courage and confidence than the degree of their own economic power or material assets. This is distinct from men's notions of power in which economic power is central. For example, in Bangladesh, by participating in new agricultural activities through OFSP, women began to believe that they can indeed do new things. Their awareness and courage, rather than income itself, is often the most important achievement for them as it encourages them to seize further opportunities for innovation (Bangladesh, better off FGD). In this case, the impacts of innovation should not be narrowly based on production and income but should include the personal power that generates motivation to take advantage of future opportunities for innovation.These findings show that women's empowerment processes are diverse and their interests in agricultural innovation are mediated by their livelihood strategies for strengthening their power and freedom. There is therefore no universal model for empowering women via agricultural interventions. In this sense, understanding women's empowerment pathways requires in-depth explorations of what empowerment means for them in a given gender context. This then enriches our understandings of how women's agency plays out in their choices of agricultural innovation. Expanding opportunity structures therefore need to consider those diversities among women across the region.There is a gap in opportunity structures for poor and young men While current conventional opportunities for agricultural innovation such as the intensification and industrialization of agriculture favor men rather than women, not all men can use opportunities in the same ways. There is a gap in this opportunity structure for poor and young men.For example, in Colombia and central Vietnam, moving from traditional cassava varieties to modern varieties more appropriate for industrial processing is an innovation which favors some men as it enables them to earn more income and to increase their own sense of power. In central Vietnam, wealthy men purchase or rent land for large-scale cassava production and invest in processing machines and tractors to provide services for the villagers. They also hire poor farmers as wage laborers, thereby distinguishing their status from other men and justifying their higher level of power and freedom.However, for a man to take advantage of such innovation opportunities, he must be an independent farmer with his own farm, with social connections outside the village, and sufficient assets to risk investing in new activities. According to life histories of poor men collected as part of the study, it takes many innovative male farmers seven to ten years to be able to seize such opportunities with high investment, thereby achieving the highest levels of a sense of personal power. This all implies that the current focus on intensification and in some cases industrialization of agriculture tend to support only the men who already have power, whilst those who have lower levels of power do not take advantage of opportunities, and remain as small farmers and laborers for the wealthier. Furthermore, when a significant investment fails, the farmer risks falling into poverty, from which it is difficult to escape. Here, we find the gap in the current opportunity structures for agricultural innovation which exclude poor men and young men. As such, their interests are oriented towards non-farming sectors where they can quickly accumulate material assets to become independent farmers in the future. At the same time, however, they are often not interested in agricultural innovation more associated with women (e.g. home vegetable production or small livestock) even though it often requires less investment than the above male-linked types of innovation. If agricultural interventions are aiming at poverty reduction and the sustainability of small-scale farming, we need to create new opportunities which have a better fit with the social needs and circumstances of young men and poor men. This may include support for them to work on their own rather than as dependents of wealthier farmers and with smaller investments, which could offer greater autonomy and stronger self-esteem.Especially in Eastern and Southern African countries, women's economic success can be seen as a threat to norms of male authority, provoking jealousy and sometimes punative actions among husbands and discouragement among their wives. Women do not have such a reaction when their husbands are successful. Women express their concerns that jealous husbands may jeopardize their innovative business initiatives by taking their capital or threatening divorce. Some women suggest that men's jealousy may come from their assumption that their wives' increased mobility and financial capacity allows them to interact and have relationships with other men.This implies that a household is not always a cooperative unit of production and women's motivation and strategies for taking advantage of innovation opportunities are shaped by those complex emotional relationships. The reasons why women do not adopt new technologies are not always associated with their lack of skills or financial capacity but can be related to their concerns that innovation causes jealousy in their husbands. In this context, therefore, even if the intervention is intended to target women, providing a parallel intervention for their husbands based on men's interests may be more effective than focusing only on women and their crops.In other countries, jealous husbands do not appear to be a concern for innovative women. This may be related to context-specific gender relations. In Bangladesh, for example, the scale of women's involvement in agricultural innovation is still much smaller than men's. In Vietnam, both men and women work together in the same field and therefore women's innovation is less distinguishable, or women can make their contribution less visible as a strategy to keep harmony in the family. As a male participant in one of the Central Vietnam case studies commented:\"there are some smart women who are innovative but they gave the honor to their husband. Some women have great ideas but they often tell neighbors that their husbands did it\" (Men's FGD, Central Vietnam) These strategies can help save men's face and thus prevent men feeling envious of their wives. In Colombia, on the other hand, women's economic success is concentrated on nonagricultural sectors and therefore women do not compete with men in agriculture. In post-conflict African countries such as Rwanda, Congo and Burundi, women have been playing significant roles in agriculture and the phenomenon, discussed in the previous section, of ''women working like men'' has been an accepted gender norm for a long time. This means that their greater involvement and success in agriculture may not cause serious jealousy in men.Envious neighbors also discourage innovators. They can spread negative rumors or even destroy the innovation. In Uganda, OFSP was a successful technology recognized in newspapers. That made some people in the community jealous, and resulted in rumors that OFSP caused cancer. Similarly, in Nigeria, a cassava processing machine caused jealousy among the villagers and somebody put salt into the engine to destroy the machine.The above examples underline the fact that communities are not homogenous units that uniformly benefit from new technologies. Even in the study sites where social cohesion in the community is relatively strong, such as Bangladesh and Colombia, some of the people interviewed still worry that their society is changing in a negative way in terms of harmony. Uneven distribution of technologies and subsequent changes in the gaps between poor and rich can easily create tensions among the villagers.In contrast, in Vietnam where a collective-farming system was adopted until the early 1990s, social cohesion is still very high and incentives remain in place to stimulate cohesion and communal effort. For example, the government rewards the best performing village every year. Villagers often support each other through labor exchange or sharing machines and trucks. Disabled women and men are provided work opportunities through the support of wealthy farmers. In Central Vietnam men purchased nut-grinding machines which were made available for use by villagers at low cost, resulting in a reduction in women's drudgery. The study found that villagers appreciate such contributions to the community rather than feeling jealous about those who own the machines. It is clear that villagers share the collective achievement of agricultural development with each other. Innovative farmers benefit through the prestige conferred on them and this prestige is a means to demonstrate their power and gain respect from the villagers.The gender division of labor as an opportunity rather than a constraintWomen have many gender-related constraints on their capacity for innovation, such as limited resources, lack of skills and limited physical mobility. However, as discussed, the underlying causes lie in the gender relationships under the patriarchal structures that shape men and women's agency. Without properly addressing these underlying issues, technological support alone cannot transform opportunity structures. Women who live under restrictive gender norms seek opportunities for innovation within their limited autonomous domains such as their home gardens and small-scale livestock raising, instead of breaking gender norms to take up new opportunities in men's domains. Such deliberate strategies often work well and many women are eventually able to expand their innovation activities. In this sub-section, we consider women's autonomous domains as an entry point for expanding innovation opportunities for those who still live within restrictive gender norms.The domestic arena can be an opportunity rather than a constraint Across multiple contexts, women's domestic responsibilities such as cooking and childrearing are commonly viewed as major causes of their limited time and physical mobility, which prevent them from engaging with agricultural innovation processes. This cannot be underestimated when we develop intervention designs for women. Women often highly value child-rearing and cooking. Children are important assets for their future security, and in fact, many women across the regions escape poverty after receiving financial support from their independent sons or married daughters. Furthermore, in some contexts, cooking for their husbands and children is a primary part of gender identity as wife and mother and by fulfilling this responsibility, women maintain their relationships with their husband and in-laws. In addition, in many countries, nowadays women's domestic responsibility has been extended to animal feeding and growing vegetables in their home garden.While these domestic responsibilities may constrain women's potential for innovation in agricultural activities, men have little control over women's domestic arenas and women have relative autonomy in trying new practices in their gender domain. The findings from Sections 2 and 3 show that women are highly motivated in exploring new ways of doing things in relation to animal feeding and vegetable cultivation as they have autonomy and decision-making power.This may be a reason why many women are interested in the role of RTB crops for food and/or livestock rather than for large scale processing such as in the starch industry. In Bangladesh, women can grow OFSP in their home garden because it is a domain where they have full autonomy. In Vietnam, women try to obtain varieties of sweetpotatoes growing in other villages to improve the feed for their pigs and other livestock. In this process, women do not have to get permission from their husbands, as livestock feeding is women's domain. Similarly, in Uganda and Malawi, women's strong interest in sweetpotatoes is derived from livestock feeding, an area in which women already have autonomy and which is a significant source of cash income. Thus interventions that stimulate innovation processes in the areas where women already have decision-making powers can be the start of expanding opportunity structures for women.Across the regions from Vietnam to Uganda, individual innovative women's stories reveal that living in harmony with their husbands is one of the most important factors that allow women to participate in trainings, risk innovation and handle incomes from it. Without harmony, it is difficult for women to expand their autonomous domains. This means that women do not prioritize engagement with innovation processes if it risks damaging their role as a good wife. In Bangladesh, for example, growing OFSP in a home plot was an important factor enabling women to be involved in food and nutrition innovation as they can still manage to cultivate OFSP without compromising their domestic responsibilities such as cooking on time for their husbands. Similarly, in Vietnam and Uganda, female innovators attribute their success to their husbands' understanding and trust. However, being a good wife, such as fulfilling their domestic responsibilities and not overtaking their husband's economic roles, is the key to gaining this understanding and trust from their husbands, thereby expanding their autonomous domains. Thus, unlike for men, it takes time for women to have full autonomy in their decisions, including to try new things. Innovation firstly needs to fit well with women's autonomous domains, and activities should be manageable for women without compromising their roles as good wives. This implies that intervention designs, monitoring and evaluation cannot be gender-neutral as pathways for successful innovation differ by gender.These findings provide a number of implications for agricultural interventions. First, while the community or a social group is a way to introduce new technologies, people in the community or group have different levels of agency, with some having greater opportunities for innovation than others. Given that a household is not necessarily a cooperative unit, careful consideration is needed over the selection of innovators by questioning the assumption that a woman or man can simply be a representative of a household. Second, in many study sites, the gaps between poor and rich are expanding and the society is more individualized than before. In this context, agricultural interventions that only support a small number of groups run the risk of increasing the gaps and creating tensions. On the other hand, where social coherence is high such as in Vietnam, men's masculine identities are linked to collective innovation at a community level, and one's innovation can support the other community members, and therefore if we can identify respected innovators who could support other people, we may be able to extend opportunities to other people. Thus, intervention approaches can be differentiated in accordance with opportunity structures in each social context.What unleashes agricultural innovation is firstly about the innovations themselves. New varieties and better quality seeds of key crops are of major importance for men throughout the sample and for women farmers in Africa. This preference often included RTB crops and improved management of these crops was a priority for women in Africa. The most important innovations for all women are associated with livestock. This preference reflects their limited access to agricultural resources and their reproductive responsibilities which, sometimes combined with normative restrictions, limits physical mobility. Contrary to some stereotypes about men and machines, women in some locations identified equipment as priority innovations. Women and men often under-or overestimate the importance of innovations for the opposite sex, which can lead to misguided agricultural interventions if these are gender blind.Although many of women's innovation preferences were driven by concerns for food and nutrition security their choice of top two innovations also responded strongly to income opportunities. This was the key driver for men, but men's top innovation choices by no means ignored their contribution to food security. This was often important. The difference between women and men was the way gender norms governing access and control strongly influenced women's choice of innovations in terms of what could most realistically provide income, food security and other desirable benefits to them. These other benefits included greater independence and decision-making -the preference for livestock and innovations related to home gardens responded to this factor -less drudgery and interactions between technologies and practices leading to whole system benefits.Family harmony and positive personal traits were identified as key elements by women across all cases in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These enabled women to be more economically active. However it underlines the power differences between men and women in terms of access to and control of key productive resources. Although in Vietnam women had more independence in some economic spheres than in other case contexts such as Bangladesh, men could withdraw their labor and withhold use of family finances if they were not happy with the woman's choices or behavior. Women had to deploy negotiation and deference as strategies under this normative environment. The results of this study indicate that those engaged in R&D interventions need to pay more attention to social relations and intra-household decision-making and not just the technology to achieve successful and equitable innovation and adoption.This analysis also shows that targeting women for certain innovations can allow innovation to spread through social networks. For example, in relation to innovations such as small livestock and vegetables women in Africa and Asia often talked about giving others in their community or their close kin vegetables and poultry to cement and build social networks in the community. This allows innovations to more easily spread within and across communities. This contrasts with the situation of men who more often relied on networks outside the community, including accessing loans and capital.Both women and men identified the availability of assets, especially financial capital and land as primary factors enabling innovation. Men's greater opportunity to take advantage of sources of credit can be an important advantage and their greater control of access to land has implications for the types of crops men and women grow. Cash crops like banana and coffee are perennial, needing stable use rights over land and are capital intensive, requiring access to credit. In livestock, a similar situation arises with large animals such as new breeds of oxen and dairy cows, which demand large outlays of cash. In the case studies examined, men were predominantly responsible for these crops and animals. The implication is that not every innovation provides the same kind of opportunities for greater equity and gender transformation. One approach involves developing low cost technologies that require limited capital investment, basically intensifying those agricultural activities where women already have access. RTB crops are important in this respect. For example, in Bangladesh, Uganda and Malawi women often mentioned OFSP as low cost both in terms of monetary investments and time. Gender training for both men and women farmers could in the long term help to challenge certain gender norms and stereotypes. In these same contexts it would be important to strengthen the linkages between crops and small livestock, through better use of crop byproducts as feed and better use of animal by-products for fertilization and for sale.A second approach is to challenge the gender norms that promote men's control of cash crops while also working to help women gain access to capital to invest in these crops. This approach could be appropriate in Vietnam where women are already engaged in most aspects of agriculture, including raising large livestock, but are subject to their husband's normative control of assets.Among factors that women and men identified as hindering innovation, both cited labor constraints and the limitation this presents in the amount of land that can be cultivated and the types of crops that can be grown. It was a factor in constraining their progress on the \"ladder of power and freedom\". For poor women, this related to their need to combine domestic with agricultural tasks. It accounted for their interest in harvesting machinery in Bangladesh for example when there is a high demand for their labor. Labor saving technologies should be a key consideration when developing new interventions. For RTB and HT crop related techniques for reducing labor and simple cheap and effective equipment should be prioritized.Normative ideas about what is a good men and women farmer underlines the idea that women have a supporting role in agriculture, that they exist \"in men's shadows\". However, this has different meanings in the African compared to Asian or Latin American contexts. In Africa, where women are relatively independent managers of their own farms and households, they have a more normatively defined role, especially related to household food security. In Bangladesh and Vietnam contexts, women are expected to contribute to a family farm run by the male household head. This is strongly expressed in Bangladesh, more nuanced in Vietnam. Yet even in Africa, women are constrained in their own farms because of lack of access to land and through obligations to work on their spouses' farms. The notion that a good woman farmer has a vegetable garden and looks after small animals is a widespread norm in Africa as well as Asia. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between normative expectations and what happens on farm in practice. Banana is \"a man's crop\", but under certain circumstances it is cultivated also by women.There are wide differences in the understanding of gender equality, gender difference and what is changing among men and women. Although many participants focused on biological difference to justify inequality of opportunity, others suggested that greater equality can lead to greater development at all levels, from the household to the country. Greater gender equality can also come from interventions by external agencies, many of which target benefits to women. This can sometimes end being counterproductive, if men are not involved to understand the overall benefits from these kinds of interventions.Agency and empowerment were found to be affected by many aspects of the normative environment. Limitations on physical mobility directly affects women's agency. Across the sample there was a lot of variation, from highly constrained mobility in Bangladesh to high mobility in Vietnam, even more so that in many African cases. But even in Bangladesh there is evidence of change in the extent of constraints, observed both by young men as well as women. Gender norms surrounding household leadership in Africa affect agency. Men \"inherit\" agency through titles such as household head. Women have to earn agency over time through negotiation, use of available spaces and resources and in many cases just by growing older. Compared to ten years ago, both men and women feel more empowered across most of the cases. Some of this can be accounted for by the greater power that comes with growing older, but improvements in family livelihoods was also identified as a factor. This is also linked to improvements in education. A third reason for feeling more empowered was identified as increased support from a changing external environment. New laws against domestic violence in some African countries was an important example, but also the actions of development agencies involving training and specific support to women.In relation to youth, young men and women's interest in agriculture can be increased by direct application of knowledge and skills gained through formal education, and by recognition of the knowledge-intensive nature of many aspects of agriculture. If agriculture is viewed as a low status occupation appropriate for those with limited formal education, it will be stigmatized and will not appeal to youth.Gender and inter-generational relations curtail the ability of young women and men to catalyze innovation. Once they get married, women are under their husband's authority, and he may feel threatened if she adopts innovations and makes money. When still under their parents' control, both young men and women have curtailed decision making power. This suggests the need to focus on more than just technical aspects of agricultural innovation but also social aspects related to agriculture. If young people view gender equality in a negative light, it can limit young women's ability to make decisions.Young men and women are both interested in earning an income, albeit for different reasons. If young men and women can seize agricultural entrepreneurship opportunities and make a good living, they may be interested in continuing in this area. Good income prospects from agriculture may also remove the stigma associated with the occupation.Previous sections show that men and women have different ways to access the resources on which an innovation depends, and therefore have different opportunities of benefitting from it. In other words, innovation is not an even process undertaken by targeted households to help increase production, incomes and nutrition. There is considerable intra-household variability and there are different social conditions that enable women and men and communities to leverage opportunities for innovation.Four key elements facilitate this process. First, interventions that bridge formal institutions and informal social networks are very helpful, as they can open up new opportunities to those who have had few chances to participate in past interventions. The conventional innovation opportunities provided by formal institutions such as extension workers, government institutions and private sectors are more accessible for those who have agency, confidence and social connections. However, while women and men with limited agency have limited access to formal institutions for learning new agricultural activities, they still learn new technologies from their friends and relatives. Therefore, interventions that provide a bridge between these formal and informal resources should be prioritized.Second, innovation processes need to fit well with the context-specific expectations and demands of women farmers so that they are more likely to participate and benefit. Innovation can strengthen women's and men's subjective notions of power, and thereby increase their selfconfidence, and hopefully encourage them to seize further opportunities for innovation. However, the pathways through which they gain power are very different, being closely associated with social expectations of how women and men should be. Therefore, if innovation activities do not fit with women's empowerment pathways, only the men benefit from them. Since across the target sites, men's power is associated with material assets and economic independence, mechanization and intensification of agriculture can directly help strengthen their power and confidence. On the other hand, in some social contexts women feel empowered and confident when they play a supportive instead of a central role in economic activities, as being independent from their husbands is not a socially desirable situation. Innovation is embedded in socially constructed family relations, and only when it satisfies the needs and expectations of women farmers are they likely to adopt the activities, taking the first step to empowerment and thereby stronger agency to seize further opportunities in the future.Third, despite the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women's innovation opportunities, women do have a space for taking up innovation within their own domains in everyday agricultural activities where they already have autonomy over changing current practices and taking a risk. Identifying their autonomous domain, which may be very small as in Bangladesh, consisting of livestock raising and a small vegetable garden, or larger independent farms run by women in African case locations, can be an entry point to facilitate women's participation in innovation, even under on-going, restrictive patriarchal structures.Finally, we emphasize that families or communities are not homogenous units of innovation. Without understanding the social power dynamics at play, interventions will tend to support only those who already have significant power. If interventions specifically target the disempowered without awareness of those social dynamics, there is the risk of provoking jealousy and tension within families and communities. Considering the social power dynamics helps us to think about how and to whom new technologies are introduced. Successful interventions that engage with and support multiple members of communities can strengthen collective capacities for innovation.The development of GENNOVATE's conceptual framework, sampling framework and field instruments began at an October 2013 research design workshop. The final methodology package reflects extensive reviews of literature and lessons and tools from previous field studies 3 ; two rounds of field pilots in February and April 2014 and feedback from experts and study participants on the instruments; ongoing technical advisory support and capacity building for PIs; and strong training and supervision for the field teams. In this note we present highlights of the study approach and protocols. 4   Study questions and conceptual framework GENNOVATE's design is guided by the following study questions:- To address the study questions, GENNOVATE employs a conceptual framework which is informed by selected discourses on agency and structure interactions in feminist literature (e.g. Wharton 1991, Kabeer 1999, Ridgeway 2009). The study questions require exploring interactions between gender norms, agency and agricultural innovation in specific contexts, or local opportunity structures. The notion of structure refers to the \"the rules that shape social actions and the resources that furnish agents with the power that makes it possible (to varying extents) for them to act\" (Lane 2001: 297). GENNOVATE pays particular attention to gender norms as an important dimension of the local opportunity structure. Gender norms refer to the socially constituted rules that prescribe men's and women's daily behavior. These norms are upheld across generations by internalized psychological beliefs about men's higher status and competence and appropriate gender behaviors, and by processes of social interaction and sanctions of one's \"reference group\" through social approval and disapproval (e.g. Ridgeway 2009, Bicchieri 2006).Depicted in figure 1, GENNOVATE's conceptual framework conceives of empowerment and other dimensions of improved wellbeing (the far right of the figure) as products of the interaction between men's and women's capacities for agency and innovation (in the center), on the one hand, and on the other, the opportunities for and barriers to innovation in their local opportunity structure (with key dimensions depicted on the left).Drawing on this conceptual framework, GENNOVATE's methodology addresses concerns for: i) contextual influences on, or the embeddedness of social action and lived experience;ii) comparative research strategies which offer cross-site learning and permit cautious generalizations to wider settings while remaining attentive to local specificities; andiii) collaborative research processes between the researcher and study participants, and among the study's large research team, which strengthen the quality, relevance and reach of the research (also see Badstue and others forthcoming).A GENNOVATE case refers to a social group living in a single locality that the inhabitants call their village, community, neighborhood or hamlet. The cases were selected purposively to introduce variance on two dimensions considered important for understanding gender differences in innovation adoption:i. economic dynamism, here understood as the existence and nature of competition over agriculture or NRM resources important for livelihoods in the village; infrastructure development that indicates change in the local economy such as penetration of roads or connectivity; changes in the market orientation of small-holder farmers; changes in the sophistication of processing technologies for key commodities; the relative percentages of buyers and sellers (sex-disaggregated if information is available) in local input and output markets; changes in on and off-farm employment opportunities; changes in the local diversification of livelihoods or the potential for this diversification.ii. gender gaps in assets and capacities, such as the share of girls completing primary school compared to boys; the extent to which women hold important leadership positions (civic and political) in local organizations, and the broadly accepted norms in the village about women's freedom of movement.The two axes for stratification are similar to those applied in On Norms and Agency (Munoz Boudet, Petesch and Turk 2013) and reflect an empirical literature finding associations between countries with greater gender equality and higher levels of economic growth (e.g. World Bank 2011). For substantive as well as practical reasons, the protocols provided PIs with some flexibility in how they stratify their samples along the two dimensions (see Petesch forthcoming for further discussion).Table A1.1 presents the countries, crops and CGIAR Research Programs spanned by GENNOVATE's fieldwork. Asia contains the largest number of cases (74), followed by Africa (53 cases) and Latin America (10). The regional concentration in Asia and Africa reflects current research priorities in the CGIAR system.  The sample includes major food crops such as rice, wheat, maize, cassava, sweetpotato, banana, millet, sorghum and several grain legume crops. In terms of coverage of different agricultural systems, the dryland agro-ecosystems of Africa and Asia are well represented in the study, as are the subtropical and tropical systems of Asia, which included aquaculture cases. Cases from Indonesia and the Kyrgyz Republic include contexts where tree products and agro-forestry systems are important.Figure A1.1 presents the broad distribution of cases along the dimensions in the sampling framework, indicating a cross-site sample with good coverage of all four sampling contexts in the priority regions.The methodology package features 15 data collection activities for each research village (table A1.2). The first of three focus group instruments was conducted separately with poor women and men (activity C, table A1.2), the second with middle class women and men (activity D), and the third with young women and men (activity E; and six groups in total). The data collection also includes nine semistructured interviews guided by three instruments: i) a community profile (to gather background demographic, social, economic, agricultural and political information about the case (one interview requiring key informants of both genders), ii) an innovation pathways interview with successful adopters of a new technology or practice 5 (two men, two women), and iii) life story interviews (two men, two women). PIs prepared for fieldwork by conducting a review of literature and secondary data from their research villages and regions; mobilizing and training their field team; and refining, translating and validating the data collection instruments. Each field instrument contains a standardized semi-structured interview guide to ensure comparability in the data collection and documentation across the research villages. PIs also tailored sections of the interview guides to address innovations and other issues of importance to their CRPs or the specific case.The data collection tools draw directly from participatory rural appraisal techniques (PRA) and feature many visual activities and probing questions to support and deepen the study participants' own interpretations and analyses of key study topics and to encourage rich discussion among study participants. The trainings to prepare for fieldwork engaged team members in long hours reviewing, discussing and practicing-question-by-question-the data collection instruments to ensure common understanding and ease with facilitation. The team also reviewed the quality of the translation of each question, making sure that it not only captured the intent of the English version, but that the phrasing used common, everyday terms rather than a more formal translation. Trainings also required a field practice and clearance by the study's expert advisor of the practice documentation of field notes.The analysis strategy combines two procedures: i) inductive case-oriented (or thick description) techniques; and ii) deductive variable-oriented (or thematic) techniques (e.g. Miles, Huberman and Saldaña 2014). Case-oriented analytic techniques provide the building blocks for GENNOVATE's major findings and conclusions. These approaches require a focus on a single case to explore the interplay of gender norms, agency and innovation capacities in specific localities, and over time, which can explain these processes in the wider set of cases.This case-oriented work is complemented with variable-oriented analysis aided by pre-coded questions during data collection (from focus group rating exercises and community profile pre-coded questions) as well as data coding with NVivo using 150 common codes broken into 15 topic areas. This supports systematic triangulation of findings across types of respondents and communities and identification of recurring themes which cut across GENNOVATE's cases and subsamples (for example, the experiences of poor vs. middle class women in cases with different levels of economic dynamism).To ensure sound case study management during the data coding and analysis phase, significant investments were made in capacity building of PIs; in supervision and collaboration among the data coders; and in the preparation of detailed protocols, one elaborating data coding procedures and another analysis (or \"query\") procedures with the software.Annex 2 Code Definitions used in this report 1. Innovation types a. New seeds/varieties: this contains every mention where it is specified by the FGD participants that one of the most important innovations is a new or improved \"seed\" or crop variety. Unfortunately Mentions of hybrid seeds/varieties are also included. E.g. improved banana variety, improved potato varieties, new potato seed varieties, used of new cassava seed, new IITA cassava, new variety of peanut, improved maize, hybrid maize, etc. b. Livestock related: it contains every mention where it is specified by the FGD participants that one of the most important innovations any kind of livestock (small or big animals) or animal species. It also refers to practices/technologies related to this activity, like animal raising techniques, building stables or sheds, milking cows, collecting eggs, etc. E.g. Campbell ducks, building breeding stables, hybrid cow raising techniques, etc. c. New/improved cultivation techniques: it refers to mentions where it is specified by the FGD participants that one of the most important innovations is a cultivation technique that has been improved or has recently started being applied in the community, often securing better yields, profits or quality of the crops. E.g. ploughing, new technique of planting beans, row planting, sowing in line, maize spacing, etc. d. Input related: it refers to mentions where one of the most important innovations is related to using or obtaining different kinds of inputs like fertilizers, manure or herbicides. E.g. use of organic or mineral fertilizer, new way of using fertilizer, use of chemical fertilizers, using herbicides. e. RTB Crops: it refers to mentions where one of the most important innovations is a RTB crop, except for the cases where it is clearly specified that this is a new or improved RTB variety or seed. When this happens, the innovation is only coded under the \"new seeds/varieties\" category and must never be coded into the RTB crops category to avoid double counting. E.g. OFSP, round potato, industrial cassava, bitter cassava, etc. f. Other innovations/crops: it encompasses all of the top innovations that do not fit in the categories contemplated and all of the categories that have the lowest number of mentions. Some of these mentions are related to erosion control, producers' associations and savings & credit, but also variate crops that are mentioned only once like peanuts, lentils, watermelon or citrus. g. Irrigation & Water Management related: it encompasses all of the top 2 innovations related to irrigation and water management, which involves the installation of irrigation systems, the implementation of new irrigation and water management techniques. h. Vegetables/kitchen garden/productive gardens: it encompasses all of the mentions related to planting vegetables (and sometimes other crops) mostly for family consumption and occasionally for sale, depending on the existence of surplus. The references can refer simply to vegetable planting, but also to \"kitchen gardens\" or productive gardens or backyards. i. Tree crops & Forestry: it entails all of the top 2 innovations that refer explicitly to forestry or practices related with tree planting, including specific tree crops like coffee, oil palm and cocoa. Nonetheless, when a new variety or seed is specified, the mention must not be counted here, but only in the \"new seeds/varieties\" category to avoid double counting. j. Machines: this category includes all of the different kinds of machines that are included within the top 2 innovations, from those that help in crop processing, to those that facilitate the labor of applying pesticides and herbicides, as well as those that simplify irrigation. In the last 2 cases, the mention is only counted within this category and not in the \"pest & disease control\" or the \"irrigation & water management related\" categories. E.g. wheat thrashing machine, spray machine, treadle pump, irrigation engine. k. Pest & Disease control: this category refers to all of the mentions that consider pesticides and pest and disease control techniques as one of the top 2 innovations. Pesticides are only counted within this category and not in the \"input related\" category to avoid double counting. E.g. BXW control, spraying pesticides, treatment of plants by pesticides, etc. l. Training: it refers to mentions where the top 2 innovations explicitly refer to training opportunities provided by external institutions (governmental and not governmental) where farmers have acquired new knowledge on agricultural practices and technologies. E.g. FADU trainings on cocoa, FADAMA activities and trainings.2. Top factors supporting innovation a. Assets, land property and capital: this category entails all the mentions to land property, capital, money or other types of assets that are essential to put an innovation into practice, either because it allows farmers to manage the space, time and effort spent in applying an agricultural innovation, or because it allows them to obtain other necessary materials to implement it. The predominant idea is that, without having the availability to manage different kinds of assets that they can destine to carry their agricultural activities, these cannot be implemented, even if there is a strong will to do so. b. Behaviors, attitudes, social cohesion: it refers to positive emotions, behaviors and attitudes, at a personal, familial and community level, that enable innovations to take place and be successful. Most of the mentions refer to strong will, determination, disposition, eagerness to learn, happiness in the family, as well as peace and unity at the community level. c. External agents: refers to associations, public and private organizations, government agencies, enterprises and professionals from outside the community, who generally provide training on new agricultural practices, inputs and improved planting materials that allow for the implementation of innovations within the village. d. Knowledge, education, practices: entails mentions to formal and informal education, as well as mentions to knowledge, or specific agricultural practices. It differentiates to the \"external agents\" category, because an organization is never referenced here, as the mentions simply refer to \"education opportunities\", knowledge (agricultural or otherwise) or different agricultural practices like planting techniques, new planting methods, etc. e. Physical technologies: refers to the importance of getting access to different kinds of physical technologies used for agriculture, from planting materials to machinery and inputs (fertilizer, manure, herbicides and others). These are usually mentioned as supportive of innovation because it increases the efficiency of agricultural work and the productivity of crops, incentivizing farmers to continue implementing new agricultural practices by making the tasks easier and less labor extensive. f. Natural resources/climate sustainability: it refers to good natural resource availability and favorable climate and weather conditions for an innovation to thrive. Mentions to good soil quality, good rain conditions and access to clean water for irrigation are counted here. g. Market availability: refers to the existence of favorable market conditions that allow farmers to commercialize their products at fair prices, allowing them to obtain more resources to invest in their agricultural activities and incentivizing them to continue implementing innovations. h. Credit and loans: refers to the possibilities of farmers to access to credit and loans in a formal or informal manner, in order for them to count with enough capital to invest in agricultural innovations. Only mentions that explicitly and primarily refer to credit, loans or credit institutions as factors that support innovation, are counted within this category. Although they can also refer to capital, these mentions are not counted in the \"asset, land property and capital\" category, to avoid double counting.3. Top factors hindering innovation a. Lack of assets, capital or poverty: this category entails all the mentions to poverty, lack of land, capital, money or other types of assets that are essential to put an innovation into practice, either because farmers do not count with their own space to experiment with the innovation, or because they are unable to obtain other necessary materials to implement it. The predominant idea is that, without having the availability to manage different kinds of assets that they can destine to carry their agricultural activities, these cannot be implemented, even if there is a strong will to do so. b. Lack of agricultural knowledge: this category aims to capture all of the mentions that consider ignorance or lack of agricultural knowledge hinders innovation, as according to farmers, new agricultural practices cannot be implemented without knowing the adequate procedure from the start. Mentions counted here refer explicitly to lack of knowledge as the factor that hinders innovation. If the mention refers mainly to the lack of external institutions that provide agricultural knowledge, they are counted only under the \"lack of external support\" category. c. Negative attitudes and family situation: this category captures the references to negative personal attitudes, uncooperative neighbors or tensions between different community members, family members or spouses, as the most hindering factors for innovation. d. Lack of physical technologies (seeds, inputs, machines): it entails mentions to the lack of access to different physical technologies used for agriculture, from planting materials to machinery and inputs (fertilizer, manure, herbicides and others). This is considered hindering because it tends to increase work burden and affect productivity, as well as impedes the implementation of the innovation. e. Unfavorable market conditions: it encompasses mentions that refer to the existence of discouraging market conditions for the implementation of innovations, like lack of markets, low product prices, lack of market connectivity, high input prices and increased work burden.","tokenCount":"34508"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce07809a9c9134002a764a29c14c0bd1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7bf6a26f-a1ae-40fa-88bf-8191f93c7191/retrieve","id":"276078846"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dd31e817-c81c-42f2-9725-d3e929f68bfc","pagecount":"4","content":"The aim of the CCAFS Climate Change and Social Learning (CCSL) Initiative is to better understand and tap the potential of social learning for research on climate change, agriculture and food security.In June 2013, the CCSL \"Plan-and-Writeshop\" reviewed the prior 18 months of activities and products. Ideas and a vision for the next phase of work were then set out. This concept note outlines these ideas and the vision for Phase 2 of the CCSL Initiative in greater depth. First, the definition and utility of CCSL are revisited. Next, the CCSL Strategy set out at the end of Phase 1 is summarised. The vision for Phase 2 as well as the hypotheses behind it are then explained.Climate change can be defined as changes in the statistical properties of the climate system that are apparent over long periods of time, and the impacts of these changes on human, biophysical and social systems.Social learning can be defined as approaches to problem solving that help facilitate knowledge sharing, joint learning and co-creation experiences between particular stakeholders around a shared purpose, taking learning and behaviour change beyond the individual to networks and systems. Through a facilitated, iterative process of working together -through interactive dialogue, exchange, learning, action, reflection and on-going partnershipnew shared ways of knowing emerge that lead to changes in practice.Climate Change for Social Learning (CCSL) is therefore the use of social learning approaches to facilitate adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.Local communities dealing with the daily realities of climate change risk, adaptation and mitigation need ways to combine their own knowledge with that of others to build better solutions. We believe the concept of social learning is a promising way to forge new partnerships and co-create new knowledge to support more collective local decision making and behavior change in responding to climate change.'Wicked' problems are defined as highly complex, with constraints, challenges and resource needs that change over time, further complicated by varying stakeholder perspectives, knowledge and cultural framings. Climate change and climate variability present just such complexity, and their effects on agriculture and our future food security are among the most pressing problems the world faces. Many communities already face the consequences of climate change, ranging from dried Successful adaptation or mitigation outcomes depend on coordinated (personal and collective) actions from decision makers at different levels, including local, national, regional and global. The challenge is less to determine a single solution and more to chart a course navigating many perspectives and to co-create new knowledge, drawing on the many voices and 'knowledges' of different stakeholders.Social learning is useful to a range of groups, from communities to government to development agents and institutes. By connecting and co-creating knowledge and ideas, social learning can empower rural communities to address complex climate change challenges. Social learning taps into the power of the crowd, helping communities to collectively design and chart solutions from different perspectives.Social learning approaches also offer pathways by which communities can solicit inputs and support from other actors, e.g. governments and researchers. For development agents, social learning helps to anchor climate and food security interventions in community realities, making them more relevant and sustainable -and more likely to have impacts at scale. The potential to realise such development outcomes and impacts also makes social learning attractive to research for development institutes. Beyond development, social learning offers the opportunity for research institutes to perform better and deliver on their effectiveness goals.The CCSL strategy adopted by the CCSL initiative instigated by the CCAFS research objective for the CGIAR aims to identify and share new ways of working. It seeks to understand further how social learning methodologies can help in the fight against climate change, and to help build a community of practice to enrich findings and co-create new learning. The strategy has the following objectives:• To demonstrate and document the potential for social learning to achieve a more effective and inclusive response to climate change adaptation and mitigation, agriculture and food security;• To provide evidence as to how social learning can ensure that research projects can improve and revise development targets by connecting scattered knowledge and expertise, and by ensuring that new research agendas can be more effective and relevant to community needs;• To provide tools, approaches and an evidence base for 'mainstreaming' social learning methodologies into climate change, agriculture and food security projects where appropriate;• To do research on ways of evaluating social learning methodologies, articulating clear indicators for success;• To identify new implementing partnerships and new funding opportunities for projects that can explore or employ and evaluate social learning methodologies;• To identify areas where projects and partners can learn together and take action together in developing projects that will build the evidence base for building confidence in social learning methodologies;• To organise a mechanism to elicit innovative approaches and feedback loops for joint working on social learning.Adopting social learning as a central strategy means fundamentally changing our patterns for creating and sharing knowledge, in the following 5 key areas:1. Documentation: documenting social learning processes and their results is necessary to create an evidence base.2. Embeddedness: promoting and embedding social learning within research is required to change institutional paradigms.3. Endogenous social learning: the power of endogenous social learning processes must be recognised in order to co-learn with communities.4. Social differentiation: social differentiation must be adequately understood and addressed in order to safeguard equity and inclusion.5. Timescales: taking the different timescales involved in 'wicked' problems into account allows for recognition of competing short-and long-term interests.The CCSL strategy is implemented by:• Establishing dialogues: we will support a growing community of practice and look for ways to invite and encourage further participation and inclusiveness.• Supporting research: we want to provide evidence on why and how social learning can bring about transformational change and delivery on developmental targets. In order to facilitate collective action, the initiative will be governed by an independent advisory group.Our vision: Social learning contributes to smarter, more effective R4D institutions (performance and processes) and helps them to achieve more sustainable, smarter development outcomes (results).Phase 2 of the initiative will test the two hypotheses behind the CCSL vision:Hypothesis A: social learning improves institutional processes and performance/ effectiveness in the context of climate change.Hypothesis B: social learning processes lead to improved development outcomes/results in the context of climate change.Based on our research and experience, we assume that social learning can produce a positive impact for complex and uncertain challenges like climate change. However, we acknowledge that the body of evidence that supports this assumption is not currently robust or clear enough (Harvey et al. 2013;Muro and Jeffrey 2008).To address this evidence gap and to clarify the potential contribution of social learning to our own work the CCSL Initiative will set out to test the above hypotheses. IDRC's CARIAA will lead the testing of the first hypothesis, while CCAFS and FSIFS will lead the testing of the second hypothesis.Using pilot studies and systematic evidence gathering we will engage in a collective process of determining our degree of confidence in each hypothesis. This will be stated as a function of the strength of the evidence and degree of agreement on the interpretation of the evidence, along the lines of the table in Figure 1 ( Mastrandrea et al. 2010).A key instrument in our vision is a CCSL Framework and Toolkit, to be built on our legacy of work so far. The aim of this instrument is two-fold. The first aim is to inform the CCSL Initiative's own process of development and learning -it is a roadmap for testing the hypotheses above. The second aim is to help anyone working on climate change issues and using a social learning approach -whether within CGIAR or without -to access the best available knowledge, information and tools for selecting, implementing and documenting social learning methodologies.The CCSL Framework and Toolkit will be an interactive online tool. Users will be able to select from 6 steps in the iterative process (see Figure 2) to gain access to a curated set of resources aimed at the successful implementation of a range of different social learning approaches. A narrative on the social learning process will introduce each set of resources and tie the steps together.Concrete activities for Phase 2 of the initiative include:• The Sandbox: maintaining and developing the Wiki page and Yammer group, which are community spaces for reflection, innovation and learning.• The Framework and Toolkit: this social learning tool will be developed as outlined above.• Innovation incubation: organisations already using social learning approaches to address  climate change on the ground will be selected to pilot applications of social learning with short-term funding from CCSL. The pilot activities would be in line with their current goals and approaches, but would make use of the CCSL Framework and Toolkit. The aim is to rapidly collect evidence of benefits and limitations of the CCSL Framework and Toolkit, build the evidence base and document social learning initiatives from the outset.• Innovation fund: building on the work of the incubation funding above, a full-fledged innovation fund will be developed to support projects using social learning approaches.• Action research: the initiative will document and generate evidence on social learning and invite further dialogue and discussions on findings through the online community to build greater understanding of how the evidence speaks to particular contexts.• Capacity development: for current and potential practitioners of social learning approaches.Together the above activities should result in the following:1. Strengthened evidence on the two hypotheses;2. Testing of a methodology for guiding and supporting social learning;3. Potentially improved development outcomes for the participating pilot initiatives.","tokenCount":"1589"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cbe493e7146fb046e0617e433b950611","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/44f35dd3-da9f-42d6-975d-6745ba3a4ec3/retrieve","id":"-613843765"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1447b823-448e-4793-9bf1-0780a0d9ed6a","pagecount":"34","content":"In serving this mission, IWMI concentrates on the integration of policies, technologies and management systems to achieve workable solutions to real problems-practical, relevant results in the field of irrigation and water and land resources.The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI's own staff and Fellows, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.adopters improved. The study demonstrates that adoption of TP reduces poverty. A positive impact on human capital was realized as incomes were used to pay for children's schooling and for health care. Some farmers, however, stopped the use of the TP, mostly because it broke down and could not be used over large extents of land. Also, about 10 percent of the adopters were able to shift to motorized pumping. It is recommended that a variety of improvements in design, dissemination and capacity might improve the impact of TP technology in West Africa.Increased collaboration with local institutions such as extension services could make the TP reach the farmers better. In this regard, a long-term program would be more effective than short-term projects. Design improvements should be undertaken to ease pedaling so as to encourage the uptake of the TP by women and enhance their chance of benefiting directly from it. The introduction of after-sales service and training of farmers on minor repairs will improve the continuous use and sustainability of the TP.Treadle pump (TP) technology has been promoted by Enterprise Works Worldwide (EWW) in West Africa as an alternative to the traditional rope and bucket irrigation that is necessary to overcome the challenge of uncertain and inadequate rainfall for agricultural production. The aim is to improve output, increase incomes and reduce poverty among rural farm households. This study examines the strategies used for dissemination of the TP and the dynamics of its adoption and impacts, with a special focus on poverty reduction. The data source for the study is a primary survey involving interviews with adopters and non-adopters of TP in the Volta and Ashanti regions of Ghana. The results of the study reveal that time and labor savings for irrigation, increased size of irrigated areas and lack of fuel requirements are the attractive features of the TP for those who adopt it. Almost all the TP adopters in the research sample were men. About 26 percent of the adopters achieved an increase in irrigated area; all saved time spent on irrigation and increased net farm income. The productivity of land and labor increased, while the welfare ofAgricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa is adversely affected by erratic rainfall events within and between years. This has led to poor yields, low productivity, food insecurity and poverty within the farming population, thus emphasizing the need for irrigation in the region. The traditional system comprises the use of ropes and buckets to lift and distribute water from shallow open wells or watering cans to lift water from streams. Although the low capital requirement of these traditional technologies makes them advantageous and affordable, their low delivery capacity and labor-intensive nature make them highly unfavorable (Kamara et al. 2004). Improved water-lifting technologies, with relatively high efficiencies such as motorized pumps, have been tried and found suitable for, mainly, better-off farmers. For small-scale farmers, who usually irrigate relatively small plots of land and operate on a relatively small capital, such technologies are unaffordable. This lack of simple, affordable and well-adapted water development technologies, suitable for the production conditions and needs of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, is a serious handicap to efforts for achieving food security on the continent (Hyman et al. 1995;Brabben and Kay 2000). Today, a substantial variety of low-cost, affordable water management options exist. The use of the TP for irrigation is widely acknowledged as one such option (EW 2004). The aim of this study is to investigate the strategies used for the dissemination of the treadle pump (TP) and dynamics of its adoption and impacts, with a special focus on poverty reduction. The TP is considered suitable and easily adaptable to African production conditions. It is a low-lift, high-capacity, human-powered water lifting device designed to overcome common obstacles to irrigation by resource-poor farmers. It can lift 5-7 cubic meters of water per hour from wells and bore holes from a depth of 7 meters (m), as well as from surface water sources such as lakes and rivers. Box 1 presents a description of a common TP introduced to West Africa. Manufacturing, marketing and distribution campaigns of the TP are carried out through development organizations like KickStart 1 in East Africa and Enterprise Works Worldwide (EWW)2 in West Africa.The economic impacts of TP adoption are well documented in the West African context. In Mali, for example, adopters have been able to increase their incomes from $444 3 per farm before using the pump to $801 per farm after using it (EW 2004). In Burkina Faso, a survey of farmers showed that irrigated area increased by 140 percent after the adoption of pumps (EWW 2003). In Niger, within a period of 6 years, market gardeners were able to increase their net farm incomes sixfold from $185 to $1,163 after adoption (ANPIP 2005). Data from Niger also showed a net increase in the number of persons per TP, indicating increased employment opportunities created by the use of pumps. These results from West Africa are similar to TP impacts reported from South Asia including eastern India, Nepal Terai and Bangladesh (Shah et al. 2000). These impacts are in line with the notion that irrigation technology leads to increases in total farm output and farm incomes (Lipton et al. 2003).There are two types of TPs: those that lift water from a lower level to the height of the pump, commonly called suction pumps and those that lift water from a lower level to a height greater than the height of the pump, known as pressure pumps. In all forms, water is pumped by two direct-displacement pistons, which are operated alternately by the stepping motion of the user. TPs have two significant advantages over motorized pumps for irrigation of agricultural land of less than one hectare. They are considerably less expensive than motorized pumps regardless of the type, and also cost much less to operate, because they require no fuel and only limited repair and maintenance costs.The TP also possesses a number of features which sets it apart from other nonmotorized irrigation pumps. First, its water lifting capacity of 5-7 cubic meters per hour (m 3 /h) meets the irrigation requirements of most African farmers, the majority of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Second, because the TP employs the user's body weight and leg muscles in walking motion, use of the pump can be sustained for extended periods of time without excessive fatigue. Operating the TP is much less tiring than operating other manual pumps that utilize the upper body and relatively weak arm muscles. Third, the TP is fabricated entirely from locally available materials and can be manufactured using welding equipment and simple hand tools in the metal workshops commonly found in Africa.TPs available in West Africa:1. The Bangladesh standard pump can lift water from a depth of 8 m, and water is discharged at the pump level. The pump can be operated by one or two persons. The discharge varies between 5 and 9 m 3 /h depending on the number and size of operators and the depth to the water. The main objectives of the EW approach to technology dissemination are to:• increase local capacity for manufacture• use a business model of demand creation based on creative advertising techniques• promote sustainability by discouraging subsidies and empowering farmers to maintain their pumps According to Naugle (2000) there are five main issues considered relevant in the EW philosophy of technology promotion to enhance commercialization within the adopting population. These issues include:• production as close as possible to the end user• affordability for the buyers• profitability for the producers• reliability of the technology to enhance customer satisfaction• provision of after-sales service to help buyers familiarize themselves with the product, and to overcome preliminary problems associated with the adoption of new technologies EW has a strategy that provides initial startup support such as training, tools, marketing strategy and after-sales care to enhance customer satisfaction and sustainability.The manufacturing of TPs is placed in the hands of local workshop owners. In Niger, the training of these manufacturers in their own workshops is done over a period of 10 days. Three pumps are made at the initial training and after the manufacturer has shown proficiency with one model by making ten or more pumps, training for other models can be made available, usually on demand. Thereafter, manufacturers are taken to farm sites to carry out demonstrations and to develop direct contact with farmers. Initial sales of the first three pumps are strived at to encourage manufacturers to appreciate the market potential of the pump. Manufacturers are encouraged to use hire-purchase agreements with farmers, especially in areas where the pump is not well known. A similar strategy is employed in other West African countries.EW promotes the technologies to farmers in the irrigated horticultural subsector by utilizing radio and television advertising, public, on-site and market demonstrations, farmer-assisted sales and other techniques. In Niger, publicity is an important part of marketing involving a multimedia publicity campaign. A local name, Niyya da Kokari ('willingness and courage'), understood in the three main languages, was given to the pump. A song was composed by a local acting troupe extolling the virtues of the pump and publicizing its name. This publicity included radio and television commercials, and the visual impact Facilitating Access: The Role of Enterprise Works of seeing the advertisement does create a positive impression (Kay and Brabben 2000). A copy of the manuals on an audiocassette tape in local languages is supplied along with each pump sold. In Ghana, the TP was branded as the SOKA pump, and EW, in the initial stages, offered marketing assistance through mass media advertisements and on-farm demonstrations to create awareness. Once the pumps become popular and sales start to increase, manufacturers are linked up with designated sales agents from whom farmers buy pumps directly. For farmer-assisted sales, an early adopter is encouraged to promote the technology among his or her neighbors in return for a sales commission from the manufacturer.EW encourages farmers to purchase the pump at the fully unsubsidized price directly from local manufacturers or sales agents without the intervention of the project. It is thought that this will help ensure sustainability of the program, by building a viable local market that does not depend on the project or subsidies. In addition, EW ensures that spare parts and knowledge of repair accompany the pumps. All pumps are supplied with one set of spare pump leathers, a wrench for opening the pump body and adjusting the pistons, and a 6 m length of 50 millimeter (mm) thin-wall PVC pipe for the suction side of the pump. The farmer is visited three times after purchase by a field agent and/or a representative of the manufacturer. The viability of this strategy in West Africa is not clear however, as evidenced by experience in Niger where sales steadily increased between 1997 and 2001 when sales were subsidized by the government, but plummeted in 2002, especially among female farmers, when subsidies were withdrawn (ANPIP 2005).EW TP programs in West Africa are, or have been, active in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Benin. Approximately 8,500 pumps were sold across West Africa with overall economic benefits estimated at $20.9 million (table 1). These sales are, however, far below those reported for South Asia by International Development Enterprises (IDE), a USbased NGO that uses a similar business and market development approach. IDE reported sales in Bangladesh of 1.3 million pumps since the mid-1980s, the bulk of sales occurring during a 3-year period in the mid-1990s. An additional 200,000 pumps were sold in eastern India and 200,000 pumps in Nepal (Shah et al. 2000). To explore these questions, we conducted this study in the two Ghanaian regions of Ashanti and Volta. These two regions were selected for our study because they are known to have recorded the highest rates of TP sales in Ghana. The Ashanti region recorded approximately 38 percent of total TP sales while the Volta region recorded 15 percent of the total TP sales in Ghana (EW 2004). Figure 1 shows the location of the two regions within Ghana with a description of the agroecology of the two regions.The Ashanti region lies in the south-central part of Ghana occupying an area of 24,389 square kilometers (km 2 ). The region falls within the equatorial monsoon belt, which is characterized by two main seasons, wet and dry. The wet season is associated with a double maxima rainfall regime from April to July (mean annual rainfall = 1,270 mm) and September to October (mean annual rainfall = 1,778 mm). The region is well endowed with rivers and lakes including man-made ones. Rain-fed agriculture is predominantly practiced, and is associated with the cultivation of major staples such as maize, cassava, plantain, yam and some vegetables. Informal irrigation with the use of watering cans and buckets is extensively practiced in the dry season for the cultivation of both exotic and indigenous vegetables. In and around the capital city, however, vegetables are cultivated throughout the year, particularly exotic vegetables. These include lettuce, cabbage, carrot, spring onion, garden egg and green pepper.The Volta region is located in the eastern part of Ghana sharing the eastern border with the Republic of Togo. It is the fourth largest region in Ghana, covering a surface area of about 20,570 km 2 (Ghana Statistical Services 2002). It has a mean annual rainfall of between 140 mm and 165 mm. The southern part of the region is located in the dry equatorial zone, which according to Dickson and Benney (1977) is the driest climatic zone in Ghana. Temperatures are generally high (between 26 o C and 28 o C) throughout the year. The region's main river is the Volta; it is also served by several smaller rivers and streams. Farming is the dominant form of land use and the main source of income for most households in this region (Duncan and Brants 2004). This is related to the predominantly rural character of the region and the fact that the region is moderately endowed with natural resources and fertile soils. Although dry-season vegetable cultivation is widely practiced, some districts cultivate vegetables throughout the year. Rain-fed agriculture involves the cultivation of major staples including cassava, maize, rice and yam. Cocoa and coffee are important export crops cultivated in the forest zones. Fishing is another important income-generating activity, especially for communities along the coastline and Lake Volta. Both exotic and indigenous vegetables are irrigated and these include shallots, onions, okra, pepper and tomatoes. The study was carried out primarily through a survey of 108 farmers: 52 adopters and 56 nonadopters of TP in August and September 2005. In obtaining the sample for the survey, a multistage sampling technique was used. First, the districts in each of the regions with more adopters of TP were sampled using the sales list provided by the EW. In all, five districts were selected in the Volta region and seven in the Ashanti region. Second, farmers in each selected district were stratified into two, namely adopters of TP and non-adopters. Adopters were identified by using the sales list and through assistance from sales agents. In some cases, farmers assisted in identifying other users. The non-adopters of TP were distributed throughout the selected districts. These were farmers who irrigated using the traditional water-lifting devices such as rope and bucket and/or watering cans. Third, all TP adopters who were available in these districts were interviewed. Those who had stopped the use of the pump were also interviewed. In sampling non-adopters, a simple random sampling technique was used. A questionnaire was used to obtain farm-and household-level information from adopters and non-adopters. The data collected from the survey were supplemented by interviews with TP manufacturers and sales agents to distill information on the level of local capacity for the manufacture and dissemination of the TP. The promotion of TP by EW in Ghana was only for a period of 2 years, between 2002 and 2004.Because the study was conducted in 2005, it was only able to assess the short-term impact of TP adoption in Ghana.The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis, production function analysis and the Heckman's two-step procedure. The t-test statistic and chi-square were used to test for significance in differences in socioeconomic characteristics and indicators of poverty impacts between adopters and nonadopters.The decision to adopt an agricultural technology depends on a variety of factors (Nowak and Korsching 1983;Wiersum 1994;Mendola 2005;Calatrava-Leyva et al. 2005), including farm households' asset bundles and socioeconomic characteristics, characteristics of the technology proposed, perception of need and the risk-bearing capacity of the household. An \"asset bundle\" comprises physical, natural, human, social and financial assets. In this study, we hypothesize that the factors affecting TP adoption are as follows:Physical/natural assets. The area of land under irrigation is expected to affect the adoption decision. Farmers with less than a hectare of irrigated farm are expected to be willing to adopt the technology since the area is within the pump's capacity to irrigate. The size of irrigated land cultivated depends on the availability and the financial capacity of the farm household for cultivation. It is therefore used as a proxy of the family's wealth status. Reliable access to water throughout the year is also considered a factor in whether or not the TP will be adopted.Human assets. The quality and quantity of household labor are expected to affect adoption decisions. The quality of household labor is captured by the capacity to work proxied by the age of farm household head, and the capacity to adopt proxied by the level of education of household head. The quantity of household labor is captured by the household size and the ratio of family members who do not earn an income to those who earn (dependency ratio) and the number of household members who can assist in operating the TP (those who are 15 years and above). TP adoption is expected to have a negative relationship with the age of household head and dependency ratio; TP adoption is expected to have a positive relationship with the level of education of household head, household size, and household members above 15 years of age. The gender of the household head is included to examine its impact on adoption decisions, although no negative or positive relationships are hypothesized for this relationship.Social assets. These are represented by membership in the farmers' cooperative society and frequency of extension visits. Membership in the cooperative society and high frequency of extension visits are expected to increase adoption. These variables are expected to improve the adequacy of the information obtained about the pump, which will have an impact on the adoption decision.Financial assets. This is proxied by the access of the farm household to formal or informal credit. Access to credit has remained a constraint to adopting improved technologies in developing countries and access to credit is expected to affect the adoption decision positively.The adoption of TP technology can be analyzed by employing either the logit model or the probit model. To assist in testing for selectivity bias in the outcome equation, however, the Heckman two-step procedure was used to estimate both the adoption model and the poverty impact model (outcome equation). The explanatory variables in the adoption model are age of household head, years of schooling of household head, household size, household members above 15 years, dependency ratio, irrigated land area, membership of association, number of extension visits per year, gender, accessibility to credit, reliability of water and region.Several authors have attempted to define the link between irrigation and poverty (Hazell and Haggblade 1993;Datt and Ravallion 1998;Hussain and Hanjra 2003;Lipton et al. 2003;Saleth et al. 2003). The effects of irrigation on rural poverty are transmitted through a long chain of intermediate variables such as irrigated area, cropping intensity, productivity of land and labor resulting in changes in production levels and labor. This study assesses the poverty impact of the TP for irrigation by estimating changes in these variables and its aggregate impact on farm income. A further step is taken to evaluate impacts of these income changes on key social and economic indicators, such as expenditure on education and home improvement and food security.There are several different ways to quantify these impacts. Two commonly used approaches are (a) \"before and after\" comparisons and (b) \"with and without\" comparisons. One of the problems with \"before and after\" comparisons is that it fails to account for changes in production that would occur without the project and therefore can lead to erroneous estimates of the quantified impacts (Gittinger 1982). Although the \"with and without\" approach also suffers from similar limitations, it is commonly used in real-world impact assessments. It is suggested that, where data are available, both approaches should be adopted to gain more insights into impact (Hussain and Bhattarai 2005). This study has used the \"with and without\" comparison.Impact on production and labor. Changes in production levels are measured by changes in irrigated area, cropping intensity, crop diversification and productivity of land. Those for labor are mainly changes in quantity of labor use and labor productivity. Crop diversification was measured using the Herfindal Index expressed as: Herfindal Index = where, Ai = area cultivated under the i th crop A = total area cultivated under all crops n = total number of crops cultivated Impact on land and labor productivity. To determine land and labor productivity, a production function was fitted to the data for adopters and non-adopters of TP and a comparison made between the two groups. The production function is expressed as:(1)where, Y i = gross value of production of the i th farm in $ X ij = vector of actual j th inputs used by the i th farm β = vector of parameters to be estimatedThe inputs are:X 1 = irrigated area in hectares X 2 = labor in man-days X 3 = quantity of fertilizer in kg X 4 = number of irrigations By specifying the dependent variable, the methodology used by Arega and Rashid (2003) was adopted. The dependent variable was estimated as the gross value of production in view of the mixed cropping pattern of the sample farms. Summing up the output of the farms from the various cultivated crops was difficult due to their differential units of measurement. Thus, the values from all crops cultivated under irrigation were estimated. The data were fitted with the Cobb-Douglas production function.Impact on farm income from irrigated crop production. The farm income was estimated using a budget analysis. This involves the deduction of all production costs from the total value of output. The total cost of production includes the cost of labor, seeds, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, land rent and the depreciation of farm assets. The depreciated value was obtained using the straight-line method.The budget function can be expressed as:Impact on poverty status of adopters. In order to further investigate the impact of the TP adoption on the poverty status of adopters, a multivariate analysis was done. To isolate the impact of TP adoption from other intervening factors, the establishment of a counterfactual outcome is required, as is the ability to overcome selection bias. According to Heckman and Smith (1999), the establishment of a counterfactual outcome represents what would have happened in the absence of project intervention. Zaini (2000) asserts that these problems become more complicated when participants self-select into the project. Due to the difficulty of establishing an effective counterfactual situation, a control group was used which comprised non-adopters of TP. To allow for selection bias in the assessment of the poverty impact of TP adoption, the identification variable approach following the Heckman two-step procedure was adopted to analyze the data. Selection bias relates to the unobservable factors which may bias the outcome on poverty due to TP adoption. An appropriate identification variable for this twostep procedure needs to be found for the analysis. This variable has to influence adoption but not poverty. Moreover, even if an appropriate identification variable is found, the results from the procedure can be sensitive to the choice of this variable. Due to this limitation, the results from the procedure need to be checked for \"robustness\" (Zaman 2000). This report adopted the \"number of extension visits per year\" as the identification variable that influences adoption but not poverty. The choice is dictated by the fact that an increase in the number of extension visits increases farmers' knowledge about the TP and helps them make an informed decision as to whether or not to adopt. The impact of extension visits on poverty will depend not only on the number of extension visits per year but also on the quality of extension services rendered. The impact of this variable was tested in the adoption and poverty models to verify its choice as an identification variable. The Heckman two-step procedure involves, first, the estimation of the adoption process and second, the estimation of the poverty outcome. Following Zaman (2000), the adoption equation (the first step of the Heckman two-step procedure) estimated is:where, Y i * = a latent variable representing the propensity of a farm household i to adopt TP X i = the vector of farm households' asset endowments, household characteristics and location variable that influence the adoption decision 0 σ , n δ = parameters to be estimated i μ = error term of the i th farm household i = 1, 2, 3, … n farm householdsPrior to the analysis, pair-wise correlation was conducted for the variables in the model and it was found that some of the variables were highly correlated. One of each pair of the highly correlated variables was dropped.Employing the maximum likelihood estimation procedure, the probability of adoption is obtained from the first step of the Heckman two-step procedure. This involves employing a probit regression to predict the probability of adoption. Using these estimates, a variable known as the Mills ratio is obtained as follows:where, The second step involves adding the Mills ratio to the poverty equation. The factors that determine poverty are explicit in the literature and they include household and community characteristics. Lack of household ownership and access to assets that can be put to productive use are important determinants of poverty (Ellis and Mdoe 2003;World Bank 2000). The specific factors identified in the literature that determine poverty include demography or human factors (e.g., household size, age and gender, education and health) and social capital (membership in mutual support organizations); physical capital (ownership of livestock and other productive assets); community factors (access to infrastructure and services, population density, urban-rural or regional location; and external factors (civil strife, climate) (Benin and Mugarura 1999).The household and community characteristics with institutional factors hypothesized to affect poverty are similar to those hypothesized to affect adoption. They are the age of the household head, household size, dependency ratio, number of years of schooling of household head, irrigated area, membership of water user or cooperative association, the geographical location of the study area and the household TP adoption status. The poverty status of the household is represented by its per capita income. The household per capita income was obtained by dividing the total household income by the number of adult equivalent in the household. The household income includes income from irrigated farming, rain-fed farming, livestock production, offfarm activities, nonfarm activities and remittances.The poverty equation is given as:where, P i = per capita income of farm household i in $ W i = a vector of farm household's asset endowments, household characteristics and location variable Y i = a dummy variable which is 1 for adopters and 0 for non-adopters λ ι = the Mills ratio term = error term of farm household i(5)The summary statistics of the socioeconomic characteristics of adopters and non-adopters of TP are given in table 2. It is evident that irrigated farming is male-dominated with the percentage of males generally high in the study areas. There is a small but significant difference in the years of schooling of household heads among adopters and non-adopters, with the former being more educated. So while the age and gender of adopters and non-adopters do not differ significantly, adopters were, on average, better educated.The household demographics show that the mean household size of adopters is significantly lower than that of non-adopters. There is also a trend towards higher numbers of adult males, and lower numbers of adult females, in adopter households, but these differences were not significant. The dependency ratio of non-adopters is higher and significantly different at 10 percent from that of adopters. This implies that the ratio of non-working members to working members is higher in non-adopter households. Therefore, labor availability is lower in these households than in adopter households. About half of all farmers in the study area belong to farmers' associations, and had similar limited access to credit, irrespective of whether they were adopter or nonadopter households. The mean difference in number of extension visits per year is 2.24 and it is significant at 1 percent.Land tenure patterns are similar for both adopters and non-adopters. Inheritance and rent are the most common tenure arrangement. About 28.85 percent and 35.71 percent obtained their land by inheritance among adopters and nonadopters, respectively. Rents in cash or on crop share basis represent tenure arrangements for 65.38 percent of adopters and 57.14 percent of non-adopters. Those who purchased their land represented 5.77 percent of adopters and 3.56 percent of non-adopters. Others obtained land on mortgage. Level of awareness. The sources of information and sources of purchase of TPs by survey respondents varied (figure 2). The major sources of information on TP to farmers were information dissemination by other farmers (35%), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) extension agents (24%) and EW field demonstrations (22%). EW field demonstrations accounted for more than half (56%) of the TP sales outlet; MoFA sales agents accounted for 32 percent while the manufacturers (local artisans) sold only 2 percent of the pumps directly to farmers. These results confirm the active roles of EW in facilitating the diffusion of TP among farmers in the study regions. These findings suggest that TP manufacturers have little influence in the sale of their products.Rationale for TP adoption and non-adoption. For all the adopters, 59 percent claimed reduction in aggregate labor use for irrigation as the reason for TP adoption, while 49 percent mentioned time savings in irrigation as the reason for TP adoption (figure 3). Other important reasons that accounted for TP adoption are increased irrigated area (31%), non-requirement of fuel (29%) and the affordability of the TP (8%). 5 The results thus indicate that the most important reasons for TP adoption are reduction in labor use for irrigation and time-saving irrigation.The most-cited reasons for not adopting TPs are that they were considered (a) unaffordable by many (58%) and (b) a problem as they required at least two workers to irrigate at one time (31%). Other reasons that made TP less attractive were a lack of suitability for cultivating large irrigated area (19%), lack of awareness (14%) and, to a small extent, lack of a reliable water source (4%).Our survey revealed that about 21 percent of all adopters had subsequently stopped using the TP. As shown in table 3, the reasons given by the respondents for stopping the use of the TP included: bought motorized pump, TP had broken down, unsuitable for large extents of land and unreliable water source. In the Volta region, five of the adopters were able to purchase motorized pumps. While some farmers have been able to purchase motorized pumps in the Volta, none did  Sources of information Sources of purchase so in Ashanti. This may be because farmers in the Volta region irrigate all year-round while farmers in the Ashanti region irrigate mainly only during the dry season. In Ashanti, the breakdown of the TP is given as the most important reason for stopping the use of the TP. The frequent breakdown of TPs may be a reflection of lack of after-sales service following the exit of EW. This fact was corroborated in the interviews conducted with local manufacturers who claimed not to have after-sales services. They are willing, however, to assist in repairs for a fee. The inability to cultivate large areas is cited by 15 percent of farmers who have stopped using the TP.Explanatory variables and summary statistics used in the adoption model are presented in table 4. Diagnostic statistics (table 5) showed that the model had a good fit to these variables with log likelihood scores that are significant at 1 percent and with the signs of the variables agreeing with a priori expectations, except the variable for age of household head. Three of the variables were statistically significant at 5 percent. These were the dependency ratio, number of extension visits Reasons given by adopters for adoption of the TP. per year and the regional dummy. Dependency ratio has a negative relationship with the probability of adoption and is significant at 1 percent. Increase in the number of nonworking household members as compared to those working infers lower labor availability for productive economic activities. This apparently discouraged TP adoption, which requires labor for pedaling. Also, increase in the number of dependants in the family may reduce the household income available for investments, thus discouraging adoption. The number of extension visits per year is positive and significant at 5 percent showing that the higher the frequency of visits the higher the probability of TP adoption. The regional dummy is significant at 5 percent, and with a negative sign, implies that the Ashanti region has a higher probability of adoption than Factors that influence the adoption of the TP using the Heckman two-step procedure.  * A household is taken as the number of members who eat from the same pot over a 12-month period;Std. dev. = standard deviation.the Volta region. In the Ashanti region, there is easy access to big commercial markets particularly for exotic vegetables, which serves as an incentive for farmers. This study shows that the age of household head, years of schooling, irrigated area and the reliability of water supply have positive relationships with the probability of adoption, but are not significant. Similarly, household size and membership of associations have negative relationships with the probability of adoption but are not significant. Due to data constraints, the size of irrigated farm is used as a proxy for wealth status in this study. The variable is positive but not significant. This means that although increases in the size of irrigated area may increase the probability of adoption, we cannot make conclusions on whether or not TP technology self-selects the poor in the study area. A similar study in Asia by Shah et al. (2000) stated that the TP adopters come second to diesel pump owners in terms of landownership; they were not the poorest landowners and certainly not the landless. They stressed that this has led to the \"TP trickle down\" hypothesis in which the pioneers tend to be the less poor; but over time, as the technology blends into the social fabric, the poor tend to adopt it. On the whole, this result revealed that availability of labor and the increase in the number of extension visits per year will increase the probability of adoption. In addition, there was a higher probability of TP adoption in the Ashanti region than in the Volta region.Cropping intensity and diversification indices. The cropping intensities of adopters and non-adopters are shown in table 6. The P-values were obtained from a t-test of mean differences between adopters and non-adopters in the same region and for all farmers. In all cases, cropping intensity is greater than 1. The cropping intensities for TP adopters are higher than for non-adopters in both regions but significant at 10 percent in the Ashanti region only. This implies that the adoption of the TP increases cropping intensities, although the extent differs between locations and among farmers. The diversification index of farms does not differ significantly between TP adopters and non-adopters.Land and labor dynamics. Irrigated areas for both adopters and non-adopters were less than one hectare each but the adoption of a TP resulted in an increase in land area cropped for adopters. The mean irrigated farm size of adopters and non-adopters was 0.66 hectare and 0.58 hectare, respectively, a difference of 12 percent but not significant (t-value=1.440, p=0.153). Individual farmers did increase irrigated area, with about 14 percent, doubling their irrigated area in the Volta region while 17 percent cultivated more than 0.8 hectare in the Ashanti region. In all, about 26 percent achieved an increase in size of irrigated area after TP adoption.Family and hired labor is intensively used and the form of labor use depends on the farm operation. Often, labor is hired for land preparation, weeding and harvesting. Family labor is used for nursery preparation, transplanting, spraying and irrigation. Inadequate family labor, however, places constraints on farmers who therefore occasionally hire labor for irrigation. The average total labor used per hectare is 173.4 labor-days for adopters and 218.7 labor-days for non-adopters, resulting in a difference of 45.3 labor-days, which is significantly different at 1 percent (t value=2.734, p=0.007). The study revealed that the average time spent irrigating by adopters is 3 hours per irrigation while nonadopters spent 4.75 hours per acre of farm (0.4 ha). This result corroborates the finding of Kamara et al. (2004), which demonstrated in a \"before and after\" analysis of labor use per farm in the Ashanti region that 68 percent of farms recorded a decrease in irrigation time after adoption. They noted a decrease of 34 percent in the total number of hours used on irrigation after the adoption of a TP. Farmers' agree that increasing the irrigated area has resulted in increases in labor for most farm operations but contend that the decrease in labor for irrigating has resulted in a decrease in total labor use per farm. Our result is, however, inconsistent with the impact of TP on labor use in Niger where the average number of persons working on a farm increased by an average of 2.3 persons after adoption of TP was recorded (ANPIP 2005). This was recorded over a period of 6 years during which time significant increases in irrigated area occurred.Land and labor productivity. Table 7 presents the results of the estimated Cobb-Douglas production function.The estimated equations represent a good fit of the data with a high coefficient of determination of 73 percent and 65 percent for the estimated parameters for TP adopters and non-adopters, respectively. The estimated coefficients represent the elasticities of production with respect to each input.The analysis reveals that for TP adopters, the coefficients of irrigated area, labor, fertilizer and the number of irrigations are positive and are significant at varying levels. This indicates that increases in these inputs will lead to an increase in the gross value of production. The sizes of the coefficients reveal that area cultivated and fertilizer used have the highest impact on the gross value of production followed by number of irrigations and labor. The gross value of production for non-adopters also increases with irrigated area and labor. These variables are significant at 1 percent and 5 percent, respectively. The coefficients on fertilizer and number of irrigations are positive though not statistically significant. Table 8 shows the marginal value productivities with respect to these inputs.The adoption of TP has resulted in higher productivities in irrigated area, labor and fertilizer than among non-adopters. The size of the marginal value products shows that a unit increase in irrigated area and fertilizer will increase gross value of output by $392.21 and $5.22, respectively, for TP adopters, while a unit increase in irrigated area and fertilizer will increase output by $231.59 and $0.26, respectively, for non-adopters of TP. This is an indication of higher productivities for TP adopters than for non-adopters. The gain in gross value of output for adopters, as a result of per unit increase in labor, increases by a factor of 1.5 when compared with those of non-adopters. The results also revealed that there is a possibility of increasing gross value of output by $1.59 for each additional irrigation for TP adopters and $4.52 for non-adopters of TP. This implies that non-adopters have a higher potential to increase their gross value of output substantially by increasing the number of irrigations. Overall, the results demonstrate that TP adoption has a positive and higher impact on the productivity of land, labor and fertilizer while non-adopters have a positive and higher productivity on the number of irrigations. In view of the fact that TP adopters and non-adopters operate in the same input and output markets, it is evident that the increase in marginal value productivity of inputs is, in part, due to increases in output. Our results show improved land and labor productivity as a result of TP adoption.Income from irrigated crop production. The profitability of production is estimated on a per farm and per hectare basis using equation 3, and the results are given in table 9. The total revenue per hectare for TP adopters is higher than for TP non-adopters. The difference is statistically significant at 5 percent (t-value= 2.394, p=0.019).Similarly, the net income for TP adopters is also higher than for non-adopters, and the difference is statistically different at 1 percent (t-value =2.611, p=0.012). The same pattern is observed in the two regions studied. In addition, higher total revenue and net income were obtained in the Ashanti region than in the Volta region. On an average irrigated area of 0.66 hectare for adopters, a net income of $952.43 was earned while it was $608.89 on 0.58 hectare for nonadopters. This represents a difference of $343.54 which is significant at 10 percent (t-value =1.835, p=0.070). Kamara et al. (2004) reported that gross revenue increased from $454 before adoption to $882 after adoption, and net revenue increased from $181.05 to $443.26. In all cases, adoption of TP does increase net farm income. This is consistent with the previously reported findings of EWW (2003). Similar results were reported in other parts of Africa, notably Kenya, Zambia and Malawi (Kay and Brabben 2000;Mangisoni 2006). For example, in Kenya, income ranged between $80 for non-adopters and $690 for adopters. Impact on poverty status. A multivariate analysis was undertaken to assess the impact of TP adoption on poverty using the Heckman two-step procedure. Essentially, the explanatory variables include the same household and community characteristics, as well as institutional factors, as in the adoption model. The second step of the Heckman two-step procedure estimates the determinants of poverty and tests for selectivity bias by incorporating the Lambda into a linear regression. The Lambda is the inverse Mills ratio saved from the probit equation describing adoption. The dependent variable is the log of the household per capita income. The selection of the identification variable was tested by estimating the determinants of poverty. The model was estimated using the number of extension visits per year as the identification variable. Table 10 presents the coefficients in the poverty model from both the second step of the Heckman twostep and the OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) estimation procedures. The Lambda coefficient is negative and is not significantly different from zero which indicates the absence of selectivity bias in the sample. This means that the error terms of the adoption and poverty models are not correlated. The robustness of the identification variable was tested using the \"identification on functional form\" method. This involves including the identification variable in the model. Again, the Lambda coefficient was not significant. The identification variable was also not significant, which implies that it does not influence the per capita income of farm households in the study area. Therefore, it is possible to judge the variable appropriate for an identification variable.Since the results from the estimation can, however, be sensitive to the choice of the identification variable and in the two models the Lambda is not significant, the model can be estimated using an OLS.The result from the OLS estimation is used to explain the model. Three of the variables are positive and significant at different levels. These are years of schooling, irrigated area and TP adoption. The regional dummy is also significant but has a negative sign. The years of schooling of household head is positive and significant at 1 percent. The per capita income will increase by 7 percent for each additional year of schooling. This implies that the education of household head had an impact on poverty. This is not surprising. Literacy can enhance the capacity to adapt to change, understand new practices and technologies, and improve a household's productivity and income. The size of irrigated area is positive and significant at 1 percent. A unit increase in irrigated area leads to about 74.9 percent increase in per capita income. An increase in irrigated area will increase farm output and incomes and thereby improve household per capita income. The adoption of the TP is positive and significant at 1 percent. The result shows that the TP adoption increases per capita income by 28.1 percent relative to that of a non-adopter. The regional dummy is significant at 10 percent and this implies that the per capita income of farm households in the Volta region was 19.4 percent lower than the per capita income of those in the Ashanti region. On the whole, the increase in irrigated area has the highest impact on poverty followed by TP adoption, and lastly the number of years of schooling. The higher per capita income of farm households in Ashanti as compared to Volta is partly due to its better access to markets. This shows that the adoption of a TP reduces poverty. This result is consistent with findings in a similar study in Malawi (Mangisoni 2006).Food security. Since the crops (mainly vegetables) are grown for sale, adopters explain that they consume less than 5 percent of their harvest. They stated, however, that the increase in incomes has enhanced their ability to improve the status of their food security. They all indicated that they do not have to skip meals as a means of coping with food insecurity. The results of this study are consistent with some earlier findings. For instance, Kamara et al. (2004) assessed the dynamics of household food security for Ghana's rainy and dry seasons, which are normally characterized by different levels of food availability. The results show that 68 percent of the adopters got their daily meals in both the rainy and dry seasons, and none recalled problems with food availability in either season. They observed that the overall food security situation has improved. This agrees with the findings in Malawi where 91 percent of the adopters -including those who were foodinsecure prior to TP adoption -noted that they are now food-secure, i.e., they have enough food to last until the next harvest every year (Mangisoni 2006).Social and economic impacts. The impact of TP adoption on social and economic indicators as perceived by the adopters is shown in table 11. A great impact was observed on improvement in human capital as incomes were used to pay for children's schooling. This was common in both regions. In addition, cash is available to pay for health services which are expected to have a positive impact on farmers' productivity and household income. For example, the table shows that some economic impact was achieved by TP adopters. About 28 percent of the adopters were able to start new businesses while 15 percent were able to acquire farm assets. The new businesses often involved starting with petty trading while farm assets included simple farm tools and sprayers. About 11 percent claim to feel more respected in the community while an equal number were able to acquire household assets. Impact on acquisition of landed properties and livestock is low, apparently due to the high capital requirement of such investments.Almost all the adopters were men, with less than 2 percent being women. Men are responsible for the procurement, operation and maintenance of the pumps. They pedal while women assist with water distribution. These women are normally family members and do not participate in the lifting of water. All the farmers claimed that they did not hire female labor for lifting water because they considered it an arduous task for women. Women are active during harvesting and marketing, thus creating productive employment for them. Kamara et al. (2004) observed that the difficulty for women to operate the pumps has cultural dimensions. Pedaling the pump with an up-and-down leg motion while being elevated above the ground makes women feel uncomfortable and undignified, particularly in the presence of men. This contrasts with the situation in Kenya where pumps are purchased by men but are mostly managed by women who hire young men to operate them (Brabben and Kay 2000). In cases where farm families have been able to start other businesses, however, some women have benefited by getting funds to start petty trading. This implies that women benefit indirectly from TP adoption. There is, however, a need to make the pump gender-neutral so that women can also adopt the technology and benefit from it directly.Repairs among adopters. Fifty percent of the TP adopters in the Volta region and 46 percent of TP adopters in the Ashanti region have changed at least one component of the pump within the 2year period of adoption. As shown in figure 4, the component often changed is the rubber seal. Other components that sometimes require repairs are the twisted connecting rod, pedal and leaking valves. In some other cases, a mix of these components has been repaired. The study reveals that repairs were mainly carried out by the farmers themselves followed by EW and lastly by the local manufacturers (see table 12). This indicates that farmers, if they are well trained and have access to markets for the spare parts, can repair the pumps themselves.Manufacture, promotion and sales. Twenty-one manufacturers were trained by EW in Ghana, but only nine remained in production as of 2005.Altogether five manufacturers and two sales agents were interviewed. Two of the manufacturers were from the Volta region and the others from the Ashanti region while the sales agents were mainly from the Volta region. The local artisans were generally below 45 years of age and had a basic school education. They were all trained by EW for 2 weeks and were given simple tools and materials to start off. The materials required for the manufacture of the pumps are available locally in Ashanti, but manufacturers in the Volta have to travel to the capital city of Accra to obtain them. While the project lasted, EW supplied the rubber seal components and occasionally checked to ensure that the quality of the pumps was in line with the set standard for its manufacture. The unit cost of a manufactured TP varies from $55.6 to $88.9 in Volta and $55.6 to $66.7 in Ashanti. The sales price also varies from $83.3 to $94.4 in Volta and $88.9 in Ashanti, a mark up of about 23 percent and 45 percent, respectively, using average values. Pumps are sold directly to farmers or marketed by sales agents in the Volta region, while they are marketed by EW, MoFA and sales agents in the Ashanti region. By the end of 2004, 711 pumps had been sold over a period of 2 years but annual sales dropped that same year. The bulk of the pumps were sold in 2003, the first year after the introduction of the pump. The exit of EW at the end of its project life in 2004 resulted in a dismal sales performance in 2005. This underscores the limitations of the project approach to development and suggests that a program of a longer duration might be more effective. The manufacturers express their interest in continuing the manufacture of the pumps because it improved their incomes. The level of patronage is, however, very low and they expressed the need to increase awareness about the pumps. The use of the media, demonstrations on farmers' days and the active involvement of agricultural extension workers are suggested to improve awareness and motivate farmers to adopt the TP. Only two of the manufacturers have each trained three people to manufacture pumps; other manufacturers are usually assisted by one of their trainees or do it by themselves. The need to ensure that standards are adhered to for the manufacture of good-quality pumps is often cited as the reason for limiting the number of workers trained. In addition, the current level of demand does not require many workers.Manufacturers do not give special sales incentives to farmers but they are allowed to make deposits and pumps are delivered to them on the payment of the full sum. There is no after-sales service rendered and repairs are left to the farmers and, in some cases, to the sales agents. Farmers who are willing to pay and transport their pumps to manufacturers' workshop are, however, assisted. The sales agents offer farmers incentives in the form of two installment payments to be made usually within a period of 3 months. They identified problems of lack of adequate installation personnel, particularly when the farm is located in remote areas, and lack of repair training for farmers after the exit of EW. They suggested the training of at least one manufacturer in every district to ease access to the pumps and installation. In Ghana, the TP is a technology that can replace the existing rope and bucket irrigation which is very labor-intensive. Thus a major attractive feature of the TP is that it reduces time and labor requirements for irrigation. Other factors which made the TP attractive to farmers included opportunities to increase the size of irrigated area and cost reductions for irrigation due to nonuse of fossil fuel. It was not possible to ascertain whether or not TP technology self-selects the poor as is hypothesized. Even with this low-cost technology, the purchase cost was seen as the most significant barrier to adoption. The technology is clearly not gender-neutral in Ghana, and there are significant social barriers to the adoption by women. This study confirms the positive impacts of TP technology including reducing poverty, by enabling increases in cropping intensities, area of irrigated cropland and farmers' incomes. More importantly perhaps, TP use in the study areas increased land and labor productivity, which is essential for poverty alleviation. The net income was increased by approximately $393 per hectare. Other important impacts were the improvements in human capital (realized through extra spending on education and health care) and food security.Despite the obviously positive impacts realized by adopting farmers there appears to be limitations to the effectiveness of marketing efforts in the region, and/or to TP suitability. Clearly, a sustained market had not yet been created when EW activities ended, since TP sales dropped soon afterward. It was also observed that the strategy to manufacture TP at different locations by EW in Ghana posed qualitycontrol difficulties and a threat to the sustainability of its dissemination. It is recommended that a variety of improvements in design, dissemination and capacity building might improve the impact of TP technology in West Africa. While development organizations have strategies that, for good reasons, reject subsidies, and work almost exclusively through private enterprise as a dissemination vehicle, the approach may have limitations with respect to achieving sustainability and poverty-alleviation goals. It is recommended that a program designed with local institutions for disseminating and marketing the TP may be more effective and sustainable than projects of short duration. Increased collaboration with local institutions, such as extension agents, could be made to increase sustainability and improve access for farmers. Design improvements should be undertaken to ease pedaling so as to encourage the uptake of TPs by women and enhance their chances of benefiting directly from the pumps. An introduction of an after-sales service and training farmers on minor repairs will also improve the continuous use and sustainability of the pumps.","tokenCount":"9480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"833d85cb18efadeefb50bd8cfe537f0c","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://ciat-library.ciat.cgiar.org/Articulos_ciat/epmr/poster_15_empr07.pdf","id":"1304227985"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5178abbe-d2b8-4450-a5e4-19ece7eadc49","pagecount":"1","content":"Rice blast caused by Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc., is the most limitant biotic factor for rice production in the world. Although the use of resistance genes is the most important method for blast control, resistance is rarely effective for more than 2-3 years (Correa-Victoria and Zeigler, 1993). Strategies aiming at breeding for durable rice blast resistance have recently focused on the possibility of using a lineage exclusion strategy to target resistance gene combinations that are likely to provide an effective barrier to the fungus (Zeigler et al., 1995). In addition, molecular marker technologies, such as development of closely linked molecular markers, have made it possible to pyramid bacterial blight and blast resistance genes into one rice genotype (Huang et al., 1997;Hittalmani et al., 2000). It has been also indicated, that marker-assisted selection could be particularly useful to improve disease resistance in commercial rice cultivars (Mohan et al., 1997;Sánchez et al., 2000;Chen et al., 2000). Here we report six new markers for the blast resistance gene Pi-1, which were identified using SSR sequences available in public database. Three of these SSR markers resulted highly linked to the resistance gene at the end of rice chromosome 11, therefore, they can be potentially used in MAS to introduce Pi-1 into blast susceptible varieties and to pyramid blast resistant genes to develop commercial varieties with more durable blast resistance.The near-isogenic lines C101LAC (resistant line) and C101A51 (susceptible line) developed at IRRI were crossed and F 1 seeds generated. The F 2 progeny, resulting from self-pollination of F 1 individuals, were self-pollinated to generate CT13432 F 3 lines. Blast disease evaluation was performed according to CIAT's rice pathology laboratory manuals. The inoculum was prepared as described by Correa-Victoria and Zeigler (1993). Plants were evaluated 15 days (two life cycles of the pathogen) after inoculation and scored for resistance and susceptibility (Figure 1) in two replications. The DNA extraction was conducted following the procedure described by Dellaporta et al., (1983). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted according to CIAT standard procedures. The amplification product were loaded on high-resolution agarose gels prepared mixing 1.5 % Sinergel (DiversifieD Biotech), 0.7 % agarose molecular grade (Invitrogen Life Technologies), and containing 0.5mg/mL of ethidium bromide.Genetic analysis of the resistance was conducted measuring the goodness of fit to the expected ratio for a single gene model using a chi-square test. For this purpose, we used F 3 and F 4 segregating populations derived from single F 2 plants with no selection. Putative molecular markers linked to the Pi-1 gene were used in linkage progeny analysis. Associations between SSR markers and the resistance Pi-1 gene were demonstrated using a chi-square test. Linkage analysis was performed using MAPMAKER software on the segregation data obtained from SSR markers and blast resistance scoring of the CT13432 F 3 population. Distances between markers were expressed in Kosambi centiMorgans (cM).Expected and observed segregation ratios for F 3 and F 4 populations are shown in Table 1. The F 3 population analysis showed a good fit to the expected segregation ratio (1:2:1) for a single gene model (χ 2 = 1.0, p < 0.05). This segregation ratio was also confirmed in the F 4 population (χ 2 = 0.1, p < 0.01). Correlation between F 3 and F 4 population ratios reached a value of 0.96 (Spearman range coefficient, p < 0.0001). These results confirmed the hypothesis of a single dominant gene for Pi-1.Sequences of twenty-six SSR markers were selected from the Gramene database (www. gramene.org) considering their relative proximity to Pi-1 gene (located no more than 10cM of the corresponding gene) in the current rice genetic map. The isogenic lines C101LAC and C101A51 and their common genetic background, the susceptible recurrent parent CO39, were used to identify SSR polymorphisms associated to the blast resistance gene. Polymorphic SSR markers identified above were assayed by bulked segregant analysis. DNA bulks were prepared from resistant and susceptible lines within the CT13432 F 3 families inoculated with the isolate Oryzica Yacu 9-19-1. The diagnostic potential of the SSR markers associated to Pi-1 gene was also evaluated on DNA obtained from fifteen elite commercial rice varieties grown in Latin America. Comparing with phenotypic evaluation obtained as indicated above, the veracity of the assay was corroborated.Linkage between the markers and blast resistance was confirmed by screening 157 F 3 lines from the cross C101LAC/C101A51 segregating for Pi-1. Genetic distance between the markers and the Pi-1 locus ranged from 0.0 (no recombination between the marker and resistance factor) to 23.8 cM (Figure 2). Among the SSR makers linked to Pi-1 gene, three markers (RM1233*I, RM5926 and RM224), showing a codominant feature (Figure 3), mapped in the same position (0.0 cM) with the Pi-1 gene. Other three dominant markers corresponding to the same genetic locus (RM7654) were located at 18.5 cM above the Pi-1 gene, while marker RM6094 was identified at 23.8 cM below of the gene. This last SSR marker was characterized by the presence of a band in the susceptible genotype and by the absence of the band in the resistant lines, therefore being not potentially useful for MAS and excluded in further analysis.Near isogenic lines are very useful for identifying highly linked molecular markers to blast resistance genes in rice. Three markers (RM1233*I, RM5926 and RM224) are closely linked (0 cM) to the resistance gene Pi-1. These markers showed a highly sensible and specific, zero value of false positives, and a predictive capacity of the resistance events (PPV) that reached 100 percent. These markers can be used for the selection of resistant sources carrying the Pi-1 resistance gene and to eliminate susceptible germplasm. However, the use of these markers as a diagnostic tool for determining the presence of the resistance gene Pi-1 in a wider range of rice germplasm require additional studies for further confirmation of the results reported here. The speed, simplicity and reliability of PCR based approaches using SSR markers, together with the availability of nucleotide sequence database (www.gramene.org), make SSR analysis an attractive tool for MAS in rice breeding programs aiming at developing durable rice blast resistant cultivars.   In order to determine the potential application of these SSR markers in rice breeding programs based on marker-assisted selection, different statistical indicators were calculated (Table 2). All SSR markers were highly sensible and specific, but three of them (codominant markers) also showed zero values of false positive (false resistant) and a predictive capacity of the resistance events (PPV) that reached 100 percent. For this reason, these three markers were selected as putative candidate markers to be used in MAS programs aiming at improving blast resistance in rice.Of the twenty-six microsatellite sequences tested, eleven were polymorphic and seven (27 %) were linked to Pi-1 (all χ 2 values were greater or equal to 128.99, p < 0.0001). Five SSR markers were not polymorphic, and ten, did not amplify with the primer pairs used.To examine whether the markers identified would be of general utility on a wider range of rice germplasm characteristic of applied breeding programs in Latin American, the resistant alleles of five markers were examined in elite rice varieties and compared to the reported inheritance of Pi-1 (Table 3). For this purpose, we used known sources of blast resistance as positive controls and considered as predictive criteria of the resistance, the amplification in each variety of the specific SSR alleles for Pi-1 gene. Comparing with phenotypic data on blast resistance, our results showed that all known sources of resistance (C101LAC, Cica 8, BR IRGA 409, CR 1113, El Paso 144 and Panama 1048) present the specific Pi-1 allele. In addition, four susceptible varieties (Colombia XXI, Epagri 108, Capirona and Oryzica 1) and the negative control (CO-39) had not the resistant allele. On the other hand, other seven varieties (Jucarito-104, Fedearroz 2000, CR 1821, Primavera, Cimarón, Bonanza and Fedearroz 50), which were resistant in the pathogenicity assay, did not show the allele characteristic of the Pi-1 gene, most probably due to the interaction of other resistance genes in these cultivars and the presence of other avirulence genes different to avr-Pi-1 in the blast isolate used in the pathogenecity tests.  ( †) Probability that the SRR test were positive (presence of band) if the line was resistant in the pathogenicity test. ( ‡) Probability that the SSR test were negative if the line was susceptible in the pathogenicity test. (FP) Probability that the SSR test were positive given that the line was susceptible. (FN) Probability that the SSR test were negative given that the line was resistant. (PPV) Probability that the line were resistant given that the SSR test was positive. (NPV) Probability that a line were susceptible given that the SSR test was negative. ","tokenCount":"1442"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/2771884218.json b/data/part_2/2771884218.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2e548fbd879430c9fb78712d9a226b57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e2708b8d-a1ec-4f6e-a3be-37f88827380e/retrieve","id":"1065444112"},"keywords":["Agrobiodiversity","community-based participatory approach","dietary diversity","intervention development","nutrition"],"sieverID":"532aea13-dfe9-4b84-a7a0-ba31ab21a6be","pagecount":"1","content":"This research examines the suitability of community-based participatory workshops for developing agricultural activities in order to diversify diets. The study represents the second phase of a project consisting of a diagnostic phase covering agricultural biodiversity, diets and nutrition (phase I), participatory development of community activities (phase II) and a participatory implementation of the activities (phase III). The project is part of the nutrition cross-cutting cluster work within Humidtropics, a CGIAR research programme (CRP).A series of six participatory workshops was carried out in five sub-locations of Vihiga County in Western Kenya. The workshops aimed to raise awareness on nutrition, to discuss the results of the diagnostic phase (phase I) and to identify and plan community activities to improve nutrition. Per sub-location, 36 men and women were selected to participate in the workshops.In order to diversify diets in their communities, all sub-locations decided to plant vegetables and legumes and to raise poultry. The participants developed community action plans specifying how these activities are going to be realised. In addition, they chose local funding mechanisms to finance the actions and developed a budget. The groups also succeeded in organising an event to officially kick-off their activities and thereby reaching out to other community members.Except for one less successful sub-location, the workshop groups well developed agricultural activities for improved nutrition. Harmony within the group was a crucial factor for good performance. Sensitivity to group dynamics is thus very important for participatory development of community activities. It was observed that the continuous workshops built trust between researchers and participants and that ownership was developed among the groups. These findings are in line with similar studies on participatory intervention development in Africa. Other related projects in low-income countries stress the importance of community-based approaches in improving nutrition and livelihood outcomes.","tokenCount":"294"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1530d95d57ce0a19c7aeef74d8b10dc1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1b51bdf4-9504-4f00-a1c6-b6a94ecdcc0d/content","id":"645330303"},"keywords":["consumer","awareness","attitudes","GM crops","Kenya"],"sieverID":"6bd9999e-9164-44c6-af81-ba0e46caca4b","pagecount":"10","content":"at three points of sale (supermarkets, kiosks, and posho mills) to determine consumer awareness and attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) foods. Above a third (38%) of the respondents were aware of GM crops, mostly from newspapers, television and radio. Others had learned about GM crops at school. Newspapers and television were more important to higher-income and more educated consumers. Consumers acknowledged the technology's potential positive impacts, with more than 80% agreeing that it increases productivity. Sixty-eight percent said they would buy GM maize meal at the same price as their favorite brands, although many had concerns; half of the respondents feared that GM technology could lead to a loss of biodiversity and affect non-target insects; while more than one-third (37%) had concerns about the effects of GM food on human health. We conclude that GM technology has a role to play in food security in Kenya. However, consumers need more information about the technology, which can be provided through established sources of information. Finally, consumer attitudes should be studied regularly, and the survey population broadened to include rural consumers.Although GM crops have been accepted in many developed countries, they have generally not been well received in Europe and Japan. Farmers in the United States (USA) have embraced GM crops but at the same time are frustrated with the uncertainty of marketing them (Chern et al., 2002). Uncertainties about consumer acceptance have increased in many parts of the world, partly due to differing attitudes. Consumer organizations, environmentalists and some non-governmental organizations have expressed concerns about food safety, *Corresponding author. E-mail: s.kimenju@cgiar.org. Tel. 254-20-7224600, Fax 254-20-7224601. ethical, religious and environmental grounds, isues as well as lack of consumer choice due to inadequate labeling. Studies have verified that many consumers in the European Union have difficulties accepting GM products. Verdurme and Viaene (2002) observed that consumers (especially in the EU and Japan) oppose the use of GM technology in food production. Consumers in the USA, on the other hand, are generally willing to accept GM food if sufficient price discounts are made on them (Kaneko and Chern, 2003). Li et al. (2002) observed that although the majority of Chinese consumers reported that they had little or no knowledge of biotechnology, their attitudes toward GM foods was generally positive, translating to a willingness to pay a premium for GM rice and soybean, and hence their acceptance of these foods. Compared to developed countries (UK and USA), Curtis et al. (2004) observe that generally, consumers in developing countries (China and Columbia) have more positive perceptions towards GM foods, most likely stemming from more urgent food needs, more positive media influence, higher trust in government, and a more positive perception of science.Other key factor that influence consumer acceptance of GM foods are awareness and information. Consumers who are better informed about GMOs are more likely to perceive the risks of genetic modification, but they are also more likely to perceive the benefits (Loader and Henson, 1998).The success of any biotechnology program will depend on whether consumers accept its products. Springer et al. (2002) observed that consumers would be the final judges of emerging technologies in agricultural production. Africa, where per capita food production struggles to keep pace with population growth and serious food shortages are a regular occurrence, may not have the option of rejecting food with GM content (De Groote et al., 2004). African policymakers face a dilemma of whether to embrace the technology to feed their people or whether to protect them from potential, as yet unproven, dangers. Because many developing nations have not formulated official positions on genetic modification, they may end up adopting those of developed countries as their own. To give African farmers and consumers a voice in the debate, their concerns need to be known. Pinstrup-Andersen and Schioler (2002) argue that the agenda should be set by those people who have to live with the consequences of the action, in this case African farmers and consumers. De Groote et al. (2003) observe that in order to help make decisions in this heated debate, it is important that scientists contribute their objective analysis to the debate.Farmers in developing countries face a variety of problems and constraints. In Kenya, insect pests are one of the major constraints to maize production. Of special significance are maize stem borers. These are estimated to cause crop losses of 13.5% per year nationwide, amounting to 0.4 million tons with an estimated value of US$ 80 million (De Groote, 2002). The significance of crop pests has prompted researchers to develop insectresistant crop varieties. One such effort is the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, a joint venture between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The project is developing stem borer resistant maize using both conventional breeding methods and GM technology (Bt maize).It is estimated that the Bt maize varieties could produce annual benefits of $49 million in Kenya, twothirds of which would go to consumers (De Groote et al., 2003). The estimate is based on the following Kimenju et al. 1067 assumptions: (i) the IRMA project is successful in developing Bt maize adapted to Kenyan conditions; (ii) the Bt maize is effective against all the major stem borers in the country; and (iii) at least two-thirds of the farmers who use modern varieties will adopt the Bt varieties. Discounted benefits over 25 years reach $208 million, compared to discounted costs of $6.8 million. This produces a benefit/cost ratio of 31:1, and an internal rate of return of 83%. However, these benefits will only be realized if consumers accept the Bt maize. Currently, there is little information about the acceptability of GM crops to consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, thus we cannot know whether these potential benefits will be realized. Therefore, a consumer survey was conducted in Nairobi to elicit consumers' awareness, attitudes, and willingness to pay for GM crops.This study uses data collected from 604 personal interviews in Nairobi, Kenya, in November and December 2003.The survey was conducted at three different types of points of sale: supermarkets, kiosks (small roadside shops), and posho mills (mechanical mills for maize), in order to ensure proper representation of different categories of consumers. Seventeen (17) supermarkets were selected using systematic sampling from a list of supermarkets obtained from Kenya's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which included 12 large ones (with more than 3 branches within the city), and 5 small ones. One hundred and eight-three (183) respondents were interviewed in the supermarkets. A list of city estates (administrative subdivisions) was also obtained from CBS, and 7 estates were selected randomly. Within each of these, 3 kiosks were selected, leading to a total of 21 kiosks. From each of the selected kiosks, 10 consumers were systematically selected and interviewed, bringing the number of respondents interviewed in kiosks to 210. Finally, the city was toured in order to establish the number of posho mills in each estate, identifying 16 estates with different number of posho mills. Posho mills were then selected depending on their number within the estates, and 211 respondents were interviewed in 21 poshomills.The questionnaire used sought to obtain information from maize consumers about their awareness and knowledge of biotechnology and GM crops, their attitudes towards GM food, and their willingness to pay for it. It further included questions on the respondents' source(s) of information about GM food, and maize consumption habits. The survey instrument was pre-tested at the three points of sale and the enumerators thoroughly trained on its administration. The enumerators approached every third consumer that came along for a possible interview. The first question in the questionnaire sought to establish whether the respondents were aware of GM crops. If the respondent answered in the affirmative, the entire questionnaire was administered, including questions on knowledge of GM foods. Respondents were asked whether, according to their opinion, different statements about risk and benefits of GM crops were true or false, and to indicate how sure they were about their answer on a five-point scale (ranging from 1 = \"not sure at all,\" to 5 = \"absolutely sure\").Consumers who were not aware of GM crops were first given a short presentation on GM crops. The text gave a definition of GM crops, the reasons why they are grown, Kenya's position on this research, current and potential benefits of GM crops, potential risks Studies have shown that attitudes can be changed by the type of information given to respondents. Lusk et al. (2004) found that consumers' willingness to pay for GM food was positively influenced by information on health and environmental and global benefits accruing from GM technology. Unaware respondents were therefore given both the pros and cons on GM crops, to avoid biasing them either way. In order to control for possible order effect, some of the respondents received information on benefits first and others on risks first. This group was not asked to respond to questions on knowledge about GM crops. Consumer attitudes on five types of perceptions on genetic modification were obtained: benefits, health risks, environmental risks, ethics, and equity concerns. For each type, several statements were read, and consumers were asked their opinion, rated on a 5-point scale from 1 = 'totally disagree' to 5 = 'totally agree', with 3 as a neutral mid-point.Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the variables of interest and determine relationships between them. This entailed computation of measures of central tendency, frequencies, and cross-tabulation using the SPSS software. MS Excel was used in formatting tables and figures.The basis for targeting three points of sale was the need to incorporate views of all categories of consumers, based on the assumption that there are distinct differences in socioeconomic characteristics that may influence awareness and attitudes toward GM crops. The survey results clearly confirm these differences (Table 1). Fifty-nine percent (59%) of the maize buyers in posho mills were women, while more than half of the maize buyers in the supermarkets were male. Supermarkets had the highest percentage of formally employed clients, the highest percentage of those with university education, and also the highest percentage of those with income levels above KShs 15,000 per month (1US$=KShs75). This indicates that people in the higher socioeconomic categories buy their maize more frequently at supermarkets than at posho mills. Kiosks clients represented a more amorphous group, because kiosks are found everywhere, in both well-to-do and lowincome estates. Posho mills were characterized by the highest percentage of the unemployed, and those with the lowest education and income levels. Posho mills also had the highest percentage of non-students with no income (26%) and lowest percentage of people earning above KShs 15,000 per month (16%). This can be explained by the location of the posho mills; they are typically found in high-density neighborhoods with many low-income families.Overall, 38% of all the respondents had heard or read something about GM crops. Awareness about  biotechnology was also high, at 46%. Of the respondents aware of GM crops, 95% were also aware of the term \"gene\"; 65% knew about the virus-resistant sweet potato, 54% about Bt maize, and 21% about Bt cotton. Awareness about GM crops and biotechnology differed clearly by point of sale. It was highest among supermarket clients and lowest at the posho mills (Figure 1). Half of the supermarket respondents were aware of GM crops, compared to 34% and 31% of those interviewed in kiosks and posho mills, respectively. This implies that people in the higher socioeconomic groups are more aware of GM crops and biotechnology. Awareness about particular GM crops, which was only asked of those aware of GM crops in general, did not differ by points of sale or by socioeconomic characteristics.Analysis of the awareness of GM crops shows clear differences by socioeconomic characteristics (Table 2). Men are more aware than women (45% vs. 29%), and awareness varies by employment category, from the unemployed (28%), over the self-employed (35%) to the formally employed (43%). Similarly, awareness of GM crops clearly rises with education and with income. Excluding students with zero income, awareness of GM crops increased with income from 28% for those with zero income (non-students) to 92% for those with monthly incomes of above KShs 50,000.Consumers who had heard or read something about GM crops were also asked about the source of that information (Table 3). The most important source of information on GM crops was the media, especially newspapers, television, and radio. The second most important source was schools, followed by resource people such as farmers and friends. Information sources  clearly differed by the type of GM crop (sweet potatoes and maize are already being tested, while cotton is not) and socioeconomic categories (especially schooling and income). Newspapers were by far the most important source of information on GM crops in general (34% of respondents aware of GM crops) (Table 3). They were also the most important source of information on GM sweet potato and Bt maize, but not on Bt cotton, whose research is not ongoing in the country. The importance of newspapers, however, differed between socioeconomic groups (Table 4). In particular, it increased strongly from people without income (17%), to those in the highest income bracket (82%). Similarly, the importance of newspapers rose from 0% for those without education to almost half in the university educated (45%). Finally, newspapers were mentioned by more men (36%) than women (29%).Schools were generally the second most important source of information (21%, Table 3), although they were the first source for Bt cotton (30%). Since research in this crop has not started in Kenya, newspapers have likely given it less attention than the other crops. The importance of schools as a source of information decreased with increasing income levels; while it was very important for the group without income (38%), it becomes relatively unimportant for the highest income group (9%) (Table 4). This indicates that low-income groups have less access to other sources of information after completing formal schooling. Also interesting was that women mentioned schools more often (29%) than men (17%).The media in general was mentioned by 15% of the respondents, and television in particular by 11% (Table 3). Television is clearly more important for the highincome group (27%) than for those without an income (7%), and more for the educated (16% for university educated vs. 0% for primary educated). A bit surprising is that only 3% of respondents aware of Bt maize got their information from the television. Radio was also less important as a source of information on GM crops (only 7% of respondents). However, it was particularly important for people with only some primary education (25%), the self-employed (15%), and people in the lowest income category (11%). It is clear that lower income and less educated groups have less access to television, but more to radio. Informal contacts through resource people, in particular friends, are also an important source of information (10% of respondents). This source is particularly important for people with only primary education (25%) and the selfemployed (15%). Agricultural research institutes, extension, agricultural shows, and projects were rarely 1072 Afr. J. Biotechnol. mentioned, but this is not surprising, since only urban consumers were interviewed. However, urban consumers did get some information directly from farmers, in particular on GM sweet potato (6% of those who were aware of this crop), Bt maize (6%), and Bt cotton (9%).Consumer attitudes on GM technology were determined using 5 variables representing perception of benefits, environmental risk, health risk, ethics, and equity concerns. However, to facilitate the analysis, \"strongly agree\" and \"agree\" were collapsed into a single category, as were \"strongly disagree\" and \"disagree.\" Table 5 shows the percentage of consumers that completed the statements with \"agree\", \"disagree\", and \"neutral.\"Most people believed in the technology's potential positive impacts, with more than 80% agreeing that it can offer a solution to the world's food problems, 79% that it can reduce pesticides in food, and 73% that it has potential to reduce pesticide residues in the environment. However, a large number of consumers expressed concerns about potential negative effects. About half of the respondents thought that insect resistant GM crops may kill non-target insects and that the technology could lead to a loss of local varieties. More than one-third of the consumers expressed fears about the health effects of GM foods. Forty percent of them thought that people could suffer allergic reactions after consuming GM foods while another 35 % feared that their consumption could lead to an increase in resistance to antibiotics. Half of the people surveyed thought that GM food is artificial and that GM technology is akin to tampering with nature. Only 23% thought that producers of GM foods are \"playing God.\" On equity issues, the consumers clearly disagreed that GM crops are biased to large-scale farmers and multinationals. A majority (71%) disagreed with the statement that GM products do not benefit smallscale farmers. Less than one-third (30%) thought that GM products only benefit multinationals while 65% disagreed. Only one-third (36%) thought that GM products are being forced on developing countries, with a majority (54%) disagreeing.Table 6 shows differences in benefit perception by awareness about GM crops. Those people initially unaware of GM crops had a slightly higher benefit perception (80-89%) than those initially aware (62-74%). This implies that the information text given to the nonaware respondents may have skewed their benefit perception upwards. Other perceptions did not differ between the 'initially aware' and the 'unaware' categories.Attitudes differed by points of sale (Table 7). In general, people in the supermarkets had the lowest benefit perception and highest environmental risk perception compared to those at other points of sale, who did not show much difference. Supermarket consumers had the highest equity and ethical concerns, followed by those in kiosks, and then posho mills. There were small differences according to income, with students and those having incomes of over KShs 50,000 per month having higher environment risk perception than the other groups.To assess consumers' willingness to pay for GM maize meal, people were first asked whether they would buy it at the same price as their favorite brand, and then asked if they would purchase it if offered at a premium or a discount, depending on their response to the initial question. More than two-thirds (68%) were willing to buy GM maize meal at the same price as their favorite maize meal brand. This indicates acceptance of the technology despite there being concerns. The success of a genetically modified crop program will depend on the acceptability of its products by consumers, so it is important to determine the opinions of the public on such technologies. The results of this consumer survey show that more than one-third of the urban consumers surveyed were aware of GM crops, so it is generally possible to engage them in the debate. However, awareness, sources of information, and attitudes varied by point of sale and socioeconomic grouping. To have a representative picture while tracking consumer opinions, it should be ensured that all categories of consumers are included because different categories may present different views.The core of the controversy over GM crops is the extent to which consumers perceive benefits from the technology relative to its risks, as this will determine acceptability. Generally, people are appreciative of the positive benefits of the technology, although many are worried about potential negative effects. The government, the IRMA project, and a range of stakeholders face an important challenge in communicating the advantages and disadvantages of the technology to the general public. In particular, they should aim to inform the public that GM foods, based on extensive scientific testing, are now generally accepted as safe for human and animal consumption by national and international research institutions and others (FAO, 2004). With regard to equity issues, which are becoming increasingly important in the debate, consumers should be informed that multinational corporations do not hold patents over the Bt maize being developed by IRMA. This study has identified the important sources of information for the urban Kenyan consumer, which can serve as a starting point for effectively targeted communication on GM goods in the future. The mass media was the foremost source of information, followed by schools/colleges. In such communication efforts, newspapers and television should be specifically used to target people of high socioeconomic status, while the radio can specifically target the lower socioeconomic groups.The consumers surveyed generally had a positive attitude towards GM foods suggesting that the technology could play a major role in food security in Kenya. However, emphasis must also be given to educating people about the technology by providing them factual information.Finally, studies tracking public opinion should be conducted regularly, in order to determine awareness levels, capture the impact of awareness activities, and reveal trends. Studies should be extended to smaller towns and rural areas, in order to include these segments of the population in the national discourse.The present study provided some important insights to improve the methodology. First, the different points of sale represent different types of consumers. However, the number and respective percentage of people that shop in each category is not known. Household surveys could solve this problem, and they are therefore highly recommended. Further, this survey determined the major sources of information, so future surveys can move from open-ended to closed-ended questions.","tokenCount":"3536"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7560a2e76176892cb4072236a971e10e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1c10ca95-1eb9-49b7-b717-129da8468bc1/retrieve","id":"-1577407357"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ef66c5b9-537a-4589-9c5e-c7ef800259ad","pagecount":"4","content":"In agrarian economies, the cultivation of low-profit staple crops could meet subsistence needs, but poverty levels may still persist. Striking a balance between staple crops and high-value crops using climate-smart agricultural practices, including groundwater use, could help drive food security and poverty reduction.Access to and control over groundwater supports climate resilience, and offers farmers a competitive advantage compared to those without access to this resource.The ultimate success (food security, profitability) of cultivation systems depends on a range of enabling technological, structural and financial investments (land tenure, markets, communications, transport, trade policies, finance and inputs) at plot to national scales. Some of these investments are made by farmers and governments, and others by the private sector and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).The North Central Province (NCP) is situated in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. Average annual rainfall in the province is less than 1,750 mm, of which very little occurs between May and September (dry season). An estimated 12,000-16,000 irrigation tanks, mainly situated in villages, have been constructed since 300 BC to store surface runoff to support dry-season rice cultivation, which is practiced in addition to rain-fed rice production. However, dry-season cultivation remained at subsistence levels, with slash-and-burn agriculture in the highlands complementing limited lowland paddy production. Therefore, poverty levels in rural areas continued to persist, due to rural economies being largely dependent on subsistence agriculture. This scenario has changed with the recent use of groundwater to intensify dry-season cultivation in some parts of the Dry Zone. In the late 1980s, under the government's National Agro-well Program, subsidies were provided to farmers in NCP for the construction of shallow (~6-8 m), large diameter (~8 m) open wells and for the purchase of diesel pumps. The program primarily focused on poverty alleviation and food security. Early signs of success of the program attracted further support from NGOs and provincial ministries, although investments by farmers themselves soon became a major driver in the expansion of agro-wells (Karunaratne and Pathmarajah 2003).A farmer in the Anuradhapura district irrigates his onion crop using water from an agro-well (photo: Sanjiv de Silva/IWMI)  This research study focused on four villages in the Anuradhapura district, where a high density of agrowells support intensified agricultural production systems. During the period from November 2013 to October 2014, quantitative primary data were collected through a structured household questionnaire, while qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with government officials, female and male farmers, village elders and private sector actors. Primary data collection was supported with field observations, local government data and a review of existing literature. The collected data covered the evolution of agro-well-based cultivation and associated crops and cropping patterns; agricultural income and production costs; irrigation practices; village-level poverty and employment; evolution of policy and regulatory environments; political economy of land use regulations in relation to the conversion of the state's forestland to private farmland; and the emergence of value chains driven by both the state and the private sector.Using this on-demand source of irrigation water, subsistence dry-season crops have been replaced with high-value crops such as chili and onion. While average net annual income from 1 acre (0.404686 hectares) of paddy is approximately USD 994, the equivalent income from onions and chili can be as much as USD 5,561 and USD 4,231, respectively. This multi-fold increase in income has financed major improvements in the well-being of households, such as improved food security, quality of housing, transport (motorbikes) and agricultural mechanization. Survey respondents attributed this to the income gained from agro-well-based agricultural production, a claim supported by official village employment statistics which indicate that only 16% of those between 18 and 60 years of age are employed outside the agriculture sector. In the highlands, the crop cultivated in the wet season also changed from soya to maize, while onions and chilli were the dominant crops in the dry season. The number of agrowells increased from 64% to 179% in the study villages from 2002 to 2012. Land under highland cultivation also expanded from an estimated average of 1 acre per household in 1985 to 5 acres today, which may have been at the cost of converting much of the surrounding forests, and causing conflict between people and wildlife such as elephants, who pose a threat to crops, physical property and human lives.The resilience of this agro-well-based agricultural production to climatic stress was demonstrated during the prolonged drought marked by several months of below-average rainfall between September 2013 and December 2014. While this reduced agricultural production by approximately 40% at national level 1 , farmers in the study villages increased net incomes from chili and onions when these crops were abandoned in parts of the Dry The success of this agricultural production system in generating pro-poor outcomes cannot be explained by agro-wells and pumps alone. Tracing its evolution reveals diverse contextual enabling factors at play, covering social, political, institutional, economic, ecological and physical dimensions as shown in Figure 1. Many of these elements, moreover, have a concurrent evolutionary trajectory to the agricultural production system itself that reflects broader developmental processes. The government's National Agro-well Program provided the original impetus. Political patronage, expressed as outright gifts of agricultural technology or subsidies during local and national elections, also helped. Private sector credit facilities with service delivery to nearby towns and villages further enhanced access to finance. This facilitated expansion of agricultural mechanization from pumps to tractors, combined harvesters, threshers, dryers and vehicles to transport produce to markets. Mechanization also controlled labor costs and reduced the time needed for land preparation and harvesting.A typical agro-well in the Anuradhapura district (photo: Sanjiv de Silva/IWMI) Zone where there are no agro-wells. This led to a shortage in the supply of these products and hence large price increases.  Past studies suggest this to be a likely externality Risk to human health, and soil quality and productivityLoss in water-holding capacity of village tanks due to siltation Loss of forest habitat causing loss of biodiversity and an added risk to human safety and crop production due to human-wildlife conflictProduction of other field crops contribute to reducing domestic supply deficits, especially in the dry seasonAn increase in domestic production will reduce the need for imports Highland production with feedback loops between Drivers and OutcomesThe concurrent development of agricultural markets has been critical in absorbing production at prices that have thus far outstripped costs of production and farmers' perceptions of risk. The government invested in a wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Dambulla as part of a network of regional collection centers linked to markets across the country. The price of highland rain-fed maize -a key ingredient in local breakfast cerealsdoubled after several private companies The lax enforcement of forest regulations by the Forest Department and local government enabled land conversion. Interviews conducted with officers from these institutions confirmed that poverty alleviation was consciously prioritized over rule enforcement. This was also driven by strong kinship and other social relationships, since many local government and line agency staff were local recruits with close ties to these farming communities. Social networks also helped to maintain low labor costs through traditional reciprocal forms of free labor among households. began offering forward contracts for the produce. Their sourcing network replaced a more exploitative market controlled by local middlemen. Improvements in the rural road network and mobile communications enabled negotiations between farmers and buyers, and linked farmers to diverse markets, credit providers and state sector service providers.Market structure is also central to the profitability of chili and onions. Since domestic production only accounts for approximately 50% of national demand, sharp short-term price spikes (especially for chili) during the dry season enable farmers to achieve significant profit margins. This is also possible because chili can be continuously harvested once the plant reaches maturity, whereas the harvesting of paddy or most other field crops occurs only at the end of the season. Another factor is the aim of the government fiscal policy to reduce the financial burden of high food imports (Sri Lanka Government Ministry of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services 2008). Therefore, this prompts an increase in tariffs on imported onions at the time of local harvests to ensure farmers achieve sufficient profit margins, and to encourage further investment in production. This case study demonstrates that establishing and sustaining new crop production systems must be conceptualized as part of broader national/subnational development strategies, which lead to multi-sectoral (on-and off-farm) investments to achieve optimal production and sufficient income while managing risks.However, the study also highlights the need to monitor both water quality and abstraction rates due to the significant loss of forest cover and cropping intensity, which raises water demand and increases the use of agrochemicals. If not managed, abstraction beyond sustainable levels and water pollution can put the future of these highly lucrative production systems at risk.","tokenCount":"1459"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"31c2e7dca2be857c0f586dae3673dae7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/12196a1d-174b-48c4-b756-80d07fb3306d/retrieve","id":"1752066590"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d5c0930f-2b17-4a8b-8f72-e37d366c5e04","pagecount":"19","content":"Please fill out the summary table and explain the major cost drivers and how costs relate to planned activities and CRP targets. Explain the rationale behind the level of funding of each flagship and any potential risks in spending as planned and any plans to mitigate those risks (other than funding risks). Also, explain how the budget supports country level activities.Given the significant contributions from bilateral grants, the two largest FPs (FP2 and FP4) are far less reliant on W1/W2 funding relative to the other FPs. As explained in the proposal, W1/W2 was relatively evenly distributed to all FPs (except FP5). There are also three crosscutting units on Gender, Equity and Empowerment (GEE); Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL); and Country Coordination and Engagement (CCE) in five A4NH focus countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Vietnam) that receive W1/W2 funding and also have bilateral grants (under management). Management costs (detailed below) are approximately 1.6% of the total budget with a similar but slightly larger amount for cross-cutting research units. Newer, smaller FPs are expected to grow bilateral grants faster.The W1/W2 distribution leads to large variations in the percentage of W1/W2 in the total budget -from 9% for FP2 to 15% for FP4 and 30-35% for the other FPs. Funding targets present a formidable challenge to all FP teams. Large-scale development outcomes from newer FPs would largely occur after 2022 (earlier for FP1 than FP5). In Phase II, the A4NH Director and Managing Partners in the PMC will play a greater role in planning and coordinating resource mobilization across A4NH.For achieving outcomes, the most critical cost drivers will be personnel and partnerships, particularly for new FPs. These drivers are also the most sensitive to large annual swings in funding. While funding uncertainties can be built into contracts, we will pay special attention to financial strategies for key people and partners.In Phase II, A4NH will allocate a budget at the CRP-level for coordination within the CGIAR site integration in our five focus countries. For other countries, there are fewer projects, usually in one or two FPs and FPs will manage country engagement and links with CGIAR site integration. In all countries, FPs have also included country activities in their budgets.Please provide insight into the CRP funding plan: how much bilateral funding is already secured? What are the requirements for fundraising to assure achievement of the proposed 2022 targets?Total CRP budget by sources of funding (USD) (Management and Support Cost distributed across funding sources -except bilateral -on a percentage basis; Strategic and Competitive Research Grant assumed to be funded out of W1+W2) (This table is simply the difference between funding needed and funding secured)In Phase I, A4NH managed a relatively large and growing portfolio of W3/bilateral grants. All W3/Bilateral grants have been negotiated and contracted between donors and individual centers, without distinction whether it is provided directly or through the CGIAR fund W3. In these grants only center and not CRP management costs are included. Provision of CRP management funding would need to be agreed with the contracting parties. In all budget calculations and descriptions, W3 and Bilateral are combined as bilateral grants. In Phase II, we are expecting slower growth in grants for FP2 and FP4 and faster growth for other FPs. In the case of FP1 (led by Wageningen UR) and FP5 (co-led by ILRI and LSHTM), A4NH has increased its comparative advantage through new partnerships to address research areas of greater prominence in the CGIAR SRF.For 2017, over 70% of grants are secured for FP2 and FP4. This is the expected rate for a mature program in which median grant lengths are 2-3 years. For FP3, a less mature FP, secured funding is approximately 50%. Secured funding is lower for FP1 and FP5. For all FPs, FP leaders and research teams are developing a portfolio of research proposals.Fundraising across A4NH, is primarily the responsibility of FP teams and their lead institutions and managing partners. It will be given much greater emphasis by the PMC and PMU. A4NH communication and events will increasingly respond to the requirements of donors, countries and partners for knowledge, evidence and innovation that responds to global and national development priorities. For FP2 and FP4, fundraising has been successful and will largely continue. For other FPs, the A4NH Director and FP leaders will work closely with the FP lead institutions. In focus and some engagement countries, the A4NH Director and responsible managing partner will coordinate efforts to support fundraising for national partners.Please provide a detailed description of what is included in Management and Support Cost and how the individual cost line items were calculated.A4NH has a dedicated Program Management Unit (PMU) based at IFPRI headquarters. The PMU consists of five staff: Director; Program Manager; Administration/Finance Coordinator and Contracts Manager; Program Assistant; and Communications Specialist. The PMU includes other members of crosscutting units -a Senior Research Fellow for Evaluation (from the MEL unit), and a Gender Coordinator, Gender Associate Research Fellow and Research Analyst shared between the MEL and GEE unit. The PMU is responsible for the performance of the cross-cutting units as well as monitoring, reporting and CRP-level evaluation; convening and supporting the PMC and ISC, and coordinating CRP and FP management through the managing and strategic partners. Beyond Personnel, management costs include:1. costs for PMC and ISC meetings (2 annual face-to-face and several virtual meetings) 2. costs for required CRP-commissioned external reviews (as per the schedule in the Annex on RBM) 3. travel costs for Director and PMU 4. shared costs to maintain an integrated online platform to support MEL for all ICRPs 5. costs for communication materials such as annual reports 6. IFPRI administrative support cost;• Fringe benefits -primarily includes leave, health, and pension costs.Service centers -necessary services to support research activity. The cost of the services is allocated to benefiting projects based on utilization of these services measured by the number of direct labor hours incurred for each project. IFPRI's service centers are comprised of computer, facility, library, and research support.Indirect -cost associated with overall administration, including finance, human resource, internal audits well as well Director General and Board of Trustees oversight. Budgeted indirect rates are applied to all projects during the course of the year and adjusted to actual rates based on actual costs at the end of the year. Management costs are budgeted from W1/W2 funding. The crosscutting units are funded by a combination of W1/W2 and W3/bilateral funding (starting at 60% W1/W2 in 2017). All W3/Bilateral grants have been negotiated and contracted between donors and individual centers, without distinction whether it is provided directly or through the CGIAR fund W3. In these grants only center and not CRP management costs are included. Provision of CRP management funding would need to be agreed with the contracting parties.Following the overall base budget determined by the CGIAR, the PMU proposed W1/W2 amounts for each of the five flagships for the initial year (2017).). The PMU also developed a growth scenario with a modest inflation increase of 5% each year for future years. Although this assumption is used to help the FP teams build a six-year budget, allocation from 2018 onwards will depend on intermediate results and demonstrated action on progress monitoring leading to achievement of targeted outcomes.2) the level of budget ownership of the flagship leaders (tracking, reporting, revising, etc.)The PMU helped FP leaders with assumptions about growth rates for FP base and uplift budgets. FP teams developed their budgets within the envelopes provided, deciding on cluster of activities (CoA) and partner budget distributions.Normally variances of 10% of budget are acceptable for FP2 and FP4. This could be relaxed for smaller and newer FPs to 20% (for example FP5) and also depending on volatility of W1/W2 funding.A4NH does not expect to have a major capital investment from W1/W2.Please feel free to use this section to provide any other commentary or information that helps to describe and justify the budget request presented.At CRP-level, W1/W2 funding is used for the essential CRP governance and management functions as described above. The A4NH PMU also manages 3 cross-cutting units (GEE, MEL and country coordination) to enhance synergies across flagships and with other CRPs. These units are funded with the combination of W1/W2 and bilateral grants.The budget is prepared based on considerable assumptions about success in fundraising given the large reliance on W3/bilateral resources for all FPs. W3/bilateral fundraising risks are greatest for newer and smaller FPs, at least initially. These risks are being managed by building A4NH's comparative advantage through new partnerships and more closely coordinating resource mobilization efforts with the FP lead institutions / FP leaders and PMU. This strategy will be monitored carefully by PMC and formally reviewed annually by ISC. The PMC will manage work plans and budgets with a rolling 3-year medium-term plan and more detailed annual plans of work and budget for the next year. . An additional 50% of the overall CRP budget ($309M) has been proposed for uplift. This is a combination of uplift sheet in PIM table B $263M) plus $46M in uplift over 6 years for the 3 cross-cutting units (GEE, MEL and CCE) at CRP-level. In the on-line tool there is no provision for uplift of cross-cutting research outside FP budgets so we are noting this uplift request here. The cross-cutting unit uplift budget will be used to accelerate and expand on outcomes proposed for these units, particularly in expanding support to other CRPs and national partners. Additional W1/W2 funding would be allocated to FPs and cross cutting units as proposed by PMC and agreed by ISC.Please describe key activities and estimated costs (included in the line items above) for the applicable categories below, as described in the guidance for full proposal:A mixture of specific people's time to coordinate/lead and estimated yearly total. Personnel costs are the main cost drivers. Which is critical in building this new research partnership and its grant portfolio. In 2016, we expect to accelerate the formation of an interim management group, with particular emphasis on developing a grant portfolio. Partnerships with private sectors partners (coordinated with GAIN) and business schools will be critical. A number of PhDs are also included in in other services and supplies for a sandwich PhDs program, with focus countries that jointly develop a coordinated research portfolio. Additional partners, both CGIAR Centers and non-CGIAR research institutes such as AVRDC and icipe will be included in the Non-CGIAR cost category details to be developed later, this represents 21% of the FP budget.The major risks relative to outcome delivery in 2022, is how quickly we can develop a strong FP team and partnership effort. WUR has great experience in leading and coordinating partners in research consortia and managing through work packages and activitybased budgeting. In this task, WUR is taking on its role as other CGIAR managing partners that lead FPs as well as contribute to the overall FP PMC.Achieving a rapid increase in grant funding will also be challenging, but WUR and IFPRI have strong comparative advantage. The partnership with private sector facilitated by GAIN should also be very attractive to donors.As with other FPs, changes in security situations in different fields sites can be important and we will work closely with partners on the ground and adjust our programs accordingly.Benefits: Describe the components of the benefits (column R of the \"Budget Details\" sheet) included with the salary costs. For example: pension, health insurance, expatriate costs, housing/education/vehicle allowances etc.WUR's benefits are compulsory in the Dutch government system and are embedded in the overall personnel costs. IFPRI's Fringe benefits includes primarily leave, health, and pension costs. Bioversity provides fringe benefits only to International recruited staff for pension, insurance. CIAT -NRS: Fringe benefits for national staff (costs for all benefits are added to the base salary to provide the total cost of the position) are comprised of legal benefits (local mandatory) and extralegal benefits (CIAT mandatory) and the provisions to cover local legal requirements such as: Pension -social security, training and development, occupational health, transportation costs and subsidies, work clothes and personnel protection requirement, and food subsidy. IRS: Fringe benefits for international staff (costs for all benefits are added to the base salary to provide the total cost of the position) are comprised of housing allowance, education allowance, car allowance, Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA), hardship, home leave tickets, insurance, retirement contribution, occupational health, training and development, repatriation and relocation provisions. IITA uses a paygrade (PG) system for Internationally Recruited staff (IRS) and Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS). For IRS, there are 6 PG levels, and standard costs (pension, health and other insurance, housing/transport/security/leave allowances). Actuals can vary (for example by duty station or family size). For NRS the PG rates (level 1-15) depend on country laws on wages and salaries and internal set scales. NRS staff costs are split into salaries, fringe benefits and allowances, also dependent on country laws. Allowances (housing, transport, subsistence, utility, entertainment, and leave) can used to provide competitive salaries in different local markets.Other Supplies and Services: Provide a brief description and rationale for other Supplies and Services required, including cost assumptions used to develop the budget for these costs.WUR supplies and services include housing and corporate contribution, fellow costs for PHD students, contribution to infrastructure and other facilities, and other general supplies and services. IFPRI's service center charge is included under supplies and services; this is a necessary cost to support research activity. The cost of the services is allocated to benefiting projects based on utilization of these services measured by the number of direct labor hours incurred for each project. IFPRI's service centers are comprised of computer, facility, library, and research support. Bioversity' s supplies and services cost include research support for each location of research, IT facilities, operational supplies for projects and partners CIAT's supplies and series cost includes, IT, office rent and facilities, consultancies, workshops and lab analysis and survey costs For IITA, supplies and services includes research support services, cost of vehicles, cost of sample analysis IT services, survey costs, capacity develop of NARS, and various microbiology, chemical and molecular supplies for lab workPlease describe your contingency plans if full project funding does not become available. Any significant expected in-kind contributions should be included in the space below.The greatest risk for project funding is in CoA2. This research is led by ILRI and much of the research is done together with value chain research in Livestock and Fish (as in phase 1) and with WLE (phase 2). The opportunities for joint project funding proposals with other these other CRPs will be pursued as well as with other partners identified in the FP3 proposal.Please describe key activities and estimated costs (included in the line items above) for the applicable categories below, as described in the guidance for full proposal: Please feel free to use this section to provide any other commentary or information that helps to describe and justify the budget request presented. This may include assumptions and rationale behind indirect costs, risks, anomalies or other assumptions Reviewers should be aware of when reviewing the budget.FP1 responds to much greater demands from donors and governments for research on food system and diet transformation. The FP team under WUR leadership brings a strong research group together experience in public-private partnership for food, which provides much greater comparative advantage than we had in value chains for nutrition in phase 1.Use of W1/W2 FP1 is the FP in which we link most actively with other CRPs and with national partners in 4 focus countries. W1/W2 funds are invested in the FP leader for strategic planning and also in an FP manager for coordination with other CRPs.and national partners. W1/W2 funds are also invested in joint research on: diet quality diagnostics, foresight into cross-country analysis of food system and diet transformation, and synthesis of food system innovation and cross-country analyses of scaling out and anchoring.Priorities for uplift funding Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes: The majority of the budget is from grants with only $22M (10%) from W1/W2. FP2 has been effective in obtaining program as well as project grants and continuing this is an important assumption. Outcomes to 2022 require continuing research on varietal development and monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment as well as more investment in research supporting nutritional effectiveness and lessons on scaling delivery, both of which have important gender research dimensions, as well as mainstreaming biofortification in breeding programs.Partnership contracts are an important cost-driver (78% of direct costs) for varietal development and scaling up in target countries. Given the complexity of this successful multi-institutional partnership, maintaining key research and management personnel is critical to success. The outcomes, especially for reaching millions of farmers and consumers, are ambitious and require a transition from varietal development, nutrition efficacy and socio-economic research to greater action research and evaluation on enabling delivery at scale. . Some of the risks in this change have been anticipated. One risk to meeting targets is to establish cost-effective delivery strategies through public and private partnerships. This is being mitigated by monitoring, evaluation and learning on context-specific delivery strategies and on factors that enable and inhibit partnership performance. Lessons learned inform the development of future partnerships, leading to co-investment for biofortification. A second risk is to ensure high quality research from partners in new areas of research on delivery science, nutritional effectiveness in populations and on mainstreaming biofortification through more cost-effective varietal selection. New forms of competition and results-based management for research contracts are planned to expand the research partners and maintain and improve research quality as well as documentation and dissemination.Benefits: Describe the components of the benefits (column R of the \"Budget Details\" sheet) included with the salary costs. For example: pension, health insurance, expatriate costs, housing/education/vehicle allowances etc.IFPRI's Fringe benefits -primarily includes leave, health, and pension costs.Other Supplies and Services: Provide a brief description and rationale for other Supplies and Services required, including cost assumptions used to develop the budget for these costs.Other Supplies and services include; service centers -which is a necessary services to support research activity. The cost of the services is allocated to benefiting projects based on utilization of these services measured by the number of direct labor hours incurred for each project. IFPRI's service centers are comprised of computer, facility, library, and research supportPlease describe your contingency plans if full project funding does not become available. Any significant expected in-kind contributions should be included in the space below.FP2 has had strong donor support and has met high donor expectations. Thus, we are optimistic about the level of donor support available for Phase II and have already secured 71% of the funding in the first three years. Efforts are underway to identify additional donors and the HarvestPlus Strategic Alliances unit has embarked on a vigorous fundraising and partnership campaign. Public and private sector partners are increasingly providing in-kind and financial support for biofortification projects. If revenues fall short of the projection, the priority will be to protect funds for mainstreaming and learning activities and for research on effectiveness and impact assessment studies that measure cost-effectiveness.Please describe key activities and estimated costs (included in the line items above) for the applicable categories below, as described in the guidance for full proposal:  As noted, the budget for partnerships is unusually high, reflecting the requirements for partnerships in mainstreaming bio fortification in breeding programs and in engaging key national partners, public and private, in delivery in the 9 target countries.The HarvestPlus team has been successful in establishing the confidence of donors in their planning, implementation and evaluation. This has allowed them to attract programmatic funding as well as project funding and thus to streamline planning, monitoring and reporting.The priorities for expanded support under uplift would be more broad and rigorous nutritional efficacy and effectiveness studies, as well as to expand and accelerate activities under the base budget for greater outcomes.W1/W2 funding In FP2, W1/W2 funding is targeted to research related to delivery. The two main research areas funded by W1/W2 are evaluation and learning of scaling up activities in target countries and on nutritional effectiveness studies of the consumption of biofortified crops on improving micronutrient status of target populations. If there is additional W1/W2 funding for uplift, this could support the on-going task of varietal improvement. All delivery activities are funded by other grants.The purpose of the flagship budget narrative is to supplement the information provided in the excel-based budget template by justifying how the flagship budget cost elements are necessary to implement project activities and accomplish 2022 target outcomes. The flagship budget narrative is a tool to help Reviewers fully understand the budgetary needs of the project and is an opportunity to provide descriptive information about the costs, drivers, and risks that can't be easily communicated in the flagship participating partners budget templates. Together, the flagship budget narrative and participating partners budget templates should provide a complete quantitative and qualitative description that supports the proposed flagship budget. Please use this flagship budget narrative to provide a thorough description of your flagship budget and only complete questions that are relevant to your proposal.This flagship budget narrative will also serve as the basis for the CRP budget narrative which is composed of the flagship budgets plus the CRP Management and Support Cost. Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes: 70% of the budget is from bilateral grants with $23.8M (30%) from W1/W2. About 40% of the grants are secured for the first three years. The biggest gap is for CoA2 (Safe Fresh Food), with a much higher proportion (75%) secured for CoA3 (Aflatoxin Mitigation).Personnel costs are the main cost drivers and critical in building the grant portfolio. In phase I, we invested in new and younger staff, which with experienced research leaders are an important asset. The initial budget estimate for non-CGIAR partnerships is 24%, which may increase as new bilateral grants are secured. This is highest for scaling out for aflatoxin control with partner countries in Africa.FP3 does make use of the laboratory infrastructure at IITA and at the ILRI-BecA hub shared facility in Nairobi. Major capital costs have not been budgeted but supplies and services will be provided at standard IITA and ILRI charges.As noted in the ISPC donor survey for phase II priorities, food safety has a very narrow donor interest at present. On the other hand, it is only this team that works on food safety and there is extremely high demand for the team's food safety research in Africa and Asia. We will work closely with all stakeholders to build the consensus and agenda for food safety research, particularly in informal markets, in which the poor buy and sell food.As with other pilot or scaling out research, implementation challenges for aflatoxin control are great, which will plan to mitigate by closely working with partners to co-learn and adjust our programs accordingly. We will also continue to work closely with policy makers and national stakeholders in dialogue on appropriate regulations and their implications for implementation as well equity and gender empowerment.As with other FPs, changes in security situations in different field sites can be important and we will work closely with partners on the ground and adjust our programs accordingly.Benefits: Describe the components of the benefits (column R of the \"Budget Details\" sheet) included with the salary costs. For example: pension, health insurance, expatriate costs, housing/education/vehicle allowances etc.IFPRI's fringe benefits -primarily includes leave, health, and pension costs ILRI's Actual computations on average for fringe benefits and employment costs in relation to base salary would translate to an average multiplier of 97% and 68% for International and National staff respectively. The reason for the high multiplier for international staff is because of the housing and security allowance and education allowance that are not provided to nationally recruited staff. Fringe benefits include pension, housing allowances, education allowance, security, health insurance, other insurances, catastrophe fund, annual leave and severance pay. Other employment related costs include staff training and development; transportation, recruitment, appointment and repatriation allowances and payroll administration fees. IITA uses a paygrade (PG) system for Internationally Recruited staff (IRS) and Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS). For IRS, there are 6 PG levels, and standard costs (pension, health and other insurance, housing/transport/security/leave allowances). Actuals can vary (for example by duty station or family size). For NRS the PG rates (level 1-15) depend on country laws on wages and salaries and internal set scales. NRS staff costs are split into salaries, fringe benefits and allowances, also dependent on country laws. Allowances (housing, transport, subsistence, utility, entertainment, and leave) can used to provide competitive salaries in different local markets.Other Supplies and Services: Provide a brief description and rationale for other Supplies and Services required, including cost assumptions used to develop the budget for these costs.IFPRI' other supplies and services cost include Service centers charges which is a necessary services to support research activity. The cost of the services is allocated to benefiting projects based on utilization of these services measured by the number of direct labor hours incurred for each project. IFPRI's service centers are comprised of computer, facility, library, and research support.For ILRI, supplies and services includes information and communication technology, office space, research coordination, inception workshop, mid review, outcome mapping and monitoring workshop, peer review publication costs, epidemiologist training, field visits, data analysis costs, lab analysis and diagnostics lab costs., cost of MSc students for capacity development, and an internet for six months.For IITA, supplies and services includes research support services, cost of vehicles, cost of sample analysis IT services, survey costs, capacity develop of NARS, and various microbiology, chemical and molecular supplies for lab work. The greatest risk for project funding is in CoA2. This research is led by ILRI and much of the research is done together with value chain research in Livestock and Fish (as in phase 1) and with WLE (phase 2). The opportunities for joint project funding proposals with other these other CRPs will be pursued as well as with other partners identified in the FP3 proposal.Please describe key activities and estimated costs (included in the line items above) for the applicable categories below, as described in the guidance for full proposal: Please feel free to use this section to provide any other commentary or information that helps to describe and justify the budget request presented. This may include assumptions and rationale behind indirect costs, risks, anomalies or other assumptions Reviewers should be aware of when reviewing the budget.FP3 responds to much greater demands from consumers and countries for better food safety, particularly for fresh foods from informal markets, identified by WHO as much higher health burdens than previously thought. Through an CRP-commissioned external evaluation in 2015, we looked at prospects for expanding this research and advice is reflected in the FP proposal and base and uplift budgets presented. One outstanding issue is better evidence on whether stunting can be reduced through aflatoxin control.The IITA Aflasafe technology provides a unique opportunity to test this effectively.Priorities for additional W1/2 (uplift) funding • Randomized controlled trials linked to Aflasafe • Large scale trials of market-based solution to fresh food in CRP Livestock urban value chain • Assessment of burden and attribution of FBD in 3 CG site integration countries W1/W2 funding There are 3 main uses of W1/W2 funding for research: 1) to support data collection and analysis for prioritizing food safety risks in low and middle income countries; 2) evaluation and impact assessments of methods to improve food safety of fresh foods in informal markets through market-agents and 3) coordination and synthesis (risk analysis and economic incentives) across a range of aflatoxin control efforts from breeding and agronomy through to use of aflasafe, better storage and improved market information. W1/W2 uplift could be used for rigorous trials to evaluate the nutrition and health outcomes of aflatoxin control.The purpose of the flagship budget narrative is to supplement the information provided in the excel-based budget template by justifying how the flagship budget cost elements are necessary to implement project activities and accomplish 2022 target outcomes. The flagship budget narrative is a tool to help Reviewers fully understand the budgetary needs of the project and is an opportunity to provide descriptive information about the costs, drivers, and risks that can't be easily communicated in the flagship participating partners budget templates. Together, the flagship budget narrative and participating partners budget templates should provide a complete quantitative and qualitative description that supports the proposed flagship budget. Please use this flagship budget narrative to provide a thorough description of your flagship budget and only complete questions that are relevant to your proposal.This flagship budget narrative will also serve as the basis for the CRP budget narrative which is composed of the flagship budgets plus the CRP Management and Support Cost. Please feel free to use this section to provide any other commentary or information that helps to describe and justify the budget request presented. This may include assumptions and rationale behind indirect costs, risks, anomalies or other assumptions Reviewers should be aware of when reviewing the budget.FP4 will work in an increasingly integrated and mutually reinforcing way across the 3 clusters and link with other Flagships within A4NH and other CRPs. There are therefore many overlaps and cross-connections in the activities set out in the budget.The large, long-term grant portfolio in this FP is critical to meet knowledge and evidence demands by countries and the international development community. It also requires a large investment in proposal writing, communications and outreach. FP4 offers ambitious outcomes from a modest investment of W1/2 funding, by leveraging bilateral grants for evaluation and policy engagement research linked to large-scale agriculture-nutrition intervention projects. This has been a successful approach; active partnership with development implementers, investors and national governments maximizes impact.The FP4 agenda attests that existing work adds value by ensuring that Phase II is focused on key challenges, draws on a broad range of existing data, allows for analysis over longer timeframes, benefits from established partnerships and working relationships, and has credibility to back the evidence. Preliminary findings from Phase I have informed selection of new areas of emphasis and expansion for Phase II, with some continuation of ongoing work. Each cluster will begin Phase II synthesizing, drawing lessons from and applying the frameworks and approaches developed in Phase I.Priorities for additional W1/2 (uplift) funding: In FP4, W1/W2 funding is used strategically for synthesis and funding key research gaps in the context of a portfolio of large W3/bilateral projects assessing evidence of nutrition and health outcomes from agricultural interventions. W1/W2 funding will also be used for coordination and strategic planning with national partners and with research synthesis, communication, and convening of ANH partners from national to international levels.The purpose of the flagship budget narrative is to supplement the information provided in the excel-based budget template by justifying how the flagship budget cost elements are necessary to implement project activities and accomplish 2022 target outcomes. The flagship budget narrative is a tool to help Reviewers fully understand the budgetary needs of the project and is an opportunity to provide descriptive information about the costs, drivers, and risks that can't be easily communicated in the flagship participating partners budget templates. Together, the flagship budget narrative and participating partners budget templates should provide a complete quantitative and qualitative description that supports the proposed flagship budget. Please use this flagship budget narrative to provide a thorough description of your flagship budget and only complete questions that are relevant to your proposal.This flagship budget narrative will also serve as the basis for the CRP budget narrative which is composed of the flagship budgets plus the CRP Management and Support Cost. Explanations of these costs in relation to the planned 2022 outcomes: FP5 is a newer research program in A4NH, most research will be at an early stage, personnel costs is the key cost driver. Personnel include a mix of senior research staff, younger researchers and technical/managerial staff. Some key staff are already in place and some new hires will be required as the FP expands. CoA2 (cysticercosis control in the field) and CoA3 (AMR) are expected to expand most. Also, as in other multi-sectoral research, partnership contracts will also be critical costs. The work in CoA1 and CoA3 is newer and thus outcomes will come later. Budget risks for outcome targets are greatest for CoA2, particularly for plans for scaling control and elimination of cysticercosis.The FP, Professor Eric Fèvre, is a Joint Appointee (with the University of Liverpool's Institute of Infection and Global Health) at ILRI, based at ILRI. Eric will provide 30% of his time to flagship leadership at University of Liverpool costs. Eric will be supported by one identified senior personnel from LSHTM and ILRI. ILRI will be responsible for monitoring, reporting and all other management and administrative support to the partners through a full-time Program Manager. As this is a relatively small FP, CoA leadership and management responsibilities are financed by specific allocations of time for senior researchers in the CoA. Each CoA will be led by a senior researcher from the main partners, with a minimum of one-third of their time dedicated to their CoA leadership and scientific activities (CoA1: Dr Jo Lines (LSHTM); CoA2: Prof Eric Fèvre (University of Liverpool/ILRI); CoA3: Dr Tim Robinson (ILRI) and Dr Jo Lines (LSHTM)). Dr Jo Lines and Prof. Jeff Waage of LSHTM will provide leadership in the convening of public health research partners and their engagement with ILRI, IITA and other CRPs/Centers. FP5 will have important biomedical research and can rely on the labs of the partners and in particular the ILRI-BecA hub in Nairobi for CoA2. Given the FP5 is a relatively small user of these facilities, capital costs are not included but shares of supplies and services will be provided at standard ILRI charges. There are efficiencies and a critical mass of support services and the laboratory facilities are shared by the Animal Health and Animal Genetics FPs in Livestock as well as a number of research activities with partners coordinated by BecA.ILRI's personnel costs are defined as the total remuneration costs of an individual: base salary, fringe benefits and other Employment costs. Actual computations on average for fringe benefits and employment costs in relation to base salary would translate To an average multiplier of 97% and 68% for International and National staff respectively. The reason for the high multiplier for international staff is because of the housing and security allowance and education allowance that are not provided to nationally recruited staff. Fringe benefits include pension, housing allowances, education allowance, security, health insurance, other insurances, catastrophe fund, annual leave and severance pay. Other employment related costs include staff training and development; transportation, recruitment, appointment and repatriation allowances and payroll administration fees. IITA uses a paygrade (PG) system for Internationally Recruited staff (IRS) and Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS). For IRS, there are 6 PG levels, and standard costs (pension, health and other insurance, housing/transport/security/leave allowances). Actuals can vary (for example by duty station or family size). For NRS the PG rates (level 1-15) depend on country laws on wages and salaries and internal set scales. NRS staff costs are split into salaries, fringe benefits and allowances, also dependent on country laws. Allowances (housing, transport, subsistence, utility, entertainment, and leave) can used to provide competitive salaries in different local markets. LSHTM has compulsory UK fringe benefits (approximately 27% of salary costs) that include national health insurance, pension and social security payments).For ILRI, supplies and services includes information and communication technology, office space, research coordination, inception workshop, mid review, outcome mapping and monitoring workshop, peer review publication costs, epidemiologist training, field visits, data analysis costs, lab analysis and diagnostics lab costs., cost of MSc students for capacity development, and an internet for six months.For IITA, supplies and services includes research support services, cost of vehicles, cost of sample analysis IT services, survey costs, capacity develop of NARS, and various microbiology, chemical and molecular supplies for lab work.For LSHTM, supplies and services include facilities, library, information and computer services as well as convening meetings of agriculture and public health communities.The W3/bilateral growth expectations are challenging but the partnership with LSHTM and other public health research institutes provides additional comparative advantage and the team will be working in some high-priority new research areas such as anti-microbial resistance. Thus, while most of the W3/bilateral funding is unsecured for 2017, the total amounts expected are relatively modest in the first couple of years and funding possibilities reasonable. The FP lead institutions and A4NH PMU will monitor this closely and actively support the growth of this FP. FP5 is a promising joint venture and is addressing high priority research across the agriculture and public health sectors. The new partnership arrangement put in place should add to the comparative advantage of the team in new priority areas such as AMR.Priorities for additional W1/2 (uplift) funding • New initiatives on integrated vector management collaborating with integrated pest management to effectively manage risks of vector resistance at household level.Large scale trials for elimination of cysticercosis on priority countries listed • Data collection on antibiotic use in animals and behaviors and links to antrimicrobial resistance in humans. Intervention experiments in key locations based on initial research W1/W2 funding FP5 is a new and relatively small FP. W1/W2 funding is used for: (1) administrative support and part-time salary support to FP and CoA leaders; (2) synthesis and meta-analysis of existing evidence; (2) prioritizing research in new areas (such as AMR), including strategic primary data collection; and (3) convening and joint research planning with international, regional and national agriculturepublic health researchers.","tokenCount":"6254"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"71bb9a1ca24db84403c9735287fc4a6b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/52a4fc57-57b5-44a3-9582-db915c71dae1/retrieve","id":"-396731614"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec022891-94d3-496d-83db-4f70b952718e","pagecount":"2","content":"Livestock value chain component www.feedthefutur e.gov | www.avcdkenya.net Goal: To improve households' food and nutrition security, incomes, and resilience of 75,000 households.Kenya has an estimated 17.5 million cattle, 27.7 million goats, 17.1 million sheep and 3 million camels, making the country the third-largest holder of livestock in Africa after Ethiopia and Botswana. Over 60% of all livestock in Kenya is found in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) which account for about 80% of the land in the country, and home to about 15 million people. The livestock sub-sector employs about 90% of the local population in the ASALs, and supports the livelihood of about 10 million Kenyans. It accounts for about 12 and 40% of the national and agricultural GDP respectively. However, extensive livestock production in the ASAL counties of Kenya remains constrained by several challenges. The highly variable climate and frequent droughts impact negatively on pastures. The remoteness of these counties has resulted in very low access to financial services and markets. Animal health and diseases are major issues limiting productivity. The lack of integrated policies on management of natural resources, combined with impact of devolution, have created policy challenges that limit market access and livestock mobility.Building and accelerating on the development gains made in the just concluded Feed the Future Kenya Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program (2015 -2021), the Accelerated Institutional and Food Systems Development (AIFSD) program seeks to contribute to sustaining and enhancing support to agricultural sector in an inclusive and systemic manner to increase income, improve food and nutrition security, and enhance resilience for small holder farmers and pastoralist living in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Feed the Future zones of influence in Kenya, including ASALs.The livestock value chain component works closely with technical personnel at the national and county governments, private sector actors and other partners, and with a multidisciplinary team of scientists in providing access to proven and profitable technologies in participatory rangeland management, disease surveillance, animal breeding, fodder production and productivity management practices, agrinutrition interventions, and market systems development for pastoralists in targeted counties of Garissa, Isiolo, Marsabit, Samburu, Turkana and Wajir (as shown in the figure) with an aim of driving profitability in livestock production. The component also aims to enhance the capacities of national and county governments to develop and implement policies that will provide an enabling environment for sustainable livestock production. Increased livestock productivity, reduced conflict among communities and increased livestock yield will also enhance resilience among people, and improved adaptation and recovery from shocks and stress.1. Develop and deploy pastures and fodder management technologies/practices to support communities restore the currently deteriorating rangeland conditions to allow sustained supply of grazing resources throughout the year.2. To help governments identify, verbalize, and prioritize their livestock development investment objectives, ILRI through AIFSD, is providing technical support to Kenya to develop its Livestock Master Plan. The plan will provide a 5-year investment plan that includes both a financial and human resource budget that will guide the development of a sustainable livestock sector.3. Improve animal productivity through careful breeding and selection programs. AIFSD will work to ensure uptake of animal breeding technologies which includes artificial insemination and introduction of bulls and heifers that will enhance livestock productivity.Objective 2: To protect livestock assets and increase productivity through the improved and effective animal health services.1. Strengthen the e-surveillance system/CUG platform through integrating it with the Kenya Animal Bio Surveillance managed by the Director of Veterinary Services (DVS) to allow the use of one reporting platform for all the six target counties.2. Enhance county government capacities on laboratory techniques to allow screening of a range of infectious pathogens to further strengthen and inform disease surveillance in the six counties.3. Integrating the one health approach into the e-surveillance system/CUG platform, allowing sharing of data and joint responses between the human health and the veterinary professionals across the six counties. ","tokenCount":"644"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"caa4912b4e7ccdf54dec438d5c51db13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/0c73cbfb-8e09-409b-98cd-dcb21c8dd4ef/content","id":"2079014584"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a26394af-7514-47b7-96d7-0be5bae7d928","pagecount":"55","content":"Past performance is no guarantee of the future!The productivity can be challenged by :• Resistance development among current insect pests • Genetic engineering• Commercial Glyphosate-resistant corn -1998• 70% of corn in USA Genetic engineering for crop improvement, contd.Genetic engineering for crop improvement• Challenges• Consumer acceptance of transgenic crops• Marker-free transgenics• Stringent Regulation• Random transgene integration beyondpesticides.orgHow to overcome today's agricultural hurdles?• Site Specific Nucleases(SSN) for Gene editing  Break ??Genome editing for crop improvement  Yield losses may be as high as 40% Three redundant TaMLO susceptibility genes  CRISPR is the technique that can be applied to knock out all three genes  This is an easy fix -Single gRNA can knock out all three genes  Genome edited lines confer strong resistance to AXO1947 after 14 days of inoculation with AXO1947.CRISPR Gene Drive  How to deliver these genetic scissors into plant cell?","tokenCount":"143"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1f4435f0cf777534eccdb8eb8a10d372","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/047cdf59-7320-4eb7-bba3-5c5822830cff/retrieve","id":"-110999120"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df814d27-9408-411c-a447-b47a3646881b","pagecount":"2","content":"T he tiny parasitic wasp, Anagyrus lopezi, is a small but striking example of how CIAT's Latin American research has helped to provide eco-efficient solutions to agricultural problems across the tropics.Discovered by a team of CIAT and IITA scientists in Paraguay in 1980, A. lopezi has proved to be a formidable natural enemy of the cassava mealybug-a pest that causes cassava crops to shrivel.The female wasps home-in on mealybugs, injecting them with their eggs. As the larvae grow they eat the hosts from the inside out.By releasing A. lopezi in affected sites, farmers can control mealybug infestations without pesticides. Anagyrus lopezi poses no threat to humans, animals, or other insects.In mid-2010, thousands of the wasps were deployed by the Thai Department of Agriculture (DoA) to combat mealybug outbreaks in the country, where cassava is a vital smallholder crop. They imported A. lopezi from colonies kept at IITA in Benin. CIAT provided initial diagnosis of the mealybug outbreaks, and together with IITA, shared expertise on mass rearing. The DoA, together with the Thai Tapioca Development Institute (TTDI), then reared the wasp.Up to 250,000 wasps will be released in Thailand by the end of 2010 to safeguard around 1 million hectares of cassava.Like A. lopezi, cassava, and the cassava mealybug are native to Latin America. Cassava was carried by Portuguese traders to Africa and Asia. With the advent of the age of air travel, the troublesome mealybug eventually caught up. But with a helping hand from CIAT and its partners, the wasp was able to give chase.Anagyrus lopezi was first released in a major CGIAR campaign in East Africa in the early 1980s where it demonstrated it could control the mealybug as effectively as it did back home. It helped avert a major food crisis.To date it is one of the CGIAR's most successful projects, with an estimated benefit of around US$7 billions and rising. The work earned lead scientist Hans Herren the World Food Prize in 1995, and the collaborative effort saw CIAT and IITA receive the CGIAR's 1990 King Baudouin Award, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to agriculture in developing countries.While the Thai authorities acted quickly to its mealybug attacks, cassava production across SE Asia-and the 5 million small producers that depend on it-remain in grave danger.Outbreaks have been confirmed in Cambodia, with further reports being investigated in Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Latin American Wasp Spearheads \"Sting\" Operations in Africa and Asia southern China. Eventually the mealybug may reach the Philippines and Indonesia.CIAT scientists, in collaboration with the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture are, working together to develop low-cost options for rearing A. lopezi in the country. These, together with regional training programs for farmers and agronomists, will enable individual countries-and farmer organizations-to rear and release their own A. lopezi wasps.Tel.: +57 2 4450000 ciat-comunicaciones@cgiar.org CIAT Brief No. 13 September 2010CIAT is now investigating the possibility of collecting new and potentially more vigorous samples of A. lopezi from the wild in Latin America, in an effort to improve the genetic pool of wasps available for mass rearing.While highly effective, there is no single solution to the cassava mealybug problem.CIAT is recommending long-term integrated pest management strategies that combine several complimentary techniques to minimize the risk of pest damage in cassava crops across the tropics. As well as the use of A. lopezi, these also include developing more resilient cassava varieties, and promoting improved on-farm practices.While this work is in progress, in Africa and Thailand at least, the wasp is already hard at work.","tokenCount":"583"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b29bd0670c61f8bd0af1ea7ab094953b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f72c4c56-0d68-44e4-96de-aeaddcfa9938/content","id":"-1625157324"},"keywords":["MM","CM","D MM","CC","R MM","CP","D M= Maiz","F= Frijol","LC= Labranza convencional","I= Incorporar"],"sieverID":"e2b197fa-3101-4818-99a2-8424104ebb06","pagecount":"84","content":"cimmyt) es un organismo sin fines de lucro dedicado a la investigación agrícola y la capacitación. Trabaja para reducir la pobreza y el hambre mediante el aumento sustentable de la productividad del maíz y del trigo en el mundo en desarrollo. El cimmyt cuenta con el banco de semillas de maíz y trigo más grande del mundo y es conocido en particular por haber iniciado la Revolución Verde que salvó millones de vidas en Asia, hecho que motivó que el doctor Norman E. Borlaug, del cimmyt, recibiera el Premio Nobel de la Paz en 1970. El cimmyt es miembro del Consorcio del cgiar y recibe fondos de gobiernos nacionales, fundaciones, bancos de desarrollo y otras instituciones públicas y privadas.Introducción a las Plataformas de Investigación Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmytIntroducción a las Plataformas de Investigación L as plataformas son espacios destinados a la investigación, donde se evalúan diferentes prácticas agrícolas. Su objetivo es desarrollar y adaptar los sistemas productivos, prácticas culturales y tecnologías más adecuadas para la zona agroecológica en las que están ubicadas. La investigación siempre busca la intensificación sustentable basada en Agricultura de Conservación, sin embargo, las tecnologías específicas que se evalúan en cada plataforma dependen de la zona.La investigación en las plataformas no solo tiene una perspectiva técnica, también se consideran factores socioeconómicos y ambientales que podrían impactar la implementación exitosa de las nuevas prácticas en la escala del productor. La validación y calibración de diferentes prácticas y/o tecnologías en las plataformas facilita la implementación de estas en las parcelas de los agricultores, que pueden adoptar las tecnologías que prueben ser las más adecuadas para sus sistemas de producción local.Las plataformas de investigación son instaladas por colaboradores como universidades, asociaciones de productores y centros de investigación, entre otros, los cuales son los responsables de la misma. La investigación se realiza de manera participativa, procurándose que en cada paso del proceso los actores locales estén altamente involucrados. Es por ello que es importante que los colaboradores cuenten con los recursos humanos, tecnológicos, financieros y de infraestructura necesarios para garantizar la realización y continuidad de la investigación durante un periodo determinado, de entre cinco a 10 años en la mayoría de los casos.• En las plataformas se validan y desarrollan prácticas y sistemas de producción que: • Estén basados en la Agricultura de Conservación.• Se enfoquen en las necesidades de los productores locales.• Estén orientados a mejorar la productividad, la rentabilidad y la sustentabilidad de los sistemas de producción. • Sean accesibles y relevantes para los productores de la zona de impacto.Cada plataforma tiene un objetivo específico a nivel local, por lo que debe adaptarse a las capacidades e intereses de los colaboradores del área de estudio, por ejemplo, a las necesidades de los productores de la zona y a su situación socioeconómica. Gran parte de una plataforma de investigación, y algo que la diferencia de otros trabajos de investigación en campo, es la importancia de la vinculación con productores y otros actores clave.La estrategia de plataformas no es solamente establecer vínculos con productores y técnicos, también busca recibir retroalimentación por parte de ellos, de manera que todos puedan contribuir al proceso de innovación. Parte de esta vinculación se logra haciendo de las plataformas un punto focal para capacitaciones y distribución de maquinaria, entre otras funciones.La plataforma se establece en una parcela, la cual debe cumplir con ciertas características como: ser representativa de las condiciones locales de la zona agroecológica donde se realizará la investigación (tipo de suelo, clima, régimen hídrico, etc.); además, la parcela debe estar ubicada en un lugar de fácil acceso para visitantes, para favorecer la vinculación de la plataforma.Hay tres principales objetivos de la vinculación de plataformas que podemos distinguir:1. Involucrar a actores como productores y técnicos para llegar a una investigación participativa. 2. Asegurar que la investigación entregue una respuesta a las necesidades de los actores de la cadena de valor de la zona de influencia, mediante retroalimentación sobre la investigación que se está haciendo. 3. Asegurar que el conocimiento que se genera en la plataforma se comparta a otros actores mediante: a. extensión de tecnologías y capacitación sobre los mismos y b. divulgación de resultados hacia técnicos, actores de la cadena y los usuarios finales, los productores.Existen varias actividades para lograr los objetivos de vinculación. Dependiendo del contexto y el objetivo que se quiere lograr, se elige la actividad adecuada. Ejemplos de estos son: días de campo, visitas guiadas de un grupo pequeño de productores a la plataforma, giras de intercambio entre módulos y plataformas o entre plataformas, un consejo de productores o de actores para revisión de resultados, retroalimentación y/o toma de decisiones en el diseño de la plataforma, reuniones de planeación y reuniones operativas incluyendo a diferentes colaboradores del hub y la generación de materiales informativos como artículos, dípticos, trípticos, boletines, videos, carteles y participaciones en radio.La vinculación empieza desde el proceso de planeación y diseño de la plataforma, el cual se debe llevar a cabo de manera coordinada, con la colaboración y participación de los actores clave con quienes esperamos generar impactos, incluyendo agricultores y técnicos. Mediante la inclusión de estos actores en el proceso de diseño se abre un espacio de co-innovación y evolución desde el principio.En las plataformas se colectan datos para evaluar los tratamientos de manera científica. Estos incluyen datos sobre el desarrollo fisiológico, por ejemplo, fechas de emergencia, floración y madurez, rendimiento de los cultivos, así como los detalles sobre las operaciones de manejo agronómico en cada tratamiento evaluado. Adicionalmente, se pueden explorar temas como la calidad del suelo, incidencia de plagas y enfermedades, uso del agua, entre otros. Estos temas se definen con base en las necesidades de la zona, los intereses y capacidades de los responsables de la plataforma y la disponibilidad de recursos.Introducción a las Plataformas de Investigación Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmytPlataformas como parte de una red de innovación o hub Una red de innovación o hub se basa en plataformas, módulos y áreas de extensión que sirven para investigar, adaptar, divulgar e implementar nuevas tecnologías que responden directamente a las necesidades de productores de la zona. La filosofía del hub es que los productores estén más abiertos a recomendaciones de otros productores y adapten nuevas tecnologías más rápido si ven que otros productores también las aplican.Por esta razón, el trabajo en las redes se realiza con científicos, técnicos y productores innovadores. Las plataformas, los módulos y áreas de extensión forman la estructura física del hub. Alrededor de esta, se desarrolla una red de actores de la cadena agrícola que trabaja hacia un objetivo común: mejorar la sustentabilidad y rentabilidad del sistema de producción de la zona.Las plataformas, los módulos y las áreas de extensión son tres tipos de espacios para implementar nuevas tecnologías en la red. En las plataformas de investigación se evalúan varios tratamientos que podrían dar soluciones para mejorar el sistema de producción. No todos los tratamientos en la plataforma van a ser exitosos, solo aquellos tratamientos con mejores resultados se evaluarán en los módulos.En las plataformas no solamente se identifican aquellos manejos agronómicos óptimos para cada zona agroecológica desde el punto de vista de optimizar la productividad y sustentabilidad, también se evalúa la rentabilidad de cada práctica, ya que más que en la productividad, los agricultores toman decisiones con base en la rentabilidad de sus campos y su unidad de producción.Los módulos son ensayos en mayor escala en campos de productores. Generalmente en ellos se comparan las prácticas convencionales que realizan los productores, con aquellas más exitosas identificadas en la plataforma. Las áreas de extensión son terrenos en donde los productores innovadores ponen en práctica a escala comercial las nuevas tecnologías sustentables y las divulgan a sus compañeros.En todos los componentes del hub se comunican los resultados con los otros actores y los productores y se trabaja en una retroalimentación constante sobre las tecnologías y resultados a los otros actores de la red de manera de transmitir el conocimiento generado (Fig. 1).Las plataformas de investigación dan respuesta a retos de la agricultura local. Adicionalmente a ser ensayos locales, las plataformas también forman parte de una extensa red de plataformas con el mismo concepto. Esta red permite que las plataformas generen también conocimiento más allá del nivel local. Aunque los tratamientos en cada plataforma son adaptados a las condiciones locales, siempre incluyen variantes de los tres principios de Agricultura de Conservación: cobertura del suelo, labranza reducida y diversificación de cultivos.La multitud de plataformas permite evaluar los efectos de Agricultura de Conservación en varias condiciones agroecológicas y sacar conclusiones sobre el efecto de la Agricultura de Conservación en el rendimiento, la rentabilidad y la calidad del suelo, que estarán mejor fundamentadas que lo que permitiría un ensayo aislado. Un análisis de datos de varias plataformas permite comparar resultados en diferentes condiciones y entender en cuales condiciones (no) funcionan ciertas prácticas de manejo.Para poder hacer tales meta-análisis y facilitar el intercambio de ideas y conocimiento, es imprescindible usar una terminología, metodología y formatos en común en toda la red.La red facilita el intercambio de experiencias e ideas entre investigadores y otros actores involucrados. La experiencia generada en una plataforma de investigación en la red puede ser utilizada para dar respuesta a problemas en otra plataforma o en zonas donde todavía no hay una plataforma. El intercambio de ideas en los talleres y simposios, organizados en la red, facilita además el desarrollo de capacidades de los investigadores. Esto, tiene como objetivo crear oportunidades para investigadores con diferentes especialidades y grados de experiencia, lograr impactos de largo plazo y asegurar que la investigación agrícola continúe realizándose bajo los más altos estándares de calidad y alto impacto en el campo.En 2017 la red consistió de 54 plataformas, (Cuadro 1, Mapa 1), en 10 hubs y 21 estados. De esas plataformas, 34 fueron de temporal, 17 de riego, 2 de riego y temporal y 1 de punta de riego. 45 de las plataformas investigan la producción de maíz y cultivos asociados, mientras que 9 investigan trigo o trigo y maíz. En este libro se destacan los resultados de primavera-verano 2017 y otoñoinvierno 2017-2018 de plataformas de los proyectos de MasAgro Productor, MasAgro Guanajuato, MasAgro Querétaro, Good Growth Plan, Milpa Península Yucatán y Agricultura Sustentable Guanajuato.Figura 1. Infografía mostrando la estructura física del hub con la red de plataformas, módulos y áreas de extensión. También conocido como residuos de cosecha, esquilmo, soca, paja, basura o zacate. Se refiere a la parte de la planta que no se cosecha para grano, puede ser cosechado para forraje y así formar un parte importante de la producción.Se refiere a lo que se hace con el rastrojo entre la cosecha y la siembra del siguiente cultivo. Cuando se remueve todo el rastrojo del terreno en general se usa para forraje (alimento para animales); en el caso contrario se deja todo el rastrojo en el terreno. Bajo labranza convencional eso implica incorporar el rastrojo en el suelo. En general se desvara el rastrojo durante o después de la cosecha si se deja en el terreno, pero en zonas con mucho viento invernal se pueden dejar las plantas intactas y usar un rodillo para tumbarlas. Retención parcial se refiere a que se deja parte del rastrojo como cobertura y se remueve otra parte para forraje, por ejemplo, que se remueven hileras alternantes de maíz, o que se remueve la parte arriba de la mazorca y se deja el resto, o que la trilladora corta a una altura más elevada de la normal, entre otros. Quemar implica que se prende fuego al rastrojo antes de la siembra. Pastoreo implica que se deja entrar animales en el terreno para que coman los residuos de cosecha, dejando su abono.Cultivar el mismo cultivo en un terreno por varios años, se confunde con monocultivo que significa tener solo un cultivo en un terreno en un ciclo de producción. Policultivo significa que hay varios cultivos juntos en el terreno durante el mismo ciclo de producción. La milpa es un policultivo tradicional de maíz, frijol y calabaza. miaf o milpa intercalada con árboles frutales es una adaptación de la milpa tradicional en laderas que incorpora la cultivación de árboles frutales. Intercalado se refiere a sembrar franjas de varios cultivos en el mismo terreno.Cultivar diferentes cultivos en ciclos de producción consecutivos. Un cultivo de rotación en relevo se siembra antes de la cosecha del cultivo anterior. Cuando un cultivo predomina en una zona se refiere a otros cultivos como cultivos alternativos. Cultivos de rotación pueden ser cultivos de venta como grano o forraje, o pueden tener un uso agronómico como cultivos de cobertura o abonos verdes. La investigación en las plataformas evalúa como aplicar los tres principios de Agricultura de Conservación en las condiciones locales. Esos principios son: cobertura del suelo, labranza reducida y diversificación de cultivos. No forman una receta fija, sino que son conceptos para hacer la agricultura más sustentable. La gran variabilidad en la agroecología en México crea la necesidad de adaptar esos tres principios a las condiciones locales. Esa gran variabilidad genera una diversidad en prácticas y sistemas evaluados en las plataformas, lo que causa la necesidad de usar varios términos para describir los tratamientos. En esta sección se da un resumen de los términos más comunes usados en las plataformas.La práctica de labranza común en la zona de la plataforma, por lo general incluye un barbecho y uno o más pasadas de rastra, pero esto no siempre es el caso. El tratamiento testigo que refleja la práctica de los productores se hace con labranza convencional.También conocido como siembra directa. La práctica en que se siembra sin preparar el terreno con labranza. Puede requerir una preparación del terreno con herbicida para controlar malezas, ya que no se controlan con labranza. Labranza cero no es lo mismo que Agricultura de Conservación, ya que no necesariamente implica cobertura del suelo o diversificación de cultivos.Práctica en que se prepara el terreno, pero con una intensidad menor de labranza comparado con la labranza convencional. Después de las operaciones de labranza, al final de la preparación del terreno se levantan camas de siembra durante el surcado, para facilitar el riego por gravedad y el acceso a campo, manejar la retención o escurrimiento de agua. En algunas regiones, las camas son conocidas como surcos. Las camas pueden ser camas angostas con labranza convencional o camas anchas con labranza convencional. Las camas angostas son típicamente de 0.7 a 0.8 m de ancho y en general tienen una hilera de maíz o dos a tres hileras de grano pequeño. A partir de un ancho de 1.0 m, las camas se consideran como camas anchas, aunque típicamente son de 1.5 a 1.6 m de ancho y tienen en general dos hileras de maíz o cuatro a seis hileras de grano pequeño.Siembra en camas que se forman en el año cero. Después de la formación de las camas en los años siguientes no se hace labranza, pero sí se revisten los fondos de entre las camas. El dejar las camas permanentes permite usar tráfico controlado, donde las llantas de maquinaria se guíen en los fondos entre las camas. Las camas pueden ser camas permanentes angostas o camas permanentes anchas.Plataforma | Amealco de Bonfil, Querétaro Bajío Los tratamientos propuestos en la plataforma abordan estas limitantes con base a la AC, para disminuir la erosión, conservar la humedad originada por la lluvia y disminuir los costos de producción, además de realizar una propuesta de manejo del cultivo para incrementar el rendimiento de maíz.La plataforma inició actividades en el ciclo PV 2017, se implementó en esta zona por la importancia de los valles altos en la producción de maíz, además es la parte representativa de la región porque reproduce estas condiciones en otros municipios como San Juan del Rio, Huimilpan y parte de Corregidora.En la región entorno a la plataforma se encuentra una organización importante de productores (Productores Campesinos de Amealco) que promueven y están pendientes de los resultados que se generan.En la plataforma, por iniciar en año cero, no hubo comparación de sistemas de labranza o rotación. En el área de validación se establecieron 13 materiales de maíz, 9 híbridos de maíz blanco, 3 de maíz amarillo y un criollo del productor (Cuadro 1), con el objetivo de evaluar su adaptación en condiciones de valles altos y su potencial de Siembra de la plataforma el 05 de abril de 2017.rendimiento para la región. Por ser año cero de la plataforma, todas las variedades se evaluaron en camas angostas en labranza convencional.Durante el ciclo PV 2017 se presentó una precipitación de 755 mm, de acuerdo a los datos tomados en la estación meteorológica La torre, ubicada a 5 Km de la plataforma. La precipitación se presentó en todos los meses de desarrollo del cultivo, principalmente en junio y julio. En general, las condiciones fueron adecuadas para el desarrollo del cultivo.Aplicación de herbicida pre emergente para controlar malezas de hoja ancha y hoja angosta cuando apenas va emergiendo el cultivo, se aplicó el 21 de abril de 2017.Primer año de la plataforma de investigación en Amealco, Querétaro Introducción La plataforma de Amealco está en el municipio de Amealco a una altura de 2,300 msnm, con un clima templado sub húmedo, una temperatura media de 15 °C y una precipitación abundante en verano que llega cerca de los 800 mm anuales. En la región existen 3 tipos de sistemas de producción de maíz: el sistema de riego, el sistema de punta de riego y el sistema de temporal. Predomina el sistema de punta de riego, en donde se realiza un riego entre el 5 de febrero y el 30 de marzo, se siembra de 20 a 30 días después y se utilizan principalmente semillas criollas. En la región se realiza barbecho y rastra, fertilización nitrogenada al momento de la escarda, se emplean herbicidas con base 2,4-D, por lo que el problema con pastos y aceitillo es muy fuerte en la región. El control de plagas también es deficiente.Los problemas principales en la región son los bajos rendimientos debido principalmente al pH acido (5) que predomina en los valles altos, el cual limita la absorción de nutrientes aunado a un nu-Miguel Angel Uribe Guerrero¹, Avelino Espinosa Solorio¹ ¹Sustentabilidad Agropecuaria de Querétaro A. C. (SAQ) lo manejo del cultivo. La distribución errática de las lluvias también representa un problema ya que cuando se establece el temporal o el periodo de lluvias, dificulta llegar a las parcelas para realizar labores como la aplicación de herbicidas, lo cual redunda en un control ineficiente de las malezas.Otro problema importante son las plagas (gallina ciega, gusano trozador, gusano soldado, araña roja, alfilerillo y frailecillo), las cuales no son tratadas adecuadamente. Algunos productores realizan aplicaciones con insecticidas de amplio espectro como el malation y paration metílico. Por otra parte, las lluvias se presentan en escasos eventos, como fuertes aguaceros, lo cual genera erosión del suelo por arrastre, el agua no se infiltra y un parte importante se pierde por evaporación al no estar cubierto el suelo, esto debido a que en la región es muy importante la utilización de los residuos de cosecha para la alimentación animal.Plataforma Amealco de Bonfil, Querétaro Institución / Colaborador Sustentabilidad Agropecuaria de Querétaro A. C.Altitud 2,300 msnmCiclo agrícola PVRed de Plataformas de Investigación cimmyt Resultados 2017Figura 1. Rendimiento de híbridos de maíz blanco y amarillo, en la plataforma Amealco de Bonfil. Ciclo PV 2017. Rendimiento promedio ajustado a 14% de humedad. Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios.El material CHLHW09035 desarrollado por el programa de cimmyt obtuvo la mayor producción con un rendimiento promedio de 10.1 t/ha, fue superior a los híbridos comerciales Niebla y XR12 que obtuvieron rendimiento de 9.0 y 9.5 t/ha, respectivamente. (Fig. 1).En cuanto a los materiales de maíz amarillo, los híbridos 24 kilates y DB203A obtuvieron rendimientos de rendimiento superiores a 8.5 t/ha. El menor rendimiento se obtuvo con el maíz criollo con un promedio de 4.3 t/ha. Lo anterior indica que es posible obtener mayor rendimiento con el uso de semillas adecuadas, y evidencia la necesidad de trabajar en el mejoramiento participativo del maíz criollo.Se realizaron 3 eventos con una participación total de 181 asistentes; una demostración de campo en donde se mostraron y explicaron las tecnologías propuestas en la plataforma con una participación de 47 asistentes y un recorrido de campo con una participación de 124 asistentes y un taller de sensibilización a 21 asistentes del estado de Guanajuato (productores y técnicos).En los eventos organizados en la plataforma se muestra y describe cada uno de los tratamientos, los cuales están enfocados en resolver la problemática de la región: erosión, disponibilidad de humedad, manejo de plagas y malezas, rotación de cultivos y cultivos forrajeros como alternativa de rotación para la alimentación del ganado de los agricultores. Fertilización y reformación de camas el 18 de mayo de 2017.La preparación del suelo consistió en un barbecho, riego de punteo y un paso de rastra pre siembra y formación de camas. El maíz fue sembrado en hilera sencilla a una distancia entre hileras de 0.8 m, con una densidad de 75,000 semillas/ha. La dosis de fertilización fue 263-92-60 y se aplicó en 3 momentos: en la siembra con 200 kg de DAP (18-46-00) y 100 kg de KCl (00-00-60), el resto del nitrógeno al momento de la escarda 350 kg de urea (46-00-00) y previo a la floración se aplicaron 200 kg de fosfonitrato (33-03-00).Para el control de plagas se colocaron trampas con feromonas para captura de palomilla de gusano cogollero, para el control de frailecillo no hubo necesidad de realizar aplicaciones de insecticidas, debido a que hubo una baja importante en la temperatura en el mes de julio.Para el control de malezas se aplicó atrazina y acetoclor (2 kg/ha y 2 l/ha, respectivamente) directo al suelo para controlar las malezas de hoja Cuadro 1. Materiales de maíz evaluados en la plataforma de Amealco, Querétaro en el ciclo primavera-verano 2017.ancha y hoja angosta en preemergencia, cuando el cultivo inicio su floración; debido a la presencia de hoja angosta se realizó la aplicación de 2,4-D (1 l/ha).En el ciclo PV 2017 la plataforma debido a las prácticas que se realizaron de control de malezas y plagas dejó una muy buena impresión para los productores locales. El manejo nutricional que se implementó con base en el análisis de suelo y con una meta de rendimiento definida, la cual fue de 10 t/ha.Durante el primer ciclo de producción se demostró que es posible obtener una mayor producción, pero involucrará un mayor costo de producción, al menos en el corto plazo. Un beneficio de la implementación de tecnologías sustentables es la disminución de costos de producción y, en el caso de las trampas con feromonas para manejo de gusano cogollero, podría ayudar a controlar esta plaga sin mayor uso de agroquímicos.Por otro lado, los productores están a la expectativa de identificar aquellos híbridos de maíz con el mayor potencial genético para la zona, y en este sentido el híbrido CHLHW09035 se presenta como una buena alternativa.Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmytPlataforma | Epitacio Huerta, Michoacán Bajío área de 8,280 m 2 incluyendo callejones y bordería. En el ciclo de producción de PV 2017 se establecieron todos los tratamientos con el cultivo de maíz, los tratamientos 1, 2 y 3 con maíz (MM) en monocultivo para evaluar el efecto de la labranza, y los tratamientos 4, 5 y 6 para evaluar el efecto de la rotación de cultivos en el cultivo de maíz.(cuadro 1).La plataforma de investigación se ubica en el predio \"El lindero\" en el ejido Salitrillo, Epitacio Huerta, 20°07'25.27\" N, 100°18'47.93\" W a 2,375 msnm. Presenta un suelo franco arcillo arenoso, y con una fertilidad media. La validación y transferencia de tecnología empezó en 2013, primero como un módulo de innovación, para el 2014 inicio como plataforma donde se establecieron seis tratamientos, con base en rotación de cultivos, tipos de labranza y cantidad de rastrojo. Esta plataforma la operan técnicos del despacho servicios profesionales integrales para la innovación y gestión agropecuaria SC en conjunto con los pro-ductores Arturo Becerra Saldaña, dueño del predio, así como Lucio Onésimo Morales Chávez y Benito Ribera Pizaña quienes establecieron módulos demostrativos asociados a la plataforma.La plataforma de investigación se estableció con un diseño experimental de bloques completos con 6 tratamientos y 2 repeticiones, la unidad experimental consta de 14 camas angostas de 80 cm o bien 7 camas anchas de 160 cm de anchas por 50 m de largo lo que da un área experimental de 560 m 2 . El experimento en total ocupa un  En el oriente del estado de Michoacán, los municipios de Epitacio Huerta, Contepec y Tlalpujahua, se caracterizan por ser una zona templada, con más de 800 mm de precipitación anual con una temperatura promedio de 16°C y con altitud que van de 2,300 a 2,700 msnm.El maíz es el cultivo principal en primavera-verano, representa la base de alimentación humana y ganadera, además de una fuente de ingreso para los productores. El sistema de producción se basa en punteo de riego (riego de nacencia) donde el agua usada depende de presas y bordos.Existen también pozos con mejores condiciones para riego, pero con costos de producción más elevados para el uso de este recurso.Las siembras se realizan de marzo-mayo, siendo abril el mes más importante para esta actividad.Las lluvias se establecen en el mes de junio, es por esta razón que se considera que es un sistema de producción bastante vulnerable al temporal, además presenta otras limitantes como la baja fertilidad de suelo, exceso de labranza y monocultivo. Por lo anterior, se considera que es una ventana de oportunidad para el desarrollo y transferencia de tecnologías sustentables como lo es el sistema de Agricultura de Conservación, que de alguna forma permitan aprovechar de mejor manera el agua disponible y hacer menos vulnerable el sistema de producción.El objetivo que tiene esta plataforma es evaluar el efecto económico y productivo de diferentes sistemas de labranza en maíz y opciones de rotación de cultivos de granos, para dar a conocer alternativas sustentables a los productores de la zona oriente del estado de Michoacán. Los mayores costos de producción, para los tratamientos de monocultivo de maíz, se obtuvieron en los tratamientos de labranza convencional (MM,CC,R) y labranza mínima (MM,CM,D) con $14,472 MXN/ha y $13,482 MXN/ha, respectivamente. En el caso del convencional fue por los Cuadro 5. Costos de producción y utilidad neta en cultivo de maíz y cultivos alternativos, bajo tres sistemas de labranza.En las actividades agronómicas del cultivo de maíz, una de las que presenta mayor costo de producción es el control de malezas con 30% del costo, la fertilización que representa el 27%, y la siembra con 25% del costo total de la producción. Estos costos se requieren principalmente en la compra de insumos, por lo que se tienen que tener atención en estas tres actividades. movimientos de suelo/ preparación suelo ($2,800 MXN/ha) y control de malezas ($2,857 MXN/ha); para el caso de (MM,CM,D) por los herbicidas utilizados en el control de malezas ($4,067 MXN/ ha) ya que son herbicidas selectivos (Cuadro 2).Plataforma | Epitacio Huerta, MichoacánEl cultivo de maíz que presenta un mayor rendimiento tanto en los tres diferentes tipos de labranza como en el efecto de la rotación es el de labranza mínima maíz-avena (MA, CMA, D) con un rendimiento de 5.7 t/ha; seguido de maíz-maíz (MM, CP, D) con 5.6 t/ha. En cuanto al menor rendimiento es el de labranza mínima (MM, CM, D) con 3.0 t/ha seguido de labranza mínima de maíz-cebada (MT, CMA, D) con 4.5 t/ha (Fig. 1).El rendimiento en el tratamiento MM, CM, D fue más bajo debido a las malezas de hoja angostas que han infestado este tratamiento.Durante el desarrollo de los cultivos en la plataforma de investigación y en la región, el temporal se estableció tarde y repercutió directamente en el proceso de producción. La tardanza de la lluvia y posteriormente el exceso de humedad, generaron problemas de producción de raíz y afectaron considerablemente el rendimiento del cultivo.En labranza convencional se realizó barbecho y rastra, labranza mínima consistió en un paso de rastra, mientras que en camas permanentes solo se reformó la cama. La siembra se realizó el 28 de abril, con el híbrido Albatros (Asgrow), a una densidad de siembra de 83 mil semillas por ha. La fertilización fue con la fórmula 145-46-30, dividida en dos momentos; en siembra 30-46-30; a los 52 días después de siembra de 115-00-00. El manejo de plagas, principalmente de suelo, con el tratamiento a la semilla ALLECTUS 0.5 l/ha (Bifentrina + Imidacloprid), se realizó un control de malezas en pre siembra (glifosato más 2,4 D amina) y tres en pos emergencia (paraquat el 9/6, prosulfuron + atrazina o nicosulfuron mas atrazina el 30/6 y glufosinato de amonio el 22/8).Epitacio Huerta, Michoacán. Siembra de maíz, en labranza convencional, 28 de julio de 2017.Figura 1. Rendimiento en maíz en tres sistemas de labranza y cultivos alternativos. Los mayores costos de producción lo representan el control de plagas y malezas, seguido de la siembra, que en conjunto constituyen más del 80% del costo total. Todos tratamientos con camas permanentes fueron rentables.Los efectos del cambio climático afectan directamente la producción agrícola de la región, debido a la ausencia de lluvia y posteriormente con precipitaciones altas en corto tiempo en épocas criticas del desarrollo de los cultivos y con una mala distribución de la misma; esta condición afecta de igual forma a la plataforma, ocasionando un estrés en la planta y por ende se presentó una baja producción.Es necesario seguir con la implementación, investigación y desarrollo de las innovaciones que impulsa MasAgro, para implementar una agricultura más sustentable y amigable con el ambiente y mitigar los efectos del cambio climático. Estas innovaciones son materiales de maíces adaptables para la región, mejoradores de suelo como el uso de la cal agrícola y compostas, una mejor fertilización, rotación de cultivos, reducción de las labranzas, entre otras.Si bien es cierto que el proyecto MasAgro con las innovaciones que difunde en la región ha favorecido en un impacto económico-social a los productores que se vinculan directamente, al verse beneficiados con el aumento en su producción, por lo que se tiene contemplado la continuidad del esfuerzo conjunto para la difusión de información y la réplica del esquema de invasión.Epitacio Huerta, Michoacán. Recorrido de campo en plataforma, 18 de octubre de 2017.En cuestión de la utilidad que se presenta en el cultivo de maíz tanto en los tres diferentes tipos de labranza como en el efecto de la rotación es el de maíz-avena en labranza mínima (MA, Para la relación beneficio/costo que se presenta en el cultivo de maíz tanto en los tres diferentes tipos de labranza como en el efecto de la rotación, el que cuenta con la mayor utilidad es el de labranza mínima (MA,CMA,D), con 1.46; seguido del maíz-maíz en camas permanentes (MM,CP, D), con 1.42; la de menor relación beneficio/costo es el de labranza mínima (MM,CM,D) con 0.75, este tratamiento es el único que no es rentable.Figura 2. Utilidad neta del cultivo del maíz en tres diferentes tipos de labranza y cultivos alternativos.Resultados 2017 nejo de gusano cogollero, trampas cromáticas de pegamento y extractos vegetales, entre otras estrategias, dependiendo del insecto y el cultivo establecido.El ensayo principal consta de 4 tratamientos, establecidos en un diseño de bloques completos al azar, con cuatro repeticiones. Los tratamientos son: camas permanentes anchas y camas anchasResumen del ciclo del reporte:En las primeras etapas de desarrollo de los cultivos se presentó una sequía que impidió un adecuado establecimiento de las plantas, por lo que se obtuvo baja densidad de población. Se sembró el 5 de junio, seguido de esto hubo una lluvia que permitió la germinación de algunas semillas que posteriormente se secaron por la falta de agua de casi veinte días.A finales de julio, se presentaron lluvias en exceso, 266 mm en dos meses, lo cual favoreció el desarrollo de malas hierbas. La plaga de cogollero no mostró afectación hasta el día 25 de junio, a partir de esta fecha la infestación fue alta.Plataforma | Indaparapeo, MichoacánProducción de maíz en camas anchas permanentes en Indaparapeo, MichoacánLa seguridad alimentaria de todos los países pero en especial de los que están en desarrollo, se ve amenazada por los impactos generados por el Cambio Climático Global (CCG) en la agricultura. Como respuesta, se han implementado estrategias como la Agricultura de Conservación, que busca no solo el aumento de rendimiento, sino también la producción sustentable implementando una serie de tecnologías que buscan la rentabilidad financiera, al hacer un uso eficiente los insumos y cuidando los recursos naturales.El proceso de adopción de estas tecnologías requiere que sean validadas en las regiones donde se pretenden implementar. Un grupo de productores innovadores del municipio de Indaparapeo respaldaron la necesidad de contar con una plataforma de investigación que dé solución a los problemas de los sistemas de producción de temporal en la región del valle Morelia-Queréndaro, a través de los conocimientos que se generan en esta.La plataforma se encuentra en el municipio de Indaparapeo, del estado de Michoacán, entre las coordenadas 19° 47´ 51 N, 100° 57´ 41.84.\" W a 1,888 msnm. Se instaló en 2012 en la parcela del Sr. Francisco Rodríguez López. Los ensayos establecidos tienen como base un sistema de Agricultura de Conservación.Los sistemas de labranza evaluados son: camas permanentes angostas y anchas, en comparación con el sistema de labranza convencional. Además, se evalúa el efecto del \"silo de agua\", demandado por la necesidad de mantener humedad en el suelo. Este tratamiento se estableció en 2015, con camas permanentes anchas; supliendo el sistema con siembra en plano, que durante tres años consecutivos mostró el menor rendimiento, en comparación con los otros sistemas.En la plataforma se lleva a cabo una estrategia de Manejo Agroecológico de Plagas, empleando trampas cebadas con feromona sexual para ma- Evaluación de cinco variedades de frijol, sobre rastrojo de maíz.En lo que respecta a los cultivos alternativos, el gran problema se presenta en la cosecha ya que no se cuenta con la maquinaria para la recolección y limpieza; asimismo, la comercialización es otra limitante. En los últimos años, el frijol se ha visto favorecido por un alto precio, costos de producción relativamente bajos y rendimientos superiores a una tonelada por hectárea, con materiales comerciales de la región.En el ensayo para evaluación de variedades de frijol, pinto saltillo presentó el mayor rendimiento con 2.3 t/ha, seguido por flor de junio león y flor de mayo Eugenia con 1.5 t/ha (Fig. 3). La menor producción se obtuvo con las variedades flor de mayo Dolores y peruano con rendimiento ligeramente mayor a 1 t/ha; una ventaja del peruano es que obtiene un mayor precio en el mercado y lo hace más competitivo.En cuanto a la rentabilidad, pinto saltillo generó un ingreso de $40,488 con un costo de producción de $10,209, es decir, una utilidad de $30,578; Relación beneficio/ costo sin embargo, su mercado regional es limitado. La variedad flor de junio León generó $27,810 pesos de ingresos, el costo de producción fue de $10,215 y su utilidad de $17,544 pesos; esto fue similar para el frijol flor de mayo Eugenia. El trabajo en la plataforma de temporal se inicia con la cosecha, donde se deja el rastrojo en pata para evitar la pérdida debido a los vientos que se generan en los meses de febrero y marzo. En enero se realizó la reformación de camas, aprovechando la humedad existente, luego, en febrero se realizó la preparación de los tratamientos de labranza convencional.La siembra de maíz se realizó el 5 de junio, mientras que el frijol se sembró el 20 de junio. maíz se sembró a 85,000 semillas por hectárea y frijol a 30 kg de semilla por hectárea. La distancia entre hileras fue de 0.8 m.La fertilización se realizó con la fórmula 126-46-60 de NPK, con fuentes como SAM, DAP y KCL, más 20 kg/ha de sulfato de zinc y 20 kg/ha de micromix. En el caso de frijol, se aplicó 100 kg/ha de SAM y 50 kg/ha de DAP más 1 l/ha del fertilizante foliar Llenadow.Para el control de malezas en maíz se aplicaron los herbicidas tembotrione, atrazina y halosulfuron. Para el control de gusano cogollero se instalaron trampas con feromonas y se realizó una aplicación de spinoteram. Mientras que para frijol se realizaron dos aplicaciones de fluazifop, para control de plagas se realizaron dos aplicaciones de jabón y una de Bacillus subtilis.La mayor producción se obtuvo en el tratamiento con siembra en camas permanentes anchas, el cual obtuvo un rendimiento de 7.9 t/ha, seguido por labranza convencional con 7.6 t/ha y camas permanentes angostas con 6.6 t/ha (Fig. 1). El menor rendimiento se obtuvo en camas anchas con silo de agua, con una diferencia de 1.3 t/ha, con respecto al mejor tratamiento.Durante el periodo de evaluación, el silo de agua no ha presentado un efecto positivo y podría estar relacionado con la eficiencia del fertilizante.Por otro lado, las camas angostas no son alternativa para la región de temporal con precipitación de 700 a 800 mm anuales, se recomienda el uso de camas anchas que favorece la retención de humedad y muestra un mejor resultado.Los costos de producción con siembra en camas permanentes fueron inferiores a $17,000 MXN/ ha, a diferencia del tratamiento con labranza convencional que generó un costo de $18,154 MXN/ ha; esto debido a la preparación del suelo (Fig. 2). En el caso de las camas permanentes anchas, que su costo fue ligeramente mayor que en camas angostas, responde a que fue el de mayor rendimiento, y el costo de producción aumenta por la cantidad cosechada; este último obtuvo la mayor utilidad con una ganancia de $9,888 MXN/ha, mientras que en labranza convencional fue de $7,810 MXN/ha. En cultivos de temporal, la importancia de la disponibilidad de agua y conservación del suelo es uno de los principales retos, las alternativas simples como el arreglo topológico trae diferentes ventajas sobre la producción convencional, además de la evaluación de los sistemas de Agricultura de Conservación. Los resultados obtenidos entre un tratamiento y otro varían ente los 300 y 350 kg; sin embargo, la utilidad y rentabilidad del cultivo es superado por la propuesta de camas anchas con Agricultura de Conservación.La diversificación del paisaje es importante para la producción en muchos aspectos (sociales, culturales, ecológicos, biológicos, etc.,) es por eso que la evaluación de diferentes variedades de frijol representa para los productores una opción de crecimiento y diversificación en la producción.En este caso, los resultados que se obtuvieron en cuanto a costos de producción y rentabilidad, el frijol pinto saltillo es el más competitivo y con mejor respuesta biológica. La evaluación de la fertilidad integral contra la convencional, pone en evidencia las ventajas del uso del análisis de suelo. Es una herramienta que eficienta, reduce y controla las aplicaciones de fertilizantes sintéticos.Tomando en cuenta las necesidades de los productores, la disponibilidad de los insumos en la zona, el cultivo predomínate, el tipo de producción y el mercado, entre otras muchas cosas, se plantea la idea de seguir evaluando y validando diferentes tecnologías en la zona de trabajo como: cultivos alternativos competitivos en el mercado, rotación de cultivos, uso de alternativas sustentables para el manejo de plagas y la búsqueda de variedades adecuadas de maíz en la zona.En el caso de flor de mayo Dolores, los ingresos fueron de $20,646 y con costo de $10,161 se obtuvo una ganancia de $10,484. Por último, el frijol peruano obtuvo un precio de venta de 25 pesos/kg, a diferencia de las otras variedades que se vendieron en 18 pesos, lo cual genera ingresos de $27,375 con un costo de producción de $11,110 se obtuvo una utilidad de $16,274.El uso del análisis de suelo no es una práctica común en la región, no se hace una interpretación adecuada y, al final, compran la mezcla de fertilizante que hay en el mercado. Por ello, se realizó un ensayo comparativo donde se utilizaron fuentes y cantidades de acuerdo a la necesidad, disponibilidad y resultados de laboratorio (Cuadro 7).La diferencia de rendimiento entre fertilización convencional y la que se realizó con base en la recomendación del analisis de suelo fue de 1.3 t/ ha, lo que significa una ganancia de $3,856 MXN/ ha más, mientras que el costo de la fertilizacion integral fue menor (Cuadro 2). Esto demostró que el uso del análisis de suelo es una inversión rentable, siempre y cuando se tomen en cuenta factores importantes como la toma de muestra, el laboratorio certificado y una adecuada interpretación para seguir al pie de la letra las recomendaciones de las épocas y formas de aplicar.Etapa reproductiva: crecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo en la plataforma en la plataforma de Indaparapeo, Michoacan, PV 2017. Cuadro 2. Detalles de la fertilización común y fertilización integral basados en el análisis de suelo en la plataforma de Indaparapeo, Michoacán, PV 2017. una herramienta (Greeneeker) para dosificar la fertilización nitrogenada en el cultivo de maíz. Los tratamientos 3 y 4 (MM,CL,D) llevan el mismo manejo, en espera de que se identifique un cultivo de rotación en las áreas de validación que puede competir con el maíz grano (Cuadro 1 y 2).En cuanto al área de validación de componentes, se evalúa la viabilidad, tanto agronómica como económica, de variedades de frijol en comparación con el cultivo principal de la zona y así dotar de alternativas para los productores (Cuadro 3). En la región valles de Jalisco la cero labranza reduce costos de producciónEl municipio de San Martín Hidalgo corresponde a la región valles del estado de Jalisco, que es la segunda región de mayor importancia en la producción de maíz en el estado. Según datos del inegi el clima es semicálido subhúmedo con lluvias en verano, con una precipitación promedio de 800-1,100 mm y temperatura media de 16 a 22 °C. La región se caracteriza principalmente por áreas planas donde se siembra maíz, en su mayoría de temporal. Predominan los suelos barrosos (Feozem háplico, Vertisol pélico), fértiles de alto contenido de materia orgánica y con un alto potencial de producción.Los rendimientos de maíz en la región oscilan entre 7 y 11 t/ha. El manejo convencional en la zona consta de labranza con subsuelos y rastras, uso de altas dosis de fertilizante y un alto consumo de plaguicidas para controlar malezas, plagas y enfermedades. Estas prácticas han resultado en el deterioro de la fertilidad del suelo que hace que sostener los rendimientos cada vez sea más cos-Rafael López Roque 1 , Adrián Carrillo García 1 1 assujal toso. Bajo estas condiciones, el sistema de Agricultura de Conservación se presenta como una alternativa para una producción más sustentable sin sacrificar el rendimiento de los cultivos.La plataforma se instaló en 2015 como año cero en Agricultura de Conservación bajo condiciones de temporal, en la Parcela El \"Sauz\", con coordenadas 20°26'55.85 N, 103°56'14.39 W a una altura de 1,304 msnm. Previo a la instalación de la plataforma se realizó un diagnóstico del sistema de producción de la región con la intención de identificar sus limitantes principales. El estudio arrojó la necesidad de reducir costos de preparación del suelo, incrementar la eficiencia de la fertilización y proporcionar alternativas al cultivo principal.Con base en la problemática, se establecieron tratamientos con siembra en camas permanentes anchas y angostas, cero labranza (siembra en plano) y el sistema convencional como testigo.Hub Bajío -Jalisco Los resultados de los tratamientos de larga duración se vieron afectados por el establecimiento del cultivo y la necesidad de resiembra, sin embargo, los datos económicos arrojan evidencias de la viabilidad del sistema de cero labranza o camas permanentes en comparación del sistema convencional gracias a su menor costo de producción.El tratamiento con manejo convencional obtuvo un rendimiento de 10.5 t/ha y los tratamientos en camas permanentes anchas y angostas y la siembra en plano sin labranza obtuvieron un similar rendimiento (Fig. 1).Figura 2. Análisis de la relación beneficio costo de producción de maíz bajo diferentes sistemas de labranza, Plataforma San Martin Hidalgo, Ciclo PV 2017.  Bajío glifosato (4 l/ha) para controlar las malezas en presiembra. La siembra de maíz ocurrió en julio sobre tierra mojada por lluvias mientras que la de frijol se llevó a cabo en agosto. Para maíz se utilizó la variedad N1R07 y en frijol se probaron 5 variedades diferentes, ambos en surcos de 76 cm.El manejo de maíz constó de una fertilización en 3 tiempos, donde se aplicó una dosis base a la siembra de NPK (60, 30, 30) y dos aplicaciones de San Martín Hidalgo, Jalisco. Estimación de rendimientos de los tratamientos de maíz, 07 de noviembre de 2017.El ciclo PV 2017 estuvo marcado por una precipitación errática, con eventos copiosos y periodos de sequía durante el mes de agosto. Durante la época previa al temporal, no se registró ninguna precipitación y se mantuvieron las altas temperaturas lo que propició el secado y agrietamiento del suelo, que, en los tratamientos sin labranza, dificultaron el establecimiento del cultivo.El temporal inició en la tercera semana de junio con 3 eventos de baja intensidad (< 10 mm) y no fue sino hasta julio cuando las lluvias constantes tomaron lugar. El temporal, en cantidad de precipitación, no tuvo gran variación de la media, sin embargo, en agosto no hubo precipitación y en octubre, noviembre y diciembre se presentaron lluvias atípicas de más de 10 mm. La falta de agua y las altas temperaturas favorecieron el desarrollo de las plagas, por lo que se hizo un mayor gasto en control de estas. Por otro lado, la falta de agua en época de floración y el exceso de agua en etapa de llenado, mermaron el rendimiento del cultivo.El manejo convencional del productor constó de 2 pasos de rastra para preparar el suelo, mientras que en los tratamientos sin labranza se utilizó La opción de adoptar la AC se presenta como una opción rentable para productores, en especial aquellos que no cuentan con la maquinaria, ya que reduce el costo de producción. Además, fomenta la fertilidad del suelo y si logramos un buen establecimiento del cultivo, se puede lograr que el rendimiento sea mayor al del sistema convencional, lo que representa un alza en el ingreso del productor.Con la integración del sensor GreenSeeker al manejo de la fertilización, se puede esperar una mejor eficiencia en el uso de N y así optimizar el gasto en este insumo que representa uno de los principales gastos del sistema de producción. Con cultivos rentables como el frijol variedad cuarenteño, la rotación de cultivos se vuelve más atractiva para los productores, ya que su manejo es simple, de menor costo y su producción representa una opción viable para incluir en el sistema de producción.La plataforma seguirá con los tratamientos de largo plazo para evidenciar los beneficios de la AC sobre el sistema convencional, además, mejorará el R2 del algoritmo del sensor GreenSeeker para dar mejores recomendaciones de fertilización a los productores. En cuanto al área de validación, se pretende incrementar la oferta de los cultivos para incluir en la rotación y así, que los productores seleccionen la opción que mayor satisfaga sus necesidades.San Martín Hidalgo, Jalisco. Desarrollo de las variedades de frijol, 22 de septiembre de 2017.Plataforma | San Martín Hidalgo, JaliscoCon respecto al origen de las variedades de frijol, dos fueron desarrolladas por el investigador de la UDG, Dr. Rogelio Lépiz Ildefonso (azufrado bolita y cuarenteño) y 2 (Higuera y peruano bola) se adquirieron en el mercado local y son las más aceptadas por los consumidores. La variedad cuarenteño obtuvo el mayor rendimiento, con una producción de 1.8 t/ha, seguido por azufrado bolita con una producción de 0.9 t/ha. Desafortunadamente, la viabilidad de la semilla de la variedad tapatío no fue la deseada y con un 2% de germinación no se obtuvo la población adecuada por lo que no se obtuvo cosecha (Fig. 4).Sin embargo, al comparar la relación beneficio costo, podemos observar que el mayor costo de producción en labranza convencional disminuye la retribución al capital invertido, ya que este tratamiento obtuvo la menor rentabilidad con un valor de 2.7 en la relación beneficio costo (Fig. 2).En la validación del algoritmo del sensor Green-Seeker podemos observar que la franja rica obtuvo el mayor rendimiento, seguido del manejo del productor y por último el manejo con base en las lecturas (Fig. 3). Por un lado, se ve la necesidad de afinar el algoritmo con los resultados obtenidos de la calibración de este año, lo que ayuda a mejorar el plan de fertilización de nitrógeno para maíz. Por otro lado, el tratamiento de la franja rica nos deja ver que aún hay potencial de incrementar el rendimiento hasta por media tonelada comparada con el manejo convencional. que produzca alimentos de calidad y que no tenga efectos negativos en el ambiente.Por ello, la agricultura debe ser una actividad que conserve el suelo y mejore las condiciones de aquellos que ya se han degradado, para lograr la sustentabilidad se deben tener procesos económicamente viables, socialmente aceptables y sin ocasionar daños al ambiente (Báez et al.,2012). Para lograr esta sustentabilidad se propone el empleo de la Agricultura de Conservación porque incluye mínimo laboreo, incorporación de rastrojo y rotación de cultivos, uso de semilla certificada, captación de agua de lluvia, uso de abonos orgánicos y biofertilizante, manejo integrado de maleza, así como la selección de espacios apropiados para la siembra.El objetivo del presente trabajo fue evaluar la sustentabilidad de sistemas de producción de cebada, en diferentes prácticas de labranza, arreglo topológico y manejo de residuos, así como probar en el área de validación de componentes forrajes de corte como alternativa ya que requieren menor cantidad de precipitación.La plataforma de investigación de Ocampo inició actividades en el ciclo de PV 2014, en este ciclo se sembró cebada de la variedad Esmeralda, se tuvo retrasos en la siembra por las constantes precipitaciones que se registraron, esto afectó el rendimiento.En el ciclo PV 2015, se sembró frijol, la mejor rentabilidad se obtuvo con la siembra en hileras con una relación beneficio costo de 1.36. Posteriormente en el ciclo PV 2016 se sembró trigo de la variedad Cortázar S-94 en donde el encostramiento del suelo, afectó negativamente el establecimiento del cultivo, reflejándose en una baja densidad de población. Además, se tuvo una escasa precipitación pluvial con una distribución errática, lo cual afectó la calidad física y rendimiento de grano.Agricultura de conservación en la zona semiárida de Guanajuato, plataforma de Ocampo PV 2017 Introducción De acuerdo con la clasificación de köppen, modificado por García (1998) en el estado de Guanajuato existen tres zonas climáticas bien definidas: semicálida, templada y semiárida. La primera zona predomina en las tierras planas del centro y sur, la segunda se extiende principalmente hacia las áreas de serranía del centro y sur, la última zona se ubica en el norte del estado, concretamente en el Distrito de Desarrollo 001 que comprende los municipios de San Felipe, Ocampo, San Diego de la Unión, San Miguel de Allende y Dolores Hidalgo.En la zona semiárida predominan los suelos de tipo Xerosol que son de color pardo con bajo contenido de materia orgánica, la temperatura media anual oscila entre 12-18°C con alto riesgo de heladas tempranas, con escasa y mala distribución de la precipitación, con más de un mes de sequía intraestival durante el cultivo, por lo que la mayor parte de estas áreas son afectadas por sequía en alguna etapa de desarrollo del cultivo, afectando severamente el rendimiento, sobre todo cuando la sequía ocurre en las etapas reproductivas. En esta zona climática se cultiva principalmente frijol y trigo, durante los últimos tres años (SIAP, 2014(SIAP, , 2015(SIAP, , 2016) ) se sembraron en promedio 12,240 y 5,667 ha, respectivamente, con rendimientos promedios de 490 y 1,453 kg/ha, respectivamente.Es fundamental que la agricultura sea una actividad que pueda realizarse por muchos años, de manera sustentable, es decir, que no agote los recursos naturales de los que depende, que genere buenos rendimientos e ingresos a los productores para que tenga beneficios sociales y económicos, Juan José García Rodríguez 1 , Amador Aguillón Aguillón Resumen del ciclo del reporte.Durante el ciclo PV 2017 se sembró cebada de la variedad Josefa, se obtuvieron buenos resultados, no obstante, la escasa precipitación, el cultivo de cebada se proyectó como una buena alternativa en la zona por su rusticidad y eficiencia en el aprovechamiento de la humedad disponible.En virtud de no contar con datos precisos de precipitación pluvial en la plataforma, se optó por recabar información de las estaciones meteorológicas más cercanas, detectando la estación La Calavera ubicada a 101°44´LW y 21°58´LN a una altura de 2194msnm y la estación San Francisco, ubicada a 101°47´LW y 21°80´LN a una altura de 2195msnm, lo anterior con la finalidad de tener un dato aproximado de la cantidad de lluvia que pudo haberse precipitado durante el desarrollo del cultivo y así poder hacer inferencias o conclusiones respecto de esta variable (Fig. 1,2).Tratamiento testigo con retraso en la floración respecto al resto de tratamientos.Previo al establecimiento del experimento, se aplicó una rastra en toda el área de cultivo, posteriormente el 4 de julio 2017, se remarcaron los tratamientos. En el ensayo principal, se estableció cebada de la variedad Doña Josefa en tanto que en el área de validación de componentes se sembró maíz de las variedades VS-46 y amarillo B-54-A, así mismo se sembró pasto anual tipo Mijo perla y como testigo avena de la variedad Turquesa. En cuanto al área de validación de componentes, a lo largo de estos cuatro ciclos, los cultivos forrajeros reportaron buenos resultados sobresaliendo la variedad de maíz B-54-A con un rendimiento en verde de poco más de 22 t/ha, seguido de la variedad sintética (VS-46) de maíz blanco la cual alcanzó un rendimiento de 21 t/ha; otra especie que se probó fue el pasto anual tipo Mijo perla, este mostro un buen comportamiento registrando valores de poco más de 14 t/ha en verde y 5.2 t/ha en seco, con esto superó al testigo regional (avena) en un 15% .Localización. Tratamientos.El experimento constó de 12 tratamientos (Cuadro 1) con dos repeticiones en un diseño de bloques completos al azar, el tamaño de parcela fue de 320 m2, con las siguientes medidas: 6.4 metros de ancho y 50 metros de longitud; el área de cosecha fue de 2.4 m 2 en los tratamientos 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 y 10 y de 1 m 2 en los tratamientos 1, 8, 11 y 12. Para el análisis de los datos, se utilizó el Sistema de análisis estadísticos (SAS) y posteriormente se practicó la comparación de medias con la diferencia mínima significativa.Cuadro 1: Tratamientos establecidos en la plataforma de investigación Ocampo, Guanajuato, ciclo PV 2017. tas tiene un efecto positivo dado que se obtuvieron rendimientos buenos en comparación con sus contrapartes sin incorporación de composta, es-te efecto se puede atribuir a que el incorporar composta mejora la porosidad del suelo y la penetración del agua en el suelo, con esto se favorece el crecimiento de las raíces, resultados similares fueron obtenidos por Shiralipour et al., (1992) y Hicklenton et al., (2001); las respuestas en rendimiento concuerdan también con Castellanos (1980), quien mencionó que el estiércol incrementó la producción de sorgo para grano.Todos los tratamientos superaron el valor de peso volumétrico que establece la Norma Mexicana NMX-FF-043-SCFI-2003 para la comercialización de grano de cebada maltera (56 kg/hL). Los resultados más altos se obtuvieron en tratamientos de camas angostas, esto es atribuible a que el tipo de labranza permitió que las plantas tuvieran una mayor eficiencia en el aprovechamiento del agua de lluvia y por lo tanto un aumento en el peso y tamaño de la semilla.El CF, SP, LC, D obtuvo el mejor ingreso con $4,856 MXN/ha, en contraste los CF, CP, RV, D, Figura 2. Rendimiento de grano de cebada en la plataforma de Ocampo, Guanajuato en PV 2017. Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios. No había diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos. El rendimiento del testigo fue 1.5 t/ha, ligeramente por encima de la producción media estatal de cebada para condiciones de temporal, la cual en los últimos cinco años fue de 1,341 kg/ ha (SIAP, 2013(SIAP, -2017)). Los tratamientos de innovación tuvieron mayores rendimientos, con el mayor rendimiento en el tratamiento can camas anchas con labranza convencional CF, CCA, D. La incorporación de composta en las camas angos-Figura 2. Croquis de localización de estaciones agroclimáticas y plataforma Ocampo, Guanajuato.Estación La CalaveraPlataforma Ocampo E y CF, CPA, RV, D, E tuvieron una respuesta negativa con pérdidas de $685 y $175 MXN/ha, respectivamente. Al respecto de la relación beneficio/costo el mejor tratamiento fue el CF, SP, LC, D el cual logró una R B/C de 2.12 es decir que de cada peso invertido se recuperó 1.12, le siguen los tratamientos CF, CPA, D y CF, CL, D con 1.55 en ambos casos, en donde se recuperaron 55 centavos por peso invertido, mientras que los CF, CP, RV, D, E y CF, CPA, RV, D estuvieron por debajo de 1.0, mientras que el testigo presentó una ganancia de 20 centavos por cada peso invertido.Área de validación.En el área de validación se evaluaron diferentes cultivos forrajeros que pueden ser empleados para la alimentación del ganado como alternativa al cultivo de avena. Se sembró una variedad de maíz blanco, una variedad de maíz amarillo, una de pasto anual y el cultivo de avena como testigo regional. Los rendimientos de biomasa en verde y en seco de maíz se la B-54-A fue superior a la VS-46, este aumento se atribuye a que se tuvo un mejor establecimiento de plántulas de la variedad B-54-A, esto se constata con el 31% de diferencia en la densidad de población (cuadro 2).Cuadro 2. Comparación de medias de densidad de población y rendimiento de biomasa de la planta de maíz en verde y seco en el ciclo PV 2017 en la plataforma de investigación de Ocampo. En Mijo Perla se evaluó el efecto del aclareo y el no aclareo sobre el rendimiento de biomasa. Se observó que para peso seco los valores obtenidos son los mismos para los dos manejos (5.2 t/ha), mientras que para el rendimiento en verde se obtuvo 14. t/ha sin ser estadísticamente significativa.El cultivo de cebada se proyecta como una buena alternativa en la zona por su rusticidad y eficiencia en el aprovechamiento de la humedad disponible. La errática y mal distribuida precipitación pluvial fue factor importante en los rendimientos reportados. La siembra en plano con labranza convencional fue el tratamiento con la mejor tasa de retorno a pesar de no haber logrado el mejor rendimiento de grano y los cultivos forrajeros (maíz y mijo perla) sembrados en el área de validación superaron ampliamente al testigo regional (avena).Eliminando contaminantes de avena y trigo en cebada.Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmytPlataforma | Iguala de la Independencia, GuerreroCon este antecedente, se rediseñaron los tratamientos de la plataforma, misma que se estableció en un lugar diferente a donde se había encontrado durante cinco años consecutivos. Dentro de las actividades de rediseño de la plataforma, previo a la siembra, se realizó una calicata para describir el perfil del suelo, un estudio de compactación del suelo con un penetrómetro rústico, se realizaron prácticas de labranza como subsoleo, barbecho, rastreo y formación de camas.En general, en el estado de Guerrero los productores son agropecuarios de baja y mediana escala, que requieren de forraje para la alimentación de su ganado y para ello usan principalmente forraje de maíz, lo que disminuye la posibilidad de adopción de la agricultura de conservacion por considerar dejar el rastrojo de maíz sobre el suelo.Por ello, en esta plataforma se ofertan 3 cultivos forrajeros: soya (ciclo PV), crotalaria y quínoa (ciclo OI). El cultivo de crotalaria es poco demandante de nutrientes y tolerante a la sequía, lo que lo hace una opción viable, económica y con alto contenido de proteína para la alimentación de ganado; además, se puede cosechar en la época de escasez de agua y alimento en abril.El cultivo de soya es un poco más demandante en nutriente y manejo, pero es una excelente opción por su contenido de proteína para la alimenta-En abril de 2017 se realizó una calicata en el terreno designado para el establecimiento de la plataforma, se utilizó el manual para la descripción de perfiles de suelo en el campo (Cuanalo, 1990) y la guía para la descripción de suelos (fao, 2009). Se describieron aspectos de la estructura del suelo, coloración, tipo de suelo, presencia de raíces, poros, entre otros.Cultivo de crotalaria en plataforma de investigacion, en Iguala, Guerrero. OI 2017-2018.Evaluación de agricultura de conservación y cultivos alternativos en Iguala, Guerrero Los siete tratamientos se distribuyeron en un diseño experimental en bloques completos al azar con 3 repeticiones. La parcela experimental constó de 11 y 10 surcos de 10 m de largo a una distancia de 0.8 m. La parcela útil para rendimiento de grano maíz fue de dos surcos centrales de 8 m de largo. Para determinar la biomasa en maíz y soya se usaron 5 m de un surco de la parcela útil, se obtuvieron dos submuestras para la estimación de biomasa.Se realizó una roturación del suelo el 8 de junio de 2017 con la finalidad de romper el pie de arado; en seguida, se realizó un barbecho profundo con arado reversible de discos de 30 cm y un paso con la rastra. Estas prácticas se realizaron a toda la plataforma, por ser año cero. Para los tratamientos de labranza convencional se realizó el surcado a 0.8 m a una profundidad de 20 cm y la siembra se realizó en el fondo del surco.En los tratamientos de labranza mínima con camas angostas se pasó la cultivadora, a la que se le adaptó una base de madera (polín) para hacer las camas a 0.80 m; la siembra se realizó sobre la cama. La semilla de maíz el híbrido del INI-FAP (H-568) se sembró a una densidad de 62,500 plantas/hectárea; el maíz se fertilizó con la fórmula 90-60-00 en dos aplicaciones: la primera, en la siembra (45-60-00) y la segunda a los 45 días después de la siembra (45-00-00) de forma manual. Como fuente se usó sulfato de amonio (21-00-00; 24 S) y DAP (18-46-00).La variedad de soya fue Salcer del CSAEGRO. La siembra se realizó de forma manual sembrada a 300,000 plantas/hectárea y la fertilización se realizó en una aplicación a los 15 días después de la siembra con la fórmula 46-46-30. Como fuentes se usó sulfato de amonio (21-00-00; 24 S), DAP (18-46-00) y cloruro de potasio (00-00-60).Para el control de gallina ciega se aplicó Counter 15 G a una dosis de 7 kg/ha al momento de la siembra. El monitoreo y control de gusano cogollero se realizó mediante trampas con feromonas que se colocaron al momento de la siembra, se cambiaron las septas cada mes hasta que el grano de maíz estuvo en madurez fisiológica.Tratamientos del área de validación, PV 2017 y OI 2017-2018.En el área de validación se evalúan cuatro tratamientos (Cuadro 2): dos prácticas de labranza, dos manejos de rastrojo de maíz y la rotación de maíz con cacahuate en el ciclo PV y quínoa en OI.Plataforma | Iguala de la Independencia, GuerreroPacífico CentroLa compactación del suelo del terreno se midió como un penetrómetro rústico en mayo de 2017. Se utilizó el manual de resistencia a la penetración del cimmyt (2013) y se registró el número de golpes en 10 puntos de la parcela a 15, 30, 45 y 60 cm de profundidad.Además, en mayo de 2017 se tomó una muestra de suelo con una barrena en 20 puntos del terreno, las muestras se homogenizaron y se tomó un kg para su análisis químico.Tratamientos del área de experimentación, PV 2017 y OI 2017-2018.La plataforma de AC en Iguala, Guerrero tiene siete tratamientos en el ensayo principal (Cuadro 1). En el ciclo PV 2017 se establecieron cinco tratamientos con maíz y dos con soya. Se manejaron Cuadro 3. Descripción del perfil de suelos del terreno para el establecimiento de la plataforma de AC en Iguala, Guerrero. Cuadro 4. Resistencia a la penetración del terreno para el establecimiento de la plataforma de Ac en Iguala, Guerrero. Plataforma | Iguala de la Independencia, GuerreroTambién se realizaron liberaciones de Trichogrammas para el control de gusanos (alambre, trozador y elotero), se realizaron liberaciones de avispas Trichogramma cada 15 días, desde la emergencia de las plantas hasta que el elote estuvo en estado lechoso. Se colocaron cuatro placas por hectárea, cada una contenía alrededor de 2,500 huevecillos. Además, en la canícula se realizó una aplicación del insecticida Denim 19 CE (150 ml/ha). Asimismo, se tomó registro de la precipitación y temperatura.Para el control de mosquita blanca en soya se aplicó lambda cyhalotrina, además, se colocaron trampas amarillas para su monitoreo. Para la conchuela del frijol se realizó una aplicación de monocrotofos. Esta última aplicación se cambiará para el siguiente ciclo por un producto menos tóxico.El control de malezas se realizó de forma química y manual. En el momento de la siembra se aplicó el herbicida atrazina+ S-metolaclor en las parcelas con maíz, también se aplicó glifosato y 2,4-D; para las parcelas con soya el control de malezas se realizó post-emergente con thiadiazina y deshierbes manuales.De ambos cultivos se registraron las fechas de emergencia, floración, madurez y cosecha, altura de planta y datos de determinación del rendimiento de grano y biomasa para todos los cultivos (maíz, soya, cacahuate, crotalaria y quínoa). Para el registro de datos de rendimiento de grano y biomasa se emplearon los métodos especificados por el cimmyt (2012).En el análisis estadístico se realizó análisis de varianza y prueba de comparación de medias para rendimiento de grano y biomasa, con el uso del software SAS V9.3 (SAS Institute, 2012).La calicata permite visualizar la constitución del suelo conforme a su formación y su respuesta al uso que se le ha dado. Es una importante herramienta para describir el suelo, visualizar fauna como lombrices, colonias de hongos, raíces, entre otros. Para la descripción del suelo y sus horizon-tes, se realizó una calicata de 1 m de profundidad, donde por medio de la observación y tacto en orden secuencial de forma horizontal y descendiente, se visualizaron cinco capas (horizontes). Es un suelo alcalino, de color pardo oscuro, arcilloso en los primeros horizontes, con una buena retención de humedad, sin piedras, muy duro, con pocas raíces y poca presencia de poros y lombrices. También, se detectó mayor dureza del suelo de 0 a 30 cm (Cuadro 3).A los 15 cm de profundidad, el mayor número de golpes con el penetrómetro fue de 3, con un promedio de 1.7 golpes en los 10 puntos registrados (Cuadro 4). A 30 cm de profundidad, la compactación varió, ya que se registraron desde 5 hasta 11 golpes. La parte central del terreno es donde se encuentra la mayor compactación. Para llegar a 45 cm de profundidad, se registraron entre 9 y 20, de igual forma, la parte central del terreno se sintió más duro. Finalmente, de 46 a 60 cm, se registraron entre 18 y 33 golpes, la parte de en medio del terreno es la más compacta.El análisis de suelo mostró que el terreno presenta un suelo franco arcilloso de pH alcalino (8.3), con un punto de saturación, capacidad de campo, punto de marchitez permanente y carbonatos totales moderadamente alto, con 46.2, 24.6, 14.6 y 17.6%; materia orgánica moderadamente bajo (1.8%), densidad aparente de 1.10 g/cm 3 , bajo contenido de salinidad (0.75 ds/m), alto contenido de calcio (4781 ppm), fósforo moderadamente bajo (P-Olsen: 14.2 ppm), mediano contenido de potasio (275 ppm), N-inorgánico moderadamente alto (N-NO3: 24.4 ppm), y muy bajo contenido de Na, Zn y B. Se decidió aplicar foliares con micronutrientes en la soya y el cacahuate para contrarrestar esas deficiencias.Resultados 2017Figura 2. Rendimiento de biomasa (forraje) de maíz y soya en la plataforma de investigación de Iguala, Guerrero, PV 2017. Rendimiento de grano de maíz y soya, PV 2017En el rendimiento de grano de soya no hubo diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos (Tukey, 0.05), pero sí hubo diferencias numéricas con 3.1 y 2.8 t/ha en los tratamientos de labranza convencional y camas permanentes con labranza mínima (Fig. 1). En el rendimiento de grano de maíz sí hubo diferencias significativas, donde el mayor rendimiento se obtuvo en el tratamiento de camas permanentes, dejar todo el rastrojo y rotación con crotalaria en OI y soya en PV, en este tratamiento se obtuvo un rendimiento de 4.5 t/ha.Se obtuvo un rendimiento de forraje de maíz ente 11 y 13 t/ha con 35% de humedad; la mayor cantidad de forraje se obtuvo en el tratamiento de camas permanentes con labranza mínima, rotación de cultivo Maíz/Crotalaria/Soya y dejar Registro de datos de altura de planta en el cultivo de crotalaria para el primer corte de forraje. OI 2017-2018.Figura 1. Rendimiento de grano de maíz y soya en plataforma Iguala, Guerrero, PV 2017. Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios.Abreviaciones: M/M= Maíz/Maíz, M/Sy= maíz/soya, Sy/M= soya/maíz, M/Cr/Sy= maíz/ crotalaria/soya, Sy/Cr/M= soya/crotalaria/maíz, LC= Labranza convencional, CM= Camas con labranza mínima, R= Remover rastrojo, D= Dejar rastrojo.Camas permanentes todo el rastrojo de maíz sobre el suelo, sin embargo, no había diferencias significativas (Fig. 2). En el forraje de soya se obtuvieron resultados muy similares con 11.5 t/ha de forraje verde con humedad de 69%. Los rendimientos en maíz para el ciclo PV 2017 fueron bajos y en algunos casos la utilidad fue ligeramente menor a 1, también es de considerar que el costo de producción fue mayor por las prácticas de labranza que se deben realizar para el establecimiento de los tratamientos en AC.El forraje de soya es rentable en la producción en PV, con datos de utilidad cercanos a 2. Además, es un cultivo con alto contenido de proteína para la alimentación de ganado. Es importante comenzar algún proyecto donde se implemente este cultivo en las dietas para animales y mejorar su adopción.La crotalaria es un cultivo potencial para la alimentación de ganado, en el ciclo OI se obtienen excelentes resultados por requerir pocos o mínimos niveles de agua para su desarrollo y crecimiento. También sería importante iniciar un programa para su implemente en dietas para animales y mejorar su adopción. El registro de las capturas se realizó cada 10 días, a partir de la siembra (1 de julio de 2017) hasta el periodo de cosecha. En esta figura se puede observar que la mayor cantidad de palomillas capturadas en las trampas fue en el periodo de la canícula (Fig. 4), donde se capturaron 62 palomillas; estas capturas disminuyeron cuando se reactivaron las lluvias (11 al 20 de agosto), en el periodo de mayor captura de adultos se realizó una aplicación de insecticida.Es de destacar que, el cultivo se produjo en condiciones de sequía, con un solo riego para su germinación. La precipitación hasta el primer corte fue de 1.27 mm, con una temperatura mínima de 13.9 °C, máxima de 33.7 °C y media de 23.6 °C (Fig. 3). El segundo corte, se realizó el 6 de junio de 2018 (137 dds), la planta alcanzó una altura de 1.38 m, tampoco se detectaron diferencias estadísticas significativas, se obtuvo un rendimiento promedio de forraje verde seco de 3.0, 3.4 y 3.5 t/ ha para M/Cr/Sy, CM, D; M/Cr, CM, D y Sy/Cr/M, CM, D, el aumento en el rendimiento para el segundo corte se deben a que las plantas ramificaron después del segundo corte y la precipitación obtenida en ese periodo (137 mm). Pacífico Centro para contrarrestar estos problemas, se inició la investigación para conservar el suelo y mejorar su fertilidad mediante ensayos con diferentes grados de movimiento de suelo, rotación de cultivos, manejo de rastrojo y uso eficiente de riego.En la plataforma se evalúan cinco tratamientos (Cuadro 1). En todos los tratamientos se siembra maíz en PV, y en dos se siembra crotalaria en OI. En el tratamiento testigo (M, LC, I), todos los residuos después de la cosecha del grano se han dejado en la parcela y se han incorporado con rastra inmediatamente. Para el control de malezas se vuelve a meter rastra. La parcela \"descansa\" rastreada y cuando llega nuevamente el ciclo PV la tierra se labra con arado, rastra y surcado.En MM, CP, D, la siembra se realiza sobre la misma cama del año anterior, sin labranza, solamente se reforman una vez por año. Todos los residuosTlaltizapán, Morelos, cultivo de maíz en el ciclo primavera-verano el 22 de septiembre de 2017.se dejan sobre la superficie y descansa la parcela hasta que se vuelve a sembrar maíz en el ciclo PV.En el tratamiento MM, LM, D cuando se acerca la siembra del ciclo PV realizamos la labranza (barbecho, rastreo y surcado), antes de que haya lluvias, para minimizar erosión del suelo, por lo que lo consideramos una \"labranza inteligente\". En el tratamiento MC, LM, D se hace la misma labranza en PV y después de cosechar el maíz, en noviembre se siembra crotalaria sobre la misma cama del maíz, sin labranza y sobre residuos.En el tratamiento MC, CP, D se hace después de cosechar el maíz, sobre la misma cama y sobre los residuos se siembra crotalaria en el ciclo OI, con humedad residual, a veces se aprovecha por lo menos una última lluvia del año. Una vez que la crotalaria se desarrolla y poco antes de las lluvias del ciclo PV, se tritura con desvaradora y se deja sobre la superficie del suelo (D), en un sistema ganadero pudiese llevarse para alimentar ganado. Cuando llega nuevamente el ciclo PV se siembra directamente el maíz sobre la misma cama.Revertir la degradación del suelo en Tlaltizapan, Morelos con AC y crotalariaAntes de MasAgro no había un panorama claro del porqué de los bajos rendimientos que se obtienen en promedio en el estado de Morelos. El temporal es bueno a muy bueno, hay suficiente agua durante el ciclo de lluvia para la demanda del cultivo de maíz, pero los rendimientos son muy bajos. Aún con bajos rendimiento de grano los agricultores cultivan maíz, en su mayoría para alimentar su ganado con los residuos.Para convencer los productores de utilizar los residuos del maíz para mejorar el suelo y su fertilidad, se debe ofrecer un sistema mucho más sostenible y con mejor forraje que los residuos. Se necesita dar una buena alternativa para producir forraje de buena calidad para sustituir los residuos y evitar que sean removidos de las parcelas de los agricultores o bien sean quemados. Por esta razón en la plataforma de investigación de Tlaltizapan se incluyó la leguminosa Crotalaria juncea como una posible candidata para producir forraje en el sistema agrícola y pecuario de la zona. En esta plataforma se siembra maíz durante el ciclo primavera-verano y crotalaria durante el ciclo otoño-invierno, con humedad residual. Es importante evaluar cómo influye el manejo del suelo, principalmente sobre el rendimiento de maíz y observar si fuera posible cosechar forraje en la misma parcela después del cultivo de maíz.En Tlaltizapán los suelos se caracterizan por tener una lámina superficial de 20 cm de buena fertilidad, debajo de esta se tiene una capa de carbonatos y bicarbonatos con pH alto (7.2-7.9 en general y en la plataforma de 8.2 a 8.5). La erosión del suelo provocada en la estación por el movimiento excesivo del suelo (en 40 años se tuvieron 600 movimientos de suelo) y los riegos (en 40 años se tuvieron 37,600 mm de precipitación más 32,000 mm de riego) provocaron graves problemas como clorosis férrica y baja asimilación de hierro. Además, la saturación del agua en el suelo provocaba el deslave de partículas del suelo y pérdida de nutrientes. En 2009,  En lo que respecta a la rotación de maíz con crotalaria se observa que tuvieron un decremento este año los tratamientos MC, LM,D y MC,CP,D con respecto a los que no tuvieron rotación. La crotalaria fija nitrógeno, por ser leguminosa, y en teoría ayudaría a incrementar rendimiento de maíz en el ciclo PV pero por segundo año no ha sido así. Una explicación de porque el nitrógeno que fija la crotalaria no se traduce en más producción de maíz es que se sobrexplota el agua por parte de la crotalaria durante el ciclo OI y se reseca mucho el suelo. Por otro lado, la crotalaria podría secuestrar algunos macronutrientes como el fosforo. También es posible que, debido a que todos tratamientos reciben la misma fertilización, el nitrógeno no es factor limitante. Cuadro 1: Tratamientos en la plataforma de investigación de Tlaltizapan, Morelos.La crotalaria no tuvo ninguna aplicación de fertilizante. Se cosechó el 23 de marzo 2018 a 116 días después de la siembra, en centro de cada tratamiento se cosechó en un cuadro de 15 metros cuadrados. La crotalaria tuvo sólo 14 mm de lluvia, por lo que se dio un riego de emergencia el 28/nov/2017. Para determinar la incidencia de pudrición se seleccionaron al azar 30 mazorcas y se contó cuantas de estas tenían un grado significativo de pudrición.Resultados 2017Conclusiones de resultados e implicaciones para productores 1. Cualquier de los cinco tratamientos donde sean manejados los residuos de cosecha ayuda a tener rendimientos muy por encima de la media del estado de Morelos, bajo condiciones de temporal. 2. Aunque no hay diferencia estadística entre tratamientos es más conveniente dejar residuos sobre la superficie del suelo para prevenir erosión y tener una mayor rentabilidad.Las plataformas de MasAgro son muy valiosas por la cantidad y calidad de información técnica que de ellas se obtiene. También apoyan, como herramientas de enseñanza, a los agricultores, técnicos, estudiantes y sobre todo a los que estamos convencidos que la Agricultura de Conservación es el camino correcto.Con técnicas de Agricultura de Conservación logramos adquirir experiencia y convencernos de sus bondades. En estas plataformas buscamos las soluciones para los problemas de nuestros agricultores regionales con opciones viables y validadas para que, al ser implementadas, tengan éxito.En el Estado de Morelos vamos obteniendo mejoras en rendimiento del maíz adoptando el mínimo movimiento de suelo y dejando residuos de cosecha. Estamos seguros que la rotación de cultivos ayudaría mucho a mejorar la producción agrícola y ganadera, pero antes tenemos que ampliar nuestra gama de cultivos. Tenemos que se- Se puede observar que, bajo condiciones de temporal, cuando el suelo logra almacenar agua, podemos tener una cosecha adicional de crotalaria en el ciclo OI. Esto tiene relevancia ya que para los agricultores-ganaderos no está en sus planes dejar residuos para el suelo por que los utilizan para alimentar su ganado. Con el cultivo de la crotalaria podemos mejorar el sistema, convenciéndolos que los residuos de maíz son más importantes para el suelo que para el ganado y que la crotalaria es mucho mejor forraje que los residuos.Sembrar y cosechar forraje de crotalaria en el ciclo OI sin labranza y con humedad residual si es técnicamente posible, pero existe el riesgo de que en algún año las lluvias se retiren muy temprano y haya poca humedad almacenada en el suelo provocando que los rendimientos de forraje bajen mucho o no logremos establecer la crotalaria. Una alternativa puede ser que la crotalaria sea sembrada de relevo, en la última etapa fenológica del maíz para que aproveche mejor la humedad que ya no aprovecharía el maíz y logre incrementar el rendimiento de forraje aprovechando más agua.Referencia INEGI: http://www.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/ default.aspx?t=mamb327&s=est&c=33926).guir experimentando y documentando hasta que los resultados sean convincentes.En el próximo OI 2018-2019 se probará la siembra de crotalaria en octubre, ya cuando el maíz esté cerca de la cosecha, sembrando la crotalaria en relevo con un caballo para aprovechar mejor el agua almacenada y las últimas lluvias de la temporada.así como la siembra en rotación del cultivo de maíz, después de maíz (monocultivo), sorgo y cacahuate en 2017 (Cuadro 1). En 2012, 2014 y 2016 se cultivó maíz en toda la parcela experimental (12 tratamientos); en 2013, 2015 y 2017 una tercera parte (4 tratamientos) se cultivó con maíz (monocultivo), una tercera parte (4 tratamientos) se cultivó con sorgo y la otra tercera parte (4 tratamientos) se cultivó con cacahuate.Las condiciones ambientales donde está ubicada la plataforma corresponden a la zona ecológica de Trópico seco; sin embargo, la precipitación promedio que se registra anualmente se considera suficiente para lograr un buen desarrollo del cultivo de maíz. En este ciclo primavera-verano (temporal) de 2017, el periodo de lluvia inició de manera regular, con precipitaciones considerables durante el inicio de la temporada de lluvias, en la primera quincena de junio.En el transcurso del desarrollo de la etapa vegetativa y reproductiva; esto es de julio a septiembre, se registraron lluvias suficientes para no estresar Cuadro 1. Tratamientos de la plataforma de Zacatepec, Morelos.al cultivo por falta de humedad (Fig. 1), lo cual propició condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de malezas de hoja ancha y zacates, obligando a realizar aplicaciones extras de herbicidas selectivos y deshierbes manuales; considerándose que se limitó la expresión del potencial de rendimiento. El cultivo del sorgo es el que más se siembra en esta región cálida del estado de Morelos por lo que cacahuate y sorgo son los cultivos que se consideraron en el sistema de rotación con maíz. El objetivo de la plataforma es determinar la mejor interacción entre intensidad de labranza, manejo de rastrojo y rotación de cultivos, mediante la evaluación del rendimiento de maíz, sorgo y cacahuate dentro de un esquema de Agricultura de Conservación, en la parte baja del estado de Morelos.Recorrido por Plataforma de investigación MasAgro Crotalaria. 3 de octubre 2017.Se evaluaron 12 tratamientos resultantes de combinaciones de la aplicación del sistema de labranza cero y labranza mínima; manejo de rastrojo no removido y removido; densidades de población de maíz de 60,000 y 80,000 plantas por hectárea; Para el cultivo de maíz, no había diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos con cero labranza, pero el tratamientos con 80,000 plantas/ ha, cero labranza dejando rastrojo obtuvieron un rendimiento significativamente mayor al tratamiento testigo con labranza mínima. El tratamiento con 80,000 plantas/ha, dejar rastrojo y cero labranza (T1), registró la mayor relación beneficio/costo de 2.15, mientras que en el T4 (60,000 plantas/ha, rastrojo retirado y labranza mínima) obtuvo el menor valor, de 1.87 (Fig. 2).En el ciclo PV 2017 se cultivó con maíz, sorgo y cacahuate en la plataforma de investigación. En el cultivo de sorgo, el análisis económico de los tratamientos, considerando la interacción cultivar sobre rastrojo de maíz retirado y cero labranza, registró la mayor rentabilidad (relación Beneficio/Costo de 1.57), mientras que el testigo de referencia (productor) fue el de menor valor (de 1.40).En el cultivo de cacahuate, el análisis económico de los tratamientos, considerando la interacción cultivar sobre rastrojo de maíz retirado y cero labranza, registró la mayor rentabilidad (relación Beneficio/Costo de 2.35), mientras que cultivar sobre rastrojo de 80,000 plantas/ha de maíz y cero labranza, fue el de menor valor (de 1.91).El sistema de labranza mínima registra los mayores costos de producción por hectárea, para cualquiera de los tres cultivos y en consecuencia resulta ser el de menor rentabilidad.Con base en lo observado y comentado por los participantes en los eventos de transferencia de tecnología sobre la plataforma bajo Agricultura de Conservación, se concluye que se dispone de la tecnología para lograr altos rendimientos y rentabilidad en los cultivos de maíz, sorgo y cacahuate.Es importante continuar con la investigación y validación de la tecnología implementada, bajo el entorno de agricultura sustentable, en la plataforma inifap-MasAgro, para precisar o confirmar los resultados obtenidos; y de esta manera transferir la tecnología generada hacia el personal técnico y productores de la región, como módulos demostrativos, áreas de extensión y áreas de impacto. El cacahuate sobre rastrojo de 80,000 plantas/ha de maíz (T9) tenía un similar rendimiento que el cultivo sobre rastrojo de 60,000 plantas/ha de maíz, solamente se obtuvieron 78 kg/ha menos (T10). En manejo de rastrojo, el dejarlo (T10) representó 318 kg/ha menos de rendimiento de grano, al compararlo con rastrojo retirado (T11), obteniéndose diferencias estadísticas significativas. Bajo el sistema de cero labranza (T11) se obtuvo 264 kg/ha más de rendimiento al compararlo con el sistema de labranza mínima (T12); sin embargo la diferencia no fue significativa. En el análisis económico de los tratamientos resultó que cultivar sobre rastrojo de maíz retirado y cero labranza (T11) registró la mayor relación beneficio/ costo de 2.35; mientras que en el T9 (cultivar sobre rastrojo de 80,000 plantas/ha de maíz y cero labranza) obtuvo el menor valor, de 1.91.En este sentido, para mejorar la productividad y rentabilidad agrícola en el municipio y la región se propone implementar y evaluar estrategias enfocadas a la Agricultura de Conservación, como es la siembra en camas anchas (debido a lo errático y variable de las lluvias), dejar parcial y totalmente el rastrojo para conservar suelo e incrementar materia orgánica, y realizar la rotación de cultivos alternos al maíz, los cuales puedan toleran la sequía de la canícula ( jamaica) o que requieren menos agua para cubrir su ciclo productivo (ajonjolí). De igual manera, se busca la implementación cultivos de cobertura para la conservación del suelo y/o que restituyan la fertilidad de los mismos, como las leguminosas (vigna).La parcela donde se estableció la plataforma de investigación tiene el ciclo dos con Agricultura de Conservación o tres años de operación. Al inicio de las operaciones, se realizó un subsoleo a una profundidad aproximada de 40 cm. La pendiente del sito es de 2.1%, una profundidad promedio de 25 centímetros, en suelo franco-arenoso, densidad aparente de 1.34 g/cm 3 y una CIC (Capacidad de intercambio catiónico) de 6.73 meq/100g; de acuerdo al análisis de suelo realizado por el laboratorio Fertilab el día 18 de junio de 2016. El suelo presenta un drenaje superficial rápido susceptible a erosión hídrica leve. La precipitación media anual es de 1,100 mm. El terreno se localiza en las coordenadas geografías 16°21' 03.65\" LN y 98° 14' 44.41\" LO, a una altitud de 48 msnm, en la unidad experimental \"La Estancia\" perteneciente al Instituto Tecnológico de Pinotepa, en el municipio de San José Estancia Grande, Oaxaca.La plataforma de investigación tiene como objetivo evaluar estrategias enfocadas a mitigar los efectos negativos causados por la sequía y con ello incrementar la producción y rentabilidad agrícola. En este sentido, la implementación del sistema de camas permanentes (anchas o angostas) tiene como objetivo disminuir el uso de maquinaria y a su vez reducir costos de producción, permite retener o desalojar el exceso la humedad dependiendo del comportamiento del temporal e inculcar al productor el mínimo movimiento de suelo.Los niveles de manejo del rastrojo tienen la finalidad de mostrar las ventajas de esta actividad: retención de humedad, incremento de la fertilidad y vida microbiana en el suelo, protección de suelo contra erosión hídrica y control de malezas. En el caso de rotación de cultivos el objetivo es brindar alternativas de producción con especies menos demandantes de humedad, ciclo corto (ajonjolí) y abonos verdes (vigna). Los diversos tratamientos evaluados en el ciclo PV 2017, se indican en el cuadro 1.Cuadro 1. Tratamientos evaluados en la plataforma de investigación en San José Estancia Grande, Oaxaca en el ciclo PV 2017. Camas permanentes y rotación de cultivos en la región Costa, Oaxaca.La plataforma de investigación a cargo del Instituto Tecnológico de Pinotepa se encuentra en el campo experimental \"La Estancia\" localizado en el municipio de San José Estancia Grande, Oaxaca; dentro de las condiciones climáticas de llanura de la costa oaxaqueña. El clima es de tipo cálido subhúmedo con lluvias en verano, con un rango de precipitación media de 1,000 a 1,500 mm, y una temperatura media de 26-28°C (inegi, 2008). La plataforma se enfoca a la investigación en maíz y cultivos asociados del trópico seco (ajonjolí y vigna) bajo condiciones de temporal.La importancia de la investigación radica en que, a nivel municipio, el 42.5% del suelo tiene uso agrícola predominado el cultivo de maíz en monocultivo bajo condiciones de temporal, con un periodo de lluvias que se concentra en los meses de junio a octubre, presentándose un periodo de canícula del 22 de julio al 23 de agosto, aproximadamente.En relación al sistema de producción, del total de la superficie agrícola registrada, un 35% es agricultura mecanizada, seguido de un 34% de agricultura con tracción animal (inegi 2008). En el año agrícola 2017, se sembró en el municipio 255 ha de maíz y se cosecharon 191 ha, con un rendimiento promedio de 1,300 kg/ha (SIAP, 2018). La producción se enfoca principalmente para autoconsumo y en ocasiones, el excedente para la venta.Adicionalmente al maíz, en San José Estancia Grande se siembra chile y jamaica principalmente para autoconsumo, mientras que el ajonjolí se enfoca a la venta en el mercado local y/o regional. Los rendimientos reportados para chile, jamaica y ajonjolí son de 2,400 kg, 300 litros y 500 kg por hectárea, respectivamente (PMD, 2012); siempre y cuando haya un buen temporal, caso contrario, la producción puede perderse en su totalidad.Beatriz García Santiago 1 , Herminio Aniano Aguirre 1 , Gabriel García En referencia a la rentabilidad de los sistemas de manejo evaluados, los mayores beneficios se observaron en las rotaciones de maíz-ajonjolí, donde el ajonjolí con el rendimiento de 2.1-2.4 t/ ha y un precio de venta de 16.00 $/kg, brindó una relación B/C de 3.17 -4.59; es decir, se recupera el 1.00 peso invertido y se obtuvieron 2.17 a 3.59Los resultados, tanto en rendimiento como en rentabilidad, muestran los beneficios de la implementación de estrategias relacionadas con Agricultura de Conservación (reducción de costo en uso de maquinaria con la implementación de camas permanentes anchas) y conservar el 100% de residuo del cultivo anterior. Así mismo, se destaca la rentabilidad de cultivos alternativos al maíz, como es el caso del cultivo de ajonjolí.La visión a futuro es mantener y fortalecer los trabajos en la plataforma, haciendo énfasis en mostrarlos beneficios de la Agricultura de Conservación, así como fortalecer la investigación en cultivos alternativos al maíz y que tienen demanda en la región de la costa oaxaqueña. pesos de ganancia. En contraparte, se presentaron pérdidas en el cultivo de maíz con manejo convencional y en camas permanentes con remoción total y parcial de los residuos de cosecha (B/C de 0.45, 0.89 y 0.92), donde no se recuperó la inversión (Figura 2).  En el ciclo PV 2017 se presentó una distribución normal de lluvias, con el periodo de canícula en el mes de julio-agosto. La temperatura promedio fluctuó de 25.8 a 27.8°C en el periodo de cultivo.Las actividades de preparación de suelo, dependiendo de los tratamientos, fueron: barbecho, dos pasos de rastra y reformación de camas, las cuales se realizaron el 29 de julio del 2017. La siembra y la fertilización de fondo se llevó a cabo el 8 de agosto utilizando sembradora-fertilizadora de labranza de conservación para maíz; y siembra manual en ajonjolí y vigna.En maíz se utilizó el hibrido DK-390 a una densidad de 62,500 plantas/ha, en ajonjolí se sembró la variedad Río Grande 83 a una densidad de 250,000 plantas/ha y vigna blanca a una densidad de 50,000 plantas/ha. El maíz se fertilizó con la fórmula 185-23-36-9.8 Mg, considerando un rendimiento meta de 7 t/ha, fraccionada en tres aplicaciones: a) al momento de la siembra, empleando 50 kg/ha de urea más 50 kg/ha de fosfato diamónico y 60 kg/ha de cloruro de potasio, b) la segunda aplicación se suministró a los 20 días después de la emergencia aplicando 160.6 kg/ha de urea y 100kg/ha de sulfato de magnesio y c) la tercera aplicación se suministró a los 40 días después de la emergencia empleando 172 kg/ha de urea. La nutrición se complementó con fertilizante foliar (2 kg/ha de Agro K®).Para el caso de ajonjolí solamente se realizó una aplicación foliar de 2 kg/ha de Agro K® a los 60 días después de siembra; mientras que en vigna, se aplicó 1 l/ha de Bayfolan forte® a los 20 días y 2 l/ha a los 50 días después de la siembra. El control de gusano cogollero se realizó con 100 ml/ha de i.a. Thiamtoxan + Lamda Cyalotrina, y en plagas en ajonjolí se usó 240 ml/ha de i.a. Cipermetrina. El análisis estadístico se hizo en RStudio 1.1.453 usando la función aov para calcular el ANOVA y la función CLD para calcular las diferencias Post Hoc.En el ciclo tres de operación de la plataforma, para el cultivo de maíz manejando una densidad de 62,500 plantas/ha y con nulo problema de acame, todos los manejos de Agricultura de Conservación tuvieron mayor rendimiento (3.1 a 4.6 t/ha) en comparación con el manejo convencional (1.7 t/ha). El mejor resultado se obtuvo en el esquema de maíz en monocultivo, con camas anchas permanentes y 100% de incorporación del residuo de cultivo anterior, con un rendimiento de 4.6 t/ha (Fig. 1).Figura 1. Rendimientos de los tratamientos establecidos en el ciclo PV 2017. Luvisol con el 66% del territorio, suelo color café rojizo a consecuencia de la oxidación del fierro y aluminio. Las precipitaciones altas provocan lavado de bases junto con el material fino, por lo que son suelos ácidos, predominando el fierro e hidrógeno en el complejo de intercambio.Figura 1. Importancia de los sistemas agropecuarios por superficie.Fuente. Elaboración propia con información del siap 2013, inegi 2010.Cuadro 1. Variedades de frijol evaluadas en la plataforma San Martín Hidalgo, ciclo PV 2017. La región bajo Mixe se caracteriza por ser una región con diversos sistemas agropecuarios como: ganadería bovina de doble propósito y de carne, fruticultura (lima persa, naranja y lichi), cafeticultura, granos básicos como maíz-frijol, sorgo, apicultura, sandía y chile serrano. Por superficie la ganadería es el sistema más importante, ocupa el 75 % del territorio regional (Fig. 1).De acuerdo con información del inegi (2010), la región tiene básicamente una conformación de lomerío (68%), el clima es cálido húmedo con abundantes lluvias en verano (Am) en el 83% del territorio, la unidad de suelo predominante es Altitud 123 msnmCiclo agrícola PVSan Juan Cotzocón bido a que al momento de aplicar el herbicida se presentaban lluvias que disminuían el efecto del producto aplicado.La fertilización química al suelo se realizó en tres momentos, todas fueron de manera manual. Se realizaron dos aplicaciones de fertilizantes químicos de manera foliar para corregir deficiencias nutricionales de boro y zinc que mostraba el cultivo.Para el manejo de plagas, principalmente gusano, una semana antes de la siembra se instaló una feromona específica para el adulto de gusano cogollero, posteriormente se realizaron dos aplicaciones de insecticida biorracional (benzoto de emamectina) para el control del gusano, cuando su incidencia superó el 15%.La cosecha es manual, realizando el despegue, pelado y desgrane.Los tratamientos con camas permanentes angostas obtuvieron el mayor rendimiento de 6.0 t/ ha (M-CP-D-F1), el tratamiento con menor ren-dimiento fue M-CL-D-F1 con 3.9 t/ha, sin embargo, no había diferencias significativas entre tratamientos. El tratamiento testigo M-LC-P-F1 tiene un rendimiento de 4.3 t/ha. Para el caso de los tratamientos donde sea aplicó cal agrícola en el año 2014, no obtuvieron los mejores rendimientos, posiblemente se debe a que el efecto de la cal ya se perdió por las intensas lluvias que prevalecen en la región (Fig. 3).De acuerdo con Govaerts y Sayre ( 2007), en los sistemas agrícolas con riego (al menos en zonas tropicales, semi-tropicales, cálidas y templadas), el agua parece \"eliminar o posponer\" la expresión de la degradación de muchas propiedades del suelo asociadas con la quema continua de residuos, que en nuestro caso es eliminación de residuos. En la plataforma las altas precipitaciones causan que nunca falta el agua lo que podría generar una situación similar a sistemas con riego.Respecto a los costos de producción es evidente que realizar la siembra directa y la siembra en camas permanentes angostas es más económico que la siembra en el sistema convencional, el ahorro por hectárea es de $2,400 MXN/ha y $1,900 MXN/ha, respectivamente (Fig. 4).Figura 2. Rendimiento del cultivo de maíz al 14% de humedad, PV 2017. Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios.Abreviaciones  En agosto se presentó un problema de malezas principalmente en los tratamientos de cero labranza y algunos tratamientos de camas permanentes. Al momento de hacer el control de malezas en estos tratamientos, la aplicación de glufosinato de amonio afectó algunas plantas de maíz; este problema no se observó en el sistema convencional.El 28 de junio 2017 se realizó la primera aplicación de herbicida, con glifosato (3 l/ha) y 2,4-D Amina (2 l/ha). El 11 de julio se eliminó la maleza viva o muerta, estas acciones se realizaron en todos los tratamientos de la plataforma, esta última actividad se realizó con el apoyo de una desbrozadora. La preparación del terreno para la siembra consistió en reformación de camas y rastreo, se realizó a medianos de julio.La siembra se realizó el día 17 de julio utilizando el material P8042W, para esta actividad se empleó una sembradora neumática de 4 unidades de siembra, la semilla fue tratada con Tiodicarb. La siembra fue a hilera sencilla, con una distancia entre surcos de 80 cm y 20 cm entre planta y planta, para alcanzar una densidad de 62,500 semillas por hectárea.Posterior a la siembra se realizaron 4 controles de malezas, utilizando Glufosinato de amonio (2 l/ha). El número de aplicaciones fue elevado de-Tratamientos Los tratamientos consisten en una combinación de tres componentes tecnológicos: sistemas de labranza, manejo de rastrojo y fertilidad; de esta manera se obtienen 9 tratamientos.Durante el desarrollo del cultivo las condiciones climáticas fueron favorables para el desarrollo del cultivo, sin embargo, posterior a la siembra se presentaron fuertes precipitaciones afectando la germinación en labranza convencional. Conclusiones de resultados e implicaciones para productores• Los tratamientos con mejores rendimientos son en camas permanentes, las siembras en plano no pasan la barrera de 4.5 t/ha, y en camas permanentes se logran 6.0 t/ha. La siembra en labranza convencional que en años anteriores ofrecía buenos rendimientos este ciclo fue la segunda más baja (4.3 t/ha). La menor relación B/C se registró en labranza convencional.• Se ha observado menor incidencia de malezas en los tratamientos donde se aplicó cal.• Las camas permanentes ofrecen una oportunidad de mejora del sistema de producción comparado con siembras en plano.• Los efectos de una nutrición balanceada no son tan visibles, posiblemente por la abundante lluvia e ineficiencias en la aplicación de los mismos.Plataforma | San Juan Cotzocon, OaxacaPacífico Sur 88La mejor rentabilidad del cultivo se logró en el sistema de camas permanentes angostas, con fertilización convencional (80-60-00), la menor rentabilidad se tiene en el sistema convencional (1.08) (Fig. 4).Cultivo espigando en Plataforma de Investigación San Juan Cotzocón. 11 de septiembre 2017.Figura 3. Estructura de costos de producción de tratamientos en la plataforma San Juan Cotzocón.  Tratamientos en área de validación.En esta área, se establecieron ocho cultivos de cereales y leguminosas, para la producción de grano y forraje, todos en condiciones de temporal.Los cultivos fueron: El diseño experimental es de bloques completos al azar con dos repeticiones, el cual consiste en cinco tratamientos con diferentes sistemas de labranza, manejo de rastrojo, material genético de maíz y rotación de cultivos (Cuadro 1).Aspecto del cultivo de maíz criollo de temporal en labranza mínima y cobertura, septiembre del 2017.Mejor ingreso con labranza reducida y maíz nativo en el Valle de Nochixtlán, Oaxaca.La plataforma de investigación Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán se ubica en la región Mixteca de Oaxaca una zona de suelos planos en el Valle de Nochixtlán, en los municipio de Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, Tamazulapam y parte de Coixtlahuaca. La plataforma de investigación se ubica a una altitud de 2,115 msnm, con clima templado sub húmedo con lluvias en verano, con una temperatura media anual promedio de 18°C, y una precipitación promedio de 750 mm anual.En esta región, los cultivos de mayor importancia económica son maíz con 113,659 ha, frijol con 16,885 ha y trigo con 16,000 ha. Un 90% de la superficie se cultiva en condiciones de temporal errático. Predominan suelos alcalinos, con menos del 1.5% de materia orgánica, susceptibles a erosión hídrica y eólica. Existe la presencia de heladas desde la última semana de octubre hasta la primera quincena de marzo, por lo que en las siembras de temporal deben sembrarse cultivos y variedades que maduren en menos de 170 días para aprovechar eficientemente la lluvia y escapar al daño de heladas.El objetivo de la plataforma es promover el uso eficiente de los recursos suelo y agua en la región del Valle de Nochixtlán. Los tratamientos de mínimo movimiento del suelo, la presencia de cobertura, uso de materiales criollos y rotación de cultivos, son estrategias que se evalúan en la plataforma de investigación y en sus áreas de validación, para reducir el efecto de la falta de agua durante el desarrollo del maíz y asegurar rendimientos estables aún en condiciones limitantes de humedad, con la rotación de cultivos de menor ciclo vegetativo. El objetivo es identificar especies que escapen al daño de heladas que afectan al final del ciclo, así como de proponer nuevas especies que puedan ser una alternativa de producción que genere recursos para los productores en condiciones de temporal. En el tratamiento FMT, LM, D con frijol hubo exceso de lluvia lo que ocasionó alta incidencia de enfermedades e incluso muerte de plantas por falta de oxígeno en el suelo. Esto afectó severamente el desarrollo del cultivo y el rendimiento de grano.Los tratamientos de maíz fueron sembrados el 30 de mayo, pero hubo problemas de germinación con los tratamientos 1 y 2, por lo que se sembró nuevamente el 16 de junio. En el tratamiento 5, la siembra se realizó el 28 de julio. La densidad de siembra del maíz criollo fue de un grano cada 0.2 m en surcos separados a 0.75 m, densidad de población de 66,500 plantas/ha, en frijol fue un grano cada 10 cm en surcos separados a 0.75 m para obtener una densidad de 133,000 plantas.En maíz, en todos los tratamientos en la siembra se aplicó la dosis 58-40-60-10 (NPK, Mg), usando sulfato de magnesio, cloruro de potasio, fosfato diamónico y sulfato de amonio, en V4 se aplicaron otras 25 unidades de N y en V8 otras 30 unidades de N. En frijol en la siembra se aplicaron 50-25-35 NPK usando cloruro de potasio, fosfatos diamónico y sulfato de amonio. En todos los tratamientos el fertilizante fue enterrado.Previo a la siembra la semilla fue tratada con Fipronil para prevenir el daño de plagas del suelo, posteriormente se hicieron dos aplicaciones de insecticida dimetoato y 2 de bectacyflutrina. Se realizó un control de malezas pre emergente con acetoclor 1.5 l/ha y en posemergencia se aplicó dicamba + atrazina 1.5 l/ha para el caso de los tratamientos de maíz, en frijol en pos emergencia fomesafen + fluazifop 1.0 l/ha y se completó con un control manual.Aspecto de plataforma de investigación, con efectos de exceso de humedad, en año atípico, septiembre de 2017. Siembra de tratamiento de maíz en labranza cero con 100% de cobertura, 30 de mayo del 2017.Plataforma | Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, Oaxaca.Se presentó un periodo de sequía en la etapa de crecimiento del maíz cuando se encontraba desde V6 a inicio de floración, por el contrario, en frijol no tuvo problemas con sequía, pero sí de exceso de lluvia. En el maíz híbrido se registraron 344 mm de la germinación al estado de floración, mientras que durante el llenado del grano fueron 577 mm. En el criollo la lluvia registrada de germinación a floración fue de 375 mm y durante el llenado del grano fueron 490 mm. Lo anterior demuestra que hubo un exceso de lluvia durante el llenado del grano.Cada cultivo se estableció en franjas apareadas en un área de 3.5 m por 38 m de longitud (133 m²). La siembra fue en surcos y la fertilización varió dependiendo del tipo de cultivo. Se evaluaron las principales variables fenológicas y se estimó la producción de biomasa verde y seca en la avena con ebo, el rendimiento de grano en: maíz, frijol, trigo, triticale, alverja, haba y lenteja. Se registraron los costos de producción de cada cultivo. Con el apoyo de la estación climatológica se registró la información climática (Fig. 1).Los tratamientos MM, LM, D y MM, LC, R tuvieron problemas de germinación posiblemente por efecto del insecticida (Fipronil) con el que se trató la semilla para prevenir plagas del suelo, pero esto no ocurrió con el tratamiento MM,LM, D, H y MM, CL, D, H. Por esta razón se hizo la siembra nuevamente en fecha posterior (16 de junio) de los tratamientos MM, LM, D y MM, LC, R, en las dos repeticiones. El maíz híbrido no tuvo este problema y la siembra fue el 30 de mayo.Durante el desarrollo del maíz se registraron en total 921 mm de lluvia y en el caso del frijol 616 mm, Porque la cantidad fue superior a la que requieren ambos cultivos, sobre todo en frijol, hubo un exceso de lluvia en la segunda quincena de agosto y septiembre, efecto que ocurrió cuando el maíz se encontraba en llenado del grano, y el frijol desde la etapa de crecimiento vegetativo.  Con base en los precios de insumos y del grano vigente en el 2017, se realizó el análisis económico (Fig. 3). El tratamiento de maíz criollo con labranza mínima y 100% de residuos generó los mayores ingresos totales y utilidades por hectárea ($21,446 MXN/ha), superior al tratamiento de labranza convencional que implica barbecho y rastreo, sin residuos ($15,986 MXN/ha), la diferencia fue de $5,460 MXN/ha a favor del sistema de labranza mínima con 100% de cobertura.Estas utilidades se obtuvieron con maíz criollo y siembra de temporal con sequía durante cierta etapa fenológica del maíz.También, se destaca que hubo mayores utilidades en los dos tratamientos de maíz criollo que con el híbrido, debido a la mayor inversión que se hace en el concepto de la compra de semilla. El híbrido se tiene que comprar cada ciclo, lo que para los productores de bajos recursos limitaría su siembra. La plataforma demuestra que es factible generar utilidades importantes usando los maíces criollos de los que disponen los productores.Respecto a las relaciones beneficio/costo, el tratamiento de maíz criollo en labranza mínima y cobertura generó una relación de 2.6 vs 2.2 que tuvo el sistema de labranza convencional sin residuos (testigo). Con el maíz híbrido y labranza mínima más residuos, la relación fue de 2.0 vs 1.9 en labranza cero con residuos. El tratamiento con frijol en labranza mínima con residuos dejados generó pérdidas, el costo de producción fue mayor a los ingresos totales, como resultado del bajo rendimiento que tuvo el frijol por el exceso de agua que se presentó durante el desarrollo del cultivo (706 mm) en un año atípico en la región Mixteca. Aspecto de tratamiento de labranza convencional con residuos retirados, expuesto a pérdida de agua por evaporación, julio de 2017.Relación beneficio/costo Plataforma | Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, Oaxaca.El tratamiento de labranza mínima (suelo roturado) con 100% de cobertura del cultivo anterior, obtuvo un rendimiento de 5.8 t/ha, superior en 0.9 t/ha al sistema de labranza convencional (testigo) lo que representa un incremento del 18.3% (Fig. 2). Con el maíz híbrido el rendimiento promedio en labranza mínima con 100% de cobertura fue de 6.5 t/ha, mientras que en labranza cero con 100% de cobertura el rendimiento fue de 5.6 t/ha. La roturación del suelo y presencia de cobertura triturada de maíz (trozos de 40 cm en promedio) muestran un efecto favorable sobre un mejor desarrollo del cultivo que influyó finalmente en mayor producción de grano.Estos resultados fueron en condiciones de temporal errático, con periodo de sequía en etapa vegetativa y exceso de lluvia durante el llenado del grano. También, confirman lo que se ha obtenido en los dos ciclos anteriores, sobre las ventajas del mínimo movimiento con cobertura, respecto al sistema de labranza convencional sin cobertura.El rendimiento del frijol fue muy bajo debido a las condiciones de exceso de lluvia que se registraron durante su desarrollo. El exceso de agua ocasionó muerte de plantas por falta de oxígeno en el sistema radicular, además de la incidencia de enfermedades, estas condiciones afectaron significativamente el rendimiento de grano.Figura 2. Rendimiento de grano de maíz y frijol con distintos sistemas de labranza y manejo de residuos en temporal. Yanhuitlán, Oax. Ciclo PV 2017. Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios. La asociación de avena con ebo es una opción importante para la producción de forraje en temporal es de excelente calidad para el ganado. Esta asociación alcanzó rangos de producción de 5.1 t/ha de forraje seco lo que equivale a 170 pacas por hectárea a los 68 días, lo que convierte a esta opción productiva a generar recurso en menor tiempo que las otras especies evaluadas, pero sobre todo existe la opción de volver a sembrar otro cultivo y aprovechar mejor el espacio de terreno y la temporada de lluvias; es decir, podrían obtenerse dos cosechas durante el periodo de lluvias.Con los rendimientos de grano y forraje seco (avena + ebo), los costos de producción de cada cultivo vigentes en el 2017 y con el precio de campo, se realizó el análisis económico (Cuadro 3). Como se aprecia la mayor inversión fue con el haba y la menor con el maíz criollo de temporal. De acuerdo a los precios de campo vigentes en la región para cada cultivo, el haba fue la especie que alcanzó mayor valor, mientras que el forraje seco de avena + ebo su valor en el mercado fue menor por la época en que fue cosechada.Las mayores utilidades se obtuvieron con la lenteja, aunque solo se logró producir un rendimiento de 1,373 kilos por hectárea, debido a su mayor precio en el mercado, arroja un margen de utilidades importante. El haba también fue un cultivo que obtuvo importantes utilidades superiores a los cultivos básicos tradicionales como el maíz, frijol trigo y el forraje avena + ebo.Sin embargo, aunque la lenteja como el haba son leguminosas que generan mayores utilidades, no tienen un mercado asegurado que compre volúmenes importantes que se pudieran producir en la región, más bien son cultivos de autoconsumo con un mercado limitado, para ello se requiere promover su producción, pero además de ubicar mercados para su comercialización. Pacífico SurEn el área de validación se tuvo un ensayo de diversos cultivos de cereales y leguminosas en condiciones de temporal para ser incluidos en rotación con los cultivos de mayor importancia (maíz y trigo). Se evaluaron diversas variables fenológicas y productivas de cada especie (Cuadro 2).Existen diferencias importantes en las variables fenológicas de los cultivos evaluados en condiciones de temporal. En días a floración el frijol fue el cultivo más precoz con 55 días, y la lenteja la más tardía con 100 días a floración. El trigo y triticale tienen un periodo similar a floración, la combinación de avena + ebo su floración ocurrió a los 68 días después de la siembra, lo que indica que el productor que decida sembrar esta combinación de forraje para alimentar su ganado, puede estar cosechando a los 68 días después de la siembra y volver a sembrar otro cultivo para aprovechar mejor el ciclo de lluvias. A madurez fisiológica, el trigo fue más precoz con 104 días y el maíz el más tardío con 159 días.El maíz criollo su rendimiento fue de 3,670 kg/ ha superior en casi 100% la media regional, el trigo y triticale se consideran bajos los rendimientos que produjeron, sin embargo, el haba tuvo buena producción (1,293 kg/ha).El frijol fue de los cultivos con mejor respuesta de acuerdo a las condiciones ambientales ocurridas, porque su rendimiento fue de 1,124 kg/ ha, debido a que fue sembrado a una distancia entre surcos de 0.35 m y entre plantas de 0.1 m (285,000 plantas/ha). Mediante aplicaciones de fertilizantes foliares se contrarrestó el efecto del exceso de agua. Cuadro 2. Variables fenológicas y rendimiento de forraje y grano en ensayo de rotación de cultivos en condiciones de temporal. Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán, Oax. Ciclo PV 2017.Ensayo de rotación de cultivos con especies de cereales y leguminosas, en temporal, agosto de 2017.Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmytConclusiones de resultados e implicaciones para productores• Después de cinco años, se confirma que el sistema de mínimo movimiento del suelo mediante roturación y dejando el 100% de la cobertura del cultivo anterior, se logra incrementar el rendimiento de grano en 0.9 t/ha, respecto al sistema convencional; además de los cambios en las propiedades de físicas del suelo. Con esta tecnología se incrementa el rendimiento de grano casi en cuatro veces respecto a la media regional.• En condiciones de temporal y con una errática distribución de la lluvia, la roturación del suelo con cobertura es una tecnología que asegura mejores rendimientos de maíz criollo y mejorado, al sistema de labranza convencional.• El sistema de labranza mínima con cobertura obtuvo un rendimiento superior en 18% respecto al sistema convencional (barbecho, rastreo sin cobertura), usando maíz criollo.• Las mayores utilidades por hectárea y relación beneficio/costo, se logra con el tratamiento de labranza mínima (roturación) y presencia de cobertura, respecto al sistema convencional, utilizando maíz criollo Jaltepec.• Es factible aumentar el rendimiento promedio de maíz en condiciones de temporal y superar la media regional de 1.5 t/ha a 5.5 t/ha, usando variedades criollas, solo deben realizarse las prácticas agronómicas adecuadas que incluye: densidad de población, control oportuno de plagas y malezas, fertilización balanceada y fraccionada.• La lenteja y el haba son cultivos que pueden incluirse en un sistema de rotación con maíz y trigo, se adaptan a las condiciones de suelo y de clima en la zona y pueden generar mayores ingresos que los cultivos tradicionales (maíz, trigo y frijol).En 2018 la plataforma de investigación tendrá unos cambios en los tratamientos, después de evaluar los resultados de los últimos cinco años. En vez de los dos tratamientos con híbridos se incluirán camas permanentes angostas con maíz y con cobertura, y rotación maíz-frijol.Esto obedece a que la investigación que inició en 2013 concluyó obteniéndose los resultados que se esperaban, ahora se estudiará el efecto de las camas con cobertura sobre la producción de maíz y frijol en temporal. En el área de validación se continuará con el ensayo de rotación de cultivos, pero rotando, es decir donde hubo cereales en 2017 ahora se establecerán leguminosas, para evaluar el efecto tanto en la producción como en la parte económica.Plataforma | Huichapan, HidalgoEn los tratamientos testigo bajo labranza convencional se realiza barbecho con arado de discos, rastra y siembra en plano, posteriormente se realiza un cultivo durante la fertilización. Algunos resultados notorios que se han obtenido en la plataforma desde sus inicios de operación han sido un mayor porcentaje de nacencia en los tratamientos de cero labranza, menor acame y mayor rendimiento en los tratamientos de rotación de cultivos, así como una mayor rentabilidad en los tratamientos de maíz híbrido y mayor rendimiento cuando este se establece en camas anchas en los años siguientes al año cero.En los tratamientos establecidos en la plataforma se realizó una evaluación del rendimiento de maíz en grano, tanto con criollo como con híbrido bajo un arreglo en bloques completos al azar en tratamientos establecidos en camas permanentes, haciendo una rotación con triticale y dejando 100%, 50% y 0% de rastrojo de maíz como cobertura; estos tratamientos se comparan con tratamientos testigo (MM, LC, R, C y MM, LC, R, H) donde se tiene monocultivo maíz-maíz bajo labranza convencional retirando el 100% de rastrojo. Del triticale se evalúa el rendimiento de biomasa seca para su uso como forraje henificado. En los tratamientos correspondientes a dejar, se retiene el total de rastrojo de maíz, posterior a la cosecha manual se pasa el rodillo para acamarlo. En los tratamientos de manejo parcial, la planta de maíz se corta por encima de la altura de la mazorca retirando del terreno la parte superior, para luego realizar un paso con el rodillo para acamar.Cuadro 1. Tratamientos evaluados en la plataforma de Huichapan, Hidalgo durante el ciclo primavera verano PV 2017. Producción de maíz criollo e híbrido en temporal en Huichapan, HidalgoLa plataforma de investigación Huichapan se ubica en el Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Huichapan, en la localidad de El Saucillo, Huichapan, Hidalgo. Su ubicación corresponde a la región del Valle del Mezquital, en el occidente del estado de Hidalgo. El área de influencia de la plataforma es una zona agrícola de temporal donde el principal cultivo que se produce es el maíz para grano y forraje, así como fríjol y algunos cultivos forrajeros como la avena o la cebada, debido a la importancia de la ganadería en la región que complementa la actividad agrícola.La principal problemática en materia agrícola son los bajos rendimientos debido a la degradación del suelo, al mal manejo agronómico de los cultivos y al temporal errático donde la precipitación media anual oscila alrededor de 520 mm y se distribuye principalmente durante los meses de verano con una estación de crecimiento intermedia que va de junio a septiembre. En la plata-forma se evalúan diferentes sistemas de siembra basados en la Agricultura de Conservación con maíz criollo e híbrido y usando el triticale como cultivo de rotación para uso forrajero.La plataforma inició su operación en el año 2014 en el municipio de Nopala, Hidalgo (ubicado a 10 km aproximadamente de su ubicación actual), donde permaneció por dos años, sin embargo, en el año 2015 se tuvo un problema a causa del vandalismo y fue incendiada.. A partir de 2016 se reubicó la plataforma en el Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Huichapan, donde se continuó evaluando los tratamientos establecidos inicialmente, sin embargo, en ese año se realizó manejo de año cero en la plataforma para lo cual se hizo incorporación de rastrojo y subsoleo para romper el piso de arado, un rastreo y finalmente la formación de camas anchas en los tratamientos de labranza cero en camas permanentes. vegetativo del maíz junto con quelatos de zinc y boro de manera foliar. Posteriormente se realizó la segunda fertilización en el cultivo de maíz, aproximadamente 50 días después de la siembra, para lo cual se suministraron 400 kg/ha de urea.Para el establecimiento del cultivo de triticale se realizó una fertilización de fondo 64-48-00 basada en superfosfato de calcio simple y urea, la cual se aplicó en presiembra al momento de la reformación de las camas, posteriormente se realizó la siembra para lo cual se usaron 160 kg/ha de semilla de la variedad bicentenario. El control de malezas en este cultivo se realzó con prosulfurón + tihensulfurón-metil, finalmente se realizó una segunda fertilización manual con 460 kg/ha de sulfato de amonio.Los mayores rendimientos en maíz se obtuvieron con maíz híbrido, que en promedio obtuvo un rendimiento de 6 t/ha en comparación con el rendimiento del criollo que en promedio fue de 3 t/ha con el mismo manejo agronómico para ambos materiales. Los tratamientos de rotación triticale-maíz, en camas permanentes anchas con 50 y 100% de rastrojo y el tratamiento de híbrido bajo labranza convencional en monocultivo maízmaíz con 0% de rastrojo fueron estadísticamente iguales. Por otra parte, los menores rendimientos se obtuvieron con la variedad de maíz criollo, siendo estadísticamente iguales en rotación triticale-maíz, en camas permanentes anchas con 50 y 100% de rastrojo, así como bajo labranza convencional sin rotación de cultivos y retirando el 100% de rastrojo (Fig. 1).Figura 1. Comparación de rendimientos de maíz criollo e híbrido bajo diferentes sistemas de labranza y niveles de rastrojo. Las barras de error representan la desviación estándar. Barras con la misma letra no son estadísticamente diferente. El manejo llevado a cabo en la plataforma durante el ciclo PV 2017 consistió principalmente en reformación de camas como parte de la preparación del suelo, a excepción de los tratamientos de labranza convencional; posteriormente se realizó la aplicación de glyfosato para la preparación química del terreno previo a la siembra.Posteriormente se realizó la siembra de maíz, donde se usó una densidad de siembra de 75,000 semillas por ha y al mismo tiempo se aplicó una fertilización de fondo 70-70-53; la semilla se trató con bifentrina + imidaclorprid, así mismo se aplicaron 20 kg/ha de insecticida granulado con los mismos ingredientes activos. En los tratamientos de la plataforma se empleó como híbrido la variedad diamante y como criollo marceño; además en el área flexible se estableció una vitrina de variedades de maíz híbrido donde se evaluaron los siguientes materiales: ST-18Y, SP-104 A, Centenario, Cirrus, ST-19Y, Cobre, ST-14Y (amarillos), ST-10W, ST-20W, SP-103, AZ-6 y AZ-20 (blancos).El control de malezas es post-emergencia temprana al cultivo de maíz, se realizó con mesotrione y atrazina 90% para el control de malezas de hoja ancha y supresión de ciperáceas, sin embargo, posteriormente se presentaron problemas de gramíneas específicamente Chloris virgata, por lo que se realizó otra aplicación de herbicida en la cual se usó como ingrediente activo tembotrione, con lo cual se obtuvo buen control de este tipo de maleza.Respecto a la presencia de plagas, se aplicó tiametoxham + lambdacihalotrina para controlar diabrótica y picudo durante la etapa de crecimiento Ensayo de rotación de cultivos con especies de cereales y leguminosas, en temporal, agosto de 2017.Ensayo de rotación de cultivos con especies de cereales y leguminosas, en temporal, agosto de 2017.Cuadro 4. Rendimiento de maíz ajustado a 14 % de humedad de diferentes híbridos establecidos en la vitrina de variedades. A través de un manejo agronómico adecuado y con variedades apropiadas fue posible lograr resultados importantes en cuanto a desarrollo de los cultivos que se mostraron a los productores, principalmente en cuanto a maíz, triticale y avena. Se pudieron evaluar diferentes variedades de los mismos y como resultado se pudieron recomendar aquellas variedades como AZ-20 y ST-14Y, con mejores características como rendimiento, producción de biomasa, precocidad y tolerancia a roya principalmente.Se obtuvieron notables beneficios del sistema de Agricultura de Conservación (AC), como la reducción del acame en tratamientos de rotación de maíz después de triticale, así como la importancia del rastrojo para la retención de humedad en el suelo y la fertilización integral de los cultivos de acuerdo a un análisis de suelo.En el caso de los tratamientos donde se estableció triticale después de maíz, los mayores rendimientos de biomasa cortando a los 90 días después de la siembra (cuantificada como materia seca) se obtuvieron en aquellos tratamientos de parcelas donde el ciclo anterior se estableció maíz híbrido dejando el 50 y el 100% de rastrojo con una media de 9.3 y 9.2 t/ha respectivamente, seguido de los Figura 2. Comparación de rendimientos de biomasa de triticale como materia seca, cortado a los 90 días de la siembra en rotación después de maíz criollo e híbrido con dos niveles de rastrojo. Las barras de error representan la desviación estándar. Los tratamientos con la misma letra no son significativamente diferentes (p≤0.05). a,b,c indican los grupos significativamente distintos.Abreviaciones: MT= Maíz-triticale, CPA= Camas permanentes anchas, P= Dejar rastrojo de maíz parcialmente (50%), D= Dejar el 100% de rastrojo de maíz, R= Remover el 100% de rastrojo de maíz, C= Maíz criollo, H= Maíz híbrido.tratamientos donde se estableció maíz híbrido con 0% de rastrojo y maíz criollo dejando 50% y 0% de rastrojo con rendimientos de 9.0, 8.9 y 8.3 t/ha, finalmente el menor rendimiento de biomasa de triticale se obtuvo en el tratamiento donde el ciclo anterior se estableció maíz criollo y se dejó el 100% de rastrojo, siendo de 7.6 t/ha.En el área de validación de la plataforma se estableció un ensayo de cuatro variedades de triticale y dos de avena forrajera, además de una vitrina Cuadro 3. Resultados de rendimiento de biomasa de triticale y avena forrajera a los 90 días después de la siembra. de variedades de maíz, donde se establecieron cinco híbridos blancos y siete amarillos. Se midió el peso seco de biomasa de triticale y avena forrajera a los 90 días después de la siembra en estado del grano masoso-lechoso (Cuadro 3 y 4). Los factores de labranza que se incluyen en esta plataforma son labranza convencional (rastra, nivelación y siembra en plano), camas con labranza convencional (rastra, nivelación y formación de camas), camas permanentes y camas permanentes con labranza vertical (en pre-siembra fertilización en hilera de siembra a 15 cm de profundidad, en V2-3 se reformación de fondos con un timón ancho) (Cuadro 1).El manejo de rastrojo va desde remover todo, dejar todo o remover parcialmente (remover rastrojo de maíz desde debajo de la mazorca, cortar triticale a 25 cm y remover paja suelta), también se estudia el monocultivo de maíz y la rotación de maíz con triticale. La precipitación durante el ciclo de abril a octubre fue de 881 mm (Fig. 1) y el día 7 de agosto ocurrió una granizada.Cuadro 1. Tratamientos evaluados en la plataforma Metepec, Estado de México. Abreviaciones: T= triticale, M= maíz, LC= labranza convencional, CC= camas con labranza convencional, CP= camas permanentes angostas, CLV= camas con labranza vertical; D= dejar todo el rastrojo, R= remover todo el rastrojo y P= retención parcial de rastrojo.Figura 1. Gráfica del clima durante el desarrollo de los cultivos en la plataforma Metepec, estado de México en el año 2017. Agricultura de conservación con maíz y triticale en el valle de Toluca, MéxicoLa plataforma de investigación Metepec, Estado de México está ubicada en la estación experimental del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (cimmyt) en Metepec, Toluca, a una altitud de 2,640 msnm, con coordenadas 19°13'37.64\"N 99°33'1.83\"O. Tiene un clima templado subhúmedo con lluvias en verano, temperaturas de 10 a 14°C y precipitación de 700 a 1000 mm. La agricultura ocupa el 31.95% del uso de la tierra de la región y los principales cultivos son maíz, avena forrajera, trigo y zanahoria (SIAP, 2018).La agricultura es la tercera actividad económica más importante en Metepec, después de los servicios (89.9%) e industria (10.1%) (inegi, 2009). La zona urbana (68% del territorio) que crece sobre terrenos previamente ocupados por la agricultura y el crecimiento del sector de servicios y la industria provocan la necesidad de modificar los sistemas de producción agrícola convencionales para incrementar los rendimientos de manera sustentable en superficies cada vez más pequeñas y mejorar la rentabilidad. Además, la plataforma de investiga-ción es representativa por la mayor parte del Valle de Toluca y el occidente del Estado de México.Por ello, en la plataforma se evalúan tratamientos bajo el sistema de Agricultura de Conservación que generan el aumento de los rendimientos sin sacrificar los recursos naturales. En esta plataforma se benefician en un 50% a productores que cuentan con superficies de cultivo de más de 20 ha, el destino de la producción es para la venta, cuentan con maquinaria y disponibilidad de recursos para la producción. Los pequeños (20%) y medianos (30%) productores que atiende la plataforma se dedican a la producción de artesanías y cuentan con pequeñas superficies de cultivo que destinan principalmente para el autoconsumo (cimmyt, 2017).La plataforma de Metepec comenzó sus actividades en 2014 con el fin de analizar diferentes prácticas agronómicas, incluyendo prácticas de labranza, rotación de cultivos y manejos de rastrojos sobre el comportamiento de maíz y triticale bajo condiciones de temporal.Nele Verhulst 1 , Ana Rosa García 1 , Jessica Gonzalez 1 , Fabián Enyanche Curvas de crecimiento con el índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI)En las curvas de NDVI del cultivo de maíz (Fig. 2a), se muestra que no existió diferencia significativa entre los tratamientos durante el primer y segundo periodo de desarrollo. En el tercer periodo si hubo diferencia significativa entre sus tratamientos (p=0.045), los mayores valores se presentaron en monocultivo sobre camas convencionales, dejando rastrojo (MM, CC, Dej), seguido de los tratamientos de rotación con triticale en camas permanentes, tanto en retención total como parcial de rastrojo (MTr, CP, Dej y MTr, CP, Par), existiendo diferencia significativa cuando se hace monocultivo en mismas condiciones de labranza y manejo de rastrojo (MM, CP, Dej). Los menores valores se tuvieron en camas con labranza vertical, retención parcial de rastrojo con rotación maíz-triticale (MTr, CLV, Par).En el cultivo de triticale (Fig. 2b), las curvas fueron uniformes y no hubo diferencia significativa de los tratamientos en ninguno de los periodos. La siembra se realizó el día 19 de abril (maíz) con la variedad Albatros de Asgrow a una densidad de 90,000 plantas/ha y el 16 de mayo se sembró triticale variedad Bicentenario a una densidad de 110 kg/ha. La fertilización en pre siembra fue de 163.5 kg N/ha + 100 kg P₂O₅/ha + 100 kg KCl/ ha, haciéndose una segunda fertilización antes del primer riego de auxilio de 75 kg N/ha.En el ciclo se hicieron mediciones del índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI), los datos fueron colectados utilizando el sensor óptico portátil NDVI (GreenSeekerTM, NTech Industries, Inc, USA). Las mediciones se llevaron a cabo una vez por semana, pasando el sensor por el centro de la cama a una altura aproximada de 0.8 m sobre la superficie del cultivo. La cobertura de la franja del sensor es aproximadamente 0.6 m de ancho.La evaluación de incidencia de la podredumbre de raíz se realizó por parcela, haciendo una colecta al azar de 15 plantas de triticale y 10 plantas de maíz, las cuales fueron sacudidas para quitarles el suelo suelto ahí mismo en campo. Las raíces de triticale y maíz fueron lavadas con agua corriente para llevar a cabo su evaluación mediante las lesiones producidas mediante el uso de una lupa. Para las raíces de triticale, en cada planta se evaluó el dañó con una escala de 0-7 lo que se interpreta como; 0: ninguna lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con una sola lesión, 2: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 3: 50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 4: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 5: más del 50% de raíces con lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 6: más del 50% de raíces cortas, no mayor a 30 mm y 7: casi sin raíces o con entrenudos necróticos.En el caso de las raíces de maíz, fueron evaluadas las raíces primarias y secundarias con una escala de 0-4, donde 0: sin lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 2: 25-50% de raíces con lesiones, 3: 50-75% de raíces con lesiones y 4: 75-100% de raíces con lesiones. También en las raíces de maíz se revisó el daño ocasionado por insectos con una escala de 1-9 donde, 1: ningún daño, 2: pocas raíces mordidas, 3: muchas raíces mordidas, 4: 1-3 raíces comidas, 5: más de 3 raíces comidas, 6: casi 1 anillo comido + muchas raíces mordidas, 7: 1 anillo comido, 8: 2 anillos comidos y 9: 3 o más anillos comidos.Antes de dar inicio a la cosecha de los cultivos, se contabilizó el acame de plantas de maíz tanto el provocado desde la raíz como desde el tallo. Las dos camas centrales de cada parcela fueron cosechadas y se determinó rendimiento de grano y componentes del rendimiento.Para el análisis de las curvas de NDVI se empleó la función Proc Mixed del paquete estadístico SAS y la instrucción Repeated para las mediciones repetidas. Las curvas se dividieron en periodos y cada uno se analizó por separado (por periodo y por cultivo). Los periodos para maíz fueron los siguientes: periodo I (56-71 días después de la siembra (DDS)), periodo II (78-160 DDS) y periodo . Para triticale los periodos fueron: periodo I (29-51 DDS), periodo II (57-99 DDS) y periodo III (113-148 DDS). Los datos de pudrición de raíces y los de rendimiento se analizaron mediante el análisis de varianza de Proc glm (ANOVA) utilizando el paquete estadístico SAS. La comparación de medias de los tratamientos se hizo con la prueba del rango estudentizado de LSD, considerando como diferencias significativas con p≤ 0.05.Maíz en camas permanentes con labranza vertical en la plataforma de investigación Metepec, Estado de México el día 21 de junio de 2017. En acame desde la raíz (Fig. 5a), el efecto de tratamiento fue marginalmente significativo (p= 0.063), presentando en promedio 1,624 plantas/ ha. Siendo el tratamiento de camas permanentes, dejando rastrojo, con rotación triticale el cual tuvo mayor presencia de acame con 5,361 plantas/ha. En el acame producido desde el tallo (Fig. 5b), tampoco hubo diferencia significativa entre sus tratamientos, todos ellos tuvieron en promedio 650 plantas/ha. La pudrición de raíces primarias y secundarias de las plantas de maíz fue analizada por separado (Fig. 3) donde en las primarias, el tratamiento que presentó menor daño (2.5 en escala de 0-4) fue en camas con labranza vertical, dejando parcialmente el rastrojo, en rotación maíz-triticale (MTr, CLV, Par). El daño fue mayor en el resto de los tratamientos (promedio de 3.3; MM, LC, Rem; MM, CC, Dej; MM, CP, Dej; MTr, CP, Dej y MTr, CP, Par).En las raíces secundarias el mayor daño (promedio de 2.6) se presentó en camas permanentes, dejando En el cultivo de triticale (Fig. 4) no hubo diferencia significativa en ninguna de las categorías de las raíces analizadas (seminal, corona y tallo), aunque el daño pareció ligeramente menos en rotación de triticale-maíz, camas permanentes, retención parcial de rastrojo (TrM, CP, Par). rastrojo, tanto en monocultivo de maíz como en rotación maíz-triticale, al igual que en rotación maíz-triticale, camas permanentes retención parcial de rastrojo (MM, CP, Dej, MTr, CP, Dej y MTr, CP, Par). Mientras que en los tratamientos donde se realizó algún tipo de labranza el daño de raíces secundarias fue menor (promedio de 1.8; MM, LC, Rem; MM, CC, Dej y MTr, CLV, Par).En el daño ocasionado por insectos, no se presentó diferencia significativa entre sus tratamientos ya que, en promedio fue de 3.9.Figura 3. Daño de raíces en el cultivo de maíz (primarias, secundarias y por insectos) de la plataforma Metepec en el ciclo 2017 en Metepec, Estado de México. Los tratamientos con la misma letra no son significativamente diferentes (p≤0.05). Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios. El mayor rendimiento de maíz (10.4 t/ha, Fig. 5a) fue donde se realizó labranza vertical y retención parcial de rastrojo, en rotación maíz-triticale (MTr, CLV, Par), seguido del tratamiento de labranza convencional, remoción de rastrojo en monocultivo (MM, LC, Rem) con un rendimiento de 10.2 t/ha. El suelo en la plataforma tiene alto contenido de limo y se vuelve muy duro al secar. Esto hace que, aunque la Agricultura de Conservación mejora la infiltración del agua durante la temporada del cultivo, al inicio de la temporada de lluvias el suelo que no es laborado (en camas permanentes) se tarda más para mojarse que el suelo en los tratamientos con labranza. Por esto, el tratamiento con labranza vertical durante la fertilización en pre-siembra tiene mejor infiltración que camas permanentes al inicio de la temporada y en este ciclo con sequia inicial, resulta en un mayor rendimiento.El tratamiento de monocultivo, en camas convencionales, dejando rastrojo (MM, CC, Dej) tuvo un rendimiento de 8.6 t/ha; disminuyéndose cuando las camas se convirtieron en permanentes (6.6 t/ ha; MM, CP, Dej); sin embargo, se vuelve a tener un incremento a 8.8 t/ha cuando se llevó a cabo una rotación de cultivo con triticale (MTr, CP, Dej). El menor rendimiento fue el de monocultivo, camas permanentes, dejando rastrojo (MM, CP, Dej) con 6.6 t/ha, significativamente más bajo que en los otros tratamientos, entonces se debe evitar el monocultivo en camas permanentes.En el rendimiento de triticale, no hubo diferencia significativa entre los tratamientos (Fig. 5b). El rendimiento promedio fue de 3.3 t/ha lo que es bajo para la zona, probablemente porque el estrés hídrico al inicio de la temporada redujo el amacollamiento del cultivo. El peso hectolitrito también fue similar entre tratamientos, con un valor promedio de 65.2 kg/hL. En este ciclo el rendimiento de maíz más alto se obtuvo con labranza vertical en Agricultura de Conservación (rotación maíz-triticale y retención parcial de rastrojo). El suelo limoso es muy duro cuando está seco y la labranza vertical ayuda a la infiltración del agua al inicio del ciclo. Se va a validar en los siguientes ciclos la recomendación a productores de aplicar labranza vertical en suelos limosos al inicio del ciclo, más cuando se presentan pocas lluvias al inicio del ciclo. Se estudia el manejo de rastrojo, en el caso de labranza convencional se incorpora todo el residuo al efectuarse el laboreo, mientras que en las camas permanentes y cero labranza el rastrojo se mantiene en la superficie, también se tiene la remoción y retención parcial (en el caso del trigo se dejan 25 cm de paja parada, mientras que en el maíz se conserva la parte debajo de la mazorca).En esta plataforma se cuenta con monocultivos de trigo y maíz, con rotaciones de cultivo como maíz-trigo y trigo-maíz, o bien, alternados con cultivos como frijol o triticale.En el ciclo 2017, la siembra de trigo se realizó el día 26 de mayo y maíz el día 24 del mismo mes. Se utilizó la variedad experimental con GID 6569899 a una densidad de 110 kg/ha y en maíz Albatros a densidad de 75,000 semillas/ha. La fertilización en pre siembra fue de 150 kg N/ha + 40 kg P₂O₅/ha, en este ciclo se le adicionó 1.5 kg/ha de boro. Después de la siembra, se presentaron lluvias fuertes, seguido por un periodo de sequía a mediados de junio. Se presentó otro periodo seco a mediados de agosto y la precipitación total fue 494 mm (Fig. 1). Durante el desarrollo de los cultivos no se presentaron heladas.En el ciclo se hicieron mediciones del índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI), los datos fueron colectados utilizando el sensor óptico portátil NDVI (GreenSeekerTM, NTech Industries, Inc, USA). Las mediciones se llevaron a cabo una vez por semana, pasando el sensor por el centro de la cama a una altura aproximada de 0.8 m sobre la superficie del cultivo. La cobertura de la franja del sensor es 0.6 m de ancho aproximadamente. En cada parcela se realizó un conteo de plantas, en el caso de maíz fueron 3 conteos utilizando un marco de 3 m de longitud y en trigo se hicieron 6 conteos con marcos de 0.5 m.Ensayo de rotación de cultivos con especies de cereales y leguminosas, en temporal, agosto de 2017. Evaluación de las interacciones entre los tres principios de agricultura de conservación, labranza, cobertura y rotación, en la plataforma de Texcoco I, Mexico Introducción La plataforma de investigación Texcoco I, Estado de México está en la estación experimental del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (cimmyt) en el Batán, Texcoco, Estado de México ubicado a una altitud de 2240 msnm, con coordenadas 19°31'46.83\"N 98°51'9.81\"O, predomina un clima semifrío subhúmedo (29 %) y templado subhúmedo (24.56%) con lluvias en verano, la precipitación media anual es de 534 mm, con una temperatura media anual de 16.6 °C, dominan los suelos phaeozem (27 %) y andosol (21%).Los principales cultivos sembrados son la avena forrajera, el maíz en grano y en forraje (siap, 2018). El tipo de productores que se benefician de la plataforma en la región son pequeños y medianos que cuentan con superficies de cultivo de 0.5 a 10 ha y el destino de la producción es para autoconsumo y pequeños excedentes para la venta (cimmyt, 2017). En el territorio predomina el bosque, el cual está cada vez más amenazado por el incremento de la zona agrícola, la urbanización y la explotación de yacimientos de tezontle, cascajo, arena y grava.La plataforma comenzó sus operaciones en 1991 con el propósito de evaluar diferentes prácticas agronómicas bajo condiciones de temporal (Cuadro 1). El estudio incluye tipos de labranza como convencional, cero y camas permanentes de dos tipos: angostas de 0.75 m y anchas de 1.5 m (las camas permanentes el único movimiento que reciben es al momento de la reformación de los fondos en cada ciclo, dejando intacto la superficie a sembrar).Nele Verhulst 1 , Ana Rosa García 1 , Jessica Gonzalez 1 , Fabián Enyanche La evaluación de incidencia de la podredumbre de raíz se realizó por parcela, haciendo una colecta al azar de 15 plantas de trigo y 10 plantas de maíz, las cuales fueron sacudidas para quitarles el suelo suelto ahí mismo en campo.Las raíces de trigo y maíz fueron lavadas con agua corriente para llevar a cabo su evaluación mediante las lesiones producidas mediante el uso de una lupa. Para las raíces de trigo, en cada planta se evaluó el dañó con una escala de 0-7 lo que se interpreta como; 0: ninguna lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con una sola lesión, 2: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 3: 50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 4: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 5: más del 50% de raíces con lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 6: más del 50% de raíces cortas, no mayor a 30 mm y 7: casi sin raíces o con entrenudos necróticos.En el caso de las raíces de maíz, fueron evaluadas las raíces primarias y secundarias con una escala de 0-4, donde 0: sin lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 2: 25-50% de raíces con lesiones, 3: 50-75% de raíces con lesiones y 4: 75-100% de raíces con lesiones.También en las raíces de maíz se revisó el daño ocasionado por insectos con una escala de 1-9 donde, 1: ningún daño, 2: pocas raíces mordidas, 3: muchas raíces mordidas, 4: 1-3 raíces comidas, 5: más de 3 raíces comidas, 6: casi 1 anillo comido + muchas raíces mordidas, 7: 1 anillo comido, 8: 2 anillos comidos y 9: 3 o más anillos comidos.Antes de dar inicio a la cosecha de los cultivos, se contabilizó el acame de plantas de maíz las cuales se dividieron en acame provocado desde la raíz y acame desde el tallo. Al finalizar la temporada del cultivo, cada parcela fue cosechada y se determinó rendimiento de grano y sus componentes del rendimiento.Para el análisis de las curvas de NDVI se empleó la función Proc Mixed del paquete estadístico SAS y la instrucción Repeated para las mediciones repetidas. Las curvas se dividieron en periodos y cada uno se analizó por separado (por periodo y por cultivo). Los periodos para maíz fueron:  En las curvas de NDVI de trigo no se encontraron efectos significativos de los tratamientos durante el primer periodo (Fig. 3). En el segundo periodo, los valores de NDVI fueron menores en rotación trigo-maíz, remoción de rastrojo en labranza cero (TM, Cero, R) que en todos los otros tratamientos. Esto se debe al mayor estrés hídrico en este tratamiento, lo que se ha observado también en otros ciclos. En el tercer periodo, TM, Cero, R siguió con los valores más bajos, significativamente más bajo que en la mayoría de los otros tratamientos.Los tres tratamientos con monocultivo de trigo sin rastrojo en la superficie mostraron valores de NDVI más altos que los otros tratamientos (TT, CL, R; TT, LC, R y TT, LC, D), reflejando la presencia más alta de pastos (principalmente Eragrostis Mexicana) en esos tratamientos. En monocultivo con cero labranza y retención de rastrojo, esta maleza tiende a ser suprimida por el rastrojo en la superficie. El aumento en los valores de NDVI en las últimas dos mediciones antes de madurez, probablemente refleja el desarrollo de biomasa de malezas al final del ciclo.Las raíces de las plantas de maíz (Fig. 4) se analizaron por separado en primarias y secundarias. En las raíces primarias, los tratamientos donde se presentaron mayor daño (3.5 en escala de 0-4) fue en monocultivo, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo (MM, CL, D) y menor (2.3) en los tratamientos de labranza convencional, rotación maíz-trigo, dejando y removiendo rastrojo (MT, LC, D y MT, LC, R), aunque el efecto de tratamiento solo fue marginalmente significativo (p= 0.09).En las raíces secundarias, no hubo diferencia significativa entre tratamientos (p= 0.26), con un escoring promedio de 2.40. Tampoco hubo diferencias significativas en el daño ocasionado por insectos (p= 0.30, promedio 4.71), aunque se observó una tendencia a mayor daño en el tratamiento con rotación con triticale (5.90). Los datos de pudrición de raíz y los de rendimiento se analizaron mediante el análisis de varianza de Proc glm (ANOVA) utilizando el paquete estadístico SAS. La comparación de medias de los tratamientos se hizo con la prueba del rango estudentizado de LSD, considerando como diferencias significativas con p≤0.05.Curvas de crecimiento con el Índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI)En las curvas de NDVI del cultivo de maíz no se encontraron efectos significativos de los tratamientos durante los primeros dos periodos, aunque el primer periodo mostró una tendencia a crecimiento más rápido en tratamientos con labranza convencional y el segundo periodo una tendencia a valores menores en cero labranza sin rastrojo.Después de la sequía al inicio de la temporada, hubo relativamente buena distribución de precipitación, lo que puede explicar que la expresión de estrés hídrico en tratamientos con cero labranza y remoción de rastrojo fue menor a lo observado en otros ciclos. En el tercer periodo el efecto de tratamiento sobre NDVI fue significativo (Fig. 2). Los mayores valores se presentaron con rotación maíz-trigo, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo (MT, CL, D) y los menores en monocultivo con remoción de rastrojo, tanto en cero labranza como labranza convencional (MM, CL, R y MM, LC, R).Los tratamientos principalmente se separaron en dos grupos: un grupo con valores bajos, incluyendo tratamientos con labranza convencional y cero labranza con remoción de rastrojo y un grupo con valores altos, incluyendo tratamientos con cero labranza o camas permanentes y retención (parcial) de rastrojo. cero labranza, monocultivo, dejando rastrojo (TT, CL, D) y en rotación trigo-maíz, misma labranza, manejo de rastrojo dejar maíz, remover rastrojo de trigo (TM, CL, PTDM).Los rendimientos promedio de frijol fueron de 2.4 t/ha y los de triticale de 3.0 t/ha. El rendimiento de triticale fue bajo por la falta de amacollamiento y el daño de gallina ciega. Observaciones en campo mostraron daño elevado de gallina ciega (Phylophaga spp.) en triticale, lo que podría elevar la incidencia en maíz en el ciclo siguiente. En la pudrición de las raíces de trigo no hubo diferencia significativa entre los tratamientos de ninguna de las partes analizadas.El tratamiento con mayor rendimiento de maíz (10.2 t/ha, Fig. 5a) fue en rotación maíz-trigo, cero labranza, dejar rastrojo (MT,CL, D), seguido de los tratamientos de cero labranza, misma rotación maíz-trigo, misma labranza, manejo de rastrojo dejar maíz, Remover rastrojo de trigo (MT, CL, PTDM), misma labranza, misma rotación, retención parcial de rastrojo (MT, CL, Par), rotación maíz-trigo-frijol, misma labranza, retención parcial de rastrojo (MTF, CL, Par) con 9.1 t/ha en promedio. El menor rendimiento (5.5 t/ha), se presentó en monocultivo, cero labranza y remoción de rastrojo (MM, LC, R), sin tener diferencia significativa con el mismo tratamiento con rotación maíz-trigo (MT, CL, R) y los tratamientos con labranza convencional (promedio 6.5 t/ha).El rendimiento promedio de trigo fue relativamente bajo (4.0 t/ha), porque las temperaturas altas y el estrés hídrico al inicio de la temporada impidió el buen amacollamiento. Los rendimientos de trigo más bajos (promedio de 3.3 t/ha, Fig. 5b) se tuvieron en los tratamientos de monocultivo, cero labranza, remoción de rastrojo (TT, CL, R), labranza convencional, rotación trigo-maíz, removiendo y dejando rastrojo (TM, LC, R y TM, LC, D), rotación trigo-maíz, cero labranza, remoción de rastrojo (TM, CL, R), monocultivo, labranza convencional, remover rastrojo (TT, LC, R) y en rotación trigo-frijol, camas permanentes, retención parcial de rastrojo (TF, CP, Par). El mayor rendimiento (5.4 t/ha) fue en el tratamiento rotación trigo-maíz, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo (TM, LC, D). Seguido por los tratamientos con promedio de 4.9 t/ha, los cuales fueron en Figura 7. Porcentaje de proteína en rastrojo de trigo en el ciclo 2017 de la plataforma Texcoco I ubicada en El Batán, Texcoco, Estado de México. Los tratamientos con la misma letra no son significativamente diferentes (p≤0.05). Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios. En el cultivo de maíz la mayor utilidad ($20,444 MXN/ha) se presentó en el tratamiento de rotación con trigo, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo (MT, CL, D), seguido por la rotación maíz-trigo-frijol, retención parcial de rastrojo en cero labranza (TFM, CL, Par) con una utilidad neta de $19,878 MXN/ha (Fig. 8a). Las utilidades más bajas se obtuvieron en tratamientos de cero labranza con remoción de rastrojo y tratamientos con labranza convencional, con utilidades entre $3,243 MXN/ha y $6,801 MXN/ha. Entre los tratamientos con retención (parcial) de rastrojo en la superficie, la utilidad fue más baja en MM, LC, D y MTr, CP, P (promedio $10,293 MXN/ha), debido a sus rendimientos más bajos.En el caso de trigo, la mayor utilidad fue en rotación con maíz, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo ($6,492 MXN/ha, Fig. 8b). Todos los tratamientos con retención de rastrojo en la superficie tuvieron una utilidad neta positiva, con excepción de trigo después de frijol, debido al rendimiento bajo en este tratamiento. Todos los tratamientos de cero labranza con remoción de rastrojo y tratamientos con labranza convencional, tuvieron utilidades negativas, con pérdidas entre $1,473 MXN/ha y $3,913 MXN/ha.Debido al precio alto de grano de frijol (20 MXN/ kg), ambos tratamientos de frijol tuvieron las utilidades más altas, con $33,396 MXN/ha para la rotación trigo-frijol (FT, CP, Par) y $38,707 MXN/ ha para la rotación maíz-trigo-frijol (MTF, LC Par). La utilidad neta del tratamiento con triticale fue negativa, con una pérdida de $637 MXN/ ha, debido al rendimiento bajo de triticale.Tomando en cuenta todas las fases de la rotación, solamente tres tratamientos de monocultivo de trigo resultaron en una utilidad negativa (Fig. 9). En monocultivo de trigo, la utilidad fue de $4,207 MXN/ha/año en cero labranza con retención de rastrojo (TT, LC, D). En monocultivo de maíz, la utilidad fue más del doble en cero labranza con retención de rastrojo ($10,203 MXN/ha/año en MM, LC, D) en comparación con los tres tratamientos sin rastrojo en la superficie (promedio de $4,160 MXN/ha/año). No se encontró diferencia significativa en el contenido de proteína en grano de maíz, con valores entre 9.6% (MM, LC, R) y 11.2% (MT, LC, R). El trigo tuvo alto contenido de proteína porque se sembró un material con buenas características de calidad. El mayor contenido de proteína en grano (promedio de 16.2%) se presentó en los tratamien-Figura 6. Porcentaje de proteína en grano de trigo en el ciclo 2017 de la plataforma Texcoco I ubicada en El Batán, Texcoco, Estado de México. Los tratamientos con la misma letra no son significativamente diferentes (p≤0.05). Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios. tos con rotación trigo-maíz, labranza convencional, con retención y remoción de rastrojo (TM, LC, D y TM, LC, R), significativamente más alto que en los otros tratamientos (Fig. 6), seguido por el tratamiento de monocultivo, labranza convencional, retención de rastrojo (TT, LC, D; 15.0%). El menor contenido de proteína (13.3%) se reportó en monocultivo, cero labranza, dejando rastrojo (TT, CL, D).En maíz no se encontró diferencia significativa en el contenido de proteína en rastrojo con un valor alrededor de 3% proteína. En el cultivo de trigo (Fig. 10), el menor contenido de proteína en rastrojo fue de 3.3% y se presentó en camas permanentes, retención parcial de rastrojo, con rotación de frijol (TF, CP, Par). El mayor valor (4.6%) se tuvo en rotación trigo-maíz, labranza convencional, retención de rastrojo (TM, LC, D), disminuyendo 0.3% al retirarle el rastrojo (TM, LC, R; 4.3%). Los valores tendieron a disminuir aún más cuando se utilizó monocultivo 4.1% en TT, LC, R y a 3.9% en TT, LC, D. Aunque el cultivo de maíz en promedio fue más rentable que trigo o triticale, hacer rotación de cultivo resultó ser más o igual de rentable que monocultivo en cero labranza con retención de rastrojo en varios casos: rotación maíz-trigo en cero labranza con retención (parcial) de rastrojo (promedio de $10,917 MXN/ha/año), rotación trigo-maíz en camas permanentes, debido a la utilidad alta de frijol ($15,002 MXN/ha/año) y rotación Figura 9. Utilidad neta de los tratamientos por año, tomando en cuenta todas las fases de la rotación, con base en los datos del ciclo 2017, en la plataforma Texcoco I, Estado de México. maíz-trigo-frijol. La utilidad más alta se logró en rotación maíz-trigo-frijol en cero labranza con retención parcial de rastrojo ($20,266 MXN/ha/ año en MTF, LC Par). Todos los tratamientos de Agricultura de Conservación, fueron más rentables que la práctica del productor con labranza convencional, monocultivo de maíz y Remoción de rastrojo (MM, LC, R), que tuvo una utilidad de $3,243 MXN/ha/año.La rotación de cultivos aumentó el rendimiento de grano en maíz comparado con maíz en monocultivo. Maíz sembrado en cero labranza obtuvo más altos rendimientos que en labranza convencional si se combina con retención (parcial) de rastrojo. El rendimiento promedio de trigo (4.0 t/ha) fue relativamente bajo porque las temperaturas altas y el estrés hídrico al inicio del ciclo dificultaron el amacollamiento.El trigo sembrado en rotación y cero labranza obtuvo más altos rendimientos que cuando fue sembrado en labranza convencional. No se encontró diferencia significativa en el contenido de proteína en grano de maíz. El trigo tuvo alto contenido de proteína en todos los tratamientos, porque se sembró un material con buenas características de calidad. El mayor contenido de proteína en grano (promedio de 16.2%) se presentó en los tratamientos con rotación trigo-maíz, labranza convencional, con retención y remoción de rastrojo, significativamente más alto que en los otros tratamientos. Tanto en maíz como trigo, la Agricultura de Conservación mejora la utilidad neta en comparación con prácticas convencionales. Todos los tratamientos de Agricultura de Conservación, fueron más rentables que la práctica del productor con labranza convencional, monocultivo de maíz y remoción de rastrojo.La utilidad más alta se logró en rotación maíz-trigo-frijol en cero labranza con retención parcial de rastrojo y fue más de seis veces más alta que la utilidad en la práctica convencional. Se va a modificar el tratamiento con la rotación triticale-maíz para identificar una opción que permite producir más biomasa forrajera y que sea más rentable. La plataforma se instaló para dar respuesta a algunas preguntas que habían surgido en la plataforma Texcoco I, pero para los cuales no había espacio en esta plataforma. Una dificultad para la implementación de Agricultura de Conservación en los Valles Altos es la cobertura del suelo. Comúnmente, los productores retiran todo el rastrojo de sus parcelas para usarlo como forraje para sus animales.Para los productores es difícil de generar suficiente cobertura del suelo para hacer Agricultura de Conservación exitoso, ya que no hay disponibilidad de rastrojo ni hay suficiente humedad para sembrar cultivos de cobertura después de la cosecha.Además, el temporal en los Valles Altos puede ser errático, lo que genera la necesidad de investigar maneras para retener más agua en el suelo.La plataforma se implementó en el año 1999 en esta se evalúan diferentes prácticas agronómicas para la rotación trigo con maíz bajo condiciones de temporal (Cuadro 1). Las prácticas de labranza evaluadas incluyen camas con labranza convencional (cincel, rastra, danesa y formación de ca-mas), camas permanentes angostas de 0.75 m y anchas de 1.5 m, en las que el único movimiento es durante su reformación en cada ciclo.Los manejos de rastrojo van desde su retención total a la remoción total; además se incluye la retención parcial de rastrojo, en el caso del trigo se deja 25 cm de paja parada y en maíz por debajo de la mazorca. Además, se cuenta con la técnica de pileteo para ayudar a almacenar agua.Las prácticas de labranza evaluadas incluyen camas con labranza convencional (cincel, rastra, danesa y formación de camas), camas permanentes angostas de 0.75 m y anchas de 1.5 m, en las que el único movimiento es durante la reformación en cada ciclo. Los manejos de rastrojo van desde su retención total a la remoción total; además se incluye la retención parcial de rastrojo, en el caso del trigo se deja 25 cm de paja parada y en maíz por debajo de la mazorca. Además, se cuenta con la técnica de pileteo para ayudar a almacenar agua (Cuadro 1). Los productores de la zona son en un 40% a pequeños agricultores que cuentan con superficies de cultivo de 0.5 a 5 ha, y el principal destino de la producción es de autoconsumo. 40% de agricultores son medianos con superficies de cultivo de 5 a 10 ha, y el destino de la producción es para el autoconsumo y un pequeño porcentaje para la venta y un 20% son grandes agricultores que tienen superficies de más de 20 ha, el destino de la producción es la venta, cuentan con maquinaria y disponibilidad de recursos para la producción (cimmyt, 2017).Nele Verhulst 1 , Ana Rosa García 1 , Jessica Gonzalez 1 , Fabián Enyanche La evaluación de incidencia de la podredumbre de raíz se realizó por parcela, haciendo una colecta al azar de 15 plantas de trigo y 10 plantas de maíz, las cuales fueron sacudidas para quitarles el suelo suelto ahí mismo en campo.Las raíces de trigo y maíz fueron lavadas con agua corriente para llevar a cabo su evaluación mediante las lesiones producidas mediante el uso de una lupa. Para las raíces de trigo, en cada planta se evaluó el dañó con una escala de 0-7 lo que se interpreta como; 0: ninguna lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con una sola lesión, 2: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 3: 50% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 4: 25-50% de raíces con pocas lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 5: más del 50% de raíces con lesiones dentro de los 10 mm desde la semilla a corona, 6: más del 50% de raíces cortas, no mayor a 30 mm y 7: casi sin raíces o con entrenudos necróticos.En el caso de las raíces de maíz, fueron evaluadas las raíces primarias y secundarias con una escala de 0-4, donde 0: sin lesión evidente, 1: 1-25% de raíces con pocas lesiones, 2: 25-50% de raíces con lesiones, 3: 50-75% de raíces con lesiones y 4: 75-100% de raíces con lesiones. También en las raíces de maíz se revisó el daño ocasionado por insectos con una escala de 1-9 donde, 1: ningún daño, 2: pocas raíces mordidas, 3: muchas raíces mordidas, 4: 1-3 raíces comidas, 5: más de 3 raíces comidas, 6: casi 1 anillo comido + muchas raíces mordidas, 7: 1 anillo comido, 8: 2 anillos comidos y 9: 3 o más anillos comidos.Antes de la cosecha, se contabilizó el acame de plantas de maíz las cuales se dividieron en acame provocado desde la raíz y acame desde el tallo. Al finalizar la temporada, el área central (1.5 m de ancho) de cada parcela fue cosechada y se determinó rendimiento de grano y sus componentes del rendimiento.Para el análisis de las curvas de NDVI se empleó la función Proc Mixed del paquete estadístico SAS y la instrucción Repeated para las mediciones repetidas. Las curvas se dividieron en periodos y cada uno se analizó por separado (por periodo y por cultivo). Los periodos para maíz fueron los siguientes: periodo I (27-55 días después de la siembra (DDS)), periodo II (62-125 DDS) y periodo III (132-160 DDS). Para trigo los periodos fueron: periodo I (28-49 DDS), periodo II (56-84 DDS) y periodo III (91-119 DDS).Cultivos el 8 de agosto del 2017: maíz en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y retención de rastrojo (arriba) y trigo en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y camas anchas con retención de rastrojo. En el ciclo 2017, la siembra de trigo se realizó el día 22 de mayo seguido del maíz el día 23 del mismo mes. En trigo se utilizó la variedad Waxbill a una densidad de 110 kg/ha y en maíz XR-12 a densidad de 75,000 semillas/ha. La fertilización en pre siembra fue de 50 kg N/ha + 40 kg P₂O₅/ ha, en este ciclo se le adicionó 1.5 kg/ha de boro; la segunda fertilización fue de 100 kg N/ha en banda cuando el trigo tiene el primer nudo y el maíz está en etapa V4-V5. Durante el desarrollo de los cultivos no se presentaron heladas y hubo buena distribución de lluvias de mayo a octubre alcanzándose acumular 494 mm (Fig. 1).En el ciclo se hicieron mediciones del índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI), los datos fueron colectados utilizando el sensor óptico portátil NDVI (GreenSeekerTM, NTech Industries, Inc, USA). Las mediciones se llevaron a cabo una vez por semana, pasando el sensor por el centro de la cama a una altura aproximada de 0.8 m sobre la superficie del cultivo. La cobertura de la franja del sensor es aproximadamente 0.6 m de ancho. En cada parcela se realizó un conteo de plantas, en el caso de maíz fueron 3 conteos utilizando un marco de 3 m de longitud y en trigo se hicieron 6 conteos con marcos de 0.5 m. Cultivos el 8 de agosto del 2017: maíz en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y retención de rastrojo (arriba) y trigo en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y camas anchas con retención de rastrojo.Las raíces de las plantas de maíz (Fig. 3) se analizaron por separado en primarias y secundarias. En las primarias, el tratamiento donde se presentó mayor daño (3.3 en escala de 0-4) fue donde se dejó rastrojo, sin diques en camas permanentes anchas (CPA, D, -Diq), significativamente más alto que en camas angostas donde se dejó rastrojo con o sin labranza (CCAng, D, -Diq y CP, D, -Diq) y con remoción total de rastrojo, donde se observó el daño menor (promedio de 1.6 en CP, R, +Diq y CP, R, -Diq).En las secundarias, continuó mayor el daño (2.7) en el tratamiento de camas permanentes anchas, dejando rastrojo, sin diques (CPA, D, -Diq) y menor en camas permanentes angostas, remoción de rastrojo, con y sin diques (CP, R, +Diq y CP, R, -Diq). El tratamiento de camas convencionales angostas, dejando rastrojo, sin diques (CCAng, D, -Diq) se sumó a los tratamientos con menor daño.El daño ocasionado por insectos fue mayor en el mismo tratamiento que en los anteriores, en retención de rastrojo, sin diques, en camas perma-nentes anchas (5.1; CPA, D, -Diq) y menor en tratamiento de camas con labranza convencional angostas, retención de rastrojo, sin diques (3.1; CCAng, D, -Diq).En las plantas de trigo, no se encontró diferencia significativa entre el análisis de pudrición de sus componentes (seminal, corona y tallo). Los datos de pudrición de raíz y los de rendimiento se analizaron mediante el análisis de varianza de Proc glm (ANOVA) utilizando el paquete estadístico SAS. La comparación de medias de los tratamientos se hizo con la prueba del rango estudentizado de LSD, considerando como diferencias significativas con p≤0.05.Curvas de crecimiento con el Índice diferencial de vegetación normalizado (NDVI)En las curvas de NDVI del cultivo de maíz, durante el primer periodo no se tuvo diferencia significativa entre los tratamientos (Fig. 2a).Durante el segundo periodo los mayores valores se presentaron en camas permanentes angostas, con retención de rastrojo, sin la utilización de diques (CP, Dej, -Diq), existiendo diferencia significativa con los tratamientos donde se removió de manera total o parcial el rastrojo, con o sin utilizar diques (CP, R, +Diq y CP, P, -Diq). Cuando el rastrojo fue removido, sin utilización de diques (CP, R, -Diq) los valores de NDVI fueron más bajos que en todos los otros tratamientos, reflejando el mayor estrés hídrico en este tratamiento y que la utilización de diques puede ayudar a mitigar este estrés si el temporal es suficientemente bueno.En el tercer periodo el comportamiento continúo similar al anterior. Los valores en camas permanentes angostas, dejando rastrojo sin utilización de diques (CP, Dej, -Diq) fueron mayores que en todos los otros tratamientos con excepción del mismo tratamiento en camas anchas (CPA, Dej, -Diq). Cuando el rastrojo fue removido sin utilización de diques (CP, R, -Diq), los valores de NDVI fueron los menores, y significativamente más bajos que cuando se dejó todo el rastrojo (CP, Dej, -Diq y CPA, Dej, -Diq) o se dejó una parte en combinación con la utilización de diques (CP, P, +Diq).En las curvas de NDVI del cultivo de trigo, se aprecia que durante el primer periodo los mayores valores fueron obtenidos con los tratamientos donde se retiene rastrojo, sin utilización de diques tanto en camas convencionales angostas como en permanentes angostas (CCAng, Dej, -Diq y CP, Dej, -Diq; Fig. 2b). Los valores de ND-VI fueron significativamente más bajos en camas permanentes angostas, remoción de rastrojo, sin utilización de diques (CP, R, -Diq) que en todos los otros tratamientos.En el segundo periodo el comportamiento de los tratamientos fue de manera similar encontrándose valores significativamente más bajos en camas permanentes angostas, remoción de rastrojo y sin la utilización de diques (CP, R, -Diq) que en los otros tratamientos. En el tercer periodo ya no se encontraron diferencias significativas.Cultivos el 8 de agosto del 2017: maíz en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y retención de rastrojo (arriba) y trigo en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y camas anchas con retención de rastrojo.137 136 En acame desde raíz no hubo diferencia significativa entre sus tratamientos. En acame de tallo (Fig. 4), fue mayor (33,174 plantas/hectárea) en el tratamiento de camas permanentes angostas, retención parcial de rastrojo, sin diques (CP, P, -Diq) y menor (9,996 plantas/hectárea) en el tratamiento de camas permanentes anchas, dejando rastrojo, sin diques (CPA, D, -Diq).Los mayores rendimientos de maíz (promedio de 8.9 t/ha, Fig. 5a) se obtuvieron donde se dejó rastrojo de manera total, en camas permanentes angostas y anchas, sin diques (CP, D, -Diq y CPA, D, -Diq); mientras que, el menor rendimiento (5.9 t/ha) fue cuando se removió el rastrojo, camas permanentes angostas, sin la utilización de diques (CP, R, -Diq). Hacer labranza convencional resultó en un rendimiento intermedio de 6.8 t/ha. La utilización de diques en camas permanentes angostas con remoción total o parcial aumentó el rendimiento con 0.9 t/ha en promedio, pero la diferencia no fue significativa.El rendimiento de trigo más bajo (2.9 t/ha, Fig. 5b) se tuvo en camas permanentes angostas, con remoción de rastrojo, sin diques (CP, Rem, -Diq); incrementándose hasta 2.4 t/ha cuando se dejó el rastrojo, bajo las mismas condiciones de labranza y sin diques, siendo este tratamiento el de mayor rendimiento (5.3 t/ha) (CP, D, -Diq), no existiendo diferencia significativa con los tratamientos de camas convencionales angostas y camas permanentes anchas con las mismas condiciones de rastrojo y sin la utilización de diques (CCAng, D, -Diq y CPA, D, -Diq).  los precios de grano fueron similares (3.4 MXN/ kg para maiz y 3.8 MXN/kg para trigo), la utilidad de trigo fue más baja que la de maíz. La utilidad de trigo fue mayor en camas permanentes angostas, retención de rastrojo, sin diques (CP, D, -Diq) con $6,170 MXN/ha.La mayor pérdida de $3,8764 MXN/ha fue cuando se removió el rastrojo (CP, R, -Diq). En general la mayor utilidad fue donde se retuvo de manera total el rastrojo sin utilización de diques con promedio de $5,432 MXN/ha, cuando se retuvo de manera parcial fue de $3,476 MXN/ha y hubo pérdidas de $1,976 MXN/ha cuando el rastrojo fue removido.En maíz, todos los tratamientos tuvieron una utilidad neta positiva (Fig. 6a). La utilidad en camas anchas y angostas con retención de rastrojo (CP, D, -Diq y CPA, D, -Diq) fue más que el doble (promedio $16,291 MXN/ha) que con labranza convencional ($7,908 MXN/ha en CCAng, D, -Diq). La menor utilidad ($5,505 MXN/ha) fue en el tratamiento de camas permanentes angostas, remoción de rastrojo, sin diques (CP, R, -Diq).En trigo, la utilidad neta fue negativa en tratamientos con remoción de rastrojo y positiva en todos los otros tratamientos (Fig. 6b). Debido al rendimiento menor de trigo que maíz, mientras En el contenido de proteína en grano de maíz y de trigo no hubo diferencia significativa entre tratamientos. El contenido promedio de proteína en grano de maíz fue 10.0% y en trigo fue de Figura 5 (a y b). Resultados de rendimiento de maíz (a) y trigo (b) en el ciclo 2017 de la plataforma Texcoco II ubicada en El Batán, Texcoco, Estado de México. Los tratamientos con la misma letra no son significativamente diferentes (p≤0.05). Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios.Abreviaciones: CCAng= Camas con labranza convencional angostas de 0.75 m, CP= Camas permanentes angostas de 0.75 m, CPA= Camas anchas permanentes de 1.50 m; Manejo de rastrojo: D= Dejar todo el rastrojo, R= Remover todo el rastrojo, P= Dejar parte del rastrojo; Diques: -Diq= Sin diques y +Diq= Con diques.14.3%. Al igual que en grano, en el contenido de proteína en rastrojo tampoco existió diferencia significativa entre sus tratamientos. Los porcentajes promedios fueron de 3.8% en maíz y 4.4% en trigo. En maíz y trigo, la remoción de rastrojo en camas permanentes angostas disminuyó el rendimiento significativamente, debido al mayor estrés hídrico en estos tratamientos que cuando hay rastrojo en la superficie. El uso de diques no compensó la pérdida de rendimiento por remoción de rastrojo este ciclo. Con retención de rastrojo, el rendimiento de trigo fue similar en camas anchas y angostas. No se encontraron efectos significativos de los tratamientos sobre el contenido de proteína en grano y rastrojo.Las diferencias en rendimiento se vieron reflejadas en la rentabilidad de los tratamientos, con utilidad más alta en Agricultura de Conservación. Para maíz, la Agricultura de Conservación aumentó la utilidad con más del 100% en comparación con el tratamiento con labranza convencional y para trigo con más del 30%.Cultivos el 8 de agosto del 2017: maíz en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y retención de rastrojo (arriba) y trigo en camas permanentes angostas con remoción y camas anchas con retención de rastrojo.La plataforma se estableció en el predio de Santa Enna, ubicado en antigua carretera Campeche -Mérida km 8.0 de la carretera Hopelchén -Bolonchén, en el rancho Santa Enna en las coordenadas geográficas 19°48´25.47\" LN y 89°48´39.85\" LW, en una superficie de aproximadamente 8 ha, las cuales se distribuyeron en un área destinada para las parcelas de tipos de labranza y el área de validación de componentes En el área de componentes se estableció el ensayo de fertilidad con el objetivo de evaluar la respuesta del rendimiento de grano por efecto de la cantidad y momento de aplicación de fertilizante nitrogenado. Se validaron diferentes niveles de fertilización y tiempos de aplicación para identificar el mejor nivel y conocer si la fertilización fraccionada en estas regiones de temporal tiene algún efecto en la productividad de las parcelas.Hopelchen, Campeche, desarrollo del cultivo de maíz, en parcela rotación SM, CL, Ms0, 24 noviembre 2017.142 Agricultura de conservación en los campos menonitas en Campeche Introducción Durante 2014, a través de viajes de intercambio de experiencias, los productores de las comunidades menonitas conocieron el sistema de Agricultura de Conservación en valle de Santiago en Guanajuato. El viaje fue de suma importancia para que ellos iniciaran con un proceso de adopción y adaptación, sin embargo, al iniciar con el proceso de implementación del sistema se toparon con muchas dudas que no podían resolverse ya que no encontraron experiencias en la región.Por tal motivo y con base al apoyo de instituciones como FIRA a través del pago de técnicos habilitados en Agricultura de Conservación, en 2015 se inició el proceso de establecimiento de parcelas de innovación en Agricultura de Conservación. Este mismo año, con la apertura del HubLuis Felipe Chan Be 1 , Carlos Augusto Tapia Moo 1 , Carlos Manuel Yam Noh 1 , Sergio Enrique Noh Noh 1 , José David Caamal Cauich 1 1 Agroenlace Campeche SA de CV Península de Yucatán y la iniciativa MasAgro de sagarpa y coordinación del cimmyt, el despacho Agroenlace Campeche SA de CV y las SPR de RI La Temporada y Los Temporales de las comunidades menonitas de Nuevo progreso y el Temporal, propusieron ante el Hub el establecimiento de una plataforma de investigación con base en Agricultura de Conservación para resolver las dudas que se presenten a los productores en relación a este sistema innovador de producción.Posterior a las reuniones con los productores y a las pláticas con el gerente del Hub Península de Yucatán se definió con los representantes de los productores las innovaciones a validar y se decidió en qué predio se realizaría la plataforma de investigación.Plataforma Hopelchén, CampecheInstitución / Colaborador AGROENLACE campeche S.A. de C.V.Altitud 87 msnmCiclo agrícola PVHopelchén segunda fertilización en V5 con 208 kg/ha de urea para cubrir las 152 kg de N/ha.Durante el desarrollo del cultivo se realizaron muestreos para determinar el umbral económico del gusano cogollero, se realizaron dos aplicaciones de insecticida para el control de gusano cogollero a razón de 100 ml/ha de palgus (Spinetoram). Se observó la presencia de pulgón en hoja bandera, sin embargo, el muestreo de umbral económico no reflejaba la necesidad de realizar el control químico. Las aplicaciones se realizaron los días 25 de agosto y 5 de septiembre para el cultivo de maíz y 17 de octubre para el caso de la soya con la aplicación de cipermetrina a razón de 0.5 L/ha.Para el control de malezas, la primera aplicación de herbicidas se realizó después de la siembra el 3 de agosto antes de la germinación del cultivo, se aplicó Glifosato 2.0 L/ha y Bambel (Dicamba) 0.5 L/ha. La segunda aplicación se realizó el día 25 de agosto y se aplicaron 0.75 L/ha de Dicamba y 0.8 L/ha de Teuton (Nicosulfuron), dadas las condiciones ambientales y al exceso de lluvias, se requirió una tercera aplicación de herbicidas, 300 ml/ha de Laudis (Tembrotrione) el cual se aplicó el día 20 de septiembre. Para la parcela de soya, se realizó un chapeo manual el día 6 de septiembre y la aplicación de pivot a razón de 1 L/ha, el día 26 de septiembre. Al llegar a maduración de grano y para reducir la invasión de enredaderas como la pica pica (Stizolobium pruriens) y no tener problemas durante la trilla, se aplicó un herbicida desecante.Las fertilizaciones foliares se aplicaron al momento de aplicar los insecticidas y herbicidas, se realizaron tres fertilizaciones, con la fórmula 20-30-10 (grofol), para el tratamiento 2 adicionalmente se aplicó BIO2 y un consorcio microbiano de seis cepas de microorgnismos: Bacilus thuringensis, Bauberia basiana, Metharrizium, Phacelomices, Leucanisilium, Azhotobacter.En el área de validación se evaluó el efecto de las dosis de fertilización y momentos de aplicación en el cultivo de maíz de temporal, se establecieron 7 tratamientos incluyendo dos sistemas de fertilización con fertilizantes de las empresas Yara y Fertiquisa. Se diseñaron dosis de fertilización buscando la más adecuada y económica para la región.La fertilización se fraccionó de acuerdo con la aportación de nitrógeno, por lo tanto, los tratamientos con los niveles más altos de nitrógeno fueron fraccionados de la siguiente manera: el 30% de nitrógeno se aplicó al momento de la siembra y el 70% restante en la etapa V5, para el fosforo y el Potasio la aplicación fue 100% a la siembra. Uno de los tratamientos con los niveles más altos de nitrógeno 120 kg/ha, fue aplicado al 100%, los tratamientos de las casas comerciales Yara y fertiquisa, aportaron la misma cantidad de nitrógeno a la siembra que el testigo.Hopelchen, Campeche, desarrollo del cultivo de maíz, en parcela rotación SM, CL, Ms0, 24 noviembre 2017.PlataformaFúlvicos y Carboxílicos.La siembra debía realizarse durante la primera quincena del mes de junio, sin embargo, las constantes lluvias no permitieron que esta pueda llevarse a cabo. El exceso de lluvia se presentó durante los meses de junio y julio, y la siembra se pospuso hasta el 1 de agosto de 2017.Durante el desarrollo del cultivo las condiciones climatológicas fueron satisfactorias, sin embargo, durante el periodo de llenado de grano, el exceso de humedad ocasionó la presencia de patógenos como mildiu, Giberella, fusarium y Diplodia que ocasionaron que se detuviera el llenado de las mazorcas y bajaran los rendimientos drásticamente. Cabe señalar que no se aplicaron medidas preventivas contra hongos, salvo el tratamiento MM, LC, Ms1 con microbiología benéfica aplicado al suelo, sin embargo, hasta en esta parcela se observaron ese tipo de problemas. Preparación del terreno en módulo de Labranza.Las operaciones en la plataforma comenzaron en enero al realizar el desvare y posteriormente remarcar las parcelas. El primer rastreo para las parcelas de LC se realizó el día 8 de mayo y el segundo rastreo el 2 de junio de 2017, para las parcelas de CL se realizó un segundo desvare el 17 de julio. El 19 de abril se realizó la aplicación de 2 l/ha de agua oxigenada y 6 l/ha de ácido acético y por la tarde se aplicaron siete cepas de microorganismos a razón de 2 l/ha, las cepas son: Trichoderma, Bacillus subtillis, Micorrizas, Azhospirilum, Rhizobium, Pseudomona florences, y Pseodomona putida en el tratamiento MM, LC, Ms1.La siembra se realizó el 1 agosto a excepción de las parcelas MM, LC, Ms0 Y MM,CPA,Ms0 debido a que, estas parcelas se encontraban inundadas, al igual que el de las parcelas de soya. La densidad de siembra en todas las parcelas fue de 62,500 semillas por ha y la fertilización se realizó con 300 kg/ha de mezcla física con fórmula 19-22-16 a base de DAP, Urea y cloruro de potasio, y una El menor costo de producción $6,067 MXN/ha, correspondió a la rotación soya -maíz (SM), en cero labranza (CL) sin la aplicación de mejoradores de suelo y microbiología (Ms0) que es el tratamiento (SM,CL,Ms0). En contraste el mayor costo de producción $13,010 MXN/ha fue para el tratamiento con la rotación maíz-maíz (MM), en labranza convencional (LC) con aplicación de mejoradores de suelo y microbiología; el tratamiento (MM,LC,Ms1). Los tratamientos con CL presentaron los mismos costos de producción $11,790 MXN/ha y menores a los de LC.El costo que representa el mayor porcentaje del costo total es el de fertilización (42% para todos los tratamientos con CL, 40 y 30% para los dos tratamientos con LC y 36% para la rotación soyamaíz), le sigue el costo de control de malezas con el 22% en promedio para todos los tratamientos y 24% para la rotación soya-maíz. Algo que es muy importante señalar dada las condiciones del presente ciclo de estudio, es el costo de control de plagas y enfermedades, el cual en todos los tratamientos solo represento el 3% del costo total, sin embargo, por las observaciones hechas en campo y la presencia de diversas enferme-dades causadas por hongos y bacterias, sería importante darle mayor importancia a este rubro, y diseñar con los productores un esquema que permita evaluar la prevención de enfermedades y la fertilización como factores limitantes de la producción.Hopelchen, Campeche, desarrollo del cultivo de maíz, en parcela rotación SM, CL, Ms0, 24 noviembre 2017. Los tratamientos con cultivo de maíz que presentaron mayor altura fueron los tratamientos (testigo) MM,LC,Ms0 y el MM, CPA, Ms0, con altura promedio de 250 cm, la menor altura 216 cm se presentó con el tratamiento MM, LC,Ms1.Durante el ciclo PV 2017, se esperaban rendimientos cercanos a las 7.0 t/ha, sin embargo, dadas las condiciones climatológicas de fuertes precipitaciones, saturación del suelo, inundación de parcelas, y exceso de humedad en el ambiente, proliferaron enfermedades causadas por hongos. No había diferencias significativas entre tratamientos en rendimiento, con el rendimiento alrededor de 5.3 t/ha.Entre las variables que se están, destaca el análisis de los costos de producción, ya que es una forma de que al productor le interese la innovación tecnológica y una herramienta para el técnico para convencer al productor a adoptar la innovación de la cero labranza, sobre todo cuando el sistema convencional es de muy poca inversión, como es el caso de los productores menonitas de la región de los Chenes. En diferentes estudios realizados por instituciones como FIRA y el despacho Agroenlace Campeche SA de CV, han reportado que los costos de producción por ha de maíz, no asciende a más de $10,500 MXN/ha. La grafica 3 nos indica que los costos de producción en la plataforma de investigación están por encima del máximo costo de la región de los Chenes, sin embargo, es importante señalar que estos costos están para obtener una producción esperado de 7 t/ha. Situación que no pudo alcanzarse por diversos factores, uno podría ser el exceso de humedad y la consecuente presencia de enfermedades causadas por hongos y bacterias.Figura 2. Efecto del sistema de labranza, en rendimiento kg por ha, en la plataforma de Investigación Santa Enna Hopelchén Camp. Medias con una letra común no son significativamente diferentes (p>0.05). Las barras de error representan los errores estándar de los promedios.Abreviaciones: M= Maíz, S= Soya, LC= Labranza convencional, CL= Cero labranzas, Ms0= Sin mejoradores de suelo y Ms1= Con mejoradores de suelo, (Ácido acético, Bio2, microorganismos). Se recomienda continuar evaluando los sistemas de labranza, ya que los productores de la región empiezan a interesarse por esta innovación tecnológica, los rendimientos obtenidos en estas parcelas fueron superiores a los obtenidos por el promedio de los productores que es de 3.2 t/ha, para el caso del maíz.En relación al cultivo de soya, esta se sembró totalmente fuera de fecha, sin embargo, se logró una producción aceptable, pero por debajo del promedio general de la región. Se lograron los resultados esperados en cada uno de los protocolos propuestos, tanto el de labranza como el de fertilidad, se promovieron las innovaciones tecnológicas y se empiezan a observar resultados en las parcelas de los productores innovadores.Figura 6. Ingreso, Utilidad y relación beneficio costo por efecto del nivel de fertilización nitrogenada y momento de aplicación, en la plataforma de Investigación Santa Enna Hopelchén Camp.Abreviaciones: 100% S= 100% a la siembra, 30% S= 30% a la siembra, 70% V5, 70% en la etapa V5, UAN32 Fertilizante de Fertiquisa. La fertilización propuesta para el presente ensayo fue para alcanzar una producción máxima de 7 t/ha de maíz, sin embargo, debido a diversos factores como la fecha de siembra, el exceso de humedad y la presencia de enfermedades causadas por hongos y bacterias, la producción fue menor a 5 t/ha en todos los tratamientos.Al realizar el análisis de varianza entre tratamientos se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los tratamientos que fueron balanceados con base a los requerimientos de nitrógeno del cultivo vs el testigo y los tratamientos con fertilizantes de Yara e Isquisa, ya que estos aportaron los mismos nutrientes que el tratamiento testigo, 36N-92P-00K que es la fertilización que practican los mejores productores.El mejor rendimiento 4.9 t/ha se logró con la aplicación de 120-57-00 NPK, fraccionando el 30% del N a la siembra y el 70% en V5, seguido por el tratamiento 4 con biofertilizantes (120-57-00 30%S,70%V5, BIO). Los tratamientos con los niveles más altos de N fueron los que presentaron diferencia significativa con el tratamiento testigo (*36-92-00 100% siembra) y la fertilización con Isquisa. Sin embargo, no presentaron diferencia entre ellos, lo que indica que existe un efecto en el rendimiento por el nivel de N, sin embargo, no se observa diferencia entre fraccionar la fertilización nitrogenada y aplicarla al 100% a la siembra.El tratamiento con la mejor utilidad, $6,175 MXN/ ha, fue la fertilización fraccionada de N 30%S y 70% V5, con 120 N y 57 P, sin la aplicación de K, con 1.55 de relación beneficio/costo, este tratamiento fue también el de mejor producción por ha. Los dos siguientes tratamientos fueron el de máxima aplicación de nitrógeno a la siembra (120-57-00, 100% Siembra), con una utilidad de $ 5,732 MXN/ha y una relación beneficio/costo de 1.53, el tratamiento con la aplicación de biofertilizantes, aunque tuvo una mejor producción que el tratamiento anterior, los costos fueron más elevados, por lo que la utilidad fue de $ 4,806 MXN/ha. Las plataformas son espacios destinados a la investigación, la generación de conocimientos, datos e información, así como al desarrollo y adaptación de los sistemas productivos, las prácticas culturales y las tecnologías más adecuadas para una zona agroecológica determinada, desde una perspectiva técnica, socioeconómica y ambiental.En las plataformas se validan y desarrollan prácticas y sistemas de producción que están basados en la Agricultura de Conservación (AC), se enfocan en las necesidades de los productores locales, están orientadas a mejorar la productividad, la rentabilidad y la sustentabilidad de los sistemas de producción, y son accesibles y relevantes para los productores de la zona de impacto. Las plataformas son puntos focales dentro de los hubs o nodos de innovación donde, en adición a sus funciones en la investigación, juegan el papel de puntos de capacitación para técnicos y productores, de intercambio de ideas y maquinaria, entre otras funciones.En 2017, la red de plataformas de investigación de MasAgro Productor consistió en 40 plataformas con diversas condiciones, desde siembra manual a altamente tecnificada, de temporal, de riego, en terrenos nivelados y de pendiente fuerte. No obstante, todas las plataformas están enfocadas en sistemas con base en trigo o maíz y evaluando prácticas agronómicas con base en AC. Las diversas condiciones y los diferentes tratamientos dentro de una plataforma nos permiten evaluar cómo puede funcionar AC en un rango amplio de condiciones, cómo se debe ajustar la tecnología y cuáles son los procesos que afectan la probabilidad de éxito de su implementación.El rendimiento integra el efecto de todos los factores bióticos y abióticos que influencian el comportamiento del cultivo durante el ciclo; un buen rendimiento indica mejores condiciones, ya sea por tipo de suelo, clima u otras características físicas, pero también intervienen las buenas prácticas agrícolas. En la evaluación de losSimon Fonteyne 1 , Nele Verhulst 1 1 Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (cimmyt) Fecha de reporte: 20 de octubre de 2018 sistemas agrícolas es importante que el enfoque no solamente sea obtener el mayor rendimiento, sino que se tome en cuenta el equilibrio entre la productividad, la rentabilidad y el riesgo por el clima o la fluctuación de los precios, entre otros factores.Muchas veces es posible obtener mayores rendimientos mediante inversiones en insumos, maquinaria y riego, sin embargo, la inversión no necesariamente tiene sentido desde el punto de vista económico. La combinación de buenos rendimientos y bajos costos de producción brindan al agricultor la oportunidad de ser más rentable. No obstante, la información sobre cuáles son los ingresos reales del productor es algo que no se reporta a menudo y es un factor limitante para la toma de decisiones sobre las mejores prácticas a adoptar.El objetivo del análisis aquí presentado fue de compilar los datos de rendimiento y costos de producción de 26 plataformas de investigación para analizar la rentabilidad de los tratamientos evaluados en las plataformas y poder generar mejores recomendaciones para los productores sobre cuales prácticas son más rentables.La selección de plataformas se llevó a cabo considerando las que tuvieran los sistemas de producción representativos de las diferentes condiciones en la red, se eligieron 26 de las 40 plataformas de investigación de MasAgro Productor que se tuvieron en 2017.Se tomaron en cuenta diversos parámetros para la selección de las mismas, entre ellos, que cada plataforma contara con una base de datos de sus costos de producción, aunque no fue obligatorio para los responsables de plataforma entregar estos datos, se revisó la calidad de los mismos y se compararon los costos con los de los módulos que están ligados a la plataforma para dar mayor veracidad.Los sistemas de producción que tenemos en el país son muy diversos, es por eso que las plataformas se ubican en zonas estratégicas para representarlos. En el Noroeste del país la agricultura es mecanizada e intensiva, de alta productividad e insumos, bajo condiciones de riego donde los cultivos principales son trigo y maíz y con dos ciclos por año en algunas regiones, mientras que en el sur del país tenemos una agricultura de autoconsumo o de baja productividad donde la mayoría de sus labores son manuales y su cosecha se guarda para sembrar el próximo ciclo y otra parte la destinan para la alimentación.En la región del Bajío las condiciones son parecidas a las del Noroeste, tienen buenas producciones de trigo y maíz, es una agricultura mecanizada, algunas con condiciones de riego y otras de temporal y solo se siembra el ciclo de Primavera-Verano (PV). En la zona centro del país la agricultura también es mecanizada pero su maquinaria es de mediana escala, su régimen de humedad es mayormente de temporal y sus principales cultivos son maíz y trigo.Las plataformas incluidas en el análisis están distribuidas dentro de nueve hubs o nodos de innovación: Pacífico Norte, Intermedio, Bajío, Valles Altos Maíz, Valles Altos Grano Pequeño, Chiapas, Pacífico Sur, Pacífico Centro y Península de Yucatán, que a su vez corresponden a los estados de Sonora, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacán, Querétaro, Puebla, Estado de México, Hidalgo, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Morelos y Campeche (Cuadro 1). Tienen diferentes años de instalación, desde la de Texcoco I (Estado de México) que tiene 27 años como plataforma ya que se estableció en 1991, hasta las plataformas que se instalaron en 2016. Están ubicadas a distintos niveles sobre el nivel del mar, siendo la de mayor altitud la de Metepec, Estado de México (2,640 msnm) y la de menor altitud la de Guasave, Sinaloa (16 msnm). Para todas las plataformas los cultivos principales son el maíz y el trigo, aunque se tienen diversas rotaciones con otros cultivos en algunas de ellas. Los regímenes de humedad son de riego y temporal y seis plataformas tienen dos ciclos por año, las otras solamente uno (Cuadro 1).Para operaciones mecanizadas se tomó como costo el precio de la maquila. Se separaron los costos en 7 rubros: preparación de suelo, siembra (costo de semilla + operación de siembra), fertilización, control de malezas, control de plagas y enfermedades, riego y cosecha. No se tomaron en cuenta costos de poscosecha y costos indirectos como renta, seguro o impuestos y tampoco se tomaron en cuenta subsidios. Con los datos de rendimiento y los precios de venta reportados se calculó el ingreso total. Del ingreso total se restó el costo total de producción para calcular la utilidad total. Con estos datos también se calculó la relación beneficio/costo y el costo de producción por tonelada de grano. Los datos de ingreso y utilidad solo se calcularon con el rendimiento de grano a menos que se indique lo contrario.Los datos reportados de rendimiento por los colaboradores se limitan en general a la producción de grano, sin embargo, la venta de rastrojo es una importante fuente de ingresos en algunas zonas del país. Por eso se hizo por primera vez una estimación de la importancia del rastrojo en la utilidad de los tratamientos de las plataformas. Para el análisis del beneficio del rastrojo se tomaron los precios de mercado local de rastrojo y se hizo una estimación aproximada de la producción de rastrojo basado en el rendimiento de grano y un índice de cosecha de 0.5 y el porcentaje de rastrojo cosechado según el tratamiento. Se sumó este ingreso con el obtenido por el grano para hacer el análisis de la utilidad total del tratamiento. En algunas áreas se vende todo el rastrojo a un precio por hectárea a vendedores de rastrojo o a pastores, en este caso se sumó este ingreso ($500-2,000 MXN/ha) al obtenido por venta de grano del tratamiento.En total se colectaron los datos de 318 tratamientos repartidos sobre las 26 plataformas en 32 ciclos de producción en PV 2017 y OI 2017 -2018, lo que permite analizar las tendencias generales que se pueden observar en las plataformas. Los costos de producción para maíz variaban entre $7,346 y $29,039 MXN/ha (Cuadro 2).Para trigo los costos de producción variaban entre $11,498 y $16,788 MXN/ha. En maíz la mayor utilidad fue de $48,240 MXN/ha y la menor de $-15,510 MXN/ha. La mayor utilidad en trigo fue de $23,195 MXN/ha mientras que la utilidad más baja fue de $-6,284MXN/ha. El costo por tonelada de maíz variaba entre $938 MXN/t y $12,882 MXN/t y el de trigo entre $1,299 y $5,142 MXN/t. De todos los tratamientos la menor relación beneficio/costo de 0.35 se obtuvo en tratamiento MM, LC, R, V1, Q/O en Molcaxac, Puebla y la mayor, 4.29, se obtuvo con tratamiento TFM, CL, P en Texcoco I, México donde se sembró frijol. En promedio, los costos de producción para maíz fueron los más altos en sistemas de riego (Fig. 1). Los costos de producción de trigo en riego y temporal y los de maíz en temporal fueron similares. La fertilización en general, contribuye la proporción mayor del costo de producción con un 26-38% del costo total (Fig. 2), lo que demuestra la necesidad de trabajar más en el uso eficiente de este insumo costoso.  Cuadro 2. Resumen de los tratamientos con mayor y menor costo de producción, utilidad y costo por tonelada en maíz y trigo en las plataformas incluidas en el estudio.Los costos de producción promedio de maíz en general fueron más altos en el hub Pacífico Norte y más bajos en el hub Yucatán (Cuadro 3). Los rendimientos de maíz también son altos en Pacífico Norte y por eso también las utilidades netas son en promedio más altos en este hub. Para trigo los costos de producción promedio fueron similares entre los hubs mientras que las utilidades varían considerablemente entre hubs.Cabe mencionar que son datos promedios y que en los tratamientos de las plataformas también se evalúan tratamientos con manejo convencional y tratamientos de innovación que aún no están perfeccionados, lo que puede causar utilidades menores. Un tratamiento con mal rendimiento o muy elevados costos entonces puede afectar estos promedios, especialmente en los hubs pequeños.Figura 2. Porcentaje de costos de producción debido a cada rubro. Correlaciones entre rendimiento, ingresos, costos y utilidadEl rendimiento de grano de maíz estuvo fuertemente correlacionado con el ingreso total y la utilidad neta, sin embargo la relación entre rendimiento y costo total de producción no fue tan fuerte (Cuadro 4, Fig. 3), lo que indica que con mayor inversión no necesariamente se obtiene mayor rendimiento. Además, la correlación entre el costo total y la utilidad neta fue solamente 0.19 (Cuadro 4, Fig. 4). Esto indica que en sistemas de producción con altos costos de producción (debido a alto uso de insumos) no necesariamente generan los más altos rendimientos y buenas utilidades.La investigación por eso debe enfocarse en un mejor uso de los insumos y mejores prácticas agronómicas que sí pueden aumentar rendimientos. En los tratamientos con trigo (54 observaciones) los resultados fueron similares (Fig. 5, Fig. 6). El análisis no tomó en cuenta los costos indirectos como renta o seguros ya que estos datos no están disponibles para todas las plataformas. En general estos costos son más altos en los sistemas de alta producción donde los costos son más altos, lo que reduciría aún más la utilidad final en los sistemas intensivos y disminuiría la relación entre el monto invertido en los costos de producción y la utilidad que el productor obtiene.Cuadro 4. Correlaciones entre rendimiento, ingreso total, costo total y utilidad neta en los tratamientos con maíz. El costo de labranza variaba entre $5,190 MXN/ha para tratamientos con camas con labranza convencional en Guasave a $0 MXN/ha en tratamientos en varias plataformas donde el costo de labranza no era diferente del costo de la aplicación de herbicidas antes de la siembra. En promedio la opción más costosa para la preparación del terreno son las camas con labranza convencional y la labranza convencional (Cuadro 5), seguido por los tipos de labranza mínima.Los tipos de preparación de suelo usado en la AC, la cero labranza y las camas permanentes son los más económicos. En cero labranza hay un costo de preparación de suelo debido al control de malezas con herbicida, mientras que en camas permanentes es necesario reformar las camas. Como regla general se puede concluir que se ahorran aproximadamente $2,000 MXN/ ha en costos de preparación de suelo en AC comparado con los sistemas con labranza convencional.Para analizar en términos generales las diferencias en costo y utilidad de AC se clasificaron todos los tratamientos en tres tipos. Convencional: tratamientos con labranza convencional, AC: Tratamientos con los tres principios de AC y Mínimo: Tratamientos con labranza reducida pero que no cumplen con los tres principios de AC.Los costos de producción son significativamente más bajos en los sistemas de AC (promedio de $14,727 MXN/ha) que en sistemas convencionales o con labranza mínima ($17,027 y $16,606 MXN/ha respectivamente) (Fig. 7). Sin embrago, la utilidad neta en promedio no es significativamente diferente entre los sistemas (Fig. 8). Cuadro 5. Costo promedio de los tipos de preparación de suelo usados en las plataformas. Camas angostas tienen el ancho de un surco de maíz, camas anchas tienen el ancho de dos surcos de maíz. El valor del rastrojo 13 de las plataformas se ubican en una zona donde el rastrojo tiene un valor para la venta o para alimentar los animales del productor y cuentan con tratamientos que comparan la remoción de rastrojo con dejar rastrojo en la superficie para generar los beneficios en la calidad de suelo. En las otras plataformas no hay tratamientos con diferentes niveles de rastrojo (Indaparapeo, Michoacán y San Martin Hidalgo, Jalisco), no hay un valor bien establecido del valor del rastrojo (Cuautempan, Puebla y San Juan Cotzocón, Oaxaca) o se acostumbra dejar, pastorear o quemar el rastrojo. Porque el rastrojo forma un parte importante del ingreso del productor en muchas zonas, se hizo una estimación del valor del rastrojo y se calculó la rentabilidad de los tratamientos de las 13 plataformas donde los datos están disponibles, calculando el ingreso total sumando el valor del grano producido y el valor del rastrojo.El ingreso por el rastrojo variaba entre $500 MXN/ha en Francisco I. Madero, donde los productores suelen vender el derecho a recoger el rastrojo a vendedores por este precio, a $20,360 MXN/ha en tratamiento MM, LC, R en Metepec, México donde la combinación del alto valor del rastrojo ($2,000 MXN/t) y el alto rendimiento contribuyen a la alta importancia de la venta o el uso de rastrojo en el ingreso del productor.Los datos demuestran que, en efecto, el rastrojo tiene un rol importante en la utilidad neta (Cuadro 6). En general, en las plataformas donde hay un mercado para el rastrojo, la mejor práctica para obtener mayor utilidad es vender parte del rastrojo, es decir, mantener la cantidad necesaria para la fertilidad del suelo y vender el excedente.Por ejemplo, se puede dejar una pata más alta, remover el rastrojo cada otro año, o removerlo de un surco sí y del otro no, o se puede remover solamente el rastrojo arriba de la mazorca de maíz y dejar el resto o ajustar la empacadora para que colecte una menor cantidad de paja.En las zonas donde no hay un mercado para el rastrojo se debe dejar en la superficie y el enfoque de la extensión debería ser evitar la quema del rastrojo. Otra posibilidad es vender el rastrojo y sembrar un cultivo de cobertura en sistemas donde hay agua disponible durante la temporada sin cultivo. Cabe mencionar que el rastrojo tiene también influencia en la incidencia de malezas, plagas y enfermedades, pero estos efectos no aparecerían en los datos ya que el manejo de estos se hace de manera general por plataforma.Introducción a las Plataformas de Investigación Red de Plataformas de Investigación cimmyt Resultados 2017 Cuadro 6. Utilidad neta por hectárea calculado con el ingreso del grano y rastrojo ($MXN/ha) por sistema de producción y manejo de rastrojo en las 13 plataformas incluidas en este análisis. Las condiciones agroecológicas en el país son muy diversas por lo que es necesario analizar específicamente cada plataforma y el sistema de producción que representa. Hay plataformas como Francisco I. Madero, Hidalgo y Molcaxac, Puebla donde el efecto del rastrojo en mejorar el suelo y así aumentar el rendimiento es mayor que el precio de venta, en estos casos la recomendación es dejar todos los residuos en el suelo.En las plataformas con riego de Pabellón de Arteaga, Aguascalientes y Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, San Luis Potosí hay dos cultivos por año y el suelo siempre está cubierto. En estas plataformas se siembra un grano pequeño en invierno, lo cual también deja cierta cantidad de rastrojo en la pata. En tales casos el residuo no es necesario para mantener la fertilidad del suelo y se puede vender todo.En algunas plataformas, como Metepec, México, San Juan del Rio I, Querétaro y Texcoco I y II, México la mejor opción es vender parte del rastrojo, ya que dejar parte del rastrojo aumenta la fertilidad del suelo y el rendimiento de grano, pero no es necesario o económico dejar todo el rastrojo. Finalmente, en las plataformas de Huichapan, Hidalgo, Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, Villa Corzo, Chiapas y Zacatepec, Morelos es más económico, al menos a corto plazo, vender todo el rastrojo. Estas plataformas se deberían enfocar en los cultivos de cobertura sembrados en relevo o después de la cosecha del cultivo principal.Los resultados indican que es necesario aumentar la disponibilidad y la siembra de cultivos forrajeros, ya que esto disminuiría la necesidad de usar rastrojo para alimentación de animales. Además, los cultivos forrajeros tienen mayor ca-lidad nutritiva que el rastrojo lo que haría más eficiente la ganadería. Una conclusión importante del análisis es que en sistemas con labranza convencional donde hay un mercado para el rastrojo casi siempre es más rentable para el productor vender todo su rastrojo.Entonces, aunque es necesario dejar los residuos para conservar la fertilidad del suelo, para el productor esto no es económico, ya que va a desgastar a largo plazo sus terrenos y comprometer sus ganancias. Además, en el ensayo a largo plazo de la plataforma Texcoco I, el efecto de incorporar rastrojo con labranza convencional en el rendimiento ha sido mínimo, lo que hace la incorporación de residuos aún menos económico para los productores.Uno de los principios de la AC es la diversificación de cultivos, lo que genera beneficios al incrementar la fertilidad del suelo, rompiendo los ciclos de malezas, plagas y enfermedades y diversificando el agro-ecosistema y los ingresos del productor. Sin embargo, frecuentemente es difícil de encontrar cultivos de rotación con la misma utilidad y aceptación en el mercado que el maíz.En los ciclos PV 2017 y OI 2017-2018 se evaluaron 15 diferentes cultivos en las plataformas (Cuadro 7). Cabe mencionar que muchos de esos cultivos se evaluaron en menos de 10 tratamientos, entonces no es posible extrapolar la rentabilidad de esos cultivos de manera general. Los datos demuestran que en efecto el maíz es un cultivo con buena rentabilidad comparado con el resto de los cultivos, como principales candidatos para ser incluidos en las rotaciones aparecen los cultivos leguminosos como cacahuate, arvejón, frijol y garbanzo. Estos cultivos leguminosos combinan una alta rentabilidad, debido a sus altos precios de venta, con ventajas agronómicas como la fijación de nitrógeno.Los cultivos de grano pequeño como trigo, cebada, avena y triticale, que se cosechan para grano o forraje tenían una rentabilidad en general menor que la de maíz o leguminosas. En promedio hay una mayor utilidad para maíz en rotación ($8,757 MXN/ha en rotación y $8,096 MXN/ha en monocultivo) y una mayor utilidad para trigo en rotación ($6,658 MXN/ha en rotación y $5,779 MXN/ha en monocultivo), lo que demuestra que es necesario que el cultivo de rotación que se incluya tenga una rentabilidad similar al cultivo principal ya que esta diferencia puede ser insu-ficiente para cultivar un cultivo con menor rentabilidad, pero buenos efectos en el otro cultivo de la rotación.Debido a la gran variación entre sistemas de producción y cultivos de rotación evaluados en las plataformas no es posible usar esos resultados para sacar una conclusión general a nivel del país sobre el efecto de la rotación en la utilidad. Los efectos negativos de monocultivos en general se expresen a largo plazo y la mayoría de las plataformas lleva menos de cinco años evaluando los tratamientos, es probable que los efectos adversos de monocultivos y los beneficios de las rotaciones se expresen más fuerte en los siguientes años, lo que también impactaría la rentabilidad sobre el efecto de la rotación en la utilidad. La red de plataformas de MasAgro Productor da la oportunidad de evaluar prácticas sustentables en los diversos ecosistemas del país y comparar la rentabilidad de dichas prácticas bajos diferentes condiciones. En general los tratamientos en donde se evalúan prácticas más sustentables también generan una buena utilidad con menores costos para el productor. Es entonces posible fomentar una mayor sustentabilidad en la producción de maíz y trigo y al mismo tiempo mejorar las ganancias de los productores.La fertilización es el factor con la contribución más alta a los costos de producción y mejorar el uso eficiente de fertilizantes se presenta como oportunidad para disminuir los costos de producción. No se observó una relación entre la inversión que se hace en los costos de producción y la utilidad neta que se obtiene por hectárea, lo que indica que es más importante enfocarse en un buen manejo agronómico (buena semilla, buena siembra, fecha de siembra correcta, aplicación correcta y a tiempo de los insumos, etcétera) que enfocarse en el mayor uso de insumos.Cada uno de los tres principios de AC tiene un impacto en la rentabilidad. Los datos indican que con la reducción de labranza se pueden ahorrar aproximadamente $2,000 MXN/ha sin que haya un impacto en el rendimiento. La cobertura del suelo se presenta como un factor más difícil en las plataformas donde hay solo un cultivo por año y donde hay un alto precio por el rastrojo. En estas plataformas es recomendable dejar solamente una parte del rastrojo y se necesita más investigación sobre el uso de cultivos forrajeros y/o de cobertura. La rotación de cultivos aumenta la rentabilidad de los cultivos, sin embrago, es importante encontrar los cultivos apropiados que generen una rentabilidad similar al cultivo principal.","tokenCount":"34080"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5d74064a85f92c5c385e3e109c67aa7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/deb1a5d3-173b-4d09-9f35-c2f3990f2080/retrieve","id":"-1308614545"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f747ab8-8a79-4190-adb2-39a8aed7b289","pagecount":"47","content":"La encuesta de línea base es parte del proyecto 'Servicios agroclimáticos e información de seguridad alimentaria para una mejor toma de decisiones', conocido como AgroClimas, es una iniciativa del Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS, por sus siglas en inglés) que se implementa en Colombia, Guatemala y Honduras, con los diferentes socios a nivel nacional e internacional, tales como Fenalce, Ministerio de Agricultura, Bioversity International, entre otros. La encuesta fue aplicada a un total 572 hogares en los 4 municipios, de los cuales el 33.6% se ubican en Curití, el 25,3% en Villanueva, el 21,2% en San Gil y finalmente en 19,9% en Barichara, en el departamento de Santander en Colombia. Entre los principales resultados, se encuentra que el 79% de los hogares son dirigidos por un jefe de hogar hombre y el 16.4% por un jefe de hogar mujer. En este contexto, el 88% de los jefes del hogar se dedican principalmente a la agricultura y el 5.4% se dedica a las labores del hogar, aunque estas tareas son desempeñadas predominantemente por las mujeres. Independientemente del tamaño del hogar y del género del jefe del hogar, la distribución de ingresos se concentra en el rango de los $300.000 a $500.000 pesos mensuales.En la zona de estudio, pocos productores tienen sistemas de irrigación, solo el 2.8% de la muestra total declararon tener un sistema de riego en sus lotes. Casi el 50% de los hogares manifestaron no tener conocimiento de las prácticas agrícolas como: control de plagas y enfermedades, fertilización del suelo, labranza mínima entre otras, mientras que el 40.73% de los hogares tienen conocimientos acerca del control y plagas de enfermedades y el 40.56% hace uso de ello. Por otro lado el 16.43% de los hogares conoce prácticas de fertilización del suelo y usan dichas prácticas. Aproximadamente el 90% de los hogares no ha recibido ninguna capacitación, alrededor del 3.5% han recibido capacitaciones sobre el control de plagas y enfermedades y el 3.15% sobre fertilización. Menos del 2% de los hogares encuestados han recibido capacitaciones sobre control de arvenses y tratamiento de semilla.En el tema de información agroclimática se observa que casi la mitad de los entrevistados manifestaron no haber recibido ningún reporte en los últimos 12 meses, mientras que el 21% recibió información sobre el pronóstico de los próximos días. El total de las personas que recibieron esta información lo hicieron a través de los canales tradicionales como Radio y TV, pero tan solo el 1.5% utilizó dicha información, principalmente al tomar la decisión del cambio de la fecha de siembra o simplemente de no sembrar. Alrededor del 90% de los hogares en todos los municipios consideran que el clima ha cambiado mucho los últimos 10 años. El 75% de los hogares encuestados considera que es muy probable que ocurran cambios futuros en el clima y alrededor del 60% consideran que este podría tener un fuerte impacto sobre la economía del hogar. Aproximadamente el 83% de los hogares afirmaron que los cultivos se afectan en mayor medida ante la presencia de sequías, el 16% tanto de lluvias como de sequías y el porcentaje restante considera que el cultivo se afecta más cuando hay lluvias.Palabras Clave: Provincia de Guanentá, Colombia, línea base, hogares, clima, producción agrícola.Agradecimientos: a todos los encuestadores Paola, Estefania, Steven y Cristian. Así como, a los agricultores de los municipios de Barichara, Curití, San Gil y Villanueva en Santander, por su amable participación y valioso apoyo durante las encuestas.El proyecto AgroClimas busca apoyar los servicios agroclimáticos teniendo en cuenta las necesidades de información traducido al sector agrícola. Adicionalmente, es fundamental para el proyecto, integrar la información climática con los sistemas productivos y actividades de subsistencia de los pequeños agricultores, implementando un proceso de aprendizaje y cambio de prácticas en campo que ayude a mejorar la toma de decisiones.El proyecto ha realizado múltiples actividades en el departamento de Santander, específicamente en la provincia de Guanentá entre los cuales se encuentra esté reporte de línea base como primer paso para evaluar el impacto de las intervenciones que se realizarán, a través del seguimiento de encuestas a nivel de hogar. Estas intervenciones estarán centradas en la realización de talleres con una sub-muestra de 200 agricultores sobre: a) buen manejo agronómico del cultivo y prácticas agrícolas, b) requerimientos hídricos y cosecha de agua, c) uso de la información agroclimática, y d) selección entrega de semilla de frijol.Este documento presenta los resultados del estudio de línea base en 4 municipios de Santander, Colombia: Villanueva, Barichara, San Gil y Curití. El objetivo del estudio fue caracterizar los hogares productores de frijol arbustivo en la zona de interés, identificar el uso y recepción de información agroclimática, conocimientos previos sobre prácticas agrícolas y percepciones de la variabilidad del clima (pasado/futuro). En este orden de ideas, se colectó información referente tanto a las características demográficas, socioeconómicas, mano de obra, ciclo de cultivo de frijol, genero, seguridad alimentaria, percepciones de clima, pertenencia a gremios y/o asociaciones, acceso a crédito, recepción de información agroclimática y participación en capacitaciones.La información fue colectada entre el 6 de julio y el 6 de septiembre de 2016, a través de la aplicación para Android ODK y agregada a través de la plataforma ONA. Se entrevistaron un total de 572 hogares en los municipios mencionados. La colecta, procesamiento y análisis de los datos fue liderada por el equipo del proyecto AgroClimas, en CIAT-Cali, Colombia. Otros estudios complementarios como el mapeo de actores y necesidades de información agroclimática en sitios piloto en Colombia (con su respectivo infonote) también pueden ser consultados.En la provincia de Guanentá, dentro de los cultivos transitorios en Santander el fríjol arbustivo ocupa el segundo lugar en área después del maíz amarillo y el primer lugar en cuanto a productores involucrados en el cultivo, además CIAT/CCAFS y FENALCE son socios clave en la región; con un sitio experimental en el municipio de Villanueva del programa de frijol. El promedio de producción de los últimos 10 años para la provincia de Guanentá y Comunera es de 20.400 toneladas y es cultivado por 5000 familias en 21 municipios (Incoder y Fenalce, 2014).En Santander el fríjol es un cultivo muy antiguo, pero la producción con fin de comercialización empezó en los años 80 cuando se generaban excedentes gracias a la expansión de la producción de gallinaza en la industria avícola según FENALCE. En esa misma década empezaron a presentarse problemas fitosanitarios por la Antracnosis. Actores como FENALCE, CIAT e ICA realizaron pruebas y lanzaron en el año 1994 un material tolerante a Antracnosis \"Calima Guanentá'' y otros materiales en 1997 \"Froilan-Radical\" y CORPOICA \"Jiji\", que hasta la fecha se cultivan en la zona. Además, gracias a los programas de fomento para romper con el monocultivo del tabaco, según FENALCE se desarrolló la cultura de siembra de fríjol en las provincias Guanentá, Comunera, García Rovira, Vélez y Soto.Actualmente en la región se cultiva principalmente tabaco, fríjol arbustivo (90%), café y maíz en predios diversificados, con dos cosechas al año, en Abril-Junio y en Septiembre-Diciembre. Generalmente se cultiva tabaco en el primer semestre y se hace rotación con fríjol o maíz en el segundo. Se cultivan aproximadamente 7000 ha/semestre, un grande agricultor tiene máximo 30 ha, pero la mayoría tienen entre 0.5 a 4 hectáreas.La zona de estudio está comprendida por cuatro municipios del departamento de Santander, Colombia: Villanueva, Barichara, San Gil y Curití. b. Procedimiento de muestreo: Debido a restricciones de presupuesto, este estudio no pudo superar una muestra de más de 600 hogares productores de fríjol arbustivo. Como beneficiarios del proyecto se seleccionaron un total de 200 productores, estableciendo una tasa de no respuesta del 10%. El muestreo se realizó a partir de una estratificación de rangos de altura establecidos (1180-1540 y de 1540-1890 msnm) y de los límites municipales. La estratificación respecto a la altura obedece al hecho que de acuerdo con la altura, en conjunto con otras condiciones, se pueden implementar diferentes variedades de frijol. Adicionalmente, dichas variedades se desarrollan mejor y son más productivas en unos rangos de altura determinados. La muestra representa los hogares que históricamente siembran frijol en los municipios: Barichara, Curití, San Gil y Villanueva.c. Entrevistas: Para la toma de encuesta se contrató y capacito a egresados de la universidad de San Gil, los cuales realizaron la colecta de la información finca por finca, dejándole al agricultor un consentimiento informado sobre la actividad a desarrollar. A la sub-muestra de 206 agricultores seleccionados como el grupo a intervenir, se les entrego una invitación para asistir al primer taller programado (Foto 1).La encuesta de línea base fue aplicada a un total 572 hogares en los 4 municipios, de los cuales el 33.6% se ubican en Curití, el 25,3% en Villanueva, el 21,2% en San Gil y finalmente en 19,9% en Barichara (Tabla 1. Número de hogares entrevistados). Aproximadamente el 25% de las personas encuestadas eran mujeres, la mayor participación femenina en el grupo de los agricultores fue exhibida en San Gil (29%), seguido por Villanueva (26%) y finalmente Curití y Barichara con un 23% y 24% respectivamente (Figura 1. Género de las personas entrevistadas) Según la información demográfica expuesta en la Tabla 2. Características de los hogares, en promedio el tamaño del hogar es de aproximadamente 4 personas y la edad media dentro de este, es cercana a los 38 años. Se observa que San Gil tiene en promedio, hogares más jóvenes (34 años aproximadamente) que el resto de municipios de la muestra. Del mismo modo, si bien la edad del jefe del hogar oscila entre los 49 y 50 años, San Gil es el municipio con una media menor (47 años), en contraste con Villanueva donde la edad del jefe es cercana a los 52 años. Como tendencia general, es de resaltar que la media de las personas que trabajan en el hogar es menor al número de personas laboralmente inactivas; en promedio una persona trabaja en el hogar a lo largo de toda la muestra. La tasa de dependencia promedio es del 42%, siendo superior en San Gil donde toma el valor del 50% e inferior en Villanueva donde solo alcanza el 37%. La Tabla 4. Tipologías de hogares en la muestra muestra que en su mayoría, los hogares están compuestos por un hombre jefe de hogar en compañía de su cónyuge (71%), y el 8% tienen a hombres como cabeza de hogar. Respecto a las mujeres, el 16.4% se consideran jefes del hogar, quienes en su mayoría tienen cónyuge, mientras el 6.3% del total de hogares cuenta con una mujer cabeza de hogar. Un porcentaje mínimo del 3.7% considera que tanto el hombre como la mujer son jefes del hogar y en el 0,9% de los hogares no es posible establecer quién es el miembro del hogar con mayores responsabilidades y participación en la toma de decisiones. La Tabla 5. Características del jefe de hogar expone las características del jefe del hogar en la muestra, como se mencionó anteriormente, el 79% de los hogares son dirigidos por un jefe de hogar hombre y el 16.4% por un jefe de hogar mujer. Barichara y San Gil, son los municipios que cuentan con una mayor representación de jefes de hogar femeninos con una participación del 21.1% y 20.7% respectivamente. En promedio, los jefes de hogar tienen 49 años de edad y menos de 5 años de educación, el municipio de Villanueva es el de más bajo desempeño en términos de educación del jefe, con menos de 4 años escolares aprobados en promedio.Usualmente la ocupación principal del jefe del hogar -cuando el hogar tiene un solo jefe-es agricultor, el 88% de los jefes del hogar de la muestra se dedican principalmente a la agricultura, siendo este porcentaje promedio del total bastante aproximado al especifico de los municipios, a excepción de San Gil donde menos del 80% de los jefes de hogar tienen como ocupación principal la agricultura. Por otra parte, un porcentaje mucho más bajo 5.4% se dedica a las labores del hogar, aunque estas tareas son desempeñadas predominantemente por las mujeres. Finalmente se observa que el 2% de los jefes de hogar tiene ocupaciones diferentes a las mencionadas, entre los que se destacan, pensionado y obrero. Aproximadamente el 55% de los hogares encuestados manifestaron vivir en finca propia totalmente pagada, este tipo de propiedad predomina en San Gil (61.2%) y Curití (60%) siendo seguidos por Barichara (50%) y Villanueva (47%). Un porcentaje menor de hogares viven en propiedades arrendadas o sub-arrendadas, el 39% de los hogares en la muestra manifestaron vivir en este tipo de propiedad el cual se destaca en Villanueva donde las fincas propias y arrendadas tienen un porcentaje igual de participación. Por otro lado, en Barichara se observa un grupo significativo de hogares que se encuentran pagando su finca mientras que en general, otras formas de posesión como usufructo o propiedad de un familiar no son significativas. En lo que respecta a la categoría de posesión sin título se observan tan solo 9 casos en el total de la muestra que corresponden a 1.6%, de los cuales 5 se presentan en Villanueva, representando un 3.4% de los hogares entrevistados en este municipio. (Ver Tabla 6. Tipo de propiedad de la finca).En relación a las fuentes de combustible para cocinar, la Figura 2. Fuentes de combustible para cocinar muestra que Barichara y Villanueva predomina el uso conjunto de leña y gas propano con aproximadamente 87% y 70% respectivamente, en contraste con Curití y San Gil donde el uso exclusivo de leña es predominante alcanzando casi el 40% de todos los hogares, seguido por la Gas propano en cilindro Leña y Gas propano Otro leña y gas propano como combustible y finalmente el uso de gas propano en cilindro. El uso de otros combustibles diferentes a la leña y gas propano no es significativo. En general, para el total de los 572 hogares encuestados, casi el 56% manifestaron cocinar con ambas fuentes (gas propano en cilindro y leña), mientras que un 37.4% respondieron que cocinan solamente con leña.En lo que respecta al agua para consumo humano (Figura 3. Fuentes de agua para consumo humano), alrededor del 74% es obtenida por acueducto o tubería, mientras que el 8% de hogares obtienen el líquido mediante la combinación de acueducto y otra fuente. El 15% de los entrevistados afirmaron que la fuente principal es pozo sin bomba, seguida por río o quebrada correspondiendo a 5% y aguas lluvias con 4%. Finalmente se encuentra la categoría \"otro\" que corresponde hogares abastecidos por la combinación de dos o más de las fuentes naturales mencionadas, como pozo y aguas lluvias. Cabe resaltar que si bien la mayoría de hogares recibe suministro de agua por tubería, un 24% obtienen el agua para consumo de fuentes naturales como ríos o pozos y aquellos que recurren a esta última fuente en su gran mayoría no cuentan con bomba.El uso de agua clasificado por fuente varía en cada uno de los cuatro municipios estudiados. En Curití y Villanueva, el agua para consumo humano es obtenida principalmente por tubería, con 94% y 98%, respectivamente. Mientras tanto en Barichara la fuente predominante es pozo sin bomba con 67%, seguido por 19% que obtienen el agua por medio acueducto y casi 10% de hogares que recurren a las aguas lluvias. Por su parte, San Gil cuenta con una mayor diversidad de fuentes de agua para consumo, teniendo una mayor participación el agua por tubería 65%, seguida por, río o quebrada con 18% y aguas lluvias con poco más del 6%; además, otras fuentes utilizadas son las de pozo sin bomba y otro -que representa la combinación de dos o más de las fuentes mencionadas-, con casi 5% cada una (Ver Figura 4. Fuentes de agua para consumo humano por municipio). En la Tabla 7. Bienes por categoría se presentan una lista de bienes, que cobijan las categorías de: transporte, producción, información y bienes de lujo. Con esta pregunta se busca explorar las condiciones económicas y recursos con los cuales cuentan los hogares. En la categoría \"transporte\" 388 hogares, los cuales corresponden al 68% de la muestra total, manifestaron no tener ninguno de los bienes, mientras que 184 hogares (32%), aseguraron tener algún medio de transporte propio, de estos, 128, correspondientes al 22% del total, manifestaron tener motocicleta, la cual se perfila como el principal medio en las zonas rurales de la región. Resalta el comportamiento del municipio de Barichara, el cual tiene los niveles más altos de posesión de moto con 28%, y carro o camión con 14%, seguido por San Gil con 26% y 12% respectivamente.En lo que respecta a los bienes de producción, la principal herramienta es la fumigadora, presente en el 80% de los hogares totales; visto por municipio, en Barichara casi el 94% cuenta con esta herramienta, aunque tan solo un hogar correspondiente al 0.9% posee tractor. Por otro lado, aunque San Gil cuenta con el mayor porcentaje de hogares que no poseen bienes productivos, el 4.1% manifestó contar con tractor, el 54% con tanque de agua y el 17.4% con despulpadora. En los municipios de Villanueva y Curití, se resalta que en su gran mayoría los hogares solo tienen, como bien de producción, la fumigadora; la presencia de bienes como tanque de agua o tractor es nula.  Pasando a la categoría de bienes de información, los datos muestran que casi todos los hogares cuentan con al menos uno y, a excepción de Villanueva, en todos los municipios más del 90% de los hogares manifestaron tener radio, televisión y celular. En Villanueva, aproximadamente el 88.3% de los hogares posee un radio, el 89.7% y el 70% un televisor. Cabe anotar que en los 4 municipios el uso de computadores no es muy frecuente, solo el 0.5% de la muestra afirmó tener un computador al momento de la encuesta. Los bienes más importantes en la categoría de lujo son: la estufa, 94.1%; refrigerador, 93.5% y licuadora, 90.2%. En cuarto lugar se ubica la lavadora la cual estuvo en posesión de 68 hogares correspondiente casi al 11% de la muestra total.Figura 5. Índice de bienes del hogar por quintiles y número promedio de bienes Figura 6. Índice de bienes del hogar por quintilesPara realizar el análisis de la distribución de la riqueza a partir de los activos que posee el hogar, se presenta la Figura 5. Índice de bienes del hogar por quintiles y número promedio de bienes y la Figura 6. Índice de bienes del hogar por quintiles donde se encuentra el índice de bienes separado por quintiles 1 . En los quintiles más altos se ubican los hogares con mayor número de activos, como se representa en la figura 5. Observando el total de la muestra se tiene que el 27% de hogares se ubican en el quintil 2 y el 21% en el quintil 1; casi el 50% de la muestra se ubica en los dos quintiles inferiores, es decir, el 50% de los hogares están clasificados dentro de los grupos con un menor número de activos.  Realizando la distinción por municipios se tiene que Villanueva es el municipio donde una mayor proporción de hogares se encuentra en el primer quintil con 41.4%, mientras que en Barichara y Curití solo un 9% y 21% se encuentra en el primer quintil, esto significa que en promedio la población de Villanueva tiene un menor acceso a activos del hogar en comparación con los demás municipios. En contraste, en San Gil el 48% de hogares se ubican en el quinto quintil y un 24% en el cuarto; más del 70% de hogares en San Gil se encuentran en los dos quintiles más altos del índice, por lo que los hogares de este municipio tienen una mayor riqueza en términos de activos del hogar.La Tabla 8. Educación por tamaño del hogar muestra el mayor nivel educativo alcanzado por algún miembro del hogar, en general el mayor nivel educativo dentro del hogar es bachiller, al menos en el 52% de los hogares algún miembro del hogar ha alcanzado este grado de escolaridad, consecutivamente, al menos en el 39% de los hogares algún miembro cursó la educación básica primaria. Es de resaltar que los hogares con un menor número de miembros del hogar, entre 1 y 3 personas, presentan niveles de escolaridad más bajos en comparación con los hogares compuestos de más de 4 personas; a medida que el tamaño del hogar crece, parece más probable encontrar uno o más miembros que hayan alcanzado niveles de educación superior. Respecto al nivel de educación por género de los miembros del hogar, la Figura 7. Mayor nivel educativo alcanzado por hombre y mujer dentro del hogar muestra que en los hogares con un menor número de miembros, se alcanzan menores niveles educativos, básica primaria, mientras que para los hogares entre 4 y 6 personas, el porcentaje tanto de hombres como de mujeres se incrementa oscilando alrededor del 50%. Por otro lado, en hogares compuestos entre 7 y 9 miembros, el 70% de ellos tienen alguna mujer que ha completado su educación secundaria y el 52% tiene un hombre que también ha alcanzado este nivel de educación.En general, el porcentaje de hombres y mujeres que no han recibido ningún tipo de educación en alguno de los hogares es menos del 5%; es notable que a medida que el tamaño del hogar crece, la tasa de analfabetismo femenina disminuye hasta ser casi 0% en los hogares de mayor tamaño, así como la proporción de mujeres en niveles altos de educación aumenta hasta sobrepasar a los hombres. En relación a las ocupaciones desempeñadas por los miembros del hogar (ver Figura 8. Ocupaciones desempeñadas por los miembros del hogar según género), el 99% de los hogares tiene algún miembro que trabaja principalmente en la agricultura, siendo esta ocupación desempeñada primordialmente por hombres, 96%; mientras que solo en el 26% de los hogares alguna mujer se dedica principalmente a la agricultura. Las mujeres se dedican a las labores del hogar en el 78% de los hogares, es de resaltar que la representación masculina en esa ocupación es casi nula.Adicionalmente, en alrededor del 22% de los hogares al menos alguno de sus miembros se encuentra estudiando; de los cuales en el 15% de hogares al menos una mujer tiene como ocupación principal la de estudiante y en 9.6% hay presencia de al menos un estudiante varón. Otras ocupaciones con menor porcentaje como obrero, y empleado en el negocio de otros también son desempeñadas en su mayoría por hombres. Además, se resalta que si bien en 118 hogarescorrespondientes a poco más de 20% de la muestra-al menos uno de los miembros es mayor de 65 años, en solo el 0.9% del total algún miembro manifestó ser pensionado; las tasas de afiliación al sistema pensional son bajas.Se observó además que en el 0.7% de los hogares existe al menos un miembro que se desempeña como profesional del sector privado o comerciante, 0.5% cuentan con miembros que trabajan como transportistas o empleados del sector público y en 0.2% de los hogares algún miembro se dedica a otras profesiones como la de profesor, mecánico, alfarero o estilista -siendo hombres los empleados en los 3 primeros campos y mujeres en el último-.Figura 9. Rango del Ingreso del jefe de hogar por su ocupación principal remunerada La Figura 9. Rango del Ingreso del jefe de hogar por su ocupación principal remunerada y la Figura 10. Ingreso máximo de un miembro por tamaño del hogar muestran el rango del ingreso del jefe del hogar por su ocupación principal remunerada y el ingreso máximo de un miembro del hogar por tamaño del hogar. Se observa que independientemente del tamaño del hogar y del género del jefe del hogar, la distribución de ingresos se concentra en el rango de los $300.000 a $500.000 pesos mensuales, posteriormente otro grupo de hogares manifiesta tener un ingreso mensual de menos de $200.000 pesos. El porcentaje de hogares en el que el jefe de hogar o alguno de sus miembros tiene una remuneración superior a los $500.000 pesos no supera en ningún caso el 5%, hecho que muestra que el ingreso monetario declarado (sin imputación de ingresos en especie) de las personas que conforman los hogares de la muestra, se encuentra por debajo del salario mínimo.Figura 10. Ingreso máximo de un miembro por tamaño del hogar  Entre 1 y 3 personas Entre 4 y 6 personas Entre 7 y 9 personas TotalLa Figura 11. Porcentaje de miembros migrantes según género y la Figura 12. Razón de migración por género presentan el porcentaje de los miembros migrantes del hogar según género y la razón por la cual cambiaron de lugar de residencia permanente. Aparentemente la migración no está relacionada con el género, puesto que tanto hombres como mujeres migran del hogar en porcentajes prácticamente idénticos dentro de la muestra. Sin embargo, al realizar un análisis enfocado a la razón de la migración, sí es posible determinar algunos hechos interesantes.Figura 11. Porcentaje de miembros migrantes según géneroLa principal razón de la migración es la de contraer matrimonio y/o formar un nuevo hogar, especialmente para las mujeres, quienes en el 75% de los casos dejan su hogar por este motivo. En segundo lugar, las personas migran en búsqueda de tierra más fértil, los hombres tienen una mayor representación, el 20% de los casos mientras que para las mujeres es solo el 9.6%. Otra razón para migrar es la falta de empleo, el 18% hombres y el 7.7% de las mujeres migrantes van en búsqueda de un empleo respectivamente. En último lugar, adquirir un mayor nivel educativo es una razones para la migración, aproximadamente el 5%. A grandes rasgos parecería que los hombres están más dispuestos a migrar por razones productivas mientras que las mujeres para formar un nuevo hogar. Esta sección comprende todas las características productivas del hogar: número de cultivos, variedades de cultivos, riego y se centra especialmente sobre el cultivo de frijol arbustivo en la zona. Se pregunta todo lo referente al área sembrada, tipo de semilla, cosecha, producción y rendimientos. Adicionalmente, también se colectó información sobre la mano de obra familiar y contratada en la finca para el cultivo de frijol, conocimiento y uso de prácticas agrícolas y participación en capacitaciones dadas por diferentes organizaciones. En relación a las características productivas, la Figura 13. Número de cultivos por municipio y la Tabla 9. Cultivos principales por municipio presentan el número de cultivos por finca en cada municipio y los cultivos principales. En general para el total de la muestra la mayoría de los hogares encuestados manifestaron que en su finca siembran solo un cultivo -alrededor de 62%-, mientras que el 28% cuenta con 2 y tan solo el 10% tienen 3 o más cultivos. Adicionalmente se encontró que alrededor del 99% de las fincas de los hogares encuestados cuentan con cultivos de frijol, en 25% de los hogares siembra tabaco y el 11% se siembra maíz.En lo específico a cada municipio se observa que tanto en Barichara como Villanueva predomina el monocultivo, en 94% de las fincas de la muestra, mientras que en solo el 6% se encuentra presencia de dos o tres diferentes cultivos; en estas dos localidades el 100% de agricultores de la muestra siembran frijol, además de tabaco y maíz en una proporción mínima. En cuanto a Curití, el 37% de los productores solo tiene un cultivo, mientras que alrededor 59% cultivan al menos dos. En esta localidad, el 100% de los hogares encuestados siembran frijol arbustivo, también se destaca el tabaco, el cual es sembrado en el 46% de los hogares, en tercer lugar se encuentra el café que tiene presencia en 9.4% de las fincas y maíz con un 8.9% de participación. San Gil es el municipio con mayor diversificación en términos de cultivos, en este municipio, los productores tienen en su mayoría, entre 1 y 4 cultivos; alrededor del 30% de los productores tienen al menos dos cultivos entre tabaco y frijol, los agricultores con 3 cultivos representan el 22.3% de los productores del municipio y con 4 cultivos el 10%. En general, el frijol es el cultivo principal (95.9%), seguido por el tabaco (37.2%), maíz (32.2%), yuca (28.9%) y café (18.2%). En el aspecto relativo a la presencia de riego se tiene que, en la zona de estudio, pocos productores tienen sistemas de irrigación. En la muestra seleccionada se encontró que en Villanueva ningún hogar contaba con sistema de riego, mientras que en Barichara solo dos hogares tienen este sistema, situación similar para Curití, donde solo un hogar reportó tener un sistema de riego. Por otro lado, en San Gil, 13 hogares que corresponden al 10.7% de la muestra tomada para este municipio, sí contaron con sistema de riego en al menos uno de sus lotes; en concordancia con lo encontrado, en la posesión de activos productivos como tractores, que en el municipio de San Gil existe presencia de agricultores más tecnificados comparados con sus homólogos del resto de la zona de estudio. En general, tan solo el 3% de los hogares reportó tener algún tipo de mecanismo para regar sus cultivos (Ver Tabla 10. Presencia de riego por municipio). Propio y trabajado por los miembros del hogar Propio y dado en alquiler Alquilado a cambio de dinero Alquilado a cambio de productoEn lo que respecta a la propiedad de los lotes (ver Figura 14. Tipo de propiedad de al menos uno de los lotes), se tiene que en general más del 80% de los hogares tiene al menos un lote que es de su propiedad y trabajado por los miembros del hogar, mientras que en poco más del 25% de las fincas de los hogares encuestados hay presencia de al menos un lote en calidad de alquiler a cambio de producto.Al realizar un análisis desagregado por municipio, resalta que en Villanueva la totalidad de los lotes son de propiedad del hogar y trabajado por ellos mismos y, de la misma manera, en Barichara y Curití este tipo de propiedad es el mayoritario con 93% y 78% respectivamente, aunque en este último municipio se encuentra también una presencia considerable de hogares en los que al menos uno de sus lotes es alquilado a cambio de producto. Finalmente es posible observar que San Gil es el único municipio que se comporta diferente al resto y a la tendencia general, el tipo de propiedad con mayor presencia es el de alquiler a cambio de producto, en más del 50% de los hogares, seguido de cerca por la existencia de lotes propios y trabajados por los miembros.Al observar la cantidad de lotes por finca en cada municipio se tiene que en Villanueva y Barichara prácticamente todos los hogares tienen un solo lote, mientras que en Curití casi el 60% cuentan con dos y en San Gil el número es mucho más heterogéneo, teniendo que en 32% de las fincas hay 2 lotes, en 28% hay uno y en el 40% hay 3 o más lotes. Este hecho podría estar relacionado con el tipo de tenencia donde el mayor número de lotes por hogar esté explicado por el acceso a terrenos arrendados (Ver Figura 15. Cantidad de lotes por finca).Figura 15. Cantidad de lotes por fincaA los hogares entrevistados se les preguntó de manera abierta, qué variedad de frijol sembraban en cada uno de lotes y por qué preferían esta variedad. En general se encontró que la variedad más usada por los agricultores de esta región es la de Radical Rojo, pues casi el 70% de hogares la utilizaron en al menos uno de sus lotes. En segundo lugar se encuentran las variedades Cargabello y Zaragoza, con 14% y 10% respectivamente. Específicamente para cada uno de los municipios se encuentra que en San Gil, Villanueva y Curití la variedad más usada es la clasificada como radical rojo, mientras que en Barichara son usadas tanto la variedad Zaragoza como la Radical. Para Curití se tiene que en más del 80% de las fincas fue usada la variedad Radical en al menos uno de los lotes, mientras que para Villanueva y San Gil esta utilización fue mayor al 70%. Otras variedades como Cargabello, Froilán y Calima también son usadas con menor frecuencia (ver Figura 16. Variedad de frijol sembrada en al menos uno de los lotes).Con respecto las razones que dieron los agricultores para utilizar una u otra variedad de frijol se encuentra que, en general, se presta mayor atención al rendimiento, pues en casi 70% de los hogares este fue uno de los aspectos evaluados en el momento de seleccionar la variedad. Adicionalmente, entre un 40% y 50% de agricultores respondieron que también prestan atención a los requerimientos del mercado, la resistencia a sequía y a la tradición.Al observar detenidamente por municipios hay varios hechos que llaman la atención: el primero es que en Barichara y Villanueva se da prioridad a los requerimientos del mercado, teniéndose que en el segundo municipio esta razón incluso sobrepasa al rendimiento. El segundo, es que en los municipios de Curití y San Gil, los requerimientos del mercado pasan a un segundo plano y adquiere relevancia el hecho que la variedad sea resistente a la sequía (Ver Figura 17. Razones de siembra de alguna variedad). Figura 17. Razones de siembra de alguna variedad Dando una mirada a las características de la semilla usada, se encuentra que, en general, menos del 2.0% de los agricultores hacen uso de semilla certificada. En el municipio de Barichara se encontró que ningún agricultor usa semilla con algún tipo de certificación, mientras que en Curití y San Gil el porcentaje no sobrepasa el 2% y, aunque en el municipio de Villanueva el porcentaje es mayor 4%, esta proporción continúa siendo baja.Por otro lado, aproximadamente el 80% de los hogares productores usan semilla propia, es decir, usan semilla que guardan de cosechas anteriores, mientras que el 20% compran semilla y menos del 1% de los hogares recibe semillas prestada o dada por asociaciones (Ver Tabla 11. Características de la semilla). Respecto al área total se observa que, en promedio, las fincas poseen 2 hectáreas de extensión. Sin embargo en San Gil la extensión promedio es 3.32 hectáreas, siendo seguido por Curití con una extensión media de 2.22 hectáreas; Villanueva y Barichara tienen un área promedio de 1.39 y 1.06 hectáreas respectivamente. En relación con el área sembrada con frijol, San Gil es también el municipio que exhibe una mayor extensión con aproximadamente 2 hectáreas, Villanueva y Curití muestran un área sembrada de frijol similar 1.32 hectáreas aproximadamente; en último lugar, Barichara tiene un área media sembrada en frijol de menos de una hectárea (ver Tabla 12. Áreas, cosecha y rendimiento promedio). La cosecha esperada es, en promedio, de aproximadamente 1.5 toneladas en el total de la muestra.Observando específicamente por municipio, este promedio es superado ampliamente en San Gil, donde la cosecha esperada alcanza las 2.3 toneladas; adicionalmente, este municipio presenta mayores rendimientos 1.21 toneladas por hectárea, mientras que Curití y Villanueva muestran un rendimiento promedio ligeramente superior a una tonelada por hectárea y Barichara un poco menos que esto.Respecto a la distribución del trabajo de los miembros del hogar en las actividades productivas de la finca, la Figura 18. Distribución del trabajo de los miembros del hogar en las actividades de la finca muestra que en su mayoría las actividades agrícolas son desarrolladas por hombres. Respecto a las actividades desarrolladas antes de la siembra, solamente el 7% de las mujeres participan en el rastrillo y el arado, mientras que el retobo es realizado completamente por los hombres, por otro lado, el surcado hay una mayor representación femenina del 26%.En cuanto a las actividades agrícolas de siembra y control, las mujeres tienen una participación más representativa, aproximadamente en el 39% de los hogares, alguna mujer participó en la siembra y en alrededor del 30% de los hogares las mujeres desempeñaron actividades de deshierbe y fertilización, solo en el 9% de los hogares las mujeres aplicaron fungicidas e insecticidas. En relación con las actividades de cosecha y pos-cosecha, el 36% de los hogares manifestaron que al menos una mujer participó en la cosecha y recolección del frijol y alrededor del 20% en venta y desgrane.En la Figura 19. Jornales promedio contratados por hectárea sembrada con frijol es posible observar la distribución por actividad de la mano de obra contratada. En general, se contratan más jornales por hectárea para el control de maleza con 10 jornales, seguida por cosecha con 9 y preparación de la tierra y desgrane con aproximadamente 8 jornales por hectárea sembrada con frijol cada una; las actividades con menos mano de obra contratada son siembra y control de plagas con aproximadamente 2 jornales por hectárea sembrada.En San Gil y Villanueva se ubican las fincas donde en promedio se contratan más jornales para siembra; 11 por hectárea sembrada, mientras que en Curití la actividad más representativa es la cosecha con 10 jornales, aproximadamente los mismos que en Villanueva. Barichara es el municipio que en promedio se contratan menos jornales, especialmente para siembra, aunque para la actividad de aplicación de fertilizantes en promedio duplica la contratación de San Gil. Finalmente, es posible resaltar que control de plagas es la actividad para la que menos se contrata en todos los municipios e incluso, en Villanueva ninguna finca requirió de estos servicios. Finalizando, en la Figura 20. Uso de insumos en al menos uno de los lotes sembrados con frijol se cuenta con información de uso de insumos como fertilizantes y plaguicidas. Se encuentra que, en general, casi el 80% de los hogares utilizaron fertilizantes orgánicos o inorgánicos en al menos un lote, seguidos por los insecticidas que fueron aplicados en poco más del 70% de estos. Es de resaltar que en Barichara y Villanueva el uso de fertilizantes e insecticidas es mucho más común -con más del 85% de los hogares-que en Curití y San Gil, donde el uso de fertilizantes de 68% y 60%, respectivamente; en cuanto a los insecticidas, la aplicación también es mucho menos frecuente, con aproximadamente 60% en Curití y 50% en San Gil.Adicionalmente se observa que el uso de plaguicidas o fungicidas fue bastante bajo en Barichara y Villanueva, mientras que en Curití y San Gil se ubicó sobre 36% y 28%, respectivamente. Finalmente se observa que la aplicación de herbicidas tampoco fue considerable, en general en 10% de los hogares, a excepción de San Gil, donde casi el 30% de los hogares lo usaron en al menos uno de los lotes sembrados con frijol.Figura 20. Uso de insumos en al menos uno de los lotes sembrados con frijol  En último lugar, la Figura 21. Valor promedio recibido por tonelada de frijol. Muestra el valor promedio recibido por tonelada de frijol vendida por los agricultores encuestados, que se ubica en poco más de $3.125.000 pesos por tonelada, aunque para Barichara y San Gil el precio de venta sobrepasa este nivel en más de $125.000 pesos. En contraste, los agricultores situados en Villanueva y Curití reciben una cantidad de dinero menor por su cosecha, teniendo por ejemplo que en este último municipio los intermediarios pagaron a los agricultores, en promedio, $2.950.000 por tonelada, valor 8% menor que el recibido en general y $300.000 pesos menor que el pagado a los agricultores de Barichara y San Gil.Respecto a los conocimientos previos que tienen los productores en relación a prácticas agrícolas y manejo del cultivo, se les preguntó a los hogares encuestados cuáles prácticas agrícolas conocían y si usaban alguna. La Figura 22. Prácticas agrícolas que conoce y la Figura 23. Hizo uso de la práctica muestran que casi el 50% de los hogares manifestaron no tener conocimiento de las prácticas o se negaron a responder esta pregunta, mientras que el 40.73% de los hogares tienen conocimientos acerca del control de plagas y enfermedades y el 40.56% hace uso de ello. Por otro lado el 16.43% de los hogares conoce prácticas de fertilización del suelo y usan dichas prácticas. El 2.8% de los hogares manifestaron conocer la práctica de labranza mínima y haber aplicado en sus lotes.Otras prácticas como la producción artesanal de semilla limpia, manejo de agua manejo de suelos y sustratos y manejo de pos-cosecha son conocidas y aplicadas por menos del 2% de los hogares entrevistados. En este orden de ideas, llama la atención la gran cantidad de personas que no conocen acerca de las prácticas agrícolas y la posibilidad de mejorar algunos procesos dentro de la finca, ya sea para aumentar productividad, mejorar calidad de los suelos o disminuir costos, entre otros. El no uso de las prácticas agrícolas tiene diferentes razones (ver Figura 24. Razón de no uso de la práctica), respecto a la labranza mínima, la principal razón para no hacer uso de la práctica fue la venta inmediata de la cosecha de fríjol. Otras razones que explican la falta de uso de esta práctica son que simplemente no fue necesaria la aplicación o no es adecuada a las condiciones del terreno, un pequeño porcentaje de hogares manifestaron que no aplicaron dicha práctica por falta de recursos.La explicación del por qué no se aplican los conocimientos acerca del control de plagas y enfermedades son más diversos, entre los múltiples motivos se destacan que, la totalidad de los hogares que manifestaron conocer la práctica pero no haberla aplicado, trabajan en lotes arrendados o que no sabían cómo aplicar la práctica, alrededor del 90% de estos hogares no se sienten interesados en cambiar sus prácticas actuales o no tenían recursos para aplicar el control de plagas y enfermedades; por otro lado, aproximadamente el 30% de los hogares entrevistados creen que esta práctica no es adecuada para su terreno.En relación a la fertilización del suelo, la falta de uso obedece en mayor medida a que dicha práctica no es adecuada para las condiciones de los terrenos trabajados, en menor porcentaje se encuentra los hogares que manifiestan que no usan esta práctica por que no están interesados en el cambio de sus prácticas actuales o que no tienen los recursos económicos suficientes para utilizarla.Figura 24. Razón de no uso de la prácticaSe preguntó a los hogares entrevistados sobre las capacitaciones que han recibido y las instituciones que proveyeron las mismas (ver Figura 25.). En general, 89% de los hogares no ha recibido ninguna capacitación, alrededor del 3% han recibido capacitaciones sobre el manejo de plagas y enfermedades, fertilización y nuevas variedades. Aproximadamente 2% de los hogares encuestados han recibido capacitaciones sobre control de arvenses y tratamiento de semilla, 1.4% sobre producción artesanal de semilla de frijol y menos de 1% ha asistido a formación sobre distancias de siembra, demanda hídrica del frijol, clima o cosecha de agua.San Gil es el municipio donde una mayor cantidad de hogares ha recibido alguna capacitación en el último año, con 29%. Del total de hogares de este municipio, el 12% ha sido capacitado en manejo de plagas y enfermedades, 11% en nuevas variedades y 8% en fertilización; 4% han recibido instrucción sobre control de arvenses, producción artesanal de semilla y demanda hídrica del frijol, mientras que tan sólo del 2% asistió a algún curso de clima y un minoritario 1% a al menos uno sobre siembra de frijol voluble y cosecha de agua. En Barichara, el 15% de los hogares La Tabla 13. Entidades que dictaron capacitaciones muestra el número de capacitaciones recibidas por los agricultores en los últimos 12 meses, según la entidad que las dictó. En primer lugar, la institución que ha dado una mayor diversidad de capacitaciones ha sido el Fenalce; el 36.6%% de los hogares encuestados que afirmaron haber recibido alguna capacitación en temas como: manejo de plagas, fertilización y nuevas variedades, entre otros. Por otro lado, 18.3% de aquellos asistentes a alguna capacitación manifestaron haberla recibido de Cofoder, en temas los mismos temas que los dictados por Fenalce -a excepción de demanda hídrica-. En una menor cuantía, pero en todos los temas preguntados -desde manejo de plagas hasta cosecha de agua-, el SENA dictó capacitaciones al 12.9% de los hogares que asistieron a algún curso o taller. El CIAT e ICA dieron algún tipo de formación a 7 hogares que corresponden al 7.5% de los capacitados; CIAT en temas como nuevas variedades y demanda hídrica e ICA en fertilización y tratamiento de semilla, además de los correspondientes a manejo de plagas y control de malezas, dictados por ambos.Según los datos colectados, Corpoica dictó capacitaciones a 4.3% de los hogares; mismo porcentaje manifestó no saber quién los capacitó. Asohofrucol dictó capacitaciones sobre fertilización, control de arvenses y distancias de siembra, abarcando el 3.2% de los hogares, al igual que las tiendas de agroquímicos, las cuales brindaron algún tipo de formación sobre manejo de plagas y fertilización. Finalmente, las tabacaleras de la región tan sólo capacitaron a 2 de los hogares encuestados, correspondientes a 2.2% de aquellos que asistieron a algún tipo de curso, en los temas de fertilización y tratamiento de semilla. En el tema relacionado a información de tiempo y clima, se observa que casi la mitad de los entrevistados manifestaron no haber recibido ningún reporte en los últimos 12 meses, mientras que el 23.1% recibió información sobre el pronóstico de los próximos días. El 100% de aquellos que recibieron esta información lo hizo a través de los canales tradicionales -Radio/TV-, pero tan solo el 1.5% utilizó dicha información, principalmente al tomar la decisión del cambio de la fecha de siembra o simplemente de no sembrar. El 18.7% de los hogares recibieron información sobre el pronóstico de cuándo comenzaban las lluvias -en aproximadamente 6 ocasiones en promedio-, principalmente por medio de radio o televisión (96.3%), a diferencia del pronóstico de los próximos días, este fue utilizado por aproximadamente 30% de los hogares que lo recibieron y tomaron decisiones como cambiar la fecha de siembra (87.5%), cambiar cultivos o variedades (9.4% cada una). Una menor proporción de los hogares recibieron información sobre pronóstico de los próximos meses o de sequías e inundaciones, con 6.3% y 4.9%, mientras que tan solo 7 hogares, correspondientes al 1.2% de los hogares encuestados, fueron informados sobre cambio climático (ver Tabla 14. Recepción, fuentes y uso de la información agroclimática).En la Tabla 15. Por qué no usó la información. (*Porcentajes calculados sobre el número de hogares que recibieron información y no la usaron) es posible observar las razones para no utilizar la información recibida. De las personas que sí recibieron información de pronósticos pero decidieron no utilizarla, la gran mayoría lo hizo en primer lugar porque consideró que la información no era relevante (ajustada a las condiciones locales), por ejemplo para pronóstico de los próximos días, el 73% de los agricultores no la consideraron relevante, mientras que para el pronóstico de los próximos meses este porcentaje asciende a 88%. En lo correspondiente a información de inicio de lluvias y pronóstico de sequías e inundaciones, una de las principales razones para no usarla fue la confianza en la información, con 44% y 68% respectivamente, además la poca disposición de cambiar el manejo agrícola tradicional.El estudio de línea base se enfocó en analizar cuáles eran las diferentes percepciones de los cambios en el clima en el pasado, presente y futuro; a continuación se presentan los resultados de la muestra de los hogares encuestados. Pasado:En relación a la percepción de cómo ha cambiado el clima desde el pasado hasta el presente se formularon las preguntas ¿Cómo ha cambiado el clima los últimos 10 años? (ver Figura 27. ¿Cómo ha cambiado el clima en los últimos 10 años?) Y ¿Qué cambios ha notado? (Figura 28. ¿Qué cambios ha notado los últimos 10 años?). Alrededor del 90% de los hogares en todos los municipios consideran que el clima ha cambiado mucho a excepción de Curití donde este porcentaje es del 84% aproximadamente. Otro grupo de productores consideran que el cambio en el clima ha sido regular, principalmente en Curití, con 12.5% y Villanueva con 9% de los entrevistados. En San Gil y Barichara este porcentaje no supera el 6%.El cambio más notable en el clima han sido las sequias fuertes; en todos los municipios, más del 90% de los hogares manifestaron haber observado este cambio. En segundo lugar, los municipios han experimentado temperaturas extremas, especialmente en San Gil y Curití el 70.9 y 60.5% de los hogares respectivamente. Villanueva y Barichara también experimentaron temperaturas extremas el 29.2 y 11.5% de los hogares. En San Gil y Curití alrededor del 10% de los hogares contestaron un incremento de las lluvias fuertes, mientras que en Barichara y Villanueva este porcentaje fue menor al 4%. En términos de la percepción del clima presente, la encuesta de línea base contiene preguntas referentes a las actividades realizadas por los productores en temporadas de sequía, la percepción de si la lluvia que cae es suficiente para el cultivo y cuándo percibe que se puede afectar más su cultivo. Adicionalmente, se evaluaron conocimientos previos sobre los fenómenos del Niño y la Niña.En relación a las actividades realizadas por los agricultores en los meses donde no llueve, la Figura 30. ¿A qué se dedica los meses que no llueve? muestra que aproximadamente el 30% de los entrevistados se dedica a trabajar en la finca, el 13.5% a trabajar en la finca y esperar las lluvias, alrededor del 11% de los hogares se dedica a trabajar fuera y dentro de la finca, y a trabajar fuera y dentro de la finca y descansar. El 9.4% se dedican solo a esperar las lluvias y a descansar. Por otro lado, referente a la percepción sobre la lluvia que cae para el cultivo, en Barichara, Villanueva y San Gil, alrededor del 70% de los entrevistados afirmaron que no es suficiente, mientras que en Curití solo el 34.4% de los entrevistados manifestaron que no es suficiente la lluvia que cae para el cultivo y el porcentaje restante considera que la lluvia que cae sí lo es (ver Figura 31. ¿Cree que la lluvia que cae es suficiente para su cultivo?).Figura 31. ¿Cree que la lluvia que cae es suficiente para su cultivo?En esta misma línea de investigación, se preguntó a los hogares cuando se afectaban más sus cultivos. En la Figura 32. ¿Cuándo se afecta más su cultivo? es posible observar que aproximadamente el 83% de los hogares afirmaron que los cultivos se afectan en mayor medida ante la presencia de sequias, el 16% tanto de lluvias como de sequías y el porcentaje restante considera que el cultivo se afecta más cuando hay lluvias. Es interesante observar, que los cambios en el clima que más han notado los hogares encuestados son precisamente el incremento de las sequías y con un mayor impacto sobre su productividad. Respecto a los conocimientos previos sobre los fenómenos climáticos, se les preguntó a los hogares que entendían por fenómenos de El Niño y la Niña. Las siguientes Figura 33. ¿Con qué relaciona el fenómeno del niño? Muestran que el fenómeno de El Niño es asociado en el 91% de los casos, el 8% de los hogares encuestados no tenían un conocimiento claro acerca de este fenómeno y el 1% lo relaciona con lluvias. En el caso del fenómeno de la Niña, el 88% de los hogares  FuturoSe preguntó a los hogares acerca de la probabilidad de ocurrencia de cambios futuros en el clima y sobre cuál sería el nivel de afectación en la economía del hogar. La Figura 35. Percepción del impacto del clima futuro en la economía del hogar por municipio y la Tabla 17. Probabilidad de cambios climáticos futuros por municipio muestran los resultados de este análisis. En Barichara y San Gil más del 90% de los hogares encuestados considera que es muy probable que ocurran cambios futuros en el clima y en Villanueva cerca del 85% de los hogares comparten esta opinión. En estos tres municipios, los hogares expresaron además la preocupación de que estos cambios futuros en el clima puedan traer consigo fuertes efectos sobre la economía del hogar.Sin embargo, Curití exhibe un patrón diferente dado que alrededor del 50% de los hogares entrevistados cree poco probable que ocurran cambios futuros en el clima y el otro 50% sí cree Es interesante observar que en la muestra de estudio la mayoría de solicitudes de préstamo tienen motivos relacionados con la producción, pero no se observa casi ningún caso en el que se buscaran recursos para mejorar la infraestructura productiva, adquirir maquinaria ni bienes durables o para educación; las necesidades financieras de los agricultores de esta región tiene un carácter de inmediatez y sostenimiento de la producción, más que de inversión a largo plazo. En relación a los seguros agrícolas, solo el 23% de los productores de San Gil tienen contratado algún seguro agrícola, generalmente con Mapfre, Sura y Previsora; en menos del 10% de los casos estos seguros son contratados con el Ministerio de Agricultura, Finagro y Bancamía. Sin embargo, casi el 55% de los hogares que contrataron un seguro agrícola no saben cuál institución los está respaldando. En los municipios de Barichara y Villanueva ningún productor tuvo seguro agrícola y en Curití solo el 1% de los hogares afirmó tener un seguro de este tipo.Figura 38. Tiene seguro agrícola Figura 39. : Entidad contratada para el seguro agrícolaTambién es de resaltar que casi la totalidad de agricultores que tiene contratado algún seguro agrícola lo han hecho para proteger sus cultivos de tabaco 93%. Aparentemente, existe una preferencia por proteger las plantaciones de tabaco por encima de las de frijol que es del 7%.Respecto a las organizaciones y gremios a los cuales los hogares entrevistados están vinculados, San Gil es el municipio con una mayor cantidad de hogares en los cuales al menos un miembro pertenece a una organización, el 48% de los hogares afirmaron estar afiliados a una organización (ver Figura 40. Alguien del hogar pertenece a alguna organización, asociación o gremio ","tokenCount":"8938"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47bb0cc3862b39cc4e65402ef6ee419d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ba94b880-b6a4-4b89-b676-58c5bed652ea/retrieve","id":"-1697778913"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6cc92b5c-57ff-4233-a145-4947fe1a5ab4","pagecount":"95","content":"Barichara so ± 446 ± 408 SG : San G11 ID Sin e1bergo, la ~elecciín de lu 1uesllu en CU&D!n a ub~ a nml de ~ no ha cido estmuente alealmia.El objetivo del presente Informe es dar a conocer algunos resu ltados Importantes de la Investigación antropológica llevada a cabo en la zona frljolera de San Gil (Santander, COlombia). Esta Investigación cuya duración fué de tres af'\\os (Marzo 1991-Febrero 1994) representa la fase de obtención de datos a n ivel de campo, la cual servirá como base para la elaboración de una tésls de doctorado en la Universidad de Basllea ( Su iza).Adrlan Maltre~San Gil : El Diagnóstico Inicial y el Marco Institucional Al In ici arse los trabajos del Programa de Frijol en San Gll 3 • se buscó entender primero los problemas que afectan al cultivo de friJol y aquellos que el mismo cultivo pudiera ocasionar. Estr esfuerzo de análisis preliminar se basó en varias fuentes de Información • El Cuadro 1 dá un resumen del marco de análisis Inicial.Cuadro 1.1.3.. .. ProJecto 5!lllcildo par la Cooperdll Técm del Q)ürno Suizo (roTBSO/OOSODB) 1 111pemaóo por el ~de Frijol del CUT. llol referiD a la fue de pre~encia instmJc_,nal en la zona a pertír del año 1m Anteri'lrllente ya habla con~ entre la zona 1 el CIAT lediante el envio de aat.erial genéti:o, lal vilit.u de parte de la Unidad de Seaillaa a la Cooperativa de Cosll'OI&lllil1 la realir.aiín de un curtO de investig~m en fux:a.Varial vi1itaa a la zona, 8dráD (1!8>), YoJJett (1!8>), IIWe (1!8>), !CA (li?), !..una et al (1991). ~entre vvill ú1b1'01 del Progru& de FrijoL Gorgojo, IOD de la IHl1la. bala& 1 perfortl«km de vaina. El programa de FriJol dló prioridad a los problemas (1) antracnosls y (1 0) suelo. Esta decisión reflejaba claramente la nueva orlentaclon que se ha ven i do Implementando en este momento (1990) en el CIAT: Mejoramiento del culti vo y conservación de los recursos naturales.Se tenía previsto la realización de trabajos agronómicos enfocando pruebas v arletales y simultáneamente el montaje de algunas parcelas de escorrentía en las cuales se Iba a probar prácticas sencillas de control de erosión. Adicionalmente se tenra planeado adquirir las primeras experiencias en la recuperación de zonas degradadas (cárcavas). Este programa fué dlsef'lado para el af'lo 1991 en adelante. La anterior sección de Sistemas de Cultivo se Iba a encargar de la parte técnica de estos trabaj os. Además el Programa de Frijol aprobó la ubicación del autor del presente Informe en San Gil en forma permanente con la finalidad de realizar un estudio antropológico sobre las perspectivas de los agricultores en cuanto a la sostenlbllldad en la producción de frijol se refiere. Desafortunadamente, la anterior sección de Si stemas de Cultivo fué disuelta a finales de 1991 . A partír de esta fecha continuó solo el proyecto especial de antropologfa en San Gil. El efecto más Importante de esta decisión fué que los trabajos a nivel de conservación de suelo no conti nuaron. Las pruebas varletales, sin embargo, se han mantenido sin restricción.A lo largo de estos tres af'los el autor pudo establecer buenas relaciones de trabajo con la Coo~eratlva Multiservlcios de Barlchara (COMULSEB), con la Cooperativa de Vlllanueva, la Cooperativa Coagrosangll de San Gil, el Secretariado de Pastoral Social (SEPAS), la Fundación Carvajal con sede en Call, el Centro de Investigaciones de la Universidad de Bogotá \"Jorge Tadeo Lozano\" y el ICA (Creced Guanentá-Comunero). Además, el autor contó con el valioso apoyo del Programa de FriJol en cuanto al envio de material genético se refiere y con un apoyo eficiente y siempre oportuno de la parte administrativa del CIAT.La Hnea Promlaorla AFR 638: El Primer Paso hacra un RadlcaJ Mejorado El Departamento de Santander ocupó en 1988 con 10,100 has. el cuarto lugar dentro de las zonas productoras de frijol en Colombia (Ligarreto 1991 ), A su vez la zona frljolera de Barichara, San Gil y Vlllanueva ocupó con 2,750 has. en este mismo a~o, un 27~ del área bajo frl jol a nivel de Santander. Para el aPio 1992, la Importancia de la zona fri lolera de San Gil se Incrementó. Con sus 5,030 has. llegó a ocupar un 38~ del área total bajo frllol a n ivel del Departamento de Santander 1 .El cultivo de friJol se ha caracterizado por una dinámica extraordinaria en San Gil, habiéndose convertido de un cultivo Intercalado en los tabacales a muy baja densidad y destinado al autoconsumo, en un cultivo principal cuyo destino es hoy en dla el mercado de grano seco.Dentro de los problemas de producción a nivel agronómico ocupa un lugar muy importante la antracnosis, enfermedad ocasionada por el hongo Coljetotrlchum lindemuthlanum. La variedad local de mayor cobertura (aprox. 90~ del área), el Radical, es altamente susceptible a la antracnosl s (véase fotos 2 y 3). Los productores recurren como única médlda al control qulmlco del problema mediante funglcldas (Mancozeb y/o benomll). Esta práctica Incide en los costos de producción. Por otra parte la falta de medidas de precaución Incide sobre la salud humana (véase fotos 4, 5 y 6).Oswaldo Voysest (1990) subrayó la necesidad de desarrollar a corto plazo una variedad de tipo Radical resistente a antracnosls para San Gil y mencionó que se contaba con suficientes fuentes de resistencia como para lograr esta meta en un lapso relativamente corto. Por las caracterlstlcas de las razas del patógeno encontradas en la zona de San Gil. Pastor-Corrales (1991) Indicó que no se contaba con obstáculos Insuperables desde el punto de vista fitopatológico para la obtención de un material resistente.Frente a esta situación se Inició un programa de investigación en finca con pruebas varietales a partir del a~o 1991. Como resultado principal a la fecha del presente informe se destaca la Identificación de la linea promlsória AFR 638 la cual por:(1) la resistencia a antracnosls en condiciones de campo (ensayos y lotes • comerciales)(2) su arquitectura, la cual Impide que las vainas tengan contacto con el suelo y(3) la aceptación en el mercado está en un proceso de adopción por los agricultores de la zona fri iolera de San Gil, gracias a la multiplicación temprana de semilla apoyada por los productores. Se llegó en solo dos a~os, después de la Introducción de esta lrnea, a una étapa de siembras comerciales bajo el manejo de los agricultores.Se aprovechó esta circunstancia para realizar un anál~ de establjJ-º.rut y un sondeo de aceptaciQ.o con los productores.En promedio de 20 sitios la línea promlsorla AFR 638 dló un rendimiento de 919 Kg/ha. mientras la variedad Radical obtuvo 930 Kg/ha (Cuadro 2), es decir, un incremento de 11 Kg/ha. (o del H!í). SI se efectuara un anál isis estad ístico (análisis de varianza) con estos datos, esta diferencia no seria slgnlflcatl va 1 • En vista de la variabilidad en los datos de rendimiento, tanto en el caso del AFR 638 como en el caso del Radical, la cual Implica una Interacción fuerte entre el material genético y el ambiente, se realizó un análisis de estabilidad'.El Gráfico 1 presenta el resultado de este análisis. Sobre ellétodo ap&ado: Maitre (1994 ). . . La comparación entre el AFR 638 y el Radical coincide con muchos casos similares en los cuales una variedad Introducida o mejorada puede ser Inferior a la variedad local en cuanto al rendimiento en ambientes desfavorables. Sin embargo, no siempre es el caso. Existen ejemplos de variedades mejoradas las cuales superan a la variedad local en todos los ambientes (Graf y Voss 1991 ).Qué es un ambiente desfavorable en el caso del presente estudio? Hlldebrand (1984) al discutir este aspecto Indica que el índice ambiental es una expresión de la \" calidad agronómica\" (Graf y Voss 1991) del sitio, Integrando aspectos edáflcos, climatológicos, blótlcos y de manejo. Al revisar en el presente caso la ubicación de los sitios favorables y desfavorables no se pudo d~tectar una Interacción entre la ubicación de los terrenos y los rendimlentos 1 2. Como   . No le da antracnosis (48X) (A veces) se (44X). No hay que f .. igarlo (4-4X) descoloriza Tiene comercio (44X).  81 &Dá1D de estabilidad 1\\leltra una arta liailaridad con retUltadoa que se ban obtenido en el Wlilis de variedadeleejored.M '\" la primera fase de la \"revolución verde\". !A diferencia fundallenta.l, a nivel de interpretM:i6n, consiste en la definición de \"ubiente desfavorable\". En el caso de San Gil no 1e trata de !inc&B con J)a:OI recura MáB bien el ubiente deJfavorable se define en funci6n de la cantidad 1 rtirtribu• ci6n de la precip~ ~ la precipitdn en la zona e1 irregular, en realidad C8li ~ finca puede aer un ubiente favorable en an aiio 1 volverse desfavorable en rbo. Donde el riesgo de te1bnr frijol es constante 1 donde, por lo tanto, ha1 un efecto de la ub~i6n de la fin, la gente ra dejí de ~e~brar frijOLSegún lol datm de roi!POICA/ICA, Creced San Gt1, para 1993 8 lintorldn permal Claudil Fuentet).frijoles. El nuevo punto de i ntersección queda ahora en e = 641 Kg/ ha. Ello imp l ica que debido • al efecto de resistencia a antr ac nosi s en los cost os de produ cci ón, es más racional sembrar Radical solamente en amb ientes con un v al or e menor de 641 Kg / ha. Gráfico 3. Con base en la experien cia de los ag ricu ltores de la zona corno t amb ién med iante mediciones directas realizadas en un experi mento comparativo entr e agr icu ltura con v encional y bi ológica 19 se puede establecer qu e lás pérd i das en el prod u cto f inal por granos de mala calidad rep r esen tan en t re 3% y 5% en el caso del AFR 638 y entre el 10% -15% en el c aso del Rad ical (Véase f ot o grafías 10 y 11 ). Par tiendo de una merma p r omedio de 4% en el caso del AFR 638 y 12.5% en el caso del Radical, se puede cal c ular las dos líneas de r eg r esión ( Gráfi co 3) las c uales expresan la pérd i da de producción por mala cal idad (-4% ) en el caso del AFR 638 y el efecto acumulado de los costos de control químico de antracnosls y de la pérdida de producción por mala cali dad ( -12.5%) en el caso del Radi cal. La intersección queda ahora en e = 307 K g/ ha..  ..    La producción no convencional de semilla por la Cooperativa COAGROSANGIL es muy bien conocida y documentada (p. ej. CIAT 1986, ProfriJol 1989, ICA 1992 ).Cabe mencionar que se trata de un caso de producción de semilla limpia o seleccionada de una variedad local {Radical San Gil). El proyecto correspondiente empezó en el afio 1984 y continúa en la actualidad. Aqul no es el lugar de descri bir y analizar el proceso de producción y de beneficio de la sem illa, n f la estrategia de venta o la organización social de los productores de semill a (los cuales son generalmente socios de la cooperativa). Estos temas han sido tratados en varios documentos por otros autores. Lo que sr queremos hacer es evaluar el efecto agronómico y el Impacto económico que el Y. §Q de la semilla suministrada por COAGROSANGIL ha tenido en la zona friJ.QJer:-ª-. de San Gil.Según los datos del ICA/CORPOICA a nivel del CRECED en San Gil, el uso de la semilla limpia o de buena calidad de COAGROSANGIL Implicaría un aumento en la productividad de un 20%. Mientras el agricultor obtiene 1,000 Kg / ha. al usar su propia semilla de una supuesta mala calidad, al cambiarla por semilla limpia de COAGROSANGIL puede producir 1 ,200 Kg/ha. Además, se menciona un efecto positivo en la calidad del producto debido al uso de la semilla limpia. Algunas fuentes van más allá e Identifican efectos muy positivos a nivel de la zona como que el suministro de la semilla de COAGROSANGIL habrla posibil itado la enorme expansión del cultivo de friJol en los últimos aflos (como alternativa de di versificación) y una mejora sustan cial en el nivel de vida de los pobladores de la zona, gracias al proyecto de semilla. Sobre estas dos últimas aseveraciones desafortunamente no hay estudios especfflcos. Por lo tanto, ellas tienen más bien un carácter de hipótesis. Nos concentramos entonces, en el primer punto, el efecto de la cantidad producida (rendimiento).!! SI la semilla limpia se sembrara en 1,000 ha./aflo, un área que representa entre el 20% y el 25% del área total bajo friJol en la zona, se obtendría una producción adicional de 200,000 Kg. Al precio de Coi.$720/Kg. el cual fué vigente a diciembre de 1993, ello Impli caría un valor por la producción adicional de •144 Millones de Pesos o de U$180,000 Dólares. Es decir, en lugar de producirse en las 1,000 has. un valor bruto total de U$900,000 Dólares este valor sublrfa a U$1 '080,000 Dólares. Sin lugar a dudas, esto sería un dato significativo. Pero falta analizar si el postulado incremento en el rendimiento (d e 1,000 Kg/ha a 1,200 Kg/ha.) es real -y más Importante aún-conocer el área total atendida en realidad por la semilla de COAGROSANGIL.En cuanto al Incremento en el rendimiento existen serias dudas. Luna et al. (1991) no encontraron diferencias en el rendimiento en favor de la semilla de COAGROSANGIL, al comparar fincas en las cuales se había usado semilla prop ia con otros lotes en los cuales se había usado semilla limpia Al analizar los datos presentados por Beltrán (1990) tampoco se observa un efecto en el rendi miento. En una prueba realizada por los técnicos de la Cooperativa de Villanueva en 1992 no se notó una diferencia en rendimi ento a favor de la semilla limpiaComo todos los datos hasta aquí mencionados tienen sus llmltacionesu, tanto los datos en favor de la semilla como los en contra, es preferible recurrir a dos grupos de datos obtenidos en los lotes de los mismos productores de semilla de COAGROSANGIL.El pr imer grupo de datos (Cuadro 6) corresponde a un determinado afio y da in formación detallada a n ivel de lotes Indi vi duales. El segundo grupo de datos (Cuadro 7) refleja diferentes semestres de produ cción a nivel de datos agregados (promedio de todos los lotes de semilla del semestre en cuestión).Cuadro 6. Plan de Producción de Semilla (Radical). 1987A. Varios puntos deberfan considerarse con base a estos cuadros. Los promedios de rendimiento quedan cerca de 900 Kg/ha. para el caso del semestre 1987A y cerca de los 1,000 Kg/ha para el caso de los 7 semestre lnclufdos en el Cuadro 7. ¡.a variabilidad entre los datos Individuales del semestre 1987A es mayor (CV 2 27~) que la variabilidad entre los semestres (CV 15~). La franja de rendimientos definida por la desviación estándar (841 Kg/ha. lfmlte Inferior y 1,143 Kg/ha. l ímite superior) en ~l Cuadro 7 es típica para los rendimientos en la zona en condiciones normalesl . Entonces._ ~~ r. §o.QJmJenN_ QIQ!MQJQ obteolQQ. ~!J-!ª-12J\"Odycc1Qn.M. ~lJ.L9QIDQ__ t~m !l. r m úi §flnl_QQ__ 122r 'ª gesvi aclón_ estándMl !J.Q. ~ QJ!M~clan_ en oadª-de !Q §.. respectiv-ºª.. YAJores en 1ª-Qioducclón cornerci.Aj. Cabe recordar que el ICA habla de 1,000 Kg/ha. como rendimiento promedio obtenido en la producción comercial, mientras al utilizar semi ll a limpia, el rendimiento se Incrementaría en un 20~.SI tomamos en cuenta que los productores de semilla:(1)(2)(3) u al manejo del cultivo se refiere y producen bajo la supervisión de los técnicos Dalxl o:mgido en villa de un error en la fuente (la cual tiene un '* llás ~).Si no 1e pretenta un año 1ee0 cao en 1992. entonces, se supondrfa que los rendimientos alcanzados por este grupo especial de productores deberfan llegar a los 1.200 Kg/ ha. Ind icados como nivel de rend imiento alcanzable al util izar semilla seleccionada. Pero como hemos vi sto, los rend imientos promedio de este grupo quedan entr e 900 Kg/ h a. y 1 •~ Kg / ha., al I gual que los rend imi entos de producción comerci al en la zona 1 .Creemos enton ces, q ue no se ha podido demostrar u n efecto en el r end imiento debi do al uso de la semil la seleccionada de COAGROSANGIL Pero es más, las canti dades de semil la seleccionada compradas po r los agricu ltores de la zona fri Jolera de San Gi l , Barlchara y Vill anuev a 27 no c ubrieron a lo largo de los a~os más del a ; al 4~ del área total ba jo frij ol ( Cuadro 8). Es dec ir, que en el 96~ al 99~ del área culti vada con f riJol se ha v en i do uti li zando semilla de la propia f i nca o de los v eci nos o g rano del mercado o \" semilla\" ofrecida por las Cooperativas de Vlll anueva y Barl char a.Cuadro a. Sin considerv la sellilla adquirida por !<. productorea de aelllilla en vista de que no es decisi6n independiente de elb usar o no la aeeilla de CXl A GROSAI«iiL. Fuente: Altbivoe de CXlA GROSOOIL.Se estill6 UD UIIO de 50 Kg de aelilla por hectárea.llat.o8 de la URPA. Buca:uanga.SI Interpretamos los porcentaj es de uso de la semilla seleccionada como porcentaje de adopción de la tecnología ofrecida a los agricultores por COAGROSANGIL y el ICA/ CORPOICA llegamos a la conclusión que la adopción es mínima. Además ella se ha venido disminuyendo con el tiempo en lugar de incrementarse.Con base a los datos analizados llegamos a las siguientes conclusiones:1.El efecto que algunos atribuyen a la semilla seleccionada en cuanto al rendimiento no se ha podido demostrar.El grado de adopción de la semilla seleccionada es mfnlmo ( 1 ~ al 4% ).El Impacto teórico calculado previamente ( U$180,000. Dólares al afio con base en 1,000 has.) no se pudo comprobar, mediante esta evaluación ex post.Queremos af'íadl r que la tecnología de la sem illa limpia Incrementa los costos de producción en Col.$15,000/ha. (ó U$19 Dólares) en comparación con la semilla vendida en Vlllanueva 32 o en Col.$19,000/ ha. (ó U$24 Dólares en comparación con la semilla guardada en la finca, lo que representa entre el 3% -4~ de los costos de producción.Además, el fomento y uso de la semilla limpia de COAGROSANGIL ayuda a mantener la estrategia del control qufmlco de enfermedades ( tratamiento a la semilla y fumigaciones en el campo} lo que no contribuye a una mayor sostenlbllldad del cultivo de frllol en la zona.El caso de la Unea Promlsorla AFR 638: Evaluación de Impacto Ex .AnteCon base en el mismo criterio de las 1,000 has. tratamos de evaluar el posible Impacto de la linea AFR 638 en la zona frllolera de San Gil. Esta evaluación de Impacto potencial es de caracter ex ante. La semilla exi stente en este momento recién alcanza para 200 has. Además no se sabe todav ía a ciencia cierta si la línea AFR 638 llegará a cubrir 1,000 has. ( o más) en el futuro próximo. La Información que tenemos a nuestra disposición (Capítulo 2) parece Indicar que sí habrá una mayor .difusión de la linea. Pero ello estará su leto a por lo menos las siguientes condiciones:1.Las desv entajas Identificadas por los agricultores (ciclo más largo, dfflcll para desgranar) no serán decisivas y las v entaJas predominarán.31 32 l!8ta seailla (o 'aeaill&'l es grano a~~ercial ClliiiÍBtente de kltes se~ en el -.ento de la a.pra por pute de la (' .ooperativa. lACooperativa luego revende esttl kltes a los productorea.No se darán otras desventajas hasta hoy Insospechadas.La producción de frl jol se mantendrá en el mismo nivel o no habrá reducción significativa en cuanto a área.Bajo estos supuestos, la trnea AFR 638 podría alcanzar las 1,000 has. en el aPlo 1995. Cuál serra entonces, el Impacto de la difusión? En primer lugar se obtendrra una reducción de los costos de producción por no tener que reali zar un control qu rmlco de la antracnosls.Cuadro 9 . --Debido a la mejor calidad de grano obtenida con la siembra del AFR 638, en 1,000 has. se lograrra Incrementar la cantidad de grano de aceptación comercial en 76 t frente al Radical. Las 76 t representar ían un valor adicional de U$68,400 Dólares. Suponiendo que el valor de esta misma cantidad que se deja de vender en el caso del Radical y la cual es dedicada al autoconsumo asciende a la mitad, se obtiene una ganancia adicional de U$34,200 Dólares en 1,000 has.Sumando los valores de los Cuadros 9 y 10 se calcula un Impacto económ ico de entre U$61,700 y U$74,200 Dólares por 1,000 has. En este cálculo no se incluye la reducción en el uso de la mano de obra en la selección del grano la cual se obtiene en el caso del AFR 638.Esta evaluación ex ante permite predecir un mayor Impacto para el caso de la d ifusión de la lfnea promlsorla AFR 638 que para la tecnolog1a de la semi ll a limpia o seleccionada de Radical. Además, la Introducción de un material resistente a antracnosis Implica un primer paso significati vo hacía un manejo (en lo posible) no químico de los problemas fltosanltarlos a diferencia de la semilla limpia de la variedad local Radical.\"The most appropriate and practica/ control of bean anthracnose, particular/y in developlng countries, ls the use of fleld-resistant cult/vars.\" (Pastor Corrales y Tu 1989).Aparentemente para San Gil la estrategia de inéorporar resistencia genética a un frijol de tipo Radical es superior a la estrategia de producir semilla limpia del frl jol local. El problema de producción principal de la variedad Radical es su susceptibilidad a la antracnosls, la cual está determinada genéticamente. Al producl r semilla limpia se puede en el mejor caso postergar el ataque más no evitarlo. Para la cooperativa COAGROSANGIL que tanto esfuerzo ha hecho para sumin istrar al productor de friJol una semilla viable y que no ha tenido el éxito esperado en la propia zona, tal vez recién le ha llegado el momento de poder prestar un servicio útil a sus vecinos. Tal servicio conslstlrla en proveer a los agricultores con semillas de nuevos materiales ( \" semillas de una buena variedad \" ) obtenidas en la Investigación y mantener la pureza genética de los diferentes materiales.La asistencia técnica que prestan organismos oficiales a la producción agrícola campesina en Colombia ha sido encaminada hacfa la formulación de \" paquetes tecnológicos\" y sigue Insistiendo en un enfoque como si nada hubiera pasado a nivel de debates sobre la Investigación en fincas y su metodolog ía. Igualmente ocurre en San Gil. A parte de la recomendación de usar semilla de COAGROSANGIL se les ha venido \"entregando\" a los agricultores un \" paquete tecnológico\" en varias versiones, enfocando la densidad de siembra, fertilización, control qulmlco de problemas fltosanltarlos y otros aspectos. Al igual que en el caso de la semilla, la adopción de las respecti v as recomendaciones es mfnlma. Un estudio de caso en la vereda Llmonclto del municipio de Vlllanueva demuestra esta tendencia (Tangarlfe 1990).Las condiciones agroecológlcas no son homogéneas en la zona frllolera de San Gil. Este solo hecho Impide darles a todos los agricultores una sola receta sobre cómo producir frijol. Como lo señalan Janssen y Ruíz de Londoño ( 1994). las ventajas que puede (o piensa) tener el Investigador o técnico f r ente al productor en cuanto al manejo agronómico del cultivo no son tan cl aras como en el caso del mejoramiento genético.Definitivamente, hay una deficiencia enorme con respecto a la In v estigación en finca, la cual Impi de un mayor progreso en la optimización de la producción agrícola campesina. Este punto nos ocupará de nuevo en el Cap itulo 5 (Metodolog ía de la Investigación en Finca).• AFR 638: Mejoramiento Genético y Erosión Genética \"Nosotros necesitamos dos ó tres semillas tipo Radical para sembrar en cada lote de nuestras fincas la • semilla que m~s se adapte. \" (Eduardo Acosta, agricultor de la vereda San José Bajo, municipio de Barlchara).Como es conocido existe una crítica frente al mejoramiento genético y la Introducción de materiales mejorados en situaciones de producción campesina. Al mismo tiempo, quienes critican la Introducción de semillas mejoradas en sistemas de producción campesinos proponen como alternativa la conservación (muchas veces in sltu) de ecotlpos locales y el fomento de estas variedades antiguas y/o locales.1.Las variedades mejoradas corren el peligro de deteriorarse rápidamente lo que no sucede con los ecotlpos locales, los cuales se han adaptado al ambiente. Tal deterioro se puede manifestar en la pérdida de resistencia a un determinado problema fitosanltarlo o en la aparición de un prob lema nuev~ anteriormente secundarlo.reciente, bajo prueba 33 . Con respecto a la erosión genética se puede decir que si en San Gil de todo ha sucedido este proceso en el cultivo de frijol, fué con anterioridad a la Introducción de la línea AFR 638. Los agricultores dejaron de sembrar varios tipos de semilla (Cuarentano y Carmín como los más antiguos, luego Olacol Andino, Calima, Guarzo, Caraota y otros) por la buena aceptación del 'Radical en el mercado. No se quiere negar que la siembra masiva de un soto material (Radical) y las siembras consecutivas de friJol en muchos terrenos haya ocasionado inconvenientes fitosanitarlos, los cuales pueden haber contribuido a la degeneración de la semilla (de Radical ) observada por muchos agricultores. Pero la causa inicial de este proceso no se la puede atribuír a la Investigación agrícola dedicada a la obtención de nuevos materiales.Obviamente, se puede argumentar más bien que en San Gil la investigación agrícola está haciendo un aporte al Incremento de la diversidad genética mediante la introducción de material genético, tal como lo han postulado a nivel general Voysest y Pachico ( 1991) y Beebe ( 1993).El aumentar la diversidad genética en la zona frijolera de San Gil no solo se refiere a la Introducción paulatina de dos ó tres materiales de tipo Radical. Fuera de esta diversidad \"externa\" hay otra de carácter \"Interno\". El AFR 638 muy probablemente debe su resistencia a antracnosis a una base genética amplia la cual incluye tanto materiales andinos como mesoamérlcanos 34El criterio de la base genética amplia en variedades mejoradas es mu y importante. Hargrove (1988)  Finalmente, cabe mencionar que la lfnea AFR 638 ha sido ev aluada durante todo el proceso de Investigación en finca (pruebas varietales, lotes de multiplicación, lotes oomerclales) estrictamente en condiciones de finca y bajo el manejo del agricultor. SI ella se ha destacado por algunas ventajas frente al Radical local (véase Caprtulo 2), entonces ha podido expresar las respecti v as características deseables en las mismas condiciones de manejo a las cuales es sometida la variedad local Rad ical. Por lo tanto, no es probable que el AFR 638 requiera de un manejo más Intensivo para poder manifestar sus ventajas 35 .El caso de San Gil no es único. Según Beebe (1993) la diversidad genética de frijol en Centroamérlca se ha venido mermando antes del Inicio de la Investigación y el reto hoy en dla es más bien incrementar la diversidad nuevamente.-----------l5Otra COS& es que la líne4 AFR 6ll llegue a ~ewrollar más su potencial <le !' l!ndimiento en condbmes cüná~Xas buenas y r.on 11n P(tY.ieniP ll8lle jo ag l\"'OIÓUC.La observación que la Introducción de variedades mejoradas conduce a la erosión genética a veces no es correcta, por que los procesos erosivos se han iniciado ya mucho antes, por ejemplo, por las exigencias del mercado. Pero a veces encontramos zonas en las cuales existe todav ía una diversidad genéti ca en el cultivo y la Introducción de nuevos materiales lejos de acabar con ella, incrementa más bien la d i versidad. Es decir, que los agricultores simplemente incorporan la(s) nueva(s) variedad(es) dentro del manejo de las variedades existentes. Voss (comunicación personal 1988), Ru fz de Londoño y Jahssen ( 1990) , Janssen y Ruíz de Londoño ( 1994) observaron este fenómeno en A frica del Este, Perú y Colombia en el caso del frijol. Brush (1986,1988,1992 ) ha analizado el efecto de la \"revolución verde \" en los cultivos de papa, arroz y maíz y llegó a la conclusión de que en algunas partes los agricultores hab 1an adoptado nuevas variedades sin dejar de sembrar las antiguas. En el caso específico de la papa en la Sierra Peruana es conocido que los campesinos producen variedades mejoradas para el mercado y siguen sembrando las antiguas para su autoconsumo. Los ecotipos locales se mantienen con más facilidad en las zonas marginales y se observan tasas diferenciales de difusión y adopción de las variedades mejoradas y por ende un distinto grado de presión sobre los ecotlpos según la zona agroecológlca.Volviendo al caso de San Gil es Importante también mencionar que los mismos agricultores están Interesados en probar -y si es el caso-usar nuevas semillas. Esto se ha visto en ocasión de la difusión de la línea AFR 638. Además, cada vez que se les ha presentado la oportunidad de adquirir un material de buenas características agronómicas (PVA 916, !CA 66, Caraota, AFR 638) los campesinos han reaccionado Inmediatamente, comprando semillas de estos materiales. Que los tres primeros materiales no hayan prosperado posteriormente ha sido por problemas de mercado, no de la investigación o de la producción. Esperamos que con el AFR 638 no suceda Igual.El Desempeño de la Unea AFR 638 en un Ensayo Comparativo de Agricultura Biológica y Agricultura Convencional Muchos críticos del uso de v ari edades o bten idas en mejoramiento genético para los sistemas de producción campesinos son partidarios de la agroecol ogfa o también de la agr icultura biológi ca. Ellos proponen usar variedades locales de los cultl vos, las cuales serían de una mayor adaptación al ambiente, implementar un manejo con poco o ningún uso de productos qUimicos (lo que a nivel económico significa un uso mínimo de insumes externos a la finca) y aplicar medidas no químicas (por ejemplo extractos vegetales ) en el manejo de plagas y enfermedades.En un sitio cerca a la zona frljolera de San Gll, ubicado en el municipio del Páramo se i nstaló ~ principios del año 1993 una parcela experimental de agricultura biológica 1 , mediante la cual se busca estudiar los efectos de la agricultura biológ ica y convencional sobre la producción de cultlv~s representativos de la zona y sobre l a fertilidad y conservación del suelo El manejo convencional se definió entre otras cosas por el uso de fertilizante químico, el arreglo de friJol en unlcultlvo, surcos en favor de la pendiente y eliminación del material orgánico, mientras el manejo biológico se caracterizó por el uso exclusivo de abono orgánico, un arreglo de frl jol con maíz intercalado, surcos atravesados e Incorporación del material orgánico. El control químico de la antracnosls en la v ariedad susceptible se realizó mediante tres aplicaciones de funglcldas ( Mancozeb y benomll ) de acuerdo a las recomendaciones del ICA para el c ultivo. El control natural o vegetal se efectuó mediante unas 10 aplicaciones de extracto de Cola de Caballo (Egulsetum arvense). Se suponía al montar el ensayo que la antracnosls Iba a ser la llmltante principal en cuanto a problemas fltosanltarios se refiere. Sin embargo, se presentaron ataques significati v os de Roya y Mustia Hi lac hosa también.En ocasión de la segunda ev aluación fitosan i tari a real i zada en R 8 se obtuvi eron los siguientes datos:Cuadro 11. Evaluación de Antracnosls. Parcela de Agricultura Biológica. Páramo. 1993B.Radical QQD control de 3 Se pueden resaltar 3 observaciones con base en el cuadro anterior.(1) El comportamiento del AFR 638 ha sido excelente Independientemente del manejo (convencional o biológico).(2) El control natural mediante Egulsetum arvense no ha sido efectivo.( 3) El control químico no ha permitido Igualar el resultado del material resistente.Una semana más tarde, aún en R 8, un grupo de agri cultores hi zo u na e v aluación detallada del experimento. Después de haber hecho observ aciones especfficas sobre el ensayo, se les solicitó a los agricultores una clasif icación general de los 6 tratamientos. Mejoramiento Genético e Investigación en Finca Son muchas las experiencias con un programa de investigación en f i nca mediante el cual se ha logrado generar una tecnolog ía promlsoria de frijol para las condiciones de los agricultores e Integrarla en los sistemas de producción (Woolley et al. 1988), Beltrán et al. (1988), Voss y Graf (1991), Maitre ( 1990), etc. Pero tal v ez hay mucho mas casos en los cu ales no se cuenta con un programa efici ente de Investigación en finca. Este hecho es uno de los factores limitantes más serios para un mejor desarrollo de la agricultura campesina. Lo preocupante es que se debe constatar esto después de quizás 20 años de esfuerzos a nivel metodológico, de cursos de capacitación y de financiación de proyectos de Investigación en finca. Y como una buen-ª Investigación Incluye un componente fuerte de participación del agricultor, las cosas son más preocupantes todavía porque si bien puede haber métodos y procedimientos de cómo lograr la participación del agricultor en la Invest i gación agrtcola, si la convicción le falta al personal técnico, de que ella fuese necesaria no hay progreso.En el caso de San Gil enfrentamos una situación que se r efleja en los siguientes pronunciamientos:\" (La entidad X] puede tener buenos doctores, pero no se comunican con la gente del campo.\"\" Lo que me duele es que [la entidad X] descarta, de entrada, la técnica del campesino.\" (La entidad X] llega, hace un experimento y coloca su letrero ... no más ... nunca vuelven a preguntar si la cosa sirvió o no sirvió. \"\"Nosotros producimos con o sin [la enti dad X], pero el dfa que las cooperati v as no nos dén crédito y no haya maquinaria estaremos en la olla.\"\"Hoy en día hay muchos doctores de agricultura, pero agricultores quizá no son!\" \" Qué ha hecho [la entidad X] para el fri iol aquí? ...• Nada!\".Estos son unos pocos testimonios de productores de frijoi 40 los cuales Indican el grado de aceptación de la metodología de Investigación al canzado por [las entidades X].Al princi pio de la Investigación anal izada en este informe, tanto el CIAT (Sección Sistemas de Cultivo) como el ICA daban un estímulo económico al productor colaborador en los ensayos. En el caso del CIAT se trató de una recompensación correspondiente al v alor que el agricul tor había delado de recibir por no haber sembrado el frijol local en aquella área que había sido ocupada con la prueba varietal. En el caso del ICA se le daba -y se le dá todavía-una \" ayuda'' en cuanto a lnsumos (fertilizante qu ímico y pesticidas, a veces gall i naza) y algunas veces el personal auxili ar del ICA se encarga deO no de !<. testillona es del Gerente de la cooperativa trijolera lás ill~te de Santander.las labores culturales. A partir del semestre 91 B se corrigió rápidamente este error de parte del CIAT. En todos los ensayos que han s ido montados ba lo responsabilidad del autor del presente informe y de los respectivos agricultores en. los aPios 1992 y 1993 no se ha contemplado ningún apoyo económico para el produ ctor. Es decir. que el agricul tor asum ió la plena r esponsab ili dad económica del ensayo. Esto es Importante, en el sentido de que se p uede suponer con un alto grado de probabilidad que el agricultor colabora • por su interés en el proceso de la i n v estigación y no por un motivo económico.El manejo agronómico de las pruebas v arietales ha sido definido por el agricu ltor colaborador. La úni ca excepción fué la aplicación de fung lcidas.Como las pruebas varietales iban dirig i das hacía la obtención de un material resistente a antracnosis, se le propuso al agri cul tor no apli car fung icldas.Resul ta que en todos los casos los agri cul t ores no solo aceptaron esta propuesta, sino la respaldaron. Todos los demás elementos del manej o ( época de siembra, densi dad de siembra, fertilización, control de plagas, deshierbes, etc.) han sido definidos por los agricultores.Este punto es de suma importancia puesto que le posibili ta al agricultor observar los nuev os materiales y el material local en i gualdad de condi ciones de modo que su evaluación se refiere a efectos de la v ariedad y no a efectos combinados de la variedad y del manejo. Al Investigador la misma metodolog fa le da una base útil para observar el comportamiento de un materi al promisorlo bajo condiciones del agricultor, ya que generalmente es mucho más fácil lograr la d ifusión de una lfnea promlsorla que lograr cambiar el maneJo de los agricultores de una zona.Si la estrategia de meloramlento de un cultivo Incluye la ldentltlcaclón de materiales de buen comportamiento en ambientes difíciles y con niveles bajos de lnsumos, pues en la siguiente fase de lnvestlgaciQn_ en u~~ se debe seguir Implementando esta estrategia (Véase Capftulo 2: Análisis de Estabil i dad ). Todo lo anterior no excluye que se pueda evaluar también el efecto de un manejo mejorado en el material promlsorlo (y en el material local). Pero esto es otro paso en el procedimiento metodológi co.Todos los ensayos han sido evaluados por los agricultores. Esto ha perm it idocomo en muchos otros casos-conocer mejor los criterios de los productores y avanzar más en la Identificación de líneas promisorias. Sin embargo, como en el inicio los viveros tenían muy poca cantidad de líneas tipo Radical y a los agricultores les Interesaba más que todo la búsqueda de un nuevo tipo de fri lol Radical, las evaluaciones partlclpatlvas se hubieran vuelto Infructuosas.Por lo tanto, se tomó la decisión a partír del semestre 1993A de Introducir otro elemento de evaluación: La selección previa de tratamientos por el agricultor antes de la siembra del ensayo.En un caso concreto, la selección previa de tratamientos por el agricultor resultó en una reducción del 74~ de los materiales que se Iban a sembrar. La consecuencia inmediata fué que el agricultor prácticamente se \" apoderó \" del ensayo viendo la Importancia que se le asignó a su Intervención desde el Inicio del proceso de Investigación. Dentro de dos siembras se Identificaron los materiales promlsorlos (RAA 17 y TM 27 J1 J1) que se estarán probando en el semestre 1994A. Además el mismo agricultor yá está sembrando AFR 638.Como la selección previa se hace con base a una evaluación del gsano y detrás de esta evaluación está el criterio principal de mercadeo, se podría cuestionar el procedimiento alegando que de esta manera se descartan -sin saberloalgunos materiales agronómlcamente excelentes. La respuesta a esta inquietud es que mientras el mercado de tri jol en San Gil no acepte otros t ipos de grano, no le sirve de nada al productor contar con un material agronómicamente excelente el cual después no puede vender. Además, mientras sea poco probable la implementación de un programa de cruces específicos para San Gil, no es preciso por el momento Identificar materiales no comerciales pero de buen comportamiento agronómico como materiales parentales. Entonces, para agilizar el proceso de pruebas var-ietales con los productores el método de la selección previa de tratamientos es muy útil.Otro elemento que se ha venido utilizando en varios programas de investigación en finca es la multiplicación temprana de semilla de un material escogido por los productores. Esta práctica ha sido aplicada en San Gil también. En vista de las evaluaciones iniciales favorables del AFR 638 en ocasión del primer ensayo en el semestre 1991 B, se buscó la forma de multiplicar la poca semilla que se tenía en ese momento.Gracias a la colaboración del Sr. Isaías Velásquez, gerente de COAGROSANGIL se sembró la semilla Inicial en la huerta de propiedad del mismo Sr. Velásquez en plena época de verano (Enero-Abril 1992). El resultado fué muy satisfactorio porque se logró avanzar más rápido en la multiplicación de la semilla y se obtuvo un segundo centro de Irradiación de este nuevo material en la vereda Guarlgua Alto (la semilla Inicial provino de la vereda El Choro de Vi llanueva). El principio de multiplicación temprana y paralela de la semilla se sigu ió aplicando dando lugar a los primeros lotes de carácter comercial y permitiendo de esta manera la evaluación del AFR 638 balo condi ciones r eales de producción. En este proceso de multiplicación \"partlcipativa\" de semilla se reunen varios elementos (1) el material sigue estando bajo pruebas, pero en condiciones reales, (2) se incrementa la cantidad de semilla y (3) se in icia un proceso de difusión del material de vecino a vecino, el cual es de sumo v alor. En primer lugar, porque ocurre igualmente en una fase temprana •Y permite por lo tanto conocer rápidamente el material y la actitud de los agricultores hacía él. En segundo lugar, porque el material de esta manera sale de los \"circu itos cerrados\" de los agricultores colaboradores preferidos por el investigador y llega a manos de los agricultores críticos quienes evaluan fríamente el material porque no le tienen ningún \"cariño\" (todavía) en v ista de que ellos no han participado del proceso de obtención de este material. Eso da otra vez un criterio real sobre fa tecnología bajo prueba.Obviamente se perd~rra fa ventaja de todo este proceso si no se hiciera un seguimiento a la tecnofogra en cuestión en todas sus étapas, tal como se hizo en San Gil.En conclusión la Investigación en finca -aquí para el caso de p r uebas varletafes-debe considerar los siguientes puntos:1.Conducción de los ensayos sin estímulo económico alguno para el agricultor.Discusión del ensayo y de sus objetivos con el agricultor. 41Puede incluir selección de tr&tamientos por el agricultm.Manejo agronómico definido por el agricultor colaborador.Evaluaciones sistemáticas con los agrlcultores( en diferentes étapas del cultivo, Individualmente y / o en grupos).Multiplicación temprana de sem ill a 6. Seguimiento en todas las fases metodológicas Sin una buena Investi gación en fin ca, el mejorador demora mucho más en obtener sus resultados finales. Se p i erde t iempo. tiempo que no t i ene n1 el agricultor, ní el mej orador. Sin la parti ci pación del agricultor no se hace una buena i n v esti gación en finca. La In v estigación en finca comunica el mundo campesino con el mundo de la generación de tecnologías. Es preocupante ver, por lo tanto, que en muchas partes no se cuenta con una buena Investigación en finca todav ía.El Concepto de Antracnosls de los Agricultores La Investigación antropológica puede Ir más allá de su función de ag ili zar el proceso de generación y difusión de tecnologías. Al hacer esto el antropólogo generalmente sale del marco de la antropolog ía aplicada y se ded ica a la antropología básica. Siendo el cultivo de frijol tan importante en San Gil y la antracnosis su principal problema fitosanltarlo, Interesó entender mejor el concepto de los agricultores al respecto de esta enfermedad. Este capítulo se basa en conversaciones con muchos agricultores entre ellos los señores Pedro Barragán e Israel Romero.Los nombres que tienen los agricultores para la antracnosis son: \" hielo\". \"gota\" y \"gota negra\". \"Esta mata se ahieló\" quiere decir que tal planta fué afectada por la antracnosis. La expresión \" hielo\" es muy antigua y se aplica también a otros cultivos y otras enfermedades. En el caso del cultivo de fri iol \" hielo\" puede referirse a otras enfermedades también, siendo la antracnosis la principal referencia. La palabra \" hielo\" también esta en uso en Honduras, pero según Bentley (1991) no se refiere a antracnosls sino a otras enfermedades del frijol y a enfermedades de otros cultivos. En la zona de San Gil algunos productores de cebolla (Aill.Y.rn flstulosurn) se refieren al hongo Peronospor:ª destructor como \"hielo negro\".Las palabras \"gota\" y \"gota negra se utilizan Indistintamente para la antracnosls en el cultivo de frijol. Estas expresiones han sido introducidas en la zona frljolera de San Gil . Su orígen es probablemente Boyacá donde se habla de \"gota\" en el cultivo de papa para referirse al hongo Phytophtorª infestans.Algunos agricultores no usan fácilmente las palabras \"hielo\" o \" gota negra\" en presencia de los técnicos y a mucho de ellos nos le gusta desarrollar su t eoría sobre la causa o el origen del problema porque \"da pena hablar de lo mucho poco que sabe uno como campesino bruto\". Esto parece indicar una pérdida de confianza en el conocimiento tradicional tal como lo ha analizado Bentley ( 1989) para el caso de Honduras. Según el mismo autor este proceso se debe al efecto de la asistencia técnica. Sin embargo, los agricultores Sangileños pueden no hablar de una experiencia a un técnico pero si mantenerla viva. En alguna oportu nidad un agricultor me explicó su concepto de antracnosis y su experiencia con esta enfermedad. Al terminar su explicación me preguntó sobre mi concepto y mis ideas de antracnosls. Luego de aclararle que yo no tenía conceptos propios sino aquellos desarrollados por los fitopatóiogos, me puse a detallarlos: Que era un hongo que puede ser transmitido por semilla, que puede sobrevivir en el suelo, en residuos de cosecha, etc. etc. El agricultor escuchó con interés y paciencia, pero una vez terminada mi explicación, empezó a mencionar observaciones en su opinión incompatibles con la explicación dada.Sin entrar en detalles se puede decir que nuestra conversación de media hora se centro en la cuestión del or i gen ( teoría campesina: ci elo, teoría • fitopatológlca: hongo sobreviviente en semilla, en el suelo, etc.) y la compatl bllidad de cada teoría con algunas observaciones prácticas con la enfermedad. Llegando al fín de nuestra discusión. el agricultor diseñó un experimento para poder decidir entre las dos teorras opuestas. El experimento consistiría en cubrir una determinada superficie con un plástico transparente a 1 metro de altura de tal forma que no le pudiera \"caer el hielo de lo alto\" y compararla con otra área Igual pero descubierta. SI se presentara el \" hielo\" en la parJe tapada con plástico, sería un Indicio en contra de la teoría campesina .SI partimos de la hipótesis que el pensamiento campesino tradicional al respecto de la causa de la antracnosis está vigente, cómo se relaciona, entonces, la idea sobre la causa de la antracnosis con la práctica de control de la enfermedad? La aplicación de funglcldas es la única medida de control que se toma en la actualidad. Al preguntar a los agricultores sobre el efecto de los \"venenos contra el hielo \" (funglcidas), ellos mencionan dos mecanismos:(1) el fungicida le dá \"vitaminas\" a la planta, las cuales la vuelven más fuerte, más resistente para \"aguantar\" el hielo.(2) el funglclda queda como una capa protectante encima de las hojas de la planta de tal manera que el hielo al caer a la hoja se resbala. Eso implica que el efecto de los funglcidas se Interpreta en forma compatibl e con la teoria sobre el origen de la enfermedad. Las variedades resistentes se interpretan de la misma manera. Ellas son fuertes (\"guapas para resistir\") para soportar el hielo, tal como una persona sana en medio de sus familiares afectados por la gripe.con respecto al manejo de la antracnosis se pudo observar que a los agricultores no les preocupa la presencia de síntomas (leves) en la vaina mientras no \" pasen a la pepa\" (grano). Por lo tanto, ellos tratan de mermar la Incidencia del hongo de tal forma que no se afecten los granos. Desde luego esta estrategia está motivada por la importancia que tiene la calidad del grano para la venta De alll se entiende que los campesinos tratan en lo posible de aplicar un funglcida en la étapa de desarrollo R 7 (formación de v ainas ). La primera aplicación se hace muy a menudo en V4/R 5 y según la evolución del hongo, una tercera en R 8. De cierta manera los agricultores buscan establecer ---------uHose ha realiudo el ezperillento. Se trata aas bien de ilustrar la cap«:idad intelectual del agricultor, capaz de •ntender la rool rontanón ,¡. dCE ~ y de dileñar un ezperimentD apto para apartar evideocias ea favor o en contra de alguM de la¡ teorías.un \"umbral de acción\". Stonehouse ( 1990) ha descrito esta tendenci a para el caso de Nariño (Colom bia) y discute las limitaciones de esta estrategia para el caso de enfermedades fungosas ( a diferencia de plagas).La búsqueda de un umbral de acción de parte de los agricultores posiblemente no está motivada por sus deseos de reducl r los riesgos para el medio amb iente y la salu d humana. Mas bien se trataría de redu cir los costos de p rod ucción y al iviar la carga de trabajo de los miembros de la famil i a. Los fungicidas no son consi derados como \"venenos bravos\" y no son \"tóxicos\" como los \"v en enos contra plagas\" (lnsecticides).Los campesinos interpretan ciertos fenómenos climáticos (llu vi as intermitentes) como ~ausas de la antracnos is, mientras el fltopatólogo ve los mismos fenómenos como con di ciones prop ici as para el desarrollo del hongo.Se observa una coexistencia entre el saber campes ino tradlf]on al (carácter y causa de la enfermedad) y una práctica moderna de control (fu ngl cidas).La interpretación sobre la causa de la antracnosls muestra aspect os antropomorfos: Tal como el hombre trabajando y acalorado por el sol sufre más de una llovizna fria sú bita que por una llu v ia fuerte y prolongada, así se ve más afectada la planta por el mismo fenómeno.No se ha vi sto ninguna med ida tradi c ional de control o manejo de la antracnosls (Thurston 1990) (como lo hay en la cebolla de ra~a en la zona o en cultivo de frllol en otras zonas ). Ello se debe tal vez al poco t i empo que lleva el frllol como cu lti vo Importante en la zona.No obstante los agricultores, Independientemente de su teoría sobre el origen de la antracnosls han hecho una serie de observaciones sobre la severidad del ataque según la época de siembra, la ubicación del terreno, la historia del lote, la remoción o incorporación de residuos de la cosecha anterior, etc. Es decir. que existe un nivel diferente a el de la interpretación de la enfermedad, el cual se podrfa considerar como nivel empírico.El Problema de San Gil es Frijol • o Suelo?Lo que se ha analizado hasta ahora puede considerarse como un caso de un programa de Investigación en finca dirigido hacía la solución de un problema de producción bien definido y respaldado por una estrateg ia de mejoramiento genético cuyas caracaterísticas son: búsqueda de materiales resistentes a enfermedades. con buen desempeño en condiciones de bajos niveles de insumes y una orientación hacia un tipo de grano comerci al. De esta manera -y no mediante la búsqueda exclusiva de variedades de alto rendimiento-se pensó al inici arse el Programa de Frijol del CIAT -y se sigue pensando-que se podría mejorar la producción en pequeñas fincas campesinas ( Pachlco 1987, 1993, Pachico y Schoonhoven 1989). El caso del AFR 638 es un ejemplo de la aplicación de esta estrategia.1.La linea AFR 638 es superior al Radical local en cuanto a resistencia a antracnosls se refiere.Además, el AFR 638 tiene una arquitectura más apropiada, proteglendose las vainas del contacto con el suelo.Los anteriores puntos Inciden favorablemente en la calidad del grano producido. aspecto de suma Importancia en una zona donde el destino de producción es el mercado.La ventaja del AFR 638 no se basa en el rendimiento el cual I guala en condiciones de San Gil el rend imiento del Radi cal. (Sin embargo, se ha notado en el AFR 638 un potencial de rendimiento más alto en ambientes favorables.)Al sembrarse 1,000 has. con frijol AFR 638, los cuales corresponden a 20~ -25~ del área total bajo frllol, se lograría un Impacto económico de entre 62,000 -74,000 Dólares al año frente a la casi ausenc ia de impacto para el caso del paquete tecnológico desarrollado en la zona, el cual incluye el uso de una supuesta semilla de buena calidad.La difusión de la linea AFR• 638 -y posteriormente otras lineas resistentes-reduce el uso de funglcldas en la zona.Los agricultores han apoyado el proceso de Investigación, haciendo contribuciones directas y significativas.Obviamente estos son elementos muy positivos para la producción de frllol en San Gil siempre Y cuando el marco de referencia sea el mejoramiento del cultivo. Sin embargo, las Implicaciones que tiene la presencia masiva del cultivo de frijol en San Gil a nivel de manejo del suelo nos obliga a ampliar este marco de referencia. Según el diagnóstico Inici al (Capítulo 1 ), el mane jo de suelo era en realidad el segundo problema de la zona fri iolera, el cual se buscó abordar de parte del CIAT.Diagnóstico Inicial. Los visitantes de la zona frijolera de San Gil concuerdan con que la erosión es un prob lema de mucha importancia. Muchos observadores dicen que el problema es tan obvio (fotografía 18) que ni siquiera hace falta evaluarlo sino Iniciar de una v ez una di vul gación masiva de medidas de control.La combinación de los siguientes factores:1 Presencia del culti vo en laderas 1Suelos sueltos 1 Intervención de tract ores los cual es aran en favor de la pendiente 1Si embra de cultivos limpios ( fri iol. tabaco)Orientación de surcos en favor de la pendiente hace que muc hos temen una pérdida de la productividad del suelo a med iano plazo. La presenci a de cárcavas y o tras zonas degradadas en medio de campos • de frl iol, juntamente con una supuesta ausencia de medidas de control de eros ión de parte de los produ ctores prácticamente impon en la conclusión de que se debe i mplementar una serie de medidas de conservaclon de suelo en cuanto antes.Inicialmente se había propuesto montar parcelas de escorrentfa en las cual es se i ban a probar algunas prácticas de conserv aciOn como son: Siembra de árboles como barreras rompevlento, s iembra de barreras vivas ( pasto) en líneas de contorno para cortar los surcos y cambio de d i rección en la cu al los tractores suelen arar. Estas mismas parcelas Iban a servir para estab lecer las pruebas varletales de frijol para de tal manera poder trabaj ar simultáneamente en ambos frentes: Mejoramiento del cu ltivo y conserv ación de suelo. Adicionalmente, se propuso empezar un trabajo de recuperación de las cá rcavas. (Informe Anual del Programa de Frijol 1991, Maitre 1990, Voysest 1991 ).La inqui etud entonces, fué: Qué ganamos al mejorar el cultivo si por un manejo inadecuado del suelo se nos v a perdiendo en poco tiempo el recurso natural principal para sostener el culti vo en la zona? La percepción que compartimos todos al visitar p or primera vez San Gil, al parecer tuvo que haber si do la misma que han ten ido los agrOnomos !rusta Y Fortoul en los af\\os 1956 y 1957. Estos autores al referirse a las zonas tabacaleras de Santander (Bucaramanga y alrededores, Garcia Ro v ira y la Reglón de San Gil} dijeron: \"Conocemos casi todo el país y podemos asegurar que en ninguna parte de Colombia el problema de erosiOn es tan agudo como en estos sectores de Colomb ia\" . ( !rusta y Fortoul 1961) ! rusta y Fortoul realizaron un estudio de aptiN.d, de los suelos en tres sect o res de Santander, abarcando un área total de casi 2,500 km-l. En un c uadro-resumen, el c ual reproducimos aqu1 en forma simplifi cada, !rusta y Forto ul calcul aron por sector el porcentaje del área total afectada po r erosiOn moderada y erosión fuerte. En el caso de San Gi l estos porcentajes llegaron al 44~ del area estudiada con erosiOn moderada y 31 ~ con eroslórr fuerte. Pero lo que es más importante todavía, es que la zona que hoy en dfa es el area frljolera pr i ncipal de Vlllanueva, Bari c hara y San Gil fué considerada por !rusta y Fortoul como no apta para c uJ.llvos -con la úni ca excep ción del café y se recom ienda la reforestac ión de ~m Cuadi\"'' 13 .Ar . . . con Eroet ón en las Zonas Tabacaleru de Santander . Irust:a y Fortoul . 1981. En otro estudio sobre la cuenca del río Fonce cuya zona colinda con la zona frij ol era, se buscó determinar áreas de confli cto entre el uso actual del suelo y la aptitud de estos mismos suelos (INDERENA-INGEOMA 1992). En un 40% del área se descubrieron tales confl ict os, mayormente por sobreuso. Se Identifi có como probl ema la ausencia en la cuenca, de suelos de la clase agrológica I y la presencia de áreas ba jo culti v os an uales o limpios. Los autores afirman que los agricultores fomentan c ultivos en cond icion es antitécn lcas y antleconómicas y añaden la siguiente observación: \"Vale anotar que las explotaciones agropecuarias degradan los suelos y que cada dra los habitantes de estas tierras talan mas vegetación natural, propiciando la erosión, debilitando el normal comportamiento de las c uencas hidrográficas y aumentando la miseria. \"(p . 14) Como solución ellos también proponen la reforestación masiva. León ( 1990) en un estudio puntual de la parte baja de la microcuenca de Curití ( la cu al f orma p arte de la menc ionada cuenca del río Fonce) señala igualmente conflictos de uso de s uelo en 2,567 has. o sea en un 41% del área to tal estudiada la cual comprende u nos 62 kms:.t. Se trata casi exclusivamente de sobreuti l ización de los suelos, muchas v eces en combinación con un manejo inadecuado como siembras en fa vor de la pendiente, no incorporación de residuos de cosecha, suelo desnudo durante largos períodos o sobrepastoreo. El aut or recomienda una serie de medidas a ni v el práctico (cober tu r a veg etal. abonos v erdes, incorporación de materia orgáni ca, labranza mínima, cu lti vos asociados, etc.) y propone acompañar las pruebas de estas prácti cas con la med ición de erosión.La zona fri jolera de San Gil como también las áreas colindan tes presentan, desde el punto de v ista agrológ ico, confl ictos entre el uso actual del suelo y su aptitud. Para el caso de la zona frl jolera la situación se agrava puesto que según el estudio de suelos de Irusta y Fo rtoul, la zona no es apta para cultivos casi en su totalidad . El c ultivo de frijol está donde no debería esta r . Las partes erosionadas y degradadas que se observan en la zona frl jolera parecen ser el Indicio más claro de los pro blemas que esta situación está c reando. La pregunta es, entonces, si el sistema _ ºª-12.roducclón g~frJlQL en San Gil se debe consi derar como no sostenj_t¿je?Qué se puede hacer frente a esta situación? Una posición es (!rusta y Fortoul, INDERENA-INGEOMA) Insistir en un uso de acuerdo a la aptitud del suelo y en la aplicación de medidas de conservación del suelo. Otra posi ción es (Programa de Frijol) aceptar la presenci a del c ulti vo y diseñar un manejo (mas ) sosteni ble. León toma una posi ción i ntermed i a.-~--------• • --Identili:ada; por los autores r.omo \"Aluviones bien drenados•, •Aluviones con dre~ illpertecto•y \"Tmaw C uaternarias y sue~ ron P\"•lieniJ' menor !1 ta•.Antes de tratar de entender la posición de los agricultores al respec t o, analizaremos en el siguiente capítulo la pregunta cómo se ha v en ido dando este uso no sostenible (o supuestamente no sostenlbe) en la zona fri jolera de San Gil. Al tocar este tema, tenemos que hablar no solamente de aptitud y uso del suelo sino también del cambio en el uso de tierra .• 8.El Cultivo de Frijol en San Gil como Agente de Cambio en el Uso de la Tierra Como hemos vi sto al menc ionar el estudi o de suelos de ! rusta y Fortoul, de acuerdo a estos autores la zona frl jolera de San Gil. Vlllanueva y Bari chara es considerada como no apta para cu ltivos. Hay un detalle muy interesante al respecto de esto: En la época de !rusta y Fortoul 1ª-. mayor __ parte Q.~IA ZOI')é! ~hoy en d.íél~_ frjJQ)erª-efectlval')1~nte no _b-ª.estadQ.. tLé!iº-.~t,Jitj vQ.. ª!~~nQ. A di fer encia de lo que algunos aseguran, el frijol no ha reemplazado el cul ti vo de tabaco en c uanto a las zonas explotadas se refiere. El f r l jol ha sustituido el tab aco en térmi nos económicos más bien ( en su función de cultivo comerci al principal). Donde s í hubo c ulti vo en los años 50's fu é en las zonas bajeras hacía los cañones de los ríos (Chicamocha, Fonce y Suárez ). Estas zon as son las que !rusta y Fortoul ev aluaron como aptas para cultivos ( en diferentes grados). Entonces, llega'!Ws a la conc lusi ón de que hace 40 años no hubo conflicto de uso (todavía) Se refiere a las partes más altas ( 1,400-1 ,600 m.s.n.m. ) que conforman la meseta entre los cañones de los rlos Fon ce, Suárez y Chicamocha. El paisaje es ondu lado con algunas pendientes fuertes ( >30%). Los suelos son mu y ácidos (pH entre 4 y 5 ) y de una textu ra suelta (\"pol v úo\"), Vegetación natural: En muchas \" lomas\" (colinas) hay \"paja de loma \" ( Trachypogon P.lumosus)« y en los drenajes bosques de galería y en un sector de Barichara bos que alternándose con gramlneas nativas. Muc has partes erosi onadas y degradadas.( Fotografías 15 y 16) Se refiere a las partes bajas (800-1 ,400 m.s.n.m. ) que conforman las pendientes de los cañones de los ríos ya mencionados. El paisaje se caracteriza por la presencia de \"slnchos\" (Caldas súbitas) y p iedras, pero también por bosques formados por leguminosas nativas (Cují, Gall i nero, etc.) y otras especies. Los suelos son mejores (pH alrededor de 6, contenidos medianos y altos de P ).Rata inforu:m se basa en enb'tvistas con agltultores. Sin ~•bargo, se puede r.orroborar, aediante la interpret.ri5n tle totogratias 'léi'P.as-P&ra la zona de interés hay vuea desde ~año 1941. lnfOI'IIriín personal de Bugenio ~bar. Univenidail Nacional de Pa!Jiira y Javier Belalcáw, Progrua ~e Putc. 'l'ropicW, r.!AT. V éase ~bar tt al. (1993).En TC se ha concentrado el c ulti vo de tabaco negro. En TF se encontraba el tabaco solamente en •las vegas (pequeñas áreas culti v adas a ambos lados de los drenajes). El cultivo de tabaco ha sido el mayor agente de cambio tecnológico en la zona. La Colombiana de Tabaco (COL TABACO) ha introducido y fomentado el uso de fertilizantes químicos y de pesticidas a partir de los años 50's.Fuera del tabaco negro se sembraba en esta misma época maíz, millo y yuca. Los hacendados Introdujeron los primeros pastos exóticos como el puntero (Hy parrhenla rutª).El cultivo de tabaco ha jugado un rol decisivo en el desarrollo tecnológi co y económico de la agricultura sanglleña. Pero también es cierto que el predom in io del cultivo de tabaco implicaba un ci erto riesgo para los productores. Al momento de haberse reducido sustancialmente la demanda de tabaco negro (década de los 70's), la zona estuvo enfrentando una situación difícil. En opi nión de muchas personas, Incluyendo técnicos de la Colombiana de Tabaco, el cultivo de frijol evi tó un problema social en la zona.El cultivo de frijol siempre había existido en la zona. Pero en décadas anteriores se sembraba el frijol para el autoconsumo. Un arreglo de siembra fué la siembra \"encallada\" en un tabacal, es decir la siembra a mu y baja densidad entre los surcos de tabaco. Cuando el cul ti vo de frllol empezó a sem brarse en grande, llegó casi simultáneamente la gallinaza y se Intensificó el uso de los tractores. Estos tr-ª §_~lª-mentos (tri iol, gallinaza y tractores) ha_ n permitido ampliar _lll_ frQ.nter:_ll_agrfco]a hacía los PAJALES, la formac11f vegetal predominante en la TF, más que todo en Vlllanueva (fotografía 13 ) . . Cuáles han sido los efectos de la difusión de fri iol en zonas anteriormente no cul t ivad as? A nivel de la química del suelo se destaca el Incremento muy grande del contenido de P. También se observa incrementos en Ca, Mg y \" sin ser tan espectáculares como en el caso anterior. M.O. y pH quedan Igual . mientras el Al disminuye algo. PAJA 08 Gratínea nativa de la zoM frijolera (frachrpogon pluDxusl. UJMA Se usaba para el te<' hado de C&68S y para proteger las plántul&s tle tab&:o del sol mientras estaban en los sellilleT06.A nivel de la ffsica de los suelos ya mencionamos la preocupación de mu chos conocedores de la zona en cuanto a la erosión se refiere. Se considera como especialmente problemática la combinación de los siguientes factores: [tractores aran en favor de la pendiente] x [suelo queda desnudo al principio de la época de lluvias] x [siembra de un culti v o limpio en unicultivo] x [siembra de surcos en favor de la pendiente] x [no incorporación de residuos de cosecha u otro material orgánico].A nivel económico se puede constatar un Incremento de la producción agrícola sin precedentes en la zona. El valor adicional c reado en la zona debido a la ampliación de la frontera agrícola es de aprox. 2 millones de Dólares. Este aumento implica también la creación de empleo en la zona rural debido al incremento del área bajo culti v o. Es interesante anotar que los tractores en el caso de San Gil no han sustituido mano de obra sino han creado empleo al abrir primero los pajales y al arar después estos terrenos nuevos. superando de tal manera las limitaciones debidas a la preparación manual del terreno.También se incrementó en 10 años el v alor de la tierra. Antes de la difusión masiva del fri lol en TF, una hectárea de tierra en TC equivalía a 10 has. o hasta más en TF. Hoy en dfa es al revés. La razón es su aptitud para la mecanización parcial y su \"aptitud\" para el cultivo de frijol. Además en muchas fincas de TF se siembra ahora también tabaco, maíz y pasto en las lomas ya \"arregladas\" por el frijol y la gallinaza, lo que anteriormente no fué posible.A nivel social se observa un Incremento de la población en TF . Mu c hos agricultores quienes hoy viven en TF son de origen de TC. El número de caminos se ha incrementado, en cada vereda hay 10 ó mas cam ionetas. En f in uno entiende el orgullo detrás de las palabras, cuando los pobladores de la zona frijol era hablan del orogreso que ha permitido el cultivo de tri jol en los últimos 10 ó 15 años. (Véase fotografía del monumento del frijol en Villanueva ).En v i sta de lo anterior se puede decir que si bien el sistema de producci ón de San Gil no es sostenible en términos biofísicos, lo prodría ser en terminos socioeconómícos.Cuadro 15.+ Qué ha pasado en todo este tiempo en la zona de TC? Al establecerse el cultivo de frijol con todo un sistema de apoyo (proveedores de insumos, serv icio de asistencia técnica, entidades de comercialización, etc.) los agricultores de TC mostraron también su interés en el cultivo. Como en TC existiría un uso agrícola antiguo, el frijol no encontró tierras vírgenes para su expansión. Por lo tanto, el frijol fué incorporado al manejo existente. Particularmente los campesinos no quisieron dejar de sembrar maíz, un cultivo que se adapta muy bien a las condiciones de la TC. Por lo tanto, ellos definieron un arreglo de fri jol intercalado con mafz (fotografía 17). A parte de este arreglo que -44-predomina en TC se observa tamb ién un sistema de relevo con los culti vos de tabaco, frijol y maíz. Además, se ven algunos casos con fri lol en un icul tl vo. En todo este proceso, los agricultores de TC definieron el l ímite inferior del cultivo por el riesgo climático, al llev arlo hasta aquellas partes donde el fri jol no llega a producir suficiente por falta de agua. En Te no se apli ca gallinaza al cultivo de frijol. En su lugar, los agri c ultores apli can fertil i zante químico ( 10-30-10). Ello contrasta claramente con el manejo que se l e da al cu lt ivo en TF, donde predomina el unicultl v o y donde casi no se encu en t r a un lote de frijol al cual no se le esté apli cando gallinaza.Implicaciones de la Difusión del Cultivo de Frijol en el Uso de Tierra: El Uso de Fotogratras Aéreas La información sobre los cambio~ del uso de tierra a ralz de la difusión masi v a del cultivo de friJol, se ha basado inicialmente en entrevistas con agricultores. En vista de la importancia de dichos procesos, se buscó corroborar esta información mediante el método de Interpretación de una serie histórica de fotografías aéreas. Para la zona de interés (o partes de ella) existen vuelos a partír del año 1947 hasta el año 1992, con una Interrupción entre 1962 y 1975.Por lo tanto, es factible aplicar el método de fotolnterpretación para nuestros propós itos.Adicionalmente. a este primer objetivo de corroboración se buscó a la v ez estudiar las lmpljcaciones que ha tenido la difusión del culti v o de frijol para el demás uso de tierra en San Gil. Para tal fin se elaboraron 5 hipótesis las cuales presentamos a continuación. Sin embargo, antes de hacerlo, es necesario introducir el concepto de zonas y subzonas del estudio.Se dividió la zona de estudio en dos zonas y 4 subzonas. Las dos zonas coinciden perfectamente con los conceptos de TF y TC. A la zona de TC pertenecen dos subzonas, la subzona TC1 la cual corresponde a aquellas partes de TC donde se puede sembrar frijol ( fotografía 15) y la subzona TC2 q u e corresponde a la parte restante de TC, es decl r, donde !1Q se puede sembrar frijol por problemas de agua (fotografía 16). El caso de la TF es algo más complejo. El cultivo de frijol se encuentra en ambas subzonas .(TF1 .Y TF2). El c riterio es más bien el de mayor diversifi cación en la explotación agropecuar ia (TF2) vs. una mayor uniformidad en la explotación en TF1. TF1 es l a zona principal de los pajales y abarca Villanueva y partes de San Gil y Barichara. TF2 queda en Barlchara y partes de San Gil. Tal vez, el elemen t o de diversificación mas notorio en la subzona TF2 es el café. La presencia de café tiene una Implicación agroecológica muy importante en cuanto al bosque ( para sombrío) se refiere. En general, la subzona TF2 es la parte mas boscosa de TF.Verificación:Aplicación:H-4:Verificación:Aplicación:H-5:Verificación:Aplicación:El área bajo bosque se mantu vo.Cálculo de áreas bajo bosque en 1956, 1976 y 1992.El área bajo cu ltivo se redujo en favor de pasto y / o bosque.Cálculo de áreas bajo cu lti vo, bosque y pasto en 1956, 1976 y 1992.El área bajo bosque se mermó debido a una mayor presión sobre ella por el cultivo de frl iol.Cálculo de áreas bajo bosque en 1956, 1976 y 1992.TC-1.  (1992) para la realización de una fotoínterp r etación sistemática. Los vuelos escogidos de tres épocas coinciden bastante bien en cuanto al área cubierta por ellos. Además son comparable.¡ en sus escalas (entre 1:40,000 y 1 :60,000).Se contrató una entidad privada 'para la ejecución de esta labor. Después de una primera verificación de campo de dos días en San Gil y una posterior reunión con el autor en Santa Fé de Bogotá, se inició la fotointerpretación de las tres épocas. Esta fotolnterpretaclón fué revi sada por el autor y la revisión fué discutida en otra reunión en Bogotá. Luego se transfirió la información a un mapa base el cual permitió la digitalización de los datos mediante ILWIS.Los resultados de este trabajo no han estado d isponibles a la fecha de la terminación del presente Informe.--------GIHJIDN LTDA en Santa Fé de Bogotá.Sin embargo podemos presentar algunos datos específicos en forma preliminar. Se trata de datos que tienen que ver con la ampliación del área balo cultivo, el porcentaje del área degradada y la evolución de los pajales a lo largo de las tres épocas. Todos los datos se refieren a tierra fría. El área comprendida por tierra fría tiene unos 150 km Estud io del ca.bio en el uso de la tierra en San Gil. Datos preliMinares .Se nota que el área afectada por erosión fuerte -según la fotointerpretaclónpráctlcamente se mantuvo a lo largo del tiempo. El área bajo cultivo se extendió sustancialmente, mientras los pajales se mermaron. Sin embargo, falta Integrar estos datos al conjunto de usos observados en la zona (bosques, pasto, usos mixtos, etc.)9.Sob re la Actitud de los Campesinos frente a la Conservación de Suelo y algunas Prácticas Espontáneas de Manejo del sueloHasta ahora partimos del punto de vista de que el sistema de producción de frijol en San Gil no es sostenible en términos blofísicos. Esta apreciación se basa en (1) la presencia masiva de un cu ltivo en una zona agrológicamente no apta para cultivos, (2) la existencia de cárcavas en l a zona, (3) en la combinación de algunos factores de manejo (tractor, cultivo limpio, su rcos parados, suelo desnudo durante meses. etc.) mediante la cual aparentemente se busca (a corto plazo) obtener un nivel satisfactorio de rendimiento en el cultivo, sin Intentar (a largo plazo) conservar el suelo, (4) la ausencia de prácticas de conservación de suelo y (5) una supuesta Incapacidad de percibir el problema y/o una Indiferencia de parte de los campesinos frente al problema de una pérdida paulatina de suelo. Vale l a pena anal•izar esta apreciación la cual en forma implícita o explfclta orienta hasta ahora t odos los diagnósticos que se han hecho de la zona frijolera de San Gil.Erosión. Desafortunadamente no se cuenta con datos que permitan c uantificar los procesos erosivos en la zona 41 . En parte esta situación se debe a la opinión de algunos técnicos locales, de que no haría falta medir l a erosión sino combatirla. Esta posición sería respetable si se hubiera desarrollado un programa de conservación de suelo en la zona Sin embargo, un tal programa tampoco ex iste. Por lo tanto, no tenemos ní datos, ní acciones concretas en cuanto a la erosión.La presencia de procesos erosivos en la zona frijolera no se puede negar. Sin embargo, a diferencia de lo que se postuló Inicialmente, las cárcavas y demás zonas degradadas no son el problema principal (veáse capítulo anterior). De acuerdo con una de las hi pótesis presentadas, se trata de erosión natural en estos casos. Mucho más preocupante es el posible efecto a largo plazo de la combinación de los factores de manejo ya mencionados anteriormente, es deci r :(1) La acción de los tractores los cuales aran en favor de la pendiente(2) El hecho de que el suelo está desnudo al iniciarse la época de lluvias(3) La siembra de un cultivo anual de ciclo corto y muchas veces en unlcultlvo (4) La p ráctica en u n 30% de los casos de sembrar en favor de la pend iente(5) La siembra repetida de frijol en el mismo terreno (6) La \"mala\" distribución de la precipitación, la cual implica muy a menudo una secuencia de aguaceros fuertes Interrumpidos por épocas sec as Para seP\\alar la magnitud del riesgo, aunque sea a título de ejemplo se presenta el s i guiente caso. El 4 de Mayo de 1992 cayó en parte de Vlllanueva un aguacero mu y fuerte. En la ve reda el Charo al canzó unos 115 mm , es decir más del 10% de la precipitación anual en un sol o d ía (u n día representa el 0.3% del t iem po total de un aP\\o). En un terreno de unos 6,000 m 2 con una pendiente del 18%, cultivado por el Sr. Gerardo Castro, se observó al d ía siguiente esta si tuación :Pérdida en el Cultivo 50Formación de 12 surcos de diferentes dimensiones. 5Pérdida total de volumen 1 -9~ de la población de plantas Estos datos no t oman en cuenta la pérdid~ por erosión l aminar, la cual no fué posible medir mediante el método apli cado 1 .El agricul t o r no hizo zanjas de desvi acíón, una práctica bastante común en la zon a, la cual analizaremos más en adelante.Viendo que las cárcav as no son efect o del actual manejo de suelo, pero que este último implica un r iesgo a largo p l azo, es Importante saber cuál es la percepción de los agricu lt o res. En una reuni ón con campesl nos sobre agri cu ltura biológ ica uno de ellos caracterizó los suelos de la zona frij olera de San Gil como \"muy erosionables\". Además dij o que la erosión no era un cuento, sino un hecho. 61% de los agr iculto res entrevistados en un sondeo sobre los efectos de un arado de tracción animal mejorado, identificó el tractor como la tecnolog ía más críti ca para la erosión (en comparación con la tracción animal y la preparacion manual del terreno).En un estudio sobre la orientación de surcos un 58% manifestó que el repetido uso del tractor en la preparación del suelo, ten ía alg ún efecto negati vo en el suelo. Entre estos efectos mencionaron: 1 La t ierra se \"esteriliza\", tiene menos fuerza 1La tierra se v u el v e más fina, más polvosa 1La tierra se suelta más y el agua se la lleva más f aci lmente En un son deo ex ploratorio sobre la prácti ca de zan jas de desviación. un 77% afl rmó hacer zanjas para ev itar que \" el agua se llev e la tierra \". Además en el mismo sondeo se pudo ver que la preocupación de los campesi nos no sólo se refiere a la pérdida f lslca del suelo sino a la v ez a l a pérdida de prod ucti vi dad o fertlll dad (\"majada\". \"fuerza\").Calculado con base en el área afectada por pérdidas l!e plantas ~n re~ión al terreno total, suponiendo igual <Í' !nsidad ~e pobwioín.Cakulado con base en el área afectada (surt06lyla profundidad promedio de lo6 sul't06.Aparentemente no existe un problema muy grande de ~rcepclón de los procesos erosivos de parte de los agri cu ltores. La pregunta es más bien hasta qué grado los agricultores se preocupan por el suelo y si del todo toman algunas med i das.Las enti dades locales recom iendan tres medidas para la conser v ación de suelo:Si embra de árboles, barreras vivas con pasto y surcos atravesados 5 ~.Surcos Atravesados En muchas ocasiones se habla de '\"~forestación ••, insinuando que la zona haya sido boscosa en el pasado. Esto probablemente no es el caso para TF, a diferencia de TC donde se observ a un manejo antiguo agrosll vopastorll.En toda la zona los agri c ultores distinguen, además un fenómeno que ellos llaman ''RESOLANA'\". La RESOlANA se refiere a una competencia de luz y / o agua y/o nutrientes entre árboles y cultivos (a v eces entre cul tivos). En el c aso del frijol se tomaron muestras de rendimiento en el ámbito de la RESOLANA y en una zona libre de árboles en el mismo terreno. Se observaron mermas en el rendimiento hasta de un 70~ (fotograffa 21 ). Algunas especies tanto exóticas como nativas ocasionan más resolana que otras. Entre ellas se encuentran el eucall ptus, el abacate y el morral.barreras vivas como med i das semlpermanentes de control de erosión no son de una fácil aceptabilidad en la zona. Como en muchos lotes se prepara el suelo dos v eces al af'lo mediante tractor, la presencia de barre r as vivas Incomoda el desplazamiento y l a labor del tractor en el terreno. Sin embargo, debido al potencial que tiene esta práctica no se debería descartarla en ningún momento.Los surcos atrav esados en opinión de los agricultores dificultan mucho la labor de aporque y de deshierbo tanto para el obrero al cual ellos imponen una posición muy incómoda como para la realización del trabajo.Los agricultores en su mayorfa prefieren sembrar en forma Inclinada, ni completamente atravesada, ni completamente en favor de la pendiente (MaTtre 1991 ).Erus ~edidas han sido ini:ia!Jiente planteadas por el Progrw de Prijol tallbién.La s it uación actual en cuanto a conservación de suelo se caracteriza, enton ces. no solamente por la ausencia de datos (p.ej. sobre la erosión) y de un programa de extensión en conserv ación de suelos, sino que las pocas medidas que se les ha recomendad o a los productores de frl iol no gozan por el momento de aceptación.En med io de t oda esta situación se puede observar en los terrenos balo frl iol (y también en terrenos bajo otros cu ltivos) la p resencia de can al~s o ~a.o j as de desviación hechos por los mismos agri cu ltores en torma espontánea (fot og rafías 19 y 20). La finalidad de estas zanjas es al parecer contribuir a manejar el flujo de aguas de escorrentía y con trolar la erosión.Para entender mejor 1, práctica de zanjas estableci da por los campesi nos de Vlllanu eva y Barichara 1 se analiza p rime r o dos casos típicos en parcelas con frij ol.El Gráfico 6 muestra un sistema de canales con la salida hacia otro t erreno en descanso pasando por una franj a con árboles y arbustos. La parcela de fr i jol tiene un área de aproximadamente 1,6 ha. El cul t ivo presenta un a densidad de siembra de 81 .000 plantas/ ha. Los surcos están en favor de la pendiente y v an dirigidos hacía los canales con ángulos que comprenden 45° para el caso del canal 1 y 15° para el canal 2. Otro aspecto Importante es que el canal 2 tiene una mayor dimensión que el canal 1. Según el agri c u ltor est o se debe a que recibe mayor cantidad de agua y por consiguiente r equ i ere un mayor tamaño.La pendiente del terreno varia entre 9~ y 18~ y la Incli nac ión dentro de los canales entre 13~ y 18~. La Tabla 1 muestra alg unas dimensiones de los dos can al es de este sistema.Cuadro 16. Di mensiones de las Zanjas de Desv iación en la Parcela . de Frijol.Vereda El Choro, Vl llanueva (Sant anser ) Se observó además en las salidas de las zan las procesos de sedimentación de suelo, lo que hac e suponer que hay arrastre de material en y/o a trav és de los canales.-----------Véase Kaitre y Hartínet (19941.El segundo caso consiste en una parcela de frijol de aprox. 7,000 m' con un sistema de canales que van di rígidos hacía un reser varlo ( jawey ). Las zanjas están acondic ionadas para desagUar en un canal prin c ipal y este al j awey . Como observ amos en la tabla 2 las dimensiones de los canales v arían.Cuadro 17. El canal 2 tiene mayor dimensión tanto en profundidad, anc ho como base. Según la Flg. 2 este canal recibe el caudal de agua de otros dos canales (canal 1 y 3) y además el agua de la carreteable. El agricultor diseñó este canal por cuanto busca aprovechar el agua de la carretera para almacenar la en un reservarlo, llamado jawey . En algunas partes de la zanja p ri n cipal ( canal 2), exi sten obstáculos o barreras en cuya parte superior se pudo aprec iar claramente durante las visitas, la acumulación de suelo. Es Interesante anotar que los canales au xiliares (1 y 3) y el canal prin cipal •( 2) no se interceptan entre sí. El agricultor dejó más bien un • espacio de aproxi madamente 3-4 m. con el fín de que el agua pierda fuerza, no dañe el otro canal y no se presente demasiada sedimentación en el canal principal. La Inclinación del terreno varía entre 11.5% y 27.5%, la densidad de siemb r a es de 84.000 plantas/ha. Los surcos están dirigidos a través de la pendiente, y las zanjas van dirigidas casi a favor de ella. En las zanjas se observ an pendientes de 16.5% y 20,5%. -Las zanjas de desviación son una de las prácticas discuti das en los man uales de conservación de suelo. Suárez de Castro ( 1956) recomienda los sigu i entes parámetros para el diseño de las zan j as de desviación.a.Las zanjas se utilizan en regiones de mucha llu v ia.b. Los terrenos deberían tener pendientes entre 1 O% y 30%.c. Las zanjas deberían tener una base de 30 cms de ancho y taludes con un ángulo de 45°.Las zanjas deben estar protegidas por una barrera viva.e.Se deben construfr desagües bien protegidos.f . Las zanjas no deben construirse en terrenos con culti vos limpios o en potreros de mas de 30% de pendiente, ní en terrenos con culti vos perennes con más de 40% de pendiente.Además este autor dá una serie de instrucciones para el diseño de las zan j as en función de la pendien~. del tipo de explotación y de las dimensiones del terreno.Bouwman y Langdon (1984) analizan las zanjas de desvi ación juntamente con los cultivos en fajas, los cultivos en contorno y las terrazas. Bien construídas las zanjas de desviación pueden controlar el 60% de la erosión hidrica (Bouwman y Langdon 1984: 15). Al gunos de los parámetros mencionados son: a.Las zanjas son un complemento de los cultivos en contorno.b.Se construye en terrenos con pendientes mayores al 10%.c. Se debe proteger con barreras vivas en la parte superior 6 med iante la siembra de pastos en la misma zanja.Se debe calcular una velocidad máxima del agua ( med i ante la determinación de la distancia entre zanJas y del desnivel en las zan j as ) tal que ella no cause erosión. e. Los desagUas (\"caminos de agua\") deben ser protegidos con pasto (hasta 20% de la pendiente) o revestidos de cemento, piedras, etc . (pen di entes mayores del 20%).Bouwman y Langdon al igual como Castro dan Instrucciones par a el d i seño de zanjas, basándose en criterios como pendiente del lote, dimensiones de y distancias entre zan las, tipo de sueiQ y otros.Según la información anterior y con base en los dos casos• p r esentados podemos ahora hacer una comparación entre las zanjas téc ni camente recomendadas y las zanjas que construyeron los agricultores:Cuadro 18.D1Mflo 8'1' =p ... do ara eon.truir Zaniy di Dnyi.cjón(1) Zonas lluviosas Por ej. precipitación de 140 mM/hr .(S)(2) Se pueden utilizar en cultivos limpios siempre y cuando la pendiente no e xceda el 30X (S)(3) Construcción en terrenos de m•s del 10X (pero no Mayor del 40X) (S, B+L )( 4) Se deben construir respetando las curvas a nivel (S, B+l)( 5 ) Se recomiendan zanjas de 30 CM& de anchO en la base y ta l udes c on 45 . de inc linación (S) (8) Se tiene en cuenta la velocidad del agua (velocidad no erosiva) (B+L) casos procesa; erOOVC6 en las mm r.anja.s. fu bién pudilla; aj)l't!(\"íar áreas con arras~ df! suelo y ~e plantas ~n 'lllbtt lotPs que ~u1 h.\\/l servidoCOIIO estud~ de caso. Sin embargo, estas áreas ya no fueroo 1isibks .jespués iel pr1111er ~porquP. •s •l'!\"ir. •1 81SIIO 1pcrquP borr:i los fenómena; de el' 06ión y quedaron ünX:a.mente partes con UM l!f'nor densidad de plantas. Quien no ha observado lo6 prob!Pw de •rosión antes ~el aporque tal vez acuda posteriormente a algún factor de estrés biótico para poder el)llicar las pojrdidas ~e plantas la •uaJ •n realidad ha sido ocasmada por la el' 06ión.A ctuamPnte se está llev&~~do a r.abo un proyecto de investigación ~ zanjas en San Gil por parte ~el lng. Hartínet. (SEPAS).A parte de la práctica de las zanjas de desviación hay otra práct ica Importante en términos de manejo y conservación de suelo. Se trata de la siembra de pasto (muy a menudo de e._rachiariª decum!;>en~) en lotes anteriormente cultiv ados de frijol. Por qué se dá este cambio en el uso de la tierra? Muchos agricultores han venido invirtiendo parte de sus gananci as obtenidas en el cultivo de frijol en ganado v acuno. En la medida que se ha consol i dado esta práctica surgió la necesidad de alimentar los animales. L a introducc ión de pastos, más que t odo iirachi~r l ª g~cumbens, se explica po r esta necesidad . Como los terrenos de frijol ya han s ido trabajados y abonados con gallinaza, en la experiencia de los agricultores es muy fáci l ahora establecer un potrero. Lo interesante es que los agricultores ind ican algunas venta j as ad icionales de la siembra de pasto. En primer lugar pueden seg u1 r dando uso a un terreno el cual presenta yá v arios incon v enientes para el culti vo de fri jol (1) por un mayor enmalezamiento ( fotografía 10) y ( 2) u na mayor incidencia de problemas fitosanitarios por las siembras consecuti v as con un solo culti vo. En segundo lugar el potrero puede ser preparado nuevamente -des pués de unos c uantos años-para el cultivo de fr i jol, habiéndose reduci d o notoriamente la presencia de malezas y la Inci dencia de plagas y enfermedades. Además, dic en los agricultores, el pasto ayuda. a que \"la tierra coj a grano•• , es decir, a que el suelo mejore su estructura. Finalmente el pasto reduce la erodibilidad del terreno en cuestión . Tenemos, entonces, como resultado de un proceso complejo una medida no dirigida exclusivamente hacía la conservación del suelo pero con ciertos efectos positivos en este sentido.La prácti ca nueva de rotación de frijol con pasto estimu ló a un agricultor, el Sr. Juan Alvarez de la vereda Llmoncito (Villanueva) a diseñar un mode!Q para el uso futuro de las lomas de Villanueva:\"El Uso de las Sabanas en el Futuro En e l futuro, dos c osas son importantes para poder segnir tra bl'\\ja n do las s abanas: Cambiar el c ultivo y c onoc er la c alidad d e l t.erTe no . Por \" c-ambiar el c ultivo\" se entiende la rotac ión de c ultivos. La c l'\\lirlad rlP I terreno se c onoce mediante el análisis de s1relo. Prime r•o t r•;tt.:unos 1\"1 rambio de cultivos.Es importante no trabajar la tierra de las sabanas todos lo s años. La tierra necesita un descanso. Enton c Ps, después de 4-6 años d P r nlti vo, es aconsejable sembrar pasto Brachiaria y dejar el t e rreno en d esrA n so. Este es el primer paso que hay q11e dar en cuanto Al cambio dP r 1dth•o.' ' l r----c_ uJttvos _ _ : 4-8 _ anos _ _ __,En lugar d e pasto Brar.hiaria se puede se mbrar pasto de corte. Claro es q u e este cambio d e cultivo no se hace en tod a la finca, si no por lol.t•s.Dentro d e los 4-6 años de cultivo no se debería sembrar solamente frijol, como en a lgunos casos se venín haciendo. Hay que pensar en e l cambio tambié n . Son aconsejab les los sigu ientes cambios: Además, sembrando frij o l lras frij o l sin cambi a r, se i nc rementan l os problemas de hongos y enfermedades. La últi ma cosecha de fri.j ol es para enfermedad es , no más .Ahora bien, e l c ambio de c ulti vo durante los 4 ó 6 año s no puede evitar que la tierra se canse, a pesar d e que se c ansa meno s que con 11:1 s i e mbra de una s o la cosa. Pero siempre hay que cte.illr descansar finalmente a la tie rra, eso es la úni c a solución. Después de 4 años dP descanso la tierra echa nuevamente grano y ya no sigue siendo r eseca y polvorienta. Practicamente se vuelve tierra nueva. Como el descanso s e aprovec ha para sembrarle pasto al l o t.e, es en real irlact un rlescanso produc tivo! A 1 romper rle nuevo e l terreno se puede t1:1.mbién sembrar yu<\" l-l 1 J.\\.11 l.Ps rif• sembra r frij ol o tabaco . La yuca da generalmente si n abono y e n romp ía, l a producción sale mu y sana. Después de la yuca cualt¡u i e r cosR dá n111~• bien, porque la yuca l e hace sombra a la ti erra y le guarda la fuer za. Si no se quiere s e mbrar yuca , se aplica direc t ame uLe uuo rie los <• >tmhi n~ de c ultivo que ya hemos señalado.Al respecto de la r ompía tenemos un concepto que es e l dE> 1 R t. i ~rrª brava . A veces el segundo año de cultivo después de la rompía pega más que e l primer año . Esto tiene que ve r con la tierra r E>cién r o mp ía que puede ser brava o dura. Si no llueve suficiente en el primer año dP roapía, la tierra se manti e ne bas tante dura y el c ul ti vo no prorhw e bien.Fuera de los 'cultivos menc i o nados (frijol , t abaco, maíz y yu C'R} y e l pasto no tenemos muchas alternati vas . Si e mpre se ha ha bl ado de l a famosa \"diversifi cac i ón\" para Vi llanueva . Per o fuera de IR patilla y r! P la piña no se han presentado más soluciones hasta hoy. La patilla s i rve solamente para aquellos l o t es donde hay agua para r egarla . ~d P más g i todos nos metiera mos en la tarea rle sembrar patilla y pifia, a qui Pn ve nde ríamos la cosec ha y a qué precio? ! Lo bu e no quE\" ti e ne la ptnll, gi n e mba r go, es que se la puede sembrar a mu y bajo presupuest o y pega bi Pn en nuest ras tierras.En nuest r o muni ci p io no todos l o s agriculto res tienen un R fincR ~raudf' .Alguien podría pe ns ar que e l sistema de c ambiar de cultivos~ dejar descans ar la ti e rra no sirve para las fjn cas pequeñas. Pt'rn st> s ugi t-r• e dividir una fi nca peque~a de l ó 2 has. en 4 ó más partes y aplicar e l sistema de cambio de cultivo y de desc anso a las partes, no a La finca entera. Además sería necesario tener un lotec iLo de descanso, o tro de rompía y otro ba jo cu l tivo. Mejor dicho hab r ía que apli car La táctica de los cebol l eros de Baric hara , quienes a diario cosechan cebolla pero siempre en otr a parte de la huerta. Hay que adecuar tam bién e l lote de pasto a las necesidades que tenga el ani mal o los animales para que rto se pr oduzca el sobrepastoreo . El pastor eo debe hacerse también en su debido m ome nto que es la maduración (cuando el pasto echa la semi! la).Otro peligro par a el pasto es la hormiga de castilla que acaba con él.Ning~n veneno l e vale porque ella no tiene sangre.Es importante i nc luir el pasto y los ani males en el uso rle nuestras sabanas por l a razón que ya hemos explicado . Pero \\ ambi€m sP puedrdeci r que el me r cadeo de an i males es bonito porque se hace e n el l otP , El compr ador l lega hasta l a f i nca . Entonces , no solo hac:Pmos un hie11 st la tierra si no también a nuestra economía. [ . . . 1La otra forma de mejo r ar e l trabajo en las sabanas es hacer 1 os anális i s de s ue l os . Necesitamos sabe r que hay que aplicar a las tierras más que todo en e l e me n tos me nores y en cuanto a cal o ca l fos. Todavía hay personas que no conocen estos productos. Lo más i mportante sería hacer el análisis de s ue l o a ntes de cada r~~• Si mienlras el período de cultivo va bien, no hace f a l ta más a ná lisis del s uelo. Si algo va ma l , se puede vo l ve r a sacar un a nál i sis en cual quier momento. Debería darse bastan te impor t ancia a l os prob l e mas de acidéz .Sin e mba r go , no nos sirve e l a nálisis de suelo, si no hay una buen-'1 exp l icac i ón de l os r es u 1 tados por par t e de l os técnicos. Mu c hos agriculto r es tienen e l resul tado de un análisis guardado ert la rasa porque nad ie l es ha exp l icado que hay que hacer con él .Los aná l isis podrían efectuar se en la UIS 51 . En l o posible deberí11 buscarse un convenio con la Secretaría de Agr icul Lura o con 1 Rs e mpr esas tabaca l e r as par a que el precio de l aná l isis le quede cómodo al agriculto r .Con todo est o pretende m os a ume ntar l a pr oducción, no meciiante un increme nto de l área, s i no a t r avés de más técnica . No que remos sembrar más , si no produci r más con la misma siembr a . Es c iRro que e l agr icultor no es ca paz de logr a r eso so l o . Se r equ iere de un apoyo del gobier no y de l a pr esencia de l as e n ticiades en e l campo. Finalmt>ul e, si e l pr ecio de nuest r os productos no ayuda, para nada nos SPrv iría mejo r ar la técni ca\" (J uan Alvarez)Fuer a de las zan j as de desvi ac ión y l a s i embra de pasto se ob servan en fQrma inci p iente y en un número redu ci do de f i nc as al g unas otras p r ácticas conservacion lstas como por ejemplo unos primeros ensayos nativos o campesinos con míni ma labran za o la i ncorpo raci ón de materia or gánica de d iferentes o r ígenes.IJnivemdad Industrial de Santander, Bucarwnga.Pero para los tractores, cuál podría ser la alternativa? Se consid era que la tracción animal puede jugar un rol importante en f uturos trabajos de conservación de suelo en la zona frijolera. Inici almente estuvo previsto emplear la tracción animal en la evaluación de algunas prácticas de erosión planeadas por la sección de Sistemas de Cultivo. Como se ha identificado la práctica de los tractores de arar únicamente en favor de la rendiente como una de las causas más i mportantes de erosión en la zona 5 , se pensó recurrir a la tracción animal puesto que la yunta de bueyes puede arar en for ma atravesada. El Inconveniente más grande para el inicio de este trabajo fué 1ª ausencja de yuntas en aquellas zonas de Vi l lanueva, Barlchara y San Gil d_ ond. § la preocupación ~cuanto <!! manejo de) suelo es mayor. Por lo tanto, allá queda a corto plazo la alternativa: o arar con tractor o preparar el ter r eno a mano. En realidad. para el agricultor no es u na alternativa.Sin embargo, en algunas partes de Barl ch ara, las cuales coinci den precisamente con la subzona TF-2 (tierra fr ía diversificada) anteriormente mencionada, existe todavía un núcleo de \"ar rieros\" (operarios de y unta). Este sector de la tracción animal nunca ha recibido apoyo Institucional alguno. En vista del Interés que esta tecnolog ía ha despertado para la conservación de suelo en la zona frijolera, se Inició un pequeño programa de apoyo en colaboración con la Fundación Carvajal y la Cooperativa Multlservlclos de Barichara. Esta decisión se basó en los siguientes elementos de juicio; identificados en 1992:1.En la zona frijolera y tabacalera de San Gil, Vlllanueva y Barichara se han mermado las yuntas de bueyes en forma muy acelerada después de la llegada de los tractores hace aproximadamente 30 años. La desaparición de las yuntas llegó a tal extremo que en el municip io de Vil lanueva ya no existe ní una sola yunta, mientras que en San Gil se han v uelto muy raras. El único municipio que ha manten i do esta tecnología de tracción animal. aunque en forma r educ ida tamb ién, es Barichara. Más preclsamente estamos hablando de las veredas de San José Alto, San José Bajo, Paramlto, Santa Helena y Salitre qu e forman una zona continua. En esta parte se encuentran aproximadamente 15 yuntas trabajando y qu izá entre 25 y 30 arrler:os o sea operarios de yuntas. El número mayor de arrieros comparado con el número de yuntas se explica por un lado, por el hec ho de que .algun.os de los arrieros no poseen una yunta actualmente y la prestan del vecino para efectuar la labor de la preparación del terreno y por otro lado, existen casos en los cuales, entre dos vecinos mantienen una sola yunta (cada uno tiene un buey). El costo de una yunta es relativamente alto. Un par de bueyes b~fn adiestrados vale encima de un millón y medio de pesos Colombianos.El éxito que tiene y sigue teniendo el tractor en la zona se debe a una serie de circunstancias, siendo las más importantes las dos siguientes: 58 59 a.Cuando el cultivo de frijol Inició su difusión después de la caída del cultivo de tabaco (hace aproximadamente 15 años ), los agricultores empezaron a darle uso a una extensión grande deComun~ión personal Alvaro Góllef., C ENIC AF& En 1994 u~ U $2,ooJ. Dolares américanos.terrenos comunmente llamados \"lomas \" o \" pajales de tierra muerta\" donde MUnca se había c ultivado nada y donde se observaba una población de arboles mu y reduci da. Con la ayuda de la gallinaza y precisamente de los tractores -los últimos romp iendo esta tierra dura y apretada y la primera posl_ t:?LIJtando un ni v el de productividad aceptab le en suelos ácidos de muy poco conten i do de fósforo-se extendi ó el cul ti vo de frijol y con él la \" frontera agrícola\" .Esto a su v ez ha con l levado un camb io socio-económico notabl e. generando emp leo y mejorando el nivel de v ida de los ag ricu ltores y sus fami lias. Entonces, el tractor ha ten i do un efecto muy positi vo en el desarrollo económico y soci al de la zona y como t al se lo considera símbolo del progreso.b.El precio de la hora de tractor (a rada) queda relativamente bajo.se está cobrando entre $4,000. y $5,000. por hora, mientras ir otras partes de Colomb ia este v alor llega al doble o al trip le . La preparación de un terreno de una hectárea costó en el primer semestre de 1993 con la yunta de bueyes y el arado de palo $30,000., mientras con el tractor costó aprox. $25,000. Además el tractor termina muc ho más rápido su labor. 51Cómo se puede justificar, enton ces, el esfuerzo de introducir una tecnología nueva (o mejorada) de tracción animal en una zona, donde las yuntas están desapareciendo y donde el tractor tiene un éxi to extraord inario?En pri mer lugar por una razón económica muy sencilla: Todav ía hay y untas en la zona, \" a pesar \" del éxito del tractor. Es más, se observ a una demanda de parte de vecinos, quienes están pidiendo a los arrieros el servicio de la preparación de tierra. Como eL sector_ g~ .1\"ª-. tracción an imal en Barichara nunca ha [ eci bido un apoyo significativo de parte de las Instituciones, dirigido a -ª.!,lmentar la eficiencia de 1-ª-tecnoiQ9_fª, es oportuno hacerlo ahora. De esta manera el sector de la tracción animal se v ería en mejores condiciones para entrar en competencia con el sector de la tracción motríz.En segundo lugar, se trata de toda una cul_ty_rª de la tracción animal: &O La cría y mantención de animales apropiados, producción casera de aperos, yugos y arados, la mansedumbre de los animales y la transmisión de los conocimientos a nuevas generaciones . Fortaleci endo la tecnología, se fortalece a la v ez una tradición cultural.Información personal de Osear Chaparro (ICAl y &liécer ~ro \\agricu\\bJr <ie Cundinamareal.Generall!entl' la pow:ión de un ~tor queda fuera 1ei alr.ance de ~ pequeñ06 ¡ ~diano6 -lgricultores • le la !lln&. Más hien •l\"x pagar. ~r ~1 servicio que prestan ~ ~lores de la Cooperativa Villanueva, !le los ~ristas boy~nses y rundÍMI\\arqueses que llegan •i06 • ¡~g 11 año a esta ZOM y uno¡; pcm tractoristas particulares de la región. La Cooperativa ~e Barirhara M\".\\ba •le adquirir 4 t.nrtores.Un argumento técnico de peso representa la posib ilidad de usar los equipos nuevos de tracción animal no solo para la preparación del terreno (como ocurre actualmente tan_to COQ el arado tradicional como col} ~L tractor), sino también en otras labores (siembra, deshierbe y aporque). Es absolutamente posible que hasta un agricultor que prefiere el uso del tractor en la fase de preparación del terreno, posteriormente acude a la tecnología de tracción animal para realizar las la~ores secundarias.De igual manera interesa en este contexto la posibilidad de utilizar los equipos en algunos trabajos con un solo buey o también con un solo caballo o una sola mula, mejorando de esta manera el acceso a la tecnología.Cabe mencionar la argumentación ~Jógig¡ también, la cu al enfoca en este caso tres aspectos:5.Las yuntas de bueyes pueden arar en terrenos de ladera en forma atravesada y no solamente en favor de la pendiente como ocurre con el tractor. De esta manera se puede rec;1uci_r~l_~_g_r:_g de la_ erosión siempre y cuando se procure a la vez i ntegrar medidas de conservación del suelo en las demás étapas del manejo del cultivo y del suelo.b.En las zonas fuera de las lomas arriba mencionadas, donde el tractor tuvo su Impacto inicial. se encuentran más árboles. Como el tractor viene entrando últimamente en estas zonas, se observa una tala de árboles, realizada para facilitar el desplazamiento de los tractores en los terrenos. La yunta, sin embargo, permite arar con mayor facilidad en terrenos con árboles. Entonces, se tendría un efecto positi vo en cuanto a la ~rvaciQn_ ªestos . §jst~mas agroforestales que caracterizan la zona de tracción an i mal de Barichara.c. Parece que er ganado criollo (Chino Santandereano) se está mermando en forma simultánea con los bueyes aptos para la tracción animal. Quizá mediante el fomento de la tracción animal se puede hacefl una contribución a @_conservación de la raza crioliª de ganado.Finalmente existe una razón estratégica de mantener -o mejorar-la tecnología de tracción animal en la zona. Los costos de adquisición de los tractores son altos. Colombia no produce tractores, ní repuestos para ellos. En consecuencia hay que Importarlos. No se pueden excluir categóricamente problemas macro-económicos en un futuro los cuales podrían incidir en forma negativa en la disponibilidad o el costo de los tractores. Para este escenario §ería muy útil poder contar con __ Y.D núcleo de personas illrieros) quienes mantienen la ~ca Q.!Ltracción anima)Observación de Juan José Tarazana (San Gil). 81 ertensionista de la Pundación Carvajal, otoniel CUcuyame, ha obtenido muy bue~ resultaJill' en cuanto a la fuerza de tiro en anilales F 1 de cruces entre ganado cric& y oebú p.ej. Pero eso iaplicaría taabién la wtención de la rat.a crioll& pura.y quienes en dado caso gue fu~ nece~ariQ__QQ_drían servir como centrQ de ¡ rrad iaclón de la tecnoiQgj-ª-..Q._ara @..zona.En Agosto de 1992 se realizó una serie de demostraciones y pruebas de campo con equipos mejorados para la tracción an imal, del ICA y de la Fundación Carvajal. Los agricultores (y técnicos) evaluaron el arado ARANDINO de la Fundación Carvajal como el equipo más apropiado y a partir del semestre 1993 A algunos agricultores apoyados con créditos por la Cooperativa Multlserviclos de Bar ichara empezaron a usarlo (fot ografía 22).El aspecto más sobresaliente del ARANDINO -fuera de tratarse de un arado metálico-es su función de v ertedera, es decir, su capacidad de voltear el suelo a diferencia del arado tradicional de palo, el cual rompe y afloJa el suelo pero no lo voltea.A princi pios de este año (1994) se realizó un sondeo para conocer Jos efectos que ha tenido la adopción de la nueva tecnologra en Bari c hara ( Tarazona 1994).Mientras 78% de los arriero~ (agricultores dueños de yunta y usuarios del ARANDINO) conocieron el arado en las demostraciones organizadas en Agosto de 1992, 83% La nueva tecnología es económicamente viable, en opinión de los agricultores y de los técnicos ocasiona menos erosión que el tractor y mas que todo ha sido adoptada por el pequef'lo grupo de arrieros de Barlchara. Lo que de ahora en adelante se podría hacer es evaluar el uso de otros Implementos del arado con los c uales se puede realizar otras labores fuera de la preparación del terreno y fomentar la nueva tec nología en otras zonas, partiendo de Bar lchara como centro de 1 rradiación .En la zona frljolera hay procesos erosi vos. La causa es un con junto de factores de manejo que han sido descritos. Ini cialmente se consideraba el fenómeno de cárcavas y demás zonas degradadas como efecto del manejo inapropiado del suelo. Sin embargo, hay Indicios fuertes en favor de la hipótesis que estas partes son afectadas por erosión natural. No es correcto hacer responsables a los agricultores de estas partes erosionadas como se lo ha venido haciendo en forma lmpl íclta o explícita.Además, la historia del uso de tierra nos ha señalado que en la perspectiva de los agricultores, la zona que es hoy en día frijolera nunca había podido ser culti vada. La llegada de la gallinaza, de los tractores y de una variedad de frl jol muy comercial ha permitido darles uso por primera vez a estas lomas.Efectivamente un arriero de Barichara ya ha ido a la Guajira para lw:er un apcrtf en la re<'upem:ión de wnas degl'8dadas por minerÍA. 8l111ismc ,grrult.or está invitado por un empresa ~ra para ld~strar agricultores de G arda ll.ovira en el uso del nuevo arado.Entonces, a los agricultores quienes ayer no sabían que sembrar en las lomas de Villanueva y quienes hoy en día producen anualmente un valor de entre 2 y 3 millones de Dólares se les hace difícil creer que ellos están poniendo en peligro un recurso natural por mal manejo. Antes ellos insisten en haber \"arreglado\" estos suelos. También hemos visto que algunas prácticas de conserv ación de suelo no se pueden integrar fácilmente en el manejo actual de los culti vos (frijol, tabaco).Pero lo anterior no quiere decir que no exista un problema de erosión. Es más, muchos agricultores no solo lo perciben si no están Interesados en hacer algo. Quizá por la misma razón de haberse encontrado un uso para estas lomas y de haberse encontrado una base para el sostenimiento de las familias campesinas, algunos agricultores están buscando ahora mantener producti v os sus terrenos.Hemos v isto cuales son las prácticas aplicadas por ellos. Se presentó un modelo diseñado por un agricultor para el futuro de las lomas fri joleras, el cual sir v e como elemento de juicio para los técnicos.La conclusión principal de este capítulo es• por lo tanto: En lugar de determinar solamente con base a un esquema rígido de clases agrológicas con su respecti v a aptitud las áreas bajo conflicto, es mejor analizar también la historia del uso de fa tierra, evaluar tanto sus causas como sus efectos sociales y diseñar modelos de uso (más) sostenibles partiendo de las observaciones y prácticas de los agricultores e introduciendo nuevas prácticas.10.La Producción de Cebolla de Rama en BaricharaEn el mun1c1p1o de Barlchara, en las v eredas Paramlto, San José, Santa Elena y Guayabal principalmente, se observa la producción de cebolla (AJJium fistulosum) en huertas. Este reng lón es un ejemplo de una produ cción sostenible tanto en términos blofísicos como soc ioeconómicos. Cuáles son los i ndicadores de sostenlbllidad en este caso? Al tratar de contestar esta pregunta es necesario señalar que la producción de huerta en general no ha recibido apoyo técnico. Se trata de un manejo local o campesino. Sin embargo, los productores han venido Incorporando algunas tecnologías nuevas como bombas de agua para el riego, ferti lizante químico y pesticidas princ ipalmente. La s iguiente descripción del sistema nos debería dar una i dea sobre el grado de sostenibi l idad.Los rendimientos son muy altos (alrededor de 50 t/ha. 66 ) y de hecho son los más altos que el autor ha encontrado en la literatura.El renglón es antiguo (tiene por lo menos 70 años ).Los suelos de huerta muestran algunas características químicas más favorables que los suelos de toda la reglón. Todo indica que los ag r icultores han mejorado las características químicas de los suelos de huerta.El Cuadro 23 contiene una caracterización general de los suelos de la zona huertera de Bari c hara. Llama la atención la fuerte acidéz de los suelos, el poco contenido de materia orgánica y el valor muy bajo de fósforo.Cuadro 23. Este análi s is de costos y beneficios se basa en un p r eci o de v en t a de $4,000 por ar r o ba de cebol l a. A los pocos meses después del est udio de base este precio subió a $6,000-$7,000 por arroba. Además, al real.izar un análisis de sensi bilidad sencillo, supo!1 iendo diferentes escenarios desfav orables (costo de mano de obra más alto, precio de cebolla mas baj o y combinac iones ) el sistema no dej ó de arro j ar gananc ias. Por lo tanto, se puede cons iderar la produ cción de cebolla de rama como sostenib le en térm i nos económi cos también .El anterio r cál c ulo sostiene la hipótesis de la alta rentab i lidad del cul t i v o bajo el manejo que le dan los agricultores de Barichara. Sin embargo, n i ngún agricultor dispone de una hectárea. La huerta más gran de tiene 3,500 m 2 , pero una huerta típica puede tener 300 m.t , 500 m 2 ó 1,000 m 2 , Por otro lado, los agricultores -como es sab i do a r aíz de la discusión en torno a la economía campesina-no asi gnan u n valor monetario a la mano de obra fam ili ar. Además, no suel en calcular costos i ndirectos. En Maltre y Peñaranda ( 1993) se hi zo un i ntento de calcu lar los costos y b eneficios de l a producc ión de ceboll a bajo la perspect iva del economía campes ina y de un tamaño real de la huer ta. Lo más impor tante es que los product ores de cebolla en su gran mayoría ( 96%) u t i li zan los ingresos obten idos en la v enta semanal de cebol la para cu br i r las necesi dades bási c as• de la famili a 18 . Este hecho se manifiesta níti damen te en la práct ica de efectuar s i embras escalonadas ( cada 15 días ap roxi madamente) lo q ue le permi t e al agricultor y a su fami l ia cosech ar en forma permanente a lo largo del año. El sistema es sostenibl e en t érminos sociales también.La única restricción que i mpide que la producción de ceboll a en Barl c hara, fuera un caso ejemplar de sostenibil i dad es el u so de pesticidas -pri n cipalmente Insecticidas-pi\\ra el control de ~rtQ.rn~nus berg j Froeschner en un 60% de l as t i ncas .lb referimos a aquellos productos que el agricultor no obtrene en su propia finca (sal, arroz, azúcar, ~ite, carne, bP.hid~ ~SJ>\"f'iales. •tr.J Peñaranda y H&itre (19941.-7 1-J Para poder contribuir a una p roducción libre de pestici das, aspecto crítico en el caso de hortalizas de consumo fresco, se formó un pequeño Comité Técn ico en Bari chara, Integrado por ªgricultores y técn jcos y u bicado bajo el techo de la Cooperativ a Mu ltlservlclos de Bari chara. Este comité está dirigiendo Jos primeros trabajos de control no qu imtco de plagas y enfermedades en la cebolla de rama.Con base en estos puntos podemos ahora Identificar 3 factores los cuales permiten entender la razón del alto grado de sosteni bll ld ad de la produ cc ión de cebolla en Barichara.En primer lugar, los productores de cebol la cuentan con agua para riego. Si b ien las cantidades son reducidas, es el factor de producción más importante para la huerta el cual además permite controlar e/ riesgo de una precipitación 1 rregular.En segundo lugar, el uso intensivo de fertili zante qu1m1co es probablemente el otro factor Importante para explicar los altos rendimientos (Maftre y Peñaranda 1993). El fertilizante qu ímico como tecnología que ahorra tierra interactúa, además, perfectamente con el riego. Por un lado, la humedad (riego ) permite una mejor absorción de los nutrientes suministrados por el fertilizante.Por otro lado, el fertilizante hace más racional el uso de las pequeñas cantidades de agua disponibles para riego.En tercer lugar, por la importancia que tiene este renglón para ef sostenimiento de las familias, se obser v a un Interés en In v ertir en esta producción a nivel de mano de obra (manejo), de infraestructura (riego ) y también de i nsumas (abono orgánico, abono químico).Es interesante ver la coexistencia en la zona de dos renglones, el fri jol y la ceboll a, que se caracteriz an por diferentes grados de sostenibilidad. Es aún más curioso saber que los productores de cebolla son -generalmente-también produ ctores de fri jol. Lo que diferenc ia la producción de cebolla de la producción de frijol es la mayor rentabilidad, el riesgo controlado .en cuanto a suministro de agua para el c ulti vo, la posibilidad de obtener ingresos en f orma ~ermanente y una mayor seguridad en cuanto a la producción y precios 0 . Parece que no solo la pobreza es un factor que impide que un agricultor Invierta en la conservación de los recursos naturales. El des..9..Q de poder perder una buena parte de la producción igualmente no estimula al productor a Invertir en la conservación y mejoramiento del suelo.Nota Final. El agua es en realidad la preocupación más grande de los agricultores de San Gil. En una zona con 800-1000 mm de precipitación con una distri bución irregular no se puede esperar una actitud diferente. En un año malo, los rendimientos de frijol bajan en un 50% lo que Imposibilita obtener ganancias. Uitimamente (a partír de 1993)se vi ene incrementando sustancialmente la construcción de lagunas y otras formas de reservarlos para la captación y almacenamiento de agua (de lluvias y escorrentia ). En ocasión TO 81 producb:lr <le frijol no sabe en ~1 110menb:l •le se11brar a t:ómo le 1an a pagar y ri l!el todo va a obtener 11M produCJ:ión &::eptabl€. del estudio de zan las de desvi ación se han vi sto diseños de parte de los campesinos mediante los cuales tratan de Integrar dos prácticas: Zan j as de desviación y reservorlos de agua (G ráfico 7, Cap1tulo 9). Las zan jas solucionan parte del problema de las aguas de escorrentía ( erosión ) pero permiten a la vez que se pierda este recurso natural. Al combinar las zanjas con lagunas se podría Incrementar la utilidad de las zanjas.11.Mejoramiento Genético de Frijol e Investigación en Campo El mejoramiento genético de frijol y la Investigación en campo acaban de hacer una primera contribución importante para una mayor sostenibilidad del sistema de producción de frijol en San Gil. La introducción de la línea promisoria AFR 638 incrementa la diversidad genética \"interna \" y \"externamente\". Internamente porque el AFR 638 tiene una base genética amplia la cual ha posibilitado la resistencia a antracnosis. Externamente porque se introdujo otro material tipo Radical en una zona donde se estaba sembrando exclusi vamente la v ari edad local Radical por exigenci as del mercado.La resistencia del AFR 638 a antracnosis tiene como efecto un menor uso de fungicidas en la zona frijolera. La r esisten c ia del AFR 638 a antracnosis Impli ca para el agricultor una reducción en los costos de producción.La resistencia del AFR 638 a antracnosis y la arquitectura de la planta la c ual impide el contacto entre las v ainas y el suelo le permiten al agricultor obtener una mejor calidad del grano. De esta manera se incrementa la eficiencia económica del sistema de producción.Además, los agricultores de San Gil, saben ahora de la existencia de la téc nica de mejoramiento genético y de la estrategia de incorporar resistencia genética a un frijol regional.Los investigadores conocen mejor las exigencias del productor y del mercado de San Gil en cuanto al tipo de planta y tipo de grano.La participación del agricultor en la investigación en c ierta manera recupera a nivel metodológico lo que el pequePio productor a nivel sociopol ítico no puede lograr: la influencia parcial en la orientación de la Investigación agronómica.En el caso de San Gil la investigación en finca -con un componente fuerte de parti c ipación del agricultor-ha permitido identifi car un materi al resistente a antrac nosis el cual no ha si do resultado de cruces específicos para San Gi 1 y ní siquiera para la resistencia a antracnosis. Uso de Tierra en la Zona Frljolera de San Gil Desde la época de !rusta y Fortoul (1961) se conocen los problemas de erosión en las zonas tabacaleras de Santander. Estos autores han declarado la zona, que hoy es la zona frijolera de San Gil, Vi llanuev a y Barl c hara, como no apta para cu ltivo. Sin embargo, el cu lti vo de frijol ha ocasionado una ampliac ión de la frontera agrícola en 10 a 15 aPios y ha permitido un desarrollo socloeconómi co sin precedentes en la zona. En este proceso han sido elementos importantes -fuera del c ulti vo de frl jol-los tractores y la gallinaza. Este proceso de ampliación de la frontera agrícola y del aumento de valor de la tierra anteriormente no c ultivada (pajales) esta llegando a su término. Por lo tanto, es oportuno Iniciar un programa de conservación de la productivi dad de los suelos y de control de erosión. Hay agricultores quienes están ahora interesados en invertir en una manejo más apropiado para el recurso suelo.Para el caso de San Gil es importante conocer la historia del uso de tierra para entender la actitud de los agricultores frente al tema de (conservación de) suelo. Además es oportuno identificar y evaluar técnicamente las prácticas espontáneas de conservación de suelo (con mayor difusión: Zan las de desviación y rotación de cultivo-pasto; en forma incipiente: Incorporación de materia orgánica, mínima labranza) que se estan dando en los ú ltimos años Y evaluar el potencial de la tracción animal -como práctica antigua-para la zona.El caso especial de la producción de cebolla de rama es instructi vo. Se trata de un renglón manejado enteramente por los campesinos y el cual es sostenible en im alto grado. La identificación de estos renglones (en cual quier sistema de producción) es Importante puesto que permite entender bajo que condi ciones el agri c ultor conser v a y mejora la base productiva de los rec u rsos naturales.Lo que hace falta en San Gil es fortalecer estos primeros pasos espontáneos en el manejo de los recuras naturales con la introducción de nuevas prácticas del manejo de suelo y evaluar estas nuev as prácticas en colaboración con los agricultores.El conocimiento camp esino es considerado por muchos autores como un punto de partida para el diseño de sistemas o prácticas de producción agropecuaria sosten! bies (Aitieri 1993). Efectivamente al desarrollar modelos de una producción agropecuaria sostenible no deberíamos quedar debajo del ni v el alcanzado en la investigación dirigida al mejoramiento de un cultivo o de una espec ie: La participación del agricu ltor es fundamental en estos casos. Algunos autores. sin embargo, parecen suponer que los conocimientos tradicionales y más ~ún Indígenas implican necesariamente un conjunto de prácticas sostenibles 1 . Este pu nto es controv ertido en el caso de las mismas sociedades indígenas (Johnson 1989). Pero aún si la suposición fuera correcta que Implicaría ella para otros sectores de la población rural que (ya) no son i ndígenas como por ejemplo los campesinos de San Gil? Faust (~992) .señala dos aspectos importantes en la relación metafísi ca entre la sociedad y la naturaleza la cual ha sido tema de Investigación de este autor en la zona de los indígenas Coconuco y Yanacona en el Cauca. Primero, gracias a ella la actitud de los in d ígenas frente al medio ambiente sería tal que se garantizara la conservación de este. En segundo lugar, afirma el autor, (Faust 1992: 14-166) que esta relación metafísica se observaría en todas las poblaciones campesinas de Colombia en mayor o menor grado. Esta hipótesis serviría de base para un programa de \"rescate\" y de \"revitalización\" de los conocimientos tradicionales para po9er lograr un proceso de produ cción en \"armonía\" con el med io am biente 2 . Tl Para ~~ r.aso de Colombia véase Paust (1992) sobre una zona indígena en PI r.aoca y 1an der Hlllllll'n (1992) sobre una zona in• iÍ(ena ,,, •1 Caquetá.• n De hecho ~listen progruw de esta naturakM Pn Perú y BoliviA.Sin embargo, este enfoque impl ica el pel igro de sobreestimar la capac idad del conoci miento tradi cional como lo señala el antropólogo Jeffery Bentley (1991 ). En el presente caso de San Gil cuya población campesina está en una tase muy dinámica de la historia, por lo menos, no en contramos una s ituación tan i nequívoca.Referente a la antracnosis por ejemplo existe un conocimiento tradi c ional sobre la causa y la naturaleza de la enfermedad, pero la prácti ca de contr•ol por parte de los agri c ultores, es el uso exc lusi vo de fungi cldas lo que no se p11ecie ev aluar favorablemente en términos agroecológicos.En c uanto al suelo y su manejo hemos visto que en la zona de TIERRA FRI A. la explotación agrícola es en buena parte un proceso reciente. Los agriculto r•es están conociendo muchos aspect os nue vos y están definiendo poco a poco un patrón de uso (rotación cultivo-pasto) y algunas medidas eJe conser v aci ón (zanjas, incorporación de materia orgánica, mínima labranza). Desde luego los agricultores se basan frente a esta situación de cambio también en la experienci a ac umulada por ellos mismos y por sus antepasados pero apli cándolas en un ambiente nuevo. No siempre el conocimiento campesino es algo estático.Finalmente, al respecto de la producción de cebolla de rama, la cual es sosteni ble en un alto grado, el conocl mientop campesino ha venido incorporando elementos modernos para el manejo de este renglón, siendo el más importante de ellos el fertilizante químico. Por lo tanto, tampoco se puede decir que solamente el conocimiento tradici onal sea capaz de generar prácti cas sosten ibles.Plan tas de AFR 635 en ~erreno fuer~emen~e e nmalezado. Villanueva. 1993. Vainas libres de sintomas de antracnosis.Muestra de la cosecha en el lote anterior (fotografia 10). AFR 638 . Villanueva. 1993.FOTOGRAFIA 12.Muestra de l a cosecha en e l lote anterior (fo t ografía 10). RadicaL Villanue v a . 199;;.FOTOGRAFIA 13. Paisaje de tierra fria. Choro, Villanueva. Terrenos de frijol en descanso y pajal.Paisaje de tierra fria. Limoncito, Villanueva. Terrenos de frijol en descanso y pajales (partes más oscuras).Paisaje de tierra caliente. Hato Viejo, Villanueva. En el primer plano bosque secundario. En el fondo, lado derecho cultivos de frijol, lado izquierdo terrenos en descanso.","tokenCount":"21484"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66baef1cad7761fe30d137467673c8c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ec6c0eef-14c6-4ab1-ac47-5a13606c0c0f/content","id":"-637725503"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a5347d9d-cf25-4f53-bffe-ac135f953607","pagecount":"7","content":"Groundwater resources and irrigation systems are a fundamental consideration for sustainable and inclusive food system transitions in South Asia. Over the course of the latter part of the 20 th century and the early 21 st century, groundwater has become the primary source of irrigation water across South Asia and globally. The aquifers in Western and Peninsula regions in South Asia have faced water scarcity and groundwater depletion. But in in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, aquifers are still considered underutilized by most planners and policymakers. This has resulted in increased investments in groundwater irrigation for water security and climate adaptation. However, the aquifer response to increasing irrigation water withdrawals remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, TAFSSA is developing watershed assessment on sustainable groundwater use. Starting with Nalanda district in Bihar, India, a relatively water scarce district within the Eastern Gangetic Plains. This research note reports on the initial findings from existing groundwater data and outlines key steps towards building a groundwater model to support sustainable groundwater management and planning.The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) in South Asia hosts predominantly cereal-based farming systems (Aravindakshan et al., 2015, Jat et al. 2020). Considered the food basked of South Asia, the IGP's cereal production is crucial to food security as well as political and economic stability. However, parts of the IGP are threatened by unsustainable groundwater withdrawal -the region extracts one third of global groundwater withdrawalsspurred by existing irrigation incentives anchored in a number of key food and energy policies (Arshad et al., 2018, Dorosh et al. 2009). Farmers in this region are vulnerable and exposed to climate change and extreme weather (Lal et al. 2010, Kishore et al. 2021, McDonald et al. 2020), contributing to high risks for farmers that can lead to low incomes and rural out-migration away from agriculture (Aryal et al 2020).As a result, governments are investing in expanding groundwater irrigation to support intensified cropping and climate adaptation in agriculture. Interest across the region in these efforts collectively target nearly 22 million hectares that are currently fallowed during the dry season (Rasul et al. 2016, Krupnik et al. 2017, Urfels et al. 2020, Gumma et al. 2016).In alignment with these efforts, TAFSSA supports coordinated efforts to transform the agrifood system in ways that ensure that people can equitably access and consume healthy diets produced within the environmental boundaries (cf. IFAD, 2021)   Metasediments include highly folded and fractured quartzite, phyllite and schist. These are combined with intrusive granite and pegmatites. The study district is located within the Mid-Ganga basin, in the southern margin of the Gangetic plains. Flat alluvium terrain is common, with the exception of Rajgir Hill (~443 masl) in the south (CGWB 2022). About 90% of the area is used for agricultural purposes with cereal-based farmland far exceeding any other land uses. Built-up area is the second largest land use category. Nalanda district is part of the Harohar Basin, and generally slopes towards the northeast. Major rivers include the Mohana, Panchane and Sakri rivers. These all flow towards the north east and empty into into the Ganges. The whole district is covered by alluvium, except the crystalline rock areas in Rajgir. In the alluvial areas, several aquifer layers exist and have been explored to the depth of 250 m below ground in the northern part of the district. In the crystalline hard rock areas, water well discharges are highly variable. The conceptual hydrogeological map of Nalanda district is presented in Fig 2 . Lithologically, Nalanda known for clay beds, inter-bedded with sands (Saha, 2007). In the northern part of the study area, aquifers are more fully developed, and, four alluvial fills, starting with coarse sand and gravel at base and clay at the top, have been reported within 100-120 m bgl. Observed ground water behavior data across the district's total 39 National Hydrograph Monitoring Stations were chosen for calibration and validation of the model. Out of 39 stations only eight Dug water wells contain water level data since 1998. Al remaining wells provide data from 2013 to the present. The two decades of water level observations in dug wells is shows a significant decline in water levels (Fig. 3). Considering the the current expansion of electrically powered groundwater for irrigation, this declining trends signals some concern for the district's efforts to both develop and sustainably manage groundwater.The overall mean water level is 3.5 m bgl with a standard deviation of 1.2. As described above, most surface water flows towards the north-east following the predominant topography, but several local flows are also present in different directions based on the hydraulic gradient (Fig. 4). The Biharsharif block (a sub-urban area of the district) has a deeper water level following the Rajgir area. These represent the crystalline hard rock aquifers.Despite being considered part of the groundwater abundant Eastern Gangetic Plains, Nalanda district is already showing signs of groundwater depletion. TAFSSA is testing the hypothesis that ongoing investments in irrigation infrastructure could amplify this trend. Careful management of groundwater resources is likely to be required to ensure that food systems transitions do not endanger groundwater related ecosystem service provisioning or create inequitable groundwater access across for users.To assist these efforts, conceptual model shown in Figure 1    ","tokenCount":"864"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd068375cd72494632bccbc5066989e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5bc01a6a-e08a-45e0-a84f-c37b5c215528/retrieve","id":"276327341"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e0958da0-3c30-4829-ad0e-255ddd3bc778","pagecount":"71","content":"La agricultura juega un papel excepcional en lo que a cambio climático se refiere, por un lado es altamente vulnerable al cambio climático afectando negativamente el sector y por el otro, es responsable de entre el 19 y 24% de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero globalmente, lo que lo constituye en generador del problema también. El cambio climático tiene consecuencias directas sobre la agricultura y sobre la producción y la disponibilidad de alimentos, poniendo en riesgo la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de las poblaciones más vulnerables.Desde 1990, los desastres climáticos e hidra-meteorológicos costaron a la región más de $ 72 mil millones de dólares, afectando la vida en promedio a 3 millones de personas anualmente durante ese período. La sequía y las inundaciones en particular causaron consecuencias devastadoras para la producción ganadera y agrícola. El cambio climático exacerba esta vulnerabilidad demostrada a los eventos extremos. En el lado este de los Andes, las precipitaciones en América del Sur han demostrado una tendencia al alza, mientras que en muchas partes de las tierras altas tropicales de América Central y México, las precipitaciones se han concentrado y disminuido. En el Caribe, las inundaciones y los ciclones han tenido un profundo impacto en los últimos años, han provocado devastadores derrumbes, han destruido infraestructura y han expuesto los medios de vida a un riesgo permanente.Este documento tiene el propósito de proporcionar información sobre el impacto del cambio climático en la agricultura de América Latina y el Caribe para la discusión plenaria en la Segunda Reunión Internacional de Ministros y Altas Autoridades sobre \"Agricultura Sostenible y Cambio Climático\". La reunión tiene como propósito promover el intercambio de experiencias para el fortalecimiento de políticas públicas y programas del sector agropecuario en los temas de cambio climático, agricultura sostenible y seguridad alimentaria y nutricional; además de identificar acciones dentro del sector agrícola relevantes para el cumplimiento de las políticas de cada uno de los Estados participantes. Estos intercambios permitirán fortalecer el rol de la región para satisfacer su demanda interna de alimentos y como despensa global en el mercado de la alimentación.Después de un resumen de una revisión de literatura, enfocándose en los impactos del cambio climático y la variabilidad climática sobre la agricultura en la región, se presentan los retos que resultan emergentes para la agricultura sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe. Promoviendo una actitud proactiva, se presentan varias oportunidades para ser activos en el contexto internacional y regional; además de desarrollar un rol de región líder para buscar soluciones y enfrentar así los retos del cambio climático para la agricultura y sus economías relacionadas. En ese orden de ideas, se deben tener en cuenta: la agroecología, la importancia de la resiliencia de los pequeños y medianos productores y la integración de acciones en las cadenas de sistemas de alimentación, con todos sus actores claves. Finalmente, se presenta los retos institucionales para tomar acción para abordar los retos del cambio climático.El sostenido incremento de emisiones de CO2 y su correspondencia con el aumento de la temperatura derivan en efectos como el cambio en los regímenes de precipitaciones, frecuencia e intensidad de eventos meteorológicos extremos, acceso al recurso hídrico y el aumento de la dispersión de plagas y agentes patógenos; impactando de manera profunda, el desempeño y desarrollo de la actividad agrícola. En las últimas tres décadas, la productividad agrícola mundial ha tenido caídas que fluctúan entre 1 y 5 por ciento (Loboguerrero, A., et al. 2018); igualmente desde principios de la década del 90 se ha presentado una oscilación y declive en las reservas de maíz, arroz, trigo y soja a nivel mundial (Piñeiro, 2008). En conjunto, este tipo de eventos provocan un detrimento de los medios de vida de los agricultores, cambios en la alimentación y repercusión en la salud de la población según las regiones afectadas.Para América Latina y el Caribe (ALC), desde 1990, los desastres climáticos e hidrameteorológicos costaron a la región más de $ 72 mil millones de dólares, afectando la vida en promedio a 3 millones de personas anualmente durante ese período. La sequía y las inundaciones en particular causaron consecuencias devastadoras para la producción ganadera y agrícola. El cambio climático exacerba esta vulnerabilidad demostrada a los eventos extremos. En el lado este de los Andes, las precipitaciones en América del Sur han demostrado una tendencia al alza, mientras que en muchas partes de las tierras altas tropicales de América Central y México, las precipitaciones se han concentrado y disminuido. En el Caribe, las inundaciones y los ciclones han tenido un profundo impacto en los últimos años, han provocado devastadores derrumbes, han destruido infraestructura y han expuesto los medios de vida a un riesgo permanente (Eakin y Lemos, 2010).La agricultura en ALC es sin duda un factor esencial tanto en el aspecto económico como en el social. De acuerdo a estimaciones de la FAO, el potencial agrícola de ALC en el transcurso de la siguiente década podría sobrepasar el de los Estados Unidos de América. Actualmente, ALC es el responsable del 16% de las exportaciones mundiales de productos agrícolas, alcanzando cifras importantes como: 55% soya, 39% café, 20% maíz y 10% arroz y trigo 1 ; sin embargo, desde comienzos de la década del 90 el valor agregado de este sector al PIB de la región pasó del 8.1% al 4.7% en el año 2017 (Figura 1).  América Latina y el Caribe es un actor cada vez más relevante en la provisión de alimentos a nivel mundial, particularmente en lo que refiere a seguridad alimentaria mundial, siendo ésta cada vez más demandante en el suministro de alimentos y vulnerable particularmente frente a los impactos del cambio climático (CC). Si bien los números en términos de producción general muestran incrementos a lo largo de los años desde la década del 90, es posible notar fluctuaciones y desequilibrios que irrumpen en tales cifras a razón de los eventos climáticos acaecidos. \"En la región las pérdidas agrícolas aumentaron considerablemente entre 2010 y 2015, con auges pronunciados en 2012 y 2014 producto de severos episodios de sequía relacionados con La Niña, que devastó las cosechas de cultivos en Argentina y Brasil en 2012 y gran parte de Centroamérica en 2014, especialmente los cultivos y ganadería en El Salvador, Guatemala y Honduras\" (Reliefweb, 2018). Entre 2005 y 2015 las pérdidas en el sector agrícola y pecuario ascendieron a 13.000 millones de dólares y sólo para cultivos del renglón de las leguminosas, las pérdidas escalaron hasta los 8.000 millones de dólares.Tales fluctuaciones se evidencian al observar la productividad total de cultivos esenciales para la seguridad alimentaria como frijol, maíz y arroz, especialmente en las subregiones de Centroamérica y el Caribe, altamente impactadas en las últimas dos décadas y media por desastres 2 . Según el Índice de Riesgo Climático del Germanwatch, 4 países de la región hacen parte de los 10 más afectados por eventos climáticos durante el periodo 1997 a 2016, Honduras (1), Haití (3), Nicaragua (4) y República Dominicana (10) 3 . Por su parte, la pesca y la acuicultura se configuran como un sector fundamental para alimentación y economía de la región, tanto así que casi el 100% de la producción está destinada al consumo interno y poco se deja para la exportación (COPESCAALC, 2018). Las prácticas del sector apuntan a la sobresaliente importancia de la pesca continental en al medida que sobrepasa en uso de mano de obra por kilogramo, a la pesca marítima y la acuicultura; sin embargo, este renglón pesquero afronta situaciones de impacto derivadas del desarrollo de infraestructuras regionales, afectando los hábitat que sostienen los entornos naturales que proveen lo necesario para los ciclos de vida y procesos migratorios de las especies fundamentales para el sector y las comunidades que dependen de este (COPESCAALC, 2018).En general, el sector pesquero se configura como pilar de la alimentación en la región de ALC debido a generación de valor nutricional derivada de sus productos, lo que coadyuva al mejoramiento de las perspectivas de seguridad alimentaria para las generaciones futuras; también en lo económico aporta generación de empleo e ingresos a cerca de 3 millones de familias en la región, lo que a su vez impulsa dinámicas locales para desarrollo rural territorial (COPESCAALC, 2016).No obstante, el cambio climático impactará de manera profunda el sector pesquero en la medida que continúe el aumento de la temperatura del agua, la salinidad y acidez del océano, variaciones en los regímenes de precipitación y el recrudecimiento de fenómenos como el del niño, derivando en la reconfiguración de los ecosistemas marinos, lo que afectará el sustento y seguridad alimentaria de las comunidades dependientes del esta actividad . De acuerdo a las proyecciones del IPCC, los cambios en la atmósfera y océano en los países insulares del Pacífico, hacen prever una grave afectación a la actividad pesquería asociada a los arrecifes de coral pudiendo alcanzar una disminución de un 20% en la producción hacia el año 2050 y también un impacto en la acuicultura costera regional (BID, 2015).Si bien la agricultura se ve altamente impactada por el cambio climático, ésta a su vez es responsable de la emisión de gases efecto invernadero. De acuerdo a la FAO (2014a) a principios de la década de los 60s las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en la región eran de 388 millones de toneladas CO₂ eq, para el año 2010 esa cifra llegó a las 903 millones de toneladas CO₂ eq. En total la región de ALC en este mismo periodo de tiempo produjo un 17% de las emisiones globales provenientes de la agricultura, posicionándose como la segunda región que más emisiones genera en el mundo.Entre 2001 y 2010 un 60% de las emisiones provenían de la fermentación entérica (metano producido en el intestino del ganado) y un 25% del estiércol del mismo. Actualmente el sector ganadero representa un 46% del PIB agrícola, creciendo a una tasa de 3.7% anual, mayor a la global que escasamente llega al 2.1%. En términos actuales a nivel de la región significa la emisión de 1,889 millones de toneladas CO₂ eq. más de lo que produce Asia Oriental y el sudeste asiático (1.576 millones de toneladas CO₂ eq). Aunado al efecto de la producción de gases, \"cerca del 70 % de las tierras dedicadas al pastoreo están degradadas, a lo que hay que sumar la deforestación para ampliar la frontera ganadera, la conversión de tierras marginales para la producción de piensos, y la contaminación del agua y los suelos\" (FAO, 2018c).Impactos del cambio climático en la agricultura  Basados en las proyecciones y modelos climáticos de organismos internacionales como el IPCC, se ha podido deducir que los impactos del cambio climático en las regiones del trópico y subtrópico llegarían a ser considerables con el aumento de 1.7 °C temperatura promedio, llegando a ser graves con un incremento de 2°C a 2.5°C de temperatura para el año 2080 (IPCC, 2018). Grandes cambios como éstos implicarían un impacto climático enorme en la agricultura, lo que dejaría como resultado alrededor de 36 millones de personas en riesgo alimentario, debido a la pérdida de la estabilidad de la producción agrícola en la región (Rodriguez De Luque et al., 2016).Las proyecciones del potencial impacto del CC sobre cultivos fundamentales y comunes como el maíz, el arroz y el frijol en la región de ALC (Tabla 1), indican que entre 2020 y 2045, los rendimientos proyectados bajo efecto del cambio de clima se traducirán en un crecimiento de 15.6%, a diferencia de la proyección bajo un escenario sin cambios en el clima que arrojan un 23% de crecimiento. En ALC, la producción de maíz, cultivo fundamental en la dieta de la población, se verá afectada por una reducción en su rendimiento de al menos un 10% para mediados del presente siglo (Rodriguez De Luque et al., 2016). Los resultados de modelación en la proyección del porcentaje de cambio en los rendimientos a futuro, muestran en el caso del cultivo de maíz, una reducción en los rendimientos especialmente en condición de secano, el efecto más negativo se concentra especialmente en el norte de Venezuela, norte de Colombia, norte de México y península de Yucatán (Mapa 1). Bajo un régimen de riego los porcentajes de cambio más negativos se presentan en Cuba, Haití, y algunas regiones de norte México, Los impactos en los rendimientos suceden debido al decrecimiento en los regímenes de lluvias y posibles periodos de sequía extrema, identificados claramente en los modelos climáticos. (Gourdji, S. et al. 2015).Mapa 1. Promedio del porcentaje de cambio de los rendimientos para el cultivo del maíz con sistema de riego y secano en el escenario futuro 2020-2050. Fuente: (Prager, S.D. et al. 2016) Por su parte, los resultados de las proyecciones generales para el cultivo del arroz de riego y secano muestran una mejora en los rendimientos, especialmente en el extremo sur de Brasil, también en algunas zonas de Perú y Bolivia; en centroamérica bajo riego se esperan relativos incrementos en Nicaragua. En sistema de secano los impactos negativos se presentan al noreste de Brasil. En ambos sistemas bajo efecto de cambio climático Cuba se presenta porcentajes negativos. (Mapa 2) (Gourdji, S. et al. 2015).Mapa 2. Promedio del porcentaje de cambio de los rendimientos para el cultivo del arroz con sistema de riego y secano en el escenario futuro 2020-2050. Fuente: (Prager, S.D. et al. 2016) El cultivo de frijol en un escenario futuro con cambio climático bajo condiciones de secano muestra decrecimiento en los rendimientos al noreste de Brasil, fuertemente Cuba, Haití y algunas regiones del Sureste de México, Guatemala y El Salvador. Que el incremento de la temperatura y decrecimiento en las precipitaciones se dé específicamente en zonas de cultivo donde el frijol depende en alto grado del régimen de riego por lluvias, genera en consecuencia un estrés hídrico agudo provocando la disminución sustancial de los rendimientos, y por ende de los cambios porcentuales en rendimiento en el futuro (Mapa 3).Mapa 3. Promedio del porcentaje de cambio de los rendimientos para el cultivo del frijol con sistema de riego y secano en el escenario futuro 2020-2050. Fuente: (Prager, S.D. et al. 2016) En términos comerciales, la caña de azúcar y el café son cultivos de gran importancia en la región. La producción de caña de azúcar en la región alcanza un 33% del total mundial, destacando como principales productores a Brasil con 739.000 toneladas métricas, México con 61.200 toneladas métricas y Colombia con 34.900 toneladas métricas (Portal Caña, 2017). Ante la importancia de este cultivo para las economías de la región, se determinaron las zonas de aptitud determinadas por el factor climático presente y futuro con herramientas de modelación. Los resultados muestran que en el escenario presente, grandes áreas en Brasil, Yucatán y las islas del Caribe presentan mayor aptitud mientras que en un escenario futuro con cambio climático se prevé una merma importante en dichos porcentajes, e incluso reducción de áreas en Perú, Bolivia y norte de México. Las áreas que se convierten en no aptas se ubican especialmente al suroeste de México, Norte de Venezuela y algunas regiones en Brasil (Mapa 4).El café, por su parte, por ser tan sensible a los cambios de temperatura en particular para la variedad arábica, muestra cambios importantes en términos de aptitud (Mapa 5). En el escenario futuro con cambio climático habrán más área con baja aptitud en los andes peruanos, ecuatorianos y colombianos, lo cual podría reflejarse en una reducción de la producción de café en el largo plazo. Por otra parte, la variedad robusta a pesar de conservar grandes zonas de aptitud, muestra que la zona de Centroamérica verá reducido el porcentaje de aptitud alto y medio de manera drástica, igualmente para gran parte del territorio apto en Brasil (Mapa 6).Mientras que en Centroamérica y el Caribe se genere un impacto importante a mediano plazo a causa de la variabilidad climática y ocurrencia de eventos climáticos extremos.Por otra parte, se ha encontrado evidencia que países o subregiones responden de manera distinta a los impactos del CC dependiendo también del tipo de cultivo. El estudio de De Luque (2016), muestra una merma de crecimiento proyectado del área cultivada de trigo en países como Argentina, Uruguay y Brasil, y aunque se espera crecimientos de área en México es probable que el crecimiento de los rendimientos, incluso en un escenario de no cambio de clima, se vean disminuidos.De acuerdo un estudio para la construcción del atlas de suelos de ALC liderado por la Comisión Europea 5 bajo su programa EUROCLIMA, en todos los países de la región independientemente del efecto del cambio climático, existe una tendencia importante a la degradación de los suelos, llegando a estimarse que un 35 % del territorio se ve afectado por procesos de desertificación y aridez (Mapa7) (CAZALAC, 2018); no obstante, de acuerdo a los resultados de los análisis basados en modelos del IPCC específicamente el escenario A2 6 , se concluyó que en la mayor parte del territorio no se producirán cambios abruptos de degradación, sin embargo, algunas regiones pasarán a estados más áridos que los actuales (Mapa 8) (Gardi, C., et al. 2014).Mapa 7. Mapa de aridez de ALC Fuente: Centro Regional del Agua para Zonas Áridas y Semiáridas para ALC en el presente Mapa 8. Índice de aridez proyectada bajo escenario A2 (2017-2100) Fuente: Comisión Europea (2013) El porcentaje de área que pasará a un régimen de suelos más árido llegará a un 21 %, mientras que las zonas que pasan a un régimen más húmedo escasamente alcanzarán un 2 %, desde luego, esto dependerá de la vulnerabilidad actual de las regiones. El grado de vulnerabilidad a la desertificación según las estimaciones del IPCC, nos dice que un 8 % equivalentes a 1.6 millones de Km² de las tierras en ALC presentan un grado muy alto, mientras que un 13 % equivalente a 6 millones de Km² presentan un grado alto, y con un grado medio de vulnerabilidad, un 30 % de la superficie terrestre de la Región (Gardi, C., et al. 2014).Como resultado de un estudio realizado por la FAO a una serie de desastres derivados de eventos asociados a la variabilidad del clima y eventos extremos ocurridos entre el año 2003 y 2013, se determinó que las pérdidas en el sector agrario en ALC representaron un 3 % de la producción total de la región. En el mismo periodo de tiempo, las importaciones agrícolas se incrementaron en 13 mil millones de dólares y se redujeron las exportaciones en mil millones de dólares (FAO, 2015). En el estudio se identificó también que los eventos por variabilidad del clima en la región han tenido una distribución particular. Las sequías en América del Sur se presentaron especialmente al nordeste de Brasil, región del Chaco y centro-norte de Chile, y en Centroamérica especialmente en el corredor seco. Las tormentas tropicales, huracanes y tifones afectaron la zona del Caribe y costas de Mesoamérica. Las inundaciones por su parte, se presentaron de manera general a lo largo y ancho de la región.Una información importante a tener en cuenta, es la ocurrencia y comportamiento cíclico de los desastres relacionados a inundaciones, sequías y tormentas que han ocurrido en ALC. En la década de 1992 a 2002, previo al estudio de la FAO, el número de esta clase de eventos llegó a un total de 249, en la década posterior (2003 a 2013) el número de eventos relacionados a la variabilidad y extremos climáticos escaló hasta los 334 (Figura 4). Si solo se toma en cuenta que la sequía y eventos relacionados a esta han sido responsables de al menos un 80 % de los daños y pérdidas en el sector agrícola entre 2006 y 2016 en la región (FAO, 2018a), es probable que una variación en la cíclica sea la causa del posible aumento del número de eventos o la intensidad de éstos, desencadenando un fuerte impacto a la seguridad alimentaria y la economía de las naciones de la región.Para ejemplificar lo anterior, se debe recordar las repercusiones del huracán Mitch, que dejó pérdidas económicas entre los 6 y 8 mil millones de dólares, lo que en su momento equivalía a un valor superior al producto interno bruto combinado de Honduras y Nicaragua, que fueron los dos países más afectados (Mansilla, E., 2008). Por su parte, el fenómeno del niño de 1997 -1998, que provocó inundaciones y sequías catastróficas en grandes zonas de ALC, dejó solo en el área andina, pérdidas por un valor equivalente de 7.500 millones de dólares. En toda la región, las pérdidas alcanzaron un valor estimado de 15.400 millones de dólares.La variabilidad climática refiere a fluctuaciones de corto plazo en escalas estaciones o multi-estacionales. En general, la variabilidad climática está supeditada a cambios extremos de las condiciones atmosféricas que escalan por encima de lo normal.Figura 6. Ocurrencia de desastres relacionados a inundaciones, sequias y tormentas en la región de ALC entre 1990 y 2018. Fuente: https://www.emdat.be/emdat_db/.En el presente año hay que resaltar el impacto de la variabilidad climática en Centroamérica donde se ha manifestado con una disminución atípica del régimen de precipitaciones y un incremento de las condiciones secas en la región, lo que provocó pérdidas acumuladas de áreas de cultivos de maíz y frijol en Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras, llegando a las 281.000 hectáreas. Solo en Honduras se reportó la pérdida aproximada de alrededor de un 80 % de los cultivos en mención (FAO, 2018b). Esta situación se podría recrudecer y poner en potencial riesgo la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de comunidades rurales en la región, con la llegada del fenómeno del Niño. De acuerdo al Centro Internacional para la Investigación del Fenómeno del Niño, los modelos indican que para finales del presente año es probable que éste fenómeno se pueda presentar (CIIFEN, 2018).Ante la eventual posibilidad de una nueva ocurrencia del fenómeno de El Niño con sus ya conocidos efectos (Mapa 8), es necesario recordar el impacto que dejó sobre el sector agrícola en el corredor seco en Centroamérica en el año 2015. A finales de ese año, más de tres millones de personas quedaron afectadas por una inseguridad alimentaria aguda, y dos millones se hallaron ante la urgencia de asistencia inmediata en la región (FAO, 2017b).Basado en información de FAO e IPCC.De acuerdo con la Oficina Regional de la FAO, la variabilidad climática y eventos extremos en la región generará para mediados del presente siglo una serie de impactos que derivarán en:• Detrimento del rendimiento de cultivos fundamentales como el maíz, la soja, el trigo y el arroz, que para la década entrante llegará a representar pérdidas de ganancias por exportaciones entre 8.000 y 11.000 millones de dólares.• Presión para adaptar zonas no agrícolas para producir alimentos. La necesidad para el cambio en los usos del suelo afectará el valor de la propiedad rural, derivando en efectos socioeconómicos para la región.• Disminución de las exportaciones agrícolas que llegará a unos 50.000 millones de dólares para el año 2050, en caso se continúe la intensidad de eventos extremos por variabilidad climática.• Costos por demora o falta de acción en la implementación de medidas de adaptación o reducción de riesgos, que en el Caribe se ha proyectado a 2050, por un valor de 22 mil millones de dólares anuales.Las proyecciones muestran que a nivel global los precios se seguirán incrementando debido a tres factores fundamentales: el impacto del cambio climático en los sistemas de producción provocando disminución en la oferta, el aumento de la población y un relativo incremento de los ingresos (Rodriguez De Luque et al., 2016).En la región de ALC, si bien el índice de precios actual está muy por debajo del promedio presentado entre 2012 y 2014, se espera que hasta mediados de la década siguiente, los precios del trigo, arroz, oleaginosas y otros granos se mantengan en alza. El incremento de precios en el contexto de cambio climático y sus correspondientes impactos, puede incrementar el riesgo potencial para la alimentación de algunas poblaciones, también contribuir a ahondar en los índices de pobreza y provocar reveses en los logros obtenidos combatiendo la subalimentación en la región (IPCC, 2014).Aunado al incremento de precios, las exportaciones netas de productos agrícolas también se verán afectadas conforme a cada país y cada tipo de cultivo. De acuerdo a las proyecciones para las siguientes tres décadas, el número de países productores de frijol en ALC que verán afectado de manera negativa su potencial exportador, será mucho mayor, que el número de países productores de maíz y arroz afectados de la misma manera en su potencial exportador (Tabla 2  Sin embargo, la inseguridad alimentaria es un riesgo latente en un escenario de cambio climático inminente. Una proyección basada en la disponibilidad de alimentos con la limitante de no incluir el acceso económico a éstos, nos indica que los países con mayor incremento en el riesgo alimentario para las siguientes tres décadas, son:Figura 9. Países con mayores incrementos del porcentaje de riesgo de inseguridad alimentaria basada en la disponibilidad de alimentos. Fuente: (Rodriguez De Luque et al., 2016).Un dato importante para la seguridad alimentaria de ALC proyectada para mediados del siglo, es la caída del crecimiento de la producción de arroz por parte de los principales productores de la región: Brasil, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba y República Dominicana. La otra caída de crecimiento de producción esperada y que impactaría notablemente sería para los cultivos de frijol y maíz en la región de Centroamérica, especialmente Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador y Honduras (Rodriguez De Luque et al., 2016).Al tiempo que afrontamos una potencial crisis de alimentos por efecto del cambio climático, entes internacionales como la Organización Panamericana de la Salud y FAO, hacen un llamado de atención para fomentar la producción sana y sostenible de alimentos que de a los habitantes de región, la posibilidad de adquirir hábitos equilibrados en su alimentación; pues además de la malnutrición se viene presentando un cambios hacia tipos de dieta poco saludables. Las estadísticas de FAO (2017a) muestran una alarmante tendencia a problemas de sobrepeso lo que en la región se refleja en los 360 millones de habitantes que lo padecen. En todos los países de ALC más de la mitad de sus habitantes sufren de sobrepeso, siendo Chile (63%), México(64%) y Bahamas(69%) los que presentan altos porcentajes de población afectada. En cuanto a la obesidad la región registra 140 millones de habitantes con este padecimiento, observándose una prevalencia más fuerte en la región del Caribe. Del 23% de habitantes con obesidad en ALC, la población femenina es la más afectada registrando un 10% más que la población masculina.Con la variación de 1°C de temperatura media anual, en Costa Rica, el valor de alquiler de la tierra bajaría alrededor de 2 dólares mensuales, la renta de la tierra por hectárea en el caso de Guatemala bajaría en al menos 5.5 dólares, en El Salvador llegaría a disminuir 46 centavos de dólar, lo que equivaldría a 2% de la ganancia mensual por alquiler, y en Nicaragua muestra que el valor contingente para la renta de la tierra bajaría en 2,20 dólares. Adicional a estas cifras se debe tener en cuenta el efecto del impacto de los regímenes de precipitaciones que hacen disminuir aún más el valor de la tierra. En este caso, se evidenciaron detrimentos entre 1.3 y 5.3 dólares, a razón del aumento de una unidad de precipitación acumulada anual (López ,2015).La estimación del valor de la tierra considerando el efecto de las dos principales variables climáticas (temperatura y precipitación) es fundamental como aproximación inicial a los análisis; sin embargo, hay otras variables o elementos que en conjunción con el cambio climático inciden en la determinación del valor de la tierra. Da Cuhna, Coelho y Féres (2015) en el caso de Brasil, concluyen que la implementación de sistemas de irrigación provoca una tendencia al incremento del valor de la tierra de uso agrícola. En contraste, Galindo, Alatorre y Reyes (2015) en su estudio para México 7 adicionan factores como eventos climáticos extremos, distinción entre tierras irrigadas y no irrigadas, tipo mixto y temporal, concluyendo que con un aumento de 2.5 ⁰C las tierras irrigadas son más vulnerables llegando presentarse porcentaje de pérdidas de ingresos netos por hectárea entre 26% y 55%, a diferencia de las tierra con irrigacion por lluvia que muestran perdidas entre 14% y 25 %, desde luego, estas variaciones va en detrimento o a favor del valor de la tierra según las prácticas o adopción de medidas de mitigación. Finalmente, estudios como el de Mendelsohn, Arellano-Gonzalez y Christensen (2010), desde una aproximación metodológica ricardiana 8 muestran que el valor de la tierra en México podría llegar a presentar pérdidas de hasta 50% del valor de la tierra teniendo en cuenta el factor de los pequeños productores quienes serían los más afectados.Se puede observar entonces que la heterogeneidad de la reacción al valor de la tierra está también en función de las prácticas y controles culturales de la misma, en conjunción con los efectos del cambio climático y las condiciones particulares de cada país o región.El cambio y la variabilidad climática han puesto en jaque a la agricultura convencional, obligando con sus efectos a tomar medidas pertinentes que replanteen los métodos y prácticas de esta actividad con el propósito de fomentar una agricultura más sostenible y adaptada al clima. Desde hace ya varias décadas se habla de desarrollo sostenible, un concepto que busca que cada actividad económica esté en equilibrio social y ambiental. La agricultura sostenible adaptada al clima (ASAC) 9 se define como un enfoque que pretende transformar y reorientar el desarrollo agropecuario ante las nuevas condiciones que se presentan con el cambio climático (Lipper et al. 2014).La definición más utilizada es la que estableció la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), que indica que la ASAC es \"aquella agricultura que incrementa de manera sostenible la productividad, la resiliencia (adaptación), reduce/elimina GEI (mitigación) donde es posible, y fortalece los logros de metas nacionales de desarrollo y de seguridad alimentaria\". De acuerdo con dicha definición, el objetivo principal de la ASAC es la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo (FAO 2013a;Lipper et al. 2014); en tanto la productividad, adaptación y mitigación se definen como tres pilares interrelacionados que son necesarios para alcanzar tal objetivo.Figura 10: Pilares de la ASAC; Fuente: Guía ASAC 10 La ASAC busca contribuir al abordaje de los retos que el cambio y la variabilidad climática están generando en la agricultura latinoamericana, a continuación, algunos de ellos.Agricultura Recurso-Eficiente América Latina y el Caribe es una región estratégicamente favorecida en términos ambientales. Esta región representa el 13% de la masa terrestre del planeta y alberga a solo el 9% de la población mundial, pero alberga una gran proporción de la diversidad biológica del planeta como, por ejemplo, el 50% de la biodiversidad, el 21% de las eco-regiones terrestres, el 22% del agua fresca, el 16% de los recursos de agua marinos, el 29% de las precipitaciones, el 23% de los bosques y el 57% de bosques primarios, porcentajes del total mundial (CEPAL, 2018)\"ALC también está bien dotada de recursos hídricos renovables, con aproximadamente un tercio de los 42,000 kilómetros cúbicos en todo el mundo. Per cápita, ALC tiene la mayor dotación de agua renovable entre las regiones en desarrollo, aunque algunas subregiones en ALC enfrentan una escasez mayor que el promedio\" (Chacherli & Nash, 2013). El 72.1% del agua es usada en la agricultura, el 16.9% en actividades domésticas y el 11.0% restante en actividades industriales (CEPAL, 2018).Teniendo en cuenta que las actividades agrícolas son particularmente sensibles al cambio climático, que se espera que produzca cambios en la estructura, los rendimientos y los ciclos de cultivo, y que por ejemplo, \"México, el Caribe y América Central serán más secos, las ciudades de la región andina estarán sujetas al estrés hídrico y América del Sur estará cada vez más expuesta a las inundaciones\" (CEPAL, 2018), se deben tomar acciones que faciliten los cambios y transformaciones necesarias en la agricultura en materia de adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático.La agricultura de precisión, que pone la tecnología al servicio de entornos específicos para recoger datos de un cultivo y así \"aplicar la cantidad correcta de insumos, en el momento adecuado y en el lugar exacto\" (García & Flego, 2008), es una de las opciones que tiene la agricultura para hacerle frente al cambio climático. Por supuesto, esta implica el uso de aparatos tecnológicos, por lo que es mayormente utilizada en grandes extensiones. Sin embargo, existen prácticas y tecnologías ASAC menos costosas que también son recursoeficientes como la agricultura de conservación o la agricultura orgánica o ecológica.El desafío, entonces, es poder transformar la agricultura de manera que el recurso hídrico y suelo son usados de manera sostenible y adaptada al clima, es decir determinar según el comportamiento climático y las condiciones agroecológicas y biofísicas del territorio el mejor uso de agua y suelo en agricultura, mientras se busca aumentar la productividad y competitividad de los sistemas productivos y cuando es posible, reducir las emisiones de gases efecto invernadero.La intensificación agrícola, desde una perspectiva de aumento de producción, rendimientos o ingresos por unidad de tierra, se ha basado fundamentalmente en un mayor uso de capital, mano de obra o insumos como fertilizantes o pesticidas. La Intensificación Sostenible Agrícola (SAI, por sus siglas en inglés) ofrece, en cambio, una vía hacia la producción de más alimentos con menos impacto sobre el medio ambiente en ALC, donde la agricultura familiar es un segmento clave de la agricultura y convive con el agro-negocio de las zonas rurales y urbanas.Es menester resaltar que la agricultura familiar se considera como un segmento clave pues \"agrupa cerca del 81% de las explotaciones agrícolas en ALC; provee, a nivel país, entre 27% y 67% del total de la producción alimentaria; ocupa entre el 12% y el 67% de la superficie agropecuaria, y genera entre el 57% y el 77% del empleo agrícola en la Región\" (FAO, 2014b).Con tales cifras, la intensificación agrícola no puede enfocarse solo en el aumento de la producción, pues de entrada involucraría un mayor uso elementos contaminantes y una degradación mayor del suelo lo que se traduce en mayores cifras de emisiones de gases efecto invernadero y en el aumento de los niveles de vulnerabilidad. Pues bien, es aquí dónde la ASAC entra a jugar un papel importante, aportando la sostenibilidad a la intensificación, de esta manera, se combina el aumento de la productividad con la búsqueda de resultados en términos de adaptación y mitigación, lo que viene a ser un \"replanteamiento radical de los sistemas alimentarios no solo para reducir los impactos ambientales sino también para mejorar el bienestar animal y la nutrición humana y para apoyar las economías rurales y el desarrollo sostenible\" (Campbell, Thornton, Zougmoré, van Asten, & Lipper, 2014) La SAI, al presentarse como una alternativa más que apropiada cuando se quiere apostar a la resiliencia, la adaptación y mitigación de los efectos del cambio climático, a la mayor productividad de la tierra y a la mayor competitividad de los productos, por supuesto, implica grandes retos. Para que la SAI tenga resultados, esta debe combinarse con políticas e incentivos de precios para fortalecer sus impactos en la conservación de la tierra, requiere de gobernanza y capacidad institucional y precisa de ofrecer opciones de medios de vida agrícolas atractivos para los agricultores (Campbell et al., 2014).De igual manera, el desafío sigue siendo cómo facilitar a los pequeños campesinos más pobres de baja producción los mecanismos para hacer su actividad una más sostenible y productiva utilizando la ciencia y sus conocimientos ancestrales mientras mejoran sus medios de vida.La seguridad alimentaria de un país \"se basa en cuatro pilares: la disponibilidad física de alimentos; el acceso económico y físico a alimentos; la utilización apropiada y sana de alimentos; y, la estabilidad de estos factores en el tiempo\" (Friedrich, 2014). Para garantizar estos pilares los gobiernos deben promover y facilitar a través de sus políticas y legislación la productividad y sostenibilidad de su sector agropecuario y/o la estabilidad en las importaciones.En la mayoría de los países de América Latina y el Caribe, donde el 22% de la población vive en zonas rurales y donde las actividades agropecuarias emplean al 19% de la población, aportan al 5% del Producto Interno Bruto de la región y representan el 25% de las exportaciones de la región (ECLAC, 2018), sin duda, por un lado, los esfuerzos en materia de seguridad alimentaria deben contemplar y apostar a fortalecer la producción agrícola nacional.La producción agrícola regional, y por ende, la seguridad alimentaria, debe enfrentarse a varios retos para mantenerse estable. El primero de ellos radica en los desastres y/o fenómenos naturales que afectan directamente a la producción, por ejemplo, frente a la escasez en los mercados locales debido a una menor producción en 2015 y los primeros meses de 2016, la mayoría de países importadores netos aumentaron sustancialmente sus importaciones (principalmente importaciones de arroz y maíz). En algunos casos, las importaciones de maíz alcanzaron niveles récord en 2016. La situación más notable ocurrió en Nicaragua, donde las importaciones de maíz fueron 129% más altas en 2016 que el promedio de los cinco años anteriores, mientras que el aumento para Jamaica, El Salvador y México fue de 50% (CEPAL, FAO, IICA, 2017).Continuando con las importaciones, otro desafío importante de la seguridad alimentaria se asocia con los precios de los productos, la pobreza y la nutrición. Un artículo de investigación cuyo caso de estudio fue México, ilustra el impacto nutricional del consumo de alimentos industrializados e importados en personas pobres quienes con aumento de los precios de los alimentos se han visto obligados a sustituir los alimentos frescos y nutritivos con azúcar y carbohidratos. Este cambio de dieta ha aumentado la prevalencia de la obesidad, la diabetes, las enfermedades cardiovasculares, el cáncer y otras enfermedades crónicas (Spring, 2019).Por otro lado, más allá de la producción, la seguridad alimentaria vela también por la seguridad en la cadena de suministros y por los impactos nutricionales de los alimentos. Con el cambio climático, la presión sobre los ecosistemas aumenta, causando, entre otros, un impacto en la calidad de los cultivos \"debido a la disminución de las concentraciones de N y proteínas en la hoja y el grano, macro y micronutrientes (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu) asociados con mayores concentraciones de CO2 y climas más variables y cálidos\" (Campbell et al., 2016), también una menor disponibilidad del recurso hídrico -elemento fundamental para la actividad agrícola-y el crecimiento de microbios, especialmente en frutas, vegetales y en la pesca. La variación climática también afecta la nutrición a través de: una calidad de los nutrientes y una diversidad dietética de los alimentos producidos y consumidos deficientes; repercusiones en el agua y el saneamiento, con las implicaciones correspondientes en las pautas de los riesgos para la salud y las enfermedades; y cambios en el cuidado materno infantil y la lactancia materna (FAO et al., 2018).Especial atención requiere el tema de la pobreza, su relación con el hambre y la seguridad alimentaria y cómo el cambio climático agudiza y mantiene los ciclos de pobreza. Teniendo en cuenta la meta número 2.1 del objetivo dos: \"hambre cero\" de los ODS que plantea \"Para 2030, poner fin al hambre y asegurar el acceso de todas las personas, en particular los pobres y las personas en situaciones vulnerables, incluidos los lactantes, a una alimentación sana, nutritiva y suficiente durante todo el año\", hay mucho camino que recorrer, pues, en América Latina y el Caribe, para 2017, 39,3 millones de personas están subalimentadas el 9,8% de la población experimentó, para el mismo año, inseguridad alimentaria grave (FAO et al., 2018).En términos de nutrición, los alimentos biofortificados, aquellos que provienen de cultivos con mejores características agronómicas y nutricionales en comparación a cultivos convencionales, se presentan como una estrategia costo-efectiva y sustentable para abordar deficiencias nutricionales. Sus beneficios se traducen en ser \"un aporte a los esfuerzos de disminuir el sobrepeso, la obesidad y las enfermedades crónicas asociadas con éstas, ya que aumentan el valor nutricional de la dieta en productos con baja grasa total (<3% de energía del arroz, frijol y camote, y <12% de energía del maíz) y virtualmente libre de grasa saturada (<0.7 g/100 g arroz, camote, fríjol y maíz), y otros compuestos dañinos para la salud cardiovascular\" (Pachón, 2010).Un estudio centrado en el efecto nutricional de los cultivos biofortificados de arroz, fríjol, yuca y maíz en América Latina y el Caribe concluyó que, de bioforticar la totalidad de dichos cultivos en Nicaragua, por ejemplo, estos aportarían a la dieta 17% del requerimiento de hierro, 43% de zinc y 24% de vitamina A, y serían aportes importantes para lograr disminuir las tasas de deficiencia de estos nutrientes. Estas cifras son similares al promedio que se encontró para 14 países latinoamericanos y caribeños: 10% hierro, 33% zinc y 25% vitamina A (Pachón, 2010). Es menester recordar que dichos cultivos son los más altamente consumidos por la población vulnerable a inseguridad alimentaria y nutricional, por lo que el potencial de éstos es bastante promisorio.En suma, en aras de apostar a la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, se deben atender los tres pilares de la sostenibilidad: el pilar económico o comercial, haciendo frente a las políticas comerciales, los mercados emergentes y sus nuevas demandas, los precios en insumos y transporte, la especulación de precios de los alimentos, entre otros factores; el pilar social, reconociendo que la pobreza y la desigualdad social es el mayor enemigo de la seguridad alimentaria pues las condiciones sociales permiten o no el consumo de alimentos nutritivos y de calidad, y trabajando por reducir las brechas sociales y por mejorar el acceso a los servicios públicos esenciales, a la educación y al mercado laboral; y el pilar ambiental, tomando acciones que combinen la adaptación a la variabilidad climática y la mitigación de los efectos del cambio climático, procurando la protección, conservación y manejo eficiente de los recursos naturales.En términos generales, se puede afirmar que existen tres tipos de medidas de adaptación y mitigación al cambio climático. Primero, aquellas actividades sin fines climáticos que generan beneficios de adaptación y/o de mitigación. La segunda, son aquellas actividades con fines climáticos con beneficios mutuos, es decir, que gozan de complementariedad en materia de adaptación y la mitigación. Finalmente, aquellas actividades que se desarrollan para promover la adaptación y mitigación de manera conjunta, a manera de sinergia, las cuales son conocidas como \"sinergias entre adaptación y mitigación del cambio climático (SAM)\".Las SAM pueden ser definidas también como \"las interrelaciones entre la adaptación y la mitigación del cambio climático, reflejadas en decisiones y acciones planificadas y sujetas a monitoreo y evaluación. Estas decisiones y acciones son diseñadas e implementadas en varias escalas y buscan generar y maximizar beneficios de mitigación y adaptación, por una parte, y minimizar potenciales disyuntivas entre ellas para promover el desarrollo sostenible, por la otra\" (Vallejo, Chacón & Cifuentes, 2016).La integración de la adaptación con la mitigación puede aumentar el potencial de las acciones en cambio climático y generar múltiples beneficios. Entre ellos, se destaca una mejor canalización de recursos a nivel institucional, pues al estar apuntando a dos objetivos claves en las agenda y tener un enfoque 'ganar-ganar', es más probable recibir apoyos con mayor facilidad (Vallejo, Chacón & Cifuentes, 2016).También, las SAM representan un término de eficiencia de recursos (humanos, económicos, de gestión, políticos) que podría ser de interés para quienes toman decisiones, ya que favorecen la inclusión en política pública. Sin embargo, para reconocer oportunidades SAM, primero es necesario conocer las características del contexto de abordaje, intereses institucionales, prioridades de las comunidades, perspectivas y naturaleza de los actores; para ello se requieren herramientas prácticas y ágiles.Un ejemplo del uso y aplicación de las SAM es dentro de la ASAC, pues desde su naturaleza, pretende alcanzar objetivos en términos de productividad, resiliencia y mitigación, sin embargo, no siempre es fácil alcanzar los tres con una acción, por lo que se debe recurrir a las sinergias, al trabajo en conjunto, a la evaluación costo-beneficio y a priorizar y sopesar los intereses de las partes involucradas.La transferencia de conocimiento y tecnología es un tema de suprema importancia para el desarrollo de cualquier actividad. En el caso de la agricultura, teniendo en cuenta que su alta vulnerabilidad a los efectos del cambio climático la ha obligado a fijar su camino a la sostenibilidad, la transferencia de conocimiento y tecnología resulta un elemento imprescindible para la continuidad misma de la actividad, pues de ello depende que los agricultores se informen y tomen las medidas pertinentes frente al fenómeno que los afecta.Una de las herramientas más utilizadas es la extensión rural, la cual, \"como promotora de la innovación, es una herramienta importante para la resolución de problemas asociados a las necesidades de los productores rurales, la pérdida del capital natural y social, o la falta de diversificación de la estructura productiva, entre otros. Es por ello que las entidades que la promueven deben ser eficaces en sus políticas de innovación y en los instrumentos con las que estas se diseñan e implementan\" (RELASER, 2012).Según varios autores, la extensión rural está retornando en América Latina después del auge privatizador vivido en la mayor parte del subcontinente hacia fines del siglo XX, en el contexto de las políticas neoliberales (Landini, 2016). Sin embargo, a pesar de volver a escena, sigue presentando varias dificultades y retos que afectan la efectividad de la misma. Al respecto, un estudio realizado a partir de encuestas en América Latina (Landini, 2016), enumeró, en orden jerárquico, los siguientes problemas de la extensión rural:1) Individualismos, desconfianza y falta de asociaciones de productores.2) Tecnologías o manejos productivos inapropiados.3) Problemas para comercializar.4) Actitud asistencialista, oportunista o pasiva.5) Resistencia al cambio y a la adopción de tecnologías.6) Falta de apoyo público o institucional.7) Falta de capital o infraestructura predial.8) Bajo nivel educativo (escolar). 9) Políticas y proyectos de desarrollo rural cambiantes, sin continuidad o seguimiento.10) Problemas para la gestión empresarial.11) Escasa participación y apropiación de proyectos.12) La planificación no responde a las necesidades, al territorio o a la cultura.13) Falta de tierra o problemas de tenencia.14) Falta de créditos para la producción.15) Clientelismo o asistencialismo.Estas dificultades de la extensión rural deben ser tenidas en cuenta a la hora de formular nuevos proyectos en aras de reinventar la transferencia de conocimiento y tecnología y lograr un mayor impacto. Del mismo modo, la inversión destinada a este elemento clave también debe ser aumentada para procurar que el conocimiento que distintas entidades (universidades, centros de investigación, organizaciones internacionales, entre otros) producen, efectivamente lleguen de manera oportuna a todos los agricultores de América Latina y el Caribe.En suma, los centros de investigación se esfuerzan cada día por producir más y mejores conocimientos a la vez que las bases de datos y repositorios de documentos se nutren de herramientas, lecciones aprendidas, datos, estrategias y demás, por lo que la materia prima, el conocimiento, se encuentra disponible. Por otro lado, los canales, es decir, las organizaciones no gubernamentales, fundaciones, asociaciones y demás se encuentran siempre prestos a cumplir con su misión de ayudar y facilitar el desarrollo social, económico y ambiental. Los entes financiadores, fondos y bancos, por su parte, mientras se trate de las causas definidas en sus agendas y en las definidas en el plano internacional, tendrán la voluntad de financiar dichos proyectos. Por lo que es necesario el desarrollo y la puesta en marcha de más proyectos, programas, estrategias y mayor voluntad política que aproveche más y de mejor manera a los actores alrededor de las transferencias tecnológicas.Finalmente, a pesar de que ciertamente existen esfuerzos e inversiones públicas en materia de transferencia de conocimiento y tecnología, la brecha aún es alta y precisa una mayor inversión y gestión por parte de los gobiernos con estrategias diferenciadas que perduren el tiempo y se ajusten a las necesidades de cada territorio.En primer lugar, el enfoque de los sistemas socio-ecológicos (SES por sus siglas en inglés) enfatiza que las personas, las comunidades, las economías, las sociedades y las culturas son partes integradas de la biosfera y la configuran, desde la escala local hasta la global. Al mismo tiempo, las personas, las comunidades, las economías, las sociedades y las culturas están moldeadas por la biosfera, dependen de ella y evolucionan en ella. Por lo tanto, las personas no solo están interactuando con, sino que también son habitantes de la biosfera junto con el resto de la vida en la Tierra, configurando su resiliencia de diversas maneras, desde lo local a lo global, consciente o inconscientemente. (Folke, Biggs, Norström, Reyers, & Rockström, 2016).Teniendo en cuenta que los SES son sistemas integrales y complejos, cualquier intento de desacoplar estos sistemas con fines de investigación o gestión va en contra de los principios de los sistemas complejos, y por lo tanto puede producir resultados menos útiles, como conocimientos dispares y estrategias de gestión ineficaces (Chaffin & Scown, 2018). Para evitar ello, es esencial un diálogo amplio y profundo entre los científicos biofísicos y sociales a través del cual se pueda establecer un lenguaje compartido e instrumentos comunes de análisis. (Escalera & Ruíz, 2011).Por lo tanto, su complejidad se configura entonces como un primer reto a la hora de ser abordado.Ahora bien, a partir de esto, la resiliencia socio-ecológica es la capacidad de adaptarse o transformarse ante los cambios o perturbaciones en los SES, particularmente los cambios inesperados, en formas que continúan apoyando el bienestar humano (Folke et al., 2016).Para hacerle frente al cambio climático, entonces, no solo se debe trabajar en la gestión del riesgo climático y la adaptación misma a los efectos del fenómeno en cuestión, pues la resiliencia socioecológica entiende al ser humano y los factores ecológicos que lo rodean como uno solo, por lo que temas como la democracia, la pobreza, la salud, el empleo, la educación, la igualdad, la justicia, los derechos humanos, entre otros, también deben ser abordados como un paquete integral pues todos ellos influyen y repercuten directa e indirectamente sobre los ecosistemas biofísicos.La correcta comprensión del entorno y las relaciones entre los factores, así como el cuantificar y mesurar la capacidad de resiliencia de un sistema ante una perturbación, podría abrir importantes caminos para la comprensión de los ciclos adaptativos de los sistemas y contribuir a la reducción de los espacios que existen en las brechas conceptuales para la comprensión de la resiliencia y la adaptación en el marco de los socio-ecosistemas (Joaqui & Figueroa, 2014).Un estudio realizado en Cuba concluyó que entre las estrategias locales más comunes para garantizar la resiliencia socio-ecológica de los sistemas que fueron objeto de estudio se destacan: \"a) la planificación participativa de la red alimentaria, b) el fortalecimiento de la innovación local, c) el reconocimiento del saber tradicional ancestral, d) el fomento de redes comunitarias de cooperación y, e) el fortalecimiento del capital social en materia de capacitación, comunicación, derecho, enfoque de género y participación en las políticas y legislaciones agrarias y de protección ambiental\" (Vázquez & Márquez, 2017).Así, pues, trabajar en la resiliencia socio-ecológica es forjar capacidades en las comunidades, dotar de conocimientos sobre su entorno, de los posibles riesgos y las opciones para mitigarlos, es dinamizar y fomentar la participación en los procesos locales, es empoderar a la mujer para liderar procesos, es garantizar el acceso a los servicios públicos, es hacer de la agricultura una actividad sostenible, adaptada al clima, que responda a problemáticas sociales e incentive el desarrollo comunitario responsable con los factores biofísicos.La Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños -CELAC, a principios del año 2018, lanzó en compañía de la FAO y UNISDR la Estrategia Regional para la Gestión del Riesgo de Desastres en el Sector Agrícola y la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional en América Latina y el Caribe 2018-2030, un documento con el objetivo de \"Prevenir la aparición de nuevos riesgos de desastres y reducir los existentes en el sector agrícola y la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional implementando medidas integradas e inclusivas de índole económica, financiera, estructural, jurídica, social, sanitaria, cultural, educativa, ambiental, tecnológica, política e institucional que refuerzan la resiliencia\" (CELAC, 2018).Esta completa estrategia, acorde con el Marco de Sendai y la Agenda para 2030, busca dar respuesta, entre otros, a los desastres vinculados al clima, siendo estos los que más afectan a la región, totalizando un 70% de las emergencias. Según la FAO y la CEPAL, la actividad agrícola en la región es la actividad económica más afectada por el cambio climático. Se estima que entre el 2006 y el 2016, 23% de los daños y pérdidas causados por los desastres de mediana y alta intensidad en países en desarrollo, afectaron al sector agrícola, y que 80% de daños y pérdidas ligados a eventos de sequía se concentran en dicho sector. En ALC estas pérdidas estuvieron vinculadas principalmente a inundaciones (55%), sequías (27%) y tormentas (10%), y generaron una pérdida del 2,7% del crecimiento esperado del sector y un incremento del 25% en las importaciones de alimentos (CELAC, 2018).Los desastres naturales y la variabilidad climática sin duda afecta en muchos sentidos, sin embargo, teniendo en cuenta que el sector agropecuario es el más afectado, no sólo se pone en riesgo la economía de un país, sino también su seguridad alimentaria. Pues, por ejemplo, entre el 2012 y 2013 la roya del café, una enfermedad del cultivo relativamente común que se presumía controlada en nivel no perjudiciales, afectó un 53% de las plantaciones de Centroamérica y generó pérdidas de 243 millones de USD por reducción de exportaciones (CELAC, 2018). Estudios revelan que ciertamente factores como los cambios en patrones de precipitaciones, en rangos de temperatura máxima y mínima, entre otros, favorecieron un progreso más rápido y anticipado del avance de las infecciones de la Roya en los cafetales (Barquero, 2013).Ahora bien, además de la anterior estrategia, existen programas en curso como el proyecto AgroClimas 11 de CCAFS-CIAT, un proyecto cuyo objetivo es \"cerrar la brecha entre la generación de información agro-climática y su uso por los agricultores, teniendo en cuenta las necesidades del sector agropecuario latinoamericano en términos de variabilidad climática\". Este proyecto, pensado para tener un alto impacto social e incidir en la dimensión de género, combina varias herramientas de información climática para proveer información confiable y oportuna a agricultores y tomadores de decisión que les permita prepararse para protegerse y anticiparse a los diferentes eventos climáticos que los afectan.Así mismo, en Colombia, CCAFS en compañía del Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural de Colombia, han venido trabajando en las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA 12 ), una iniciativa que \"busca integrar actores del sector agropecuario a nivel local para informar, especialmente a los pequeños productores, sobre los cambios esperados en el clima de su región; cómo estos pueden afectar sus cultivos y qué pueden hacer para reducir los impactos negativos\". Estas, como ejemplo de arreglo interinstitucional, muestran cómo la información agroclimática claro y oportuna llevada directamente al productor, puede marcar la diferencia a la hora de responder a los diferentes fenómenos climáticos.Habiendo visto que existe un marco estratégico y algunos programas y proyectos en marcha y teniendo en consideración que la FAO estimó en el 2016 que, para alimentar la población global en el año 2050, se requerirá un incremento de la producción de alimentos del 60% (CELAC, 2018) y que múltiples estudios detallan las proyecciones de los efectos del cambio climático en la agricultura, el desafío es, entre otros, poder integrar mejor y trasladar toda la información agroclimática existente y la que se sigue generando a cada uno de los agricultores de América Latina y el Caribe y a sus tomadores de decisión, en aras de fortalecer los procesos de prevención del riesgo y de construcción de resiliencia, así como robustecer las herramientas, programas y proyectos con mayor participación de actores y un enfoque integral hacia el agricultor.La migración es un fenómeno relativamente común que se remonta desde el inicio de las sociedades. Los factores que conllevan a tomar la decisión de migrar son diversos, los hay de tipo político, socio-económico, familiar, por conflictos, por catástrofes, entre otros.En el caso de América Latina y el Caribe, las migraciones han alcanzado niveles tan altos que el fenómeno ha hecho parte del estilo de vida y la cosmovisión de sus habitantes. Tanto así que, en el contexto cultural de México, la migración se considera como una estrategia familiar para mejorar la calidad de vida a nivel de hogar. Un hogar envía a un migrante a un destino internacional como un mecanismo de auto-seguro contra el fracaso del mercado local, esperando que el migrante envíe dinero para apoyar al hogar en México (Nawrotzi et al., 2015).El cambio y la variabilidad climática y sus efectos también se han consolidado como factores que impulsan la migración: las inundaciones y sequías y su la afectación en los cultivos, la repercusión de los efectos en los precios de los alimentos, entre otros, son algunas de las consecuencias del cambio climático sobre la economía familiar. Al respecto, varios estudios han explorado la relación entre el clima y la migración de México y encontraron una relación significativa entre la disminución de las precipitaciones y la emigración internacional, en gran parte de las zonas rurales con redes transnacionales de migración establecidas (Nawrotzi et al., 2015).De manera más clara, un estudio comparó las variaciones climáticas con las migraciones de documentados e indocumentados en México, obteniendo que el cambio climático influyó significativamente en la migración internacional de las zonas rurales de México de manera indocumentada a los Estados Unidos. \"El efecto significativo de la temperatura sugirió que un aumento en la duración de las temporadas cálidas en una unidad de desviación estándar aumentó las migraciones internacionales indocumentadas en un 19% (proporción impar [OR] = 1.19). En contraste, un aumento en la precipitación durante días extremadamente húmedos por una desviación estándar redujo las probabilidades de un movimiento internacional indocumentado a los EEUU en un 18% (OR = 0,82) \" (Nawrotzi et al., 2015).No obstante, así como en México, muchos países de Centroamérica viven la misma historia, en Guatemala \"los años de clima errático, cosechas fallidas y una falta crónica de oportunidades de empleo han socavado lentamente las estrategias que las familias guatemaltecas han utilizado con éxito para hacer frente a uno o dos años de sequías y fracasos sucesivos. Pero ahora, entre las aldeas parece estar colapsando de adentro hacia afuera a medida que más y más comunidades se quedan varadas, a horas del pueblo más cercano, sin comida, sin trabajo y sin forma de buscar ayuda\" (Steffens, 2018).Un estudio en Nicaragua también concluyó que \"el clima cambiante, experimentado a través del sistema de pequeños agricultores, y la tenencia de la tierra altamente desigual coproducen la migración laboral. La migración laboral financia el sistema agrícola actual, manteniendo una situación de producción de pequeños agricultores altamente vulnerable al cambio climático\" (Radel, Schmook, Carte, & Mardero, 2018).De hecho, desde 1970 se viene hablando del concepto de \"refugiados ambientales\" que puede definirse como \"aquellas personas que se han visto obligadas a abandonar su hábitat tradicional, temporal o permanentemente, debido a una marcada alteración ambiental (natural o provocada por personas) que pone en peligro su existencia y / o afecta seriamente la calidad de su vida\" (El-Hinnawi, 1985).A pesar de ser introducido hace poco menos de 40 años, es un concepto relativamente nuevo, que aún sigue siendo ampliamente discutido y no cuenta con sustento jurídico oficial todavía. No obstante, es prueba de que el cambio climático tiene una enorme interconexión antropogénica, que agrava las vulnerabilidades ambientales, económicas y sociales existentes, forzando a las personas más afectadas por sus efectos a huir de su patria tras tener afectaciones de tal magnitud que imposibilita la supervivencia (Berchin, Valduga, García, & de Andrade Guerra, 2017).Así, pues, en los rincones más olvidados y más vulnerables, el cambio climático ataca sin recibir ninguna respuesta por parte de quienes lo sufren. Por tanto, el desafío radica en proveer de alternativas a los agricultores más vulnerables y afectados por el cambio climático, alternativas como la diversificación de la actividad, dotación de tecnología e información pertinente, formación de capacidad de resiliencia, apoyo y financiación de iniciativas de participación y organización comunitarias como cooperativas y asociaciones, fomento de una mayor participación de la mujer en las decisiones de la actividad, entre otros.A nivel global, las mujeres constituyen el 43% de la mano de obra agrícola en los países en desarrollo y producen entre el 60 y 80% de los alimentos. Sin embargo, estas viven en condiciones de desigualdad social, política y económica con apenas el 30% de titularidad de la tierra, el 10% de los créditos y el 5% de la asistencia técnica (CELAC, 2018), y en promedio, el 78.5% de las mujeres rurales de América Latina y el Caribe se dedican dinámicamente al trabajo agrícola desde los 15 y hasta los 59 años de edad (Arana, 2017). Por todo ello, es de suma importancia tomar acciones más contundentes en función de la inclusión de género, tanto en materia de adaptación y mitigación de los efectos del cambio climático, como en el desarrollo de estrategias y prácticas en pro de mejorar la productividad rural.Frente al cambio climático, no sólo entran a jugar un papel importante las condiciones del género, es decir, los roles sociales y sus consecuencias, sino también los factores biológicos (diferencias de sexo: mujer-varón), pues algunos estudios revelan que las tasas de mortalidad de las mujeres son mayores que las de los hombres durante las olas de calor así como las tasas de morbilidad asociadas al aumento de las enfermedades por vectores (Arana, 2017), esto en función de las características físicas y hormonales propias de cada sexo. Por ejemplo, durante un desastre natural, la probabilidad de morir es 14 veces mayor para las mujeres, niños y niñas que las de los hombres (Peterson, 2007).Las mujeres tienen un enorme potencial para crear redes de distribución y servicios en zonas rurales, disminuyendo el costo en el abastecimiento de alimentos. Por otro lado, las mujeres son las principales administradoras de energía en el hogar por lo que suelen ser importantes agentes de cambio en la transición hacia energías sostenibles. Adicionalmente, cuando las mujeres toman decisiones presentan innovadoras soluciones para responder a los efectos del cambio climático y para lograr un desarrollo más sostenible en general (Arana, 2017) También, debido a su rol reproductivo, son las responsables del cuidado de sus familiares enfermos y tienen el potencial de difundir las buenas prácticas de salud si cuentan con información necesaria. Asimismo, sobre todo en las zonas rurales, las mujeres son responsables del suministro del agua, la limpieza de los alimentos y la eliminación de residuos, por lo que son aliadas estratégicas en la prevención de la propagación de enfermedades endémicas (Arana, 2017).El desafío es, entonces, estandarizar la inclusión de género en cada una de los diferentes proyectos, programas, iniciativas, estrategias y políticas alrededor de la integralidad del desarrollo rural, procurando reducir la desigualdad y mejorar el acceso de la mujer a la información y a la toma de decisiones. Al mejorar su participación en el hogar, comunidad y político, como se ha dicho, su rol activo e importante genera impactos positivos especialmente en términos de eficiencia en el uso de los recursos mayor organización, mejor comunicación y recursividad para sortear obstáculos, entre otros. (Guía ASAC, 2018).Oportunidades en el contexto regional y global En las discusiones se establecieron los retos más importantes del sector agrícola en el contexto del cambio climático. Primero, debe alimentar a una población global en rápido crecimiento. En segundo lugar, debe hacer frente a los impactos negativos del cambio climático, y en tercer lugar, contribuye de manera significativa a las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y debe reducir sus emisiones para 2030 para alcanzar el objetivo de mantener el calentamiento global muy por debajo de 2 °C de los niveles preindustriales. Por lo tanto, los países deben ir más allá de lo habitual y comenzar a pasar de la ciencia a la implementación.Los resultados del Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura deben presentarse en la COP26 (noviembre de 2020). En la etapa actual, se invita a los países a compartir sus opiniones sobre los elementos que se incluirán en el trabajo futuro. El Trabajo Conjunto de Koronovia sobre Agricultura es una gran oportunidad para que los países trabajen juntos, articulen sus agendas para aprovechar las sinergias y complementariedades de los esfuerzos de los diversos actores del sector agropecuario. Sin embargo, una pregunta clave es ¿cómo puede el Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura garantizar que los esfuerzos hacia el desarrollo agrícola sean bajos en carbono y resistentes al clima?Los siguientes elementos fueron considerados como puntos de partida para el Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura:1. Modalidades para implementar los resultados de los talleres en sesión organizados en los últimos años.2. Métodos y enfoques para evaluar la adaptación, los beneficios colaterales de la adaptación y la resiliencia. 3. Mejora del carbono del suelo, la salud del suelo y la fertilidad del suelo en pastizales y cultivos, así como sistemas integrados, incluida la gestión del agua. 4. Mejor uso de nutrientes y manejo de estiércol hacia sistemas agrícolas sostenibles y resistentes. 5. Mejora de los sistemas de gestión ganadera. 6. Dimensiones socioeconómicas y de seguridad alimentaria del cambio climático en la agricultura. A principios de 2018, se llevaron a cabo un seminario de negociadores, un seminario de acciones de país y otras reuniones para lograr una mejor comprensión de las oportunidades clave y los desafíos involucrados en el avance del Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura.Los participantes del seminario enfatizaron que las medidas urgentes para la adaptación al cambio climático en los sectores agrícolas son necesarias porque los sectores agrícolas son los más sensibles a los impactos del cambio climático 13 . Además, se debe mejorar la colaboración entre los ministerios, incluidos el medio ambiente, la agricultura y otros ministerios, a fin de desarrollar marcos de políticas coherentes para las acciones climáticas. Para las acciones climáticas propuestas es importante tener en cuenta el aspecto de la productividad y la seguridad alimentaria, al promover la producción orgánica, las prácticas climáticas inteligentes, los sistemas de patrimonio agrícola de importancia mundial, la diversificación y la agricultura baja en carbono. El conocimiento indígena y ancestral como fuente de innovación y para el intercambio de las lecciones aprendidas debe jugar un rol protagónico.Una sugerencia en el seminario fue que se debe iniciar un 'inventario' de datos existentes, evidencia, conocimiento y prácticas e identificar brechas. Luego, desarrollar un 'plan de trabajo' o una 'hoja de ruta', para definir los hitos que deben alcanzarse antes de informar a la COP 26 (noviembre de 2020). Para enfatizar en el trabajo conjunto entre países, se debe formular presentaciones concretas que incluyan puntos de acción implementables sobre cómo debe llevarse a cabo el Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura. También, se debe explorar cómo otros organismos bajo la Convención, dentro de sus términos de referencia y mandato, pueden apoyar la conformación de nuevas actividades bajo el Trabajo Conjunto de Koronivia sobre Agricultura. Al final se debe convocar un diálogo similar al final de la SB 48 para hacer un balance de todas las presentaciones recibidas sobre el progreso de la acción y facilitar un debate adicional.Literatura adicional:• COP 23 Report of Conference -https://unfccc.int/documents/65126• Korovina joint work on agriculture 'Decision'https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/bonn_nov_2017/application/pdf/cp23_auv_agri.pdf• Koronivia dialogue at FAO headquarterhttp://www.fao.org/climatehttp://www.fao.org/climate-change/events/detailevents/en/c/1105126/change/events/detail-events/en/c/1105126/ • CCAFS blog in November 2017 -https://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/step-forwardagriculturehttps://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/step-forward-agriculture-un-climate-talks-%E2%80%93-koronivia-joint-work-agricultureun-climate-talks---koronivia-joint-workagriculture• CCAFS blog in February 2018 -https://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/koronivia-settingstagehttps://ccafs.cgiar.org/blog/koronivia-setting-stage-agriculturaltransformationagricultural-transformationLa Alianza para las CND se lanzó en la COP22 en Marrakech, tiene como objetivo mejorar la cooperación para que los países tengan acceso al conocimiento técnico y al apoyo financiero que necesitan para lograr objetivos de desarrollo sostenible y de clima a gran escala de la manera más rápida y efectiva posible.La Alianza para las CND es una coalición global de actualmente 83 países y 19 instituciones comprometidas a promover acciones ambiciosas relacionadas con el clima y el desarrollo. Los miembros de la asociación se comprometen conjuntamente para apoyar a 30 países en desarrollo a mejorar e implementar sus CND a través de asistencia técnica y creación de capacidad. Los miembros brindan apoyo específico para fortalecer los marcos de políticas, integrar las acciones climáticas en los planes nacionales, sectoriales y subnacionales, desarrollar planes de presupuesto e inversión, compartir conocimientos y recursos y construir sistemas de monitoreo e información más sólidos en línea con las solicitudes impulsadas por los países.Honduras aprobó el plan del país para cumplir sus compromisos en virtud del Acuerdo de París a principios de este año. El plan identifica 21 actividades que se llevarán a cabo en los próximos tres años, incluida una revisión exhaustiva del CND del país, el desarrollo de un plan nacional de inversión en cambio climático, la recopilación y el monitoreo de datos, el desarrollo de capacidades y la conciencia pública. La Hoja de Ruta es un documento vivo que se revisará anualmente para garantizar que se incluyan las prioridades que surjan y que el progreso realizado se refleje claramente.En febrero de 2018, una mesa redonda entre el gobierno de Perú y los actores de la cooperación internacional sentaron las bases para una acción enfocada a medida que Perú desarrollaba su plan de acción CND. El evento marcó un hito histórico en la gestión del cambio climático en Perú, que representa oportunidades para alianzas estratégicas innovadoras entre los sectores responsables de la cooperación internacional y la cooperación internacional, lo que le permite a Perú cumplir sus compromisos internacionales. Varios miembros de la Alianza CND participaron en el evento en apoyo de Perú, incluido el gobierno alemán a través de su Agencia de Cooperación Internacional (GIZ), el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD).El mensaje principal transmitido fue que la Asociación CND puede apoyar la implementación de los resultados del proceso CND, especialmente para facilitar la coordinación y movilizar recursos para aquellas necesidades y prioridades que el país decida que requerirán el apoyo de la comunidad de cooperación internacional.Literatura adicional:• https://CNDpartnership.org/• https://CNDpartnership.org/news/honduras-releases-first-CND-partnership-plan-climate-action• http://CNDpartnership.org/news/building-alliances-climate-action-peruLa acción climática y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible son una gran oportunidad para que los países trabajen en la articulación de las estrategias y acciones que potencialmente puedan contribuir a ambas iniciativas. Campbell et al. (2018) plantean las sinergias y disyuntivas potenciales en términos de las acciones de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático con los ODS en un contexto transformador de la agricultura para lograr que sea sostenible y adaptada al clima.Figura 11. sinergias entre las acciones de mitigación al cambio climático y los ODS.Existen sinergias entre las acciones de mitigación al cambio climático y los ODS 6, 14 y 15, mientras que en adaptación las sinergias se presentan con los ODS 1,2,5, 10. En términos de las acciones que contribuirán a transformar la forma como hacemos hoy agricultura para alcanzar la sostenibilidad necesaria para la vida en el planeta, las sinergias están con los ODS 12, 13 y 17. En este contexto, existe también la oportunidad de alinear esfuerzos y aprovechar los espacios para fortalecimiento de capacidades y mecanismos de implementación de acciones de adaptación a través de la Comisión Global para la Adaptación (CGA), recientemente establecida liderada por Naciones Unidas conjuntamente con Bill Gates. El objetivo de la CGA, apoyada por otros 28 representantes de todas las regiones del mundo y diversos sectores del desarrollo y la industria, es \"catalizar un movimiento mundial para multiplicar la escala y la rapidez a las soluciones\" para la adaptación de los comportamientos de todos los actores sociales al cambio climático.Land CC Hub (Plataforma Tierra Cambio Climático)Plataforma de intercambio de conocimiento para el sector agrícola y terrestre bajo cambio climático. La plataforma Tierra CC tiene la intención de responder a las necesidades de los países facilitando el acceso a herramientas efectivas y apoyando a los tomadores de decisiones e implementadores en su aplicación práctica. La FAO está desarrollando actualmente una plataforma de conocimiento que ofrece a los formuladores de políticas nacionales y otras partes interesadas en la agricultura para navegar mejor a través del paisaje de plataformas, herramientas y otros productos de conocimiento sobre el cambio climático y la agricultura.Como hasta el 11 por ciento de las emisiones de carbono son causadas por la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques, es importante que la reducción de estas emisiones sea parte del plan global para combatir el cambio climático. El enfoque de mitigación de la CMNUCC se conoce como REDD+ y se desarrolló para incentivar a los países en desarrollo a reducir las emisiones de carbono causadas por la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques (Marco de Varsovia de la CMNUCC para REDD+). REDD+ está directamente vinculado al Objetivo 13 (Acción por el clima) de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible, pero también contribuye al Objetivo 12 (Consumo y Producción Responsable), el Objetivo 5 (Igualdad de Género), el Objetivo 15 (Vida en la Tierra) y el Objetivo 8 (Trabajo Decente). y crecimiento económico).El programa multilateral ONU-REDD apoya a los países en desarrollo a través de un enfoque basado en el país que proporciona asesoramiento y soporte técnico para establecer las capacidades técnicas necesarias para implementar REDD + y cumplir con los requisitos de la CMNUCC para los pagos basados en resultados de REDD +.Brasil. Más de 130 participaciones asistieron de gobiernos, organizaciones de la sociedad civil, académicos e instituciones de investigación de 14 países.El enfoque de la FAO con respecto a la agroecología ha sido promover el diálogo y la colaboración entre una variedad de actores de la ciencia, de políticas públicas y todos los actores del nivel regional y nacional que tienen conocimiento y experiencias sobre agroecología y sus aportes para la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición.Durante el seminario, se presentó la evidencia científica de los enfoques ecológicos en la agricultura, también con ejemplos en exitosos en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. También había una sesión de la importancia de las sinergias entre los diferentes componentes del sistema agrícola, como la agro-forestería, la integración con la ganadería y las cadenas y sistemas alimentarios.También se concluyó la importancia el enfoque agro-ecológico para mejorar la resiliencia de los productores pequeños frente riesgos climáticos, enfrentar la escasez de agua con un enfoque ecológico de usar la investigación participativa trans-disciplinaria como una modelo de extensión agroecológico que incluye la sociedad con los conocimientos tradicionales en el proceso científico.Un punto clave para tener éxito usando conceptos de la agro-ecología es abordar la conservación agrícola y ambiental, con una base sólida en la economía ambiental. Lo que se necesita es mercados y consumidores para apoyar una demanda de producción agroecológica, una promoción del concepto de agroecología a través de políticas y promotores de todos los actores en la cadena del sistema de alimentación, desde el productor hasta el consumidor. Además, es muy importante definir si la agroecología quiere seguir siendo un enfoque de nicho para la producción o si podría de ser escalado para una demanda ecológica de los consumidores en el mercado global.Fuentes importantes y material de lectura adicional.• La Plataforma de Conocimiento en Agroecología en línea http://www.fao.org/agroecology/overview/global-dialogue/en/• El reporte final \"Simposio Internacional de Agroecologia para la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional\" http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4327e.pdf El proceso del plan nacional de adaptación (PNA) permite a los países formular e implementar necesidades de adaptación a mediano y largo plazo. Fue establecido bajo el Marco de Adaptación de Cancún (CAF) y facilita un proceso iterativo impulsado por el país, sensible al género, participativo y totalmente transparente. Los principales objetivos de los PNA son reducir la vulnerabilidad a los impactos del cambio climático mediante el desarrollo de la capacidad de adaptación y la capacidad de recuperación y facilitar la integración de la adaptación al cambio climático en las políticas nuevas y existentes.La plataforma de la CMNUCC proporciona principios rectores para la formulación de los PNA a nivel nacional. La COP estableció el proceso del PNA para los países menos adelantados (PMA) y en la CdP 17 se decidió apoyar a través de acuerdos financieros el proceso del PNA en los PMA. Los países en desarrollo (o que no son PMA) también están invitados a emplear las modalidades para respaldar el proceso del PNA, y hay varios canales de apoyo financiero disponibles para el proceso del PNA, incluso a través de canales bilaterales y multilaterales. En la COP 18 se tomó la decisión de que el Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial (FMAM), a través del Fondo Especial para el Cambio Climático (SCCF), considerará cómo habilitar las actividades para la preparación del proceso del PNA para los países Partes en desarrollo interesados que no son Partes de los PMA.En América Latina y el Caribe, los siguientes países han iniciado el proceso de PNA:Etapa 1: sentar las bases y abordar las deficiencias Las actividades emprendidas bajo este elemento son la identificación de los arreglos institucionales, programas, políticas y capacidades de adaptación. Incluye una evaluación de la información disponible sobre los impactos del cambio climático, la vulnerabilidad y la adaptación; y evaluaciones de necesidades de desarrollo. Países: Antigua y Barbuda, Belice, Granada, Jamaica, Santa Lucía, Costa Rica, Uruguay Etapa 2 -Elementos preparatorios.Identificar necesidades, opciones y prioridades específicas en función de cada país. Desarrollo de planes, políticas y programas. Evaluación de las necesidades de adaptación a medio y largo plazo. Integrar la adaptación al cambio climático en la planificación del sector nacional y subnacional.La financiación climática actual se obtiene de los mercados de capital o de los presupuestos gubernamentales, y se canaliza a través de diversas instituciones nacionales, bilaterales y multilaterales.El diagrama (Figura 12) muestra el marco de la financiación de acciones climática según el IPCC. Las mayores contribuciones del financiamiento climático a la región son del Fondo de Tecnología Limpia (CTF), que ha aprobado el USD 935 millones para 27 proyectos en México, Chile, Colombia, Honduras y Nicaragua. El segundo más grande proveedor de financiamiento climático en la región es el Fondo Amazonas, con USD 640 millones en subvenciones asignadas a 94 proyectos en Brasil. Los siguientes mayores financiadores son el Medio Ambiente Global, la instalación, que otorga subvenciones exclusivamente, y el Fondo Verde para el Clima, con una combinación de instrumentos financieros utilizados para proyectos en América Latina. Esos cuatro fondos cubren 78% de los recursos financieros para acciones relacionadas a agricultura. 14 Estos fondos tienen estrategias de financiamiento en gran parte complementarias en la región, algunos de ellos enfocados en proyectos y programas más grandes y transformadores y en una reforma más amplia del marco de políticas, mientras que otros se enfocan en el apoyo a intervenciones de proyectos más pequeños. También es importante destacar el rol del sector privado, no solo es su compromiso económico por reducir los efectos secundarios de su actividad económica, también es brindar soluciones desde su industria a los efectos del cambio climático en en su entorno y en beneficio de sus consumidores.Por su parte, los servicios financieros en cambio climático han incrementado su interés en los últimos años, aunque sigue siendo un proceso en construcción, la banca está comenzando a re-pensar cómo prestará mejores servicios en cambio climático. Uno de los ejemplos más interesantes es la Red de Bancos Centrales y Supervisores para Enverdecer el Sistema Financiero donde participa México, Reino Unido, Francia, Singapur, Japón, China; entre otros. Por el momento están estableciendo los mecanismos de gobernanza, administración de riesgos en el sector financiero, movilizar las finanzas, hacia una economía sostenible e intercambiar mejores prácticas entre los países. (Banxico & Banco de Francia, 2018). También los bancos comerciales han comenzado a desarrollar productos que incluyan variables de cambio climático, en el caso del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires y Bancolombia han comenzado a desarrollar productos que impacten positivamente en sus clientes que se han visto afectados por los efectos del cambio climático.Sin embargo, se requieren más y mejores conexiones entre los tomadores de decisión, los gobiernos, la academia y la banca para determinar los límites en que debe participar la banca y dónde debe comenzar a operar el gobierno; con el fin de mejorar las condiciones de vida de los agricultores que se han visto afectados por los efectos nocivos del cambio climático.La importancia de la movilización de financiamientos para acciones climáticas se demuestra también en las estimaciones de los costos de la inacción y los beneficios económicos del cambio climático para América Latina y el Caribe indican que el efecto global será negativo y aumentará a través del tiempo. Según las estimaciones, los costos tenderían a acelera después de 2050, cuando las emisiones acumuladas aumentan la temperatura. Es probable que los costos sean más altos en los países andinos, centroamericanos y caribeños. En América Central, el costo promedio acumulado hasta 2100 en el escenario A2, se estima que es igual a 73 mil millones dólares a precios corrientes. 15 El mayor desafío, sin embargo, es acceder al capital a un menor costo. En los países en desarrollo y mercados emergentes, las tasas de interés tienden a ser mucho más altas que en los países desarrollados.A pesar de que el cambio climático es un fenómeno que ha estado en la agenda internacional desde hace más de tres décadas, los gobiernos nacionales de muchos países en ALC se encuentran todavía en proceso de encontrar un espacio en su andamiaje institucional para dicho fenómeno. Nuevas secretarías, oficinas y unidades técnicas dentro de las instituciones, institutos especializados y programas especiales se crean y se instalan en la estructura organizacional de los Estados para dar respuesta a los retos que supone el cambio climático.Por supuesto, estas instituciones vienen acompañadas de políticas, planes, programas y estrategias a distintos niveles y para diferentes sectores. Sin embargo, estas requieren instituciones fuertes, con objetivos claros y capacidades robustas para diseñarlas, ejecutarlas, monitorearlas y evaluarlas, más aún cuando se enfrentan a un fenómeno tan variable y con efectos de tan alto impacto negativo. Las instituciones son entonces las encargadas de liderar los intereses y el cambio social que cada política se propone desarrollar para abordar los retos del cambio climático.Igualmente, las instituciones juegan un papel fundamental para abordar los retos del cambio climático, pues ellas pueden facilitar y generar mecanismos habilitadores para una implementación a escala de medidas, tecnologías y arreglos inter-institucionales necesarios para mejorar la capacidad adaptativa de las comunidades rurales y del sector agropecuario en general. Sin embargo, debido al creciente interés de las instituciones por abordar para hacer frente al cambio climático en ALC, entre sus principales retos se encuentran, por ejemplo: la coordinación y entre entidades, la capacidad de convocatoria, la dependencia a otras entidades y la falta de mandato y financiamiento (Fernández, 2012). La articulación entre las diversas escalas de toma de decisiones para asegurar la complementariedad, eficiencia y eficacia de los diferentes esfuerzos locales, nacionales y regionales y evitar su duplicación.Los retos del cambio y la variabilidad climática en la agricultura deben abordarse de manera holística, considerando los múltiples actores involucrados a diversas escalas, las sinergias y disyuntivas con sectores como ambiente, salud y nutrición, gestión de riesgos, comercio, etc. En esta medida, es necesario liderar esfuerzos para garantizar una mayor participación y articulación entre sectores haciendo los procesos de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático más eficientes. Paralelamente, es necesario propiciar el diálogo intersectorial atrayendo sectores y actores a que se comprometan a afrontar de manera mancomunada las consecuencias del cambio climático, ya que éstas pueden poner en riesgo las demás dimensiones (sociales, económicas y políticas) de la sociedad e incluso de su supervivencia a través de los retos en seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Hacer frente al cambio climático es cuestión de todos. En los territorios confluyen iniciativas sectoriales de diversa índole, por ejemplo minero-energética, comercial, agropecuaria, ambiental, etc., las cuales tienen efecto en la población de dicho territorio y que son difícilmente separables cuando se evidencia la interconexión de cualquier acción sobre los recursos naturales de cada una de esas iniciativas. Esta complejidad no ha sido totalmente entendida y abordada al planificar el territorio y sus posibles implicaciones en el mediano y largo plazo. Sumado a lo anterior, el cambio climático afecta a los todos los sectores transversalmente, por lo tanto es esencial procurar un abordaje integral en donde cada sector identifica su rol, responsabilidad y acciones a implementar para mitigar los efectos del cambio climático en diálogo con la sociedad civil.Si bien la afectación del cambio climático es diferenciada y las formas de abordaje sean múltiples, el gobierno y el sector privado son actores fundamentales en la implementación de acciones que puedan generar un impacto sustancial para reducir los riesgos asociados al cambio climático en el sector agropecuario. A través de alianzas público-privadas es posible materializar la política pública en acciones que generen un desarrollo sostenible de las comunidades rurales que dependen en gran medida de la actividad agropecuaria. El diálogo y el común entendimiento de los retos, de sus capacidades y oportunidades para contribuir a solucionarlos será esencial para identificar los mecanismos para hacer un esfuerzo mancomunado y efectivo al abordar el cambio climático y sus impactos.En América Latina, hay varios ejemplos de alianza público-privadas que se han confirmado para trabajar en mitigar los efectos del cambio climático pero también en identificar las oportunidades. Por ejemplo en Colombia, la ganadería sostenible es un tema relativamente nuevo que fue puesto sobre la mesa debido, por un lado, a las importantes afectaciones que estaba sufriendo el sector a causa de los efectos del cambio climático y por otro, debido a que la actividad aporta el 26% de las emisiones de gases efecto invernadero (GEI) totales nacionales para 2012 (IDEAM & PNUD, 2016). Teniendo en cuenta que la ganadería es una de las actividades económicas con mayor importancia para el PIB nacional, fue necesario pensar en alternativas, por ello, en 2016 se constituyó la Mesa de Ganadería Sostenible -Colombia, un espacio de diálogo donde confluye el sector público y el privado. El público en cabeza de los Ministerios de agricultura y desarrollo rural y el de medio ambiente y desarrollo sostenible, por supuesto, con participación de otras entidades públicas especializadas; y el privado, representado por organizaciones internacionales y fundaciones con diversidad de razón social, empresas privadas (de distintos eslabones de la cadena de valor), centros de investigación, universidades, federaciones y asociaciones de ganaderos, entre otros.A pesar de los contratiempos y dificultades, este espacio de diálogo ha resultado exitoso desde distintos ángulos, pues, en primer lugar, se ha consolidado como el espacio de diálogo nacional más importante en materia de ganadería sostenible, con más incidencia política y con mayor alcance. Actualmente, la Mesa trabaja en producir un documento de política pública que regule e incentive la actividad ganadera sostenible, así mismo, se ha convertido en un espacio para comunicar experiencias y proyectos en aras de ser replicados.En Costa Rica, dos procesos alrededor de las CND son especialmente relevantes para el tema. El primero, hace referencia a la formulación de las CND, proceso liderado por el Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía, quien innovó en la forma cómo se realizó el proceso de formulación al utilizar una herramienta metodológica que busca robustecer estos procesos a través del desarrollo de escenarios futuros plausibles pero diversos. La metodología Escenarios Futuros desarrollada por CCAFS definió cuatro escenarios futuros diferentes que sirvieron para poner a prueba y robustecer las estrategias planteadas por el Ministerio en el marco de sus CND.Este proceso contó con la participación de 25 expertos nacionales en cambio climático de diferentes organizaciones (ONG´s, fundaciones, organizaciones multilaterales, organizaciones activistas, entre otros) de los sectores involucrados. \"El enfoque multisectorial y multinivel, y la inclusión de los aspectos socioeconómicos, ambientales y políticos del desarrollo hicieron posible que las partes interesadas visualizarán los efectos colaterales y las sinergias necesarias entre las estrategias de reducción de emisiones en la agricultura, los residuos, la energía y el transporte\" (Veeger, 2016).El segundo proceso, vino luego de Costa Rica adquirir sus compromisos en materia de CND. Este proceso, además de analizar los escenarios resultantes del primer proceso, centró sus esfuerzos en recoger las recomendaciones para la acción política y al desarrollo de una visión a largo plazo para la agricultura a 2030 (Popescu, 2018). El proceso contó con la participación de actores relevantes del sector agricultura, haciendo del proceso un espacio de diálogo en el que el Gobierno se nutre de la experiencia y los conocimientos del sector privado para hacer de su accionar uno más participativo, eficiente y con mayor impacto.En México, también alrededor de las CND, teniendo en cuenta que el sector agropecuario en dicho país representa el 12% de las emisiones nacionales, el Instituto Nacional de Ecología y Cambio Climático (INECC) y la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT) se encontraban frente al reto de obtener información relevante para los cálculos de costos de las CND e identificar acciones de mitigación adicionales. Para ello se organizó una serie de Diálogos Público-Privados (DPP) sectoriales, de los cuales rescatan el haber logrado:• \"Continuar con el intercambio de información con actores clave de cada sector e interesados en las medidas y acciones para combatir el cambio climático en el país.• Analizar la efectividad de las medidas propuestas y avanzar en nuevas.• Acordar pasos para resolver posibles asuntos contenciosos, definir prioridades y grupos de trabajo.• Determinar la factibilidad de aumentar el nivel de ambición de las metas de mitigación.• Identificar medidas o proyectos que, eventualmente, podrían someterse ante instituciones financiera\" (INECC, 2018). Por último, Barrionuevo (2018) describe en un documento de trabajo publicado por el Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural -RIMISP-cinco experiencias en cuatro países de América Latina sobre diversos mecanismos de articulación de la oferta de la agricultura familiar a mercados. Estas experiencias tienen un factor en común además del tema y es que han integrado como estrategia procesos de diálogo participativos donde se han articulado a los productores, la empresa privada, el sector público, las comunidades y el propio mercado.Así los ejemplos anteriores, existen muchas otras iniciativas y procesos de los cuales es posible concluir que en la mayoría de los casos la inclusión del sector privado es un elemento determinante a la hora de recolectar insumos para la toma de decisiones gracias al intercambio de experiencias y conocimientos. El reto, entonces, es poder ampliar y replicar estas alianzas y procesos de diálogo público-privadas que demuestran ser altamente efectivos como mecanismos que facilitan la articulación de objetivos e intereses.Las acciones de cambio climático deben darse a las múltiples escalas, el cambio climático se evidencia con los cambios en la temperatura global del planeta, pero la adaptación es local donde es fundamental la articulación y el diálogo no sólo en lo local sino en su vinculación con otras escalas subnacionales y nacionales. Adicionalmente, es esencial reconocer que los actores locales (agricultores, sistemas y redes locales) han lidiado con la adaptación al clima desde siempre, por lo tanto el cúmulo de conocimiento que albergan puede ser clave para abordar los retos del cambio climático.La implementación exitosa de las acciones climáticas, necesitan un diálogo continuo entre los diferentes niveles de toma de decisión. Las acciones de adaptación y mitigación en la agricultura son implementadas por los agricultores y comunidades rurales que sienten los efectos en su día a día, pero deben contar con el apoyo de la institucionalidad a través de políticas e incentivos que consideren las dinámicas contextoespecíficas que son vinculadas a los objetivos nacionales (ej. CND, NAMA, PNA, etc.) y globales (ej. ODS, meta de mantener el incremento de la temperatura global en 1.5C).Por su parte, las instituciones de la región que lideran las acciones en cambio climático tienen la oportunidad de fortalecer la participación activa de los actores locales en los territorios para aunar esfuerzos y lograr el impacto deseado en términos de incrementar resiliencia, aumentar la productividad de la agricultura regional y la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de la población, mientras se reducen las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. En este sentido, la integración de diferentes niveles y la interacción de los tomadores de decisiones, sociedad civil interesadas e instituciones en diferentes escalas de gobierno, desde el local hasta el nacional es fundamental. La adaptación exitosa al cambio climático en América Latina y el Caribe requerirá mecanismos de los gobiernos que aborden la complejidad del cambio climático pero que al mismo tiempo desarrollen innovaciones institucionales, que faciliten el diálogo, se generen nuevas reglas y formas de interacción. Tales innovaciones institucionales podrían ayudar a redefinir la forma cómo hacemos agricultura hoy en día y sentar las bases para que los intereses de los actores involucrados resulten en opciones de agricultura sostenible adaptada al clima que se implementan en lo local pero redundan en el cumplimiento de los objetivos a las demás escalas. Las innovaciones pueden incluir plataformas de innovación de múltiples actores, formulación e implementación de proyectos que involucre los distintos actores, fortalecimiento de las redes sociales de las comunidades rurales con otros actores del sector, cuya interacción promueve el intercambio y generación de conocimiento, así como la masificación de acciones que redunden en beneficios para las partes (Martinez-Baron et al. 2018). A menudo, los actores privados (agricultores, consumidores, cooperativas, empresas, etc.) lideran las innovaciones, pero las asociaciones con actores públicos y la sociedad civil tienen un papel importante en la creación de vínculos entre los agricultores y los mercados 16 .Un ejemplo de cómo se ha logrado fomentar el diálogo entre las diversas escalas para desarrollar mecanismos que ayuden a reducir el riesgo agroclimático de los sistemas productivos, de los agricultores y en general en el territorio, son las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA). Este enfoque fue desarrollado inicialmente en Colombia por CCAFS en colaboración con el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, el CIAT, los gremios FEDEARROZ y FENALCE. Las MTA son un arreglo inter-institucional y tienen como propósito facilitar el diálogo entre los diversos actores locales, nacionales, privados, públicos, investigación, entre otros, para generar recomendaciones sobre las medidas que se deben tomar a nivel local para reducir la posibilidad de pérdidas de los cultivos ante los cambios en el clima (Loboguerrero et al. 2018). Las recomendaciones se dan usando tres insumos clave: i) predicción climática; ii) efectos modelados en los cultivos; y iii) conocimiento experto de agricultores, técnicos e investigadores, y el resultados son los boletines agroclimáticos locales que orientan al agricultor sobre qué acciones tomar en sus cultivos, es decir adaptándose al cambio y variabilidad climática. Actualmente, el enfoque se implementa en Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua y Chile.Desde 1990, los desastres climáticos e hidro-meteorológicos costaron a la región más de $ 72 mil millones de dólares, afectando anualmente durante ese período la vida en promedio a 3 millones de personas. Las sequías y las inundaciones en particular causaron consecuencias devastadoras para la producción ganadera y agrícola. En el lado este de los Andes, las precipitaciones en América del Sur han demostrado una tendencia al alza, mientras que, en muchas partes de las tierras altas tropicales de América Central y México, las precipitaciones se han concentrado y disminuido. En el Caribe, las inundaciones y los ciclones han tenido un profundo impacto en los últimos años. Para la región Latinoamérica y el Caribe, desde 1990, los desastres climáticos e hidra-meteorológicos costaron a la región más de $ 72 mil millones de dólares, afectando la vida en promedio a 3 millones de personas anualmente durante ese período.Basados en las proyecciones y modelos climáticos de organismos internacionales como el IPCC, se ha podido deducir que los impactos del cambio climático en las regiones del trópico y subtrópico llegarían a ser considerable con el aumento de 1.7 °C temperatura promedio, llegando a ser graves con un incremento de 2°C a 2.5°C de temperatura para el año 2080 (IPCC, 2018). Las afectaciones negativas están proyectadas sobre los cultivos fundamentales para la seguridad alimentaria, como el maíz, arroz y el frijol. Otros cultivos que tienen una gran importancia económica para la región, como el café y la producción de caña de azúcar también las proyecciones muestran grandes afectaciones.América Latina y el Caribe es una región estratégicamente favorecida en términos ambientales. El desafío, entonces, es poder transformar la agricultura de manera que el recurso hídrico y suelo son usados de manera sostenible y adaptada al clima, es decir determinar según el comportamiento climático y las condiciones agroecológicas y biofísicas del territorio el mejor uso de agua y suelo en agricultura, mientras se busca aumentar la productividad y competitividad de los sistemas productivos y cuando es posible, reducir las emisiones de gases efecto invernadero. La agricultura sostenible adaptada al clima (ASAC) se define como un enfoque que pretende transformar y reorientar el desarrollo agropecuario ante las nuevas condiciones que se presentan con el cambio climático.La producción agrícola regional, y por ende, la seguridad alimentaria, debe enfrentarse a varios retos para mantenerse estable. El primero de ellos radica en los desastres y/o fenómenos naturales que afectan directamente a la producción.Promoviendo una actitud proactiva, se presentan varias oportunidades para ser activos en el contexto internacional y regional; además de desarrollar un rol de región líder para buscar soluciones y enfrentar así los retos del cambio climático para la agricultura y sus economías relacionadas. Ejemplos son la decisión Koronivia que incluye ahora la agricultura en los negociaciones en la COP, es una gran oportunidad para que los países trabajen juntos, articulen sus agendas para aprovechar las sinergias y complementariedades de los esfuerzos de los diversos actores del sector agropecuario. Pero también otros oportunidades presentan las plataformas, como la Plataforma de Conocimiento en Agroecología, el programa ONU-REDD y el Land CC Hub. También los proceso del plan nacional de adaptación (PNA) permite a los países formular e implementar necesidades de adaptación a mediano y largo plazo.La importancia de la movilización de financiamientos para acciones climáticas se demuestra en las estimaciones de los costos de la inacción y los beneficios económicos del cambio climático para América Latina y el Caribe indican que el efecto global será negativo y aumentará a través del tiempo. Las mayores contribuciones del financiamiento vienen de cuatro fondos, el Fondo de Tecnología Limpia (CTF), el Fondo Amazonas, el fondo Medio Ambiente Global y el Fondo Verde para el Clima. El mayor desafío, sin embargo, es acceder al capital a un menor costo. En los países en desarrollo y mercados emergentes, las tasas de interés tienden a ser mucho más altas que en los países desarrollados.Los retos del cambio y la variabilidad climática en la agricultura deben abordarse de manera holística, considerando los múltiples actores involucrados a diversas escalas, las sinergias y disyuntivas con sectores como ambiente, salud y nutrición, gestión de riesgos, comercio, etc. En América Latina, hay varios ejemplos de alianza público-privadas que se han confirmado para trabajar en mitigar los efectos del cambio climático pero también en identificar las oportunidades.La implementación exitosa de las acciones climáticas, necesitan un diálogo continuo entre los diferentes niveles de toma de decisión. Por su parte, las instituciones de la región que lideran las acciones en cambio climático tienen la oportunidad de fortalecer la participación activa de los actores locales en los territorios para aunar esfuerzos y lograr el impacto deseado. Un ejemplo de cómo se ha logrado fomentar el diálogo entre las diversas escalas para desarrollar mecanismos que ayuden a reducir el riesgo agroclimático de los sistemas productivos, de los agricultores y en general en el territorio, son las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA). onesEl cambio climático se constituye tanto en un reto como en una oportunidad para la agricultura de ALC. Entre las múltiples acciones que se deben tener en cuenta se destacan: acciones inmediatas para adaptarnos a los cambios en el clima, mejorar los sistemas productivos en términos de eficiencia en el uso de los recursos naturales, diversificación agropecuaria, mayor competitividad generando valor agregado en la implementación de prácticas sostenibles y adaptadas al clima, manejo del riesgo haciendo uso de información agroclimática oportuna en el lenguaje y a la escala adecuada e incremento de la producción y consumo sostenible de alimentos. Todo esto con el propósito de posicionar a la región como la despensa mundial de alimentos.El abordaje de los retos del cambio climático en línea con el cumplimiento de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible va a ser esencial para una implementación eficiente y a gran escala de las iniciativas de los países para generar el cambio transformador necesario para alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible del sector agropecuario latinoamericano y sus metas para 2030.Si bien habrá un impacto importante en la reducción de rendimiento y aptitud de cultivos clave para el sector agropecuario de la región, también se abren oportunidades para nuevos cultivos con potencial de valor agregado vía transformación productiva como es el caso de frutales, café y cacao en áreas donde antes no eran aptas, entre otros.El reconocimiento de la incidencia del cambio climático en retos como la migración, género e inclusión social es importante para identificar, diseñar e implementar las estrategias efectivas para generar soluciones para mejorar los medios de vida de la población rural, y vean en la agricultura y sus actividades asociadas una oportunidad para mejorar sus medios de vida.Las instituciones son un actor clave en la facilitación de la acción climática en las diferentes escalas a través de la vinculación del diálogo intersectorial y los esfuerzos público privados. Los arreglos institucionales juegan un papel clave para promover procesos de planificación e implementación de medidas de adaptación y mitigación al cambio climático que contribuyan al desarrollo rural sostenible.","tokenCount":"16779"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0094f990007e07123b2c20ff6be33e1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1eba1a70-887e-4487-a6b6-bb69a5c04b27/retrieve","id":"355240292"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"328801e5-39e6-40c1-9056-60bba6460ad8","pagecount":"12","content":"Esta es la tercera edición del Boletín Trimestral de La Cadena de Carne Vacuna. El boletín es publicado por el proyecto \"Mejoramiento del Sector Cárnico Bovino en Centro América\". El boletín será publicado cada tres meses y sirve como un medio de comunicación con los socios y otros interesados en el tema.El boletín tiene una estructura sencilla y los editores se sienten comprometidos de mantener el volumen del boletín breve. La mayoría de los socios van a recibir el boletín en forma electrónica pero para los finqueros y los técnicos en el campo se imprimirán una cierta cantidad y será distribuida por correo normal. El boletín estará también disponible en nuestra página web con este enlace: (http://www.ilri.cgiar.org/pageselflink.asp?pageid=211&menuid=26 ).En esta tercera edición presentamos un resumen de un estudio sobre el acceso de pequeños y medianos ganaderos a mercados dinámicos. El resumen fue preparado por Dr. Paul Schütz, quien ha coordinado el estudio y preparado el informe.En el trimestre pasado se llevó a cabo la Primera Reunión del Comité Asesor del Proyecto y la región de planificación con nuestros co-ejecutores nacionales. Incluimos un breve resumen de los eventos.El proyecto esta aportando una iniciativa bajo el tema \"bienestar animal\". El bienestar animal es un tema con muchísima relevancia en Europa como en Estados Unidos. El artículo explica el concepto básico de bienestar animal y su enlace con la calidad de carne.En la sección \"Quién es Quién\" presentamos esta vez el equipo nacional de Honduras. Este está compuesto por dos colegas en la Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería, Conrado Burgos y Juan Carlos Ordoñez y el Gerente de la Secretaría de la Federación Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (FENAGH), el señor José Chacón.A finales de este año el Dr. Víctor Arrúa de IICA y responsable para el componente de Sanidad Animal terminará su colaboración con el proyecto para encargarse de una nueva tarea otorgada por el IICA en Argentina para el Cono Sur. Aprovechamos esta oportunidad para agradecer especialmente al Dr. Arrúa por su excelente trabajo y contribución al proyecto y le deseamos éxito en el cumplimiento de sus nuevas tareas. Su trabajo en el campo de la sanidad animal será asignado a la facultad veterinaria de la Universidad Nacional Agraria de Costa Rica. La universidad ha nombrado a la doctora Sacha Trellez como encargada de este componente. Esperamos que ella trabajará con el apoyo de la facultad en aspectos de la sanidad animal a nivel de fincas como en aspectos de sistemas de sanidad animal a nivel nacional e inocuidad de alimentos de origen vacuno.La publicación de esa tercera edición coincide con el fin del año y las fiestas navideñas. Tomamos la oportunidad de agradecer a nuestros socios la colaboración y el apoyo que hemos experimentado y les deseamos una Feliz Navidad y un prospero y exitoso Año Nuevo.Página Nº EditorialEl estudio analiza el rol de los supermercados en la comercialización de la carne vacuna en Nicaragua. La hipótesis planteada por los investigadores consiste en que los supermercados seguirán asumiendo una importancia siempre más grande como mercados dinámicos para productos agropecuarios. Este desarrollo, en conexión con la tendencia de un consumo creciente de carnes en un mundo de urbanización, da importancia a la producción y el comercio de la carne.Las preguntas claves en este contexto son:• ¿La comercialización de la carne vía los supermercados como mercados dinámicos es apta para pequeños productores?• ¿Los ingresos de los productores a través del canal de comercialización vía supermercados son económicamente mejor?• ¿La definición de la calidad y la clasificación de la carne por los supermercados afecta negativamente a los pequeños productores, convirtiéndose en una barrera para el acceso a este canal de comercialización?• ¿Las políticas públicas facilitan la participación de pequeños BOLETÍN TRIMESTRAL DE LA CADENA DE CARNE VACUNA Proyecto \"Mejoramiento de la Productividad, Calidad, Inocuidad y el Comercio de la carne en Centro América\" Edición Nº 3 Diciembre 2004 productores en la cadena?El estudio aplica el concepto de una \"cadena de valor\" al objeto de la investigación. El concepto es muy útil y ayuda a conceptuar la composición y la estructura de la cadena y las interacciones entre sus actores. El estudio analiza los diferentes eslabones de la cadena como la producción pecuaria, la industria y el comercio así como los actores claves y sus interacciones.La información generada por este estudio proviene de dos fuentes: la primera es la encuesta aplicada a 180 ganaderos, mientras que la segunda es una entrevista semi-estructurada en profundidad aplicada a actores importantes en la cadena y sus diferentes eslabones como compradores de animales, dueños de subastas, funcionarios de mataderos industriales, representantes de supermercados, carniceros, transportistas de animales, funcionarios del sector público (Ministerio de Agricultura, Instituto de Desarrollo Rural, Ministerio de Salud, Ministerio de Fomento de Industria y el Comercio) quienes proporcionaron diferentes estadísticas, y representantes de organizaciones de productores. En total fueron entrevistadas unas 30 personas de los cuales algunos fueron entrevistados en una segunda ocasión con el fin de profundizar las informaciones obtenidas durante la primera entrevista Periodo y tamaño de la muestra:Durante los meses de junio y julio del presente año se realizaron encuestas a 180 productores ganaderos en Nicaragua. Dichas encuestas estaban dirigidas a productores que venden sus animales a los siguientes tres mercados: 1) El mercado constituido por supermercados \"La Unión\" (CSU). En el mismo fueron incluidos 59 productores del canal ICI de un total de 130 productores en este canal ;2) El mercado constituido por los mataderos industriales. En este fueron incluidos 82 productores de un total de 1000-4000 ganaderos que abastecen este canal.3) El tercer mercado es denominado \"el tradicional\" y está constituido por los ganaderos que venden sus animales a las subastas, corrales verdes, a intermediarios que compran en finca (incluyendo a compradores para exportación de animales en pie a El salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y México). De este canal fueron incluidos 39 productores ganaderos que lo abastecen.El mercado local se caracteriza con un bajo consumo de carne per cápita. Éste es afectado por la inestabilidad del ingreso familiar y la elasticidad de los precios de la carne. La carne vacuna enfrenta una competencia fuerte por parte de los otros tipos de carne como pollo o cerdo. El consumo de la carne de pollo, en particular, ha crecido enormemente, además la producción avícola tiene un alto grado de tecnificación y en este sentido a alcanzado el estándar internacional.La carne bovina hoy en día, por lo general, se considera un producto de exportación. Nicaragua es el mayor exportador de este producto en Centroamérica. La carne bovina, junto con el café, es el producto de exportación que aporta los ingresos más altos para el país. Los puntos de venta más frecuentes se encuentran en los mercados tradicionales. Es difícil de obtener cifras exactas, pero según informaciones obtenidas del Ministerio de Salud que realiza las inspecciones de las instalaciones, solamente en Managua existen 359 puntos de venta de carne en los mercados capitalinos.Para asegurar la inocuidad de la carne y la salud del consumidor estos puntos de venta tienen que presentar un comprobante con el fin de demostrar que obtuvieron la carne de mataderos inspeccionados.Las carnicerías son de importancia para la venta al detalle. Managua cuenta con una cantidad de 163 carnicerías. Una parte de éstas venden carne de los mataderos industriales, pero también hay carniceros que compran animales y los maquilan en rastros municipales. Ellos procesan los canales en cortes para su clientela. Este último tipo de carniceros compra y vende más carne de vacas, ya que éstas son más baratas, debido a que se trata de hembras de descarte, con una edad de más de siete años en promedio.Las cadenas de supermercados han crecido mucho en los últimos cinco años. La industria de carne en Nicaragua muestra una dicotomía. Los dos grandes grupos son los mataderos municipales y los mataderos industriales y ellos son responsables para la extracción de animales (sin la exportación de animales en pie).Actualmente hay 98 mataderos municipales en todo el territorio nacional. Probablemente el termino \"empresa\" no aplica a la mayoría de esos establecimientos. Son más bien servicios públicos para la población y generalmente abastecen a las pequeñas carnicerías. Los mataderos municipales ofrecen el servicio de matanza. Muchas instalaciones carecen de las facilidades mínimas requerida para un tratamiento higiénico de los canales y para garantizar un producto final inocuo. De los 98 mataderos solo los más grandes en las capitales departamentales trabajan bajo control de la División Sanidad Animal del Ministerio de Agricultura.Existen tres mataderos industriales en Nicaragua con certificación de HACCP y de USDA para exportación a los Estados Unidos. El sector industrial ha pasado por tiempos duros. La década de los noventa fue un período de consolidación para este sector. Dos de los mataderos tienen actualmente como co-dueños (equity capital) a dos bancos y el tercer matadero tiene como dueño un grupo de ganaderos grandes. La matanza industrial ha crecido continuamente por una parte a costo de la matanza municipal. La matanza industrial subió sustancialmente en 2000 y ha crecido a un nuevo record. Este efecto probablemente sea producto de las operaciones de ICI que subió su matanza de 1,100 animales por mes en el año 2000 a un volumen de 4,800 animales por mes. Eso suma un total de 57,600 animales por año y corresponde a la capacidad de cada uno de los mataderos en los inicios de los noventa. Si uno sustrae el número de animales de ICI de la matanza de San Martín, se queda un volumen de matanza que corresponde al año 1998. Así ICI representa 47.5% de la matanza de San Martín y eso le resulta en ingresos de US $ 1,728,000.Los tres mataderos industriales están descubriendo el mercado local para su carne. EL matadero San Martín ya tiene 40% de su producción para el mercado local, la mayor parte es vendida a través de su red de distribuidoras (23 en todo el país). Nuevo Carric vende 20% de su carne a una variedad de establecimientos y poco a La Colonia. MACESA tiene ahora un contrato exclusivo con La Colonia para el abastecimiento de carne. Con este contrato que incluye términos de pago muy favorables (30 días de crédito), MACESA ha quitado esta parte del mercado a San Martín.Un actor muy importante en la cadena es la Industria Cárnicas Integradas (ICI). ICI ocupa una posición intermedia entre los supermercados y los mataderos. ICI compra animales mediante sus compradores y los maquila en el matadero industrial San Martín. Para la supervisión del proceso en el matadero ICI a contratado a cuatro empleados quienes controlan la calidad y el cumplimiento de las respectivas normas. De los animales maquilados 1,200 quedan en Nicaragua, una gran parte -2,800 canales -es exportada a El Salvador y otras cantidades a Guatemala, Honduras y Costa Rica.La población bovina de Nicaragua, según el Censo Nacional Agropecuario del año 2001, ascendió a 2.6 millones de cabezas de ganado. Esta población ganadera se aloja en 96.9 miles de fincas en todo el país, lo que significa que un 49% del total de fincas tiene actividad ganadera. De la población total ganadera el 68% son hembras y el 32% son machos.El ganado está concentrado en fincas con una extensión de más de 50 manzanas. Con una capacidad de carga de media unidad animal por manzana, debido a la baja productividad, la ganadería ocupa mucho terreno. La tierra es más barata en las montañas lejanas de los centros urbanos. Este mecanismo tiene como consecuencia que los ganaderos compran tierra o convierten bosque en pastos en lugar de invertir en porteros existentes con pastos mejorados. Así progresa la frontera de la agricultura.Se puede diferenciar los siguientes sistemas de ganadería:• Lechería especializada• Crianza de ganado puroDe estos sistemas, el doble propósito, el desarrollo y el engorde tienen más relevancia para la producción de carne. Bajo las condiciones de Nicaragua el Ministerio de Agricultura calcula los costos de un KG de carne con 0.87 US $ (precios de 2001).Las políticas públicas en el pasado se concentraron mucho en la reforma de las instituciones y dejaron un vacío de servicios en el ámbito rural. Una política específica para el sector de la ganadera todavía no existe. En el contexto de Plan Nacional de Desarrollo apareciese puede observar una reorientación y por lo menos una declaración de buenas intenciones.En el sector privado se observa la estrategia de la integración y de \"outsourcing\" también en la cadena de supermercados del Grupo Más x Menos: integración en el sentido que los productos están abastecidos por compañías propias con control sobre calidad y precio. La estrategia de \"outsourcing\" en el sentido de comprar los servicios de la matanza y no invertir en instalaciones propias. Los mataderos han empezado a cambiar sus divisiones de compradores en comisionados y empiezan a vender su carne vía sus distribuidoras con un sistema de franquicia.Los supermercados van a crecer más en los próximos años. En Nicaragua hay un potencial en las capitales departamentales. La cadena Palí ya está utilizando este potencial. Los supermercados van a crecer en la venta de carne pese al mercado tradicional.Los mercados tradicionales y las carnicerías van a perder su importancia. Para las carnicerías existe la opción de desarrollarse en carnicerías especiales para una clientela de alta calidad o de cortes especiales.El consumo de carne no va a crecer mucho en los próximos años en Nicaragua por falta del poder de compra. La situación económica no va cambiar positivamente y la competencia de otros tipos de carne va contener el crecimiento de la venta de carne vacuna.Una tarea de alta importancia será para el sector público de facilitar la creación de una plataforma para la cadena. Las experiencias en la cadena de carne en Brasil han mostrado que la coordinación en una cadena puede resultar en una ventaja competitiva.(En el trimestre pasado las actividades principales fueronla reunión del Comité Asesor (18-19 octubre 2004) y la reunión de planificación con los co-ejecutores (20-21 de octubre 2004) y el viaje a Europa y África para participar en la reunión anual de ILRI. El segundo artículo da un resumen de los dos encuentros en Managua. El viaje a Europa permitió clarificar en Ámsterdam asuntos administrativos con el organismo financiador del proyecto y asegurar la participación de la Cooperación Técnica Alemana (GTZ) en el proyecto para los próximos dos años.Durante la reunión fueron comentados los logros del proyecto después del primer año de ejecución y fue reconocida la contribución de los ejecutores nacionales y su grado de asumir la responsabilidad de la ejecución.  El grupo AGANORSA está considerando de revivir el matadero Los Brasiles dentro de Managua para maquilar animales para exportación de canales a México. Cerca de la frontera con Costa Rica otro consorcio va construir un nuevo matadero.El matadero Nuevo Carnic esta invirtiendo mediante un préstamo para la ampliación de sus instalaciones con más cámeras frías y nuevas líneas de producción.La corporación de compañías agroindustrias con su compañía subsidiaria Hortifruti gano el premio nacional de calidad la segunda vez.La crisis del sector cárnico de Estados Unidos causado por un caso de una vaca loca en los fines de 2003 se manifiesta este año con una fuerte reducción de la producción.Tyson Food está reduciendo su producción semanal de 55,000 animales a 30,000 animales. Eso afecta a 2,100 empleados.El matadero Creekstone Farms el empleador más grande en Arkansas City ha despedido 150 empleados del total de 800 empleados.Por la misma crisis Swift & Co.empacadora de carne también esta despidiendo a 800 de sus empleados.Brasil ha aumentado su exportación de carne vacuna a un 42% comparado con 2003 y la producción a un 23%. Aparentemente Brasil fue capaz de aprovechar la crisis o los problemas sanitarios de Estados Unidos y convertirse en el exportador más grande del mundo (carne vacuna y pollo) en 2004.Hoy presentamos en este rubro el Equipo de Honduras. El Equipo de Honduras esta compuesto por tres representantes, el Ing. Conrado Burgos, Director Pecuario en la Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA), el médico veterinario Juan Carlos Ordoñez como coordinador nacional de las actividades del proyecto y el Ing. José Abelino Chacón el Gerente de la Secretaría de la Federación Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos de Honduras (FENAGH). El proyecto ha firmado cartas de entendimiento con ambas organizaciones sobre la cooperación. Por lo tanto estas organizaciones juegan un papel muy importante para el éxito del proyecto.Conrado Burgos, un agrónomo de profesión, tiene una larga trayectoria como persona clave en el sector ganadero de Honduras. En su cargo está representada la continuidad como director pecuario él maneja un portafolio muy amplio, coordina las acciones en la ganadería como la cooperación con instituciones o proyectos internacionales que trabajan sobre temas como pastos, forrajes o ganadería en general. El Ing. Burgos ha promovido con mucho entusiasmo los nuevos forrajes (Brachiarias) y leguminosas. Gracias a su contribución Honduras cuenta hoy con un área extenso sembrado con nuevas variedades de pastos.El Ing. Burgos esta muy reconocido en el sector y su autoridad convocatoria es invalorable y ayuda mucho al proyecto en los diferentes eslabones de la cadena como ponerse en contacto con los actores importantes o invitarlos a eventos. Como funcionario tiene la ambición de crear en Honduras ejemplos exitosos entre los pequeños y medianos productores. Para él la base de una ganadería exitosa es una alimentación mejorada con nuevos pastos, bancos de proteínas o mezclas de pastos con leguminosas. El incremento y mejoramiento de la productividad tiene un impacto indiscutible sobre la situación económica del productor.Dr. Juan Carlos Ordoñez, un joven y dínamico medico veterinario con una maestría en nutrición animal. Dr. Ordoñezsiempre se interesa por aspectos de investigación y le gusta experimentar con el fin de contribuir al bienestar de los animales.Actualmente el Dr. Ordoñez está coordinando las actividades en las fincas seleccionadas por el proyecto. En la época de lluvia esto incluye la siembra de pastos mejorados y la verificación de la siembra. Como parte de su rutina, mensualmente él recolecta los datos para el análisis y manejo de hatos con el programa computarizado VAMPP y da seguimiento al calendario de sanidad animal que fue elaborado por el IICA para las fincas. El Dr. Ordoñez se encarga también del seguimiento y monitoreo de las actividades en las fincas, organiza capacitaciones e intercambio de experiencias entre los productores Conrado Burgos Juan Carlos Ordoñez y así como acompaña al equipo del proyecto en sus visitas a Honduras y coordina también las reuniones deseadas. Es un buen guía en esas giras y aprovecha la oportunidad de discutir con gran interés los diferentes aspectos de la implementación del proyecto. El Dr. Ordoñez trabaja por el momento con un contrato de consultor para DICTA hasta finales de este año. como consultor DICTA le defina sus términos de referencia y los resultados mesurables.En su vida personal el Dr. Ordoñez como todos lo conocen es un joven soltero, lleno de energía y planes para el futuro. Después del trabajo con frecuencia se le puede observar platicando con las muchachas más guapas de Tegucigalpa. Hasta hace poco él todavía vivia en la casa de sus padres pero ahora tiene su propia casa. Juan Carlos es hijo del vice-ministro de ganadería quién también es muy bien arraigado en el sector. Su familia (padre y abuela) tienen fincas cerca de Danlí.Juan Carlos comenzó sus estudios superiores en un college en Estados Unidos. El habla el Ingles muy bien. Después se inscribió en la Universidad de Veracruz en México donde consiguió su licenciatura en medicina veterinaria. Posteriormente obtuvo su maestría en nutrición animal en la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán en México.Su carrera profesional empezó durante el período entre la licenciatura y la maestría al obtener un contrato con DICTA, como consultor con la tarea de elaborar una encuesta en la zona Centro Occidental para conocer la problemática existente en los aspectos de nutrición animal, validar en 6 fincas modelos, trabajos nutricionales con el objetivo de dar solución a la problemática encontrada, realizar días de campo para expandir a los ganaderos y técnicos de la región la información y experiencia obtenida en las fincas modelos, elaborar un documento final que sirva de base para futuras investigaciones. Después de este contrato trabajó en SENASA como medico veterinario. Su trabajo consistió en recibir y dar seguimiento a las denuncias de enfermedades pecuarias en el departamento de Francisco Morazán, realizar muestreos a nivel nacional de las campañas aviares de la SAG, apoyar en la realización del proyecto para la erradicación de enfermedades aviares.Después de obtener su maestría Juan Carlos trabajó en la empresa privada PROTEINA -NUTRITEC para la cual realizó estudios, análisis, investigación y mercadeo de los productos veterinarios y nutricionales de la misma. Capacitó el personal de ventas, elaboró programas médico veterinarios, dio asistencia técnica a los clientes de la empresa a través de la elaboración de raciones nutricionales, orientación en el manejo alimenticio. Además actuó como responsable de la Hacienda Lechera, Feed Lot y Hato Genético \"Loma Linda\" (propiedad de la empresa).Desde hace un año Juan Carlos trabaja de nuevo como consultor para DICTA en el marco del proyecto ILRI. Sus aspiraciones inmediatas son una extensión de su contrato y continuar con el trabajo del proyecto. Pero a largo plazo le gustaría trabajar en una organización internacional como la FAO o como el ILRI para ampliar su experiencia profesional al nivel de consultor internacional. Otra opción para el sería una beca para conseguir un Ph.D. de una Universidad reconocida de Estados Unidos.José Chacón es un agrónomo egresado de la Escuela Nacional de Agricultura de Honduras, es casado y es padre de cuadro hijos. Actualmente el Ing. Chacón es el Gerente de la Secretaría de la FENAGHInició su carrera profesional con la SAG, como Jefe Regional del Programa de Brucelosis y Tuberculosis, después de eso la FENAGH lo solicitó para manejar el Proyecto de Registro Genealógico de Ganado de Honduras, el cual es manejado por esta institución.Como funcionario de la FENAGH el Ing. Chacón ha estado involucrado en el programa ILRI desde el inicio de sus actividades en Honduras. En ese sentido las esperanzas que han depositado en el mismo han sido muy amplias, ya que como Coordinador José vive a diario las deficiencias del sistema, no solo en el sector de la carne si no en todo el sector pecuario, por razones de mercado, tecnología, y más preocupante por razones de cultura e idiosincrasia. En esa situación considera oportuno y necesario un proyecto de las dimensiones del ILRI, que ofrece también apoyo a las asociaciones y federaciones para impulsar un proceso de cambio de las organizaciones como proveedores de servicios a sus miembros para aumentar la competitividad de las organizaciones y sus miembros. La FENAGH tiene claro que no posee las herramientas necesarias para ser competitivos en el nuevo esquema de comercio que comienza a regir el mundo. El rol de las organizaciones dentro del proyecto es el de ser el contacto con los productores que pertenecen a la FENAGH, planificando las actividades que en el futuro podamos llevar a cabo con el proyecto.Las aspiraciones podían quedar cortas en una sola hoja de papel, ya hay tantos problemas en el sector, pero si pudiese mencionar una sería, cambiar la actitud de los productores hondureños hacia los cambios, ser los primeros en tomarlos y aplicarlos, y poder ser competitivos con los recursos existentes en nuestro medio los cuales son muchos, para poder generar riqueza no solo económica si no también intelectual.En los planes actuales se está considerando cambiar el rol que ha tenido tanto la federación como las asociaciones miembros de la misma y poder hacer de estas instituciones generadoras de cambios dentro del sector de la ganadería en general.\"El Bienestar Animal no tiene nada que ver con animales\".El Bienestar Animal tiene que ver con los humanos, la empatía y las relaciones y compromisos que los individuos asumen al cuidar animales durante su producción, aturdimiento y sacrificio. Se requieren muchos conocimientos, destrezas y experiencia para asegurar un trato humanitario a los animales a cualquier nivel de producción.Es importante esforzarse para mejorar el bienestar de los animales de carne. Esto no solo beneficia a los animales sino que también lleva a un mejoramiento en la calidad e inocuidad de la carne, al igual que a un mejor beneficio económico. Este proceso no requiere de una gran inversión, sino simplemente de entender y preocuparse por las necesidades de los animales y podría aplicarse en cualquier país, aún tomando en cuenta las diferencias culturales. Una preocupación de particular impacto es el bienestar de los animales de carne a la hora del sacrificio y en los momentos previos a este.Este documento por lo tanto, es una guía sobre cómo deben ser manejados los animales durante este período para poder maximizar su bienestar. Se describen los principios generales que permiten desarrollar metodologías detalladas que pueden ser adaptadas según las características de cada país.El bienestar del ganado es responsabilidad de todas las personas involucradas en la producción y el transporte de animales. Un bienestar animal de baja calidad se refleja en alta mortalidad, lesiones, comportamiento anormal (poco dócil, agresivo), dolor y sufrimiento. El bienestar animal se relaciona positivamente con la productividad, la calidad de canales y la calidad de la carne. Esto incrementa el retorno económico.El manejo de animales desde la finca hasta el sacrificio por lo general impone estrés. El entrenamiento de \"Bienestar Ani-mal\" promueve la reducción de los factores que producen el estrés, con base en principios científicos. Todo personal involucrado en el manejo, transporte, aturdimiento y sacrificio animal debe recibir entrenamiento apropiado para adquirir conocimientos y desarrollar sensibilidad a las necesidades de los animales.Toda compañía involucrada en manejar animales debería tener políticas de manejo adecuado de los animales (bienestar animal), dado que son parte de las buenas prácticas de manejo en ganadería.Cuando los animales están destinados a la producción de alimentos, la inclusión de bienestar animal como tema a considerar todavía provoca una variedad de respuestas alrededor del mundo. No todas demuestran aceptación de la relevancia directa al ganado que inevitablemente será sacrificado.La investigación científica provee información sobre el impacto de los sistemas productivos con respeto a bienestar animal. El estudio del comportamiento ha definido una serie de consideraciones que se resumen en las \"Cinco Libertades\". La ciencia de la carne ha conllevado a un mejor entendimiento de los procesos de convertir músculo en un rango de productos diferentes. La investigación sobre bienestar animal continua mejorando nuestro conocimiento de los procesos en la cadena de producción de alimentos así como en el desarrollo de sistemas más humanitarios de manejo de animales en el ambito de una finca, durante el transporte y en la planta de sacrificio.Aún si se acepta que hay una conexión entre el bienestar animal y el producto final, ello no se puede describir fácilmente usando un solo criterio. El interés internacional por entender el significado del bienestar animal crece por la imposición de estándares que son necesarios para mejorar todos los aspectos de producción, incluyendo el bienestar animal. La aplicación de estándares en este momento puede ser frustrada por diferencias geográficas, de clima, de cultura, religiosos, de conocimiento y recursos disponibles, entre otros. Proveer un mayor entendimiento de temas relacionados al bienestar animal durante la producción que sean compatibles con los problemas locales y que conlleven a soluciones integrales, requiere de un formato alternativo. La Universidad de Bristol (Reyno Unido), al proveer entrenamiento internacional en bienestar animal, ha desarrollado cursos y programas que toman en cuenta las similitudes y diferencias fundamentales entre los sistemas productivos y los países dentro de los cuales operan.Con el fin de asegurar relevancia, transparencia y sostenibilidad dentro de los programas de entrenamiento, se ha desarrollado este \"Concepto de Bienestar Animal\" que consiste en una matriz que contiene los principios acordados de bienestar animal y los relaciona directamente a la legislación, códigos de practicas, estándares y políticas empresariales. Ya que raramente se pueden entender los asuntos del bienestar animal usando criterios únicos, por decir 'calidad', la matriz requiere la consideración de otros principios acordados con el fin de poner los asuntos en contexto con otros factores contribuyentes, como lo son la cultura, la política, factores físicos y económicos. De esta forma, se han desarrollado programas que toman en consideración el conocimiento local y los recursos locales en Europa, Asia, Indonesia, África del Sur y en Sudamérica, produciéndose soluciones locales a problemas locales de bienestar animal durante el proceso de la producción. La aplicación de este \"Concepto\" no busca imponer estándares que no se pueden lograr inmediatamente, sino facilitar programas de entrenamiento dinámicos que permitirán que los estándares futuros se puedan ser aplicados.El Programa de Entrenamiento propuesto para Nicaragua y Costa Rica, que inicia en enero del 2005, está diseñado primordialmente para generar cursos de entrenamiento locales y para formar equipos tutores al completar todos los módulos. Inicialmente el programa ha sido estructurado para completarse durante tres años. También puede proveer una gran cantidad de información y estructura a individuos que desean comprender mejor el bienestar animal durante la producción, el aturdimiento y el sacrificio; desde preocupaciones éticas y morales a los beneficios económicos que se reciben de mejoras en los procedimientos.En 2005, los primeros 2 módulos del programa se impartirán en Nicaragua y Costa Rica, seguidos por otros módulos secuenciales durante de los próximos años. A pesar de que algunos de los asistentes puedan participar por interés personal y desarrollo profesional, el Entrenamiento de Bienestar Animal trabajará principalmente con profesionales locales, identificando un equipo tutor en cada país que inicie entrenamientos locales al completarse el programa.Introducción detallada a los conceptos de Bienestar Animal durante la producción, transporte, aturdimiento y sacrificio y sus efectos directos sobre la canal, la calidad de la carne e inocuidad de la misma. Este módulo busca explicar el concepto de bienestar animal y sus aplicaciones a los animales en la finca. Es un punto necesario de partida, especialmente en países en los cuales el concepto se malinterpreta o está ausente por falta e conocimientos y comprensión.Módulo 2. Comprendiendo la Inconsciencia, el Aturdimiento y el Sacrificio (2 días, clases y grupos de discusión)Introducción detallada para comprender la inconsciencia al igual que la definición de aturdimiento, sacrificio y matanza. Este módulo demostrará claramente la naturaleza compleja del aturdimiento, sacrificio y proceso de matanza. Se apoya en el juego de herramientas 1 para demostrar los requisitos para proveer un aturdimiento y un sacrificio humanitario, así como aspectos técnicos del equipo, fisiología simple y/o requisitos para sacrificios de tipo \"religioso\".Módulo 3. Evaluación de Bienestar en la Planta de Sacrificio (2 días, clases y grupos de discusión, como componente se requiere la visita a una planta de sacrificio)Introducción al proceso de evaluación de Bienesta Animal dentro de la planta de sacrificio. Este módulo está elaborada para cubrir tanto prácticas comerciales y como tradicionales. A partir de los juegos de herramientas 1 y 2, el módulo de evaluación de la planta de sacrificio busca incluir aspectos morales/éticos así como aspectos técnicos y de procesos de evaluación. Las evaluaciones objetivas y subjetivas deben hacerse aplicables al conocimiento y a los recursos locales. Intropducción a las bases para la escritura de los Códigos de Prácticas de Bienestar Animal en la producción de carnes rojas. Las bases para la legislación y la relación entre legislación y Códigos de Prácticas. Introducción a la Seguridad dentro de la producción de la carne roja. Basándose en los juegos de herramientas 1, 2 y 3, el módulo de los Códigos de Prácticas incluye y adapta aspectos morales/éticos al igual que técnicos y aspectos de procesos de la producción compatibles con el conocimiento y los recursos locales.Introducción detallada al desarrollo de programas de Bienestar Animal. Basado en el conocimiento y experiencia de los juegos de herramientas 1, 2, 3 y 4 este módulo explica el proceso de identificar los criterios para el desarrollo de cursos vocacionales. El curso incluye discusiones iniciales sobre los requisitos de los equipos tutores y requisitos del curso, que llevan a la construcción de un curso corto de entrenamiento que se adapte al alumnado y a los recursos disponibles. Módulo 6. Desarrollo del Programa de Bienestar 2 (2 días, simposio y grupos de discusión) Continuando del Desarrollo del Programa de Bienestar 1 y basado en el conocimiento y experiencia de los juegos de herramientas 1, 2, 3 y 4, este módulo explica el proceso de identificar los criterios para el desarrollo de cursos más detallados dirigidos a personal superior dentro de la planta / administración / posiciones veterinarias o gubernamentales. Este curso incluye discusiones iniciales sobre los requisitos para equipos de tutores y requisitos de curso que lleven a la construcción de un programa de entrenamiento corto que se adapte al alumnado y a los recursos disponibles.Continuando el desarrollo de programas de Bienestar 1 y 2 y basado en el conocimiento y experiencia de los juegos de herramientas 1, 2, 3 y 4 estos módulos buscan ayudar en el desempeño de los cursos locales en Centroamérica. El Equipo de entrenamiento de Bienestar Animal de Bristol trabajará de cerca con tutores locales con el fin de ayudarlos en la preparación y ejecución de los cursos.La Reunión Inaugural del Comité Asesor del Proyecto se llevó a cabo los días 18 y 19 de octubre 2004 en el Hotel Holiday Inn de Managua, Nicaragua. La reunión fue seguido de un taller de planificación con los co-ejecutores nacionales en las mismas instalaciones. 2. El balance entre investigación y difusión de resultados -En la ejecución del proyecto se debe tomar especialmente en cuenta que la investigación es un insumo necesario para el desarrollo de sus actividades, pero que el énfasis del proyecto debe dirigirse en forma acelerada hacia las actividades de capacitación, información, extensión y difusión de resultados, asignando consecuentemente los recursos del proyecto 3. Complementariedad entre actividades y agencias -El coordinador regional, conjuntamente con las agencias ejecutoras, debe definir las estrategias para investigación, capacitación, difusión e información de manera que aseguren la complementariedad entre las distintas actividades y el uso mas adecuado de los recursos del proyecto. Estas estrategias deben tener en cuenta especialmente las necesidades de coordinación de actividades a nivel nacional en los países involucrados en el proyecto 4. Relación entre actividades y logros -Al definir las actividades, se deben indicar los logros que se espera conseguir con los los diferentes grupos de beneficiarios 5. Cadenas de producción -Las actividades del proyecto deben definirse y ejecutarse reconociendo que existen cadenas productivas de diverso nivel de desarrollo y orientadas hacia distintos mercados (local, urbano e internacional) en las que participan diferentes actores. Deben priorizarse aquellas cadenas en las que participan pequeños produc-tores 6. Viabilidad de resultados -Antes de usar los resultados de investigación en capacitación y difusión, debe realizarse un análisis de factibilidad económica que asegure la viabilidad y sustentabilidad de los productos de investigación que se difundan. Esto es especialmente importante para los estudios sobre forrajeras 7. Relación carne-leche -Considerando: a) la importancia de la producción de leche en la economía de los pequeños productores, y b) la creciente importancia del sector lácteo en América Central, el proyecto debe buscar como incorporar este hecho en las actividades que desarrolla a nivel de finca y generar propuestas para ser desarrolladas con otras agencias y fuentes de financiamiento en temas relacionados a la industria y el comercio de productos lácteos 8. Propiedad intelectual -Es importante identificar las consecuencias de la propiedad intelectual que CFC tiene sobre los productos generados por el proyecto en el futuro uso y difusión de esos productos por parte de las instituciones que los desarrollaron en el marco del proyecto 9. Evaluación de la demanda de servicios veterinarios -Al evaluar y recomendar servicios veterinarios es importante incluir evaluaciones económicas que permitan identificar los diferentes papeles que pueden jugar el sector público y el sector privado suministrando estos servicios a los diferentes eslabones en la cadena de producción cárnica, 10. Revisión del formato del plan de trabajo -En la revisión del plan de trabajo, los títulos de las actividades deben reflejar mejor la prioridad que CFC le da a la extensión y la difusión en relación a la investigación 11. Actividades complementarias al proyecto -En tanto se reconoce que pueden surgir en el futuro oportunidades para desarrollar nuevas actividades que complementen las actividades del proyecto con financiamiento propio, es importante que se de prioridad a las actividades centrales del proyecto y financiadas por CFC 12. Estrategia de investigación hacia la difusión.13. Contribuciones de terceros al proyecto -Identificar y aprovechar las experiencias validadas de terceros, que puedan ser útiles para los fines del proyecto 14. Alianzas estratégicas con el sector privado -Se deben explorar alianzas estratégicas con el sector privado para difundir los productos generados por el proyecto y sensibilizar a agentes de la cadena de producción cárnica y creadores de políticas en la región.15. Importancia del manejo animal -A nivel de finca, el proyecto ha priorizado la nutrición y la salud animal. Es importante que se incluya también a este nivel aspectos relacionados con el manejo animal.16. Papel de los mataderos rurales -Se considera de importancia que el proyecto recomiende y asesore a las autoridades nacionales sobre la forma de mejorar los mataderos rurales en términos de sanidad, inocuidad y eficiencia. 17. Uso de redes de colaboradores -Se debe crear una red de colaboradores para promover los productos del proyecto De la perspectiva del proyecto los puntos 2, 10,11,12, 14 y 17 son de alta importancia. En el segundo año el proyecto empieza su transición a difusión y la coordinación entre los diferentes entidades sera intensificada para lograr sinérgia entre el personal como entre los differentes rubros del proyecto.La documentación del evento será disponible para los colaboradores a finales de enero 2005.Los días 20 y 21 de octubre fueron dedicados a las discusiones con los colaboradores nacionales sobre los logros, problemas en el desempeño de las actividades y sugerencias para el plan de trabajo para el segundo año del proyecto. Las discusiones e interacciones mostraron un alto grado de involucramiento por parte de los colaboradores nacionales que parecen preparados de asumir más responsabilidad con el cambio del enfoque de investigación a difusión de las tecnologías. Una parte de los miembros del Comité Asesor asistieron también en la reunión de planificación. Así este taller ofreció la oportunidad de un intercambio directo entre los co-ejecutores nacionales y el Comité Asesor. ","tokenCount":"6344"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5666776f7da460d4f746781a55e595aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bb3d136e-4ac8-4d52-9706-e44e897c081e/retrieve","id":"1186589805"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"63f0122b-d2ea-4b98-8713-ee890bbfabc0","pagecount":"2","content":"The aim of this two-pager 1 is to provide input for the OneCGIAR investment plan. Notably to identify key research challenges within the OneCGIAR impact areas, how these areas interact with Dutch policy priorities and how the challenges could be addressed / strengthened.Scaling of innovations does not only involve multiple actors and changes; it is also likely to affect multiple development outcomes and objectives. This multidimensionality poses challenges and introduces trade-offs, as -more often than not-outcomes may be positive in one domain (e.g. productivity, profit) but negative in others (e.g. biodiversity, gender equity). Even if such trade-offs are not very apparent (e.g. in case of a multi-purpose breeding efforts), the involvement of multiple actors (e.g. breeders, seed companies, distributors, farmers, processers) implies distributional issues and coordination and information challenges. There is scope to enhance feedback loops, learning and co-development in seed systems, value chains and innovation systems to ensure that research is responsive to societal demands, and that scaling potential is considered when research agendas are set.While 'scaling' can be considered instrumentally as a practice, activity or strategy that AR4D organisations and their partners need to develop, implement, manage and coordinate, 'scaling' is also a topic of scientific investigation that can be approached from several disciplines. A recent (2020) special issue on 'Science of Scaling' in Elsevier's Agricultural Systems journal suggests that there are a number of important knowledge gaps where insights from different disciplines are likely to be relevant: 1 How do technical, organisational, economic, institutional, behavioural, discursive and political dimensions of change co-evolve over time, and which type(s) of change provides leverage over others in processes of innovation and scaling for systems transformation? 2 What are the strengths and weaknesses of innovation and scaling models governed through the public sector, the private sector, or publicprivate partnership? Which models are most appropriate for different types of innovation in different socio-economic or political settings? 3 How can (un)intended positive and negative conse-quences of scaling and system transformation be anticipated and differentiated across dimensions, levels, and societal groups, and how can such trade-offs and synergies guide investments in responsible innovation and scaling processes and pathways? 4 What kinds of institutional governance arrangements (e.g., incentive systems, fund allocation, adaptive management) can enable international AR4D organisations to engage effectively with impactful innovation and scaling processes?The current OneCGIAR strategy devotes considerable attention to the Practice of Scaling in the more instrumental sense, especially in Science Groups / Action Areas working on genetic innovations & resilient agro-food systems.However, the science of scaling is less clearly embedded still, which poses risks for the quality and underpinning of responsible scaling efforts and the realization of impact.At the same time there is an active community within the CGIAR that is interested in approaching Scaling in a more systemic and interdisciplinary manner, and CGIAR donors demand the CGIAR to perform better in the area of innovation and scaling. It is important to ensure that the 'practice of scaling' becomes informed by the 'science of scaling' to increase its efficiency and effectiveness.Dutch research institutes are at the forefront and highly visible on the topic of scaling and innovation. They are well positioned to advance this topic together with the various scaling communities and taskforces, and link it successfully with: (a) system transformation -taking a more systemic and interdisciplinary perspective; and (b) gender and diversity -ensuring that the benefits and risks of scaling are equitably distributed.To address the challenges we propose to develop a large strategic research programme with the following features:• Involving several social science disciplines to understand different dimensions of scaling (e.g. economics, sociology, innovation studies, governance, communication science, etc.); • Pay attention to the distribution of benefits and risks associated with scaling across different categories of beneficiaries (e.g. along dimensions of gender, wealth, land-tenure, occupation, etc.); ","tokenCount":"628"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"335199265bc3d5146cc8eb007239ed29","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e71919cf-2081-404c-9739-c85f8af9f6e9/retrieve","id":"-1410460732"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dfd99c21-e1da-41fe-be7e-11c07a654197","pagecount":"46","content":"Highlights:•= 55 Phaeoisariopsis griseola and Colletotrichum lindemuthianum isolates were characterized using host differential interactions.•= 400 isolates of Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (XCP) and X. campestris pv. phaseoli var. fuscans (XCPF) have been characterized using repetitive extragenic palindromic polymerase chain reaction (REP-PCR) and RFLP of the 26S ribosomal genes. Results show that XCP is very distinct from XCPF.•= 125 C. lindemuthianum isolates were characterized using microsatellites and REP-PCR.•= Polymorphic RAMS fragments were cloned to develop locus specific markers.•= 400 P. griseola isolates were characterized using RAMS and all isolates were put into Andean and Mesoamerican groups.•= The \"Afro-Andean\" group is part of the Andean group that represents isolates resulting from point mutations in genes for virulence.•= The presence of BGYMV virus in Colombia was confirmed.Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (CL): Twenty isolates collected from Ecuador were characterized using host differential interactions. Seven races were identified among the 20 isolates (Table 36). An interesting observation was the incidence of simple races, race 0 (six isolates), race 1, race 4, race 6, and race 7. Only race 256 was the most complex. These results show that the C. lindemuthianum population pathogen structure in Ecuador is predominantly Andean and composed of relatively simple races. Introgressing resistance genes found in the differential cultivars Cornell 49242, MEX 222, PI 207262, Tu, AB 136, and G 2333 will be sufficient to manage anthracnose in this country.  Contributors: G Mahuku, C Jara, G Castellanos, J Cuasquer (IP-1); R Buruchara (IP-2)Rationale: A clear understanding of the genetic variation that exists in pathogen populations is essential not only in formulating appropriate management strategies, but also in understanding the origin and maintenance of genetic variation and the emergence of new pathogen variants and/or races. Common bacterial blight is a major disease of common bean in temperate and tropical countries, and yield losses can be as high as 60%. Two phytogenetically distinct Xanthomonas, XCP and XCPF, cause the disease.Variation in pathogenicity occurs among XCP isolates. This variation is mainly quantitative and differential interactions between host and isolate are not clearly exhibited. Controversy surrounds the existence of genetic diversity within XCP, with some researchers reporting the existence of host differential interactions in common bean, while others have disputed this report. This study is aimed at using molecular techniques to elucidate the amount of genetic diversity that exists within and between XCP and XCPF. This information will be used to select strains to screen a range of Phaseolus genotypes and establish if host differential interaction occurs within CBB.Materials and methods: DNA was extracted from 450 CBB pathogens and amplified using three enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) REP-PCR primers, REP-PCR sequences, and BOX elements (BOX PCR). In addition, restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the 26S ribosomal gene were obtained using conserved primers and digestion with restriction endonucleases. We also made bacterial isolations and pathogenicity tests for 20 samples: seven from Malawi, one from Colombia, one from Puerto Rico, one from Honduras, three from Nicaragua, and seven from Iran. These isolates were pathogenic on BAT 41, the susceptible check.Results and discussion: Preliminary analysis of the results has shown that XCP and XCPF are distinct at the molecular level and should be separated into different groups (Figure 46). However, very little genetic diversity exists for the 26S ribosomal gene.Only three restriction enzymes (RSA 1, MBO 1, and HAE III) showed polymorphisms that separated XCP from XCPF and showed no within-group polymorphisms. Figure 47 shows profiles generated after digestion with RSA 1. The REP-PCR revealed greater genetic diversity that was correlated to geographical origin of the isolates. We are analyzing all the molecular data and generating molecular genetic groups to use for host differential analysis.Conclusions: Preliminary analysis has shown that XCP and XCPF are distinct. However, more information will be obtained following completion of this study.Contributors: G Mahuku, C Jara  Rationale: Anthracnose of bean, caused by C. lindemuthianum, is an important disease in the highlands of Africa and Latin America. Yield losses from this pathogen can be as high as 90%. It has been shown to exist in many different forms (races), and the major reason for the continued susceptibility of bean to anthracnose is pathogen variation. By analyzing the structure of pathogen populations and the ways in which populations respond to experimental, agricultural, and natural constraints, the mechanisms by which pathogen population change can be understood. This understanding can provide the basis for formulating disease support systems that lead to effective disease management. This project seeks to develop molecular markers (microsatellites) for genetic characterization and differentiation of C. lindemuthianum races.To check if the isolates maintained their virulence during long periods of storage, 12 isolates from different countries and representing different races were tested in the greenhouse on a set of host differential genotypes. From our collection of 1050 isolates, 125 C. lindemuthianum isolates were selected and DNA extracted from them. The isolates were selected to represent the greatest genetic diversity possible (i.e., the most widely distributed and frequently occurring C. lindemuthianum race from different geographical origin). We took into account the geographical origin of the isolates and the race designation based on host differential interaction on 12 bean genotypes.Molecular characterization of the isolates was done using RAMS and REP-PCR primers, ERIC-PCR, REP-PCR sequences, and BOX-PCR, originally developed for amplifying conserved repetitive sequences in the bacterial genome.Results and discussion: Evaluation of the 12 isolates on a set of host differentials showed that the isolates had maintained their virulence despite long periods of storage (Table 37). Initial race designations were in agreement with our current test characterization, showing that the storage conditions did not influence the virulence of the pathogen.Preliminary results obtained from characterization of isolates using RAMS have shown high levels of polymorphism among and within C. lindemuthianum races (Figure 48). No clear correlation between race designation and molecular phenotype were apparent (Figure 49). However, we are in the process of correlating individual RAMS bands for each of the RAMS primers used in this study in order to identify race-discriminating bands.  We have started cloning polymorphic and race-discriminating bands for subsequent sequencing and development of locus-specific microsatellite markers for C. lindemuthianum that can be used for population genetic studies and to elucidate the mechanisms leading to the high genetic diversity and distribution observed in this fungus. The wide genetic polymorphism among C. lindemuthianum races revealed by microsatellite markers shows the great potential of this type of marker for population genetic studies of this fungus.  Materials and methods: P. griseola isolates were divided into three groups: Andean, Mesoamerican, and Afro-Andean, based on differential interaction on 12 bean cultivars.The molecular profiles of these isolates were assessed using RAPD, RAMS, and restriction digestion of the amplified ribosomal intergenic spacer region (IGS-RFLP). Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) and cluster and multiple correspondence analysis were used to determine the relationship existing between P. griseola groups. In addition, statistical support for phenogram branching in qualitative analyses was obtained using bootstrapped analysis.Results and discussion: Polymorphic and easily scorable banding patterns were obtained using RAMS, RAPDs, and IGS-RFLP. Figure 50 shows comparative banding patterns obtained using the RAMS primer (CA)n for some P. griseola isolates.Figure 50. Band profiles generated for Phaeoisariopsis griseola isolates using RAMS primer (CA)n. The isolates in lanes 1-10, 12, 18-27, and 29 belong to the Andean group, while isolates in lanes 11, 13-17, and 28 are Mesoamerican. Lane 30 represents the 100 bp molecular DNA step marker.  Analysis of genetic differentiation showed that most of the genetic diversity was distributed within groups (81%) rather than between groups (19%). The AMOVA analysis showed that Andean and Afro-Andean P. griseola isolates belonged to the same group (Gst = 0.067), whereas the Mesoamerican group was distinct from both the Andean group (Gst = 0.41) and the Afro-Andean (Gst = 0.54) (Figure 52). These high levels of genetic differentiation signify the distance between the Andean and Mesoamerican group of P. griseola, further confirming the co-evolution concept. However, the low levels of genetic differentiation between the Andean and Afro-Andean groups show that these isolates represent recent events of genetic separation that has not occurred long enough to significantly separate them into two groups.Similarly, cluster analysis separated isolates into two major groups, corresponding to Andean and Mesoamerican groups, and all isolates classified as Afro-Andean separated with the Andean group (Figure 53).  where BGYMV has emerged in past years, despite the apparently unsuitable climatic conditions that affect the biology of the whitefly vector, Bemisia tabaci, in those countries. In South America, only the related species, BGMV, has been reported. This virus induces similar yellowing symptoms in common bean varieties, but it is genomically different to BGYMV.The existence of whitefly-transmitted viruses in common bean has been known for at least two decades in Colombia. Galvez and co-workers reported on the occurrence of bean golden mosaic and bean dwarf mosaic in the municipality of El Espinal, department of Tolima 5 .Golden mosaic-like symptoms have also been sporadically observed at CIAT at a very low incidence since the early 1980s. Recently, in CIAT fields, a few bean plants showing intense yellowing were tested with a monoclonal antibody that detects begomoviruses in general, confirming the presence of a whitefly-transmitted virus in the affected common bean plants. This virus was characterized at CIAT at the molecular level, as an isolate of BGYMV.The Colombian isolate had over 90% amino acid and nucleotide sequence homology with the known BGYMV isolated from Central America and the Caribbean, at the coat protein, replicase, and common region levels.Conclusions: This is the first report of the presence of BGYMV in South America. However, it is unlikely that the virus will become economically important in the Cauca Valley of Colombia because of the marginal climatic conditions that predominate in this region for most of the year. Nevertheless, the virus may appear sporadically during the dry months of the year when B. tabaci populations tend to increase.Tecnología \"Francisco José de Caldas\" [COLCIENCIAS]); FJ Morales, M Castaño, CJ Alvarez400 isolates of the ALS pathogen have been characterized using molecular and virulence markers and pathogen structure. This information is being used in looking for sources of resistance and developing gene deployment strategies.400 isolates of Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli were characterized using REP-PCR and RFLP of the 26S ribosomal genes and results show that XCP is highly distinct from XCPF. This information will contribute to the elucidation of races in this pathogen, and the development of resistant varieties.The \"Afro-Andean\" group is part of the Andean group that represents isolates resulting from point mutations in genes for virulence. This information contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying emergence of virulence in P. griseola.Highlights:•= 150 RILs were identified as having high levels of CBB resistance under both field and greenhouse conditions.•= 16 lines were identified that combine Andean and Mesoamerican ALS-resistance genes.•= Inheritance of ALS resistance to Andean and Mesoamerican P. griseola races in G 19833 and DOR 364 is different and complex being recessive for one race and dominant for another, depending on the source of resistance.•= Resistance to Ascochyta blight was found to be largely under additive gene control in P. coccineus although it tended to be recessive in P. polyanthus. From two to four genes appeared to control resistance.•= QTL mapping of resistance to Thrips palmi shows few genes controlling resistance to insect damage and reproductive adaptation under high infestation pressure.•= QTL mapping of ALS and anthracnose disease resistance shows clustering of resistance genes in the bean genome.•= Populations were developed to study the inheritance of ALS resistance.Rationale: Common bacterial blight (CBB) is the most widely distributed disease of common bean that can cause yield losses of more than 40%. High levels of resistance to CBB have been introgressed from tepary bean, P. acutifolius, to develop a series of highly CBB-resistant P. vulgaris VAX lines, of which VAX 6 is especially resistant. However, its seed type and color is not desirable and resistance must be transferred to preferred grain and market class type. In order to maintain the same level of resistance as currently found in VAX 6, all the genes must be transferred to the same cultivar, and markers that are tightly linked to these genes are indispensable. Our objective was to screen RILs developed by crossing MAR 1 (CBB susceptible) x VAX 6 (CBB resistant) under field and greenhouse conditions to generate phenotypic data needed for QTL analysis and subsequent tagging of CBB resistance genes in VAX 6.Materials and methods: VAX 6, MAR 1, and 223 RILs that were developed from a cross between VAX 6 (CBB resistant) and MAR 1 (CBB susceptible) were planted at Santander de Quilichao and inoculated three times using a local isolate of XCP. The first inoculation was done 25 days after planting and at weekly intervals thereafter. Four evaluations were taken starting 10 days after the first inoculation and using a 1 to 9 scale, where 1 represents no symptoms and 9 represents severe symptoms. Ratings of 1-3 are considered resistant, 4-6 intermediate, and >6 susceptible response. Similarly, the same RILs were screened in the greenhouse with the same XCP strain and using the same evaluation scale.To select the best XCP strain to use in field and greenhouse evaluations, the parents, MAR 1 and VAX 6, were screened with isolates collected in Santander de Quilichao. No differences were obtained in the levels of infection, but the fuscans variant of XCP consistently gave high disease ratings. Therefore XCP isolates were selected that are normally used for all inoculations in Santander de Quilichao. Most of the MAR 1 x VAX 6 RILS (76%) were resistant to XCP under field conditions, 21% were intermediate, and 3% susceptible (Figure 54). As expected, MAR 1 had a susceptible reaction (rating 7) while VAX 6 had a resistant reaction (rating 2). Under greenhouse conditions 78% of the RILS were resistant, 20% intermediate, and 2% susceptible (Figure 55). The field and greenhouse results were highly correlated (r = 0.94) showing the high levels of resistance that were introgressed into VAX 6. We are reevaluating the RILS in the field with the same isolate, and making greenhouse evaluations with the fuscans variant of XCP. In addition, the parents are being screened with RAPD and microsatellite markers in order to identify polymorphic markers that can be used to screen the RILS to identify QTLs linked to resistance genes.  Rationale: Previous studies have shown that the variety MAR 1 is resistant to several ALS races including race 31-55, while the variety VAX 6 is not. In addition, MAR 1 has been shown to yield moderately well under low soil fertility, especially low P, and yields reasonably well under drought conditions although it has low levels of tolerance to Macrophomina phaseolina. We screened RILs that were developed by crossing MAR 1 (ALS resistant, but susceptible to CBB) and VAX 6 (susceptible to ALS, but highly resistant to CBB) for resistance to race 31-55 of ALS. These RILs present a very interesting population from which materials with resistance to multiple constraints (e.g., CBB, ALS, and low soil fertility) can be identified. This study was initiated to look at the nature and inheritance of resistance to ALS that is in MAR 1, develop markers that are tightly linked to the resistance genes, and identify materials that are resistant both to CBB and ALS.The parents, VAX 6 and MAR 1, and 233 RILS, which were derived from a cross between VAX 6 (ALS susceptible) and MAR 1 (ALS resistant), were planted at Santander de Quilichao and inoculated three times using the ALS race 31-55 local. The first inoculation was done 25 days after planting and further inoculations at weekly intervals thereafter. Evaluations for disease severity were assessed four times, starting 2 weeks after inoculation, using a CIAT 1-9 scale, where 1 represents no visible symptoms and 9 represents severe symptoms and disease expression. Plants that had a rating of 3 or less were considered resistant, 4-6 intermediate, and a rating greater than 6, susceptible.Results and discussion: Figure 56 shows the response of the 233 RILs to inoculation with P. griseola. Preliminary results showed that 40% of the plants were resistant, while 60% had a susceptible response. These materials will be screened again under field and greenhouse conditions using the same ALS race. We are generating molecular profiles of these materials for QTL analysis and identification of markers for MAS breeding.Conclusions: Pending completion of study.Figure 56.Response of 233 recombinant inbred lines derived from crossing MAR 1 x VAX 6 following inoculation with Phaeoisariopsis griseola under field conditions. Plants that had a rating of 3 or less were considered resistant, 4-6 intermediate, and a rating greater than 6, susceptible.Contributors: G Mahuku, C JaraRationale: Pathogen characterization studies have shown that all P. griseola races can be separated into two major groups that correspond to the common bean gene pools. A unique opportunity exists of combining Andean and Mesoamerican genes to have broad spectrum and durable resistance to this pathogen. However, a clear understanding of the nature and inheritance of the identified sources of resistance (resistance genes) is necessary to fully take advantage of this host pathogen co-evolution to manage ALS of common bean. This is an ongoing study to understand the nature of inheritance of ALS resistance in common bean, with the ultimate objective of developing molecular markers that can be used to aid in transferring this resistance to well-adapted, market-class type bean.Materials and methods: Eighty-seven RILs derived from a cross of DOR 364 (Mesoamerican variety) x G 19833 (Andean variety) were screened under greenhouse conditions using four P. griseola isolates. Two Andean and two Mesoamerican isolates were used in this study. With regard to these four isolates, DOR 364 is resistant to the Andean races of P. griseola, but highly susceptible to Mesoamerican races, while G 19833 is highly resistant to the Mesoamerican races that were used, but susceptible to Andean races. The same isolates were used to screen F 1 (100 plants) and F 2 (100 plants) derived from DOR 364 x G 19833 crosses. Evaluations for disease severity were assessed using a CIAT 1-9 scale, where 1 represents no visible symptoms and 9 = severe symptoms and disease expression. Ratings of 1 to 3 were considered resistant and ratings >4 as susceptible.Results and discussion: Sixteen of the RILS were resistant to the four isolates representing Mesoamerican and Andean races of P. griseola (Figure 57). These materials represent interesting sources of ALS resistance that combine Andean and Mesoamerican resistance genes that have been pyramided in the same material. These materials will be screened with more isolates from both Andean and Mesoamerican groups to establish the extent of activity and durability of this resistance. Table 38 shows the distributions of resistance and susceptibility following inoculation with Andean and Mesoamerican isolates of P. griseola, while Figure 58 shows the response distribution of F 1 populations following inoculation with Mesoamerican races of P. griseola. Preliminary analysis of the results is indicative of two genes conferring resistance to P. griseola acting in a dominant manner to Andean races, and in a recessive manner to Mesoamerican races. However, more information will be obtained following QTL analysis and evaluation of backcrosses to DOR 364 and G 19833.  Similar results were observed in the evaluations of 100 plants each of the F 1 and F 2 populations. All F 1 materials were resistant to Andean races of P. griseola, while in the F 2 population, 13 were susceptible and 87 were resistant, thus indicating that resistance to this group of isolates might be controlled by two dominant genes (Table 38). F 1 plants that were inoculated with Mesoamerican isolates gave a 1:1 ratio of resistance to susceptible plants (Figure 58). However, in the F 2 population, 14 plants were resistant and 86 were susceptible (Table 38). These results show that recessive genes are conditioning resistance to this race. The preliminary results reported here show the complex nature of inheritance of P. griseola resistance in the two genotypes under study. Resistance to the two major groups of P. griseola might be inherited differently, showing recessive genes for Mesoamerican isolates and dominant genes for Andean races. Preliminary analysis shows that at least two genes are conditioning resistance. In addition, there might be minor genes that are modifying the effect of the major genes in a race-specific manner. More information will be obtained following evaluations of the backcrosses to DOR 364 and G 19833, F 3 population, and QTL analysis of molecular profiles of the RILs.Contributors: C Jara, G Mahuku, H Terán, S BeebeRationale: High levels of resistance to the most virulent and aggressive isolate of P. griseola (race 63-63) have been found in some materials from the highlands of Guatemala. Because of adaptation problems, this resistance has to be transferred to adaptable market-class type beans. In addition, the activity of these genes and the number and nature of this resistance has to be elucidated in order to take full advantage in using this resistance to manage ALS. This study is being conducted to transfer resistance genes from Mesoamerican climbers to Mesoamerican bush beans, to study the nature and inheritance of resistance in these climbers, and to develop populations for subsequent tagging of the genes with the broadest activity to facilitate transfer into other market-class type beans.Crosses were initiated to transfer ALS resistance in climbers (G 10474, G 10909, G 4691, G 18224, G 3991, and G 14301) into Mesoamerican bush types (G 4691, G 3991, and G 18224). In addition, crosses were made between these climbers and Sprite (a universal susceptible) to facilitate studying the nature and inheritance of ALS resistance in these materials. F 1 populations have been made and are currently being advanced to F 2 as well as backcrossed to resistant and susceptible (Sprite) parents.Results and discussion: Results are pending evaluations and analysis of populations.This study is in progress and results are pending evaluation of the generated populations.Contributors: S Beebe, H Terán, C Jara, G MahukuRationale: Because very little is known about the number of genes conditioning resistance in our differential materials, this has limited our ability to use virulence data to make inferences about our P. griseola populations. Knowledge of the resistance genes would facilitate precise definition of P. griseola races, their distribution, and relevance, and help in deploying resistant genes in ways that prolong their durability. Also, this would help in identifying the genes to combine for pyramiding in order to achieve longlasting resistance.Crosses were made between PAN 72 and all the Mesoamerican differential varieties, and A 36 and all Andean differential varieties. F 1 , F 2 , and backcrosses to both the resistance and susceptible sources were recently completed. Host pathogen interactions are pending for this study.Results and discussion: Results are pending evaluations of populations.Contributors: G Mahuku, MW Blair, S BeebeRationale: Although Ascochyta blight is an important limitation in bean production in the moist highlands of the Andes and Africa, no good level of resistance has existed within the primary common bean gene pool until now, except for the variety ICTA Hunapú, which only recently was recognized as resistant. With the prospects of better sources of resistance, it is of interest to understand better the genetic control of this trait.Because the best resistance is found in the secondary gene pool, in Phaseolus polyanthus (PP) and in P. coccineus (PC), it was decided to study inheritance in resistant x susceptible crosses within and between these two species. A highly susceptible interspecific progeny with P. coccineus phenotype was identified and eventually coded as ASC 76. The F 1 generations of three crosses of ASC 7 x P. coccineus were evaluated in the field for their reaction to Ascochyta in seasons 1999B and 2000A, and the F 2 generation in the 2000A season (Table 39). Plants of the F 1 generation were replicated over time. This was possible because the plants were maintained alive between seasons by taking cuttings or by pruning old plants and taking data on regrowth. The F 2 generation was represented by the harvest of four F 1 plants of each cross, and the progeny of each F 1 plant was maintained as a separate subpopulation of 30 to 40 plants each. This permitted observations on possible segregation in the P. coccineus parent for resistance genes.In the course of field evaluations, it was realized that a cross created for studying the resistance to BGYMV (G 35172 x G 35337, DRIN 13229) was also contrasting for resistance to Ascochyta. G 35172 is PC and G 35337 is PP. F 2 plants were being increased in the screenhouse to the F 3 generation, thus 144 F 2 plants were transplanted to the field and inoculated with Ascochyta for evaluation in the 1999B season. For this population, no F 1 plants were available, but as in the case of the other populations, harvests from individual F 1 plants were managed as subpopulations to observe possible segregation from the parents.Statistical analysis was carried out as per Mathers and Jinks (1977) 6 for estimating gene number controlling a quantitative trait, according to the formula:Results: All resistant parents of the three ASC 76 crosses rated about 3 on a 9-point scale, and the susceptible ASC 76 rated 6.1 (Table 39). Disease reaction in F 1 plants was intermediate between those of the resistant and susceptible parents in every case. In two crosses, the F 1 rating was very close to the mid-parent value (4.5) that would be expected in the case of additive gene action. The exception was the F 1 of ASC 76 x G 35509, which presented a reaction more similar to the resistant parent. In other words, resistance in this F 1 behaved as if it were slightly dominant. In the F 2 of the three P. coccineus crosses (Table 39) resistance continued to behave as if it were generally additive; even in the population of ASC 76 x G 35509 where some evidence of dominance was observed in F 1 . Thus, the general conclusion of additive gene action is maintained.The population of G 35172 x G 35337, however, presented a slightly different pattern.Because G 35337 is a polyanthus, it has higher resistance (rating of 2.1) than the coccineus accessions used for the Ascochyta inheritance studies. G 35172 (coccineus) rated 6.3. The mid-parent of the two would be about 4.2, but the three F 2 subpopulations all presented symptoms of 5.3 to 5.4, or well above the mid-parent and at the upper extreme of the F 2 populations involving coccineus. It appears that the resistance of polyanthus may tend to be recessive.Because all four populations consisted of subpopulations derived from individual F 1 plants, each subpopulation was evaluated for mean and variance. In the populations involving a coccineus source crossed to ASC 76, those with G 35509 and with G 35358 presented uniform variances, but means were distinct. Thus, one subpopulation was eliminated from the analysis of each population and the remainder was evaluated jointly.In two of the populations, the estimate suggested that two genes might be segregating, while in the third population, three or four genes might differentiate the parents. In the case of the population G 35172 x G 35337, the variances were distinct; thus two subpopulations were analyzed jointly and the third separately. Here also, the variances suggested that two genes might be segregating in the analysis of two subpopulations, and only one gene in the third subpopulation. It is in fact feasible that a single population gives different results, because the parents are possibly heterozygous and segregating, such that subpopulations are distinct.These estimates are in any case approximate, because the analysis carries with it several assumptions that are of questionable validity in virtually any genetic analysis, especially that all gene effects are equal. Nonetheless, the results were fairly uniform in concluding that resistance is controlled by a limited number of genes, but in most cases more than one gene. For practical breeding purposes, this information is useful and is about as detailed as most genetic information often is.Conclusions: Results of the genetic studies suggest that the expression of resistance genes in general tends to be additive, although with different parents, resistance could express as slightly dominant in some cases and slightly recessive in others, especially with the polyanthus parent that was used. Gene number is probably in the range of 2 to 4. Given the progress in selecting for resistance in the breeding populations and an apparently acceptable heritability, the conclusion of additive gene action would tend also to be confirmed through the breeding efforts.Contributors: S Beebe, C Cajiao, G Mahuku (IP-1); MC Duque (SB-2)A better understanding of the genetics of insect and disease resistance will lead to improved management of these pests. Basic to this endeavor is a thorough analysis of the QTL that provide pest resistance and how they are organized at the genome level. An appreciation of gene organization will allow plant breeders to use MAS more effectively to pyramid multiple resistance factors into bean varieties with commercial seed types.Rationale: Thrips palmi is a damaging insect pest of common bean and other dicotyledonous crops that was introduced from Asia (Java, Indonesia) into the Americas during the last decade. Starting in the Caribbean, (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico) the species spread rapidly into the United States and northern South America (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela). The greatest damage inflicted on common bean production in Colombia is seen in climbing bean varieties that are grown for the fresh market (including snap beans and Cargamanto dry beans). Sequential plantings, common in the production of snap beans, is highly conducive to heavy infestations of thrips and whiteflies, which are synergistic in the damage that they inflict. Misuse of insecticides also can lead to resurgence in thrips populations. The first studies in integrated pest management (IPM) of thrips were conducted recently at CIAT (see IP-1 Project Annual Report). BAT 881 has been a bean genotype with the best thrips resistance. The objective of this research was to study the inheritance and location of QTL controlling the resistance derived from this variety in a RIL population derived from BAT 881 x G 21212.The BAT 881 x G 21212 population, consisting of 139 RILs, was evaluated over two seasons at a field site in Pradera, Valle, Colombia. In the first season (semester 1999A-April), the population was planted as an unreplicated trial; while in the second season (semester 1999B-July) it was planted in an RCBD with three repetitions. The parents of the population were included in both seasons. The bean genotypes PVA 773 and RAZ 136 were used as check varieties in the first season, while PVA 773 was used alone in the second season. Infestation by Thrips palmi was increased with an initial planting adjacent to a heavily affected snap bean field. The lines were evaluated on a per row basis using a 1-9 scale according to the CIAT standard evaluation (1 = resistant. 9 = susceptible). DNA was extracted from 95 of the RILs by a standard miniprep procedure. One hundred and fifty one RAPD markers were run on these individuals and the segregation information was analyzed to construct a genetic map using the software program MAPMAKER. Quantitative trait loci were identified through single-point regression analysis of the phenotypic data onto the marker genotypes using the software program qGENE.The population of RILs was normally distributed for thrips resistance, suggesting that the inheritance of resistance was truly quantitative (Figure 59). Some of the RILs outperformed either parent suggesting transgressive segregation had occurred, however the best lines were different in each season. BAT 881 was the more resistant parent for both resistance scores (damage score = 6.0 in 1999A and 7.5 in 1995B; reproductive adaptation = 7.0 in 1999A and 7.1 in 1999B). However, G 21212 was similar for its reproductive adaptation (9.0 in 1999A and 7.6 in 1999B), but inferior for its susceptibility to thrips damage (8.0 in 1999A and 8.2 in 1999B). Overall the correlation between seasons was moderate (r = 0.277 for damage score and r = 0.371 for reproductive adaptation), while the correlation between the two resistance scores within a season were high (r = 0.873 for 1999A and r = 0.751 for 1999B).Figure 59. Population distribution for damage caused by Thrips palmi and pod load under heavy infestation in an unreplicated field trial conducted in Pradera, Valle, during two seasons (April -1999A andJuly -1999B).Positive QTLs were found for thrips resistance in both seasons and were associated with both parents. However, it appeared that G 21212 was the principal source of QTLs for resistance to thrips damage, while both BAT 881 and G 21212 were the sources of QTLs for reproductive adaptation under thrips infestation. This varied from 1999A, when a mix of both genotypes provided QTLs for reproductive adaptation, to 1999B, when G 21212 provided all but one of the positive QTLs. An additional single QTL from BAT 881 provided resistance to damage in 1999B, but was unlinked to other markers. The existence of additive QTLs from both parents may explain why transgressive segregation was observed in some of the individual progeny.Because the trial was replicated in 1999B, QTLs tended to be more highly significant for the 1999B data (up to F-value of 11.2) than for 1999A (maximum F-value of 6.5). In 1999A addition, in 1999B the inheritance of resistance appeared to be fairly simple: only one QTL each could be identified for resistance to damage and reproductive adaptation. The QTL for resistance to damage consisted of six significant markers on a single linkage group and was associated with the G 21212 allele. The QTL for reproductive adaptation was found on a different linkage group and was associated with the BAT 881 allele. This QTL was also observed in the data from the first season, but at a slightly different location along the linkage group.Broad-sense heritabilities of thrips resistance were estimated on an entry mean basis for the replicated data from the second season. Heritabilities were about 61% for the damage score and 44% for the reproductive adaptation score. The corresponding estimates of narrow sense heritabilities would be similar given that the genotypes were all F 6 -derived RILs in which most of the genetic variance is caused by additive rather than dominant gene action.The inheritance of thrips resistance was not as complex as might have been expected and the existence of major QTLs will allow thrips resistance to be selected in segregating populations. The heritabilities estimated were relatively high, indicating that the trait can be selected without extensive genotype replication. However, the variability in QTLs detected from one season to the next indicates that GxE interactions may be important. Another population derived from the cross BAT 477 x DOR 364 will be analyzed for thrips resistance to confirm the magnitude of the heritability estimates and to identify whether the QTLs are common across both the BAT 881 x G 21212 and BAT 477 x DOR 364 populations. The four genotypes used to produce these two populations are from the same race of Mesoamerican beans, therefore it will be interesting to see how well the genes for thrips resistance identified in these studies can be transferred into other gene pools. We will attempt to pinpoint the exact location of the QTLs identified so far and may develop new SCAR markers for the most important QTLs. In addition, we will test the validity of microsatellite or SCAR markers for selection of thrips resistance.Contributors: MW Blair, C Cardona, S Beebe, JM BuenoRationale: All together, several dozen major resistance genes have been tagged in common bean, mostly through bulked segregant or simple genetic linkage analysis with either RAPDs or SCARs. Reliable markers have been developed for the well-known genes for resistance to BCMV (I, bc-3, bc-12), BGMV (bgm-1), rust (Ur-3, Ur-5, Ur-11), and anthracnose (Co-4 2 and Co-2). Most of the resistance genes studied have been simply inherited. Relatively fewer studies have looked at the QTLs controlling partial resistance to diseases. The objective of this research was to identify QTLs for resistance to two pathogens of common beans, Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, the causal agent of anthracnose, and Phaeoisariopsis griseola, the causal agent of ALS, in a wellcharacterized, genetic mapping population based on the cross DOR 364 x G 19833.Recombinant inbred lines from this population have been a highly useful resource for field and greenhouse studies because they are a genetically stable set of advanced lines that can be tested in replicated trials with a series of disease isolates.The 87 RILs of the DOR 364 x G 19833 population were tested with six isolates each of ALS (PG3COL, PG260COL, PGCRI, PG3ELS, PG14HND, and PG12MEX), and anthracnose (CL5DOM, CL20COL, CL43COL, CL77CRI, CL235COL, and CL289COL) by artificial inoculation in the greenhouse. Disease evaluation was done qualitatively by treating disease reaction as a binary trait; and assigning the RILs into a susceptible or resistant category. For six of the disease isolates (PG260COL, PG3ELS, PG14HND, CL20COL, CL43COL, and CL77CRI) data were also taken quantitatively and the individual plants were scored for resistance on a 1-9 scale according to the CIAT standard evaluation (where 1 = resistant and 9 = susceptible). The genetic map for the population consisted of 417 markers (AFLPs, microsatellites, RAPDs, and RFLPs) and was constructed using the software program MAPMAKER. The microsatellite markers were placed at a minimum LOD score of 2.5, while the rest of the markers had a minimum LOD score of 2.0. The QTL were identified using the software program qGENE by: (1) single-marker contingency analysis using chisquare tests comparing the genotypic classes to the categorical data from the qualitative disease evaluation; and (2) single-point regression analysis of the quantitative disease score data onto the marker genotypes. A probability threshold of P = 0.0001 was used for the individual marker tests to reduce overall type I error rate to P = 0.05, based on the full set of genetic markers used in the experiment.Results: For anthracnose, significant QTLs were found on chromosome 3, 4, 10, and 11 (Figure 60). Three isolates (CL77CRI, CL20COL, and CL5DOM) uncovered the same resistance QTL on chromosome 3. One of these isolates (CL5DOM) also uncovered a QTL on chromosome 4. Another isolate (CL235COL) uncovered a second QTL for resistance on chromosome 4 proximal to the previous QTL. A fifth isolate (CL43COL) uncovered two QTLs, one on chromosome 10 and another on chromosome 11. No significant QTLs were detected using the isolate CL289COL. Angular leaf spotThe QTLs on chromosome 4 coincided in location with known resistance factors for anthracnose (Co-8, Co-y, and Co-z cluster) and BGMV resistance. The QTL on chromosome 11 was probably a previously undescribed allele of the Are gene (renamed Co-2). The resistance QTLs on chromosomes 3 and 10 do not coincide with any previously mapped resistance genes in common bean, but may be allelic to the anthracnose genes that have been characterized and tagged, but not mapped (Co-1, Co-4, . Alternatively they may be allelic to the QTLs detected in the BAT 93 x JaloEEP 558 population studied by Geffroy et al. 7 .For ALS, significant QTLs were found on chromosomes 3, 4, and 10. Four isolates (PG12MEX, PG3ELS, PG14HND, and PGCRI) uncovered QTLs on chromosome 10 in the vicinity of the QTL for anthracnose described above. The isolate PG12MEX also detected a QTL at one end of chromosome 3. All along chromosome 3, minor genes appeared to be proportioning resistance against several isolates, but their effects were less significant. The isolate PG260COL uncovered a significant QTL on chromosome 4, while the isolate PG3COL uncovered no QTLs for resistance. The QTLs uncovered in this study may be alleles of the two ALS resistance genes, Phg-1, and Phg-2, which have been tagged with SCARs, but have not been localized on the genetic map of common bean.Analysis of the quantitative data showed the same QTLs as those of the qualitative evaluation described above. For all the QTLs identified in this study, the positive effect was always from alleles of the resistant parent G 19833, not from those of the susceptible parent DOR 364. In contrast, a similar study showed that the DOR 364 provided resistance QTLs for BGMV.The inheritance of resistance to both anthracnose and ALS appeared to be surprisingly simple in the DOR 364 x G 19833 population. A maximum of two chromosomes were involved in resistance to any single isolate and on the average only one significant QTL could be identified per inoculation. Quantum trait loci for disease resistance were found in five basic locations in the genome, both loci in areas that are already known to contain resistance genes and in areas where no resistance genes have been identified previously. A common QTL was found for resistance to both diseases. At resistance gene clusters, resistance genes are often found that function against multiple diseases and minor genes are found associated with major genes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the QTLs for resistance to the two diseases provided by G 19833 are clustered together with known resistance genes or with each other.Contributors: MW Blair, S Beebe, C Jara, G Mahuku (IP-1); F Pedraza (SB-2)Rationale: Few of the genes involved in resistance to the ALS pathogen, Phaeoisariopsis griseola, have been studied systematically. The objective of this work was to create F 2 populations and Andean nearly isogenic lines to analyze ALS resistance genes from the differential varieties and new sources of resistance discovered by the Bean Pathology section.The study was initiated with a search for a susceptible Andean bush variety to use in crosses for the genetic studies. The genotypes A 36, AND 277, AND 279, Araucaria 80, CAL 96, CAL 143, G 4494, G 5849, G 18370, G 18355, K 20, and PVA 800 A were inoculated with four strains -two from Colombia and one each from Malawi and Ecuador. The genotype A 36 was selected as the standard susceptible, because in addition to being susceptible to all four strains it has several other advantages including high yield, commercial seed type, and good architecture for a type II bush bean.Genotypes AND 277, AND 279, CAL 96, and CAL 143 were selected as additional donor parents because they were resistant to some strains.For the inheritance study, the 10 differential resistant lines were crossed within gene pools to the susceptible varieties PAN 72 (Mesoamerican) and A 36 (Andean). For isoline development, the Mesoamerican differentials were crossed across gene pools to the Andean lines, CAL 96, CAL 143, and AND 277. In an effort to pyramid various Andean genes for resistance, four additional Andean sources of resistance from Rwanda (G 20523, G 20743, G 22255, and G 22267) were crossed to four semi-commercial Andean red-mottled bush beans with partial resistance (AFR 735,AND 277,AND 279,and CAL 143). Table 40 summarizes the crosses.Results and discussion: are pending.Conclusions and future plans: F 1 plants will be selfed to produce F 2 populations and backcrossed to produce isolines, which will be used for inheritance studies in the most pertinent crosses. It will be interesting to see whether the genes found in these studies are at the same locations of QTLs found in the DOR 364 x G 19833 population.Backcrossing will continue to incorporate the resistance genes from the Mesoamerican differentials into the Andean recipient parents. The pyramiding strategy of crossing between Andean differentials and Andean resistance sources with Andean commercial or semi-commercial genotypes will be tested for efficacy. Lines ( 16) that combine Andean and Mesoamerican ALS resistance genes were identified.Inheritance of resistance to Andean and Mesoamerican P. griseola races in G 19833 and DOR 364 was found to be complex and different for the two races, being recessive for one race and dominant for another, depending on the source of resistance.Lines with high levels of CBB resistance were identified. These will be screened with strains of a diverse origin to establish their suitability to other areas where CBB is a problem.Highlights:•= Developed reliable sampling methods for Thrips palmi on beans and snap beans.•= Established an action threshold for T. palmi on snap beans.•= Identified levels of resistance to insecticides in whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum) and thrips populations.•= Developed components and successfully tested management strategies for combined populations of whiteflies and thrips affecting snap beans.Rationale: Information on T. palmi as a pest of beans is very scarce. Development of appropriate management strategies for a major insect pest such as T. palmi requires basic knowledge of its phenology and distribution in the plant. This knowledge is essential for developing appropriate sampling methodologies, which will in turn facilitate understanding the various ways whereby the insect injures the crop and the response of the crop to injury. Sampling is also an essential tool for making decisions on when and how to intervene in order to bring populations below recommended action thresholds.Because the spatial pattern of individuals in the habitat has a tremendous influence on the sampling plan, we first studied the patterns of aggregation of adult populations on dry beans and on snap beans. We then estimated the optimum sample size and developed a sequential sampling method for adult thrips. With this information, and the yield response of snap beans to insect attack (estimated from replicated plots in the field), an action threshold was calculated.Commercial-sized fields of snap beans and dry beans were sampled every 3 days for the duration of two consecutive cropping seasons. Samples were examined for the presence of adults and larvae of thrips. The data thus recorded were analyzed for aggregation, sample size, and sequential sampling determination.Using an effective insecticide and preliminary information on mean adult populations, differential levels of insect attack were established and maintained. Yield responses at different levels of attack were measured. Regression analysis was used to obtain a loss function with which to calculate action thresholds.Sampling methods for Thrips palmi. We found that, most frequently, samples of T. palmi adults per leaflet taken from natural populations have a variance that exceeds the mean. This was the first indication of aggregation. Further analysis using Taylor's power law showed that thrips populations fit a linear relationship between the base-10 log of mean and variance (Figure 61). Furthermore, the index of dispersion (b in the regression equation) was always higher than 1, meaning that populations are highly clumped.Figure 61.The relationship between mean and variance for adults of Thrips palmi per leaflet found on snap beans 49 days after planting.Using values of a and b calculated from regression (Figure 61), we then calculated the optimum sample size at three levels of precision (Figure 62). The calculations showed that the required sample size at the 95% confidence level (the one that will assure us that our estimate is within 20% of the true value) is 40 leaflets taken at random in zigzag across the field. Estimates of optimum sample size for adults of Thrips palmi at three levels of precision.The next step was to develop a sequential sampling method for T. palmi adult populations. This is a powerful tool used to categorize the pest population into density classes. If the population exceeds a pre-established action threshold, a curative treatment would be economically justified. Using an action threshold of seven adults per leaflet and values of a and b estimated from regression in Figure 61, we were able to develop decision lines (Figure 63). These lines are used to take decisions in the field. The number of samples taken is not fixed. Instead, after each sample, the cumulative number of insects is plotted on the graph. If the number falls above the upper line, treatment is necessary. If the number falls below the lower line, no treatment is necessary. In either case, sampling is stopped as soon as a line is crossed. If the cumulative number of insects sampled remains between the lines, sampling is continued.Figure 63. Sequential sampling plans for adults of Thrips palmi on dry beans and snap beans.Because insecticides are likely to remain the principal method of controlling T. palmi, decision aids for the rational and efficient use of insecticides can be important in the development of rational management strategies. One such tool is the action threshold, the level of population that warrants the economic use of a pesticide. In three consecutive trials, the response of snap beans to differential levels of attack by T. palmi adults was similar (Figure 64). The mean loss function (b in the regression) was 424 kg ha -1 . The action threshold calculated by means of the formula ranged from 7.1 to 8.0 adults per leaflet. Of course, the action threshold varies as the price of snap beans in the market changes (Figure 65). Losses in these trials were calculated. Results indicated that T. palmi is arguably one of the most important pests of snap beans. At high levels of population, the damage potential of thrips can be as high as 4.8 tons per hectare or almost 45% of the yield potential (Table 41). Contributors: IC Durán, C CardonaRationale: As indicated in the 1999 Annual Report, monitoring of insecticide resistance levels in adult populations of the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, is a major objective of the Systemwide Whitefly IPM Project. This work continued in 2000 with the calculation of baseline data for three additional insecticides and determination of diagnostic doses for five compounds. For the first time, we also calculated baseline data for nymphs of T. vaporariorum with three insecticides that are being used by farmers in Colombia and elsewhere. Materials and methods: Baseline data and diagnostic dosages were calculated using mass rearings of susceptible strains of T. vaporariorum maintained at CIAT for several years. LC 50 and LC 90 values are calculated by exposing whitefly adults to increasing doses of a given insecticide in insecticide-coated vials and submitting the data to probit analysis. Once the baseline data are obtained, diagnostic doses (those causing mortalities of 95% or more in a susceptible strain) are tested. The diagnostic doses will be used to monitor resistance under field conditions by means of the insecticide-coated glass vials technique. Similar data are obtained for first instar nymphs using the dipping technique.Foliage is submerged for a few seconds in increasing concentrations of the insecticide tested, and mortality is recorded 72 h after treatment. Mortality data are used to calculate LC 50 and LC 90 values. Diagnostic doses are established as indicated above.Results and discussion: Table 42 presents baseline data for monocrotophos, λcyhalothrin, and imidacloprid with the reference strain of T. vaporariorum. LC 50 and LC 90 values reflect toxicities to susceptible strains of whiteflies that have not been exposed to insecticides for over 10 years. Establishing baseline data for different insecticides is a fundamental step in resistance studies because the data thus obtained will serve for future comparisons in order to detect changes in insecticide resistance levels.Besides, calculation of baseline data permits the determination of diagnostic doses that can be used with less logistical difficulties in extensive monitoring of resistance such as the one carried out in the Andean zone. See text for explanation. c.On a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). d.With respect to the best treatment.Contributors: I Rodríguez, JM Bueno, C CardonaWe have greatly increased the body of knowledge on both T. palmi and T. vaporariorum as pests of beans and snap beans.This knowledge is being used to achieve output milestones: to develop and implement management systems aimed at reducing pesticide use.","tokenCount":"8518"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5535c9c0b1f9680d71128b9254a02a4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3a3bb0f-1d75-4d2f-b085-b562e2b857e5/retrieve","id":"-654878662"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cc4581a0-a602-470f-a548-ce4b639f9d44","pagecount":"36","content":"CIP is a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato and Andean roots and tubers. It delivers innovative science-based solutions to enhance access to affordable nutritious food, foster inclusive sustainable business and employment growth, and drive the climate resilience of root and tuber agri-food systems. Headquartered in Lima, Peru, CIP has a research presence in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. www.cipotato.org CIP is a CGIAR research center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science and innovation seeks to advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 15 CGIAR centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.org CIP thanks all donors and organizations that globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund:www.cgiar.org/funders","tokenCount":"152"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d21b5c4f39b3e49d90a2867a703d484a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/25ef1a35-4a5a-467e-a14c-9df2f74a857d/retrieve","id":"-2104490094"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2446b1de-104f-4c4e-8e0b-2c3a79df887d","pagecount":"61","content":"Cattle and sheep performance testing in sub-Saharan Africa Forage legume research in Nigeria's subhumid zone This is the last issue of ILCA Bulletin. Beginning in April 1990, ILCA will instead publish a new internationally reviewed quarterly journal, African Livestock Research, whose aim is to promote communications among all scientists whose work is relevant to improving and increasing livestock production in Africa.Many papers have already been received, and these are now being reviewed. We hope that you will stay with us as authors and readers and help make African Livestock Research the most lively and relevant journal for livestock research in Africa. The journal will accept manuscripts on all aspects of basic and applied research applicable to livestock and mixed crop-livestock production systems in Africa, whether such research is carried out in Africa or outside the continent.Copies of 'Notes for contributors' are available from The Editor African Livestock Research ILCA P.O.Box 5689 Addis Ababa Ethiopia to which address manuscripts should also be sent.ISSN 0255-0008The influence of polyphenolics on the nutritive value of browse: A summary of research conducted at ILCA Trends in on-farm performance testing of cattle and sheep in sub-Saharan Africa Interactions between agronomy and economics in forage legume researchIn a world where population increases and food shortages are major problems, ruminants can augment the food supply by converting energy sources which people cannot use into products which they can. Most ruminants in sub-Saharan Africa rely on poor-quality roughages for most of their sustenance. This is especially true during dry seasons. These roughages are commonly deficient in protein and unable to produce high rates of weight gain.The nutritive value of roughage can be improved by supplementing it with crude protein from forage legumes and leguminous browse. Forage legumes not only provide high-quality protein to animals, they also increase the fertility of soil by enhancing its nitrogen content. Browse from multipurpose leguminous trees can play similar roles. Both are also particularly important in areas where increasing human population has led to increased demand for cropping land, shorter fallowing periods and less communal grazing.The full potential of many sub-Saharan African farming systems will only be achieved through exploiting the complementarity between crop and livestock production. This, together with the need to improve the quality of animal feed, has led ILCA to devote much effort over the years to promoting forage legume production and gaining better understanding of the nutritional value of leguminous feed resources.One aspect that has received considerable attention is the study of the effects of polyphenolics in browse on feed intake, fibre digestion and animal growth. This research has shown that reasonable growth rates can be achieved by supplementing roughage-based diets with browses with low to moderate levels of insoluble polyphenolics. Although these substances limit the availability of nitrogen to the animal, this is offset by a lower excretion of nitrogen. The Centre's forage production research has been strongest in the subhumid zone of West Africa for several reasons. For example, the zone is still fairly underutilised and its climate is suitable for a wide range of crops. And it is in this zone that the integration of pastoralists and crop farmers is most active, creating opportunities for introducing forage legumes into the existing farming systems.Growing legumes in fodder banks is gaining acceptance among settled agropastoralists as a means of providing additional protein to animals during the dry season. Legume intercropping reduces the decline in soil fertility and bolsters the nutritional value of crop residues. Both interventions have been shown to be profitable, but while the adoption of fodder banks is already on the way, intercropping is likely to become more popular only when the number of cattle in the subhumid zone increases and agropastoralists are obliged to pay farmers for crop residues.The third article in this issue of ILCA Bulletin looks at on-farm performance testing as a means of determining the performance potential of cattle and sheep under different levels of management, disease exposure and feed availability and quality. The role of networks in improving on-farm performance testing in sub-Saharan Africa through standardised testing methods and rapid data handling is also highlighted.In arid, semi-arid and subhumid areas, where cropping is impossible or unreliable, man depends on ruminants for sustenance. Ruminants produce food for human consumption by feeding on plants or plant parts that have no nutritive value for man. Trees and shrubs survive harsh climatic conditions and are an important source of browse feed in drier parts of Africa.Because of its high content of protein, browse has been suggested as a solution to feeding tropical animals: woody species are more drought-tolerant than grasses and may be a more reliable feed resource. Browse trees benefit soils by protecting them from erosion and may increase soil fertility. They also benefit crops and animals with shade, and provide people with fuel, medicines and building materials.Browse is particularly important in areas where increasing human population has necessitated the cultivation of grazing land. The larger areas cultivated produce more crop residues whose nutritive value can then be enhanced by nitrogen supplementation in the form of browse. Although tree leaves have a high protein content, tannins and other secondary compounds may bind this protein, thus rendering it unavailable to the animal. Tannins and related polyphenolics may have negative effects on palatability and digestibility, and many are also poisonous.Faecal nitrogen is composed of undegraded feed nitrogen, microbial nitrogen from the rumen and large intestine, and endogenous nitrogen from the digestive tract (Mason, 1969). The size of these fractions depends on the content of protein and energy in the diet, rate of passage, and the nutritional status of the host (Mason, 1979). Faecal material originating from microbial and endogenous sources can be separated from other faecal material by its solubility in neutral detergent (Mason, 1969).Tannins are a subset of plant polyphenols found in leaves, twigs, flowers, fruit and tree bark. Long after Fischer's (1919) work on the chemistry of the so-called 'vegetable tannins', the subject remained \"one of the untidy corners of organic chemistry\" (Gupta and Haslam, 1980), and even at present, the chemical classification of some phenolic compounds may prove difficult.The original definition of tannin as 'a compound able to convert hide to leather' was unclear, because while all tannins contain phenolic groups, not all phenolics can cross-link collagen fibres in animal hides to form leather. Nevertheless, the ability of tannins to precipitate proteins is one of their most important biological properties.Precipitation can be the result of hydrogen bonding (Loomis and Battaile, 1966), covalent bonding (Swain, 1979), ionic bonding (Gustavson, 1956) or hydrophilic bonding (Oh et al, 1980). The ability of tannins to precipitate proteins depends on their molecular weight, water solubility, conformation and other factors. A definition with enough generality to include all tannins was given by Horvath (1981):Tannins are any phenolic compound of sufficiently high molecular weight and containing sufficient phenolic hydroxyls and other suitable groups (i.e. carboxyls) to form effectively strong complexes with protein and other macro-molecules under the particular environmental conditions being studied. This definition allows for the fact that tannins may form complexes with starch and cellulose, as well as protein. It also underscores the difficulty in precisely defining the chemistry of tannins.Tannins are usually subdivided into two major groups: hydrolysable and condensed tannins. Hydrolysable tannins split into sugars and phenolic carboxylic acids in acid and alkaline conditions (White, 1957). They are further classified according to the products of hydrolysis into gallo-tannins (gallic acid and glucose) and ellagi-tannins (ellagic acid and glucose) (McLeod, 1974). Two other categories, tara-gallo-tannins (gallic and quinic acid plus glucose) and caffetannins (caffeic acid arid quinic acid plus glucose) have also been suggested (Haslam, 1966).The condensed tannins are often referred to as proanthocyanidins because they produce red anthocyanidins when heated in acid (Haslam, 1982). Proanthocyanidins are phenylpropanoid polyphenols and are categorised by the type of monomer they contain -either flavan-3-ols or flavan-3, 4-diols -into catechins or leucoanthocyanidins (Horvath, 1981).The term leucoanthocyanidin was originally used to name the whole group of condensed tannins (Haslam, 1982); the literature must, therefore, be read carefully to avoid misinterpretation. Furthermore, since condensation is a reaction which hydrolysable tannins can also undergo, the term 'proanthocyanidin' is preferred to 'condensed tannin'.Besides hydrolysable tannins and proanthocyanidins, a group called the beta-tannins can be added (Swain, 1979;Horvath, 1981). Beta-tannins are protein-precipitating compounds which are insoluble in water. They form very stable bonds with protein, and they can have lower molecular weight than other tannins and still be effective.However, as more is learned about tannin chemistry in relation to animal nutrition, the less useful this classification system is likely to be because there are some compounds, such as catechin gallates, which have properties of both the hydrolysable and condensed tannins. Catechin gallates are important nutritionally because they are toxic to some rumen bacteria (Mueller-Harvey et al, 1988).The interaction between tannins and proteins is very specific (Hagerman and Butler, 1981) and depends on the characteristics of both tannin and protein, such as molecular weight, tertiary structure, isoelectric point and compatibility of binding sites. It also depends on the properties of the solvent, especially its pH. Proanthocyanidins seem to be more important than hydrolysable tannins in forming complexes in feed (Reed et al, 1985).Using fresh samples to determine tannin content is best, but if storage is necessary, freezing is preferred. In some situations, drying is the only means of preserving material. However, at low drying temperatures (<40° C), enzymes may still function, thereby leading to oxidation. At temperatures above 60° C, heat damage (Van Soest, 1965) and polymerisation (Haslam, 1966) may occur.There is no definitive assay for tannins because they are heterogeneous compounds, but there are many methods for assaying tannins, each with its own specificity, which have been reviewed in literature (e.g. Swain and Hillis, 1959;Maxson and Rooney, 1972;Horvath, 1981). The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) developed two assays, one to quantify insoluble proanthocyanidins and one for soluble phenolics, including proanthocyanidins and other phenolics which may be nutritionally important by having effects other than precipitating protein. These methods are briefly described below.Insoluble proanthocyanidins. These are determined by heating a sample of neutral-detergent fibre in a solution of n-butanol and concentrated hydrochloric acid. The solution turns red as proanthocyanidins are converted to anthocyanidins. Absorbance is read at 550 nm (Bate- Smith, 1973;Reed et al, 1982).Initial treatment of the sample by extraction with aqueous acetone and by neutral detergent removes soluble phenolic compounds that may polymerise under acidic conditions, thus avoiding the exaggeration of the content of insoluble proanthocyanidins. Results are presented as absorbance per gram of neutral-detergent fibre. One problem with this procedure is that not all of the proanthocyanidins dissolve, as evidenced by the red colour remaining in the fibre after the analysis.Soluble phenolics. Total polyphenolics soluble in acetone are determined in a gravimetric assay, by precipitating them from solution with trivalent ytterbium (Reed et al, 1985). The major advantage of the assay is that, unlike in colorimetric assays, standards are not required. Precipitated phenolics may be recovered for qualitative analysis, enzymatic assay, and for assays of protein precipitation and effects on in vitro digestibility. Therefore, potential antinutritional effects can be related to the amount of soluble phenolics.The two assays described give general indications of the size of different phenolic fractions in a feed. The complex tannin chemistry makes it necessary to identify the individual compounds present in the fractions before the effects of each one can be determined. High-performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography, which separate compounds according to their differential solubility in appropriate solvents, are suitable methods for separating individual phenolic compounds in browse.Chromatography has been applied by ILCA in the study of phenolic compounds in African browses (Mueller-Harvey et al, 1987;Rittner. 1987;Tanner, 1988). It is hoped that in time, it will be possible to attribute nutritional effects to specific compounds, and then develop simpler assays for the effective compounds. Acacia albida (f) 36.5 0.27 Tanner (1988) 1 The plant parts used were leaves (1) and fruit (f).Tannins may reduce intake and palatability of feeds by causing an astringent (Bate- Smith, 1973) or dry feeling in the mouth (Goldstein and Swain, 1963), or by negatively affecting digestion. ILCA data both support and contradict the hypothesis that polyphenolics have a negative effect on feed intake (Table 2).  Tanner (1988) Notes: Animal performance with browse was compared to performance obtained with a standard protein supplement. Browse offered varied with experiment but was calculated to provide the same amount of nitrogen in each experiment. The roughages used were grass hay (ILCA, 1988a), maize stover (Tanner, 1988) and teff straw (Reed et al, in press). Standard supplements were cowpea hay and lucerne (ILCA, 1988a), noug cake (Tanner, 1988;Reed et al, in press) and vetch hay (Reed et al, in press). The browse parts were leaves (1) and fruits (f). *= significantly (P<0.05) lower than the value obtained in the same trial for the standard supplement.In a study (Reed et al, in press) comparing three browses high in polyphenolics (leaves of Acacia cyanophylla and A. seyal and fruits of A. sieberiana) with Sesbania sesban (low in polyphenolics) and three standard protein supplements (Vicia dasycarpa and noug or urea), all of which were fed in combination with teff straw (bragrostis abyssinica), tannins appeared to reduce total feed intake.The amount of browse on offer was determined by its protein content. Sesbania sesban has a high content of protein, and was, therefore, fed at a lower amount (180 g/d) than, for example, A. cyanophylla (330 g/d) which is low in protein. Sheep consumed almost all of the S. sesban offered but only about half of the A. cyanophylla offered. Compared with the other two acacias, intake of A. cyanophylla was lowest, due to its very high content of insoluble proanthocyanidins. Intake of A. seyal was initially also very low, but it increased after the animals got used to the browse.In an experiment where A. brevispica and S. sesban were each fed in combination with vetch and teff straw at three levels, intake differed between sheep and goats. Feed refusal by sheep increased as the proportion of A. brevispica increased in the diet, suggesting a negative response to tannins. In comparison, goats rejected portions of diets which included both A. brevispica and vetch, which might be a negative response to fibre (Woodward and Reed, in press).The effect of browse on the intake of roughage fed concurrently is an important consideration. When S. sesban was fed with teff straw, its high content of nitrogen and low content of fibre and proanthocyanidins caused an increase in teff intake over diets including vetch (Reed et al, in press; Woodward and Reed, in press). Compared with roughage intake obtained with standard supplements, browses with high contents of proanthocyanidins (such as A. cyanophylla leaves and fruits of A. sieberiana and A. nilotica) caused a reduction in roughage intake (Tanner, 1988;Reed et al, in press) (Table 2). Browses with moderate levels of proanthocyanidins led to either improved roughage intake (Woodward and Reed, in press) or intake comparable to that with standard supplements (ILCA, 1988a).Animal growth rates reflect total intake and the availability of nutrients in the diet. When there was a reduction in total intake due to the fibre or phenolic content of browse, growth rate was low compared with that obtained with non-tanniferous supplements (Table 2).Low growth rates were observed in animals fed fruits of A. sieberiana and A. nilotica (Tanner, 1988) although total feed intake was not very low. Reed et al (in press) found that animals fed A. sieberiana fruits and A. seyal leaves had low total intake and low growth rates, while feeding A. cyanophylla resulted in a negative growth rate. The growth rates of animals fed diets with A. seyalimproved after a period of adaptation to the browse. The negative effect of tannins in A. cyanophylla on growth rate was caused by a reduction in nitrogen availability.Tannins may reduce cell-wall digestibility by binding bacterial enzymes and/or forming indigestible complexes with cell-wall carbohydrates (Barry and Manley, 1984;Barry et al, 1986;Reed, 1986). The digestibilities of organic matter and the fibre fractions of sheep diets comprising A. cyanophylla were depressed (Table 3) because of high contents of proanthocyanidins and soluble phenolics. Neutral-detergent fibre digestibility was also depressed in diets containing two other tanniferous browses, A. sieberiana fruits and A. seyal leaves. The digestibility of lignin was negative for all the three acacias used in the trial (Reed et al, in press) (Table 3). In most common feeds, the true digestibility of lignin is not different from zero. However, tannin-protein complexes formed in the digestive tract were recovered as faecal lignin (Reed, 1986), which led to an apparent negative digestibility of lignin.The interference of tannins with the lignin fraction is further emphasised by a comparison between true dry-matter digestibility and digestibility predicted by the summative equation of Goering and Van Soest (1970) which penalises digestibility for lignin in the feed. However, the penalty for lignin in A. brevispica was too high, because digestibility was increasingly underpredicted as A. brevispica was added to the diet (Table 4). This suggests that the lignin fraction measured in A. brevispica was not true lignin but may have been contaminated by phenolics.Table 4. Apparent, true and predicted digestibilities of dry matter and the difference between the true and predicted digestibilities for seven diets fed to sheep and goats. Tannin interference with fibre fractions makes it impossible to determine the nutritive value of browse from chemical analysis, as is done for other forages. The issue will, therefore, be discussed again in terms of determining nitrogen availability.Tannins can form complexes with protein, and thus their greatest potential negative effect is on nitrogen metabolism. This can be seen when tanniferous browses are compared with nontanniferous feeds. Tannins have large effects on nitrogen utilisation at each stage of digestion, as is shown below using four parameters.Rumen ammonia, plasma urea nitrogen and urinary nitrogen. These are the most accessible pools with which to describe nitrogen available to and incorporated into animal tissues. They have been described for both sheep and goats fed diets made up of combinations of either A. brevispica or S. sesban plus vetch plus teff straw ad libitum (Woodward, 1988) (Table 5), and for sheep given diets composed of S. sesban, A. nilotica or A. seyal (Rittner, 1987).  Woodward (1988).Proteolytic activity in the rumen is indicated by ammonia concentration. Rumen ammonia was highest for diets including S. sesban and lowest for diets with increasing amounts of A. brevispica,reflecting the rapid fermentation rate of S. sesban due to low phenolic and fibre contents (Table 5). Diets with S. sesban also had higher concentration of rumen ammonia than diets with A. nilotica orA. seyal (Rittner, 1987).Rumen ammonia enters the plasma urea pool after it has been absorbed into the blood and converted to urea by the liver. Endogenous loss from tissue also enters this pool. Excess plasma urea nitrogen is excreted in urine, preventing toxicity in the animal. High values of plasma urea nitrogen indicate an inability of the animal to utilise nitrogen made available by digestion. As with rumen ammonia, plasma urea nitrogen was higher in animals fed diets including S. sesban than in those fed diets with A. brevispica (Woodward, 1988). Similar results were obtained when diets containingS. sesban were compared with diets including A. seyal or A. nilotica (Rittner, 1987).When levels of plasma urea nitrogen were compared with levels of urinary nitrogen, a difference was observed between sheep and goats (Figure 1). The correlation between plasma urea nitrogen and urinary nitrogen was high in sheep (r = 0.73), but low in goats (r = 0.19). Also, urinary nitrogen was markedly lower in goats, which suggests that goats may be able to recycle more urea to the rumen than sheep at high levels of plasma urea nitrogen. Faecal nitrogen. This is composed of indigestible feed nitrogen, microbial nitrogen from the rumen, and lower-tract and endogenous (metabolic) nitrogen secreted into the digestive tract but not incorporated into microbial nitrogen (Mason, 1969;Van Soest, 1982). Indigestible feed nitrogen in the faeces is insoluble in neutral detergent and can be estimated by the amount of nitrogen in neutral-detergent fibre (NDF-N) (Mason, 1969). Faecal NDF-N may also include indigestible tannin-protein complexes (Reed, 1986).Higher total faecal nitrogen (which could be accounted for by higher faecal NDF-N) was observed for all diets containing tanniferous feeds (Rittner, 1987;ILCA, 19886;Tanner, 1988;Woodward, 1988;Reed et al, in press). The higher faecal NDF-N values can be attributed to indigestible tannin-protein complexes.Sheep fed diets containing A. seyal had high levels of faecal nitrogen (Reed and Soller, 1987;ILCA, 1988b). This fraction, also called the metabolic increment, is nitrogenous material of endogenous origin, and may result from a higher production of rumen microbes as a consequence of greater recycling of urea from blood to rumen.Nitrogen retention. This parameter summarises the value of a feed as a source of nitrogen. When A. brevispica and S. sesban were each fed at three levels in combination with vetch and teff straw, the amount of retained nitrogen was higher for all diets containing browse than for vetch alone (Woodward, 1988) (Figure 2). Nitrogen retention increased as a linear function of intake of S. sesban,but increased then decreased as a function of intake of A. brevispica. The quadratic term in the regression of retained nitrogen on intake of A. brevispica was significant (P<0.05). Partioning of intake nitrogen among faeces, urinary and retained nitrogen explains the difference between S. sesban and A. brevispica (Woodward, 1988) (Figure 3). For diets including S. sesban,urinary nitrogen increased with increasing proportion of browse in the feed, but remained a constant fraction of intake nitrogen. Also, metabolic nitrogen (expressed in g/d) did not vary but decreased as a fraction of intake (Figure 3). Therefore, nitrogen retention increased steadily. For diets including A. brevispica, faecal NDF-N increased by 2% of intake nitrogen with each incremental increase in A. brevispica. The loss of nitrogen in urine was much lower for A. brevispica than for S. sesban, but it was not significantly different between a diet of A. brevispica plus vetch and a diet of A. brevispica alone. The lower urinary nitrogen loss offset the increased faecal NDF-N loss sufficiently to increase nitrogen retention with the A. brevispica and vetch mixture but not with the browse alone. The ability to compensate for a higher loss of faecal nitrogen with a lower loss of urinary nitrogen was observed also by Rittner (1987), ILCA (1988b) and Reed et al (in press).In non-tanniferous feeds, the true digestibility of nitrogen is approximately 93% ( Van Soest, 1982). For browses used in ILCA's experiments, the true digestibility of nitrogen ranged from 52 to 94% (Table 6). Browses with high contents of proanthocyanidins typically had low nitrogen digestibilities, reflecting the ability of these chemicals to bind protein, thereby reducing its availability to the animal. Uniform feed fractions are those fractions for which the digestible amount of the fraction can be related to feed content by a linear regression, with the y-intercept indicating the amount of the fraction which is produced metabolically and appears in faeces ( Van Soest, 1982). The true digestibility of uniform feed fractions can be predicted from chemical analysis of the feed, without conducting a feeding trial.When three tanniferous browses were compared with one non-tanniferous browse and three traditional supplements, the four non-tanniferous feeds fell on a regression line typical of protein (Reed et al, in press) (Figure 4). The three diets including acacias fell below the line, describing non-uniform behaviour caused by the complexing of protein with tannins. The non-uniform behaviour of the protein in browse causes a problem for their use as sources of protein and emphasises the need to understand the chemistry of tannin-protein interactions. Browse is a readily available feed resource and has a role to play in agroforestry. In cropped areas, browse can supplement crop residues, providing animal feed at the cost of the labour needed to harvest it. Most other supplements must be purchased. In grazing areas, browse can provide feed in dry seasons when grass has low nutritional value. The experiments conducted at ILCA highlighted factors that must be considered when evaluating browses for use in livestock systems.Research at ILCA has shown that polyphenolics in browse, especially proanthocyanidins, affect the availability of protein to, and the nitrogen metabolism of, ruminants. The complexity of tannin chemistry has made it difficult to define chemical fractions that have predictable effects.The two fractions measured at ILCA, acetone-soluble phenolics and neutra-detergent insoluble proanthocyanidins, have nutritional relevance. However, their effect on nitrogen digestibility, for example, is variable (Figure 5). Hence, it is necessary to look at the effects of individual compounds. This can be accomplished using chromatographic techniques in combination with animal experiments. ILCA has conducted such research, but the determination of the effects of individual compounds is still in the early stages. The studies of browse species at ILCA showed the formation of tannin-protein complexes to be the major effect of polyphenolics in browse, leading to reduced digestibility of nitrogen. The consequences for the animal were an increased faecal nitrogen excretion and a lower rumen fermentation rate.When an extreme amount of nitrogen was bound, as was the case with A. cyanophylla, the animal could not achieve positive nitrogen balance and would eventually starve. When the phenolic content was very low (as with S. sesban, for instance), fermentation was so rapid that excess ammonia had to be excreted as urea in urine. This represented loss of nitrogen as well as of the energy required for detoxification.Most of the other species evaluated in ILCA's studies had effects which were between the extremes described above. Their moderate levels of proanthocyanidins reduced nitrogen availability enough to slow rumen fermentation, thereby resulting in little excess ammonia. The consequently lower plasma urea nitrogen reduced loss of nitrogen in urine. More efficient recycling of plasma urea nitrogen to the rumen may also have contributed to a lower loss of nitrogen in urine. Thus in animals eating feeds with moderate levels of proanthocyanidins, higher faecal nitrogen loss was offset by lower urinary loss. Another advantage of such browses is that the lower fermentation rate of their nitrogen helps improve the utilisation of fibrous crop residues, which also ferment slowly.The disadvantage is that proanthocyanidins bind protein into complexes, which lowers both the digestibility of crude protein and its availability to animals. The amount of browse offered must, therefore, take into account the lower digestibility of protein. The additional browse needed to provide an adequate amount of protein will depend on the degree to which protein availability is reduced by proanthocyanidins.Finally, the possibility of animals becoming adapted to browse must be considered. This appears to occur with animals eating A. seyal, whose feed intake and performance improved after 7 weeks. Adaptation may be possible with other browses as well, although the mechanism is not understood.The concentrations of soluble phenolics and insoluble proanthoeyanidins in browses vary with season (Woodward, 1988), site (Le Houérou, 1980) and individual plant. Acacia cyanophylla is an example of regional variation. It has been fed to small ruminants with good results in West Africa (Dumancic and Le Houerou, 1980) but in East Africa, it has proved to be a poor feed (Reed et al, in press).Evidence for the variation in phenolic concentrations within species and among the collections made for ILCA's experiments is given in Table 1. The reasons for the different concentrations found may have to do with plant strategy for defence against herbivores (Janzen, 1979) or with response to soil and climate (Le Houérou, 1980). In either case, variation must be considered when selecting species and individuals for propagation or when generalising results obtained in one region to another.In some management systems, browse may be harvested and stored for feeding during the dry season. Rittner (1987) has shown that the effect of storage on phenolic concentration varies with species: the phenolic content of A. nilotica was not influenced by storage, but it shifted from the insoluble to the soluble fraction in A. seyal. Once again, the need to evaluate individual species is apparent.With respect to fruits, Tanner (1988) observed that in some cases it may be advantageous to process them to reduce bulk and mechanical damage to the rumen. He also found variation between species in the number of seeds which escape digestion. He suggested that scarification or other treatment may increase the utilisation of fruits from tanniferous browse.The International Livestock Centre for Africa has made good progress in under-standing the positive and negative effects of browse on the nitrogen metabolism of ruminants. Although there is still much to be learned before the nutritive value of browse can be predicted from chemical analysis alone, nutritionally important fractions have been identified. ILCA's research shows that the contents of insoluble proanthocyanidins and soluble phenolics in feed are related to nitrogen digestibility.Browses with moderate levels of phenolic compounds, such as leaves of A. brevispica, A. seyal and A. nilotica and fruits of A. albida and A. tortilis, are promising protein supplements.Although the phenolics in these species reduce nitrogen availability, the negative effect is partially offset by lower urinary loss of nitrogen, allowing adequate animal performance.Sesbania sesban has low levels of phenolics, typical of such standard high-protein leguminous forages as lucerne (Medicago sativa). Acacia seyal is a potentially useful feed if animals are allowed to adapt to it. Animals did not perform well with A. cyanophylla leaves and fruits of A. sieberiana and A. nilotaca. These conclusions cannot automatically be generalised to other areas, but knowledge of the phenolic content of these species from other regions would make it possible to predict performance.The use of browse can improve animal feeding systems but individual browse species must be evaluated according to their effects on the metabolism of individual animals.Sub-Saharan Africa has a great need and considerable potential for increased production from cattle and sheep. Both species are functionally integrated into farming systems, and there is a clear association between particular breed populations and particular ecological environments. Before animal performance under the prevailing ecological and economic conditions can be improved, detailed information is needed on the specific functions of cattle and sheep in production systems, on their performance potential under different levels of management, and on the current disease situation and feed availability. Such information can be obtained through livestock performance testing on stations and on farms.This paper summarises past and present experiences with livestock performance testing in sub-Saharan Africa and outlines the role of networks in improving on-farm testing through the use of standardised testing methods and rapid data handling and feedback.Sub-Saharan Africa is a diverse ecological environment comprising arid and semi-arid rangelands, subhumid and humid lowlands and temperate highlands, and characterised by an association of specific breed types with particular ecological zones. The distribution of cattle and sheep populations by zone is shown in Table 1, the highest concentrations of these species being in the drier and highland areas. Source: Jahnke (1982).About 75% of all livestock in sub-Saharan Africa are kept by smallholders (agropastoralists or mixed crop-livestock farmers), about 20% by pastoralists and only 5% on ranches. African livestock production systems are directed towards economic security and food production. Smallholders and pastoralists aim at maximising returns per unit land area, rather than returns per animal. Specialised production systems are gradually appearing, but only in ecologically and economically favourable areas such as the Kenyan highlands. Most specialised herds are very small, which considerably limits opportunities for within-herd selection.Livestock have diverse economic and social functions in African farming systems. They provide foods, inputs to crop production in the form of traction and manure, and fibre and skins. Contrary to common belief, most livestock production systems in sub-Saharan Africa are output oriented and cannot be depicted as merely subsistence systems (SEDES/INSEE, 1966; Eddy, 1979;White and Meadows, 1981;Sempeho, 1985;Gryseels, 1988;Danckwerts, n. d.). Animal traction, for example, accounts for about 40% of the gross value of food and non-food outputs of cattle, beef accounts for about 35%, milk for about 20% and manure for about 5% (S. Sandford, ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, personal communication).Cattle. African cattle can be classed into four major types: the fairly large North Sudan Zebu, the Small East African Zebu, the Sanga of the south and the taurine breeds in West and central Africa (Epstein, 1971). These populations were selected for their multipurpose performance and ability to cope with environmental stress. When raised under extensive management with few external inputs, their performance is characterised by slow juvenile growth, late sexual maturity, long calving intervals and generally modest milk yields (Wilson, 1983;Trail, 1985;de Leeuw, 1986;Otchere, 1986;Wagenaar et al, 1986).Breed differences seem to be less important for the productivity of African cattle than environmental and management influences. Major production constraints are associated with management and husbandry, the nutrition × disease complex and the seasonality of feed availability, especially in the traditional system with communal grazing. A comparison of all outputs from cattle in Botswana's traditional system and calf weight only from ranches showed that the traditional system is almost twice as productive in liveweight equivalents (9.91 kg/ha/year) as ranching (5.01 kg/ha/year) (de Ridder and Wagenaar, 1984).Sheep. These are classed into four main types: the small, thin-tailed hair sheep of West and central Africa, the large, thin-tailed hair sheep in the Sahel, the fat-rumped Somali sheep and the fat-tailed hair sheep of East and southern Africa (Ryder, 1984).Because of the long-term adaptation of sheep to specific environments, their performance matches production conditions. Most sheep in sub-Saharan Africa are aseasonal breeders, and some are also highly fecund. Overall productivity per ewe is largely determined by natural production conditions, but even under unfavourable conditions sheep are more productive on the basis of body weight than cattle (Wilson, 1982;Armbruster, 1987).The major constraint on sheep productivity is high reproductive wastage (up to 40%) which greatly reduces selection possibilities. More frequent lambing and lower mortality thus need to be emphasised, while increased litter size and growth rate are of lesser importance (Peacock, 1985;Armbruster, 1987).Management practices strongly influence sheep performance, the differences between flocks exceeding 200% (Peacock, 1987). Reduced performance is often due to a combination of nutrition and disease/ parasite problems which could be tackled through better management. Therefore, a careful analysis of management practices under all production circumstances is desirable.Performance testing is a goal-oriented, systematic process of collecting and analysing data on economically important performance traits and management practices under defined production conditions. The objectives of performance testing are to: identify and quantify non-genetic constraints to animal performance in order to improve husbandry, hygiene and feeding,  facilitate the economic evaluation of the production process and of technical interventions,  characterise and assess breed performances under defined production conditions,  contribute to breed improvement through objective selection of breeding stock.Performance testing is useful and justified only if results are made available to those engaged in livestock breeding and development, i.e. farmers, extension agents, researchers and policy makers.The significant long-term effects of management on animal performance, and the immediate impact of improved husbandry, hygiene and feeding, underline the need for on-farm testing. Collecting information on animal performance on the farm makes it possible to identify production prospects, as well as different management variables and their effects on the production process. It is also helpful in identifying problem areas needing more in-depth assessment of cause-effect relationships and production aspects in which improvements can be made (Figure 1).Data on individual reproduction and production traits are required to assess herd/flock productivity and phenotypic variation of traits. However, genetic parameters can only be estimated under controlled breeding, which is difficult to implement on farms because of the small size of farm flocks/herds and mixed herding on communal pastures.On-farm performance testing provides information on location-specific production conditions and location-specific performance of individual animals or breeds, as well as on breed improvement options appropriate to particular systems. Breed comparisons and assessment of specific performance abilities are essential for evaluating the relative merits of breeds, but these tests are unlikely to be implemented on the farm because they require many animals of several breeds over several years to assess production potential in a single environment.These conditions are fulfilled in complementary livestock on-station tests, as was demonstrated by the classical beef-cattle breed comparisons implemented in Botswana and Zimbabwe (APRU, 1986;Tawonezvi, 1987;Ward, 1987). On-station trials are required to assess responses of animals to improved management and feeding. However, their accuracy, and hence their relevance to subsequent on-farm performance recording, is usually influenced by genotype × environment interactions.A comprehensive review of cattle breed studies in Africa by Trail (1981) listed 500 papers published between 1949 and 1978. Of these, only 20% gave comparative information on two or more breeds and only 5% included information which allowed breed comparisons based on productivity indices. The majority of the papers (56%) related to indigenous cattle breeds, 30% were on crossbreeds and 14% on exotic breeds. Growth was measured in 72% of the papers, reproductive performance in 41%, milk production in 33% and viability in only 18% of the papers. The review did not cover management × animal performance interactions, but there is considerable evidence that one of the most important objectives of performance testingimproved management and production efficiencyreceived little attention in early testing activities.Searches on ILCA's in-house database, the FAO Agricultural Information System (AGRIS) and the database of the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (CABI) identified references to a further 139 studies of on-farm and on-station performance testing of cattle and small ruminants carried out in sub-Saharan Africa between 1978 and 1987 (see Separate Bibliography).As expected, the number of references found reflected the relative sizes of regional livestock populations: the most numerous were references from East and southern Africa, followed by references from West and central Africa. Predictably, references to cattle (85) outnumbered those to small ruminants (54). For both cattle and small ruminants, on-station testing (47 and 33 studies, respectively) was reported more frequently than on-farm testing (38 and 21 studies).On-station studies were mainly experimental, while on-farm studies were predominantly diagnostic, aimed at assessing non-genetic constraints to production but often covering only a limited number of factors. Health status was seldom recorded on-station; when it was recorded on-farm, it was not evaluated in relation to performance. More than half of the reports were short-term studies during which it is not possible to assess reproductive performance and viability, nor, for that matter, to evaluate animal productivity and the relative importance of its components.Objectives. The principal objectives of performance recording on stations and on farms were different and depended on the duration of the study. Short-term experimental and diagnostic studies on stations and all diagnostic testing programmes on farms were aimed at assessing non-genetic factors (excluding disease) and their effects on performance. Genetic factors generally received little attention. This contrasted with the majority of medium-and long-term on-station experiments which were mainly concerned with breed evaluation and related genetic research.The objective of most on-farm studies was systems analysis to identify non-genetic husbandry constraints; only a small proportion investigated possibilities for genetic improvement. Data on genetic improvement usually came from large-scale commercial farms. Two long-term onstation/ on-ranch breed performance comparisons specifically highlighted the need to evaluate indigenous breeds before embarking on crossbreeding programmes. One of them was done in Zimbabwe, and compared the indigenous Tuli, Nkone and Mashona breeds with Africander, Brahman, Sussex and Charolais cattle (Ward, 1987). The other was done in Botswana by the Animal Production Research Unit and compared the local Tuli and Tswana breeds with Africander (Buck et al, 1982). Both studies indicated the outstanding overall performance of indigenous breeds in beef production.Implementation. On-station studies were usually financed and executed by the relevant ministries of national governments, with occasional assistance from donor agencies. National governments were also the main source of reports on short-and medium-term studies.Most long-term studies on-station involved international agencies, such as the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA). The Centre has been a major executing agency for long-term systems studies published in the 1980s, which reflect the change in emphasis from on-station performance testing to on-farm research, stimulated principally by collaborating agencies.Relevance to production systems. On-station production systems described in the literature invariably include husbandry methods which are not used in the traditional system, such as routine disease control, exotic breeds, restricted breeding season, planted forages and fencing. The experimental results were therefore more relevant to commercial farms than to the predominant traditional sector. Moreover, because of administrative constraints, on-station performance was often below expected levels.Awareness of the need to direct research towards the prevailing production systems has increased during the past 10 years, with the result that studies now include a diagnostic stage to identify the complex factors influencing output, which is then followed by component research. The increasing number of reports describing livestock performance on farms is a direct result of this change. True on-farm performance recording has been focused on non-genetic factors, but methodologies are being developed to facilitate research on genetic improvement in production systems with small flocks and herds.Performance recording is currently being undertaken throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but small ruminant programmes, particularly those implemented on farms, are more common in West Africa, and cattle programmes are more frequent in East and southern Africa (Table 2). Most on-station work is funded and executed by national governments, whereas the majority of onfarm programmes have external participation and/or funding. Most countries have on-station comparisons of breed and crossbreed performances, and generally there are concurrent selection programmes based on the performance testing of a major local breed or breeds. Notes: An asterisk (*) indicates external agency participation and/or funding. Question mark (?) indicates a possibility that the particular research was done but was not reported in literature. Dash (-) means that the research was not carried out. D = diagnosis of technical constraints on farms; M = testing/monitoring of management improvements on farms; G = testing/monitoring of genetic improvement on farms; GB = breed comparison on stations; GS = within-breed selection on stations.Target production systems. The target production system for on-farm performance recording is small-scale, mixed crop-livestock farming. There are two exceptions to this. One is the recording of small ruminant performance and health in the pastoral system of Somalia, which has been undertaken jointly by the Somalian Government, ILCA and GTZ since 1983 in 200 meat-producing flocks of mixed species. The other is cattle performance recording in countries, such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, which have large-scale beef or dual-purpose (milk and meat) production on ranches and in specialised dairies.On-farm recording in national beef and dairy schemes is organised as in the developed countries. Daily records of reproductive events, milk yield and/or liveweight are kept by the farmer and these are checked monthly by staff of the coordinating institution. The main objectives of such programmes are to select replacement sires and heifers and to monitor husbandry practices. Contract matings are used to produce artificial insemination bulls.Phases and their duration. The first phase of performance recording is diagnostic, usually lasting 2 to 3 years. Well established programmes subsequently include on-station intervention testing of 3 to 4 years, during which on farm testing of husbandry, hygiene and breeding interventions is already generally possible. On-farm testing is also backed by breed improvement programmes.Development projects designed to introduce small-scale dairy units (e.g. in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana) may have a reduced diagnostic phase. Interventions are tested on-station early in the programme and are released for on-farm testing when proven, which may take between 1 and 5 years. Established technologies can be transferred from other systems in similar locations at the beginning of the project. In dairy development projects, on-farm recording serves primarily the objectives of monitoring and improving management, hygiene and breeding practices. It also serves as a basis for assessing the economic efficiency of the improved livestock production subsystem and its integration into the mixed farming system.The preceding examples demonstrated the use of on-farm performance recording to improve location-specific livestock production systems. Other on-farm recording programmes, such as those carried out in Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia and Zaire, contribute to strategic research on animal health and production in the tsetse-infested areas of Africa. Performance recording on farms also plays a significant role in the work of the African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network which brings together scientists from national agricultural research systems (NARS) and from ILCA and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) to study the complex interactions which influence trypanosomiasis and its effects on livestock performance.The research coordinated by the network covers all the major aspects of trypanosomiasis and its control, but focuses on the use of trypanotolerant livestock. Data on tsetse parameters and animal health and production are collected monthly at various network sites, using standard techniques and procedures. These data are analysed monthly, using centralised data processing complemented by on-site computing facilities. The network's coordinating office in Nairobi is staffed by ILCA and ILRAD, and gives technical support to the national programmes through training courses, field supervision and data processing and interpretation. Progress made is assessed at periodic meetings of network collaborators, and on the basis of this assessment, protocols are modified and future research and development programmes are planned (ILCA, 1986;1987).The African Trypanotolerant Livestock Network is not the only collaborative research network active in sub-Saharan Africa. There are now others, such as the Small Ruminant Research Network which has collaborative programmes in Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Somalia and Togo, and whose objective is to carry out strategic research on small ruminants in such key areas as the economics of production, breed evaluation and improvement, feeding systems, reproductive wastage, and management. Other collaborative research networks being developed by NARS in sub-Saharan Africa are the Cattle Research Network and the Animal Traction Network. As a result of these developments, on-farm recording is expected to expand rapidly in the next 5 years.Complementarity of on-farm and on-station testing. Collecting, analysing and using data on technical, economic, biological and genetic parameters is the basis for improving livestock production in Africa. The information available at present is not sufficient to guide system improvement and breeding, despite the positive trend towards system-oriented, on-farm performance testing. On-farm testing programmes are difficult to implement in Africa due to infrastructural problems, lack of funds and constraints linked to the production system (Table 3).In addition, the numerous management structures, practices and skills observed in smallholder and agropastoralist systems greatly increase the number of covariates to be incorporated in the model, and this impairs continuous data recording. Under these circumstances, success can only be guaranteed by using large stratified samples, regular data collection and efficient data handling to give immediate feedback. Multiple outputs and small herd/flock structures constrain breed performance characterisation and evaluation and reduce the impact of genetic improvement schemes.On-station testing (as outlined in Figure 1) can only be beneficial if on-station management practices simulate those used on the farms. Similarly, livestock on-farm testing schemes should be complemented by on-station programmes which conform with the ecological environment and management practices prevailing in the field.Genetic improvement. Genetic improvement schemes must have a field base to be successful. Because of single-sire flocks/ herds, communal grazing and small herd/ flock sizes in the smallholder systems, group breeding schemes with open, nucleus breeding units on stations may continue to predominate in sub-Saharan Africa. Such units must be supported by effective dissemination of the selected improved stock, and of superior sires bred through artificial insemination.On-station breeding units also may provide the centre for initial gene introduction and for rapid distribution of superior genotypes through multiple-ovulation-embryo-transfer (MOET) schemes, which, as Smith (1988) states, area model for the role of sophisticated technology in improving indigenous breeds and developing production systems. MOET schemes can achieve immediate improvement through selection of foundation animals and attain faster and more effective performance improvement rates, while being able to test for traits difficult to record in the field, such as disease tolerance and feed conversion efficiency.Data management. Developments in computing are facilitating the handling of performance data and associated information collected in farming systems research and development programmes. Most African countries now have on-site facilities for data entry and preliminary analysis; final analyses and interpretation may, however, need to be done centrally.Despite advances in computer technology, the lack of effective mechanisms for analysis and feedback of results and recommendations to farmers, researchers and extension agents, remains a major constraint to livestock development in sub-Saharan Africa. The objectives of performance testing can only be achieved if the collected data can be quickly analysed and interpreted and recommendations made and implemented promptly. And only then can farmers, researchers and extension agents collaborate effectively.To facilitate this process, ILCA has developed a data entry analysis system called IDEAS, which has been distributed to more than 50 research sites in sub-Saharan Africa. IDEAS incorporates both a standardised performance recording system and an analysis system for herd management decisions, and it can interface with software for other analyses that may be required.The importance of efficient data management and rapid feedback of results cannot be overemphasised, particularly in on-farm testing programmes. These programmes offer the possibility of effectively integrating microcomputer technology and appropriate software in livestock performance testing, thereby overcoming some of the major difficulties experienced in the past with handling field data and providing feedback.Organisation of standardised testing. The impact of on-farm testing schemes will be measured in terms of their ability to improve livestock management and productivity. Plasse's (1982) management prerequisites to ensure successful testing programmes are rarely fulfilled under African conditions; rather, most management aspects are part of a complex exercise requiring a systems approach to performance testing if improvement possibilities are to be fully understood.The systems approach in performance recording combines data on the farm environment (markets, services etc) with those on farm subsystems and on herds/ flocks. It requires a standardised recording approach, a predetermined data recording structure, and an efficient data handling and analysis system. Assigning the development, implementation and analysis of these tasks to collaborative research networks may speed progress, avoid duplication and attract additional funds for on-farm performance testing.About 75% of Africa's livestock are in smallholder farming systems, where they fulfil several functions and are a major source of cash income. Livestock performance can be increased through improved management and output specialisation. However, the production problems identified and the improved technologies proposed must be relevant to the prevailing production system. On-farm comparative breed evaluation, as well as assessment of specific performance ability and technology development, can be complemented by on-station performance testing.During the last decade, on-farm performance testing was expanded considerably, but on-station programmes were more widely reported. Most of the on-farm tests reported in literature were short-term studies which could not assess the whole production process and often did not match health and management data with performance.Although on-station breed comparisons are valuable, their application is limited by high costs and genotype × environment interactions. These problems can be overcome by widespread onfarm testing within collaborative networks, based on standardised methods and enabling rapid data handling and feedback of results. Complementary on-farm and on-station performance testing organised within networks could also support genetic improvement programmes.Lack of dietary crude protein in natural forage is the most serious constraint to ruminant livestock production in the subhumid zone of West Africa (ILCA, 1979). This constraint could be alleviated by feeding forage legumes, provided that appropriate forage production techniques can be identified. There is no single best technique, because the nature and combination of constraints on forage production in the zone vary. Moreover, even in the same ecological circumstances, forage production techniques have to be adapted to suit the varying economic priorities of the intended beneficiaries.The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) has, since 1979, conducted multidisciplinary research at its site in Kaduna, Nigeria, to develop suitable forage production techniques. A summary of ILCA's forage research in the subhumid zone is given in Kaufmann et al (1986). This paper highlights the interactions between agronomy and economics in developing forage production techniques for the two main land-use situations in the zone, cultivation and fallow.There are four production systems in the subhumid zone of Nigeria: the pure pastoral system, with cattle and sheep as the main enterprises; the agropastoral system, where cattle production predominates but some cropping is also done; the multiple enterprise system with mainly cropping and some cattle ownership; and the pure cropping system.Since the problems associated with working with purely pastoral groups appeared to outweigh the expected benefits (ILCA, 1979), sedentarised agropastoralists were initially chosen as the primary target group for ILCA's forage research. However, because of the close link between agropastoralists and crop farmers, both these groups were eventually included in the study. Forage production interventions tested on cultivated land and fallow are described in Mohamed-Saleem (1986a and b).Constraints forage production were identified through literature review, sociological and economic studies and, most importantly, by interacting with farmers involved in the testing of proposed forage interventions. Adoption of forage techniques was found to be limited by all factors of production.Land ownership. In West Africa, land is owned by indigenous ethnic groups involved mainly in cropping. They have traditional procedures for allocating land for subsistence cropping to nonindigenes (such as the agropastoralists). The granting of land to an immigrant is a privilege which may be withdrawn even after the person has been resident in the area for a long time.Transient land ownership thus constitutes a major constraint to sustained forage production by agropastoralists.Labour. Despite their professed greater interest and major investment in cattle, labour for cropping is high on agropastoralists' list of priorities. Demand for labour is greatest during planting. This is so because, although total annual rainfall is fairly reliable in the subhumid zone, the early rains can be very erratic and the soils are prone to surface capping, which makes them virtually impossible to till until the rains have started. Moreover, labour for hire is scarce at planting time, and so all the family labour available is used to plant cereals for subsistence.Capital. Lack of capital to invest in forage production is another constraint. Compared with farmers, agropastoralists in the subhumid zone of Nigeria are rich, the value of their herds often exceeding US$ 7000. Under a free-access grazing system, owners do not get any benefit by reducing stocking rates. If there are no significant opportunity costs to be realised by reducing herd size, and if, in addition, the rate of inflation is high, then it makes good financial sense to keep animals as long as possible because owners can earn more from price appreciation than from any other investment. The greatest risk owners face is calf and young-stock mortality. However, the mortality of animals which have survived to maturity is low, and there are always butchers ready to buy sick animals before they actually die.Management. Although agropastoralists are aware of the value of crop residues as supplementary feed, they do not grow plants specifically to feed their animals. They grow cereals and non-cereal crops in rotations, but this is because rotating the crops helps maintain soil fertility and control Striga hermonthica, a plant parasite which attacks the roots of cereals.Agropastoralists are also fully aware of the beneficial effects of fallowing on soil fertility. However, because clearing new land for cultivation is hard work, fallowing becomes less attractive in communities from which many young people have emigrated to towns. The older farmers are prepared to accept low yields, presumably because this gives them a higher return per unit of labour.A possible source of crude protein is the agro-industrial byproduct, cottonseed cake, which might be purchased with cash obtained from sales of surplus sorghum. However, agropastoralists do not have sufficient labour and land to produce enough sorghum grain for sale, and cottonseed cake is not readily available. Purchasing supplementary feeds is thus not a practical solution, except for a small fraction of herd owners. Supplementing animals with legume forages grown on cultivated land and on fallows improves their nutrition, and the production techniques developed are within the reach of smaller producers.The first attempt at introducing fodder plants on cultivated land was by way of undersowing the most readily available forage legume, Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano, under the most widely grown cereal, Sorghum bicolor. The undersowing technique was chosen because it does not require any extra labour for land preparation for the forage.Ideally, the legume should be planted at the same time as the sorghum so as to minimise labour input, but stylo then fiercely competes with sorghum for light and nutrients. If, however, the legume is planted 3 to 6 weeks after sorghum, reductions in sorghum grain yields are minimal (Table 1). 2 n.a. = not applicable.3 ngl = no grain loss.Source: Adapted from Mohamed-Saleem (1986a).Whether or not undersowing is adopted depends also on the relative values of crude protein (CP) from grain and stylo. Table 1 shows that undersowing stylo 3 to 6 weeks after sorghum gives as attractive grain: stylo CP price ratios as sole grain production.The competitive effect of simultaneous undersowing can further be reduced by changing the crop geometry from mixed sowing on one row to planting stylo and sorghum on alternate rows. This technique, known as 'inter-row' sowing, has been tested by ILCA as an alternative to undersowing.Inter-row sowing is possible because traditional planting rates in the subhumid zone of Nigeria are very low, ranging from 30 000 to 40 000 plants per ha. To increase grain yields under sole cropping, a population density of about 120 000 plants per ha would be required, but such high plant densities cannot be recommended to the farmers because they traditionally intercrop cereals with soya bean. When the grain crop is planted at twice the traditional seeding rate on every second ridge, the total grain plant population traditionally accepted per hectare can be maintained, while freeing alternate ridges for forage legumes. In addition, inter-row sowing (Figure 1) does not affect grain yields per hectare.The data in Table 1 suggest that when sole-crop sorghum yields are low, undersowing and inter-row sowing are very attractive techniques, but when, as in 1981, sorghum yields are higher, the additional crude protein from stylo would have to be very valuable for the techniques to be adopted. Undersowing and inter-row sowing would thus appear to be most appropriate in the last year of rotations, when they would have the additional advantage of being a cheap method of establishing legume fallows.The price ratios given in Table 1 do not include the labour involved in planting stylo. Although the operation is not very laborious, any additional labour demand is unwelcome, especially during the period 3-6 weeks after initially planting sorghum while more sorghum and other crops are still being planted. To overcome the problem of additional labour demands, ILCA conducted trials with other legume species which are less competitive than stylo in the early days after planting. It was found that Centrosema pascuorum, Alysicarpus vaginalis and Macroptylium lathyroides could be planted simultaneously with sorghum without depressing grain yield.While crop competition after planting limits the utility of undersowing, interrow sowing is of little interest to the agropastoralists because of the small size of their fields. A typical agropastoralist owns 50 head of cattle and cultivates 1.5 ha of land. Assuming that he can undersow half his cultivated land with legumes, expecting a dry-matter yield of 4000 kg/ha of which 50% may be consumed by cattle, then, if stylo averages 9% crude protein, 2.5 kg dry matter would be required to provide a minimal supplement of 0.25 kg crude protein per head per day. The agropastoralist would thus have produced sufficient food for only 5 animals over the 180-day dry season.Another problem is selecting the animals which should be supplemented. Agropastoral herds are management units owned collectively by several members of a household, and any management practice proposed must be acceptable to all those who have a vested interest in the herd. In the circumstances it would be invidious, if not socially impossible, for the nominal head of the household to select just a few animals for supplementation. And since the small fields of the agropastoralists cannot possibly supply enough forage for all their animals, agropastoralists would probably continue to depend on crop residues produced on the much larger and more numerous farmers' fields. Farmers have not shown much interest in undersowing and inter-row planting, because they do not gain any financial benefit from growing forages. In parts of the subhumid zone where cattle are still rather scarce and competition for crop residues is not yet keen, farmers pay agropastoralists to bring their cattle to the fields to deposit manure and clear stubble and weeds. How ever, this is likely to change as population pressure builds up and competition for land intensifies. In all heavily cultivated areas, cattle owners are obliged to pay for crop residues produced on farmers' fields, which makes undersowing or intercropping forage legumes more attractive to farmers.According to Young and Wright (1980), at least 30% of the land in the subhumid zone should be under fallow to restore fertility and sustain crop yields. Natural grasses and forbs are not very good fallows because they do not grow vigorously. The soil tends to be exposed to high surface temperatures and surface erosion for long periods, and the grass roots are not very effective in maintaining sufficient levels of organic matter in the soil. In addition, the poor grazing value of indigenous grasses limits the economic use of the land during the fallow period.Soil fertility and the quality of grazing could be improved by introducing forage legumes into natural fallows. Early during the testing of the technique the question arose whether or not stands of forage legumes sown on fallows should be enclosed. ILCA's first attempt to produce forages without fencing failed, and so did government range improvement schemes. Then, when the idea of fencing was introduced, there were doubts as to whether agropastoralists would be permitted to erect fences round improved fallows, as this would convey a certain degree of permanence and suggest private ownership. However, it soon became apparent that deciding on how big an area should be enclosed was more crucial than fencing itself.The area of fallow set aside for forage production would, naturally, depend on the pressure on land for cultivation but, in general, it was assumed to be no greater than about twice the area of land traditionally cultivated by landowners. Given an average farm size of about 2.5 ha (Powell, 1986), the effective limit on even large areas of unused fallow would thus appear to be about 4 ha.Besides the size of enclosures there were two other critical management issues to be resolvedland preparation for the forage crop and grass control. Potential solutions to these problems were found by observing the behaviour of herds. For example, animals confined in a kraal overnight destroy vegetation with their hoofs and break the surface of the land, and this gave the researchers the idea of using cattle to prepare land for forage crops. Also, cattle's preference for grass over young legume plants could be exploited for the control of fast-growing grasses that tend to smother young legumes (Otsyina et al, 1987).Based on these observations, confined units of intensive forage production, also known as fodder banks, were designed to meet the following economic objectives of agropastoralists: increased cow productivity and calf survival  increased total herd welfare and elimination of distress sales  increased crop yields, and  increased security of tenure.The cost of establishing and maintaining a 4-ha fodder bank are shown in Table 2. A comparison of the recurrent cost of producing 1 kg of crude protein from fodder banks with the market price of an equivalent amount of crude protein in cottonseed cake showed that crude protein from fodder banks is cheaper (Table 3). Besides, depending on cottonseed cake is riskier than depending on fodder banks, because the supplement is not always on the market and its price is subject to inflation.","tokenCount":"10598"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"28085fc7b23be589fbc389c35241d9bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4b5b3a13-61f3-4174-810b-809b828ebfae/retrieve","id":"1520813917"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"463d0c51-8034-47cb-a55b-fdb31c9d0742","pagecount":"2","content":"The business model involves the treatment of fecal sludge collected from either public toilets or toilets in residential institutions, using biodigesters to generate biogas for lighting and/or cooking or for sale to households and businesses. Using anaerobic technology, the treatment of toilet waste provides safer sanitation and produces pollution-free biogas for energy. The model also provides organic compost from the biogas plant which can be used as fertilizer.The business can operate in two ways: through (i) an enterprise, municipality or nongovernmental organization (NGO) providing sanitation services; or (ii) a residential institution (e.g., hostel, hospital, prison) that produces large quantities of human waste. In the first case, a toilet complex is installed in which human waste is fed directly to a bio-digester. The owner of the business charges a fee for toilet usage, rents out space within the complex for other businesses, and sells surplus biogas as well as fertilizer to various users. In the second case, the human waste of a residential institution istransferred to a bio-digester in order to produce biogas for the kitchen, thereby reducing energy costs (with potential to sell excess biogas). Both these business models offer carbon offset and can sell carbon credits for additional revenue.The Total Sanitation and Hygiene Access (TOSHA) 1 bio-center, located in Nairobi's biggest slum, Kibera, is a multi-purpose sanitation facility which has contributed to improving hygiene in the community as well as producing biogas and bio-slurry from human waste. Run by the community-based organization (CBO), TOSHA, the center contains toilet facilities, a bio-digester, showers, an operator's office, biogas cooking facilities for women street food vendors and restaurants, a bio-slurry for farmers, rental spaces for private businesses, and a meeting hall. It is used by an average of 1,000 people per day and has aCapital investment:USD 22,500 for construction of each bio-center; USD 10,000 for advertisement/campaignLabor: Skilled and unskilled labor for construction and running the bio-center Operation and maintenance cost: USD 3,720/year Output: Toilet facility for 1,000 users/day and biogas capacity of 54 m 3Social and environmental impact: Improved community health, hygiene and environmental sanitation, improved livelihood and capacity building of community, job creation, and reduced environmental pollution Financial viability: Payback period: 3 yearsGross margin: 77%Market risks: In both cases of the model, there is a potential risk that consumers will be unwilling to use biogas, food/ bakery items made using biogas or bio-fertilizers generated from human waste due to social perceptions.Although the technology used is well established and mature, it might not be available in developing countries and requires skilled labor.In most developing countries, the price of cooking fuels such as kerosene is subsidized for domestic consumption. Such government policies can diminish the economic advantage offered by the biogas supplied to households. Also, if the policy is extended to commercial entities, the business model is unviable.Safety, environmental and health risks: Processing human waste poses a high risk for environmental pollution and human health, if appropriate measures are not taken. These include possible gas leakages, and health and safety risk for workers.The business model has a high potential for replication in developing countries, with no limiting factors except for the social acceptance of the product, and can be scaled up by expanding the business to other sectors such as compost and selling cooked food. It scores low on innovation as the model does not require any sophisticated technology or financing.production capacity of 54 m 3 of biogas per day. The bio-center was built by the civil society organization/ NGO, Umande Trust, which continues to provide technical support and training to TOSHA on running the complex. The center currently makes a profit of about USD 1,100 per month from user fees and the sale of biogas and bio-slurry. In addition, the business has provided a wide number of benefits for the Kibera slum, including improved sanitation, fostering of entrepreneurship in the community, changing people's attitude towards reusing human waste, and reduced emissions from the burning of other fuels. ","tokenCount":"655"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cc2f2c5a04bd7c47ab444f28944326c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.mssanz.org.au/modsim2013/H12/villamor.pdf","id":"-1203244003"},"keywords":["Agent-based model","biodiversity performance indicator","conditionality","eco-certification","ecosystem service trade-offs","land-use/cover change","price effect"],"sieverID":"80449b12-a42b-4432-9cae-121caf267dca","pagecount":"7","content":"An agent-based modelling approach (LB-LUDAS model) was applied to simulate and visualize the temporal and spatial scale effects of the Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme on the trade-offs between goods and services in the rubber agroforest landscapes in Jambi Province, (Sumatra) Indonesia. The PES scheme under investigation is a form of eco-certification of biodiversity-friendly rubber agroforests, as an economic incentive to keep rubber agroforests from conversion into monoculture plantations. Within the model, we integrated the concept of PES conditionality, where biodiversity performance measures were set for household agents to qualify for incentives. On the other hand, species richness, carbon sequestration, and natural succession sub-models are imbedded in the landscape agents. During the simulation, we looked at three different price scenarios to determine how they will affect the land-use decision of the agents and the ecosystem services supply. The main results showed that PES for rubber agroforests could offer synergies among carbon emission reduction, biodiversity and livelihoods when compared to the existing land-use practices. At the same time, the scheme could reduce the trade-offs resulting from possible land-use/cover change. The results of the simulation were validated using a role-playing game testing responses to external agents.Several studies have illustrated the effect of payment for ecosystem services (PES) on land use decision making, and the impact of social norms on the enrollment of PES, and assessed the effect on household income using agent-based models (ABM) (Chen et al., 2012;Evans et al., 2011;Sun and Müller, 2013). However, understanding how PES schemes and households adoption affects the goods and ecosystem services (ES) delivery are very few. In this paper, we explore the role of PES schemes to reduce the ES tradeoffs or enhance the synergies of various ES using ABM (i.e., Lubuk-Beringin -Land Use Dynamic Simulator or LB-LUDAS model). Since very few primary forests are left in Indonesia, maintaining agroforests is one of the last options for supporting the remaining biodiversity, and incentives to prevent further conversion to less biologically diverse land uses are seen as an urgent need. The type of PES scheme under investigation is an eco-certification or eco-labeling of rubber agroforests, in which a price-premium is added if a household will adopt and meet all the biodiversity performance criteria. The research question is whether eco-labelling or eco-certification of latex from rubber agroforest under a PES scheme could be a promising option for at least part of the households as well as by how much price increase is appropriate to make sure the continuous ES supply. Thus, we explored the effect of different price scenario under the PES scheme on the land-use decisions of the households.The study site includes three villages, namely Lubuk Beringin, Laman Panjang, and Buat, all located in Jambi Province, (Sumatra) Indonesia. Together, they have a total population of 2,207 inhabitants belonging to 553 households (Rantau Pandan Statistics 2003). The main source of staple food is rice paddies; the main source of income is rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and occasionally durian and other local fruits obtained from the rubber agroforests. Rubber agroforest used to be the dominant land use in Jambi Province (van Noordwijk et al., 2012). However, due to the low latex productivity, farmers are now attracted to convert their farm lands into more profitable land use such as oil palm and monoculture rubber plantations.We surveyed 95 randomly selected households in the study area from a total population of 550 households. The survey was conducted between February and March 2010 with the objective to elicit data on household characteristics, preferences, and behaviors. It explored: (1) household profiles and farm characteristics (from which existing land-use choices were generated); and (2) households' willingness to adopt PES. Based on the survey results we characterized the households using principal component and cluster analyses and identified two categories (Villamor, 2012). Type 1 households were described as \"better-off households,\" and Type 2 households as \"poor households.\" For each household type the existing household land-use choices were assessed using a multinomial logistic regression analysis. Willingness to adopt PES was assessed using a binary logistic regression analysis (Villamor, 2012;Villamor et al., 2011). The results of the land-use choice and willingness to adopt PES analyses became the basis of agent decision making for the business-as-usual (BAU) model scenario, along with PES scenarios.The study applies the LUDAS framework (Le et al., 2008). The description of the LUDAS model using the ODD protocol (Overview, Design concept, and Details) (Grimm et al., 2010) is described in Le et al. (2010). For application of PES, in the following the modified and new features in the LB-LUDAS model are described (Villamor, 2012;Villamor et al., under review).Agents, state variables and scales: There are two types of agents. First, human agents are representations of individual farming households with state variables on social, natural, physical, financial and human resources, and policy access. Second, landscape agents (i.e., congruent land pixels or patches) with state variables corresponding to GIS-raster layers of biophysical spatial variables, spatial neighbourhood characteristics, spatial economic variables (e.g., proximate distance to road and town centre or market), spatial institutional variables (e.g. owner and protection zoning), and households' landscape vision (Le et al. 2008). One grid cell or pixel represents 30 m x 30 m, and the model landscape covers 156 km 2 . The adaptive traits of each individual agent are explicitly processed mainly by land-use decisions and the change in Villamor et al., Modelling the Socio-Ecological System Dynamics of Rubber Agroforests behaviour strategies (i.e., preference coefficient of land-use choice function and willingness to adopt PES policies, and structure of labour allocation).Process overview and scheduling: One time step represents one year. The main time loop of the simulation program, called annual production cycle, includes sequential steps, which are agent-based and integrated with patch-based processes. The ten basic simulation steps are: (1) set-up initial state of the system, (2) update agent and patch attributes, (3) adopt behaviour parameters, (4) farmland choice, (5) forest choice, (6) other income sources, (7) update changes in agent and patch attributes, (8) create new agents, (9) translate annual land-use changes, and (10) calculate ecosystem services (e.g. crop productivity, species richness, and carbon sequestration).Input: Data and parameters were parameterized and calibrated for each sub-model (Table 1). Upland rice yield 600-800 kg ha -1 yr -1 Field survey Sub-models PES-adoption sub-model (nested within Land-use choice sub-model) calculates stochastically the probability of the household agents whether to adopt or not to adopt the PES scheme based on their preference coefficients. These preference coefficients were derived from binary logistic regression (Villamor et al., 2011). The sub-model is linked to the Calculate-species-richness sub-model, creating the interaction between socio-economic state variables and the bio-physical processes in the systems. This sub-model is integrated in the agent's decision-making routines with a simple rule base: (1) if the household decides to adopt the PES scheme, then do rubber agroforest, (2) otherwise look for other land-use types for current landholdings. If the latter case is realized, the household agent will execute Land-use choice sub-model. The main variables of the sub-models are shown in Table 2.Calculate-species-richness sub-model deterministically calculates the estimated species richness of the land cover (e.g. rubber agroforests). The estimated species richness of rubber-agroforest serves as a biodiversity performance measurement for the eco-certification scheme (see section 2.3). The species richness is estimated using the power function of species-area relationship (Villamor et al., under review).Natural-transition sub-model performs the natural succession among vegetation types based on accumulated vegetation growth and ecological edge effects. Its rules are based on the evaluation of four patch variables, namely (i) previous cover type, (ii) life span of existing cover type, (iii) existing stand basal area, and (iv) distance to nearest forest.The land-cover-derived C-stocks method is applied by assigning the timeaveraged C-stocks and is estimated in the LB-LUDAS model.Financial-return sub-model estimates the annual financial returns to household agents from major land uses. The yields generated from the crop production sub-model (rubber and rice) are captured by this sub-model, where all crop production costs (e.g., labour and agro-chemical input costs) are deducted from annual revenues. At the end of each time step the results are used to estimate the net present value (NPV) of the different land uses, which serves as an indicator of the livelihood options of household agents in each scenario. To investigate the financial returns of land-use types (i.e., rubber plantation, rubber agroforest, and rice), we calculated their NPV over 20 years. The interest rate is 20%. Rice value is US$ 1 kg -1 and dry rubber is US$ 2.5 kg -1 . Variable costs of each crop were derived from Wulan et al. ( 2008) and labour costs are US$ 2 day -1 . We assumed that an additional income of up to US$ 70 ha -1 yr -1 is generated beginning at year eight from fruit trees intercropped within rubber agroforests as observed from the field survey.The scenarios are primarily based on household land-use decisions under different policy contexts.1) Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario -agents operate on the premise that there is no policy intervention available. We simulated existing land-uses on the agent's landholdings over a 20-year period with changes to biophysical conditions based on temporal dynamics and population increase.2) PES scenario -agents operate on the premise that a conditional eco-certification scheme is offered. First, the agent assesses the existing land-use choice. Then, the agent assesses whether to adopt PES or not using the PES-adoption sub-model. If an agent adopts PES their biodiversity performance measures (Table 2) are generated by two sub-models (i.e., Calculatespecies-richness and Forest-Growth-Response, Le et al. (2008)) and evaluated for PES compliance A price premium is awarded to agents that meet all of these criteria and no payments are available for partial compliance. To understand the possible amount of price premium, we tested a 10%, 20% and 40% increase of price value from the baseline price of (US$ 2.5 1 )A total of five simulation runs were independently performed for BAU scenario while three simulation runs were performed for each price scenario under PES. For each scenario, we took the average values. Each run has 20 time steps or years and the model is programmed in Netlogo version 4.1.A social validation approach was conducted to validate the results of the LB-LUDAS simulation through role-playing games (Villamor and van Noordwijk, 2011). Land-use game boards were used to represent each of the target villages and same survey respondents played the games where they could directly change their land-use/cover type according to their negotiations with actors promoting either conversion or conservation of rubber agroforests.The land-use change trends of three main land uses simulated under BAU and PES scenario (Figure 1). A decreasing trend of rice field is observed both under the BAU and PES scenarios. For agroforests, a larger rubber agroforest area was simulated under the PES scenario than BAU, suggesting that rubber agroforest is preferable by household agents under the PES scenario. No change of rubber monoculture was observed under PES scenario while a decreasing trend of rubber monoculture was observed under the BAU scenario.Within the PES scenario, we compared the simulated land use map according to different price increase on baseline price with the 2005 land-use map to see the potential change. Table 3 summarizes the land-use 1 Average price per kilogram of dry rubber was US$ 2.5 during the data collection (2010).Biodiversity performance target i. At least four different trees species (>10 cm DBH) within an 8 m radius of a random observation point within the plot (based on an average of five observations); ii. If there are less than six species the relative stand basal area of the rubber trees is determined, with a threshold of 2/3 coverage; and iii. At least one tree with a DBH of >40 cm within a 25 m radius (based on an average of five observations).changes at 10%, 20% and 40% increase of baseline price. Results show as the price premium increases, the area of rice field increases while the area of rubber monoculture decreases. For rubber agroforests, no apparent trend was observed that links to the price scenario.  From those land-use changes, the potential impact on the ES delivery was estimated. Between BAU and PES scenarios, the key indicators for ES delivery are presented in Table 4. The results suggest that under the PES scenario performs better for maintaining species richness, and reducing carbon emissions. In terms of price scenarios, biodiversity and carbon emissions did not differ substantially.With regard to yields, the rubber yield from agroforest increases as the price premium increases, along with its uncertainty (i.e., standard deviation). However, the rice yield is highest under the BAU scenario while a gradual decreasing trend of yield as the price increases in price premium under the PES scenario. The yield of rubber monoculture would be highest with 20% PES price premium though would not differ substantially in comparison to other scenarios.In terms of PES adoption, the highest number of PES adopters is at the 40% price premium. This suggests that an increase of price premium would increase the number of PES adopters. Different PES values would lead to different NPV of land uses (Figure 2). Results show that over 20 year period, rubber monoculture has the highest net returns (US$ 1,360) even at 10% price increase for PES for rubber agroforest (Figure 2a). Consequent increase in PES values for rubber agroforest would lead that this land use would have the highest net returns (e.g., at 20% price increase the NPV is US$ 1,940, and at 40% price increase the NPV is US$ 2,960). At the same time, returns from rubber agroforest and monoculture would substantially vary over the years due to their yield fluctuations. In contrasts, the returns from rice would be lowest, yet variability in its NPV would be also lowest. Our study showed that PES through eco-certification for rubber agroforest landscape performs better in synergizing the key ES such as biodiversity, carbon stock enhancement and crop production compared to BAU scenario. In terms of ES delivery, the different price scenarios for price premium under the ecocertification scheme do not substantially alter the goods and ES delivery. However, between 20% and 40% price increase of baseline price, rubber agroforest could compete with rubber monoculture in terms of financial returns. Along with the increase of price premium is the increase of PES adoption.","tokenCount":"2368"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ace29133bb6132d1342cc415d209c1db","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e6e5e829-2f0a-4914-bc80-7dc19306ee41/retrieve","id":"2051866786"},"keywords":["Chris Dickens -project lead","aquatic ecologist","International Water"],"sieverID":"31ba2aa0-c3f3-41fc-b421-32cdd2c0f6f8","pagecount":"64","content":"Disclaimer: This publication has been prepared with care by the authors. Responsibility for editing, proofreading and design/layout of the document, and for any remaining errors and opinions expressed lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IWMI.The following procedural steps will be followed in this project: ...................... 8 E-flows for the Limpopo River -building more resilient communities and ecosystems through improved management of transboundary natural resources1.1 OBJECTIVES:This project will provide the necessary evidence to secure environmental flows (eflows) for increasing the resilience of communities and ecosystems in the Limpopo Basin to changes in stream-flow resulting from basin activities and climate change.This project responds to the problem of managing water resources to ensure that there is always enough water not only to sustain the ecosystem, but also to sustain the ecosystem services that are benefitting communities associated with the Limpopo River. The water resources of the Limpopo River are stressed, with present day flows substantially diminished when compared to the natural flows. There is thus an urgent need to establish sustainable resource management plans in the Limpopo Basin. Key to this is that an acceptable minimum (but varied) flow rate be established for the river that can be built into transboundary as well as national cooperation and management plans to secure the necessary ecosystems and ecosystem services. These are environmental flows (e-flows).There is a history of e-flow assessment in the Limpopo River basin, with two complementary initiatives already in place. The Limpopo River Basin Monograph (Aurecon, 2013) included a supplementary report called \"Determination of Present Ecological State and Environmental Water Requirements\" that was published in 2013 (note that the team in this project is largely the same as undertook that study). Eight (8) sites that spanned the entire transboundary basin were surveyed to provide data for priority reaches on the main-stem Limpopo and important tributaries in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The Changane in Mozambique was dropped as it proved to be a wetland lacking a main channel. In addition, nine (9) sites were established in the estuary. The Monograph also summarizes the second source of e-flow data in the Limpopo Basin, i.e., the many e-flow assessments that have been carried out by the South African Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) for tributaries located in South Africa. Subsequent to that report, further surveys have been carried out in South Africa, but have avoided the main-stem river because of its transboundary nature. There are no other documented Limpopo Basin e-flow studies from the other countries.Previous e-flow assessments in the Limpopo Basin were confined to surface flow and did not directly consider the groundwater interaction beyond the estimation of baseflows (that are one of groundwater's contributions to stream flow). For the Limpopo Basin, this is a particularly important aspect given that many of the rivers have only intermittent or seasonal flows, partly due to increasing groundwater abstractions for various uses.An approach to e-flows that embraces the connection between the flow of river water and the water requirements of stakeholders, including rural stakeholders, requirements that will include such things as water for riparian irrigation, for domestic use, fish for food, and reeds for construction etc., will be applied. These requirements will be determined at project initiation. Rural stakeholders rely to a greater degree on immediate ecosystem services from the river, and are most vulnerable when these flows are diverted elsewhere, or when climate changes causes overall long-term and seasonal flow patterns to change. The e-flow assessment done in this project will consider the requirements of rural stakeholders for flow-related ecosystem services, and will document the quantities of water required in the river that will provide the services they require, and the risks to failure of this provision. As groundwater is becoming an increasingly critical resource for stakeholders in the basin, and groundwater abstraction close to the river is prevalent and indirectly influencing river flows, water requirements from both groundwater and surface water need to be understood. Management of environmental flows will require an integrated management of both surface water and groundwater.This project builds on the Monograph study and the data provided by DWS in South Africa and extends the work done at the same sites as initiated in the Monograph by adding new sites as well as wet-season evidence on the ecological requirements and the role of groundwater and also to link stream flow to the requirements of stakeholders. Greater evidence on the ecological requirements will be gained as this project will focus much of its efforts on the wet-season situation, something that was missed during the Monograph study. It will also carry out more intensive field investigations, and most importantly, will introduce a probabilistic approach to the eflow investigation, thus enabling the results to be interpreted with greater understanding.In the process of contracting this project, the world was struck down by the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of changes to the schedule have had to be made as a result, but the project will continue to be delivered in the same original time limit, but with some deliverables altered. The project response to COVID can be viewed in Annexure C. There does remain a risk however, that the virus will not clear sufficiently to enable travel, both to the field and between countries. This will have to be managed as the situation arises.Resilient Waters have been clear that the ultimate beneficiary of this project is LIMCOM (Minutes of the Inception Meeting held between RW, IWMI and LIMCOM on 30/04/2020), and that LIMCOM need to be part of project development, investing in the results that will be produced, and implementing them in their management of the Limpopo River basin. In order to achieve this, the following engagement process will be followed during the project (see table 2.1): The e-flow results in the 2013 Monograph that were based on eight sites, will be upgraded to provide evidence of the risks to the livelihoods of communities resulting from changes in flow and as mitigated by provision of e-flows. Additional sites on the Luvuvhu and Olifants/Elefantes Rivers will be surveyed for the first time (see Table 2.2) and the results integrated with the updated e-flow assessment of the Limpopo River. This comprehensive assessment will include e-flows for the main stem river and important tributaries, including a total of twelve survey sites, at a greater level of confidence than was contained in the Monograph. It will also include the groundwater contribution to e-flows, with detailed data from two of the twelve sites, one ephemeral and one perennial. The risks to flow-related ecosystem services will also be a new assessment, as described below.A problematic aspect of e-flow determination in the Limpopo Basin is that many of the rivers are becoming seasonal and the Limpopo River itself at times dries out. Furthermore, abstraction of groundwater from the riverbank or the river bed is common in the basin, thus indirectly affecting the river flow and complicating the estimation of e-flows. Integration of groundwater aspects into the e-flow assessment is an innovation, with little precedent, that will be addressed in this project.Groundwater is generally a critical component of environmental flows. It contributes significantly to baseflows of rivers, which are critical to river flows (and hence e-flows), especially in dry seasons. In arid areas, rivers may, reversely, drain to groundwater, if groundwater levels decline, e.g. by groundwater being pumped in the vicinity of the river. Hence, to manage e-flows and set realistic targets for e-flows, it is critical to understand the dynamic connection between a river and the underlying groundwater and to manage surface water and groundwater resources and their abstractions conjunctively. This project will include for the first time the groundwater resource as part of the assessment of e-flows for the Limpopo River, which is essentially an ephemeral 'sand' river. It is already known that there are substantial flows in the unconfined sandy aquifer below the riverbed. The project will identify one or two hotspots along the river with critical linkages between groundwater and surface flow and will model the hydraulic interactions between surface water and groundwater as a function of season and water abstractions. Some fieldwork will be carried out to better understand this groundwater component.Two relevant references are available that describe e-flow methods 1 , 2 for nonperennial rivers and groundwater. However, in this project, best-practice surface water e-flow models will be applied, with the groundwater influence on the hydrology and also on the maintenance of instream and riparian habitats being the main focus.Two water resource studies in the Limpopo Basin have been established by the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) that will leverage the outputs of this USAID/Resilient Waters funded project. These two projects will run concurrently with the RW project, and will contribute by collecting evidence for the e-flows assessment described above, in particular as related to the Olifants/Elefantes River, and will also contribute skills to the e-flow assessment at all of the other sites. The two projects are the JAF -BRICS Multilateral Joint Science and Technology Research Collaboration study, and a Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) study, descriptions of which follow.The JAF -BRICS Multilateral Joint Science and Technology Research Collaboration has awarded the international study titled: Global and local water quality monitoring by multimodal sensor systems (GLOWSENS). The three-year study from January 2019 to December 2021 will be undertaken by representatives from the BRICS nations. The South African lead team is based at the UMP and will undertake an evaluation of the socio-ecological consequences of multiple stressors to the Olifants/Elefantes and Limpopo (the lower reaches) Rivers, and Massingir dam (in South Africa and Mozambique). The study is proposed to include a series of bio-physical surveys linked to water quality in the Olifants/ Elefantes and Limpopo (below the confluence with the Elefantes) Rivers from 2019 to 2021 with additional laboratory experimentation at the UMP and North West University. The study will make a considerable contribution to the documentation of stressors in the lower Olifants/Elefantes and Limpopo Rivers and will contribute to achievement of a sustainable balance between the use and protection of the resources of the system. The data collected by this project will be incorporated into the PROBFLO assessment of the Limpopo Basin as a whole.The WIOMSA study has been awarded to UMP and is titled: Slippery resource in peril: ecology of Western Indian Ocean (WIO) Anguillid eels and their contribution to sustainable fisheries and livelihood along the east coast of Africa. The aim of this study is to elucidate aspects of the biology, ecology and risk of multiple stressors to the sustainable use and protection of this species. The objectives include; (1) a synthesis and review of existing knowledge regarding the biology, ecology, use and threats of eels in the WIO, (2) characterize the recruitment and escapement ecology in selected estuaries throughout the WIO, (3) evaluate the contribution of eels to local fisheries and livelihood and finally (4) undertake a regional scale ecological risk assessment of multiple stressors affecting populations that includes recommendations for sustainable management and conservation. The study includes resources for the collection of biophysical data and flow-ecosystem relationship information for the Anguillid eels in the Limpopo Basin. This study, and the resources available for the research team will make a considerable contribution to the Limpopo e-flows study, the results being taken up directly into the holistic models planned for this project. Eels are particularly important for this e-flows assessment, as they are able to migrate up-river and can pass both waterfalls and some dams, thus making them the only fish-connection to the sea that moves both up and downstream over such obstacles.The BRICS and WIOMSA studies will provide finance for the involved staff, for equipment, water sample and ecotoxicology analyses and associated transport and fieldwork.A third leveraging project is the Water Land & Ecosystems (WLE) programme of the CGIAR. WLE has as one of its Flagships, a programme called \"Enhancing Sustainability across Agricultural Systems\" (https://wle.cgiar.org/research/themes/enhancingsustainability-across-agricultural-systems). This programme has a number of case studies that are considering various models for assessment of sustainability in relation to agriculture. The e-flows approach in the Limpopo could be considered as one such case study. Inclusion of this project as an adjunct to the RW Project would require that the endpoints of the e-flows assessment include those that allow evaluation of the sustainability of agricultural beneficiaries. Thus, from the WLE perspective, the e-flows project would provide a measure of the contribution of water flows to sustainable agriculture, food security and livelihoods. This project has recently been approved by WLE so will be going ahead but the budget has not been included here.The original Monograph e-flow study was undertaken using a low-confidence rapid eflow assessment method. Following the addition of the wet-season data during this project, and also the contributions of groundwater, the confidence in the results will be improved by using the state-of-the-art e-flows tool PROBFLO 3 that is the product of the proposing team. PROBFLO results in two outputs including an evaluation of acceptable risk trade-off considerations for a range of environmental management options and e-flow requirements. The approach incorporates regional scale ecological risk assessment methods to evaluate multiple sources of stressors, multiple stressors and diverse ecosystems that address multiple social and ecological endpoints. Endpoints have been defined as \"specific entities and their attributes that are at risk and that are expressions of a management goal\" (USEPA, 2003). PROBFLO is based on a Bayesian Network-Relative Risk Model established to evaluate a range of natural and anthropogenic stressors including water withdrawal, seasonality of flow, changes in groundwater level, pollution, diseases, alien species and a range of altered environmental states.The application of the ten PROBFLO procedural steps in an e-flow assessment is illustrated in Figure 3.2 and is explained in detail in the Task descriptions below. By implementing PROBFLO, we will gain a quantitative perspective of the flow-related risks to the resilience of ecosystems and communities. Thus, we will be able to link socioeconomic endpoints, for example, food security needs being met by fisheries, with sustainable e-flows. The tool's modular structure quantitatively shows the causal linkages between change drivers (e.g., climate, pollution, water withdrawal from both surface and groundwater) and ecosystem service degradation. It allows users to evaluate the drivers of change and the impact of mitigation measures (e.g. reestablishing flows in tributaries) on the provision of ecosystem services to users. These results can be integrated with water allocation models (not done in this project but see previous IWMI work in the Olifants 4 ), whereupon the e-flows become the baseline for understanding trade-offs and for optimizing resilience of both the ecosystem and local communities. They also provide a linkage between surface water resources and groundwater allocation and management. Data describing the basin, its peoples and ecosystem will be collected and will include information on water resources, hydrology, groundwater, ecosystem types, ecoregions, land use, land cover, dams and associated infrastructure. Existing data from the Limpopo Monograph (2013) e-flows assessment of eight sites spanning Botswana, Zimbabwe, South African and Mozambique, and from the Shashe in Zimbabwe 5 is available for use. Prior and subsequent data from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in South Africa, who have determined e-flows on the tributaries in the South African part of the basin, will be collected and collated.The condition of the ecosystem and its ecoregions will also be described using existing data that will include the DWS Present Ecological Status database for South Africa as well as its ecoregions data, but in other countries it will be necessary to use relevant data and reports including the Monograph itself. Lastly, the basin will be divided into Risk Regions (Figure 3.1) i.e. major sub-basin regions as determined by a combination of socio-economic and biophysical characters including transboundary issues. Hotspot areas for groundwater -surface water interactions, e.g. where heavy groundwater pumping is occurring close to the river for intensive agriculture, will be identified.  E-flows can only be set in relation to a vision and management objective for the condition of the river within the basin and for the communities that the river supports. This already exists in different styles for the different parts of the basin as part of policy, strategies and resource objectives within riparian governments and LIMCOM have just completed a study on the vision for the basin. For this project, these will be harmonized into a format that provides the vision for different sub-sections of the basin and thus a context for the e-flows evaluation to follow. A vision and objectives will be established separately for each Risk Region and will be considered from both a surface and groundwater perspective and taking into account the reality that the river today is ephemeral in places, and critically along the main stem. If the existing vision or objectives are inadequate for the task, then the e-flows will be determined for the present-day flows and modelled for an improved ecological condition. This will be done largely at a desktop level with only VIP consultation where the project team will work with existing initiatives of Resilient Waters and important stakeholders, in particular LIMCOM to clarify the vision. Setting a vision or objectives that is at odds with the new LIMCOM vision and also what is in present day policy will not be possible in this project as such changes would require extensive consultation.3.4 TASK 3: ECOSYSTEM SERVICE ENDPOINTS.Endpoints have been defined as \"specific entities and their attributes that are at risk and that are expressions of a management goal\" (USEPA, 2003).The vision and objectives clarified in the above task, will be matched to the requirements of local stakeholders for flow-related ecosystem services (as derived from both surface and groundwater systems). In order to do this, a process will be followed where the vision and objectives in policy are tested with key stakeholder representatives in order to establish the following: a. The activities occurring in the basin that threaten the flow-related ecosystem services to communities along the river b.The requirements these communities have for flow-related ecosystem services, and the relative dependence on groundwater and surface water for these services. c.The above requirements become the endpoints of the e-flows study, the endpoints that the e-flows must deliver, in order to continue to provide flowrelated ecosystem services. The project facilitates consideration of trade-offs between these endpoints.Endpoints will be coupled with a preliminary economics and livelihoods assessment related to streamflow, based largely on literature and limited stakeholder representative consultation, consultation with NGOs and riparian government agencies and also with LIMCOM.To complement the 2013 Limpopo Monograph dry period e-flow assessment, during the October 2019 dry season period, a two-week survey was undertaken to the four new sites positioned on the Luvuvhu, Olifants/Elefantes Rivers. This added to the existing data that was previously collected during the dry season survey of the Limpopo Monograph study. During the wet season (~ February/March) in 2021, a second three-week survey will be undertaken to all of the 12 sites. Confidence of the study will be improved by re-calculating the Monograph e-flows based on historical samples and the new data. Sites selected for the study will represent 12 Risk Regions that represent the different flow, socio-ecological use, and protection scenarios of the Limpopo Basin. Ecological components of the basin that will be evaluated in the survey will include the basin hydraulic habitats (based on cross and longitudinal surveys at the sites), water and sediment physico-chemical characteristics and associated geomorphology, aquatic vegetation, riparian vegetation, fish, benthic macroinvertebrates and indicator mammals and reptiles as components of the ecosystem and associated ecosystem processes. Single water quality samples that only provide a single snapshot sample will be taken by staff from the University of Northwest and combined with historical data to consider trends in water quality conditions. Additional ecotoxicology analyses of water, sediment and fish tissues will be undertaken by the BRICS study to contribute to the evaluation of the chemical stressors affecting ecosystem components. Note that this study focuses on the e-flows for the rivers of the Limpopo Basin, however the estuary is not included in this assessment. The Monograph study did document the e-flows for the estuary, so this information will inform the interpretation of the e-flows in the river entering the estuary for this new study.As groundwater is key to e-flows, key data on the interaction between groundwater and surface water will be collected from at least two sites that represent typical settings for this interaction, including perennial and ephemeral conditions (Table 3.1). At these sites, the movement of sub-surface water will be documented over the seasons, and the interaction with surface water and surface ecosystems described. It will also be investigated how human abstraction of groundwater influences the flow in the river and in the subsurface to inform understanding of the disturbance of the natural system and the level of human dependence on groundwater and variability over the year.Table 3.1 shows river surface water sites used in the Monograph study (Indicated as 2012) and new sites that will be added. The abbreviated name (ABBR) indicates whether the site is a full e-flows site (EWR) or is a secondary site (SEC). The site on the Changane will not be repeated as in the first survey it was found to be hyper saline and also largely a wetland with minimal flow, thus not suitable for an e-flows assessment. -24.500200 33.010400Generate general conceptual models that, using available information, describe relationships between the sources of flow-change (e.g. upstream dams, abstractions etc.) and the endpoints. These are preferably quantifiable relationships but if data is lacking, then based on expert judgement. Once developed, these conceptual models will use the evidence gathered in the field surveys to develop a hypothesis on the relationships between multiple sources, stressors, habitats and impacts to endpoints selected for the study (example in Figure 3.3). This includes the holistic characterization of flow-ecosystem and flow-ecosystem service relationships in the context of a regional scale e-flows framework.A specialist workshop will be held to present the ecological state, and to agree on the conceptual models, a draft shown below Task 5b: New conceptual e-flows model for surface water / groundwater interactions: This task will develop an explicit conceptual model for how to assess e-flows based on the source of water for the stream, whether surface water or groundwater. For an ephemeral part of the river, this takes into account the fact that the river is not flowing for part of the year, and flow-related services hence cannot be provided from these parts of the river during these periods and during the current overall flow setting. Groundwater may still sustain seasonal pools in the riverbed of great importance for the survival of certain species, and hence the surface watergroundwater interaction needs to be understood.In a perennial part of the river, groundwater provides different flow components throughout the seasons, with a possibly different water quality profile than surface water, which certain species depend on. Especially in dry periods/seasons, groundwater may in these flow settings be the single largest contributor of flow to the river. This framework will guide and modify the traditional surface water e-flow assessment applied in the study with the aim of coming up with a more realistic assessment of e-flows applicable to ephemeral systems with seasonal lack of flow or only temporary standing water pools remaining in the system. It will also look at the role of groundwater in sustaining river flows in more perennial stretches of the river. It will help to develop guidelines on surface water as well as groundwater abstraction limits close to the river channel 6 . This approach will help guide water management in a more holistic manner and support a conjunctive water management strategy for the river system.The approach that will be used is to identify one of the 12 e-flow sites where flow is ephemeral and groundwater and an alluvial sandbed is clearly important, as well as a site with perennial flow. Data on hydraulic heads, geological conditions, groundwater pumping, and isotope signals will be collected in order to understand the water balance and the interaction between groundwater and surface water. Groundwater will be incorporated into the conceptual model in Figure 3.3, where its relation to surface hydrology and modelling will be fully documented. The groundwater and surface water team will jointly develop the integrated framework to enhance the overall e-flow conceptual model, which will be relevant in other contexts.From the general conceptual models established in Task 5, the smaller social and ecological endpoint models are converted into Bayesian Network models (example in Figure 3.4) for analyses. These include parent or input nodes and child or conditional nodes with links that represent causal relationships between nodes combined by Conditional Probability Tables (CPTs). Conditional Probability Tables describe conditional probabilities between the occurrence of states in the parent nodes and the resulting probabilities of states in the child nodes. These probabilities are supported by evidence, either historical or collected as part of the project. The risks of flow (including from groundwater) and non-flow variable conditions to current and historical conditions observed in the study area are calculated. Next, the task is to evaluate socio-ecological trade-offs to endpoints to establish the e-flows with associated hydrological statistics. This information is used to evaluate the risk of alternative water resource use scenarios (due to developments and climate change) to the socio-ecological endpoints, following which a total endpoints risk associated with alternative water resources use scenarios is estimated.A specialist workshop is held to review CPTs and establish e-flows.Evaluate the uncertainty and sensitivity of the assessment by collecting evidence over time and then generate hypotheses to reduce uncertainty and direct field sampling that will inform monitoring and improve confidence associated with the outcomes of the study. This includes recommendations for the establishment of an adaptive management plan and a proposal for the way forward to implementation of e-flows.A final specialist workshop is held to review e-flow results in relation to scenarios. The project will produce the following deliverables (Table 4.1) Within these reports will be contained the following key elements of the E-flow assessment:1. A framework for assessing e-flows in ephemeral river systems that incorporates groundwater information. 2. The eight (8) Monograph e-flow sites upgraded with additional evidence and linked to ecosystem services. Four additional sites will be added totaling twelve sites being evaluated in the study. 3. A description of the vision and management objectives for water flows as contained within existing governance structures (national governments and transboundary agencies, especially LIMCOM) and agreed with key stakeholders. Coupled with this, a preliminary livelihoods and socio-economic description of the users of the flow-related ecosystem services and their eflow requirements to retain resilience in the face of altered flows. 4. Detailed assessment of the alteration of flows in the basin (including historical, present and hypothetical future) and the impact that these will have on the geomorphology and sediment regime, hydraulic habitats within the river, the water quality, and the riparian vegetation. 5. Detailed assessment of the interactions between groundwater and surface water in representative ephemeral and perennial parts of the Limpopo River. The assessment will be incorporated into the E-flow conceptual model and will be based on a synthesis of information from two key sites linked to basin-wide data. 6. Detailed documentation of the flow-ecosystem interactions. This would in particular include the impact of flows on sediment movement and channel structure, the hydraulic habitat, the riparian vegetation, fish and invertebrates in the river. 7. The socio-ecological consequences of altered flows, the risk of developmental and climate change alterations in water flow to a number of ecological and social endpoints that include the perspective of sustainable agriculture. This will include a risk assessment framework and additional monitoring spreadsheets to contribute to the adaptive management process designed to improve confidence in the assessment over time. 8. Based on the risk posed to these endpoints caused by different scenarios of change, an e-flow (volume and timing of flow) will be determined that would maintain the resilience of the ecosystem and communities in their present form, will consider increasing resilience of the present days condition and also provide possible restoration options. The final e-flows that are determined will come in three main forms, both of which will be important for management of water resources in the basin: a. A table of expected river discharges, per month, that will allow regulators to monitor and ensure there is sufficient water (according to the vision) in the river to continue to provide the services that it should. These flows can be built into management strategies, regulations and can be used to assist with issue of permits for water abstractions. b. The interaction and contribution of groundwater to maintaining e-flows during the wet season, and the role groundwater plays in supporting services throughout the year and in particular when river is dry. This will be documented with a focus on hotspots where such interaction is vital for river functioning. c. A presentation of the risks to all of the flow-related ecosystem services (endpoints) that will come about if the drivers of change (e.g. water abstraction, climate change) result in a further change to stream flow. These risks can be used in basin strategies, not only for water resource management, but also for other strategies that involve each of these endpoints, e.g. related to food security and agriculture, human settlements. 9. E-flows will be determined for a range of ecological states (limited to B, C and D ecological categories as described in Kleynhans and Louw, 2008 7 ) and which formed the basis of the Monograph study and will consider associated socioeconomic risks. The output will include a scenario evaluation template that can be used by stakeholders to evaluate the socio-ecological consequences of future development scenarios in the study.5.1 HYDROLOGYThe hydrological information and results obtained from the Limpopo River Basin Monograph study, 2013 is a comprehensive set of rainfall, evaporation, catchment water use and stream flow time series for both pre-development and present-day conditions for the entire basin. The preparation and results from this study included:  Delineation of sub-basins (mainly major tributaries of the Limpopo River).  Sourcing of climatic data (rainfall, temperature and evaporation). Sourcing of data from the various gauging stations, water use for irrigation, urban, rural, including stock watering, forestry and dams;  Screening and patching of missing, incomplete or suspect monthly rainfall data using the CLASSR and PATCHR tools and generation of catchment rainfall;  Initial patching of monthly streamflow data through the use of PATCHS;  Calibration of the Pitman Hydrological Model (WRSM2000) and final patching of the streamflow data. This process included the determination of transmission losses along the river stretches of tributaries and mainstem Limpopo River due to the deep sandy alluvial material of the beds and banks of the rivers; and  Generation of long-term flow time series (1920-2010) for natural and presentday conditions. The result from this study provides a broad database to serve as baseline for the hydrological information required for the current E-Flow determination of the Limpopo Basin.The pre-development flow time series as generated through the Limpopo River Basin Monograph study will be used as the reference flows at each of the selected E-Flow sites and at the outlets of those risk regions where no sites were selected. Specific hydrological statistics will be calculated for use by the ecologists. These statistics include the calculation of the monthly and annual mean, median, standard deviation, coefficient of variability, minimum, maximum, and various percentiles. Where daily data is available from a gauging weir close to the E-Flow sites or outlets of the risk regions, these statistics will also be calculated for daily data. Graphical representation of the flow time series (e.g. hydrographs, flow duration curves) will also be provided. Additionally, baseflow separation will be undertaken using the method as developed by Smakhtin, 2001. This will provide an indication as to the groundwater contribution to surface flows and its variability intra-and inter-annually.Where information is available on stable isotopes and 'calibration' of baseflows, the baseflows will be adjusted to the groundwater information. Two indices of variability will be calculated to further describe the flows and provide additional information to the ecologists. These are:(i) Flow Variability Index -summarizes the variability within the wet and dry seasons and is based on the average coefficient of variation for the three main wet and dry months (excluding zero flow months). This index will provide an indication of perennial, seasonal or ephemeral rivers. (ii)Baseflow Index -This is the proportion of total flow that occurs as baseflow and provides an indication of groundwater contribution to streamflow. It is calculated from the ratio of the mean annual baseflow to the mean annual total streamflow.Similar statistics and graphs will be provided for the selected flow scenarios. These scenarios can include present day flow conditions, future management options and bulk water developments for water use, protection of the ecosystems or climate change.The Desktop Reserve Model (DRM) within the SPATSIM framework (Hughes, 1999) will be used to calculate the E-Flows at the selected sites per risk region with the following information and data: i.Reference flows: These are the pre-development flows at each of the selected sites as simulated during the Limpopo Monograph study. ii.Daily flow data: Data available from gauging weirs in close vicinity of the selected sites will be used to confirm the low/ drought flows in the river as well as provide guidance for the specification of freshets and floods in terms of timing (which months), frequency (how many per month) and duration (number of days). iii.Monthly flow distributions: Initial monthly flow distributions (pre-defined distributions within SPATSIM) will be selected and adjusted to fit the flow characteristics of the reference flows. These include, annual peak and low flow months, shape of low flow months, low and high flow assurance rules. iv.Ecological information: Ecological information will be provided by the ecologists for selected quantity indicators that formed part of the Bayesian Network formulation. These indicators included inter alia flow requirements for fish, macroinvertebrates, riparian vegetation and movement of sediments through the system. Requirements are usually provided for various months, including highest and lowest flow months and those months when surveys were undertaken and specific flood requirements in terms of flood peaks and duration based on the hydrological information from the daily observed flows. These requirements will be checked against the reference flows to ensure that the requirements are not higher than the reference flows.The DRM will then be run in an iterative process and changes made to the model parameters until a good fit is obtained with the ecological requirements supplied by the ecologists for the selected months. These parameters are then used to interpolate flows for those months where no ecological data was available. This holistic e-flow methodology incorporates a description and prediction of environmental river hydraulics as it influences the physical, chemical and ecological makeup of rivers (James, 2010). The modification of the flow regime changes sediment processes and associated habitat types and abundance thereof, which in the end affect the biotic composition (Tharme and King, 1998). The flow regime also affects the surface-groundwater interactions. By linking the hydraulic parameters to ecologically based information and instream habitat requirements, management decisions can be made on the flow volumes that are needed in the Limpopo River and its tributaries.Hydraulics acts as the translator between flows and ecological needs and preferences. The e-flow methods require a few general hydraulic parameters, such as water depth, velocity, wetted perimeter and surface water width in order to determine the required flows needed to maintain a river in a specific state (Rowlston, Jordanova and Birkhead, 2008). Fluctuations of these parameters are simulated over time in terms of a time series, which is important for understanding the effect of the duration and frequency of various flow magnitudes on biota and habitat (Rowlston, Jordanova and Birkhead, 2008). Hydraulic characteristics during low flows are particularly important as these are the conditions that biota experience for extended periods of time, e.g. drought, and they affect longitudinal connectivity (Rowlston, Jordanova and Birkhead, 2008). For this study, the topographic data, hydraulic data and hydraulic modelling output results for sites in the Limpopo basin.The following objectives were set for the hydraulic assessment:  site selection,  survey relevant cross sections and energy slope,  measure flow depth and velocity along each transect,  induction of survey and hydraulic data for each site,  model the hydraulics for each cross section,  calculate the frequency distribution for various hydraulic biotypes for each transect,  compile a report showing all the necessary hydraulic results  workshop, and  finalize the hydraulic report.Topographic and hydraulic data will be based on available data and collected (at primary sites) from site surveys. In the field, data gathering will consist of transect selection and demarcation, survey of transects (perpendicular to flow); survey of water levels and measurement of depth and velocity along each transect as recommended by Rowlston, Jordanova and Birkhead (2008). Land based surveying will be undertaken with centimetre accuracy survey equipment (Topcon Total Station). Sites with deeper, fast flowing water (>1.2m deep and >1m.s) will be surveyed using a River Surveyor Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (Sontek) along each transect. For very shallow depths an OTT MFpro electromagnetic current meter will be used to capture flow velocity and determine discharge at the date of sampling. The channel will be divided into 20 or more verticals to capture depth and flow velocity data in order to calculate discharge (Gordon et al., 2004). In the office, discharge, energy slope and transect data will be extracted from the field measurements. Roughness will be calculated using the Mannings \"n\" formula based on the measured data (Gordon et al., 2004). In order to extrapolate the observed hydraulic data to other stage levels and a continuous rating function, One-dimensional hydraulic modelling will be done using HEC RAS, a widely used free-ware hydraulic model (Hirschowitz, Birkhead and James, 2007). Steady state hydraulic modelling will be used as appropriate for e-flow projects where we assume steady flow and negligible changes in vegetation resistance (Birkhead, 2010). Output from the modelling and field measurements will be plotted with CurveExpert 1.4 to develop a power function that best described the discharge-stage relationship for each transect. HABFLO, a one-dimensional free-ware empirical hydraulic habitat-flow simulation model, was used to derive frequency distribution data for the various hydraulic habitats as recommended by Hirschowitz et al. (2007). HABFLO is designed to simulate flow dependent, ecologically relevant hydraulic data for Reserve determinations (Birkhead, 2010). The model, its structure, corrections for flow velocity, etc. are discussed by Hirschowitz et al. (2007). The HABFLO assumptions given by Hirschowitz et al. ( 2007) are: Cross-sectional profiles and 1-D hydraulic parameters may be used to characterize the bed topography and hydraulic conditions, respectively, in morphological units.  Frequency-distributions of depth-averaged velocity may be estimated with reasonable accuracy using statistical methods.  Depth-averaged velocity, flow depth, and substrate type are mutually exclusive (independent) variables.HABFLO flow-depth frequency distribution calculations for this assessment will be based on the work of Lamouroux et al. (1995). Details on how HABFLO calculates the frequency distribution are given by Hirschowitz et al. (2007). This information will be provided to other specialist components in the study who can use the data to describe available habitat in the river given different discharge.Water quality has been identified as an important driver of ecosystem wellbeing, and in holistic e-flow assessments it needs to be integrated with flows to establish suitable flows to achieve ecosystem targets that represent sustainability in case studies (O'Brien et al., 2019). Water quality includes consideration of the chemical characteristics of the water and some physical system variables including temperature, pH, and oxygen levels. Categories of water quality that will be evaluated in the study include salts, nutrients and toxicants. In this study, a range of Lines of Evidence (LoEs) focusing on understanding historical, present and potentially future water quality characteristics were considered and integrated into the PROBFLO assessment to allow for the evaluation of water quality as a non-flow variable driving the ecosystem.The eco-toxicological assessment as a component of the Limpopo e-flow study will make use of indicator fish that are proposed to have the widest distribution in the catchment including Clarias gariepinus, Hydrocynus vittatus and Oreochromis mossambicus as indicators of changes in water and sediment quality through a multi-metric approach that represents different levels of biological organization ranging from sub-cellular to whole organism responses. These biological responses will be related to the environmental drivers, i.e. water quantity (during high and low flow hydrological periods) and water (and sediment) quality (microplastics, metals and organics). The samples will be collected at the primary sites in the study area. Water and sediment samples will be collected in triplicates per site and 10 fish per species of each selected site.In situ water quality variables will be assessed including: oxygen concentration and saturation, electrical conductivity, pH, and temperature. The water samples will be preserved and analyzed for macro-elements (Na, Ca, Mg, K, Cl, SO4), nutrients (PO4, NO2, NO3, NH4), metals (Al, Fe, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Hg) and organic [such as organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) DDT, chlordanes, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)] pollutants. All analyses will be carried out as described by Gerber et al. (2015a). In addition, microplastics will be analyzed according to the methods described by Slootmaekers et al. (2019). Sediment quality is used to describe the physical and chemical properties of sediment that influence the potential for the water column to become contaminated. Sediment samples will be collected and preserved. In the laboratory, the physical properties (organic carbon content, particle size) and microplastic, metal and organic pollutants (same as those that were analyzed in water samples) will be analyzed according to the methods described by Gerber et al. (2015b).Metal digestion and analysis in fish tissue (muscle) will be conducted using ICP-OES and ICP-MS techniques according to the methods of Gerber et al. (2016b). Organic contaminant extraction (solid phase matrix dispersion) and analyses (GC-MS) will be carried out using standardized techniques based on the methods described by Gerber et al. (2016a). Microplastics will be analyzed in the gastrointestinal tracts of the three fish species. Analytical efficiency will be tested using certified reference materials.Scientists have used various biological components of rivers including: fish, macroinvertebrates and vegetation primarily, but also mammals, reptiles and amphibians and birds in e-flow determination studies (O'Brien et al., 2018). To achieve this, scientists establish and use numerous measures of the wellbeing and or ecosystem preferences and requirements of fish also termed Lines of Evidence (LoEs) to evaluate the current wellbeing (or Present Ecological State according to a range of ecological categories (Table 5.1)), environmental water requirements and or ecological consequences of altered flows and water quality to fish communities (Murchie et al., 2008 for example).In e-flow assessments, the integration of multiple biological LoEs, is considered to be the preferred approach, and international best practice, to evaluate the consequences of altered environmental variable conditions (incl. flows) and establish e-flows (Murchie et al., 2008). By implementing a range of multiple robust, validated LoEs on a range of levels of biological organization (Figure 5.1), with these modelling assessments, the uncertainty associated with the application of the modelling techniques is reduced. These other LoEs, such as the use of multivariate statistical procedures to evaluate community structure shifts, have specific data requirements including detailed information on existing biological community structures within the study area. Seriously modified. A strikingly lower than expected species richness and general absence of intolerant and moderately tolerant species. Most of the characteristics of the biotic assemblages have been seriously modified from its naturally expected condition. Impairment of health may become very evident.Critically modified. Extremely lowered species richness and an absence of intolerant and moderately tolerant species. Only intolerant species may be present with complete loss of species at the lower end of the class. Most of the characteristics of the biotic assemblages have been critically modified from its naturally expected conditions. Impairment of health generally very evident. In this e-flow study, fish have been considered as an ecological component of the Limpopo River basin that can contribute to the establishment of volume, timing, duration and frequency of flow variables. Fish are not only good indicators of ecological health, they are charismatic animals that people easily relate to and they are an important source of food for many human communities throughout the world (Skelton 2000 for example). As indicators of ecological health; (1) fish are useful in that they are long-lived and are therefore good indicators of long-term exposure to impacts, (2) they occupy a wide range of aquatic habitat usually due to their mobility allowing for the consideration of multiple, diverse environments, (3) communities are comprised of a range of species from different trophic levels integrating and allowing for the consideration of a range of environmental changes and (4) when established as sensitive umbrella species, the conservation of some species can allow for the protection of large diversity of other species and associated ecosystems processes.Fish are already being extensively used throughout the world as indicators of ecological health, including flow alterations in river ecosystems (Karr 1981, Kleynhans1999, Kleynhans 2008, Pont et al. 2006). In particular the known biological attributes of fish have been routinely used to develop many fish community metric measure approaches commonly termed fish indices of ecological health. In addition, fish have been shown to be important indicators in the evaluation of flow requirements for river ecosystems and have been documented to provide protection for many other aquatic organisms. Thus, fish are considered to be very important in the establishment of e-flows for river ecosystems throughout Africa and the rest of the world (O'Brien et al., 2018).Numerous advantages and disadvantages are associated with the application of many of the available Lines of Evidence (LoEs) to evaluate the current wellbeing (or Present Ecological State), environmental water requirements and or ecological consequences of altered flows to fish communities (Murchie et al., 2008). As such, the integration of multiple LoEs, is considered to be the preferred approach, and international best practice, to evaluate the consequences of altered environmental variable conditions (incl. flows) to fish (Murchie et al., 2008). By implementing a range of multiple robust, validated LoEs on a range of levels of biological organization (Figure 5.1), the uncertainty associated with the application of the modelling techniques is reduced. Some LoEs, such as the use of multivariate statistical procedures to evaluate community structure shifts, have specific data requirements including detailed information on existing fish community structures within the study area. In this study, a range of LoEs will be implemented as follows:• Community metric measure index using the Fish Response Assessment Index developed and extensively used in southern Africa by Kleynhans (2007). This LoE has been implemented to evaluate the state of fish communities and possible attributes of the communities that may be impacted and/or are sensitive to flow alterations.Multivariate statistical evaluation of fish community structures and drivers of community structure changes (using a Redundancy Analyses ordination technique) using the Canoco version 4.5 software (Ter Braak, 1994). This approach allows for the direct interpretation of the community structures of fish in terms of the taxa obtained during detailed surveys (O'Brien et al., 2009). These techniques allow for the assessment of complex responses or changes in community structures obtained in the study and then when combined with Monte Carlo permutation testing, the statistical significance of hypothesized differences in the community structures can be tested (Ter Braak and Smilauer, 2004; Van den Brink et al., 2003). This approach allows for constrained analyses of the community structures to be undertaken, which involves overlaying captured variance of explanatory environmental variables such as habitat and water quality variables onto fish sample and species ordinations. This approach allows for the habitat drivers of shifts in fish community structures of riverine ecosystem in the study to be statistically evaluated (O'Brien and Husted, 2010). • Additional indicator information pertaining to the behavioral response of indicator species to altered volumes, duration, timing, and water quality of flows is available from the leverage projects considered in the study. This data will be incorporated into the study as an additional LoE.The approach adopted for macroinvertebrates will be similar to fish. Benthic macroinvertebrates consist of a diverse group of long-lived, sedentary invertebrate species that react strongly and often, predictably to human influences on aquatic ecosystems. For this reason, benthic communities are increasingly studied and commonly used as indicators of ecological disturbance (Lewis et al., 2001) because of their sensitivity to environmental changes and ease of sampling. The community structures and associated response to multiple stressors is used as an LoE in e-flow assessments globally (O'Brien et al., 2018). In addition, some indicator species have been identified and used as an LoE to recommend the volume, timing, duration and water quality of flows to maintain these species in the catchment.Riparian vegetation will also be included in this study to establish flow requirements for the ecosystems of the sites/rivers considered in the study.The biophysical survey for riparian vegetation at each site will consist of the following components:1) Site and riparian zone delineation 2) Determination of the present ecological status (PES) 3) Determination of the ecological importance (EI) 4) Determination of the ecological sensitivity (ES) 5) Determination of riparian vegetation in a historical context, from remote sensing 6) Determination of e-flows (including from groundwater) for riparian vegetation at the site (to be used as a benchmark for scenario evaluation if required) 7) Define and parameterize endpoints for inclusion in risk analyses using PROBFLO 8) Conduction of a baseline survey for riparian vegetation at the site and propose monitoring protocol for future surveys so that continuity with the baseline is ensuredRiparian and Wetland Delineation Satellite imagery (Google Earth ©) will be used to do a desktop assessment of all possible wetland and riparian features. These will be noted and each possible feature visited for field verification. All wetland and riparian features that may be within the influence zone of flow alterations in the study sites of proposed study will be delineated in accordance with guidelines set out by DWS (DWAF, 2008), using topography, evidence of water movement through the landscape, evidence of water pooling in the landscape and changes in vegetation species composition and structure associated with such features. GPS coordinates will be taken at the edge of riparian features and wetlands to support delineation. National wetland maps will be assessed to see if any recognized wetlands occur within or near the site (NFEPA, Nel et al., 2011). Wetland and riparian zone indicator species will mainly be used to aid delineation into riparian zones.The PES of all affected riparian zones will be assessed using the Riparian Vegetation Response Assessment Index (VEGRAI) level 4 (Kleynhans et al., 2007). The riparian vegetation response assessment index (VEGRAI) is a tool that was designed to rapidly evaluate the ecological status of riparian vegetation at any riparian site (Kleynhans et al., 2007). It requires an understanding of the reference (natural) condition, against which change of vegetation structure, composition and distribution are measured. The deviation from the natural condition, in which no anthropogenic impacts occur, is expressed as a percentage score commonly referred to as the present ecological state (PES) and can be categorized into meaningful management units (A-F) (Table 5.2). The PES score itself may be used as a monitoring metric to assess whether overall ecological health changes over time but is specifically intended to derive a current measure of ecological condition in the riparian zone.Kleynhans & Louw (2008) defined ecological importance of a river as its importance to maintain biological diversity and ecological functioning on a local and wider scale. The ecological sensitivity (or fragility) on the other hand refers to a river's ability to resist disturbance and its capability to recover from disturbances once they have occurred. The EI and ES determinations will be based on the latest available information and data of species and habitats assessed in the field. The table below indicates the metrics that will be assessed on a rating of 1-5 in order to determine an outcome. The determination of environmental flow requirements will comprise three main processes: 1) Defining endpoints or indicators 2) Parameterizing the hydrological / hydraulic niche of endpoints / indicators from measurement in the field 3) Integration of \"rule-set\" into 1D or 2D modelling for scenario outputs or risk analysesThe ecosystem endpoints relate to the most vital vegetation habitats with the aim to maintain habitats and ecosystem processes for critical indicator macrophytes and riparian/wetland vegetation. Vital habitat/indicator combinations should be chosen to represent ecosystem endpoints and are determined on-site and are specific for each site.Social endpoints can also be recognized and are based on those components of the vegetation that are vital to sustaining livelihoods and as such the aim is to maintain indigenous vegetation components in order to sustain community livelihoods including natural vegetation production and subsistence agriculture. Endpoints (which are also indicators) feature in flow determination, scenario assessment and provision of ecosystem services. Defining the hydraulic / hydrological niche of endpoints / indicators The ultimate drivers of all ecosystem and social endpoints are the flow regime and rainfall. Vital components of the flow regime include perenniality (wet and dry season baseflows), timing (seasonality) of floods, magnitude and duration of flood events and by implication the distribution of depth/area parameters associated with floods.Various biotic indicators show niche preference for combinations of the drivers and can be modelled as such for integration into a 1D or 2D hydraulic model. Each vegetation type (endpoint) has clear niche preferences in terms of flooding depth, duration and timing, as well as timing and severity of flows during the dry season. Each set of such preferences can be defined as endpoint-specific \"rule-sets\" that will respond within the modelled environment and the outcome of which can be measured. The flow regime that describes the current situation represents the environmental flow requirements, against which response to scenarios may be measured. Both the endpoints and the \"rule-sets\" require definition to describe an acceptable ecological quality, deemed to be the environmental flow requirement. Measurement is site-based and usually entails surveying vegetation onto a hydraulically calibrated profile at each site.The groundwater (GW) field survey will be implemented in the second half of 2020 and field work done in early 2021, or as soon as the Covid-19 lockdown is cancelled.To possibly kickstart the field implementation ahead of the cancellation, a field permit will be sought from relevant authorities, to allow early reconnaissance, a hydrocensus, and monitoring in the groundwater sites. This will be followed by regular monitoring over the dry and wet seasons in 2020 and 2021 (approximately 5 field visits). The field sites selected for the in-depth GW studies are the Limpopo R. @ Mapungubwe (EWR3-LIM) and the Groot Letaba R. (EWR8-GLR) (Table 5.1 and Figure 3.1). A workshop will be implemented in the EWR3-LIM site as soon as possible to seek existing GW data and hydrogeological information from e.g. the Vanetia Mine, who has done significant monitoring in the area due to their dependence on GW for their mining activities. Farmers from the area will also be invited or visited/interviewed during this activity to inquire on data and information on use of GW for irrigation in the vicinity of the river. A monitoring plan for the site will be set up and initiated subsequent to the workshop.It is likely that data on GW levels already exist to infer on surface water-groundwater interactions, but these will be checked, interpreted and further expanded as possible in existing monitoring boreholes, and possibly by installing new piezometers in transect(s) across the river channel. Since this is an ephemeral part of the river, existing seasonal pools in the riverbed will be identified for dry season investigations in partnership with the surface water (SW) team. Riparian vegetation, which is likely a groundwater-dependent ecosystem, will be mapped around the site, using remote sensing and in a seasonal/historical perspective to get a sense of the alterations and variability over time, e.g. to understand when the river started becoming ephemeral and the variation over time. Likewise, irrigation area mapping will be performed around the site, to infer abstraction amounts from the GW. Modelling will be performed to estimate the impact of present and historic GW pumping on river flow and river depletion, and scenarios representing future vision around e-flows will be tested. Water samples for stable isotope ( 18 O, 2 H) and tracer (likely Si) analysis will be collected in GW and SW (flowing stream and pools) and precipitation at various times of the year, to infer on the source of the water for the stream, and to calibrate the baseflow assessment, performed though numerical baseflow separation. Data for river flow will be obtained from the SW team.The second site in the Groot Letaba (EWR8-GLR) will similarly be investigated, representing a perennial part of the river. However, since previous work has already been done by SANParks and others in this site, the level of fieldwork will be reduced to those aspects that were not covered sufficiently in these studies when it comes to understanding SW-GW interactions, baseflows, etc. Renewed isotope studies may be carried out for this site. Early on, an intern will be contracted to work on the review of previous work in the two sites, to collate data and identify data gaps.For the full basin assessment of e-flows, the information from the two sites (ephemeral and perennial) will be extrapolated across the basin according to degree of perenniality and baseflow. This is a novel approach, and further exploration of this methodology will be required. This method requires that a measure of perenniality and baseflow is available for all the sub-basins/catchments of the basin. In addition, the e-flow assessment will depend on the desired Ecological Class (Table 5.21) of the river in the sub-basin.The conceptual framework for the GW component of the project is illustrated below.The steps to be taken to determine the role of groundwater in E-flows are as follows:A. Determine typology of river reaches for GW assessment for E-flows C. Determine baseflows and surface water-groundwater interactions 1. Determine baseflow in the two in-depth GW sites and in other sub-basin units 2. Determine loosing/gaining river characteristics from hydraulic head gradients in transects in in-depth GW sites 3. Determine stable isotope fingerprints of river, GW and rainwater, in in-depth GW sites to determine major source of water in river. 4. Map riparian vegetation along the river in in-depth GW sites 5. Model river and GW interaction at min one in-depth GW site D. Extrapolate findings in in-depth GW sites 1. Requirements for GW in terms of securing baseflow and link to seasonal pools is inferred from in-depth GW sites for desired Ecological Class 2. Depending on the Ecological Class of other stretches of the river, a requirement for GW in these areas is inferred from the information of the indepth GW sites, using baseflow and degree of perenniality of the streams as scaling parameters. 3. Using the model assessments, it is inferred how much GW pumping is recommended along the stream, in order to maintain the e-flows.Impact on local communities: This e-flows study is designed to integrate the needs of local communities at several levels e.g., it documents the linkages between river flow and domestic water supply, irrigation, stock watering, reeds for construction, fish for food, medicinal plants, etc., from the headwaters to the coast. It describes the risks faced by communities to loss of these ecosystem services as potentially caused by altered river flow and recommends e-flows that are designed to minimize the risk to that provision, with coupling to the requirements for leaving water in the underlying aquifer as well, to enhance e-flows. It will also link to basin and country policy, strategies, etc. Thus, if the e-flow recommendations are fully implemented by riparian countries, then the local communities can be relatively risk-free in receiving these services (noting that other non-flow impacts may detract from this e.g. overfishing cannot be rectified by flow management). The e-flows and associated risks provide evidence for the trade-offs that need to be made between different allocations of water. These beneficiaries and uses of the river ecosystem will be determined during high-level stakeholder consultation and will be disaggregated into gender where this information has been published.Gender, equality and social inclusion: Local stakeholders will be included in clarifying the vision and documenting the objectives for river management but only through consultation with representatives and in particular LIMCOM. The e-flows will be described to deliver services that are essential for the daily lives of people living in association with the river and will be equally considered for all sectors of society. Additional capacity building of female students/scientists will be specifically included in the study especially through the collaborative research of the BRICS and WIOMSA studies.Member states and LIMCOM: LIMCOM and member state governments will be involved from the beginning of the project (if possible synchronized with Resilient Waters operations) to clarify the vision, objectives and with setting endpoints for the e-flow study. The e-flow data and results (described above) will be of benefit to all member states and LIMCOM and will provide the foundation for future water allocations.Regional managers of the biodiversity, ecosystem processes and resources of the east coast of Africa:The collaborative research with the WIOMSA and BRICS studies will result in a direct contribution to stakeholders of the biodiversity, ecosystem processes and resources of the east coast of Africa. This includes SADC nations and other Western Indian Ocean stakeholders. Additional research and scientific community will benefit from this research. The approach selected outcomes and relevance to the management of regional riverine resources, and their biodiversity and ecosystem processes will be presented to stakeholders of the collaborative research projects.By working with Resilient Waters, riparian countries, and in particular with LIMCOM as key stakeholders, and involving participants in definition of the vision and objectives for the water resources and related ecosystem services in the basin, this will help to achieve \"buy-in\" to the e-flows outputs and long-term ownership. LIMCOM and similar key stakeholders will be given opportunity to join field work of both the groundwater and surface water teams, although logistics of such participation will need to be organized by LIMCOM. LIMCOM will remain the key beneficiary of the project and ownership by them is important for sustainability.It is anticipated that the e-flow data produced will be used by the above organizations to assist with water resource management in the basin. The DWS in South Africa have already indicated a willingness to participate, to share their data and to adopt the eflow results into their formal database. Ideally, LIMCOM will use the e-flows in their own strategies and ideally as a reference for coordination with member states. Thus, the e-flows data should have a direct impact on water resource decision making.The two complementary studies in the Limpopo Basin have been established by the University of Mpumalanga that will contribute to this USAID/Resilient Waters funded project including a JAF -BRICS Multilateral Joint Science and Technology Research Collaboration study and a Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) study (Objectives of the studies are attached). The total estimated amount of financial resources allocated by these projects to the Limpopo e-flows study through specialist time, student training, additional evidence and operational support totals R650 000. This will make a noticeable contribution to the confidence of this assessment and training of students and implementation of the outcomes.The final reports that are produced by the project will be detailed and will contain sufficient information to be an exemplary case study of e-flow determination in the region. These will be supported by data and tables of e-flows that will enable longterm implementation of e-flows in the Limpopo. The project will also end with training of representatives of LIMCOM and other stakeholders that will help to embed the results of the project in future water resource management activities.In 2019 between September and November (Table A1) a series of surveys to evaluate a range of bio-physical attributes of the lower Olifants River and Elephantes River was undertaken by members of the project team. Note that this pre-dated the Resilient Waters contract but the timeframe was forced by the leveraging partners. This included dedicated assessments of the following components: A brief report of the data collected during the survey is presented here.Hydraulic cross sections and associate analyses were generated at the sites on the Olifants River and in Massingir during the dry flow survey in 2019. This data has been used to generate 1d cross sections and associated relationships between flow (discharge) and river depth and associated velocity depth instream habitats. This data will be used to evaluate instream habitat availability associated with modeled hydrology and be able to establish flow requirements associated with habitat requirements. Here an example of the cross section data collected and hydraulic model outputs are presented in Figures A1, A2 and A3. The ecotoxicological assessment of Massingir Dam will make use of three fish species (Clarias gariepinus, Hydrocynus vittatus and Oreochromis mossambicus) as indicators of changes in water and sediment quality through a multi-metric approach that represents different levels of biological organization ranging from sub-cellular to whole organism responses. These biological responses will be related to the environmental drivers, i.e. water quantity (during high and low flow hydrological periods) and water (and sediment) quality (microplastics, metals and organics). The samples will be collected in five selected sites, two sites representing the inflow water from South Africa (Lower Olifants River), two representing the inflow and out flow of Massingir Dam, and the last one below the Dam where the Olifants River flows into the Limpopo River. Water and sediment samples will be collected in triplicates per site and 10 fish per species of each selected site.In situ water quality variables will be assessed including: oxygen concentration and saturation, conductivity, pH, and temperature. The water samples will be preserved and analyzed for macro-elements (Na, Ca, Mg, K, Cl, SO 4 ), nutrients (PO 4 , NO 2 . NO 3 , NH 4 ), metals (Al, Fe, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Hg) and organic [such as organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) DDT, chlordanes, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)] pollutants. All analyses will be carried out as described by Gerber et al. (2015a). In addition microplastics will be analyzed according to the methods described by Slootmaekers et al. (2019). Sediment quality is used to describe the physical and chemical properties of sediment that influence the potential for the water column to become contaminated. Sediment samples will be collected and preserved. In the laboratory the physical properties (organic carbon content, particle size) and microplastic, metal and organic pollutants (same as those that were analyzed in water samples) will be analyzed according to the methods described by Gerber et al. (2015b) and.Metal digestion and analysis in fish tissue (muscle) will be conducted using ICP-OES and ICP-MS techniques according to the methods of Gerber et al. (2016b). Organic contaminant extraction (solid phase matrix dispersion) and analyses (GC-MS) will be carried out using standardized techniques based on the methods described by Gerber et al. (2016a). Microplastics will be analyzed in the gastrointestinal tracts of the three fish species. Analytical efficiency will be tested using certified reference materials.Survey was undertaken to three sites in the Olifants River, inflow and outflow of Massingir Dam and one site above the confluence with the Limpopo River. All abiotic (water and sediment) and biotic (fish muscle and GIT) samples have been prepared for analyses (i.e. digestion, extraction, clean-up, etc.). The following analyses were completed prior to the social distancing and lockdown that was implemented at NWU since 10 March 2020: Water quality from Olifants River sites: in situ parameters, anions, nutrients. Sediment quality from Olifants Rivers sites: particle size distribution, moisture content, organic carbon content    Olifants River -Kruger National Park SASS data for the Olifants River suggests the dominance of taxa associated with slow flowing to stagnant waters during all surveys (September 2010 to 2017). Taxa rated as sensitive were present but not dominant. The data further suggests correlation with an increase in the presence of alien taxa (Gastropoda: Thiaridae: Tarebia grandifera) and the dominance of flow tolerant taxa in the stream community (). Shingwedzi River -Kruger National Park An Odonata survey in the Shingwhedzi River in January 2020 (Diedericks, 2020) focused on larvae, exuviae and imagos. Other aquatic taxa encountered while sampling wadeable aquatic habitats were also recorded. The Shingwedzi River is intermittent but was flowing at the time of this survey. Odonata species with a high preference for permanent-lotic waters were dominant (Figure A5). The presence of the exuviae of Ictinogomphus ferox, Brachythemis leucosticta, and Tholymis tillarga at some sites indicates the presence of permanent surface water. Species at other sites are migratory or species associated with temporal waters, indicate freshly inundated pioneer and migratory species. The presence of freshly emerged Paragomphus genei with several exuviae at some sites further supports the permanent availability of water, even though its subsurface. Larvae of P. genei close to emergence (well-developed wing pads) were recorded at various sampling locations. High abundances of larvae were recorded where sandy substrates in moderate to fast flows. Shells of the mollusc Unio caffer were abundant at some sites, while live unidentified molluscs were encountered buried in moist sandgravel substrates away from the main channel. The presence of the well-developed P. Increased flow tolerance genei larvae and live molluscs suggest subsurface flows maintain some aquatic invertebrates in the \"dry\" sand beds of the intermittent Shingwedzi River. It is highly unlikely that the larvae of P. genei will develop from egg to a larva ready to emerge within six days (19 to 25 January) of the first reported surface water flows.For this project, the collection of aquatic macro-invertebrate samples needs to be in a variety of well-defined biotopes. Flows measurements and in situ water variables such as temperature and conductivity should be collected at each biotope. Identification of aquatic macro-invertebrates should as far as possible be carried out to genus or species level. This is to determine genus-species environmental preferences to support evidence-based decisions. Two surveys took place in 2019, extending from 10 th to 13 th September 2019 (Kruger National Park, Olifants River) and 8 th to 14 th of December 2019 (Massingir Dam, Mozambique). During these two surveys, the team conducted inspections of the proposed sites and was able to identify three sites for the study that would yield valuable data. The three sites include the following: i. Balule Site: The site is situated approximately 600m downstream of Balule Weir and upstream of the bridge depicted in the Figure A7 (Google Earth ©). The site consisted of multiple channels with a combination of alluvial deposits and bedrock exposed outcroppings. The riparian vegetation was dominated by Phragmites, Schoenoplectus and a well-defined grass-layer. The well-defined tree-line consisted of large populations of Philenoptera and Vachellia.One benchmarked transect was conducted along the study site as well as numerous off-line vegetation points in order to supplement the data. A total of 212 data points was collected for this site.  ii. Mamba Site: The site is situated approximately 3km downstream of Mamba Weir and about 500m upstream of Klaserie River Lodge (see Figure A8 below). The entire site was dominated by alluvial deposits and exposed soil, however the section along the transect had numerous bedrock outcroppings that provided optimal habitat for Brunadia salicina, Gomphocarpus fruticosus and Gomphostigma virgatum. The above-mentioned species, along with Phragmites and Schoenoplectus dominated the in-stream, marginal and lower riparian zones. A well-developed population of Croton gratissimus and Nuxia oppositifolia dominated the upper zones as well as the tree-line which was well defined.One benchmarked transect was conducted within the study site, consisting of 153 data points.iii.Elephantes Site: The site is located approximately 8km downstream of Massingir Dam on the Elephantes River in Mozambique (see Figure A9 below). One benchmarked transect was conducted at the site with 69 data points along the transect and as well as additional vegetation points. Visibility along the transect due to undulations in the landscape proved challenging at this site, despite the team having spent several hours in search of additional alternatives for the site. The placement of indicator vegetation along the geomorphic profile is shown in Figure A9. The levels of these indicators will be used to determine the discharge required for each indicator using the hydraulic rating curve and lookup tables. This will enable the determination of environmental flows for each indicator. The wet season survey is planned for late summer 2021 according to the following approximate schedule.","tokenCount":"12082"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e11d14e865132bd2b4e66feed656b12c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9e1c6e2a-4904-4964-b562-fc6c9824c2cb/content","id":"-149055871"},"keywords":["aflatoxin","beta-carotene","beta-cryptoxanthin","biofortification","maize breeding","mycotoxins","vitamin A deficiency"],"sieverID":"27982362-86d7-4cd9-9af7-bc7e90c23ba7","pagecount":"12","content":"Aflatoxin contamination of maize grain and products causes serious health problems for consumers worldwide, and especially in low-and middle-income countries where monitoring and safety standards are inconsistently implemented. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) also compromises the health of millions of maize consumers in several regions of the world including large parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated whether provitamin A (proVA) enriched maize can simultaneously contribute to alleviate both of these health concerns. We studied aflatoxin accumulation in grain of 120 maize hybrids formed by crossing 3 Aspergillus flavus resistant and three susceptible lines with 20 orange maize lines with low to high carotenoids concentrations. The hybrids were grown in replicated, artificially-inoculated field trials at five environments. Grain of hybrids with larger concentrations of beta-carotene (BC), beta-cryptoxanthin (BCX) and total proVA had significantly less aflatoxin contamination than hybrids with lower carotenoids concentrations. Aflatoxin contamination had negative genetic correlation with BCX (−0.28, p < 0.01), BC (−0.18, p < 0.05), and proVA (−0.23, p < 0.05). The relative ease of breeding for increased proVA carotenoid concentrations as compared to breeding for aflatoxin resistance in maize suggests using the former as a component of strategies to combat aflatoxin contamination problems for maize. Our findings indicate that proVA enriched maize can be particularly beneficial where the health burdens of exposure to aflatoxin and prevalence of VAD converge with high rates of maize consumption.Aflatoxin contamination of maize is a serious health threat and burden for millions of maize consumers worldwide. Aflatoxin is a secondary metabolite produced by the ubiquitous Aspergillus flavus fungus, and is very toxic to humans and animals. Consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food is particularly serious for children because it leads to compromised immune system and increased morbidity and mortality from malaria and other diseases, reduced efficiency of use for various macroand micro-nutrients, and stunting or underweight development (Williams et al., 2004;Wild, 2007). In adults, aflatoxin is mainly associated with liver and other cancers, but chronic exposure to aflatoxin has also been associated with increased occurrence of micronutrient deficiencies and increased burden of diseases (e.g., malaria and HIV/AIDS) from weakened immune system have also been reported or postulated (Williams et al., 2004). Exposure to unsafe levels of aflatoxin in maize and maize products is common for large populations in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in chronic morbidity and events of multiple deaths from aflatoxicosis (Williams et al., 2004;Wild, 2007;Misihairabgwi et al., 2017;Mahuku et al., 2019). Although we focus on human health concerns of aflatoxin contamination in maize, aflatoxin in grains other than maize, and in grains used in animal feeds are also of huge economic and health concern.Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) also affects millions of maize consumers, particular children and pregnant women, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Biofortification, or breeding of provitamin A (proVA) enriched maize varieties is ongoing at CIMMYT and other HarvestPlus partner institutions (Pixley et al., 2013;Tanumihardjo et al., 2017). Several proVA biofortified maize varieties have been released in sub-Saharan Africa, where efficacy trials have demonstrated their potential to benefit maize consuming, VAD populations (Gannon et al., 2014). In contrast to the rapid success of proVA breeding efforts, progress in breeding maize varieties with resistance to A. flavus infection and aflatoxin contamination has proven difficult and elusive (Henry et al., 2013;Warburton and Williams, 2014). Bhatnagar-Mathur et al. (2015) reviewed various methods to reduce aflatoxin contamination of grain, including plant breeding, biological control in the field and post-harvest handling of grain (see also Gressel and Polturak, 2018).There is considerable evidence suggesting the potential of breeding maize with enhanced concentrations of carotenoids to have favorable health benefits for reducing the burden of aflatoxin contamination of maize grain while also alleviating VAD. Consumption of carotenoids, specifically beta-carotene (BC) or beta-cryptoxanthin (BCX), has been associated with reduced risk and decreased morbidity for diverse types of human cancer, including lung, oral, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon, prostate, and liver (Gradelet et al., 1998;Fiedor and Burda, 2014). Krinsky (1991) cited 13 studies in mouse, 8 in hamster, and 5 in rat model for which BC inhibited tumor development and or growth. The precise modes by which carotenoids exercise anti-carcinogenic effects are not fully understood, but several contributing mechanisms have been described. It is important to note that the specific carotenoids, and not vitamin A (retinol), have these beneficial effects (Krinsky, 1993;Alpsoy et al., 2009). Preston and Williams (2005) explained that aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is bio-converted to its more damaging form, AFBE, by the action of cytochrome genes (e.g., CYP1A). AFBE then binds DNA at a specific codon within the TP53 tumor-suppressing gene, mutating it to inactivate its cancer-protective actions (Sporn et al., 1966;Scaife, 1971;Preston and Williams, 2005). BC acts in several ways to counter these carcinogenic effects of aflatoxin: (1) BC up-regulates expression of TP53, thereby competing with AFBE's strategy to reduce production of TP53 transcript (Reddy et al., 2006), (2) BC acts on CPY1A resulting in decreased production of AFBE and increased metabolism of AFB1 to aflatoxin M1, a less toxic metabolite (Krinsky, 1993;Gradelet et al., 1997Gradelet et al., , 1998)), and (3) BC reduces the production of AFB1 through its antioxidant activities (Krinsky, 1989;Ponts et al., 2006;Fiedor and Burda, 2014;Montibus et al., 2015). Montibus et al. (2015) reviewed the importance of antioxidants in down-regulating secondary metabolism and production of mycotoxins, including AFB1, by fungi. They described how fungal invasion of plant cells commonly induces a defensive \"oxidative burst, \" or release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), intended to cause a hypersensitive, cell death reaction to limit spread of the fungus. Some fungi, including A. flavus and Fusarium spp. have evolved oxidation-demanding secondary metabolism pathways that quench ROS while and by producing mycotoxins (e.g., AFB1 by A. flavus, and deoxynivalenol (DON) by Fusarium spp.). Carotenoids, especially BC and BCX, are highly effective antioxidants that quench some of the ROS produced in response to A. flavus invasion and thereby reduce aflatoxin production. Many publications describe the antioxidant role of flavonoids in down-regulating production of fumonisins and DON (e.g., Boutigny et al., 2009;Atanasova-Penichon et al., 2016;Giordano et al., 2017), and some allude to, or specifically mention the analogous nature of carotenoids in combating aflatoxin production. Norton (1997) reported that carotenoid compounds (obtained from commercial laboratories) that occur in yellow maize, including BC, BCX, ZX, and LT, significantly reduced aflatoxin production by A. flavus in vitro. Another in vitro study found that commercially-obtained BC inhibited aflatoxin biosynthesis by >70% for 38 Aspergillus genotypes isolated from Illinois maize (Wicklow et al., 1998). More recently, Bhatnagar-Mathur et al. (2015) discussed possibilities, albeit unrelated to carotenoid concentrations in grain, to apply transgenic, RNAi and gene editing approaches to combat aflatoxin production. Subsequently, Thakare et al. (2017) demonstrated that transgenic, host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) of the aflC gene, which encodes an enzyme in the Aspergillus aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway, inhibited aflatoxin biosynthesis by Aspergillus in maize kernels. Although they did not evaluate Aspergillus and aflatoxin, Díaz-Gómez et al. (2016) reported that transgenic maize lines engineered to contain moderate concentrations of BC (5.9 µg g −1 ) and BCX (3.7 µg g −1 ) had lower levels of fumonisin accumulation (generally produced by Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum fungi) than their non-transgenic, white-grained counterparts.There are no published reports about the relationship between carotenoids content and aflatoxin accumulation in maize grain. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the hypothesis that proVA biofortified maize can have an additional health benefit by reducing aflatoxin contamination of maize grain. Specifically, we investigated the relationship between carotenoids concentrations and aflatoxin accumulation in grain of A. flavus resistant or susceptible hybrids with contrasting concentrations of BC, BCX, ZX, and LT.Twenty CIMMYT orange or yellow maize lines were chosen based on their high (lines L1-L10) or low (L11-L20) total provitamin A (proVA) concentrations (Supplementary Table S1). The high proVA lines were promising lines within CIMMYT's proVA biofortification breeding program, while the low proVA lines were also advanced lines, but would be discarded due to their low proVA concentrations. Six white maize inbred lines were chosen for use as testers based on prior information about their resistance (lines R1-R3) or susceptibility (S1-S3) to Aspergillus ear rot and aflatoxin accumulation (personal communication, George Mahuku, former CIMMYT maize pathologist) (Supplementary Table S2). We used white tester lines because there were no orange or yellow resistant lines available. The 20 lines were used as females for crosses with the six testers as males, resulting in 120 F 1 hybrids.The 120 F 1 hybrids were evaluated in five environments: Agua Fria, Puebla, Mexico (AF) (20 • 32 N, 97 • 28 W) and Tlaltizapan, Morelos, Mexico (TL) (18 • 41N, 99 • 07W) during 2012 and 2013, and Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, United States (MS) (33 • 28 N, 88 • 46 W) during 2012. The experimental design was an alpha 0,1 lattice (Patterson et al., 1978) with four replications (AF and TL) or three replications (MS). Plots were 2 m long with 10 plants and between-row spacing of 0.75 m. All plants were artificially inoculated with A. flavus as described below. All primary ears from each plot were hand-harvested, visually scored for Aspergillus ear rot symptoms, as described below, and collected as a bulk. The harvested maize ears were air-dried for a week to reduce grain moisture to 13% prior to shelling for laboratory analyses of F2 grains. Supplementary Table S3 presents the planting, inoculation and harvest months, as well as average daily high and low temperatures, rainfall and percent humidity for the trials.An additional un-replicated set of the F 1 hybrids was grown as a nursery at each location (except MS) to enable carotenoids quantification. These nurseries were non-inoculated and plants were self-pollinated by hand. Carotenoid concentrations of F2 grain from these nurseries were measured at CIMMYT's \"Evangelina Villegas\" Maize Quality Laboratory immediately after harvest.The A. flavus strains used for inoculum, final concentrations of inoculum, number of inoculation points on the maize ears and volume of conidial suspensions differed between the Mexican and United States sites based on prior research experience at each site and need to use strains endemic for each site, i.e., not to introduce new strains or use strains that might not be adapted to conditions at any site.Aspergillus inoculation of the four trials in Mexico followed CIMMYT's standard protocols (Drepper and Renfro, 1990). Four isolates of toxigenic A. flavus were grown in separate jars containing sterilized maize grain for 2 weeks at 25 • C and subsequently kept at 4 • C until use. Conidia were then collected by adding sterilized tween 20-water into the jars, vigorously handshaking and filtering the inoculum. Spores were counted using a haemocytometer and diluted to achieve a final concentration of 10 6 conidia ml −1 . Maize ears were inoculated 14-18 days after silking, with the mixed inoculum of 4 isolates of A. flavus. Using a needle inoculation technique (Drepper and Renfro, 1990), the primary ear on each maize plant was injected with the mixed inoculum at two positions, i.e., on the side and on the tip of the ear.The inoculation procedure at MS was instructed by the CHPRRU (Zummo and Scott, 1989). Briefly, A. flavus isolate NRRL 3357 was increased in flasks containing 50 g of sterile maize cob grits (size 2040, Grit-O-Cob, The Andersons Co., Maumee, OH, United States) and 100 ml of sterile distilled water, and incubated at 28 • C for 21 days. Conidia were collected from grits by adding sterilized tween 20-water and filtering through layered sterile cheesecloth. The concentration of conidia was counted with a haemocytometer and diluted to obtain 9 × 10 7 conidia ml −1 . The primary ear of each plant was inoculated 7 days after silking using the side-needle technique with 3.4 ml of the conidial suspension (Zummo and Scott, 1989;Williams et al., 2013).The visible fungal colonization, or Aspergillus ear rot (ER) symptom scores, were assessed for ears at harvest using a scale of 1-5, where 1 is 0% and 5 is 100% of visible fungal infection (adapted from Campbell and White, 1995).The extent of A. flavus invasion in maize grain was assessed using the bright greenish yellow fluorescence (BGYF) test (Busboom and White, 2004;Matumba et al., 2013). After shelling and drying (as described above), 100-kernel random samples were taken for each plot. Kernel samples were arranged in one layer on trays, and the extent of BGYF (FL) was visually assessed in a dark room with 365 nm UV light using the same scale as described above for ear rot score.Data for ER and FL were obtained for the four Mexican environments only. The ER and FL rating scores were converted to percent ear rot (pER) and percent BGYF (pFL) by equating 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% to scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The pER and pFL values were transformed using square root to normalize the data distributions prior to statistical analyses (Figure 1). We subsequently refer to the transformed data as pERt and pFLt.Aflatoxin concentration in grain was quantified for 50 g subsamples of ground maize kernels from each plot using VICAM's AflaTest protocol (Watertown, MA, United States). Briefly, 5 g NaCl were added to a glass blender jar containing the ground grain and 100 ml of 80% methanol was added as a solvent to extract aflatoxin from the grain. This solution was mixed at the high speed of a common kitchen blender for 1 min. The filtrate was then collected from each sample using fluted Whatman #4 filter paper. Ten ml of the filtered extract was added to a clean flask with 40 ml of purified water and this diluted extract was filtered again using a microfiber filter. Column chromatography was performed by passing 2 ml of filtered diluted extract through the AflaTest column. Contaminants were removed by washing the column twice with 5 ml of purified water. One ml of HPLC grade methanol was then added to the chromatography column to elute the aflatoxin. Sub-samples with more than 500 parts per billion (ppb) of aflatoxin were re-tested: (1) for samples with 500-699 ppb, 1 ml of the first filtered extract was added to 49 ml of 15% methanol and then 2 ml of this dilution was passed through a new AflaTest column; (2) for samples with 700-999 ppb, only 1 ml of the dilution was used for the new chromatography; and (3) for samples with >1000 ppb, a 40X dilution was made by diluting 1 ml of the first filtrate in 99 ml of 15% methanol and loading 1 ml of this 40X diluted filtrate into the chromatography column. Aflatoxin concentration (AFT) was expressed in nanograms per gram or ppb, and these data were transformed using log 10 (AFT+1) to normalize the data (Figure 1) prior to statistical analyses. We subsequently refer to the transformed AFT data as AFTt.Carotenoid concentrations were quantified by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) (Muzhingi et al., 2017). Briefly, ethanol was added to 600 mg of finely ground grain samples, followed by saponification and carotenoids extraction using hexane as a solvent. A 30C UPLC column was used for the separation, and quantification of carotenoids used a multiwavelength detector set at 450 nm. Data collection and processing were conducted using Waters Millennium, 2010 software (Waters Chromatography, Milford, MA, United States). LT, ZX, β-cryptoxanthin (BCX), and all-trans-β-carotene (BC) were identified through their characteristic spectra and by comparing their retention times with known standard solutions. Total proVA content (µg g −1 of dry matter) was calculated for each sample as the sum of BC plus half of BCX.Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were performed for AFTt, pERt and pFLt data for the 120 hybrids at individual and across trial locations. Individual environment ANOVAs used a linear mixed model with replications and incomplete blocks within replications as random effects, and line, tester and line × tester (hybrid) considered as fixed effects. Similarly, for ANOVA across environments, the effects of replicates within environment and incomplete blocks within replicates and environment were considered random effects, whereas lines, testers, and hybrids as well as their interaction with environments were considered fixed effects. These ANOVAs were performed using the MIXED procedure of SAS (SAS 9, 2017).The hybrids source of variation was sub-divided into variance attributed to testers (T), lines (L) and interaction of L × T. The variance among testers was further sub-divided into variance among hybrids of resistant (R) or susceptible (S) testers, and the contrast between R and S. Similarly, the variance among lines (L) was sub-divided into variance among hybrids of lines with high (Hi) or low (Lo) carotenoids concentrations, and the contrast between Hi and Lo. The contrast R vs. S estimated the significance of differences in AFTt, pERt, and pFLt between hybrids of resistant or susceptible testers, whereas the contrast of Hi vs. Lo estimated the significance of differences in AFTt, pERt, and pFLt between hybrids of lines with high or low concentrations of carotenoids. The contrasts were performed for each trait (AFTt, pERt, and pFLt) for each individual environment and combined across environments using the MIXED procedure together with the CONTRAST command of SAS (SAS 9, 2017).The classification of the 20 experimental lines as Hi or Lo was based on the average carotenoid concentrations of the F 2 grain of their six hybrids (Table 1 and Supplementary Table S1). The lines whose hybrids had greater carotenoid value than the average were categorized as Hi, and the others were classified as Lo. This classification was done independently for each carotenoid, BC, BCX, ZX and LT. We used the classification based on carotenoids concentrations in the F2 grain because A. flavus inoculations and subsequent AFT, pER, and pFL measurements also used F2 grain.Phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients among variables were estimated using entry means (for aflatoxin traits) and entry values (for carotenoid traits). Additive main effects and multiplicative interactions (AMMI) (Gauch, 1988) analysis was performed for four traits (BCX, BC, AFTt, pERt) where the hybrid by environments interaction was decomposed into principal components, and a biplot (hybrids and environments) involving the first two principal components was drawn using AGD-R software (Rodríguez et al., 2015).Repeatability (H 2 ) across environments was estimated as:Where σ 2 g is the genotypic variance, σ 2 ge is the genotype by environment interaction variance, σ 2 g is error variance, r is the number of replications and l is the number of environments. The repeatability for individual environment analyses was:The data transformations resulted in approximately normal distributions for entry means for AFTt, pERt, and pFLt (Figure 1). Subsequent analyses of variance resulted in moderate to high repeatabilities at individual sites and across locations for AFTt (0.45-0.71 and 0.61), pERt (0.32-0.56 and 0.42) and pFLt (0.23-0.76 and 0.54) (Tables 2-4 and Supplementary Tables S4-S6), indicating that the trials were of good quality.Least squares means for AFTt, pERt and pFLt at individual and across environments are presented in Supplementary Table S7.The hybrids differed significantly (p < 0.001) for AFTt, pERt, and pFLt in all single-and across-location analyses. Environment (E) effects were also highly significant (p < 0.001) for all traits (Supplementary Tables S4A, S5A, S6A), with the most notable difference that mean AFTt was greater at AF12 than other sites (Figure 1). The highly significant effect of hybrids confirms that the 120 hybrids differed for their resistance or susceptibility to A. flavus. Further, the significant (p < 0.001) variance for all traits due to testers, lines, and lines × testers effects (Supplementary Tables S4A, S5A, S6A), indicates the significance of additive or general combining ability (GCA), and non-additive or specific combining ability (SCA) effects on A. flavus resistance of the hybrids. The highly significant (p < 0.001) contrasts of resistant versus susceptible testers (R vs. S) for AFTt, pERt, and pFLt in the across-environment analyses (Tables 2-4) confirm that the hybrids of resistant testers were indeed significantly more resistant to A. flavus than the hybrids of susceptible testers. Significant (p < 0.001) interactions of environments with hybrid, tester, line, and line × tester effects indicate that GCA and SCA effects varied between environments.Analyses of variance for carotenoids concentrations identified significant (p < 0.0001 or p < 0.001) environmental effects and significant (p < 0.0001) differences among hybrids for all traits (proVA, BC, BCX, ZX, and LT) (ANOVA not shown). More interestingly, the contrasts of hybrids with high versus low carotenoid grain concentration (Hi vs. Lo) for total proVA (p < 0.05), BC, BCX, ZX, and LT (p < 0.001) were significant for across-environment analyses for AFTt (Table 2), indicating that carotenoid concentrations affected aflatoxin accumulation in grain. Similarly, the Hi vs. Lo contrasts for proVA, BC, and LT   were significant for pERt (p < 0.001) (Table 3), and the Hi vs. Lo contrasts for BC, ZX (p < 0.05) and LT (p < 0.01) were significant for pFLt (Table 4).Analysis of the 60 hybrids of susceptible testers indicated that hybrids with larger concentrations (Hi) of proVA, BC and BCX always had significantly less ear rot and aflatoxin than hybrids with smaller (Lo) concentrations of these carotenoids (Table 5). This relationship was generally also significant for hybrids of A. flavus resistant tester lines. By contrast, hybrids with larger concentrations of ZX and LT were generally more susceptible to A. flavus infection than those with smaller concentrations of these carotenoids.Some of the contrasts of R vs. S testers and Hi vs. Lo lines from single environment analysis were not significant, indicating the greater power of the combined analyses. The interaction effects of E × (R vs. S testers) were significant for AFTt and pFLt (p < 0.001), indicating that the magnitude of differences among the means of hybrids of R and S testers varied between environments (Table 6). Significant interactions occurred for E × (Hi vs. Lo proVA, BC, ZX, and LT lines) for AFTt, E × (Hi vs. Lo BC and LT lines) for pERt, and E × (Hi vs. Lo BC lines) for pFLt.Estimates of genotypic correlation coefficients indicate that AFTt and pERt were negatively associated with concentrations of BCX (p < 0.01), BC (p < 0.05), and proVA (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively) in grain (Table 7). Phenotypic correlation coefficients for carotenoids concentrations with A. flavus infection traits were only significant (p < 0.05) for BCX with AFTt and pERt. The phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients among carotenoid concentrations, and among A. flavus infection parameters were generally as expected.The phenotypic correlation between the two visually-scored traits, pERt and pFLt, was moderate (r P = 0.56, p < 0.001), but the genotypic correlation coefficient between these traits was high (r G = 0.93, p < 0.001). Moreover, the correlation coefficients between the visually-scored traits and the quantitative estimate of aflatoxin concentration (AFTt) were all very strong (p < 0.001) and positive (r P = 0.56-0.69; r G = 0.89-1.00).The AMMI biplot for main effects and interactions of genotypes and traits visibly separated aflatoxin (AFTt and pERt) from carotenoid concentrations (BCX and BC) along PCA1, which explained 68% of the variation (Figure 2). PCA2, which explained an additional 25% of the variation, indicated a factor that associated AFTt and pERt positively with BC and negatively with BCX.Our finding of large variation for AFTt, pERt, and pFLt among environments, and even among micro-environments (replications), is consistent with previous reports of large environmental influence on A. flavus infection during preharvest, and on aflatoxin accumulation during both preand post-harvest (Arunyanark et al., 2010;Mayfield et al., 2011;Warburton et al., 2011). This highlights the importance of using multiple replications and environments to achieve repeatable results when studying A. flavus resistance-related traits. The normal frequency distributions for the transformed data (Figure 1), and the moderate to high repeatability estimates from analyses of variance (Tables 2-4), indicate the reliability of our results. Secondly, the clear separation of the hybrids' grain as resistant or susceptible to A. flavus (R vs. S contrast, Tables 2-4) justified the further analyses of associated effects of grain carotenoids concentrations with A. flavus resistance.  Although the trial environments were diverse and used different A. flavus inocula, we treated them as fixed in ANOVA analyses because there were only five of them. However, the five environments included lowland tropical, mid-altitude tropical, and temperate ecologies, and their respective fungal isolate diversity. We speculated that the scope of inference for our findings is broader than our five trial environments, and found that ANOVA using environments as random effects produced same results as the model treating environments as fixed, i.e., all sources of variation were significant at the same broad probability levels (NS, p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.001, etc.) (Supplementary Table S8). We conclude that our findings can be extended, with caution until validated more widely, beyond the five experimental environments.Maize grain with higher concentrations of proVA, BC, and BCX had less aflatoxin contamination (AFTt) than grain with smaller carotenoid concentrations (Table 5). This superior aflatoxin resistance of hybrids with high versus low concentrations of proVA, BC, and BCX was statistically significant among the 60 hybrids formed with A. flavus susceptible tester lines. For the 60 hybrids formed with A. flavus resistant parent tester lines, however, only hybrids with contrasting BC concentrations differed significantly for AFTt in grain. The fact that only BC provided a statistically significant additional aflatoxin resistance benefit to hybrids formed with A. flavus resistant parents may have been because the differences in high versus low carotenoids concentrations were much larger for BC than for BCX and total proVA (Table 1). These results indicate that increased concentrations of BC, BCX, and proVA carotenoids can be a valuable first line of defense against aflatoxin contamination of grain. This further suggests that proVA biofortified maize, or any maize with increased concentrations of these carotenoids can offer an important health benefit for consumers affected by both VAD and chronic exposure to aflatoxin contaminated maize products. This is particularly important for sub-Saharan Africa, where a large health burden of exposure to aflatoxin (see discussion above, or e.g., Williams et al., 2004;Wild, 2007), prevalence of VAD (Muthayya et al., 2013), and large dependence on maize as a staple food converge.The fact that hybrids with smaller concentrations of ZX and LT were significantly more resistant to aflatoxin than hybrids with larger concentrations of these carotenoids is likely due to their competing roles with proVA, BC and BCX within the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway. Provitamin A biofortification breeding programs have selected for alleles of (1) the LcyE gene (Harjes et al., 2008) that decrease flux toward the alpha-branch of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, and hence decrease LT concentration in grain, and (2) the CrtRB1 gene (Babu et al., 2013) that reduce flux from BC toward BCX and ZX (Pixley et al., 2013).Maize grain with higher concentrations of BC had smaller mean pERt and pFLt than grain with low BC concentration (Tables 3, 4). However, although generally favorable, the effects of carotenoids concentrations on the means for the visuallyassessed indicators of aflatoxin contamination (pERt and pFLt), were weaker and less consistent than for AFTt. This result is consistent with lower repeatability for these visually-assessed traits compared to AFTt.The GCA effects of lines and testers, as well as their interactions with environments were highly significant for AFTt, pERt, and pFLt (p < 0.001) (Supplementary Table S4A, S5A, S6A). The line × tester (SCA) effects were highly significant for AFTt and pFLt (p < 0.001), but not for pERt (p = 0.056). This indicates the importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions for the inheritance of aflatoxin resistance in maize. These results are consistent with experience that breeding for aflatoxin resistance is complex, requiring selection for specific hybrid combinations that avail dominance and epistatic gene actions. The fact that breeding directly for aflatoxin resistance is very challenging adds importance to our findings that increasing carotenoids concentrations had desirable effect for reducing aflatoxin concentrations in grain. Breeding for increased carotenoids concentrations in maize grain is relatively straightforward (Pixley et al., 2013;Tanumihardjo et al., 2017).The significant genotypic correlation coefficients for proVA, BC, and BCX with AFTt and pERt (Table 7) indicate that these relationships are rooted in common genetic factors. The magnitude of these genotypic correlations was small [r G = 0.18 (p < 0.05) to 0.30 (p < 0.01)], and the potential to achieve double health benefits from proVA biofortified maize therefore requires further validation.The AMMI biplot helps visualize the strong negative genetic correlations between aflatoxin traits (AFTt and pERt) and carotenoids concentrations (BC and BCX) on the X-axis (68% of variance), and a weaker factor negatively associating BCX and positively associating BC concentration with aflatoxin traits (Yaxis, 25% of variance) (Figure 2). Large cumulative percentage for the two PC axes (93%) indicates that the biplot captured most of the genotype-by-trait variation. The combined effects of the two PCA axes suggest that while BC had strongest influence (PCA1), BCX contributed an important additional mechanism of action against aflatoxin production or accumulation (PCA2). This finding adds a new dimension -aflatoxin resistanceto support nutritional arguments presented by Dhliwayo et al. (2014) and Taleon et al. (2017) for reconsidering current proVA biofortification breeding strategies that strongly reduce BCX in favor of accumulating more BC (Babu et al., 2013;Zunjare et al., 2018). We propose to further investigate these relationships using maize lines with wider ranges of BCX and BC concentrations than used herein (Table 1).At the time of this study, CIMMYT had no orange maize lines with characterized resistances to Aspergillus ear rot and aflatoxin accumulation for possible use as testers. Otherwise, using orange maize lines as testers would have produced larger levels of carotenoid concentrations in grains and might have improved the investigation of their effects on Aspergillus ear rot and aflatoxin accumulation. However, if orange testers had been used, differences for carotenoid concentrations might have been confounded with differences in resistance genes among the testers, complicating the interpretation of results.Several secondary traits associated with aflatoxin accumulation have been proposed for use in indirect selection, e.g., rating for insect damage, ear injury, husk cover (Betrán et al., 2002), fungus biomass estimation by qPCR (Mideros et al., 2009), and drought tolerance (Arunyanark et al., 2010). Campbell and White (1995) suggested using visual selection for low Aspergillus ear rot symptom scores (pERt in our study) to select lines with greater aflatoxin resistance, thereby avoiding more expensive aflatoxin assays. Visual ratings of Aspergillus ear rot symptoms and of BGYF substance (pFLt in our study) are simpler and much less expensive than aflatoxin quantification, which requires expensive chemical reagents, specific equipment and technical skills.Although the genotypic correlation of Aspergillus ear rot symptom score (pERt) with AFTt was highly significant (r = 0.89, p < 0.001) for the 120 hybrids studied herein, experience and literature (e.g., Walker and White, 2001;Henry et al., 2009) suggest that this trait is not a very reliable indicator of aflatoxin concentration in grain. The strong positive genotypic correlation for AFTt with pFLt (r = 1.00, p < 0.001) (Table 7), suggests that pFLt may be useful for rapid indirect assessment of potential aflatoxin accumulation. Successful use of the BGYF test requires technical skills for sampling (Campbell et al., 1986) and visual scoring (Dickens and Whitaker, 1981;Henry et al., 2009), but its simplicity, low cost and greater reliability than visual ear rot symptom scores make it an appealing candidate for use as a secondary trait and predictor of aflatoxin concentration.In conclusion, this is the first published report documenting significant reduction in aflatoxin contamination for maize with conventionally-bred levels of carotenoids. This result was found using maize hybrids with carotenoid concentrations that are one-half, one-third, or only one-fourth as large as more recent hybrids developed by CIMMYT's proVA biofortification breeding program (Pixley et al., 2013;Andersson et al., 2017;Sowa et al., 2017). The relative ease of breeding for increased carotenoid concentrations as compared to breeding for aflatoxin resistance in maize make this finding especially significant as part of a solution to aflatoxin contamination problems for maize. Furthermore, because the antioxidant effects of carotenoids on reducing aflatoxin production are non-enzymatic, it is likely that these act also in grain during post-harvest, when A. flavus infection and aflatoxin production are a serious concern and when most breeding strategies, including transgenic HIGS strategies are expected to be ineffective (Gressel and Polturak, 2018).Future research should assess (1) whether stronger effects on reducing A. flavus infection and aflatoxin contamination have accrued by breeding maize with further-increased concentrations of BC and BCX and (2) whether significant aflatoxin-reducing effects also occur during post-harvest exposure of grain to A. flavus. Also, and although aflatoxin is of greatest global concern, it will be valuable to assess whether increased concentrations of BC and BCX confer advantages for reducing infection and production of mycotoxins by Fusarium spp.The results herein demonstrate that BC, BCX, and proVA concentrations already present in biofortified hybrids can provide an advantage for reducing aflatoxin levels in maize. Thus, maize with increased content of proVA carotenoids may offer double health benefits by reducing aflatoxin concentrations while contributing to reduce vitamin A deficiency in affected maize consuming populations.","tokenCount":"5470"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ef958aa43807cf15c395baf97d352c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/abe21d7d-428b-4506-b2c2-282f2d33ddbc/retrieve","id":"207017156"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d32df51-c982-47b4-820e-19fd503cf2fc","pagecount":"9","content":"Africa has a challenge to meet the rising food demands that will come about due to increased population size and urbanisation. Such challenges can be tackled in many ways that include improving livestock production and this entails making improvements in feeding and disease control, using appropriate genotypes and genetic improvement of livestock. Research and training are some of the major requirements to realisation of improvements in livestock production. Sub-Saharan Africa has a number of colleges and universities and research stations that do postgraduate training and research in animal breeding and genetics. It is important that training and research at these institutions is relevant to Africa's needs so as to produce scientists that will become trainers or take up leadership in research and development in animal breeding including sustainable use of animal genetic resources. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have initiated a capacity building project. This project aims to address training of researchers in animal genetic resources by introducing a new model of capacity building which targets qualified lecturers and researchers working in sub-Saharan African universities and research stations with a specific focus on making graduate training in sub-Saharan Africa more relevant to the region. The paper describes the project in terms of identified needs and expectations of stakeholders, the capacity building model developed to address these needs and the activities that are to be undertaken to meet the project outcomes. The project activities include a training of trainers course, building partnerships and developing computerbased training resources for use by university lecturers and national scientists. The proposed project evaluation procedures are also presented.The increased demand for livestock products has been putting pressure on African livestock owners to increase production. Steps taken to increase production included identifying and using high-producing genotypes. Unfortunately for Africa, little attention was paid to improving the genetic potential of local breeds for increased production. Instead, a view was taken that increased production would be best realised by importing foreign high-producing breeds and using them in purebreeding and crossbreeding systems. The introduction of these foreign breeds was made easy by advances in biotechnology, particularly advances in artificial insemination. This crossbreeding and/or replacement of indigenous breeds with foreign germplasm is one of the most serious threats to indigenous populations. In addition, the system is also not sustainable, as most foreign breeds are generally not adapted to African production conditions. With the expected further increase in demand for meat and milk in developing countries between now and 2020 (Delgardo et al. 1999), there is even a greater need to develop and promote sustainable ways of livestock production. This will place significant new demands on national capacities for research and development in developing countries.Even though research training is introduced at the undergraduate (BSc) level in most universities, it is at postgraduate level (MSc and PhD) that most of the research training is done. The number of national scientists for livestock research and development continues to be a cause of concern (Wilson et al. 1995). In 1986, there were fewer than 1000 livestock researchers in the national agricultural research institutes in African countries with a BSc training or above, and just over 300 with PhD degrees. Whilst most universities in Africa now have courses in the agricultural sciences, considerably fewer provide post-graduate training (Pardey et al. 1997). Africa has, therefore, relied on sending its people overseas for postgraduate training. However, postgraduate courses are increasing in universities in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists trained at these universities are absorbed (as staff) by local universities and local research and development institutes.The pace of scientific progress is increasing and this continues to affect both what can be achieved by agricultural research and how it is to be achieved. New tools and approaches in both molecular and quantitative genetics are supporting radical changes to what can be achieved through animal genetics. These techniques can be applied in characterising indigenous animal genetic resources and that information can promote their use in sustainable breeding programmes. There is a need, therefore, to provide national scientists with the skills and knowledge to allow these techniques to be used (FAO 1997). Another concern has been that scientists are often locked in their disciplines and are poorly prepared for systems research addressing the many components of sustainable animal breeding programmes structured to meet the needs of farmers (FAO 1991). The situation, in some cases, is made worse by the fact that most materials used in training are disciplinarily based and do not encourage thinking and planning at the systems level. In addition, most of these materials use examples and case studies from unrelated environments making them irrelevant thus often confusing the concept or principle being presented. There is, therefore, a need for capacity building on sustainable use of animal genetic resources to; help scientists build on their knowledge on current techniques in animal breeding, to ensure that scientists address the issues of sustainability in animal breeding, and to emphasise the use of relevant training materials.The approach that has been taken by ILRI and other organisations in capacity building for research has been to hold short-term courses for the scientists. The scientists would then go back to their research stations and use the new techniques. A new model of capacity building has been adopted by the ILRI/SLU project. It stems from the realisation that most of Africa's researchers are now being trained at local universities. This model introduces three concepts. Firstly, it is based on the assumption that training of researchers and university lecturers who teach at postgraduate level has an amplified impact than training researchers alone. This is because lecturers, besides carrying out research themselves, also train postgraduate students (future researchers) who will then use the skills learnt from the lecturers in their own research. The benefits of capacity building using this model, therefore reach more researchers. Secondly, the model encourages the use of relevant resources for training of Africa's research scientists. Such resources can be made available at universities in Africa and overseas universities that train African students. Thirdly, the model calls for developing partnerships with universities and NARS. The project is demand driven as it caters for the needs of partners who also contribute to the output. This paper describes the ILRI-SLU capacity building project that employs this new model of capacity building.The project carried out need-assessment activities to determine the number of universities in sub-Saharan Africa that teach animal breeding and genetics at the postgraduate level, the content of the courses taught, human resources and facilities available for running the courses, constraints faced by universities when delivering the courses and the link between universities and research institutes carrying out research in animal breeding and genetics. Questionnaires were sent to fifty-three universities in sub-Saharan Africa by mail. An ILRI/SLU team followed up by visiting six countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.Only 23 out of 53 universities responded to the questionnaire and of these only 17 offered postgraduate training in animal breeding and genetics. The countries visited were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The findings of these two activities were:The number of staff with postgraduate qualifications was impressive with 74 percent having PhDs and the rest MSc degrees. In addition, each university produces an average of six postgraduate students per year. The starting point for the project would, therefore, not be to give basic postgraduate training in animal breeding and genetics but to offer a course, which would allow participants to update their skills. Most lecturers had received little or no training in teaching methods or university teaching. The postgraduate classes are generally small, an average of six per year, but the same lecturers teach very large classes at the undergraduate level. Therefore, lecturers need to be taught teaching methods for both small and large groups. The postgraduate degree programmes vary a lot in terms of the actual courses offered and the course content. The courses include statistics/biometry, computer courses, biochemistry, physiology, production, genetics (basic, population, quantitative, molecular), and research methodologies. However, little or no time is spent on conservation of animal genetic resources. Most universities said they needed strengthening in statistics, basic and molecular genetics, animal genetic resources (characterisation, conservation, utilisation and management) and sustainable breeding programmes. Modern textbooks are often lacking. In addition, books and journals used are those published in Europe or North America. These resources provide useful information on principles and concepts of animal breeding and genetics. However, they are often lacking in examples relevant to sub-Saharan Africa. Universities had access to computers although the access was rather limited for some -in numbers and quality of computers. Various statistical software were available. The availability of molecular genetics laboratory facilities varied -some universities had none yet some had more than one laboratory in one campus, e.g. one in a faculty of agriculture and the other in a faculty of science or veterinary medicine. Most universities do not generate data that can be used in animal breeding and as such rely on data collected by research institutes or organisations running livestock recording schemes. There is, therefore, a need to promote good links between research, extension and universities. The need for collaboration is realised and is practised in some countries. Collaboration between universities is limited and is mainly through external examiners.There is limited exchange of teachers and students between universities. Increased contact between institutions and countries would reduce the isolation of staff at some universities. The project should therefore promote collaboration. Funding support is limited resulting in poor facilities and resources for research and teaching, heavy teaching loads and high staff turnover.A workshop, with participants from universities and research institutes in sub-Saharan Africa, ILRI, SLU, Cornell University and the African Development Bank, was organised to discuss the findings given above and to plan project activities. The workshop recommended that training courses for lecturers and researchers to update them on recent techniques and methodologies and topical issues in animal genetic resources should be held. The production of training resources to supplement available books and journals was also recommended. The main emphasis of these resources would be case studies that are relevant to sub-Saharan Africa and written using information collected by research organisations and extension agencies, universities and international organisations. Teachers need teaching and learning resources that are relevant to their country or the country of origin of their students, and which provide them with the tools to strengthen their teaching by using material that their students can relate to their present experience and future responsibilities. The participants identified the following modules on which the training course and training resources would be based:Improving our knowledge of tropical indigenous animal genetic resources. How to make breeding programmes in tropical farming systems sustainable? Quantitative methods to improve the understanding and utilisation of animal genetic resources. Teaching methods and communication.They also developed the contents of these modules. A third recommendation was the building of partnerships; among the sub-Saharan universities, universities and research organisations within the same country, and ILRI and SLU with the universities and research institutes. The workshop participants agreed to act as a reference group for the project. This reference group would assist in identifying course participants, identifying scientists who would write the case studies, and evaluating the training resources. More than one course will be held and participants for each course will be drawn from a number of countries thus allowing links between countries. Course participants will also be asked to evaluate the courses and training resources.Based on the concerns and issues identified by the project through the needs-assessment activities, ILRI and SLU, together with partners from universities and research institutes in sub-Saharan Africa, embarked on the project \"Capacity Building for Sustainable Use of Animal Genetic Resources in Developing Countries\". The project planned three main activities:training teachers and researchers on animal genetic resources via a series of courses, building training resources, and developing partnerships.The training courses for sub-Saharan Africa will be based on the modules agreed on at the planning workshop. They will cover topics on: (a) techniques in animal breeding and genetics and their use in characterisation and conservation of African animal genetic resources, (b) the importance of indigenous breeds, sustainable breeding programs and the utilisation of indigenous breeds in such programs, and (c) teaching and supervision of university students. Participants will get a chance to search available databases including those that are being developed by the project, use livestock recording and statistical packages, and computer software used in teaching some animal breeding and genetics principles. They will also evaluate the training resources produced by the project.Criteria for selection of course participants were developed at the workshop. The ideal would be to have two participants per country, one from a research institute and another from a university. The participants should be people who are likely to work in research or teaching for a minimum of five years after the course. It was also agreed that a maximum of 25 participants per course would be ideal, making it necessary to hold more than one course in Africa. The first of these courses was to be a three-week course to be held in November-December 2000 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sixteen participants would come from East and South African countries. Facilitators for the first course would be from SLU and ILRI.This project will develop training resources to be used by university teachers responsible for teaching animal breeding and genetics to postgraduate students from sub-Saharan Africa. The teachers may be in the universities of sub-Saharan Africa, or wherever young professional from Africa are taught, including the international degree programmes of North America, Europe and Australia.The term training resources has different meanings for different users. It is often used in reference to lists of courses and/or materials on the Internet. This project adopts a more specific definition of the term training resources, namely: an interactive electronic knowledge and information package that provides, in an integrated manner, resources for teachers and trainers on specific subject areas. Because university faculty know the facts and principles of their subject material, the resources are not an attempt to write an electronic textbook. The resources being developed are not an attempt to promulgate a fixed and \"ideal\" curriculum. Where a university is in the process of developing a new curriculum, the project's training resources will offer a structure and content that may be helpful. In most situations, however, we envisage university faculty using the resources to extract and adapt material that will strengthen existing lectures and practicals, and to provide insights and resources for the development of new lectures and practicals within existing courses.The animal genetic training resource CDROM is based on five modules identified at the workshop. Figure 1 shows a general structure of a training resource. For each module, an introduction that summarises a set of basic knowledge, principles and concepts was written. We refer to this material as the \"core knowledge\". It should be emphasised that the introductions are a summary -albeit a comprehensive summary -and not an exhaustive treatment of the subject. The information in the introductions is structured to help engage the attention and interest of users -both faculty and students.All the other resources complement the core knowledge in the modules. The opportunity to link information in a web based product means that these other resources are woven into the core knowledge, but they can also be accessed directly. The other resources include case studies, information on distribution of breeds mentioned in the module introductions and maps, images and video clips, problem solving exercises, bibliographies and full text documents, databases, glossaries and dictionaries, research methodologies and software. The case studies from sub-Saharan Africa will form the most important set of resources in the training resource. Because they are linked to a particular fact, concept or principle in a module, they provide users with information that helps to bring reality into what otherwise may be purely theoretical and factual presentation, concept or principle. Each case study will be a complete study and story and each is based on a practical situation. Case studies will present examples where investigations worked and where they did not, and examine why some were successful and others were not. Where appropriate, each case study will: improve the understanding of a key fact, principle or concept achieve that understanding by using practical information relevant to the country or region of the users, or the people they are training identify gaps in knowledge provide guidance on possible research methodologies to address gaps in knowledge.The case studies will be written by ILRI and SLU staff and scientists working for universities and research institutes in sub-Saharan Africa. Up to date about 20 case studies have been written.The resources are designed to be downloaded by teachers. The teachers can use the resources as they are or adapt them to be used in their own course work. All the resources comply with established pedagogic principles and aim to create learning environments. At the same time, the resources are flexible enough for the teachers to use information to suit their own situation.ILRI developed and maintains a collaborative network of animal genetic resources scientists in sub-Saharan Africa. This project was planned to be demand-driven hence made extensive use of existing networks. The project team formed partnerships with research institutes and universities in sub-Saharan Africa for planning and implementation of the project activities. The course and training resources are produced in partnerships with colleagues from universities and research institutes. Based on agreed work plans all partners will contribute to the content, design and functionality, and testing of the animal genetics training resource and the course structure.The primary beneficiaries are university lecturers and research scientists in sub-Saharan Africa and those teaching international agricultural programmes in universities in developed countries. As a result of using the training resources, these people will have an impact on present and future policy makers, socio-economists and agricultural researchers. Animal breeding/genetic scientists will have access to better materials to strengthen the practical relevance of their teaching, research and policy making. Secondary beneficiaries include researchers and development agents in sub-Saharan Africa. This target audience will have a greater and more relevant understanding of key areas of animal genetic resources in their own countries. Faculty in developed countries who teach international agricultural courses to graduate students from sub-Saharan Africa will also benefit from the training resource. The final and ultimate beneficiaries are the smallholder crop-livestock farmers in developing countries who will receive new technologies that have an impact on productivity, household and national economic development and do so in ways that are environmentally sustainable.This project will facilitate the introduction of recent techniques/advances in animal genetics and breeding into the graduate curricula of African universities. In addition, by introducing university teachers to teaching aids and methods, it will help improve graduate supervision and effectiveness of teaching of these subjects, not only at the graduate level, but also at the undergraduate level. Indeed, this project could serve as a model through which effective teaching is disseminated throughout entire university systems.Training resources (both electronic and print) is possibly one of the most significant potential outputs of this project. As has been alluded to, the resources will aim at providing technical material which those involved in graduate training can use to make animal breeding and genetics more interesting to students and relevant in the African context. These resources will include case studies and numerical examples, illustrated with images, video clips, etc. and supported by relevant bibliographic information. Moreover, because these resources will be in electronic form, their continued future updating will be relatively easy. Such updating could involve inclusion of links to independently developed, and continuously updated, Internet sites. Not only will provision of these resources to university teachers ensure that the courses are relevant and that teachers and students are exposed to recent technologies, it will also improve access (by both teachers and students) to the information they need for their research.To the extent that postgraduate training provides the next generation of teachers, researchers and policy makers, this project will, through a substantial multiplier effect, ensure that capacity for animal genetic resources research and development is improved in Africa, and that the level of public awareness on sustainable use of animal genetic resources and related issues is tremendously enhanced.The Delivery Pathway will be initially through individuals who participate in the training courses. Two such courses are planned for Africa: one for Eastern and Southern and another for West and Central Africa. This will be sufficient to cover the majority of universities in sub-Saharan Africa which offer postgraduate training in animal breeding and genetics.On return to their respective universities, course participants are expected to share the information gained from the course with colleagues. Initially, this information will be technical notes in print form. Recipients will be requested to make this material available to all those involved in animal breeding/genetics training at the graduate level in their countries. Contacts for additional information and/or comments will be provided, as will a website address from where detailed information on the training resources could be obtained (at a later stage, the entire product will be made available on the Internet).The evaluation of electronic training resources will be continuous. The first step was to develop a demonstration CDROM which was evaluated during the planning workshop. The Beta version of the CDROM will be tested by the participants of the training courses and by the reference group. Feedback from testing the beta version will be used to improve the application and version I will be released at the end of 2001 for wider testing by universities in sub-Saharan Africa.Evaluation of the impact of the whole project will involve an assessment of users' opinion. Users will include the following categories: those who will have attended the course; those who will have attended the course and subsequently used the training resources (electronic or print) in their teaching/research; those who will have used the training resources in their teaching/research but without having attended the course; those who will have neither attended the course nor used the training resources in their teaching/research; and graduate students who may have been taught or been supervised by individuals in these categories. The assessment to be conducted starting two years after the first course, will consist of two activities: implementation of a comprehensive mail survey (using a questionnaire) to a selected sample of individuals representative of all the above categories; and a workshop with participants representing these categories. The mail survey and workshop will serve as mechanisms to assess the value and impact of the project and how the course and training resources may be improved. The information from both sources will be collected in a way that allows for sound quantitative analysis. However, the workshop will also provide an opportunity to discuss emerging issues more exhaustively.During the implementation of the project, a comprehensive list of animal breeders/geneticists in sub-Saharan Africa (in universities and research institutes) will be compiled. This will be used as the basis for the sampling described above. At the same time, this list will facilitate a realistic assessment of the coverage (\"adoption rate\") and impact of the project.","tokenCount":"3844"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ab001a5e2f6b0d5e13c0625842c1a156","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/da6d0f6f-d0cd-4d7a-a45f-51f30cb897ad/retrieve","id":"446180498"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3fe108b4-9637-471b-a94c-39be6b545fc8","pagecount":"19","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim research on the scaling of climate services and climatesmart agriculture in Africa, in order to stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Fish production has remained low in Africa and the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. Efforts have been ramped up to grow the fish industry. Aquaculture production in SSA has increased by an average of 11% annually since 2000. This is twice as fast compared with the rest of the world's trends. Despite the momentum seen in the last decade and all the financial and technical support, SSA continues to account for less than 1% of global aquaculture production. Fish farming in South Africa is an emerging industry that consists mainly of the culture of freshwater species such as crocodiles, trout, catfish, tilapia, and ornamental fish, as well as marine species such as abalone, prawns, oysters, and mussels.In the recent past, climate variability and change have resulted in increased local temperatures that, in turn, have instigated evapotranspiration and negatively affected the breeding grounds of several essential fish species due to a reduction in the water levels of water bodies. The rise in local temperature also has influenced the physical-chemical properties of water, including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and concentration of different ions in water bodies (El Morhit & Mouhir 2014). These changes negatively affect the physiological behavioral dynamics of fish as well as their natural feed resulting in lower production and productivity.Today, about half the fish consumed globally are raised in these artificial environments. Commonly farmed species include salmon, tuna, cod, trout, and halibut. These \"aquafarms\" can be mesh cages submerged in natural bodies of water or concrete enclosures on land. Measures and interventions are required to support the increased production of fish. To meet the large fish supply demand, SSA's fish imports were 1.5 times higher in 2015-2019 than its aquaculture production. With the projected increase in demand for aquatic foods in SSA and the need to reduce dependence on imports, it is suggested that aquaculture produce an additional 5.0 million tons by 2030 and 10.6 million tons by 2050. Furthermore, this growth must be environmentally sustainable, accompanied by reduced production costs and competitive aquatic foods. Sustainable fish farming/aquaculture requires new thinking and strategies to increase productivity. This has become an important consideration to achieve accelerated effects of climate change, environmental risks, biosecurity and fish health concerns, and the need to apply new technologies that require a skilled workforce.Fish farming (also known as aquaculture) relates to the 'raising of fish commercially in tanks, ponds or other enclosures to produce food.' Commercial fish farming has assumed a strategic agribusiness opportunity established as a profitable business venture. Fish is a great source of food and protein. The demand and price of fish and fish-related products continue to increase rapidly, driven by rapid population growth.Fish farming/culture is the growing of fish in a controlled environment (concrete or earthen ponds), vats (wooden or fibreglass), and plastics that have been practised for hundreds of years. It is a part of aquaculture, but sometimes the two are used interchangeably because most output from aqua cultural production comes from fish farming. Fish farming has a double responsibility of provision of fish for household consumption and sale for profit. The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (1995), developed by FAO in collaboration with partners in fisheries established Code sets out principles for behaviour and practices toward responsible stewardship of marine resources and their environments. The principles are essential guides to all actors in all fisheries, from fishers to processors, exporters, biologists, and managers. The code provides a guide to achieving resilient fisheries as follows;• proper management of marine resources,• collection of data and provision of advice,• exercising a precautionary approach to resource use and management,• implementation and enforcement of management measures • Controls overfishing practices,• development of aquaculture and caution to translocation of stocks,• actions to ensure proper post-harvest processing of marine animals,• monitoring and controlling of international trade of marine products, and• support for all aspects of research needed to understand and manage stocks.Raising fish enables society to use the available land and water better. At the household level, raising fish helps families have more protein to eat, directly supporting household members to gain strong and healthy status. Consuming fish provides a tasty experience like chicken, sheep, and goat. Surplus fish can be sold within the markets. You and your family can live a better life with enough food and more money.Caution: Fish farming takes work. To raise fish, there is a need for hard work to raise anything else, such as maize, rice, cassava, or groundnuts. There is a need to learn to do many things.Case 1: Guide on what is needed to raise fish.There are several things that are required to support effective raising of fish that include:• a piece of land where you can build a pond, or suitable water areas to build pens or keep cages • time to build a pond and to care for it regularly • access to extra extension advice • capital purchase fingerings, foodstuff, extra labour when needed • pond amendments (fertilizing agents -organic; inorganic etc.)It is advisable for anyone considering venturing into rolling out the dream of fish farming activity, whether or not one is a farmer or extension personnel. Anyone intending to engage in fish farming must acquire the required tips and information to support effective implementation. Some of the key elements to be aware of and learn especially in the initial phase, include:• the type of soil best for your pond, how to dig your pond • what kind of fish to raise • how to take care of the pondTo achieve a successful fish farming undertaking, site conditions must be fully considered as this is the critical determinant of whether or not the fish farm will competitively produce. Assessment that informs choices made on the site selection and the fish farm's design can make or break the undertaking. The site selection process considers the biological traits of the target fish, the intended production capacity, and the facilities required to achieve optimal and cost-effective production.Thus, one must choose a suitable place where the pond is established. Specifically, one should remember that a pond for fish is the only one used for the land. Thus, care must be taken to avoid building a pond on land that could be better used for other uses besides fish farming. Generally, it is best to put a pond in a place with a gentle slope or on a hillside so one does not have to dig too much soil to build it. A pond built on a slope is also easier to drain.Careful zoning and selection should take into account site suitability to support fish farming/aquaculture and improvements, particularly in resource-use efficiency, energy-efficient pond aeration, and others can enable small-scale and medium-scale farmers to intensify and increase pond productivity. The following factors are essential considerations during the site selection process:• Water availability (adequate quantity and good quality) Soil type is one of the critical factors one should be aware of, as the effectiveness of sitting and sinking a fish pond rests on its suitability. Simple tests can be carried out that follow the under-listed guide:1) Dampen a handful of soil with water. Use only enough water to dampen the sample. Do not saturate it 2) Squeeze the sample tightly in your hand 3) Open your hand:a. If the sample keeps its shape, it is probably good enough for building a pond (i.e., sufficient clay present) b. If the sample collapses and does not keep its shape, it is probably not good enough for building a pond (i.e., too much sand present) 4) The site should be in a region or area that is suitable and allowed for aquaculture production. 5) Well-drained and away from flood-prone areas or at least having flood potential.a. Control 6) Allow for acceptable effluent disposal as required by Environmental Management a. Authorities 7) Have a climate suitable for the production of the intended species. 8) Have accessibility to a good and all-weather market. 9) Have easy access to services and technical assistance. 10) Have adequate room for intended investment and possible future expansion. 11) Not in a pollution-prone area.The final size of the fish farm is determined by several factors, including the following: a) Amount of water available for fish culture.b) The technology to be employed; Intensive systems require less land than semi-intensive systems to produce the same quantity of fish.c) The target production.d) Capital available for investment.The number, size, and shape of ponds depend on several factors, including the following: Fish pond construction is a stepwise process. In summary, one should follow the provided chronology of the activities to establish a fish pond enlisted below: a) Mark out the area that the pond will occupy using wooden pegs and strings and then remove all the vegetation.b) Remove the topsoil and keep it in a good location close to the site. It will be used to cover the pond bottom and the dyke tops to enhance fertility. c) Clear the area within the pond limit of all vegetation, including the area within 10m of dykes and pond structures and any access, water supply, or drainage area.d) Establish a Temporary Benchmark (TBM). A benchmark is a mark on the ground that establishes the elevation of a place and is used as a reference point for all other elevations.e) Using spirit level, measuring tape, pegs, and strings, mark out: g) Dig out the soil at the 'dig' areas and place it in the 'fill' spaces. Most of the fill areas will be in the dyke position. Make sure to remove boulders and tree stumps from the pond area.h) Once the soil is placed on the fill area, make sure that this soil is properly compacted. To achieve good compaction, place soil in layers not exceeding 15 cm in height and compact back to at least 10 cm. When constructing dykes, soil layers are placed 20 cm inside on top of each other to reduce the amount of work during dyke cutting.Any pond dike should have three essential qualities:a) It should be able to resist the water pressure resulting from the pond water depth.b) It should be impervious, with minimal water seepage through the dike.c) It should be high enough to keep the pond water from ever running over its top, which would rapidly destroy the dike.Dyke slopes are critical to the longevity and survival of the ponds. The slope of the dyke should be determined bearing in mind that: a) Steeper slopes erode quickly.b) The more the soil becomes sandy, its strength decreases, and slopes should be gentler.c) The bigger the pond size, the stronger the erosive power of the water waves.d) As the slope ratio increases, the volume of earthwork increases, and the overall construction cost and the land area required for the ponds increase.e) There are two common types of inlet structures pipe inlets and open inlets Inlets and outlets are an integral part of the fishpond structure. These should be taken into consideration when designing the pond structure. Several points are considered when placing these two structures of the fishponds.a) Place the inlet at the shallow end of the pond.b) Make sure that the bottom level of the inlet is at the same level as the bottom of the water feeder canal and at least 10 cm above the maximum water level in the pond. c) Design the inlet structure to be horizontal without a slope. d) Make it wide enough to fill the pond in a reasonable time.e) Make it such that water splashes and mixes as much as possible when entering the pond.f) Provide a screen to keep unwanted fish and other organisms out.g) Control mechanism e.g., gate valves.a) To keep the water in the pond at its optimum level, which should be the maximum water level designed for the pond.b) To allow for the complete draining of the pond and harvesting of the fish when necessary c) A good Outlet should ensure that:a. The time needed to drain the pond entirely is reasonable.b. The draining water flow is as uniform as possible to avoid disturbing the fish excessively.c. Fish are not lost even during the draining period.d. Water can be drained from any pond level.e. Allowance is made for overflow of excess water.f. It can be cleaned and serviced quickly. Stocking is the introduction of fish (fingerlings or juveniles) into the new pond environment. Fish seeds can be collected from the wild (rivers, streams, lakes, etc.) or from hatcheries/existing fishponds where fish are adapted to cultural conditions. The right type and the correct number of fish are placed in a pond at the right time (cool hours of the day).Test stocking (pre-stocking) should be practised by introducing a few fish into the new environment. The test stocking period ranges from two days to one week. If the fish survive well, then the pond can be fully stocked.The type of aquaculture influences the kind of fish stored. Acclimatization allows fish to swim out into the pond. A recommended stocking rate of fish (ratio of one species to another or male to female) and stocking density (number of fish per square metre of pond water) to avoid overcrowding, should be practised. This will ease management problems and enhance the success of the fish culture.In implementing the stocking of the fish ponds, some guidelines should be followed to avoid shocking the system. The following constitute essential elements to follow in stocking the ponds: a) In any fish enclosure, healthy fingerlings of 5 -7 cm should be stocked. Juveniles of 7-10 cm are most advisable;b) Stocking densities should range between 10 -50 fish/ depending on water conditions, size of fish seed, culture system and management, and specific specialist research-extension advice; c) Procure your fish seeds from reputable sources and make allowance for mortalities (at least 10%); d) Fish seeds should not be fed for 24 -48 hours before transportation as they survive better on an empty stomach when in transit;e) Stocking of fish should be done early morning or late evening in moderately cool weather & and when fish are less active; f) Fish seeds should be transported and packed in water-filled oxygenated polythene bags or various containers used; g) Release fish fingerlings to their new home surroundings slowly to avoid shock due to temperature changes;h) Introduce feed into the fish tank/pond 6 -12 hours after stocking; i) Stocked fingerlings should be sorted after 15 days (2 weeks) of the initial stocking to remove shooters (jumpers) to reduce cannibalism and ensure even growth of fish; j) Sorting could be done as advisable, preferably in the morning (8 -10 am); and k) Sorted fish should not be fed for 2 hours minimum or 3 hours maximum. This will help to relieve the fish of handling stress and regain lost energy.The big fish in the pond will get much of their food from tiny plants and animals that grow in the green water.To keep the water green, fertilize your pond each week. When using plant compost or plant material, ensure that the pond is filled to the water line.To make your fish grow more quickly, you must feed them food produced from the natural pond environment and feed given as supplements to the pond. You can feed them a variety of food sources as detailed below: m) Some of the tips for feeding the fish constitute of the following husbandry practices: n) feed your fish at least once a day. Fish will grow better if you provide them more often.Take very good care of your fish. Keep the water green and feed the fish regularly, While feeding, watch them carefully to see that they are healthy and swimming strongly.o) ensure that feeding of the fish is done at the same time consistently (every day), preferably early in the morning and late in the afternoon when it is cooler.p) The bigger your fish grow, the more food they will need.q) It is difficult to know exactly how much food to feed your fish. It would be best if you watched them when they eat to learn how much food they need. r) Feed your fish in the shallow part of the pond so that you can see them eat.s) If the fish does not eat all their food, reduce the amount provided the next day.t) when the amount of feed eaten by the fish increases, provide a little more the next day.Note: If you feed your fish at the same place every day, you will see whether the fish are eating well. If you give them too much, the food that is not eaten will stay on the bottom.Too much uneaten food on the bottom of the pond will make the water bad. Do not overfeed your fish.Measure first how much bran a given container, such as a milk powder tin, can hold, for example, 240 grams. From this, determine how many food containers should be distributed daily in each pond.• To make it easier to see if your fish are eating well, mark several places in your pond to feed them.• Mark each place by making a square light wood or bamboo ring. Drive a pole into the pond bottom and attach the square or ring.• When you feed the fish, put the food inside the square or ring. You may be able to see any uneaten food on the bottom under the square or ring. If you cannot see the bottom, feel with your hands to find any uneaten food that may be there.1. Harvesting is one of the essential practices for fish farming/aquaculture undertaking. Some tips are provided which can help in the proper handling of the harvesting process of the pond fish as follows:2. Do not take any fish out of your pond during the first five months. After five months, you may catch a few big fish to eat with your family each week.When most of the fish are big enough, it is time to harvest all of them. Usually, they will be big enough to harvest in about six months.Feed tilapia with rice or wheat bran in the following quantity on daily basis for each 100 square metres of pond:• first month, 360 grams • second month, 480 grams • third month, 720 grams • fourth month, 960 grams • fifth month, 1 200 grams • sixth month, 1 440 grams.Harvest the fish early in the morning when it is cool.Have some watertight containers ready to store live fish. ","tokenCount":"3095"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1bc6bf38fc86f059f1d6d02b227dc8be","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9467bf6f-929d-47b3-bfb2-e506ad9d5092/retrieve","id":"-1620056869"},"keywords":["Maxent","bioclimatic variables","suitability","global warming","drought"],"sieverID":"a8a9499d-0e51-4462-83b7-275e02a8f479","pagecount":"23","content":"This study investigated that the effects of cochineal invasion and climate change on cactus pear distribution. Rainfall and temperature were projected to near, mid, and end-century with emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and 8.5) using R-programing language. Average temperature will be increased by 1.7, 2.3, and 2.6°C in RCP 4.5 and 2, 2.8, and 4°C in RCP 8.5 at 2010-2039,  2040-2069, and 2070-2099, respectively, and there will be temporal and spatial rainfall variation. The cactus pear distribution will be reduced by 13, 0.51, and 27% during mid-century of RCP 4.5 and RCP8.5, and RCP8.5 of end-century, consistently. But, it will be increased by 0.8% at the end-century of RCP4.5. The impact of climate change in future cactus pear distribution is insignificant. In addition, the probability of cochineal invasion will be increased by about 72, 74, 62, and 94% by mid and end-century of RCP4.5 and 8.5, respectively. This has a significant impact on future cactus pear distribution. The combined effect of climate change and cochineal invasion will affect 72, 78, 63, and 85% of cactus pear distribution by mid and end-century of RCP4.5 and 8.5, respectively. It has a significant impact on future cactus pear distribution. Therefore, the study recommends well-designed management strategies to ensure cactus pear survival.Haftu Abrha *1 , Emiru Birhane 2, 3 , Amanuel Zenebe 1, 2 , Haftom Hagos 1 , Atkilt Girma 1, 2 , Ermias Aynekulu 4 , Arya Alemie 5Ethiopia is exposing to climate change because of low adaptive capacity. An average decadal temperature of Tigray (northern Ethiopia) is increasing at the rate of 0.54ºC which is more than double, compared to the countrywide average of 0.25ºC per decade (Gebrehiwot and Veen, 2013). This increasing of temperature results a drought (Gebre et al., 2013). To cope up those effects, communities in such an environment should depend on climate change resilience and adaptation mechanism (Belay et al., 2006).The ability to select adaptive plant species that can co-exist and produce yields in drought season is an important mechanism for resilience and adaptation. In the study area, cactus pear is used to build adaptive capacity of communities during drought and rain period (Belay et al., 2006). Cactus pear is drought tolerant species (Belay, 2015). Its fruit helps as the source of food before harvesting of cereal crops. Cactus pear is the most commonly cultivated species throughout the world (FAO, 2013). This species is also commonly found in Ethiopia, especially in the northern part called Tigray (Belay, 2015).Cactus pear is used as food, forage, the source of income, soil and water conservation, medicinal, cosmetics, and drought insurance crop. However, cactus pear is a neglected and less researched plant in Ethiopia (Belay, 2015). The species grows in marginal lands, which do not use for other crops (Haile et al., 2000). Cactus pear grows under stress conditions, including poor management practices. Together with improper cultivation and management, it is severely affecting through cochineal invasion. Cochineal was introduced to the country in 2004 as a beneficial insect in three selected sites namely Endayesus, Tsehafti and Embachara for the production of dye (Belay et al., 2006). It was about 30 ha in 2007 (Belay, 2010); but in 2014 it has invaded about 16,255.25 ha of cactus pear (Belay, 2015). Cochineal is using for production of dye (Serrano et al., 2013). The dye extracted from cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) is rich in carminic acid (Reyes Agüero et al., 2005) and used for coloring of food and cosmetics, textiles (Serrano et al., 2013) and drugs (Canamares et al., 2006). Cochineal of Tigray region has higher carminic acid than other places due to the presence of the highest phosphorus content in soil (Tesfay and Bustamante, 2010).Cochineal is a soft body, flat, oval-shaped scale insect (Esalat Nejad and Esalat Nejad, 2013).Cochineal life cycle varies according to their sex. The female life cycle has two nymph and one adult stage, whereas the male passes through four nymph stages. The first two instars being comparable to that of the female but the third and fourth are characterized by a pre-pupa and pupa stage (Bosso et al., 2013;Flores-Hernández et al., 2006). Additionally, female cochineal metamorphosis is incomplete whereas male is complete metamorphosis (Flores-Hernández et al., 2006). The life cycle of cochineal varies based on climatic variables such as temperature and it ranges from 90 to 128 (Inglese et al., 2017). Cochineal breeding is affected by temperature rain, wind, light (Flores, 1995). Female cochineal mostly lay up to 420 eggs (Inglese et al., 2017).Hence, cochineal is affecting by temperature and rainfall variations (Rao et al., 2013). Additionally, climate change and variability facilitate pest invasion rate through increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall (Badii and Flores, 2001). Climate change may also affect the cactus pear potential through directly and indirectly such as pest and disease (Cortes et al., 2013). Trend and effect of climate change are predicting using different General Circulation Models (GCM), Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and time slices. RCPs are used as inputs for climate modeling and are affected by concentrations of a variety of greenhouse gases, land use change, environmental pollution, technology development, population, energy use (Moss et al., 2010).Nowadays, cactus pear is becoming a threatened species, which requires effective management activities. Thus, effective species conservation further requires accurate knowledge of species geographical distribution modeling (Groff, 2011). Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are important to predict the geographic distributions of different species to determine today's, as well as future conditions. Based on such analyses, it will be possible to indicate the potential distribution of the species where conditions are favorable or not for the studied species (Abrha et al., 2018). This study, therefore, had tried to model the individual and coupled effect of cochineal invasion and climate change on future cactus pear distribution. The result aims that an investigation of well-matched adaptation solutions by various societal categories, policy makers, governmental and non-governmental organizations.Tigray region is found between the latitude of 12°15' and 14°57' north, and longitude of 36°27' and 39°59' east, in northern Ethiopia. It has an altitude from about 500 to almost 4000 m.a.s.l. (Kassa et al., 2014). It covers about 53,000 km 2 . As the data taken from Ethiopian national meteorological agency showed, annual average temperature and rainfall of Tigray ranges from 12-37°C and 500-1000 mm respectively. Cambisols, fluvisols, rendzinas, leptosols, fluvisols, nitosols, arenosols, vertisols, xerosols, regosols, luvisols calcisols, and andosols are the major soils of the region (Nyssen et al., 2008).More than 85% of the population is dependent on agriculture (Brutsch, 1997). It consists of crop and animal production, both in isolation and mixed farm (Kassa et al., 2014). Farmers are using the traditional farming system such as crop rotation, animal manure, fallowing, and wood ash to improve soil fertility and productivity (Edwards et al., 2010). Tigray has about 360,000 ha of cactus pear (Brutsch, 1997). Its eastern, southeastern, and southern zones have high cactus pear potential, and based on their cactus pear resources, one district from each zone was purposively selected. The districts were Ganta Afeshum, Hintalo Wejerat, and Raya Azebo from an eastern, southeastern, and southern zone, respectively (Figure 1).Ganta Afeshum is found in the latitude of 14° 20′ north and longitude of 39° 15′ east. It covers about 1,636.36 km 2 . Its average annual rainfall is 595 mm. Its average annual maximum and minimum temperatures of the district are 24.6 and 6.1°C, respectively. The major cultivated crops in the district are barley, wheat, sorghum, maize, finger millet, and pulses (Tesfaye, 2010). Raya Azebo is located in 12° 17' and 12° 15' North Latitude and 39° 22' to 39° 25 east longitude.The average annual temperature of the district is 21.5°C. Its mean annual rainfall is 779 mm with a bimodal type pattern in summer and spring. However, most of the year potential evapotranspiration is high and exceeds rainfall (Bewket and Radeny, 2015). The major crops grown in the Woreda are sorghum, teff, and maize. The main livestock is cattle, sheep, goats, and camel. Crop residue and chopped cactus pear are used for animal feed.Hintalo-Wejerat is located between13° 15' north and longitude 39° 31' east. Its average annual rainfall and temperature are 598 mm and 19.8°C, respectively. The total land size of the district is about 98,100 ha and from this 36,107 ha is cultivated the land. The major cultivated cereal crops in the district are barley, sorghum, wheat, teff, pulses and cash crops (cabbages, carrot, potatoes, onion, and tomatoes) (Tesfaye, 2010). Livestock is also a source of money for the community. The major feed source for livestock is crop residues, communal grazing, chopped cladodes of cactus pear, and to some extent grass hay harvested from farmland borders, exclosures and backyards (Tesfaye, 2010). Therefore, cactus pear is commonly used for food, feed, income sources and other ecological roles in the three districts.Climatic variables used in this study were daily rainfall, daily average minimum and maximum temperatures of the past 30 years . These were found from Ethiopian National Meteorological Agency and satellite data (AgMERRA). These were used to project and to know the future trend of rainfall and temperature in the study area.GenStat 14 th edition software was used to arrange the NMA climate data in order to make it compatible with R-package software. It was incomplete and was filled with the satellite data.The filled baseline climate data was projected to three-time slices (2010-2039, 2040-2069, 2070-2099) with scenario of two emissions (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) under one GCM in R-package software. The RCP's were selected, as they constitute medium and high emission scenario, which will be helpful for best recommendations. The prediction was used to prove the climate change and variability of the study area.The GCMs selected for the study were GCM-1 (ACCESS1-0), GCM-5 (CCSM4) and GCM-15 (MIROC5). These GCMs have relatively higher consistency and they are widely used in sub-Saharan Africa (Rosenzweig et al., 2013;Hudson and Ruane, 2013).Six years locally observed data of temperature and rainfall (2010-2015) were correlated with same six years (matched) projected data using those three GCMs, in order to choose the GCM which expressed the highest correlation with the observed local data. Normality test was performed prior to correlation. The distribution of temperature data was normal; however for the rainfall data was not normally distributed (for current and all GCMs). Hence, Pearson and Spearman correlation were used for temperature and rainfall data, respectively (Tables 1 and  2).  The projected temperatures of the three GCMs in both RCPs were correlated significantly (p < 0.01) with observed local data. However, only one GCM (GCM5) was significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with observed local rainfall data in both RCPs. Hence, the two GCMs (GCM 1 and GCM 15) were dropped, as they were not significantly correlated with observed rainfall data. As a result, the research was conducted using only GCM-5 namely Climate Community System Model Version 4 (CCSM4).A total of 257 and 182 cactus pear and cochineal presence points were collected, respectively (Figure 2). These presence location points were sufficed to run the model, as species distribution models with locations more than 30 occurrence points' results in a more precise and accurate prediction (Baldwin, 2009). Bioclimatic data are the major requirements for the analysis of current and future distribution changes for the target species. Hence, 19 Bioclimatic data and altitude with 30 arc-second resolution (1 km 2 ) were obtained from the World Climate (http://www.worldclim.org) and downloaded from GCM-5 and RCP 4.5 and 8.5 (Table 3). Then it was clipped down in Arc GIS to Tigray map shape file.Soils are more effective for natural resources evaluation (Rabia et al., 2013). For more than 30 years the FAO/UNESCO Soil layer of the World was the only soil layer available at a scale of 1:5 Million. However, later it was known that the soil information in the map was deficient in many areas and improved by Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) which announced new global soil information (Nachtergaele et al., 2012). Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD), which is improved to cover for about 60% of the land area as compared to the FAO/UNESCO Soil layer of the World. It is produced with a 30 arc-second resolution (Nachtergaele et al., 2012). This was also improved by the International Soil Resources Information Center (ISRIC), an institution that is the source of the soil data for the study (Table 4). Generally, all environmental variables (ISRIC soil data, Altitude, and 19 Bioclimatic variables) were used with the same resolution, which was 30 arc-second.Cactus pear presence is an explanatory variable for the cochineal invasion because when the software runs without cactus pear presence, the distribution of cochineal did not match with actual cochineal presence. However, when running with cactus pear presence, the actual cochineal presence (infestation) and its predicted distribution rely upon similar place. Hence, it is among the variables that determine the invasion of cochineal. Cochineal is also specific pest, which only stays alive on its host named cactus pear. Therefore, cactus pear presence map was then used as input variable together with the above noted environmental variables to project the future cochineal invasion. It was generated from own using maximum entropy model (Maxent 3.3.3k) (Phillips et al., 2006). Accordingly, 19 bioclimatic data, altitude, cactus pear presence, and soil data were used as input variables to develop the two species (cochineal and cactus pear) distribution using maximum entropy model (Maxent 3.3.3k). Model accuracy evaluation was conducted to check the predictive performance of Maxent (Groff, 2011). It was determined by means of Receiver Operating Characteristic plots (ROC) (Bourou et al., 2012). From the total presence points, 75 and 25% were used to calibrate and to validate the model respectively, accordingly the ROC was developed. The significance of ROC was computed by Area Under Curve (AUC). AUC values from 0.5 to 1.0. Accordingly, the model performance was ordered based on Thuiller et al. (2008) classification (Table 5).Maxent is among the species distribution models run through using only species presence geographic records and pseudo-absence. Hence, AUC is used to measure model accuracy based on sensitivity and specificity analysis. Sensitivity measures the probability of a real presence points being predicted as a present by the model. However, specificity is the probability of being predicted as pseudo-absence by the model (Phillips et al., 2006). The performance of the model was improved by adjusting maximum iteration numbers to 5,000 in order to allow adequate time for convergence. In addition, the model was run for 15 replicates in order to get an average value.Maxent produced percent contribution and jackknife were used to identify the contribution of each environmental variables for the predicted distribution of each species. Jackknife evaluates the contribution and the unique information of each environmental variable that provides. This was important to reduce multi-co-linearity error (Baldwin, 2009). In addition, response curves were used to show the defining/limiting environmental variables (Buermann et al., 2008).In default, Maxent produces a map having from 0 to 1. These values were used to classify habitat suitability (Baldwin, 2009). These values were classified as suitable or unsuitable based on the threshold. Therefore, areas with above 0.3543 are classified as suitable, if not as unsuitable (Table 6). One way ANOVA was used to identify whether there were any significant climate change impact, cochineal invasion, and combined effects of climate change and cochineal invasion on future cactus pear distribution.Figure 3 highlights that in the baseline  the temperatures of Ganta Afeshum has been ranged from 6.1 to 24.6ºC with an average annual temperature of 15.4ºC. This will increase to 19.35, 20.40, and 20.70ºC in RCP4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively, and it will increase to 19.95, 21.10, 22.70ºC in RCP8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. The temperatures of Hintalo Wejerat were also ranged from 13.0 to 26.6°C with an average annual temperature of 19.8°C. This will increase to 20.60, 20.80, 21.04ºC in RCP4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively, and it will increase to 20.85, 21.20, 22.60ºC in RCP8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. Raya Azebo's were also ranged from 14.5 and 28.5°C with an average annual temperature of 21.5°C. This will increase to 21.62, 22.15, 22.62°C in RCP, 4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. It will increase to 21.84, 22.90, 23.30ºC in RCP8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. In all districts, the projected average temperature for the three districts indicated an increasing trend (Figure 3). The same to this study, McSweeney et al. (2010) explained that the average annual temperature of Ethiopia is projected to increase. In the past thirty years  the average annual rainfall of Hintalo Wejerat was 598 mm. But, this will become to 585, 594, 636 mm in RCP 4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively, and it will become to 609, 585, 599 in RCP 8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively (Figure 4). The rainfall of Ganta Afeshum was also 595 mm. Nevertheless, this will become to 601, 606, 587 mm in RCP 4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively, and it will become to 570, 570, 594 mm in RCP 8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. Raya Azebo's was also 779 mm. This will become to 794, 787, 860 mm in RCP 4.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively, and it will become to 832, 794, 800 mm in RCP 8.5 near, mid, and end term, respectively. In all districts, the projected average rainfall shows that there will be variation (Figure 4). The same to this study, Shongwe et al. (2009), indicated that Ethiopian future projections of precipitation are more complex to identify the trend as there is high spatiotemporal variation. In line to this study, rainfall of the study area is distributed unevenly and characterized by large spatial variation that is related with a topographic difference (Gebrehiwot and Veen, 2013).Maxent performance demonstrated excellence for both training and test data of cactus pear distribution and cochineal invasion. From figure 4, the average AUC for training and test value for cactus pear distribution and cochineal invasion were 0.98 and 0.97, respectively, indicating excellent model performance. According to van Zonneveld et al. (2009), AUC above 0.9 indicates excellence of model performance. Therefore, the average test AUC was excellent (Figure 5). The result showed that bio 18, bio 19, bio 15, bio 16, and vertisol were top five important environmental variables that explained the cactus pear distribution in that order (Table 7). Bio 18 it has the most useful contribution to cactus pear distribution because it had the highest gain when used in isolation (Table 7).A B According to the response curve of the modeling, the area with maximum temperature 20-30°C is suitable for cactus pear distribution. Its distribution is also suitable when the minimum temperature is between 0 to 5°C and the average annual temperature is between 18 to 24°C (Figure 6). The precipitation of warmest quarter ranging from 100 to 300 mm was projected to be suitable for cactus pear distribution with the most suitable areas having about 230 mm (Figure 6). Suitable area for the cactus pear distribution is when precipitation of the coldest quarter ranges from 100 to 150 mm and with 350 mm of precipitation in the wettest quarter of a year. The maximum annual rainfall for the species could be about 600 mm. However, the suitability of the A B C species distribution will reduce when total annual rainfall is between 600 to 1,000 mm. The suitability of cactus pear presence is very less when annual precipitation exceeds 1,000 mm (Figure 6). The same to this study, FAO (2013) stated that an average annual rainfall between 200 to 600 mm is suitable for cactus pear. Mondragón-Jacobo and Pérez-González ( 2001), also revealed that a temperature above 30°C is not suitable for cactus pear.The study showed that vertisol, cambisol, kastanozem, luvisol, and calcisol are suitable soil types to the cactus pear distribution. Nevertheless, aliosols, fluvisols, stagnosols, regosols, and phaeozems have an indirect relationship with cactus pear distribution. This indicated that as other plant species, cactus pear also selects its suitable soil types. According to De Andrade Ferreira et al. (2012), the nutritive quality of cactus pear depends on soil type and climate.Cactus pear chemical contents also vary by soil type variation (El-Mostafa et al., 2014). In addition, the yield of cactus pear is differed by soil type (Kriticos et al., 2003). Belay (2010) also stated that cactus pear productivity depends on soil type and climate variability. Therefore, soil type is a determinant factor for cactus pear production and distribution.Cochineal invasion was also affected by both climatic variables and cactus pear presence. Cactus pear (91%), precipitation of coldest quarter (4.40%), annual rainfall (2.60%) and precipitation of warmest quarter (0.50%) were the top four important environmental variables that explain the species invasion ability (Table 8). Cactus pear distribution has the most useful information by itself and contains the most information that is not present in the other environmental variables. Therefore, apart from the climate variables, cactus pear has a high contribution to the invasion of cochineal. In line with the study, Sutherst et al. (2011) stated numbers of pest invasion are most highly correlated with their host plants. Rising temperature and rainfall variability are also leading factors that facilitate the invasion of pests (Bebber, 2015). Similar to this study, cactus pear is correlated with cochineal production and development (Karny, 1972). The suitable maximum temperature of the warmest month for cochineal invasion is between 20 to 40°C. The minimum temperature of the coldest month suitable for cochineal invasion is up to negative 5°C. The annual average temperature ranging from 8 to 24°C is predicted to be suitable for the cochineal invasion. Specifically, an area having annual average temperature of 22°C is suitable condition for the cochineal invasion (Figure 7). Overall, the areas having a temperature from negative 5°C to positive 40°C are suitable areas for cochineal invasion. In line to this study, the standard temperature for cochineal production is 25°C and can withstand a temperature of 45°C for restricted days. Additionally, low temperature causes a retarding effect on the amount of cochineal growth (Karny, 1972). Areas having precipitation of coldest quarter and annual precipitation from 0 to 250 and 250 to 700 mm are suitable for cochineal invasion respectively (Figure 7). Nevertheless, its invasion circumstance will be reduced when mean annual rainfall goes above 700 mm. Therefore, cochineal invaded in both high and low temperature, but its invasion capacity increases safely where mean annual rainfall is below 700 mm. A similar result was reported by Diaz-Cayeros and Jha (2012).Figure 8 below highlights that cactus pear distribution will be reduced in the study area under different time slices and RCPs due to precipitation and temperature change. The cactus pear distribution will be reduced by 13, 0.51, and 27% during mid-century RCP 4.5, mid and endcentury RCP 8.5, compared with the current. Nevertheless, in end century of RCP 4.5, it will be increased by 0.8%. Overall, the distribution of the species will be reduced when compared with the current. However, climate change impact on the future cactus pear distribution is insignificant (Table 9).  The study finds out that cochineal invasion will be increased. Approximately 61.8% of the current cactus pear resource is affecting by cochineal infestation. Further, it will invade 72, 74, 62, and 94% of cactus pear resources in mid-century RCP 4.5, mid-century RCP 8.5 and endcentury RCP 4.5, respectively. In the end-century RCP 8.5, cochineal invasion will be increased by 32.3% when compared with the current. In general, cochineal invasion will be increased in both RCPs and time slices when compared with the current (Figure 9). Therefore, it will have a significant impact on future cactus pear distribution (Table 9). The combined effect of climate change and cochineal invasion will affect 72, 78, 63, and 85% of cactus pear resources during mid and end-century of RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, respectively. During end-century of RCP4.5, the cactus pear distribution will be affected by only cochineal invasion; while there will be no climate change effect on cactus pear distribution (Figures 10).Overall, it will have a significant impact on future cactus pear distribution (Table 9). According to Ayres and Lombardero (2000), both climate change and pest invasion affect plant life. In addition, temperature increment and moisture variation are the main causes of pest invasion (Hellmann et al., 2008). Overall, the distribution of cactus pear will be reduced due to the coupled effect of cochineal invasion and climate change more than what would happen in isolation. Hellmann (2008) and Dukes (2009) have found similar findings.In the study area, cactus pear distribution will be decreased because of climate change and cochineal invasion.Cactus pear presence has 91% contribution on cochineal invasion and the remaining 9% are climatic variables. Due to this reason, it invades almost all cactus pear resources of the study area. In addition to the independent effects of cochineal invasion and climate change, their combined effects will also contribute to the reduction of cactus pear distribution.Overall, climate change will pose an insignificant impact on the future cactus pear distribution. However, the combined effects of both climate change and cochineal invasion will have a significant impact on future cactus pear distribution.Therefore, the study recommends that future cactus pear potential of the area will reduce due to both cochineal invasion and climate change impacts. As the result, adaptation measures should be taken. For example, the socioeconomic dependency of the society on cactus pear should be replaced gradually to other drought-resistant crops. Cactus pear is threatened species, especially by cochineal invasion. It is important to target management interventions (biological method) to control the cochineal invasion. Otherwise, it is better to change into valuable products in such a way both the cactus pear and the cochineal can be utilized under intensive management.There are only old/ fewer research reports on the type of cactus pear, pests, time of occurrence, duration of the pest occurs, level of severity in which the insects attack the plant. Hence, a similar study should be carried out considering other factors to develop a robust result. An international trade like cochineal rearing is difficult without environmental impact assessment; there should be a prior study on the side effects of imported pests and plants to the country. Additionally, chemical controls which could greatly impact the spread of cochineal like, Platinum (Thiamethoxam) soil applied, Sivanto (flupyradifurone) soil-applied (but not foliar), and Beleaf (Flonicamid) foliar applied should be applied without affecting other beneficial insects such as bee (USDA, Department of Agriculture, IR4 program).","tokenCount":"4382"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aa45bdd2f97aff3abca1293e47bd58f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/19c94008-fcc6-4abe-bf28-b28b47d0132f/retrieve","id":"-316341368"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7d873344-460d-4b5b-9089-c1d794953a66","pagecount":"52","content":"En el Centro Agropecuario Marengo, en Mosquera a 2547 m.s.n.m y en el municipio de Cogua a 3.200 m.s.n.m. se estudió la fluctuación poblacional de chizas, se detectaron enemigos naturales y se detectaron caracteres diagnóstico de las especies predominantes. Mediante análisis estadístico se determino que las chizas en pasto kikuyo siguen una distribución espacial ajustada a la Binomial negativa, con un K = 1,3. El tamaño óptimo de muestra con 30% de error es de 10 cuadrantes de 0,3 m 3 / ha. Se realizaron muestreos; un porcentaje de las larvas obtenidas se sacrificó para estudio taxonómico y las restantes se usaron para establecer una colonia. Se colectaron 6 especies y se determinaron los carácteres diagnóstico de 3 (Ancognatha sp., Heterogomphus dilaticollis y Clavipalpus pos. ursinus. (COLEOPTERA: Melolonthidae)). Se instalaron trampas de luz y se contaron adultos. El 90% de los individuos fue la especie A. scarabaeoides. y el restante fue de las especies Heterogomphus dilaticollis, Manopus biguttatus A. ustulata y Astaena sp. Se aislaron 35 hongos, y se identificaron 4 aislamientos de Metarhizium anisopliae, 3 de Fusarium sp., 2 de Beauveria bassiana, 2 de Phaecilomices sp., 2 de Verticillium sp. y 1 de Aschersonia sp., 29 bacterias y se identificaron 15 aislamientos de Bacillus popilliae, 3 de B. sphaericus, 2 de Clostridium sp., 1 de B. larvae y 1 de B. cereus. Se obtuvieron 4 aislamientos de nematodos y se identificaron 2 pertenecientes a Mesorhabditis sp. y Steinernema sp. Se registra una larva afectada por un posible protozoario Microsporidia.PALABRAS CLAVE: Chizas, enemigos naturales, control biológico, entomopatógenos.It was determined by the analysis of 15 soil samples that white grubs on Kikuyo grass has an aggregated special distribution at Centro Agropecuario Marengo in Mosquera and Cogua. That distribution is explicated by a negative binomial and described by the constant K=1.3. Then, it was determined that the sample size with a 30% error is ten quadrants of 0.3 m 3 /Ha. Sampling was made in the localities; a percent of grubs was sacrified for taxonomical purposes and the remaining grubs were used to stablish a colony. Six species were collected and the diagnosis character of three species were determined (Ancognatha sp., Heterogomphus dilaticollis y Clavipalpus pos. ursinus. (COLEÓPTERA: Melolonthidae)). Light traps were set up to capture adults. The 90% of the captures belonged to the Ancognatha scarabaeoides at and the Heterogomphus dilaticollis, Manopus biguttatus A. ustulata y Astaena sp. species. 35 fungus isolations were identified. Four of them of Metarhizium anisopliae, three of Fusarium sp., two of Beauveria bassiana, two of Phaecilomices sp., two of Verticillium sp. and one of Aschersonia sp. 29 bacteria were isolated and there was identified 15 isolations of Bacillus popilliae, three of B. sphaericus, two of Clostridium sp., one of B. larvae and one of B. cereus. Two of four nematodes isolations belonging to Mesorhabditis sp. and Steinernema sp were identified. A grab affected by a possible Microsporidia protozoo was registered.KEY WORDS: white grabs, entomopathogens, natural enemies, biological controlDos de los principales cultivos de las zonas frías del país son la papa Solanum tuberosum y las pasturas para ganado. El cultivo de la papa es la actividad agrícola más importante de la zona fría andina en Colombia. En lo económico, en 1996 el cultivo participó con cerca del 5,9% del total del valor de la producción agrícola. Para el año de 1998 se sembraron alrededor de 167.000 hectáreas; es el cultivo de mayor demanda de insecticidas y fungicidas y el segundo después del café, en uso de fertilizantes aismismo es el producto agrícola que más transporte terrestre genera en Colombia.Se calcula que para el año 2002 el área cultivada en papa en el país fue de 11.000 ha, de las cuales el 34% se localizó en Cundinamarca. La producción anual del país es de alrededor de 3.000.000 de toneladas, de las cuales Cundinamarca produce el 35%. (Redepapa. org 2002) En cuanto a pastos la sabana de Bogotá contaba para 1997 con 290.000 hectáreas en praderas dedicadas principalmente a la producción lechera. Estas praderas en lo que a gramíneas se refiere, están constituidas en un 80% por pasto ''Kikuyo'' Pennisetum clandestinum, y el 20% restante por raygrases (Lolium spp), pasto azul orchoro (Dactyllis glomerata.), avena forrajera (Avena fatua L.), y especies nativas como la falsa poa (Holcus lanatus) y pasto oloroso (Anthoxanthum odoratum L.) (Bernal y Miranda 1997).Adicionalmente, una de las prácticas más generalizadas en el altiplano Cundiboyasense para dejar descansar el suelo y disminuir el impacto del cultivo de la papa sobre el suelo, es la rotación con pasturas para hatos lecheros por cortos periodos. Los agricultores, después de dos o tres ciclos de cultivo de papa, \"abandonan\" el lote para que se cubra de malezas y pasto ''Kikuyo''; en otros casos se realizan siembras de pasto y se habilitan los lotes para cortos periodos de ganadería.Este sistema está localizado en alturas que oscilan entre 2.600 y 3.200 m.s.n.m. (Redepapa. Org 2002). Entre las plagas de mayor importancia en estos dos sistemas de cultivo está el complejo de chizas, el cual por su difícil control y las deficientes estrategias de manejo implementadas por los agricultores, ha generado un uso excesivo de insecticidas. En el caso de las praderas para ganado de leche, que son de uso más frecuente en la sabana de Bogotá, el problema es aun mayor, por la alta persistencia de los insecticidas utilizados y por la posibilidad de que estos productos pasen al consumidor a través de la leche. Con el sistema de rotación el problema es aun mayor, debido a que los periodos de tiempo en que el lote se cubre de pasto proporcionan a las chizas un ambiente propicio para completar su ciclo de vida y reproducirse. Durante este periodo no se realiza ningún tipo de labranza, lo cual influye de manera directa en el nivel de población presente en campo en el ciclo de cultivo siguiente.Las chizas son también llamadas mojojoys, mojorros, gusanos blancos o gallinas ciegas; sobresalen por su diversidad local, nacional, y por sus hábitos alimenticios no específicos, que tienen un impacto económico de efecto estacional y de variada intensidad (Pardo, 2000), y por su difícil control.Las chizas se desarrollan en el suelo y afectan las raíces de los pastos, disminuyendo la persistencia del pasto y afectando la recuperación durante el periodo de descanso. (Giraldo, 1982.). Sumado a esto, al consumir materia orgánica en las praderas, aflojan el suelo y cuando pasa el ganado comiendo, desprende los cespedones o hunde el pasto al pisarlo, lo que genera parches de pasto amarillos y en casos de ataque mas fuertes, se pueden observar zonas de ausencia total de pasto. Los daños son mayores en época seca cuando la humedad es más superficial. (Polania, 1982).Las chizas son los estados inmaduros de los escarabajos pertenecientes a la superfamilia Scarabaeoidea y a la familia Melolonthidae (Moron, 1994;Pardo, 1994;Ruiz y Pumalpa, 1990;Londoño et all, 2002). En Colombia se han registrado cerca de 579 especies de la familia Melolonthidae y cerca de 225 pueden ser consideradas plagas (Vallejo, 2000). Las chizas son una plaga importante tanto en cultivos tropicales como en las regiones templadas así como en pasturas naturales (King, 1984). Las larvas de estos escarabajos habitan en el suelo y se pueden alimentar de las raíces de sus hospederos en el caso de las especies rizófagas o de materia orgánica en descomposición en el caso de las especies saprófagas o saproxilófagas. El daño causado por las especies rizófagas puede ocasionar la pérdida completa de la cosecha, especialmente si el ataque ocurre cuando las plantas son jóvenes. (Hruska, 1987).A pesar de que desde hace ya bastante tiempo en la Sabana de Bogotá se han venido realizando investigaciones alrededor de este problema, iniciando con los trabajos de Apolinar Maria (1927), no se ha realizado un trabajo de reconocimiento a nivel de larvas de las especies existentes. Ni tampoco se han realizado trabajos de reconocimiento de los hábitos alimenticios de algunas de estas especies. Por tal razón se hace necesario ampliar el conocimiento sobre este complejo en el altiplano Cundiboyacense para de esta forma poder generar estrategias de manejo para este complejo. Dado lo anterior esta investigación se propuso contribuir al conocimiento taxonómico de las larvas de algunas especies del complejo de chizas presente en cultivos de papa y en potreros de pasto \"Kikuyo\" en dos localidades del departamento de Cundinamarca, así como registrar las poblaciones de adultos atraídos hacia trampas de luz negra, para observar su comportamiento estacional a través del año. También se pretendió examinar el daño causado por Clavipalpus. pos. ursinus, en papa criolla Solanum phureja L. var. 'Yema de huevo' en condiciones de campo. De igual manera se registraron y aislaron enemigos naturales encontrados afectando chizas de forma natural con énfasis en hongos y nematodos y se presenta un registro de bacterias aisladas directamente de larvas. Se logró la identificación a nivel de género de bacterias, hongos y nematodos en la mayoría de los casos y se ilustran con fotografías algunas de las patologías más relevantes para cada grupo.Localización. Con el fin de tener un estimativo claro y valedero de las especies encontradas en la franja de producción de papa en Cundinamarca, el trabajo de campo se realizó en dos regiones separadas altitudinalmente a alturas consideradas el limite inferior y el limite superior respectivamente para el cultivo de la papa en esta región. El Centro Agropecuario Marengo de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, ubicado en Mosquera (Cundinamarca) a 2.547 m.s.n.m, con una precipitación media anual de 970 mm y temperatura promedio de 13ºC, fue tomado como limite altitudinal inferior Esta finca con una extensión total de 92 has es principalmente ganadera con la mayor parte de su extensión sembrada en P. clandestinum y cereales como maíz para ensilaje (alrededor del 70%). Adicionalmente, durante todo el año se producen hortalizas como lechuga, zanahoria y papa. La finca es de topografía plana en su gran mayoría, los lotes de pasturas para ganadería son de alrededor de 3 has y la producción de hortalizas se realiza en lotes que oscilan entre 0,1 y 1,5 has. La segunda finca está ubicada en la vereda Quebrada honda, del municipio de Cogua (Cundinamarca) a 5°5' L N y 73°59' L O y a 3.200 m.s.n.m, en una zona de topografía muy quebrada con pendientes de más del 50% y tiene una extensión de 25 has. La finca esta dedicada a la producción de semilla certificada de papa, se realizan siembras escalonadas de papa S. tuberosum de las variedades 'Diacol capiro', 'Parda pastusa', 'ICA Unica', 'ICA Morita' y Solanum Phureja var. 'Yema de huevo' en lotes que oscilan entre 0.7 y 1.5 has. Las siembras se realizan durante todo el año, se dejan descansar los lotes por 2 o 3 meses, y se permite que se cubran por pasto 'Kikuyo' y malezas. La zona está rodeada por bosques alto andinos secundarios. Esta localidad, aparte de estar ubicada en el límite altitudinalmente superior de la zona de producción de papa, brinda información acerca de las especies de chizas y sus enemigos naturales en una zona dedicada exclusivamente a la producción agrícola intensiva. Los muestreos en su gran mayoría fueron realizados en lotes que se encontraban en proceso de cosecha. También se realizaron muestreos esporádicos en los municipios de Subachoque y Tabio (Cundinamarca) en fincas predominantemente paperas, las cuales son altitudinalmente similares al C.A.M (Centro Agropecuario Marengo) pero se encuentran ubicados mas al norte en la sabana de Bogotá.Durante el mes de Septiembre de 2002 en el C.A.M se realizó un muestreo preliminar utilizando una modificación de la técnica de excavar un cuadrante de 1m 2 y 0.15 m de profundidad (Pardo 2002) como unidad de muestra se contó el número de larvas separadas de acuerdo a su estado de desarrollo, el número de pupas y de adultos encontrados en cada cuadrante. Se tomaron 16 muestras para calcular, la media, la desviación Estándar(S) y la varianza(S 2 ). Se tomo la relación varianza / media como un indicador del patrón de disposición espacial y se calcularon los índices de dispersión de la muestra I (relacion varianza-media) m* (Indice de agregación de Lloyd) L (Indice de agregación de Lloyd con base en la varianza)y los parámetros que describen la distribución espacial (Southwood, 1978;Duque, 2000). Si la relación varianza media I es mayor que 1es por que existen sitios muy poblados y otros no, característica de poblaciones distribuidas de manera agregada. La media de agregación de Lloyd significa el número promedio por individuo, de otros individuos que comparten con el la unidad de muestreo y en una distribución agregada m*, será mayor que M. El índice de Lloyd (parcheado) se genera al notar que m* depende de la densidad de la población, por esto Lloyd propone calcular el índice I con la varianza. En una distribución agregada L será menor que 1. (Duque, 2000).Una vez determinado el tamaño de muestra se realizaron muestreos mensuales de larvas desde septiembre de 2002 a mayo de 2003 en el C.A.M y de noviembre de 2002 a agosto de 2003 en Cogua. Se contaron el número de larvas en todos los instares, las pupas y los adultos. Las larvas observadas con algún tipo de patología se contaron y se procesaron como se describe más adelante. Una parte de los individuos colectados se sacrificó con Acetato de Etilo y se llevó al laboratorio para lavarlos y preservarlos en solución 'Pampel' que mantiene el color y las características de la cutícula para estudios taxonómicos. Los individuos restantes se llevaron vivos al laboratorio para establecer una colonia en suelo nativo y realizar los estudios de identificación de enemigos naturales y para obtener las exuvias larvales para la identificación de las especies. Las larvas vivas se individualizaron en vasos plásticos de 14 oz. con suelo nativo y se les proporcionó zanahoria o madera en descomposición como alimento. La colonia se revisó periódicamente para proporcionar alimento a las larvas, mantener la humedad del suelo y para observar algunos patrones morfológicos y hábitos alimenticios, además de describir las patologías de las larvas afectadas por entomopatógenos cuando estos se presentaron.Se instalaron trampas de luz negra tipo \"Piracicaba\" (Anexo 1) en las dos localidades para realizar el muestreo de adultos. Las trampas fueron suspendidas a 2 m de altura y encendidas durante 12 horas (de 5:30 pm a 5:30 am). Los adultos fueron capturados en baldes sin solución Las larvas sacrificadas se lavaron con abundante agua antes de pasarlas a la solución preservante.Las pupas obtenidas de la colonia se cambiaron de lugar para obtener el adulto, las exuvias larval y pupal se preservaron en solución 'Pampel' para posteriormente realizar la identificación por comparación con los adultos emergidos. Una vez identificadas se realizó la comparación de las exuvias con las larvas preservadas para determinar los caracteres diagnóstico de cada especie, basándose en las características de la cabeza el labro epifaringe, el raster y la apertura anal (Peterson, 1960;Richter, 1966;Costa et all;Moron, 2000) .Las larvas que presentaron algún síntoma de patogenicidad se procesaron según el tipo de entomopatógeno por el que estuvieran afectadas. Las larvas con patologías de ataque por bacterias se lavaron con agua destilada estéril, se tomó una muestra de hemolinfa de la larva cortando una pata o realizando una punción con un asa de punta estéril y se sembró en cajas de Petri esparciendo la hemolinfa sobre el medio de cultivo, que para este caso fue Agar Nutritivo (AN), se incubaron a 25° C, se espero a que crecieran, se purificaron y se almacenaron en viales de crió preservación en glicerol al 80% (Guarin,1997). Posteriormente los aislamientos almacenados se reactivaron en Agar L y en Caldo nutritivo BHI (Agar-Cerebro-Corazón) una vez crecidos en el medio se realizaron frotis para realizar coloración de Gram y Verde de Malaquita, extendiendo en un portaobjetos la muestra obtenida y fijándola al calor. Estas coloraciones permitieron identificar las bacterias morfológicamente, por la composición bioquímica de la pared y por la identificación de estructuras internas como esporas y cristales (Peralta et al 2003).Las larvas infectadas por hongos se lavaron con agua destilada estéril e Hipoclorito de Sodio al 0.5 %, después se depositaron en cámaras húmedas para promover el crecimiento de micelio y la producción de esporas (CENICAFE, 2000). Con ayuda de una asa estéril se tomaron muestras de micelio y esporas y se sembraban por punción en el medio de cultivo Papa Dextrosa Agar (PDA).Los hongos purificados se sembraron sobre papel filtro y una vez crecidos se secaron en la incubadora, posteriormente se pasaron a sobres de papel mantequilla y se almacenaron en un recipiente plástico a -5° C (www. Unmsm.edu, 2003).Las larvas que presentaron síntomas de ataque por nematodos se depositaron en cámaras de maduración, posteriormente se pasaron a cámaras White de donde se esperó que emergieran los infectivos juveniles Posteriormente se uso la técnica del insecto trampa o Bedding (Stock, 1998), que consiste en infectar larvas de último ínstar de Galleria mellonella (L), (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) en cajas de petri con papel filtro (Omina et al 1996).Dado que ésta técnica permite extraer parásitos o patógenos que eventualmente compitan con los nematodos, fue necesario mantener óptimos los niveles de humedad y ante todo la vigilancia de la condición patológica de las larvas, separando de inmediato aquellas que presentaron sintomatología de ataque por nematodos, de las que mostraron contaminación por bacterias, hongos y demás organismos (Parada, 2001).El incremento poblacional de las especies tomó los tres pasos básicos usados en cría in vivo (Stock, 1998) a saber: 1) montajes Bedding, usando como sustrato papel filtro o arena, 2) disposición de larvas muertas sobre papel filtro por un periodo promedio de 60 horas, a fin de extraer el exceso de humedad y permitir desarrollo generacional de los nematodos y finalmente, 3)montaje de trampas Whitte modificadas (Kaya y Stock, 1997) que siendo simple es selectivo para nematodos entomoparásitos ya que permite el desplazamiento de las formas infectivas en soluciones tipo Ringer's para evitar el choque osmótico. (Parada, 2002).Las cepas \"purificadas\" se almacenaron en cajas de Petri con arena estéril a temperatura ambiente y se reactivaron periódicamente sobre G. mellonella.Para la identificación de los nematodos se seleccionaron adultos y juveniles de cada población y se fijaron en calor con solución TAF, (Trietanol-Amina-Formaldehído), y se montaron en laminas tipo Cobb. Se tomaron fotografías en microscopio de contraste de fase de los ejemplares, para identificarlos mediante criterios morfológicos como forma del esófago y de los labios, forma y ubicación de las la vagina y la vulva en las hembras, presencia o ausencia de la bursa copulatrix en los machos, el número y la posición de las espículas entre otras y con el uso de las claves taxonómicas de Nguyen (1999).Cuando se presentaron otro tipo de microorganismos como protozoarios se realizó la reinfección directamente sobre chizas sanas extrayendo hemolinfa de la larva aparentemente infectada e inyectándola a larvas sanas a través de boca, ano y cutícula con agujas hipodérmicas (Norvon y Ascher, 2000).El experimento se generó por las observaciones hechas tanto en campo como en laboratorio de los hábitos alimenticios de las principales especies presentes en esta zona. En un cultivo de Solanum phureja se realizó una infestación artificial de larvas de Clavipalpus pos. ursinus, para determinar la tasa de consumo de esta especie en el cultivo. El experimento se realizó en el C.A.M, en un cultivo con distancia de siembra de 1 m entre surcos y 0,30 m entre plantas. Se seleccionaron al azar 18 sitios de un 1 m 2 , equivalente a dos sitios de siembra. Cada uno de estos sitios fue aislado enterrando tablas de madera a una profundidad de 30 cm. Se implementó un diseño completamente aleatorio (DCA) con cinco tratamientos, 0, 5, 10, 15 y 20 larvas por sitio y tres repeticiones cada uno. Posteriormente se infestó artificialmente con larvas de tercer instar provenientes de la colonia de laboratorio. La infestación artificial se realizó en época de plena floración de cultivo, 80 DDS (días después de la siembra), y la evaluación del daño se realizó al momento de la cosecha. Se evaluó el nùmero de tubérculos con daño y el peso total de los tubérculos.  de Lloid m*:Con base en estos índices (I,m*,L) se sugiere que la población se distribuye de manera agregada y puede ser representada por la distribución Binomial negativa, la cual se describe por dos parámetros (K y M).El tamaño de muestra se calculó con la fórmula (Southwood 1978):Debido a que n = 10 es un valor razonable y para trabajo de campo es viable trabajar con un error del 30% en este caso no se hace necesario calcular el tamaño de muestra utilizando el parámetroSe logró determinar que las poblaciones de chizas en cultivos de pasto ''Kikuyo'' en Cundinamarca tienen una distribución altamente agregada, con un índice de agregación (K = 1,3).El tamaño de muestra mínimo para estimar poblaciones de chiza en campo es de 10 muestras de 0,3 m 3 , lo cual coincide con lo reportado por Pardo (2002) para el departamento del cauca, sin embargo para el caso de Cundinamarca debido al alto grado de agregación presentado por las chizas fue necesario modificar la profundidad a la que se realizaron los muestreos, para poder tener un estimativo de las poblaciones ya que a pesar de que estos datos no fueron usados para determinar el tamaño de muestra se registran cuadrantes hasta con 167 chizas por 0,3 m 3 y debido a la alta densidad de individuos por unidad de área la distribución vertical de los mismos es mas amplia, sumado a esto factores como humedad, temperatura y disponibilidad de sustrato para alimentarse puede influenciar un mayor desplazamiento de las chizas a través del perfil del suelo.  La variación presentada en campo es bastante amplia ya aunque el máximo promedio de chizas por cuadrante fue alrededor de 21,6 larvas /0,3 m 3 se obtuvieron colectas de hasta 168 individuos en 1 cuadrante. Durante los muestreos se observó una fuerte tendencia de las larvas a ubicarse en los bordes de los lotes, bordes de camino y zonas de no pastoreo en general, esto debido probablemente a que en estas zonas el suelo es menos compacto y por la presencia de árboles la retención de agua podría ser mayor (Salisbury y Ross, 1992). Se colectaron larvas de Ancognatha sp. y H. dilaticollis asociadas a troncos en descomposición y materia orgánica, lo que sería indicativo de su hábito alimenticio saproxilófago y su poca preferencia por tejido vegetal vivo. (Rodríguez, 1996;Ruiz y Pumalpa, 1990) Sin embargo, esto no se pudo determinar en este cultivo dada la aparente tolerancia del mismo al ataque de las larvas de otras especies de hábito posiblemente rizófago presentes en la zona como C. pos ursinus.En Cogua los muestreos se realizaron del 7 de noviembre de 2002 al 6 de agosto de 2003, equivalentes a las fechas julianas 311 del año 2002 y 218 del año 2003. Se colectaron en total 350 larvas de 1 género y una especie de la subfamilia Dynastinae, (Ancognatha sp. y H. dilaticollis). En el mes de junio (fecha juliana = 177) se colectaron en un lote de descanso asociadas a madera en descomposición aproximadamente 15 chizas pertenecientes a esta subfamilia pero que aun se encuentran sin determinar. Sin embargo se cree que pertenecen al género Heterogomphus (L. C. Pardo, comunicación personal). Se colectaron ejemplares de 1 especie de la subfamilia Melolonthinae, (C. pos ursinus). Se presentó un pico máximo de individuos en el mes de diciembre del año 2002 ( fecha juliana = 354) 8,7 ± 0,76 larvas /0,3 m 3 y a partir de este punto el número promedio de individuos capturados por cuadrante disminuyó hasta llegar a un mínimo de 2,2± 0,17 larvas /0,3 m 3 en el mes de julio del 2003 (fecha juliana = 218). La disminución en la población de chizas coincidió con la época de menor área sembrada Se presentaron dos épocas de máximas captura, en los meses de enero y marzo correspondientes a las fechas julianas entre el día 22 y el día 34 para el primer pico y entre el día 86 y el día 118 para el segundo pico. Las capturas mínimas se presentaron entre los meses de febrero y marzo y a partir de mayo, correspondientes a las fechas julianas entre el día 41y el día 77 y a partir del día 139. Sin embargo los datos de los meses de junio y julio pueden presentar errores de captura debido a problemas en el funcionamiento de la trampa. Un problema similar se presentó en las capturas de las semanas del 13 de enero y del 11 de abril correspondientes a las fechas julianas 13 y 101.Para la localidad de Cogua sólo se cuenta con tres lecturas de la trampa de luz (Figura 4.), y de igual manera en la lectura del mes de junio se presentaron problemas técnicos con el funcionamiento de la trampa, lo cual no permitió observar una tendencia de las poblaciones de adultos en esta región. Se colectaron 910 individuos de cinco especies de tres géneros de la subfamilia Dynastinae, (A. scarabaeoides, A. ustulata, H. dilaticollis y Astaena pos tarsalis). Se colectó un individuo macho posiblemente de la especie A. vulgaris y una especie de la subfamilia Melolonthinae (Manopus biguttatus,). El 90% correspondió a la especie A. scarabaeoides, el 5.7 % a M. biguttatus, el 3.2% a Astaena pos tarsalis. Para esta localidad las especies de menor frecuencia fueron A. ustulata, y H. dilaticollis, con 4 individuos cada una.En total en las dos localidades se obtuvieron cinco especies de tres géneros de la subfamilia Dynastinae, (A. scarabaeoides, A. ustulata, H. dilaticollis, Astaena pos tarsalis) y se capturó un macho posiblemente perteneciente a la especie A. vulgaris. Se capturaron individuos de una especie de la subfamilia Melolonthinae (M. biguttatus,). En las dos localidades se observó abundancia de la especie A. scarabaeoides, que en ambos casos representa cerca del 90% del total de las capturas durante todo el periodo.También se realizaron capturas manuales de muy pocos individuos de Lasiocala aff. rosalesi Martínez. en Cogua, Astaena Sp en Tabio y C.pos ursinus en todas las localidades. En la localidad de Cogua aunque el tiempo de muestreo fue muy limitado al igual que lo sucedido con las larvas se capturaron más especies que en el C.A.M debido posiblemente a su aislamiento geográfico de la población mas cercana y a que en la región aparte de cultivos de papa solo se encuentran regiones boscosas y montañosas, que a pesar de ser muy intervenidos le dan mayor estabilidad al ecosistema, mientras que el C.A.M se encuentra muy cercano a las poblaciones de Mosquera, Facatativa y Bogotá. La finca está rodeada por cultivos extensivos de hortalizas, flores bajo invernadero, centros de investigación y enseñanza, además el centro está ubicado muy cerca de la vía principal que comunica a Bogotá con el nor occidente del país, factores podrían influir en la diversidad de insectos de la región.En el C.A.M se observó una relación inversa entre el número adultos y de larvas capturados, ya que el pico de captura de adultos en el mes de abril, coincidió con el inicio de la disminución de la población de larvas capturadas en campo.Para Cogua no fue posible observar una tendencia que permitiera relacionar la población de larvas con la de adultos; sin embargo, la curva que representa las larvas tiene una tendencia lineal, ya que las captura se mantienen entre8,7 y 2,2 larvas promedio/0,3m 3 . En ninguna de las dos localidades se registró la especie C. pos ursinus a pesar de que en algunos meses se realizaron capturas manuales del mismo y durante todos los muestreos en las dos localidades se colectaron larvas de esta especie, lo que confirma que estos adultos no son atraídos a este tipo de trampas de luz. En las trampas de luz en las dos localidades se registró la especie M. biguttatus de la cual no se logró obtener larvas en ninguno de los muestreos. En Cogua se realizaron capturas en trampa y manuales de adultos de Astaena sp. y L. rosalesi de las cuales no se registran las larvas.Es importante resaltar la simplicidad del complejo chiza de Cundinamarca comparado con los reportes hechos para el departamento del Cauca donde se registran 45 especies diferentes a nivel de adultos y 33 especies a nivel de larvas (Pardo, 2002) o para la zona del oriente de Antioquia donde las condiciones agro ecológicas en algunos casos son similares y se registran hasta 54 especies (Vallejo, 1997).Es recomendable realizar muestreos de suelo mas exhaustivos en las dos localidades con el fin de poder localizar las larvas y las pupas de las especies que se capturan en trampa de luz como adultos pero no en muestreos de suelo como larvas. Se debería asegurar el cumplimiento de un ciclo completo de monitoreo con la trampa de luz en las dos localidades para poder realizar la comparación entre larvas y adultos y tener mayor certeza de las especies que se presentan en estas zonas. Así mismo se recomienda realizar muestreos tanto de larvas como de adultos en otras localidades que presenten una mayor diversidad como el caso de Subachoque, al igual que en áreas no intervenidas como bosque nativos.Establecimiento de la colonia.Con las larvas que se llevaron vivas al laboratorio se estableció la cría. De las revisiones periódicas se obtuvieron datos sobre la biología y el comportamiento de las larvas. Se logró culminar exitosamente el ciclo hasta el estado adulto para las especies A. scarabaeoides, A. ustulata y H. dilaticollis, únicamente suministrándoles materia orgánica en descomposición, lo cual coincide con las observaciones hechas en campo y con lo registrado por Ruiz y Posada (1985) para la especie A. scarabaeoides en esta zona. Al suministrar zanahoria entera a estas tres especies siempre fueron encontradas alimentándose en los puntos donde se iniciaba la descomposición del material, a diferencia de la especie C. pos ursinus, la cual se alimentó de las partes sanas y mas turgentes de la zanahoria, y se desplazó hacia la superficie del vaso a medida que se descompuso el material.A nivel de laboratorio sólo se lograron obtener dos adultos de A. ustulata con sus respectivas exuvias y no se logro obtener ninguna pupa de la especie C. Pos ursins. El registro en campo de estas especies en estado de pupa fue muy bajo (alrededor de 4 en total de C. Pos ursinus y ninguna de A. ustulata ), a pesar de que en algunas épocas del año se recolectaron estas especies tanto en trampa de luz como en colectas manuales. A pesar de que las exuvias obtenidas de las dos especies fueron suficientes para realizar la identificación y descripción de las larvas es necesario realizar muestreos encaminados a determinar la ubicación de las pupas en los lotes y mantener las crías por mayor tiempo para identificar los factores que afectan la metamorfosis de estas dos especies y así completar exitosamente su ciclo de vida en laboratorio ya que es posible que la especie C. pos ursinus necesite consumir tanto materia verde como materia orgánica en descomposición para completar su ciclo de vida, este comportamiento se registro en la localidad de Cogua al encontrar larvas asociadas a troncos en descomposición. Por el contrario las especies A. scarabaeoides y H. dilaticollis completan su ciclo de vida en laboratorio de manera satisfactoria si se mantiene constante el nivel de humedad alrededor del 13% y la disponibilidad de materia orgánica. Estas observaciones son indicativo importante del estatus de plaga de las especies registradas para la zona de Cundinamarca, sin embargo es importante realizar experimentos de habito de consumo y función del daño para todas las especies que se puedan considerar plaga.Del material obtenido tanto de campo como de laboratorio se logró realizar la descripción de las larvas de Ancognatha sp., C. pos ursinus y H. dilaticollis. A pesar de que se conservan las exuvias pupales de los especímenes solo se presenta la descripción de las larvas para que puedan ser usadas en posteriores trabajos como un indicativo de las poblaciones de cada especie presentes en campo. Debido al poco número de larvas de Ceraspis sp. no se presenta la descripción de los carácteres diagnostico, a pesar de que se logró realizar la identificación por comparación con larvas de la colección personal del especialista Luis Carlos Pardo.En este género se encontró dos especies A. scarabaeoides y A. ustulata; sin embargo, aun no es posible separarlas a nivel de larva por lo tanto se presenta una descripción del género.Cabeza semicircular, color marrón, superficie rugosa, rugosidad mas densa en la mitad inferior de la frente y mas leve hacia la parte superior del cráneo. Frente sin setas. Clipeo puntuado y rugoso en la mitad superior, con dos setas laterales. Labrum asimétrico con 10 setas largas perimetrales inferiores, con solo dos setas centrales. Epifaringe de color blanco o muy claro.Haptomerum dentado con dos cúspides en posición oblicua al plano longitudinal. Raster con patrón de setas dispersas mixtas gruesas en forma de bastón en la parte central cerca de la apertura anal y largas y finas en los bordes laterales, abertura anal transversa.Cabeza ancha, color pardo oscuro, fuertemente puntuada y rugosa, puntuación frontal alargada o triangular, mas esparcida y pequeña al perímetro. Dos setas laterales en la parte inferior de la frente, dos setas largas a los lados del clipeo y otras dos setas mas centrales en la parte media.Labro asimétrico con al menos 10 setas. Raster con patrón de setas dispuestas en forma de lira.Setas cortas, gruesas en forma de bastón hacia el centro y setas largas y lisas hacia la apertura anal y los bordes Clavipalpus pos ursinus.Cabeza. La base de la mandíbula y el ápice melanizadas en forma de carinas. De forma ovalada y de color amarillo, anchura de la base antenal similar a la de las mandíbulas, color amarillo con la quilla mandibular y mitad apical de las mandíbulas melanizada. Craneum con 2 hileras de 4 setas largas paralelas a la sutura epicraneal, otras dos hileras de setas en la parte inferior del cráneo, cerca de la inserción de las antenas. Región basal y lateral de la frente muy setosa, dos hileras de setas y punturas de mas o menos diez setas paralelas a la sutura fronto-clipeal. Tres a cuatro setas frontolaterales. Parte superior de la frente sin setas. Postclipeus con 4 setas en hilera frente a la sutura del preclipeus y otras dos setas largas a los extremos del postclipeus. Labro multiquillado, con 10 a 12 setas en la quilla anterior y 2 en las quillas posteriores.Antenas penta segmentadas. Ultimo artejo antenal con foseta dorsal alargada (desde la mitad aproximada del segundo) ápice agudo. En la epifarige, el haptomerum presenta una hilera de 7 helis, 5 centrales y dos mas anchos. Pedium claro, oblongo oval, plegmatia con 16 a 18 plegmatium, 7 iniciales mas anchos que los otros. Corypha. Sobre el aptomerun un conjunto de setas espiniformes ( mas o menos 40), corypha coronada con 6 setas, epizigium ausente.Acroparia con tres setas dirigidas hacia la parte externa. Acantoparia con 6 a 7 setas. Chaetoparia con 30 a 36 setas . Dexiotorma larga, con la mitad externa el doble de gruesa que la mitad anterior, la cual es próxima a la placa esclerosada. Crepis dentiforme con dos placas esclerosadas dentiformes al lado. Una phoba cerca de la laeotorma. Laeophoba presente alargada y limitando la parte anterior del pedium. Laeotorma larga unida a la pterotorma. Dexiophoba ausente.Raster con palidia con séptupla definida de forma angular estrecha cerca al área preseptular la cual carece de setas. Palis inicialmente sencillos, cortos hasta aproximadamente el numero 14 o16 a partir de allí se observan palis largos puntuados y dobles o triples. Al final la palidia se ensancha bordeando la apertura anal con 4 a 5 palis sencillos. Labios anales con pubescencias similares. Apertura anal en forma de \"Y\" con la base muy corta.Larva en cría posiblemente del género Heterogomphus.Cabeza fuertemente puntuada y rugosa, ovalada mas ancha en el área de la inserción antenal y mas angosta en la mandíbula. Apertura máxima de las mandíbulas menor que el ancho máximo de la cabeza. Color café claro en la base y oscuro hacia el clipeo y las mandíbulas. Mas o menos 7 setas hacia la base de la inserción antenal 4 mas largas y frontales. Dos hileras de tres setas cerca de la sutura frontal. Clipeo con 1 hilera de 6 setas lisas en el postclipeo, dos setas mas laterales y claras en el ápice. Labro: fuertemente punteado y con cavidades, con 12 setas lisas ubicadas perimetralmente. Fobea (surco) transversal anteapical. Mandíbulas con doble carina y setas a lo largo de la parte dorsal. Borde mandibular externo rugoso y con puntuaciones setosas.Epifaringe con haptomerum dentado transverso, pedium. claro y semiexagonal, corypha. sobre el haptomerum con 6 a 7 setas. Epizigyum presente; acantoparia. 10 a 12 setas espiniformes curvadas. acroparia: 3 a 4 setas, plegmatia ausente. chaetoparia. con setas aisladas espiniformes cortas y largas. dexiotorma larga, placa esclerozada ausente. pterotorma. engrosada al borde y ahusada hacia el ápice. placa esclerozada dentiforme en el área del crepis phobas: ausentes.Anchura cefálica ±7 mm. Raster con patrón de disposición de setas en forma de W, con setas mixtas, largas rectas hacia la apertura anal y hacia los bordes y setas mas cortas y rectas hacia el centro. Apertura anal recta.Aislamiento e identificación de Enemigos Naturales.Se encontraron aproximadamente 100 larvas enfermas que expresaron algún tipo de patología y que fueron llevadas al laboratorio para realizar el aislamiento del agente causal de mortalidad.De estas el 22% correspondió a la localidad de Cogua, el 32 % al C.A.M y el 46% a Subachoque (Figura 6).La alta mortalidad encontrada en la localidad de Subachoque pudo estar relacionada con el gran numero de larvas obtenidas en el muestreo y con que a pesar de tratarse de un cultivo comercial de papa la siembra se realizo en un lote que venia de un periodo de descanso de alrededor de dos años.En el C.A.M por tratarse de muestreos realizados en pasto que como se dijo anteriormente es un ecosistema que ofrece condiciones mas estables que favorecen tanto el establecimiento de las chizas como la proliferación de enemigos naturales nativos, se logro obtener también un alto porcentaje de insectos enfermos, mientras que en Cogua por tratarse de una zona de cultivo intensivo y probablemente por la alta tasa de uso de agroquímicos que se requiere en cultivos de semilla de papa certificada se obtuvo el porcentaje de mortalidad mas bajo de las tres localidades.De las patologías observadas en las larvas enfermas se logro determinar que el 43% de las larvas estaban afectadas por hongos, el 40% por bacterias, el 16% por nematodos y el 1% por protozoarios (Figura 7.). Los dos tipos de enemigos naturales mas frecuentemente hallados fueron hongos y bacterias seguidos en una mínima proporción por nematodos. Solo se presenta un reporte de una larva afectada posiblemente por un protozoario.De estas larvas el 60% fueron del genero Ancognatha, el 33 % de C. Pos ursinus y el 6 % de H.dilaticollis. Figura 8.A pesar de que el parasitismo natural más alto se presento en el género Ancognatha, que como se dijo anteriormente se encuentra en mayor proporción asociada a materia orgánica en descomposición , el porcentaje de mortalidad para la especie C. pos ursinus, es muy significativo en comparación con las otras especies y esto podría explicar en cierta medida que para esta región los reportes de ataques fuertes de chiza en estos cultivos no son muy comunes.Se ha logrado obtener hasta el momento 35 aislamientos de hongos que se encuentran almacenadas y entre los cuales se registran, Metarhizium anisopliae (4 aislamientos), Fusarium sp (3 aislamientos) Beauveria bassiana (2 aislamientos), Phaecilomices sp (2 aislamientos),Verticillium sp(2 aislamientos), Aschersonia sp (1 aislamientos). Las chizas atacadas por hongos se presentaban de consistencia dura, inmóviles y de coloraciones atípicas como rozado en el caso de las cepas de Fusarium sp y verde en los aislamientos de Metarhizium anisopliae. En la mayoría de los casos las larva presentaron sitios melanizados en la cutícula, que pueden corresponder a los puntos de entrada del hongo al insecto (Fuxa y Tanada, 1987;Lacey, 1994).En laboratorio las larvas infectadas por hongos generalmente se ubicaron en la superficie del vaso de cría antes de morir y empezar a esporular (ANEXO 2 Patologías de ataques por hongos). Se realizaron 29 aislamientos de bacterias. Se identificaron 15 aislamientos de Bacillus popilliae. 3 de B. sphaericus, 2 de Clostridium sp, 1 de B. larvae y 1 de B. cereus.De 10 de los aislamientos restantes no se logró recuperar ningún microorganismo. De algunos de los aislamientos se recuperó mas de un microorganismo. Las especies de bacterias identificadas coinciden con las reportadas por Peralta et al (2003) en cultivos de pasto y papa en el oriente antioqueño, como factores de mortalidad de chizas, por Rodríguez (1996), en Cundinamarca por Londoño (1994Londoño ( , 1997Londoño ( , 1999)) Esófago rhabditoide compuesto por procorpus, bulbo medio, metacorpus y bulbo basal. La cloaca es muy abultada y evidente. Las hembras tienen vulva media y abultada, la vagina es recta y corta. Tienen dos ovarios didelficos (dirigidos uno hacia la cola y otro hacia la cabeza). Los machos tienen una espicula, con un gubernáculum largo y sin bursa copulatrix. Presentan un testículo simple reflexo. (ANEXO 5 Identificación de nematodos.)Una larva de Ancognatha sp proveniente de la localidad de Cogua, que presentaba cuerpos blancos esféricos en el interior dispersos en la hemolinfa, se cree que podría estar afectada por un protozoario del grupo de los Microsporidia. A pesar de que esta patología podría coincidir con la presentada por larvas atacadas por B. popilliae, este microorganismo seria posible descartarlo por que la larva logro pasar a estado de pupa y los cuerpos esféricos nunca cubrieron completamente en cuerpo del insecto, además al realizar montajes directos de la hemolinfa de la larva se lograron observar cuerpos en forma de bastón y en forma de cristales alargados lo que coincide con la morfología presentada por protozoarios del Phylum Microsporidia. (Poinar, 1984;Lacey, 1997.).Al realizar infecciones de larvas sanas con hemolinfa de la larva infectada no fue posible reproducir los síntomas ni provocar la muerte de las mismas.Es importante resaltar que se presentaron algunas larvas de las cuales se aisló mas de un Es de gran importancia realizar trabajos de identificación y de confirmación las identificaciones de los posibles enemigos naturales aislados, para realizar los bio ensayos básicos de patogenicidad no solo sobre chizas si no sobre otras plagas subterráneas con el fin de aprovechar el potencial que pueden tener los entomopatógenos aislados de chiza.Función de daño de C. pos ursinus en S. phureja.Al realizar la evaluación del daño únicamente se encontraron tres tubérculos con daño por chiza, sin embargo es posible observar una tendencia de incremento inicial del rendimiento, se presenta una tendencia inicial a aumentar el rendimiento a medida que se aumentan el numero de chizas por cuadrante. A partir del tratamiento cuatro que fue en el que se obtuvo mayor rendimiento este empieza a descender generándose una curva de tipo exponencial con aumento inicial del rendimiento y cuando llega al punto máximo empieza a decrecer.(Figura. 9). La ausencia de daño podría ser explicada por factores como el estrés ocasionado a las larvas en el transporte y la manipulación del laboratorio al campo. Por otro lado por tratarse de larvas de tercer instar es probable que hayan disminuido su tasa de alimentación para iniciar la metamorfosis y pasar a estado de pupa. El daño físico que se pudo haber causado a las larvas pudo presentarse como un factor importante de mortalidad, ya que al generar heridas y aperturas en la cutícula se facilita la entrada de organismos entomopatógenos. También es posible que las larvas se hayan desplazado bien sea por la parte superior o enterrándose y se hayan salido del cuadrante, sin embargo en las zonas mas próximas a los tratamientos no se registraron niveles de daño considerables. Otro factor que pudo haber influenciado el comportamiento alimenticio de esta especie fue la presencia de malezas asociadas al cultivo, ya que en la época de realización del experimento se suspendieron las labores de control de malezas.Uno de los factores mas importantes que pudo haber influenciado el experimento fue la susceptibilidad de esta especie de papa al ataque de chizas, ya que es probable que S. phureja no sea susceptible al ataque de esta especie de chiza.Es recomendable realizar experimentos con unidades experimentales mas grandes, con mayor numero de repeticiones y en condiciones en las que se pueda asegurar la población de la plaga para cada tratamiento.Los autores expresan sus agradecimientos a Julio Cesar Parada de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Bogota por su colaboración en la identificación de nematodos, a Luis Carlos Pardo asesor de investigación CIAT por su colaboración en la identificación de Coleoptera:Melolonthidae, Rosalba Tobon yAnuar Morales. Laboratorio de Bioecologia. CIAT. Por la capacitacion y colaboración en el procesamiento e identificación de Hongos, a Martha Londoño, Elizabeth Meneses y Lina Arbelaez. CORPOICA La Selva por la capacitacion y la colaboración en la identificación de bacterias, a Cristian Olaya, Laboratorio de Microscopia de luz CIAT, por su colaboración en la toma de fotografias, a Andreas Gaigl por su apoyo durante todo el proyecto, a Miguel Serrano, a Alfredo Acosta, Al CIAT, A la Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Bogota y a todas las personas que colaboraron para que este trabajo se llevara a cabo.","tokenCount":"7532"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d7a93db14d4d0ede145cb056a3c718ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ba525584-9f13-427d-9754-bc9ec9e7cd26/retrieve","id":"-116952690"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ceade053-453a-48f0-a3a0-149506ee0323","pagecount":"40","content":"Published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) | AICCRA work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0International License. Find out more. The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project, led by the Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. AICCRA works to make climate information services and climate-smart agriculture technologies more accessible to millions of smallholder farmers across Africa. About AICCRA | Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. Explore AICCRA's work at aiccra.cgiar.orgSouthern Africa) and NASRO (North African Sub-Regional Research Organization), it forms the four sub-regional organizations that make up the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA.Photo: ©Ollivier Girard (CIFOR) 5. The process of working backwards from the definition of a possible future to determine what needs to happen to make the future unfold and connect to the present.Identified obstacle that could stop the achievement of an activity.An event that could absolutely not be predicted.A method of obtaining ideas without judgement or filtering. It involves encouraging wild and unconstrained suggestions and listing ideas as they emerge.A logical link between events, where a cause precedes an effect and altering the cause alters the effect.Complex systems are non-linear and diverse networks made up of multiple interconnected elements. Cause and effect relationships within the system are not easily discernible or predictable. Historical extrapolation is not possible for predicting emergence (new patterns and behaviours) in complex systems.Are drivers that are both highly impactful and highly uncertain.Issues or challenges that affect more than a single interest area, institution, or stakeholder, and that need to be addressed from all points of view.Are factors, issues or trends that cause change thereby affecting or shaping the future.A cluster of individual trends on the same general subject moving trends in certain directions, they are broad in scope and long term in nature (for example, climate change or globalisation).The integration of raw data constituting numbers, words, images, and insights emerging from diverse knowledge sources.External force of change, for example political or market drivers.RETURN TO CONTENTSPossible and practical.An estimate or best guess of what might happen in the future i.e. not a definitive prediction.Structured tools, methods and thinking styles to enable the capacity to consider multiple futures and plan for them.A small core group that builds the foresight plan.A broad mix of identified key stakeholders that need to be involved.The act, art, or science of identifying and evaluating possible future events.Describes the practice of thinking about the future in a structured way, and the methods and approaches that are used to do so.These are the large, obvious dangers that will sooner or later emerge but whose exact timing is unknown.Refers to the potential scale of impact of a driver on a scenario theme.Internal force of change for example, social drivers within a farm or community directing the decision making of a farmer.A trend that is apparent at a large or global scale e.g. growing youth population across the African continent.Allows a group's ideas to be charted in logical groupings fairly quickly, even when ideas are given in a non-sequential manner. This technique allows efficient brainstorming for ideas and at the same time creates a skeletal framework for later categorisation of the information generated.The process of creating and experimenting with a computerised mathematical model imitating the behaviour of a real-world process or system over time. Simulation is used to describe and analyse the behaviour of a system when asking 'what-if' questions about the real system and aid in the design of real systems.Are storylines/narratives, answering 'what if' questions that describe multiple alternative futures spanning a key set of critical uncertainties. Scenarios identify future drivers of change and then plot out plausible directions that they may take.An approach to understanding highly impactful and highly uncertain drivers and to describe possible future states.Although they address uncertainty, scenarios are not predictions or forecasts -they are not 'true' or correct/wrong -only plausible.Scenario planning Is a technique of strategic planning that relies on tools and technologies for managing the uncertainties of the futureA tool to identify the importance and influence of stakeholders as well as how they exchange information or are connected.The combination of foresight and strategic managementThe complete period (past-to-future) considered in a foresight exercise.Participatory with multiple viewpoints, bringing in quantitative and qualitative evidence but not predictive.A trajectory in time, reflecting a sequence of actions and consequences against a background of separate developments, leading to a specific future situation.It is reasonable to assume the scenario could happen. Plausibility does not mean that a future situation will happen.The degree of confidence in a forecasting system based either on law derived from observations and experience, or on scientific reasoning and structural modelling.A quantitative technique that can be used in the analysis phase of the foresight process.Projecting or time series analysis are used when several years of data are available, and trends are both clear and relatively stable.An expected value of one or more indicators at particular points in the future, based on the understanding of selected initial conditions and drivers.A system's ability to cope with and recover from shocks or disruptions, either by returning to the status quo or by transforming itself to adapt to the new reality.Issues and situations in organisations that have yet to surface and which are blind spots for planners who are unaware that they do not know about them.Able to be done or could occur.A compelling image of a (usually preferred) future.A well-known prospective technique with a highly participatory approach.A problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognise.A low-probability but high-impact event that seems too incredible or unlikely to happen.An agriculture and food systems transformation is a significant redistribution -by at least a third -of land, labour and capital, and/ or outputs, and outcomes (e.g. types and amounts of production and consumption of goods and services) within a time frame of a decade.A general tendency or direction of a movement or change over time e.g. increasing erratic seasonal rainfall patterns.Collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern, or trend, and assess its influence from the information.Refers to how much or how clear we are on how a driver will emerge or play out in the future. High uncertainty does not mean 'high improbability', high uncertainty can mean having little knowledge of how something may pan out.Unpacking why an obstacle is in place.The ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences.Climate change is a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.The ability of a system to 'bounce back' from the impacts of climate-related stresses or shocks. It is the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient manner, including through ensuring the preservation, restoration, or improvement of its essential basic structures and functions.Refers to the inventory of elements in an area in which hazard events may occur.A possible, future occurrence of natural or human induced physical events that may have adverse effects on vulnerable and exposed elements.Intersection of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability.The degree to which a system is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change.Inability of people, organisations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed.The propensity or predisposition of a system to be adversely affected by an event. Vulnerability is a function of a system's sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity.Is the science, art, or practice of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products.Includes the people and activities that bring a basic agricultural product such as maize to the consumer. The activities include obtaining inputs and production in the field right through to storage, processing, packaging, and distribution.The variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and aquatic ecosystems.The engagement, management, planning and implementation, of activities conducted across different thematic sectors to deliver development outcomes (e.g. food security, nutrition, sustainable landscapes, and agriculture).Ecosystem Services These include provisioning services, such as the production of food (e.g. fruit for humans or grazing for cattle) and water; regulating, such as the control of flooding and disease; supporting, such as nutrient cycles and oxygen production; and cultural, such as spiritual and recreational benefits.The different, discrete elements within a system (e.g. farms, organisations, inputs, and soil).The relationships that connect the elements (e.g. rules, ideas, funding, or service relationships, among others).A process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human land-use activities. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be undesirable.Consists of a mix of representatives or stakeholders from public, civil, and private domains of society.Is the loss in quantity and quality of agricultural produce between harvest and consumption. It includes on-farm losses e.g. damage to grain by pests, as well as losses along the value chain during transportation, storage, and processing.This stage of the agricultural process is prior to production and may involve land preparation and the sourcing and purchasing of inputs such as seed and fertiliser.RETURN TO CONTENTSProductive InputsThese are used to increase yields and range from improved seeds, genetics, fertilisers and crop protection chemicals to machinery, irrigation technology and knowledge.An interconnected set of elements that is coherently organised in a way that achieves something (function and purpose). For example, the purpose of an agricultural system could be to produce dairy products and the system could consist of interconnected elements such as the farmer, employees, cattle, machinery, feed, water, and energy.A mindset, tool, and process that is reserved for complex problems.Understands life as networks of relationships.Epidemic disease which is highly contagious or transmissible and has the potential for very rapid spread, irrespective of national borders, causing serious socio-economic and potentially public health consequences. • Access to agricultural land and access to water for irrigation as main drivers were identified and used to build scenarios for the future. By 2035, strategic investments will target agriculture and natural resource conservation to ensure food security and improve household income in the Koutiala district. New, updated training sessions will allow communities to make better use of the scarce water resources and variable rainfall in the region. This will be combined with improved rainwater and soil management and the promotion of improved seeds.   ","tokenCount":"1814"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5bb301ed0b408b8afc1eeb405af4191","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77b340db-9b95-4b43-b613-aee0e75fbb13/retrieve","id":"-68468242"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a3dfa26-6bcf-4480-aa23-5d3940a2ff4d","pagecount":"8","content":"Food waste quantification, at food supply chain level, is an effective tool to promote prevention and reduction strategies.Conducting food waste quantification by applying a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative tools provides actionable knowledge about the magnitude of the problem, causes and economic impacts.A systematic food waste reporting mechanism -at the local and national level -should be in place to encourage broader food waste reduction initiatives.Investing on simple measures such as weighing scales and displaying information on the food waste generated provides the highest returns on investment.Building the capacity of the stakeholders on methodologies and tools for food waste measuring, monitoring and reporting is needed.The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has called for halving the global per capita food waste from retail to consumer level and the reduction of food losses along production and supply chains by 2030 (United Nations 2015). Globally, state and non-state actors have introduced measures (e.g., regulatory and other incentive mechanisms) to mitigate food waste (FW) at the national, regional or local/supply chain level (Chalak et al. 2016).The amount of food waste generated in Local Authority areas of Sri Lanka ranges between 50% and 76% of the total municipal solid waste, with an average of 56% (FAO and IWMI 2021a). The total FW generated is estimated to be nearly 4,000 tons/day (Arachchige et al. 2019;FAO and IWMI 2021b).In 2020, a study conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) focusing on three major waste disposal centers in the Western Province of Sri Lanka -Karadiyana, Kerawalapitiya and Kaduwela -revealed that about 724 tons of the total waste generated in a day is FW (i.e., 55% of total waste). The study further noted that Colombo Municipal Council in Sri Lanka contributes to 42% of the total FW transported to these disposal sites (FAO and IWMI 2021b).FW occurs across the food supply chain from manufacturing to households, catering and other food services. In most cases, stakeholders are not aware of the magnitude of the waste generated and believe that FW is a part of the business model. Therefore, it is ignored (Reitemeier et al. 2021), which results in socioeconomic and environmental costs that could have been prevented. For instance, the nutritional loss due to FW affects the total nutrient availability and accessibility for human intake, including for those that suffer from malnutrition (Fan 2017). About 22% of the total population in Sri Lanka does not have sufficient food to sustain a healthy life, while about 33% of the population cannot afford a nutritious diet (WFP 2021). Therefore, initiatives on the prevention and reduction of FW will play a significant role in contributing to achieving Goal 2 (zero hunger) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).One obstacle to effective policymaking is the scarcity of FW data (FAO 2019). A good understanding of the availability and quality of FW data is a prerequisite for tracking the progress on reduction targets, analyzing environmental impacts and exploring mitigation strategies (Xue et al. 2017). While FW prevention efforts can be initiated without having detailed information on the FW amounts, quantification is necessary to understand the magnitude and location along the food supply chains (i.e., from wholesale to households) to inform prevention measures (Tostivint et al. 2016).According to Eriksson et al. (2019), quantifying FW is a good first step towards reducing it. FW quantification helps create a robust evidence base for developing strategies, action plans and policies, as well as guide the prioritization of actions, evaluation of solutions and monitoring the progress (CEC 2019).The FW quantification case study approach presented in this brief is expected to enable organizations to measure and estimate, in a practical and consistent manner, the extent, the location and the causes. The findings serve as a tool to inform included categories of business entities and support the decision-making process towards FW reduction. Case studies assist in conceiving complex situations and describing actors and processes in an accessible format in order to provide answers to the 'why' and the 'how' (Yin 2003). The case study process adopted consisted of three phases as shown in Figure 1.Phase 1 -Observation of the participants' practices and initial FW quantification (7 days). Selected operations are monitored, following the food flow, to have a baseline, identify causes and help inform reduction actions and strategies to be undertaken in Phase 2. Quantification considers the different supply chain stages and can include, for instance, food sourcing and storage, food preparation, display and post-consumption (i.e., plate waste/ leftovers). At the end of each of the 7 days, the amounts of FW are measured with a scale and characterized in their composition (i.e., types/commodities, causes and destination of the waste).Phase 2 -In the second phase (7 days), the collected data is analyzed, and FW reduction strategies are identified. Findings of Phase 1 are presented, and potential FW reduction strategies are introduced for validation and implementation of the food business operators. Subsequently, the research team reaches a consensus with the management to implement selected actions -those which are feasible in the short term. The research team engages with the management for a guided implementation and for data collection to estimate the return on investment (ROI).Phase 3 -Participants practice observations for the selected prevention and reduction actions (minimum 7 days) and a second quantification step for 7 days is conducted. The second quantification step evaluates the effectiveness of the implemented measures. A consultation is arranged with the management and staff to present the results of the case study (i.e., before and after approach) and obtain feedback (i.e., challenges and potential follow-up).Phase 4 -Phases 1 to 3 should be followed up with monitoring and evaluation, several months later, to understand which practices have been adopted, dropped, revised, or even optimized, and the related reasons. The ROI should also be assessed and recalculated to prioritize scaling up solutions.The project piloted the described methodology across Colombo (the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka) in one hotel, one restaurant, one supermarket, one wholesale market, one retail market, one hospital and 10 households. This brief focuses on the results from the hotel. This example represents a stakeholder with an international management that is aware of the FW Waste of edible cooked food (photo: Maren Reitemeier/IWMI) challenge, which differs (at present, in this aspect) from other stakeholder groups in Sri Lanka (Reitemeier et al. 2021).The hotel in Colombo was selected to understand current practices driving FW generation while aiming to facilitate the development and prioritization of reduction strategies. The hotel has 11 banquet halls and 11 restaurants with the capacity for catering to over 4,000 guests under the assistance of more than 400 employees. Before conducting the FW audit, a highranking management staff stated, \"I have been working in the hotel industry for more than 20 years and worked in many fivestar hotels in the past. Achieving a zero food waste target at a big hotel is hardly possible with the compliance requirements and standards to be followed.\"The first quantification phase disclosed that the hotel has generated a total of 2,442 kg of FW during the assessed week (August 10-16, 2020), which was 21% of the total food prepared. The major contribution to the total FW was due to buffet surplus (46%) followed by customer plate (33%) and waste occurring during food preparation in the kitchen (21%). About 67% of the FW was identified as edible, which was largely from the buffet surplus (72%). It was also observed that 61% of the kitchen waste and 25% of the plate waste were edible.The commodity-wise analysis indicated that 38% of the edible waste is cooked rice, 27% is wheat-based starchy foods such as bread, pasta and noodles, and 16.5% is vegetables. The total amount of edible meat, fish and fruit waste was 18.5%. In terms of monetary value, fish accounted for more than one-third (36%) of the total cost of food wasted whereas the monetary value of the wasted portions of meat, vegetables, starchy foods and rice were 19.7%, 16.5%, 12% and 9.8%, respectively.The financial value of the ingredients of the wasted edible food during the week was around LKR 439,500 1 (USD 2,350) excluding the cost of preparation (i.e., labor and energy) and other supplementary cooking ingredients such as oil, condiments and spices. Since the hotel had just started its operations in August 2020, after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown, the waste quantities were lower than before but are expected to be higher after normal operations resume. Hence, the expected financial value of the edible food waste would be higher.The key findings of the study were presented to the entire staff of the hotel; several short-, medium-and long-term strategies to prevent and reduce FW were discussed. The findings illustrated strong evidence for FW prevention and reduction in terms of both volumes and costs that were avoidable. After the presentation of the findings, a top management officer expressed that \"We knew there is food waste, but we never knew the quantity and nature of it, especially edible food waste in the kitchen has alarmed us. The profit we should be earning has been discarded as waste.\"The findings informed the hotel in selecting appropriate strategies and, subsequently, the top management agreed to implement the following FW prevention and reduction actions that focused on measuring and monitoring, engaging staff and repurposing edible food that was at risk of becoming waste:1. Appoint the responsible task force to monitor and manage the FW generated at each point/source. 2. Measure daily FW at source, display the values at each monitored point and report the same to relevant staff meetings. 3. Purchase graded and pre-cut food items instead of purchasing bulk foods that need processing. For example, an alternative to buying the whole fish is to buy the fish cuts for the dishes on the menu. 4. Encourage kitchen staff to prepare alternative foods from unconsumed edible food portions that are kept under safe conditions. For example, selling leftover cake pieces at the staff welfare shop, preparation of desserts with cake offcuts, preparation of cooking stocks from vegetable offcuts, and preparation of curries and cutlets from the fish offcuts generated during the preparation of fish dishes. 5. The kitchen staff has several options to reuse food resources, instead of wasting them (e.g., preparation of orange marmalade using orange skins and production of lime pickles from used lime shells).The second round of FW quantification was conducted with the implementation of the above five strategies after three months of the first quantification -i.e., November 17-23, 2020. The findings illustrated in Figure 2 below show that the per capita FW has been reduced by 78%, from 540 g to 120 g. Overall, what influenced the food business operator to set FW reduction goals were problem awareness, a behavioral change supported by evidence, and social responsibility and norms. In addition, FW quantification created concerns also due to the amount of money wasted with the food and/or ingredients that were thrown away.The ROI for the FW reduction initiatives is summarized in Box 1. It should be noted that the results achieved were possible due to the commitment and dedication provided by the leadership of the hotel, who delegated the authority to quantify FW, determine causes and implement solutions to the staff. The hotel had to allocate additional resources to implement the FW prevention and reduction strategies. Some of the costs (e.g., awareness creation and capacity building, etc.) are expected to decline in subsequent years with a steady stream of financial benefits over time.  1. The hotel management continued FW measurement to maintain the average per capita FW generation in the range of 120-140 g/day, as shown by the data from January to March 2021. It is encouraging to note that the hotel was sufficiently incentivized by the financial gain realized to introduce even further innovations and strategies for FW prevention and reduction.Sri Lanka is a growing economy experiencing a mounting problem related to FW. In the meantime, the government is under pressure to fulfil its global and national commitments on the complex issues of climate change, food security, poverty alleviation and meeting the targets of the SDGs, including Target 12.3 (by 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses). Developing food policies to address FW is particularly important because a large share of it is derived from fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products, and cooked foods, which have embedded nutrition and a short shelf-life.Past studies indicate that there is not only a robust business case for companies to reduce FW but also a non-financial business case based on strategic and non-financial motivators such as waste regulations, environmental sustainability, food security, stakeholder relationships, brand recognition and a sense of ethical responsibility (Clowes et al. 2018).This case study provides an example where financial (i.e., a sound ROI/costbenefit ratio) as well as non-financial mechanisms (i.e., brand recognition and sense of ethical responsibility) have driven the implementation of FW prevention and reduction actions in the hotel sector. These actions have been adopted as a voluntary commitment by the hotel. Similarly, case studies conducted by FAO and IWMI (2021c) discovered that the private sector, particularly hotels and supermarkets, already adopt certain strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle food waste as voluntary commitments and/or under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts (Reitemeier et al. 2021). Such evidence is essential for scaling up strategies.quantification initiatives have multifaceted effects on people's values and behaviors. They can provide participants with an understanding of the scale of the problem and causes while generating motivation to invest in logistical improvements that would encourage prevention. Inventory management and production planning have a significant impact on FW reduction in food services. Tracking and analysis of the FW allow for sensitization of the issues associated with FW in terms of social, economic and environmental impacts. FW quantification also facilitates the estimation of economic consequences (i.e., the costs of FW) which can, along with awareness of social or environmental consequences, drive long-term behavior change.Governance frameworks (e.g., roadmaps, action plans, agreements and strategies) mandating FW quantification at the food business operations level, coupled with a regular reporting mechanism in place, can prompt great attitude and behavior changes while incentivizing the adoption of voluntary commitments towards prevention and reduction. Displaying in each point is not practiced currently, but this is under consideration. However, FW data is circulated daily to each department through a WhatsApp group and trends are being presented at the monthly meeting attended by the top management and the relevant staff representing each department.Purchasing of graded products is currently limited to 60% of the ingredients bought.Continuing with more innovative approaches. This practice is continuing. In addition, the hotel has conducted a competition among the staff for alternative dish ideas from what is considered to be inedible food portions (e.g., watermelon peels), without compromising food safety. Innovations were identified for pickles, etc.Currently, the practice is ongoing, but the hotel is in the process of hiring dedicated staff to undertake the task.To establish a formal structure for rigorous monitoring and implementation.To bring all the relevant activities under an established system with a sense of responsibility.The installment of displays required some additional investment. This is being considered under the new sustainability initiative.Purchasing 100% graded items is not practicable, as certain items are required in full to prepare some dishes; for example, a whole fish is needed to get specific fish cuts.There is a demand for such products due to affordable price, taste and texture.The hotel is in the process of registering with 'Global Good Market', a market platform that connects buyers and sellers (https://www.goodmarket. global/info/) and has a reserved a stall to sell the surplus value-added foods such as pickles and marmalades.To make it more efficient through empowered and devoted staff.","tokenCount":"2636"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6da7b4dda3592b5f64272e2fc14925c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6aeffd00-892c-47e2-8e41-695c4255de37/retrieve","id":"-1809848915"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f23f230f-8e35-41bb-88b2-8f6cc3c54fbe","pagecount":"10","content":"The proposed program targets both the availability and affordability of sources of animal 1 protein for the poor while also promoting greater participation by the poor in animal and fish production. The proposal clearly defines key constraints and opportunities for small-scale livestock and fish production systems in the developing world, which if alleviated, would make significant contributions to the CGIAR's SLOs of improved health and nutrition and poverty reduction. The proposal presents a good assessment of causes of failure of previous attempts to increase productivity and livelihood opportunities of small scale livestock and fish farmers in developing countries and clearly identifies opportunities for sensible investments in research and generation of science-based knowledge in this sector. It adopts a value chain approach to provide research for the development of a discrete set of prioritised value chains for animal products in selected countries. This approach was unanimously supported by the external reviewers who felt it has the potential to deliver impact.The first component on technology development, which takes a significant proportion of the budget, includes a strong element of upstream research as well as development of technologies to feed into the value chain development of the second component. The third component is cross-cutting, focusing on priority setting, gender and equity, and impact. The ‗whole', provides a coherent packaged approach that avoids the impression of business -as usual‖. The ISPC believes the approach -through analysis of value chains in areas of poverty -should lead to impact, through offering entry points for research that address social, economic and technical problems of subcomponents of the value chain. Selection and targeting of promising value chains has been included in the proposal, with appropriate attention to the specific needs of women farmers, women active in the value chain, and women consumers. The choice of value chains and research issues has been made through regional stakeholder discussions and other priority setting studies. The result is a focus on 5 system-specific value chains, spread across 10 countries. The ISPC commends this approach as well as the CRP's proposal of a competitive grants scheme to select partners.The ISPC does have some concerns with the approach, however, mainly in relation to delivery of relevant international public goods (IPGs). Two of the major issues posed by livestock, namely their multi-functionality in the development context and the potential for adverse environmental impacts, appear to receive relatively little consideration in the proposal. In particular, the impact of livestock systems on water and soil resources is not given much attention with regard to: (i) trends towards more intensive livestock feeding operations (e.g. south and East Asia, and perhaps at some point in Sub-Saharan Africa), and (ii) the impact and sustainability of extensive pastoral systems in relation to water and soil resources. While the intensification issues would best be covered in CRP3.7, there are research components on the environmental impact of livestock systems distributed across CRP1.1 Drylands, CRP1.3 Aquatic Agricultural systems; CRP6 Forestry, and CRP5 Water, Land, Ecosystems. There are clearly needs and opportunities to bring cohesion and coordination to CGIAR efforts on these cross-cutting topics which are not dealt with in the proposal as currently presented.Communication and knowledge management is a strong element of CRP3.7, and if implemented as planned, could allow some of the downstream work to be transformed into regional public goods, through extensive knowledge sharing.The ISPC recommends that the proposal is accepted with some revisions. It is a strong proposal with good integration of the natural and social sciences, which gains credibility through focus on a limited number of value chains. This approach is promising in terms of delivery of local and regional impact, but creates risks in terms of delivering IPGs. Attention to the following also is advised: Revisions should strengthen the description of how risk of failure to deliver broader IPGs using the value chain approach can be addressed, particularly in the areas of multifunctionality of livestock and the impact of both fish and livestock production on the environment (including competition for human food and natural resources).  Despite the new approach, the budget still allocates two-fold more resources to technological research compared with value chain approaches. While genetic enhancement of farmed tilapia has yielded substantial benefits from previous research, there is considerably less evidence of good returns from research investment on livestock disease. The proposal should therefore identify why this overall balance of program resources is expected to deliver greater impact on the livestock side than the CGIAR's track record in technological research to date. In relation to the specific value chains selected, the ISPC suggests the following revisions: A better description of the added value from further research in the area of dairying in India, given the considerable research effort (and success) already achieved with that value chain.  Researchable constraints are weak and should be strengthened for efforts on sheep in Mali and dairying in Tanzania.  External reviewers and the ISPC question the appropriateness of including the value chain of pigs in Uganda.  The rationale for excluding poultry as a specific value chain for study was noted, but the low competitiveness of poultry production in meeting increasing demand in Sub-Saharan Africa (as evidenced by imports) may justify re-evaluation of this decision in the future. The ISPC suggests consideration be given to using the Asian poultry value chain as a benchmark because of increasing importance of eggs and chicken in diets of many poor people.  Mention is made of evaluation of research progress, but nothing about how these evaluations will be used. While fundamentals of the -livestock revolution‖ seem robust, the data should be constantly reviewed and updated. Inclination of emerging value chains towards large scale producers, elite capture or swings in market demand could rapidly change the expected benefits to small holders in several of these commodity systems. It could be useful to be clear with partners and funders from the start that lack of progress or a change in external context away from the original selection criteria might alter the emphasis on specific value chains. An outline of how the evaluation process will lead to program modifications would be beneficial. While approving the simplicity of the three themes in CRP3.7, the ISPC has some concerns about the descriptions and suggest the following: The past livestock disease agenda be reviewed (and hence lessons learnt) to highlight which parts of the more basic research agenda have delivered impact and how. This should inform the basis for structuring longer-term research and prioritizing how the program will conduct disease research relevant to more immediate value chain requirements.  The ISPC also suggests re-consideration of the priorities for forages and feed research in order to focus on those most applicable to the value chains.Although the program proposal is not yet completely developed, value chain innovation is a participative on-going process and requires actions based on the needs of actors in the value chains.The approach described and the expertise of the four cooperating CGIAR partners provides confidence that a more mature and unified work plan can lead to positive outcomes for learning and sharing worldwide.This is a well written proposal and should be commended for its relative brevitythe key sections totalling just over 100 pages. This Program focuses on a few animal source food value chains, which have been carefully chosen (with stakeholder consultation) according to relevant criteria. The rationale for targeting a small number of value chains, and the specific relationship between country-level work and the production of global public goods are well-argued, with possible objections being anticipated and transparently discussed. For instance, the inclusion of multiple countries and regions, together with some common animal species, is anticipated to allow comparisons, cross-system learning and extrapolation of results beyond the target countries and regionsThe two main innovations and changes from past research efforts are the clustering of livestock (meat and milk) and fish under one program and focusing more on the whole value chain, not just increasing production per se. Both innovations are excellent and should provide a sound framework for future work. However, the document reflects some of the difficulties in the transition to this new alignment.It reads more as an -arranged marriage‖ rather than a -marriage of choice‖. For example, large parts of the text focus on farms and livestock value chains with no mention of fish until much later in the narrative (see Pages 55 to 60). It will obviously take time for the synergies to develop and these teething problems are probably indications of the large change in the CGIAR approach rather than any on-going future difficulties. Livestock and fish production from aquaculture value chains have many features in common and make a much more logical cluster than the normal fisheries and aquaculture approaches adopted by many Ministries and research institutes.In general the five value chains and target countries have been carefully chosen, according to transparent criteria. The ISPC respect the consultations that have taken place to inform the choice, but would like to receive further rationale about the prioritisation of dairy in India, since this value chain has been so widely studied and has already achieved wide success. Further explanation as to why this new work is expected to add significant value is needed. Similarly, the proposal omits poultry, the fastest growing value chain. The reasons given are noted, but there are significant issues of the competitiveness of commercial poultry in Africa that might been addressed. Even if poultry is to be excluded from CRP3.7 as a target value chain, it might be interesting to use poultry value chains as a benchmark. For two of the value chains reviewed, Sheep in Mali and Dairy in Tanzania, very few researchable constraints are identified, and it is not clearly demonstrated that these value chains would produce significant global public research goods, or represent good value for money. In addition, the Uganda pig meat value chain raises the fundamental question of whether there are sufficient incentives to upgrade what is currently a very low input system. Description of the selected fisheries value chain, makes mention of other value-chain analyses (e.g. USAID Lead (2010)) but little is said about their results or implications for the CRP.In general, the focus on informal value chains tends to provide a pro-poor approach for both the producer and consumer communities. In many cases, better linkages of these informal chains with formal value chains would improve overall efficiency and product quality. The ISPC suggests that the scope of the work cannot address the informal chains without looking at the wider sector in which they operate.The multifunctionality of livestock and its asset value is presented. Nevertheless little follow up is provided in the value chain presentations which appear solely production-and not risk-oriented. Poor women especially will tend to rethink the propositions to commercialise when there is no insurance against failure.The proposal is also disappointing at a strategic level in relation to the extent of coverage of livestock interactions with the environment/natural resources, given the global interest generated by Livestock's Long Shadow. Objective 5 on protection of the natural resource base is not adequately reflected in descriptions of the eight value chains. There was relatively little reference either to the impacts (positive and negative) of manure or the effect of the value chains on ecosystem services such as clean water. The proposal does mention that environmental issues could be addressed with additional funding, but it is surprising that these are not part of the core proposal or linked to research on related topics in other CRPs. This degree of focus runs the risk, therefore, of underplaying delivery of global public goods, a point recognised by the proponents, who have taken some actions -such as selecting 2 sites per value chain to cross reference research findings. It is difficult to see where else in the systemwide CRP portfolio issues such as trends in global markets for livestock products and the overall impact of livestock on the environment might be addressed. Because the proposed research focuses on local case studies, there is danger of missing the bigger picture of how these trends extrapolate to global impact. In fact, local effects may be misleading without linkage to a larger global context.There is also risk that economic changes may alter the relevance of some of the value chains selected, relative to the selection criteria, given that markets for animal protein are dynamic. There is a referenced assumption (p1) that smallholder producers will continue to compete strongly, but that reference is five years old and should be regularly challenged as markets respond. Awareness of global as well as local trends and awareness of emerging trends in larger-scale intensive production will be needed. Evaluation of whether the approach adopted is posing a risk is mentioned by the proponents, but there is little detail on what actions will be taken if small holder production systems become disadvantaged as markets evolve.Overall the natural and social sciences are well integrated. The goal of the program, and the description of the whole in testing a clear hypothesis, is compelling. The choice of research themes is coherent in pursuit of the goal, though the question could be asked (given the management structures proposed) as to why the 3 components of the Technology Development theme are not themes in their own right? The value chain approach is innovative and the choice of value chains provides a tight focus, provided the issue of the IPGs of environmental impact and multifunctionality are addressed.The strong emphasis on the development aspects and the track record of the participating Centers with development projects and the private sector gives confidence in delivery of impact. However, the strong budgetary emphasis on development of upstream technologies needs further justification. The prioritizing of value chains and the commodities to be considered was carried out using appropriate criteria, although attention has already been drawn to the need to revisit these during the 10 year duration of the program. Expectations of impact are conservative, but dependent on scaling out efforts.Communication and its quality i.e. disentangling the local characteristics from the generic public good lessons of the value chains, will be decisive. Comparative studies should assist to get the public good results identified.In the more detailed descriptions in Part 4 for each value chain, the CRP has provided detailed tables of research issues, the potential partners for the research, and outcome for each step in the value chain and address the overall potential for impact for each value chain. Some have set targets in terms of outcomes and impacts while others have not; some have provided simple pathways for impact while others have not; and some have provided indicators for monitoring and evaluation. More consistency in the analysis of impact would improve the Proposal. Thus it is difficult to conclude whether the estimated benefits are plausible. Trade-off analysis is not very prominent in the proposal but is needed to understand risk mitigation and the potential loss or gain of livestock assets when multifunctionality is lost through commercialisation. More emphasis is needed on environment. Frequently waste i.e. manure management is mentioned. Manure represents a valuable resource for soil fertility and may become competitive with high fertilizer prices. Labour has been problematic and technologies to solve this problem in manure collecting, processing and application would be useful but are not offered in the program. Intensification may have positive effects on GHG emissions from ruminants at higher production levels. All together environmental impact should be addressed in the whole value chains: productivity side by side with eco-efficiency. The program does not mention losses in the value chain in informal markets. These can be high, so a first approach could be to identify losses of product and by-products and solutions to gain efficiency overall. Resilience of the value chains has not been mentioned in the program. Which characteristics will determine the adaptability of value chains to new contexts? One can imagine in the future the effects of climate change, but also price volatility, will require appropriate responses in value chains. Efficiency is not the only response to survival of the value chain. What measures will be used for innovation or adaptability?The plans for gender and poverty analysis are clear. This approach provides the program a unique basis for change that will yield new information applicable to both poor producers and consumers.Overall the proposal's structure and the past history of the CGIAR proponents provide reassurance about the potential quality of science, although this is difficult to judge directly in an unfinished proposal. Hypotheses are appropriate in relation to the needs chosen. The literature is up to date and includes a number of very recent publications.Half of the funding is allocated to the technology development theme, recognising the important CGIAR expertise in this area. The health component is well developed in terms of the science, though for livestock it appears more historically science-driven compared to the research on biosecurity and fish health which derives more directly from value chain analysis. For instance, for animal health, more attention might be expected on zoonoses and diseases of intensification. Even overuse and misuse of antibiotics (in feed) has to be addressed in some value chains. The overall impression then is that distinct approaches will be pursued for livestock, separate from fish health which may be appropriate to some extent, but does it miss some potential for synergy?In relation to the component on forages and feeds, the constraints to increasing livestock production have been known for decades and are well documented. A vast array of research information and technologies is also available, much of this developed by three of the Centers involved in the Program.For example, there are some 70,000 accessions in the CGIAR forage germplasm banks, and much is known about their adaptation to climatic, edaphic and biotic factors, their uses and management. An interactive pasture selection tool entitled Tropical Forages is already available on CD, developed by a team that included ILRI and CIAT scientists. Accordingly, agro-ecological zone evaluation of forage accessions should be kept to a minimum. Breeding programs with pasture grasses and legumes are not justified at this stage. The ISPC suggests that there is adequate genetic variation available in the forage germplasm banks that should be initially exploited. Although seed production by CGIAR Centers is necessary in the early stages of new forage cultivar development, this is ultimately a private sector activity. There are myriad crop by-products already locally available in small-scale farming systems, which are under-utilised, wasted or disregarded.The genetics component appears reasonably well integrated (at least as described) both between disciplines and between livestock and fish. Conservation of animal genetic resources requires a clear cut strategy as part of the breeding inputs. Private breeders (international companies) often are not interested, but public support is also problematic. Can researchers offer an attractive commercial deal for both conservation and application (crossbreeding or other use)?The CGIAR has to cooperate with partners that are knowledgeable in the areas of the value chain where the Centers have less experiencesuch as post-harvest losses and processing. The ISPC notes the recognition of the need for research on the trade-offs between feed and food. There was surprisingly little reference to ecosystems, given the interest in other CRPs.The program should be able to provide a multitude of diverse outputs for scientists, for development specialists etc. in line with the great ambition of developing value chains for diverse animal food products. Much depends on the willingness of participating scientists to invest in communication skills and become partners in the process. The balance of more technically-oriented versus social scientists has to be correct, based on a shared interdisciplinary challenge. Moreover communication with, frequently, uneducated woman farmers and consumers requires different skills. Reflective thinking and participative discussions require training. In the program many skills have to be available, not only in the top management, the PPMC, but at all levels in the development of the value chain.The success of a value chain may be dependent on strong farmer organisations for inputs and for better priced products. The conduct of platforms and fora (i.e. negotiation) with all stakeholders including farmer organisations of the value chain to set priorities is essential for analysis and publication. This is a new area and the Program, by comparison of processes and by innovation, can contribute to new outputs. The focus on woman and poor producers and consumers is even more challenging. There is some concern that Subtheme 2.3 (value chain innovation) goes too far downstream and hence risks slipping into direct development work (note for example the statements as -we find it increasingly critical to help developand often create-small business services to support emerging production & marketing systems. This approach will be central to value chain development efforts‖ -page76). Care needs to be taken in development of the operational plan that this is avoided.In general, the researchable constraints and the approaches and methods (scientific and socialscientific) that will be used to address them are well set out and well-referenced. Noting the exceptions above, research activities are feasible and likely to lead to significant new knowledge. The CGIAR Centers have a track record in carrying out research such as that described in the proposal which is highly relevant in the case of Theme 1 and Component 3.1, and significant in the case of Theme 2. More specification of the composition and experience of teams working on Component 3.2 (gender) would be useful. The Proposal provides an analysis of risks inherent in the approach and the research, but this is rather superficial. This part of the Proposal would benefit from a more thorough analysis, perhaps after some of the initial familiarization of the selected value chains, partners and stakeholders have been identified. The critical factor will be the ability of the Program to bring together the good biological science, technology and the social science into a coherent delivery platform.CRP3.7 includes a focused and well-reasoned partnership strategy and allocates the intellectual and financial resources needed to leverage the strategy's full value. The strategy itself moves well beyond the general formulations on the subject of partnership to a much more realistic and disciplined approach to assuring that partnerships are cultivated and utilized effectively. Evidence for this is the inclusion of a Development Manager as part of the program management team who will provide the strategy with CRP-level leadership and coordination, and a recognition expressed in a number of places in the proposal that effective partnerships will require more skill and work than simply identifying the potential range and types of partners and expressing good intentions about their engagement. The inclusion of Capacity Development activities is welcome.The CRP proposes three broad research themes and proposes research on value chains in 10 countries. Each of the themes requires strong partnerships to realize their full potential, but the focus on meat, milk and fish value chains in specific countries is heavily dependent on strengthening existing relationships and cultivating new and meaningful relationships at every level-from -small scale producers, employees…, small scale entrepreneurs,…and consumers‖ through to development partners, and policy makers. The four CGIAR Centers that serve as core partners for the project bring long standing networks and relationships tied to existing projects within each of the seven countries, and also add to the strategy that relies on broader regional and international partners to facilitate investment and dissemination. The proposal clearly identifies the additional points in the program where CRP3.7 dovetails with other CRPs, particularly those dealing with integrated systems and policy. However, it is notable that ICRISAT, one of the CGIAR Centers with a research history in dual purpose crops in South Asia is absent from this proposal. Current research which is not, or may not, going to be prioritised by participants/players in the value chains may cause disillusionment.The proposal identifies two principal types of partners-strategic program partners and value chain partners-as well as a number of roles for partners-those who can advance research, a broad array with the potential to achieve the proposals development goals, and those with the expertise and access to facilitate communication and build broader uptake of the program's results. In addition the proposal highlights the multiple roles of the private sector as science partners and as business partners [p. [75][76]. The latter is defined inclusively to include businesses at every scale, from the small livestock keeper to the multi-national corporation. Close working with partners on specific value chains though may make it difficult to implement exit strategies from specific value chains should that prove necessary if external drivers change the threats and opportunities for individual value chains in relation to the program goal. The involvement of strategic program partners on the Science and Partnership Forum (p 74) is therefore important and could help to challenge the team of the need to generate global public goods.The partnership strategy includes a number of mechanisms to assure its effective implementation-an assessment process to identify the necessary partners, working groups for each value chain, and a recognition that the program staff will need to bring new skills to their assignments, including -interpersonal, facilitation, conflict management, feedback and negotiation skills [p.77].‖ Theme 3, in which monitoring and evaluation will take place, will also play a role by monitoring partnership processes and developing -incentives…for program teams to demonstrate the development and effective management of required partnerships.‖ The results of M and E are essential for comparisons of results across chains and for disentangling local from generic benefits. A basic agreement for data collection is needed and in addition specifics for the chain and local situation.The descriptions of the value chains vary according to experience in the particular country and area. In most cases partner inclusion is logical, but not definitive as the diagnostic studies will yield more contacts, potential organisations and focus. The program shows appropriate awareness of the role of research and development partners. However, as with the identification of previous relevant research, this seems to be still work in progress and the -Partnership Strategy will include an assessment of the actor (sic) and organizational landscape at the national and sub-national levels. Potential partners and their roles have yet to be finally identified from the long list of candidates.The program could pay more attention to basic research and adaptive and applied research phases. The more adaptive research (on farm testing) takes more time and is more costly and raises the question of who will take this on and how will extension, private industry involvement and government contribute? Policy and institutional changes are frequently addressed in the program. Sometimes legal changes are required 2 . Partners for legal change should become involved in the program and for IPR issues.The structure does attempt to address the tension of applying a consortium model to the program (which implies a consultative process of decision making and overall shared ownership of and responsibility for program success and outputs), while still retaining clear leadership roles, and specific accountability for designated elements of the program by each institution and team. The ISPC considers that CRP3.7 proposes a strong and efficient management structure. It demonstrates a realistic grasp of the level and focus of program-level management required to achieve the program integration and partnership goals required by its research structure.The program management staff include clearly identified positions to lead and manage critically important elements of the proposal-partnership development and management, knowledge management and communications, as well as internal monitoring and evaluation. These positions support implementation of the program, but also assure that the strategies for engaging significant new partners and leveraging outcomes have the expertise and attention they require to be successful.The Program Planning and Management Committee's initial membership signals the functionality of the committee. The proposal notes the assumption that the core CGIAR Centers will be adequately represented because of the role of their staff in program leadership. This relieves the committee of having to function as both a management entity and a representative body. The proposal mentions the potential inclusion of external partners who invest and play critical roles comparable to the core Centers. This may be a practical necessity and a good thing, but it may also compromise the focus, function and rigor of the PPMC if it becomes a mechanism for recognizing investors. A reassuring counterweight to this possibility is the care with which the proposal describes the working values that will guide the CRP. The CRP argues persuasively that the program's development and implementation reflect a commitment to -a consortium model [for] the partnership [p.69].‖ In pursuing this approach, the lead institution is not only required to engage in consultative, joint decision making with other core partners, but also -to generally cede a significant part of the strategic decision process to the partnership [p.69].‖ While this could be viewed as reassuring rhetoric, the overall structure, focus and tone of the proposal support the likelihood that this is not an empty commitment on the part of ILRI. The ISPC does not find it necessary to comment (as with many other CRPs) on the lead Center's relationship with the Program Director, both because the position has the necessary authority to deliver effective management of the CRP and because the Lead Center's DG is not given an out-of-scale role in program management. Whilst the role of the Program Director was clear and appropriate, the mechanism for appointing the leads of the 3 Technology Development components and the other 2 themes was not clear. For example, with respect to the Health component, the approaches for livestock and fish health seem very distinct; will one person represent both or will there be 2 representatives to ensure that World Fish has an adequate representation on the Committee?If the proposal has one management shortcoming, it is the lack of an integrated strategy for resource mobilization that is expressed as part of program-level management-although this may be a responsibility of the Development Manager. In the proposal, the program teams for the value chains are expected to identify partners who will invest in the program, and internal M&E will include this as an element in evaluating team performance. Also in the proposal, strategic partners are defined in part by the level of investment they make, and finally, the budget estimates include a -global budget‖ that identifies approximately $20 million in additional investments required to fully scale and implement the CRP. The program should articulate its goals and strategy for resource mobilization more clearly; partners and donors are conflated throughout the proposal-sometimes they will be one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. In a world in which significant investments of resources will be required (and are justified), the word -donor‖ is not unseemly.This committee has three functions-one is to provide strategic advice and oversight to the CRP, the second is to facilitate linkages with global and regional stakeholders, and the third is to report annually to the ILRI DG and Board as part of the CRP's accountability process. In its first two functions, it reports to the PPMC and Program Director and is intended to be a powerful contributor to strategy and prioritization by offering advice and independent assessment of science quality and impact. Its reporting relationship to both management and the Lead Center's governing body is potentially workable-providing independent oversight closely linked to the CRP without adding additional complexity to oversight. To make this work, it will be important to ensure that the committee is more clearly defined than it is now. Although the general framework for its composition is clear, the proposal does not indicate how its members will be appointed and for how long. There is no indication of its optimum size and, as now described, it has no Chair or similar leadership. Because the SPAC reports first to the PPMC and Program Director, and then to ILRI's Board, it is important that responsibility for identifying its members does not rest wholly on the Program Director. In addition, it will be important to identify the criteria for inclusion on the committee to avoid it becoming a high level holding area for partners and donors that need visible recognition and influence as a condition of their support and engagement.Financial Soundness: The budget narrative and projected income and expenses are clear, although program management and communications are combined in the budget presentation. While the overall allocation appears to be reasonable and consistent with other CRPs, the proposal describes a very extensive knowledge sharing and communication strategy that implies a substantial (and appropriate) investment. On a very minor note, the budget allocations for the individual value chains (which are aggregated into Theme 2) are clearly described in the narrative but would have had additional clarity if represented in a table.Over three years, the CGIAR Fund is projected to provide $35.2 million toward a total program budget of $99.6 million [Table 3.7,p. 97]. As noted earlier, the budget presentation includes a -budget for global outcomes‖ [Table 2.8], which argues for an additional $20 million investment in the program.The proposal includes a clear and persuasive rationale for what the additional investment would achieve and also notes that it -would require higher levels of funding from multiple sources [p.98].‖ It goes on to note that some aspects of the proposal assume greater capacity to raise additional resources (the value chain components) than others (technology development). This raises the question of whether the CRP is requesting sufficient support from the CGIAR Fund. It also raises the question of whether -global outcomes‖ are within reach, because the core partners have the capacity or have identified a strategy, to raise the balance, or their achievement is at risk. In a proposal that is generally clear and straightforward, this final section is less so. Does the proposal need more from the Fund than it indicates? If it is outlining the additional funds it will seek (with some confidence) from others, that should have also been made clearer. Finally, detail on how the competitive grant scheme would be operated was rather light.The Science and Partnership Advisory Committee has been referred to above. With some careful adjustments, this committee is in a position to provide the CRP with a mechanism for independent and effective oversight.","tokenCount":"5666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"831b2cd66040f1075695448a84de1d13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4e9499e-a29d-43ba-a746-574cca6bc582/retrieve","id":"-1015437385"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"36e4d205-774e-4cd4-bb24-58b1c73cbbb9","pagecount":"10","content":"At this meeting apart from value chain actors that had already attended previous IP meetings, goatkeeper representatives from each of the village were present. The detailed list of participants is given in Annexure 1.A total of 38 samples from 7 different villages were tested of which 33 tested positive gastro-intestinal parasites. Nematode and coccidia infestations were the most common parasites found. Please refer Annexure-3 for details. Based on these results, it was decided to first focus on nematodes for which the treatment was changed from Albendazole (a broad spectrum dewormer) to Pyrantel tartrate (Banminth, for nematodes). Dosage used is 5ml per 20kg body wt. The • Review action plans and follow up actions taken up during the last month • Identify any new emerging issues in villages • Action plan to continue with health related efforts -Collection of faecal samples by the field guides, taking them to AHD, understanding the diagnosis report and give the feedback to the concerned households• Action plan to continue with marketing efforts treatment against coccidia is more expensive and at present it was decided to not immediately focus on combatting this parasite. If the treatment of nematodes yields good results, then treatment of coccidia would be taken up with interested goatkeepers.This approach of testing and treating based on results is very useful. The awareness level among the field guides about the purpose of gastro intestinal parasite treatment is well understood. Also the process of taking the samples to the Regional Diagnostic laboratory is well understood by the field guides.Taking up treatment for coccidia on large scale would be difficult.Budget restrictions do not allow at this moment to treat for coccidia on a large scale since these additional costs were not anticipated.The animals will now be monitored as we will try to assess the effectiveness of the gastro-intestinal parasite treatment. For this, the faecal samples will now be collected again for the same group of animals after a period of 21 days.Health camps in villages as scheduled in the fourth IP meetingOne day before the planned health camp in the village, the field guide along with the IP representative and the respective group representatives from the village went door to door and intimated the other goatkeepers about the health camp, the time and location where the animals can be brought.The IP representative was involved in planning the camp and was present during the entire camp activities. IP member was expected to take feedback from the goatkeepers about the camp and share at the next IP meeting.The medicines, gastro-intestinal parasite treatment, vaccines and syringes were brought from the BAIF office. Arrangements were made to store the vaccines in cold storage box.The village-wise details of the health camps are presented in Annexure 4. In the Kantharia cluster, 2102 animals were vaccinated for PPR, 2880 animals were given treated against gastro-intestinal parasites and 84 animals were treated for injuries.In the Jhadol cluster, 1802 animals were vaccinated for PPR and 2137 animals were treated against gastro-intestinal parasites.Interestingly, the number of animals castrated at the camps was negligible. This indicates low awareness among the goatkeepers about castration and its advantages. Please refer to Annexure-4 for more details.The camps were organized as per the dates planned in the fourth IP meeting. The IP representative participated in organizing the camp actively. Some of the learnings of the field guides are as follows (as per their feedback on the visit):• Good goat husbandry practices • Rearing of Sirohi breeding bucks could be an additional source of income • Separate housing for bucks and does and maintain proper sanitation • Feeding of goats with a mixture of dried grass and leaves during feed scarce months• Use of feeding trough to maintain hygiene and avoid contamination with faeces. It also avoids wastage of feed material.• Plantation of fodder trees on private lands • Supply of essential minerals by giving mineral mixtureThe field guides are now motivated to share the knowledge gained from the visit with the goat keepers during the monthly group meetings.Why?What is the priority action now?Options available What will be done? Who will do it? By when?To whom, when and how will progress be reported? A small team to visit market at Surat to understand the market and also to establish any potential linkages with distant traders A team comprising of IP members along with BAIF team was identified (dates to be decided).Trainings on managing improved breed goats --for all the goat keepers participating in the projectCluster-wise trainings planned between Jan-March.BAIF team to chalk out plan and organizeInternal monitoring system of BAIFDr. Avinash Deo, Project Coordinator from BAIF who participated in this meeting, explained the importance of mineral mixture in improving productivity of the animals. Later, sample mineral mixture blocks were distributed among the IP members.Other issues raised by the goat keepers at the meeting and discussed include: request for making available female goats of the Sirohi breed, tank/ tub for drinking water for goats, failure of female goats to conceive, health problems such as ecto-parasites, cyanide poisoning due to goats after consuming pods of Acacia leaucopholea.The date for next IP meeting is tentatively agreed as February 16, 2012. The location will be at the same venue at Jhadol. ","tokenCount":"865"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a80ce6aeae147cb262369e53556a24ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/72973a35-e5e7-460e-8114-8330c3364287/retrieve","id":"611825941"},"keywords":["digital platforms","digital methods","nowcasting","food security"],"sieverID":"4abc563b-61e0-4c54-ab80-9b763f085a95","pagecount":"8","content":"Given the growing significance of internet-based information flows, this research proposes a conceptual framework that integrates digital platforms to nowcast social phenomena, applied to the context of food security monitoring in the Global South. Building on the foundations of Digital Methods and online issue mapping, our research objective is to establish a multi-modal, multi-media model that monitors events from different perspectives to identify potential early warning signals arising from the data, ultimately informing policy actors and supporting early action. We apply three analytical processes: social listening, media monitoring and search interest analysis. Exploratory analysis on data from Zimbabwe point to the feasibility of the models applied to identify food security dimensions in text and search engine data. Further analysis is needed to interpret converging and diverging trends across the data streams, and their implications to food insecurity early warning.Given the growing significance of internet-based information flows (Carneiro et al., 2022), this research proposes a conceptual framework that integrates digital platforms to nowcast social phenomena, applied to the context of food security monitoring in the Global South. The issue is pertinent because despite years of decrease, there is a current upsurge in food insecurity, and addressing this challenge requires comprehending the various factors contributing to it (Balashankar et al., 2023;Queiroz et al., 2021). However, while hazards to food security like climate shocks, conflicts, or market disturbances are extensively monitored through traditional A multi-platform framework for nowcasting social phenomena: a case study for food insecurity quantitative and qualitative means, the application of digital platforms analysis can enhance localized knowledge about potential areas of concern.Figure 1 presents a systematization of our proposed framework. Our research objective is to establish a multi-modal, multi-media model that monitors events from different perspectives to identify potential early warning signals arising from the data, ultimately informing policy actors and supporting early action. The framework relies on the foundations of the digital methods epistemology, which seeks to explain social phenomena through online dynamics (Rogers, 2013) and specifically on the approach of online issue mapping (Rogers, 2015). Online issue mapping brings forth a set of digital techniques for the detection, analysis and visualisation of topical affairs. It leverages on textual, visual and network analysis to understand how issue are formed in digital environments. Its interdisciplinary approach aims to answer questions such as 'is this topic an issue?', 'who are its actors?' 'what are its animating concerns?', and 'where are the issues happening (media, institutional locations, geography)?'.It has been recognized that online spaces offer opportunities for analysing and visualising contemporary issue dynamics due to several aspects: issue traces are accessible online; the analytics leverage on the dynamic features and affordances of online media; and digital platforms provide data (for instance, metadata, links, hashtags, mentions, etc.) that can be structured for systematic analysis (Carneiro et al., 2022).To achieve our aim, we apply three analytical processes. First, social listening and media monitoring aim to cover different dimensions of public discourse, at different timespans. While the social media dimension provides insights into the interests, concerns, and opinions of the general public, news media enables insights into \"traditional\" event coverage, with more established actors and discourses. Thirdly, as the Google search engine is the most visited website in the world, understanding what people are searching in it can reveal the level of interest in a particular topic. Effectively, the predictive potential of Google Trends supports social listening and media monitoring for nowcasting, as evidenced in the literature (Choi & Varian, 2012). The next section describes the final levels of the framework, pertaining to platforms and data sources.A multi-platform framework for nowcasting social phenomena: a case study for food insecurity Figure 1. A multi-platform framework to monitor strategic issuesFor the social listening component, Telegram has been selected. Launched as a messaging app in 2013, Telegram is a currently a digital platform that allows users to create and subscribe to broadcasting channels and create and join discussion groups. It currently has 800 million active users on average, per month. Most importantly, Telegram provides an open API, which emables the extraction of publicly available data from channels and groups.Media monitoring is performed through data provided by Media Cloud, an open source platform for media analysis aimed at academic research 1 . The platform monitors more than 60 thousand online media sources, with stories processed daily. It also contains curated country collections, enabling granularity in local news collection.Lastly, search engine data is collected though Google Trends, adapting the daily economic sentiment index (DESI) approach proposed by Eichenauer et al. (2022).A dedicated software was developed to extract, filter, and visualize Telegram data available on the platform's API. The data collection begins with the creation of curated lists of relevant Telegram groups and channels, which are uploaded to the tool and their content can then be queried, exported and manipulated. To capture diverging perspectives, data collection covers content generated within our countries of interest (i.e. based on groups and channels from the country in question), as well as content that mentions the country in external or global groups.News media is queried through Media Cloud's API following a similar structure, where national and local news sources from the countries in question are collected, as well as news stories from global sources that mention the country in the headline.For Google Trends, the first step of data collection involved determining the main predictors of food insecurity. For this, we leveraged in prior work that used natural language processing to classify food security dimensions in publicly available reports by the USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). A LASSO regression was applied on the classification results from the NLP model to identify the predictors of food insecurity . The top ten positive features were selected, after excluding those disease-related, such as Covid-19 or Ebola, due to their time or geographic specificity. For each country of interest, a long-run frequency-consistent daily trend of food insecurity was constructed.Each of our sources require analytical approaches that leverage on their affordances. Text mining models developed for topic classification and sentiment analysis of food security reporting by FEWS NET were adjusted and combined with visual analysis and machine learning models to monitor and identify the prevalence of food insecurity drivers from diverse perspectives and timescales. Determining the continuous associations and dynamics between drivers supports the identification of potential food insecurity hotspots.Supervised text mining is applied to all textual data using the previously developed analytical framework and taxonomy for detection of food security-related topics. Leveraging on visual media disseminated on Telegram, the BLIP algorithm (Junnan Li et al., 2022) is applied to generate image captions that describe any images shared on posts. These captions are then combined with the text from the post body, and topic classification is applied. In addition, sentiment analysis is performed using the Syuzhet package (Jockers, 2015). TF-IDF analysis is also performed to identify significant and emerging terminology. Specifically for news media, existing Media Cloud algorithms for entity recognition are used to detect people, organizations, and geographic coverage of news stories.For search interest, the final time series constructed for each country represents a synthetic search interest (SSI) index for food insecurity based on Google Trends data. In the final step of our procedure, weights were applied to allow for cross-country comparison. The first weight has been constructed by considering the worldwide Google Trends interest of each topic while the second one relied on yearly data of internet penetration (WB, 2024) (inverse) to compensate for the digital divide among countries.Zimbabwe was selected as the pilot country to test the application of this framework. The results presented here are descriptive in nature as the analysis is ongoing and further interpretation is needed.670,562 news stories were collected through Media Cloud 2018-2023. Text mining was applied to the headlines. Figure 2 shows the most prevalent topics in news stories from Zimbabwe, and figure 3 presents the aggregated sentiment for these stories.A list of Telegram groups and channels was curated, as well as a list of Africa-level groups and channels. Four lists of Zimbabwean national and local news sources were used for news data collection, as well as news stories from global English language news sources that mention Zimbabwe. In total, 113,279 posts were collected between 2017-2023. Figure 4 shows the most prevalent topics in groups and channels from Zimbabwe, and figure 5 presents the aggregated sentiment for these posts. The synthetic search interest index (SSI) for food insecurity in Zimbabwe is presented in figure 6.Creating a nowcasting tool to detect food insecurity and food shocks requires the integration of the diverse data streams (as represented in Figures 2-6) into a unified analysis platform. Timeseries analysis enables to track trends over time, employing models that can handle seasonality, trends, and irregular patterns to predict imminent shocks or stressors. Anomaly detection algorithms can be applied to identify sudden changes in the data that deviate from historical patterns, which could indicate emerging crises. Real-time changes in the data can be visualized through an integrative dashboard.     The aim of the multi-platform framework for nowcasting is to enable high frequency monitoring of potential food insecurity concerns at the country level, based on machine learning analysis of textual and image data from digitally native sources. Exploratory analysis on data from Zimbabwe point to the feasibility of the models applied to identify food security dimensions in text and search engine data. Further analysis is needed to interpret converging and diverging trends across the data streams, and their implications to food insecurity early warning.","tokenCount":"1576"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"af9a3d29043c9169b71d975612d50866","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b42a9950-954a-45f7-b6fc-03c06d7df1d7/retrieve","id":"1382558146"},"keywords":["• P661 -1.2.4 Comparative Science","Technology","and Innovation Systems in Developing-Country Agriculture OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"cc37c11e-d57d-4132-af98-40a1fd20c374","pagecount":"5","content":"The Nigerian authorities approved for general release the genetically engineered pod borer resistant cowpea in 2019. Support from the Program for Biosafety Systems included over a decade of institutional and individual capacity building on regulatory issues and more recently led to a credible and robust ex ante economic assessment of insect resistant cowpea.Cowpea is the most important grain legume crop in Nigeria and in West Africa as a whole. Its per capita consumption is one of the largest in the world and is increasing over time. Among the key challenges to cowpea production is damage by the pod borer insect. To address this problem, international and African researchers have been collaborating for over two decades to develop an insect resistant variety.In December 2019, Nigerian authorities approved a new pod borer resistant (PBR) variety, developed using the tools of modern biotechnology, for release to farmers [1]. This is the first time a biotech staple crop is approved in Nigeria.The approval was granted following science-based testing and a safety evaluation led by Nigerian experts with support and capacity building on regulatory issues provided by the International Food Policy Research Institute's Program for Biosafety Systems and other partners. Support included assistance to develop biosafety protocols, guidelines and administrative structures and harmonize decision-making processes across relevant agencies.In addition, decision makers were keen to understand the potential economic benefits of the new variety. In 2017, the Program for Biosafety Systems' team partnered with the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria to conduct an ex ante economic assessment. Led by a Nigerian economist, Professor Dayo Phillip, with input from local experts including Professor Ishiyaku (principal investigator of the PBR Cowpea project in Nigeria), the team used DREAMpy [2], a software developed by IFPRI researchers, to estimate the economic gains from the adoption of the new variety as well as the cost of delaying this adoption [3]. Results showed that the estimated benefits for producers and consumers would average USD 350 million in net present value, 70 percent of which would be accrued by producers, and that a five-year regulatory delay would decrease the estimated benefits by 35 percent.Professor Phillip presented preliminary results at the May 2019 annual PBR Cowpea Review and Planning Meeting convened at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, where he received feedback from Nigerian and international experts. In December 2019, Professor Phillip and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria presented the final estimations to the National Variety Release Committee's technical team. Together with the safety assessment, evidence of the estimated benefits of PBR cowpea contributed to the path-breaking release of this new variety.Part II: CGIAR system level reporting• 440 -The first genetically-engineered crop in Nigeria (insect-resistant cowpea) was approved for general release following an ex ante assessment and capacity building on regulatory issues by the Program for Biosafety Systems. (https://tinyurl.com/2owovx5q)Cowpea is the most important grain legume crop in Nigeria and in West Africa as a whole. Its per capita consumption is one of the largest in the world and is increasing over time. Among the key challenges to cowpea production is damage by the pod borer insect. To address this problem, international and African researchers have been collaborating for over two decades to develop an insect resistant variety.In December 2019, Nigerian authorities approved a pod borer resistant (PBR) variety, developed using the tools of modern biotechnology, for release to farmers [1]. This is the first time a biotech staple crop is approved in Nigeria.The approval was granted following science-based testing and a safety evaluation led by Nigerian experts with support and capacity building on regulatory issues provided by the International Food Policy Research Institute's Program for Biosafety Systems and other partners. Support included assistance to develop biosafety protocols, guidelines and administrative structures and harmonize decision-making processes across relevant agencies.In addition, decision makers were keen to understand the potential economic benefits of the new variety. In 2017, the Program for Biosafety Systems' team partnered with the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria to conduct an ex ante economic assessment. Led by a Nigerian economist, Professor Dayo Phillip, with input from local experts, including Professor Ishiyaku (principal investigator of the PBR Cowpea project in Nigeria), the team used an economic surplus partial equilibrium model run with the newly developed DREAMpy software [2] with data drawn from the Nigeria General Household Survey 2015-2016 and other local sources to estimate the economic gains from the adoption of the new variety as well as the cost of delaying this adoption [3]. Results showed that the estimated benefits for producers and consumers would average USD 350 million in net present value, 70 percent of which would be accrued by producers, and that a five-year regulatory delay would decrease the estimated benefits by 35 percent.Professor Phillip presented preliminary results at the May 2019 annual PBR Cowpea Review and Planning Meeting convened at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, where he received feedback from Nigerian and international experts. In December 2019, Professor Phillip and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria presented the final estimations to the National Variety Release Committee's technical team. Together with the safety assessment, evidence of the estimated benefits of PBR cowpea contributed to the path-breaking release of this new variety.","tokenCount":"861"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"81fd90faec075edcb9e665a76a43f9b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f540e9f2-2df6-4798-a153-8aec7c948f27/retrieve","id":"-198828383"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9dfc5f77-df03-4b6b-825e-af6279646b8b","pagecount":"5","content":"Extreme climate variations, including rising temperatures, droughts, floods, storms, unpredictable rainfall, and others, have significantly decreased agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The extreme events and climate shocks exacerbated by climate change also occur more frequently and severely on the continent, with disastrous effects on livelihoods, agriculture and food security, human settlements, and ecosystems. In response, the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) requested the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to lead initiatives with partners and provide every citizen across the globe access to reliable, accurate, and timely disaster early warning systems for enhanced resilience against climate variability and change.The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which contains nearly a third of SSA's population, has recently been subjected to more frequent and severe perennial tropical cyclones, storms, and droughts. In 2021-22 alone, six major cyclones affected over 2.5 million people in Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. During this period, 12 SADC Member States also experienced climate-related shocks that left 55.7 million people with food insecurity. The impact was Climate-informed crop intelligence technologies are vital for building the resilience of food systems against the impacts of extremes in climate variation and climate change. As a result, agricultural policymakers, practitioners, and planners have used them to make tactical and strategic decisions, including estimating agricultural inputs needed months before the crop-growing season, selecting potential management practices, estimating crop performance and yields under various seasonal climate forecast scenarios, and providing anticipatory options against climate change. They may also be used in crop insurance evaluation schemes since they track real-time crop growth and estimate yield loss. Such tools are especially important in the SADC region, where severe weather and climate shocks have become more frequent and stronger in recent years, with catastrophic effects on livelihoods, food security, agriculture, human habitations, and ecosystems. As a result, the regional partners developed a user-friendly crop capability prediction tool and then conducted a series of capacity-building training in the SADC region. This capacity-building activity, however, requires the full cooperation of relevant national and regional organizations, initiatives, and governments in the region to be sustainable and have a long-term impact.severe in the agriculture sector, which is predominantly rain-fed, even though a bigger portion of the population (about 70%) depends on it for food, income, and jobs. Given the reality of climate change and its consequences in the region, it is important to employ technologies, including the crop intelligence tool, to improve resilience and adaptability. In this context, Africa must commit $50 billion annually to various adaptation strategies to combat the effects of climate change and variability.Climate-informed crop intelligence tools are vital in our efforts to plan and direct agriculture sector adaptation measures effectively. One such tool is the Climate-Agriculture-Modelling and Decision Tool (CAMDT). It was developed at International Climate for Society to prepare inputs for crop-yield simulation software -the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). Agricultural institutions, policymakers, input providers, local cooperatives, and community-based groups utilize this seasonal climate forecast-driven crop yield modeling to manage their inputs more efficiently and effectively. The appropriate modifications of CAMDT also help to generate crop capability products that predict crop yields as early as the crop-growing season and assist the agriculture sector in adapting to the changing climate. Moreover, this tool has application in crop insurance assessment by predicting yield loss. Therefore, access to and use of such helpful tools is critical for making appropriate and effective decisions that prevent, limit, and/or manage climate risks in agricultural production systems.Due to the recent increases in the frequency and intensity of tropical storms, the ACPC has developed an analytical framework to evaluate the Socioeconomic Benefits (SEB) of Climate Information Services (CIS) in the disaster risk reduction sector. According to the study's findings, investing in CIS may have a benefit-to-cost ratio of 10, suggesting that ten dollars are obtained as an added benefit or avoided cost for every dollar invested. The study results were then presented during the \"Building Back Better workshop from tropical Cyclone Idai and Kenneth,\" which caused significant loss and damage to the human/livestock, property, and infrastructure in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The workshop was held in November 2019 in Harare, Zimbabwe, and attended by over 100 policymakers, planners, academics, practitioners, and other important stakeholders from the SADC countries.In this workshop, the ACPC has been tasked to develop a user-friendly climate-informed crop prediction tool that supports decision-making in strengthening the resilience of the food systems against the impacts of climate change. This challenge comes from the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, and Rural Resettlement in the Zimbabwean Cabinet.Accordingly, the ACPC and its regional partners commissioned a series of studies and developed a tool that translates the seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasts into better agricultural management. Three crops-rice, maize, and sorghum-were chosen to assess the efficiency of the crop capability prediction tool, and the results were satisfactory. This tool was later validated by various experts from SADC countries in November 2021 in Lilongwe, Malawi. At the end of the validation workshop, experts recognized the potential applications of this tool in crop yield prediction, forecasting crop deficits/surpluses, early warning actions with unprecedented time leads, and other fields. They advised regional partners to pursue rigorous regional capacitybuilding activity for maximum impact (Figure 1).The combined seasonal crop-climate forecasting tool (CAMDT-DSSAT) helps inform decisions well ahead of the likely impacts of climate variability or climate change, increases crop production and farm profitability, and reduces climate risks. Therefore, hands-on training on using a crop capability prediction tool is critical to consciously build a critical mass of experts to support existing and future initiatives on agriculture and food systems resilience in the SADC region.On this premise, AICCRA, in collaboration with the ACPC, WMO-ROA, Digitron-Zimbabwe, and CCARDESA, established a cohort of interdisciplinary trainers to enable them to analyze the impacts of extreme climate variations and climate change on agriculture and food security in SADC region. The acquired knowledge from the ToT workshops (both theoretical and practical) will be used to support early warning and anticipatory actions by providing evidence-based advice to policymakers and practitioners. It is, therefore, imperative to provide the much-needed skills to help communities improve their efficiencies in agricultural production systems by minimizing inputs, such as fertilizers, irrigation, or other applications. The climate-informed decision support tool is critical in our efforts to build the resilience of food systems against the impacts of climate change in the SADC region and beyond. Acknowledging the significant impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector of SADC countries and following the adoption of the Maputo Declaration by the SADC Ministers to enhance Early Warning and Early Action in the region, the following are recommended for better application and use of the crop prediction tool in the region: Climate-informed crop prediction tools should be harnessed in the SADC region to make appropriate climate risk management and food security planning decisions. Results from the combined CAMDT-DSSAT crop models indicated that about 20-80% of the inter-annual variability of crop yields in SSA is associated with weather phenomena, while about 5-10% of agricultural production losses are attributed to climate variability. Therefore, the crop prediction tool can help drive efficiency in agricultural production systems by making sound farm-and policy-level decisions. It specifically helps policymakers, practitioners, and planners to better understand and predict the properties of agricultural production systems well ahead of the crop-growing season. It allows them to take appropriate pre-emptive actions against the impact of climate shocks. These tools also have potential in crop insurance mechanisms as they track real-time crop growth and predict yield loss. Continuous improvement of this tool is, however, needed to predict the crop yield accurately in diverse agroecologies and management practices.Relevant stakeholders should support the ongoing capacity-building activity for efficient and resilient agricultural production systems in the region. With its numerous benefits in agriculture as well as early warning and early action initiatives, there is a need for sustained awareness creation and capacitybuilding training on the tool in the SADC region. This, however, requires strong collaborations and partnerships among different national and regional actors. In this regard, the Ministries responsible for Agriculture and Meteorology in the SADC Member States, the SADC Secretariat, CCARDESA, and development partners such as the World Bank shall be aware of the tool's existence and extend their hands to ensure its sustainability beyond the project implementation period. Such concerted efforts will build a critical mass of skilled workforce who can better undertake national and regional adaptation and mitigation initiatives in response to climate change. ","tokenCount":"1401"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2dcf9f726f45393d4fd8e6f6212e3b01","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3b9bcd9-74c5-4a0f-8f8e-56c995d73778/retrieve","id":"-1068910178"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f77972e-afb9-4178-bd88-cc15428f6b2d","pagecount":"25","content":"C CI C C CIP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P 20 20 2 20 2 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 0  2 2 2 20 20 20 20 0  20 20 20 20 2 2 2 2 20 20 20 20 2 20 20 20 20 0  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 0  20 20 20 20 20 0 0 0  20 20 20 20 20 0 0  20 2 2 20 0 0  2 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 0  20 2 2 20 2 2 20 20    9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9  ","tokenCount":"346"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/3273169683.json b/data/part_2/3273169683.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6435197322387be83dcc997a34721f4d9202cec4
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c66ff3a768a11ce2f4f429a7cee1971","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ee0a67ad-8690-4fb8-9976-264e361931ea/content","id":"851356772"},"keywords":["Fernández-Gaxiola, A.C.","Cruz-Casarrubias, C.","food environment","Nutri-Score","food retail","health and nutrition claims","food prices","Latin America"],"sieverID":"61e0d610-d75a-423c-abde-8fc60d1c70f9","pagecount":"16","content":"The contributions of processed foods to the overweight and obesity problem in Latin America are well known. Engagement with the private and public sectors on possible solutions requires deeper insights into where and how these products are sold and the related implications for diet quality. This article characterizes the diversity of wheat and maize processed foods (WMPFs) available to consumers in Mexico City. Data were gathered across nine product categories at different points of sale (supermarkets, small grocery stores, convenience stores) in high and low socioeconomic (SE) areas. We assessed WMPFs based on Nutri-Score profile, price, and health and nutrition claims. Roughly 17.4% of the WMPFs were considered healthy, of which 62.2% were pastas and breads. Availability of healthy WMPFs was scarce in most stores, particularly in convenience stores Compared to supermarkets in the low SE area, those in the high SE area exhibited greater variety in access to healthy WMPFs across all product categories. In the low SE area, healthy WMPFs were priced 16-69% lower than unhealthy WMPFs across product categories. The extensive variety of unhealthy WMPFs, the limited stock of healthy WMPFs in most retail outlets, and the confusing health and nutrition claims on packaging make it difficult for urban consumers to find and choose healthy WMPFs.Food processors and food retailers target specific products to specific subgroups of consumers in response to heterogeneity in economic, demographic, and behavioral factors. In providing food products tailored to meet consumer demands [1][2][3], segmentation strategies potentially deliver higher sales and profits for processors and retailers. In North America and Europe, research has supported these strategies by shedding light on consumer-related trends and issues related to, for example, perceptions on GMObased foods [4], attitudes towards nutrition [5], food safety and quality (including organic and locally produced) [6], and acceptance of new food and agricultural products [7][8][9]. Discussions have explored potential solutions to address the private sector's targeting of poorer areas with less-healthy and lower-cost foods, including the promotion of farmers' markets in lower-income areas [10,11]. However, limited research has examined how the food industry in developing and emerging economies targets different products to adolescents, and 76.8% and 73% of adult women and men [30], and lowering these levels is a major public health priority. Among foods produced in Mexico, WMPFs represent roughly 30.7% of total food processing sector sales [31]. Maize tortillas; maize products (20.6%); and sweet, white, and wheat breads (11.5%) account for 32.1% of total energy intake in the Mexican diet [32]. Ultraprocessed foods based on wheat and maize ingredients (i.e., cookies, pastries, salty snacks, and ready-to-eat cereals) comprise a major component of the Mexican diet (16.2% of total energy intake) [33]. A research group at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico recently reported that maize tortillas and tortilla products contributed 20.6% of total energy intake in the diet in the Mexican population, while fruits and vegetables, by comparison, contributed only 5.6% [32].Nutrients 2022, 13, x 3 of 18 contributed to the rapid increase in obesity occurring in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America [29]. In Mexico, overweight and obesity are present in 35.6% of school-aged children, 38.4% of adolescents, and 76.8% and 73% of adult women and men [30], and lowering these levels is a major public health priority. Among foods produced in Mexico, WMPFs represent roughly 30.7% of total food processing sector sales [31]. Maize tortillas; maize products (20.6%); and sweet, white, and wheat breads (11.5%) account for 32.1% of total energy intake in the Mexican diet [32]. Ultraprocessed foods based on wheat and maize ingredients (i.e., cookies, pastries, salty snacks, and ready-to-eat cereals) comprise a major component of the Mexican diet (16.2% of total energy intake) [33]. A research group at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico recently reported that maize tortillas and tortilla products contributed 20.6% of total energy intake in the diet in the Mexican population, while fruits and vegetables, by comparison, contributed only 5.6% [32]. This study seeks insights into the following two questions: (1) What are the characteristics of WMPFs in terms of nutritional quality, health and nutrition claims, and price? (2) How do these vary by levels of socioeconomic attainment and points of sale? The findings here will allow for insights on the nutritional challenge and possible entry points for future engagement with public and private sectors on potential options for promoting increased access to healthy WMPFs for different types of urban consumers.This cross-sectional study presents data on access to WMPFs collected in Mexico City and its surrounding area between March and June 2019. Principal component analysis was used to characterize \"basic geographical areas\" (BGAs)-administrative units in Mex- This study seeks insights into the following two questions: (1) What are the characteristics of WMPFs in terms of nutritional quality, health and nutrition claims, and price? (2) How do these vary by levels of socioeconomic attainment and points of sale? The findings here will allow for insights on the nutritional challenge and possible entry points for future engagement with public and private sectors on potential options for promoting increased access to healthy WMPFs for different types of urban consumers.This cross-sectional study presents data on access to WMPFs collected in Mexico City and its surrounding area between March and June 2019. Principal component analysis was used to characterize \"basic geographical areas\" (BGAs)-administrative units in Mexico City for which data were available. The analysis included 14 variables on socioeconomic (SE) characteristics: housing materials and access to public utilities (e.g., floor type electricity, running water), material goods (e.g., ownership of televisions and refrigerators), and population characteristics (e.g., years of education, access to health care services, and employment). BGA-level data and information on frequency and location of stores were obtained from the National Statistic Directory of Economic Units and the National Population and Household Census 2010. Those BGAs which did not contain at least two supermarkets and two independently owned grocery stores were excluded. BGAs were categorized into low and high SE BGAs using their first and last deciles of the first principal component of SE characteristics. These criteria resulted in eight high SE areas and eight low SE areas in Mexico City and its surroundings; i.e., the high SE was in the Polanco area, the low SE was in the Chimalhuacán area. Additionally, field reconnaissance of each selected area was conducted to assess diversity in the type of food retailer and ensure the minimum number of food retail outlets, as well as their distribution, for the final selection of the two areas for the study.Four types of food retail outlets were considered for each area: chain supermarkets, independently owned grocery stores, convenience stores, and corner stores. Trained personnel visited each store in a selected SE area and included adjacent BGAs if a specific type of food retailer was not accessible to the data collection team. Twenty-seven food retail outlets were confirmed within each SE area. We were able to increase the final sample to 2 convenience stores (which were not originally included), 2 neighborhood corner stores, and 20 independently owned grocery stores in both areas and 3 supermarkets in the high SE area and 2 supermarkets in the low SE area. Most low SE areas did not contain a chain supermarket, thus requiring adjustments in the field to ensure adequate supermarket coverage.We distinguished nine categories of WMPFs for inclusion in the study: ready-to-eat foods, breakfast cereals, salty snacks, cookies, flour, breads, bars and pastries, pastas, and maize tortillas and tortilla products. Within each category, we considered only packaged and labeled products, regardless of origin, which listed wheat or maize among the first three ingredients. We excluded nonpackaged products from traditional stores such as bakeries and tortillerias. Data were collected by taking photographs of information available on each product in the selected product categories at the store. A standardized methodology [34] was applied for the assessment of each product where a set of photographs captured the following: front of package, content, serving size, number of servings, bar code, nutritional information, ingredients, health and nutrition claims, and price.Each product was classified according to its Nutri-Score profile [35]. The score considers calories, nutrients, and ingredients. Based on the score, each food is classified into one of five Nutri-Score profiles (from the healthiest to the least healthy): A (score ≤ −1), B (score 0-2), C (score 3-10), D (score [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], and E (score ≥ 19). Nutrients and ingredients that negatively impact health include calories, sugars, saturated fats, and sodium, while those with a positive impact include fruits, vegetables, fiber, and protein. Negative nutrients and ingredients can take 10 points each while positive ones can add 5 points each [35] As a result, the healthiest products should not only contain nutrients and ingredients with a potentially positive impact on health but also be free of nutrients and ingredients with a potentially negative impact on health. The higher extent to which a product contains more nutrients and ingredients with a potentially negative impact on health and/or lacks nutrients and ingredients with a potentially positive impact on health, the more likely it will be classified as \"unhealthy\" (i.e., group C, D or E).Prices obtained from each food category were converted from Mexican pesos to US dollars (USD) by using the exchange rate during the collection period (USD 1 to MXN 19.15) [36]. Prices of each WMPF were scaled by 100 g of product and by package.The study protocol and procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Consent to conduct in-store data collection was obtained by email or in person from store representatives.We described the diversity of access to WMPFs by SE area and the type of store with the percentage of distinct WMPFs that were found in both SE areas, in low SE areas exclusively, or in high SE areas exclusively. The same analysis was used to describe the availability of WMPFs by Nutri-Score and food product categories by SE area including all products in the sample.We applied a specified a multiple linear regression model for analyzing price differences between SE areas. The log of price of WMPFs per 100 g was specified as the dependent variable. Explanatory variables included three categorical variables and all their two and three way interactions, these variables were: SE area (low/high), Nutri-Score profile (coded as healthy/unhealthy) and food group. We obtained geometric means for each combination of SE area, Nutri-Score profile, and food group category, as well as geometric mean ratios between SE areas, by exponentiating the corresponding linear combination of model coefficients. We derived 95% confidence intervals by back transforming the confidence limits of the linear combinations. Additionally, we fitted a separate model for each type of retail store with the log of price per package as a dependent variable and the same specification of predictors as previously described and obtained the aforementioned differences by SE area and their confidence intervals. We reported the use of health and nutrition claims as percentages for each combination of food group category, SE area, and Nutri-Score profile, with their corresponding logit-transformed 95% confidence intervals [37], and calculated their differences in percentage points by SE area. Categories with less than 5 observations were excluded from analyses. Robust standard errors from all models were adjusted for data clustering within retail stores [38]. All analyses were performed in Stata (version 14).We recorded a total of 7567 WMPFs available in both SE areas, including unique and repeated products. Of these, 2462 were unique WMPFs. Among unique WMPFs, only 28.8% of them were classified as healthy (Table 1). Supermarkets offered the greatest variety of healthy products while convenience stores showed the least (614 vs. 29). However, the number of healthy WMPFs offered in supermarkets and convenience stores varied greatly between SE areas: 79.3% of unique WMPFs in supermarkets were available exclusively in the high SE area whereas 8.6% were available exclusively in the low SE area. In convenience stores, 44.8% of healthy WMPFs were in the high SE area exclusively, 3.5% were in the low SE area exclusively, and 51.7% were in both areas. Cookies, salty snacks, pastas, and bars and pastries were the WMPF categories with the greatest variety (636, 387, 290, and 258 products, respectively). Breakfast cereals, tortillas and tortilla products, flour, and breads were the WMPF categories with the least variety of products (203, 157, 155, and 154 products, respectively). Independently owned grocery stores provided the most homogeneous set of WMPFs in both low and high SE areas (from 86.1% to 100% similarity within WMPF categories). Across WMPF categories, cereal bars and pastries (38.7%), salty snacks (36.7%), and breakfast cereals (29.1%) were more frequently found in both SE areas.Looking across the sample, only 11.7% and 5.6% of available WMPFs were included in the A and B Nutri-Score profiles, respectively. We found considerably greater availability for healthy WMPFs (i.e., Nutri-Score profiles A and B) in the high SE area (Table 2). Indeed, healthy items in the cookies and bars and pastries categories were only available to consumers in the high SE area. Consumers in the low SE area had basically no nearby access to healthy (i.e., included in groups A and B) breads, bars, and pastries. Unhealthy WMPFs (i.e., Nutri-Score profiles C, D, and E) were widely available in both SE areas.  1 Nutri-Score profile is a scale that divides food products into 5 classes (A to E) to distinguish healthier foods (A score) from the less healthy (E score). 2 Based on the Nutri-Score profile, includes all those products which had a score ≤ −1. 3 Based on the Nutri-Score profile, includes all those products which had a score between 0 and 2. 4 Based on the Nutri-Score profile, includes all those products which had a score between 3 and 10. 5 Based on the Nutri-Score profile, includes all those products which had a score between 11 and 18. 6 Based on the Nutri-Score profile, includes all those products which had a score ≥ 19.The geometric mean (GM) prices per 100 g and per package of healthy and unhealthy WMPFs food profiles were significantly higher in the high SE area compared to the low SE area (Table 3). For example, GM price per 100 g of healthy cookies was roughly 3-fold in the high SE area compared to the low SE area (GM ratio = 3.01; 95%CI: 2.15, 4.21), for unhealthy cookies GM price per 100 g was about 50% higher in the high SE area compared to the low SE area (GM ratio = 1.53; 95%CI: 1.18, 1.99). Within the low SE area, GM price per 100 g for healthy WMPFs was 16-69% lower compared to GM price per 100 g for unhealthy WMPFs (e.g., USD 0.20 95%CI: 0.018, 0.23; USD 0.64 95%CI: 0.59, 0.71, for total WMPFs, respectively). Supermarkets charged the highest prices for healthy and unhealthy WMPFs per package across all retail outlets and WMPF categories in both SE areas (Table 4). GM prices in supermarkets for healthy and unhealthy WMPFs were 165% (GM ratio: 2.56; 95%CI: 1.41, 4.97) and 86% (GM ratio: 1.86; 95%CI: 1.42, 2.44) more expensive in the high SE area compared to the low SE area. GM price differences for all WMPFs in other food retailers were smaller and most of them not significant between SE areas.Health and nutrition claims were found on 23.2% of all WMPFs. They were more frequently found on healthy products in the high SE area compared with the low SE area for cookies (+32.9 p.p., 95%CI: 4.6, 61.3) and maize tortillas and tortilla products (+32.7 p.p., 95%CI: 9.9, 55.6) (Table 5). A considerable proportion of unhealthy WMPFs employed health and nutrition claims, particularly in the high SE area (20.1%, 95%CI: 14.8, 26.5). Unhealthy WMPF categories where health and nutrition claims were used in both SE areas included breakfast cereals (>45%) and flour (>25%). In the high SE area, 40.4% (95%CI: 30.9, 50.5) of unhealthy maize tortillas and tortilla products displayed health and nutrition claims.   Only categories with at least 5 observations are shown. 1 Classification based on the combination of Nutri-Score profiles A and B. 2 Classification based on the combination of Nutri-Score profiles C, D, and E. 3 Geometric mean price ratio between high and low SE, reference is low SE.Estimates do not exactly match the ratios from shown geometric means because of rounding.In this study, we collected data on the diversity of WMPFs available to consumers in Mexico City paying attention to variation in access by socioeconomic areas, retail outlets, nutrient profile, and health and nutrition claims employed. The study was motivated by the need for data on what WMPFs were accessible to consumers, as an input for future discussions with the private sector on their role in marketing available healthy and nutritious WMPFs for urban consumers. Our findings highlighted various issues in the retail landscape for WMPFs that have important implications on the dietary options available to consumers, especially those in lower-income neighborhoods.Cereals, including wheat and maize, can contribute essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins and beneficial phytochemicals and dietary fiber components to the human diet. Although wheat and maize have traditionally been processed for human consumption, current WMPFs normally exceeded the daily recommended intake of sodium, saturated fat, trans fats, and added sugars established by WHO to prevent overweight, obesity, and chronic diseases [33,39], and their consumption is associated with lower-quality nutrient profiles [40,41] and often leads to unhealthy diets and overall poorer health conditions [42]. We found a majority and considerably greater variety of unhealthy WMPFs in both SE areas and across all food retail outlets. WHO's current global plan is a 30% reduction in salt/sodium population intake along with policy measures that engage food retail outlets to improve the availability of healthier products with reduced content of salt/sodium, saturated fats, and free sugars [43]. Our findings showed the urgent need for more progress towards these goals, as only 11.7% and 5.6% of available WMPFs were from the A and B categories of the Nutri-Score in the whole sample. The current need for food systems transformation for improved nutrition and health is alarming [44].The high SE area had much more diversity in terms of WMPFs available as compared to the low SE area. Previous studies had found that in-store healthy foods were less likely to be found in low-income neighborhoods in cities, and our findings were consistent with these [16][17][18][19]. However, in our study, the high SE area had the most diversity of not only in-store healthy WMPFs but also unhealthy ones. As a result, both areas offered limited options for healthy WMPFs, restricted to few WMPF categories. A recent panel survey analysis of purchase and intake data in urban areas in Mexico showed that higher SE groups from urban areas had greater purchases and intakes of less-healthy foods than lower SE households [45]. Our findings are consistent and further suggest that consumers in the high SE area have access to and probably purchase a greater variety of healthy products, but also unhealthy ones, than lower SE households.Mexico's 8% sales tax on unhealthy foods resulted in a 5.8% decline in the purchase of taxed foods among households of medium SE status and a 10.2% decline among households of lower SE status [46]; thus, impact on high SE has not been measured or acknowledged as a risk, especially because complex urban surroundings such as those of Mexico City imply people moving around different areas to access their foods, and food supply in high SE areas may be seen as a model to be followed or symbol of status, setting the example of procurement for vendors stocking WMPFs in other SE areas.We found specialization in retail stores, with convenience stores and neighborhood corner stores specializing in WMPFs with Nutri-Score profiles D and E (unhealthy) WMPFs. Supermarkets had the greater stock of products with profiles A and B (healthy groups). In the low SE area, neighborhood corner stores and supermarkets could provide, in theory, access to healthier WMPFs; however, supermarkets are scarce in low SE areas. Similarly, in high SE areas, neighborhood corner stores and supermarkets could provide greater access to healthier WMPFs, but neighborhood corner stores, as well as independently owned grocery stores, tended to be scarce. Yet, increasing in-store healthy products in small food retail outlets is feasible and can be achieved with support and understanding of healthy product criteria [47] or incentives [48].Interventions to improve healthy food offerings in small stores should consider the diverse environments, stocking practices, and supply mechanisms with innovative distribution practices of small stores, particularly nontraditional food retailers [49]. For example, retail outlets in the low SE area could stock cookies, bars and pastries, and breads classified in the healthy categories (A and B groups) and provide consumers access to them.The consumption of healthy food is mostly consistently related to income, contrary to the intake of unhealthy ones [50]. However, we found, in general, that prices per 100 g and per package of unhealthy WMPF products were higher than prices for healthy products in most WMPF categories, but prices per package differed by SE area. By package, healthy products tended to be more expensive, particularly in the high SE area. In the low SE area, for some WMPF categories, unhealthy products were more expensive than healthy ones. It is possible that expenditure elasticity differed by SE area, and higher elasticity is not always expected for healthy products when healthy foods are considered a necessity and unhealthy foods a luxury [51]. In addition, higher prices for the same WMPF category in the higher SE area likely reflect higher operational costs, while larger stores such as supermarkets may also have the marketing savvy to better segment the market as compared to smaller stores.Although prices varied greatly across WMPF categories (as expected), higher prices for some foods also may predict lower consumption of such groups, as has been previously demonstrated in several countries [52]. While higher prices may be positive for some foods, such as the ones with added sugars as a result of the sugar tax policy, for example [53][54][55], they may have a negative impact for foods with positive ingredients and nutrients for health and nutrition outcomes [52].The use of health and nutrition claims can inform consumers through short and clear messages about the energy and nutrient content of a product and its potential health benefits [56]. However, this strategy has been regulated in some countries due to its public health implications [57]. First, consumers perceive products displaying health and nutrition claims as healthier (health halo effect) without considering nutritional quality, and this influences their preferences and purchases [58]. Second, the regulation of these claims is limited and generally independent of nutritional quality [59]. Our results show that unhealthy WMPFs also displayed health and nutrition claims on the front-of-pack label; this suggested that consumers who make their food choices based on the information available on the label were vulnerable to misperception about the nutritional quality of these products, mainly for less-healthy groups such as breakfast cereals. Generally, WMPFs such as cookies, breads, and pastries are fortified in products that use wheat flour (mandatory regulation in Mexico). Some studies have shown the use of these practices in less-healthy foods to promote the use of health and nutrition claims [60]. Improving front-of-pack labeling regulations that include specifications for the use of health and nutrition claims contributes to helping consumers make healthy food choices, particularly in low SE areas.Some WMPF categories included in our study comprised traditional food ingredients and foods such as flour, tortilla, bread, and pastas; others comprised other nonbasic food commodities such as snacks and ready-to-eat foods, which have become part of the modern diet in Mexico. The WMPFs from the first categories tended to be lower in price and of better nutritional value in both SE areas. Maintaining healthy properties and ingredients of WMPFs, including dietary fiber, prebiotics [61], resistant starch content, low glycemic index, and micronutrient content, as well as reducing ingredients with a negative impact on health, is essential for WMPFs to contribute to a healthy diet, particularly among the poorer segments of the population, given that they derive a larger share of their energy from staple foods [62]. Moreover, high consumption levels of low-cost maize flour and cornmeal, especially in areas where micronutrient deficiencies exist, make this food a vehicle for fortification [63].Healthy WMPFs have an important role to play in healthy diets [64], given their relatively low cost and concentrations of energy and essential nutrients. Transformation to healthy diets will require a greater than 50% reduction in unhealthy foods [61]. However, as highlighted in this study, the current urban retail environment is not conducive to rapid change towards greater consumption of healthy WMPFs. The extensive variety of unhealthy WMPFs available, the limited stock of healthy WMPFs in most types of retail outlets, and the confusing health and nutrition claims on packaging make it difficult to find and choose healthy WMPFs.The findings raise important questions about the private sector's formulation and marketing of WMPFs and the implications for promoting healthier diets. In many developing regions, income growth will continue to push demand towards more processed foods and more foods purchased at supermarkets. The Food Systems Summit in 2021 stated that \"the food choices people are faced with and the choices they make are profoundly determined by the food system of which they are part\" [65], and adding other domains of the food environment to the marketing strategies used can be a win-win for the food processors, vendors, and food choices we have in Mexico City.This study represents a much-needed initial step to initiate dialogue between researchers, the private sector, and government agencies on how to improve access to healthier WMPFs. It highlights issues of differential access by consumers from higher and lower socioeconomic strata to healthier processed foods.Strengths in our study include the careful selection of the high and low socioeconomic areas (i.e., first and last deciles of the socioeconomic areas within Mexico City and surroundings) and the variety of food retail outlets visited. To the best of our knowledge, no other study has included all available food retail outlets that comply with our inclusion criteria in a given area. Future work in this area should look to engage the consumers, private sector, government agencies, and civil society on options for increasing access to and purchases of healthy WMPFs.","tokenCount":"4374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3f4ceaa52620e27d4b8178152e62f8cd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/430a6602-0523-4f16-a90e-49e71575a09d/content","id":"-1291675798"},"keywords":["crop health","drones","food security","NUS","precision agriculture","spatial distribution","stomatal conductance","UAV"],"sieverID":"e8e77857-627d-4949-a044-68725177a5fe","pagecount":"31","content":"Timely, accurate spatial information on the health of neglected and underutilised crop species (NUS) is critical for optimising their production and food and nutrition in developing countries. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with multispectral sensors have significantly advanced remote sensing, enabling the provision of near-real-time data for crop analysis at the plot level in small, fragmented croplands where NUS are often grown. The objective of this study was to systematically review the literature on the remote sensing (RS) of the spatial distribution and health of NUS, evaluating the progress, opportunities, challenges, and associated research gaps. This study systematically reviewed 171 peer-reviewed articles from Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science using the PRISMA approach. The findings of this study showed that the United States (n = 18) and China (n = 17) were the primary study locations, with some contributions from the Global South, including southern Africa. The observed NUS crop attributes included crop yield, growth, leaf area index (LAI), above-ground biomass (AGB), and chlorophyll content. Only 29% of studies explored stomatal conductance and the spatial distribution of NUS. Twenty-one studies employed satellite-borne sensors, while only eighteen utilised UAV-borne sensors in conjunction with machine learning (ML), multivariate, and generic GIS classification techniques for mapping the spatial extent and health of NUS. The use of UAVs in mapping NUS is progressing slowly, particularly in the Global South, due to exorbitant purchasing and operational costs, as well as restrictive regulations. Subsequently, research efforts must be directed toward combining ML techniques and UAV-acquired data to monitor NUS' spatial distribution and health to provide necessary information for optimising food production in smallholder croplands in the Global South.Inherent water scarcity, which is exacerbated by factors such as climate change, population expansion, and changes in land use [1][2][3], has intensified the pressure on the agricultural sector, particularly in ensuring long-term food supply for the expanding populations [4,5]. Most of the agricultural production in developing regions is derived from rainfed farms, which occupy 97% of croplands [6]. However, 80% of these croplands are smallholder farms that contribute most of the food production in developing regions [1,2]. However, these croplands are marginal due to suppressing agronomic and climatological infrequencies. Therefore, climate variability and soil degradation have drastically reduced the production of staple cereal crops, such as maize, amplifying food and nutrition security issues in these regions. This has placed local food systems on the verge of catastrophe. Hence, establishing innovative methods to combat food and nutrition insecurity while optimising production is urgently needed.A paradigm shift away from cultivating susceptible cereal crops towards diversifying climate-smart crops, such as underutilised crop species (NUS), is necessary [7]. NUS, also referred to as alternative, traditional, orphaned, or neglected crops, are adapted to flourish in fragile production systems where land degradation and drought are topical [3]. Examples include millet, quinoa, teff, Bambara ground nuts, sweet potato, and taro [3][4][5]. These crops are stress-tolerant, require fewer inputs, and are highly adaptable to a broad spectrum of ecological niches [8]. Including NUS in fragile production systems is one of many strategies for safeguarding the well-being of minority populations, meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs), leveraging indigenous knowledge systems, and facilitating traditional food and cultural heritages.A major challenge to the mainstreaming of NUS is that basic information on genetic and phenotypic traits remains scanty and localised, and productivity is generally low. Generating spatially explicit information on NUS' biochemical and morphological characteristics to optimise their productivity could contribute to their development and promotion. In this regard, spatially explicit, high-throughput phenotyping technologies are required to augment the rapid advancements in phenotyping NUS. This will aid in maximising their productivity in fragmented smallholder croplands.Generally, field surveys and other traditional methods have been widely used to measure the spatial extent, suitability, growth, and morphological attributes of NUS. However, such methods are time-consuming and expensive, making them unsuitable for continuous precision crop monitoring in areas with numerous crop varieties. Over the past few decades, satellite-based Earth-observation technologies, such as Landsat and MODIS, have become effective for monitoring plant growth and health changes [9]. Satellite-borne remote sensing technologies provide non-invasive, accurate, fast, and cost-effective data for estimating traits such as stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content as a proxy for crop productivity, hence their use [10]. However, the resolution of these freely available satellite sensors provides limited information for high-throughput phenotyping, particularly in the context of highly fragmented and diverse smallholder croplands [11]. In this regard, smallholder croplands require very high-spatial-resolution remote-sensing technologies that are affordable and highly efficient [11].The advent of UAV-based phenotyping allows access to data with extremely high levels of detail and precision. This is ideal for the precise, consistent phenotyping of smallholder farms at the plot level [11]. However, the capacity of UAV-mounted sensors to differentiate crop types based on their spectral responses as a mechanism for plausible high-throughput field phenotyping is yet to be determined [12]. RS and ML techniques have recently greatly aided high-throughput phenotyping technologies [12]. For example Li, Burnside [6] combined three ML techniques, which included random forest (RFR), support vector regression (SVR), and artificial neural network (ANN), in combination with optimal VI's to predict the red-clover dry matter yields in various phenological growth periods.Despite the usefulness of UAVs, their application in agriculture, rural development, and, more importantly, resource management remains limited [13]. Although some studies have attempted to assess the literature on the application of drone-acquired data [14,15], most of these studies did not systematically and quantitatively assess the literature on mapping the spatial distribution and health of NUS crops with a special interest in Global South trends. The objective of this study was to systematically review the literature on the application of UAV remotely sensed data for mapping the spatial distribution and health of NUS, with a particular focus on sweet potatoes and taro. The aim was to gain an understanding of the progress, challenges, opportunities, and gaps in this field. Gaining insights into the mapping of NUS' spatial extent, morphological features, and biochemical traits through remotely sensed data acquired by UAVs could pave the way for enhancing food production in South Africa's smallholder croplands.This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist and guidelines for gathering and analysing the literature. In the initial literature search phase, keywords, terms, and phrases for searching the literature were generated from other literature reviews on NUS [16][17][18]. The methodology followed in this study was adopted from the literature [8][9][10]19]. The following keywords and their variants were used in this study to search for relevant literature: \"neglected and underutilised crop species\", \"orphan crops\", \"traditional crops\", \"unmanned aerial vehicle(s)\", \"drone(s)\", \"remote sensing\", \"GIS\", \"crop health\", \"stomatal conductance\" and \"leaf area index\", and \"chlorophyll\". Furthermore, the following PRISMA statement and its variants were used to search for research pertaining taro and sweet potatoes: \"Taro\", \"sweet potato\", \"unmanned aerial vehicle(s)\", \"drone(s)\", \"remote sensing\", \"GIS\", \"crop health\", \"stomatal conductance\" and \"leaf area index\", and \"chlorophyll\".The SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were utilised to collect literature using the established key search terms. The PRISMA statement served as the framework for the literature search procedure. This search was not restricted in terms of time. The Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science literature searches yielded 109, 1036, and 90 articles, respectively (n = 1235). In preparation for screening, all obtained material was organised in EndNote. The screening procedure considered in this study followed the PRISMA procedure, reported as a flowchart (Figure 1). For an article to be considered in the meta-analysis, it had to meet the following criteria;(a) The study focuses on NUS crops, traditional, or orphaned crops, and no other vegetation types (e.g., forests or shrubs) were included, since they denoted different ecosystems; (b) The study focuses on NUS productivity (i.e., LAI, chlorophyll, or stomatal conductance) or spatial distribution; (c) The study was based on UAV or drone remotely sensed data, GIS, or remote-sensing techniques in NUS crop productivity and health mapping; (d) The article was published in an accredited journal; (e) The article was written in English; (f) The article was accessible.After eliminating all duplicates (n = 650), 585 remained. In this case, literature not written in English was excluded from the analysis (n = 20). The next step was to assess whether the retrieved literature covered the context of mapping the spatial distribution or assessed productivity elements of neglected and underutilised crops based on remotely sensed data by examining the abstracts. After the title and abstract screening, 332 studies were excluded and 253 remained. Of the remaining articles, 82 were not accessible as full texts and were excluded, with 171 articles remaining. The full-length articles of the selected abstracts were then sought and downloaded as PDF documents. After the screening procedure, 171 articles were retained (Figure 1). Then, the bibliographic information, including author names, year of publication, title, journal name, issue, volume number, keywords, and abstracts, was exported from Endnote as a text file to Microsoft Excel. The Excel database was then used to extract and store qualitative and quantitative data from each article, as indicated in the proceeding phase. In the preceding phase, the extracted data in an Excel database were used to generate and extract information on progress, gaps, challenges, and opportunities of using UAV technologies to map the spatial distribution of different NUS and their health attributes. Specifically, information related to the study country, region, NUS type, the type of crop health attribute investigated, sensor type and platform type, vegetation indices, predictive or classification algorithms, and optimum spectral variables obtained, were all retrieved from the literature and documented in the spreadsheet. Some categorical variables were converted into numeric values to facilitate analysing and evaluating trends in the retrieved literature. During this step, relevant bibliometric information was also collected. As mentioned above, the qualitative and quantitative information extracted from each article were added to the Excel spreadsheet with the author names, region, year of publication, article title, journal name, and abstract, among the other bibliometric data gathered.The retrieved literature and extracted data were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analyses during this phase. Basic statistical frequencies were calculated for quantitative analysis [13]. In addition, exploratory trend analysis was carried out on the frequency of publications to assess the progress made in mapping NUS' spatial distribution and health attributes utilizing satellite and drone-borne sensors. A bibliometric analysis was also conducted to identify trends in co-occurring key terms from the retrieved literature. The trends were identified by quantitatively examining the occurrence and co-occurrence of key terms in the titles and abstracts using the VOS viewer software. Furthermore, the VOS viewer software used the titles and abstracts of all the retrieved literature (171 articles) and only those based on UAV-derived datasets (18 articles). This assisted in In the preceding phase, the extracted data in an Excel database were used to generate and extract information on progress, gaps, challenges, and opportunities of using UAV technologies to map the spatial distribution of different NUS and their health attributes. Specifically, information related to the study country, region, NUS type, the type of crop health attribute investigated, sensor type and platform type, vegetation indices, predictive or classification algorithms, and optimum spectral variables obtained, were all retrieved from the literature and documented in the spreadsheet. Some categorical variables were converted into numeric values to facilitate analysing and evaluating trends in the retrieved literature. During this step, relevant bibliometric information was also collected. As mentioned above, the qualitative and quantitative information extracted from each article were added to the Excel spreadsheet with the author names, region, year of publication, article title, journal name, and abstract, among the other bibliometric data gathered.The retrieved literature and extracted data were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analyses during this phase. Basic statistical frequencies were calculated for quantitative analysis [13]. In addition, exploratory trend analysis was carried out on the frequency of publications to assess the progress made in mapping NUS' spatial distribution and health attributes utilizing satellite and drone-borne sensors. A bibliometric analysis was also conducted to identify trends in co-occurring key terms from the retrieved literature. The trends were identified by quantitatively examining the occurrence and co-occurrence of key terms in the titles and abstracts using the VOS viewer software. Furthermore, the VOS viewer software used the titles and abstracts of all the retrieved literature (171 articles) and only those based on UAV-derived datasets (18 articles). This assisted in evaluating how concepts and topics evolved in mapping NUS using satellite-based remotely sensed data to drone-acquired data. VOS viewer provides network visualisation of key terms in linked clusters. Creating a map in VOS viewer includes four steps, which are:(1) Selecting a counting method (binary counting or full counting);(2) Selecting a minimum number of occurrences for a term (calculating similarity index);(3) Calculating the relevance score for the co-occurrence terms and displaying the most relevant items based on this score; (4) Displaying a map based on the selected terms.Considering that only the occurrence, co-occurrence of key terms, and frequency distributions were computed, bias assessment was not conducted. As aforementioned, the PRISMA checklist (http://www.prisma-statement.org/, accessed on 1 July 2022) was used as a guideline to avoid biased reporting. In this regard, no further robust bias statistical assessments were conducted, since only exploratory data analysis was conducted. The review was divided into two main sections to address the research objectives. The first section investigated recent advances in mapping NUS crops' spatial distribution and health using remotely sensed data. This section presented and discussed quantitative literature trends in analysing NUS's spatial distribution and health. Throughout this phase, the crop health attributes, Earth-observation sensors (cameras), sensor platforms, algorithms, and optimal spectral variables used by the community of practice in the retrieved literature were assessed and presented. The last phase discussed the challenges, gaps, and opportunities for knowledge generation in mapping NUS's spatial distribution and health using dronederived remotely sensed data.Figure 2 shows the co-occurrence of topical concepts derived from titles and abstracts from (a) studies based on satellite-borne data and (b) drone-acquired data. Figure 2a illustrates seven topical clusters in dark blue, light blue, red, green, purple, yellow, and orange for mapping crop spatial extent and health status. The key terms from the \"red\" cluster were \"agriculture\", \"spad value\", \"low cost\", \"remote sensing data\", \"hyperspectral data\", \"multispectral data\", \"VIS\", \"processing\", \"size\", and \"crop field\", which directly imply the utility of \"low-cost remote sensing\" systems for mapping and monitoring NUS crop productivity (spad-value/chlorophyll) with remotely sensed data in smallholder crop fields (Figure 2a). The second-largest cluster linked to UAVs was in yellow and contained \"growth\", \"variety\", \"trait\", \"detection\", \"plant-height\", \"UAVs\", \"drone\", \"dsm\", \"rgb\", and \"msi\". This cluster articulates the use of drone remotely sensed (\"UAVs\") data in detecting and mapping relevant NUS phenotypical attributes (\"growth\", \"variety\", \"trait\", \"detection\", and \"plant height\"). The third cluster in dark blue included 'growth stage', \"lai\", \"crop height\", \"agdw\", \"canopy nitrogen\", \"weight\", \"fusion\", \"plsr\", and \"rmse\" as the key terms in order of importance (Figure 2). This cluster relates to the estimation of NUS crop productivity attributes (\"lai\", \"crop height\", \"agdw\", \"canopy nitrogen\", \"weight\", \"lai\", \"crop height\", \"agdw\", \"canopy nitrogen\", and \"weight\") using remotely sensed data and regression techniques. The fourth cluster in green contained \"population\", \"climate change\", \"water stress\", \"food security\", \"African leafy vegetable\", \"suitable area\", \"moisture\", \"SSA\" (Sub-Saharan Africa), and \"validation\", among others. This links to the food and nutrition security issues in SSA, which are highly impacted by climate variability, such that NUS crops (\"African leafy vegetable\") are the only suitable crops because of their drought tolerance. The fifth cluster, which is light blue, features co-occurring terms, such as \"species\", \"reflectance\", \"density\", \"waveband\", \"nir\", \"classification\", and \"palmer amaranth\". This cluster relates to the impact of species variability and plant or foliage density, which causes the spectral signatures of NUS crops to vary at different wavebands of the EM spectrum, facilitating optimal classification accuracies. The sixth cluster is characterised by the co-occurrence of terms such as \"plant\", \"amaranth\", \"phenological\", and \"growth stage\", which relates to the assessment of NUS crops' phenological characteristics.   Figure 2b illustrates seven topical clusters in dark blue, light blue, red, green, purple, yellow, and orange, which were derived using abstracts and titles that utilised drone remotely sensed data in mapping NUS crop spatial extent and healthiness. The key terms from the red clusters were \"mapping\", \"crop height\", \"growth stage\", \"yield\" and, \"crop yield\", \"reflectance index\", \"hyperspectral imagery\", \"random forest\", and \"svm\". This cluster relates to using high-resolution remotely sensed data in mapping and monitoring NUS productivity elements, such as growth stage, using machine learning. The key terms in the green cluster are \"phenotyping\", \"LAI\", \"canopy coverage\", \"trait\", \"agdw\", \"prediction\", \"uavs\", \"dsm\", \"fusion\", \"VIS\", and \"environment\". This cluster relates to using UAV remotely sensed data that could be fused with other data for assessing the structural attributes of NUS crops (phenotyping). The third cluster in dark blue has the key terms of \"remotely sensed data\", \"gndvi\", \"normalised difference vegetation\", \"rededge\", \"spad value\", and \"climate change\". This cluster relates to the utility of the widely used spectral variables (\"gndvi\", \"normalised difference vegetation\", and \"red-edge\") in monitoring the health of NUS crops. The fourth cluster is orange and has co-occurrence terms, such as \"high throughput phenotyping\", \"rgb\", \"msi\", \"yield\", and \"correlation\". This cluster can be attributed to applying the high-throughput phenotyping of NUS through RGB and multispectral spectrums in estimating crop yield. The fifth cluster in light blue had \"genotype\", \"parameter\", and \"genomic parameters\". This cluster suggests examining the genetic composition of NUS crops through the assessment of optimal parameters to assess and infer their crop health. The sixth cluster has \"multispectral camera\", \"rgb camera\", \"rgb image\". This cluster relates to the use of general colour imagery (in red, green, and blue spectrums) acquired using drones for mapping NUS. The last cluster has \"hyperspectral data\" and \"multispectral data\". This cluster relates to the utility of multispectral and hyperspectral data in mapping and monitoring NUS crop spatial distributions and health.Significant progress has been attained in detecting, mapping, and monitoring NUS crops' spatial distribution and health status using remotely sensed data (Figure 3). However, it should be noted that this progress relates to the collective of NUS, but not each individual species. The period between 2003 and 2013 is marked by a low frequency of published literature based on all Earth-observation sensors (Figure 3). Between 2014 and 2022, there was a rapid increase in articles that mapped the health and spatial distribution of NUS using all Earth-observation sensors. Again, from 2014 to 2022, there was a rapid growth in the literature that utilised UAV-acquired remotely sensed data to characterise NUS attributes. Despite substantial progress, only a few studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of remote sensing technologies in NUS crop classification, characterising their suitability ranges, or discriminating their varieties based on their phenotypic traits. Specifically, only 3% and 4% of the retrieved studies utilised drone and satellite-borne remotely sensed data in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS crops, respectively. However, most of the retrieved literature evaluated NUS phenological and phenotypic characteristics.Regarding geographic distribution, the studies included in the meta-analysis were conducted in 47 countries. Most of the retrieved literature was conducted in Asia, America, and Africa. On a national scale, most of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (n = 18) [11,12], followed by South Africa (n = 18) [13,14] and China (n = 17) [15,16], (Figure 4). Interestingly, most of the African studies were conducted in southeast Africa.The most prevalent NUS in the retrieved literature included sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), cassava (Manihot esculenta), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), millet (i.e., pearl (Pennisetum glaucum L.R. Br.), finger (Eleusine coracana), and proso millet (Panicum milliaceum)) (Figure 5a). UAV-based remotely sensed data was utilised in mapping the attributes of amaranth (n= 6) [17], Legume (Fabaceae) (n = 2) [18], Sweet potato (n = 2) [20], sorghum (n = 2) [21], and bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) (n = 2) [22] (Figure 5b). Most of the retrieved literature remotely sensed various NUS using hyperspectral data, hence the decline in the frequency of NUS studies that utilised drone and satellite-acquired remotely sensed data (Figure 5).of NUS using all Earth-observation sensors. Again, from 2014 to 2022, there was a rapid growth in the literature that utilised UAV-acquired remotely sensed data to characterise NUS attributes. Despite substantial progress, only a few studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of remote sensing technologies in NUS crop classification, characterising their suitability ranges, or discriminating their varieties based on their phenotypic traits. Specifically, only 3% and 4% of the retrieved studies utilised drone and satellite-borne remotely sensed data in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS crops, respectively. However, most of the retrieved literature evaluated NUS phenological and phenotypic characteristics. Regarding geographic distribution, the studies included in the meta-analysis were conducted in 47 countries. Most of the retrieved literature was conducted in Asia, America, and Africa. On a national scale, most of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (n = 18) [11,12], followed by South Africa (n = 18) [13,14] and China (n = 17) [15,16], (Figure 4). Interestingly, most of the African studies were conducted in southeast Africa.  The most prevalent NUS in the retrieved literature included sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), cassava (Manihot esculenta), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), millet (i.e., pearl (Pennisetum glaucum L.R. Br.), finger (Eleusine coracana), and proso millet (Panicum milliaceum)) (Figure 5a). UAV-based remotely sensed data was utilised in mapping the attributes of amaranth (n= 6) [17], Legume (Fabaceae) (n = 2) [18], Sweet potato (n = 2) [20], sorghum (n = 2) [21], and bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) (n = 2) [22] (Figure 5b). Most of the retrieved literature remotely sensed various NUS using hyperspectral data, hence the decline in the frequency of NUS studies that utilised drone and satellite-acquired remotely sensed data (Figure 5). Eight key broad research themes emerged from the reviewed literature on NUS. These include phenotyping, crop genetics, crop productivity, crop physiology, phenology, crop adaptation, classification, and land suitability (Figure 6). Most reviewed studies focused on quantifying NUS' physiological and phenological crop traits. A relatively small number of studies characterised crop classification and spatial extent. Five studies discriminated crops based on drone-acquired data, while six articles were based on satellite-borne remotely sensed data (Figure 6). The most extensively researched areas based on all satellite-borne sensors included phenology (n = 142), crop physiology (n = 110), and crop productivity (n = 104). When considering only the drone-borne sensors, 16 studies focused on NUS phenology. These studies mainly assessed external crop attributes, such as crop LAI, biomass, crop height, and crop yield periods across the growing season. For example, Jewan, Pagay [23] monitored six distinct phenological stages of the Bambara groundnut, estimating its yield. Only nine studies assessed NUS crop productivity, while seven research studies examined NUS crop health and physiology. For instance, Lati, Avneri [24] assessed the utility of a UAV imaging platform coupled with an RGB sensor to monitor chickpea's physiological and morphological parameters, such as LAI, biomass, and yield, during irrigation periods. The most prevalent NUS in the retrieved literature included sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), cassava (Manihot esculenta), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), millet (i.e., pearl (Pennisetum glaucum L.R. Br.), finger (Eleusine coracana), and proso millet (Panicum milliaceum)) (Figure 5a). UAV-based remotely sensed data was utilised in mapping the attributes of amaranth (n= 6) [17], Legume (Fabaceae) (n = 2) [18], Sweet potato (n = 2) [20], sorghum (n = 2) [21], and bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) (n = 2) [22] (Figure 5b). Most of the retrieved literature remotely sensed various NUS using hyperspectral data, hence the decline in the frequency of NUS studies that utilised drone and satellite-acquired remotely sensed data (Figure 5).  Moreover, five studies focused on characterizing NUS crop spatial distribution using classification methods, and four concentrated on NUS's climatic suitability and adaptation. For example, Ramírez, Grüneberg [20] utilised vegetation and temperature indices to characterise various sweet potato genotypes based on productivity and resilience under drought treatments. Only five studies utilised crop phenotyping and breeding techniques. In many instances, crop phenotyping and genotyping included single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. SNP markers provide a broad range of applications in various crops, including plant variety and cultivar characterization, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, the production of a high-density genetic map, and genome-wide association analysis [25]. And lastly, four studies focused on land suitability.Many of the retrieved studies mapped the productivity and water stress-related elements. Specifically, the most extensively researched NUS health attributes included crop yield, growth attributes, crop health, chlorophyll content, leaf water content, biomass, photosynthesis, LAI, stomatal conductance, canopy height, plant weight, leaf nitrogen, and canopy temperature (Figure 7a). The most researched NUS attributes in the context of UAV-based remote sensing were crop yield (n = 15), growth attributes (n = 13), biomass (n = 11), crop health (n = 10), chlorophyll content (n = 9), canopy cover (n = 7), plant/canopy height (n = 7), LAI (n = 6), leaf nitrogen (n = 5), leaf size attributes (n = 5), leaf water content (n = 3), and leaf temperature (n = 3). As aforementioned, there were very few studies that classified and characterised the spatial distribution of NUS (Figure 7b) [4].to characterise various sweet potato genotypes based on productivity and resilience under drought treatments. Only five studies utilised crop phenotyping and breeding techniques. In many instances, crop phenotyping and genotyping included single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. SNP markers provide a broad range of applications in various crops, including plant variety and cultivar characterization, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, the production of a high-density genetic map, and genome-wide association analysis [25]. And lastly, four studies focused on land suitability.   Many of the retrieved studies mapped the productivity and water stress-related elements. Specifically, the most extensively researched NUS health attributes included crop yield, growth attributes, crop health, chlorophyll content, leaf water content, biomass, photosynthesis, LAI, stomatal conductance, canopy height, plant weight, leaf nitrogen, and canopy temperature (Figure 7a). The most researched NUS attributes in the context of UAV-based remote sensing were crop yield (n = 15), growth attributes (n = 13), biomass (n = 11), crop health (n= 10), chlorophyll content (n = 9), canopy cover (n = 7), plant /canopy height (n = 7), LAI (n =6), leaf nitrogen (n = 5), leaf size attributes (n = 5), leaf water content (n = 3), and leaf temperature (n = 3). As aforementioned, there were very few studies that classified and characterised the spatial distribution of NUS (Figure 7b) [4]. Based on the findings, 12 articles characterised the spatial distribution of various NUS (Figure 8). Sweet potato, lentil, and chickpea were the crops that received substantial attention in the literature (Figure 8). Overall, a limited number of studies have utilised UAV remotely sensed data to classify NUS. There is a gap in the research focusing on UAV classifications from 2008 to 2019. Furthermore, 2020 was the most predominant year for NUS classification studies. Nevertheless, research on the spatial distribution of NUS remains sparse and limited to developed regions. The increase in literature could point to an increase in the interest in NUS and the general application of UAV-acquired remotely sensed data. Based on the findings, 12 articles characterised the spatial distribution of various NUS (Figure 8). Sweet potato, lentil, and chickpea were the crops that received substantial attention in the literature (Figure 8). Overall, a limited number of studies have utilised UAV remotely sensed data to classify NUS. There is a gap in the research focusing on UAV classifications from 2008 to 2019. Furthermore, 2020 was the most predominant year for NUS classification studies. Nevertheless, research on the spatial distribution of NUS remains sparse and limited to developed regions. The increase in literature could point to an increase in the interest in NUS and the general application of UAV-acquired remotely sensed data. Fifty articles estimated the stomatal conductance of NUS based on satellite-borne remotely sensed data. Specifically, studies in the USA and China mapped these NUS mostly using sensors, such as Planet scope, analytical spectral devices, UAVs, MODIS, and Sentinel 2 MSI (Supplementary Figures S1 and S2). There was a modest amount of research on stomatal conductance between 2003 and 2011. However, the literature related to farmscale stomatal conductance increased from 2013 to 2022 (Figure 9). In remote sensing, the stomatal conductance of NUS, sweet potato received more research attention (17 studies), followed by taro (5 studies), cowpea (5 studies), sorghum (4 studies), and amaranth (4 studies) (Figure 9). Meanwhile, very few studies have been conducted concerning the stomatal conductance of crops such as cassava and millet. These crops were less frequent in the retrieved literature (Figure 9a,b) than previously stated. However, there were few studies on remote sensing applications for estimating the stomatal conductance of taro based on UAV-acquired remotely sensed data from the retrieved literature. The specific countries and sensors used in mapping these NUS are detailed in Supplementary Table S6. Fifty articles estimated the stomatal conductance of NUS based on satellite-borne remotely sensed data. Specifically, studies in the USA and China mapped these NUS mostly using sensors, such as Planet scope, analytical spectral devices, UAVs, MODIS, and Sentinel 2 MSI (Supplementary Figures S1 and S2). There was a modest amount of research on stomatal conductance between 2003 and 2011. However, the literature related to farmscale stomatal conductance increased from 2013 to 2022 (Figure 9). In remote sensing, the stomatal conductance of NUS, sweet potato received more research attention (17 studies), followed by taro (5 studies), cowpea (5 studies), sorghum (4 studies), and amaranth (4 studies) (Figure 9). Meanwhile, very few studies have been conducted concerning the stomatal conductance of crops such as cassava and millet. These crops were less frequent in the retrieved literature (Figure 9a,b) than previously stated. However, there were few studies on remote sensing applications for estimating the stomatal conductance of taro based on UAV-acquired remotely sensed data from the retrieved literature. The specific countries and sensors used in mapping these NUS are detailed in Supplementary Table S6.The utilization of Earth-observation sensors in the remote sensing of NUS studies is significant. Thirteen different sensor types were noted in the reviewed literature (Figure 10). In terms of sensors, the findings of this review revealed that the spectrophotometer was the most widely used sensor for characterizing the health status of NUS, being used in 27 studies. Furthermore, research results indicate that various studies have used handheld hyperspectral devices to acquire in situ remotely sensed data to detect and map NUS biophysical and phenological attributes. The most predominant sensors in the retrieved literature were spectrophotometers (27), UAV-borne sensors (n = 18), spectrometers (n = 18), radiometers (n = 11), Sentinel-2 MSI (n = 9), MODIS (n = 3), and LiDAR (n = 3) (Figure 10a). Meanwhile, the most frequently used drone-borne sensors were RGB cameras (in 11 studies) [26], RedEdge-MX (in three studies) [27], and Canon (in three studies) [23]. These were followed by thermal cameras [28], Parrot Sequoia, Micasense Altum [20], CMOS cameras [29], and MCA6 [17] in order of frequency in the retrieved literature (Figure 10b). The utilization of Earth-observation sensors in the remote sensing of NUS studies is significant. Thirteen different sensor types were noted in the reviewed literature (Figure 10). In terms of sensors, the findings of this review revealed that the spectrophotometer was the most widely used sensor for characterizing the health status of NUS, being used in 27 studies. Furthermore, research results indicate that various studies have used handheld hyperspectral devices to acquire in situ remotely sensed data to detect and map NUS biophysical and phenological attributes. The most predominant sensors in the retrieved literature were spectrophotometers (27), UAV-borne sensors (n = 18), spectrometers (n = 18), radiometers (n = 11), Sentinel-2 MSI (n = 9), MODIS (n = 3), and LiDAR (n = 3) (Figure 10a). Meanwhile, the most frequently used drone-borne sensors were RGB cameras (in 11 studies) [26], RedEdge-MX (in three studies) [27], and Canon (in three studies) [23]. These were followed by thermal cameras [28], Parrot Sequoia, Micasense Altum [20], CMOS cameras [29], and MCA6 [17] in order of frequency in the retrieved literature (Figure 10b). Across all platforms, the multispectral (broadbands) were highly utilised in the literature compared with hyperspectral (narrow) bands. The visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum, specifically the red, green, and blue (RGB) sections, are primarily the most utilised wavelengths in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS crops and their health attributes (Figure 11). Specifically, the RGB sections of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM) were utilised in 17, 18, and 49 studies based on drone, satellite-borne, and hyperspectral sensors, respectively (Figure 11). The second most widely used section of the electromagnetic spectrum in the literature was the NIR section, utilised in 12 studies with drone-acquired data, 18 studies with satellite-borne sensors, and 38 with spectroscopy. When considering only the drone-borne sensors, seven studies utilised the electromagnetic spectrum's red edge (RE) section. In comparison, 12 studies utilised the satellite remotely sensed RE section, while 44 studies utilised RE bands from spectroscopy. Few studies attempted to engage the thermal bands in characterising the spatial distribution of NUS and their health attributes. Four studies used drone-acquired thermal remotely sensed data and a similar number of studies used satellite-acquired thermal bands. Also, only five studies utilised the spectroscopy thermal section of the EM (Figure 11). When considering drone-borne sensors, only 2 studies utilised the ultra-violet (UV) and 38 studies used the spectroscopy UV section of the EM. Across all platforms, the multispectral (broadbands) were highly utilised in the literature compared with hyperspectral (narrow) bands. The visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum, specifically the red, green, and blue (RGB) sections, are primarily the most utilised wavelengths in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS crops and their health attributes (Figure 11). Specifically, the RGB sections of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM) were utilised in 17, 18, and 49 studies based on drone, satellite-borne, and hyperspectral sensors, respectively (Figure 11). The second most widely used section of the electromagnetic spectrum in the literature was the NIR section, utilised in 12 studies with droneacquired data, 18 studies with satellite-borne sensors, and 38 with spectroscopy. When considering only the drone-borne sensors, seven studies utilised the electromagnetic spectrum's red edge (RE) section. In comparison, 12 studies utilised the satellite remotely sensed RE section, while 44 studies utilised RE bands from spectroscopy. Few studies attempted to engage the thermal bands in characterising the spatial distribution of NUS and their health attributes. Four studies used drone-acquired thermal remotely sensed data and a similar number of studies used satellite-acquired thermal bands. Also, only five studies utilised the spectroscopy thermal section of the EM (Figure 11). When considering drone-borne sensors, only 2 studies utilised the ultra-violet (UV) and 38 studies used the spectroscopy UV section of the EM.    Regarding the drone platforms, the DJI fleet was utilised in a marginally higher number of studies in relation to all other platforms (n = 12). The Octocopter [30], mikrokopter [17], and Sensfly eBee [6] each featured in separate single studies (Figure 12b). When assessing the frequency of each specific sensor in the retrieved literature, it was observed that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro was the most frequently used platform across the board (ap-  S2 for frequency values). UV is ultraviolet, SWIR is shortwave infrared, RE is red edge, NiR is near-infrared, and RGB is the red, green, and blue spectra. (See Supplementary Materials spreadsheet for frequency values.Regarding the drone platforms, the DJI fleet was utilised in a marginally higher number of studies in relation to all other platforms (n = 12). The Octocopter [30], mikrokopter [17],and Sensfly eBee [6] each featured in separate single studies (Figure 12b). When assessing the frequency of each specific sensor in the retrieved literature, it was observed that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro was the most frequently used platform across the board (appearing in six studies) [23], followed by the Octocopter UAV, which was utilised in one study [31] (Figure 12a). Furthermore, quadcopters were the most widely used drone platform type, followed by fixed-wing drones (Figure 12b). Quadcopter drones were utilised in 16 studies, and fixed-wing drones were used in only 2 studies. Furthermore, the DJI UAVs were popular in mapping a wider range of crops and research domains when compared with other platforms (Supplementary Tables S3 and S4). This could indicate that these platforms are more popular and versatile. Algebraic combinations derived from multiple spectral bands, which are commonly known as vegetation indices (VIs), were used to estimate vegetation vigour and vegetative characteristics (canopy biomass, absorbed radiation, and chlorophyll content) in the retrieved literature [32]. Furthermore, the visible (green: 530-570 nm, red: 640-680 nm, and red edge: 730-740 nm), near-infrared (770-810 nm), and red edge (730-740 nm) sections of the electromagnetic spectrum were common in studies that assessed crop health. The reflectance values of these prominent wavelengths are generally used to calculate vegetation indices, such as the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), NDVI-red edge (NDRE) simple ratio (SR), green normalised difference vegetation index (GNDVI), green chlorophyll index (CIgreen), and soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), which were frequently used in the retrieved literature (Figure 11). All VIs that were used in the literature are also listed in Supplementary Table S1. In this regard, there is still room to assess more image transformations in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS, such as sweet potato and taro, dominant in smallholder croplands.This study's findings show that several basic statistical procedures, simple regression techniques, and machine learning techniques were used in mapping the spatial distribution and health of NUS crops. These algorithms can be further subdivided into three cat- Algebraic combinations derived from multiple spectral bands, which are commonly known as vegetation indices (VIs), were used to estimate vegetation vigour and vegetative characteristics (canopy biomass, absorbed radiation, and chlorophyll content) in the retrieved literature [32]. Furthermore, the visible (green: 530-570 nm, red: 640-680 nm, and red edge: 730-740 nm), near-infrared (770-810 nm), and red edge (730-740 nm) sections of the electromagnetic spectrum were common in studies that assessed crop health. The reflectance values of these prominent wavelengths are generally used to calculate vegetation indices, such as the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), NDVI-red edge (NDRE) simple ratio (SR), green normalised difference vegetation index (GNDVI), green chlorophyll index (CIgreen), and soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), which were frequently used in the retrieved literature (Figure 11). All VIs that were used in the literature are also listed in Supplementary Table S1. In this regard, there is still room to assess more image transformations in mapping the spatial distribution of NUS, such as sweet potato and taro, dominant in smallholder croplands.This study's findings show that several basic statistical procedures, simple regression techniques, and machine learning techniques were used in mapping the spatial distribution and health of NUS crops. These algorithms can be further subdivided into three categories, which are (i) generic GIS classifications, (ii) machine learning and regression techniques, and (iii) multivariate techniques.Based on Figure 13, the main machine learning algorithms utilised in conjunction with drone-acquired data were linear regression (39%), random forest (28%), support vector machine (SVM) (22%), and artificial neural network (ANN) (17%), in order of frequency in the literature. Linear regression techniques were the most frequent regression algorithms in assessing NUS crop health (Figure 13) [22,30]. The frequency of linear regression and machine learning-based algorithms was also detected during the bibliometric analysis, as illustrated in Figure 2b (red cluster). The RF was the second most widely used machine learning ensemble, followed by SVM, PLS, linear discriminant analysis, and artificial neural network (ANN), in order of frequency in the retrieved literature.Remote Sens. 2023, 15, x FOR PEER REVIEW 17 of 32 algorithms in assessing NUS crop health (Figure 13) [22,30]. The frequency of linear regression and machine learning-based algorithms was also detected during the bibliometric analysis, as illustrated in Figure 2b (red cluster). The RF was the second most widely used machine learning ensemble, followed by SVM, PLS, linear discriminant analysis, and artificial neural network (ANN), in order of frequency in the retrieved literature. In terms of generic statistics and classification techniques, Pearson correlation, ANOVA, maximum likelihood (ML), OBIA, and the empirical line method (ELM) were the most frequently utilised algorithms based on satellite and drone-borne remotely sensed data (Figure 14). The Mahalanobis distance, parallelepiped, k-means, and canny edge filtering were some of the popular generic classification algorithms used to map NUS based on satellite and drone-acquired remotely sensed data. Studies that were based on In terms of generic statistics and classification techniques, Pearson correlation, ANOVA, maximum likelihood (ML), OBIA, and the empirical line method (ELM) were the most frequently utilised algorithms based on satellite and drone-borne remotely sensed data (Figure 14). The Mahalanobis distance, parallelepiped, k-means, and canny edge filtering were some of the popular generic classification algorithms used to map NUS based on satellite and drone-acquired remotely sensed data. Studies that were based on generic classification were relatively few for each algorithm (<5) when compared with all other algorithms utilised in the retrieved literature (Figure 14a). Generic classification procedures, such as the analytical hierarchical process (AHP), cluster analysis, fuzzy logic, and multilayer perceptron, have not yet been utilised in conjunction with drone-acquired remotely sensed data for crop mapping (Figure 14b). Regarding multivariate techniques, PCA followed by cluster analysis and multiple regression were the most frequently used algorithms based on satellite and drone-acquired data combined (Figure 15). Studies based on linear mixed model and machine learning algorithm classifications were relatively few (<5) compared with PCA and cluster analysis. There seemed to be scanty literature (<5) that utilised multivariate techniques in conjunction with drone-acquired data for mapping the spatial distribution of NUS and their health attributes. Regarding multivariate techniques, PCA followed by cluster analysis and multiple regression were the most frequently used algorithms based on satellite and drone-acquired data combined (Figure 15). Studies based on linear mixed model and machine learning algorithm classifications were relatively few (<5) compared with PCA and cluster analysis. There seemed to be scanty literature (<5) that utilised multivariate techniques in conjunction with drone-acquired data for mapping the spatial distribution of NUS and their health attributes.Regarding multivariate techniques, PCA followed by cluster analysis and multiple regression were the most frequently used algorithms based on satellite and drone-acquired data combined (Figure 15). Studies based on linear mixed model and machine learning algorithm classifications were relatively few (<5) compared with PCA and cluster analysis. There seemed to be scanty literature (<5) that utilised multivariate techniques in conjunction with drone-acquired data for mapping the spatial distribution of NUS and their health attributes.  There have been numerous shifts in the key terms of the literature on the remote sensing of the distribution and health status of NUS crops. Specifically, there was a shift in the topical terms from mere correlations based on RGB remotely sensed data in mapping NUS attributes between 2018 and 2019 to using hyperspectral data in predicting and mapping NUS crop health attributes, such as yield and AGB, in 2020. Currently, research efforts are being exerted towards the fusion of drone-acquired data with satellite remotely sensed datasets in conjunction with robust machine learning algorithms, such as PLSR and SVM, in characterising yield genotype canopy coverages, amongst others. Progress is discussed in detail in the following sub-sections.This study's findings revealed that the articles that utilised drone-based remotely sensed data in mapping the spatial distribution, health, and productivity elements of NUS crops increased gradually from 2009 to 2014 (Figure 3). This trend was similar to that of published studies that utilised satellite remotely sensed data (Figure 3b). The rapid changes, improvements, and increased accessibility of Earth-observation sensors and platforms could explain this. That period was characterised by limited access to highspatial-resolution remotely sensed data for crop monitoring. These findings are echoed by numerous reviews, which include Mutanga, Dube [33] and Sibanda, Mutanga [34].In the context of satellite-borne sensors, the research period from 2009 to 2014 was mainly dominated by the utility of Landsat and MODIS [35]. These sensors were incapable of capturing the land fragmentation and heterogeneity associated with NUS. Moreover, the only accessible fine-spatial-resolution images were those procured from commercial sensors, such as WorldView and QuickBird. These sensors are often associated with exorbitant costs that restrict research activities, especially in under-developed countries. The potential of NUS was still being researched during that period, and research investments were not channelled to the use of satellite-borne sensors. However, the period between 2015 and 2022 was marked by a rapid increase in drone platforms and associated sensors, hence the rapid increase. This would suggest an increase in the interest in NUS and the improved capabilities of drone and satellite sensors.Interestingly, most of these drone-related studies were conducted by universities and agricultural institutions in China, America, South America, Europe, and Australia (Supplementary Table S6). This could be attributed to the fact that the earliest drone technologies emerged in these regions between 1849 and 1916 [34]. Also, some of the mentioned countries are pioneers in the research and preservation of NUS. Since then, technology has been spreading and advancing. As a result, there is an increasing need to improve the application of UAV technologies for precision agriculture in accordance with NUS spatial extent and health assessments. Furthermore, it was noted that most of the studies were conducted on experimental plots, in some instances with irrigation facilities at university experimental plots. Generally, commercial farmers who are endowed with resources are the most dormant users of these technologies in under-developed regions, such as southern Africa. No studies were conducted in rainfed smallholder croplands in the retrieved literature on remote sensing NUS. The findings of this study imply that these technologies are slowly being embraced and incorporated from developed countries to the Global South.The limited number of studies focusing on NUS suggests that the utility of UAVs is still in its infancy in practice. In the retrieved literature, there were no studies that indicated whether there are any spectral libraries that have been generated for NUS. This could imply that, despite the significant efforts in advancing the remote sensing of NUS, more efforts are still required to match with other crops, such as maize. Although the results revealed that, from the year 2020 going onwards, there has been an increase in the number of studies, Merkert and Bushell [36] noted that there are still few research efforts directed towards NUS (Figure 8). In developing countries where NUS are beginning to gain recognition, the limited number of studies could be attributed to the expenses associated with drones and their accessories. Furthermore, the requirements to license and operate a drone in developing countries are still a challenge [37,38]. These findings underscore the importance of increasing knowledge and literature in the context of NUS to improve our insights into them as alternative crops.The findings showed that 16 studies assessed crop phenology, 9 were on productivity, and 7 explored physiology using drone-acquired remotely sensed data. However, most of the retrieved studies focused on interrelated themes, which explains the high frequencies of studies on each crop attribute. Crop attributes, such as physiology, productivity, and phenology, are mutually dependent elements that determine crop development and health. According to Fageria, Baligar [39], crop physiology in particular is a useful crop attribute that could be used to quantify crop growth for optimising crop yields.The findings of this study showed that 11 NUS crop productivity elements, namely, crop yield, crop growth, crop health, chlorophyll content, biomass, LAI, canopy height, cover, leaf nitrogen, leaf water content elements, and stomatal conductance, were the most widely researched [28,40]. These are the principal optical crop productivity and health elements; hence, they are anticipated to be covered extensively in the literature on agricultural remote sensing applications. The primary function of remote sensing applications is to optimise yield production and the supply of nutrient-rich foods [41]. Additionally, all research efforts have been exerted towards optimising agricultural productivity (increasing yields) and addressing sustainable goals 1 and 2 on hunger and poverty [23,33,42,43]. Subsequently, yield is expected to be the most intensely researched NUS crop attribute based on drone and satellite-borne remotely sensed data [23,42]. It must be noted that, in most instances, yield is synonymous with AGB. The findings of this study showed that 61% of drone-based remote sensing studies on NUS estimated crop AGB. AGB is an important parameter that can also be utilised to predict crop growth, yield. and productivity [44].The findings of this study also showed that LAI is one of the most researched elements of NUS, featuring in 33% of the retrieved literature. This can be attributed to the fact that LAI is yet another accurate proxy of plant growth, as illustrated in Figure 7. It has been extensively proven to correlate with other plant growth indicators, including chlorophyll content, biomass, and, to some extent, yield [45,46]. LAI represents the structural attributes of the leaf components estimated by the area of the leaf per unit of ground surface area [47]. The area covered by leaves per unit of the ground surface changes with the changes in a crop's growth stage. This variable can accurately represent the space available for photon interception across a crop's phenological stages, which can affect yield [48]. Subsequently, LAI is a plausible indicator of canopy health and development that needs to be accurately mapped [49]. In addition, LAI can affect the surrounding canopy and the microclimate, e.g., radiation from the sun is intercepted by leaves, affecting transpiration and leaf surface temperature. This ultimately influences the photosynthetic nature of leaves and the stomatal conductance [50]. In this regard, LAI was one of the most important NUS attributes in the retrieved literature.The chlorophyll content is another predominant NUS attribute covered by 50% of the retrieved literature in this study [51,52]. The chlorophyll content of leaf tissue indicates a plant's physiological structure, nutritional composition, and health [53,54]. The antenna pigments in chloroplasts absorb incoming solar radiation during photosynthetic activities [55]. The resulting radiation is then transferred to the reaction centre pigments, which discharge electrons to activate the photochemical process [55]. Specifically, chlorophyll is a very relevant and optical indicator of crop health, since chlorophyll highly absorbs energy in the red (650-700 nm) and blue (400-500 nm) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to increase photosynthesis. The types of chlorophyll responsible for the higher absorption within the visible spectrum are chlorophylls a and b [55]. In this regard, there is a positive relationship between the leaf total chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a+b), the solar radiation absorbed by the leaf tissues, and the photosynthetic rate of the crop [55]. Subsequently, a leaf's biophysical pigments and biochemical photosynthetic processes are linked to a plant's health and productivity. Hence it is considered a suitable proxy for crop health in the light of agricultural remote sensing applications [54].Meanwhile, the chlorophyll content has been widely proven to correlate positively with the nitrogen content in various crop species [56][57][58][59]. Indeed, approximately 75% of the total nitrogen is stored within the leaf chloroplasts [60]. In this regard, the findings of this study revealed that 28% of the retrieved studies estimated nitrogen concentration using drone remotely sensed data, thus rendering the nitrogen content another sought-after attribute of NUS. An elevated nitrogen concentration is associated with an increased CO2 assimilation rate and stomatal conductance in the crop, which aids in producing chlorophyll and green pigments. For example, Muhammad, Alam [61] conducted a related study to evaluate the impact of various nitrogen and phosphorous levels and beneficial microbes on enhancing canola productivity. The results revealed that nitrogen applied at a rate of 180 kg ha −1 increased plant pods, seed pods, the seed-filling duration, seed weight, biological yield, and seed yield.The findings of this review also showed that crop structural parameters, such as crop height, crop growth, and canopy cover, were explored in 39%, 72%, and 39% of dronebased studies, respectively. These crop structural parameters are related to AGB, LAI, and the chlorophyll content, which are measured and used to predict the yield. Hence, these parameters are directly linked to food and nutrition security. The crop height and growth attributes directly interact with the incident electromagnetic energy that is typically measured and used to model productivity. Furthermore, these physiological crop variables are sensitive to variations in environmental conditions. These include environmental (precipitation, temperature, soil type, etc.) and biochemical conditions (fertility, weeds, pests, and diseases). In this regard, these structural attributes are instrumental in monitoring the health of crops to optimise crop production; hence, significant research efforts were devoted to them. This study showed that stomatal conductance was another optimal NUS health parameter assessed by 11% of the retrieved studies that utilised drone data. The stomatal conductance measures the degree of stomatal opening and can indicate leaf gas exchange [62]. The stomatal conductance is strongly associated with leaf transpiration rates, photosynthetic efficiency, chlorophyll concentration, and nitrogen concentration [63]. Specifically, periods of crop water stress or drought stress will be limited by the CO 2 concentration at carboxylation sites (Cc) inside the chloroplast. This is determined by the CO 2 diffusion components, i.e., stomatal conductance (gs) and mesophyll conductance (gm) [64]. Particularly, the stomata control the CO 2 diffusion into the leaf tissue and water diffusion out of the plant. Therefore, it has been proven that, under water deficit conditions, plant stomata will close to prevent major water loss. This consequently decreases photosynthesis via the decreased influx of CO 2 [64].In this regard, higher stomatal conductance and high photosynthetic efficiency are associated with limited moisture stress. Hence, these plants will be healthier, with a higher chlorophyll content and green pigment. In this regard, stomatal conductance was among the most researched crop attributes in the retrieved literature because it is an accurate proxy of moisture stress and the health status of crops [28,62]. In fact, the stomatal conductance aids in water use and irrigation scheduling as a pathway towards optimising food production. A study by Chai, Massawe [65] measured the morpho-physiological traits of Bambara groundnut exposed to progressive mild drought in a controlled environment. Drought stress reduced stomatal conductance significantly (p < 0.01). Furthermore, higher stomatal density and reduced leaf area were observed in drought-treated plants (p < 0.01). This suggests that NUS crops are more resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, such as drought and water stress. Above all, this indicates the prospects of using stomatal conductance as a proxy for understanding crop water stress.In most studies from the retrieved literature, there were strong correlations between the stomatal conductance and water relation status or leaf water content [28,66,67]. Specifically, 17% of studies based on drone remote sensing researched the NUS leaf water content. Water content is an important indicator of crop health [28,66,67]. A plant with higher water potential will produce greener pigmentation and have increased crop productivity. According to Ouyang, Struik [64], under water deficit or conditions of mild water stress, the stomatal conductance, internal CO 2 concentration, and net assimilation rate within a plant will decrease, and the A/G ratio will increase. Various studies assessed and reported that crop water stress allows for a decline in the total chlorophyll of various crops and a decline in plant productivity [68][69][70]. This includes non-stomatal regulation of photosynthesis, a decline in light and the CO 2 concentration, a reduction in photochemistry, declining activity of photosynthetic enzymes, and lowered mesophyll conductance. For instance, Chibarabada [71] assessed the stomatal conductance of three grain legume crops (groundnut, dry bean, and Bambara groundnut) grown under three water treatments. Their results indicated that, under varying water regimes, NUS crops adjusted to constrained soil water through stomatal regulation and reduced canopy size. Furthermore, Bambara groundnut showed a positive attribute under water-limited conditions. It had the lowest stomatal conductance under all watering regimes compared with the other crops. In the context of remote sensing, these plant conditions then impact the interaction between different sections of the EM spectrum and the various magnitudes of crop water stress [72]. This example illustrates why stomatal conductance and foliar temperature were significantly considered in NUS production.The dominance of drone-based remote sensing studies on NUS could be explained by the fact that most of these crop species are orphaned, neglected, and underutilised. In this regard, they are generally planted in smaller areas than mainstream crops, such as maize. On the other hand, very few freely accessible satellite-borne sensors offer finerspatial-resolution data suitable for capturing the variety of crops in fragmented smallholder croplands. Subsequently, the freely available datasets from moderate-spatial-resolution sensors, such as Landsat and Sentinel 2 MSI, cannot capture the dynamics of crops in smallholder farms when compared with UAVs. Drones offer rapid, ultra-fine-spatialresolution data, often to a sub-metre resolution, in a cost-effective manner [73].Furthermore, the user determines the spatial and spectral resolution of the drone remotely sensed data, offering endless opportunities in crop phenotyping from the stand level to field scale. Sentinel-2 MSI was the most widely used satellite-borne sensor in mapping the spatial distribution, health, and productivity parameters of NUS crops. Sentinel 2 MSI has a minimum spatial resolution of 10 m and a spectral resolution that covers the red edge section of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is sensitive to crop health [74]. These attributes make Sentinel 2 MSI the second most suitable sensor among UAV-borne sensors in mapping NUS, often grown in small, fragmented fields.In terms of the drone sensors, our findings showed that the RGB and multispectral cameras (>three bands) were the most frequently used in the retrieved literature when compared with hyperspectral sensors (Figure 11).This could be explained by the exorbitant expenses associated with hyperspectral sensors to multispectral cameras. RGB and multispectral cameras generally cover the visible, including the red edge and the NIR, sections of the EM spectrum. This is usually in not more than six broader spectral band resolutions (i.e., MicaSense Altum) [75]. Meanwhile, most hyperspectral sensors, such as the Cubert S185 hyperspectral sensors, cover a wavelength range between 450 and 950 nm. These are composed of 125 channels at a resolution of 8 nm at 532 nm, ranging from visible to near-infrared (450-950 nm) with a sampling interval of 4 nm [76]. Furthermore, the RGB type of sensors offers models with less accuracy when compared with multispectral or hyperspectral images covering a wider spectral range [77]. Hyperspectral sensors have been widely proven to offer robust narrow, relatively contiguous bands, although multicollinearity issues often impact them. Despite their exorbitant prices, these bands are more sensitive to subtle crop variations compared with broadband sensors [78][79][80].The findings of this study also showed that very limited studies utilised cameras that captured data in the red edge section of the EM spectrum. The multispectral sensors that captured the red edge section in the retrieved studies were the MicaSense series, and Red-edge MX utilised in two and three studies, respectively. The red edge section has been vastly proven to be sensitive to minute variations in plant attributes associated with health and productivity, such as the LAI, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, AGB, and nitrogen content [49]. For instance, the increased chlorophyll content, LAI, and biomass generally result in increased absorption in the red region, pushing the red edge to longer wavelengths [81]. Considering this phenomenon, the red edge has become one of the most sought-after sections of the EM spectrum in crop monitoring [82]. In this regard, there is a need for more studies that assess the robustness of hyperspectral and red-edge sensors in mapping NUS attributes. This will improve the assessment and monitoring of the health elements of NUS if their productivity is optimised based on the information derived from remotely sensed data.The findings of this study also showed that the multirotor drones were the most widely used platforms in the retrieved literature compared with fixed-wing drones (Figure 12). This could be explained by the fact that, despite the endurance associated with fixed-wing drones, they often require take-off and landing space. However, these requirements are not always available in experimental sites, where most retrieved studies have been conducted [83]. Multirotor drones are characterised by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), which makes them more suitable for utilisation in research areas with limited take-off space [83]. These drones are relatively cheaper than fixed-wing drones [34]. This could also explain the high utilisation frequency of DJI drones in the retrieved literature (Figure 12). The advantage of DJI drones is that some are associated with an automated image acquisition procedure, making it easy to fly them, as they require less expertise in drone piloting. According to Sibanda, Mutanga [34], the DJI platforms are generally compatible with many types of sensors from other platforms, which could also explain their wide utilisation in studies on the remote sensing of crops.This review's findings also showed that vegetation indices (VIs), such as NDVI, NDRE, SR, GNDVI, CIgreen, and SAVI frequently mapped the spatial distribution of NUS and their health parameters. For instance, Li, Zheng [84] deployed a quadcopter UAV to investigate its utility in crop identification from different land cover types based on VIs. The maximum likelihood classifier, in combination with optimal VIs, exhibited high classification accuracies in that study. This approach was accurate because VIs could partially overcome the influence of shadows and other noise in the background [85]. A growing body of literature demonstrates the optimal performance of VIs [22,24,29]. Specifically, VIs are robust because they can suppress background effects compared with bands [79]. Furthermore, VIs derive their strength from two or more sections of the EM spectrum. For instance, Vis, such as NDVI, NDRE, SR, GNDVI, CIgreen, and CIred-edge, derive their strength from sections of the EMS (i.e., red edge, NIR, and SWIR) that are more sensitive to crop elements, such as the chlorophyll content, LAI, ABG, nitrogen concentration, and stomatal conductance [53]. Moreover, a large body of literature has proven that red-edge-based VIs are more robust than conventional vegetation indices, such as NDVI and SR [20,86]. NDVI tends to be insensitive to increases in chlorophyll, LAI, and biomass [85,87]. As aforementioned, the red edge is highly associated with plant physiological traits, such as the leaf angle distribution, chlorophyll concentration, and LAI, which directly influence vegetation spectral reflectance. Subsequently, red edge-derived vegetation harnesses this robust sensitivity to variations in LAI biomass and chlorophyll content, among others [85, [88][89][90][91].As was suggested in many studies, the combinations of sensitive spectral variables with robust algorithms produce models with relatively optimal accuracies [92]. The findings of this study showed that the machine learning algorithms that were utilised in conjunction with drone-acquired remotely sensed data were primarily linear regressions (LR) (39%), followed by RF (28%), SVM (22%), and ANN (17%). Machine learning regression algorithms present a potential approach for generating adaptive, robust, and fast crop estimates. A growing body of literature demonstrates machine learning algorithms' efficiency and optimal performance in estimating crop biophysical parameters [47,93,94]. The high frequency of using regression models, such as RF, LR, and SVM, can be credited to the fact that they are simple to implement using various platforms. This ranges from Microsoft Excel to complex programming platforms, such as R Statistical Software and the Google Earth Engine platform. Despite their high frequency in the retrieved literature of this current study, LR models are parametric algorithms associated with data normality assumptions. However, these assumptions are often challenging to attain due to high spatial varieties in crop fields. Furthermore, these models are susceptible to overfitting and outliers [95]. Subsequently, more efforts have been channelled towards machine learning algorithms, such as SVM and RF. These algorithms are non-parametric, robust, and less prone to outliers, as they are not extremely affected by the data frequency distributions [95]. Specifically, RF has (i) hyperparameters that are easy to adjust, (ii) is robust to outliers, overfitting, and data dimensionality, (iii) low bias and moderate to minimal variance due to the averaged trees, (vi) works well both continuous and categorical variables, (v) has a capability of discerning the importance of predictor variables, and (iv) it is relatively resistant to multicollinearity when tree depths are greater [91,96,97]. This makes this algorithm suitable for mapping cropping attributes.Other than machine learning algorithms, numerous generic classification algorithms were utilised in the retrieved literature, such as maximum likelihood and minimum distance to mean classification algorithms [98][99][100]. Despite their optimal performance in the literature, these algorithms are less robust when compared with machine learning algorithms. For instance, maximum likelihood is also a traditional parametric algorithm that is often difficult to parametrise, despite the fact it is generally accessible through freely available GIS platforms.Even though there is progress regarding the utility of drones in crop mapping and health quantification of NUS, several challenges impede their propagation, especially in Africa. Many African countries are battling to address various drone-related issues, such as privacy, public safety, and preventing the possession of malicious drones [101]. Moreover, restrictive UAV or drone regulations across many developing regions, including Africa, hinder their utilisation. To utilise UAVs, users must seek permission from landowners and municipalities, and only operate in certain areas, among several other issues [102].For example, the civil aviation authorities (CAAs) in many countries aim to prevent UAVs from entering the flight paths of manned aircraft. Moreover, CAAs are attempting to construct an inclusive system that accommodates UAVs into their respective air navigation and surveillance systems [103]. To the best of our knowledge, only a few African countries, including Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, have established complex legal requirements governing the use of UAVs in varied airspace practices. Some drone restrictions in South Africa (SA), for example, state that UAVs weighing more than 7 kg (15.4 pounds) are not permitted to operate [102]. In this regard, the regulation on the mass of UAVs at taking off tends to indirectly restrict the areal extent and the size of the camera to be mounted for research purposes [34]. Specifically, due to the weight restrictions, many of the sensor types that are frequently used tend to be lightweight, small, and general consumer grades with limited spectral resolution [34]. Also. this could explain why more studies are based on the VIS (RGB) spectra than other sections of the electromagnetic spectrum.Furthermore, SACAA asserts that drone operators should maintain a continuous visual line of sight (VLOS) with their drones during flights. Moreover, remote-piloted aircraft (RPAs) are not permitted to fly beyond visual-line-of-sight in designated places (BV-LOS) [102]. Sibanda, Mutanga [34] stated that supporting regulations and the operationalisation of BVLOS drone technology applications will facilitate coverage of greater areas on a single mission. Covering a greater area in a single mission improves the cost-effectiveness of acquiring VHR imagery. Other restrictions include requiring drone operators to obtain an RPAS operator certificate (ROC) from the CAA before flying [104]. UAV operators should obtain insurance to cover their liability in the case of committing physical or bodily harm to another individual while operating their drone [104].Aside from these regions, numerous African countries are still attempting to establish the necessary regulations that endorse UAV operations. As a result, these regulations are becoming increasingly complicated, while attaining RPAS is associated with high expenses. More notably, the cost of obtaining a drone pilot license is excessive, with estimates ranging from USD 1500 to USD 2000 in 2021 [34]. Furthermore, the value of drone platforms, including sensors, is prohibitively expensive for several minority groups or scholars, making these technologies unattainable for research purposes in the vast bulk of Sub-Saharan African countries [34].The following gaps were noted in assessing the utility of drone-based remotely sensed data in mapping the spatial distribution and health of NUS crops:The It is, therefore, essential to research the prospects of these remote sensing technologies in monitoring these crops to promote their inclusion as mainstream crops within the agriculture sector. Scholarly attention needs to be paid to promoting the application of UAVs for assessing NUS crops' spatial extent and health at the field scale. There is a need to increase and extend research efforts towards rainfed smallholder croplands in remotely sensing NUS. Hence, this will optimise their productivity while strengthening the livelihood and food security of marginalised subsistence farmers.UAVs are becoming increasingly common in agricultural research as relevant sources of high-temporal-resolution data for agricultural health monitoring, amongst other applications. This has been previously limited to a farm scale. UAVs provide immense opportunities by incorporating climate-smart and precision agriculture into smallholder farming. They deliver high-resolution imagery at user-defined temporal resolutions, which benefit crop health monitoring and independent decision-making. For example, the integration of multi-rotor drones, such as the DJI series, in conjunction with multispectral sensors, such as the Mica Sense RedEdgeMX Parrot Sequoia and MicaSense Altum cameras, has been demonstrated to deliver accurate models of crop health characteristics at the field scale.Additionally, the increasing adoption of cutting-edge narrow-band hyperspectral and LiDAR remote sensing technologies could provide the opportunity to assess diverse crop health parameters at high optical resolutions. This assessment would also allow for creating various optimal VIs. Hence, these are directly associated with NUS crop morphological and physiological characteristics, allowing for the quantification of their health status.Moreover, to improve research based on the application of UAVs to estimate NUS crop health, it is essential to identify and implement robust and reliable non-parametric ML algorithms. Algorithms that enhance prediction accuracies with fewer assumptions, such as the RF, seem to hold endless prospects. Using multi-fusion techniques based on the combination of ideal VIs and ML algorithms will achieve the best optimal accuracies. As a result, additional research is required to evaluate the utility of UAVs with distinct spectral characteristics for NUS. It would be valuable to research whether UAV sensors that measure spectral reflectance along the electromagnetic spectrum's thermal, SWIR, and NIR sections enhance the prediction of NUS water stress at the farm scale. Therefore, near-real-time-temporal-resolution spatially explicit information on NUS spatial extent and health can certainly assist smallholder farmers. This will assist in detecting variations in crop morphology to optimise yields. Near-real-time fine-resolution NUS information could be used to draw up early warning systems for smallholder farmers to prevent any damage or reduction to crop yields.Many possible sources of information on the spatial extent and health of NUS were disregarded throughout our search approach. We primarily searched for English-language sources and peer-reviewed articles included in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. In conducting the literature review, some studies were inaccessible in full length and others were not written in English. This could have had a potentially negative effect on quantifying all the studies that focus on remote sensing the spatial distribution and health status of NUS crops. More so, the exclusion of these studies has an impact on the spatial distribution of NUS studies. Since NUS crops research is highly under-represented and anecdotal, it was challenging to obtain research that focused on the health and spatial extent of NUS crops. Despite missed contributions, we believe that our findings are based on a sample that is adequate and diverse enough to offer meaningful insight and implications in the application of UAVs in the remote sensing of NUS crops in smallholder croplands. Another, limitation of the study was the fact that we limited our scope of research materials for the systematic review to only the Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases. As such, we recommend that future work extend the sources to a larger number of databases.The objective of this study was to systematically assess the literature on the progress, challenges, gaps, and opportunities in using drone-derived remotely sensed data to map the spatial distribution and health status of NUS. This study placed a special focus on classifying and measuring stomatal conductance in smallholder croplands in the Global South. From the reviewed literature, UAVs emerged as cutting-edge technology with a high potential to provide spatially explicit, timely, and reliable data for assessing the health of NUS. However, there is a noticeable scarcity of studies that have attempted to map the spatial distribution and stomatal conductance, along with other health attributes, of NUS in comparison with mainstream crops in smallholder croplands in the Global South. Several factors contribute to this scarcity, including the limited popularity of NUS, the prohibitive cost of drones and pilot licenses, a shortage of personnel with the necessary skills, and stringent regulations governing drone procurement and operation, among others. While acknowledging the substantial ownership costs associated with drones, our study advocates for the communal ownership of UAVs among smallholder farmers, which can significantly reduce operational expenses. This approach offers promising opportunities to integrate climate-smart agriculture into local farming systems through enhanced monitoring and mapping of crop health. It will equip farmers and, through extension, workers with valuable information for making informed decisions in the field. Additionally, it will enhance stress detection, improve irrigation scheduling, and boost crop productivity on a farm scale. Furthermore, improving the productivity of NUS and other crops presents an opportunity to revive local food culture and food systems, while simultaneously empowering smallholder farmers, who are often the stewards of this agrobiodiverse resource system. We also advocate for the use of UAVs to engage younger generations in agriculture, a critical priority in Sub-Saharan Africa. By delivering high-quality imagery and automating data collection, processing, and analysis at a low cost, the application of UAVs in local food systems can serve as a pathway to optimise food production among disadvantaged smallholder farmers.","tokenCount":"12166"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acf069d8f0b591eecb2458b2a2dfca78","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7fd5853b-da9a-438d-8166-4e4de41506ad/content","id":"-295509769"},"keywords":["AD, anthesis day","BLP, best linear predictor","EH, ear height","FIRA, Fideicomiso Instituido en Relación con la Agricultura","GY, grain yield","HD, heading","LPSI, linear phenotypic selection index","MLE, maximum likelihood estimator","MOI, moisture content","PH, plant height","QT, quantitative trait","QTL, quantitative trait locus"],"sieverID":"97da4e10-17c1-44ae-aa52-b92fb8f12a43","pagecount":"13","content":"The profit function (net returns minus costs) allows breeders to derive trait economic weights to predict the net genetic merit (H) using the linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI). Economic weight is the increase in profit achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit and should reflect the market situation and not only preferences or arbitrary values. In maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding programs, only grain yield has a specific market price, which makes application of a profit function difficult. Assuming the traits' phenotypic values have multivariate normal distribution, we used the market price of grain yield and its conditional expectation given all the traits of interest to construct a profit function and derive trait economic weights in maize and wheat breeding. Using simulated and real maize and wheat datasets, we validated the profit function by comparing its results with the results obtained from a set of economic weights from the literature. The criteria to validate the function were the estimated values of the LPSI selection response and the correlation between LPSI and H. For our approach, the maize and wheat selection responses were 1,567.13 and 1,291.5, whereas the correlations were .87 and .85, respectively. For the other economic weights, the selection responses were 0.79 and 2.67, whereas the correlations were .58 and .82, respectively. The simulated dataset results were similar. Thus, the profit function is a good option to assign economic weights in plant breeding.The linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI) is a linear combination of observable random trait phenotypic values (y, i.e., \uD835\uDC3C = \uD835\uDEC3 ′ \uD835\uDC66). According to Hazel et al. (1994), the LPSI allowsThe main LPSI objectives are to predict H, maximize the LPSI selection response, and the correlation between H and LPSI.When the population means of H and y are zero, the selection response is the conditional expectation of H given LPSI (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Cochran, 1951). The size of the estimated LPSI selection response and the estimated correlation between H and LPSI are the main criteria to validate and compare the efficiency of any LPSI in plant and animal breeding.The main assumptions of the LPSI theory are: (a) vector g is composed entirely of the additive effects of genes; (b) H is the total individual genotypic economic value; and (c), the y and H values have a joint multivariate normal distribution. Based on these assumptions, the LPSI is the conditional expectation of H given y (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Cochran, 1951), and to predict H we need to estimate the LPSI vector of coefficients (β) so that the estimated LPSI values may discriminate those individuals with the highest H values (Smith, 1936). Currently, a linear selection index can be a linear combination of marker scores and phenotypic values (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2008;Lande & Thompson, 1990), genomic estimated breeding values (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015;Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2019), and phenotypic and genomic estimated breeding values jointly (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018, 2020a, 2022;Dekkers, 2007).The trait economic weight is the increase in profit (net returns minus costs) achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit while the others remain fixed (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998;Blasco, 2021). It should reflect the market situation and the marginal benefit from one unit of improvement, as opposed to just preferences or simply arbitrarily fixed values (Magnussen, 1990). Strain and Nordskog (1962) proposed using a profit function to integrate the costs and benefits of a breeding program and compare the profitability of lines and crosses. Later, Moav and Moav (1966), and Moav and Hill (1966), used the partial derivatives of the profit function (evaluated in the trait's mean) as economic weights for within-line selection.The profit function depends on the traits of interest, the market prices of the traits, the production technology, and market conditions (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998). An additional feature of profit functions is they may be linear or non-linear. Although a non-linear profit function can be a function of phenotypic values of individual plants or a function of population means, the linear profit function is one of the phenotypic trait values of individual plants or animals (Itoh & Yamada, 1988). Nevertheless, an LPSI can still be used for a non-linear profit function, although the optimum index depends on the selection intensity and the number of generations over which the selection response is to be maximized. According to Goddard (1983), an LPSI achieves the greatest increase in profit when the profit function and economic weights are not linear. Thus, an LPSI will always• LPSI is the best linear predictor of the net genetic merit . • The main LPSI objective is to predict the net genetic merit and maximize the selection response. • The profit function allows breeders to derive trait economic weights to predict H. • Economic weight is the increase in profit achieved by improving a particular trait by one unit.give the optimum selection response for linear and non-linear profit functions.Conditions for applying the profit function theory are: (a) changes in profit function should be due to changes in H and not to environmental conditions or changes in technology; (b) prices and costs are constants; and (c) because the genetic gains in each cycle are low, a linear approach to the profit function is recommended (Charffeddine & Alenda, 1998). In this context, the net genetic merit, the estimated LPSI selection response, and the estimated LPSI values should be interpreted in terms of economic gains and costs (Blasco, 2021).In this research, we describe a profit function to obtain economic weights in the maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding context. Contrary to animal breeding, where the traits of economic interest have a specific price on the market, in maize and wheat breeding only grain yield has a specific market price, which makes it difficult to apply a profit function and obtain economic weights. For this reason, the proposed profit function is based on grain yield market price and on the regression coefficients of grain yield on all the associated traits. In this manner, the grain yield market price is distributed over the other traits as a product of price and the regression coefficient of each trait associated with grain yield. Using seven simulated maize datasets and one real maize and wheat dataset, we validated the profit function by comparing its results with the results obtained from a set of economic weights taken from published literature (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015;Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2019, 2020a, 2020b). The criteria to validate the proposed profit function were the size of the estimated LPSI selection response and the estimated correlation coefficient between LPSI and H. For the simulated and real datasets, we found the profit function described in this work is a good option to assign economic weights in maize and wheat breeding.As we shall see later, the approach to the profit function theory described in this study is a mathematical formalization of Smith's (1936) idea to assign economic weights to the traits of interest in the wheat breeding context. Finally, the results obtained in this study are the first to use a profit function to derive economic weights in maize and wheat breeding. A short review of the LPSI theory is provided in the Appendix.Consider in a wheat selection program we consider the vector y' = [Y 1 . . . Y t ] of t traits, where Y 1 denotes grain yield, Y 2 baking quality, Y 3 resistance to flag smut, and so forth. We can evaluate Y 2 and Y 3 in terms of Y 1 as follows. Supposing an advance of 10 in the baking score is equal in value to an advance of one bushel per acre in yield, and that a decrease of 20% infection is worth one bushel of yield, then, taking \uD835\uDC4C 1 as a standard and units as indicated,w 1 = 1.0, w 2 = 0.1, and w 3 = −0.05 will be the economic values of each trait. This is the Smith's (1936) idea for deriving economic weight in wheat breeding programs. Now, let y' −1 = [Y 2 . . . Y t ] be a vector of t−1 traits that does not include Y 1 and assume that Y 1 is the dependent random variable, whereas y′ −1 is the vector of random explanatory variables. To derive economic weights for maize and wheat breeding, we will adapt the above-mentioned Smith's idea to the multiple regression context, that is, Y 1 = b 0 + b'y −1 + e (where e has normal distribution, null expectation, and variance, σ 2 \uD835\uDC52 ), using the profit function and the regression theory.Let a 1 , a 2 , . . . , a N be the N input prices or costs of the N input variables X 1 , X 2 , . . . , X N such as fertilizers, number of cultivated hectares, number of workers per hectare, worker wages per hectare, etc.; then, the cost function is:where C 0 is the fixed cost in the plant breeding program.The main objective for maize and wheat breeding programs is to increase grain yield (Y 1 ) and to decrease traits such as plant height, days to maturity, and plant diseases, and others. In these programs, only Y 1 has a market price, so we will define the profit function as follows: let π be the price of Y 1 in tons per hectare, and let N H be the number of hectares cultivated by the breeder; then, the profit function associated with Y 1 is:where N H πY 1 is the net economic return and N H C is the selection cycle cost of the breeding program. Equation 2 only includes Y 1 .The profit function for all traits under selection Suppose each random vector of t traits y' = [Y 1 . . . Y t ] (which include the grain yield, Y 1 , and all traits associated with Y 1 ) is independent and identically distributed as a multivariate normal distribution with vector of means μ' = [μ 1 . . . μ t ] and covariance matrix P, where matrix P indicates that the elements of y may be correlated and have different variance. We will include vector y' −1 = [Y 2 . . . Y t ] (which does not include Y 1 ) in Equation 2 through the conditional expectation of Y 1 given y −1 . Thus, let:be the multiple linear regression model where e has a normal distribution, null expectation and varianceis the covariance between Y 1 and y −1 , and S −1 is the inverse of the covariance matrix of y −1 (S) (Rencher & Schaalje, 2008). In addition, we assumed that the covariance between any pairs of e is 0. Therefore, with Equation 3, the conditional expectation of Y 1 given y −1 is:where μ 1 is the mean of Y 1 , m' = [μ 2 . . . μ t ] is the vector of means of y −1 , and b' = cov'(Y 1 , y -1 )S -1 = [b 2 . . . b t ] is the vector of regression coefficients. In Equations 3 and 4, the values of y −1 are not under the control of the experimenter and occur randomly along with Y 1 (Rencher, 2002). Thus, on each plant, we observe Y 1 and y −1 jointly.The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of Equations 3 and 4 iswhere Ŷ1 is the estimated BLP of Y 1 , whereas μ1and m, respectively (Rencher & Schaalje, 2008). Equation 5 is a function of y −1 alone and not a function of Y 1 (Christensen, 2011), allowing us to write an approximated profit function for t traits as:Crop ScienceIn Equation 6, the symbol \"≈\" indicates an approximation.Suppose C is fixed (Equation 1), the partial derivatives of Equation 6with respect to Y 1 and each trait associated with Ŷ1 (Equation 5) are, respectively, ∂ ∂\uD835\uDC4C 12 b\uD835\uDC57 , j = 2,3,. . . ,t, from where the estimated economic weights for Y 1 and Y j are:respectively (Goddard, 1983;Moav & Hill, 1966;Moav & Moav, 1966). Therefore, according to Equation 7, an MLE of the vector of economic weights and A2) is:where all the components of Equation 8 were defined earlier.According to Pawitan (2013, p. 45), the invariance property of the MLE says: \"If ŵ is the MLE of w and g(w) is a function of w, then g( ŵ) is the MLE of g(w).\" Thus, by this property and by Equation 8, we can assume that an MLE estimator of the LPSI vector of coefficients (Equation A3) is:where Ĝ and Pˆ− 1 are restricted MLE (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018) of the genotypic covariance matrix G (Equation A1) and the inverse phenotypic covariance matrix of P (Equation A3), respectively. Equation 9 implies the estimated LPSI (Equation A3) is:which should be interpreted in terms of monetary units when breeders predict H (Equations A1 and A2). The estimated LPSI selection response (Equation A4) is:where k denotes the selection intensity. Furthermore, becauseπ\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 appears on the numerator and denominator of the correlation (Equation A5) between LPSI and H, this last parameter is not affected by π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 and can be estimated as:All the terms of Equation 12were defined earlier.For the set of economic weights taken from published literature (Cerón-Rojas et al., 2015) we estimated the LPSI parameter and we made selection with the simulated and real datasets using \"RIndSel,\" an R software for Index Selection (Alvarado et al., 2018;Pacheco et al., 2017;Perez-Elizalde et al., 2014). In addition, to apply the profit function described in this work, we made an R-code to estimate the economic weights and to make LPSI selection. RIndSel is an R software completely automated, thus, users only need to learn how to introduce their data into the program and how to interpret the results. This software, and a complete user manual, can be downloaded from https://data.cimmyt.org/dataset.xhtml? persistentId=hdl:11529/10854These datasets were simulated by Cerón-Rojas et al. (2015) with QU-GENE software using 2,500 molecular markers and 315 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for eight phenotypic selection cycles (C0 to C7), each with four traits (Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 ), 500 genotypes, and four replicates for each genotype. The authors distributed the markers uniformly across 10 chromosomes and the QTLs randomly across the 10 chromosomes to simulate maize (Zea mays L.) populations. A different number of QTLs affected each of the four traits: 300, 100, 60, and 40, respectively. The common QTLs affecting the traits generated genotypic correlations of −0.5, 0.4, 0. We used one maize and one wheat dataset from CIMMYT breeders' experimental research. The maize traits (grain yield, GY in t ha −1 ; anthesis day, AD, in days; moisture content, MOI, %; plant height, PH, in cm; and ear height, EH, in cm) were evaluated in five sites. The number of maize genotypes was 68, each with two repetitions, whereas the environment was optimal. The economic weight for each trait was 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively. Likewise, the wheat traits (GY; heading, HD, days; and PH) were evaluated in one environment. The number of wheat genotypes was 100, each with two repetitions, whereas the economic weight for each trait was 5, −0.3, and −0.3, respectively. We compared the maize and wheat results using the selected top 10% (k = 1.755) of the estimated LPSI values. The real datasets are available by request at j.crossa@cgiar .org.  2015) simulated maize datasets described earlier, if the harvest corresponded to 1% of a hectare, that is, a plot or cultivated area of 10 by 10 = 100 m 2 . Note that 1 ha is equal to 100 by 100 = 10,000 m 2 ; therefore, to obtain the cost for the simulated datasets, we divided MX$38,392.75 by 100, where the cost for each simulated selection cycle was MX$383.93. In addition, the average of simulated grain yield for Cycle 1 was 161.88 kg; thus, because for 1,000 kg the price is MX$3,182.00, by using the rule of three, we found that for 161.88 kg the grain yield price is MX$515.101. We used a similar approach to obtain prices and costs for the other selection cycles.According to FIRA data, we used MX$3,182.00 for each ton of maize. Nevertheless, for each ton of wheat, the average price estimated by FIRA was MX$5,265.00. To estimate the vector of economic weights (Equation 9) for both real datasets, N H = 1.0 (1 ha).Note that Equation 6 can be written asThis means that when n = 1 we shall have Equation 2, and for n = 2 we shall have Equation 6. However, when n = 3 or n = 4, we shall have a profit function that assigns more weight to Ŷ1 than to Y 1 . Thus, by the above equation, breeders are free to assign weights to Ŷ1 and Y 1 according to their interest. can assume that the estimated LPSI vector of coefficients ( β = P−1 Ĝ ŵ, Equation 9) is MLE. The same is true for the estimated correlation between the estimated LPSI ( ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C ) and the net genetic merit (Equation 12; Table 1), as well as the estimated LPSI selection response ( R, Equation 11; Table 3).Cerón-Rojas and Crossa (2020b) have shown ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C and R are asymptotically unbiased estimators with minimum variance, and they gave methods to obtain confidence intervals for the expectations of R and ρ\uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C ; however, until now, the statistical properties of β = P−1 Ĝ ŵ have not been shown completely.By the above results, all the estimated parameters associated with the LPSI are maximum likelihood estimators with minimum variance, and they are asymptotic unbiased estimators for R and ρ \uD835\uDC3B\uD835\uDC3C .In the Introduction, we indicated some statistical properties of the LPSI when the phenotypic (P) and genotypic (G) covariance matrices are known. Let ϵ = \uD835\uDC3B − Î be the error of prediction of Î (Equation 10); then: (a) ϵ and Î are independent; (b) by the central limit theorem (Kollo, 2005), Î converges in distribution with the normal distribution(c) Î is an asymptotically efficient predictor. This last result allows us to construct a confidence interval for the conditional expectation of H [E(H|I)] as:where Î denotes the estimated LPSI values, Z α/2 is the upper 100 α 2 percentage point of the standard normal distribution, and 0 ≤ α ≤ 1 is the level of confidence. Thus, to establish a 100(1 − α) = 95% confidence interval for E(H/I), the value of \uD835\uDC4D α∕2 is equal to 1.96. To construct the above confidence interval, it should be convenient to omit the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 from the estimated LPSI parameters because π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 increases the length of the interval. The same is true for the variance of the error of prediction. That is, the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 values increase the estimate of the prediction error variance. According to these results, the LPSI theory gives breeders a viable statistical method to make multi-trait selection.Numerical resultsTable 1 presents cost (Equation 1), grain yield price (π), and π times the number of hectares cultivated (N H = 0.01 or 1% of a cultivated hectare) and divided by 2 ( π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 ; e.g., [(515.101)(0.01)]/2 = 2.576). Although the cost for each selection cycle was the same, the price changed, as this depends on the harvested grain yield in each selection cycle. Similar results were obtained for the π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 values because this depends on π.According to Equations 7-9, the estimated economic weights presented in Table 2 ( ŵ1 to ŵ4 ) were the product of π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 times the coefficient of grain yield Y 1 (1.0 or b1 ) and the estimated coefficients of regression of Y 1 on Y 2 , Y 3 , and Y 4 ( b2 to b4 ). For this reason, whereas the economic weight of Y 1 was equal to π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 (Table 2), the economic weights for traits Y 2 to Y 4 were ŵ2 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b2 , ŵ3 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b3 , and ŵ4 = π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 b4 , respectively. In addition, because the estimated regression coefficients b2 to b4 are MLE, by the MLE invariance property (Pawitan, 2013), the estimators ŵ2 , ŵ2 , and ŵ4 were MLE. This means we can assume the estimator of the vector of economic weights (Equation 8) was a minimum variance and asymptotic unbiased estimator.For k = 1.755 (top 10% of the estimated LPSI values), Table 3 presets the estimated selection response obtained when using the profit function ( R) and the estimated selection response ( R * ) when the economic weight were obtained from the published literature. In a similar manner, Table 3 presents   means that the estimated vector of economic weights (Equation 8) affected mainly the estimated LPSI selection ( R), as we would expect. By Equations 8 and 9, the estimated selection response (Equation 11) can be written as2 , k, and toNote that when π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 andtend to zero, R tends to zero. Therefore, the higher value of R will be when 2 should be high. For breeding and economic objectives jointly, both parts should be high.The total average of the ρHI values was 0.820 (Table 3), meaning that the estimated LPSI values predict the H values with high accuracy. However, the total average of the ρ * HI values was 0.863 (Table 3), that is, the values of ρ * HI were higher than the ρHI values. In addition, because π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 appears in the numerator and denominator of the correlation between the estimated LPSI and H values (Equation 12), the values of ρHI and ρ * For this dataset, the ton grain yield price was MX$3182.00, thus, for \uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B = 1.0, only affected R, this was higher than R * . Nevertheless, in this case ρHI was higher than ρ * HI .For this dataset, the ton grain yield price was MX$5265.00, then, for \uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B = 1.0, 2 affected only R, this was higher than R * , whereas the correlation coefficients were similar.The real maize and wheat genotypes selected with LPSI Table 4 presents the selected maize genotype (with k = 1.755), and the means of five selected traits (GY, AD, MOI, PH, and EH) using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3, and −0.3, respectively. In addition, Table 4 presents the total means of the selected traits, the population mean of the traits, and the selection differential (mean of the selected traits minus the population mean of the traits) for each trait. Table 5 presents the selected wheat genotype (with k = 1.755), the means of three selected traits (GY, HD, and PH) using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively, the total mean of the selected traits, the population mean of the traits, and the selection differential for each trait.The maize genotypes selected by our approach are different to the maize genotypes selected by the other approach (Table 4). However, six wheat genotypes (6,10,12,39,45,71) selected with our approach were the same as those selected by the other approach (Table 5). This means that when the number of traits increases in the LPSI, both approaches tend to select different genotypes, which does not occur when the number of LPSI traits is low, as in the wheat dataset. Likewise, although the maize and wheat estimated LPSI values obtained using the profit function economic weights were all positive (Tables 4 and 5), the estimated maize and wheat LPSI values obtained using the other economic weights described above were all negative. Thus, both sets of economic weights affect the estimated LPSI values in a different way, as we would expect. In addition, note that the traits mean selected with the LPSI using our approach were all higher than the traits mean selected by the LPSI using the other approach. This explains why, in general, the selection differential values for each trait obtained with our approach were mainly positive, whereas for the other approach they were mostly negative.Using a stochastics linear regression model and a profit function, we developed a methodology to enable plant breeders define economic weights for selection indices. Our aim was to obtain economic weights for selection indices that can improve selection decisions in plant breeding when several traits (GY, maturity, HD, PH, etc.) are simultaneously selected. The problem to construct a profit function in maize and wheat breeding is evident: only GY has a market price, as we have indicated in the Introduction of this study. Therefore, our approach is based on GY market price and on the regression coefficients of GY on all the other associated traits.Our results show that the profit function and the regression theory allow us to estimate the trait economic weights in the maize and wheat breeding context and select genotypes using the LPSI theory. For seven simulated datasets and two real datasets, the estimated LPSI selection responses were higher in all cases when we used the method described in this study to obtain the economic weights. This was not generally true for the estimated correlation between the LPSI and H, thus further research is necessary on this topic.When we compared the R values obtained in this study with the R * values (Table 3) obtained by Cerón-Rojas et al. (2015) and Cerón-Rojas and Crossa (2020b), who used the simulated datasets described in this paper and the LPSI to make selections, we found that in all cases the R values were higher than the R * values. The same was true for the maize and wheat real datasets. In addition, the estimated selection responses of this research have an economic interpretation, but this type of interpretation it is not possible for the R * values of the above authors. Thus, the profit function described in this study to obtain economic weights is effective for evaluating the profitability of plant breeding programs.T A B L E 4 Selected maize genotype and selected traits (grain yield, GY; anthesis day, AD; moisture content, MOI; plant height, PH; and ear height, EH) for k = 1.755 using the economic weights obtained with the profit function and the economic weights 5, −0.3, −0.3, −0.3 and −0.3, respectively, and estimated linear phenotypic selection index (LPSI) valuesResults As we would expect, the profit function (Equations 7 and 8) assigned more weight to Y 1 than to the other traits. In addition, because the economic weight of Y 1 is equal to π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 , all the seven selection cycles coefficients of Y 1 ( b1 ) in Table 2 are equal to 1.0, whereas the values of the other traits' regression coefficients ( b2 to b4 ) differ from 1.0. This shows the method described in this study is an adaptation of the Smith (1936) idea to the multiple regression context using the profit function and regression theory.Note that Equations 7 and 8 are linked to the market situation and therefore the trait economic values are neither simply arbitrarily fixed values nor preference values. In addition,the regression coefficients, which are multiplied by π\uD835\uDC41 \uD835\uDC3B 2 to obtain the economic weights, are associated with grain yield effects. Thus, the proposed profit function is a good option for obtaining economic weights to make LPSI selection in plant breeding.Why use a linear approach to derive the economic weights?In the study of maize and wheat quantitative trait (QTs), it is assumed traits such as GY, PH, EH, etc., are the result of an undetermined number of unobservable gene effects distributed across the plant genome that interact among themselves and with the environment to produce the observable characteristic plant phenotypes (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2018). This implies the QTs have continuously distributed phenotypes that do show a complex Mendelian inheritance (Hill, 2010). The QTs are difficult to analyze because heritable variations of these traits are masked by larger nonheritable variations that make it difficult to determine the genotypic values of individual plants (Smith, 1936).To analyze QTs, we assumed the traits of interest and the net genetic merit have joint multivariate normal distribution. Under this distribution, the means, variances, and covariances completely describe the index and trait values. Moreover, if the trait values are not correlated, they are independent; linear combinations of traits are normal; and even when the trait phenotypic values do not have normal distribution, by the central limit this distribution serves as a useful approximation (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2020b;Rencher, 2002). In addition, under the multivariate normality assumption, the regression of the net genetic merit on any linear function of the phenotypic values is linear (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022;Kempthorne & Nordskog, 1959).Using histograms, quantile-quantile plots, and the Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality tests, Cerón-Rojas andCrossa (2018, 2020b) showed that the estimated LPSI values, and the average values of traits such as GY, PH, EH, etc., in maize and wheat breeding, approached the normal distribution. One additional criterion to assume the QTs have multivariate normal distribution is based on the infinitesimal model theory (Barton et al., 2017;Fisher, 1918;Turelli, 2017;Walsh & Lynch, 2018). Under this model, (a) in the plant genome there is a very large number of loci, each with very small effects; (b) in a randomly mating population, under no selection, the genotypic distribution is normal, and (c) the genotypic distributions stay at least close to normal after selection (Walsh & Lynch, 2018).Under the foregoing assumptions, Equations 3-5 are linear. Moreover, any function that is expressible as Equation 4is linear even if the vector b depends on the joint distribution of H and the traits phenotypes (Cerón-Rojas & Crossa, 2022). Based on these reasons, using a linear approach to obtain economic weights in the maize and wheat breeding context seems correct. Finally, note in Equation 3, the independent and dependent variables are random variables, and the same is true for the residuals; then Equation 3 and 4 are stochastics linear model, no determinist model.Alternatively, Goddard (1983) has analyzed the profit function in the linear and nonlinear context and concluded the better approach to maximize the LPSI selection response is to use a linear profit function. In his research, Goddard (1983) presents examples of why breeders should use a linear profit function in the LPSI context to derive economic weights. Based on that, we believe our approach to obtain economic weights is optimal in the context of maize and wheat.The invariance property of the MLE is associated with the invariance principle of the likelihood ratio, which indicates \"in the likelihood function the information should be invariant to the choice of parameterization\" (Pawitan, 2013, p. 45). This means if we do not know where the parameter of interest is, then we should not know where its log is, or where its squared is, or its inverse value. That is, we should be equally ignorant regardless of how we model our problem. Pawitan (2013, p. 44) indicates \"the invariant property of the likelihood ratio should be seen only as a convenient axiom, rather than a self-evident truth.\"Economic weights are difficult to assign in plant and animal breeding programs, and some authors have described alternatives to the LPSI. For example, Elston (1963) described a free-economic weights selection index that does not require estimates of the phenotypic and genotypic covariance matrices. Likewise, other authors (Brascamp, 1984;Itoh & Yamada, 1986, 1987;Pesek & Baker, 1969;Yamada et al., 1975) described the desired gains index, which does not use economic weights because it does not predict H, rather it only estimates the expectation of g. In turn, Cerón-Rojas et al. (2008b, 2016) described the eigen selection index method, where w (the vector of \"economic weights\") is a linear combination of the first eigen-vector of the matrix of multi-trait heritability. Thus, these last three indices do not use a profit function (net returns minus costs) to obtain economic weights to evaluate breeding programs. However, in this study, we have showed it is possible to assign economic weights to maize and wheat breeding traits using a profit function.Finally, it is evident that there is the possibility to development non-linear profit functions to obtain economic weights, however, Goddard (1983) have showed that a LPSI will always give the highest selection response including when breeder uses non-linear profit function. Our research represents the first formal attempt to incorporate economic weights for selection indices that can improve selection decisions.Farmers and consumers are now placing strong emphasis on sourcing and sustainability, thus other criteria such as carbon footprints, water use, nitrogen emissions, and ecosystem services should be considered in addition to profitability. However, these issues are hard to capture in a simple selection index that attempts to improve few traits. Farms are more complex than simple profit and the need for cultivars that do not maximize profitability of the crop but of the system is an important factor that is not easily incorporated in a selection index.In addition, not all farmers are risk takers, and often plant high yielding hybrids at low density to avoid failure risks. This gradient in plant population densities used by farmers indicates there is a gradient in risk attitudes. The question is: what is the target group to make selections for? Simple models to account for risk attitude suggest the selection of different crops and cultivars within crops account for the risk aversion differences. The method proposed here for estimating economic weights to be used in a selection index to bring an economic dimension to selection indices is a step towards allowing the breeder to use economic information correctly. Further studies are needed to formalize and bring socioeconomic dimensions to selection decisions by using a framework that considers the many uncertainties and sources of variability among farms and the mixture of farms in the target population of farms.Assuming the traits and the net genetic merit have joint multivariate normal distribution, we have described a profit function for obtaining economic weights in maize and wheat breeding programs. Using the profit function and the linear regression theory, we obtained a profit function that extends the Smith's idea to assign economic weights in wheat breeding. In animal breeding programs, all economic traits of interest have specific market prices; however, in the maize and wheat breeding context, only GY has a specific price on the market. For this reason, the proposed profit function is com-posed of two parts: one associated with the GY and the other linked to the expectation of GY given the values of the other traits. Using the proposed approach, the average of the estimated correlation between the LPSI and the net genetic merit for the seven simulated selection cycles was 0.820, and for the maize and wheat real datasets were 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. Therefore, we concluded the profit function proposed in this study is a strong option for obtaining economic weights in plant breeding.","tokenCount":"5819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"610af326a7156945e84559b10af29669","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H046134.pdf","id":"-1834376680"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cfaaf9e7-004f-4051-90f3-81dea8850ff7","pagecount":"74","content":"In our community level survey, we employed a stratified approach to select 24 villages that covered the three regions -Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing in the Dry Zone of Myanmar. We endeavored to gain a better understanding of the relationship, both direct and indirect between water related issues and local livelihood strategies, especially for the most vulnerable groups, i.e., the marginal and landless that make up a large proportion, approximately 79.5% 1 of the population in the Dry Zone. We ascertain at the village level, the availability of water for different uses and opportunities and constraints to access and manage water as perceived by local people. In addition, we also examined various institutional arrangements at village/community level in relation to farmers' farming strategies and water management practices as well as domestic water use.Our assessment was essentially qualitative in nature. For the purpose of our analysis we categorize villages in our sample into: villages with irrigation all year around, villages with supplemental wetseason irrigation and rainfed villages (which do not have irrigation). We also identify three types of farmers: landed (those that own between 5-15 acres of farming land), marginal (those who own less than 5 acres and are not food secure for the entire year) and landless (farmers without farm land, who are not renting land for farming, and who are not food secure throughout the year).We obtained an overview of water resources at the village level. As expected, our findings revealed that the sources of water, availability of water both in a temporal and spatial context, and access to water to utilize for different purposes varies across the villages in our sample. In general it appears that that in irrigated villages, the average number of water sources is greater than in rainfed villages. Water availability in surface water sources such as ponds and reservoirs vary a lot in a temporal context, from two months to perennial water bodies. Furthermore, there has been a rapid growth in the exploitation of groundwater in the last ten years. Irrigated villages show the highest increase over the last 10 years in groundwater use, with an increase in private motorized tube wells. Rainfed villages appeared to have a limited number of wells in comparison, often citing water quality issues. Overall, access to groundwater can be constrained by a number of different factors such as: water quality issues, as mentioned above, with non-drinkable groundwater (due to high salt content and other mineral contaminants); investment required for establishing tube wells in addition to maintenance and costs linked with pumping in the case of motorized tube wells; and overexploitation in areas where the local demand exceeds the natural supply. Our survey highlighted that the total investment cost needed to establish groundwater irrigation is highly conditional upon the local conditions and can vary by an order of magnitude. Therefore knowledge of the hydrogeological conditions is crucial to effective planning at the local level and to minimize poor investments.With regard to rainfall in the Dry Zone, it was interesting to note that the weather hazards associated with drought, dry spells and temporal variability of the monsoon, described during the community survey, are in line with the key findings from Component 1 of our study which revealed that there had been a significant reduction in rainfall amounts in June in recent years, combined 1 We calculate this figure based on our definition of marginal and landless farmers in our study. According to the LIFT baseline study (2012), p36, in the Dry Zone, 42.6% are considered landless, 2.5% own less than 1 acre, 12.8% own between 1-2 acres and 21.6% own between 2-5 acres. Therefore this makes up a total of 79.5% of farmers who are landless and own less than 5 acres.Overall, from our survey it is clear that in relation to the broader livelihood strategies found in the villages, water related interventions cover a range of different uses -agriculture, domestic water uses (including livestock and drinking water) and even protection against floods in some cases. Furthermore, different types of interventions are implemented in the same village with funding support from different sources. It is therefore important that a holistic approach is adopted with regard to investing in water related interventions at the village level -an approach that takes into consideration the full range of uses, shaped within each community based on their own specific priority needs, and ensures that all interventions are closely linked into the local level village development planning processes.1. Townships selected for the community survey ________________________________ Table 2.2. Sampling framework for the community survey and institutional study ____________ Table 2.3. Village categories based on irrigated and rainfed ______________________________ Table 2.4. Selection criteria and topics covered under the FGDs held for the Community Survey Table 3.1. Different types of water sources per type of village ___________________________ Table 4.1. Frequency of major weather hazard in the last 10 years _______________________ Table 4.2. Examples of rainfed villages illustrating how absolute income from rainfed agriculture changes between a good year and year with a weather hazard (dry spell) _________ Table 4.3. Example of a rainfed village illustrating how absolute income from casual labor both within the village and out-migration changes between a good year and year with a weather hazard (dry spell) _______________________________________________ Table 4.4. Example of rainfed villages illustrating how absolute income from livestock changes between a good year and year with a weather hazard (dry spell) ________________ Table 5.1. Irrigated crops type and source of irrigation _________________________________ Table 5.2Farming systems of the well-owner farmers _________________________________ Table 5.3. Farmer-wise costs to setup groundwater infrastructure _______________________ Table 5.4. Frequency of presence of livestock and average number of animal per household in irrigated and rainfed villages ____________________________________________ Table 5.5. Source of water, distance and period of drought for livestock in rainfed and irrigated villages ______________________________________________________________ Table 5.6. Main source of drinking water in irrigated and rainfed villages (%) _______________ Table 5.7. Average distance (in minutes) to domestic water source in rainfed village _________ Table 6.1. Overview of local institutional arrangements ________________________________ Table 8.1. Potential intervention options discussed and voted on during community survey ___ Table 8.2. Preferences by farmer-type and access to irrigation __________________________ with the very high variability in the onset date of the wet season, that is likely to impede agricultural production by increasing the risk of drought at the beginning of the rainfed crop cycle. Dry spells occurring usually during the early part of the monsoon period were reported as the most frequent weather hazard experienced during the last 10 years in our community survey. Rainfed villages experience on average a higher frequency of climate hazards, with a high sensitivity to dry spell within the monsoon season, early end of monsoon and flood. Irrigated village are less vulnerable to climate shocks compare to village with supplementary irrigation and rainfed villages. In addition to drought related events, our community survey also highlighted some \"wet\" weather events, such as floods and cyclones. Floods affect all types of villages and can seriously affect irrigated lowlands.Depending on the different climatic conditions and weather hazards experienced, the relative proportions by which different livelihood incomes contribute to the overall income portfolio of a household changes in the case of both marginal and landless farmers in all three village types. To cope with a weather hazard, households may adopt a range of strategies from pawning gold jewelry to seeking alternate livelihood activities within the village or migrating.In line with other studies (QSEM, 2012), farming and casual labor in the agriculture sector were the two key livelihood activities reported in our Dry Zone community survey. In the case of marginal farmers, irrigated agriculture makes up a significant proportion of their livelihood portfolio, and in a good year, accounts for 32.5% of their income in irrigated areas. For landless farmers, the household income proportion derived from casual labor in the local agriculture sector is relatively high in all three types of villages, with an income share ranging from between 38% to 58% for labor within the village. We therefore conclude that supporting irrigation whether it were wet season supplemental or the conjunctive use of groundwater, would indirectly benefit the landless and reduce migration. Another issue highlighted by marginal farmers was that they were usually required to borrow or rent pumping equipment for irrigated agriculture. The water fee and rights associated with irrigation may vary between different villages. Concerns were raised regarding the additional fees and pumping costs and these are considered a constraint by marginal farmers in accessing irrigation water. It was a similar trend with regard to the use of groundwater as an alternative source of water in irrigation schemes in periods of water scarcity or at the tail-end of the irrigation canal, as a result of the high costs associated with pumping, plus also water quality issues in some cases.Livestock represent an important component of the livelihood portfolio for both marginal and landless farmers and in a good year, livestock accounts for approximately 10% to 14% of the household's income in the case of landless and only 5% to 12% in the case of marginal farmers. For both groups, rainwater harvesting ponds and groundwater are important sources of watering for livestock in both irrigated and rainfed villages. A shortage of water for livestock is, as expected, more frequent and longer in rainfed villages than in irrigated villages. Usually during drought periods, villagers adopt the coping strategy of accessing an alternate source of watering within the village or traveling with their livestock to another neighboring village.With regard to the allocation of water between different domestic uses from our community survey it was noted that approximately 15% to 20% of the volume of water collected was allocated for drinking purposes, about 50% towards other domestic uses and between 30% and 41% for watering livestock. The relative proportions allocated did not appear to change significantly between seasons and during a drought period for the different households groups (i.e., marginal and landless farmers).In relation to domestic water, it was interesting to note that for approximately 50% of the sample, drinking water is collected by all members in the family, while young boy and girls (<12) are cited only in one case. Surprisingly, when the distance to collect water is greater, all members appear to be involved in the water collecting, as the task of water collection would be taken on by any family member who was available at that time. Moreover, the family member involved in water collection may also change depending on the season. Overall the main difference found between rainfed and irrigated villages, was that in the latter, the distance (calculated as minutes per trip) is shorter and the frequency of water collection is lower, compared to rainfed villages. Additionally, in both irrigated and rainfed villages, the distance to the water source in the dry season is about three times higher when access to groundwater is constrained by water quality issues. The price of purchasing domestic water varied according to village and different uses. Purchasing water from a neighboring village usually meant higher prices due to the distance. In some villages it was noted that in the event of high costs of transportation, though collective action, villagers support one another, where villagers without transportation can purchase water from the adjacent villages with the assistance of their neighbors.Our analysis on local institutional arrangements with regard to farmer's farming strategies and water management practices highlighted how these could vary from one village to other, depending on how farmers and villagers shape and reshape their strategies to cope with challenges in acquiring access to water as well as in distributing it. It was interesting to note that where farmers had neither access to irrigation nor groundwater, water scarcity condition urged farmers and villagers to cope with the problem through collective action. In this particular case, the common problem identified was water scarcity for domestic water use and the villagers collectively come to an agreement regarding how to solve the problem, i.e., by pumping water from the nearby reservoir and convey it to the village pond, through existing canal networks. Based on insights gained from our case study, we identify one technical entry point for institutional strengthening, towards better water management in areas where farmers have access to irrigation which links the water delivery schedule to the farmers' cropping pattern and this is described in detail in Report 3 (see Johnston et al., 2013).In addition, through a preference voting exercise conducted in each of the FGDs, we also attempted to identify potential interventions that would reduce vulnerability to water stress, and that were of priority to the local communities Our overall analysis highlighted that the rehabilitation or construction of rainwater harvesting pond was a preferred option for all farmer-types, most likely as a result of increasing access to water for drinking, domestic use and livestock. The rehabilitation or extension of existing irrigation infrastructure was a preferred option among landed and marginal farmers in villages with irrigation all year round. But this may requires further investigation to determine how best to make these efforts cost-effective. Groundwater interventions are preferred over others by landed and marginal farmers in villages with supplemental wet season irrigation. Factors such as the quantity of groundwater available, installation costs, operation and maintenance costs and replacement costs are important considerations though prior to making an investment.This report relates to the challenge of managing water for inclusive and sustainable growth in the Dry Zone of Myanmar. Home to a population of approximately 10.12 million people (MIMU, 2013), the Dry Zone is the most water stressed regions of the country and also one of the most food insecure. Approximately 43% of households in the region live in poverty and 40-50% of the rural population is landless (JICA, 2010). The extreme variability of rainfall, high intensities, limited rainfall events in the growing season and poor spatial and temporal variability is believed to be a major constraint to rural livelihoods and hence an underlying contributor to the poverty of many households. It is believed that improving water availability and access, as well as water management, in the region would reduce risk, stabilize agricultural productivity, increase the resilience of households, improve food security and, contribute to poverty reduction.Against this background, LIFT is developing a program for the Dry Zone that that will be implemented from 2013 to 2016. As water related concerns are known to have a strong bearing on food insecurity and low incomes in the Dry Zone, LIFT has decided to undertake a rapid review of access to and management of water resources. This review is expected to serve as one important input to the formulation of a LIFT program for the dry zone. In broad terms the review will identify:o What the key issues are with regards to water availability, access and management in the Dry Zone; o What is already being done in relation to these issues; and o What the priority actions are to improve access and management of water for people living in the Dry Zone.This report is the second of three derived from the IWMI review. It constitutes of a community level survey conducted in a small sample of villages in the Dry Zone to ascertain local water availability for different uses and opportunities and constraints to access and manage water as perceived by local people. We have also looked at various institutional arrangements at village/community level in relation to farmers' farming strategies and water management practices as well as domestic water use.The overall objective of the community level study is to determine the present access and availability of water for agriculture, livestock and domestic use and to identify priority actions for improved access to and management of water resources which can improve food security and income of rural inhabitants in the Dry Zone of Myanmar.The other components of the study consist of:• Component 1: a water resources assessment to provide baseline information on water availability in the Dry Zone. • Component 3: an evaluation of current investments and how successful they have been in improving livelihoods and food security, as well as a review of lessons learned from other IWMI work on agricultural water management solutions, in regions similar to the Dry Zone.Our assessment is essentially qualitative in nature. We proposed to understand the relationship, direct or indirect, between water related issues and livelihood strategies, especially for the most vulnerable. We place emphasis therefore on the marginal and landless. For our community level survey we employed a stratified approach to select sites suitable for our study; first selecting townships, and then selecting villages in chosen townships. Based on the short duration of this study and available budget, our sample consisted of 24 villages, with four villages each in six townships.Townships in the 3 Dry Zone regions of Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing were selected by using two indicators-the irrigable area per township, and the location of the township (whether west or east of the Irrawaddy River). 2To begin, we identified in each of the Mandalay, Magway and Sagaing Regions, the number of townships in the Dry Zone (18, 22 and 19 respectively), and then the number of Dry Zone townships in which LIFT has working partners (9,16 and 11 respectively) in order to obtain permission to conduct our fieldwork. Thus all the townships included in our study are ones where LIFT has funded projects in at least some villages. 3   Our use of irrigable area per township was motivated by the purpose of the study, which seeks to examine the role of water in improving food-security and livelihoods in a predominantly agrarian system with limited irrigation. We calculated irrigable area per township for each of the LIFT Dry Zone townships using GIS data. The irrigable area was defined as the area with access to irrigation infrastructure, and was calculated using information on the location of government-built irrigation projects, which was provided by the Department of Irrigation of the Union of Myanmar. Additionally, Google Earth images were used to identify irrigated area to supplement the data from the Department of Irrigation. We normalized this indicator of irrigable area by using township area to address the likelihood of larger townships also having a higher likelihood of having greater areas with access to irrigation infrastructure.The use of location as an indicator was motivated by the observation that areas to the east of the river are on average drier than those to the west of the river (LIFT, 2011). In the absence of townlevel agro-climatic data, we used location as a proxy for capturing some variation in agro-climatic factors, which are likely to affect adaptation strategies.We elected to sample more villages within fewer townships, rather than fewer villages with more townships. This decision was primarily based on the finding that variation in rainfall is highly localized (JICA, 2010;LIFT, 2011;LIFT, 2012). Rainfall data in Myanmar was found only at the district level 4 , and this data did not reveal sufficient variation for selecting townships. Additionally, time and resource constraints prevented expansion of townships for the study. We thus decided to choose two townships per region, and four villages per township.All Dry Zone townships in Mandalay Region lie to the east of the river, and all Dry Zone townships in the Sagaing Region lie to the west. In Magway Region, Dry Zone townships lie to the west and the east of the river. We randomly selected two townships in each of the three Regions, conditional on being a township with LIFT partners and whose area was above the mean township area in that Region. This was done to focus on townships with larger populations. 5In Mandalay and Magway Region, we randomly selected per Region, one township with irrigable area above the mean irrigable area of Dry Zone townships in that Region, and one below the mean.In Magway Region, we randomly selected one township to the east of the river, and one to the west. 6 The selected townships are summarized in the following Table 2.1. * The percent of township area that is irrigable was calculated as the ratio between the irrigable area in the township and township area. This normalization was done to account for the possibility that larger townships may have more irrigable area. Irrigable area is higher than the mean irrigable area for the corresponding region. On average, irrigable area constituted 3% of the township area in Mandalay, 3% in Magway, and 8.5% in Sagaing.Villages were selected on the basis of four indicators-LIFT presence, population, rainfall shocks and irrigation source.We wished to study both villages with LIFT-funded projects, and those without such projects, in order to understand how LIFT may impact food security issues. 7 We were able to obtain the information of villages with LIFT-funded interventions in the form of a consolidated list from LIFT.We wished to study villages with populations representative of the township. From the data provided by LIFT on their intervention-villages, we inferred that a representative village in both Kyaukpadaung Township and Nyaung-Oo Township (Mandalay Region) has at least 200 households; those in Minbu Township and Taungdwingyi Township (Magway Region) had at least 150 households; and those in Sagaing Township and Ta Sei Township had at least 120 households.Additionally, we also wished to study 'stressed' and 'non-stressed' villages, since localized weather patterns are likely to produce variance in water resource needs and adaptation strategies. We defined stressed villages as those that had experienced a loss of crop or livestock due to an extreme rainfall-related event in the past year (2012). Since consolidated data on such villages is unavailable, we relied on township officials at the Water Resources Utilization Department (WRUD) to help us identify such villages. Finally, we also relied on officials at WRUD to provide us with information to identify villages with irrigation, and those that are rainfed. For sources of irrigation water, we attempted to have some variance across villages in each region, and across the 24 villages in our study (see  We characterized our sample into two mains type of villages, 1) irrigated and 2) rainfed and within the later, two sub categories: rainfed and supplementary irrigation. For the purpose our study, we propose the following definitions:o Irrigated villages are villages having access to water for irrigation all year round, for summer, monsoon and winter crops. The source of irrigation can be from an irrigation scheme, groundwater and/or reservoir (pond/sand dams). An irrigated village can have different sources of water to irrigate crops and those sources can varies spatially and temporally. Irrigated villages have in general a ratio of irrigated area/non irrigated above 0.5.o Rainfed villages are divided in two sub categories: purely rainfed villages and villages with supplementary irrigation -Village with supplementary irrigation are villages with a spatially and temporally limited access to water for irrigation. The ratio of irrigated land to rainfed land is below 0.15 and not all villagers have access to irrigation. Source of water for irrigation are diverse and can include more than one source per village. It can be an irrigation scheme functioning only in the monsoon crop, groundwater or a rainwater storage pond. Irrigation is during the monsoon crop mostly and also limited area during the summer crop in few cases. Supplementary irrigation happens only in cases of dry spell or drought to limit the impact of water stress on yield during the main crop.-Rainfed villages are village without any irrigated area even supplementary. All agriculture relies on rainfall. Those villages are thus more vulnerable to dry spells during the monsoon season.Based on the above criteria, our sample comprised of 5 irrigated villages, 8 villages with supplementary irrigation and 11 villages that were only rainfed (Table 2.3). For our survey, we conducted three Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) per village (i.e., 72 FGDs in total), categorizing farmers as landed, marginal or landless. In the FGDs we covered different thematic areas (as indicated in Table 2.4, and included the spatial and temporal variations in the sources of water available and water uses (including irrigation, livestock watering and domestic use); key constraints of availability and access and how this affects livelihoods strategies and food security; coping strategies adopted by households and communities in the event of shocks such as droughts; perceived solutions and opportunities; and interventions that have worked , lessons learned and finally perspectives from the community of regarding priority potential measures and investments.We focused on marginal farmers and the landless because we understand that they are expected to be the two target groups of the LIFT Dry Zone program and we are interested in assessing how interventions proposed would affect these two groups differently. In our study we define marginal farmers as farmers who own less than 5 acres and are not food secure for the entire year 8 and landless as farmers without farm land, who are not renting land for farming, and who are not food secure throughout the year. According to the LIFT baseline study (2012), p36, in the Dry Zone, 42.6% are considered landless, 2.5% own less than 1 acre, 12.8% own between 1-2 acres and 21.6% own between 2-5 acres. Therefore this makes up a total of 79.5% of farmers who are landless and own less than 5 acres. Through our general FGD in our survey (FGD1), we also captured information from relatively better-off landed farmers (those that own between 5-15 acres of farming land) and represent approximately 16.2 % farmers in the Dry Zone according to the LIFT (2012). Marginal and landless farmers estimated the relative importance of each livelihood activity in the income portfolio for marginal and landless farmers as well as the average annual income of an average landless and marginal household. In a second step, the impact of climate hazard such as drought, dry spell or flood, was estimated by both marginal and landless farmers on their income portfolio and total annual income. For the relative importance of each livelihood activity and the total annual income we extrapolate the absolute income of each of the livelihood activities in a good year and in years with a clime hazard.Additionally, during the community survey, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed to derive a general understanding of the nature of groundwater irrigation technologies and the socio-economic factors that affect the household incomes and food security status of smallholder farmers across the DZ. This facet of the study seeks to provide a preliminary assessment of the livelihood and food security implications of smallholder farmers who establish and operate groundwater infrastructure to irrigate their fields.We identified upfront investments and revenues and disaggregated by the season, the crops grown and sold in the market. An annual cycle was covered for the period from winter 2011 through to monsoon 2012. Additional information was sought to address other points of interest such as the major constraints facing implementing farmers. Levels of self-consumption of produce by the farming household was not directly examined and thus the revenue is considered to represent potential values rather than actual. The production value of rainfed systems was also not taken into account.The survey tool was implemented in 6 villages distributed across the 6 Townships covered under our study: Nyaung Oo, Kyauk Pa Daung, Minbu, Taungdwingyi, Sagaing and Taze, in the three DZ Divisions. Two villages are categorized as 'rainfed', three are 'rainfed with supplemental irrigation' and one village (with 2surveys) as 'full irrigation' according to the protocols of the study. All of the villages are situated in an alluvial geological setting, which is one of the most prospective environments for groundwater development (McCartney et al, 2013).In total of seven farmers who were well owners were interviewed. Those surveyed were the sole owners of the well, all male, who considered themselves as the head of the household. Four of the seven farmers were considered 'landed' and the remaining three 'marginal'. The limited sample size was all that could be achieved within the duration of the study, and whilst too low to provide statistically defensible data, it was considered sufficient to gain an initial appraisal of the general opportunities and constraints associated with groundwater use for agriculture.Our institutional analysis is derived from an in-depth case study analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) using a purposive sample. It looks at how farmers perceive existing institutional arrangements in relation to their farming and water management practices. In cases where institutional arrangements were absent, the analysis sheds light on how farmers actually view the need for such arrangements.Our purposive sample includes three villages in Sagaing township. These villages are: Ta Ein Tel, De Pa Yin Kwal, and Taung Yin. We selected these three villages based mainly on their access to water resources: irrigation, groundwater, and rainfed villages. We conducted a FGD in each of the three villages. Participants for this FGD were selected based on farmer's access to water (i.e. head and tail-end farmers in case of irrigated village), and access to land (wealthy farmers, marginal farmers, landless/laborer). The discussion was focused on identification of current challenges related to farmer's farming and water management practices, as well as farmer's strategies to cope with these challenges.We conducted two key informant interviews in each of the three villages to follow up issues discussed in the FGD. We selected marginal and landless farmers as our key informants, as they form the majority of farmers in the Dry Zone. This selection is also based on the assumption that less powerful actors might decide not to tell their opinions openly in the presence of more powerful actors.As an integral part of our in-depth case study analysis, we conducted key informant interviews with various actors and institutions at the township level across the three regions (Sagaing, Mandalay, and Magway). With this, we hoped to gain some insights on local institutional arrangements across the regions. A total of 11 key informant interviews were conducted in two townships in Sagaing region (Sagaing, Taze), two townships in Mandalay region (Nyaung-U, KyaukPaDaung), and two townships in Magway region (Minbu, Taungdwingyi). Actors interviewed included staff from the Water Resources Utilization Department (WRUD), Irrigation Department, Myanmar Agricultural Service (MAS), and Network Activity Group (NAG).In addition to data gathered during the field research, we complemented our analysis with a literature review of various institutional approaches (Cleaver, 2012;Ostrom 1999) The short duration of the study meant that we could only work with a very small number of villagesour sample size was limited to 24 villages. In addition we were only able to conduct one round of field work. We were unable to carry out any follow-up field work to clarify certain results that emerged when undertaking our analyses. Moreover, when developing our sample framework, the lack of access to accurate information at the township level regarding water resources at the village level meant we had to revise our sample classification after visiting the villages that had been proposed by the township authorities. Additional time would have been useful to clarify some of these aspects before starting the community survey \"proper\".This chapter provides an overview of the different water resources used by the communities in our sample villages in the Dry Zone and availability and access to these resources. We will also briefly discuss some of the key water quality related issues that are found in the villages.As expected, the sources of water, availability of water and access for different purposes varies across the villages in our sample. In general it appears that that in irrigated villages, the average number of water sources is greater than in rainfed villages. For example in our sample, irrigated villages have access on average to 137 individual sources of water, including a large number of motorized tube and dug wells, while rainfed villages have access to a much lower number of water sources (only 25 per village).With regard to surface water sources, irrigated villages have better access to surface water sources such as rivers and ponds. However the large difference in number of ponds is due to one village Sarr Taung counting 36 ponds, otherwise the number of pond per village is not significantly different with other categories. Irrigated villages have access to perennial rivers in most of cases, and water is used for all purposes including irrigation (Table 3.1). In the case of natural springs, water use is restricted to domestic and livestock in all villages. The availability of water throughout the year varies, with a perennial water source in irrigated villages while it was reported that water availability in rainfed villages ranged from 7 to 12 months.Water availability in ponds is extremely heterogeneous, from perennial water bodies to short duration seasonal ponds. Reservoirs are mostly used for domestic uses and livestock watering and less for supplementary irrigation purposes.With regard to groundwater, only two villages, Kyaut Sit Kan and Kha Yu Kan in Mandalay and Magway regions respectively, did not have access. The ratio of well (hand dug or tube well) per household in our three village categories is: 0.15 in rainfed; 0.16 in irrigated; and 0.56 in supplementary irrigation. We can infer from this that the access to groundwater may be easier and better spread amongst the village population in the supplementary villages. However in villages with supplementary irrigation this is largely comprised of hand lift wells, compared to irrigated villages where more motorized wells are utilized (an outline of water resources and characteristics in each village is provided in Annex 1).Access to groundwater is more restricted with respect to time for rainfed villages, with a more limited water availability (8 to 12 months a year compared to having access all year around in irrigated villages).The availability of water is limited in the dry season, when water is needed. In rainfed villages, groundwater from tube wells and dug wells is restricted mainly to domestic uses and livestock. In irrigated villages and supplementary irrigation villages motorized tube and dug wells are used for irrigation, while hand lifted wells are used mainly for domestic use and livestock.In our community survey, we differentiate groundwater source by type of well -thus differentiating between tube well and dug well, and in addition distinguishing between the method of lifting water, i.e., motorized or manual, leading to 4 main types of wells: tube well manual and motorized, dug well manual and motorized. These 4 types of wells which we refer to in the Component 2 report correspond predominantly to Type 2 found in the Component 3 report, namely shallow tube wells and dug wells, operated privately or by the community. Water is available all year and used for both domestic and livestock.2 villages have 2 and 3 dug well in all case water is available all year and used for domestic and livestockOnly 3 villages have access to hand dug well (4 to 22), with water availability is between 8 to 12 months and used for livestock and domestic usage or only domestic uses. Bay In village has 10 motorized dug well, used for irrigation and domestic needs 4 villages have 7 to 100 dug wells, with water availability all year and used for domestic purposes and livestock. Kyauk Tan has also 300 motorized dug wells, used for all purpose.With respect to the trends in groundwater exploitation, according to our community survey, there is a rapid growth in the number of wells in the last ten years, especially in terms of private wells. Public wells 10 are less represented in our sample (seven public motorized tube wells reported for 2013 and two hand lifted tube wells in 2013) and no public dug wells were recorded. We note however that this increase in well numbers is not uniform across the villages in our sample, with the average increase in wells constructed per village that we observe, resulting from significant increases in number of wells in only a few of the villages. The trend in access to groundwater per village is village-specific. The large increase of private motorized tube wells in irrigated villages reflect the large increase only in two irrigated villages (De Pa Yin Kwal and Sarr Taung in the Sagaing region) where the number of wells rose by more than 130 over the last 10 years. Currently, the irrigation system in De Pa Yin Kwal village is based exclusively on private motorized tube wells. A similar pattern in found for manual tube wells. For example, in De Pa Yin Kwal (Irrigated village) and the Daug Gyi and Kan Du Ma villages in the Sagain region (with supplementary irrigation), where between 2003 and 2013, the number of units increased up to 350. Similarly in certain villages with supplementary irrigation, the increase of number of tube and dug well is limited, with a maximum of 20 units during this period.Diversity in development of groundwater uses between villages is great. Our limited sample shows a general trend with a higher number of motorized tubes well per households in irrigated village and villages with supplementary irrigation compared to rainfed villages. However, within these two categories a large variability can be observed. The following villages can be considered as villages with a significant increase of motorized tube well between 2003 and 2013 and a water supply strategy oriented toward groundwater exploitation. De Pa yin Kwal, Sarr Taung, Kone Thar and Kan Du Ma villages have in 2013 a percentage of motorized tube well per households higher than 10%. Another trend observed is the conversion of manual dug wells into motorized wells in Kyauk Tan village (a supplementary irrigation village), where the number of wells increased by 400 units in the last 10 years, while we observe that the number hand lifted dug wells decreased during this time by 200 units.Groundwater associated constraints and benefitsOne of the main issues associated with groundwater is the quality of the water which has implications not only for human consumption but also animal consumption and its use in irrigation. Water quality issues with high salt or iron content limit the uses to bathing and can sometimes be used for livestock. This issue is correlated with geological characteristic of the area and appears to be very specific and variable even at the highly localized scale, with wide variation within a single village territory such as in Ta Ein Tel village. Groundwater quality issue is found more frequently in rainfed villages than irrigated or villages with supplementary irrigation. In one village, water quality issues were found even with water from depths of up to 400 to 500 feet.Furthermore, water quality issues may arise only some years after installation of tube wells. For example in the Nwar Kyoe Aing village, water quality issues occurred only three years after the installation of motorized tube wells, due to the lowering of the water table. Similar trend was observed in Thea Pyin Taw village.The second major problem related to groundwater access and use, is the investment required to establish the well (which was estimated to be approximately 0.15 million kyat to 2 million kyat 11 ), in addition to the operation cost associated with pumping. Investment cost was described in all type of villages, with an increment of the cost in case of water quality issues, requiring deeper wells and higher operational cost.11 This important difference in investment cost is mostly due to the depth of the well.o Trends in groundwater exploitation are village specific, with large increases in some irrigated villages and villages with supplementary irrigation o Irrigated villages have invested more in private motorized tube wells, while villages with supplementary irrigation have increased their access to groundwater in the last 10 years, but mostly through hand lift wells which are primarily used for domestic purposes while their use in irrigation is of secondary importance.o Rainfed villages have a limited number of wells largely due to water quality issues.The major benefit accrued from the use of groundwater was time saving associated with water collection. Time saving enabled villagers to invest in other livelihood activities. Assured access to water was also a common answers mentioned, for both domestic use but also irrigation. Securing crops with supplementary irrigation is also mentioned as well as being independent to other village for water supply.Benefit to support livelihood activities include, supplementary irrigation or for home gardening In addition, having an abundance of good quality groundwater enabled residents to sell this water to other villages, as mentioned in Kyauk Tan village. In another instance, in Tha Hpan Kone village groundwater was cited as beneficial in case of facing any fire hazard during the summer period when other sources of water were limited.With regard to water quality issues, according to our community survey, respondents did not in general perceive that the use of a common water source for both humans and livestock could lead to health issues, even in the case of open water sources such as ponds or a river. Only in one village, Kha Yu Kan, did respondents indicate that during the dry season when the water level was very low, a community pond had been contaminated by livestock. During this period the villagers, were compelled to travel to a neighboring village to collect water, with a cost of 500 Kyat per 50 gallons (10 Kyat per gallon). Fencing open water source was also described as a measure to limit contamination by livestock in period of water scarcity. In the case of groundwater in villages where open wells had been converted into a closed well system, improvement in water quality was perceived by community members. In addition, in our survey, respondents indicated that they used different containers to collect water for domestic use and for livestock watering and that therefore they had not experienced any water quality issues.Key constraints and benefits associated with Groundwater In this chapter we describe the main weather events that were experienced in our sample villages over the past 10 years (i.e., droughts, floods, shift in the monsoon season) and the impact these events/shocks had on the livelihood activities of different social groups (marginal farmers and landless) based on their own perceptions. We will also discuss the different coping strategies that were adopted by these different groups to deal with the impacts on their livelihoods.In our village sample it appears that over the last 10 years the most frequent weather event reported was a dry spell occurring usually during the early part of the monsoon (around July). Dry spells were reported in 20 of the 24 villages in our sample (Table 4.1). Drought was less frequent, with only three villages affected in the last 10 years. Villages with access to irrigation described dry spells and drought as a shock confirming that even during the monsoon season, access and/or availability of water may be an issue in the Dry Zone. With regard to floods and severe floods, all categories of villages were affected. Cyclone Giri was also mentioned but only in two villages. During our community survey, we obtained the views of respondents in terms of all the major weather hazards they had experienced over the last 10 years. They described these events and indicate how these impacted their major livelihood activities. An account of this is given below.It was interesting to note that the weather hazards associated with drought, dry spells and temporal variability of the monsoon, described during the community survey, illustrated the key findings from Component 1 of our study (McCartney et al., 2013) which revealed that there had been a significant reduction in rainfall amounts in June in recent years, combined with the very high variability in the onset date of the wet season, that is likely to impede agricultural production by increasing the risk of drought at the beginning of the rainfed crop cycle. In addition to drought related events, our community survey also highlighted some \"wet\" weather events, such as floods and cyclones Drought Related hazard Drought A drought year was defined by farmers in Ta Ein Tel village as \"a year with little rain during the monsoon\" such as in 2004, when the monsoon was late (after May) and rainfall occurred only for a period of two months. Farmers could not cultivate rice paddy, wheat had a low yield and chick pea could not be harvested. All types of farmers were affected, and households were compelled to take loans with a 5%-10% interest rate, to invest in post monsoon (winter crop) or purchase seeds at credit. In some cases, land was sold and due to the lack of forage cattle had to be sold, especially in households owning more than two animals. Landless farmers described similar issues in terms of lack of access to forage areas for their livestock and no employment opportunities in the village due to absence of cultivation. Issues regarding access to drinking water were also mentioned by both landless and marginal farmers.In Taung Yinn village, respondents described the early end of the monsoon in September, at least four weeks prior to the usual end of the monsoon in late October. This affects mostly the winter crop (or post monsoon) crop due to the reduced water availability in the soil and high temperature. Lower production can lead to issues regarding repayment of the loan associated with the crop, and ultimately livestock or land has to be sold. For marginal farmers in rainfed villages, early end of the monsoon was related as an increase in farming cost due to increase in pest infestation, especially for groundnuts, leading to higher level of debts for farmers. In the meanwhile casual labour opportunities were less frequent and landless farmers are compelled to take out loans or migrate seasonally to find employment. According the findings from Component 1 of this study it was found that the onset of the wet season was more unpredictable than the retreat of the wet season and that within the Dry Zone, the monsoon period varies from 115 days to 175 days, with the shortest duration found in the central part of the Dry Zone.This climatic hazard (which is different than the end of the monsoon) occurs during the monsoon, with a period, usually around July without rain. This dry spell is normal, but can be detrimental if too long. Villagers differentiated between dry spell and severe dry spell according to the impact on crops and livelihoods. Sometime the distinction between dry spell and early end of the monsoon is not clear for farmers who sometimes consider the early retreat of the monsoon in August as a dry spell. According to McCartney et al., 2013, the drought period during the monsoon varies from 6 to 14 days, with longer drought in July and August, especially in the central part of the Dry Zone. The dry spell can affect various crops, differently depending on their cropping calendar.In Kan Du Ma village, after the first two rains in 2012, rain stopped in May. Therefore crops needed to be delayed and there were crop losses in some case due to the lack of rain after sowing. Farmers invested in motorized tube wells to irrigate their crops (including rice paddy), and in addition, sold water to neighboring farmers (at 4,000 Kyats per hour). During a dry spell, access to domestic water can also be affected when groundwater resources are limited to shallow wells or rain water collection -such as in the case of Kha Ku Yan village. Domestic water and water for livestock was limited, and livestock faced high mortality in July 2012 according to villagers. However we were unable to gather further information to determine the reasons behind this.Floods usually affect the main crop, i.e., the monsoon crops. Depending on the intensity of the flood all crops (both in dry land and lowland) can be damaged resulting in food insecurity and financial problems in the household. Villagers differentiate flood from severe flood, by the intensity an duration. In general severe flood has a higher intensity and /or a longer period (5-7 weeks) where the land is submerged. In Taung yinn, the land was submerged for a period of up to seven weeks during the monsoon season and farmers could not cultivate during the monsoon period. It affected especially the marginal farmers with limited access to other type of land. Landless farmers had to seek casual labour outside of the village.In Kan Ma village the cyclone damaged crops and placed at risk the main harvest of farmers in a village based on rainfed agriculture. Casual workers did not find any activity locally and needed to migrate. Farmers sold their assets or obtained loans to provide resources for their households. In addition, livestock was affected, especially goats. In Thea Pyin Taw village, the second monsoon crop was severely damaged by Cyclone Giri specially ground nuts, both in the field and in post-harvest drying process. It affected also the supply of forages for livestock. Households migrated to cities (Mandalay, Yangon) to find casual labour.Based on the recall of participants, we recorded the frequency of major weather events 12 that had occurred over the last 10 years in our sample villages. With respect to irrigated villages, only one village (Ohn Hne Chaung) did not record a major weather hazard in the last 10 years, while four villages recorded at least one event and five villages recorded two events, including events related to access to water such as dry spell or drought (Figure 4.1). In terms of the rainfed villages it was noted that the frequency of events is higher, with more villages recording one weather hazard (mostly severe dry spell), and three villages reporting over two climatic events in the last 10 years. Frequency of weather hazard in rainfed (n=11), village with supplementary irrigation (n=7) and irrigated villages (n=5). One village with extreme value was removed from the sample.Average income distribution within different groups In the case of marginal farmers, irrigated agriculture accounts for 32.5% of their income in irrigated areas, while this percentage drops to 12.5 % in villages with supplementary irrigation and accounts for only 2.5% in rainfed villages, where few acres or homestead garden can be irrigated. For landless farmers, agriculture income is null. However, the household income proportion derived from casual labour in the local agriculture sector is relatively high, with an income share between 38% to 58% for labour within the village and 15% to 22% for casual labor outside the village implying seasonal migration. These results are in line with the findings from other studies where it states \"In the Dry Zone, the most common primary livelihoods are farming and casual labor\" (QSEM, 2012, pg. 7).Interestingly, livestock represent a higher share of income in the case of landless than marginal farmers in all three types of villages in our sample. In a good year, livestock accounts for approximately 10% to 14% of the household's income in the case of landless and only 5% to 12% in the case of marginal farmers. In irrigated villages, livestock have a highest share in the income portfolio than in other type of villages. However, in 9 villages within rainfed and supplementary irrigation categories, livestock do not count as a source of income for marginal farmers and livestock can be seen instead as an asset for investment and an asset for agriculture production.With regard to salaried employment or remittances, there is no significant difference between type of villages and marginal and landless farmers. Landless farmers, appear to have a larger proportion of their income coming from 'other sources' of income such as petty trade (selling fish or tamarind) or handicraft making/selling (Figure 4.2).Income repartition during a good year for marginal and landless farmers in irrigated, rainfed and villages with supplementary irrigationThe relative proportions by which different livelihood incomes contribute to the overall income portfolio of a household changes in the case of both marginal and landless farmers in all three village types, depending on the different climatic conditions and weather hazards experienced. In our study the absolute value is an estimation based on the percentage of the total income of an average household of five members (Kyat per household per year).For example in rainfed villages, the absolute income obtained from agriculture in a good year is much higher than in a year that a dry spell is experienced, where the latter could lead to a decrease in income from agriculture or no income obtained from agriculture that year. This was the case reported in Kha Yu Kan village, where during a good year the absolute income from agriculture is estimated as 600,000 Kyat per household per year, whereas when a dry spell was experienced there was apparently no income obtained from this livelihood activity. In another village Bay Yinn the absolute income in a good year from agriculture was reported as 1,050,000 Kyat per household per year and this decreased to only 210,000 Khat per household per year during a year that experienced a dry spell.Key points related to income portfolios of the marginal and landless in a good year o For marginal farmers irrigated agriculture makes up the largest proportion on their income portfolio in irrigated areas. o For the landless income proportion derived from casual labor in the agriculture sector is the largest in all three types of villages. o Livestock represents a higher share of income in the case of landless than marginal farmers in all three types of villages. Where there is access to irrigation, only rainfed crops are affected by dry spells, reducing the income from rainfed crops. For example in Ta In Tel village after a severe dry spell of 8 weeks in August 2012 the income from rainfed crops decreased by 65%.To cope with a weather hazard, households may have to engage in alternate livelihood activities, and this may also change the absolute incomes derived per year from a particular activity for both marginal and landless farmers. For instance in rainfed villages, in a good year, both marginal and landless farmers tend not to migrate and seek casual labour associated with the agricultural sector outside their village but they do so if they face a dry spell. For example, in Kha Yu Kan village during a good year no outmigration for agriculture related casual labor was recorded but in a year that experienced a dry spell, marginal farmers were estimated to earn 180,000 Kyat per household per year from casual agricultural labour outside their village and landless 80,000 Kyat per household per year (see Table 4.3). In line with earlier results, during a good year, the landless earned a bigger share of their income from casual agricultural labor within the village than marginal farmers did (300,000 Kyat per household per year for the landless compared to 100,000 Kyat per household per year for the marginal farmers). Similar trends were observed in other rainfed villages. Similar examples are found Ma Hti San Pya village, where villagers estimated that the proportion of income derived from casual agriculture related labor within the village dropped by 72% and 75% respectively for marginal and landless farmers in a year affected by dry spell compare to a good year. During a drought or dry spell as livestock may have to be sold, the absolute income level could decrease, especially in the case of the landless (Table 4.4). For example in Taik Pwe village for the landless the absolute income derived from livestock decreased from 124,000 Kyats per household per year in a good year to 90,000 Kyats per household per year in a year that experienced a drought/dry spell. In addition, casual labor related to livestock is also reduced in period of dry spell, with less job opportunities for landless farmers in that sector. Water Access, Availability and Management in terms of Agriculture, Livestock and Domestic UseThe following section looks at the use of water for agriculture, livestock and domestic purposes. We briefly describe the cropping calendar and impact of irrigation as well as farmer decision making regarding rainfall and crop types. There are three main cropping seasons: one monsoon crop from June to October, followed by a winter crop until January which can be based on residual soil moisture and a summer crop (February to May) that requires to be irrigated. The cropping calendar varies according to village and region and access to irrigation all year around allows for three crops per years, while rainfed village are limited to one or two crops per year. Besides rice paddy, agriculture in the Dry Zone includes oils seeds (groundnut, sunflower) pulses (sesame,) and beans in monoculture or intercropping. Cropping calendar and planting date is dependent on rainfall pattern and intensity. Farmer's decision to cultivate a crop also depends on rainfall and crop requirement.We found that rainfed agriculture is a major source of income for marginal farmers in rainfed villages, and indirectly a major source of income for landless farmers hired as casual labor. Similar indirect benefit for landless farmers was found in the case of irrigated agriculture. Irrigation is mostly based on surface water irrigation, groundwater irrigation is found in several villages but cost of renting equipment and pumping cost are limiting the access to irrigation for marginal farmers. Use of groundwater for irrigation is found either for small scale horticulture, with a high return and generally implemented by wealthier households. However, rapid assessment of cost and benefit of groundwater irrigation (see Section 6.1.2) found that groundwater use for irrigation is highly profitable and can generate income for farmers while create job opportunities for landless farmers.Livestock ownership is limited for both marginal and landless farmers. Groundwater was found as an important source of watering livestock in all villages. Meanwhile, the distance to the water source for livestock is longer in the case of public sources such as public ponds or wells, and in the case of rainfed villages it may take up to 30 minutes. During drought periods, villagers adopt the coping strategy of i) accessing another water source for watering their livestock or ii) taking the livestock to a neighboring village.Regarding domestic water use, we found that in rainfed villages rainwater tanks and community ponds are used more in the rainy season, while public wells are used more in the dry season. This seasonal variation does not appear in irrigated villages. Distance to the main water source is longer in rainfed villages compared to irrigated villages. This difference increases in the dry season and in periods of water shortage with more time allocated to fetch water in rainfed villages.In the case of water pricing, with a higher price being charged at the end of the dry season and prices found to be higher if the water was purchased from another village and included delivery. Landless farmers usually have less time to fetch water and therefore may have to purchase water. In a good year, the volume collected was recorded to be higher in the dry season, when water consumption is more important and rain water collection is not possible. During a drought period, water collection is reduced, with the higher difference in the case of marginal farmers in irrigated villages, where water collection drops from 100 gallons per day to an average of 68 gallons per day (32% drop). We also found that access to groundwater was perceived as one of the main positive changes for access to domestic water, reducing water collection time for villagers and improving water quality especially compared to other water sources. This last improvement was observed only in villages without groundwater quality issues.The cropping pattern varies across regions and rainfall pattern, soil types, and access to irrigation which define different type of agro-ecological zones. We simplify the agro-ecological zones into 3 main categories, according to the type of land (le, ya and Kaing -Kyung) and the access to irrigation (JICA 2010). These zones include i) intensively farmed croplands (le) with access to irrigation all seasons; ii) croplands (le) with access to supplementary irrigation and river beds (Kaing-kyung lands), iii) rainfed crops lands which include both le and ya (dry land) lands and extensive rainfed upland agriculture.Three main cropping season are distinguished: summer crop (dry season); monsoon crop and post monsoon crop (or winter crop).Le land, flat terraces with heavy soil, is suitable for paddy cultivation in the wet season, from July to October followed by a second crops (pulses or oil seeds) during the winter crop (ground nuts, chick pea, sunflower) from November up to January, based on residual moisture, with or without supplementary irrigation (Figure 5.3).With access to irrigation, the cropping calendar include summer crop of paddy, fully irrigated from mid-February to May. In some case a first irrigated crop can include a short term crop such as green gram or green pea (60 days) from early March -April to mid-May and June and followed by a monsoon rainfed crop, such as paddy until October and November.Low land (le) with supplementary irrigation, includes a similar cropping calendar, but without summer crops. In comparison with a rainfed system, lowland with supplementary irrigation is less risky concerning dry spell and drought during the winter crop. Thus include a winter crop is more often found.River beds are a specific agro-ecosystem and are cultivated only in the dry season, when the land is exposed. The irrigation source is either from a temporary hand dug well, or water collected directly from the river. This land is cultivated from December/January until the first rain, for horticulture production such as onion or water melon. In various cases, the last crop at the end of the dry season can be lost due to early rainfall and associated flood.In rainfed systems on le and ya lands, land preparation occurs from February to May, with a start of the monsoon crop by mid-May -June, when soil moisture is considered sufficient (6 inches or 1 foot deep). Pulses (green gram, chick pea), oils seeds (sunflower) are cultivated until August-September and second crop can follow based on residual moisture, such as ground nuts, chick pea or cotton. Monsoon paddy starts usually later from transplanted in July until October to November. In some case only a single crop is cultivated on ya land -such as pulse or oilseeds like groundnut.Another combination includes an early monsoon crop, like sesame (from mid-April to mid-July) followed by a second crop base on residual moisture, such as groundnut, maize or butter beans. Pigeon pea, cultivated in inter-cropping with sesame or cotton, has a longer cultivation period (225 days) is cultivated from mid-May until early January.A similar cropping pattern is found in extensive rainfed agriculture, with mostly a single monsoon crop, from June/July to October. Cropping calendar and decision making for planting crops is adaptable and varies every year. According to the marginal farmers, sesame and ground nut are mostly planted in May, as well as pigeon pea and green gram. Rice cultivation is spread from June to August, but large inter-annual variation in the planting date, from 2 to 12 weeks, while for other main crops like sesame or groundnut the variation in planting date is less frequent (less than 3 weeks difference in more than 60% and 80% of the villages surveyed for groundnut and sesame respectively). A dry spell in July, within the rainy season in July can have significant impact on pulses and oil seeds, taking into consideration planting dates in May and June and high vulnerability during the early step of the crop flowering and grain formation. This critical period in July also coincides with rice transplantation and could affect rainfed rice.In our community survey, marginal farmers from 10 villages (with irrigation all year around and supplementary irrigation) mentioned the cultivation of irrigated crops. The number of irrigated crops varies from one and more rarely two or three crops in rotation. The number of villages in our sample using groundwater for irrigation is limited (only four villages). Groundwater was used to cultivate oilseeds, pulses, wheat, and in one case, betel leaf. A specific village, De Pa Yin Kwal, irrigate 1,500 acre with groundwater, for pulses, oil seeds and wheat production. A rapid economic assessment of groundwater cost and return with seven farmers showed that the investment cost for motorized tube well was varied and between 0.11M to 1.36M Kyat and a pumping cost per acre and per crop averaging around 12,000 Kyat per acres, but with large variation between monsoon crop supplementary irrigation and summer crop irrigation. More details about groundwater opportunity and constraint are found in the next section.Interviews were held with seven well owners during our community survey to determine the opportunities and constraints of groundwater irrigation in the Dry Zone. Six of the seven owned tube wells and only one owned a dug well. The wells were almost entirely self-funded, and only one of the owners received the support of a government subsidy to establish the groundwater irrigation infrastructure. Motorized pumps were used in each case with no reported cases of using manual lift Key points on irrigated agriculture o Marginal farmers are usually required to borrow or rent pumping equipment for irrigated agriculture. o The water fee and rights associated with irrigation are variable according to villages. o For marginal farmers, additional fees and pumping costs are a constraint to accessing irrigation water. o In our sample, the number of villages using groundwater for irrigation is limited. Groundwater was used to cultivate oilseeds, pulses, wheat, and in one case, betel leaf.methods. Pumps predominantly used diesel fuel with capacities ranging from 3 to 18 HP. The wells ranged in depth from 9 to 200 feet with a mean of 83.9 ft. The depth to standing water level in the wells ranged from 5 ft to 30 ft with an average of 18 ft during the monsoon, and in the summer the range was from 12 ft to 30 ft with an average of 21.5 ft. Pumping rates varied from 1020 to 4500 gallons per hour (gph) with and mean value of 2800 gph. The quality of the groundwater was described as being 'good' in all cases. According to the average days of pumping, the pumps are used most heavily and in 100% of cases during the wet season, whereas for 86% of cases in the winter and only 43% in the summer. The reduction in use over the course of the dry season would reflect the diminished water availability and water demand. In the wet season rice is most commonly grown whereas in the winter chickpea is most commonly grown (Table 5.2). The investment costs needed to construct the well and purchase the water pumps and distribution pipe varies by a factor of 12 across the cases surveyed, with value ranging from 0.11M to 1.36M kyat (Table 5.3). This large cost variation reflects the range of conditions encountered and the configurations of well type and depth and pumping capacity. On average, this investment is allocated as follows: drilling (31%), motor pump (49%) and provision of water pipe (20%).Not surprisingly, the drilling costs, which account for almost one-third of the setup cost, are strongly correlated with the total drilled depth (R 2 = 0.65). Perhaps more surprising, the total setup costs are almost as strongly correlated with the drilling depth (R 2 = 0.58). Of the three components, drilling costs are most skewed by factor of 100 due to diverse range of hydrogeological conditions and the associated modes of installation. Substantial variations are also reported for pump costs (by a factor of 22) and for distribution pipes (by 43).Thus savings in pump purchase costs would represent the single biggest opportunity to bring down the total investment costs. Higher upfront costs may need to be traded-off against higher maintenance and opportunity costs. Motor pumps are a relatively expensive investment for farmers (given the size of the typical household budget), but are highly valued due their high efficiency in lifting water. Financial revenue and returns Farm incomes and agricultural expenditures are highly variable on a crop-wise basis, even for farmers growing the same crop. In the wet season potential revenues range from -119,000 Kyat/acre for rice through to +237,000 Kyat/acre also for rice. In the dry seasons potential revenues were consistently positive and range from a low 9,000 Kyat/acre for chickpea through to 104,000 Kyat/acre for wheat in the winter and 796,000 Kyat/acre for ridge gourd. This reaffirms that irrigation is most profitable, on a per unit area basis, for those who can diversify into high valued cash crops. Net annual potential revenues range from -172,000 to +578,000 Kyat for the 7 cases in 2011-12. The area of land that can be irrigated under cash cropping is low compared to paddy due to the high labour requirement which needs to be considered in terms of household incomes. The input costs, on a seasonal basis can be partitioned as follows: additional labour (44%), pumping (24%), fertilizer (21%), pesticides and herbicides (11%).The highest reported seasonal income comes from the dug well irrigating betel leaf, suggesting that the link between the type of water source and incomes is poor. Deeper tubewells are less prone to seasonal drying-out and thus can provide more reliable supplies. The high variability in profitability, and particularly the losses incurred in the wet season by some those farmers growing paddy can be attributed to the very dry year in 2012. A late start to monsoonal rains and the high water demand of the crop necessitated significantly more pumping than anticipated.Comparing the investment costs along with net potential revenues reported earlier, enables an estimate of the payback time on original investment to be derived. This shows that for 4 of the cases packback anywhere from <1 year up to 8 years are required by farmers to generate the income to recoup the upfront investment. If maintenance costs are accounted for, then the average payback time is increased to a range of <1 to 17 years. These periods neglect the interest rate component that would need to be factored in if funds were sourced from lending institutions. In 3 of the cases negative net revenues precluded the calculation of a payback time.Our data suggests that irrigation, even with motorized pumps, is still a labour intensive practice, with the cost of additional labor typically representing the highest single input cost. The survey results point to reasonably strong linkages and inter-dependencies between the land owning groundwater irrigators and the landless. In five of the seven cases, the landless play an important role in terms of casual labour, and only two cases where there was no requirement for casual labour. The tasks of those employed included the laying out of the pipe in the fields, running the engine, checking crop water needs and general supervision. In addition, those employed as casual labourers have access to their domestic water in all cases which offers an additional indirect benefit.In six of the seven cases there were reports of well owners providing water to approximately 2 to 30 other farmers. Thus informal water trading would appear to be commonly practiced. The net annual income generated from this practice has not been taken into account in the analysis. In 2 cases there is sharing of costs by the recipient farmers. Whilst small-scale groundwater irrigation is largely an individually owned practice, across the DZ its operation appears to often involve small collectives of local farmers cooperating together for mutual benefit.The single greatest challenge reported by the well owning farmers concerning their GWI systems was largely related to the high fuel costs in general, and especially during the dry spells when groundwater levels were depressed and greater lift was needed (4 of the 7cases). In some instances this limited the area that could be irrigated. Mechanical problems or associated costs was either perceived as a problem (1 case) or simply reported but not considered problematic (1 case). Only one case reported no issues. Interestingly, access to capital to purchase inputs, maintain equipment or for system improvements was not reported to be the major issue by the well owners.o Irrigation with groundwater can be an important means for farmers to help improve their livelihoods, particularly during the dry season months. This is improved when high valued crops are grown (sometimes in addition to staple food crops such as rice), and household level cash flows are sufficient to meet the basic input needs. o The total investment cost needed to establish groundwater irrigation is highly conditional upon the local conditions and can vary by an order of magnitude. Thus knowledge of the hydrogeological conditions are paramount to effective planning and to minimize poor investments. o Job opportunities for landless workers in irrigation management emerge in around 70% of cases, along with more convenient access to domestic water supplies. o The well owners have stressed the major issue affecting their use of motorized pumps is in relation to the high cost of fuel, and to a lesser extent to maintenance-related costs. o Water from the wells is commonly used for domestic and livestock purposes. Therefore when making plans for irrigation or considering irrigation expansion one needs to consider the implications on these sectors along with the general sustainability of the technology.In this section of our report for presenting the results from our community survey on livestock and water related issues, we have merged rainfed villages and villages with supplementary irrigation to present as a single group. This is as a result of the sources of water for livestock watering being similar between these two categories of villages. Thus the results are presented broadly focusing on two groups -rainfed and irrigated villages.In our sample, in both rainfed and irrigated villages, marginal farmers had a limited number of livestock per household and landless farmers even lower (own cattle, sheep and goats less frequently than marginal farmers and the average number of animals per household is also lower). For marginal farmers, each household owns approximately one or two cattle in over 80% of the villages in our sample (Table 5.4). The presence of other type of livestock such as goat, sheep and pigs is more specific to the villages and no real trends can be highlighted. The average number of animals per household is not significantly different between rainfed and irrigated villages. The main sources of watering for cattle, goat and sheep in irrigated villages are rivers and wells (both private and public in the case of landless while only private for the marginal). In the case of rainfed villages the main sources of water are public ponds, public wells and private wells for both marginal and landless farmers. Groundwater is therefore an important source of watering livestock in both irrigated and rainfed villages (Table 5.5).The distance to the water source for livestock is longer in the case of public sources such as public ponds or wells, and in the case of rainfed villages it may take up to 30 minutes, while for private wells, this would take less time. In Irrigated villages, in the case of access to a river, this is recorded to be on average 15 minutes. Once again for private wells, the distance and time factor involved are much less.A shortage of water for livestock is, as expected, more frequent and longer in rainfed villages than in irrigated villages. Rainfed village using public ponds are more vulnerable to drought. In several cases, a drought of 8 to 24 weeks could occur during the dry season, where this primary source of water is not available to livestock. Usually during such drought periods, villagers adopt the coping strategy of accessing another water source for watering their livestock. For example in the Yae Twin Kone village, other groundwater sources within the village are used as an alternate source of watering. Another strategy is to take the livestock to a neighboring village. This is what is adopted in Kha Yu Kan village, where the public pond usually dries up from March to May. These strategies are for cattle, goats and sheep, while water shortage is less problematic for pigs and poultry, requiring less quantity of water. For households with access to private wells, in 95% of the cases water is usually collected from their private wells for their animals (cattle, sheep and goat). This proportion is more spread in the case of ponds and public wells where animal can be brought to the source of water, especially for public pond.With respect to pigs and poultry, in more than 85% of the cases the animals remain in the household and water is brought to them from different sources (river or wells). In other cases, the water is both brought to the households or the animal walked to the source.In our sample, in 81% of the cases, livestock are sharing the same source as for domestic uses. This proportion is reduced to 66% when we consider only animals that are brought to the water source and concerns only 16% of the case for river and public ponds (which may be an issue for public health and contamination by animal faeces• Both marginal and landless farmers have small herds.• Groundwater is an important source of watering livestock in both irrigated and rainfed villages. • The distance to the water source for livestock is longer in the case of public sources of water. • In drought period villagers are looking for alternate water source for their livestock or organize the migration of the herd to another village.For presenting the results from our community survey on domestic water use, we have merged rainfed villages and villages with supplementary irrigation to present as a single group. This is as a result of the sources of water for domestic use not differing widely between these two categories of villages. Thus the results are presented broadly focusing on two groups -rainfed and irrigated villages.In our study, under domestic uses of water we include drinking water, water used for bathing, cooking and watering livestock within the household.In our sample villages, overall, similar sources of water are used for drinking purposes in both the rainy and dry seasons (Table 5.6). In rainfed villages, landless and marginal farmers have similar sources of drinking water. The only difference between seasons occurs in the rainy season for some villages, where villagers use rain water tanks and community ponds, while in dry season public wells are used. In irrigated villages, there appears to be no variation in the sources of water used for drinking purposes between marginal and landless farmers and also between seasons. In these villages, the proportion using river water in both the dry and rainy season is high, however it must be noted that our sample is small and includes only five villages.It is interesting to note that rain water harvesting tanks were not considered an important source of drinking water in our sample. Only one village ranks it as the main source of water in rainy season, while this village does not have groundwater quality issues. In villages with major groundwater quality issues, for example, Taung Yinn and Kha Yu Khan (rainfed villages) and Sarr Taung (Irrigated village), they use mostly ponds, dams 13 and river as their key sources of water for drinking purposes and covered wells for other domestic water uses. In some cases, the water quality issues concern only one part of the village territory and therefore groundwater can be still used for drinking purposes. In regard to irrigated villages, overall the distance to domestic water sources does not differ in the rainy and dry seasons; the average distance varying from 3-5 minutes for private wells and around 15-20 minutes with respect to public sources of water such as public wells, rivers and ponds. In rainfed villages on the other hand, the distance to domestic water sources is on average longer in both dry and rainy seasons compared to distances noted in irrigated villages (Table 5.7). It was interesting to note that for approximately 50% of the sample, drinking water is collected by all members in the family, while young boy and girls (<12) are cited only in one case. Surprisingly, when the distance to collect water is greater, all members appear to be involved in the water collecting, such as in the case of Kam Ma and Thea Pyin Taw villages where the distance to collect water is recorded to be 45 and 120 minutes respectively. Respondents indicated that in these cases, the task of water collection would be taken on by any family member who was available at that time. Moreover, the family member involved may change depending on the season. For example, in In Taw village where the distance to collect domestic water is 45 minutes in the dry season, adults (both male and female) are engaged in water collection. In the rainy season, when water collection times are lower, teenagers are also involved in this activity.Overall in dry season, the distance to collect water is on average greater in rainfed villages in comparison to irrigated villages, where in several rainfed villages, the water collection point for domestic use is more than 30 minutes away. In these villages groundwater sources are usually not used due to water quality issues.In dry season, the average number of times that water is collected per week varies according to the village, and in our sample it varies from between 7 times per week to more than 105 times per week in the case of Kyauk Tan village, where households have access to individual wells.To sum up, overall the main difference found between rainfed and irrigated villages, was that in the latter, the distance (calculated as minutes per trip) is shorter the frequency of water collection is lower, compare to rainfed villages. Additionally, in both irrigated and rainfed villages, the distance to the water source in the dry season is about three times higher when access to groundwater is constrained by water quality issues.In our community survey, the price of purchasing domestic water varied according to village and uses. For example in Kyauk Sit Kan (rainfed village), landless farmers pay 250 Kyat per bucket (20 gallons) for drinking water and between 500 Kyat -700 Kyat per drum (48 gallons) for water to use for other domestic purposes. In another rainfed village, Pha Yar Gyi Kone, the collective pond dried up during the dry season in 2013 and villagers were compelled to purchase water locally from owners of private motorized tube wells for 200 Kyat per 50 gallons.In the case where water needs to be purchased from neighboring villages, the price is usually higher. For instance, at the end of the dry season villagers from Nwar Kyoe Aing, need to purchase drinking water from a neighboring village located some miles away. In that case, the cost is 1,500 Kyat per tank (50 gallons) including delivery charge. Without delivery, the tank of 50 gallons costs 300 kyats. In Taung Yinn village, landless farmers were purchasing water form a village located two miles away for approximately 3,500 Kyat per tank (50 gallons) and 200 kyat for 8 gallons. If the landless are unable to afford hiring transportation, they will walk, but due to the distance only one trip per day is possible. A round trip would take two hours carrying 5 gallons per trip for a female and 10 gallons per trip for a male. Due to the distance only one trip per day is usually possible. However in other villages it was noted that in the event that the cost of transportation is high, villagers support one another, such as in Taung Yinn where villagers without transportation can purchase water (200 kyat for 5 gallons) from the adjacent village with the assistance of their neighbors. In this specific village, respondents mentioned that to purchase drinking water, it needed to be ordered in advance.Purchasing water from a source that is located elsewhere depends on labor availability. Landless farmers usually have less time to fetch water and therefore may have to purchase water from private tube well owners (25-50 Kyat for 8 gallons) such as is the case in In Taw village.With respect to the distribution of the domestic water between different uses (i.e., drinking, other domestic uses and livestock), the relative proportion of water allocated between different uses did not appear to change significantly between seasons and during a drought period for the different households groups (i.e., marginal and landless farmers). From our community survey it was noted that approximately 15% to 20% of the volume of water collected was allocated for drinking purposes, about 50% towards other domestic uses and between 30% and 41% for watering livestock. Marginal farmers who own more livestock allocated more water to livestock watering in both rainfed and irrigated villages. Landless farmers on the other hand, allocate relatively more water for drinking in both dry and rainy seasons.While the relative proportion of water allocated between different uses did not change significantly based on seasons, as expected, the volume of water collected per day was found to be different according to season and during period of drought (Figure 5.4). In all cases the volume collected was recorded to be higher in dry season, when water consumption is more important and rain water collection is not possible. In the rainy season water collection was less important in terms of volume collected (50 to 70 gallons per day) as a result of the water demand for livestock and domestic use being replaced by rain water collection. During a drought period, water collection is reduced, with the higher difference in the case of marginal farmers in irrigated villages, where water collection drops from 100 gallons per day to an average of 68 gallons per day (32% drop).As a result of some recent interventions associated with enhancing access to groundwater, such as increasing the number of manual tube wells or modifying open manual wells into motorized tube wells, 4 irrigated villages and 14 rainfed villages in our sample have been impacted positively. For example, in Kan Du Ma village, the increase in the number of manual tube wells enables time savings with regard to water collection, water is available all year around and the construction of the wells created employment opportunities for the local residents. When open wells were upgraded to closed well systems, improvements in water quality were also recorded in Pa Kar and Bay Yinn villages, especially regarding to water borne diseases.• In rainfed villages rainwater tank and community ponds are more used in rainy season, while public wells is more used in dry season. • Distance in to the main water source is longer in rainfed villages compare to irrigated villages. This difference increases in the dry season and in period of water shortage. • Price of water varied according to village, water source and uses. Water price also increased at the end of the dry season and prices were found higher if the water was purchased from another village and include delivery. Landless farmers usually have less time to fetch water and therefore may have to purchase water. • During a drought period, water collection is reduced, with the higher difference in the case of marginal farmers in irrigated villages, where water collection drops from 100 gallons per day to an average of 68 gallons per day (32% drop). • Access to groundwater was perceived as one of the main positive changes for access to domestic water, reducing time to fetch water, in the case where the hydrogeological characteristics enable a good quality of water.In this section of the report, we describe and analyze institutional arrangements at village level in relation to farmers' farming strategies and water management practices. It discusses the overall idea of institutional development looking specifically at the nature of institutions, their organizational origin, how they actually function and might evolve over time. Later, we also link this discussion with the notion of collective action, and how such action derives from actors' common understanding of problems and solution in relation to water availability, access and management.The objectives of this institutional analysis are:• To assess the role of local institutions, mechanisms, and arrangements in water management, looking specifically at farmers' farming strategy and water management practices • To identify key constraints and opportunities to strengthen local community's role in water management practices • To identify potential entry points for institutional interventions towards more effective and reliable water management • To inform component 3 of our review on how the existing local institutional arrangements can support or hinder the uptake of the preferred intervention options.Institutions mediate relationships between people, natural resources, and society (Cleaver, 2012;Heikkila et al, 2011;Ostrom, 2010). Institutions play an important role in shaping natural resources management (Hardin, 1968;Ostrom, 1999). Community-based irrigation or so-called farmer managed irrigation systems (FMIS) gains its prominence in irrigation development literature in the early 1980s, with the introduction of organizational approach (Chambers, 1988;Cernea, 1991). The approach emphasizes the important role played by farmers in shaping the actual systems management. It focuses on farmers' capabilities in systems management and their potential role in improving the overall performance of government-managed irrigation systems. Here, community-based irrigation is advocated as the solution for better irrigation system management.Current discourse on institutions in development policy seems to be focused on how to design the 'right' institutional arrangements to ensure good governance and effective policy implementation. As stated by Cleaver (2012: 2): \"'Getting institutions right' has become central to development policy\". In water management literature, such tendency manifested in strong social engineering approaches, which view the overall idea of local institutions formation and organizational development as a linear step-by-step process that can be designed and anticipated beforehand (Mollinga and Bolding, 2004). The application of these social engineering approaches is most evident in the way major international donors (i.e. the World Bank, Asian Development Bank) promoted the formation and organizational development of Water Users Associations (WUAs) in developing countries worldwide (Jones, 1995;Subramanian et al., 1997).Taking Ostrom's analysis on the 'design principles' of community-based irrigation as something that can easily be replicated, many but mostly international donor agencies assume that organizational property of farmer managed irrigation systems can be socially engineered to serve similar objectives in government-managed irrigation systems. The adoption of the idea was followed by widespread formation of Water Users Associations (WUAs).Past and current research on community-based irrigation or farmer-managed irrigation system (FMIS) and WUA shows that WUA's organizational characteristics did not represent the organizational strength of community based irrigation. While there is a tendency to view community-based irrigation as a model for development, in practice, the translation of the farmer participation concept under FMIS into WUAs is problematic. Unlike in farmer-managed irrigation system where farmers have full authority to control water use, WUA depends on the irrigation agency for the operation of their water source (Hunt, 1989). This is not to mention the issue of technical characteristics and the scaling problem when WUA has to operate in highly technical, large-scale, government-managed irrigation systems. These problems in FMIS-WUA analogy, together with problems occurred during the policy implementation resulted in many dysfunctional WUAs.In this component of our study, we look at local institutions and institutional arrangements mainly to understand how they function, the rationale behind such functioning, and how it benefits some people and excludes others. Highlighting the current gap in dominant institutional thinking, which assumes that better resources management can be gained simply through designing the right institutions (Varughese and Ostrom, 2001), this report highlights the prominent role of collective action in shaping and reshaping local institutional arrangements.Moving beyond the social engineering approaches, we highlight the importance of collective action in shaping the overall relevance of institutions, how it emerges, being sustained, and identifies the institutions' organizational development path. We argue that one cannot force collective action to occur once local institutions are formed. Collective action derives from common understanding between actors and stakeholders about their common problems and how they can solve them.In the next section, we start with a description of our case studies, based on data we gathered from three villages in Sagaing township. We describe and analyze local institutions and existing local arrangements in relation to farmer's farming strategy and water management practices in each of the three villages.Village with access to irrigation water (Ta Ein Tel) Farmers in Ta Ein Tel village cultivated two paddy crops (rainy season and dry season paddy) and dry crops (cotton, sesame, green gram). They cultivated paddy mainly for subsistence farming. They have access to irrigation water through the Sintat River water pumping project. Water for irrigation is pumped from the river to a village lake and from the lake water is channeled through various 'irrigation canals' to farmers' fields. Farmers used pipes to convey water from the canals to their fields.At present, farmers took irrigation water individually, without any institutional arrangements with other farmers in terms of irrigation turn, duration, and pumping request. When farmers needed water for their crops, they would inform the water management committee a week in advance. Water management committee is formed by the Water Resources and Utilization Department (WRUD) and is in charge to pump water from the river to irrigation canals during the entire cultivation periods (rainy season paddy, dry season paddy, dry crops). The committee is led by a village administrator as its chair, and comprised of a staff from WRUD as its secretary, and two farmer members whose tasks are to distribute water within the irrigation canals. The village has 4 irrigation canals and 2 staff from the water management committee were in charge for water distribution practices, with each responsible for two irrigation canals. These staff's duties were to regularly check the condition of the irrigation canals (i.e. canals leakage) and ensure equal water distribution between head and tail-end farmers. How the committee responded to farmers' water request, based on what criteria, remain obscured. Ideally, if water is available in the river, and electricity supply is sufficient, farmers would expect that the committee will pump water from the river to the irrigation canals, as requested by farmers, even when this means that they had to pump the water several times, especially when farmers submitted their request on individual basis. In practice, however, water was pumped to the village lake only at certain time period. Whether the committee held the final decision for water pumping remains unclear. Sometimes, water request need to be made in person to staff from Water Resources Utilization Department (WRUD).Apart from these pumping requests, both farmers and the water management committee were not aware about any water delivery schedule applied in the irrigation system, at least not in practice. One farmer mentioned that some staff from the Department of Irrigation suggested that farmers take turn in their water taking activities. Similarly, tail-end farmers would propose to channel the pumped water to the entire irrigation canals first, before head farmers started to take water with their pipes. But in practice, farmers would put their pipes into the canal 14 , to convey water to their fields, regardless of other farmers' water taking activities. The absence of water delivery schedule highlights not only the lack of institutional arrangements as regards farmer's water management practices, it also implies unequal water distribution between head and tail-end farmers. In time of water scarcity: 1) when there is not enough water in the river, or 2) when there is insufficient electricity supply to pump water from the river, water conflicts often occurred as head farmers would take water at the expense of tail-end farmers.In general, farmers paid 6,000 kyat/acre for rainy season paddy, 9,000 kyat/acre for dry season paddy, and 4,500 kyat/acre for other crops. Referring to this irrigation service fee, farmers highlighted the need for systematic water pumping, when it could be done in such a way that it would increase water reliability for farmers.At present, water management committee cannot ensure equal water distribution between head and tail-end farmers and are unable to solve water conflicts that occurred. Apart from their inability to design and implement water delivery schedule, their functioning is also hampered by erratic electricity supply to pump water from the river.Farmers in De Pa Yin Kwal village cultivated mainly vegetable crops and dry crops (i.e. tomato, sesame, chick peas) and fruit trees (i.e. mango, banana) the whole year round. Horticulture is the main farming activity. However, due to its high cost (for fertilizer, pesticides), farmers could only gain minimum profit from horticulture.Farmers relied on groundwater use for their agriculture farming. Groundwater use has been applied in the village for the past 26 years. For farming lands, which are located near the Mu river, river water is mainly used to irrigate the crops. For farming lands, which are located far from the river, farmers installed groundwater tube wells to ensure their crops water supply. As groundwater is almost readily available, farmers never experienced water scarcity problems in the village.Nonetheless, farmers are burdened by high pumping cost (i.e. fuel charge and machine rental charge). Moreover, farmers also mentioned about poor water quality from the majority of tube wells. According to farmers, 75% of the total tube wells had high iron content in the water.Water management committee or any other organizations responsible for ensuring farmers' water need are absent. In general, farmers arrange their irrigation water supply individually, using groundwater. Farmers cover the cost of pumping water, agriculture inputs by themselves. They harvested their agricultural produces, sell it in the nearby markets or through a broker that came to the village. Farmers knew about the latest price update for each agriculture produce. Big farmers who have high yields would often go to the city themselves to sell the produces there to get the highest profit. Other farmers who relied on brokers who came to the village receive lower price for their agriculture produces. Nevertheless, as they are well informed about the market price, they can use this information as their bargaining position in case the brokers came up with a very low price offers.At present, informal farmers network do exists, in terms of spreading information about market price, access to new farming techniques (i.e. organic farming procedures, farm licensing). Such network is shaped mainly through direct interactions between farmers.Farmers in Taung Yin village had neither access to irrigation nor groundwater. They relied mainly on rainfall for their farming. In general, farmers cultivated groundnut, pigeon pea, and sesame in the rainy season, and chickpea, coriander, black cumin, onion, and others in dry season. Crop cultivation is limited in dry season, due to water scarcity issue.During the dry season, water became very scarce, to the point that it affected villagers' access to drink water. Normally, villagers would take water from the village communal pond for their domestic use (i.e. bathing, cooking, washing, drink water). Water level in the village pond was very low, and villagers had to buy four diesel pumps machines to pump water from the nearby reservoir (6 km away from the village) and convey it through a PVC pipe before channeling the water to a stream that will convey the water to the village pond.The villagers work together to ensure their drink water supply. They collected money from each household (i.e. wealthier households paid higher amount of 'fee' than poor households), and use this money to fund their pumping operation. This included purchasing the pumping machines, paying for the fuels, and assigning farmers and villagers to monitor and ensure that water is conveyed in most effective way. The villagers assigned 3 people in each of the diesel pumping 'station', including one at the reservoir, to ensure that each machine was working properly and that water was conveyed to the village pond in time. Villagers took turns in this monitoring activity.With the money that they had collected, they can ensure pumping operation for up to 10 days or 2 weeks. At the time of pumping, villagers were already looking for alternative water source if water level in the reservoir dropped to a level where they could not pump it. In general, each year they have water scarcity problem. So, each year they will contact nearby villages in case these villages still have water reserve which they could share.Efforts made by the villagers to cope with water scarcity issue especially with regard to ensuring their drink water supply, is coordinated through water management committee. Like the water management committee in Ta Ein Tel village, this committee was formed by Water Resources and Utilization Department (WRUD). It comprised of village head who acted as the chair, other staff from village administration unit who acted as secretary, vice chair, and treasurer. Unlike in Ta Ein Tel village where the water management committee is equipped with staff who are in charge in water distribution at irrigation canal level, in Taung Yin, the committee comprised mainly of village administrative staff.6.3 Case study analysis: Institutional functioning and the role of collective actionOur case studies show how local institutions' actual functioning is shaped in part by contextual characteristics and actual water needs in each village. Table 7.1 gives an overview of local institutional arrangements in each of the three villages. In the following sub-sections, we analyzed how institutional arrangements are shaped at village level, and how this relates to the notion of collective action. In Ta Ein Tel village, for instance, where farmers have access to irrigation water whole year round, water management committee plays hardly any role in shaping the overall water distribution practices. Apart from its role in collecting or responding to water requests submitted by farmers, the committee lacks any authority to regulate farmers' water taking activities. Farmers' lack of awareness with regard to both formal and informal water delivery schedule highlights the need to fine tune formal water delivery schedule with actual water taking activities on the ground. It also brings to light the need for information dissemination from WRUD to water management committee with regard to their water delivery plan (i.e. pumping schedule and duration).As farmers could arrange their irrigation water supply on individual basis (through water request to water management committee or the WRUD), they do not see the need for shaping certain institutional agreements based on common (water) needs. Moreover, we argue that while farmers need irrigation water for their crops, head and tail-end farmers might in fact have different, perhaps conflicting interests in time of water scarcity. Here, head farmers would perceive equal water distribution as something that might stay in the way of their individual water taking, and thus tended to sustain the current water distribution practices, as means to preserve the status quo. In contrast, tail-end farmers would view equal water distribution as a means to ensure the reliability of their water supply. Thus, while farmers might share common problem: water scarcity, this does not translate into collective action in water distribution and water management practices, mainly because head and tail-end farmers do not share common solution towards the problem.In turn, the absence of local institutional arrangements to regulate farmer's water taking results in unequal water distribution between head and tail end farmers. In time of water scarcity, unequal water distribution results in water conflicts. Lacking any institutional arrangements in water distribution practices, farmer's access to reliable irrigation water supply depends mainly on the location of their farming lands, with head farmers have better access to irrigation water than tail-end farmers. Here, institutional arrangements are mainly embedded in the existing technical irrigation infrastructures (i.e. canal hierarchy and hydraulic levels).In De Pa Yin Kwal village, where farmers have access to groundwater, farmers need neither local institutions nor local institutional arrangements for their water management practices. As farmers could arrange their water supply on individual basis, they hardly work together in their water taking activities.Farmers formed informal networks to monitor their crops value at the markets, as well as to update each other on the latest agriculture techniques. While such networks are shaped mainly through direct interactions between farmers, we highlight their importance as the very basic foundation for institutional shaping. These informal networks resemble not only that farmers in the village share common problem: price uncertainty of their agriculture products, but also that they share common understanding on how they can partly solve this problem: through better access to available information (i.e. market price).Thus, the shaping of farmer organization in De Pa Yin Kwal village would probably need to be focused on how to define institutional arrangements that can represent farmers' common interests to get better market price, to get higher benefits. Here, we highlight the role of farmers' agricultural products, rather than water as entry point and key factor to initiate collective action.In Taung Yin village, where farmers had neither access to irrigation nor groundwater, water scarcity condition urged farmers and villagers to cope with the problem through collective action. The enrolling of this collective action brings to light the notion of institutional emergence, where local actors identify their common problems: water scarcity, and come in agreement in how to solve these problems: pumping water from the nearby reservoir and convey it to the village pond, through existing canal networks.The way local actors organized the overall pumping initiative, purchasing the pumps, defined the payment rules, ensured contributions from the villagers, divided the tasks between villagers, foresaw additional water sources shows how they can shape and reshape the actual functioning of water management committee to meet their actual water needs, even when this means to shift the context from agriculture to domestic water use. In other words, collective action exists in other types of water use activities, beyond agricultural use.Current trends in irrigation development worldwide and in Myanmar in particular highlights the need to form and establish multi-layered farmer organizations in charge for water management and water distribution practices, from main canal systems down to farmers' fields, so-called Water Users Associations (WUAs) (Svendsen, 1993;Small, 1989;Anderson Engineering, 2012). Institutionally, these multi-layered farmer organizations (WUAs) would comprise of tertiary level farmer organizations (representing farmers within a tertiary unit), secondary level farmer organizations (representing tertiary level farmer organizations), and main level farmer organizations (representing secondary level farmer organizations). International policy makers believe that WUAs formation would improve the overall water management in government irrigation systems. As Hunt jested (1989: 79): \"If the farmers would only participate, the thinking goes, then the ditches would be constructed, the water would be allocated, and most important of all, the maintenance would be done\".In practice, however, global experiences show some pitfalls in WUAs formation and establishment.Recent studies looking at the overall functioning of WUAs in Asia and the Middle East show, for instance, that the majority of WUAs were dysfunctional and exist only on paper (Mukherji et al., 2009;Ghazouani et al., 2012). Moreover, WUAs often function as government-induced and elite-driven farmer organizations, not necessarily representing farmers' actual development needs and aspirations (Ghazouani et al., 2012;Nikku, 2006).We argue that while the idea of WUAs formation might fit with the technical characteristics of the irrigation system, unlike irrigation infrastructure, institutions cannot be designed and developed based on blue print model. Our case study analysis shows that institutions are not static entities. They are dynamic, prone to changes, and continuously evolving. The analysis highlights how local institutional arrangements with regard to farmer's farming strategies and water management practices can vary from one village to other, depending very much on how farmers and villagers shape and reshape their strategies to cope with challenges in acquiring access to water as well as in distributing it.Institutional development and strengthening needs to be tailored cut to existing water characteristics in each village, based on farmers and villagers' view and development aspirations. As shown in our case study analysis, farmers in irrigated village have different (organizational) needs than farmers in respectively rainfed and village with access to groundwater. Referring to this variation, we suggest that the overall functioning of farmer organizations be made flexible, ranging from water distribution for agriculture, domestic water supply, to agricultural cooperatives, rather than focused on water alone. Furthermore, our case study analysis shows that water is only a factor, next to a series of other (perhaps more important) factors (i.e. labor, access to market, input costs, off farm opportunities) which shape farming households; decision. In this light, urging the formation and establishment of WUAs as uniform farmer organizations does not only impose its importance on the existing local institutions and arrangements, but it might also moves us further from our goals to empower farmers as key actors in agricultural and rural development in general.In this section, we provide an overview of the past and current interventions in relation to water management that were described by the communities in the 24 villages we covered in our survey. For this purpose we extract and summarize information obtained on this topic from the 24 FGDs held with community leaders in our sample (i.e., one FGD per village) and determine the main trends and commonalities found in the interventions adopted in the three broad categories of villages in our sample -i.e., villages irrigation all year around, villages with supplemental wet-season irrigation and rainfed villages (which do not have irrigation). We look at water interventions associated with agriculture, domestic uses and flood control that were initiated by the Government, development agencies, individuals and collective groups. We also attempt to understand from the community's perceptive the reasons for success and failure for interventions and any common findings across the 24 villages.Overall, as expected, past and current interventions linked with domestic water use (including livestock and drinking water), were reported in all three types of villages in our survey, while interventions associated with agriculture were recorded in only villages with access to irrigation and supplementary irrigation. Flood mitigation related interventions were reported in only two villages, one rainfed, and one with supplementary irrigation.From our survey it is clear that in relation to the broader livelihood strategies found in the villages, water related interventions cover a range of different uses -agriculture, domestic water uses (including livestock and drinking water) and even protection against floods in some cases. Furthermore, different types of interventions are design in the same village with funding support from different sources. It is therefore important that a holistic approach is adopted with regard to investing in water related interventions at the village level -an approach that takes into consideration the full range of uses and ensures that all interventions are closely linked into the overall village development planning processes.It is also important to have a clear understanding of not just the range of different interventions operating in the village -both in the past and currently, but to also determine which were considered successful or not by the community and reasons for this. This would help inform decisions regarding potential interventions in the future. For example in terms of irrigation schemes, one problem discussed during our FGDs was the fact that sometimes tail-end farmers did not receive adequate water for their crop. Another issue mentioned was that while groundwater may be used for supplementary irrigation, fuel costs associated with mechanized pumping were of particular concern. These kinds of concerns would need to be taken into consideration and strategies of how these can be addressed thought through carefully before interventions are made.With regard to groundwater exploitation, especially in the context of domestic water use, one of the main issues highlighted was related to water quality. In a number of villages it was reported that the water was too salty to be used for drinking purposes. Water quality was also reported to vary within close proximity -which meant that even within one village quality could differ depending on location. Thus knowledge of the hydrogeological conditions is paramount to effective planning at the local level to minimize poor investments in relation to groundwater.Rainwater harvesting ponds were another key intervention in relation to domestic water use. However maintenance of the ponds was sometimes an issue due to siltation and poor infrastructure as well -and as a result a number of initiatives on pond rehabilitation and reconstruction appear to be also funded by various donors and agencies.With regard to past and current interventions it appears that while some benefit the entire village, others appear to target specific groups. On other occasions, perhaps inadvertently some groups are unable to benefit at all or benefit less relative to others (for example tail-end farmers in an irrigation scheme, or households that are situated in part of a village where the groundwater quality is poor). With interventions therefore it is also important to be clear in the planning process as to who the beneficiaries or target groups will be, once again in the overall context of the village development planning process.While there are a range of donors funding water related interventions, it appears that there are also collective action initiated among the farmers and villagers themselves to address water scarcity issuesso focusing on a common problem and coming to an agreement of how to solve the problem in a collective manner. For example in the case of pumping water into a village pond from a river through a four inch pipe using four pumps in Taung Yin village. Sometimes however the investments required are too large to be addressed by villagers alone -such as in the case of building a drainage canal in the event of a flood in the same village.Finally, the past and current interventions found in the 24 villages and how these are perceived in terms of performance and their impact on improving the lives of the different farmer groups (landed, marginal and landless farmers), is likely to shape and influence community members in their preferences and priority setting for potential interventions in the future.In Annex 2, we provide some examples of interventions that were captured in our community survey on agriculture, domestic use and flood prevention.We attempted to identify potential interventions that would reduce vulnerability to water stress, and that were of priority to the local communities. To this end, we elicited in every FGD (i.e., a total of 72 FGDs), a few potential technical interventions from the respondents in that FGD. Participants were asked to discuss the potential impacts of the interventions they had proposed, the players who should be involved, the strengths and usefulness, and weaknesses and constraints, of each of the proposed interventions.After this discussion, a list of potential interventions was provided to the respondents in the FGD. This list was developed based on the Dry Zone water linked interventions that were discussed during our Stakeholder Consultation Workshop 15 and also drawing on the literature. Each intervention on the list was explained, and farmers were asked to validate the list and add potential interventions if necessary.Each participant was then provided with five tokens, and they were asked to split the tokens across the listed intervention(s) they thought were most valuable, using all five tokens only once. The list of options is provided in Table 9.1. (those that own between 5-15 acres of farming land), marginal (those who own less than 5 acres and are not food secure for the entire year) and landless (farmers without farm land, who are not renting land for farming, and who are not food secure throughout the year).Focusing on availability of irrigation alone, we find greater heterogeneity in preferences for water interventions in villages with supplemental irrigation and rainfed villages than in villages with irrigation all year round. This may be in part due to familiarity with existing interventions in villages with irrigation all year round-mostly government-funded canal irrigation investments in relation to agriculture. Additionally, our study found that landed farmers with access to canal irrigation also tended to privately access some groundwater. Therefore, it is likely that in villages with year round irrigation, farmers may be able to collectively develop other interventions, while rehabilitation of canals requires government action. At the same time, rainfed villages may be more flexible, due to not being locked into pre-existing investments. Moreover, the exercise we conducted listed interventions pertaining to not just irrigation but also to domestic water use, and water for livestock. It is also likely that rainfed village have fewer interventions in general, thus having more unmet needs.In our study, 31% of respondents in rainfed villages voted for the rehabilitation or construction of a rainwater harvesting pond, and 13% voted for storage embankments, thus prioritizing investments pertaining to domestic water use and livestock. In villages with supplemental irrigation in the wet season, 24% of respondents voted for a tube-well with pump for irrigation, and 14% for a collective well with electric pumping station, thus prioritizing investments associated with enhancing irrigation. In villages with irrigation all year round, 36% of the respondents voted for the rehabilitation or extension of existing irrigation equipment, mostly canal irrigation, while 33% of respondents voted for the rehabilitation or construction of a rainwater harvesting pond, hence showing that priorities were focusing on irrigation and also domestic and livestock water uses.Examining farmer types, we find preferences for investments to be fairly distributed across alternative options, likely indicating diversity in survival strategies. Landed, marginal and landless farmers tend to prefer rehabilitation or construction of a rainwater harvesting pond above other options, with 21% of landed farmers, 25% of marginal farmers, and 30% of landless farmers voting for this option. Since rainwater harvesting ponds are important water sources for the purpose of domestic water useincluding for drinking water and livestock, it is reasonable that it should be considered a priority by all three farmer types. Livestock contribute to the livelihood portfolios in these areas, and according to our survey, in a good year, livestock account for about 10% to 14% of the household's income in the case of landless and 5% to 12% in the case of marginal farmers. In this regard, the preference for a rainwater harvesting pond is likely reflective of the need for watering livestock.drinking water and livestock (which is an important livelihood strategy and source of income for both the marginal and landless as explained above). In villages with supplemental wet season irrigation, all farmer types prefer groundwater interventions with a diesel pump (36% landed, 19% marginal and 18% landless). In rainfed villages, all farmer types prefer the rehabilitation or construction of a rainwater harvesting pond (29% landed, 30% marginal and 34% landless). Groundwater interventions were not preferred due to water quality issues (including salinity and turgidity), and the high costs involved in tapping groundwater.Summing up, rehabilitation or extension of existing irrigation infrastructure is a preferred option among landed and marginal farmers in villages with irrigation all year round. In contrast, groundwater interventions are preferred over others by landed and marginal farmers in villages with supplemental wet season irrigation. Finally, rainwater harvesting ponds are an important option for all farmer-types in villages with dry season irrigation, and rainfed villages.Rehabilitation and extension of irrigation infrastructure may be beneficial for farmers in villages with irrigation all year around. However, our interviews with the WRUD officials at the township levels, and FGDs with farmers in villages suggest a number of challenges in extending such investments. For one, regular and timely maintenance of irrigation infrastructure is a known challenge, thus requiring premature rehabilitation. Additionally, improper construction of irrigation infrastructure may also require premature rehabilitation. This often forms a vicious cycle of build-neglect-rebuild, which is likely systemic for irrigation infrastructure. Additionally, water losses from evaporation and unlined canals are important considerations. WRUD finds it challenging to cover the costs of its operations, since water use is heavily subsidized. Collection of water fees from farmers is challenging, likely due to both the lack of capacity for collecting fees by WRUD and for paying fees by farmers and water user associations. Additionally, canal irrigation schemes require a pumping station that lifts and diverts water into irrigation canals. Electricity is in short supply in Myanmar, and with rising diesel prices, ensuring the running of pumping stations to deliver water to fields in a timely manner is challenging. Even though farmers may be willing to contribute labor, as indicated through the FGDs, further investigation is required to ensure how best to ensure that the benefits of this option would justify the costs.Farmers in supplemental wet season irrigation areas are likely to benefit from groundwater investments with motorized pumps. Their preference for this option may be in part due to the reliability of groundwater interventions over canal irrigation, and also in part due to the economic challenges associated with extending canal irrigation to provide water the year around. Marginal farmers in areas with supplemental irrigation often rely on groundwater to supplement rainfall; however their responses suggest that the variable costs of this option, viz. fuel costs, are high. Moreover, interviews with WRUD suggest that digging wells is expensive, in part due to limited availability of drilling equipment. Also, due to limited exploitation of groundwater, information about the depth and quality is limited. As in the case of canal investment, short supply of electricity and increasing diesel prices makes pumping expensive.Villages are unlikely to be able to raise the money for financing these investments. Motorized tubewells may be challenging to implement effectively, given these constraints, especially for marginal farmers. However this potential intervention will require an assessment of water quality since groundwater quality was found an issues in several villages during this survey and affect several areas within the entire Dry Zone.Rehabilitation or construction of a rainwater-harvesting pond is a preferred investment in almost all areas, especially in rainfed and all-year irrigation areas, by all farmer types. FGDs with villages indicate that the villages themselves can supply the labor and mechanical resources required for such investments. This intervention has the potential to reach many farmers, and may be income-neutral in its outreach. The focus group discussions suggest that this intervention is likely to be important for domestic water uses including drinking water and watering livestock, and thus has the potential to have an impact of livelihoods, and an important adaptation strategy. However evaporative losses in the dry zone are likely to be very high, and rainfall can be erratic.It was interesting to note that some interventions were not considered of priority in the voting exercise: for example, the following interventions did not show high preference overall: watershed management programs and rainwater harvesting tank for domestic use and garden watering. Watershed management is very new concept to the community and many may not be aware of what exactly this involves. Another reason why watershed management did not get priority preference votes is that there is no quick impact and benefits will accrue more in the long-term -so communities opted for interventions that had impact in the short-term. Communities may have not shown preference for rainwater harvesting tanks for domestic use as a result of requiring tin roofing sheets and gutters and also the need for sufficient rainfall during the rainy season to make this intervention feasible. They may have also been focused on water for cultivation, as they could purchase water for domestic use.Key inferences from preference voting exercise for potential interventions• Rehabilitation or construction of rainwater harvesting pond has the potential to have an impact in all areas for all farmer-types, by increasing access to water for drinking, domestic use and livestock.• Rehabilitation and extension of canal irrigation may positively impact landed and marginal farmers in areas with year-round irrigation; but further research is required to understand whether these efforts would be cost-effective.• When considering groundwater interventions, factors such as the quantity of groundwater available, installation costs, operation and maintenance costs and replacement costs are important considerations.• Groundwater interventions with pumping are likely to impact landed and marginal farmers in areas with supplemental irrigation; however rising diesel prices and shortage of electricity challenge the efficacy of these interventions.• Voting outcomes likely reflect familiarity with existing interventions, and in part preference for less risky options to increase the probability of accruing some benefits.As one part of our overall study, we conducted a community level survey in the Dry Zone to determine local water availability for different uses and opportunities and constraints to access and manage water as perceived by local people. We have also looked at various institutional arrangements at village/community level in relation to farmers' farming strategies and water management practices as well as domestic water use.Overall, from our survey it is clear that in relation to the broader livelihood strategies found in the villages, water related interventions cover a range of different uses -agriculture, domestic water uses (including livestock and drinking water) and even protection against floods in some cases. There is great variation across villages in terms of water stress, resulting in significant differences in development opportunities and priorities between villages, even over small proximities. Therefore water-related interventions must be shaped within each community based on their own specific priority needs. For instance, in some of the more water stressed villages, obtaining better access to drinking water was of critical importance. In other villages, obtaining access to irrigation for cultivation was considered the major requirement. Our institutional case study analysis highlighted how farmer's farming strategies and water management practices could vary from one village to other, depending on how farmers and villagers shape and reshape their strategies to cope with challenges in acquiring access to water as well as in distributing it.Moreover our community survey also provided a better understanding of how certain water related interventions in relation to agriculture and domestic use may impact different social groups (marginal and landless farmers) differently. This type of information is critical to be equipped with to ensure that appropriate targeting can take place if investments are being made. Preference prioritization in interventions between marginal and landless and those from different village types (irrigated, supplementary irrigation and rainfed) was also a useful exercise in gaining a broader understanding of what the main priority interventions are for different groups.Based on our community survey, some of the key water related interventions that emerged as important to the DZ were:Formal irrigation schemes:The rehabilitation or extension of irrigation equipment (including canal rehabilitation and/or pumping station rehabilitation) appeared as a priority intervention for all farmers (including marginal and landless) with access to irrigation all year around. It was clear however that prior to initiating major rehabilitation programs, it is imperative that a set of assessments are conducted to determine how to address the technical, physical and institutional challenges that are at present inhibiting the effectiveness of these formal schemes. With regard to strengthening institutional aspects, a mechanism that enables farmers to link the water delivery schedule to the farmers' cropping pattern is one potential entry point to work more closely with government agencies (see Johnston et al., 2013).Small-scale irrigation through the use of groundwater is involving an increasing number of small farmers in the DZ. In our preference voting exercise, in villages with supplemental irrigation, all farmers showed preference for groundwater irrigation interventions. With regard to our interviews with well owners, the first major finding is that irrigation with groundwater can be an important means for farmers to help improve their livelihoods, particularly during the dry season months. This is improved when high valued crops are grown (sometimes in addition to staple food crops such as rice), and household level cash flows are sufficient to meet the basic input needs. Job opportunities for landless workers in irrigation management emerge in around 70% of cases. Assured access to domestic water supplies is another indirect benefit.The total investment costs needed to establish GWI are highly conditional upon the local conditions and can vary by an order of magnitude. Thus knowledge of the hydrogeological conditions are paramount to enable effective planning so as to minimize poor investments. Under optimal conditions, the payback times on initial investments can be very short. Well owners stressed that the major issue affecting their livelihoods is mostly in relation to the high cost of fuel, and to a lesser extent by maintenance-related costs in operating motorized pumps. The high upfront cost of setup can be a barrier to adoption which was not given adequate recognition in the design of the survey given that those farmers involved had already established their infrastructure.Water from the wells is commonly used for domestic and livestock purposes. Therefore when considering irrigation expansion the implications on these sectors along with the general sustainability of the technology much also be firmly taken into account. Furthermore, the provision of drinking water must be the highest priority, and plans to expand irrigation development should not compromise current or future access to drinking water supplies (for people and livestock). If properly located, deep tube wells provide reliable, high quality water in all seasons for domestic use, with benefits for the entire community.Rainwater harvesting (RWH) technologies, which include structures built to capture rainfall such as ponds, tanks, reservoirs and small dams are found in the Dry Zone. In our community survey, the preference voting exercise highlighted that rehabilitation or construction of rainwater harvesting structures was a preferred investment option for all farmer-types (including marginal and landless). Also, with regard to interventions adopted currently and in the past, rainwater harvesting ponds/reservoirs was an intervention mentioned several times in our survey. These technologies are therefore present in the DZ and NGOs such as ActionAID, IDE-Proximity in addition to the government (Irrigation Department) have considerable experience with construction and rehabilitation of village ponds. In our community survey, most rainwater harvesting ponds and reservoirs were used for domestic water purposes and livestock watering, and only few used for supplementary irrigation.Respondents report that the village would be able to provide the labor and mechanical resources needed for this intervention, and may require some expert knowledge from outside. Thus this intervention has the ability to affect livelihoods and adaptation strategies for everyone. However, evaporative losses in the Dry Zone can be large.In conclusion, different types of interventions are implemented in the same village with funding support from different sources. It is therefore important that a holistic approach is adopted with regard to investing in water related interventions at the village level -an approach that takes into consideration both the priority needs in the local context and also the full range of uses and ensures that all interventions are closely linked into the overall local development planning processes.Mandalay, the reconstruction of a rainwater storage pond with a higher embankment in 2013 with Government funding (through the Irrigation Department) was reported. As a result of the existence of the old pond, the building costs were lower and reconstruction was also completed in a short period of time. According to our survey, the understanding was that all members of the village would benefit from this rainwater storage pond, where water could be accessible through the year.Furthermore there were interventions that were focused specifically on drinking water. For instance with respect to improving the quality of drinking water, one intervention noted in Ta EinTel village in Sagaing was the distribution of ceramic water filters by an American organization and the provision of training on usage. This was beneficial in terms of health and there was also a saving made with respect to purchasing water containers. An intervention in Thea Pyin Taw village funded by BAJ in 2012 was a concrete sand filter and 50 gallon concrete tanks. This intervention was specifically targeting marginal and landless farmers in the village. This proved to be beneficial as it enabled them to store a larger volume of water due to the provision of water containers (the concrete tanks) and they could also have access to clean drinking water with the use of the concrete sand filters, thus helping to lower the incidence of water borne diseases.As we see in Chapter 5, in addition to drought related events, the Dry Zone may also experience flooding events. With respect to interventions to address these, two were described during our community survey.In TaungYinn village in Sagaing, as a result of floods, in 2006, the low land cultivation area in the village was flooded and needed to be drained off. Through a coordinated effort of the Township elders of Sagaing and the villagers, an attempt was made to reduce the flood area by digging a drainage tunnel.However not all the flood water could be drained off and therefore crops could not be grown. This flood mitigation intervention required a big investment and was beyond the scope of the village to address alone.In the Thea Pyin Taw village in Mandalay, a sand dam was constructed in 2012 to provide protection from floods. This intervention had been proposed by the village community to UN-HABITAT and after a technical feasibility study had been conducted, the construction was funded by UN-HABITAT and USAID. The community contributed their labor during the construction. It was noted that the Min Kan Dam situated fairly close to the village had been damaged about 10 years ago and as a result no water could be contained in the creek near the village boundary, leading to water scarcity for the villagers. With the construction of the sand embankment, it is possible to contain some amount of water for hand dug wells. Therefore in addition to providing protection from potential flooding, the embankment enhanced groundwater recharge too. This is hence a useful intervention whereby the water problem in the village was resolved to a certain degree, in addition to playing a flood protection role.","tokenCount":"22098"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2236858e85106c99ad9b30c27994c22","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8c44e899-1b4f-40c9-817c-1398289f369a/retrieve","id":"1496414744"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73acf2ac-51cd-4b6f-beaa-04aea3a48833","pagecount":"32","content":"✓ It is also possible to take advantage of the characteristics of these plants to cope with pests that may threaten certain crops.Harsh environment with frequent droughts and high T amplitudeFrom Evaluating carrying capacity is an important application of rangeland inventory and monitoring programs because it represents the key management tool to ensure sustainable use of natural resources. It is determined as a function of readily available biomass within a demarcated area (vegetation community).Animal Unit (AU) is considered a standard for calculating the Carrying Capacity of range sites. Rangeland management plans generally use the term animal units per area or total animal unit months (AUMs). One AUM is the amount of forage required by an animal unit (AU) for one month or the tenure of one AU for one month.There are two main ways to estimate the optimal CC for silvopasture:1 -Animal Unit and biomass production and (direct clipping and weighing dry matter) The plant density -the number of individuals or stems of each species per unit area.Specific contribution (CSP): this is the ratio expressed as a percentage between the species cover and the total cover of all the species Biomass: is the total dry weight equivalent of plant matter per unit area. There are two methods for estimating above-ground biomass -the destructive which consists of direct clipping and the semi-destructive method which does not involve clipping.Total plant cover (%) is the ratio, expressed as a percentage, between the number of points where species are present and the total number of sample points 15When estimating the CC, the number of animals is expressed in animal unit equivalent: It is an adult cow, alone or with its calf, weighs 454 (500) kg, and consumes 11.8 (12) kg DM per day. This term is used in the USA (in humid areas).In the dry areas, and based on nutritional requirements, the number of local animals is converted into tropical animal units and is equivalent to 0.7 AUE.On this basis, the tropical animal unit is a cow whose average weight is estimated at 300 kg (the weight of cows in tropical regions ranges between 250 -350 kg live weight). The standard animal unit ratio for different species Rule: daily requirement equivalent 2.5% live weight• The term animal unit month is often used, and what is meant by it is the amount of dry matter that a tropical animal unit needs for a month, which is equivalent to 240 Kg DM (equivalent to 355 for a standard animal unit).• The animal unit's need can also be estimated using the feed unit method (1 FU = 1 kg of barley grains), and a sheep's head needs 350 FU per year.• As a result of many experiments, it was found that 1Kg DM of fodder shrubs that the animal can reach is equivalent to 0.33 FU.By knowing the amount of dry fodder produced per unit area (ha), it is possible to estimate the area needed to produce enough amount of fodder for 1 AU/year.The amount of DM required for 1 AU per year = 7.5 Kg x 365 (permitted use) = 2737.5 kg/year It should be considered that in natural rangelands, a part of the plants must be left ungrazed to maintain the plants' ability to reproduce and grow, and this part is equivalent to 50% of the entire production (permissible use).Rule: take half and leave half.If we assume that the production rate of one hectare of dry fodder is equivalent to 3000 kg, then the optimal carrying capacity per year is calculated as follows:• The amount of dry feed required for a standard animal unit per year is: 7.5 x 365 = 2737.5 kg DM • The amount of fodder allowed to be consumed is: 3000 ÷ 2 = 1500 kg • This is the optimal CC: 2737.5 ÷ 1500 = 1.8 ha/tropical animal unit/yearCarrying capacity = Amount of forage needed by animal units Amount of forage available for consumptionThe optimal carrying capacity of a given silvopastoral or rangeland site can also be estimated using the feed unit method (FU).The head of a sheep needs 350 FU per year. On average: -1 kg DM of legumes and grasses = 0.4 -0.6 FU.-1 kg DM of fodder shrubs = 0.33 FU.If the production is 2000 kg DM/ha/year of grasses and forbs and that 1 kg is equivalent to 0.5 FU, determine the carrying capacity in a farm of 50 ha and where 150 heads of sheep are raised. The silvopasture covers 29 ha: Total biomass production (gDM/m -2 )recorded in 3 sites at Sbaihia silvopasture in Zaghouan","tokenCount":"760"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c35bd544afdffc40d640dc4098505a3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/543cfcf9-7331-4400-86b1-9e59de3c2a5c/content","id":"762699671"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"50b8a45d-514e-4392-93dd-610b1151bc2b","pagecount":"11","content":"year-on-year price changes for essential nutrient sources like fruits, milk, and meat saw significant increases in Nepal, reaching up to 14.0 percent. Milk prices in the Western provinces surged by 44.1 percent over the past year, potentially affected in part by lumpy skin disease affecting livestock. Poorer households are likely to have experienced increased challenges purchasing these goods as a result. At the same time, the prevalence of food insecurity measured in rural Nepal was lower in agricultural households compared to non-agricultural households, indicative of the formers' ability to manage food commodity increases through production of foods on farm and/or through better farmgate profits. During the last month, Nepal also had a higher Food Import Vulnerability Index compared to neighboring countries, particularly for essential consumption commodities like rice, vegetable oils, maize, and wheat. This indicates a greater susceptibility to increased world food prices and the importance of policy makers and development practitioners to consider options to address price vulnerability, particularly for the poor. Lastly, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in West Nepal on November 3, resulting in 154 reported deaths, 366 injuries, and extensive damage to houses and structures, with relief efforts ongoing. 1 A rapid survey in Jajarkot and Rukum West districts reveals that agricultural households have reported loss of livestock, damage to seed stores affecting winter planting, and increased market access challenges post-earthquake.8.4 percent in the hills and 6.3 percent in the terai. Notably, the highest inflation rate within this category was observed in the Kathmandu valley, standing at 11.6 percent.For farmers in Nepal, the high inflation in cereal grains and related products, along with milk products and eggs, could potentially be a benefit they may receive better prices for agricultural produce. However, the urban and rural poor consumers in Nepal, especially those in mid-Hills of Kathmandu valley, might face increased financial pressure due to the elevated prices, particularly cereals and their products. The decrease in vegetable prices compared to the previous month offered some relief to consumers, but overall, the 7.5 percent year-on-year Consumer Price Inflation suggests ongoing challenges in maintaining affordability and access to essential food items for vulnerable populations. Source: Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation (Based on Three months Data Ending Mid-October 2023/24), Nepal Rastra Bank Inflation vis-à-vis India: Nepal's inflation rate has consistently remained higher with a difference of up to 3.0 percent when compared with India's year-on-year consumer price inflation The measures implemented by India to curb escalating inflation, such as imposing restrictions and quotas on the export of essential commodities like rice and wheat, appear to have had a negative impact on the prices of importing countries, including Nepal. The higher inflation rate in Nepal, compounded by India's measures to control inflation, can strain the finances of poor consumers, making essential goods more expensive and potentially reducing their standard of living.Vulnerability to import price shocks: Food Import Vulnerability Index (FIVI) 2 for Nepal at the country level was reported as 29. FIVI considers the proportion of commodity imports, the share of caloric food intake for each commodity, and the prevalence of food insecurity, offers both country and commodity-level indices. This index gauges a country's susceptibility to increased world food 2 The FIVI considers which considers the proportion of commodity imports, the share of caloric food intake for each commodity, and the prevalence of food insecurity, offers both country and commodity-level indices. This index gauges a country's susceptibility to increased world food prices (see https://www.foodsecurityportal.org/). prices. By commodities, the FIVI index stood at 29 for rice, 27 for vegetable oils, and 20 each for maize and wheat. Comparatively, the FIVI index for other South Asian countries was as follows: India (20); Bangladesh (20); Bhutan (49); Sri Lanka (15); Pakistan (24); Maldives (36); and Afghanistan (55). This suggests that Nepal's vulnerability is higher for essential consumption commodities when compared to other neighboring countries, highlighting the need of programs to minimize such vulnerability.The year-on-year overall growth in the National Salary and Wage Rate Index was 5.6 percent in September-October. During this period, the salary index experienced a growth of 1.0 percent, whereas the wage rate index saw a growth of 7.0 percent. Within the wages category, industrial labor reported the highest wage growth at 11.7 percent, while agricultural labor wages grew by 5.2 percent. The comparatively slower growth in agricultural wages is expected to have a positive impact on farmers who need to hire labor for their farm activities, while it might conversely compromise the ability of laborers who cannot find non-agricultural employment to afford food and other needs.Comprehensive data from the USAID Feed the Future (FTF) Zone of Influence Primary data were collected from a sample of 812 households in August across four provinces in the USAID Feed the Future (FtF) Zone of Influence (ZoI), namely Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini, Bagmati, and the proposed expanded ZoI, Madesh Province in Nepal. Preliminary results indicate that approximately 6.0 percent of the sample households experienced either moderate or severe level of food insecurity, while only 0.18 percent of households experienced severe food insecurity (Annex 4). These findings are encouraging when compared to national-level results from the World Bank (2021) 3 , which reported 37.4 percent of the population experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity and 13.2 percent experiencing severe food insecurity.Eighty percent of the sampled households in the primary survey were agricultural households. While 4.1 percent of the agricultural households in the survey experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, 12.9 percent of the non-agricultural households faced moderate or severe food insecurity. Furthermore, agricultural households with migrant family members had an even lower prevalence rate of moderate to severe food insecurity, standing at 3.54 percent. Improved agricultural practices and remittance inflows therefore appear to have some measurable effect on reduced hunger in these parts of Nepal.According to the National Sample Census of Agriculture 2021/22, 55.0 percent of all households reported not having sufficient food from their own production. Among these, 30 percent experienced food insufficiency for over six months of the year. Among food-insufficient households, approximately 18.0 percent reported wages earned from outside the country/remittances as an essential income source to meet their food necessities, while about 62.0 percent relied on wage earnings from within the country.Migration and remittances: Migration and remittances play a crucial role in supporting Nepali households' livelihoods. In the first quarter (mid-July to mid-October) of this fiscal year 2023/24 (Nepali FY 2080/81), there was a 23 percent year-on-year decline in the issuance of new labor permits and a 15 percent decrease in the renewal of labor permits for foreign employment. In FY 2022/23, a total of 774,976 labor permits were issued, with 35.7 percent representing renewed entry permits. In the months of September and October, a total of NPR 365.5 billion (USD 2.75 billion) was recorded as remittance, which was 30.0 percent increase compared to the same period in the previous year. The increase in remittance is likely to have some negative influence on national interest rates, and thus could benefit both farmers and poor consumers to some extent.On November 3rd, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Western Nepal, centered at Ramidanda in the Barekot rural municipality within the Jajarkot district of the Karnali province. Subsequent aftershocks have been recorded in the region. According to the Government of Nepal's Disaster Risk Reduction Portal as of November 18th, there have been 154 confirmed fatalities and 366 reported injuries, primarily concentrated in the Jajarkot and Rukum West districts. Additional affected areas encompass Rukum East, Salyan, Rolpa, Nawalparasi East, Dailekh, Dang, Baitadi, Jumla, Kalikot, Pyuthan, and Achham. The earthquake resulted in the complete destruction of approximately 26,557 residences, with an additional 35,455 structures experiencing partial damage, including 14 government buildings.CSISA just completed a rapid agricultural household survey in Jajarkot and Rukum West districts. Preliminary results highlight the ways in which agricultural households have reported the loss of essential assets, particularly livestock, and structural damage to seed stores that has resulted in loss of seed supplies for planting in the upcoming winter season. Households have also reported increased challenges in accessing markets and selling agricultural goods post-earthquake. A more detailed account will be provided in the next Agrifood Systems Report.At the federal level, the government authorized NPR 100 million (USD 750,581) 4 for immediate relief and announced NPR 200,000 (USD 1,501) per deceased person for affected families. 5 Sudurpashchim and Koshi provinces have each allocated NPR 15 million (USD 112,587) 6 , while Bagmati and Lumbini provinces have contributed NPR 10 million (USD 75,058) at the provincial level for earthquake relief efforts. 7 Additionally, local governments are fundraising to support relief efforts. In addition to financial support, earthquake-affected areas are receiving non-food items like tarpaulins, mattresses, jackets, blankets, as well as essential food staples such as rice, pulses, cooking oil, beaten rice, biscuits, and salt. Ensuring that affected families have access to a nutritious diet to prevent malnutrition is among the many priorities of relief agencies, and nutrition specialists have expressed concerns regarding the distribution of ready-to-eat items like biscuits and noodles, advocating for the provision of nutrient-rich alternatives to less healthy foods.Social safety net coverage: Analyses of primary data revealed that 31.8 percent of individuals received at least one social security benefit in the past 12 months. Data also show that only 18.4 percent received subsidies for seeds and fertilizers. These findings suggest limited coverage of social safety net programs in the FtF ZoI when compared to the national target of achieving a 60 percent social protection coverage outlined in the 15th plan of Nepal 8 . A concurrent study conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2023 9 aligns with these findings, suggesting that approximately 32.9 percent of the population in Nepal is covered by at least one social security benefit.Key messages: Commodity prices show an upward deviation from the national average price in the Western provinces, mostly in meat and fish. Fruit prices varied significantly in the last month, with apples becoming more expensive nationally but cheaper in the Western provinces, a sharp increase in orange prices, especially in the Western provinces compared to last year, and a national increase in banana prices. Milk prices in the Western provinces surged by 44.1 compared to last year, potentially influenced by an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.In September, there was a substantial year-on-year price increase in coarse rice, with a surge of 23.4 percent, and medium grain rice, which saw a rise of 13.4 percent, at the national level. Similarly, the national prices for wheat also experienced an increase of 21.6 percent. While the prices for these cereals in the western provinces generally mirrored the national trends for coarse rice and wheat flour, there was a noteworthy deviation of NPR 10.7 (USD 0.08) for medium grain rice, representing an 11.9 percent increase compared to the national price of NPR 90.3 (USD 0.68). These price increases in staple cereals can potentially boost income for farmers but strain the budgets of consumers, particularly the poor.Fruits: The year-on-year growth in the prices of apples in September was 24.6 percent at the national level (NPR 268, USD 2.02) and 34 percent in the Western provinces (NPR 227.8, USD 1.72). In Western provinces, the price of apples was 15.0 percent lower than at the national level. Western provinces saw a marked increase of 48.6 percent in the price of oranges year-on-year at NPR 265 per kg; however, the deviation in price from the national level is only NPR 13 (5.2 percent higher). In the previous year, however, the price of oranges in Western provinces was NPR 83.5 (32.0 percent) lower than the price at national level. The price of bananas has declined by 3.8 percent from the previous month, but data nonetheless suggest an increase of 10.7 percent year-on-year at the national level. Banana prices in the Western provinces were11.8 percent higher than the national average. For poor urban and rural consumers, price fluctuations can strain already limited budgets.Vegetables: In Nepal's western provinces, the year-on-year price decrease of essential vegetables like tomatoes, red potatoes, pumpkins, and carrots, with pumpkins experiencing a significant 20.5 percent reduction, is a positive development for the nutrition of rural households. Nationally, tomato prices have also seen a substantial decline of 22.5 percent compared to the previous month. These vegetables are crucial in the diets of rural communities due to their high content of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential for health. Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, red potatoes provide a valuable source of carbohydrates and potassium, pumpkins are high in vitamins A and E, and carrots are known for their beta-carotene content.In the Western provinces of Nepal, milk prices have risen sharply by 44.1 percent over the past year, reaching NPR 130.4 (USD 0.98) per liter. This price is notably higher than the national average, which stands at NPR 118.0 (USD 0.89) per liter -10.5 percent less than in the Western provinces. A significant factor behind this steep increase in milk prices is likely the outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle. This disease has severely affected livestock, particularly cows and buffaloes, leading to a decrease in milk production. On the other hand, the price of eggs has remained stable, costing NPR 19.8 each. For dairy farmers, the outbreak of lumpy skin disease poses a major challenge, potentially reducing their cattle's productivity and increasing costs for veterinary care and preventive measures if these services are available. Conversely, the higher milk prices could mean increased revenue for those able to maintain healthy livestock. However, for consumers, especially in rural and urban low-income areas, this sharp rise in milk prices could limit access to these products which are an important component in human nutrition, affecting dietary quality. The stability in egg prices conversely offers some relief, providing an alternative source of animal protein.Meat and fish constitute critical sources of protein in the diets of Nepalese households, important health. In the Western provinces, the cost of fish was 25.2 percent above the national average, and the price of chicken meat rose by 10.7 percent in the last month. Nationally, prices for both fish and meat have seen a year-on-year increase of 12.8 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively, in November of 2023. These rises outpace the inflation rate, which was 7.5 percent. For human health, and especially for women (and pregnant and lactating mothers), these protein sources can be key. The higher prices could if sustained, therefore, have adverse implications, potentially leading to proteinenergy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies for households unable to produce or afford these foods.The prices of edible oils are on a decline in Nepal. Nationally, mustard oil prices have fallen by 5.3 percent from October to November, and soybean oil prices have dropped by 1.3 percent over the same timeframe. Despite this trend, the cost of mustard oil in the Western provinces remains 7.5 percent higher than the national average. These oils are a source of vitamins that are important for the immune system and aid the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K. The decrease in edible oil prices could ease financial burdens and improve nutritional intake for poor households in Nepal, but the persistently higher costs in the Western provinces may continue to challenge their access to these essential dietary components.Fertilizers: According to field data from USAID Feed the Future implementing partners, in November, the price of urea fertilizer in Nepal ranged from NPR 20 to NPR 24 (approximately USD 0.15 to USD 0.18) per kilogram, DAP fertilizer from NPR 50 to NPR 54 (approximately USD 0.38 to USD 0.41) per kilogram, and potash from NPR 38 to NPR 40 (approximately USD 0.29 to USD 0.30) per kilogram. Fertilizer prices have remained stable since last month. However, partners in the Dang, Kapilvastu, and Banke districts have reported a partial unavailability of these fertilizers. The stability in fertilizer prices offers some predictability for poor farmers in Nepal, but localized shortages in districts like Dang, Kapilvastu, and Banke could hinder their agricultural productivity and economic stability.Energy: In November, the prices of petrol and LPG in Nepal stayed constant from the previous month, at NPR 172 (USD 1.3) per liter for petrol and NPR 1895 (USD 14.2) per cylinder for LPG, while diesel saw a modest decrease of NPR 4, costing NPR 164 (USD 1.2) per liter. Stable energy prices provide a degree of financial predictability for farmers, food transporters, and farm input dealers in Nepal. The slight decrease in diesel prices in Nepal could reduce operating costs for agricultural producers and distributors, but these savings may not be passed on to consumers due to the influence of market actors' bargaining power, intermediary absorption of cost savings, and other operational expenses.  ","tokenCount":"2764"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b1e2b2779b4dc4b819aea8ad7769551","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4dea0459-5b0b-4ff1-8132-0458f01173e1/retrieve","id":"-222236244"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f4e8f27e-0578-41ab-b062-5d60279f2019","pagecount":"6","content":"During 2020, IWMI worked with private-sector partners and NGOs to trial satellite-based weather insurance products to poor farmers in India and Bangladesh. As a result, more than 4,000smallholders received insurance payouts that helped them recover quickly from damaging floods. When the insurance was bundled with seeds and weather information, farmers' resilience to climate shocks was further enhanced. IWMI is now working to scale up the use of satellite-based weather insurance in India and Bangladesh, and introduce it to new areas This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:02 (GMT+0)Description of activity / study: The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of flood index insurance, bundled insurance solutions through agricultural technology adoption in pilot districts in India and Bangladesh. The study will explore the effects of insurance payment on ex-post investment decisions and coping mechanisms including climate safety nets and post-flood recovery to agriculture. The outcome of CCAFS led study will demonstrate building financial resilience among small holders and its contribution to global framework on disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.• Regional Region(s):  IWMI's particular success with bundling the IBFI with seeds and weather information in Bihar led it to set up a similar pilot project in Sri Lanka. In collaboration with Sanasa General Insurance Company, Sri Lanka, IWMI scientists have developed a weather index insurance product and bundled it with weather and agricultural advice. It is initially being offered to 200 households growing maize crops in Anuradhapura district of northern Sri Lanka. This is the first time that satellite-based weather insurance has been trialed in the area.","tokenCount":"261"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"233fe7241e28cf6e24b21ca1c5a728fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/GTNSIL/XQXFXS","id":"-263018071"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbc57bb1-7dc7-468c-aa3c-eac05000e225","pagecount":"9","content":"Le FGD recueillera des informations sur (a) la diversité biologique du système de production-à la ferme ainsi que la cueillette et la chasse dans la végétation naturelle (y compris les pratiques agroforestières de gestion de la fertilité des terres et les espèces les plus impliquées), (b) la diversité alimentaire -consommée à la maison et aussi achetée au marché, et (c) la diversité des espèces et produits vendus et achetés dans les marchés (le marché est ici entendu comme le lieu où les personnes achètent et vendent des biens et services, pas seulement les marchés locaux mais inclus aussi les domiciles si des échanges commerciaux y ont lieu). Il y a quelques principes importants à garder à l'esprit lors des discussions de groupe :• Le FGD vise à collecter la connaissance collective de la communauté, et non celle des participants spécifiques dans le groupe ; • Il est nécessaire de collecter autant de diversité que possible, c'est à dire d'identifier autant d'espèces que possible, en particulier les espèces utilisées seulement par quelques personnes, voire rarement. Par conséquent, il est important de sonder pour d'autres espèces, chaque espèce est importante aussi insignifiante qu'elle puisse paraître ; • Capter les différences entre les sexes, ceci est partie intégrante du processus de discussion de groupe ; • Il n'y a pas de bonne ou mauvaise réponse, toutes les réponses sont valables ; • Il est important de noter, dans la mesure du possible, toutes les discussions qui ont lieu pendant le FGD.Le FGD sera organisé de la manière suivante:• Il y aura deux groupes: le groupe des hommes et celui des femmes ;• Chaque groupe discutera sur les trois aspects du travail:  la diversité biologique utile présente au niveau du système de production, y compris les cultures, les espèces agroforestières, les animaux domestiques ainsi que les espèces de cueillette ou de chasse ;  La diversité alimentaire ;  la diversité au marché ; • Il y aura approximativement 10 participants par groupe (mais pas plus de 15) ; • Chaque groupe devrait comporter des personnes représentant différents niveaux d'accès à la terre (propriétaires terriens, locataires locaux de terres et locataires migrants), les différents groupes ethniques présents dans le village et les différents groupes d'âge (il faut insister pour inclure les jeunes agriculteurs). • Pour chaque groupe, il y aura deux animateurs, un pour guider l'exercice et l'autre pour documenter le processus (prendre des notes, photographies, etc.) • Dans le cas des groupes d'hommes, les animateurs doivent être de sexe masculin et pour les groupes de femmes, ils doivent être de sexe féminin.Au début de l'exercice, l'animateur expliquera au groupe que, comme ils le savent bien, il y a de nombreuses espèces de plantes et d'animaux qui sont utilisées par la population du village. Cependant, certaines sont cultivées par de nombreux agriculteurs du village, tandis que d'autres sont cultivées seulement que par quelques-uns, et au même moment certaines de ces mêmes espèces sont généralement cultivées sur une grande proportion de la ferme, tandis que d'autres sont généralement cultivées sur une très petite proportion de la ferme. L'animateur trace alors les quatre carrés sur un grand papier posé au sol (Figure 1). Les quatre carrés sont les suivants:(1) Beaucoup de ménages sur une grande portion de leurs exploitations individuelles;(2) Quelques de ménages sur une grande portion de leurs exploitations individuelles;(3) Beaucoup de ménages sur une petite portion de leurs exploitations individuelles;(4) Quelques ménages sur une petite portion de leurs exploitations individuelles. Le premier élément à discuter concerne la diversité biologique utile présente dans les systèmes de production, tels que sur les fermes, les jardins de case (espèces annuelles et biannuelles). Puisque des informations existent sur certaines espèces au niveau de certains villages (à partir de l'enquête de base réalisée par l'ICRISAT), une liste des cultures est disponible. L'animateur lira les noms de ces cultures au groupe et écrira le nom local de chaque culture sur une carte, puis leur demandera de placer la carte dans le carré approprié. Pendant que chaque carte comportant le nom de l'espèce est placée dans le carré approprié, l'animateur demandera aux participants si cette espèce est utilisée comme aliment ou non, directement ou transformé, si oui, il sera marqué avec un signe que le groupe aurait retenu. De plus, l'information sera collectée pour trois carrés supplémentaires :Dans le cas des animaux :(1) beaucoup de ménages possédant beaucoup de petits animaux (volaille, petits ruminants, porcs, etc.) et grands animaux (vaches, chevaux, ânes, etc.) au sein de leurs exploitations individuelles; (2) beaucoup de ménages possédant peu de petits animaux (volaille, petits ruminants, porcs, etc.) et grands animaux (vaches, chevaux, ânes, etc.) au sein de leurs exploitations individuelles; (3) quelques ménages possédant beaucoup de petits animaux (volaille, petits ruminants, porcs, etc.) et grands animaux (vaches, chevaux, ânes, etc.) au sein de leurs exploitations individuelles; (4) quelques ménages possédant peu de petits animaux (volaille, petits ruminants, porcs, etc.) et grands animaux (vaches, chevaux, ânes, etc.). Les trois autres catégories restent les mêmes.L'étude doit aussi inventorier la variabilité intraspécifique de la patate douce. Pour ce, les différentes variétés existantes seront catégorisées selon la couleur de la chair. Les patates douces à chair blanche, jaune et rouge ont été distinguées dans d'autres régions du Sahel et seront utilisées. Toutes les variétés doivent être ensuite classées dans les quatre carrés et les informations sur leur utilisation pour l'alimentation, la vente/achat, en contre saison, période de soudure seront collectées.L'animateur va commencer la discussion en faisant remarquer que durant l'année il y a différentes saisons. Puis il / elle demandera aux participants de nommer les saisons qu'ils reconnaissent et les mois que couvre chaque saison. Ensuite, il les invite à décrire chaque saison et de dire laquelle ils considèrent comme la contre saison et pourquoi. Ensuite, un nouveau diagramme de quatre carrés sera établi par l'animateur et les participants seront invités à identifier parmi les espèces reconnues dans la partie précédente de l'exercice, celles qui sont disponibles (cultivés ou cueillies) au cours de la contre saison et de placer chacune d'elles dans les quatre carrés du digramme nouvellement dessiné. Le second facilitateur devrait prendre une photo du diagramme et notez la position de chaque carte sur le diagramme dans un carnet de notes.L'animateur expliquera que maintenant nous voulons comprendre lesquelles et combien importantes sont les espèces qui ont été identifiées dans l'exercice précédent en termes de commercialisation, à la fois pour la vente et pour l'achat. Dans un premier temps l'animateur expliquera que le groupe va examiner les espèces qui sont vendues. De l'exercice précédent, les espèces qui sont vendues sont déjà connues, et donc le groupe peut les classer en deux catégories : celles qui sont vendues et celles qui ne le sont pas. Comme dans l'exercice précédent, l'animateur expliquera que les espèces peuvent être vendues par de nombreux agriculteurs ou par quelques-uns seulement, et certaines peuvent être vendues fréquemment et d'autres rarement, donc l'animateur dessinera un diagramme des quatre carrés (Figure 2). Une fois que le diagramme est tracé, les participants seront invités à placer chacune des cartes du lot « Vendu » dans l'un des quatre carrés. Après que quelques-unes soient classées, les participants seront invités à expliquer les critères utilisés pour la classification. Une fois que toutes les espèces du lot aient été classées, le facilitateur doit sonder d'autres espèces qui auraient été omises, en particulier celles qui sont rarement vendues par quelques agriculteurs. Une fois cet exercice terminé, l'animateur posera des questions sur les espèces qui sont achetées, en répétant la même procédure qui a été utilisée pour les espèces vendues, et en dessinant un diagramme des quatre carrés présentant les espèces et les aliments qui sont achetés par de nombreux ou quelques ménages, et qui sont achetés fréquemment ou rarement (identique à la figure 2). Cependant, ici, il est aussi important d'identifier les produits alimentaires que la population consomme au cours de l'année et qui sont achetés, même s'ils ne sont pas produits localement (les conserves, les espèces qui ne sont pas disponibles localement, les condiments, les aliments manufacturés, etc.). Une fois que toutes les espèces de cette catégorie aient été classées, le facilitateur doit sonder d'autres espèces qui auraient avoir été omises, en particulier celles qui sont rarement vendues par quelques agriculteurs.L'animateur expliquera que maintenant, nous voulons mieux comprendre la diversité des aliments consommés par la communauté, en particulier les espèces qui sont consommées comme aliments directement ou en tant que produits alimentaires. Maintenant, il y a une liste de toutes les espèces disponibles localement qui sont utilisées comme aliments (dérivant de l'exercice sur la biodiversité agricole des systèmes de production), ainsi que d'autres aliments qui ne sont pas disponibles localement mais qui sont achetés et consommés (dérivant des cartes marquées dans les exercices précédents). L'animateur rassemble toutes les cartes pertinentes pour l'alimentation, puis une à une, il/elle demande au groupe de fournir des informations sur : Espèce alimentaire produit localement ou importé ?  Quelles parties des espèces sont consommées ?  Quelles sont les méthodes de cuisson utilisées pour préparer les aliments de cette espèce ?  Quels sont les produits dérivés des espèces (après la transformation)?  Période d'abondance (citer les mois)  Proportion (en pourcentage) de la population du village consommant cette espèce, en période d'abondance ?  Fréquence de consommation en période d'abondance (1=presque tous les jours de la semaine; 2=au moins 3 fois par semaine ; 3= à peine une fois par semaine ; 4=à peine une fois dans le mois)  Scores de la valeur nutritive (donner des scores allant de   *Fréquence de consommation en période d'abondance : 1=presque tous les jours de la semaine; 2=au moins 3 fois par semaine ; 3= à peine une fois par semaine ; 4=à peine une fois dans le mois , **Scores de la valeur nutritive : Donner des scores allant de 1 à 3, avec 1=peu nutritif ; 2=nutritif ; 3=hautement nutritif Période de soudure L'animateur expliquera qu'il y a des moments de l'année où la nourriture peut être rare (par exemple juste avant la récolte ou avant la plantation), similaire à l'exercice précédent sur l'agro biodiversité dans les systèmes de production. Les participants seront invités par le facilitateur à identifier à partir des cartes, ces espèces qui sont consommées au cours de la période de soudure. La liste doit être enregistrée par le deuxième animateur.D'autres projets en cours d'exécution ou récemment achevés dans ces villages seront documentés, pour une appréciation globale de tous les acteurs impliqués dans la conservation et l'utilisation de la biodiversité agricole dans les villages et les sites.","tokenCount":"1756"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/3414136509.json b/data/part_2/3414136509.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8093c365aac2437419c3555ee002b64d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/477036f0-b2f3-417a-bf48-fded2b1b087f/retrieve","id":"28334623"},"keywords":[",E~~ :.>G< . . . ; :~:::~~","' rl lmproving water productivity.","Specific goall : lmprove management practices that enhance the productivity ofwater Field Crops Research 1 15: 132-139. 7 Wasike, Y.W., Lesueur, D. , Wachira, F.N., Mungai, N.W., Mumera, L.M. , Sanginga, N., Mburu, H.N ., Mugadi, D. , Wango, P. and Yanlauwe, B. (2009) Genetic diversity of -7 Tittonell, P., Yanlauwe, B., Corbeels, M. and Giller, K.E. (2008) F Yield gaps, nutrient use efficiencies and response to fertilisers by maize across heterogeneous s mallholder farms ofweste m Ke nya. Plantand Soil313, 19-37. -7 Zingore, S., González-Estrada, E., Delve, R.J. , Herrero, M., Dimes, J.P. and Gi ller, K.E -7 Chianu, J. Ohi okpehai,O., Yanlauwe, B., Okoth, P., Roing, K., Adesina, A., Naidoo, P., Fully Achieved"],"sieverID":"3690e143-c83d-4cba-926e-90c720371820","pagecount":"151","content":"technol ogi e~ have shown a high pote ntial for large-scale adoption anda re latively high increase in input use efficiency (Quadrant A, Figure 1) while furthe r research for development investments are nceded to full y assess the adoption potential of othe r technologies and the ir impact on resource use efficiencies (Quadrant C, Figure 1). These cropping systems and impac t zones are partly based on the strategy of the ALLIANCE FOR THE G REEN REVOLUTION I N AFRICA (AGRA) that lau nched its Soil Health Program in 2008. This Program has adopted ISFM as a guiding framework for improving the soil health status of African soils and the Program is expected to backstop investme nts in thi s area.SOIL FERTILITY DEPLETION has been described as one of the major constraints to food security and income generation in sub-Sahara n Africa. Despite proposals for a diversity of solutions and the investment of time and resources by a wide range of institutions it continues to be a major problem. The rural poor are often trapped in a vicious cycle between land degradation, fuelled by a lack of re levant knowledge and/or appropriate technologies to generate adequate income and opportunities to overcome land degradation. Intensification and diversification of agricultura! production is required to meet the food, feed, and income needs of the poor and this cannot happen without sustainable investment in soil fertility management.To achieve sustainable investments in soil fertility rehabilitation, this Program, referred toas the ISFM Program, accepts the INTEGRATED SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT paradigm. We define ISFM as 'The application of soil fertility management practices, and the knowledge to adapt these to L ocal conditions, which optimize fertilizer and organic resource use efficiency and crop producti vity. These practices necessarily inciude appropriate fertilizer and organic input management in combination with the utilization of improved germplasm '. This definition is in line with the goals of the African Fertilizer Summit (AFS), recently held in Abuja, Nigeria, which aims at increasing fertilizer use from an average of 8 to 50 kg nutrients ha• 1 by 20 15. In the march to generate solutions to farmers' problems, research has generated a wide variety of technologies, such as fertilizer formulations, improved legume germplasm and crop rotations. ISFM arose because of the recognition that addressing the interactions between compone nts (e.g., water, pests and soils) is as important as dealing with the components themselves. In this context, ISFM targets improved productivity, with fertilizer as en entry point, at the PLOT AND FARM SCALE. lrnproving the natural resource base without addressing issues of HEALTH AND NUTRITION AND INCOME GENERATION (e.g. the resource-to-consumption logic) is often the reason for a lack of adoption of improved technologies and other farming practices. Max.imum benefits from ISFM practices and technologies can only be obtained within an e nabling contex.t. where such factors as viable farm input supply and produce markets, improved health and nutrition, functional institutions, and good policy are in place.The following target CROPPING SYSTEMS and IMPACT ZONES wi ll form the focus of the Program: (i) millet and sorghum-based systems in dry-lands in Sahelian West-Africa, (ii) cereal-legume intercropping and rotations in moist-savannas of West, East and Southern Africa, (iii) cassava-based systems in humid lowland areas of West and Central Africa, (iv) upland rice-based systems in West a nd Centra l Africa, with a special focus on 'New Rice fo r A frica', (v) banana-based systems in East and Centra l African highlands, and (v) conservation agriculture in cereal croplands of West, East, and Southern Africa. The impact zones and cropping systems ha ve bee n identified based on the large population depending on these systems for food and nutriti on security and income (Table 1). Sorne ISFM-based UADRANT D-' Low-high ' ! QUADRANT A-'High-high '    The GOAL of the ISFM Program is to improve the livelihoods of people relying on agriculture in the impact zones by developing and creating an enabling environment for disseminating sustainable, profitable, socially just, nutrient-dense, and resilient agricultural production systems based on Integrated Soil Fertility Manageme nt (ISFM).To achieve this Goal, a set of activities will be implemented of which the level and nature during the period 2010-20 ll will vary according to progress made over the past years. For all systems, appropriate characterization and problem diagnosis has been achieved. DESI.RED O UTPUTS related these activities are:111>-Output l. Processes and principies underlying lhe functioni ng of ISFM within the above cropping systems, with a special focus on fertilizer use and resilient germplasm ..,. Output 2. Management practices adapted to the resource-base and socio-economic environment of smallho lder farmers.10-Output 3. Enabli ng cnvironments for dissemination of ISFM practices, focus ing on viable input and output market linkages and appropriate nutritional knowledge and health.The ISFM Program will require specific inputs from the SLM PROGRAM under CIA T-TSBF and various Programs from the two OTHER RDCS, in terms of access to improved germplasm, which forms an essential component of ISFM, and in terms of value addition opportunities and active partnerships to create an enabling e nvironment for large-scale uptake of ISFM technologies (Figure 2).      -:-::~::.:.. .-\"' \" • Spccific goal 1: To improve understanding of degradation thresholds and irreversibility, and the conditions necessary for success in low productivity areas.improving soil productivity, preventing degradation andfor rehabilitating deg raded lands.• Specific goal 4: Evaluare the production potential of high-productivity systems and their constraints and trends. • Spccific goal 5: To improve soil quality to sustain increases in productivity, stability, and environmental services through greater understanding of processes that govems soil quality and treruis in soil quality in intensive system. ~ Specific goal 6: To optimize productivity at high input use ( e. g. labor, nutrients, pest control practices, water, seed, andfeed) through understanding and managing spatial and temporal variar ion. ~ Specific goal7: Jdelltif y social, economic, policy, and institutionalfactors that determine decision-making about managing natural resources in intensive production systems and target interventions accordingly.The impact of ISFM within the target cropping systems will be visible through improved production, income, human health and nutrition, soil fertility, and C sequestration and reduced nutrient rnining and conversion of natural fallow to agriculture. lf successful with the expected AGRA investments, projected impact fi gures are empowerrnent of 545,000 households (or approximately 3.8 rnillion persons) to produce an additional 321,000 tons of additional food worth about $52 mi Ilion per year. Similar improve ment could be expected through year 5 as the number of cumulative participating households increases to 10.4 million. In this case, agronomic efficien cies ofmineralfertilizers are increased by 50%, organic inputs provide thefertilizer nutrient equivalen! of 12.5 kg per ha, food supply in increased to 103 million tons pe r year and the net annual return of $495 million is realized from an annual investment oj $33 million, resulting in a benefit to cost ratio of 15. Food supply among the eleven cooperating nations is increased by 72% through a 50kg/ha nutrient application target with 46% of the increase resulting from ISFM as a farmer-empowering, accompanying technology.As detailed above, the various Outputs are logicall y linked towards reaching impact through widespread adoption of ISFM practices. Each of the Outputs aims at reaching specific users who are then geared towards common outcomes and impact through effective partnerships.The intended users of ÜUTPUT 1 (PROCESSES AND PRINCIPLES ) outcomes are mainly CGIAR, Advanced R esearch Institute (ARI), National Agricultura! Research System (NARS), and Regional Consortia researchers who are envisaged to derive processes and principies based on applied research activities. The final impacts of this output are ISFM-based and sustainable production systems. Research activities from ÜUTPUT 2 (MANAGEMENT PRACTICES) address the social, economic, and gendered dynarnics of local knowledge generation and exchange, the nature of the interface between research-extension, local community institutions/social networks, and evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of current or proposed practices. The intended users of the outcomes of this output are development practitioners and farmers who are envisaged to apply the principies, concepts and methods to adapt and improve technologies to the prevailing production environments.  An enabling environment for adoption of ISFM options is created in ÜliTPUT 3 (ENABUNG ENVIRONMENT), focusing on improved market access a nd knowledge on health and nutrition offarming communities. These interventions will not only create motivation for adoption of ISFM technologies but contribute di rectly to improved income and health and nutrition after adoption of such technologies. The in tended users of the outcomes of this output are development partners and farming communities with specific attention given to e nlightening the ISFM research community on these issues. The required networks for ensuring that outcomes generated in a specific output reach the intended users and logically Iinked to reach the ultimate Goal of this Program are addressed in ÜliTPUT 4 (EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS).As outcomes move fro m Output 1 to Output 3, networks of stakeholde rs become more and more complex and e ncompassing a nd ultimately, all value chain actors will be required to achieve the impact that this Outcome line is aiming at. At the center of the research-outcomeimpact chain, ÜUTPUT 5 (STAKEHOLDER CAPACITY) addresses the building of human and social capital of all CIA T-TSBF stakeholders for effective research and sustainable management of tropical soils. This is particular! y necessary since managing soil fertility for improved livelihoods requires the integration of technical, social, economic and policy issues at multiple scales. To overcome this complexity, research and extension staff need the capacity to generate and share information that will be re levant to other stakeholders working at different scales (i.e., policy makers, farmers).Since most operations in this Program are supported by specific projects, the operationalization of specific impact pathways will be dependent on the goals and objectives of these projects and will not necessarily cover the entire value chain within a specific project. The overall importance of this Program is then to oversee that the necessary LINKS ARE CREATED BETWEEN V ARIOUS INITIATIVES operating in similar impact zones to ensure a continuity of partner networks to deliver the required impact. VARJOUS STAKEHOLDERS that are currently involved in this Program are detailed in Section 2. 4.The KEY ASSUMPTIONS for the 5 Outputs are: (i) security and política) stability does not restrict access to target sites and continuation of on-going activities; (ii) Poverty reduction strategies remain central to human development support and funding; (iii) CIA T-TSBF stakeholders remain engaged and show Jimited staff tumover, (iv) CIA T-TSBF management continues to adapt and innovate in response to changing priorities, and (v) linkages remain maintained among research and development organizations. Other irnportant assumptions are:(i) investments in various aspects of the outcome lineare linked in time and space, (ii) largescale capacity building initiatives are implemented sufficiently fast and in close relationship with deve lopment-related investments, and (iii) rural service providers are operational and rural infrastructure is sufficiently developed.Intemational and regional public goods (IPG) that will be generated through the ISFM Program include:• Improved knowledge on soil processes, including the role of improved germplasm in regulating input use efficiency. ... Tools to take into account farm heterogeneity and farmer typologies in devising ISFM options . ..,. Best-fit ISFM practices for the target cropping systems and impact zones.Decision support tools and models to analyze trade-offs among various livelihood real ms . ..,. Innovative approaches for sustainable crop utilization and enterprise promotion, including linking farmers to market, and rural poverty reduction.Effective approaches to engage various stakeholders in ISFM technology evaluation and dissemi na ti on . ..,. Technological, institutional, market, utilization, and policy options for increasing delivery of benefits and broader impact The Institute's comparative advantage is in conducting IPG research on ISFM in farming systems where soil degradation undermines locallivelihoods and market opportunities. However, while CIA T-TSBF will focus primarily on strategic, applie<L and adaptive research, it is also ready to support technology dissemination and development activities with partners vía regional networks and global projects. M u eh of the research as well as NARES capacity building will be done vía the Institute's regional partner network, the African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility (AfNet). Dissemination of tindings will happen through effective partnerships with development partners.Targets Outputs (lntended users)Outcome (Impact) Output 1 Dcscription: Processes and principies underlyi ng the Outcome: Principies, conccpts and functioning of ISFM within the context of above methods inform tcchnology and system cropping systems, with a spccial focus on fertilizer development (Output 2). use and resilient germplasm.l mpact: Knowledge on principies, lntended users: CG IAR centers, AR is, researchers concepts. and mcthods underlying ISFM from NARES and local univcrsities, and regional is used L o inform the deve lopment of consortia.improved ISFM-bascd soil management practices and cropping system design.Knowledge on mechanisms responsible for Lcgumc breeders from intcmational and Targets tolcrance to drought and low soil Pis avai lable to national research systems involve soil 2009 guide breeding efforts in legumes rotated or scienti sts in the breeding program in SSA. intercropped with cereals in thc moist savanna im_pact zone. The role of organic matter in regulating water.Scientist from international and national nutrient-Limited and actual yield levels underlying research systems use information on cereal and legume production quantified in the appropriate organic matter management Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.in their respective research acti vities. Direct inoculation with specific below ground Prívate sector entrcprencurs avail to biodiversity microorgani sms, e.g., rhizobia in farmers micro-organisms that can be legumes systems and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi applied to crops at establishment. in banana systems increasing crop productivity tested and demonstrated. Mechanisms underlying the agronornic efficiency of Scientist from intemational and national applied fertilizers in the context of ISFM understood research systems use information on for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist appropriate fertilizer use for optirnizing savanna impact zones and for conservation its agronomic use efficiency in their agriculture in the moist savanna zone, taking into respective research activities. account variability in soi l fertility status at different sea les. Relationships between soil fertility status and the Partners in research for development nutritional quality of (bio-fonified) legumes focus on food quality in addition to quantified within the Sahel and moist savanna impact production. zones. Output Modeting tools (e.g .. DSSAT, APSIM, NUANCES) Partners involved in rcsearch for Targets for ISFM-based nutrient management used and development use modeling tools 2010 adapted for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.Mechanisms underlying the agronomic efficiency of Scientist from international and national applied fertilizers in the context of ISFM identified research systems use information on and understood for cassava and rice-based systems appropriate fertilizer management for in the hurnid lowland impact zone and for bana na• cassava-, rice-and banana-based systems based systems in the mid-altitude impact zone, in their respective research activities. taking into account variability in soi l fertility status at di ff erent scales.A set of mechanistic principies underlying ISFM ISFM for conservation agriculture practices for QuesunguaJ agro-forestry systems in systems in Central America are the Central American hillside impact zone. assembled.tarae~r Outp~ts (Intended ~i\"S)\\.?Outcome (lmpaé,t) The role of organic matter in regulating water, Scientist from international and national nutrient-limited and ac!Ual yield levels underlying research systems use information on cassava and rice-based syst ems in the humid appropriate organic matter management lowland impact zone and banana-based systems in in their respecti ve research activilies. the mid-altitude impact zonc quantified. Relationships between crop nutritiooaJ quality and Partners use information on the impact of soil fertility status quantified for the major crops in soil fertility status on crop quality in their the differeot impact zones.respecti ve nutritional programs.The medi um-to long term role of soil orgaoic Partners adapt soil fertil ity management Targets ma tter in regu lating soíl-bascd functions (e.g., practices to support specific soil organic 2011 acidity buffering, ECEC formation) unde rlyi ng matter-related functions. fertilizer use effici ency and crop production quantified for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones. Cassava, rice, and banana nutrient requirements Stakeholders in research for development and impacts on nutritional quality of respective food focus on food quality in addition to products quantified within the respective impact production. zones. Modeling tools (e.g., DSSAT. APSIM. NUANCES) Partners in volved in research for for ISFM-based nutrient management used and developme nt are using the modeling tools adapted for cassava and rice-based systems in the humid lowland impact zone {2 yrs is not sufficient to get this output for banana-based systems j Output 2Descriplion: Management practices that are in Outcome: A large number of farmers in resonance with the resource-base and socio-the target impact zones evaluate, adapt, economic environment of sma llholder farmers.and adopt improved technologies and Intended users: CGIAR, ARI. researchers from systems. NARS and local uni versities, NGOs, farrner groups, Impact: l mproved technologies and private sector agents, extension services. and systems, based on ISFM , improve food regional consortia.security, income and health of farmers in the target impact zones.Local diagnosis of soil ferlility constraints and Scie nlists blend local and new scienlific Targets farmer understanding of importan! soil processes knowledge in the experimental design 2009 underlyi ng ISFM for al l impact zones ISFM praclices for cereal-legume systems tested, Extension staff and farmers adapt cerealadapted, and validated to far mer conditions in the legume systems and foster access to the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones. including inputs needed to improve their issues of cooservatioo agriculture productivity Trade-off anaJysis is informing the identification of Scientists and exte nsion staff use tradebest ISFM practices for cereal-legume systems in the off analysis tools to adapt and validate Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.Decision support systems for locall y adapted !SFM Extension service providers use decision Targets praclices for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and support systems for ISFM for cereal-2010 moist savanna impact zones legume systcms !SFM practices for cassava and rice systems tested, Extension staff and farmers adapt cassava adapted, a nd validated to farmer conditi ons in the and rice-based systems and foster access humid lowland impact zone Lo the inputs needed lO improve their producti vi ty Trade-off anaJysis is informing the identifi cation of Scientists and extension staff use tradebest ISFM practices for cassava and rice-based off ana lysis tools to adapt and val idate systems in the humid lowland im_1>act zone.ISFM prac tices Output Decision support systems for locally adapted ISFM Extension service providers use decision Targets practices for cassava and rice-based systems in the support systems for ISFM for cassava and 2011 humid lowland impact zone rice-based systems ISFM practi ces for bana oa-based systems tested.Extension staff and fa rmers adapt bananaadapted, and validated to fa rmer conditi ons in the based systems and foster access to the humid lowland impact zone inputs needed to improve their productivity Ta~ OUtputs (lntended users),,fOut-come (lmpad)Output 3 Description: Enabling environments for Outcome: Farmers are generating more dissemination of ISFM practices, focusing on viable revenue and are knowledgeable about input and output marke t linkages and appropriate health and nutrition and using that income nutritional knowledge and health.and knowledge to implement ISFM lntended users: CGIAR, ARI, researchers from practices within their farms. NARS and local uni versities, NGOs, farmers, lmpact: l mproved income and health and regional consortia, young professionals, extension nutrition for the farmers in the target services, policy makers.impact zones through adopti on of ISFMbased production systems.Linkages with the private sector to improve access Private sector partners are actively Targets to fertilizer and develop recommendations for its use in volved in linking farmers to input and 2009 by farmers and other stakeholders involved in thc output markets and providing information Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.to farmers on ISFM in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones. Knowledge of extension staff and farme rs that are Extension staff and dcvclopment partners involved in adaptation and disscmination of ISFM are disseminating information on practices on appropriate nutrition and health appropriate nutriti on and hcalth practices practices sufficiently developed in the Sahel and in the Sahel and moist savanna impact moist savanna impact zones.zones.Linkages with the private sector to improve access Pri vate sector partners are actively Targets to ferúlizer and develop recommendations for its use involved in linking farmers to input and 2010 by farmers and other stakeholders involved in the output markets and providing information hurnid lowla nd impact zone.to fa rme rs on ISFM in the humid lowland impact zone. Knowledge of extension staff and farmers that are Extension staff and development partners in volved in adaptation and disseminati on of ISFM are disseminating information on practices on appropriate nutrition and health appropri ate health and nutritional practices sufficiently developcd in the humid practices in the humid lowland impact lowland impact zone.zone.Linkages with the private sector to improve access Pri vate sector partne rs are active! y Targets co fertilizer and develop recommendations for its use involved in linking farme rs to input and 2011 by farmers and other stake holders involved in the output markets and providi ng information mid-altitude impact zone.to far me rs on ISFM in the humid lowland impact zone. Knowlcdge of extension staff and farmers that are Extension staff and development partners involved in adaptation and dissemination of ISFM are disseminati ng information on pracúces on appropriate nutrition a nd health appropriate health and nutritional practices sufficiently developed in the rnid-altitude practices in the mid-altitude impact zone. impact zonc. The relative role of access to markets and access to Developme nt partners are using knowledge on health and nutrition in adoption of information on the role of access to ISFM practi ces evaluated for all impact zones.markets and access to knowledge on health and nutriti on in the developme nt of new initiatives aiming at di sseminating ISFM.Descripúon: Effective partnerships along each step Outcome: Partners are involved in of the value chain for innovative, effective and addressing all components of the val ue effi cient dissemination and impact.chains related to the fSFM-based lntcnded users: COlAR, ARis, researchers from production systems.NARS and local universities, NGOs, farmers, lmpact: Improved ISFM-based regional consortia, young professiona ls, private production systems contri bute to food and sector agents, extension scrviccs, policy makers.nutrition security and income and health of farme rs in the target impact zones  IT.2.1.1. Knowledge on mechanisms responsible for tolerance to drought and low soi l P is available to guide breeding efforts in legumes rotated or intercropped with cereals in the moist savanna impact zone.Status: 75% Achieved.~ CIA T-TSBF (2009) EvaJuation and scaJing up new chemicaJ and biological commerciaJ products for improving and sustaining crop yields in selected agro-ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa. Progress Report 1 COMPRO, Jan-June 2009. ~ CIAT-TSBF (2009) EvaJuation and scaJing up new chemical and biological commercial products for improving and sustaining crop yields in selected agro-ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa, Progress Report 2 COMPRO, July-December 2009. IT.2.1.2.The role of organic matter in regulating water, nutrient-lirnited and actual yield levels underlying cereal and legume production quantified in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.Status: Fully Achieved.~ Fonte, S. J., Yeboah, E., Ofori, P., Quansah, G.W., Vanlauwe, B., Six, J. (2009) Fertilizer and residue quality effects on organic matter stabilizatio n in soi l aggregates. Soil Science Society J oumal of America 73, 961-966. ~ Gentile, R. , Vanlauwe, B. , van Kessel, C. and Six, J. (2009) Managing N availability and losses by combining fertilizer-N with different quaJity residues in Kenya. Agriculture,Ecosystems and Environment 131,. Mechanisms underlying the agronomic efficiency of applied fertilizers in the context of ISFM understood for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones and for conservation agriculture in the moist savanna zone, taking into account variability in soil fertilíty status at different scales.Status: Fully Achieved.~ Kihara, J., Vanlauwe, B.Waswa, B., Kimetu, J.M., Chianu, J. and Bationo, A. (2010) Strategic phosphorus application in legume-cereaJ rotations increases land productivity and profitability in westem Kenya. Experimental Agriculture 46, 35-52. ~ Chivenge, P., Vanlauwe, B., Gentile, R., Wangechi, H., Mugendi, D., van Kessel, C. and Six, J. (2009) Organic and mineral input management to enhance crop productivity in Central Kenya. Agronomy Joumal 101, 1266-1275. 7 Chikowo, R., Corbeels, M., Mapfumo, P., Titto nell, P., Yanlauwe, B. andGiller, K. E. (2009) Nitrogen and phosphorus capture and recovery effic ie ncies, and crop responses to a range of soil fertility manageme nt strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. Nutrie nt Cycling in Agroecosyste ms (published online). ll.2.1.4. Relationships between soil fe rtility status and the nutritional quali ty o f (bio-fortified) legumes quantified within the Sahel a nd moist savanna impact zones.Status: >50% Achieved. 7 Masvaya E.N., Nyama ngara J., Nyawasha R.W., Zingore S., Delve R.J. and Gille r, K.E. (2009) Effect of farmer management strategies on spatial variability of soil fertility a nd crop nutrient uptake in contrasting agro-ecological zone s in Zimbabwe. Nutrie nt Cyc ling in Agroecosystems (published onli ne). ll.2.2.2. ISFM practices for cereal-legume systems tested, ada pted, and validated to farme r conditions in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones, including issues of conservation agriculture.Status: Fully Achieved.7 Tabo, R., Bati ono, A ., Hassane, 0., Amadou, B., Fosu, M ., Ka bore, S.S., Fatondji, D.,  Korodjouma, 0., Abdou, A. and Koala, S. (2009) Fertilizer microd osing for the prosperity of resource poor farmers: a success story. P roceedings of the Workshop on Increasing the Producti vity a nd Sustainability of Rai nfed Cropping Systems of Poor, Smallholde r Farmers, Tamale, G hana, 22-25 Septe mber 2008.Status: Fully Achieved.7 Tabo, R., Bationo, A., Kabore, S.S., Hassane, 0., Amadou, B. , Sie bou, P., Ouedraogo, S., Abdou, A., Fatondji, D., Sigue, H., KoaJa, S., Fosu, M. and Fredah, M. (2009) lnstitutional innovation: the pote ntial of the warrantage system to unde rpin the green revolution in Africa Proceedings o f the Workshop on Increasing the Productivity and Sustainability of Rainfed Cropping Systems of Poor, Smallholder Farmers, Tamale, Ghana, 22-25 Septembe r 2008. 7 Mugwe, J., Mucheru-Muna, M. , Mugendi, D., Kung' u, J., J. Bationo, A. andMairura, F. (2009)    Evidence:-7 Vanla uwe, B., .Bationo, A., Chianu,J., Giller, K.E., Me rckx, R., Mokwunye, U.,   Ohiokpehai, O, Pypers, P., Tabo, R., Shepherd, K., Smaling, E W oomer, P.L. and Sanginga,  N. (201 O)  New institutional arrangements catalyze multidisc iplinary work a nd enhance scaling up of technologies and best practices. In 2009, the Intem ational Fertilize r Industry Association (IFA) ide ntified ISFM as part of their communication tool to disseminate knowledge and information to farmers, students, researchers, exte nsion personne l, agribusiness representatives and po licy makers. A publication, led by IFA and co-authored by TSBF, presents an overview of lntegrated Plant Nutrient Management (IPNM) and Integrated Soi l Fe rtility Management (ISFM). fPNM focuses on efficient use of all avai lable sources of essential nutrie nts for crops. ISFM is the application of soil fertility manageme nt practices, and the knowledge to adapt these to local conditio ns, which optimize fertilizer and organic resource use efficiency and crop productivity. These practices necessarily include appropriate fe rtilizer and organic input manageme nt in combination with the utilization of improved germplasm. Combining these two concepts offers a holistic approach to providing plant nutrients and maintaining and/or e nhancing soil productivity . Although the IFA report is targeted to non-experts, the IFA hopes that it will help scientists to explain key concepts to the general public and to future generations of stude nts. Crop production is very complex. Good farrners are both artists and scientists, who must master a wide range of technical issues. Increasing nutrient use efficiency is just one element, but it lays the foundation for other aspects of good agricultura! practices. The book.let focuses on how various nutrient sources can be used together. For example, organic sources of nutrients also add organic matter to the soil, whic h he lps improve soi l moisture retention and resistance to wind erosion, among other benefits. Other ISFM components, such as gennplasm toleran! to adverse soil ancilor climatic conditions, can increase the de mand for nutrients and thus improve the efficiency of IPNM interventions. Over the past 20 years, TSBF has helped usher in the new ISFM paradigm . ISFM moves away from the earlier focus on inorganic fertilizers and puts greater emphasis on the role of o rganic matter and soil organisms in sustainable fanning. CIA T-TSBF has made significan! progress in both these areas of ISFM with partnered fie ld research activities in numerous African countries. TSBF has advanced discussion of ISFM not only at numerous intemational scientific but also policy developme nt meetings. In addition to IFA, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has a lso adopted the ISFM approach within its soil health program. ISFM has also guided numerous AGRA investments in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, etc.The African Fertilizer Summit, held in 2006 in Abuja, and endorsed by the African Heads of State, resolved to increase fertilizer use in Sub-Saharan Africa from a current average of 8 kg fertilizer nutrients per hectare to 50 kg per hectare. A common misconcepti on persists that supporting the use of manufactured fertilizers means opposing the use of organic sources of nutrients. Most agronomists, however, agree that optimaJ nutrient management entail s starting with on-farm sources of nutrients and the n supplementing them with manufactured fertilizers. The integration of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients should also be seen in the context of overall crop production, which includes the selection of crop varieties, pest control, efficient use of water and other aspects of integrated farm management. TSBF work with the IFA and AGRA expands the reach of ISFM. The IFA is a non-profit organization representing the global fertilizer industry. The over 500 members in about 85 countries serve farmers as they meet the world's growing food, feed, fiber and bioenergy needs. About half of members are based in developing countries. IFA addresses all activities related to the production, trade, transport and distribution of every type of fertilizer, their raw materials and intermediates. AGRA is a substantial network of national and intemational development partners.     based soil management practices and universities, and regional consortia.cropping system design.Output l. Processes and principies: The adapted definition of ISFM is based on obtaining optimal use efficiencies of investments made in agricultura! production and valorizing positive interactions between production factors. Processes and principies willlook into (i) the supply side of nutrients through understanding interactions between fertilizers, organic inputs, and water management practices and (ii) the demand side of nutrients through understanding the functioning and mechanisms driving the potential of improved (legume) germplasm to thrive under unfavorable conditions (e.g., drought, low soil P, acidity). Substantial emphasis will be put on the diagnosis of site-specific soil constraints. Another major strategic research issue is related to the linkages between the soil fertility status and the nutritional quality of the produce. In the field trials, clear differences in response to full and reduced doses of P fertilizer and efficient nodulation under low P conditions between soybean varieties were observed (Photograph 1).Observations will be evidenced by sample analysis (on-going). Farmer-managed field trials will be set up during the upcoming rainy season for in-depth screening of two contrasting varietíes. In soybean screening trials in iron-coated sand, Iarge variability was observed in growth under low-P conditions, as well as in response to applied P, indicating important genotypic variability in P efficiency. Two of the most efficient soybean varieties were TGx1835-IOE and Hll . Root morphological traits and root hai r length and density are currently be ing assessed. Experimental screening methods and scanning root measurements are being fine-tuned. However, part of the variability observed in suc h short-term growth experiments was attributed to seed P reserves, which was is in tum related to grain size and cropping hístory. Efforts are on-going to exclude these seed influences for evaluation of early root traits. In a greenhouse experiment, differential response to P application was observed between different cereal species and differe nt soybean JO Photograpb 1: Particpatory evaluation of soybean varieties in terms of response to P fertiJizer.Photograpb 2: root hairs observed on a P-efficient soybean variety grown in a double gel cbamber.varieties (Photograph 2). Millet showed to be highly P-efficient re lative to maize and sorghum: maximal shoot biomass yield was observed at soil P concentrations which were ten times lower than for the other two cereals. These differences are re lated to root traits. Millet produces more and finer roots than maize or sorghum. Similar differences were observed between soybean varieties: Nyala attained maximal shoot dry matter yields ata much lower P concentration in soil solution than TGx 1740-2F (\"SB 19\") and TGx 1448-2E (\"SB20\").Preliminary results indicate that wide variability in P uptake efficiency exists in soybean varieties evaluated, which is likely related to differences in root traits. Plant growth and root development during during early stages is strongly affected by the seed P reserve, and this needs to be taken into account in screening methods.Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in East African Highland banana cropping systems as related to edapho-climatic conditions and management practices: case study of Rwanda A survey on AMF was undertaken in banana systems of five agro-ecological zones n Rwanda. Soil and root samples were collected and assessed for AMF species composition and colonization respecti vely. AMF were distinguished up to species morphotypes and sorne were not assigned names.The soil physco-chemical parameters differ amongst the agroecological zones: Acrisols (Butare-Gitarama), Ferrasols (Gashonga), Young alluvial (Bugarama), the Nitisol (Kibungo) and the Andisols (Ruhengeri  soil) than Butare-Gitarama and Kibungo (2.0 7 8.5 propagules per 100 g soil). Four genera (Glomus, Acaulospora, Scutellospora and Gigaspora) were identified from the site with the highest species isolated from Kibungo and the least in Butare-Gitarama, and the remaining intermediate.AM fungi in banana cropping systems in Rwanda were widespread but highly variable in different edapho-climatic conditions. These variations are most probably linked to rainfall management practices (tillage) and soil properties (texture and P content). These strains should be further isolated, identified and characterized for their beneficia! effects on bananas under contrasted edapho-climatic and management practices in EAH banana cropping systems.Benefits and potential use of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in banana and plantain systems in Africa AMF colonization of the cultivar In tu tu in five agro-ecological zones of different available P vary with amount of available P with low P ( < 20 mg kg-1 ) was associated with high colonization rates, and high P ( <40 mg kg-1 ) low colonization, the effect being si te specific. AMF colonization for different banana cultivars was similar for all cultivars within the same site in both banana systems in Kenya and Uganda with the exception of Kibuzi in Uganda. Banana systems still harbor hig h diversity of AMF species with up to 20 morphospecies identified. The distributio n of AMF species is affected by Agroecological zonation. The most common AMF species in banana syste ms belong to the genera Glomus and family Acaulosporaceae (Acaulospora and Entrophospora). The benefits of AMF on growth, nutrient uptake and nematode management in banana has been demonstrated both under pot and field conditions, although not all species were effective in these functions (Figure 5). The few studies undertaken on banana and AMF in Africa are good indications on the potential usefulness of AMF in banana systems. Banana syste ms are still conservatoire of high AMF species diversity. There is however need to screen for AMF efficiency on growth, nutrient uptake and suppression of pests and diseases. AMF interventions may benefit A frica which is characterized by low soil fertility and pests and diseases and unaffordable ferti lizer and pesticides. More field evaluations should be undertaken.Output l. Processes and principies Output Targets 2009: The role of organic matter in regulating water, nutrientlimited and actual yield levels underlying cereal and legume production quantified in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.Fertilizer and residue quality effects on organic matter stabilization in soil aggregates. (2009) Soil Biology & Biochemistry 73:961-966 Fonte 1 , S. J., Yeboah 2 , E., Ofori 2 , P., Quansah 2 , G.W., VanJauwe 3 , B., Six', J.1 University of California, USA; 2 Soil Research lnstitute Academy- Kamasi. Ghana; 3  CIAT-TSBF, Kenya Abstract: This study examined the influence of organic residue quality and N fertilizer on aggregate associated soil organic matter (SOM) in maize (Zea mays L.) cropping systems of southem Ghana. Six residue treatments of differing quality [Crotalariajuncea L. , Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit, maize stover, sawdust, cattle manure, anda control with no residues added] were applied at 4 Mg e ha-1 yr-1 both with and without fertil izer N additions ( 120 kg N ha-1 season-1 ). Soils (0-15 cm) were sampled 3 yr after study implementation and wet sieved into four aggregate size classes (8000-2000, 2000--250, 250-53, and <53 ¡.tm). Small macroaggregates (2000-250 ¡.trn) were further separated into coarse particulate organic matter (>250 ¡.tm), microaggregates within macroaggregates (53-250 ¡.tm), and macroaggregate-occluded silt and clay (<53 ¡.trn). Nitro gen fertilizer additions reduced aggregate stability, as was evident from a 40% increase in the weight of the silt and clay fraction (P = 0.0 14) as well as a decrease in microaggregates across all residue types (P = 0.0 19). Fertilizer similarly affected e and N storage within these aggregate fractions, whi1e the effects of residue quality were largely insignificant cant. Our results suggest that fertilizer effects on soil aggregation may have important implications for long-term SOM dynamics.Managing N availability and losses by combining fertilizer-N with different quality residues in Kenya. (2009)  Agriculture, Gentile., R., VanJauwe 2 , B., Van Kessel 1 , C. and Six\\ J.1 University of California, USA; 2 CIAT-TSBF, Kenya Abstract: The integrated soil fertility management paradigm, currently advocated in Sub-Saharan Africa for rehabilitating its soils, recognizes the possible interactive benefits of combining organic residues with mineral fertilizer inputs on agroecosystem functioning. Residue quality may be a controlling factor for any beneficia! interactions. The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of different quality organic residues and mineral fertilizer on N cycling under field conditions in Embu, Kenya. We hypothesized that combining low quality residue with mineral N would reduce potential system losses of N by synchronizing N release with plant uptake. Residue treatments consisted of a control (no residue input), high quality tithonia (Tithonia diversifolia) residue ce to N ratio of 13: 1) and Jow quality maize (Zea mays) stover residue (C toN ratio of 42: 1) applied ata rate of 1.2 Mg e ha_,. Subplots of each residue treatment received either O or 120 kg N ha_, in a splitapplication, and maize was cultivated each season. During the 11th growing season of the tria! (March-September 2007), we monitored soil mineral N, potential grossmineralization and nitrification rates, and plant N content. Extractable mineral N in the soil profile varied with residue and fertilizer inputs throughout the growing season. The tithonia treatments showed early season N release of 22 kg N ha_, in the upper 30 cm of the soil profile. The maize + fertilizer treatment displayed an immobilization of 34 kg N ha_,after the application of N fertilizer. However, the lower mineral N of the maize + fertilizer treatment did not reduce crop N uptake, as mineral N in the other fertilizer treatments was leached from the upper soil (0-60 cm) at 57 d after planting. The interactive effect on crop yield and N uptake of combining residue with fertilizer-N changed from negative to positive as residue quality decreased. The benefit of combining low quality residue with N fertilizer in reducing N losses indicates that this soil fertility management strategy should be adopted in environments subject to high N leaching losses.Biodiversity, carbon stocks and sequestration potential in aboveground biomass in smallholder farming systems of western Kenya. (2009) Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 129: 238-252, M., TittoneiJ concentrations in the atmosphere, greater agro-biodiversity may e nsure longer term stability of C storage in fluctuating environments. This study was conducted in the highlands of westem Kenya, a region with high potentia l for agroforestry, with the objectives of assessing current biodiversity and aboveground C stocks in perennial vegetation growing on farmland, and estimating C sequestration potential in aboveground C pools. Allometric models were developed to estímate aboveground biomass of trees and hedgerows, and an inventory of perennial vegetation was conducted in 35 farms in Vihiga and Siaya districts. Values of the Shannon index (H), used to evaluate biodiversity, ranged from 0 .01 in woodlots through 0.4-0.6 in food crop plots, to 1.3-1.6 in home gardens. Eucalyptus saligna was the most frequent tree species found as individual trees (20%}, in windrows (47%), and in woodlots (99%) in Vihiga and the most frequent in woodlots (96%) in Siaya. Trees represented the most important C pool in aboveground biomass of perennial plants growing on-farm, contributing to 81 and 55% of total aboveground farm e in Vihiga and Siaya, respectively, followed by hedgerows (13 and 39%, respectively) and permanent crop stands (5 and 6%, respectively). Most ofthe tree C was located in woodlots in Vihiga (61 %) and in individual trees growing in or around food crop plots in Siaya (57%). The borne gardens represented the second e pool in importance, with 25 and 33% of C stocks in Vihiga and Siaya, respectively. eonsidering the mean total aboveground C stocks observed, and taking the average farm sizes of Vihiga (0.6 ha) and Siaya ( 1.4 ha), an average farm would store 6.5 _ 0.1 Mg C farm_, in Vihiga and 12.4 _ 0.1 Mg C farm_, in Siaya. At both si tes, the C sequestration potential in perennial aboveground biomass was estimated at ca. 16 Mg e ha_,. With the current market price for carbon, the implementation of e lean Development Mechanism Afforestation/ Reforestation (CDM AIR) projects seems unfeasible, due to the large number of small farms (between 140 and 300) necessary to achieve a criticalland area able to compensate the concomitant mínimum transaction costs. Higher financia! compensation for e sequestration projects that encourage biodiversity would allow clearer win-win scenarios for smallholder farmers . Thus, a better valuation of ecosystem services should encourage C sequestration together with on-farm biodiversity when promoting CDM AIR projects.Long-term management of phosphorus, nitrogen, crop residue, soil tillage and crop rotation in the Sabe] S. Koala , M. Gandah 2 A. AdamouIn the Sudano-saherian wne of West Africa, severa! field trials have been going on to create a better understanding on how these fragile agro-ecosystems operate and the critica! production levels. The objective of these network activities is to develop and implement such management options that mitigate soil degradation, deforestation and biological resources losses and enhance local economies while protecting the natural resource base. Soils in Niger are deficient in phosphorus (P); soto be efficient any soil fertility technology has to address this constraint befare. On long term trials; continuous cropping over years has shown the limit of applying mineral P only and the use of altemative technologies are necessary. Among them, the use of inorganic fertilizer, crop rotation and better integrating mixtures of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients can contribute to increase crop production. Facing the problem of fertilizer affordability to smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the placement of small quantities (hill placement: HP) of NPK or other sources of phosphorus can be a best option. The use of Phosphate Rack (PR) is also recommended dueto its cheaper cost. Manure also is not available for poor farmers, and then rotation and strip cropping systems is one of the best strategies to increase soil organic carbon and the n food security and sustain rurallivelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Combinations of these technologies can give very good results on crop production whenever possible.This factorial experiment started in 1993 was initiated at the research station of ICRISA T Sahelian Center at Sadore, Niger. The first factor was three level s of fertilizers (0, 4.4kg P + 15kg Nlha, 13kg P + 45kg Nlha), the second factor was crop residue applied at (300, 900 and 2700 kglha) and the third factor was manure applied at (300, 900 and 2700 kglha). The cropping systems are continuous pearl millet, pearl millet in rotation with cowpea and pearl millet in association with cowpea. The analysis of variance of the data indicated that fertilizer; crop residue and manure application resulted in a highly significant effect of both pearl millet grain and total dry matter yields.The data in (Table 2) indicate the comparative advantage to use P from both sources. Millet grain yield was increased from 495 kglha to 1375 kglha at Banizoumbou with the applícation of 13 kg P/ha. The data in (Figure 6) illustrate the response of pearl millet grain to the crop rotation and to the different input of organic and inorganic fertilizers.   -------------~ 4 00 ,....,.,~ .. The data in Figure 7 show that the application of P increased both millet grain and total dry matter yields significantly and this trend was more important in fertile soils.  Inoculation with Rhizobium can increase biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), growth and yield of legumes, and benefits of legumes to soil fertility. Therefore, it potentially constitutes an important component of ISFM options. This technology is however little used in Sub-Saharan Africa, either because it is not known by small-scale farmers and/or because it is not available. Nevertheless, a large number of commercial inoculants are produced worldwide by various companies, in different formulations. An evaluation of these products is required to evaluate the effectiveness of these products under conditions of African small-scale farmers.A set of field screening trials were conducted, parallel to the greenhouse evaluations, to evaluate the effectiveness of various soybean Rhizobium inoculants from a number of commercial companies (Becker Underwood, USA; Legume Network, UK; Mapleton Inc., Australia; and Soygro, South-Africa). Research Bradyrhizobiumjaponicum strains obtained from liTA (Nigeria), CIA T-TSBF (Kenya) and Marondera Soil Productivity Research Laboratory (Zimbabwe) were included for comparison (Table 3). TwinN, although nota Rhizobium inoculant, was included as the producer claims it enhances or induces N fixation in crops.In April 2009, two researcher-managed trials were established in Chuka (Meru South District in Central Kenya) and Sidada (Siaya District in Westem Kenya). The trial in Chuka was estabJjshed on land belonging to a school, where no legumes had been cultivated for at least 3 years (Photograph 3). In Siaya, a site was chosen which was used for soybean seed production, and had been cultivated with a soybean monocrop during 5 seasons. The trials were laid out following a split-plot design with Photograph 3: Field screening of Rhizobium inocuJants in Meru South. Central Kenva.two factors: soybean variety (in the main plot) and application of Rhizobium inoculants (in the subplots). Three replicates were laid out in separate blocks. Plots contained 6 soybean lines of 3m long, spaced at 0.75 m between lines and 5 cm within the line. Plots were separated by alleys of 1 m wide. In addition, only the inner 4 lines were inoculated; the outer lines were considered as bordees to avoid contamination between plots. All measurements were taken on the inner two lines. Soybean varieties included Nyala, TGx 1740-2F (\"SB 19\") and TGx 1835-1 OE (\"SB3\"). N y ala is an early-maturing variety that nodulates speci fically and has been released in Kenya. SB 19 and SB3 are both medium-maturing varieties that ha ve been bred for promiscuous nodulation with indigenous Rhizobium, and produce relatively more biomass than Nyala, but have a similar or higher grain yield potential. Prior to inoculation, seeds were surface-steri lized by soaking in 5 % Ca(CIOh during 5 minutes and rinsing thoroughly with distilled water. lnoculants were then applied at planting as seed treatments, foiJowing the rates and instructions supplied by the inoculant producers. A noninoculated control was included as a negative control (further referred toas \"control\") as well as a non-inoculated control with mineral N addition as a positive control (further referred to as \"reference\"). In the reference treatment, urea was split-applied at 40 kg N ha• 1 at planting and 40 kg N ha• 1 topdress at 4-6 weeks after planting. In each main plot, two plots with maize (Zea mays L.) were grown as reference for biological N fixation using the natural abundance method. A blanket P application was done using triple super phosphate (TSP) fertilizer at 60 kg P ha-1 to eliminate P deficiency. Land preparation was done manually, and weeds were regularly controlled using a hand hoe. Care was taken to avoid contamination between plots by washing ímplements between plots. Legume biomass yield and nodlation was determined at 50% podding. All aboveground biomass was cut in a random 1 m section of the inner two lines. Subsequently, roots were carefully dug up and nodules were collected. Nodules were counted, washed using distilled water and fresh weights were determined. Collected biomass was oven-dried (60°C), weighed and ground prior to analysis. Nodules were surfacesterilized and stored in glycerol at -80°C. At maturity, grain and haulm yields were determined. In general, plant performance was poor in both sites due to low and poorly distributed rainfall. This affected seed gerrnination, vegetative growth, podding and grain filling. In the site in Westem Kenya, nodulation was high in aJl 3 soybean varieties, but higher in SB 19 and SB3 than in Nyala (Table 4). Application of Rhizobium inoculants did not affect nodulation.Ln the site in Meru South, nodule numbers were significantly affected by the application of Rhizobium inoculants, andan interaction with soybean variety was observed (Figure 8).  Strain Zim 1 was only effective on SB 19 and SB3. In the reference treatment w ith mineral N application, nodule numbers we re lower (for Nyala and SB3) or similar (for SB 19), relative to the control. Similar trends were observed when nodule fresh weights were compared, except that Legumefix only increased nodule fresh weights for Nyala and SB 19 (Figure 9).12 rr===~=l----------~~==========~., Biomass yields were generally poor in both sites, due to unfavorable rainfall . In the site in Westem Kenya, biomass yie1d differed significantly (P<O.O l ) between varieties: biomass yields were highest for SB 19 (about 1250 kg ha-1 ), followed by SB3 (about 1000 kg ha' 1 ) and lowest for Nyala (about 380 kg ha-1). Application of Rhizobium inoculants did not affect biomass yields for any of the varieties (Fig. 4). A slight increase was observed in the treatment with addition of the mixture of TSBF strains, but this was only significant at P<O.J.In Meru South, no differences between varieties were observed (average biomass yield of 600 kg ha\" 1 ). The application of the mixture of TSBF strains resulted in a significant (P<O.Ol) biomass yield increase (Figure 10). A slight increase was also observed for the treatment with Legumefix, but this was only significant at P<O.l. AH varieties responded significantly (P<0.05) toN application in the reference treatment. In the site in Meru South, a significant effect of inoculation on grain yield was observed, but this depended on the soybean variety grown (data not shown). Nyala and SB 19 responded positively to application of Legumefix, the mixture of TSBF strains and Zim l, although the effect of the latter was only significant at P<O.l. In addition, positive yield responses were observed for SB 19 in treatments with Histick and strain TSBF531. For variety SB3, Rhizobium inoculants did not affect grain yields. Highest yields were observed in the treatment with the mixture of TSBF strains, but this difference was only significant at P=O.l6. Average grain yields for SB 19 were almost twice as large as for Nyala and SB3. Nyala and SB3 responded toN application in the reference treatment, but SB19 did not.Based on these results, Legumefix, TSBF531, the mixture of TSBF strains and Zim 1 can be considered as effective inoculants.Greenhouse evaluation of commercial microbial inoculants and agrochemicals Various commercial microbial inoculants and agrochemicals are available on the market, claiming to enhance crop growth and production. While sorne of these products have clearly established modes of action (e.g., inoculation with Rhizobium for increased BNF, inoculation wíth mycorrhizae for enhanced P uptake, seed coating for alleviating deficiencies), others have not. Effective products can potentially improve agronomic efficiency of applied inputs, when integrated in ISFM technologies. Evaluation of such products is therefore useful, but due to the high num ber of products available, a rapid, low-cost and standardized screening procedure is required. This can be achieved in pot experiments under greenhouse conditions (Photograph 4).Commercial products were classified in four categories: Rhizobium inoculants (Cat. chemical products (leaf fertilizers, seed nutrient coatings, etc.). Products we re collected or purchased from various commerciaJ companies, and fi rst evaluated in pot expe riments. Two standard medium-fertility soils with diffe ring texture (a sandy soil from the Coast, and a clay soil from the Central Province) were used. C at. I products were evaluated in two soybean varieties (Nyala and TGx 1740-2F), while the other products were e valuated in soybean (TGx 1740-2F) and in maize (H51 3). Basal nutrients we re applied with regard to the mode of actio n of the products. For products acting on N acquis ition (Cat. 1 a nd II-A), all nutrients except for N were applied. Similarly, for products acting on P acquis ition (P solubilizers, mycorrhizal, P seed coatings,), P was omitted or applied at a sub-optimal rate . For products supplying micronutrients, these nutrie nts were o mitted from the nutrient solutions. Negative (without application of products) and positive contro ls (with application of additional nutrients) were inc luded. Various parameters were determined, including growth, leaf chlorophyll content, nodulation (in soybean), pod load (in soybean), root biomass yie ld, and shoot biomass yield. Analyses inc luded BNF (using the 15 N natural abundance method), mycorrhizal infection and nutrient uptake.The results presented below focus on shoot biomass yie lds as affected by the application of products from various products. Based on thi s and other parameters, 6 effecti ve Cat. 1 products (Histick, Legume fix, Soytlo, TSBF442, Vault, 1495MAR = Ziml ), O effecti ve Cat.IJ-A products, 1 effective Cat. II-B product (Rhizatech), and 3 e ffective Cat. III products (Aton AZ, Teprosyn Zn/P and Turbotop) were found . These products have significant (P<0.05 ) positi ve effects on at least two re levant pl ant parameters.The effect of the Cat. I products diffe red between both soybean varieties (Figure 11). In Nyala, none of the products resulted in shoot DM yield increases, relative to the control. observed. Effects of the products were independent of soil effects. Shoot DM yields of both varieties were about 30% higher in the Central Kenya soil than in the Coast soil. Biomas yield of TGx 1740-2F were twice as large as of N y ala.In maize, none of the products resulted in significant increases in shoot DM yield, independent of the soil (Figure 12). Application of mineral N in the reference treatment significantly increased maize as well as soybean DM yield. In soybean, only Integral slightly (P<O. l ) increased shoot DM yield. For both crops, DM yields were significantly (P<O.OI) larger in the soil from Central Kenya than in the Coast soi l.~ 10 8 5.r:•~.!:.. .r:   In maize, only application of Rhizatech hada slight (P<O. l ) positive effect on shoot DM yields, independent of the soil (Figure 13). Application of nutrients in the reference treatment significantly (P<O.Ol ) increased shoot DM yield by about 50%, relative to the control. Shoot DM yields differed significantly (P<O.OO 1) between soils, and were just about twice as large in the soil from Central Kenya (on average 20 g DM), relati ve to the Coast soil (on average 11 g DM). In soybean, none of the products resulted in a significant increase in shoot OM yie ld. In the reference treatment, however, shoot DM yields were significantly lower relative to the control in the soil from Central Ke nya soil, but significantly higher relati ve to the control in the Coast soil. This was related to the problems encountered with N application as NfuN03.25 25-¡ e:¡¡ 15 j 15 •;;. ¡;:o.a: ) Figure 13: Maize and soybean shoot DM yields, as affected by application of various Ca t. U-B products. In maize, treatment effects did not interact with soil, while in soybean, a significant soil x product interaction was found. Error bars represent SEDs for effect of product application, and soil x product interaction in maize and soybean, respectively.In maize, none of the products had a positive effect on shoot DM yie lds (Figure 14). Application of nutrients in the refere nce treatment significantly (P<O.OOl ) increased shoot DM yie ld by about 50 %, relative to the control. In soybean, the effect of product application differed between both soils. In the Central Ke nya soil, only the application of AtonAZ significantly (P<0.05) increased shoot DM yield. In the Coast soil, contrarily, a s ignificant (P<0.05) increase in shoot DM was onl y observed after application of Turboto p. In the reference treatment, DM yie lds were significantly (P<O.OO 1) higher than in the control in both soils. products. In maize, no differences between soils were observed, while in soybean, a significant soil x product interaction was found. Error bars represent SEDs for effect of product application, and soil x product interaction in maize and soybean, respectively.Evaluation of Biolo~cal and Chemical products on Banana and Plantains J. The use of commercial products on banana is against a background of constraints known to hinder success of Tissue Culture (TC) banana plantlets, with the aim of alleviating the constraints following application. The plantlets offer an excellent means of providing pest and disease-free planting material to farmers. They are, however, devoid of microbes and hence delicate and prone to stress and pests and diseases. Microbial commercial products may ha ve ' positive impact' on their post-planting performance. Tissue Culture banana plants are delicate and devoid of food reserves. They are also more prone to shock, pests and diseases and may not establish under low soil fertility environments. Biological hardening is therefore recommended before transplanting.Microbial commercial products that enhance plant growth and production exist in the markets and the condítions of effective functioning of the products not known.Greenhouse experiments are being conducted to evaluate the effects of commercial products on the growth of banana under different agro ecological zones. The commercial products comprising of bacteria! and fungal organisms ha ve different modes of action. The evaluation is undertaken through hardening and potting stages under greenhouse conditions and subsequently under natural field conditions.The effects of products (fungal and bacteria!) are dependent on soil conditions with effect more evident in Vertisols (Oark Montimorillonite 2: 1 clay mineral-rich and poorly-drained cracking-Vertisols, also referred toas black cotton soils), and Eutric Nitosols (high in Aluminum and Iron-low P soils) than the Rhodic Ferrasols. The main effect of products, disregarding soil types, had significant effect (p = 0.0 13) on shoot dry weight of TC banana plantlets (Figure 15), height and leaf surface area.Effect of Biological products on ehoot dry weight (SOWT),.  Although it is common knowledge that soil microorganisms forman important component of below ground biodiversity, providing important ecosystem services that may sustain and enhance agricultural production, few policies have been formulated that deliberately seek to benefit from the services provided. Applying the knowledge gained from on-station and onfarm trials in Africa, complemented with necessary assumptions on FAO-sourced soybean data, this study contributes to awareness on the importance of these microorganisms by estimating the ftnancial value of N-fixation (which helps to cut down the N-fertilizer needs of soybean and the subsequent maize) of legume nodulating bacteria (LNB) associated with promiscuous soybean varieties.This study was carried out using FAO data from 19 African countries. Evaluation of the financia! value was based on the method of cost savings in terms of mineral N fertilizer that would have been required to attain the same leve] of N fixed biologically.Results show that the financia! value of the N-fixing attribute of soybean in Africa, especially the promiscuous varieties, annually amounts to -US$ 200 million across the 19 countries.With the fertilizer price of-US$795 f 1 (June 2008), this would amount to US$ 375 million. Given these huge benefits from soybean BNF, and the potential to further expand it, this paper outlined four strategies (expansion of the area under soybean cultivation, soybean yield increase through an increase in the N-fixed per hectare, use of P fertilizer to increase the yield of soybean, and inoculation of promi scuous soybean varieties with Bradyrhizobium) for increasing the appropriation of the benefits from BNF for improved welfare of farm families in Africa.Given the current prevailing c irc umstances in Africa, expansion of the area under soybean cultivation could be argued to be the most promising strategy. However, the sustainability of this strategy will depend on the extent of market and infrastructural development. Next is the use of P fertilizer to increase the yield of soybean. Use of P fertilizer can easily lead to the doubling of soybean yield as has been demonstrated both on-station and on-farm under farmer manageme nt. The remaining two strategies (soybean yield increase through an increase in the N-fixed per hectare and inoculation of promiscuous soybean varieties with Bradyrhizobium), require investments in the areas of plant breeding, market stimulation, and infrastructural development to me ntion but a few . In other words, a strong policy and political support is essential.Output l. Processes and principies Output Targets 2009: Mechanisms underlying the agronomic efficiency of applied fertilizers in the context of ISFM understood for cereal-Iegume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones and for conservation agriculture in the moist savanna zone, taking into account variability in soil fertility status at different scales.CO!\\IPLETEO \\VORK Abstract: Organic resources (ORs) are important nutrient inputs in tropica l agriculture. Combined with mineral fertilizers, they form the backbone of integrated soil fe rtility management. This study was conduc ted to determine the medium-to long-term intluence of OR quality and quantity on maize producti vity and to evaluate the occurrence of additive benefits in terms of e xtra grain yie ld produced by the combined application of ORs and N fertilizers. Farmyard manure, high quality Mexican sunflower [Tithonia diversifolia (Hemsl.) A. Gray], interrnediate quality calliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus Meisn.) and maize (Zea mays L.), and low quality silky-oak (Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br.) sa wdust were incorporated into the soil at equivalent rates of 1.2 and 4 Mg C ha-' yr-1 in Embu (clayey) and Machanga (sandy soil), together with a control to which no OR was added. All plots were split, with one half receiving 120 kg N ha-1 season-1 as CaN~N0 3 • The ORs, except sawdust and maize, improved maize grain yields compared with the control at both sites. Greatest mean maize yie lds (i.e., 4.9 and 2.3 Mg ha-' season-1 , in Embu and Machanga, respecti vely) over 1 O seasons were observed with the high rate of Mexican sunflower, but was not significantl y different from calliandra and manure. Generally, maize yields were greater with higher than lower OR rates, except for maize and sawdust. Although N fertilizer additions to the ORs improved grain yie lds in Embu, the increase was marginal ; resulti.ng i.n negati ve interacti ve effects of applying ORs with N fertilizers, especially with high-N ORs. Thus high-N ORs should not be applied in combination with N fertil izers, especially at such high fe rtilizer N rates.Nitrogen and phosphorus capture and recovery efficiencies and crop responses to a range of soil fertility management strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. (2009)  Abstract: This paper examines a number of agronomic field experiments in different regions of sub-Saharan Africa to assess the associated variability in the efficiencies with which applied and available nutrients are taken up by crops under a wide range of management and environmental conditions. We consider N and P capture efficiencies (NCE and PCE, kg uptake kg-1 nutrie nt availability), and N and P recovery efficiencies (NRE and PRE, kg uptake kg-1 nutrient added). The analyzed cropping systems employed different soil fertility management practices that included (1 ) N and P mineral fertilizers (as sole or their combinations) (2) cattle manure composted then applied or applied directly to fields through animal corraJiing, and legume based systems separated into (3) improved fallows/cover crops cereal sequences, and (4) grain legume-cereal rotations. Crop responses to added nutrients varied widely, which is a logical consequence of the wide dive rsity in the balance of production resources across regions from arid through wet tropics, coupled with an equally Iarge array of management practices and inter-season variability. The NCE ranged from 0.05 to 0.98 kg kg-1 for the different systems (NP fertilizers, 0.16-0.98; faJlow/cover crops, 0.05-0.75; anímaJ manure, 0. 10-D.74 kg kg-1), while PCE ranged from 0.09 to 0.71 kg kg-1 , depending on soil conditions. The respective NREs averaged 0.38, 0.23 and 0 .25 kg kg-1 . Cases were found where NREs were [ l for mineral fertilizers or negative when poor quality ma nure immobilized soil N, while response to P was in many cases poor dueto P fixation by soi ls. Other than good agronomy, it was apparent that flexible systems of fertilization that vary N input according to the current seasonal rainfall pattem offer opportunities for high resource capture and recovery efficiencies in semi-arid areas. We suggest the use of cropping systems modeling approaches to hasten the understanding of A frica' s complex cropping systems.Strategic phosphorous application in legume-cereal rotations increases land productivity and profitability in Western Kenya. (2009)  Abstract: Many food production systems in sub-Saharan Africa are constrained by phosphorus (P).We hypothesized that within Iegume-cereal rotation systems: targeting P to the legume phase leads to hi gher system productivity, and that use of grain legumes leads to bette r economic retums than use of herbaceous legumes. Four P application regimes: (i) no P, (ii) P appl ied every season, (iii) P applied in season 1 only and (iv) P applied in season 2 only were tested for four seasons in three cropping systems (continuous maize, mucuna-maize rotation and soybean-maize rotation) in a split plot experiment set up in Nyabeda, westem Kenya. Treatments where P was applied were better than no P treatments. While continuous cereal systems showed the need for application of P every second season, rotation systems involving mucuna and soybean indicated that application in one out of three seasons could be sufficient. Nitrogen fe rtilizer equivalence was 52 to >90 kg N ha-1 for soyabean and 37 to >90 kg N ha-1 for mucuna, depending on P fertilization and season. Analysis of marginal rates of retum (MRR) showed that soybean-maize rotation with one application of P was theExperiences from past research have shown that for any meaningful adoption, conservation agriculture (CA) research process must be farmer-led or farmer-pulled and there is the refore need to raise farmer awareness of its benefits. Constraints to adoption must be removed to enhance the adoption of CA practices. There is need also for training, especially of farmer and technicians on the various components, practices and principies of CA. Access to markets and credit are essential to ensure incremental investment in CA. Further, to encourage massive adoption of CA and hence reverse the land, and environmental , degradation there is need to provide an incentive to smallholder farmers, who form the majority of Jand users, to enable them adopt and adapt sustainable agricultural practices. The goal should be to bring the farmers out of poverty with no further impoverishment of soils and other natural resources.Project activities are being implemented in two contrasting catchments in Siaya district (Photograph 5). At each of the benchmark site, the mother trials were distributed across the catchments so as to reach most farmers as possible within the region. All the mother trials are acting as replicates distributed within the catchment. The main mother trials are centrally located and will be used mainly for learning purposes and training farmers and other stakeholders on the concepts of CA using the FFS approach. In each of the 2 catchments, 30 more farmers will be selected representative of catchment conditions to lay out baby trials for the different CA practices to account for the biophysical and socio-Photograph 5: Farmers in N. Alego listening to a point from the field officer.economic conditions in the catchment. Baby trials will be started in subsequent seasons whereby farmers will pick out particular treatments to try the m out on their individual farms.The Mother trials have the following treatments: (i) absolute Control -Farmers' practice (cereal/legume intercrop (maizelbeans); no input application), (ii) no Till -cereal/legume rotation (maize/soybean) (current season crop -soybean) (rip and subsoil, mulch, fertilizer).(iii) no Till -maize/desmodium-intercrop (rip and subsoil, fertili zer; push-pull approach), and (iv) conventional Tillage -Maize/bean intercrop (fertilizer). Plot size was adjusted to l Om x lOm from 15m by 15m dueto difficulty in fitting the bigger plots in most farmers' fields. Soil moisture measurements will be done using gravimetric tests. The soil moisture measurements will be taken at a mínimum of three sample locations at each catchment monitoring si te. Rainfall data will be collected at each Mother tria! site for the entire period of experimentation. In addition composite soil samples will be collected from all the plots befare planting in each season for further analysis.In addition to what is called Farmers practice/experimentation, two additionaJ plots of the actual farmers practice ( 1-homestead field and 1-bush field) from two farmers adjacent to either the mother trial or its replicates or the baby trials will be monitored and yield measurements collected as control plots, and the farmers interviewed on their management interventions of these fields. A field technician will be based at each catchment to collect both socio-economic and bio-physical data.One of the main principies underlying the practice of conservation agriculture is to provide sufficient soil surface cover to influence soil properties and smother weeds. In treatment 3 (T3) for all the mother and baby trials, desmodium was established under maize as a cover crop (Figure 16).  Legume cover crops will supply nitrogen through biological fixation. In the first years of CA, the organic matter content also needs to be increased and the cover crops will supply this demand of biomass. In the first years of CA, the de mand for nitrogen is high and therefore it is importa nt to use legumes as the most rational source to supply this initial demand. Another important aspect is that the legumes are a protein source to feed the local people. lt will not work where crop productivity is too low to achieve appreciable levels of ground cover. And as rather a daunting challe nge. farmers, extension workers and researchers have to look at the whole issue of tillage differently if the concept of CA has to be embraced. This calls for a change of farmers' attitudes, because of the often deeply engraved traditionaJ practice (mindsets) that they have had over the years. As long as the mind stays conventional it will be difficult to implement successful no tillage in practica! farming. The choice of the technologies aimed to minimize nutrient mining and improve water use efficiency (WUE)sorne of the key components of increasing producti vity. Water use efficiency can be improved agronomically by e.g. increas ing the crop canopy, whic h in tum will maximize interception of radiation and reduce evaporation. Increased producti vity can also be obtained through the combination of organic and small amounts of mineral fertilizer and by intercropping the main crop with legu mes. The following 5 techno logies have been identified and tested in this project: (i) maize intercropping with a legume (cowpea 1 common beans), (ii) maize intercropping with mucuna, (iii) conservation agriculture, mínimum tillage with use of herbicides, (iv) conservation agriculture, mínimum tillage with mucuna as a cover crop, no herbicides applied, and (v) maize intercropped with Tephrosia candida (Agroforestry) A basal dressing all participating farmers were supplied with an NPS ferti lizer (23:2 1 :0+45). In all the trials, maize (ZM 62 1) was used as the test crop. The conventional practice (farmer's practices) constituted the CONTOL treatments. \"Mother trials\" were re earcher-managed and located at the EPA. Planning and outlaying of the trials was done with the participation of farmers, extension and researchers. From the \"Mother trials\", the farmers were free to c hoose the techno logies they wanted to try on their farms, so-called \"Baby trials\". The sections' extension agents assisted the farmers in setting up and managing the \"Baby trials\". It was, however necessary to encourage farmers to choose technologies that they otherw ise would not ha ve chosen voluntarily to avoid bias.The maize yield in different treatments ranged between 4.2 and 5.6 tonslha which is far beyond the national average maize yield of 1.2 tons/ha (Table 5). The farmers perceived this dramatic yield increase compared to their traditional practices as very positive. Most of them had very good stands of maize, on their trial plots, with big cob sizes as depicted in the photo below. The increase in yields can be associated with enhanced use of inputs (fertilizer & seed), enough rainfall and appropriate management practices. Although, these results are from trials of only 1 year, the table abo ve shows that, yields from sorne of the technologies introduced were statistically comparable to the conventional mineral fertilizer application. This is particularly true of conservation agriculture, minimum tillage with use of herbicides and maize intercropping with Tephrosia candida. A combination of mineral fertilizer with any of the technologies is expected to result in e ven higher yields . Crop productivity in the Shire Valley region in southem Malawi is adversely affected by low ( <600 mm y( 1) and unreliable rainfall, and extended dry spells during the rainfall season. In addition, repeated cultivation under smallholder management with little ferti lizer inputs has led to soil fertility deptetion, with nitrogen and phosphorus commonly deficie nt in most fields. Maize water requirement for four different irrigation scheduling scenarios (Daily Water Budget and three fixed scenarios of 40 mm every 3-4 days, 7 days and 14 days) studied at Kasinthula Research Station with different fertilizer and manure management.Water was used most efficiently under Daily Water Budget Irrigation scheduling (DSWBIS), but was difficult to use considering Jack of weather data, calculatíon complexity and ílliteracy 1eve1s among farmers. It was the n modelled into a simple Crop Staged Based Irrigation Scheduling Technique (CSBIST) which predicted application of 20 mm every 7-8 day from p1anting to day 5 1, 20-30 mm every 3-4 day from day Sl-125, and Water application depth of 30 mm every 6 days from da y 125 up to physio logical ma turity for dry season maize production. The Crop stage based irrigation scheduling was field validated with Daily Water budget irrigation scheduling and irrigation of 40 mm every 3-4 days in 2007 and 2008. It was a split-plot design replicated three times. The three irrigation scheduling scenarios were main plots and three Nitrogen sources: Urea and Urea mixture with compost and FYM in 2: 1 ratio at 120 N kglha.The results (Table 6) showed that maize yie 1d was not significantly different between c rop stage-based irrigation scheduling (8.88 and 9.14 t ha- Pre liminary resu lts obtained showed that more water is lost at 40 mm every 3-4 days schedule. The Crop-stage based scheduling technique outperforrned farmers ' preferred irrigation scheduling scenario, and wou1d be an attractive option to use scarce water resources efficientl y.Performance of bucket drip irrigation powered by treadle pump on tomato and maize-bean production The experiment was laid out in Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replicates. The BDI system consisted of 1300 litre-tank mounted at 1.5 m above ground, connected with a 32 mm mainline and 15 mm laterallines spaced at 1 m by 0.6 m. A treadle pump was used to lift water to the tank. Tomato and intercropped maize-bean were irrigated every 4 days. Analys is was made on labour, irrigation unifonnity, yie ld and profitability.The system reduced labour and water by >25% and showed high unifonn application depth (80-95%) and wetted diarneter (84-100 %,). Yie lds were significantly different (P<0.05) between tomato varieties. Maize-bean yie lds were highl y significantly different (P<O.OO 1) between monoculture, intercropping system and bean varieties. Monocropped maize and monocropped beans outweighed intercropped maize-bean yie lds. lntercropped maizebeanfaced interspecific competition though the ir combined yield value was significantly high compared to monocropping system. lt was therefore recommended to inte rcrop maize-bean under drip irrigation. Consequent economic analysis showed that there was a significant difference in terms of net income between the crop enterprises. Tomato was more valuable for drip irrigation as compared to maize and beans.It can be concluded that BDI powered by treadle pump saves labour, time and provides unifonn irrigation for crop production. Tomato is recommended for the system as compared to maize and beans.Evaluation of nitrogen fixation and transfer in a maize-Desmodium intercropping system M.N. Koech 1 , J .R. Most legumes contribute nitrogen (N) through excess N fixed after decomposition of the residues but sorne Desmodium spp seems to have sorne direct benefits on intercropped maize. The objective of this study was to get an insight on í) the best time of intercropping maize and Desmodium, (ii) soil volume that would allow optimal growth of maize and Desmodium and (iii) isotope and natural abundance method of quantifying N fi xation.The study was conducted in a greenhouse located at Moi Uni versity using soíl collected from Siaya district. The treatments were as shown in ( increased from 52g/pot to 62 g/pot in maize planted at O and 1 O weeks after planting Desmodium (Figure 17). However, maize shoots yield of the intercrop decreased from 33g/pot in maize planted at the same time with Desmodium (0) to 0.3 g/pot in maize planted inside Desmodium at 1 O weeks after planting Desmodium. 24 and 35 g/pot maize shoots were obtained in 1 O and 20 kg soil weights respectively. Similar trend occurred with maize roots. Desmodium shoots yield increased with time from 21 g/pot to 74 g/pot in treatments with maize planted atO and 10 weeks after planting Desmodium respectively. lncrease in soil weight resulted to significant increase in Desmodium shoot yields. Mean Desmodium shoot yields for 10 and 20 kg soil weights were 34g/pot and 70g/pot respectively.Preliminary greenhouse results showed that planting maize inside Desmodium at a later date after planting Desmodium is not a viable option. Better growth of maize is achieved when maize is planted at the same time with Desmodium or after pruning Desmodium. Chemical analysis of the plant samples is ongoing to quantify biological nitrogen fixation and nitrogen transfer.Soil and crop performance in conventional and conservation tillage systems in W estern Kenya; the role of termites Wageningen University, the Netherlands; 2 CIAT-TSBF, KenyaConservation Agriculture, based on minimum soil tillage, crop residue retention and crop rotation, is being promoted to revaengineers, especially termites, to improved soil performance and crop growth under different tillage and residue management systems is not clear. We studied the effects of tillage and residue management on termite abundance and diversity in an agronomic field experiment in Western Kenya. A macrofauna exclusion experiment (using selective insecticides) was established within the field trial in 2005, to study the role of soil macrofauna. Our objectives were (i) to quantify the effects of different tillage and residue management on the abundance and diversity of termites, soil properties and crop performance, (ii) to see how these termites, soil and crop performance parameters are affected by soil macrofauna exclusion, and (iii) to compare different methods to quantify termite abundance and diversity in agricultura! field experiments.Termite abundance was measured by monolith and soil core sampling and the diversity of termites was measured by combining those two methods with a transect sampling. Crop residue cover, soil moisture, and soil compaction were measured several times during one cropping season. Soil chemical properties were measured at different depths. Long-te rm yield data are available.Tillage and residue management did not significantly affect on termite abundance and diversity. Total soil carbon at 0-5cm, and toa lesser extent, at 5-15cm depth, was increased by residue retention, especially under no-till. The effect of tillage and residue management on soil moisture was not clear, whereas soil compaction was increased under no-till, especially when residues were removed. Macrofauna exclusion significantly reduced termite abundance, but not diversity, and resulted in a slower decrease in residue cover over the cropping season. Four years (8 cropping seasons) of macrofauna exclusion had also resulted in a significant in crease in soil C (by 7-10%) and N content (by 4-15%) in the top 5 cm of the soil in the treatments that received crop residues. The latter may be explained by a direct effect of termites which remove crop residues to their nests, aJthough possible indirect effects through a higher biomass production in the treatments which received insecticides still needs to be looked into. Macrofauna exclusion did not resuJt in significant changes in soil moisture content and no consistent effects on soil compaction were found.Apparent termite induced pest damage to soybean and maize at 18 weeks after planting was significantly reduced by macrofauna exclusion. However termite pest da mage may have been overestimated because it is difficult to distingui h between real damage due to termites and other causes such as other (less visible) organisms or wind. The quantification of termite abundance and diversity in small agricultura) plots, especially under no-till, has severa] complications. Further improvement of te rmite assessment methods is therefore recommended.  We conclude that Conservation Agriculture did not lead toa change in termite abundance and diversity as compared to conventional tillage and did not find proof for a positive impact of termites on soil and crop performance, at least not during the first 8 seasons Through farmer-managed, multi-locational adaptation trials, this response can be better understood, and aid in developing site-spec ific fertilizer recommendations.Farmer adaptation trials were conducted in the Eastem Province of Rwanda during 3 consecutive cropping seasons. Trials were conducted in four sites in U mutara (Nyak:igando, Kabarore, Rugarama and Murarnbi), two sites in Kibungo (Gatore and Kabare), and two sites in Bug sera (Musenyi and Murarna). During each season and in each site, 10 participating farmers received planting material and fe rtilizer and were trained to install and manage an adaptive trial with four treatments: (i) a control without inputs, (ii) sole DAP fertilizer application ata rate of 200 kg ha-1 , (iii) organic matter (OM) applied at 5 t ha-1 , (iv) combined application of DAP fertilizer (lOO kg ha-1 ) and OM (2.5 t ha-1 ) . Farrners were given the choice between soybean, beans and maize. The farmers described the field chosen for the tria) in terms of soil fertility level, local soil name, landscape position and cultivation history. Following data was collected: planting, weeding and harvest dates, emergence rates, weed cover, plant stand at harvest and grain yield. At harvest, farmers scored each plot in terms of labour demand, vegetative growth, disease prevalence, yield and produce quality. AE of the fertilizer applied was calculated as follows:with AEF = AE of fertilizer ap~lied sole ly (kg kg-1), GY F = yield obtained with sole application of fertilizer (kg ha-), GY coN = yield obtained in the control without inputs (kg ha-1), FF = fertilizer quantity applied in the sole fe rtilizer treatment (200 kg ha-1 ) , AEFoM = AE of fertilizer applied in the treatment with combined fertilizer and OM application (kg kg-1 ) , GY FOM = yield obtained with combined application of fertilizer and OM (kg ha-1), GY OM = yie ld obtained with sole application of OM (kg ha-1 ) , and FFoM = fertilizer quantity applied in the treatment with combined fertilizer and OM application (200 kg ha-1 )Control bean grain yields were on average 740 kg ha-1 , but varied between O and 2000 kg ha-1 (Figure 19). Application of fertilizer significantly increased the average grain yield by 48%. Responses to fertilizer varied largely, between -500 and +2000 kg ha-1• Combined applicatíon of fertilizer and organic matter resulted in significant, but smaHer yield increases (on average 35%). However, the variability in response (-400-+1000 kg ha-1 ) was relatively smaller than in the sole fertili zer treatment. Yield responses were general! y larger in U mutara than in Kibungo and Bugesera, probably due to more favorable rainfall. Average AE of the fertilizer applied was comparable in the sole fertilizer treatment ( 1.8 kg kg-1 ) than in the combined fertilizer and OM treatment ( 1.7 kg kg-1) (Figure 20). Generally, AE values were highly variable. When control yields were smaller than 200 kg ha-1 , AE values were sma ller than 1 kg kg-1 • For íncreasing control yields, increasingly larger maximal AE values were observed. Largest AE values (5-7 kg kg-1) were observed for control yields of about 1000 kg ha-1 • For larger control yields, maximal AE values decreased. No response was observed for contro l yie lds exceeding 2000 kg ha-1• Similar results were obtained in soybean and maize (data not presented)_ The variability in response to fertilizer is a result of soil fertility, organic matter quality, management (timely planting and weed control) and environmental factors (rainfall). Investigations will be conducted to evaluate to what extent the variability observed can be attributed to these factors. The farmer adaptation trials also included packages for evaluation of rotational benefits of soybean and beans, and improved intercropping arrangements in legume-cereal systems (data not presented). • \" The magnitude of micronutrient malnutrition is increasingly taking centre stage in policy discussions on food and nutrition security. It is recognized that food security needs to refer not merely adequate energy intakes, but also to ensuring sufficient intakes of essential micronutrients (Meenakshi et al., 2007). Beans are important sources of Fe and Zn. The Harvest Plus initiative of CGIAR aims at increasing the Fe content in beans by 40-60 ppm, which will result in important increases in Fe intake, particularly in areas such as Sud-Kivu and Rwanda. where beans are a major staple crop.During the legume evaluation trials, a number of these so-called bio-fortified beans were tested in farmers' environment; grain samples were collected and a nalyzed for Fe and Zn content.We found that severa] varieties were indeed bio-fortified, characterized by Fe contents above 70 mg Fe kg• 1 • However, for several of these varieties significant interactions with the environment were observed. The variety BRB 194, for example, one of the most preferred varieties in the Eastem Province of R wanda, contained on average 76 mg Fe kg-1 , but this concentration varied between 67 and 88 mg Fe kg-1 • Moreover, these interactions with the environment appear to be correlated with soil properties, particularly with soil organic matter contents, and different varieties appear to have contrasting interactions with soil properties (Figure 21).  The observed trends are not easily understood, but crucial to value the ability of bio-fortified varieties to improve micronutrient nutritíon in a specific regíon. More sampling and measurements are currently on-going to fully apprehend the genotype x envíronment interactions for a selected num ber of farrner-preferred bio-fortífied bean varieties. In sub-Saharan Africa smallholder farming systems, soil fertility and crop producti vi ty vary substantially on different plots within and across farm s. Therefore, nutrient resource allocation strategies appropriate for plots differing in fertility are required to increase overall crop production and resource use efficiency at farm and village scale. We applied a dynamic model (FLELD) to explore short-and lo ng-term consequences of various strategies for use of limited nutrient resources (mineral N and P fertilizers and cattle manure) available to farmers on crop productivity and soil organic carbon (SOC) in a case study village in Murewa District, Zimbabwe. Simulations were done for four types of farms with different access to resources on each of two main soil types found in the area: an infertile granitic sandy soil and a more fe rtile dolerite-derived red clay soil. FIELD simulated a rapid decl ine in SOC and maize yields when native woodlands (FZI ) were cleared for ma ize cultivation without fertilizer inputs coupled with removal of crop residues. This is typical management on plots belonging to poor farmers and plots distant from homesteads on wealthy farms, resulting in a zone of depleted soils (FZA) characterized by poor crop response to fertilizer application.Applications of at least 1 O t manure ha•' yr\" 1 for about 1 O years were required to restore maize productivity to the yields attainable under FZl. Long-term (>30 years) application of manure at 5 and 3 t ha•• resulted in SOC levels comparable to zones of high (FZ2) and medium (FZ3) soil fertility observed on farms of cattle owners. Targeting manure application to restore SOC to about 60% and 50% of contents under native woodlands was sufficient to increase productivity to 90% of attainable yields on the sandy and clay soils respecti vely. On the sandy soil, nutrient resources on farm s of cattle owners were used most effic ientl y in the short-term when manure was applied to FZ3 plots and mine ral fertilizers to FZ2 plots. There is scope to improve productivity of smallholder farms by targeted application of limited mineral and organic nutrient resources to fields varying in soil fertility, although this has greater impact on wealthier farmers who have more fertile soil s and greater access to fertilizer and manure. Short-term increases in crop productivity achieved by reallocating the same amount of limited manure to less fe rtile fields were short-lived on the sandy soil, and increased investme nt in organic nutrie nt resources is necessary to sustainably increase crop productivity. Preventing degrading systems under cultivation is difficult, particularly in low input farming systems, and attention should be paid to judicious use of the limited nutrient resources to maintain levels of soil fertility that support good crop response to fertilizer application.(a)(b) &oOO~- -----------------------~ ~-------------------------. - Farmers commonly do not appl y any fertilizer, manure or other nutrient inputs, but invest large amounts of labour for land preparation and weed control. Cassava yields obtained by farmers are low (around 10-15 t ha-1 ). ISFM options can increase yie lds using improved germplasm in combination with judicious addition of fertilizer and organic inputs, but should increase in larger retums to investment re lative to the traditional 'slash-and-bum' syste m.Researcher-managed trials were installed in two sites in Bas-Congo (Mbuela and Kiduma) following a randomized complete block design with three replicates and thi rteen treatments.The fi rst treatment was an absolute control whereby the natural vegetation was slashed and removed from the plot. In the second treatment, the natural vegetation was slashed, chopped, piled up in strips, and buried in the planting beds. ln the third treatment, the natural vegetation was similarly s lashed and piled up in strips, but was bumt prior to establishing the planting beds ('slash-and-bum' fanners' common practice). The foll owing 3 treatments consist of a response to fertilizer applied at rates of 40, 120 and 200 kg K ha-1 , with the natural vegetation slashed and re moved from the plot. Fe rtilizer was spot-applied as compound NPK ( 17:17: 17) fertilizer. In the seventh treatment, the natural vegetation was managed as in the second treatment (buried under the planting beds), and additional fertilizer was spot-applied at planting ata rate of 40 kg K ha• 1 • In the following two treatments, Tithonia and Chromolaena green manure were added at a rate of 2.5 t DM ha-1 • In the final four treatments, these green manure applications at the same rate of 2.5 t DM ha• 1 were combined with fertitizer applications at 40 and 120 kg K ha• 1• Observations included cassava growth and storage root yield, produce quality, and residual e ffects of the amendme nts during the subsequent season (replanted with cassava). Detailed labour measurements were taken for all operations, and input and output prices were collected regularly during the tria! period for economic analysis.ln none of the two si tes, the slash-and-bum treatment resulted in increased storage root yields, relative to the treatme nt where the natural vegetation was slashed and buried in the planting beds (Figure 23). Both treatments resulted in a significant (P<0.05) increase in storage root yields of about 6 t ha-1 , re lati ve to the contro l, where the natural vegetation was cleared and removed from the plots. Control yields were relatively low (about 12 t ha-1 ) and no significant differences were observed between the two experimental sites. Response to fertilizer differed significantly (P<0.05) between sites. While in Kiduma, cassava responded to fertilizer application up to a rate of 200 kg K ha• 1 , no response beyond 120 kg K ha• 1 was observed in Mbuela. Maximal yields were twice as Iarge in Kiduma (40 t ha-1 ) than in Mbuela (20 t ha-1 ). Application of Chromolaena green manure did not result in larger storage root yields than slashing and burying the natural vegetation. Application of Tithonia increa •ed yields by 13 t ha• 1 relative to the treatment with the natural vegetation buried in Kiduma, but not in Mbue la. In Mbuela, no response to additional fertilizer application was observed. In Kiduma, however, response to additionaJ fertilizer application was only observed in combination with Chromolaena green manure. Combined application of Chromolaena green manure and fertil izer 120 kg K ha• 1 resulted in storage root yields of 35 t ha• 1 , which was comparable with yields obtained with Tithonia green manure. ., \"'.r=.r::<:::. Little formation of secondary storage roots occurred. In weight, secondary storage roots comprised less that 4 % of the totaJ storage root yield. No diffe re nces between sites or treatments were observed (data not shown). The proportion of tradable primary storage roots was larger in Kiduma (86 %) than in Mbuela (56%), but was unaffected by the application of fertilizer or green manures. The proportion of tradable primary roots was not correlated with the totaJ storage root yie ld. Most storage roots classified as non-tradable were of inferior size (or unit weight). Only a minor proportion of the primary harvest roots (2 %) were considered non-tradable because of high fibre content or dueto damage or decay. Non-tradable roots weighed on average 0.2 kg per storage root, independent of site or treatment. The size of the tradable primary roots was affected by treatments, a lthough only significant at P<O.l. Storage root sizes were. largest (0. 7 kg per storage root) in the treatme nts with combined green manure and fertilizer application, and smallest (0.4 -0.5 kg) in the control and treatments w ith naturaJ vegetation slashed and buried, or slashed and bumed. In the other treatments, intermediate storage root sizes (0.60 kg) were observed. The flesh content (fresh matter) was slightly but significantly (P<O.OOl) larger for tradable (78 %) than for non-tradable storage roots (74 %). The DM conte nt of the cassava storage root flesh equa led 39 %.An economic analysis shows that the use of Tithonia or Chromolaena green manure is most profitable under current conditions (benefit-cost ratio = 5 -6), followed by fertilizer application (benefit -cost ration = 3 -5). Both options result in highly profitable yield increases, and are viable altematives fo r the common s lash-and -bum practice. The use of green manure and ferti lizer will depe nd on the re lative price and availability of both inputs.Output Targets 2010: A set of mechanistic principies unde rlying ISFM practices for Que nsungaJ agro-forestry systems in the Central American hillside impact zone.Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system improves rain water productivity in hillside agroecosystems of the sub-humid tropics.respectively; and (5) Secondary forest (reference land use system). SB and QSMAS were managed applying local practices to produce maize (Z. mays) and common bean (P.vulgaris). QSMAS also included the addition of fertilizers with the application of 49 kg N + 55 kg P ha-1 8-10 days after planting (DAP) and 52 kg N ha• 1 -30 DAP for maize; and 46 kg N + 51 kg P ha• 1 8-1 O DAP for common bean.Measurements included: ( 1) in si tu determination of decomposition and nutrient re tease from biomass of trees, shrubs and annual crops (Wieder and Lang, 1982), using the 1 itterbag technique (Bocock and Gilbert, 1957); (2) ex situ N aerobic mineralization to measure the potential conversion of organic N into inorganic forms available for plant uptake (Anderson and Ingram, 1993); (3) ex situ partition of soil total P to measure the size of different pools with varying levels of availability, following a sequential fractionation (Tiessen and Moir, 1993; (4) ex situ size-density fractionation of soil organic matter (SOM) as indicator of potential functional activity of SOM (Meijboom et al., 1995;Barrios et al., 1996); (5) ex situ nutrient partitioning of crop biomass, to measure the contribution of annual crops in the reference site toN and P cycling and balance; and (6) in situ determination of crop yield in the different land use systems.Research results comparing the performance of the traditional land use systems (i.e. the traditional SB no fertilized, QSMAS ferti lized and secondary forest), indicate that in terms of biomass mineralization, the decomposition and re lease of N and P from a mixture of vegetative materials of different quality (good, intermediate and poor) according to the C:N ratio, were similar among systems (Figure 24). For QSMAS, this suggests an effective biological activity and nutrie nt cycling over time. Total soil organic matter (SOM) content in QSMAS increased over time. However, the biologically active fraction of SOM (light fraction, LL) was reduced in both production systems, compared with the secondary forest. Total N content in soil was similar among the production systems evaluated, with a tendency to be increased in QSMAS over time (Figure 26). Additionally, N aerobic mineralization was higher in QSMAS befare the first addition of inorganic fertilizers, being a potential source of starter N in the early stages of crop growth. Total P content in QSMAS also increased across time, although the proportion of organic and inorganic P pools rernains similar among land use systems (Figure 27). Under the traditional practices used to produce maize and common bean in the SB system (where the source of nutrients are ashes after burning) and QSMAS (in which nutrients are provided by fertilizers and biomass from native species of trees and crop residues), yields of maize were higher in QSMAS, a lthough they decrease over time (Figure 28). Yíelds in common bean were consistently low in SB system and QSMAS mainly dueto low yield potential of the landrace used.   Figure28: Grain yield of maize and common bean in two land use systems in south-western Honduras.Similarities in N dynamics in Quesungual and slash-and-bum systems indicate that they were equally effective in providing N, although in Quesungual system it is more the result of a biologically mediated process than of an accelerated source through buming.Compared to slash-and-bum system, P pools of Quesungual system are more dynamic and favorable for crop production by reducing their flows towards unavailable forms.Based on the availability of nutrients and grain yields over time, Quesungual system may be recommended as an option to replace the traditional slash-and-bum system. Within the terrestrial ecosystems, the soil is the main provider of e nvironmental services (ES). The soil is a living syste m essential to sustain biological productivity, air and water quality, and plant, animal and human health (MEA 2005). Unfortunately, soi l degradation is a severe problem for food production in rural areas, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to contemplate strategies for land management representing the best possible communion between generation of multiple services while preserving the natural capital (Lavelle 2008).The Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS) is a smallholder production system that makes use of a group of technologies for the sustainable management of vegetation, water, soil and nutrient resources in drought-prone areas of hillside agroecosystems of the sub-hum id tropics. The system was developed in southwest Honduras, Central America, by improving native farming practices with the participation of local farmers and technicians of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other national and intemational institutions. The system is based on planting annual crops (maize, common bean, and sorghum) with naturally regenerated trees and shrubs. QSMAS is being practiced by smallholders in Honduras, where the system has been successfull y adopted by over 6,000 resource-poor farmers on 7,000 ha. This res ulted in a locally recognized s uitable alternative to the traditional slash and bum (SB) system, with biophysical and socioeconomic benefits at multiple scales ranging from farm leve! (increased crop water productivity, food security) to landscape (increased amount and quality of available water).The set of technologies responsible for the success of QSMAS can be summarized in four basic principies of conservation agriculture that contribute synergistically to its superior performance: (l) no SB, but through the management of natural vegetation; (2) permanent soil cover, through the continua! deposition of biomass from trees, shrubs, and weeds, and through crop residues;(3) mínima\\ disturbance of soil, through the use of no tillage, direct seeding, and reduced soil disturbance during agronomic practices; and (4) efficient use of fertilizer, through the appropriate application of fertilizers. The main objective of this research work was to determine the key principies behind the biophysical resilience of QSMAS and its capacity to sustain crop production and alleviate water deficits on steeper slopes with greater risk for soil erosion.The performance of QSMAS was studied in southwest Honduras, within the Lempa River upper watershed department (district) of Lempira, from 2005 to 2007. Mean annual (birnodal) precipitation is -1400 mm falling from early May to late October, with a long dry season of up to 6 months. Field plots were established to compare 5 main treatments (replicated on three different fanns): QSMAS of three different ages ( <2, 5-7 and > 1 O years-old), the traditional SB system, and secondary forest (SF) as a reference land use system (LUS).Annual management of QSMAS plots included slashing and mulching through pruning of trees and through crop residues while SB plots were managed through slashing and burning of native vegetation, befare the onset of the rain y season. Maize and common bean were established in the early (late May) and later (late August) part of the rain y season, respectively, and managed following the timing, spatial arrangement and management practices that are commonly used in the region for the production systems under comparison. The four production system treatments (QSMAS of different ages and SB) were split in order to apply a fertilizer treatment (addition vs. no addition). In the fertilized treatments, the maize received 101 kglha of N and 55 kg/ha of P, while the common bean received 46 kglha of N and 51 kglha of P. Studies included monitoring and analysis of soil water dynamics, crop water productivity (CWP), greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes, carbon sequestration and global wanning potential (GWP).Water infiltration and runoff were measured through rainfall simulation for 30 minutes using two intensities (80 and 115 mrnlh). Soil water content was detennined through soil sampling at three depths (0-1 O, 10-20 and 20-40 cm). Susceptibility of the soil to eros ion was assessed in erosion plots (5 m length x 1.5 m width) over 3 years. Soillosses were detennined through the comparison of the índices of soil erodibility K-USLE and Ki-WEPP corresponding to the Universal Soil Loss Equation (Wischmeier and Smith 1978) and to the Water Erosion Prediction Project (Nearing et al. 1989), respectively. Nutrient losses through erosion were quantified by detennining total contents of N, P, K, Ca and Mg from samples of eroded soils.Water quality was assessed through the detennination of No 3 • , NHt, total P, and P0 4 ' 3 in samples collected at 45 DAP. Both eroded soil and water samples were collected in erosion plots in 2007. CWP, expressed as kg of grain produced per m of water used as evapotranspiration, was calculated using the crop yield and soil water data obtained in 2007 and by estimating the evapotranspiration (ET) according to the method of Penman and Monteith (FAO 1998).Annual GHG fluxes between soil and atmosphere were monitored using the closed chamber technique as described by Rondón (2000). At the beginning of the study, 4 PVC rings (height 8 cm, ~= 25 cm) were located in the experimental plots. In every chamber and at each sampling date (l6 dates), 4 air samples were taken atO, 10, 20 and 30 minutes, after installing the chamber (height 1 O cm, o ver the PVC ring). A ir samples were extracted from the closed chamber using a syri nge with an adapted val ve and then introduced into glass containers (prevacuumed vials by freeze drying). N20 and CH4 concentrations were detennined in the laboratory, using a Shimadzu GC-14A gas chromatograph, equipped with FID (flame ionization detector) and ECO (electron capture detector) for methane (C~) and nitrous oxide (N 2 0) detection, respective! y. For C02 concentration, we u sed a Qubit Systems S 151 gas analyzer, with infrared technology. GWP of the different LUS was calculated by using C~ and N20 fluxes between soil and atmosphere, and C stocks from soil and tree biomass. For the traditional SB system direct emissions of C02, C~ and N20. from the biomass buming were also included. GHG fluxes of each LUS were multiplied by the global warming potential value, corresponding to the GHG (C02=l, CH 4 =72 and N 2 0=289) in a 20 year time horizon (IPCC 200 l ).An emergy (from \"embodied energy\", a measure of the total energy used to make a product or service) evaluation was conducted as in Diemont et al (2006) to quantify resource use and system sustainability, using data from plots and relationships (energy input per unit of energy output) reported in other studies. The Environmental Loading Ratio (ELR, a measure of ecosystem stress dueto a production activity) was given by the ratio from purchased and nonrenewable local inputs, to the e mergy from renewable resources.Evaluation of water dynamics at the middle of the rain y and dry seasons of 2007 showed a lower infiltration and higher runoff in SB system. During the rainy season, SB had the lowest infiltration (29.8 mm) and highest runoff (12 mm); in contrast, QSMAS >10 years had the highest infiltration (38.5 mm) and lowest runoff (4.8 mm). During the dry season differences between treatments in infiltration and runoff were small. Infiltration for 30 minutes ranged from around 44 mm in both QSMAS treatments to 41.9 mm in SB. Runoff ranged from 0.91 mm in QSMAS to 2.4 mm in SB. In 2007, precipitation and ET were 1005 and 491 mm in the early part of rainy season, and 419 and 272 mm in the later part, respective ly. In the early part of the rain y season available soil water (0-40 cm soil depth) varied between 0.09 and 0.104 m 3 /m 3 , with QSMAS <2 and QSMAS 5-7 and was 10% and 16% higher, respectively, than in S F. In the later part of the rain y season the amount of available soil water varied between 0.11 and 0.127 m 3 /m 3 in SB and QSMAS <2, respectively. The mean value of available soil water content (0-40 cm) in QSMAS systems (average of the three different ages) was significantly greater than that of the SB system, suggesting increased availability of water for crop growth. These improvements in QSMAS were related to changes in soil porosity due to increases in mesoporosity (30%) and macroporosity (19% ), and decreased the soil bulk density. This increased the plant available soil water storage capacity and availability of water for crops in the dry season, and increased the capture of rainfall at the beginning of the rainy season. The highest soilloss occurred in 2005, and was markedly higher in SB followed by QSMAS and SF. The same trend was observed in 2006 and 2007, although differences were greater in 2005 due to higher rainfall intensity and to the recent conversion of SB plots from SF that resulted in bare soil and therefore higher susceptibility to erosion. Total soil losses over the 3 years from SB were 5.6 times greater than from the three QSMAS treatments, and 22 times greater than from SF. As a result, the SB system had the highest nutrient losses (kg!ha) of N (9.9), P (1.3), K (6.9), Ca (22.8) and Mg (24.2), while SF had the lowest losses of N ( 1.7), P (0.2), K (1.2), Ca (2.6) and Mg (2.7). Water quality was poorest in the SB system, with highest concentration (mg/L) of total P and P0 4 -3 (2.30 and 0.29, respectively), and was much better in QSMAS > 10 (0.18 and 0.25, respectively). SB also had the highest concentration of (mg!L) of N0 3 -and NH/ (7.97 and 0.70, respectively), while QSMAS 5-7 had the lowest concentration of N0 3 -(6.13) and QSMAS > 1 O of ~ + (0.24). SF had values of 0.65 for P, 0.43 for P0 4 -3 , 4.73 for N0 3 -, and 0.92 for NlL¡ +.There was no interaction between LUS and fertilizer treatment on CWP. CWP (kg grain m-3 ) for maize was greatest in fertilized systems of QSMAS <2 (0.48) and least with QSMAS >lO (0.18). In plots with no fertilizer application, the highest CWP was observed with QSMAS <2 (0.26) and the lowest with SB (0.1 0). In both fertilized and non-fertilized systems, CWP for common bean was greatest in QSMAS <2 (0.32 and 0.27 kg grain m-3 , respectively) and least with SB (0.10 and 0.07 kg grain m-3 , respectively). Fertilization increased CWP of maize (by 92%) and common bean (by 23%). These results may reflect adequate available soil water during the maize crop (from sowing to physiological maturity) in the early part of the rainy season, as precipitation was higher than ET. In the case of common bean grown in the later (drier) part of the rainy season, available water content in the soil decreased from flowering to physiological maturity, with lower precipitation than ET and therefore with a negative water balance. Under these conditions, QSMAS showed greater available water content in soil that resulted in greate r grain yield and eWP. e stocks were higher in SF and QSMAS, with higher accumulation in SF for aboveground e (e in trees and shrubs) and in QSMAS > 10 for belowground (soil organic) e (Figure 29).The SB system could generate higher annual losses of above ground C dueto buming, while young QSMAS plots ( <2 and 5-7 years old) genera te sorne losses of below ground C. QSMAS also had a muc h lower GWP (10.5 Mg Equi v. e02) than SB traditional system (40.9 Mg Equiv. e0 2 ). SF had a very low GWP (1.14 Mg Equiv. e0 2 ) (Figure 30). Based on the current adoption of QSMAS and consequent regeneratíon of SF in the Lempira department where QSMAS is practised and projecting its impact on GWP for a period of 20 years, it is estimated that the adoption of QSMAS will result in a decrease of 0. 1 O Tg Equiv. eo2 compared to SB. Higher e stocks in soil and the aboveground tree biomass indicate a gradual accumulation of e in SF a nd QSMAS > 1 O. According to the e mergy evaluation SF and QSMAS had less envira n mental impact than SB (highl y affected by levels of soil erosion) as noted in the ELR with values of0.63, 0.14, and 0.02, respectively. -.. The results indicate that the production practices used for managing QSMAS have beneficia! effects on the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, soil quality, landscape and the e nvironmenl. Compared to SB system QSMAS is eco-effic ie nt through the use of renewable natura l resources, a nd also provides ecosystem services including: ( 1) Provisioning services: food security through improved crop water productivity and yie lds at lower costs; and improved water cyc ling through reduced runoff, erosion, water turbidity and surface evaporatio n, and increased infiltration, soil water storage capac ity and use of green water; (2) Regulating services: reduced global warming potential through lower methane ernission and improved C accumulation;(3) Supporting services: mitigation of soil degradation through improved structure, biological activity, organic matter, nutrient cycling and fertilizer use e ffic iency, and restoration and conservation of biodiversity; and (4) Cultural services: improved quality of Ji fe through the regeneration of the landscape. Potential on the payment for en vi ron mental services provided by QSMAS could e nhance its attracti veness to local and nationa l authorities in countries with policies to protect ecosystems in the face of climate change .Output Targets 2010: The role of organic matter in regulating water, nutrient-limited and actua l yield levels underlying cassava and rice-based systems in the humid lowland impact zone and banana-based systems in the mjd-altitude impact zone quantified.Output l. Processes and principies Output Targets 2010: ReJationships between crop nutritionaJ quality and soil fe rtility status quantified for the maj ar crops in the different impact zones.Output l. Processes and principies Output Targets 2011: The medium-to long term role of soil organic matter in regulating soil-based functions (e.g., acidity buffering, EC EC formation) underlying fertilizer use efficiency and crop production quantified for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones. Aggregation and stabilization of soil organic e (SOC) and N are highly dependent on soil texture and addition of organic resources (ORs). While OR quality may influence soe and N stabilization within aggregates, the addition of N-fertilizers may enhance OR decomposition resulting in lower SOC. However, the interactions between OR quality and N-ferti lizers on SOC stabilization in soil may be influenced by soil texture. Lower aggregation in sandy soils associated with lower protection of added ORs, may shift the optimum residue quality for N use and e stabilization towards low quality ORs to counterbalance the lack of physical protection. The objectives of this study were to quantify soe and N dynamics in aggregateassociated SOM fractions as affected by i) OR quality, ü) N-fertilizer addition, and iii) soil texture.A mecocosm study was conducted on a clayey soil at Embu and a sandy soil at Machanga in central Kenya to determine the influe nce of soil texture, OR quality and N-fertilizer on aggregation, SOC and N. Tithonia diversif olia (high quality), Calliandra calothyrsus (medium quality) and Zea mays (maize; low quality) residues, natural abundance or labeled with 15 N, were applied to soil atan equivalent rate of 4 M~ e ha• 1 compared tono input control. Each treatme nt was fertilized with 120 kg 14 N or 5 N ha-1 as (NH 2 )2eO, or not fertilized. Soil samples were collected at installation of the mesocosms (start), and 8 months after installation (end). Soils were separated into different aggregate fractions by wet síeving into macroaggregates (>250 ~m), microaggregates (53-250 ~m), and silt and clay (<53 ~m) fractions. Macroaggregates were further fractionated to isolate microaggregates-withinmacroaggregates and coarse particulate organic matter (cPOM). Total soil and aggregate fractions were analyzed for SOC and N.eontrary to our hypothesis, low quality OR, maize did not result in greater soe and N than higher quality ORs in both soils. While there were no significant differences in SOC and N among OR quality in both soils, in the sandy soil high quality Tithonia tended to have greater soe and N than other treatments (Table 8). betwcen paired means with organic resource (OR), N-ferti lizer, and sampling time, respective! y.On average, 20% and 70% of SOC and N was in the macroaggregates in the sandy and c layey soils, respectively. Although there were generally no differe nces in total N between Tithonia and Calliandra in the aggregate-associated SOM fractions of the sandy soil, Calliandra generally had greater proportio ns of OR derived N than other ORs in the cPOM (Figure 31). Since cPOM is unprotected SOM, its accumulation is dependent not only on OR additions but also on the quality of added Ors. Additionally, the cPOM fraction has been shown to be a sensitive fraction to management practices, implying that the differences between Tithonia and Ca/Liandra were due toa slower decomposition with Calliandra compared to Tithonia. Thus, in support of previous studies, the high polyphenol content in Calliandra likely slowed down its decomposition in the sandy soil. In contrast, however, in the clayey soil there were no differences in OR derived N in aggregate associated SOM fractions of soil treated with Tithonia and Calliandra, nor were there differences in whole SOC and N among a ll ORs. In the clayey soil , maize residues had greater proportions or maize derived N in the macroaggregates and a ll the fractions separated from macroaggregates, including cPOM than other ORs. Thus, although there were no differences among ORs in the same fractions in e lemental N, maize residues seem to have a slower decomposition with greater stabi lization in macroaggregates compared to high N ORs, Calliandra and Tithonia. However, although polyphenols ha ve been shown to influence decomposition and stabilization of added ORs in soil, this seemed to hold onl y in the sandy soil. In the clayey soil there were generally no differences N and OR derived N between Calliandra and Tithonia in whole soi l and aggregate fractions. Thus, results from this study suggest that polyphenol content only infiuences OR decomposition and its stabilization in SOC in sandy soils and not in clayey soils. ln the clayey soil, we observed strong infiuences of N fertilizer on macroaggregate dynamics but only for low quality OR, maize residues, in the short but the differences became smaller with time.  e) Microaggregates within macroaggregates 30 Strategic management of organic resources (ORs) and N fertilizers is essential to reduce N losses from the soil through leaching or gaseous N 2 0 emissions. This is particularly important in SSA where, in addition to the rising global environmental concems, fertilizers are expensive anci/or are not readily available to smallholder farmers. The combined application of ORs and N fertilizers offers potential to improve N cycling and may reduce N losses through leaching and N20 emissions compared to when N fertilizers are added alone. However, the C source from ORs may stimulate microbial activity, which may create anaerobic si tes while the N fertilizer will stimulate nitrifiers and denitrifiers such that N 2 0 emissions may be greater with the combined application of ORs and N fertilizers than when either resource is added alone. Thus, depending on OR quality, N losses may be greater following the combined application of ORs and N fertilizers. This study sought to quantify N losses through leaching and N 2 0 following the addition of different quality ORs, alone and in combination with N fertilizers and the influence of soil texture.A mesocosm study was carried out at two sites in the Central Highlands of Kenya: a sandy soil at Machanga anda clayey soil at Embu . Three ORs of differing quality, Tithonia diversifolia (high quality), Calliandra calothyrsus (intermediate qualit(), Zea mays (maize; low quality) were added to the soil atan equivalent rate of 4 Mg C ha-, with or without 120 kg fertilizer-N ha•' as urea [(NHzhCO]. The soils had received similar treatments in the field for three and four years on the clayey and sandy soils, respectively. No crops were grown in the mesocosms. NzO emissions and N leaching measurements were taken periodically over an eight month period.The importance of leaching as a N loss pathway over N 2 0 in these central Kenyan agroecosystems was demonstrated by the much larger N leaching losses which were on average in excess of 250 kg N ha-' compared to < 1 kg N ha• ' which was lost as N 2 0 over eight months (Figure 32 and 33). The low NzO emissions were most likely because the two soils used in our study are weU drained such that the anaerobic microsites that promote denitrification were few . While these observations are in agreement with those in other studies on similar agro ecosystems, the magnitude of N leaching losses we observed in our study was way greater than those observed in other studies most tikety because our mesocosms were not cropped such that mineralized N was prone to tosses more than in the other studies. Nonethetess, N teaching and N20 emissions were influenced by OR quatity and soit texture.On the sandy soit in Machanga, the sote addition of tow quatity maize residues resutted in less than half of the N20 emissions observed with sote added Tithonia and Calliandra (Figure 33). Similarty on the clayey soit maize had the teast N 2 0 e missions compared to other ORs. This was tikely because of lower a mounts of N being added by maize but also due to its low quality, maize could have induced N immobilization. The greatest N 2 0 e missions on the sandy soit were observed following the addition of Tithonia and N ferti tizers and this was significantly greater than Tithonia added alone (Figure 32). In contrast on the clayey soil in Embu, there were no differences in N 2 0 emissions among sote added different quality ORs but maize tended to have tower N 2 0 emissions than Calliandra and Tithonia but also the control (Figure 33). While the addition of N fertilizer tended to increase N 2 0 emissions, this was only significant with Calliandra where the addition of N fertilizer almost doubted the N20 emissions compared to sole added Calliandra (Figure 33). While N 2 0 emissions were generally tow in the two soits (< 1 kg N 2 0-N ha-1 ), greater emissions were observed on the clayey soil than on the sandy soil. The sandy soil has a greater proportion of macropores than micropores, aiding faster drainage of water but with a smaller capacity for moisture storage. Thus there are fewer anaerobic microsites where denitrification would occur. The macropores may also aid the emissions of NO before the formation of N 2 0. Additionally, the sandy soil had lower SOC such that there was likety less N mineralization than in the clayey soil. Furthermore, a proportional toss of N through teaching compared to the control was greater in the sandy soit than the ctayey soil, reducing mineral N that coutd have been denitrified to N20. There were no treatment differences in leached N in the sandy soil probably reflecting the large variation in observations made on the soil. On the clayey soil on the contrary, Iow quality maize residues added alone caused the least leaching and was not different from the input contro l. Similar to N20, this was Iikely dueto less N being added but also the low quality may ha ve induced N immobilization. This was however, altered by the addition of N fertiJizer as there were no differences wi th other OR when maize was added w ith N fertilizer.Lower N losses were observed with low quality maize residues compared to higher quality ORs. The addition of fertilizer N with maize residues tended to increase the losses. Greater N20 e missions and N leaching losses were observed in the clayey soil than the sandy soil. However, proportional N leaching losses were greater in the sandy soil most like ly dueto the lower nutrient holding capacity of the soil.Output Targets 2011: Cassava, rice, and banana nutrie nt requirements and impacts on nutritional quality of respective food products quantified within the respective impact zones.No ,\\( 'TivnTEs Outputs (lntended users)Outcome (lmpact) Description: Management practices that are Outcome: A large number of farmers in the in resonance with the resource-base and target impact zones evaluate, adapt, and socio-economic environment of smallholder adopt improved technologies and systems. farmers.Impact: Improved technologies and systems, lntended users: COlAR, ARI, researchers based on ISFM, improve food security, from NARS and local universities, NGOs, income and health of farmers in the target farmer groups, prívate sector agents, impact zones. extension services, and regional consortia.Output 2. Management practices: Knowledge generated in Output 1 needs to be translated in ISFM-based management practices for the target cropping systems and impact zones. Those practices can contain appropriate nutrient and water management strategies and improved agronomy and system design. Specific attention will be given to farmer-lead diagnosis and decision making in relation to best-fit practices, taking into account available resources, biophysical heterogeneity, and the overall social and economic environment. The major Outcome of this Output is a large number of farmers that are evaluating, adapting and adopting such improved practices This Outcome is the most crucial Outcome of this Program.  CIAT-TSBF, Kenya; 2 Wageningen University, the Netherlands; 3 CIRAD-Persyst, France; 4 K en ya Agricultura [ Research lnstitute, Nairobi, Kenya; 5 World Agro forestry Centre (ICRAF),Kenya; 6 Kenyatta University, Kenya; 7 Soil Fertility Management Program, National  Agricultura[ Research Organisation, Uganda   Abstract: Technological interventions to address the problem of poor productivity of smallholder agricultura! systems must be designed to target socially di verse a nd spatially heterogeneous farms and farming systems. This paper proposes a categorisation of household diversity based on a functional typology of livelihood strategies, and analyses the influence of such diversity on current soil fertility status and spatial variability on a sample of 250 randomly selected farms from six districts of Kenya and Uganda. In spite of the agroecological and socio-economic diversity observed across the region (e.g., 4 months year• 1 of food self sufficiency in Vihiga, Kenya vs. lO in Tororo, Uganda) consistent patterns of variability were also observed. For example, all the households with Less than 3 months year• 1 of food self-sufficiency had a land: labour ratio (LLR) < l, and all those with LLR > 1 produced enough food to cover their diet for at least five months. Households with LLR < 1 were al so those who generated more than 50% of their total income outside the farm. Dependence on off-/non-farm income was one of the main factors associated with household diversity. Based on indicators of resource endowment and in come strategies and using principal components analysis, farmers' rankings and cluster analysis, the 250 households surveyed were grouped into five Farm Types: l. Farms that rely mainly on permanent offfarm employment (1 0-28% of farms); 2. Larger, wealthier farms growing cash crops (from 8 to 20% of the farmers interviewed, according to site); 3. Medium resource endowment, food self-sufficient farms (20-38%); 4. Medium to low resource endowment relying partly on nonfarro activities (18-30%); and 5. Poor households with family members employed locally as agriculturallabourers by wealthier farmers (13-25%). Dueto differential soil management practices over a number of decades, and large diversity in resource endowments (land, livestock, Labour) and access to cash, the five farm types exhibited different soil carbon and nutrient stocks (e.g., Type 2 farms had average C, N, P and K stocks that were 2 to 3 times larger than for Types 4 or 5). In general, soil spatial variability was larger in farms (and sites) with poorer soils and smaller in farms awning livestock. Farm Types 2 and 3 were identified as most promising domains in terms of adoption potential for targeting agricultura} technology innovations, whereas Farm Types 4 and especially 5 will require social support to benefit from agricultural innovations.Effect of farmer management strategies on spatial variability of soil fertility and crop nutrient uptake in contrasting agro-ecological zones in Zimbabwe. 1 University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe; 2 TSBF-CIA T, Malawi; 3 TSBF -CIA T, Zimbabwe; 4 Wageningen university, the Netherlands Abstract: Variability of soil fertility within, and across farms, poses a major challenge for increasing crop productivity in smallholder systems of sub-Saharan Africa. This study assessed the effect of farmers' resource endowment and nutrient management strategies on variability in soil fertility and plant nutrient uptake between different fields in Gokwe South (ave. rainfall -650 mm year\" 1 ; 16.3 persons km-2 ) and Murewa (ave. rainfall -850 mm year-1 ; 44.1 persons km-2 ) districts, Zimbabwe. In Murewa, resource-endowed farmers applied manure (>3.5 t ha• 1 year-1 ) on fields closest to their homesteads (home fields) and none to fields further away (outfields). In Gokwe the manure was not targeted to any particular field, and farmers quickJy abandoned outfields and opened up new fie lds further way from the homestead once fertility had declined, but borne fields were continually cultivated. Soil available P was higher in home fields (8-13 mg kg-1) of resource-endowed farmers than o n outfields and all fields on resource constrained farms (2-6 mg kg-1 ) in Murewa. Soil fertility decreased with increasing di stance from the homestead in Murewa while the reverse trend occurred in Gokwe South, indicating the impact of different soil fertility management strategies on spatial soil fertility gradients. In both districts, maize showed deficiency of N and P, implying that these were the most limiting nutrients. It was concluded that besides fanners' access to resources, the direction of soil fertility gradients aJso depends on agroecological conditions which influence resource management strategies.Simulation of soil organic carbon response at forest cultivation sequences using 13 C measurements (2009) Organic Geochemistry 41: 41-54 Gottschalk 1 P., BeUarby 1 J., Chenu 2 C., Foereid 1 B., Srnith 1 P., Wattenbach 1 M., Zingore 1 University of Aberdeen, UK; 2 /NAPG, UMR Bioemco, France; 3 CIAT-TSBF, Malawi Abstract: When deforestation is followed by continuous arable cropping, a permanent decline of between 22% and 42% in the soil organic carbon (SOC) has been reported. This systematic loss of soil carbon (C) is mainly attributed to the loss of physically protected SOC. The Rothamsted Carbon model (RothC) does not include a description of the processes of physical protection of SOC and so losses of C during continuous cultivation of previously uncultivated land are not likely to be accurately simulated. Our results show that in the first years following deforestation, RothC does not capture the fast drop in forest derived soil C. However, the model does satisfactorily simulate the changes in SOC derived from the following crops. Uncertainty in input data and accounting for erosion, does not explain the underestimation of decomposition after deforestation by RothC. A simple approach to increase decomposition by multiplying rate constants is evaluated. This approach needs high multiplication rates and leads toan overestimation of plant input values to sustain SOC equilibrium levels. However, the abílity of RothC to símulate changes in the forest derived SOC can be greatly improved with an implementation of a simple approach to account for SOC dynamics due to the loss of physically protected C. This approach implements a new soil carbon pool into RothC which represents the labile but protected carbon fraction which builds up under minimally disturbed land uses, and which loses its protection once the soil is disturbed. The new pool is calibrated usíng !3C natural abundance analysis in conjunction with soil fractionation. Abstract: This study evaluated the performance of tree legumes and other soil fertility management innovations used by farmers. The objectives of the study were to: examine the extent that fann attributes, typology of farmers and field management practices have affected the adaptation and use of agro forestry technologies for soil fertility management and compare the agronomic performance and farmer assessment of agro forestry and other soil fertility management options, across a wide range of fanner types and field conditions, with a view to establishing the contribution of management variables to variations in yield estimation. Maize yield and fanner rating were assessed in Type 11 (researcher-designed, farmer-managed), Type m (fanner-designed and managed) trials and extension farmers.Results from 152 farmers show that agro forestry increased the yield of maize by 54-76% compared to unfertilized sole maize used as the control. When amended with fertilizer, the yield increase over the control was 73-76% across tree species. This indicates that farmers who had combined agro forestry with inorganic fertilizer experienced increase in maize yield attributable to the synergy between organic and inorganic fertilizer. In gliricidia-maize intercropping, higher maize yield was obtained by fanners who pruned twice. Combination of two prunings and fertilizer use gave the highest yield increase ( 148%) over the control and the third pruning was superfluous when fertilizer was applied. Without fertilizer, maize yield in agro forestry plots intercropped with pigeon pea was higher than those plots without pigeon pea. Planting date, fertilizer application, use of agro forestry and maize variety explained about 44% of the variation in maize yield on fanners ' fields.K and Mg deficiencies corrobora te farmers' knowledge of soil fertility in the highlands of Sud-Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo.Pypers 1 , P., Vandamme 2 , E., Sanginga 1 , J., Tshisinda 1 , T., WalanguJuJu 1 , J., Merclo?, R. and Vanlauwe\\ B. 1 CIAT-TSBF, Kenya; 2 K. U. Leuven, Belgium Abstract: lntensification of crop production is required in the dense) y populated highlands of the Sud-Kivu province. Soi l fertility constraints for maize and bean production were assessed in eight replicate fie ld trials with sote or combined applications of fertilizer, farmyard manure (FYM) and lime, and a complimentary greenhouse nutrient omission triaJ with 30 representative soils. Fanners distinguished soils based on landscape position (\"Civu\" and \"Kalongo\") and fertility leve! (\"fertile'' and \"poor\"). Ferti le soil s were s li ghtly lower in soil organic matter content than poor soi ls. Only in fertile soils, fertilizer application increased crop yields by 40-100%, but highest yield in creases were obtained with FYM appl ication. Leaf samples analysis a nd interpretation using the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System revealed that P and N were the most deficie nt nutrients. Poor soil s were also deficient in K and Mg as confirmed by the nutrient omission tria): K om ission onl y reduced yields in poor soils by 30%, and yield Iosses caused by sole application of N, P and K were correlated with plant Mg concentrations. This demonstrates that farmers aptly assess soil constraints using their local soil fertility classification, which corresponds with levels of \"bas ic\" cations (K, Mg and Ca) rather than with soil organic matter. Understanding the current farrning systems strategies serves the potential to integrate these ' new' options into these farming systems thereby increasing potential adoption. The study characterized resource flow strategies within the household farming systems of R wanda by analyzing Jabour and nutrient flow between wetland and hill slopes using a farm systems approach in two wetland in Rwanda.Nutrient budgets for each farrn household were estimated by outflows in crop products (OUTl) and outflows in crop residues (OUT2); and inflows in inorganic (IN l ) and organic fertilizers (IN2). Household nutrient flows were estimated using collected yield data, calculated crop residue data and secondary literature.Farrners in the wetlands differ in terms of their resource richness. The variation is not only between different agro-ecological zones but also within the zones. More Jabour was allocated to wetland compared to upland plots. Resource groups differ in labour allocation in both wetland and hill slope plots. Richer resource households were able to allocate more Jabour to their plots (up to 440 man-days per season in the wetland plots and 326 man-days per season in the hiU slope plots) by hiring additionallabour. N balances were negative (up to -124 kg per hectare per season) in rice fields in the wetlands.Removal of rice crop grain (a maximum of 176 kg N in grain per hectares per season) and buming of crop residues significantly contributed to this alarrning rate of nutrient depletion.Only 75 kg N per hectare of inorganic and 198 kg N per hectare per season organic inputs were applied to the wetland plots. However nutrients from hill slope are recycling in homestead plots as farmyard manure is applied back in these plots. 57 kg K per hectare per season is exported from wetland to hill slope especially in Rugeramigozi through collection of crop residues for feed to livestock. K export from wetlands raises eyebrows on the sustainability of wetland farming in the long run. Seasonal P balances were relatively low: the maximum P balances was -37 kg per hectare per year. This negative balance poses a threat to the viability of legumes as N-fi xing crops in the crop rotation trials. Considering that P is an important part for N-fixation process, negative P balances can reduce the nitrogen fixing potential for leguminous crops included in the options for wetland management in Rwanda. This concern could be significant in Rwandan Ferralsols that have low inherent available P. Addition of P fertilizers to the legumes would improve the Jegumes' N-fixing potential in the tria ls.This study highlights the assertion that farmers may not necessaril y be concentrating nutrients around homestead because of the short distance. Rathe r farmers apply nutrients in plots where they perceive to be fertile and secure to produce satisfactory yields. Furthermore, the case study highlights the importance of linking hiU slope and wetlands in analyzing farm household systems in wetlands in Rwanda. This should be followed by a complete analysis of household dietary patterns, labour allocation and nutrient flows for a clear understanding of the farm resources dynamics in the wetlands.  Abstract: Fertilizer micro dosing is the application of tiny doses of fertilizers in the planting ha le at sowing, or next to the plant two to three weeks after planting. The techno logy inc reases fe rtilizer use efficiency and yie ld while minimizing the cost of inputs. The results reported here show that solving the soil fertility problem unleashes the yield potentiaJ of improved crop varieties, roughly doubling yield. Two crucial advantages of micro dosing are its adoptability and profitability. High rates of fertilizer have been recomme nded to farmers for a long time to maximize yields, but farmers could not afford todo so. By us ing much lower rates of fertilizer than the recomme nded rate, in more efficient ways that deliver economically optimum retums, farrne rs are muc h more able a nd inclined to adopt the practice, and are increasingly doing so. Once fertilizer micro dosing is adopted, it establishes a pattem for future productivity as farmers become accustomed to increasing their investme nts in inputs in a rder to generate increased retums. Micro dosing is thus a strateg1c first step on a sustainable development pathway, in addition to generating large benefits itself. The micro dosing technology has been demonstrated and promoted in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger during the past few years with very encouragi ng results. Sorghum and millet yie lds increased by 45 to 120% in comparison with farmer practice whi le farmers' income s went up by 50 to 130 %. This paper highlights these outstanding past results and the ongoing efforts to furthe r scale up the technology.Tillage, residue management and fertilizer application effects on crop water productivity in Western Kenya.(2009)  Abstract: While soybean is an exotic crop introduced in Kenya early last century, promiscuous (TGx) varieties which nodulate wíth indigenous rhizobia have only recently been introduced. Since farmers in Kenya generally cannot afford or access fertilizer or inoculants, the ídentification of effective indigenous Bradyrhizobium strains which nodulate promiscuous soybean could be useful in the development of inoculant strains. Genetic diversity and phylogeny of indigenous Bradyrhizobium strains nodulating seven introduced promiscuous soybean varieties grown in two different sites in Kenya was assayed using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer region and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. PCR-RFLP analysis directly applied on 289 nodules using Msp I distinguished 18 intergenic spacer groups (IGS) I-XVIII . Predominant IGS groups were 1, 111, 11, IV and VI which constituted 43.9%, 24.6%, 8.3% 7.6% and 6.9% respectively of all the anaJ yzed nodules from the two sites while IGS group VII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIV, XVI, XVII, XVIII each constítuted 1% or less. The IGS groups were specific to sites and treatments but not varieties. Phylogenetic analysis of the J6S rRNA gene sequences showed that a ll indigenous strains be long to the genus Bradyrhizobium. Bradyrhizobium e lkanii, Bradyrhizobium spp and Bradyrhizobium japonicum related strains were the most predominant and accounted for 37.9%, 34 .5%, and 20.7% respectively while B. yuanmigense related accounted for 6.9% of all strains identified in the two combined sites. The divers ity identified in Bradyrhizobium populations in the two sites representa valuable genetic resource that has potential utility for the selection of more competitive and effective strains to improve biological nitrogen fixation and thus increase soybean yields at low cost.Improved dual-purpose soybean and climbing bean varieties increase subsequent maize yields in the highlands of Sud-Kivu, DR Congo Rotational benefits from dual-purpose soybean, producing high yields of both grain and biomass ha ve been demonstrated. In the highlands of Central Africa, beans are the predominant legume cultivated by farmers. Climbing beans, and especially improved varieties, have similar low harvest índices as dual-purpose soybean, and can the refore potentially have important rotational benefits on a subsequent cereal crop.Demonstration trials were established with 4 farmer groups in Luhihi, Sud-Kivu (DR Congo).The tria! followed a full factorial split-plot design with two factors laid out with cropping system (species x variety) in the main plots and fertilizer addition in the subplots. Five cropping systems were evaluated: a maize mono-cropping system, two climbing beanmaize rotation system, and two soybean -maize rotation systems. In the legume rotation system, the local and an improved soybean or climbing variety were compared. Fertilizer application using compound 17: 17: 1 7 NPK at a rate of 100 kg ha• 1 was compared relative to a control without inputs. The trial was established in two replicate blocks with each farmer group. Currently, observations on biomass production, biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), and grain yield have been taken during two full rotation cycles (4 seasons). Participatory farmer evaluations were organized at different stages.The legumes had signi ficant rotational benefits on the grain yield of the subsequent maize crop (Figure 34). These benefits were more pronounced for improved (dual-purpose)varieties than for local varieties, and were larger in the 4th season (2nd cycle) than in the 2nd season (l s 1 cycle). Locallegume varieties increased subsequent maize yields by 30-50%, while improved varieties increased yields by 67-90%, relative to the maize monocrop.Soybean and climbing bean resulted in similar rotational benefits. Fertilizer application increased maize yields by 20%, independent of the preceding crop. Farmers evaluated the trials and showed strong preference for improved legume varieties, despite the longer growing period and the smaller grain size. Farmers also expressed interest in improved intercropping systems, as this is the common practice for maize cultivation. Currently, ma izelegume intercropping options are being de monstrated and evaluated with farmers in the area..,.e: l .., 3000 1 SED1 ( SED2 3000--. . 2000 •:;. e:.f \"' a  Similar demonstration trials on legume-cereal rotation or intercropping are conducted in Rwanda and in Bas-Congo. In Rwanda, themes addressed include combined application of fertilizer and organic inputs (relative to sole application of either input), rotational benefits from soybean (relative to bush beans), and improved intercropping using the MBILI arrangement. In Bas-Congo, similarly, rotational benefits of dual-purpose soybean are demonstrated, as well as the use of mineral fertilizer or the use of Mucuna pruriens fallow for soil fertility and weed control. Wageningen University, the Netherlands; 2 CIAT-TSBF, KenyaBiological nitrogen fixation is one of the most important biological processes that make nitrogen gas availabte to plants. lt is the process whereby a number of species of bacteria use nitrogenase enzyme to convert atmospheric dinitrogen (N2) into ammonia (NH 3 ), a form of nitrogen which can be taken up by bacteria and associated plants.To harness this process of nitrogen fixation for it to provide renewable source of N for human and animal protein, to develop more sustainable farming syste ms and to maintain natural ecosystems, it is necessary for it to be reliably measured. There are severa! methods of measuring nitrogen fixation which include N difference, 15 N natural abundance method, 15 N isotope dilution and the ureide method. 15 N natural abundance method is more advantageous under field conditions because no addition of 15 N fertilizer is required and can easily be done on farm so far as there are appropriate non-nitrogen fixing reference plants. However the challenge is choosing appropriate non-nitrogen fixing reference plants with the same rooting de pth as the nitrogen fixing plants. Further, the 15 N enrichment variation with soil depth is not clearly understood, and this may influences the appropriateness of different reference plants. The objectives of the experiment we re to: (i) measure nitrogen fixation in fodder trees on smallho lder farms in central and westem Kenya and (ii) determine variation in 15 N enrichment with soil degth using maize as test crop in so as to be able to choose appropriate reference plants for 5 N natural abundance method of nitrogen fixation measurement.Field experiment: Calliandra calothyrsus and Leucaena trichandra seedlings were established in a nursery for three months before planting out in the identified niches in four sites of the two regions in Kenya. T he sites were Kirege and Machanga in central Kenya and Emuhaya and Teso in western Kenya. The identified niches where the experiments were set are contour hedges, interna) boundaries and degraded part of the farrns within farmers' fields.The experiment was set up in a randornized complete block design within the niche while the treatments were Calliandra calothyrsus and Leucaena trichandra with Senna siamea and Napier grass planted as control. T he two legume species were replicated four times while the non nitro gen fixing species were not. Each treatment was a six metre double hedgerow of the plant species planted at spacing of 0.5 m inter-row and between rows in a zigzag manner.Hedges were kept weed free. The tree seedlings were pruned to a he ight of one metre, pruning' s fresh weights were taken and sun dried. Samples for the legume fodder trees and reference plants were kept for % N and 15 N-enrichment analysis.Pot experiment: Based on the challenge of choosing appropriate non nitrogen fixing reference plants with the same rooting depth as the nitrogen fixing plants and the fact that 15 N enrichment a long soil depth is not clearly understood it was felt that there was need to ha ve a pot experiment alongside fie ld experiment to determine the leve! of experiment. Thus soils we re collectcd for pot e xperiment up to a de pth of 2m (i.e. 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-100, 100-1 50 and 150-200 cm depth).The soils were potted anJ bl anket application of P, K, S, Ca, Mg and micronutrients were applied to the pot~. No ni troge n was applied. Pots per depth were re plicated three times. The pot experiment was -;et up in a greenhouse for fi ve weeks. So ils werc collected fro m 2 farm s (one in Yihiga and anothe r in Teso) in western Kenya and 3 in central Kenya (two in Kirege including Samue l' s experiment and another in Mac hanga).Biomass yield of cut fodder trees in Kenya grown for one year in different niches in different sites are as shown (Figure 35). At all niches Calliandra calothyrsus performed better than Leucaena trichandra. Tree biomass yield was better in Teso but lowest in Machanga in all niches. The two plant species performed poorly on degraded land except in Teso site which was better than in other niches. Most tree seedlings planted o n interna! boundaries in Machanga dried and thus could not get biomass.M\"~ r ... Figure 36 shows the biomass yield of maize at various depths as grown in the greenhouse.Most soils showed declining biomass yield with increase in soil depth except at John Njue' s farrn from Machanga site which was consistently low at all depths.Figure 36: Biomass yield of maize grown on soils coUected from 5 fanns in Kenya in a greenhouse for 5 weeks at TSBF-CIAT Nairobi. The maize was grown at diJTerent depths from 0-2 m .Farmers' plant trees with the intention of getting tree products and services which will improve their livelihoods and their survival will be greatly ínfluenced by the value attached to each tree species by the farmers. The objectives of the study were: (i) through farrner participation, establish niches where farmers grow agro forestry tree species in mixed cropllivestock farms in Kenya and (ii) to determine the survival of the various agro forestry tree species grown in different niches by farmers.Tree seedlings were categorized into four main functional uses (Fruit, fodder, Wood (timber, fuel wood) and medicinal). The four categories of agro forestry tree seedlings were issued to three farmers per farm type during the onset of rains for planting in the ir farms without specifying to the farmers on where to plant. One farm per site was identified as control where planting of the four functional groups of the tree seedlings were planted by myself. Four seedlings per species were issued to the farrners. Prior to issuing the seedlings to the farmers, a group discussion was called for the selected farmers. During the group discussion the leve) of farmer knowledge of the tree species and their uses was ascertained by asking them to identify and state the uses of the trees. Bao game was used to rank the trees based on farmers' perceived potential usefulness and farmers' interest in planting them. Thereafter additional information that may not have been discussed with the farmers was explained to them before issuing the seedlings to the farmers to plant where they wish in their farms. Follow up was made to the farms which received seedlings to confirm whether the farmers planted the seedlings after a week. Anothe r follow was made after three months to identify the niches where the seedlings were planted on.The number of seedlings death and alive were counted to determine the survival rate of the seedlings. Management of the seedlings was also observed.Fruit trees were ranked first followed by medicinal trees and the Jeast were fodder trees. Wood trees were intennediate (Figure 37).Figure 38 shows tree seedlings survival in the four sites after three months. Except in Emuhaya, fodder trees had the Jeast number of trees a live in all the fou r sites indicating that fanners perceive fodder trees to have the least vaJ ue compared to other categories of trees issued. This relates to the ranking accorded to fodder trees by fanners in the four s ites. Other than environmental conditions, tree survival was dependent on farmers' perceived usefulness. Trees of great value to the fanner will be taken care of and the probability that they will survive will be high.Landscape organic and inorganic responses on Maize, soyeabeans yields in Cyabayaga Watershed Wageningen University, the Netherlands; 2 CIAT-TSBF, KenyaThe conversion of wetlands to agricultura! production has increased rapidly over the last decades due the acute scarcity of agricultura] land on hillsides. The objective of the study was to test the responses of maize, beans and soybean using organic and inorganic manures application along the landscape in Cyabayaga catchment.Maize and legumes plant tests were installed in wetland in hillside, foothiH and wetland. Two different fertilizer were used namely FYM and DAP. The treatments compared were control without fertilizer, 3 tonnes/ha of FYM dry matter basis and the combination of FYM and DAP. The layout of the experiment was a split plot where the main plot was the position in watershed and the subplot was input used and each farm was representing the replication. A total of 29 farms were u sed.Results of this study showed that the organic manure combined with the DAP generated a high improvement of the yield, there was a highly significant difference (P = 0.001) for all crops used as test (Table 10). The high yield obtained in wetlands may be due to the availability of moisture throughout the cropping season. There increase of yield by using either fertilizer with higher yield when organic and inorganic inputs are combined. In this experiment, soybean scored higher yield comparatively to beans, this may be dueto promiscuous soybean variety used (SB 24). One promising intergrated method to balance nutrients and reduce pest and weed infestation. is \"Push-Pull\" (PP) technology which involves intercropping maize with Desmodium spp, (.~ which is capable of controlling striga and stemborer infestation. Despite the fact that Desmodium is a leguminous crop, its contribution to overall improvement of soil nitrogen is not well understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of varying Desmodium harvesting time on biological N fixation and mineral N dynamicsField trials were established in Siaya and Busia districts of western Kenya in April and August, 2009. Treatments consisted ofthree cropping systems; Desmodium uncinatum and Desmodium intortum intercropped with maize and sote maize crop, three Desmodium harvesting regimes (9, 12 and 18 weeks after maize planting (W AMP)). The treatments were replicated 3 times in plot size of 1 O x 1 O m. Sampling of soi1 and plant samples during long rains 2009 was on1y done at crop harvest because this season was meant to get a good Desmodium cover. Good Desmodium cover was achieved during the 2009 short rains season (Photograph 6). In this season, maize shoots/grain harvesting and sarnp1ing for mineral N (up to 120cm) was conducted at 9, 1 O, 12, 13, 15 and 18 W AMP while Desmodi u m was harvested at 9, 12 and 18 W AMP .Photograph 6: Good Desmodium establishment during the second season (short rains 2009) in Busia.In both Busia and Siaya the soi1s were acidic (5.32 and 4.89 respectively}, had low N (0.071 and 0.091 % N}, very 1ow availab1e P (3.78 and 2.35 mg P/kg) and moderate organic carbon ( 1.73 and 2.42%C). Generally, during the long rains mono maize performed better than intercropped maize. Higher maize grain yields (Figure 39) and Desmodium shoots yields were observed in Siaya and Busia respectively. During the short rains 2009, fresh maize shoots resulting from mono maize, maize intercroped with Desmodium uncinatum and maize intercropped with Desmodium intortum ranged from 20.6, 13.1, and 13.8  tlha to 42.8, 28.3 and 29.3   . intortum (22.3 tlha) were obtained at 12 weeks after planting maize. Analysis of soil mineral N is on-going and will be reported in the next report.The study is ongoing and chemical analysis of both soils and plant materials is on the process. Preliminary field results showed that a whole season is required to get a good Desmodium establishment/cover. Generally for the two seasons (LR and SR 2009) mono maize performed better than maize intercropped with both Desmodium spp. This shows that maize is not likely to benefit from the intercrop during the early seasons but maybe in the subsequent seasons.The performance of tillage and crop-residue management systems depends on the variability within smallholder farmers' fields in central Kenya. Differences in soil fertility status among fields within the same smallholder fann have been reported (Tittonell et al., 2005;Zingore et al. , 2007) either due to inherent soil properties related to position along the landscape (soilscapes) or induced differences dueto management history (fieldscapes). The performance of soil improvement technologies has been shown to vary between fields within the same farm (Vanlauwe et al., 2006; Ebanyat et al., 2009) but there is limited information available on the performance of tillage and crop-residue management systems within spatially heterogeneous smallholder farms. A study on tillage and crop-residue management systems was therefore initiated in Murugi South Location in Meru South District whose overall aim was to determine field specific (fieldscapes) responses to tillage and crop-reside management in smallholder farms.Three field classes (good, medium and poor) were selected from sixteen farm-households (six fields from each field class). A 2 by 2 full 20 1 ---------~r=::====Jl factorial experiment was established in _ _ G:..:ood~_ns  The cumulative grain yields across the four seasons (SR07 to LR 09) were significantly affected by three-way interaction of field class, tillage and residue management system (Figure 40).The cumulative grain yie lds across the four seasons (SR07 to LR 09) were significantly affected by three-way interaction of field class, ) for 4 seasons (short rains '07-long rains ' 09) as affected by field class, tillage and residue management systems. Error bars represent SEOs for effects of residue management and tillage in the \" medium\".tenn effects of pigeon pea on maize productivity under rotation and intercropping systems, there is need to obtain infonnation on soil and crop yields from the field experiments on a long-term basis. The objective of this study was to determine the long tenn effects of maize pigeon pea rotation and intercropping system on maizeproductivity in Malawi.The experime nt was conducted at five sites using a split plot design with cropping systems as main plot treatment and crop residue ma nagement as subplots.Maize grain yields differed significantly (p<O.OOI) among sites with Chitedze having the highest maize grain yields ( 4890 kg ha-1) and lowest maize yields obtained at Lisasadzi (731 kg ha-1) across ten cropping seasons. Maize grain yield differed significantl y (p<O.OO 1) among cropping systems with highest yields obtained in maize/pigeon pea rotation systems (5726 kg Makoka (1015 kg ha-1) from rotation plots.The impact of soil fertility management technologies on crop productivity in maize-based farming systems of southern Africa S. Zingore 1In southem Africa, problems of declining soil fertility are widespread, largely as a consequence of continued cultivation of crops with low levels of nutrient inputs. Fanners face serious challenges in maintaining and restoring soil fertility, and increasing crop productivity.In the face of a growing food crisis, there are renewed calls to transfonn the landscape of smallholder agriculture from low-extemal-input to intensive cropping systems, supported in particular by increased ferti1izer use. While increased use of mineral fe rtilizers is key to improved crop productivity, mineral fertilizers are on the ir own inadequate to sustainably increase crop yields due to multiple and complex biophysica1 and socio-economic constraints to crop productivity of smallholder fanns in sub-Saharan Africa.ln southem Africa, fertilizer use is profitable and highly efficient on fertile fields, but less effic ient in lower fertility soils. There is evidence that integrated use of mineral fertilizers with organic nutrient resources is essential for inc reasing crop productivity and fe rtilizer use efficiency, particularly on these infertile soils, as mineral and organic nutrient resources have diffe rent functions on soil fertil ity and crop production and their use in combi nation can have synergic effects. Organic resources play an important role in restoration and mainte nance of soil fertility due to multiple benefits that include, supply of nutrients, and increase in soil pH and soil organic matter. Use of animal manu re and incorporating crop residues are technologies with good potential for leveraging the benefits of increased fertilizer use in southern Africa. Symbiotic biological N2-fixation is an important option for suppl ying high quality organic resources for improving soil N budgets and supplementing N derived from ferti lizers. The main N2-fixation based tec hnologies with good potential to comple ment mineral fertili zer in southern Africa include grain legumes with low N harvest and tree legumes. When combined with mineral fertilizer, these technologies have potential to improve productivity and fertilizer use efficiency by 10-60 %, depending on soil ferti lity conditions and fe rtilizer application rates. Most of soil fertility management technologies have been deve loped and tested in field experiments. Although increasingly we need to improve targeting the technologies within heterogeneous smallholder farming syste ms, taking into account variabi lity n soil fertility at various spatial scales, availability of resources for crop production, input and output markets and policy constrai nts.Nutrient management strategies for increasing maize productivity in irrigation landscapes in southern Malawi Improving crop productivity in irrigation-based cropping syste m in sub-Saharan African agriculture can contribute signi ficantly to allev iating insecurity the region. So uthern Malawi is arid and densely populated. Greater food security in the area has to be achieved by increasing the productivity of the arable land. At Nkhate, large investments have been made in irrigation infrastructure in an attempt to increase productivity. Ho wever, a large gap between potential and actual yields still exists due to a combination of poor water management and low fertilizer use (efficiency). lmproving the current nutrie nt management strategies is thus important to achieve higher productivity and profitability of the sma llho lder farms.This research focused on the evaluation of the current nutrient management strategies for maize and rice. Moreover, suggestions were formulated to improve present and future producti vity and/or profitability. The evaluation was conducted at fie ld and farm scale since farmers face multiple trade-offs at farm scale whe n allocating their scarce labour, water and nutrient resources. An exploration of the long term e ffects of the nutrient manageme nt strategies was done using the FIELD model.  for the application of fertilizers on the rain fed fields. lnstead of buming the residues in the irrigated fields, they could be collected and composted.The field experiment indicates that additional compost applications will result in higher fertilizer N recovery in the short term. The most probable reason is that additions of compost can result in temporary immobilization of fertilizer N. However, simulations with FIELD indicate that temporary yield reduction in the short term can be avoided if a fraction of inorganic fertilizer is exchanged for organic fertilizers. In the long term, continuous cultivation with sole fertilizers will diminish yields. FIELD simulated yield decreases of about 40% over a period of 50 years. The simulated yield decline is mainly a consequence of the decline in SOC. Lower SOC contents can lower the supply and recovery of nutrients.Other effects include a decrease in available water capacity and a deterioration of soil structure or other physical properties. However, these are not simulated by FIELD. Simultaneous additions of compost will maintain or even increase maize yields after 50 years of cultivation. The increase is related toa simulated increase in SOC upon application of compost.Output 2. Management practices Output Targets 2009: Trade-off analysis is informing the identification of best ISFM practices for cereal-legume systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.An integrated evaluation of strategies for enhancing productivity and profitability of resource-constrained smallholder farms in Zimbabwe. (2009) Agricultura [ Systems vol. 101 (1-2): 57-68Zingore\\ S., González-Estrada 2 , E., Delve 3 , RJ., Herrero 4 , M., Dimes In African smaUholder agriculture, improved farm scale understanding of the interaction between the household, crops, soils and livestock is required to develop appropriate strategies for improving productivity. A combination of models was used to analyze land-use and labour allocation strategies for optimizing income for wealthy (2.5 ha with 8 cattle) and poor (0.9 ha without cattle) farms in Murewa, Zimbabwe. Trade-offs between profitability, labour use and partial nutrient balances were also evaJuated for altemative resource management strategies. Farm data were captured using the Integrated Modelling Platform for Mixed Animal-Crop Systems (IMPACT), which was directly linked to the Household Resource-use Optimization Model (HROM). HROM was applied to optimize net cash income within the constraints specific to the households. Effects of altemative nutrient resource management strategies in crop and milk production were simulated using the Agricultura! Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) and RUMINANT models, respectively, and the output evaluated using HROM. The poor farrn hada net income of US$ 1 yf 1 and the farmer relied on selling unskilled labour to supplement her income. The poor farrn 's income was marginally increased by US$18 yf 1 and the soil nitrogen (N) balance was increased from 6 to 9 kg ha• 1 yf 1 by expanding groundnut production from the previous 5% to 25% of the land area. Further increases in area allocated to groundnut production were constrained by lack of labour. On the poor farrn, maize production was most profitable when cultivated on a reduced land area with optimal weeding. The wealthy farm had a maize-dominated cropping system that yielded a net cash balance of US$290 per annum, mainly from the sale of crop produce. Net income could be increased to US$1,175 yf 1 , by re-allocating the 240 hired labour-days more efficiently, aJthough this reallocation substantially reduced partial soi l N and phosphorus (P) balances by 74 kg N ha• 1 and 11 kg P ha• 1 , respectively, resulting in negative nutrient balances. Limited opportunities existed to increase productivity and income of the Small holder farms without inducing negative nutrient balances. On the wealthy farrn, groundnut was the least profitable crop; shifting its production to the most fertile field did not improve income, unless the groundnut residues were fed to lactating cows. The analysis carried out in this paper highlights the need to develop practica! technological recommendations and developmental interventions that consider farm resource endowment (land, fertilizers, manure and labour), variability in soil fertility within farms and competing resource use options.Output 2. Mana2ement practices Output Targets 2010: Decision support systems for locally adapted ISFM practices for cereal-legurne systems in the Sahel and moist savanna impact zones.No /\\CTIVITV Output 2. Management practices Output Targets 2010: ISFM practíces for cassava and rice systems tested, adapted, and validated to farrner conditions in the hum id lowland impact zone.lntegrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) has potential for improving productivity in cassava-based systems in the Humid Tropics. Integration of grain legumes can provide additional revenue from the produce and at the same time provide biomass for soil fertility improvement, but intercropping may have a negative impact on cassava storage root yields. Poor soil fertility is an important 1 imitation for crops, and both cassava and legumes are highly responsive to fertilizer. Nevertheless, fertilizer is little used. Farmers commonly collect cassava lea ves during the season for human consumption, and this may negatively affect cassava yields. A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of legume intercropping, leaf collection and fertilizer application on cassava biomass and storage root yield.An on-station trial was conducted at N'Djili Brasseries, at about 50 km outside of Kinshasa.  Fertilizer application resulted in a cassava storage root yield increase of on average 1 t DM ha• 1 , independent of the intercrop or leaf collection, except when cowpea was grown. Yields of the cassava monocrop were muc h higher than in the intercropping systems. Yield reductions were largest (70-80 %) when cowpea was grown as intercrop, and smallest with a bean intercrop (about 45%). Cassava is most sensitive to shading during early stages (esp. during the root initiation stage). Cowpea biomass produc tion was larger and shaded the cassava crop during a longer period, relati ve to the other legumes, which may explain the larger negative impact.A fu ll financia! analysis is required to evaJuate whether cassava yield losses are compensated by revenue obtained from the legume produce. Leaf collection did not ha ve any effect on cassava storage root yield, except when cowpea was intercropped. Collection of cassava leafs can thus be recommended, provided that a sufficie ntly long intervals to a llow the cassava to recover.  et al. , 2010). Results from previous demonstration trials conducted with fanner groups showed that these technologies can increase legume yields by 150% and cassava storage root yield by 50%. Subsequently, farmer-managed trials were organized with the objectives to (i) evaluate the effect of judicious fertilizer use and adapted agronomic practices on legume and cassava storage root yields across a wide range of field types and fertility gradients, and (ii) promote farmers to take up, experiment and adapt the ISFM technologies.Adaptive trials were carried out with 585 households in four sites during two consecutive cropping cycles. Two si tes located north of Bukavu were characterized by a higher inherent soil fertil ity and lower altitudes (1400-1700 m above sea level), re fati ve to two si tes located south of Bukavu (1600-2000 m above sea leve!). Farmers received \"packages\" containing cassava and legume planting material, NPK ( 17: 17: 17) fertilizer, a leaflet with basic infonnation, and a field book for data collection. Farmers received training prior to distribution of the packages and tria) installation. Site facilitators and technical teams of farmers were employed to assist the participants with tria! installation and data collection.During the season, all trials were visited by agronomists to verify correct implementation and data collection. At harvest, facilitators and technical teams assisted farmers to ensure correct measurement of crop yields. Two packages were formulated to evaluate different aspects of the technologies through a simple design with three plots. In both packages, the first plot was a farrner's common practice, where the legume seed was broadcast and cassava cuttings were planted without a specific arrangement. In the second and third plot of the first package, cassava was planted at the recommended spacing of 1m by 1m, and two bean lines were planted in between the cassava rows. In the third plot, ferti1izer was applied at 100 kg ha-1 • In the second p1ot of the second package, cassava and beans were planted similarly as in the first package. In the third p1ot, however, cassava was planted ata modified spacing of 2 m between lines by 50 cm within the line, with four lines of beans between the cassava rows.Plant densities were identical in all p1ots ( 10,000 cassava plants and 1 00,000 bean plants ha• 1 ). In the second package, all three plots received fertilizer at 100 kg ha-1 • After harvest of the beans, the bimodal rainfall panem allowed a second intercrop, and soybean was planted. One line was planted in between the cassava in the 1 m by l m arrangement, while in the 2m by 50 cm arrangement, two legume lines were planted (100,000 soybean plants ha• 1 in both arrangements). Additional fertilizer (50 kg ha-1 ) was applied in the respective treatments.Following data was collected: planting, weeding and harvest dates, emergence rates, weed cover, plant stand at harvest, legume grain yield and cassava storage root yield and numbers. At harvest, farrners scored each plot in terms of labour demand, vegetative growth, disease prevalence, yield and produce quality.About one quarter of the farmers did not correctly implement the tria! or did not collect all essential information, and were excluded from the analysis. In the traditional practice, average bean grain yields were 1000 kg ha• 1 on the northem axis, and 600 kg ha• 1 on the southem axis (Figure 44). The subsequent soybean crop yielded about 700 kg ha• 1 on both axes. Fertilizer addition increased bean grain yields by 11 and 24 % on the northem and southem axis, respective1y, and modifying the cassava crop arrangement from 1 m by l m to 2 m by 50 cm increased yields by 6 and 17 %, respectively. Effects were more pronounced on the subsequent soybean crop: fertilizer application and improved crop arrangement increased grain yields by 23 % and 21 % respectively. Relative to the traditional practice, these measures represented an increase in legume productivity by 44-60 %. Legume yields varied largely between participants. Bean yields in the farmers' practice without fertilizer addition varied between O and 3.0 t ha• 1 , and yields of the subsequent soybean crop varied between O and 2.1 t ha-1 • Fertil izer application increased bean and subsequent soybean yields by more than 20% in 40% and 48% of the cases, respectively. Changing the cassava crop arrangement from 1 m by l m to 2 m by 50 cm increased bean and subsequent soybean grain yields by more than 20% in 35 % and 44% of the cases, respective! y. Fertilizer app1ication or the modified crop arrangement rarely resulted in yield decreases exceeding 20 %. Cassava storage root yields were much larger on the northem axis (on average 23 t ha-1 ) than on the southem axis (on average 7 t ha•\\ Fertilizer application increased cassava yields by almost 20 % on both axes. The cassava crop arrangement of 2 m by 50 cm did not negatively affect cassava yields, relative to the recommended 1 m by 1 m arrangement. Variability between farmer participants was likewise high. Yields varying between O and 58 t ha• 1 were recorded. In 43 % of the cases, fertilizer application resulted in more than 20 % yield increase. In two thirds of the cases, cassava crop arrangement did not result in more than 20 % yield difference. Negative effects of fertilizer application or modified crop arrangement were rarely observed. ¡. ,. ..........  Commercial AMF inoculants are available but may not have advantages compared to indigenous inoculants that are more adapted to both biotic and abiotic soil conditions. There is still limited information on tbe local AMF and their ability to improve plant growth under low soil fertility and high prevalence of pests and diseases.lndigenous AMF inoculants with origin from banana growing areas were evaluated for their effectiveness on growth of two banana cultivars \"Mpolongoma\" (AAA-subgroup) and \"Kamaramasenge\" (AB-subgroup) in si tes at Kibungo with lower P leve] of 65.5 mglkg and Rubona with P level of 18.8 mglkg P. The study evaluated effects of two mixed anda single inoculant Glomus mosseae from hardening to field establishment. lnitially, the five biogeographical zones were evaluated for AMF diversity.The study conftrmed that bananas are naturally colonized by mycorrhizae. A total of 16 distinct morphotypes were described from five banana growing regions of Rwanda and Burundi, The most dominant Acaulospora and Glomus spp. There was variation in number of AMF species found in banana systems. Inoculation studies using indigenous AMF showed significant (P<O.OOl) differences between the indigenous AMF inoculants. Mixed Kibungo inoculant and Mixed Rubona inoculant had higher infectivity compared to single spore culture Glomus mosseae. The non-inoculated field soils from the two banana growing sites (Kibungo and Rubona) had low infectivity. The effect of AMF on performance of the two banana cultivars was evident under under greenhouse and field conditions (Photograph 7).AMF inoculation improved plant height, girth and Ieaf surface. This was however variable in the soils from Kibungo and Runona. Both cultivars responded to AMF inoculation when established in soils from Rubona more than Kibungo and the cultivar Mpolongoma (AAA) was slightly more responsive to AMF inoculation than Kamaramasenge (AB) (Figure 45).Low agricultura! commodity prices are the key causes of poverty in many sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Efforts to improve rural live lihoods must improve agricultura] produce marketing. This study was carried out to ascertain how Warrantage (micro-credit scheme) could be used to improve millet (Eleusine coracana L.) prices, marketing, retums to investment and overall livelihoods among rural farmers.The study was carried out in Madana community, Jigawa State of Nigeria. The design was an action research approach, based on supervised e nterprise project framework developed by the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews. Data analysis was carried out using qualitative and quantitative analytical methods.Results demonstrated how farmers could take advantage of the price differences of 50-78%between selling immediately after harvest and wai ting for a few months, with the benefit-cost ratio for waiting of 1.4 to 8. 7. The in crease in total val u e of the store d millet ranges from -9 to -58%.The study concluded with recommendations on how the warrantage syste m could be expanded, institutionalized and used to increase farmers ' access to modem farm inputs so as to increase their farm productivity and improved their livelihoods. The interest in markets by farmers in south Ki vu Jed them to begin building stores for their products. Increased productivity arising from use of fertilizers, improved germplasm and better agronomic practices, a JI promoted by CIA T-TSBF (CIALCA) through the ISFM program contributed to this interest. Without a market, the benefits of these technologies may not be realized andlor sustained. However, inability to invest in the technology due to shortage of funds may have negative effects on adoption of the technologies, thus contributing to the poverty vicious cycle in many households. One intervention that can be used to bridge the financia] gap for farmers after harvesting grains is the warrantage system.A warrantage system is a forrn of credit scheme where producers come together to store their products for sale at a more convenient period and are financed by a third party for the duration of storage of the products. Repayment of the credit occurs once the warrantage is exercised in the presence of producers and financiers. The products actas a forrn of collateral for the credit. The successful adoption of new cereal technologies in many West African countries can be attributed to innovation in the marke t, represented by warrantage systems.The warrantage pilot program in South IGvu is supported by CIAT-TSBF (CIALCA) initially in two associations. Technology transfer is carried out through the ISFM program which provides a strong base on which to operate the warrantage system. Currently two associations are imple menting the scheme on pilot basis, supported by CIALCA, GEL anda credit cooperative society. The implementing associations were first assessed for ability to implement the scheme.A warrantage system operates at two levels of credit: Farmer organization secure a credit faci lity from a financia) institution using its assets as security. The credit is then extended to farmers using their harvested grain products as ecurity (bean and soybean). Farmer group members pay back the borrowed funds through the farmer group. The amount of credit depends on how much cereals he/she has delivered to the group in warrantage. Through a warrantage system, farmers are provided with credit that they can repay over a period of time. Interest is charged over the period at 3% per month. For the current associations, the credit facility is to he lp them bridge financia) requirements such as school fees.The grains are kept in stores (Photograph are borrowed. The stores are situated strategically at market centers. Through the warrantage system, associations expect to sell when the prices rise. An intervention at the input leve) may increase yields thus breaking the poverty cycle.To operationalize the warrantage system, the following are be required:• There must be a storable product-These are beans and Soybeans • Good storage facilities: Part of the financing will also be used to improve the stores further to minimize post harvest losses. • To guard against theft, sentries ha ve been hired for the duration of the warrantage schemes. The stores are located in market areas for ease of access to markets. • There must be supporting technologies ha ve been provided by CIA T-TSBF (ClALCA) to support expanded production. • The attracti veness of the scheme is realized for products whose supply and/or prices vary with seasons. Associations ha ve u sed historical price performance of the gra ins to estimate selling dates for the grains as they take advantage of price changes.• A strong rnanagement committee to manage market linkages, cash and rne mber re lations. Control systems must be put in place by members. Market cornmittees ha ve bee n trained by CIALCA and will continue be ing strengthe ned by CIAT-TSBF. • Linkages with microfinance financiers are being established to secure credit lines especia lly when the outputs increase in the coming seasons. • The curre nt warrantage is operating at the associationlnetwork leve!-where a number of associations ha ve come together to create an urnbrella organization to implernent it. • Post harvest management training will be provided to the associations to ensure that the grain is we ll stored and that they rnainta in good quality.The requested fmancing is USO 1000. On the other hand, the association expects the value of the products in September to be US$ is 2333 (Table 12). U pon successful implementation of the system, this should ha ve positive irnpacts on food security leve! of the farmers, more women participating in the economic activities. There are sorne costs that the associations will incur during the warrantage period (Table 13).These costs are to be offset against the revenues from the saJe of the products in September.The credit received is used to pay for these warrantage costs befa re that take place befare September 201 O. To impact on nutrition and health of vulnerable communities in the ClALCA mandate areas, the nutrition and health research component focuses on three broad of objectives: to improve access and utilization of soy beans and other legumes to improve quality of diets of communities affected by malnutrition, to develop the capacity (knowledge, skills and practices) of communities in soy bean processing and value addition to improved dietary quality and to demonstrate impact of consumption of improved diets on nutrition status of vulnerable communities. From the CIALCA baselines, the primary underlying cause of malnutrition in the great lakes regían is poor quality diets characterized by high intakes of food staples, but low consumption of animal and fish products, fruits, lentils, and vegetables, which are rich sources of protein, minerals and vitamins. Staple foods (overwhelmingly Cassava, maize and banana in this example) account for 80 percent of total per capita e nergy intakes. (CIALCA 2008). As such, most of the malnourished are those who cannot afford to purchase high-quality, but also lack access to agricultura! technologies and knowledge to grow and consume these foods on a daily basis. The nutrition and health research strives to contribute to improve quality of diets in these communities by stimulating legume production to increase prote in and micronutrient intake. Iron rich beans are promoted for supply of protein, iron and zinc and soy bean processing i promoted through devel opment of soy mil k, soy bean curd and soy flour to enriched foods regular! y consumed.In partnership with selected health centers and hospitals, 1 O focal point demonstration gardens were developed to show case selected soy bean varieties, iron rich beans and vegetables. NGO partners and fanner groups were mobilization to support and maintain demonstration gardens. Demonstration gardens were used to multiply seed for further distribution, train communities on production and demonstrate skill in food processing and utilization.Planning workshops were conducted in each mandate area to review activities, develop work plans and identify roles and responsibilities of each partner. Over 500 trainers from farmer groups, NGO partners, health centers and hospitals were trained. Training tapies included; processing and utilization of soy beans, hygienic practices in food processing/preparation, cooking demonstrations, food combination and fonnulating a balanced diet. Three nutrition studies were conducted. In Rwanda, nutrient retention studies were conducted to on three soy bean products; soy milk, bean curd and soy bean flour each processed using two different methods. Samples were evaluated at befare and after processes. In addition different soy bean varieties were tested for quality of soy milk. Nutrients evaluated included~ protein, lipids, iron and vitamin A. Samples were processed and evaluated using atomic absorption at the Nationallaboratories of ISAR. In Bukavu, DRC, soy bean acceptability studies were conducted with communities that were not accustomed to consuming soy beans. Soy milk, soy bean porridge, soy flour enriched vegetables and soy bean curd were prepared and served to 37 participants from different institutions. Participants were asked to provide their taste preferences on a hannonized comment sheet developed for this purpose. Results were tabulated for different products. In Bas Congo a study was conducted to determine the impact of consuming soy bean enriched foods on nutrition status of children less than five years of age. 300 malnourished children who were under weight for age were recruited to the study. Mothers were trained on soy bean processing and appropriate child feeding practices. 1 kg of soy bean was given to each child each week with serial monitoring of weight gain per month. The children will be followed up for six month. Monitoring and Evaluation was conducted at 3 levels; (i.) health centers leve!-access to demonstration gardens and overall dietary characteristics of beneficiaries was evaluated after every 3 harvesting seasons (ii Training ofTrainers: Over 600 trainers have been trained in each site. In Rwanda for example, 45 community health workers were trained along with 604 farmer group representatives and 564 women attending post-natal clinics in selected health centers. In Bukavu over 400 trainers ha ve been trained, most of who are from NGO partners. In Bas Congo, over 200 partners from various NGOs ha ve been trained. Further training at the community leve! has mainly been conducted by NGO partners. An evaluation of training outcomes and application of acquired knowledge and skills is on -going.Knowledge about Soy beans and Acceptability studies: Across sites over 80% of farmer group representatives showed significant familiarity with soy beans. 20% of the rural health community grew and consumed soy bean in the past one year but with limited knowledge on processing techniques, negative attitude towards cooking qualities and taste. While only 6% of the farmers regular! y use soy bean flour as a weaning product, they did not grow or process it at borne. The health community particularly in South Kivu and Bas Congo occasional consumed soy milk and Soya biscuits -which they purchased locally. Soy milk and soy bean curd were readily available from a soy factory in central Rwanda In Bas Congo unlike Rwanda and South Kivu more men than women knew about Soy products, only 19% of those who knew soy in Bas Congo were women. Less than 35% of the households consumed soy in the past one year. Generally there was no source of knowledge on soy bean production, processing and utilization across si tes. Majority of the farmers 89% had vague information about the nutrition and health benefits of soy. However sorne of them, 15% had also negative but inaccurate information about side effects of consuming soy. Processed products were tested by different groups. Qualities tested were attributed to general preference, taste, flavor and appearance. Different flavors of soy milk, soy vegetables enriched with milk and flour, soy bean porridge, bread, biscuits and curd were tested. In Bas Congo and South Kivu the most preferred product was soy milk with sugar, 92%, followed by soy porridge, bread and soy enriched vegetables. The least preferred was soy bean curd. In Rwanda, 86% of farmers favored all products. Selected products will be promoted at the l t5com munity le\\ e l for h ou~eho ld consumption and for sa le. Product developml!nt manuals and com modity fact ~heets were ~u mmarized and incorporated in the training guide. Majority of those interested in the recipe deve lopme nt were women. For example, in South Ki vu 70lJc of those involved were women.Soy bean nutrient retention and consumption studies: Preli minary results show that the re are no ignificantly losses in soy bean prote in and li pids given different process ing me thods. However results on vitamins and mine ral did we re did not tall y w ith expectations and provided considerable diffe rence with lite rature. The evaluations will be repcated. Childre n consurn ing soy beans have showed conside rable progress in weight gain at a glance. Preliminary data indicates consistent weight gain in childre n afte r two mo nths of consumption. Comparati ve average weight gain for childre n who consumed soy bean and who d id not consumed soy beans will be the basis for recommendations to scale up suc h inte rve ntions.In significant losses after processes indicate that using soy bean products may improve nutrient quality of foods commonly consumed. With the high acceptability registe red, inc reased production a nd training on soy bean processing and utilization shows promise to improve protein and micronutrient conte nt foods consumed. While agricultu ra! extension workers may have received training in food and nutrition focusing on soy bean processing, the re is much scope for health worke rs to focus on issues of agric ultura! production in relation to food and nutrition security linking locally perceived nutrition related health proble ms and food and agricultura ! issues. An analysis of the steps in the food cha in, including production, application of new processing and pre paration knowledge, skills and practices and consumption of nutritious food baskets may demonstrate and evaluate how specific c hanges affect nutrition outcomes at household leve ! and community leve!.Output 3. Enabling environment Output Targets 2010: Linkages with the prívate sector to improve access to fertil izer and develop recommendations for its use by farmers and other stake holders involved in the humid lowland impact zone.Output 3. Enabling environment Output Targets 2010: Knowledge of extension staff and farme rs that are involved in adaptation and dissemination of ISFM practices on appropriate nutrition and health pract. ices suffic ie ntl y deve loped in the humid lowland impact zone .~O ACTI\\ JTY Outputs (lntended users) Outcome (lmpact) Description: Effective partne rships along Outcome: Partners are involved in addressing each step of the value chain for innovative, all components of the value chains related to effective and efficient dissemination and the ISFM-based production systems. impact.Impact: Improved ISFM-based production Intended users: CGIAR, ARls, researchers syste ms contribute to food and nutrition from NARS and local uni versities, NGOs, security and income and health of farmers in farmers, regional consortia, young the target impact zones. professionals, private secto r agents, extension services, policy makers.Output 4. Effective partnerships: Effective partnerships are needed to ensure that all segments of the value c hain are actively engaged in linking farmer to markets and to e nsure that all aspects of ISFM are addressed. Included in the former partnerships are farmer associations, ac tive govemmental or non-govemmental exte nsion syste ms, private sector entrepreneurs, policy makers, and research for development partners. T he latter partne rships include research for development partners that ha ve expertise in the various dime ns ions of ISFM development and dissemination, including technical, soc ial, econo mic, and policy issues. lmportant to address will be to find ways to full y engage the required partners from project initiation and identify the necessary incenti ves for those partners to remain engaged, e.g., through innovation platforms. Specific attention will be given to appropriate commu nication channe ls and planning and evaluation activities. The major Outcome of th is Output is related to active engagement of all required pa rtners in developing, evaluating, and d isseminating appropriate ISFM practices w ithin the target impact zones.  A national stakeholder consultative workshop was held to discuss and enrich the draft strategy. The strategy propases promotion of the soybean subsector through a coordinated multi-sectoral and multi-institutional focused area approach. The following objectives and actions are suggested as key to successful and sustainable soybean promotion in Kenya.(i) Develop 1 strengthen the capacity to promote soybean production , processing, marketing and utilization (ii) Develop and stre ngthen the capacity for appropriate technology interventions to enhance productivity, seed production and distribution (iii)lmproving and support soybean-processing at the household, community and industrial leve!. The TL li survey was carried out in Kenya and Tanzania, under objective 7. Using a detailed and structured questionnaire, the Tanzania arm of the TL 11 (Soybean) baseline survey was carried out in April-May, 2008. Six trained enumerators carried out the actual data collection in which 240 farmers were sampled. Sorne of the topics covered in the questionnaire for both countries are as follows: genera l information abo ut the household, household composition, resources, institutional settings, and agric ultura! production (crop production, accessibility and producti vity; soybean production including soybean seed syste ms and variety description; and livestock production and marketing). The Tanzania results show that most farmers started planting improved soybean varieties in the last 10 years (> 90%). The proportion of farmers growing both improved and locaJ soybean varieties was 39%, with 14% of farm-size placed under soybean per household. Over 55 % of the farmers received incentives to plant soybean. Lack of seed was the most important constraint for not planting soybean in Tanzania. There were 114 farmers studied in Kenya, with 44% male and 56% female composition. The most important food security crops that play key role in smoothi ng household consumption in western Kenya included maize (33%), beans (25%) and lO other crops that included soybean. Most seeds for planting were sourced from seed companies, markets, saved seeds, other farmers, or researchers. Soybean was mostly sourced fro m saved seeds. Most farmers (58%) expressed that price stability of various agricultu ra! products in western Kenya was low. Various livestock products showed higher price instability than crop products that were investigated. Abstract: Soil fertility decline is the major cause of declining crop yields in the central highlands of Kenya and elsewhere within the African continent. This paper reports a study conducted to assess adoption potential of two leguminous trees, two herbaceous legumes, cattle manure, and Tithonia diversifolia either solely applied or combined with inorganic fertilizer, for replenishing soil fertility in the central highlands of Kenya. The study examined biophysical performance, profitability, feasibility and acceptability, and farmers experiences in managing and testing the inputs. The study was based on a series of studies incorporating both sociological and experimental approaches for two and a half years. Results of on farm trials showed that manure+ fertilizer and tithonia + fertilizer treatments increased yields by more than 100% abo ve the control. These treatments were the most profitable having highest net benefits and benefit cost ratios. They were also the most common\\y preferred by farmers who used them on larger plots compared to the other inputs. In conclusion, cattle manure and tithonia were found to be the organic materials with the highest adoption potential for soil fertility improvement in this area. Calliandra calothyrsus and Leucaena trichandra, on the other hand, ha ve potential for use as animal fodder. The herbaceous legumes had the least adoption potential dueto poor performance recorded on the farms that possibly led to low preference by the farmers. However, issues of sustainable seed production could ha ve played a role. This study recommends sorne policy issues for enhancing adoption and research issues focusing on exploring strategies for increasing biomass production and use efficiency on farrns.Institutional innovation: the potential of the warrantage system to underpin the green revolution in Africa. Abstract: The warrantage or inventory credit system was developed to address the liquidity constraints that farrners encounter while trying to intensify their production systems. The scheme removes barriers to the adoption of soil fertility restoration technologies by ensuring that influence household fertilizer use decisions. A total of 338 smallholder farmers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire in May and June 2008. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the maximum-likelihood estimation of the Heckman two-step model. Analysis revealed that the set of factors influencing the household decision to adopt mineral fertilizers are not necessarily the same as the one of factors having impact on the intensity of use of mineral fertilizers. In fact only 6 out of the 12 factors that had impact on household decisions to use mineral fertilizers had also effect on the intensity of its use, the most important of these being: literacy of the head of household, potatoes plot area and access to extension services. Domestic assets, a proxy variable of household wealth had no effect on fertilizer adoptíon but had impact on the intensity of its use Abstract: The agricultura! intensification through increased use of mineral fertilizers under a prívate-sector oriented input distribution system constitutes one of the Government of Rwanda key objectives. This study focused on analyzing the effectiveness and efficiency of the functioning of the mineral fertilizer market. Descriptive analysis, marketing cost and margin analysis and analytical approaches build on structure-conduct-performance paradigm were used to analyze the data. The latter were collected through surveys of fertilizer traders from September to November 2008. Results showed that no inefficient expenditure was associated with mineral fertilizer distribution and thus, traders were allocatively efficient and earned reasonable margins in a govemment controlled market environment. On the other hand, other they revealed that, (i) even though new traders entered in the fertilizer business in the last five years a good number of others went out of the business; (ii) the fertilizer retailing system was highly concentrated in the Eastem and Northern province; (iii) the existence of horizontal and vertical integration were aimed at increasing the volume of sale rather than improving sale efficiency; (iv) barriers to entry into the sector at the wholesale leve! do exist;(v) shortage of mineral fertilizer at the retaillevel; (vi) the workable competition in the mineral fertilizer marketing did not exist. Thus, the mineral fertilizer marketing system was still unstable and inefficient.Farmer & Researcher Collaboration for pro-poor development, through soybean production. How partnership with farmers made soybean production and its benefits accessible to resource-poor farmers in SW-K en ya. Agricultura! research in the CGIAR is concemed with mobilizing science to benefit the poor (CGIAR, website). In collaborative research, farmers and researchers are considered partners from the initia l stages of the process. While researchers are experts about experimental procedures and biophysical processes, fanners are experts in fanning and have an understanding of the socio-economic and environmental conditions in which research needs to fit. Brought together, their complementary knowledge and expertise allows deve loping agricultura! treatments which have high potential of being accessible and adoptable by resource-poor farmers: \"Research for Development\". The TropicaJ Soil Biology and Fertility lnstitute (CIAT-TSBF) introduced dual-purpose soybeans in the regían of Migori (SW Kenya) in 2005 with the aim to: \"improve rurallivelihoods [ .. . ] through enhanced access to cash income, improved human health conditions, and more sustainable agricultura/ production [ ... /\". The purpose of m y research (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009) was to enhance the impact of this CIAT-TSBF project on the livelihoods of the resource-poor farmers in the region of Migori, by collaborating as partners with the farmers. The research is structured in three maja r sections. In the first, we look at how soybean agronomy could be adapted or contextualized to the resource-poor farmers' context in the region of Migori. ln the second, we identify the constraints which block resource-poor farmers' to accessing the benefits of soybean (soil fertiJity, cash income, nutritious food) and attempt to curb these constraints. In the last section, we compare different strategies of collaboration with farmers and attempt to identify the impact they have on Research for Development.The analytical frame work used in this research was based on two approaches: collaborative experimentation (CE) and farmer experimentation (FE). In the CE zones, we designed and managed experiments together with farmers. The approach proved efficient in identifying appropriate proble ms and treatments. As farmers cou ld judge the feasibility of treatments, we could continuously direct and redirect the treatments to make them better fit their conditions and needs. The CE gave farmers a ground on which to test treatments perceived as \"local\" and \"archaic\" without fearing judgme nt from neighbours. We concluded that inclusion of farmers as equal partners in the research process aJiowed merging their knowledge and the researchers' knowledge into useful, appropriate and adoptable research. The farmer experimentation approach (FE) was initially designed because the research region was too large to organize experiments in all zones. The FE included a larger diversity of treatme nts and could be a source of inspiration for new experime nts. Neve rtheless, the experiments could not be analyzed statistically due to a lack of replicates and problems with the designs.When we compared farmers' soybean fields befare (2006) and afte r (2008) the CE or FE intervention, we found that a larger variety of treatments were used by farmers in 2008 than in 2006 and that farmers had continued experimenting in their own fields. Severa! CE treatments had been adopted by farmers in not only the CE zones but also the FE zones who had not been in contact with the CE experiments. We concluded that the FE approach had created a channel for information transfer and thereby a channel for scaling-out the research results. Finally, we looked at the impact pathway that resulted from inte ntional and unintentional project actions from 2006 to 2008. We concluded that the project went through three major phases: 1) an initial phase of high but often non realistic hopes, during which farmers' interest in the project was at the highest; 2) the breakdown of preconceived hopes, period in which many farmers fe lt deceived and abandoned; 3) the reviva! of the project based on new, more realistic hopes. We identified that the negative effects of the 2 00 phase had been strengthened by communication incoherence and hie rarc hy between C IAT-TSBF, the cooperative, and the farmers. Deciphering the impact pathway aJiowed leaming about past mistakes and successes to further re-direct the ongoing pathway of the project. It highlighted the importance of truthful communication within project members at different levels. As the soybean project is still ongoing, we cannot yet conclude about its final impact.The leaming experience during this project brings me to identify and advocate two major aspects of Pro-Poor Research for Development. 1) 1 advocate the use of local small scale technologies, not only for agronomic production but also for marketing and processing. Local small scale options may not be durable at the long run, but they allow resource-poor farrners to take immediate benefit from the project and to later adjust themselves to altemative and more demanding technologies.Agricultura} market creation is critical for rural growth in Africa. How to achieve this based on crops other than major staples (e.g., maize) and traditional export crops (e.g., tea, coffee, cotton) remains a problem since most African countries do not give them policy attention. This study uses a three-tier-model, developed based on successful strategies in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, to develop multi-level soybean market creation in Kenya.Data were from secondary sources, formal and informal interviews, farrn-level data, and participant observations. Analysis was carried out using Microsoft Excel and SPSS.Result shows increase in farrners' confidence to produce, process, consume, and sell more soybeans than previously. Trained farrners' groups are developing new soybean products for cash, poverty reduction and improvements in livelihoods. Net retums have been increased from four to 14 times from processed products. Selected farrners' groups have begun to supply large-scale processors with soybean graíns, substituting imports. The overall project' s impact on number of participating farrner groups and the actual land area devoted to soybean cultivation ranges from a factor of 2.3 toa factor of 77.4 between the long rainy season of 2005/2006 and the short rainy season of 2009. Farmers have given testimonies on live improvements.This study has demonstrated that through appropriate models, it is possible to usher in agricultura) market and creation for the much desired rural growth in Africa based on the so-caBed non-traditional export crops and the policy-choice crops such as maize.For a survey on livestock production with emphasis on monogastric animals, 20 villages in seven so-called 'groupements' of South Kivu province in DR Congo we re selected mostly along a North-South West axis, with the town of Bukavu in the center. This is one of the ten mandate areas chosen in 2005 by the Consortium for Improv ing Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) to represent di verse agricultura! production conditions, demography and access to markets. Most of the hilly agricultura( land between the National Park of Kahuzi-Biega in the West and Lake Ki vu in South Ki vu province of DR Congo is located at above 1500 m asl.The survey took place in elevations extending from about 900 m asl. in Kamanyola to 1900 m asl. in Burhale. A diagnostic survey approach was employed to rapidly obtain in-depth knowledge of constra ints and opportunities in a defined social, economic, and natural environment. The survey took place during June 2009.From the responses of 11 2 infonnants, it was concluded that livestock is an integral part of the mixed fanning systems in the region of South Kivu, despite their prescntly low numbers per household. Farmers largely concentrate on smalllivestock, such as poultry, pigs, guinea swine and rabbits. Overall , the livestock mostly served for accumulating household reserves that were strongly invested in school education of the children. From the farmers' views, the most important issues of animal husbandry appeared to be related to a nimal diseases and feed resources, particularly in the dry season. Major challenges faced by introducing new a nd more productive forages into the region will be towards the agro-ecological adaptation of such plants with regard to mid-elevations of above 1500 m asl. , prolonged growth into the dry season, high biomass-producing species in order to not use too much space of small farm land, and reducing labor de mand for collecting forages. Four locations are proposed for forage research in South Ki vu province in close collaboration with the CIALCA consortium, Kamanyola, Burha le , and the area of Mumosho/Nyangezi. It was suggested that other lowland areas towards Kasika can onl y be targeted if security has improved.Towards the end of 2009, small plots with forage legumes and grass ha ve been established in Kamanyola, Mulungu, Nyangezi and Tubimbi in order to evaluate ecological adaptation and agronomic perfonnance. Additionally, focus group meetings will be held at these sites to mobilize collective action. These acti vities take place within the BMZ-funded project on \"More Chicken and Pork in the Pot, and Money in the Pocket: Improving Forages for Monogastric Animals with Low-income Farmers\".  Output 5. Stakeholder capacity: All partners that are required to reach the Outcome line goal need to have the requ ired capacity to implement current initiati ves aiming at developing and disseminating ISFM and to continue such activities beyond the timeframe of specific projects. Institutionali zation of the approaches required for backstopping ISFM development and dissemination is going to be c rucial to sustain such activities. Capacity building will include degree-related training, preferably with active linkages with Advanced Research Institutes, and covering all Outputs of the ISFM Outcome line, on-the-job tmining of staff involved in JSFM activities, group training on specific topics, and networking between the various partners. All training efforts will be based on formal capacity needs assessments and tightl y linked to the above Outputs and focused on the target cropping systems and impact zones. Degree-related training that is often foc used on specific research topics will also include the various dimensions of ISFM towards the development of 'T-shaped ' capacity that includes detailed expertise on a few topics and a general know ledge on all aspects of ISFM. The maj or Outcome of this Output is related to the various stakeholders leading the development and dissemination of ISFM practices. The study was carried out in Kilosa and Mvome ro districts of Eastem Tanzania. Maize (Zea mays) was the test crop. Agro-input dealer participatory approach was used in deciding the treatments: the control, 40 and 80 kg N ha• applied with O or 40 kg P ha••, and 80 kg N ha•• as NPK (20 : 10: 1 0). Nitrogen and P sources were urea and Minjin gu phosphate rock (MPR). Soils sampled from a ll demonstration sites were analyzed using standard analytical procedures.Results showed that most sites were deficient in both N and P, with soil pH ranging from 5.6 to 8.2. Maize (var. TMV-1) responded to both fertilizers, with most sites giving higher yields (2.2-2.7 t ha-1) with MPR+urea and NPK treatments. Maize responses to the different fertilizer materials and rates are summarized in (Figure 46). Despite that maize showed a good response to MPR, agro-input dealers noted that MPR was not k.nown to most farmers.  The successful agro-input dealer led demonstration of ISFM technologies was a clear indication of the prospect in involving trained agro-input dealers in related agricultural services extension to reach millions of farmers in Africa and create an overall increase in agricultural productivity and production. One clear and advantageous feature of agro-input dealers' involvement in field demonstrations was that they easily and frequently interact with small-scale farmers. Besides, in explaining the outcome of various demonstrations, agroinput dealers are able to apply local examples that are easily followed and understood by farmers.Output S. Stakeholder capacity Output Targets 2009: Farmer-to-farmer k.nowledge sharing and extension on ISFM through various facilitated activities in all impact zones.Strengthening Agro-dealer capacity in integrated soil fertility management in Kenya and Tanzania Chianu 1 , J and Miyaka, F.Agro dealers were interviewed in Kenya and Tanzania in the TSBF-CNFA project, on various aspects of agro-dealer retail businesses in 2008. Training in various aspects of ISFM knowledge was among the majar aspects that were investigated in both the farmers and scientists.The most important questions that were asked included ISFM capacity, type of training attended and training perceptions, and the training capacity of agro-dealers to train other farmers . Only 39% of the dealers were aware of ISFM as a specific concept, but further investigation of their knowledge showed that more had basic knowledge of core ISFM knowledge. 68% of the dealers were aware of fertilizer recommendations. It took dealers average! y 4-5 months to gain knowledge on various aspects of ISFM knowledge. However, in took them longer to train on how to generate knowledge (mean 4 months), than to share and apply skills (less than 1 month). This indicates that agro dealers are like ly to be more conversant and effective with practical-oriented, rather than theoretical aspects of training. Males took longer period to train in ISFM, than female agro dealers. Most agro dealers (> 90%) advised farmers on fertilizer application methods, and this was their most conversant subject, compared to agro-chemical knowledge. The main trainers who trained agro-dealers were government institutions, international organizations, and agro-industries, mainly through demonstrations.In Tanzania, only 25% of the dealers were aware of ISFM as a specific concept, which was lower than in Kenyan dealers. Dealers took 2.5 months to develop ISFM capacity on various aspects in which males took longer (3 months) than females (2.5 months). In Tanzania it took dealers, the same period of time (2.7-2.9 months) to develop differe nt aspects of ISFM knowledge including knowledge generation, and application of skills.Birachi 1 , E., Owamani 2 , A., Nzamba 3 , R., Mulindwa\\ j. Challenges l. The need to diversify enterprises will improve due to the emphasis placed on group savings and linkage to financia) institutions. A point in reference is the introduction of fruit enterprise-mangoes. 2. There are Low production volumes of identified enterprises. However this is likely to improve due to the acquisition of a walking tractor that will help to expand farming areas. 3. There is also a need to find altemative markets for the identified enterprises particularly ginger. This has been hampered by the fact the marketing committees can only access markets in Hoima due to lack of financia) resources. 4. Weather uncertainty that led to destruction of bean gardens leading to low harvests Photograph 9: A farmer information board.Photograph 10: Farmers weighing soya at the coUection centres.Output 5. Stakeholder capacity Output Targets 2009: Knowledge on principies and processes underlying ISFM _practices embedded in soil fertility management networks and regional consortia.Group training to empower farmer facilitators in East and Central Africa Promotion of CIALCA technologies during exchange visits and field days P. Pypers 1 , A.Chifizi 2 , S. Mapatano 2 , j.M. Sanginga 3 , K. Bishikwabo 3 , T. Ngonga 4 , A.Gahigi 4 , S. Kantengwa 5 , J.P. Lodi-Lama 3 , W. Bimponda 6 , J.J. Nitumbuidi 6 and B. Farmer field days organized in Rwanda and DR Congo, with presence of national or provincial policy makers and nationaJ or regional press agencies.","tokenCount":"35108"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6f13ece2b9eba45d7953e4fe4b474b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c582e67-ff6a-40ed-a84e-1b3b8b6a4aea/retrieve","id":"623459318"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"def3bdad-0268-4978-879b-abb5fda67982","pagecount":"12","content":"Fragile, low activity clay soils, which are prone to erosion and are characterised by inherently low fertility, are common in humid and subhumid tropical Africa. On these soils, forage legumes play an important role in developing sustainable and low input crop production systems. Woody and herbaceous species such as Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium, Flemingia congests and Sesbania rostrata have shown good potential for inclusion in alley cropping systems. Mucuna pruriens var utilis is one of the most promising sources of in situ mulch in small-and large-scale crop production. Live mulches of Psophocarpus palustris and Centrosema pubescens smother weeds effectively and have been shown to sustain high maize yields with little fertilizer N input. Despite the encouraging results obtained with forage legumes on less acid soils, further research is needed to select species that can be included in low-input crop production systems on strongly acid soils.Although a wide range of soil types are found in the humid and subhumid regions of tropical Africa, highly weathered and low activity clay (LAC) soils (Ultisols, Oxisols and Alfisols) are the most important groups used for upland crop production (Kang and Juo 1981). According to Dudal (1980), Ultisols make up 46.7% and Alfisols 12.5% of the land area in humid tropical Africa, while in the subhumid zone Ultisols and Oxisols comprise 25.6% and Alfisols 27.4% of the land area. Some of the major management problems with using these LAC soils for food crop production in the humid and subhumid regions of tropical Africa were reviewed by Hartmans (1981) and Kang and Juo (1981).Ultisols and Oxisols are strongly acid and leached soils, occuring mostly in areas with perudic and udic moisture regimes. These soils are characterised by low cation exchange capacity (CEC), very low inherent fertility, multiple nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn) deficiencies and nutrient imbalances. Toxic levels of Al or Mn or both are among the main chemical constraints to growing crops on these strongly acid soils. Alfisols, which have high base saturation and are less acid, are characterised by inherently low nutrient (N, P, K, S and Zn) status and low structural stability. They are therefore prone to erosion and compaction. Maintaining soil fertility and controlling soil erosion and compaction are thus major management problems in using these soils for crop production.The traditional agriculture that is widely practiced on the LAC soils is changing due to rapid increases both in human population and in the rate of urbanisation. These changes have resulted in the shortening of fallow periods, which are needed to restore and maintain soil productivity and to control weeds. Consequently, crop yields have declined in tropical Africa despite the introduction of improved cultivars. There is therefore a need to identify soil and crop management practices that can maintain soil fertility under more intensive land use. In recent years, interest has increased in the inclusion of herbaceous and woody forage legumes in crop production systems as sources of mulch, green manure and supplementary browse, to develop sustainable and low-input production systems (Brewbaker et al. 1982: Sumberg 1984: Kang and Duquma, 1985). The role of forage legumes in alley cropping, live mulch and in situ mulch systems will be discussed in this paper.In the humid and subhumid tropics, tree crop production, whether in plantations, on smallholdings or in compound farming has generally been most successful on LAC soils, as tree crops are ecologically suited to the environment and cause little or no damage to soil. Traditional farmers retain certain trees and shrubs in their crop production systems to restore soil fertility exhausted by cropping (Moorman and Greenland, 1980;Getahun et al, 1982). In efforts to replace or improve the traditional bush-fallow cultivation, investigations have been carried out on alley cropping, an agroforestry system in which arable crops are grown between rows of woody shrub or tree fallows (Kang et al, 1981;Wilson and Kang, 1981). The shrubs or trees are pruned periodically during the cropping season to prevent shading and to provide green manure for the companion food crop. Thus, the trees and shrubs grown in the hedgerows recycle nutrients and provide green manure, firewood and staking material, as is observed in the bush-fallow system. Alley cropping has the advantage over the traditional system of combining the cropping and fallow phases. Kang et al (1984) reviewed the important characteristics of trees and shrubs suitable for alley cropping. Legumes that meet most of the required characteristics for the humid and subhumid tropics include species of the genera Albizia, Calliandra, Cassia, Flemingia, Gliricidia, Inga, Leucaena, and Sesbania. Information about some of these fast-growing, nitrogen-fixing trees has been assembled by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS, 1980;1983). Among the Albizia species, A. lebbek is the most commonly grown; it can be pruned continuously and provides green material even in the dry season (Whyte el al, 1953). Many Cassia species are unpalatable and toxic, but some, e.g. C. siamea, are used for fodder in some tropical countries. C. siamea is commonly used as hedges in Nigeria and Zaire, and has also been recommended as a shade tree and for soil improvement in Rwanda (Behmel and Neumann, 1982). Yamoah (1985) observed that C. siamea suppressed weed growth and increase maize yields more than Gliricidia sepium and Flemingia congesta in alley cropping with maize on an Alfisol.Sesbania species are herbaceous shrubs or small trees, used mainly for green manure. Sesbania grandiflora, S. sesban (Skermann, 1977), S. aculeata (syn. S. cannabina or S. bispinosa) and, in Mali, S. rostrata (T. Traora, personal communication), are also used as fodder. They have shallow roots and may compete for nutrients and moisture when grown with food crops. Sesbania rostrata is an annual shrub that grows in hydromorphic soils in the Sahel region of West Africa (Berhaut, 1976). It is unique in its profuse stem nodulation. Its beneficial contribution as green manure in rotation with rice grown in microplots in Senegal has been reported by Rinaudo et al (1983). It is also a potential N source for alley cropping with hydromorphic rice (Mulongoy, 1985). Tests done at IITA show that two prunings of S. rostrata planted at 10 cm x 200 cm spacing yielded 3 t DM/ha, which can contribute 70 kg N/ha during the rice cropping season. Sesbania grandiflora has also been tested in alley cropping at IITA but with little success. This species is severely damaged by insects in the area and cannot stand repeated pruning.Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium have been widely tested in alley-cropping systems, and both species are suitable for alley cropping on the less acid Alfisols and associated soils. Their prunings can be used for mulch, green manure and supplementary high quality browse for small ruminants, particularly during the dry season (Sumberg, 1984). On acid soils (pH <5.0), however, both species grow poorly and require liming and phosphate fertilization (Duguma, 1982). There is therefore a need to breed and select woody forage legumes species that grow well with low inputs on acid soils. Hutton (1982) reported several promising interspecies crosses of leucaena for acid soils. Recent observations in eastern Nigeria showed that Flemingia congesta performs well in alleycropping systems on acid soils (IITA, 1983). The junior author observed that in Yurimaguas in Peru, Inga edulis and Erythrina species have good potential for alley cropping on acid Ultisols. The fodder value of these species still needs to be determined.For rapid establishment, these woody leguminous forage species sometimes require inoculation with rhizobium. Leucaea nodulates effectively with only a narrow range of Rhizobium strains (Date and Halliday, 1980). To ensure rapid establishment and N fixation, inoculation with the appropriate rhizobia is therefore recommended. Munns and Mosse (1980) also reported a significant effect of inoculation with mycorrhiza on the use of phosphate, growth, and nodulation of leucaena in pot trials using Alfisols from southern Nigeria. The importance of mycorrhizal inoculation under field conditions still needs to be assessed.Some promising results have been obtained in using Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium in alley cropping with various food crops on the less acid Alfisols (Kang et al, 1985). Observations in southern Nigeria indicate that five annual prunings of leucaena and gliricidia grown in hedgerows spaced 4 m apart yielded over 140 and 230 kg N/ha per year, respectively (Kang and Duguma 1985). Despite the high N yield, supplemental N application was still required to obtain high maize yields (Kang et al, 1981). This was due in part to low efficiency of N in the prunings, as was also reported by Guevarra (1976). It is estimated that prunings from leucaena hedgerows spaced 4 m apart contribute 40 to 60 kg N/ha to the associated maize crop. Besides N. leucaena also recycles large quantities of other nutrients. In one trial conducted on an Alfisol in southern Nigeria, nutrient yields in leucaena prunings amounted to 10.6 kg P. 153.4 kg K, 73.7 kg Ca and 15.9 kg Mg/ha. The long-term cumulative effect illustrated in Figure 1 is very important in alley-cropping systems. Higher maize yields in the long-term alley-cropping plot as compared to the control plot cannot be attributed solely to the N contribution of the prunings but reflect a general improvement in soil conditions. (Kang and Duguma, 1985).Most tropical soils are inherently low in nutrients and are prone to erosion, especially after deforestation and subsequent cultivation with conventional mechanical tillage (Hartmans et al, 1982). Also, traditional farmers in the tropics spend 40 to 60% of their labour time on weeding. Hand or mechanical weeding causes structural deterioration of surface soil and exposes the soil to erosion. Chemical weed control is usually too expensive for these small farmers.Although mulch farming has proven to be effective in controlling soil erosion and in improving soil properties, resource-poor farmers have always been reluctant to adopt conventional mulching, because of the large amount of labour needed to gather, transport and apply the mulch. The search for inexpensive and more attractive mulching methods has led to the development of in situ and live mulch.The term in situ mulch refers to the residues of dead or chemically killed cover crops which are used on the same land on which they were grown (Wilson, 1978). The land is usually left for at least one cropping season under the cover crop to produce the mulch (Hartmans et al, 1982).The live-mulch system is a crop production technique in which food crops are planted directly in a low-growing cover crop with minimum soil disturbance (Akobundu, 1980). This practice is based on the concept of using cover crops in tree plantations. Its main advantage is that it smothers weeds, and it can play an important role in soil conservation and maintenance of soil fertility.Leguminous cover crops are often used for in situ and live mulches because of their ability to fix atmospheric N when they are effectively nodulated by rhizobia. The high forage value of these legumes may make them more attractive to farmers as part of their livestock and crop production system (Botton, 1958).The choice of legumes for live and in situ mulch systems is based on several characteristics. They should be easy to establish, produce sufficient biomass in a short time with little or no fertilizer inputs and nodulate effectively with indigenous rhizobia. Species that grow rapidly and vigorously will be able to smother weeds effectively. They should not increase pest and disease incidence and should be easy to eradicate by inexpensive means. For the live-mulch system, they should be perennial and should not compete with the associated crops.Various forage legumes possess a number of these attributes. A few species were tested for in situ and live mulch on Alfisols at the IITA main station in Ibadan (Okigbo and Lal, 1977;Lal et al, 1979;Akobundu, 1980;Wilson et al, 1982;Akobundu and Okigbo, 1984). Results of livemulch trials in which maize, cowpea and rice were grown with Arachis prostrata, Indigofera spicata, Centrosema pubescent and Psophocarpus palustris, showed that growing maize in live mulches of the last two legumes was the most promising system. The climbing habit of P. palustris and C. pubescens can be controlled by spraying with the growth hormone, CGA 47283, at 2 kg a.i./ha (Akobundu, 1980). Indigofera spicata, Pueraria phaseoloides (Kudzu), Stylosanthes guianensis and Mucuna pruriens var utilis (syn. Stizolobium deeringianum or velvet bean) have been found to be good sources of dead mulch for minimum-tillage systems. Pueraria is adapted to low altitudes and was widely tested as a cover crop and fodder plant before the 1960s in Central Africa and Liberia. Pueraria interplanted in rice fields in Sierra Leone suppressed weeds, increased rice yields and provided fodder after the rice had been harvested (Whyte et al, 1953). Mucuna has been studied widely in Nigeria, Zaire and Zimbabwe for green manure and temporary pastures (Falkner, 1934;Whyte et al, 1953;1979).There are a number of other forage legumes that may have potential as live in situ mulch, such as Centrosema plumieri, Desmodium ascendens, D. canum, D. scopirus, Calopogonium mucunoides and Mimosa pudica. The characteristics of these species have been described by Whyte et al (1953), Botton (1958), Skerman (1977) and Burt et al (1983).Adapted cover crops usually nodulate freely in tropical soils. Some of them, such as Centrosema, Stylosanthes and Desmodium species require inoculation with specific rhizobia for proper nodulation and N fixation (Skerman 1977;Date and Halliday, 1980). In acid soils, legumes generally nodulate less, due to poor survival of the rhizobia and failure of tolerant strains, even if they are abundant, to infect the root hair. The acidity can be corrected with liming if lime is available. Legumes also have a high P requirement for nodule development and optimum plant growth. Plants growing in association with mycorrhiza use native and added P more effectively than plants without mycorrhizae. Many of the tropical legumes are dependent on the presence of mycorrhizae for P uptake (Mosse, 1981). Nodulation and symbiotic nitrogen fixation of some species are even contingent on mycorrhizal infection. Crush (1974) showed that Centrosema sp. seedlings nodulated only when infected with mycorrhizae or when P was applied. Stylosanthes grown in several tropical soils failed to grow adequately or to nodulate without mycorrhizal infection even when P was applied (Mosse et al, 1976).The soil restorative and protective value of organic mulches is well known (Lan, 1984). Scientists working in the tropics showed early interest in using leguminous cover crops for soil restoration (Faulkner, 1934). Results of a series of continuous-cropping experiments using leguminous cover crops, particularly Mucuna pruriens var utilis, conducted in Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1922 to 1951, showed that mucuna improved soil properties but that its effect was not long lasting. Studies by Lal et al (1978) and Wilson et al (1982) also showed improvement in soil physio-chemical properties and biological activities, as measured by earthworm cast production, under Stylosanthes guianensis, Centrosema pubescent, Pueraria phaseoloides and Mucuna pruriens grown for only a short period, as compared with natural fallow. The cover crop improved soil bulk density and soil moisture retention and gave better protection against erosion. We also observed higher microbial biomass under Psophocarpus palustris live mulch than in bare plots (Table 1). Source: K Mulongoy (unpublished data).Forage legumes can fix atmospheric N when they are effectively nodulated, and thus can contribute to the N economy of cropping systems. This potential is currently still underutilised, particularly in the tropics. Little information is available on N fixation by forage legumes in the field in tropical Africa. On low-N soils, the amount of N fixed is closely correlated with legume dry-matter production (Skerman, 1977;Vallis et al, 1983). Annual dry-matter yields of forage legumes that are useful in live and in situ mulch systems range between 1500 and 7500 kg/ha in Africa (Skerman, 1977;Mulongony and Akobundu, 1985), with N yields ranging from 30 toA number of reports have indicated that forage legumes increase the organic matter and N contents of the soil (Tables 1 and 2). Most of these studies dealt with legume-grass mixtures.Observations by Lal et al (1979) and Wilson et al (1982) showed small increases in soil N content ranging from 0.01 to 0.06% over a 2-year period. Source: Lal et al (1979). Mulongoy and Akobundu (1985) studied nitrogen uptake by maize grown in live mulches of Psophocarpus palustris, Centrosema pubescens and Arachis repens. In newly established live-mulch plots, the cover crops and maize competed for N. Poor nodulation and N fixation, aggravated by application of a growth retardant (CGA 47283) used to reduce the climbing tendency of the live mulch, corroborated this observation. Positive N contributions (46, 48 and 2 kg N/ha for the three legumes respectively) were obtained in the fifth cropping season i.e. 2.5 years after establishment of the live mulches and continuous cropping with maize. The positive N contribution may have been due partly to the accumulation of organic matter under the mulch.Plant parasitic mematodes are among the major soil-borne plant pests that are suppressed effectively by the bush-fallow system (Wilson and Caveness, 1980). Forage legumes show a range of susceptibility to species of nematodes. Some of them are not only resistant but create conditions adverse to the pest and, therefore, could control populations of parasitic nematodes when they are used in live or in situ mulch systems. For instance, the population of Meloidogyne incognita, which is not considered as a serious maize pest, increased under Psophocarpus palustris but the number of Helicotylenchus pseudorobustus, the spiral nematode which is harmful to maize, decreased (Hartmans et al, 1982). Such beneficial interactions between the food crop and the legume justify more research on the influence of in situ and live mulches on certain plant pests.Forage legumes, particularly prostrate types such as Centrosema pubescens, Pueraria phaseoloides and Mucuna pruriens, compete with and smother weeds successfully when well established. Research by INEAC in Zaire also has indicated the advantage of using leguminous cover crops such as Pueraria javanica, Stylosanthes guianensis and Calopogonium mucunoides to eradicate Imperata cylindrica in the savannah region (Jurion and Heneray, 1969). At IITA main station, Akobundu and Okigbo (1984) tested several ground-cover crops over a 2-year period to determine their effects on weed competition and maize yield. Maize was planted directly into already established cover crops. Weed infestation was heaviest in Desmodium triflorum, Indigofera spicata and in no-tillage control plots; was moderate in Arachis repens and maize-stover plots; and very low in Centrosema pubescens and Psophocarpus palustris plots. Good maize yields were obtained where weed competition was minimised by the legume cover crop. It is important to note that the thick mulch obtained with some cover crops such as P. phaseoloides can seriously reduce the maize stand, especially with mechanical planting. Martin and Touchton (1982) reported a similar effect on sorghum grown in a legume cover crop.The reason for using leguminous cover crops in rotation and intercropping systems is to obtain sustained and high crop yields with minimum N fertilizer input.Earlier work with cover crops at Moor Plantation in Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1922 to 1951 (Faulkner, 1934;Vine 1953) showed that, though the cover crops have no long lasting effect, inclusion of Mucuna pruriens in the rotation system, supplemented with low fertilizer rates, could maintain adequate maize yields. Faulkner (1934) estimated that the increase in yield of a maize crop following a Mucuna crop was in the order of 700 to 900 kg grain/ha. Kannegieter (1966) also reported increases in crop yield in Ghana following a short-term fallow on which Pueraria phaseoloides was grown. Agboola and Faysmi (1971) observed that intercropping maize with M. pruriens reduced maize yield but intercropping with Calopogonium mucunoides did not affect the maize yield.The same authors (Agboola and Fayemi, 1972) also showed that C. mucunoides intercropped with maize fixed 370 kg N/ha but did not benefit the early corn crop. However, it was of benefit as a green manure for the late cropping season. Wilson (1978) reported increased yield and improved quality of tomatoes grown with an in situ mulch of P. phaseoloides. Lal et al (1978) also observed that, after 2 years, in situ mulches of Centrosema pubescens, P. phaseoloides and Stylosanthes guianensis increased the yields of cowpea, soya bean, maize and cassava. Among the leguminous cover crops evaluated on Alfisols and associated soils at IITA for in situ mulch, M. pruriens was the most promising for both large-and small-scale crop production. In areas with a pronounced dry season of longer than 2 months, the plant dies naturally, leaving 4 to 5 t of dry mulch/ha, suitable for no-till planting. To control volunteers, spraying with low doses of herbicides may be necessary.As live mulch, C. mucunoides gave increases in maize yield equivalent to applying 55 kg fertilizer N/ha (Agboola, 1980). Akobundu (1980) also observed that after five seasons of continuous cropping, maize yields were higher from plots with a live mulch of Psophocarpus palustris and Centrosema pubescens than from bare plots under minimum or conventional tillage. Maize in the live-mulch plots showed little or no N response, whereas in the no-tillage system, maize responded to application of more than 60 kg N/ha. It thus appeared that leguminous live mulches contributed to the N needs of the maize crop. Although good results were obtained on Alfisols, Faulkner (1934) reported disappointing results on strongly acid Ultisols in southeastern Nigeria, mainly due to poor establishment of the cover crops.Some research has been done into developing planted fallows which restore soil fertility sooner and are easier to manage than natural fallows. Paramount to this research is the development of stable, viable and environmentally sound low-input production systems on the fragile LAC soils. Research results thus far have shown that, on LAC soils in the humid and subhumid tropics, fallows have to be included in the farming systems in order to protect the soils and maintain satisfactory productivity. This can vary from one season fallow and use of a cover crop (such as Mucuna) to many years of managed fallows such as alley cropping and live-mulch systems that are economically productive (e.g. leucaena stakes, browse etc).Forage legumes can also reduce the need for N fertilizer in the production system and assist in nutrient recycling. Alley cropping and in situ mulch systems are ready for testing by farmers. More cooperative work, as is currently done between IITA and ILCA in alley farming research, also needs to be carried out on the use of some of these leguminous forage crops for animal production. One important area that needs more research is the selection leguminous species for use on planted fallows and as forage that will perform well on acid soils with low chemical inputs.","tokenCount":"3727"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6b58e27a20d75eeb987b3ef3e63797ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f199d264-81c5-4321-9c48-e2ae0de62779/retrieve","id":"-895641914"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"05e5998d-b3e5-498b-9e5b-caa64b91db3e","pagecount":"31","content":"BASELINE -before the program Rabi 2018/19 MIDLINE -during the program Rabi 2020/21 ENDLINE -after the program Kharif 2022 Control (50 villages) Providing cash incentive Treatment (50 villages)But no real impacts on agricultural production or productivityJoint with Francesco Cecchi, Carol Waweru, ACRE Africa, KALRO 160 champion farmers, each of them working with a shortlisted set of 20 project farmers, were randomly assigned to one of the following treatment arms:No sales of droughttolerant varietiesNo sales of droughttolerant varieties• Insurance take-up significantly higher under PBI than under WBI, especially for women.• Related to significantly improved perceptions of insurance (trust, quality, cover) among female participants in the PBI treatment.• Main caveat: they perceive payouts to be late.Providing PBI increases demand relative to Weather Index-Based Insurance (WBI)Both WBI and PBI have modest impacts on investments in production, but limited impacts on productivity. ","tokenCount":"137"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7377e897c0af4ee5306e16379969e245","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/978158b5-e3af-456d-8d33-1f3c5dfd2fa8/content","id":"811968923"},"keywords":["Mexico","Veracruz","site factors","Zea mays","maize","genetic resources","high yielding varieties","selection","crop management","farming systems","seed testing","small farms","plant production","productivity","production data","welfare economics","economic analysis","innovation adoption. AGRIS category codes: E14 Development Economics and Policies E16 Production Economics Dewey decimal classification: 338.16"],"sieverID":"3b2b41f8-d805-4f25-a0eb-d2cc0a88d66e","pagecount":"49","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR comprises over 50 partner countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Financial support for CIMMYT's research agenda currently comes from many sources, including the governments of Australia,Table 1. Number of maize varieties, races in ancestry, and percent area planted, wet and dry seasons, 1994-96 Table 2.Seed cycles and maize varieties grown over years farming Table 3.Sources of seed for varietal introductions, substitutions, and seed infusions over years farming Table 4.Use of recommended selection and management practices, 1994-96 Table 5.Timing and characteristics of maize seed selection for modern varieties, wet season, 1995 Table 6.Timing and characteristics of maize seed selection for traditional varieties, wet season, 1995 The principal advantage of in situ conservation is that it allows adaptive evolutionary processes to continue in the species that are being conserved. For a cultivated crop species, in situ conservation involves farmers' management of their own genetic resources even as the farmers themselves adapt to a changing environment. Improved seed selection practices and other on-farm breeding strategies have been proposed as a means of providing economic incentives for farmers to continue growing traditional varieties or landraces identified as important for conservation. This paper describes a pilot study among a group of indigenous farmers in the Sierra de Santa Marta, Veracruz, Mexico, who have collaborated in such efforts. The findings raise key issues about the potential impact of such an approach, as well as some useful methodological points for applied economists.In the study area, there is a high frequency of experimentation, exchange, loss, and replacement of seed over time -seed of the same varieties, including both modern and traditional varieties. This poses a challenge for economists' models of varietal choice, which tend to be based on static perceptions of a \"variety\" as well as simplistic distinctions between \"modern\" and \"traditional\" varieties. Seed selection in the study area is not a single event but an iterative, continuous process. Women may be more involved in seed selection than previously thought, which may have implications for the welfare impact of new seed selection practices. Other implications of the study are that (1) the impact of introducing practices to enhance farmers' varieties is likely to be diffuse and difficult to observe, predict, or measure, and (2) in developing analytical models of farmer decision-making as it affects the diversity of genetic resources on the farm, the most appropriate unit of analysis for predicting the effects of some policy interventions is not likely to be the individual farmer or the individual farm household. A better understanding of the \"social infrastructure\" shaping seed and information flows is needed, since in the diffusion of innovations of this type, the seed system is based entirely on farmers and their interactions.Elizabeth Rice, Melinda Smale, and José-Luis Blanco Ex situ and in situ strategies for genetic resource conservation are increasingly viewed as complementary rather than substitutable. In theory, while ex situ conservation is geared toward a relatively small number of known plants and \"fixes\" the genetic material of the plant at the time that it enters the germplasm bank, in situ conservation allows adaptive, evolutionary processes to continue and natural pre-breeding processes to occur. Since the risk of extinction due to some natural or man-made process is greater in situ, ex situ collections serve an insurance purpose (Dempsey 1996;Maxted, Ford-Lloyd, and Hawkes 1997).The classical in situ model for wild species is based on geographical isolation of the target species in a protected reserve. By contrast, in situ conservation of cultivated species necessarily involves farmer management of their own crop populations in the farming systems (Bellon, Pham, and Jackson 1997). Given the way that Mexican farmers manage their maize genetic resources, for example, a model of in situ conservation based on geographical isolation is likely to be inappropriate, even for farmers in traditional communities. In Mexico, Louette, Charrier, and Berthaud (1997) and Aguirre (1997) have shown that the structure of genetic diversity in farmers' varieties depends on the flow of varieties and seeds among households and communities.If the classical model for in situ conservation is inadequate for crop species, what other models do we have to assist us in defining what to conserve and how? Although the historical role of farmers in shaping the evolution of crops and their diversity has long been recognized, rigorous investigations of the complex socioeconomic and scientific issues involved in such farmer-managed conservation efforts have only just begun. 1 Unless these issues are investigated with care, it will be difficult to develop strategies for, and assess the impact of, conservation initiatives.Among the socioeconomic issues that must be examined in regard to in situ conservation, the economic issue of farmers' incentives is fundamental. On-farm crop improvement through breeding and/or seed selection practices has been proposed as a means of encouraging the continued cultivation and adaptation of farmers' varieties while providing them welfare benefits. Although the strategy for on-farm crop improvement will depend on the maize variety or race, as well as the social, economic, and environmental characteristics of the community, such strategies typically include the recommendation that farmers select their seed in their fields from desirable plants. The traditional method of selecting maize seed used by Mexico's farmers does not include plant selection.There are two major -and questionable -assumptions behind the notion that on-farm improvement of farmers' varieties will contribute to conserving maize diversity, even though many such efforts have already been undertaken by various nongovernmental and public organizations. The first assumption is that improving the characteristics of any given landrace will help to prevent the loss of diversity through slowing the replacement of landraces by improved varieties. In fact, improving a landrace by a criterion that farmers identify as economically important may reduce diversity just as readily as it enhances it. Furthermore, whether improved varieties actually \"replace\" landraces or coexist with landraces in a given geographical area is an empirical issue.A second major assumption of on-farm improvement strategies is that they can produce a perceptible impact on the crop's value to the farmer, leading to their adoption and diffusion among farmers. The purpose of the pilot study whose results are summarized here was to record, in detail, the use of recommended seed selection practices (from the plant) by a group of farmers participating in the initiatives of the Proyecto Sierra de Santa Marta, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The study is part of a growing body of research undertaken to analyze the prospects for on-farm improvement as a strategy for assisting farmers to manage and conserve their own genetic resources.Before discussing specific issues of adoption and impact, we summarize key information about the study site and the methods used in the study, and we define terms used in this paper. We then proceed to describe farmers' management of maize genetic resources in the study area. The seed selection technique that was introduced to the farmers is described, and its hypothesized effects are outlined. Next, we examine the evidence on farmers' use of the technique. Implications for the impact of similar techniques and for economic methods are discussed in the final section of the paper.Site Description 2 Soteapan and Ocotal Chico, the two sites where this study was conducted, are small, indigenous communities on the flanks of a rain-forested volcano in the Sierra de Santa Marta, in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. The people of both communities are indigenous Popoluca for whom Spanish is a second language. Literacy rates are low. Around 40% of the population over the age of 15 in the municipality where the communities are located is literate (Paré, Argüero, and Blanco 1994). The area is different from many other areas in Mexico in that off-farm work and migration are fairly uncommon (Rice, Godínez, and Erenstein, forthcoming), a situation not necessarily true of bordering municipalities (Buckles and Perales 1995).The farming system of the area consists of shifting, slash and burn agriculture, with a strong emphasis on subsistence maize production. A sextupling of the population of the Sierra from about 8,000 inhabitants in the early 1900s to nearly 53,000 in 1990 has caused strong land pressure and high rates of deforestation in recent years (Paré, Argüero, and Blanco 1994). Declining fallow periods and low productivity are indicators that the system is under stress (Buckles and Erenstein 1996). Words such as \"poverty\" and the \"hungry months\" of June and September appear in current descriptions of the area (Blanco 1995), in contrast to the 1940s, when Foster (1942) described the shame of a man having to buy maize to support his family. Estimates suggest that now more than half of the households must supplement their own maize with store purchases (Rice, Godínez, and Erenstein, forthcoming).Maize production in the study area is entirely manual, partly because of the steep, rocky terrain. Input use is very low and only small amounts of inputs are used. Herbicides are used more commonly than fertilizer (Paré, Argüero, and Blanco 1994;Perales 1992;Rice, Godínez, and Erenstein, forthcoming). The climate in the area is warm and humid, with 2,000-3,500 mm of annual rainfall. Most of the rainfall occurs between June and January. Wet-season maize, the primary crop, is planted in late May or early June at the onset of the rainy season. Yields are quite low. They were 640-840 kg/ha for neighboring communities over the wet seasons of 1992-93 to 1994-95 (Rice, Godínez, and Erenstein, forthcoming). The dry season lasts from February to May and typically increases in severity with each month that passes; late April and May are very dry (Stuart 1978.) Farmers in the lower areas of the Sierra traditionally plant a second maize crop during the dry season. This crop, known as the tapachole maize crop, is usually planted between the rows of wet-season maize in November. The labor costs associated with such a crop are lower because the clearing and weeding requirements are lower, but the risks are much higher. The tapachole crop is threatened by winds at the beginning of the cycle, drought at the end of the cycle, and by hungry mountain animals throughout (Buckles and Perales 1995).Both of the study sites benefit from the work of the PSSM. From its inception in the early 1990s, the PSSM has used various tools of participatory research to diagnose pressing issues and problems in Sierra communities. The maize production problems identified through this work are associated with the late maturity and tall stature of traditional maize varieties, especially in Ocotal Chico, the upland community of the two study sites described here. 3  In 1993, with technical support from CIMMYT, the PSSM initiated a program to address the maize production issues that farmers had raised. The program had two parts. First, farmers themselves were to screen modern, open-pollinated maize varieties under their own conditions, selecting the best performers for distribution and promotion by the PSSM (Blanco 1996). Next, the PSSM planned to enable farmers to improve their own traditional maize by selecting seed from plants with the characteristics they desired, such as shorter plant height and early maturity. The PSSM began a series of workshops during the wet season of 1994 to teach farmers how to improve their own maize through seed selection and management practices. Approximately 50 farmer-promoters participated in the workshop. These farmers were encouraged to hold their own workshops in their experimental fields. Of the total number of farmers included in the initial work, a group of approximately 100 in four communities (Soteapan, Ocotal Chico, Santa Marta, and Mazuniapan) received new seed and learned about the new seed selection and management practices.The 16 farmers whose practices are described in this paper were the last members of the original group of farmers who still showed any interest in the introduced seed and practices at the time of the study. 4 These farmers come from two of the four communities (Soteapan and Ocotal Chico) that participated in the initial work. The findings emerging from this study are the result of repeated household and field visits to these 16 farmers over five maize growing seasons to monitor their use of seed and recommended selection practices, by variety, from the wet season in 1994 through the wet season of 1996.Because of his close relationship to the farmers and his previous research in the area, the principal investigator was able to supplement a standard set of data collected in each cycle with information from a field diary and informal discussions with farmers. As the study evolved and issues such as those related to women's role in seed selection emerged, informal discussions were augmented by more structured interviews.In the tables that follow we report quantitative data, but when the farmer or farm household is the unit of observation, readers should bear in mind that the number of farmers is small. Since the original purpose of the study was to document the use of seed and selection practices for each of the varieties planted in each cycle, and since these few farmers grow a large number of varieties and use many seed lots over five growing cycles, the numbers of observations are not so restricted for variables describing maize varieties and seed.A pilot study of this type is not intended to be representative of farmers' practices in the study zone or other study zones. Instead, the detailed information obtained in multiple visits with cooperating farmers is useful for raising issues and formulating hypotheses for further research. Where it is possible and directly relevant to do so, we have drawn on related research.A race of maize is a subdivision of a species that typically contains numerous varieties grouped according to similarities in morphological and genetic characteristics. Of the 40 maize races reported for Mesoamerica, 31 are found in Mexico (Bretting and Goodman 1989). In this study, races have been identified principally by their ear characteristics, as defined in Wellhausen et al. (1952).Here, a variety of maize refers to a maize population as it is recognized and named by farmers. Whether the population is the product of a national or international breeding program, or the product of the seed selection and management practices of a farmer and farm family, we refer to it interchangeably as a variety or farmers' variety. Modern varieties are varieties that have been developed by a national or international plant breeding program, and they include the first generation and advanced generations that have been grown for many years by farmers. Traditional varieties, whether they originate in the survey communities or have been introduced from other communities, are selected and developed by farmers.To analyze the intravarietal flow of seed among farmers, we have adopted the term seed lot as originally used by Louette (1994). A seed lot consists of all kernels of a specific type of maize or variety selected by a farmer and sown during a cropping season to reproduce that particular maize type or variety. A variety then comprises all of the seed lots bearing the same name. A seed lot can be thought of as a physical unit; a variety is associated with a name.Seed selection, as we refer to it, is the choice of seed for the next season's maize crop. Seed may be selected in several different places at different times and may assume different forms. Plants in the field may be marked for seed, \"good\" ears may be set aside when grain is processed for food, and a \"selection event\" may occur when many ears are selected at once from a stock of maize grain or seed. All of these seed selection procedures are considered here. Seed management refers to the treatment and storage of seed.Choice Variables in Farmers' Management of Genetic Resources Bellon, Pham, and Jackson (1997) have described farmers' management of genetic resources as not only the varieties they maintain, but as the management processes that the varieties are subject to, and the knowledge that guides these processes. They identify several components of farmers' management of genetic resources, including: (1) the choice of variety, (2) seed flows, and (3) seed selection and management. These components can be conceptualized as the dependent variables that one may want to explain in a study of the bases of on-farm conservation, or as behavioral variables one may want to influence in a project whose goal is to foster it (such as an on-farm breeding project). Here, we use this structure primarily as a means of describing the setting in which recommended seed selection practices were introduced. This enables us to identify some major issues that are relevant to the adoption of seed selection practices and their potential impact.Like other farmers in Mexico, farmers in the Sierra de Santa Marta have traditionally grown many varieties of maize, distinguished primarily by the color and form of the grain, the thickness of the cob, and by consumption preferences in the communities where the farmers live (Herrera 1996). Over the years since they began cultivating their own fields, survey farmers have grown 34 named varieties. The full list of maize varieties (modern and traditional) grown by farmers in the survey zone from the year they began cultivating their own fields, as well as the racial classification of the variety, is shown in Appendix A, Tables A2 and A3.Here and in the Appendices, varieties have been categorized as: (1) modern maize (including both white and yellow maize); (2) traditional white maize; (3) traditional yellow maize; and (4) traditional black maize. These categories reflect the fact that survey farmers themselves refer to their maize by its color and whether or not it is improved (mejorado).Modern yellow maize has been grouped with modern white maize. 5Farmers participating in the PSSM initiative grew 30 varieties over the five survey seasons, although the number of races in the ancestry of these varieties is relatively small and most of the modern and traditional white varieties that dominate the maize area are based on Tuxpeño populations. In the dry season, as compared to the wet season, fewer farmers grow maize, fewer varieties are grown, and the modern maize varieties introduced through the PSSM and CIMMYT are more important as a percentage of the maize area (Table 1; see also details in Appendix A, Tables A4-A10). This planting pattern was unforeseen but is easily explained by the agronomic characteristics of the varieties. The modern maize varieties distributed through the PSSM mature more rapidly and are shorter than traditional varieties, which enables them to escape or resist the strong northern winds and hurricanes which blow through the area. The materials from CIMMYT's drought-stress program tolerate dry spells, and all varieties yield as well as, or better than, traditional varieties. 6In general, no single variety fits all of the production conditions (rainfall, temperature, altitude, growing period, slope of field) and meets all of the end uses of maize (tortillas, cash grain sales, feed, specialty foods) for farm families in the survey communities. Yellow maize (either traditional or modern), according to the farmers surveyed, \"grows well on the mountain.\" Its relatively short growing period (compared to traditional white maize) and its heavy, crystalline grain make it attractive to producers because of its resistance to wind and insects; it also yields well (farmers' statements; Perales 1992;Stuart 1978). Black maize is grown especially for the production of pozol. 7 Households clearly prefer black maize as the basis of pozol, and there is some disagreement about the extent to which other categories of maize can also be used. Details on production and consumption characteristics of varieties grown by farmers are found in Appendix B.Cultivation patterns and the discussions of varietal characteristics among participating farmers illustrate a point that recurs in the literature on varietal choice in developing countries. Farmers in these indigenous communities typically grow more than one variety per season (they also grow a different mix of varieties in dry and wet seasons). Several approaches from microeconomic theory can explain this essential feature of their farming system, including risk management, transactions costs, fixity of related production inputs, and learning behavior or experimentation (Meng 1997;Smale, Just, and Leathers 1994). The detailed information that was collected from the survey farmers also suggests a slightly different way of thinking about a farmers' choice of varieties. A variety can be considered a bundle of characteristics or a multidimensional vector of traits (Bellon 1996). Usually no single variety contains all of the characteristics a farmer seeks. In some sense, to a maize producer, characteristics are \"fixed\" in the short term, meaning that they are specific to varieties or types of maize. To satisfy all the requisites of their soils and climate as well as the types of products they seek, farmers plant combinations of varieties. 8These findings raise another important point regarding the relationship of modern varieties to the diversity of varieties grown in farmers' fields. In communities where varieties must 6 The major disadvantages of the modern varieties are their thinner husks and poorer husk cover, which can result in ear rot and insect damage during field and home storage. Modern white varieties are typically considered by farmers to have heavier weight per unit of volume than traditional white varieties and to possess whiter grain, and thus they are preferred for cash sale. Modern white maize is usually sold soon after harvest to avoid storage problems with these relatively thin-husked varieties. 7 In these communities, pozol is a lightly fermented drink. 8 Maize breeding can be thought of as a way of relaxing the \"fixity\" of traits in varieties. A potential contribution of professional maize breeders to the work of Mexico's maize farmers includes methods to increase the speed and efficiency with which farmers can re-bundle the characteristics they value. Some characteristics are more easily changed by farmers than others. In this project, farmers were attempting to move the traits of short stature and early maturity (\"fixed\" in modern varieties) to their own traditional varieties.satisfy multiple concerns related to production and consumption needs, the equilibrium adoption state may be one in which modern varieties coexist with, rather than replace, traditional varieties. This point is supported by previous research in the survey area (Perales 1992) and generalized in related research by Bellon (1990) and Brush (1995).A grasp of how seed flows from farmer to farmer is essential to understand the potential adoption, diffusion, and impact of strategies aimed at improving germplasm on the farm. Detailed field research by Aguirre (1997), Louette (1994), Louette, Charrier, and Berthaud (1997), and Louette and Smale (forthcoming), using different analytical tools and conducted in different regions in Mexico, has documented the significance of seed exchange among farmers in the genetic composition of maize races and traditional varieties.In their research on beans, Sperling, Scheidegger, and Buruchara (1996) have emphasized that in adoption studies it is important to understand the mechanisms and social institutions through which farmers obtain their seed from other farmers. In addition to the biological characteristics of the crop, the agroecological and socioeconomic environment in which the crop is grown shapes farmer-to-farmer seed transfer systems and affects the success of proposed systems. Sperling, Scheidegger, and Buruchara (1996) found that the \"circle of diffusion\" among farmers is \"socially narrow.\" Not everyone who asks for seed obtains it. Seed targeted for stressful environments moves more slowly than \"highly productive\" seed. Some desirable seed can disappear altogether when socioeconomic or environmental disruptions end the season's production.Figures 1-2 and Tables 2-3 are constructed from the recollections of farmers participating in the PSSM initiative (see Appendix C for additional figures). In detailed interviews conducted over several visits, farmers recalled their seed sources and seed use over the full span of years in which they cultivated maize. Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate how the story of a Mexican farmer's maize seed is interwoven with his or her own life. In Figures 1 and 2, cycles of seed introduction, loss, and replacement for the maize varieties grown by survey farmers are plotted, along with major junctures in farmers' lives. Each farmer 's lifecycle, and thus his or her maize seed cycle, begins in the family home and continues to the present. Varieties that farmers continue to plant are indicated with an arrow. For varieties that farmers cease to plant, we distinguish between varieties that were abandoned (an intentional end to planting) or lost (an unintentional end). We also record the reasons for abandonment or loss. The source of seed for later varietal introductions or seed changes, or infusions of new genetic material into varieties under cultivation, is also recorded. The lifecycles and seed cycles range from 8 to 38 years in length, depending on the number of years each farmer has been cultivating his or her own fields. Figure 1 presents an example of how farmers experiment with their local maize: the first yellow maize that this farmer grew was something he picked up along the road. After a few years, he decided that he no longer liked that particular yellow variety, but he still liked that class of maize and changed to another yellow variety. In 1976, this farmer changed his black maize variety, not because of unsatisfactory yield or plant height, but because he preferred the color of the pozol that the new variety produced. From son.Fr om son. From brother.From father.Found on the road.From father.Replaced because he didn't like the variety.From neighbor.Note: was not completely lost in hurricane. Only supplementary.Traditional whitesFrom father.Gift from someone in Piedra Labrada.From PSSM.From son-in-law.Replaced because he liked the color of Chi'chy+kmok mor e.In the case of white maize, which occupies most of the maize area in the study sites, the first farmer keeps two varieties. Although both varieties have been continuously cultivated, neither of the seed \"lifelines\" is unbroken. At different points, both varieties have been lost and recovered -from the farmer's father in the early years and from his son in later years. In this case, the unit of seed conservation appears to be the immediate family, although the father and son do not reside together. In other seed cycles, the source of seed is neither the immediate nor the extended family.The seed cycles reveal the high frequency of changes in farmers' seed, among both modern and traditional varieties. Recently many modern maize varieties have been introduced into the study area, and major social changes, such as land reform, have occurred as well.Figures 1 and 2 show especially high rates of experimentation and turnover in both modern and traditional varieties during this period. Figure 2 presents the example of a producer who grows predominantly modern white varieties and traditional black varieties. Over the past few years, this farmer has experimented with up to five modern varieties at the same time, eventually deciding not to continue cultivating most of them.Some of the information in the seed lifecycles is also summarized numerically in Tables 2  and 3. Table 2 shows that, on average, farmers have grown three varieties each of modern maize and traditional white maize, although most of the modern varieties have been cultivated in the seasons since their introduction by the PSSM. Fewer traditional yellow and black varieties have been grown by farmers over time, but a traditional black variety tends to be grown for longer than other categories of varieties. Traditional white and black maize varieties have been cultivated by survey farmers in about 20 out of the 25 years since they began growing them, while farmers began growing yellow and modern varieties only about a decade ago. For all categories of maize, however, the cultivation of varieties is discontinuous. The average number of years in cultivation is less than the average number of years since each type was cultivated from beginning to end.In Table 2, changes in varieties are categorized as introductions, substitutions, and abandonments. Changes in seed are categorized as losses or infusions. An introduction means new cultivation of a variety that has not been grown by the farmer for more than a year. The same variety can be introduced more than once if the introductions are separated by more than one year. A substitution of one variety for another must occur within one year of the end of cultivating the previous variety, and it is not applicable to the category of modern maize, which was introduced so recently. Abandonment is the intentional end to cultivation of a  From store in Acayucan.Traditional whitesFamily homeFields in El Encincal Fields on edge of urban zone H-107 From father.Improved white.From PSSM.From store in Acayucan.Gift from a friend.Fondo 16V-532 Híbrido V-530Problems with rot. Susceptible to chahuistle.Ears too small. Susceptible to chahuistle.Lost because badgers ate seed after planting.Food grain from the store.From neighbor.T++chpoopmok . .Kaanmok.From friend.Chi'chy+kmok .From father.Lost with Hurricane Roxanne.source of introduction years of cultivation loss of variety (unintentional) abandonment of variety (intentional) variety. Loss is the unintentional end to cultivation of a variety when seed is lost (for example, because of a poor harvest or insect infestation). Whether or not it has been lost, seed can also be infused when the farmer receives or obtains new seed for the same variety.Survey farmers introduce modern varieties into their planting patterns more than other types of maize, but they also abandon them and lose seed for them more frequently. Some survey farmers grew modern varieties as early as 1960 and 1967, but the cultivation of modern varieties is patchy (not continuous over time), because the varieties tend to lose their distinctive characteristics and are not replaced. Seed losses among modern varieties have occurred rapidly within the past few seasons. Difficult weather conditions have undoubtedly influenced this pattern, although it is not clear how atypical the past seasons have been. Seed infusions of modern varieties -including replacements for seed lossesare lower than infusions of traditional maize varieties. In many ways, the patterns of cultivation for modern varieties look like the patterns of cultivation for traditional white maize, compressed from 30 years to 5.Farmers also introduce traditional maize varieties and frequently substitute one traditional maize variety for another. Among the categories of traditional maize, white maize varieties are introduced, substituted, and lost most often. Like traditional white maize, black maize has high rates of infusion of new seed to supplement or replenish continuing cultivation of the same variety. High rates of infusion suggest that the varieties are highly valued by the farmers and that seed sources are available. When the number of varieties grown by farmers is considered, the rate of introduction and substitution is similar for traditional white and black maize.The distribution of varietal introductions, substitutions, and seed infusions by source of seed is shown in Table 3. Among categories of traditional maize, the most important seed source is the family, both when the farmer begins cultivating his or her own fields and later, as a source of seed infusions for varieties in cultivation. In survey households, seed has typically been passed from parent to child (or grandparent to grandchild). Friends or neighbors outside the extended family are a significant source of seed for traditional varieties, however. Two survey farmers \"found\" yellow maize (in a tree after a hurricane, and picked up on the side of a path) and began to grow it as their own traditional maize. In each case, it was the first yellow maize the farmer had ever grown. One of the farmers is still growing the variety. The primary sources of seed for modern maize are, as expected, the PSSM or the store. The data also reveal some movement through the traditional channels of family and friends, which begins to appear several years after the introduction of a modern variety.By historical seed selection and management practices, we mean \"the ways of the ancestors,\" as represented in literature sources. There is no unique set of historical seed selection practices because they were undoubtedly community-specific, although some practices may have been fairly common and others may have spread more widely through intermarriage between communities. Some seed selection practices are described in Stuart (1978) for the study area. Historical ways of storing seed included thatched granaries raised above the ground. These were filled with maize and fires lit beneath them (the fires were maintained for months and up to a year) so the smoke would drift through the loosely woven floor and preserve the maize (Perales 1992;Stuart 1978). The loft (tapanco) system operates in much the same way: maize is stacked in the loft above the kitchen and smoke from the cooking fire drifts up and protects the maize. No granary structures can be found in the study area, but the tapanco system, although rare, is still in use.In this paper, the \"traditional\" seed selection practices described by survey farmers are those used in recent history or before the selection techniques were introduced and recommended by the PSSM. No detailed, systematic baseline study on seed selection practices was conducted prior to introducing the new techniques. Our view of \"traditional\" practices is derived from descriptions in the literature and interviews with farm households.Traditionally, maize was harvested and carried home, where it was used to make a raised platform (estiba) stacked high with maize ears, still in their husks. Most of the literature states clearly that maize is selected soon after the harvest, either at home or in the field. The selection was either done or supervised by the male head of the household (Stuart 1978;Baez-Jorge 1973). The farmers we spoke to added that every few days, as a farm woman removed maize ears from the estiba to prepare nixtamal (the mixture of maize grain and lime that is made to prepare the maize grain for grinding), she would set aside the \"best\" ears for seed. She would remove all but three leaves of the husks, knot them with the remaining leaves of another ear, and hang the pair over a beam in the kitchen, a rafter, a hook, or a tree. As it accumulated, the seed she selected came to resemble and was called \"the pineapple\" (piña). Before planting, the farm woman, her husband, or both together, would select seed maize from these ears. Ears with rotted grain or grain eaten by insects would be discarded, and the good ears shelled, bagged, and planted. There was, of course, variation in this system among households and between years.Both Stuart (1978) and Perales (1992) noted that when farmers in the study area selected seed, they did not appear to select for desirable characteristics such as reduced height and rapid maturity. Farmers did not select from maize plants, but from harvested ears. Nor did they differentiate between seed for the wet and dry seasons, although the planting conditions are markedly different for each cycle. In 1994, the PSSM introduced a set of recommended seed selection and management practices, which consisted of the following:1. Marking desirable plants, with chalk or a tie, in the field.2. Selecting plants in the center of the field (within five rows from its boundaries) to reduce \"contamination\" from other varieties. 3. Selecting plants under good competition (from one plant in a group of ten plants, every 5 m or every fifth lot of 3 or 4 m 2 ), and with large ears, to ensure healthy, robust plants. 4. After harvest, in the home, selecting seed ears from the ears of marked plants based on other ear characteristics (size, healthy and dry kernels, well-filled ears, ears with more rows, ears with straight rows, relevant type and color of grain). 5. Using seed from the center of the cob only. 6. Dusting the seed with insecticide or ash and storing it separately in a dry place.Plants were to be marked at a time consistent with the farmer's objective. For example, a farmer wanting to select for early maturity would mark the plants that flowered first (which implies selecting during the flowering period). The PSSM recommended that farmers mark the number of plants that would yield twice their seed requirements, to allow for subsequent losses from rotting or insect damage. No particular storage container was recommended, although farmers were encouraged to take care by separating seed maize from food grain, dusting it with ash or insecticide, and storing it in a dry place.The recommended seed selection and management practices were introduced in conjunction with modern seed, but they were explained as a way to control for desirable characteristics in traditional maize. The assumption behind the introduction of the technique was that by encouraging farmers to improve their own traditional varieties by using recommended seed selection practices, the PSSM and participating farmers would help maintain the diversity of the maize grown in the study area by enhancing farmers' welfare. The recommended practices were, in some sense, meant to counterbalance the introduction of improved seed which occurred as the other part of the research plan (Buckles, pers. comm).The effect of using these practices to improve maize yield or other characteristics is not known conclusively. Points (1), ( 2), (3), and (6) are deduced from the theory and practice followed by plant breeding programs. Points (4) and ( 5), however, reflect farmers' \"traditional\" practices in Mexico. Farmers believe there is a relationship between the size of the seed and the vigor of the plant (Aguilar 1982:74-75). Louette and Smale (forthcoming) have analyzed the effects of selection based on ear characteristics and the relationship of ear characteristics and varietal ideotype. Unpublished results of germination tests indicate that the top kernels had a lower germination rate than the base and center kernels. Furthermore, kernels at the top of the ear are often damaged by birds, insects, and fungi. No justification is apparent for excluding the base kernels, however (Louette and Smale, forthcoming).Table 4 shows how participating farmers used the recommended practices during the study period, by percentage of seed lots, for modern and traditional varieties. In general, farmers who adopted the practice made few modifications. Almost all of the seed they selected was from the center of the field from plants in good competition. Seed lots contained an average of 100-150 ears. Whether farmers chose to select seed in the field or not, most of them shelled their seed maize from the center of the cob and dusted stored seed with insecticide to minimize storage losses. 9These practices were followed for both modern and traditional varieties but used with greater frequency on modern varieties, even though in introducing the practices the PSSM emphasized their suitability for traditional varieties. Farmers often describe modern 9 No particular storage practice was recommended for seed, and the recorded information on shelling and bagging is not as complete as other information. Most seed maize seems to have been bagged, and less of it was shelled.The high frequency of bagging may reflect only the fact that with the small harvests it was a good way to separate seed maize from maize to be used for food.varieties as needing more \"care\" than traditional varieties, which may (or may not) reflect modern varieties' relative adaptability to the specific growing environment. Farmers may also have associated \"new\" techniques and \"new\" seed because they were introduced at the same time and are often associated either deliberately or unconsciously in promotional campaigns.The percentage of seed lots selected from plants in the field declined in each season, however. For traditional varieties, the practice appears to have been discontinued entirely in 1996, despite several farmers' statements that they had achieved desired changes in plant height through selecting seed from shorter plants. These statements are hard to support, given the small number of seasons in which farmers selected for plant height. The practice was not used in either dry season on traditional varieties, since few traditional varieties are planted in the dry season (see Table 1). The large decrease in the percentage of seed lots selected from the plant between 1994 and 1995 is also difficult to explain with the information we have. We do know that much of the 1995 crop was lost long before the plants reached flowering (because of hurricane damage), reducing the chances for applying the practice. We also know that, following the reorganization of land use rights that accompanied the recent land reform, some of the survey farmers began cultivating plots in different, more distant areas, which would have increased the time required to apply the practice.Labor is likely to influence the attractiveness of selection techniques for farmers. Although marking plants should not be particularly time-consuming, farmers' fields in Ocotal Chico are far from their homes and located on steep slopes. The timing of labor requirements is also critical, since a major source of cash income -coffee -competes with maize for labor in certain periods. By the close of the study period, none of the participating farmers in Ocotal Chico, the coffee-growing community, was selecting plants in the field.Referring to a labor-intensive, on-farm selection program to improve seed quality and resistance to disease in beans, Sperling, Scheidegger, and Buruchara (1996) reported that the yield advantage of 14% was \"not very convincing for those who had to do the extra maintenance.\" They concluded that opportunities for improving the quality of bean seed proved less attractive to farmers than access to new genetic material and varietal diversity for a range of environments. Zimmerer (1991) has argued that acute labor shortages resulting from seasonal migration have undermined the management of multiple crops and varieties in a traditionally complex cropping system in Peru. In the two survey communities described here, migration is not as great and therefore the opportunity cost of farm labor is not as high as it is in many other Mexican communities. In a Oaxacan community in Mexico, García-Barrios and García- Barrios (1990) identified \"diversity management\" as first in a list of three agronomic characteristics of pre-Hispanic maize systems that labor migration seriously threatens. 10  On the other hand, there is anecdotal evidence that farmers other than those surveyed have adopted the practice or the improved seed that resulted from surveys farmers' use of the practice. A few producers went on to sell the seed they had selected in the field. More modern maize was sold than traditional, and less and less maize was sold over time.(Furthermore, seed from marked ears was stolen from the fields of some farmer-promoters.)Finally, the adoption patterns for the improved maize seed introduced at the same time as the recommended seed selection practices bear mention. From the year of introduction in 1993, in each season, the percentage of producers growing each of the 27 varieties jointly tested by PSSM and CIMMYT has declined. This is true even for the two varieties released by the Mexican national research program, INIFAP (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias), which were grown in the area prior to the project. Although the percentage of farmers growing each variety may have declined, there is no clear pattern among varieties in total areas planted. These data represent a small number of farmers and a brief time period. Furthermore, Hurricane Roxanne caused large losses of seed after the wet season in 1995, although losses of that type may not be atypical in the Sierra de Santa Marta. The difficulty that participating farmers have had in using the seed and the recommended practices in each cycle has implications for research impact, even if it is too early to conclude that neither the seed nor the practices have been \"adopted.\" 11\"Current\" practices are those used by survey farmers since the introduction of the new technique. These practices are a mixture of traditional practices and those recommended by the PSSM. In Tables 5 and 6, we have structured the detailed information obtained through formal and informal interviews to depict current seed selection practices in five phases. The phases may occur simultaneously, and some phases may be practiced to the exclusion of others.Four of the phases are discrete events: 1. Selection of superior plants in the maize field around flowering time and separation of ears from marked plants at harvest time. 2. Selection of a bulk of maize ears when the harvest is brought to the house. 3. A second selection of a bulk of maize ears from the stored maize at some time between harvest and the next season's planting. 4. Selection close to planting time. Preplanting seed selection occurs an average of ten days before planting among those who practice it.Among the five phases, the fifth -selection of seed when maize is prepared for food -is unique in that it is a continuous process in which a few ears of maize are set aside each day, and these accumulate over a longer period. We hypothesize that ignoring this phase when recommending new seed selection practices may have implications for selection criteria and for the success of the proposed innovation. These implications are related to whether men or women or both assume responsibility for seed selection, in which phase, and for which characteristics they select.Traditionally and currently, selection of maize seed in these communities is an iterative and continuous process. For the 1995 wet season, members of survey households selected seed of traditional and modern varieties two to three times, in distinct phases and ways. The most common phase of seed selection practiced by survey households was selection immediately before planting. As expected, differences emerge in the selection practices for modern and traditional varieties.Seed selection practices are less iterative for modern maize varieties than for traditional maize (Table 5). Seed for modern maize varieties tends to be selected in the earlier phases, with more selection occurring in the field and immediately after harvest. Most often, modern maize is shelled, bagged, and treated with insecticide at that point. Before planting, this same seed may be subjected to the \"water test\" in which good kernels with the endosperm intact sink to the bottom of a bucket of water, and bad kernels (rotten or insect-infested) float and are strained off the top to be discarded.By contrast, seed for traditional maize varieties tends to be selected in the phases that occur later in the season (Table 6). More of the seed for traditional varieties is selected from stored seed, particularly during food preparation. This finding reflects the fact that modern maize has less husk cover and is known to be vulnerable to insect damage in storage. 12 Traditional 'piñ-n+piñmok, are treated more like modern varieties than traditional ones in this respect.For both modern and traditional varieties, bulk selection from stored maize later in the season is not very common (about one-fifth of the households) and is generally provoked by a problem, such as insect infestation or an apparent shortage of food maize putting pressure on seed supplies. In other cases, the second, bulk selection takes the form of a more complete selection, done by the women of the household, almost immediately after the men have completed a rapid initial selection of the harvested ears. Often this second phase of bulk selection replaces the more traditional continuous selection that occurs as ears are removed for food preparation.Although the selection of seed immediately before planting is more common for traditional than for modern maize varieties, in either case, most of the selection is a revision of the existing seed collection. When households separate new maize seed, it is usually because the amount they have already set aside is not enough (because of insect problems, a change in planting plans, and so on). For both modern and traditional varieties, the majority of households use insecticides on their shelled maize before planting, with the intention of protecting it in the ground. Hanging seed from a beam in the kitchen is typically associated with setting aside good ears during food preparation but also occurs after the first and second bulk selections. In years of low production, such as 1995, some households do not have enough maize to make an estiba, and they store their maize in bags instead. Selecting unshelled maize for seed and putting it into bags is usually just a way to separate seed maize from other maize. Bags of shelled maize, however, seem to be associated with modern maize, introduced methods, and powdered insecticides.Despite the fact that modern varieties are considered more vulnerable to insects than traditional varieties, insecticides are used almost as frequently on traditional maize. Perhaps survey households regard the use of the insecticides on traditional varieties as insurance or a way of cutting potential losses. Since they produce little surplus above subsistence needs, the value of losses below subsistence levels could be great. However, the increased use of insecticide on traditional maize may have implications for genetic resistance to insects in storage, since farmers are no longer directly selecting for that trait by using ears that have resisted insects throughout the season. The use of insecticide (typically Graneril) on maize grain also appears to be \"contagious\": the insecticide is not only used on grain for seed, but also on grain that is used for food. Frequently, in both cases, the insecticide is \"painted\" on the outside of unhusked ears.The data in Tables 5 and 6 also strongly suggest that men and women have different roles in seed selection. Selection of superior plants in the field is almost exclusively accomplished by men, and setting aside of good ears during food preparation is almost exclusively the domain of women. The selection of seed in bulk from harvested maize, and the later bulk selection from stored maize, appear to be the responsibility of either men, women, or both. Men tend to select the seed immediately before planting. In these households, men generally plant the seed.Although women in the survey households participate substantially in nearly all phases of selection, when asked directly whether they \"select\" seed (seleccionar), they typically answer \"no.\" They answer \"yes\" when asked if they \"set aside\" (apartar) maize for seed. The term \"selection\" seems to have a very specific definition and appears to be related to the practice of selecting superior plants or to the selection of seed immediately before planting. These are primarily the tasks of men.Modern varieties in general also appear to be more the domain of farm men than of farm women. There are several cases in which women are responsible for all levels of seed selection of the local varieties, whereas men take responsibility for all the seed selection among the modern varieties. The most obvious explanation for this finding is probably similar to that generally cited for other agricultural innovations. Farm men more frequently attend and speak at group meetings held to introduce new farming practices, unless the meetings are specifically arranged for women or to include both men and women in the learning process. The farmers in the sample are those who presented themselves voluntarily to participate in the PSSM initiatives. Only one participant is a woman, although both men and women in participants' households were interviewed in the monitoring survey.In some sense, however, once the harvested maize enters the house, it becomes the domain of the women of the household. For example, even among farm households that are using the practice of selecting plants in the field, a discordance often remains: while the men select plants and select seed immediately after harvest, and consider their seed finished and ready for planting, the women continue to set aside \"good\" ears as they remove them from the estiba during food preparation. They may then sell or barter their seed maize locally. However, if the men have insufficient seed for the next planting, they may select from the seed the women have set aside.In 1942, Foster noted that \"division of labor along gender lines is found to be less marked in Popolucan culture than in many other communities. Women engage at times in even the heaviest field work, and there is no social stigma attached to a man's doing housework if forced to by personal circumstance.\" The participation of women in seed selection through setting aside \"good\" ears during daily food preparation may have implications for on-farm maize improvement and the introduction of seed selection and management practices, and women's participation in seed selection seems likely to occur in other indigenous communities of Mexico.Understanding the process of selecting, storing, and caring for the maize kernels that will become the seed of the next season's maize crop is critical, both for the farmers and for the researchers whose objective is to recommend complementary or improved practices. From the farmer's viewpoint, this process casts the genetic die for future generations of maize, determining which varietal characteristics are conserved or lost. The process is so intuitive, customary, and natural to farmers that often they do not volunteer information because they consider it obvious. To enable farmers to better manage their genetic resources or enhance their own varieties through selection strategies, researchers need to understand current practices before recommending new ones.Our experience leads us to one overriding conclusion: selection practices in indigenous communities are likely to be more complex than has been assumed in the literature or described through casual observation. More specifically, we have found that (1) seed selection does not appear to be a single event but an iterative, continuous process, and (2) in indigenous communities such as these, women may be more involved in seed selection than previously thought.These findings may have implications for the welfare impact of the innovation. The extent to which women are involved in seed selection in other communities, and whether the exclusion of women's seed selection practices would have a neutral, positive, or negative effect on the household or farm women's well-being, remains to be studied. In general, we cannot assume a priori that the introduction of plant selection in the field will make farmers' selection practices more \"efficient,\" if other selection criteria or pressures are eliminated in the process of adopting that practice.The pictorial representation of the seed cycles overlaid on the farmers' lifecycles not only generates hypotheses about the potential effects of introducing germplasm and recommended seed selection practices but raises a methodological point. Economists' models of varietal choice tend to be based on static perceptions of a \"variety\" as well as simplistic distinctions between \"modern\" and \"traditional\" varieties. These approaches are challenged by data on the high frequency of experimentation, exchange, loss, and replacement of seed for the same variety over time, including both modern and traditional varieties. Traditional black and white maize are the mainstay of maize production in the study area, both in terms of numbers of varieties and of the planted area they cover. Yet farmers frequently introduce traditional black or white varieties or infuse new seed for varieties currently in cultivation. They also abandon them intentionally and lose them unintentionally -but less often than modern varieties. Farmers exchange not only varieties but seed lots for the same varieties. This finding is fundamental to understanding the genetic composition of maize varieties grown by farmers, and it is essential in understanding the diffusion and impact of techniques to improve maize on the farm. Although the conclusions economists draw are more sensitive to some simplifying assumptions than others, perhaps these warrant closer attention in research related to adoption of on-farm strategies for crop improvement and crop diversity.The seed cycles and lifecycles also demonstrate that the unit of seed conservation is larger than the household unit of production and consumption. Certainly the nuclear and extended family are important sources of seed (especially for traditional white and black maize), both in the initial years of farming and over a farmer 's cultivating life, but the role of the community, represented by friends and neighbors, is also significant. In the case of traditional white maize, friends and neighbors have provided almost one-fifth of the introductions, substitutions, and seed infusions for the traditional maize varieties grown by survey farmers over their years of farming.The findings presented here conflict with the popular (as opposed to scientific) stereotype that, especially in centers of crop origin, each farm family retains and hands down its maize seed from generation to generation. 13 The economic implications are essentially that (1) the impact of introducing practices to enhance farmers' varieties is likely to be diffuse and difficult to observe, predict, or measure, and (2) in developing analytical models of farmer decision-making as it affects the diversity of genetic resources on the farm, the most appropriate unit of analysis for predicting the effects of some policy interventions is not likely to be the individual farmer or the individual farm household. Certainly a better understanding of the \"social infrastructure\" that shapes seed and information flows will be needed, since in the diffusion of innovations of this type, the seed system is based entirely on farmers and their interactions.Our limited understanding of diffusion mechanisms also renders inconclusive our evidence regarding the prospects for the adoption and impact of improved seed selection practices and the seed that results from those practices. Although use of the practices appears to have declined among the survey farmers, the survey farmers are few, and the extent to which other farmers have adopted the practices through the activities of survey farmers is not known. The PSSM is now doing more follow-up among farmers who had participated in the workshops to encourage them to continue with the practices and to identify particular problems imposed by the practices, such as time conflicts and competing demands for labor. Such subtle innovations are also vulnerable to abrupt seasonal disruptions, such as those caused by Hurricane Roxanne, or to social changes such as the recent land reform, as well as to genetic drift caused by the use of small populations and seed lots, which is characteristic of crop production in more marginal environments. One-third of the survey farmers who marked plants in the field in 1995 harvested nothing after the hurricane, yet hurricanes are not infrequent in the study area. The likelihood that farmers might adopt labor-intensive innovations is also diminished by current migration patterns and the high opportunity cost of labor in much of rural Mexico. In terms of time and human capital, the costs of developing the social relationships that support the diffusion of such innovations is often high, and it is borne by NGOs such as the Proyecto Sierra de Santa Marta and the participating farmers themselves. for other purposes. Specialty food items are consumed on particular occasions throughout the year, and they may also be traded or occasionally sold. When a market for specialty products exists and they can be sold, they may be of relatively high value per unit, although this issue was not explored in the survey. Other secondary uses of maize, such as using cobs for fuel or husks for compost, were mentioned but not accorded any particular importance by farmers.Tortillas are the most economically important use of maize in survey households and all categories of maize (white, yellow, black; modern or traditional) are used to prepare them. Frequently, household members noted a preference for white maize because it makes \"soft,\" \"very white,\" and \"smooth\" tortillas. Many farmers prefer their traditional maize varieties to the modern varieties for tortillas, but most are willing to use either type. Several farmers mentioned a particular variety (traditional yellow or modern white) as a good tortilla-making variety because it was \"heavy\" and each kernel gave more flour. In some communities in the Sierra, and more so in Soteapan than in Ocotal Chico, yellow tortillas are not desirable: yellow maize is seen as food for animals and not for humans. In other communities, yellow tortillas are as desirable as white ones. A preference for black tortillas appears to vary among individuals within a community: some prefer them, and others avoid them.Some categories of maize are more specifically suited to certain uses. For example, traditional black maize is grown especially for the production of pozol. Households clearly prefer black maize as the basis of pozol, and there is some disagreement about the extent to which other categories of maize can also be used. Producing tamales is less important than making pozol, and any type of maize appears to be suitable, although maize ears in the milky stage of development (elotes) are preferred.For cash grain sales through official markets or to market intermediaries, white varieties are the most suitable. Farmers typically consider modern white varieties to have heavier weight per unit of volume than traditional white varieties, and whiter grain, and thus they are preferred for cash sale. Modern white maize is usually sold soon after the harvest to avoid storage problems with these relatively thin-husked varieties. In the informal trade and barter markets, however, sales are more commonly made by volume rather than by weight, and grain of any color may be sold.All categories of maize are also considered suitable for animal feed except for black maize; several producers reported that farm animals simply will not eat it. In many cases, traditional yellow maize is preferred as feed because the grain of these varieties seems to be \"heavier\" and the animals \"get full faster.\" In general, spoiled maize grain (usually damaged by insects or rot in storage) is fed to household animals.Since such a large proportion of the maize produced in these communities is processed by farm women for household consumption, we hypothesized that differences in processing characteristics would be important to them. Each farm household was asked to rank all the maize varieties they grew by the processing characteristics they identified in informal interviews. The responses again reveal stronger comparisons among categories than between varieties.The maize processing characteristics recorded below are related to the daily production of nixtamal by rural women. To prepare nixtamal, the maize is husked, shelled, and boiled with lime (calcium carbonate) to rehydrate the kernels, remove the pericarp (cascara), and soften the grain for grinding. After cooking, the mixture of water, lime, and maize grain is washed and then ground by hand or commercial mill into masa, the dough from which tortillas and other maize dishes are prepared.Among survey households, there is a general consensus that modern varieties have fewer husks and that their husks are the least tightly closed (Table B1). These characteristics make modern varieties easiest to husk but contribute to significant losses from insects and other pests while the maize is drying in the field or stored in the house. Similarly, the pericarp around the kernel is thinnest in modern varieties. This means that less lime is needed to process modern varieties or that the varieties require less time in the water with lime (complementary characteristics). It also means that it is easiest to wash away the pericarp of modern varieties compared to others.Traditional white and black maize varieties, with their long, thin cobs and nearly rectangular, tooth-shaped kernels, are the easiest to shell. Modern white varieties are somewhat more difficult to shell, and yellow varieties are often so difficult to shell that two farmers cited this as their reason for abandoning their traditional yellow varieties. Ease of grinding is related to the hardness of the grain, although many farmers felt that after processing all maize types were equally easy to grind. Those who saw differences reported that traditional white maize is the easiest to grind and traditional yellow maize is the most difficult. The ranking of categories appears similar for fermentation of the masa, the ease of grinding, and the softness of tortillas: traditional white maize ferments the fastest, creates the smoothest tortillas (which stay softest the longest), and is the easiest to grind. Traditional black maize, on the other hand, is the slowest to ferment, a characteristic which makes it desirable for making pozol. From father and grandmother. SaiimokFrom father-in-law From brother-in-law.Too tall, needed more heat.Found 3 maize ears in a tree after Hurricane Gilbert.From father and grandmother.From friend. ","tokenCount":"10639"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"62f13d71903ee7acbf5760208613fb47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f52cdce-3846-45f0-a0b1-bb89fac16082/retrieve","id":"-1222196755"},"keywords":["II Identifying, evaluating and selecting SLM strategies Identifying SLM strategies, using a participatory learning process moderate: employment, energy","high: education, technical assistance, market, roads & transport, drinking water and sanitation, financial services Market orientation: commercial / market Mechanization: mechanized Livestock grazing on cropland: yes Le PMVB des Sehoul, evaluation, Ministère de l'Agriculture, Direction Provinciale de l'Agriculture, Rabat-Salé, 2003 Genin D., Guillaume H., Ouessar M., Ouled Belgacem A., Romagny B., Sghaier M., Taamallah H. (Eds) 2006. Entre la désertification et le développement : la Jeffara tunisienne. CERES, Tunis","de Graaff J. & Ouessar M. (Eds"],"sieverID":"50eb2277-b8a6-4892-a240-14f76c7dfccd","pagecount":"298","content":"on behalf of the EU FP6 project 'Desertification Mitigation and Remediation of Land -a Global Approach for Local Solutions' (DESIRE) and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) Financed by European Commission, Directorate General for Research, Framework Programme 6, Global Change and Ecosystems (Contract Number 037046 GOCE; scientific officer Marie Yeroyanni) Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (part of the strategic research program KBIV \"Sustainable spatial development of ecosystems, landscapes, seas and regions\" carried out by Wageningen University & Research Centre).Humankind currently faces interconnected, worldwide challenges of feeding our rapidly growing population while simultaneously preserving our natural resource base, adapting to climate change, and creating or maintaining favourable living conditions for present and future generations. The world's population is growing exponentially. It is expected to rise from seven to more than nine billion people in the next few decades. Currently, around one-seventh of the world's population -the so-called \"bottom billion\" -does not have a secure food supply, while an expanding middle class in rapidly developing countries is placing increasing pressure on the limited natural resources available for food production. Projections indicate that agricultural production will have to increase by about 70% by 2050 in order to keep pace with population growth. This has far-reaching implications for the way we use and manage our agricultural lands.Food production depends on the availability of fertile land, water, favourable climatic conditions, and related ecosystem services. At present, humans are overexploiting natural resources in many regions of the globe in order to obtain short-term benefits. This is leading to clearance of land, an increase in degraded ecosystems, and declining biodiversity. Additionally, global warming is causing anomalies in rainfall patterns and is increasing the occurrence of extreme weather events like prolonged droughts, floods, and cyclones. In this way, climate change is aggravating pressure on land and water resources, increasing people's vulnerability by affecting ecosystem resilience and food production potentials, particularly in marginal regions like the drylands in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid climatic zones.Desertification is land degradation in drylands that results from climate variation and human impact. It leads to losses of biological productivity, threatened livelihoods, and outmigration of dryland inhabitants. Over 250 million people and an estimated 10-20% of dryland areas are directly affected by desertification, and about one billion people in over 100 countries are at risk as land degradation continues to worsen. These people include many of the world's poorest and most marginalised citizens.Combatting desertification is considered essential to ensure the long-term productivity of inhabited drylands, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the international treaty to promote action through local programmes and international, scientific partnerships. Preferably, degradation assessments involve both local land users and scientists in developing scientifically sound solutions to land degradation problems, solutions that are relevant and appropriate at that particular scale. What is needed is an approach that combines scientific rigor and accuracy with relevance and sensitivity to local perspectives and contexts.Recently, it was acknowledged by international policy and scientific fora that Sustainable Land Management (SLM) might be the key to addressing land degradation and desertification, while also contributing to increased food production, mitigating climate change, and preserving our natural resource base. SLM strategies are interventions at the local to regional scale that aim to increase productivity, improve people's livelihoods, and preserve ecosystems. As such, they are particularly relevant in dryland regions.In the EU-funded DESIRE project (www.desire-project.eu) -\"Desertification mitigation and remediation of land -A global approach for local solutions\" -specific attention was paid to exploring the potentials of SLM strategies to prevent and combat degradation and desertification in a range of dryland areas around the world. To that end, a project consortium was established comprising 26 partners from academic, NGO, and governmental backgrounds; study sites were identified and embedded from 13 countries; and project activities were implemented between 2007 and 2012. The total project budget amounted to nearly nine million Euros, of which around seven million were contributed by the European Commission, with the remainder contributed by the governments of France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands.DESIRE designed a global, widely applicable, methodological framework for identifying, prioritising, testing, evaluating and disseminating SLM technologies in close collaboration with local stakeholders. Such an integrative and interdisciplinary framework that involves stakeholders is needed to obtain a full understanding of the complex interplay of biophysical and socio-economic causes of desertification. Only through such an understanding is it possible to develop mitigation and restoration methods that are physically effective as well as socio-economically acceptable. The framework includes assessment of potentials for upscaling as well as of related costs and benefits, by means of innovative, coupled biophysical and economic models. A subsequent larger scale demonstration phase would additionally allow implementing selected technologies and approaches in real-life situations, assessing the cost-effectiveness of measures to restore soil functions and mitigate land degradation, and finally enhancing the adoption of SLM. To date, various national and international governmental bodies -including the UNCCD -have embraced this integrated methodological framework, endorsing its continued use and implementation. The results of the scientific innovations achieved within the DESIRE project are due to be published in three special issues of international scientific journals. In addition, the online DESIRE Harmonised Information System (http://www. desire-his.eu/) houses the complete story of DESIRE research in each of the 17 study areas. Material is presented using various formats, and the language used is less scientific in order to address a wider audience. Multiple translations are available. The project's broad definition of stakeholders, from schoolchildren to national policymakers, means that dissemination of results and ideas must also include these audiences. DESIRE has produced posters and audiovisual products for those without access to the internet.The present DESIRE publication describes the methodology that was applied in the different study sites to identify, prioritise, test, and evaluate promising SLM strategies. It also describes ways of extending the results for application at a wider spatial scale, enabling estimation of related costs and the benefits of implementation. All of the DESIRE SLM case studies are presented using harmonised formats, previously developed by partners in the WOCAT network (www.wocat. net). The SLM case studies presented encompass interventions addressing cropping management, water management, cross-slope barriers, grazing land management, and forest management. Special attention is given to stakeholder participation and dissemination, embedded in the project approach from start to finish. Another key emphasis is assessing the state of degradation and conservation by means of a recently developed mapping methodology. Two detailed examples are presented that show application of the full cycle of DESIRE activities -in the Chinese and Turkish study sites -and demonstrate the strengths, advantages, and potentials of the developed methodology.Prof. Dr. Coen J. Ritsema DESIRE Project Coordinator Alterra, Wageningen University Wageningen The Netherlands Erik van den Elsen The DESIRE consortium Globally, sustainable use and management of our land is still the exception rather than the rule. Thus, it is crucial that we exchange knowledge about SLM as well as promote and enable its implementation by practitioners in the field. We trust that this publication will be of interest to a wide range of audiences and especially those concerned about drylands. We hope this volume will contribute to protecting our environment and help to create a healthy and sustainable basis for current and future generations.Açıkalın, Sanem -Eskişehir Osmangazi University (Turkey) Akanyang, Lawrence -Botswana College of Agriculture (Botswana) Alcalá de Jesus, Maria -Universidad Michoacana San Nicolas de Hidalgo (UMSNH) (Mexico) Al Karkouri, Jamal -FLSH, University Ibn Tofail, Kénitra (Morocco) Thanks to its potential for identifying needs and sharing knowledge in SLM, the WOCAT 2 methodology is an important cornerstone of the DESIRE approach. Within the DESIRE project, WOCAT tools 3 were adapted to map the current status of land degradation and conservation. Further, the tools were integrated with a stakeholder learning approach and a decision support system for identifying, documenting, and selecting SLM strategies. The WOCAT databases and tools, updated with the SLM options presented in this book, are available online to a worldwide audience. Information on SLM options is now being standardised and collated, facilitating the exchange of land management strategies to combat desertification. This book presents guidelines for setting up and structuring land-degradation mitigation projects, using the DESIRE project as a model. It discusses the potential of using the WOCAT-based methods and tools in such projects (chapter 1.1), presents an analysis of the spatial context of SLM (chapter 1.2), and introduces the SLM strategies applied in the DESIRE project (chapter 1.3). Further, it presents recommendations and policy points based on the analyses (chapter 1.4) and case studies from all the DESIRE study sites; this also covers the spatial context of land degradation, existing SLM practices, and the SLM technologies and approaches implemented (Part 2).Four key requirements emerged from the project, which appear essential for successful application of the DESIRE approach: (1) an integrated, multidisciplinary project setup; (2) close collaboration between scientists and stakeholders from start to finish; (3) a sound scientific basis, for example through field experimentation and state-of-the-art modelling, and, (4) from day one, a continuous dissemination and communication process between stakeholders, policymakers, and scientists. Requirements (1), (2), and (4), in particular, are relatively new in the world of applied environmental science. They proved indispensable in the DESIRE project.During the project, mapping of land degradation and current SLM showed that land degradation in the 17 DESIRE study sites mainly occurred as water erosion on cultivated land and land under mixed use. Degradation was found to be increasing in most sites, primarily caused by inappropriate soil management. Indirectly, land degradation appeared to be caused most frequently by population pressure, insecure land tenure, and poverty in combination with aspects of governance, institutional functioning, and politics.The SLM measures already found to exist in the study sites mainly comprised grazing land management technologies and conservation agriculture. Combinations of SLM measures appeared to perform better than applying one type of measure by itself.Land degradation negatively affected ecosystem services for almost all degraded areas. Provision of ecosystem servicessuch as production of food, fodder, wood, water, and energy -was most affected in areas of mixed land use, followed by areas of cultivated land and grazing land. High negativeThe need for Sustainable Land Management Current global developments call for more thoughtful management of our land. These developments include: the increased demand for land-based agricultural products for a growing world population; the increasing scarcity of water, fuel, and minerals; the impacts of global climate change, increased commodity prices in the agricultural sector, and growing competition for land resources. Globally, large areas of land are being affected by land degradation, partly resulting from unsustainable land use. This is particularly the case in dryland areas, which are especially vulnerable to overexploitation, inappropriate land use, and climate change. Bad land management -including overgrazing and inappropriate irrigation and deforestation practices -often undermines land's productivity. In dryland areas, land degradation is referred to as desertification. It encompasses soil erosion by water and wind, physical soil deterioration (e.g. compaction, crusting, and sealing), chemical soil deterioration (e.g. fertility decline and salinization), biological degradation (e.g. biomass and vegetation cover decline as well as forest fires), and water degradation (e.g. aridification).Sustainable Land Management (SLM) is the key to these challenges, and it is the subject of this book. SLM is a form of land management that is targeted towards improving or stabilising agricultural productivity, improving people's livelihoods, and improving ecosystems. SLM strategies seek to combine and optimise the ecological, technical, institutional, socio-cultural, economic, and scientific aspects of land management in response to desertification. This book is aimed at land users and practitioners, agricultural specialists and scientists, students and teachers in environmental science, as well as concerned citizens. It is also intended for policymakers interested in the potential of SLM strategies to improve productivity, people's livelihoods, and ecosystems in their regions of interest.This book presents options for SLM in drylands that grew out of the EU-funded DESIRE project (2007-2012) 1 . Further, it explains an approach -developed in the DESIRE project -for establishing promising SLM strategies in response to desertification. The DESIRE approach consists of five steps: (1) establishing land degradation and SLM context and sustainability goals; (2) identifying, evaluating, and selecting SLM strategies; (3) trialling and monitoring SLM strategies; (4) upscaling SLM strategies; and (5) disseminating the knowledge gathered in the previous steps. The DESIRE approach was applied in 17 areas affected by desertification, accounting for a wide variety of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions found worldwide. The DESIRE approach can be applied by agricultural advisors, government institutions, or in any project that aims to combat land degradation. To date, it has been incorporated in publications and initiatives by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).cally pay one-third of the implementation costs and all of the maintenance costs. This suggests that providing funding for implementation of technologies -e.g., through revolving funds or payments for ecosystem services -could be an effective way of enhancing adoption among land users, since the costs of implementation may make such measures unprofitable in the short run. SLM approaches are understood as ways and means of supporting introduction, implementation, adaptation, and promotion of SLM technologies. Regarding the SLM approaches studied in the DESIRE project, SLM specialists often made the final decision to implement certain SLM measures; but this was always done in consultation with land users. All the approaches were set up using an existing advisory service system that ensures long-term continuation of approach activities. The approaches were perceived to have impacts on SLM that ranged from moderate to great, and most were found to enhance people's livelihoods, decrease poverty, and generally improve the situation of socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Land users' main reasons for implementing SLM measures were related to expectations of increased production, profitability, and/or payments or subsidies. Environmental consciousness played a minor role. Land users' motivation to implement SLM measures can likely be increased by making them more aware of environmental issues as well as short-and long-term advantages (such as increasing profitability), and enabling them to participate in assessing the benefits of SLM by including them in research.The main policy recommendations to emerge from the DESIRE project and the investigations of SLM options are closely related to the approach presented in this book. The recommendations and the approach emphasise: collaboration of scientists with stakeholders; the need to link local knowledge with the latest technologies emerging from the scientific community, using a structured participatory process with stakeholders; the need to include stakeholder-defined criteria for selecting SLM options; and the benefits of performing standardised assessments using WOCAT tools. The latter could also be used as a tool in the reporting of countries to UNCCD, and thus can contribute directly to the implementation of the UNCCD convention. Policy briefs, fact sheets and key messages are available from the DESIRE Project Harmonised Information System (www.desire-his.eu/en/key-messages).Above all, the DESIRE project and the SLM case studies documented in this book reveal the many ecological, economic, and social benefits of SLM. These benefits go beyond reducing land degradation and desertification. They also address global concerns about water scarcity, resource use efficiency, energy supply, food security, poverty alleviation, climate change, and biodiversity conservation. As such, investments in SLM appear indispensable and funding from both the private and the public sector is justified, especially on behalf of small-scale land users and marginalised population groups. This book aims to help decision makers and donors in their efforts to invest wisely in the sustainable management of land.impacts were observed regarding regulation of ecosystem services -such as regulation of water and nutrient flows, carbon sequestration, pollination, and pest control -indicating that these require particular attention when developing and implementing remediation strategies.SLM measures appeared most effective on cultivated land, but positive impacts from SLM on ecosystem services were also recorded for relatively large areas of forest and grazing land. Overall, there appears to be scope for improving SLM contributions to ecosystem services in cultivated land.There were 38 case studies investigated in the DESIRE project; 30 for SLM technologies and eight for SLM approaches. The physical practices used in the field to control land degradation and enhance productivity -the SLM technologies, in other words -could be divided into five groups: cropping management, water management, cross-slope barriers, grazing land management, and forest management. They addressed all the main types of land degradation. Most of them were applied on cropland, although grazing land is equally important -perhaps even more important in spatial terms -in drylands. Depending on the kind of degradation addressed, agronomic, vegetative, structural, or management measures were used, or some combination of these. Most of the technologies aimed to prevent or mitigate degradation; only a few were described as intended for rehabilitation. This reflected the state of land degradation in the study sites, which had not passed thresholds of extreme loss of productivity or provision of ecosystem services. The main functions of the SLM technologies assessed included their ability to increase infiltration capacity, control runoff, and improve ground cover. Most of the technologies were applied by small-scale land users, a group that is often underestimated regarding investment and innovation, not to mention their role in worldwide agricultural production. Individual and regulated communal land ownership and land use rights facilitated the implementation of SLM, confirming the results of previous studies.The SLM technologies positively affected biophysical processes relevant for agricultural production and positively affected the ecological services of the land. Water harvesting technologies and more efficient use of irrigated water showed the greatest potential and benefits. Most of the applied technologies appear resilient to expected climatic variations and half of them provide off-site benefits, such as reduced damage to neighbouring fields, public or private infrastructure, and reduced downstream flooding. This opens up the possibility of promoting SLM technologies to protect goods and services by means of reward schemes aimed at farming communities. It also highlights the capacity of SLM technologies to support disaster risk reduction.Low-cost technologies (mostly below 100 USD/ha) were mainly found in the groups of cropping management and grazing land management, though their maintenance costs can be considerable. The most expensive technologies (2,000-10,000 USD/ha) were related to water management; however, technologies in this group also bear the highest potential for increasing profits and their maintenance costs are usually relatively low, i.e., below 300 USD/ha/year. Analyses showed that nearly half of the land users earned most of their income outside of their farm. All the technologies were found to be profitable in the long run; however, half of them were found to be less profitable, or not profitable at all, in the short run. It was found that land users typi-All over the world, land users are required to maximise the economic and social benefits from the land while fighting against land degradation and desertification. Sustainable Land Management (SLM) is the key answer to these challenges and provides the key theme for this book. Sustainable Land Management (SLM) is the management of land by human societies targeted at improving agricultural productivity, improving livelihoods and improving ecosystems 1 .Current global developments call for a more thoughtful management of our land than ever before. These developments include the increase of the world population, requiring a doubling of the production of food, fodder and biomass for other purposes until 2050, and the increasing scarcity of resources like water, fuel and minerals. We look to the land to provide our food and biomass needs, as well as other resources, but there are clear limits on the amount of additional land and water that can be used for agriculture 2 . At the same time large parts of land in the world are being affected by degradation, as global drivers of change (e.g. climate change, increasing competition for land) interact strongly with local circumstances (e.g. soil fertility, water availability or socio-economic conditions), resulting in often complex scale interactions 3 . This applies particularly to dryland areas, where SLM deserves even greater attention.The aim of this book is to present options for Sustainable Land Management in Drylands. It is written for land users and practitioners, agricultural specialists and scientists, students and teachers in environmental science, but also for policy makers interested in the potential of SLM strategies to improve productivity, livelihoods and ecosystems in their regions of interest. Finally, interested citizens of both rural and urban areas may find information and inspiration from this book on how to sustainably manage the land that provides benefits for us all.Recent research has generated important data, methodologies and models, which have been instrumental in deepening the understanding of the physical and human causes and effects of land degradation and desertification in Europe and the world (e.g. the Special Issue \"Understanding Dryland Degradation Trends\" resulting from the First Scientific Conference of the UNCCD) 7 . Many research projects have made 'scientifically based' suggestions and recommendations on ways to mitigate, stop or reverse the process of land degradation. However, the output has tended to be too fragmented for practical policy-making 8 . The EU-funded DESIRE project (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) tried to overcome these limitations by adopting an integrative approach in which local knowledge, generated from bottom-up, participatory approaches 9 , was combined with knowledge gained through more topdown, science-led approaches. The philosophy behind the and NGOs to reverse land degradation in an environment supported by governments and fully integrated into national policies. What is needed is an approach that combines scientific rigour and accuracy with relevance and sensitivity to local perspectives and context. Conservationists, scientists, authorities, land managers and local communities need to work together towards shared goals. Current management techniques should be adapted or replaced so they are better able to cope with a variable and changing climate, deal with increasing and competing demands and work towards decreasing the risk of land degradation. SLM strategies offer an opportunity to combine the technical, institutional, sociocultural, economic and scientific aspects of land management in response to desertification. and gives them a sound scientific basis for the effectiveness at various scales. DESIRE developed its own methodological approach for this, which is discussed in chapter 1.1 of this book.Within DESIRE, the WOCAT methodology played a prominent role. WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies, www.wocat.net) is an established global network of SLM specialists. WOCAT's goal is to prevent and reduce land degradation through SLM technologies and their implementation approaches. The network provides tools that allow SLM specialists to identify needs of action and share their valuable knowledge in land management. The tools provided aim to assist these specialists in their search for appropriate SLM technologies and approaches and support them in making decisions, both in the field and at the planning level, as well as when up-scaling identified best practices (www.wocat.net). concept is that local stakeholders know the characteristics of their land and the way to work it, while scientists are able to suggest alternative techniques and evaluate their results. Both groups are then able to support and complement each other.The main aim of the DESIRE project was to establish promising alternative land use and management strategies based on a close participation of scientists with stakeholder groups in 17 areas affected by desertification, located in 13 countries around the world. Such strategies are referred to as Sustainable Land Management strategies. The 17 selected study sites within the DESIRE projects (Figure 2) all showed individual bio-physical and socio-economic characteristics and desertification processes.The integrative participatory approach used in DESIRE ensures both the acceptability and feasibility of SLM technologies, The book demonstrates that managing land in a sustainable way is possible, also in drylands, and that this is best achieved in a concerted and joint effort of various stakeholders. Future projects and initiatives might learn and benefit from the experiences of the DESIRE project. It is therefore hoped that this book will contribute to increased use of SLM worldwide.In DESIRE, WOCAT methods and tools 10 were adapted and used to map the current status of land degradation and conservation and to select strategies that can be used to combat this degradation. The WOCAT questionnaires and databases of SLM technologies and approaches were used to document SLM strategies in a standardised way. This was part of a structured participatory process to identify, assess and select SLM strategies and involved two stakeholder workshops with a period of detailed evaluation and documentation in between. Data collected using the WOCAT questionnaires was entered into the online open-access WOCAT databases. These databases offer search facilities for agricultural advisors, land users and practitioners worldwide to find strategies that might be suitable for their own situation. It should be kept in mind, however, that because of the highly site-specific bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances, any SLM strategy that is selected should be adapted to the local conditions before implementation. In DESIRE, the WOCAT databases as well as the WOCAT questionnaires, completed for each DESIRE study sites during the evaluation period, were used in the selection process. This resulted in a selection of strategies to implement for testing. Thus, the existing WOCAT methodology was adapted and enhanced to make it more suitable as a practical tool in projects that combat degradation and desertification.A number of SLM technologies and approaches and SLM maps resulted from the application of the 'DESIRE approach' in the 17 study sites. The aim of this book is to present these options for Sustainable Land Management in drylands, and to explain the 'DESIRE approach'. This DESIRE approach can be applied in any project that aims to combat degradation, and has so far been incorporated in publications and initiatives by UNCCD, FAO and GEF.K Guidelines to set-up and structure land degradation mitigation projects, using the DESIRE project as an example (1.1) K The potential of using the WOCAT-based methods and tools in such projects (1.1) K An analysis of the spatial context of SLM (1.2) and the SLM strategies (1.3) applied in the DESIRE project K Recommendations and policy points based on this analysis (1.4) K Case studies of implemented SLM technologies and approaches from all DESIRE study sites (2.1)K Mapping case studies of the spatial occurrence of land degradation and existing SLM practices (2.2)K DESIRE methodology examples from Eskisehir (Turkey) and the Yan River Basin (China) (2.3) Italy, Gudrun Schwilch Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch Part 1Morocco, Gudrun SchwilchIdentifying and trialling options for sustainable land management -the methodologyAs discussed in the introduction, the main aim of this book is to present options for SLM in drylands, which have been identified by the DESIRE project as a result of building on WOCAT methodology. However, before we begin to detail the outputs from DESIRE in detail, this chapter will describe the methodology used within the project.The DESIRE project has worked to develop a comprehensive methodology in which existing WOCAT 1 and LADA 2 tools have been integrated with a stakeholder learning approach, a decision support system, mapping, trialling and monitoring in the field, scenario modelling and dissemination.The result is a methodological framework that has global relevance whilst remaining adaptable and flexible enough to cater for the variation of local situations. Based on the belief that neither science nor local experimentation alone can lead to sustainable solutions to combat desertification and land degradation processes, the WOCAT methodology is developed on several fundamental principles:K A wealth of experience in SLM already exists, but has not yet been well enough tapped and shared (WOCAT, 2007).Before envisaging new technical solutions to combat desertification and land degradation processes, therefore, it is worthwhile to look at what is already applied locally.K The key to success lies in a concerted effort, bringing together local experience and innovation with ecological and technical expertise, as well as taking into consideration local environmental conditions and the related socioeconomic, legal and institutional framework. Linking scientific, technical expertise and local knowledge makes it possible to derive a range of alternative options, including current innovations and new or non-local solutions.K Enhancing applicability, feasibility and ownership of solutions requires mutual learning of all stakeholders involved.The methodology described in this chapter has been tested in several dryland areas around the world (two examples given in Part 2) and by sharing the lessons learned through this process, we hope the experiences of the DESIRE project can benefit those currently involved in sustainable land management, from local land users and practitioners to national and international policy makers. We also hope the information within this section will be of use to researchers, teachers and students who are looking to study and/or design similar SLM research projects. This first chapter will then outline the methodology used in DESIRE and provide direction to further information for those readers wishing to follow similar processes. Illustrated in Figure 1, the methodological framework will be described in the following five steps:Global investments in SLM have been huge in the past century. However, information as to how effective these investments have been is largely unknown. As a result, we still do not have a clear idea of just what condition our land is in and whether the implemented SLM strategies are, or to what extent have been, effective. Hence, before decisions can be made as to how we can best fund future SLM activities, we need to know exactly what we are dealing with:extent of soil and water conservation or sustainable land management are seriously lacking. As a result, policy makers and implementing institutions cannot have a good spatial overview of their and others' past and ongoing activities.With this in mind, and being driven by the key questions mentioned above, this initial stage of the methodology aims to produce a series of desertification context maps, detailing:1. current land degradation status; 2. future land degradation risk; and 3. existing sustainable land management strategies.worldwide information on SLM approaches, SLM technologies, and the areas they apply to. What's more, WOCAT has gathered this information using a standardised and internationally recognised methodology that is easy to understand and apply. This enables all SLM research projects to contribute to, and benefit from, an ever-growing knowledge-base.While maps of soil and land degradation exist at national or regional level, the only global overview so far remains the GLASOD map by ISRIC and UNEP from 1991. Maps on the Mexico, Christian Prat Greece, Erik van den Elsen i Select study sitesThe selection of study sites will be dependent on a particular project's aims and objectives.Within the DESIRE project, it was always the strategy to work with study sites in which research had been on-going for several years prior to the project, so that the work of the project could build on previous experience and benefit from existing datasets. However, this was just one of many criteria that resulted in DESIRE selecting 17 study sites distributed across the world from southern Europe, southern America and AfricaGaining a clear picture of the desertification context entails five main steps: (i) selecting study sites; (ii) identifying system boundaries and stakeholder priorities; (iii) analysing socio-economic context and drivers of change; (iv) determining current land degradation status, using the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Questionnaire; and (v) determining future land degradation risk, using an indicator survey. 3 Available to download at http://www.desire-his.eu/en/study-site-contexts/desires-study-sites Within DESIRE, the study site teams were asked what they considered to be the main desertification drivers in their area and to identify what the impacts of those drivers were.In most of the sites, it was reported that although local and national laws exist, implementation was often ineffective.As a result, it was often the case that conservation laws or policies were not adequately enforced. A lack of cross-sectoral planning and collaboration was also identified as a common problem and although the EU Common Agricultural Policy has led to some positive impacts in some locations, it resulted in the cultivation of unsuitable land in other places.iv Determine current status, using the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE mapping questionnaireThe WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Questionnaire and online WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Database 4 enable the production of a series of maps that illustrate what type of land degradation is taking place, where and why, and what is being done in terms of sustainable land management. The information needed for these maps is collected using the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Questionnaire 5 . Available for anyone to use 6 , the questionnaire is completed by a team of local experts familiar with the area, including, where possible, agronomists, soil and water specialists and extension officers.For each distinctive land use type, the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Questionnaire and Database helps users to evaluate (i) what type of land degradation is happening, where and why, and (ii) what forms of land conservation practices are being used. The steps of this process are as follows:1. The area to be mapped is divided into distinctive land use systems (LUS). 2. The team gathers the necessary data on land degradation and conservation for each LUS. 3. For each LUS, the type, extent, degree, impact on ecosystem services, direct and indirect causes of degradation, as well as all land conservation practices, are determined. 4. Once collected, the data can be entered in the on-line WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Database from which the various maps are generated.v Determine future risk, using an indicator questionnaire Desertification and land degradation are complex processes with causes that range from climate change to changes in land use or alterations in environmental legislation. The way in which an area responds to these pressures is determined by the resilience of the landscape (soil, water, vegetation) to Russia and China (see Table 1). All located in semi-arid environments, the sites vary in size from less than 100 km² to several thousand km² and, most importantly, at the time of selection, were each affected by one or more desertificationrelated problems, including erosion (caused by wind and water), salinisation, vegetation degradation and wild fire.ii Identify system boundaries and stakeholders' prioritiesWhen the study sites have been selected, it is time to identify the key land use systems that are in place within and around these sites, as well as identifying the key players within those systems. Many of these key players, or stakeholders, will have conflicting views about land management solutions. It is valuable to be aware of any existing or potential conflicts during the planning phase of a project.Within DESIRE, an inventory of relevant stakeholders in each of the study sites was achieved through a stakeholder mapping exercise. This process involves assessing the \"stakes\" of relevant groups and individuals and it led to the identification of a variety of key stakeholders for the DESIRE project, including Natural Resource Management (NRM) Institutions, land users, NGOs and policy makers. The variety of stakeholders involved with the DESIRE project is discussed further in the final section of this chapter.iii Describe socio-cultural, economic, technological, political To ensure a good understanding of the study site context, drivers and barriers as well as opportunities need to be assessed for each location. The strength of many applied land management practices is that they are well established, traditional systems that have proved to work under the prevailing conditions. However, in a world where change is the only constant, all systems and practices are under increasing pressure from population growth, market pressures, urbanisation, climate change and agricultural intensification. The overall relevance of each of these factors, therefore, must be examined in order to set the desertification context. This stage also includes the examination of policies, which can themselves be important drivers but also influence the impact of other drivers. For example, in the EU context the Common Agriculture Policy reform, and in particular the Water Framework Directive and the possibly upcoming Soil Framework Directive, will have a major influence on the ways to achieve sustainable agriculture in Europe.tor questionnaire developed in the DESIRE project 10 , and entered in the Expert System 11 to inspect the desertification risk of specific dryland areas. Because of the distribution of DESIRE study sites in dryland areas around the world, the expert system can be applied globally in other dryland areas.For a more detailed description of the indicators identified in each of the DESIRE study sites and further reading on the expert system put in place to implement those indicators, see DESIRE report 2.1.1 and 2.2.2 12 . The process of developing the DESIRE Expert System is described in the box below.and the local economy. As has been pointed out by the UNCCD 8 , indicators can be valuable tools to help measure this resilience, and, as a result, can be useful in assessing how vulnerable an area is to desertification and how effective the actions being taken to mitigate that risk are. By using an appropriate number of indicators, complex processes such as soil erosion, soil salinization, and overgrazing may be effectively described without using complex mathematical expressions or models that require an excessive amount of data 9 .Within DESIRE, an Expert System has been developed to calculate desertification risk for various desertification processes, using a limited number of indicators for each process.Data on these indicators can be collected using the indica-The basic spatial unit of evaluation: The Land Use System (LUS)The principle of the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE mapping methodology is that land degradation and SLM are mapped on predefined spatial units. Since land use and land use practices are considered the most influential factors for land degradation, these provide the starting point for the basic unit of evaluation; the Land Use System (LUS) 7 .The LUS units, in combination with administrative units, enable the user to evaluate trends and changes in time of the land degradation and conservation practices applied.In the DESIRE project, the original LUS defining procedure from the LADA project was adapted to be applicable to small study sites. The procedure includes: a) Definition of the main land use type, e.g. Cropland, Grazing land, Forest/woodland, Mixed, or Other. b) Subdivision of main land use types, for example cropland into annual and perennial cropping and grazing into extensive or intensive grazing. c) Further subdivisions based on physiographic or geomorphologic criteria, administrative units or socio-economic criteria.\"An environmental indicator is a parameter, which provides information about the situation or trends in the state of environment, in the human activities that affect or are affected by the environment, or about relationships among such variables (USA EPA, 1995;EEA, 1998).\"To develop the Expert System, the DESIRE project: Land degradation indicators are a sub-set of environmental indicators focusing on a particular trend in state of the land and associated human activities.Figure 2: The DESIRE expert system using indicators for assessing desertification risk.Land owners and farmers have been managing their land for centuries and, as a result, they often have a wealth of SLM knowledge and experience, as well as demonstrating, in some cases, truly innovative approaches to land management challenges. Before envisaging new technical solutions to combat desertification and land degradation, therefore, it is of real value to examine what is already applied locally.With this mind, it makes sense to listen to those people who know the land best when looking to identify existing SLM strategies. In other words, it is time to learn from the people who work on and manage the land on a day-to-day basis.The aim at this stage is to work with stakeholders to identify promising SLM strategies for further assessment. Using a stakeholder workshop and taking a collective learning approach to this stage enables stakeholders to identify potential strategies and, as a result, fosters a sense of participation and input into the research process. In the case of the DESIRE project, a stakeholder workshop in the local context was seen as a vital step towards building a common vision of what can and needs to be done to achieve more sustainable land management.Within DESIRE, the workshop programme followed a logical and consecutive sequence of specific exercises, each with its own objectives, method, procedure, and expected results 13 . Overall, the workshop objectives were as follows:1. To initiate a mutual learning process among local and external participants by sharing experience and jointly reflecting on current and potential problems and solutions regarding land degradation and desertification. 2. To create a common understanding of problems, potentials and opportunities of the respective study site by integrating external and internal perceptions. 3. To strengthen trust and collaboration among stakeholders. 4. To identify existing and new strategies to prevent or mitigate land degradation and desertification. 5. To select strategies for further evaluation and documentation with the WOCAT methodology.vi Collating all the information from steps I-V, determine current land degradation status, existing soil-water conservation, and future land degradation riskThe result of the first methodological step described above is a series of maps that document land degradation, as well as conservation status. In addition, the information gathered by the indicator questionnaire enables the related causes and impacts of land degradation to be assessed. Collating this information provides an informative picture of the distribution and characteristics of land degradation and conservation activities for a district, a province, a country, a region and, ultimately, world-wide. It is from this point that a three-part procedure for the identification, assessment and selection of SLM strategies can be carried out. The outcome of this initial stakeholder workshop should be a set of SLM strategies (either existing or potential) that have been selected by the relevant stakeholders. It is fundamental to the success of stakeholder workshops such as these that the group is heterogeneous with regard to age, gender, ethnicity and activities related to land use. All those invited to participate in the DESIRE stakeholder workshops had experience in and knowledge about the specific rural environment, however, they came from a variety of backgrounds and expertise, from local farmers to regional and national decision-makers.Following the initial stakeholder workshop, the suggested strategies need to be documented and evaluated in a structured and standardised way to enable information to be shared as easily as possible with other land managers around the world.The aim of this stage is to evaluate the effectiveness of the identified SLM strategies, both in terms of the technical measures applied in the field, i.e. SLM technologies, and the ways and means of support that help to introduce, implement, adapt, and promote those technologies, i.e. SLM approaches. Thus, the objectives of this stage are: 1. to document and evaluate each identified locally applied technology and approach in a structured and standardised way, 2. to guarantee a certain level of data quality through a review and quality assurance process, and3. to enter this information into the WOCAT database in order to share it with other actors involved in SLM around the globe.To evaluate identified SLM strategies, the WOCAT programme has developed comprehensive questionnaires and an online database. The use of questionnaires follows a structured and standardised process which helps to better understand the reasons behind successful sustainable land management technologies and approaches. The corresponding database serves as a basis for knowledge exchange between stakeholders in different sites and with other land managers around the world.The WOCAT questionnaires allow teams of researchers and specialists to document and evaluate together with land users all relevant aspects of technical measures, as well as implementation approaches. Furthermore, all information is gathered, stored and assessed using a standardised format. As a result, using this widely accepted WOCAT methodology enables global sharing of best practices.This standardised evaluation involves the use of two questionnaires 14 , one on SLM technologies (QT) and the other on SLM approaches (QA). Together the corresponding technology and approach describe a sustainable land management strategy within a selected area. SLM technologies are the physical practices in the field, like mulching. An SLM approach includes the ways and means of support that help to introduce, implement, adapt, and promote SLM technologies on the ground.For SLM technologies, the questionnaire addresses the specifications of the technology (purpose, classification, design and costs) and the natural and human environment where it is used. It also includes an analysis of the benefits, advantages and disadvantages, economic impacts, and acceptance and adoption of the technology. Impacts are approximated through simple scoring, but supplemented by data where available. For SLM approaches, questions focus on objectives, operations, participation by land users, financing, and direct and indirect subsidies. Analysis of the approach described involves monitoring and evaluation methods, as well as an impact analysis. 13 For detailed information about these exercises, see http://www. desire-his.eu/en/potential-strategies/part-1-identifying-strategiesthematicmenu-177 14 Both questionnaires can be found on the WOCAT website at http://www.wocat.net/en/methods/case-study-assessment-qtqa/ questionnaires.html. This stage uses a second stakeholder workshop, which builds on the analysis and discussions made in the first one. The main aim of this process is to jointly select one or two SLM options to be tested in the selected study site. The second workshop, therefore, has the following objectives:1. Select possible implementation options from a basket of options, including those originating from the study area and those available in the online WOCAT databases on SLM technologies and approaches 15 ; 2. compare, score and rank these options; 3. negotiate the best option for implementation; and finally 4. decide upon one or two SLM strategies for implementation.The selection of the most promising SLM option for implementation is complex and requires the stakeholders to carefully consider both the costs and benefits for man and ecosystem. To guide the workshop participants through the decision-making process and allow them to negotiate the best option(s) in a structured way, the methodology applied in this stage consists of three main elements: (i) the WOCAT database is used to choose the options or strategies of land conservation; (ii) Decision Support System (DSS) software is used to support the single steps of the evaluation and decision-making process and, finally, (iii) a participatory approach guides and leads workshop participants through the process of evaluation and decision-making.To demonstrate how a decision is reached using the participatory workshop approach, see the step-by-step guide (Table 3).For each of the objectives identified at the beginning of the workshop, a number of options need to be selected and listed. These options are based on the locally applied and evaluated strategies as well as on worldwide documented experiences, all of them included in the WOCAT databases of SLM technologies and approaches. These databases contain a full range of different case studies documented from all over the world. The searching and retrieving of options from the WOCAT databases entails going through a series of key questions and using a predefined 'search-by-criteria' form to find the most suitable technologies and approaches. To ensure that the full variety of technologies and approaches are available for selection from the WOCAT databases, all The aim of this third and final stage of the selection process is to select promising (existing and potential) SLM strategies for field testing in the study sites. Taking the options identified and selected in the previous two phases along with additional options from the global WOCAT database, this stage involves stakeholders working together to jointly select the best strategies that will then be tested in the field.These are the physical practices in the field that control land degradation and enhance productivity in the field. An approach may include different levels of intervention, from the individual farm, through the community level, the extension / advisory system, the regional or national administration, or the policy level, to the international framework. Besides conservation activities introduced through projects or programmes, indigenous conservation measures and spontaneous adoptions or adaptations of technologies are also included. local solutions put forward in the first stakeholder workshop should be documented and evaluated with the WOCAT questionnaires and entered into the WOCAT databases before this second stakeholder workshop.The WOCAT databases act as a basket of diverse options and ideas, which can be used as a model for the development of a context specific version but should not be confused with a blueprint solution. Biophysical and socio-economic conditions vary so much between sites that the options from the WOCAT databases must be assessed and reflected, and where necessary adapted to local circumstances, such as to local plant species, slope conditions or market mechanisms.A comparative selection and decision support tool is applied during the second stakeholder workshop to support the negotiation process. The tool allows a better appreciation and negotiation of the various SLM strategies, and objective evaluation through scoring of options with regard to a list of pre-defined criteria. Overall, the step-by-step process for the identification, assessment and selection of SLM options described above is fairly easy to apply and, when done properly, helps to successfully facilitate joint decision-making processes among stakeholders. As described, this stage has, at its core, three key elements: the WOCAT databases on SLM technologies and approaches, the Decision Support Tool and participatory facilitation. What is most valuable about the combination of the three key elements is that it makes the stakeholders work together from the very beginning to understand and evaluate the SLM options. Each stakeholder group has an equal say in determining the criteria that they will use to assess each SLM option and in doing so, they not only learn about SLM options, but also learn from each other. They are forced to consider each other's positions and opinions, before entering into negotiations to come to an acceptable Step 1: Review and adjustment of objectives K To recall and refresh main discussions and results from the first stakeholder workshop.K To decide on which objectives to focus on for the selection of options that will be implemented later.Step 2:• ToidentifywiththehelpoftheWOCATdatabase a range of options (technologies and approaches) that fit the selected objectives. • Tovisualisethepotentialoptions.Step 3: Identification of relevant criteria for evaluation • Toidentifyandagreeonasetof9-12criteria (ecological, economic, and socio-cultural) per objective, relevant for the local context, along which the different options can be evaluated.Step 4:Scoring the options• Toassessforeachoption,towhichextentit fulfils the different criteria identified in step 3, i.e. to assess the options by the criteria.Step 5: Creating a hierarchy and ranking criteria• Toorganisecriteriainahierarchicalorder.Step 6:• Tovisualisetherelativemeritsofthedifferent options. • Tointerprettheresults.Step 7: Prioritising of options -negotiation and decision making • Tofindafinalagreementonwhichoption should be selected for test-implementation in the study site.Step 8: Embedding into the overall strategy and seeking a commitment• Torefinetheoverallstrategyandtoensurethat the options selected for test-implementation fit in and framework conditions are considered. • Togetacertaincommitmentofparticipantsto support the test-implementation process.• Toevaluatecontents,methodology,andresults of the workshop.This step of the methodology involves running a series of comparative field trials for several years. The step-by-step process to carry this out can be described in three stages:iIn order to have a structure to a number of experiments on different study sites and to facilitate comparison between the sites, a Site Implementation Plan (SIP) was used within the DESIRE project. The SIP is a summary of the situation on the monitoring locations, followed by a practical implementation of the SLM technologies and/or approaches chosen by stakeholders and a detailed monitoring activity plan, divided into several categories. This plan should be comprehensible on its own, without many references to other project documents, so that it can be understood by 'outsiders' and provide a concise overview of activities.Within DESIRE, each SIP had the following sections:1. General: Location of the monitoring plots.2. Summary: A brief overview of the problems at this particular location and the SLM technologies chosen. This is based on the site descriptions and information from the outcome of methodological step II. decision. This leads to solutions being selected that are not only widely accepted, but also financially feasible. In addition, the process creates a sense of ownership of the implemented choices.The question, \"how well does a strategy work?\" is at the heart of this stage because in spite of decades of research and experience, it is not an easy question to answer. Although there is a wealth of SLM knowledge and experience, the fact is that the world is changing rapidly and old technologies and approaches need to be adapted or new ones designed to keep up with the pressures of climate change, resource scarcity and population growth. Also, technologies selected from the WOCAT database that have not yet been implemented before in a specific area, should be tested in order to prove effectiveness in that specific setting. Simply described, this step of the methodology is where the effectiveness of the SLM strategies, selected by stakeholders during the workshops, is tested at a number of study sites round the world.As described above, the main aims of this stage are to trial and monitor the SLM technologies and approaches selected by the stakeholders in the preceding workshop activities.The effectiveness of a particular strategy needs to be tested against two goals: 1. The expectancy of the land users, in general farmers, pastoralists or foresters, who have to implement the SLM measures. The goal of this particular stakeholder group is generally a direct improvement of their yield and/or security, or reductions in the risk of crop/grazing failure, which they expect to happen within the lifecycle of the project. 2. The effects on the environment, and mitigation of desertification processes. This is often the primary goal of the environmental scientists involved, although many stakeholders recognise the negative impact of desertification processes and also wish to improve this in the long run.cover could change). Combining the knowledge gained at this stage with the information developed as part of the indicator work in Step I, we can calculate whether applying strategies results in a change of the risk for desertification.Even when promising SLM strategies have been tested in field experiments, there remain many challenges to developing general recommendations for their use. Firstly, experimental conditions during field trials will always be limited and, as a result, cannot reflect the variable conditions within a region. For example, rains may have been so plentiful during the trial period that water conservation did not boost yields. Secondly, the time it takes for strategies to develop full effectiveness and deliver their full range of benefits is longer than they can be tested during the usual lifespan of a research project. For example, build up of soil organic matter after changing tillage methods or crop rotations is a slow process, and long-term yield increases will not have been observed. Finally, policy and decision makers would like to know whether a technology or approach performs across a range of conditions before supporting its implementation. Apart from differences in environmental conditions and the time it takes to develop full benefits, the investment costs and access to markets are important factors influencing the viability of an SLM strategy.The challenge then is to evaluate the likely environmental effects of adopting different SLM strategies at a regional scale and assess their financial viability.8. Yield assessment or assessment of other returns (quantity, quality) and a general stakeholder appraisal.To assist the design of the experiments, the DESIRE project compiled a manual of field measuring and monitoring methods for on-site effects of SLM technologies. Provided in the manual is an overview of currently available methods, techniques and instruments 17 .ii Implementation and Monitoring phaseAfter collecting the background data, each study site can begin implementing the selected SLM strategies. During the implementation practical adaptations can be made to better fit the circumstances. However, this should always be done in discussion with the stakeholders. During this time, study sites are monitored closely and all information is recorded 18 . Within DESIRE, each site reported regularly based on the variables and situations described in the SIP.iii AnalysisTo ensure a standardised approach to comparing experiment results both within and between study sites, this stage of the DESIRE methodology uses part of the WOCAT Technologies Questionnaire (QT), described in detail in Step II of this chapter.Firstly, the monitoring results are analysed and set in a climatic context. A scientific analysis of the experimental results is carried out, followed by an interpretation of the results that translates them into terms of performance of the SLM technology or approach. It is at this stage that the WOCAT QT questionnaire is used to evaluate all results in a standardised manner. Secondly, the information gathered from the scientific reports and WOCAT QT questionnaire is used to compare results both within and across study sites, enabling the identification of common denominators. Finally, the results are translated to define \"good land management practices\" and advise both land users and local government on how to integrate the SLM measures in their annual farming plans. At the second stage of this methodological step, a third and final stakeholder workshop is held to present and discuss the combined results from the models and field trials. Following a similar methodology as the preceding workshops (described in step II of this chapter), this participatory process enables stakeholders to make a final selection of what technologies they consider to be worthwhile for dissemination, based on a combination of environmental, social and economic considerations. The information and stakeholder feedback gathered at this stage can go some way toThis penultimate step of the methodology has several main objectives:1. Identify the likely environmental effects of the proposed SLM strategies. 2. Evaluate the financial viability of the selected SLM strategies.the uptake of strategies, and what the wider economic impacts of such policies might be. 4. Come to a conclusion as to what SLM strategies should be implemented where to achieve desertification policy targets at least cost.There are two phases to this methodological step. For the first stage, models are used as a tool to work with the environmental and socio-economic data. The information and outputs from this modelling is then presented, in the second stage, to stakeholders during a third and final workshop.At the first stage, models are used to evaluate (i) the environmental and economic effects of the SLM strategies selected by stakeholders at both field and regional scales;(ii) potential policy scenarios; and (iii) global scenarios, for example about climate change and food security.Within the DESIRE project, two interlinked modelling approaches were developed and applied 20 :1. A biophysical model 21 was used to investigate the likely environmental effects of the selected SLM options. This model was an extension of the PESERA model, adapted to consider a wide range of SLM options and processes, for example forest fires and grazing. Adapted to each study site, the model was developed to closely reflect the indicators and land degradation drivers identified at earlier methodological steps. Model outputs were then used to look at the likely regional biophysical effects of different SLM options that had previously been trialled in study areas at a local (usually field) scale, to help formulate extension and policy recommendations.2. The DESMICE (Desertification Mitigation Cost Effectiveness) model was used to evaluate the related socio-economic effects. This model was newly developed within the DESIRE project to scale up the economic assessment of SLM strategies from field to regional scale. To do this, it uses In its simplest form, this step of the methodology involves four main stages;i Identifying the range of audiences that communication and dissemination products must reach Within DESIRE, a stakeholder was identified as anyone who would like to know more about sustainable land use in their local area or region. Lists of all relevant stakeholders were made for each of the project's study sites. These lists generally included land users, land owners, communitybased organisations, government officials, local and national administrators, NGOs, UNCCD, researchers and scientists.The variety of stakeholders involved with DESIRE is demonstrated in lists for particular study sites that include firemen, tourist institutes, unions, local and national media, as well as local education institutions and youth committees, and including teachers and school children.For many following SLM projects, the relevant stakeholders will be similar to those involved with the DESIRE project. However, carrying out a comprehensive stakeholder analysis process at the beginning of any research project ensures that all the relevant key players are identified. For further information about stakeholder analysis and management, see the articles in the Further Reading section at the end of this chapter.ii Tailor the communication materials to the identified audiences When we transfer knowledge, it will be translated by the recipient based on their experiences and opinions. So it is essential to consider how they will engage with the material. Although it is unrealistic to attempt to produce communication outputs for all stakeholder groups individually, material can be provided at different levels of complexity.For example, at the most complex level, a researcher would write a scientific paper using scientific language, whilst at the simplest level, an illustration or poster could be used to communicate with a less literate audience. Within SLM projects, there are many levels of complexity that need to be acknowledged and catered for.iii Make the dissemination materials available for the relevant audiences in the most appropriate wayIt is often the case that research projects do not have sufficient funding to print and distribute a comprehensive rangeIn order for any research to be implemented, it needs to be communicated to the right people, in the right way, at the right time. Any effective research project, therefore, requires an effective communication strategy to ensure research outcomes lead to effective actions. From the very start of the DESIRE project, making sure the key messages were communicated to a wide range of stakeholders was an important part of the process. As a result, the project worked to address groups and individuals at many different levels, from land users and teachers, to policy makers at local to national and global levels.The aim of the DESIRE project was to involve local people in choosing, trialling and evaluating technologies and approaches to combat desertification. As a result, communication and dissemination were at the heart of the research process. The main objectives of this dissemination stage for DESIRE, therefore, were; 1. to disseminate research outcomes to all relevant stakeholders, and 2. to develop a group of researchers who are well trained in research dissemination. each study site and/or the series of project research themes. Key messages and recommendations are highlighted so that they can be easily accessed by land users, land owners and policy makers, as appropriate. Information is often presented in simple, pictorial poster formats, and video clips. Where there is written information, it is mostly available in multiple languages, and if not, there is also a facility to use Google automatic translate.of material widely, so using an online information hub is often an effective, and achievable, solution.Within the DESIRE project, the whole story of research is presented within the Harmonised Information System (HIS, www.desire-his.eu). This system is easy to access and uses mainly non-scientific language. To make the HIS easy to dip in and out of, the project information is presented throughThe DESIRE Project has focussed on promoting the value of participatory collaboration between researchers and stakeholders, and providing information for a wide range of audiences in appropriate languages.Turkey, Gudrun Schwilch Portugal, Gudrun Schwilch to continue sharing knowledge and building networks with stakeholders and to provide ideas about how to effectively communicate or \"disseminate\" project outputs (results, messages and products) to all kinds of stakeholders, inside and outside the research project. Originally assembled to address dissemination issues being encountered specifically within the DESIRE project, a version of this manual for more general use is now available for download.The methodological approach described in this chapter incorporates multiple knowledge sources and types (including land manager perspectives) from local to national and international scales. In doing so, it aims to provide outputs for policy-makers and land managers that have the potential to enhance the sustainability of land management in drylands, from the field scale to the region, and to national and international levels.For those who do not have access to the internet, non-scientific summaries and explanations related to the research have been compiled into booklets, leaflets and briefing notes. These are all stored on the HIS and can be printed off and distributed by the project team or users outside DESIRE, including Agricultural Extension Officers. Apart from these summaries, the HIS also stores all other dissemination products that deal with DESIRE, such as newspaper articles, television broadcasts and a film that was specifically made for DESIRE. For those who do have access to the internet, social media outlets, such as Twitter, provide an additional communication pathway to new and varied audiences. DESIRE announces new publications and items of interest regularly through email networks, email subscriber lists and international newsletters related to desertification.DESIRE also paid specific attention to dissemination to policy makers. This included talks with local policy makers, as well as attending high level UNCCD and other political meetings.Spreading the DESIRE message at international policy level was assisted by two NGOs that were members of the DESIRE consortium.This involves training a research team to (i) identify the range of stakeholder groups; (ii) identify the complexity of information required; and (iii) identify the ideal formats for the information that needs to be communicated, including planning timetables to put these methods into action. For example, team members learn when to distribute leaflets, show DVDs or put on a community event or exhibition 22 to ensure optimal impact. Timing can be especially important for dissemination at (international) policy levels, as for these levels there may be windows of opportunity during which specific messages about (global) political urgencies can be delivered.The results of DESIRE demonstrate the multiple benefits of investing in an effective dissemination strategy and, hopefully, provide some of the materials and templates necessary to help other research projects do the same. A key output from the DESIRE dissemination work has been a comprehensive manual of communication and dissemination. Supported by further practical advice and a series of PowerPoint presentations, the manual aims to provide guidelines about how maps for each study site 6 . The LUS system, originally developed to map regions and countries, was adapted to be also applicable to small DESIRE study sites. The steps to define the base map units are explained in chapter 1.1 (Box 1). The starting point for mapping degradation and conservation is land use and land management, since these are considered the major factors that influence land degradation and conservation.The mapping of land degradation phenomena and their control measures originates from the aim of WOCAT 1 to improve the Global Assessment of Soil Degradation (GLASOD) 2 . WOCAT was also the first to provide a spatial view of the effectiveness of Sustainable Land Management SLM in response to this land degradation. By collaborating with the LADA 3 and DESIRE 4 projects, WOCAT has been able to provide a scale-independent method to map land degradation and conservation for predefined spatial units based on land use, which is the basis for assessing land degradation and conservation.In this chapter, the WOCAT mapping methodology and the outputs from the process will be described in detail.Maps of degradation and conservation properties provide a powerful tool to obtain a spatial overview of land degradation and conservation in a country, a region, or worldwide.The WOCAT mapping methodology employs a mapping questionnaire and database 5 .The WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Questionnaire (QM) complements the information provided by the individual case studies on SLM Technologies (QT) and Approaches (QA), described in chapter 1.3. The Mapping Questionnaire evaluates what type of land degradation is happening where, as well as assessing the response to land degradation in terms of SLM. Within the DESIRE project, the information obtained through the mapping questionnaire for the DESIRE study sites was entered in the online Mapping Database. The accompanying map viewer allows the user to inspect various aspects of land degradation and conservation for each site.The mapping method consists of a spatial assessment of individual map units on the predefined land use map (base map). This is carried out with the use of a questionnaire. The hierarchical system for defining Land Use Systems, originally developed by the LADA project, was used to construct the base  (which covers by far the largest area in absolute terms), Russia, the two Turkish sites and Tunisia. Cultivated land and grazing/ranging are the dominant major land use types in relative terms (Figure 1).Historical trends in the extent and intensity of land use can help us predict future land degradation and, as a result, may enable the implementation of relevant SLM strategies. The increase or decrease in area with the major land use types was assessed over the past 10 years (Figure 2). Box 1 shows the classifications used to describe the changes.As can be seen in Figure 2, the area covered by the major land use types in the majority of the study sites has remained stable over the past 10 years. Cultivated land, forestry and grazing land have expanded, but decreases in areal coverage were also recorded for grazing and range land. At the same time, due to increased numbers of livestock in the study sites in Botswana, Crete and Tunisia over the last ten years, the land use intensity of grazing and ranging has increased in about 20% of the grazing land.A spatial design of SLM activities requires a spatial overview of the types, extent and causes of actual land degradation phenomena. The WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE mapping method distinguishes six major types of land degradation, each with several subtypes: B: Biological degradation, e.g. reduction of vegetation cover (Bc), Quality and species composition / diversity decline (Bs), Detrimental effects of fires (Bf), Quantity / biomass decline (Bq) Sealing/Crusting (Pk) W: Soil erosion by water, e.g. sheet erosion (Wt), gully erosion (Wg), mass movements (Wm) or off-site effects like flooding and siltation (Wo)Figure 3 shows the distribution of major degradation types within the DESIRE study sites. Water erosion (W), in particular sheet erosion by water (Wt), is the most commonly reported type of degradation, occuring in all sites except Botswana, Greece (Nestos site), Russia (Novy site) and Turkey (Karapinar site). In about 70% of the degraded area various types of degradation occur, and therefore have a combined effect (e.g. erosion and soil nutrient decline) (only the major type is presented in Figure 3 and 4).Figure 4 shows that the largest surfaces of degraded land occur in cultivated land and land under mixed use, covering 89% and 100% of these areas respectively.Soil erosion by water (W) or wind (E) are important forms of land degradation in all land use types, and is most important in cultivated land. In cultivated land, grazing land and mixed  larger part of degraded land in the DESIRE study sites was recorded as being degraded at moderate to strong degrees (Figure 5, Figure 6). Extreme forms, i.e. land degradation beyond restoration were only recorded for the study sites in Spain and Turkey. For the Turkish site the degradation refers to wind erosion and soil fertility decline in the Karapinar site, and to several degradation types in the Eskişehir site (soil fertility decline, water erosion, biological degradation, water degradation).While the degree of land degradation indicates the state of degradation at the moment of observation, the degradation rate indicates the trend of degradation over a recent period of time (about 10 years). A severely degraded area may be stable at present (i.e. low rate, no trend towards further degradation), whereas an area that is currently only slightly degraded may be characterised by a high degradation rate, or a trend towards rapid further deterioration. Identifying the rate of degradation is not only useful to prioritise areas for SLM interventions, but also to reveal areas where land health is improving due to SLM.Land degradation appeared to have increased moderately to rapidly in most of the DESIRE study sites, in particular in the Italian and Portugese (Góis) sites, Tunisia, Botswana, Turkey land all types of land degradation occur. In forest mainly water erosion, chemical and biological degradation were recorded. Due to its vegetation cover and the absence of mechanical agricultural operations wind erosion and physical soil deterioration are less likely to occur here.The degree of degradation refers to the intensity of the land degradation process. For example, in the case of soil erosion it is the amount of soil washed or blown away. The  (both sites) and Greece (Crete site) (Figure 7). These sites exhibit moderate to strong land degradation. Degradation is increasing predominantly in mixed land use (45% of the land with increasing degradation), followed by cultivated land (31%) and grazing land (24%). For some sites slowly decreasing degradation was reported (China and Portugal (Mação)) as a result of SLM efforts already in place. This is confirmed by the mean effectiveness of conservation measures reported for these sites.Various human activities and natural causes may lead to land degradation. The emphasis in the degradation assessment is on human-induced degradation, but sometimes degradation due to natural causes also requires measures to be taken. Natural causes include, for example, droughts, topography or flash floods, although these in turn may be influenced by human activities, as explained for the indirect causes in chapter 1.4.4. biomass, water and energy (provisioning services), regulating services like the prevention of soil erosion and the regulation of water flows, cultural services like information for education, and habitat services (e.g. the maintenance of genetic diversity).The same degree of land degradation can have different impacts on ecosystem services in different places. For example, the removal of a 5 cm layer of soil may have a greater impact on the crop or fodder production on a poor shallow soil than on a deep, fertile soil. In WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping, the impact of land degradation on ecosystem services is compared to situations without land degradation at present (e.g. areas that are already well conserved).The WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Method regroups the ecosystem services into the following categories 10 : P Productive services (provisioning services) E Ecological services (regulating and habitat services) S Socio-cultural services (cultural services) Land degradation was reported to have negative impacts on all categories of ecosystem services in the DESIRE study sites (Figure 10). Negative impacts on ecosystem services were reported for 94% of the degraded area, of mostly moderate degree, and referring to more than one category of ecosystem services in 35% of the degraded area. Negative impacts on ecosystem services were most widespread in cultivated land (36% of the degraded area), followed by grazing land and mixed land use (20 and 19%). cultivation of highly unsuitable or vulnerable soils, the missing or insufficient soil conservation or erosion control measures, or the use of heavy machinery. In contrast, crop or rangeland management refers to the improper management of annual, perennial (e.g. grass) shrub and tree crops, like the reduction of plant cover and residues for burning 7 .In more than 50% of the mapping units (covering almost 70% of the degraded area in the total area of DESIRE study sites), more than one causative factor is responsible for land degradation. In 20% of the degraded area five or more direct causes of land degradation apply. This illustrates the complexity of land degradation, and highlights the need for SLM technologies to address multiple forms of land degradation.Indirect causes of land degradation include socio-economic factors. Population pressure and land tenure were reported as the two most important indirect drivers of land degradation in the DESIRE study sites (Figure 9). This is confirmed in the literature 8 . In most study sites a combination of indirect causes of land degradation was reported; with three or more causes accounting for 28% of the degraded area. The most frequent combination of indirect causes included population pressure, land tenure and poverty, combined with governance, institutions and politics (14% of the degraded area).Ecosystem services are defined as the benefits people derive from ecosystems 9 . These include the production of food and Production services were affected over the largest part of the degraded area (Figure 10). Degraded land with negative impacts on uniquely production services (not on ecological or socio-cultural services) covers 20% of the total degraded area in the study sites. Of this land, mixed land use was most affected (49%), followed by cultivated land (24%) and grazing land (19%). In forest the largest part of the degraded area experiences negative impacts from land degradation on all categories of ecosystem services.The largest part of the area under high negative impact on ecosystem services (-3) was observed for regulating ecosystem services, indicating that these require specific attention in the process of developing and implementing remediation strategies against land degradation. Negative impacts on regulating ecosystem services were reported for equally large areas in cultivated land, grazing land and forest.   SLM technologies in the groups of 'Grazing land management' and 'Conservation agriculture and mulching' are the most widely applied in the DESIRE study sites (GR and CA in Figure 11). Grazing land management is dominant in grazing land and mixed land use (Figure 13). The largest variety in conservation groups is found in cultivated land (Figure 13).The variety in conservation groups recorded for the different Analysis of degradation and SLM maps DESIRE -WOCAT 2012 study sites appeared to correspond to the variety in types of land degradation. For example, in the Moroccan study site, rotational systems and conservation agriculture and mulching were applied in response to soil erosion by water (loss of topsoil/surface erosion) on cropland, while afforestation and forest protection were practiced in areas with biological degradation (reduction of the vegetation cover and/or biomass decline) (Figure 12).The effectiveness of SLM measures is defined in the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE Mapping Method in terms of how much the ence severe soil erosion by water, which is aggravated by land levelling (Italy), and inadequately managed by the conservation measures applied (agroforestry in Mexico and sod seeding, no tillage, fallow and cover crops in Italy).The WOCAT framework distinguishes four categories of conservation measures: 1. Agronomic (.g. mulching) 2. Vegetative (e.g. contour grass strips) 3. Structural (e.g. check dams) 4. Management (e.g. resting of land).A conservation measure is a component of an SLM technology, which may consist of a combination of several conservation measures. For instance, a terracing system is a SLM technology which typically comprises structural measuresthe terrace riser, bed and a drainage ditch -often combined measures reduce the degree of degradation, or how well they prevent degradation (Box 3). SLM measures appeared to be most effective in cultivated land: high to very high effectiveness was reported in cultivated land over 20% of the land under SLM measures, compared to only 2 and 4% of the land under respectively forest and grazing. For most conservation groups applied in the DESIRE study sites the effectiveness is moderate to high (Figure 14). Water harvesting and groundwater salinity regulation appear to be highly effective technologies for the areas concerned.The conservation efforts reported do not necessarily correspond directly with the degradation occurrences in the same mapping unit: areas with no degradation may have this status because of effective conservation, or conversely strong degradation occurs because of lacking conservation. For example, in the Goís study site in Portugal, land degradation in the form of soil erosion and degradation of the forest was found in 80-100% of map units where no conservation measures had been implemented (Figure 16).The effectiveness of conservation technologies differs considerably between the study sites (Figure 15). Highly effective conservation technologies over the entire area of application were reported for Tunisia, but far less effective technologies for Italy and Mexico Very high: the measures not only control the land degradation problems appropriately, but even improve the situation compared to the situation before degradation occurred. For example, soil loss is less than the natural rate of soil formation, while infiltration rate and/or water retention capacity of the soil are increased, as well as soil fertility; only maintenance of the measures is needed. Either the measures have strongly improved water availability and quality (addressing water degradation), or vegetation cover and habitats have been highly improved (addressing biological degradation).High: the measures control the land degradation problems appropriately. For example, soil loss does not greatly exceed the natural rate of soil formation, while infiltration rate and water retention capacity of the soil are sustained, as well as soil fertility; only maintenance of the measures is needed. Concerning water and vegetation degradation, the measures are able to stop further deterioration, but improvements are slow.Moderate: the measures are acceptable for the given situations. However, loss of soil, nutrients, and water retention capacity exceeds the natural or optimal (as with \"high\") situation. Besides maintenance, additional inputs are required to reach a \"high\" standard. Regarding water and vegetation degradation, the measures only slow down the degradation process, but are not sufficient.Low: the measures need local adaptation and improvement in order to reduce land degradation to acceptable limits. Much additional effort is needed to reach a \"high\" standard.  with other conservation measures, such as grass on the risers for stabilisation and fodder (a vegetative measure), or contour ploughing (an agronomic measure).The categories of conservation measures applied vary between the major land use types (Figure 17). In cultivated land, all categories are found, but in forest, agronomic and vegetative measures dominate. Management measures are most applied in mixed land use and grazing land.Combinations of conservation measures occur in all land use types, and take up the largest absolute area in cultivated land. Structural measures are relatively most applied in settlements, since this type of measure is most suitable to control the large runoff volumes generated in built-up area.Figure 18 shows that in the DESIRE study sites, agronomic measures are the most widespread. However, combinations of two or more measures were reported for about 40% of the mapping units or approximately 20% of the area under conservation. Sites with single conservation measures appeared to have a relatively low effectiveness of conservation. This confirms that combinations of conservation measures are more effective than single measures, as is often reported in the literature 11 .  Conservation measures in the DESIRE study sites have positive impacts on ecosystem services over the largest part of the area under conservation (Figure 19). Impacts are relatively most positive on regulating ecosystem services, which may help to balance the relatively high level of negative impacts from land degradation observed before.Negative impacts of conservation measures were also reported for production services and socio-cultural services for respectively 20% and 5% of the area under conservation. Negative impacts on production services can be explained by loss of land due to area occupied by conservation measures, like structures or vegetative strips. For socio-cultural ecosystem services, negative impacts of conservation may originate from conflicts due to the implementation of measures, for example due to closure of rangeland or forest for the regeneration of the vegetation.Considering positive impacts on all three categories of ecosystem services in the total area under conservation measures in the study sites (largely 195.000 ha, or 23% of the total area), positive impacts of conservation measures were mostly observed in forest and grazing land (resp. 19% and 15% of the area under conservation measures). Only 8% of the area under conservation measures with positive impacts on ecosystem services was found in cultivated land. At the same time, the effectiveness of conservation measures in cultivated land was reported to be high (in 20% of the cultivated area under conservation) (section 1.5.2). This implies that if conservation measures are effective in remediating land degradation processes, this does not necessarily entail positive changes in the level of ecosystem services provided by the land. Obviously there is scope for improving contributions from SLM to ecosystem services in cultivated land.  n Flintan, F. 2011. Broken lands: Broken lives? Causes, processes and impacts of land fragmentation in the rangelands of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. REGLAP (Regional Learning and Advocacy Programme), Nairobi.  In this chapter, the selection of SLM strategies presented in Part II will be analysed and evaluated. The compilation of these case studies, consisting of 30 technologies and 8 approaches, was based on various criteria. Essentially, the selection comprises of what was identified and documented through the participative procedure described in chapter 1.1 (step II). Most of these SLM technologies were also trialled in step III and their documentation was updated based on the monitoring of this experience. Some new technologies were documented only after the field trials carried out as part of the DESIRE project. It is important to note that in principle WOCAT is documenting only real field experience, which is why the technologies and approaches are presented in a case study format. The selection of cases is based on the completeness of the description and their relevance in the DESIRE process. A primary aim of the project was to achieve a wide variety of SLM strategies, study sites, land use types, degradation types, etc. and yet still keep a manageable number of cases in order to achieve a high quality output. The information compiled through the WOCAT questionnaires was put into an attractive four-page summary format. All documentation was reviewed and quality assured through an interactive process with the authors from the study sites. To support the following discussion of the analysis, the DESIRE project experiences as well as the overall WOCAT database have been used, but the figures are based on the DESIRE case studies only. It is important to note that the case studies analysed do not represent a 'random sample' from which statistical significance can be drawn. What the analysis does provide is an insight into common denominators of what are, in most cases, successful examples. The only study site to be majorly affected by salinization is Nestos in Greece, which suffers from seawater intrusion. However, salinization is also mentioned as a minor degradation type in the Russian drip irrigation case study.Depending on what stage of land degradation has been reached, there are three types of SLM intervention that can be made: (i) prevention of expected land degradation; (ii) mitigation of on-going land degradation; or (iii) rehabilitation of already degraded land.Prevention implies employment of SLM measures that maintain natural resources and their environmental and productive function on land, which may be at risk of degradation.The implication is that good land management practice is already in place.Mitigation is intervention intended to reduce ongoing degradation. This comes in at a stage when degradation has already begun. The main aim here is to halt further degradation and to start improving resources and their ecosystem functions. Mitigation impacts tend to be noticeable in the short to medium term; the observed impact then provides a strong incentive for further efforts.Rehabilitation is required when the land is already degraded to such an extent that the original use is no longer possible. In this situation, the land has become practically unproductive and the ecosystem seriously disturbed. Rehabilitation usually implies high investment costs with medium-to longterm benefits.Inputs and achievements depend very much on the stage of degradation at which SLM interventions are made. The best input-benefit ratio will normally be achieved through measures for prevention, followed by mitigation, and then rehabilitation 2 . This is confirmed by the DESIRE case studies, where the technologies for rehabilitation indeed have a lower cost-benefit ratio than those for prevention and mitigation. It implies that while the impacts of rehabilitation efforts can be highly visible, the related achievements need to be critically considered in terms of the cost and associated benefits.Of the 30 technologies analysed here, 12 were classified as prevention, eight as mitigation and five as combining mitigation with prevention. Only five were described as rehabilitation, mostly trying to put highly degraded forest or grazing land back into production. These include biogas in Botswana, which allows the forest to regenerate and four vegetative measures in Cape Verde, Mexico and Morocco, which use high-value trees and shrubs to rehabilitate gullies  or degraded slopes. It is good to see that the major efforts of SLM in these dryland sites go into prevention and mitigation. Examples for prevention include crop rotation systems (Chile, Morocco), fire prevention in forests, controlled grazing in forests (Italy), water harvesting systems (Tabia from Tunisia), and drip irrigation in Turkey.WOCAT categorises technologies into specific measures in order to help understand how they function (see Table 2). A technology group, as presented in Table 1, may consist of several such measures. Not surprisingly, the technologies within a particular group all have similar compositions in terms of their component measures (see Figure 5).Structural and agronomic are the most frequent measures of the 30 cases presented in this chapter. In contrast to the experiences in other case studies 3 , there are very few combi-Table 2: WOCAT categories of SLM measures Agronomic measures: measures that improve soil cover (e.g. green cover, mulch); measures that enhance organic matter / soil fertility (e.g. manuring); soil surface treatment (e.g. conservation tillage); subsurface treatment (e.g. deep ripping).Vegetative measures: plantation / reseeding of tree and shrub species (e.g. live fences; tree crows), grasses and perennial herbaceous plants (e.g. grass strips).Structural measures: terraces (bench, forward / backward sloping); bunds banks / level, graded); dams, pans; ditches (level, graded); walls, barriers, palisades.Management measures: change of land use type (e.g. area enclosure); change of management / intensity level (e.g. from grazing to cut-and-carry); major change in timing of activities; control / change of species composition. nations mentioned. A typical combination is the bench terrace from Spain, which is combined with a vegetative measure -drought-resistant shrubs with a good surface cover -to stabilize the structure.The analysis for the five groups (Figure 5) shows that for the cropping management purely agronomic measures were used, whereas for the grazing land purely management measures were used, i.e. without additional planting of trees or grasses and without implementing structures. In the water management group structural measures were applied in all except one of the case studies. Cross-slope barriers and forest management consist of various measures.  tant functions of the DESIRE SLM technologies is an increase of infiltration. This is found in all technology groups. Only the grazing land management technologies group does not include this function. Often an increased infiltration is envisaged together with an increase or maintenance of water stored in soil (see Figure 20 on increased soil moisture). Remarkably this does not apply to the water management group, where infiltration of water is rather a secondary aim after control of concentrated runoff (Spain, Tunisia) or replenishment of saline groundwater with surface freshwater (Greece).Out of the many functions the technologies have, the following need to be highlighted: K Improvement of ground cover is a key function in all SLM groups, except for water management. Several other functions are related to improvement of soil cover, such as increase of infiltration and, as a consequence, reduction of surface runoff and erosion. K Increase of infiltration is important, except in the grazing land management group. Due to the envisaged improvement in ground cover for both grazing land examples, infiltration is most probably also improving, but not considered specifically. K Control of runoff appears everywhere, except in the grazing land management group. For these two technologies it is not a primary issue of concern. K Improvement of soil structure can be found in all groups as an aim of some, but rather few technologies. K Increase in soil organic matter is mainly mentioned for the cropping management technologies, where it plays an important role as an input factor for agricultural productivity. K Water harvesting appears mainly in water management and partly for cross-slope barriers. K Sediment retention is only attributed to cross-slope barriers. K Increase of biomass / vegetation species is mainly related to cross-slope barriers, but appears everywhere to some extent.  matter and nutrient holding capacity and simultaneously sequester carbon in the degraded soil. This is an important functionality of reduced tillage, crop rotation with legumes and agroforestry systems.Figure 23, which is presented later in this chapter, shows an interesting comparison of the initial soil organic matter and the impacts of the SLM technology.As expected, the availability of surface water (proximity of streams or lakes) is very poor in most cases (see Figure 10). More on the impacts of this issue can be found below.The technologies were documented for the current climatic situation of the study sites. If climate is changing, then the positive-functioning of a technology could be negatively affected. Equally, under certain situations the effect could be positive. If the species used are not drought tolerant, a reduction of seasonal rainfall may cause hedge rows to become ineffective. The WOCAT questionnaire therefore assesses the perceived tolerance and sensitivity of an applied technology during extreme conditions, be it seasons with exceptionally low or high rainfall, temperatures or heavy storm (wind or rain). Topsoil organic matter is closely related to soil fertility and has an impact on physical, chemical and biological properties. Similar to soil fertility, the majority of cases have low topsoil organic matter. Naturally, topsoil organic matter is rather low in drylands due to the reduced biological activities under arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. Because most soils where SLM has been applied contain a low level of soil organic matter, they have potential to increase organic  Another issue used to characterise the land users is their size of scale, i.e. from small scale land users to large scale land users. Here, the picture of the DESIRE case studies is more diversified, although the majority (57%) is small-scale land users (see Figure 11). This helps to support the theory that within the smallholder farming sector there is significant and underestimated worldwide investment and innovation in conservation 6 .Land ownership and land use rights are important issues that can hinder or facilitate the uptake of SLM technologies. The majority of results from previous studies demonstrate that individual ownership of the land facilitates the implementation of SLM 7 . Figure 12 confirms this picture. Land use rights might be even more important than land ownership because security of tenure can provide the same degree of confidence to carry out SLM as titled ownership. For the DESIRE case studies, the data on land use rights shows an almost identical pattern as the data on land ownership. Cropping land management technologies are all individually owned and titled. Thus, SLM successes on cropland are all on private land. This statement also counts for cross-slopeIt is notable that all cropping management technologies are sensitive to droughts and dry spells. However, this can be explained because of their sole dependence on annual crops. In dryland areas, crops usually receive close to the minimum amount of water that they need to give yield; hence any decrease of water availability might induce crop failure. Temporal variability, such as periods of drought, also affects crop growth. Besides, these systems do not provide an alternative source of income, such as with agroforestry systems or other technologies. On the other hand, the sensitivity to droughts might be reduced due to the applied SLM technology, as water is better stored in the soil with the help of improved infiltration and better soil cover. This could lead to an increase in the amount of water made available to the plant, especially during dry periods.Water management technologies are also sensitive to droughts, but even more so to floods, which is indicated as a problem by six out of the eight water management technologies. It is a special challenge to have water harvesting structures which are strong enough to withstand the power of floods.Apart from droughts, coping with heavy storms and a decrease of seasonal rainfall are two additional concerns for dryland regions. It must be highlighted that except for five technologies (17%) all of the others are tolerant to such extreme events. Some of them, especially the cross slope barriers, have been designed to cope with extreme storm events. With regards to the seasonal decrease of rainfall, approximately one third is sensitive (11 out of 30), which is spread over all groups, except the forest management. The two grazing land management examples are both sensitive to seasonal rainfall decrease, which diminishes the availability of fodder. Again this illustrates that good practices today are already designed to cope with climatic extremes and possible shifts.In general, most of the technologies are tolerant to the expected climatic variations. In a few areas there might even be an opportunity for increased rainwater availability. However, especially for the Mediterranean region, in which most of the selected case studies are located, most of the climate prediction scenarios forecast declining rainfalls 5 .To identify the type of land users applying the SLM technology, the WOCAT questionnaire assesses if the land user is working (i) individually and at household level or (ii) in The relative level of wealth is classified according to local rather than international standards. Poverty and well-being can be causes as well as impacts of land degradation. Looking at Figure 14 shows that 60% of the land users applying the SLM technologies are of average wealth; only a few are either very poor or very rich. The technology group of cross-slope barriers has mainly rich and average land users, which makes sense because of the higher costs associated to this technology.Figure 15 illustrates the high importance of off-farm income for most of the land users applying the documented technologies. Almost half of the land users (43%) depend on an income of more than 50% from additional activities outside farming. This is especially the case for rainfed systems, for example; for the Cape Verde Aloe Vera Living Barrier technology the dependence on off-farm income is reduced from over 50% to 30-40% if irrigation water is used. Access to employment is generally considered low and it can therefore be assumed that the rate of off-farm employment would Their benefit is related to lower costs, rather than improved production, and a net increase in farm income is still achieved. Other technologies are not assessed regarding agricultural production increase (such as the biogas example). A third of all technologies reduce the risk of production failure, and these are mainly found in the water management group.Farm income is related, on the one hand, to the inputs (expenditures) needed to apply the technology and, on the other, to the increased production (see previous Figure 16). Increased farm income, generated from improved land management through the technology, was recorded in three-quarters of the cases (excluding forest management technologies, for which this analysis is not applicable). Both cross slope barri- ic cases, such as increased recreational opportunities for the two ecological production examples in Spain. Community or national institution strengthening is a benefit primarily reported by forest management technologies, for which this seems to be an important issue. Conflict mitigation was reported for seven technologies from all groups except cropping management. This is probably due to the fact that the technologies in this group are usually applied on individual land where the potential for conflicts is reduced, except where neighbours are suffering e.g. by too much withdrawals of irrigation water from rivers.On the other hand, four of the five forest management technologies seem to increase socio-cultural conflicts, albeit only a small amount. For the land reclamation with agave forestry, a significant increase in conflicts is expected due to the high economic benefits and the alcohol problem, although these disadvantages have not yet been witnessed.Reduction of uncontrolled runoff is a benefit particularly related to erosion control and downstream flooding. Furthermore, in drylands, surface runoff is a great loss of precious rainwater, especially during the short periods of heavy rain storms. Where storm water cannot be retained ers and water management are rather costly. However, they show the whole range from \"high\" (meaning the investment resulted in much higher benefits), to \"no\", where there was no additional gain (meaning that the investment did neither reduce nor increase the overall farm income). This indicates that if investments can be made, the benefits can be increased. External inputs and subsidies might be justified in such cases, especially where establishment costs go beyond the means of the local land users. Such issues are covered by the approach questionnaire.In general, socio-economic disadvantages were not often mentioned. Nine technologies increase the land user's expenses on agricultural inputs, mainly in the cropping management group due to investments in special machinery (e.g. no tillage) or in seeds (e.g. leguminous). Still, these all report about a net farm income increase. The highest increased expenses are reported from the two Botswana case studies (biogas and roof rainwater harvesting) as both of them require high investments. These two technologies can therefore only be implemented with subsidies, especially for poor land users.The socio-cultural benefits most often mentioned are 'improved conservation / erosion knowledge'; see Figure 18.Other socio-cultural benefits were only mentioned for specif-  and stored it will not be available for later use during the dry seasons. Reducing surface runoff is thus a major concern in drylands. As indicated by the authors of the case studies, the most effective technologies are improved cropping management and cross-slope barriers. For both, they indicated that runoff and erosion is a major problem to be addressed on cropland. For the two grazing land experiences they did not indicate an impact on runoff, which, as noted earlier, does not seem to be an issue for these cases. Experiences from other WOCAT cases show that especially overused grazing areas have the highest runoff and that improved grazing land management leads to significant reductions of runoff and erosion.Improving soil moisture through in-situ conservation of rainwater or irrigation water is effective water conservation. This is another key function that is most important to drylands. Cropping management and cross-slope barriers show the greatest potential to increase the water availability to crops in that way. Under dryland conditions, this often results in increased yields.Reduced evaporation was only reported in three case studies (Afforestation Cape Verde, Roof Rainwater Harvesting Botswana and Drip Irrigation Turkey). Drylands usually suffer from extreme evaporation losses on the bare soil surface, which accounts for 40-70% of the already scarce rainfall 8 . Yet, evaporation loss is often not perceived and therefore not seen as a problem. The role and importance of these technologies to reduce water losses through unproductive evaporation of the soil surface needs to be recognized. Improved soil cover management (see impact on reduced surface runoff, Figure 19) can heavily reduce such losses.The potential of improved soil water availability has been highlighted in previous WOCAT analyses, especially in the guidelines for Sub-Saharan Africa, where water scarcity is the main challenge 9 . Increase of soil moisture can also be combined with improved water harvesting techniques.Improved harvesting and collection of water (Figure 21) is achieved by improved water management, e.g. collecting excess water from the fields or from episodic streams, storing it in intermediate storage facilities such as dams, ponds and tanks and guiding it to areas where the water is most productive. It is mainly the technologies aiming at improving available water, such as the water management technologies and the cross-slope barriers, which do show highly positive results, especially where availability of surface water was poor before the technology implementation. No impact was mentioned for all grazing and forest management technologies and for most of the cropping management technologies.Looking at the impact of those technologies for which water decrease was indicated as a degradation problem before Soil erosion by water or wind is one of the most common degradation problems mentioned within the DESIRE project.Figure 22 shows that most technologies do indeed manage to decrease soil loss. And even those for which it was not identified as a problem report reduced soil loss, especially in the groups of grazing and cropping management technologies. Once again, these mainly concern the crop rotation examples and less the no / minimum tillage technologies. This means, that crop rotation is preventing soil loss even where it was not considered a problem. On the other hand, there are three technologies for which soil erosion was mentioned as a degradation problem, but for which no reduction in soil loss was measured after the application of the technology. This concerns Gully Treatment with Fodder Shrubs in Morocco and Woven Wood Fences in Turkey. These technologies were installed only very recently and a soil loss reduction will probably only be measurable after some time.Organic matter and soil fertility decrease was only indicated as a degradation problem in those sites where a cropping management technology was applied. None of the other sites seem to suffer from this problem. This could be because it is not deemed as relevant in these locations. Looking at the impact assessed after implementation, increased soil (aridification, decline in surface water), reveals that this problem was best tackled with the Jessour technology of Tunisia. However, the other water management technologies also seem to adequately mitigate this major problem.It is also remarkable that many of the technologies have a positive impact on water availability in one way or another (water harvesting, soil moisture increase, reduced runoff, etc.). This confirms that even in cases where water decrease was not specifically reported as a degradation problem, increased water availability on the surface or in the soil is a desired and achieved impact.Increased water quality and reduced salinity, rather than improved water quantity, was an impact of the water management technology in Nestos, Greece (transport of freshwater from local streams), as the major problem at this study site was the salinization of irrigation water. The Nestos example is also one of the seven technologies that report an impact on groundwater availability. The recharge of groundwater table / aquifer was mainly an issue for the water management technologies, where a small to medium increase was assessed for four technologies in Greece, Spain and Tunisia, and a high increase for the Recharge Well of Tunisia due to its specific target on this. Two forest management technologies also found a recharge of groundwater, namely afforestation in Cape Verde (medium) and the assisted cork oak regeneration in Morocco (little). management. This is probably because soil organic matter plays a more important role as an input factor for agricultural productivity on cropland.Reduced soil crusting and sealing was not only observed for the reduced contour tillage example of Spain, where it was indicated as an observed degradation type, but also for some other technologies.These are almost all within the cropping management group, where the Greece example of olive groves under no tillage showed the highest impact with over 50% of crusting reduction. The same level was also achieved by the other Greece example, the transport of freshwater from local streams, as salinization and, as a result, crusting is also reduced tremendously.As improved soil cover (by crops, fodder, weeds, shrubs or dead material) is usually linked to more vegetation cover, it is for these same technologies that an increase in biomass (and related above ground carbon) was reported. An increase in soil cover or biomass was not indicated for any of the water management technologies. Although there were reports about increased production, it did not improve the level or time of soil being covered.organic matter was between medium and high for most of the cropping management technologies. Some increase in organic matter was also identified in five other technologies in all groups (except water management).As stated earlier, most cases indicated a low topsoil organic matter before implementation. Comparing this with the impact now does not show high increases.Surprisingly, most technologies which are applied on soils with low organic matter content do not improve the problem at all. This could be because it takes a long time for such an increase to be seen. Equally, it could be due to the difficulty of increasing organic matter under dry conditions. Exceptions are those cropping management technologies, which aim directly at improving soil organic matter. The reduced tillage examples from Spain and Greece already have a medium level of soil organic matter and therefore only improve it slightly. For all the other case studies, organic matter improvement is only one amongst several major impacts. Most of the water management, the crossslope barriers and the forest management technologies do not impact on soil organic matter. However the reason for this could be that, due to its insignificance for these technologies, increasing organic matter was not assessed. This is despite the fact that the build-up of soil organic matter is much larger in grassland and forest under sustainable land ple some distance away from where the land has been improved. Although not easy to prove, all groups of technologies make some contribution to reducing floods; four out of seven cross-slope barriers have been assessed to haveFigure 25 presents a combination of plant, animal and habitat diversity, which was assessed separately. All reported impacts, however, refer mainly to increased plant diversity; only in six technologies do the impacts also refer to increased animal diversity and / or maintained habitat diversity. Considering that cropland usually has a low biodiversity compared to grazing land and forests 10 , it is interesting that the cropping management technologies have a considerable impact here. From the documentation it becomes clear, that this relates mainly to the new plant species used in rotational systems.An improved biological pest and diseases control was only reported from three case studies, namely (i) the 'ecological production of almonds and olives using green manure' from Spain; (ii) the 'land reclamation with agave forestry' from Mexico (both with high improvement); and (iii) the 'prescribed fire' from Portugal with little improvement.Apart from the on-site benefits, such as increased productivity and better water availability, the off-site impacts of SLM practices, such as reduced flooding and damage on neighbouring fields, need to be evaluated. Reduced downstream flooding (see Figure 26), as a result of better management of intensive and extreme storms, can greatly benefit peo- there is no establishment phase involved in agronomic measures, but investments into specialised machinery like directseeding tractors can be considerable.The \"cheapest\" SLM practices are within the cropping management group, where the majority of technologies require no extra costs compared to the more conventional land management practices. Grazing land practices are not expensive either but with these practices, the potential of production increase is smaller. Cross slope barriers range from cheap to expensive. The most expensive group is the water management. Compared with the potential benefits (see e.g. Figure 16), this group also has the highest potential of increasing the benefits / profits, thus making the investments worthwhile.Maintenance costs are those that relate to maintaining a functioning system. They are regularly incurred and are accounted for on an annual basis 13 . In general, these are made up of labour, equipment, and agricultural inputs.Compared to the establishment cost, the maintenance of the cropping management group can be quite high (over 300 $/ha). The reason for this is that this group of practices require annual inputs, such as renting machines and purchasing seeds, herbicides and fertilizer. As with the establishment costs, the water management group also has high medium to high impacts, both grazing land practices have medium impacts, and three of the five forest management practices have been attributed with little to high impacts.Benefits on neighbours' fields and public or private infrastructure (see Figure 27) have been particularly attributed to cross-slope barriers and forest and cropping management, and less to the direct water management. Still, all groups showed some reduction of damage off-site, demonstrating that damage caused by excessive water is a land management, rather than a purely water engineering, issue.In compiling the cost of a technology it is often difficult to separate normal agricultural inputs from additional expenses. In some cases, e.g. reduced or no tillage, the costs are actually less than for the normal or conventional practice.Thus it is relatively difficult to determine the incremental (or alternative) costs (and benefits) for SLM 11 .Establishment costs are defined as those specific one-off, initial costs which are incurred during the setting up of a SLM technology 12 . These investments are made over a period of time that can last anything from a few weeks to two or three years. These costs typically include extra labour, purchase or hire of machinery and equipment, and seedlings. In general, Land users do not always have to pay the full establishment and maintenance costs. In the studied cases, land users either paid almost all establishment costs (11 cases with contributions of 90-100%) or almost nothing (9 cases with contributions of 0-10%). Five case studies were somewhere between these two extremes and another five did not have maintenance costs. In contrast to this, cross-slope barriers are obviously rather cheap to maintain, even after heavy investments for their establishment, unless they happen to become damaged in extreme events. In the current analysis, grazing land and forest land management practices seem to incur low maintenance costs. No. of case studiesMorocco, Gudrun Schwilch Cape Verde, Gudrun Schwilch nologies (terraces China) has a slightly positive cost-benefit ratio. More than half of the forest management group also have negative or even very negative cost-benefit ratios. An exception here is the prescribed fire from Portugal, due to its immediate benefit in preventing more damaging wildfire.In the long term, all investments made for the establishment are giving a positive return. Regarding maintenance, 83% of the cases perceived positive, or at least neutral, benefits within the first five years. In the long term, the maintenance inputs gave positive returns in all cases. It is only some of the cropping management technologies that remain at a neutral to slightly positive level.In 62% of the cases, the land users have implemented the technology with external material support (eg payment, subsidised machinery) and in 38% of cases, they have done it wholly voluntarily. From the figures available, there are over 4000 families who are engaged in sustainable land management within the DESIRE study sites.More than half of the technologies report a growing spontaneous adoption trend, see Figure 31. For others it is too early to know. Of course, not all technologies are suited to spontaneous adoption by land users. Some technologies require high initial investments, which need to be provided by a project or through subsidies.any establishment costs. Overall, land users paid 36% of the overall establishment costs (median value), the rest being subsidized by projects or the government. However, more than half of the technologies are fully maintained on land users' expenses. Experiences from other evaluations show that support for the land users for the establishment can be very helpful and lift the production to much higher levels. As long as the maintenance costs are fully covered by the land users, there are good chances of the system continuing without dependencies on external inputs. As such, costs can be a barrier for poor land users, even if their investment would pay off in the end. Having said this, it is necessary for any investment to also evaluate the benefits; the costs are only a valuable criteria when compared to the associated benefits.Cost and benefits are extremely difficult to assess, but are obviously a crucial factor in justifying SLM interventions.The basic problem is the lack of hard and reliable data 14 . Furthermore, non-economic costs and benefits are not perceived in the same way by different people and WOCAT is therefore interested in a subjective assessment by the authors. Many authors had difficulties in deciding what to include and what monetary value to attribute to inputs and benefits, which made a comparison rather difficult.Regardless of these difficulties, the bottom line is that without a positive perception of benefits, land users or donors are unlikely to invest in SLM.Figure 31 shows that for most technologies, the long-term benefits in relation to costs (of any type) are positive to very positive. However, the picture for the short-term benefits is somewhat different. The short-term benefits are negative in relation to establishment costs for a significant number of technologies, especially in the water management, cross-slope barrier and forest management groups. This implies that most implementations of SLM technologies can be expected to give negative returns on investment in the first 1-3 years, and in order to generate economic value from the SLM technologies in the long term (5-10 years), land users will need support from revolving funds, PES, or other financial mechanisms. Mexico and forest activities' productivity and profitability. Often, SLM is just one element of a wider rural development programme.It was often the case that the authors of the approaches paid more attention to environmental impacts than to institutional strengthening or training. As a result, most case studies primarily mention the control of degradation and desertification as the first objective. A second objective is the enhancement of productivity and the intensification of production. Another important objective mentioned by the majority of authors is the improvement of farmers' livelihoods, primarily through more income. More specific objectives include the implementation of national and regional forest management policy at the local level in Portugal and removing marginality and socio-economic opening up the region in Morocco.Labour provided by land users is only fully paid in two of the documented approaches. All others rely, at least partially, on voluntary contribution by land users; three of the cases rely fully on these voluntary contributions. In Cape Verde, labour is fully paid because of widespread poverty.According to WOCAT, a SLM approach constitutes 'the ways and means of support that help introduce, implement, adapt and apply SLM technologies on the ground'. An overall concept that best describes the two basic ways in which adoption can spread, namely through promotion (incentives) and spontaneously, is an 'enabling environment' within which conservation thrives 15 . Compared to the 30 technologies, analysed above, only 8 corresponding approaches were documented to illustrate how these technologies were implemented in the field.The approaches documented in this book range from examples of testing and disseminating new technologies to training and awareness raising campaigns, rural development programmes and government programmes in forest regulations.WOCAT differentiates between three types of approaches; (i) traditional / indigenous; (ii) recent local initiative / innovative and (iii) project / programme based. Six out of the eight approaches are project or programme based and only the Tunisian case is based on a recent innovation. The Mexican approach is a combination of all three types.The focus of the approach is not always on SLM, but can also be on other activities. Having said this, half of the DESIRE approaches do indeed focus on the conservation aspect; two include other aspects and another two focus mainly on other activities, such as registered alcohol production in Turkey, Sanem Açıkalın Greece, Hanspeter LinigerRussia did not identify a gender difference. It is remarkable that in Cape Verde, 40% of the households are headed by women due to migration of their husbands to other areas or countries.Disadvantaged groups are often specifically involved, except in the Moroccan approach. In particular, there is a special focus on poor or unemployed people.These elements often form a key element of an approach.Training was provided in all eight approaches, mostly to land users and field staff / agricultural advisors. The training was provided in the form of public meetings, information sessions, site visits, demonstration areas, on-the-job and farmer to farmer sessions. All approaches work with an existing advisory service system, which is in most cases entirely adequate to ensure the continuation of the started SLM approach activities. This is a strong argument for further support of extension services.The effectiveness of training and extension was mostly considered good to excellent, except in Spain.Apparently, there is a serious lack of training for land users in Spain. The authors write that currently the extension funding, mainly in the government programmes of Chile, Mexico, Morocco and Tunisia. The local government is only important as a funding source in Spain. The local community and the land users themselves contribute in only three case studies, namely in Portugal (40%), in Mexico (10%) and in Tunisia (10%). This seems to contradict what was said earlier in the technology analysis section, but here we refer to eight approaches only and combine the technology implementation costs with the approach costs (e.g. training).In more than half of the case studies, the local community is actively involved in all stages of the approach. This is a clear plea for participatory development, already recognised in earlier approach analyses 16 . However, it is also remarkable that especially in monitoring & evaluation and research, almost half of the approaches don't involve the local stakeholders at all (although, it should be noted that some have not started this phase yet).This analysis shows that most of the case studies are clearly driven by experts. This is supported by the fact that in six of the eight approaches, the decision on the choice of the SLM technology was made by SLM specialists in consultation with land users. Only in Mexico was it a joint decision of various stakeholders, and in Tunisia it was a decision made by the land users supported by SLM specialists.Most case studies noted a moderate to great difference between participation of men and women. Usually, men perform the hard manual work in the field or in the implementation of SLM measures, while women are more responsible for the work in and around the house. Only Portugal and are not capable of generating a self-supporting, market driven mechanism in which the continuation of the approach is guaranteed. This implies that financial mechanisms are required to support the starting phase of SLM approaches. Such mechanisms could include revolving funds, contracts or payment for environmental services schemes.In most SLM approaches, land users are driven by benefits from increased production, profitability, and/or payments and subsidies. It is remarkable that in the two Western European examples, from Spain and Portugal, the land users are mainly motivated by rules and regulations (fines) or enforcement. This is not the case anywhere else. As already discussed above, payments and subsidies play a key role in most of the approaches (exceptions here are Russia and Portugal). In five approaches, production and / or increased profit(ability) and / or improved well-being / livelihood are very important. Aesthetic and environmental consciousness seem to play a minor role.system is focused on control rather than advice and training activities. There is more information and awareness building required for land users, as information is often only available at political or research level.Research was part of the approach in all cases, which is not surprising as all these approaches were documented through the DESIRE research project which is based on local research institutions. All indicated a moderate or great level of research inclusion, except for Cape Verde, where only little research was used. Almost all research is based both on on-station, as well as on-farm experiments.All approaches perceive a moderate (3 cases) to great (5 cases) impact on improved SLM.Adoption of the approach by other land users, other projects or in other areas is reported to be widespread. Almost all authors answer the respective question with 'yes, many', except for Russia ('some') and Mexico, for which it is too early to answer this.Whether the approach has led to improved livelihoods / human well-being, improved the situation of socially and economically disadvantaged groups or helped to alleviate poverty was answered as shown in Figure 36.Five out of the eight approaches have an impact on all three socio-economic issues. For Mexico, it is too early to assess these impacts. In Morocco, poverty alleviation is not achieved, because the small farmers and landless peasants were not sufficiently involved and have therefore not really benefited from the approach. The use of subsidies and their long-term impact on the implementation of SLM was not considered to be a problem in any of the study sites. On the contrary, in six approaches the impact of subsidies was valued greatly positive and in one still slightly positive (Morocco). Only in Tunisia has the willingness to invest in SLM technologies without receiving financial support decreased due to the land users relying on being paid for the area treated. However, it is not only in Tunisia that there is uncertainty around whether land users can continue the approach activities without support, but also in Chile and Spain. In Portugal, it is impossible, as the forest owners do not have the financial capacity to apply and support the activities by themselves. This demonstrates that in these eight studied dryland areas, SLM approaches  This book has discussed and evaluated strategies for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) that were developed and tested, with the aim to combat degradation and desertification, in 17 dryland areas in different parts of the world. The work and associated outcomes have been taken from a large research project involving scientists, land users, local communities and NGOs. The project developed a new approach (the DESIRE approach) for stakeholder -science collaboration in SLM projects and programmes. The DESIRE approach is founded on WOCAT methodology and tools, which have been under continuous development since their initiation in the 1990s, and have shown to foster successful implementations of SLM strategies in many places in the world 1 .The embedding of WOCAT methods and tools in the DESIRE approach was demonstrated to be of particular value for the identification, assessment and negotiation of SLM technologies and approaches in the DESIRE study sites, despite the large differences in their biophysical and socio-economic contexts.Through the DESIRE project, 38 case studies were investigated; 30 for SLM technologies and 8 for SLM approaches. These case studies spanned a wide range of countries and covered a wide variety of bio-physical and socio-economic conditions. As a result, they provided valuable practical data that can be used to extract a wealth of generic recommendations and policy points. Some of these points are new, while others provide a confirmation of earlier case studies, such as those presented in previous WOCAT book 'where the land is greener' (WOCAT, 2007) and 'Sustainable Land Management in Practice: Guidelines and Best Practices for Sub-Saharan Africa' 2 .This chapter provides a summary of the DESIRE approach (chapter 1.1) and the project results (chapters 1.2 and 1.3). It aims to describe important issues and practicalities that have to be considered for a successful implementation of SLM projects. In conclusion, it summarises a number of important policy points.In a nutshell the DESIRE approach consists of 5 steps: 1. Establishing land degradation and SLM context and sustainability goals. This includes the description and mapping of the site, outlining the particular desertification problems, using indicator sets and the tool developed in DESIRE to make an ex-ante assessment of desertification risk, and finally stakeholder analysis, along with formulating the sustainability goals of all stakeholders involved. 2. Identifying, evaluating and selecting SLM strategies.This involves the identification, assessment and selection of SLM options in a participatory process, which brings together researchers and other stakeholders. 3. Trialling and monitoring SLM strategies, which entails implementing and monitoring SLM technologies in field trials. 4. Up-scaling SLM strategies. This involves the regional modelling of biophysical and socio-economic effects of SLM strategies. 5. Disseminating the information, which refers to the communication and dissemination to stakeholders and relevant policy arena.The DESIRE approach can be effectively implemented by any project or programme that aims to combat land degradation. However, for the DESIRE process to be successfully applied, there are four key requirements:1. An integrated multi-disciplinary approach, 2. Close collaboration between scientists and stakeholders, 3. A sound scientific basis, for example through field experimentation and state of the art modelling, and finally, 4. A continuous dissemination and communication process aimed at stakeholders and policy makers that is initiated right from the start.These four key factors are discussed in detail below:1. Integrated multi-disciplinary approach Desertification, being a complex problem, requires an integrated approach, in which various disciplines are involved. This integration is necessary so that a full site specific understanding of bio-physical, as well as socioeconomic, issues can be obtained before measures are and, as a result, they are well placed to pass relevant information on to local stakeholders. Scientists also have access to software tools that enable objective evaluation of technologies, such as the use of evaluator software in step 2 of the DESIRE approach. These tools enable local stakeholders to make a well-informed decision as to what SLM strategy is most suitable and effective for them, incorporating both physical and socio-economic criteria. Scientists can, through their understanding of the principles on which measures are based, also assist in adapting measures to local conditions, thus optimising the chance of implementation success.Secondly, scientists are needed to support the land user in testing and monitoring the selected SLM technologies and approaches in the field. Scientists have access to technical tools, which can effectively evaluate the impacts of different land management options in the field (eg. yields, soil moisture values, nutrient concentrations, etc.), as described in step 3 of the DESIRE methodology (chapter 1.1).Finally, scientists have access to state-of-the-art mapping and modelling methods, which can be used to up-scale the findings. This will ensure that expectations to increase productivity and reduce land degradation, whilst protecting important ecosystem services, can be met when they are applied in different contexts.Continuously providing the right information, to the right people, in the right form is vital, not only to keep stakeholders involved, but also to optimise the chance that project results will actually be used. DESIRE recognises that information and knowledge held by researchers and non-scientist stakeholders must be shared much more effectively to ensure the research outcomes can achieve the maximum possible impact in desertification-affected countries.Therefore, a dissemination strategy should be developed at the start of a research project and should clearly outline who the relevant stakeholders are and what information they should be given at what stage of the project. The communication strategy should not only include stakeholders that are directly involved with the project, like farmers, local and regional policy makers, contributing NGOs and scientists, but also relevant and influential politicians, as well as local, national and international, media. Each type of stakeholder needs to be addressed in ways that are suitable for them. DESIRE actually implemented in the field. In the DESIRE project, the involvement of different disciplines (environmental sciences, social sciences, development specialists, agronomists) allowed a greater depth of understanding regarding the biophysical and socio-economic issues in the specific dryland sites.It is also vital to involve local stakeholders from the very start of a project, as this ensures that their site specific knowledge and experience can be taken into account, and that their views and practical experience are integrated into the project. The close collaboration in such a transdisciplinary approach creates a greater sense of ownership, and increases the chance that selected strategies will actually be implemented and adopted more widely. Without such an integrated, site specific understanding of the desertification issues at hand, and without the involvement of stakeholders, it is almost impossible to come to a selection of strategies against desertification that is a) suitable for the specific area in question, b) physically effective, as well as c) socially and economically acceptable.Local knowledge needs to be backed-up by scientific knowledge. Participative approaches should not be misused to justify inaction due to scientific uncertainty, but need to be supplemented by rigorous scientific research for several reasons.Firstly, scientists generally have better access to remediation technologies that have been developed elsewhere.It is easier for them to find the right information sourcesChina, Hanspeter Liniger Morocco, Gudrun Schwilch WOCAT/LADA/DESIRE mapping of land degradation and current SLMThe main conclusions from the application of the WOCAT/ LADA/DESIRE mapping in the DESIRE study sites are as follows.Within the DESIRE study sites, the areas of cultivated land, grazing land and mixed land are approximately the same size (between 175.000 and 200.000 ha in total). Forestry covers about 100.000 ha. Cropland and grazing are the dominant major land use types in relative terms. The area covered by the major land use types has remained stable over the past 10 years, but the land use intensity has increased in about 20% of the grazing land.The main degradation type in the DESIRE study sites was found to be erosion by water; however, in 70% of the degraded areas, more than one degradation type is found.The largest surfaces of degraded land occur in cultivated land and land under mixed use, covering 89% and 100% of these areas respectively. The degree of degradation was found to be moderate or strong in most cases, with only small areas showing extreme degradation. However, in most sites, degradation was found to be increasing, mainly under mixed land use, followed by cultivated land and grazing land.Inappropriate soil management was identified as the most important direct cause for degradation, but in more than half of the mapping units, multiple causes were identified; for 20% of the degraded area five or more causes were found. This illustrates the complexity of the desertification problem, and highlights the need for SLM technologies to address multiple forms of land degradation. Population pressure and land tenure were found to be the two most important indirect causes; again often in combination with other indirect causes. The most frequent combination of indirect causes included population pressure, land tenure and poverty, combined with governance, institutions and politics (14% of the degraded area).Land degradation was reported to have moderately negative impacts on ecosystem services in the DESIRE study sites over 94% of the degraded area. Production services were most affected in mixed land use (49% of the area with impacts on production services only), followed by cultivated land (24%) and grazing land (19%). The largest part of the area under high negative impact on ecosystem services was observed for regulating ecosystem services, indicating that these require specific attention in the process of developing and implementing remediation strategies.is, therefore, using a wide range of dissemination products, from the written word to videos and podcasts, to explain the science and recommendations from the start of the project. To achieve this, the DESIRE project makes research outcomes and recommendations available in a web-based Harmonised Information System, presented in non-scientific language. This is a direct information service for those who have internet access, but also provides printable material to be circulated in traditional ways to those who do not.The WOCAT/LADA/DESIRE mapping questionnaire (QM) and the associated database provide vital data on which type of degradation processes are occurring, where, why, and in which degree, enabling researchers to obtain relevant site specific expert knowledge quickly and efficiently. The questionnaire especially facilitates mapping of current SLM technologies in the area, including their effectiveness and impacts on the threatened ecosystem services. The WOCAT/ LADA/DESIRE mapping questionnaire is best employed in the first step of SLM projects (setting the context).The use of the WOCAT questionnaires for Technologies (QT) and Approaches (QA), along with the associated databases, played a vital role in the participatory approach, in which the SLM technologies that will be implemented in the field are identified, assessed and selected, in collaboration with stakeholders (step 2 of the DESIRE approach).Both the WOCAT/LADA/DESIRE mapping method and the WOCAT questionnaires and associated databases are available on-line, and are thus available world-wide for anyone to use.As a result, information on SLM options, that was previously scattered and inaccessible, is now being standardised and collated, facilitating the sharing of land management strategies to combat desertification. Through its search facilities, the WOCAT database can be used to find strategies that could be suitable in a certain location, based on its similarity in humanenvironmental characteristics to other locations described in the WOCAT database. Although in many cases, any potentially suitable strategies would have to be adapted to local circumstances, this database does allow the introduction of new strategies, based on tried and tested experiences in other places.Finally, WOCAT methods provide a way to compare information between different sites because the same standardised methods are used across all sites.technologies, mostly putting highly degraded forest or grazing land back into production. This reflected the state of land degradation in the various study sites, which had not passed thresholds of extreme loss of productivity or ecosystem service provisioning and, as such, did not yet require rehabilitation.Technically, the SLM technologies assessed are mainly functioning through increasing the infiltration, controlling runoff and improving ground cover. These actions support each other and can be considered key functions of SLM technologies in drylands. Most technologies are applied by small-scale land users, a group that is often underestimated regarding their investment and innovation, as well as their role in worldwide agricultural production 3 . As confirmed by previous studies, individual, as well as regulated communal land ownership and land use rights, facilitated the implementation of SLM.The results show that, for the most part, the SLM technologies had positive effects on bio-physical processes, relevant to agricultural production, and on ecological services of the land, although in varying degrees. For example, organic matter content did not increase very much, but water availability did increase and land and water degradation were reduced. An obvious issue for drylands is the importance of improved water management. One of the main aims of SLM in rainfed systems is reducing water losses through runoff, and direct evaporation loss from unprotected soil surface. On irrigated land water use efficiency of the irrigation system and water harvesting technologies show the greatest potential and benefits.Cropping management technologies and cross-slope barriers are the ones being most effective in reducing surface runoff and increasing soil moisture, which are major concerns in drylands. At the same time this confirms that the desired technical functions of the SLM technologies (see above) are achieved. Cropping management measures were found to be especially sensitive to increased droughts and dry spells, which is a particular concern in view of current climate change. However, most of the technologies are tolerant to the expected climatic variations, and, in some cases, the technologies are even able to reduce vulnerability to climatic threats, e.g. due to improved soil water availability.Half of the technologies also provide off-site benefits, such as reduced damages on neighbours' fields, public / private infrastructure or reduced downstream flooding. This might be an argument to provide reward schemes to farming communities for providing ecosystem services. In view of disaster risk reduction, technologies with additional off-site benefits need more attention.Concerning SLM, the most widely applied technologies were SLM technologies in the groups of 'Grazing land management' and 'Conservation agriculture and mulching'. The technologies for cultivated land cover a larger total area, but are categorised in more different conservation groups. SLM measures appeared to be most effective on cultivated land where over 20% of the land under SLM measures had high to very high effectiveness, compared to less than 4% of the land under forest and grazing. For most conservation groups applied in the DESIRE study sites the effectiveness is moderate to high. Combinations of two or more conservation measures were reported for about 40% of the mapping units or approximately 20% of the area under conservation. Sites with single conservation measures appeared to have a relatively low effectiveness of conservation. This confirms that combinations of conservation measures are more effective than single measures.Conservation measures in the DESIRE study sites have positive impacts on ecosystem services over the largest part of the area under conservation. Impacts are most positive on regulating ecosystem services and were mostly observed in forest and grazing land. Only 8% of the area under conservation measures with positive impacts on ecosystem services was found in cultivated land. Negative impacts of conservation measures were reported for production services and socio-cultural services for respectively 20% and 5% of the area under conservation (but only at a few sites). Obviously there is scope for improving contributions from SLM to ecosystem services, especially in cultivated land.The 30 case studies of technologies discussed in this book covered five groups of SLM technologies, namely cropping management, water management, cross-slope barriers, grazing land management and forest management. Most of them are applied on cropland, although grazing land is playing a key role in drylands, at least regarding its spatial dimension (see mapping results above). They also addressed all six types of degradation: water degradation, biological degradation, physical soil deterioration, chemical soil deterioration, wind erosion and water erosion. Depending on the kind of degradation addressed, agronomic, vegetative, structural and management measures were used, or a combination thereof.Most of the technologies aimed to prevent or mitigate degradation, and only few were described as rehabilitationThe costs of a technology are difficult to assess, especially in cases where the costs are actually less than for the normal or conventional practice (e.g. with no tillage). Low-cost technologies (mostly below 100 US$/ha) are primarily found within the cropping management and grazing land management group, although their maintenance costs can be considerable. The water management technologies are the most expensive (2000 -10,000 US$/ha), but this group also has the highest potential of increasing the profits, thus making the investments very worthwhile. Furthermore, the maintenance costs are usually rather low, i.e. below 300 US$ / ha / year.The cost-benefit analysis showed that nearly half of the land users earn most of their income outside of their farm. It was also found that, for the most part, technologies are profitable in the long run, but less, and in some cases not at all, profitable in the short run. Furthermore, land users themselves were found to pay around a third of the implementation costs (often in the form of labour), but usually all of the maintenance costs. This suggests that providing funding to implement technologies, e.g. through revolving funds or payments for ecosystem services, can be an effective way to enhance adoption, as the implementation costs are what makes measures unprofitable in the short run. This is especially the case for the more expensive cross-slope barriers and water management technologies. However, despite the constraints due to investment costs, there was a growing spontaneous adoption trend for more than half of the technologies.Eight SLM approaches were studied within DESIRE and are discussed in detail in this book. In at least half of these cases, the local community was involved right from the very beginning. The decision to implement certain measures was still often taken by SLM specialists, but always in consultation with land users. All approaches work with an existing advisory service system, which ensures the long-term continuation of the approach activities. In many countries, agricultural advisory services have been reduced due to economic pressure. However, these services have proven to be a key for up-scaling SLM and should, as a result, be strengthened to enable promotion, further development and adaptation of SLM to changing environments and needs.Approaches were perceived to have moderate to great impacts on SLM, and most approaches were found to contribute to improved livelihoods, decreased poverty and improved situations for socially and economically disadvantaged groups.The main reasons that land users choose to implement SLM measures were found to be increased production, profitability, and/or payments or subsidies. Environmental consciousness played a minor role. Thus, the challenge is to devise policies that are beneficial to environmental, economic and social concerns, i.e. decreasing degradation and improving ecosystems, while at the same time enhancing agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of land users. Research is needed to show and quantify these desired impacts of SLM practices. Making land users more aware of environmental issues and short-and long-term advantages, such as increased profitability, as well as including them in assessing the benefits of SLM -by being part of the research -will increase their motivation to implement SLM measures.This final section summarises the main conclusions arising from the DESIRE project that are of relevance to policy makers:K SLM options need to be developed and evaluated by capitalising on close collaboration of scientists with stakeholders, and tailoring options to local needs and priorities.K It is important to consider local knowledge and traditional approaches to land management alongside the latest technologies emerging from the research community and work to combine insights from both of these sources.K A structured process where stakeholders work together at a local level to identify, evaluate and select SLM options for field testing has proven to be effective. The implementation and monitoring phase needs to take into account the criteria for success, as identified by the stakeholders during the participatory planning process.K Standardized assessment and documentation, with the help of the WOCAT tools, enables the evaluation of current practices, the comparison of implemented SLM technologies and approaches across sites, and the mutual sharing of experiences through a variety of formats. 4   K Rigorous impact assessment is required to evaluate whether the expected bio-physical and socio-economic benefits have been realised.K SLM has multiple ecological, economic and social benefits, which go beyond the potential to reduce land degradation and desertification, e.g. addressing global concerns of water scarcity, resource use efficiency, energy supply, food security, poverty alleviation, climate change and biodiversity conservation.K When taking into account the multiple benefits, investments in SLM are completely justified and may require funding schemes from private and public sectors, especially when involving small-scale land users and marginalized people.   p Ecological production of almonds and olives using green manure Ecological production of almonds and olives under dryland conditions using green manure to increase soil fertility, to protect against soil erosion and to obtain a high-value product.p Fodder crop production Production of fodder crops every year both for feeding livestock and increasing soil fertility.   The adoption of the technology has been subject to the establishment of transfer programmes with smallholder farmers. In particular, in two communes of the \"secano interior\" (Ninhue and Yumbel), 100% of the families who were part of the technology transfer programme on no tillage adopted the technology. In terms of the area covered, the programme covered 1000 ha and 35% of the area adopted no tillage. Only a few land user families have implemented the technology voluntarily.There is no trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology.  In all, 55% of land user families (1850 families; 45% of area) have implemented the technology with external material support. In all, 45% of land user families (800 families; 65% of area) have implemented the technology voluntarily.There is moderate (growing) trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. Spain -Labranza reducida de cereal en contra de la pendiente en ambientes semi-áridos (Spanish)Above left: Crop residue in August of cereals that were harvested around May/June. This field will remain like this until March/April next year when it will be ploughed for sowing in autumn This technology is a type of conservation tillage with minimal economic effort and is adapted to semi-arid conditions. Tillage is reduced to a maximum of three times surface (20-30cm) tillage in two years with a disc-or a chisel-plough. The disc-plough is only used where there is a dense weed or crop residue cover. The disc-plough breaks-up the soil top layer better than the chisel-plough, while the chisel tends to plough slightly deeper (~30cm) than the disc-plough (~20cm). The advantage of the chisel-plough is that it leaves a higher surface roughness and is less destructive to soil aggregates. Under conventional tillage, fields are ploughed up to five times every two years, once with a mouldboard plough. In both systems, cereals are cropped in a rotational system with fallow land. Cereals are sown in autumn (October) and harvested in June followed by a fallow year. Under reduced tillage the crop residues are left on the field throughout the autumn and winter periods. This provides increased protection against soil erosion. Tillage is performed on fallow land in early spring (March-April) to prepare the land for sowing in October. With conventional tillage, fields are ploughed with a mouldboard plough in autumn. Traditional sowing machinery can be used so no investments are needed in specialised equipment. Tillage is performed parallel to the contour lines to prevent rill and gully formation. No herbicides are required since annual weeds are mixed with the upper soil layer during ploughing.Owing to increased organic matter content and a better infiltration capacity, soil water retention capacity, soil humidity and crop yields will increase within 3-5 years after implementation.The aim of this technology is to increase the soil organic matter content by retaining it in soil aggregates and to reduce soil erosion by water and tillage. The higher infiltration capacity and better surface cover with crop residues in autumn and winter protects the soil against water erosion, reducing soil erosion by over 50% and runoff by 30%. In addition, the better organic matter content increases overall soil quality in terms of soil structure and water holding capacity. Compared to traditional multiple tillage operations with a mouldboard plough, under reduced tillage, tillage erosion is reduced by having fewer tillage operations, but also through tillage of fallow land resulting in lower tillage erosion rates than secondary tillage operations of already loosened soil. Fuel use by tractors is decreased, leading to a reduction of 40% in production costs and reduced CO2 emissions. Some studies showed that in first 2-3 years after implementation, the soil can be denser and have a lower infiltration capacity than under traditional tillage regimes. Yet, when the organic matter content and soil structure have increased, infiltration rates are higher than under traditional ploughing and result in increased soil water content and crop yields.The technology is applied on loamy soils with a calcareous substrate, of shallow to medium depth, and slopes are gentle to moderate (5-15%). The climate is semi-arid with a mean annual rainfall of around 300 mm. Droughts, centred in summer commonly last for more than 4-5 months. Annual potential evapotranspiration rates greater than 1000 mm are common. The production system is highly mechanised and market oriented but depends strongly on agricultural subsidies.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120 There is a lack of water for irrigation of crops limiting the crop types that can be planted as well as the crop yield of dryland farming. A lack of water availability seriously limits the production potential of the soil and results in a low vegetation/crop cover.The relatively high soil erosion rates cause various off-site related problems (i.e. flooding, reservoir siltation) and on-site problems (i.e. gully formation and reduced soil depth). Farm income may increase with up to12%. There is no known effect on education, health etc. The subsidies applied for cereal production in a rotation system of fallow & for contour ploughing contribute to improved livelihood of most farmers.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Maintenance/recurrent slightly positive slightly positive When a disc-plough was not already used in normal farming operations, this implies a slightly negative influence on farm income during establishment.There are no subsidies for reduced tillage. Nevertheless, 100% of land user families have implemented the technology with external material support since there are subsidies for parts of the technology such as contour ploughing and rotational farming allowing a fallow period (1-2 years) after harvest. Practically 100 % of farmers use these subsidies; still reduced tillage is implemented 100% voluntary.There is a little trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. There seems to be a growing public awareness of the fact that frequent deep rotational ploughing is not always necessary and results in higher production costs.Strengths and how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome This is a low-cost technology that requires limited initial investments in equipment and potentially results in a slightly increased farm income, as well as a decrease in land degradation and an increase in soil quality and water-holding capacity  In some higher areas with sufficient rainfall, the technology might be adapted to conservation tillage with direct sowing, reducing the tillage operations even more. However, this implies an important investment in machinery and a high level of organisation at the agricultural cooperation level.An increased soil surface cover throughout autumn and winter provides a good protection against soil erosion reducing rill and gully formation  Sometimes a field is left fallow for two consecutive years, but it is still ploughed between them. This ploughing might be avoided as well.The most important weakness of this technology is that it does not significantly improve farm income and so may not be stimulating enough for farmers to apply  Provide information on all the advantages of good soil management that include many costs for society (including floods, reservoir siltation, etc.) and stress the fact that reduced tillage will lead to less work for the same or slightly higher profit.In order to apply for subsidies for cereal cultivation in a rotation system with fallow, farmers are obliged to plough after each fallow period to control weeds, even when two consecutive years of fallow are applied. This is considered unnecessary  It might be worthwhile to test the need for this and look for alternatives without ploughing.  Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcomeReduced tillage has a very positive effect on the reduction of erosion and runoff, on soil quality and biodiversity  If maintained it will lead potentially to higher yields after several years.Production costs are reduced  Yield and farm income may be increased by combining this technology with green manure under ecological agriculture (QT SPA05)On the short term no increase in yield is obtained  Combine the technique with green manure or ecological agriculture as described in QT SPA05 In the past, legumes were commonly used as a biological and economic source of N for farming systems. Nowadays, N-fixing legumes have been recovering as viable crops because of the increased cost of N fertilizer and the need to develop more sustainable farming systems. These systems combine phases of legumes of different duration, in which N is fixed and accumulates in the soil, followed by phases of cereal growing during which accumulated N is extracted. In this new rotation for rainfed agricultural systems in Central Chile, four legume-wheat rotations were compared to a monoculture crop rotation (wheat followed by oat). The legume species are: the narrow-leaf lupin (Lupinus angustifolium); Wonga (early-flowering and high-yielding narrow-leafed lupin variety), yellow lupin (Lupinus luteus); Motiv, Peas (Pisum sativum); Rocket and a fodder mixture of vetch (Vicia atropurpurea) with oats. Legume seeds were inoculated with a specific Rhizobium. In the year following the legume crop, wheat was seeded without N fertilisation on the incorporated residues of grain legumes and green manure (vetch with oats). The BNF in the grain legumes varies from 124 to 178 kg N ha -1, depending on the type of legume. Peas are the most efficient fixing legume crop. In the lupins -wheat (L. angustifolius) rotation without application of N to the wheat after lupins, production of wheat was between 79 and 110% of that when fertilised with N. In the peas -wheat rotation, a yield equivalent to 72 and 105% of the wheat fully fertilised with N was obtained. While peas (Pisum sativum) can be eaten as a green vegetable, lupins and Vicia are used as fodder supplements for animals.The new rotations were developed and evaluated experimentally. Then, through a technology transfer programme, the technology was transferred to real conditions with farmers in a programme covering 250 ha in the municipality of Yumbel.The area has a subhumid Mediterranean climate with an average annual precipitation of 695 mm (80% concentrated in winter), with five months of drought. Soils are Alfisols of the Cauquenes type, classified as Ultic Palexeralfs. The soil is formed from weathered granite with moderately acidic conditions and low organic carbon. Clay content in the soil is 15% at depths of 0-18 cm depth. Below this depth, it is above 44%. The topography comprises a hillslope with a gradient of 10-20 % and the main traditional crop rotation is oat-wheat or wheat-natural pasture. The farmers are smallholders working on their own land. The sizes of the holdings on the dryland soils vary from 5 to 20 ha.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120 Land use problems: In rainfed areas of the Mediterranean region of Chile, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is mainly produced in rotation with oats (Avena sativa) and therefore N is obtained from the soil and synthetic N fertilizers applied during sowing and ploughing. These intensive crop rotations have resulted in deterioration of the physical properties and a depletion of soil fertility as a result of the drastic reduction in organic matter content of these soils.  Acceptance/adoption: This is a new approach to the cereal production system in rainfed areas. Initially the adoption has been slow, as the results obtained in the project are recent. The crop rotation with legumes has been adopted by 50 families covering an area of 250 ha in the municipality of Yumbel. However, the technology has been incorporated into the System of Incentives for the Recovery of Degraded Soils supported by the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile. Hence it is expected that in the future the adoption of this technology increases up to 20,000 ha in the \"secano interior\" of south-central Chile.Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcomeReduces the costs of fertiliser: the incorporation of legumes in the rotation cycle means a saving of 30% of nitrogen fertilizer in cereal production costs  keep the phases of legumes sufficiently frequent and longIncreases the economic benefits. When analysing the whole farming system, replacing the traditional rotation of wheat followed by natural pasture, implies two economic benefits for the producer: increasing the income by the incorporation of a new crop (legumes) and the reduction of costs in the fertilization of cereals.Increase soil organic matter: the new rotation system means a new concept in the management of crop residues. These should be incorporated into the soil, which in the medium and long term will involve an increase in the soil organic matter content  ensure application of the new management of crop residuesThe new rotation system involves an increase in productivity of the land, as it incorporates new cultures and improves the physical and chemical conditions of the soils. The lupin plot occupies the upper part of the watershed, characterized by very fragile soils because of their thinness (20-40cm) and low organic matter content. (Jamal Al Karkouri and Issam Machmachi)There are no special investment costs. The following costs are also required for the conventional cereal monocropping:- Editors' comments: This technology is similar to reduced tillage of almonds and olives (QT SPA06). The main difference consists of seeding green manure to increase soil fertility following the principles of ecological agriculture, while in QT SPA06 nothing is seeded below the Almonds.Ecological production of almonds and olives under dryland conditions using green manure to increase soil fertility, to protect against soil erosion and to obtain a high-value product.Ecological agriculture is a strictly controlled production system that does not use synthetic chemical products like fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides. Also genetically modified organisms and materials are not used. Green manure or low quantities of organic fertilizers, preferably from dung (sheep, goat, cow, chicken), are used to increase and maintain soil fertility. Green manure is provided by seeding a mixture of leguminous nitrogen-fixing species and cereals in autumn (October) and incorporating this into the soil with tillage in springtime (May). To optimize the fertilizer effect, there is still scientific discussion on the need for mowing the green manure and letting it dry for several days before it is ploughed into the soil. For this system, no ploughing is performed in winter, which reduces fuel use and emission of greenhouse gases. In addition to its fertilising effect, green manure provides a continuous surface cover during winter time protecting the soil from erosion. The products grown under this ecological system command a higher market price than those grown under conventional production schemes.The aim of ecological agriculture is to protect biodiversity and the environment and maintain or improve soil fertility and reduce soil, water, and air pollution. Under ecological agriculture and by using green manure, soil cover, soil organic matter, and soil biological activity will increase, which positively affects soil structure, soil fertility and soil water infiltration capacity. This reduces the sensitivity of the soil to surface crusting and it reduces surface runoff and soil erosion by up to 60%. Workload and energy use are up to 50% lower than under conventional agriculture, and benefits may increase around 40% due to higher yields. Moreover, a higher market price of ecologically produced almonds and olives will lead to increased farm income. This better economic return discourages land abandonment of marginal lands with low productivities under conventional farming. Ecological almonds and olives production does not require special establishment activities or investments in specialized equipment.Infestations by, for example, insects and caterpillars are treated twice yearly by degradable products based on copper salts (Oxicloruro, max 3‰ solution) and mineral oils in winter, or the spores and proteins produced by the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis or based on natural pyrethrins (from the Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium; max 1.5 l/ha) in springtime. In ecological agriculture, farmers are obliged to take advice and instructions regarding plague control and fertilizer use from technicians specialized in ecological agriculture. Soils mostly have a shallow to medium depth (between 20-60 cm), and slopes are gentle to moderate (between 5 and 15%). The climate is semi-arid with a mean annual rainfall around 300 mm. Droughts, in summer, commonly last for more than 4-5 months. Annual potential evapotranspiration rates larger than 1000 mm are common. The production system is highly mechanised and market-oriented but depends strongly on agricultural subsidies. All cropland is privately owned.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120 There is a lack of water for irrigation of crops limiting the crop types that can be planted as well as the crop yield of dryland farming. A lack of water availability seriously limits the production potential of the soil and results in a low vegetation/crop cover.The relatively high soil erosion rates cause various off-site related problems (i.e. flooding, reservoir siltation) and on-site problems (i.e. gully formation and reduced soil depth).  First years require some adaptation, but after 1-2 years the higher market price and crop yield will generate a slightly higher income.In all, 95% of land user families have implemented the technology with external material support. The majority are convinced by the subsidies provided for ecological agriculture. Only 5% of land user families have implemented the technology voluntarily. There is a limited number of farmers who had already started this form of farming before the existence of subsidies. There is a moderate (growing) trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. The trend is spontaneous, but strongly driven by available subsidies.   The improved livestock feeding increases income   Jessour technology is generally practised in mountain dry regions (less than 200 mm annually) with medium to high slopes. This technology was behind the installation of very old olive orchards based on rainfed agriculture in rugged landscapes which allowed the local population not only to ensure self-sufficiency but also to provide neighbouring areas many agricultural produces (olive oil, dried figs, palm dates, etc.).Jessour is the plural of jessr, which is a hydraulic unit made of three components: the impluvium, the terrace and the dyke. The impluvium or the catchment is the area which collects and conveys runoff water. It is bordered by a natural water divide line (a line that demarcates the boundary of a natural area or catchment, so that all the rain that falls on this area is concentrated and drained towards the same outlet). Each unit has its own impluvium, but can also receive excess water from upstream units. The terrace or cropping zone is the area in which farming is practised. It is formed progressively by the deposition of sediment. An artificial soil will then be created, which can be up to 5 m deep close to the dyke. Generally, fruit trees (e.g. olive, fig, almond, and date palm), legumes (e.g. pea, chickpeas, lentil, and faba bean) and barley and wheat are cultivated on these terraces.Although the jessour technique was developed for the production of various agricultural crops, it now also plays three additional roles: (1) aquifer recharge, via runoff water infiltration into the terraces, ( 2) flood control and therefore the protection of infrastructure and towns built downstream, and (3) wind erosion control, by preventing sediment from reaching the downstream plains, where windspeeds can be particularly high.In the Jessour, a dyke (tabia, sed, katra) acts as a barrier used to hold back sediment and runoff water. Such dykes are made of earth, and are equipped with a central and/or lateral spillway (masref and/or manfes) and one or two abutments (ktef), assuring the evacuation of excess water. They are trapezoidal and measure 15-50 m in length, 1-4 m in width and 2-5 m in height. In old units, the dyke is stabilised with a covering of dry stones to overcome the erosive effects of water wave action on the front and back of the dyke. The spillway is made of stones arranged in the form of stairs, in order to dissipate the kinetic energy of the overflow. This technology is currently encountered in the mountain ranges of Matmata of South Eastern Tunisia where the local agricultural activities are based mainly on rainfed agriculture and livestock breeding. However, high rates of migration to cities may threaten the long-term maintenance of those structures.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120   Establishment activities Establishment inputs and costs per per medium-sized Tabia    Water harvesting from intermittent streams to nearby fields and terraces during runoff events.Water shortage is one of the most limiting factors for sustainable agriculture in large parts of SE-Spain. Part of the solution of this problem may come from the restoration of traditional water harvesting structures. Many of these structures were widely used in SE-Spain already during Arab and Roman times, and are also widespread in N-Africa and the Middle East. However, nowadays in Spain many of them are abandoned and forgotten. Here, we describe the technology of a small earthen-or stone-built bund that diverts flood water from intermittent streams towards cultivated fields with almond orchards and/or cereals. The diverted water will temporarily flood the fields and provide the crops with water. Depending on the slope gradient and the amount of water to be harvested, the fields are organised as single terraces, or as a staircase of terraces. On fields with gradients above ~3%, terraces are necessary to reduce the gradient and to retain the floodwater as long as possible. Water is diverted from one terrace to the next through small spillways in the terrace. The spillways can best be fortified with stones to prevent bank gully formation. The extra input of surface water can double the almond yield. The use of these water harvesting structures is only possible under certain environmental and topographic conditions. The cultivated fields should be at a relatively short distance from an intermittent stream (<~50m), and the stream should have a sufficiently large upstream contributing area to provide significant amounts of runoff water during rainfall events. With these systems, water can be harvested up to 8 times per year, mostly in spring and autumn during high intensity rainfall events. A well designed Boquera system may provide up to 550 mm of additional water, in areas with an average annual rainfall of 300 mm.The goal of this technology is to increase crop yield. In addition, these structures help to reduce the intensity of floods and reduce the damage caused by them by reducing runoff volume in intermittent streams.Water harvesting requires the identification of a suitable location for the construction of a diversion structure. This requires assessment of expected water inflow, which can usually be based on simple field observation during rainfall events and based on local knowledge of land users. It is, however, important to consider whether there are activities upstream that possibly affect the water quality (e.g. farm animals) and to assess the implications the water harvesting might have downstream. Permission is required from the water authorities to construct any type of water harvesting structure. Such structures are built by creating a small bund (<1m height) in the centre or to the side of a stream. Depending on the size, the bund can be built with a shovel or a tractor. The water harvesting structure will require control and some maintenance after each important runoff event. When strengthened with concrete, maintenance will be reduced to approximately once every 5 years.Soils are mostly of shallow to medium depth (20-60 cm), and slopes are gentle to moderate (5-15%). The climate is semi-arid with a mean annual rainfall around 300 mm. Droughts, centred in summer commonly last for more than 4-5 months. Annual potential evapotranspiration rates larger than 1000 mm are common.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120 There is a lack of water for irrigation of crops limiting the crop types that can be planted as well as the crop yield of dryland farming. A lack of water availability seriously limits the production potential of the soil and results in a low vegetation/crop cover. The relatively high soil erosion rates cause various off-site related problems (i.e. flooding, reservoir siltation) and on-site problems (i.e. gully formation and loss of soil depth).  during Roman and Arab times when most structures were operative they increased significantly the production. Nowadays, most of them are abandoned. However, those that are operational do cause increased crop yields.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Implementation of the technology is relatively expensive. Once installed, maintenance is not expensive and pays off because of higher productivity.One hundred per cent of land user families have implemented the technology voluntarily.There is no (growing) trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. Much of this knowledge is forgotten and not applied or maintained anymoreThis technology is very effective at increasing water available for crop production and so increasing crop yield and farm income  Temporarily store the harvested water in a cistern to be used for irrigation using drip irrigation when most needed.The technology takes advantage of floodwater that is otherwise lost because of the erratic character and short duration of flow  Finding the optimal location for the water harvesting structures using a modelling approachThe implementation costs are relatively high when the bunds are made of concrete  Use of cheap materials that are freely available (stones from the fields). However, it is important to make the structure as resistant as possible against flood events.The water provided by these techniques is mostly interesting for small-and medium-scale rainfed farming. Intensively irrigated farming requires more water and a guarantee for water independently of flood events  Intensively irrigated farming might use this technology as an additional source of water and may store the harvested water in a cistern for use when needed.Farmers consider it relatively expensive to implement and there is no guarantee for water as this depends on the rainfall events.  Subsidies might help to install these structures where feasible. The benefits are obvious from the first year of application of the SLM technology and the maintenance cost is logical.100% of land user families (50 families; 50% of area) have implemented the technology voluntarily. The remaining area (50 %) is irrigated with groundwater.There is a moderate and growing trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. Tunisia -Puits filtrant (French)Above left: A recharge well reduces the length of time of standing water, and thus evaporation, by injecting flood water rapidly into the aquifer, where it is stored and recovered later to be used for different purposes. This is an example of a recharge well behind a gabion check dam after rain. (Photo: Ouessar M.) Above right: A recharge well needs to be always combined with a gabion check dam which prevents floodwater movement downstream and creates a temporary pond (Photo: Temmerman S.)A recharge well comprises a drilled hole, up to 30-40 m deep that reaches the water table, and a surrounding filter used to allow the direct injection of floodwater into the aquifer.The main worldwide used methods to enhance groundwater replenishment are through recharge basins or recharge wells. Though groundwater recharge aiming at storage of water in the periods of abundance for recovery in times of drought has a long history dating back millennia, the recharge wells began to be used only in the twentieth century, especially during the Second World War following concerns on attacks of the water supply facilities. Its use was extended later to sea intrusion control, treated waste water, water harvesting in the dry areas, and strategic water storage.Recharge wells are used in combination with gabion check dams to enhance the infiltration of floodwater into the aquifer. In areas where the permeability of the underlying bedrock in front of a gabion is judged too low, recharge wells could be installed in wadi (ephemeral river) beds. Water is retained by the gabion check dam and it flows through the recharge well allowing accelerated percolation into the aquifer.A recharge well consists of a long inner tube surrounded by an outer tube, the circumference of which ranges between 1 and 2 m. The area between the tubes is filled with river bed gravel which acts as a sediment filter. Water enters the well through rectangular-shaped openings (almost 20 cm long and a few mm in width) located in the outer tube, and it flows in the inner hole having passed through the gravel and the rectangular shaped openings of the drill hole. The above-ground height is around 2 to 3 m whereas the depth is linked to the depth of the water table (normally up to 40 m). The drill hole connects directly with the aquifer, where it is connected either directly with the water table or indirectly via cracks. Pond volume is dependent on the size of the gabion check dam but generally ranges between 500 and 3000 m 3 . The filtered water can directly flow into the aquifer at a rate exceeding what would occur naturally through the soil and the underlying strata.The design should be conducted primarily by a hydrogeologist and a soil and water conservation specialist in order to determine the potential sites and the required drilling equipment. Drilling needs to be carried out by a specialized company.Depending on the geological setting, the overall cost is around 5000 to 10000 US$.The recharge wells are used to recharge the deep groundwater aquifers, which are mainly exploited by government agencies. However, private irrigated farms are benefiting indirectly by increased groundwater availability. A sufficiently powerful pump provides pressurized water into the system. Before entering the distribution pipes, the water is cleared of silt particles in the filters and fertilizers are added if needed (http://www.ziraialet.com/haber).Establishment activities Establishment inputs and costs per ha The main network of hard PVC pipes, pressure indicators, main distributor, and labour force are the main costs. The local wage rate is 25 US$/day.In the calculation, it is assumed that the crop is a legume with 50 cm regular row intervals and the distance between individual plants is of the order of 30 cm. Short-and long-term benefits are very positive. But the technique is new and there is not enough knowledge of this system, especially in fertigation (watering + fertilizing). First investment costs are high and users do not believe drip water will feed the plants.The drip irrigation system is actively applied in 10% of the Apak Yayla area by 290 families, representing 30% of the population. In recent times, the area affected reached 20%, because the Turkish Government gives credit with no interest to farmers in dry regions. Seventy per cent of these land user families have implemented the technology with external material support; thirty per cent have implemented it voluntarily. Initially, only rich farmers used this system because it is expensive.There is a general and growing trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology amongst farmers. The government has responded positively to this situation by giving no-interest credit for 5 years.Strengths and how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and how to overcome Minimum water use, easy using, low energy demand (fuel, electric, labour, etc.)  Subsidizing.Sufficient watering enables an increased crop yield  education regarding the watering frequency would be useful.Ease of watering with this system  Training and subsidies.Users do not know how to use this new system exactly. In particular, farmers do not know \"fertigation\" methods for their different plants such as maize, sugar beet, potato, and orchards.  More education and demonstration of fertigation methods by state institutions.Drip irrigation system has a short life (1-5 years)  UV-tolerant plastic must be manufactured and used. Botswana -Lekidi (Setswana)Above left: View of roof rainwater system at the lands in Mokoboxhane (Photo: L. Magole) Above right: Taking dimensions for a rainwater system in Mopipi lands (Photo: M. Moemedi) Roof rainwater catchment system using galvanised iron roof material, feeding an underground water tank.A roof of galvanised iron (corrugated iron) with the dimensions 7 x 6m is constructed on a support of gum poles (see photos). The roof catches the rain. The rain water flows over the roof into pipes at the rear end of the roof (sloping side) into an underground conical water tank. The tank is made of bricks and mortar. The underground tank serves two key roles: i) it stores water for use during the dry spells or times of no rain; and ii) the tank keeps the water cool in this hot environment. The technology is most preferred for so-called 'lands' areas, to provide household drinking water. On average, these lands are distant from water sources (e.g. 2-15 km). Other benefits of storing rainwater include less pressure on natural water ponds, but this would be a secondary concern.Water is critical for human consumption and needed around the home. The cool water is effective in quenching the thirst; it reduces labour time to collect water thus freeing time to concentrate on other farm activities. The water is mainly for household drinking and household chores like washing. Some is used as drinking water for chickens and for the animals used for draught power (e.g. donkeys during ploughing). The units are for use by individual farmers and thus restricted to individual households. The owner or the farmer has exclusive rights to the use of the water. Some farmers indicated that, in times of no rain, or before the first rains, they collect water from the village in drums, and pour it into this underground water tank, thus using it as a reservoir. They especially like the persistent coolness of water stored in the underground tank.The technology is for rainwater collection in four villages. Rainwater that flows over the roof is collected, for example, on galvanised iron roofs. The water then runs through gutters and a pipe to the underground water tank. To build the underground tank, the ground is excavated, to about 2m deep and about 3m wide. Within this hole, a drumlike feature is built with concrete bricks and mortar. After the wall of the tank is complete, it is then lined with mortar from the inside, and the base is also lined to form the completed tank. It is then sealed at over most of the surface leaving an opening with a lid. This opening is large enough for a man to enter for occasional cleaning of the groundwater tank. Thus the system comprises a roof, for collecting rainwater, and an underground tank for storing it.The environment is semi-arid and seasonal rainfall dominates during the summer months of October to April. People depend on nearby boreholes for water in the lands areas or have to travel to the village (about 2-5km away on average, but can be up to 15km) to fetch water. Most boreholes are either privately owned or communal and water is rationed to about two drums per week or even fortnightly. Most of the borehole water in the area is brackish. Thus roof rainwater (which is fresh) acts as the preferred alternative source of water. The underground tank, once full, is equivalent to 110 drums. Most normal rain events fill the tank, and the water remains in use till the next rainy season, which was found to be the case at all four pilot sites visited. Thus the rainwater catchments systems offer water security in the lands areas; water of very good drinking quality (sweet taste, cooler). Land use problems: Water shortage and poor water quality. The water harvesting system is critical in a semi-arid environment, where water shortages are common. To augment water supplies, storage is needed especially in arable land areas where there are no coordinated water distributions like standpipes, as is the case in villages. People at the lands eke a living out of the arable fields, and assured water availability enables families to remain longer close to the fields for essential crop management, hence increased yields. Cost of building materials, specifically iron sheets, timber, concrete blocks, cement and the professional builder from the government. Prices of construction material for the roof rainwater system, fitted with the underground water storage system. All prices and exchange rates were calculated for 29 September 2008. The government subsidy was such that, men pay 30% of all costs, while women pay 20%. The 20-30% could be paid through labour (i.e. digging the pit, transporting sand and cement and serving as a labour hand during construction. Thus if the farmer offers labour, then he does not pay anything. The costs are calculated with labour input and its price or the local wage, which is 5 US$ per day. Each roof catchment unit is supposed to benefit one household, so it serves on average 4 people, who farm a 2-3 ha area (5-15km away from the main village). Many educational tours made on these demonstration sites. Fresh rainwater is good for health compared to borehole (salty) water.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Very costly to set up, if no government aid. It is however, very good for long term water provision.Acceptance/adoption: The technology is generally deemed to be too expensive by the less wealthy farmers; and inadequate for the rich farmers (need to water many cattle) who drill their own boreholes. Thus only about 1% of land user families (1 families; 1% of area) have implemented the technology with external material support. There is one such structure per village in Boteti sub-district -and they are all demonstration schemes. There was no public uptake following demonstration, as government subsidy changed and was later stopped. It is too costly e.g. building materials, hiring of professional builder and cement to set up in lands areas. There is no trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology. High capital or start-up costs. The area has low income groups who get water from communal boreholes, while rich cattle owners obtain water from their private boreholes, and hence desalination is favoured rather than rainwater systems. China -树盘，逐年扩盘 (Chinese)Above left: Young apple trees in small pits, the traditional method (Photo: Wang Fei) Above right: The progressive bench terraces with apple trees (Photo: Wang Fei)Bench terraces are progressively expanded to form a fully developed terrace system in order to reduce runoff and soil erosion on medium-to high-angled loess slopesIn Miaowan Village, the technology is mainly applied to apple tree plantations. Tree seedlings are planted in rows every 4 m along the contour with a spacing of 2.5-3.5 m between rows. Trees are planted in pits 40 cm diameter and 30-40 cm deep. Manure and/or fertilizer are applied and the seedlings are watered.Around each tree, soil from the upper parts of the slope is removed and deposited below in order to extend the flat terrain. Over 5-10 years, the terraces become enlarged around each tree and form a terrace with the neighbouring trees along the contour, such that the slopes are transformed into level bench terraces. The fruit trees are located in the middle of the terrace. All the work is done manually using shovels.The establishment phase thus takes 5-10 years. Afterwards maintenance inputs are restricted to repairing the terrace walls.The main purpose of this technology is to reduce runoff and soil erosion on the slope and to improve soil quality and soil moisture retention. It is a sustainable land use technology for small farmers because farmers can use their spare time to improve the land's condition during the growth of the trees.A major aim is to conserve water and reduce runoff. Soil erosion in this village is very severe and the soil erosion rate before amounted to 60-100 tonnes per hectare per year and was reduced practically to zero as a result of building the terraces. The technology increases infiltration, reduces soil erosion by water and improves soil moisture retention to reduce the negative impact of extreme drought. However, it does not protect the soil well from wind erosion. Soil cover could be increased to protect against strong winds and reduce water loss by evaporation. However, the resulting increased competition with the trees for water and nutrients needs to be solved.Land use problems: On moderate-to high-angled slopes, water loss and soil erosion are very high. Outside the protected canopy of the trees rainsplash impact during heavy storms is very severe. i: first year: planting of fruit trees along the contour in small pits ii: after 3-4 years: a small terrace is built up around each tree (as the tree grows it needs more water, which is collected from the platform around the trees.iii: after 5-8 years: terraces develop iv: final stage: fully developed level bench terracesOwing to the soil properties of loess, there is no need to separate surface and subsoil as there is little difference between them. Therefore, soil can be moved directly from upper to lower parts of the terrace without changing soil fertility.(Wang Fei)1. Plant the young trees with small pits.2. The soils from the upper parts of the slope is shovelled away and deposited on the lower side of the trees 3. Expand the pits into a large platform year by year. 4. 3.4 years after planning the trees a level platform of 2 to 3 square meters around the trees is build. 5. The platforms increase and the space between trees is change into terrace. Slope is the most important factor. The steeper it is, the higher the cost. Labour was not considered as a cost before, but now it is expensive so that some local farmers do not use this technology. The costs are calculated assuming a local wage rate of 14.2 US$/day. The stable income from orchards improves the standard of living, and people can buy enough food and meat. The nine-year compulsory education in China, which once had to be paid for, is now free.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:It is very cheap to maintain this measure. More trees could be planted on degraded land in future.Acceptance/adoption: All land user families (65 families; covering 15% of their area) have implemented the technology voluntarily without any external support or inputs. In this area, there are many other practices, such as reforestation, enclosure (to prevent grazing) and terrace construction.There is a moderate (growing) trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. Even the local farmers know the benefits of progressive bench terraces, but with the increased labour costs, fewer people apply this technology.Establishing the technology over a long time. Local farmers have enough time to do it.  Show to land users that they have time and can spread to work over many years and fit the labour into the time they have available.It can reduce water loss and soil erosion and prevent the degradation of land  Give subsidy to the local farmers to reduce the sediment delivery into the downstream river.It can increase soil moisture  Makes people understand the importance of conserving water with such a technology.Higher yield and income  Share ideas through meeting in the field. Present this measure to more people and show them how to apply it and promote the technology to more farmers.It takes considerable time to establish and labour is more and more expensive so that farmers are looking for paid work  Subsidy for farmers using this measure. Land use problems: The current dry cropland use requires the fields to be fallow every second year due to insufficient water in the soil.For this reason drought radically decreases crop yield. Owing to heavy rainfall, removal of both topsoil and subsoil occurs in places causing increased stoniness in the soil, which decreases its fertility and makes the tillage operations difficult.  The technology produces a large crop yield increase and also conserves soil and water. As a result it increases farm income considerably.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term: Establishment neutral/slightly negative very positiveThe long-term benefits are very positive while short-term ones are neutral to slightly negative due to the high investment rates. The technique is new and there is not enough knowledge of it. Initial investment costs are relatively high compared to farmers' incomes.All land user families (1 family; 100% of area) have implemented the technology with external material support. Farmers expect state subsidies for further adoption of technology.  There is less damage to fields and to infrastructure due to gully formation and flooding. There is no trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology. There is acceptance, but it is not growing. In some parts terraces are removed to make larger fields, and some new ones are also constructed. Recently installed subsidies may change thisThis technology is very effective at reducing surface runoff and erosion by reducing slope gradients and connectivity. In addition, it has a water harvesting effect. So it reduces on-site and off-site erosion problems and potentially increases water retention in the fields.  The technology can be enhanced by providing more information and publicity so that existing terraces are maintained.The terraces prevent gully formation and damage to the fields and to their neighbours  maintenance is needed and should be promoted.The technology does not improve farm income and has a significant implementation cost  Provide information on all the advantages that include many costs for society (including floods, reservoir siltation etc.). The subsidy for implementation already solves the problem of implementation costs.It is considered relatively expensive to implement and particularly the optional planting of woody species is considered complicated in dry years  Subsidies for terrace construction and planting of woody species as well as cooperation between farmers to reduce costs of maintenance when subsidies stop. On gentle slopes of the Sehoul municipality, heavy or prolonged rainfall causes runoff and erosion on cultivated lands cleared at the beginning of the 20th century. In the last 10 years, in some plots, land users have started to implement contour plantations separated by intercropping strips with annual crops. Only the immediate tree surroundings involve harvesting and storing rainwater and runoff. No additional water harvesting structure has been built. A fence around the plot prevents livestock from entering.The economic objective of the technology is to improve income, because cultivation of cereals only gives low yields (500-600 kg/ha). Olive trees can provide an attractive yield and can be an alternative to crops especially during drought. As the olive tree is considered a revered tree, the technology is also beneficial from a social viewpoint. Environmental objectives include surface protection against erosion as well as the maintenance and improvement of soil fertility.To implement the change, a boundary of barbed wire (Chabkka) or cactus to form a natural hedge is installed in order to prevent livestock intrusion. Plantation work includes breaking up the soil, digging holes along the contour and planting the trees. Animal manure and chemical fertilizers are used as inputs. Weeding, pesticide application and manual watering are required regularly to support tree growth. As a drip-irrigation technique, watering cans with perforations are left to drop water continuously until the cans are empty.The plantations are on a fragile substrate of marl underlying Plio-Quaternary and loamy-stony deposits with more than 40 cm of fersialitic and sandy soil on low-angled slopes (<10 %). The climate is Mediterranean with a semi-arid trend. The socioeconomic environment is characterised by a medium-density population (10-50 persons/km 2 ) and scattered homesteads. The traditional production system (cultivation of cereals and extensive breeding) is dominant, as well as the use of traditional techniques and practices. Tillage is performed using animal traction. Tolerant of climatic extremes: Olive trees are tolerant of variations typical of the Mediterranean, but the yield differs from one year to the next; extremely low temperatures in some winters can make the yield very poor; the low amount of rain in spring can also be very detrimental.Land use problems: Irregular rainfall and drought, lack of surface water and depth of the groundwater table are major environmental problems. Excessive runoff causes gullying in the event of exceptional heavy rainfall. All fields on slopes are subject to soil loss because of sheet erosion, especially in early autumn, when lands are bare and without a plant cover due to summer grazing. Gully erosion also results from concentrated runoff from bare ground upslope, especially on steep slopes. There is a lack of support from the authorities and agricultural services and insufficient knowledge about water conservation. Technologies for surface water harvesting do not exist. Cropland per household (ha) <0.5 0.5-1 1-2 2-5 5-15 15-50 50-100 100-500 500-1,000 1,000-10,000 >10,000 The spatial arrangement of olive trees planted symmetrically (at 6m intervals) with intercropping. The beans grow in the stripes, and there is a barbed wire fence and cactus hedge to prevent livestock intrusion. (Larbi Elktaibi)Establishment inputs and costs per ha  Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome Ecological balance: olive tree plantations allow soil conservation through reduction of the erosion risks. It also provides benefits on water resources due to infiltration improvement.  Intensification of olive tree plantations and support of individual plantation projects, manure and fertilizers buying and technical supervision Improvement in socio-economic conditions: olive tree plantations provide more financial resources for land users, and provide high added value activities.  By promoting awareness-raising and technical supervisionOver the long term, this cultivation activity is more profitable than cereals  Promotion of olive tree plantation by subsidies Olive tree plantations are a less sensitive to irregular rainfalls than other cultivations  search for drought-resistant species Decrease in breeding activities because of protected areas and grazing land reduction  Additional fodder supply and promotion of fodder cultivation and stalling Insignificant economic benefits and low profitability provided by the technology over the short term  Promotion of intercropping to overcome the period before production begins, and give land users subsidies for fodder, seeds and fertilizersOwing to limited water resources, irrigation can be difficult during a dry year  Support in localized irrigation implementation (drip system)Conflicts occur because of protected areas  Allowing access for livestock  Cropland per household (ha) <0.5 0.5-1 1-2 2-5 5-15 15-50 50-100 100-500 500-1,000 1,000-10,000 >10,000 Aloe vera is used in traditional medicine, and is also used in personal hygiene.Benefits/costs according to land user Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Maintenance/recurrent neutral / balanced very positiveThe structure does not require costly maintenance, it is simply controlling the spacing of the barrier (vegetative control) and punctual replanting.95% of land user families (380 families; 9% of area) have implemented the technology with external material support. 5% of land user families (20 families; 1% of area) have implemented the technology voluntary. There is little trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology.Strengths and how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and how to overcomeRecover the degraded land and increase the production area  The vegetation of the area between the barriers will make the recovery and protection of the soil layer is strongerStabilizes the soil making it more resistant to the impact of the rain water  Sedimentation behind the barriers is favored along the time due to the continued growth of the plant Aloe veraImproves the thickness of the soil leaving it stronger and more productive  The mineral and organic matter retained behind the lines of Aloe vera will promote an increase in the thickness of the soil, improving also the volume of water retained in the soil, resulting in better root development. Therefore, the process of soil formation is best done.Reduction of the production area, which is occupied by bands of Aloe vera  Annual vegetative control within cultivated area and by cutting Aloe vera plants growing outside the living barriers, using it more economically Mixed land per household (ha) <0.5 0.5-1 1-2 2-5 5-15 15-50 50-100 100-500 500-1,000 1,000-10,000 >10,000Land user: groups / community, small scale land users, common / average land users, men and women Population density: 10-50 persons/km 2 Annual population growth: 1 -2% Land ownership: communal / village, \"ejido\" Land use rights: communal (organised): \"ejido\" is the community organisation in Mexico: land belongs to the state but it is managed by the community. Some areas can be used by everybody; others are assigned to the land user families.Water use rights: water concession given by National Water Authority to the \"ejido\" Relative level of wealth: average (owning 34% of the land); poor (owning 33%), very poor (owning 33%)Importance of off-farm income: Off-farm incomes represent between 80-90% of the annual incomes: \"external\" job, business, trade, or by money sent by family members from the USA Access to service and infrastructure: moderate: technical assistance, employment (e.g. off-farm), financial services; high: health, education, market, energy, roads & transport, drinking water and sanitation Market orientation: mixed (subsistence and commercial)Agave production is based on planting them with trees along the contour. Herbaceous plants are maintained / planted or sown between the plants. Depending on the slope, one or more dense lines of agaves (1 plant every 25 cm) is planted for control of soil erosion and runoff, including a lateral gradient to the gully which will evacuate the excessive runoff. Footpaths are planned for the maintenance of the plantation (Design of Alejandro Martinez). The most important factors determining the costs are: 1) the materials to build a greenhouse and the personnel to take care of young plants; 2) the difficulties of making holes in the indurated soils, which takes time and efforts; and 3) the distance between the nursery and the field requires time and efforts (truck carrying the plants).Calculations are for the plantation of 200,000 plants (agaves and trees) which correspond to the numbers of plants for 100 ha in the agave forestry example presented here. The main portion of these plants is planted by the community on their own land; the rest is given or sold to other communities or private people. The lifetime of the greenhouse, nursery and fencing installations is around 10 years. The local wage rate is 12 US$/day.Impacts of the Technology Production and socio-economic benefits Production and socio-economic disadvantages increased farm income, diversification of income sources increased production area and diversification increased crop yield increased wood and fodder production and quality reduced animal production anticipated impact on the community due to the huge benefits which may induce corruption, violence, etc. the production of the mezcal drink (with designation of origin) from agaves, and/or medicinal products, will generate very high incomes for stakeholders which change their life and allow farmer's sons to stay in the community and work in their fields.That is why state institutions fund the installations of this system, although the production has not started yet. After that, benefits generated will be enough to motivate people to increase the surface to remediate by themselves, without economical helps.short-term: long-term: Establishment negative very positiveAcceptance/adoption: All the land user families (50 families; 10% of area) who implemented the technology received an external material support. As the programme only started in 2010, it is impossible to have an exact overview of the results (end of 2011). As the land users belong to the same community (\"ejido\"), formally, all the inhabitants are involved in some way. It is too early to identify an adoption trend.Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome Remediation of degraded land turning it to a sustainable production generating very high incomes in the medium term  life will change drastically and not necessarily for the better. Transparency and communication regarding benefits and land use are necessary Low-cost project but it needs to be funded and supported with technical and institutional advice to initiate the first cycle of the project  Farmers can start to produce their mezcal from the wild agaves to sell them to wholesalers and use this money to pay for the project.As a result of the economic benefits, young people will stay in the communities  Involve the young to guarantee the future: develop the marketing, the diversification of the products, the quality of production, etc.It will hopefully reduce the number of cattle, which are the main cause of soil erosion, as farmers lose interest in cattle raising  Authorities need to monitor this and inform the farmers about the ecological impact of too much free cattle grazingObligation to find external funds to pay the first steps of the system (greenhouse, planting etc.) due to the lack of incomes amongst farmers  Involvement of all stakeholders in the project Ensuring that alcohol production will not be consumed in excess in the community  control of the volume of the production, and the sufficiently high selling price should avoid \"losing\" the production at local scale Risk that the benefits will be captured by few people  transparency and stakeholder communication in accounting for the benefits Marketing and selling the products  authorities help the farmers to contact sellers. The formation of communities of producers, leading to products conforming to regulations that maintain good quality and provide certification. The implementation of Atriplex planting and fencing have an effect in the long-term while in the short-term, the effects are still not apparent   In all, 98% of land user families have implemented the technology with external material support. Only 2% of land user families have implemented the technology voluntary.There is a moderate trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology.  It is very cheap to maintain the measure. In the surrounding areas, where land should be less degraded due to reduced grazing, more trees can be planted and allowed to grow in future.Acceptance/adoption: 50% of land user families have implemented the technology with external material support. 50% of land user families have implemented the technology voluntarily.There is no trend towards any increase in spontaneous adoption of the technology.Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome Good impact with low cost  facilitate access to public forest land Good animal production  the general quality of the products of the grazing (milk, beef and cheese) is improved due to the availability of more grass and water in the driest periods of the year.Limited wooded areas are available for public access  creation of managed enclosures in order to increase natural reforestation or afforestation.Rights of access to public lands and forest management rules  the regional legislative process should define better the management of the access of farmers to public lands and in general the whole controlled grazing process.Risk of overgrazing of the woodland area, if the area is not well controlled  ensure control mechanisms The climatic conditions are characterized by high spatial and temporal variability of the rainfall. The rains are concentrated in two or three months (August and September or October); the highlands and the N-NE parts are wetter compared to the low lands or coastal areas, which are very dry. The average annual rainfall is about 225 mm over the whole island; it has declined since the 1960s, with negative effects on farming conditions, and water supply. However, in areas located more than 500 m above sea level and exposed to trade winds, rainfall can exceed 700 mm. About 20% of the precipitation is lost through runoff, 13% infiltrates the soil and recharges aquifers and 67% evaporates. The evaporation loss is a limiting factor for any agriculture or forestry. Therefore, it is necessary to adapt the afforestation implementation to the specific local conditions (slope, stone cover, climate, etc). To overcome and minimize the problem of water scarcity, several measures are applied: (a) caldeira or half-moon structures achieved with earth or stone; (b) contour furrows or level bench terraces with stone walls arranged along the contour; (c). small dams to protect gullies. The aim is to maximize retention of water and control surface runoff. This not only allows better infiltration of water for the tree plantations, but also protects against soil erosion and facilitates groundwater recharge.The success of the reforestation may be indicated not only by the area covered but also by the number of introduced plants. In 1975, there were about 3,000 ha of afforested land. By 2011, there are over 90,000 ha of afforested land with almost 50 million trees. Afforestation has focused mainly on the island of Santiago and Santo Antão, (13% of the total area reforested). Nowadays, more than 20% of the country is afforested. The forest has had a great importance in the context of combating desertification, rehabilitation of vegetation cover, in meeting energy needs and forage production and in developing agrosilvopastoral systems, as well as having undoubtedly contributed to a significant modification of the landscape in Cape Verde. The afforestation activities also contributed to increase biodiversity of some species of birds, including \"Galinha di mato\" (Numida meleagris), \"Codorniz\" (Coturnix coturnix), \"Passarinha\" (Halcyon leucocephala) and others.The forest species are mainly used for land protection and for production of fuel wood and coal. Because of the poor growing conditions, the forest species are not well suited to the construction industry or wood processing.0-20 20-50 50-80 80-120 >120  The high costs are associated with its implementation; afterwards they are significantly reduced and the technology builds up the benefits Acceptance/adoption: Only the state has implemented this technology, because it changes the use of land and, without any subsidies, other land users are not encouraged to agree to it. There is a moderate (growing) trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology, as there is a continuing campaign of afforestation of state land. There are voluntary associations working in this technology for a better environment.    Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome Fuel load reduction  This will be achieved using prescribed fire and specialised machinery. The efficacy of prescribed fire depends on the collaboration of technicians and forest sapper teams. To guarantee the effectiveness of RPFGC implementation, long-term maintenance has to be ensured.Reinforcement of the forest path system  Clearing the strips of the RPFGC can enhance the forest track network.Forest fire prevention and fighting  The know-how of the local stakeholders and communities will contribute to the design of the RPFGC . This information should be integrated into the Municipal Plans to Prevent and Protect Forest Against Fires (PMDFCI). Any further information should be provided to the Civil Protection Agencies and to the Forest Technical Office and also to the local fire-brigade team.Increase in landscape resilience  This will only be effective if the RPFGC is continuous and without gaps. The acceptance of the RPFGC by the landowners is fundamental to widespread the use of this technology. Information and awareness about the need to change vegetation cover is also very important, in order to avoid extensive areas of monoculture.Soil erosion increase  Forestry good practices should be used in the RPFGC implementation, especially concerning the use of machinery and avoiding disturbance of soil at depth. Soil cover after the removal of the existing vegetation should be promoted (by seeding, mulching or creating a low intensity pasture).Soil cover reduction  Soil cover after the removal of the existing vegetation should be promoted (by seeding, mulching or creating a low intensity pasture).Runoff increase  Soil cover after the removal of the existing vegetation should be promoted (by seeding, mulching or creating a low intensity pasture). Excessive vegetation removal should be avoid, especially near water courses where the removal should be nil or minimum.Budget for implementation and maintenance  European and national funds. Collaboration of the local government providing equipment and labour force. Information and awareness to the landowners about the importance of this technology. Campaigns of national awareness and definition of this technology as 'public use' to overcome some potential social conflicts concerning the land rights.Portugal -Fogo Controlado (Portuguese)Above left: fire fighter monitoring the spread of a prescribed fire (Photo: Hans de Herder) Above right: a fire torch being prepared in order to start a prescribed fire (Photo: Hans de Herder)Use of prescribed fire (or 'controlled burn') to reduce the fuel load in the form of live and dead plant material and thus to prevent the likelihood of more damaging wildfire.This technique is an essential management tool that applies fire to control the quantity of forest or scrubland fuels. The type of fire depends on the specific goals and on the weather conditions. Firstly, it is important to consider slope angle and the kind of fuels to be burned. Weather conditions include temperature, wind direction and air humidity. Another important aspect is the ability to control the speed of flame spread. In order to carry out the controlled fire, a plan has to be drawn up and approved and a fullytrained, authorised technician must be present in addition to the appropriate support teams (fire fighters, forest management teams). These teams use water or other means of combating the fire in the event of it possibly getting out of control and are in charge of the burning process.The main purposes are enhancement of grazing areas and the creation of the socalled primary network for wildfire defence, which is a national network to limit the spread of wildfire. It involves strategically burning key sites (e.g. mountain ridges) to restrict the spread of the wildfire.An analysis of weather conditions is made prior to carry out the prescribed fire. On the day of the prescribed fire itself, safety checks are made and the specific tasks of all the team members are defined. Wind direction and strength need to be minimal and are strictly controlled during burning. The size of the team depends on the specific problems of the area to be treated. Team size needed for about 10 ha is around 10 persons. The team members start along a line working from the top on the mountain along the contour and move downwards. Gentle breeze should be against the direction of the spreading of the fire. Workers use a drip-feed fuel can. There is also a strategy for prescribed fires by burning a strip along ridges of the mountains to avoid spreading of accidental wildfires and to burn in catchments the lowest point from which fire can spread to different areas and spread in different directions on the slopes.Improved grazing management might also reduce the fuel load. Abandoning grazing in the forest can increase the fuel load and aggravate the occurrence and impact of wildfires. The creation or maintenance of grazing areas is determined by the size of the herd. Prescribed fire used as a means of improving grazing enables the local population needs to be addressed while considering environmental concerns. The prescribed fire also helps to protect the local population and their property by reducing the likelihood of devastating wildfire. Livelihoods are directly affected where prescribed fire is carried out to improve grazing. Where carried out to prevent the occurrence of wildfire, the contribution is indirect.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Maintenance/recurrent not specified not specifiedThe major benefit it is to prevent wildfires by reducing fuel quantities. A second benefit it is the improvement in grazing in years after the burn.There is a strong trend towards (growing) spontaneous adoption of the technology. In vulnerable areas, there is a need for reduction of the fuel load, removal of the vegetative cover or promotion of new plant growth.Strengths and  how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcomeThe vegetation is adapted to the fire -impact minimisation.  more use of controlled fires.With prescribed burning, larger areas can be treated compared to other fire control techniques, limited to strips in strategic areas, which are so difficult and expensive, whereas with prescribed burning, there is effective control of the vegetation over a large area\".  continue the use of controlled burning.Difficult operating conditions and high costs make the technology unsuitable for certain areas  continued use of the controlled fire technique instead of other techniques.Air pollution  ensure that the wind direction does not carry smoke over settlements. However, it is not possible to eliminate the smoke problem. In particular, a certain degree of moisture is required in the fuel load to enable the fire to be controlled, in order that the burning temperature is low and this tends to produce smoke.Lack of knowledge of people living near the burnt areas  improved education via schools, community meetings and in pamphlets.Possibility of loss of control of the prescribed fire  care needed to prevent this happening. The diagram shows the technical layout of a biogas plant;showing the position of the main components: Digester, Gas holder, Mixing pit, and outlet. Cow dung & or kitchen waste (except bones) is mixed with water to form a sludge. This sludge is fed into the digester pit where decomposition and fermentation takes place. As the sludge ferments, methane gas is produced. Methane is a combustible gas and can therefore be used for cooking and lighting. Specially designed gas stoves and lanterns may be required as the gas would not be purified and hence ‚thicker' than commercially produced gasses. However, the design can include a water filled pipe bend (u shaped) between the gas holder and outlet pipe. The water in this pipe would help to purify the gas before it is fed to the household appliances. The gas holder tank floats in water, through which the gas bubbles escape and methane gas collects into the floating tank. An outlet through which decomposed material leaves the plant is necessary. Old sludge would float and be removed through this opening (Diagram drawn by G. Koorutwe, Department of Environmental Science, University of Botswana).   Social and economic problems: Agriculture and livestock in the region are primarily for subsistence. The level of poverty and marginalization of the people of the project site is medium to high with low education levels. People need to migrate to the cities or outside the country to supplement the family budget. Prices of farmer productions are too low and do not allow economic survival. Therefore, only 10 to 20% of the total incomes are derived from agricultural products! This explains why the children of farmers do not want to become farmers and lands are less and less cultivated. In correlation, as the livestock price is good and animals can be raised with little input of time. Thus the number of animals is increasing and as they are grazing everywhere, they have a strong soil erosion impact.Rehabilitation of degraded land is done using native agave (Agave inaequidens), trees, shrubs and grasses which creates, over the medium-term (7-10 years) sustainable production of an alcoholic drink (mezcal) and/or pharmaceutical products and/or fodder for cattle and/or wood. Conduct a thorough review with a focus on prospective different stages of a project and the legal implications and regulations that must be met at these stages. Inform land owners about their rights, obligations and mechanisms of fulfilment. Total 100Total budget 2,000-10,000 US$ (estimated budget by ha, without alcoholic drink production)Decisions on choice of the Technology: It is the result of proposals, visits and discussions between all the stakeholders, so it is a joint decision. Decisions on method of implementing the Technology: It is the result of proposals, visits and discussions between all the stakeholders, so it is a joint decision. Approach designed by: Federal environmental authority, national and international scientists and land owners  The financial schema is made of three main components: self-financing from farmers and beneficiaries, subsidies from the government and credit from bank. Changes as result of monitoring and evaluation: There were few changes in the approach for local adaptation, for example at the institutional level.Location of mapping case studies Land useThis section shows examples of degradation and SLM maps of the DESIRE study sites. The aim is to give a spatial overview of the land degradation phenomena and of SLM technologies in the areas, complementary to the information provided by the individual case studies on Technologies (QT) and Approaches (QA) in section 2.1. The maps were created using the WOCAT-LADA-DESIRE mapping methodology (WOCAT/LADA/DESIRE 2008), as described in chapter 1.2. The various map themes of land degradation and SLM that can be produced with the method are explained in the table below. The selection of map themes per study site includes the land use type map, which served as base map for determining land degradation and SLM, plus three other map themes. The three themes, which may vary between different sites, were chosen to illustrate some of the spatial relationships between the land use types and degradation and SLM in each site.Featuring the main land use types, e.g. cropland, grazing land, forest/ woodland, mixed land use, or other land use. In some cases including subdivisions of main land use types, for example cropland into annual and perennial cropping and grazing into extensive or intensive grazing. Further subdivisions are possible based on physiographic or geomorphologic criteria, administrative units or socio-economic criteria.The increase or decrease in areas with the major land use types over the past 10 years.The increase or decrease in intensity of use of the major land use types over the past 10 years.The major types of land degradation, each with several subtypes: Degree of land degradation (weighted by area)The degree of degradation, referring to the intensity of the land degradation process, weighted against the extent for each map unit: Degree * Extent (%)/100.The degradation rate indicates the trend of degradation over the past 10 years, weighted against the extent for each map unit: Rate * Extent (%)/100. Land conservation -total area extent Extent of the area under SLM measures in % of the area of each map unit.Effectiveness of conservation measures (weighted by area) Effectiveness of SLM measures in reducing the degree of degradation or preventing degradation, weighted against the extent for each map unit: Effectiveness * Extent (%)/100.Effectiveness trend of conservation measures (weighted by area) Historical trends in the effectiveness of conservation measures.The increase or decrease in effectiveness was assessed over the past 10 years, weighted against the extent for each map unit: Effectiveness trend * Extent (%)/100.A: Adaptation to the problem: the degradation is either too serious to deal with and is accepted as a fact of life, or it is not worthwhile the effort to invest in.P: Prevention implies the use of conservation measures that maintain natural resources and their environmental and productive function on land that may be prone to further degradation, where some has already occurred. The implication is that good land management practice is already in place: it is effectively the antithesis of humaninduced land degradation.M: Mitigation: is intervention intended to reduce on-going degradation.This comes in at a stage when degradation has already begun. The main aim here is to halt further degradation and to start improving resources and their functions. Mitigation impacts tend to be noticeable in the short to medium term: this then provides a strong incentive for further efforts. The word 'mitigation' is also sometimes used to describe reducing the impacts of degradation.R: Rehabilitation: is intervention when the land is already degraded to such an extent that the original use is only possible with extreme efforts as land has become practically unproductive. Here longerterm and more costly investments are needed to show any impact.The Torrealvilla area has many different land uses, including pine forest, almond and olive orchards, cereals, irrigated horticulture, viticulture and grazing in shrub-and rangelands. The area covered by orchards is rapidly increasing, while the area with cereals is decreasing. Land degradation is predominantly in the form of surface erosion by water, and by the decrease of the groundwater level in irrigated areas. The degradation is most severe (at highest degree) in the area with irrigated horticulture, and in some of the almond and olive orchards. About half of the area is already treated with various conservation measures: vegetative measures addressing tree and shrub cover in the areas covered by forest, the orchards and the grazing land, structural measures in the irrigated land, and agronomic measures addressing the cover of the soil surface in the land with cereal culture. Although the effectiveness of some of these measures is high, especially in the irrigated area, experts recommend SLM technologies targeted to prevention and mitigation of SLM in all non-forest land use types. An example from the ones documented in this book is the use of concentrated runoff by water harvesting for irrigation purposes, to reduce the extraction of irrigation water from the groundwater.The Maçao area has widespread land degradation in the forest in the form of soil erosion by water and biological degradation due to fire. Soil erosion by water is also reported to affect the cropland, where its rate is slowly increasing, but the degree is larger in the forest. Conservation measures to remediate the soil erosion are implemented over more than 80% of the forested area with soil erosion. These include agronomic measures, aiming to increase the vegetation and soil cover. However, the effectiveness of these measures is low and decreasing. This offers scope for the SLM technologies documented in this book (primary strip network system for fuel management and prescribed fire).The Góis area is covered with Eucalyptus and Pine forest, with a major increase of use intensity in parts, and at the same time a decrease in other parts. Land degradation (by soil erosion and some biological degradation) is extensive in the areas with increasing intensity of use of the forest due to out-migration of the land users. In these areas, there are no conservation measures at present, or measures with low effectiveness (terraces). SLM technologies remediating the incidence of forest fires (primary strip networks and prescribed fire) are proposed for the area and described in this book.Greece -Crete (Messara)The cultivated area in the study site in Crete has widespread land degradation. Soil erosion due to surface runoff and tillage operations, collapse of terraces, overgrazing, and salinization of lowland, and overexploitation of groundwater are the major processes of land degradation in the area. Current conservation measures include contour tillage and mulching. Their effectiveness is low to moderate, as indicated in the effectiveness map. The SLM technology documented in this book (olive groves under no-tillage operations) aims to minimize soil losses.This area has chemical deterioration such as salinization and alkalinisation, and water degradation of various forms in the cultivated irrigated part (aridification, change in groundwater level, decline of quality). The rate of this degradation is moderately increasing, despite conservation measures for soil surface treatment in this area (covering 30-90%). The SLM technique proposed in this book (transport of fresh water from local streams) addresses all mentioned forms of degradation.The Karapinar area is used for growing cereals and grazing. The intensity of (irrigated) cereal production is increasing. In recent years irrigated agriculture has rapidly expanded due to new market pressures, developing techniques and subsidies, as a result ground water levels have dropped dramatically. The area is affected by wind erosion, the grazing area to a larger extent than the cropped land. Current conservation measures include the change of management and intensity level in the area with grazing and soil surface treatment and increased vegetation cover in the cropland. These measures are applied over large parts of the pasture land (>60%) and of the cropland (>40%), but the effectiveness is low, especially in the cropland. Drip irrigation is proposed and documented in this book as an SLM technology for the cropland to save groundwater.The Eskeheşir study site has industrial activities and intensive agricultural land use in the form of irrigated sugar beet and sunflower and rainfed cereals. The intensity of agriculture is expected to increase due the increased investments in the country. The cropland experiences land degradation in the form of surface erosion by water, sealing and crusting, and soil fertility decline and reduced soil organic matter content. Land degradation is most widespread and severe in the pastures close to the settlements, especially in the central part of the area near the lake, where it causes a decline in the quality and diversity of the species composition of the herbs. Current land conservation is most widespread in the northern part of the area under pasture, where rotational systems are being used to remediate surface erosion by water. The effectiveness is low to moderate. Conservation agriculture and mulching are applied to remediate surface erosion and sealing and crusting in the cropland. The effectiveness to remediate soil erosion is low. This book documents fodder crop production as a SLM technology to remediate respectively surface erosion and quality and diversity decline in the pasture area.The Sehoul area has rainfed and irrigated cropland with cereals on the plateaux, and remnants of natural cork oak forest, used for grazing apart from the timber and non-timber forest products. Extensive pastoralism is practiced on the steep borders of the plateaux, resulting in land degradation by mostly soil erosion (surface erosion and gullying). Soil erosion is also prominent in part of the cultivated area. Biological degradation is found on the plateau borders and in the forest due to the reduction of the vegetation cover and the decline of biomass and biodiversity. Current conservation measures include agronomic measures in the cropland addressing soil organic matter and fertility decline, and vegetative measures improving tree and shrub cover in the forest. The effectiveness of the measures in cropland is low, motivating the SLM technologies of cereal-legume rotations described in this book. For the plateau borders measures remediating gullying are proposed by planting Atriplex.The Koutine area in Tunisia is used for cropland, including the production of cereals, and for grazing in various types of rangeland. The areas with agriculture behind tabia 1 and with cereals are increasing, while the rangeland is shrinking. As a result, the remaining rangeland is being used more intensively. Land degradation of many different forms (soil erosion by water and wind, biological, physical and chemical degradation) is affecting more than half of the area, except for the area used for agriculture behind tabias. A wide range of traditional soil and water conservation techniques is applied in the area. The measures are most widespread in the areas behind tabia and jessour 1 (covering more than 40%), and have a high effectiveness. But in the rangelands current conservation measures have a low effectiveness, and the rate of land degradation is increasing. Rangeland resting is recommended by the local specialists as an SLM technique for these areas, and documented in this book.The Dzhanibek area, mainly used for grazing and cropland, is characterised by various forms of land degradation, mostly chemical and physical soil deterioration, and water degradation. Various conservation measures are implemented in the area over small surfaces (10-30% of the grazing area, 5-10% of the cropland). These include soil surface treatment and a reduced intensity of use in the grazing area in response to acidification and compaction. In the cropland measures aiming to increase the vegetation and soil cover are meant to remediate the decline of soil fertility and soil organic matter. The effectiveness of conservation measures is low. Drip irrigation is an example of the SLM technologies proposed for this area to address the water degradation in the cropland and mixed land use.Land use in the Novy site mainly consists of cropland and grazing land. The circular shapes of the areas previously (or still) irrigated with pivot sprinkler systems are clearly visible. These areas are degraded by surface erosion or water logging. Adjacent cropland is affected by off-site effects of surface erosion, and by soil salinization and alkalinisation. Current conservation measures in the area include ditches to drain and convey irrigation water, and surface treatments in the irrigated cropland. The effectiveness of these measures is low at most places. Experts recommend adaptation of irrigation practices in the cropland, and of grazing practices in the area used for grazing, and SLM techniques targeted to prevention and rehabilitation of the mentioned forms of land degradation in the cropland area, including part of the areas formerly irrigated using the pivot sprinkler systems. An example of an SLM technique that can be used for both prevention and rehabilitation is drip irrigation, documented in this book.Natural forest covers the larger part of the area. No degradation is reported for this area. Land degradation (reported uniquely in the form of surface erosion by water) is severe in the areas with tree and shrub cropping and mixtures of land use types. The rate of land degradation is slowly decreasing in all degraded areas, but not changing in the areas with mixed land use types, although this area under conservation measures for more than 75%, and the effectiveness is reported as high. This may point at a time lag in the response of land degradation to the implementation of conservation measures. This is confirmed by the increasing trend of effectiveness reported for these areas. Only small parts of the severely degraded land with tree and shrub cropping are under conservation measures (<25%), of which the effectiveness is reported as low, and not increasing. This calls for the wider implementation of measures in the areas with tree and shrub cropping and mixed land use, like the progressive bench terrace described in this book.The main land use type is grazing. Dominant types of degradation are water degradation (aridification) and salinization and alkalinization in the areas with salt pans, and degradation of the vegetation in all other land use types. The degree of degradation is moderate to strong in the areas with salt pans, and moderate in the mixed land use south of Boteti river. Degradation is slowly increasing for all land use types, except in the grazing land in the northern part. Current conservation measures include changes in the timing of cropping activities in the floodplain, and changes in the intensity of grazing in the grazing land around the villages (village grazing) and in the cattle ranging. However, in the larger part of the area, used for grazing and mixed land use, no conservation measures are applied ('Others' in the legend). For this area, the biogas conservation technology documented in this book was proposed. It addresses the degradation of vegetation by benefiting from the high livestock intensity to produce biogas as an alternative source of fuel. Roof rainwater harvesting offers an alternative water source in response to the declining groundwater table and the high salinity of this water source.The Cointzio area is characterised by a scattered pattern of cropland, forest, grazing land and shrubland. Land degradation occurs mainly in the form of soil erosion by water and wind, which is slowly increasing in the cropland, and moderately in the closed grassland and shrubland. High livestock numbers and uncontrolled grazing are the main cause of soil erosion on the grazing land. Present conservation measures include agroforestry in the closed forest and closed grassland. In the closed grassland the extent is low (<20%). The effectiveness is very low to low. There are no conservation measures in the cropland. The reclamation of degraded grazing land with native agave trees is proposed and documented in this book as one of the SLM technologies to reach sustainable land rehabilitation.The Cauquenes area has cereals, forest plantations, grass and shrubland as the main land use types. The main land degradation process, affecting all main land use types, is soil erosion by water due to inappropriate land management, soil mining, destruction of natural woodland vegetation. As a result, soil fertility depletion affects the sustainability of traditional crop production. Existing conservation measures include conservation agriculture and mulching in response to soil erosion and fertility decline in grassland and cropland. Their effectiveness is mapped as low, but with a tendency to increase. Rehabilitation of the cropland and grassland and shrubland is recommended by experts for the largest part of the degraded area. This book describes no tillage preceded by subsoiling and crop rotations with legumes as new conservation measures for the area under cropland.The Santiago area in Cape Verde has physical land degradation in various forms of soil erosion (surface erosion, gullying, mass movements) on land in use for rainfed subsistence agriculture, and chemical land degradation (salinisation and alkalinisation) in the cultivated land under irrigation. The degree of degradation is very light to moderate, possibly due to the large extent of land conservation measures, covering 80-100% of the cultivated rainfed area. Two examples of successful and promising conservation measures are described in this book: Aloe vera living barriers and afforestation.Case study of the DESIRE methodology -Eskişehir, Turkey(This case study is structured according to the 5 steps of DESIRE approach as explained in chapter 1)I Establishing land degradation and SLM context and sustainability goals Socio-cultural, economic and environmental contextThe Eskişehir region is situated in the inner Northwestern Anatolian region, on the north rim of the Eskişehir plain, covering an area of 90 km 2 , and situated between 800 and 1400 m altitude. The area has been strongly influenced by agricultural and industrial activities due to its proximity to Eskişehir city. In the coming decades, urbanisation is projected to increase, as well as the demand for water for industrial, domestic and agricultural needs. At the same time the incidence of droughts is expected to increase.Degradation problems in the area include soil erosion by water and wind, salinization, surface water pollution and groundwater depletion.Land use is mainly rainfed agriculture (mostly cereals), irrigated cultivation (sugar beet and sunflower), pasture and man-made forests (mainly pine and oak trees).Geology and soils: the substrate consists of metamorphic rocks with sandstones and conglomerates and alluvial deposits. Marble lenses in the metamorphic rocks are mined.The climate is dry continental climate with an annual precipitation of 380 mm, with temperatures generally below 0°C during winter and possibly exceeding 40°C in summer days.Existing conservation measures: conservation measures to protect land, water and biodiversity resources are limited in the area. Crop rotation, fodder crop production and reforestation are practiced.Socio-economic situation: the Eskişehir area has a high productivity in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors compared to other regions in the country, but the educational and income levels of the village inhabitants and farmers are low. The study site has 3040 inhabitants.Institutional and political setting: Several state organisations and research institutes at the national and provincial level coordinate land and water management in the area.The municipality decides on land use and management within its borders. Several civil society organisations provide extension services to land users, including financial support.The national NGO TEMA is active in combating soil erosion and the restoration and protection of natural habitats.There is limited communication between stakeholders and local and national policy representatives.The main stakeholder groups include the villagers holding livestock, land users of the cropland, farmer unions, the municipality, provincial directorates for infrastructure, water, environment and forestry, several research institutes and two environmental NGOs. The sustainability goals identified for the Eskişehir area reflect the needs of the livestock holders, farmers and state organizations.The main socio-economic and environmental drivers are summarized below. Policies to protect land and water resources include a national law on soil preservation and land use.Location of the Eskişehir study site in the Eskişehir plain.Increasing biological diversityImproving productivity of fodder production on pasture landsConservation and improvement of soil fertilityForest cover increase and maintenanceStatus of land degradation, sustainable land management and riskThe cropland in the Eskişehir site experiences land degradation in the form of surface erosion by water, sealing and crusting, and soil fertility decline and reduced soil organic matter content. Land degradation is most widespread and severe in the pasture areas close to the settlements.Indicators of the bio-physical, land use and socio-economic conditions in the Eskişehir site relevant to soil erosion by water were collected for 52 locations in agricultural land, for 3 locations in forest, and for 16 locations in the pasture land. Climate indicators were collected for 70 locations. Based on these indicators, and using the expert system for desertification risk assessment, a desertification risk was calculated with regard to soil erosion by water. The Eskişehir study site is subject to a very high desertification risk over almost its entire area, also in areas with currently a very light degree of land degradation.Socio-economic drivers The first stakeholder workshop gathered some 40 stakeholders, among whom land users, representatives of the provincial authorities on agriculture, environment and water management, researchers, the farmer and irrigation unions, NGOs and the municipality. The workshop was meant to draft an overall strategy for SLM in the area (see box), and to identify potential SLM technologies (see table). The high level of motivation of local stakeholders was evaluated as a strength of the workshop. The lack of financial aids and the lack of women in the representation of stakeholders were noted as weaknesses.Fodder crop production was selected for evaluation and documentation with the WOCAT questionnaires both as a SLM technology and an SLM approach. The technology 'woven wood fences' was added to remediate soil erosion in cropland. The 4-page summaries of these technologies are available in this book.• To increase soil fertility (through crop rotation, mulching and tree planting) • To limit water loss (through drip irrigation and improving grassland) • To prevent water and soil loss by erosion (through terracing and check dams)Identification of disturbances in water and biomass cycles by stakeholders.In the second stakeholder workshop, stakeholders set the objectives for SLM in the Eskişehir study site: protection of dry-farming areas from water erosion and rehabilitation of pasturelands. Remediation options corresponding to these objectives were selected from the WOCAT database on technologies. The options selected in the first stakeholder workshop based on an inventory of locally applied technologies were not selected, since they were only applicable in small areas (like gardens). Stakeholders selected economic, ecological, socio-cultural and off-site criteria to prioritise and select remediation options. The table below lists the criteria for the protection of the area for dryland farming.Using the criteria, stakeholders scored the remediation options in groups of farmers and SLM experts. For the protection of dryland farming areas, the highest scores were obtained for the contour planting technology; for pastureland rehabilitation a vegetative measure was selected (Caragana korschinskii planting), mainly based on its benefits as fodder material. Stakeholders concluded that a combination of measures would deliver the best scores on the criteria.The workshop revealed that leadership and authorisation of the implementation of technologies by governmental organisations is of ultimate importance. Farmers did not believe in significant contributions from governmental organisations (GOs) to the implementation. The representatives of the GOs did express the feasibility of technologies during the workshops, but were not able to grant any responsibilities to the implementation process.Images of the prioritisation and selection of remediation options in the stakeholder workshop in the Eskişehir study site. Contour ploughing and terracing and (wooden) terracing were implemented in field trials in cereal fields to increase infiltration and increase the soil moisture storage. The overall objective was to decrease surface runoff and to reduce soil loss.Properties of the soil surface (e.g. mulch cover), the soil moisture status, germination rate, yield and income were monitored between 2009 and 2011 during three growing seasons. The field experiments showed that contour ploughing and terracing increased soil moisture due to reduced runoff, but this depended on the seasonal rainfall. The combination of these technologies helped to improve soil conditions and crop growth, and increased yield three times. The consultation of land users during the monitoring revealed that terracing involves additional costs and possibly loss of some land, whereas contour ploughing has only costs for fuel use. However, contour ploughing requires training on how to practice it on steeper slopes. Overall, based on the field experiments contour ploughing is considered to be applicable in wider hill slope areas of semi-arid Central Anatolia. Net present value of cereal cultivation under traditional ploughing and contour ploughing.Actual erosion rate in the Eskişehir area was simulated with the adapted PESERA model for the current situation. The erosion rate appeared to be higher than 1 t/ha/y, the generally accepted tolerable level, over 80% of the area, in the slopes and ridges. The current biomass production is highest in the irrigated valley floors and plains (>3500 kg/ha), compared to 500-1000 kg/ha in the footslopes and mountain slopes with rainfed agriculture.Simulations with the coupled PESERA-DESMICE model of the implementation of contour ploughing where applicable (on slopes between 2 and 35%) confirm the findings of the field trials that the technology would increase yield: contour ploughing would increase the biomass production by 600-1500 kg/ha, or by more than 100% in 90% of the area where it is applicable. The technology requires no additional costs, and is thus profitable everywhere where it increases productivity. The net present value of the cultivation of cereals would increase over more than 75% of the area by 200 to 1000 TL/y.Stakeholders evaluated the model results in a third stakeholder workshop. They preferred woven fences over contour ploughing based on increased crop yields observed in the field experiments. In addition, they were concerned that contour ploughing would not be effective under high intensity rainfall. The modelling results support the idea that contour ploughing is not very effective in areas with high erosion rates. Stakeholders acknowledged the investment costs of woven fences.Change in biomass production due to contour ploughing.The following technologies were selected to be evaluated: 1. Planting trees, 2. Building dam, 3. Building terraced field, 4. Closure against grazing and 5. Interplanting. The WOCAT SLM technology description of the progressive bench terrace is described in this book.In the second stakeholder workshop the main technologies selected earlier were considered, as well as a few new ones from the WOCAT database. Criteria were defined to evaluate the technologies with respect to economics/production, ecology and socio-cultural issues.Two groups of stakeholders, local or external participants, performed the evaluation. The final score represents the average of the scores of different stakeholder groups. The scoring of options is shown in the table below for some of the criteria. The results were entered into the Facilitator software. Results showed that soil loss was different for different land use types: no soil loss was observed on terraces, while orchards had very high soil loss. Results also showed that the longer rainfall event caused more erosion than the shorter one, but not twice as much as might have been expected based on the difference in duration.The results were also evaluated from a production, sociocultural and economic point of view, using the part of the WOCAT system that evaluates conservation technologies (www.wocat.net). The bars in the figure on the next page express the estimated or measured effect compared to the reference situation (untreated plots). This change can be positive (blue) or negative (red). Overall, the results were positive. -The farmers are convinced that soil and water conservation practices help to protect the land from degradation, but they do not think that it is possible to get more income from the land. They hope that the results of DESIRE influence local government to invest more to build terraces.Experiments were carried out to monitor soil moisture and soil loss in different land use types in sloping areas and also in terraced land. High intensity rainfall was generated with a rainfall simulator, and data were collected for rain events lasting 30 and 60 minutes. Soil samples were collected to determine soil moisture level. Runoff samples were collected to determine sediment content and soil loss.The results showed that the best option in this area is check dam land, then level bench terrace and reforestation. Constructing check dams requires design and great financial input. It was therefore not possible to implement it in DESIRE. Therefore level bench terrace and reforestation have been selected for implementation.The workshop was held with two sessions. The first session was held on 22 June 2011 with local farmers, including six village heads. The farmers who carried out monitoring of soil erosion and soil water and conducted an economic survey were also present. The second half of the workshop was conducted with policy makers at the county level on 23 June 2011. Additional interviews are planned with selected Government departments and experts in the following months to further disseminate project findings.Priority remediation strategies selected in the initial stakeholder workshop were ranked in the same order after participants had been presented with evidence from field trials and modelling. The three strategies prioritised during the initial workshop are clearly the most important options in this region given their benefits in relation to ecological, economic and socio-cultural criteria. This was supported by field trial results.IV Up-scaling SLM strategies Some results for year-after-year terraced land. Not applicableThe technology is applicable on land under arable or tree crops on slopes higher than 2%.The maps above show soil erosion and indicate that even in the initial years of application, erosion is reduced (although the level remains fairly high). In the long term erosion would decrease further when ground cover is improved. The figure below shows that the technology is not profitable in the short term (up to at least 10 years). However, the technology was found to be profitable in the area in the long term (20 years).Examples from the dissemination plan China participated in several dissemination products, such as DESIRE newsletters, DESIRE factsheets, DESIRE HIS (Harmonised Information System -www.desire-his.eu/en/ yan-river-basin-china) and scientific papers.A policy brief was also written about ways to reduce erosion in apple orchards (see www.desire-his.eu/en/yan-river-basinchina/738-policy-brief). The policy brief recommended the use of terraces, mulching and grass cover to decrease erosion rates in orchards. In this policy brief it is also recommended that policies should cover three components:-Actions to improve the awareness of SLM need to be communicated and initiated with the full range of stakeholders, from local farmers to administrative managers; -SLM should be planned, designed and implemented at the same time as planting new trees on the slopes; -Financial subsidies could be paid to households as an incentive to implement and maintain the SLM practices that have resulted from DESIRE. Farm income may increase with up to12%. There is no known effect on education, health etc. The subsidies applied for cereal production in a rotation system of fallow & for contour ploughing contribute to improved livelihood of most farmers.Benefits compared with costs short-term: long-term:Maintenance/recurrent slightly positive slightly positive When a disc-plough was not already used in normal farming operations, this implies a slightly negative influence on farm income during establishment.There are no subsidies for reduced tillage. Nevertheless, 100% of land user families have implemented the technology with external material support since there are subsidies for parts of the technology such as contour ploughing and rotational farming allowing a fallow period (1-2 years) after harvest. Practically 100 % of farmers use these subsidies; still reduced tillage is implemented 100% voluntary.There is a little trend towards spontaneous adoption of the technology. There seems to be a growing public awareness of the fact that frequent deep rotational ploughing is not always necessary and results in higher production costs.Strengths and how to sustain/improve Weaknesses and  how to overcome This is a low-cost technology that requires limited initial investments in equipment and potentially results in a slightly increased farm income, as well as a decrease in land degradation and an increase in soil quality and water-holding capacity  In some higher areas with sufficient rainfall, the technology might be adapted to conservation tillage with direct sowing, reducing the tillage operations even more. However, this implies an important investment in machinery and a high level of organisation at the agricultural cooperation level.An increased soil surface cover throughout autumn and winter provides a good protection against soil erosion reducing rill and gully formation  Sometimes a field is left fallow for two consecutive years, but it is still ploughed between them. This ploughing might be avoided as well.The most important weakness of this technology is that it does not significantly improve farm income and so may not be stimulating enough for farmers to apply  Provide information on all the advantages of good soil management that include many costs for society (including floods, reservoir siltation, etc.) and stress the fact that reduced tillage will lead to less work for the same or slightly higher profit.In order to apply for subsidies for cereal cultivation in a rotation system with fallow, farmers are obliged to plough after each fallow period to control weeds, even when two consecutive years of fallow are applied. This is considered unnecessary  It might be worthwhile to test the need for this and look for alternatives without ploughing. The answers to QT 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 summarise the technology's strong and weak points and how these could be, respectively, sustained/ improved or overcome. The questions were divid ed into two: the author's opinion and the land user's' viewpoints. The answers (which often coincided and were seldom contradictory) have been combined in this table.Impacts of the technology: This information is asked of the specialist under questions ++=medium,+++=high), listed according to rank and additional comments/specifications given in brackets where available e.g. crop yield increase (maize +200%; beans +150%).References to literature are specified here: not just taken from the questionnaire annex 1, but in some cases added to by the editors. Many technologies have not been documented before.The name and contacts of the author(s) so that specific interests/ question from readers can be followed up, taken from annex 1.for establishment: QT 3.2.1for maintenance/ recurrent: QT 3.2.2Benefits/costs according land user Short-term / long-term categories: the land users' view of how beneficial the technology is with respect to establishment and to maintenance activities, and in the short-term and the longterm for each. Note: this is essentially a qualitative question, having seven possible answers rang ing from 'very negative' through 'neutral/ balanced' to 'very positive'. Another consideration is that when incentives are used for establishment, land users may view the benefits for establishment as 'positive' relating the benefits to the incentives rather than the impact of the SWC technology.The information below relates to the spread of the technology. Within the area covered by the case study (the 'technology area': see box on page one) we are considering only those people who have applied the technology (though often this means all/ nearly all the households). The infomation below refers to how the spread has occured/ is still occuring -with a special focus on the role of incentives. The following details are given:-% land users / number of families who accepted the technology with incentives; from QT 3. The study sites provided a global laboratory in which researchers could apply, test, and identify new and innovative approaches to combatting desertification. The resulting SLM strategies are local-to regional-scale interventions designed to increase productivity, preserve natural resource bases, and improve people's livelihoods. These were documented and mapped using the internationally recognised WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) methodological framework, which formed an integral part of the DESIRE project.The DESIRE approach offers an integrated multidisciplinary way of working together from the beginning to the end of a project; it enables scientists, local stakeholders and policy makers to jointly find solutions to desertification. This book describes the DESIRE approach and WOCAT methodology for a range of audiences, from local agricultural advisors to scientists and policymakers. Links are provided to manuals and online materials, enabling application of the various tools and methods in similar projects. The book also includes an analysis of the current context of degradation and SLM in the study sites, in addition to analysis of the SLM technologies and approaches trialled in the DESIRE project. Thirty SLM technologies, eight SLM approaches, and several degradation and SLM maps from all the DESIRE study sites are compiled in a concise and well-illustrated format, following the style of this volume's forerunner where the land is greener (WOCAT 2007). Finally, conclusions and policy points are presented on behalf of decision makers, the private sector, civil society, donors, and the research community. These are intended to support people's efforts to invest wisely in the sustainable management of land -enabling greener drylands to become a reality, not just a desire.","tokenCount":"41678"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9cf9c341586d5c680bfecb52a61c4b93","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/823e3bbd-4dd3-4c6e-ad0a-c52da76f61bb/retrieve","id":"-1476541454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5523ea7b-9a8e-4a1b-a30b-ef11e184edd9","pagecount":"25","content":"Zvi Griliches' seminal analysis of hybrid corn spawned a large literature seeking to quantify and demonstrate the value of agricultural research and development (R&D) investments. The most important metric for quantifying the rate of return to R&D emerging from this literature is the internal rate of return (IRR), even though Griliches was sceptical of its usefulness as a metric in this context. An alternative metric, also reported by Griliches but not as commonly used in the subsequent returns-to-research literature, is the benefit-cost ratio (BCR). We assess how the implications of the returns to agricultural R&D literature may have differed if the BCR had become the standard rather than the IRR. We reveal that the IRR and BCR produce substantially different rankings of agricultural R&D projects, differences that persist even under various commodity and geographical aggregations of the BCR and IRR estimates. The median across 2,627 reported IRRs is 37.5 per cent per year. Using data gleaned from 492 research evaluation studies, we developed and deployed a methodology to impute 2,126 BCRs (median of 5.4) and modified internal rates of returns (MIRRs, median of 16.4 per cent per year) assuming a uniform 10 per cent per year discount rate and a 30 year research timeline.An extensive literature on the returns to agricultural research and development (R&D) has emerged since Zvi Griliches' seminal analysis of hybrid corn research (Griliches 1958). While Griliches' initial estimate of approximately $7.00 was constructed to reflect the annual return in perpetuity (ARP) to every dollar invested in hybrid corn research, he also reported a corresponding benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of approximately 150:1, and, on a suggestion from Martin J. Bailey (Griliches 1958, footnote 16), an internal rate of return (IRR) between 35 and 40 per cent. 1 Of these three metrics, it is the IRR that became the standardof the 2,242 project/program evaluations from 371 different studies summarised by Hurley et al. (2014), an overwhelming 91.4 per cent reported an IRR estimate. BCR estimates were also commonly reported (28.2 per cent of the evaluations), sometimes in conjunction with an IRR estimate (19.6 per cent of the evaluations), while Griliches' ARP did not stand the test of time.The IRR's predominance emerged even though Griliches expressed consternation with it: My objection to this procedure is that it values a dollar spent in 1910 at $2,300 in 1933. This does not seem very sensible to me. I prefer to value a 1910 dollar at a reasonable rate of return on some alternative social investment. (Griliches 1958, p. 425) But, it is not just the agricultural R&D literature that has opted to rely heavily on the IRR as a summary statistic for quantifying investment returns. It has been used by researchers to summarise the economic consequences of manufacturing R&D (see the tabulation in Hall et al. 2010, Table 2) and health-related R&D (e.g. HERG et al. 2008;Deloitte 2014;Glover et al. 2014), as well as investments in education (e.g. European Commission 2005; Heckman et al. 2006). Private businesses also commonly use it, in conjunction with other metrics, to evaluate prospective investments (e.g. Graham and Harvey 2001;Ryan and Ryan 2002;Truong et al. 2008;Bennouna et al. 2010;Daunfeldt and Hartwig 2014).Critiques of using the IRR to measure the value of an investment date back to Griliches' seminal paper (e.g. Hirshleifer 1958) and continue to the present (e.g. Alston et al. 2011;Hurley et al. 2014Hurley et al. , 2017)). Defences of the IRR also date back to Griliches' seminal paper (e.g. Bailey 1959) and continue to the present (e.g. Oehmke 2017). While proponents of the IRR often cite its computation without an explicit discount rate assumption as a virtue, Hurley et al. (2014) identified a potentially unpalatable discount rate assumption that is implicit in its computationthe IRR is the value that equates the MIRR with the discount rate used to calculate it. Burns and Walker (1997) attributed the IRR's attractiveness as a metric to its interpretability as a percentage, much like the percentage commonly reported for a range of financial products (e.g. mortgages, certificates of deposit, mutual funds and credit cards). 2 However, Hurley et al. (2014) showed that such an annualised percentage rate of return interpretation is generally incorrect and often leads to incredible implications (see also Alston et al. 2011, pp. 1,271-1,272). They also pointed out how the modified internal rate of return, MIRR (Lin 1976), offers an alternative to the IRR that can be reasonably interpreted as an annualised percentage rate of return.Is such quibbling over assumptions and interpretations more than just an academic exercise? The objective of agricultural R&D evaluation research is to provide information to policymakers about the profitability of investments as standalone programs as well as relative to other investments. While the IRR provides a useful metric for determining whether or not an investment is profitable as a standalone program, it is not generally recommended by textbooks for comparing the relative profitability of alternative investments (Kierulff 2008;Daunfeldt and Hartwig 2014;Robison et al. 2015). This is particularly true when the investment costs span an extended time period, which is the usual case for agricultural R&D. It is also well established that the ranking of investments by the IRR need not match the ranking implied by other popular metrics like the BCR, which is often recommended by textbooks as a useful metric for comparing among different research projects/ programs. The potential for differences in rankings between the BCR and IRR suggests that the implications of the extensive agricultural R&D literature may have looked different had researchers preferred the BCR to the IRR, which makes the IRR debate of practical concern as well as an academic exercise.Our primary objective in this study is to determine the practical importance of using the BCR instead of the IRR to evaluate and rank investments in agricultural R&D. This objective is accomplished by comparing the rankings of 412 program evaluations from the International Science and Technology Practice and Policy (InSTePP) centre's returns-to-research (RtR) database (version 3) (Pardey et al. 2016) that estimated both the BCR and IRR. Since rankings based on the BCR are sensitive to the interest rate used to discount an investment's benefits and costs, and the discount rate used in the literature has varied, the robustness of this comparison is further explored by recalibrating the BCRs following Hurley et al. (2014), first with a common 10 per cent discount rate, and then with a common 20 per cent discount rate. Given the substantial and robust differences in rankings revealed by this primary objective, we then use a formulaic relationship between IRR and BCR to econometrically project and summarise additional 1,714 BCRs based on IRR estimates from the RtR database that did not already report a corresponding BCR.Our contributions in this article are twofold. First, we demonstrate that the debate surrounding the choice of metrics for evaluating and comparing R&D investments in agriculture is more than just an academic exercise. With the two metrics evaluated here producing substantially different rankings, the practical importance of understanding the key assumptions employed by each is heightened, as is the importance of choosing the best metric for measuring and communicating the value of alternative agricultural R&D investments. Second, we provide a detailed summary of the returns to agricultural R&D in terms of the BCR (and MIRR), so researchers and policymakers who share Griliches' (and our) concerns regarding the IRR have alternative benchmarks, including one that is reasonably interpretable in percentage terms, for comparing the profitability of past and future programs.The data for our analysis come from the InSTePP returns-to-research (RtR) database (version 3) (Pardey et al. 2016). The goal of the RtR database is to curate and periodically update a comprehensive listing of agricultural R&D evaluation studies, and to extract a common set of information from these studies for use by researchers and policymakers to better understand the consequences of agricultural R&D investment decisions. Version 1 of InSTePP's RtR database was developed in 2000 building on the reviews by Evenson et al. (1979), Echeverrıá (1990) and Alston and Pardey (1996). It included 1,886 program/project evaluations reported in 292 different studies and provided the data used in the analysis reported in the influential and highly cited agricultural R&D surveys by Alston et al. (2000a,b). Version 2 of the RtR database was an update to 2011 and formed the basis for the analysis in Hurley et al. (2014). It included the evaluation of 2,241 program/project evaluations from 371 different studies. Version 3 mainly consists of new literature published worldwide since 1975, with a targeted effort to include relevant literature for sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It includes 2,829 program/project evaluations from 492 different studies. Each evaluation includes an estimate of the IRR, the BCR or both, for a total of 3,426 returns-to-research estimates.The RtR database also includes information concerning the study authors, type of publication, who performed the research, where the research was performed, the nature of the research (e.g. basic or applied, or public or private), the commodity or environmental coverage of the research, details of the methodological features of the research and the types of rate of return estimates (i.e. the IRR, BCR or both).A review of the definitions for the IRR, BCR and MIRR, as well as how they are related, facilitates a better understanding of the comparisons and analysis that follow.Researchers typically characterise the stream of costs and benefits associated with agricultural R&D projects (or programs) using four dates as Figure 1 illustrates. The first date (0 in Figure 1) is the date that resources start to be invested into the project reflecting expenditures. These expenditures often span a period, at first growing, then declining, and eventually leading to a second date that signifies the point at which these expenditures cease -T c in Figure 1. The third date is the date when innovations resulting from these investments begin to reap benefits in terms of increased productivity or reduced costs for example -T b in Figure 1. As with the investment's expenditures, annual returns tend to initially grow over time, but eventually start to shrink and even cease as new innovations replace the old -T in Figure 1. On average, the evidence we gleaned from the 2,418 evaluations summarised in Table 1 has benefits beginning 6.1 years after the initiation of research costs, cost streams that run over 22.7 years and benefits that accrue for 30.8 years after the initiation of the research. Table 1 also shows there is considerable variation around the sample averages in these various components of the overall research lag.Within this framework, the present value of an investment's expenditures or research costs is defined by the sum PVCðδwhere c t ≥ 0 is the research cost t years from the project's initiation and δ c >0 is a discount rate that reflects the time value of money or the opportunity cost of the resources used to finance the project. The present value at year zero of the return on investment or research benefit is defined by the sum PVBðδwhere b t ≥ 0 is the research benefit t years from the project's initiation and δ b >0 is a discount rate that reflects the time value of money or opportunity cost of investing these returns elsewhere. With these present value formulas, the popular IRR is defined as: The features of this calculation that helped to make it so popular include the ability to interpret it as a percentage rate and the lack of an explicit assumption regarding the discount rate. Of course, as Equation (1) makes explicit, the IRR need not be unique, which is a well-known drawback that appears to have been of little practical significance in the agricultural R&D literature. The less popular, but still often used, BCR is defined as:Unlike the IRR, to evaluate a project's rate of return using Equation (2), a researcher must make an explicit assumption regarding the discount rate δ.The MIRR, which has gained increasing attention recently, is defined as:where T e reflects the point in time chosen to assess program benefits. This calculation requires assumptions on δ b , δ c and T e , though it was originally proposed assuming δ b ¼ δ c ¼ δ and T e = T (Lin 1976) such that it required no more restrictive assumptions than the BCR. By differentiating between when the final benefits of a program accrue (T), which often differs across programs, and when the benefits of the program are assessed (T e ), it is possible to standardise the MIRR so it has a common interpretation across programs.These definitions point immediately to several relationships, some more insightful than others:MIRRðIRR,IRR, T e Þ ¼ IRR and;(5)Equation ( 4) follows immediately from rearranging the equality in Equation (1) and adds little additional insight into the relationship between the BCR and IRR beyond their definitions. Equation ( 5) was demonstrated by Hurley et al. (2014) and is insightful because it provides a clear interpretation of the implicit assumption made in the calculation of the IRR: specifically, the IRR is the discount rate that equals the annualised return on an initial (lump sum) investment of PVCðδÞ that yields ð1 þ δÞ T e PVBðδÞ at year T e . Both Athanasopoulos (1978) and Negrete (1978) established Equation ( 6), which is also insightful because it shows that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the BCR and MIRR if a common discount rate and evaluation period (T e ) are used to calculate the rates of returns for different projects. This one-to-one correspondence means that the BCR and MIRR will rank projects identically.Figure 2 compares rankings based on the reported IRRs and BCRs for the 412 project evaluations in the InSTePP database that report both an IRR and BCR. Panel (a) shows the scatter plot of IRR and BCR rankings along with the line of best fit. This line of best fit explains only 26 per cent of the variation in the rankings. The line's positive intercept and slope of less than one imply that the BCR systematically ranks projects with a high IRR lower and projects with a low IRR higher, on average. If they ranked projects identically, the intercept would be zero and the slope would be one. This trend is further highlighted in Panel (b), which shows the differences between the rank based on the BCR and the rank based on the IRR arrayed in ascending order (from left to right) by the IRR's rank. What is more evident in Panel (b) is that there are very large differences in rankings, over 300 places in several instances and commonly over 100 places when only 412 projects are being ranked.The discount rates used to calculate the reported BCRs for the analysis in Figure 2 differ widely among each of the evaluations, which means we could also expect to see differences in ranking between the BCR and MIRR. These differences can be attributed to differences in the timing and magnitude of both the expenditures and the economic returns over time, or they could be attributable to differences in the discount rate employed in the calculations. To focus on how differences in the timing and magnitude of each project's expenditures and economic returns affect the relative ranking of projects, we used the methodology reported in Hurley et al. (2014) to approximate the BCRs for a common discount rate. Figures 3 and 4 show the same patterns as Figure 2, but now with the BCRs imputed using a common annual discount rate of 10 and 20 per cent, respectively. With a 10 per cent discount rate, the line of best fit between the IRR and BCR explains 68 per cent of the variation in ranks (Figure 3a). Alternatively, 91 per cent of the variation in ranks is explained with a discount rate of 20 per cent (Figure 4a). In both cases, the intercept of the line of best fit is positive, while the slope is less than one. Again, this implies that the ranking based on the BCR is systematically lower for higher IRRs and higher for lower IRRs, on average. The maximum difference in rankings occasionally exceeds 200 and commonly exceeds 100 when using an annual discount rate of 10 per cent (Figure 3b). With an annual discount rate of 20 per cent, the difference in rankings is less pronounced with infrequent incursions above 100 (Figure 4b) and most differences below 50.The relationships reported in Equations ( 5) and ( 6) help to explain why the correspondence between the BCR and IRR improves as the discount rate increases. From Equation ( 6), we know that the BCR and MIRR will produce identical rankings with a common discount rate and evaluation period. Equation ( 5) indicates that the IRR and MIRR are equal when the MIRR is calculated using a discount rate equal to the IRR. With an average and median IRR of 63.2 and 38 per cent per year, respectively, for the 412 evaluations with both IRRs and BCRs, increasing the annual discount rate from 10 to 20 per cent tends to reduce the difference between the discount rate and IRR, making the IRR and MIRR ranking results more consistent. Thus, the IRR and BCR ranking results also become more consistent. With that said, 20 per cent represents the maximum annual discount rate used by studies in the InSTePP database to calculate BCRs, while 10 per cent per year is just above the median discount rate used to calculate BCRs in the InSTePP database. Thus, the revealed preferences of returns-to-research analysts who explicitly choose a discount rate favour the results in Figure 3 rather than Figure 4.To derive BCR estimates for evaluations in the InSTePP database that only included an IRR, we deploy a three-step procedure. The first step is to use the methodology in Hurley et al. (2014) to approximate BCRs for the subset of 412 evaluations in the InSTePP database that reported a BCR, an IRR and the time-related information (i.e. T c , T b and T), as was done in the previous section. The second was to use regression methods to identify the best-fitting relationship between the reported IRRs and approximated BCRs while accounting for differences in T c , T b and T. Finally, these regression results were used to project BCRs for all reported IRR estimates that did not report sufficient information to approximate a BCR using the approach developed in Hurley et al. (2014), and were within the support of the regression analysis (Figure 5). 3 et al. (2014) showed the relationship between the BCR and IRR can be written as:where w c t and w b t are the proportions of the total costs and total benefits occurring at time t that are usually not reported in the original evaluation studies. This relationship is used to guide the specification of a regression equation. Taking the natural log of Equation ( 7) yields: 3 The combined Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for equality of the regression sample (N = 412) and projection sample (N = 1,714) is 0.201 with a P-value < 0.000, indicating that the two distributions are not equal (see Figure 5). Furthermore, the one-sided test and summary statistics (e.g. the median and percentiles) suggest that the projection sample lies to the right of the regression sample. To avoid out-of-sample forecasts, projections were restricted to IRRs, T c s, T b s and Ts within the minimum and maximum values observed in the regression sample.where w t >0 for t = T l ,⋯,T u andThe first and second derivatives of this function with respect to x are:, and (9)The second-order Taylor series approximation can then be written as:where μðw,Substitution back into Equation (8) then yields:In Equation (8'), terms with w c and T c are linearly separable from terms with w b and T b and T. Defining, the regression equation we propose respects this separability, such thatEquation ( 12) indicates how the reported BCRs relate to other information (i.e. time-related variables, the discount rate δ and the IRR) that is often reported in R&D evaluation studies. Line 1 of this equation includes timerelated variables, their squared terms and the interaction term only between T b and T since Equation (8') suggests T b and T are linearly separable from T c but not from each other. Line 2 includes the interaction terms between timerelated variables and x 1 , which boils down to the reported IRR, assumed discount rate (δ) and their squared terms. Line 3 differs from line 2 in that line 3 includes only the squared terms of the reported IRR and δ. Finally, w c t and w b t , the proportions of the total costs and total benefits occurring at time t, are usually not reported in the original evaluation studies, and their effects on the reported BCR are captured in the parameter vectors of α,β and γ and the residual term ɛ i ðδÞ. To estimate these coefficients so we can project the BCR into more observations, we recalibrate the 412 BCRs with discount rates equal to 5, 10, 15 and 20 per cent to generate 1,648 total observations. Being aware of evident outliers in the 1,648 observations, we use and compare various robust regression estimators to obtain the best-fitting empirical relationship between the reported IRRs and approximated BCRs. The OLS estimates are first derived to benchmark the comparisons (Table 2, Column 2). We then estimated several variants of the M-estimator (Huber 1973)a commonly used robust regression estimator that is robust to vertical outliers, but not bad leverage points. 4 Specifically, the least absolute value (LAV) estimator (Table 2, Column 4) focuses on the median rather than the mean errors to mute the influence of outliers. However, the LAV estimator suffers from low efficiency, so the Huber M-estimator (Table 2, Column 5) and the bisquare M-estimator (Table 2, Column 3) are employed as two alternatives with improved efficiency. The S-estimator from the second generation of robust regression estimators is also employed to detect potential bad leverage points. For the purposes of this study, we also deploy an MM-estimator (Yohai 1987) and report the results in Table 2, Column 6. By combining an M-estimator with an S-estimator, MM-estimators have high efficiency while preserving a high breakdown point. 5  Comparing the coefficient estimates from the different models, we find that the signs, magnitude and statistical significance vary appreciably. Table 3 reports the results from projecting the 2,126 BCRs (in the log form) using the relationship identified by each model. While the coefficients for the various models differ appreciably, the projected medians as well as the 25th and 75th percentiles are similar. What differs more appreciably among these projections is the extreme values. With more muted extremes, the OLS estimates are less inclined to produce nonsensically high or low projections, which is why our subsequent results rely on these estimates.Table 4 reports distribution statistics for the IRRs and imputed BCRs using four different annual discount ratesspecifically 5, 10, 15 and 20 per cent, which span the range of discount rates in the InSTePP database (Table 1). The BCR tells us the present value of the benefits of a project per dollar invested, also in present value, which is not as ubiquitous a metric as the annualised rates of return commonly reported for financial products (e.g. mortgages, certificates of deposit, mutual funds and credit cards). However, the MIRR does have an interpretation that is consistent with the annualised rates of return commonly reported for these types of financial products. Therefore, to make our result more comparable to the common annual rates of returns reported (and that better concord with the rates of return more 4 Rousseeuw & Leroy (1987) categorised outlying observations into three types: vertical outliers, bad leverage points and good leverage points. Vertical outliers refer to observations that have outlying values for the corresponding error term but not for the explanatory variables. Good leverage points refer to those with outlying values for the explanatory variables but are located close to the regression line. Bad leverage points refer to observations that have outlying values for the explanatory variables but are located well away from the regression line.5 A breakdown point is the number of outliers that can be included in the analysis before the analysis is adversely affected. The higher the value of the breakdown point is, the more robust the model estimates are. The OLS estimator admits a breakdown point of zero, thus being nonrobust to outliers. likely to be understood by policymakers), we also report the MIRR distribution statistics for the four discount rates assuming a time to maturity of 30 years (i.e. T e = 30), which is the average life of projects in the InSTePP database. 6  The mean rate of return for the IRRs is 59.2 per cent per year with a standard deviation of 84.1, median of 39.0 and interquartile range of 40.5. The mean rate of return based on the BCR (in the level form) with a 10 per cent annual discount rate is 18.0 with a standard deviation of 67.0, median of 5.4 and interquartile range of 10.5. Converting these BCRs to MIRRs using Equation ( 6) produces a mean rate of return of 16.7 per cent per year with a standard deviation of 9.4, median of 16.4, and interquartile range of 6.0 per cent per year. Comparing the BCR and MIRR results as the discount rate increases reveals apparently contradictory results. Increasing the discount rate results in lower BCRs, suggesting a declining value, but higher MIRRs suggesting an increasing value. Mathematically, the relationship between the BCR and the discount rate, and the MIRR and the discount rate is ambiguous, reiterating that while the two measures rank projects identically when evaluated with a common discount rate, this need not be the case when evaluations are made with heterogeneous discount rates.Tables 5 and 6 report distribution statistics for the reported IRR and the BCRs imputed at a discount rate of 10 per cent per year for a range of different categories. The estimates reported in these tables have several notable features. In all cases, there are large ranges in the returns-to-research estimates around the central tendencies of the respective distributions.   Note: The sample includes 412 directly estimated IRRs (for which there were corresponding BCRs) plus 1,714 econometrically derived estimates formed from the regression parameters summarised in Table 2, with the projected IRRs trimmed to avoid out-of-sample forecasts.Authors' construction.Table 5 Categorised distribution statistics for the reported internal rate of returns (% per year)    Moreover, the differences in implication between the IRR and BCR persist even with significant aggregation. For example, based on the IRR, the median return to agricultural R&D in the United States outpaced the median return in Australia and New Zealand. Based on the BCR, the median return to agricultural R&D in Australia and New Zealand outpaced the median return in the United States. By commodity, investments in rice yielded the highest median return based on the IRR, while maize investments yielded the highest median return based on the BCR. The median BCR ranked horticultural crops third out of eight commodity categories, while the median IRR ranked horticultural crops only sixth out of eight. Investments in agricultural R&D yielded a higher median IRR in Latin America and the Caribbean than in sub-Saharan Africa, but sub-Saharan Africa had a higher median BCR. An important comparison where the two measures agree is that middle-income countries as a group had the highest rates of returns to agricultural R&D followed by the high-and then low-income country groups. Table 7 reports the same results in terms of the MIRRs that have been imputed with a standardised discount rate (10 per cent) and time to maturity of 30 years (i.e. T e = 30). Again, the median categorical rankings for the MIRRs are identical to the median categorical rankings for the BCRs, but not for the IRRs. The median rate of return for all studies based on the MIRR was 17.0 per cent per year. For crop investments, the median MIRR ranges from 18.1 per cent per year for maize to 15.6 per cent per year for roots and tubers and millet and sorghum. The median MIRR for livestock investments (17.3 per cent per year) was higher than that for crops overall, but not by much. The median MIRR for developed country investments was 15.8 per cent per year, which was smaller than for developing countries. Among developing countries, the median MIRR was highest at 18.5 per cent per year for Asian and Pacific countries. The median MIRR for middleincome countries was 17.2 per cent per year, which was about 1.5 percentage points higher than for high-and low-income countries.Zvi Griliches' seminal analysis of hybrid corn spawned a large literature seeking to quantify and demonstrate the value of agricultural research and development (R&D) investments. While his first inclination was to represent the value of these investments as an annual rate of return in perpetuity (ARP), he also framed the results of his analysis in terms of benefit-cost ratios and, at the behest of Martin J. Bailey, an internal rate of return (IRR). Of the three alternatives, it was the IRR that became predominant, while the ARP essentially disappeared from the literature. Unlike the ARP, the BCR did not disappear from the literature with its use occurring about a quarter as often as the IRR.Even though the IRR became the predominant measure of the returns to investments in agricultural R&D, it has had its critics, including Griliches. This is potentially important because metrics like the IRR and BCR need not provide consistent conclusions when comparing the value of different investments. These potential inconsistencies are well referenced in most textbooks dealing with capital budgeting, as is the warning against using the IRR to compare among alternative investments. But are these warnings of practical concern making the debate among critics and proponents merely an academic exercise? For example, while textbooks warn that the IRR need not be unique, this concern has been of little practical consequence in the returnsto-research literature because there are no examples of nonunique IRRs in the 2,418 IRR estimates found in the InSTePP returns-to-research (RtR) database (version 3).The primary objective of this article was to assess the practical consequences of relying on the IRR as a metric for measuring the rates of return to agricultural R&D. We accomplished this objective by comparing the rankings of agricultural R&D projects in the InSTePP RtR database based on the IRR and BCR for those projects that reported both. This comparison revealed the two measures produce vastly different results. One explanation of the differences is that the BCRs reported in the RtR database did not always use consistent discount rate assumptions. Recalculating the BCRs with consistent discount rate assumptions made the BCR and IRR rankings more consistent, particularly when the BCRs were calculated with a high 20 per cent discount rate. With a more commonly used 10 per cent discount rate, substantial differences between the IRR and MIRR rankings remained.Given these substantial differences, a secondary objective of these articles was to impute BCR estimates from the IRR estimates for as many agricultural R&D evaluations as possible, so this literature could be reconsidered through the lens of the BCR. This exercise resulted in different relative assessments of the returns to different categories of crop research. 7 It also led to different results when comparing the value of investments across different developing and developed country groupings. These results demonstrate that the debate over the most appropriate metrics for weighing the value of investments in agricultural R&D is more than just an academic exercise. Analysts need to carefully consider the assumptions used to construct different metrics of the returns to research as well as the appropriate interpretation of those metrics. The choice of metric is also critical for clearly communicating to policymakers and others who draw on returns-to-research estimates when allocating resources to agricultural R&D. With the ability to evaluate project profitability with both the IRR and BCR, textbook warnings against comparing investments using the IRR, and large practical differences between IRR and BCR rankings of past agricultural R&D investments, reasonable care dictates analysts and policymakers should avoid using the IRR.","tokenCount":"5360"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9f119dc3db35e726df0987805ec8297d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/9fce1b0c-daf4-4840-933c-7f96004eb287/content","id":"-1542461941"},"keywords":["Code Number: CS97021 Sizes of Files: Text: 45K Graphics: Line drawings (gif) -22.3K Barley","crop rotation","faba bean","grain yield","nitrogen","phosphorus","rapeseed","Triticum aestivum","weed density"],"sieverID":"b4023476-5085-4e98-9ff3-548a731b55e5","pagecount":"10","content":"Cropping systems in the Ethiopian highlands consist primarily of cereals in rotation with grain legume and oilseed crops; the proportional allocation among crop species varies with altitude, rainfall, and soil type. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) tends to dominate in the highest altitudinal zones, while bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is more common at medium altitudes on well-drained soils. A trial was established in 1992 at the Kulumsa and Asasa research sites in southeastern Ethiopia to evaluate interactions among wheat-based cropping sequences and annual applications of inorganic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertiliser. Rotational crops included Ethiopian rapeseed (Brassica carinata L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), and barley. The results indicated significant rotational effects on wheat grain yield (GY), including enhanced GY in dicot vs. cereal rotations, in two year vs. three year rotations, in first year wheat after any break crop, and in rotation with faba bean vs. rapeseed. Interactions among cropping sequences and N and P fertiliser were also significant. Response to N was markedly reduced in two year rotations with any break crop, in first year wheat after any break crop, and after faba bean, in particular; this reflected higher soil N status in these cropping sequences. Conversely, P response was significantly enhanced in two year rotations and in the first wheat crop after any break crop, and in dicot-based rotations, particularly with faba bean. Presumably, this enhancement was the result of simultaneous improvement in soil N status and a reduction in wheat root pathogen and grass weed populations in these cropping sequences.rotation de deux ans quelle que soit la plante utilisee en rotation; on observe egalement une reduction en premiere annee apres n'importe quelle plante alternative, dans les rotations ble-dicotyledones et plus particulierement dans le cas de la feve. Ces resultats refletent la plus haute teneur du sol en azote dans les schemas de rotation consideres. Inversement, la reponse au phosphore augmente dans les rotations de deux ans, pendant la premiere annee apres n'importe quelle plante alternative, et dans les rotations a base de dicotyledones, en particulier la feve. On suppos que cette augmentation correspond aux effets combines de ces schemas de rotation : amelioration du bilan azote dans le sol, reduction des populations d'adventices et de pathogenes de la racine de ble.Mots Cles: Azote, ble, colza, densite d'adventices, feve, orge, rendement en grains, rotation, phosphore, Triticum aestivumSustainable agriculture has been defined as \"the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving natural resources\" (TAC, 1988). The maintenance of long-term agricultural productivity depends on a number of biotic and abiotic factors all of which are dynamic in response to human intervention. Conservation tillage and crop rotation are considered to be the major means of maintaining agricultural productivity globally (Lal, 1989). Historically, very few agricultural research programmes in sub-Saharan African (SSA) have conducted multi-year or long-term agronomic trials to investigate the impact of crop production practices on the sustainability of the prevailing farming systems.Practical rotation options for cropping systems in wheat (Triticum spp.) producing zones have been considered in only a few cases in SSA. Most of these studies have focused on the short-term benefits from break or precursor crops for wheat production (Hailu et al., 1989). One eight year rotational study in Ethiopia provided extensive information on the impact of various cropping sequences on wheat grain yield (Amanuel and Tanner, 1991), but this particular set of trials contained several methodological flaws (Amanuel et al., 1994).Fertiliser rates have been recommended for wheat production in SSA without considering the sustainability of continuous fertiliser application. In Ethiopia, the high rates of nitrogen (N) applied to bread wheat plots in single season on-farm fertiliser trials had repercussions on soil pH levels, severity of wheat foliar disease, and weed incidence and competition (Tanner et al., 1993). However, there are no reports available on the long-term effects of repeated N and phosphorus (P) application at the rates recommended for wheat production.In the peasant farming systems of southeastern Ethiopia, cereals predominate, often occupying over 80% of the total cropped land each season (Chilot et al., 1992). In the highland zones, bread wheat and barley (Hordeum vulgare) are the most common cereals in production, while faba bean (Vicia faba) and rapeseed (Brassica carinata) are the most common grain legume and oilseed crops, respectively.The high proportion of wheat and barley in the highland cropping systems satisfies the short-term subsistence objectives of peasant farmers, but may prove disadvantageous in the long-term due to the absence of the inherent advantages of crop rotational systems. Several of the well-known benefits of crop rotation could be extremely valuable in the peasant farming sector: N fixation by legumes (Hargrove et al., 1983); the interruption of weed (Heenan et al., 1990), disease and insect cycles by dicotyledonous crops; crop diversification (Zentner and Campbell, 1988); improvement in soil tilth and a concomitant reduction in rainfall runoff and erosion (Higgs et al., 1990). In southeastern Ethiopia, a long-term decline in wheat yield was observed on Ministry of Agriculture seed production farms and on research centres. This decline, in the order of 22% over the period from 1969 to 1985, was attributed to the high proportion of cropland under wheat and barley, exceeding 50% in most seasons (Lindeman, 1986).Several short-term studies in the Ethiopian highlands have examined the beneficial effects of break crops on wheat production. In one study, a faba bean break crop increased wheat grain yield by 1100 kg ha^-1, or 69% cf. the yield of second year continuous wheat (Hailu et al., 1989); in a second study, faba bean increased wheat yield by 1000 kg ha^-1, or 44% cf. the yield of continuous wheat (Asefa et al., 1992). However, no studies have previously considered the long-term effects of diverse cropping sequences on the Ethiopian cropping environment. This paper presents results generated during the third and fourth years of one such ongoing study conducted at two locations in the major bread wheat production zone in southeastern Ethiopia. The objective of this trial is to evaluate the long-term effects of alternate crop rotation systems on wheat productivity and system sustainability, and on wheat response to inorganic fertiliser.The rotation experiment was initiated during 1992 at the Kulumsa (8 degrees 02'N and 39 degrees 10'E) and Asasa (7 degrees 08'N and 39 degrees 13'E) research sites in Arsi Region of Ethiopia; the station soils are classified as an intergrade (between an eutric Nitosol and a luvic Phaeozem) and an eutric Nitosol, respectively. The soil clay content is approximately 45% at Kulumsa and 35% at Asasa. The average monthly mean minimum temperatures during the annual growing season are 10.6 and 6.7 C, and the corresponding average monthly mean maximum temperatures are 22.1 and 22.7 C, for Kulumsa and Asasa, respectively. Total annual precipitation is 824 and 665 mm, and that received during the June-November growing season is 504 and 472 mm, respectively (1970-95 means). The stations are situated at altitudes of 2200 and 2360 m a.s.l., respectively. The experimental sites used for the rotation trials had been sown to unfertilised wheat crops in 1991.The trial incorporates three fundamental design principles consistently stressed in the statistical literature on multi-rotation experiments (Patterson, 1965;Preece, 1986;Cady, 1991):Each phase of a specific rotation is present in the experiment every year to avoid assessing the effects of the rotational crops under differing seasonal conditions (i.e., confounding treatment and year effects). A three year cycle requires three plots in each replication to include all three phases of the rotation, while a two year cycle occurs in two phases each year.Randomisation is essential to avoid anomalies from systematic assignment of treatments to field plots, and is fundamental to the validity of statistical analyses.Replication is required to estimate experimental error and to minimise the magnitude of the standard error of treatment means.The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with crop rotations as main plots and fertiliser levels as subplots. The crop rotations are wheat-based, and reflect the predominant crops in the surrounding farming system: faba bean, rapeseed and barley. Treatments 1 to 15 (Table 1) comprise all phases of wheat in two and three year rotations with the three break crops, while treatment 20 consists of continuous wheat. Treatment pairs 16 and 17 and 18 and 19 comprise a partial sampling of all potential phases of complex six and four year rotations, respectively. The four fertiliser levels used during the first three years of the trial were the factorial combinations of 0 and 41 kg N ha^-1 with 0 and 20 kg P ha^-1. The four fertiliser treatments are maintained as fixed subplots over the duration of the trial. Starting in 1995, the low and high rates of N have been amended to 30 and 60 kg ha^-1 (from 0 and 41), while P rates remain constant. Urea and triple superphosphate are the sources of N and P, respectively. The trial was laid out in three replications, and the area of each main plot is 100 m2 with each fertiliser subplot having an area of 25 m2. -------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------1 1* Fb, W, Ba, R = faba bean, bread wheat, barley, and rapeseed, respectivelyTillage for this trial is based on the local ox-plough; crop protection practices simulate farmer practices (i.e., hand weeding); varietal selection is optimal for each crop, and open to change over the trial duration. The recommended varieties used for the various crop species were: for bread wheat, Enkoy in 1992-93, HAR 1709in 1994, and HAR 1685in 1995;for barley, Holker in 1992-93 andARDU 12-60B in 1994-95; for faba bean, CS20DK in 1992-95; for rapeseed, Yellow Dodola in 1992-95. The seed rates used were 150 kg ha^-1 for bread wheat, 200 kg ha^-1 for faba bean, 15 kg ha^-1 for rapeseed, and 85 (in 1992 and 1993) and 130 (in 1994 and 1995) kg ha^-1 for barley. Pre-weighed amounts of seed and fertiliser were broadcast-applied on the soil surface of the appropriate plots after tillage by ox-plough, and were subsequently incorporated, in the traditional Ethiopian practice, by one pass of the ox-plough. Sowing dates were June 19 and July 1 in 1992, June 16 and July 6 in 1993, June 15 and July 6 in 1994, and June 15 and 28 in 1994 at the Asasa and Kulumsa sites, respectively.Data were collected from each subplot on days to heading and maturity, plant height, weed density, and disease severity. At maturity, a net plot of 9 m2 was harvested by sickle at ground level for grain and biomass yield determination. Grain moisture contents were determined and yields adjusted to a 12.5% moisture basis for wheat and barley, 7% for rapeseed, and 10% for faba bean.All data were subjected to ANOVA, analysing the four crop species separately. Subsequently, for the wheat data of 1994 and 1995, orthogonal contrasts were used to partition rotation main effects and rotation by fertiliser interaction effects into meaningful single degree of freedom components. Rotation (with 11 degrees of freedom) was partitioned into the following eight mutually orthogonal contrasts:-wheat in dicot rotation vs. cereal rotation; -wheat in 2 year vs. 3 year rotation; -within 3 year rotations, first crop wheat vs. second crop wheat; -wheat in rotation with faba bean vs. rapeseed; -interaction of contrasts 1 and 2; -interaction of contrasts 2 and 4; -interaction of contrasts 1 and 3; -interaction of contrasts 3 and 4.Rotation by fertiliser interaction (with 33 degrees of freedom) was partitioned into eight mutually orthogonal contrasts:1-2: (wheat in dicot rotation vs. cereal rotation) x (N or P effect); 3-4: (wheat in 2 year vs. 3 year rotation) x (N or P effect); 5-6: (within 3 year rotations, first crop wheat vs. second crop wheat) x (N or P effect); 7-8: (wheat in rotation with faba bean vs. rapeseed) x (N or P effect).Seed or grain yields of the four crop species included in the rotation trial are summarised in Table 2 for the 1994 and 1995 seasons at the Kulumsa and Asasa sites. The summary of the effects on yield includes the main effect of N and P fertiliser for all crops, and rotation main and interaction effects for the principal crop, wheat. Yield responses to N and P fertiliser across the same crops, sites and seasons, expressed as N or P utilisation efficiency (UE) in kg grain or seed per kg nutrient added, are listed in Table 3.TABLE 2. Seed or grain yields (kg ha^-1) of four crops. included ie the wheet-based crop rotation trial at Kulumsa and Asasa (1994-95) and significance levels of treatment effects ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . Yield response (kg grain or seed per kg nutrient) to N and P fertiliser^a of four crops included in the wheatbased crop rotation trial at Kulumsa and Asasa (1994-95)-------------------------------------------------Kulumsa Asasa - ---------------------------  ----------------------------------------------- ^a p contrast between 0 and 20 kg P ha^-1; N contrast between 0 and 41 kg N ha^-1 in 1994, and 30 and 60 kg N ha^-1 in 1995 ^b N exerted a negative effect on faba bean seed yield NS: Not significant (P>0.1)Faba bean seed yield (SY) was particularly high during 1994 at Asasa (Table 2). Across the four trials, faba bean SY only responded positively to P in the Asasa 1995 trial, producing 9.6 kg seed per kg P applied (Table 3). Fertiliser N affected faba bean SY negatively in the Kulumsa 1994 trial, reducing yield from 1968 kg ha^-1 with 0 N to 1743 kg ha^-1 with 41 kg N ha^-1. Rotation marginally (P<0.1) affected faba bean SY in the Kulumsa 1995 trial: treatment 17 (R-W-W-Fb) at 1541 kg ha^-1 < treatment 2 (W-Fb-W-Fb) at 1948 kg ha^-1 and treatment 10 (Fb-W-W-Fb) at 1816 kg ha^-1.Rapeseed SY was markedly affected by N and P rates (Tables 2 and 3). N fertiliser increased rapeseed SY in each siteseason: NUE ranged from 7.3 to 15.9 kg grain per kg N. In 3 of the 4 site-season combinations, P increased rapeseed SY: PUE ranged from 6.2 to 16.5 kg grain per kg P. Rotation affected rapeseed SY (P<0.01) in the Kulumsa 1994 trial: treatment 19 (Fb-W-R) at 1210 kg ha^-1 > treatment 5 (R-W-R) at 665 kg ha^-1 and treatment 8 (W-W-R) at 742 kg ha^-1. Thus, the precursor crop of faba bean grown 2 seasons previous had a beneficial effect on rapeseed. Amanuel et al.(1996b) reported elevated levels of soil nitrate in 1994 at Kulumsa in plots sown to faba bean in either 1992 or 1993, suggesting that this yield enhancement of rapeseed may have been due to increased soil N levels.Barley grain yield (GY) was relatively low in all 4 trials (Table 2), reflecting the marginal adaptation of barley to altitudes below 2400 m a.s.l. in Ethiopia. Barley GY responded positively to N in 3 trials: NUE ranged from 5.2 to 13.8. Response to P was significant in 2 trials, and PUE ranged from 15.9 to 22.8 (Table 3). Rotation significantly (P<0.05) affected barley GY in the Kulumsa 1994 trial: treatment 3 (Ba-W-Ba) at 696 kg ha^-1 > treatment 14 (W-W-Ba) at 620 kg ha^-1. Perhaps, the low GY and hence nutrient uptake and removal by barley at this site was responsible for the positive response in 1994 to a preceding barley crop in 1992 vis-a-vis 2 years of wheat preceding barley.Wheat GY increased markedly during 1995 as a result of the substitution of the relatively tall variety HAR 1709 by HAR 1685, a highly productive semi-dwarf variety (Table 2). The main effect of N on wheat GY was highly significant in all 4 trials: NUE ranged from 1.9 to 20.7 kg grain per kg N applied. The main effect of P was significant in 2 trials with PUEs ranging from 3.2 to 21.4 kg grain per kg P applied.TABLE 4. Crop rotation effects on wheat grain yield at Kulumsa and Asasa (1994-95)- ----------------------------------------------- Rotation effects on wheat grain yield. The rotation main effect on wheat GY was highly significant in all four trials (Table 2). Upon partitioning of the rotation main effect, seven of the eight single d.f. components (see Materials and Methods) were significant in at least one trial (Table 4). However, the following four components exerted the greatest influence on wheat GY across the four trials:-in all 4 trials, wheat GY was higher in rotation with dicotyledonous vs. cereal crops, and the GY increments ranged from 29 to 54%;-in 3 trials, wheat GY was higher in rotation with faba bean vs. rapeseed, and the GY increments ranged from 11 to 31%;-in all 4 trials, the GY of the first wheat crop after any precursor was higher than the GY of the second wheat crop.The increments ranged from 13 to 48%; and -in 2 trials, the GY of wheat in 2 year rotations, regardless of break crop, was higher than the mean GY of wheat in 3 year rotations. The increments ranged from 8 to 10%, primarily reflecting the large differential between the first and second crop wheat (i.e., as discussed in the previous component).The marginally significant interaction between dicot vs. cereal with 2 vs. 3 year rotation at Kulumsa in 1994 (contrast 5 in Table 4) reflected a pronounced decline in mean wheat GY in 3 year rotations with either dicot precursor (i.e., 850 kg ha^-1 for 2 year vs. 736 kg ha^-1 for 3 year), while the 2 and 3 year rotations of wheat with barley did not differ in GY (i.e., 543 and 565 kg ha^-1), but both were significantly lower than the mean GY of wheat in 3 year rotations with dicots. This difference was primarily due to the significant interaction between dicot vs. cereal rotations with W#1 vs. W#2 which was significant in 3 of 4 trials (contrast 7 in Table 4). In all 3 trials, W#1 after either dicot crop was superior in GY to all other permutations. In 2 trials, W#2 after either dicot was superior in GY to W#1 after barley. In 2 trials, W#1 and W#2 after barley did not differ in GY. Across the 3 trials in which significant differences were detected due to this interaction, GY declined by 25% in the second successive wheat crop after either dicot, but showed no change in the second successive wheat crop after barley.In the Kulumsa 1995 trial, the interaction between W#1 vs. W#2 and faba bean vs. rapeseed was significant (contrast 8 in Table 4). The GY of W#1 after faba bean (5541 kg ha^-1) > W#2 after faba bean (4405 kg ha^-1) > W#1 after rapeseed (3892 kg ha^-1) > W#2 after rapeseed (3422 kg ha^-1). Thus, the interaction was due to a differential rate of decline in GY, resulting from extending cycle length in rotations with faba bean vs. rapeseed: extending cycle length to 3 years reduced wheat GY by 1136 kg ha^-1 (or 21%) in faba bean rotations vs. 470 kg ha^-1 (or 12%) in rapeseed rotations.Wheat crop parameters and yield components were also significantly affected by the rotation main effect and its orthogonal, single d.f. components in each trial (data not shown). The density of emerged wheat seedlings (i.e., number m-2) and the harvest index of the mature wheat crop were least affected by rotational factors. Crop height was markedly affected by the dicot vs. cereal, W#1 vs. W#2, and faba bean vs. rapeseed contrasts; in each case, crop height was increased by the same factors that exerted a positive effect on wheat grain yield. The number of wheat spikes m-2 was less frequently affected than the number of grains spike^-1 and thousand kernel weight of wheat, which were extremely sensitive to crop rotation, suggesting that the differential effects of the crop rotational systems were manifested after the initiation of wheat stem elongation.TABLE 5. Wheat grain yield response to precursor crops at Kulumsa andAsasa (1994-1995) as a percent of the yield of continuous wheat ------------------------------------------------------ Cropping sequence effects on wheat GY are summarised in Table 5. The indexed values highlight the superior GY performance of wheat sown immediately after a dicot crop, particularly faba bean -an advantage which markedly diminished in the second consecutive wheat crop. The yield-enhancing effects of rotation with dicots could be due to multiple factors: Tezera et al. (1996) demonstrated that, at Kulumsa, wheat in rotation with dicot crops exhibited a lower incidence of yield-reducing root diseases such as take-all (Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici) and eyespot (Pseudocercosporella herpo-trichoides); Amanuel et al. (1996a) showed that faba bean increased soil nitrate contents and rapeseed decreased soil penetrometer resistance to an extent detectable in the second successive wheat crop; Amanuel et al. (1996b) also showed that densities of weedy grass species such as Avena fatua and Setaria pumila were significantly reduced at Kulumsa in wheat following dicots, particularly faba bean.In agreement with a previous report (Amanuel et al., 1994), wheat GY in the current study was not significantly enhanced in rotation with barley, although the first year wheat crop exhibited a (non-significant) tendency to be slightly higher than continuous wheat (Table 5).Thus, as calculated from the values in Table 5, the mean incremental effect on wheat GY (based on the indexed trial yields) was: for faba bean, 77% in the first wheat crop and 33% in the second consecutive wheat crop; for rapeseed, 50% in first wheat and 18% in the second crop; for barley, 12% in first wheat, and 6% in the second wheat crop.The current results show clearly that rotation with faba bean had a far greater impact on wheat GY than did the addition of 41 or 30 kg N ha^-1 in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Across the 4 trials, the incremental GY due to the high N application rate ranged from 79 to 622 kg ha^-1, while the increment in the first wheat crop after faba bean vis-a-vis continuous wheat ranged from 610 to 2120 kg ha^-1. Yield benefit in cereal-legume rotations beyond that accounted for by the \"N fixation effect\" has been referred to as \"rotation effect\" by Franzluebbers et al. (1995).Rotation by nutrient interaction. Although the rotation by N interaction effect (with 11 degrees of freedom) was NS in both seasons at Asasa, several orthogonal components were significant in 1995 (Table 6). Both trials at Kulumsa exhibited significant rotation by N interaction.TABLE 6. Effects of interaction of crop rotation and fertiliser N application on wheat grain yield at Kulumsa and Asasa (1994-95) ---------------------------------------------------Contrast^a Kulumsa Asasa ------------------------1994 1995 1994 1995 - ------------------------------------------------- The interaction effects of N rate with rotation cycle length and with successive wheat crops are shown in Table 7. Wheat GY in 2 year rotations with any precursor crop did not respond to additional N, but the mean GY of wheat in 3 year rotations did respond significantly to additional N: relative to the low N rate, NUE was 11.6 kg grain per kg additional N up to the 60 kg N ha^-1 level. Similarly, in the Asasa 1995 trial (Table 7), there was no response to N in the first wheat crops after any precursor, while the second wheat crops did respond to additional N (with an NUE of 17.8 kg grain per kg N).TABLE 7. Effects of interaction of N fertiliser application rate with rotational cycle length and successive wheat crops on wheat grain yield (kg ha^-1) at Asasa in 1995 -------------------------------------------- The interaction between N rate and faba bean vs. rapeseed precursor affected wheat GY in three of the four trials (Table 6). In the two trials of 1995, the GY of wheat in rotations with faba bean (i.e., consisting of both 2 and 3 year cycle lengths) did not respond to an additional 30 kg N ha^-1, while additional N applied to wheat in rapeseed rotations did increase wheat GY (Fig. 1): NUEs were 28.0 and 14.4 kg grain per kg N at Kulumsa and Asasa, respectively. Thus, the reduced N response in wheat after faba bean in the current study is consistent with published reports that cereal GY response to fertiliser N and optimal N application rates are normally reduced following grain legume crops (Hargrove et al., 1983;Narwal et al., 1983;Ladd and Amato, 1985;Franzluebbers et al., 1995).  - Rotation by P interaction effects on wheat GY were significant in all trials except Asasa in 1994 (Table 8). Wheat GY response to P was not significant in cereal rotations or in the second wheat crop after any precursor crop (Table 9). In contrast, the response to P was significant in dicot rotations and in the first wheat crop after any precursor: PUE was 26.4 and 7.1 kg grain per kg fertiliser P in the two cases, respectively. There was also a differential response to P in dicot vs. cereal rotations and in 2 year vs. 3 year rotations (Fig. 2). Wheat GY response to P was significant in 2 year rotations, exhibiting a PUE of 14.8 kg grain per kg P, but in 3 year rotations mean wheat GY response was non-significant.Comparing response to P in wheat within faba bean vs. rapeseed rotations (Fig. 2) revealed that PUE was much higher in faba bean (38.8 kg grain per kg P) than in rapeseed (14.0 kg grain per kg P) rotations. The enhanced PUE in legumecereal rotations, consistent with the literature (Sinha et al., 1983), suggests a synergistic effect of legumes on P uptake and utilisation efficiency in a subsequent cereal crop, perhaps as a result of enhanced crop root vigour due to elevated soil N levels and reduced soil pathogen and pest populations. TABLE 9. Effects of interaction of P fertiliser application with rotational crops and successive wheat crops on wheat grain yield (kg ha^-1) at Kulumsa in 1994 and Asasa in 1995 --------------------------------------------------Kulumsa Asasa -----------------------------Wheat crop^a Rotational crop -----------------------------W# 1 W# 2 Dicot Cereal --------------------------------------------------P fertiliser (kg ha^-1): ^a First or second wheat crop within 3 year rotational cycles ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Crop rotation had a marked effect on wheat GY in the four site-season combinations presented in this paper, increasing wheat productivity more than fertiliser N or P. Rotation with dicotyledonous crop species, particularly the faba bean grain legume crop, increased wheat GY in two succeeding crops. Across the four trials, faba bean increased wheat GY by 77% in the first wheat crop and 33% in the second consecutive wheat crop; the corresponding values for rapeseed were 50 and 18%. By comparison, the incremental wheat grain yield after barley was only 12 and 6% for the first and the second consecutive wheat crops, respectively. Crop rotation exhibited beneficial interaction effects with fertiliser N and P on wheat GY. Wheat GY response to fertiliser N was minimal or non-significant after a faba bean break crop, and in the first wheat crop after any precursor crop; P response was greatly enhanced in wheat grown after dicots, particularly faba bean, and in the first wheat crop after any break crop.","tokenCount":"4445"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"98621929a03a5c0f2dd28256c9948698","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/84fadc5f-c0d9-4862-9f3e-0e37043c211c/retrieve","id":"-1263121637"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"72501a6e-2df3-42e0-a9b8-91cb8217025d","pagecount":"10","content":"af!~ct speeific areas and require local solutions, socio-cultural factora vary widely, evan between nearby villages. and require local adaptations. AlthoughA combination of circumstancea has led to the present juncture of h1atory, where ve nOlf feer videapread famine in many part of the world. Efforta are underway in both national and intemational centers to try to deal with the situation. Nev technology ia betng deve10ped, people are being trained, and techniques are being 80ught to glit the informetion out to the farmers. Yet, despite these efforts, which bave been going DO for a number of yeara, the spectre of famine stU1 haunts tbe vorla. Food production :1.8 not increadng as rap:l.d1y as popu1ation. The problem ia particularly acute in many of the le.8 developed countries, where tbe agricultural sector is divided iDto tvo dlstinct groups--one consisting of 1arge, commercial farmara produciDg largely fer export, and tbe other group consisting of small farmera producing food cropa for local consumption. My remarks bere concera the small farmar. In trying to generalize over a broad ranbe of the history of tbe vorld, ve shall ignore the peculiarities of particular regions and countries, even tbough these represent important exceptlons to tbe general rule. wbere the small farmer is producing up to the maximum, in There are regions terma of what :l.s known about that region and those cro¡.r. In other regions, no new acceptable tachnology has yst been developed. But, for tbe most part, modero technology exists which can be applied to increase fond production. Tbe reasons vhy it :l.s not being applied vitb the speed needed to ~vert tbe crisis are many. Tbe information i8 not available where needed. neitber are tbe inputs, the credit, Dor tbe marketing facilities. In a sense, neither ls the sense of urgeney wbicb we think tbe problem,merits.The approach af the Small Farma Systems Team at CIAT is intended to complement the york nf the commodity teama at the various eentera, as vell as the praduction systems york being focuased on the small farmar at sueh centere as trun, CATIE, and INCRlSAT. Tbat ia to say, our coneero i8 wider than the '-'~~tt¿hñ(;t~gtcái ~~eeórí'oíii!é~láHbri9 lnvbl v.td . in \"undérlltllnd ílli\\~tilIIpld'~fármin!r\" .• .\".,., ;.'\" systema. We aaed to aehíeve that uaderstandiag as part af the larger problem' of understanding tbe whole complex of factors 8fr~cting tbe behavior of 8mall farmers. Hany of these factora haya their arigin off the farm, in the wider Boc:l.al environment in whicb the farmer makas his decislona and earries them out.We can safely assume tbat ve will encounter tbe sama Borts of problems which fac,) the cCllIlII10dity teama. Just as so11, disease, ,and climatic factorG ve are just-beginnlng our analys!s, ve suspect that ve vill have to look for ealutiona ta the farmar's problems at at least four different levele of society.l. People at the top of the national social structure in any country vill decide the priority to be given to food production by amall farmera in tha context of other national priorities in general, and agriculture in particular.Within the general priorities assigned to agricultura, decisions vill have to be _de vith respect to how IIII.Ich attent!on and resources are to be devoted to IUch palicies as support for vhich prices, how.llll.lch for which types of infrastructure inveatments in health. education, transportation vill go into the rural areas. what are the appropriate levels, costs, and conditione of credit? !bese lndicate s few of the sorts of decislons which must be made at the national (snd even international) level of society.2. Hany of the national institutions havlng to do with agriculture function at the regional and local levels, and soma problems require soma organizational autonomy from the national level in order to develop policies which are specifte to the various regions vithin the country. For example, general levels of credit may be set at the national level, leaving the speciflc conditiona of loans to local authorities. Regions where monocrop culture prevaila viII hava differant credit requirements from those regiona where multiple-continuous cropping systems are in use.3. At tha local level, village associations, cooperativas snd other organizations can ba expected to exert pressure to achieve bargaining power ta cope with the problema of tbeir particular locale. These may be oriented to such production-related problems as proviaion of inputs and marketing, or they may focus on afforta to reduce exploitation af the farmer by those with whom he must dedo '_'~\"¡l\\,.\" _\"\"\".\". -,4\",,\", '1'h«--individual-..rllPll&r-makes-hwpdecisiOt\\&.•• _.-otW.y -in, tha,-Uabt, ' 01',,-':' ,>i',::,'(, > those fú.ces which result from the above-mencioned leve la. but a1so in terms of his needa and those of hia family. Sueh basic factors as the age and sex distribution of the members of the family determine much oi the production strategy of che farmer.The Systems Team vill be concerned wi~h the complex interrelationa between all four lavela, and their effects on the production behavior oE the small farmer.In order to gain soma perspective on che situation of che small íarmer. snd society' s eUorte to deal uith ehe I'roblem nf increu.jng food f'~oduct;10n by th!/! se.ctor, ve need to take a fe., m.inutes to run quickly through tl:e past 9,000 years of the cultural evolution of humanlty, and pick out a few salient points to lndicate how we arrived at the preaent juncture in history. We need to take same note of the strategies tried in recent decades to see why they have failed to cope ad,equately with the problem. About 9,000 years ago, with the development of a stable agricultural surplus, the peaaantry came into belng. !bis surplus was dralned off to finance the development of cities, rellgious, military and administrative elites, as wall as other occupational specialities such as crafts and commerca. Slnce then,• paasant5 have always lived in relation ta cltias, have been controlled by them, and hava generally formad thc rural, lower stratum of complex socletles. This agricultural surplus also provlded the economic base for organizad warfare. populatlon growth and oeber phenomena which have eharacterized civillzation ever sin.;,e. Administrstors, religious snd mllltary leaders and philosopbers of this perlad, snd on up ta the Industrial Revolution, devoted a great deal of thought to justifying the peasant's situation as both necessary and desirable, since lt allowed t~e development of large-scaIe elvilization.Tba Industrial Revolution brought not only industry, but larga-acale commercial farming into being, with the result that in soma areas of tba world, part af the pea8ancry was either driven or attracted to the eities. This was a long snd diffieult time for those 1nv01ved in the transition, but tor the most part, the peaeantry remained in the countryside. Tbe Industrial Revolution ie al so noteworthy for baving brought the seienee of Economics into being. Again, intellectua1s demonstrated not cnly the rightness, but the inevitability of the arder of things by the use of suoh concepts as the \"invisible hand lO , \"supp1y\" and \"demand\". Powerful analytic toole, such as Euclidean geometry were brought to bear, and no one could boa held aceountable tor the operation of such impersonal forces aS natu~al 1a\\ol', peasants were again .. ' ' . . '. -~: . , .. '.advised to aecepttheir pos1tion in soeiety.What Adam Smith c!emcnstrated in the case oE pin IDllnufaeture, Ricardo generalized ta special1zation between nations. The TheQry oí Comparative Advantage demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that some nations enjoyed a comparative adventage in the manufacture of industrial products, whereas others were obvlousiy more adaptad ta being hewers of wood artd haule:ts of wace.. Baea natioc should sp$ciali%~ i~ those things it did bc~t, end free trade would a8.ure everyone that they would get their fair .hare. !bis theory was pot effectively challenged unt!l Raul Prebische did so after World War 11. \\ole need to return for a moment to two of the conditions which characterized the beginning of civilizat1on, simply to note that population growth in general snd urban growth in particular have accelerated greatly over the past two centuries, and have been out of control dnce World War 11. Improved public health measures have 8uddenly dropped mortality rates, leaving fertility rates st levels required tor normal growth under conditions of high mortality.Despite occasional perioda of rapid technological cbsnge in agriculture, food supply has not increased as rapidly as population growth. Within tlle larger population explosion, there has been an even more rapid growth of cities, much of 1t due to rural\"'llrban migration.Doring the past two centuries, many of the industrial countries have súbsidized the commercial sector of agriculture to the extent that in some countrles lt 18 now possible for less than ten per cent of the population to produce more foad tban the rest can consume. Industry, snd increasingly services, bave absorbed the bulk of tite labor force.In a desperate effort to try to catch up with the rich countries, many developing countries bave been trying since World \\~ar 11 to finance industrial growth with exporte of mineraIs and ilgricultural products. This has led to the formation of powerful associations in these countries with a~ interest in maintaining the status quo, and a de-emphasis on food produetion to the point where ruany of them have ta use acaree foreign exehange for the importation of food, even though from forty to eighty per cent of their population is in agriculture. In ahort, roany nations have become large-scale, mechanized, heWerD of wood and haulers of water, juot as Ricardo reccmmended.,not. J:¡lIIeu•.:omple\\:ely ignorad :W:.~J.l:t. ' ..• .r,; .... ,.', . . , eountries, and along w1th the effort;; te develop industry, there h,l\":e been _. • ..• ' ..... s'oiñé ''ébll'st!ieno1.Ís'''liffórts to a-Ueviate the eroditinos o1¡. the.peasantry •.. J\\.fter , .... ,.fi.!ldin~ that pro¡;rams in ,hcalth or agriculture alone did not. achieve the desired resulta, the more comprehensivc appro&ch of coromunity development was tried. Well-trained and well-meaning experta tried to help peasants deal more effectively with the1r problema, but neither the experta nor the pellsallU had the power to alter ehe conditions of the peasant. As optimism as tn what could De expeeteii frViU tha comntuni::1 deve:1C'p::r~nt rn(Y\\'em~nt waned, the GremRevolution arrived on the scene, aud bope tor hU!U4üity iú gcm.ral, and the peasant in J ' particular, waa renewed. ,However, the ancient adage that, \"ro tbose wbo have, more aball be given,\" relMined true, and commercial farmera wera bettar able to employ the n8W technology than the peasant. But even eommereial farmera have not been able to utilize the new technology to the degree that they would lika, owing largely ro a ahortage of inputs.For at leasr 9,000 yeara msn has periodically 8ou~nt solutiona ro the complex of inter-related problems--war, famine and population growtn, whieh tne Rev. Thomas Malthus analyzed 80 bril1iantly two centuries ago. After botb World Wars, leaders of many nations determined that the rime had come for nations to quit making war on aaeh orher, but found rhemselves unwilling to g,ive up those powers ro an international agency. Giving up the national right to mske war did not require ehe invention of new technology--only a willingness ro forgo the use of existing teennology for thar purpose. Just as war, famine and population growth are inter-rp,lated problema, wealth, power, and prestige are a complex of highly inter-related,widely held values, and mUitary power is an important underpinning for a11 th~ee. A 1.srge and growing population ts viewed by many leaders as a vital part of the military and economie strength of their nations, even if they are poor and hungry.Reducing the birth rate to achieve soma sort of parity with redueed death rates did require the dovelopment of new teehnology, but eheap, efreetive techn'ology is available, yet few nations have seen fit to try to apply this new teéhnology on a massive scale. The teehnology and resources required to control the rate of population growth are nothing compared to the cost of feedtng, clothlng, educating and employing excess population, and we find ourselves having to eonfess that >le do not yet have the technology in agrieul~ure te begio thió latter task. abi.f..; to convort tna!1y fOl\"Mét' peasant.s into largc ... scale cOflllr.crcial f,;rr~:erSt and th;!n r•eád:;• tb'em tñroegh ext1i!nsion services and rurs.l•de\"\"elopment .pqlicies. \" ... \" .. ' wllien ,llave subs:Úliz\"d the hC:llt;h\" \",f eh! .. ~.\"eto~. But\" in Olost countries, thera are too many small p\"asRnt!!, eaeh with little impact on the tótal food problenl.Cheap power aourees ¡¡cem to be a thing of tile past, \",nd good land la iucreRsingly scaree and expansive. Most of the people who are threatened with famine in the naar future live in that wide band around the world borde red by the Troplc of Canccr ana ti\", Tropi\" of Cepri corr... T!l!'\\l'erAture and water condUions over mucn cf the area are favorable to photosynthesis, but serious sOll map~ghment problems r€main unsolved. Tila peasant in this zone faces seriou9 problema, afid many of them are find~ng that it 18 better not to try to face them. Migration to the citla. la tha aasy way out. 'Piffarent countries prasant a different eomplex of problema to the peasant--land shortage in the eountry, exeiting pessibilitias in the clty, inadequata polieies fer rural davelopment. aud a great emphasis on industrial development in the elties. Wbether they are belng pushed out of the countryside or pulled into the clty doesn't really matter. lbe fact ls tbat many peasants are voting with their feet ln favor of urban lite, aven if that means alife of underemployment in a sqatter • settlement. That so msny chooae this wey of life i8 en indicator of the quallty of rural life that they have abandoned. The peasant ls an e~trepreneur--a risk taker, who must make product1on decisions, carry them out, snd watt a long time to see the results, whereas, the urbsn worker ShOW8 up on the job, follows instrJctions snd geta pald weekly. While wattlng for his eropa to mature, the paasane may be victimlzed by weathar. pests or other natural diaaatera, whereas his urban brother ls unaffected by weather. Cash comes to the peasant OIÜY a few times during the year 80 he needs credit, and th08E\\ wi1l1ng snd able to ': ',pply it are few, and abIe to take advnntage of the peasant's weak bargaining positlon, whereas. the man in the city has a weekly caah income, many aources of supply, and iIl not as eaaily exploited. Il pessants are lucky and produce a bumper crop, prices are likely ta drop--depriving him of the rewards of his labor, whercas .' faeilities oblíges the peasant ta spend a grcat deal of histime and energieaI~alking Ilnd waiting, >!hile 1Iis urban brocher rides, cornmunicates by telephone, and fe in t~!ch with the rest of society vis the mass media. Tha small scale and h?\",ogeneity oi I'easant society offer bo!\"edom nnd little hope of upward mob11it.y~ wher~A~ th~ 1aree e~~l~~ snd hctc~ogcneity of u~b~n llí~ offers al leait the llope oí upward mohility as well as entertainment. snd excitement.!be peasant knows that he 18 part of the lowest stratum of nat10nal life hecat1se he gets daily rem1nden of lt in his dealinga with memben of higher groups, wbereas, the urban worker has a greater measure of dignity. No matter how badly off he may be, at least he knows that he ls not a peasant. Under these circumstances. why should anyone in bis rigbt mind want to be a peasant?!be peassnt seems to be lowest on society', most gpneralized values-power, wealth and prestige. ~aradoxically, in a time of chron!c food shortage, we are asking that man's most valuable product--food--be producad by society's least valuad group. We are asking peaasnts to changa their bebavior in ways sucb that more food be produced in a hurry. Tbe most generally accepted explanation of human behavlor la that lt ls a function of conditions. This betng tbe case, tben cbanging peasant's behavior necessarily mean8 ~hang1ng the conditions of which it 18 a function.we noted earlier thst the community development failed in large part to alter peasant behevior on eny meaningful sea le because it did not try, or was unable. to alter the basie éonditions affecting peasant behavior. T;,!!y focussed largely on trying to change behav10r by assuming tbat behav10r was a funetion of tbe internal sta tes of the peasant--his values, attitudes, and state of knowledge. They lack the power to alter the baslc structure of soclety, or the place of the peasant in that structure. If tbe pea$ant's behavior--such as his low productivlty and willingness to abendan rural life-ia a function of his disadvantaged place on tbe bottom and a11 that it entaUs, then his pasition and the eonditions productng it ~tst be ehanged.Altering the direction of tne past nine thousand years of human evolution itI a rather heroic task--beyond the powers of the Centers, and even beyond the powera of ,ehe verious agencies of government responsible for agricultural «t \"\"\",\": dIWei:..,f¡Íd¡in•6 in 'their;c~d ~.:. ,!~.rH~~;9 . ~;., ~\".~,I;'~r.a.l.1t~v.,,~ C?pa:~.n f.~,:(~.~'}~~r~~n,g,t.~~~~',\"P..r!, s'~'~~:~;}~~¡:;\"l~t'~'}'~i;~J,;¡¡,; ~fI': pie. That 19 to sayo peasants might be allowed Co enjoya fifty per eent inerease in real income if everyon~ else did also. This would improve the posttlon of the peasant on an absolute scaIe of wealth. but would do nothing .to alter bis position relative to the rest of society. City life \"ould remain just as attractive al> 1>,,[01'<1, sinc6 he wou!d still b:l on the bott=. Hhen W~ examine the position of the peasant in terma of che other two major values mentioned earlier--power and prestige--the situation becomes more complicated.Unl1ke wealth, the supply of these \"goods\" cannot be lncreased. Power and prestige are inherently acaree and distributive. To the e~tent that one group la acquirlng ~ore of these values, other groups must be 10slng soma of theirs. When national objeetives become importane enoogb to the leeders, they try to find weys to re-arrenge ehe structure of advantage in ways to achieve thelr objeetives. A elasstc e~ple of ehls aort of thing was ehe decision to land a roan on ehe moon within a decade. snnounced st s time when the needed technology was not even in sight. Resources were redirected from othar priorlties, incentives established, personnel recruited, and ehe objeetive achleved ahead of schedule. Landing a men on the moon ~~s a relattvely simple task froro the society's point of view. No major sacrifice was required from any sector of the population, nor were the relative positions of any sizable group profoundly affected by the progr~m.Only a few societies have aystematically tried to alter the positlon of the peasant. Cuba did tt with great speed and at great expense•not on1y ta otber groups, but to the economy as wel1. China has been tackling the, problem with more planning and a step-by-step a~proach. Democratic nations face ereae difficultics in even discusslng the matter, owing to the well-established pOli'ers of particular sactors aud their alllances with other groups. Demoeretieally elected governments cannot ignore the com~eting elaima of the various sactora which make up their societies. Und~r the circumstances, we can predict tbat soma democraticelly orientad governments will not survlve che first years of real food crisis, as the populace wil1 demand quick solutions and will be willing to trade off democracy for eny promise of che end oi famine.The sense of urgency abont the food crisis and the need to raise the productivity of peaoanta i5 uot widely shared in those governmcnt circles ,. where it really counts. Mesnllhile. the skills of e11 of the various disciplines 'r; .. . get ex; .ting knOl,lo¿ge out to the farm. ue need abo understal1d the posit'ion• óf < -' < ,,-\"<,\"<tbe• pe11l8I1ntt••not :!ust 4t,th~ ia.rmvlfW8I\" ... bu,\".also '.al¡ f;hjt\" aationaL .leve,t, ',J.n., ;p..\"\" .>.; ' < .. '._. order t~ develop paliey alternativos designad to help maet tha needs for more end hetter food. Tbere la considerable room for improvement in performance, even given the present structure of advantage in mast countries. Greater efficiency in the \"pread of information, credit and marketing, can be obtained througb more organization oí the peasants into grups. Models can he developed to show the payof:s to be obtained from various eombinations oí investmen~s in","tokenCount":"3334"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6fa22640702722d593bae5744a66aa4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/084c5b81-3ef2-4977-9584-21f9fbc0e282/retrieve","id":"-504924015"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8df1e405-e139-4dfc-9715-687aac69a2c3","pagecount":"10","content":"Accelerating food systems transformation in the face of climate change and other global crises requires myriad changes across all levels, themes, and geographies. This calls for re-thinking the roles of agricultural research for development (AR4D). In this perspective article we use the metaphor of 'swarms' and 'swarming' to illustrate a more distributed way of working with a set of approaches that, if implemented jointly, may help AR4D researchers and their institutions to step up the pace and scale for food systems transformation, as urgently called for in global dialogues around the UN Food System Summit, COP 26, and beyond. We identify four roles for AR4D within swarmed design: facilitating the directionality of swarms, fostering swarm mentality and creativity, engaging with swarms in different innovation spaces, and building up and monitoring swarm intelligence. Enacting these roles would require an enabling environment, with the main food systems actors working together in four priority areas: aligning allies around shared visions and innovation portfolios, coupling tailored funding schemes and reworked incentive systems, building more permanent spaces for boundary work, and exploring new ways for structuring science.'The house is on fire! Telling people to look for the exit signs will be more effective than trying to organize all in a disciplined descend (Kurtz and Snowden, 2003). ' There is no doubt about the urgency to transform our food systems in the light of accelerated climate change and other global crises (Webb et al., 2020). Now that climate action is increasingly becoming a matter of self-interest for many countries and stakeholders (Hancock, 2019), we may have arrived at a critical moment where transformative change is possible (Gotts, 2007), driven by collective will (Loboguerrero et al., 2020).With food systems we mean the network of actors and activities that interact with one another, within an ecological, social, political/cultural, and economic environment, in relation to growing, processing, distributing, consuming, and disposing of foods, from provision of inputs to waste and recycling (Ericksen, 2008). The action areas for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are seen as key outcomes for food systems transformation, in fewer than ten years, are outlined in numerous reports (e.g., Béné et al., 2020;Herrero et al., 2020) and inform recent global calls for action (von Braun et al., 2021) and installation of global science-policy interfaces for food systems (Turnhout et al., 2021).But can such high-level collective action alone catalyze sustainable and equitable food systems transformation? First experiences are mixed at best (Canfield et al., 2021), with a lack of agreement among scientists, policy makers and field-level practitioners on how the changes needed are to be achieved (Zurek et al., 2021). Although some argue for structured global networks with a central role for agricultural research for development (AR4D) institutions (Béné et al., 2019), food systems are highly diverse and context-specific (Gaitán-Cremaschi et al., 2019), and agri-food system transitions must deliver against a complex suit of goods and services, with multiple objectives, trade-offs and conflicts between the different public-and private-sector actors along food supply chains, and in an environment that is rapidly changing (Dentoni et al., 2017;Klerkx and Rose, 2020). This results in multiple visions of future food systems (Zurek et al., 2021) which do not necessarily align (Wojtynia et al., 2021). In fact, it has been argued that transitions and transformations cannot be centrally steered (Scoones et al., 2020), and that multiple transition pathways play out simultaneously (El Bilali, 2019a;Klerkx and Begemann, 2020). Coordination therefore must be based on adaptive management of collective action of multiple actors (Klerkx et al., 2010;Leeuwis et al., 2021) so that 'individual, uncoordinated actions occur as if they were carefully choreographed' within different transformation pathways that each have their own 'bundles' of innovations (Barrett et al., 2020).In the context of AR4D and agricultural innovation systems, the notion that innovation can only be partly planned and takes place in selforganizing systems has been recognized earlier (Ekboir et al., 2013;Klerkx et al., 2010;Spielman, 2009), but here analysis and action were often focused on particular technology or practice development processes. In view of the multiple simultaneous innovation and change processes need for food systems transformation, we therefore propose that the concept of 'swarms', 'swarming' and particularly 'swarm intelligence', can have value to better grasp, facilitate and choreograph interactions among AR4D and other actors. Also, it can help clarify the roles AR4D can play in food systems transformation which involves multiple changes at multiple scale levels (field, farm, territory, country, region, global level).Swarms and swarming have been described from different science and engineering disciplines such as biology, mathematics, behavioral science, and robotics, and capture the self-organizing nature and emergent behavior of systems that are central in complexity perspectives on innovation, transition, and transformation (Loorbach et al., 2017;Olsson et al., 2014;Pyka and Küppers, 2002). For this paper, the focus is on swarm intelligence: inspired by natural swarms, the concept of swarm intelligence describes the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized entities that can move quickly in a coordinated manner (Beni, 2009). This focus on decentralized and self-organized entities connects with adaptative and reflexive approaches to research, design and innovation which allow for re-design of systems, experimentation with novel and emergent designs, and scaling of fit-for-purpose and fit-for-context designs, as widely applied in transition and transformation science and practice (e.g. transition management, strategic niche management, large systems change, reflexive interactive design, transdisciplinary research, blended portfolios of impact investmentssee Apampa et al., 2021;Dentoni et al., 2017;Elzen and Bos, 2019;Loorbach et al., 2017). While swarming is increasingly being explored as a concept for designing societal responses to wicked problems (Roggema and Van Den Dobbelsteen, 2012;Tan et al., 2008), it has not yet been applied to reflect on the role of AR4D in food systems transformation and how AR4D should be organized for this purpose.AR4D has been experimenting with forms of participatory research through multi-stakeholder approaches (e.g., innovation platforms, citizen science) and design-oriented science (e.g., development of new ready to use products) to support innovation relevant for achieving the SDGs for decades already (Berthet et al., 2018;Dalrymple, 2008;Kristjanson et al., 2009;Leeuwis et al., 2018;Schut et al., 2016;Spielman, 2006;Sumberg et al., 2013;Sumberg and Reece, 2004;van de Gevel et al., 2020). However, the durable institutionalization of participatory research and design-oriented approaches in AR4D remains a challenge (Kristjanson et al., 2009;Schut et al., 2018). In the context of food systems transformation, we can safely assume that this requires new sets of skills and forms of coordination for AR4D (following Dinesh et al., 2021b) which need further development and support. Applying the notion of 'swarm intelligence' could help to illustrate what types of approaches need to be implemented jointly to address some prevailing key questions and tensions of sustainable development at the scale of food systems transformation:• How to catalyze large-scale collective action with a shared directionality, while accommodating different perspectives and pursuing different transition pathways? • How to foster outcome-oriented collective action across multiple scales in an efficient and equitable way?• What enabling environments would be needed to support such 'swarmed design' approaches?In view of these questions, here we reflect on the concepts of 'swarm' and 'swarming' as metaphors to illustrate emerging new roles of AR4D in food system re-design and transformation. We conclude with four priority areas in which policies, funding mechanisms and incentive systems could work together to create the enabling environment needed.Earlier work in the context of AR4D acknowledges the relevance of participatory and design-oriented research and innovation principles such as developing a shared vision and direction, incorporating different stakeholders' views and iterative feedback loops in the development of appropriate technologies and practice by AR4D (Berthet et al., 2018;Elzen and Bos, 2019;Kristjanson et al., 2009;Meynard et al., 2017;Schut et al., 2016;Sumberg et al., 2013), and these continue to be promoted in AR4D institutions (e.g., Govaerts et al., 2021). These also play out, albeit on larger scales, in food systems transformation. In Table 1 we couple the main design principles relevant for food systems transformation with the principles of swarming, to illustrate a more 'swarmed' way of working, which might help AR4D institutions and relevant food system actors unleash the many changes needed at all scales.The principle of facilitating a shared vision, while integrating different perspectives (i.e., multiple transition pathways) presents a central challenge. There will always be different ideas on how transformation should happen. Many AR4D institutions avoid taking clear advocacy positions (Leeuwis et al., 2017), not sharing a single narrative themselves and for example committing to a system such as agroecology (Hauser, 2020), and there is indeed a tension between roles of impartial scientist and a more engaged activist researcher (Milkoreit et al., 2015;Wittmayer and Schäpke, 2014). In this process, AR4D can articulate alternative futures and the implications of different choices (see e.g. Zurek et al., 2021;Herrero et al., 2021), since swarms do not have to follow a (permanent) central lead. While natural swarms may be guided by different aims such as reproduction, search for food and defense, they follow the principle of self-organization, organically forming around attractors (Brown et al., 2014). Two reflections derive from this. First, the principle of selforganization illustrates how AR4D, politics and powerful market players (including the donor community) can create a mutually reinforcing dynamic around attractors (e.g., by science informing funding agencies, which in turn direct and attract more science), eventually crowding out alternative views and approaches (Clapp, 2021;Lahsen and Turnhout, 2021). This may lead to myopia and the risk that only selected transition pathways are chosen which may even lead to further-lock in (Conti et al., 2021;Vanloqueren and Baret, 2009). Second, however, a swarmed form of design could also point to a more distributed set-up, potentially involving local actors and user communities which otherwise would not be reached (Berthet and Hickey, 2018). In the context of food systems transformation, attractors could be alliances or coalitions of interest, guided by shared value creation or missions (Gloor, 2017;Hall and Dijkman, 2019;Klerkx and Begemann, 2020;Wall and Mitew, 2018), emerging leadership networks (e.g. the Transformation Leaders Network of the World Economic Forum), grassroots movements such as those for agroecology (Hauser, 2020), or new trends such as those presented by Agriculture 4.0 (Klerkx and Rose, 2020) representing technological trends such as digitalization and cellular agriculture (Antonacci et al., 2017;Gloor et al., 2009;Herrero et al., 2020). For example, the Global Commission on Adaptation undertook a one-year convening involving 23 countries, hundreds of advisers and research and action partners, that jointly formulated a set of outputs that resulted in heightened political visibility of adaptation. Moreover, the outputs of the Commission resulted in increased funding commitments to a range of multi-sectoral, practical actions, many of which are now being implemented in a self-organized way (GCA, 2019).While the notion of connecting local, regional and local networks pursuing a similar goal in a mission-oriented way has been articulated before (Klerkx and Begemann, 2020), food systems are complex and boundaries are fuzzy. The principle of swarm optimization may show how different swarms could navigate complex global challenges in an efficient way: with no or no permanent leadership, natural swarms rely on local interaction of individuals and their next neighbors (Holden et al., 2017). This mechanism also allows swarms to split up and continue independently, when encountering an obstacle (Fleischer, 2003;Wubben et al., 2021). Complexity for each individual may thus be reduced, and pathways become more serendipitous, adapted to local conditions. Translated to human swarms, the principle of swarm optimization can make swarmed networks highly efficient, robust, and resilient in dealing with obstacles and adverse conditions (Gloor, 2017). This is akin to the design principle of maximizing synergies while minimizing compromise. In the context of food systems transformation, the swarm metaphor may illustrate how swarmed networks in different local conditions, responding directly to urgent local needs and challenges, could still collaborate or work in a complementary way towards shared impact, for instance by addressing or creating different system leverage points (Abson et al., 2017). For example, with the aim of addressing systemic market failures that prevent sustainable finance from achieving relevant impacts for food systems transformation, the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and its partners, including 35 leading public and private financiers, developed a road map with detailed short-, medium-and long-term strategies that can be applied by governments, public and philanthropic investors, corporate investors and private financial investors (Limketkai et al., 2020). This illustrates how many different individuals with different perspectives and working along different transition pathways can still move towards a shared overall goalin effect, operating as a swarm.Closely allied with the swarm principles of self-organization and swarm optimization outlined above is the principle of swarm communication, reflected in the design principle of visualization, suggesting the use of representations that foster mutual understanding such as boundary objects (Klerkx et al., 2012), visualizations and story-telling (Akama et al., 2019). Because swarms are kept together by the communication of their entities with their next neighbors (Wubben et al., 2021), information needs to be simple and meaningful, to be easily understood (Ray and Liew, 2002). Translated to human swarms, this would mean the transparent sharing of accessible knowledge (Gloor, 2006) and the integration of different forms of knowledge, such as tacit (Almeida et al., 2009) and indigenous knowledge (Makondo and Thomas, 2018). For example, some countries in the global South have become innovation hubs by necessity and can inform global policies with their experiences in climate adaptation (Mcleod et al., 2019).Although there are increasing efforts to include different kinds of knowledge (e.g., a focus on valuing indigenous knowledge systems in the dialogues around 2021's UN Food System Summit), especially with regard to agri-food sustainability transitions, there is a strong bias towards representations of authors from the North (El Bilali, 2019b, 2020;Melchior and Newig, 2021;Weber et al., 2020). The swarming metaphor here emphasizes the need to connect different types of knowledge and knowledge systems, which leads back to the questions of who informs (and thereby guides) the different swarms, and what could be the role of AR4D institutions in this. We return to this issue in section 3.The design-oriented principle of transdisciplinarity (Köppen and Meinel, 2015;Micheli et al., 2019) has been recognized as an important element for identifying solution-oriented approaches to transformational change in sustainability transitions, as it contributes to addressing the root causes of unsustainability (Abson et al., 2017). Here we use the term transdisciplinarity to describe collaboration across different knowledge paradigms and across all food system actors. Developing and scaling socio-technological innovation bundles for food systems transformation (Barrett et al., 2020) requires the 'co-evolution of actors, institutions, networks and knowledge' (Boyer, 2020;Herrero et al., 2021). Related design principles that can reveal and address the root causes of problems are empathy and experiential learning (Beckman and Barry, 2007;Micheli et al., 2019). As a long history of participatory and co-creation approaches in AR4D has also shown (see e.g. Neef and Neubert, 2011;Schut et al., 2018;Van de Gevel et al., 2020), a lack of empathy with stakeholders or what also have been called the 'problem, knowledge, and solution holders' will likely lead to innovations that are mistargeted or result in inaction (Berenguer, 2007;Jackson and Payne, 2020;Jagers et al., 2020), making empathy a key ingredient for sustainability and transitions towards transformed food systems (Berenguer, 2007;El Bilali, 2020;Francesca et al., 2021).Here, the added value of the swarm metaphor is twofold. First, it reemphasizes the need for a distributed set-up to avoid spatial, temporal or causal separation of the designers (e.g., researchers, companies) from the problem holders (e.g., local communities, policy makers), which can lead to detachment and ineffective solutions. Second, it emphasizes that empathy and multi-stakeholder experiential learning are closely related to skills and tacit knowledge, which are necessary to build and maintain innovation capacities at all levels (Ganguly et al., 2019). The principle of swarm mentality, used mainly in the context of human swarms, is geared towards shared value creation, based on empathy, agency and autonomy within the shared values (Gloor, 2017;Khan et al., 2018;Marcus et al., 2014). Individuals' agency is strengthened by rotating functions and distributed responsibilities of swarm leaders and members (Antonacci et al., 2017), so that the diversity of entities within a swarm is highly valued (Krause et al., 2011), which consequently builds individual skills through experiential learning (Khan et al., 2018). This in turn increases members' motivation (Gloor, 2006) and fosters the trust-and experience-based relationships (Marcus et al., 2014) needed to develop deep empathy and unleash swarm creativity (Gloor, 2006). One example that comes close to illustrating swarm mentality is CCAFS: a tight, globally-distributed network of hundreds of participants organized into small, autonomous teams, with highly-focused intermittent interaction, working successfully for more than a decade via common impact pathways and theories of change (Haman and Hertzum, 2019;Nowak et al., 2021). Such impact pathways and ToC then need to embrace complexity and learning to be effective, to translate and enhance connections between different levels of action (global-local) and foster deep engagement (Douthwaite and Hoffecker, 2017;Thornton et al., 2017).A main design-oriented principle for accelerating the process from innovation to impact is applying a series of simple but rapid steps of prototyping and testing to obtain timely feedback for iterations (Maher et al., 2018). In relation to human or artificial swarms, the principle of swarm intelligence can be used to describe how 'rapid error discovery and fast feedback loops are emergent functions of a distributed content production process, leading to incredible fluidity and adaptability' (Wall and Mitew, 2018). This can be achieved by making work sharable in architectural layers (Frein, 2016) and by acting in more open innovation systems (Berthet et al., 2018;von Hippel, 2009) in which innovations not only use building blocks that are already available but also produce spin-offs that can be used again by other parties (Bogers et al., 2018). For example, the World Bank's portal on climate smart agriculture (htt ps://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climate-smart-agriculture) contains an online guide for targeting and prioritizing climate-smart technologies and practices, offering tools tailored to different stakeholders and user groups (from farm to landscape levels, market actors or regional, national and global policies) which can be used in complementary ways. Climate-smart country profiles can be complemented by country investment profiles or scaled down to community adaptation plans, for instance. Pioneered by CCAFS, the World Bank and partners, these tools are now being utilized and further developed by many other actors such as FAO, the African Agriculture Initiative, and USAID's Bureau for Food Security. There are further several examples of interoperable knowledge and data tools being used by multiple partners in broad alliances that aim to identify levers for, and monitor progress towards, food systems transformation. These include the CGIAR Big Data Platform (https://bigdata.cgiar.org/), the Innovative Food Systems Solutions portal of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (https ://ifssportal.nutritionconnect.org/), the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (https://wle.cgiar.org/cosai/), and the Digital Agri Hub hosted by Wageningen University & Research (https://dig italagrihub.org).Several authors have highlighted the key role that AR4D can play in contributing to novel agricultural and food systems taking a design approach (Berthet et al., 2018;Elzen and Bos, 2019;Meynard et al., 2017;Sumberg and Reece, 2004). A 'swarmed design' approach to AR4D may involve relatively new roles for researchers and AR4D institutions (Fig. 1), which we discuss below.Since swarming behavior is largely dictated by circumstance, AR4D institutions can play a crucial role in facilitating and perhaps orchestrating the directionality of different swarms. They can help to assess and diagnose current global crises, and build the development pathways that lead towards common visions of what future food systems should look like, by using the tools and methods of participatory scenarios, for example (Pereira et al., 2020). This also includes formulating research questions that underpin and inform dialogues around what are the 'right' things to do (Hauser, 2020), thus helping to negotiate or accommodate contesting views.Especially in the context of food systems transformation, AR4D deals increasingly with questions of societal desirability and social license (Barrett et al., 2020). Crucial here is to give voice to people who will feel the effects of global crises most (Rossi et al., 2019) to enable a fair and just transition (Robinson and Shine, 2018). In the context of food systems transformation, swarmed design initiatives could eventually arrive at targeting poverty and inequality, which are recognized as major underlying factors of our global crises (Boyce, 2018;Klenert et al., 2020). AR4D could then play a role in unveiling the power dynamics that oppose or accelerate system transformation (Clapp et al., 2018;Crawford and Andreassen, 2015), for instance by increasing transparency about innovations, evaluating risks and unintended consequences (Wigboldus et al., 2016), and tracking and communicating the distribution, flow and consumption of resources.Scientists have increasingly been engaging in co-designing agricultural innovations with non-academics (Norström et al., 2020), whereby AR4D institutions combine expert roles with facilitating or brokering collaborative processes (Wigboldus et al., 2016). AR4D institutions could complement such efforts by engaging and partnering more strategically with networks and initiatives active in the different areas of food systems transformation (Béné et al., 2020) and in the different phases of the cycle of innovation, development and scaling (Sumberg et al., 2013). For example, Koerner et al. (2022) identified four innovation spaces in which different multi-stakeholder groups can play a role in articulating, designing, mainstreaming or creating the enabling environment for innovations. Thus, social movements and consumer organizations can feel the pulse of current trends and articulate and amplify demands (Nature Food, 2020). Spaces for multi-stakeholder experimentation that rapidly develop and test innovations (e.g., innovation platforms (Schut et al., 2018) and 'Living Labs' (Gamache et al., 2020;Kok et al., 2019;Toffolini et al., 2021)), can connect to larger, multi-stakeholder platforms such as policy networks that aim to level the playing field and business networks that provide more leverage (Schut et al., 2018).Such systemic research and design approaches (Hall and Dijkman, 2019) are inherently unpredictable and call for flexibility (e.g., as in 'reflexive designs' (Elzen and Bos, 2019)), and for creating and using windows of opportunities (Klerkx et al., 2010). Funding initiatives would need to be designed accordingly, allocating time and resources to networking, joint agenda setting, and mutual learning; and allowing project goals and theories of change to be continuously adjusted (Dinesh et al., 2021c;Schneider et al., 2019;Thornton et al., 2017).AR4D institutions already employ methodologies of multistakeholder experiential learning that inherently promote empathy and transdisciplinary (Micheli et al., 2019), in the form of living labs (Toffolini et al., 2021) or climate-smart villages (Andrieu et al., 2019), for instance. However, with their focus on in-depth understanding and getting to the root causes of problems or of the motivations of key actors, rather than on representativeness and replicability, they can be at odds with a scientific culture that values hard facts (Sarwar and Fraser, 2019) or a metrics-oriented impact culture valued by funders. In addition, there are resource limitations in scaling such resource-intensive participatory approaches (Westermann et al., 2018), so that human-or nature-centered design approaches may sometimes be narrow in scope (such as focusing on the end user without considering value chain actors) or limited to more downstream applications and services such as climate information or financial services (Christel et al., 2018).The swarm metaphor suggests that empathy and cross-disciplinary experiential learning thrive well in contexts that allow for or explicitly foster individuals' agency, autonomy, trust and creativity, with special emphasis on developing individuals' skills. This would point to a need for collaborative environments where experimentation with new configurations of social-ecological systems can occur, which Pereira et al. (2020) call transformative or 'safe enough' spaces.Nevertheless, there are obstacles for developing such a swarm mentality directed towards societal outcomes that need to be addressed. For example, academic educational systems and research careers still disincentive young people to pursue positions that require inter-and transdisciplinarity (Koerner et al., in press), neglecting to build capacities to innovate and to manage change that can increase researchers' agency (Armstrong, 2016). To facilitate safe spaces around shared value creation (Gloor, 2006) in which researchers could easily switch between the roles of expert and learner (i.e., breaking the so-called expert-learner duality (Pugh and Prusak, 2013)), institutions could apply more reflexive and complexity-aware monitoring and performance evaluation systems (Douthwaite and Hoffecker, 2017) and increase appreciation of and response to failures (Dinesh et al., 2021a). This could take place in a context of AR4D institutions rethinking their incentive systems, towards rewarding pro-active (societal) problem-solving approaches and accountability (Arnott, 2021). Further, such safe spaces could also be more effective and permanent boundary organizations or brokers in AR4D, as argued earlier (Klerkx et al., 2009;Kristjanson et al., 2009;Pereira et al., 2020) and reiterated recently (Govaerts et al., 2021), connecting knowledge systems and food system actors and value chains across scales.Cross-boundary sharing of knowledge and innovations is increasingly cited as an important key for enabling food systems transformation (Berthet et al., 2018;Dinesh et al., 2021c;Govaerts et al., 2021), with building up stocks of interoperable knowledge, data and best practices having been at the heart of recent global dialogues. A swarmed approach to design could help to prevent this from becoming a bottleneck for inclusion. AR4D institutions already employ open source processes such as citizen science (van de Gevel et al., 2020) and on-farm experimentation (Lacoste et al., 2022) as a way to make research more effective, democratic and accountable, and also for large-scale monitoring purposes, as in the Food Systems Dashboard (Chandler et al., 2017;Fanzo et al., 2020b). Such approaches would also need shared repositories of interoperable building blocks of knowledge, data and tools that speak to each other and are easy to use (Beza et al., 2017).However, more open innovation approaches are not unproblematic in the AR4D context. Concerns range from the robustness of data, and consequent liabilities and reputational risks, to questions on intellectual property rights and non-disclosure agreements. One way to address such concerns could be to distinguish the potential uses and users of innovations, which might have quite different needs and risks associated with the quantity and quality of data (Clarke, 2016). Another way could be to differentiate between generic innovations and complementary new products or applications, which could provide both societal benefits and licensing opportunities, thus incentivizing public and private stakeholders alike (Ardito et al., 2020). Likewise, in some cases of downstream research such as the provision of climate services (Koerner et al., 2021), a more modular design approach may be appropriate (Brax and Toivonen, 2007;Habib et al., 2020). This would mean disaggregating and regrouping different components of innovations into modules, according to the components that interact most strongly (Ethiraj and Levinthal, 2005). Once such a modular architecture is established, products or services could be re-packaged or re-purposed quite quickly, thus multiplying the options offered to users while reducing complexity for the providers (Naik et al., 2020).We have used the swarm metaphor as an integrative concept to reflect on new ways of organizing for sustainable and equitable food systems transformation, and the emerging roles of AR4D in the re-design of food systems. Revisiting the main design principles relevant for food systems transformation with a swarming lens, we have illustrated a more distributed, 'swarmed' form of design that might help unleash the multitude of changes needed along multiple transition pathways in a more efficient and equitable way. While not all the principles of swarmed design are novel, the approach may promote more awareness of how AR4D can operate in large, multi-scale transformation processes.This approach would certainly challenge current AR4D processes and institutional set-ups (Fanzo et al., 2020a), though not all the principles of swarmed design would necessarily need to be applied to generate agri-food system transitions. It is likely that there are other aspects and institutional mechanisms that could be connected to the swarming concept that we have not covered here. In addition, such changes would not happen overnight nor in isolation. Rather, they would be part of longer-term reforms of international AR4D (such as the One CGIAR reform) and national AR4D institutes (Reardon et al., 2019), addressing long-standing bottlenecks that AR4D faces in the context of food systems transformation. To jointly navigate such change, actors engaged in governing, funding, incentivizing and implementing our food systems transformation could work together on the following priority areas, which might be especially salient in the context of swarmed design:• Underpinning shared visions at local, national and regional levels with reflexive theories of change, and coherent mission-oriented innovation portfolios (Klerkx and Begemann, 2020;Sartas et al., 2020) to enable 'bundled innovations' (Barrett et al., 2020) that are supported by partners with the respective social license (Hall and Dijkman, 2019) and funders with a shared directionality. • Coupling funding schemes that respond flexibly to different stages of innovation development and scaling, allowing for networking, joint and iterative agenda setting, and mutual learning (Schneider et al., 2019), with reworked AR4D incentive systems that reward a pro-active approach to solving societal problems (Arnott, 2021;Dinesh et al., 2021c). • Supporting and building more permanent capacities for boundary work (Klerkx et al., 2012;Kristjanson et al., 2009;Schneider et al., 2019), especially with the up-coming generation of scientists to be able to connect across science disciplines, actor groups in food systems and scales needed for swarmed design. • Exploring new ways for structuring science, with knowledge, data and tools that speak to each other (Koerner et al., in press), and more systematized feedback loops (Sumberg and Reece, 2004) within iterative swarmed design processes.This is a first attempt to introduce the 'swarm concept' and its relevance for AR4D. The concept has strengths, but also pitfalls: its application might create new uncertainties and overlaps, and in the initial stages of its application, it may not be efficient and effective. Also, it tends to view food systems transformation as a process of co-creation and co-innovation, whereas the antagonisms and power dynamics in food systems transformation also call for 'supporting, doing and forcing change strategies' (Dentoni et al., 2017). More work would be needed for its operationalization in practice and for testing its usefulness for supporting collaboration in innovation networks and initiatives across all scales and levels. The necessity of rapid food systems transformation surely heightens the need for novel approaches to AR4D, and swarming may offer useful mechanisms to increase cohesiveness and alignment of all actors working to address this most urgent of challenges.","tokenCount":"5003"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a6ff10f22f5f547f2b9654c02f077e09","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/54b25a49-e0da-474c-bf95-b870ddb3c3b1/retrieve","id":"437296982"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"65620300-6de3-429e-ad59-e76ed614ecdf","pagecount":"31","content":"My thanks go first of all to my supervisor Mirja Michalscheck who helped me to structure my research, gave valuable feedback and guidance at different stages of the research. It was very nice to have your company and moral support in Ghana. My gratitude goes also to my second supervisor Jeroen Groot, who gave valuable feedback and guidance during the course of the thesis. I would also like to thank my supervisor from Africa RISING, IITA, dr. ir. I. Hoeschle--Zeledon, who supported my research through administrative and logistical support. I thank Dr. Asamoah Larbi, the scientific leader for Ghana for Africa RISING, for hosting us. This research would not have been possible without translators; my thanks go to Baba, Mohamed, Sulimana, Mussah, Roger and Prosper. Many thanks also to my parents who supported me strongly, morally and financially.Lack of labour is a major productivity constraint in African farming systems (Ashburner et al., 2002). This is mainly caused by lack of mechanisation which on his turn leads to labour intensive production, yield losses, uncultivated land and outmigration of young labour force to cities (Loos, n.d.). This migration of young men to the cities constitutes a significant loss of labour force. Also school enrolment causes a lower amount of labour. Methods reducing labour are thus essential for developing African agriculture and food security (Ashburner et al., 2002). This is also the case for Ghana, a country in which 60% of the domestic product, 65% of employment and 50% of exports come from agriculture and where mechanization is still underdeveloped (Loos, n.d.). Land preparation is one of the most labour intensive farm activities in Northern Ghana. It is done with by hoe work (HW), with animal traction (AT) or with a tractor ploughing (TP) (Houssou et al., 2013). As land preparation by hoe is very labour intensive and tractors are not consistently available, ploughing is often done with draft animals, mostly bullocks and sometimes donkeys (Houssou et al., 2013). It is important to know about the historical context of land preparation with hoe, animals or tractors, to understand how the actual situation came into place and understand how farmers decide which technique to use.Before the colonial era, land preparation was done with HW. The British colonial government introduced AT in the 1930`s. At that time, training centres were created where farmers could learn about the technique. The use of AT increased until the independence of Ghana (1957), when the government changed strategy by importing and subsidising tractors (Dibbits and Bobobee, 1997). As the new government perceived AT as not modern enough, they stopped supporting AT, withdrawing credit opportunities to buy animals or equipment (Panin, 1989). But the tractor promotion did not work as planned: farmers faced supply problems, broken tractors, lack of knowledge, lack of finance, lack of spare parts, etc. (Dibbits and Bobobee, 1997). The use of AT declined further until 1970, when the Ghanaian--German Agricultural Development Project wanted to promote fertiliser use but realised tillage was a bigger problem. They then encouraged AT again, as they saw tillage problems in the region and something had to be done about them. The project opened training centres and provided material for AT to the farmers. The project stopped in 1985. After that, farmers continued using AT, due to low numbers and high costs of tractors and tractor services (Dibbits and Bobobee, 1997).In Ghana, from 1991 to 2005 the draft animal population, mainly bullocks and donkeys, increased from 160 000 to 438 000 animals (Houssou et al., 2013). AT is only used in the three northern regions, where soils are relatively loose, dry and sandy. In the South of Ghana, the wet soil is too heavy and there are cattle diseases, making AT unviable. Traction animals are mainly used for ploughing and transport. In the Upper East region they are also used for weeding (Houssou et al., 2013). As AT equipment for ridging and weeding is not always available, weeding is still done a lot by hand (Dibbits and Bobobee, 1997).This research was done in the context of the project Africa RISING (AR, Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation). This research for development project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). As a research for development project, AR has community--based experimental stations, in intervention communities, aiming to test new technologies and demonstrate these to the local communities. The study was done in two of these communities, Duko in the Northern Region (NR) and Nyangua in the Upper East Region (UER). In these two communities AR already collected data from 38 farmers in Duko and 32 farmers in Nyangua. This data is compiled in the 'Ghana Africa RISING Baseline evaluation survey' (GARBES).Previous research from AR focussed on resource endowment of farmers. The resource endowment of farmers is expressing their wealth. The building material of their roof, the amount of bicycles and motorbikes they own, the amount of land of which they dispose and the amount of animals they keep are all indicators of the resource endowment of a household (HH). We hypothesize that the ploughing technique is related to the resource endowment of the farmer. We tested this by categorizing the farmers in existing farm typologies and tested whether or not different techniques are used by farmers of different resource endowment.What determines a farmer's choice for preparing the land with hoe, animal or tractor traction? Specific research questions 1. What is the current form and prevalence of ploughing with HW, AT and TP in Duko and Nyangua? 2 From an economic perspective, what are the costs and benefits of ploughing with HW, AT and TP? 3 Which social factors do farmers perceive as important for choosing? 4 Can farmers' perceptions be confirmed their own realities?The research questions can be translated into objectives, and these objectives have matching hypotheses. In table 1 it can be seen how the research question relate to the objectives and which hypothesis match with them. The case study was held in two communities in Northern Ghana: Duko (NR, 54 HH's) and Nyangua (UER, approx. 150 HH) (Fig. 1). Duko is wealthier than Nyangua. Duko is also closer to its regional capital (Tamale) than Nyangua (whose regional capital is Bolgatanga) (Fig. 1). Development cooperation is active in both communities. In Duko TP is mostly used for land preparation whereas in Nyangua AT is more prevalent. Duko and Nyangua are intervention communities of the AR project, allowing to tap into a large pool of additional data and expertise. Both communities are in the Guinea Savannah zone. In the NR the rainy season goes from May to October, the annual rainfall lies between 750 mm and 1050 mm. In the UER the rainy season goes from May/June to September/October, the annual rainfall lies between 800 mm and 1100 mm. In both regions agriculture, hunting and forestry are the main economic activities. In the NR 71.2% of the economically active population works in agriculture in the UER it is 80% (Modern Ghana).The crops grown are maize, soya bean, cowpea, groundnut, rice, millet, bambara bean, pigeon pea, yam, cassava and vegetables. The farmers keep some of the harvest for own consumption and sell the rest to the market. Farmers also have fallow land, mostly due to a lack of financial resources to pay for ploughing, to buy seeding material or fertilisers (Baba, pers. comm.). To group the farmers typologies were used. Several farm typologies have already been developed for Northern Ghana (Kuivanen et al., 2016;Signorelli , 2016 andMichalscheck et al., 2017). Michalscheck et al. (2017) divided the farms in three categories according to their resource endowment: low, medium and high resource endowment (LRE, MRE and HRE). One of the aims of typologies is to allow comparability of farms across regions. In this research we used typologies to compare the different results for different farm types. In Table 2 the typology indicators can be found as used by Michalscheck et al. (2017). Answers of the farmers were given in acres, but are here translated to hectares (ha). Prices were always given in Ghana cedi (GH₵), as this is the price that farmers buy and sell things for. One GH₵ was equivalent to 0,25 US dollars in 2016. When ratios are indicated (e.g. 8/12), it means 8 out of 12 farmers.Information mentioned in the text will be for both communities unless otherwise mentioned. When percentages of farm land will be mentioned in the rest of the text it will be about percentages of the farm land excluding vegetable gardens, yam and cassava fields, as these are mostly cultivated in other seasons and are always ploughed by hoe. Yam and cassava fields are always ploughed by hoe, this because mounts need to be formed. Sometimes the fields are pre--ploughed with a TP or AT to make the formation of the mounts easier.In Duko rice fields are sometimes ploughed with TP and AT. As the AT ploughing is done last these fields will be considered as AT fields.Translators were used to communicate with farmers (see Annex 1 for the names and experience of the translators). We mostly interviewed the household head (HHH) first, as it is the local cultural norm to consult them first in general HH matters (van Veluw, pers. comm. and Baba, pers. comm.). An advantage in interviewing the HHH is that he is aware of most of the farm features. For some HH's the HHH was considered as too old (by the translator) to be interviewed, the (oldest) son was then usually interviewed. When other HH members were around they helped in answering, this was helpful to check the veracity of the answers. In case of female headed HH the sons were mostly helping, as they knew more than their mother, concerning ploughing. Information was collected in different ways: a main survey with closed questions was done, during that survey additional information and explanation was asked. At the end of the data collection period, community level interviews were performed.The main survey had as aim to get a deep understanding of the farming systems. The interviewed farmers were chosen using as a basic principle for selection an MS Excel® randomisation complemented by additional cases to fill gaps, to achieve a minimum number of HH's per farm type as well as a minimum number of HH's using the different traction techniques. The Excel randomisation was done using the list of farmers already covered under the 'Ghana Africa RISING Baseline evaluation survey' (GARBES), in order to link this study with past and on--going activities of AR. The list of farmers was randomized using Excel. The farmers were then visited in the order of this list. The farmers were found using their GPS coordinates. To compensate for farmers from the GARBES list that were not present the day we passed, farmers that were encountered when walking in the village were interviewed. We also interviewed some extra LRE and HRE farmers, as these were less prevalent in the list. In Duko there were only four farmers owning bullocks, and we interviewed three of them while they were not all on the list. The fourth farmer owning bullocks was not surveyed as when we asked a list of all farmers owning bullocks, the AR facilitator did not mention him. In total 51 farmers (25 in Duko and 26 in Nyangua) were surveyed. One to four surveys were done in a day, depending on the translator, the analytic skills of the farmer and the complexity of the farm.The survey consisted of 5 parts. The first part was performed to collect some general information about the HH and to classify the HH according to their resource endowments. The second part of the survey aimed at quantifying how expensive it was to own bullocks. The third part collected data on the fields of the farmers; this part was to see if farmers farm differently when they use different ways of ploughing. In the fourth part labour figures were made, to see if the different techniques required different amounts of labour across the cropping season. Finally, in the fifth part, the farmers were asked how they perceived the technologies for different factors. This was done to see how farmers think on different aspects concerning the techniques. During this five parts farmers were asked to motivate their answers. Farmers also gave comments concerning the questions. These motivations and comments were written down. In the results information coming from there will be written down as \"farmers mentioned that\". 1. General information about the HH In this part of the survey general information was asked to the farmers. We asked to farmers how many animals, bikes and motorbikes they had; this was together with a visual assessment of their house and the amount of land they had used to determine the resource endowment of the farmers. The farmers were also asked their name, and the name of the HHH, if they were answering for him/her. The farmers were also asked how many men and women lived in their HH.Bullock owners were asked all their costs. The costs were asked following a list of costs for owning bullocks (see annex 2) that was based on expert interviews (Baba, pers. comm.). Farmers that had no bullocks were asked to estimate the buying price of a pair of bullocks, the amount of years a pair of bullocks can be used, their selling price when old and the price of the implements. All farmers were also asked to estimate the price of a tractor.Farmers were asked about the locations and distance of each field (from the HH or the HH members) to the homestead. This yielded a map of all the HH fields, cultivated or fallow. As farmers often omitted to mention some fields, for every crop grown in the region the farmer was asked again to mention all their fields. For each field it was asked if they ploughed it with HW, AT or TP. Farmers were then asked how much fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide they applied per field, as well as how much they paid for the products. Farmers paid different prices for their inputs depending on which one they used, when they bought them and if they managed to buy some that were subsidised. Farmers were also asked how much yield they had and if they were able to plough at the optimal time. Delayed ploughing leads to delayed planting and to a lower yield. This delayed ploughing is often due to unavailability of traction services. It was thus asked to the farmers how many weeks later they ploughed due to unavailability of traction services. If they ploughed later than they wanted we asked them how late and what yield would they have expected would they have ploughed on time, et ceteris paribus.Farmers were asked how much labour was needed to crop maize, soya and cowpea. These three crops are common crops in Duko (NR) and Nyangua (UER) and play a central role in different AR trials. Farmers were asked for one of their maize, soya and cowpea fields how many men and women from inside and from outside the HH, worked for each labour task and how many days and hours per day they spent on it. As farmers do not record the hours they work, they were asked from what time to what time they performed each task and how long of a break they took. Farmers often mentioned the time with the position of the sun, which leaded to some lack of accuracy in the data. For labour from outside the HH it was asked how much and how they were paid. The questions were asked following table 3. The amount of days and the hours were multiplied and then summed for all persons to get the amount of man--hours needed for each labour task.Table 3: table used to collect the \"labour data\". 5. Perceived performances Farmers were asked how important they found certain factors for taking decisions on a Likert scale from 0 to 3: no (0), low (1), medium (2) and high (3) importance. Farmers were then asked to quantify how they perceived the performance of the different factors, on a scale from 1 to 5, for HW, own AT and TP, and rented AT and TP (see Table 4). After the main survey was completed a short list of questions was asked to farmers (see Annex 3). This was done to get additional contextualising information and to check if some interesting information from the main survey was also valid for other farmers. For these questions it was aimed to interview farmers that were not interviewed yet in the main survey, but due to the difficulty to encounter sufficient farmers, some farmers from the main survey were interviewed again. During walking through the village we chose the farmers. We asked all encountered male adult farmers that agreed to be interviewed these questions. As few farmers were in the village at the moment of taking these interviews, most farmers that were around their houses on these days were interviewed (the other farmers being at the market, in town, on far away fields, sleeping or at funerals). Due to high levels of alcoholism in Nyangua it was sometimes challenging to find farmers that were in state of being interviewed. Depending on if they were alone or not, the farmers were interviewed alone or in group, this was also recorded.In Duko two of these interviews were performed in group and eight to farmers alone. In Nyangua eight of these interviews were performed in group and eight to farmers alone.In Duko all HHs that were not visited for the main survey were visited to determine their resource endowment. This was done the same way as the general information was asked in the main survey.In Nyangua this was not done as they were to many houses and HH's; the difficulty to find trustworthy farmers was also a reason for this.Farmers, Wageningen University staff, AR project staff and employees of companies providing services (for example selling inputs) to smallholder farmers were considered as experts (see annex 4). Experts were consulted before, during and after conducting the field work. The expert interviews previous to the start of the surveys aimed to get information on the current situation and to ratify the farmers' survey. The expert interviews during the survey taking had as aim to adjust the survey or the way of taking the survey, where needed. The expert interviews at the end were done to interpret the results of the research and contextualise them (Fig. 2).Fig. 2: Contribution of expert at different stages in the research. Experts were also asked more general question about Northern Ghana and not just about the two villages, putting this thesis in a wider perspective .The questions can be found in Annex 5.The data was analysed in Excel. When averages were calculated the standard deviation going with that average was also calculated. All data for which a comparison had to be tested was tested on normality using the shapiro--wilk. The mean differences were compared using a Mann--Whitney test as the data were not normally distributed,.Duko and Nyangua are two communities in two different regions of Ghana, they had differences and similarities. Duko had 54 HH consisting of 343 women, 354 men, 56 cattle, 250 sheep, 311 goats, (99 bikes and 44 motorbikes) and many chickens and guinea fowls. Nyangua is a bigger community, the amount of HH was estimated at 150 HH living in 75 compounds. In Duko every HH had one compound. In Nyangua different HH lived together in one compound, this created a great social cohesion in the village, which made farmers help each other frequently and have prices for labour service which were not fixed. As the prices for labour tasks like weeding and ploughing were not fixed per area of land but agreed upon by the two parties, farmers did not know how big their land was, but gave approximations. It might also be the other way around, that farmers do not charge per area of land because they do not know it. In Duko the houses were grouped in a village in Nyangua they were scattered all over the community. In both communities the livestock was not used as a daily protein source but to eat during ceremonies or to sell on the market (Baba and Sulimana, pers. comm.). (see table 5) The farmers in Duko cropped together 232 ha or an average of 4.3 (SD 3.4) ha per HH. The total cropped area in Nyangua could not be estimated, as it was time wise not feasible to visit 150 HH. In Duko most farmers had small fields (0.3 ha SD 0.21) in the village and a higher number of bigger fields (0.9 ha SD 0.9) further away, on average 21 (SD 16) minutes by bicycle. The average total land size per HH was 5.7 (SD 4.4) ha. As there was no centralised village in Nyangua the concept of fields close by and further away was more complex, but the average field size was 0.5 (SD 0.4) ha and the average total land size per HH was 2.3 (SD 2.4) ha. As the size of the land was big in Duko farmers needed to use TP to be able to cover all and as the walking time to the fields could be high farmers tried to lower the labour intensity by using TP and herbicide. In Nyangua the land size was smaller and farmers thus manage with AT. Using the typology of Michalscheck et al. 2017, we counted 20 LRE HHs, 24 MRE HHs and 10 HRE HHs in Duko, while in the main survey there were 6 LRE HHs, 12 MRE HHs and 7 HRE HHs. In Nyangua we did not determine the resource endowment of the entire community, but in our main survey we chose 5 LRE HHs, 10 MRE HHs and 11 HRE HHs. In Nyangua there were many female headed HH, this was according to the village coordinator (mr. Martin, pers. comm.) partly due to men dying from alcoholism. 6 female headed HH`s were interviewed. Duko is a Muslim community, men do thus not die from alcoholism. This might be one of the reasons we only interviewed one female--headed HH in Duko, following the list of farmers to interview. Fields can be ploughed by HW, AT or TP, which are three different techniques for preparing the land. TP goes deeper in the soil, and does the work faster. TP could plough one hectare in 2.12 (SD 0.9) hours, while one pair of bullocks needed 16 (SD 9) hours or 6.8 (SD 6.6) days as bullocks could only work a limited amount of hours per day. HW needed 171 (SD 101) man--hours to plough one ha. TP used discs to plough the land. AT used mouldboard ploughs in Duko and ridging ploughs in Nyangua (Fig. 3). Ploughing was mostly done to cover weeds and loosen the soil. A ridging plough makes ridges on which the plants can be seeded. Discs and mouldboard ploughs on the other hand aim at a flat field after ploughing. a. b. c. In Nyangua bulls were used for ploughing whereas they used oxen in Duko. Bulls were preferred in Nyangua as oxen would be worth less money when they would sell them. In Duko they said that oxen are calmer than bulls, thus easier to train. In the both communities there were two main cattle breeds, the Fulani and the local cattle. The Fulani cattle are stronger, but were also more expensive. Due to previous cases of theft farmers kept their valuable bullocks inside their compound: in Nyangua in a yard and in Duko in a separate (roofed) building.Concerning differences in ploughing techniques among farm types, we observed that as bullocks were expensive only MRE and HRE farmers could afford them. In Duko 4 of the 54 HH's owned bullocks while in Nyangua 8 of the 26 surveyed HH owned bullocks. As there were so few bullocks in Duko only a fraction of the land could be ploughed with AT (32 ha). The HH owning AT in Duko ploughed own land (14 ha or 3.5 SD 1.9 ha/farmer) with them, but also other farmers land (18 ha or 4.5 SD 4.2 ha/farmer). Even though they ploughed other farmers land with their own bullocks the four farmers still rented TP for 29% to 76% of their own land. As an example one farmer in Duko even told he provided AT service to have money to pay for the tractor. Farmers in Nyangua ploughed with own bullocks if they had some or borrowed the bullocks from other farmers.To compare the three techniques, the surveyed farmers in Duko ploughed together 6 ha with HW, 17 ha with AT and 110 ha with TP. In Nyangua the surveyed farmers ploughed 6.4 ha by HW and 53 ha by AT. Only one of the 25 interviewed farmers in Duko and one of the 26 interviewed farmers in Nyangua ploughed all their land with HW, they were LRE HH's. In Duko the HW using farmer cropped 2.2 ha and in Nyangua 1.6 ha. In Duko all other interviewed HH's used TP. In Nyangua only one HRE farmer used a tractor for ploughing, this next to using his own bullocks. Most farmers in Nyangua did not know that somebody in their village used TP (the AR facilitator said nobody ploughed with TP the year before and when doing the main surveys most farmers mentioned they had never seen TP, only when doing the community level interviews we found out that one farmer used TP).Men were responsible for ploughing, as for most other labour tasks around crop cultivation. No woman, in Duko or in Nyangua, (was) reported to be actively involved in ploughing. In Duko one female headed HH was interviewed, the son answered more questions than his mother as he was more aware of what happened on their land. In Nyangua the six female HHH were also often in the presence of their sons, but could answer (more) independently. Women were unaware of any prices related to ploughing, some even started laughing when they were asked about prices of bullocks or ploughs, as if it was embarrassing or as if they were not allowed to know it. No female headed HH was found who owned bullocks. In Nyangua in female headed HH, other HH members usually did the ploughing together with some people owning bullocks. All female headed HH were LRE (1 in Duko and 3 in Nyangua) or MRE (3 in Nyangua).The agro--economic reasons of farmers to choose for one of the ploughing techniques were the cost of the ploughing itself, the cost of not or late ploughing and the yield. The yield was influenced by various other factors.Prices for ploughing services were higher and were also perceived as being higher in Nyangua compared to Duko (table 6). In Duko the prices for ploughing were fixed. In Nyangua on the contrary there was a wide variation in prices for AT services and for the price of TP the experts said it was an approximation. There were various ways of paying for ploughing services like paying in kind, paying with labour or paying in money. The wide variation of ways of payment and prices was because farmers bargain about the price and way of payment. As there was a great social cohesion, the price depended on the relationship of both parties. In 40% of the fields that used rented AT, the farmer did not pay for the service. An even higher cost than the cost of the ploughing service was the costs of not being able to have the ploughing service on time. The average cost of delayed ploughing as estimated by the farmers was, similar (sig 0.299) in both communities, 1104 (SD 964) GH₵/ ha in Duko and at 1466 (SD 1242) GH₵/ha in Nyangua. This yield loss was estimated by subtracting the yield farmers would have expected if they would have ploughed on time from their actual yield. As tractors and bullocks were lacking in Northern Ghana, not every field can be ploughed on time, therefore farmers delay their ploughing. Delay in ploughing caused delayed plant growth during the rest of the cropping season and as the seasons are short, delay in ploughing caused large yield losses.In Duko, all six LRE farmers reported yield losses due to delayed ploughing and most MRE farmers and HRE farmers also had losses due to delayed ploughing (8/12 for MRE and 5/7 for HRE). In Nyangua, LRE, MRE and HRE farmers reported yield losses (4/5 for LRE, 8/10 for MRE and 5/11 for HRE). In both communities farmers with a pair of bullocks did not report delayed ploughing. But in Nyangua farmers with only one bullock did report delayed ploughing. This as they had to wait on the another bullock to pair with. Costs of delayed ploughing were estimated to be higher for higher resource endowed farmers (see fig. 4). For MRE and HRE farmers the yield losses were higher in Duko as farmers had more land they could thus lose more. As this yield losses are very high it can be argued that this is the main driver for farmers to choose a ploughing technique independent of their resource endowment. As timing of the ploughing was crucial to get a high yield, 5 farmers in Duko mentioned it was the main reason to choose for a technology. Timing was not only important to be able to plant on time, but also to have good ploughing conditions. There is an optimal period for ploughing with AT, it is based on the soil moisture, there should be sufficient moisture in the soil to support the growth of the seedlings (Sulimana, pers. comm.). As AT ploughing takes time, farmers had to start ploughing before the optimal day and continue ploughing after it, which causes suboptimal ploughing conditions, leading to suboptimal planting conditions. Ploughing with a wrong humidity or on a too weedy field or wrong operating can have a negative effect on the quality of the ploughing (Sulimana, pers. comm.). For example: a HRE farmer using bullocks in Duko had to start ploughing before the optimal ploughing moment (to be able to cover more area), the soil was thus a bit too dry and when ploughing with his mouldboard plough he formed small ridges, while he wanted to plough flat, this will cause the seeds to be seeded at uneven height (the ridges were too small to be of any use in later seeding). This farmer also rented TP, because he would be unable to plough all his land by AT within the period that has good humidity for ploughing. Farmers would prefer to plough with AT or TP but did still plough some of their fields by HW as they did not want to miss the ideal time on all there fields.All farmers considered yield as an important factor for choosing a technique (Fig. 5). But not all farmers agreed on which technique yields best. This was because various factors affected the yield, the main ones were the planting density, mentioned by five farmers in Duko and the quality of the Duko Nyangua ploughing itself. But for the planting density there was again no consensus on whether it was higher for AT or TP. 9 farmers in Duko said planting density is one the main factors driving the required amount of fertiliser per ha, but there was also no consensus on which technique required more fertiliser inputs. From the field information from Duko, applied fertilisers was similar (sig 0.991) for the different techniques, as well as yield (sig 0.262).For the amount of weeds there was again no consensus among farmers. Two farmers mentioned that deep ploughing (TP) buries weed seeds two other farmers mentioned it brings them up. What we could see from the field data is that with a higher level of mechanisation there was a higher level of herbicide use (sig 0.017). From the labour figures we saw that weeding time was similar (sig 0.891) on fields ploughed with HW, AT and TP, for maize in Duko.For compaction and moisture there was again no agreement. Four farmers in Duko explained that with deeper ploughing the soil becomes looser thus less compacted three other farmers explained that the heavier tractors cause more compaction. Concerning the moisture two farmers in Duko explained that deep ploughing brings up gravel, one said it causes bad water retention the other said it slows infiltration thus increases water retention. Only the perceptions for Duko were noted down here as most farmers in Nyangua could not answer the questions concerning tractors, as they told they were not aware of it. No clear pattern was found between the resource endowment and perceived quality of the ploughing by AT and TP. Farmers did not only choose how to plough based on what was cheaper and yielded more; they also took social factors into account. The difficulty to choose an operator, the bad quality of the work of the operators and the prestige of the techniques were important factors to take into account.Another factor of choice encountered with renting AT or TP was the skills required to speak to the owner or operator. Farmers mentioned that it cost them a lot of time to look for the operator to plough for them. For TP service some mentioned they had to follow the tractor operator for several days to be sure he would come to their field afterwards. When we saw tractors ploughing in the fields around Duko or AT ploughing in the UER we saw farmers waiting there to get the tractor to their field afterwards. (Fig. 10).a. b. Famers mentioned that the AT or TP operator was not always doing the job like he should do it. They mentioned that some operators did not plough at the required depth, avoided weedy parts, cutted corners of field, etc. with the aim to be done faster. 8 farmers in Duko and 15 farmers in Nyangua mentioned the job would be done better if they would have done it themselves.Some farmers (11 in Duko and 24 in Nyangua) found prestige ('what neighbours will think of them') important for taking decisions, others (14 in Duko and 2 in Nyangua) did not find it important. Which techniques were considered as prestigious differed. For example most farmers found that HW is not prestigious as it is a sign of being poor, but 5 farmers in Nyangua found it prestigious as they considered it as a sign of strength and health.As investments in AT were high we were wondering if farmers would really consider investing in it if they would have the possibility. Another question was why do farmers not use their AT equipment for other labour tasks when they already have bullocks.In Duko 5 famers who did not have bullocks said they would like to buy some, provided they had the money for it. Owning bullocks would lower their costs of delayed ploughing. In Duko, it would also spare them of the high cost of TP service.In the small community based interviews most farmers thought that AT was decreasing (in Duko 6 interviews said it was decreasing while two said it was increasing in Nyangua 11 interviews said it was decreasing while 3 said it was increasing).In Duko neither animals nor tractors were reported to be used for labour tasks other than transport of manure and ploughing, while they could be used for weeding. In Nyangua it was used by some farmers, said 7 community level interviews. This was in Duko, according to one farmers of older age, because younger farmers lost knowledge about how to weed with bullocks. Another reason he mentioned was that farmers in Duko did not use ridging ploughs anymore, but mouldboard ploughs. Ridging ploughs could be used for weeding, mouldboard ploughs not. In Nyangua farmers still used ridging ploughs, but AT was not widely used for weeding as one community level interview said it to be double work.He said he would still have to finish the weeding by hoe after going through with the bullocks. In both communities farmers said during the community level interviews (1 in Duko and 2 in Nyangua) that they did not use AT for weeding because their bullocks were not trained enough, In Duko 6 of the 8 community level interviews concluded that they did not have knowledge about weeding with AT. In Nyangua one community level interview said that farmers prefer to use the scarce service rather for ploughing than for weeding, and as there was a lack of bullocks few people used them for ploughing. In villages neighbouring Nyangua we met two farmers using bullocks to weed (with the ridging plough and with a weeder), they both bought their weeders long time ago and did not know where it could be bought now.In this section the results will be discussed and compared with literature. But first the bias that might have happened will be discussed. This to bring awareness on the problem. During the entire research we tried to avoid it as much as possible, but avoiding it completely is not possible.Bias in farmer's interviews is a main problem in research like Crawford (1997) mentioned. Crawford (1997) called \"Influence of groups at interview\" as a form of bias. During the main survey family of the farmer or other villagers were often around. Family members helped to give correct answers when the HHH did not know it, but they also influenced the decision especially during the questions on perceived performances. When the other persons were HH members it can be argued that this was not such a big problem, as when the farmer would chose for one of the techniques he would also listen to the other HH members. Future research could look at who takes the decisions and link that to the persons that are best present during an interview. Farmers can also voluntarily give wrong answers like following example: One farmer was interviewed, later he was interviewed again, and we realized that the data on labour were completely wrong, we did them again with his wife and children, at the end he admitted in local language to his wife that he lied to show himself as stronger than he was. In this case the voluntarily wrongly given answer was detected, but it is not known how much of the answers were given incorrectly or imprecise, purposely or mistakenly. Another factor concerning the exactness of the data is that some farmers might have tried to omit or add information, because they thought it would increase their chances of projects giving them stuff.As most of the farmers from the GARBES data received help from AR, and not all the other farmers, these might have created a bias in the results. The fact they received help might explain why they were less LRE farmers in the GARBES data. The length of the survey might also have caused farmers to lose their reflection capacity and answer the questions less good.It is thus of great importance for future research to think about the effect, positive or negative, other persons might have on the answers; to make sure the farmer gives the correct answers.The aim of this research was to understand farmers' choices concerning the ploughing of their land. Various agro--economic and social reasons were found, but we are unable to firmly say which technique is better as there was discordance among various factors. In literature we found that there were many differences and similarities with other research in Ghana and elsewhere.In this research, we found that farmers plough on average 3.5 ha of own land and 4.5 ha of other farmers land in Duko. Houssou et al. (2013) found similar values for Northern Ghana (3.8 ha/farmer of own and 2.9 ha/farmer for other farmers land).Women were not involved in ploughing in Ghana as in Ethiopia where it is also not culturally accepted to plough for a woman (Aune et al., 2001). Aune et al. (2001) said that this leads to more vulnerable HH's when they are headed by women. We indeed did not find any female headed HH that was HRE, but if it is because of the ploughing or other reasons, can not be concluded out of this research. This taboo for women to plough is certainly not something universal in Botswana for example a higher percentage of widowed woman (47%) provided their own ploughing compared to men (45 %) (Brown 1983). A lot of strength is required from a person to handle the plough. Probably partially for this reason, women and children were less involved in the management of draft animals then men (Houssou et al., 2013). It is important to know who is responsible for which tasks as these are the persons that projects need to address when addressing the task.In Ghana bulls as well as oxen are used for AT, in Ethiopia (Aune et al, 2001) they use oxen like in Duko. This is because they are easier to handle and train. High prices for ploughing are not something that is only so in Ghana; Brown (1983) indicated that ploughing was also expensive in Botswana, the prices were even so high there that they were not always paid back with the low yields. In Duko and Nyangua only fields with nearly no yield would not be able to pay the ploughing back out of the yield. This was rare but it could be discussed that it might happen more frequently with changing climatic conditions, and dropping yields.In Nyangua prices for ploughing were based on the relation between the two parties while in Duko there was a fix price indicated in money. In Ethiopia like in Nyangua they also rented AT service from relatives (Aune et al., 2001). In Ethiopia prices for ploughing were in percentage of the yield while in Duko they were fixed, in Nyangua they did also not depend on the yield (Aune et al., 2001). It could be discussed that if the prices would be based on the yield like in Ethiopia, operators might plough more carefully. In Ethiopia the price for ploughing was 50% of the harvest (Aune et al., 2001), which was considerably higher than in Duko or Nyangua. Farmers in Ethiopia paying with exchange labour had to work two days per day the oxen worked (Aune et al., 2001). In this research this was not looked at, but could be an interesting factor for future research, as it would lead to a better understanding of the social interactions in Nyangua.Farmers in Duko found it difficult to get farmers to come and plough their land. This was also found by Diao et al. (2014) who also had farmers in Ghana telling them that there was a strong lack of tractor services, and that they had to approach more than one operator to get a tractor to their field. Careless operators were not only a problem in Ghana, in Ethiopia Aune et al (2001) also noticed that farmers owning bullocks ploughed their land more intensively, the quality would thus be worse for farmer not owning AT.Various authors (Nyagumbo, 2017;Biamah et al, 1993;Wilcocks and Twomlow, 1993) also mentioned that ploughing on time is important for the yield, but they did not quantify the costs of the delayed ploughing. Brown (1983) found that in Botswana resource poor farmers got their fields ploughed late or not at all, in Duko as well as in Nyangua farmers from all resource endowment got delay in their ploughing. This might be because in Duko prices are fixed and it was not the one who offers most who got the service first. Costs due to delayed ploughing were tremendously high in Duko and Nyangua. It might be a recommendation for project wishing to help, to provide reliable ploughing services instead of providing inputs. Most farmers in Duko and in Nyangua said that AT was decreasing this contrasting with what Houssou et al. (2013) found for the UER, where they found more farmers thinking AT was increasing and similar to what they found in the NR, where they also found more farmers thinking AT was decreasing.There was a great discordance among farmers on which technique performs better, Pingali et al (1987) also found that farmers were not agreeing on weeding time after AT or TP. This discordance might be because there is no or only minor difference in the performance. Pingali (2007) found that there is generally no yield difference between AT and TP. Similarly Herdt (1983) and Binswanger (1974) found that the difference in yield between AT and TP were more due to different amount of inputs than to the technologies themselves. We found that farmers were not agreeing on which techniques causes less weed problems; Pingali et al (1987) also found that farmers were not agreeing on weeding time after AT or TP. Future research might want to look experimentally at the performances of both techniques like García--Tomillo et al. ( 2017) did, they found that TP causes more compaction than AT. Not all farmers in Duko agreed upon this. There was thus a vast disagreement among the farmers, the question that was not answered is, was this disagreement due to different realities or due to different ways of thinking. Further research could look at this by linking the perceptions of farmers to their agro--economical realities. Many farmers mentioned, they would buy bullocks if they would have money to buy some. It can be discussed whether they really meant it. As farmers preferred to invest in cows, which reproduce. It can also be discussed if the farmers telling they want to buy bullocks only told this because they wanted the West to give them some, or because they were really thinking of buying bullocks. Labour shortage was a main problem in smallholder agriculture, it was for ploughing only a problem if we relate labour to the time window in which the task should be done. We would thus suggest that future research, making labour figures, does not only look at the amount of time a task takes, but also at the time window for it. Gender should also be looked at as the available labour can be available for some labour tasks but not for others as different people have different responsibilities. This study serves as an example for the benefits of multidisciplinary research. It shows that farmers' perceptions are not always what we would expect that they are, nor what can be found from field data or literature. Farmers act out of their perception, it is thus of uppermost importance that next to knowing if a project would work from an experimental point of view, if farmers would also perceive that the project would work. The study thus helps to spend development money or \"private commercial\" resources well and help research for development efforts to actually reach and benefit the farmers.The aim of this research was to understand farmers' choices concerning the ploughing of their land in two communities in the North of Ghana. Nyangua was a community with more HH's then Duko. In Nyangua the compounds were scattered around while in Duko they were centralised. Even though the compounds were scattered in Nyangua there was a bigger social cohesion. All three ploughing techniques were still present in both communities and all resource endowments, with a widespread use of TP in Duko and a widespread use of AT in Nyangua.Ploughing was a responsibility of men in the two communities and among all resource endowment; in projects concerning ploughing the focus should therefore lay on men. Farmers that did not own bullocks (or a tractor) rented them, this was expensive and the quality was not always optimal. On top of that, due to the lack of tractors and bullocks, the service often arrived late, leading to big yield losses. There was no consensus on which technique was better from an agronomical point of view. Farmers contradicted each other as on which technique yields more, compacts the soil more; causes more weed problems, etc. This discordance was also found in literature. Part of the farmers also considered what other farmers would think of them in choosing a technique. What farmers agreed upon is that ploughing late causes tremendous yield losses. This threat might be the main economic incentive to choose for a technique. It can thus be concluded that farmers chose for one of the techniques based on what they think is economically best for them, this taking their financial potential and the social implications into account.In Duko 4 different translators were used:--Mohamed Ghana Idrissu: a retired MOFA (ministry of food and agriculture) officer, that already worked for AR in Duko ","tokenCount":"8129"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ac2c88607dd37a576135245512cc94f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1bee344e-19d2-4efe-8a1f-f284240ecc6a/retrieve","id":"1764593142"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a332b16f-0907-46ef-a2b4-d16d0bfe4ebf","pagecount":"10","content":"Political and military conflicts and civil unrest affect both food and seed security. Seed production, storage and distribution are disrupted temporarily or for longer periods, with fields abandoned or damaged, and harvests compromised or lost. Often, supply chains are interrupted or broken altogether.The Horn of Africa is largely a seed-insecure region.Effectively functioning community seedbanks can contribute to seed security, even in a protracted crisis situation. There are several examples of community seedbanks that were established as a response to a crisis situation, either man or nature made or a combination of both. Examples are from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Nepal and Uganda.Recent initiatives to establish community seedbanks in Somaliland, South Sudan and Sudan, located in the Horn of Africa, have paid special attention to the insecure and unstable social, economic and political circumstances that affect seed and food security.Careful consideration should be given to community seedbank site selection, membership and decision-making, and infrastructure and equipment. Decisions about these three elements need to consider the social security situation, minimizing or avoiding the risk of people, storage facility, equipment and seeds becoming the trigger of insecurity and/or conflict.Cereal diversity of Jawoor village, Sudan.Yahia Eldie.Food security remains a critical development challenge around the world. In recent times, food insecurity has been aggravated by the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting in cereal-and oil-crop supply shortages, and skyrocketing world market prices. Those countries heavily dependent on cereal and oil crop imports from Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere are now suffering, especially those in the Horn of Africa. Prolonged drought in some parts of the world, including the Horn of Africa, is exacerbating the crisis (UNHCR, 2023). For the Horn of Africa, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) predicts a sixth consecutive failed rainy season for March-May 2023. Food security partly depends on seed security -the timely access to good quality seed and other planting materials of preferred crops and crop varieties, in adequate quantities and at affordable prices. Political and military conflicts and civil unrest affect both food and seed security, where seed production, storage and distribution are disrupted. Fields are abandoned or damaged, harvests compromised or lost, and supply chains interrupted or broken altogether. The Horn of Africa is largely a seedinsecure region (Kusters et al., 2023).Community seedbanks are locally managed organizations aiming to conserve and sustainably use crop (and tree) diversity. They mostly, but not exclusively, focus on farmer and farmer-improved varieties. They have been in existence for about 30 years in countries around the world (Vernooy at al., 2015). In recent years, interest in community seedbanks has been growing, with international and national organizations and national governments developing initiatives to establish and support them (Adokorach et al., 2020;Andersen et al., 2018;Song et al., 2021;Vernooy et al., 2018Vernooy et al., , 2019)). In some countries, national plant genetic resources centers (often housing the national genebank) are taking leadership in these initiatives, i.e., Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda. Building on recent interest in the (actual and potential) roles of community seedbanks in emergency contexts (ISSD African and Mercy Corps, 2023), this article documents and reflects on the particularities of community seedbank establishment and management in three countries in the Horn of Africa, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Sudan. It explores how community seedbanks are contributing to the multiple objectives of achieving seed, food and social security, and building peace. It, therefore, considers the following key elements of community seedbanking: Before zooming in on the three countries, we briefly review past experiences with regard to the roles of community seedbanks in crisis situations.The community seedbank of Gumbu, South Africa. Bioversity International/R. Vernooy.There are several examples of community seedbanks that were established as a response to a crisis situation, either natural or anthropogenic, or in combination (see Vernooy et al., 2015, for more details). Examples are from the Horn of Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South-east Asia and Central America.The origin of community seedbanking can be found in Ethiopia, where the community seedbank concept was put into practice as a response to devastating famine that aimed to avoid or minimize future seed and food insecurity. Throughout the country, community seedbanks were established and stocked with enough seed of preferred crop varieties.In Guatemala, seed reserves were created in response to the impact of recurring hurricanes which destroyed many homesteads and swept away stored seeds. The security situation in the Horn of Africa is fragile, characterized by outbreaks of conflict, enduring tensions, and a very large number of displaced persons, internally and across borders. Somalia, as an example, has about 2.9 million displaced persons inside the country, according to UNHCR (data of 6 April 2023, https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/rbehagl).Tensions and conflicts (leading to displacement) can create uncertainty about farming in the short run (what, when and how much to plant), but most likely will also adversely affect farming in the long run. Planning each growing cycle in advance and obtaining the required seeds are difficult tasks when there is no peace, markets are not functioning well, and general mobility is compromised or unfeasible.Tensions and conflicts can also adversely affect household and community social capital. For example, they may reduce motivation to assemble for meetings, celebrations, trainings, (food and seed) fairs, and/ or to engage in collective action. This may include community-based activities such as cleaning or maintaining public facilities, community gardening or community seedbanking. Due to distrust, fear of misappropriation and/or retaliation, people may refrain from initiating or maintaining collective action.Collective actions require a common understanding of purpose, agreed governance and management rules and regulations, and free and reliable communications.Tensions and conflicts also pose a threat to economic capital including seeds, tools and Seeraha farmers attend the community seed bank mobilization meeting. Sanaag University.equipment; and infrastructure, such as storage spaces for produce, fodder, firewood and seeds. Fear of theft, damage or destruction may lead to reluctance to store large quantities of anything over a longer period, in a single place. As a response, farmers could safeguard seeds and other goods in smaller amounts, spread over several places and/or hidden (e.g., buried under the ground).Crisis situations can be further aggravated by severe climate events or longer-term climatechange impacts, leading to disruptions or complete breakdowns of seed and food supplies.We now look at three countries in the Horn of Africa, where new community seedbanks have been established, or are being established under the umbrella of food security-seed security-peacebuilding initiatives supported by the international community.Somaliland faces many challenges, in particular the impact of prolonged drought. The last two years (2021 and 2022) were the driest years in Somaliland, which has diminished crop and livestock production across the entire country. Communities continue to have to travel long distances to look for water and pasture, including in remote areas. This is very time and labor intensive and heavily impacts people's health and wellbeing.Besides the direct impact of the drought, there was a clear diversion of resources from developmental programs to emergency and humanitarian programs, making it difficult to meet farmers or train communities.The over-reliance on external aid is contributing to very scattered, weak, and dependent communities, limiting local initiative.A pilot community seedbank was established in Seeraha Erigavo, originally involving 80 farmers, 27 of whom became community seedbank members (12 women and 15 men). Farmers were introduced to the concept of a community seedbank and trained in its establishment and management (conservation of seeds). Additional training topics included good agricultural practices, and harvest and post-harvest management. A new storage facility with some basic equipment (shelves, containers, zeolite beads) is being built and the first collection of seeds was assembled (cereals and beans). Seed quality was assessed through a germination test.The group discussed community seedbank rules and regulations, and drafted bylaws and a code of conduct (in the absence of any guidance from the government). Perhaps in the future, the community seedbank can be registered as a cooperative, which will create legal recognition and protection, allowing formal reception of technical and financial support, and facilitating seed commercialization.After discussion among the farmers and the university team, it was decided to establish the community seedbank at the university compound, considering central accessibility, availability of land and water, easiness of seed distribution, labor availability (university staff), presence of a nearby shop (to buy refreshments for meetings and activities), and security.The community seedbank is expected to contribute to peacebuilding in the area because it functions as a platform for interaction and discussion among farmers, and for transferring knowledge and skills, while working on a common goal for the community seedbank and the larger community, thus contributing to community integration. To reduce tension and/or conflict with regards to the community seedbank, it will be important to maintain healthy seeds and planting materials, and properly register all seeds deposited in the community seedbank (name of crop/variety, name of farmer, name of community, and date of donation). Community seedbanks in protracted crisis situations: potential and challenges Nyuwa Boma farmers participate in a training about seed management. Solomon Swaka Kamilo.Considering the national security situation, a community seedbank needs to be located close to people's homes or nearby a community building (church, health center, school), close to the road and not in the remote bush; with year-round accessibility.Transport is a challenge in South Sudan, which means that farmers from more remote areas will have difficulty becoming involved.Membership should be based on common interests, with members preferably from the same area, village or boma (district), agreeing on rules and regulations, and with a good leadership structure in place. The group could start with 25 to 30 members and must be willing to cooperate with other groups for reciprocal learning. Over time, more members could join.A solid, stone or concrete facility is required (but it does not have to be expensive), well-ventilated, with no access by animals (rats). The facility should be maintained by the members with guidance from the local leader and the government or NGO staff involved.Crops to be conserved depend on the area but must cater for the major local food crops, such as cereals, legumes, and ground nuts. Initially, seed volumes can be small, but over time can become larger, and larger still if the community seedbank enters the local seed market.In South Sudan, there is no specific policy regarding community seedbanks, but the government is cooperative in creating space for seed enterprises. Seed-sector collaboration will be important for community-seedbank sustainability. The government should offer technical support.The proposal to establish a pilot community seedbank was disseminated to 250 farmers within Ladu Payam, in five different villages (150 men, 100 women), where the security situation is good. All farmers were trained in community-seedbank management with the help of the community-seedbank manual translated into the local language, Bari. It was decided that 50 farmers will be responsible for the village community seedbank of Nyuwa Boma, where a new facility will be built.The initial seed collection of local varieties for the community seedbank was made in various locations. Farmers agreed to regenerate and multiply seeds annually on their own land. While collecting seeds, farmers realized that over the years they have lost several crop varieties, which perhaps the community seedbank could have conserved.Establishing the community seedbank brought farmers together to communicate and collaborate, but now more time and resources are needed to strengthen the group and activities. The village community seedbank beneficiaries in Ladu Payam have experienced peaceful co-existence during their interactions over the short community-seedbank implementation period.Previously, the two neighboring villages to Nyuwa were involved in a conflict among themselves, making exchange of seeds and information very difficult. During the training about community seedbanking, awareness was created about collecting seeds for the community seedbank. The importance of bringing seeds to one place was stressed in order to safeguard local seed genetic resources and varieties. Women members returned home with a message for their husbands that it is important for communities to share information and seeds, including (restoring) varieties that have disappeared from their villages.Activities were initiated without reference to the (seed) policy environment in the country. Farmers are not aware and educated about this. Seed-sector actors do not interact much, and operate individually.The Ministry of Agriculture Environment and Forestry and World Vision supported the farmers to start community seedbanking and will continue to do so.Many international project interventions (including training) are delivering comprehensive support, especially for introducing mechanisms to resolve the many existing local conflicts (e.g., in the Darfur region).Conflicts concern current and future access to land and water, which require mediation between hostile groups, or between the local administration and displaced communities. Community seedbanks are a very new example of an intervention in Sudan, and concern access to food security and natural resources (crops / varieties, grasses and fodder, and trees). They have the potential to contribute to stability and peace.Any community seedbank site should be carefully selected depending on the security situation, agricultural activities and trends, crop diversity (loss), land ownership, farmers' eagerness to adopt/adapt new technologies, and previous/ongoing interventionsGiven the insecure situation that still exists in South Sudan, it will not be easy to extend community seedbanks to many areas.The situation in Sudan is very challenging, as the recent outburst of military fighting demonstrates. People face different kinds of insecurity, risks and stress, both natural and anthropogenic (in particular, prolonged droughts, rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall). Close to 10 million people face acute food insecurity; more than 2.5 million people are internally displaced, with over a million refugees in the country. People are very worried about security issues, so farmers are unwilling to engage in long-term risk-mitigation processes. Lack of funding and inaccessibility during the rainy season (impassable roads) make it difficult to provide technical support. Yields and productivity are compromised by several factors, including insufficient implementation of laws and policies; poor seed access and availability for smallholder farmers; limited access to markets; low adoption of improved inputs, and limited mechanization.The Berka village community seed bank. Yahia Eldie. Community seedbanks in protracted crisis situations: potential and challenges (e.g., farmer field schools, upon which community seedbanking activities could be built).Members should join based on their common interests in community seedbanking and motivation to contribute in-kind, agreeing upon rules and regulations, and supported by seed-sector actors (government and civil society). As mentioned for Sudan, initially 25 to 30 farmers could work together. Basic storage facilities and equipment should be provided; and farmers could offer their own land for seed regeneration and multiplication. Major food crops, such as cereal and legumes, vegetables, and ground nuts and sesame, should have priority, with some tree species according to local presence and use.El Fasher University and the Agricultural Research Council of Sudan are supporting three new community seedbanks in the Darfur region: i) Yawoor village, where the NGO SOS Sahel Sudan already has a presence, and a farmer field school is active (15 women and 15 men belonging to the farmer field school joined the community seedbank); ii) Berka village council in Kurma (10 women and 15 men started the community seedbank), and iii) at El Fasher University for farmers in the immediate university surroundings. El Fasher University was chosen by farmers and technical staff to avoid tensions among farmers from different communities around the university regarding the community seedbank site selection. The advantage is that seeds for the community seedbank can be easily screened at the university. In Yawoor, farmers collected millet, sorghum and groundnut seed to start the community seedbank. In Kurma, about 50 varieties were collected. There is a small facility for storage, but no demonstration farm where seeds could be The initial efforts to introduce, promote and initiate community seedbanking in Somaliland, South Sudan and Sudan indicate the challenges facing community seedbanks, given the enduring fragile, insecure and conflictive environment in all three countries, and the very bad current situation in Sudan. However, the community seedbank concept has been well-received by professionals and farmers alike, with only a very limited trajectory of community seedbanking to date to build on (e.g., the Beer community seedbank in Somaliland supported by the Development Fund of Norway).As the brief experiences of the new community seedbanks described in this article demonstrate, the protracted crisis situations in the Horn of Africa require special attention for the key elements of community seedbanking. This is especially true for community seedbank site selection, membership and decisionmaking, and infrastructure and equipment. DecisionsCrop diversity of the Yawoor community.Yahia Eldie.about these three elements need to carefully consider the social security situation. Initiatives should mitigate any risk of people, facility, equipment and seeds becoming a trigger for insecurity and/or conflict.Housing seed collections at institutions, such as universities and research stations, offers some degree of protection and (financial and technical) support, but also distances the storage facility from the rural communities. It remains to be seen how this will affect the sense of farmers' community seedbank ownership.Regarding seed management, initial activities are focusing on building up a core collection of crops important to farmers, with the intention of gradually adopting a drought-cycle-management approach, based on contingency planning and the stockpiling of seeds. Given the general regional precariousness, this will take considerable time and effort.During the initial stages of establishing the new community seedbanks, farmers from different localities came together to discuss the topics of seed security, status and loss of agrobiodiversity, and the need for local action. Through the facilitated interactions, they developed a common understanding of the seed situation in their communities, and agreed to work together in resolving some of the challenges through establishing a community seedbank. These initial activities are small contributions to greater social stability, which could be further strengthened in the near future through more interaction and collaboration.In recent years, several institutions and organizations in the three countries have been trained in community seedbanking, creating an initial technical support base for community seedbank establishment, stronger collaboration with farmers, and networking among seed-sector actors. In South Sudan, the University of Juba has taken leadership to promote community seedbanks throughout the country in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and other partner organizations. The community seedbank handbook for farmers developed by Bioversity International (Vernooy et al., 2020a, b, c) has been translated into ten national languages, to be used to train farmers in all agro-ecological regions. In Somaliland and Sudan, such an initiative has not (yet) been undertaken.Current policy and legal contexts in the three countries do not seem to hamper community seedbank establishment, although some concerns exist about privatizing the seed sector in Sudan. South Sudan is working to develop a more enabling environment in which community seedbanks will be explicitly recognized and supported. This is evidenced by i) the elaboration of a recent policy brief and call to action on \"Ten pathways to a robust, inclusive and resilient seed sector in South Sudan\" (Van Uffelen et al., 2022a, b; two of the ten pathways refer to community seedbanks) and ii) the adoption of the South Sudan Seed Hub, a multistakeholder platform that brings together seed actors to share information, learn together, and work on policy development (ibid). It is encouraging that South Sudan has taken on board lessons learned from seed-sector (policy) development in other countries, for example, Uganda, in particular concerning farmer-managed seed systems.It is too early to address the sustainability of the community seedbanks.","tokenCount":"3193"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e91108d4d5eb2fe268fda5fb9c43133","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/20b713da-00c0-4ef9-9735-705c0fdd2236/content","id":"-1908860246"},"keywords":["genotype × environment interaction","heat stress","maize","yield","climate change","relative humidity","vapor pressure deficit","target population of environments"],"sieverID":"50bc2490-9797-4d2d-beb8-afeb0a467f8b","pagecount":"18","content":"Spring maize area has emerged as a niche market in South Asia. Production of maize during this post-rainy season is often challenged due to heat stress. Therefore, incorporating heat stress resilience is an important trait for incorporation in maize hybrids selected for deployment in this season. However, due to the significant genotype × environment interaction (GEI) effects under heat stress, the major challenge lies in identifying maize genotypes with improved stable performance across locations and years. In the present study, we attempted to identify the key weather variables responsible for significant GEI effects, and identify maize hybrids with stable performance under heat stress across locations/years. The study details the evaluation of a set of prereleased advanced maize hybrids across heat stress vulnerable locations in South Asia during the spring seasons of 2015, 2016 and 2017. Using factorial regression, we identified that relative humidity (RH) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) as the two most important environmental covariates contributing to the large GEI observed on grain yield under heat stress. The study also identified reproductive stage, starting from tassel emergence to early grain-filling stage, as the most critical crop stage highly susceptible to heat stress. Across-site/year evaluation resulted in identification of six high yielding heat stress resilient hybrids.Maize acreage in South Asia is increasing due to its higher profitability and increased demand in feed utilization [1]. Post-rainy spring season (February-May) maize is emerging as a potential segment for expanding the maize production niche in the region. However, the production capacity of maize during this season is often limited by the high daily temperatures [2]. Given the diverse topography of the target population of environments (TPE) for spring maize cultivation, the disparities in other climatic, biotic, and abiotic factors augment the difficulties in developing and identifying suitable maize cultivars with high and stable performance across locations/year during spring season. These disparities contribute to the differential responses of cultivars and are partitioned as genotype × environment (G × E) interaction component [3][4][5]. A clear understanding of TPE is essential for systematic testing and deployment of cultivars [6]. In general, the spring maize segment in South Asia comprises high temperatures (>37 • C) zones that can be grouped into two subregions with distinct agroecological conditions: (1) hot-dry region with relative humidity <20% and (2) warm-humid region with relative humidity >60%. In addition, in certain regions within this TPE, farmers frequently provide supplemental irrigations to the crops to manage the microclimate of the crop by increasing humidity within crop canopy and obtain better yields [7]. Frequent irrigations can increase relative humidity and reduce the canopy temperature by increasing the evapotranspiration, and thereby realize good yields even under high temperatures [8][9][10][11]. However, the cost of frequent irrigations is too high to be economically sustainable for maize cultivation during spring season.Response of maize to drought stress and heat stress has been well documented [12,13], and water deficit in combination with high temperature can cause drastic reduction in grain yield [8,[14][15][16][17]. Though both stresses have adverse effects on maize yield, a low correspondence in maize cultivars identified individually for tolerance to drought stress and heat stress, perhaps indicates a complete or partially independent mechanism of tolerance for combination of stresses [18]. Heat stress alone, or in combination with drought, is likely to become an increasing constraint to maize production in the region of maize-dependent countries [19]. A study has shown that an increase in temperature of 2 • C would result in a greater reduction in maize yields than a decrease in precipitation of 20% [20]. Similarly, a recent study in Tanzania also indicated that increasing temperatures would result in a greater reduction in maize yields than increased intraseasonal variability in precipitation [21]. Under heat stress, the crop usually simultaneously experiences (physiological) drought at high temperature. This explains relatively high yield penalties under heat stress in comparison to drought. Unless frequently irrigated for maintaining high humidity to offset the effect of physiological drought, crops face compound effects of heat plus drought, which results in relatively higher yield losses. The intensity of heat stress is defined by the level of vapor pressure deficit (VPD), which is a function of maximum temperature (Tmax) and relative humidity at Tmax. Therefore, the maize crop exposed to heat stress at different locations may respond differently depending on the level of VPD at Tmax. These studies highlight the need to incorporate tolerance to heat plus physiological drought into maize germplasm to offset predicted yield losses due to heat stress. In the present study, we attempted to assess the extent of G × E effects under heat stress during spring season maize, characterize the key weather parameters contributing to significant G × E effects, and identify suitable maize hybrids with high and stable performance under heat stress across locations and years.Materials involved in the present study were various precommercial hybrids developed from the advanced stage lines of the heat stress breeding pipeline of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-Asia program. Parental lines of these experimental hybrids were Asia-adapted lines having founder parents derived from various pools and populations developed by the CIMMYT stress breeding program, including drought-tolerant population (DTP), La Posta Sequia, Pool 16 BN Sequia, Pool 18 Sequia, and Pool 26. They were constituted during the mid-1980s using putative drought-tolerant sources, including Tuxpeno Sequia C 8 , Latente, Michoacán 21, Suwan 1, crosses of CIMMYT populations 22, 32, 62, 64, and 66, landraces, Corn Belt hybrids, and germplasm from Thailand, Brazil, and South Africa. The details of the selection and improvement procedure of these populations are described in previous studies [22][23][24]. Parental lines of these advanced-stage Agronomy 2020, 10, 1998 3 of 18 hybrids were selected from the extensive heat screens of the program that were conducted across various sites of Asia during 2013 and 2014 spring season evaluations. Details of these parental lines involved are presented in Supplementary Table S1.The present study was based on the performance of prerelease hybrids, selected from breeding pipeline, tested across three years, 2015-2017, in locations across South Asia during spring season (Table 1). Experimental hybrids across all the years were not common. For each year, some poor-performing entries were dropped from the trial and new advanced stage experimental hybrids were included in the next trial from the breeding pipeline at the final stage of evaluations. In the year 2015, 19 advance stage hybrids were evaluated across 8 locations, followed by 32 hybrids during 2016 across 16 locations, and 27 hybrids in 2018 across 11 locations. Similar to the test entries, locations were also not the same each year and were chosen from a pool of locations based on the target population of the environment. However, the entries were balanced across years and locations, and their performance was evaluated against the best available commercial checks for the location.Field trials were conducted during spring season at multiple locations in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Table 1). Trials were laid-out following an alpha lattice design in 4 m row plots with two replications using a recommended plant spacing of 75 cm × 20 cm, which represents an optimum plant population of 66,666 plants ha −1 . Recommended agronomic practices were followed to maintain a good plant stand, and to keep trials free from weeds and other biotic pressure, including local diseases and insect pests. Entries across locations within a year were balanced and their performance was evaluated against popular commercial hybrids for spring season. The number of entries tested across years and the locations are presented in Table 1. Entries were evaluated for days to 50% anthesis, days to 50% silking, and grain yield under heat stress. Grain yield was recorded on per plot basis and converted to tones per hectare after adjusting for kernel moisture content at 12.5%.All the trials were conducted during the spring season (planted during March), at selected locations that normally record average maximum temperatures above 35 • C during most part of the crop cycle. Daily weather variables were collected during the trial period and used for characterization of the heat stress environments at different locations. Daily weather data were recorded during the trial period (from planting to maturity) on (i) temperature ( • C), including maximum (Tmax) and minimum temperature (Tmin), and (ii) relative humidity (%) at Tmax and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), which was calculated using Tmax and relative humidity at Tmax as the absolute difference between saturation vapor pressure and actual atmospheric vapor pressure [25] where Tmax represents the maximum temperature (in • C) and RH represents relative humidity (%). The climatic variables were then averaged over fortnightly intervals (designated at quarters, Q) starting from the date of planting until dough stage of the crop, for further analysis and environmental characterization. Daily averages of the weather variable from each fortnight were designated as Q1 to Q7 representing the prevailing weather condition at major crop growth stages, starting from seedling emergence (VE) and ending at dough stage (R4). Q1 to Q3 represented the vegetative phase of the crop, Q4 to Q6 represented the reproductive or flowering phase, and Q7 represented the early grain-filling phase. Hence, in total, 28 environmental variables spanning across seven fortnights of crop growth stages were used in the current study for factorial regression analysis.In addition, based on the mean yield of the trials, the environments were grouped as high yielding (>6 t ha −1 ), moderate yielding (3-5.9 t ha −1 ), and low yielding (<2.9 t ha −1 ) and across-environment analysis was performed within each type of environment. Relative efficiency of indirect selection across these three major environmental classifications were also followed using the procedure outlined by Vanessa et al. (2012).The residual maximum likelihood (REML) approach was used to analyze grain yield from a single site trial dataset, treating incomplete blocks, replications as random factors, and entry as fixed. Single location repeatability of the trials was computed using the genotypic variance estimates (σ 2 g) and single location residual (σ 2 ε ) asTrials with good repeatability (ω 2 > 0.50) were then subjected to across-location analysis and variance components estimated within each year using the modelwhere µ denotes the overall mean; g i the genetic effect of genotype i; e j the effect of location j; g eij the interaction between genotype i and location j; r k (e j ) the effect of the replication k nested in the location j; b l [re] kj the incomplete block l nested in the replication k and location j; and ε jklm the residual effect of the plot m nested in block l, replication k, and location j. All factors were considered as random effects for estimating the variance components in the combined analysis for each environmental group. In each type of the environmental groups, heritability (H) of grain yield was calculated aswhere e denotes the number of locations and r the number of replicates, σ 2 g is the genotypic variance, σ 2 ge is the variance due to genotype × environment, and σ 2 ε is the residual variance. To assess the gains made in each environmental class over the period of three years, the average performance of the best 10 percent hybrids in each environment class (low, moderate, and high yielding environment) was compared to the mean of the commercial checks using Welch-t test for unequal sample size and unequal variances in order to determine if the differences in the means were significant.To measure stability of the entries in each year, the related linear regression genotypic stability of Tai [26] was estimated using the software GEA-R [27]. Two parameters, α (determining the hybrid response to environmental effect) and λ (deviation from linear response), were used for determining the stability of the hybrid. A hybrid with average stability will have ∝= 0 and λ = 1, and a perfectly stable hybrid will have ∝= −1 and λ = 1 [28]. These parameters can also be represented in two orthogonal axes to depict the entries, which would help in determining the stability of the entries [27,28].To understand the effect of environmental variables on the genotype × environment interaction, a factorial regression was performed on the sampled trial locations, where data on required weather variables were available. Daily averaged weather variables from each fortnight during the trial period were considered as the environmental covariate and grain yield as the dependent variable. Factorial regression approximates the interaction effects, and the model has been defined in previous studies [29][30][31] to interpret the interaction. The general factorial regression model for which the GEI includes environmental covariates [27] is as follows:where Y ij is the yield of the ith genotype (I = 1 to I) in the jth environment (j = 1 to J); µ is the grand mean; g i and e j are the genotype and environment deviations from the grand mean, respectively; z in are the environmental covariates; ζ jn are the genotype factors; N is the number of environmental covariates; and ε ij is the error term. A forward regression was used in the study for identifying the most important environmental covariable.Selected locations were sampled for climatic variables during the trialing season across the test environments. Daily weather data were averaged over fortnightly intervals representing vegetative (Q1-Q3), reproductive or flowering (Q4-Q6), and early grain-filling (Q7) stages (Figure 1). The sampled locations recorded daily maximum temperature (Tmax) > 33 • C throughout the crop growth phase, with the maximum temperature regime during Q5 and Q6 coinciding with the flowering phase of the trials. Among the locations tested, Sahiwal (Pakistan) during 2016 and 2017 recorded the highest maximum temperatures throughout the crop growth, followed by Lucknow (India) in 2016. Daily minimum temperature (Tmin) throughout the crop phase in the sampled locations showed a relatively steady increase, with Tmin being low during the initial growth stages across locations and increased as the season progressed. Among locations sampled, Tmin was highest at the trial locations in Bangladesh (Jessore in 2015, Kustia in 2016, and Gazipur 2017). Relative humidity (RH) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) indicate the dryness of the atmosphere. Based on these two climatic variables, the sampled locations were classified as hot-dry and warm-humid sites. For instance, locations in Nepal (Rampur in 2015 and 2017) and Bangladesh (Kustia in 2016, Gazipur in 2017) recorded low VPD and high RH, while the driest environments were the locations in Pakistan (Sahiwal in 2015) and India (Lucknow and Hyderabad in 2016, Hyderabad and Raichur in 2017) with high VPD and low humidity.Significant variation was observed among the heat stress locations in terms of performance of test hybrids (Table 2). Mean yield of the trial was used for classifying the locations as low yielding (<3 t ha −1 ), moderate yielding (3-6 t ha −1 ), and high yielding (>6 t ha −1 ).Only few of the locations tested (E12 in year 2015; E2, E9, E18 in 2016; and E22, E23 in 2017) had a mean trial yield of less than 3 t ha −1 (Table 1). Combined analysis of grain yield for each tested genotype across the years showed significant variation among genotypes (p < 0.01) (Table 2). Genotypic variance accounted for 7, 21, and 14% of the total phenotypic variance for 2015, 2016 and 2017 year trials, respectively. Genotype × location variance was highly significant (p < 0.0001) and accounted for more than 30 percent of the total phenotypic variance for grain yield across the locations tested in each year. Consequently, the performance of genotypes was not similar across the location, with few genotypes showing clear crossover interactions. Performance of genotypes tested across all the locations are presented in Figure 2.The trial repeatability for grain yield in individual locations tested was high (>50%) (Table 1) except for one location in India (Bejjanki) that was dropped from further analysis. The heritability estimate across locations was 40% in 2015 and more than 70% across locations in 2016 and 2017. Correlation coefficient estimate between trial repeatability and trial grain yield was nonsignificant but positive (r = 0.30). Considering high G × E interaction effects and a large variation in the trial yields obtained in the locations tested (Table 2), a stratified ranking approach was used to identify the best cultivars in each year. The entries, in each location were ranked based on the grain yield, and the entry that performed consistently in top one-third of the total entries tested was considered best suited for next stage of evaluation (Figure 3). Tai stability parameters was estimated for each genotype to determine the stability of these entries (Figure 4). In the year 2015, three hybrids (CAH1516, ZH141592, and VH112887) were identified as the best entries; these hybrids consistently ranked in top one-third fraction of the total entries tested in at least 3 or 4 of the 7 locations tested (43-57% of locations tested). Grain yield of the test entries ranged from 2.5 t ha −1 -11.0 t ha −1 across the tested locations. Among these, ZH141592 was identified with average stability. In addition, another entry, CAH153, was identified as relatively more stable in this year, though not top ranking across all locations, but this entry also had good yields across the locations (Table 3). While none of the identified entries surpassed the best commercial check in the test location, specific entries were identified in each of the test locations that had yields comparable to the best commercial check (Figure 3). In the year 2016, three hybrids consistently ranked in the top one-third fraction of the tested entries. CAH1432, CAH1719, and ZH15440 ranked top in more than 60% of the tested locations (9 of 15 locations tested). Amongst them, CAH1719 was identified as the most stable entry, whereas CAH1432 and ZH15440 were identified as unstable entries. Average yield of the entry CAH1719 across the test location ranged between 1.6 and 1.9 t ha −1 in low yielding locations and 7.3 t ha −1 in high yielding locations, respectively (Table 3). This hybrid also performed significantly better or on par with the commercial hybrids in most of the moderate and high yielding locations. However, in low yielding locations, the yield of CAH1719 was significantly lower than the commercial checks (Figure 3). LSD-Least significant difference.0.0001) and accounted for more than 30 percent of the total phenotypic variance for grain yield across the locations tested in each year. Consequently, the performance of genotypes was not similar across the location, with few genotypes showing clear crossover interactions. Performance of genotypes tested across all the locations are presented in Figure 2.     In addition to these, entries CAH153, CAH1715, ZH15434, and ZH141593 were identified with more than average stability. However, the performance of CAH153 and CAH1715 surpassed the other two entries as they ranked in top one-third of the fraction in over 8 of the 15 locations tested. In 2017 trials, two entries (ZH15400 and CAH1714) were identified as adaptable entries and they were at least on par with the best commercial check in the locations tested (Figure 3). These  In addition to these, entries CAH153, CAH1715, ZH15434, and ZH141593 were identified with more than average stability. However, the performance of CAH153 and CAH1715 surpassed the other two entries as they ranked in top one-third of the fraction in over 8 of the 15 locations tested. In 2017 trials, two entries (ZH15400 and CAH1714) were identified as adaptable entries and they were at least on par with the best commercial check in the locations tested (Figure 3). These entries ranked in top one-third of the entries tested in 9 of the 11 locations tested (82 percent). However, Tai stability parameters indicate ZH15400 to be highly unstable, while CAH1714 was identified as having average stability. Another entry, ZH15333, was identified as the most stable and ranked in top one-third of the entries tested in 6 of the 11 locations tested. These identified entries out yielded or were on par to the best commercial check in the trial (Figure 4).To assess the progress being made in terms of grain yield within the heat stress breeding programs, a post hoc t-test was used to compare the average yield of the top 10% entries with the performance of the checks. The locations were clustered based on the trial mean yield at an interval difference of 1 t ha −1 and the mean yield of the top ranking (top 10%) entries in these locations were compared to the mean performance of the checks in these locations. The average performance of these top entries in comparison to the checks performance along with the significance is depicted in Figure 5. The average yield of the best test entries often out yielded the performance of checks, particularly in all moderate yielding locations. However, these differences were not substantial in high yielding locations.Agronomy 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 13 of 20entries ranked in top one-third of the entries tested in 9 of the 11 locations tested (82 percent). However, Tai stability parameters indicate ZH15400 to be highly unstable, while CAH1714 was identified as having average stability. Another entry, ZH15333, was identified as the most stable and ranked in top one-third of the entries tested in 6 of the 11 locations tested. These identified entries out yielded or were on par to the best commercial check in the trial (Figure 4).To assess the progress being made in terms of grain yield within the heat stress breeding programs, a post hoc t-test was used to compare the average yield of the top 10% entries with the performance of the checks. The locations were clustered based on the trial mean yield at an interval difference of 1 t ha −1 and the mean yield of the top ranking (top 10%) entries in these locations were compared to the mean performance of the checks in these locations. The average performance of these top entries in comparison to the checks performance along with the significance is depicted in Figure 5. The average yield of the best test entries often out yielded the performance of checks, particularly in all moderate yielding locations. However, these differences were not substantial in high yielding locations. A sample of test locations (Table 1) was selected from the pool of locations in each of the years tested and the daily averages of the environmental factors were determined over an interval of two weeks throughout the trialing season in that location. These environmental factors were then treated as environmental covariates for fitting the A sample of test locations (Table 1) was selected from the pool of locations in each of the years tested and the daily averages of the environmental factors were determined over an interval of two weeks throughout the trialing season in that location. These environmental factors were then treated as environmental covariates for fitting the factorial regression model onto the grain yields of the tested entries in these locations. In the year 2015, environmental factors from 7 locations were used in the analysis, while from the 2016 and 2017 year trials, 6 and 5 locations, respectively, were used for the analysis. The genotype × location variance in each year for the sample location accounted for 11 to 33 percent of the total phenotypic variation for grain yield (Table 4) across the three years. Factorial interaction revealed several significant GE interaction components for grain yield in each year. The model for interaction component in the year 2015 consisted of the five interactions with genotype: Genotype × Q5_Tmin, Genotype × Q6_VPD, Genotype × Q2_VPD, Genotype × Q7_Tmax, and Genotype × Q4_Tmax, cumulatively accounting for 88 percent of the GE interaction variation with 70 degrees of freedom (p-value ranging from 0.002 to 2.58 × 10 −9 ). In 2016, the genotype × environmental interaction model consisted of genotype interaction with Q7_Tmax, Q4_Tmax, Q3_RH, and Q4_RH, these four factors accounted for 86 percent variation with 136 degrees of freedom. In 2017 Genotype × Q7_RH, Genotype × Q6_Tmax, and Genotype × Q6_RH cumulatively accounted for 67 percent of variation with 87 degrees of freedom (Table 4). Across the years, Tmax along with reproductive stage, RH, and VPD accounted due to most of the variation for genotype × environmental interaction (Figure 6). consisted of genotype interaction with Q7_Tmax, Q4_Tmax, Q3_RH, and Q4_RH, these four factors accounted for 86 percent variation with 136 degrees of freedom. In 2017 Genotype × Q7_RH, Genotype × Q6_Tmax, and Genotype × Q6_RH cumulatively accounted for 67 percent of variation with 87 degrees of freedom (Table 4). Across the years, Tmax along with reproductive stage, RH, and VPD accounted due to most of the variation for genotype × environmental interaction (Figure 6). The locations used in the current study are representative of spring maize cultivation zones in South Asia and are characterized as heat stress prone with recorded average daily Tmax > 35 °C and Tmin >23.0 °C during most part of spring season. The purpose of the study was to understand the weather variables in the spring environment, their contribution in heat stress intensity, and identify hybrids best suited for cultivation in this region. A comparison of weather parameters across the years and locations, for the duration of the crop period indicated that in general, daily maximum temperature (Tmax) was highest during most part of the flowering stage. This stage is also reported as the most susceptible growth stage for maize to high temperature [32][33][34], causing significant losses to grain yield, mostly by impacting pollen viability [35,36]. Distinct differences were observed in mean grain yield of the trial, within each year ranging between low (<3 t ha −1 ), moderate (3-5 t ha −1 ), and high yielding (> 6 t ha −1 ) locations in spring season. Broad-sense heritability of the trials was high (>0.50) across all these managed stress locations. Significant effects of stress on repeatability and grain yield has been reported in earlier studies [37,38], suggesting that as stress increases (causing lower grain yield), the repeatability of the trial is also affected. Contrary to these findings, in this study the correlation coefficient estimates between trial grain yield and repeatability were positive but nonsignificant across all the three groups of yielding locations (low, moderate, and The locations used in the current study are representative of spring maize cultivation zones in South Asia and are characterized as heat stress prone with recorded average daily Tmax > 35 • C and Tmin >23.0 • C during most part of spring season. The purpose of the study was to understand the weather variables in the spring environment, their contribution in heat stress intensity, and identify hybrids best suited for cultivation in this region. A comparison of weather parameters across the years and locations, for the duration of the crop period indicated that in general, daily maximum temperature (Tmax) was highest during most part of the flowering stage. This stage is also reported as the most susceptible growth stage for maize to high temperature [32][33][34], causing significant losses to grain yield, mostly by impacting pollen viability [35,36]. Distinct differences were observed in mean grain yield of the trial, within each year ranging between low (<3 t ha −1 ), moderate (3-5 t ha −1 ), and high yielding (> 6 t ha −1 ) locations in spring season. Broad-sense heritability of the trials was high (>0.50) across all these managed stress locations. Significant effects of stress on repeatability and grain yield has been reported in earlier studies [37,38], suggesting that as stress increases (causing lower grain yield), the repeatability of the trial is also affected. Contrary to these findings, in this study the correlation coefficient estimates between trial grain yield and repeatability were positive but nonsignificant across all the three groups of yielding locations (low, moderate, and high). This could be related to the lower sample size and/or low variation among the estimated repeatability parameters across the managed stress trials evaluated. Across-location heritability estimates within each year were moderate (0.40 in 2015) to high (>0.70 in 2016 and 2017); however, a few strong crossover performances were also observed among entries, particularly between locations in Bangladesh in comparison to locations in India and Pakistan during the three years.While the trials were evaluated in spring season across South Asia, higher grain yields of test entries were recorded at some of the locations, such as Jessore (Bangladesh) in 2015 (>10 t ha −1 ). It was also observed that, in general, locations in Bangladesh had higher trial mean yields across years as compared to other locations. This could possibly be attributed to the warm humid (high relative humidity) climatic conditions prevailing in this region. Higher trial yields were also observed in some of the locations of India (such as Sabour) that has similar climatic conditions and topography to locations tested in Bangladesh. In maize, the advantage of humid over drier atmosphere, resulting in higher dry matter production and eventually higher yields, have been reported [39]. Frequent irrigations even during high temperatures reduces the canopy temperature and thereby cuts yield losses due to high atmospheric temperature [9,40]. Though resource intensive and unsustainable in long run, this is also a common practice currently followed in several parts of spring maize production areas of South Asia.Studies have shown that environmental covariables other than the one primarily studied could also play a significant role in the performance of entries [41], and often breeding designs do not take into account these factors for evaluating entries and selecting test locations. Factorial regression models could help delineate environmental variables that could influence crop traits [29,31]. As required, this study involved testing of entries in a wide range of test locations (5-7) sampled from a larger set of test locations commonly having high maximum temperatures during the cropping season (spring) across South Asia. As expected, a strong G × E interaction was observed in the test locations with some entries exhibiting significant crossover performance for grain yield across the three years. Among environmental variables that influence the crop yield, relative humidity (RH) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), apart from maximum temperature, are the two major parameters that were found to contribute to the significant variation for grain yield among the test entries, particularly during flowering and the early grain-filling stage of the crop across all three years.Reproductive stage has been reported as the most critical stage of the maize crop to high temperature stress [19,[42][43][44] and premonsoon season maize particularly in parts of South Asia is most vulnerable to severe heat stress during anthesis and early grain-filling stages [45]. The effect of heat stress is further exacerbated by the low levels of moisture in the atmosphere (low and high VPD), causing pollen to dry down faster and lose its viability, thereby directly impacting the yields [36,46]. The analysis only identified minimum temperature as an important variable for the year 2015 dataset, while in 2016 and 2017 this weather parameter was nonsignificant. It was also observed that the effects of minimum temperature (>30 • C) could potentially reduce biomass and crop yields, as night-time temperature could directly impact night-time respiration rates of plants [32]. The inability of this analysis to identify minimum temperature across years as an important variable might possibly be because the environments sampled for the current study did not pose enough variation for minimum temperature to be expressed in the observed yield losses, particularly in 2016 and 2017. Locations with higher relative humidity (such as parts of Bangladesh and locations in Bihar, India) recorded higher grain yields in comparison to parts where the atmosphere was relatively much drier due to low humidity, such as Hyderabad (India) and Sahiwal (Pakistan), even under a comparable temperature regime across the locations during the crop growth. Therefore, it is pertinent to consider these additional environmental factors before selection of test locations and entries.Spring maize cultivation area within South Asia consists of locations spread across varied topographies, and therefore the grain yield of the entries tested was not consistent across these locations, with few entries exhibiting substantial crossover performance. The variance estimates of genotype × location interaction was also high and at least more than twice the estimated genotypic variance across the three years, suggesting a high influence of the environment on the genotypic performance. Overall, the variance due to genotype × environment in the current study was estimated at 13% of the total phenotypic variance. High genotype × environment interaction, although suggesting more test locations are needed to identify more stable hybrids, also presents an opportunity to select entries with specific adaptations [47]. The current study identified CAH153 in 2015; CAH153, CAH1719, and CAH1715 in 2016; and ZH15333 in 2017 as the most stable entries. A combination of parametric (Tai stability) and nonparametric (stratified ranking) approach identified entry ZH141592 in the year 2015 as a potential entry for advancement to the next stage of testing, as it had good stability and also performed well in low (3.48 t ha −1 ), moderate (5.65 t ha −1 ), and high (8.23 t ha −1 ) yielding locations. In 2016, entries CAH153, CAH1719, and CAH1715 performed well in many locations tested and had good stability and yield levels in both moderate and high yielding locations. In 2017, entry ZH15333 performed well (6 of the 11 locations tested) and had more than average stability, while CAH1714 in 2017 performed well in most of the test locations (9 of 11 locations) but had only average stability. A comparison of the average grain yield performance of the top 10 percent entries in each location and the commercial checks clearly indicates that the products from the heat stress breeding pipeline performed better than or were at least on par to the commercial checks used in the study. Interestingly, the performance of the top entries in comparison to commercial checks were clearly higher in moderate yielding locations (3 to 7 t ha −1 grain yield) in comparison to high yielding locations (optimal with >7 t ha −1 grain yield), and low yielding locations (severe stressed <3 t ha −1 grain yield). These results are comparable to a study by [48], where 41 hybrids from a stress breeding program showed distinct advantage when compared to 42 commercial hybrids from a private seed company at different yielding locations and levels, suggesting no yield drags of the stress breeding pipeline products, even under high yielding environment if an appropriate selection strategy is chosen. In fact, with adequate weighing of managed stress-prone location performance of entries in the breeding pipeline, the yield levels of entries could be marginally increased even in severely stressed low yielding environments [49].Findings of the present study clearly showed that spring season environments for maize in South Asia have varied weather conditions and there are strong genotype × environment interaction effects. The factorial regression analysis provided evidence for the effects of relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit as key determinants for yields under heat stress. This suggests the need to delineate the test locations based on these key weather parameters (relative humidity and vapor pressure deficit) while selecting heat stress resilient genotypes for spring season cultivation. Further, this study also provides evidence that effective selection of entries under heat stress in the breeding pipeline may not cause any yield drags under a high yielding condition, but rather contribute in stable performance across variable heat stress regimes.","tokenCount":"5863"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8da9f169473e19945a558ad4008f2c6c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a120009b-b0b3-4f7e-8967-5390019ed59c/retrieve","id":"-1316847892"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b7e7d825-4060-470e-9fd7-0fade0854d37","pagecount":"1","content":"Flora del Territorio de Formosa -Rep. Argentina. N o 3217. Herbario del Museo Arg. C. Naturales N o . 64.271. Leg[uminosae]. Trepadora de unos metros, florecitas verdes con alas moradas, torcidas en espinal. Colon. Gaayeulee. Col. P Jοrgensen 4/ 919. [mal écrit à l' encre noire]. /// Phaseolus lunatus !? [écrit au crayon noir sur l' étiquette; pas d' auteur]. /// DGD: lunatus, aspect frêle des racèmes laisse supposer un sauvage, 5 racèmes, en début de floraison, étendart pubescent face externe, bractéoles 1/3 ou ¼ du calice avec une nervure saillante. [BA; 9-VIII-2010]. CEFAPRIN BACP [cachet à l'encre noire]. /// BACP5325. Herbario A.G. Schulz. Colonia Bénitez. Chaco -Argentina. No 17027. Familia [blanc].","tokenCount":"112"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"909920e716cb180673fb67ca7dd6d143","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8e04ecf6-db6e-4839-bdbc-5156727d16db/retrieve","id":"262680862"},"keywords":["Alessandra Galiè","Team Leader","Gender","ILRI Nicoline de Haan","Director","GENDER Platform","CGIAR Florence Mutua","Scientist","ILRI Annie Mcleod","Livestock consultant"],"sieverID":"2e675099-8c13-4e45-a304-a1d6363a8681","pagecount":"3","content":"• Women comprise almost two-thirds of the world's 600 million poor livestock keepers.• But they receive only 5% of the agricultural extension services and less than 10% of total aid to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Only 15% of extension workers are female.• Most women who raise livestock lack equal access to essential resources like land, labour, feed, veterinary services, financing, technical advice and breeding support.• Men often own more animals than women, and more valuable animals as well-cows and camels rather than sheep, goats or chickens.• Yet women dominate when it comes to doing work related to animal health. They handle most of the feeding, milking and tending to sick animals.Human health is improved when decisions include all perspectives. Investing in gender-responsive interventions increases the potential for success and leaves no one behind.Inequalities between women and men stem from both formal and informal norms and rules that make gender distinctions. Such distinctions affect, for example, women and men's roles, work, and control over assets.Understanding-and sometimes harnessing-gender differences help to tackle problems arising at the interfaces of animal, human and environment health. Women and men (across age, ethnicity, etc.) are involved in or are excluded from different segments of food value chains, exposing them differently to zoonotic and foodborne risks.It is important to specifically target women because they are often excluded from policies and programs aiming to enhance human, animal and environment health. Women and men in lower income countries tend to have complementary, but distinct, roles in animal health and care. Overlooking a major group of people risks leaving them behind. It also overlooks their potential as actors for change, uniquely positioned to address cross-cutting health issues.The distinct roles of women and men in livestock keeping can be critical for household food security. For example, chicken meat and eggs are important contributors to household income and protein and the loss of birds through poultry diseases can be devastating. Yet women's access to animal vaccines (including those for Newcastle disease and other common diseases of chickens) is scant in many low-and middle-income countries where men have easier access to animal drugs and advice. One Health approaches that recognize the differences and disaggregate effects and impacts by gender can better target, for example, interventions from agriculture and health ministries.Sometimes there is a direct, gendered link in strategies to control disease. Government-mandated culling during avian influenza outbreaks has at times killed more birds than died of the disease. Compensation for the culled birds has been directed to the heads of households, which may not be the person who owns or manages the poultry. In Turkey, avian influenza broke out in households where women managed chickens because men in those households had left the carcasses of infected wild ducks that they had hunted strewn about the poultry yards.Gender norms in animal production affect who is best placed to participate in, adopt and benefit from animal health interventions and technologies, to ensure good animal health and care, as well as to prevent the spread of antimicrobial resistance, a growing threat to global health (see brief on Antimicrobial resistance).Gendered roles in animal production are a factor in determining who is most exposed to-and so most at risk fromdiseases that can pass from animals to people (zoonoses). Consequently, gender dynamics also determine who is most likely to pass these diseases on to others. Studies show these differences in risk are attributable to gender norms rather than to the biological differences of the sexes.Other gendered divisions of labour affect zoonotic disease risk too. For example, men have often been the first infected in Ebola outbreaks as a result of their contact with primates, sometimes from hunting. Infections in women come later, resulting from their gendered roles as care givers and informal and formal health workers and midwives, and because they prepare bodies for burial.is a marked difference between women and men in their risk exposure to foodborne diseases that is attributable to differences in their gendered roles in food production, handling and consuming (see brief on Food safety). For example, where men mainly work in slaughterhouses, they are at greater risk than women of brucellosis or anthrax infection as a result of their direct contact with the flesh and body fluids of infected carcasses.Women are more at risk than men from bacteria such as Campylobacter, which causes diarrhoeal disease, as a result of handling contaminated raw products during food preparation. Women in some cultures are also more likely to eat organ meats than men, who tend to consume more of the desired muscle meats, again placing women at higher risk of diarrhoeal disease due to harmful bacteria that can contaminate offal.COVID-19, a zoonosis, has shown how different groups of people are subject to different risks depending on their gendered roles. Women as care workers or workers in meat processing plants have been most exposed to the disease. It remains to be seen whether gender-based constraints to mobility, access to information and health support will limit women's access to COVID-19 vaccines when these are made available in low-and middle-income countries.Environments, resource use and environmental interventions are shaped by gendered practices (see brief on Environment). Poor populations and especially women living in remote rural areas can face greater exposure to disease. For example, landless women and men may encroach upon formerly pristine habitats to source food or wood, putting them at further risk of new zoonotic disease as they can be exposed to wildlife infected with pathogens.Women can be overlooked in schemes implementing environmental interventions, yet they often have specialist knowledge of indigenous plants, have key roles in biodiversity conservation and take care of domestic and community hygiene and environment health along with men.","tokenCount":"944"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce2ec51dd8a31b7867fd8b87786752e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/15128947-6a49-43f7-9a7e-089d87c84f04/retrieve","id":"-1540015217"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d27d60e2-6821-43b1-94d9-f52685df6c5a","pagecount":"14","content":"Evidence-based Scaling-up of Evergreen Agriculture for Increasing Crop Productivity, Fodder Supply and Resilience of the maize-mixed and agropastoral farming systems in Tanzania and MalawiKey Deliverable Deviation  Given the short-duration nature of this project, the output 4 was revised at the inception workshop to focus on assessing training needs of farmers in respects to collection, interpretation and use of climate change information as well as practising EGA and then use this information to prepare the training materials.  Study site which were pre-selected prior to the inception workshop and now been changed to Kiteto and Kongwa districts to co-locate AfricaRISING activities with the Feed-the-Future action sites as recommended by Jerry Glover.List of geo-tagged locations/sites where activities took place Not applicable at this stage as the tree inventory work will start on July 30 th , 2012. Household to be interviewed will not be geo-referenced since names of interviewee will be obtained from the village Government or Ward office and selected at random.The link between this jumpstart and the AfricaRISINg project is summarized in Appendix 1.Not applicable at this stageThe field visit was conducted prior to the inception workshop revealed that exotic trees, mainly Grevillea robusta and Eucalyptus spp are dominating farmlands in Kondoa and Mbulu districts where they supply various wood products and also re-enforce soil and water conservation structures. During the visit it was revealed that farmers use little or no fertilizer. Soil erosion and nutrient mining, recurrent drought, continued use of farmers recycled seeds of crops and lack of tree germplasm and limited grazing area seems to be one of the major constraints for increased agricultural productivity. Therefore, we anticipate that the following issues may be one of the key areas that need further studies and scaling out activities under the AfricaRISING Project: 1) increasing tree diversity on-farm for improved nutrition, soil fertility replenishment, and soil erosion control, 2) agronomic trials on integrated soil water and nutrient management to optimize yields of maize and legumes, and 3) tree-crop-livestock interactions to optimize crop yields and utilization of land and forest resources.The project anticipate to publish a working paper on factor influencing the success of evergreen agriculture in central Tanzania and two journal articles: 1) the dynamics of tree cover changes, stocking levels and values of trees on-farm in Semi-arid Tanzania, and 2) Sustainable tree seed and seedling supplying systems in Malawi. Other forms of information outlets such as conference presentations, extension materials and fliers will be explored during the implementations.  The main objective of this project is to build an evidence base for scaling up Evergreen agriculture (EGA) to increase crop productivity, fodder supply and resilience of the maize-mixed and agro-pastoral farming systems in Tanzania and Malawi. Specific objectives are to: 1) provide a synthesis of state-of-the-art knowledge on EGA, (2) establish socio-economic and biophysical baselines of EGA practices, 3) establish the infrastructure for supplying tree seed and seedlings to be integrated into maize-legume-livestock systems based on farmers' needs, and 4) strengthen the capacity of farmers to use EGA technologies for sustaining maize and livestock production, and to collect, interpret and use weather information to make climate smart farming decisions.The project has four outputs which include:Output 1: Socio-economic, cultural, and policy factors influencing the success of EGA documented.Output 2: Biophysical factors underpinning the success of EGA documented.Output 3: Models to sustainable tree seed and seedling supply systems analysed.Output 4: Training materials on EGA practices and the use weather information by farmers developed.The objectives of the inception workshop were to:i. Bring together team of researchers that developed the project for joint revisit of the project methodology, outputs and deliverables ii.Updates on the new development since the submission of the project.iii. Agree on modalities for project implementation.iv. Formulate work plan for implementation.v.Sorting out budgeting and sub-contracting issues. He highlighted that this early win project is part of the Feed the Future program, which is trying to get people out of hunger and also out of poverty. Under this big umbrella science and research was considered to be part of the activities for the Feed the Future. The essence was to get the research institutions work together to ensure the sustainable intensification which is not new to farmers become easier to adopt.He further pointed out that there is need to intensify African farming system e.g. a call under CRP 1.1 and 1.2 of the CGIAR centres, which tally with the umbrella project name RISING (Research In SustainableIntensification for the Next Generation). While implementing the early win or jump start proposal it is also important to address the priorities of the USAID missions in the countries as expressed in their strategies.Furthermore, in Malawi Prof. Snapp of Michigan State University is working in Ntcheu district which is also selected for this project as well.He reiterated the fact that several challenges still face the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa, which this jump start project will contribute in finding proper solutions. Reminded that this jump start proposal is led byResearch Institutes and Sokoine University of Agriculture. Furthermore, other partners will be co-opted as the implementation starts including district authorities, central government, local NGOs and public institutions.It was highlighted that the time left for implementing the project is very limited. Several factors have contributed to the delay, but much focus should now be on the implementation. This inception was thus to serve as the screening meeting to identify outputs and deliverables which are realistic given the time frame that has remained and resources available.Presentation was focused on the field visits to respective districts of Mbulu and Kondoa (Fig. 1) combined with discussion with key informants, who were DALDOs, agricultural officers and HADO manager in Kondoa. Ntcheu district is predominantly maize based system with legume crops, and livestock keeping. Other crops include cassava, vegetables, Irish potato and some temperate fruits in the higher altitude. Ntcheu district falls in the Rift Valley Escarpment Livelihood zone. Population of Zone is 1,167,578 (9.78%). At the meantime draft tools were reported to be in place including checklist for interview with key informants, draft questionnaire for household survey. Furthermore, district will be stratified according to agro-ecological zones and production potentials, and thus specific villages chosen.It was emphasized that major indicators and minor ones should be formulated as per shared USAID format.The terminology 'evidence based scaling up' was found to be too load, and most likely would require clear focus on the outputs.Furthermore, it was advised that the short name of the project need to be formulated to enable easier communication among partners and other stakeholders.The presentation focused on the tools for characterization of the project site condition to enable rolling out of best alternatives in regard to the current practices. Key issues to be scrutinized include land health, vegetation cover and farming system. Key methods to be used include literature survey, focused group discussion and transect walk for soil and tree inventory.Information to be collected will be from various documents, report and records pertaining to land health e.g. soil nutrients, pH, species, density, spatial arrangement, impacts on crops and soil productivity, crops, livestock etc. Primary data will be collected in the field through involvement of district officers and communities through focused group discussions to unveil pattern of land uses, and transect walk to collect information on soil through spot assessment and profiling. Tree inventory will be done along the transect walk utilizing both visual and actual measurements.Information gathered will later to be used to analyse stocking parameters, diversity, use, and preference by local people. Furthermore, information on soil such as soil organic carbon, nutrients, pH, and bulk density will be used to dictate type of interventions need in a particular area. Combination of the vegetation and soil data will enable development of various spatial layers of the soil, vegetation, population and weather and later production of various maps such as soil maps, vegetation maps, hotspots of land degradation, and potential areas for scaling up EGA etc.Analysis of capacity and models to sustainable tree seed and seedling supply systemsThis presentation introduced some key elements to consider in sustainable tree seed and seedling supply Experience from Malawi was requested as to how the seed agency is performing bearing in mind that the similar agency in Tanzania i.e. Tanzania Tree Seed Agency is totally relying on government subsidies. He explained that the same experience is there in Malawi, there are two institutions; a government tree seed centre, and a quasi-government tree seed centre (Land Resources Centre -LRC), both of which and this is due to the tendency of centralization, making it difficult to reach farmers who are the majority and main buyers of tree seeds. Furthermore, in Malawi Prof. Snapp of Michigan State University is working in Ntcheu district which is also selected for this project as well. Germplasm distribution in Malawi is largely aided by NGOs with very limited farmer-to-farmer exchange.The essence of this output dwells on linking indigenous knowledge of farmers forecast to scientific weather forecast and thus enables farmers to timely align to seasonal activities. Available tools will be updated to suit the two project sites of Kondoa and Mbulu districts. Farmers from one area which have been trained will be used to train others and hence making the transfer of technology much easier and quicker. The meeting was informed that this method has proved to be useful to farmers in some parts of Tanzania, hence will be adopted in the project sites.Knowledge of local people on climate change will be assessed mainly using pairwise ranking to various causes of climate change as per farmers understanding. Data on temperature and precipitation will be used during the training to enable farmers conceptualize various tools that will be used. Generally plenary was conducted to review the project indicators, planning for the field work, reporting time and format, resources allocation per outputs and activities, sub-contracts and engagements of interns and field assistants. Key operational statements agreed include; i. A total of 4 villages were agreed to be included in each district for this phase of the project i.e. each district has to engage two wards with contrasting features and have two villages from these respective","tokenCount":"1679"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e86ad2a421a65605c77a0da05f3fe734","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7cb67015-9931-4daa-9fbd-95ff570064ab/retrieve","id":"1715722338"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2691aa67-b884-402a-8583-4c432d9d38b1","pagecount":"2","content":"• The transitioning of the national IP into a functioning Forum -Tanzania Smallholder Poultry Association (TASPA) -is timely. Slow registration process of the Forum was maily due to budgetary limitations and lengthy government bureaucracy • The TASPA is an independent, ongoing institution that continues to support chicken VC development and acts as a safe space for stakeholder interaction and concerted action beyond ACGG program • Some specific priority issues emerging from engagements are: which chicken ecotypes to use, and where -based on the results of the tests undertaken; multiplication and delivery mechanisms; sources of inputs -e.g. feeds/ supplements and health services, and other advisory services. • Initial budgetary allocations and limitations are standing in the way of delivering change by the TASPA. There is immensetransformative potential of implementing TASPA processes, and initial financial support can facilitate the harnessing of this potential.• There were 28 (62%) men and 17 (38%)women. Over 90% of the participants were drawn from the private sector • The meeting mainly focused at grounding TASPA as a mechanism for facilitating collective development action for poultry industry in Tanzania • Many participants expected an official launch TASPA -as earlier anticipated -but was delayed because the legal registration process was still underway at the time of the convening. The launch was postponed to a later date.• A participatory process consisting of short input presentations, plenary brainstorming and breakout groups was used. • The process was particularly designed to facilitate open sharing, encourage objective critique and disagreement, cross-learning and consensus-building.• Private sector is critical for the multiplication and last mile delivery of multiple preferred strains of chickens that fit in the different production systems. A compelling privatesector value proposition is emerging and needs intensification • The TASPA will serve as the means for value chain diagnosis, challenge identification and solution co-creation to ensure the development of delivery models that work best for smallholder farmers.• Efforts to officially register TASPA (or a reviewed name) will continue. • Intensify recruitment of members: The TASPA will facilitate community IPs to transition into farmer owned entities driven by common commercial goals. Local farmer groups make sense; the national Forum could use them as the building block to create a bigger (national) chicken/ poultry industry movement. • The Forum would then advocate at national and region levels to improve the policy and business environment.There was exhibition of chicken ecotypes during the meeting. However, the big debate on which ecotypes to use and where remained unresolvedThere is increased extension packaging and uptake of technologies in Tanzania","tokenCount":"420"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a28e792ec60660f1e1d3b8d4e974631a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37be7f2f-78ab-49b1-8070-d76850e33046/retrieve","id":"183431767"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a430c86c-27ef-40ed-be51-fe4564ebc040","pagecount":"1","content":"Según estudios realizados usando papas crudas, las papas de pulpa amarilla contienen niveles significativos de luteína y zeaxantina, carotenoides que juegan un rol protector en la prevención de la degeneración de la macula ocular [1]. En tanto las papas de pulpa morada o rojiza contienen cantidades significativas de antocianinas a las cuales se les atribuye propiedades anticancerígenas, antiinflamatorias, antimutagenicas, antihiperglicemicas y anticolesterolemicas [2]. Sin embargo, si bien existen diversos reportes sobre la concentración de carotenoides y antocianinas en muestras crudas de papa, los estudios sobre evaluación de la bioaccesibilidad de carotenoides y antocianinas en papas cocidas son escasos. El término bioaccesibilidad se define como la fracción de un compuesto que es liberado de la matriz del alimento en el tracto gastrointestinal y así llega a ser disponible para la absorción intestinal [3].El propósito de este estudio fue estimar la bioaccesibilidad in vitro de luteína y zeaxantina en tubérculos cocidos de siete cultivares de papa con pulpa amarilla y la bioaccesibilidad de las antocianinas en tubérculos cocidos de 5 variedades de pulpa morada y 2 variedades de pulpa rojiza. Para ello se evaluó la concentración de luteína y zeaxantina por HPLC y la concentración de antocianinas totales por espectrofotometría en muestras liofilizadas y molidas provenientes de tubérculos cocidos antes y después de realizar le digestión in vitro [4,5].La bioaccesibilidad de carotenoides varió de 33 a 71% para luteína y de 51 a 71% para zeaxantina. En todos los cultivares, las cantidades de luteína y zeaxantina después de la micelarización fueron significativamente menores que las cantidades encontradas en las muestras iniciales. El cultivar 701862 mostró la concentración más alta de luteína bioaccesible (280 µg/100 g de peso seco) y los cultivares 703566 y 704218, mostraron la concentración más alta de zeaxantina bioaccesible (sobre 600 µg/100 g de peso seco). Considerando el consumo promedio de papa en los Andes (≈500 g por día), el cultivar 701862 provee el 14% de la ingesta de luteína recomendada con beneficios para la salud; y los cultivares 703566 y 794218, proveen más del 50% de la ingesta sugerida de zeaxantina.La bioaccesibilidad de antocianinas fue alta (73 -84%) y superior a lo reportado para aronias (57%), uvas (8%) y arándano agrio (5%). Los cultivares 704058 y 704429 mostraron la concentración de antocianinas bioaccesible mas alta (174 y 372 mg/ 100 g PF, respectivamente). Debido a que según literatura las antocianinas son pobremente absorbidas asumimos que una gran proporción de las antocianinas bioaccesibles de papa llegan al colon, donde son expuestas a la microfloracolónica y dan origen a metabolitos que favorecen la salud del tracto gastrointestinal.La bioaccesibilidad de luteína y zeaxantina de las papas amarillas y de antocianinas en papas de pulpa morada y roja es alta. Considerando las ingestas altas de los Andes las papas amarillas contribuyen significativamente a la cantidad de luteína y zeaxantina recomendada.","tokenCount":"468"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d781d229462d849a5d08bc84db67a7bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23a27a8e-53bb-42e2-8aac-e6dc22d7d1e0/retrieve","id":"1623804953"},"keywords":["coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Center for Intemational Cooperation in Agricultura[ Development Researcrq","France CIRAD-Département amélioration des méthodes pour l'innovation scientifique","France CIRAD-cultures annuals","France CIRAD -Dépa rtement territories","environnement et acteurs","France"],"sieverID":"1e0d6769-7c1f-4a6d-81d3-1c6f5840bf4b","pagecount":"509","content":"Institutional models and policy options for establishing and strengthening rural agro-enterprises and their support systems at the microregional level Activities 4.1.The Rural lnnovation Institute l. OBJECTIVES The Rural Innovation Institute endeavors to improve rural livelihoods by working with clients and associates to improve their innovativeness, defined as their competitiveness, capacity to innovate and access to information including the best resulting blends of scientific and local knowledge. The Institute works primarily on behalf of small-scale, farm producers, agro-enterprises and the agencies that serve them, including prívate, public and not-for-profit organizations. Box 1 gives examples of expected results.Four important objectives discussed below cut across all the work of the Institute and integrate research and development carried out in three interna! projects-agroenterprise development; participatory methods (IPRA) and information for development (INFOCOM). The Institute also hosts the CGIAR Program on Participatory research and Gender Analysis (PRGA). Each interna! project has a project manager, logframe and work plan and all fundraising and new initiatives are done through the projects. These complement each other and carry out numerous research and development activities in close coordinati:m with other projects of CIAT as well as with outside stakeholders. The common objectives ar~ described in detail below.Source: Rural Innovation Working Group December 2002 Producer organizations and rural communities with capacity to innovate will have:l. An assessment of their asset base to identify market opportunities, entry points for technical innovation and leverage for organizational change. 2. An action plan for experimenting with novel ways to develop the combination of products and services needed to establish a food-secure and competitive market position beneficial foral! members 3. A plan for experimentation with innovations for improving their assets (human, financia!, social, natural and physical) to support and sustain the desired food and income generation. 4. A Learning Alliance with key partners to support the interaction of local experimentation and knowledge sharing with outside resources 5. Experimentation in a resource-to-consumption framework to test proposed innovations 6. A monitoring and evaluation process 7. A collective organization platform (e.g. integrated production project, agroenterprise, telecentre, farmer research comrnittee, watershed association, cooperative etc) to run the innovation process. 8. A plan for scaling up The RII assists its clients to develop a lit between their local resources and a unique competitive mix of products and services Ma rket research, technical assistance, farmer experimentation, capacity development and participatory research are designed to provide rural producer s and entrepreneurs with p ractica! steps that enable them to design the products and processes required for them to be competitive.RII works to develop local capacity to combine improvement in tre production and processing of staple food crops with a competitive mix of new products. Ma rket opportunities for different value or commodity ch ains a re analyzed to find high p otentia l options for increasing in come while making sure there is e nough foo d. To do this, RII h elps farmers to experiment with n ew crops a nd products tha t have a well-identified market opportunity . T o improve compe titiven ess, RI I teaches t h e skills need ed to design agroenterprise projects that enable farmers to capture a la rger s hare of the value added by new post harvest processes, packaging or marketing.This approach to improving competitiveness is s ummarized as a \"resource to consumption\" framework illu strated in Figure l. Findin g ways for each day of labor to produce more food or income is central to the a pproach. Especia l attention goes to generating the additional income n eeded to in vest in improving soil, water or other natural resou rces needed to sustain competitiveness. RII provides existing community organizations and agencies with advice a nd training in new ways of organizing to be more competitive--to conduct local experimentation, to develop small-scale agro-en terprises and to use the information highway.Developing an enduring capacity to innovate is vital for staying competitive. RII's approach is to provide training and research in combination, through a relationship with a client or group of clients called a \"Learning Alliance.\" Participants in a Learning Alliance simultaneously monitor, evaluate and learn quickly together from the training and research experience to derive lessons that will enable the results to reach more people, more quickly.To support learning how to innovate, the RII teaches the skills and knowledge needed to search for and identify new markets and products as well as new production or marketing processes. These skills include knowing HOW to find the information, expertise and financing needed, WHERE to find it and WHO to go to for help.Skills for innovation include knowing how to experiment and evaluate with new options to see if they will prove successful in local conditions. New technologies are tested and introduced for combining staple food crops with a competitive mix of new products. Once new options h ave been identified, \" pilot\" or trial production and marketing projects are established with small groups.Learning quickly from successes as well as the mistakes we make in these first trial projects is essential so RII teaches clients how to run their own monitoring and evaluation process. This helps local people and the agencies who support them to expand trials quickly to benefit larger numbers of people. But innovation doesn't stop with the first success. RRI makes sure clients know how to stay competitive by keeping up a vigorous cycle of learning, experimentation, problem solving and innovation with new markets, products and processes.Successful entrepreneurs stay competitive by constantly exchanging experience and sharing information both locally and with the wider world. RII works to foster information exchange and learning to support local innovation and promete competitiveness. To do this, RII provides training programs aimed at developing local capacity for information discovery and sharing valuable local content on the World Wide Web linked to radio and other communication channels. These programs typically work with community telecenters, local information systems and community-based oral or other kinds of communications. RJI complements these with training in the use of computer-based, decision-support tools designed to enable agencies supporting farming communities and rural entrepreneurs to use the vast store of biological and economic information that otherwise is inaccessible to them.Competitivity based on developing a fit between local resources and a unique mix of products and services often builds on a b lend of scientific and local knowledge. A good example is the new market opportunities that can develop for small farmers once their knowledge about the taste, storage qualities a nd growth habits of a local fruit variety are combined with scientific knowledge about how to characterise the fruit's vitamin C content, improve its shelf life and enhance its disease resistance. The RII is a gateway for small producers and rural entrepreneurs to access the scientific expertise of CIAT and its Science Par k, and a wide diversity of other partners for this purpose. Once clients ha ve identified high potential options with promising markets and a good fit with local resources that may need blending through scientific research, the RII assists them to build the partnerships required to do this.Sustainable rural livelihoods comprise the core of CIAT's current strategic plan. To achieve them depends on three essential conditions: agricultura! c ompetitiveness, agro ecosystem health, and rural innovation. The term rural innovation descr ibes the process whereby various stakeholders generate, adapt or adopt novel ideas, approaches, technologies or ways of organizing. Rural Innovation occurs when stakeholders put these into widespread use to improve the production of food and environmental services throu gh farm and non-farro activities, so that the rural sector becomes competitive in a sustainable manner. One of the most important results CIAT expects to achieve from science-enhanced rural innovation is an improvement in the capacity of rural communities to control the use of science and technology for improving their livelihoods. In 2003 significant progress was made in expanding further development of approaches to scaling up participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches in projects linking farmers to markets, collectively known as \"enabling innovation\" in East Africa, Central America and Bolivia and supported by the Kellogg Foundation, DFID United Kingdom, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Belgian governmen t.In the area of knowledge management and information for development, C IAT was offered the opportunity to write the proposal for, and if successful, implement a segment of the CGIAR System wide IT and KM Program. This is an irnportant step forward in gaining recognition for the contribution CIAT's Communications, Information Services and Documentation team has been making to the CGIAR over the past few year s. A central role in Knowledge Management positions CIAT to generate strategic research proposals and projects in this new area.The lnstitute's efforts to improve innovativeness with its clients draw on its investment in learning from research carried out elsewhere, as well as its own interna! research on the determinants of successful innovation and factors that accelerate or hinder innovation. The working hypotheses which guide rural innovation research are depicted in the form of a path diagram in Figure 2 . Determinants of competitiveness in the first column are crucial exogenous variables which set the scene and are defining conditions for whether rural innovation will occur and to what extent it will succeed. CIAT's research outputs (or results) are designed to change sorne key aspects-but not all, of the determinants of rural innovation: these are laid out in the second column. Four important outcomes have to occur for beneficiaries in a time frame of 3-6 years, listed in the third column. If achieved, these outcomes lead to expected longer-term impact over 7-20 years, shown in the final column.The lnstitute is buildin g a database of Inn ovation Case Studies which are used first by the Learning Alliances which generate the cases, and will be subsequently used for metaanalysis to be conducted cooperatively across a wide array of projects and initiatives to test the working hypotheses laid out in the causal model. Case study partners will want to adapt the generic causal model, roadmap and indicators of success to their own particular experience and at the same time, the meta-analysis will mainta in sorne common variables and indicators for comparative analysis.An ongoing inventory of the numerous approaches and methods that are used within CIAT for rural innovation-related research provides input toa web-based inventory of methods, approaches and tools for which the documentation is being assembled with all the contributors. This will enable knowledge-sharing within the CIAT rural innovation community and will provide a vehicle for exchange of different approaches which in the normal course of events, do not rub shoulders.  --------------------------Leaming Alliances-------------------------- Ad apt and r efine participatory methods for improving processing efficiency and product quality for existing and new rural agro-en terprises 52Output 3 .Information, options, and recommendations for t he design of efficient and effective organizational schemes for small-scale rural agro-enterprises and their support services 3.1.Training and networking: PRODAR-IICA (Peru), ASARECA (Foodnet), SEARCA, UPWARD, mernbers of PhAction, REDCAPA.CGIAR system linkages: Crops and Livestock Production Systerns (15%); Livestock (5%); Protecting the Environment (20%); Training (10%); Information (10%); Networks (10%); Organization and Management (30%).Participates in the Global Post-harvest Forum (PhAction) .To improve the livelihoods of Percentage decrease in rural National statist ics of different rural populations in LA, Africa, poverty index in selected areas of countries where projects have and Asia by enhancing the Africa, Asia, and LA. been implemented. capacity of support institutions to promote competitive and environmentally responsible agroenterprises that equitably link smallholders to growth Narrative Summary Output 4 Institutional models and policy options for establishing and strengthening rural agroenterprises and their support systems within a territorial context.By adding value to development initiatives through learning alliances, research fmdings strengthen development agencies that reach significantly larger populations. Additionally, the Rural Agroenterprise Project cond ucts regular regional training courses in Africa, Asia and Latín America and maintains one of CIAT's most popular websites with an average of 6,800 monthly visitors.The Rural Agroenterprise Project uses four methods for uptake promotion: fieldwork in reference sites or with farmer organizations; learning alliances with development agencies; training; and, the web s ite. In the case of fieldwork, the relationship between CIAT and poor groups is direct with CIAT scientists spending substantial time interacting with the rural poor and their organizations. In learning alliances, CIAT interacts with majar NGOs and their local partners active in rural enterprise development in a range of activities including method design, training, backstopping, documentation and learning with the goal of strengthening capacities and increasing development impact. In addition, research results are disseminated to diverse users via training and maintenanc~ of the project's web si te.CIAT's Agroenterprises Project carries out action research in partnership with local government organizations, NGOs, producer associations and the prívate sector. A key first step is to forro rural agroenterprise committees to foster collective, coordinated action. The committees develop a strategic plan for agroenterprise development, including a portfolio of high-potential products. For each product, strategies for value chain development are designed and implemented with a range of market actors. Around each value chain, relevant business development services are identified, strengthened or created anda market for them facilitated. The sum of this work is a set of interconnected methods that provides a clear set of strategies for income and livelihood diversification for rural communities and their support agencies. In the last 3 years, CIAT scientists have applied this framework to support and promote diverse kinds of agroenterprises in rural communities in Eastern Africa and Latín America. As of 2003, a new project has complemented this work in Southeast Asia.In aH of the reference si tes, rural agroenterprise committees have been formed, and they have developed strategic plans, with portfolios of high-priority products. In Lushoto District (Northern Tanzania), for example, a group of farmers met with successful producers in a neighbouring community to learn about quality requirements for farm products, frequency, vol u me of delivery and prices. The Lushoto farmers learned that fellow producers 20 kilometres away had organized themselves, introduced new production technologies and captured a share of the high-value fruit and vegetable market in Dar es Salaam. As a result the Lushoto farmers have formed an association to handle their future marketing activities. Elsewhere in Africa, farmers in southern Malawi are experimenting with production and marketing of goats and rabbits, and in south-western Uganda with farm fresh eggs for local sale and pyrethrum flowers for sale to an organic pesticide plant in Kabale town. While these enterprises are new for farmers, Jeffrey Habarwasha, chair of the Muguli (Uganda) income generation committee notes, \"We know that development and income generation are processes that don't happen overnight. Despite the hardships and risks, we're ready to forge ahead and make a go of it.\"In the municipality of Yorito (Honduras), CIAT methods contributed to the design and implementation of strategies for a high-quality coffee value chain leading to the establishment of a farmer cooperative, organic certification and a sale price fifty p ercent higher than non-participants. This year, two of the participating farmers were included among the twenty best quality organic coffees in Hond uras. In Pucallpa (Peru), similar methods allowed small black pepper producers to differentiate their product and demand prices twenty percent higher than normal as well as negotiate favourable longterm agreements wíth industrial buyers.With a view to extending this development process beyond the reference sites, CIAT's Agroenterprises project has entered into learning alliances to support development partner s and their pr ojects in 17 countries, provided on-going backstopping to reference site partners, run two regional training courses in Asia a nd various short-term seminars in Latín America.Rural agroenterprise research has short, míd and long-term livelihood implications for the rural poor. In the short term, CIAT work with national partners has resulted in an average income inc rease of up to 20% across a selected range of agricultural products in Latín America for smallholders in the project 's reference sites. In the mid-term, participating producer groups move into more complex marketing strategies to differentiate their products and develop more stable relations with other market actors leading to additional income increases, rural employment for non-farmers and more stable income patterns. Long-term projections include strategies linking improved production techniques, post harvest activities, new product development and value chain development and management to differentiated, value added products that compete successfully in regiona l, nationa l a nd international markets.The establishment of leaming a lliances between CIAT and majar development actors seeks to facilitate similar results across a far wider range of rural communities in Africa, Asia and Latín America.Specific project re sults have influenced local development organizations while the sum of our work -expressed as the \"territorial orientation for rural agroenterprise development\" -has been picked up and applied by majar internation a l development NGOs as part of the learning a lliance process in Africa and Latín America. New projects in SE Asia and Central America seek to construct links with government agencies and majar donors, respectively, regarding the implications of agroenterprise development for sustainable rural livelih oods a nd as such representa new area of work for the project.The following majar advances are highlighted this year:Tools, methods, and information for market opportunity identification and development, as an input for the design of economically viable and sustainable rural agro-enterprisesThe demand for appropr iate tools a nd methods for identifyin g market opportu nities for smallholder agriculture comes from many quarters. One such deman d comes from government and non-governmental development agencies working at t h e community or local leve! as they facilitate t h e process of m oving far mers to a greater market orientation, seeking to identify production options that can gen erate income. Other deman ds com e from national or region a l government agencies that need to orient research and development programs by prioritizing investments in s u pport services ranging from research itself, direct techn ical assistance through exten sion agencies, and the provis ion of m a rket in formation services. The Ru ral Agr oen terprise Development Project (RAeD) has been developing a ran ge of tools for the needs of different clien ts.The 'mother' of these tools is the Market Opportunity Identification (MOI) manual published in 1999. This ma n ual has been t ranslated into four languages and is in use in many parts of the world. Most recently in Uganda the Nationa1 Agricultura! Advisory Services, NAADS, has contracted CIAT and ASARECA's FOODNET to carry out a study to identify mar ket opportunities in Kampala fo r the farmer organizations throughout Uganda that are associated with t heir enterprise selection process. Beyond providing inform ation that will su bsequ ently be used to prioritize the types of far mer en terprise that will supported through the decentralized and p rivately-oriented extension scheme, an important objective is to work with NAADS in the validation of a process that can be subsequently u sed by service provider s in other majar town s in Uganda.With the experience gained in using the MOl methodology, modifications are being incorporated that respond to the suggestions made by those that have used the methodology. In 2003, a \"too! book\" in multimedia-computerized format that already incorporates many of t hese changes was p roduced and tested in train ing events in Central America. Interestingly, the multimedia format was not universally popular in these events, suggesting that these novel forms of communication need to be backed up by con ventional manuals and appropriate field exercises.The full Market Opportunity Identification process requires th at the person s that undertake the studies h ave a certain level of technical and business expertise, or have access to these. At the local and community leve!, these skills are not always available or access to them is limited. The principies of market opportunity ident ification have been adapted for use by market facilitators in supporting enterprise selection at the community leve!. This process involves far mers in all steps of the process, from participatory diagnosis, market visits with far mers, collection of technical and economic information of promising options, and the calculation of simple economic parameters to compare among option s. This participatory met hodology is now being validated and improved with selected communities, NARI and NGO partners in 8 sites in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. These local processes engender strong ownership by the commun ities in volved. They require facilitation by trained extension personnel. Currently, most extension agents come from a production background and have few or no business or market skills. The 'retooling' of these extension agents is a majar challenge for both government and non-government service providers. The Learning Alliance concept (see Output 5) is a way in which the RAeD project is attempting to contribute to this process.Successfully moving farming communities to an increased market and enterprise orientation requires that they can access, on a near permanent basis, information on markets that will support their existing enterprises and provide them with ideas for new options. To meet this need the RAeD project is developing tools, linked to the Local Rural Agroenterprise lnformation Systems (see Output 3) that permit the collection and analysis of pertinent market information.Output 2.Tools, methods, and information for the development o f appropriate postharvest technologies for small-scale rural agro-enterprisesOnce farming communities and their service providers have identified promising enterprise options and the process of enterprise development has commenced, there is an on-going need to maintain competitiveness. An important aspect related to competitiveness is the need to be innovative in incorporating cost reducing and quality enhancing improvements into postharvest handling and processing activities. The RAeD project has over the past two years been developing a methodology to enhance local capacity in rural communities to innovate in this crucial aspect of the market chain.Using a similar philosophy to that of the Local Agricultura! Research Committees developed by the Participatory Research Project, and with their support, a set of methodological steps have been defined and the process tested with producers of panela (raw sugar) in Cauca Department in Colombia. Panela is produced in small artesenal processing units called trapiches (sugar mills) of which there are over 200 in the region. While a strong demand exists in u rban markets, the rustic nature of the panela being produced does not meet the quality characteristics demanded by the consumer. Without innovation, there is a considerable danger that these trapiches would go out of business causing significant hardship to the local population through loss of jobs an income. This situation is encountered by many small rural agro-industrial enterprises.The local innovation process centers on the Grupos de Investigación en Agroindustria Rural (GIAR, Rural Agroindustry Research Grou ps). The members of these groups are selected by the community to undertake adaptive research on improvements to the efficiency and quality control of the panela manufacturing process. The agenda is agreed upon through discussions among panela producers and their service providers. Activities have included the evaluation of appropriate varieties for the production of good quality panela, the modification of processing technology to local conditions, the promotion of good manufacturing practices (BPM) and the diversification of product presentation and formu lation in line with market demand. This example of the development of a local capacity to access, evaluate and incorporate postharvest technological innovations has captured the attention of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture. The development organizations that partnered the RAeD project in this process have achieved funding to initiate the process in 14 municipalities. The RAeD project will now test the methodology with other commodities and in different institutional and socioeconomic conditions. Opportunities to interact with the CIAT commodity improvement projects are being sough t.Information, options, and recommendations for the des ign o f efficient and effective o rganizational scheme s for small-scale rural agro-enterprises and their support services Access to information is key to appropriate decision-making, both for the selection of promising enterprise options for smallholder farmers and subsequently to improve the performance of an enterprise once it has been established. The major advances in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) over the past decade provides a major opportunity to put these technologies at the service of rural enterprises.In partnership with the Information and Communication for Rural Communities Project (InforCom) and RAeD project has devised a novel, three-part approach for this purpose.The first part involves community telecenters, managed by strong local organizations.The second part entails local deve1opment of Web-based information systems, which combine important knowledge from farmers' experience with relevant information obtained from research and development organizations. In support of agroenterprise development, for example, these systems can provide information on such topics as markets (current prices, annual price patterns, directories of buyers, quality requirements, etc.), technological options (processing, technologies, etc.), and availability of support services. In order for those systems to be locally relevant and useful, it is essential that they be developed in a participatory manner with communitybased stakeholder groups, representing farmer associations and other local organizations. The establishment and training of such groups constitutes the third main component of the approach. By linking the Web-based information system with other communications channels, these groups can discover and share the knowledge their communities need to build and sustain competitive agroenterprises.This approach has b een developed over a two-year period in Cauca Department, Colombia in support of the activities of the Local Agroenterprise Committee, which is made of service providers and farmers organizations and promotes and supports agroenterprise development. The region possesses community telecenters that are being managed by local development and community based organizations. These telecenters, beyond providing a general communications service that is run as an enterprise, have a social objective of promoting local development. The research activities have concentrated on the development of an electronic information product, or web site, and the development of a local communications network. The development of the web page is participatory in nature with active involvement of the beneficiaries in its design and the development of content. Diagnostic studies identified two principal components on which to base the design of the web site: a ) a price information service, and b) agroenterprise information resources. In the first instance, the content of the page is focusing on those products that have been prioritized by the Local Agroenterprise Committee, and include panela, blackberry and milk products. Complementary information on the local information network and how it operates, and the activities and results of the information project itself are a lso included. The local communications network itself centers around the consolidation of groups in the community that are trained to manage information and provide the link between information provide in electronic form a nd its subsequent diffusion, using oth er communication means.The process of trying to establish a local information system has revea led a number of challenges that need to be faced in order for the promise of ICTs can be fully realized . Not least of these is the need for forming a range of partnerships or relationships that go beyond the purely local, where the project is being implemented, but includes organizations from regional a nd national levels whose business it is to supply and receive information. A further aspect relates to the need to develop levels of trust and confidence within communities that allow them to interact and communicate freely among themselves and with the communications group. Success in achieving rural populations that are fully integrated into the information society require an enabling environment that develops skills in areas such as team work, leadership, conflict management, and that provides basic physical infrastructure for bringing people together.Institutional models and policy options for establishing and strengthening rural ag.ro -enterprises and the ir support systems at the microregional leve lThe RAeD project has developed a 'territorial' approach that seeks to enhance the capacity of local institutions to facilitate enterprise development in a flexible, dynamic and coordinated fashion . This approach includes four components:l.The identification and strengthening of a working group comprised of diverse local organizations with common goals and strategies for rural enterprise development; 2. The identification and evaluation of market opportunities available to the 'territory' (see Output 1); 3. Participatory production to market chain analysis, consensus building with diverse actors along the chain, and design of a shared strategy to increase chain competitiveness, and 4. The identification and promotion of appropriate and sustainable business development services and markets for these services for the 'territory'.Following a period of approximately four years of research and validation work with partners in severa! countries, a field guide has been published on the third of these components: the design and development of strategies for improved market chain competitiveness. The essence of the field guide is to illustrate to development partners steps that can be undertaken to promote collective action to improve market chain effectiveness, and facilitate the conversion of market chains into 'value' chains. The method seeks to develop a common vision among actors for the long term, systematic strengthening of the value chain. An action p lan may include activities, covering research and development aspects, in production, post-harvest handling and processing, marketing, business organization and support service provision. The plan is likely to include short-, medium-and long-term activities that blend local knowledge and resources with externa! ones to improve value chain competitiveness.The guide is not meant to be used as a 'recipe' book, but rather to examine the principals on whích a successful strategy should be based. Tools are presented for collecting essential information for decision-making and for prioritising actions for the strengthening of the enterprise. The guide is already in use in Central Arnerica and E Africa (see Output 5) where it will be adapted to the needs and capacities of local partn ers.Output 5 .The RAeD project now has activities and internationally recruited staff on all three continents: Latín America and th e Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The opportunities for enhancing the capacity of our partners to design and develop successful agroenterprises, and entering into mutuallearning processes with them, are now global. Three aspects of the RAeD projects work in this area stand out this year:In Asia, the 'Small-scale agroenterprise development in the uplands of Lao PDR and Vietnam' (SADU) financed by SDC for four years got underway this year. The development of agreements with country governments, hiring and induction of intemational and local staff, and the selection and preliminary characterization of field sites are among the principie activities that have been undertaken. In April, the second regional three-week training workshop on 'Sustainable Agro-Enterprise Development in a Micro-regional Context' was undertaken with the Postharvest Technology Institute, Vietnam, the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), and the Users' Perspectives With Agricultura! Research and Development (UPWARD). 24 participants from 4 countries participated in the three-week workshop. Among the participants there were severa) from partner institutions with which the SADU project will interact.The concept of the \"Learning Alliance\" for establishing a novel relation with major development partners was initiated in 2002. A Learning Alliance is a model of mutual learning between research and development institutions, with a view to enhancing the rate of take up of innovative concepts, methods and technologies. During 2003, alliances were continued with CARE Nicaragua and CRS East Africa (nine countries). A new alliance was negotiated for Central America with CRS in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, CARE Honduras, the Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA) Honduras and GTZ Honduras. In the Andean Region a learning alliance is in the process of being established with CRS for Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and including Haití. Through these alliances, the project's findings are being tested, adapted and used by partner organizations to contribute to improved livelihoods for more than 100,000 poor rural families in Africa and Latín America. IDRC is supporting the analysis of the model through the project 'Diversified livelihoods through effective agro-enterprise interventions: creating a cumulative learning framework between CIAT, development NGOs and donors in Central America' which was approved this year.The demand for technical expertise in the area of rural enterprise development is well illustrated by the fact that in 2003 the project in Central America and the Andean Region generated over US$30,000 by providing services through participating in project evaluations, undertaking consultancies on market chain analysis, project formulation and training. These resources are invested in research prod u ct development. The project has established a relationship with CATIE in Costa Rica for undertaking training on enterprise development. Two regional training courses on Jinking farmers to production chains have been undertaken in 2002 and 2003. In 2004 three further courses are scheduled. All of these courses are run on a full cost recovery basis.A typical use of the manual is described in section 1.1.2 below, where the tool has been used in Kampala to identify market opportunities for urban and peri-urban farmers.The manual is undergoing modifications in order to (a) respond to many suggestions from participants who have been trained in the MOl methodology during the last six years; and (b) adju st its content in accordance to the RAeD Project's four-module \"Territorial approach to ru ra l business development\" o r TA-RBD. The MOl methodology corresponds to Module 2 of the aforementioned territorial approach .The main changes underway are the following:• •The first section, on the regional biophysical and socioeconomic profile, will be eliminated from the manual a nd transferred to form part of the first module of the TA-RBD.The fourth and last section, which is a summary focusing on the design of lntegrated Agro-enterprise Proj ects (IAPs), will a lso be transferred to forro part of module 3 of the TA-RBD .The manual's participatory approach will be strengthened, by suggesting practica! ways of including representatives of actors such as small farmers, intermediaries, processors, etc. in the planning and execution of the rapid market study and the characterization of market options.From the start, the manua l will briefly expla in the difference between business concepts such as market research, pre-feasibility analysis, marketing management and new-produ ct development, since confusion has been observed among participants in the MOl workshops. The MOl manual incorporates themes related to the first two concepts.• A short section will be included so that practitioners will understand the implications of-and activities involved in new product development.• Greater emphasis will be placed on animal-based and agro-industrial products throughout the manual.The section on the \"rapid market survey\" will be expanded to provide more guidelines relative to key questions for actors in the marketing channels.The manual will explain the implications of new product development to small farmers, in terms of risk and demand for management and/or marketing expertise.The final version of the MOl manual will be ready by December 2003. However , a large proportion of these modifications have already been incorporated into abbreviated versions of the methodology, such as a multi-media computerized format (Tool Book), and a PowerPoint presentation with notes. The purpose of these abbreviated versions is to enhance diffusion and is available, together with the complete manual, on the project's web page. These abbreviated versions of the MOI manual have already been tested in several training works hops.Kampala, the capital city of Uganda covers an area of 197 km2 and has a population of 1.2 million inhabitants with a gr owth ra te of 3.9 percent per year . Kampala in th e 21st century is the showcase of Uganda's economic, political and social transformation. However, the rapid growth of Kampala raises concerns that the migration of people towards the city is bringing with it a migration of poverty a nd th at often-unpla nned urban growth is accompanied by environmental pollution, health risks and a decline in the quality of life. On the other h a nd, the growth of the city represents a large expansion in markets for agricultura! products. Many of these markets offer a comparative a dvantage to producers a nd processors located within or clase to the city. Urban agriculture is widely practised both within the municipa l bou n daries and periurban areas. In 1992, it was estimated t h at 56 percent of the land in the city is used for agriculture (Maxwell, 1995b) a nd that a pproximately 70 p ercent of all poultry products con sumed in Kampala a re produced in the c ity (Maxwell, 1995a).In 2002, as part of the Strategic Initiative on Urb an and Peri-Urban Agriculture (SIUPA) of the Consultative Group for International Agricultura! Research (CGIAR), the first oneyear phase of a project to strengthen a nd promote u rba n agricultura! systems was initiated with the goal of improving food security and the livelihoods of the urban poor in Kampala. This first exploratory a nd information gatherin g p hase of the project w ill be th e b asis on w h ich to develop a wider research and development proposal. The three components of the firs t phase are: i) An investigation of livelihoods and production systems; ii) An assessment of market opportunities for urba n a nd peri-urban farmers, and iii) An exploration of schools as extension service providers and as producers of high quality seed.The research described in this report deals with the assessment of market opportunities for urban and peri-urban farmers in Kampala. The purpose of the study is to identify a portfolio of agricultura! products whose production is technically and economically feasible by urban and peri-urban farmers and to establish the purchasing conditions for the identified products. Th e information generated will be s u bsequently used to stren gth en or create n ew micro-and small crop a nd livestock enterprises.The market opportunity identification process that is b eing em ployed h as been a dapted from the methodology desc ribed by Ostertag (1999) . It has involved the following steps: i) A participatory rapid urban appraisal to establish the socio-economic and institut iona l profile of the area u nder study; ii)A rapid market study t o capture opportunities for existing and potentia l crop and livestock products, a nd iii)An evaluation of the most promising options for urban and p eri-urban farmers.The third step is stíll in progress and the results a re not reported in the present report.The participatory rapid urban appraisal was under taken as a common activity that provided information for the livelihoods a nd production systems and the market opportunity identification compon ents of the proj ect. Four parishes, each representing differ ent socio-econ omic conditions (urban old , urban new, tra nsition from peri-urban to urban and peri-urban settings), were randomly selected from four of the five of ad m inistrative divisíons that make up Kampala. The criteria used for selecting parishes in each d ivision included: a) pr esence of crop and livestock enterprises, b) presence of farm produce markets, e} presence of NGOs working towards the empowerment of local communities, d) relative levels of environmental degradationfpollution, D population density and g) presence of local food processors.The main tools used in the rapid urban appraisal were focus group discussions, interviews with key informants and observation. A total of 190 farmers (86 m en and 104 women) from the four parishes participated in the exercise. Crops and Iivestock produced for income generation and household food security were identified. In addition, the scale of p roduction, market outlets, value addition and constraints for the various enterprises were determined .The rapid market study included the following activities: a) Defining strategies for the market survey. Based on the information generated by the rapid urban appraisal, the enterprises of majar importance to urban and peri-urban farmers were established and ranked. The Ansoff product-market growth matrix (Kotler, 1999) was used as a tool for planning the survey in terms of growth alternatives, based on th e perceived opportunities and constraints of urban and peri-urban farmers in Kampala. The following market research strategies were adopted:• Products whose demand exceeds supply • Prod ucts that are in scarce supply • Products t h at are currently sold by urban and peri-urban farmers • Alternative high value products that could be grown by urban and periurban farmers • Street foods b) Developing the research plan and corresponding tools. A matrix checklist of the above market research strategies against the different categories of market outlets (traders, markets, supermarkets, hotels, food industries etc.), from which relevant information could be obtained, was developed . Where available, secondary sources of market information were consulted. For primary data collection, questionnaires for each of the d ifferent market categories of respondents were designed, tested and adjusted. All of Kampala's 5 majar produce markets and 3 large supermarkets were included in the survey. In addition, 5 small supermarkets and a total of 21 small shopsjkiosks were randomly seiected from each of the five d ivisions of Kampala city. Top and middle range h otels have been in terviewed, and 5 food processors were selected based on the categories of products currently being sold by urban and periurban farmers. e) Data collection. The survey was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires to obtain the information required. The m ethods of contact were by face-to-face discu ssions in teams of two and telephone interviews. d) Data processing and analysis. Data were cleaned, standardised and manually coded. Analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) computer software.Based on the results of the rapid market survey, and for those options that loo k most p romising, more precise information on the market, the production characteristics of the products in question and their corresponding financia! costs and returns will be obtained. With this additional data, farmers will be asked to rate the different options against their own criteria for selecting enterprise options. This exercise is pending.Participatory rapid urban appraisal Table 1. 1 shows the existing agricultura! enterprises in order of their importance for income generation a nd household food security use, as well a s an indication of the ranking of enterprises based on the num ber of people involved. The results indicate that the most important income generating products in Kampala a re poultry (broilers and eggs), milk, pigs, fruits (ma n go, avocado, jackfruit a nd paw paw). cocoyam, mushrooms and leafy vegetables. There is no significant overla p between th e principal incom e generating en terprises and food security crops and livestock products produced for home con su mption . Among the important income gen erating enterprises, poultry and fruits a r e th e two categories of enterprise common across a ll urban jperi-urban categories.Table 1.2. summarizes the scale of operation, prices, market outlets and constraints faced by farmers fo r the p rincipal income-generating products. With the exception of dressed p oultry, pork meat and cooked cocoyam as a snack food, there is little value addition and there are n o sales to food indu stries. The relative scale of production conditions the type of market outlet that farmers are using for any particular product. Among the constraints, farmers mention ed lack of appropriate (cold) storage facilities and lack of capital, both of which limit the possibility to bulk production of higher value and perishable products (poultry, fruits, mushrooms etc.), and thus capture higher volume markets.Across the different groups (old urban, new urban, transition and peri-urban) it was observed that there was a definite gradient in terms of age, degree of responsibility, ownership of resources and equality of participation of men and women, and level of interest and motivation. In the old urban situation participants were younger, appeared to have time at their disposal, were alert and open to new opportunities and with very high expectations with respect to the project. There was also more equal participation of men and wornen in the discussions that were conducted in entirely in English. On the other hand, in the peri-urban s ituation, participants were more elderly, possessed more resources and had other commitments, which made them less disposed to invest more time than necessary. The men dominated the discussions that had to be conducted in local Ianguage because few people spoke English.In Tables 1.3., 1.4. and 1.5. the responses from all categories of market outlet have been bulked for the purposes of t his result summary.Table 1.3. shows that between 65-100% of traders in all product categories reported equal or greater sales cornpared to from the previous year.Table 1.4. indicates that there is demand for the crops and livestock products produced by urban and peri-urban farmers. This implies that these products could present an opportunity for urban and peri-urban farmers to increase their incomes if they can meet the demands of traders in terms of quality, quantity, continuity and price (see Table 1.5.). It also shows that demand exists for fruits and vegetables other than those being currently produced.Tables 1.2. and 1.5., illustrate that on average actual supply quantities for all products by urban and peri-urban fanners are less than the quantities demanded by traders, even the small kiosks that specialize in fruits and vegetables. This explains why most of the products shown in Table 5 are procured from rural dístricts where supplíes are sufficient and more reliable. This implies that urban farmers face two altematives: i) to confine themselves to the local or niche markets that they can supply with their present production levels, or ii) move toward collective action as a means to supply greater volumes to those markets indicating growth possibilities. In addition, the average purchasefwholesale prices of sorne of the products studied, like milk and pork, obtained from districts other than Kampala were found to be less than the farro gate prices of the same products produced in Kampala. This could be attributed to, inter alia, economies of scale enjoyed by extensive producers in rural areas (case of milk) or lower feed costs (case of pigs). On the other hand, there are certain commodities like poultry, mushrooms and fruits in which producers in Kampala have a comparative advantage because of proximity to feed supplies (poultry). and closeness to market that reduces transport costs and enables the timely delivery of fresh produce (mushrooms and fruits).Based on this analysis, it is possible to categorize the current products of urban and peri-urban farmers in the following manner: l. Those products with which farmers are meeting all the purchase conditions with respect to quantity, quality, continuity and price. Examples of these are poultry (broilers and eggs) and mushrooms. 2. Those products with which farmers are meeting requirements of quality and price, but are unlikely to meet the additional requirements of quantity and continuity in order for their enterprises to grow. Examples of these are vegetables and fruits. 3. Those products with which farmers are unable to compete in terms of price, quantity and continuity with producers from rural areas selling into mainstream markets. The examples of these products are pork and milk. The quality of these products, especially milk, is competitive and could be used as a lever to capture a share of the market that will pay higher prices for better quality.Peri-urban farmers would be better placed to make use of the opportunities identified by the market study that require land as a principal input (dairy, pigs, fruits and vegetables). However, it was interesting to observe the relative lack of motivation at the outset towards new opportunities, relative to those farmers from the urban areas. Whether this attitude might representan obstacle needs to be further investigated.Urban farmers were open to new opportunities. However, the study has been unsuccessful in identifying alternative products, beyond mushrooms and poultry, of high value and with a quick retum on investment that could be produced on reduced land areas.Overall, the study has shown that demand for a wide range of food products is growing in Kampala. This is to be expected given the rate of growth and economic development.While the marketing of food, especially fresh food, is still predominantly in the hands of small traders in produce markets, there is an increasing trend towards the 'supermarketization' of the food system (Weatherspoon and Reardon, 2003). Urban and peri-urban farmers, at least those with whom the project has interacted , have not yet been able to capture a share of this new market that has very demanding purchase conditions.As mentioned in the introduction, this study is part of an exploratory and information gathering process whose results will form the basis of a wider propasa) to support urban and peri-urban agriculture in Kampala. The preliminary results show Kampala farmers to be market oriented and that there are opportunities for them to grow their enterprises and thereby improve their livelihoods. However, there are many obstacles for them to overcome.To be able to achieve the goal of improved livelihoods will require an integrated and concerted program that brings together a number of support institutions that can provide appropriate services to urban and peri-urban farmers. At present this type of integrated program does not exist. The inter-institutional and multidisciplinary nature of the present project is an attempt to bring together the most appropriate actors, from both research and development.With respect to the marketing and enterprise development component of this initiative, local capacity needs to be built to provide the following functions:l. Market information that can help farmers decide what crops and livestock products to produce and where to sell ; 2. Microfinance schemes to motívate expansion of production and the creation of new enterprises; 3. Technical and business extension and training services; 4. A legal framework that will encourage appropriate and environmentally sound agroenterprise activity in urban settings, including access to suitable Jand resources; 5. Support for farmer organisation for collective action in marketing and the provision of other essential services (inputs etc. ).Contributors: Carlos F. Ostertag, Diego Izquierdo, Sandra Rivera Collaborators: Edward Gironza, Luis Armando Ortiz, Carlos A. Quirós, José Ignacio Roa, Comité AIR CIPASLA (Colombia)Since implementation of the methodology presented in the MOl manual requires considerable business expertise and time, severa! altemative MOl tools are being proposed that are simpler and s h orter, but that will certainly limit the amount and/ or quality of information collected. These proposed tools in fact reduce the need for facilitators, consultants or coaches to guide small farmers throughout the MOl process. These are as follows:Rapid Market survey, focusing on identifying key market trends and parameters for selling traditional and potential commodities or agro-industrial products, such as quality, quantity and continuity required, plus potential purchase price. It consists basically of the first section of the MOl manual, which can be used as a stand-alone tool, with sorne minor additions.Market visits are simple activities but that have to be adequately planned and coordinated and can provide very good information. Generally, participants select one or more products, either traditional or new, and then focus in identifying the key market requirements for selling these products. A prototype is underway, based on the experience with small farmers in the Cabuya! reference site in northern Cauca, Colombia. The Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) initiative implemented in Africa uses market visits by farmers as part of the process for selecting income-generating option for farming communities (see section l . l. 4 below).Local Market Intelligence System (LMIS) is a simple tool that allows pertinent market information to be collected on a permanent basis. As the basis for developing the prototype, a survey was applied in October and November 2001 to 30 small farmers in 20 first-and second-level organizations, including several local agricultura! research committees (CIALs in Spanish) in Honduras, Colombia, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador.The purpose of the survey was to identify what type of information relative to incomegenerating activities is really valuable for small farmers; how and where they would like to receive this information, and to what extent they are willing to pay for it. Thís tool poses the challenge of being sustainable in the long-term. A report on the survey will be avaílable in December 2003, and a LMIS prototype will be developed and tested in one or more of CIAT's reference si tes, and possibly in oth er locations.Over the past two years, the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) initiative, an ínter-project collaboration of CIAT's Rural Innovation Institute, has been implementing in Eastem and Southern Africa a community-based approach for identifying market opportunities and building profitable agroenterprises as part of a wider project aímed at enhancing the innovatíon capacíty of rural communíties. The selection of options for generatíng income requires collectíng informatíon that will help the farmer make decisions appropriate to his/her situation. The methodology that is being tested was described in last year's annual report.Communities have selected enterprise option after undertaking market and enterprise visits where an 'income group' or 'market committee' is facilitated by local GO and NGO partners to conduct participatory market research (PMR) to find out information on varieties and types of products that are in high demand or scarce supply and which they think they could introduce to their area, either now or in the future. The final selection of options is undertaken in the presence of the whole community when the market research group presents the results of the market and enterprise visits, production costs and the prices they can expect when they sell. An evaluation of the different options, including cost-benefit analysis and other benefits that the option can bring to different groups, is made for farmers to select the enterprise options with which to start.In 2003 the number of communities groups with which we have been working was increased from 7 to 19, with a total of over 800 farmers . Table 4 summarizes the different enterprises and food security options selected by different groups. It can be seen that farmers tend to select existing c rops (beans, peanuts, potatoes) and small livestock (goats, pigs, poultry and rabbits) for market-oriented production. After PMR, however, farmers are beginning to select relatively new enterprises as well. For example, in Lushoto farmers selected zucchini, a new crop in their communities; while the groups in Kabale decided to develop their enterprise around pyrethrum ( Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium).Pyrethrum is a perennial crop whose flowers a re used to extract pyrethrin, used to make a natural insecticide for household insect pests. The demand has continued to grow in the world market as a more environme nta lly friendly insecticide for household use. Pyrethrum is a relatively new cash crop in Kabale district with a good potential for providing regular income to resource-poor farmers, especially women. In most cases the a rea occupied by pyrethrum averages 0.06 to 0.25 ha, and the crop is often grown without additional inputs. Agro Management, a prívate company, began processing pyrethrum in Uganda in 1993. The pyrethrin-extraction factory now draws on harvests from about 525 ha of local farmland, providing work for 10,000 people. Yet this corresponds to only about one-third of the plant's operating capacity. Thus there is a good opportunity to develop pyrethrum as a profitable, income-generating enterprise.Although sorne farmers had heard about it, the crop was not grown in the pilot communities so they did not have information on its agronomy and marketing. During the participatory diagnosis (PO) process, pyrethrum was selected as a potential new income-generating crop. During the PMR process farmers visited Agro Management and pyrethrum farmers in other communities to collect market information. Pyrethrum was evaluated against other options such as coffee, potatoes, pigs, chickens and beans, and was finally selected because of its Jow investment cost, guaranteed market and regular income. In addition, because pyrethrum is typically grown in high altitudes, farmers saw an opportunity to use their hilltops, which are usually a bandoned land. There were a lso sorne other criteria such as an opportunity for bringing bac k more men into agricultura! production by providing them with an income-generating crop with the hope that they will also contribute to other agricultura! activities. However, the market of pyrethrum was Iimited to only one buyer, Agro Management, which purchases pyrethrum flowers from registered farmers on a monthly basis.Farmers in the two communities were well aware of the financia! risks of dealing with a single local firm that currently has only one large client. It was not long befare Agro Management experienced serious financia! and marketing problems, leaving the company unable to pay farmers for the flowers. Despite this case of market failure, farmers' decisions and reaction on whether to stop or to continue with the enterprise are mixed, as expressed by farmers in the two pilot communities: \"There is no business without risk. We'll try something else if there is no market for pyrethrum.\" We are happy to have started with research befare going into mass production. This has saved many farmers from losing a lot of money, land and labour. We have leamt that it is better to start on small scale befare expanding.\" •we know that development and income generation are processes that don 't happen ovemight. Des pite the hardships and risks, we're all ready toforge ahead and make a go ofit. \"These local distortions and market failures were dealt with through farmer experimentation on a collective learning plot that helped minimize risks to individual farmers. The farmers are now looking for alternative enterprises and are acquiring sufficient capacity to evaluate market opportunities, select enterprises and conductContributor: Carlos F. Ostertag, Diego Izquierdo Collaborators: Briceida Rojas (PDPM), Sandra Rivera, m embers of the youngster s associationThe regiona l Colombian NGO \"Progra ma de Desarrollo y Paz del Magdale na Medio\" (PDPM) is supporting an \"association of youngster s\" located in Barrancabermeja, in the formation of a cassava -based enterprise and requested that the RAeD project execute a market study to identify market opportunities in the cassava commodity c h ain .The methodology followed was the following:(a) Based on a previous market study conducted by CIAT, the RAeD Project focused on processed (frozen and refrigerated) convenience cassava products;(b) The market study was planned jointly by the RAeD project, PDMP a nd the youngsters association.(e) Secondary information was collected a nd a n a lyzed;(d) Questionnaires were designed and sent to PDMP and the youngsters association for feedback;(e) The sample (types of actor s to be contacted and geographical coverage) was jointly determined;(f) Jnterviews were conducted in Barrancabermeja, Bucaramanga and Bogotá with supermarkets, restaurants, in stitutions, and food processors. Representatives of the youngsters association participated in the work team;(g) Processing a nd a n a lysis of information;(h) Preparation of the report, including results, conclusions a nd recomm endations.Recommendations included a m a rketing s trategy.The market study of frozen and refrigerated convenien ce cassava foods demonstrated that (a ) this cassava food category is growin g rapidly, but is re latively s m a ll compared to similar potato-based foods; (b) these products a re premium-priced and the main consumers have high incomes; (e) the actors in the marketing channel a re willing to purchase quality products from the youngsters association, (d) the main products in this cassava food category a re croquettes and large cassava fries, (e ) Congelagro is the main enterprise in this category, with th e \"Rapi\" brand.The main RAeD Project recommendatio n s were : (a) that the new youngsters enterprise should focus on marketing croquettes and large cassava fries initially in nearby markets; (b) plant capacity should be small but enough to capture a Ja rge portian of the relatively small nearby markets; (e) th e group should receive adequate business training and coaching.Contributors: Carlos F. Ostertag, Jhon J. Hurtado, David Brand, Ángela Arenas .Collaborators: Sergio Ma fia (consultant)The Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project (RAeD) made an electronic survey of the information needs of different actors linked to rural agro-industry in Latín America. The survey was undertaken through the Prodarnet electronic distribution list of the Latín American and Caribbean Program for Rural Agroindustrial Development (PRODAR, its acronym in Spanish) and respondents were requested to indicate areas in which the supply of information was deficient. From this survey the theme of Fair Trade was selected as one of importance to users in providing information that will help in making rural agro-industry more sustainable through the identification of export opportunities.The RAeD Information System on Fair Trade has taken four years to develop and is now available on the Internet. Its object is to offer technicians and nongovemmental organizations (and through these to small-scale rural producers) access to information on equitable trade movements.The user will find up-to-date documentation about the Fair Trade movement, obtained from an exhaustive search of the available information on the Internet and from key contacts, on themes such as its history and evolution, how Fair Trade functions, the most important players, the beneficiaries, and new tendencies in the trade. Information on organic agriculture, which is directly related with the Fair Trade movement in the present market, is also available. Other information presented includes results of searches for the best links and on-line documents about Fair Trade and the organic movement, the development of a specialized glossary, news, and a calendar of agricultura! shows and events. Among the components of the system is a directory that contains 160 organizations attached to the movement, from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.At present, this system (Spanish version) can be viewed on online in: http: 1 /www.ciat.cgiar.org/agroempresas 1 espanol 1 mercados / sistema atis/ inicio .htm.The directory is being translated into English. In addition, an article on how to export, a list of the organizations of rural small-scale producers attached to the movement in Colombia, and sorne case studies of organizations related with the movement will soon be available online.Tools, methods, and information for developing appropriate postharvest technologies for small-scale rural agro-enterprisesThe purpose of Output 2 is to generate information and tools that facilitate the selection and development of appropriate technology for the postharvest processing of agricultura} products that have been identified as having potential for increasing income for smallholder farmers . Activity 2.1 seeks to develop user-friendly information systems that permit users' access to basic information required to take decisions about postharvest technology selection. Activity 2.2 is focused on adapting, developing, and implementing a set of participatory methods for undertaking postharvest technology research with clients and beneficiaries in a given socioeconomic context. Although these methods were successfully developed for preharvest research, the principies are only recently being adapted for the postharvest area.• The Rural Agro-industria l Research Group (GIAR, its acronym in Spanish) model for establishing local capacity among farmers and rural processors for accessin g and a dapting post-production technologies h as been successfully tested with panela (raw sugar) production in the Cauca reference site in Colombia. The GIAR model has been incorporated into a project propasa! developed by CORPOTUNIA, a local NGO partner with whom we developed the model, for improving the competitiveness of panela producers in small holder farming systems. The proposal, which has b een financed by the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, will serve to validate and refine the m ethodology u sed . The Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project (RAeD) took advantage of the opportunity for diffusion that electronic information offers to build an Inform a tion System on Cassava Posth arvest Management and Processing. This involved compiling technical and economic data, an inventory of processing m a teria ls; equipment used in the processing, design of the processing plants, and investment costs. It has included information from other organizations that h ave worked for over 30 years in the development of cassava-the main source of calories for about 500 million people.The main objective of this tool is to serve in the wide diffusion of the theme for researchers extension agents, and for cassava producers, rural micro-enterprises, governmental and nongovernmental planners, and all those interested in the tapie .The system subdivides into four components: (1) the crop, (2 ) postharvest management, (3) processing, and (4 ) use of information resources , where sorne of the documents on cassava published by our Project are listed with the most important of those circu lated by other CIAT projects and related institutions.At present, this system is online in Spanish at: http: 1/\\V\\V\\v.ciat.cgiar.org/agroempresas/ espanol/tecnologia/ sistema yuca/inicio .htm and in English at: http: / f\\\"'WW.ciat.cgiar.org/ agroempresas/ espanol /tecnología/ sistema_yuca/ english/ in dex.htm (Figure 2.1.). We expect this system will soon be housed in the Web sites of CLAYUCA and ClAT's Cassava lmprovement Project. The re lease will be made with a marketing strategy that will be supported by the databases of CLAYUCA and the Cassava lmprovement Project users .l n formatlon l yat eno 0 11 f'08tharvoat \"'\"'llement alld l>f'OCO.slftl of Cauava• t&:t~ to u~ Jt• <t w tri~,..,\" t;rh p,,,.,.. m\"\"\"'\"' .. \" .. .,,lrto . ,_, !4-:Jt.'\"liH•' -'0 ot C~ío'..l...;.. rh;. ~o(tof rto$1 .. ~\"''\" f~ u.., 1Mlf141>n, u.,., . .  During processes that CIAT is advancing with small-scale producers in the Cauca department, a main limitation for rural agro-enterprise development was identified as the deficiency in availability of support services for the small-scale producer, such as technical and managerial assistance, training, credit, communications, and information services (see Section 4.2 . 1 ). Amongst these, access to information for correct decision taking and training prove indispensable.In view of this need, over the past 15 months CIAT's Information and Communications for Rural Communities (JnforCom) and Rura l Agro-enterprise Development (RAeD) Projects, have been developing the SIDER Project. Its objective is to develop local capacities of Small-scale Rural Producers (PPR, the Spanish acronym), and in the organizations that support th em, through guided use of new in formation technologies (Internet), medía, a nd traditional channe ls of communication. It is hoped that, through these tools, these actors will be able not only to generate, access, interchange, and take advantage of useful information, but also socialize it with their communities through the construction of a communication network that strengthens support services in the framework of rural agro-enterprise development.In 2003, SIDER has developed in parallel two of its principal areas: Electronic Information Product and Local Communication Network.This is a Web site being developed through a series of steps constru cted to facilitate the active participation of the beneficiaries, mainly SIDER's communication groups and other organizations, which during the diagnosis phase and other initiatives have manifested their knowledge and information needs in enterprise a nd production themes. Results of the diagnosis and the process advanced in the project sites have permitted identification of four components for the Web site:(1) Price information service: This seeks to supply farmers with information on market prices for their a rea so that they can plan their production according to demand, program their harvests in seasons of greater profitability, and negotiate in conditions of better equity with traders. This service is divided into four components: (1) Selling price information for producers of the region, (2) Production costs, (3) Commercial contacts, and (4 ) Commercial structure for main products of the region. (2) Agro-enterprise information resources: A mode l, using information on panela, is being prepared; a lso, information is being considered on milk products, mora (blackberry), plantain, anturios (anthuriums), and cassava. This model is being constructed with technological (crop, postharvest, quality) and managerial information (sources of finance, credit, organizing experiences, legislation, a mong others). (3 ) Our network: A space developed by the communication groups that form the local network of SIDER. It presents information on its members, its process of formation and training, its community, its needs and projects, and the means of communication that will be produced. ( 4) SJDER: Describes the project, its objectives, results, and the general process.This network, defined as a group of persons and organizations trained to manage local information and integrated workfor strengthening its social relations, is developing in the municipalities of Caldono, Santander de Quilichao, a nd Suárez. In these municipalities, the Communication Groups, who make up one of the network actors, are made up of farm ers or their relatives (indigenes, mestizos, and Afro-Colombians), aged between 14 and 70, are following a training plan anda work plan in communications. This year, the training plan developed by the communication groups has permitted working principally on two aspects:(1) Consolida tion of t he groups through a workshop for group strengthen ing, which permitted the definition of its organizational aspects (group name, mission, vision, princ ipies of the organization, and work pla n). and inter-grou p meetings to establish local relations, the construction of contents for the Web site, and analysis and reflection on the process; and (2) Development and improvement of their abilities in Internet management and in the production of broad casts, not with intention of converting them into radio producers, but to \"quiet\" anxieties and support initiatives on the possibilities of this communication re so urce in this community ( 13 programs are being developed on themes such as crops, production, and commercialization and use of sugarcane subproducts).With each group, a work plan in communications was defined that was directed at the construction of a strategic vision of communication for the area, to define and implement a local communication strategies. In developing the plan, the project has been socialized in the communities, and other actors have been joining the network, such as community organizations, governmental organizations (GOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), formal and informal educational institutions, local communication media, and initiatives promoting rural development.The linking of these actors to the network to facilitate information transfer, knowledge generation and proj ect sustainab ility is supported by the institutional part of the project, which has made a departmental inventory of organizations, and prepared a folder presenting the project. At present, approaches are being made to the Centro Regional de Productividad e Innovación del Cauca (CREPIC) and the Faculty of Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications and of Social Communications of the University of Cauca.Figure 2.2. shows the relationship between the electronic product and the organizations that make up the local communications network. The development of a n information system such as SIDER requires p a rallel lines of work, not only those contemplated in the two areas of Web site construction and the local communication network, but also work between communication groups and other organ izations. This prem ise implies an effective initial development and resources that should be shared between new actors, who need to integrate as par tners of the process. This means that the consolidation of allian ces and agreements of both local and regional character becomes a priority aspect.The con solidation of local agreements and alliances requires greater presence in the municipalities to develop trusting and cooperative relations with the project.In this process , it is importan t to count on formal representation in these fora, that makes more dynamic the obtaining of resources and support for the work of the groups in the short term.Work with the communication grou ps requires multidisciplinary action, where the strategies for training on one theme (in this case communications) become part of a complex that includes many aspects of community development-team work, leader ship, developme n t of rela t ionships of t rust and cooperation, sustainability of groups, conflict management, support needed for oper ations, and the provision of infrastructure s u ch as places for meeting, a mong others. Ethnic heterogeneity in the composition of groups, levels of schooling, and gen eration differences make work with groups complex, and makes difficult the consolidation of strategies for th eir strengthening and s ustainability; for example, the inte rests of young people in moving to other places to study or work. Over the past 2 years, the Rural Agro-enterprise Development (RAeD) Project and the Corporation for the Development of Tunía (CORPOTUNIA) h ave developed the project \"Integral improvement of the rural agro-industria l chain of panela, with small-scale producers of the municipalities of Santander de Quilich ao, Suárez, and Caldono, northern Cauca department, as an a lternative for improving income generation\", fina n ced by the Programa de Trans ferencia de Tecnología Agropecuaria (PRONATIA) .Through this project the RAeD has advanced development of a methodology for building local capacity in rura l communities to validate a nd a dopt technologies for the ir agroindustries, known as Grupos de Investigación en Agroindustria Rural (GIAR, Rural Agroindustry Research Groups).The GIAR are a mechanism of active and real participation in the process of planning, validation, and dissemina tion of a technology to be incorporated into a productive activity. The GIAR a re m a de up of producers and processors, who, together with research or technology transfer organizations, prioritize the work criteria in an agroindustrial process. They participate in setting up trials, evaluations in processing units, discussion of results, and feedback to the community, which further the appropriation of the process within the rural population.In the municipalities of Caldono, Santander de Quilichao, and Suárez, the panela activity generates more than 50% of family income. In these municipalities, sensitizing the community to the objectives of the project and of the GIAR methodology was carried out as a first step in its development. Then five GIAR were formed (three in Santander de Quilichao, one in Suárez, and one in Caldono), of 12 to 14 people each, with women participating in al! groups. A further process of sensitizing was begun with these GIAR on the process of participative research, and their partas producers/researchers.Part icipative and technical diagnosis, carried out in the community, identified difficulties faced by producers and the crop (low yields), in the processing (low capacity of traditional small furnaces, indiscriminate use of firewood and rubber), and in the markets (low quality and lack of appropriate presentation). Based on this diagnosis, four project objectives were established. They a re presented and described below.In each municipality, the GIAR selected the main varieties used and defmed criteria of the crop (high yield, absence of pelusa (small hairs that irritate the skin), resistance to pests and diseases), and the process (high sugar content, presenting organoleptic characteristics) for selecting a variety of sugar cane. The varieties selected were evaluated by farrners and processors, in the field and during processing, for the production of panela in block and powder form; three varieties were selected in Santander de Quilichao y Suárez, and two in Caldono. From the results obtained, three demonstration plots (one for each municipality) were established with the best varieties.A technological propasa! of a small furnace developed by the ClMPA Center and adapted by CORPOTUNÍA, with the support of CORPOICA and other institutions, was utilized to improve two furnaces in Caldono, two in Suárez, and one in Santander de Quilichao (three of these with pyrotubular boilers and two with air-cooled boilers). The GIAR evaluated the traditional furnaces before improvement (low production, high consumption of firewood, subutilization of bagasse, great physical effort, and high cost of production), and then applyin g the technological proposal.The average results obtained by the GIAR in the evaluations of the three municipalities showed: an increase of 117% in furnace A (air-cooled boiler), an increase in production from 21 kg to 65 kg of panelafhour, and a decrease in bagasse consumption of 37%. Furnace B (pyrotubular boiler) showed an increase of 209%, from 21 kg to 65 kg of panelafhour and a decrease of 37% in bagasse consumption. In both proposals, the consumption of tires and firewood is totally eliminated, and the panela obtained had good organoleptic characteristics (texture, color).Training on the technological transfer process was given to three technicians of UMATAs, one Técnico Agricultor Extensionista (TAE) assigned to the project and elected by his community, two students from Cauca University (Agro-industry), two furnace builders, one metallurgic equipment builder (stills, boilers, pre-cleaners, receiving tanks, troughs), and a carpenter.The techn ological proposal was transferred to 100 producers, fa miliar with the characteristics of the furnaces, who took part in the participative evaluations. Construction of the five ovens a lso h as bene fited more than 80 families, since the furnaces are commu nity models in which, on the average, 15.2 families produce panelaIn five \"panela processing units\" (sugar milis), implementation of the BPM proposal was co-financed , and transferred to about 60 families. As a resu lt of the proposal's implementation, to d ate four more sugar milis h a ve adopted it.In local and regional markets, placing was achieved of 125-g and 25-g, round a nd flat presentations of panela, a n d the process was standardized to obtain lemon-flavored panelaThe points a bove have been presented to a n average of 12 0 producers through demonstrations in the field and in the sugar milis. The RAeD Project and CORPOTUNÍA led the forma tion of a panela technical committee for northem Cauca, with the participation of state (UMATA), mixed (CORPOICA and ICA} , and prívate (CETEC} organizations. After forming this committee, CORPOTUNÍA a nd CREPIC led a departmental initiative that applied the strategies for inc reasing the competitiveness of production chains with small-scale producers of the RAe D Project . As a product of this methodology, the committee achieved the fina n cing of a project for 14 municipa lities, through the Ministry of Agriculture. The technological proposal developed with the PRONATIA project, described u nder 2.2.1, a nd in which the GIAR groups took part, has permitted the integral improvement of the panela agro-industry chain of n orthern Cauca d e p a rtment, a nd the living conditions of its members. This a lternative, because of its costs, is not within r each of lower income producers, w ith furnace of low capacity (average 19 kg of panelaf hour) a nd high conta mina tion (3 kg wood /kg panela, which r epresents about 10,800 kg wood f month con su med from about 8 00 kg of tires/ month) .To address this situation, the RAe D Project a nd CORPOTUNÍA d evelop ed a project, financed for 1 year by the Fon do de Financiación en Ag rodindustria Rural (FIAR) of the Programa de Desarrollo de La Agroindustria Rural para América Latina y El Caribe (PRODAR), to offer a low-cost technological a lternative of greater efficiency (more panelaf hour), a nd less environmental impact.The proposal was develo p ed with GIAR support in Santander de Quilichao a nd Caldono municipalities, where the improvement of two furnaces was co-financed . Furnace efficiency increased from 19 kg/h to 37 kg/h of panela.; wood consumption decreased by 62%, bagasse by 36%, and tires were completely eliminated. Thus, based on the technical results, profitability models were m ade of eight different technological alternatives.After analyzing results with the GIAR, these were shared with about 60 producers of the two municipalities, which has motivated the community to improve its installations through its own funds or associations. Santander de Quilichao has a concentration of about 64 panela sugar mills, at different technological levels (from agro-enterprises producing 15 kg/h to sorne processing 70 kg/h) with structured social networks, and communal action formally only beginning to appear, but consolidated. The study's objective was to deepen the understanding of the SIAL's structure, functioning, and dynamics and, with the actors involved , to jointly construct and develop integral action plans that permit improving competitiveness. The most outstanding results of the study are presented below.In this zone, transfer of knowing what to do h as been mostly through the family, from grandparents to parents, and from these to their children; only on few occasions has it occurred between panela producers. In the las t decade, the NGOs of the zone have actively participated in this tra nsfer of technology process, in many cases as the transfer channel.The SIAL is made up of d iverse actors t h at can be grouped in the following categories:• Main actors     This SIAL presents important strengths, such as obtaining a 100% natural product as a result of using sugar cane from crops managed with clea n production technology; a significant leve! of coordination and good relations between producers; the presence of local support services for the development of the AIR; and an important presence of NGOs that support training, give technical assistance, and help attain resources for producers of the zone, among others.At present, the commercialization of panela continues to be a highly important activating element that generates determining links between panela producers of the region. Involved in this is the association of paneleros that has an interest in defending the interests of the panelero union in procuring the best living conditions for its members. The panelero union feels supported in its different areas of development (organizational, technological, and marketing), AIR being the motivating factor.Likewise, the improvement of technological processes through the processes of validation and technological adjustment by means of the GIAR continues to be a highly valuable element, bearing in mind that technology exists that has generated great interest in being adopted.On the other hand, sorne weaknesses are presented, such as problems of public order that can directly affect the process of association, diversity in product quality, and low level of investment and production in most of the panela sugar milis.The research of this SIAL is important not only for its scientific connotation, that is to say, the verification of hypotheses that are presented in turn to the Integrated Systems, but also for its importance as an axis of development in this zone that constitutes, directly or indirectly, a majar source of employment of the rural sector in the municipality, and is an option for increasing the aggregate value of agricultura} products, above all in such depressed zones as those described. For further information on this project see Section 3.2.2.lnformation, methods, and recommendations for the design and operation of efficient and effective organizational schemes for small-scale rural agroenterprises and their support servicesThe purpose of Output 3 is to provide information , methods, and recommendations for the design and operation of efficient and effective organizational schemes for small-scale rural agro-enterprises and their support services. Two levels of intervention are contemplated. Activity 3. 1 considers s implified business-oriented methods and tools for the interna! organization and operation of existing and new rural agro-enterprises. Activity 3 .2 looks at the social cohesion and integration of individual agro-enterprises, seekin g to define option s for achieving successful linkages to expanding m a rkets and for organization of raw material supply. This research is carried out through cross-case and cross-country analysis, and interaction with partners in the reference sites, and provides useful information on lesson s learned, best practices, and different options for the delivery of these services.• The PowerPoint presentations on business and marketing orientation a nd financia! analysis of rural agroenterprises are among the materials most downloaded from CIAT's web page. These tools are being up-graded and packaged more a ppropriately for our clients. RentAgro is a product t h at responds to t h e generalized lack of information regarding cost structure and profitability levels for agricultura! and agro-industria l projects and enterprises involving small farmers. Furthermore, many development organization s and small farmer organizations lack the n ecessary training to m a ke fina ncia) projections and calculate p rofitability parameters for production projects. These activities are becoming more important with the increased demand for and u se of business plans.RentAgro, an interactive computer program, has been designed to help users without a financia! background prepare financia! projections and profitability models for agricultura) and agro-industrial projects a nd enterprises. The software is a userfriendly inter-phase in Visual Basic between the u ser and an Excel electronic worksheet, and includes a Help tool. The complete software product includes a CD-Rom with a pamphlet, a 100-page illustrated user's manual, and a technical systems manual.The software features a step-by-step procedure to financia! modelling, including subroutines for calcula ting working capital, investment, interest expenses and residual asset values. Among the main components are: investment and working capital; sales volume; conversion factors; variable costs; fiXed costs; interest and tax expenses, etc. The software will calculate numerous financia! parameters, such as IRR, NPV, gross margin, net margin , break-even point, and ratios such as sales per labour costs, etc.A multidisciplinary team including a business expert, two agro-industrial engineers, two computer programmers, a graphic designer, a lawyer andan editor have participated in the development of RentAgro.After pilot-testing the software beginning 2003, severa! problems or bugs were detected, sorne of which have a lready been solved. The installation procedure for the main versions of the Windows operational system is still unresolved. Another majar activity has been the re-conceptualization and editing of the user's manual, plus updating of the graphics. The user's manual will include a separate glossary to explain basic financia! terms and concepts in a simple and graphical fashion. Material from a PowerPoint presentation developed by C.F. Ostertag on development of financia! profitability models will be used. This financia! presentation is by far the most downloaded document in CIAT's web page in the last two years.Once the final version of RentAgro (software and user's manual) is obtained befare March 2004, the legal registration of RentAgro will be conducted and a marketing plan will be developed and executed. An ongoing discussion is whether this financial tool should be a free public good, and if not, what should be the basis for pricing it.Development of a guide on the business and market approach for small rural producersContributor: Carlos F. Ostertag, Osear A. Sandoval Collaborators: Vicente Zapata Most small farmer organizations in developing countries lack a sound business and market approach. The RAeD Project h as repeatedly observed this in the field and during training workshops and institutional strengthening processes with the participation of small farmer organizations and rural development agencies. Many of these organizations are initially founded with a social and community character, but when they evolve into economic and business organizations, they generally do not understand the importance of acquiring a salid business and market approach to fulfill their objectives. Furthermore, they lack the necessary direction and information to incorporate this essential approach into their organizations. Even many rural development agencies lack the basic expertise and knowledge to promote the business and market approach.Usually the successful performance of business activities is essential to provide longterm social benefits for members of these small farmer organizations. The purpose of this guide is to provide rural development agencies and farmer organizations with a simple manual or guide to help train them and their clients (small rural producers and farmers), on what a business and market approach is and how they can acquire this key approach.The procedure for developing th is guide is as follows: l. Based on a bibliographical review, the content of existing PowerPoint presentations on the subject, prepared by C.F. Ostertag, was improved and notes were added.2. A general structure and format was proposed for the guide, with the support of V. Zapata from CIAT. The sections included are:a. Importance of the business orientation in rural business development b. The administrative process c. The impor tance of the mar ket approach d. How to acquire a market approach e. The marketing chain focus in rural agro-industry f. Business tools for p lanning and promoting change 3. The content of the guide is being developed . Text drafts are reviewed and edited internally in th e RAeD Project. An effort is being made to keep the language simple and provide examples related to rural agro-enterprises. In a ddition, the idea is to avoid guides that are too long.4. Exercises and the n ecessary annexes will be d eveloped.It is anticipated that a fina l draft of this guide will be ready before March 2004.Contributor: Carlos F. Ostertag, Juan F. BaronaHaving a sound m a rket approach is essential for adopting a business orientation. To have a market approach, the small farmer organization needs knowledge a nd expertise on marketing resea rch, marketing intelligence and basic m arketing con cepts and strategies. As in the previous point, mos t small farmer organizations and even rural development agencies are lacking this.Hence, the purpose of this guide is to provide rural deve lopment agencies a nd fa rmer organizations with a s imple manua l or guide to h elp train them and their clients (sma ll rural producers and farmers), on the fundamentals of marketing for rural agroenterprises.The procedure for developing this guide is similar to the one presented in the previous point. The sections included in this marketin g manual a r e as follows:l. Introduction to m a rketing for rural agro-enterprises 2. Evolution of the bus iness concepts 3. The marketing process 4. Management of the four marketing variables S. The marketing planThe use of thi s manual can be complemented with PowerPoint presentations on each of th e m arketing variables (product, price, distributio n and promotion) plus other key marketing function s (market research, new product d evelopment), which have a lready been developed by the RAeD Project in previous years.It is anticipated that a final draft of this guide will be ready befare March 2004.Contributors: Carlos F. Ostertag, Clara Feijóo Collaborators: Vicente Zapata, Proyecto Emprender (Ecuador), Fundación El Alcaraván, CIPAV, COPRACAUCA (Colombia)One of the results of the current trend in rural development towards a greater business and market approach is the growing demand for good business plans. This demand comes from credit and funding sources such as govemments, commercial and development banks, and international cooperation. Unfortunately, although secondary information on this topic is widespread, the RAeD Project has observed that rural development agencies and small farmer organizations usually lack the necessary knowledge and skills to prepare good business plans. This observation has been made during institution al strengthening workshops and processes with NGOs and small farmer organizations in the past five years.As a consequence, the RAeD Proj ect had already developed PowerPoint presentations on the development of business and marketing plans, based on a bibliographical search. These tools have been used in previou s institutional strengthening processes with development NGOs.However, the RAeD Project has identified the u rgent need for better training materials focused on rural agro-enterprises. The package or set of products proposed for this purpose is the following: l . A special Business Plan format, accompanied by 2. A detailed guide for completing this format, 3 . A PowerPoint presentation with notes on Business Plans, plus 4. A complete example of a Business Plan for a rural agro-enterprise, in this case the sugar-cane processing association of Santander de Quilichao, located south of Cali, in south-western Colombia.RentAgro is an important component in this product package because it is a key instrumen t for developing financia ! projections and calculating severa! profitability parameters, which are essential parts of a Business Plan.6. The RAeD Project's p resentation on Strategic Planning can be used optionally, since it presents relevant material related to business plans (industry and business a n alysis, iden tifying strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, stating the mission, identifying competitive s t rategies) .Work has already advanced in the development of products 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. It is anticipated that the complete final draft of this training package will be ready befare April 2004.Strategic pla nning is a key in strument for promoting collective action in rural areas and also a sound business and marketing orientation among rural organizations and agroenterprises.In year 2001, the RAeD Project had deve loped a PowerPoint presentation on this tapie for regions, communities and rural agro-enterprises. This year this presentation was improved by adding new material, especially in the section related to agro-enterprises.Together with the aforementioned prese ntation on \"Development of Financia! Profitability Models for Rural Agro-enterprises\", the presentation on \"Strategic Planning for Regions and Agro-enterprises\" is the most d ownloaded document in CIAT's web page.The RAeD Project recommends that training workshops on development of business plans should begin with a presentation on Strategic Planning because it introduces key concepts for the development of good business plans.A guide or manual on strategic planning will be developed in 2004.Contributors: Carlos F. Ostertag, Lizbeth Lasso, Mireille Totobesola, Luis Hernández; C. Wheatley (consultant) Collaborators: Alvaro Nieto, Adriana M. Ochoa, Silvana Espinosa (consultants), Juan F. Barona, Trinidad Daza , Rupert Best This work centers in the analysis of success factors for eleven rural agro-enterprises in Latin America . Eight of the case studies correspond to rural agro enterprises in South America that export part or a ll of their products, whereas three of the case studies pertain to rural enterprises in Central America focused on interna! markets. Two versions are being complemented and edited. The shorter version, with summaries of the case studies, will be published, whereas the longer one containing the complete case studies will be placed in the project's web site as a public good.Currently, the analysis, conclusions and recommendations are being revamped and a timetable for publishing the shorter version is ready. It is anticipated that the longer version will be placed in the project's web site in befare February 2004 and the book containing the shorter version will be published befare April 2004. As already mentioned, the RAeD Project has identified that small farmer organizations in developing n ation s are lacking, in general, a sound business and market approach that seriously limits their ability to generate income and social benefits in a sustainable manner. However, previous experience points out that the adoption of this business orientation by these types of organizations is usually a difficult and long-term process. The methodology for the Action Alliance scheme is as follows:l. Presentation of the proposed Action Alliance scheme to the two small farmer organizations involved. Sometimes, participants suggest immediate changes in content andjor sequence of modules.2. Establishment, in each si te, of a guiding business-development committee. This committee acts as liaison between CIAT and other supporting institutions and the group.3. Review of t h e content and sequence of the severa! thematic modules proposed in the scheme. Each module includes one or more weekly or bi-weekly workshops that are thoroughly documented, followed by the execution of tasks by participants, with coachin g from the supporting institution. Results of the tasks are analyzed in the next module to promete learning. The original trainingaction modules included were the following: a. Getting to know each other b. Training in basic business concepts (business and market approach, marketing basics, a simple accounting method, financia ! profitability models) c. Strategic planning d. Leadership and team work e. Rapid market surveys f. Design of one or more business plans g. Execution of one or more business plans During the execution of the Action Alliance process, severa! modules were added, according to the needs of each of the farmer organizations. For example, in the case of Barragán and Sta. Lucía, a new organization had to be formed and, therefore, modules were added centered on analyzing alternative legal formats and selecting one, plus accompanying the group in the process of establishing the new organization. For both cases, a module on organizational strengthening was also added.4. Definition of times and sites. The workshops can be conducted on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, with duration ranging from three to eight hours. Eight-hour workshops are best conducted in two days.5. Execution of the various thematic modules. As already mentioned, sorne modules are added. In addition, the supporting institution (in this case the RAeD Project) also functions as a business advisor or consultant during the strengthening process and time has to be anticipated for this.The following are sorne of the difficulties that have been encountered in the process: (a) in the case of Barragán, resistance to the concept of cooperative and demoralization due to the negative experience with the previous organizaban, COOAGALBASA; (b) resistance by many members to assume responsibilities within their organization; (e) the low or wide range of educational levels within each group; and (d) lack of continuity in participaban by small farmers , especially during the initiation of the process.Overall, the Action Alliance process has been relatively successful because COOVERSALLES is successfully sellin g cold milk for the first time; income from dairy production in the Versalles region has increased by at least 70%, the cooperative has expandcd its membersh ip by 30% a n d is actively searching for n ew markets for their milk and other agricultura! products such as fruits and vegetables. In the case of Barragán, despite a recent failure and demoralization , the remaining group has founded a new association (Asociación La Montaña) and is actively seeking new markets for milk, fruits, tubers and vegetables. show that while these cases meet the m ajority of necessary con ditions to be considered a SIAL they present severe limitations in terms of collective action, organization and a bility to compete in a globalized world . Both cases will be included in furth er publications on the SIAL topic led by Franc;ois Boucher of CIRAD.Institutional models and policy options for establishing and strength ening rural agro-enterprises and their support systems at the m icroregionallevelThe objective of Output 4 is to generate appropriate models, instruments, and policies to facilitate the pr ocess of establishing a sustainable agribusiness system a t the microregional (municipality, watershed, etc.) level. These systems a re composed of dynamic, market-oriented agro-en terprises and businesses, and a ppropriate local support services, both of which build u pon localleadership and externa! support. In the process of building the local agribusiness system, it is important to maintain an updated business portfolio, create and strengthen loca l capacities, and design and execute corresponding research and pre-investment projects.Activity 4.1 focuses on studying methods for integrating production , post h arvest processing, and marketing functions arou nd a given product or commodity with appropriate organization structures and support services.Activity 4 .2 centers on the design and s trengthening of a local support system fo r th e development of rural agro-enterprises within a given territory. This system, made up of business development support services, includes support for new business ideas and a mechanism for identifying, setting priorities, and developing m a rket opportunities through the execution of integrated agro-enterprise R&D projects.• Field guides for Integrated Agroenterprise Projects (IAPs) a nd the formation of local interest groups for rura l enterprise development publis hed in Spanish. These are being translated into English for validation in E a nd S Africa and Asia. The territorial approach proposed by CIAT seeks to contribute to the development of local capacities to facilitate rural enterprise development in a flexible, dynamic a n d coordinated fashion. This a pproach includes fo ur components: l. The identification and strengthening of a working group composed of diverse local organizations with common goals and strategies for rural enterprise development. 2. Identification, management and development of market opportunities available to the region. 3 . Participatory production to market chain analysis, consensus building with diverse actors along the chain and design of a shared strategy to increase chain competitivity. 4. Identification and promotion of appropriate and sustainable business development services and markets for these services for the region.The entry point for this approach is the identification and consolidation of a local working group.The other areas of work are then subsequently developed in collaboration with that group.The formation of a working group around the theme of rural business development is an iterative process that varies depending on the organizations present in the area, previous experiences and the necessities of the local population. In our experience, these groups usually include strong representation from producer organizations and NGOs with somewhat lesser participation by public and prívate sector actors. Membership in the interest group and the organizational forro are decided by the participants, as is the demarcation of the territory in which the group seeks to work. To facilitate these decisions, two specific activities are carried out with the working group at the beginning of the process. First, a shared profile of the territory including differentiated livelihood analysis, biophysical, social, organizational, institutional, economic and political concerns is developed with the use of participatory rural appraisal tools and existing secondary data. The collection and analysis of this information provides an arena for consensus building and eventually decision-making among group members. Based on this information, an action plan is developed which includes the elaboration of a shared vision, mission and values, organizational structure and rules and an initial action plan. At this stage, tapies like market orientation (producing what can be sold as opposed to selling what we produce) , entrepreneurship, participation and vertical integration versus business alliances are debated . This process allows group members to discuss and analyze past experiences and decide on what actions are appropriate in the future. Once the diagnostic is carried out and the action plan approved, a final step in this process is the design of a simple, needs based monitoring, evaluation and learning system.Once the working group exists, one of the first questions is what products andjor areas are most likely to generate positive results for the region. Answering this question requires two types of work: specific market studies and the on-going management of market intelligence. In the first area, CIAT has developed a market opportunities identification manual (Ostertag 1999) which seeks to respond to three main questions: (a) what products -either existing or novel -show strong market demand in terms of increasing volumes and prices; (b) which of these products can be produced in the region given the biophysical characteristics, infrastructure, access to productive resources and existing livelihood strategies; and, (e) of those products identified in (a) and (b), which are of interest to smallholders. The end result is a portfolio of options, which respond favorably to the three questions. The size and diversity of this portfolio varíes depending on market conditions, biophysical and social feasibility and farmer interest but normally includes from five to thirty possibilities.In the area of market intelligence, CIAT seeks to build local capacity to generate, manage and disseminate key market information on a permanent basis. This capacity involves not only direct market visits by interest group members but strategic alliances with national market information system programs and the elaboration of dissemination tools appropriate to the rural context.The range of tools developed by CIAT in this include the following: Focus on new 4-5 3 2 3-4 products (1 -5)The end result of a market opportunity identification study is a basket of possible options for development in the selected region. At this stage, the working group presents these options to farmers representative of diverse livelihood strategies who prioritize these options based on local criteria in a participatory fashion. In the past, local selection criteria have included strength of market demand, product profitability, environmental impact, perceived ex ante development impact, organizations interested in the product among others. These criteria vary by region and livelihood group. Using local criteria the market options are ranked and a decision made on which option(s) to pursue first.At this stage the working group moves into the participatory analysis of the selected production chain using the Strategies to Jmprove Chain Competitivity with Smallholders field guide developed by CIAT (Lundy, 2003). This method facilitates the analysis of the market chain by the actors directly involved and, through this process, generate collectively owned information and a consensus for action. The scope of this analysis is somewhat broader than a typical sub sector approach in that includes not only the farm to market chain as such (production, post-harvestjprocessing and marketing) but also two important cross-cutting areas: business organization and the provision of business development services. Business organization and support services present in a farro to market chain are key to understanding the possibility of irnproving chain performance through the effective use of existing skills and services as well as identifying important bottlenecks that inhibit such improvements.The method starts after the selection of priority market chains based on local criteria and information generated in the phase of market opportunity identification. After that, specific market contacts are identified and a simple database constructed with relevant information about both market contact s (name, address, phone and others) and product conditions (quantity, quality, frequency, price and presentation). This is complemented by a broader identification of relevant actors in the phases of production, post-harvest andjor transformation, commercialization and the provision of business development services to participa te in the analysis of the chain. Information is gathered on the farm to market chain with representatives from the different links using participatory tools, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Initially each the participants in each section of the chain work in separate small groups in an effort to avoid undue influence by relatively better-informed actors. The information is reviewed by the actors, who identify and analyze critical points and propase solutions. At the end of the process, facilitated consensus-building workshops are held where all information is shared and discussed with the various actors with the goal of identifying positive synergies among actors, common interests and critica! points where strategic investments can achieve high returns.  Analyze critica! points -After the process of negotiation with actors occurs, an action plan is drafted which includes both research and development activities in the short, medium and long term. The goal of this action plan is to improve the competitivity and sustainability of the chain through the development of a common business development vision among various actors. Once a common vision has been established, specific development or research activities may be disaggregated into discrete project s depending on funding opportunities and donar interest while conserving a clear idea of where everything fits together.A final area of work in the CIAT approach is the provision of appropriate and sustainable Business Development Services or BDS. Based on the needs identified in the product specific farm to market chain analysis, a third CIAT methodology is currently in develop ment to promete the prov1s10n of effective BDS in rural communities. This focus covers fmancial, non-financia], formal and informal services and seeks to build functional markets for BDS that link specific demands with suppliers either at t h e local, regional or n ational level. By usin g the farm to market chain as a framework, the BDS services selected for strengthening or implementation can be clearly and con cretely identified, quan t ified and impact measured. Fieldwork is on going in Honduras and Colombia on this tapie but the basic focus is shown in Figure 4.2. BDS should be seen as a for-profit activity that complements on and off-farm employment. Potentially, functional BDS markets could not only inc rease local economic competitivity but also provide important opportunities for semi-technical employment in rural areas. Jdentification arid inclusion of informal service providers (producer experts in technical assistarice, for example) as well as formal (technicians and extensionists) in market and product demarid development. An effective local BDS market will probably consist of mar~y informal actors supported arid complemented by a lesser number of formal ones.• Need to improve the effectiveness of BDS, both formal and informal, with the goal of increased comp etitivity and sustainability. BDS should help facilitate positive gains in competitivity rather than maintain the status quo. • Use of partial and targeted subsidies to p romote innovative services. Subsidies should be focused on partially covering s tart-up costs (market studies, capacity building, promotion, etc.) and assessing and disseminating the impact of the services ra ther than subsidizing their direct provision. Services should strive for profitability but sorne m ay require on-going support given their strategic nature.Initial work is being carried out in with support from the New Zealand Agency for Intemational Development (NZAID) in this area in Honduras and Colombia.This concep tual framework continues to be validated with partners in Latín America, S and E Africa and SE Asia.  Related to 4.1.3 above, the objective of this activity was to propase and implement a methodology for execu tin g rapid baseline studies. This request carne from Corpotunía, a local development NGO t hat was hired by the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) to execute an income-generating project in the hillsides of the Cauca Department, in southwestern Colombia. The terms of reference required the preparation of a baseline study for five towns in this region, one being the control. Similar studies will be conducted after the first and second years of project execution and will be the basis for monitoring and evaluation of project impact.The RAeD Project proposed the following methodology, which was executed m two months: The formulation of a strategy to irnprove chain competitiveness is the result of the application of the methodology of the same name. Such a strategy constitutes an action plan for th e improvement of the competit iveness of a value chain formulated with the participation and perspectives of multiple stakeholders. It may include activities in both research and development in production, post-harvest j transformation, marketing, business organization andj or support services. Final strategies include short, medium and long-term activities, employ local or externa! resources and may be presented as a comprehensive p lan or in discrete segments to potential fmancing agencies. This method facilitates the development of a common vision among value chain actors for th e long-term, systematic strengthening of their economic activity. A total of twenty-six strategies for increased competitivity have been formu1ated since the design of the method began in 1999.A Field Guide was published in Spanish in October 2003 . As a result of direct fieldwork, the following principals have been identified as critica! for the formulation and implementation of competitivity strategies (Table 4.3.). Emma Gutiérrez and Mario Goethals (CTB), Raúl Navas (FEPP), Hipatia Nogales (SESA)The Belgium Technical Cooperation of Ecuador (CTB) requested our collaboration in analyzing four segments of the meat chain in northern Ecu ador (cattle, pigs, lamb and guinea pigs) or Phase 1, with the purpose of formulating an IAP to strengthen this key food chain in northern Ecuador (Phase 2). Since CTB imposed time restrictions for this IAP design process (three months), the RAeD Project had to develop and execute an alternative methodology that could not encompass meetings with al! of the actors in the meat chain. Therefore, the methodology considered meetings with small producers and separate interviews of the key actors, inclu ding the support system, along the four segrnents of the meat chain. However, it should be noted that severa! actors along the meat chain did meet and participated during the planning workshop of Phase 2.The methodology followed for the analysis of the meat chain segments (Phase 1) was the following:(a) Establishment of the research team;(b) Development of a graphical hypothesis relative to the links and actors in the Ecuadorian meat chain;(e) The basic strategy was to characterize the actors in each of the chain links and to study their relations with actors in the previous and next links;(d) Design of questionnaires and interview guides;(e) Design and execution of a parallel study on meat and animal fiows from the Colombian border;(f) Meeting in Quito with CTB and collaborating government and non-government agencies to plan the study and gather key information on the meat sector;(g) Field work involving interviews in Ecuador with actors participating along the four meat segments;(h) Meeting in Quito and !barra with collaborating institutions to inform of progress;(i) Definition of report structure and information processing at CIAT;(j) Development of a presentation summarizing the key results of the meat chain study, including characterization and diagrams of the four meat chain segments, key bottlenecks along the chain segments, and the corresponding recommendations;(k) Preparation of a draft report;(1) Two workshops with local institutions and experts to present key results and obtain feedback;(m) Modifications and improvements of the final report (n) Review of final report by the RAeD project and CTB;(o) Preparation of fmal reportThe methodology followed for Phase 2, centered in the formulation of an action plan to strengthen the four meat chain segments and eliminate key bottlenecks identified, was as follows:(a) Establishment of working team for this phase (CTB, two members of the RAeD Project plus two local experts);(b) Coordination meeting in Quito to define the format of the formulation report, timetable and responsibilities;(e) Workshop with small meat producers, requested by FEPP (a national NGO that had originally suggested this project formulation);(d) Planning of workshop for developing the project's logical framework; the basis for this workshop were the results of Phase 1 (main constraints per chain link and proposed strategies for their solution);(e) Execution of the three-day workshop in Quito with two facilitators and development of the logical framework; participation of development agencies, small meat producers, directors of state-managed meat-processing plants, and government agencies.(f) Preparation and presentation of the four-million-Euro project profile for strengthening of the meat chain in northern Ecuador, for approval by the governments of Ecuador and Belgium;(g) Preparation of the final formulation report by CTB and the RAeD project. The resulting project has a budget of four million Euros.The experience gained by the RAeD team through participation in this type of activity provides us with an important insight into the demands of major financing agencies, and their needs in terms of tools adapted to different circumstances. During the implementation of the current agroenterprise projects in the communities the inadequacies of support services have become a major constraint to the long-term sustainability of the new enterprises. The traditional pu blic sector service providers in rural areas (e.g. public sector agricultura! extension) are no longer present (due to privatization and a focus on larger scale fanners who can afford to pay consultancy fees), while other services have never been available locally through the public sector (e.g. marketing services). Funds were available in the existing project to perform a rapid diagnosis of existing service providers, a n d this revealed that sorne demand-based services are provided informally, but are of poor quality. The potential for a more demand-based provision of local services could exist, but the existing project (of the consortia and CIAT combined) does not include this within its scope (beyond the initial diagnosis already conducted). Hence, this work s tarted with a feasibility study for the establishment and initial operation of local support services for small rural agroenterprises, which include pilot schemes in Yoro and Cauca.During early 2003, local consultants in both Honduras and Colombia implemented a CIAT designed tool to analyze and understand local markets for BDS both from the supply and demand side. Participatory tools were u sed with selected supply chainsfive in each site -as well as with a number of existing rural enterprises and both for profit and not for profit service providers. The novel nature of the work led to a slower than expected implementation process in both sites. However, the fmal results of the studies -which feed into the design of strategies to improve the provision of BDS in each site-are complete and highly relevant.Result s from this work in both sites paint an interesting picture of the current status of BDS in these rural communities. For profit service firms in both sites tend to focus on tangible services with generally acceptable results but significant limitations in coverage due to transaction costs, distance and the ability of the client base to pay for the services. Not for profit service providers offer less tangible services at little or no cost for their clients but have sever coverage limitations (limited to project b eneficiaries) and serious sustainability problems (service provision is highly dependent on donor funds).In both sites, a clear gap exists between demand and supply. While demand -as described by diverse clients -moves towards \"non-traditional\" services such as legal consulting, accounting, processing, new product development and marketing, most service providers tend to continue to offer traditional, generic services with little or n o innovation.A second phase of the project will begin in late 2003 under the aegis of promoting better links between service demand a nd supply. To this end , project funds will be targeted• towards pre and post-service areas through a competitive grant mechanism managed by local agroenterprise working groups. Activities eligible for pre-service funding include the preparation of a service providers guide, market studies for services, capacity building among new or existing service providers, acquisition of tools or materials, service promotion and short pilot provision phases. Post-service funding is focused on evaluating service effectiveness, disseminating these results to clients and facilitating more effective communication between suppliers and their clients. In both cases, project funding will cover only a percentage of total cost with th e remainder to be picked up by the providers themselves.During 2004, the methods used in this project and the initial results obtained will be systematized, a draft field guide prepared and a training course run in Latin America.Contributor:Collaborators: SDC requested that the RAeD Project lead a three-member Externa! Review (ER) team for this innovative SDC-funded program, AGROPYME, which is being executed by the intemational Swiss NGO Swiss Contact in Honduras. AGROPYME represents an innovative scheme for promoting rural business development, with objectives and strategies similar to those of the RAeD Project 's, especially regarding the emphasis on a business and market orientation, and on the need for strengthening local RBDS. Therefore, this request was considered to be very pertinent for supporting the RAeD Project's research agenda.The methodology followed by SDC and the ER team was the following: l. SDC prepared the Terms of Reference and selected the ER team (three intemational consultants); 2. A briefing meeting was conducted and key documents were handed to the ER team. 3. The ER team defined a work plan, responsibilities and a report structure, the latter based on SDC's Terms of Reference. 4. The ER team carried out fifteen interviews with AGROPYME staff, institutional partners, SMAEs, and NFS providers, and visited sorne of the program's sites in Honduras. 5. Secondary information consulted included program reports, plans, promotional material, contracts, letters, agreements and information on cases and projects. 6. The ER team met on severa! occasions to structure the final report's conclusions and recommendations. 7. The RAeD project representative, head of the ER team, prepared the final report and a PowerPoint presentation, both submitted and accepted by SDC.The objective of AGROPYME is to improve the competitiveness of small and medium transformation a nd marketing enterprises in Central America and to strengthen the supply of non-financia! services (NFS) supporting these agro-enterprises. The objective of the First Phase (Orientation), which started at the end of 2001, is to define and validate working hypothesis, strategies and methods to improve the competitiveness of small and medium agro-enterprises (SMAEs) and to generate synergies b etween supply and demand of NFS for the processing and marketing of agricultura! and non-timber forest products, taking into consideration environmental and gender aspects .The AGROPYME team is very compact, comprising one international staff, two national support staff, and a technical back-stopper. The activities conduced by AGROPYME include the following:To strengthen SMAEs, favoring those t hat can have a potential impact on smallfarmer hou seholds in marginal areas.To strengthen the supply of specialized NFS for SMAEs in the processing and marketing of agricultura!, animal a nd non-timber forest products.Participation in the coordination and exchange among similar programs and projects, as well as strengthening of a policy dialogue.The hypotheses implicit in the AGROPYME strategy, proposed by the externa! review team, are as follows:• Hypothesis l. It is necessary to strength en the supply of NFS to promote competitiveness of the SMAE sector.Hyp othesis 2 . In Honduras, there exists a sufficiently large base of agricultura! and agro-industrial SMAEs to stimulate the market for NFS. This hypothesis was rejected early in Orientation phase and forced a change in the program's strategy.• Hypothesis 3. A subsidy fo r the demand and supply of NFS is required due to the low buying intention of SMAEs a nd the low quality of avai1able NFS.Hypothesis 4. If NFS are freely hired by the demanding SMAEs and under a cofmancing scheme, their pertinence and quality will increase s ignificantly.Hypothesis 5 . If there is good information on final product market demand and a good business plan, it is feasible to access available financia! services or donations. Hypothesis 6. 1t is possible to substitute part of th e fresh vegetable imports with a competitive supply from local small producers.Hypothesis 7. 1t is possib1e that groups of SMAEs increase their income, u nder contracts with companies specializing in the export of products for n iche markets.The general AGROPYME strategy encom passes the following:Focus on SMAEs based on explicit selection criteria.Identificaban of opportunities fo r SMAE products (import substitution, export windows a n d market niches)• Business p lan developm ent, as an instrument for obtaining financing from other sour ces, such as the official banking system and international cooperation.Strengthening of SMAE's management capacity.• From an inventory of NFS providers, towards the strength ening of sorne NFS providers according to demand from SMAEs.The main recommendations offered by the Externa! Review Team for the improvement of AGROPYME were the following:More emphasis should be placed in the validation of the implicit hy potheses, methods and in learning processes;The program should address environmental and gender issues in a more forma l fashion; The MOl process should be more structured and systematic.The program should place more emphasis on coaching and on strengthening management skills of participating SMAE managers.Likewise, the program should broaden the number of NFS providers that it strengthens.The monitoring and evaluation system should be improved and much more time should be dedicated to its implementation.The RAeD partícípatíon in this exercise has been important in generating questions that our own research needs to incorporate as we start to look at altemative RBDS models (see section 4 .2.1 above). Smallholders in Latín America have limited negotiating power in regards to other market actors due to information asymmetries regarding prices, quantities and quality and markets in general. As a result their goods are sold for prices that represent little or no profit. This situation is especially acute given the net decline of many commodity prices, in real terms, over the last five years and the constant increase of input costs. If these farmers had appr opriate information they could take advantage of market price windows, diversify into new, higher valu e crops, produce both appropriate quality and quantities, sell to specific market niches with better prices and identify opportunities for simple (grading and sorting) or more complex (processing) options of value adding.Work on a tool to provide information of this type to smallholders and their support agencies has advanced to the point of a beta ver sion of the software for Honduras. The too] is called IntelAgro (see Figure 4.3.). The resulting product mixes GIS tools for agroecological zoning a nd a market intelligence system to create a hybrid that will provide more appr opria te information for farmers and support agences. Information generated by the tool has been provided to partner organizations in Honduras since February 2003 and the test version of the software will be distributed in early 2004. The software is very much at prototype stage, and further development is required in the algorithms for predicting crop distribution (likely to be linked with GEMS), the quantity and quality of market data, and in the user interface. The following are being developed:Dynamic probabilistic predictions of crop performance for the region, which can be improved given user input of site-specific traits (e.g., local soil conditions). Information on accessibility to markets given crops' perishability. Automatic updating of market data given Internet access, or manual means of importing updates divulged on diskjCD-ROM. Creation of user proflles so that users can save their specific details .Multi-variable prioritizing of potential crops for each site based on crop performance, market access, economic potential, and others. System for users to plan their planting dates, examine possible prices at harvest and compare diverse markets.All functionality will be hierarchical in ease of use for non-experienced users, while more eager users are presented with options of greater detail and complexity.Enhanced capacity to design and develop succe ssful agro-enterprise projects, within CIAT and other institutionsThe purpose of Output 5 is to enhance the capacity to design and develop successful agro-enterprise projects, both among our partner institutions and within CIAT itself.Activities are contemplated at three levels. As m entioned above, the possibility of working with a wide range of partner organizations -in this case ranging from an intemational NGO to local NGOs, service providers and community organizations -provides an ideal opportunity for CIAT to leam about what works, what doesn't and why and future research demands in diverse contexts without having to initia te activities from scratch. In addition the fact that all the above structures existed prior to CIAT's involvement -a nd are proj ected to continue to work after ClAT finishes -improves the possibility that t he inputs provided will continue to be used, adapted and improved into the future. Finally, CARE Nicaragua covered all direct costs of this work thus freein g scarce project resources for research activities.Results achieved during fourteen months of collaboration are s ummed up in Table 5.1. actor's role is.-Field guide too complex for extensionists. CAREin the process of adapting approach in a simplified form.Lessons learned from the work with CARE Nicaragua include the following:Despite having a signed MOU and good personal relations between CARE Nicaragua and CIAT, significant changes were made to the r ules of the game as work advanced. Additional time is needed to assure that a ll the participants in the Learning Alliance Two key lessons regarding donor relations were learned. First, the need to involve donors in the establishment of the Learning Alliance -definition of goals, time frames and outputs -and thus avoid changes in the rules of the game in the middle of the learning process. Second, the need to conform to donor imposed timeframes. An effective process of managing up both with CARE Nicaragua and CIAT as well as with key project donors could serve to avoid these challenges in the future.Sufficient clarity as to roles and responsibilities was not achieved with CARE Nicaragua. As a result CIAT played a more proactive role than originally envisioned especially in areas such as process documentation and document preparation. This was partially due to communications probleros but also has roots in time pressure and organízational culture.It was more comfortable and quicker to fall back on a consultant model rather than implementing the roles initially planned both for CARE and for CIAT thus lirniting the organizationallearning by CARE staff in how to carry out analysis and documentation of participatory processes.A desire to cover various coroplex tapies effectively in a short amount of time led a less than optiroal learning process. This was especially clear in the first component of the Learning Alliance, which was never effectively concluded. During the second and third components, additional time -one or two months -was added to compensate for this problem. Possible solutions include a less ambitious work s chedule, simplified methods from CIAT-applying the rule of 'optimal ignoran ce'-and a clear discussion of the time implications of this work from the beginning with all participants not just project coordinators.The Learning Alliance with CARE Nicaragua did not clearly specify differentiated learning mechanisms for participant groups. In work that involves a range of talents, backgrounds and interests -from local community organizers, development practitioner s, and development management professionals to intemational scientists-a diversity of learning needs is to be expected. This should be confronted at the beginning of the collaboration and effective, differentiated learning tools designed with each group.How can we best disseminate lessons learned beyond the circle of direct participants in the process? This is relevant not only for community leaders who answer to their neighbors but also to extensionists and managers in development organizations who need to justify their work plan and for scíentists who wish to share new knowledge with colleagues. Simplified tools for process and outcome documentation and sharing at diverse levels are lacking and should be developed for future Learning Alliances.In a similar vein, the diversity of participants merits the design and use of diverse, appropriate training materials. A 'one size fits all approach' is not effective here. CIAT, as a CG Center that values research and theory, tends to produce training materials too complex for use at the community or even extensionist level. Simple and adaptable materials are needed -as explained in the two previous points-to this end. Joint design of training materials between CIAT and development partners may be a good way to advance in this direction.Justas not every farmer or extensionist wishes to be an entrepreneur, not all are suited nor wish to participate in a Learning Alliance process. Care in selecting appropriate people with sufficient interest and time to participate in the entire process is key. In the case of CARE Nicaragua, participants showed a high leve! of capacity and commitment yet sorne organizations changed their participants during the process, truncating learning and forcing other participants to wait while the new arrivals got up to speed. Dealing with this issue -both in managerial and personal terms -at the beginning of a Learning Alliance facilitates a more effective learning and development process.Contributor: Rupert Best Collaborator: Shaun Ferris (Foodnet) , Tom Remington (CRS-EARO)The Learning Alliance established with CRS-East African Regional Office (CRS-EARO) and Foodnet that was reported last year h as continued during 2003. Two additional workshops have been held and a summary of the three workshops held to date is presented in Table 5.2.Between the 2nd and 3rd workshops a process of technical backstopping and progress monitoring by facilitators (RAeD and CRS regional staff) in the countries has been established. In the second semester of 2003, visits were made to Uganda (Gulu), Tanzania (Mwanza), Kenya (Mbeere) and Madagascar (Ansirabe). The present status of the projects in each country is shown in Table 5.3.Based on the monitoring visits and the appreciations of the participants in the 3rd workshop, the major lessons learned to date and issues that are arising from this experience are:In a multi-country alliance such as this, it cannot be expected that all countries will progress at the same rate Turn over has been high. 45% of participants at the 3rd workshop had not attended previous workshops. The need to maintain key persons and strengthen country partners, whose leve! of personnel tum over is expected to be lower, is recognized as being important.Country programs have appreciated the need for in-house expertise in agroenterprise development. A number of programs have hired market or enterprise officers.Ownership by the CRS country participants and their partners has increased as the process has progressed and tangible results are being observed. In sorne countries, CRS is now recognized as having a capability in market and agroenterprise developrnent and other government and non-government organizations are seeking their support. • Participants have appreciated the importance of and are seeking improved communication and exchange of experiences, with more frequent backstopping and monitoring visits.There is an uneven level of participatory, communication and facilitation skills among participants. This should be an area to receive attention in the future. The participants in the workshops have been predorninantly male, with only one woman out of the 35 persons that have attended and participated in the alliance. • Fieldwork to practice skills is one of the most valued aspects of the workshops by participants.Process documentation is an area that requires attention. At present, there is no motivation for countries to document their experiences and this is a task that is being taken up by the regional facilitators. Simpler procedures for process monitor ing a re required so as to rnake it easier to share experiences among countries.  lt is important to note that sources of existing good practice may be interna! to the Leaming Alliance (ene or more of the partner organizations, for example, wi th experience in the tapie) or externa! (literature review, practice of other research or developmenl organizations or other third parties). The key issue is identification ofrelevant good practice and the devclopment oftools lhat allow its application within the context ofthe Leaming Alliance.Of particular impor tance is the potent ial impact of Learning Alliances on vulnerable populations such as the rural poor.While rural people's organizations do not par ticipate directly in this proposal, all partn er organizations manage important projects that work directly with large populations of vulnerable rural people. Increased efficiency and effectiveness in their programming should result in improved development outcomes and, finally, in more options for dignified rural livelihoods. By providing a common framework for learning and action, the propasa! seeks to add va lue to these activities in favor of the rural poor.A final specific reason for Learning Alliances comes from CIAT itself. As pressure mounts from donors for more effective development outcomes from research findings, the international research centers are avidly searching for effective mechanisms. The Learning Allíance concept is one attempt to advance in this direction and, as such, could contribute to improvements not only in research focus (i.e. help CIAT identify its comparative advantages and niches vis a vis development partners) but also in the díssemination of good pract ices for collaborative learning to people and organizations with sufficient capacity to facilitate effect ive change. More effective links b etween CG Centres and majar international NGOs could lead to significant lea rning and change processes that favor the rural poor.The geographic focus of this work is Central American. Initial emphasis wili be placed on Honduras with complementary work occurring in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Possible spill over effects are expected for Ecuador, Peru and Haití. Beyond the Americas, lessons learned for this work wíll feed into Learnin g Alliances in Eastern and Southern Africa and new alliances in Vietna m and Laos.In organizational terms, links will be forged or strengthened between CIAT's Rural Agroenterprise Development Project, international development NGOs, a university and donar agencies in Central America. Existing links to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CARE, and GTZ active in rural enterprise promotion in Central America will be strengthened. Relationships with the Universidad Nacional Agrícola of Honduras will be established. Links to and communication with key donar agencies in the area of rural enterprise development in Honduras will be established in collaboration with the IDRC Honduras Initiative2.The above-mentioned partner organizations can be disaggregated into specific geographic and project contexts at the nationallevel as shown in Table 5.4.Honduras has becn selected as the focal country for interaction with donors due to the existence o f various donor forums and mesas focused on rural development and agriculture. S pi llover efTects bet ween d onor offi ces and offi cials in Honduras are expected in other Central American countries Traditionally CIAT has worked directly with local organizations at a small-scale (i.e. municipality). Why does this project propose linking to intemational NGOs rather than working at the local scale? General advantages of working with intemational NGOs include their coverage, skilled staff base, ability to access significant complementar-y development funding, experience and potential for rapid expansion of lessons leamecP. In the specific case of this project, the partner organizations possess two important additional attributes. First, all share a strong focus on building local organizations' capacity and, eventually, shifting towards development facilitation rather than direct implementation.The desire for this philosophical shift is clear in all partner organizations; however, the practica! achievement of it in the field varíes tremendously. Second, working with strong, experienced partner organizations facilitates effective processes of negotiation between research and development agendas. When working with local organizations, CIAT controls the relationship and agenda due to power imbalances; negotiating with strong partners is one way to learn how to make research more demand sensitive.There are, however, certain disadvantages inherent to working with intemational development NGOs. Principal among these are their dependence on donors for project funding, a need to conform to project log frames and relative inflexibility in trying innovative approaches.The resulting pressure to produce short-term, concrete, quantifiable results presents a conundrum for Leaming Alliances as it favors recycling existing practice that may be of limited effectiveness as opposed to innovating. This issue needs to be explored further with the p artner organizations to identify appropriate ways to mitigate pressure for short-term results in the context of this project.The project works with three types of boundary partners: development agen cies , scientists, and donors. Partner development agencies include those listed in Table 5.4. with possible changes over the project's lifespan. Scientists include other researchers, projects and institutes at CIAT with whom the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project interacts. Donors include the intemationa l agencies represented at diverse donors rural d evelopment forums and mesas in Honduras.For successful Learning Alliances, several principals should be kept in mind.Clear objectives based on the needs, capacities and interests of the participating organizations and individuals must be defined. What does each organization bring to the alliance? What complementarities or gaps exist? Wha t does each organization hope to achieve through this collaboration? Answers to these questions expressed in an overarching cooperative agreement is a helpful first step, however, a clear understanding of organizational cultures a nd how to collaborate effectively is often only achieved through practice.Expansion of lessons leamed with these partners can be c ither out scaling or up scaling. In out scaling, the geographical coverage ofthe knowledge expands lo new areas. Up scaling, on the other hand, is an organisational process by which lcssons leamed influence the way an organisation works at a higher leve!. lntemational NGOs with their intemational scope providc a unique opportunity to achieve both out se aling and up scaling and thus large -sea le impact. Working with local organi7..ations docs not provide this scopc.A Learning Alliance seeks to benefit a ll parties; therefore resp onsibilities and costs should be shared. This is imperative at the beginning of s u ch relationships where funds for out scaling (from the research side) or training (from the development side) are often tied to inflexible project budgets. In the future, j oint proposals for funding may present a good vehicle for supporting these activities.Rural communities are diverse and, as such, there are no set development answers. Learning Alliances view research and development outputs as inputs to processes of rural innovation that are place and time specific. Methods and tools will change as users adapt them to their n eed s and realities. Understanding why adaptations occur, if they are positive or negative in terms of livelihood outcomes and documenting and sharing lessons leamed is the goal.Learning Alliances have diverse participants ranging from rural women to extensionists to NGO managers to intemational scientists. Identification of each group's questions and its willingness to participate in diverse aspects of learning processes is key. Flexible but connected m ethods -ranging from participatory monitorin g and evaluation to tried and true impact assessment-are needed.Rural development processes stretch over many years or decades. To effect meaningful change and to understand why that ch ange occurred requires long-term, stable relationships capable of evolving to meet new challenges. Trust, generated through effective results, between researchers, development practitioners and donors is the glue for these relationships. The transaction costs involved in establishing and maintaining Learning Alliances and their long-term nature indicate that quality should take precedent over quantity.From this framework, the following research questions can be identified.Research Questions How can Learning Alliances assist in identifying a n d sharing \"good-practices\" for rural enterprise development, facilitate processes of adaptation by diverse partner organisations and highlight gaps for further research? How can Learning Alliance assist in the definition of comparative advantages or appropriate roles for CG Centres on the research to development continuum? Is a \"Learning Alliance\" good practice for promoting and s upportin g Institutional Leaming and Change in the area of Rural Enterprise Development? What are the key con straints to more effective cumulative learning within research and development agen cies, between research and development actors and across these actors in a s pecific geogr a phical context? How can these be overcome? What is the potential of partners in a Learning Alliance to explicitly leam about gender, environmental and social aspects of rural enterprise development? How can process documentation, analysis and sharing of lessons leamed be facilitated a mong participating organisations across diverse geographic areas? What constitutes \"good practice\" in the communication of Learning Alliance results that en gages and influences boundary partners in an effective fashion?The project hopes to exert influence over three specific groups of boundary partners: researchers, development practitioners and donors. For each group, s p ecific outcomes are envisioned as shown in Table 5.5. Severa! potential challenges confront the executio n of this p roposal and the use of its results. Project execution may be hampered by: (a) lack of complementary development funding for rural enterprise development project s for partner organizations; (b) competing agendas between learning alliances and existing donor-funded development projects; (e) a n inability of CIAT to respond in a timely and effective fashion to p artner needs; and, (d) limited interest of donors in a learning appr oach such as t his.The use of proj ect results faces the majar challenge of changing existing practice of researcher s, d evelopment practitioners and donors. Any of the boundary partners may decide that this approach is too time or relationship inten sive and opt for continuing with existing practice.Learning Alliance with CIA T's IPRA Project in the Ande an Region Contributor: Carlos F. Ostertag Collaborators: J ase I. Roa (IPRA) Funded by Kellogg, the RAeD Project and IPRA a r e execu ting a bu siness tr aining process under the Learning Alliance format, targeted mostly for technical staff of support organizations working with CIALs and a few leaders of second-level small farmer participatory research organizations.Participants are from four Andean countries, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Two workshops were conducted last year, the first one focused principally on basic business concepts and the MOI methodology, and the second one on IAP design. As homework after each workshop, participants executed MOI studies and designed IAPs, together with CIALs in their respective work sites.During 2003, the RAeD Project contacted the participants in their respective countries to review their work on IAP design and visited the CIAL project sites. The products of IAPs designed included maize or corn, poultry, patato chips, and native potatoes.It can be concluded that CIALs can indeed evolve into rural enterprises but require much more support in the form of training, coaching and funds. Local service providers should offer this support. The need for developing business plans and obtaining access to credit was clearly identified during the visits. Together with IPRA, the RAeD Project decided that a major priority was to plan and execute a workshop on business plan preparation.Learning There is a current trend that consists of strengthening the business and market orientation of rural development efforts. These development efforts are also searching for methods to promote empowerment and commitment of small rural producers. Beginning 2003, the NGO FEA, funded by the oil industry and operating in the eastern plains of Colombia, contacted the RAeD Project in search of support for strengthening their institutional capacity in these two vital tapies.The objectives of this Learning Alliance is to strengthen the institutional capacity of FEA in rural business development and in the process, to learn more about (a) the operation of development NGOs, and (b) research demands and challenges when working with small farmers in market-oriented schemes.The methodology involves two one-week workshops with technical personnel from the FEA, one on the RAeD Projects TA-RBD and the second one on Basic Business Concepts and Planning Instruments. A work plan was jointly developed in the second workshop, focused on the implementation of the four modules of the TA-RBD by FEA personnel with the accompaniment of the RAeD Project. Analysis and documentation of the process was a lso considered in this methodology.To date, both workshops have been conducted, and FEA personnel is in the process of preparing the regional biophysical and socioeconomic profile. It should be noted that this Colombian NGO has confronted serious problems related to violence and insecurity.Among The frrst four-day workshop was held in March and centered in presenting a summary of the TA-RBD and to train participants in the MOI methodology (second module of the TA-RBD). Participants were most inter ested in the characterization matrices of the MOl manual. Since they have already chosen production chains to work on, they are less interested in the process of identifying new market opportunities. The second threeday workshop was conducted in August and focused on training participants on the preparation of business plans. It should be noted that the tapie of this second worksh op was modified; originally it was to be on the design of IAPs. Participants, belonging to seven NGOs, associations and academic institutions, were trained on business plan development and developed three business plans, one for each province encompassed by the Proyecto Emprender. These business plans concentrated on the products blackberry, poultry and hay packs for cattle forage.The third workshop, held in November, centered in the area of RBDS (module 3 of the TA-RBD), and how to d evelop actions plans for strengthening them. The obj ective of this a lliance is to strengthen the business and market orientation of the MARENASS Project, a large government-executed and IFAD-funded project operating in the hillsides of southern Peru.Although this project has a natural resource conservation focus, MARENASS is very interested in reinforcing its income-generating (or rural business development) component.One of the main activities in this CIP-CIAT collaboration is to validate methodologies for identification of marketing opportunities for small rural producers (CIAT) and related to participatory marketing of t raditional products (CIP), through a Learning Alliance scheme contemplating training, execution, feedback and learning. The idea is also to look for ways to integrate both procedures. However, it is quite clear now that Marenass requires support on other business topics such as business and market orientation, marketing basics, production chain analysis, cost accounting, profitability models, and preparation of business plans. In fact, participants in this second workshop already expressed their interest in receiving training on development of business plans.On September 10-11, a two-day workshop was conducted in Cusca with 20 technical personnel who are regional supervisors of technical personnel operating in 360 communities throughout the Andes of southern Peru in the departments of Cusco, Ayacucho and Apurimac. Altitude ranges from 2,000 to 4 ,200 masl. The workshop focused on the themes of \"identification of marketing opportunities for small rural producers\" (module 2 of our \"Territorial approach to rural business development\") and on \"participatory marketing\". The event included presentations and group exercises and practices. In the final evaluation, participants recognized the need for this type of business training.Previously, CIP (Sonia Salas) had conducted a workshop in Cusca on Outcome Mapping and had visited Cotahuasi to conducta \"rapid participatory d iagnosis\" and an analysis of the marketing chain of woolen hats, a traditional artisan product in the zone, to identify key bottlenecks along the chain . Two chain links were defined as critica!, the processing and marketing ones, and in-depth studies will be undertaken. Afterwards, an action plan will be developed to strengthen this traditional chain.Based on the analysi s of the MARENASS Project's needs and demands, the following steps are being proposed:(a) As an assignment, workshop participants will execute th e two methodologies in their work sites. The first methodology (CIAT) can be used to identify production alternatives for díversíficatíon, and also to ídentífy market potentíal for tradítional products. The second methodology (CIP) is useful to identify market opportunities for traditional products (for example, woolen hats). One group of participants will work on the first case, and the other on the second one.(b) The next workshop (number three), wíll have three sectíons spread during four days: in the first one, participants will present the results of their assignment, with a subsequent discussion; second, new material will be presented in two days, this time focused on basic business concepts, such as business and market orientation, basics of rural agro-industry, marketing basics, new product development, cost accounting and profitability models; and third, another task will be assigned to prepare participants for the next (fourth) workshop (e) The fourth workshop will focu s on chain analysis and development of business plans.In arder to maximize quality time during the workshops, reading material in the form of summary presentations will be handed to participants with an anticipation of a t least two weeks, and its lecture will be a must for a ll participants. The event included presentations by CIAT and CRS on their working strategies and plans; presentations and analysis of on country projects; presentations and visits to two successful agro-enterpríses; a SWOT analysis for each country and the preparation of a plan for the Learning Alliance process. The latter included four worksh ops during a one-year period, to be held in Lima and Quito. The workshop tapies are the following:Workshopl: Workshop 2:• Workshop 3:• Workshop 4:\"Basic business concepts\" and \"Territorial analysis\" \"Market opportunity identification\" and \"Design of integrated agroenterprise projects\" \"Strengthening RBDS\" and \"Preparation of Business Plans\" \"Monitoring and evaluation\"The four modules of our \"Territorial approach to rural enterprise development\" are included in the latter workshops. The group assigned top importance to the activity of systematizing and documenting the learning process. The view is that participants to be trained in the workshops will in turn train other staff members in their respective countries and will jointly implement the methodologies and procedures in their work si tes.Activity 5.2. Enhance the awareness of the potential of rural agro-enterprises to contribute to rural developmentFor background on this activity see the RAeD Annual Report 2003. Progress will be reported in 2004 when the thesis research has been concluded.The strategy in each region are based on finding effective ways of complying with the project's three strategic processes, as follows: (a) identifying client demands for research and related products, (b) developing products in the form of methods, instruments and information, and (e) promoting the development of local capacity for rural business development.These strategic processes provide value to our clients, who are government and non-government rural development organizations, small farmer organizations and agro-enterprises, donors, government agencies, academic institutions, and development banks. There are two cro sscutting r equirements for the execution of our strategic processes: the development of alliances and funding. The latter are support processes that are not important for our clients, but are of a critica! nature for us.Contributors: Dai Peters, Chris Wheatley and John Connell (CIAT),A member of the RAeD team participated in the ACAIR International Workshop on Supply Chain Management and the 21 st ASEAN/ 3rd APEC Seminar on Post-Harvest Technology, held in Bali, 19-24 August 2003. A key need identified is for action research that seeks ways to lower transaction costs for involving smallholder producers in more managed supply chains, either through community leve! producer organizations, or through working with traders to provide an organizing function in addition to their normal marketing role.In future, the process of identifying research demands will be intimately linked to the execution of the SAOU project (see New product developmentbelow).Mid 2003, the project \"Small-scale agroenterprise development in the uplands of Lao POR and Vietnam\"(SADU) got under way. The purpose of this project is \"to develop sustainable agroenterprise initiatives with upland rural communities that generate income and employment opportunities through diversifying and adding value to local natural resources\". The objectives embody the process that will be followed in facilitating agroenterprise development , ensuring its sustainability, and setting the context for extension of the approaches developed: Training of facilitators for agroenterprise development at national, provincial and district levels by action-oriented activities will introduce a new competency into these organizations with the aim of promoting prívate enterprise initiatives in the rural sector.The 2nd regional course on \"Sustainable Agro-Enterprise Development in a Microregional Context\" was h eld in Ho Chi Minh City. 31 March -18 April 2003. 24 participants attended the course with three each coming from China, Indonesia, Lao POR, and 15 from Vietnam. Several participants in the course were from institutions that will be partnering CIAT in th e SADU project.The course covered the core steps of the CIAT agroenterprise development methodology; Micro-regional approach ; Characterization of the micro-region; Market Opportunity Identification; Market Chain analysis; Role of Value Chain and Identification of Integrated Agroenterprise Projects. These core modules were supported by additional modules on background issues, such as socio-economic characterization of the rural sector in Vietnam; sustainable livelihoods framework; entrepreneurship; role of research in new product development; and quality certification and export procedures for agri-food products.Further modules were provided on various skills for agroenterprise developers, namely communication skills; organization and management; financing for agroenterprise. Two field trips served to ground the concepts, and allow the participants to exercise sorne of the tools.All the participants carne from very much the 'production orientated background', where the problem of markets was often bemoaned, but always felt to be either something that couldn't b e d ealt with, or wasn't their responsibility. The workshop was extremely success fu l in ch anging that view. The participants now see production as just part of a 'market chain' and that to deal with marketing issues the chain needs to be examined as a whole. This was a very significant shift in thinking and attitudes.The workshop was for international participants, andas such had to address the needs of participants from different backgrounds; cover the tapie at different levels; and present the whole process from beginning to end. As such, despite the fieldwor k, it did suffer from covering too much in too short a time and cannot be exp ected to have resulted in a group of participants confident in using these new skills immediately. A better approach is to have progressive inputs as practitioners work through activities in the field. This is what SADU will have to do within the context of each country, or province.Following an international selection process, Dai Peters took up the position of Regional Coordinator of the RAeD proj ect and leader of SADU on 16 June 2003. She is based in Hanoi. J ohn Connell was hired as the Community Development Specialist and initiated work on 16 July 2003, stationed in Vientiane. National coordinator s have been hired for Lao POR a nd Vietnam res pectively. The whole team was assembled by October 2003, induction took place in November and fieldwork has commenced.Memorandum and Letters of Understanding are in the process of being signed with the respective government ministries a nd departments in Lao POR and Vietnam. An office has been established in Hanoi.Contributors: Rupert Best, E lly KaganziDuring 2003, RAeD project participated in the priority setting exercise undertaken by Foodnet (an ASARECA n etwork). The three main a reas that stakeholders prioritized were: market and trade information system s, enterprise development and capacity building. In a ddition, demands for support have received from a ) ASARECA commodity n etworks to support them in incorporating a greater m a r ket orientation, b) national agricultura! research institutions, the National Agricultura! Research Organization (NARO) of Ugan da in accompanying them in a process of mainstreaming market oriented research .The following initiatives are underway:(a) E nabling Rural Innov ati on (ERI). This interdisciplinary project seeks to promete rural communities, and th e farmers that make up these communities, as agents of their own change. The approach includes decision-making on, and development of, options for income-generation. There is special emphasis on gender-related issues related to the selection of viable options for soil fertility maintenance, based on the identification of attractive market options. The project participated in various initiatives led by other projects to secure additional funding. Of note are: A proposal to CIDA that provides the resources to continue and consolida te the ERI initiative described in Output 1. 1, and a proposal to the Belgian Govemment that will contribute to the ERI initiative with particular attention the enhancing the assets of poor women farmers. Both of these projects were approved.  In the fir st case, work in CIAT reference sites in Honduras and Nicaragua provides opportunities to test new ideas on a trial basis under direct CIAT supervision. This is the case with tools such as that described in Output 4.2.4 \"GIS-based decision support tool that integrates market opportunities, land use potential, and income-resource conservation trade-offs for defining most appropriate locations for rural agroenterprises\", the IAP methodology and up-coming work on markets fo r rural business development services. Once these meth ods and tools have been d eveloped and tested at this level they are considered \"prototypes\" and rnay be offered to interested developrnent partners to continue their refinement and dissemination.In Central America as in Africa, the second strategy for new product development is being used under the narne of Learning Alliances (see Activity 5. 1.1 for additional information) with developrnent organizations. In this case the action research processes being implemented are problem based and holistic in nature . As a result they link a variety of the Project's tools in a logical manner. Additional work is projected in this area in Honduras with CARE (Market Access Proposal), GTZ (COHASA Project), IPCA / ASHOCIAL and possibly Catholic Relief Services and World Vision. It is important to note that this work contributes to two strategic processes of the Project simultaneously: new product development and building local capacities.Strengthening local capacities for rural enterprise developrnent in Central Arnerica involves the use of the learning alliance model (see Activity 5 . 1.1 for additional inforrnation) and direct training courses in the region.Training workshops on production chains and smallholders were carried out in November 2002 and September 2003 in coordination with the Center for the Competitivity of Eco-Enterprises (CeCoECO) of CATIE in Costa Rica. Eleven participants from Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela participated in the inaugural workshop in 2002. Final evaluations for the course overall were high (90% average score) while CIAT's participation received an overall score of 9 4% satisfaction. Contin uing post-course activities are underway with two of these participants in Bolivia and Venezuela respectively.In 2003 a rapid promotional process led to nearly double the number of participants-21 -with students from Bolivia (7), Peru (3), Nicaragua (3) , El Salvador (2), Ecuador (2), Ven ezuela (1) , Mexico (1), Dominican Republic (1) and Cuba (1). Final evaluations for the course were highly favorable (over 85% average score) while CIAT's participation received an overall score of over 90% satisfaction.For 2004 additional training courses on production chains are planned in Bolivia (led by CeCoECO), Colombia (led by CIAT) and Costa Rica üoint CIAT-CATIE course) and a virtual course in currently under development. An inaugural course on market analysis for Business Developmen t Services is s lated for Central America along with the production of training materials. Finally a joint course on Rural Agroenterprise Development and Smallholder Livelihoods is under discussion.Mark Lundy is responsible for Project administration in Central America. Marco Antonio Vásquez coordinates fieldwork in Honduras and Nicaragua. Additional collaboration occurs with the CIAT regional coordinator Miguel Ayarza and other CIAT projects such as fo rages (M. Peters, A. Schmidt, F. Holman) , lnforcom (N. Russell) , IPRA (B. Douthwaite), Land Use (T. Oberthur and S. Cook), Soils (E. Barrios), Tropical Fruit (J. Cock) and the Institute of Rural Innovation (J.A. Ashby).Contributors: Carlos Ostertag, Diego Izquierdo (CIAT)In the Andean Region, the project is establishing and consolidating alliances in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela. Sorne of our allies are at the Andean regional1evel, whereas others are ata national or locallevel (see Table .. ).We can classify our research demands into three categories, which may overlap, as follows: research demands derived (a) from our \"Territorial Approach to Rural Business Development or TA-RBD\", (b) from our strategic processes, and (e) from our clients.Sorne of the key questions and demands often made by our clients in the Andean Region include:• How can viable small farmer organizations be promoted?What are sorne effective methods for promoting a business orientation with farmer organizatíons? • How can motivation and commitment be maximized within the farmer organization?How can the social and business perspectives be balanced within the farmer organization? • Which is the best legalf ownership format for small farmer agro-enterprises?Is the separation of ownership and management a good strategy for farmer organizations?• To maximize income, should small farmer organizations integrate vertically or should they make strategic alliances along the product chain? • What are the best methods for linking small farmers with the prívate sector? • What link in the product chain should be strengthened to favor small farmers the most? Under what conditions and products could small farmers really have a competitive advantage over other players?• When is it necessary to subsidize rural business development services (RBDS) and why? When is it not necessary to subsidize rural business development services (RBDS) and why? • Development of simplified formats for business planning tools (strategic planning, business and marketing plans, etc.) • How can the availability and access to credit and venture capital for small farmer organizations be maximized? • Development of appropriate production and processing technology for products with market potential.What kind of policies is needed to enhance rural business development? What are sorne strategies to promote better government policy relative to small farmers?We have to be on the lookout for answers and clues to these questions by consulting secondary informa tion , including electronic bulletins, and participating in pertinent conferences and symposiums. However, we can also identify demands in our daily work while conducting action research such as Learning and Action Alliances, plus training and also in the process of developing products.Among    . Proyecto FIDA (IFAD-funded project)Two alliances that have been established in 2003 are of particular interest.a) Wit h ITDG in Pe ru. After recent restructuring, this intemational NGO, with its regional HQ in Peru, decided to focus more on business and product-chain approaches to rural development. ITDG has gained valuable expertise in the area of RBDS, with two schemes, one involving the organization of rural service centers and the other with local rural experts for farmer-to-farmer technical assistance. The latter scheme functions well with technical assistance related to animals but not to crops. For sustainability, the local experts sell inputs to farmers. ITDG has also participated in an experience in the Department of Apurimac regarding the establishment of a business model involving a rural marketing enterprise, the forrnation of local experts, and the supply of inputs and technical assistance to members (small farmers).The CIAT-ITDG alliance anticipates the signing of an agreement, and the subsequent execution of joint projects funded by donors or clients, the exchange of consultancies and of experiences (pasantías). Both institutions agreed to send short profiles of potential joint activities to be discussed to set priorities; this document has already been sent by the RAeD Project. 1t appears that sorne key activities would center on Leaming Alliances or joint projects on tapies such as market oppor tunity identification, design of integrated agro-enterprise projects, strength ening of RBDS, development of appropriate business schemes for small farmers, new product development projects encompassing both technology and marketing aspects, participatory adaptation of processing technology (GIAR) and training in basic business concepts and planning instruments.b) With PRODAR. Based in Lima (Peru) PRODAR is a program dedicated to promoting the development of rural agro-industry in Latin America and the Caribbean. PRODAR, a traditional ally of the RAeD Project, has strengths of interest to CIAT, as follows: (a) its large network of people working in rural agro-industry and its affiliated national networks; (b) its Internet-based communication mechanisms; and (e) its potential to influence government policy favoring rura l business development.PRODAR is about to enter into a new phase, as it incorporates itself fully within the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA). During the planning of this phase, the RAeD Project provided PRODAR with a list of potential areas of collaboration, as follows: Related to the frrst and second points above, it has been agreed to a ) undertake a joint distance-education course on basic business concepts, together with REDCAPA; and b) prepare a project involving a Latín American-wide series of workshops on business plan development, to be accompanied by a competitive fund to finance the most promising business plans designed in these workshops with sums going up to US$30,000. (1) Internal Strategy (to support the project's strategic plan, achieve participation, and formalize activities). (2) Internal Strategy for CIAT (make ourselves known through CIAT interna! communications to generate alliances and participation, and formalize activities).(3) Market Strategy for External Clients.During t he development of the Interna! Strategy, we have involved personnel of the Cassava Quality Laboratory, with whom we share workspace. An interna! survey on perceptions regarding interna! communication informed us of: (1) the team's satisfaction with monthly work meetings, (2) project interest in knowing the team's interests and equipment needs, (3 ) disclo sure of new pr ojects, and (4) prior information on work standards a nd proceedings.Recommendations were roade to:(1) Disclose work in progress;(2) Follow up project coromunications (meetings);(3) Have an (appropria te) means available to suggest, propose, or comment about or to the Project; and (4) Present new m embers.Faced with the n eed to improve information channels for more fluid and clearer interna! commun ication, the project poster and m eans of circula ting p ublications are being updated, and the project bulletin boards are being redesigned (physically) , as complement to monthly meetings.Through a survey and two m eetin gs of a delegated team, it was decided to make use of the two project bulletin boards in the following way:(1) Institutional Bulletin Board: This will show information of interest to the Project a nd our visitors. It h as six sections (Information, Who's wh o, Who does what, Congratu lations, News, Training, and Enterta inment). Each staff member is responsible for the management of one section, with a pre-established renewal period.(2) Interna! Bulletin Board: This will have more subjective information on interna! team activities, and will serve to approach and genera te a n interna! culture of participation and exchange. It is divided into eight sections (Messages, Did you know?, Take care ofwhat you have, To think about, Special e-ents, Relaxation, To keep in mind, and Express yourselD .A committee, the Design of information Tools (Dhl, the Spanis h acronym), was formed for the organization of these m edia. The Dhi is formed of volunteer Project members, and meets once a month.Thus a process of pre-sen s itivity on the use of the Spanish language advances that includes sending edu cative m essages to th e Royal Academy. A chronogram of activities to be developed is being prepare d for December, with the advice of teachers in Organiza tional Communication, that includes training in the area of design of communication media, use and design of s upport tools, systematization, and creation of support groups (editorial group, among other s).So that the project can b e more easily located , we are improving signposting both within and outside our location .A users directory was d eveloped th at is at the disposal of the Communications Unit. A list of specialized media was organized into agro-enterprise themes, a list of contacts for circulation, and a list of users s p ecifically interested in the theme of cassava production chains (PPis, the Spanis h acronym).At present, a portfolio of project products is being d eveloped that is being checked through, and that will serve to make known and promote our products (it will be promoted also through the Web page) .Web site maintained, and a strategy for internal information management developed and implemented  Through the Web page, we have announced three international courses on themes related with market chains and territorial orientation. These announcements have been accompanied by circulation strategies that have pennitted increased participation in these courses and in the number of visitors to our Web si te.As part of the circulation strategy, the following services specialized in circulating agrorural themes were identified: 13 electronic Bulletins (of organizations or specialists in the theme), two Users Lists, seven networks, and 16 addresses of representations of organizations, programs, and program offices. Among these we must point out the special support and participation in the diffu sion of our activities in: We are developing a new structure for the page that reflects our work focus (Territorial Orientation for the Development of Rural Enterprises) and the work of each region (Africa, Andean region, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean). And, jointly with the CIAT Web page, we are developing a profile of our scientists.Sandra Rivera, Jhon Jairo Hurtado Rupert Best, Carlos F Ostertag, Mark Lundy, Carlos Chilito, Ángela Arenas, Trinidad Daza, Clara FeijooThe Documentation Center has 2,512 registrations of documents related to themes such as social capital, agro-enterprise information, Local Support Systems (SLA, the Spanish acronym) , chains of agro-enterprises, fruits, vegetables, cassava, and panela (raw, unrefined sugar), among others. Publications are encountered in audiovisual, digital (diskettes, zips, CD-ROM), and paper form. During this year, 88 new items were added . The entries available in the Documentation Center are consulted through the Endnote program, available in CIAT, and are physicaiiy present, centralized, in an office. At this site, document loans are controiied, with a reported 90 documents consulted between January and September 2003, and the d a tabase in Endnote is consulted an average of once a week by Project personnel or externa! users (CLAYUCA, Cassa va Improvement, and IPRA, among others). The most consulted themes are m a inly cassava, panela, partic ipatory research , and markets .Contributors: Clara Feijoo, Trinidad Daza Collaborators: Jhon Jairo Hurtado During 2002, the Information Systems Unit implemented in the Project a pilot proposal for CIAT that seeks to establish a system of information security, called \"Backup\", for each user. At present, this initiative is underway in the 12 PCs and a laptop of the Project; the information is stored in a CD-ROM. With the objective of making this process more efficient, a structure of folders has been established in each of the computers which consists of: ToBackup: Information on frequently used work • ToHistory: Publications of other authors and documents over 2 years old • ToPersonal: Personal information.In these three folders of each computer, an initial full backup is made that is passed after 15 days to the ToBackup folder, and after 3 months to the other two folders. In addition to the above, the p roject receives support from donors that provid e unrestricted core funding to CIAT. To develop and disseminate participatory methodological approaches, analytical tools, new knowledge and organizational principies that strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to respond to the demands of stakeholder groups that contribute to improving levels of well-being and integrated agro ecosystem management and conservation (IAEM).Details of the Project 's seven majar outputs for the years 1999-2003 are given in the logical framework. Specific activities on a per-output basis are shown in an abbreviated work breakdown structure for this year.Participatory methodological approaches, analytical tools and autochthonous knowledge that lead to the incorporation of farmers' and other end-users' needs in IAEM, developed for interested R&D institutions Organizational strategies and procedures for participatory research (PR), devebped Professionals and others trained as facilitators of PR Material and information on participatory methodological approaches, analytical tools, autochthonous knowledge and organizational principies, developed Impact of IPRA Project activities, documented Internal projects and other institutions supported and strengthened in conducting PR Capacity of the IPRA team, strengthenedAn approach for \"Enabling Rural Innovation\" that applies a \"Resource to Consumption\" framework to link farmer experimentation, participatory market research, and the need to invest in the resource base upon which increased production and income depend. Community-based participatory monitoring and evalu ation systems, that are managed and used by rural people to promote self-reflection and learning, and to monitor change in their communities, tested in 3 countries in LAC. A model adapted for build capacity of technical personnel and local communities, in establishing and supporting participatory monitoring and evaluation systems, tested and evaluated in 3 countries in Latin America. The participatory monitoring and evaluation capacity building mod el adapted to African conditions A methodology for conducting Impact Assessment of PR methods developed and tested in at least one country Second arder associations of CIALs, with the objective of sustaining and strengthening CIALs, established in two countries in Latin America. A set of self-financing mechanisms has been identified to extrapola t e them to other farmer organizations.An increase in the number of scientísts and projects applying participatory rnethods within CIAT research. More involvement of end users at earlier stages in the technology design. With the continued working with CIALs, there is a marked increase in the selfmanagement and decision-making capacity in at least 290 communities affectíng at least 21.000 rural farming farnilies, in 5 countries in Latín America. Continued strengthening of the capacity of technical personnel and farmers to develop and support rural Agro enterprise projects for adding value to agricultura} products Institutíonalizatíon of CIAL methodology in national agricultura! institutíons in two countries of Latín America. Scaling up of experiences with community organizatíons, for participatory research with NGO youth networks in 3 countries of Central America. A capacity development strategy for SIBTA in Bolivia has been designed and put into action. A large number of institutíonal agreements has been signed with natíonal and local organizatíons that enable the articulatíon of marginal communitíes demands to the new SIBTA mechanisms in Bolivia. This work will benefit poor farmers, processors, traders and consumers in rural areas, especially in fragile environments. Researchers will receive more accurate and timely feedback from users about acceptability of production technologies and conservation practices. Researchers and planners will profit from methods for conducting adaptive research and implementing policies on natural resource conservation at the micro level.NARS, NGOs, universities, CGIAR SP-PRGA members, SP-I PM membersConvener of the SP-IPM project; PRGA and SWNM sys t e m -wide program, CIP, AHI and ICRAFProject Objective:To develop and disseminate participatory methodological approaches, analytical tools, autochthonous knowledge and organizational principies that strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to respond to the demands of stakeholder groups that con tribute to improving levels of well-being and integrated agroecosystem management and conservation (IAM).  Moving from constraint to opportunity Procedure of Monitoring and Evaluation developed to be evaluated and disseminated in sorne Countries Procedure for participatory selection of cassava varieties, analyzedParticipatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) has a dual purpose: It is a management tool that enables people to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. It is also an educational process in which participants increase awareness and understanding of the various factors that affect them (Stephens, 1988). This means participation by the target beneficiaries in decision-making and planning throughout the implementation process and in sharing benefits. Hence monitoring and evaluation (M&E) demand an indepth comprehension of the processes, a strong commitment to develop the PME systems further themselves, and an efficiently strategy for understanding information generated during the process.These barriers pose serious constraints toan effective PME process and must be resolved by answering the following research questions:How to obtain a better understanding of the M&E process How to reach short-term results (outputs), medium-term results (outcomes) and longterm results (impact)This paper draws on the author's experience of working with farmers' groups to discuss ways of moving from constraints to opportunities in PME in arder to improve the information obtained. The purpose of this paper is to promote a better understanding of PME results through a useful strategy for taking information and teaching the process. It is targeted toward facilitators and farmer groups involved in the PME process.The strategies proposed here are based on the author's involvement in experiences with PME in Cauca, Colombia. The author analyzed a sample of 9 CIALs with an established PME process (La Unión 1 and 2, San Isidro, Carpintero, El Pinar Mujeres, La Esmeralda 1 and 2, and Las Lajas). The prelirninary results of this analysis permitted testing the following procedure:Strategyl and directions. Farmers and facilitators of PME should have a clear vision of the process. Without a clear vision of what PME hopes to achieve, it is difficult to define results clearly (Stephens, 1988). Consequently, we should explain, \"What does participation mean within a PME process? In other words, farmers need to understand that PME has been found especially valu able for small farmer development. This means that PME requires the involvement of communities members in:Planning the general and specific objectives at the community level and the areas to monitor and evaluate Deciding the activities that permit reaching those objectives Selecting indicators Collating and tabulating data Analyzing the resul ts Sharing information with others members of the communities Using PME information for their own purposes. This proposal consists in designing a step-by-step procedure, describing relationships in each one (using graphics is the best way). Figure 1 describes a sequential process and introduces the cycle concept.Strategy 2 and directions. There are different levels of results that seek to capture the development ch anges that occur: Short-term results or outputs, medium-term results or outcomes, and long-term results or impact (CIDA, 2000). PME has similar results linked to what is commonly referred toas a \"results chain,\" so it is possible to find the cause-effect relationship of results as follows: Objectives, specific objectives, outputs, outcomes and impact should be defined as the \"results chain.\" From the overall objective it is possible to derive specific objectives and then outputs, outcomes, impact and indicators can be identifie d as shown in Table CoLLatL~ ClV\\.ct ta buLCltl.~ GteitCl, **Cartoons adapted by the author.SV!Clr~~ ~V\\.fOYV\\1\\.Cit~OV\\.AV\\.ClLt:jÚV\\.g tV!e Based on this information, the author developed a proposal of the \"results chain\" for two specific objectives (Table 1). That means that we have to improve the group in two ways:(1} First we ought to increase participation, and (2) simultaneously we should search for funds.A: \"If we improve participation, then new motivated members will be able to increase plots of maize (the goal is at least 15-20 members}.How do you hope to reach that? (questions about activities}Well, we have to show the CIAL's results at the community level (first way), and we can also organize raffles, bingos, \"tamales\"; simultaneously (second way), as a support to interested people so that will allow us to increase areas and plots of maize in the Esmeralda community.How do you measure greater participation through those activities described above? (question regards qualitative indicators)We can measure it if people have greater spirit, better knowledge about the CIAL's activities, increased levels of satisfaction and also the number of people associated (qualitative indicators). We have to assign responsibilities creating a commission in charge of recording all the information.How do you measure success in searching for funds? (question regards quantitative indicator)We can measure it with our income and debits balance sheet (assessment of results).If you increase production areas of maize, then what happens?As a consequence, we will have better production, then we a re going to establish a process for functioning legally.A:To find out information a t the Chamber of Commerce.To look for a consultant's office to organize the group (activities)What is the best indicator that you are working in that way?A:(1) Increasing level of group knowledge about legal process (qualitative indicator) , (2) license for legal functioning.When you obtain a bigger production and legal functioning, what is the next step?A:We are going to buy a machine for thr eshing maize (for the maize company and its byproducts) and after that, sorne members of the community will be able to raise chickens, hens, and probably they will sell surplus maize to other members of the community. We need to identify different markets and potential clients (activities).Probably we would like to support othermaize producers, selling their production or offering services like a rotating fund and technical handling of maize crop.What are your expectations in terms of income, if you a chieve t h e goals mentioned before? (questions about impact)A:In the future, we are going to improve income, health and quality of life in terms of subsidies of health, home orchards, change in the nutritional diet, improvement of the house. We also could generate new jobs.How cari we measure that?Numbers of subsidies Changes in the nutritionallevel of the diet (people sell eggs to buy rice) Numbers of houses improvedIf you had a better income, how would you spend this money?A:I would like to invest this money in health, housing and p aved roads in my community.The challenger is to find outputs, incomes and indicators from the answers. Following the chain results described in Table 1, it is possible to classify the answers as follows:General objective \"CIAL group strengthened in order to create an agroenterprise of maize to improve incomes and quality of life of community members\" Farmers need to understand that PME has been found especially valuable for small farmer development. This means that PME requires the involvement of communities members in:Planning the general and specific objectives at the community level and the areas to monitor and evaluate Deciding the activities that permit reaching those objectives Selecting indicators Collating and tabulating data Analyzing the results Sharing information with others members of the communities Using PME information for their own purposes.Researchers: E. C. Tru.jillo, 3 L.A.Hemandez4, S. Kaaria 5Procedure of Monitoring and Evaluation proposed to be evaluated and disseminatff.l in sorne CountriesIn the search for a process to empower and support rural communities in their decisionmaking process, IPRA has been developing mechanisms for establishing and supporting community-based participatory monitoring and evaluation systems (PME) with the Local Agricultura! Research Committees (CIALs). The Participatory Research Approaches project (IPRA) of the International Center of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) began a process of establishing community-based PME systems in Cauca in 2002 (IPRA, 2002) . In 2003 IPRA extended the lessons and tested the approach with the second-order association of CIALs in Cauca Province: CORFOCIAL.The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the knowledge and experiences with establishing and applying community-based PME systems with grassroots groups. Lessons learned during the process of establishing PME systems in the CIALs of Cauca Province, Colombia, are reviewed.PME fulfills basic functions in any development effort because once established, it helps identify problems, measures the progress made toward the objectives, and evaluates the results (FAO, 1996). One of the results expected in th e medium and long term is to promote people's potential through their participation in decision-making and the mobilization of this social responsibility and accountabílity in favor of sustainable human development and capacity building (UNDP, 1997).PME contri bu testo the development of rural communities' capacities to identify and salve problems. It is oriented so that the grassroots groups can gather the information needed to evaluate the progress of their projects. In this way PME becomes an instrument to help these groups strengthen their capacity for decision-making and accomplish greater autonomy, which is translated into empowerment of their processes, self-reliance and sustainability.The PME approach applied by CIAT builds on the concepts and ideas developed by the Institute of Development Stud ies at University of Sussex (Estrella et al., 2000;Guijt & Gaventa, 1998) and the PIM concept developed by Germann et al. (1996). The PM&E system, which was developed as part of an action research process, was initiated by a student, Kirsten Probst (2002), as part of her PhD dissertation research.Applying lessons from this earlier work, a strategy was developed in 2002 to build capacity in the CIALs in Cauca Province. They were selected as a learning ground to test this approach because of their proximity to CIAT. In addition, it was envisaged that these processes would help strengthen social cohesion, management capacity, learning and reflection, thereby empowering these groups.The overall goal is to establish community-based PME systems that will enable CIALs and their second-order associations to evaluate the progress of their projects and strengthen their capacity for decision-making and accomplish greater autonomy. The specific objectives are to:Test, evaluate and adapt the methodology for establishing community-based PME with second-order associations of CIALs Analyze and document lessons and experiences and then develop guidelines and principies to enable the large-scale expansion of these approaches in other secondorder assocíations in other contextsThis work will address the following research questions:What is the impact of CORFOCIAL on the sustainability and effectiveness of the CIALs? How will M&E contribute to enhancing the accountability of the second~rder association CORFOCJAL to the CJALs?Can the second-order associations to develop timely solutions to their problems and make necessary adjustments to their plans and activities use the information generated by PME? Can PME identify quantitative and qualitative indicators of results, effects and impact? Does PME promote the sustainability of CIALs?The goal of establishing the PME systems is to cover all the CIALs that are grouped under CORFOCIAL, which currently number 39. As can be seen in Figure 1, PME systems were partially established in 12 CIALs in 2002; and this year the work was finished, with PME systems being established in another 1 O CIALs, for a total of 22 ClALs in Cauca. Annex 1 shows sorne of the CIAL groups, where the PME systems ha ve been established, with their objectives, activities and indicators.In 2003 the goal was to have a higher number CIALs from CORFOCIAL with PME systems established, but there were sorne difficulties that made it impossible to reach that goal.Therefore, we conducted an evalu ation with a few CIALs to understand the challenges in the establishment of PME systems. The CIAL group feels somewhat united but weak. So me of the CIALs feel weak as a group because there is little commitment in the execution of the activities that are programmed; and the recording of the information and the responsibility fall on a few people, not on the whole group. Lack ofunion between the CIAL and the commu nity. In the majority of the cases, there is little communication and collaboration between the CIAL and the community.As a result of this, there is little collaboration of the community in the group's activities. This occurs because there are no programmed feedback meetings to the community about the results of the work done by the CIAL. Recording ofthe information. In the CIALs visited the people in charge of recording the information have not developed the skill sufficiently nor the habit of keeping records, which requires their being accompanied very closely by the supporting entities to ensure the recording of the information. As a result, there is little information recorded by the groups. In sorne of the cases the groups record the information in notebooks or their field books, where they mix data from the PME work and the CIAL research, in addition to information on work that they are carrying out with other organizations that work in the community, which makes the organization and the analysis of said information all the more difficult. PME perceived as extra w ork fo r the CIAL. One of the reasons why this happens is that the establishing of the PME processes was done after the CIALs were started. Thus the members of the group consider it as something additional to the work they have been doing all along. The role ofthe people responsible for the PME. Although so me people were selected to be in charge of iilling out the formats and motivating compliance with the activities proposed in the PME system, at the time of carrying out the activities, the people who were supposedly responsible and their specific duties in the PME process were not clear, which meant that the programmed activities were not done and the key information that this CIAL is generating was not recorded . Perception ofthe ben ejits of a PME system. The people of the CIAL do not perceive any im.mediate benefits that can be obtained from carrying out the activities and recording the indicators that measure the change towards achieving their objectives. This makes it necessary to backstop the process very closely until the people of the CIAL adopt the system, put it to work and take advantage of its benefits.Accompanying the p rocess. Given that the team of facilitators establishing the PME process in the CIALs was very small, the latter were left alone for extended periods of time. The people in these groups expressed their need for more contact with the technicians (CIAT-CORFOCIAL) to explain sorne aspects of the activities to be done and the recording of the information that was not sufficiently clear to them. Moreover, going back to topics that had been developed previously left them out of context, and it was necessary to repeat the process of conceptualization, the formulation of the objectives, etc., in order to be able to bring the group up to date on the topics being dealt with, which meant that the work was delayed considerably. Continuity in the PME workshops. In sorne of the groups the people that attended a meeting for establishing PME did not attend the following one and sent an alternate or simply did not attend. This meant that the topic dealt with previously had to be explained again in order to place it in context for the new people that had just entered the process and this required much more time than had been programmed. Situation of social unrest. So me CIAL groups are located in zones where there was social unrest for a time and so it was not possible to achieve the desired continuity, and for that reason, the process of establishing the PME system took longer; e.g., the CIAL El Placer in El Tambo, where it has not been possible for the team to go in order to establish the process. Institutional patem alism. In the zones where the CIALs are working, there are other governmental and nongovernmental institutions. In some cases there have been groups that will work only for donations or where they manage a budget to start their production projects and not in processes such as this, which are based on training people from the grassroots group to achieve sustainability and enhance their capacities. Factors extem al to the process. There are certain times of the year, such as the onset of the rains, when the farmers hire a lot of labor or they travel to other villages and even provinces in search of the \"bonanza\" of seasonal work as, for example, the harvesting of coffee, and so they dedicate less time to the activities programmed by the CIAL. No mechanism for obtaining qualitative indicators of effects and impacts. When the PME systems were established, only ind icators of the results of the activities programmed by the CIAL in the short term in relation to the proposed objective were taken into account; therefore t here were no indicators of intermediate or long term results, which in addition to measuring t he results, also measure the effects and the impacts of the process u ndertaken by th e CIAL in the community. Besides, there were no mechanisms for identifying in d icators that were qualitative in nature. This made the later analysis difficult when it carne to iden tifying the effects of the PME process undertaken by the CIAL in t he inter mediate term and the impacts in the long term.Formation of a team of PME Jacilítators. Given that at the onset of the process of establishing PME in the CIALs t here were problems because the t rainin g team was very small and could not handle the number of CIALs where these systems were being set up, it was decided to train a team of facilitators to support this process. Alfonso Truque and Bolívar Muñoz, who are the farmer-technician and the administrator of CORFOCIAL, respectively, and 6 CIAL Guides to provide continuity to the meetings and later accompany and follow up th e process formed the team. It is important to note that this group of PME facilitators was trained in both the theoretical part of the workshops with the aid of exercises and tools, as well as in the practica! aspects of the CIALs as a direct support to the Facilitator of the IPRA Project at CIAT. This group has the responsibility of establishing the PME systems in the CIALs that are in their charge and those that are near their zone of influence. An agreement was reached with CORFOCIAL, whereby the Guides would work in establishing the PME for 2 days per month and that they would be paid the equivalent of one day of the legal wage established for each day worked and supported by a report.In order to be able to obtain uniform information, to verify the work done by the Guides, and to learn the progress made in establishing PME in the CIALs, sorne formats were designed to gather the general information on this process, which covers all its aspects such as the exploration of knowledge on PME, the formulation of the CIAL objectives, activities programmed, indicators for measuring the progress of the process, formats designed by the CIAL and people in charge of carrying out PME in the CIAL (Annex 3).synchronize the work of establishing the PME systems in the CIALs, work schedules were prepared jointly, coordinating the remaining activities for establishing PME in the CIALs where it was incomplete and to begin establishing it in the CIALs that haven't begun the process yet.In the prioritization of the CIALs where PME will be set up, it was necessary to agree upon the CORFOCIAL personnel such as the Guides and Technicians. It was also necessary to take into account factors such as the situation of security in the zones where the CIALs are located, the ease of traveling there (CORFOCIAL and CIAT teams) and the willingness of the CIAL group to participate. Given the level of the commitments, it was decided to establish the PME systems in 22 of the 39 CIALs of CORFOCIAL.The CIAT IPRA Project is also accompanying the CORFOCIAL technicians, Guides and CIALs in order to strengthen their capacities and overcome inconveniences related to said systems.Given the fact that in the initial stages of establishing PME systems in the CIAL groups required up to five 4 -hour meetings per group, it was necessary to adapt the strategy, taking into consideration farmer's limited time. The adapted strategy of a \"cascade\" of questions that begin with the question, \"What are the objectives that you w i sh to reach as a group? .. From there, th e conceptualization of what a PME system is and what it means with respect to the accomplishment of the proposed objectives are derived. Afterwards, the activities to achieve each objective are formulated, as well as what the community and the group expect to accomplish with each of these activities. To strengthen the conceptualization, graphs or drawings that reflected scenes from the farmers' daily lives are used. Figure 2 illustrates this cycle diagrammatically.A significant accomplishment with this methodology is that the entire process can be a completed 2 to 3 meeting p er group. This means less time is required to establish it.The adjusted methodology also allows for the identification of indicators for monitoring the process (participation in group activities), outcomes (short-term effects) and impacts (long-term effects). Additionally, the methodology also helps identify both qualitative and quantitative indicators. Table 1 summarizes the information obtained in aCIAL when using this methodology. Afterwards, the formats or forms for recording t he information are designed so that those responsible for the PME of the group can do this task easily and rapidly.Feedback ofthe PME can be established in groups that have different \"stages of maturity\"; that is, it does not matter whether they are in the process of formation, if they have been functioning for sorne time, or whether it is a group that wants to reformulate its work or even in those cases where the group had fallen inactive if they are motivated to work towards their objectives.PME systems stimulate the grassroots groups' capacity for analysis, identifying problems, proposing and implementing possible solutions.The group itself decides which aspects of their work they are going t o monitor and evaluate, as well as with what frequency they are going todo it.Groups that were discouraged have been reactivated as can be seen in the projection of their work.Once the PME systems are established, the CIALs should be accompanied in the process as in the majority of cases, there are questions on the part of the people who are responsible for implementing it in relation to how the system functions. Sorne of these questions are: What is the first thing that we have todo in order to reach the objective that we set? How should we fill ou t the formats that were designed to record the information generated by the group? Who is the person responsible for gathering and recording the information on these formats? How often should we fill out the formats? When should the information be presented to the CIAL and the community? Regular backstopping is one of the factors that makes the difference between success or failure of PME, given that it can strengthen the grassroots groups in those aspects where they feel weak and it also serves to stimulate the execution of the activities oriented toward fulfllling the objectives. In the future it is important that at the moment of creating the structure of the CIAL, PME be included from the onset so that it be considered as a routine part of the CIAL's work and not viewed as an additional work load. It can be affirmed that using probing questions in a sort of chain, where all the links a re the CIAL's work in function of the time and of the expected results, it is possible to obtain indicators that can measure the effects and the impacts of the process undertaken by the grassroots group.Given the experience accumulated over two years of work in establishing PME sy stems andas a response to the needs generated by the grassroots groups, the following activities are contemplated:A number of CIALs are going to be selected a s models in the implementation of PME in Cauca and La tín America, where much more emphasis will be placed on the a ccompaniment and strengthening of the PME system so that they can serve as an example and model for the other CIALs that are not so far along in the process. They will also attend tours and be motivators for PME in t he CIAL groups and other community groups that have a director indirect rela tion ship with them.Hold PME meetings among the CIALs of CORFOCIAL that have already established and implemented the PME system to share experiences and strengthen the process. Moreover, an intemational PME meeting among all the CIALs that have implemented PME systems in Colombia, Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua is being organized. Contacts are being made with entities such as the Foundation for Participatory Research with Farmers in Honduras -FIPAH (formerly IPCA) and the PROINPA Foundation in Bolivia.Workshopsfor re cordi ng Information; Dueto the problems encountered in recording the information, sorne workshops will be held in the short term in order to reinforce the recording of information by the CIALs and also to strengthen the Guides in this topic so that they can support their groups better.The idea is to prepare a methodology where from the moment that the CIAL group is formed, the PME system is implemented in order to see the progress in their work and the fulfillment of their objectives.ANNEX l . Res ults of some CIALs with PEM. steps that perhaps had not been contemplated during the Colombian experience, or if they were, were not documented.The procedure based on the available documents and materials is outlined in Figure 1.The scheme is divided into contextual elementselements that we have considered as our own or unique to the Colombian context in which the procedure was developed; and suggested steps, essential in the implementation that should be included in the replication of the procedure, regardless of the context.These elements change according to the context in which a participatory procedure is implemented and influence the mode of implementation of the suggested steps and the end results. In the Colombian experience the most important contextua! elements were the actors and the crop.In the Colombian experience there were severa! di!Terent actors: agricultura! research institutions (national and international), universities, cooperatives, NGOs, small processing industries of the cassava roots and small farmers. In addition, there was GRUY A (Cassava Group and Associated), a group of professionals from different institutions and specializations with experience in the cassava crop, who met periodically to share experiences, plan activities and provide mutual support on different topics rela ted to the ero p. The existence of GRUY A greatly facilitated the work and ensured that no important aspects of the crop were left out in the implementation of the project. It also facilitated the interaction with the producers and the geographic coverage that was obtained with the trials (interinstitutional agreements is one of the topics that is analyzed later on).In addition to the relationships among the entities, the identity of the main actors, their mandates, principies, objectives and modes of work are important con textual elements.It should be mentioned that in the Colombian context, CIAT, one of the entities initiating the project, had the objective of developing a procedure for PPB and creating the capacity within their member entities for replicating the procedure. Therefore, there were activities and strategies such as the continuous training of professionals, the Interinstitutionallinkages, the hiring of a person specifically to prepare and document the procedure, the availability of a budget, the centralization of the information, and the strategy of beginning the work within the conventional scheme and with materials in advanced stages of breeding that were highly significant in the Colombian experience, but not necessarily in in other countries and with other crops.The identity of the producers is also an important contextua! element. Although the producers can be seen asan intrinsic element of the procedure as the suggested step \"selection of the farmers\" implies, it should be noted that their identity and their socioeconomic situation vary according to the context. As explained later, most of the farmers that live in the region where the project was established are small farmers (average of 0.5-1 ha land), male, with a great deal of experience in the production of cassava, which is grown mostly for on-farm consumption and the fresh root market Although there are other subregions and other socioeconomic profiles within the region, these were the target of the project, given the manda te and the objectives of the executing entities.Much can be deduced from the name of the procedure that we are analyzing. The name Participatory Research for Cassava Breeding (PCB) suggests that the procedure was developed specifically for the cassava crop, which it was for circumstantial reasons. The breeding strategy, the type of selection, the structure of the replications, the experimental design, the time, the space and the resources required in the procedure are specific to the cassava crop and will naturally vary with other crops. The sequence of steps suggested within the procedure have been and can easily be applied to other crops.The crop is also an important element in the Colombian context because cassava is a subsistence crop, common and traditional in the project areas. This facilitated the establishment of the participatory procedure as the farmers of the Atlantic Coast ha ve a great deal of experience and knowledge on this cr op. Working with crops where the farmers have no experien ce (e.g., in grasses for pastur es or varieties used for ground coverage in sorne cases) and where the benefits of the technology cannot be seen qualitatively in the short term (e.g., the conservation of soils or protein digestibility and content in forages) can present different, more difficult challenges for the researcher.The steps suggested in the PCB procedure are, sequentially, as follows:Establishment of objectives. In PCB the objectives are established by the participating entities befare beginning the participatory procedure. Selection of farmers and sites (and the establishment of a network of trials) is done through participatory techniques that orient the selection of producers based on several selection criteria established by the entities. The participatory diagnosis defines, in a first instance, the problems or constraints and objectives of the participants. The selection of materials to be evaluated (technological supply) is based initially on the description of the \"ideal\" variety; and after the first cycle, on the producers' criteria. Open-ended evaluations (subjective information) a nd agronomic evaluations (quantitative information) are used to gather data for analysis. The criteria are determined, and the glossary of terms is prepared, using evaluation formats and su bjective analysis of the information. The field books are formats of tables of frequencies to determine the relative importance of the criteria. The information is analyzed statistically, using regression analysis for nonparametric data. The pre-release phase is defined by the research entities. The varieties are released according to the regulations of each research entity.Four key areas within participatory research (PR) are analyzed: the selection of participants, the establishment of objectives, the analysis of information and interinstitutional agreements. The following aspects a re look at: what the respective documentation existing on PCB suggests, how it was dealt with during the Colombian experience, what aspects were not considered, and finally, how can the procedure be refined in light of the experiences and the Jessons learned in PPB at the international level in the last 20 years .The selection of farmers in the Colombian communities was coordinated by research institutions through staff that were familiar with the farmers' production systems. The staff selected farmer experts from communities in edaphoclimatic zones similar to those of the experiment station and where cassava is a priority crop (Iglesias & Hernández, 1994).The participatory procedure recommended selecting farmers in each location based on the following criteria: Recognition within their community as experts in the cassava crop Interest in the trials Availability of the necessary area Location with easy access to the markets in the region Communication skills (capacity and willingness to transrnit their thoughts} Production systems typical of small cassava producers It was recommended that in each evaluation cycle, the farmers responsible for the trials be changed, replacing them by others selected using the same parameters as befare, involving neighbors who showed interest and had possibilities of establishing participatory trials on their farms in later cycles. The idea was to extend the coverage of experimental environrnents in order to ensure broad adaptation of the clones and involve members from the gamut of end-user groups involved in cassava production in the region, thereby ensuring acceptance of the clones within all the groups, not just one or two. Despite this, the group of end-users in which the selection of participants was emphasized was the group of the small farmers since this is the group to which the majority of the farmers of the region belong and also the ones that figure within the mandate of the entities that implemented the project.In the Colombian experience more than 500 producers (all men) participated in 90 trials on 15-20 farms per cycle. Among the participants there were buyers of cassava for the drying plants (cassava chips), producers of starch and members of cooperatives. These groups were invited to the evaluations at the end of the cycle the harvest. But the largest percentage (70-80%) was a critica! mass of small producers dedicated to growing cassava as subsistence crop for fresh root consumption. They participated throughout the crop cycle so the resulting information of the different groups of end-users in the evaluations was separated to prevent confounding the results.Despite having specific objectives regarding who should participate in the process, the project on the Atlantic Coast did not systematize a strategy for selecting the participants. This was simply left to those who were interested (self-selection). Therefore it was not possible to pre-establish a balance among the different groups of end-users represented in the data collection and consequently in the decision of which clones would continue in the selection process. This did not bias the decisions rnuch as it was discovered that the different groups had comparable objectives and similar preferences in relation to desirable varieties even though they had specific criteria in each phase of the production. Thus the same varieties were selecte by the different groups, but for different uses (fresh consurnption and starch production). Nevertheless in other contexts, where the differences in varieties and preferences among end-users can be more notable, the lack of a strategy for se1ecting the participants and ensuring representation anda balance among different end-users could be an important constraint. In such cases the separation of the information according to the groups of end-users would be more important.Reflecting upon t h e selection process of farmers on the Atlantic Coast, it is important to highlight the importance of also looking for the nonobvious end-users who may not be readily seen or who do not self-select themselves. For example , in this case the women as a group of distinct users were not considered as they have a mínimum participation in getting stakes, planning and m a naging the crop until its sale in the market. Nevertheless, in a la ter work that had the specific objective of working with women, it was discovered that in this region, the women play a central role in selecting roots for making and selling bollos8 (IPRA-CIAT, 2000). This market is managed exclusively by women, using the income to buy basic needs of the family such as clothes for the children, school utensils, medicine, and at times to pay for transportation . As the project did not have the specific objective to seek the \"hidden\" end-users, the researchers did not learn of this activity related to their project with cassava varieties. Sometimes the hidden end-users can be women, but other times it can be a group of farmers with a socioeconomic levellower than the m ajority ora group that supplies a market niche or one specific to the region. To prevent the omission of these end-users, the PCB could incorporate within its diagnosis step, a substep for identifying end-users.In the experience of the Atlantic Coast the entities elected to work with individual farmers that had conditions and cultural practices representative of the zone. The recommendation of the PCB procedure is to work with no more than ten people ata time. This facilitates the data gathering and analysis. Nevertheless, other PPB projects have tried working with more farmers and previously established groups. In Northeast Brazil, for example, the researchers tried to work with entire communities and with cooperatives. They concluded, however, t hat it was too difficult to organize evaluations and handle the data coming from so many people, except in the case of the cooperatives, which greatly facilitated the work given the fact that they were already organized and used to working together (Fukuda & Saad, 2001).The work with farmers' groups h as ta ken different forms. For example, there is a lot of experience in Latín America with CIALs, community-based research services that conduct research in representation of their communities. There are a lso projects where the researcher s h ave facilitated the forma tion of farmer groups such as the groups evaluating clones of pota toes in Ecuador or Farmer Field Schools in Bolivia. These experiences s how that important accomplishments s u c h as mutual support and motivation among farmers, the diffusion of technologies a mong farmers' groups, the distribution of risk s and benefits, and the possibility of continuity of the work after the intervention by the research entities can be obtained by working with groups. Nevertheless, it has been seen that the formation of groups specifically for a PPB project means dedicating much more time and in sorne cases having personnel a background in group dynamis. This also means that the project s hould b e situated within a broader context of rural development, not for a specific activity such as breeding.In selecting fa rmer s for a PPB project, it is important to consider the distribution of benefits. Generally the research entities have as the ir m a ndate to facilita te the rural development of the whole community or en tire region s, not just a few selected farmers.For this reason it is necessary to select farmers who not only comply with the representative conditions, but who are also willing to share what they learn and discover in the research process. Thus the Atlantic Coast project selected farmers that not only had representative conditions and practices and good communications skills, but who also had farms that were welllocated and easily accessible and could thus serve as \"show windows\" for neighboring producers who walked by there a nd could see the n ew varieties planted. This stimulated the spontan eous or informal diffusion of the promising varieties and ensured, toa certain extent, \"publicity\" for t h e experimental clones.The combined experiences with PPB worldwide show t hat the types of farmers, the number who participate a nd wheth er they participate individually or in groups depend on the project objectives and what is needed to accomplish them. For example, if a project has the obj ective to en sure t ha t the benefits of the collaboration are distributed widely, it should look for participants that are recognized leaders in their communities. If the objective is to incorporate the farmers' knowledge in the varietal selection process, it should involve th e local experts (PRGA, 2000) . Sometimes the same people fill more than one of these profiles, but oth er times the local expert is not recognized as a lead er in hisjher community, or the community leader does not have sufficient technical knowledge. Similarly, a PPB project can often have more than one objective, which means that they must be prioritized and the participants selected accordingly.With respect to involving women as participants, the combined PPB experience over the last years has shown that the quality of th e research can generally be improved significantly as the women are usually in charge of domesticating wild species and of selecting a nd maintaining seeds dueto their knowledge of the germplasm. Moreover, women's preferences are often different from those of the men even though they do not always participate directly in the farming activities as was the case on the Atlantic Coast.The objectives of the process implemented on the Atlantic Coast were established by the research entities after an initial exploration of the zone. Fully aware that there is great genetic diversity on the farms of small cassava farmers and that this is not static but changes over time, the researchers agreed to the fact that farmers have a selection process based on criteria tha t permits them to test new materials, observe them and eventually incorporate or reject them . They were interested in learning more about their criteria, with the idea of developing a formal procedure th at would make it possible to implement this systematically in the development of technologies. This was the main objective of the project. Thus, PCB does not recoilll'rend t h e establishment of objectives as a suggested s tep within the p rocedure; rather it assumes that it is an activity that occurs befare the farmers begin to participate.The objectives established for a research process affect the determination of the steps and the activities to be implemented. When the objectives are established prior to the participation of the end-users, their priorities cannot be included in the initial conception and planning of the project. In the case of the Atlantic Coast, the participation of the farmers in the diagnostic phase made it possible to work with producers who identified cassava varieties as the main problem in their production areas. Nevertheless, the final objectives of the breeding itself were not discussed. Were the producers seeking varieties with specific or broad adaptation? Were they looking for one variety or severa!? Were they looking for varieties for on-farm consumption or multiple uses? Were they seeking to improve their cassava yields, or were they also interested in working with other crops at the same time? Were they seeking to conserve and/or improve their native varieties or did they want improved ones? The participants could not consider these and other options that breeding offers because the objectives had already been established.• In addition to the options with respect to cassava breeding, the participants could also have contributed their preferences with respect to their own participation. The combined experience of PPB worldwide shows that the stages of the research (or breeding) in which the farmers and other end-users participate varíes. As mentioned, participation in the Atlantic Coast project began in the diagnostic stage. In other PPB cases, it began in the phase of setting objectives; while in others, participation is only at planting and harvesting. The PR literature and experience a lso indicate that there are different \"degrees\" of participation, ranging from a consultative to a collegial style. The documentation on the PCB procedure concludes that the preferable style of participation is the consultat ive one and that the initial stage recommended is the diagnosis; nevertheless, this is one way arnong many to irnplerne nt PR.We would suggest that the objectives of a PPB process could be established in several ways, depending on who is involved, the entities flexibility and the resources available . There are cases of PPB in which the objectives of the process were established jointly among researchers, farrners and other end-users (e .g. , the CIALs working with crops such as potatoes in Ecuador). In such cases the researchers need to explain to the end-users the range of options available and what they can expect from breeding (and what not). It is also important that the researchers and their entities have the flexibility and the capacity to negotiate and modify their own objectives and assurne sorne of the objectives of the endusers if these are different. There should also be sorne elasticity in the frameworks of formal research and therefore in the support of the higher levels of decision-m a king s uch as the directors of the institutions.In the case of the Atlantic Coast project, it should be noted that given the objectives of the project, knowledge of the farmers' selection criteria was very irnportant. To the extent that learning about their criteria has been an objective of the PPB, it has also been reported as a product of this approach, which in itself does not mean much. To ha ve sorne meaning, the knowledge of farrners' selection criteria has to be incorporated in the breeding process, in the selection of parenta l for crosses and e x perimental clones. Beside s, farmers• criteria are not static as appears when suggesting an objective is to establish knowledge of thern. Although sorne criteria persist, others change frorn cycle to cycle and from one group of end-users to another. Nurnerous PPB projects have been frustrated by this fact.Another of the principal objectives of the Atlantic Coast project was to select clones for pre-release and others for release. Although this is the objective of most PPB programs, experiences around the world show that the application of the participatory approach can have a broader range of objectives than the release of improved varieties for certain zones. Among the objectives that have been accomplished with this approach in crop breeding, the following can be mentioned: the conservation and enrichment of biodiversity, the organ ization of farmer groups, changes in policies for releasing varieties, multiplication of seeds, access to genetic materials, and t he facilitation of learning by the farmers. When planning a PPB process, the researchers and other enduser groups could consider this approach as a very powerful tool for accomplishing multiple objectives (PRGA, 2000). The results of the Atlantic Coast project are well known. It conformed to a participatory process that has been adopted and adapted in severa! Latín American countries. The farmers' selection criteria are known. Genetic diversity was expanded on their farms. In these terms, it can be said that the project was very s u ccessful. Nevertheless in the planning of the PPB experience on the Atlantic Coast, several important elements were not considered: a phase of mass multiplication of seed for the rapid diffusion of the more accepted clones, following up the process to fine tune the methodology, and study of the impact. After analyzing severa! projects that implemented the PCB procedure, it was discovered that these are steps ought to be included as they contribute signiftcantly to the enrichment and impact of the work.The quality of the data gathered and its use is another key issue in PR. The challenge is to obtain, combine and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data for making decisions in the research process. This is a challenge that has not yet been totally resolved in PR.The Atlantic Coast project tested several statistical tools for facing the challenge of the quality of the information and its use. Principal components a nalysis (PCA) stands out because it reduces the numb er of variables and analyzes both quantitative and qualitative variables. The application of cluster analysis makes it possible to group varieties, criteria and regions, providing a global vision of the preferences. Nevertheless the most useful tool was logistic regression, which was adapted for analyzing preference rankings and simulating the acceptance of technology by producers. Perhaps the most ímportant contribution of t he Atlantic Coast experience with respect to information and its use is the fact of having found a way to make a technical interpretation of the subjective opinions given by the participants in the evaluations. This made it possible to establish an information link between the production systems on the Coast and the experiment stations.The PCB procedure recommends preference ranking to compare degrees of acceptance of the different varieties in arder to classify them from the most to the least acceptable. This process is based on techniques of open-ended evaluation useful for the knowledge of qualitative points of view, explanations and ideas about the reasoning processes of the producers and how they take decisions.A sequence of the steps for analyzing the information recommended by PCB is as follows:Development of flowcharts to guide each activity (Ashby, 1992) Construction of lists of terms, local agricultura! glossaries classified by regían for local, regional and scientific interpretation Identification of criteria, differentiating them from descriptive aspects Integration of the reasons, rankings and criteria identified, differentiating between antonyms and synonyms Development of formats for systematizing the information Development of field books (Hernandez, 1993) Analysis of the information using severa! tools Sorne of the results related to information, obtained with this process in the Atlantic Coast project, were the combination of efficient tools to obtain information (tables of relative frequencies, differentiating between synonyms and antonyms; electronic datasheets for transcribing the information directly in the field; scales for grouping ranges; matrixes with transformations of scales for the joint analysis of qualitative and quantitative information, and a matrix for classifying the preference rankings), the glossary of terms, the criteria, the reasons, the rankings, the field books, the technology profl.les and the alternatives tested in the analytical process.A method that has b een adapted recently by Sall et al. (2000) in Senegal is quantification based on a quasi-arbitrary ordinal weighting system of the producers' perception of specific characteristics of a given technology. Tobit regression analysis is used, including variables that represent:The farmers' perceptions on the relative importance of the different characteristics that a material can h aveThe presence and quality of those characteristics in the experimental material The characteristics of t h e producers and their farms This method, the same as the one recommended by the PCB procedure, explains and predicts the adoption of improved materials.In the data analysis it is important to consider its source and the relative weight that is given to each participant or group in deriving conclusions from the preference rankings. This can be se en as a process of voting, where each participant has the right to vote for h is/her preferred clones. If the majority of the group of participants represents an interest within the community that is not necessarily the interest of the entire community, then the recommenda tions based on the preference ranking analysis can be very biased. Thus it is important, a s mentioned previously, to select the participants of a participa tory process carefully; or if this is not possible, separate the information obtained from the different interest groups so that the results r e flect the community's (ies') preferences more precisely.Another k ey consideration with respect to the quality of the information and its use is the amount of data gathered. Many PPB projects gather more information than they can manage, process and use. It is important in the planning of a PPB project to determine what information can be used and what not. As mentioned previously, a too! that the PCB procedure has suggested is the field book, which permits the collection of both objective and subjective data (quantitative j qualitative) and also limits the amount of ínformation that can be noted.Many PPB projects produce lists of the farmers' selection criteria. What happens with these at the end of the project? Until whenjwhere are they relevant for other projects in the same areas? An interesting case of information management is the cassava breeding project in Northeast Brazil, managed by EMBRAPA-CNPMF. Given the extensive collection of data and the magnitude of the project, the breeder Wania Fukuda had to create a database in arder to store and manage the large volume of information.Although she felt that she might have collected too much information (pers. com., W. Fukuda), the database has been very useful in later phases of the project for suggesting experimental clones suitable for areas similar to the ones in the database.The project of the Atlantic Coast of Colombia was implemented in an interinstitutional framework where severa! entities of different types participated. As mentioned earlier, GRUYA, the group that in sorne ways personified these interinstitutional agreements, was important in technical, logistical and strategic aspects, given their composition, experience, coverage and participation in the decisions. In the first place, they made it possible to establish multidisciplinary discussion forums, where experiences were exchanged in each crop cycle, and the analysis and adjustment of the PPB component were facilitated. In addition the members of GRUYA had a network of trials in northern Colombia that brought together experiences of more than a thousand small cassava farmers for analysis in the forums . The interinstitutional agreements also helped the implementing entities to see different potential uses of cassava, incorporating elements/phases of the production change in the process that had not b een contemplated at the onset of the project. Finally, the interinstitutional agreements provided the opportunity for the staff from the different entities to be exposed to the participatory approach. As a result of this experience, the PCB procedure recommends implementing interinstitutional projects, wherever possible.The results of implementing the PPB project on the Atlantic Coast in an interinstitutional setting can be see in the broad geographic coverage of the work involving a large number of producers and the participation of professionals of different disciplines. Another very important result of the interinstitutional agreements (in particular, the association between ICA and CIAT) was the institutionalization of the participatory approach in lCA, which has been using the PPB as a routine procedure in cassava breeding and for some other crops such as yams (Discorea trífida L.) in the Turipaná regional office in Cordoba, Montería (pers. com. , A. Lopez).Des pite the interinstitutional agreements during the implementation of the project on the Atlantic Coast, there were no joint actions. The participating institutions acted as advisors and links with the different sites where the trials were implemented; but the responsibility of implementing the project, analyzing the data and documenting the process was mostly assumed by CIAT. In this way no feedback was received in the documentation of the process and the analysis of the information from the entities, which would no doubt have enriched the work. What was not considered in designing the institutional arrangement was the distribution of resources, responsibilities and recognition of the different member institutions. This is indispensable for the motivation, active participation and the empowerment of the institutions associated in an activity and therefor e in the possibilities of continuing such an arrangement. The idea of using the interinstitutional agreements to reproduce the experience on a larger scale was not considered either. This would have required more commitment from the member institutions in a relation of belonging, where they could also e xpect resources.With respect to the selection of farmers, it is recommended to have an explicit strategy based on the objectives of the collaboration, use specific criteria, involve members from a broad range of d ifferent groups of end-users (in cluding women) both within the communities and in the production-marketing chain, seeking the hidden end-users and working with already established groups (if they exist in the area). The selection of farmers is a key element in the social impact of the work.The establishment of the objectives in a PR process is perhaps the most important phase of a project as roan y of the d ecisions as to how to implement a procedure depend on the objectives. We suggest that , to the extent possible, the objectives be established together with the participan ts of the process and not beforehand. This can increase the relevance of the work for the end-users a nd therefore the impact. Besides, the participatory approach can be a vehicle for fulfilling a gamut of different objectives and does not ha ve to be u sed just for developing new varieties. In the Atlantic Coast experience, it should be highlighted that two elements were not considered that have proven to be essential in later PPB projects:A phase of mass multiplication of seed of the clones accepted by farmers An impact study that includ es considerations referring to the methodology per se and the process implemented.Another key topic that is dealt with in this article is the quality and the use of the information gathered. In the Atlantic Coast experience, several altematives use ful for meeting the challen ge of establishing a link between the analysis of quantitative and qualitative information were used. Logistic regression, adapted to the analysis of the preference rankings to simula te the acceptan ce of the experimental materials by the farmers, is recommended. The use of a field book, similar to the one developed during the Atlantic Coast project is also recommended in order to limit the amount of information gathered to what can really be used and analyzed. The incorporation of the information or of the conclusions of the analysis in making decisions about the clones to be evaluated, recommended and released is an essential step for that process to be considered participatory.The PCB procedure was developed within an interinstitutional framework that provided severa! advantages to the Atlantic Coast project. Among them we can mention being able to interact with a wide range of professionals from both research and extension as well as merchants, and the availability of wider ranges of geographic coverage for the trials. Another advantage is the exposition of severa! institutions to a new research approach. Given that the institutional framework is a contextua! element, on which the projects and their implementers do not have much influence and it is not a suggested step in the procedure, perhaps it is out of place to make recommendations as to its form. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that the interinstitutional collaboration can be highly advantageou s for a PPB project and that in the event that there is such a collaboration, it is advisable that the members establish the objectives, the roles of each one in the collaboration and the corresponding responsibilities and obligations in ajoint process.The Colombian Atlantic Coast experience and the development of the PCB procedure were very successful. We n eed only to see the number of clones released and accepted among farmers and the adoption of the same procedure in severa! Latin American countries.OUTPUT Growing evidence d emonstrates that participatory research (PR) approaches can increase the benefits of agricultura! research for resource-poor smallholders living in rural areas. These methods not only address the specific needs of poorer farmers and develop technologies that are better suited to their conditions, but they also empower farmers by giving them control over the research agenda and by building communitybased organizations. Participatory approaches h ave often been criticized, however, because their success is only at the locallevel and therefore their impact is limited (e.g., on the small group of farmers participating in the project). The potential of PR approaches to impact on rural livelihoods will be realized only if promising technologies can be developed, disseminated and adopted by farmers.During a recent retreat, the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) team decided it was critica! to develop a scaling-up strategy to ensure that these considerations were built into the project right from the beginning. The definitions and objectives used for scaling up are consistent with those developed by the CGIAR-NGO committee ata conference in the Philippines (IIRR, 2000), which defined the objective as follows: \"Scaling up leads to more quality benefits to more people o ver a wider geographic area, more quickly, more equitably and more lastingly.\" Consequently, it is evident that if PR approaches are to achieve scaling-up objectives, these approaches must demonstrate the ability to benefit large numbers of p oor people across large areas within reasonable time frames. Developing strategies for scaling up has been the center of much recent debate within Research and Development (R&D) institutions, especially those concerned with natural resource management (NRM). Severa! international workshops have been carried out (Cooper & Denning, 2000;Güendel & Hancock, 2001). These workshops aimed to identify \"best practice\" and strategies for scaling up ofNRM research (Güendel & Hancock, 2001). The workshops identified several issues critical for successful scaling-up efforts:Developing research partnerships and linking with other stakeholders New modalities for doing research; PR identified as a key area Capacity building to increase the pool of people with skills Integration of monitoring and evaluation to enhance learning, build in corrective loops, and measure progress and evaluation of impacts Institutionalizing scaling-up , with a focus on vertical scaling-up to ensure feedback of research results to policy and research agendas and vice-versa Enhancement of sharing and learning from other fields (e.g., health sector, which has a wealth of experience in developing participatory approaches and scaling-up strategies)Communities applying ERl framework for better decision-making Institutionalization of methodology within existing partners New partners applying the ERI framework in their ongoing work with communities Policymakers within governments, NARS, universities, extension, and NGOs aware and sup portive Adoption of technology within pilot communities and other communities Focus on scaling-up approaches, methods and technologiesTo achieve the foregoing objectives, it was important to develop strategies based on who the target was and at what level the impact was desired. Therefore, specific strategies were developed for scaling up at different levels: within the community, across to other communities, within the district, within the country (nationally) and across countries (internationally). Figure 1 presents the different levels of going to scale graphically: vertically and horizontally. Table 1 demonstrates specific strategies for scaling up and out at different levels.Mae Benefits, 1lcre People, Mae Q.Jid<Jy As one goes up higher up the institutiorollevels (scaling up), the greater the chances for horizontal spread; likewise, as one spreads farther geographically (scali1\"9 out), the greater the chances of influenci1\"9 those at the higher levels.   Fa rmer participatory research (FPR) is receiving considerable recognition in both international a nd national agricultura! R&D organizations as an important strategic r esearch issue, vital to achieving impacts that benefit poor people in marginal, diverse and complex environments. Ther e is now a large body of literature tha t demonstrates considera ble advantages and the potential of involving farmers in the research process (Ashby et al., 2000;Lilja et al., 200 1;Pretty and Hine, 2001;Martín and Sherrington, 1997;Okali et al., 1994). It is argued that FPR can significantly improve the functional efficiency of forma l resear ch (e.g. , better technologies, more widely adopted, quicker and broader impacts) and empower marginalized people and groups to strengthen tl'leir own decision m a king and research capacity to make e ffective demands on researc h a nd extension services, thereby r esulting in payoffs for both farmers and scientists.Until recently, howeve r , the emphasis has been on food security crops and natural resource m a nagement (NRM), with little attention to the income needs of poor fa rmers. This resulted in improving subsistence rather than market-oriented production systems. A major constraint to improving the livelihoods of smallholder, resource-poor farme r s is their ability to access markets. Farmers' financial benefits from agriculture are often reduced by their limited opportunities and skills for identifying ma rkets for their produce, and by low bargaining power with such rural service providers as market middlemen, agricultura! extension agents a nd researchers. Key s hortcomings for both FPR and agricultura! research a re failure to link farmers to markets and increasing incomes for marketing agricultura ! products. A key challenge today is to c reate an entrepreneur culture in rura l communities, wh ere fa rmers produce for markets rather than trying to ma rket what they produce. Enhancing the a bility of s mallholder , r esource -poor farmers to access market opportunities and actively engaging in them is one of the most pressing development challenges facin g both govemments and nongovernmental organizations (IFAD, 200 1;IFPRI, 2002;Kindness and Gordon, 2002).On the other hand, a market-oriented prod uction system is likely to lead to land degrad ation and the unsustainable use of natural resources, which can eventually limit the potential for m arket production. Su s tained growth in profitability will depen d upon continued improvements in NRM technologies, which are key for increasing yields in low-external input farming system s. Sustainable improvem ents of rural livelihoods a t the house hold level depend upon muc h more than improved access to technology and ma rkets. It is now widely accepted that providing sustainable s upport to women farmers is a critica! element of a ny rura l innovation system. There is no question tha t integrating gender-sens itive participatory approaches in agricultura} R&D proj ects is a win-win strategy for reducing hunger in Africa (IFAD 2001;IFPRI 2002). Because of their critica! role in food production , processing marketing and con su mption, women should be at the core of any s tra tegies to improve rura l livelihoods a n d build the assets of the poor. Recent research h as also shown t he importa n ce of social capital foundations for s u ccessful innovations a nd community development. Social capital encompasses the nature and strength of existing relationships among members, their ability to organize themselves for mutual beneficia} collective action a round a reas of common n eed and m anaging the s ocial structures required to implement such plans; and the skills and abilities that community members can contribute to the development process (Uphoff and Mijayaratna, 2000;Woolock and Narayan, 2000). Social capital is an important asset that can be called on in a crisis, to the extent that communities endowed with a diverse stock of social capital are in a stronger position, not only to confront poverty and vulnerability but also to take advantages of new opportunities (Grootaert, 200 1;Narayan and Prittchet, 1999). Consequently, measures to strengthen the social capital of local communities willlead to the improved adoption of sustainable NRM practices.This report summarizes a novel approach to participatory research (PR) being applied in eastern and southern Africa: \"Enabling Rural Innovation\" (ERI), a partnership between R&D organizations that links small-scale farmers to markets to improve food security, income and NRM. ERI is a mutuallearning process approach for empowering rural communities and facilitating an enabling environment to access and generate technical and market information for improving decision-making and capacity to innovate, experiment, access market opportunities and better manage their resources in a more sustainable manner. More specifically, it links farmer PR, market-opportunity identification and development of technologies for integrated soil and nutrient management, with a focus on women and the poor. This report describe Iessons and challenges in implementing this participatory learning and action research through a learning alliance between R&D partners and farmers' groups in pilot sites in Uganda, Malawi and Tanzania.CIAT defmes rural innovation is defmed as \"the process by which various stakeholders generate, adapt or adopt novel ideas, approaches, technologies or ways of organizing, to improve on-a nd off-farm activities, so tha t the rural sector becomes more competitive in a sustainable manner\". In Africa this definition was made operational through the participatory action research project, \"Enabling Rural Innovation,\" which integrates farmer ., .. .. -This section highlights the results of applying the ERI fra mework, and discusses the implications for R&D , which include building and managing partnerships, selecting communities and farmer groups, participatory diagnosis (PD) and community visioning; market opportunity identification and community agroenterprise selection; farmer experimentation; promoting gender equity and building social capital, strengthening human capital and scalin g u p.Tim Smith, who conceived the Eden Project (Cornwall, UK), argues that\" Innovation is not about hiring an Einstein or creating a slogan. Everybody is capable of it, and the first sign th at it is happening is when people work together, excited because they want to be there, focused on finding a solution toa challenge they all understand.\" (emphasis added)T bl 1 ERI i a e . s tesan d partners i n eastern an d so u th e rn Afri c aSi Partnerships, a key principie of ERI, are becoming increasingly important for R&D organizations to deliver services to the rural poor and achieve sustainable rural livelihoods.Traditionally the NARS have been CIAT's key partners. With the ERI approach, CIAT has begun to strengthen its partnerships with national agricultura! research and extension systems (NARES) in eastem and southem Africa while finding new partners in the NGO sector who have a more development-oriented mandate (Table 1).Research h as shown that investments in building a strong foundation for partnerships can yield significant benefits. It is important to note, however, that partnerships can be challenging and difficult to sustain and manage. A recent literature review indicates that a high proportion of partnerships or alliances either fail or have to be restructured (Gormley,2001 ). Table 2 shows sorne of the obstacles to effective partnerships and the steps we are taking to manage them.T bl 2 Ob a e .1 stac e s to e ff, hi ecbve partners 1ps.Steps to Take Lack of attention to the Discuss potential barriers to partnership openly and process of building establish norms for working together partnerships and trust Be transparent, putting all issues on the table, including the budget, expectations and deliverables) Avoid even the appearance of withholding information Decide together how decisions will be made and how resources will be allocated Ask for input from all partners, listen, don ' ERI is being implemented with 19 farmers' groups and communities in 8 p ilot countries (Table 3}, with close to 1000 farmers. The selection of these si tes was a result of discussions with partners, field visits and community meetings in potential sites. In selecting pilot sites, the following questions were addressed:Is there a real potential for working in this community? (agroecological and socioeconomic conditions, accessibility) Are there issues that the majority of farmers consider important enough to commit their time and resources? Is there a good potential for scaling out to nearby villages? Are there active groups, local social organizations or farmers working together to try and find solutions to problems? Are there other development organizations working in the community or willing to work in the community and that can commit resources (human, financial , physical)? Is there an active extension or development worker with sufficient motivation and skills (or willing to learn) to be a community development facilitator? Is there potential for empowering women and promoting gender equity? What is the potential for adding value in current production activities? What are the research issues? Is the partner willing to commit resources to meet sorne of the expenses within the project? There was no blueprint for selecting communities or groups. In sorne pilot sites, we are working with the whole community in a more inclusive process; while in others, we m a de an effort to build on existing groups or organizations rather than creating and forming n ew ones. The main features of the selected groups include:Regular meetings Record keeping. Records are very important monitoring and evaluation tools for the group Constitution and by laws (rules and regulations). This h elps the group manage interna! conflicts and make the responsibilities of each member clear. Leadership. Leader s should be committed me mbers who a re chosen carefully and who h ave essentiallead ership characteristics with a sense of a ltruis m. Resource mobilization. Regular group savings and contributions are essential for group performance. Members' contributions to their group activities help build a sense of group ownership and solidarity. Effective horizontallinkages within the community and verticallinkages with service providers Diversification of activities (implementation of production-oriented activities)Self-initiated activities Group size (not too la rge groups) Social capital (relations of trust, coop eration, norms, sanctions, s ocia l interactions, group dyna mics and collective action) Not all of the communities meet the established criteria, but show good potentia l for strengthening group development. In sorne cases, we inte ntionally select \"weak group s\" or \"weak communities\" in order to strengthen them so that they can become more active and s uccessful. Strength ening the organizational capacity of groups a nd c ommunities is a key ER1 objective, which requires commitment a nd s kills in managing social processes a nd group dynamics.ERI u ses PD as a highly inter active process for establishing dialogue a nd engaging with farmers to stimula te collective analysis a nd better unders tanding of community livelihood assets, opportunities and strategies as a basis for developing co mmunity action plans to improve livelihoods. The process has a strong element of conn ecting with participating communities to create a process for lea rning a nd e mpowering rural people to be agents of their own change. An important principie of this approach is that it s tarts with an a n alysis of stren gths or opportunities, rather than needs, problems or constraints. It implies recognition of the community's inherent potential and a bility to use these opportunities to achieve better livelihoods.PD focuses on facilitating community visioning to help people think in tenns of long-term vision, beyond the immediacy of daily problems. A typical visioning question asks: What changes would you like to see in the next five years? What would you like to achieve in the next S years? The different visions expressed by the different groups are then matched with the ERI objectives and strategies to find common ground and develop action plans with rural communities. In facilitating action plan development, force field analysis tools provide ways of generating a shared vision of a future livelihood outcomes and an agreed strategy for achieving the livelihood outcomes. Development of the action plan uses the change formula b elow:Where SCE = success of a change effort; D = dissatisfaction with current condition; V = vision of desired future condition; S = steps and fs = first steps and B = belief in the success of the effort.All the pilot communities have developed action plans based on their VlSlon of future conditions, specifying activities and first steps in relation to the key components of the ERI approach: community enterprise development, farmer experimentation, gender and group dynamics. Effective proactive facilitation skills are used to ensure that concerns and priorities of marginalized groups such as women and the poor are not reglected.The action plans developed during the PD process are regularly revisited and refined at a later period after farmers have gone through the PMR.Over the past two years, ERI has been implemented in eastern and southern Africa to test, adapt and disserninate a territorial approach for identifying market opportunities and building profitable agroenterprises (Best, 2000;Ostertag, 1999). The selection of options for generating income requires collecting information that will help the farmer make decisions appropriate to hisjher situation. These enterprises were selected after market and enterprise visits where the income group or market cornmittee is facilitated to conduct PMR to find out information on varieties and types of products that are in high demand and which they think they could introduce to their area, either now or in the future. The final selection of options is undertaken in the presence of the whole community when the market researc h group presents the results of the market and enterprise visits, production costs and the prices they can expect when they sell. An evaluation of the different options, including cost-benefit analysis and other benefits that the option can bring to different groups, is made for farmers to select the enterprise options with which to start.Table 4 summarizes the different enterprises and food security options selected by different groups. It can be seen that farmers tend to select existing crops (beans, peanuts, potatoes) and smalllivestock (goats, pigs, poultry and rabbits) for market-oriented production. After PMR, however, farmers are beginning to select relatively new enterprises as well. For example, in Lushoto farmers selected zucchini, a new crop in their communities; while the groups in Ka bale decided to develop their enterprise around pyrethrum ( Chrysa nt he mum cinerariaefo lium).Pyrethrum is a perennial crop whose flowers are used to extract pyrethrin, used to make a natural insecticide for household insect pests. The demand has continued to grow in the world market as a more environmentally friendly insecticide for household use. Pyrethrum is a relatively new cash crop in Kabale district with a good potential for providing regular income to resource-poor farmers, especially women . In most cases the area occupied by pyrethrum averages 0.06 to 0.25 ha, and the crop is often grown without additional inputs. Agro Management, a private company, began processing pyrethrum in Uganda in 1993. The pyrethrin-extraction factory now draws on harvests from about 525 ha of local farmland, providing work for 10,000 people. Yet this corresponds to only about onethird of the plant's operating capacity. Thus there is a good opportunity to develop pyrethrum as a profitable, income-generating enterprise.Although sorne farmers had heard about it, the crop was not grown in the pilot communities so they did not have information on its agronomy and marketing. During the PD process, pyrethrum was selected as a potential new income-generating crop. During the PMR process farmers visited Agro Management and pyrethrum farmers in other communities to collect market information. Pyrethrum was evaluated against other options such as coffee, potatoes, pigs, chickens and beans, and was finally selected because of its low investment cost, guaranteed market and regular income. In a ddition, because pyrethrum is typically grown in high altitudes, farmers saw an opportunity to use their hilltops, which are usually abandoned land. There were also sorne other criteria such as an opportunity for bringing back more men into agricultura! production by providing them with a n income generating crop with th e hope that they will also con tribute to other agricultura! activities. However, the market of pyrethrum was limited to only one buyer, Agro Management, which purchases pyrethrum flowers from registered farmers on a monthly basis.Farmers in the two communities were well aware of the financia! risks of dealing with a single local firm that currently h as only one large client. It was not long befare Agro Management experienced serious financia! and marketing problems, leaving the company unable to pay farmers for the flowers. Despite this case of market failure, farmers' decisions and reaction on whether to stop orto continue with the enterprise are mixed, as expressed by farmers in the two pilot communities: \"There is no business without risk. We'll try something else ifthere is no marketfor pyrethrum.\" We are happy to ha ve started with research befare going into mass production. This has saved many farmers from losing a lot of money, land and labour. We ha ve leamt that it is better to start on small scale befare expanding.\" \"'We know that development and ncome generation are processes that don't happen ovemight. Despite the hardships and risks, we're all ready to Jorge ahead and make a go ofit.\"These local distortions and market failures were dealt with through farmer experimentation on a collective learning p lot that helped minimize risks to individual farmers. The farmers are now looking for a lternative enterprises and have acquired sufficient capacity to evaluate market opportunities, select enterprises and conduct experiments befare expanding to larger areas. A new p h ase in the process of developing integrated agroenterprises around potatoes started in Kabale, where farmers were lin ked toa major fast food frrm in the capital city. This phase required a much more detailed analysis of the chain of actions and actors involved from production through marketing. The process of designing integrated agroenterprise projects is being expanded in a market facilitator manual which is being developed on the basis of the collective experience of all project partners and stakeholders.Among the lesson s leam ed, it is essen tial to bu ild a clear sense of ownership of the process by farmer s and build local capacity to identify, evaluate and select market opportunities. Farmers' experimentation proved to be critical in rninimizing risks against market failures, even for existing crops and markets. Farmer experimentation also provides a balance between enterprise options and food security.Enhancing farmers' technical skills and research capabilities and involving them as decisionmakers in the technology-development process are comerstones of ERI. Farmers' experimentation results in innovations that are more responsive to their priorities, constraints and needs. Farmer experimentation is Iinked to the PMR process described above. After the PMR process and selection of enterprise options, farmers are helped in the process of identifying potential constraints that research or experimentation can address for improving the profitability of the selected enterprise option. This process leads to the design and planning of experiment s that farmers decide to implement, manage and evaluate.One of the key constraints to crop productivity and to increasing profitability across si tes was identified as declining soil fertility. In addition to varietal evaluation and selection, farmers' experimentation focuses on integrated soil fertility management practices such as:Management options better suited to different soil conditions (poor soils, acid soils, different locations within the landscape Crop requirements, where on the slope can it be grown Pests and diseases Appropriate use of organicjinorganic materials for soil fertility improvement Management options airning at optimal use of legumes in combination with strategic applications of mineral fertilizers to maximize nutrient cycling and soil organic matter replenishment Appropriate niches for legume for soil fertility improvement and erosion control Testing and evaluation of forage legumesThe experiments are usually established on a group plot for collective learning. The treatments are selected through a negotiation process between farmers and researchers, with researchers providing t echnical information and suggesting additional treatments. In Kabale, for example, the community selected 12 treatments [farmyard manure, legum es, soil erosion control measures, marc compost (pyrethrum residue), agricultura! lime, wood ash and organic and inorganic fertilizers], which were established in each village. At the end of this season, participatory evaluations of techn ologies were con ducted with farmers in Muguri B and Karambo. Although agronomic results showed that the NPK treatment gave the highest yields compared to the other soil inputs (Fig. 2), farmers ranked compost manure highly because of inaccessibility (cost and availability) of fertilizers and agricultura! lime. However, transporting manure up the hill is labor intensive and expensive. Farmers argued that with proper management practices (weeding, pruning, timely harvesting), pyrethrum could do as well with no soil inputs in fertile soils. In addition to the pyrethrum experiment, farmers are also testing different legumes and grass species for controlling soil erosion through stabilizing the trench bunds (embankments).These are being evaluated at specific intervals.Gender and equity are of central concern in a ll the stages of the ERI process from selecting communities and groups, forming committees, conducting PD and community planning, identifying and selecting market opportunities, farmer experimentation and capacity building.The PO process specifically uses gender-sensitive participatory tools to bring gender issues to the forefront a nd to create awareness on gender issues in a more systematic manner. These tools include gender-sensitive resource mapping, seasonal and activity calendar, d a ily activity routine, and variou s preference ranking meth ods. Proactive strategies and gender-sensitive facilitation s kills are used to encourage women's participation in community meetings (including separate groups of men and women), and to generate a collective analysis of gender relations a nd dynamics within the community or groups. As a result, in severa! communities, gender goes beyond division of roles a nd responsibilities between men and women or encouraging women's partic ipa tion to develop specific action plans to deal with gender awareness education, group dynamics, nutritional education , HIV 1 AIDS awareness and education, and s u pporting women-specific initiatives.The project has a strong focus on supporting women to identify specific agroenterprises that enable them to use available agricultura! technology to their own advantage. Both men and women are encouraged to identify options that can benefit everyone. In Kabale, both men and women selected pyrethrum as a n enterprise option. A survey of pyrethrum grower s showed that more th an 40% of the farmers are women, and m any female pyrethrum producers are organized into groups. In addition to pyrethrum, the women also selected poultry (local hens for egg production), which is in their domain. Similarly, in Tororo b eans and peanuts, both women's crops, were selected for enterprise d evelopment. In Malawi, communities have selected beans and s malllivestock, which are traditionally m a n aged by women. On the other hand, in Lushoto, the m ajority of farmers involved in zu cchini produ ction are men. There are concerns that women's labor may be u sed to produce t h e crop, while men will take over when marketing to control the income. Experience and previous studies on intrahousehold gender dynamics elsewhere in Africa h ave shown that when a crop enters the market economy, men are likely to take over from women, and that women do not benefit from market-oriented production (Quisumbing et al., 1998;Kaaria and Ashby, 200 1) .We are closely monitoring intrahousehold gender dynamics as the project progresses as this will be a key aspect of our research areas. Proactive strategies are an integral part of the ERI process for promoting gender a nd equity, and empowering farmers. The activities included:Increasing gender awareness through community drama and community meetings Training workshops for scientists to enhance their a bility to integrate gender analysis in agricultura! research Enabling both m en a nd women farmers to evaluate a diverse range of crop and soil fertility management technologies Participatory approach es to s u pport women's empowerment and leadership at the community level are integrated as p a rt of the strategy, creating and fac ilitating forums where women can discuss their livelihood concern s. In add ition to including women in all project activities, proactive strategies are used to help women identify specific agroenterprises a nd enable them to use availab le agricultura! technology to their own advantage. Farmer experimentation maintains the balance between enterprise options and food security. Assisting men and women farmers to build assets, particularly small1ivestock (poultry, goats, rabbits), which are usually managed by men.Women have gained confidence as expressed in the following statement: \"We womenparticipate in the work just as the men do. Although I was a little shy at first, I am now supremely conjident in my ability to accurately document the wark of our group.\"Women constitute the majority of community and group members. At al! the sites, representation and participation of both men and women in the committee are clearly important criteria when selecting farmers. They are equally well represented on all the committees and sorne in leadership positions. For example in Ukwe, about 50 % of all the committee members are women. In Uganda, it was reported that maJe members of the group are actively taking part in farming activities, compared to nongroup members. Similar observations were made in Malawi. We are finding that farmer research groups proved to be a more effective mechanism to involve women and resource-poor farmers in research. There is a strong a nd growing sense of community spirit, cooperation, trust and mutually beneficia] collective action in the pilot communities and groups. Farmers have also acquired increasing confidence.Although considerable progress is being made in promoting gender equity and women's empowerment, it is important to recognize that addressing gender relations is a long process that requires commitment and effective facilitation skills. There is still a need for a better understanding of the likely implications of market-oriented production to assess the distributional effects and equity of benefits, especially gender dynamics, which we need to consider in developing enterprises and to determine when farmers will actually capture significant market opportunities.Creating a critica! mass of scientists and development partners is crucial for both enabling rural innovation and scaling up the ERI process. Over the last 2 years, we have conducted over 1 O workshops, reaching more than 200 R&D partners to enhance their skills of our partners to implementan ERI process effectively. Our capacity-building strategy is based on five main approaches:Introductory training. A typical introductory workshop lasts for 12 days, which is kept flexible for contextua! adaptation. The workshop covers facilitation skills, ERI principies and concepts, PDs and community visioning, PMR, building and managing partnerships, gender analysis, farmer experimentation, participatory evaluation of technologies and strategies for scaling u p. Follow-up workshops review, refine and develop feasible action plans and activities as well as come up with refreshing concepts, approaches, process, tools and skills. Action leaming. A stepwise process of leaming (implementation in the field -analysisleaming-implementation) is adopted, with feedback from the analysis of each stage, enabling modifications to be made. Systematic feedback and analysis are undertaken on the appropriateness of the methods and tools in different situations. Mentoring. Field mentoring and coaching are also powerful tools for building capacity of partners in FPR/ PMR. Training manuals. Because the demand for training and expertise in ERI is increasing in the region, we are developing a series of training guides and facilitators' manuals for integrating FPR and PMR in sub-Saharan Africa. We anticípate considerable expansion in the demand for training of partners and other NGO staff in ERI process (severa! requests have been already received and are increasing). Identifying other agencies working with communities and that have an interest in stimulating community innovation and in learning from their experiences will help create a critica! mass of agencies. We are pursuing a leaming-alliance type of partnership with Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM), a consortium of over 150 NGOs in eastem and sout hern Africa to build the capacity of sorne selected members who can then take on training responsibilities of other NGO members in the region.At the community level, we are strengthening the organizational capacity and social capital of local communities through training and facilitation of leadership skills, group dynamics, consensus building and negotiation skills for managing conflicts, with attention to NRM. ERl also facilitates horizontal and vertical linkages among communities, and between pilot communities and rural service providers. Farmers in pilot communities have improved their analytical skills and participation in mutually beneficia} collective action as well as in local policy formulation and implementation. They have been instrumental in initiating community bylaws for soil and water conservation, and have established strong links between farrner research and market groups and the rest of the community. Nevertheless, it is possible that with the new market orientation, conflicts may emerge between farrner market groups and the rest of the community over distribution of benefits and participation in research or market groups.To scale up its impact, we are developing a strategy at different levels from local communities to national and regionallevels. This strategy defmes the different levels for scaling out and scaling up, the objectives and targets at each level, the strategic partners to be involved, and the specific activities that are needed to achieve the set objectives. For greater details on this strategy, see \"Developing a scaling-up strategy for \"Enabling Rural Innovation,\" al so under O u tput 2 of this report.This meeting aimed to identify potential areas for developing collaborative research activities focusing on strengthening participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) processes to support adaptivefparticipatory research programs. It was expected that the results of the workshop would lay the groundwork for developing concrete activities and future plans.Discuss the scope of monitoring and evaluations (M&E) systems in supporting learning within R&D institutions Share experiences and lessons learned from existing Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation (PME) systems Identify opportunities and challenges of establishing and supporting PME systerns and identify critica! issues in the development of a comprehensive PME system Discuss potential strategic areas for M&E technical b ackstopping and support to strengthen existing systems Share and discuss a proposed regional (Kenya and Uganda) project that aims to support and strengthen both participatory and formal M&E systems within R&D institutionsTh e participants were from Kenya Agricultura! Research Institute (both frorn KARI HQ and from the Regional Research Centers (RRCs) -Kisii, Kitale, Kakamega, Embu and Mtwapa) and two NGOs (Environrnental Action Team, EAT; and Community Mobilization Against Desertification, CMAD). There was agreernent within the group that this project was opportune and was going to strengthen and add valu e to new and ongoing activities within adaptive research projects in KARI. The results of these discussions were systernatized to develop sorne specific outputs and activities for the project. These ideas were developed during discussions throughout the day as the group tried to identify ways in which to make the proposed p roject build on and benefit ongoing activities and processes.During the discussions it was clear that PME would have to be developed at different levels (Fig. 1). Additionally, there was a lot of discussion asto the importance of developing mechanisms to harmonize M&E systems at these different levels and to systematize the information.(at KARI HQ leve!, important for organizationa l learning) Researchers: Edson Gandarillas Ch. 13 , Juan Almanzai 4The Bolivian System of Agricultura! and Livestock Technology (SIBTA) is in the process of being implemented through four Foundations for the Development of Agricultura! and Livestock Technology (FDTA), distributed in function of macroregions: the Highlands, Valleys, Chaco and Humid Tropics.During the last year, the market of technological innovation in Bolivia has been dynamized through the FDTAs. They have begun to put out tenders for the Applied Innovation Technological Projects (PITA), the demands created by these entities are beginning to be responded to, and the suppliers of technology are beginning to wotk in them.On the other hand, there are initiatives aimed at improving the process of identifying technological demands (through ATICA, INNOVA, etc.), by incorporating the farmers in agricultura! research processes (through the CIALs), improving the strategies of agricultura! training (through t he Farmers Field Schools), and implementing pro-poor processes. All these efforts are being implemented with the purpose of improving the current innovation system in Bolivia.In this sense, the project for \"-Promoting Changes (FoCam) is contributing to the adjustments of SIBTA, carrying out a series of investigations that incorporate mechanisms of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) within the setting of the Applied Technological Innovation Projects (PITA), suppliers of technology, but primarily at the level of the demandants of technology (developing their capacities, especially of the poorest) .Evaluate the effects and impacts (social, economic, methodological and technological) of the application of participatory research methodologies (CIALs) within the communal context and their interactions with the local social organization (sindicatos and centrales campesinas) and the local govemment (municipalities) Determine and analyze the effect and impact (social, economic, methodological and technological) of the application of a PME system within the context of interactions among the demandants, suppliers and FDTA (PITAs).This document presents one of the first tasks that was carried out to develop the first objective of the research. It provides details on the local perceptions of three communities from the municipality of Colomi in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The objective of the document is to identify the perceptions on poverty of farmers from the communities of Kanko, Tabla Mayu and Primera Candelaria.Methodo loqy 13 Coordinator, Project IPRA -FoCam, Bolivia.14 Technician, PROINP A Foundation, Bolivia.Diverse authors (Grandin, 1988;IIED, 1992 ;Scoones, 1988) have reported different ways of classifying well-being, such as the classification of cards, group discussions and the making of maps that indicate the social con d ition.The methodology used in this work was proposed by Ravnborg ( 1999), based on the identification of levels of well-being through the local perceptions of the farmers using the following ten methodological steps Definition of the communities to be studied, based on the requirements of the research Definition of the classification units in accordance with the research objectives Make a list of the families in the community (in the case of Bolivia, the list of the affiliates of the sindicatos of the communities Identification of key informants based on previous interviews with the local authorities in order to identify the people who know the families in the community best Identify local terms of well-being, through informal interviews in order not to bias the information from the farmers Explanation of the purpose of classification of the families based on well-being (to be done in work with key informants; the objective of the work should be made quite clear so that the data provided are valid) Classification of the cards, separately, for each of th e key informants Description of the piles of cards at the end of this process) Record the classification (office work) Identification of the average categories of levels of well-beingThe communities of Kanko, Tabla Mayu and Primera Candelaria, belonging to the municipality of Colomi, Province of Chapare in the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, were selected. The criteria for identifying the communities were as follows:Existence of CIALs Members of the subcentral campesina of Candelaria Target communities of the FoCam project Classification of levels of well-being Community Kanko. Table 1 gives details of the levels of well-being identified with three key informants from the community. Four levels were established: wealth y, less wealthy, poor and very poor. The community has 66 families, ofwhich 12% belong to the \"wealthy\" category, 53% to the \"less wealthy,\" 27% to the \"poor\" stratum and 8 % to the \"very poor.\" The perceptions that determine the levels of well-being in the community are owning land, availability of vehicles, owning a house , owning cattle (cows), owning minor species of animals (sheep, pigs, poultry) .The levels \"poor\" and \"very poor\" are also characterized by living in the community, while the other levels usually have houses in the nearest town (Colomi) or in the city of Cochabamba. The poor levels have agriculture as their main source of income; whereas the other levels have other income that is not necessarily agricultura} in nature. It should be noted that the poorest stratum work as laborers in the community.Community Tabla Mayu. Table 2 provides information on the levels of well-being identified with three key informants from the community. Three levels were established : rich, fairly rich and poor. The community has 38 families, of which 13% belong to the \"rich\" level, 32% to the \"fairly rich\", and 55% to the \"poor.\"The perceptions that determine the levels of well-being in the community are owning land, availability of vehicles, owning a house and owning cattle (maj or and minor species).The level \"poor\" is characterized by living in the community, which is different from the other levels that usually have housing in the nearest town (Candelaria) and in the capital of the province, Colomi (fairly rich) or the capital of the Department in the case of the rich. The poor have as their main source of income, agriculture; while the other levels have other sources of income that are not necessarily agricultural in nature. It should be noted that the lowest stratum work as day laborers in the activities of the community and as cargador at the Colomi fair. Table 3 gives the levels of well-being identified with three key informants from the community of Primera Candelaria. Three levels were established, grouped as \"those who have the most\", \"those who have\" and \"those who don't have.\" The community has 62 families, of which 48% belong to the level \"those who have the most ,\" 24% to those who \"ha ve\" and 27% to the stratum \"do not ha ve.\" The perceptions that determine the levels of well-being in the community are ownership of land, availability of vehicles, ownership of houses, ownership of majar and minar animal species.The \"does not have level\" is characterized by those people who have inherited smalllots of land on which they live. Their income comes from farming. The families in the \"have\" level are characterized by having majar and minar animal species, and two houses-one in Primera Candelaria and the other in Colomi. Finally, \"those who have the most\" own the largest surface of land, three houses (one in the town, another in Colo mi and one third in Cochabamba), cattle and minar species, and vehicles.The criteria of well-being in the three communities are repeated. Basically, the criteria that define the levels are: amount of farming land , land ownership number of houses, owned and number of cattle and minar species owned and model and vehicle and the definition of income by labor force.The so urce of income al so defines the level of well-being. If farming is the principal so urce of income in the family, the level of well-being will be in t h e lower levels of well-being in the community. On the other hand, if the main family income is not farming, for example, transportation, the family has a greater probability of being in the higher levels of wellbeing of the community.Of the three communities, Tabla Mayu and Kanko have the largest percentages of families considered to be poor. This is posibly due to their greater distance from the town (Colomi) and therefore a lower possibility of nonfarming activities.The results of the well-being levels will constitute another criterion for identifying case studies that try to assess the effects and impac ts of the CIALs work on the poor members of the communities.Researcher: Juan Camilo CockiS Collaborators: José Jiménez 16 , Juan Almanza, Fausto MerinoThe CIALs are groups of farmers elected by the community to do research and try to solve certain local problems. This article synthesizes the results of extensive research on mechanisms for self-financing that the CIALs are promoting. The mechanisms with which the CIALs finance so me of the costs of their research and other production and social activities are documented, as well as how they function. One conclusion is that all CIALs Ji nance their trials partially in kind, through their contributions in labor and land for the trials. So me groups have developed more complex mechanisms for generating and administering resources. These are important steps toward reaching self•sufficiency; however, the CIALs are far from being able to Ji nance all their current costs if the costs of training and technical assistance are included. Finally, so me recommendations are made for continuing with the study and promoting self-financing mechanisms in the CIALs.The CIALs are forrned by groups of farrners elected by the cornrnunity to conduct research on local problerns related to farrning. The CIAL methodology was developed in Colombia by a team of facilitator s frorn the lnternational Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). lt has now been d isseminated t hroughout Latin America (As hby et al., 200 1), with groups of farmers doing research in Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras a nd Nicaragua and Venezuela. This has been possible because the methodology has been favorably received in various projects and entities in these countries in search of ways to include the farmers in the formal research processes. However, the projects have set time lirnits, and the entities have changing priorities. Even those who have a long-terrn commitment with the CIAL methodology have to diminish their support to the oldest groups in arder to forrn new ones. This means that the CIALs will gradually and in sorne cases, suddenly, lose the support of the entities and projects. Thus, if these groups a re to have continuity, it is necessary to identify mechanisms that p errnit them to become independent from the entities and projects that helped forrn them. This does not imply cutting the relations with them; but at that time, t h e entities should not accompany the CIALs to see whether they have the capacity to continue functioning and doing research on their own. To accomplish this the groups need to achieve independence or self-sufficie n cy in severa! fields. On the one hand, they have t o h ave the capacity to design and carry out experiments in such a way that they can identify solutions adequate for their needs. Knowing how to conduct experiments is not sufficient. The group needs a leader and the willpower to keep on with the experiments once there is n o technician or agron omist motivating the group. Perhaps one of the most critica! points is that the CIALs also have to be able to genera te the resources required to finance their trials.There is a general need for local organizations to seek alternatives to the externa! financing of projects to obtain the resources necessary for th eir functioning. At present there are diverse ways in which the local organizations can gain access to resources. The transition toward sorne of these options is important if they are to become more sustainable and more firrnly anchored in the local community (Wheatley, 2003). One of the options for obtainin g resources is that the organizations t h emselves generate them through different activities. In Latín America there are many documented cases of local organizations that have very effective mechanisms for generating resources (Cock, 2003a;FIDAMERICA 1996FIDAMERICA , 1999FIDAMERICA , 2000;;Wheatley, 2003). Among those cases there are small businesses, cooperatives, microcredit institutions and NGOs.Given that their primary objective is research, the CIALs have not been oriented toward this type of activity. To ensure their sustainability, however, it is necessary that these groups begin to generate the resources necessary for their functioning. Despite the fact that they have not focused on generating resources, sorne CIALs and their second-order organizations have taken the initiative to create mechanisms for generating sorne of their own income to finance their activities.At present there are several mechanisms that the CIALs use to finance their trials and other activities. Their application, however, varíes a lot. There are groups that have several mechanisms operating, while others have none. In general the mechanisms have been developed by the groups themselves, either alone or with the help of the institutions that support them. As a step towards the search for economic self-sufficiency of the CIALs, research was conducted to document the mechanisms with which the groups finance sorne of the costs of their research and other activities related to their objectives. The purpose of this inventory is to determine existing mechanisms and then share them with other groups so that they can use them as models, guides or simply as in inspiration to adopt and adapt their own mechanisms. This article synthesizes the mechanisms found in the research; they are documented in much greater detail in the final report of the work (Cock, 2003b).In this work, the term \"mechanism for self-financing\" refers to those actions and the norms; that is, the process and the structure, whereby a CIAL covers the costs of its activities and operations.With the prefix selfwe want to emphasize the fact that we are interested in those mechanisms whereby the groups generate their own resources or other activities, whereby they themselves are in a position to assume the costs of their activities. This naturally excludes any external contributions of resources such as donations and project resources. In the case of the CIALs there are mechanisms that generate monetary resources with which they can pay certain costs with cash, as well as others that function with contributions in kind, thereby reducing the need for cash to pay those costs. That is frequently the case of financing the land and labor for the trials. The projects, activities, businesses, funds, contributions or any other mechanism whereby these groups get resources constantly to finance their operations and projects and to comply with their objectives are monetary mechanisms. The profits produced by these mechanisms can be distributed in various ways, but part of them should be u sed to finance the CIAL's activities.Finally, being a process, a mechanism, involves severa! stages: the way in which it contributes the elements that the mechanism itself requires to function, the way in which the mechanism generates resources or reduces the need for them; that is, the operation of the mechanism itself and the way in which the resources generated are invested in the proj ects and activities.The research that made this work possible was done in three stages:A search was done on Internet to identify cases of self-financing in local organizations in Latín America. This search served to contextualize the CIALs in the environment of local or grassroots organizations in Latin America; to provide access to a source of ideas on the possibilities of the self-financing mechanisms already being used; and to serve asan inspiration for finding new ones (Cock, 2003a). A survey on the topic was designed and sent to all the institu tions that have implemented the CIAL methodology in order to get a general idea of what self-financing mechanisms there are at present. Those cases that merited a more detailed, in-depth study were selected (Cock, 2003c). Visits were then made to Bolivia, Ecuador and Honduras to document these cases with the inputs of the farmers themselves . Field visits were made and in-depth interviews were held with the members of the CIALs and the staff of the institutions that support them.The discussion of the results is by mechanism, analyzing each one separately. However, one of the most important elements of the self-financing mechanisms is the fact that they rarely function in an isolated manner. In practice, the groups generate their resources by combining the different mechanisms in diverse forms and with varied norms. From an analytical standpoint, however, it is better to separate them in arder to analyze them in general; that is, independently of the particular combinations that each group has come up with. Thus other interested groups can adopt and combine them as they wish.In the research the following self-financing mechanisms are being used by the CIALs at present:All the CIALs contribute the research costs related to the land and the labor, generally through nonmonetary mechanisms. In most cases the farmers contribute land and their own labor, assuming the opportunity costs of not using the land and their work for other commercial purposes. For each of these aspects there are several ways to finance them.A member of the CIAL loans the land where the tria! is being conducted. In compensation, they help the owner clear the land in fallow and prepare it. Thus the owner of the land does not have to clear the land for the fo llowing planting. Sometimes the owner also receives a part of the production as compensation. Severa! members of the CIAL contribute la nd. A replication of the tria! is planted on each lot. The owner of each lot keeps part or all the production from that replication. The land is leased a nd paid in severa! ways. Sometimes a quota is collected among the members of the CIAL to pay for it; other groups p ay it with a percentage of the production. The community contributes the land . In the Andean countries the community frequently loans part of their communalland to plant the tria!.Labor. The re are three ways in which the labor for the trials is financed:The entire group works together. All the members contribute their labor in each stage and throughout the tria!. Sometimes their work is compensated with part of the production. A member is in charge of a replication. When each farmer has a replication of the tria! in hisfher plot, hefshe assumes r esponsibility for the work in it. The other members of the CIAL participate in the activities that are important for the tria!, such as the evaluations. Generally the farmers receive part or all the production from the replication of which they are in charge. The community assumes the cost of the work. In the Andean countries where the communities work in mingas 17 , the community permits the members of the CIAL to work in their trials on the days of the minga. As this is a day that the members of the CIAL should work for the community, it is the community that assumes the opportunity costs.Informal activities such as raffles, bazaars and sale of food are very common for raising funds. In many cases they are carried out to finance sorne immediate need; in others the idea is to save the funds and use them later. There are groups that have gathered resources as a result of these activities to build up the initial capital necessary for other mechanisms such as loans or planting a production lot. In general these activities are not related to the CIAL's research activities.Although the purpose of the CIALs is not to generate resources but to test andfor validate technologies, sorne trials do generate profits, especially in the more advanced phases of production trials and commerciallots. Sorne groups use the profits from these activities to capitalize the group and be able to finance subsequ ent stages of the research and other activities of the CIAL. Thus sorne CIALs have planted production lots parallel to their trials in order to generate resources. In Honduras the second-order associations of CIALs, known as ASOCIALs, have funds to make loans to the CIALs to support production projects. The profits from these production projects serve to capitalize the fund of each CIAL.A very simple mechanism for generating resources is the setting of quotas or special fees.There are severa! types of quotas: extraordinary, membership and periodic.Extraordinary. Members are asked to make an extraordinary contribution ata given moment to finance sorne immediate need for which there is no money. Many CIALs ask their members to pay a quota wh en it is necessary to pay a cost in a tria! such as sorne input and the group does not have savings to cover it.Affiliation. This is a one-time membership fee that a person or group should pay to belong to sorne organization. The income from this type of quota depends on the number of new members entering a group. In the case of sorne ASOCIALs, this type of quota has permitted them to procure an initial working fund when they get started. Besides, they have continued to receive contributions from other groups when they beccme members.Periodic. This is a payment that each CIAL member makes to his or her group or that each CIAL makes to the ASOCIAL every certain amount of time. This quota provides the most constant and reliable flow of resources. With this mechanism an organization can count on a set amount of money every so often (the membership fee, on the other hand, depends on new members) and their members know that they have that obligation a nd can therefore include it in their routines as a permanent responsibility (the extraordinary quota, in contrast, is occasional and so it is not generally included in the plans of those who pay it). In general the periodic quota is a mechanism useful for financing the administrative expenses of an organization, given its regularity; however, it is nota mechanism that h as the capacity to generate sufficient resources for projects. Their use in groups such as the ASOCIALs can be important for financing sorne of their administrative expenses.In Honduras the ASOCIAL Yorito provides a series of services to their CIAL members, which at the same time serve to generate sorne income to help cover their administrative expenses:Savings. Each CIAL has a savings account in which they have to save a mínimum amount yearly and beyond that, the amount they want. A low interest rate is paid. Production loans. The second service is the provision of loans for production projects. The CIAL can take out loans for twice the valu e they have saved, paying an interest rate of 29% monthly. Loans for storing maize and common beans The third service is loans exclusively for purchasing maize a nd common beans for their storage and later sale during periods of scarcity. The profits from the sale are divided equally between the ASOCIAL and the CIAL that took ou t the loan.Sorne CIALs have their own petty cash funds in which they manage the savings of their members and make loans. Interest is charged for these loans, which generates sorne resources. The norms that each CIAL has with respect to the contributions to the petty cash fund, the amount and th e duration of the loans, t h e interest that is charged, the way in which the interest paid is distributed, the loan to outsiders and the solidarity funds differ from one group to another.This mechanism functions in Honduras alth ou gh it could be a pplied in other countries.The CIAL purchases maize and common beans at harvest time when the supply is abundant and prices are low, and then they store them in metal silos. In the months prior to the next harvest, these products generally become scarce, and the price goes up. Then the CIAL sells the stored maize and common beans at a much higher price than they paid for them. With this mechanism the CIAL offers a service to their community, increasing the local availability of these p roducts and offering better prices, while generating resources for the group.An agreement is made between the producer and the buyer asto the conditions under which the production will be sold . Buyers who need farm products with special characteristics seek farmers who are organized and have experience in contracting their production. The producer group has the advantage that t h ey can ensure a mínimum for their production, thereby assuring the profitability of their investment. There are CIALs that are p lanting under this mode, contracting with municipal and second-order organizations to generate resources as groups.A problem th at many farmer s face is the low price that the market pays for the products they grow; when these products are processed, however , they bring high prices. To improve the farmers' income and gen erate sorne extra income for the CIALs, the generation of aggregate value is being promoted in severa! countries. A part of the profits th at the small agroenterprises of the CIALs generate can be used to capitalize the group's fund and finance sorne of t heir activities. In Ec uador and in Bolivia there are experienres with small agroenterprises that add value to potatoes. In Ecuador they are producing potato chips locally; prior to that, t h ey were brought from the city ata much higher price.In Bolivia native potatoes are b eing selected and packed for a s pecialized urban market (natural foods) . Both are cases that respond to a market (one local, the other, externa!), process a product that the CIAL produces, and the initial investment is not high.Self-financing is, to a certain extent, found in all CIALs. For their experiments, the CIALs normally seek a way to fina n ce the land for p lanting the trials and the labor that they n eed . As was seen, there are severa! m echanisms to accomplish this; they vary from one place to another a nd are linked to the different local practices of the zones where t here are CIALs. In many cases cash is not required to finance these costs as the CIAL members contribute t heir own land a nd labor or resort to diverse nonmonetary mechanisms for financing them , ranging from payment in kind to traditional mechanisms of reciprocity.All CIALs also receive support from the facllitating entities to finance the costs of the trials, especially in the form of seed, inputs and outside technical knowledge. This help is either given in kind or cash so that the group itself purchases the inputs that are not avallable locally. In some cases this investment is needed only for the first trial given that the production gives seed and some resources for the following trials. However, some groups also assume some of the costs of the inputs.To finance costs for which they require cash, the CIALs look to mechanisms that gen erate resources for them. The simplest mechanisms for obtaining sorne resources are u sing th e sale of the production of a trial to finance the following one, collect extraordinary quotas amon g the members of the group, and organize informal activities such as the sale of food or raffles.Some CIALs have more elaborate mechanisms for generating resources. These mechanisms have clear operational norms, are independent of the immediate need for resources (i.e., they are more structural than opportunistic), are more constant and frequently bring other benefits apart from generating resources. Some examples of these mechanisms are the systems of savings and loans, the CIAL petty cash funds, small agroenterprises, storage and commercialization, and production contracts. With these mechanisms some CIALs are financing some costs of their trials. Others use them to finance production projects independent from the CIAL trials. Besides generating resources for self-f\"mancing, many provide a service for the community.The only information available on the costs that a CIAL has for an entity is from 1995 and was calculated from CORFOCIAL's budget for s upporting th eir CIALs in Colombia. At that time, it was estimated that each CIAL cost the CORFOCIAL US$500 ayear. This figure serves as a reference for calculating the income that the CIALs need to generate to cover the expenses they require. At present there are no mechanisms that generate this amount. The self-financing mechanisms available at present generate resources to cover administrative expenses and sorne or even all the costs of the trials. If the costs of technical assistance and training that includes salaries of technicians and agronomists and logística! expenditures such as transportation-the resources generated by the mechanisms available at present are insufficient.Self-financing should be seen as a process in which it ís n ecessary to advance step by step. A first step is that the groups pay their trials and their administrative expenses. It should be noted that one of the principal obstacles to self-financing is th e paternalísm of the entities. Many of the research costs are either given to the groups or they have to pay back less than the entity's original contribution. This is done even in trials that have a high projected profitability. Even when production projects are supported, the amount that should be returned by the CIAL is, in many cases, less than what they were given In this sense sorne ASOCIALs in Honduras have advanced considerably and serve as an example of granting loans for production projects that should be paid back fully plus interest. The loa ns with interest are an important financing mechanism as they stimulate the execution of profit-oriented projects while generating resources for the group that makes the loan (aCIAL oran ASOCIAL) .The ClAL petty cash funds are another important mechanism in this process as they permit the members of the CIAL to save as individuals and as a group. In the concept of self-financing, it is important to have clear ideas asto what the capital of aCIAL is.The success of the small agroenterprises as self-financing mechanisms depends on multiple factors inherent in the difficulties of agroindustry, which should be analyzed at the time of undertaking a business of this type, but that goes beyond the scope of this work. It suffices to highlight that there are small agroenterprises that generate profits in a short time, while others take a long time in doing so and cannot therefore be considered as mechanisms for financing in the short term.In addition, there are other commercial opportunities that can be important sources of resources such as the cases of storing grain and contract farming in Honduras.In all these cases the support of second-order organizations is important, and this can be one of the fundamental roles of this type of organizations: support the ClALs in their efforts to become self-sufficient. It is no accident that in Honduras, where there are sorne solid ASOCIALs, sorne of the most interesting mechanisms are found. ASOCIAL support has been importa nt for promoting savings in the CIALs and access to loans for production and commercial projects. Also in Honduras the production contracts were possible through a second-order organization although it was notan ASOCIAL. In Bolivia, the small business of native potatoes grew and was converted into an association that includes farmers outside the CIAL to take better advantage of their potential.Sorne CIALs, whose cases have been documented in this research (Cock 2003b), have taken important steps toward their economic independence through self-financing. This inventory of mechanisms should serve to help promote the process of transition toward self-sufficiency in these and in the rest of the CIALs by sharing the s u ccessful experiences in this field with all the groups.Sorne ideas that have arisen from this work for progressing in the process of self-financing of the CIALs are as follows:Know how much a CIAL costs. To achieve self-financing it is important to know the exact amount of resources necessary to generate. At present this information does not exist or it is not easy to access. There are cost studies of a CIAL trial, which is an important element for knowing exactly what needs to be financed . Many CIALs already generate resources through production projects or even in sorne of their trials. lt is important to seek mechanisms to ensure that the CIALs reinvest those resources in their own activities. It is imperative that the CIALs have clear accounts: how much they spend and how much they produce. Although the groups should be doing this, it does not always happen. The CIAL petty cash funds help to have clear accounts besides providing other important services such as loans. Stop giving things away (seeds, inputs, tools, etc.). Other strategies can be used to support the CIALs, including loans with facilities, especially when there is a production focus. Convert production and commerciallots in mechanisms for institutionalized financing, have rules so that sorne of their profits can be used for self-financing (of future activities or for paying previous support). Promote the installation of new mechanisms, especially when there are innova ti ve ideas that require initial capital. An initial fund is needed, one that preferably should be granted as a loan to generate commitment and responsibility in the group. It is necessary to seek the way in which the generated resources can be reinvested and not be distributed among the beneficiarles. This requires clear rules at the moment of providing the support; e.g., now that they are moving toward small businesses. Initiate the transition toward paid assistance. If the CIALs are to pay all their costs eventually, including the technical assistance provided by the entities that support them, there s hould be a gradual transition. They could pay a small quota for this service as a way to measure their willingness to pay for jfinan ce this support. Be careful of mechanisms that distract from the main objectives; i.e., research. The mechanisms for self-financing should generate resources without demanding too much dedication by the farmers so that they do not take time that they would normally dedícate to their trials. The need for resources pro motes the adoption of mechanisms. Having to pay loans, etc., the groups will surely begin to adopt and generate mechanisms for self-financing in order to be able to comply with those p ayments. lt is important to generate basic norms to control the mechanisms for self-financing that are established. These regulations will facilita te the group's process of changing and adjusting accordin g to their needs. Test the proposed methodology for integrating the CIALs in natural resource management (NRM) and conservation Take advantage of the CIALs organizational capacity and convening power in their communities Generate collective action to improve the leve! of well-being of the communities that have the CIALs in their own watershed.The CIALs are community-based research services, whose members are elected by the community with the purpose of adapting or generating new agricultura! technologies. Most Committees are located in the hillside zones, where they are faced with serious problems of erosion, deforestation and scarcity of water, above all in the summer. These problems lead to others such as scarcity of firewood for cooking, lack of drinking water and the loss of soil fertility, which in turn results in lower crop yields.Therefore it is important to involve the CIALs in the topic of NRM and conservation, parallel to their research on crops for food security, in order to improve their leve! of wellbeing.Taking advantage of autochthonous knowledge and the participatory methods and tools that the CIALs already have, the groups can work in a watershed to execute actions and do research on the conservation and improve ment of their natural resources.Sector workshops Identify the partners in NRM in their watershed Identify and prioritize the general issues in NRM (farmers)Analyze problems and local a ltemativesfsolutions The process of integrating the CIALs in NRM was begun in the months of April-May 2003 in the micro watershed of the Calico River, municipality of San Dionisia, Matagalpa Province. Three sectors were selected, each one with three CIALs anda paratec hnician in charge (Table 1). brasiliensis in plots during the summer.At present, two research protocols have been developed a nd will be di scussed with the different groups to begin work the second sem ester of 2003.This methodological process, which seeks to integra te the CIAL grou ps more actively in activities of NRM research, presents t he following reflections:Hold the workshops in s ummer to permit better p articipation of farmers. The NRM workshops s hould held separately for men and women as the interests of the latter are primarily related to water and firewood . Working in s maller groups (1 2-15 people) results in more active participation. The prioritization and voting should not be public to prevent biases and dependency on other people. Carry out previous selection of p eople wh o have been identified to have interest in the topic. The meetings should be h e ld with s horter spaces between th em to ensure greater continuity.Researchers: Fernando Hincapi& The Biotechnology Unit is interested in the conservation of materials (in vitro germplasm) and the regeneration of new plants. One year ago the ftrst materials that maintained good characteristics after in vitro storage were taken to the fteld. The field results with the materials from the Andean Fruit Growing Center have been good in terms of production, early harvesting (2-3 months earlier than normal) . Now the purpose of the participatory component is to identifY a group of lulo producers interested in validating this method of clonal multiplication with their own varieties. They select their improved materials, give them to the Biotechnology Unit, and then evaluate the materials in the fteld, comparing them with their traditional method of planting seeds.The lulo project involves producers with experience in the crop, buyers (Pescador and Tierradentro, Cauca, Colombia) and specialists in biotechnology and participatory research from CIAT.The availability of seed of promising materials for the growers' production systems is one of the bottlenecks that prevents the better use of resources by the small farmers.All farmers are interested in obtaining improved varieties or clones for planting. For many years the producers have selected promising materials in their production areas, collecting seeds of the best plants. In crops such as lulo, however, where the progenies differ substantially from each other and their progenitors, the process of obtaining varieties with the desired characteristics ís slow and frequently does not work out. The strategy of joining forces between participatory research and biotechnology seeks to give the producers the necessary tools so that they select the improved materials and multiply them, obtaining progenies the same as the moth er plants. Thus their selections pass rapidly to the multiplication stage and can be disseminated more quickly.Obtain materials of lulo apt for the region according to the criteria of the producers themselves and buyers from CaucaProve that clonal propagationJo is viable for obtaining improved materialOffer the producers the service of clonal multiplication for the regional materials selected by CIAT (work in Dapa) and by the farmers and buyers themselves Determine possible selection criteria of the producers and buyers in the selection of lulo cultivars through participatory techniques Develop mechanisms for establishing viable commercial systems for multiplying the selected materialsDesign procedures that combine clonal reproduction and participatory research for their application as a model in lulo and other fruits.Motivate potential groups interested in the tapie (informal presentation of the project, explaining the benefits and risks for producers and scientists involved in the project)Characterize the interest groups with whom the work would be done through a survey (a fundamental criterion in selecting the interest groups is their experience with the lulo crop)Explain the process of multiplying materials through meristem techniques (visit to Dapa, experimental fields and lab by the interested groups); and depending on the interest of the groups, they could evaluate sorne of the lulo materials that ha ve been multiplied with these techniques.Select promising materials from the regional germplasm of lulo (application of participatory techniques such as open-ended evaluations, definition of criteria, grading and reasons for same, preference ranking, etc.).Plant promising materials coming from clonal multiplication according to the producers and buyersConduct participatory evaluation of the selected materials at two locations in Cauca (Tierradentro and Pescador; at this stage establish linkages with institutions such as CORPOICA-Cauca)Develop mechanisms to establish viable commercial systems for the multiplication of the selected materials (nurseries interested in the multiplication of materials or the possibility of establishing systems of propagation at the local level identified)Experience with the lulo crop (local experts) Detailed level of observation from the experienced producers Producers known their community as innovators or experimenters (perception of probabilities of change in the local practices) Skills for communicating with the researchers (ease of expression) Socioeconornic resources Land tenure Farm sizeObjectives of the producers Commercial vs. subsistence Improve crop Localization Distance to the market Agro ecological zone (upper zone, lower zone, etc.)Meeting to speak about the lulo crop, problems, causes and possible solutions.Method for probing and recording the spontaneous reactions of the producers to the technology (varieties of lu lo) without using direct questions.Techniques u sed by the interviewer to stimulate the communication of ideas from the producer in open-ended evaluations.Describe what would be an variety ideal for you. What do yo u think of this variety? Could you explain that to me? Tell me more about that. Is that an advantage or disadvantage for you? Could you group sorne of these? How would you classify them? Why do you put these in a group and th ose no?The expectations of the lulo producers can be grouped into two areas: (1) pests and diseases and (2) seed quality. The expectations of the producers were compared with those foreseen in the proj ect in arder to clarify them and integrate goals. In terms of the expectations designed into the project, the possibility of obtaining \"clean\" (strong) seeds using the technology being tested was explained, as well as how this could be used at the field level so that the producers learn how to apply it and manage it in the future. The possibility of the producers themselves looking for potentially good materials of lulo in terms of pest resistance and f or diseases and to multiply them using the technology being tested was also explored. With the adaptation and adoption of the technology in case of being successful, t h ey could be applied to other crops of interest to the producers. The result of this exercise indicated a good correlation between the expectations of the producers and those in the project.Results ofthe survey about experiences with lulo. Based on the questions (1) how m any years have you worked with t h e lulo crop?, (2) about how many lulo plants do you have?, (3) why are you planting lulo?, (4) if their objective in planting lulo is commercial, at what distance are they from the market?, twenty people involved in the crop responded as follows:Sorne have experience of only 1 year; others up to 15 years. Of the 20 growers, 50% have experimented for periods of 2-3 years. The producers have from 80-5500 plants; 50% grow from 1200-3000 plants. The majority of the producers sell their fruit for the fresh markets, far from their production areas; they do it through middlemen.Criteria of producers expressed about a lulo crop {13 months after planting, Dapa, 1600 m alt.). For this part of the experience, the technique of \"open interview\" was u sed, in which the producers express their opinions about two lulo cultivars, freely and spontaneously. The possible criteria are the result of the exposure of the farmers to the characteristics of these two varieties. For the exercise, the group was divided into the producers coming from Tierradentro and Pescador, assuming there would be differences of opinion according to different agroclimatic and marketing conditions.Table 1 shows the possible selection criteria that were mentioned by the two groups.In sorne cases the criteria differed betwee n the two groups (letters in bold case), possibly dueto agroclimatic conditions (e .g., leaf size) and typ es of market (e.g., size of the fruit). Those who participated in the field visit were Fernando Hincapié, Leonel Rasero and Juan Jairo Ruiz from CIAT, and the farmers Pedro Nel Herrera, He rmes Vitelio Menza and Diomar Patiño.The 4 farmers that were selected for the ir expenence in the crop were visited , and their interest in participating in the project was reaffmned. A survey was also conducted in arder to obtain more detailed information of each farm a nd sorne of the activities that they carry out (Annex 3). Dunng this visit, a visit was made to the crop of Dioma r Patiño, which has many problems (principally diseases such as sclerotinia and anthracnose).Finally, the farmers were asked to get together other farmers from the region who also grow lulo and that have s hown interest in participating, to attend a meeting progra mmed for 25-07, where all the farmers will b e informed about the obj ective of the project, share expenences with respect to crop managem ent and look a t the current importance of lulo in the region.The purpose was to identify new farmers to expand the group working on the selection of n ew clones, learn of the expenences of each with respect to cro p management a nd evaluate the current situation of the c rop in the region .Those who participated in the field visit were Fe rnando Hincapié and Juan Jairo Ruiz from CIAT, and the farmers Pedro Nel Herrera, Hermes Vitelio Menza, Diomar Patiño, Wilson and Manuel Mariones, Nelson Orozco, Leoncio and Urbano Sanabria, and Nacho Herrera.Four n ew farmers interested in participa ting in the project were identified, the managem ent entena of each of the farmers were unified based o n t h e survey (Annex 3), and the person with the most knowledge a nd good crop management was detected: Pedro Nel Herrera (crop in excellent h ealth conditions ).The rest of the farmers have many problems (primarily diseases) and are not familiar with the ma nagem ent prac tices being u sed by Pedro Nel. Pedro is open to transmitting his knowled ge to the rest of the farmers, and we conside r his farm to be a good p lace for the observation plots.Then the work plan was developed with th e group. The frrst thing to be done is to begin the selection of t h e improved matenals from each farm. For this purpose, a field visit was programmed (07 -08). In the uppe r zone, the tour will cover each of the where the farmers have previously identified their improved materials. Then each of them will present b efore the whole group the critena h e used to select these outstanding clones.A bnef diagnosis of the current state of lulo in the region a nd the importance that it has for each farmer, classifying the crops that they h ave in the high zon e of Pescador as well as in the lower zon e, and their pnority with respect to incom e gen e rated .The farmers' interest in lulo is due to the fact that it is a cro p in high demand and a very good market ; besides it can be said that it guarantees a return on the investment.In the lower zone (Crucero de Pescador) t he main cash crop s are coffee, common beans (Phaseolus uulgari~ and cassava. Very few p roducers are cultivating lulo, partly because they b elieve that t h e conditions are not the best fo r the crop a nd partly becau se they d o not know about the crop. Lulo is seen as a cash-crop option.In the upper zone (Buena Vista), the main cash crops are beans and blackberries, just as in the lower zone, lulo is seen as a good cash-crop option.The interest of lulo growers is mostly related to the good price it brings on the market, the production is sold easily, and it is a \"generous\" plant with respect to fruit setting and production.Sorne of the problems encountered are that the lulo producers are very far from the markets, which affects the price they get for the fruit, and transportation to the markets is costly and difficult.Each of the farms was visited, and the two b est lulo plants were selected (taking into account the farmers' priorities). The 5 best materials of the whole zone were selected, taking into account the farmers' observations and criteria, recording t h e characteristics of each material (health, productivity, plant habit, quality of fruit, etc.). Two observation zones (one in the lo~r zone at 1650 m alt. and the other in the higher zone at 1900 m alt.) were selected, where the plots for evaluating the plants will be located. Each observation lot wi1l have 3 treatments: plants propagated from seeds, from clones done by the farmers and micro propagated. Each treatment will have about 20 plants, for a total of 60 plants. If 5 clones are selected in the zone of Pescador, there should be 300 plants. As there are 2 zones, this means 600 plants for all the treatments and clones. Considering the introduction of the farmers' clones to CIAT, clase attention will be paid to the methodologies of clonal propagation that sorne of the farmers like Pedro N el Herrera use on their farms. The purpose of this is to estímate the time required to collect the materials in the field, how long they need in the glasshouse and later in vitro. Establish the planting dates in relation to the delivery of the in vitro materials.Visit to the lulo producers who went to Dapa in order to see their crops, identify those interested in participating in the project, and select materials for delivery to CIAT for the process of clonal multiplication. The principal crops of the region are coffee and beans, given their importance as cash crops, the same as for the zone of Pescador. Lulo is attractive because of its good price on the market, and the p roduction is sold easily. As for the problems faced by the producers, they are similar to the zone of Pescador, the markets are far away from the farms, they do not have much experience in crop management, and they do not know how to control sorne diseases and pests.Despite the fact that lulo is an attractive crop because the fruit has a good demand on the market and brings a good price, the number of lulo producers in the regions visited is low. Many farmers begin working with this crop; but when they face a problem such as a disease or pest, they abandon it. This can be explained in terms of the little knowledge and technical help available with respect to the management of this crop. Another reason that should be borne in mind is that the producers generally have other well-established crops that generate incomes a nd that have to be taken care of as they are the basis of their economies. Thus they do not dedícate sufficient time to lulo, which in the first days needs a certain amount of dedication. Another factor that was observed and that can have incidence on the deterioration of the lulo crop is that the productíon plots are generally located far from the farms and are of difficult access, making it problematical to guarantee the appropriate care of the crop.It was also observed that there are sorne producers with very good management and knowledge of the lulo crop, only a few kilometers from very deteriorated crops, whose owners do not have the knowledge or the technical assístance to make their crops prosper. Consequently, a compilation of the best practices for managing the lulo crop at the local level was proposed so that the producers who want to work with lulo can benefit from the experience of the producers who ha ve the local knowledge for growing a successful crop.With the producers from Pescador, the following commitments were acquired, once the materials to be multiplied have been identified: Based on these results, it was decided to eliminate the 4 farmers that no have experience in lulo and have not planted lulo. Juan Jairo Ruíz will prepare a list by zone of the farmers that participated in the survey, tabulating the results of the survey, their selection for the study and confirming their interest in participating in the project. Fernando Hincapié will contact ASOBESURCA, to communicate the Project's interest in continuing the follow-up from the proj ect and request their help in identifying other farmers in the zone of Pescador, given that half the farmers who attended the workshop at CIAT did not have experience in lulo. Fernando Hincapié and Juan Jairo Ruíz, will make a preliminary visit next week to the 4 farmers selected in Pescador according the survey to confrrm their interest in participating in the project and begin gathering the preliminary data on productivity, pests and diseases, know the farm and obtain a better idea of the crops, and request information about other possible farmers with experience in lulo that could be candidates for including in the project. Fernando Hincapié will contact Freddy Parra (CORPOICA, Popayán), give him the list of farmers from Tierradentro and see whether he can collaborate by consulting the farmers about their interest in participating in the project and then plan a visit to the interested farmers, and begin a process similar to that of Pescador. A survey will also be developed for use in a group meeting by zone, where the group of farmers involved in the project participate; should be designed for the follow.up of the project.lt was suggested that instead of asking each farmer to select his best clone to be multiplied in vitro, they should form two work teams (one per zone), and that each team select the best 4 -5 clones available among the group of participating farmers. Thus, there would be the best 4-5 clones by zone. These clones would be the ones to be multiplied in vitro. Each team would select 3-4 locations in each zone (replications) for the comparative trial of the in vitro material vs seed from each clone. This would facilitate the standardization of the management of the trial in the different replications, the costs of maintaining the trials would be less, and the risk would be shared among the farmers. This pre-trial could be th e beginning of the procedure to be used for establishing the observation lots for when they are going to introduce the new germplasm. Of course, in a rder to establish this scheme, the farmers would have to be willing to share their germplasm. This could be explored in t he preliminary visits. The strategy of capacity building in the \"Promoting Changes\" project determined that the Bolivian system of agricultural and livestock innovation would be strengthened if those who provide the services of research and technical assistance were experts in participatory methodologies. lt also states that to build a critical mass of experts in these methodologies, it is necessary to build these capacities in the institutions and organizations to support the target groups to incorporate those methodologies in the technological innovation processes.Based on the aforementioned strategy, the \"Promoting Changes\" project has been promoting training workshops in participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) to share experiences with this approach, identify groups of people or organizations interested in collaborative activities in the future, and develop appropriate PME sy stems in Bolivia.This PME workshop describes the methodology that is being used to train groups of technicians, professionals and farmers in PME. At the end an analysis of the experience was done, and commitments to implement the systems by the trainees were established.The following objectives were proposed for the workshop:Promote the establishment of PME systems Exchange knowledge and experiences about the establishment of PME systems Provide tools and methods to promote the establishment of PME systems Suggest sorne steps for establishing PME systemsTable 1 gives the predetermined objectives of the workshop and the participants' expectations prior to beginning the event. The first colurnn of Table 1 relates the predetermined workshop object ives in relation to the participants' expectations. In general the expectations and the objectives are correlated. Sorne of the participants' expectations have an indirect relation to the objectives. For example, the establishment of salid relationships with the participants is related to the exchange of experiences, just as the steps in the m ethodology are related to methods for establishing PME sy stems. Thus it was not necessary to a djust the content of the workshop considering th e correlation between the expectations and t he objectives.The analy sis of the presentations indicated that the PME systems have a project focu s and logframe. Thus the participation of th e users is relative in terms of the d efinition of indicators, formats , use of the information, etc. The most outstanding a spects of the presentations are highlighted here: Projectfocusfor PME. The presentations indicated that the systems they are going to monitor have pre established work plans where the producers have not participated in their design (consultative participation).Logframe approach. The presentations showed that the activities in t he PME systems are based on logframes. This implies predetermined activities, measura ble indicators that can be verified, etc.; which confirms a project focus determined mainly by the interests of the entities or donors and, of course, with very low producer participation.Negotiated indicators. In the presentations it was observed that the predetermined indicators enter in a process of concertation (negotiation) with the producer s. In this way the users of the PME systems do not intervene in the design itself.Other presentations. Sorne participants related research exp eriences in which communities interve ned in a cons ultative fashion , with out having true PME systems.In conclusion we can affirm that the PME experiences presented by the participants have a project focus characterized by Iow levels of u ser participation, different from the PME system offered in the workshop, in which the u ser s should be involved throughout th e process. Nevertheless, there is a great opportunity for establishing PM E within the new a pproach of the Bolivian system of agricultura! and livestock technology (SIBTA), given that it s tarts with the dema nd of the beneficiary interest groups.The facilitators promote discuss ions on th e different tapies referring to the PME, then they construct concepts and finally there is feedback from experiences in other contexts. Having finishe d this process, the participa nts can a pply the knowledge acquired with interest groups and then discuss the results of the practice in plenary session .First the participants' knowledge on the different concepts is determined and then it is reinforced with the presentation of drawings that represent the concepts in the daily activities of the interest groups. For this purpose , cards are used and each participant writes down what h ejsh e knows abou t them. Then the related con cepts are grouped in an exercise in a plenary session . Finally , a n agreement is reached on the concepts.After doing this exercise th e following results were obtained (Table 2). The process of conceptualization is easy, and there is good congruence with results in other contexts.The following distinction was made between monitoring and evaluation: accompanying and verifying activities that are developed in a process (monitoring); and assign a value to the results obtained at given times to ensure that the decision-making process leads to the completion of the proposed objectives (evaluation).The practice was implemented with farmers from the town of Candelaria in the Municipality of Colomi, which has 18 communities and 8 CIALs established. It is a microcenter of biodiversity with 70 varieties of Andean potatoes and 16 varieties of smooth-skinned tubers (Ullucus tuberosus) . The CIAL in Candelaria has worked with these native potatoes with good results. Of 38 varieties evaluated for adaptation, they have selected 5. They are seed producers and want to give added value to their production with good selection and packing.The workshop participants decided to define the terms based on the description of the potato crop. They asked the interest group to describe the cycle of the crop and then tried to link them to the terms Monitoring (M), Evaluation (E), Participation (P) and Indicators (l).Analysis ofthe exercise at the level ofthe interest group in Candelaria. It was easy to describe the crop cycle for the participants in the workshop, but very difficult to relate them to the con cepts (M,E,P, I ). On occasions, for lack of mechanisms to accomplish the objective of the practice, the facilitators had to lead the participants.Based on experiences in other contexts, it is preferable to conceptualize using activities known by the groups, before using an activity without preparing mechanisms that reflect the relations that are sought. In any case, the PME methodology was presented as a flexible format to be enr~hed in case of success.Nowadays drawings are used to facilitate the training of producers with any level of schooling. However, the participants at this PME workshop do not yet manage openended evaluations, probing questions, etc.; which ensure that the process is based on the free exp ression of th e producers.It would probably be very useful to think a bout how to link the processes or activities that a re traditionally done in the interest groups (crops, animal manage ment, etc.) with the conceptualization of monitoring, evalu ation, participation, objectives, activities and indicators, developing new strategies to facilitate the process. It would be more interesting if they started with illustrations developed by their own interest groups. It is it possible to ind uce the groups wh en we use an activity specific to the group asan example? This question is a reflection that we should do in arder to avoid having to lead the process.The participants did not use flow charts. However, in the discussion and analy sis of the practice, Fausto Merino (Research Assistant from Ecuador) emphasized the importance of their use and the difference that should be made with the \"agenda for a meeting.\" This participatory tool is very useful in these training processes at the level of the interest groups. Displayed in visible p laces, the flow charts make it possible to orient the groups, discu ss the process with them, orie nt the methodology that is going to be used, etc.; and th e reason why its use is recommended in processes of establishing PME.In the process of inquiring into the participa n ts' knowledge of terms such as M, E, P and I, the PME methodology propases exploring th eir knowledge first and then establishing a relation between these terms and routine activities such as the management of a crop a nd /or use illustrations. In the former case, the new facilitators have to develop a strategy for constructing concepts.It is also recommended to:Revise the conceptualization of the flow chart and distinguish it from other tools such as the agenda for a meeting Study and use flow charts, distin guishing them from other tools such as the agenda Practice the technique of open-ended evaluation to obtain greater spontaneity of the interest groups.Table 3 gives the definition of each term from Module 2. In the definition of the objectives, the relations with the concept \"goals\" and their ch aracteristics such as \"reachable,\" \"verifiable,\" \"concrete,\" \"clear,\" etc. are highlighted. Moreover, the participants understand the importance of h aving objectives. To understand th e curren t and fu ture situation, predesigned illustrations were used that showed , through a time line, the activities that needed to be done chronologically in arder to reach the proposed goals.With the obj ectives of each entity, an exercise was done that made it possible to build the overall objective and th e curren t and future situation of th e same. Then the components of this objective were analyzed, and one was selected. Based on the one selected, the activities indispensable for reaching the objective were analyzed, and for sorne of them the indicators were defined. The participan ts defined the components of the formats in terms of \"indicators,\" \"time,\" \"person responsible,\" etc.Analysis ofthe exercise at the level ofthe interest group. The field practice ofwas done with 24 farmers belonging to the association of producers of seed potatoes. Four subgroups of 6 people each were forme d.Table 4 indicates that the subgroups, working simultaneously (independently), managed to define objeetives, indieators and aetivities (they were also able to design formats). An interesting result reflected in this table is the fact that constructing the objective \"better organization,\" they prioritized the same activity, \"meetings\" and thus obtained similar indicators such as \"number of meetings\" in all the subgroups. This could indicate the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed PME process (Table 4). A capacity in the process of establishing PME was created. Institutional commitments were establi shed through the work plans presented. The proposed PME process was well accepted by the participants, who generated diverse ideas on its application. The facilitation of the PME processes should consider people who are able to speak Quechua because it is the language most frequently spoken in the communities. lt seems that the con ceptualization of t h e diagnos is in the CIAL course caused confusion in the definition of the objectives of an interest group ; nevertheless, the proposed PME system helped distinguish between the two concepts . This collaborative project between IPRA and the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project (RAeD, SN-1) at CIAT h as focu sed on promoting a more businesslike perspective among sorne CIALs in Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. For this purpose, two 3-day workshops were held in Conocoto (Ecuador) in 2002, with the participation of technicians from NGOs that support the CIALs and their members. The frrst workshop focused on presenting basic business concepts and the methodology for identifying market opportunities for small rural producers, while the second workshop centered on the process of analyzing a production chain and the design of an integrated agroenterprise development project (IAP). The IAP consists in developing an action planto strengthen the production chan under consideration.This report34 corresponds to the follow-up activities to the second workshop, consisting in the analysis and development of an action plan to strengthen the selected production chain. Reference is made to visits to Cauca and Ecuador to follow up the activities of a CIAL in Cauca, dedicated to maize p roduction, and to three Ecuadorian CIALs located in the provinces of Chimborazo, Pich inch a and Carchi.This CIAL is located in Carpinteros, a village in the municipality of Morales in the Province of Cauca. There is a maize growers' asociation with 34 members. CORFOCIAL, the second-order organization , p rovides support through its technician, Bolivar Muñoz.This CIAL is working on maize, sugarcane for makingpanela, a non centrifuged sugar in block form, and guinea pigs. After prioritizing, they d ecided to focu s on yellow and white maize. With the collaboration of the CIAL leader, they conducted a rapid market study to identify potential buyers of maize in Piendamó and Popayán. They proceeded to identify t he different actors in th e ch ain. They studied the support system for maize• (Office of the Mayor , CORFOCIAL. SENA, etc. ). Th e organization of maize growers was evaluated, which revealed a deficiency in outcomes and in the level of commitmen t of severa! members.Based on this analysis, the organization has undergone an overhau l. They proceeded with the analysis of the critica! point s in the production, processing a n d marketing links. Then they prepared th e problem trees to identify the causes and e ffects of the diverse limiting factors in the chain. They then converted the problem tree into an objectives tree, ending up with the action plan or the design of the IAP. They planto write and present a project to the Office of the Mayor of Morales. They are very interested in lowering production costs and in initiating activities to generate aggregate value.In the process of analyzing the chain, the CIAL had problems in bringing together the middlemen and merchants in a meeting; thus they had to limit their meetings to the producers. The commercial information was obtained from traveling and interviews in the work place.First of all, the Maize Growers' Association should strengthen their leadership and administration in order to have well-founded objectives and strategies. The members should also know what their specific responsibilities are and be committed to reaching the objectives they have set. The Association should also adopt an organizational chart with well-defined functions in arder to develop their business activities more efficiently and effectively. This point is in addition to the fact that the Association needs to execute the action plan it has proposed to strengthen its position in the maize chain.The Ieaders of the Association or the CIAL with an aptitud e for business should receive training and technical support in business, including business and market orientation, foundations of business management, strategic planning and preparation of business plans. It is not sufficient to give a short training course on the topic to the technician of the supporting entity.For this purpose it is recommended that the Association carry out processes of strategic planning and develop business plans for the production activity and business selected. Although these tapies were presented in the first workshop in Conocoto (Mar. 2002), the importance of organizing a workshop for technical advisors of the CIALs and producers on the topic of the business plan was communicated to IPRA.This CIAL should examine in greater depth the market study on maize in Colombia, including the diverse segments (grain, processed and transformed) and trends in domestic production and imports.They should also review the cost structure that they are using at present in arder to become competitive. It is recommended that they use the RAeD software, RentAgro. The CIAL's agricultural research should support this point.In their analysis there was no figure illustrating the links and actors of the chain, including importers of maize and the diverse market segments.One of the CIAL leaders expressed his interest in business-oriented training and technical support. This and credit are the main needs of the CIAL in its efforts to strengthen its business. This point is related to compliance with the recommendations made in the first point.This CIAL, which is a half hour from Riobamba, consists mostly of indigenous women. It is located in the parish of San Juan, alt. 3300 m. The community works on 38 ha of an old hacienda that they have been buying with the fruit of their hard work, farming. They have the support of the FORTIPAPA project, through their technician Julián Pucha, to study new patato varieties including Papa-pan, Fripapa, Rosita and Santa Isabela, using their traditional variety Rábida as a check. They are also doing research on upland rice, which did not do well and quinoa, of which they already have 6 lines approved.Their work can be divided into two types: preparation of the proposal for the IAP on potatoes (FORTIPAPA) and business development for transforming the production (CIAL and FORTIPAPA).The technician Julián Pucha applied the methodology of identifying market opportunities (tapie of the first workshop), consisting in the preparation of a biophysical and socioeconomic proflle of the region of the CIAL in question and the execution of a rapid appraisal of markets in Río b amb a. The following market opportunities were detected:potatoes, chochos, peas, ta.xo and \"mortiño\".The patato chain in Ecuador was analyzed, working from the n ational level down to the CIAL community, using the IAP methodology p resente d in the second workshop in Conocoto (Aug. 2002). The technician based the exercise partially on work d one by FORTIPAPA, focusing on three products: patato c hips, potatoes c u t in thin strips for french fries, and whole pota toes, washed a nd selected. An evaluation of the CIAL Nuevo Amanecer was also included.It should b e noted th at FORTIPAPA is in the process of e ntering into an alliance with severa! institutions including the Project Emprender, implem e nted by the Swiss NGO lnterCooperation , in arder to execute an IAP at t h e level of Ecuador, with emphasis on the market d evelopment of n ew potato-b ased products, targeted to s upermarkets and agroíndustries. FORTIPAPA also pla ns to conducta more complete market st udy for the diverse products derived from potatoes, with the s upport of local universities.lt is important to highlight this joint work b etween FORTIPAPA and the CIAL, given that with t he CIAL's own resources a nd the enthusiasm of the promoter Hilaría, they were able to do research on processes for making potatoes for fre nch fries as well as p otato chips.After sorne technological explorations with the potatoes c ut in thin strips, they reached the conclusion that they needed to perfect the proc ess by adding antioxidants to keep the potatoes from darke ning in color. They finally decid ed to work with the other p roduct: patato chips in bags.The CIAL Nu evo Amanecer h as worked out a process to make this product, for which they tested several varieties of potatoes and several types of oil. They had technical support from a FORTIPAPA foods engineer for the frying tests. They h ave begun local sales on a small scale in schools and at fairs, with a volume of about 3 00 bags (lOO g each) weekly.They have rustic equipment su ch as plastic recipients, large frying pans, stove and slicers, bought by t h e m and by FORTIPAPA; a nd th ey seal the bags by heat, using a candle and a knife.The process of making the patato chips is as follows:They wash the unpeeled potatoes manually. They select the potatoes manually, preferring those that are h ealthy and have a uniform shap e They p eel the potatoe s manually , trying to remove only the peel. The peeled potatoes are re-washed. The potatoes are cut into thin slices.If the variety used is Fripapa, it is fried directly; if it is another one such as Papa-pan, the chips have to be cooked 3 min. befare fryin g. The chips are removed from the pan, a n d th e oil is left to run off. The chips are p laced in a polyeth yle n e bag, sprinkled with salt and sealed with a knife, heated with the candle.The CIAL has also calculated the cost structure for processing 25 kg of pota toes, and they know what their gross profit margin is. In their structure they have included the cost of their labor.All actors (IPRA, the local support institution and the CIAL itself) should bear in mind where the CIAL ends as a research body and where the rural agroenterprise begins. It is important to define whether the members of the CIAL and the agroenterprise are th e same individuals or wheth er it is necessary to involve others. The rural agroenterprise should adopt an organizational chart with welldefined functions in arder to carry out their business activities more efficiently and effectively.The leaders of the Association or the CIAL who ha ve an aptitude for business should receive training and technical support on business. It is not enough for the technician of the supporting entity to have received a short training course on business because hefshe will most likely not be present in the day-to-day running of the business.The head of the young agroenterprise should implement processes of strategic planning and develop a business plan for the selected production activity and business. Although these tapies were presented at the first workshop in Conocoto (Mar. 2002), the importance of organizing a workshop for the technical advisors of the CIALs and producers on the tapie of the business plan was communicated to IPRA.IPRA should promote the creation of complementary funds to support the transformation of the CIAL into a rural agroenterprise. Justas there are limited funds for agricultura! research (US$50-100 per CIAL), there could be a larger, rotating fund ora system of reimbursement to finance technical and business consultancies and minar investments (equipment and tools) for the CIALs to become rural agroenterprises. This model is being promoted by the NGO Randi Randi for the CIALs in El Carchi in northern Ecuador.The CIAL Nuevo Amanecer should improve the quality of their product because the chips turn soft by the second day. Normally, patato chips can last more than 2 months without losing their crispness. According to experts in Colombia, this quality issue has to do with the following aspects, which could be new research tapies for this CIAL:The variety of the patato The type of material used in the bag; explore changing from polyethylene to polypropylene The fryin g temperature; the high er the temperature, the better (;;200°C) The peeled potatoes should have the starch removed by soaking them in water for several hours befare frying.In this sense, FORTIPAPA could support th e CIAL by identifying an expert in the production of patato chips to offer a rapid solution to the problem of the product losing its crispness.This CIAL has nine members (six stable), mostly mestizo women who have done research on guinea pigs, tomatoes, rabbits, chickens and laying hens. One of its members, Antonio, is a young man who a lready h as a rural agroenterprise that breeds and sells live guinea pigs, and who has participated in both workshops. This CIAL has the support of the NGO IIRR.Two activities were held: A market study for yellow-footed, country-raised chickens in the capital city, Quito, followed by the analysis of the chain of coun try-raised chickens and th e development of the action pla n (IAP) for s trength ening this ch ain. A good demand for these country-r aised chickens was identified in Quito.The second activity was to begin a rural agroenterprise for producing country-raised chickens to be sold alive. The CIAL selected this line of production beca use ( 1) they already had the knowledge, (2) the demand was identified in the rapid market appraisal, and (3) there is a more rapid retum on the investment than with guin ea pigs. With the community's own investment and contributions (mingas), they constructed a chicken coop with a cap acity for 50 chickens. The rations consisted of a commercial concentrate, supplemented with coarsely milled maize. The chicks were given t h e first vaccine. The CIAL managed to raise and selllocally two broods, but in the third, th e chickens died, probably b ecause they changed the supplier of ch icks, which suffered from being transported such a long distance. They also had to face a period of low prices beca use of the importation of chickens from Colombia and Peru. At present the price of chicken has begun to rise again. The chicks are bought at 2 -3 weeks, and after 5 weeks they reach commercial weight. Despite the failure of the third brood, the group plans to continue with the business, but they are now aware that they should impr ove their technology, especially with respect to the purchase of the chicks (chicks 1 wk old purchased from a reliable supplier nearby) and to improve the infrastructure (coop and cages). Their target market is the city of Quito, and not the local community, dueto the better purchase price.It is important that IPRA, IIRR and the CIAL itself have a clear idea of where the CIAL as a research body ends and where the rural agroenterprise begins. lt is important to define whether the members of the CIAL and the members of th e agroenterprise are the same people or whether it is necessary to involve other people. They should adopt an organizational chart with well-defined functions so as to develop their business activities more efficiently and effectively.The head of the chicken agroenterprise should implement processes of strategic planning and develop a business plan for t h e production activity and business selected. Although these tapies were presented in the first workshop in Conocoto (Mar. 2002), the importance of organizing a workshop for technical advisor s of the CIALs and producers on the tapie of the business plan was commu nicated to IPRA.It is important that IPRA promote the creation of complementary funds to support the transformation of the CIAL into a rural agroenterprise. Similar to the funds available for agricultura } research (US $50-100 per CIAL), there could be a larger rotating fund or system of reimbursement to finance technical and business consultancies and m inar investments (equipment and tools) for the CIALs in the process of becoming rural agroenterprises. This model is being promoted by the NGO Randi Randi for the CIALs of El Carchi in northern Ecuador.The IIRR should offer more technical support, to the extent that their resources permit. If this is not possible, IPRA should support this CIAL with resources so that they can obtain the advice of an expert in raising broiler chickens on tapies such as mínimum infrastructure, biological control of pes ts and d iseases, and nutrition.According to the technician Patricio Ponce of Manrecur, the activities of the CIALs in this zone in northem Ecuador have been suspended for lack of funds. Manrecur did not implement the design of the IAP. The CIALs in the upper zone have been working on fodder beets, blackberries and native plants; while those of the lower zone have been working on raising animals such as guinea pigs, pigs, chickens and sheep.The new Project Manrecur 3 has a more business-oriented approach and will continue with the CIALs, but they intend to decrease the dependency of the CIAL on the technician.There will be two funds to support the CIALs: the conventional one of US$1000 to support the research activities for 10-15 CIALs, which will be rotating in nature, and the other, an investment fund ofUS$10,000. In this way the CIAL has the opportunity to pass from the Research Fund to the Investment Fund. An alliance among Manrecur, EcoPark and Manrena is al so being explored in arder to develop a process of Training of Trainers on the tapie of the CIAL methodology.Workshop on business concepts and preparation of the business plan to train producers. This workshop can be held in November of this year or leave it for the first quarter of 2004. It would be convenient for CIAL producers interested in the business and whose educationallevel is not too low to participate. The agenda shoukl include a review of basic business concepts (business and market orientation, foundations of business management, strategic planning and preparation of business plans), befare proceeding to the tapie of business plans. The tapie of business plans can be approached first with the theory, then an example and finally develop a business plan in groups of two or three people.Organizational charts for the business. For each case the decision as to whether the CIAL and the rural agroenterprises should involve the same people or not, should be taken very rationally. The agroenterprise requires positions and functions that are certainly different from those of aCIAL, given that their objectives are different although there is sorne overlapping. A CIAL is a comrnittee of people who volunteer to carry out experiments in rural areas on behaJf of their clients. The client group from which the comrnittee comes may be a rural community, an agroenterprise, an interest group such as a women's group, ora producer organization. CIALs h elp foster equitable rural innovation by s haring the knowledge, experience and benefits that comes from experimentation , while at the same time sharing the inherent risks and costs.The first step in forming aCIAL is when a group becomes motivated todo so through contact with a CIAL facilitator or hearing about the m ethod from other farmers. The group then meets to electa comrnittee and to identify problems and opportunities, prioritize them and then mandate the comrnittee to experiment on their behaJf. The comrnittee then designs experiments to meet this mandate. The CIAL method reduces the risk of financiaJ loss if th eir experiments fail by stipulating that the triaJ plots should start small. In addition, the method reduces the risk of the comrnittee recommending an inappropriate technology by stipulating that each triaJ should be replicated, and the prornising triaJs be repeated for three seasons on larger and larger plots. All the steps in the CIAL process are shown in Figure l . The CIAL process (Ashby et al.,2000).A team at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) developed the CIAL method in the early 1990s. The team had worked for more than five years to understand why resource-poor farmers in particular were not adopting technologies produced by formal-sector research. They concluded that if adoption rates were to increase, then farmers must be included earlier in the design, testing and local adaptation of new technologies. However, they recognized that todo this in the complex and risk-prone environments on which millions of farmers depend would be extremely costly and slow unless farming communities themselves took much of the initiative. Hence the team developed the CIAL method as a way of enabling farming communities to carry out their own on-farm evaluation and adaptation. One of the features of the CIAL method is that farmers should learn about and use the concept of experimental replication so that formal sector R&D can use their results and thus become more sensitive to the needs of poor rural communities.Although CIALs were designed to b e a cheap way for a research and extension service to expand their reach, CIALs do have costs associated with them. The main costs are training the facilitators who support the process, and providing the CIALs with a small research fund (Ashby et al. 2000). The costs of setting up aCIAL for the period 1990-1998 were estimated to be US$670 for the first year and US$325 per year for the next 5 years. The return on investment was estimated conservatively at 78%. This is likely to be much higher now, however, because costs of setting up and sustaining CIALs have been greatly reduced through \"learning by doing.\" For example, it has been found that experienced farmers can adequately train facilitators much more cheaply than salaried professionals, and under the right conditions one facilitator can support up to 50 CIALs. First year start-up costs now range from US $25-$500 per CIAL, in cash or kind (Ashby, 2003). During the CIAL diagnostic process, most communities assign fust priority to research on their major food crops (Figure 3). Thus in Honduras most CIALs are workin g on common beans and maize-the two most important ingredients of the local diet; while in the Andean regions of Ecuador and Bolivia, communities prioritize potatoes and broad (faba) beans. In the few areas with good food security, CIAL research covers a broader range of themes (Figure 4). Under these conditions committees s eek to raise incomes by taking up new crops or adding value to traditional ones through improved processing.  CIAT carried out an impact assessment of the 68 Colombian CIALs in 1998. The study found that: (1) CIALs directly resulted in more rapid technology adoption; (2) the CIAL process itself has led to people's learning useful skills and forming valuable social linkages; and (3) CIAL communities had experienced improvements in welfare. These welfare improvements carne about partly by people starting agroenterprises based on the results of the experiments and the new skills and linkages they had developed. For example, sorne CIALs have started to produce commercially the seed of the best crops identified in their trials. Another source of welfare improvement has been that people in CIAL communities have been encouraged by the experimentation to try more new crops, and as a result have more crops and more varieties in their fields than farmers in similar villages without CIALS. This diversity enables villages with CIALs to cope better with risk. Moreover, the speed of technology adoption was faster in villages with CIALs, and the poorest strata of farmers were just as likely to adopt as the richer strata. Hence CIALs help communities benefit more quickly from improved varieties, whether developed by the formal research sector or the farmers themselves. The study also suggests that CIALs may improve food security because farmers in villages with CIALs reported fewer \"hungry months\" of seasonal food shortage.An important impact of CIALs has been the inclusion of women in local research. As of 2003, nearly 60% of the committees have women members, and their participation has meant that factors critica! to whether a community accepts a new technology such as cooking time and taste are included in farmers' evaluations. Women h ave been able to set up their own CIALS-one eighth of the ClALs are women only-and carry out research on topics of concern to women such as family nutrition. Women have also been able to benefit financially from CIAL research and in this way boost family incomes.Another impact of CIALs has bee n on formal-sector research agendas . In Ecuador, for example, the national research and extension agency INIAP has worked with CIALs since 1996 and is now supporting 19 CIALs in one of its five regions. INIAP staff has learned that resource-poor farmers want to diversify their crops, and as a result INIAP is now putting less emphasis on potatoes and more on the crops that farmers are interested in such as the indigenous quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), beans and chocho, a fodder legume (Lupinus muta bilis) . Another effect is that the staff working with the CIALs is motivated by the good relationships they have developed with the communities through the CIAL process.Although CIALs are influencing the research agenda of INIAP in Ecuador, this is the exception rather than the rule. In general , CIALs are not as well linked to formal-sector research as originally hoped for, and more work needs to be done in understanding why this is and how linkages can be strengthened.The general lack of formal Iinkages to research and extension organizations has meant that the financia! sustainability of CIALs is an issue. In part this is simply the challenge faced by all community-based organizations as state support for agricultura! research and extension withers away. CIALs have developed a large range of mechanisms for replenishing their operating fund ; however , these local initiatives probably need to be matched by a larger scale source of financia! investment if they are to be sustained. Twelve years of experience working with CIALs has shown that the main success factor is that the CIALs themselves and their host communities stick to the following basic principies:Relationships between the CIAL, the community and externa! actors are founded on mutual respect a nd accountability and shared decision-making. Partners in the r esearch process share the risks of research. Research is conducted by comparing alternatives systematically.Knowledge is based on building experience and leaming by doing. Research products belong to the community.Another key success factor is adequate training of CIAL members in the participatory research process. In addition, Humphries et al. (2000) found that CIALs have been found to be more successful in communities where social capital is already high.CIALs are not static entities. When the first research cycle is finished sorne CIALs will begin another cycle to investigate a new problem or opportunity, while others will cease research and may start to commercialize sorne aspect of the new technologies they ha ve tested. For example, one CIAL in Cauca, Colombia, identified a high-yielding common bean variety, then in the following seven years produced 230 t of seed before the variety became susceptible to anthracnose (a fungus) . The CIAL has now begun a second research cycle to look for new varieties of beans, including, for the frrst time, climbing types. Whether CIALs continue or not, the process permanently improves the capacity within that community to search for new solutions and to experiment. Actively seeking out solutions, experimenting and setting up agroenterprises are all key for the sustainability of rural communities in the current global context of climate change and more open markets.One of the ideas when the CIALs were originally founded was that the committees would act as a feedback mechanism to National Agricultura! Research and Extension systems (NARES). Since then, funding cuts has seriously weaken ed the NARES in Latín America. Nevertheless, the pendulum may well be swinging back as a new awareness has occurred of the role of the public sector in funding, but not necessarily delivering, non formal agricultura! extension (Rivera, 2003). Experience with mature CIALs has shown that they can expand the reach of research and extension services to poor, remote client groups at a low cost. CIALs may be well placed to benefit from more public-sector funding to NARES. Indeed, evidence from Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia shows that \"mainstreaming\" of CIALs is happening. Bolivia has recently reorganized its NARES. Rural municipalities are required by law to include farmers' perspectives in municipal development plans, and the CIALs are proving a useful mechanism to bring this about. In Ecuador INIAP has recently reorganized to work on organic agriculture using participatory methods. INIAP has realized that research and extension that does not take farmers' needs and experiences into account can be \"like throwing money in the river\"; 39 and participatory approaches, in particular CIALs, are necessary to maximize impact with the Iimited resources at INIAP's disposal.In Colombia CORPOICA, the national research program, started working with the methodology in 1996. CORPOICA has set up 46 CIALs in 7 provinces in Colombia, and as of 2001 was working with 30. A case study that looked at the institutionalization processes found that while the methodology receives official s upport within CORPOICA, the institutionalization process is being hampered by a widely held view that the CIAL methodology is an extension tool and not useful to scientific research (Mentor, 2002). Nevertheless, CIAL methodology has gained ground in CORPOICA among the scientists who have been involved firsthand .Another mechanism for ensuring CIAL sustainability has been the setting up of so-called \"second-order organizations.\" In Colombia, the CIALs in Cauca formed CORFOCIAL in 1995 as an umbrella association to protect and promote their interests. CORFOCIAL is funded from the interest on an endowment provided by an anonymous benefactor and has a staff of three paraprofessionals. It supports the CIAL process by providing training, helping in the formulation of fu nding proposals, facilitating visits to research organizations orto other CIALS, promoting the exchange of seeds and other products among CIALs, and organizing an annual meeting of its members. In Honduras the IPCA project 4 o supported the formation of a federation of CIALs in 1998. The organization is called ASOCiAL and like CORFOCIAL is financed by an endowment fund. ASOCIAL carries out functions similar to CORFOCIAL. In addition, however, both individual CIALs and ASOCIAL provide savings and microcredit schemes to their members. Another difference in Honduras is that the annual CIAL meeting is regularly attended by researchers from the national agricultura! programs making it likely that CIAL and formal-sector research in Honduras will become better integrated in the future (Humphries et al., 2000) .One of the strengths of both CORFOCIAL and ASOCIAL is that that they are independent and thus able to put the interests of their members first. The CIAL members of these two organizations have played an invaluable role in showing the potential of the methodology. However, in order to mainstream the approach further, more CIALs will have to be established in existing organizations, groups or agroenterprises, with the associated risk that the CIAL methodology be compromised. Experience shows that if CIALs are established as part of a NARES, then the NARES staff must commit to the principie that a CIAL primarily serves the community it belongs to and not the NARES adaptive research or extension interest. NARES staff must also commit to regular contact, respect farmer research, be accountable and s h are decision-making.Based on the CORPOICA case study, Mentor (200 1) carne up with the following recommendations for successful institutionalization of the CIAL approach: ldentify natural allies-build a support base before attempting to convince ske ptics. Use ex isting information on successes to create a demand for trai ni ng. Use a ppropriate m e dia for different audiences to build aware ness of results. Give k e y stake holders a role in deciding how to work w ith CIALs. Implement report-back and participatory evaluation at alllevels to enhance institutionalle arning. Focus on learn i ng from the process of working with CIALs as well as on the re sults. Gradually reduce the amount of time res earche rs de dica te to working w ith any one group of CIALs. Network expe rienced people and those who are just beginning CIALs to support expansion of the process and exchange ideas about adaptations of the approach.Anothe r key le sson learned is that while it is important to stick to t he basic CIAL principies, which are listed in the next section, it is also important to encourage local adaptations . Some of the adaptations that have proved success ful are listed below.Whe re short-term food security is a priority, begin by evaluating treatments in researchers' trials and subsequently share risk in more uncertain forros of farmer-run experimentation (Ecuador, East Nrica). Runa collective production plot using proven technologies, testing risky technologies in the CIALs small experimental plots. The collective production helps compensate committee members for their time and helps increase the petty cash fund (Honduras, Colombia). Test and monitor innovations on farms without establishing formal experiments, especially useful with livestock or natural resource management practices (East Africa, Southeast Asia) . Electa large committee: in Northeast Brazillarge committees sustained CIALs through periods of seasonal rnigratíon as those returníng or remaining replaced rnigrant members. In Honduras, large committees made the human capital benefits accessible toa broader cross-section of the client group. Create a petty cash fund by providing the CIAL with experimental inputs in kind and then use profits from trials to fund the comrnittee's activities. This enabled CIALs in Bolivia and Colombia to increase their petty cash fund . Forro a CIAL to provide R&D on new products or processe s for new or existing small agroenterprises. Run the petty cash fund as a revolving credit fund or as a small venture capital fund that makes loans for equipment that is rented out to the client group.Experiences have shown that CIALs develop along one of two paths: they either continue to work as a volunteer research service on behalf of their communities or privatize the results of their research in an agroenterprise. Regular meetings in which the CIAL reports b ack to their community are important to ensure that they remain in contact with the community and follow along the frrst path. Nevertheless, if the CIAL does set up an agroenterprise then this can also bring benefits to the community and beyond through, for example, providing seed of new and proven varieties or crops. Indeed, one of the findings has been that the CIAL method is actually a very good way of initiating agroenterprise development, and CIAT is currently including market surveys in the CIAL method as a way of facilitating the process.Finally, CIALs have proven themselves to be complementary to farmer field schools (FFS). FFS can build agroecological knowledge to make CIAL research more meaningful; e.g., when a community wants to experiment on different control methods of the white grub (Diloboderus abderus), a pest of potatoes. CIALs can generate locally adapted technology options to strengthen FFS (Braun et al.,200 1).Many features of the CIAL process such as the sponsoring organization, who facilitates, the size of the comrnittee, the type of experimentation and the size of the petty cash fund can vary greatly, provided that sponsors, trainers, client groups, committee members and facilitators understand and adhere to these basic principies:Support CIALs to help poor farmers manage risky agricultura} innovatíons, building on local experience. This means avoiding paternalistic protectiveness and supporting farmers in learning how to innovate over and above demonstrating technological \"fixes.\" Ensure that the client group monitors and evaluates their committee and the facilitator through regular feedback. CIALs must share knowledge about their process and its results to ensure that research products belong to the wider community, notjust to the comrnittee members or the sponsor. Farmers usually employ more than one technology to address constraints and opportunities on their farms and in the market environment. These components are observed, compared and evaluated before being accepted or rejected. Farmers' decisions are based on criteria obtained from their own experience; in other words, this process can be described as farmers' research at the fie ld level.The research process carried out in experiment stations is also based on criteria, but the emphasis is on institutional and scientific objectives. Although this process has objectives such as improving the leve! of farmers' well-being and poverty alleviation, the technological components generated are not generally adopted by farmers because the technologies do not function in their fields (i.e., failure of technology) or do not respond to opportunities and constraints under farmers' conditions (i.e., not adapted) (Quirós et al., 1991). On the other hand, there have been cases where technological componen ts rejected by scientists ha ve given good results in the farmers' fields (Ashby, 1990 ). These observation s reflect t h e fact t hat farmers' and scientists' criteria for selecting technology op tions are frequently different.Despite the fact that forages p lay an important role in smallholder production systems, conventional approach es to techn ology develop ment for fo rages-particularly legumes have not generally resulted in s ignificant levels of adoption in Latín America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa (Horne et al., 1999, Peters et al., 2001). Various factors have been identified that impede fo rage adoption directly or indirectly: (a) the unavailability of locally produced seed (seed in general available to farmers), (b) the lack of credit facilities for pur ch asing inputs s u ch as seed, fer tilizer and fencing, (e) distorted pricing policies, which do n ot guarantee economic returns to farmers, (d) poor infrastructure, which disrupts delivery of inputs and removal of outputs, (e) lack of adequate markets for livestock produ cts, and (f) low levels of farmer participation in forage devebpment (Thomas and Sumberg, 1995;Peters et al. , 200 1, 2003;Sumberg, 2002). Sumberg (2002) emphasizes the fact t h a t agroclimatic, economic, socioeconomic and cultural conditions define the context of technology design and development and should, therefore, be fully integrated into the p rocess of design specification.The need for developing participatory procedures that actively involve farmers in the research and scaling-up processes is evident (Braun et al., 1999). This paper addresses this constraint by developing a participatory procedure applied to forage selection (PPSF), developed for conditions in Latín America and the Caribbean.Understanding farmers' perceptions (crit eria) about techn ological components has b een successful in terms of attaining better opportunities fo r adaptation and adoption of forage tech nologies. Moreover, it h as been possib le to strength en the linkages between farming communities and scientists using this strategy (Horne, et al., 1999 ).Better understanding will emerge as to how each partner can take the i nitiative at different stages of the forage selection and adoption process according to their respective skills, experience and available resources. Ut ilizing these experiences, PPSF builds on the farmers' unique capacity to articulat e precise preferences and to match varietal traits with specific environmental and socioeconomic niches. Finally, iterative feedback loops among all the actors willlead to mutual bene fits.This paper describes a sequential procedure for implementing the participatory development and selection of forages, which is widely applicable and allows the analysis of quantitative data. The aim is to identify ideotypes requested by farmers as a basis for efforts to make these available to them, as well as to other farmers. The latter process of scaling up will be described elsewhere. The final goal is to identify and scale forage technologies, offering solutions to farmers' constraints and opportunities, integrating on-station a n d on-far m rese arch with farmer participation.This work capitalizes on earlier work with cassava, maize and beans, which resulted in a procedure to analyze data obtained in participatory evaluations and serve as an initial framework for developing a technology specific to forages (Hernández, 2000). Forages differ considerably from other crops as germplasm ranges from annual to perennial materials and forages have other multiple functions in the system (Humphreys 1994; Schultze-Kraft and Peters, 1997;Peters et al. , 2001).This paper describes this procedure and identifies strengths and limitations of the same.The following research questions will be addressed in this study:Is it possible to develop a participatory procedure in order to identify farmers' selection criteria to be applied in forage technologies? Can information derived from this participatory procedure be analyzed and incorporated into the traditional research process?Figure 1 summarizes the suggested sequential part icipatory procedure, focusing on the identification, analysis and synthesis of criteria and explanations obtain ed in interactions with farmers.  (Ravnborg et al., 1997). Although in our case the initial focus was on livestock producers, the use of forages for soil fertility maintenance and soil conservation was included. Livestock, crop and mixed farmers participated. Focus groups included smalland medium-sized farmers although larger farmers sometimes benefited through contacts with th ese groups. lt was also made clear to farmers and collaborators t h at there were no monetary benefits as part of the collaboration and that the immediate benefit was the access to improved technological options selected by farmers (most not yet available commercially). It was a lso pointed out to the farmers that success would depend on their active participation. Participatory diagnosis. Restricted to agricult ure, to complement the stakeholder analysis. The community identifies a nd prioritizes the main problems and opportunities for agriculture in their environment. Farmers look for research action s in arder to find technologies to salve their field problems. Participatory diagnosis is a dynamic process done by groups of farmers in arder to identify problems and possibilities of solu tions. Farmers take decisions and actions as a commitment for them in a participatory diagnosis process (Ashby et, 1992).Selection of forage options. Different tools are used to evaluate forage options with farmers. Which tool to use initially depends on the stage in the participatory process, farmers' risk averseness in response to available resources and culture, and their experience with forages. Some approaches can be handled simultaneously.A range of forage options including grasses, herbaceous and shrub legumes were used as a basket of options. While introduced options are common across sites, in each location the currently used forager were included as controls.In later stages complementary options (e.g. , Brachiaria hybrid s and cowpeas), identified on the basis of farmers' preferences, constraints and opportunities were included in the evaluation.Nursery plots. This tool can be u sed for first exposure of farmer s to new forage options. Nursery plots are s mall areas with a multitude of forage options where farmers are exposed toa breadth of potential technologies a ddressing constraints and opp ortunities. Farmers give feedback on the utility and deficiencies of forage technologies and can select the most promising options for t h eir production environment. There is limited risk as plots are small and the farmers' input of resources is minar. The process is mostly consultative, with the farmers providing land for the nursery plots and investment of time in participatory evaluations.To assess the forage options, preference ranking in an open-evaluation environment is employed (Guerrero et a l. , 1993). Farmers rank technology options according to th eir objectives and give feedback, defining specific reasons for selection. The information provided by farmers in t h e ranking/ open evaluation interviews is based on (a ) criteria, (b) reasons and (e) scoring the criteria. Farmers' comm ents give insights into what they \"see,\" wh at is significant and wh at is not, from hisjher viewpoint. Wherever possible, links between farmers' explanations and technological c haracteristics will be explored. Participatory evalu ations used in Latin America frequently use scales from good to poor. Probabilities of accepting or refusing technologies can be drawn from t h eir scoresj rankings (Hemandez, 2000). When starting in a n ew environment, the set of criteria, reasons and explanations is relatively ample; moreover, terminology varies among farmer groups and individuals. The development of a glossary of terminologies with technical explanations, analysis and stratification of results leads to a reduced set of descriptors for scaling up the approach in simila r condition s (see below). Hence the process of obtaining a reduced set of wider applicable descriptors is crucial in reaching a maximum number of farmers under conditions of limited capital and human resources, biophysical and socioeconomic environments and cu ltural preferences. Cross visits to and farmer-to-farmer interaction at suc h demonstration plots are facilitated.Test plots. Utilizing their own criteria, farmers select one ora limited number of technologies for testing on their farms in bigger areas. In Central America an area of 200-400 m2 has been found useful for this testing, but the size may vary according to specific production environments in other locations. Large livestock production is not yet possible to measure in such plots: however the effect of livestock on plants and the acceptance of animals can be assessed. Initial seedfplanting material is provided to farmers, but with the clear indication that for further expansion, they need to produce or purchase their own planting materials. Hence this is also the stage where linkages to seed producers and formation of artisan seed production are facilitated. The test plots can serve as an initial basis for multiplication of planting material. The management and risk of the test plots is the responsibility of farmers; however they receive support from technicians and researchers.Based on their experiences, farmers will or will not expand and adapt forage options on their farms. As part of monitoring and evaluation criteria, reasons and explanations will be further refined. Feed back and analysis on these processes is crucial for directing future on-farm and on-station research.Field book. This is used to analyze, systematize, stratify and validate results from the participatory and complementary agronomic evaluations. It includes the glossary of the terminology and a multivariate analysis of preference ranking, criteria, reasons, explanations and rating. The product is a further refinement and prioritization of descriptors and a defin ition of ideotypes for farmers in similar environments. Such information is highly useful to direct further on-station germplasmfbreeding research as well as to enhance scaling into other areas. ), and methods for facilitating artisan seed production (Cruz et al.., 2003). The aim of this training is not only to facilita te the R&D process per se but also to emphasize the empowerment of farmers and strengthening of all institutional research collaborators involved. It is important to acknowledge that the learning process is multidirectional (i.e., everybody learns from everybody) as well as iterative.Stakeholder analysis and participatory diagnosis. Stakeholder analysis and participatory diagnoses were carried out in the communities of Yorito , Sulaco and Victoria in Honduras; San Dionisia in Nicaragua; and El Puriscal in Costa Rica (CIAT 2000(CIAT , 2001 ) ) .Livestock farmers as well as crop and mixed farmers were included although the focus is on smallholder livestock farmers . Although women and a wide age range (from approx 18 to 80 yr) participated in the original diagnoses, future work showed that in terms of livestock owners they formed a minority , not statistically significant for separate analysis.Participatory diagnosis. In the context of participatory development and selection of forages , the diagnosis was employed, not only to define demands and niches for forages and availability of potential options, but also to identify highly interested farmer groups and individua ls with a high likelihood of benefiting from and hence maintaining the collaboration. The selected group was then given the responsibility of defining sites for the initial nursery plots, offering a basket of forage options.Frequency ana lysis. Based on data from Honduras, a cross tabulation of frequencies with all forage technologies included (i.e., grasses, shrubs, herbaceous legumes and green manures) was computed. Results indicate that plant color was the most important criterion in the farmers' assessment. Across seasons this parameter was given more importance in the dry season as an indicator of the ability of the plants to stay green and retain their leaves. Plant growth was the next most important criterion, followed by cover, leafiness, competitiveness and production. In contrast to color, all these parameters hada greater importance in the wet season.Color was the most important criterion in all forage technologies. However, growth, especially in the establishment phase, was a more important criterion in grasses and shrub legumes; while cover was more important for herbaceous legumes and cover crops. Equally important for herbaceous legumes and cover crops were competitiveness, growth, leafiness and ability to function as green manure. For shrub legumes, possible use as firewood was another important criterion.In conclusion, farmers selected forages based mainly on drought tolerance, easefsuccess of establishment and yield. Drought tolerance was the most important criterion, indicating the demand and potential for adoption of dry season forage species.Principal components analvsis. Criteria were also analyzed using Principal Components AnaJysis (PCA). In the global analysis across technologies for the wet season, the frrst 3 PCs (principal components) explained 64% of the variation, which is a high percentage when analyzing participatory work.The wet season is defined by criteria for establishment and stability 1 persisten ce:The analysis of dry season data across forage technologies shows a similar leve! of confidence, with the first three PCs explaining 66% of the variation:In the dry season fewer criteria are related to the selection of forage technologies by farmers, possibly as a reflection of the major importance of few parameters, responding to particular constraints for farmers at that time of the year.There is no doubt that the PPSF was successful in selecting and developing with farmers, forages suitable to smallholder production systems in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Technicians and scientists in similar biophysical and socioeconomic environments can use the methodology and information generated to design and select novel forage technologies. Moreover, it was possible to strengthen linkages among farming communities and technicians, development workers and researchers in the aforementioned countries, increasing mutual knowledge and benefits. The participatory proced u re developed gave a sounder understanding of farmers' perceptions of their problems and opportunities, contributing to building a stronger bridge between farmers' communities and national research institutes.All participants-farmers, technicians and researchers-through the implementation of the participatory procedure gained increasing trust and knowledge. Farmers gained knowledge on superior forage germplasm and adapted and adopted selected options, techniciansfscientists obtained useful insights to develop and drive design of new technologies design responding to farmers' conditions and expectations. Farmers adopting forages increased the capacity to take more risk by harvesting the benefits of technology adoption. More confidence was gained as forage based options adapted to their farming systems were identified and through the open interaction with technicians and fresearchers. Many farmers are increasing areas of selected forages options. This envir on ment of trust is anticipated to facilitate futu re research on more complex techn ologies as for example soil fertility improvement and evaluation of val u e added forages (i.e. hays, silages, leaf meals, forage-based concentrates).The participatory procedure involved a series of steps that could be easily followed with anticipated outcomes. Thus, it was easy for technicians and scientists to adopt the participatory procedure, and they could obtain outcomes such as criteria, qualifications and reasons from farmers relatively rapid. The participatory procedure included careful research planning and th e definition and sup ply of forage options appropriate to t he vulnerable environments of the Central American hillsides. Diverse social actors such as technicians, researchers and interest groups were identified and their roles defined in a collaborative and integrative approach. The inclusion of producers in all processes as the design of research, diagnosis and the evaluation of forage options (supply) led to the selection of appropriate forages by farmers in a broad range of farming systems.Moreover, an understanding of farmers' perceptions (criteria) about forages options was acquired, focusing further research needs and allowing a higher likelihood of adaptation and adoption of forage technologies. The procedure needs further validation to define limitations for specific types of technologies and socioeconomic and biophysical environments. It is already acknowledging that the procedure needs to include small plot selection with animals at an earlier stage. This procedure could prove to be useful, not only for forage selection in Central America, but also for other contexts and technology options after a ppropriate validation and adaptation. ReferencesMethodology for conducting impact assessment of PR methods on livelihoods Impact of CIAL m ethodology on rurallivelihoods in 4 communities with CIALs in Cauca Province Project approved Selection of Agro entrepreneurial CIALs accomplished Secondary information recovery and primary information accessedRes earchers: Susan Kaaria,43 Nina Lilja,44 Fernando Hincapié,45 James Garcia,46 Viviana Sandova [,47 Collaborators: F. Escobar, L. Over the past decades, agricultura! research has contributed to significant increases in world food production. Maintaining this productivity increases, as well as making progress on additional goals of alleviating poverty and protecting the environment, presents a majar challenge to the agricultura! research system. In arder to maintain and extend the benefits of agricultura! research, new ways of doing research may be necessary. One such method, participatory research (PR}, seeks to involve the intended beneficiaries of research in t h e research process itself, b ased on the idea that u ser participation willlead to m ore efficient a nd effective design and targeting of technologies, ther eby redu cing diffusion time and helping ensu re that the intended beneficiaries are reached with technologies suited to their need s.In principie, the concept of PR has been widely accepted. Few scientists would consider doing adaptive research on agricultura! or natural resource management technology development without at least some input from users. There are many types and degrees of participation, however, with very different implications for the benefits and costs of research. For example, asking farmers opinions or inviting them to visit field trials is a type of participation; however it is very different from letting farmers make decisions about what kinds of technologies will be developed or training them to carry out research themselves. Because PR methods incorporate user perspectives in the research pr ocess, it is often claimed that they orient research more towards the needs of the poor and thus result in a greater impact on poverty alleviation than conventional research. It cannot be said a priori that participatory methods make research more pro-poor because this would depend on the extent to which the needs and priorities of the poor differ from those of the non-poor, and whether or not the poor are specifically targeted in the research process.Whether PR makes research more pro-poor is essentially an empirical question. Therefore, in order to understand the relationship between PR and poverty alleviation better, empirical evidence is needed on what impacts participatory methods have had on poverty in the context of specific projects and participatory methodologies. This project seelcs to begin to fill this gap. The study builds on results from an earlier study (Hincapié, 2003) anda survey done by the IPRA Project in 1998 (Ashby & García, 2000). MethodologyThis study examines the impact of one particular method of incorporating farmer participation, which is based on the establishment of local agricultura! research committees (CIALs) in rural communities. This method was developed at CIAT in the 1990s and is currently used in approximately 250 communities of several Latin American countries. The CIAL methodology is based on the establishment of a research committee with elected members. Each CIAL is supported by an agronomist or extension agent who trains the committee members in the research design (controls, replicates, systematic evaluation of results) and who visits their Assess the effectiveness of the CIAL methodology Assess the costs and benefits of the CIAL to its m embers as well as the members of the co mmunity Use the results of this impact study actively for institutional learning and change.How effective is the CIAL meth odology? What are the benefits of being a CIAL member? How have the CIALs benefited their communities? What are the costs associated with CIALs? How can the results of this impact study be used for institutional Iearning and ch ange?Table 1 presents the sampling frame for the entire study, which involved data collection u sin g both individual house hold interviews a nd focus group discussions (FGDs) with 13 CIALs. The sample wa s selected from all existing CIALs in Cau ca that are more than 5 years old and where it is consider ed \"safe\" to travel. To ensure a represen tative sample, CIALs were also stratified by age and gender of membership. Thirtee n CIALs in 12 communities in Cauca were selected (Table 2 ). At the CIAL leve!, individual household interviews were conducte d, a nd FGDs were conducted a t the CIAL group level. FGDs will be conducted with 13 CIALs in Cauca Province. The FGD will collect the CIALspecific data needed for the analysis. In order to understand the impact of OALs on individual members as well as on ot her community members, individual household interviews will be conducted in six CIAL communities and 4 communities without CIALs. In each of these communities both CIAL and non-CIAL members will be interviewed. In addition, both the male and female heads of household will be interviewed.CIAL communities. Four of them (El Jardín, San Bosco, Tres Cruces and Cinco Día s) were selected because they formed part of the study documenting the impact of the CIAL methodology (Hincapié, 2003) , while the other two (Crucero de Pescador and Carpintero) had been in the impact study conducted in 1998. The information from these earlier studies formed the basis for the design of the survey s for this study.To define the sample for individual household interviews, a 10% margin of error anda 95% level of confidence were used in a randomly stratified design, in which the rural communities constituted the subpopulations that form the strata. The distribution of the selected sample is presented in Table 3. The size of the sample for the rural communities without CIALs will be determined as was done for the rural communities with CIALs.Non-CIAL communities. In order to control for changes in the communities a ttributable to the presence of CIALs, 4 counterfactu al communities were also selected on the basis of not being neighbors and similarity in various characteristics (Table 4): In order to develop a data collection strategy, we took each of the research questions and developed variables to measured and identified specific indicator to measure the variable. Table 5 presents details about each of the broad research questions, as well as indicators used to measu re t he impacts, and data sources. This served as the basis developing d ata collection a n d analysis methodology. . \"'.:•~:. . . , 111 1111 ,lila.., . >t! ,.:., \"-From June to September, 2003, the surveys were administered to a sample of 124 households heads and toa second person in each respective hmsehold (wife j husband, son/ daughter), for a total population of 606 household heads from six rural communities with CIALs in Cauca Province: Crucero de Pescador, Cinco Días, Carpintero, San Bosco, El Jardín and Tres Cruces.Ten enumerators were selected and trained (S university students and S people from the study region) to conduct the household interviews. The training focused on developing communication skills and techniques for conducting the surveys and to create a local capacity for gathering information and for identifying the regional problems.All surveys were conducted with the selected CIALs in the six rural communities: 124 surveys to household heads and 106 to the second person. A format in the OMNIFORM program was developed to input the data from the surveys and the statistical analyses. AH the data from the surveys were typed into the OMNIFORM program and are ready to be analyzed. The four non-CIAL communities were selected by grouping four CIAL communities with similar characteristics. For example, El Jardín and San Bosco; or Carpintero and Cinco Días wer e grouped together as they h ave similar characteristics with respect to sociocultural characteristics: ethnicity, level of schooling and access to public services (energy, aqueduct, telephone and health services), interaction with institutions, distance to large markets, agroecological zone and system of agriculture. In this instance, one counterfactual community was selected for each pair. In the case of Tres Cruces and Crucero de Pescador, a counterfactual community was identified for each one because the communities were very different from each other.The selection of counterfactual communities involved visiting the community and conducting interviews with key informants (teach ers, presidents of the JACs or Communal Action Boards and the health promoters). In each community information was gathered on general characteristics and compared to communities with CIALs.La Chapa and San José were surveyed, and the information was entered in the OMNIFORM program.The main difficulties encountered in the development of the study were related to the data gathering:Sorne farmers are distrustful and do not answer the surveys honestly; thus there was incongruence in the data. Explaining the objective of the study very clearly and explaining that the data would be treated confidentially and would not be used for any other purposes except for the study addressed this problem.Sorne farmers selected for the survey did not want to answer the questions unless they were given sorne economic remuneration. In this case, other farmers were selected at randorn to replace them.The indigenous cornmunities are reserved about their information and do not permit their rnembers to give out information without permission from the Governing Council to which they belong. This difficulty was encountered mostly in those comrnunities located near a reservation. In the native cornmunities surveyed, it was necessary to speak first with the local leaders and the Governing Council to explain the purposes of the survey and request their approval for the study.Thus far the following lessons have been identified , which contribute experiences for future studies:The training of the interviewers has resulted in good-quality information.The revision of the surveys by each interviewer before turning thern in to the coordinator meant that they had fewer errors, and the process of final revision was much quicker.The rapid feedback by the coordinator of the group to the interviewers minimized the errors in gathering the data and made the work more efficient.The support of the local interviewers generated more trust in the farmers, facilitating their response to the surveys.A key factor for obtaining information on the rural communities was talking to the presidents of the JACs, the h ealth promoters and the teachers.To be able to interact with indigenous communities, it is necessary to approach the local authorities previously in order to facilitate the execution of the work. Over the past decades, agricultura! research h as contributed to significant increases in world food production. Maintaining these productivity increases, while making progress on additional goals of alleviating poverty and protecting the environment, presents a major challenge to the agricultura! research system. In arder to maintain and extend the b enefits of agricultura! research, new ways of doing research may be necessary. One such method , participatory research, seeks to involve the intended beneficiaries of research in the research process itself. The idea is that user participation willlead to more efficient and effective design and targeting of technologies, thereby reducing diffusion time, increasing adoption and helping to ensure that the intended beneficiaries are reached with technologies that are appropriate to their particular circumstances, needs and priorities.This study examines the impact of one particular method of incorporating farmer participation, which is based on the establishment of local agricultura! research committees (CIALs) in rural communities. This method, which was developed at CIAT in the 1990s, is currently in use in more than 250 communities in 8 Latín American countries. The CIAL methodology involves the establishment of a research committee with elected members. Each committee is supported by an agronomistjextension agent who trains the committee members in the research des ign issue (controls, replicates, systematic evaluation of results) and who visits their trials regula rly to provide technical support. Support for the agronomist comes from the institution s upporting the CIAL, usually an NGO, national extension service, or sorne other institution involved in technology development and transfer. Costs of inputs not available locally a re covered by outside funds, and members are not paid for their participation or time. Research problems and priorities are set at th e level of the community (by vote), however the selected members do experiments. Community members are able to visit the trials all along, and results of experiments are disserninated at the leve! of the community. If a series of experiments identifies a prornising technology or practice, the CIAL will officially recommend it.The The impact of research outputs such as technologies and methodologies goes beyond the production process a n d to the well-being of the people involved directly and indirectly in the project carried out in a given community; therefore, an alternative methodology to conventional impact assessment is required. The methodology is based on the Sustainable Livelihood Approach. Figure 1 diagrammatically presents the components and linkages within this Approach. The aim of a livelihoods impact assessment is to gain an understanding of the significance of the project with respect to the livelihoods of project participants and other local residents. Such an assessment is based on the prernise that the project and project participants share a core aim: the enhancement of local people's livelihoods.It is important to note that a benefit inherent in this methodology is that as it is the community that identifies problems and needs, they are in a better position to make decisions and act upon th e major issues affecting them. Thus research-action becomes a motivation tool for the future development of projects by communities. The study found four major topics of impact: technology, food security, income generation and social and human capital.Better planning and organization of the farm: As a result of new knowledge on the crop production management, as in the case of San Bosco, new t e chniques for hillside land and crop management resulted in i ncreased production of maize, beans and cassava.The recovery of an anc ient crop, quinoa, in CIAL Tres Cruces has resulted in a program led by the índigenous Council to include this crop in all gardens.The main impact in food security is the reduction in t he scarcit y periods of grains , beans and maize, which are the staples of most c o mmunities' diets.When comparing the production of the four communities over time, beans and maize showed a remarkable improvemen t and also show a potential for further increment in production dueto the research carried out by the CIALs. Production figures and the food-availability calendar support this claim. Food scarcity was reduced from 6 month to 3-4 months in the case of bean s and maize in the villages of El Jardín and San Sosco. The only reason why they have not been able to close the gap is because of grain storage problems.Beans, being one of the commonest research topic of CIALs, has come a long way from production for consumption to its presen t leve!, which allows for seed production and, toa lesser extent, in come generation. The CIAL El Jardín works with beans and its production figures have gane from consumption only 5 years ago to 2500 kg/ha at present. Research on new varieties and training on crop management and seed prod uction account for the success this CIALs research.Maize has also shown an incremen t in production, and its b ehavior has been similar to that of beans. Most of th e grain was kept to feed the family, but this increase in production also allows fo r seed production and to feed minor species on the farm. The CIAL San Bosco has been working with maize for around 1 O years. Their production has doubled in the last five years, going from 2500 kg/ha to 5000 kg at present. Similar to El Jardín, the CIAL San Bosco has also gained knowledge on new management practices and seed production, which is a source of income generation for this group. Another source of in come and a major impact for this CIAL was the acquisition of a maize milling machine, wh ich is u sed by village farmers and neighbors, representing not only a source of income but also savings in time and money.Greater maize production has also allowed producers to keep as many as 200 cruckens on their farms sorne for t h eir meat and oth er s as egg producers asan altemative source of food and income.Most CIALs genera te income from their production of beans and maize seed; however, CIAL Cinco Días has acquired bakery equipment to produce soy bread (soybeans are the topic of research of this CIAL). A new group of soybean producers will supply the raw material for the bakery; soybeans are also sold to feed small animals.Another major impact the CIAL has had on its members is the development of leaders and empowerment of the communities where they are located. Appendix 1 shows clear areas of impact or indicators such as understanding of experimentation, social organization, leadership, empowerment, land, crop and farm management, decision-making, better planning and organization of farm, new knowledge, new technology, diffusion and income generation.lt also shows that although a CIAL may have only one research tapie, impact is also produced by other technologies introduced by the CIAL. This technology may come from the technician, farmer-to-farmer, tours, the yearly CIAL meeting. It is then tried by the CIAL and is eventually adopted in the village and neighboring communities.Results from these technologies should also be included in the CIAL research records and reported to CORFOCIAL and the research entity.Impact on livelihood goes beyond production and income generation, which are only sorne of the components of well-being; leadership, organization, communication, empowerment and decision-making complete the picture.Research on maize and beans has not only had a real impact on food availability in the communities through increased production and a better knowledge of land, crop and pest management; but it has also h elped improve nutrition levels in villages such as San Sosco, El Jardín and Tres Cruces, helping get closer to their objective of food security.Other technologies introduced by the CIAL to villages (e.g., forages in El Jardín) represent an extra income for the farro in terms of cash when sold for cattle feed or in kind when exchanged for milk.In the case of Tres Cruces, quinoa has put the CIAL at the front of a majar project by the local indigenous Council to incorporate quinoa plants in their gardens. Already 80 out of 175 families have included quinoa in their diets and are also learning about its medicinal uses.As the result of its research on soybeans, the CIAL Cinco Días has established a small bakery based on soy flour, generating income not only for the families of the members of the small business but also for a group of farmers who see the opportunity of supplying soybeans to the bakery. Training in small business management will also improve and have an impact on the livelihoods of the village by opening up new opportunities and generating employment for the village.San Sosco is also looking at the establishment of a small business in the form of a collection centralized facility for collecting and marketing local products which would not only benefit the village but also its neighbors, and would generate employment.The development in sorne communities of a do-it-yourself mentality has h ad a majar impact on its own, considering that not long ago their conditions and self-esteem were at a very low point. One of the commonest discussions in the five CIALs visited was the preparation of proposals for local projects, which s hows a vision, a plan or strategy for improving the well-being of the village.Human capital is also another majar area of impact. The CIAL is also a school for leaders, and its members often work with other organizations in the communities such as the indigenous Councils, the Communal Action Boards (JAC}, water boards, etc. The community often consults CIAL members on farming issues; and the CIALs also have the responsibility of reporting research and feedback to the community, not only on their fmdings but also on the accounts.Gender is an area that needs more attention. CIAL research represents extra work for women who have to carry on with their day-to-day numerous activities and find time to do CIAL work. A common attitude towards women working in CIAL is that they have nothing better to do or that it is a waste of time. This attitude means that in arder to spend time away from home in the CIAL, women must work harder at home. This attitude changes as the CIAL begins to show positive results, particularly in their families. Good feedback of results to the community will improve the attitude towards women groupsAnother barrier women encounter is that their husbands oppose their spending a long time away from home, and this produces conflict at home. This is less noticeable in villages where there is a CIAL already established or where there is knowledge of the CIAL work and results.T bl 3 S a e ummary o f wea lth ran k\" h Wealth ranking in the four communities shows sorne ch aracteristics common to the different level s studied: At the top leve! are fixed income from full-time employment by members of the farnily in addition to farm products, larger and already established productive farms which in sorne cases genera te income for members of the communities. At the inte rmediate leve!, farm products, s up plemented by seasonal labor, are the common characteristics that identify this group. The lower level is characterized by Illness, old age, no collaboration from family relatives and lack of water and energy.When asking the question what is necessary to move from one group to another, better management of assets and access to credit for investment are the commonest answers, followed by participation in-group activities.Better management of assets and teamwork are areas where CIAL methodology can contribute to the progress of communities. In the future, it may be possible that second-order organizations of CIALs can facilita te access to credit for its members.Sorne of the major challenges ahead are to improve repo r ting of results to research centers and other organizations, the quality a nd relevance of research, and feedback to communities.Better communication among ClALs, CORFOCIAL, CIAT and other R&D o rganizations is essential for improving the quality and relevance of research and also for validating CIAL research befare these organizations. In order to obtain funding for research , it should not be done only on the basis of interest in the communities alone but also reflect the interest of donors and R&D centers.To a certain extent, that is what this impact evaluation methodology offers an understanding of community needs and interests in arder to match donar and organization requirements. As CIAL Tres Cruces put it, \"we are tired of organizations bringing in projects that salve none of our problems, and when they are gane, we are worse off than when we began ... we have lots of product no one wants .. . \" The experience of forming rural agro enterprises (RAEs) in sorne community-based research services (CIALs) that have been conducting research for s evera! years has not been assessed. This study proposed to identify and analyze the organizational and production principies and practices of five CIALs with RAEs in Cauca -Colombia. This study covers (a) the a nalysis of their formation, from t he initial research p eriod to the creation of the RAE, (b ) the diagnosis of the organizational and production characteristics that contributes to their maintenance and (e) the identification of t he possible effects of a socio-economic nature, generated in the Committees and in their communities. The study will not only report b ack to the communities on these experiences, but will also generate information to orient other organizations in the national andjor international settin g that wis h to forro other RAEs in the field.Since the seventies, the methodology of participatory research has not only influen ced the methods of social inquiry, but also a llowed rural co mmunities to establish priority criteria based on an informa l analysis of their context. Until 1998 the CIAL methodology had contri buted to the forma tion of 249 Committees in 8 countries of Central and South America (As hby, 200 1)In Cauca Province, Colombia, the CIAL methodology was first developed in 1990 as a result of the direct intervention of the community a nd facilitators from the Participatory Research Proj ect with Farmers (IPRA) a t CIAT. The CIAL, which is created a t the instigation of the community , is an organization directed by and for farmer s. Thi s structure is designed to meet the needs of the community (mostly related to food security), which are then prioritised throu gh a participatory diagnosis that leads to the planning of the research process. Basically, farming m ethods and technologies that are not known locally a n d have not been tested in t h e regíon are compar ed with the traditional practice, but sometimes this is not sufficient t o accomplish the des ired results (As hby , 2001). Their relative su ccess affects t he strengthenin g and development of the community a t the local and regional levels.The influence or impact generated within the communities can be determined by evaluating the participatory processes oí the individuals, the distribution oí the benefits generated by the research, and the consolidation oí the RAEs. Then the advantages, successes or íailures are identified, and recommendations are made accordingly in order to enrich both the íunctioning oí each Committee and the CIAL methodology.Independent oí the impact that the research may generate in the community, sorne CIALs have interacted as a result oí training or experiences in neighboring communities or in the village itselí with alternative production systems that give an aggregate value to the agricultura! product. Thus the idea arose oí íorming a small-scale agro entrepreneurial system, which is influenced by the way in which the íarmers are associated and organized.In 1998 the Rural Agro enterprise Development Project at CIAT identified key factors for success based on eight RAEs in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Chile, oriented toward promoting the exportation of agricultura! products. The analysis was based on the physical, social and economic environment, the business organization, analysis of the product and competitive capacity. Among the key factors identified were businessoriented leadership, a drive toward self-management, availability of support services, links to the a lternat ive market, development of marketing strategies and business schemes with vertical integration (Lasso & Ostertag, 1998).In 2000, part of the small business experiences of 11 CIALs (Cinco Días Mujeres, ASOPANELA, El Placer, San Bosco Hombres, San Isidro Mujeres, El Diviso, Carpintero, Pescador, El Jardín, Santa Barbara and Betania) in Cauca was documented. Analysis of the results of that study, centered on the conceptualization of successful RAEs, and on recommendations or strategies for achieving them (Roa & Lundy, 2000) . At present there are lO groups (except for the last two and including the CIAL Santa Isabel) dedicated initially to research and then to the small-scale production of maize seed, common beans and peas, organic by-products from sugarcane, and bakery products from soy products.Based on the íoregoing issues, the study centers on the experiences of 5 CIALs with RAEs. The íollowing íramework of questions is used to determine the information requirements:What factors motivated the formation of the RAE within the CIAL? ¿How did this process evolve? ¿What are the organizational aspects that have favored that formation? What production and marketing factors have contributed to the permanence of these RAEs? What have been the main constraints to the normal functioning of the RAE? What are the effects of this process on the CIALs with RAEs, on their members and the community?The information gathered during the study will be important for the farmers involved in CIALs, both with and without RAEs, in the planning, analysis of the production work and in the formulation of projects.In this research, which is explanatory in nature (i.e., why and how), social research strategies such as surveys, analysis of 111es, histories and case studies will be used (Yin, 1994) The research will not include experimental or quasiexperimental designs (rigid in their methodological structure), because the emphasis is on exploring the specific perspectives of the participants with respect to the CIAL experience, which are important for constructing the meaning and implications of the Committee for the community. Information related to production and marketing data of the Committee will also be gathered.Both primary and secondary data are being gathered. The design is based on an approach that integrates qualitative, participatory and quantitative methods: The process of fo rming a n RAE in a CIAL will be desc ribed through formal, semi-structured individual interviews, group analysis and time-line. Then the organizational and production aspects of the 5 CIALs under study will be characterized (Gottret et al., 2000) (description of producers, the production process, the product and its marketing, among others), using participatory techniques (flowchart of activities) and formal surveys a nd semi structured interviews.The analysis of the information will not only be done in the final stage of the study. It will also be a key factor during the execution of the study, for which successive activities of ranking, analysis and recording of information will be done to revise the results, identify gaps and check the reliability of the same.The research hypothesis is that there are organizational and production principies and practices that are key to success in the processes of forming RAEs in the CIALs and their sustainability over time. To test this hypothesis, the study sought to document the participatory and interactive experiences of farmer members of 5 CIALs that decided to form an RAE.Rural agroindustry is an \"activity that permits increasing the value of the production of the rural economies through the execution of post harvest processes (e.g., selection, washing, classification, storage, conservation, transformation , packing, transportation and marketing) in products from agro-silvo-pastoral systems, fisheries and fish ponds\" (Riveras, 1998 ). This concept makes it possible to differentiate those nona,gricultural production activities from others that could easily be confused. Therefore, the following CIALs situated in Cauca were identified according to their RAE experience relative for sorne. As there was insufficient information on the existing types of RAE, it was assumed that they could be subsistence agro enterprises or in the initial stages of development, which do not generate sufficient economic surpluses to be capitalized and that differ in the use of family labor.Prior to the selection, excluding criteria were identified: armed conflict (CIALs El Placer and Santa Isabel) and the amount of documentation (QAL El Diviso). A rapid poli was conducted in the remaining 7 CIALs with RAEs, using a semi-structured interview, designed according to criteria that integrate organizational and production factors, without becoming isolated from the context of the process of forming the RAE in the CIAL and its implications on the lives of the farmers and on the community. The criteria were conditions of poverty in the zone, gender, type of product and its influence in the diet, organization, complexity of the operations and research. San Bosco Hombres, Carpintero, San Isidro Mujeres and ASOPANELA were selected. Upon discussing the information from the poli of the selected CIALs, it was decided to include the CIAL Cinco Días Mujeres because studying the organizational problems that they are facing was considered to be illustrative (Table 2).In addition, two groups of committees differentiated as to the continuity of their research (e.g., the second group in addition to the RAE carries out farming activities that are not related to the research):CIALs with RAEs: CIALs that are RAEs:Carpintero and ASOPANELA San Isidro Mujeres, San Bosco Hombres and Cinco Días Muj eresThe CIALs San Bosco Hombres, San Isidro Mujeres, Carpintero and Cinco Días Mujeres are located in different parts of the county seat and have basic services, primary schools, health centers and unpaved access roads. The CIAL ASOPANELA also has the basic services but is located along the Pan American highway, which h as facilitated the effective marketing of their product.The final selection of CIALs also makes it possible to relate the contrasting conditions of poverty in the rones and their influence on the functioning of the RAEs. In addition to the foregoing selection process, another alternative of analysis was considered: statistical. Logistic regression (Hernández, 2000) establishes the relationship between the criteria and the degree of adjustment for each CIAL.To obtain the lOxlOquadratic matrix required for this tool, it was necessary to include additional information from three CIALs: El Diviso, Santa Isabel and El Placer (Table 3). This matrix is a step prior to graphic analysis.  In the regression analysis, th e criteria for selecting th e CIALs were predetermined (Ta b le 4). The criteria were assigned valu es o n a scale of 1-3. A 1 indicates that the CIAL has little relation to tha t criterion vs. 3 for a high relation. In this wa y, e ach CIAL was graded for ea ch criterion, generating a matrix, which was then analyzed using logistic regres sion.In Figure 1 the CIALs are represented by curves. The most related to th e criteria have the highest percentages on the Y axis; the contrary corresp onds to the lowest pe rcentages.The results of the matrix express cumulative percentages of the criteria used in selecting the CIALs. Three probability zones (high , intermediate, low) were distinguished, depending on the concave, convex and approximate line of each curve, respectively. CIALs with RAEs in each zone were selected. In the zone of greatest concordance, were the CIALs San Isidro Mujeres, Carpintero and San Bosco Hombres; from the zone of 1owest concordance, ASOPANELA; and from the zone of intermedia te concordance, the CIAL Cinco Días Mujeres. .13 30% S::• &vlBoscoU pon comparing the results of the selection by qualitative and quantitative methods, a great similarity was found in the results although the sample of CIALs with RAEs was not large.Progress has been made in obtaining primary information on the background, through the application of semi-structured interviews in the CIALs Carpintero, Cinco Días Women and San Isidro Women. In San Isidro Women and Carpintero, group interviews were held in order to characterize the RAE.Although there were delays in executing the study beca use of the coffee harvest, the people were willing to collaborate. As of the second semester, both the men a nd women farmers had more time to dedícate to activities outside their routine work.The initial Log Frame for the research proposal did not consider the assumption of other parallel research such as a study of evaluation of impact, which is being developed in three CIALs. It was proposed to make an effort to decrease the time of fieldwork so that the methods used had to be as efficient as possible in gathering the required information.The farmers do not keep records or secondary infor mation to provide details on important situations in their development process as agro enterprises. Thus it was necessary to rely on participants' memory, delaying th e fieldwork and perhaps introducing imprecision due to the passing of time.The dialogue and group interviews are tools that have allowed the recording of information to evaluate priority aspects considered in the semi-structured interview and in the formats.It is necessary to adapt the proposed methods to studying each CIAL, given the fact that they operate in totally different contexts. Apparent similarities do not necessarily give way to generalizations. implemented by TIP (Traditional Irrigation Project), a local NGO. Project activities were initiated.To monitor the impact of the project and assess change, a baseline study was carried out during the first year of the BAPPA project. This report presents the results of that study, which was loosely based on the sustainable livelihoods framework (Carney, 1998) which focuses on a comprehensive view of the livelihood circumstances of the poor including ownership of assets, livelihood activities, factors contributing to their vulnerability and the relationship between relevant factors at micro, intermediate and macro levels.This paper explores the following dimensions of rural livelihoods in relation to the five project outputs (Table 1 lists indicators used to measure key variables related to major project outputs):Household resources Poverty and vulnerability Social capital, participation and conflict Agricultura! production and food security Land use and management Gender relations Methodology 8oth participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) and formal surveys were used to collect baseline data in the three study sites. PRAs were conducted over 1-2 days and involved activities such as visioning and group discussions on the gender division of labor, wealth ranking, p rices and crop calendar. Formal surveys took place during the first season of project activities: November 2001 in Rubaya, November-December 2001 in Linthipe, and June 2002 in Soni. Key informants from each study village were involved in wealth ranking, and the results were used to assign surveyed households to wealth groups. As wealth categories identified in the three sites are not necessary comparable (i.e., wealthy in Soni is not the same as in Linthipe), descriptions of each wealth are provided in the appendix. Optimism about the ability to bring about positive change locally, The extent to which people are willing to act a nd conflict participa tion in collective action, social divisions and conflict, collectively to solve social problems is a good changes in the leve! of theft, willingness for children to become small-indication of the leve! of social cohesion s cale farmers Gender Areas of conflict between married couples and decision-making relatio n s patterns and differences in perceptions by hu s ba nds and wives, sc hool attcndance by boy s and _girlsThe formal survey covered a random sample of households from project villages plus a third nearby nonproject village. Table 2 shows the sample size and breakdown by location. Interviews were divided into two parts: the first general section addressed the farm couples, where applicable; the second part was conducted individually with male and female farmers. The interview schedule covered the following tapies: household characteristics and resources, agricultura! enterprises, use of inputs, marketing, environmental issues, tree planting, household well-being, savings and credit behavior, group membership, intrahousehold decision making and conflict, social participation and conflict. All quantitative information related to income, savings, borrowing and crops yields were based on farmer recall. Due to the unreliability of income data collected through recall, farmers were only asked to report on agricultura! income.The first part of the interviewed covered household-related tapies, while the second part was conducted separately with h u sbands and wives. In Rubaya, 52% of the first part of the interview was conducted with women, 40% with farm couples and 8 % with men alone. In Linthipe, 43% of the interviews were held with couples, 37% with women alone and 20% with men alone. In Soni, 78% of the interviews were conducted with couples, 19% with women a lone and 2% with men alone. Data analysis relied on descriptive statistics; namely, frequencies, means, t test and ANOVA to compare means. To assess and compare men's and women's investment priorities, frequencies and ranked data were converted to scores for more accurate comparison. Variation within study communities was analyzed along three dimensions: wealth, gender and location (village and country) with the objective of exploring how social differentiation affects people's experience of poverty.When poverty is measured by factors such as income, ownership of assets and access to resources such as credit, land etc. and vulnerability, the picture that emerges from the three s i tes is one of varying levels of poverty across and within them. Of the three sites, farmers in Soni (Tanzania) were rela tively better off, enjoying the highest annual agricultura! income ($149). Poverty was most acute in Linthipe (Malawi), while Rubaya (Uganda) represented a situation of moderate poverty. The following section analyzes poverty within and across the three communities in the context of four dimensions: agricultura! production, livelihood activities, owner ship of assets and vulnerability.In all three sites agriculture was the predominant economic activity. Farmers in Soni had the most diverse portfolio of crops, including at least 7 cash crops. In contrast, farmers in Rubaya and Linthipe grew sorne crops mainly for subsistence, many for both consurnption and sale, and relied on only one or two crops exclusively for cash. There was, however, in these two sites, evidence of diversification of cash crops: Soybeans, potatoes and paprika in Linthipe and coffee, wheat and pyrethrurn in Rubaya. Additionally, in Linthipe there was evidence of food crop diversification, away frorn the traditional dependence on rnaize to increased production of cassava and sweet potatoes. As this and other studies (David, 1999) show, the absence of traditional cash crops contributes to food insecurity, with farrner s falling into a cycle of selling large parts of their food crop harvests when prices are low a nd buying those sarne foods when prices are high. Significantly, although farmers in Soni bought rnaize and beans when they experienced food shortages, unlike farrners in the other two sites, they did not attribute shortages to food crop sales .This study investigated the uptake of crop varieties and land rnanagernent technologies. On the whole, the adoption of introduced crop varieties at the study sites was rnoderate to high, but yield estirnates for sorne crops such as potatoes and rnaize suggest that farrners had not benefited fully from the yield advantages of introd uced varieties beca use of their failure or inability to carry out good agronornic practices (e .g., fertilizers or use of \"clean\" seed in the case of potatoes). In addition, in areas where NGOs were involved in seed dissernination, the low adoption of sorne bean varieties (climbing beans in Rubaya, Bush beans in Linthipe) was unexpected. One possible explanation may be related to the practice of one-time seed dissemination by NGOs and farmers' difficulties in retaining seed of new varieties (David & Sperling, 1999), especially in comrnunities where informal social networks are weak, which is not conducive to rapid seed diffusion.Uptake of land management technologies provides insight into the types of support farmers and cornmunities need to facilitate adoption. As the Linthipe data suggest, Concern Universal's input in terms of training and follow-up was largely responsible for the high adoption of land management technologies. The significant increase in the digging of trenches in Rubaya at the start of the BAPPA project highlights two basic ingredients needed for effective NRM and cornrnunity development generally. Prior to 2001, few households in Rubaya had dug t renches to control erosion and reclaim gullies despite farrner s' awareness of the technology. The BAPPA project organized farmers into groups to dig trenches across plots belonging to severa! households and provided digging tools. This intervention subsequently led village leaders to establish bylaws requiring all households to dig trenches.At al! sites the combination of Jow agricultura! productivity and limited market opportunities has increased household dependence on nonfarm activities. The high proportion of Linthipe farmers involved in nonfarm activities, fo r example, is a reflection of poor agricultura! performance and chronic food insecurity in Malawi due to drought, Jow soil fertility and the inability of most households to achieve self-sufficiency in maize. Farmers' attempts to minimize risk by opting for a dualistic strategy of intensifying agricultura! production while seeking off-farm employrnent as a short-terrn survival strategy are clearly evident in their investment priorities. Farmers in Linthipe and Soni attached a high premium to purchasing chemical fertilizer, while farmers at all three sites showed a strong interest in business.While nonfarm activities offer a potential pathway out of poverty for rural African househ olds (Ellis et a l., 2002: 17), the types of opportunities available to farmers are limited; and sorne may even contribute to Jow agricultura! performance. Four areas of off-farm income-generating activities were common to the three sites: casual labor, pet ty trade, brewing and salaried employ ment. A rece nt study in Malawi (McDonagh, 2002) shows that, while casual labor is an effective survival strategy, it forces many farmers-the poor in particular-te neglect their own fields at key periods during the farming season. The study concludes that the overall effect of casual labor on farrnbased livelihoods is negative. Dueto high start-up costs and limited credit opportunities, relatively few farmer s in the three communities were involved in remunerative off-farm self-employment activities such as maize milling, carpentry and poultry, which could serve as pathways out of poverty. Indeed, farmers' investment aspirations highlight the need to expose farmers to new business ideas. Across sites, men were more likely than women to engage in off-farm income-generating activities and had a more diverse portfolio of activities, including more skilled activities such as salaried employment. Male migration for casual employment was found only in Rubaya, an area of low ma1e invo1vement in agriculture. Aside from petty trade, women tended to engage in relatively low-paying activities such as casual labor, brewing and handicraft production.The key assets of rural African households are land, livestock, labor, education, implements and tools, networks that increase trust, ability to work together, access to opportunities and informal safety nets. Access to enough productive land for crop cultivation and livestock is crucial for the rural households to generate a viable living. In Rubaya there was evidence that the poorest households had least access to land in the wetlands, the most suitable land for patato and vegetable production. In Linthipe better-off farmers cultivated significantly larger land holdings in both the uplands and dambos (river beds).Ownership of agricultura! tools and use of agricultural inputs are also associated with improved well-being as they enhance agricultura! productivity and the latter in turn permits further investment in inputs. Farmers' inability to dig trenches in Rubaya for lack of appropriate tools illustrates the association between ownership of agricultural tools and poverty. A key reason why farmers in Rubaya did not dig trenches to control soil erosion was lack of tools. At all si tes wealth was strongly correlated with livestock ownership; however, the importance of livestock líes in substit uting lower value livestock (e.g., chickens, small ruminants) for higher value livestock (cattle, pigs, donkeys}, the type and number of livestock owned is key to achieving rising assets over time. While most households surveyed owned chickens, only the wealthiest households owned cattle, pigs or donkeys. In Soni a third or more of the livestock owners kept cattle and small rurninants, whereas in Rubaya and Linthipe few households owned cattle. In those two sites, aside from chickens, most households had an average of 2-3 goats or sheep, not enough to make a signíficant contribution to poverty alleviation. Not surprisingly, farmers in Rubaya and Soni attached high importance to livestock asan investment priority. Livestock received lower priority in Linthipe because of the high risk associated with theft.Survey data confirm that the amount of available household labor contributes to household well-being. Households in Soni had the highest number of productive workers; and notably in Rubaya and Soni, but not Linthipe, wealthier households hada significantly higher number of productive workers. Rubaya had the lowest number of productive workers dueto the high number of men and women engaged part time in agriculture and the resulting high dependency ratio. The lack of correlation between wealth and household labor in Linthipe may be related to the observations by a recent study that except for livestock holding, there were few significant differences in the assets profiles (defined as household size, education, ownership of tools, land and livestock) of different income groups in Malawi (Ellis et al., 2002).At the community level, Soni had the highest proportion of formally educat ed farmers, both male and female; while farmers in Linthipe were the least educated. At the household level, however, there was a correlation between wealth and educational leve! only among men in Linthipe. Education contributes to p overty alleviation through various direct and indirect mecha nisms-an area not explored in thi s s tudy .Significant differences existed among the communities in terms of membership in indigenous groups, with Rubaya having the highest number of groups and proportion of households belonging to groups. Soni h a d the n ext highest number of local groups and number of households belonging to groups, while there were few indigenous groups in Linthipe. Local groups played various functions including providing informal safety nets for burial assistance, transportation to hospital and obtaining credit, facilitating savings and the exchange of new technologies and information, providing services such as labor exchange and generally strengthening social cohesion among kin-based groups. Wealthier households in Rub aya and Soni had more members involved in groups, presumably because of their larger size a nd better access to resources (e.g., time, money, skills). Surprisingly, there was no difference in the number of men and women belonging to groups. In Linthipe and Soni, government and NGO-created groups were carrying out development activities. The basis on which these groups were formed and the s ubsequent implica tions for their sus tainability after d evelopment projects end, are issues of concern and require further research.Rural households in the three study sites and throughout Africa are subject to calamity trends, exte rna! shocks (such as drought) and seasonality in health, prices, agric ultura! p roduction, employment opportunities and resource availability-factors that a re outside their control. Ill health, particula rly mala ria and HIV / AIDS, was an important s hock not investigated h ere. As noted by a recent s tudy in Malawi and Tanzania, rural h ouseholds are unable to p lan a head and therefore cope with illnesses with s hort-term survival s trategies, resutting in n e t welfare, cash a nd cap acity loss, whic h weakens the capacity of h ouseholds to genera te work (Koestle, 2002). Across sites, drought , crop failure , food shortages, insufficient capital, low prices and lack of markets were co mmon s hocks. In a number of instances, farmers s howed great innovation, often without externa! assis ta nce, in tackling major s hocks. For example, in Rubaya, farmers re sponded to the devastating effects of bea n root rots by spontaneously adopting more tolerant climbing beans. In line with government policy to comba t the effects of drought, farmers in Linthipe had diversified their food crops a nd were growing more dro u ghttolerant crops such as cassava. Crop divers ifica tio n was a general response to vulnerability observed a t all three s ites, but was mo st s u ccessful in Soni due to severa! factors including favora ble climatic conditions, proximity to urban markets a nd strong institutional s upport fo r horticultu ra! production d ating back to the late 1960s (pers. comm., R. Kirkby).Coping strategies were s imilar across sites, with most h ouseholds reducing the number of meals eaten during t he \"hungry season,\" borrowing money from friends and relatives, working for food or money, and borrowing or buying food. To cover educational and health expenses, farmer s wer e often forced to sell crops, land or livestoc k, contributing to the poverty cycle. Local groups played a n importa nt safety net role by providing credit in Rubaya , but farmers everywhere tended to seek assistance from friends. Vulnerability may be exacerbated at community leve! by a high leve! of s ocial division tha t prevents communities from engaging in collective action to address common p roblem s. The majar social divisions identified in the study commun ities were asset related (access to la nd, incl uding wetla nds, wealth , owner ship of livestock, education). Interestingly, a high proportion of farmers in the poorest commu ni ties (Linthipe a nd Rubaya) perceived an increase in the level of theft, suggesting an association between poverty, t heft and social divisions.Although Rubaya was the only site where survey respondents highlighted poor relationships between men and women as a socia l problem, the study consistently documented women's disadvantaged position and greater poverty in the three communities. Generally, women were less educated, saved and borrowed smaller amounts of money compared to men, had less decision-making power than men, and owned fewer productive assets (livestock, land). While analysis of conjuga! decisionmaking data was problematic, the findings across sites suggest that women rarely make agricultura] or persona1-1eve1 decisions on their own. Cultivation on personal plots, which allows married women more econ omic freedom, was only found in Soni, the most market-oriented location. Typically, women had greater cont rol over smaller amounts of income. At all sites, the dominant male decision-making pattern gives rise to marital conflict.Women had higher workloads compared tomen, largely dueto their domestic responsibilities; b ut in the case of Rubaya, also as a result of male migration and men's lower input in agriculture over all. The proportion of female-headed households was high across sites, particularly in Rubaya; and everywhere those households formed a disproportional number of the poorest gro u p. Surprisingly, the study did not reveal strong educational discrimination against girls, possibly because most children in surveyed households were at the primary level, where girls face less discrimination. Still, this finding represents an important advance in the education of girls. Across sites, women complained of similar marital problems: conflicts over money and decisíon-making, failure of men to work and provide for their families, drinking and domestic violence. Marital problems shared by men in the three communities included conflict over money and decision-making and wives' disobedience.Although this study presents a rather dismal snapshot view of the three communities, farmers at a ll sites-but especially in Soni, where living standards were better-were relatively optimistic about the future, with half or more wanting their children to become small-scale farmers. Growing evidence indicates that the key to developing pathways out of poverty in rural Africa \"is a cumulative process that requires the a bility to build assets and diversity across farm and non-farm activities\" (Ellis et al., 2002). Farmers in the BAPPA project sites, in conjunction with development partners, h ave started this process. The BAPPA project, a unique partnership between an agricultura! R&D institution and NGOs, can build on progress made and make unique contributions to poverty alleviation.Based on the study's findings, sorne specific recommendations for pr.oject interventions that complement on-going activities include: Developing creative, workable mechanisms for credit provision and identifying strategic partners who can develop credit programs that cater to the n eeds of both men and women of different wealth categories Helping men and women farmers build assets, particularly livestock holdings Training farmers to identify market opportunities and working with them to carry out diverse nonfarm economic activities Improving farmer access to agricultura! inputs through credit and more creative programs Strengthening farmers' capacity to form and manage both social and entrepreneurial group s based on a sound understanding of social ties and existing groups Identify partners that can improve farmers' literacy levels Develop sustainable technology-dissemination mechanisms Redress gender inequalities in workload, decision-making and income levels by raising awareness among adults and especially children, introducing laborsaving technologies for women and d iversifying women's nonfarm economic activities.the decision-making. Without these conditions. many projects have had n egligible impact despite years of work and high investments. For this reason the activ e participation of the project beneficiaries is becoming more important so that they are able to take part in the development of their future. The role of the outside actors is to facilitate the processes in integrated teamwork and identify technological alternatives that respond to the local dema nds.With the spirit of integrating the projects financed by the Kellogg Foundation (WKK), the IPRA project was invited to participate in \"The Second Meeting of Projects in the Initiative of Human Nutrition in the Latín American and Caribbean Region,\" held in San Salvador from 3-9 December 2000. At this event the CIAL methodology was made known. It was seen as an altemative that could possibly be applied in other areas such as health and education.La ter we received the visit of the Directors of Programs of Latín America and the Caribbean, Drs. Jana Arriagada and Heliodoro Días, who had the opportunity to talk personally with member s of sorne CIALs in Cauca, and they were also able to leam about the interinstitutional model, CIPASLA. This experience-being able to converse with the actors of local organizations, visualize their accomplishments, their capacity to manage their organization and their projections-showed the importance of having other Fou ndation-supported projects or farmers' organizations interact and leam about these experiences.Given the foregoing, the IPRA Project at CIAT proposed to develop a milieu, where the organizations involved in the CIALs and CIPASLA and organizations from four interinstitu tional projects in Central America could interact. The projects selected were part of the Youngsters Networks of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In each case a group of ten or more institutions form a network, a consortium or an association that has received financia! support to strengthen a style of joint work, where they lead the local development of a selected geographic area, with participation of the community, especially the younger people.The methodology consisted in conducting a sensitization exercise, priorto the field visits to CIPASLA, CORFOCIAL and the CIALs, on theoretical aspects and the way in which the participatory models ha ve been implemented, as well as sorne of the results obtained. For two days days they visited the different p rojects that forro part of CIPASLA ,ASOBESURCA, accompanied by the Director of CIPASLA, Rodrigo Vivas ,and These projects have components of adaptive research, production, t ransformation, marketing, communication, education, gender and natura l resource management, among others. At these si tes they had the opportunity to interact directly with the actors of the process and explore different aspects of interest to the visitors in much greater depth.On the third day the participants had the opportunity to visit sorne CIALs, where they could see methodological steps being applied and the adaptive research trials that they carry out. They were able to interact, with the farmers and the administrator of CORFOCIAL, Alfonso Truque At the end of each day, discussions were held among the participants, with the aim of extracting the lessons learned (positive andjor negative) from each of the experiences.The las t day of the workshop, a summary was made of what had bee n observed, the workshop was evaluated, and a list of tasks was made, including commitments on the part of the participants with respect to what they would do when they retumed to their countries in order to strengthen their networks, taking into account their respective conditions.Basically fiveactivities were undertaken:Presentations on the theoretical framework and resul ts obtained with the pa rticipatory research m ethodologies in Cauca Tours and workshops to exchange information with the community organizations from Cauca and the networks of young Central Americans Discu ssion and analysis of the experiences by the visitors Establishment of commitrnents Follow up to the commitments made in ColombiaFollowing the discu ssio ns and analyses of their experiences, it was expected t hat the different institutions a nd their networks would begin a p rocess of a da p t ing the lessons learned. To each network coordinator , a questionnaire was sent out to facilitate their reflections on the relevant aspects, adap tations or adjustments of the pa rticipatory methods that they ha d implemented in theír projects after their vis it to Colombia.The following questionnaire and responses are a compend ium of what was expressed by the memb ers of the different networks.One of th e asp ects that the p articipa nts highlighted mos t was believing more in the capacities of the local people. The visit permitted them to see a nd analyze directly how the b en efi ciaries t rained and strengthened in their principies, were capable of executing actions justas any outs ide professiona l. With this local capacity, the proj ect was more sustainable , and salid bases for the future were created.Thi s increas ed capacity permits the community to take d ecisions with greater confidence , which is essen tia l for participatory processes . They also prepared profiles of projects based on community priorities, where the execution of t hese projects will be much more active and participative in those interest groups.The management group from the Valle de San Andrés is a dapting the CIAL methodology fo r their decision-making, preparing project profiles and executing agricultural projects. Working with young people who are given the basics of the local a nd na tiona l reality so that they can program relevant activities t h at stren gth en the participatory s tructure of women in community actio n s as an indispensable factor in their capacity for self-reliance. Agricultura! a nd livestock diversification to promote ra ti onal manageme n t of t h eir natural renewable resources, protection of water sources, maintenance t he ecological balance of the ecosystems in order to contribute to improving their quality of life and food security.They have held meetings at the level of the action communities from the Consortium of San Pedro Carcha-San Juan Charnelco Alliance for the sodalization of CIAL and CIPASLA activities.The experience has been socialized with the Community Development Councils (COCODE) in Guatemala with emphasis on the community organizational structure of the CIALs, CORFOCIAL a nd CIPASLA.A workshop was prepared to disseminate the methodologies with the technical team from the area of Local Development of Salvadorian Foundation for basic support ( FUSA! for its Spanish acronym)The materials were photocopied and given to other organizations and institutions.In Guatemala, the Universidad Rafael Landívar has plans to translate the CIAL hanbooks to the n ative Ianguage to be used in the formation of future CIALs.The methodologies have not been adopted as such; however, they are implementing the participatory principies, which is fundamental in these processes. They are also applying principles of equity, perrnitting the communities to take their own decisions and share the risks.In the case of Guatemala, the legislation has apparently undergone important changes in compliance with the peace agreements, including the officialization of the Mayan Ianguages, a new Municipal Law and the Law of the Urban and Rural Development Councils. These have strength ened the actions undertaken jointly with the consortium. In the case of the Municipality of San Juan Chamelco, activities to sensitize the community leaders are being carried out in order to achieve the outcomes outlined in the Annual Operating Plan.In the Alliance ofYoung People of León a nd Chinandega in Nicaragua, a replica has been made of CIPASLA's coordination system, naming a coordinator who can be neutral at the moment of the decision-making and who does not belong to any other entity.The work that FUSA! does in the field of agriculture is not specific to research; rather it is the dissemination of appropriate technologies that have been tested, and the CIAL methodologies could be easily adapted. Support is being given to the management group from the Valle de San Andrés, which is one of the commitments acquired.Most of the community authorities are adults who have filled these positions consecutively for sorne time, but an effort is being made to rnake them aware of the importance of incorporating young people with new ideas. The experience of the adults combined with their different perceptions can contribute more efficiently to processes of change in their community for the collective benefit.The active participation of the actors in the rural area is very limited so that it is difficult to know the concerns of the majority, whích makes community work very slow; but the ftnancing and execution of the projects march at a much more accelerated pace because it is necessary to see results in the short term. Rural innovations with this type of participatory techniques con tribute to accelerating the processes and increasing the participants' interest.There is a lack of coordin ation among the different components due to the intent to avoid duplicating efforts in the execution of sorne activities. Nevertheless, each one in hisjher component has planned the activities to be carried out and revised them with the rest of the members.In the Nicaragua network, sorne activities have not been fulftlled in accordance with the plan drawn up in Colombia. lt is expected that with the naming of the executive secretary, th e follow-up should improve.According to the participants the IPRA ProjectjCIAT experience of working to strengthen community organizations is enriching. They also mentioned that the tapies are easily replicable in the different countries.Re-orient their thinking based on local experiences. Motivated to strengthen community structures and channel efforts toward a similar experience Makes one reflect on our reality and the one visited in the field Makes one ponder on the role of IPRA/ CIAT in the process The workshop made it possible to see clearly the work being done by the two types of organizations and the methodology used. It was clear that the success of these organizations líes in their training and initial backstopping by the institutions to facilitate these processes. It is also evident that this is the result of a process that require stages or phases in order to reach the goals; that is, projects in the Jonger term. With respect to CIPASLA, what most called their attention was that the participants in the process are convinced that they are positive agents of change at the leve! of their communities a nd that this process is highly beneficia! as it gives them the opportunity to carry out technical activities that cont ribute to preventing the degradation of natural resources and the conception and utilization of organic farming. In relation to the CIALs, what impacted them most was the degree of commitment and responsibility that the beneficiaries have acquired with respect to controlling their farms. They themselves are the ones who decide what to cultivate; but not only that-they also disseminate the results obtained, which are considered public assets. In general this experience generated a great deal of enthusiasm in the different network participants, as well as knowing that an organized community can b reak with the cycle of poverty when they are organized and open to other circumstances and are capable of becoming sustainable. In Nicaragua. the Colombian experience generated a great deal of enthusiasm in the different participants, especially knowing that when a community is organized , it can break the poverty cycle and be capable of becoming sustainable. This has led them to want to work more closely and develop different programs in netv.rork form.In the Nicaragua network , they are obtaining legal status: the Consortium Network for Local Sustainable Development in alliance with young people.Diffusion of participa tory methodologies to strengt h en the community organiza tions, which have been successful, as can be seen from their results. The methodologies presented to the participants of the Centra l American networks were implemented severa! years ago, and today they a r e being a pplied to various production proj ects that continue, although with sorne difficulties, and are managed directly by their own members. These projects in which the users participate in their development have a high degree of empowerment and a re probably of easier sustainability in the future. Sharing experiences with t h e technicians of institutions from three Central American countries was also meaningful for th e m.All the technicians had the opportunity to know a nd interact directly with the executors and beneficiaries of the projects that a re being execu ted with the communities in Cauca. They a lso h a d the opportuní ty of learning about the different m eth ods and tools that have been used to facilitate particípation and execution; and the different par ticipatory processes on whích the research andfor productíon projects a re based.Permit the members ofthe community organizations in Cauca to present their projects themselues. Despite the fact th a t this has been done many times in the national eontext a nd oeeasionally during the visits of people from institutíons or representatives of donors, this was the first t ime that the directors or representatives of the commu nity organizatíons partieipated in the whol e proeess in an event of this n ature. For them it h as been a highly enriching experienee and has Jet them see other visions and have direet eontaet with representatives of institutions from other countries.Sharing results among different projects that are or ha ve been supported by the WKK On many opportunities meetings have been held among the diverse projects that the Foundation supports, and we have b een surprised to find similari ties, d ifferences or ignoranee of achievements of other projects. On this oecasion, there was m ore time to share and diseuss re s u lts or methods that can be easily be adapted and for applied in other rela ted projeets. There is also the opportunity to maintain eontact and eontinue to s hare results or concerns about the future .According to a suruey done with the participants after their uisit to Colombia the achieuements that they highlight are as follows:Learning more about these par ticipatory methodologies and applying t hem leads to greater acceptan ce at the community level. There is more good will amon g t h e community organizatíons (COCO DE) The participa tion of young people in training in arts and crafts is stimulated. Jt has been possible to train more young p eople in the m ethodologies of Healthy Schools. It has been possible to train more and strengthen the community organ izations. More participation in structures with gender equ ity Developing tapies of self-esteem Developing environmen ta l tapies Learning how to manage the methodology, which is a too! applicable in any development institution.Learning how to be able to work more closely with FUSAI in conciliating circumstances, such as the management group from the Valle de San Andrés and other types of alliances (e.g., th e counterpart fund s of Nejapa and Soyapango) Having learned about a noteworthy and successful experience. Having conceptualized our experience in light of the experience Internalizing the CIAL methodology and the CORFOCIAL and CIPASLA experience in organizations and institutions. Obtaining legal status In Guatemala (FUNDEMI,) the achievement within the community organization component for strengthening technology, has been the creation of \"Community Centers of Techn ology,\" which are in charge of replicating the training in their respective work groups with the support of the technician-facilitators.In accordance with your experience thus far, would you say that the original expectations fo r achieving these results were realistic? If not, why? How should unrealistic expectations be addressed? If you ha ve modijied the expected outcomes, indicate the changes.Y es, the central idea of this project was very realistic in the sense that the Foundation already knew a great deal of th e methods that our IPRA Project has developed, and they even fmanced these processes at the onset. These processes have gradually been passed on to the farmers themselves, and today they are the ones who direct and lead them for the benefit of the participating communities.With the previous results, what we were looking for was to share both the successes and failures of these methodologies. We also wanted the participants to be able to question and discuss their concerns about the participatory methods with the producers themselves and learn what these have meant in the execution of their projects so that each person could get what he/ she wanted from that experience and then put into practice adaptations or apply prin cipies to improve their performance.Positive :The willingness of the producers and other participants in the processes from Cauca to participate actively in all the tours The willingness that the participants had to work hard in arder to fulfill the objectives of the workshop The access to abundant and d iverse cases or examples of applying the methods The majority of the visiting technicians had experience in field work with farmersThe difficulties in communication especially after the workshops Establishing agreements among the parties to agree upon dates fo r th e workshops Sorne personal problems among the par ticipants caused difficulties in the application or adaptation of sorne of the p articipatory experiences because participatory methodologies were n ot included in th e in stitutio n's annual plan.The main lessons lear ned were as follows:Exchanging ideas and knowledge among the men and women farmers, the participants a nd project executors a nd technicians just beginning the participatory processes facilitated their sensitization .When holding this type of workshop, it is essential to esta blish specific commitments well a head of time in ard er to facilitate t he a pplication and/or adaptation of the knowledge acquiredWhen facilitating these processes of knowledge of new a lternatives, it is necessary to check with th e participants regarding trainin g n eeds that arise in arder to complement the information received.By letting the farmers themselves participate as facilitators , showing and teaching their experiences, their knowledge is being valued and their self-esteem is strengthened.The con ceptual a nd jor p er sonal difficu lties or differences among the technicianfacilitators within the n etworks can seriously limit the results in participatory development projects.For the par ticipatory development of the communities and th e strengthening of their organization, it is very important to have among the institution s, entities from both the development a nd technological sector in order to support or promote the offering of this knowledge through them.Counting on the power of information and the dissemination of results is a critica! factor in community development.The idea was not really to continue Implementing specific actions in the execution of the project, such as these workshops fo r sharing information among members of institutio ns from Central American countries to Colombia. What we hope is that successful experiences s u ch as these or others that occur in other places and possibly in the participants' projects, will a lso be supported in th eir diffusion and replication. This type of event is stimulating and permits the participants to learn firsthand about situations different from t hose that they face daily. They let us explore in greater depth experiences that perhaps in similar conditions or even under more difficult conditions can also obtain good results. The key is to be able to know firsthand the <:Xecutors and the results and difficulties lived in the fie ld in order to extract the experi ences and apply them to ongoing or future projects.In the future it would be helpful to have an initial survey to be filled out by the participants beforehand in arder to determine their expectations. If the survey contains information on the organizations to be visited, their objectives and achievements, the visitors can be much more explicit about specific tapies and their needs.Along these same lines, it is important to cometo an agreement with the participants ahead of time, with respect to the commitments and mechanisms that m ay keep them from applying the adaptations, principies or lessons that they consider relevant in the improvement of their projects.New workshops:There is a need to establish prior commitments more clearly among the participants with respect to what they will do or the proposals for which this type of event is being held. After the workshops it would be constructive to carry out sorne type of survey or poll to determine training need s that the group has in arder to be able to explore in greater depth the experience 1ived and apply the methods that could prove useful in their work with communities, impr oving relevance for they have firsthand opportunity to hear farmers' needs. The incorrect application of a tool or a method can be harmful for both the technician anjor the community.De fine the regional coordinators and their specific commitments to the project to facilitate the processThe lack of habit or nonexistence of communications limits and delay s the processes. It is very difficult to communicate via email. On the other hand, the technicians' and professionals lack of a writing ha bit makes the promotion and diffusion of results complicated.When beginning participatory processes with rural communities, it is necessary to have technicians with an a ttitude fo r and knowledge of participatory methods; otherwise they must be trained. It is important to have prepared and committed persons with community interests that help obtain the desired outcomes. Another important element is the facility for transmitting their knowledge to the key people in the community and for gradually strengthening local capacity and leadership skills in arder to empower their project.The rural development and extension projects should have counterparts in research institutions that have a comparative advantage in the development of technologies, as is the case of computer mediated information centers (usually called \"telecenters\"). In this way they can access information of use and interest to the producers, that can help them open doors toward the broadening of their alternatives of production and development; i.e., forming strategic alliances that benefit their clients the farmers .Facilitator: Alfonso Truque Díaz5 7H ighlights 38 CIALs generating alternatives to resolve agricu ltura! and livestock problems in their communitiesThe purpose of creating the CORFOCIAL organization was to bring togethe r all the committee-based research services (CIALs) in the Cauca Prouince in a secondorder nongovernmental organization so that the farmers would have the opportunity of improving their livelihood and economic sustainability in a more organized and efficient manner. The application of participatory methodologies permits the farmers to present demands for research technologies and be the ones to evaluate them in search of better adaptation and greater adoption to their local production systems. CORFOCIAL has a team of farmers trained in the CIAL methodology participatory monitoring and evaluation, where it is proposed to form leadership at the locallevel so that smallfarmers can participate more fully in the decision-making and planning in research projects, production and training. Among the more outstanding results are the discovery of new leaders, the recovery of indigenous experimentation, the diversity of crops and the appropriation of the methodology by the communities involved.Most of the time, both the male and female farmers in our c ountry are not considered in the process of generating and transferring technologies. For that reason many small farmers do not follow the technical recommendations, but modify them according to their needs and resources. Thus the methodology of participatory research in the CIAL model is an alternative that permits the farmer to b ecome a main actor in adaptive research.The menu offering new and innovative technologies is quite large and d iverse; nevertheless, the small farmers do not use these technologies in the way in which the scientists expect. The re are numerous experiences regarding ignored agronomic recommendations, equipment that was not adopted, varieties that were rejected, etc. On the other hand, other new practices not recomme nded by scientists pass from farmer to farmer.Frequently, these initiatives of the farmers have not been foreseen by technicians nor by the professionals trained in traditional approaches to r esearch . Today, however, many professionals believe in the importa nce of having the active participation of farmers in the different phase s of a pplie d research.The methodology u s ed is the a pplicatíon of the e ig ht steps of the resea rch ladde r that is used in the CIALs. Each of these steps is carrie d out with the c ommunity: Diets for broilers Production -The farmers are indigenous researchers.After training, the farmers become the facilitators, and the degree of responsibility is high. The CIALs are gradually working towards self-reliance. The farmers' degree of appropriation of the trials facilita tes their independence. Sharing e~perien ces at the annual meeting strengthens the CIALs. Delegating functions in the work team (technicians and Guides) creates self-esteem. CORFOCIAL does not do research in agriculture but extends other services (e.g., writing letters, credit for the CIALs, training).Strengthen the revolving fund of the CIAL to promote the production and marketing of the products that have been researched by the CIAL.Strengthen the organization with communication channels for searching for sustainable alterna ti ves Modify the organic structure for introducing programs, such as that of the rural enterprises and rural development.CORFOCIAL will have the necessary human, logi stical and financia! resources to continue and improve research, organization, management, and agricultura! and livestock development of the CIALs, within a framework of sustainability and respect for natural resources. It is very irnportant to expand the nurnber of CIALs. Prepare a portfolio of services in arder to expand training services Offer a farmers' field school on different tapiesResearcher: Fausto Merino 5 8Groups organized to do participatory research generate mechanisms of self.financing in search of a dditional sources of income that guarantee the continuity of the participatory process.Among the principallimitations for the small and intermediate potato producers in the Province of Chimborazo is commercialization. The factors that contri bu te to this situation are, on the one hand, that the farmers do not manage criteria related to quality; that is, t hey take their p roduct to the market without any type of selection, t he pota toes are physically damaged from incidence of pests a nd pathogens, sizes are nonuniform, varieties are mixed, the tubers are dirty, packing is inadequate, etc. On the other hand, the lack of knowledge of alternate markets for their product and their incapacity to face commercialization in dividually, added to their incapacity to negotiate, has resulted in their getting low prices for the sale of their product. Traditionally the objectives of the agricultura! research institutions, as is the case of INIAP, have been to increase yields and reduce production costs. However at present other objectives should be added, such as the management of information on markets, improvement of product quality and aggregate value of the production, and better interpretation of the market, its demands and agroindus trial production processes. In the case of potatoes, the use that is given to processed potatoes is constantly growing, the industry demands fairly stable volumes, the raw material needs to meet certain specifications and future demands also need to be known.The general objective is to implementa rural agroenterprise that processes and offers a permanent supply of potatoes suitable for french fries to restaurants and fast food establishments in the city of Riobamba, to benefit the group of women organized in the CIAL \"Flor Naciente.\" The specific objectives are as follows: Determine the volume of demand for potatoes for french fries in restaurants and fast food establishments in the city of Riobamba Establish criteria for quality and purchasing habits (va rieties used, quality, size, likes and preferences, other purchasing alternatives) Identify the current supply system to find possibilities of doing business between the small producers and the restaurants and fast food establishme nts in the city of Riobamb a Implement and position a rural agroenterprise on the market to offer potatoes for french fries continually BackgroundThe potato is a basic staple in the family basket of the Ecuadorians. Consumption was 38 kgj yr per capita for the period between 1986 and 1993 . The price for potatoes on the Ecuadorian market is highly unstable, which causes insecurity for the producers dedicated to this crop and frequently lead s the consumers to decrease their consumption.The Ecuadorian society is becoming more urban every year. The data show that while in 1974 the urban population in Ecuador was only 38.4%, in 2002 it had reached 55.4%. At the same time, women have an ever-increasing production role outside t he home, which has generated changes in the dietary habits of the Ecuadorian society. The quality of fresh potatoes in wholesale provisioning markets, shops or supermarkets is in most cases poor due to different types of primary and secondary lesions, lack of uniform size and dirtiness in handling the product, resulting in numerous impurities. The habits of potato consumption have expanded, however, and industries offer diverse processed or semiprocessed products that increase the ways in which to consume this tuber.Of the total volume used by the industry 89% is used for potato chips (smooth or crinkled). The supermarkets also offer peeled, cut, precooked and frozen potatoes, as well as flour for preparing mashed potatoes. This last product is imported from Chile for sale by the supermarkets; however the volume is insignificant, which is the reason why no domestic processor is interested in producing it at the local leve!. To the extent that the volume of consumption increases, sorne firm will become interested in this type of processing.In the Province of Chimborazo the potato continues to be one of the main crops, being both a basic stap1e and a source of work and income for the population. The tubers are mostly used fresh; in recent years, however, there has been more consumption of processed potatoes; fundamentally fried potatoes (chips and french fries) and, to a lesser extent, other types of products. In the city of Riobamba the fast food business has been growing so there is an ample market for consuming french-fried potatoes, which are offered by certain places where roasted chicken is sold (more than 380 restaurants). Basically they work on a small scale, serving french-fried potatoes as a side dish for chicken, sausages, meat, etc.After processing the data compiled on the restaurants and related businesses, it was concluded that the greatest use given to potatoes is in the form of french fries. The second way in which potatoes are used in the restaurants and related businesses is in the form of soups. The third way of offering potatoes to the public is mashed; and in the case of restaurants and related businesses, other important forms of consumption are in salads and tortillas.In the Guabug community located atan altitude of 3400 m in the parish of San Juan Province of Chimborazo, Ecuador a group of women constituted aCIAL (Local Agricultura! Research Committee), which they called \"Flor Naciente.\" In 1996, they were trained in the participatory research methodology to investigate patato varieties that would adapt at the local level (Table 1). After four years the women selected two varieties (INIAP Rosita and INIAP Fripapa) through participatory evaluations. They improved their harvests, but not their income due to the very low price that the middlemen paid them. On holidays the women farmers take the potatoes to the wholesale market. Despite their good quality, the price received does not compensate their investment and effort.T bl 1 T a e . ra1n1ng ac 1v1 1es  The overall objective of the marketing study was to know the new trends of the market for potatoes by applying surveys to restaurants, roast chicken places and fast food establishments in the city of Riobamba. The specific objectives were to:Ascertain the current and projected competition of the market for pota toes in the Riobamba cantan Determine the distribution channels of the product that the project offer s Find out the prices of the inputs for patato production Measure the market potential of potatoes for french frie s Analyze the potential participaban in the market Analyze the prices for commercializing the potatoes Analyze the competition Instruments for gathering data To support the research methods selected, the following research techniques will be used.Field observations to study the behavior of the market for potatoes in Riobamba Surveys to be processed with the owners of restaurants and fast food establishments, this technique will help identify the viewpoints of those who are actually involved in the business.The surveys will be applied to 100 places where food is sold in the city of Riobamba in accordance with the established census.Types of businesses surveyed. With the results of the total sample (lOO), 54 restaurants, 2 1 roast chicken places and 25 fast food establishments were surveyed. These correspond to businesses that are commercially active, as there are very small businesses that use or sell very few foods in which potatoes are used. Main products made of potatoes that are offered in the businesses. The businesses offer french-fried potatoes (63%) and in soups (23%), while other points of consumption utilize the whole patato (6%), cooked. Thus there ís an opportunity to offer processed p roducts for these businesses through out th e year.Main varieties of potatoes that they purchase. Among the varieties of potatoes that the businesses buy the most important are Pan (39%) because they do not fall apart when fried; Fripapa (22 %), Rosita (1 3%), Gabriela (12%) and Cecilia (4%). We should highlight that the varieties in greatest demand were selected as the most promising in the CIAL Flor Naciente.o\"Pa:nThe months of greatest sale in the year are April (an increase of 30%) and December (lOO% increase). In the other months, stable growth was maintained without major impact on the norma l pattern of behavior of the businesses. This will permit plannin g the time of planting to have greater production during the months of high est sales. Preference for purchasing the potatoes in other presentations. Among those surveyed, 68% were open to the idea of purchasing potatoes in other presentations such as classified, peeled, washed, thin strips and cubes, 30% preferred the traditional presentation, while 2% of the own ers of food stan ds had no preferences.Processing. The type of presentation that the owners of roast chicken places and establishments of fast food would prefer are classified and washed (34%), peeled and cut (25%), whole and classified (20%), peeled (10%), while 9% are indifferent to the type of presentation of the product. Thus there is the possibility of incorporating aggregate value to the product in different presentations.-Willingness to do business with the CIAL Flor Naciente. Of those surveyed, 79% would be willing to do business with the producers who work on the production, processing and commercialization of potatoes; while 12% would stay v.rith their current suppliers, and 9% simply commented on the question. This is an opportunity that would have to be exploited by the CIAL to establish its business.Processing of the demandsNo. of qq of potatoes for french fries/wk in roast chicken places and fast food establishments, Riobamba.In the roast chicken places potatoes for french fries are consumed weekly in the following amou nts fo r five varieties: Pan (69%), Fripapa (13%) and Rosita, Gabriela and María (6% each). Th e fast food esta blis h ments use two varieties: Fripapa (17%) and Pan (71 %). The gr oup of producers will be a ble t o offer the varieties they are currently planting and th at h ave sui table characteristics for this type of ind ustry. To improve their income, the CIAL \"Flor Naciente\" has decided to incorporate aggregate value to the potatoes by offering potatoes peeled and cu t in thin strips (fren ch fries) to the roast chicken places and fast food establishments in the city of Riobamba. The aggregate value is a new activity, as n o there are similar local experiences; thus it was necessary to investigate n ew tech n iques for processing the product, using small-scale tools and equipm ent. After calculating production costs, the women could obtain a price of $ 18 .0 0 for the quintal of potatoes, as shown in Table 2. Costs ($j k g)The CIAL found that wh en the potatoes are peeled and cut into thin strips for french fries, 30% of the potat o is discarded. Th is could be given another use, transforming the waste product into potato chip s, packed in polyethylene bags for commercializing them at the community leve! and in t he educational center s in the sector as a complementary activity to processing potatoes for french fries and to make efficient use of the r aw material.This activity is also new for the CIAL members. They had to conduct sorne trials using cottage-scale equipment in order to determine if the activity was profitable. They were able to obtain US$19.00/qq of potatoes, as shown in Table 3. In this way small farmers organized in CIALs can create small rural agroenterprises, generating sources of employment at the locallevel, improving their income and the Iivelihood of their families.The marketing study has been a basic tool for determining the demands and other parameters that are needed to plan strategically the processing and commercialization activities that the CIAL Flor Naciente is undertaking. To determine the demands, it was necessary to conducta marketing study, with the support of the IPRA Project at the CIAT through the INIAP-UVTT Chimborazo, the CIAL Flor Naciente and the National University of Chimborazo. It was determined that the pota toes, peeled and cut in the form of french fries to be offered to the roast chicken places and fast food establishments in the city of Río bamba. The CIAL-Flor Naciente, with the small-scale processing of potatoes and offering two new products (potatoes for french fries and chips) to the consumers of the city of Riobamba and the community of Guabug, respectively, can obtain $ 19.00/qq of pota toes, which is traditionally sold for a maximum of $ 5.00 j qq.The indigenous women in Chimborazo, organized as CIALs, have the capacity to process and commercialize potatoes-an activity that might seem utopian for the rural sector. The CIAL methodology has been the basis for seeking sustainability with other activities complementary to production given that the producers not only need to increase their production but a lso seek their economic welfare. The women organized in the rural sector have also been actors in their own development.The development and implementation of a new participatory method generated innovations among the different production actors (generation of capacities and leadership).Legalize the organization as a rural agroenterprise so that it can gain access to other services such as credit and training\"Training thefuture\"-Young researchers: Leam how to runa cial.Researcher : José Ignacio Roa V. 59Young people in rural areas of developing countries are not exempt from the problems of the rural communities in general, including the lack of access to land, inadequate education and training, low prices for farm products, poo r market infrastructure, low level oftechnology, limitations in the credit and poor participation in community activities. In Colombia one ofthe problems that affects rural youth is the inadequate education system because the currículum has a clearly urban orientation, which does not stimulate the young to do research on their ecosystem.. In this project the IPRA Project pro poses to stimulate the research capacity of rural youth on the tapie related to the food security of their communities. To this end, presentations were made, and training was imparted on participatory methodologies such as the community-based research services (CIALs}, where the students decide what to investigate, as well as plan, execute and evaluate the altematives proposed by them. It is expected that in the short term, a research habit will be formed in the school that will stimulate the director and staff of the school Juan Salvador Gaviota6o to include these participatory methodologies within the academic currículum, contributing to the creation of a strengthened academic model to be put into practice in the education of rural youth and that it be, at the same time, sustainable o ver time.There is a very serious problem in many countries of the world, which is the lack of opportunities fo r young people. The rural youth are being prepared better than their parents because they have easier access to schooling, but they run into the problem that society does not offer them opportunities for developing their capacities. It is common to find young people unemployed in the field; and when they migrate to the cities, the possibilities of work are very scarce.For sorne time the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has supported projects that train the young. In the year 2000 the project \"Communities and Watersheds,\" in collaboration with the IPRA Project, sent a proposal to the Kellogg Foundation to develop a project with young students, La Hondura (El Dovio township), a community that is found in a mountainous zone, where the farmers grow plantains, a little maize and common beans.In a period of three years, it is expected that the young people from the region of the Canyon of the Garrapatas River and the group \"Heirs of the Planet\" in Bellavista, will improve their access to high-quality education to stimulate their personal development and improve the conditions of their natural a nd physical surroundings through research processes.59 Professional specialist, SN-3 Project, CIA T, Colombia 60 Jonathan Livingston Seagull.Education is a fundamental component for rura l development.Innovative, integrative, collaborative and sustainable forros of providing education for rural youth are required. Young people have a great interest in science, innovation and teamwork. Rural youth need to explore new strategies to improve their living conditions. The sustainable management of natural resources (soils, water, forests, climate and biodiversity) can contri bu te to improving the living conditions of the rura l communities.Facilitate the emergence of young leaders who have not yet developed their potential through the development of communication skills, teamwork and management of information systems. The groups of participants will share their experiences, history and have the opportunity to reflect on the lessons leamed. Establish alliances among the groups of rural youth and schools, universities, research center and businesses that facilitate the research processes and development in which the rural youth are interested. Establish self-financing mechanisms for the members of youth groups or other groups that wish to continue their studies or establish businesses where they can apply the knowledge acquired and improve their income.In accordance with the results obtained in the development of the project, we expect to develop among al1 the participants, a model that can be extrapolated to other regions. This model should provide the tools so that these youi\"{?; people become active participants in the management of natural resources and in the improvement of their living conditions. This objective includes the establishment of a participatory monitoring and evaluation system so that the participants acquire the habit of following up the progress made in their projects.ACERG -Association of Educational Centers in the Canyon of the Garrapatas River. Brings together 37 primary and secondary schools located in the watershed of the Garrapatas River, with the mission of working as a team to s trengthen the educational program based on three complementary principies: agroecology, agricultura! (production-oriented) schools and education compatible with the ethnic diversity of the regían.Heirs of the Planet -Youth, Life and Nature of Bellavista is a group formed by 37 children and young people dedicated to the research and conservation of the natural resources of their regían. They form part of a network of 16 similar groups in Colombia.CIPAV -Center for Research on Sustainable Agricultura! and Production Systems. Its objective is to investigate and promote the use of efficient and sustainable systems for using the natural and human resources available, in harmony with the environment.CIAT -International Center of Tropical Agriculture is oriented toward the reduction of hunger and poverty in the Tropics through collaborative research that improves agricultura! productivity and the management of natural resources.This project is based on the application of participatory methods, in which the participants take part in the decision-making in all the processes in which they will be involved. In addition, the methodology ofthe community-based research services CIALs (participatory diagnoses, participatory evaluations of the technology being tested) will be applied, as well as the concepts of participatory models for natural resource management and conservation.All these methodologies were discussed in meetings with the young people from the school in La Hondura, where the IPRA methodology was presented and discussed.Participatory diagnosis with the students of the Juan Salvador Gaviota school Reading of the CIAL handbooks that explain the concept of research and the CIAL methodology Election of the members for the Committees on common beans, maize and rice on 6 February Workshop at CIAT on participatory research, 6 May Planting of trials with the s tudents from the school, 24 April Training on the use of the \"smiley faces\" format for the CIALs and evaluation of the different trials with the students, 11 June Training on the principal pests and diseases of common beans in the coffee-growing zone and postharvest management for the CIAL members, students and teac hers of the school Juan Salvador Gaviota, June 11.and Leandro Muñoz, members of the CIAL, on their bean experimentation plot.IPRA Project with member of the CIAL,School Juan Salvador Gaviota.reacners ano sruaenrs or Juan ~a1vaaor uavwra. 1n oraer w oeg1n ptanmng rne proJeCI, a meeting was organized at CIAT with the teachers, director and staff of the school and the different members of the CIAT project s \"Communities and Watersheds\" and IPRA who participate in this project. At this meeting all the participants voiced their concerns and expectations with respect to the project. Presentations were also made about the mission and the participatory methodologies used in the two CIAT Projects involved in this project.Later, a similar meeting was held with 30 students in Juan Salvador Gaviota School. In that same meeting food security was defined as one of the objectives relevant for them. For that reason, the CIAL methodology was shared with them, and the possible commitments and responsibilities for establishing the committee were presented. The purpose of this meeting is \"Motivation.\" Once the students decided to form their own Research Committee, it was agreed to program the date of the meeting for electing the members, Leader, Secretary, Treasurer and Extension agent (Table 1).La Hondura, the community where the school is found, culturally has a high index of common bean and maize consumption; thus it can be affirmed that they are the principal staples of the region. When the meeting was held for the participatory diagnosis and to select the topic to be researched by the CIALs, the students had already elected by consensus the topics that they wanted to investigate. They decided to form a CIAL to investigate maize varieties that were more early-maturing than the regional variety (i.e, can be harvested at 6 mo).Another CIAL committee was a lso created that wanted to ident ify common bean varieties more resistant to common diseases in the zone such as Ascochyta, web blight, anthracnose and angular leaf spot, as well as pests such as leaf eaters. There were 23 students at the diagnosis meeting. Another commíttee was also created to evaluate upland rice materials. Thus the three comrnittees are tryíng to conduct research on different alternatives of interest to the community and seek to identify solutions to problems in their production systems. At the meeting for planning the trials of common beans, maize and rice, 12 student members of the CIALs attended. They agreed to plant plots (4 rows, 4 m long) with three replications in different parts of the community. For fertilizer, it was agreed to apply at planting \"Bocashi,\" an organic product that they are learning to make at school. It is low in cost because the ingredients are from the region; moreover, it is a new a lternative to the expensive chemical fertilizers that are traditional in the r egion, costing US$ 16/50-kg sack of 10-30-10.The CIAL doing research on common beans planted the variety ICA Catío, supplied by the CIAL in Pescador (Cauca), and the varieties supplied by the CIAT Common Bean Project: AFR 612, AFR 298, Cal 96, Cal 143 and regimal Guarzo.In maize they planted the varieties supplied by the CIAL-San Bosco (Cauca) called Yunga and SiKuani; and the farmers from La Hondura got the r egional maize to compare its performance (the yellow check). The CIAL working on upland rice planted the varieties CIRAD 396, IRAT 216 and IRAT 13, provided by the CIRAD Rice Project at CIAT.In order for the students to be able to identify the commonest pests and diseases that are attacking native bean varieties in their region and at the same time determine which of the new varieties that they are studying in the CIAL are more susceptible or tolerant, training on this topic was provided for 15 students from the school. The methodology used was a s lide presentation in the classroom, followed by a visit to the CIAL trial, planted at the school, where the students could identify the commonest diseases in the zone such as anthracnose (Colletotrichum Lindemuthianum}, Ascochyta (Ascochyta phaseoloru.m) and web blight (Thanatephoru.s cucumeris).Through the CIAL trials the students now ha ve a clearer concept of what research is and why one should first plant in small plots rather than in large lots. There is great sense of empowerment as they realize that their trials are providing important information for transmitting to their community.The committees were also trained to manage the format of closed evaluations (smiley faces) to evaluate the alternatives being tested. Wh en the common bean varieties began to reach maturity, an evaluation practice was done with the students so that they could becorne familiar with the format and begin to understand the importance of recording the criteria used to evaluate the different varieties and observe which would be the best ones to continue planting, for common beans as well as maize and rice.As a result of the practice in the trials and strengthening the students' research capacities in school, both the students and sorne of their parents wish to plant more trials on their farms. Thus loca l research h as been stimulated . Training young students on the scientific method is easier and the learning is more rapid than adults. This can be seen in the way that the students caught on to the different concepts and scientific terms used in this trainin g. Despite their age, the students showed a high degree of responsibility in taking care of the trials. The children are very aware of the problerns in their homes, primarily the lack of food and of the opportunities for thern in the irnrnediate future. They want to do research to help find new alternatives for generating income on their farms for their parents. At the end of the school period, it was noted that there was instability among the people who formed part of the CIAL as a result of which sorne s tudents did not want to continue for lack of support frorn the teachers of the school. In view of t his weak, the Project named a person to provide more continuous support to the CIALs. It was observed that the students wanted to plant the trials on their farms with their parents beca use there they ha ve the collaboration of their paren ts, brothers and sisters. This might possibly be a new rnodel to be tested the second semester of 2003. The CIAL system of research h as motivated the students toread, go to the CIAT library to do research, communicate more with CIAT researchers, and feel very proud to show their trials. The technicians are setting up their own trials, independent of the CIAL trial. This has created a lot of expectations among the young people regarding the future, and they ask questions such as: What are we going todo now? ¿What comes next? To strengthen rural communities' capacity for innovation by better enabling them to obtain, generate, and share information and knowledge, with the aid of modern information and communications technologies (ICTs).Computer-based distance-education (e-learning) programs, multimedia products on CD-ROM, and printed materials that convey science-based knowledge and methods in forros that are useful for development professionals Proven approaches and tools for finding and obtaining agricultura] information, especially via the Web Community telecenter models for providing connectivity and building local capacity to use ICTs for rural innovation Approaches for creating a local culture of knowledge discovery and sharing, with the aid of new ICTs linked to other communications media Approaches for stimulating the development of local content that is relevant to rural innovation2004 Efforts under way in Colombia, at least one other Andean country, and in two Central American countries to incorpora te the use of ICTs into rural development, with particular emphasis on support for small agroenterprises. Four e-learning courses completed and at leas t one multimedia tr aining tool under development. New collaborative arrangements established in Colombia for improving access to agricultura! information. 2005 Regional projects on ICTs for development under way in Latin America and East Africa. Local information systems and communications groups created and operating in both those regions. Further e-learning courses and multimedia products developed.The primary user s of the project's outputs will be development professionals and community leaders associated with local organizations (particularly farmer groups, NGOs, and rural schools). These p ersons will acquire new tools and approaches that better enable them to help rural people create useful knowledge and improve services needed for solving problems and acting on new opportunities in agriculture.Collaborators: SN-4 is building alliances with various international organizations that support the use of ICTs for development, including Canada's Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), Fundación Chasquinet (a Latin American initiative based in Ecuador), and the global Association for Progressive Communication (APC) . In addition to profiting from these organizations' e x perience and expertise, CIAT can tap into their networks of local partners in developing countries.CGIAR system linkages: Training (30%); Information (60%); Organization and Management (5%); Networks (5%).CIAT proje ct linkages: SN-4 will provide all Center projects with new means of increasing research impact and obtaining feedback on research products from rural people. The project should be particularly useful to CIAT's new Rural Innovation Institute (RII) as a means of strengthening participatory approaches to agroenterprise development, local adaptive research, community-based watershed management and rural planníng.It is difficult to imagine how millions of rural families in the tropics can achieve sustainable livelihoods as long as their access to information and knowledge continues to be so limited. Agricultura! R&D organizations in developing countries must, therefore, join the search for ways to break down the isolation of rural communities. Specifically, we must identify practica! approaches whereby rural people can build the knowledge they need to m ake their agricultural produ ction more r esilient and competitive, protect the health of fr agile agroecosystems, and bring about technical and social innovation.Modern information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, could facilitate that task, but the new ICTs have not yet been made widely available or relevant to the poor in rural communities. Nonetheless, many developing countries have seen a proliferation of privately run Internet cafes in small towns, and some national governments and NGOs are extending Internet access to more remote rural areas through ambitious and socially progressive connectivity programs.These developments offer CIAT and its partners an exciting opportunity to demonstrate convincingly how ICTs can be used to create stronger links between progressive, client-oriented agricultura! research and local efforts to achieve sustainable rurallivelihoods. In pursuit of that opportunity, CIAT established the Information and Communications for Rural Communities, or InforCom, Project in mid-2002.In 2003 the project completed its first full year of operations. During the first few months of the year, we defined a five-part strategy for developing international public goods aimed at strengthening the capacity of rural communities and R&D organizations to obtain, generate, and share information, with the aid of ICTs. The strategy consists of the five central components listed below, which encompass a broad continuum of information and communications functions, from international and national organizations to rural communities: Bnilding on previous experience in sorne of those areas, InforCom made significant progress during 2003, as described below, in advancing with all five components of its strategy.Through agricultura! research CIAT, other international centers, and many national institutes are amassing a wealth of information and knowledge about tropical crops and soils, integrated pest manage ment (IPM), and related topics.CIAT and others are also creating a wide array of participatory approaches that offer rural people a more prominent role in actions leading to sustainable livelihoods. These actions include crop diversification, agroenterprise development, local adaptive research, integrated pest and disease management, regeneration of degraded soils, and land-use planning at the community level. CIAT shares participatory approaches through training, printed materials, and Web publishing. But there is clearly a great need and much potential todo more . With a view to making these and other products of agricultura! research more widely available and more relevant to development professionals in rural areas, CIAT has embarked on two new initiatives, one focused on e-learning and the other on multimedia training tools.Early in 2003 , the project launched a new venture in distance education. For this purpose we chose a computer-mediated approach, or e-learning, beca use of íts distinct advantages over other options. Unlike videoconferencing, for example, e-learning allows students to interact with tutors and other students over long periods (usually 3 months), in an asynchronous manner (i.e ., at any time), and at any place where there is an Internet connection. E-learning thus lends itself more readily to life-long learning for busy professionals, who may lack the time or money to partícipate in courses involving specific time commitments and travel to remote locations.Students are accompanied by experienced tutors, who facilitate the Iearning process. The experience is further enriched by discussions among students through a virtual campus, which is accessible to students, tutors, and experts invited to cover specific topics in the course. Students may access lessons and discussions in the virtual campus from Internet cafés, community telecenters, universities, or home computers, and they can download study materials and discussions.To speed the incorporation of e-learning into CIAT's work, we chose REDCAPA as our partner. Headquartered in Brazil, this not-for-profit NGO has 8 years of experience in computer-mediated distance education. The head of CIAT's lnformation and Documentation Unit (IDU) and supervisor of library public services first established a representative working group of CIAT staff and then, with support from CIAT's Project Development Fund, organized a 10-day elearning consultancy with REDCAPA's director. This included a 3 -day workshop, which was attended by 40 CIAT staff. In addition, the consultant conducted interviews with 40 staff, which resulted in a list of 37 possible topícs for elearning courses. We also discussed funding opportunities and agreed to share experiences on how best to proceed jointly.Based on the outcomes of this consultancy, the working group recommended that we concentrate on justa few courses initially, particularly on one-Ex-situ Conservatíon of Plant Genetic Resources and Management of Germplasm Banksthat had already been organized several times, in conventional fashion, by CIAT and IPRGI at CIAT headquarters. We decided to go about developing the course as a joint venture with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, IPGRI, and REDCAPA. Preparations for this course are well under way, and individuals from each institution are participating enthusiastically. Four other courses are in prepara ti o n .While continuing to produce printed materials, CIAT has also built the expertise required to develop multimedia products for distribution on CD-ROM. These products are designed to convey science-based knowledge and methods in forms that are practica!, interactive, and instructive.In 2003, InforCom completed its first multimedia training tool. Based on the experience of a recently completed 3-year project (InforCauca), the tool-called Telecentros Comunitarios: Una Estrategia para Promover el Uso de las Nuevas Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC} para el Desarrollo Sostenible en Zonas Marginales-offers recommendations and advice on telecenter development. It also provides details about the telecenters and organizations that InforCauca supported, with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Rockefeller Foundation. Telecentros Comunitarios presents this material in an engaging and interactive manner through a combination of brief, interestingly written Spanish-language texts, animation, photos, and other graphic elements.The product was launched at Colombia's Second National Telecenter Workshop, which CIAT organized with two local partners and hosted at Center headquarters in early October 2003. Telecentros Comunitarios will be distributed to workshop participants, and it will be publicized in Colombia through Colnodo (an NGO partner that promotes the use of ICTs for development) and elsewhere in Latín America through the Fundación Chasquinet, which coordinates the regional telecenter network Somos@Telecentros. Local partners in Colombia plan to use the tool for promoting telecenter development through meetings with municipal government officials and NGOs.The InforCom Project believes that multimedia products could usefully complement the training and learning processes through which CIAT works with partner organizations. As such they are potentially powerful tools for translating research results into resources for development. For that reason, having developed our first multimedia training product, we will now explore interest among other Center projects in applying this approach to a wide range of topics.Over the last couple of years or so, the CIAT Web site has proved effective for broadening access to information about our research and its results and products. Statistics on use of the Web site during 2003 show a steady increase in the total number of visits to the site per month, which reacbed 133,000 in September, up from just over 80,000 in January. The total number of visits for the last year was about 1.3 million. For September we estímate that the number of different individuals accessing the site was roughly 72 ,000 from 166 countries. It is also worth noting that throughout the year the Agroenterprise Project site showed, by far, the largest number of files downloaded (e.g., informal documents , formal publications, and PowerPoint presentations); the figure for September was about 82,000.Even so , filling Web sites with on-line scientific information does not by itself guarantee that users will be able to find the material they want and make good use of it. Key scientific information resources must be promoted among specific user groups and training provided in the use of these tools. Users also need to know about recently implemented copyright regulations for electronic publishing, which differ by country and tend to be much more restrictive than those for printed materials.To help meet those needs, InforCom offered a series of workshops in 2003, which contributed importantly to the capacity of close partners in Colombia and heightened their awareness of information resources available through CIAT. Three new initiatives were received with special enthusiasm: (1) a workshop for 15 professors at the Universidad Nacional-Palmira on access to electronic sources of scientific information relevant to their research and teaching responsibilities, (2) a similar event for 20 researchers from the Palmira facilities of CORPOICA, and (3) another for community telecenter operators, emphasizing information resources that are relevant to the needs of rural communities. In addition, interlibrary loans and other library services were formalized and streamlined for easier access in the future.The project also supported initiatives involving the use of meta data, with multilingual keywords, to facilitate access to information across language barriers. For example, we took part in the CGIAR's InforFinder Project, which includes work on multilingual categorization schemes and key words.In addition, we helped conceive and implement a project in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), Cornell University in the USA, and the Rockefeller Foundation, aimed at making scientific journals readily available to the world's poorest nations. In connection with this work, the World Bank's Agricultural and Rural Development commissioned CIAT to carry out a consultancy in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda to assess the capability of libraries to access on-line scientific information resources. In the course of the consultancy, the head of the IDU gave a presentation on information access at a staff retreat of Uganda's National Agricultura! Research Organisation (NARO) and in 10 other institutions that were visite d .As mentioned in the introduction to this report, Internet access is gradually spreading in developing countries, even in remote rural areas. As that happens the wealth of useful information being made more readily accessible to agricultura! R&D institutions will also be available to growing numbers of rural communities.Even so, increased public access to ICTs by no means guarantees that rural people will use them to obtain information relevant to sustainable livelihoods. For that to happen local organizations must make a deliberate effort to incorporate ICTs into pro-poor development initiatives.Over the last several years, CIAT communications staff and local partners in Colombia's Cauca Department have been examining the potential of community telecenters as a means of fomenting local use of ICTs for rural development. In collaboration with the Corporación Universitaria Autónoma de Occidente (CUAO) in Cali, we have supported three telecenters, two rural and one urban, under the InforCauca Project.A community telecenter is a public place where individuals and organizations can learn to use ICTs for development. It differs from the typical cybercafe in that telecenter operators provide users with personalized computer training as well as support in applying ICTs for specific purposes. To reinforce the development orientation of the community telecenters, lnforCauca has devised a general model for telecenters, in which they are hosted by local NGOs possessing a strong record of community service.When the lnforCom Project was created last year as part of CIAT's Rural lnnovation lnstitute (RII), the telecenter work was incorporated into this new communications and information endeavor. As InforCauca carne toan end (June 2003), we placed particular emphasis on evaluating the impact of the three telecenters supported by the project (with valuable assistance from CIAT economist Nancy Johnson) and on implementing a strategy to achieve telecenter sustainability.The sustainability of InforCom's telecenter model depends on three key elements:( 1) income for services, (2) support from host organizations, and (3) funds generated through the development of local projects involving ICT use.Four months after the close of InforCauca and the end of donor support, all three telecenters are still operating and show reasonably good signs of achieving financia! sustainability. Income for services, however, covers no more than about half the total costs of operating the telecenter (in sorne cases less). lnterestingly, the host organiza tions have proved willing to pick up the rest of the costs. And sorne have been remarkably successful in obtaining funds for their own projects involving the telecenter operators and services.Particularly noteworthy is the experience of a t elecenter operated by the Corporación para el Desarrollo de Tunía (Corpotunía) in central Cauca. Early in the ye ar Corpotunía received funding from the Spanish Fundación Desarrollo Sostenible (Fundeso) to coordinate Colombian participation in a project called Inte rculturanet. Its purpose is to promote cultural exchanges, via Internet, between school children in Spain and counterparts in Bolivia, Colombia, and Morocco, with a view to combating prejudice against migrant workers from those countries. Under this project Corpotunía organized the participation of childre n from 10 schools in Cauca and Valle Departments.Corpotunía was able to undertake the project, beca use it had seve ra! years of experience in managing a community telecenter and could thus offer the necessary infrastructure, skills, and knowledge. Based on these same strengths, Corpotunía also obtained funds from the Instituto Colombia no para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (Colciencias) for a research project centering on the formation of grupos gestores de comunicación, or \"communications groups,\" within local grassroots organizations. For more details about this project, which InforCom actively supports, see the discussion below under \"Loca l Communications Groups.\"The Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca (ACIN), which operates a telecenter at Santander de Quilichao in northern Cauca , aspires to similar success. And for that reason it has developed a proposal for a communications project (not yet funded) , under which U hope s to sha re its successful experience in the use of ICTs with other indigenous people's organizations in Valle and Chocó Departments. The project's title, Communication for Life, r e fers to ACIN's new conviction that communications in general and ICTs in particular are essential tools for defending the huma n rights of indigenous groups and for advancing other aspects of what they call their \"life plans,\" including the ir work in agriculture and natura l re s ource management.One of ACIN's telecenter operators presented the project idea and shared the organization's experience with ICTs at the Workshop on Support Networks for Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. This event took place in the framework of the Second Annual National Forum on Connectivity for Canadians, held at Ottawa, Canada, in March.It appears, then, that the financia! sustainability of the telecenter depends only partly on its success as a microbusiness selling ICT services to the public. To a larger degree, it hinges on the host organization;s conviction that community telecenters are a means of generating social benefits through specific ICT applications relevant to rural schools and other local organizations. Corpotunía and ACIN not only believe that is the case but have taken the further step of seeking funds for projects designed to generate such benefits.The results of lnforCom's work on telecenter sustainability are closely related to sorne of the main conclusions of our impact evaluation. At the outset of the project, we expected impact to come chiefly from the decisions and actions of individual telecenter users. Contrary to our expectations, the most notable impacts can be seen within the organizations hosting the telecenters.To examine those impacts systematically, CIAT's Impact Assessment Project carried out studies of two rural telecenters in Cauca, one hosted by ACIN and the other by Corpotunía. For this purpose Center economist Fabiola Amariles designed a survey of key individual& in those organizations, using a method developed by IDRC for assessing institutional changes attributable to particular projects or interventions. The method examines three aspects of an organization-motivation, capacity, and relationships with the externa! environment-with a view to determining how its performance may have improved in terms of effectiveness (or ability to achieve goals), efficiency (in the use of resources), and viability (or financial health).It is evident from study results that the telecenter has given rise to substantial changes in the life and work of this organization, which supports a dozen or so indigenous reserves in northern Cauca Department. The reserves are home to so me 75,000 people, most of whom belong to the Paez ethnic group.All of the ACIN staff interviewed had acquired new knowledge, improved the way they work, and linked their activities more closely than ever with those of outside agencies. Specifically, staff underscored the value of routine use of e -mail in ACIN to facilitate contacts and to develop externally funded projects. and they cite d the usefulness of Web searches for accessing information that was previously unavailable to them.In examining the motivation of ACIN staff, the study found that the telecenter had better enabled them to fulfill the organization's goals, mainly in two ways.First, the use of e-mail and the Web has enabled and motivated ACIN to compete more effectively for project funds. Staff are now more knowledgeable about opportunities and more efficient in handling project proposals. Increased awareness of the organization on the part of donors and collaborators has also helped: \"We've made ourselves better known to the rest of the world,\" as one person put it; \"we have greater credibility with other organizations,\" said another. Staff also note that ACIN's attractive organizational Web site has contributed importantly to those ends.Second, learning about the strategies and experiences of other organizations, particularly those connected with indigenous movements in the Americas, has heightened ACIN' s awareness of the overall significance of its work. This, in turn, has reinforced the commitment of individual staff to the organization's mission.With regard to motivation, the study also looked for changes in decision making and organizational values. Although ACIN was a fairly democratic organization to begin with, the staff interviewed commented that decision making now rests on a broader base of information about a wide range of topics. Moreover, it appears that the telecenter has strengthened the role of women in the organization and in the indigenous communities generally. This is a result of the telecenter's active support for ACIN's Women's Program, particula rly by obtaining and disseminating information about the use of gender analysis methods in projects. One result is that gender indicators have been incorporated into the land-use planning of indigenous reserves in five different municipalities.These changes seem especially significant if one bears in mind that, from the outset of the InforCauca Project, sorne indigenous leaders ha ve expressed concern that the adoption of new ICTs would do more harm than good. Their quite legitimate fears range from issues of personal safety and cultural pollution to questions of intellectual property and possibly negative implications for the Paez people's oral tradition of communication, which is a central element in their collective mode of decision making.The debate about these issues continues in ACIN. And they are considered sufficiently important to have warranted, at the end of 2002, the creation of a Concejo de Comunicación, or Communications Council. This provides a formal framework for the telecenter as well as for severa! community radio programs and other communications activities. The Concejo also represents a partial answer to sorne indigenous leaders' reservations about ICTs. Appropriate, high-level leadership is one way of ensuring that these new technologies, in combination with \" old\" ICTs like radio, help rather than harm ACIN and the communities it supports.Anothe r way to ward off potential negative impacts is by building the organization's capacity to use ICTs appropriately. And in this regard the t elecenter has contributed importantly to the personal and professional development of ACIN's staff. The changes began with telecenter operators like Wilma Almendra :As a person l've benefited enormously. Before, 1 wasn't interested in the community. 1 hardly ever took part in meetings and assemblies, and when 1 did go, 1 usually fell asleep, because 1 didn't understand what people were talking about. Now, 1 not only attend assemblies, but 1 participate in them and tell others what I'm doing; and they show an interest in my work.Other ACIN staff remark that new computer skills have improved their efficiency in the organization and in other activities, such as teaching. Some have also learned through the Web about opportunities for obtaining financia! support to attend workshops and receive training.One important manifestation of ACIN's improved communications capacity is the stronger integration that exists now between the organization's headquarters and sorne of the more remote indigenous reserves it supports. This has been achieved primarily by linking telecenter services with community radio programs. Under a system that ACIN staff call \"chivanet,\" the telecenter operators copy documents, such as e-mails and illes from Web sites, onto diskettes and deliver these to the driver of a rugged rural bus called a chiv'4 which travels daily to the remote reserves. The driver delivers the diskettes to the radio operators, who then convey messages and incorporate information from the Web into their radio programming.According to the institutional impact study, ACIN has also beneilted greatly from improved externa! communication. Staff note a marked increase in the organization's links with various types of organizations, especially donors, within Colombia and around the world. Each ACIN program-for health, education, natural resource management, and so forth-has widened its contacts with organizations that can provide speciilc information and other support.ACIN received a dramatic lesson in the value of such contacts 2 years ago, when the intensiilcation of ilghting between guerillas and paramilitaries in northern Cauca resulted in gross human rights abuses against the Paez people. This included the assasination of indigenous leaders and massacres in remote Paez communities. The telecenter operators began sending digital images of missing persons to human rights organizations, in addition to using these to make printed notices for distribution by family members of the desaparecidos. With assistance from CIAT, ACIN also developed a media list and began sending communiques about the human rights abuses to the press and human rights organizations. Eventually, ACIN and other indigenous associations in the region organized a massive human rights march, in which 35,000 p e ople participated. On this occasion the telecenter proved vital in handling logistics as well as communication with the media and other organizations.In sum, the telecenter has served as a kind of communications unit for ACIN, and this helps explain why the latter is now willing, in effect, to subsidize telecenter operations. Arguably, the organization could ha ve reaped the gains described above by adopting the use of ICTs in so me other way, that is, without necessarily creating a telecenter. But, on the other hand, the strong training component of the community telecenter model and the continuous support offered by InforCauca proved decisive in successfully incorporating the use of ICTs into the organization. Moreover, having set up the telecenter, ACIN is now well positioned to extend the benefits it has reaped as an organization to the larger Paez community as well asto other indigenous people's associations.Corpotunía is a not-forprofit NGO dedicated to prornoting agricultura! as well as social and cultural development in various rnunicipalities of central Cauca through participatory approaches.Unlike ACIN, Corpotunía had already begun using the Internet when the InforCauca Project carne along. Nonetheless, staff and management tended to view this largely as a secretaria! function. Not untll Corpotunía carne to host the telecenter-after unsuccessful trials in a local technical school and the town cultural center-did it stirnulate within the organization a learning process through which all staff acquired and began to apply ICT skills. Once it dawned on Corpotunia that hosting the telecenter placed it in the vanguard of local ICT promotion, then it rnade sense-even becarne urgent-for the organization's own staff to jo in the early adopters of this new technology.The primary impact of this process within the organization has been to broaden considerably its field of action. What this means concretely is that the telecenter has given Corpotunía an entirely new focal point for project development-a task in which, as mentioned earlier, the organization has been remarkably successful. The new projects, in turn, have provided staff with exciting and innovative ways to work toward their developrnent mission. As a result, they have come to see the telecenter as a source of broad social benefitssuch as finding practica! inforrnation for local flower producers, helping students with their homework, and reducing the cost of communication with friends and relatives working abroad.Little wonder, then, that CORPOICA's manager, Williarn Cifuentes, has become a strong proponent of ICT use in the region, \"selling the idea to everybody,\" as he puts it. In doing so, though, he emphasizes the need for acompañamiento, or continuous support, in ICT application. Partly as a result of his efforts, another community telecenter has been set up in a neighboring municipality, and the Universidad del Cauca has become interested in supporting the telecenter movement at the departmentallevel.In addition to rnotivating Corpotunía to widen its development vision, the telecenter has helped it bulld the necessary capacities for contributing to that vision. As at ACIN, this is particularly evident in the telecenter operator, Karla Bolaños, but other staff have acquired valuable skills as well. One commented, for example, that she used the Web to prepare for meetings and that this better enabled her to debate issues and participate in decision making. With regard to agriculture, technicians working for Corpotunía described how they were able to obtain technical information from the Web that proved useful in their extension activities with farmers. This is particularly important for the majority who are paraprofessional extensionists possessing only a high school education.By adding an interesting new dimension to its work, Corpotunía has substantially improved its image or standing among other organizations. And it projects that image strongly through a well-designed Web site. Moreover, the manager of Corpotunía frequently shares his organization' s experience with ICTs, for example, through the National Confederation of NGOs and board of directors of the Regional Center for Productivity. For those reasons and beca use oí its success in ICT project development, Corpotunía is now viewed locally and in national organizations (including Colombia's Ministry of Communications) as a pioneer and leader in the use of ICTs for rural development in Cauca. As with other telecenter experiences, strong leadership (that is, the presence of a telecenter \"champion\") has proved to be a critica! factor in this success.The new telecenter mentioned above is supported by the Consorcio Interinstitucional para una Agricultura Sostenible en Laderas (CIPASLA) in Caldono, Cauca. Its director, Rodrigo Vivas, has also become a strong local champion for the use of new ICTs in rural development.In contrast with the experience of the staff of telecenter host organizations, use of the telecenter by members of the surrounding communities is still relatively limite d. Numbers of users are still somewhat small in relation to the local population, and so is the range of economically significant ICT uses. This is evident from a series of evaluations carried out by CIAT economist Liliana Mosquera from 2001 to 2003.In late 2001 she conducted user surveys in all three telecenters supported by InforCauca. About ayear later, in late 2002 and early 2003, a baseline survey of rural households was carried out in communities around the telecenter operated by Corpotunía. Analysis of the user surveys was completed in 2002, and the baseline survey data were analyzed in mid-2003. At about the same time, follow-up focus group interviews were organized with users of all three telece nters to get a better sense of how the telecenters are affecting users' lives. Corpotunía and its rural beneficiaries are more typical of CIAT clients in general than is the case with the other two telecenters supported by InforCauca, so we focus mainly on this telecenter in reporting on impacts among ICT users in the community.The main purpose of this study was to characterize telecenter uses and users. It looked at how people draw on both new ICTs as well as other communications media (including letters, telephone, radio, television, newspapers, and magazines) to meet their diverse needs. The idea was to determine how ICTs fit within a broader pattern of media use and to identify potential implications for telecenter impact.One key point underscored by baseline study results was that telecente r users tended to be fairly young and well educated. At Tunía their average age was 3 0, and 95% had at least a secondary school education. Telecenter users were thus not representative of the general population but rather constituted a relatively elite group fitting the typical profile of \" early technology adopters.\" There were no differences between men and women in terms of the availability or quality of services, suggestíng that the latter do not necessarily face major barriers in gaining access to ICTs. Nor did users fa ce tradeoffs for financia! reasons in deciding whether to use one information source or another. In fact, they were spending more for information from conventional sources than on Internet use. So, among these early Internet adopters, cost is not a barrier to Internet access.In analyzing uses of new ICTs and other media, the study grouped them into four categories: ( 1) family communication, (2) general information, (3) personal development, and (4) specialized information. With respect to Internet use, the patterns are quite clear. As indicated in the accompanying table, the great majority of telecenter visitors use the Internet for family communication and for obtaining information that is of general interest or relevant to personal development. They use other media for those purposes as well, so the Internet complements conventional information sources rather than substituting for them. Significantly for CIAT and other R&D organizations, only about 11% of users sought specialized information related to decisions or activities of economic importance. But then, only 29% of telecenter users said they were obta ining such information from any formal source.So what are the implications of these findings for community telecenter development? Obviously, if telecenters are to have an economic impact in people's lives, we need to know why so few telecenter users search for specialized information on the Internet or through other formal communications media. Is such information simply not available, or if it is, do users have little faith in its veracity? Are they getting this type of information mainly through family or personal communicatíons in which they have more confidence? Clearly, important challenges are to boost the overall number of telecenter users and to expand the uses of Internet, which does, after all, offer the advantage of being a highly multipurpose resource.The main purposes of the baseline survey (of 445 households) carried out in late 2002 and early 2003 were to document the extent of telecenter awareness and use in the community, to identify any changes in the pool of telecenter users (in relation to results from the 2001 users survey), and particularly to compare users with nonusers. The survey also allowed us to examine broader information and communication patterns in the community.Telecenter use at Tunía is still rather low, compared with use of other information sources. Only 25% of the town's population of just under 2,000 have visited the telecenter, even though just over half have heard about it. The figures are far lower for an agricultura! community about 20 kilometers away, in which only 8 % of the respondents had even heard of the telecenter at Tunía. Fortunately, though, CIPASLA has recently established a new telecenter in tha t community, which is clearly beyond the reach of the telecenter at Tunía. Telecenter users are not as educated as the elite early adopters surveyed a year ago, suggesting that the user pool has broadened somewhat. Yet, telecenter users are still significantly better educated than nonusers, and they are also better off in terms of material well-being (i.e., access to electrical appliances, public services, and so forth). In addition, telecenter users are more likely to use , and spend significantly more money on, other communications media. Users and nonusers do not differ, however, with regard to gender or participation in community activities.With respect to use oí the Internet in seeking economically important information, little has changed since 200 l. More than half of the farmers included in the survey, even the few who had used the telecenter, said they got such information from informal sources, chiefly other farmers, while 31% relied on formal sources, such as extension agents, agrochemical company representatives, and printed pamphlets.The limited importance of the Internet as a source of specialized information could relate to availability and confidence, as suggested in the discussion above of telecenter user survey results. But the baseline community survey points to still another possible explanation. When asked what information might be useful to them in their work, farmers referred generally to technical assistance, training, and other topics, but only 21% were able to identify at least one concrete information need, as indicated in the accompanying table. In contrast, 34% of the students and all of the teachers were able to identify such needs. These findings are consistent with the predominance of students and teachers among telecenter users. Teachers in particular are willing to pay for Internet use, because they evidently know exactly what information they need and can readily obtain it through the Internet. If community telecenters are to become equally effective as a source of information for farmers and other actors in rural development, then the needs of these people must be defined more concretely, and more must be done to ídentify or create reliable information sources that are genuinely useful to them.Particular emphasis should be placed on using ICTs to develop projects aimed at improving public services or creating new employment opportunities. As mentioned above, Corpotunía has been quite successful in that regard. But according to the baseline survey, lessons from the organization's experience ha ve not yet reached the community in general. Only one respondent in Tunía reported using the Internet for project development. The more common sources of information for this purpose are community meetings and leaders. Hopefully, Corpotunía's work with communications groups in local grassroots organizations (described in detall below) will result in more frequent use of the Internet for project development.The outcomes of the focus group discussions with telecenter users essentially reinforced patterns that are evident from the user and community surveys. Users tend to be younger and better educated than nonusers. And they frequent the telecenter mainly for computer training, to obtain general information (related to school assignments or availability of scholarships, for example), or to communicate with friends and relatives. Cases of individuals obtaining technical or economic information for use in development-related decisions are still scarce.Even so, the few such cases that exist can be quite instructive. Members of a local association of flower producers, for example, have received training in basic computer software at the telecenter in Tunía. With a view to identifying the requirements for breaking into export markets, a Corpotunía agronomist helped them consult the Web sites of other associations. The group determined that, in order to export their flowers, they would need to improve their infrastructure, meet new demands in terms of product volume and quality, obtain credit, and so forth. Thus, access to information has enabled the group to clarify its vision for the future and to identify specific needs. But this information alone obviously will not enable the group to realize that vision. Other support services are required as well.Even though use of the telecenter at Corpotunía to obtain specialized information is stilllimíted, thís forward-looking organization and the surrounding community have made an important start.A quarter of the town's population have beco me telecenter users just a few years since its establishment, and 18% have used Internet. They are proud to have the telecenter in Tunía and are pleased with wbat they have learned about ICTs. When asked about their own perceptions of the telecenter's impact, 83% of telecenter users (and 66% of nonusers) said it had generated benefits. The predominant telecenter uses-helping children do homework assignments and keeping in touch with friends and relatives-may seem superficial in terms of rural development. But they represent important gains for the townspeople, resulting in significant savings in time and money-a point stressed by many focus group participants.Moreover, these telecenter uses are feeding the community's hope for a better future. The telecenter is fuliilling many people's desire to learn a nd to connect themselves with the wider world. The parents of young telecenter users express high expectations that, by learning to use ICTs, their children will gain new opportunities for education and advancement. With continuing support from Corpotunía, the experience of these early telecenter users should provide a solid foundation for further ICT applications that contribute more directly to the achievement of sustainable rural livelihoods.Apart from this sense of optimism about the future, what specific lessons can we draw from our results on telecenter impacts in organizations and among users in rural communities? Or to pose the question in a different way, what can rural people reasonably expect from a community telecenter?Clearly, in the early years of telecenter operations, its impa cts in terms of sustainable development are most likely to be an indirect result of the improved efficiency and effectiveness that the host organizations gain through the use of ICTs. Presumably, such gains enhance these organizations' performance in helping rural communities develop new sources of income, improve their management of natural resources, and address other important challenges. It will take time and concerted effort, though, before significant development benefits arise from better decisions and actions taken by individual users of telecenter services.Thus, we should view telecenters, in the first instance, as a strategy for strengthening local organizations and not just as a means of making useful information more readily available to rural communities. That being the case, the financia! sustainability of the strategy can depend only in part on íncome from telecenter services to the publíc. The more decisive factor in the beginni ng is the conviction of local organizations that telecenters have a potentially large social value, of which the organizations themselves can be the immediate beneficiaries.Once a telecenter is up and running, however, it is vital for host organizations to take further steps that enable other groups and individuals to realize the social benefits of ICT use. Only then will users become the mainstay of telecenter sustainability, reducing pressure on the host orga nization to subsidize telecenter operations.In search of means by which telecenter host organizations can enhance the direct development impact of ICTs among users in surrounding communities, the InforCom Project embarked in late 2002 and early 2003 on n ew endeavors that complement our support for the telecenters.We believe that one of the keys to enhancing the telecenters' development impact líes in the formation of information or communications íntermediaries in rural communities. Telecenters can clearly be an effective means of introducing connectivity and creating basic computer literacy in rural areas. But as our impact data show, many farmers wlll not have easy access to the telecenter, or will not feel inclined to visit it, or if they do vísit, will not necessarily have a concrete idea of their information needs. Moreover, even if they do find information on the Internet that is relevant to their work, this may not generate the confidence needed to translate information into knowledge through experimentation, leading to effective action aimed at solving a specific problem or seizing a new opportunity.Who, then, can help farmers perform those tasks, serving as a bridge between community telecenters and remote or reluctant users? Our expe rience with telecenters as well as other CIAT work point to various candidates.Rural schools are an obvious one. At Tunía we did not find the local vocational school to be an effective host for the telecenter, mainly b e c a use school m a nagement was reluctant to a ssume the responsibility. Nonethe le ss, t e achers and students are among the principal users of the telecenter hosted by Corpotunía, and in this they are strongly supported by parents. What role could schools play in making information more readily available to rural households? Apart from aiding in school work, could this information help address concrete family needs and influence economically important decis ions?Another obvious candidate for the information intermediary role consists o f extension officers like those working for Corpotunía. The use of ICTs has apparently better prepared these paraprofessionals to provide farmers with technical assistance. How much scope is there for extens ionists to go beyond their conventional role in technology transfer to help ide ntify information needs, use diverse communications media to link farmers with information sources, and foment a culture of knowledge discovery and sharing? And what kinds of training and institutional arrangements would be necessary to bring about such a shift? Yet another possibility is to form communications groups within or in association with community-based organizations. Consisting of a half dozen to 10 people, these would include members of farm households with a particular interest in using modern ICTs, linked with conventional or traditiona l communications medía, to overcome the isolation of remo te rural communities. Gender and equity considerations would weigh heavily in the formation of these groups, so they could serve as a means of including women, indigenous people , rural youth, and other frequently negle cted sectors of the population in the development of a local communications capacity.CIAT e x perience has shown that farmer groups can learn to carry out valid research and develop successful agroenterprises, thus promoting an experimental and entrepreneurial culture in rural communities. Thus, it should also be possible for groups of farmer-communicators to learn to obtain a n d share useful information, thus fomenting a local culture of knowledge discovery. If success ful, these g roups could provide a useful support s e rvice to local res ear ch and agroenterprise development.With a view to exploring this last possibility, lnforCom has pursue d two closely related lines of research over the last year or so.Under a 1-year project developed by Corpotunía with funds from Colciencia s , we are supporting efforts to develop grupos gestores de comunicación (\"communications groups\") within five community-based organizations operating in central Cauca. These are the following: Asociación de Productores de Frutas y Hortalizas Orgánicas de Silvia, APRAOS (Silvia Association of Organic Fruit and Vegetable Producers) Asociación de Beneficiarios de la Su bcuenca del Río Cabuya!, ASOBESURCA (Cabuya! River Watershed Beneficiaries Associatíon) Asociación de Mujeres de Cajibío, ASOMUCA (Cajibío Women's Association) Cabildo Indígena de Honduras (Honduras Indígenous People's Council) Junta de Acción Comunal de Tunía (Tunía Community Actíon Board)The central aim of the project is to determi ne wheth er and how the groups can be trained to build and share-through information acquisition and communication-the knowledge their organizations need to solve specific problems or seize particular opportunities. Toward this end a baseline survey of the five organizations was conducted in early 2003 to cha racterize them in terms of decision making, principal activities, institutional relations hips, role of communications, and use of divers e media. Analysis of the results has not y et be en completed.The groups have received or are undergoing training on the following topics: introduction to communications, organizational strengthening, project planning and development, basic computer programs (covered in large part by Corpotunía's telecenter operator), and the use of diverse communications media. Each of the five groups has designed a project. The idea now is to see how they can use ICTs and other media (such as radio and video) to build the knowledge needed for implementing their projects and to share this knowledge with other members of the organizations.In related work, supported initially by IDRC and Rockefeller and currently with InforCom core funds, we have helped forro three other groups of farmercommunicators in three municipalities of northern Cauca. Group members are connected with various panela (brown sugar) producer associations scattered across the region. The aim is to establish whether and how these groups can acquire the capacity to provide an effective information support service or network for the panela industry (as a pilot case) and subsequently for small agroenterprises dealing wíth the region's other main value-added products.For this purpose the groups received intensive training over the last year on a variety of topics. In additíon, as with the grupos gestores, a baseline study was carried out. Unlike those groups, however, members of the three groups described here had not all previously worked together. So, their training initially focused on group organization and networking. The groups next received training in use of the Internet as well as other medía, such as radío. They also took part in workshops on graphic design, Web site development, and use of information resources available in the CIAT library. In addition to training, each group received acompañamiento, that is, weekly visits from InforCom staff, and occasionally met with the other groups to share experiences.During recent months the groups have been developing communications work plans, according to which they will perform the following tasks:Characterize their main audiences in local communities. Publicize the local lnformation System for Rural Agroenterprise Development (SIDER, see the discussion below), which the groups are helping develop. Seek information from local sources as well as the Web that matches the needs of their main audiences. Determine current information flows in their communities and identify the main communications media and channels. Develop and implement communications strategies for sharing useful information in the SIDER with target audiences through appropriate communications media.Define mechanisms for evaluating the impact of these communications strategies.As the groups progress with their action plans, they are also establishing links with a wide range of local actors, including formal and informal educational institutions, government agencies, NGOs, and communications media. These links are essential for developing a territorial information system or network through which panela producers and other local entrepreneurs can construct the knowledge they need to create economically viable and environmentally sustainable agroenterprises.As a result of our work with different types of groups under diverse circumstances and with different approaches, we expect to develop a generic method for communications group formation. We will the n test the approach for its effectiveness in giving rise to \"information intermediaries\" or \"knowledge brokers,\" who can link telecenter services with specific groups of agricultura! information users.Just as groups of farmer-researchers may work in a shared experimental plot, farmer-communicators can jointly build information products. These can provide a focal point for their learning process and eventually the basis for an information support service , which would be offered to the local community, eventually perhaps on a commercial basis.A central assumption of our work with the communications groups in Cauca is that a locally developed Web-based information system can serve those purposes particularly well. Thus, in 2003 we worked closely with the three communications groups in northern Cauca to develop an on-line SIDER.Why a locally developed information system? Are not international and national organizations better placed and equipped to generate on-line content relevant to users of rural community telecenter? Certainly, these institutions do have an important role to play, and that is why translating research results into development resources (through e-learning and multimedia products) is the first output of the InforCom Project.Nonetheless, much of what rural people want to know may already be available locally in the minds of innovative farmers or in the illing cabinets of nearby organizations. The development of a local information system is thus a necessary first step in organizing the rescue of that information, so that it can be accessed more easily in the surrounding communities. In addition to raising awareness of local knowledge, the system might serve to build a sense of pride in this and other local resources. Moreover, once local knowledge is on-line, the information can be shared with R&D organizations. They, in turn, can evaluate this information, add value to it based on other experiences, and give the addedvalue information back to rural communities through clie nt-oriented electronic publishing.But why an on-line local information system, given that few producers and processors have a c cess to the Internet and are inclined or able to use it? One compelling reason is that an on-line system can easily be updated, as the communications groups glean new information from both local a nd dista nt sources. Another is that, as we have seen in the development of CIAT's own Web site, a relatively complex Web-based system lends itself to decentralized development, so it is a good vehicle for involving group members directly in the process.In fact, software is now available that makes it possible for individuals to publish information on a Web site without having direct access to the server or evento standard Web-publishing tools; all they need is a Web browser. CIAT's Information Systems Unit {ISU) has recently evaluated one such optio~Action Applications, developed by APC. With support from the ISU, we will incorporate the use of ActionApps into the SIDER, which should be on-line by early next year.To overcome the problem of limited Internet access, the communications groups are being trained, as described above, to analyze and use a wide range of other more conventional or traditional media, such as community radio, printed documents, community assemblies, and so forth. Through these media group members will be able to channel information available in the on-line system to a wide audience in their communities.What kinds of information will aspiring entrepreneurs obtain through this process and how is that information being collected? The SIDER consists of five components: (1) a price information service, (2) general information resource s on agroenterprise development, (3) detailed information about the region's main value-added products, ( 4) a section including other information about the region (prepared by the communications groups), and (5) an explanation of the SIDER process.Farmers using the SIDER will find answers to questions such as \"where can 1 sell my product\" or \"how much should 1 expect clients to pay?\" Both farmers and organizations will find information that helps them improve agroenterprise management and enhance efficiency in adding value to specific tropical products.The process of gathering all this information has proved to be slow but is now well advanced. Part of the difficulty has been the participatory character of the undertaking. Many of the actors (group members and local organizations) have had to learn new skills and acquire the habit of documentation. The overall procedure consists of the following steps:Define collectively the types of information to be included in the SIDER. Review the various types of agroenterprise systems developed elsewhere. Organize a workshop on Web site development. Form a team of persons who participate directly in site development. Design the structure or architecture of the site and obtain feedback from group members. Develop content and prepare a prototype site showing the structure, design, and system of site navegation. Evaluate and adjust the prototype. Build mechanisms and capacity for continuous local development of the site.Development of the price information system is perhaps least advanced. But we have reviewed 26 Web sites of market information systems around the world and sought support from Corporación Colombia Internacional (CCI). As for the general agroenterprise information, we have compiled , in collaboration with local partners, information on sources of financing, agroenterprise organization, support services, and relevant legislation. Working closely with Corpotunía, we are also well along in developing content on specific value-added products, particularly panela. The topics covered by this component of the system are as follows:Production technology: Sustainable crop management, integrated pest management, reducing harvest losses, production of improved planting material, calculating production costs, use of inputs, and so forth Processing technology : Storage procedures, processing practices and their costs, quality control, and so forthFresh products Processed products (volume, packaging, seasonality, etc.) Instructive experiences in commercialization Alternative markets (e.g., for organic products)In the future such information will be available for at least six products that have been prioritized by an agroenterprise stakeholder group (of which Corpotunía and CIPASLA are members) in northern and central Cauca. They are dairy products, blackberry, plantains, anthuriums (a tropical flower), cassava, and panela (brown sugar).The work of the groups on more general information about their communities has proved essential for getting them directly involved in site development and for building their sense of ownership of the SIDER. The groups are focusing on topics such as community history and tourist attractions, information that should better enable the SIDER to stimulate a sense of pride in local culture and resources.As in our work with the various communications groups, we plan to develop a generic procedure for participatory development of local a groenterprise information systems. We will then evaluate the effectiveness and viability of this approach for making relevant content available (through ICTs and other media), both to local entrepreneurs and R&D organizations.Based on the project activities and outcomes presented in this report as well as on new opportunities that have arisen recently, we have tentatively defined the following activities for next year.Four e-learning courses will be carried out, covering the following topics: ex-situ conservation of plant genetic resources and gene bank management, three-dimensional participatory mapping, production chains as tools for linking smallholders to markets, and entrepreneurial orientation and market fundamentals.Having developed its first multimedia training tool in 2003, InforCom will pro mote the use of this tool in Latín America, identify suitable topics for further products of this type, and proce ed with the development of one or more promising candidates in 2004.The project will establish new collaborative arra ngements with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, CORPOICA, and other organiza tions aimed at strengthening the national agricultura! information network. A p r oject proposal for this purpose will be d e veloped for conside ration by a n e w World Bank-funded project on rural diversification.InforCom will work with other CIAT staff to develop an ICT 1 knowle dge management project for the CGIAR.Based on the outcomes of the InforCauca Project, InforCom will consolidate and extend its work with community telecenters and related initiatives in Colombia by expanding its alliance with local partners. Negotiations are already under way, for example , with the Universidad del Cauca.As de scribed below under \" R e source Mobiliz ation,\" InforCom will seek t o establis h \"learning alliances\" with organizations in selected countries of Central America, the Andean Zone, and East Africa that are exploring the use of ICTs in support of agroenterprise development and related aspects of rural innovation. Efforts in 2004 will follow up on contacts and consultations made this year with CIAT staff and potential partners in those regions. The main purpose of our learning alliances will be to combine CIAT's experience and results with those of partner organizations, with a view to identifying good practices that can be adapte d to d iverse circumsta nces. This section addresses how territorial entities and community-based organizations can use p lanning as a m echanism for rura l developmen t, and h ow scientists and information providers can use planning asan ent ry point into development. This work began in 1999 as the \"Land Use\" component of the agreement between CIAT and the Ministry of Agriculture a nd Rural Development (MADR, the Spanish acronym), and this year has seen the addition of case studies in Bolivia , Peru, and Senegal. We a im a t facilitating the u se of information by local stakeholders for the management of their natura l resources by providing methods and tools , documented examples of planning, and principies (or ins ight) that can help successfu l planning and the efficient use of information. These are developed through case studies in s pecific locations, and are then diffused through training events, seminars, reports, a nd pu blications, as well as through the CIAT Web page. This year in Colombia, the prototypes of a series of decision support tools were \"launched\" a nd m a de available throu gh the ClAT Web page.They will continue to be co-developed with u sers in Colombia. Following ClAT's restructuring, this group was placed in t he new project \"Information fo r Rural Communities (InforCom)\", under the Rural Innovation In stitute.We are aiming at validating a series of hy potheses on why certain a p proach es work better than others, why planning simply does not work in certain circumstances, and why information is seldom used for decis ion making. This research componen t, which we had previously a pproached by trial and error th rou gh d evelopment applications, is just b eginning to emerge more form a lly .Planning is part of the coordination and managem ent process of any individual, group, or organization . In sorne cases, the law requ ires official pla nning mechanisms, which m a kes them less appealin g, but turns them into a predictable process to which scientists and information providers can link. Decentralized countries are divided into a h ierarchic arrangement of \"territoria l entities\" that are responsible for coordinating d evelopment activities and resources over their entire territory, both urban and rura l. These en tities are obliged to conduct regular planning exercises, supported with monitoring and evaluation. Although t hese exercises a re often p e rceived as bu reaucra tic requirements, and are not sufficiently taken a d vantage of, they are extremely valuable m echanisms to coordinate the various p layers of rural development. Local groups and administrations can make good use of planning if they a re proactive, and approach the exercises with a learning attitude, where loca l actors con sider the different actions they (a nd others ) have to conduct to reach a desired fu ture.During planning, monitoring, a nd evaluation , participants h ave to d etermine their d esired situation, a nd periodically evaluate and compare it with their present one. They then have to consider different possible actions that th ey can put forward to get closer to the desired condition s, a nd determine what contribu tions are needed from outside. When they make decisions, they are actually making hypoth eses about wh at should work best, and they can va lidate these through monitoring and evaluation. Indeed, as they go a long, they observe the consequences of their decisions and actions, and eventually adjust their plans, learning in the process. Planning grou ps can b en efit from the input of scientists, experts, and information to better evaluate their situation and their context, to broaden their range of possible options , to explore their long-term implications, and even tually to choose between them. Scientists a nd information providers can benefit from these exercises to put their knowledge to work, and to better focus their r esearch and data collection regarding the needs of rural developmen t processes. Th ey can even wor k on testing local hy potheses with local groups. To participate in local d evelopment, they need n ot n ecessarily participate actively in the meetings of local groups, but can be linked to them through inforrnation comrnunication technologies (ICTs).The systems approach to planning that we are promoting is not something fundamentally new, as many aspects of rural development have been approached systematically for decades. However, we have sorne research hypotheses that we want to verify through our case studies:Planning, where groups engage in a continuous process of diagnosis, action planning, and monitoring and evaluation, can greatly improve local learning, rural innovation, and the capacity of rural populations to adapt to adverse or changing conditions (this can seem obvious, but considering how few consístent processes of planning are being implemented, we think this hypothesis is worth demonstrating).Many of the obstacles related to planning and politics result from an inadequate sense of responsibility on the part of leaders and citizens, or are related to counterproductive Iogic, such as Iooking at issues with a \"winners and losers\" perspective, being obsessed with growth (either economical, social, or emotional) at the detriment of the group's well-being, the quest for quick and easy gain, a dependence on assistance, or a focus that is too short term or too restricted to certain economic sectors. These can be strongly moderated by adopting a logic of progression towards long-term and collective goals. This logic can be developed in p lanning workshops where participants discuss their desired future conditions, their possible contributions, and the contribution they need from other players (or requests).During diagnosis, monitoring, and evaluation, inforrnation is not used optimally if participants and planners do not have a clear idea of their desired future condüions. Clearly stating these allows indicators to be defined, and allows a reference with which to compare observed conditions. In their a bsence, diagnosis and monitoring remain purely descriptive, not allowing judgment, and thus reducing the possibilities of learning in the process, and data can be accumulated without ever being used for decision making.Different hierarchic levels of territorial adininistration can improve the coordination of their development efforts by articulating various \"contributions\" and \"requests\" of the players from one leve! to the next, from the bottom up. This approach can be used in the articulation of municipal plans at departmental leve!, and of departmental plans at national leve!.This work began in 1999 with the contribution of the Land Use project to the agreement between CIAT and MADR. We wanted to put geographical information and decision s upport tools (DSTs) at the service of decision makers so they could improve the rationality of land use. Planning mechanisms, required from all administrative levels, and that can a lso be implemented at the village leve!, appeared as our best entry point, for the reasons mentioned above. Through our case studies in Colombia, described in more detaillater, we observed that the potential of planning is often not well taken advantage of, neither as a learning and development tool, nor as an entry point by scientists and information providers. We realized that planning processes could be improved greatly, not so much by the use of specific methods, but by a change in the approach and logics behind the activity. In addition to continuing to work on how geographical information could be used in planning, and how scientific results could be made into DSTs and also used in planning, we started looking at ways to improve the planning processes themselves. Our Colombian case study spurred interest, and we received much demand for training on territorial planning, in which we needed to give recommendations to participants. This encouraged us to reflect on ways to improve p lanning, and we are presently promoting a systems approach to planning, based on the consideration of society as a system, interrelated with biophysical systems, organized hierarchically. We have developed a very simple participatory p lanning approach that allows municipalities to quickly articulate visions, proposed actions, and requests of different stakeholder groups (Beaulieu et al., 2000;2002), and that departments could use to articulate municipal plans. We h ave also become interested on how planning processes can catalyze and facilitate learning and rural innovation. This team therefore joined the InforCom project in 2003, while continuing to con tribute to sorne outputs of the Land Use project.In 2003, we began case studies in other countries-Bolivia, Peru, and Senegal. Our partners in these countries have a strong interest in revising existing planning guidelines to improve planning processes. We are therefore continuing our reflections on these methodological issues with a much la rger range of partners and cultural contexts. The work in Peru was initiated through an alliance with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and CONDESAN, who were interested in applying sorne of our methods, jointly with theirs, in sorne of the pilot watersheds of the CONDESAN consortium. The work in Bolivia has resulted from the hosting of Hubert Mazurek, a scientist from IRD, in the InforCom project. The work in Senegal is conducted in relation with the Desert Margins Program (DMP), and involved the posting of Nathalie Beaulieu in Dakar. These case studies will be described in more d etail below, but it is important to mention that, through them, we have agreed to follow a coherent research agenda, where the studies in different countries will contribute to our understanding of how rural development can be improved, and help us demonstrate sorne basic hypotheses.Our work in Colombia will continue through a new agreement with MADR, and will be oriented more specifically towards improving the efficiency of rural technical assistance through municipal planning in the en tire country, and through follow-up in coordination at the department leve!. As the 1999-2003 agreement is presently finishing, this year involved concluding and launching the various DSTs prepared for the Colombian llanos.Through case studies in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Senegal, we will test th e research h ypotheses mentioned above, develop documented examples that can be helpful in other sites, and develop methods and tools for rural planning. The experience acquired in these case studies is then communicated to others during training, and in reports and publications. Note that we are not studying planning as an end in itself, but as a mechanism allowing collective learning and organization for rural development.  , 2000) . This experience triggered an important demand for train ing in planning methodology and GIS tools, to which we responded with a number of courses given from 2000 to 2002. We then supported the municipality in the elaboration of its Plan de Desarrollo Municipal(PMD) in 2002 (Alcaldía de Puerto López-CIAT, 2002).Understanding the importance of the contributions of all administrative levels, we have designed our activities to support decisions at the national , regional, departmental, municipal, and village levels, although until now we have worked mostly at the municipal and village level. Through the logistic s upport of local projects related to cassava, we realized that planning workshops and followup at the village level, which were conducted for municipal planni ng, helpe d develop new partnerships between local groups, the municipality, the municipal unit of agricultura! technical assistance, researchers, and prívate industry. In Colombia, municipalities are responsible for providing fre e technical ass istance t o small-scale farmers, and thus of planning this assistance with the beneficiarie s, through a municipal committee of rural development. In Puerto López, the various committees formed to follow up on specific aspec ts of the municipal plans (local emergencies, territorial planning, sports, rural deve lopment, etc.) were combined into one committee that holds more frequent meetings for the follow-up of activities, and has the possibility of articulating activities that affect various sectors.The highlights of the Puerto López case study for this year are:A multi-sectoral committee of the civil society, with our support, is conducting follow-up of the municipal PBOT and PMD, using the SEGUIMIENTO tool, presented later. With the UMATA of Puerto López, we are continuously following up planning meetings in communities, and have supported various initiatives. A cassava d rying trial, conducted in 2002, led to the adoption of this practice in the village of El Turpial, the commercialization of dry cassava with animal feed factories, and the funding of a dryin g facility by the municipal administration. Cassava variety trials were conducted in five of the rural communities, jointly between farmers and CIAT's cassava project.The indigenous communities of Humapo and La Victoria constructed a tree reproduction greenhouse, and have begun producing small trees for the reforestation of their reserve and for commercialization. A poster was presented at the Global Forum on Agricultura} Research (GFAR) meeting in Dakar, May 2003, explaining how municipal planning catalyzed local innovation and par tnerships related to the cassava crop (CIAT, 2003). With MADR, we have identified specific contributions of rural planning for the next phase of the agreement with CIAT, oriented towards improving the efficiency and relevance of rural technical assistance, through municipal planning and monitoring, as well as monitoring at the department level. ), which representan agroecological zoning, but lack relevance for the planning and elaboration of development policy. Very recently, a few municipalities have started the same process. However, most of these plans are elaborated by externa! organizations or consultants, and are not effectively used, on the one hand because they do not correspond to the needs of populations, and on the other hand because municipal technicians find them difficult to understand. In addition to this, the methodology used for the OT plans is based almost exclusively on biophysical parameters used to establish a balance of the use of the land's potential. Our work in Bolivia therefore aims at engaging a learning process, within the institutions in charge of planning, about participatory planning. In addition to this, we aim to develop, jointly with these institutions, a set of regionally adaptable guidelines for participatory territorial planning that can be used for municipalities, groups of municipalities (mancommunidades), or departments to articulate their activities in the various economical sectors, as well as to integrate local and regional development projects.Methodological collaborations have been initiated with t h e Dirección del OT (much oriented towards biophysical considerations), and CODEPO (which establishes demographic policies), INE, the Ministry of Agriculture, and institutions of the Sistema Boliviano de Transferencia Agropecuaria (SIBTA). As explained in the introduction, the case studies are conducted to ensure that the proposed guidelines are adapted to the Bolivian context, and contrasted sites were chosen to allow Bolivian diversity to be taken into account. Like in the other countries, these case studies will also yield examples that will be communicated throughout Bolivia, and are providing opportunities to test our research hypotheses.In Bolivia, the highlights of our activities for this year are: Three groups of municipalities (four in the Altiplano south of La Paz, four in the department of Panda, and one in the department of Cochabamba) were chosen for pilot study sites. Work in Peru is funded by GTZ-Peru. In May 2003, The Peruvian Congress approved the new municipalities law, the Ley Orgánica de Municipalidades, defining the responsibilities of municipalities, which can either be provinces or districts. One responsibility is to promote the integral, sustainable, and harmonious development of the municipality's circumscription, with the help of a local planning process that must be integral, permanent, and participatory, and coordinated with the regional and nationallevels of govemment. A variety of sectoral and multi-sectoral plans are required regularly from municipalities. Multi-sectoral plans include the Plan de Desarrollo as well as the Plan Urbano Rural (for districts), and the Plan de Acondicionamiento Territorial (for provinces). Each year, rnunicipalities have to p lan their budget through a participatory process, resulting in the presupuesto participatiuo.Through an alliance with CONDESAN and GTZ, we agreed to give support to GTZ in Peru for the irnplernentation of territorial plans, and at the same time participate in these experiences as case studies. We jointly decided to begin this collaborative work in the region of Arequipa to benefit from links with projects such as the Gestión de Riesgo de Desastres Naturales con Enfoque de Seguridad Alimentaria en el Departamento de Arequipa (executed by COPASA-GTZ), Cuencas Andinas, and CONDESAN, which is active in the region. The district of Pampacolca was chosen as a pilot site for t he elaboration of the Plan Urbano Rural Befare starting actual work in the pilot site, we agreed to jointly organize a course on territorial planning directed to sorne of the institutions of the regional government of Arequipa and of the district of Pampacolca, to members of universities and NGOs of the region, and to GTZ staff in Peru. We agreed also to organize a workshop on the importance of territorial planning, involving decision makers of the districts, provinces, and regional government of Arequipa. These workshops were conducted in September this year.The highlights of our work in Peru for this year are:We conducted field visits in the districts where GTZ-COPASA intervene, to become acquainted with their development plans, and the problems they have experienced. We conducted the workshopjseminar entitled \"Bases para la Formulación de Planes de Ordenamiento Territorial\", in Arequipa, from 8 to 14 September 2003, including a practical component in the district of Pampacocla. We conducted the workshopjseminar entitled \"Planes de Ordenamiento Territorial como herramienta de gestión del espacio en Arequipa\" on September 16th in Arequipa. CIAT and GTZ-Colombia are assisting GTZ-Peru in the writing of terms of reference for the elaboration of a pilot territorial plan in the district of Pampacocla. Work in Senegal is funded by GEF. As previously mentioned, our work in Senegal is made possible by the hosting of Nathalie Beaulieu at !SRA, and her inclusion in the DMP team. The DMP is nota proj ect on territorial planning, but is a project that aims at improving rural Iivelihoods through the improvement of biodiversity and soil fertility.One of its objectives is to improve knowledge on the existence and management of this biodiversity and soíl fertility. It started in 2003 and works in nine sub-Saharan countries-Senegal , Niger , Mali, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Two of its outputs are entitled \"stakeholder participation\" and \"capacity build ing\". In Senegal, planning (including monitoring and evaluation) is the mechanism that has been chosen for their implementation. All of the activities of the DMP in Senegal will be conducted at the leve} of the rural community, but with strong linkages with the higher administrative levels, which are municipalities (either arrondissements or communes), departments, and regions, as well as with a network of resource persons (rural extension agents and scientists). A rural community can include various villages. As prescribed by the Law on Decentralization, rural communities must conduct and follow up local development plans.The Senegalese component of the DMP is focused, for the first 2-year phase, in four regions of the country-Kaolak, Diour bel, Fatik, and Thies. In each region, it will work in about four rura l communities, which are therefore the pilot communities for the case studies on planning as a rural development tool. At present, because the program has only recently begun in Senegal, we have only established links with the rural communities and other partners, through visits and workshops in the regional capitals and rural communities.The highlights of our activities in Senegal fo r this year are: An agreement was made with !SRA for CIAT to contribute to the Senegalese component of the DMP through the out-posting of Nathalie Beaulieu at ISRA in Dakar, starting September 2003. Severa! meetings were conducted with regional and local partners to discuss study sites and methodologies used for common outputs on local stakeholder participation, capacity building, and monitoring of land degradation. Study sites were visited. Four Regional Development Council (CRD, the French acronym) meetings were held in the \"gouvemance\" (regional parliament) of the studied regions, with the participation of regional, departmental, and local authorities. Participatory systems approach to planning an Herramienta de Planificación Participativa (HePP)   Contributors: Nathalie Beaulieu, Jaime Jaramillo, Genner Narváez, Juan Lucas Restrepo, Jorge Mario Diaz; Grégoire Leclerc (CIRAD-Département territoires, environnement et acteurs [TERA]) ln 2000, we presented a participatory planning method that could be used fo r municipal planning, and to articulate municipal plans into departmental ones (Beaulieu et al, 2000). In 2001, we elaborated a computerized too! that allowed users to store their results in a database, and use them as a \"draft\" for discussion with the Intelligent Team Decision Assistant (ITDEA) discussion support too! (Leclerc and Narváez, 2001). This tool was \"launched\" as a prototype this year, along with the other, hoping to further improve it with partners. We realized that this method, although complete in its consideration of the steps of the planning process, was too long and complicated to use for many municipalities. In 200 1, we tried to derive its essence, and carne out with a simplified version, entitled \"Visions, actions and requests across admínistrative levels\", which we tested in Puerto López for the elaboration of the municipal development plan (Beaulieu et al., 2002).This year, we presented a more general systems approach to planning in Beau lieu et al. (2004), and in didactic form and in Spanish for rural communities in Beaulieu et al. (2003). We continue to promote the vision s-actions-requests as part of this general approach. The systems approach to planning encourages players to acknowledge the systematic nature of society and its environment, to realize how the groups they are part of are part of larger groups, and for leaders to understand which other systems are components that they are coordinating. It encourages players to reflect on their longterm goals (or desired future conditions), how they fit in with the goals of the systems of which they are part, and, if they are leaders, how the goals of the components contribute to the goals of the leve! they coordinate. It aims at:Encouraging a greater sense of responsibility in citizens as well as leaders, through the concept of 360° responsibility, by acknowledging that coordinators of each level have responsibilities towards the levels below, the levels above, the other systems of the same leve!, in addition to ensuring the perpetuation (and eventually the growth) of th e system they represen t. Improving interactions between players by finding complementarity between their actions, matching the actions of sorne players with the requests of others. Reinforcing self-correction and learning through continuous planning, monitoring, and evaluation, rather than perceiving the latter as mechanisms of control fr om above. Improving communication and the use of information by identifying the different feedback loops needed to effectively monitor and evaluate as well asto make decisions, and by identifying desired future conditions to use as a reference in diagnostics.The obstacles to planning are often not so much methodological, but related to counterproductive mindsets. A logic of \"winners and losers\" often underlies political activities, where the goal of winning the election overthrows development goals. Other counter-productive mindsets include the obsession for maintenance and growth, which also overthrows development goals, as well as the culture of quick and easy gain. These can be moderated by an increased sense of responsibility (in the 360° directions), and by a longer-term vision of where we want our system to go, which can be encouraged by the use of vision-based planning methods.Adriana Fajardo, Maria Fernanda Jiménez, Genner Narváez, Nathalie Beaulieu; Libardo Rivas (BP-1)The CUFRUCOL database was developed and reported in the PE-4 2001 Annual Report. It stores information on botanical characteristics of crops, t heir biophysical requirements, and production costs. lt allows input of data into GIS DSTs, such as CLIMCROP, and it allows the printing of illustrated and informative cards for participatory discussion of crop options with farmers. Since 2001, it has been improved, and data have been added. Data about botanical characteristics, biophysical requirements, and production costs were compiled for 120 crops of inter est for Colombia, including grains, forages, fruits, and vegetables. These data were stored in a database in Microsoft Access format. When possible, data were taken from Colombian sources, and when unavailable, biophysical requirements were taken from the ECOCROP database developed by FAO. Users can also input their own data into the data base, if they dispose of local data or data relative to specific varieties. They can also add new entries on crops not yet considered, or on combined production systems.This database was designed to be flexible and useful for a variety of users. If adequately distributed, farmers could consult it at UMATAs. It could be used by UMATA agents themselves to help farmers plan production projects that combine a variety of crops, and to make economic evaluations of different scenarios. This will help farmers plan more sustainable production projects, and will help them present well-documented projects for credits or for anticipated purchase contracts. Through the use of this tool, we aim at increasing the capacity of municipal institutions to provide technical assistance to farmers, and of farmers to access information. The distribution of this tool will be accompanied by training and notes on the importance of using this information for preliminary indications only, giving priority to local information and common sense in planning agricultural projects. GEOSOIL Contributors: Yolanda Rubiano; Edgar Amézquita (PE-2); Dimas Malagon (Universidad Nacional); Soil group of Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuária (CORPOICA) Regional 8GEOSOIL is a database tool that a llows the storage of soil information for soil profiles or for soils represented in a soil map. For each n ew entry, it allows th e user to enter the physical and chemical data that are available, without obliging the user to fill in all the fields. For soil characteristics that are not numerical, for example for texture or landforms, it a llows the user to choose from a range of options, coding the c hoices in the process. For a number of soil properties that can be used as indicators of soil quality, it produces a report of a diagnosis, using criteria established for the Colombian llanos. It allows the comparison of soil characteristics with the requiremen ts of a given crop and, when the necessary, chemical information is available, can produce a report of fertilization recommendations. The soil requirements can be ímported from the CUFRUCOL database, or the u ser can specify them. It allows the export of soil data and corresponding geographic coordinates to GIS programs for their mapping, orto geostatistical programs for a n analysis of spatial variability and interpolation. The preliminary developments of this tool were presented in the 2002 PE4 Annual Report.This year, the application of this data base was completed with 1: 100 OOO.scale soil map data for the municipality of Puerto López, generously provide d by the Instituto Geográfico Agustin Codazzi (IGAC) for research purposes, extracted from the detailed agrological study for the department of Meta (IGAC, 2000) . More detailed data were stored for a portian of this area, resulting from field measurements and characterization of soil samples in a portian of the municipalities, around the villages of El Turpial, Humapo, La Victoria, and Puerto Guadalupe. A geostatistical analysis was made with these point data, and raster maps of a number of soil characteristics were derived by interpolation with a krieging approach. Figure 1 shows the result of this analysis for soil penetrabiiity. The application for Puerto López was shared with CORPOICA, but an empty structured database (which can be filled with data from other sites) is made available to the public through the CIAT Web page. A users' manual a nda help module were also developed this year. Figure 2 shows two of the displays of the database tool, regarding the comparison of soil characteristics with specific crop requirements.   (2000) .If the user specifies the soil and topography characteristics, the application presents a menu of soil textures and ranges of slope and effective soil depth from which to choose. As a result of the application of the decision tree, the tool propases a range of possible land uses, the number of options increasing as soil depth increases and slope decreases. Practices for the generation of an arable layer are proposed in cases where the soil depth is low. To use a soil map and then spatialize the results in GIS software, soil and slope characteristics were coded according to the values used in the decision tree. The polygons in soil maps generally correspond to groups of soils that can have different characterístícs. The percentage that each soil represents in the polygon is indicated in the tables accompanying the maps. Because there a range of different land uses is suitable for each soil type, the results of the ana1ysis are best displayed through a series of maps, one for each land use option, where the polygons are colored according to the percentage of soil which is suitable for that option. We linked the ARBOLES application for Puerto López to both the SPRING and MapMaker Popular GIS packages. We elaborated a customized application of MapMaker for Puerto Lopez Popular with all the maps resulting from the analysis of the soil maps, for each of the 13 land use options considered. Figure 3 shows one of the displays of this customized application for Puerto López. The database tool was designed to allow a modification of the decision tree to adapt it to other localities, or simply to allow experts to revise their decision rules with time . It allows the inclusion of criteria other than simply soil and topography. It could be adapted to a completely different problematic th a n land use. We predict that through the use and adaptation of this tool with partners, users can combine their knowledge into decision trees, work out h ow local stakeholders can use these, and then adjust the decision rules through monitoring the results of the adoption of the proposed options.Preliminary developments of this tool were presented in the 2002 PE4 Annual Report. This year, th e tool was completed, a users' manual and a help module elaborated, and the tool was presented in October to potential partners a n d user s. With the objective of following up on the trainees and the activities they developed with the skills they acquired, we organized a workshop, \"El encu entro nacional de usuarios de herramientas SIG para la toma de decisiones en planificación rural y Ordenamiento Territorial\", at CIAT headquarters in Palmira from 13th to 15th November 2002. Fifty participants attended. The event included oral presentations, discussion sessions, a poster session, and an evaluation of needs in planning approaches, legislation, information tools, and coordination between different administrative levels.One of the results of this seminar was the formation of a network with the workshop p articipants, and the other beneficiaries of training events organized on rural planning, to discuss various issues of d evelopment planning in general. This network is open to new members, and new subscriptions should be sent to Ovidio Muñoz at o.munoz@cgiar.orgThe Latín American workshop on territory and sustainable development Contributors: Jaime Jaramillo; Hubert Mazurek (IRD); Paolo Groppo, Federica Ravera (Land tenure service, FAO); International Land Coalition; CIAT rural planning team; CIAT training unit From June 17th to 20th, CIAT-Headquarters hosted the workshop entitled \"Taller latinoamericano Territorio y desarrollo sostenible\", funded by the International Fund for Agricultura! Development (IFAD). This workshop was organized to forma network of professionals on the themes of territory and sustainable development, to exchange experiences, and to evaluate processes and methods of participatory and negotiated territorial planning, aiming to explore implementation channels related to rural development and the management of natural resources in Latín America.The 53 participants contributed their experience in applications or research related to land tenure and the management of natural resources, territorial planning, rural institutions, and participation. This event had representatives from academia, public administrations, international institutions, grassroots organizations, and NGOs. A CD-ROM was prepared with materials from the workshop.Cont ributors: Rogelio Pineda, Ovidio Muñoz, Jaime Gómez, Yolanda Rubiano, Adriana Fajardo, Maria Fernanda Jiménez, Marcela Quintero; CIAT training unit On the 16th and 17th October 2003, at the Hotel Villavicencio Plaza, we organized a workshop for the socialization of methods and DSTs for land use p lanning developed during the last S years of the agreement between CIAT and MADR. We benefited from the participation of representatives of farmer associations and unions, the prívate sector, academia, regional environmental corporations, NGOs, research institutes, municipal administrations, departmental administrations, UMATAs, and other institutions involved in environmental management. There were 43 participants from 22 institutions. This has allowed us to develop partnerships with users of these methods and tools, with whom we can further co-develop and adapt them to user needs.In the context of the agreement between MADR and CIAT, we organized training on basic concepts of remate sensing, using the (free) GIS and image processing software, SPRING, developed by the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciales (INPE) in Brazil. This course was organized jointly with CORPOICA Regional 8, and was conducted at the Universidad de los llanos from 2 1st to 25th October 2002. There were 15 participants, from institutions such as the Institut de Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM), CORPOICA, Instituto Nacional de Adecuación de Tierras (I NAT), División Municipal de Aguas (DIMA), Corporación para e l desarrollo sostenible del area de manep especial la Macarena (CORMACARENA), CIAT-Santa Rosa, Universidad de los Llanos (UNILLANOS), Policía Nacional del departamento del Meta, Gerencia Ambiental y Secretaría de Planeación de la Gobernación del Meta, and Instituto Técnico Industrial.A training course was given by Nathalie Beaulieu at the Geography Department of the University of Uberlandia, Brazil, from May 10 to 13, 2003, on  Focusing on the need to stimulate the inclusion of a user perspective, particularly that of women, in pre-adaptive research, the participants of the p lanning meeting determined that an urgent need existed to \"strengthen, con solida te, •and mainstream gender analysis and participatory research in a high-priority, high -visibility program that recognizes farmer participation as an important strategic research issue\". The idea was to pool resources and knowledge within the CGIAR system to accelerate the development of new methodological tools, capacities, and institutional strategies for participatory research (PR).Because of its recognized leadership in this area, CIAT was asked to convene the Program. Three other CGIAR centers-CIMMYT, IRRI, and ICARDA-agreed to actas co-sponsors.The strategy and structure of the Program were designed for the task at hand. Three decentralized working groups were formed. These were the Participatory Plant Breeding Working Group (PBG), the Participatory Natural Resource Management Working Group (PNRM-wg), and the Gender Analysis Working Group (GA-wg). Each hada representative in the planning group, and each made a 5-year work plan that has provided the basis for th e annual agenda of work and budgeting. The elements of the GA Group's work plan were substantially p lanned into the PBG and PNRM Group's 5year work plans to ensure integration of gender with these areas of wor k.In 1997, the CGIAR Gender Program, which had been staffed from the CGIAR Secretariat, was formally incorporated into the systemwide PRGA Program.The working groups comprise practitioners from IARCs, national agricultura} research institutes (NAR!s), NGOs, and indigenous research systems, mixing expertise from both the biophysical and social sciences to implementa common work plan. The members meet periodically at the Program 's biannual intemational seminar, at research workshops, and at field si tes. An important mode of work is through e-mail networks.While each working group has its specific work plan, the three have in common four l.For an explanation ofthis and other acronyms and abbreviations used in the text, see Appendix 15.elements that forro the main thrust of the Program's approach: methodology development, capacity building, partnerships and networks, and ínstitutionalization.The PRGA Program is now 6 years old. Together with its partners, the Program has been a factor in creating a strong momentum to implement participatory approaches not only within the CGIAR system, but also on a broader scale. Many r espected scientists and practitioners are using these approaches in their research, and demand is growing (although as yet, unmet) for training. The Program has shown that PRGA embodies rigorous methods that are scientifically grounded.The Program's work has built a body of evidence that shows that these methods are delivering broad ímpact by producing technologies and resource rnanagement options that are well suited to end users' needs, thus significantly reducing the possibility of farmers rejecting newly developed technologies. In addition, PR is producing \"process impacts\", resulting in, for example, increased human and social capital, which is essential to the sustainability of rural development and innovation. Among those who benefit most from the implementation of these approaches are the most needy-women, the very poor, and marginal groups-who are often overlooked by conventional research. Finally, the PRGA Program has demonstrated how participatory and gendersensitive approaches can be cost efficient beca use of their increased impact and reduced time overall to produce relevant technologies. Leam ing and change does not extend to organizations. However, learning and ch ange remain at p roj ect leve!. The a b sence of feed back from pr oject to organization has implications for learning to be s u stained beyond the project's life.1.1.1.2. Objectives Hence, while it is important to continue with efforts to build compelling evidence of impact, there is a real need to focu s attention on developing capacity fo r PRGA, combined with organization-d evelopment skills fo r their institutionalization. More specifically, the strategy for th e PRGA Program's phase 2 w ill focus on the following:Capacity developmen t in methods that ensur e gender-equitable, stakeholder-client represen tation in research decision making; and n etworkíng within a cadre of champions who support each oth er and wh o can make a difference.Continue to build compelling evidence of impact.Develop act ion research partnerships to institutionalize PRGA approaches within a core of IARCs and NARS.Communications and par tnerships for disseminating information and devolving Program activities, responsibilities, and decision making to stakeholders.Outputs for 2002-200 3 included:State-of-the-art analyses were published as PPB Monographs. These four commissioned documents, now completed, are extensi ve studies on participatory plant breeding (PPB) a nd gender analysis (GA).More than 120 case s tudies of PPB were identified and described for the PPB inventory, now available on the PRGA Program's Web page.Fifteen PPB reports from projects funded by the PRGA . .For an ex planahon of the acrony ms and abbrevtabons, see Appendix 15Using GA as a research tool is basic to developing technology aimed at alleviating the poverty of severely disadvantaged social groups~specially poor rural women. The Program's strategy is to:Promote the use of GA.Not only understand the implications of women's existing roles and responsibilities in agriculture and NRM for technology development and institutional innovation, but also identify new opportunities for innovation that involve a concomitant change in women's status.Integration is more effective than isolation; thus GA is a central component in the Program 's research, capacity-building, and partnership-developrnent activities. Analysis of differences arnong stakeholder groups is a first step in designing a good PR agenda. Gender analysis, together with the analysis of other differentiating characteristics within and among groups of technologies, can help ensure that technologies will be useful and used.The focus is on rnainstreaming gender and/ or stakeholder analysis principies, rnethods, and tools in PB and NRM research so that their use becomes an integral part of the processes of research design and irnplernentation within the CGIAR systern.Participatory research in PB and NRM integrates GA into the research process and involves:Diverse stakeholder groups.Our capacity-building strategy gives our partners the skills needed to integrate gender and stakeholder analysis and partnership principies as critical components of the PR processes in which they are involved.Our information dissemination and public awareness activities make visible the needs of both men and women innovators and users of technology.The Program develops criteria for assessing the extent to which GA and user involvement in the research process have been achieved and what impact they have had.The Program does not limit itself to gender as the sole user-<iifferentiating variable for women in PRjust for the sake of involving them, but also to build skills in GA outside the context of PB and NRM research, and to advocate gender-staffing policies per se.The Program itself should be an example of gender-sensitive stakeholder participation in its own organizational structure, and functions to serve as a \"learning lab\". Gendersensitive stakeholder representation is sought in all the Program's collaborative partnerships at all levels-from the Advisory Board that advises management to the formation of stakeholder committees in projects receiving small grants.In phase 1, the strategy for capacíty development focused largely on the use of methods and approaches for conducting PRGA. Specifically, these were:Gender and stakeholder tools and methods.Research approaches built on sound use of gender and stakeholder analyses.Participatory research methods, processes, and skills for NRM and PB.Forming and sustaining effective partnerships for partícipation.Methods, tools, and procedures for impact assessment, participatory monitoring, and evaluation.Additionally, capacity for on-going projects, using PRGA approaches, was supported through a small grants program (Appendix 3). An inherent objective of the small grants was to build local capacity through learning workshops that the PRGA Program supports. Recipients of the grants were committed to conducting a joint workshop or seminar in their own institutions to expand awareness of the results of PRGA approaches, to promote exchanges with NARS, and to participate in intemational events sponsored by the Program.The Program also promotes awareness building, involving donors and senior management of the CGIAR centers (Appendix 4).For phase 2, th e strategy for capacity d evelopment will focu s m ore specifically on building capacity to en cour age a process of gender -equitable , stakeholder-client representation in research decision making. This will require enh ancing capacity in the following areas:Methods for using gender andjor stakeholder analyses for technology development.Skills and planning in organization development.Concepts and skills fo r impact assessment.Networking within a cadre of champions who support each other and who can make a difference.The PRGA Program's goal in its impact assessment work during the first phase (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) was to provide compelling evidence of impact of gender-sensitive participatory research.The strategy to provide that evidence had three components:Develop original impact assessment frameworks tailored to the particularities of assessing the impact of a method, as well as deve1op specific tools for impact assessment.Conduct severa! collaborative empirical studies on applying these frameworks and tools.Build capacity through networking for mutual support and leaming among the users of participatory methods.The PRGA Program's stakeholder meetings during 22-23 April 2002 (Bonn, Germany) and 30 June-1 July 2003 (Cali, Colombia) endorsed the idea that the current impact assessment strategy had been effective, and that the same strategy should be continued during the second phase. The Cali meeting also proposed placing greater effort on enhancing the usefulness of impact assessment as a tool for institutionallearning and change.This Synthesis Report tells the story of 5 years of PRGA Program activities on a global scale and captures the essence of the Program's achievements during its first phase ( 1997 -2002).Beca use each of the four strategy elements-methodology development, capacity building, partner ships and n etworks, and institutionalization-has been the thrust of the PRGA Program's activities and has con tributed substantially to its impact, they will be recurring themes throughout the report.1.3.1. Major findingsThe PRGA approach embodies rigorous systematic methods that are scientifically grounded and whose results are valid.Compared with conventional research , participatory approaches produce technologies and resource management options that are better suited to end users, thus increasing the economic benefits from adoption. In addition , participatory research produces impact on processes, thu s helping to generate human and social capital, and is therefore more enduring than is the impact of most other technologies.Enables research to target these groups who are often overlooked by conventional research; and helps scientists understand the relationsh íps among women and roen farmers and /or stakehold ers and h ow these affect, and may be affected by, research and development ínterventions.Reduces the overall time required to produce relevant technologies, and significantly reduces the possibility th a t technologies a re rejected by farmers once they have been developed.Many respected CGIAR scientists are using PRGA approaches in their research, and demand, as yet unmet, is growing for training in the scientific use of PRGA methods in agriculture. As a scientific community we now know much more about the variable nature, and potential applications of PRGA. Not all participation is the same. We know that an array of different \"divisions of labor\" between farming communities and researchers can be u sed during various s tages in the research process to produce distinct outcomes. The institutional environrnents in which these research approaches are implemented also affect the way in which the research unfolds. Moreover, we have learned that different kinds of participatory approaches give diverse clusters of both product and process impacts that bear on the well-being of rural communities. These findings help us make sound judgments about when and how to apply participatory and gendersensitive methods when planning our research.As a strategy to push forward the field of participatory and gender -sensitive research, the PRGA Program has runa competitive small grants program. So far, 9 projects have been funded for work in NRM and 13 projects in PPB. Results show that good progress was made in addressing gender needs.Although the small grant projects have been the PRGA Program's main arm in the field, Program staff ha ve also engaged directly in cutting-edge research. For example, a Program staff member, together with outside legal expertise, have conducted a study that addressed the challenging issue of how to attribute intellectual property rights that emerge from collaboration between researchers and farming communities. This work is beginning to fill a major gap in the international arena, where current agreements draw prime attention to plant breeders' rights and farmers' rights, but fail to address the division of benefits that could result from collaborative work.Appreciating compelling evidence of the impact of using participatory approaches is the only way that scientists and research managers will begin to incorporate these approaches into their research. While impact of participatory research is recorded, the differential effect of using participatory, in contrast to other, approaches has rarely been systematically analyzed and documented; n or h as the effect of using varying types of participation during different stages of research been assessed.The PRGA Program has developed and applied tools for empirical impact studies in both PPB and NRM. Four impact cases studies have been completed and thr ee more a re in progress and expected to be completed. Both impact and costs were studied, with a focus on documenting impact of processes in different types of participatory research, as well as impact of involving farmers at different stages of research. The studies evaluated impact on technology and adoption, human and social capital, and feedback to formal research.Initial findings suggest that higher degrees of farmer involvement and control in research yield higher levels of empowerment; give voice to farmers' technology priorities, including women's priorities; speed up technology adaptation; increase human capital; boost adoption; and have positive impact on farmers' profits. Empírica! evidence also exists that participatory research reduces th e costs of developing technologies that are not adopted by intend ed users.To facilitate the use of participatory approaches, the PRGA Program has u sed several strategies to build and articula te or network a community of knowledge and practice.We have stimulated a worldwide exchange of expertise through various listservs, organized three biannual international seminars that gathered over 500 PRGA practitioners from around the world, created three publicly accessible databases with information on projects using these approaches, and established a network of PRGA The Advisory Board's role is three part: to guide the functioning of the PRGA Prograrn toward its main goal and aims, to provide general advice to the Coordinator of the Program, and to participate in resource mobilization for the Program.To establish the Program's guidelines, principies, and policies.To advise the Coordinator on strategy, including fund seeking, networking, planning, and evaluation.To represent the Program in international forums.The Advisory Board meets regularly once ayear, although meetings can also be called on an ad hoc basis, depending on the Program's needs. However, during its 30 June-1 July meeting, held in Cali, Colombia, the Advisory Board made the following decisions on its meetings:The Board will meet electronically every 6 months, dates to be scheduled by agreement 12 months in advance. The Coordination will make a brief report on progress at this electronic conference.A defmite schedule of PRGA Annual Board Meetings will be agreed u pon and board members will be asked to fmnly commit themselves to this schedule 12 months in advance.An annual meeting will be held every year in the last week of June, with the Jocation to be agreed on each year-it will probably rotate from one Board member's location to another.A budget line ítem for the Board meetings will be explicitly designated.The schedule for the next five years is as follows: The Advisory Board is composed of nine elected members:Three representatives, one elected from each of the three working groups.Five representatives, one elected from each of the stakeholder groups in the initiative: NARis, NGOs, IARCs (not including the convening center), donors, and farmers.One member from the convening center.The Advisory Board will have a regional and gender balance. Current Board members are: Analyze the costs of altemative participatory methods to involve different users in plant breeding.Revise methods for assessing indirect stakeholder roles and needs.Synthesize fmdings on how to involve hidden and indirect stakeholders in participatory approaches.Synthesize case study fmdings on how to resolve conflicts among diverse users and stakeholders in germplasm resources.Publish guidelines on the cost-benefit ratios of different approaches to involve and target differentiated users.Inventory and compare different divisions of labor among farmers and breeders in the breeding process.Revise the ways that existing breeding programs organize and fund links with farmers.Identify promising links and innovations.Partners of organizational innovations also monitor and evaluate (including conducting cost-benefit analyses of different links and forms) those innovations for PPB.Formulate guidelines for decision makers on promising organizational forms.Revise communication tools for improving farmer-scientist interactions.Assess various methods and tools for understanding local seed systems.Identify strategies for strengthening local seed sy stems.Revise and develop methods to link participatory approaches in breeding with local seed system s and market s.Identify incentives and roles of CBOs and NGOs in enhancing seed and seed information flow.Explore constraints and opportunities to include products of PPB in existing regulatory frameworks. Truly novel research developments were presented in the realm of PPB: priority setting, on-farm trial design and experimentation, impact and cost-benefit assessment, property rights, and biotechnology (particularly \"participatory\" molecular marker -assisted selection). Those integrative approaches that aim to better link the production objectives of PPB with the more holistic aims of genetic resource management and empowerment were also explored in detail. Finally, the group outlined an explicit agenda for action in \"priority areas in PPB\", including the need to work on seed policy and regulatory reform to ensure that the products of PPB actually reach the in tended end users, particularly the world 's more marginal men and women farmers.In August 2002, the PRGA Program's Coordination initiated a consultation process with the PBG about future directions. The following questions were posed:What is your opinion of the val u e and functioning of the PBG?What type of structure do you feel would best suit the purpose of PBG?If you feel devolving management of the PBG to its members is desirable, which functions do you feel s h ould be managed by group members and which should be managed by the PRGA Program?If you feel that changes shou ld be mad e to the current structure of the PBG, how would you propase operationalizing these changes?Are there other commen ts, questions, or observations you would like to make on any aspect of the PBG or about t h e PRGA Program in general?See Appendix 7 for the feedback received.To institutionalize PPB, ch anges must be made in variety release systems and seed production.Develop a monograph on PPB for students and researchers and / or practitioners in PPB. Strengthen policy influence from both intemational bodies and grassroots levels.Draw lessons from case studies of PPB institutionalization CGIAR and FAO to work together to influence policy on seed systems and seed regulation.Conduct policy workshops that include ministers, technocrats, NARS, and farmers.For example, to integrate clean-seeds production systems with participatory NRM SUMMARY: Most member s prefer both networks to be maintained separately, althou gh links between them should be increased because \"distinction is against the real spirit of participatory research\". Argumen ts are that the PBG network works better independently, it is already very large and not too specific, and has yet to resolve its problems. PRGA Program should continue with coordin ation, alth ough sorne think it would do a better job if run more independ ently from the CGIAR.The purpose of the PRGA Small Grants Program is to build capacity for a pplying PRGA approaches to ongoing research. The funded projects contribute methodological and organizational innovation to the field of PRGA and rigorous evaluations of the impact of applying participatory and equity-enhancing approaches, with special attention to the effects on poor, rural women. Projects analyze the outcomes of these methods, comparing them with those of conventional research methods, and evaluate the effects on the research process itself.Eligibility for small grants requires partnerships among two or more different types of organizations. The program has helped foster research partnerships among IARCS, NARS, NGOs, universities, and grass-roots organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latín America. Table 2a details severa! projects funded by the Small Grants Program.Includes support to students, and collaboration with partners.Three doctoral theses continue to be funded by the PRGA Program. They are making good progress, with fieldwork near completion and dissertation writing already started. They focus on subjects key to filling gaps within the PPB field: local seed systems, farmers' decision-making in PPB in the context of a systems perspective, and how to break the nexus between poverty and agrobiodiversity.);> Mekbib Frew-EthiopianBegan doctoral stu dies at the Agricultura! University of Norway in February 2000. His research is entitled Diversity of Seeds, Seeds of Diversity: Food Security through Enhancement of Sorghum. As stated in the proposal document, the project's main goal is to promote a sustainable use of on-farro sorghum diversity and increase small-scale production for resource-poor farmers in eastem Ethiopia. This region is a center of origin for the crop, with a unique diversity of farmers' varietie s, knowledge, and management systems. Despite more than 40 years of formal and scientific breeding, adoption of modem varieties is very low. The project explores the hypotheses that (1) a discrepancy líes between modem varieties and those preferred by farmers (who are mostly women) , and (2) local materials can be improved without sacrificing diversity or resulting in loss of adaptation. To understand farmers' decision-making processes, the project must adopta participatory, gender-sensitive, approach, which is likely to be more fruitful than the traditional top-down approach.To improve the region's food security by enhancing biodiversity conservation and use, baseline information is needed on farmers' knowledge and technology, and on the extent of on-farm genetic diversity and loss. López reports the following highlights so far:For production system characterization: three production systems and five types of farmer s were identified in the Caribe Region, as according to key agrobiophysical variables, farm area, land tenure, a n d land tenure stability.For farmers' knowledge and modeling: farmers have a sophisticated decision-making model for integrating market information, family necessity, and food security. They appear especially concerned over weed control, the amount of area to which cassava is p lanted, and specific harvesting proced ures. In gen eral, no strong differences by gender were noted in reference to t h ese key concerns. However, in terms of detailed knowledge, gender and production system differences are obvious in relation to knowledge domains. For example, farmers from production system 5 clearly classify soil according to color and structure, whereas, in production systems 2 and 3, farmers identify two types of soil based only on texture. Likewise, men farmers in production system 5 had a sophisticated under standing of the relation ships between maize and weed residues, mulch, soil erosion, soil fertility, and soil moisture. In contrast, women consider cassava leaf color intensity, cassava-maize attractiveness, and in creases in cassava root diameter when maize residues are removed after harvest.)> K.irit K. Patel-IndianPursuing PhD studies at the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI). Kirit's project is on Breaking the Nexus Between Poverty and Agrobiodiversity: Institutional and Policy Changes for Supporting Farmer-Led Participatory Crop Improvement and Conservation.In the context of the growing success of participatory approaches, the project aims to understand the extent to which various successful PPB projects have achieved the conflicting goals of crop improvement and on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity. It examines the various instruments of incentives and benefit sharing that successful PPB projects use to encourage participating farmers and communities. The project will also analyze current policy environments to identify constraints affecting the operationalization of various incentives and benefit sharing for farmers to continue onfarm conservation and improvement of a diverse genepool. Sorne PPB p rojects reported in the literature from western India and Nepal were tentatively considered for possible fieldwork and data collection. This brief report explains how the project evolved, given situations in the field, and discusses the updates on research approaches and activities being used.A publication, Quantitative Analysis of Datafrom Participatory Methods in Plant Breeding, was produced. The papers in this volume were presented at a workshop of the same title and held at the Castle of Rauischholzhausen Conference Center of the Justus Liebig University, Germany, during 23-25 August 200 l. Participants were CGIAR scientists who wanted to review and discuss the different quantitative techniques used for analyzing data generated by participatory methodologies in the context of plant breeding.Participatory plant breeding (PPB) is gaining wider acceptance worldwide-it is increasingly being used within the CGIAR-and its merits and limitations are beginning to be better understood. Many scientists involved in these efforts, however, have realized that the quantitative techniques needed to analyze the data from the participatory methodologies used in PPB are still not well known or understood by many practitioners. Further discussion and exchange of methods and ideas are needed. The worksh op was organized around three themes:Designing and analyzing joint experiments involving variety evaluation by farmers.Identifying and analyzing farmers' evaluations of crop characteristics and varieties.Dealing with social heterogeneity and other research issues.The PRGA Program agreed to provide CIMMYT with a grant of US$1500 to be budgeted toward the printin g costs of this publication. Most programs focused on productivity enhancement, particularly in marginal environments. Another important goal was to ensure the possibility of releasin g varieties a dapted to specific (often marginal) production conditions through policy changes. Other goals, such as bíodiversity enhancement and farmer capacity building, were secondary in most PPB programs.Formally led PPB programs tend to cluster in production environments of high stress (marginal) and subsisten ce. Surprisingly, however, an increasing number of projects are addressing less stressed, more market-driven contexts.Farmers' participation in formally led PPB can be considered in terms of the stages of the breeding process during which it occurs, the nature of farmers' contributions, and the degree of decision making. These three dimensions together describe the \"quality of participation\".In terms of \"stage\", in most of the PPB cases examined, farmer participation occurred during the testin g of (geneticaUy flXed) varieties. The involvement of farmers in setting breedíng priorities and targets is also reasonably common. Much less has been done to explore farmers' potential contributions to settíng the overall goals of a breeding program, generating variability, or selecting experimental varieties from among segregating populations. Participation between researchers and farmers in the variety diffusion process is beginning to receive more attention.The nature of contributions that farmers had made included providing key inforrnation from their knowledge and experience, and genetic materials, and being involved in the actual breeding process. The farmers' contributions provide breeders with insights needed to identify appropriate varieties and irnprove seed production and distribution systerns. The degree of participation within formally led PPB was overwhelrningly consultative, that is, farmers gave advice, but had no real decision-making power.For this review, 48 cases were identified, studied, and inventoried. Of these, 11 case studies were presented in greater depth in the body of the report, having been chosen to represent the diversíty of crop types, geographic regions, and scales of PPB programs, and to show sorne of the different motivations the formal breeding sector had for pursuing PPB.The case studies showed work in progress with farmers involved in different stages of the breeding process. Crops were of the cross-pollinated, self-pollinated, and clonally propagated types. The research was located in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Mesoamerica, and addressed farmers' needs in a wide variety of agroecological conditions from extremely hot, dry, desert margins to very high rainfall, high altitude, rugged conditions. Sorne cases deal with highly market-oriented production and others with subsistence-oriented systems where production shortfalls are frequent. Most of the case studies represented production systems in which the formal breeding sector alone, without the farmers' direct ínvolvement, had only limited success.Case studies involving different institutional partners and collaborative arrangements are also represented. The cases emphasized different broad goals, with sorne addressing issues that farmers identified and initiated, while others merely consulted farrners and used the information to orient selection programs or other breeding activities.The book uses the information from the case studies to describe key outcomes: lessons learned from themes on biophysical and socioeconomic environment s, breeding strategies involving farmers, issues of participation, gender juser differentiation , institutions in formally led PPB, and transfer of benefits . The review concludes by focusing on identifying gaps in our understanding that must be addressed by future PPB research. This report considers research that sought to support farmers' own systems of crop development and seed exchange (farmer-led PPB) in light of these dífferent goals, and from the perspectives of the range of organizations promoting PPB. It presents an overview of farmer-led breeding anda framework for support, giving the frrst major comparative analysis of farmer-led PPB.This document broadly defmes farmer-led breeding to include both deliberate actions and those bound in farmers' practice, to consider collective as well as individual processes, and to include systems of seed storage and exchange. A review of current knowledge about farmer-led breeding points to areas of similarity and difference from formal breeding. Farmers often bring a wider set of criteria to crop development than does formal breeding. They also seek to balance maintenance wíth crop improvement, and local with broad adaptation, although details are sparse on the nature and success of such balances.Farmer-led breeding can be considered as a series of processes for managing gene flow, in parallel with formal breeding, which influences crop genetic structure and performance, and d etermines who receives germplasm and information. These processes include introduction of new diversity (and its testing), recombination, selection, storage, and exchange of planting material. Knowledge remains patchy on the biological and social impact of these processes. Farmers' actual interest in breeding may be supported by a range of socioeconomic factors (failure of formal breeding, importance of crop, absence of policy barriers), as well as biological factors (visible diversity, self-pollination, environmental variation, experience with crop). As a social process, farmer-led breeding and seed exchange involve particular groups dífferently, often giving particular roles to gender or wealth.The core of this report describes and analyses 11 case studies of projects that pioneer different aspects of farmer-led PPB. They represent activities in Africa, Asia, and North and South Arnerica, initiated by institutions ranging from independent farmers ' initiatives to the CGIAR, and involve crops from all breeding systems. PPB projects are active, not just in marginal areas, but across a broad spread of agroecologies.These cases address a range of goals, the most common being conservation and improvement of germplasm. Many of these cases also sought to expand farmers' crop options, although only a few cases made this a central goal, exclusive of interest in conservation. An additional goal in severa! cases was empowerment through promoting self-reliance. Finally, one case concentrated on helping post-<iisaster adjustment. In most cases, the degree of overlap between crop conservation and development was Short-tenn benefits for fanners to compensa te farrners for the risks and costs of experimentation, and address their most pressing needs, without sacrificing opportunities for long-term benefits.An explicit social vision that is clearly articulated and shared among project partners; and, a shared understanding of what a given project would mean for that vision.Effective \"problem transfer\", for example, a problem is \"transferred\" when researchers identify the farmen~• needs as their own.Access to enabling technologies by developing, via negotiation with proprietary sources, a public biotechnology toolbox or strategic alliances with key public research institutions.Effective and efji.cient regulatory systems that are designed to ensure responsible use of transgenic biotechnology. They also create costs, often exceeding research costs, which directly affect what technologies are developed for and with resource-poor farmers.Initiative and continuity. A rare blend of realism, idealism, and stability will be required. Highly heterogeneous partnerships must be formed and kept focused and motivated.Beca use of its capacity for multidisciplinary research, its focus on poverty eradication, and its experience in animating and sustaining long-term partnerships, the CGIAR is in a unique position to integrate biotechnology and farmer participatory research.Title: Participatory Plant Breeding and Gender AnalysisAuthors: Cathy Rozel Farnworth and Janice Jiggins Summary: Empirical enquiry and experience has shown that technology is not necessarily gender neutral; neither are knowledge and information. We know that women's roles in seed handling, agricultura! production, food processing, trading, and purchase are vital to food security and family well-being, and that these roles and the knowledge on which they are based can be substantially and importantly different to that of men's. Yet, even as women acutely need income-generating, labor-saving, and productivity-increasing technologies to enable them to fulfill their roles more easily, gender issues still remain to be fully incorporated into technology development. The continuing failure of much technology R&D to recognize women's actual and potential contribution to technology development and use is not only detrimental to the economic security and social status of women and their families, but also, indeed, to the success of R&D in meeting national and regional objectives.This book has therefore been commissioned by the PRGA Program to address these gaps with respect to plant breeding. The document aims to:Provide an analysis of the methods and approaches currently used within PPB with respect to gender issues, the use of GA, and u ser involvement.Draw out the implications of researchers' experience with GA and user involvement.Analyze and d iscuss the outputs curren tly being generated by PPB from a user per spective.Identify wh a t more can be done, and how, to achieve broader impact and capitalize on what has so far been achieved .Monograph's layout: The authors ch ose case studies from aroun d the world to help highligh t p articular points, provide in spiration, a nd s h ow how lessons can be drawn from practice.Rather than summarize the fmdings of each chapter , the authors chose to conclude, where appropriate, particular chapters with a section entitled Gaps and Opportunities, which attempts to draw out the lessons of th e material pr esented and discussed . The fmal ch apter b rings together the lessons learned in th e preceding chapter s, to pr ovide pointers for the future. Argues that the literatu re on impact studies in PPB is inadequate for provid ing a gendered understanding. It assesses the contributions that sorne conventional irnpact studies have made, and examines the role of PPB in innovation. U ser participation in the provision of impact data is discussed, and the impact of PPB processes on social dynarnics examined.Chapter 7--Forward-Lookíng Summary: The conclusions that may be drawnfrom each chapter are elaborated here. Further steps for action are presented. As planned, the Program has focused primarily on reaching the core scientists of the CGIAR, NARS, and other institutions who may have concerns about the rigor and concrete impact of partícipatory approaches. This emphasis was adopted on advice from the ICER and a TAC Breeding Review Panel, who felt that, given the substantial progress made in advancing partícipatory plant breeding (PPB) approaches and methods, it was time to advance change among the \"mainstream\" breeding community. Three separate \"institutionalization\" activities were therefore funded: a PPB workshop on the \"Quality of Science\"; a set of in-depth PPB impact studies (year 1 ); and a series of PRGA Program working papers on the \"Quality of Science\" (year 2).The CGIAR centers themselves need to reflect, synthesize, and develop well-rooted strategies for PRGA work. CIP's recent ICER on participatory research showed that this sort of reflection is fundamental for institutionalizing the approach. Strong centerbased conviction and key change agents for PRGA approaches are essential for strong systemwide commitment.Intra-Center Change Committees were established to foster organizational strategies for PRGA work. The Working Group on Participatory Research at CIP was an ímportant catalyst for the establishment of Intra-Center Change Committees. The CIP Working Group received considerable support from leadership, and included rnembers from several projects wíthin the Center. Barun Gurung frorn the PRGA Program frrst visited in July 2002 to discuss and develop an action plan for collaboration between the Working Group and the PRGA Program for further institutionalization. Based on díscussions with the Research Director and key members of t h e Working Group, an initial institutional assessment was planned.An intem, under the supervision and guidance of the Working Group's Coordínator, was contracted to conduct the survey. Considerable time was spent orienting the intern to the organizational assessment framework. The study began in July 2002, and inítial results were presented to CIP managemen t and senior staff. Recently, a frrst draft was circulated among all Working Group members, and is expected to be fin alized in October 2003.The report and action plan for the future institutionalization of PRGA approaches at CIP will be submitted to the PRGA Program in November 2003.With incomes and food security in sub-Saharan Africa worsening and natural resources deteriorating at alarming rates, there is urgent need for research to engage more effectively with the rural poor, particularly smallholder farmers, women, and target groups from highly vulnerable areas suffering adverse effects of HIV / AIDS and climate change. However, much of the effectiveness of research and development (R&D) systems in addressing the needs and demands of their constituency groups, particularly of smallholders and women, is critically constrained by organizational considerations. R&D systems predicated on a \"supply driven\" agenda of innovation cannot effectively respond to the smallholders' complex social and environmental realities.An additional constraining factor in addressing the needs of smallholders and women is the limited capacity for using gender-sensitive participatory approaches, particularly of the CGIAR centers. Findings of the PRGA Program demonstrate that end users such as women are brought into the research process at very late stages, usually to evaluate technologies that have already been developed and are ready for dissemination. Consequently, such technologies are often inappropriate for the needs of the poor and women (Annual Report of the PRGA Program, submitted to BMZ 2003). 4   The PRGA Program and FARA propose to strengthen, consolidate, and mainstream gender analysis and participatory research in a high priority, highly visible program. This program would recognize and promote gender equity and gender-sensitive participatory approaches as an important strategic process in making R&D organizations demand drivens. One avenue for doing sois through developing enhanced capacity for gender-sensitive participatory approaches, combined wit h enhanced capacity for organizational innovations that will sustain the use of such approaches beyond the project's life through t heir institutionalization within the procedures, structures, and cultures of the participating organizations.The PRGA Program and FARA will work closely with the three subregional organizations (SROs)6 in Africa to improve the performance of agricultura! research for development,One key lesson leamed in participatory research is that involving stakeholders early in research leads to better targeting, greater sense of ownership, and higher impact. Only by recognizing current incentive structures and feeding into existing leaming processes can impact assessment contribute to b etter decision making and ever-increasing impact. Assessing the extent to which R&D organizations ha ve been able to learn and change because of their experience is an irnportant element in mainstreaming PRGA approaches.\"Mainstreaming\" is an umbrella concept that includes five separate but interrelated components: particularly of highly vulnerable target groups and areas suffering adverse effects of HIV / AIDS and clima te change.A workshop will be held to designa challenge program (CP) for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The SSA-CP would be owned by stakeholders, and would build and add value to previous efforts.See Appendix 9 for an example of a workshop evaluation. The PRGA Program and LI-BIRD began their collaborative impact study with a planning workshop in October 2002. The study's specific objective was to assess those changes in farmers' skills and economic benefits that may result from increased knowledge. Excellent baseline data exist on the participating farmers, and the same 100 farmers in two sites were surveyed to assess changes in human capital resulting from project impact. Although this study was delayed by Maoist insurgency in the Gulmi area, data collection was completed by July 2003, and data are currently being analyzed.The results of this study will be discussed at the learning workshop to be held during LI-BIRD's annual planning meeting in February 2004. The workshop will involve a facilitated discussion and feedback on the impact study's results, linking field activity and organizational adaptability. The expected outcome of the learning workshop will be an action plan for organizational effectiveness.Revive \"classical\" papers and gray literature (i.e., \"unpublished stuff')Document \"best practices\", case studies, and Jessons learned Identify gaps and initiate new research Create a Web site Create virtual conferences on specific themes of emerging issuesIn the Program, the GA-wg would:Play an advisory role on: \"How to\" mainstream gender analysis in PPB and PNRM Monitoring and evaluating the PBG, PNRM-wg, and other working groups Develop capacity for GA through training and mentoring Expand partnerships with other organizations (e.g., research and grassroots) working on gender issues\"Gender\" refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women, and the relationships between them. Gender does not simply refer tomen or women, but to the way their qualities, behavior, and identities are determined through socialization. These roles and responsibilities are culturally specific and can change over time.Gender is seen as the social construction of men and women's roles in a given culture or location.Gender roles are distinguished from sex roles, which are biologically determined. Gender refers to the socially determined roles played by men and women . These different roles are influenced by historical, religious, economic, cultural, and ethnic factors. As men and women are defmed in the weave of specific social fabrics, the relationships they share constitute what is known as \"gender relations\".Poor targeting, inequitable distribution of benefits and burdens, and poor operational and maintenance structures have hindered development projects from addressing issues of sustainable development in water resources management. Commun ity participation and management approaches have also failed to address these issues, largely because communities are often seen as a collection of people with a common purpose.The reality is that a community is not a collection of equal people living in a particular geographic region. It is usually made up of individuals and groups who command different levels of power, wealth, influence, and ability to express their needs, concems, and rights. Communities contain competing interest groups. Where resources are scarce, there is competition for supplies, a nd those at the lowest end of the p ower spectrum-this often implies the poor-will go without. Power issues place women in a disadvantaged position. Applying a gender analysis helps development agencies better target their resources and the needs of different gender groups.People-centered approaches do not always ensure that gender perspectives are taken into account. Thus, a deliberate strategy of gender mainstreaming can be useful to ensure that these issues are part of analyses, project planning, and evaluations.The tool Gender Typology helps researchers analyze how they are using gender analysis (GA) and, likewise, how it affects their research, as well as technology design and adoption. It upholds the premise that those who participate in the different decisions made during research, particularly during technology design, have an important impact, both on the processes and products of research. Gen.der Typology outlines three ways in which GA can be used :Diagnosis oriented: Differences in gender and stakeholder problems and priorities are diagnosed. They may or may not go on to be considered in priority setting and technology design and evaluationDesign oriented: In addition to being included in diagnoses, gender-d.ifferentiated problems and priorities are taken into account in research and development designTransfer oriented: Different technology dissemination methods are designed to overcome differences in access to an already developed technology that is thought to have similar appeal to women and men Each way of conducting GA may be implemented in the three different stages of innovation (and 16 steps) outlined in the tool Participation Typology.Related to GA, but also encompassing other stakeholder categories, is the analysis of how projects select participants. This single aspect of participation has proved to ha ve significant effects on the attainment and spread of impact. Many different ways exist to choose participants (or allow them to select among themselves). Often, a project's processes and technology outcomes has a disproportionate impact on those participating-hence, the importance of selecting purposefully.When a project allows its participants to select among themselves orbe selected by their communities, then, usually, the bíases and exclusíons already exísting in the community b ecom e reflected in the research. Not surprisingly, the most disadvantaged and women are often excluded. By bringing up this íssue and asking projects to spell out and think through their methods for selecting partícipants, the PRGA Program has helped PR move away from biases found in much of the conventional research.The PRGA Program has begun communicating with representatives of the GA-wg, particu1ar1y to develop a strategy statement and to identify potential facilitators for the working group. So far, three nominations have come in and the Program is waiting for additional nominees.See Appendix 1 O for a list ojthe GA-wg members First, impact assessment practitioners must document a much broader range of project impacts, for example, impact on poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability.Second, our understanding of the number of stakeholders in impact assessment has grown dramatically and now includes center management, researchers, donors, partner institutions, beneficiaries, and civil society organizations. Different stakeholders demand different types of information in different formats. Internal rates of return and cost-benefit analyses may have been sufficient for the accountability functions of impact assessment, but they will not satisfy those who are interested in knowing how and why a project affected people's lives. Third, a growing number of stakeholders seek information, not about the impact of a project's products, but rather of its processes. lt is important that those involved in R&D projects learn from the experience and adapt their priorities and practices to continuously improve their contribution to the ongoing process of innovation.How has the Program been able to respond to this methodological challenge? The PRGA Program staff, together with its many collaborators, has developed, tested, applied, and disseminated lA framework and tools with small grant recipients and working groups.We now have published guides on how to assess the impact of methods; these are found in four working documents (nos. 6, 7, 8, and 1 7) and one book Assessing the Impact of Parl.icipatory Research and Gender Analysis (200 1) by N. Lilja and others. That these guides have been used by many of the small grant recipients is shown in their written results of project analyses. We also have over 160 cases in the Web-based project inventory, and these projects attempt to document wider ranges of impact based on these guides.The second part of the Program's impact strategy has been to conduct collaborative impact studies. We h ave been directly involved in 21 projects by providing funds and sorne capacity building in lA. In 10 of these cases, the Program has also contributed a significant amount of human resources to conduct the assessment. In PPB, collaborative impact studies ha ve been completed with Addressing the challenges of moving from assessment to learning and changing the focus in IA is the Program' s main task in IA work in its second phase. The Program will also identify ways in which IA research can be more effective in (1) demonstrating the ability of agricultural research to con tribute to development goals, and (2) facilitating the use of IA results for joint decision making by various stakeholders. Assessing the extent to which R&D organizations have been able to learn and change because of their experience is an important new area for IA in the CGIAR system overall. Scientists are now increasingly applying participatory approaches to their research to better understand their clients-poor people-and their wants and needs, and thus design technologies that fit better with the complexity of their livelihoods. A similar process needs to occur in IA. One key lesson learned in participatory research is that involving stakeholders early in research leads to better targeting, greater sense of ownership, and higher impact.Only by recognizing current incentive structures and feeding i nto existing (if incipient and imperfect) learning processes can IA contribute to better decision making and ever-increasing impact. Decentralized participatory barley breeding begun at !CARDA in 1997 when the initial 208 barley lines were planted on farmers' fields in nine villages throughout Syria. The impact case study assessed benefits and costs of ICARDA's participatory barley breeding approach, compared with the conventional (centralized} breeding approach, both at the farmers' level, andas retums to research. The program benefits were estimated, ex ante, by the economic surplus model, comparing conventional and participatory breeding. The program's cost structure was analyzed ex post, and costs of conventional and decentralized breeding were constructed for comparison. Farmer benefits were measured, ex post, by comparing adoption benefits and changes in human capital between 86 participating and 106 non-participating farmers. We also calculated the opportunity cost of farmers' time in research.The results showed potentially significant increases to Syrian agriculture from participatory barley breeding. The discounted, research-induced benefits to Syrian agriculture from conventional bar ley breeding are US$21 . 9 The model's results also show that the benefits in reduced research lag and the 10% yield increase resulting from participatory research increase total benefits by 90% (US$42.7) . The higher adoption ceiling for participatory breeding, compared with conventional breeding, increases the benefits a further 50% (US$54.6) . These are ex ante estimates of the potential benefit of PPB. Realizing these benefits depends partly on functioning extension and seed systems because, without them, autonomous diffusion may be slow.Findings indicate that the infrastructure and personnel constitute the largest share of the breeding budget, comprising 77% when combined. The breeding approach (whether conventional, decentralized, or participatory) or breeding method used (bulk versus pedigree) affects operational costs, which representa relatively small share at 23% of the total breeding budget. The relative changes in costs were then calculated for changes in budget allocations according to breeding a pproach . The shift from conventional to participatory research increased operating costs by 56% ($122,154).However, simply concluding that PPB is more costly than conventional breeding is erroneous. In reality, the share of overhead and personnel costs r emains fiXed, and operations are a djusted according to the availability of funds. Also, most breeding programs today are already decentralized, and what our results show is t hat the changes in costs from conventional decentralized to participatory d ecentralized breeding is very small. Further calcu lation shows that the move from conventional to participatory breeding only increases the total breeding budget by 2%.For more information about this study, see: The participatory rice breeding and gender analysis approach has been used by WARDA since 1996, and subsequently adopted by its national partners. The approach can be characterized as \"functionally motivated participation\", that is, trying to understand better what farmers want or need, a nd to feedback ins ights to formal research for improving future on -farm productivity.The collaborative impact study with WARDA was completed in early 2002. Breeders and social scientists from 16 of the 17 national program s were interviewed du ring the annual Participatory Rice Improvement and GenderjUser Analysis Workshop (PRIGA) in Cóte d 'Ivoire in M ay 2 00 l. The impact of incorporating participatory research approaches at different stages of the varietal development process can be argued t o go beyond the economic benefits associated with b etter crop type. \"Process impacts\" have occurred as a result of the particip ation itself rather than as a result of the technologies developed via participatory research methods. Sorne of these \"institutional process impacts\" include internal institutional changes such as chan ges in breeding goals and objectives, breeding m eth ods, and spillover effects to varietal development in other crops. They a lso include changes to externa ! relationships with other institutions such as seed production systems and varietal release mechanisms, and changes to these institutions themselves. The experience with implernenting participatory research has clearly provided feedback to breeders in the n ational programs, and this information h as led to sorne perceived and s pecific internal institutional changes. Half of the national scientists say that they have changed their breeding goals, and three quarters say they have also changed their breeding rnethods and the ways in which they conduct breeding. Changes in external institutions such as seed production or varietal release system s have been less successful, probably because less attention was paid to forming partnerships with other stakeholders in seed and varietal release institutions and mechanisms, and more attention given to interactions with farmers. Only one third of the respondents said that they h ad created or improved partnership arra n gements in rice research. Involvement of other stakeh olders is therefore anoth er area in which p otential exists for improving labor and the institutional and demographic context of gender; or it could remain an area limited to measuring gender differences in varietal preferences.For more information about this study, see: This impact case study builds on a previous study on p articipatory cassava breeding in Brazil conducted collaboratively by the PRGA Program and EMBRAPA. (Fukuda and Saad, July 2001)8, The main emphasis ofthe current study is to look at the impact of participatory research in terms of type of cassava variety developed, its adoption, and the economic benefits of a d option. We a lso loo k at the implications of participatory research for different stakeholder groups, and determine how representative the results are to various stakeholders. The Brazilian cassava project is functional in its approach, and its main objective is to bring improved cassava varieties to farmers, based on their own selection criteria. Farmer empowerment is nota specific objective for the project. Hence, we will not specifically assess the human and social capital impact in this case. The study's specific objectives are:To assess the \"soundness\" of the methodology (do the results benefit intended users? ls the approach more succes sful in certain types of communities?)To assess the adoption of new cassava clones selected and introduced through participatory varietal selection trials (is participatory research producing superior varleties for the intended users?)To assess the reasons for adoption (is the biggest constraint to adoption in fact the availability of \"good clean seed\", rather than the improved characteristics?)To assess the economic benefits from adoption and implications for \"wellbeing\" (has the adoption of new cassava clones improved the well-being of the adopters?)Data collection began in mid-2002, with interviews of 22 participating and nonparticipating farmers in four communities. Collection was completed in late-2002, and is now being analyzed. Publication is expected in December 2003.(The fmal analysis was d elayed because one researcher began PhD studies, and another took maternity leave.)The Program created an impact assessment Web site, which provides access to all publication outputs of the Program's IA research: project inventaries, impact case studies, guides on IA methods, and PowerPoint formats of synthesized results presented at the various international meetings. The site also offers access to other reviewed and recommend ed IA research methods and empírica! results. The electronic addresses are: As we mention ed in Sectíon 1.3.2.5, to facilitate the use of participatory approaches, we used severa! strategies to build and articula te a community of knowledge and practice. We also stimulated worldwide exchange of exper tise through three listservs (PRGA-info, PBG, and PNRM) and organized a new Web site with variou s services. A network was established among PRGA liaison con tacts a n d gender focal points in all th e CGIAR centers. Three publicly accessible databases with information on projects were created (Expertise, the PPB proj ect inventory, and the PNRM project inven tory), and various training events were conducted with participants from all around the world.The PRGA Program manages three electronic listservs:This is a generallistserv used by the Program for information dissemination and administrative purposes. Members of the other Program listservs are automatically subscribed to this list. Currently, the listserv has 420 members.The Plant Breeding Group is the main listserv of the Program's working group of the same name. It currently hosts 200 members from over 100 countries anda range of different types of institutions. This listserv has been very active in discussing and contributing to severa! key pieces of work, including the PPB guidelines document, and the intellectual property rights (IPR) study.The Participatory Research for Natural Resource Management Listserv is a forum for researchers from the CGIAR and partner organizations who are practicing and develop ing participatory approaches for NRM. It is intended to provide continuity for the PNRM Working Gr oup when between face-to-face meetings. The Program was thus prompted to upgrade the contents of the existing Web site, while it developed a new site with improved navigation, searchability, and interactivity. User input, from the PRGA Program's working groups, was considered when developing criteria for choosing a contents management application (Box 7 A).Criteria for choosing a contents management application A Web development application that is also a community-building tool A Web development application that is easy to use so that the Web site can be maintained by staffwho understand the contents, have sorne Web development s kills, but are not n ecessarily IT professionals An application that offers an integrated set of tools for supporting the PRGA Program's communities of practice. We aim to avoid a \"patchwork\". approach where many different tools from various sources are used A desi~ process that is user, not technology, led and that can ensure accessibility and reliability for u ser s who have older browsers, low bandwidths, small monitors, and older printers Open-source applications are free. If an open-source application can provide the functionality sought, this would represent significant cost savings to the Program. Because open-source software is the product of ongoing innovation by a community of developers, and therefore belongs to the community, it is more compatible with the PRGA Program's approach than proprietary software An application that meets CIAT's security standards while offering: An expertise directory with defmable and extendable fields and user input capability Searchable databases of d ocuments and resources with user input capability. This is necessary for our toolbox of methods and learning resources, and for our project inventaries Capacity to search the whole site Capacity to support multiple CGNET listservs and to permit archiving of listserv messages by linking with Web-based forums Capacity to queue user input for approval by a PRGA Program adrninistratorAn application that has the capacity to meet future user dernands for functions such as: Asynchronous discussion Chatting Capacity to support collaborative work by small subgroups (e.g., joint writing projects, and document reviews) Capacity to support multiple-language interfaces The PRGA Program also participates in the following electronic services: Our goal is to provide a systematic assessment of the impact resulting from the use of participatory research (PR) and gender analysis (GA), and to make this information available to researchers, development practitioners, farmers, donors, and others interested in the field.Leaming and capacity building have been key elements in the PRGA Program's strategy for mainstreaming the use of participatory and gender-sensitive approaches. The Program's ICER, conducted in November 2001, reported the following on the Program's achievements in this area:\"Capacity building on the design, planning, and implementation of participatory efforts have implications not only for improving the delivery and impact of research but also for wider human and social capital formation among the actors as well as in the targeted communities. The Program in this regard has made good progress. The effort of two regionally based (Asia and Africa) PRGA fellows has been instrumental\". 9Training by the PRGA Program has included awareness building, skill enhancement, and practica! field application. The Program has incorporated its findings on impact and types of participation and gender analysis into workshops offered in many parts of the world and in widely distributed training materials.Numerous training events have been held on:Participatory research methods, processes, and skills for NRM and PB Tools and methods for gender and/ or stakeholder analyses Participatory monitoring and evaluation, and impact assessment procedures Elements and skills for forming and sustaining effective partnerships for participationThe Program has also built partnerships for capacity building into collaborative research projects with other systemwide programs and networks.Workshops have been instrumental in increasing the understanding of PRGA approaches, and building practica! skills for their application. Demand for capacity building has increased and is currently beyond the Program 's actual capacities.This activity will bring together researchers involved in biodiversity and NRM-related projects for iterative training on social and gender analysis (S /GA) concepts and methodologies. A team of trainers-cum-mentors will work with 18 participants from the Eastern Himalayan Regjon, which encompasses northern and nort heastern India, Bhutan, Bangladesh (Chittagong Hill Tracts), and eastern Nepal. A coordinating group, the Northeast Network, will help develop and implement the training program, and facilitate interaction and networking among the participants, who will thus become \"emerging regional specialists on social and gender analysis in NRM\". The project will take 2 years, and involve a series of training courses in concepts and practica} methods; the courses being implemented through a small grant and action plan. Results will be disseminated through various media, including papers for publication in refereed journals.Severa! NRM research partners in the Eastern Himalaya n Region have requested support and training to implement social and gender analysis in the field. Expertise in S/GA is notably lacking among researchers in the region, particularly in the NRM context. The project will adapt and build on the framework first developed by an IDRC project in Vietnam on Engendering Research in which the project team worked with regional partners in the project's design and development.This iterative training program aims to address issues identified by partners as cr itica] in training and capacity building in SfGA in NRM:A needfor on-going training prograrns that support researchers over time and build on continualleaming. Social and gender analysis is not learned overnight, nor in one short training program. Participants need to continually build on their skills and practice over time, and will therefore need long-term support and input through an iterative learning process th at includes challenges and difficulties along the way.A need for training and support for the practica! application of S/ GA in the field. Many researchers have sorne conceptual understanding of social and gender issues but feel ata loss asto how to practically implement S/GA practices in the field, and in a socioculturally appropriate manner. What are the tools and methods? How are these approaches integrated with natural science approaches and methods? How does one move beyond the \"analysis\" to a transforming agenda that improves livelihood conditions and increase equity among disadvantaged groups?A needfor socioculturally relevant training prograrns. Asia possesses an incredible diversity of culture and language, so much so that training programs in Vietnam may not be relevant to a researcher from Bangladesh. Societal, cultural, religious , and language differences abound, and while opportunities for cross~ultural learning may exist between these groups, there are also advantages to training programs that are socioculturally relevant and in a common language. Likewise, where política! and cultural hegemony issues exist such as those between India ns residing in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and minority groups in the Northeast, a dimension of power and, sometimes, hostility is added that can hinder training.For example, evidence suggests that many gender norms a nd social structures are shared across Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Indian Plains, and Sri Lanka, yet cultural groups from NE India may have more in common with counter¡::arts in Southeast Asia. Efforts to build a socioculturally appropriate training program can help build a favorable environment for sharing and learning, as well as be more cultural relevant in discussing social and gender issues and methods for their analysis.SIGA relevant to NRM research. As discu ssed above, most S / GA training programs are not directed at NRM researchers nor do they consider issues in the NRM context. Thus, a need exists to consider the issues and approaches most relevant to NRM research .To build the capacity of researchers in the Eastern Himalayan Region to integra te and practically apply S/GA in biodiversity and NRM-related projectsTo support partners in developing approaches and methodologies suitable to the regional context of the Eastern HimalayasTo develop training processes and materials appropriate to the region To assist NRM researchers interested in S/GA research to obtain peer and to network in the region Section 8: Looking Ahead supportThe major objectives and strategies for the PRGA Program's second phase will build on the lessons and strengths of the past. lt will also focus more specifically on mainstreaming PRGA approaches, as described in section 1. In PPB, the workshop participants deemed as essen tial that tria! design be agreed upon by all partners and that it is interpretable by all partners.Trial designs take very different forms and structures according to breeding goal, agroecological system, and socioeconomic conditions. Numerous choices a re available and flexibility is wide.For evaluation at a ll stages, it is essential to use primarily farmers' criteria for evaluation, a n d add other criteria in consultation with them. Initial research may be needed to determine these key criteria. Determining th e possibly differing needs of different stakeholders (ethnic groups, women, poor farmers) may be essential for success.A prime issue was raised of whether scaling up PPB should be primarily supplydriven (policy or project-led) or demand driven (stakeholder-led) . In terms of the latter, the following conditions would be favorable to demand-driven scaling up: systematic work with Farmer Research Committees, ch anneling part of the research funds through FRCs, or facilitating ways for PPB products to better reach the market.Many approaches are being tested or implemented for scaling up PPB, including through capacity building of NARS, setting up regional agricultura! network alliances, developing partnerships with Farmer Field Schools, and contacting farmer-led breeding clubs.In terms of having wider impact, the workshop participants stressed the critica! need to document more clearly the complementarities between conventional and participatory plant breedíng.Two of the first comprehensive analyses of the impact of PPB programs were presented: for rice and maize in India (DFID, Plant Science-led) and for barley in Syria (ICARDA) .To enhance impact, the workshop participants agreed that much more work must be done, a nd attention should be given to developing seed systems that are compatible with speciflc PPB program strategies, and are able to maintain produ ction and dístribute widely and rapidly.Given the vagueness of international and many national laws on what might constitute \"joint products\" in the absence of formal contracts (breeding products, written products, as well as innovations), the workshop participants supported the development of aCode of Conduct to (a) recognize the contributions of various partners, (b) promote \"fair practice\", and (e} ensure broad access to products and processes emerging from PPB collaboration.The workshop participants were recommended to not only improve their own practice (e.g., immediately consider joint authorship more broadly), but also to work at the Iegislatíve leve! to influence law development from discriminating against, or not recognizing, products emerging from various stakeholder collaborative efforts.More than 10 different methods were identified as a lready in use to link PPB and diversity concernsMore systematic linking of ex situ and on-farm work was stressed, and severa! test cases were sketched. These included ideas to link up networks of plant genetic resources and PPB/crop ímprovement in (1) West Africa/Sahel, to Iook at diversity and support local seed systems for millets and sorghums;(2) Uganda, to address concerns of cassava varietal narrowing (and lack of CMV resistan ce); (3) western Kenya, to counteract the decline in bean production due to the prevalence of root rots; and (4) Rajastahn, India, to recreate the varietal needs the very poor farmers have of their local crops.The few practica! examples presented focused on linking molecular markers to farmerpreferred traits, and tissue culture for more rapid micropropagation at the community level.Finally, the workshop participants outlin ed an explicit agenda for action on \"Priority Areas in PPB\". Interestingly, this agenda is very different from the one outlined by the core of this workshop 5 years ago (in the base document for the PRGA Program-see the PBG page on the PRGA Program's Web site). Moving beyond precise technical and social breeding concerns, t he workshop this time expressed the need to maintain and strengthen a critica[ mass of PPB researchers to ensure scientific credibility. In this vein, three concerns for action were emphasized:Broader development oftraining materials (e.g., university courses and, equally, enhancing the skills of farmers and farming communities in breeding and seed management).Influencing policies and policy change, with work particularly directed toward seed policy and regulatory reform to ensure that PPB products actually reach the intended end users.Strategies for capturing {new) finances and building new partnerships. Substantial efforts are to be made to expand the use of Pffi across time and space per se (e.g., through a1Iiances with regional agricultura! networks and educational institutions), and particularly to expand its breadth of inquiry to include new crops, to extend beyond breeding to an inclusive seed system and marketing focus, and to embed the work in a more holistic context of farming systems, genetic diversity, and NRM.The very high quality of formal presentations , the working group r ec ommendations o n precisely how to move the science forward, and the strategic a ction plans on the \"crucial next steps\" go beyond the analyses of technical and social aspects of PPB per se. These elements themselves attest to how fast and far the scope of PPB has been expanding in the last 5-10 years. The issues no longer focus simply on \"how to\" or \"does it wor k \", but also on how we can design and implement PPB to ensure that the process and its benefits can be expanded more widely for a still greater, positive effect. A vital product of this worksh op was the joint work that was accomplished during the meeting itself. The productive interchange was greatly enhanced by the skills of two facilitators, Ronnie Vernooy (IDRC) and Janice Jiggins (independent) , who led the workshop participants through a reflection of what might be better a cc omplished collectively or in subgroups, why, for whom, and how.Finally, we would like to mention Joachim Voss, Director General of CIAT, Acting Chair of the PRGA Program, and a former PPB practitioner himself. He continues to push for PPB work to take a more \"holistic\" perspective-notjust to fully embrace the notion of diversity, but also to unfold consciously within a more integrated NRM perspective. Similarly, Geoffrey Hawtin, former Director of General of IPGRI, maintains that crop and variety diversity remain vital, and relevant only through their active, cr eative, and evolving use. 8oth have promoted vigorous user perspectives in re search and for research to anticipate dynamic and holistic development needs.The table groups were also given the task to evaluate the workshop in their groups, with each table responding to 5 questions, listed below, with one or more statements: The CGIAR Syste mwi de Initiative on Malaria and Agriculture (SIMA) brings together malaria research, agricultura! research, and targeted communities to find solutions to the malaria problem. Five specific outputs have been formulated for SIMA. These are providing a knowledge base, building capacity, developing interventions, increasing awareness, and building an international mala ria network.Funding is now available for SIMA projects that are based on ecosystem approaches to human health. These funds were made available by IDRC and IWMI to support research, capacity b u ilding, and knowledge sharing, using ecosystem approaches, to reduce malaria and improve health and well-being in countries of eastern and southern Africa.The Africa 2020 Vision Network seeks to reduce poverty and improve food security in East Africa by generating policy-relevant information through collaborative research activities, improving th e dissemination and use of such information, and strengthening local capacity to undertake and communicate policy research. The Network encompasses Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda.Africa's deser t margins by demonstration and capacity-building activities. Funds received from t he Global Environment Facility (GEF) will help DMP address issues of global and national environmental and economic importance, such as loss of biological diversity, reduced carbon sequestration, and increased soil erosion and sedimentation. Key sites car rying globally significant ecosystems and threatened biodiversity have been selected in each of the n ine member countries to serve as field laboratories for demonstration activities related to monitoring and evaluating biodiversity status, testing the most promising natural resour ces options, developin g sustainable a lternative livelihoods and policy guidelines, and replicating successful models.The DMP will significantly contribute to reducing land degradation in marginal areas and conserving biodiversity. Guidelines and recommendations domains, and supportive national policies that address biodiversity concerns will be implemented in the member countries. DMP's executing agencies a r e ICRISAT and the NARS of Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Rep. of South Africa, and Zimbabwe.Integrating PROLINNOVA approaches into mainstream institutions of agricultura! research, development, and educationThe Web site of this Netherlands institution has a section entitled \"Specials\", with each Special dealing with a different issue. The Special for Gender & Natural Resources Managementwas published in conjunction with the book Natural Resources Management and Gender, the sixth of the series on Gender, Society & Development. The Special covers:Guest contributions, which are case studies by development practitioners and experts Bibliography, containing selected, recent references of full-text publications found in print in the KIT Library and online on the Internet Tools & methods: documents on practica} instruments, manuals, and guides fo r working with GA and NRM Link.s to relevant organizations and Web sites News & events, coverin g news items a nd announcements of conferences, courses, and other eventsThe many efforts to disseminate promising irrigation technologies have been limited, not so much by technology and its use, but by the need for complementary interventions from a range of players with different compete ncies, and for competence and experience in facilitating market creation and development of supply chains. Development initiatives aiming to enable their partners and clients to make use of the potentials of low-cost, smallholder, irrigation technologies may not have all the skills, know-how, and resources to engage in such long-term processes. Thus, they need to link up with people and organizations who do h ave the relevant know-how and experience so they may take up complementary roles in the development of supply chains. SIMI was set up in response to these challenges. The Initiative's objectives are to foster the spread of:Smallholder irrigation technologies to the many people to whom they offer an opportunity of a better livelihood Technologies that allow a more efficient use of irrigation waterThis Web site offers general con cepts on the meaning a nd significance of soil biodiversity, stressing the need for integrated biological soil management. It provides a framework for assessing, managing, and conserving soil biodiversity, giving examples of successful and unsuccessful practices from various regions of the world. Areas for further work, research, capacity building, and policy and program development are indicated.This Web s ite provides information on FAO's pilot program of the same name. Specifically, the site aims to promote the exchange of information and experiences on the development and implementation of FFS to enhance and sustain soil productivity. It targets those involved in developing participatory or FFS land management and conservation programs, resource persons, senior extension officers, and agricultura! development specialists. The Web site covers the SPI-FFS Program 's:Objectives, including concepts and a pproaches Training activities, which focus mainly on developing materials and curriculums, and capacity building Activities for developing national and regional support programs, projects, and other focal poínts of research in eastern and southern Africa Dissemination of document s, including background information, guidelines, and training materials t h at can be downloadedA co1laborative effort among civil society networks and nongovernmental issue caucuses that aim to improve communications and access to information on sustainable development issues. In particular, the initiative aims to improve communications among NGOs engaging in the World Summit on Sustainable Development.A specialized online library of Internet-based r esources. The objective is to identify and organize those information resources most useful to resolving rural issues of global, national, and local importance. Relevant Internet sites, case studies, databases, maps, newsletters, and reports are cataloged for precision search and retr ieval. Current SRDIS foci include decentralization, loca l development, and NRM. Topical areas to be developed over t ime include NRM, institutions, empowerment and governance, food security, and information access and communications.Better known by its Dutch acronym, the CTA advances agricultura! and rural development in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries by promoting th e transfer, exchange, and use of information. CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultura} and rural development and to stren gthen the capacity of ACP coun tries to produ ce, acquire, exchange, and use information in these areas (recommended by Helen Hambly, NRM Document Repository, GFAR).An activity of the UK Food Group to bring together public-interest UK organizations concerned with the equ itable u se of agricultura! biodiversity fo r local food and livelihood security. Issues of interest include sustainable use , conservation, benefit sharing, trade, patents, intellectual property, biopiracy, biotechnology, gen etic engineering, and biosafety. ","tokenCount":"109229"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"969828b8599d83ac17bea92025c8d751","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d6961bdf-d80b-40e8-a076-05ae82186c9c/retrieve","id":"-26959807"},"keywords":["Fonio, Digitaria exilis, field survey, agronomic constraints, Senegal Agromorphology, Amaranthus, characterization, genetic diversity, plant descriptors Varietal diversity, traditional varieties, preference analysis, particpatory varietal selection (PVS), small millets biodiesel, castorbean, fatty acids winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, underutilized, morpho-physiological characters, harvest index Agro-morphological evaluation, Benin, indigenous knowledge, Kersting's groundnut, varietal diversity enset, indigenous classification, management, morphology, use value Bambara groundnut, water stress, stomatal conductance, stomatal density, yield Finger millet, climate change, nutritional quality, selection and variability Climate change, adaptation, NUS, agricultural biodiversity, farmer perceptions Eosinophil, faecal egg count, internal parasites, valbazen, Viscum verrucosum Sesame, genetic characterization, SSR-markers, phytochemicals trifoliate yam, phytochemical composition, wild, domesticated Velvet bean, processing methods, proximate composition, monogastric, performance Malting, chemical composition, Orarudi, antinutrient, vitamins Benin, cultural practices, domestication, leafy vegetables, morphological diversity Postharvest losses, traditional African leafy vegetables, market participation, amaranth Saba senegalensis, nutrient composition, consumer acceptance, fruit extract Baobab food uses, processing and preservation, socio-cultural groups, storage smallholders, contract farming, QDS, participation, Tanzania Capacity development, training, mentoring, neglected and underutilized species, research methods and themes, West Africa, Eastern/Southern Africa, expert survey conservation","germplasm development","improved cultivars","selection","traditional vegetables"],"sieverID":"bebbd4e8-b8b7-4ecd-b3e3-1decd404783c","pagecount":"304","content":"Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization. We have a vision -that agricultural biodiversity nourishes people and sustains the planet. We deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. We work with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. Bioversity International is a CGIAR Research Centre. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. www.bioversityinternational.org International Foundation for Science (IFS) is an international research council in Stockholm which provides opportunities for young scientists to propose research into the sustainable utilisation of biological and water resources in low income countries. These proposals are rigorously assessed by international experts, with grants and other kinds of support provided to the very best early career scientists to enable them to work in their own country and tackle research issues related to local needs. Local training courses contribute towards strengthening the capacity of developing country scientists to propose, conduct, report and share relevant and high quality research. www.ifs.seFonio millet (Digitaria exilis Stapf) is considered as a minor crop compared to rice, corn, millet and sorghum in West Africa. However, it is a very important crop for human diets because of the high methionine and cysteine content in the tiny grains. Fonio is also considered as a staple food for millions of people from Senegal to Lake Chad (Vietmeyer et al., 1996;Vodouhe et al., 2003).In Senegal, fonio millet is grown in Casamance and Eastern Senegal, agro-ecological zones located in the south and the southeast of the country respectively. In these zones, fonio production was estimated at 1068 tons per annum with grain yields ranging from 200 to 700 kg/ha (DAPS, 2008). This fonio production accounts for less than 1% of the national cereal harvest. In spite of its marginal status, the consumption of dishes made with fonio is increasing in urban and semi-urban areas. Thus, the production of fonio millet has to satisfy this growing demand. However, the agronomic practices in the fonio cropping systems are not well documented at national and regional levels.The aim of this study was to analyse the fonio cropping systems in the main areas of production in Senegal. The work may allow a better understanding of farming practices in these areas with a focus on the factors limiting fonio yields in farmers' fields.A field survey was carried out in 2008 in four provinces: Kolda and Sedhiou in Casamance, and, Tambacounda and Kedougou in Eastern Senegal. Casamance and Eastern Senegal are agro-ecological zones situated in the south and the southeast of Senegal, respectively (Figure 1). Fonio millet is mainly grown in these two zones. A total of 88 farmers' fields was randomly selected from 34 villages (Table 1). These fields were monitored during the rainy season, from July to November 2008.The data collected included the following information: the main characteristics of the fonio field (surface, soil type, type and source of seeds, rotation system, etc.), the cultivation practices (land preparation, planting techniques, crop husbandry, etc.) and the average grain yield of fonio. The statistical calculations comprising frequencies, means and standard errors were done using the SPSS package (version 16.0).Fonio is grown on 0.69 ± 0.03 hectares per field (Table 2). Overall, 20% of the famers' fields are between 0.5 and 1 hectares whereas only 3.4% of the farmers grow fonio on more than one hectare. The smaller fields tend to be located in the Tambacounda province while the largest are more concentrated in the Kedougou province. Table 3 shows the different types of soil texture observed in the monitored plots. Most of the fonio plots' texture is sandy to sandy-clay in Kolda and Sedhiou provinces or rocky, particularly in Kedougou province. A small proportion of the monitored plots had clay soil or hydromorphic soil (lowland).In 63% of the total plots groundnut was the major crop preceding fonio (Table 4). Other less commonly grown rotation crops are: none (2%), other cereals (6%) and other crops (28.5%).in size and fonio is regarded rather as a secondary crop despite the intervention of various NGOs.Groundnut is the main crop which precedes fonio. According to farmers' knowledge, groundnut plays an important role in soil fertility management and weed control. Because of root symbiosis with rhizobia (bacteria), groundnut fixes atmospheric nitrogen and enhances nutrient uptake in the absence of fertilization (Cattan et al., 2001). It also facilitates the management of weeds since it is a root crop, thus avoiding any competition with fonio but also reduces the necessity of weeding the crop. Fonio monoculture is rarely practiced in the study area. According to Ndiaye et al. (2008), rotating cowpea with fonio reduces the density of Macrophomina phaseolina, a fungus which causes root rot or wilting when cowpea is grown in consecutive years.The late-maturing landraces of fonio are less preferred by farmers due to the progressive reduction of rainfall. Indeed, late maturing varieties were not suitable for such climatic conditions. In addition, beetles that appear at the end of the rainy season damage the fonio grains, hence the need to introduce early maturing and adapted varieties.In Kedougou and Sedhiou provinces, fonio seeds are self-produced (Fall et al., 2005). This is due to the fact that fonio has a strong ethno-cultural connotation in these parts of the country. In Kolda province, seeds are obtained from the local markets. Indeed, this is an area characterized by significant trade flows, especially with Diaobé Market which is sub-regional in scale. Most of these seeds come from Guinea (Gueye, 2008).The highest yield (2083 kg/ha) is observed in the region of Kedougou province. This higher productivity could be explained by the quality of the soils which are more fertile. In addition, the soil texture is gravelly, which is a limiting factor for weed growth in fonio fields.  Although South Africa is regarded as food secure, it still faces challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition at the household level (de Klerk et al., 2004). These challenges may be solved by encouraging research on previously neglected and underutilized crops (NUS). In South Africa, taro is one such underutilized, traditional and \"indigenised\" crop which has been identified as having potential to contribute to food security in the subtropics as a dryland crop (Modi and Mabhaudhi, 2013). It is 'indigenised\" inasmuch as although it originated outside of South Africa (Lebot, 2009), local cultivation and natural selection over hundreds of years have produced local landraces (Schippers 2002(Schippers , 2006)).In South Africa, taro is commonly known by its Zulu name 'amadumbe' and is mainly cultivated along the coastal areas and hinterland of KwaZulu-Natal province (Modi, 2007), with little cultivation occurring inland. Its cultivation along the coastal lines may be due to the widely held perception that taro is 'water loving' (Mabhaudhi et al., 2013a). This may, in part, explain its current low levels of utilization. However, recently, there has been an increase in taro production owing to improved access to niche markets by farmers. Taro is now being promoted as a healthy alternative to the exotic and more popular potato (Solanum tuberosum). Recent studies have also evaluated the possibility of using taro for making chips (Mare, 2010). However, research describing such basic aspects as agronomy, water use and drought tolerance of taro landraces cultivated by subsistence farmers currently lags behind. Availability of such information would go some way in promoting and expanding taro production beyond current levels. In this study, it was hypothesized that local landraces may have evolved to acquire drought tolerance over years of farmer and natural selection, often under sub-optimal conditions. The aim of this study was therefore to identify and determine drought tolerance mechanisms in selected taro landraces collected from rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal.Three taro landraces were collected from two locations in KwaZulu-Natal. One was from KwaNgwanase (KW) (27°1'S; 32°44'E) and two (Dumbe-Dumbe (DD) and Dumbe Lomfula (DL) were from Umbumbulu (29°36'S; 30°25'E). The KW and DL landraces are dasheen types while DD is an eddoe type (Mabhaudhi and Modi, 2013). Prior to planting, corms of all three landraces were initially selected for uniform plant size (Singh et al., 1998) in order to eliminate propagule size effects. Following this, corms were treated with a combination fungicide and bactericide (Sporekill ® ) and thereafter sprouted in vermiculite (30°C, 90% RH).Field trials were planted at the Agricultural Research Council's Roodeplaat Research Station (25°60'S; 28°35'E; 1 160 m a.s.l.) on the 10 th of September, 2010. Roodeplaat is classified as a semi-arid zone with average seasonal rainfall (November to April) of ~500 mm, which is highly variable with maximum precipitation in December and January. Daily maximum and minimum temperature averages for Roodeplaat are 34°C and 8°C, respectively, in summer (November to April) [Agricultural Research Council -Institute for Soil, Climate and Water (ARC-ISCW), undated]. The soil at Roodeplaat was classified as a sandy loam (USDA taxonomic system, undated).The experiment was designed as a split-plot laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The main factor was irrigation: rain-fed and full irrigation. The three landraces (DD, DL and KW) were the sub-factors. The main plots were 207.4 m 2 each and were spaced 10 m apart to avoid water sprays from irrigated plots from reaching rain-fed plots. Sub-plot size was 17 m 2 with an inter-plot spacing of 1 m, and plant spacing of 1 x 0.5 m. Rain-fed trials were established with irrigation to allow for maximum plant stand. Thereafter, no supplementary irrigation was supplied. For the irrigated trials, irrigation scheduling was to meet 100% reference evapotranspiration (ETo). Temperature and rainfall data for the duration of the experiments were monitored using an automatic weather station situated within the farm.Prior to land preparation, soil samples were taken and submitted for soil chemical and physical analyses at the ARC-ISCW. Land preparation involved disking and rotovating to achieve a smooth and even seed bed. Based on soil fertility results, an organic fertilizer, Gromor Accelerator ® (30 g N kg -1 , 15 g P kg -1 , 15 g K kg -1 ), was applied (at 5330 kg ha -1 ) at planting. Fertilizer application was split into two, half at planting and the balance applied 10 weeks after planting. No pesticides and herbicides were used during the experiment. Routine weeding was done by hand-hoeing.Data collected included weekly counts of emergence until no further emergence was observed. Thereafter, plant height and leaf number were determined weekly. Leaf area index was measured using the LAI2200 Canopy Analyser (LI-COR, Inc. USA & Canada). Stomatal conductance was measured from the abaxial surface of the 2 nd youngest, fully expanded and fully exposed leaf using a steady state leaf porometer (Model SC-1, Decagon Devices, USA). Yield and yield components (biomass, harvest index and corm number per plant) were determined at harvest.Data were subjected to statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) using GenStat ® (Version 14, VSN International Ltd, UK). Duncan's multiple range test was used to separate means at the 5% level of significance.Time to 90% emergence was on average >49 days (Figure 1). Dumbe-dumbe emerged significantly (P<0.001) faster than KwaNgwanase (KW) and Dumbe Lomfula (DL). The DL landrace never established a good stand. Slow establishment has previously been reported by several authors (Mare, 2010;Mabhaudhi et al., 2013aMabhaudhi et al., , 2013b) ) who observed that taro landraces generally took up to 70 days to establish. This suggests that taro landraces may not be water-use efficient at the establishment stage. Mabhaudhi (2012) suggested that the use of headsetts/cuttings (huli), as opposed to corms, as planting material could result in better emergence. Results showed that stomatal conductance was significantly (P<0.001) higher (>100%) under irrigated than rain-fed conditions (Figure 2). The trend showed that the DD landrace had better stomatal regulation compared with the DL and KW landraces under both irrigated and rain-fed conditions. This confirmed earlier results (Mabhaudhi et al., 2013a(Mabhaudhi et al., , 2013b;;Mabhaudhi, 2012) that DD was able to adapt to stress by regulating its stomatal conductance, while DL and KW landraces had lesser stomatal control. The higher stomatal conductance in DL and KW may be a function of their leaf size (data not shown). Dumbe Lomfula and KW have larger leaves, compared to DD (Mabhaudhi and Modi, 2013) which implies a larger surface area for transpiration. Stomatal regulation is a drought avoidance mechanism (Levitt, 1972;Turner, 1986); the DD landrace exhibited drought avoidance mechanisms, especially under rain-fed conditions. The essence of drought avoidance is to minimize crop water use, and morphological changes can assist the plant in this regard. Reduced plant height, leaf number and leaf area index contribute towards reducing plant water use (Mitchell et al., 1998), thereby avoiding drought. As such, drought avoidance mechanisms are associated with improved water use efficiency under drought conditions (Blum, 2005). Results of the current study showed that despite lack of statistical significance, with the exception of leaf area index, all canopy characteristics (plant height, leaf number and leaf area index) were lower under rain-fed relative to irrigated conditions (Figs. 3 and 4). This suggested that taro landraces avoided drought through lowering canopy size and hence surface area available for transpiration. This was clearer in the DD landrace than the DL and KW landraces which typically have large canopy sizes (Mabhaudhi and Modi, 2013). The moderate reduction in canopy size by the DD landrace under rain-fed conditions, together with its demonstrated ability to regulate stomatal aperture further suggested that the landrace had drought avoidance mechanisms. This concurred with findings from separate studies involving similar landraces (Mabhaudhi, 2012;Mabhaudhi et al., 2013aMabhaudhi et al., , 2013b)).  It has previously been argued that drought avoidance mechanisms were often at the expense of biomass production and yield attainment (Blum, 2005;Mabhaudhi, 2012). The results of this study showed that despite a lack of statistical significance, measured yield and yield components (biomass, harvest index and corm number) were lower under rain-fed than irrigated conditions (Table 1). The lack of statistical significance was probably due to the fact that rainfall received at Roodeplaat during the growth period was above normal (data not shown). There were significant differences (P<0.05) between landraces for measured yield components. The DL landrace, whose natural habitat is in shallow streams, failed to form any yield under both irrigated and rain-fed conditions. Dumbe-dumbe performed better than the KW landrace, especially under rain-fed conditions. This was possibly due to the landrace's ability to moderately reduce its canopy size and regulate stomatal aperture under rain-fed conditions. The performance of the DD landrace, compared with the KW landrace, concurred with reports by Uyeda et al. (2011). They reported that upland taro varieties were often more water-use efficient than varieties adapted to flooded conditions. This concurred with our initial hypothesis that certain landraces such as Dumbe-dumbe may have evolved to acquire mechanisms of drought tolerance. Although taro grows best when irrigated, taro landraces also performed and produced reasonable yields under rain-fed conditions. The Dumbe-dumbe landrace, an eddoe type landrace, showed drought avoidance mechanisms under rain-fed conditions. This was achieved through stomatal regulation and adjustments in canopy size. Therefore, the Dumbe-dumbe landraces may be suitable for cultivation under rain-fed conditions in areas other than the coastal areas where it is currently cultivated. Slow emergence of taro landraces remains an issue to be dealt with in future research as it poses challenges to water use during the establishment stage. Such studies could investigate propagule size effect on establishment as well as other planting material enhancement strategies for improving crop establishment.Amaranth belongs to the Amaranthaceae family and is an extremely variable, erect to spreading plant. The height of mature plants varies between 0.3 m and 2 m, depending on the species, growth habit and environment (Rensburg et al., 2007). The plant is considered indigenous in Malawi. A wide range of indigenous vegetables are consumed in Malawi and they contribute greatly to the nutritional well being of rural people by providing the essential nutrients required for body growth and development and for prevention of diseases associated with nutritional deficiencies, such as blindness due to vitamin A deficiency. Rural families traditionally have made conscious efforts to preserve these plants around their homesteads, in crop fields and communal lands (Kwapata et al., 1992). Indigenous vegetables provide an important source of employment for those outside the formal sector in peri-urban areas of many African cities because of their generally short, labour-intensive production systems, low levels of purchased input use, and high yields (Schippers, 2000).According to Rensburg et al. (2007), considering their potential nutritional value, indigenous leafy vegetables could greatly contribute to food security and balanced diets of rural households and possibly also urban households. Available data indicate that many of these indigenous plants are rich in vitamins and micro-elements required by the human body to grow, develop, and prevent nutritional disorders and diseases (Kwapata et al., 1992). Amaranth species of different morphologies, growth and development are found in varied agro-ecological zones throughout Malawi. Amaranthus hypochondriacus is thought to be a hybrid of three species: A. hybridus, A. cruentus, and A. powelli. It is considered the most robust and high-yielding of the grain amaranths. A. cruentus is used both as a grain and leafy vegetable. The grain type has white seeds while the vegetable type has dark seeds. A. tricolor is considered the best among the vegetable amaranths. It is succulent, low growing and compact and can be produced as a hot-season leafy vegetable in arid regions. However, A. hybridus is the most common leafy vegetable. It originated from the tropical Americas and displays two stem colours: red and green. It is the green type that is grown as a vegetable while the red-stemmed type is grown as an ornamental plant (Mng'omba, 2000).Promotion of the best cultivars of Amaranthus species has never been considered in Malawi. Most attention is given to exotic vegetables. The aim of this study was to characterize the morphological diversity and to assess the cultivation of Amaranthus species in Central Malawi.The study was done in three districts: Lilongwe, Dedza, and Kasungu of the central region of Malawi where there are diverse Amaranthus species naturally growing in many areas. Eight accessions were established and maintained at the horticulture farm of Bunda College of Agriculture, Lilongwe. Three accessions were from Bunda college and these included A. cruentus (LL-BF-02), A. hybridus (LL-BF-05), A. lividus (LL-BF-01) and Green giant (LL-BF-04). Two species, A. cruentus (DZ-BF-01) and A. hybridus (DZ-BF-02) were from Dedza. From Kasungu, Zalewa and Bvumbwe the accessions A. hybridus (KU-BF-01), A. cruentus (ZW-BF-01) from Zalewa and A. hypochondriacus (BV-BF-01) were obtained, respectively. Successful germination was achieved from the seed established on October 10, 2011 on ridges that were 10 m long and 0.75 m apart and the spacing within a ridge was 0.4 m except for Green giant which was spaced at 1 m within the ridge. Each accession was planted on two ridges. Apart from the eight accessions established at the farm, 19 other accessions were characterized in situ in the study area bringing the total of studied accessions to 27.The eight accessions planted at the farm were allocated to ridges in the plot at random. For the in situ characterization, the plants were studied in places that the species were growing in numbers large enough to warrant their study. Five plants were randomly selected for characterization and using destructive sampling, measurements were taken from five samples on each accession. Data on the morphology of the different varieties were collected based on the IBPGR Amaranthus descriptors list for both qualitative and quantitative traits. Data on leaf yield were collected three times at two week intervals on selected plants of each accession and data on seed yield were also collected on plants that were left to grow without any interference that would otherwise affect seed yield.SPSS was used to analyse qualitative data and GenStat and MINITAB were used to analyse quantitative data. The scoring for the characters was done according to the Bioversity International Amaranth Descriptor List. Mean data were subjected to statistical analysis to calculate range, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Least Significant Differences. Means were compared using Tukey's Honest Significant Difference Test in GenStat.It was difficult to establish the plants in the cooler months, and successful establishment was in the warm parts of the year (Figure 1). Twenty of the accessions were erect and seven were prostrate. Only one of the accessions, from Lilongwe (LL-BW-01), had stem pubescence and the rest were devoid of this character. Stem pigmentation also varied greatly among the plants. Fourteen were green, four of which had darker green stripes, eleven had a red stem and two had green with red stripes. Most (81%) of the accessions had branches all along the stem and a few had either all of them near the top (7%) or near the bottom (7%) (Figure 2). Sixteen plants had a green inflorescence, six plants had red or purple colour but most of them were typically red. Five accessions had a mixture of red and green parts of flowers (rusty look). Spines in leaf axils were present in 6 accessions and 21 accessions had no spines. No accession had leaf pubescence.The common shapes of leaves were lanceolate (11) and ovate (11), two accessions had oblong leaves and two others had elliptical leaf shapes while only one had trullate leaves. On leaf pigmentation, 29.6% (8) of the accessions had their basal area pigmented mainly with purple, 44.4% (12) had dark green leaves, 22.2% (6) had normal green leaves, and 3.7% (1) were purple. Four (14.8%) had dark green petioles, 40.7% (11) had green, 37.0% (10) had red to purple, and only 7.4% (2) had green with red-striped petioles (Figure 3). Thirteen accessions had a tap root type representing 48.1% and fourteen had a fibrous root type representing 51.9%. There were variations in the shape and positioning of the inflorescence as shown in Figure 4. The 26% of the last bar is made of 14.8% (4) that had inflorescences that were mostly in leaf axils as well as terminal inflorescences whose side branches were short, 1/4 of, or shorter than the inflorescence length while 11.2% (3) also had axillary inflorescences as well as lateral inflorescences having long side branches, greater than 1/4 of the inflorescence length.About 74.1% (20) of the accessions had an erect inflorescence, while 18.5% (5) had horizontal, half droop, or arch-shaped inflorescences while only two had an inflorescence whose attitude was drooping, with at least the terminal 2/3 hanging vertically down. The inflorescence density of 8 (29.6%) of the accessions was lax, of twelve (44.4%) was intermediate, and of seven (25.9%) was dense. Establishment Amaranth is photoperiod sensitive and starts to flower as soon as the day length shortens (Rensburg et al., 2007). This explains why it was difficult to establish during the cold months (Figure 1). Amaranth seeds need soil temperatures of between 18°C and 25°C to germinate and an air temperature above 25°C for optimum growth. The growth ceases at temperatures below 18°C.The growth habit, branch arrangement and orientation vary from species to species. The environment also plays a role in branch arrangement and positioning. According to Ackerly et al. (2011), it appears that CO2 affects branch number due to effects on the overall rate of development and not to changes in the pattern of branch production. Axillary bud initiation and branching patterns depend on the species as well as environmental conditions (Costea and DeMason, 2001) Stem colour may vary during the same vegetative cycle (Costea and DeMason, 2001). The colour was different from tender age to maturity with the red-stemmed accessions appearing green when young and gradually turning red towards maturity. The stem and inflorescence pigmentation of the accessions was green or red with some plants showing intermediary traits giving a rusty look. This was common in sites where green and red plants co-existed owing to cross pollination. They are easily cross bred, and even weedy types will cross with the intended crop if not rogued from the field (O' Brien and Price, 2008).The leaf shapes of amaranths can vary considerably within a single species. However, there are general shapes that distinguish the species (Legleiter and Johnson, 2013). The majority of the accessions were of the Amaranthus palmeri (Palmer amaranth) and Amaranthus rudis (waterhemp) types. Common waterhemp leaves are generally long, linear, and lanceolate. Palmer amaranth leaves are wider and ovate to diamond-shaped (Legleiter and Johnson, 2013;Nordby et al., 2013).There were also variations in the shape and positioning of the inflorescence. For preliminary identification of Amaranthus species, the useful tool can be the number, thickness, orientation and density of branches in inflorescences. The flowers are arranged in small and contracted cymes, which are agglomerated, axillary and additionally arranged in racemose or spiciform terminals, and large and complex synflorescences (Janovská et al., 2012). O'Brien and Price (2008) observed that vegetable types form flowers and seeds along the stems.Regardless of species, the choice of variety is influenced by individual preference for leaf colour and taste (Oba et al., 2008). Some of the most common commercial amaranths are selections of A. tricolor which come in various leaf colours such as white (light green), dark green, red, purple and variegated (Palada and Chang, 2003).According to Tranel et al. (2002), the growth of the terminal inflorescence and its branches is indeterminate (racemose) and, thus, it may reach a length of 100 cm or even more. However, A. edulis is the only exception in which the inflorescence is determinate due to the presence of a terminal polymerous male flower and, therefore, the elongation of the inflorescence in this species is due to intercalary growth of the axis.The plant height ranged from 38.3 cm to 361 cm. The mean height was 154.8 cm. The tallest accession was DZ-02-U from Dedza (elevation of 1572 masl) that was measured in situ and most of the plants that recorded good heights were those established at the farm while those in situ were growing in unfavourable environments and so their potential performance was affected. Tukey's pairwise comparisons grouped the plant height means of all the accessions and it was found that mean plant height of accession LL-AQ-02 was significantly different from those of the other accessions. However, there were some relationships among the accessions in terms of plant height since no accession was unique to it and they were not significantly different from species to species but the mean of ZW-BF-01 was significantly higher than those of the other accessions (Table 1).Accessions KU-TR-03 and DZ-05-U did not have basal lateral branches. The maximum length of basal lateral branches was 291cm and the minimum was 12.4 cm, the average length of lateral branches being 92.83 cm. Accession DZ-03-U had 59.2 cm as its average length in basal lateral branch and was 59 cm in height on average. The mean length of basal lateral branches in accessions BV-BF-01, LL-AQ-02 and LL-BF-01 was significantly lower than the other accessions while the mean length of basal lateral branches of DZ-02-U was significantly higher.The length of top lateral branches ranged from 2 cm to 116.7 cm; the mean length was 31.96 cm. Species growing in natural conditions had relatively longer top lateral branches than those established at the farm. Tukey's Honesty Significant Difference test showed that the mean lengths of top lateral branches of LL-BF-04 were significantly higher than the rest of the accessions. The mean length of top lateral braches of LL-AQ-02 and LL-BF-01 was significantly lower (Table 1) but just as in the other traits, there were some similarities in the mean length on the lateral branches among the accessions.The length of axillary inflorescence ranged from 0.2 cm to 12.8 cm and the mean length was 3.08 cm. The maximum length of the leaves was 29 cm and the minimum was 1.9 cm, the mean being 15.85 cm. For leaf width the mean was 8.74 cm and the maximum and minimum values were 1.2 cm and 16.5 cm respectively. Tukey's pair wise comparisons were also conducted on these parameters and on leaf length it was found that the mean leaf length of LL-BF-01 was significantly shorter compared to the other accessions while significantly on the higher side was DZ-01-U. There was also much variability of leaf length amongst the accessions as the groupings in Table 1 show and this signified that the variability was extensive. BV-BF-01, DZ-BF-02, DZ-BF-01, and LL-BW-01 had mean leaf lengths that were insignificantly different but they were found to be significantly different from accessions DZ-03-U, DZ-02-L, KU-MT-00, KU-TR-03 and DZ-05-U. However, there were still some linkages amongst the accessions despite the significant differences.Most accessions displayed significant differences in leaf width while some were also grouped based on similarities. Accessions LL-BF-01 and LL-AQ-01 are different but they were significantly smaller in mean leaf width compared to the rest of the accessions. ZW-BF-01 and DZ-BF-01 had wider leaves than the others. Regarding the length of axillary inflorescences, only 12 of the 27 accessions had such inflorescences and comparison of mean length of these showed that 8 accessions were significantly different from the 4 and this trait was common in prostrate growing accessions.Leaf length and leaf width ratio showed on average that the leaf length was double the average leaf width in all accessions. The petiole length and leaf length ratio showed that the average length of the petioles was half that of the leaf length. These relationships can be seen in Table 1. The ANOVAs for these ratios also showed that there were significant differences in leaf length/width ratio and petiole length/leaf length ratio.The variability in petiole length (PL) was also somewhat large. The maximum length was 18.5 cm and the minimum value was 1.3 cm with a mean of 8.9 cm. The number of leaves was 316 on the lower side and 7319 on the higher side and the mean was 2182. The longest inflorescence stalk length observed measured 69 cm and the shortest was 4.9 cm. The mean length was 24.16 cm. The laterals length of the inflorescence had a mean of 7.3 cm. The maximum value was 18.1 cm and the minimum value was 2.1 cm.The highest leaf yielding accession was LL-BF-04 (considered to be Green Giant) that also was shown to have a longer vegetative phase compared to the other accessions. Its leaf yield of five plants went up to 18.53 kg and the least leaf yielding was BV-BF-01 (considered to be A. hypochondriacus) which is a grain amaranth and five plants yielded 1.13 kg. The leaf yield per hectare ranged between 6554 kg ha -1 to 31 599 kg ha -1 and Schippers (2000) and Rensburg et al. (2007), reported that under cultivated conditions amaranth produces fresh leaf yields of up to 40 t ha-1 . High yield is one of the most important characteristics for vegetable production especially during the hot and wet summer season in tropical and sub-tropical regions (Engle, 2003).BV-BF-01 being a grain type of Amaranthus yielded higher in seeds than in leaves. Its vegetative phase was also very brief and the least seed yielding was DZ-BF-01. The grain yield was between 450 kg ha -1 and 3900 kg ha -1 . Amaranth grain yield strongly depends on environment, weather conditions, species, genotype, and production techniques, and varies in a wide range from 500 to 2000 kg grain ha-1 while it is reported that with appropriate varieties and production techniques, yields of 1500 to 3000 kg grain ha -1 can be expected, whilst in Europe, yield can be between 2000 and 3800 kg ha -1 (Mlakar et al., 2010). According to Tubene and Myers (2008), although individual seeds are very small, amaranth plants produce abundant edible seed, which have high protein and oil content. The grain amaranths are more productive seed producers than vegetable amaranths.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there were significant differences (P<0.01) in all the quantitative traits (Table 1).Despite the diversity of amaranth discussed, not many farmers are involved in the proper production of amaranthus species. Rather, rural families traditionally have made conscious efforts to preserve these plants around their homesteads, in crop fields and communal lands (Kwapata et al., 1992). There is a general perception problem in Southern Africa where, as with many other African leafy vegetables, people believe the plants will grow naturally (Rensburg et al., 2007). There is a need to evaluate the growth performance of Amaranthus species under different management practices in order to select and recommend the most appropriate ones to the farmers.Tranel P., Wasson J., Jeschke M., Rayburn A. 2002.Transmission of herbicide resistance from a monoecious to dioecious weedy amaranth species. Tag Theoretical and Applied Genetics 105:674 -679.Tubene S.L., Myers R.D. 2008. Ethnic and specialty vegetables handbook. Maryland Department of Agriculture.Daylength effects on growth and seed production efficiency in Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L.)The daylength at the equator (zero latitude) is reasonably stable, but towards the earth's poles the lengths of day and night change to become increasingly unequal. These differences in daylength provide an environmental cue that allows plants to flower in response to seasonal fluctuations (Garner and Allard, 1920;Thomas and Vince-Prue, 1997). The ability to sense and respond to changes in daylength is known as photoperiodism, and many developmental responses in plants, animals and even fungi are under the control of photoperiod (Dawson et al., 2001;Tan et al., 2004;Thomas and Vince-Prue, 1997). Photoperiod control in legumes has been reported for, e.g. flowering time and seed production in soybean (Glycine max) (Kantolic andSlafer, 2005, 2007;Summerfield et al., 1993); for growth and development and flowering and pod-set in Bambara groundnut (Brink, 1997;Harris and Azam-Ali, 1993;Linnemann, 1993;Linnemann et al., 1995); flowering time in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (Ellis et al., 1994;Hadley et al., 1984; and phenological development in lablab bean (Dolichos lablab) (Keatinge et al., 1998. These studies indicated that the phenological developments of short-day legumes are generally under the influence of temperature and photoperiod. The exposure to long photoperiods in indeterminate soybean for example, increased the reproductive period from flowering to maturity, and this resulted in an increase in seed number (Kantolic and Slafer, 2007). In Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean L.), photoperiod usually has a stronger effect on pod-set and pod-filling than on flowering (Brink 1997).Because daylength cannot be regulated in field conditions, it is important that crop genotypes have appropriately matched photoperiod requirements to ensure reproductive success at different latitudes and in different growing seasons. Bambara groundnut is an African native legume rich in protein and generally grown by smallholder farmers who appreciate its tolerance of drought and poor soils. Pod and seed number, and seed weight are the most important components responsible for differences in yields between different landraces and environments. These components are mainly determined during the postflowering period and the effects extend through pod filling and maturity. While changes in photoperiod can delay flowering, incorrect daylength can completely abolish pod-filling. The sensitivity of Bambara groundnut to long photoperiod determines the limits of the sowing period for smallholder farmers, and adaptation of the crop outside its main growing season.Bambara groundnut landraces generally have been reported to require a short day-length of a maximum of 12-13 hours in the period of pod-set and pod-filling, and there are considerable differences between landraces in their response to long photoperiods (Brink et al., 2000;Harris and Azam-Ali, 1993;Linnemann, 1991Linnemann, , 1993;;Linnemann and Craufurd, 1994). For most landraces, short days and long days often fall below the critical photoperiodic range for successful fruit set even after flowering (Jørgensen et al., 2009).Similarly, genotypes may become female infertile and/or male sterile in response to unfavourable photoperiodic changes. These conditions can cause \"blanking\", an abortion of the pod formation process. In many Bambara groundnut landraces the onset of podding is retarded by long photoperiods (Brink et al., 2000;Linnemann, 1991Linnemann, , 1993;;Nishitani and Inouye, 1981).Since Bambara groundnut is produced and consumed in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa with daylengths varying from 12 h to 14 h, depending on the latitude and time of growth, it is important to understand the photoperiod requirements for reproductive success and improvement. The objective of this work was to determine photoperiod effects on seed production efficiency and to develop photoperiodic ideotypes for different production systems.The experiments were conducted on plants grown as crop stands in three climate-controlled tropical glasshouses in 2011, at the School of Biosciences, Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham. For each daylength treatment, the experimental design was a complete randomized design (CRD) with eight plants per genotype. Individual plants represented each replicate. Five genotypes derived from landraces (Table 1) were subjected to 12, 14 and 16 h of constant daylength treatment in glasshouses 1, 2 and 3, respectively, with daylength in each glasshouse controlled by an automatic blackout system. While a photoperiod of 12 h d -1 was natural, a photoperiod of 16 h d -1 was considered to be extreme for a short-day plant such as Bambara groundnut. Each glasshouse condition was kept at approximately 50-60% relative humidity, 27/28 o C and 22/23 o C day and night temperatures, respectively. Lighting was supplemented in glasshouses during a period longer than 12 h natural daylength with artificial lights, when light levels were below 20,000 lux.The Bambara groundnut landrace Ankpa 4 from Nigeria is known to be highly photoperiod sensitive for flowering and pod-set when grown under photoperiod conditions longer than 12 h (Linnemann et al., 1995), while the rest of the landraces used are poorly characterized or have not been tested for photoperiod sensitivity. Where information was available, it was often derived largely from pot experiments. Four plants per landrace in two beds (eight plants in total) were planted directly into glasshouse soil without mounding (2-3 cm planting depth) at a spacing of 25 cm by 25 cm in all three glasshouses on the 8 th of August 2011, under natural light conditions. This experiment was carried out for five months and plants harvested on the 8 th of January, 2012. The planting was done in a completely randomized design, to allow for at least three plants in between border guard rows per landrace in the final analysis (three replications). Irrigation was supplied by trickle tape for 15 min morning and 15 min evening throughout the experiment period. This accounted for a flow rate of 500 ml day -1 , supplied to 40 plants in two rows (20 plants each) over a 5 m stretch. Each of the three different daylength treatments was initiated from sowing in each of the glasshouses and data were collected according to standard IPGRI descriptors for days to emergence, days to first flower opening (anthesis), and yield determining traits (pod numbers plant -1 , seed number plant -1 and grain weight plant -1 ). Measurements were non-destructive, and direct observations at the beginning of pod set were impossible because some of the selections included in the experiment mostly buried their pods (e.g Ankpa 4, Lun T and Getso). Maturity was established when leaves began to age, and pods began to dry out in 12 h daylength. Seeds were dried to 12% moisture at 37 o C for two weeks and above-ground dry matter at 85 o C (oven dry weight) for 48 h. Data were subjected to analysis of variance with mean separation according to LSD (GenStat 15 th Edition). The characterization of these genotypes derived from landraces enabled us to select divergent parents for genetic crosses and to generate segregating F2 populations.Plant material consisted of five groundnut landraces collected from different locations in Africa, with contrasting growing seasons. These landraces are adapted to tropical conditions in the major Bambara groundnut-growing regions of sub-Saharan Africa and Indonesia. As a self-pollinating crop, landraces used were selected and seed obtained from single plants.Where individual plants manifested desirable traits, seeds from these individual plants were selected and grown separately, to produce several pure lines (genotypes). Given the strongly inbreeding nature of Bambara groundnut (as evidenced through very low levels of heterozygosity in individual genotypes derived from single plant landrace accessions assessed with 20 SSR markers; 2% heterozygosity (Molosiwa et al., 2015), seed derived from single plants should essentially represent unselected varieties. Details of these plant materials, country of origin and geographical distribution from the equator are listed in  The flowering times, measured in days after emergence (DAE) were significantly affected by landrace (P<0.01) but not by photoperiod (Fig. 1A). However, flowering time for the three daylength treatments interacted significantly with landrace (P<0.01). The 12 h treatment gave the largest interaction between daylength and landrace, where Gresik and Ankpa 4 took longer to flower compared to all other landraces. This was closely followed by the 16 h treatment, where Ankpa 4 and Gresik took longer to flower than Lun T, Getso and IITA-686.In terms of numbers of flowers produced, there were significant differences between landraces, daylength and the interaction between landrace and daylength (P<0.01) with progressive increases in flower numbers for Getso and IITA in 16 h>14 h>12 h. The reverse was the case for Ankpa 4 with lower numbers of flowers in 16 h and 14 h compared to 12 h.The number of pods produced was significantly affected by landrace, daylength and an interaction between landrace and daylength (P<0.01; Figure 2). The pod numbers for IITA-686 increased with increasing daylength, but decreased with increasing daylength treatment for Getso and Lun T. The landrace Ankpa 4 could only produce pods in 12 h daylength.There was a two-fold yield increase in pod number in IITA 686 at 16 h because it continued to flower and produced pods even at 150 days after sowing.Seed number and weight were significantly affected by landrace and photoperiod, as well as the interaction between landrace and daylength (P<0.01). The exposure to the 'extreme' daylength treatment of 16 h resulted in zero pod or seed yields for Ankpa 4, but increased the number of seed for IITA-686 (Figure 3A, 3B). The 12 h daylength treatment however, was more favourable for seed numbers and weight for the Getso and Lun T landraces compared to 14 and 16 h. The results also revealed a decrease in seed number and seed weight for IITA-686 and Gresik in 14 h.  In general, a strong photoperiodic effect on podset, pod filling and maturity in Bambara groundnut was observed and considerable differences existed between landraces under long days. The outcome of the effect of photoperiod on flowering time (days after sowing) was in agreement with most studies on Bambara groundnut, where there has been no influence of daylength treatments on progress to flowering (Brink, 1997;Brink, 1999;Harris and Azam-Ali, 1993;Linnemann, 1991;Linneman and Craufurd, 1994;Sesay et al., 2008). However, there was a delay in flowering time for Ankpa 4 in 16 h and the number of flowers produced reduced as daylength increased from 12 h to16 h. The flowering time and the total number of flowers produced are clearly influenced by both temperature and photoperiod (Figs. 1A, 1B).The results also showed that the number of pods and seed yield from long-day treatments considered in the five Bambara groundnut landraces, were mostly influenced by photoperiod since temperature was kept constant across all three conditions (Figs. indicate clearly that long days can have a significant economic impact on the seed yield of Bambara groundnut after flowering has occurred. This is similar to what is observed in indeterminate soybean cultivated under field conditions, where sensitivity to photoperiod remained high during the reproductive period and was highly and positively coupled with the process of generation of yield (Kantolic and Slafer, 2007).Three photoperiodic types were identified: (1) qualitative short-day type (e.g. Ankpa 4), (2) quantitative short-day type (e.g. Getso, Gresik and LunT) and (3) quantitative long-day type (e.g. IITA-686). Seed number doubled in 16 h for IITA-686, but incomplete pod-filling (due to indeterminacy in 16 hours) led to an overall reduction in average seed weight. These results support the hypothesis that manipulating photoperiod sensitivity may be an avenue to increase and stabilize yields. Parental genotypes derived from landraces, which differ for photoperiod requirement in this study, have been crossed and a series of mapping populations created.Small millets are nutritious but underutilized crops that are an integral part of rain-fed ecosystems in India. They are grown in marginal and heterogeneous rain-fed environments ranging from hills to coastal agro-ecosystems. In the last two decades, these rain-fed ecosystems have been affected by various climate change-related issues. The main issues faced by the small millet farmers are late onset of rainfall, changes in the dry spell pattern within the crop period and reduction in rainfall amount. These issues have led to repeated crop loss, increase of fallow lands, loss of livelihoods and migration. So it is essential to ensure effective adaptation of small millet farmers at the micro-level for climate change, to enhance the resilience of their livelihoods.The presence of varietal diversity in crops in general is expected to aid farmers to cope with the unexpected risks due to change in climate. But in the last two decades, a decline in interand intra-species diversity among small millets is being observed in various degrees in India. So there is a need for enhancing varietal diversity of small millets. Though climate change is happening everywhere, it affects each location differently and the local level impact also varies across the locations (ACEDRR, 2008). So there is a need for varietal selection under each micro agro-ecosystem, with the participation of farmers to identify suitable varieties, instead of broad general recommendations. For this purpose, the participatory varietal selection (PVS), a novel approach in selection of cultivars, was tested in the study. PVS was thought to be more appropriate (Yadavendra and Witcombe, 2007) as this approach is more rapid and cost-effective in identifying farmer-preferred cultivars provided a suitable choice of cultivars exists.This research was carried out as part of an action research project, 'Revalorising Small millets in Rain-fed Regions of South Asia', aimed at enhancing the production and consumption of small millets, by using gender-sensitive participatory approaches to address constraints related to production, distribution and consumption. This project is supported under CIFSRF by IDRC and DFATD, Canada.This study was undertaken in five distinct agro-climatic regions of India during 2011-2012, covering four small millets − finger millet (Eleusine coracana), little millet, (Panicum sumatrense), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) and barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea). Finger millet is cultivated extensively in three project sites namely Anchetty (Tamil Nadu), Bero (Jharkhand) and Semiliguda (Odisha), while it is also grown on a smaller scale in the Jawadhu Hills, another project site in Tamil Nadu. The main crop of the latter site is little millet, which is also an important crop in Semiliguda. Barnyard millet and kodo millet are grown at the Peraiyur site. All four crops are cultivated mainly under rain-fed conditions.In this study a schematic approach with the following components was followed in the following sequence: 1) understanding of varietal diversity in the sites, 2) PVS and 3) establishing community-based seed systems. The execution involved continual structured involvement and interaction of the farming community and scientists through the course of the study. For establishing the status of varietal diversity, participatory methods such as transect walks, biodiversity surveys and focus group discussions were followed. The PVS method adopted included the following: 1) situation analysis to identify farmers' needs in a cultivar, 2) a search for suitable materials to test with farmers, 3) experimentation on its acceptability in farmers' fields and 4) wider dissemination of farmer-preferred cultivars.Experimentation on acceptability of suitable materials in farmers' fields included mother trials, baby trials and informal research and development.Based on the local farmers' needs in a cultivar and the input provided by the researchers working on these crops, a set of promising varieties, comprising both traditional and released ones, were short-listed for each crop in each relevant site. The short-listed varieties were evaluated for their suitability in diverse farm situations prevalent in each site by conducting mother trials during the 2011 and 2012 crop seasons on farmers' fields. The mother trials in each crop involved 8-10 promising varieties tested across the villages as unreplicated trials. However, replicated trials with the same set of varieties, one in farmers' fields and another at the research institution, were also undertaken during 2012. In mother trials, the plot size for each variety was 40 m 2 and 12 m 2 in replicated trials. Crops in mother trials were raised following farmers' practices in the site, such as sowing seeds by broadcasting. Recommended agronomic practices like appropriate fertilizer doses and line sowing were adopted only in the replicated trials. Special care was taken to ensure distribution of trials across the villages in the site and the involvement of women in the trials. Data were collected on various plant growth and yield parameters, which were analysed using appropriate statistical procedures. In addition to quantitative assessments, farmers' preference analysis was also carried out, wherein both men and women farmers assessed varietal performance in certain field trials as individuals and as groups. They individually selected the first three preferred varieties among the tested varieties and shared the reasons for this. Individual score values of each variety (as 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd preference) were converted into weighted scores. The most suitable varieties of finger millet, little millet, barnyard millet and kodo millet were identified for each site based on the analysis of trial data and farmers' preferences. Such identified varieties were further tested in baby trials with a greater number of farmers in each site in the years 2012 and 2013 for further confirmation of their suitability by evaluating them in larger plot size (minimum of 200 m 2 ) with farmers' varieties as controls. In baby trials, frequency analysis of positive and negative opinions of trial farmers along with the analysis of yield data was followed for identifying the suitable varieties. Varieties selected in baby trials in 2012 were to be taken further for large scale trials during 2013. Seeds of most preferred varieties emerging from PVS will be mass multiplied for further promotion in the region, leading to enhanced varietal diversity of the four crops.Finger millet -Anchetty presented a different picture compared to the other three sites in terms of high penetration of released varieties (Table 1). Most of the area under finger millet in Anchetty is covered by two released varieties (GPU 28 and INDAF 5). The local farmers here have been cultivating many released varieties such as HR 911, INDAF series and Sharadha, for over two decades. A high degree of varietal diversity was observed in Semiliguda, with 19 traditional varieties. Most of the areas under finger millet in Semiliguda, Bero and Jawadhu Hills were with few popular traditional varieties.Little Millet -A large number of traditional varieties of little millet were observed in the Jawadhu Hills (9) as well as at Semiliguda (8). Of these only Sittan, Karusittan and Vella samai in Jawadhu Hills and Bada saon in Semiliguda are widely cultivated (Table 1).Barnyard millet and Kodo millet -At the Peraiyur site, not much diversity was observed either in barnyard millet or in kodo millet. Only traditional varieties were found to be under cultivation in each crop. Among them Sadai (barnyard millet) and Siru varagu (kodo millet) were more popular.The results of the study indicated that although there were present many varieties in the sites, no more than two varieties covered the majority of the area for each of the four crops studied. Further varietal diversity at hamlet level was very limited in all the sites (Table 2). This situation clearly indicated the need for increasing varietal diversity of small millets in the sites. As the baseline survey in the study sites indicated that more than 90% of the farmers practise using farm-saved seeds, the best strategy for enhancing varietal diversity is by creating more options regarding the preferred varieties with the involvement of farmers, and popularizing the same for reaching large number of farmers. For this PVS was attempted in the sites. In the two cycles of mother trials conducted in 2011 and 2012 and one cycle of baby trials conducted in 2012, 60 traditional varieties, 45 released varieties and 12 pre-release varieties of four small millet crops were tested across the five sites, with the involvement of 578 men and 333 women farmers. The results of mother and baby trials are presented in Tables 3 and  4.Finger millet -Among the 18 varieties (7 traditional, 9 released and 2 pre-release) included in mother trials in Anchetty, 4 varieties namely Kempu, Halukuli, GPU 66 and Sharadha were identified as suitable varieties. The baby trials in 2012 validated the suitability of the first three varieties. In Anchetty, as mentioned earlier, farmers have already better performing varieties like GPU 28 and the present need is to have alternatives that perform as well as these varieties. The Kempu and Halukuli varieties fulfilled this requirement due to their yielding ability and were preferred by the farmers. Similarly the performance of Sharadha, an old released variety, was also as productive as the top yielders and because it is already being grown in certain pockets of the site, it was chosen for further promotion in other areas based on farmers' preference. A pre-release variety, GPU 66, was preferred by the farmers due to its large panicle size.At Bero, among the ten varieties (four traditional, four released and two pre-release) included in mother trials, four varieties namely A 404, GPU 28, GPU 66 and GPU 67 were identified as suitable. Baby trials in 2012 reconfirmed the suitability of the first two varieties.The varieties A 404 and GPU 28 were preferred for their high-yielding ability and medium crop duration. While GPU 66 was preferred due to medium crop duration, tall plants with large semi-compact panicles, e.g. GPU 67 were preferred due to their short duration, synchronized maturity and non-lodging character. Besides, the popular traditional varieties Lohardagiya and Demba, expressed high yielding ability which needs to be exploited in further crop improvement research.At Jawadhu Hills, among the 12 varieties (5 traditional, 5 released and 2 pre-release) included in mother trials, 4 varieties namely Kempu, Ragalli sivalli, GPU 28 and GPU 66 were identified as the suitable varieties. Considering the presence of just two traditional varieties of finger millet in the site, all the four farmers' preferred varieties were included for evaluation during 2013. At Semiliguda, among the 25 varieties of finger millet (18 traditional, 5 released and 2 prerelease) included in mother trials, 4 varieties namely Bhairabi, Chilika, GPU 66 and GPU 67 were identified as suitable varieties. Baby trials in 2012 validated the suitability of the Bhairabi variety and not Chilika. The variety Bhairabi was preferred due to its traits namely high yield, medium crop duration, non-lodging, ease in threshing and bold grains. The variety GPU 66 was preferred due to its bigger panicle size and high yield while GPU 67 was preferred due to its non-lodging nature and uniform maturity. The variety Chilika was not preferred by the majority of the farmers in 2012 due to its traits, namely grain loss from finger breakage during harvest, poor threshability and small grains. Kalakarenga and Mati, the two popular traditional varieties, expressed high yielding ability and could be useful in further varietal improvement.Little millet -In the Jawadhu Hills, of the 13 varieties (8 traditional and 5 released) included in mother trials, 3 varieties namely CO 4, Koluthana and Perungolai were identified as suitable varieties. Baby trials in 2012 reconfirmed the suitability of CO 4 and the other two will be tested in 2013. The variety CO 4 was preferred because of its height (more fodder yield) and Koluthana for its semi-compact panicles. Perungolai was selected because of its large, semi-compact panicles and tall stature. The popular local cultivars, Sittan and Karusittan, expressed high yielding ability and less grain shattering at maturity, which could be exploited in breeding research.At Semiliguda, among the ten varieties (five traditional and five released) included in mother trials, Kala saon was identified as the suitable variety. In farmers' preference analysis, Bada saon was the most preferred variety due to its high yielding ability, suitability for waterlogged lands and ease in harvesting and threshing. It could be exploited for further varietal improvement.Barnyard millet -At Peraiyur, of the 17 varieties (8 traditional and 9 released) included in mother trials, 4 varieties namely CO 2, Mallankinaru, Mallankinaru1 and Aruppukottai were identified as suitable varieties. Baby trials in 2012 reconfirmed the suitability of the first three varieties. The local popular variety, Sadai expressed high yielding ability, which needs to be exploited for further varietal improvement.Kodo millet-At Peraiyur, among the 12 varieties (5 traditional, 3 released and 4 pre-release) included in mother trials, 2 varieties namely Uppu varagu and TNAU 111 were identified as the suitable varieties. While Uppu varagu was the highest yielder, TNAU-111 was preferred by the farmers for its bold grain in addition to good yielding ability. Siru varagu, the local popular variety, expressed high yielding ability, which needs to be exploited for further varietal improvement. The present study indicated that participatory varietal selection is a robust and efficient approach to identifying additional suitable varieties within a short period. One to four varieties were identified for each crop in each of the five sites in two PVS cycles. Joshi et al. (1997) also reported that the PVS approach provided farmers with the benefits of new genetic materials five to six years in advance of the formal system and with minimal effort. The utility of the PVS approach in understanding farmers' criteria for selecting varieties and analysing reasons for non-adoption of released varieties in finger millet has been reported by Gowda et al. (2000).Though yield appeared to be the main criterion for assessing the superiority of a variety, the trial farmers also took into consideration several other traits/dimensions before preferring a variety. Presence of varietal trials on their own fields provided every trial farmer with an opportunity to closely observe the performance of each variety. In addition to high-yielding ability (high tillering, larger panicle size and bold grains), crop duration, non-shattering of grains at maturity, non-lodging, uniform maturity, and good fodder yield were also considered. Women farmers, in particular, were more concerned with grain quality traits, such as colour, taste, grain hardiness and storage quality. The results also revealed that some of the popular traditional varieties from the nearby area were suitable, indicating the possibility of introducing varieties from neighbouring areas. Such varieties have the advantage of being adapted to similar ecologies and hence show good adaptation. PVS also brought immediate benefits to the target farmers in having access to a large number of potential varieties and having in their possession the seeds of promising varieties identified by them. Furthermore, the study indicated the need for local community organizations to locate these participatory research efforts and to provide continuity.The impact of PVS largely depends on the adoption of identified varieties by the local farmers in the study sites. Some of the possible next steps to build on the efforts so far made include:1. Initiation of a decentralised system of quality seed production and distribution at the community level in each site, to promote both the existing as well as the newly identified suitable varieties on a sustainable basis 1 , 2. Purification of potential traditional varieties and promoting proper seed selection among farmers in order to preserve their identity, 3. Conservation of vanishing varieties through relevant grassroots level institutions and custodian farmers, and 4. Participatory plant breeding to fully exploit the high genetic potential of traditional varieties. 2The project has demonstrated the effectiveness of scaled-up PVS for enhancing the resilience of small millet farmers. Some of the policy suggestions that emerge from this study are:1. PVS to be used by national agricultural research systems for refining their districtwise recommendations of varieties, particularly where specific adaptation to agro-ecosystems is required such as in the Eastern Ghats and where quality parameters plays an important role in varietal selection, 2. The role of local community organizations in varietal improvement needs to be recognized and they need to be given state support for establishing community-based seed systems that effectively integrate on-farm conservation, varietal improvement and varietal distribution, 3 3. Popular traditional varieties need to be included in the formal public seed system for production and distribution and also in other state-funded crop support systems, and 4. Farmers' rights related to these varieties need to be recognized and secured through various ways, including through using geographical indicators.Castorbean (Ricinus communis L.) belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae (Salamatbakhsh et al., 2012) and has been in cultivation for 4000 years (Olsnes, 2004). Castor is a fast-growing C3 plant (Doan, 2004) and is cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Govaerts et al., 2000) as well as on a commercial scale in more than 31 countries. India, China, and Mozambique are the major castorbean growing countries, comprising about 98% of the world's production (FAO, 2012). The world annual production of castor oil seeds in 2012 was about 1.95 million tonnes. Castor is an important industrial oilseed crop (Sarwar et al., 2010). The seeds contain a very high oil content of approximately 50%, which can be extracted easily by pressure. The oil already has a growing international market, assured by more than 700 uses and is a basic constituent in a variety of industries, including the manufacturing of soaps, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold-resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals, and perfumes (Millard and Leclaire, 2007). Castorbean cultivation emerges as a promising activity for biodiesel production, providing income in resource-poor areas (Savy-Filho, 2005). The biodiesel derived from castor oil has several advantages over other vegetable oils due to the presence of 5% more oxygen, low levels of residual phosphorus and carbon, high cetane number, solubility in alcohol and absence of aromatic hydrocarbons (Scholz and Silva, 2008). The high viscosity of the castor oil is due to the high percentage of ricinoleic acid, which is a limiting factor for the use of pure castorbean diesel in engines (Pinzi et al., 2009). However, the use of this biodiesel blended with petrodiesel can be exploited in regions with severe winters. This is a highly recommended procedure because of its low freezing point and the lubricant power afforded by castor oil (Berman et al., 2011;Singh, 2011). The castorbean plant presents a wide variation regarding vegetative traits such as leaf and stem colours, number and size of leaf lobes and presence of wax covering the stem (Savy-Filho, 2005). There are nearly 250 cultivars of castorbean (Ovenden et al., 2009). Due to the increased demand in many countries, improvement of varieties is drawing greater attention from breeders (Sujatha et al., 2008). It is necessary to characterize the genetic diversity present across R. communis germplasm from different geographic regions to develop a genotyping scheme that links castorbean traits to a particular germplasm source or geographic region (Hinckley, 2006). Morphological characterization is the first step in the description and classification of germplasm collections (Smith et al., 1991) to guide use enhancement. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare and evaluate some castorbean landraces in terms of morpho-agronomic characters and genetic diversity to explore their potential use as a bioenergy crop in Egypt.To evaluate the possibility of using castorbean (R. communis) as a bio energy crop in Egypt, four landraces were investigated. Collections of seeds were made from various locations in two governorates (Qalyubia and Menufia) during 2011. The seeds were planted in the experimental field of the soils and water research department, NRC, Atomic Energy Authority, Egypt, at a distance of 3 m x 3 m between plants. The soil was characterized as sandy (sand 90% silt 0.02%, and clay 0.07%) and the chemical properties were pH: 7.97, electrical conductivity (EC) (dS/m): 0.27, soil organic matter (%): 0.3, total nitrogen (%): 0.07. Plants received NPK at the rates 150, 110 and 110 kg ha -1 in the form of ammonium sulphate, super phosphate, and potassium sulphate respectively. Plants were irrigated with freshwater every two days and were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The plants were harvested on August 2012. Plant height (cm), main spike length (cm), number of spikes per plant, number of capsules per spike, number of capsules per plant, 100-seed weight (g), seed yield, oil percentage (%), and oil yield were determined. The results were expressed as means with standard deviation (±S.D.) and LSD=0.05.Seeds: based on seed size, three main landraces of dry dehiscent castorbean seed type were identified within the study area (Figure 1): a small-seeded landrace (SSL), a medium-seeded landrace (MSL), and a large-seeded landrace (LSL). As described in Table 1, the seed size ranged from 0.18-0.71 g by weight, 0.86-2.16 cm by height, 0.46-1.30 cm by width, and 0.27-0.57 cm by thickness. Based on seed colours, four seed-coat colour patterns were found. The large-seeded landraces exist in white-specked brown, medium-seeded landraces in red and brown, while the small-seeded landraces exist mainly in a dark grey colour as indicated in Figure 1. Plant height: this is an important indicator of ultimate yield and is a function of genetic constitution and environmental conditions under which the crop is grown (Cheema, 2011). The data in Table 2 show that the red medium-seeded landrace (RMSL) had the highest plant height of 320 cm, followed by the brown medium-seeded (BMSL) and the grey small-seeded landraces (GSSL;288.3 and 263.3 cm). The shortest plants were observed in the case of the brown largeseeded landrace (BLSL; 228.3 cm). The difference in plant height may be attributed to the genetic make-up of landraces and adequate moisture availability. Our results corroborate the findings of Cheema (2011) who stated that plant height is a genetic trait, as well as temperatureand moisture-related traits. 2 show that L2 produced the tallest main spike (38 cm), followed by L3 (22.3 cm). However, L4 recorded the shortest main spike (20.3 cm). Sarwar et al. (2010) reported that the trait, main spike length, is more important and can play a significant role for improving seed yield if selection is based on this trait. 2, the GSSL had the highest number of spikes plant -1 (31.5), followed by BMSL and BLSL, 19 for both. On the other hand, RMSL had the lowest number of spikes per plant (6.7). Moshkin (1967) reported that there was a close relationship between seeds and number of spikes, number of capsules, and size of seed in a castorbean.data regarding number of capsules per spike are presented in Table 2. BMSL recorded the highest number of capsules per spike (39), whereas GSSL showed the lowest number, 18.33. Sarwar et al. (2010) reported that traits like spikes per plant and capsules per spike are more important and can play a significant role for improving seed yield if selection is based on these traits.  this is one of the most important components contributing to the yield of castorbean crop (Cheema, 2011). As shown in Table 3, the maximum numbers of capsules per plant (743.7) were produced by L2, while the minimum numbers (142.8) were produced by L3. The number of capsules appears to be a function of the number of branches.The greater number of branches results in a higher number of capsules. Koutroubas et al. (1999) reported that the number of capsules per plant of different varieties, can be different depending on genetic characteristics and weather conditions.it is obvious from the data presented in Table 3 that L4 produced heavier (68.06 g) grains followed by L2 (43.51 g), while the lighter seeds (19.62 g) were produced by L1. Similar results were observed by Akula and Reddy (1998), who reported a variation in 100-seed weight among different cultivars of castorbean. Hocking and Steer (1989) reported that seedling from small seeds produced less dry matter yield. Ahmad (2001) also found that larger seed is more robust than smaller seeds.  Seed yield per plant: this is a complex and multifaceted trait as it represents the ultimate expression of different yield factors (Sarwar et al., 2010). As shown in Table 3, the minimum seed weight per plant (0.21 kg) was produced by RMSL. However, the maximum seed weight (1.10 kg) was obtained from BMSL. Salih and Khidir (1975) reported that the number of primary branches per plant, the number of capsules and 100-seed weight in castorbean had high positive correlations with yield per plant and with each other.Seed yield per hectare: this is an important parameter from a farmer's point of view (Cheema, 2011). Traits like branches per plant, main spike length, spikes per plant and capsules per spike can play a significant role for improving seed yield if selection is based on these traits (Sarwar et al., 2010). L2 recorded the highest seed yield ha -1 (1.75 tonnes), followed by L4, 1.30 tonnes, while L3 showed the lowest seed yield per ha -1 (0.33 tonnes). Williams and Kittock (1969) reported that higher seed yields were associated with early planting, adequate moisture availability and early harvest. The results are in accordance with Kumar et al. (1997) who showed that the moisture adequacy index positively influenced yield and accounts for significant variation in the total yield of castorbean. Lima et al. (1998) found that castorbean seed yield was positively correlated with plant height and number of capsules per plant. Reddy et al. (1999) studying 56 castorbean germplasm lines observed correlation of seed yield with earliness, capsule weight and number of capsules per plant under rain fed and irrigated conditions. Aswani et al. (2003) reported that capsules in primary spikes, number of spikes per plant, number of days to 50 percent flowering and maturity, length of primary spikes and 100seed weight were the major yield-contributing characters in castorbean.Oil content: castorbean has been traditionally cultivated for the production of lubricants and paints (Berman et al., 2011;Scholz and Silva, 2008). The oil content and other characteristics are temperature and moisture dependent. The maximum oil content was demonstrated by L1 (44.01%) closely followed by L3 (40.63%), while the lowest oil percentage (31.35%) was recovered for L4. The results are in accordance with Yermanson et al. (1967) who reported that small grains have a lower percentage of skin and therefore contain a higher oil percentage. The amount of oil in castorbean seeds is a genetic trait, but is affected by environmental conditions, agricultural operations and harvesting time (Taherifard et al., 2012). Also it might be due to the conducive conditions available which led to better uptake of nutrients from the soil favouring oil synthesis. Similar results were observed by Ramos et al. (1984) who found a large variation in oil percentage of 36 castorbean cultivars, ranging from 39.6 to 59.5%. *The data represent mean ± SD of three replicates and LSD = 0.05Oil yield ha -1 : this was calculated on the basis of oil content and grain yield. As shown in Table 4, BMSL recorded the highest oil yield per hectare (648.1 kg), followed by the BLSL (407.5 kg).On the other hand, L3 had the lowest oil yield per hectare (132.8 kg). Gupta et al. (1951) studied the variability of oils of 19 castorbean seed cultivars widely grown in Africa, America and Asia. They found that the oil content did not vary in most of them.The detailed results and discussion of individual fatty acids is given below:1-Palmitic acid: a higher concentration of palmitic acid (2.8%) was recorded with BLSL followed by BMSL, and GSSL. On the other hand, the lowest palmitic acid content (1.5%) was found in RMSL. Our findings are in agreement with Ramos et al. (1984) who observed differences among different cultivars of castorbean for palmitic acid. Gupta et al. (1951) studied oils of 19 castor seed cultivars and found that palmitic acid was roughly over 1%.2-Stearic acid: stearic acid is a saturated fatty acid and not desired in edible as well as industrial oil like castorbean. It is found in a minute quantity in castorbean (Cheema, 2011). The highest stearic acid (3.40%) content was recorded for GSSL, followed by BMSL (1.4%). On the other hand, the lowest stearic acid (0.6%) content was observed in the fourth landrace (BLSL). Velasco et al. (2005) reported that different varieties of castorbean showed different stearic acid levels.3-Oleic acid: the data regarding oleic acid percentage are presented in Table 5. It is clear from the data that GSSL produced the highest oleic acid (8.3%) followed by RMSL (7.1%). On the other hand, BLSL produced the minimum oleic acid (0.1%). The results of oleic acid are in accordance with Rojas-Barros et al. (2005) who reported that the analysis of fatty acid composition of individual F2 castor seeds showed a considerable variation for oleic acid. 4-Linoleic acid: linoleic acid is an unsaturated fatty acid (Cheema, 2011). The maximum linoleic acid content (9.7%) was obtained from L4, followed by L2 (9.3%), and L3 (7.4%). The lowest linoleic acid percent (4.7%) was produced by L1. Our study supported the results of Lanna et al. (2005) who demonstrated soybean oil variability in linoleinic acid content for different soybean varieties.5-Ricinoleic acid: ricinoleic acid is the main component of castor oil (Jeong and Park, 2009).The quality of castor oil mainly depends on ricinoleic acid. A slight variation was noted in ricinoleic acid. BLSL had the highest ricinoleic acid content (86.8%) followed by BMSL and RMSL (83.8 and 83.03% respectively). However, GSSL produced the lowest ricinoleic acid percentage (81.96). Our study supported the results of Ramos et al. (1984) who noted slight variation in ricinoleic acid of castor oil ranging from 83.65 to 90%. Also, Rojas-Barros et al. (2005) showed considerable variation for ricinoleic acid in F2 castor seeds. Among the fatty acids, ricinoleic acid ranged between 91.4 to 94.9% while others had a lesser percentage (Gupta et al., 1951).Despite being an important crop, castorbean has never been realized as a commercial crop in Egypt. Moreover, it is grown on marginalized land without receiving much care and attention. Based on seed size and colour, four castorbean landraces were identified. The brown mediumseeded and the brown large-seeded landraces with a high seed yield, oil content and desirable fatty acid composition could be a good source for biodiesel production.The world has a large reservoir of edible plant species of which over 7000 species are known to have been cultivated by man as crop plants (FAO, 2013). Most of the world relies on only a few major crop species (wheat, rice, maize and potato) to provide more than 60% of our daily dietary intake (FAO, 2013). The narrowing of the number of crop species upon which global food and nutritional security depends affects not only our ability to cope with the consequences of climate change but also our ability to supply a diversified diet to fight 'hidden hunger'. Expanding the range of crop species for food and nutrition can reduce risks associated with climate change as well as enhance nutritional security. One of the possible efforts of agricultural diversification is to bring forward potential underutilized crops, such as winged bean.Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) is a perennial vine that grows abundantly in hot and humid countries. Winged bean is believed to have originated from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea based on the existence of diverse varieties (Khan, 1976) or from Africa based on the close resemblance to some other Psophocarpus species especially P. grandiforus from East Africa on the basis of phyto-geographical evidence, morphology and disease transferability (Harder and Smartt, 1992). It is renown as a \"one species supermarket\" because practically all parts (pulse, leaves, pods and root tuber) of the plants are edible. Winged bean seed is highly nutritive (National Academy Press, 1981) with protein content and amino acid composition comparable to soybean and was once identified as the 'future soybean'. In Tanzania, winged bean has been recommended as a good alternative source of plant protein (Mnembuka and Eggum, 1995). Winged bean seed oil has comparable quality to peanut oil and a comparable level of tocopherol to soybean or corn (Khor et al., 1982). High protein and oil content make winged bean seed a suitable raw material for processed food such as composite flour, milk and curd. Winged bean is also regarded as an efficient nitrogen fixer similar to the other ureidetransporting legumes such as Desmodium, Siratro and soybean (Glycine max) (Yoneyama et al., 1986).In 1978, winged bean's strong potential for development into a more significant crop received research attention leading to the establishment of the International Council for Development of Underutilized Plants (ICDUP), a private, non-profit organisation in the United States of America. The council organized two international seminars to gather research information about winged bean (Stephenson, 1981). As with many other underutilized crops the initial efforts were not sustained and winged bean remains a crop yet to fulfill its potential. Viney and bushy growth habits of winged bean are considered as major production constraints by planters because of the need to build trellises or support. Additionally, the plants must be planted far apart to avoid intertwining between the neighbouring plants (Stephenson, 1981). As such, planters always opt for other plants that are easier to deal with. Clearly genetic improvement of winged bean is needed to develop an ideal variety with determinate growth habit and higher yield.Many legumes such as common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), soybean (Glycine max) and mung bean (Vigna radiata) were originally indeterminate in growth but eventually developed determinacy after years of domestication or breeding efforts ( Kwak et al., 2012;Tian et al., 2010). Dwarfed and bushy winged bean mutants have been produced through mutation using gamma rays on mature dried seeds (Klu, 1996). There is a need to develop new varieties not only with determinate growth habit but with a good balance of high yield and nutritional qualities.In the present study, we used morpho-physiological traits to characterize 24 contrasting winged bean accessions. We evaluated the effects of flowering time, levels of branching and photosynthetic rate and yield. The study also developed a large expressed sequence dataset and identified simple sequence repeats (SSRs). These markers will be used in a genetic diversity analysis of winged bean germplasm. Combined, morpho-physiological and genomic data will serve as an important platform to develop genetic tools that can be used in winged bean improvement programmes.Twenty four winged bean accessions were used in this study as described in Table 1. The experiment was conducted at the Lady Bird Farm, Broga, Semenyih, Malaysia (Latitude: 20 57'°N, Longitude: 1010 50'6°: altitude, 45 meters) using a completely randomized design with two experimental units of five subsamples for each accession. Each plant was given a spacing of 1 m x 0.67 m. Border plants were grown at the edges to reduce competitive variation. Irrigation was automated twice per day. The plants were supported on the raffia string tied up vertically to the wire mesh 2 m above ground. Plants were pruned and maintained at the wire mesh level from week 10 onwards. Harvesting was done 20 weeks after planting. Morphological parameters measured included: days to 50% flowering, seed yield, pod yield and harvest index. The formulae used to calculate harvest index was grain yield/(grain + straw yield) (Fageria et al., 2011). Data were analysed using statistical software Genstat 12 th edition (VSN International,2010). One-way ANOVA analysis was used for statistical tests between accessions and standard deviation was used to show variation within accessions. At week seven, photosynthetic rate was measured using a LI-6400XT-leaf chamber fluorometer (LI-COR, USA) at intervals of ten seconds (up to nine points) on four random subsamples (three leaves for each sub-sample). The settings used were 390 µmol reference cell CO2, 1000 µmol m -2 s -1 PARin, 400 µmol s -1 flow rate, 60%-70% relative humidity and 30°C leaf temperature. Using similar settings, photosynthetic rate was measured once on every four random subsamples at 400,300,200,100,50,400,400,600 and 800 µmol reference cell CO2 at week 8.  (Illumina, 2013). MisaScript (Maia et al., 2008) was used to identify SSR loci.Days to 50% flowering and the mean values of pod yield, seed yield and harvest indices are shown in Table 2. All morphological traits were significantly different between (P<0.001) accessions and this would suggest the potential for improvement through selection of superior breeding material.Pod and seed yields were highest in S319 and lowest in M4. Pod yields ranged from 103.88 kg/ha to 2987.66 kg/ha while seed yields ranged from 34.86 kg/ha to 1421.66 kg/ha, respectively (Table 2). A study conducted by Khan et al. (1976) reported winged bean seed yield of up to 720 kg/ha at 1 x 1m spacing. They projected the potential of increase in grain yield per unit area to as high as 1946 kg/ha if the spacing were to be reduced to 0.61 x 0.61 m as used in an earlier study by Pospisil et al., (1971). In this experiment, the seed yield could double up to 2559.84 kg/ha if similar spacing is used, although competition between plants may play a greater role. Similarly, pod yield would also increase up to 5378.47 kg/ha. Rahman (1998) successfully improved winged bean grain yield to as high as 6260 kg/ha using the ratooning technique.Harvest index clearly reflects the distribution ratio of dry matter between vegetative and reproductive parts (Fageria et al., 2011). The highest harvest index of S319 suggests that this accession partitions a relatively higher proportion of dry matter into seed yield compared with the other accessions.Even though diversity in the available genetic material would benefit future breeding programmes, the lack of uniformity would jeopardise consistency and ease of production. One of the main reason farmers choose to grow major crops is because of the presence of highyielding cultivars with promising productivity (Smartt & Haq, 2008). The standard deviation of S319 was lowest (±0.05) among the top five yielding accessions (S319, T51, T53, T9 and T10) and would suggest that individual plants within S319 were more uniform in yield production and have a greater potential to form stable lines. Correlation between days to 50% flowering and harvest index On average, the number of days to achieve 50% flowering was 97 days (Table 2). S319 was the earliest accession to achieve 50% flowering. In contrast, M4, T16, T19, T22 and T33 did not achieve 50% flowering and exhibited a relatively low yield. Further analysis based on a simple linear regression showed an inverse correlation between days to 50% flowering and harvest index (Figure 1). Thus, early flowering in this case is closely associated with high yield. This is contrary to the study by Hardings et al. (1978) who reported that winged bean seed yield was not correlated with flowering time but depended on the days to maturity. This is undeniable because late flowering genotypes can also produce high yield but would be expected to have longer growing durations. In most cases planters would prefer varieties with short life cycles to maximize profit.Plant yield is controlled by the levels of light and efficiency of light capture, photosynthesis and dry matter partitioning into grain (Long et al., 2006). Recently, Evans and Caemmerer (2011) mentioned that once a crop has fully adapted to light interception and partitioning of biomass to grain, further yield increment would require enhanced-photosynthesis. This study examined photosynthetic rate across the germplasm under a constant light level. The highest photosynthetic rate of T17 (Figure 2) would suggest that this accession has the most efficient photosynthetic system followed by M3, T16, M4 and T19. However, these accessions appeared to show only moderate harvest indices from 0.01 to 0.1 that could be due to reduced light interception efficiency and partitioning of biomass to grain. In the future, environmental CO2 concentration is projected to increase alongside global warming. Increasing atmospheric CO2 is closely associated with the an increase in photosynthesis and subsequently yield (Liu et al., 2012;Long et al., 2006). Figure 3 showed an increase in photosynthetic rate at elevated CO2 concentration and projects the potential of winged bean for future climates. Figure 2. Means of photosynthetic rate with standard deviation bars at 390 µmol reference cell CO2, 1000 µmol m -2 s -1 PARin, 400 µmol s -1 flow rate, 60%-70% relative humidity and 30°C leaf temperature.Figure 3. The trend of photosynthetic rate at varying CO2 concentration. Measurement was adjusted to 1000 PARin, 60-70% chamber humidity and 30ºC leaf temperature.Paired end Mi-Seq sequencing yielded 3.29 Gb, 3.97 Gb and 3.67 Gb of raw sequence data for libraries of leaf, root and reproductive tissues, respectively. A total of 3857 potential SSR sequence loci were detected with motifs ranging from monomer to hexamer repeats. Excluding monomer repeats (2103 loci), trimers (786 loci) and dimers (738 loci) are the most abundant in the gene pool, similarly to the other major crops (Sorghum bicolor, Zea mays and Oryza sativa) and model legumes (Glycine max, Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicas) (Jayashree et al., 2006). Based on morpho-physiological evaluations, significant variation between accessions suggests that there is an opportunity for future winged bean improvement programmes through selection of improved material. A number of accessions showed superior characters particularly the accession S319 that has the highest harvest index, consistency in yield production and had the earliest days to 50% flowering and could be used as a parent in future breeding programmes. The correlation studies showed that flowering time was inversely correlated with yield. A set of potential SSR primers were designed for genetic diversity analysis. Combined phenotypic and genomic data will serve as an important platform in winged bean breeding programmes to overcome current production constraints and increase its productivity. Development of improved varieties of winged bean will enhance the crop's popularity and elevate its importance for food and nutritional security.Kersting's groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum Harms) is a grain legume from the Fabaceae family which produces pods in the ground. It is a West African indigenous crop notably from Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo and Benin (Obasi and Agbatse, 2003) where it is widely consumed. From a nutritional point of view, M. geocarpum is grown for its edible seeds which are rich in protein (25%) and contain 42% of essential amino acids (mainly leucine, lysine, phenylalanine and valine) and 60 to 70% of carbohydrates (Chikwendu, 2007). It is also a good source of mineral salts, iron, zinc, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potassium (Ajayi and Oyetayo, 2009). It can be used as complementary food formulation for children (Chikwendu, 2007), and to combat malnutrition (Dansi et al., 2012). Its seeds constitute a useful source of income: one kg of seed costs two to six US dollars. Despite its importance, this crop is cultivated on a small scale and identified as an under-utilized indigenous legume in Benin (Dansi et al., 2012). It is gradually disappearing from traditional food production (Aderanti, 2001). In Benin, according to the MAEP (2011), production of Kersting's groundnut decreased from 2358 tons in 2005 to 1050 tons in 2010. Moreover, few scientific studies are carried out on this crop. To improve our knowledge on production constraints, uses and variability of this plant, the following objectives were addressed: (1) to identify the production areas and importance of M. geocarpum in southern and central Benin;(2) to explore indigenous knowledge related to production, diversity and use of this \"neglected and underutilized\" crop;(3) to investigate the major production constraints of this legume; (4) to undertake participatory evaluation of local varieties for agronomic traits; and (5) to assess morphological variation in Kersting's groundnut landraces from southern and central Benin for development and research programmes.Our study was conducted in the south and centre of Benin which is situated in humid agroecological zones characterized by a subequatorial climate with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons. Annual mean temperature ranges from 26°C to 28°C and annual rainfall varies between 800 to 1400 mm in southern regions (Yabi and Afouda, 2012) and between 800 to 1200 mm in central Benin (Adam and Boko, 1993). The dominant ethnic groups are: Adja, Cotafon, Holly, Ouémènou, Pédah, Saxwè, Tori, Watchi, Xwla, Yoruba, Fon, Mahi, Idaasha, Fè and Tchabè (INSAE, 2002). Vegetation types are semi-deciduous forests or woodlands and savannah woodlands (Akoègninou et al., 2006). A total of 30 villages was surveyed (Table 1; Figure 1) and were selected after an exploratory study through agricultural research institutions, local and urban market visits, discussion with farmers' associations and sellers and with the agricultural extension services, Centre d'Agriculture Régional pour le Développement Rural (CARDER).From each village, 12 producers on average were randomly selected in different districts using the method of Ayoola et al. (2011). In total, 374 people including 72 females were interviewed through participatory research appraisal tools and techniques (Amujoyegbe et al., 2010;Sesay et al., 2013). Data collection included: socio-demographic characteristics; farmers' perception on Kersting's cultivation; farming systems; production zones and constraints; causes of decline production; importance and uses of M. geocarpum; farmers' preference and varietal selection criteria; seed management, and gender role in crop production.Twenty two Kersting's groundnut accessions were collected from southern and central Benin for agro-morphological characterization. Seeds were sown in random complete blocks with three replications per accession. Accessions were sown in single rows of 3 m spaced 0.30 m (within rows) and 0.30 m (among rows) between plants according to Bampuori (2007) and farmers' perceptions. A total of 15 traits (quantitative and qualitative) were recorded (Table 3) using 12 plants per accession following the protocol of IPGRI et al. (2000).Survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Analysis of variance, Student and Newman-Keuls test, computation of Pearson coefficients of correlation etc. have been used to classify and order variation observed from quantitative traits using the STATISCA software package (Statistica, 2005). The main morphological groups of accessions were identified using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) performed with the same software. Eighty one per cent of respondents were male against 19% female during an average of 10 years of surveys. Respectively 50.42%, 30.34%, 18.37% of farmers speak Fon, Mahi and Idaasha/Fè (Figure 2). The area under cultivation was low varying from 100 m 2 to 4 ha per household (average: 0.48 ha). Farmers' ages varied from 20 to 64 years (average: 40 years old). Farmers interviewed (15.38%) noted that the production of Kersting's groundnut was increasing while 55.13% reported that it was reducing. A total of ten reasons grouped in four categories justify the decrease of production (Table 2). The major reasons were high costs of inputs, high labour required, susceptibility to high soil moisture, difficulty of harvest and difficult seed de-hulling.  Cultural practices and knowledge of pests Kersting's groundnut was usually planted between June and August on mounds without other crops. The few farmers (ca. 2%) who have intercropped this plant with cassava or maize harvested low-yields. No fertilizers or pesticides were used. The majority of producers (88.48%) weeded their field at least twice (four and ten weeks after sowing), and harvesting was done in the dry season around November and January. Yellowing and wilting leaves and petioles indicated plant maturity. Pods harvested later were vulnerable to weevils. Some pests and diseases were observed on plants of which the most important was early yellowing of leaves and petioles (Table 3 and Figure 3). In general, this attack had no great effect on the yield of this crop. Three local varieties differing by seed tegument colour were recorded (Figure 4). The white seed was the most cultivated and favoured for consumption. The black and red varieties are neglected because of the colour after cooking. According to the households surveyed, Kersting's groundnut was produced for either home consumption (22.65% of respondents) or market (72.64% of respondents). Seed is usually used in the preparation of delicious foods for special days (New Year, funeral ceremonies, anniversaries, etc.). Regarding medical uses, only a few producers (4.71%) from the ethnic group Fon reported that the cooking water from the black seed variety is used to treat diarrhea, stomach troubles, ulcers and cough.Mainly plastic buckets and maize bags were used to store the seeds of this crop (Figures 5a and  5b). Farmers noted that seeds were very susceptible to storage insect attacks (beetles etc.). To minimize pest effects, producers used many products (Figure 6) especially ash, 'sofa grain' (a black solid insecticide), warm sand, liquid cotton insecticide (endosulfan), canfo and small pepper fruit. Storage periods varied from 5 to 12 months, depending on products used. Thus, Kersting's groundnut diseases sofa grain, endosulfan, small chili pepper fruit and cotton insecticide powder have been identified as the most efficient. Their storage duration ranged from 8 to 12 months. Several of these are chemicals which are dangerous to human health. Concerning gender participation, both females and males were knowledgeable about crop production and management. Land preparation was predominantly a male activity while processing and seed commercialization were women's activities. Sowing, weeding, harvest, seeds storage were activities done equally by men and women.Qualitative traits distinguished two classes of Kersting's groundnut. The first one grouped white seed accessions while the second included red and black seeds accessions (Figure 7).In general, coefficients of variation were low for most (80%) of the studied quantitative traits (CV<20%; Table 3). Correlations between quantitative traits revealed negative correlations between the date of 50% plant-flowering and yield parameters (number of pods per plant, seed weight per plant and grain yield). High correlations (r≥90) were however noted between yield parameters (Table 4).   In total, three groups G1, G2 and G3 of Kersting's groundnut were identified following the two first axes of principal component analysis (representing 42.20% of the total variance; Figure 8). The multiple comparison of means of the different groups for each morphological trait revealed significant differences (0.001<P<0.05) for only five parameters such as leaflets width (LEW), number of pods per plant (NPP), seed weight (SEW), grain yield per hectare (GRY) and date of 50% flowering (DTF). Characteristics of each group were identified and highlighted (Table 5).The group G1 with 16 accessions was characterized by very wide leaflets (4.86±0.24 cm).   For agronomical variation, a significant difference was observed among white seed accessions (P = 0.001) and between local varieties (P = 0.015). Means of 1062±93 kg/ha, 1197±77 kg/ha and 1548±102 kg/ha were obtained respectively for white, red and black seeds varieties. The black-seed variety was the best yielder.Current state of production of the crop Both young and old farmers were involved in production of this legume because its cultivation requires much physical investment. In contrast, Bampuori (2007) in Ghana and Amujoyegbe et al. (2010) in Nigeria reported that Kersting's groundnut was cultivated by elderly farmers. Besides, its commercialization can bring a high income to resolve urgent problems (children's education, funeral ceremonies, etc). This can contribute to preservation of the crop. Women play vital roles in food production, processing and marketing while men are significantly involved in its production systems (Ayoola et al., 2011;Ogato, 2011). They were more empowered by M. geocarpum, a high priority national and regional neglected and underutilized crop (Dansi et al., 2012). According to Bampuori (2007), Kersting's groundnut is produced in small areas. According to Amujoyegbe et al. (2010), the crop was gradually abandoned by many people mainly because of its high production costs, the sensitivity of plants to high soil moisture and its high labour requirement. As noted on cowpea by Baco et al. (2008), seed storage was very susceptible to insects. This contributed also to the production decrease. Plant breeders must create or introduce varieties which are tolerant to storage insects in local agriculture. Ash, sand, small pepper and oranges' peel were natural and safe products which can be recommended to protect seeds during storage.Traditionally, only three varieties differed by seed colour and which were cultivated in rural communities. This low local diversity was also observed on this crop in Ghana (Bayorbor et al., 2010) and is in contrast to other pulses such as Bambara groundnut (Ouédraogo et al., 2008;Bonny and Dje, 2011) and cowpea (Gbaguidi et al., 2013) which are very diverse. The white seed variety was the most popular and consumed in the majority of households. Red and black seeds were disappearing. Each variety can be used in plant breeding programmes and varietal selection programs (Ghalmi et al., 2010). It is therefore urgent to define the best strategies and policies to preserve rare varieties and create improved varieties (by crossing). Food uses will be the best incentive for promotion of these varieties.Principal Component Analysis of quantitative traits in this study showed three clusters, compared to two in Ghana (Bayorbor et al., 2010). The low coefficients of variation obtained for most characters reveal the low variability. This can depend on the mode of seed distribution (self-production and purchase; Bennett-Lartey et al., 2002). Descriptors help breeders in varietal genotype and genetic purity identification, and play an important role in plant breeding through phenotypical characteristics evaluation (Bayorbor et al., 2010). However as related by Bayorbor et al. (2010), a high agronomical difference was noted between accessions collected. This ranged between 617 and 3840 kg/ha. Among local varieties, black seeds of Kersting's groundnut yielded highest. Similar results were found in Ghana (Bampuori, 2007). Agronomic characterization constitutes the first step to appreciate genetic diversity (Bayorbor, 2010) and therefore yield per plant is an essential character on which breeding decisions are based (Witcombe et al., 2001;Ouédraogo et al., 2008). Negative correlation observed between flowering date and yield revealed that early maturity accessions showed a high yield. According to Bonny and Dje (2011), correlations are a primordial tool for choosing characters which may be included in plant selection programmes. The molecular characterization of accessions will help to better understand the genetic structure.The ethnobotanical study in south and central Benin revealed that Kersting's groundnut production is decreasing mainly for reasons of high cost of production, plant susceptibility to high soil moisture and high labour required. The number of varieties cultivated was very low and also disappearing in local production. Apart from the white seed variety which is widely consumed, no strategies exist to conserve the other varieties. In order to better appreciate the genetic structure of the plant, molecular characterization of the accessions is necessary. The best strategies and policies should be urgently developed to conserve rare varieties. Diversity within M. geocaprum must be strengthened by creating and/or introducing improved varieties adapted to climate conditions. Biochemical analysis (nutritional value and toxins) of local cultivars could help to promote Kersting's groundnut for food utilization.Enset mainly grows at elevations ranging from 1200 to 3100 meters above sea level (masl), but scattered plants can also be found at lower altitudes (Haile et al., 1996). Optimal plant growth is observed at altitudes between 2000 and 2750 masl (Diro and Tabogie, 1994).The major food types obtained from enset are kocho, bulla and amicho (Brandt et al., 1997).Kocho is fermented starch obtained from decorticated (scraped) leaf sheaths and grated corms. Bulla is a liquid which is obtained when leaf sheaths and corms are pulverized, the liquid containing starch being squeezed out from scraped leaf sheathes and grated corm and the resultant starch allowed to concentrate into white powder. Amicho is boiled enset corm/rhizome pieces that are prepared and consumed in a similar manner to other root and tuber crops (Brandt et al., 1997).Farmers characterize and select enset clones based on morphological and agronomic traits and use value from different enset growing areas of Ethiopia. Shigeta (1990) studied the local enset taxonomy of the Ari people, while Alemu and Sandford (1996) attempted to establish a field guide to characterize enset clones in North Omo using morphological characteristics. In addition, Negash et al. (2002) and Tsegaye ( 2002) stated that vernacular names of enset clones are generally consistent, distinguishing different enset clones linguistically, phenotypically and in terms of utilization. Farmer clone selection is based on quality and quantity of food products, maturation period, disease and drought tolerance, forage, medicinal value, ease of scraping for extraction of starch, quality of corm and productivity (Tsegaye, 2002).Reports of landrace diversity in enset are numerous. Alemu and Sandford (1991) reported names of 99 enset clones in the North Omo area, while Shigeta (1990) listed 78 vernacular names of cultivated enset clones in the Ari region of southern Ethiopia. In addition, Negash (2001) reported that farmers maintain and enrich the diversity of enset, and select or classify clones for various uses. Tesfaye (2002) indicated that enset landraces are not evenly distributed across the region mainly due to altitude variations. Tsegaye ( 2002) reported that numerous enset clones were identified in each region and the variations in the number of clones were attributed to a combination of socio-cultural and agro-ecological factors. Furthermore, Birmeta (2004) reported that the observed genetic diversity in cultivated enset in a particular area appears to be related to the extent of enset cultivation and the culture and distribution pattern of the different ethnic groups.These earlier enset diversity studies were limited to one or a few ethnic groups or a specific and limited enset growing region. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess and document the skills with which farmers recognize, classify, select and manage enset diversity in seven major enset production areas in southern Ethiopia.Enset clone selection by farmers and their cultural practices were studied in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS). Seven provinces (Dawro, Gamo Gofa, Gurage, Hadiya, Kembata, Sidama and Wolaita) were selected to carry out the present study and one district was selected in each province. The selection was based on the prominence of enset cultivation and information about enset distribution obtained from the Departments of Agriculture of the respective zones. Based on enset diversity, two farmer associations were selected in each district. From each association, 20 households were selected randomly. Data were collected, using a structured questionnaire, through individual interviews with household heads and household members responsible for enset field management.The farmers' classifications of enset were assessed during the survey by asking respondents to describe a clone's distinguishing features, selection criteria and attributes that are important in their decision to maintain it. Frequency distributions and the number of phenotypic classes distinguished by farmers (Table 1) were used to calculate the Shannon-Weaver diversity index (H') for each character (Hennink and Zeven, 1991).The index is defined as:where pi is the proportion of the total number of individuals (genotypes) in the i th class and n is the number of phenotypic classes.From the total of 218 enset clones correlation analysis was carried out between 11 traits across 165 enset clones which are well known by the farmers of each location using the Pearson's correlation coefficient (r).Simpson's Index of Diversity (1-D) = 1-∑ (ni/N) 2 where, ni = the frequency of the i th clone, frequency being the number of farms in which the clone is found in the district, and N = the total number of farms surveyed in the district. (Magurran, 1988). Where pi, the proportional abundance of the i th clone =, where H' is Shannon index and S refers to the number of clones described in each zone.Both of them were calculated for all the provinces. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to compare diversity and distribution values at different sites.Farmers in the study area use a combination of similar criteria to classify enset clones (Table 1). Three morphological characters (midrib colour, petiole colour, and leaf colour), growth attributes (vigour, maturity), kocho quality, disease resistance and use value (bulla quality, amicho use, medicinal value and fibre quality) were the major criteria used by farmers. These major criteria were used for data collection and characterization.Polymorphism was observed for all assessed traits, with H′ values ranging from 0.154 for bulla quality to 0. 0.732 for midrib colour (Table 1). However, the overall mean H′ value (0.399) of all the traits indicated a low level of phenotypic diversity amongst the studied clones. In general, however, separate H′ values of each trait revealed the existence of a considerable level of diversity of enset.Enset bacterial wilt, caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, is the most important biotic constraint to enset cultivation (Brandt et al., 1997). Thirteen clones were identified by farmers as tolerant to enset bacterial wilt (Table 2). The kocho yield of these disease-tolerant clones was generally low when compared with other enset clones evaluated: only four ('Alenticho', 'Dirbo', 'Hawe' and 'Mesmesa') gave kocho yields above the average of 9.9 t ha -1 yr -1 previously reported in a study of 240 enset clones (Yemataw, 2010).Farmers also listed 14 other enset clones that have been used for medicinal purposes (Table 3) even if they display lower kocho yield. These enset clones have an average cycle duration/maturity period and plant height, but in general have low kocho yield (8.6 t ha -1 yr -1 ). Nevertheless, the squeezed kocho yield of 'Chamia', 'Gishera', 'Guariye', 'Senkutie' and 'Tuzuma' was found to be greater than the mean of all 240 enset clones studied by Yemataw (2010).In Wolaita, GamoGoffa and Dawro zones, in addition to the above classification, farmers recognize two major categories of enset clones: 'male' and 'female' enset (Table 4). Designation of the clones as 'male' and 'female' has no reference to the reproductive biology of the clones. Besides, this classification takes into account a certain degree of ecological adaptation. The men prefer male enset clones which are late maturing, disease resistant and have less amicho quality. In contrast female farmers prefer female enset clones, since they mature early, and can be consumed earlier. In the current study we can see that both 'male' and 'female' plants are maintained. This vernacular distinction of enset gender is used by different ethnic and cultural groups in North Omo and Kefa-Sheka (Alemu and Sandford, 1991;Negash et al., 2002).From the total of 218 enset clones correlation analysis was carried out between 11 traits across 165 enset clones which are well known by the farmers of each location. A correlation analysis carried out on 11 traits across 165 clones revealed few significant correlations (Table 5). Kocho yield was positively and significantly correlated with bulla quality and plant vigour. However, it was negatively correlated with corm usage and medicinal value. Corm usage had a significantly positive correlation with medicinal value and a negative correlation with plant vigour and maturity time (Table 5). Fibre quality had a significantly positive correlation with plant vigour. Based on the results of this study there is a possibility of selecting enset clones for further improvement using desirable agronomic traits. During a survey conducted in 2009 farmers also mentioned that clones that are good for amicho have a medicinal value but low kocho yield (Yemataw 2010). Tsegaye (2002) stated that plant height, kocho yield and bulla quality had a positive relationship. In order to improve kocho, bulla and fibre yield, traits like plant height should be considered.The number of clones cultivated on individual farms ranged from 2 to 26 (mean of 8.94 ± 0.94; Table 6). The average number of clones per farm ranged between 10.25 for Kembata to 7.53 for Wolaita. Dawro with 9.48, Sidama with 9.47 and Gurage with 8.95 clones per farm had high farm level richness (Table 6). This is because they have many farms with 11-15 clones, while other zones such as Kembata have few such clones, although the total number of clones in the zone was the highest (Table 6).Diversity indices for the seven zones studied were computed from the numbers of clones present on the 40 farms within the province (Table 6). Although provinces differed in richness, they were similar in diversity. The Simpson's 1-D ranged between 0.971 (Sidama) to 0.977 (Wolaita), H′ ranged between 3.577 for Sidama to 3.671 for Wolaita, while evenness also had a very narrow range: 0.97 for Gamo Gofa to 0.99 for Wolaita (Table 8). All these values indicate the high enset diversity in these seven provinces.Based on the total number of different clones recorded (richness of the province) and the number of enset clones per farm, Hadiya was the richest province with a total of 59 clones (Table 6). The lowest richness was found in Sidama province with 30 clones. In previous studies, comparable results were reported by Tsegaye (2002), who described morphologically diverse enset clones from three provinces (52 clones from Sidama, 55 clones from Wolaita and 59 clones from Hadiya). Moreover, Birmeta (2004) described 111 enset clones from nine growing areas of Ethiopia.There was also a considerable difference among the clones with respect to their distribution across the zones covered by this study. Out of the 218 clones, 178 (81.65%) were observed in only one zone. Twenty nine (13.3%) of the clones were present in two zones. Eight clones (3.7%) were present in three zones. Two clones (0.9%) were present in four of the seven zones and only one clone (Gena) was present in five of the seven zones (Table 7). Household characteristics, distance from one location to another and ethnic preferences in few locations for few numbers of clones brings high clonal diversity, while for higher numbers of clones that do not fulfill the selection criteria of each ethnic group brings clonal paucity. The abundance of cultivars in the region is generally uneven because some cultivars, particularly those having merits of better kocho yield and quality have a wider distribution within and between the sites. The abundance of clones across sites within a zone and the distribution of clones across the seven zones were generally uneven, because of a limited number of widespread and dominant clones. The other clones had a rather limited abundance and distribution. The hierarchical nature of the spatial distribution of enset clones where a small number of highly abundant clones which are also grown throughout the region and a much larger number of moderately common and rare ones has been documented for enset (Tesfaye, 2002), as well as several other crops including cassava (Boster, 1985) and yam (Tamiru, 2006).Knowledge of farmers' practices is useful to select the right agronomic innovations in the areas under consideration. A small number of highly abundant clones are grown throughout the region, while a much larger number of moderately common and rare clones characterize the distribution-abundance pattern. Farmers may retain their preferred cultivars for many years, often claiming they received no external inputs of seed to these lots. Most planting material exchange is local, though a proportion extends beyond the local group of villages (Farmers' Association), reflecting relationships among neighbours and kin in most cases. Widely distributed cultivars have probably been cultivated for long periods during which time farmers developed a preference for those with the most favourable attributes.The widespread distribution of some clones challenges the view that traditional farming systems are isolated and closed, with limited exchange of germplasm. Highland regions/provinces like Dawro, Gurage and Kembata have a high concentration of diverse and unique enset landraces and should be given priority in efforts aimed at collection and in situ germplasm conservation. The spread of modern agricultural techniques for enset cultvation in Ethiopia might lead to disappearance of some of the mechanisms generating diversity in traditional agro-ecosystems. Therefore on-farm conservation of enset diversity should be taken into account. It is also recommended to enable policy and institutional framework supporting in situ conservation of agro-biodiversity and wild crop relatives; to establish entrepreneurship, strong and fair partnerships between producers, dealers, consumers and other stakeholders in the production to consumption chain; to support a participatory integrated learning approach by all partners, and; to establish in situ gene banks and on farm conservation sites to enhance and ensure the long term availability and conservation of enset germplasm. Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is not only a staple food and income generating crop in West Africa, it also has much social value. In some West African communities, the size of a yam farm and volume of output (quantity of tubers) are used to assess the wealth of the owner/farmer. Some yam varieties are widely known and well exploited for food, while many other varieties are exploited as food only in a few rural communities in Nigeria.Trifoliate yam (Dioscorea dumetorum) is known by various names including three-leaved yam, bitter yam and cluster yam. The tuber skin is coarse; one plant usually produces a cluster of tubers. Trifoliate yam is high-yielding compared to other yam species. D. dumetorum starch granules are smaller, more soluble and more digestible than those of other yam species. Its starch is as digestible as corn starch (Delpeuch and Favier, 1980) and is made up of tiny polygonal or spherical granules (less than 10 mm) with type A X-ray diffraction structure, similar to that of cereals (Afoakwa and Sefa-Dedeh, 2001). The tubers are rich in protein (9.6%), and reasonably balanced in essential amino acids (chemical score of 0.94) compared to white yam. It is also rich in vitamins and minerals.Despite the agronomic and nutritional advantages of trifoliate yam, it is one of the numerous tropical tubers that are yet to be fully exploited and is fast being driven to extinction. A major limitation to its use is the tuber hardening which begins a few hours after harvest thus becoming hardened and hard to chew even after long hours of cooking. Earlier studies (Afoakwa and Sefa-Dedeh, 2002) reported that the chemical compositions of the two main cultivars (white and yellow) consumed are similar, but observations (Afoakwa, 1999) are that the white cultivars harden relatively quicker than the yellow cultivars. Generally, the tubers are left in the soil and harvested as needed for food and often boiled before selling in the market.The tubers of trifoliate yam, when properly processed, can be used in the production of yam flakes, instant flour for the bakery sector or starch in diverse pharmaceutical preparations.The goal of this study was to find convenient means of adding value to trifoliate yam by processing into flour for use as industrial raw materials.Freshly harvested yellow and white flesh trifoliate yam (Dioscorea dumentorum) was purchased from Kuto market in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.Trifoliate yam tubers were washed with clean water to remove adhering soil and other undesirable material, peeled, sliced, drained and dried using sun (48-72 h), solar dryer (48-72 h), oven dryer (40 °C, 48 h), and cabinet dryer (40 °C, 48 h). Then the dried trifoliate yam chips were milled using a laboratory hammer mill and sieved through 0.250 mm mesh laboratory sieves. The resulting flour was packaged in polyethylene bags and stored at 4°C until used for laboratory analysis.Particle size distributions of the flour samples were determined using the AOAC (2000) method. The bulk density was determined by the method of Wang and Kinssela (1976), swelling power and solubility index using the Takashi and Sieb (1988) method, dispersibility according to Kulkarni et al. (1991) and water absorption index was determined using the modified method of (Ruales et al., 1993). Water binding capacity was carried out using the Medcalf and Gillies (1965) method, and whole emulsification capacity was determined by the method of Padmashree et al. (1987). Foaming capacity was determined by the method of Nwosu et al. (2010), oil absorption capacity by the method of Sosulki (1962), and pasting properties by Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA).All data obtained were subjected to a two way analysis of variance (MANOVA) using the SPSS version 17.0 package. Significance of treatment was tested at the 5% probability level using Duncan's Multiple Range Test.Table 1 shows the effect of drying method and variety on the functional properties of trifoliate yam flour. The functional properties are those parameters that determine the application and use of food material for various food products. The bulk density of the yellow variety ranged from 0.66 g/ml (cabinet dried) to 0.73 g/ml (oven dried) while that of the white variety ranged from 0.67 g/ml (cabinet dried) to 0.76 g/ml (sun dried). The bulk density of the trifoliate yam flour samples was significantly affected by the drying method and variety (P< 0.05). The bulk density is an important parameter that determines the ease of packaging and transportation of particulate foods (Shittu et al., 2007). The bulk density of the flours is comparable to values reported by Shittu et al. (2007) for high quality cassava flour.The pH of the yellow variety was considerably higher with values ranging from 6.05 (oven dried) to 6.65 (solar dried) compared to the white variety with values ranging from 5.77 (sun dried) to 5.90 (solar dried). The pH values were significantly affected by drying method and variety (P< 0.05).The dispersibility of the yellow variety ranged from 19.67% (cabinet dried) to 50.33% (solar dried) while that of the white variety ranged from 16.67% (cabinet dried) to 42.67% (solar dried). Dispersibility is a measure of the degree to which flour or flour blends reconstitute in water and the higher the dispersibility, the better the flour reconstitutes in water (Adebowale et al., 2005). The higher dispersibility value exhibited by flour from the yellow variety compared to the white variety is indicative of their ability to reconstitute more easily in water.The water absorption index of the yellow variety ranged from 135.47% (solar dried) to 167.20% (oven dried) while the white variety ranged from 147.20% (oven dried) to 189.87% (cabinet dried). The water absorption index of the yellow trifoliate yam flour samples was significantly different (P< 0.05) from that of the white variety. The white variety had a higher water absorption index compared to the yellow variety. This agrees with the finding of (Akinwande et al., 2008) that the white variety would require more water during reconstitution than the yellow variety. The high water absorption index has been attributed to loose association of starch polymers in the native granule (Ekwu et al., 2005). The water binding capacity and foaming capacity of trifoliate yam flour were not significantly affected by drying method and tuber variety (P>0.05). The effect of variety and drying methods on oil absorption capacity was significantly different (P< 0.05). Values ranged from 120.33% (oven dried) to 129.67% (solar dried) for the yellow variety and the white variety ranged from 118.33% (oven dried) to 136.67% (cabinet dried). The oil absorption capacity allows the physical entanglement of oil and the binding of fat to the polar chain of protein (Wang and Kinsella, 1976). The emulsification capacity was significantly different (P< 0.05) with values ranging from 43.00% (oven dried) to 50.67% (sun dried) of the yellow variety and the white variety 43.33% (oven dried) to 47.33% (sun dried).The results of the effect of drying method and variety on the particle size distribution of trifoliate yam flour are presented in Table 2. The particle size distribution was significantly affected by variety and drying method (P<0.05). The 250 μm sieve retained a low percentage of oven dried (0.28%) and cabinet dried (0.53%) flours for the yellow variety and for the flour of the white variety, the corresponding figures were 0.48% (cabinet dried) and 0.48% (oven dried). The samples retained in the sieve size 180 μm ranged from 8.68% (oven dried) to 25.30% (sun dried) for the yellow variety and 10.85% (oven dried) to 23.41% (sun dried) for the white variety and are significantly different (P<0.05). Large amounts of particles were retained as the samples passed through the sieve size 106 μm which ranged from 28.21% (oven dried) to 57.65% (solar dried) for the yellow variety and 32.21% (sun dried) to 55.99% (oven dried) for the white variety and are significantly different (P<0.05). The samples retained in sieve size 90 μm ranged from 19.69% (oven dried) to 21.90% (cabinet dried) for the yellow variety and 17.87% (oven dried) to 22.85% (sun dried) for the white variety and are significantly different (P<0.05). Particle size has been correlated with the swelling power of the trifoliate yam flour. The variation in the particle size distribution is due to the milling procedure of the dried slices during processing (Oduro et al., 2000). The effect of drying method and variety on the pasting properties of trifoliate yam flour is shown in Table 3. The peak, trough, breakdown, final and setback viscosities ranged from 1066.5 to 2258.5 cP, 684.5 to 1276.5 cP, 382.0 to 1087.0 cP, 1385.0 to 2207.5 cP, and from 615.5 to 931.0 cP, respectively. Time to attain peak viscosity and pasting temperature ranged from 4.8 to 5.1 min and 68.5° to 88.9°C, respectively. The effect of drying method and variety were significant (P<0.05) on the pasting profile of trifoliate yam flour except for setback viscosity, peak time and pasting temperature. When starch or starch-based foods are heated in water beyond a critical temperature, the granules absorb a large amount of water and swell to many times their original size. Beyond a critical temperature, this is characteristic of a certain starches, undergoing an irreversible process known as gelatinization. When the temperature rises above the gelatinization temperature, the starch granules begin to swell and viscosity increases on shearing (Adebowale et al., 2005). The study showed that most of the functional properties of trifoliate yam flour were significantly influenced by tuber variety and drying methods. The data on functional properties of the flour reported will serve as useful baseline information for breeders and commercial utilization of trifoliate yam flour for food and non-food purposes.Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc) is an indigenous African legume that produces protein-rich (16-25%) and nutritious seeds (Brough and Azam-Ali, 1992). It is mainly grown by subsistence and small-scale farmers in the semi-arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa where rainfall is low. Bambara groundnut has long been recognized as a drought-tolerant crop as it can survive and produce higher seed yield than many other legume crops under drought conditions, although a comprehensive set of comparisons between legume species is still needed. Landrace differences in Bambara groundnut in response to drought have been reported (Mwale et al., 2007), providing the potential to select and breed higher yielding landraces and/or cultivars under water stress. In order to investigate the species' genetic diversity for drought tolerance, the exploration of the mechanisms underlying the response of Bambara groundnut to drought is essential.Various responses are displayed in crop plants when they are stressed and they can be categorized into three groups: escape, avoidance and tolerance. Bambara groundnut, for instance, was shown to have a shortened vegetative period, to flower earlier, have a reduced reproductive stage and also mature earlier in response to water stress (Mabhaudhi et al., 2013). Landraces from Jozini, South Africa, such as 'Red' and 'Brown' landraces had an earlier maturity date (mean: 122.75 DAP, P<0.01) when the plants were stressed at 30% of the crop water requirement (ETa) as compared to 100% ETa (mean: 128 DAP, P<0.01; Mabhaudhi et al., 2013). The change in leaf orientation, which is known as paraheliotropic movement, was observed in drought-stressed Bambara groundnut landraces such as AS-17 (Stadler, 2009). In addition, Collinson et al. (1997) suggested that Bambara groundnut maintains plant water status over the drought period through stomatal regulation of water loss, osmotic adjustment and a reduction in leaf area.In this study, mild drought stress was applied to a Bambara groundnut F5 segregating population at the early flowering stage in order to investigate the immediate response of Bambara groundnut to water stress and the effects of mild drought on final yields. Here we are interested in how the crop deals with the early stages of drought stress, when the changes in gene expression are likely to reflect initial protective mechanisms, rather than extreme stress, where gene expression may represent plants in a terminal state beyond recovery. The parental genotypes were derived from landraces from Botswana (DipC) − where the mean rainfall is 450 mm with temperature ranges from 15°C-18°C (Burgess, 2006), and Mali (Tiga Nicuru) − where the mean rainfall is 440 mm with temperatures of 16°C-39°C (Pedercini et al., 2012). As the segregating populations consist of lines which may show genetic variation, potential candidates that have higher yielding characteristics and also greater tolerance under drought stress could be selected for future breeding programmes.The drought experiment was conducted in controlled-environment glasshouses at the FutureCrop Glasshouses, Sutton Bonington Campus, University of Nottingham, UK in 2012.The F5 segregating population is derived from a cross between single genotype DipC (maternal) X Tiga Nicuru (paternal) lines. Plant material, consisting of two parental lines and 65 F5 individual lines were planted in both water-stressed and irrigated plots.There were two independent soil pits (5 m x 5 m x 1 m) in the glasshouses. One pit was used as the water-stressed plot and the other as the irrigated plot. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with three blocks for each soil pit. Each line had three replicates, one in each block, and each replicate was represented by a single plant. All lines were randomly allocated within a single block. Three seeds were sown per replicate in each soil pit, a total of 9 seeds per line, at a depth of 3-4 cm and spacing of 25 cm x 25 cm between each replicate, giving 20 plants per row. Twenty days after sowing (DAS) the plants were thinned to one plant per hole. Photoperiod was 12 hours, day temperature 28 o C, with 23 o C at night.Trickle irrigation using PVC micro-porous tubing placed besides each row irrigated the plants at 0600 hrs and 1800 hrs for 20 minutes each time. Soil moisture content was monitored using a PR2 probe. After 100% flowering was observed across all the lines at 50 DAS, the irrigation system was terminated for six weeks until 92 DAS, until a 50% reduction in stomatal conductance was observed. The control (irrigated) plot was continued with the earlier regime of watering.Three evenly spaced PR2 profile tubes (Delta-T devices, UK) were inserted into each soil pit across the diagonal from the irrigation source towards the end of the trickle tape. Three PR2 readings, which were displayed in units of %Vol (volumetric water content as a percentage), were taken twice a week at 1000 h starting from 16 DAS until 133 DAS at soil depths of 300 mm, 400 mm, 600 mm and 1000 mm.A range of morphological and physiological traits was measured on both plots based on the Bambara groundnut descriptor list (IPGRI, 2000). These were days to emergence, days to flowering, estimated days to podding, internode length, peduncle length, pod number per plant, pod weight per plant, seed number per plant, seed weight per plant, 100-seed weight, shoot dry weight and harvest index. In addition, drought-related traits including stomatal conductance, leaf carbon (Delta C 13 ) isotope analysis and stomatal density were also measured. Methods for measuring stomatal conductance were modified from Vurayai et al. (2011). Due to time constraints, seven measurements were carried out on the water-stressed plot and only four on the irrigated plot during the course of the experiment.Stomatal conductance (mmols/m 2 s): The reading of stomatal conductance (gs) on only the abaxial side of the leaf was undertaken using an AP4 leaf porometer (Delta-T devices, UK) as readings of gs on the adaxial side of the leaf were very low, in agreement with Jorgensen et al., (2011). The middle leaflet of three fully expanded leaves, for each plant replicate, was measured between 0800 hrs and 1200 hrs. Measurements were conducted weekly, starting from 49 DAS until 107 DAS.Leaf carbon (Delta C 13 ) isotope analysis: Seed samples collected from both parental lines (three replicates) and 65 individual lines (one replicate) were freeze-dried using a Benchtop Freeze Dryer LSBC50 (MechaTech Systems, UK) for a week. These samples were then milled into a fine powder using an Ultra Centrifugal Mill ZM200 (Retsch, Germany). The carbon (Delta C 13 ) isotope analysis was performed at the Mylnefield Research Services Ltd, Dundee, Scotland. Based on their recommended protocol, approximately 0.2-0.3 mg of milled samples was encapsulated in the tin capsules that were provided. The value of the discrimination (Δ) for 13 C was calculated based on Farquhar et al. (1989), the final equation for CID being: Δ = 1000 X (-0.008 -δ13C(‰)/1000)/(1+ δ13C(‰)/1000)Stomatal density: One leaf from each replicate for both parental lines and 65 individual lines was harvested. The abaxial side of the leaf was painted using nail polish and a thin film was mounted on a glass slide after peeling from the leaf. A drop of water was then added on top of the thin film. Counts of stomata were performed after the images were captured using a Leica BF200 compound microscope with Leica LAS EZ software (Leica Microsystems, Switzerland) at a magnification of 40x. Three counts per impression were made with a square area of 0.8071 mm 2 per impression. Therefore, stomatal density = count of stomata/0.8071 mm 2Data for all traits were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Genstat 15 th edition (VSN International, 2012) to determine whether statistical differences existed between lines for a given trait, to investigate the population distributions through descriptive statistics and the correlation relationship between the traits. Non-normal distributed traits were also transformed using a square root function after conducting an Anderson-Darling normality test.Soil moisture Across all depths, the reduction in soil moisture content based on PR2 readings in the waterstressed plot was 52.7% compared to the irrigated plot which was 9.5%, from 50 DAS to 92 DAS. Soil moisture was lost rapidly at a rate of 1.95% per day at a soil depth of 400 mm, followed by 1.65% per day at a soil depth of 600 mm (Figure 1). At 1000 mm, water-stressed plots showed relatively constant soil moisture content and losses only became apparent at 86 DAS. In contrast, no significant changes occurred in the irrigated plot. Throughout the drought stress period, grand mean values for stomatal conductance (gs) declined gradually in the water-stressed plot from 540 mmol m 2 s -1 to 220 mmol m 2 s -1 (Figure 2). Drought treatment was applied at 50 DAS; gs before treatment (49 DAS) was measured and served as a baseline for gs over the drought period. Although there are some missing data due to the priority given to the water-stressed plot, consistently high values are observed in the irrigated plot (500 mmol m 2 s -1 -600 mmol m 2 s -1 ). The sudden increase in gs at 107 DAS in the water-stressed plot was a result of the water recovery treatment applied at 92 DAS. ANOVA showed significant differences among the lines (F(64,130)=16.27, P<0.01), as well as between the treatments (F(1,130)=2259.59, P<0.01). Some lines are shown to have high gs The soil moiture content in water-stressed plot 300 400 600 1000 under both drought and irrigation conditions, for example, L101 (D: 274.1 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 581.1 mmol m 2 s -1 ), L89 (D: 269.3 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 584.4 mmol m 2 s -1 ) and L94 (D: 261.8 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 617.8 mmol m 2 s -1 ) at 84 DAS. However, L5 (D: 166.1 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 432.8 mmol m 2 s -1 ), L7 (D: 185.9 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 519.4 mmol m 2 s -1 ) and L37 (D: 193.6 mmol m 2 s -1 ; IR: 524.2 mmol m 2 s -1 ) were lines that showed low gs at 84 DAS. Leaf carbon (Delta C 13 ) isotope analysis Significant differences between the two parental lines for leaf carbon isotope analysis (δC 13 ; F(1,6)=21.33, P<0.01) were found. Table 1 showed that lower δC 13 was associated with higher yield as observed in DipC, compared to Tiga Nicuru. However, there was no obvious effect of drought treatment on δC 13 as no significant difference was observed between treatments for two parental lines. Although no ANOVA analysis was carried out in the segregating population due to the lack of replicates, the population exhibited variation for δC 13 and, based on the use of this surrogate measure, water use efficiency was expected to have variation due to genotypic differences derived from two parental lines. Stomatal density is significantly different among the individual lines (F(64,258)= 4.08, P<0.01) and also between the treatments (F(1,258)=22.55, P<0.01). Higher stomatal density was observed in the water-stressed plot (mean: 11.64 pores cm -2 ) compared to the irrigated plot (mean: 10.07 pores cm -2 ). Among the segregating population, some lines obtained high stomatal density under drought conditions such as L37 (D: 14 pores cm -2 ; IR: 12 pores cm -2 ), L94 (D: 13 pores cm -2 ; IR: 11 pores cm -2 ) and L7 (D: 11 pores cm -2 ; IR: 12 pores cm -2 ) whereas there were lines showing low stomatal density, L112 (D: 6 pores cm -2 ; IR: 8 pores cm -2 ), L101 (D: 7 pores cm -2 ; IR: 7 pores cm -2 ) and L5 (D: 7 pores cm -2 ; IR: 9 pores cm -2 ). Stomatal density was discovered to have a moderate and negative relationship with 100-seed weight and harvest index (r= -0.40, P<0.01; r= -0.42, P<0.01).The result shows that most of the traits are normally distributed, except for days to emergence, internode length (irrigated), pod weight per plant (irrigated) and seed weight per plant (irrigated) (Table 2). As the F5 is a segregating population, genetic variability between lines would be expected. For each trait, several lines were better or worse than parental lines in the drought treatment, suggesting possible transgressive segregation is being observed in the population. For instance, the population had a maximum internode length of 4.  A rapid reduction in gs when mild drought is applied implies that the regulation of stomata closure for water loss is one of the early events in the response of Bambara groundnut to drought. A rapid decline in gs between 65 DAS to 72 DAS (15.23 mmol m 2 s -1 per day), followed by a relatively slow and steady decline between 72 DAS and 84 DAS (8.07 mmol m 2 s -1 per day) was observed in the water-stressed plot (Figure 2). Collinson et al. (1997) stated that stress-induced stomata closure is believed to be accompanied by osmotic adjustment.Once the decline of gs reaches a threshold value due to drought stress, gs shows little or no change as the plants are thought to keep the stomata opened for carbon uptake while maintaining their plant water status by osmotic adjustment. Collinson et al. (1997) also observed a relatively unchanged gs value (0.13 cm s -1 -0.25 cm s -1 ) at lower leaf potentials in Bambara groundnut and thus suggested that this is a common response to drought contributed by osmotic adjustment to maintain turgor in the plant.Drought stress reduced stomatal conductance significantly with trait variation observed in the segregating population but did not reveal significant differences between lines for δC 13 analysis. For δC 13 analysis, the lower the value of δC 13 , the higher the water use efficiency and thus the final yield (Ebdon and Kopp, 2004), although the direction of the relationship with respect to yield can be influenced by the severity of the drought. For example, a positive correlation between δC 13 and yield was identified in barley and wheat in Mediterranean irrigated conditions, whereas in some areas such as where crop growth is reliant on stored soil water, a negative correlation is associated with higher grain yield (Araus et al., 2007). No significant difference was observed between the treatments for parental lines, indicating that mild drought does not significantly bias carbon fixation during the drought period. δC 13 implies that there is no significant impact of the drought on water use efficiency.In addition, stomatal density was found to be significantly influenced by drought stress. However, instead of stomatal effects, reduced leaf area seems to be the factor that caused higher stomatal density in plants that were stressed. Although total leaf area per plant was not determined, leaf area of the same leaf used for stomatal counts -a total of three leaves per line -was measured. ANOVA showed that smaller leaf areas were obtained in the waterstressed plot (mean: 18.92 cm 2 ) than in the irrigated plot (mean: 22.25 cm 2 ; P<0.01). This result is consistent with previous reports of a negative correlation between leaf area and stomatal density in Leymus chinensis under moderate drought (Xu and Zhou, 2008). The moderate negative relationship between stomatal density and 100-seed weight as well as harvest index observed in the present study is also comparable with the result presented by Meng et al. (1999) in which the net photosynthetic rate is significantly negatively correlated with stomatal density in rice. Thus, in addition to stomatal closure, a reduction in leaf area is also an early response to drought stress, allowing plants to reduce water loss and thus potentially decreasing carbon uptake and fixation, leading to limitations in photosynthetic assimilation (Xu and Zhou, 2008). It is worth noting that soil water deficit alone was measured in the experimental conditions. As both soil pits were in the same glasshouse, it is likely that vapour pressure deficit reflects the combined effects of water-stressed and irrigated plots and the humidity within the glasshouse did not decrease below 30%. This is also likely to have mitigated the effects of the drought treatment.The effect of the water stress could only be observed after 1-2 weeks after treatment, which is at the early pod-filling stage. Therefore, the plants in the water-stressed plot are believed to have been well-established before the stress took effect, resulting in a better crop performance overall that was not significantly different from plants in the irrigated plot. Nevertheless, the pod-filling stage is affected by water stress, despite more pods per plant being observed in the water-stressed plot; 100-seed weight and harvest index were reduced significantly (F(1,258)= 19.4, P<0.01; F(1,258)= 12.87, P<0.01) by 8% and 15.6% respectively in the segregating population. Combining the responses of Bambara groundnut plants to mild drought stress, there are some lines in the segregating population that have both drought tolerance and high seed weight characters. For example, L89 and L94 had a high gs and moderate stomatal density (moderate leaf area) while L5 showed a low gs and low stomatal density (large leaf area) with high 100-seed weight. However, different responses were shown by L101 and L112 which both showed a high gs and low stomatal density (large leaf area) with high yield. Although no significant difference between treatments for 100-seed weight and harvest index was observed in parental lines, segregation in offspring lines allows high-yielding lines to become potential candidates in future programmes for maintenance of yield under mild drought.The reduction in final yield was possibly the combined result of stomatal closure and reduced leaf area which could reduce water loss, but also limit photosynthesis capacity, and hence carbon deposition in the seeds. Stomatal conductance is able to provide some indication of transpiration rates, but the relationship is not direct as transpiration will be affected by the combined result of the increase of vapour pressure gradient due to increases in leaf temperature under high irradiance and continued irrigation of one soil pit in the same glasshouse as well as stomatal closure (Collinson et al., 1997). Unlike other legumes such as pea, chickpea and mungbean, Mwale et al. (2007) found that Bambara groundnut did not carry out a redistribution of dry matter during the pod filling stage as Bambara groundnut probably lacks important vegetative structures to store carbohydrates before redistributing to the pods (Mwale et al., 2007). Therefore, a cause of decreased seed yield in Bambara groundnut plants could be lower photosynthetic levels of plants during the pod filling stage due to mild drought stress (Mwale et al., 2007).Under glasshouse conditions, the responses of a Bambara groundnut F5 segregating population to mild drought imposed at the early flowering stage were studied. Stomatal conductance, δC 13 , 100-seed weight, harvest index and stomatal density could be potential criteria for breeding selection for drought tolerance. However, the relationship between the impact of the drought and final yield is not straightforward. Several measurements such as total leaf area, number of leaves, transpiration rate and photosynthetic level in plants would need to be carried out in order to establish a clearer relationship. As DipC is different from Tiga Nicuru in terms of plant morpho-physiology, variation is expected to be observed among the segregating population. Potential candidates that have higher yielding characteristics and perform better than parental lines under drought stress could be selected for future breeding programmes.Among the millets of the world, finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn.) ranks fourth after pearl millet, foxtail millet and proso millet. Almost the entire production is confined to Africa and Asia. India alone produces between 40 and 45 per cent of the total world production, and most of the rest of finger millet is produced in Central Africa. In India, the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh produce most of the finger millet crop, with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu producing about 61 per cent of the total crop. However, finger millet is also grown, to a more limited extent, in the Western Ghats of southwest India and in the foothills of the Himalayas and this production extends along the hills of southern Asia as far east as China. Finger millet grain is one of the most nutritious cereals with respect to protein, minerals (calcium and iron) and amino acids. It has 8-10 times more calcium than wheat or rice. Finger millet carbohydrates have the unique property of slower digestibility and can be regarded as a 'long sustenance 'food.Finger millet is one of the hardiest crops grown under the dry cultivation conditions in its regions of adaptation. It has a wide range of adaptation to soil, but grows especially well in lateritic soils being mainly grown on red, light red, light black or grayish loams and sandy loams. In some areas it may be cultivated on well drained alluvial soil as well. In addition, it is reputed to tolerate a certain degree of alkalinity in the soil. Rain-fed finger millet is often rotated with pulses, oilseeds or mixtures of these.Aside from its uses as a cereal grain and/or fodder, finger millet is often grown because of its high reproduction − ranging between 200 and 500 fold in terms of seed. Thus a little seed goes a long way in reproducing the crop. A second very valuable attribute of this cereal is its grain-keeping quality. The grain is highly resistant to storage insect pests, even without any special care or attention (Ayyangar and Rao, 1932). For starting any crop improvement work, information about the genetic variability available in the population is a prerequisite. The presence of high variability in the genotypes of this crop offers much scope for its improvement (Poehlman, 1987). Estimation of genetic parameters in the context of trait characterization is an essential component in developing high yielding varieties. Hence, an attempt was made to estimate the extent of variation of yield-contributing traits in 100 finger millet genotypes by studying genetic parameters such as phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV), genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), heritability and genetic advance, which may contribute to formulation of suitable selection indices for improvement in this crop.The experimental material consisted of 100 finger millet genotypes maintained at the Small Millets Section of the Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore which is situated at about 11 o N latitude and 77 o E longitude at an altitude of 427 m above MSL and the average annual rainfall is around 700 mm. For evaluation and characterization, these genotypes were grown in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Observations were recorded from five randomly selected competitive plants in each accession for 13 quantitative characters − plant height, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf sheath width, flag leaf blade length, flag leaf blade width, productive tillers, finger number, finger length, finger width, days to maturity, thousand grain weight and single plant grain yield according to the descriptors for Eleusine coracana except days to 50% flowering; days to 50% flowering was noted on a single row basis. Phenotypic and genotypic variances were estimated according to the formula given by Lush (1940). Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variability were computed according to the method suggested by Burton (1952). Heritability in a broad sense was calculated by the formula given by Allard (1960). The range of heritability was categorized as suggested by Johnson et al. (1955). Genetic advance was expressed as the percentage of the mean by using the formula suggested by Johnson et al. (1955). Traits were classified as having high, moderate or low genetic advance according to the method suggested by Johnson et al. (1955). Nutritional analysis was carried out through atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) using an ECIL AAS (Perkin Elmer) using the protocol described by Zarcinas et al. (1987).Analysis of variance was carried out for 13 characters in 100 genotypes. Highly significant mean sums of squares due to genotypes and a wide range of variability were observed among the genotypes for all the 13 characters studied. The estimates of mean, range, phenotypic coefficient of variation, genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability in a broad sense and genetic advance as percentage of mean are presented in Table 1.The magnitude of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than that of the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all characters under study. It indicated that apparent variation is not only due to genotypes but also due to the influence of environment. However the narrow differences between PCV and GCV indicated little influence of environment on the expression of these characters and variability was due to genetic components only. This implied phenotypic variability to be a reliable measure of genotypic variability. Similar reports were earlier reported by Kebere et al. (2006). For all 13 traits, the phenotypic coefficient of variation and genotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 6.11 to 25.40% and 5.94 to 24.08% in both cases for finger width and single plant grain yield, respectively. Genotypic coefficient of variation followed a similar trend to that of phenotypic coefficients of variation. The coefficient of variation at phenotypic and genotypic levels was high for single plant grain yield indicating that this character is more variable in the genotypes. There is a great scope for improvement of this character by direct selection among the genotypes. Similar reports were earlier reported by Ulaganathan and Nirmalakumari (2013) In the present study, the estimates of heritability were found to be high for all the characters under study indicating that these characters were less influenced by environmental conditions and selection would be effective on the basis of phenotype alone with equal probability of success and it ranged from 60.8 (finger length) to 94.4% (finger width). Similarly high heritability for all the characters studied were reported by Ulaganathan and Nirmalakumari (2013), Ganapathi et al. (2011), for plant height (Dagnachew et al., 2012), for days to 50% flowering (Dhagate et al., 1972), and for thousand grain weight. Heritability which is the heritable portion of phenotypic variance is a good index of transmission of characters from parents to offspring (Falconer, 1981). The estimates of heritability help the plant breeder in the selection of elite genotypes from divergent populations. But heritability itself does not provide any indication of the amount of genetic progress that would result in selecting best individuals; rather it depends upon the amount of genetic advance. Genetic advance as percentage of mean ranged from 3.57 (days to 50% flowering) to 43.45 (flag leaf sheath length). High genetic advance as percentage of means was observed for days to maturity, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf blade length and thousand grain weight. High genetic advance indicated that these characters are governed by additive genes and selection will be rewarding for improvement of these traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for days to maturity, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf blade length and thousand grain weight. This indicated that the heritability is due to additive gene effects and can be improved by simple selection.Genetic variability present in the population is mainly used for varietal improvement in future breeding programmes. High coefficients of variation were observed for single plant grain yield indicating that this character is more variable in the germplasm. There is great scope for improvement of these characters by direct selection among the genotypes. Estimates of heritability were high for all the characters and high genetic advance as percentage of mean was observed for days to maturity, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf blade length and thousand grain weight. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for days to maturity, flag leaf sheath length, flag leaf blade length and thousand grain weight suggested that these characters may be successfully used as selection criteria in improving grain yields.Sorghum is one of the most important cereal crops in the semi-arid tropics. It is a globally cultivated cereal, unique due to its tolerance to drought, water lodging, salinity, alkali, infertile soil and high temperatures (Takuji and Baltazar, 2009;Ritter et al., 2007). The crop performs well in areas between 500 m and 1700 m above sea level, with seasonal rainfall of 300 mm and above. Sorghum is used not only for human food, but also for fodder and feed for animals, building material, fencing, or for brooms. There is high demand for sorghum mainly in the brewing industry to replace barley, yet the amount produced by farmers is too low to satisfy the market demand.Sorghum, which originates from Africa (Mann et al., 1983), can thrive under conditions and locations where other cereal plants cannot survive due to lack of water. Sorghum yields in Africa are low with an average of 0.949 t ha -1 in 2011 (FAOSTAT, 2011). Most small-scale farmers who plant landraces and crop varieties in sub-Saharan Africa use on-farm produced and saved seed the quality of which is usually poor (Muliokela, 1999;Kimani, 1998;Wobil, 1998;Ministry of Home Affairs and National Planning, 2006. Sorghum hybrids could be used if their potential were demonstrated (Leo, 2005). In Kenya, sorghum is the second most important cereal crop in semi-arid eastern Kenya after maize. Over the years, Kenya has witnessed prolonged episodes of drought that have resulted in some instances of total crop failure. This situation is becoming worse with the effects of global warming witnessed in the country in terms of increased temperatures and reduction of arable land. The arid and semiarid lands constitute about 84% of Kenya's land mass and sorghum is one of the most suitable cereal crops in these agro-ecoogical zones due to its tolerance to drought and high temperatures. It is grown principally in the often drought-prone marginal agricultural areas of Eastern, Nyanza and Coast Provinces. As an indigenous Kenyan crop, sorghum could provide food security and become a suitable alternative in eastern Kenya where maize crop failure is common (Jaetzold et al., 2006;Ministry of Agriculture, 2003). The production of sorghum in the eastern province of Kenya is low due to constraints such as lack of income to purchase fertilizer and chemicals, seed of inadequate quality, susceptibility to pests and diseases resulting in low yields (Muui et al., 2013).To address the challenge of using better varieties, this study set out to assess 15 genotypes of sorghum that included local varieties and hybrids, for their agronomic performance and yield. A farmers' field day was held for farmers to interact with the researchers, extension officers, and sorghum merchants.Fifteen sorghum genotypes (Table 1) were planted in two sites at Kampi ya mawe (37 o 40'E, 01 o 51S) and Kiboko (situated at about 37.8 o E and 2.3 o S) both in Makueni county, in the eastern part of Kenya. Kiboko (Makueni) received erratic rainfall (average rainfall of 446.28 mm per annum while Kampi ya mawe received average rainfall of 432.05 mm per annum for the years 2009-2012. The experiment was laid out in 3 m x 4 m plot sizes and in a randomized complete block design, replicated three times. Makueni is classified as a Lower Midland (LM) zone (Jaetzold et al., 2006). Seeding was done by hand and weeds controlled manually.Data were collected on the panicle length and weight, days to flowering, plant height and yield. Analysis of variance and correlations were carried out using Genstat data analysis software. Treatment means were compared using protected Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) test at P=0.05.The trial sites received rainfall of about 252.2 mm in Kiboko and 213.0 mm in Kiboko during the period October 2011 to February 2012. The Kiboko site was also irrigated during the sorghum growth season.The means of the panicle weights ranged from 67.6 g to 157.4 g (Table 1) with the analysis of variance showing a significant difference (P≤0.01) in the panicle weight of the varieties (Table 2). However, there were no significant differences (P≥0.05) in the site by genotype interaction (Table 2). The mean panicle length of the 15 varieties ranged from 21.01 cm to 33.38 cm with very significant differences (P≤0.01) in the genotypes and the two sites, but no significant differences (P≥0.05) in the genotype by site interaction (Table 2). Among the genotypes, the Gadam variety had the shortest panicle length and the lowest weight of the panicles. The hybrids P9537 x Chokwe and the P9535A x Chokwe had the highest panicle weights and also had longer panicles (Table 1). Most of the hybrids exhibited higher panicle lengths and weights than the local varieties Seredo, Serena, KARI Mtama 1 and Gadam (Table 1). The mean plant height ranged from 99.5-179.2 cm. The heights varied among the varieties and the hybrids, with most hybrids exhibiting longer panicles. The Gadam variety was the shortest (mean height, 99.5 cm) while the hybrid P9507A x KAT 1369 x Makueni local, was the tallest (mean height, 179.2 cm). KARI Mtama 1 and Seredo had no significant differences, while Serena was shorter than these two (Table 1). Hybrid P9508A x ICSR 91005, also had a short mean plant height, and lower mean panicle weight, unlike hybrid TXARG/KS67A x NL 9623, which had a similar height, but higher yields. Two of the old varieties that farmers prefer, Serena and Seredo, showed low mean yields as compared to the hybrids which had higher yields. The genotypes were not significantly different in the two sites for the parameters tested (Table 2). However, the patterns for the yields of the genotypes differed in the two sites (Figure 1). Hybrid P9537 x Chokwe showed better yields under rain-fed conditions than in irrigated conditions. Also hybrid TXARG/KS67A xNL 9623, Gadam and P9535A x Pirira 1 showed no significant differences for the mean yields between the two sites (Figure 1).A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the panicle length and the panicle weight (r = 0.741, P<0.001) of the 15 sorghum genotypes. The positive correlation between the length and weight of the panicles indicates that the yields of the longer panicles are higher than those of the shorter ones, suggesting that one can predict the yield of the genotypes from the length of the panicles. Sorghum, a drought-resistant crop, is very important in addressing food security (Sally et al., 2007), and has a strong adaptive advantage. Sorghum has a high yield potential of more than 4t/ha. The production of sorghum may be effectively increased by the use of improved production technologies and creating awareness among farmers on the importance of the crop and increasing the production area. A survey carried out in the Makueni area showed that only 5% of the farmers do not plant sorghum in (Muui et al., 2013). The crop is grown on very small plots, ≤0.05 ha, either as few stands within another crop or strips along the farm edge.The majority of the genotypes showed similarities in the two sites for the parameters tested. However, variations in this study were observed in the panicle height, weight and yield within a site. This was similar to studies carried out by Muturi et al. (2012).In the Kampi ya mawe site, the mean yield patterns of the genotypes were different from that at the Kiboko site. This is because, the Kiboko site was irrigated unlike the Kampi ya mawe, which experienced low rainfall. Thus the Kiboko site had more water available for production of the sorghum. The low rainfall can be used to select the genotypes more adaptable to drought, which also had higher yields. The genotypes include P9535A x Chokwe, P9537 x Chokwe and TXARG/KS67A x NL 9623.Farmers, merchants and agricultural extension staff in these regions participated in a field day at the irrigated Kiboko site. Also, farmers compared the new improved sorghum genotypes for livestock feed and grain yield, and also for plant height in the case of Gadam, which would make harvesting easier. During discussions after the tour of the field, farmers expressed their concerns regarding production of sorghum. However, from data collected during the field day, farmers have continued to plant the old varieties which this study has shown exhibit lower yields than the hybrids and newer varieties. The farmers reported that their main challenges for sorghum production were the damage caused by birds and the high labour cost for bird scaring, poor yields and poor rainfall. Despite the ready market for the Gadam variety, few farmers were producing it. The extension officers and researchers acknowledged the need for awareness for this market and sorghum production as a commercial entity. These results constitute important information in the enhancing of production of sorghum with new varieties and hybrids and marketing.Strengthening food security for a growing population in conditions of climate change is a pressing global issue (Wheeler and von Braun, 2013). Rising temperatures and shifts in precipitation could mean crops growing locally become maladapted, while greater incidence and severity of extreme events such as drought and flooding will seriously challenge crop production (Easterling et al., 2007;Lane and Jarvis, 2007). Shifts in pest and pollinator interactions, soil fertility, and other ecosystem functions will further impact crop performance (Jarvis et al., 2010). Substantial declines in crop yields and stability are projected to result from these impacts in many parts of the world, but especially in developing countries, where existing hunger could be strongly exacerbated (Wheeler and von Braun, 2013).In areas expected to be most affected by climate change, much of the population is reliant on the production of smallholder farms (Nwanze, 2011). Climate change is expected to compound the existing vulnerability of these producers, who are strongly reliant on their farm production, have few available resources and face numerous other pressures, including poor market integration, population growth, insecure land tenure, and erosion of traditional knowledge (Morton, 2007;Mijatovic et al., 2012). The resilience and adaptability of these farming systems depend on farmers' assets, knowledge, social networks, the political environment, and perceptions of risk (Nyanga et al., 2011).Smallholder farmers typically manage diverse production systems that involve intercropping several different crops and varieties, collecting wild resources, and raising livestock (Morton, 2007). Agricultural biodiversity and associated traditional practices will play a vital role in climate change adaptation (Mijatovik et al., 2012). The practice of crop diversification mitigates risk by leveraging the insurance effect of diversity (Di Falco and Perrings, 2003). Meanwhile, smallholder farmers' traditional use and development of locally adapted crops and varieties through dynamic seed selection and exchange practices facilitates adaptation to shifts in the abiotic and ecological community context (Wood and Lenne, 1997).While traditional practice holds promise for adaptation, the speed and magnitude of the shift in conditions could require drastic adjustments in cropping systems, planting schedules, locations, and soil and water management practices. Farmers may need to increase production or introduce crops that are better suited to prevailing conditions (Kurukulasuriya and Mendelsohn, 2008). The cultivation of more stress-tolerant crops and varieties is expected to be crucial in sustaining production as the weather becomes harsher under climate change (Mijatovik et al., 2012). In this sense, the neglected and underutilized species (NUS), which include a vast diversity of crops and trees cultivated in traditional production systems that are not well exploited in global markets, could play a strong role (Padulosi and Hoeschle-Zeledon, 2004). Many of these crops are tolerant of marginal conditions and produce nutritious food products, and so could be integral in diversification strategies for climate change adaptation (Nangula et al., 2010;Bala Ravi et al., 2010). The survey was carried out in late 2012 and early 2013. Farmers were interviewed in two departments in Bolivia (Cochabamba and La Paz), two districts in India (Namakkal and Nainital), and four districts in Nepal (Bara, Dolakha, Kaski, and Jumla). The survey questions used for the study have been published previously (see Padulosi et al., 2012;pp.188-197). Some survey questions were modified or the sequence in which they were asked was shifted in the different locations to suit the local language and context.In total, 2118 farmers were interviewed. We sought to include a strong representation of women in the sample so the sex-ratio of respondents was effectively 50-50 in all countries (Table 1). The farmers interviewed were younger in India compared to Nepal and Bolivia, with more under 40 years of age and fewer over 60. In Nepal and India, it was most common for farmers to have no formal education, whereas in Bolivia, farmers were most-commonly educated to primary level.Numerous farms were larger than 10 ha in Bolivia whereas, essentially no farm in Nepal or India was so large (Table 1). These larger farms were included in this preliminary analysis, as they could be considered smallholders under definitions that emphasize reliance on farm production (Berdegué and Fuentealba, 2011). The grand majority (88%) of farmers interviewed had noted a change in the weather in the last 20 years (Figure 1). In India especially, effectively all farmers interviewed had noted changes in the weather. Higher temperatures and shifts in the timing of precipitation were observed by the majority of farmers across all three sites, with late rains commonly noted in Bolivia and India. In the south Asian sites, many farmers noted a reduced amount of rainfall, leading to drought or lower water availability (i.e. springs drying up, lower water levels). In Bolivia, heightened pest and disease pressure was a highly noted impact. As a result of these changes, many farmers in Bolivia and India reported yield declines and in Nepal many suffered food insecurity. In India, over 90% of farmers who noted a change in the weather reported taking action to cope with the impacts (Figure 2). Fewer farmers in Bolivia and Nepal took action to cope. Farmers reported taking a broad range of coping actions. Planting different crops species or varieties was common across all sites. In Bolivia, many farmers planted disease-resistant varieties and in India, early-maturing varieties. Planting trees and changing land use or cropping systems were other common coping actions taken in all three countries. In Bolivia and India, many farmers modified cropping locations and schedules.Farmers considered several NUS crops to be resistant to the challenges they faced with climate change (Table 5). Quinoa was considered resistant by over a quarter of farmers who noted climate change in Bolivia. In India and Nepal, minor millets including finger millet, Italian foxtail millet, and barnyard millet were popularly considered resistant, with finger millet the top-listed resistant crop in the Indian sites. In Namakkal, however, many farmers considered millets to be susceptible to climate change (data not shown).Traditional and modern varieties of dominant crops such as potato, wheat, rice and maize were also considered by many farmers to be resistant to the challenges faced with climate change. In Bolivia, about three quarters of farmers who noted climate change considered potato to be resistant but unfortunately, very few farmers indicated specific varieties. Where varieties were noted, the most commonly mentioned were native luki potatoes and introduced variety doble H (also known as runa toralapa; Uzeda, 2005). The resistant varieties of rice and wheat noted in Nepal were both modern bred and were only listed by farmers in the Terai (Joshi et al., 2012;Ghimire et al., 2012). A good proportion of farmers in Bolivia and Nepal (34% in both sites) had been provided information on climate change but it was still a minority. Only 12% of farmers in India had been informed. Farmers had various sources of information, including the radio and NGOs.In Bolivia and Nepal, farmers who were informed about climate change were more likely to take action to cope with perceived impacts (Table 3).Farmers in all three countries noted increasing temperatures and shifts in precipitation over the last two decades that have lead to lower yields and food insecurity, among other impacts. These results are consistent with data that demonstrate rising global temperatures, shifts in precipitation patterns, and their projected impacts for food security (Wheeler and von Braun, 2013). Strong perception of climate change by farmers has also been documented in a similar survey by Oxfam Novib et al. (2013) in Peru, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.Results presented here reflect the most common observations. There was strong agreement among farmers about some of the effects of climate change but their observations conflicted in other cases. Divergence could result from different microclimates within the landscape or farmers' different sensitivities. A finer geographic-scale analysis of climate change effects will be developed, which may resolve some of these conflicts. In any case, the focus of this study was not to judge the merit of farmer observations, rather to understand how their perceptions and responses would relate to their adaptive capacity and resilience.Many farmers reported taking action to cope with the problems they encountered with climate change. It is unclear from the survey whether these actions were made proactively in anticipation of greater change to come. Rather, it is more likely these actions were reactive adjustments of practice to deal with circumstances that hindered production. Here, the distinction between strategies for \"coping\" and \"adapting\" is not emphasized because coping strategies can become means of adaptation (Morton, 2007).The spatial and temporal deployment of agricultural biodiversity was central in farmer adaptation strategies. In this sense, a notable coping action in all three locations was planting new crops or varieties. The specific crops and varieties farmers planted are not conclusively known from the survey, but those recognized as resistant to climate change were likely among the seeds introduced. For instance, spring rice variety 1442 that was recognized as resistant to climate change in Bara, Nepal may have been among the fast-maturing varieties farmers planted to cope with drought (Kafle et al., 2012). Minor millet species that were considered resistant to climate change in India and Nepal may also have been planted to cope with drought, as they are tolerant of arid soils (Padulosi et al., 2009). In Bolivia, modern blight-resistant potato variety doble H was likely one of the disease-resistant varieties farmers introduced to deal with heightened pest and disease pressure. Farmers in Bolivia also recognized several crops as resistant that are more generally appreciated for their hardiness, including frost-resistant luki potatoes and quinoa, which is tolerant of dry and low-input conditions (Galewey, 2003;Giuliani, 2013). Stress-tolerant crops and varieties such as these are expected to be crucial in climate change adaptation, as extreme conditions occur more frequently (Mitajovik et al., 2013).The crops considered to be resistant to climate change included both NUS and major crop species. Development and use of climate-hardy varieties of major staple crops will play an essential role in adapting food production to global climate change. However, we note that these crops are already gaining strong attention in research and development efforts, unlike the NUS crops that farmers also recognize to be resistant to climate change. NUS crops are also typically accessible to poor farmers and embedded in local cultural traditions, and this gives them greater potential to enhance socio-ecological resilience as compared to introduced or modern crops and varieties. We thus argue that more attention should be paid to hardy NUS crops in climate change adaptation strategies. Quinoa and minor millets, for instance, could be highly strategic in strengthening food security under climate change, as they are both resistant to harsh environmental conditions and provide highly nutritious grains (Saleh et al., 2013;Padulosi et al., 2009).Planting trees was another common coping strategy across all three sites. This action has several effects that can alleviate the impact of climate change on farm production. Trees shelter crops from heat and desiccation by providing shade, protect the soil from wind erosion, and can diversify farm production to protect against crop failure (Rao et al., 2007). In Bolivia, planting trees is a strategy recommended by NGOs (e.g. CARE − Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) working in the region to mitigate soil erosion and climate change impacts. In the Kolli Hills (in Namakkal), tribal farm families are engaged in a project to establish integrated Wadi Farms that consist of food and cash crops, fruit and timber trees, and fodder grasses. Such diversification strengthens the capacities of farm families to meet the challenges of vagaries of the weather. While the identity of the trees the farmers planted is not known definitively from the survey, this strategy could include NUS. In one of the sites we surveyed in Nepal (Jumla), farmers have been supported by LI-BIRD and The Development Fund of Norway in planting the dhatelo tree (Princepia utilis) on barren slopes. The farmers appreciate this species for its fruit, oil and evergreen quality but it has been in decline in the area. The restoration of the dhatelo population would recover the benefits of the tree for local community use and also the option to gain income through sale of the oil in high value international markets. Similar benefits from planting trees have been promoted in Africa through conversion to agroforestry with the multi-purpose and nutritious moringa tree that is gaining attention as a global superfood (Amaglo, 2013).Diversification by planting trees fits with tradition in these systems of maintaining high diversity for risk mitigation. Maintaining a broad portfolio of crops was surprisingly not mentioned by farmers as a strategy to cope with climate change. However, as diversification is standard practice in these production systems, it may be that the farmers did not consider this a specific \"coping strategy\". In Nepal, farmers interviewed planted on average three cereals, three legumes, nine vegetables, four spices, 3-4 fruit species and typically more than one variety within each crop. In Bolivia, the farmers maintained an average of seven varieties of potato and a few other crops, including native tubers (isaño, oca, and papalisa) and andean grains (quinoa and cañihua). In India, the farmers practised mixed cropping, relay cropping and crop rotation of small millets and pulses. This diversity provides alternative sources of food or income, strengthening resilience to climatic stress.While many farmers took action to cope with climate change, many others who observed changes in the climate did not report taking specific action to cope. Information had a positive effect on farmers' likelihood of taking action in Nepal and Bolivia. In India, the fact that very few farmers were informed about climate change may underlie the absence of this effect. Our results corroborate research that identifies access to information as a major barrier to climate change adaptation (Deressa et al., 2008). However, the nature and quality of information is critical. Further study should investigate the availability of information concerning the role of traditional crops in climate change adaptation, which may be weakly available. An interesting observation is that farmers reported taking a wide range of coping strategies that were often not being practised by their neighbours. Improving information access and sharing within and between communities regarding climate change coping options could improve adaptive capacity in these locations. We also note that access to information often differs between gender and social groups. Further analysis will be performed to see if divergence between gender exists in these sites that may lead to different vulnerabilities, coping strategies, and support required.This study revealed that smallholder farmers in Bolivia, Nepal and India strongly perceive climate change and that the management of agricultural biodiversity to be central in their adaptation strategies. The strong recognition of NUS crops as resistant to climate change conditions points to their potential role in adaptation. The resistant crops (both NUS and dominant) recognized by the farmers could be leveraged to strengthen resilience through diversification of production systems or replacement of crops that no longer perform well via (re-)introduction or increasing the area allocated to their production.Adding to the challenge of adapting to climate change is that agricultural biodiversity fundamental to climate change adaptation is increasingly being lost due to a suite of interacting pressures, including development of global markets, agricultural technology, and shifts in cultural norms (Padulosi et al., 2012). In order to secure food security for humankind today and the future, we must promote the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and its effective deployment to cope with climate change.Agricultural productivity is particularly sensitive to environmental stresses, especially temperature extremes and water scarcity. In addition to these, land degradation due to soil nutrient depletion and salinity is becoming another major global issue in recent years, impacting the growth and yield potential of most of the commonly cultivated commodity crops. Globally, the productivity of some lands has already declined by 50% and in Africa yield reduction due to land degradation is estimated to range from 2 to 40%, with a mean loss of 8.2% across the continent (Eswaran et al., 2001). Among the various factors that contribute to land degradation, soil salinity (accumulation of soluble salts of sodium, magnesium and calcium in soil to the extent that soil fertility is severely reduced), exacts major economic and environmental costs. Ghassemi at al. (1995) estimated the total soil area degraded by human-induced salinization (because of poor soil and water management) to be 76.3 Mha, with Africa accounting for nearly 5.9 Mha of this total (Squires and Glenn, 2004). Ghassemi et al. (1995) also estimated the global income loss due to salinity to be about US$ 11.4 billion per year in irrigated and US$ 1.2 billion per year in non-irrigated areas.Agriculture in general is sensitive to climate change and Africa is especially vulnerable because it is largely dependent on rainfed agriculture (Gbetibouo and Ringler, 2009). Projections of climate change indicate that the area suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons and yield potential along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas might decrease, potentially exacerbating malnutrition and food insecurity (Boko et al., 2007). To sustain agricultural productivity in stressed environments, one possible strategy is to look for crops with trait values that currently exceed the equivalent trait in major crops, especially where these are evident in hostile environments where salinity, drought and/or heat stress restrict productivity (Mayes et al., 2011). In this context, neglected and underutilized species (NUS) offer major opportunities because of their comparative advantage over the staple food crops in terms of tolerance to harsh growing conditions. In addition to their crucial role in food production, the multiple uses of many NUS offer greater opportunities to raise income of local people through product diversification.There are many NUS, but under the overarching goals of food security, poverty elimination and environmental sustainability, it is important to select appropriate species on the basis of their capacity to best address such challenges. However, NUS have largely been neglected by research and studies are needed to improve yields and quality of produce through identification of high yielding genotypes, better cultivation, management, harvesting and post-harvesting practices, value chains and markets. Bringing the benefits of NUS to the poor in marginal environments therefore requires further research focus on species, especially those that have the highest potential value in terms of food and nutrition security, particularly for farmers in marginal areas. This paper summarizes the work undertaken at the Dubai based International Center for Biosaline Agricultutre (ICBA) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to identify crops and varieties that have good potential for marginal environments, especially those stressed by salinity, poorly developed soils and high temperatures, typical of the arid and hyper-arid areas worldwide. A wide range of NUS was examined for yield potential under saline and arid conditions and results of evaluation of crops such as mustard greens (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern.), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.), saltwort (Salicornia bigelovii Torr.), which are perceived to be of value for African agriculture are discussed in this paper.The crops were selected mainly on the basis of their reported salinity and drought tolerance or their ability to grow under harsh environments. The number of accessions studied varied with the crop. All the accessions were initially evaluated for local adaptation and yield potential at ICBA research station (25°05'49\"N and 55°23'25\"E) between the years 2006 and 2010. The soils at ICBA experimental fields are sandy in texture (sand 98%, silt 1%, and clay 1%), calcareous (50-60% CaCO3 equivalents), porous (45% porosity) and moderately alkaline (pH 8.22) with very low organic matter (<1%). The average daytime temperature is 25°C during winter (November-March) and 37°C in summer (April-October). The rainfall is scant, averaging 94 mm and mostly occurring during the winter months in the form of showers and thunderstorms.Prior to planting, the soil fertility of the experimental site was improved by incorporating farmyard manure at the rate of 40 t ha -1 . The sowing time for mustard greens, quinoa and salicornia was mid October to early November. Safflower was sown in early January and guar in late February. Each accession was sown in plots consisting of four rows of 2.5 m, spaced 50 cm apart. The distance between plants within each row and between two accessions was maintained at 25 cm and 1 m, respectively. The plants were irrigated with low-salinity water of about 2-3 dS m -1 using the drip-irrigation system. Standard agronomic data such as plant height, days to 50% flowering and seed weight were recorded from five randomly selected plants from the two middle rows within each plot. All crops were harvested at full maturity and dried at 25°C under forced ventilation before manual extraction of the seed.Based on the results of preliminary evaluations over 2-3 seasons, the few best-performing accessions were identified in each crop, which were then subjected to a more detailed study of the agronomic performance and/or salinity tolerance in field trials laid out using a randomized block design with three replicates. Salinity tolerance studies involved application of irrigation water with an electrical conductivity (ECw) 5, 10 and 15 dS m -1 obtained by mixing saline ground water with fresh water. In all cases, the seeds were germinated with fresh water and salinity treatment was generally initiated after two weeks of growth, starting with low salinity and gradually increasing to the maximum over a period of 2-4 weeks. In the case of quinoa, the performance of three selected genotypes was further studied by growing in a salt-affected farm located near Ghayathi (23°42' 49.9''N and 52° 54' 10.6''E) in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The data on plant growth, seed and yield, etc. were subjected to analysis of variance using GenStat ver. DE 10.3.Twelve accessions, selected for their leafiness from an initial set of 100 accessions showed significant differences for the number of leaves and leaf area when evaluated during the cropping season 2009-2010 (Table 1). Of these, six accessions namely, ATC 90333, 93322, 93424, 93471, 93569, 94294, when studied for salinity tolerance during the year 2010-2011, had an average green biomass of 3.0 kgm -2 at 5 dSm -1 after 45 days of growth (before flowering) ,which decreased to 2.8 kgm -2 (i.e., by 33%) and to 1.5 kgm 2 (i.e., by 50%) when salinity was increased to 10 dSm -1 and 15 dSm -1 , respectively (Figure 1). In terms of relative tolerance to salinity, two accessions (ATC 93471 and ATC 93569) were found to be outstanding while ATC 93424 was highly sensitive. Previous reports on salinity tolerance of mustard by Shannon et al. (2000) show that late salinization reduces yields by 50% (C50) at 15 dSm -1 , while at a lower, but early salinity (10 dSm -1 ), yields are reduced by the same amount.The water requirement for mustard under the UAE conditions was estimated to be around 250 mm, which is very similar to lettuce and spinach, but leaf mustard has the advantage of being more salt-tolerant than these commonly grown leafy greens, and hence of great potential for marginal areas of Africa. Mustard greens are high in vitamins K, A and C and in iron. The fresh leaves are also a very good source of folic acid and an excellent source of several essential minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, selenium and manganese (Schippers and Mnzava, 2007). In recent years, leaf mustard has been the direct focus of some health-oriented research studies, since it ranks high among vegetables for total glucosinolate content, which has cancer-preventive properties (Mateljan, 2006).Besides its cultivation for the tender green leaves, mustard seeds are a source of edible oil and also used as a condiment.  From an initial grow-out of 60 quinoa accessions, 20 were selected for superior agronomic performance under the UAE growing conditions, which were further evaluated for their growth performance and yield potential over two consecutive cropping seasons (winter 2007-2008 and 2008-2009). Five top-ranking accessions (Ames 13742, Ames 13749, Ames 13757, Ames 13761, NSL 106399), selected on the basis of average yield obtained over the two seasons, when further studied for their yield performance in a replicated field trial during the growing season, 2009-2010 produced an average grain yield of 456.6 gm -2 and average dry matter yield of 1464 gm -2 , both being higher than the averages reported from the traditional growing areas in the Andes (Rao and Shahid, 2012). The study showed that quinoa can perform well under ecologically extreme desert conditions and holds great promise as a food, feed and forage crop for diversification of the agricultural production systems in salt-affected areas.The performance of selected cultivars of quinoa was also studied in the model farms in the western region of Abu Dhabi, where the salinity of irrigation water was in the range of 15 dSm -1 , and the data obtained of biomass and seed yield corroborated the earlier findings that quinoa holds promise as a multipurpose crop for salt-affected areas (Figures 2 and 3). Thus, the mean seed yield of three accessions was found to be about 750 gm -2 , which was on a par with the highest yields reported from the non-saline traditional quinoa growing areas. The green biomass yield was also high -the mean of the three cultivars being 4.3 kgm -2 , indicating the potential of quinoa as an alternative forage crop for saline areas. Earlier research in Peru showed also that quinoa's salt tolerance is very high, being able to grow and be productive in salt concentrations close to sea water (Jacobsen et al., 2003;Koyro et al., 2008). Another attractive feature of quinoa is its low water requirement, estimated as 150-250 mm per growing season for optimum yields (Martinez et al., 2009). Recent studies in the South Sinai desert also demonstrated the value of quinoa as a crop suitable for arid climates (Shams, 2011).Quinoa seeds are generally used to make flour, soup and for breakfast cereals. The seeds are also used for brewing beer and for animal feed. Quinoa seeds are highly nutritious with outstanding protein quality and high amounts of a range of vitamins and minerals (Schlick and Bubenheim, 1996). Its high levels of salinity tolerance, low-water demand and exceptionally high nutritional quality place quinoa in an enviable position as an alternative crop for marginal environments. The ten top-performing guar (also known cluster bean) accessions selected from an initial set of 100 accessions, when evaluated for their performance in the UAE showed the average number of pods per plant to vary between 164.4 and 113.4, with a mean of 149.4 over accessions. Seed yield varied between 2.5 tha -1 and 1.4 tha -1 , the overall mean being 2.2 tha -1 . Both the pod and seed yields were higher than the average yields reported from the traditional growing areas in Asia, indicating the potential of guar as a multipurpose crop for marginal areas (Rao and Shahid, 2011).The results from the study on the effect of salinity showed significant effects on growth and yield (Table 2). Compared to the control, the mean plant height declined by 12% at 5 dSm -1 and 57% at 10 dSm -1 . Similarly, increase in salinity to 5 dSm -1 and 10 dSm -1 reduced the mean number of pods per plant by 41% and 58% of the control, respectively. Seed yield per plant was 15% less at 5 dSm -1 and 24% at 10 dSm -1 , in comparison with the control treatment. Francois et al. (1990) reported that guar is more salt tolerant than many other grain legumes, with a high salinity threshold of 8 dSm -1 . However, results from the present studies do not confirm this. Since the trial was conducted during summer under desert conditions, the combination of salinity and heat stress would have probably contributed to significant reductions in yields even at a low salinity (5 dSm -1 ). Besides genotypic variation in salinity tolerance, it is also possible that the number of accessions evaluated by us is too small to identify genotypes with significantly high levels of stress tolerance. Guar is known for its drought tolerance and grows without irrigation even in areas with as little as 250 mm of annual rainfall (Undersander et al., 1991). The water requirement for guar in the UAE was estimated to be 354 mm, similar to other vegetables such as cucumber and cabbage. However, the higher salt tolerance of guar and its multiple uses as a vegetable for human consumption, forage for cattle and source of industrial gum make guar superior to other vegetable crops (Rao and Shahid, 2011).An assessment of phenotypic diversity for quantitative and qualitative traits in 631 accessions originating from 11 countries in three regions (Central Asia, Southwest Asia and Africa) in the UAE suggested that adaptation of the species to the wide spatial and temporal variation in the Middle East resulted in a multitude of ecotypes and in an enormous amount of local variation (Jaradat and Shahid, 2006). A multivariate selection criterion for high biological and seed yield, long rosette period and no or few spines identified five accessions (PI 251262, PI 251985, PI 237550, PI 251285) that can be introduced into subsistence farming systems as a multipurpose crop under saline agriculture. More recently, evaluation of 52 genotypes in field plot trials over two seasons using irrigation water salinities corresponding to electrical conductivities of 10 and 15 dSm -1 showed that salinity reduced biological and grain yields and the flower number by 50, 75 and 25%, respectively (Fraj M.B., personal communication). The results from this study show that safflower is moderately salt-tolerant and cultivation on salt-affected land can prove beneficial to farmers. Another main advantage of safflower over other agricultural crops is its drought tolerance and the ability to adapt to hot and dry climates. Safflower has an extensive root system capable of extracting subsoil water at greater depths than other crops (Oelke et al., 1992). Safflower, although mainly grown for its high quality oil, is an annual multipurpose crop. The tender leaves and shoots, which are rich in vitamin A, iron, phosphorus, and calcium are used as a pot herb and salad. Safflower herbage is valuable as green fodder. Historically, safflower was grown for the red and yellow dyes obtained from the petals, which are excellent for dyeing silk, linen and cotton (Oyen and Umali, 2007). The introduction of cheap synthetic dyes resulted in disuse of safflower dyes, but the growing demand for vegetable dyes internationally, not only for dyeing cloth but also for food colouring, is likely to be a significant market niche for exploitation.In a detailed evaluation carried out of nine lines of saltwort in sandy soils with sea water in the UAE, plant height varied from 38.5 to 75.4 cm, dry weight from 36.1 g to 69.0 g and the seed weight from 0.8 g to 6.5 g/plant (Jaradat and Shahid, 2012). At the rate of 20 000 plants/ha, the biomass yield obtained was close to the average yields of 1.7 kgm −2 reported from Mexico by Glenn et al. (1991). The study, in addition to demonstrating that saltwort can be grown successfully in arid regions using seawater for irrigation, has identified genotypes with favourable combinations of traits that can be used by farmers in small-scale vegetable production, in large-scale biomass and oilseed production, or for reclamation of saline lands.Saltwort is a speciality vegetable crop cultivated for its succulent photosynthetic shoots tips. The seeds can germinate directly with seawater and it has a high oil (30%) and protein (35%) content, and low concentration of salt (<3%). The oil quality is comparable to that of major oilseed crops with a high content of linoleic (75%) and linolenic (omega-3) fatty acids. Despite its potential as a crop with multiple uses, saltwort improvement has received very little attention.Water scarcity and salinity are major constraints to agricultural production globally including Africa. Furthermore, climate change projections for the region indicate considerable negative impact on farm-level productivity due to the area's high dependency on climate-sensitive agriculture. NUS, being more resilient and better adapted to grow in marginal environments than current staple crops, offer cost-effective and viable solutions to sustain farm productivity. NUS identified in this paper offer robust alternatives to sustain agricultural productivity. NUS such as mustard greens and quinoa are also nutritionally rich and have a real potential to contribute to combating vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies, particularly in rural communities dependent on agriculture. However, there are major gaps in our knowledge and capacity to make the best use of these NUS because agricultural research has so far paid little attention to these species. Research to increase the value of these crops and encourage them to be more widely cultivated would broaden the resource base and increase the livelihood options especially for smallholder farmers in marginal areas. The growing demand from consumers for diversity and novelty in foods is creating new market niches for NUS such as mustard and quinoa. Designer foods with balanced amino acid and micronutrient profiles can be developed using appropriate blends of major crops and NUS to the meet demand and encourage farmers to grow these crops.Parasites are one of the major problems of goat production in Botswana. Crafting new technologies in controlling internal parasites in small stock requires concerted efforts in research and the use of locally available resources in order to make goat production a viable economic venture. Indigenous plants, such as Viscum verrucosum have been found to reduce faecal egg count in goats (Madibela and Jansen, 2003;Madibela et al., 2010;Moncho et al., 2012). Haematological tests have been widely used for the diagnosis of various animal diseases and so it is of interest to investigate the effects of the Viscum verrucosum plant on some blood parameters of Tswana goats. However, no literature is available on haematological parameters of Tswana goats infected by nematode parasites and fed diets containing traditional medicinal plants.Helminths are major problems in goat production in Botswana. According to a study by Segwagwe and Ramabu (1999) major causes of mortalities (43.9%) in goats were attributed to helminthiasis/coccidiosis. The experience of the National Veterinary Laboratory (NVL) showed that a higher number of cases of internal parasites is due to helminthiasis (NVL Annual Report, 1994). Internal parasites cause economic and production losses (Coop and Holmes, 1996) as well as through the cost of control measures through the frequent purchase of anthelmintic remedies. The main concern regarding the use of drugs in recent times is parasite drug resistance and drug residues in livestock products (meat and milk; Ramaphane et al., 1999). When producers continuously deworm their flocks with the same antihelminthics, fewer and fewer parasites are killed with every treatment, and genetic selection for resistant parasites occurs (Hartwig, 2000). To overcome the problem of drug resistance it has been proposed that biological control may be the way for sustainable parasite control. According to Butter et al. (2001) there is a need for sustainable and practical approaches to parasite control to be introduced in the farming systems. These authors (Butter et al., 2001) proposed that one such possibility could be the exploitation of forage species capable of reducing worm infection levels solely, or in conjunction with limited use of drugs. It has been reported that feeding forage browse containing condensed tannins reduces faecal egg count in sheep (Butter et al., 2001) and in goats (Osoro et al., 2007).Crafting new technologies in eradicating and/or controlling goat parasites requires intense research and harnessing locally available resources in order to make goat production a viable practice. Parasitic plants, such as Viscum verrucosum, have been fed to small stock by resource-limited farmers and this indigenous knowledge needs to be harnessed to reduce the frequency of use of antihelminthic drugs and to increase effectiveness of these drugs (Madibela and Jansen, 2003). Haematological tests have been widely used for the diagnosis of various animal diseases. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Viscum verrucosum plant as an antihelminthic medicine with the consequence of affecting blood parameters, reduction of faecal egg count and improving live weight gain through the following: faecal egg count, packed cell volume (PCV), total white cells (TWC), and haemoglobin (HB) and live weight.Twenty (1-year old) female goats that were naturally infected by internal parasites were acclimatized to individual pens and feeding for three weeks and blocked for live weight (LW) and initial faecal egg count (FEC) and randomly allocated into four treatments: Standard diet (SD; CP = 12%; n = 5; LW = 24.1 kg; FEC = 2640 epg, high protein (HP; CP = 16%; n = 5; LW = 25.7 kg; FEC = 2630 epg), Viscum verrucosum diet (VV; CP = 12%; n = 5; LW = 26 kg; FEC = 2720 epg); and high standard diet and dosed with a commercial drug, valbazen (SDD; CP = 12%; n = 5; LW = 25 kg; FEC = 2800 epg).Faecal samples were collected weekly while blood samples were collected from the jugular vein at the beginning of the experiment and at 21, 35 and 49 days into a test tube containing EDTA anticoagulant. Live weight was measured at the beginning and end of the study. Data for faecal egg count (FEC) was analysed using the Proc Mixed Procedures of SAS (2002SAS ( -2008) ) for repeated measures. Before analysis FEC was log transformed as log10 (FEC +1). Diet effects on blood parameters and LW daily gain was tested using the general linear model procedure of SAS (2002SAS ( -2008)).There was a highly significant (P<0.001) treatment as well as treatment x time effects on faecal egg count (FEC) (Figure 1 and Table 2), whereby SDD and VV animals had lower FEC (1670.09 ± 0.096 and 1839.77±0.096 epg, respectively) than HP and SD goats (2909.72±0.096 and 2772.32±0.096 epg, respectively). VV and SDD animals excreted fewer eggs on day 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56. This corroborates earlier studies (Madibela and Jansen, 2003;Moncho et al., 2012) that V. verrucosum plants as diets or aqueous extract orally dosed is able to reduce FEC in goats. Eosinophil counts for all the treatments were similar at 0 to 21 days but were significantly (P<0.001) low in goats fed VV or dosed with a drug during later days (Table 1).Contrary to the long standing paradigm of eosinophil toxicity in nematode infection (Fabre et al., 2009) the present study may suggest that maintaining a high count of circulating eosinophils promotes survival of parasites (Fabre et al., 2009;Gebreselassie et al., 2012) in order to preserve antigen stimulus for a Th2 response that prevents future infection (Gebreselassie et al., 2012). There was no significant difference in LW daily gain between the treatments (HP; 21.4, SD; 44.6, SDD; 39.2 and VV; 53.6g/d; P>0.05; Table 2) indicating that protein supply was not being improved. However, it also shows that at this inclusion rate V. verrucosum was not detrimental to growth.Viscum verrucosum was found to be as effective as valbazen in reducing FEC. Eosinophils were reduced in VV and SDD goats, suggesting that the lack of eosinophils is associated with reduced FEC or worm burden. In contrast high eosinophils, as was the case in HP and SD goats, may indicate preservation of parasites as a cue for a future response to reinfection. However there is a need to test more neglected plants for efficacy in control of nematode parasites. This will result in conserving both indigenous knowledge and plants for sustainable control of internal worms and increased livestock productivity. The use of natural flora in the control of internal parasites is a novel way of preventing parasite resistance to drugs. In addition, smallholder small stock farmers would benefit from less expensive use of indigenous plants to control nematode parasites.  Sesame seeds are the main product from the tropical annual crop Sesamum indicum. Sesame is grown in many parts of the world on over 5 million hectares, of which 70% is cultivated in Asia and 26% in Africa (Kinman and Martin, 1999). Nigeria is a major producer of sesame contributing over 60% of the overall global sesame export market (Bruce, 1953;Laurentin and Karlovsky, 2006).Sesame meal is an excellent feed for poultry and livestock (Oplinger et al., 1997). Many recipes contain sesame seeds as an ingredient (Home Cooking, 1998). Furthermore, Sesamum indicum has medicinal properties used in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine in their Ayurvedic preparations (Smith and Salerno, 2001). Phytochemicals that inhibit various hormone and metabolic pathways associated with the development of cancer have also been identified (Osagie et al., 1986).Saponins and glycosides are further compounds of interest, often referred to as natural detergents because of their foamy nature when mixed with water (Seigler, 1998). They posses both beneficial and deleterious properties depending on the concentration in the seed (Oakenful and Sidhu, 1989). Flavonoids, another group of sesame phytochemicals, exert multiple biological effects including antibacterial, antiviral, antitoxic and anti-inflammatory activities (Cook and Samman, 1996). Many of these alleged effects have been linked to known functions as strong antioxidants, free radical scavengers and metal chelators (Nakayama et al., 1993. Alkaloids and tannins present in sesame seeds can boost the immune system thereby helping the body to fight infection (Musa et al., 2000).Several DNA-based marker systems are currently available permitting the accurate assessment of the degree of diversity at the DNA level within a germplasm collection of any crop species (Baumung et al., 2004). The SSR (short sequence repeat) or microsatellite method of assaying polymorphisms involves utilizing the high degree of length variation resulting from certain repeating nucleotide sequences (simple sequence repeats) found in most genomes. SSRs can detect a high degree of genetic polymorphism and have been previously successfully applied for comparative analysis and mapping of mammalian and plant genomes (Powell et al., 1996).SSR loci are further commonly used for individual genotype identification, population diversity estimations, differentiation of populations and genetic relationships (Takundua et al., 2010;Ubi, 2008). SSRs have recently been used to study both genetic diversity and the phylogenetic relationship in sesame (Dixit et al., 2005;Cho et al., 2011;Vinod and Sharma, 2011;Gebremichael and Parzies, 2011;Wang et al., 2012). However, Dixit and his colleagues (2005) identified only 10 out of 50 SSR markers developed from a sesame DNA library being polymorphic in 16 sesame accessions and these SSRs have also been tested in our study.To the best of our knowledge, a report on sesame germplasm characterization applying SSR marker technology to find any association with content of phytochemicals has yet not been reported. The particular aim of this study was therefore to determine the phytochemical composition of sesame seeds and to apply known sesame SSRs to identify any association between concentrations of phytochemicals and SSRs present in Nigerian sesame accessions.Thirty different accessions of sesame were obtained from the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) Badeggi, Niger State, Nigeria. Plants were grown from seeds in the field at the crossing block of the Biotechnology Research and Development Centre of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria and also in a temperature-controlled greenhouse at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, South Africa.All plants were grown in the field during the rainy season in the years 2008 and 2009. The experiment was conducted in Nigeria on a clay-loam soil at an altitude of 1300-1500 m above sea level and an average daily temperature of 29.8 o C. Annual precipitation ranged from 1650 to 2000 mm, distributed in two rainy seasons. The field layout was a randomized complete block design with three replications. Plot size was 1.5 m by 1.0 m and seeds were sown at a spacing of 0.25 and 0.50 m within and between rows, respectively. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer was applied at a rate of 50 kg/ha during planting. Experimental plots were weeded twice and diseases and pests controlled by spraying Fusilade and Treflan. Seeds were harvested at maturity and used for phytochemical analysis.Sesame seeds were also raised in the greenhouse of FABI using a mixture of vermiculite and polystyrene growth media (temperature: 25-37 o C; light: 12 hours photoperiod; pH of 5-8; water treatment of 50-70 cm 3 ). Plant growth was maintained using Hoagland ' s nutrient solution for fertilization.Titrimetric method of Harbone was used for quantitative determination of tannins and glycosides (Harbone, 1983), while a spectrophotometric method of the Association of Analytical Chemists was applied for the determination of saponins, alkaloids and flavonoids (Association of analytical chemists, 1989; Odebiyi and Sofowora, 2007).DNA was extracted from leaves based on a previously described protocol (Vos et al., 2007).The Zymo Research plant/seed DNA KIT TM D6020 was used for DNA extraction. The eluted DNA was finally filtered through a Zymo-spinTM IV-HRC spin filter (C1010-50) and collected in a clean 1.5 ml micro-centrifuge tube and centrifuged for 1 min at 8000 g. DNA concentration and purity was determined using the nanodrop technique (ND-1000 Spectrophotometer). The integrity and concentration of the DNA was confirmed by separation of DNA on a 1.5% agarose gel while DNA bands were visualized under UV light after ethidium bromide staining.The Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR) for SSR detection was carried out in a PTC-100 thermocycler (MJ Research). Each PCR (20 μl) containing 20 ng of genomic DNA, 2 μl of 10xPCR buffer, 1.2 μl of 25 mM MgCl2, 1.0 μl of 10 mM dNTP, 0.5 μl of 25 mM of forward and reverse primer and 0.2 μl of 5 units Taq polymerase (NeoTherm). PCR profile was one cycle at 94°C for 3 min (pre-heating) followed by 35 cycles at 94°C for 30 sec (denaturing), 55-60°C for 45 sec (annealing), 72°C for 30 sec with a final extension at 72°C for 10 min and stored at 4°C. Amplified products were resolved on a 2% agarose gel, visualized under UV light after ethidium bromide staining, and then photographed.Two SSRs were selected from the literature (Dixit et al., 2005), and used on DNA samples of sesame. PCR-derived SSR products were purified using the QIA quick purification kit and a direct sequencing PCR reaction (10 μl) was performed using 2 μl big dye, 4 μl DNA sample, 1 μl forward or reverse primer, 1 μl big dye buffer and 2 μl of water. The sequencing reaction (PCR) consisted of 35 cycles at 96 o C for 10 sec, 57 o C for 5 sec, 60 o C for 4 min, 72 o C for 10 min. Product fragments were cleaned with a Millipore sephacryl S-500 spin column and transferred into a 0.5 ml tube and dried in a vacuum drier at 60 o C for 25 min. SSR alleles were resolved on an ABI Prism 3010 DNA sequencer (Applied Biosystems, UK) with GENESCAN 3.7 software.Repeat numbers were physically counted from DNA sequences. Number of alleles per primer, polymorphism information content (PIC) and gene diversity were determined as previously reported (Weir, 1990), Gene diversity values based on allele frequencies were calculated for each SSR's locus with unbiased statistics (Nei et al., 2007). A dendrogram was constructed by the UPGMA clustering method from the length of SSR sequences with the CLC Bio-sequence analysis software version 6.4 to demonstrate any genetic relationship among sesame accessions at the selected SSR loci.The number of alleles per SSR locus was 4.0 and the fragment size varied from 179 bp to 282 bp. Expected heterozygosities (HE) and polymorphism information contents (PICs) applying the POPGENE version 1.32 for analysis (Yeh and Boyle,1997), ranged from 0.70 to 0.77 and 0.66 to 0.74, respectively (Table 1). This indicated a high informative nature of SSRs. Genetic distances among the accessions ranged from 0.00 to 0.20. A dendrogram of the tested 30 Nigerian sesame cultivars was constructed from two SSRs using bootstrapping and the Unweighted Paired Group Method using Arithmetic Average (UPGMA) on the basis of their phytochemicals. Application of the method distinguished the tested accessions into six main clusters and into two cultivars not belonging to any cluster (Figure 1).In order to correlate the pytochemical content with a specific SSR, the content of specific phytochemicals was evaluated. Phytochemicals determined in sesame seeds were tannins (1.72±0.35 mg/100g), flavonoids (1.14±0.37 mg/100g), saponins (2.40±0.66 mg/100g), cynogenic glycosides (0.42±0.14 mg/100g) and alkaloids (5.89±0.58 mg/100g) (Table 2). Significant variability was found in these phytochemicals among the tested cultivars (P<0.001;Table 3). The most abundant phytochemicals in sesame seeds were alkaloids (5.85±0.58) and the least abundant were cyanogenic glycosides (0.42±0.14). Significantly negative correlation (r = -0.2859, P<0.0242) was found between saponins and flavonoids, while a positive correlation (r = 0.30391, P<0.0163) was observed between saponins and cyanogenic glycosides (Table 4).The study further revealed that accessions formed clusters and sub-clusters in relation to the concentration of phytochemicals. The single cultivar \"Ciano\" in Group I, with a TC12 sequence repeats was the lowest in flavonoids but high in cyanogenic glycosides. In contrast, \"Yobe machina\", at the opposite end of the dendrogram (Figure 1) comprising Group VIII (TC15), contains a relatively low concentration of tannins and flavonoids, but has higher concentrations of saponins, glycoside cyanogens and alkaloids (Table 2). Group II consisted of five accessions (TC20 sequence repeat) all low in tannins and glycoside cyanogens, but high in saponins, and either high or low in flavonoids or alkaloids.However, one of the Group II sub-clusters containing the \"Yobe gadaka white\" and \"Pachequeno\" cultivars had similar phytochemical concentrations. Cultivars in Group III (TC19) slightly differed in their phytochemical concetrations with flavonoids, saponins and alkaloids. Group IV consisted of seven accessions, with a TC22 polymorphic repeat sequence. They all had high alkaloid concetrations but varied slightly in the amounts of all other phytochemicals tested. Groups V and VI are seemingly heterogeneous groups of accessions with no consistent association of an SSR to phytochemicals. However, a sub-cluster in Group V consisting of two accessions, \"Otobi\" and \"Domu\" (TC21), was consistent in its phytochemical concentration. Group VII cultivars, consisting of six cultivars with TC18 and TC17 sequence repeats, greatly differed in their phytochemical concentration. A sub-cluster in this group, made up of two accessions \"Yobe gadaka brown\" and \"69-882\" with a TC17 polymorphic sequence repeat, was almost identical in phytochemical concentrations and consistent with its phylogenetic grouping (Figure 1).Our data indicate that genetic diversity within the characterized Nigerian sesame accessions and SSR repeat motifs (TC12-TC25) could be generated from two highly informative primer pairs (Genebank accession no AY838916, AY838922 repeats motifs; TC,21, TC,15 and TC,20).The expected heterozygosities (HE) and polymorphism information contents (PICs) ranged from 0.70 to 0.77 and 0.66 to 0.74, respectively, and number of alleles per SSR locus was 4.0. This indicates genetic variability in accessions rendering these SSRs useful for detection of diversity within Nigerian sesame accessions. This result also confirms previous work with these SSRs by Dixit et al. (2005). However, the overall degree of polymorphism, with four alleles per primer pair in the tested Nigerian accessions is rather low. This seems to be inherent in cultivated sesame due to the domestication process and the inherent selfpollination mechanism.Variability was found in phytochemical concentrations among the tested Nigerian accession and the difference in concentrations of these phytochemicals among the genotypes might be attributed to genetic differences among members of the diverse Nigerian germplasm collection (Jimoh and Oladiji, 2005). We could, however, roughly cluster tested accessions into six main clusters, with two accessions not belonging to any cluster, regarding phytochemical concentrations present and association with a specific SSR.The most abundant phytochemicals in sesame seeds were alkaloids and the least available were cyanogenic glycosides. In particular, the single accession \"Ciano 27\" in Group I, with a TC12, was the lowest in flavonoids but high in cyanogens glycosides. In contrast, \"Yobe machina\", at the opposite end of a dendrogram comprising Group VIII (TC15), contained a relatively low concentration of tannins and flavonoids, but had higher concentrations of saponins, glycoside cyanogens and alkaloids. The possibility exists that the identified SSR TC12 might be associated with low flavonoid concentration in sesame. However, a detailed study has to be carried in the future proving that this SSR is indeed directly associated with a low flavonoid content in sesame. We are currently screening a greater number of sesame accessions to confirm that the identified TC12 SSR is associated with the flavonoid trait and that all low flavonoid plants have a TC12 SSR.In many sesame gene-banks, particularly in Africa, only a fraction of the conserved germplasm has actually been characterized in greater detail especially for their nutritional and medicinal value and genetic diversity. This study was therefore a first important step to the characterization of a nutritional and medicinal trait in the Nigerian sesame accessions and possible association with genetic diversity monitored by SSR marker technology. In general, sesame shows a low level of polymorphism since all sesame varieties are derived from the one cultivated sesame species Sesamum indicum L. Low level polymorphism has been clearly demonstrated by application of universal markers, including SSRs, and this current lack of useful molecular markers has limited any genetic research.This study has investigated possible associations between phytochemical and genetic diversity in Nigerian sesame accessions for selection and exploitation in plant breeding programmes and health care. Results indicate that accessions cluster on the basis of their phytochemical composition and genetic diversity explored by SSR markers and in particular one SSR was associated with low flavonoid content. N -Number of variables: alkaloids showed the highest value of 7.09 mg/100 g, followed by saponins 3.8 mg/100 g, while glycoside cyanogens had the lowest value of 0.17 mg/100 g followed by flavonoids 0.28 mg/100 g.  Nigeria is one of the African countries that is endowed with varieties of crops that are required for sustainable food security. Unfortunately, one of the major causes of food insecurity experienced in many African countries and Nigeria in particular is the underutilization of some potential food security crops in the continent (Saka et al., 2004). Amongst the underutilized crops with high food potential in Nigeria is trifoliate yam (Dioscorea dumetorum Pax). Trifoliate yam belongs to the genus Dioscorea and family Dioscoreaceae (Bai and Ekanayake, 1998). Dioscorea is the largest genus of the family Dioscoreaceae, containing between three and six hundred species (Vernier, 1998). Dioscorea dumetorum has not been as widely studied as other species. It grows readily on various soils, the yield being 3-7 times that of other widely grown yam species (Treche and Guion, 1980). Nutritionally, D. dumetorum is superior to the commonly consumed yams, having higher protein and mineral contents (Baquar andOke, 1976, 1977;Treche and Guion, 1980). Alozie et al. (2009) reported that the wild variety of D. dumetorum had a significantly higher protein content (11.37 g/100g) and quality than the edible variety (7.0 g/100g). The amino acid profile of D. dumetorum has been reported to be quite balanced in essential amino acids with slight deficiency in sulphur-containing amino acids and lysine as the most limiting (Alozie et al., 2009). A feeding diet based on D. dumetorum results in higher apparent protein digestibility, net protein retention and net protein utilization than a D. rotundata-based diet (Mbome et al., 1995;Lape and Treche, 1994). Dioscorea dumetorum consists of the wild cultivar locally called Ighu and the hybrid which is locally called ona. The wild cultivar is referred to as bitter yam because of the bitterness of the tubers which is caused by the presence of a toxic alkaloid, dihydrodioscorine. Hence the wild type of D. dumetorum needs to be detoxified by submerging in running water and thorough processing before being consumed. Cultivars of D. dumetorum have been developed which can be consumed without being detoxified because they have a negligible quantity of the bitter alkaloid (Degras, 1993). Trifoliate yam is mainly cultivated for household consumption in Nigeria and the excess is sold in the local market as boiled, unpeeled yams.Some of the factors militating against increased trifoliate yam production in Nigeria are: long cooking times associated with the tuber, severe hardening which develops after harvest, high concentration of anti-nutrient factors leading to bitterness and toxicity and lack of diversified utilization of the crop. D. dumetorum is regarded as an underutilized crop partly due to the lack of detailed information on its compositional analysis. This study investigates the nutritional and health potentials and opportunities in D. dumetorum. This will be useful for potential uses of the tuber in the food industry, animal feed industry and cosmetic or pharmaceutical industries. Additionally, increased research on D. dumetorum could add to the likelihood of exploitation of the species as an economic plant and bring about further work on its cultivation.Two cultivars of D. dumetorum (the wild and the cultivated cultivars) were obtained from the yam programme of the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike. The tubers were washed peeled, washed and chipped with a chipping machine (locally fabricated). The chips were then air dried. Dried samples were ground in a Mill (Panasonic, MX-J220P) to pass a 1 mm sieve. Proximate composition was determined with the AOAC (1990) method while the anti-nutritional factors such as the alkaloid, saponin, phenol and tannin contents were determined by the method of Obadoni and Ochuko (2001). Compounds present in the ethanol extract of D. dumetorum by GC-MS were analysed using a GC-MS-QP2010 PLUS Shimadzu, Japan linked to an Elite 5 MS Column with a length of 20 m and internal diameter of 0.18 μ. The temperature was programmed from 200 o C to 300 o C at a rate of 4 o C min -1 with 10 minutes hold. The injector was at 200°C. The carrier gas was helium with a constant flow at 1 ml/min. The mass method used was Electron Ionization with an ionization voltage of (EI+) 70 eV for m/z value 50 to 300 with a scan time of 0.3 sec and interscan delay of 0.1 sec.The interpretation of mass-spectrum GC-MS was conducted using the database of National Institute Standard and Technology (NIST). The spectrum of the unknown components was compared with the spectrum of known components stored in the NIST library. The name, molecular weight and structure of the components of the test materials were ascertained.Figure 1 shows the comparative assessment of the nutritional qualities of D. dumetorum and D. alata. The crude protein contents of the Dioscorea species were 9.12%, 11.41% and 10.62%for cultivated D. dumetorum, wild D. dumetorum and D. alata respectively. The protein contents of the D. dumetorum cultivars were higher than those reported for other tropical roots including cassava, sweetpotato and taro (FAO, 1972;Onwume, 1978;Bradbury, 1988). The higher protein content of these yams highlights their nutritional superiority as a staple food. Yam proteins are reported to have a better amino acid balance compared to other tropical roots (Splittstoesser et al., 1973). Wild D. dumetorum had the highest crude protein content. This emphasizes the advantage of the wild and neglected variety over the cultivated ones.Fats are very necessary to the structure and biological functions of cells and are used as an alternative energy source. The crude fat content of the Dioscorea species ranged from 0.705% to 1.145%. Low lipid contents have been reported for most yams (Osagie, 1992). D. alata had a higher lipid content than the D. dumetorum cultivars.The crude fibre content of cultivated D. dumetorum, wild D. dumetorum and D. alata was 2.03%, 1.73% and 2.40% respectively. There is current evidence that dietary fibre may have a direct effect upon some human biochemical and physiological processes. Fibre increases the water-holding capacity and bulk of the stool since hemicellulose and cellulose absorb water and swell. Fibre also lowers the blood low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and improves the cholesterol ratio. Low dietary fibre intake is reportedly associated with several disorders of the human body including diverticulosis and cancer of the colon, constipation, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes and other diseases of the gastro-intestinal tract.The carbohydrate contents of the yam varieties were quite high; 79.71%, 77.46% and 76.56% for the cultivated D. dumetorum, wild D. dumetorum and D. alata varieties. The high carbohydrate content observed indicates that these yams are good sources of energy and hence reliable food security crops. As shown in Figure 2, wild D. dumetorum had the highest saponin content (3.76%) of the Dioscorea species investigated while cultivated D. dumetorum had the least saponin content (3.36%). The alkaloid content of the wild D. dumetorum (3.23%) was also higher than that of the cultivated D. dumetorum (3.08%) and D. alata. This agrees with the work of Eka, (1998) who reported that alkaloids, including the toxic ones are found more in the wild and bitter varieties of yam. This high alkaloid content of the wild D. dumetorum implies that this variety of yam must be thoroughly processed before consumption. Flavonoid content was higher in wild D. dumetorum (3.75%), while cultivated D. dumetorum (0.68%) and D. alata (1.38%) had a lower concentration of flavonoids. Cultivated D. dumetorum contained 1.83% phenols while the wild D. dumetorum had 1.68% concentration of phenol. Phenolic compounds inhibit the activity of digestive as well as hydrolytic enzymes such as amylase, trypsin, chymotrypsin and lipase (Salunkhe, 1982). Phenolics have been suggested to exhibit health-related functional properties such as anticarcinogenic, antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hypotensive and antioxidant activities (Shetty, 1997). Content, %Table 1 shows the compounds identified in the two cultivars of D. dumetorum. GC-MS studies on the ethanol extracts of the tubers resulted in the identification of 13 compounds in cultivated D. dumetorum and 10 compounds in the wild D. dumetorum. The compounds identified in the tubers included fatty acids and their esters, phenols, sterols, aldehydes and ketones, hydrocarbons and amines.The main fatty acids identified in the cultivated D. dumetorum were oleic acid and palmitic acid. Others include lauric acid, n-pentadecylic acid and 1-tridecane carboxylic. This agrees with the work of Alozie et al. (2010) on the fatty acid composition of D. dumetorum. Lauric acid is a saturated fatty acid with a 12-carbon atom chain and has been proven to have antimicrobial properties (Bartolotta et al., 2000;Ouattara et al., 2000;Hoffman et al., 2001;Dawson et al., 2002). N-hexadecanoic acid (palmitic acid) has antioxidant and antimicrobial activities as well as larvicidal effects. It helps relieve atherosclerosis (Bodoprost and Rosemeyer, 2007). Palmitic acid was the most abundant saturated fatty acid in cultivated D. dumetorum (21.82%), a similar observation having been made by Alozie et al. (2010) and Muzac-Tucker et al. (1993). Palmitic acid was also identified in the wild D. dumetorum (10.83%). Oleic acid is a mono-unsaturated omega-9-fatty acid found in various animal and vegetable sources, and being unsaturated it is considered as a healthy source of fat in the diet. Oleic acid may help boost memory (Valeria et al., 2001). Oleic and monounsaturated fatty acid levels in the membranes of red blood cells have been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer (Valeria et al., 2001). Oleic acid may be responsible for the hypotensive (blood pressure reducing) effects of olive oil (Terés et al., 2008). It has been reported to have antiinflammatory, antiandrogenic, cancer preventive, dermatitigenic, hypocholesterolemic, properties and it is reported to have 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, anemiagenic, and insect repellent activities (Spiller, 1996).3,5, di-t-butyl phenol was identified in the three Dioscorea species investigated. The wild D. dumetorum had a higher concentration of 3,5, di-t-butyl phenol (1.47%) than the cultivated D. dumetorum (1.18%). 3,5-Di-t-butyl phenol is a lipophylic (fat soluble) organic compound, chemically a derivative of phenol, and it is important because of its antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti inflammatory and analgesic properties. Another phenolic compound identified in the wild D. dumetorum was 3-decanone-5-hydroxy-1-(4-hydroxy-3methoxyphenyl) at a concentration of 3.38%. This phenol was absent in cultivated D. dumetorum. Phenols have been reported to have antioxidant effects. The high concentration of phenolic compounds identified in wild D. dumetorum suggests that wild D. dumetorum may have higher antioxidant activity than cultivated D. dumetorum. Phenols have been identified in potatoes (Petersen et al., 1999), cocoa (Rodriguez-Campos et al., 2012) and D. alata (Ozo et al., 1984).Vanillyl acetone which is an aromatic aldehyde was identified in the wild D. dumetorum.Vanillyl acetone has been reported to act as an antioxidant; it plays a significant role in lipid oxidation by inhibiting oxidation of phospholipid liposomes in the presence of iron (III) and ascorbate to prevent heart attacks. Studies show that a typically applied extract containing vanillyl acetone may help to prevent some skin cancers (Preetha et al., 2008). It may be useful in nutritional programmes for arthritis and for fibromyalgia (Preetha et al., 2008). 17- (1,5-dimethyl-hexyl-10-13-dimethyl-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17-tetradecahydro-/H-cyclo-penta[a] phenanthren-3-ol which is a phytosterol was identified in the two Dioscorea dumetorum cultivars investigated. Plant sterols possess valuable physiological activities; they are biogenetic precursors of many hormones and oviposition stimulants of some insects (Harborne and Williams, 2000). 10-methyl-17-(5-methylhexyl) hexadecahydro-1H-cyclopenta[a] phenanthren-3-ol is one of several phytosterols (plant sterols) with chemical structures similar to that of cholesterol. Alone and in combination with similar phytosterols,17- (1,3,4 ,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17-tetradecahydro-/ H-cyclo-penta[a]phenanthren-3-ol reduces blood levels of cholesterol, and is sometimes used in treating hypercholesterolemia. 17- (1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,phenanthren-3-ol inhibits cholesterol absorption in the intestine (Matsuoka et al., 2008). Phytosterols and phytostanols both inhibit the uptake of dietary and biliary cholesterol, decreasing the levels of LDL and serum total cholesterol. 9,12-octadecadien-1-ol was identified in both the cultivated and wild D. dumetorum. Four esters were identified in cultivated D. dumetorum while none was identified in the wild D. dumetorum.A high concentration of an alkaloid decahydro{1,7} naphthyridine was identified in wild D. dumetorum. This suggests why wild D. dumetorum must be thoroughly processed before consumption.The results obtained from this study showed that D. dumetorum has a high potential to contribute to food security and health in Nigeria. Programmes aimed at educating people on the potential value of these crops will help to improve people's perception of these. There should be more public and private sector investment on research and development targeted at conserving and improving the quality of these crops. More effort should be targeted at adding value to the crop so that it can compete in the market.  ,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 Tetradecahydro Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) is an annual, or perennial, herbaceous, vigorous climbing leguminous vine. It is an important cover crop (or green manure crop) in many parts of the world, especially among subsistence farmers (Buckles, 1995). It improves soil fertility (Berhe, 2001) and is efficient in the control of weeds (Akobundu and Udensi, 1995;Carsky et al., 1998).Velvet bean can tolerate a wide range of well drained soils, and has excellent germination and vigorous initial growth characteristics that makes its establishment relatively easy. It takes about 180-270 days to reach maturity with the pods containing three to five black seeds that are relatively large − about 1.2 to 1.5 cm long and 0.9 to 1.1 cm broad, three times the size of the soybean. Its yields range from 10 to 35 tons green material/ha and 250 to 3300 kg seeds/ha depending on the cultivation conditions (Ecocrop, 2011).Like other beans, velvet bean contains important quantities of proteins, vitamins and minerals necessary for the diet of humans and many animals (Del Carmen et al., 1999;Udedibie and Carlini, 1998). The crude protein content of dried seeds ranges from 21% to 32%. It has a good essential amino acid profile with a methionine and lysine content of 1.0 g and 7.1 g per 16 gN. Relative to protein content, the amount of essential amino acids in velvet bean is comparable in most cases to those in soybean meal (Del Carmen et al., 1999).Unfortunately, the beans have been neglected for a long time in all respects, be it research and production or from consumption and nutrition standpoints. The bean can be said to be 'underutilized' since little has been done to explore ways to stimulate its production, processing, marketing or use. For many years velvet bean seeds have been considered useless in poultry rations because of poor growth (Olaboro et al., 1991, Emenalom andUdedibie, 1998) and poor egg production (Harms et al., 1961) encountered with their use.Previous studies have shown that the bean contains antitrypsin factors, tannins and cyanides (Houghton and Shari, 1994;Udedibie and Carlini, 1998), analgesic, antipyretic and antiinflammatory factors (Lauk et al., 1993), and others (Olaboro et al., 1991). L-dopa, a potentially neurotoxic agent is found in relatively large amount in the velvet bean (Bell and Janzen, 1971).However studies have shown that anti-nutritional factors in legumes can be eliminated or inactivated, to a large extent, by appropriate heating and processing during food preparation (Udedibie and Carlini, 1998).This paper therefore discusses the various methods of processing velvet beans developed so far at our station with the aim of developing it as a possible protein and energy feed for monogastric animal industries in tropical countries.Velvet bean seeds were subjected to different processing methods and used in different feeding trials as follows:1. Raw: whole raw velvet bean seeds were ground into meal using a hammer mill. 2. Cooking: whole velvet bean seeds were cooked for 60 minutes in water, taking the period of cooking as starting from boiling, then sun dried and ground into meal. 3. Toasting: raw velvet beans were ground into meal and toasted by having the meal thinly spread on a pan seated over a tripod stand with firewood as the source of heat. The meal was stirred from time to time in batches to maintain uniform heating. The toasting was considered adequate when the meal changed from whitish to light brown and became crispy to the touch.Addition of 10% raw velvet bean, toasted velvet bean and cooked velvet bean and 20% cooked velvet bean in broiler finisher diets fed at 5-8 weeks of age caused a decline in growth and by the end of the trials the birds weighed 63.2, 71.3, 82.7 and 66.0% of the controls, respectively (Table . 1). Birds fed toasted and 20% cooked velvet bean had a significantly lower feed intake than the control. With raw velvet bean there was clear depression in growth rate and marked deterioration in feed conversion values but not feed intakes. Weights of heart and gizzard were heavier in velvet bean diet groups than the control. Liver weight decreased only with the 10% cooked velvet bean diet. A decrease in organ weights would be expected as the birds grow more slowly, but the changes in liver and gizzard weights did not follow this expectation. The increases in weight may represent a greater burden of digestion and metabolism in these organs in the processing of velvet bean.  Adding 20-30% cracked-soaked and cooked Mucuna to broiler rations fed 7 to 38 days caused a decline in weight gain (Table 3), and by the 28 th day of age broilers fed 20%, 25% and 30% velvet bean weighed 87.4%, 89.6% and 83.3% of the controls, respectively. Feed intake values were unchanged while feed conversion values deteriorated only with 30% velvet bean. Adding 20-30% cracked-soaked and cooked Mucuna in broiler finisher diets fed at 28-42 days of age caused a decline in weight gain (Table 4) and by 42 days of age broilers fed 20%, 25% and 30% velvet bean weighed 85.0%, 85.0% and 61.1% of controls, respectively. Feed intake values also declined but were not significantly lower than the control. There was a marked deterioration in feed conversion values except at 30% velvet bean levels. Adding 20-30% of the processed velvet bean in the diet of laying hens caused a progressive declined in hen-day egg production (Table 5) and by the end of the trial, laying hens fed 20%, 25% and 30% velvet bean produced 88.1%, 82.1% and 77.5% of the control levels, respectively. Feed intake values increased significantly with 25% and 30% velvet bean. Birds on velvet bean diets produced significantly heavier and bigger sized eggs than the control. Feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg egg) was better in the velvet bean group than the control.Adding 15% raw, and 20%, 30% and 40% cracked-soaked and cooked Mucuna to pig rations caused a significant decline in weight gain only with 15% raw velvet bean (Table 6) and by the end of the experiment, pigs fed the different diets weighed 72.6%, 92.5%, 94.1% and 95.2 % of the controls, respectively. Feed intake values were comparable among the treatments while feed conversion value deteriorated only with raw velvet bean. Mortality occurred only in pigs fed raw velvet bean diet. Organ weights (liver, heart and kidney) were significantly lower with raw velvet bean than with the other treatment groups. Carcass yield was significantly better in pigs fed 20% velvet bean diets than the other velvet bean diet groups when compared with the control. 6. Soaking in Ca(OH)2 solution: following the finding of Ruiz Sesma (1999) that 24h soaking in water containing 4% Ca(OH)2 improved the nutritive value of velvet bean, whole velvet bean seeds were subjected to three different processing methods: 1) velvet bean was soaked in water for 48 h, cooked for 60 minutes, sun dried and ground into meal; 2) velvet bean was processed as in 1, but the soaking was done in water containing 3% Ca(OH)2 and 3) velvet bean was soaked in water containing 3% Ca(OH)2, rinsed with fresh water, sun dried and ground into meal.Adding 20% Ca(OH)2-soaked, Ca(OH)2-soaked and cooked, and water-soaked and cooked velvet bean to starter broiler rations fed at 7-28 days of age caused a decline in weight gain (Table 7) and by the 28th day of age, broilers fed the diets weighed 44.0%, 86.1% and 82.0% of controls, respectively. Feed intake values were not significantly different when compared with the control. Feed conversion values deteriorated only with Ca(OH)2-soaked velvet bean. Birds fed 20% Ca(OH)2-soaked and cooked velvet bean had a slightly better performance than those fed water-soaked and cooked velvet bean, indicating a positive effect of the alkaline on the seed.Adding 20% and 30% Ca(OH)2-soaked and cooked velvet bean in the diet of finisher broilers caused a progressive decline in weight gain (Table 8) and by the end of the experiment the birds weights were 97.0% and 80.0% of the controls respectively. Feed intake values increased significantly only with 20% velvet bean, while feed conversion ratio deteriorated with 30% velvet bean when compared with the control. Organ weight (heart, liver lungs and gizzard) increased with velvet bean diets in spite of the lower weights of the birds.  Emenalom and Nwachukwu (2006). Means followed by different letters P<0.05 7. Soaking in water prior to cooking in maize-cob-ash solution: whole and cracked velvet bean seeds were differently soaked in water for 48 h, cooked for 60 minutes (starting from boiling) in maize-cob-ash solution (in 1:4 water dilutions), sun dried and ground into meal, respectively. The meals thus produced were incorporated into broiler diets at 25% and 30% levels each.Addition of 25% and 30% each of water-soaked whole or cracked velvet bean, cooked in maize-cob-ash solution in starter broiler diets fed 0-28 days of age improved weight gain (Table 9) and by the 28th day, the birds gained 95.9%, 84.4%, 105.9% and 95.4% of control weights, respectively. Feed intake values increased significantly only with 25% cracked velvet bean, while feed conversion values were similar among treatments. At 25% and 30% inclusion levels, birds fed cracked velvet bean diets had a slightly better performance than those on whole velvet bean diets. Addition of 25% and 30% levels each of water-soaked whole and water-soaked cracked velvet bean cooked in maize-cob-ash solution in finisher broiler diets fed at 29-42 days of age also improved weight gain (Table 10) and by the 42nd day, the birds gained 96.7%, 82.5%, 97.9% and 98.7% of control weights, respectively. Feed intake values increased significantly with 30% cracked velvet bean and decreased with 30% whole velvet bean when compared with the control. Birds fed with the 30% cracked velvet bean diet recorded the best feed conversion value that compared statistically with the control. Again, at 25% and 30% inclusion levels, birds fed cracked velvet bean diets had a slightly better performance than those on whole velvet bean diets. Indeed, water-soaked whole or cracked velvet bean cooked in maize-cob-ash solution appeared to be better than groundnut cake in broiler diets (Emenalom et al., 2009). Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) plants are widely used around the world as a soil improvement/cover crop. It produces prolific quantities of the beans or seeds that are little known and used as food or feed by humans or animals. Fortunately, the results of the various trials herein summarized show that processing methods can improve the nutritional and/or toxic characteristics of velvet bean, and that dietary levels of 20 to 40% can be attained in poultry and pigs, depending on the method of processing one chooses.There is need therefore to promote the introduction of the velvet bean into the farming system of developing tropical countries in order to develop it as an economic crop. As an economic crop, it will obviously add to animal feed supply, and also help to reduce the current pressure on soybean, groundnut and maize as major feed ingredients in poultry and pig diets as there is little or no competition between humans and animals for velvet bean seeds.Increase in the demand for cheap and acceptable dietary protein for low income groups has motivated more studies on legume protein utilization. Legumes occupy an important position in the diets of people in Third World countries because they are rich sources of protein, calories, certain minerals and vitamins. El-Maki et al. (2007) noted that legumes are major contributors of protein and calories in most African diets but some of these legumes are unconventional and underexploited. Traditionally some of these unconventional legumes have been associated with bioactive compounds that can impact on human health but have not been fully explored and hence the need to study them. Among such unconventional legumes, is mung bean locally known as orarudi. Mung bean has high nutritional potential (Mensah and Olukoya, 2007). Structurally, mung bean consists of 12.1% seed coat, 2.3% embryo and 85.6% cotyledons (Singh et al.,1968). Like most legumes, mung bean is relatively high in protein, which makes up about 25% of the seed by weight. Consumption of mung bean like other legumes can fulfill the essential amino acid requirement of infants with the exception of sulphur-containing amino acids (Khalil, 2006). Mung bean protein is rich in lysine but deficient in methionine (Anderson, 2007).There is a paucity of information on the use of mung bean in product formulation or valueadded products in Nigeria. Furthermore, the presence of antinutritional factors and high viscosity may have constituted part of the limitation to the use of mung bean compared to other legumes. It is therefore important to develop strategies to process underutilized indigenous crops into flours of high nutritional quality that can be used in product development. One of the simplest traditional technologies adopted for improving the nutrient composition of plant foods is malting. Malting is controlled germination followed by controlled drying of the germinated kernels. Malting plays a significant role in promoting the development of hydrolytic enzymes which are not present in non-germinated grain. It improves both the nutritional and functional properties of legumes (Mensah and Tomkins, 2003) and allows preparation of low-bulk foods through elaboration of amylases resulting in reduced viscosity of the gelled germinated starch (Brandtzaeg et al., 1981;Kulkarni et al., 1991). Low bioavailability of nutrients, arising from the presence of antinutrients such as phytate, polyphenols, and oxalate, is another factor that limits the quality of predominantly plant-based diets. Research on the malting of legumes such as Bambara nut, and soybean among others has been undertaken to establish the optimum malting period (Maduko, 2002). However, there is a dearth of information in this regard concerning mung bean. Flours developed from cereals and legumes malted for different periods may perform differently in product development. Hence this study sought to determine the effect of malting periods on the chemical and antinutrient content of mung bean malt.Mung bean seeds were purchased from local retailers at Orba market in the Nsukka Local Government Area, Nigeria. Identification of the crop was done in the Crop Science Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.Four lots of mung bean seeds (200 g each) were weighed into porous bags (25 cm x 45 cm) in which they were malted at 300.2 o C by a modification of the two-step wet-steep method of Etok-Akpan and Palmer (1990). The steeping schedule was based on the time for maximum water absorption characteristic of the mung bean seed. The seeds were steeped in water for 3 h, air rested for 90 min and re-steeped in fresh tap water for 3 h. One lot of mung bean seeds was wet-dehulled by abrasion in between palms, dried at 50 o C in a Gallenkamp oven (Model 1H-150; Gallenkamp England) to a moisture content of 6.58%. The dried grains were milled, sieved through a 200 µm sieve, packed in polyethylene bags and stored at 4 o C.The second, third, fourth and fifth lots of 200 g seeds in malting bags were spread in a dark room to germinate for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h, respectively, during which they were, turned every 24 h. The samples were moistened on alternate days by dipping the malting bags containing the germinating grains in water for 30 sec. One lot (bag) was picked at interval of 24, 48, 72 and 96 h and the green malts were separated from the sprouts and hulls by abrasion between the palms followed by winnowing after drying at 50 o C for 12 h. Subsequently each lot was milled using a Bentall attrition mill (Model 200 L090, E. H. Bentall U.K), sieved through a 200 µm sieve and stored in polyethylene bags until use.Mung bean malt and flour was analysed for proximate composition (moisture, crude protein, fat, fibre and ash) using AACC (2000) methods. The nitrogen content was estimated by the Dumas method (AACC, 2000) on an EA 1110 CHNS-0 CE Instrument (CHNS-0 Elemental Analyzer, USA). Protein content was calculated using the formula, protein = nitrogen x 6.25. Carbohydrate was estimated by difference (100-% protein +% ash +% fat +%crude fibre +%moisture). Energy was determined using Atwater's conversion factors (4 x protein, 9 x fat and 4 x carbohydrates)Calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, magnesium and copper contents of the malt were determined using inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AACC, 2000). The processed flours were analysed for vitamin A content according to the method described by Arroyave et al. (1982). Vitamin B1 was determined according to the methods of AOAC (2010).Tannin, oxalate and phytate contents of the processed flours were determined according to the methods described by Buns (1971), Fassett (1973), and Latta and Eskin (1980), respectively.Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (Steel and Torre, 1980). The mean separation was done by Duncan New Multiple Range Test using SPSS version 16.00 Software. Significance was accepted at P<0.05 levels.Table 1 shows the proximate composition of the mung bean malted for different periods. The moisture content of unmalted mung bean was 6.58 g/100g and those for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h, malt were 9. 19, 9.79, 10.10 and 11.4 g/100g respectively. The protein contents of unmalted mung bean was 30.77 g/100g while the protein contents of mung bean seed malted for 24, 48, 72 and 96 h were 32.54, 33.5, 34.47 and 31.4 g/100g respectively. The malted samples showed significantly (P<0.05) higher protein values than unmalted samples.The fat content of the unmalted mung bean flour was 4.61 g/100 g while the values for the malted samples were 1.36, 1.16, 1.22 and 0.52 g/100 g for 24, 48, 72, and 96 h malting respectively.The crude fibre contents of the 24, 48, 72, and 96 h malted bean flour were 3.44, 3.57, 3.63 and 3.49 g/100g, respectively. The crude fibre content of the mung bean was significantly (P<0.05) increased over the unmalted and the increases ranged from 10.61-16.72%.The carbohydrate content of the unmalted sample (control) was 52.94 g/100g which was lower than the value 61.47 g/100g reported by Mubarak (2005) respectively. Table 2 shows the mineral (calcium, zinc, copper, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron and phosphorous) contents of the unmalted and malted samples. The Ca, Cu, K, P, and Mg contents increased progressively at significant levels (P<0.05) as the malting period was increased. In contrast, zinc, iron and sodium contents decreased for the first 48 h and then increased as malting period increased at 72 h. Samples malted for 72 h contained the highest value of iron, zinc and sodium. The unmalted sample had higher zinc content (5.16 mg/100g) compared to 24, 48, and 96 h malt (4.71, 4.60 and 3.82 mg/100g respectively) which increased by over 2.91% at 72 h of malting.The vitamin A and vitamin B contents of the processed mung bean are also shown in Table 2.The samples showed low levels of vitamin A which ranged from 43.7-163.80 µgRE/100g. Vitamin A content of mung bean samples increased as the malting period increased. The 72 h and 96 h malts also had significantly (P<0.05) highest vitamin A content than that of the unmalted flour. Malting increased the vitamin B1 (thiamin) content of the mung bean flour from 4.6 mg/100g in the unmalted to 10.5 mg/100g in the 96 hour malt.Table 2. Effect of malting on selected mineral and vitamin A and B contents of mung bean.The tannin content was 475.50 mg/100g in unmalted samples and 384.50, 213.50, 220.00 and 231.00 mg/100g in the 24, 48, 72 and 96 h samples, respectively (Table 3). Tannin contents decreased as malting period increased with 19.18% and 57.40% decreases observed in 24 and 48 h-malted samples, respectively. However, a slight increase in tannin content (3.03% and 8.20%) was observed in the 72 and 96 h-malted samples respectively.Generally there were significant decreases (P<0.05) in the phytate and oxalate contents of the samples as the malting period increased. Malting for 96 h reduced phytate and oxalate contents of the samples by 81.57% and 87.34%, respectively. It was observed that the pH decreased as the malting period increased. Mung bean samples malted for 96 hours had the lowest pH (5.1) while out-of-steep flour had the highest pH (6.8).Titratable acidity ranged from 0.057% to 0.143% and increased as the malting period increased. Unmalted flour had the least titratable acidity (0.057%). Samples malted for 96 h had the highest titratable acidity (0.143%; (Table 4). The moisture content increased with increase in the malting period. Murwan et al. (2008) reported similar observations during the malting of two sorghum cultivars (feterita and tabat). The progressive increase in moisture content observed as the malting period increased was attributed to hydration of the seeds during steeping and germination. Oluwole et al. (2012) documented similar observations during malting of sorghum and maize grain and attributed the trend to prolonged addition of water. The protein content of unmalted mung bean was 30.77 g/100g which was in agreement with values (27.5 g/100g) reported by Mubarak (2005).The increase in protein content with malting period could be due to breakdown of complex proteins into simpler forms, and reduction of the anti-nutritional factors such as phytate. Germination reduces the anti-nutritional factors such as phytates which form complexes with proteins, converts insoluble proteins to soluble components and increases the level of lysine (Nzelibe and Onyeniran, 2001). Kayembe and Rensburg (2013) also reported an increase in protein content in soybean seeds germinated for 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 days and attributed the increase to utilization of carbohydrates as an energy source for developing sprouts.Based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that mung bean is a rich source of protein. Consumption of 100 g of mung bean may, therefore, be capable of providing 27 g of protein which satisfies the recommended daily allowance of protein (13 g/day) for children.This observation agrees with the report of Mubarak (2005) who noted a significant decrease in fat content of mung bean malted for 72 h. The decrease in fat content as the malting period increased could be due to the use of fat as an energy source during germination. The increased activities of the lypolytic enzymes during malting which hydrolyzed fats to fatty acids and glycerol may also explain the decrease. The low fat contents of all the samples showed that mung bean could not be classed among oil seeds and hence could form part of the diets of obese and hypertensive patients. The low fat content of the malt may also be beneficial to health since according to Antia et al. (2006), a diet providing 1-2% of its caloric of energy as fat is sufficient for human beings because excess fat consumption has been implicated in certain cardiovascular disorders such as atherosclerosis, cancer and aging. Oluwole et al. (2012) also reported a decrease in fat content with increasing malting period during malting of sorghum and maize grain. However, Kayembe and van Rensburg (2013) reported significant increases in fat content in soyabean germinated for 1-6 days.The high fibre content of the malted mung bean could be of dietary importance if the flour is incorporated into foods. A similar increase in fibre content was observed by Muhammad et al. (2011) for malted barley. The ash content increased from 1.95 g/100g in the control to 4.33 g/100g at 72 h and then decreased to 4.14 g/100g for the 96 h malted flour. The higher ash content of the malted samples could be attributed to the reduction of the anti-nutritional factors which led to the released of the bound minerals. This result was, however, contrary to the findings of Oluwale et al. ( 2012) and Muhammad et al. (2011) who reported a decrease in ash content during malting of sorghum and barley. However, the result of this study agrees with the report of Obizoba and Atti (1991) on malted sorghum. Chikwendu (2003) reported an increase in the ash content of ground bean germinated for 72 h and attributed it to endogenous hydrolysis of complex organic compounds to release more nutrients.The variation in the carbohydrate content observed in this study with those of previous researchers (Mubarak, 2005) could be due to processing method and varietal differences.Carbohydrate content decreased gradually with the malting period. The decrease could be due to increase in other components (protein, ash, fibre and moisture contents) of the flours since carbohydrate was determined by difference. Kirk-Uthmar ( 2007) also reported that malting affected carbohydrate molecules in the germinating grains through the action of the amylase enzymes produced during the malting process whereby the carbohydrates were reduced to maltodextrins and low molecular weight sugars. Mubarak (2005) has earlier reported that during germination, the carbohydrate content of mung bean seeds decreased and attributed the decrease to carbohydrate utilization as an energy source to start germination. Similar observations were also made by Kayembe and van Rensburg (2013) during germination of soybean.The increase in the minerals with increase in malting period might be due to the decrease in antinutritional factors which led to the release of bound minerals from their complexes. The increase in calcium and iron contents during malting of beans was reported by Muhammad Rauf (1990). The decrease in zinc content at the initial stage could be due to the use of zinc in cell reproduction and tissue growth (Cascherz and Kirchoff, 2005). Zinc has been recognized as an essential nutrient and its deficiency has been reported to cause growth retardation and inadequate sexual development in humans (Wardlaw and Kessel, 2004). The values of zinc and iron observed in the 72 h malt can meet the RDA of 5 mg for zinc and 73.47% of RDA of iron for infants of 6-12 months (National Research Council, 1989). It is evident from the result that mung bean malt is a very good source of iron, zinc, magnesium and sodium. It is significant that at this time iron and zinc deficiencies are among the most serious forms of deficiencies that are of high public health concern. Iron deficiency is the single most common nutritional disorder world-wide and the main cause of anaemia in infancy, childhood and pregnancy. These minerals are important in maintaining normal body functions. Germination has been reported to increase vitamins B and C content of seeds (Nzelibe and Onyeniran, 2001).The decrease in phytate contents could be attributed to the increased activity of phytase that progressively degraded phytic acid during malting. These results agree with the findings of Pawar and Machewad (2006) who also reported phytate reduction (28.9%) during malting of barley and attributed the reduction in phytic acid content to its degradation by phytase synthesized during the process. These results corroborate the observations of Akubor and Chukwu (1999) and Nzelibe and Onyeniran (2001). Levels of antinutrient reduction could account for high mineral content of the malt. pH gradually decreased as malting period increased while titratable acidity increased and this helps in preservation during storage due to high acid levels under which many organisms cannot survive, similar observations being made by Steinkraus (1996).It is evident from this study that the malting period has a significant effect on the chemical composition of mung bean (orarudi) flour. Malting mung bean for 72 h resulted in the highest increase in all the mineral, protein, ash, crude fibre contents and vitamin B1 contents and decreases in phytate, and oxalate contents. The highest reduction in antinutrient content occurred at after 96 h malting which did not differ significantly (P>0.05) from 72 h malting.Underutilized plants are those species which have a potential, not fully exploited for contributing to food security, health (nutritional/medicinal), income generation and environmental services and poverty alleviation (Ahmad and Javed, 2007). Because they have been for a long time neglected by scientific research, their production has remained traditional and their domestication process (Vodouhè et al., 2011) has hardly progressed.In tropical countries in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular, the interest of vegetable plants for food for rural communities is recognized (Andzouana and Mombouli, 2012).Traditional leafy vegetables (TLVs) are plants whose leaves (including immature green pod and flowers) are socially accepted, used and consumed by the local populations (Dansi et al., 2008). Moreover, traditional \"African\" vegetables are rich in micronutrients, antioxidants (Yang and Keding, 2009), and other health-related phytochemicals (Afari-sefa et al., 2012).Traditional vegetables often provide higher amounts of provitamin A, vitamin C and several important minerals than common intensively bred crops both on a fresh weight basis and after preparation (Afari-sefa et al., 2012).According to Adjatin et al. (2013a), many traditional leafy vegetables have long been known and reported to have some curative, regulative and stimulative properties besides food qualities and are used as nutraceuticals. Throughout the tropical world and particularly in West Africa, a large number of traditional leafy vegetables (TLVs) have been reported to play important roles in food security for people living in both rural and urban areas (Ukpong and Idiong, 2013;Adjatin et al., 2013b). They represent affordable but quality nutrition for a large proportion of the population and offer an opportunity for improving nutritional status of many families (Olaposi and Adunni, 2010). The importance of indigenous knowledge and traditional crops in the survival strategies of rural people have only recently been recognized by research (Vorster et al., 2007). According to Smith and Eyzaguire (2007), this indigenous knowledge of the health promoting and protecting attributes of TLVs is clearly linked to their nutritional and non-nutrient bioactive properties.Recent studies conducted in Benin led to the recognition of 187 species of traditional leafy vegetables (TLVs) among which Launaea taraxacifolia. Bidens pilosa and Alternanthera sessilis are highly consumed and are of great importance for local communities in the centre and south of Benin (Dansi et al., 2008). According to Grubben and Denton's (2004) report, L. taraxacifolia is well recognized as a TLV with a great need of promotion by research and popularization services while B. pilosa and A. sessilis remain with low importance as leafy vegetables but more so for medicinal applications. However, these three species are simply neglected and underutilized by research and extension work in Benin and more recently according to Dansi et al. (2012), L. araxacifolia and B. pilosa were reported among the 19 species considered as priority neglected and underutilized crops for research in Benin. To improve food security and poverty alleviation in line with the Third Millennium Development Goals, by promotion and better utilization of these three genetic resources with great importance in south and central Benin, there is a need to:  Document indigenous knowledge and farmers' know-how related to A. sessilis, B. pilosa and L. taraxacifolia leafy vegetables across villages and ethnic groups of central and south Benin;  Map the distribution and extent of the three species across the study area;  Explore the diversity, importance and domestication level of these three species.The present study was conducted in the central and southern parts of the Benin Republic. The Republic of Benin is situated in West Africa between the latitudes 6°100 N and 12°250 N and longitudes 0°450 E and 3°550 E. The south and the centre are relatively humid agroecological zones with bimodal rainy seasons and mean annual rainfall varying from 1.1 to 1.4 mm/year (Adam and Boko, 1993). Mean annual temperatures range from 26 o to 28°C. Vegetation types are semi-deciduous forest (south), woodland and savannah (centre-east), dry semi-deciduous forest (centre-west and south).Across the study area and among the three species studied, L. taraxaicifolia was found alone in 89.5 % (17/19) of villages surveyed while A. sessilis and B. pilosa were encountered in 52.6% (10/19) and47.4% (9/19) of surveyed villages respectively (Figure 1).   Folk nomenclature and diversity of species A total of 27 vernacular names (10 for L. taraxacifolia, 9 for A. sessilis and 8 for B. pilosa) were utilized by respondents for the three leafy vegetables. The vernacular names of species and the analysis of the meanings of vernacular names is compiled in Table 2. The main criteria for the meaning of the names for L. taraxacifolia are organoleptic and technological, while morphology traits of the plants were the most used criteria for B. pilosa, and habitat for A. sessilis. Within each of these three species and with regard to their morphological traits related to the shape, stem, colour and odour of leaves, different morphotypes were recorded. In the study area, the results showed that there are three different morphotypes and two respectively for L. taraxacifolia. B. pilosa and A. sessilis (Figure 3).These results are in accordance with the observation of Dansi et al. (2008) and those of Adjatin et al. (2012), who reported that with traditional leafy vegetables, intraspecific diversity is frequent.The distinguish traits used by respondents to identify the different morphotypes of each species as well as ethnic groups of respondents are shown in Table 3.   The perceived natural habitat of the TLVs by farmers are surveyed and reported (Figure 4), though L. taraxacifolia was found in the majority of villages surveyed and seem to be adaptable to all types of soil. B. pilosa and A. sessilis seem to prefer respectively clayey land (45.45% of responses) and dregs (42.85% of responses). These observations may explain the large distribution of L. taraxacifolia across the national territory in contrast to the other TLVs. For the three species, domestication stage at the level of community management practices varied among respondents (Table 4). For instance, respectively 11.11%; 55.56% and 90% of the respondents reported that L. taraxacifolia, B. pilosa and A. sessilis are still harvested from the wild (level 0 of domestication) while 22.22% and 16.67% of respondents (belonging to Mahi/Holly/Nago and Adja ethnic groups respectively) reported that L. taraxacifolia and B. pilosa are being cultivated (level 4 of domestication).The reasons for domestication reported by respondents were: consumption as a vegetable during the dry season where other TLVs are scarce, scarcity of the species in the fields around the villages, high perceived organoleptic quality and medicinal value, contribution to household income through commercialization (in the case of L. taraxacifolia and A. sessilis).  The harvesting methods of the three species were investigated and reported in Table 5. Of the respondents, mostly women were involved in harvesting and the most common harvest method was by uprooting the plant and cutting plant stems. To harvest L. taraxacifolia, uprooting (35.3% respondents) is the most practised while plant stem cutting (25% and 40% of respondents) is the most used respectively for B. pilosa and for A. sessilis. Due to their status of domestication, two major procurement methods were identified for the three TLVs studied: picking from the natural habitat and purchasing from the seller. The results showed that within local communities, certain market values are linked to L. taraxacifolia and A. sessilis TLVs. The frequency and method of consumption of these three leafy vegetables varied according to the ethnic group. Regarding methods of cooking, sauce made from fresh triturate leaves (17.07% of responses) as well as consumption of raw leaves as salad were reported only for L. taraxacifolia while the step of pre-cooking of leaves seems otherwise necessary for the rest of the leafy vegetables studied (Table 6).According to the ethnic group, the frequency of consumption of each of three leafy vegetable studied vary significantly (Figure 4). The people belonging to Idasha and Mahi (23.52%) were the most frequent consumers of L. taraxacilia, while the Adja, Cotafon and Sahouè people were the the most frequent consumers of B. pilosa. For the majority of respondents (82.35%, 88.88% and 80%) for L. taraxacifolia, B. pilosa and A. sessilis, there were no properly defined post-harvest storage practices for conservation of the three TLVs studied. For all respondents, no particular rituals before consuming the three species studied were necessary and they can be consumed freely at all times. However, L. taraxacifolia and A. sessilis are prohibited for Hêviosso, Tron and Djaguidi divinity disciples and for «Agossou» (abnormally born baby) parents respectively.The respondents also reported that these leafy vegetables possessed in addition to their culinary value several medicinal virtues, L. taraxacifolia being the most valued medicinally, and is used for the prevention or healing of 21 diseases with 16 possible pharmacological functions among which (Table 7) anti-venomous properties are the most reported (21.05% of responses). Among its medicinal virtues, antalgic, febrifuge, fungicide, blood pressure regulation as well anti-diabetic functions are also well recognized. For the three species, antibiotics and laxative properties are common while, in addition, aphrodisiac properties were reported only for B. pilosa and anti-colic for A. sessilis. By observation of distribution maps and the geographical localization of species, southern Benin would be the recommended area for carrying out in situ conservation of these plant genetic resources. These observations seem different to the findings of Adjatin et al. (2012) and those of Adéoti et al. (2009) who all proposed central Benin for carrying out in situ conservation of respectively two species (Crassocephalum rubens and Crassocephalum crepidiodes) and four species (Acmella uliginosa. Ceratotheca sesamoides. Justicia tenella and Sesamum radiatum) of important traditional leafy vegetables in Benin. However, this situation may be explained by the fact that south and central Benin are relatively humid agroecological zones (Adam et Boko, 1993), while in the same agro-ecological zone each species requires particular edapho-climatic conditions (soil and climate) to grow well.Across both villages and ethnic groups surveyed in the study area, variations were recorded among vernacular names while some ethnic groups use a common vernacular for the same species. However, such observed variations of vernacular names are common and were already reported in many crops including cassava (Dansi et al., 2010), sorghum (Mekbib, 2007), cowpea (Gbaguidi et al., 2013), pepper (Orobiyi et al., 2013) and traditional leafy vegetables (Adjatin et al., 2012).The status (cultivated or not) of domestication of these three TLV species investigated varies among the surveyed villages as reported by Avohou et al. (2012) for J. tenella and S. radiatum.The observed progression of domestication level of species may be linked to the economic importance of the species.The most common harvesting methods of TLVs reported by respondents were uprooting and plant stem cutting. These practices could contribute significantly to loss of species especially by uprooting. It is important to train respondents in different harvesting methods which correspond to the best way to avoid genetic erosion.According to Grubben and Denton (2004), 50% of sub-Saharan Africa leafy vegetables are harvested from the wild. This is a similar to the situation revealed in this study whereby for each of the three species, more than 50% of respondents reported that leaves are procured by picking from nature. However, if specific measures are not taken to maintain wild diversity, the picking methods may contribute to the genetic erosion of species. Harvesting and procurement methods are thus important factors in conservation and management of genetic resources.Eating raw leafy vegetables was only reported for L. taraxacifolia and may be linked to probable non-toxicity of the species for human consumption as reported for Crassocephalum spp. TLVs were eaten as raw green salads in some areas in Nigeria (Grubben and Denton, 2004) and in Benin (Adjatin et al., 2012). Undoubtedly, the frequency of consumption of each TLV is specific for ethnic groups.The medicinal values reported for L. taraxacifolia agree with observations of Arawande et al. (2013) who revealed that leaf extracts mixed with mother's breast milk is administered medically to cure partial blindness resulting from snake bites. According to Yang et al. (2006), bioactive compounds isolated from B. pilosa reportedly possess antibiotic and antimalarial properties, and inhibit prostaglandin synthesis. The plant is known in folk medicines, and is used in herbal tea for inflammation, antisepsis, liver protection, blood pressure lowering and hypoglycemia (Deba et al., 2007). There is a close similarity between local knowledge and findings of research reports on the medicinal properties of these three vegetables, and so we can conclude that the respondents have a reliable knowledge on the various ways of their use and so such knowledge can be used in their promotion.The three species studied here are still mainly wild in Benin and their production is still traditional and organic. Southern Benin may be the best location to carry out in situ conservation of these species. Among each of TLVs plants studied, the existence of morphotypes was reported and could be used for breeding purpose. The domestication process as found across surveyed areas is still ongoing and should be encouraged for intensive and optimal production. The people surveyed have a good knowledge of medicinal values of the species and this knowledge can be exploited in their promotion.Further research is required on the biochemical and phytochemical characterization of the genetic diversity of these species as well as the effects of processing methods on their nutritional value. There is also a need to create awareness among local communities of the importance to apply good harvesting practices for promotion and conservation of the existing diversity.African breadfruit (Treculia africana subsp. africana Decne) belongs to the family Moraceae. It is an evergreen forest fruit tree in tropical Africa. As shown in Figure 1, the plant produces a large compound fruit, usually round, and covered with rough pointed outgrowths. The seeds are buried in the spongy pulp of the fruits.Some varieties of T. africana and Artocarpus altilis (also called breadfruit) are produced and used in Ghana, as shown in Figure 2. The seed is an important food item, popularly known as \"Ukwa\" by the Igbo tribal group of southeastern Nigeria. Three varieties of the seeds reported by Akubuo (2006) are shown in Figure 3. The seed is variously cooked as pottage, or roasted and sold with palm kernel (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) as a roadside snack, as shown in Figure 4(a). The flour has high potential usage for pastries.  The seeds are highly nutritious and constitute a vital source of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats (Okafor and Okolo, 1974). African breadfruit is an important natural resource in parts of tropical West Africa, contributing significantly to the income and dietary intake of the people.The Treculia africana Research Project (TARP) was conceived to: 1. Improve the widespread use and acceptability of the crop. 2. Develop early maturing varieties of the crop to facilitate the development of commercial plantations and orchards. 3. Develop mechanical equipment for its processing (especially depulping & dehulling). 4. Develop modern foods and beverages from the crop. 5. Upgrade the value chain of the crop.The Project team comprises scientists and engineers drawn from Universities in Nigeria and Ghana. The present report summarizes the most recent results obtained by members of the team facilitated by an initial funding from the African Forestry Research Network (AFORNET) of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).Seedling quality Baiyeri and Mbah (2006a) evaluated the effects of factorial combinations of four storage durations (in days after seed extraction) and surface sterilization with three dilution levels of sodium hypochlorite on seedling emergence and quality. The specific objective was to identify the after-ripening treatment that could boost seedling emergence percent and the quality of seedlings obtained thereof.The experiment was conducted in a controlled environment between July and September 2003. Seeds were extracted from a single ripe fruit of T. africana subsp. africana. Seeds were washed and only viable seeds, determined by floatation method, were used. The seeds were air-dried for two hours and only fully filled seeds were sorted out for use. Six hundred wellfilled seeds were finally selected for the experiment.The experiment was a factorial laid out in a completely randomized design. The factors were number of days in storage and sterilization with sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl, 3.5% active ingredient). Storage durations were 0, 3, 6, and 9 days, while levels of sterilization were 100% water (control), 90% water plus 10% NaOCl (10% dilution) and 95% water plus 5% NaOCl (5% dilution). There were therefore, 12 treatment combinations, each replicated 5 times, and each replicate was sown with 10 seeds.Parameters measured included number of days to seedling emergence, percent cumulative emergence, total number of true leaves produced by emerged seedlings per treatment combination, percent emerged seedlings that had produced true leaves and percent deformed seedlings.Seeds stored for three or six days before planting emerged earlier than those planted immediately after extraction from the fruit pulp or those stored for nine days. Cumulative percent seedling emergence was statistically similar if seed planting was not delayed beyond six days of extraction.Seed sterilization resulted in a lower proportion of deformed seedlings. About 63% of seedlings arising from seeds previously treated with 10% dilution of NaOCl had true leaves and each seedling had more leaves. The combined effects of storage and sterilization on days to seedling emergence and percent cumulative seedling emergence are shown in Figure 5. A higher proportion of seedlings arising from seeds sterilized with 10% dilution of NaOCl and planted within six days of extraction, produced true leaves (Figure 6(A).   Seedlings raised in medium 1:4:3 RHB had more leaves, longer stem and thicker stem girth at 24 weeks after planting. However, seedlings that grew in the soil-based medium had longer roots. Total dry matter was higher in soil-based medium followed by those grown in 1:4:3 RHB.However, seedlings that grew in medium 1:4:3 RHB had higher values for leaf mineral elements except percent nitrogen. On the other hand, seedlings used for the water stress experiment were statistically similar in height and they produced similar number of leaves during the stress period.Evidence from the seedling emergence, seedling growth, and seedling dry matter content and distribution, and seedling responses to water stress suggested that media 1:2:3 RHB and 2:3:1 RHB were adjudged the best soilless media. Seedling grown in these media had delayed water stress symptom expression suggesting a better water economy.Depulping is the most labour-intensive and least mechanized post-harvest processing operation for T. africana. This necessitated the development of a batch depulping machine. Improvements on this initial version resulted in the continuous-flow version (Enibe et al., 2011).The continous-flow machine consists of four main units, namely the hopper/depulping chamber, the connector-pipe, the separation chamber and power system. It was designed to achieve the following objectives:1. Low cost: the machine was conceived to be cheap to fabricate, operate and maintain, and this was achieved by the use of readily available materials in constructing the machine. 2. Ease of fabrication, operation, assembly and de-assembly for maintenance: this was achieved by the extensive use of screw fasteners to hold different components together.3. Durability: the various components were designed to be durable in order to eliminate frequent breakdown of the machine. 4. Minimal water consumption. 5. Minimal manual handling: this was in order eliminate the messy nature of the traditional processing method, and this was achieved by the continuous flow process of operation.The general appearance is shown in Figure 8. A computer program for the sequence, \"SIXBAR\" reported in Norton (1999) was used to analyse the system and obtain values of linear and angular positions, velocities, accelerations and forces in the links in the system. Kinematic and dynamic analyses were also carried out.An inside view of the separation chamber is shown in Figure 9(a), while top and bottom views of the water tank constituting the cover are shown in Figure 9(b) and (c). The baffles may be clearly seen inclined at an angle to the tray axis.Figure 9. Separator tray and water tank doubling as separation chamber cover.As a preliminary evaluation of the machine performance, the effect of the level of fermentation and the method of feeding were investigated for the de-pulping chamber only and for a shaft speed of 316.7 rpm.In order to determine the effectiveness of the de-pulping chamber, 2042 cm 3 (2 litres) of well fermented fruit were introduced into the hopper, the machine was started and water supplied. The machine was kept running until all the fruit introduced had passed through the de-pulping chamber and collected at the chamber outlet. The machine was turned off.The quantity of water consumed as well as the time taken to complete the operation was determined.The seeds in the slurry collected at the outlet were sorted to obtain the number of seed completely de-pulped, \uD835\uDC41 1 , the number of seeds partially de-pulped, \uD835\uDC41 2 and the number of broken seeds, \uD835\uDC41 3 . Fractions of completely de-pulped seeds, \uD835\uDC41 1 ∕ \uD835\uDC41 0 , partially de-pulped seeds, \uD835\uDC41 2 ∕ \uD835\uDC41 0 and broken seeds, \uD835\uDC41 3 ∕ \uD835\uDC41 0 were computed and expressed as percentages. The effectiveness was given by the first expression, \uD835\uDC41 1 ∕ \uD835\uDC41 0 and the ineffectiveness by [100effectiveness]. The total number of seeds collected, \uD835\uDC41 0 = \uD835\uDC41 1 +\uD835\uDC41 2 +\uD835\uDC41 3 .The effect of the level of fermentation and method of feeding on the machine performance is shown in Figure 10. It may be seen that the effectiveness of the machine improved with intermittent feeding of the fruit into the machine as opposed to choke/batch feeding. Also, the effectiveness improved when processing partially fermented fruit compared to well fermented fruit.Figure 10. De-pulper performance vs feed method and fermentation level. A = batch feeding of completely fermented fruit; B = intermittent feeding of completely fermented fruit; C = intermittent feeding of partially fermented fruit.It was observed during the tests that the wire mesh fixed to the outlet of the de-pulping chamber for controlling the flow of the de-pulped fruit out of the chamber tended to prevent the flow of the slurry altogether, and thus no conclusive deductions can be made of the times indicated for the tests. The same also applies for the measured volume of water used up for the processes. Further work is underway to develop an improved version of the depulping machine which is suitable for commercialization.Dehulling of parboiled seeds is now routinely achieved using domestic grinding machines, but engineering studies of the mechanical processes involved received attention only recently. A detailed study on the development of a customized dehulling machine for T. africana seeds has been reported by Akubuo (2006).Three varieties of the African breadfruit seeds as identified were collected separately: these were the var. africana -large sized seeds; var. inverse -medium sized seeds and the var. molis -small sized seeds (see Figure 3).The physical properties for which data were collected are: moisture content, seed characteristic dimensions, gravimetric composition, density characteristics and shape factor. The samples used were parboiled for five, seven and ten minutes respectively. The terminal velocities for the kernel and hull (chaff) were determined using the experimental set-up by Emah (2006). Selected physical and mechanical properties of the seeds were determined and utilized in the development of the improved version. Part (a) of Figure 11 shows the domestic grinding machine used as a dehuller, while parts (b) and (c) show the schematic diagram and photograph of the improved breadfruit dehuller. The seed is introduced through the feed hopper and dehulling is achieved in stages as the seed passes through the three major units of the machine. At the time of completion of the construction of the breadfruit seed dehuller, only large-sized breadfruit seeds could be obtained locally. The preliminary tests were conducted with the large-sized seeds.Table 6. Nutritional composition of the various blends of wheat-breadfruit flour Results showed that there was a significance difference among composite samples P < 0.05 for all the variables. There was increase in crude fat, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrate content with increase in percentage substitution of non-wheat flour. The same trend was observed in swelling power, solubility and water binding capacity for flour composites.A decrease in moisture content, protein content, and bulk density was observed for flour samples as level of substitution of non-wheat flour increased from 10% to 50%. The least gelation concentration LGC for each composite flour was constant (15%). Pasta made from 70% wheat and 30% breadfruit (741) was the most preferred after the control, 100% wheat (711). Therefore breadfruit can be used in composite flour as an alternative source for pasta production.The use of blends of breadfruit and soybean composite for breakfast meal production is reported in Oduro et al. (2007a). The study investigated the quality and acceptability of breakfast meals produced from various breadfruit-soybean composite flours. Blends were formulated with a soybean substitution of 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90% as shown in Table 7. The proximate composition of the blends and the acceptability of the formulated products were determined. The results showed the blends to have a crude protein content between 6.85-36.59%, crude fat content of 4.44-18.12%, carbohydrate content of 33.15-77.84%, ash content of 2.325.06%, and energy value of 378.72-442.04 Kcal/100g.The sensory analysis showed that the formulated products were acceptable with preference more tilted towards blends with higher soybean content. The response for the overall acceptability (Figure 12) showed no significant difference P > 0.05 and had this order of preference 104 and 105, 102, 103, and 101. This implies that for overall acceptance, with the exception of blend 102, preference was higher for those blends with higher levels of soybean flour relative to those with higher breadfruit flour. Oil quality Ellis et al. (2006) carried out studies to assess the quality of oil from T. africana seeds. Fresh dried seeds were dehusked and milled, and oil was extracted using the Soxhlet extraction procedure and the yield and quality characteristics of the oil evaluated. Parameters assessed included specific gravity, acid value, saponification value, peroxide value, iodine value, refractive index and free fatty acid content among others. The solubility of the oil in selected organic solvents and the presence of lipid soluble phytochemicals was determined. The nutritional quality of the seeds was also evaluated. The results showed the seeds were high in carbohydrate and proteins with appreciable levels of ash and oil and low fibre content.Potassium and phosphorus levels were relatively high with low calcium and iron levels (see Table 8).Table 8. Proximate composition and physicochemical propertiesThe oil yield was low (11.82%) below the level for commercial sources of oil. The oil had a high specific gravity (0.89), good refractive index (1.47) and an iodine value of less than 100 (35.66). The peroxide value was also low (2.67) but within the range for fats and oils with a relatively high free fatty acids (FFA) (7.26%). The saponification value relative to other oils was low, 128.33 Table 8(b).Identified lipid-soluble phytochemicals were carotenoids, terpenes, and saponins. Tannins were absent. Even though the yield was low, the quality of the oil from T. africana seeds was good and can be used as a supplement with other oils in the food sector.Onweluzo and Odume (2007) reported studies on the effects of method of extraction and demucilagination of T. africana on its composition. Mature fresh fruit heads of T. africana were procured and divided into four treatment groups using a randomized complete block design. The first group was allowed to ferment naturally for eight days before the seeds were extracted and washed (fermented control). The second group was quartered, after which the seeds were extracted fresh from the pulp, demucilaginated by brushing with fine sea sand and subsequently rinsed with water (unfermented control). Groups 3 and 4 were also quartered and the seeds were extracted fresh as in group 2 but the seeds were divided into 10 portions and treated with graded concentrations (1% -5%) of trona and wood ash for times varying from 5 to 25 min.Following the alkaline treatments the seeds were washed with water and the effectiveness of the treatments in removing the seed mucilage was determined by weight differences. The demucilaginated seeds were dried in a hot air oven at 850 0 C for 48 h, dehulled and milled into flour to pass through a 40 mm mesh (British Standard Sieves) in an attrition mill. The flours were packed in polyethylene bags, heatsealed and stored at between 0 and 4 0 C until used for analysis.Proximate analyses for percentage moisture, crude fat, protein (N x 6.25), crude fibre and ash were done according to the standard method of the AOAC (1990). The nitrogen free extract (total carbohydrate) was calculated by difference. The ether extract was analysed for peroxide value and free fatty acid content using the standard method of Pearson (1991).Trace elements were estimated after wet oxidation of samples (2 g) using concentrated nitric acid and perchloric acid as described by Osborne and Voogt (1978). The concentration of the minerals, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the digested sample were determined with the PyeUnicam Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Potassium and sodium were determined with a Flame Photometer.  The effect of the demucilaginating treatments on the colour, bulk density and water absorption capacity of the dehulled T. africana seed flour was also determined. Samples from all the treatments showed marginal variations in proximate composition.Figure 14 shows the effect of treatment on the peroxide value and free fatty acid content of the T. africana seed ether extract.Consumer acceptability studies for T. africana conducted in Anambra State of Nigeria were reported by Enibe (2007). Four rural communities were randomly selected for the study. In each community, 30 households were randomly selected and interviewed, yielding a total of 120 households. About 60% of the respondents gave first preference to T. africana meals in place of other foods made from cassava, rice or yam. Further work on consumer acceptability and marketing of T. africana in Nigeria is ongoing, (Enibe, 2013). Previous surveys conducted by AVRDC -The World Vegetable Centre in Tanzania have highlighted the importance of traditional leafy vegetables both for home consumption and for sale (Weinberger and Msuya, 2004;Barry et al., 2009). Previously, most types of traditional vegetables were collected from the wild, but now many are deliberately cultivated for home consumption, and production for sale is also becoming an important activity. Traditional vegetables contribute up to 27% of the household diet (Weinberger and Msuya, 2004).It was observed that more than 60% of households surveyed in the Singida, Kongwa, Arumeru and Muheza areas of Tanzania produce amaranth (Weinberger and Msuya, 2004) and it is highly ranked across the regions compared with other traditional vegetables. This study concentrated on leafy amaranth and collected information from producers and traders of this crop.Leafy vegetables are very perishable and prone to high postharvest losses if not properly handled. Smallholder farmers are usually resource-poor and do not have access to the optimum equipment needed for proper handling, such as cold rooms. Assessment of the extent of postharvest losses is not easy and estimates vary widely (Kader, 2005;Kitinoja, 2010). Results from other surveys conducted on vegetable crops show the importance of looking at price and market information as well as postharvest losses (Genova et al., 2006), however these studies were conducted in Asia and other regions. Very few studies have measured postharvest losses in Tanzania and this study will be an addition to the literature.Smallholders may have a disadvantage during marketing due to the small volumes each individual produces, so it is important to investigate socio-economic questions such as marketing arrangements (Kader, 2005). Our survey aimed to examine the impact of economic and physical postharvest losses on harvesting, handling and selling of amaranth in the Tanga and Arusha regions of Tanzania.The survey was implemented in the Arusha and Tanga regions of Tanzania. One hundred and sixty amaranth growers were identified based on systematic random sampling, while 70 traders were identified through purposive sampling and interviewed. Three questionnaires were administered from March to May 2013 to investigate handling practices and assess losses. The first questionnaire was directed to farmers, the second to traders and the third was for the collection and assessment of amaranth quality in the market and at the farm gate.A farm household questionnaire was administered to farmers to obtain general information on farm characteristics and sources of information for postharvest handling. General handling practices as well as information on postharvest losses were obtained from growers, who also indicated what they regarded as the most important factors causing losses.The traders' questionnaire was targeted at traders (commission agents, wholesalers and retailers) involved in the marketing of leafy amaranth and included information on trading and postharvest handling practices. This group of respondents was also asked for information on the postharvest losses that they experience and to identify the factors causing the losses.Specific information on qualitative and quantitative losses was obtained by collecting samples of amaranth (20 bundles per sample) at various points in the handling and marketing chain: at the farm gate, from the collector or middleman, and from the marketplace at the point of sale to the consumer. Each sample was assessed visually for physical damage, microbial or insect damage, and stage of maturity. Produce was placed into four categories according to severity of damage: minor (below 10% of surface area), moderate (10-50% of surface area), severe (above 50% of surface area), and no problems observed. Ambient temperature was recorded and the temperature of the leaf surface was measured.Interviews with key informants in each district were used to help select farmers and major production areas. The areas were selected based on key criteria identified by farmers who supplied the main markets.The survey was conducted from March to May 2013 and the results analysed using STATA software. Interviewees provided information on the postharvest handling problems that they encountered as well as the marketing practices that they followed. In terms of postharvest losses, 39% of the respondents reported that they experienced spoilage of their amaranth crop between harvesting and selling (Table 1). Table 2 provides results from the survey of postharvest and qualitative losses on damage to leafy amaranth. The crop from Tanga had a higher percentage of no damage and the percentage of leaves with minor damage was also lower; this indicates less damage in general to leafy amaranth from Tanga compared with leafy amaranth from Arusha. Respondents were asked to provide information on marketing practices and the differences between the two regions on the location of sales is evident (Table 3). Amaranth from Arusha is almost entirely sold from the farm gate, whereas Tanga has more selling points. Information from traders on their economic transactions for marketing amaranth was collected (Table 4). This information included the quantity lost during marketing, which was slightly higher during the wet season. It is interesting to note that the price reduction during the wet season is also higher. Most of the postharvest problems reported were for disease incidence and damage during harvesting. Storage of leafy amaranth prior to marketing was not indicated as a common practice and this suggests that the diseases are most likely being carried over from the field and growers are harvesting already diseased material. It was interesting that damage during transportation was not highlighted as a major problem, and it could be that growers and traders are ferrying smaller quantities that are easier to pack and move.Farmers in the Tanga region experienced a lower level of damage to their amaranth crops, especially for minor cuts and bruises. These growers handle smaller quantities compared to Arusha growers, who harvest and pack larger quantities, which increases the likelihood of more damage to the leaves.Amaranth from Arusha is mainly sold at the farm gate, and it is possible that there may be more actors involved in handling and marketing. More handling stages allow for more opportunities for damage. Only a few respondents reported damage during transportation as a problem. This could be because there is a delay in damage symptoms becoming visible. The use of improved boxes or packaging that reduces damage during transportation should be investigated.Amaranth growers reported damage problems during harvesting. This implies the use of poor harvesting practices, or could indicate poor storage facilities in the field prior to shipment to the market. There is an opportunity to introduce good field harvesting and handling practices in both regions.Price reduction during marketing was higher in the wet season when greater postharvest losses were reported, implying that there is an impact of losses on economic transactions.Subsistence farmers in the humid lowlands of West and Central Africa achieve food and nutritional security through maintaining multi-strata agroforestry systems. These systems are characterized by the cultivation of high-value indigenous tree species and different farming systems to improve smallholder household nutritional well being and diversify incomes, and by so doing, allow farmers to take care of the forest (Leakey and Tchnundjeu, 2001).With the recurrent problem of food insecurity and emerging globalization of world trade, more communities around the world are now taking care of their local environment by adding and making exploitation of the environment more sustainable. The processing of indigenous fruits in West and Central Africa holds potential to prolong the shelf life of tree products, making rich macro-and micro-nutrients available and increasing market value for the benefit of smallholder farmer households.While continuing to assist smallholder farmers to select and use high-value planting materials, it is also vital in the domestication process to initiate product development and management efforts, so that domestication and commercialization effectively affect farmer households' strategies (FAO 1996). This approach would also accelerate the adoption of tree cultivation through continuous capturing of genetic variation in desirable traits and generate considerable environmental benefits (Leakey et al., 2002).Fortunately, about 48% of African indigenous fruit tree populations serve as a food safety net during the season when people can go hungry, or when there is crop failure since a wide range of edible products such as food beverages can be obtained. They also represent numerous sources of medicinal products against many diseases and infections as well as combating malnutrition disorders in both adults and infants since most edible forest products constitute important and cheap sources of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Notwithstanding the numerous benefits and potential however, indigenous fruit trees face threats of deforestation and genetic erosion.The beverage industry is the largest user of fruit juice and absorbs over 80% of production (Manay and Shadaksharaswamy, 2008). This implies that knowing the nutrient composition of the saba fruits which is one of the indigenous wild fruits in Northern Ghana and which has a potential of producing enough juice, may encourage farmers especially in the rural areas to take advantage of going into commercial production of the fruit juice in order to earn extra income and also improve their livelihoods by harvesting fruits from the wild. However, this depends on the fact that the fruit juice, in terms of nutrient composition is rich in minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and crude fibre.Ghana and other developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa could also earn foreign exchange and increase gross domestic product through the sale of juice. Indigenous tree crops can be more lucrative than the traditional cash crops. This research therefore seeks to produce fruit juice from the pulp of the fruit.Saba fruit samples were collected in the Nadowli District of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Matured saba fruits were collected randomly from the wild, grouped and were taken to the laboratory of the University for Development Studies (Tamale) for analysis. The pulp with seeds was carefully removed from the pods and soaked in distilled water for 12 h. Pulp with the seeds was mashed and the liquid drained as the extract.The recommended methods of analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 1997) were used for the determination of proximate composition. The parameters analysed were vitamin C, ash, crude protein, fruit juice content, moisture content carbohydrate, crude fat and crude fibre. All parameters were analysed in triplicate. Other parameters analysed were pH, titrable acidity and brix concentration.Consumer acceptance and sensory analysis were conducted using a taste panel of 30 persons. The parameters considered for the test were colour, aroma, taste and viscosity. The taste panel consisted of staff and students of the University for Development Studies. Fruit extract without heat treatment and refrigeration fermented within 24 hr. Heat-treated fruit extract was stored at 4 o C for 22 days without fermentation and the production of undesirable flavours. Frozen fruit extract was kept stable for 90 days. Stability of the extract was enhanced with the use of cold storage.Fruit extract from saba can supplement the nutrient needs of consumers. The sensory and acceptance results indicate a high level of acceptance for the fruit extract. The extract was stable during storage and had an enhanced shelf life due to heat treatment and refrigeration. Utilization and use of fruit extract could lead to the processing of Saba senegalensis extract for commercial use as fruit juice. In this scenario, domestication of the tree could be considered.The baobab, Adansonia digitata, belongs to the family of Bombacaceae. It is also known as the monkey bread tree or the upside down tree. It is a multi-purpose tree with products having numerous food uses and medicinal properties, and a fibrous bark that is used for various applications (Codjia, et al., 2001;Sidibe and Williams, 2002;Wickens, 1982). The pulp of the fruit, the seeds and the leaves are all utilized and are essentially wild-gathered foods. They are consumed daily by rural populations in Africa and are also commercialized.According to Wickens (Wickens, 2008), the baobab is an important source of human nutrition today in Africa. Chemical analysis of baobab parts showed the presence of proteins, amino acids, iron, vitamins C, A and E (in abundant amounts compared to daily needs) in leaves, seeds and fruit pulp (Codjia et al., 2001;Sidibe and Williams 2002). Baobab pulp and leaves have a high antioxidant activity when compared to other fruits (Besco et al., 2007;Vertuani, et al., 2002) and can consequently be considered as so-called functional foods, which may have a positive impact on health in addition to their role as a food. In 2008, baobab-dried fruit pulp has been acknowledged as a novel food by the European Union (The Commission of the European Communities, 2008) and approved in 2009 as a food ingredient in the US (Addy, 2009), which may boost the trade of this product from African countries, and thus provide a valuable source of foreign exchange. Despite its international importance, there is no sustained research capitalizing endogenous processing and food knowledge and technological problems. Such research, however, is a prerequisite for any promotion of the products (Sidibe and Williams, 2002), and to better orientate and prioritize further research. It is consumed by rural communities in Africa as a powder, drink, gruel and as a paste. A survey performed in rural Benin allowed identification of several baobab food products, but also of the processing and storage problems (Chadare et al., 2008). Pulp storage turned out to be one of the most important of these problems. In Beninese rural areas, baobab pulp is stored in its fruit until the time it is used or sold or sometimes processed in advance prior to the sale period. During storage, it happens that the pulp changes colour, making the pulp unsuitable for human consumption. Quantitative information on this phenomenon is lacking and if and how colour change is related to vitamin C in the pulp is not known. The goal of the present work was to assess pulp quality deterioration in terms of pulp colour change and vitamin C content at different water activities and temperatures.Survey: sampling of informants First, a random check was performed on 198 processors offering their foods for sale in local markets to determine the proportion of processors of baobab food products. This proportion was used to compute the sample size Ni of baobab processors to be interviewed, using the following formula:, (Dagnelli, 1998) where Ni is the total number of processors to be surveyed for the study, pi is the proportion of baobab processors among the 198 randomly checked persons and d is the expected error margin in the conclusion, which is fixed at 0.05 (Dagnelli, 1998). Next, the number of processors to be interviewed in each municipality was calculated on the basis of its population size. If T is the proportion of the population of a community among the total number of people living in the study area, N,where nj is the number of people in community j, then Nij is the number of processors to be surveyed in community j, according to Nij= Ni x Tj.Field data were collected to establish ethno-food knowledge of processing and preservation of baobab food in general and more particularly on its fruit pulp and derived products. Questions were addressed according to gender to informants from different communities in Benin where baobab foods are commonly used. Questionnaires were used which were tested with local inhabitants prior to the formal survey, and adjusted if needed. Discussions were conducted in the villages of the selected localities, based on the adjusted questionnaires.Interviews were conducted in the language/dialect that was best understood by the informants with translation when necessary.Sample preparation: Baobab pulp was collected and subjected to different treatments. Normal pulp (as collected freshly from the tree (N), humidified pulp (H) and freeze-dried pulp (D) were used for the experiment. Humidified pulp was obtained by putting normal pulp on a thin layer together with water in a desiccator for 72 h to increase its water activity. Normal pulp was freeze-dried to obtain pulp with a low water activity. Water activity was measured using AquaLab Series 3 water activity meter (Decagon, Pullman, WA, USA). At 20 ºC, normal pulp had a water activity (aw) of 0.45, humidified pulp of 0.74 and freeze-dried pulp, 0.08. The water activities reported below were measured at 20°C, and do not reflect the water activities at the storage temperatures. Each type of pulp, i.e., normal, humidified and freezedried was subjected to four different storage temperatures, that is to say 41°C, 55°C, 61°C and 70°C. Samples were stored for 56, 73, 192 and 240 h.Aliquots of about 4 g of pulp were put into airtight glass tubes, to exclude water exchange.The samples were initially warmed up in a water bath set at a required temperature and as soon as this temperature was reached, they were immediately transferred into an incubator at the required temperature for the remaining duration of the experiment. For each type of pulp, seven tubes were stored at each temperature, resulting in a total of 28 tubes. Two ibutton temperature sensors chips (http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/ibuttons/) were put in the last tube containing normal pulp to be removed and recorded at different time intervals according to the temperature during the whole experiment. The temperature changes during storage are presented in Figure 1. Tubes were removed from the incubator at different times, quickly cooled down in ice, and kept in the freezer until when they were analyzed for colour and vitamin C content. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) was measured by HPLC (Thermo Fisher Scientific) (Hernandez, et al., 2006). Briefly, about 0.12 g of sample was weighed. 2.5 ml of a solution of 3% metaphosphoric acid (MPA) (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany), 8% acetic acid (Riedel de Haën, Morristown, New Jersey, USA) was added. Next, the mixture was homogenized in the Ultra Turrax at the highest speed for 1 min (in ice and darkness) and centrifuged at 4°C for 20 min at 10 500 rpm. This procedure was repeated twice and the two supernatants were pooled. The extracts were filtered in a vial through a 0.45 filter prior to injection in the HPLC column.For calibration, a stock standard solution of 10 mg of ascorbic acid per ml of Milliporefiltered water was prepared. Subsequently, solutions of various concentrations were prepared by diluting the stock solution in 3% MPA -8% acetic acid. The solutions were filtered and transferred to HPLC vials. Orthophosphoric acid (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) 0.2% in milli Q water was used as elution buffer. A 20 µl of sample was injected and run at a flow of 1 ml/min and analysed at a wavelength of 245 nm. Samples were analysed in duplicate.Statistical analyses were performed using SAS.v8 software (SAS Institute Inc., 1999). Descriptive analyses and response surface regression, ANOVA, was used to process data and assess the effect of water activity, temperature and storage time on vitamin C degradation during the storage experiment.Results obtained from the survey showed that women are guardians of the knowledge of traditional processing of baobab products especially the fruit pulp. Up to 35 traditional baobab foods were recorded in Benin. The most important foods derived from baobab fruit pulp were: (i) Mutchayan, a cereal dough enriched with baobab fruit pulp. Such a dough is consumed with a sauce or soaked in water and used because it is believed to have a bracing effect. It is known in 11 ethnic groups and 91% of the informants who have mentioned it were women aged from 15 to 25 years; (ii) various gruels (Gruel, Nanganfirou, Yewowi, Norendoorou, Tcho) are traditionally prepared from a mixture of baobab fruit pulp and cereal flour (Chadare et al., 2008). They were mentioned in 15 ethnic groups and 89% of the informants are women aged from 15 to 70 years. These fruit pulp-derived foods are processed only by women and consumed by the whole family at various times of the day. Baobab fruit pulp is a main ingredient in the preparation and processing of all these products. In most villages, pulp retrieval is still manual. The different processing units allowing pulp retrieval are shared according to gender (Table 1). Preservation of baobab fruit pulp products at a local level is also managed by women. Recorded storage time of fruit pulp in local conditions varies from one ethnic group to another depending on the storage circumstances (e.g. packaging, humidity, drying frequency). It was noticed and mentioned that the pulp changes colour during storage and gets dark. Laboratory investigations allowed a better understanding of this phenomenon (see below). Baobab pulp is one of the most important parts of the tree for food production. Its processing and preservation, which are mainly done by women, need to be improved with respect to quality and ease of operations. Moreover, women should be informed on the relation of food preparation and health as they take care of the nutrition of the household.There is fortunately a recent increasing interest in the mechanisation of traditional processing of some traditional and indigenous food. This will lead to effective promotion through improvement of traditional techniques and products, and production of added value products (i.e. with functional properties) for a larger market and will increase income of rural, poor populations.The water activity of the product, the temperature and the storage duration appeared to affect pulp quality in terms of colour change. As storage time increased, pulp colour lost its lightness with decreasing L* values and became more brownish with increasing a* value (reddish) and b* value (yellowish). The higher the storage temperature, the faster the colour changed. Whatever the temperature, freeze dried pulp with water activity 0.08 showed a slower browning than normal pulp with water activity of 0.45. Browning was more pronounced in humidified pulp with water activity 0.74. Colour change was faster at higher temperatures and at higher water activities (Figures 2 and 3).  (Nour et al., 1980) and some protein (Lockett et al., 2000;Obizoba and Amaechi, 1993;Osman, 2004). The observed colour change is, therefore, likely to be due to the Maillard reaction (chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars) which is in this case not desirable.   It was also noticed that in general, the darker the pulp, the lower its vitamin C content. It was found that browning occurs (probably via the Maillard reaction) and that vitamin C degradation takes place. Also knowledge of other factors such as the effect of amino acid content (in particular lysine) and sugar content, in relation to the Maillard reaction and brown pigment formation, would be useful. This would give, in addition, more insight in the nutritional loss of lysine in the same framework of quality degradation. Knowledge of the reactions that lead to quality loss can then also provide the basis for suitable ways of packaging the pulp to preserve its quality.The present work shows that water activity, storage temperature and time are important factors, and they can be influenced by choosing the right packaging material.Underutilized species are defined broadly as ones which are currently not used, or are used to only a small extent of their actual potential, for social and economic purposes. Because of their underutilized status these species are often produced and consumed by smallholder households, or traded informally in local supply chains. As a consequence, their importance may go under-reported or unrecognized, yet these species can play an important role in the food security and nutritional wellbeing of farming households, providing a supplementary income to smallholders or acting as a food insurance crop. The fact that these species are often not regarded as cash crops and are part of gendered production systems means that they may play a disproportionately large role in food security and, in particular, in the livelihood strategies of female farmers. In addition many of these species are indigenous to regions which are marginal in relation to the production of major crops and are better suited to adverse environmental and climatic conditions. These facts are relatively well known, and indeed interest in these species is largely justified by their perceived suitability to marginal farming systems. However identifying the potential of these species is only the first hurdle that must be addressed if these crops are to be used more widely. Socio-political obstacles as well as supply and demand bottlenecks present a considerable challenge to unlocking the potential of these species to support a range of socio-economic goals (Table 1).Chief among the barriers relating to underutilized species is a lack of knowledge about underutilized crops at all points in a research value chain stretching from molecular biology and genetics through to processing, nutritional value and distribution. The wider use of these crops is dependent on the generation of relevant, credible and salient knowledge about different aspects of the production, consumption and distribution of these crops, evidence of their capacity to meet socio-economic needs and the development of methods to disseminate this information amongst producers, distributors and consumers. CFF and its research arm, CFFRC, were established with the complementary goals of undertaking awareness-raising and research activities aimed at promoting the use of underutilized species. The fact that underutilized species occupy a peripheral position in relation to conventional agricultural research networks contributes to, and is itself, a significant obstacle to the wider uptake of these species. Since their inception, both organizations have had to deal with the particular challenges this situation poses to efforts to broaden the use of these underutilized species. This paper argues that doing so requires a reorientation in approaches to the generation and dissemination of knowledge related to the current and potential role of underutilized species in meeting socio-economic goals, and proposes a research value chain approach in order to achieve this.In its introductory brochure, CFFRC sums up the issues it is seeking to address in the following terms:\"Agricultural production increasingly relies on a narrow range of crops and is becoming more and more uniform with less diversity on the table. This trend involves risks to the production, distribution and availability of food and non-food products….. …..new approaches to agricultural development are urgently needed,\" (CFFRC 2011).This echoes wider dissatisfaction with the operation of the global agri-food industry (Sage, 2012). The imperative this industry places on increasing the output of basic commodities, along with the tendency towards increased standardization of production contributes to styles of agriculture which are:  Over-dependent on a limited range of plant crops.  Dominated by crop monocultures.  Disarticulated from the localities in which it operates.  Dependent on external inputs and outputs.  Capital intensive.  Impeding the life chances/opportunities of rural dwellers. (CFFRC 2011).CFF and CFFRC promote an alternative suggesting that the generation and dissemination of information relating to the cultivation of neglected and underutilized species can result in their wider use. Doing so has the potential to address some of the shortcomings of conventional approaches to agriculture, promoting biodiversity and increasing the range of food and income options available to marginal smallholders. However, significant knowledge gaps in relation to underutilized crops across a wide range of disciplines exist. A critical issue for CFFRC thus involves identifying and addressing these gaps via research in a range of disciplines. Questions concerning the types of knowledge which are required and how this should feed into practical measures aimed at resolving \"real world,\" problems are thus central to the work of both organizations. However Tovey (2008) suggests that agricultural research is increasingly is an expression of what has been defined as Mode 2 knowledge, − \"increasingly 'conceptualized,' shaped and organized around economic and social interests and concerns\" (Tovey 2008). In practice, this means that agricultural research is based on a body of ideas which is incorporated into, and driven by conventional agriculture which determines the questions and issues considered pertinent and thus the type of solution research generates (Alroe and Noe, 2010). These reflect commercial agriculture's interest in such considerations as cost reduction and increased productivity.In many instances, the research undertaken on underutilized crops is based on approaches informed by this frame of reference. For this reason it may be worth considering whether this research is any more likely to result in outcomes that address the problems inherent in conventional agriculture. Or, is it likely to be the case that such information will simply be subsumed into the general information bank of commercial agriculture (Lockie and Halpin, 2005). There, bigger farmers \"operating at larger economies of scale, (have) the potential both to erode price premiums and to displace smaller farms\" (Alroe and Noe, 2010). Research design in relation to underutilized crops thus needs to embody a recognition of the values and desired outcomes of specific beneficiaries in the formulation of research problems and policy interventions based on them. This is particularly so given the current use of these crops in marginal farming systems. As Gruère et al. (2006) express it, in economic terms it may be necessary to find ways \"to avoid pressures toward commoditization and declining prices\" in order to \"preserve minimum rents for the producers once… …products from underutilized plant species become profitable\". The challenge is thus to develop research in a range of disciplines that links underutilized species to the solution of applied problems while serving, or at least safeguarding, the interests of current producers. This has required CFF and CFFRC to adopt a broader perspective, considering how underutilized crops are integrated into wider supply chains and how its research agenda impacts on the dynamics of these relationships. This involves developing novel research approaches which lie outside of current agricultural research paradigms and incorporate a range of disciplines into programmes that deliver on a range of social and economic objectives.Efforts to re-orientate agricultural research away from conventional agriculture are not new and have resulted in numerous \"alternative agricultures\". In the case of organic agriculture, such efforts have been associated with perspectives which establish a \"a binary division between growth, market, globalization and industrial production on the one ('bad') side and values, localness and artisanal production on the other ('good'),\" (Alroe and Noe, 2008). In their most extreme form such perspectives embody a rejection of functionally specialized science (Noe et al., 2007). However as Alroe and Noe (2010) argue \"disciplinary specialisation and sophistication is the basis for the strength of science in technological development and problem solving\". Adopting an approach which rejects the genuine merits of established research practices may lead to a considerable reduction in the efficiency of the research processes.In other instances, researchers have sought to address the problems in existing agricultural research paradigms through enhanced forms of multi-and inter-disciplinary collaboration. Such multi-disciplinary processes can lead to the dilution of the quality of the specialised work brought to the table as:  Results and outcomes becoming subject to \"micro-political,\" negotiation and bargaining (McAreavey, 2006).  Certain specialities achieve an hegemonic status thus undermining the idea of multidisciplinary work (Noe et al., 2007).  Certain figures develop specific skills − effectively new specialisms in multidisciplinary work.  Quite often the actual role and function of the supposed \"multi-disciplinary\" component of projects is poorly defined and untheorized leading to a lack of clarity as to the aims, objectives and methods employed (finding its expression in the dreaded inter-departmental meeting).CFFRC's work involves developing a framework to integrate different forms of evidencebased research concerning underutilized crops and their use in addressing socio-economic needs. In doing so the organization must avoid the pitfalls mentioned above. CFFRC is also faced with another reality in which underutilized crop research does not now, nor is likely to command the same levels of resources as are available for research into major crops. Instead, the organization will have to devise ways to make efficient use of limited resources. In this context the question of how different forms of knowledge are brought together involves the adoption of approaches which involve forms of social innovation: \"changes of attitudes, behaviour or perceptions of a group of people joined in a network of aligned interests that in relation to the group's horizon of experiences lead to new and improved ways of collaborative action within the group and beyond\" (Neumeier, 2011). Elaborating such an approach is in itself an important and discrete research and operational challenge, requiring its own resources and as importantly the commitment and genuine engagement of the knowledge communities involved.As a research organization, CFFRC's programme involves the delivery of three sets of outputs which are interlinked and potentially mutually reinforcing. These are:  Scientific outputs -generated through specific scientific research projects. Applied outputs -this involves the delivering of practical outputs such as for example identifying and devising cropping systems which can be used in dryland systems.  Policy outputs − this concerns, in the broadest sense the question of determining the ends to which the scientific and applied knowledge generated in the programme should be used.To genuinely deliver, CFFRC must achieve a balance between these three sets of outputs (Figure 1). The primary mechanism through which CFFRC operates is via high quality scientific research projects (Figure 2 illustrates such a project). It involves a number of steps through which information is extracted from a particular problem field (all the possible research problems concerning a specific research object). The output is the production of scientific knowledge concerning some aspect of the problem field, such as for example the findings of a genetic study. In this sense, the role of the research project is relatively straightforward and involves addressing a particular question in a problem field. The routes through which this research finds its way into industry, society and policy are, however, less clearly defined and more diffuse. Within CFFRC, a significant number of research projects have already been initiated. However, if such research is to contribute to achievement of both applied and normative goals then they need to be combined with others (Figure 3). Notice too that in the case of CFFRC, the route envisaged between scientific research and the applied problem is more direct than is the case in Figure 1. The challenge of combining projects in this way in order to achieve a series of applied and normative goals will need to be addressed if CFFRC is to be successful.CFFRC Programmes have been developed as a means of bringing together knowledge drawn from multiple disciplines. CFFRC programmes involve combining projects in order to deliver applied results linking fundamental research in areas such as genetics to issues such as economics and development studies. In doing so, the experience of the CFFRC programmes is intended to shed light on how complex research programmes in underutilized crops can be managed more efficiently. Table 2 details the differences between projects and programmes. A critical aspect of the approach being developed by CFFRC is the need to identify and address critical gaps in knowledge. Concerning underutilized crops, this requires a number of research issues to be addressed ranging from questions in bioscience disciplines through to questions in the social sciences. While functionally specialized research tends to result in the creation of disciplinary \"silo's\" (Azam-Ali, 2010), this makes interdisciplinary coordination difficult. CFFRC programmes must combine research in different disciplines in developing solutions to applied problems. This approach is encapsulated in the notion of a research value chain. The concept of \"value chain\" originates in the business world. At its simplest it refers to the all the stages through which a firm processes raw materials and/or other inputs ultimately producing goods. At each stage, value is added, contributing to the final product. The concept of a research value chain as employed in CFFRC programmes bears some similarities to the traditional notion of a value chain; it envisages research as a series of interlinked processes which collectively contribute to the achievement of an agreed outcome. As with value chain management strategies, there is a focus in CFFRC in minimizing waste and maximizing quality by identifying precisely those research inputs that are needed and eliminating duplication of effort. The research value chain approach also places emphasis on the need for effective communication and co-operation between those involved in different activities in the chain as a means of achieving these goals. By organizing disparate disciplinary research and the inputs of other knowledge communities into programmes aimed at the solution of practical challenges, the research value chain directly links high quality scientific research to the delivery of inter-related scientific, normative and applied outputs.The idea of a research value chain also differs from the commercial value chain in important respects. Commercial value chains are understood as a linear process with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end. They are organized around well-defined objectives. Firms tend to have a comparatively high level of control over the different elements of the production process. However, a research value chain creates a context within which researchers from different disciplines interact with each other and other knowledge communities. At the outset, ideas concerning the key issues to be addressed and the key desired outputs of a research value chain may vary between the different disciplines and other knowledge communities involved. Moreover these value chains are dynamic. Rather than a discreet beginning, middle and end, they involve a constant re-appraisal of research objectives. As programmes employing a research value chain progress, additional information gaps may be identified as objectives change or new issues emerge. A research value chain approach links the activities of researchers and inputs of other knowledge groups directly to the production of scientific, applied and normative outputs compelling researchers to engage with other knowledge communities providing a more effective mechanism for fostering cooperation between different disciplines. The CFFRC research value chain differs from commercial value chains in another important way. While the latter are primarily focused on the production of a product, the applied outputs of CFFRC research value chains are based on scientific outputs which are themselves significant outputs of the programme. An important element of CFFRC's programme includes the need to ensure the quality of the scientific outputs generated within the research value chain, and the development of generic research methods based on them, while the programmes provide a means through which research can be combined to produce applied and normative outputs. A mechanism is also needed to ensure the quality of scientific outputs in different programmes and ultimately the production of proven generic methods which can be applied to a range of crops. CFFRC has developed a number of scientific themes, linking research in related scientific disciplines being undertaken in different research value chains. The themes act as the guarantors for the quality of the scientific outputs of the different CFFRC programmes. In addition, the themes provide an overview allowing for the identification links between research in different programmes. The themes also identify key issues relevant to a range of underutilized crops thus facilitating the development of generic methods for addressing them.While CFFRC focuses on knowledge generation, CFF fulfils the complementary role of knowledge dissemination. These roles are interdependent and it is only through the generation of hard scientific evidence that a case can be made for the promotion of underutilized species. However, it is equally the case that without effective dissemination the capacity of the evidence generated by CFFRC to contribute to the solution of economic and social challenges is likely to be exceptionally limited. As an advocacy organization, CFF defines its role as being:  To add value to the work of the neglected and underutilized species (NUS) community in terms of facilitating collective action.  To become a global champion and voice for NUS R&D. This involves a community with a range of different target audiences including NUS researchers, producers, consumers and policy makers. This is reflected in the operational objectives of CFF which embody a range of measures tailored to the specific needs of different target audiences which include:1. Facilitating access to knowledge on NUS, through web portal, monographs, synthesis papers, and innovative uses of the Internet. 2. Providing information services to NUS stakeholders. 3. Engaging in policy research and advocacy to promote the use of NUS (e.g.highlighting the significance of addressing market access barriers). 4. Raising awareness concerning the current and potential and contribution of NUS to livelihoods and well-being. 5. Strengthening capacity amongst NUS researchers. 6. Providing greater public access to information concerning underutilized crops.Since its inception, CFF has placed a strong emphasis on linking evidence to advocacy in its approach to engaging with policy makers, the NUS research community and the general public. In addition however, it has focused in particular on the significant potential of ICT as dissemination tools. However, given the plethora of agricultural information services, CFF has attempted to avoid replicating existing capacity and has instead focused on maximizing access to and the quality of existing services, through the development of its site as a portal and the use of existing, tried and tested services such as Google books to disseminate information.There is a widespread view that underutilized species offer an alternative to conventional agriculture which has considerable capacity to support marginal farming communities and address some of the broader environmental challenges that confront the globe. However the capacity of these crops to deliver on this promise is unlikely to be achieved via conventional approaches to agricultural research and development. The proponents of underutilized crops have neither the time nor the resources to devote to doing research in the established way nor are the outcomes of their investigations likely to appeal to conventional agriculture. What is needed are novel approaches to undertaking quality research in a range of disciplines that links underutilized species to the solution of complex applied problems while also protecting the interests of current producers. The research value chain approach which CFFRC has developed is intended to target the delivery of research inputs to address critical knowledge gaps related to underutilized crops. This involves enhanced systems of interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. It also involves new strategies for communicating with user groups, policy makers and other actors involved in agricultural and rural development. By linking research in different disciplines in value chains it is intended to generate a balance of scientific, applied and normative outputs. The research value chain approach compels scientists in different disciplines to engage more meaningfully with each other around the delivery of applied and normative as well as scientific outputs. By delivering such outputs CFFRC research value chains contribute to the development of generic approaches to solving real world problems using underutilized species. Doing so is essential to providing a credible evidence base to support the wider use of these crops.In recent years, the demand for African traditional vegetables including amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum, S. anguivi and S. macrocarpon), African Nightshades (Solanaceae) and jute mallow (Corchorus spp.) has increased but lack of availability and accessibility of quality seeds of preferred varieties is a key constraint to improving delivery of produce to consumers. While many African traditional vegetables are well adapted to local conditions and highly valued in local markets, the informal markets and networks that smallholders rely on to obtain African traditional vegetable seeds typically fail to provide predictable or good quality varieties. Most species are openpollinated and their seeds are therefore easily saved by farmers over many seasons, which have discouraged commercial investment. Small companies are starting to invest in production of African traditional vegetable seed as a business but often have inadequate land to bulk commercial seed. Evidence suggests that contract farming system can be an efficient model for seed supply chains that integrate smallholder farmers and small-scale enterprises. The main objective of the paper is to understand the structure of the marketing system for African traditional vegetable seed, and to develop strategies to improve the system and livelihoods of smallholders who grow African traditional vegetable seeds in Tanzania.Tanzania has introduced several policies and regulation for improving seed varieties, production and marketing. These policies and regulations include the Seed Act of 2003 and its regulations (2007), the Plant Protection Act of 1997, the Protection of New Plant Varieties Act of 2002 (plant breeder varieties) and its regulations (2008). To improve seed quality, the government has introduced the Quality Declared Seed (QDS) programme, which was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (GRAIN 2005, Food andAgriculture Organization, 2006). The objective of the QDS program is to improve the availability of quality seeds to farmers in seed deficit areas. It functions where formal seed markets are not active and government resources are too limited. As part of the seed regulatory process, the government has established an independent institute called the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) to regulate seed businesses in accordance with the Seed Act of 2003. The government has further established an independent body called the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) with the key mandates of promoting the use of improved seeds as well as promoting private sector participation in seed production processing and marketing.Despite several challenges, these policies and regulations have changed the face of seed production and marketing in Tanzania, particularly after trade liberalization. However, the country still must contend with low production and productivity due to limited use of inorganic fertilizers, seeds and pesticides, accessibility and availability of quality inputs due to inefficient input distribution systems, poor infrastructure facilities and climate change.According to Minot (2011) contract farming can be defined as \"agricultural production carried out according to a prior agreement in which a farmer commits to producing a given product in a given manner and the buyers commits to purchasing it\". Contract farming plays a significant role in integrating smallholders in agri-business chains; it can promote commercially orientated smallholders and brings agriculture to markets (World Bank, 2007). Contracts solve several constraints smallholders face in producing and marketing their output. However, several studies criticize contract farming as it creates income inequality, which in turn creates inequality in the community (Minot, 2011;Freguin-Gresh et al., 2012), or excludes smallholders, as traders prefer to contract with medium and large farmers due to characteristics of the crops that make them particularly unsuited to smallholders (Nankumba and Kalua, 1989;Saenger et al., 2012). Some studies show that contract farming can strengthen value chain relations (Schipmann and Qaim, 2011) and improve smallholders' access to better technology, improve seed varieties and other inputs, increase income, and reduce transaction costs (Minten et al., 2009;Barrett et al., 2012;Abebe et al., 2013).Contract farming in sub-Saharan African countries tends to improve farmers' income (Little and Watts, 1994;Warning and Key, 2002;Minten et al., 2009;Meijerink, 2010;Minot, 2011). Institutional development may make smallholders more desirable partners for firms. Poor institutional development restricts smallholders' access to better production information and makes them depend on the firm for the high fixed costs of extension services. However, a few studies show mixed results (Warning and Key, 2005;Simmons et al., 2005;Miyata et al., 2009). Oya (2012) suggests some research questions tend to be absent on contract farming systems under the framework of current dynamics of agrarian change and transitions to capitalism in African countries. Two models of farmer-led seed enterprises that require market-oriented collective action between traders and farmers exist in Tanzania: the community-led Quality Declared Seed production system, and contract farming. Afari-Sefa et al. ( 2012) conclude that in Tanzania, average community seed producers have a lower input cost and higher returns than contract seed growers. Although the authors identified challenges and constraints faced by these two models, they did not investigate the determinants of smallholders' participation and income. In Tanzania, few studies have analysed linkages between smallholders and contract farming systems. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the structure of the marketing system for African traditional vegetable seed, and to develop strategies to improve the constraints and challenges faced by farmers in Tanzania.A survey of 90 farm households which cultivate African traditional vegetable seed production in the Arusha, Tanga, Morogoro and Dodoma regions in Tanzania was conducted from January to May 2013. Lists of contract and QDS farmers were received 1 and samples were selected randomly from the lists. Similarly, a list of non-contract farmers was received from village leaders and appropriate sample sizes were drawn purposively from the list. Socio-economic and cropping pattern information as well as input-output data on the two farmer-led seed enterprise models were collected for the 2012-13 cropping year. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered following expert interviews with officials in several departments and academic institutions. Primary data were obtained through face-toface interviews.The descriptive statistics (Table 1) show the type of seed distribution channels across farm size category and regions. Marginal, small-and medium-scale farmers constituted 96% of the sample. Marginal farmers were defined as owning cultivated land between 0-1 ha, small farmers 1-2 ha, medium farmers 2-4 ha and large farmers 4 ha above. Out of the total of 90 farm households, 15% and 33% engaged in contract farming and QDS systems, respectively, while 52%, including smallholders, sold their seed through the informal system. The high percentage of smallholders selling seeds through the two formal systems may indicate a preference for the low risk factors of the formal arrangements and timely availability of good quality seeds compared with the informal open market system. On a regional basis, in Arusha it was observed that although almost all types of seed marketing systems exist, the major seed distribution channel was through contract farming since Arusha is considered to have a friendly agro-climatic zone for seed cultivation and commercial access. In Tanga and Morogoro, only the informal seed marketing system was in existence. In Dodoma, all farmers produced seeds under a QDS system. In the Arusha region, agro-climatic conditions and infrastructure accessibility are considered to be better for seed production, which likely give it a comparative advantage and to be more commercially viable over the other regions. Table 2 provides details on landholding size characteristics across farm size and seed marketing distribution channels. Small and medium farm categories accounted for most of the landholding volume, which indicates that small-and medium-scale farmers play an important role in seed production. In the contract farming system, there is little difference between net operated and irrigated area, which indicates farmers under the contract farming system have sufficient access to water and perhaps irrigation facilities.Table 3 depicts basic characteristics of farm households. Out of 90 farm households, 38% were headed by women. Interestingly, contract farming had the highest level of women's participation. The average age of respondents was 45 years. Contract farmers had lower levels of education compared with QDS and non-QDS farmers.On average, income from seed sales was 186.6 USD per household, whereas it was 109.8 USD per acre. However, contract farmers received higher crop income per season and acre (USD 293.7) than in QDS and non-QDS systems (Table 4). All categories of farmland holders in contract farming were higher for both output and total marketed surplus for seeds. Those farmers who produced under contract marketing systems tended to sell more produce compared with farmers who used QDS and non-QDS systems. Farmers who sold their crops through contract farming received more crop income than selling their crops through the other systems. This might be an indication that the QDS system might not improve crop income.Farmers' perceptions about social norms, perceived control, and adoption of new agricultural technologies under different seed marketing systems are shown in Table 5. The values were measured using a 5-point Likert scale. Those farmers participating in contract farming systems had higher attitude scores than farmers who produced seed under the QDS and non-QDS systems. Scores for social norms and perceived control did not vary across seed systems. Farmers with high scores for attitude and perceived control might not be concerned about what other farmers thought (social norms).This paper aims to understand the structure of the marketing system for traditional African vegetable seeds, and to develop strategies to improve the constraints and challenges faced by farmers in Tanzania. In general, more women farmers than men farmers participated in farmer-led enterprises, particularly in the contract farming system. Younger farmers preferred to be part of farmer-led enterprises, and more participated in contract farming than in QDS. Finally, the results show that under a contract farming system, income from crop sales is higher than income generated through QDS and non-contract systems. Strengthening the contract farming system in Tanzania will help to increase incomes for marginal smallholders, who prefer to engage in contract farming. Green Revolution technologies and farming practices have led to dramatic yield increases in many parts of the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, yield increases have been more modest; the increase in production has been mainly due to expansion of the area cultivated (Evenson and Gollin, 2003;Tadele and Assefa, 2012;Otsuka and Larson, 2013). The failure of the Green Revolution in Africa has been attributed, among other factors, to variable and harsh environmental conditions, and inconsistent access to inputs, labour and markets.Without the yield rewards of Green Revolution practices, Africa has still suffered many of the consequences of simplified, intensive production systems, including an impoverished dietary diversity. This is linked to a breakdown of traditional food systems and a shift towards Western-type cereal-based, energy-rich diets, which also leads to increases in dietrelated non-communicable diseases (Frison et al., 2005).Hundreds of minor crops have historically been valued in traditional cuisine and cultures across Africa and remain an important food source for the rural poor today. These crops are often well adapted to local environments, such as marginal soils and drylands, and they provide many vital macro-and micro-nutrients that enhance human well being (Padulosi et al., 2013). These neglected and underutilized species (NUS) of crops and trees have great potential to improve nutrition, livelihoods, and the sustainability of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa but they have not received adequate investment by research and development efforts, which have tended instead to promote displacement of indigenous crops with major staples and commodity crops (Frison et al., 2005;Padulosi et al., 2013).In many cases, social attitudes have also shifted away from traditional foods as they are considered 'poor-man's crops' or are no longer accessible or convenient for rapidly urbanizing populations. NUS crops are also statistically neglected; national food supply data both generalize (e.g. lumping together several species) and underestimate food crop diversity (focusing mostly on major food crops), and FAO data lack the resolution necessary for tracking trends in geographically restricted food species (Khoury et al., 2014). Awareness is growing in Africa and elsewhere, however, regarding the importance of diversifying agricultural production (FAO, 2011) to address hunger, poverty and climate change adaptation and it is recognized that NUS are key assets in these pursuits (Tadele and Assefa, 2012;Chivenge et al., 2015 ).Enhancing the cultivation and use of NUS in Africa requires a strong research and development effort that crosses disciplines and includes all value chain stakeholders from seeds to final use. Farmers are central stakeholders in these efforts due to their roles as producers -and managers of NUS genetic resources -and also often as traders and consumers. Their participation helps identify constraints in the value chains and priorities for upgrading. In turn, improving farmers' links to markets provides economic incentives for on-farm conservation of these marginalized resources (Garcia-Yi, 2014;Padulosi et al., 2012;Smale, 2006).As women are often key producers and users of traditional crops, effective research and development of NUS also requires a gender-responsive approach (Elias, 2013). It is unclear whether researchers are receiving sufficient training to foster the strong interdisciplinary, collaborative, participatory and gender-responsive research required for NUS development.Current training and research environments primarily serve the major staple crops and commodities, and the concept of agricultural biodiversity is poorly covered in higher agricultural education (Rudebjer et al., 2013), which hinders progress in NUS research and development.In A total of 383 researchers (a response rate of 64.7%) responded to the survey, of which one third were women (Table 1). The age of respondents ranged from 24 to 57, with an average age of 37. Respondents came from 15 countries in Africa with 38% from eastern and southern African countries and the rest from West Africa. The greatest number of respondents came from Nigeria, followed by Ethiopia and Kenya. Combined, these three countries accounted for 63.7% of the responses. Benin, Ghana and Senegal were also well represented. By contrast, four countries, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Togo and Zimbabwe, were represented by only one scientist each. Almost all (90%) of respondents resided in their home country. Of the 10% that were ex-patriot, half were residing in another African country and half elsewhere, usually studying for a higher degree. The majority of participants in the survey (61%) had achieved a Master's degree and about a third (31%) had obtained a PhD. Only 2% had a Bachelor's degree alone and 6% did not indicate their level of education. Respondents' most common field of study was, by far, agriculture (59%). Many had also studied health and nutrition (10%), ecology/environmental science (10%), or forestry (8%). Fewer respondents had studied economics (4%) or social science (2%). The rest comprised other fields of study such as food science/technology, biotechnology, plant breeding, bioengineering, and pure biology fields like botany and microbiology. Nearly half of respondents (45%) were currently studying for a higher degree. Most respondents were affiliated with a university/college in a developing country (59%) or a national research institute (29%). The private sector was poorly represented in this survey.A majority, 240 respondents (63%) were currently performing research on NUS. Another 100 (26%) were planing to do so in the future. Only 1% of respondents indicated they had no plans of engaging in NUS research and 11% did not respond to the question. These groups, 43 respondents were excluded from the analysis.The results described in this section are based only on the respondents who were currently researching NUS (n=240).Students dedicated a higher proportion of their time to NUS research than did the nonstudents: 46% of students and 23% of non-students allocated at least 60% of their working time to NUS. Half of the non-students spent 40% or less of their time on such crops. NUS research is often a part-time job (Figure 1). A wide diversity of NUS species was represented in respondents' research. The majority of researchers (61%) focused on just one type of NUS but over a third (39%) were researching a combination of NUS types, for example cereal and legume species. The most popular types of NUS studied were legumes and pulses, leafy vegetables and roots and tubers (Table 2). Among the most studied species were leafy amaranths, Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), cowpea (V. unguiculata), yams (Dioscorea spp.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and the multi-purpose Moringa oleifera tree, studied for its leaves, seeds, roots and oil. A small group of respondents was studying animals, which in some cases involved looking at the contribution of NUS plants to the nutrition and health of livestock. In total, the 240 researchers conducted research on 184 species in 148 genera and 64 families. commonly used methods, followed by diversity characterization and socio-economic surveys (Figure 3). Participatory methods were among the least common, used by 23% of respondents, and seemed notably low among those investigating nutrition, conservation and value chains (Figure 4).Gender was considered in 79% of NUS research projects at various stages of research. However, few considered gender in the formulation of research questions and hypotheses (25%), choice of methodology and approaches (22%), and data analysis stages (22%). Very few respondents (10%) considered gender in all these research stages and even fewer (7%) then also included gender in the dissemination phase of the research.   Thesis research and short training courses were important in developing NUS research capacity. Most respondents (81%) said their theses were related to NUS (Figure 5). Many (39%) had also attended short training courses on NUS in the past five years. Typically (22%) these were international training courses but relatively few took these courses nationally (10%) or in their own institution (9%).In many cases, researchers were investigating topics they were not trained for in their previous degree. For instance, nutrition was the most popular topic of NUS research but, at most, 24% of those studying nutrition had been trained in this field (Figure 6). Be that as it may, it was common for NUS research to be carried out in interdisciplinary teams (65%) and the teams often made up the discrepancy in training to some extent. For instance, 61% of researchers investigating nutrition included someone on their team who was trained in the field. Researchers investigating value chains were, likewise, rarely trained in economics (14%), but 59% of these researchers had an economist on their team.Only 7% of researchers looking at gender issues were trained in this topic in their previous degree but 71% had a gender-specialist on their research team. Many respondents (28%) had also taken a training course on gender in the past five years. Overall, 89% of researchers investigating gender had either been trained in gender in their previous degree, had a gender specialist on their team or had taken a supplementary training course on gender. NUS researchers were supported by their own organization more strongly in some aspects than in others (Figure 7). Collaboration within institutions was fairly common (57%). Access to mentorship on NUS was, however, rated as poor to non-existent by almost half of respondents. Less than a quarter of respondents indicated that their access to mentorship on their NUS research was very good or excellent. Access to mentorship on statistics and gender-responsive research were also seen as less than adequate by more than half of respondents.In terms of facilities, laboratory quality was seen as poor to very poor by the majority of respondents. This was indeed recognized by 29% of respondents as a major constraint in pursuing NUS research. Lack of information on NUS constrained many respondents (19%), including information to help in identifying species and methodologies for cultivating them, which could relate to issues with internet and library access as well as the understudied nature of these species (Figure 7).Regarding financial resources, 35% had received funding from their organization. About half of respondents currently engaged in NUS research (46%) were at least partially self-funded.We also asked respondents to describe the two or three most critical constraints they face as NUS researchers. By far, financial constraints were the most common, reported by as many as 70% of respondents. Inadequate facilities, equipment and materials were mentioned by 29%, and human resource constraints by 25% of respondents, respectively (Table 3).  The extent to which the external environment was supportive of NUS research varied greatly (Figure 8). Sixty-one per cent of respondents found it poor or non-existent, while 13% reported that it was very good or excellent. Half of respondents rated the level of national policy support as poor or non-existent, while one tenth experienced very good or excellent policy support.A majority reported that their participation in networks or professional associations related to NUS was poor or non-existent both at national and international levels (Figure 8), indicating a certain scientific isolation. Still, many researchers benefitted in various ways from collaboration and partnerships outside of their own organization. For instance, 37% received funding from national or international sources and 60% reported collaboration outside of their own organization in their NUS research, either with national (37%) or international (33%) organizations. One third (33%) of respondents had attended a conference related to NUS in the previous five years. This survey demonstrated that African researchers are studying a wide diversity of NUS from a variety of angles including their genetic diversity, nutritional, agronomic, and market potential. The fact that respondents were studying 184 different species indicates as well that new knowledge is being generated for a wealth of crop and tree diversity in sub-Saharan Africa, which could contribute to enhancing the resilience, nutritional value, and sustainability of food systems on this continent. The high number of species under study also hints, however, that research efforts are likely to be fragmented and lacking a critical mass in terms of addressing the numerous constraints to value chains of each specific crop.Researchers used a range of methods to investigate NUS, but these mostly did not involve participatory methods. Most of the studies involved laboratory analyses of nutritional value, or characterization of diversity. These methods alone are insufficient to address the many value-chain bottlenecks that these crops face for their use enhancement. More studies orientated towards value chains and involving participatory methods that engage communities in the research are necessary to ensure that actions are targeted and relevant, and would increase the likelihood of research results being put into use. There was significant awareness of gender issues among the African scientists surveyed, but gender was not strongly considered in most research projects. NUS research should ideally be gender-responsive as women are often the main producers of traditional crops. Many respondents said that they considered gender at some point in their research but very few did so throughout the research process. Gender aspects were rarely addressed at the design stages of the study. For best results, gender should not be tagged on at the analysis phase; rather it should be embedded in the methodologies from conceptualization of the research to the dissemination of results. Increased emphasis on participatory, gender-responsive research approaches and training in this field, could address this issue.The survey was not conclusive regarding the coverage of NUS issues in formal education.Half of the respondents felt that their formal education had prepared them well or very well for NUS research. Still, more than one third had not encountered university courses that covered NUS. Integrating NUS issues in higher education could also help build capacity to research native crop species or upgrade their value chains. Teachers' training, provision of good training materials, and curriculum review could support this process.Conducting thesis research on NUS played an important role in developing capacity for work in this field. Further strengthening of NUS thesis research opportunities would be an effective way of quickly increasing overall research capacity on NUS. Offering short training courses on NUS for working professionals would also be important in developing capacity.These training opportunities should be supported and increased.Access to mentorship on NUS, gender and biometrics/statistics was an issue. These findings highlight a capacity limitation for NUS research, which could be addressed via on-the-job training, institutional strengthening, improved networks and formation of communities of practice. Networks and collective action also help to build a critical mass for more rapid research progress on selected priority crops. Social networks can play a role in connecting scientists working in isolation, and sharing knowledge and ideas within and between countries.Funding limitations and inadequate access to, or quality of, facilities often constrain NUS researchers. However, this study did not make a comparison with the situation facing scientists working on major staple crops and commodities. This finding could then reflect a general problem in academic institutions in sub-Saharan African, rather than one specific to NUS. It is however likely that funding opportunities for NUS research might be poorer than for the dominant crops, given that investment in agriculture research already is low in many African countries.There is much room for improvement of external support, including policy support for NUS research, according to a clear majority of respondents. In particular, there is a deficiency of national and international associations and networks dedicated to NUS.The fact that hundreds of scientists in this subset of countries in Eastern, Southern and West Africa conduct research on NUS is encouraging. Their combined effort will generate new knowledge on a large number of NUS of importance to food and nutrition security and livelihoods on the continent. Such knowledge on crops that are often locally adapted can contribute to climate change adaptation. The capacity to harness such knowledge and bring it into use for development through proper sharing among researchers and effective twoway communication with non-scientists are also other important aspects that would in fact need to be strengthened. I am not a historian so am not particularly interested in whether it is indigenous or not (although I have often indicated the plants' origin with an asterisk), but as an agriculturalist I am greatly concerned whether it is easily available locally and well adapted. Local well adapted plants have already adapted to the local conditions so provide a more stable and sustainable production system. Usually, if people can select and save their own seed locally, the plant will develop broadly based and therefore stable genetic resistance to local pests and diseases and become increasingly adapted to existing soil and climatic conditions. In poorer, rural villages, a stable yield is far more important for family survival than a maximum yield. When crises occur with droughts, epidemics and \"hungry seasons\" it is then that families need to be kept alive and well fed.Africa has 2146 languages. To bridge the information gap, scientific names are essential. \"The Plant List\" (www.theplantlist.org) is becoming a reasonably reliable and comprehensive source for scientific names and synonyms. Increasingly local language names are being included in the FPI database although the specific language has not been documented. Searching on a local language basis sometimes works! Given the 26 000 edible plant species, there are probably another 100 000 older names or synonyms and these can be searched for, to give the currently adopted name. (Under the tab, \"How else is it known?\")One advantage of a global database is that often a plant is better known or more researched in one country or region than in another. Also, similar or related food plant species occur in diverse locations and indications for improvement or development can be gained by looking at related species. The popular West African Gnetum africanum species has related attractive species in Asia, the Pacific and South America. Of the 41 accepted Gnetum species names, 23 are in the FPI database as being used for food. Similarly African edible plants such as Terminalia (13 in Africa out of 51 edible globally), Canarium (4 out of 43), Parinari (9 out of 22), Syzygium (22 out of 58), Sterculia (14 out of 59), Strychnos (23 out of 28), Vitex (31 out of 55) etc., have related species in other countries. An Australian researcher was explaining to an audience in Papua New Guinea the research done on our traditional Australian nut (Macadamia), but then concluded that the global market was already saturated so not to start growing it. My comment was to take all this incredible research and adapt it to a local Papua New Guinean related nut species the Finschia group. These nuts are suited to a similar environment and often a 'new' nut can gain a market share.A range of indigenous African Acacia spp. as well a range of species originating in Australia that have edible seeds have been introduced to reduce desertification in arid areas of Africa.In Africa, 102 Acacias are known that have edible plant parts out of 231 edible Acacias worldwide.Aframomum spp. are a significant group of fruit and spice plants, all 24 edible species occurring in Africa. Allanblackia trees are receiving attention for their seeds with edible oil. All 11 of those recorded as edible occur in Africa. Amaranthus spp. are popular, productive and nutritious leafy greens. Twenty nine species are recorded as being used as food in Africa out of 53 edible species worldwide. Amorphophallus spp. are a taro family root crop that often has the advantage of being storable. Nine poorly understood species are recorded and used in Africa, out of 29 species recorded as edible worldwide.Of the 166 accepted Annona spp. names, 56 are recorded as being edible and 13 are recorded as occurring in Africa. Many in this group are acknowledged as having anticancer properties. This could be extended to the 75 species in the Annonaceae family recorded as being used as food in Africa. There is a website devoted to the Annonaceae in Africa (afroannons.myspecies.info).Many minor fruit and other edible species are often mentioned as not being of commercial significance but these are often significant forage for children, knowing they won't be reprimanded if they harvest and eat them. For Africa, at least 317 species are mentioned as being especially eaten by children. Of these 244 are fruit. Zinc, being a component of 72 enzymes in our bodies are crucial for the healthy development of children. Zinc is most often in significant amounts in seeds and nuts. Eleven nuts are mentioned in Africa as specifically eaten by children, as well as possibly 75 seeds. There are 145 recorded nut species used as food within Africa.For Africa, 106 species are mentioned which grow on termite mounds, 247 species growing in coastal regions, 411 species growing in savannah and 66 edible species recorded growing in mangrove swamps. The 1578 species recorded as growing in arid regions should become a major focus for the future.Ficus is a very large genus with 830 species. Of the 257 species recorded globally as having edible parts, 80 species are mentioned as being used for food in Africa. About 120 edible plant species are specifically recorded growing in the Sahel.A similar strategy applies to species such as the African Abelmoschus callei (West African Okra), and Abelmoschus esculentus (Okra) and the Asian Abelmoschus manihot (Aibika). In fact the best source of information on pests and diseases of these plants is probably from books on pests and diseases of cotton (Gossypium spp.) as they are related plants with a similar range of insect pests. Similarly, of the 103 accepted Amaranthus species, 53 have so far been recorded as edible, 29 of these are being used as food in Africa. They are an attractive, nutritious, and productive group of food plants. I am unfamiliar with the African winged beans (Psophocarpus spp.) and the African Rungia spp. but enjoy immensely the related species in Papua New Guinea -Psophocarpus tetragonolobus and Rungia klossii. I imagine there is a synergy from looking at related species in other tropical countries. The FPI database could at least create an awareness of this potential.Vernonia species are important in Africa. Of the 650 accepted Vernonia species names globally, 22 species are recorded as being used for food in Africa, and 28 worldwide. At least two in Africa are commercially cultivated vegetables, (Vernonia amygdalina and Vernonia hymenolepis) the first being sold in significant amounts and exported.Good nutrition is most easily established by eating a diversity of food plants. This needs to include a starchy staple as an energy supply, some beans and legumes for protein, leafy vegetables for iron and Vitamin A, seeds and nuts for zinc and other nutrients, and fruit for Vitamin C and others. For Africa, the choice across the continent is wide. Naturally all these are not available at any specific location nor throughout the year so selections from this diversity need to be made. Some are famine foods, eaten in times of emergency.Naturally, the humid zone will have many more edible plant species than indicated above; the database has yet to be fully updated.The database is a collation of other people's work. Nothing is original. An attempt has been made to document the sources of information. Even though people may not always have access to all the references, it is well worth searching this field of the database as well. Various types of traditional African vegetable have been important in helping to meet people's nutritional needs (Chweya and Eyzaguirre, 1999;Weinberger and Msuya, 2004;Abukutsa-Onyango, 2010).Traditional vegetables provide sustenance, nutrition and income for rural, urban and peri-urban resource-poor dwellers. Onim and Mwaniki (2008) reported that, with the increase of urbanization in East and Central Africa, there is a demand for all sorts of food including traditional vegetables. Their report indicated that traditional African vegetables have helped alleviate urban food crises, and that the demand for these crops has led urban people to grow vegetables even using poor quality irrigation water, in the absence of an appropriate one, in cities like Nakuru and Nairobi in Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. Traditional vegetables have high nutritive value (Kamga et al., 2013;Yang et al., 2013), and help bridge seasons of food shortage (Onim and Mwaniki, 2008). This paper highlights research and development in traditional vegetables in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly related to the activities of AVRDC -The World Vegetable Centre.by NARES and private seed companies in Tanzania, Mali and other countries (Table 2). Simlaw and East Africa Seed companies, for example, have released cultivars of traditional vegetables. Some of the recently released cultivars in different countries in sub-Saharan Africa are presented in Table 2. Participatory cultivar selection involving farmers ensures the cultivars developed are acceptable to farmers, consumers and markets, and has been used as a breeding strategy of traditional vegetables at AVRDC.More research must be done to fully exploit the potential of traditional vegetable crops. For instance, yield components-traits primarily contributing to yield-are not well identified.Product profiles need to be established or better defined. AVRDC's germplasm and cultivar development strategy focuses on breeding research to fill the gaps.The types of germplasm dispatched from the Regional Centre for Africa included improved cultivars, advanced lines and accessions. In a study conducted in 2003 in Tanzania, 69% of seed of traditional vegetables is farmersaved seed and only 20% is purchased either from local seed dealers or seed companies (Keller, 2004;Weinberger and Msuya, 2004). However, the situation has changed somewhat in the last few years as the number of private seed companies involved in vegetable seed production increases. Today, Alpha Seed, East Africa, Kibo, Simlaw, Lagrotech, Victoria and FICA Seed companies in East Africa are marketing some traditional vegetables along with global vegetables. However, not all crops are offered, and not all areas, especially many remote areas, are reached. For example, in the Lake Victoria Islands in Tanzania, farmers neither have seed production experience nor are companies available to supply seed (Dinssa, 2013). Developing capacity in individuals and/or groups of farmers in seed production or linking with a private seed company has been suggested for sustainable vegetable production in such areas.The public seed sector is usually not active in producing seed of traditional vegetables, except in some cases for the supply of breeder and pre-basic seeds. Local seed companies and farmers themselves seem to be the sole potential sources of commercial seeds − in the case of farmers, quality declared seed (QDS). Strengthening interested private sectors in traditional vegetables is as important as establishing and strengthening seed grower farmers. Emerging multinational vegetable breeding companies like RijkZwaan-Afrisem in Tanzania may add value, but they mainly focus on global crops and hybrid cultivars. NARES and public seed enterprises are the only potential partners, at least at this point, to provide initial seeds.Traditional vegetables serve resource-poor farmers not only as subsistence crops providing both food and nutrition diversity, but also by generating income as high value crops − which substantiates their potential contribution to poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. They have been part of the food systems of the people for generations (Abukutsa-Onyango, 2010). The strategic importance of the crops in providing sustainable balanced diets for a healthy life has been described by Afari-Sefa et al. (2013). In Tanzania, the value of traditional vegetables consumed by resource-poor and resource-rich households reaches 11% and 2% of the value of all food consumed, respectively. Resource-poor families obtain approximately half of their vitamin A and one-third of their iron requirements from traditional vegetables (Weinberger and Msuya, 2004).The consumption of vegetables differs significantly between seasons, countries, income levels and accessibility to markets (AVRDC, 2008). Ruel et al. (2005) reported that Kenya stands out in vegetable consumption, at 147 kg and 73 kg/person per year in urban and rural areas, respectively, while the amount is only about 25, 50 and 40 kg/person in Ethiopia, Ghana, and in each of Malawi, Tanzania and urban Guinea respectively. Consumption is higher in urban than in rural areas due to fluctuations in availability across the year and low purchasing power of rural populations (Ruel et al., 2005). Urban dwellers obtain vegetables from different sources and are more aware of the nutritional values. The consumption of traditional vegetables increased in Nairobi, Kenya from 31 t in 2003 to 6000 t in 2006 (Mwangi and Kimathi, 2006); similarly, consumers' willingness to pay a premium price for these foods reached 79% over the average base price of Kshs 15 per bunch in Eldoret, Kenya (Chelang'a et al., 2013). In the Arusha region of Tanzania, farmers' willingness to adopt AVRDC seed kits was the highest for amaranth, nightshade and tomato followed by African eggplant, Ethiopian mustard and cowpea leaves (personal communication, Dusabeyezu M. Rose, AVRDC Regional Center for Africa).Vegetable producers are more integrated into markets than staple crop producers. Farmers involved in crop production in three regions of Tanzania − Arusha, Dodoma and Tanga − marketed 98% of their total vegetables produced, 88% of traditional vegetables, and 49% of cereal crops (Weinberger and Msuya, 2004;Keller, 2004). Weinberger and Msuya (2004) reported that the share of traditional vegetables marketed and consumed at home in terms of total household income on average from three districts in three regions of Tanzania is 13%, ranging from 10 to 20%. They reported that about 82% of African eggplant produced and 63-67% of nightshade, okra, amaranth and Ethiopian mustard are sold.There is a general understanding about the role of traditional vegetables in food and nutritional security, and in income generation. The recent focus of the world not only on food security but also on nutrition is an opportunity for traditional vegetables to gain the attention of policy makers and donors. Traditional vegetables are relatively cheap sources of micronutrients, especially for resource-poor populations for whom animal products are only rarely available. Traditional leafy vegetables reach first harvest within one month after their planting due to their early maturity and hardiness; most sprout rapidly after the first seasonal rainfall. They escape disease and insect pest outbreaks as well as drought or low moisture conditions that occur at late stages of a crop cycle. We believe that traditional vegetables have a comparative advantage under the current unreliable rainfall conditions and the associated pest outbreaks due to climate change.There is a growing interest on the part of scientists on various topics related to traditional vegetables. Currently, several projects are being conducted on nutritional characterization, genetics, crop morphology/physiology, crop management, seed policy and postharvest supported by USAID, Australia and Germany in collaboration with AVRDC. More companies are starting to market seeds of traditional vegetables and are also developing their own cultivars based on AVRDC lines. There is a growing interest in the area of postharvest handling, an opportunity to make use of vegetables over longer periods of time during surplus production or a period of market glut.Carbohydrate crops still draw the attention of policy-makers and the donor community, who have yet to absorb the value of traditional vegetables. The benefits of traditional vegetables, which can be grown on a small area of land, and the speed at which they can reach needy populations during poor-harvest seasons, needs to be well communicated to consumers, policymakers and donors.Support from the scientific community, NARES and the seed sector is insufficient. More awareness creation is needed for the seed sector, vegetable producers and consumers on the benefits of traditional vegetables through the dissemination of technology, knowledge and information. Private seed companies only become involved with traditional vegetables after a cultivar becomes popular and peaks at the market; most are not interested in popularization and dissemination activities for open-pollinated cultivars due to the lack of cultivar protection and a royalty system. Cultivars from public institutions are public goods; anybody can market them once a market has been established, and this provides little benefit for those who have invested in the initial dissemination activity. Moreover, the seed sector is interested in popular cultivars that can be sold over wide geographical areas and regions for market control and to simplify seed production and handling. While traditional vegetables are thought to be specific in their adaptation, there is a need for more thorough investigation of genotype x environment interaction for individual genotypes and crops. Greater support from the public sector and donors is needed to train seed growers and farmer groups to produce traditional vegetable seed as their main commodity, with the hope that some may grow into small-scale local seed companies.www.pacificbiosciences.com; www.nanoporetech.com) is making investigation of underutilized crop species more feasible than was the case a decade ago. There are two major ways in which this new technology is contributing to work in NUS − through studies with species to generate new data and through the creation of computer based (in silico) or experimental linkages between the underutilized crop species and extensively researched model plants and major crop species.In addition to the question of the balance between translation of tools and information from major crop/model species and de novo generation within species, there is also a question of how much of this information should be generated 'in-house'/close to the research programme and how much can be generated by external service providers/data generating companies without a loss of the associated benefits of in-house development (control of data, biological understanding and expertise, development of research capacity, etc).The final approach adopted must crucially take into account cost as it is unlikely that the only constraints on enhanced uptake of an underutilized crop will be due to biotechnology and crop genetics, and research in other parts of the research value chain (RVC) needs also to be funded.Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) is a joint venture between the Government of Malaysia and the University of Nottingham in Malaysia. CFFRC is the world's first centre dedicated to research on underutilized crops for food and non-food uses. Its research focuses on the uses of agricultural biodiversity to diversify crop and agricultural systems, address changing climates, improve food security and economic well-being, and improve nutrition.BamYIELD is a multidisciplinary research programme for underutilized legumes using Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L Verdc.) as an exemplar species following on from extensive previous work (Linneman and Azam-ali, 1993;Massawe et al., 2005;Basu et al., 2007;Mayes et al., 2009;Mayes et al., 2013);. The programme spans the entire RVC, from production research (genetics, physiology, agronomy, climate) to utilization research (product development, supply chain, and policy). Together with data translation from model and major crops, focussed breeding activities and field trials, BamYIELD will optimize the contribution of this legume to food security and poverty alleviation while developing generic approaches to improve other underutilized legumes based on this detailed example.Without an active breeding programme, it is difficult to translate research advances into new genotypes available for farmers to use, so at the core of the BamYIELD programme is the development of a trials and breeding programme. The aim is to establish comparable and coordinated field trials in a minimum of seven countries linked by common germplasm. There are currently three partner countries involved in South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) and four in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa) and we expect the first steps of the trials programme to become fully active in 2015, after the award of an International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture Benefit Sharing Fund award.BamYIELD will initiate research in areas of the RVC where gaps in current knowledge or bottlenecks to enhanced uptake exist and to provide solutions to alleviate these constraints (Figure 1). This paper evaluates the main lessons of the work undertaken using Bambara groundnut as an exemplar species with potential to contribute further to food and nutritional security. The aim is to identify a minimal set of information needed to allow further development of an underutilized crop, here focused on the area of biotechnology and crop genetics. Our current conclusions and approach are presented.The application of biotechnology to crop species (and particularly the application of molecular genetics and marker assisted breeding) has often been slow to establish applications in practice. This is for a number of reasons, including a certain naivety on the part of molecular researchers as to the ease with which results can be translated to functional selection systems in crop breeding. However, even simple applications of markers can make a difference to the efficiency and accuracy of breeding and research efforts and these simple applications are often dismissed as 'unexciting'. This paper presents a range of both 'unexciting' and more 'exciting' applications of molecular markers in Bambara groundnut.Figure 1: structure of the Bambara groundnut 'BamYIELD' programme and an initial overview 'gap' analysis.The development of the results presented are described in the theses by Stadler (2009), Ahmad (2012), Molosiwa (2012) and further background information on materials and analyses can also be found in The simplest application of molecular markers is to confirm the identity of the material being evaluated. The ability to confirm the genetic identity of material before significant breeding or evaluation work is carried out is one of the most powerful applications of markers, particularly in the context of underutilized crops where large agrochemical corporations are unlikely to commit to running sophisticated breeding programmes.Figure 2 presents an illustration of the application of SSR markers (pre-screened to identify those which can run on simple agarose gel systems) to identify hybrids in the Bambara groundnut crossing programme. Such approaches can be applied to endosperm samples, allowing hybrids to be confirmed before planting. True hybrids can be given particular attention, allowing large population numbers to be developed from important crosses (recent F1 hybrids have consistently produced around 300 F2 seed, due to increased planting space and altering management practices, compared to an average seed yield per plant of <100) in the same controlled-environment glasshouses.To establish a breeding programme, it is essential to know whether the species is inbreeding or outbreeding and the level of heterozygosity observed in available germplasm. Codominant molecular markers, such as SSRs, can be applied to parents and offspring to evaluate the patterns of transmission of parental alleles (potentially identifying any selfincompatibility or other distorters of transmission). Co-dominant markers can also evaluate the residual levels of heterozygosity through an analysis of individual genotypes and the levels of heterogeneity by comparing multiple genotypes drawn from the same landrace accession (Figure 3); for Bambara groundnut, SSRs reveal a residual 2% heterozygosity in single genotype accessions, implying a very strongly inbreeding species, consistent with it being cleistogamous (Molosiwa et al., 2015). Ultimately, breeding progress depends on the availability of trait diversity and the selection of appropriate parents to combine this in the offspring. For many underutilized crops, the available germplasm may exist as landraces (mixtures of genotypes which represent a breeding population).caused by a different gene in that network or may be due to subtle changes in the underutilized crop gene action. Translation of information between species needs to be a nuanced affair, whether sequence, trait or product development. There is always a danger with large data sets that a superficial comparison is made using formulaic approaches, rather than biologically informed ones, leading to a correct hypothesis being abandoned.Figure 5. A linkage group from the cross-species GEMs map and the within species DArT Seq map.The major constraint for the application of biotechnology and specifically molecular markers in underutilized crops is likely to be cost (although weak infrastructure and institutional capacity could compound this). Bambara groundnut has been used as an exemplar as we have applied a number of approaches to evaluate their value and tried to identify some initial generic lessons for how to work in other underutilized species.The need for the development of (limited) numbers of within-species markers which can be used routinely in QC and low level analysis is clear and our current approach is to develop co-dominant SSR markers from a leaf transcriptome. However, SSRs are expensive and technically demanding to apply in large numbers, so the DArT Seq approach has been adopted for genetic diversity, mapping and genome wide analysis. The potential to link the genetic maps developed in the underutilized species through screening the 64bp in-species sequence tag associated with the DArT Seq markers against the gene models in the transcriptome has been tested and appears feasible. This allows the use of the marker associated with the gene model to link to sequenced and published genomes, effectively providing a 'pseudo physical' map for the underutilized crop and integrating the linkage map into the genetic map network for related species. Generating these networks of species allows the location testing and translation of information and candidate gene effects from the major and model species to the underutilized species.Overall, our current approach will cost around $20K per species, although the costs of sequencing are decreasing. As this continues and Third Generation Sequencing becomes generally available, alternative options (particularly whole genome sequencing) become possible, with long fragment reads facilitating bioinformatics assembly. Besides cost, the latter is probably the main constraint to generating useful genome sequences.Figure 6: An initial placement of potential approaches for developing molecular tools within species versus translation from major crop and model species and also 'within house' versus from a service provider.","tokenCount":"61769"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bbe9b5f1e6112e6aa572b60fa9131de8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e888f890-36e5-4685-b8e3-72c8931c2752/retrieve","id":"1976074205"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a5ad99a5-b9b0-4f3c-9d1d-4758f0467b7f","pagecount":"2","content":"P25 -Developing, adapting and targeting portfolios of CSA practices for sustainable intensification of smallholder and vulnerable farming systems in South Asia Description of the innovation: Agrarian economies such as India are vulnerable to climate shocks extended to food crises& migration. The impact of gender segregated interventions by introducing CSAPs for adaptation are studied capturing the knowledge index. Findings indicate that greater knowledge of CSAPs lead to improved adoption and better nutrition intake of adopters New Innovation: No Innovation type: Social Science Stage of innovation: Stage 3: available/ ready for uptake (AV) Geographic Scope: National Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Country(ies): • India Description of Stage reached: The results have created realization of education for CSAPs adoption among community and requires focus. With the observed benefits of ensured food&nutrition security with higher yield and income, the portfolio of CSAPs is targeted by sub-national government& other dissemination agencies using the business models developed Name of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: <Not Defined> Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage: <Not Defined> Milestones: No milestones associated","tokenCount":"180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e176409a9bab03720b1722ed4e4bbc25","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/93bfdb38-5fcc-4ad7-bf91-43046ada9788/retrieve","id":"1082433826"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"130c7fa4-c351-49af-86c0-8bb431e46955","pagecount":"75","content":"I hereby declare that this thesis presented to the Department of Theoretical and Applied Biology in partial fulfillment for the award of MSc. Degree, is a true account of my own work except for the references that have been duly acknowledged.Date…………………………. I am also grateful to the Challenge Program for Water and Food (CPWF) for sponsoring this project and all staff of IWMI, Kumasi office.My sincere and profound gratitude also goes to my family, Miss Betty Agyenim-Boateng and family, and Mr. Affum-Baffoe of Forestry Commission for their motivation, pieces of advice, patience and sacrifices in making this study a reality.To my friends and course mates especially Mr. Maxwell Akple, Mr Amo Sarpong and Miss Linda Andoh for their special assistance.Finally, to the Almighty God for seeing me through this study and for His abundant grace upon us. There is increasing evidence that developing countries urban grown vegetables can be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. This is particularly true when wastewater is used in irrigation.The microbiological quality of wastewater grown lettuce on farms, markets and at street food vendor sites were evaluated for thermotolerant coliforms, enterococci and Salmonella using standard methods.Farm irrigation water and market refreshing water samples were also analysed.Thermotolerant coliforms on lettuce varied from 3.9×10 3 to 9.3×10 8 on farm, 4.0×10 3 to 2.3×10 8 on market and 2.30 x 10 6 to 2.40 x 10 9 on street foods. Bacterial numbers on farm lettuce were higher compared to the irrigation water (1.5×10 3 to 4.3×10 6 ) used on the farms. However, bacterial numbers in market refreshing water (5.0×10 4 to 4.3×10 10 ) were higher compared to the market lettuce leaves. Enterococci numbers on lettuce were lower ranging from 3.9×10 1 to 2.4×10 8 on farm, 6.0×10 1 to 9.0×10 4 on market and 1.80 x 10 5 to 2.50 x 10 6 on street foods. Salmonella numbers in street foods ranged from 1.5×10 4 to 9.3×10 5 .In general, bacterial numbers increased by more than 6% from the farms to the street foods.Bacterial counts on farm lettuce and irrigation water, market lettuce and refreshing water and street foods all exceeded the recommended WHO and ICMSF standards of 10 3 . Wastewater use on farms and refreshing water in markets could be the main contributors to lettuce contamination and that education on use of salt, vinegar and potassium permanganate use in washing before use could help reduce the risk.The growing demand for fresh and perishable agricultural produce like lettuce in the major urban centres is driving the development of peri-urban agriculture. This demand is not seasonal, necessitating year-round production, which is heavily dependent on irrigation with the main source of water being wastewater. Although wastewater dominated open-space urban farming does not contribute significantly to food security in Ghanaian cities, it makes very significant contributions to the supply of specific food items particularly perishable vegetables like lettuce, which have now become an important part of urban diet. In Kumasi, 90% of all lettuce and spring onions consumedare produced from open-space vegetable farming in the city (Cofie et al., 2001).Population growth coupled with urbanization in many cities in developing countries has resulted in increased demand for resources such as land and water. In assessing water for irrigation, urban farmers have tapped into wastewater, which is a readily available resource in cities, has few costs associated with its use and can actually increase harvests and production, thus increasing income (Kilelu, 2004). Using treated wastewater for Urban Agriculture (UA), provides a means through which wastewater can safely be reused and managed. The potential for wastewater use for irrigation can best be realized in an enabling environment that ensures adequate wastewater treatment and management, however, in most developing countries, wastewater is used untreated, partially treated or diluted. This can be used to substitute for other better-quality water sources, especially in agriculture which is said to be the single largest user of fresh water and wastewater worldwide and most especially in developing countries (Redwood, 2004). However, the uncontrolled use of wastewater in agriculture has important health implications for produce consumers, farmers and the families of produce vendors and communities in wastewater irrigated areas.The World Health Organization (1989) has recommended that crops to be eaten should be irrigated only with biologically treated effluent that has been disinfected to achieve a coliform level of not more than 1000 coliforms per 100ml in 80% of samples. The use of untreated wastewater and water supplies contaminated with sewage for irrigation has been implicated as one of the important sources of pathogenic micro-organisms contaminating vegetables (Wei et al., 1995;Doyle, 2000a;Islam et al., 2004b). Consumption of such vegetables has resulted in outbreaks of diseases (WHO, 1989;Mead and Griffin, 1998).In 1989, the World Health Organization set out guidelines on the use of wastewater for irrigation purposes to protect farmers and consumers. Accordingly, treatment methods were developed to reduce the hazardous elements in wastewater before its use in agriculture. However, in most developing countries wastewater is still used without any treatment. This is because treatment facilities are not available, and most farmers are not aware of the associated health and environmental hazards. Knowledge about the costs and benefits of treatment in developing countries is limited, as is knowledge about the actual environmental and health risks of irrigation with untreated urban wastewater (Feenstra et al., 2000).Water quality analysis done in urban and peri-urban Kumasi showed that the microbiological contamination at all sites exceeded FAO guidelines (Cornish et al., 1999), which invariably posses a health risk. The main public health risk associated with wastewater reuse in agriculture is due to the waterborne and foodborne transmission of helminths, particularly nematodes (Shuval et al., 1986). It may also result in the transmission of endemic parasitic diseases that mostly infect children (HCWC, 1994). Despite the associated health risks, urban and peri-urban farming contributes significantly to various development goals such as poverty alleviation, employment and food security. In Kumasi, it has contributed remarkably to food supply and is a source of livelihood not only for the farmers but also for vegetable sellers and others in the postharvest chain (Danso et al., 2002a).As a long-term solution, exploring affordable good quality water sources (e.g., groundwater)for urban vegetable production is a possibility but lack of resources makes it unlikely in the near future. With expanding urban populations and food needs, it is likely that the use of poor quality water for food crops may prevail with possible increase in outbreaks of food borne diseases linked to consumption of wastewater-produced vegetables. Although several researches have been conducted and some still on-going on wastewater use and associated risks factors, much has not been done in Ghana. In spite of the health risks, policies prohibiting its reuse have been ineffectualand wastewater continues to be frequently used. Therefore more needs to be done in this area to really determine its use implications along the production-consumer chain in wastewater irrigated areas.1. What is the quality of the lettuce sold in the market compared to those on farm in terms of bacterial numbers?2. What is the quality of the lettuce sold at the street food vendor sites compared to those at the market and the farm?3. What is the quality of the irrigation water used?4. What are the key risk factors associated with human health, including those related to hygienic conditions and practices of producers, sellers and consumers of waste water irrigated lettuce?This study will assess the extent of bacterial contamination of wastewater irrigated lettuce along the production-consumer chain to determine the level of contamination at each stage of the chain. Since lettuce is highly perishable and usually consumed raw, producers as well as consumers and sellers are highly susceptible to endemic parasitic diseases caused by these microorganisms.Specifically, the following objectives will be considered:• To determine the faecal contamination levels in lettuce with thermotolerant coliforms and enterococci at selected production (farms), market and street food vendors sites within periurban and urban areas of Kumasi.• To identify and assess the risk factors associated with faecal contamination of lettuce at selected production, markets and selected street food vendors sites within peri-urban and urban areas of Kumasi.• To assess the presence and level of salmonella in lettuce at selected street food vendor sites.• To assess the microbiological quality of the irrigation water used.• To develop interventions to reduce risks for faecal contamination of lettuce.Urban agriculture is an activity that produces, processes, and markets food and other products on land and water in urban and peri-urban areas, applying intensive production methods, and (re) using natural resources and urban wastes, to yield a diversity of crops and livestock.Any agricultural activity, that is both growing crops and animal husbandry, either within the city boundaries or in the peri-urban areas (Mougeot, 1994), although it is often not easy to determine the boundaries between urban, peri-urban and rural areas. 'Urban' in the strict sense refers to the (more or less densely) built-up areas and 'peri-urban' to the area between the built-up area and the administrative boundary.Peri-urban areas are places adjacent to the urban centre that are influenced by pressure on land use-conversion from rural to urban, have ready access to large markets, services and physical inputs and have increasing problems of waste management and pollution from the urban centre (Cornish et al., 1999).This refers to effluents from domestic, commercial or industrial use; urban runoff or floodwater channeled away from urban centers through piped sewerage or through an open drain or gutter system and its use refers to irrigation practices using urban water sources directly from partially or untreated wastewater to indirect use via polluted streams. (www.iwmi.org/health)Water whose quality might pose a threat to sustainable agriculture and or human health, but which can be used safely for irrigation provided certain precautions are taken. It describes water that has been polluted as a consequence of mixing with wastewater or agricultural drainage. It can also include water with a high salt content (Cornish et al., 1999).In many developing urban centres, wastewater is generally a mixture of the three different categories and its use is mainly informal. The uncontrolled and varied nature of sources of wastewater used for irrigation makes it difficult to define, monitor and control the practice. Van der Hoek, (2004) classifies wastewater use into:• Direct Use-the planned use of raw or treated wastewater where control exists over the conveyance of the wastewater from the point of collection or discharge from treatment works to a controlled area where it is used for irrigation. This is the situation pertaining in most developed nations where physical and institutional infrastructure is well established to monitor and control the quality of the water and the area where it is used for irrigation.• Indirect Use-the situation found in many developing countries where much municipal and industrial wastewater is discharged without treatment, monitoring or control into the water courses draining an urban area. The resulting water quality varies. Cornish el al., (1999) came up with another form of classification, where they classified wastewater as:1. Raw/ untreated wastewater: Liquid waste from homes, sewers etc. usually dirty water and human excreta which are not treated.2. Treated/ partially treated wastewater: Wastewater that has passed through natural or/ and artificial treatment.3. Industrial effluent: Water polluted by industrial processes and containing some high levels of heavy metals or either chemical or organic constituents.Wastewater is also categorized according to its origin. The categories include:1. Grey water: composed of domestic water without urine and faeces 2. Black water: composed of domestic water that is mixed with faeces and urine.3. Industrial wastewater: composed of water from industrial processes which may contain varying concentration of heavy metals.There is a growing range of on-site wastewater treatment systems available today including the traditional Septic Tank system along with newer treatment systems such as Aerobic WastewaterTreatment Systems (AWTS), Wet Composting Systems, Sand Filtration Systems and Electroflocculation Systems.Wastewater treatment processes are conventionally classified into primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary levels or into preliminary, primary, secondary, tertiary and advance levels (Martijn and Huibers, 2001). Advancement in treatment increases treatment costs as well as the quality of the effluent.Traditionally, indicator micro-organisms have been used to suggest the presence of pathogens (Berg 1978). Presently according to the WHO three main microbial indicators are recognized:• General (process) microbial indicators,• Faecal indicators (such as E. coli)• Index organisms and model organisms. A group of organisms that demonstrates the efficacy of a process, such as total heterotrophic bacteria or total coliforms for chlorine disinfection.A group of organisms that indicates the presence of faecal contamination, such as the bacterial groups' thermotolerant coliforms or E. coli. Hence, they only infer that pathogens may be present.A group/or species indicative of pathogen presence and behaviour respectively, such as E. coli as an index for Salmonella and F-RNA coliphages as models of human enteric viruses. Source: WHO, 2000 Bacteria Bacteria are the most common of the microbial pathogens found in recycled waters (Toze, 1997).There are a wide range of bacterial pathogens and opportunistic pathogens which can be detected in wastewaters. Many of the bacterial pathogens are enteric in origin; however, bacterial pathogens which cause non-enteric illnesses (e.g., Legionella spp., Mycobacterium spp., and Leptospira) have also been detected in wastewaters (Neuman et. al., 1997). Bacterial pathogens are metabolically active microorganisms that are capable of self-replication and are therefore, theoretically capable of replicating in the environment. In reality, however, these introduced pathogens are prevented from doing so by environmental pressures (Toze and Hanna 2002). Like other enteric pathogens, a common mode of transmission is via contaminated water and food and by direct person to person contact (Haas et. al., 1999). A number of these bacterial pathogens can also infect, or be carried by wild and domestic animals.Urban agriculture cannot be seen separately from wastewater use. In urban areas, where domestic wastewater is readily available, urban farmers will use wastewater for irrigation. The reasons for its use are numerous and frequently dependant on context, however there are several recurring themes:• Wastewater is used to reduce the cost of expenditure on piped water;• Wastewater provides many nutrients that are not present in potable water which • Raises agricultural productivity and;• Lowers costs paid for other fertilizer.According to the FAO, a city with a population of 500,000 and a water consumption of 120litres/day/person produces about 48,000 m 3 /day of wastewater. If treated and used in irrigation, it could supply water for 3,500 hectares of farmland. In Dakar, a city where there is a water shortage, over 100,000 m 3 of wastewater is dumped into the ocean daily amounting to 40% of the city's entire daily water use (Niang, 1999). If there is an adequate treatment to reduce health risks, wastewater use for irrigation is a realistic policy option (Pescod, 1992).Kumasi has an extensive peri-urban area where besides typical staple crops, over 10,000 farmers are doing open-space irrigated vegetable farming on an estimated area of 11,900 ha only during the dry season (Cornish et al., 2001). About 69% of 73 urban and peri-urban open-space vegetable farmers interviewed in Kumasi use Rivers and streams polluted with domestic wastewater as the main sources of water for farming (Keraita et al., 2003a). There is extensive use of shallow dug wells (30%) in bottomlands especially in the urban areas. In peri-urban Kumasi, about 50% of 410 farmers interviewed use shallow dug wells (Cornish et al., 2001). Though water is abundant in Kumasi, the high levels of microbiological pathogens are a health concern in both streams and shallow wells.Wherever space allows, urban and peri-urban agriculture take advantage of any water source, be it polluted or not, for dry-season or annual irrigated farming. As most of the wastewater is of domestic origin, faecal coliforms are the contaminants of primary concern. Heavy metal levels in water bodies in and around Ghana's urban centres are not elevated (Mensah et. al., 2001;Cornish et. al., 1999).In Kumasi, faecal coliforms typically reach values of 10 6 -10 8 /100 ml while total coliform levels often range from 108-10 10 /100 ml. Lower faecal coliform counts of 10 4 -10 6 /100 ml were measured at some urban farming sites in Accra and Tamale.The use of polluted irrigation water threatens public health. Market surveys by IWMI in Kumasi, Accra and Tamale showed that it is very difficult to find any irrigated vegetables (e.g. lettuce, spring onions, cabbage) that are not contaminated with faecal coliforms. Helminth eggs are also commonly found on such vegetables. Coliform contamination levels of vegetables are often almost the equivalent of a similar amount of fresh faeces (Keraita et. al., 2003b).Pathogenic organisms found in wastewater may be discharged by human beings who are infected with disease or who are carriers of a particular disease (Metcalf and Eddy 1995). The numbers and types of pathogens found in wastewater will vary both spatially and temporally, depending on the disease incidence in the population producing the wastewater, season, water use, economic status of the population, and quality of the potable water. The principal categories of pathogenic organisms found in wastewater are bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and helminths (Metcalf and Eddy 1995).Characteristically these pathogenic organisms hardly reproduce outside of the human or animal tract but have organism, and growth-stage of organisms, specific survival rates depending on the environment in which they are contained. Practices of producers as well as sellers and consumers during pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest is known to affect the microbial contamination of vegetables. It has been established that peri-urban and urban farm produce in Ghana is contaminated by microbial organisms at both the production and the distribution points. Three main sources of contamination have been identified:• irrigation water, whether it be wastewater, normal surface water or pipe-borne water when stored in ground reservoirs;• fertiliser inputs; and• the handling and storing of produce at points of sale.Many pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella, among others, have been identified in addition to some gastro-intestinal helminths and protozoa, indicating gross contamination most likely of faecal matter (Sonou, 2001).Most of these contaminates are nonpathogenic and has a natural occurrence on the produce. However, pathogens from the human and animal reservoir as well as other pathogens from the environment can be found at the time of consumption. The survival of enteric pathogens in soil, manure, municipal wastes and irrigation water depends on different factors like relative humidity, microbial adhesion, rainfall, sunlight, etc. (De Roever, 1998).Adapted from Beauchat and Ryu (1997)  In the preparation of soil for planting, farmers mostly use uncomposted organic manures to fertilize the soil. These manures contain several micro organisms. Pathogenic organisms from the human/ animal reservoir can be found in the soil due to irrigation and fertilization with manure (poultry) and sludge or due to droppings of animals in the farming area. These micro organisms may cause damage during transport and storage of products thereby exposing them to further microbial attack.Surface water from streams and lakes may be contaminated with pathogenic protozoa, bacteria and viruses. The occurrence of faecal coliforms, Salmonella and viruses has been reported (Mensah et al., 2001;Keraita et al., 2003b;Amoah et al, 2005).Water from sewage plants can be used for irrigation purposes but without further hygienic treatment, it may represent a risk for contaminating the crop.In enhancing production of the vegetables there is the need for fertilizers. Inorganic fertilizers are however very expensive hence, the use of organic manure which is inexpensive. Sewerage, manure, slurry, sludge and compost of human and animal origin are commonly used as organic fertilizer for vegetable production particularly in organic production systems. Of all the organic manures however, poultry manure seems to be the cheapest and the most preferred.Poultry manure, which represents 75% of the organic fertiliser used, generally contains faecal coliforms (1.30x10 6 /g) and enterococci (3.4x10 6 /g) (Westcot, 1997). This is evident even in situations where pipe-borne water was used for irrigation signifying that the contamination was from the poultry manure. Vegetables cultivated with manure are highly infected by bacteria, indicating contamination from a faecal source (Amoah et al., 2005). Generally, increasing the delay between the application of organic fertilizers and harvest could reduce the occurrence of food borne pathogens on vegetables.Vegetables can become contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms during harvesting through faecal material, human handling, harvesting equipment, transport containers, wild and domestic animals, air, transport vehicles, ice or water (Beuchat, 1995).In an investigation of several food borne illnesses associated with fresh produce (NACMCF, 1999a), agricultural workers were in many cases the likely source of the pathogen. Lack of suitable sanitary hand-washing facilities in the production area can potentially create a hygienic problem.Clean, well-designed and maintained equipment is less likely to cause damage to fresh produce and to introduce spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms (Brackett, 1992). Dirty storage facilities and the presence of rodents, birds and insects may increase the risk of contamination with food borne pathogens (FDA, 1998). Finally, harvesting at the appropriate time and keeping the harvested product under controlled environmental conditions will help retard growth of post-harvest spoilage (Brackett, 1992) and pathogenic microorganisms.The faecal-oral route of transmission of pathogens broadens to include workers handling vegetables from the point of removal from the plant through all stages of handling, including preparation at the retail and food service levels and in the home. Traditionally recognized post harvest control points for access of pathogens to whole or cut produce include transport containers and vehicles.Post harvest treatment of vegetables includes handling, storage, transportation, and sorting, packing, cutting, cleaning and further processing equipment. Conditions arise during these practices which lead to cross contamination of the produce from other agricultural materials or from the workers.Environmental conditions and transportation time also influences the hygienic quality of the produce prior to processing or consumption.Another main source of microbiological contamination at the market level is poor handling and storing practices of vegetables by market women. Vegetable sellers wash the vegetables in water before selling them. Observation of the storage conditions has, however, revealed that the vegetables are generally exposed and are frequently visited by houseflies and other insects including cockroaches. The common micro-organisms isolated from vegetable samples include E. coli, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter cloacae, Salmonella arizonae (Sonou, 2001). Other organisms (helminthes and protozoan) identified on vegetables collected from the field and market includes free-living soil nematodes, flagellates and Balantidium coli.Washing of vegetables at harvest removes much of the adhering soil and dirt. However, it could also be a source of microbial contamination. Even where washing is applied, effective washing and decontamination of ready-to eat vegetables is difficult. Refreshing and cleaning vegetables with water often as bad quality as irrigation water is thus normal practice in most markets (Dreschel et al., 2000).Chlorine is the major compound used for disinfection of fresh produce. During sprouting of seeds chlorine can be used in the water to prevent growth of contaminating microorganisms.Though the effect of disinfectants on contaminants depends on many factors including the concentration used, treatment time, temperature, pH and sensitivity of the target organism(s).The most effective form is hypochlorous acid (HOCl) (Simons and Sanguansri, 1997) and chlorine concentration of 100 ppm is frequently used. However, the use of chlorine does not ensure elimination or even an efficient reduction in pathogen levels. Other substances many be used including organic acids, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide and ozone (Beuchat, 1998). Organic acids alone, or in combination with chlorine, have been shown in experimental designs to effectively reduce the number of pathogens for example, Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes in parsley (Karapinar and Gonul, 1992;Zhang and Farber, 1996).Prevention of contamination at all points of the food chain is preferred over the application of disinfectants.There are agronomic and economic benefits of wastewater use in agriculture. Irrigation with wastewater can increase the available water supply or release better quality supplies for alternative uses. In addition to these direct economic benefits that conserve natural resources, the fertilizer value of many wastewaters is important. FAO (1992) estimated that typical wastewater effluent from domestic sources could supply all of the nitrogen and much of the phosphorus and potassium that are normally required for agricultural crop production. In addition, micronutrients and organic matter also provide additional benefits. Though wastewater has these benefits, there are other negative effects that may arise in its use.The WHO in 1989 documented that the health hazards associated with direct and indirect wastewater use are of two kinds: the rural health and safety problem for those working on the land or living on or near the land where the water is being used, and the risk that contaminated products from the wastewater use area may subsequently infect humans or animals through consumption or handling of the foodstuff or through secondary human contamination by consuming foodstuffs from animals that used the area.Studies have showed that the nutrients and microbiological contaminants in irrigation water sources, in most cases exceed the WHO guidelines significantly (Keraita et al., 2003a). However, according to the World Health Organization, (WHO, 1989) the actual health risks (which is the risk of people falling ill) is lower than the potential health risk.The primary constraint to any wastewater use project is the potential public health risk to people exposed to it, such as field workers and their families, consumers and handlers of wastewater irrigated crops and people living in the neighborhood, passing the fields frequently (Feenstra et al, 2000).The potential health risk is based on the number of pathogens in the wastewater, while the actual health risk depends on three more factors:The time pathogens survive in water or soilThe dose in which pathogens are infective to a human host Host immunity for pathogens circulating in the environment.However, the actual health risk, which is the risk of people falling ill, is lower than the potential health risk. The potential health risk is only based on the number of pathogens in the wastewater, while the actual health risk depends on three more factors: the time pathogens survive in water or soil, the dose in which pathogens are infective to a human host and host immunity for pathogens circulating in the environment (WHO 1989). Though wastewater irrigation has been practiced for centuries, the first health regulations were developed in early 20 th century. With the growing awareness and fear of transmission of communicable diseases, strict guidelines were set. However, these first health regulations lacked an epidemiological base and were too strict. In 1989 WHO set more realistic guidelines, based on epidemiological evidence (Table 2.4). However, recent evaluations show that these guidelines protect crop consumers, but not necessarily field workers and their families, especially children (Blumenthal et. al., 1996)  In 2002, Blumenthal and Peasey completed a critical review of epidemiological evidence on the health effects of wastewater and excreta use in agriculture for WHO. A sub-set of analytical epidemiological studies were selected that included the following features: well defined exposure and disease, risk estimates calculated after allowance for confounding factors, statistical testing of associations between disease, and evidence of causality (where available). These were then used as a basis for estimating threshold levels below which no excess infection in the exposed population could be expected. Table 2.5 shows summary results of the epidemiological review as presented by Blumenthal and Peasey. Sources: Blumenthal and Peasey, 2002;Blumenthal et al., 2000.Use of untreated wastewater for crop irrigation causes significant excess infection with intestinal nematodes in farm workers, in areas where such infections are endemic. Cholera can be transmitted to farm workers if they irrigate with raw wastewater coming from an urban area where a cholera epidemic is occurring. This was the case in the outbreak of cholera in Jerusalem in 1970, where cholera is not normally endemic and the level of immunity to cholera was low (Blumenthal et. al., 2000).There is limited evidence of increased bacterial and viral infections among wastewater irrigation workers. Farm workers and their children in contact with raw wastewater through irrigation or play have a significantly higher prevalence of Ascaris infection than those in a control group, who practice rain-fed agriculture. The excess infection is greater in children than in adults (Blumenthal et al, 1996, Peasey, 2000). Young children aged between 1-4 years also have a significantly higher rate of diarrhoeal disease (Cifuentes et al., 1993).Contact with wastewater which has been retained in one reservoir before use (1 nematode egg/l and 10 5 FC/100ml) results in excess Ascaris infection in children, but not in adults, where the prevalence was reduced to a similar level to the control group (Blumenthal et. al., 1996). Children aged 5-14 years also have significantly higher rates of diarrhoeal disease (Cifuentes et. al., 1993, Blumenthal et. al., 2000a) Exposure over one year to wastewater was retained in on one reservoir also resulted in a fourteen fold increase in Ascaris infection in children (especially those aged 5-14years) and a much smaller increase (3 fold) in infection in adults (Peasey, 2000). For adults, planting chilies was associated with increased infection. The intensity of Ascaris infection in adult was reduced to the level in the control group, but was similar to levels in the raw wastewater group (Blumenthal et. al., 1996). Older children aged between 5 and 14 year also had significantly higher rates of diarrhoeal disease (Cifuentes, 1995, Blumenthal et. al., 2000a).Retention of Waste in two reservoirs in series, producing water of average quality 103 FC/100ml and no detectable nematode eggs is therefore adequate to protect the children of farm workers from Ascaris infection but not against increased diarrhoeal disease.Irrigation of edible crops with untreated wastewater can result in the transmission of intestinal nematode infections and bacterial infections. The transmission of Ascaris and Trichuris infections through consumption of wastewater irrigated salad crops has been reported in Egypt and Jerusalem, where the infections fell to very low levels when wastewater irrigation was stopped.Transmission of choleras can occur to consumers of vegetables crops irrigated with untreated wastewater, as during the outbreak of cholera in Jerusalem in 1970. It appears that typhoid can also be transmitted through this route, as was the case in Santiago, Chile, where the excess of typhoid fever in Santiago compared with the rest of Chili, and in the summer irrigation months, has been attributed to irrigation with river water containing untreated wastewater (Shuval et al., 1986).Many outbreaks of enteric infection have been associated with wastewater contaminated foods, but of the very few which were associated with wastewater irrigation, untreated wastewater was used in all but two cases (Blumenthal et al, 2000).When vegetables are irrigated with treated wastewater rather than raw wastewater, there is some evidence from Germany that transmission of Ascaris infection is drastically reduced. In Berlin in 1949, where wastewater was treated using sedimentation and biological oxidation prior to irrigation, rates of Ascaris infection were very low, whereas in Darmstadt where untreated wastewater was used to irrigate vegetables and salad crops, the majority of the population was infected (Blumenthal et al., 2000). Rates were highest in the suburb where wastewater irrigation was practiced, suggesting farm workers and their families were infected more through direct contact than consumption.Various classification schemes for coliforms have emerged. These schemes generally include inhibitors, restrictive temperatures, and/or limited nutrients to restrict growth of unwanted species (APHA, 1995).The MPN test uses a specified number of tubes (based on the expected population in the sample) containing a specific medium and sample water. After incubation, each tube is examined for growth of the target organism(s). The number of tubes showing growth is matched to a statistically determined table of numbers to yield the most probable number of organisms in the sample.Although this test is simple to perform, it is time-consuming, requiring 48 hours for the presumptive results. There is a number of isolation media each with its bias and the bacteria enriched are not a strict taxonomic group. Hence, the total coliforms can best be described as a range of bacteria in the family Enterobacteriaceae varying with the changing composition of the media.This method requires filtering a sample of appropriate volume through a membrane filter of sufficiently small pore size to retain the organism(s) sought. Then the filter is placed on an appropriate agar medium, or pad saturated with an appropriate broth medium, and incubated. If the organisms sought are present, colonies will grow on the membrane filter. Colonies are then examined at 10-15X magnification with a stereoscopic microscope and then identified by size, colour, shape and sheen. Typical colonies and the number are reported as the number of colonies per 100 ml of samples (Levin et al., 1975).Parallel to the work on coliforms, a group of Gram-positive coccoid bacteria known as faecal streptococci (FS) were being investigated as important pollution indicator bacteria. Problems in differentiating faecal from non-faecal streptococci, however, initially impeded their use (Kenner 1978). Four key points in favour of the faecal streptococci were:• Relatively high numbers in the excreta of humans and other warm blooded animals.• Presence in wastewaters and known polluted waters.• Absence from pure waters, virgin soils and environments having no contact with human and animal life.• Persistence without multiplication in the environment.It was not until 1957, however, with the availability of the selective medium of Slanetz and Bartley (1957) that enumeration of FS became popular. Since then, several media have been proposed for bovis and S. equinus) may occasionally be detected. These streptococci however, do not survive for long in water and are probably not enumerated quantitatively. Thus, for water examination purposes enterococci can be regarded as indicators of faecal pollution, although some could occasionally originate from other habitats.The Kumasi Metropolis is centrally located in Ghana and is the second largest city with a population of 1.2 million, and an annual growth rate of 2.6% (Ghana Statistical Service, 2002). It is located between latitude N06416 0 41'N (6 0 40\"26' North) and longitude W01371 0 37'W (1 0 35\" West) and lies approximately 260m above sea level.Kumasi is located within a moist semi-deciduous forest vegetation. The climate of the area is tropical maritime, which is characterised by a wet and dry season with a double maxima rainfall  Three different farm sites (Figure 3.2) were selected for the study and included two urban farm sites (Karikari and Gyenyase) and one peri-urban site (Deduako). Three markets which receives produce from the selected farms sites were also included in the study. Six suburbs within urban Kumasi where produce from the selected market sites were identified to be consumed were selected for the street food vendor sampling. The farm covers a total area of 12.7ha out of which 10.3ha is irrigated. The number of vegetable beds owned by each farmer ranged between 12 and 80, with most farmers owning at least 18 beds with an average bed size of 14sq.m.The farm land is owned by KNUST and the farmers cultivate mainly lettuce, cabbage, spring onions, green pepper, carrots (all year-round production) and cassava, plantain, maize (rainy season). Although the Wiwi River is close to the farm which creates a wetland, farmers extensively use water from a network of shallow wells on the farm.It is located at latitude 06˚38' 56\"N and longitude1˚34'33\"W and is a few meters away fromKarikari poultry farm at Gyenyase. It is about 9 km from the center of Kumasi. The site is in a low land area with water available throughout the year. The custodian of the land is the Gyenyase Chief but the land has been sold to individuals for development and as and when needed, farmers are ejected from their plots to allow access for residential accommodation (Plate 2).Plate 2: A portion of the Kakari site with some areas developed for residential use.The farm covers a total area of 3ha out of which 2.8ha is irrigated. The number of vegetable beds owned by each farmer range between 24 and 60, with most of them having at least 25 beds with an average bed size of 14sq.m.Type of crops grown includes lettuce, cabbage, green pepper, carrot, cassava, plantain and taro (rainy season only). Irrigation water sources include a hand dug shallow well which is shared by all the farmers. Irrigation is usually by direct application of water over crops using watering cans. Irrigation frequency is usually once a day.The site is located at latitude 06˚39' 45\"N and longitude1˚34'36\"W and is about 10 km from the center of Kumasi. The site is in a low land area with water available throughout the year. The custodian of the land is the Deduako Chief but the land has been sold to individuals for development.The farm covers a total area of about 10.0ha out of which 9.3ha is irrigated. With an average bed size of 14sq.m., all beds belong to an individual who works with his family. Cultivated crops includes lettuce, cabbage and spring onions, (all year-round production). Irrigation is mainly over head with a motorized sprinkler with water from the nearby Oda stream.Plate 3: A section of the Deduako farm site.Produce from the selected farm sites were traced to their respective markets where they are sold and samples collected. In all, ten sellers were identified for sampling. Four sellers were identified from the \"European market/ French line\" with produce from Gyenyase (Badu) farm, three from the Asafo market and another three from Railways receiving their produce from Deduako and Karikari farms, respectively. All the market sites are located within the centre of the city.The Kumasi metropolitan Area consists of four administrative sub metro-districts, namely: Subin, Manhyia, Asokwa and Bantama. Two (Manhyia and Subin) out of the four were selected randomly.Manhyia is made up of 23 suburbs and Subin 18 suburbs. Out of these, five areas (Stadium, Oforikrom, Dichemso, Krofrom and Tech-Junction) were randomly selected. Sixteen vendors from these sites were then selected for sampling with produce from the identified markets.Samples of water used for the vegetables irrigating on the farms and refreshing in the market were collected on a weekly basis for four months each season (June-December, 2005 and February-June 2006).On a sampling date, on the basis of a sketch map three production sites were selected. Six cultivated beds were selected at random on each site and three lettuce heads were harvested from the top, middle and bottom of the bed. Each sample was immediately placed separately into labelled sterile plastic bags without washing. Samples were then transported to the laboratory in a cool box (see plate 4).Irrigation water samples were taken from three different irrigation ponds on each site, but for areas were streams were used for irrigation (Deduako Farm) only one sample was taken at the point where the farmers draw water. Using a sterile bottle water was collected at 30 cm below the water surface. The bottle was filled leaving a headspace to allow for further mixing. The cap of the bottle was replaced under the water and tightened. Samples were transported to the laboratory in a cool box.Plate 4: Sampling of lettuce from a Bed at Gyenyase Farm (Site 1)On each sampling day, three lettuce heads were collected from each seller on the market around mid day (late morning) to ensure that the vegetables had experienced enough splashing with the refreshing water. Each sample was immediately placed separately into labelled sterile plastic bags.Samples were transported to the laboratory in a cool boxWater samples were taken from the selected sellers who were identified to be retailers of produce from the selected production sites. This was water used for splashing (refreshing) the lettuce. The water was aseptically collected from the vessel in which the produce was displayed using sterile bottles.Lettuce samples chopped and ready to be sold with ready to eat street foods were collected for analyses. About 20 g was collected from each seller and placed separately into labelled sterile plastic bags. Samples were then immediately sent to the laboratory and analysed for thermotolerant coliform, enterococci and salmonella.Thermotolerant coliforms were estimated using a three-tube Most Probable Number method (MPN) according to standard procedures (Anon, 1992). Ten grams of the lettuce sample was placed in a stomacher bag and pulsified in 90ml of 0.9 % NaCl MQ-water for 30 sec using a pulsifier (PUL 100E). Serial dilutions of 10 -1 to 10 -11 were prepared by picking 1 ml from the stomacher bag. One millilitre aliquots from each of the dilutions were inoculated into 5ml of MacConkey Broth with inverted Durham tubes and incubated at 44°C for 18-24hr. Tubes showing colour change from purple to yellow and gas collected in the Durham tubes after 24hr were identified as positive. From each of the positive tubes identified a drop was transferred into a 5 ml test tube of trypton water and incubated at 44 0 C for 24h. A drop of Kovacs' reagent was then added to the tube of trypton water.All tubes showing a red ring colour development after gentle agitation denoted the presence of indole and recorded as presumptive thermotolerant coliforms. Counts per 100ml were calculated from Most Probable Number TablesA pour plate count technique was used in enumerating enterococci. Using the same serial dilutions prepared for the thermotolerant coliform enumeration, 1 ml aliquots of each of the dilutions was placed on already set petri dishes containing Slanetz and Bartley agar. The petri-dishes were allowed to dry and incubated for 4hr at 37 o C and then transferred to 44 o C for 44-48 hrs. Petri-dishes showing red, maroon or pink colonies were counted using a colony counter and expressed as cfu 100ml -1 .Salmonella was enumerated by pulsifying 10g of sample in 90ml of 0.9% NaCl in MQ-water for 30 seconds. Triplicate 1, 10 -1 ,10 -2 , 10 -3 , 10 -4 ml samples of the 10 -1 w/v vegetable suspension were inoculated into 10ml volumes of Buffered Peptone water in universal bottles as a pre enrichment medium and all bottles incubated at 37 0 C for 24 hrs.Aliquots 0.1 ml were subsequently inoculated into 10 ml Selenite broth and incubated for 48 hrs at 42 o C. Salmonella-Shigella agar (SS) plates were loop streaked from Selenite bottles that had turned brick red in colour and incubated for 18-24 hrs at 37 o C. Presumptive Salmonella colonies typically form cream colonies with black spots in the centre. This black centre indicates the metabolism of sulphite in the agar to sulphide. Results were recorded as the number of streaks, out of three, showing positive salmonella growth. The MPN values corresponding to the results were read from MPN tables and if necessary modified to account for the dilution factor so that all resultswere expressed as MPN 100 ml -1 . SS agar is capable of supporting the growth of bacteria other than salmonella, therefore presumptive colonies needed to be confirmed. Single colonies were sub cultured from SS agar onto nutrient agar (LabM) and incubated for 18-24 hrs at 37 o C for further identification.Semi-structured questionnaires were administered and observation check list were used at all the street food vendor stage of sampling process. This was used to assess the health risks to consumers and the food vendors. The questionnaire was administered randomly to twenty four street food vendors and captured information on personal characteristics, source of vegetables, washing methods, etc. Health risk information at the farm and market sites was gathered through focus group discussions and informal interviews as well as personal observations.Plate 5: A Section of Farmers during the Focus Group DiscussionThe Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 11.0) and Genstat were used for testing the various statistical relationships between variables. The raw data for coliforms, enterococci as well as Salmonella were transformed by adding a value of one to all scores in order to eliminate zero data points, and then each datum point was converted to log 10 . A one-way randomised analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the dataThe geometric mean numbers and ranges of thermotolerant coliforms and enterococci at the three production (farm) sites are shown in Table 4.1, Figures 4.1 and 4.2. Significantly (p≤ 0.001) higher bacterial levels ranging between 3.9×10 3 to 9.3×10 8 MPN/g wet weight for thermotolerant coliforms and 3.9×10 1 to 2.4×10 8 cfu/g wet weight for enterococci were recorded for lettuce leaf samples from all the three sites. However, considerably lower (1.5×10 3 to 4.3×10 6 MPN/g wet weight) numbers of thermotolerant coliforms and enterococci (9.6×10 1 to 8.6×10 4 cfu/g wet weight) were recorded in the irrigation water used at the farm sites. Thermotolerant coliform numbers on lettuce leaves from the three production (farm) sites varied significantly between the three farms. There were significant differences in numbers between the Gyenyase and Karikari farms (p≤ 0.001), Gyenyase and Deduako (p≤ 0.005) and Karikari and Deduako (p≤ 0.001) farms.Similarly, thermotolerant coliform numbers in the irrigation water from the three farms were different. There were significant differences (p≤ 0.006) in numbers between Karikari and Deduako, Karikari and Gyenyase (p≤ 0.005) and Gyenyase and Deduako (p = 0.003) (Table 4.1).Comparing thermotolerant coliform numbers on lettuce leaves and the corresponding irrigation water from the same farm, were significant different on the Karikari (p≤ 0.001), Deduako (p = 0.003) and Gyenyase (p = 0.008) farms.Additionally, on the Gyenyase farm, there was a positive correlation (r = 0.331) between the levels of thermotolerant coliforms on the lettuce leaves and their irrigation water samples. However, a negative correlation was recorded for the Karikari (r = -0.531) and Deduako (r = -0.388) farms.Enterococci numbers varied between the three farm sites but these variations were significantly different (p = 0.053) for both lettuce leaves and irrigation water samples. Enterococci numbers on lettuce leaf samples were not statistically significant for differences between the Deduako and Karikari farms (p = 0.830) and between the Gyenyase and Karikari (p = 0.059) farms. However, differences between counts for Gyenyase and Deduako farms were statistically significant (p = 0.020) (Table 4.1).Enterococci numbers in irrigation water samples from the three farms also showed some variation. These differences in counts obtained from Gyenyase and Karikari were statistically significant (p = 0.006). But the difference in enterococci numbers from Karikari and Deduako farms (p = 0.357) and Gyenyase and Deduako (p = 0.224), were not statistically significant.Enterococci numbers in irrigation water samples compared to that on lettuce leaves from the same farm did not vary significantly for Karikari (p = 0.347), Deduako (p = 0.501) and Gyenyase (p = 0.073) farms. For all the three farms correlation analysis shows varying relationships between numbers of enteroccoci on lettuce leaves and irrigation water samples. For Karikari farms, this relationship was positive (r = 0.121) but negative for Deduako (r = -0.091) and Gyenyase (r = -0.227).Irrespective of the production (farm) site and the irrigation water type, all three farm sites had bacterial numbers on the lettuce leaves exceeding the ICMSF level for vegetables which are eaten raw (10 3 bacteria per gram) as well as the WHO levels (10 3 ) for unrestricted irrigation (Figure 4.1 and 4.2).  All the three market sites showed considerable variations in bacterial counts irrespective of the indicator organism. Thermotolerant coliform numbers in lettuce leaves ranged from 4.0×10 3 to 2.3×10 8 MPN/g wet weight and enterococci counts ranged from 6.0×10 1 to 9.0×10 4 cfu/g wet weight for all the market sites (Table 4.2). There were statistically significant (p≤ 0.001) differences in thermotolerant coliform numbers on lettuce leaves and in refreshing water samples from all the three market sites. Differences in Thermotolerant coliform numbers on lettuce leaf samples from the European/French line and Railways markets; and the Railways and Asafo markets were statistically significant (p≤ 0.001) but there were no significant differences between the counts from European/French line and Asafo markets (p = 0.639). Similarly, thermotolerant coliform numbers in refreshing water from the European/French line and Railways markets (p≤ 0.001).There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.629) between thermotolerant coliform numbers between lettuce leaves and the refreshing water from the European/French line markets but the relationship was negative (r = -0.255) for the Railways market.Statistically significant differences were recorded for enterococci numbers on the lettuce leaves from all the three markets. They were significant between the European/French line and Railways markets (p≤ 0.001), European/French line and Asafo (p≤ 0.004) and Asafo and Railways markets (p≤ 0.001) (Table 4.2).Enterococci numbers in refreshing water samples was negatively correlated (r = -0.499) with counts on lettuce sold in the same market (Railway) but there was a positive correlation (r = 0.477) between the two counts from the European/French line market.Basically, all three market sites had bacterial numbers exceeding the ICMSF level for eaten raw vegetables (Figure 4.3 and 4.4). Irrespective of the street food vendor site, bacterial numbers in lettuce leave samples were higher than the recommended level of 10 3 per 100g fresh weight by the ICMSF. Thermotolerant coliform Thermo. Coli-Lettuce Thermo. Coli-WaterRailways-Kak Europ/Fren-Gyn Asafo-Ded numbers ranged from 2.3×10 4 to 1.5×10 9 while enterococci and Salmonella counts ranged from 5.1×10 3 to 2.5×10 6 , and 1.5×10 4 to 9.3×10 5 , respectively (Table 4.3). 3. Enterococci results are average geometric means of cfu per 100/g wet weight.4. Salmonella results are average geometric means of MPN per 100/g wet weightBacterial indicator numbers generally increased from the production (farm) sites to street food vendor sites. Thermotolerant coliform numbers on lettuce leaves increased by 18% from farm (5.29×10 9 ) to market (6.26×10 9 ) and by 1% from market (6.26×10 9 ) to street foods (6.33×10 9 ).However, there was a linear increase of 20% from production (farm) (5.29×10 9 ) to consumption (6.33×10 9 ) sites. This increase was statistically significant (p≤ 0.001). Enterococci showed a decrease of 2% from farm (3.79×10 9 ) to market (3.71×10 9 ) and an increase of 38% from market to street food sites.On farm irrigation water and refreshing water from the markets showed considerable variations in bacterial concentrations (Tables 4.1 and 4.2). Generally, thermotolerant coliform and enterococci levels were higher in refreshing water at the markets compared to that in irrigation water from the farms. Farmers from all the three farm sites were males with most of them living close to their farms. An average of fifteen farmers was counted for each farm site. Most of the farmers were into vegetable production as a means of livelihood.During Focus Group Discussions (FGD) it became apparent that all the farmers had experienced some health problem at least within the last twelve months. Eighty percent of these health problems were attributed to their exposure to wastewater use in irrigation with the others being the use of chemical pesticides and poultry manure. Most of the diseases experienced by these farmers were malaria and fever (95%), skin (foot-rot) (50%), diarrhoea (10%) and occasional back ache. However, about ninety percent of the farmers and their families did not think that their health problems were as a result of their consumption of the produce they send home or their exposure to wastewater. Enetrococci Salmonella ICSMF level described as \"undesirable\" for foods eaten rawObservations during sampling revealed other potential sources of contamination with the production of vegetables could be the indiscriminate disposal of waste in irrigation water channels, farmers walking barefooted through the irrigation water channels and the washing of their body parts in the dug-wells after the day's activities.Plate 6: A farmer irrigating with his bare footAll the vegetables sellers interviewed at the three market sites were females. Sixty three percent of them displayed their produce in receptacles with water with which they use to refresh the produce from time to time to keep them fresh throughout the day.Most of the sellers acknowledged that the use of wastewater and chemical pesticides in the production of the vegetables could increase the incidence of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases amongst consumers. The refreshing water used in the markets could also be another major source of contamination as it is used for other activities such as the washing of hands before and after eating.Seventy-nine percent of the fast-food sellers were females and 21% males and had been in the trade for between 4 to 6 years. Sixty-three percent of them were between the ages of 21-30 years and the rest above 30 years. Twenty one percent of them had no formal education while 79% were either primary or secondary leavers.Ninety-six percent of the fast food vendors washed their lettuce in a bowl of pipe borne water with only 4% using well water to get rid of dirt on the produce. Forty-nine percent of the vendors used salt solution while (13%) used vinegar and others (38%) used no chemical additives (Figure 4.6). These practices, they believed were to kill any pathogen that might be present on the leaves and to also impact flavor. However, most of the vendors used salt because it was cheaper.The vendors often displayed their chopped lettuce with other vegetables mostly carrots, onions,The study show that the use of wastewater from mainly domestic sources that collect in water holes, shallow hand dug wells, urban rivers and streams used for urban vegetable farming increases bacterial loading on the vegetables. Bacterial numbers on lettuce samples from the three farm sites studied were high; 3.9×10 3 to 9.3×10 8 MPN/g wet weight and 3.9×10 1 to 2.4×10 8 cfu/g wet weight for thermotolerant coliform and enterococci, respectively. These numbers were above the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Food, ICMSF (1998) limit for raw eaten vegetables, 10 3 to 10 5 coliforms/100 g fresh weight. The results compare values reported by Cornish et al. (1999); Keraita et al., (2003a) and Amoah et al., (2005) who also reported high bacterial numbers on lettuce produced in most farms within Kumasi.Several reasons can be assigned to this; firstly, this level of bacterial loading on the lettuce leaves on farms may be attributed to the levels of indicator bacterial numbers in the farm irrigation water which were found to be equally high and ranged from ; 1.5×10 3 to 4.3×10 6 MPN/g wet weight for thermotolerant coliform and 9.6×10 1 to 8.6×10 4 cfu/g wet weight for enterococci. This confirms earlier reports that the bacterial quality of urban rivers in Kumasi is low and most of these are the main sources of irrigation water for vegetable production (Mensah et al., 2001;Keraita et al., 2003b;Amoah et al, 2005;Obiri-Danso et al., 2003).These water bodies in the Kumasi metropolis are often contaminated by diffuse or non-point sources. Non-point sources include run-off from agricultural lands, run-off from abattoirs, outfall pipes of Breweries and Wood processing industries, faeces of wild birds, animals and humans and market and household waste which all eventually end up in the rivers and shallow wells. Shallow wells or dugouts might be expected to meet the WHO recommended standard but they are often not protected and easily receive pollutants from the surrounding farm environment through run off (Drechsel et al., 2000;Amoah et al., 2005;Obiri-Danso et al., 2002). Secondly, the use of overhead irrigation technique and the morphology of the lettuce also accounts for the high contamination on the lettuce. The morphology of the lettuce leaves are such that they are spread out thus exposing much of its surface area to receive contamination from splashes of soil during irrigation (Ziem, 2004).Thirdly, the use poultry manure by 75% of vegetable farmers as the main source of plant nutrients in the management of soil fertility contains faecal coliforms (Westcot, 1997). Drechsel et al. (2002) reported that fresh poultry litter samples used for vegetable production in Kumasi without sufficient drying had high faecal coliform counts of between 3.6×10 4 and 1.1×10 7 and could be a possible source of lettuce contamination especially where farmers broadcast manure on standing crops.At the Gyenyase farm for example, bacterial numbers in the irrigation water could be attributed to the closeness of the University sewage treatment plant to the shallow dug wells and streams which are the main irrigation water sources. The treatment plant is presently dysfunctional, thus raw sewage from the University's premises flows directly into the stream. Though most of the beds on the farm are not irrigated with water from the streams, those close by are directly irrigated with water from the stream especially during the dry season.Generally, shallow well water recorded higher bacterial numbers compared to the stream water. The significant differences (Appendix 1) recorded between the two sources may suggest that streams may pose relatively less risk to farmers and consumers, although the bacterial numbers still exceeds the WHO standard (10 3 ). Cornish et al., (1999) in a study in Kumasi recorded temporarily higher faecal coliform populations in shallow wells than in nearby streams. This may be due to the fact that the wells used were probably shallow and became more easily contaminated through surface runoff from the field (Drechsel et al., 2000).Enterococci numbers were found to be lower compared to the thermotolerant coliforms. This is because unlike coliforms, enterococci are not able to multiply in the environment and are easily knocked-off by sunlight and temperature (Winter, 1978).Although it was expected that bacteria numbers would decrease from farm to market due to possible die-off due to the prevailing temperatures and sunlight intensity, mean bacterial numbers on the market lettuce samples rather increased by 18% compared to the farm samples and varied from 5.29×10 9 to 6.26×10 9 MPN/g wet weight for thermotolerant coliform and decreased by 2% from 3.79×10 9 to 3.71×10 9 cfu/g wet weight for enterococci. These numbers were all above the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Food, ICMSF limit for vegetables that may be eaten raw. (10 3 to 10 5 coliforms/100g fresh weight) (Figure 4.3). High bacterial numbers on market lettuce leaves have also been reported by Keraita et al., (2003) and Sonou (2001). This can be attributed to the high numbers of bacteria in the refreshing water samples examined; 5.0×10 4 to 4.3×10 10 MPN/g wet weight for thermotolerant coliform and 1.3×10 4 to 4.6×10 4 cfu/g wet weight for enterococci (Figure 4.4). This water is often not changed and sellers also wash their hands in it.Lettuce leaves are also washed at the farm gate with the irrigation water before sending it to the market. Drechsel et al., 2000 reported that almost all the sellers in Kumasi wash their vegetables with irrigation water at the farm gate before bagging them for the market. Some of the retailers at the market usually wash them again before selling but use only limited amount of water, thus making the vegetables dirtier, during subsequent cycles of washing.Poor handling, storage, transportation and cleaning practices of the lettuce by market women also contribute to vegetable contamination at the market. Storage conditions are poor and the lettuce leaves are generally exposed and frequently visited by houseflies and other insects (Beuchat, 1995 andSonou, 2001). There may also be possible cross contamination since different vegetables are displayed in the same receptacle.Although the Asafo market sellers do not use refreshing water bacterial numbers were still high and comparable to the other markets. The use of baskets and sacks as transport and storage receptacles for these vegetables under tables on the market floor could account for the increased level of contamination. However, this contrasts Maxwell et al. (1998) who reported in a study in Accra that farm gate vegetable samples had significantly lower counts of all categories of bacteria than samples in the major wholesale markets.Chopped lettuce leaves sold together with rice on the streets of the Kumasi metropolis were contaminated with thermotolerant and enterococci bacteria. There is the perception that because these leaves are often thoroughly cleaned with either salt or vinegar they would be free of microorganisms but this study indicates that bacterial numbers on the chopped lettuce leaves were 1% higher than that on the market samples. They were also higher than the recommended level of 1x 1000 per 100g fresh weight by the ICMSF (Table 4.3). Similar numbers have also been reportedby Mensah et al. (2001) and Johnson (2002) who studied street foods sold in the city of Accra.These high levels may be due to re-contamination as a result of the poor handling such as use of bare hands in serving the chopped lettuce and occasionally wiping these same hands on their dresses and rags. Mensah et al. (2002) identified serving of vegetables with bare hands by street food vendors as a source of contamination. Also, chopped lettuce were usually displayed in the same receptacle with other chopped vegetables, hence the possibility of cross contamination.Thirdly, lettuce leaves were washed in the same receptacle with other vegetables.De Roever (1998) have shown that conditions and measures taken during pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest affect the microbial contamination of fruits and vegetables. Most of the contaminating flora however is nonpathogenic and has a natural occurrence on the produce.However, pathogens from the human and animal reservoir as well as other pathogens from environment can be found at the time of consumption. The survival of enteric pathogens in soil, manure, municipal wastes and irrigation water depends on factors such as relative humidity, microbial adhesion, rainfall and sunlight.It was observed that farmers used wastewater because it was the only readily available resource.Bacterial indicator numbers in farm irrigation and market refreshing water and on lettuce leaves were all above the ICMSF standard for raw eaten vegetables and the WHO recommended standards (>10 3 ) for unrestricted irrigation. This therefore poses a high potential health risk to farmers, sellers and crop consumers in the metropolis.Many farmers did not use Personal Protective Equipment and were therefore in direct contact with the wastewater. This makes them vulnerable to infection by microorganisms especially through the faecal oral route as most farmers were often seen placing their unwashed hands in the mouth. Ninety-five percent of the farmers also complained of malaria which could be due to the breeding of mosquitoes by the wastewater ponds. Consumers could be at high risk as most of the lettuce was not washed with disinfectants before consumption and also the quality of the water used in washing can not be guaranteed. This confirms earlier reports by Feenstra et al. (2000) and Blumenthal et al. (2000).Although the use of wastewater in vegetable production has a lot of benefits, the use of this water without any treatment poses serious health risks to farmers, sellers and consumers. Thermotolerant coliforn, enterococci and Salmonella was detected at the end of the chain. Numbers along the production-consumer chain in all samples exceeded both the WHO and ICMSF recommended levels making their consumption a health threat.The linear increase in bacterial counts from production to consumption was significant and was due to poor handling, storage, transportation and cleaning practices. Generally, bacterial numbers on the lettuce leave samples were higher compared to the irrigation water but the numbers in the refreshing water were relatively lower. Enterococci levels were found to be lower compared to thermotolerant coliforms irrespective of the sample or site.The study shows that although wastewater is a contributor to contamination of most urban and peri-urban produced vegetables sold and consumed in Kumasi there are other possible sources.Therefore using better quality water for irrigation may be desirable but this may not be a sufficient safety procedure as it does not always ensure vegetables that are free of coliforms, enterococci and Salmonella. Given that some level of contamination can take place at both the production (farm)and distribution (market), the implied intervention to prevent bacterial infection would be education on food hygiene for housewives and consumers.The study concluded that wastewater is the main source of contamination of most urban produce vegetables. But studies have shown that treatment of wastewater before use in irrigation is difficult in most developing countries. It is therefore recommended that if treatment is not possible because of high cost, other protective measures can be considered.1. Provision of cemented deep wells on site for farmers to use in irrigation.2. Adoption of safer irrigation methods such as drip irrigation instead of overhead with watering cans.3. Promotion of the use of Personal Protective Equipment by farmers.4. Safe practices such as displaying vegetables on tables instead of the bare floor especially at the whole sale market.5. There should be increased public awareness on the right methods for vegetable washing at the point of consumption.6. Further identification and characterisation of the Salmonella isolates is required to establish pathogenicity. ","tokenCount":"10618"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f08f031d0e719104d4e88b795a88078b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/de4beef8-8c73-467e-a59b-472c1a796df3/content","id":"-2030125297"},"keywords":["Yellow Medium Altitude Source Populations FS8B(R)C4 Diente de Caballo(R)C4 4","Streak Resistant Source Populations TZPB-SR Pop","21-SR Pop","43-SR Pop","49-SR FS8A(R)C4 Mayorbela(R)C4 Suwan l(S)Cn","TZB-SR TZSR-W-1 Pop","22-SR Pop","29-SR"],"sieverID":"d7594a7c-270a-4646-adc0-53f2fc32afbb","pagecount":"541","content":"ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the following gratefully: The Government of Kenya for co-sponsoring and hosting the workshop. Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARl) for assistance in local arrangements and administrative support. National Agricultural Research Center, KARl, Kitale for preparing and hosting the station tour. Kenya Seed Company for tour of their facilities and hosting a luncheon.CIMMYT for co-sponsoring and funding the entire workshop.ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER FOR RESEARCH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, HON. GEORGE K. MUHOHO, EGH, MP, AT THE OPENING OF THE REGIONAL MAIZE CONFERENCE FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA HELD AT PANAFRIC HOTEL, NAIROBI FROM 18-22, SEPTEMBER 1989 The Chairman of the Conference, Conference Organizers, Participating Research Scientists, Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kenya, I welcome you most heartily to our country. I hope that your journey to Nairobi was comfortable and that you have now rested and settled for the task ahead of you for the next few days. The conference you are starting today is a very important one, as it deals with the most important food crop in our region, namely maize, that plays a very important role in Africa's food system.Mr Chairman, let me briefly review the situation prevailing in Africa during the last three decades. It is on record that many countries in Africa have recorded dismal performances in Agricultural Economics sector in general, and the food subsector in particular. The continent has moved from being self sufficient and net exporter of food products to one of experiencing recurrent food crisis. Some countries have experienced massive famines and a number are now dependent on food aid.In Africa, the annual growth rates of per capita food production declined by 0.7 per cent in the 1960s, and the decline reached 1.25 per cent in the 1980s. Africa is spending colossal amounts of foreign exchange earnings on food imports, thus constraining the continent's ability to import capital goods and services for further development.Mr Chainnan, the scenario I am citing affects a large population. The population in Sub-Sahara Africa is estimated at 460 million and is growing at 3 per cent per annum compared to 2.7 per cent in the sixties. Approximately 30 per cent of the African population is undernourished. It is estimated that three out of five children die before the age of five, primarily due to hunger and hunger related diseases.. . There are many factors that have contributed to the {'oor performance of food production in Africa. First and foremost, there is too little irrigated land in Africa, with most African countries irrigating less than 5 per cent of the arable land. Without irrigation we cannot control that most important determinant production factor, soil moisture. It is therefore not surprising that the green revolution has not had as much impact as occurred in the irrigated agricultural lands of Asia and Latin America. We all appreciate that high costs have reduced the expansion of irri~ation. It would appear that Afnca has no option but to invest in irrigated agnculture if the continent is to open up the vast arid and semi-arid areas for food production to meet the nutritional requirements of approximately one billion people 10 the year 2010.The second set of factors are of a policy nature. Farmers require incentives to produce marketable surpluses. Distorted policies of low producer I.'rices and low consumer prices for the politically articulate urban population is a diSIncentive to farmers. African Governments must provide support services such as agricultural research, extension services, efficient farm input supply systems, agricultural credit and market outlets for farmers' produce. It is essential that African countries invest more in the development of agriculture which currently averages 10 per cent. The Organization of African Unity calls for African governments to allocate 20-25 per cent of public spending to agriculture.Finally, Mr Chairman, we cannot fail to recognize that external factors exacerbate Africa's ability to feed itself. Africa frequently experiences natural disasters such as the severe Sahelian drought of the 1970s and the recent drought in Eastern and Southern Africa that devastated crops, decimated large herds of livestock and ~islocated human populations. Occasional floods occur and migratory pests such as locusts and army worms are an ever present threat.The final aspect of external factor is the foreign debt. African Governments are overburdened by excessive external debts estimated to be in excess of US$200 billion. This astronomical external indebtedness has really constrained Africa's ability to develop its agriculture. The debt servicing ratio rose from 9 per cent in 1980 to 30 per cent in a period of 2 years and is still rising. Some countries have reached a ratio of 60 per cent. The situation is aggravated by very poor terms of trade of African exports. The prices of non-oil products exported by Sub-Sahara Africa declined by 35 per cent between 1980 and 1987. Mr Chairman that is the reason why African heads of state and Government are constantly calling on industrialized countries to cancel the debts.Ladies and gentlemen, I have presented the above scenario to indicate the constraints under which you are operating and the challenges before you as research scientists. But all hope is not lost. The Food and Agriculture Or~anization (FAO) of the United Nations has shown that collectively, African countnes have at the moment the potential to feed 780 million people (the projected population in the year 2(00):1.5 times at low level of technology 6 times at an intermediate level of technology 17 times at a high level of technology It is for you, research scientists, to enhance the required level of production technology. The political will to support your efforts has been expressed by heads of state and Government through the Lagos Plan of Action for the period 1980-2000; Africa's priority programme for economic recovery 1986-2000; and the United Nations programme of Action for Africa's economic recovery and development adopted in 1986.Mr Chairman, maize is the most important food grain in our region and plays an important role in the economic and nutritional needs of our people. Allow me to illustrate its importance, taking Kenya as example:(1) Out of the 3.2 million hectares under major crops in Kenya, maize occupies some 1.2 million, or 38 per cent of the total and therefore ranks highest in land utilization. (2) With a total annual production of 2.5 million metric tonnes, maize contributes approximately 75 per cent of total cereal consumption, 44 per cent of total energy needs and 32 per cent of total protein requirements in Kenya. (3) The total value of eroduction, based on producer prices, is estimated at some Kshs.3.7 bIllion shillings annually, and ranks highest in value among croes. The much talked coffee takes second position valued at Kshs. 2.1 bIllion annually. (4) Maize production also contributes significantly to employment. Some 860 million manhours are spent on maize production annually, which is equivalent to 700 manhours per hectare per year.(5)The gross production per hectare per year, which averages Shs.3000 is, however, low compared to crops such as coffee, tea, Irish potatoes, rice and pyrethrum. This low figure is attributed to the low average maize yields. Mr Chairman. the above facts demonstrate that maize is probably the most important agricultural commodity in Kenya and I believe the same applies to other countries in the region. In a nutshell, it is the most important source of both income and subsistence for the rural population, and any positive changes in the level and efficiency of its output would inevitably have a major impact on overall national development.There is potential for increasing the output of the crop immediately if certain actions are undertaken. Allow me to once agaIn cite the example of Kenya. The average farmer in Kenya who grows hybrid maize eroduces about 2 tonnes of grain per hectare. A good farmer produces 5 tonnes whlle a very good farmer attains a level of 9 tonnes per hectare. Research station yields of 11 tonnes per hectare are common and it is biologically possible to produce 20 tonnes of maize grain per hectare.A simple calculation indicates that the average farmer has a yield 40 per cent of that of a good farmer, 22 per cent 9f the yield produced by the best farmer, 18 per cent of research station yield, and 10 per cent of the biological limit. The above story demonstrates that production technology is not a constraint to doubling of maize production in Kenya.Plant breeders have therefore done their job well. We now require a more intensified extension effort, focussed on good crop husbandry, reduction of losses during storage, and other incentives to motivate the farmer. I cannot overemphasize the role of good agronomy in increasing maize production.Mr Chairman, I note that the conference a~enda is quite comprehensive and covers most aspects of maize improvement includIng plant breeding, agronomy, soil fertility, plant pathology and entomology, on farm research and economics. The inclusion of country reports will familiarize participants with the state of the crop in the neighbouring countries.With your indulgence I wish to share with you a few thou~hts on issues which I feel have not been adequately addressed by the research scientIsts in the region:(1) As I stated earlier, Mr Chairman, there is a large gap between what the farmer gets and what is feasible with available technology. I also postulated that intensified extension focussed on agronomy and supported by favourable policy instruments could bridge the gap. These latter aspects indicate the need for the national agricultural research systems in general, and the maize research efforts in particular, to seriously consider incorporating policy research activities as part of the overall research efforts. Government ministers and planners in head offices would welcome information on the best policy 0rtions available to us to enhance production and improve the weI being of our farmers. What I am alluding to, Mr Chairman, is that biological research is not sufficient in itself. Technology generated must be put into place through appropriate policy instruments. (2) The second worrying factor is the a~ravated situation of disease outbreaks that has caused serious yIeld losses in recent years within the region. During this year maize streak virus was very prevalent, especially in the central Kenya highlands were infection was in excess of 60 per cent. The resistance that had been incorporated in the earlier hybrids and breeding populations seems to have broken down. The spread of the maize streak virus appears to pose a great threat to Kenya's continued production of maize. Coupled with your efforts to re-incorporate resistance, you might wish to investigate whether the changing farming system of continuously growing of maize season after season is exacerbating the disease situation. Other diseases that are occurring with frequency are rusts and blights. (3) Mr Chairman, the third issue relates to new tools that have become available to agricultural research scientists, particularly biotechnology, I believe an erroneous impression has been created that biotechnology is a replacement for plant breeding, creating the impression that a scientist workin~III a biotechnology laboratory will come up with a wonder maize vanety containing all the desired attributes. This attitude is misleading especially to our new graduates. I implore you senior scientists to give gmdance that the correct balance must be struck between the traditional plant breeding strongly rooted on observations and judBements based in the field. I am a strong supporter of training scientISts in our region in the new horizons of science, but it is my belief that the new tools are complementary to the traditional sciences I am still to be convinced that a scientist who is highly specialized in biotechnology, but who has never been to the maize nursery in the field, will single-handedly produce that wonder cultivar. In conclusion, Mr Chairman, let me pay tribute to all of you ~athered here today. Special welcome to Dr Ron Cantrell, the Director of the MaiZe Programme and his team who have travelled all the way from Mexico to participate at this conference. I also recognize the presence of Dr Steve Eberhart who contributed so much to Kenya's maize improvement programme in 1960s together with others not present here such as Dr Larry Darrah, the late Dr Festus Ogada and Dr Eliud Omolo, whose breeding methodologies still form the basis of my country's maize improvement programmes.It In the eastern and southern Africa region as a whole maize is the most important crop. It is a staple food in most of the countries of the region. Regional maize workshops of this type are important to forge closer links among the national programs of the region.The main purpose of this regional workshop, as similar ones in the past, is to bring together again maize researchers of eastern and southern Africa to share experiences and exchange results, discuss maize related regional technical problems and potential solutions, and strengthen regional cooperation.This workshop follows the first and the second regional maize workshops held in Lusaka andHarare in 1985 and1987, respectively. Both the Lusaka and the Harare workshops were attended by about 100 participants each and the proceedings have been published by CIMMYT and distributed to all the national maize researchers and other interested parties. The delegates of the Lusaka workshop passed a resolution stating that such regional maize meetings be held every two years with the venue and host rotating among the countries of the region. In that recommendation, CIMMYT was requested to take the lead in organizing and sponsoring the workshop. This workshop is, therefore, a continuation of that series which started in Lusaka in 1985 and hopefully will continue for many years to come.In this workshop, we expect the number of participants to be similar to the last two. Invitations have been sent to the national maize programs of the region, selected seed companies, regional and international organizations interested on the maize crop. We have received positive responses from many of them as is evidenced by the record attendance in this workshop.Although this workshop is jointly organized by CIMMYT and Kenya ~eultural Research Institute (KARl) we have received excellent cooperation from the Kenya Seed Company (KSC) in the planning stage of the field trip part of the workshop. Funding and sponsoring of the workshop has been provided by CIMMYT whose special interest is evidenced by the presence of the Director of the Maize Program, Dr R.P. Cantrell, throughout the workshop and the Director General of CIMMYT, Dr D.L. Winkelmann, for the last day and the closing ceremonies of the workshop. In addition, all CIMMYT staff in the eastern and southern Africa region involved in maize are present in this meeting.At this time, I would like to briefly comment on the background and organization of the workshop and what you should expect during the week. We have just completed the official opening ceremonies of the workshop. From now until the end of the workshop on September 22 we have about 50 papers planned to be presented and discussed.Last November a committee consisting of the CIMMYT maize staff in Nairobi and Harare met and agreed on the major issues related to this workshop. It was agreed in that meeting that the papers to be presented in the workshop by maize researchers of the region should be based, as much as possible, on completed experiments and concrete data in the broad areas of breeding, crop management, seed production, crop protection and economics. It was further agreed that prominent scientists outside the region be invited as guest speakers to address the participants on topics important to the region. Generalized country papers not supported by experimental or survey data were indicated to receive low priority. Glancing at the program and the abstracts of the papers submitted, I trust you will agree with me that we have had excellent responses from maize researchers in the region as well as the guest speakers on the special topics. In national programs where specific topic papers have not been possible, the presentations of general papers ensure the participation in the workshop of the relatively smaller national programs of our region. This is the beginning of plenary Session 2 which deals with introductory issues and lead papers presentations. We have two prominent guest scientists, Drs S.A Eberhart and R.E. Eplee, who have been invited to present lead papers on Maize Breeding and Striga Control, respectively. Both topics are relevant for our region and I am sure we will all gain from the papers and discussions of Drs Eberhart and Eplee. The three papers to be presented by CIMMYT Mexico and CIMMYT Harare staff are intended to highlight some of CIMMYT's activities at our headquarters as well as the CIMMYT Mid-altitude Maize Research Station in Harare.Session 3 with 10 papers focusing on Breeding and Session 4 dealing with the broad issues of Agronomy/On-Farm Research/Economics in 12 papers will be held concurrently this afternoon. Group 1 will attend Session 3 and Group 2 will attend Session 4. Choose the topic that is of most interest to you and join the appropriate group., Sessions 5 to 8 will all be plenary and held in this hall. Session 5 with seven papers will concentrate on maize plant pathology and entomology and Session 6 will focus on the seed industry and maize seed production in the region. The six papers on seed production from the six leading maize producing countries of the region should provide a good picture of the maize seed industry situation in the region and also serve as a good basis for discussion.Sessions 7 and 8 will be held on the last day of the workshop after we return from the field trip to Kitale. Session 1 groups together all general papers and overall country status reports. The main reason for including this session is to paint a more complete picture of the maize situation in the region. National programs which are unable to present papers based on completed experiments have opportunity to present the status of maize research in their respective countries in Session 7. Session 8 is intended to provide a base for discussing and strengthening regional cooperation on germplasm development and movement as well as regional training on crop management research. The concepts of focusing on megaenvironments in gerrnplasm development and devolving crop management research training to the region are consistent with CIMMYTs Strategic Plan. The two papers in this session should stimulate discussions on these concepts.As shown in the program, Wednesday 20th September and Thursday 21st September are scheduled for field trips to Kitale which as you know is famous for both good maize research and production. In that field trip, we look forward to seeing the facilities of a lead research station and an outstanding seed company and discussing the activities with the respective staffs of the National Agricultural Research Center, Kitale and the Kenya Seed Company as well as observing well grown maize fields of farmers.In the paper presentations, chairmen and rapporteurs are assigned for a group of related papers. It is suggested that papers be presented without interrupting discussions following the schedules shown on the program and discussions will be held at the end of presentations of a given group of papers. Please write down your questions or comments on paper and bring them up during the allocated discussion period. The chairmen will of course monitor the discussions and the rapporteurs are responsible for documenting them.At this time, on behalf of aU those involved in and contributing to the organization of this workshop I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the Government of Kenya for hosting this workshop. As usual, the financial and moral support we have generously received from CIMMYT was indispensable for the organization and success of this workshop. We are, therefore, grateful to the directors of the CIMMYT maize program for their usual encouragement and support.Finally, on behalf of CIMMYT I would like to say welcome to all of you and please eQjoy your workshop week.Thank you for your attention.has been evaluated in most countries and the best material has been selected for further improvement. Subsequent progress depends on breeding objectives and methodolosies. Further mcreases in maize production in Africa can be achieved with improved hybrid and open-pollinated varieties developed with a comprehensive breeding system (Eberhart et aI., 1967) by: 1) selecting the best germplasm available; 2) using an effective breeding system to develop disease resistant, stress-tolerant, and high yielding source breeding populations that respond to improved cultural praCtices; and 3) developing superior hybrid and/or open-pollinated varieties from the improved breeding populations for the commercial products. Kenya has been extremely successful with hybrids developed with this program, whereas Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria have developed hybrids with traditional pedigree breeding methodologies.The comprehensive breeding system requires the development of two diverse breeding populations that maximize the population-cross performance. This provides greater flexibility because the commercial.{>roduct can be: either 1) single, three-way, double-cross, or top-cross hybrids involvmg inbred lines derived from successive cycles of reciprocal recurrent selection; or in a few situations 2) the advanced generation of the population cross that can be used as an elite openpollinated variety until hybnds can be developed and produced.Envirorurtental factors within the two ecological zones in eastern and southern Africa require slightly different source materials. These ecological zones are the medium altitude and high altitude zones.Recommendations are sometimes made that each micro-environment within each ecological zone will require hybrids or open-pollinated varieties developed specifically for that micro-environment, but extensive trials in Africa (Eberhart et al.,1973;Darrah, 1976;and Darrah and Mukuru, 1978) and experiences of maize seed companies fail to confirm these suppositions when appropriate germplasm is used with appropriate breeding objectives. Genotype-by-environmental interactions can be dramatically reduced by developing breeding populations and hybrids with higher levels of disease and insect resistance, higher levels of tolerance to stresses such as low soil pH (aluminum toxicity), low soil moisture, low nutrient availability, and good resistance to root and stalk lodging (Kim et al., 1985;Fajemisin et aI., 1985). Such cultivars will have a very broad area of adaptation within their ecological zone., The correct maturity for length of growing seasons that are limited by the rainfall distribution is very important. Eberhart et al. (1973), Darrah (1976), and Darrah and Mukuru (1978) have demonstrated a large differential response to varying altitudes (Table 1). Presumably the response to night temperatures is a major factor although diseases may be involved unless the cultivars have a higher level of resistance. Northern corn leaf blight (Helminthosporium turcicum) and common rust (Puccinia sorghi) often limit yields at higher elevations whereas southern corn leaf blight (Helminthosporium maydis) and southern rust (Puccinia polysora) are serious diseases at lower elevations throughout Africa. Note that the cultivars developed from medium altitude germplasm failed to respond in the high altitude environments, whereas the high altitude cultivars were extremely high yielding at high elevations and at least equal to the medium altitude cultlvars in the medium elevations. In addition to the leaf blights and rusts, F~•emiSin et al. (1985)  included maize streak virus, Curvularia leaf spot, maize mottle chlorotic stunt, and downy mildew in their list of significant maize diseases. They ist Fusarium, Diplodia, Botryodiplodia, Rhizotonia, and Macrophomina as causal organisms for  ------------------------------------------------------------ aFrom Darrah and Mukuru (1978).stalk and ear rots in Africa. Important insect pests of maize were listed as the stem borers (Sesamia calamistis, Sesamia butanephega, BLisfeola fusca, Chilo partelus, Chilo orichalcociliela, Eldana saccharina); underground insects and nematodes (Buphonella murina, HeterofTYchus licas, and Dereodus recticollis); and army worms (Spodoptera exempta).The parasItic weed, Striga hennon/mea, often causes serious losses. Fajemisin et a1..(1985) and Kim et a!. (1985) reported differential responses to striga among maize hybrids.Simultaneous selection for many desirable traits will result in very little gain from selection for any trait. Hence, a key challenge for the breeder is to select a limited number of the most important traits that will lead to yield improvement and risk avoidance for the farmer. Allan (1971) demonstrated that hybrid seed and fertilizer must be accompanied by improved husbandry, including timely planting and weed control (see FIg. 1; Eberhart and Spra~e, 1973). With the total package, Kenya farmers had tbe potential to increase Yields from 2 to 8 tons/ha, and most farmers succeeded in at least doubling their yields. The increased production resulted in a significant profit above inputs. Hybrids have been used on over 50% of the maize acreage in Kenya for the past decade.The heterotic pattern is a key factor in selecting germplasm for the breeding populations in order to maximize the population-cross performance. If breeders in all countries would use a common supenor heterosis pattern, the exchange of elite inbreds among breeding programs over time would result in improved commercial hybrids and would permit more effective population improvement with minimum nsk of the loss of genetic variability from genetic drift v.'ith small effective population sizes.WeHhausen (1978) re-em'phasized the excellent population-cross performance from T~eno and its related Caribbean and USA dents with Cuban Flint and Coastal Tropical Flint. Several tropical breeding proWams have utilized the Tuxpeno (dent) / Caribbean Flint heterosis pattern, includmg Brazil, Colombia and Peru (Paterinani, 1985). The Brazitian dent population (ESALQ-VD-2) is mainly Tuxpeflo germplasm and the flint one (ESALQ-VF-1) is mostly Caribbean Flint. Recent experimental trials with improved CIMMYT populations continue to show hi~h population-cross yields from this pattern (Vassal et aI., In Preparation). EvaluatIons of populations formed by mixing these germplasm types within each population, however, demonstrated good population per se performance, but mediocre population-cross performance with almost no heterosis (Vassal et al., In Preparation)., Wellhausen (1978) recommended: \"Instead of the formation of 12 populations, in which raCial complexes and hybrid patterns are disregarded, it seems to me that tropical maize breeders might better focus their main cooperative efforts on the development of two broad-based, high yielding, widely adapted, fertilizerresponsive, more nutritive, biologically efficient popUlations., as follo....'S: (a) a dent composite consisting of the combination of Tuxpeflo and related dents, such as the Cuban, West Indies, and U.S.A dents, and their precursors, and (b) a flint composite, consisting mainly of the Cuban, Coastal Tropical and Cateto flints and their precursors.\" Goodman (1972Goodman ( , 1978) ) used morphological and geographic data to show a close relation of the Tuxpeiio, Vandeo, and Celaya races.In Kenya, a large amount of heterosis was obtained with two very narrow base populations, a Tuxpefio-derived Kitale Station Maize and a high altitude flint collection (No. 573) from Ecuador (Darrah et al., 1978 andDarrah, 1986). The population-cross yield of two elite broad base populations, KCB x KCE, was only 86% of the population-cross )ield of the very narrow base populations, Kitale II(Rll)C1 x Ec573(R12)C1 (Eberhart et al., 1973).q/ha 48.9 q/ha ($113.0S/ha) 80.6 q/ha ($208.87/ha) RECOMMENDED PRACTICES In the United States and central Europe, the Stiff Stalk Synthetic (dent) ILancaster (semi-flint) heterotic pattern has been very successful. Kim et al. (In Press) and others have demonstrated that introgressIOn of Com Belt inbreds into tropical germplasm can be useful for reducing plant height and increasing responses to fertilizer as long as the disease resistance of the tropical germplasm is retamed.Grain color and texture of the commercial product must be acceptable to the consumer. However, these traits are highly heritable and can and must be rapidly changed by selection once the breeding populations are formed. Experience has shown that selection from mixed yellowjwhite to white ~rain color requires intense selection because of minor genes and epistatic gene actIOn in some germplasm.Seed size and shape and performance of seed parent single crosses and especially seed parent inbred lines is critical to the reliability and cost of hybrid seed production. Hence, designation of the Tuxpeno--Stiff Stalk breeding populations as seed parent populations and the Caribbean Flint--Lancaster breeding populations as pollen parent populations has merit. Selection for important seed parent traits will then be required in only the seed parent breeding populations.Several populatIOns and some inbred lines have been developed and released that are adapted to .environmental conditions in eastern and southern Africa. Some of these populations are listed in Table 2. The best population-cross performance can be expected from populations improved by recurrent selection, especially reciprocal recurrent selection and from the introgression of the best inbred lines back into these superior populations. Many breeders have already formed elite breeding populations with high population-cross performance and have impruved them by recurrent selection. In these cases further introgression should be extremely limited. Eberhart et al., (1967) emphasized that the final population cross mean can be predicted from data obtained in a partial diallel when epistasis is negligible. If vaneties M 1 to M m are composited mto the seed parent J?opulation (A) and varieties N 1 to N n are composited into thelollen populatIOn (B), the populationcross performance (A x B) can be predicte as follows:(Ax B) = (limn) (M 1 N-.1 + MJ1'l'2 + ... +MmN n ).Introgression of Kitale II(Rl )Cn and GSll(R)Cl mto populations such as Embu I, KwCA, and ZCA and introgression of EC573(Rl2)Cn and GSl2(R)Cl into Embu II, KwCB, ZCZ, and UCA(F)Cn should have the potential to markedly increase population-cross performance, not only in yield and stress tolerance, but also in resistance to H. turcicum and P. sorghi.Vassal et al. (In Press) report that Pop. 24 (Tuxpeno-Antigua) gave highest yields with both Suwan 1 (a Caribbean mixed type improved breeding population from Thailand) and Pop. 36 (Caribbean Composite) in a CIMMYT regional varietycross diallel evaluation. Development of a white version of Suwan l-SR to introgress into southern and eastern African pollen-parent populations may merit high priority to more fully utilize the Tuxpeno/Caribbean Flint heterosis pattern.Population improvement is the foundation of a maize breeding program seeking to maximize long-term genetic gain per year.Additionally, both short-term and mid-term goals can be achieved. Much greater improvement of maize production can be achieved from hybrid and openpollinated varieties developed with effective population improvement programs in fewer populations than from ineffective programs in many populations.Maximizing the rate of improvement of the population cross is vital because this determines the rate of improvement of the denved hybrids and the advanced generation of the population cross when this is used as the commercial product (Fig. 2). Choosing the appropriate recurrent selection method is critical. Reciprocal Cycles of selection recurrent selection has been used successfully (Table 3) in several programs to improve the variety-cross performance and to increase the heterosIs (Eberhart et al., 1973;Helms et al., 1989;Moll and Hansen, 1984;Darrah et al., 1978;Darrah, 1986;Homer et at, 1989;Odhiambo and co~ton, 1989). Use of different testers with BSSS diverged BSSS(R)CI0 and BSI3(S C4 so that their variety-cross yield nearly equaled their respective yields with BS I(R)CI0. The modification of using inbred lines from the r ciprocal population for the tester, as suggested by Eberhart et al. (1973) and Russell and Eberhart (1975), has real merit because selection for specific bybrid combinations is initiated in the population improvement cycle, and gain from selection should benefit from the mcreased variation among testcrosses. Multiple testers will make this system more effective and should be used whenever feasible for two reasons: 1) multiple testers provide a more representative sample of the reci{>rocal population and 2) the probability of guickly identifying useful commerCIal hybrids is increased. The experimental lines should be divided into three to five sets with a different elite inbred line tester for each set (any given experimental line will be crossed to only one tester). Set 1 would include the early Sz lines (based on the maturity of the parental SJ. lines) with an early inbred tester from the reciprocal population. Sets 2,3,4,and )would include medium early, medium, medium late, and late Sz lines, respectively, with a reciprocal tester of the corresponding maturity. This procedure should counteract the correlation of yield with taIl, late genotypes because selection for testcross yields the next season will be within each set. Then selected lines from all sets would be recombined in all possible combinations to form the next cycle of the population. The testers usually will be inbreds used in commercial bybnd production. Testers will change WIth cycles of selection as improved inbreds are developed. Single-cross testers can be u ed, but genetic variation among testcrosses will be much less than for inbred line testers. The use of the reciprocal population may be necessary for the first two cycles in a new breeding program until mbred lines can be developed.The formula for gam per year for the population cross from reciprocal recurrent selection (Sprague and Eberhart, 1977) can be used to identify key factors affecting the rate of improvement. This formula is as follows: where y=years per cycle, k is the standardized selection differential, F is the coeffictent 0finbreeding of tbe parental plants of the experipentallines used for the testcrosses, S e is !:2e pooled experimental error variance, S A is the additive genetic variance, S AE Is the additive by environmental interaction, r is the number of replications in e~llof m locations (or environments).Increasing S A should increase gain, but estimates of additive genetic vari~ce from very diverse popUlations have not been sbown to be larger than those from F populations (Hallauer and Miranda, 1981) probably because of the finite number of experimentaflines that can be evaluated. Very diverse breeding populations often have higher mean yield per se, but the population-cross mean will be lower (Darrah et aJ., 1972;Vassal et aI., In Preparation). Increasing the level of inbreeding of the parents is strongly recommended. F increases from zero for S11ines (where the parental So plants are non-inbred) to 0.5 for ~lines (where the Sl parental plants are 50% inbred). Although the time for a cycle of selection is extended from y = 2 to Y= 3 years, gain per year will be the same (assuming only one ~line will be retained from each selected Sl family) and testcross evaluations must be made every three years instead of every oiller year (Sprague and Eberhart, 1977). Furthermore, the Sllines can be screened for disease resistance and other agronomic traits so that only elite S2 experimental lines are advanced to the testcross evaluations.Decreasing the phenotypic variance (the denominator) will increase gain. A suitable experimental design and good field techniques are extremelyimportant. Number of plan2S per plot ~as a mini~al effect. The error variance S e can bẽ xpressed as [(S win) + S ], where S is the plot-to-plot error variance :pd S w is the within plot error variance. ~wenty to 25 plants per plot will reduce S win to a negligible factor in relation to S (Eberhart, 1970). When testcrosses vary greatly in plant height, use of two-row plots reduces the competition bias vs. one-row plots. With high plant densities, the plot must be long enough to eliminate the border effect caused by t~e alleys. Narrow alleys are desirable.Because S AE is usually a signifIcant factor, only two replications per location (environment) and four or five locations (environments) are recommended (Fig. 3; Sprague and Eberhart, 1977). Increasing t~numb~of locations (environments) reduces the contribu tion of both Sand S AE to the phenotypic variance. Brewbaker (1985) recommends the use or varied planting dates at a location to provide different environments.Increasing the selection intensity is a very important means of increasing gain (Fig. 4) because gain is proportional to k. Gain with a 5% selection intensity (k=2.06) is 147% compared to a 20% selection intensity (k= 1.40) and 117% compared to 10% (k =1.76). Selection intensity can only be increased by: 1) increasing the number of experimental lines evaluated in testcross trials; or 2) by decreasing the number of lines selected for recombination to form the next cycle. The development of only two elite reciprocal populations per breeder (with testcross yield trials for the seed parent and pollen parent population phased in successive years) will permit a higher selection intensity for the same resources than will the use of larger numbers of populations. The number of selected lines that are recombined effects the effective population size (Rawlings, 1970). Results from studies at USDA-ARS/Iowa State University (Helms, et aI., 1989) show conside~able genetic drift when only ten line~a~e selected and rec~mbined in closed populatIOns. When several breeders work WIthm a general heterotIc pattern, exchange derived inbred lines, and then introgress these acquired lines into their breeding populations, the effective population size of each population will be greatly increased. Lines for introgression must be carefully selected to maintain or enhance the population-cross performance. Experience and theoretical considerations lead to a recommendation of evaluating testcrosses from 250 to 400 S2 lines in order to select 16 to 20 S2 lines for recombmation each cycle in order to achieve a selection intensity of 4 to 8%.Farmers seek both risk avoidance and high yield in the maize hybrid and open-pollinated varieties they select to grow. Hence, resistance to disease and insect pests, tolerance to mOIsture stresses throughout the ~owin$ season, resistance to root and stalk lodging and tolerance to low soil pH (aluminum toxicity) are among the important agronomic traits for many African farmers. They also have strong preferences for grain texture and color which must be included in tbe  breeding objectives. Multi-stage selection is the key to this multi-trait improvement because large numbers of So plants and SI lines can be screened in these two generations. The rate of gam for any trait is reduced when additional traits are selected; hence, selection in early cycles of improvement should be limited to yield and the most important of the other agronoffilC traits. Because correlations among agronomic traits are usually low (Suwantaradon et al., 1975), selection in the early stages usually has ne~ligible effect on the variation among (amilies in the last stage (testcross yield trialS).A recommended scheme with multi-stage selection is shown in Fi~re 5. Selection among So plants that are being selfed in season C (mass selectIon) is the first opportunity to eliminate undesirable material. Because the phenotype of the individual plant is the selection unit, gain will be expected only for traits with very hicll heritabilities, including maturity, disease resistance (if a heavy uniform inlection can be achieved), and ear height. Whenever possible, selections should be made prior to anthesis to reduce the number of self-pollinations needed. In season D, SI families will be available as the unit of selection which will provide the opportunity to select for less heritable traits such as insect resistance, maize streak VlnlS resistance, resistance to lodging, and tolerance to low soil pH. Adequate seed will be available for laboratory screening, multiple field plantings and even replication within screening tests if this IS required to increase the heritability of the mean rating. ~lines can be planted in season E in isolation blocks and de tasseled to obtain testcross seed. Sele tion in season F among testcrosses should be based primarily on yield, but some selection pressure may be required for resistance to root and stalk lod~ing. As many as 15,000 to 30,000 So plants and 1,500 to 3,000 Sl lines may be reqUIred for reasonable gain in the agronomic traits.Tolerance to moisture and heat stress is one of the most difficult traits to improve. Use of higher plant densities in all field plantings is a critical technique as this intensifies moisture stress. Plant densities for the S1's in season D should be eSpecial g hi~h because of the reduced plant size due to IDbreedin.g. Allan and   Darrah 97 reported that yields of the H611(R)C3 variety cross (Kitale II(R11)C3 x Ed73 RU C3) were increased at 33, 44, or 55 thousand plants per hectare when selection was done at 47 thousand plants per hectare (Table 4). When this reciprocal recurrent selection program was initiated, this plant density in testcross trials was 57% hi~er than the rate of 30 thousand plants per hectare normally used by farmers (Ebernart and Sprague, 1973). With the subsequent progress, much higher densities should be used now. A planting date later than the optimum date often intensifies the moistur stresses, or at least varies the growth stages at which the moisture stresses occur in comparison with the optimum planting date.Selection for a higher level of prolificacy reduces the number of barren plants under stress. The Kenyan variety-cross hybrid KCB(F)C4 x KCE(F)C4, with 136 ears per 100 plants at 16 high-altitude sites (Darrah 1976), was developed by selecting the parental populations for increased prolificacy and yield for four cycles. These populations should be excellent source materials to improve prolificacy in both medium and high altitude breeding populations.Many of the improved tropical breeding populations are tall and tend to have excessive root and stalk lodging, which precludes the farmer fIOffi harvesting the full yield potential of this germplasm. Because ~lant and ear height are highly heritable, recurrent selection is very effective in reducmg height. However, yielatends to be negatively correlated with height. In order to develop the desired lodging resistant and high yielding hybrids, three aspects are critical: 1) use multi-stage selection in the reciprocal recurrent selection program so that selection for yield follows selection for reduced height and resistance to lodging in each cycle, 2) use hilUt plant densities in all field I;'lantings (use of different plant densIties in each or the two replications in yield tnals is strongly recommended), and 3) conduct a parallel traditional pedigree breedin~program involving F2' three-way, and backcross projects, where a short elite lObred line or commercial hybrid within the basic heterosis pattern is crossed (and often backcrossed) with the best line from the last cycle of RRS. Development of improved seed parent single crosses should receive the highest priority.With a three-year cycle in the RRS breeding program, the populations should be staggered so that yield trials are grown for the seed parent {'opulation one year, the pollen parent population the next year and the pedigree projects the third year to provide a uniform work load.The rate of improvement of hybrids will be proportional to the improvement of the population cross between breeding populations (Fig. 2). Hence, the efficient development of new hybrids after each cycle of population improvement will be an important phase of the comprehensive breeding system. Procedures normally used in the traditional pedigree breeding system can be used to develop superior hybrids from the improved breeding populations, but greater efficiencies will be obtamed by use of the Yield evaluation tnals from reciprocal recurrent selection as the early testing phase for inbred line development.In the reciprocal recurrent selection--inbred tester phase, M testcross families will have been evaluated for general combining ability in the seed parent population and N testcross families in pollen parent population. When the elite m x n hybrids among inbred lines derived from the selected S2 lines are evaluated in an AB factorial mating design, selection of the best hybrid will result in a selection intensity approaching 1/(M x N), rather than 1/(m x n).Hybrids involving inbred lines of Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) from the USDA-ARS/Iowa State University maize breeding program illustrate the potential value of commercial hybrids developed from improved breeding populations. Hallauer (1983) points out the importance of B14 and B37 developed from cycle 0, B73 from cycle 5, and B84 from cycle 7. Hybrids involving B73 have been used extensively not only in the USA, but also in Italy and Spain, and B73 has been used as a source material for developing inbreds in many countries. The best cross between selected S2lines from cycle 5 outyielded the population cross, BSSS(R)C5 x BSCB1(R)C5 by 35% (Russell and Eberhart, 1975). Suwantaradan and Eberhart (1974) reported that the best derived sinaie cross (S2_x Sz) outyielded the variety cross, BSK(S)C5 x BSSS(R)C5, by 18%. Recently B9U ana B91 have been develoeed from cycles 7 and 8 of the BSCBl, respectively.• Darrah and Penny (1975) extracted inbred lines from the second cycle of Kitale II (Rll) and Ec573 (R12) and evaluated three-way cross hybrids. When the lines were advanced to S3's, the best hybrid exceeded the cycle 2 variety cross by 17% (Fig. 6). Darrah ano Makuru (1978) reported high yields of double-cross hybrids with C3 and C4 lines. The Kenya Seed Company subsequently has produced double-cross hybrids from later cycle lines of these breeding populations. Homer et aI. (1989) reported a 30% increase in yield of the population-cross from four cycles of MS•-inbred Tester, but only a 19% increase from Sz selection (Fig. 7). Elite inbred lines have been developed from this program.. The R2 value is for fit of both lines in a single model.From Horner, Magloire, and Morera (1989) Comment: Venegas. At the experimentation level we witness a policy objective of producin~better varieties with high yields. However, the linkages between the techrucal and economic aspects are not there. Perhaps, one recommendation coming out from the workshop is to do more research and policy analysis on linking technical results, farmer responses and economic expectations.Chumo. Could you please elaborate more on multi-stage selection.Answer:Eberhart. With multi-stage selection for stability i.e. complete disease resistance, tolerance to stress, tolerance to insects, correct maturity, the advanced generation of the variety cross will give higher yields under all conditions (as will the resulting hybrids) than the local variety. In addition improved a~onomic practice must be used by the farmer -early planting, clean weed109 correct plant densities per acre, rotation with legumes (or intercropping with legumes), and modest use of fertilizer.Omolo. What are the merits of using a tester in reciprocal recurrent selection because in a study where we compared the two breeding methods Sl and RRS for improvement of yield and quality of protein in two maize populations KCB and KCE RRS still made faster progress without the use of testers other than using the populations themselves reciprocally.Answer:Eberhart. With recurrent selection, the pollen {Jarent should be improved using inbred lines from the seed parent populatIOn as testers to insure high yielding hybrids.~selection in the seed parent population will increase the yield of inbred lines but this is only important when the commercial hybrid will be a single cross.Compton. Standability is a difficult trait to improve and at Nebraska we have never been able to improve standability by mass selection, it also doesn't look as effective when done on inbred per se basis. How is this done in , multiple-stage selection without using an index? Answer:Eberhart. Sl pro~enies grown at hi~h plant densities (perhaps 2 reps) may have some potential to identify 10dgIOg susceptible lines. Use of a penetrometer on Sllines (mean rating) might also be desirable based on research by Zuber and Darrah.Question: Dejene. In the reciprocal recurrent selection procedure you explained, is the inbred tester related to the population intended for improvement? UCA(F)C6. Ukiriguru Composite A was formed from Kitale Flat White material, Tuxpeno, and Caribbean Flint type germplasm, and improved by six cycles of Full Sib recurrent selection.ZCA Zambia Composite A was formed from seventeen Zambia inbred lines and Hickory King. ZCZ. Zambia Composite Z included Sl selections from a Bajio populatio obtained from Mexico, Corniteco, and Caribbean Flint type germplasm.Maize in sub-Saharan Africa is cultivated from 14 0 N to about 26 0 S, from sea level to 3000 m altitude, in conditions which vary with latitude, altitude and rainfall. Of the total maize area of 15.3 million ha (CIMMYT estimate), 7.2 million are in the lowl nd tropics and 8.1 million ha in the subtropical/midaltitude and highland/transition zones (CIMMYT, 1988b).Maize is mainly grown under rainfed conditions, both in a sole crop and mixed cropping systems. It is the staple food in many countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, such as Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In West and Central Africa maize is a major component of the diet in Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Zaire. However, average maize yield in these countries is currently about 1 t/ha, which is only 50% of the average yield of all developing countries and 18% of the average yield for developed countries (CIMMYT, 1986). Biotic, abiotic, institutional and socio-economic constraints, and an under-utilization of improved germplasm are the contributors to low maize yields in sub-Saharan Africa.The objectives of this paper are to describe the breeding strategies used by CIMMYT to reduce the impact of drought stress, low nitrogen availability, aluminum toxicity, Jiseases and insects In sub-Saharan Africa. Given the importance of maize in the region as human food and its high potential for feed, CIMMYT research on quality protein maize (OPM) is also summarized. This paper fists some special-purpose germplasm carrying tolerances to these yieldreducing agents or genes for improved protein quality, and which are available to national programs on request. Where appropriate, we draw on data and experiences from the IITA/SAFGRAD project (to which a CIMMYT staff member was seconded from 1984 to 1988).The FAa classification system of ecological zones in sub-Saharan Africa (FAa, 1978), based primarily on climatic characterizations, has been expanded by other workers (Gelaw, 1984;Efron, 1985;Fajemisin, 1986;CIMMYT, 1989) to include non-quantitative assessments of the major abiotic and biotic constraints found in each zone. For these descnptions to be truly useful in setting breeding priorities however, the magnitudes of each constraint must be quantified, and the zones reclassified on the basis of plant performance, consumer preference and the dominant cropping systems in WhICh maize is found. Using such an approach, CIMMYT has recently described eisht major germplasm classes, or \"mega-environments\", in sub-Saharan Africa (CIMMYT, 1988b;Diallo et al., 1989). This analysis shows (Table 1) that diseases and insects are the major biotic and drought impose major limits to maize productivity.The database on which the classification is based is not yet complete; data on the effect of low soil fertility, weeds, and high soil acidity for sub-Saharan Africa are 1. CIMMYT Maize Breeder, Bouake, B.P. 2559, Cote D'Ivoire 2. CIMMYT Maize Physiologist and 3. Maize Breeders, EI Batan, Mexico - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- largely lacking. Experience suggests that these limits to yield are serious, and they are therefore being addressed by the CIMMYT Maize Program.3. Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance.3.1. Prolificacy and General Stress Tolerance Several studies have shown that a short anthesis-silking interval (ASI) (Dow et al., 1984) and increased prolificacy (Motto and Moll, 1983) in maize are positively associated with an increase in tolerance to a range of stresses which cause reduced photosynthesis per plant at or near flowering. Increased prolificacy has several advantages in tropical maize; prolific cultivars may show an improved tolerance to plant density, and stability of yield across a wide range of densities is often increased (Prior and Russell, 1975;Bertin et al., 1976). Plant density in monocropped sub-Saharan maize fields typically varies from ade'l.uate to low (e.g., Akposoe and Edmeades, 1982), and under reduced competitiOn an ability to develop and fill a second ear on each plant will increase yields at low plant densities. The capacity to develop second ears may also guard against the risks associated with poor germination or the failure of an intercrop.In 1985 three semi-prolific populations were established at CIMMYT from elite families with prolific tendenCIes. Two of these populations, SPE and SPL (Table 2), were white-grained, adapted to the lowland tropics, and early and late maturing, respectively. The third, SPMAT (Table 2), was subtropical, intermediate in maturity, and of mixed grain color.AlIl?opulations have undergone four cycles of recurrent selection in a halfsib recombmation block, in which each family was grown at a high (106-133,000 plants/ha) and a low (35-53,000 plants/ha) plant density. Selection of the superior 50% of families was based on an index designed to produce high grain yield, improved standability, increased number of ears per plant at high denSity, high ear numbers per plant, average upper ear height and a short interval between first and second ear silking.In SPMAT, a major introgression came from a maize x Tripsacum cross, itself handled as a separate population for four cycles and backcrossed several times to lowland tropical maize. Trials to evaluate progress were conducted in 1988 (Table 3), and showed thatthis rather mild selection procedure had been successful in increasing prolificacy while maintaining maturity.A concomitant increase in stalk lodging was observed, but no significant increases in yield potential or in the optimum density for grain yield resulted from selection.Recently the breeding scheme has changed to a recurrent S1 selection scheme, thus allowing reduced tassel size (Geraldi et al., 1985) and reduced ASI to be'included in the index. The realized heritability and value of individual traits related to prolificacy or to tolerance of high plant density are being examined by bidirectional selection, in which synthetics are formed from the best and worst fractions of the population for the trait in question. These synthetics and cycle bulks are available for GIstribution to national programs.Drought tolerance is the ability of one genotype to be more productive than another under a similar condition of drought (Quizenberry, 1982). Ability to yield well in dry environments may depend on drought avoidance, drought tolerance, or both. The type of drought environment in which a crop will be grown determines the type of tolerance mechanisms required and the corresponding breeding methodology to be used.  Almost all ecologies in which maize is grown in ~!Ub-Saharan Africa are characterized by unpredictable dry periods of 1-3 weeks duration, whose effects on the crop are exacerbated by the relatively small amount of crop-available water commonly found in many African soils. For this reason CIMMYT breeders have concentrated on selecting for improved grain yields when maize is subjected to drought occurring during the flowering period (Fischer et aI., 1983) when grain yield is very sensitive to stress (Shaw, 1983). We have generally depended upon the presence of drought adaptive alleles at reasonable frequencies in elite germplasm (Blum, 1988), rather than relying on drought-adaptive genes identified by extensive screening of unimproved land races. Experience su~ests that the superior yield potential of improved types and its residual effects III low-yielding environments, the excellent awonomic type of these materials and the improved performance resulting from selectIOn have justified this approach.Drought is not confined only to Africa: CIMMYTs analysis of megaenvironments indicates that 52% of its target areas experience drought occasionally (yield losses of 10-25%) and 28% experience drought commonly (yield losses of 25-50%). The area commonly affected by drought is greater for early maturing germplasm than for other maturity classes (Edmeades et al., 1988).Selection in Tuxpeiio Sequia -Specific selection for drought tolerance began in the seventies as a methodological study in the tropical late white dent population, Tuxpeno Sequia (Table 2). The full-sib recurrent selection scheme involved growing 250 full-sib families in two replications of 2.5 m single row plots under three water regimes (well-watered; stress at grainfilling, or intermediate stress; stress at flowering, and grainfillin~, or severe str~s~) at, Tlalti.zapan (19 0 N, 940 masl) during the dry WInter season USlllg controlled IrngatlOn (FIscher et aI., 1983;Edmeades et aI., 1987). Selection of the superior 80 families for recombination was based on an index designed to increase grain yield under stress, increase stem and leaf elongation rates under stress, maintain grain yield and days to anthesis under wellwatered conditions, reduce the ASI under stress, and to delay leaf senescence. Low canopy temperature (measured with an infrared thermometer) became part of the index from C4 onwards.Evaluations of the bulks of CO' C2' C 4 , C6 and C8 were carried out in Tlaltizapan in 1987-8 in large plots under moisture regimes resembling those under which the selections were made. Extra yield data were taken from less-stressed border plants in each plot. Cycle 8 outyielded Co by about 900 kg grain/ha across a wide range of moisture stresses (Fig. 1), but did not differ significantly from Cfu and there were no significant stress x cycle of selection interactions for grain yield. ]oint linear regressions of grain yield of each genotype on the mean yield for each moisture regime were fitted. When these were used to predict yields from Co to C 6 at the 2, 4, 6 and 8 t/ha level, and gains estimated by thIS method were 8%, 4.4%, 3.4% and 2.9% J?er cycle, respectively (Edmeades et aI., 1988).Analysis llldicated that selection significantly increased number of ears per plant but did not change other yield components. ASI under moisture stress was si~nificantly reduced by selection, and was negatively and non-linearly associated WIth grain yield (Fig. 2).Days to anthesis remained essentially unchanged by selection, although there was some indication that foliar senescence had been delayed. Selection resulted in no significant changes in canopy temperature, total biomass production, capacity to osmoregulate under drought, or in other measures of plant water status. Subsequent studies have shown that the reduction in ASI under drought is related to increased biomass partitioning to the ear prior to flowering, resulting in higher relative growth   rates of ears in later cycles of selection, a reduced ASI and increased ear numbers per plant. Cycle bulks and other cultivars are currently under test at 20 locations to determine if the gains observed at one site in the dry season are also observed in other environments. Also under examination is the hypothesis that tolerances to drought and high plant densities are positively associated through reduced ASI (Dow et al., 1984). It seems probable that some ~ains in drought tolerance in lowland tropical maize can be obtained by selectlllg for reduced ASI in high density plantings under rainfed conditions.Recurrent selection for drought tolerance in other elite populations -Four broadly adapted elite populations were chosen for improvement to provide national programs with source drought tolerant germplasm from late white, late yellow, early white and early yellow populations. Recurrent Sl selection commenced in three populations (La Posta SR, Pool 26, Pool 18) in 1~86. The fourth population, Pool 16 (Table 2), consisted initially of full-sib families derived from the IITAjSAFGRAD program in West Africa (see Section 3.2.2). CIMMYT, Mexico, provided another testing location for these families, and the selected fraction was continued as an independent recurrent S1 selection scheme in 1988. Each selection cycle requires two years, beginning with the generation of 1000 Sl families in Poza Rica, an unstressed lowland tropical location. These families are screened under normal irrigation and drought stress in the severe heat of the Sonoran summer in N\\:V Mexico, and the best 250 are sown in the following cycle under three watet regimes in the dry winter season at Tlaltizapan. The value of individual traits is examined by bidirectional selection (Section 3.1). Selection of 50 S1 families for recombinatiOn is based on an index designed to increase grain yield, ears per plant and individual kernel weight under stress, maintain yield under well-watered conditions, increase leaf uprightness, reduce ASI and the size of tassels, delay foliar senescence and reduce leaf rolling under stress (Bolanos and Edmeades, 1988). Following recombination in Poza Rica, S1 famihes are made and the cycle repeated.Selection in these populations is pranned to continue for three cycles, when it is anticipated that these'populations will be suitable for use as sources of drought tolerance, probably in crosses with locally adapted germplasm or possibly for direct release. Synthetics selected on the basis of desirable characters, and cycle bulks are currently available for distribution and testing by national programs.The Drought Tolerant Population and Drought Testing Network -In an attempt to generate a population which has greater genetic variability for improved performance under drought, 13 cultivars with good performance under drought were crossed in a diallel, re-evaluated as crosses under drought and well-watered conditions, and the best crosses selected. These were planted in a half-sib recombination block in 1987 and used to form the baSIS of the Drought Tolerant Population (DTP). This population is considered a repository of alleles which are associated with ~uperior drought tolerance, although ItS disease and insect resistance are only average at this stage.It is an open-ended population; in each dry season 60 80 new source materials with reputed drought tolerance, contributed from national programs in South Asia, Southern Africa, the United States, Mexico, Central America and from CIMMYTs Germplasm Bank, are evaluated under moisture stress, and the best 3-5 crossed with the latest cycle of the DTP and re-evaluatep as the cross. If found to be superior, crosses are included as female rows in the DTP half-sib recombination block. At present this material is intermediate in maturity, subtropical in its adaptation, and of mixed grain type.The DTP (Table 2) has undergone 4 cycles of recombination, and Sl familie are now ready for more widespread testing. This will allow cooperators to iaentify the superior fraction of the DTP for recombination, and to select Sllines or groups of lines for further inbreeding and hybrid formation or to form specifically-adapted synthetics for crossin$ with adapted germplasm. At the same time it is boped that cooperators will contmue to contribute drought-tolerant germplasm for evaluation alongside Germplasm Bank entries and for possible incorporation into the DTP.3.2.2 Breeding for drought escape and drought resistance in maize• the IITAjSAFGRAD experience. In the Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (SAFGRAD) project, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has the responsibility for the maize and cowpea research and training activities. The maize breeding program, based in Ouagadougou, concentrated its research work on the development of maize varieties for the Sudan savanna zone of West Africa which either tolerated or escaped drought. This zone is characterized by a unimodal rainfall distribution pattern (600-900 mm rainfall) distributed over 3-4 months and potential evapotranspiration during the rainy season (June-September) of 4•6mm per day. Year-to-year variability in the start and end of the rams, in total rainfall and its distribution, and the common but unpredictable occurrence of dry spells of 1-3 weeks length during the rainy season (especially during the last decade) are important characteristics of this zone. This environment, with low water-holding capacity by the predominant soil types, demands a close fit between the effective length of the growin~season and varietal maturity. Under average rainfall conditions, early maize cultivars (82-95 days from planting to maturity) are recommended for the Sudan savanna zone. However, in those years when the rains start late, or when there is a long dry spell of 2-3 weeks after the start of the rainy season, the Sudan savanna farmer is better off planting (or replanting) extra-early maize (i.e., less than 82 days from planting to maturity). This will not, of curse, eliminate yield losses due to drought stress occurring between planting and harvest, and therefore it is also important to improve the drought tolerance of these maize varieties.Breeding for extra early maize -During the 1984 season, 80 early and extra-early materials from Colombia CIMMYT, liTA, India and Burkina Faso were grown for observation and seed increase. Forty-eight of them were selected and evaluated the next year at three locations in Burkina Faso. Across tbe three locations, two varieties, Kamandaogo Tollo (local yel10w variety) and Guajira-314 (white Colombian variety) were selected for their extra-earliness (42-43 days to silk). Later in 1985, 40 early white varieties were crossed with Guajira-314 and advanced to F 2 ana 58 early yellow varieties were crossed with Kamandaogo Tollo and advanced To F2' In 1986, the best F 2 white and yellow crosses were evaluated. Sixteen crosses reached black layer 72•78 days after planting with an average yield of 3.5 t/ha (IITA/SAFGRAD, 1987). The best yellow crosses were then backcrossed to the earliest yellow recurrent parent (Kamandaogo Tollo) and the be t white crosses backcrossed to the earliest white recurrent parent . During the same growing season the best yellow backcrosses were crossed in a diallel to develop an extra-early yellow popUlation, TZEE-Y (Tropical Zea Extra Early Yellow). From the best white backcrosses, 3 extra eady populations were developed (TZEE-W-l, TZEE-W-2, TZEE-W-3) in a similar fashion.In 1986 these fOUf extra-early populations along with 6 local checks were evaluated at 3 locations in Burkina Faso (Table 4). TZEE-Y reached 50% silking 40 days after planting and yielded 3.3 t/ha.It was 10 days earlier to silk than TZE-4 and 7 days earlier than Local Raytiri and Safita-2, yet yields were not significantly different. The three other populations flowered 4 days later than TZEE-Y and yielded 3 t/ha. Extra-early populations - ------------~----------------------------------------------------- were ready for green maize harvest 60 days after planting. These four populations are significantly earlier than available local varieties, have a broad ~enetIc base, and have good husk cover. They are somewhat susceptible to stalk lodgmg.Improvement of Pool 16 for drought tolerance -Pool 16 is well adapted to the Sudan savanna environment of West Africa, and in 1982 it was identified as relatively tolerant to drought stress. Recurrent selection, using full-sib families, was undertaken in cooperation with CIMMYT to improve this material for drought tolerance, and it was renamed Pool 16 DR. Simple and tied ridges were used to evaluate maize families for drought tolerance (Dlallo and Rodriguez, 1987;IITA/SAFGRAD, 1988;UTA, 1988). Family selection was based on average yield under both simple and tied ridges, percentage ~eld reduction under stress (simple rid~es vs. tied ridges) and ASI. Families With poor husk cover, ear rots, or other undes1rable traits were discarded. Two cycles of selection have been completed and seven experimental varieties developed.In 1987 the mean yield across moisture stress levels of Safita-2 (a check variety developed from Pool 16 in 1982) and Pool 16 DR cycles 0, 1, and 2 were 2.69, 2.88, 2.99 and 3.15 t/ha, respectively (Table 5), showing an increase of about 5% per cycle.The corresponding number of days to 50% silking were 51.7, 50.5, 50.6 and 50.3. The three Po.ol 16 DR cycles of selection out-performed Safita-2 at all moisture stress levels. Pool 16 DR ~gave yields that were 28.9%, 15.5%, and 14.4% ~eater than those of Safita-2 under high, medium and slight stress levels, respectIvely (Table 5).Although many elements limit maize yields, either because of toxicity or deficiency, there is little doubt that nitrogen (N) availability is the major nutritional limitation to tropical maize production, especially in the lowlands (e.g., Akposoe and Edmeades, 1982;Twumasi-Afriyie and Edmeades, 1983). Limited information exists on genetic variability within maize for N uptake, the carbon/N ratio in maize tissue, or the harvest index for N, though some selection studies have shown promising responses to selection for performance under low N (e.g., Balko and Russell, 1980;Muruli and Paulsen, 1981). For these reasons a trial of lowland tropical elite and landrace cultivars was conducted in 1986 to determine if variability in these traits existed, to select a population for further selection, and to establish a protocol for selection for improved performance under low soil N. Two soil N levels wer<t used; the normal station pract1ce, consisting of 200 kg N/ha applied each crop cycle, and a low N environment, produced by ~rowing a green maize crop three times in succession and cutting and removing 1t at flowering. Significant (P< =0.08) cultivar x N level interactions for grain yield were observed.An experimental variety, Across 8328 (Table 2), was selected from the cultivar trial as the entry with the highest N-use efficiency, and 250 full-sib families were created within it. These were ~rown in three replications under the two soil N levels in single row plots. The supenor 50 families were selected from an index designed to give high grain yield under high and low N, high ear leaf chlorophyll when measured two weeks after flowering under low N, reduced ASI, large ear leaf area and a large number of green leaves below the ear four weeks after flowering under low N. Correlations between these traits and grain yield under low N for progenies and a subset of cultivars (Table 6) showed strong associations between yield and traits associated with the level and maintenance of actively photosynthesizing leaf area under low N. This was especially true of the easily  measured trait, chlorophyll per unit ear leaf area (Lafitte and Edmeades, 1987), measured with a portable chlorophyll photometer (Hardacre et al., 1984). This selection index has been used to select superior progeny during three selection cycles, and to identify superior source germplasm from among landrace and elite cultivars. A preliminary evaluation of progress for improved grain yield under reduced N indicated that selection for yield alone under low N gave less progress than selection for the index of traits listed above. A final evaluation of progress from recurrent selection is currently underway, and selections from Across 8328 are available for distribution to national programs.Acid soil.s are, in ~en~ral, lo~in availa;ble phosphorus (P), low in base . exchange capaCIty and hIgh 10 leachmg capaCIty (Clark, 1982). They may be toXIC to many crops as they frequently contain excessive amounts of exchangeable aluminum. The biological and physiological effects of excess aluminum on plants have been summarized by Foy (1983). Pieri (1985) indicated that acid soils with low fertility in the humid tropical zones of Africa affect large areas in the coastal zone of the Benin Gulf, the Adamaoua plateau of Cameroon, the Congo Basin, the high plateau of Madagascar and the highlands dividing the Congo and Nile Basins. Soil acidity is thought to be a limiting factor to maize yields in several African countries (An~ola, Burundi, La Reunion, Swaziland, NigerIa, Tanzania, Guinea, Cameroon), and IS widespread in South America (Magnavaca, 1982). Increasing soil acidity as a result of cropping activities, and the corresponding high levels of exchangeable aluminum that accompany this increase, are becoming important limiting factors to crop productivity in the semi-arid tropics of Africa (PIeri, 1985). Liming is recognized as an appropriate practice to correct soil acidity, but the cost of the lime, the difficulty of its availability and application, and the incompatibility of deep liming with zero tillage practIces limit its use by smallholders.With this in mind, breeding for tolerance to high aluminum and acid soil conditions is recognized as a cost-effective way t,o exploit acid soils for maize production. Since 1984 the main objective of CIMMYTs South American Regional Maize Program located in CIAT Colombia has been to develop superior aluminum tolerant cultivars (S. Pandey and G. Granados, pers. comm., 1984). This program is cooperating with countries where acid soils of Latin America occur. Presently the program is handling seven populations which were developed as follows:SAo! Population Suwan•La Posta Blanco and SA-2 Population Suwan-La Posta Amarillo: These two populations are based on white and yellow segregates selected frotn a cross between Suwan-l and La Posta, combining downy mildew resistance from Suwan-1 with resistance to foliar and stalk diseases from La Posta. Since 1986 these populations have been under improvement for agronomic traits and acid soil tolerance. Cateto collections from Brazil were introgressed and the resulting population was improved using modified ear-to-row selection scheme under aluminum saturations of approximately 40% and 75%. This population now has good levels of tolerance to soil aluminum and satisfactory agronomic characteristics. SA-4 Tropical yellow population-I; SA-S Tropical yellow population-2; SA-6 Tropical white population-3; SAo' Tropical white population-4: In 1985 seed was obtained from Al tolerant materials of national programs, as we11 as from stable, high yieldin~varieties from CIMMYT useful in non-acid soils of Asia, Africa and Latin Amenca. In 198636 materials were planted for selfing and seed increase. Seed from selfed ears (613 yellow and 618 white) was saved. Seed from increases was used to conduct international aluminum vanety trials (ALUMVARS) in 1987-88 to see if these materials were directly useful, and to determine their initial characteristics (S. Pandey, pers. corom., 1988).In 1987, at CIAT-Cali, the S1 yellow lines were topcrossed to two yellow heterotic lines from ICA, Colombia, and the S1 white lines topcrossed to two other heterotic ICA white lines. On the basis of ~~performance of the lines in the topcross formation blocks, topcrosses of 250 lines from each group were harvested for further evaluation. In the second season of 1987 the 613 yellow and 618 white S1 lines were evaluated under three different conditions:1) a1 id soil in four different countries.2) 2 factorial combination of aluminum saturation and available phosphorus 3) non-acid soil conditions. The topcrosses were evaluated in a modified lattice, with the two topcrosses of a line planted side by side. In 1988 they were evaluated at Santander Quilachao under aCid soil conditions and in 1987 and 1988 at CIAT under non-acid soil conditions. In 1988 second season, on the basis of the ~~performance of the lines, as well as heterotic patterns, the four populations were developed. The yellow populations (SA-4 and SA-5) form a heterotic pair, as do the white populations (SA-6 and SA-7).All seven populations are presently under improvement in the CIMMYT's South American Regional program in CIAT Colombia, and are available to national pro~ams on request. The breeding scheme includes regional and/or international testmg to allow mterested national programs to evaluate and select useful cultivars for their countries. Maize is attacked by a wide range of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases, each contributing to the low maize yields of sub-Saharan African farmers, and some with the potential to reduce yield disastrously (Kim et aI., 1989).CIMMYT mega-environment data (Table 1) show the widespread incidence of ear rots (73% area), leaf blights (68% area), streak (60% area) and stalk rots (25% area). Ear rot is very important because it reduces yield and nutritive value of infected grain, and may lead to mycotoxin formation, thereby constituting a health threat to humans and animals. Downy mildew occurs in limited areas, including Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Nigeria and Somalia. Maize stripe virus (MStpV), though limited in locality, often causes severe damage, sometimes destroying entire crops (Marchand and Hainzelin, 1986). More localized diseases, or those of minor importance, include Sugarcane MosaIC Virus (SCMV), Maize mottle/chlorotic stunt, Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus (MDMV), Curvularia spp. and Physoderma spp. (Fajemis.in, 1986).Maize diseases may be controlled through management practices such as the use of fungicides, maintenance of soil fertility and crop rotations. However, it is generally acknowledged that the most cost-effective method of controlling maize diseases is through the development of resistant germplasm. Breeding for disease resistant maize cultivars has been, and remains, one of the primary objectives of most breeders in African national and regional programs, as well as at lITA and CIMMYT.In CIMMYTs Maize Program in Mexico, selection pressure is continuously exerted for resistance to leaf blights, rusts, and ear and stalk rots, using reliable artificial inoculation techniques on pro&enies of populations. Further selection for these and other diseases is made by natIOnal program cooperators when they evaluate CIMMYT germplasm in Internation~l Proseny Testing Trials (IPTfs). Methodology and results have been reported by SmIth and Cordova (1987), Mihm and Renfro (1987) and de Leon and Pandey (1989). In addition, CIMMYT monitors important diseases in various earts of the world in an attempt to identify new sources of resistance and possIble changes in pathogens whIch may lead to a breakdown in existing sources of resistance. Recently the maize program began screening for resistance to the tarspot complex (Phyllachora maydis and Monographella maydis), which could pose a future threat to maize production in many ecologies (CIMMYT, 1988a).In order to improve resistance to diseases for which selection cannot be done efficiently in Mexico, CIMMYT Maize staff, since 1974, have been engaged in cooperative projects with various research institutes and national programs (Thailand and Philippines for downy mildew, EI Salvador and Nicaragua for corn stunt and Tanzania and IITA for streak). Rapid pro~ress has been made in the improvement of resistance to downy mildew and maIze streak, and resistant germplasm has been deployed by national programs (lITA, 1987;Soto et aI., 1982;CIMMYT, 1985;1988a;Bjarnason, 1986;Fajemisin et aI., 1985, Mihm andRenfro, 1987). Many diseases coexist in the same ecological wne, for example, downy mildew and streak in Africa. This highlights the need to develop multiple disease resistant material. Consequently, the CIMMYT West African Maize Program is currently combining downy mildew resistance with streak resistance.CIMMYTs station at Harare is concentrating on the tropical mid-altitude ecology, characterized by the prevalence of E. turcicum, r. ~and stalk and ear rots. One of the main deficiencies in the germplasm of this regIOn is the lack of streak resistance, which can be obtained by recurrent selection or backcross breeding techniques (Kim et aI., 1989). The station has mass rearing facilities for Cicadulina leafhopper, the major vector of maize streak virus, and streak resistance will be incorporated into the majority of this program's germplasm. The CIMMYT Maize Breeder based at the lITA Savanna Substation in Cote d'Ivoire, using similar methods, will also incorporate resistance to streak into appropriate germplasm and make it available to natIOnal programs of the region. lITA, Nigeria, has developed lines resistant to maize streak virus, maize mottle virus, P. polysora, H maydis, P. sorghi and E. turcicum.As a result of cooperation among national programs and regional and international organizations, germplasm with resistance to the most important maize diseases prevalent in Africa (streak, downy mildew, H maydis, and E. turcicum) is now available from CIMMYT aI1d lITA (Table 7). Other sources of resistance to specific diseases are available elsewhere. For example, Buddenhagen (1985) noted that downy mildew resistant lines are available from Thailand and Venezuela. Australia has trop'icallines resistant to P. polysora, E. turcicum, MDMV-A, and Sphacelotheca relliana. Lines with some tropical adaptation have been developed in Hawaii with resistance to MMV, P. sorghi and E. turcicum, and lines exist in Kenya and Zimbabwe with resistance to P. sorghi and E. turcicum.Insect pests are among some of the key factors limiting maize yield in sub-Saharan Africa. According to CIMMYT estimates, 94% of the maize area is affected by various stem borers, 19% by termites, 20% by storage insects and 17% by rootworm and cutworm. The trend toward greater cropping intensity and area expansion, the tendency of encouraging minimum or conservation tillage practices, and the practice of leaving all or some crop residues on the soil surface are potential causal factors for insect build up. Concerns for environmental contamination and long term effects of pesticide use on human health are rising, and it is almost certain that toxic chemicals for pest control will not be included in pest mana~ement practices of the 21st century (Mihm and Renfro, 1987). Varietal resistance is recognized as tbe ideal pest mana~ement strategy for resource-limited farmers. This argument is stronger for Afnca's small subsistence farmers who use multiple cropping systems and who have an inadequate knowled~e about pesticides and their safe use.Breeding for tolerance and reSistance to insects has been a continuing concern of CIMMYTs Maize Program, whose objective is to develop host plant resistance (HPR) to the most important maize insects. At first CIMMYT's strategy was to build resistance to insects in ~eneral-purpose populations using modified half-sib and full-sib recurrent selectiOn, and to develop experimental varieties resistant to insects pests (Ortega et aI., 1980;Vasal et aI., 1982;Mihm, 1982;1983a;1983b). To meet this need, an insect rearing facility was developed at CIMMYT in 1974. Four insect species are currently being reared: fall armyworm (Spodoptera [rugiperda) (FAW), sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis) (SCB), southwestern corn borer (Diatraea grandiosella) (SWCB), and corn earworm (Heliothis zea). The components necessary for implementing a program of breeding for resistance to insects, the techniques for efficient mass-rearing and infestation as well as for selection have been described by Ortega et aI., (1980) and Mihm (1982;1983a' 1985).In 1983 CIMMYT attempted to speed up delivery of resistant germplasm to cooperating national programs by developing experimental varieties from families showing higher levels of resistance in artificially infested nurseries. The first varieties formed were included in preliminary evaluation trials durin~1985 to assess their agronomic J?erformance. With this approach, some gains in resistance have been made both III varieties and at the population level, but they have been small and progress has been slow because of low gene frequencies and competitive selection concerns (Mihm et at, 1988).Recently, along with the development of general-purpose populations, CIMM 1\"s Maize Program embarked on the development of special-purpose populations, including the development of source germplasm With resistance to multiple insect species, and the international testing of these sources. The first pop lation, named Multiple Borer Resistant (MBR), was formed from subtropical and temperate materials re~rted to have high or intermediate levels of resistance to FAW, Ostrinia nubilalis ubner), SWCB, SCB and Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Benson, 1986;Mihm, 198 ;Smith et aI., 1987). Fig. 3 shows operations and breeding methodology used in developing MB , inbred line extraction and the formation of experimental varieties and non-conventional hybrids from this material (for more details see Smith et aI., 1987).The information provided by cooperators (i.e., advanced programs with mass insect rearing and screening capabilities) will help CIMMYT scientists select the best progenies for further improvement of the population. It will also help in the development of insect resistant experimental varieties useful to cooperators in national programs that are located in areas where these pest species occur, even though these scientists may not have the facilities for rearing and artificial infestation needed to develop their own resistant materials. This new population will be useful in the mid-altitude tropical environment of sub-Saharan Africa as a   source of insect resistance, and is currently under improvement for leaf disease resistance.To meet the requirements of maize farmers in the lowland tropics, the entomology program is developing a multiple insect resistant tropical (MIRn population (Mihm, 1986, Smith et. al., 1987). It is composed of germplasm adapted to the tropical lowlands, and includes selections resistant to FAW and SCB from CIMMYT pools and populations, from Antigua collections in the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank, and from University of Mississippi lines. Crosses to sources of downy mildew and streak resistance are also included. Table 8 lists materials that have been selected for insect resistance at CIMMYT that are presently available for limited testing.The CIMMYT wide cross program is also working on maize x Tripsacum crosses, and has identified a Triosacum clone with apparent resistance to SWCB.Effort is being devoted to incorporating this resistance via an integrated HPR program at CIMMYT.Throughout the tropics, maize is often left to dry in the field for sevetal months prior to harvest, and the unhusked ears are commonly stored without insecticide treatment. To help these farmers, CIMMYT maize breeders have placed increased emphasis on improved husk cover in all germplasm (CIMMYT, 1985). The entomology program has begun screening germplasm and improved varieties for resistance to the maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, and the larger grain borer, Prostephanus truncatus. Significant differences among maize cultivars for resistance have been found. Some of the more resistant materials identified include varieties from CIMMYTs improved high yielding germplasm (Mihm and Renfro, 1987).CIMMYT has developed a wide range of quality protein (QPM) materials with adaptation to both troJ;>lcal and subtropical regions. These materials carry the opaque-2 gene in combinatIOn with modifier genes that increase endosperm hardness, and have levels of the essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophane, 50-60% higher than in normal maize, where their levels impose a limit on maize protein quality for monogastric nutrition. The protein in QPM has, therefore, a significantly higher biological value than that of normal maize.Until recently the emphasis in the program was on the development of the broad-based populations with good agronomic characters from which experimental varieties were extracted for testing and possible release by national programs. Now the program emphasizes the development of inbred lines for use in hybrid corpbinations, and for the development of synthetics which can be used as openpollinated varieties where this is appropriate. CIMMYT plans to develop both conventional hybrids (three-way and double crosses), and various types of nonconventional hybrids (at least one parent of non-inbred origin), such as top-cross hybrids and family hybrids.OMMYT's OPM program will concentrate on selected target countries where the national program has shown interest in and commitment to QPM development, and where this material has high potential for making an impact on the nutritional value of food and feed. In addition to improving the protein quality of human diets which are based principally on maize, QPM could prove important as a component of feed in countries which rely heavily on imports of protein concentrates for the feed industry. QPM maize varieties and hybrids with good agronomic performance and adequate disease resistance (e.g., streak) are now available (Table 9) for more intensive testing in selected target countries. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------  There is a good indication that prolificacy reduces barrenness and the presence of the second ear does not induce barreness of first ear.For the primary factors evaluated in our drought studies, cultivar and stage of growth interaction have not been widely observed.The CV's for our MBR progenies trials have been variable depending on the location.We at this time do not have sufficient information to be able to make recommendations for various levels of N for the low N treatment. The Maize Research Station at Harare was established in 1985 to address the need for a greater array of germplasm to fit the mid-altitude ecologies. CIMMYT defines the mid-altitude ecology as those areas in the tropics between 900 and 1700 masl. It is estimated that in Africa alone over 6 million hectares are grown in this environment. Demand for these materials also exists in Latin America and Asia. Initially it was decided that the station should be situated in Eastern or Southern Africa. The Harare location was selected with the cooperation of the government and the University of Zimbabwe. The choice of this location provided the opportunity to incorporate streak virus resistance, a characteristic which is essential in many areas where this germplasm is utilized. The prevalence of COIIUllon rust P. sorghi and northern blight H turcicum also provided the opportunity to increase resistance to these two important diseases.In early 1988, work on the station was expanded to include breeding activities and streak resistance work on lowland tropical germplasm. Materials targeted for the lowland zones of Africa should ideally have resistance to this disease. The work of the station at Harare is not only a regional activity but is an extension of CIMMYT's global maize germplasm development network.The rese(.lIch programs are using 11 hectares of land at the University Farm outside Harare, (1500 masl) two yield evaluation sites (Rattray Arnold 1300 masl and Glendale 1200 masl) and a 4 hectare winter nursery at Mzarabani (480 masl). In addition tropical materials are developed on an additional two hectares at Mzarabani and Chisumbanje (400 masl) in the summer season. There are a total of 720 square meters of greenhouse facilities for mass rearing Cicadulina leafhoppers, an entomologyjpathology laboratory, and a seed preparation complex with a 10 degree centigrade seed storage room.Disease resistance breeding for both the tropical and midaltitude germplasm is an important component of the research at the Zimbabwe station.The major disease problems in the tropical germplasm are H. maydis and P. polysora. H turcicum and P. sorglli resistance are essential for materials in the mid-altitude environments. High levels of P.sorghi at the sites used by the mid-altitude program have facilitated the screening of materials under natural conditions. Artificial turcicum inoculations are being done with chopped, diseased leaves at several stages early in the development. It is also essential that germplasm for use in both these environments have adequate levels of resistance to ear and stalk rots caused by Diplodia and Fusarium spp.When the laboratory becomes fully operational later this year It will be possible to use artificial inoculation lechniques for greater precision in screening for resi lance to these diseases.Maize streak virus, transmi ned by leafhoppers of the Cicadulina spp., is an important disease in most of the maize production environments in Africa. Considerable emphasis is placed in both the tropical and mid-altitude research programs for incorporation of resistance to this disease. To date most of the resistant sources utilized for incorporating resistance into our sermplasm are those obtained from the work of llTA\\CIMMYT at Ibadan, Nigena. This has meant that we have been obliged to use predominantly tropical germplasm sources in crosses with our mid altitude materials. We have concentrated on rearing the spp C. mbila, which is the most efficient transmitter of the  There are about 2 million ha. of lowland tropical maize grown in Eastern and Southern Africa. The early white flints account for 30% of the maize in these regions. In other areas of Africa intermediate and late white dents are very important. The main objective of the program is to develop maize germplasm which addresses specific constraints in the region. Highest pnority at the moment is placed on the llllprovement of streak virus resistance. Considerable emphasis is placed on breeding for earliness and harder grain types. Breeding efforts are also directed at improving agronomic characters,. yield and yield stability, and levels of resistance to important leaf, stalk, and ear patho~ens. Development of materials with higher tolerance to soil moisture stress for cultivation m marginal areas is another area of Importance.To effectively address these objectives several breeding methodologies are utilized: 1.Conventional backcrossing -for rapidly incorporating streak resistance into elite materials. The products from this approach are potential sources for population improvement work.Recurrent selection -in the population improvement program, depending on research objectives and the stage of population improvement, S1, S2 or full sib families are evaluated at selected lowland sites for yield performance and other agronomic characters.Continued screening -selecting and creation of newer germplasm complexes to feed into the population improvement program.Backcrossin~is a proven rapid method for incorporating streak resistance into elite materials thus proVIding national programs with an intermediate product of known agronomic value. The technique has provided a wide range of streak resistant sources, with good agronomic characteristics, which are being used in population improvement programs.The program at the CIMMYT Harare Station is a continuation of the joint activity carried out by CIMMYT and UTA at Thadan from 1980 to 1988. During this period many elite materials were converted to streak resistance and advanced to the 5th and 6th backcross stages (Fig. 1 & Table 1). During the first cycle of evaluation of these materials at Harare, observed levels of streak expression were quite severe. Similar germplasm planted at the Mzarabani lowland evaluation site did not give an equally severe reaction.Viliferous hoppers from the same colony were used in both instances, thus it is unlikely that the observations were strain related. The cooler temperature at the mid altitude site appears to enhance disease expression. Additional studies have been initiated to further clarify the effects of low night temperature on the expression of the disease. Additional populations in the early stages of backcrossing are listed in Table 2. Early and intermediate white pools from CIMMYT (Pools 15,18,19,and 20) and 18 maize populations with good agronomic characters from Thailand, Tanzania, and the Philippines are being crossed to streak resistant donors. These will provide a broad germplasm base for future population improvement work either at the station or by interested national programs.The conversion of elite materials identified through the international testing program or germplasm with special characteristics such as insect, disease or drought tolerance will continue to be a part of the lowland tropical program.In the coming season we have agreed to undertake the streak resistant conversion of two varieties from national programs; Katumani from Kenya and Kito from Tanzania. We think that it is important that we continue to provide this type of short term assistance to national breeding programs in the region.During the past years the conversion program produced many streak resistant donors with good agronomic performance. At present these are being utilized in the conversion program and as parent sources for the breeding program. Emphasis is, however, shifting from the backcrossing program to a more concerted effort with recurrent selection in streak resistant populations where factors such as yield are given high priority. Population Improvement Most of the lowland tropical streak work carried out in collaboration with IITA involved the conversion of elite sources. However, CIMMYT population 43 (La Posta) was crossed to a streak source and improved through recurrent selection at Ibadan. After 4 cycles of selection the levels of resistance in the population was adequate for the material to be returned to Mexico to re-enter the international testing program.Early and intermediate white ~ermp'lasm are the predominant types utilized by programs in tropical Africa. We are Identifying superior streak resistant germplasm m these categories. It is hoped that these materials will form the base of new resIstant populations for the continent. One new population (Suwan l-SR x Compo E1-W) being formed is already showing high levels of streak resistance and good husk cover characteristics.The CIMMYT mid-altitude maize research station was established in Harare with the specific goals of broadening the mid-altitude germplasm base and (or the incorporation of performance limiting characteristics into adapted mid-altitude maizeoackgrounds. Initial germplasm improvement efforts concentrated on the collection and evaluation of a wide array of maize germplasm sources. Materials were collected from the CIMMYT Mexico program, IITA/CIMMYT streak conversion program, elite populations, hybrids and inbreds from national breeding programs in Eastern and Southern Africa. and U.S. temperate inbreds and populations. These maize germplasm sources were evaluated in per se testing as well as in combinations. It was quickly observed that considerable population heterosis was achieved when some of these matenals were used in combinations. Many of these new combinations were found to have specific characteristics which gave performance enhancements in the mid-altitude environment.Early observations led to the development of a multi-stage recurrent selection breeding program. The breeding methodology has been designed to remove specific deficiencies while simultaneously generating improved maize products for distribution to national program cooperators. Three main products are being developed for <;listribution:1.Narrow and broad based populations for utilization as varieties or in continued population improvement.Early generation inbreds (S2-S4 bulks) characterized for streak virus resistance, H. turcicum, P. sorghi, combining ability or other traits of value in the environment.Streak resistant conversions of existing mid-altitude germplasm. The research goal of the mid-altitude program is to increase yield stability in major mega-environments or Eastern and Southern Africa. The program will be responsive to product needs expressed by national maize research programs. Specific priorities to achieve the research goal are as follows:1.Incorporate streak resistance into the majority of the program's components.Maintain high levels of resistance to H.turcicum and P.sorghi.Increase stalk and root lodging resistance.Increase ear rot resistance to Fusarium and Dip/oidia.Identify and improve early germplasm sources.Initiate development of drought tolerant materials.Explore techniques for increasing N use efficiency.Develop a small quality protein maize (QPM) program.Develop more sources with harder grain texture.A recurrent selection breeding strategy is the main focus of the maize improvement program for the mid-altitude environment. An important attribute of this system is the continuous creation and creening of potential breeding populations. This breeding strategy assumes that reliance on a fixed set of breeding populations severely limits a breeder's opportunity to create, and exploit new and useful genetic variability. The continuous creation of new, closed populati ns creates a dynamic germplasm flow where refinement and evaluation of specific populations leads to options such as; advancement and furtber improvement of the populations, their use as breeding ~arents, or their distribution as seed parents. The populations can also be discarded at any time if they do not prove to be useful or unique sources (Fig. 1). In addition, a more traditIOnal long term improvement program with several fixed elite populations will be implemented.51 recurrent selection was the main activity in the population improvement effort. Fourteen populations and 4500 Sllines were evaluat d for resistance to maize streak virus. Seven populations and 1250 S1 lines were evaluated for per se performance and resistance to H. twdcum and P. sorghi. Twenty three populations were advanced from the Fl to F2 stage in the recurrent selection scheme. Advanced line development continued with 4700 S3 to So lines ori¢nating from the recurrent selection spin~offs and other sources.Yield testmg was done at three locations; Harare, with an altitude of 1500 masl is the main research station site where both yield testing and recurrent selection programs   were implemented. The Rattray Arnold Research Station (1300 masl) and the Glendale site (1200 masl) were used for yield testing only. High levels of P. sorghi were noted at all sites. Again this year low levels of P. polysora were observed at the Glendale site. H.turcicum was sporadically present at all three sites but at levels less than required for good differentiation between materials.Several tests rep-resenting the stages of the population development program were used to evaluate 230 dIfferent germplasm complexes. A top cross test for GCA assessment was planted at two sites. Plant populations were 53,OOO/ha at Harare, 44,OOOjha at Rattray Arnold, and 40,OOOjha at Glendale.Excellent differentiation for resistance to streak virus was observed in the S1lines from the 14 populations evaluated. These populations were all in the first cycle of recurrent selection following the formation and recombination phases. The frequency of S1's having some level of resistance is less than that observed in S1's from Revolution (Fig. 2). However, sufficient variability existed to make selections from lines rated excellent to good for streak resistance. Selected populations such as EV7992/EVPOP43SR displayed a much higher frequency of resistant segregants (Fig. 3). These results indicate that sufficient levels o(streak resistance may be incorporated early in the population building process, while maintaining performance levels. The rapid early incorporation of streak resistance can perhaps now be followed with a greater emphasis on other equally important constraints present in the target environments.Evaluations over several seasons has identified several new populations that are showing considerable yield improvement over existing streak resistant conversions and other mid-altitude adapted populations (Table 3). Several of these populations are competing well with excellent Zimbabwe hybrids such as ZS225 and R201.It appears that mid-altitude adapted sources and even some tropical materials can be successfully combined with materials having streak resistance. These complex populations can then serve as more suitable parental types for further recurrent selection, sources of narrow based synthetics or for inbred development.Table 3.Performance of new populations relative to existing populations and hybrids         Evaluation of newly formed F1 populations is a part of the identification process for selecting new populations for evaluation at the F2 level. F1 populations need to display a comparative advantage before they are tested at the F2 level and the subsequent possible entry into a recurrent selection pro~ram. A number of the new F1 germplasm complexes are exhibiting excellent yields relatIve to Zimbabwe hybrids such as SR52 and RZ01 (Table 4).However it appears that greater emphasis needs to be placed on identification of materials with a maturity similar to or earlier than R201. The Sl recurrent selection program generates a sizable number of early generation lines which have been selected for one or several traits such as performance, streak resistance, H turcicum resistance or P.sorghi resistance. These S2 bulks were topcrossed to provide an estimate of GCA Performance of the best 20 of these relative to the late, high yielding, yellow Zimbabwe hybrid ZS206; and R201, the early hybrid of preference for marginal environments, are presented in Table 5 . The testers used were the Zimbabwe sin~le cross hybrid ZS107 and ZL00601 (early generation name = 100rnsrdent49), a streak resIstant line. Selected top cross entries do hold potential for further evaluation (Table 6). Yield and resistance to ear rots appear to be useful traits in the new early generation lines. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on early lines. The best of those lines identified in the top cross test have been advanced to the S4 level. The tester ZIOO601 has shown excellent «ombining ability, harder grain texture and a reduction in ear rots relative to ZS107 (Table 7). It has good streak, P.sorghi and Hturcicum resistance levels.  -----------------------------------------------------------      A major objective of the CIMMYT mid-altitude research effort has been to incorporate these sources of streak resistance into higher yielding, better adapted populations for the mid-altitude environment. Several materials are providing the adaption required plus showing good heterosis when combined with some of the streak resistant conversions. CIMMYT Highland transitIOn late white semi-dent Zimbabwe late white dent population Building of source populations has also utilized the considerable adaptation and yield advantage found in the commercially available Zimbabwe hybrids such as SR52, R201, ZS225 and ZS206. Sources of U.S. temperate com belt materials are also incorporated in several of the populations in recurrent selection. ,The information gained over the last several years of CIMMYT's involvement in breeding maize for the mid-altitude environment indicates:1.Useful variability and source populations exist for the mid-altitude environment.These source populations per se do not provide the best yield potential and other necessary attributes for the constraints present in the region.Elite parental types have been most successfully formed using these source popu[ations as building blocks to the desired product. An innovative research agenda is needed to effectively serve the germplasm needs of the region. The mid-altitude program will continue with the present methodology with several modifications for the future. Greater emphasis will be placed on the development of populations which fit heterotic groupings. Identification of the most appropriate testers for use in discernin~correct heterotic group placement is crucial to the success of this effort. Drought reSIstant germplasm development will begin with a Zimbabwe-Mexico shuttle this year using the techniques developed in the physiology pro~ram at CIMMYT. Initial exploratory work with screening Sllines for N use efficiency Wlll also be initiated this year.Empig. How many distinct sources for streak resistance have you identified? the genes involved allelic? How many are they? The CIMMYf headquarters highland maize program is responsible for developing improved maize germplasm for the coolest areas where maize is grown or can be introduced in the developing countries. An estimated 10% of the maize areas in the developing countries fit the climatic requirements for highland maize. Highland maizes thrive in areas with mean growing season temperatures less than 20 0 C, but above 12.S o C. The base temperature for highland maize growth is estimated to be ~C. Most highland maizes cannot tolerate extended periods of daily hlgh temperatures much above 2SOC~In the tropics, these temperature regimes are found anywhere from 1200•3800 masl (3900-UOOO ft. above sea level). It is extremely difficult to predict temperatures at a given altitude in tropical regions because of the dual efTects of latitude and micro-climatic factors.Highland maize originated in the highlands of Mexico. There is evidence for a second and minor center of origin in the Guatemala highlands. The Andean highlands is a center of diversity, but it is hypothesized that bighland maize was introduced there. Highland maizes have been introduced into some African highland environments, where the highland transition zone maize Ecuador 573 has proven extremely valuable. Improved highland maizes are just now being introduced into the Asian highlands.The CIMMYT highland maize program developed 14 gene pools with flint dent, and Ooury endosperm in the early 1970's. Then the focus shifted to development of morocho and Ooury grain types for the Andean highlands from 1978-1984. The national programs in the Andean highland zone can now continue the improvement of their unique morocho and Ooury germplasm with less direct support from CIMMYf headquarters. Consequently, the headquarters program now is concentrating on the development of improved germplasm with hard grain type, which accounts for about 92% of the estimated demand, according to the CIMMYf megaenvironment data. Populations have been developed with dramatically improved plant type, and good early generation inbred lines are already available from populations adapted to the various highland mega• environments. This array of highland germ plasm is available upon request, and should prove useful especially in the higher altitude areas of Africa and Asia where no or little maize is presently grown.Highland Maize' Origin, Spread, and Special Characteristics:Many experts agree that maize (Zeamays) was derived from teosinte and espedally the Mexican teosintes (Galinat. 1988;Beadle, 1977;M Clintock. 1977.). Others hypothesize that maize co-evolved with teosinte (Mangelsdorf, 1974). Most evidence points to a first domestication in Mexico about 7000 years ago (Mangelsdorf, 1974;MacNeish, 1985;Goodman, 1988). Wilkes (1979) hypothesized that maize was domesticated in the central highlands of Mexico from an ancestral wild highland maize. From this prototypic maize, cold tolerant highland ma.izes evolved early on in Mexico and perhaps Guatemala. The highland maizes of the Andean region of South America probably originated in Guatemala (Goodman and Brown, 1988;McClintock, 1977). Earliest domesticates in the Andean highlands are 1. Breeder, Hi~and Maize Program, CIMMYT, El Batan, Mexico dated to 4000 years ago (Grobman and Bonavia, 1978). By the time the Spanish conquerors arrived in the 1500's, native Americans had selected and domesticated a wide variety of highland maize types grown as high as 3000 masl in Mexico, and 3800 masl in the Andean highlands. The main grain types selected were semi-dent, floury, morocho, popcorn, and sweetcorn.Europeans collected maize from all elevations and took the seed to Europe for testing. Highland germplasm, especially Mexican hi~land germplasm, was well represented in the initial introductions grown in Spain m the late 1490's (Trifunovic 1977). It is p!obable that some of the cold tolerance in the European flints traces back to highland introductions.In Africa, the introduction of the highland transition wne maiie Ecuador 573 in 1959 has had a great impact (Gerhart, 1975). The current effort by CIMMYT to introduce true highland maizes into areas where maize is not now grown, may have a major impact on improving African farmers' circumstances by increasing the diversity of suitable crops in zones now predominated by barley, wheat, potatoes, peas, and broad beans. CIMMYT is also currently in the process of introducing highland maizes into Asia.Maize has a much broader range of temperature adaptation than other important cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, and sorghum. In very warm tropical lowland regions mean growing season temperatures may exceed 26°C, while in the coolest highland regions the mean may be as low as 12.5°e. CIMMYT breeds true highland maizes in Mexico at experiment stations with growing season mean temperatures of 15.9 0 C (EI Batan) and 13.3 0 C (Toluca). Probably the most important adaptive mechanism of highland maize to cope with cool temperatures, especially nights below lOoC, is an efficient enzyme system that allows it to continue metabolizing at temperatures too low for other maizes. In the very cool Toluca (13.3°C) environment all non-highland maizes are very yellow and grow very slowly in the vegetative stage. The ability of highland maize to maintain a high chlorophyll concentration under very cool temperature regimes has been well documented (Eagles, 1986;Stamp, 1985). Secondary plant characters such as purple and highly pubescent stems playa role in helping the plant maintain favorable teml2.eratures in the face of cool conditions. The Mexican national maize program uses 6 u C as the base temperature for highland maize when calculating heat units. This is 4 0 C less than the usual standard of Woe. It is commonly observed that most highland maize germplasm has deep purple stem color. Darker stem colors have been shown to increase plant temperatures in Peru and Canada (Greenblatt, 1968;Chong and Brawn, 1969). We have tested the value of purple vs. green stems in two highland pools after two generations of phenOtypIC assortative mating for stem color.In a 1988 yield test in Toluca (13.3°C), the purple stemmed selections yielded a significant 19% more grain than the green stemmed selections when averaged over both pools. In one gene pool, Pool lOA. the yield advantage of the purple stemmed selection was 36%. Associated with the higher yield of the purple plants were increased plant height and reduced ear rot. Deep purple stem color is one of the most important criteria for selection in CIMMYT highland populations being bred for the coolest environments.Frost and hail occur unpredictably in many highland environments. Highland farmers who plant maize in very high valleys are aware of the paradox that there is greater probability of frost damage in the lowest part of the valley than higher up on the slopes. No maize can survive prolonged freezmg temperatures. But there is genetic variability for the ability to survive light frosts. A Sept. 10, 1988 frost of -0.8 0 C in Toluca caused no significant damage to local maizes, but completely burned the leaves of exotic maizes. We made some selections for frost tolerance in local x exotic crosses. We normally experieoce..three to five hailstorms per growing season at our Batan and Toluca stations. Heavy hail damage at anthesis causes maximum yield losses. Local hi~land maizes have evolved a leaf architecture that confers partial resistance to haiT damage. Leaves are thick, leathery, narrow, and extremely droopy. In an Augu t 21, 1989 hailstorm these plant types preserved some leaf area, while more erect leaf types were stripped to the midrib.The CIMMYT highland maize program aims to develop imprQved germplasm for the coolest maize environments in dev~loping countries (Appendix 1). As of July 1988, there are an estimated 6.2 million known hectares of hIghland maize in the developin$ countries. Most highland hectarage is sown to hard grain types (93%), followed In importance by floury (4%) and morocho (3%) grain types. The morocho grain is floury but with a hard outer cap. It is convenient to classify these cold enVIronments into three mega-environments: 1) tropical highlands 2) tropical highland transitional zones 3) temperate highlands (FIgure 1).The tropical hi~hland zone encompasses on estimated 3.3 million ha &54% of the world total). TropIcal highland maize grows in the latitudinal range 0-30 N. and S., normally at altitudes from 2000-3600 meters above sea level. Mean growins eason temperatures vary from 12-17 o C, and night temperatures fall below 10 C throughout the growing season. Daytime high temperatures rarely exceed 26°C. This group is unique among all maIzes because of its extreme cold tolerance, and it is easily separated from the tropical highland transitional group because in the tropical highlands night temperatures are too cool to allow significant natural epidemics of H turcicum (Exserohilum turcicum). The major foliar disease problem in unadapted materials in the tropical highlands is common rust (P. sorghi). A low level of resistance to H. turcicum is required, and other diseases such as Cercospora are important in some areas. Fine stripe virus can be a problem in certain areas without a pronounced dry season. Ear and stalk rots incited by Fusarium spp. are a universal problem. Insects are not generally a problem, although the corn earworm (Heliothis zea) is a serious problem in floury and morocho germplasm in South America. Drought is the major abiotic stress. Some tolerance to freezing temperatures and cool nights is necessary, as is partial tolerance to hail damage.The highland maize germplasm, represepted by land races, developed through natural and human selection in the highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, and the Andean zone of South America, actually has a fairly narrow germplasm base which is deficient in genetic variability for certain traits necessary for a modern, mechanized agriculture. These include greater resistance to root and stalk lodging, adaptability to minimum tillage systems, shorter plant and ear heights, and a faster ate of gram drying in the field. It will be necessary to continue gradually introgressing exotic germplasm into tropical highland germplasm without significantly reducing its outstanding cold tolerance, grain quality, ability to emerge from deep planting (Mexican highland germplasm), and its partial resistance to hail damage. At present, almost all of the tropical highland maize in the world is being grown in Mexico, Guatemala, Lesotho, and the Andean zone. However, there is great scope for introducing improved tropical hi~hland germplasm to the higher elevations of eastern and southern Africa, the Himalaya regions, southwest China, and West Irian-Papua New Guinea.The tropical highland transitional zones support an estimated 2.3 million ha of maize (38% of the world highland total). Tropical transitional zone maize grows in the latitudinal range 0-30 0 N. and S., at altitudes as low as 1200 meters and as high as 2600 m. Mean growing season temperatures vary from 17•19 0 C, and night temperatures during the growing season seldom drop much below lS o C. Conditions are often ideal for the development of the foliar disease H. turcicum and all germplasm for this zone should possess high levels of polygenic resistance to blight as well as some P. sorghi resistance. Efforts will be directed towards reducin~plant and ear heights, improving H turcicum resistance, introducing genes for resIStance to the Phyllachora maydis -Monographella maydis (tar spot) comrlex, streak virus, and continuing development of Pool 9B, a yellow version of Poo 9a (fonnerly CIMMYTs only transitional zone material.) Also in the development stage are early and intermediate maturity transition zone populations. Important abiotic stresses for this zone include low pH soils, drought stress in some areas, and occasional hail. Besides the diseases already mentioned, there are several ear and stalk rots incited by Fusarium and Diplodia spp. Important insect pests include Chilo and Busseola borers and the corn earworm. Since most of the hectara~e of the Pool 9a type is located in Africa, it is essential to develop mutually benefiCIal collaboration with African researchers in this zone. Improved yellow transitional zone maize is needed for areas such as Guatemala, Colombia, India, Nepal, China and other Asian countries.The temperate highland zones in the developing countries represent an estimated 0.5 million ha (8% of the world higWand total). This type of maize must be adapted to the fairly long daylengths that occur during the growing season at latitudes 30-42 0 N. or S. It must also be early, cold tolerant, and possess resistance to cool season diseases that occur in these high valleys at 1000-2500 m. Mean growing season temperatures range from 14-20°C., and both P. sorghi and H. tureicum resistance are required. Some resistance to H maydis may also be necessary during the hottest part of the summer. Fusarium ear and stalk rots are also important. Abiotic stresses include heat, cold, hail, drought, and frost. An unusual stress common in the Asian countries, especially Pakistan, is that initial plant densities are very high (Ca. 150,000 plts/ha). Before flowering, the maize is thinned to 70,000-85,000 plts/ha, and the thinnings are fed to livestock. Commonly encountered insects are the European Corn Borer and the corn earworm. Early results indicate that germplasm resulting from crosses between tropical highland and early temperate germplasm is promising for this zone. The hypothesis that some types of highland maize might be useful as winter maize in sub-tropical zones is also being tested. Since the temperate highland zone has a relatively low hectarage, the CIMMYT highland program will maintain work on development of germplasm for this zone as a relatively low priority.The method of germplasm improvement undertaken at CIMMYT for each highland population by the various breeders in charge over the years has varied greatly, but the aim has always been to develop improved highland germplasm in response to perceived needs of the developing countries. In the 1970's CIMMYT developed 14 broad based hi~hland gene pools for the tropical higWand megaenvironment. These were whIte and yellow; early, intermediate, and late; and flint, dent and floury grain textures. These gene pools were improved using the CIMMYT modified half-sib selection method. In 1976 five populations were formed from five of the 14 pools, and 250 half-sib progenies from each were evaluated in IPTfS (InternatIOnal Progeny Testing Trials). Some of the resulting experimental varieties were tested in the 1978 EVf 17 (Experimental Variety Trial).At this point, the CIMMYT nighland maize program shifted focus. Dr. Suketoshi Taba was posted to Quito, Ecuador with the task of improving the floury and morocho (floury with a bard outer cap) Andean maizes grown on about 450,000 ha. At headquarters the work on the five populations was terminate ,and work on the 14 pools wound down ~radually (after completing 5 cycles of selection in some pools) as resources were diverted to support the Andean effort Eight Andean gene pools were developed. They were improved by modified half-sib selection. An effort was made to use shuttle breeding and grow the early pools in Santa Catalina, Ecuador from October to March and in EI Batan from April to September. This proved difficult to accomplish, and selection at El Batan was made difficult by the extreme susceptibility of the Andean floury and morocho germplasm to the corn earworm (HellO/his zea) and Fusarium ear rots. Selection at El Batan tended to be counterproductive, since the large chalky grains desired by Andean consumers were highly susceptible to rot. Still, the shuttle breeding approach did help to improve broad adaptation, and useful Mexican and other exotic germplasm was introgressed into local Andean maizes. Especially notable has been the contribution of the Mexican floury race Cacahuacintle, and to a lesser extent the hard-grained Chalquenos, used in the Andean zone as forage maizes. An effort was also made to improve the earworm resistance of the floury maizes. This has proven very difficult, given the large soft grain !y'pe, a,nd work is still continuing.The Quito, Ecuador based Andean program ultimately developed 6 populations (3 floury and 3 morocho).The method employed involved international testing of 100 full-sib progenies, completing one cycle of selection in two years. National programs in the Andean region made use of the germplasm coming from the CIMMYT-Ecuador program, and strengthened their own programs. By 1985 the Andean national programs were strong enough that Dr. Taba could return to CIMMYT headquarters, while CIMMYT continued to support the Andean highland programs through its regional program based at Cali, Colombia. From 1978-1984 the major effort at CIMMYT headquarters had been to support the Andean program. However, work continued on some hard grain highland maize germplasm for the more than 4 million hectares of this grain type grown in Mexico, Central America, and Africa. CIMMYT breeders working in Africa had noted that the highlands of East Africa were much warmer than the Mexican and Andean highlands, and required entirely different germplasm. A late white semi-dent gene pool for these highlands was developed in the early 1980's (now named Pool 9A). Also, work continued on improving the plant type of tropical highland maizes by introgressing temperate and subtropical germplasm. From 1985 on the work on hard grain types was Increasingly emphasized. However, collaborative work on Andean maizes has continued, but on a reduced scale.The introgression of temperate and subtropical germplasm into CIMMYT and Mexican highland germplasm speeded up the breeding by permitting a winter nursery. (It is extremely difficult to grow pure highland maize in the winter at the CIMMYT Tlaltizapan experiment station, 940 masl, mean winter temperate 21.5 0 C, because of root lodging, asynchrony, and barrenness). One drawback has been some loss of cold tolerance necessary for the very coolest highland environments such as Toluca, Mexico (13.3°C.). The resulting populations perform very well at EI Batan (15.9°C).In 1986 the Co full-sibs of four hard grained populations was yield tested in Mexico. These were early and late, white and yellow. One cycle/year is completed in these populations, and results have been satisfactory in EI Batan (Figures 2-6). An early white floury population was also started in 1986, but full-sib selection is taking 2 years/cycle since the Cacahuacintle type germplasm involved cannot yet withstand the stress of a winter nursery. A yellow version of Pool 9A (Pool 9B) was formed in 1988. White and yellow early {'opulations for the temperate highlands were also formed in 1986. Full-sib families have been tested internationally. In 1989 a new early white semi-dent ropulation was initiated. It is targeted for very cold highland enVIronments, and wil be improved using full-sib selection, 1 year/cycle. Also in 1989 white and yellow intermediate maturity hard grained populations for the highland transition zone were formed.All highland populations and gene pools managed at CIMMYT headquarters are being improved through recurrent selection. Characteristics of this germplasm are listed in Table 1 and Appendix 2. Usually this involves the testing of full-sib    families, but in some cases half-sibs or partially inbred lines are recombined. In all materials, each ~cle the elite fraction IS selfed to develop inbred lines. The best partially inbred lines go to the CIMMYT hybrid maize program for further refinement and evaluation. Currently, the most advanced lines are S4, and S5 seed will be harvested this autumn. The highland program is doing some pedigree selection to produce improved inbreds.In the tropical highlands, 99% of the farmers are still growing openpollinated varieties. Even in Mexico, 98% of the farmers are still grOWIng openpollinated \"criollo\" varieties (CAEVAMEX, 1982), despite the fact that the Mexican national program has had a hybrid oriented breeding program since 1943. Therefore, the first priority for this zone is to develop good open-pollinated varieties or synthetics, and the development of inbred lines is a secondary concern. Preliminary results show good heterosis for grain yield between Mexican and CIMMYT material. But perhaps more important are the attributes for improved resistance to root lodging and better plant type which the CIMMYT lines carry.There is a usable level of heterosis Within CIMMYT derived lines. But considering the low J?riority of hybrid work for this zone, it is not warranted at this time to devote Significant resources for developing heterotic groups within the CIMMYT populations.In the highland transition zone, about 50% of the hectarage is planted to hybrids. Therefore, it is important that CIMMYT investigate combining ability and develop inbred lines. Currently, some inbreds from Pool 9A are beyond the S4 stage, but a large group of S3 lines will not be ready for top-crossing until 1991. Pool 9A (white) and 9B (yellow) may be divided into heterotic groups based on the results of the topcross trial. Since most of the highland transition zone maize is grown in Africa, efforts will be made to coordinate this work with key national programs. In the process of population improvement and inbreeding, intense selection pressure has been applied for reduced plant and ear heights and resistance to P. sorghi and H. turcicum leaf diseases, as well as Fusarium and Diplodia ear rots.Pool 9A is currently being converted to streak resistance at the CIMMYT Harare, Zimbabwe station, and, in the future, derived inbreds will carry resistance. In addition, lines and synthetics of Pools 9A and 9B for the Americas will carry resistance to the tar spot complex disease.Pool 9A, Hi~land European materials, it is lIkely that denved lines win combine well with temperate lines. In these populations we are currently evaluating full-sibs and Sllines. The CIMMYf lines being developed will carry important attributes such as cold tolerance, earliness, and resistance to both P. sorghi and H. turcicum. Inbreeding was not started until 1988, so this autumn we will be harvesting S2 seed. Further work should be coordinated with the Asian countries in the temperate highland zone. This is especially true because photoperiod insensitivity is required, a trait for which we cannot select in th field in these latitudes (19-20 0 N. in Central Mexico).Small changes in elevation, especially at the higher elevations, can cause large genotype by environment interactions (G x E). Since highland maize grows in environments that are characterized by temperatures that are very dose to maize's lower limit, maizes from the coldest regions are unproductive in the warmer highland environments, and vice versa. CIMMYT mega-environment data show that there are more maize environments per unit land area in the highlands than in the lowlands.A variety adapted to El Batan (lS.90q, when planted in Toluca (13.3°C), a difference in elevation of 300 en, will have its vegetative period increased by 25-30 days an its grain-filling period increased by about 20 days. Thus only' the earliest varieties at Batan can fit in the growing season in Toluca, and most likely they will not have enough cold tolerance to be competitive with the best varieties from the Toluca valley. Therefore, it is necessary to breed maizes specifically for each environment. Since true highland maizes grow in areas with mean growing season temperatures of I2.5-l7°C., it is convenient to breed maizes for extremely cold enVlfonments, I2.5-I5 0 C at Toluca (13.3 0 q, and for the warmer highland environments 15-l7°e, at EI Batan (IS.9 0 q. In practice it has proven practical to breed maizes with broad adaptation within these two agro-ecologies, but not materials that are adapted to both.Since highland maize evolved in Mexico and farmer-breeders have practiced selection in a myriad of valleys over 7000 years, there are local adapted land races for every valley. This is not true for true highland areas in Africa and Asia. Plant breeders cannot breed maize for each valley, therefore they must strive for broad adaptation within agro-ecological zones. Most \"criollo\" (landrace) varieties are so fine tuned to the requirements of their particular valley that they fail miserably when planted in other valleys at lower or higher elevation only a few kilometers away. However, there are a few \"enoUos\" and several improved varieties and hybrids that have reasonably broad adaptation. But in a system of subsistence agriculture suclt as predominates in the highlands of Mexico, the improved m terials will certainly be inferior in yield in some valleys, and their food qualities. grain type, color, and texture may not be up to the local standard in many valleys. This helps to partly e~lain why even now 98% of the farmers in the central highlands are still planting 'criollo\" varieties, despite the fact that highland maize breeding programs have been active since 1943, and a parastatal company had been making some efforts to produce seed of the resulting hybrids and varieties. New varieties have also been slow to gain acceptance in the Andean zone, partly due to G x E problems and the subsistence nature of the maize production. Recently, highland IDalZe has become more of a commercial proposition in certain areas such as the Toluca -Atlacomulco region of central Mexico (250,000 ha), and farmers are beginning to buy seed of improved varieties and hybrids from a local seed company. It is expected that this trend will accelerate in the future, especially if the Mexican government decides to discourage maize imports (currently 3-5 million metric tons annually) and encourage local production.The ease of inbreeding in highland maize is a function of germplasm and the degree to which that germplasm has been subjected to previous inbreeding. For example, the CIMMYT Temperate Highland Population has about 60% temperate germplasm and 40% improved tro.pical highland germplasm. Both sources are relatively easy to inbreed in, especlally the temperate material, so it has been fairly easy so far to derive lines from this population. Likewise, the CIMMYT pOI;>ulations adapted to the highland transition zone are based largely on Kitale Synthetic II, Ealador 573, SR52, and Montana maizes from Colombia; all of which have been previously inbred. Line extraction has not proven to be excessively difficult. The greatest problems occur when one tries to inbreed directly in tropical highland germplasm.In Mexico, a hybrid oriented program for the hi&hlands has been in effect since 1943. In 1989, almost all of ~he hybrids in productlOn still involve S1lines. The Mexican highland germplasm has a large genetic load and problems of floral asx?chrooy. Many good lines will tolerate 50% homozygosity, (S1), but almost none will tolerate more than 87.5% homozygosity (S3). In contrast to this e~erience, it bas been a pleasant surprise to find that it is relatively easy to inbreed In CIMMYT's tropical highland populations. This is certainly due to the presence of inbreeding tolerant exotic germplasm in these populations. Our inbreeding program is relatively new; our most advanced lines are 93.75% homozygous (S4). They are quite vigorous and there is good reason to assume that they can be further inbred to the S6-S8 generations without significant problems. However, the advanced S4lines selected at Batan show a marked lack of cold. tolerance in the very cold Toluca (13.3°C) environment. Newer lines at the S1 stage have better cold tolerance, and lines specifically selected for the Toluca valley will possess good cold tolerance. It will be interesting to see to what degree one can combine extreme cold tolerance and resistance to inbreeding stress. Root Lodging, Tillering, Ear Proliferation at a Node Pe0I;>le knowledgeable about Mexican highland maizes know that their weakest pomt is susceptibility to root lodging. Mexican farmers long ago recognized this problem, and they routinely \"hill-up\" highland maize 3 times during the vegetative stage. Still, hi&h winds which accompany summer showers are responsible for widespread root lodgmg many seasons, especially when manure or medium to high levels of N fertilizer are applied. Such fields cannot be machine harvested (a rare practice in the Mexican hl&hlands) and hand harvest is difficult. Yields may be greatly reduced when root lodgmg occurs just before to just after anthesis. For example, last year in the Toluca valley one of the best farmers plarited an improved variety with good management in 2 large fields. In the unlodged field he harvestd 6 tiha, and in the badly lodged field slightly over 1 t/ha. At CIMMYT, the highland progr~selects again~t :oot lodgi,ng. by 1) us.i~g high levels of N fertilizer 2) p~anting on the ndge and not hIllmg-up 3) usmg denSities of 43,745 and 69,336 pits/ham the breeding nursery and yield trials, respectively.Ti1lerin~is partially dominant to non-tillering under our conditions in our germplasm. It IS ajolygenic trait, and heritability is low because of large environmental an G x E effects. Many times crosses between two non-tillered plants produce families or hybrids that are completely tillered. After four years of selection against tillering, we have greatly reduced it, but have not eliminated it. Many visitors have noticed that genotypes tiller in El Batan that they have never seen tiller elsewhere. The four main factors promoting tillering in El Batan are: 1) high N levels of 150 kS' N/ha, 2) cool but not cold soil and air temperatures (Miedema, 1982),3) hlgh solar ra,diation per unit of plant development in the early vegetative stage and 4) short daylengths. The importance of high N cannot be over-emphasized. Maize just across the highway from CIMMYT has no tillers under farmers' low N management. When one selects an ear from a non-tillered plant under low N conditions in the highlands of Mexico, it will invariably tiller profusely under EI Batan conditions. The good side of this situation is that EI Batan is an ideal location to select for non-tIllering. In the CIMMYT highland maize program. we select against tillering in all maize types except some forage maizes.Ear proliferation at a node is another undesirable characteristic of Mexican highland germplasm. It seems to be associated with a tendency for tillering. The tiny ear shoots that arise next to the main ear shoot almost never produce any ~ain, and represent a waste of photosynthate. We have been selecting agains this traIt. But as with tillering, heritability is low and progress has been slow.Drought stress is extremely common in the tropical highland me~a environment. An estimated 2.7 million hectares (81%) in this mega-envrronment are planted to maizes that are nsually or frequently subject to moisture stress. Most of these areas receive less than 1000 mm of precipitauon. Fortunately, evapotranspiration is relatively low in cool highland environments. Five hundred mm of well distributed rainfall is sufficient for a good crop when an early variety is planted on a soil with moderate water retention characteristics.The occurence of unpredictable dry spells can seriously reduce maize yields. This is especially true when the dry period coincides with the period around anthesis. CIMMYT has amply demonstrated that genotypes with a short anthesis to silking interval (ASI) can best resist this type of drought In the highland breeding program. we have identified families which silk three days before they shed pollen in situations of moderate drought stress and high density (70,000 plts/ha). Most \"criollo\" varieties have an ASI of 5-12 days under moderate stress. Another reason why these varieties suffer so much is that they have very poor root development. Improved CIMMYT populations have much better root strength and ASI. Both traits were introgressed from temperate and subtropical materials.Drought in the seedling and early vegetative stages is so common in the highlands ofMexico that some partial resistance has been built up in farmer selections. In Mexico, many farmers plant very deep (10-25 em) to place Seeds in residual moisture to get the crop started before the arrival of the rains. This allows them to plant a longer season, more productive variety than would be possible if they waited for the arrival of the rains. But these varieties must be able to utilize reSidual moisture for growth for about 40-60 days in normal years. Michoacan 21, the source of the so-called '1atente\" trait, is a cnollo variety from an area where farmers plant highland maize using residual moisture. The latency effect, which is a temporary slowing or cessation of plant growth, occurs only in the seedling stage and is limited in its effectiveness. For example, this year a set of Mexican national program double cross hybrids including one with all 4 lines from Michoacan 21 were planted in residual moisture. There was no significant rainfall for 90 days. All hybrids silked at a plant height of 50 cm or less. Still, the ability to emerge from deep planting depths is a valuable one in most years. Many Mexican farmers in dry zones with no residual moisture also plant deep so that plants will only germinate and emerge after a heavy rain, thus increasing the probability they will survive the seedling stage until the rainy season begins in earnest.We found that most non-highland maizes (the Hopi and Navajo maizes famous for their ability to emerge from deep planting depths are related to semihighland maizes from northern Mexico) will not reliably emerge when planted much deeper than 13 em. The ability to em~r8e from deep plantings is due to a capacity for mesocotyl elongation (CofIins, 1914). At CIMMYT, we have developed, after 3 cycles of selection, populations that will reliably emerge when planted 20 cm deep, and have improved agronomic traits and ASI introgressed into a tropical highland background. We will shortly be developing inbred lines from these populations.Highland maizes are unique because of their specific adaptation to cool environments. The tropical highland maizes were among the first maizes to be domesticated, and amon$ the last to be improved using modem maize breeding methods. The challenge IS to improve their plant type and resistance to lod~ng without reducing their cold and frost tolerance, disease resistance, and partIal tolerance to hail damage. Other challenges must be addressed in breed10g improved germplasm for the highland transition zone and temperate highlands. It will be a challenge to introduce highland maizes into areas where little or no maize is presently grown in Africa and Asia.The CIMMYT highland maize program has evolved over the years. The needs of our clients, the national agricultural research organizations, have also evolved. With gnod communication between CIMMYT and NARS, the hi&hland maize program will continue to develop the required germplasm products 10 the future.Besides tne development of improved germplasm, the highland coordinator also has a training and communication function. More than a few of the people attending this meeting have worked with me in the highland maize fields of central Mexico. I learn a lot from visitors, and I am sure that I will learn a lot as a visitor during .this meeting in Nairobi. What I learn should serve to help the CIMMYT highland maize program evolve in a manner beneficial to the needs of the researchers working in Africa's highlands.Saint-Clair. Please give me an idea about the growth cycle of Pool 9A material in the experimental conditions mentioned in your paper.Answer: ~throp. Pool. ~A is a late maturity maize dev~loped for the tropical hIghland transitIOn zone mega-enVIronment (Kitale, Kenya type environment). It has the same maturity as the Kitale 600 series of hybrids.Ochieng. Considering that tillering is a trait one observes before flowering one would be tempted to think that the trait would be amenable to genetic manirulation. From your paper, you indicated that such is not the case. Why.Answer: Lothrop. Progress in 'reducing tillering has been disappointing, considering that the trait is expressed before flowering. The trait is of low heritability, due to large environmental and genotype x environment inter:tetion effects. High grain yield of maize (Zea mays L.) is the primary objective of most maize breeding programmes. A sustainable breeding pro~ramme should be backed up by a source of genetically diverse material. Current eVIdence from quantitative genetics suggests that the greatest present and future need in maize breeding is to Impose on this variation sound recurrent selection schemes designed to be effective in relation to the long-range goal of achieving very high frequencies of the most desirable alleles (Comstock, 1978).A programme geared to developing high yielding maize hybrids is facilitated by the use of at least two genetically divergent genepools with high population means and potential heterotic \"kick\" in their cross. Reciprocal recurrent selection, one of the components of a maize breeding methods study initiated in Kenya in 1964 (Darrah et aI., 1972), has proved to be the most effective selection scheme for improving the yield of maize population crosses, albeit with little or no effect on the populations per se (Hallauer et al. 1981). Comstock et al. (1949) disGUssed at length the relative advantages of reciprocal recurrent selection 'versus' selection for general combining ability per se. They observed that in the event of partial to complete dominance at some loci and overdominance or pseudo-overdominance (i.e. epistasis or repulsion-phase linkage mimicking overdominance) at other loci, reciprocal recurrent selectIOn would be more effective than selection for either general or specific combining ability. Lately, however, Comstock (1978) bas contended that overdominance is not of overriding importance in maize grain yield genetics. Inasmuch as specific combining ability is a function of heterosis, i.e. heterozygosity superior to homozygosity of the best yield (gene) combinations, that selection scheme capable of tappmg such a reservoir of allelic combinations as well as alleles governed by additive and additive x additive epistasis would capitalize on both modes of gene action.An initial comparative study on the relative efficiencies of various methods of selection in two Kenya maize populations and the advanced generation of their variety cross was reported by Darrah et al. (1978). More recently, Darrah (1986) has presented further evidence in support of the efficacy of reciprocal recurrent selection in improving the yield of maize variety cross hybrids at Kitale. This experiment was conducted to evaluate any further response to reciprocal recurrent selection in the variety cross 'Kitale Synthetic II x Ecuador 573' over nine cycles of selection for grain yield, ear height, maturity, plant lodging incidence and bare-tip ears. Results would indicate whether the variety cross is still responding to further selection and in which direction for each of the major traits.The entries used in this study comprised a factorial combination of nine cycles of Kitale Synthetic II crossed to each of the nine cycles of Ecuador 573. Seed of the entries was prepared during the season preceding the year of evaluation.The two maize populations have been subjected to nine cycles of reciprocal recurrent selection at 10% selection intensity with grain yield as the major criterion of selection. Selection for the other agronomic characters has been accomplished largely indirectly during the maize nursery pollination in the recombination phase, such as by rejecting late and lodged plants with high ear placement.The results presented herein represent a study on the performance of equivalent and non-equivalent cycle x cycle crosses for grain yield, ear height, daysto-50% anthesis, plant lod~ing and bare-tip ears, along with any trait that shows correlated response with yleld. Plots consIsted of three rows of nine hills per row that were over-planted and later thinned down, when the plants were knee-high, to a maximum of 33 plants per plot. Plant spacing was set at 75 cm between rows and 30 cm between plants within the row. This resulted in a density of 44,444 plants per hectare at ideal plant stand.Crop husbandry practices involved applying phosphatic fertilizer (diammollium phosphate, 18:46:0) at a rate of 80 kg P 2 0 5 per hectare at planting and side-dressing WIth 100 kg N per hectare as nitrogenous fertilizer (calcium ammonium nitrate, 26% N) after thinning. The crop was kept weed-free by applyin~atrazine (Primagram 40% w:v) as a pre-emergence surface spray at a rate of five htres £er hectare and protected from stalk borer (Busseola fusca) damage using DDT (5% dust) mixed with fine sand and applied to the whorl of each plant after the thinning operation.The 81 entries were generated from an I8-parent array according to 'Design II' mating design (cross-classification) (Comstock and Robinson, 1948;Hallauer et al. 1981). The entries were formed by crossing each of the nine cycles of Rll with each of the nine cycles of R12, thereby producing RllCi (i = j for equivalent and i not = j for non-equivalent cycle x cycle crosses). The tnal was grown as a 9 x 9 square triple lattice in three-row elots at five locations in Western Kenya in 1985, viz. Kitale Grassland, Top Farm (Kitale), Chorlim, Jabali and Japata.Data were recorded on plants from the entire three-row plots for the following charcacters: number of days from planting to 50% anthesis, total plant stand count at harvest, ear heights of 10 random competitive plants, number of usable ears, number of diseased ears and weight (kilograms) and moisture content (%) of usable grain. Plot yields were transformed to quintals per hectare (qJha) adjusted to a uniform 12.5% moisture content of the grain. Prolificacy was computed as [100 x (usable ears) + (diseased ears)/harvest stand] on plot basis.The results were interpreted according to the scheme outlined by Comstock and Robinson (1948). Sites were considered as random effects but entries as fixed in a linear statistical model of the type.: k X\" k = ~+ g' + I• + (g1)\" + EIJ where an~observatlon X ijk IS a Hnear function of the general mean ( ), the i th site or location (1-), genotype x\"location interaction (g1)i' and a random error component d~iik)' Linear regressions of yield, perc~nt prolificacy, ear height and number of days~to-50% anthesis on cycles of selection, as well as simple correlation coefficients, were obtained and tested following the procedures described by Steel and Tome (1980).Results for equivalent 'cycle x cycle' crosses yield performance are presented in Table 1. Nine cycles of reciprocal recurrent selection significantly increased the yield of the variety cross at a Significant rate of 4.54% per cycle. This observation is 10 close agreement with that obtained by Darrah (1986) who reported a rate of 5.5% per cycle after the fifth cycle of selection. The results are further depicted in Fig. 1 for equivalent and non-equivalent 'cycle x cycle' crosses.Results for equivalent and non-equivalent 'cycle x cycle' crosses performance for yield and other agronomic traits are given in Tables 2-7 and depicted in Figs. 2-6 for percent prolificacy, ear height and days-to-50% anthesis. Selection increased prolificacy by 2.4% per cycle, and lowered ear height by 1.2% per cycle and maturity length by 0.4% per cycle (four days in nine cycle). Lodgin~incidence chan~ed erratically, although a decreasing trend (-4.4%) over the nme cycles was eVident. However, selection tended to increase the incidence of bare tipped ears, presumably due to correlated response with increased yield: it is conceivable that larger ears contributing to higher yield would tend to emerge through the husk ends. It has been found that when selection is practised for hig!) yield alone, correlated increases occur in prolificacy, ear height and days-to-flower (Darrah et aI., 1972;Mareck et aL, 1979;Johnson et al., 1986). Additive genetic effects have been invoked as governing the inheritance of ear height (Harville et al., 1978) and prolificacy (Sorrells;1979). Results from this study do not lend themselves to such inferences. However, if these findings were found to hold true for the genotype evaluated herein, as seems likely, it should be feasible to effectively mount further selection for, not only hi~her yield from increased prolificacy, but also for lower ear placement. This could be achieved by conducting two sets of reciprocal recurrent selection on each sub-population of the two breeding stocks (Odhiambo and Compton, 1979): one set emphasizing on grain yield on standing plants and prolificacy and the other set capitalizing on reduced ear height, early maturity and good husk cover, and recombining the two sets at some stage of the selection process.Mean square tests on pertinent traits are shown in Table 8. Highly significant differences (p = 0.01) were found among entries as well as among locations for all the traits considered herein. However, there was no 'entry x location' interaction for any trait, most likely due to the disproponionately large pooled error variances. The rather lar~e locational differences were probably accentuated by substantial differences In dates of planting, especially effects OD grain yield, profificacy, ear height and number of days to 50% anthesis, and the effects due to wide variation in dates of harvesting on the incidence in plant lodging and bare-tipped ears (Table 1).  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    ~11C.- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ~11C.- ------------------------------------------------_._----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                   ------  • Regre3sion slope significantly different from zero at p 0.05 . 3 , ---------------------------  ------------------------- '\" \" , --. , \" 13 , -\"' --. Slope significantly different from zero at ~= 0.01 .  Phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients between pairs of traits are presented in Table 9. The negative association of maturity length with prolificacy and percent prolificacy with lodging incidence appeared to be masked by environmental influence. Likewise, the high tendency for tall plants to lodge was compounded by site effect; hence the lack of significance in phenotypic correlation between ear hei~ht and plant lodging when, in fact, the genotypic correlation coefficient was sIgnificant.Yield was highly positively correlated with prolificacy, both genotypically and phenotypically. This was in agreement with reports by Morales et at. (1975) and Darrah et at. (1978). There were negative correlations linking grain yield with ear placement, maturity length and plant lodging. As expected, taller genotypes were later in maturity and less prolific. this is due to the fact that late maturing genotypes tend to utilize most of the assimilates for more foliage at the expense of ~rain fill.The ability of prolific germplasm to resist barrenness at high plant densitIes or to increase yield at optimal and sub-optimal densities is well documented (Brown et at., 1923, Crews et ai., 1965;Duvick, 1974;Prior et al., 1975;Nakaseko et aI., 1978).There were no correlations between bare-tipped ears and the other traits.Explanations for this observation are hard to find. Linear regression coefficients for traits of equivalent and non-equivalent '9'cle x cycle' crosses are given in Tables lOA and lOB and shown graphically in FIgs. 1-6. The regression slopes in Figs. 1 and 2 for grain yield and percent prolificacy, respectively, on cycles of selection were spectacularly similar for the three \"forms\" of variety crosses (R11Cj x R 12C' x R 12C and R 11C x R 12C•).Regression slopes for all the three type~of crosses were sigriificantl1different from zero for yield, prolificacy and maturity. However, for ear hei~ht and percent bare-tip ears, only the regression slope for RllCj x R12C was sigruficantly different from zero. The slope for yield regressed on equivalent cycle 'cycle x cycle' crosses was steeper than those for non-equivalent crosses, with an equIlibrium point observed at cycle four (Fig. 1), implying inbreeding depression in the latter types of crosses.Actual and predicted responses to selection in the variety cross over successive cycles of selection are ~iven in Tables llA and llB. There seemed to be a high preponderance of non-additive genetic effect for yield expression, especially from cycles 0-5. Actual and predicted gains of 20.9 qjha and 25.0 qjha, respectively, were observed after five Cycles of selection. This was in contrast to the higher actual gain (11.2 qjha) than predicted gain (7.4 qjha) reported by Darrah (1986) at cycle 5. However, the overall actual and predicted yield gains after nine cycles were close (21.6 vs 21.3 qjha). Giesbretch (1959) and Sharma et al (1972) reported that additive and 'additive x additive' type epistasis were involved in controlling the inheritance of maturity in maize. The results of this experiment (Table lIB) bear testimony to those findings. However, in this study, the predicated and actual changes in maturity length were similar in 50% of the occasions and different in the other 50% of the cases.There seems to exist opportunity for further improvement in the variety cross, 'Kitale Synthetic II x Ecuador 573', by means of reciprocal recurrent selection for increased grain yield (heterosis) and prolificacy and for reduced ear height and early maturity. Use of index selection for yield, plant standability and prolificacy in one set of reciprocal recurrent selection and for earliness, lower ear height and good husk cover in the other set, and recombining the two sets every so often would, hopefully, pay dividends in future genetic improvement. So far, selection for early,     -------------------------------------------------- ..... ..... high yielding genotypes with acceptable ear placement seems tenable using these maize populations as attested to by the results presented herein.Ochieng. In the area of their best adaptation, Makueni composite is expected to yield 1.5-2 tons/ha, Katumani composite B 2-3 tons/ha, Coast composite approximately 3-4 tons/ha and Kitale hybrids approximately 8-10 tons/ha. However, the first two named varieties, although low yielding, serve to meet food (maize) security in the marginal rainfall areas where they are recommended due to their drought-escaping nature. Similarly for Coast composite, as it was bred for tolerance to Coastal rust (Puccinia polysora).Question: Marandu. Negative response between maturity and grain yield was observed. Has the same been observed in previous seasons or could this be due to some limiting factor in the year of testing?Answer:Ochieng. Although the data presented are based on one year evaluation, I would still expect the trend observed because we have been conscio'usly selecting for early maturity in the nursery recombination phase and for high grain yield in the selection trials of testcross progenies in the reciprocal recurrent selection procedure that we have been using. Besides, we have observed that commercial hybrids derived from inbred lines extracted from advanced cycle populations tend to be higher yielding and earlier in maturity than hybrids derived from previous cycles.Compton. The \"genetic correlations\" he used are not genetic correlations in the usual sense. Genetic correlation is a Population parameter and would be calculated from families of a population. The correlation he observed between yield and maturity was due to selection for these two traits.Caulfield. At what stage will you select for tip cover (open tips) in the future?Answer:Ochieng. We intend to initiate vigorous selection against open-tip ears either (a) in our pedigree breeding scheme or (b) in an Sl-testing scheme --either way, as soon as resources (human, financial, etc.) are made available, depending on the complexity of the actual procedure we deem appropriate to address the problem.Cantrell. If selection is done at high density one has to be careful because ears will be small and will be difficult to select against ba~tips.Lothrop. I studied the inheritance of bare tips in lowland tropical maize in my l?0st-doctoral research at CIMMYT. The trait was highly heritable on a faOllly basis (0.85) when Sl families were evaluated in 3 locations. 2 replications per location, plant density of 30,000 plts/ha, Sm rows. 200 Kg/ha. By selecting on a family basis, one can make rapid progress. In the populations I studied. there was no significant correlation between bare tips and grain yield.O.M. Odongo 1 , A.P. Tyagi2 and G.P. Pokhariyal 3In the present study most of the preharvesting observations for maize were recorded and their possible impact on grain yield was analysed by calculating the correlation coefficients. Path coefficient analysis was conducted to reveal the direct and indirect effects of the maturity traits on yield. It was found that plant height and number of leaves per plant influence the grain yield considerably. However J days to silking and tasseling should also be taken into account to breed an early maturity and relatively high yielding variety for the two agroecological zones Embu (UM 2 ) and Murinduko (UM 4 ) in Kenya.Grain yield is a complex character which is influenced by several interdependent factors. The knowledge of maturity components and their relationships with grain yield is vital for developing a high yielding and early maturity variety. The calculation and analysis of correlation coefficients of maturity components with grain yield provides the basis for selection strategy. However, to have further insi~ht of the interrelationship amongst the components and their direct as well as mdirect effect on grain yield, the path coefficient analysis is usually conducted as suggested by Dewey and Lu (1959). In the present investigation this technique has been used to find out direct and indirect effects of maturity components on grain yield in maize. This has provided the information about the relative importance of maturity components to breed a high yielding and early maturing variety of maize for marginal areas of Kenya.The material for the study consisted of five inbred lines of maize namely:Embu 107 (v) Embu 108 and three exotic lines, namely:(i) TX 5855 (ii) Bs 13(la) (iii) N6 (Hayes) , These eight inbred lines were crossed using diallel matmg design during the short rains of 1984. Twenty eight single crosses (Fls) thus obtained, along with their eight parents, were sown in a randomized block deSign with four reflications.The experiments were conducted during long rains season 0 1985 at two sites Embu (UM 2 ) and Murinduko (UM 4 ). Each experimental plot contained two rows of twenty two plants spaced 30cm apart while the distance between two successive plots was kept 75cm. Ten plants were randomly picked from each plot and distinctly marked for observations in each of the four replications. Data recorded on the pre-harvest traits were:-(i) number of leaves per plant, (ii) plant height (m), (Iii) number of days to estimated 50% pollen-shed, (iv) number of days to estimated 50% silking, and finally the grain yield (g) per plant after harvest was also recorded. From the recorded observations the correlation coefficients among yield and maturity components were calculated for both sites, as described by Gauldon (1952). The path coefficient analysis was carried out as suggested by Dewey and Lu (1959).The analysis of the results from Table 1 showed appreciable difference on the grain yield and the influence of various characters on It at two agroecological sites Embu (UM2) an~Murinduko (UM 4 ). En9ugh varia~ility among all the . genotypes tested, for dIfferent pre-harvestmg tr3Jts and gram YIeld, was also noticed.  ----------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------The grain yield had significantly strong positive correlation with plant height at both sites (Table 2). However, the number of leaves per plant has significantly moderate positive relationship with grain yield only at Embu. Similar findiI:tgs were reported by Sin~h & Malhotra (1970). The number of leaves per plant showed significantSk.~tlve correlation with plant height, days to estimated 50% pollen shed and 50% s' . g, but the relationships were relatively stronger with the first two at Embu and with the third at Murinduko. The correlation between days to estimated 50% ilking and 50% pollen-shed was obviously positive and very strong at both sites. Days to estimated 50% silking showed nonsignificant weak negauve relationship with grain yield at both sites. Results similar to the present study were reported by Shehata (1975), Singh & Nigam (1977) and Vianna et aJ (1980). The path coefficient analysis (Table 3) revealed that the maturity components namely, plant hei~t, number of leaves per plant and days to estimated 50% pollen-shed showed positive direct effect on grain yield in that order at Embu. At Murinduko the highest direct positive effect on yield was due to plant height followed by days to estimated 50% silking. The. number of leaves per {'Iant and days to estimated 50% pollen-shed showed negative direct effect on grain YIeld at Murinduko, while at Embu the days to estimated 50% silkin~showed highest negative direct effect on grain y'ield. Some of the contradictIOns obtained by path coefficient analysis can be attnbuted to different agroecological zones of the experiments. Embu (UM 7 ) having clay loam and relatively higher average rainfall in contrast to Murinduko {UM 4 ) having sandy loam and less average rainfall. Shehata (1975) reported that taller plants having high placement tended to produce more gram.  Therefore, it appears that the main component of maturity which directly affected yield at both sItes in the present study was plant height. The study conducted by Hari Singh et al (1977) concluded that the leaf are index (higher number of leaves per plant) and plant height were the main components of maturity that contributed towards the grain yield.Thus to evolve an early maturing and high yielding variety of maize the plant height and estimated days to flowering must be given due importance because the analysis of these two and other preharvest observation could be used to predict the grain yield. Applied maize breeding for the purpose of inbred line development has usually been done by the use of pedigree breeding in narrow based populations, such as single crosses or backcrosses, involving lines from the same heterotic background. The procedure involves selling in the segregating generations of single crosses or backcrosses to recover new or improved lines that have high means for all or nearly all of the important traits required for commercial use. The choice of lines to use in the system is based on line compllmentarity. Evaluation of the cross performance may be delayed until the lines have been selfed several generations with selection at each stage based on inbred morphology, or advancement may be based on cross performance itself.The advantages of pedigree breeding are: I) possibility of selection for more than one trait without having to resort to index selection by the careful choice of parents to create the selection population so that the,lines are complimentary to each other enhancing the chance ofidentitying that rare inbred line that has a very high mean for all important agronomic traits, 2) the rapid rate of developing such elite inbred lines for the purpose of commercial utilization, and 3) allows improvement of a line that has a specific weakness ofteribringing a line nearly good enough for commercial use up to a usable level. We propose a rather new obje,ctive for using pedigree breeding. Most pedigree breeding is done in single crosses of elite inbred lines. We feel that the use of pedigree breeding will allow us to bring new lines developed from our recurrent selection programs that are lacking in some agronomic traits that prevent their commercial exploitation up to the levels needed. Thus the pedigree breeding will make our program more complete and allow us to make better use of the gains in population improvement evident in recurrent selection work.. In Kenya, there is currently an uq~ent need to step up the pace of developing high yielding, environmentally stable vaneties of maize that have most desirable ::Igronomic traits required by farmers to produce the maize needed to meet the ever increasing demand. To date, candidate single crosses within Kitale Syn. II and Ecuador 573 have been identified and planted in the breeding nursery at the NARC-Kitale to initiate pedigree selection.There have been two rather distinct ways of breeding maize that have been widely used in the United States. One approach is essentially similar to breeding methodology used for improvement of sel-pollinated crops and is called \"pedigree breeding\". The other system widely used in maize, and which has also been the basis for maize improvement in Kenya, is \"recurrent selection\". Allard describes pedigree breeding as \"A system of breeding in which individual plants are selected in the segregating generations from a cross on the basis of their desirability judged individually and on the basis of a pedigree record\". He also defines recurrent selection as \"A method of breedin~designed to concentrate favourable genes scattered among a number of mdividuals by selecting in each generation among the progeny produced by matings inter se of the selected individuals (or their selfed progeny) of the previous &eneration\". We ,might add that pedigree selection in maize involves selfing selected mdividuals and is otten used to recycle elite lines that have known strengths and weaknesses. In our paper we propose using the system in a new way-to recycle new lines from recurrent selection programs that have some fault(s) not allowing their use in hybrids.A few years ago, breeders involved in population breeding thought that selfing new lines from populations improved by recurrent selection would lead directly to elite inbred lines that.would reflect the improvement made by recurrent selection in the source population. In retrospect, that was a bit naive, though in theory it was true. However, the fact of the matter is that only rarely do new lines selfed from broad-based populations have sufficiently good qualities in all of the important traits to warrant being called \"elite\". Again, in retrospect, this seems obvious, but at that time some of us thought otherwise. Perhaps this was due to the fact that we wanted to believe it. Breeders are notorious for self-delusion and, though much of our knowledge about breeding is inexact, we often, falsely, convince ourselves that we have good solid theory in our grasp.Since selfing from broad-based populations may not often lead to elite lines, how can we make use of the gains made by recurrent selection and translate that improvement into improved lines and hybrids? One answer is to use pedigree breeding to recycle these lines to improve those weaknesses that prevent their direct use. Ordinarily in pedigree breeding one chooses two elite lines, chosen for some particular purpose the breeder has in mind, then begins selection and selfing in the F2 generation. Selection from that point on may be based on appearance of the material per se or on cross performance. Our alternative suggestIOn is to use one line selfed from an advanced cycle of recurrent selection and the other an elite line from the same heterotic background having exceptional strength in the trait(s) the other line is weak in. The line selfed from the recurrent selection population will be as good as one can possibly ~et and will hopefully not be deficient m too many traits, so that it is fairly close to bemg commercially usable and its weakness can be countered with a strength in the elite line.The general theory applied here is that choice of populations to be used in breedin~is based on two parameters, the mean and the ~enetic variance, of each of several Important traits. In choosing the population, weight given to each parameter is etermined by the length of time allowed to achieve a breeding objective. At the two extremes are 1) immediate and 2) no time limit. In the second case, all the weight would be given to the amount of genetic variation. In case 1, however, heavy weight is placed on the means of all important traits. When one chooses a mating of two outstanding inbred lines to create the population in which to sleet, one is attempting to synthesize a population that has some genetic variation (because without it we could make no ~rogress at all) but that has a very high mean level for all or nearly all important traIts. The rationale for choosing a line from an a9vanced cycle of recurrent selection (where the selection criterion has been mainly yield) to pair up with an elite Jine i that the yield mean in the cross might be superior to that of the cross of two elite lines and the weakness introduced by the new line is less important than the hi~her yield potential. In order for this to work the weakness must be amenable to Improvement. One would be hard pressed to improve some difficult traits such as drought resistance by selection in the pedigree system if the parental lines are weak in that regard, so one needs to be careful in choosing the lines to fit the breeding needs.An advantage to using pedigree selection with an elite inbred line involved is that the elite inbred may be one that a seed company has had a lot of experience with. A new line that resembles that well-known line might be easier to incorporate into commercial seed production. If this is of over-riding importance (such as when seed prices are very low and seed cost must be kept to a mirumum) then the population created could be the segregating generation of a back-cross to the commercial line rather than the Fl.We not only are planning the use of the pedigree breeding system for better utilization of our inbred lines from the recurrent selection work but will also use the system in the usual way of developing lines from two lines already being used commercially. We have good lines that we consider to be \"elite\" and whose characteristics are well known by our seed producers. Such lines with known attributes are much more easily incorporated into seed production than completely new lines. With seed prices as low as ours in Kenya, our seed producers need all the help they can get to hold down seed production costs so that the new hybrids can be produced and delivered at a price affordable even by the small-holders.In summary, the Kenya maize breeding program appears to be making progress in improving populations with reciprocal recurrent selection. On the other band, we would like to increase the rate of replacement of inbred lines used in seed production. After some careful thought, we have concluded that we need to add pedigree selection to our arsenal. In the U.S.A. many public breeders are working on recurrent selection doing what is (somewhat curiously) called \"germplasm enhancement\". Many seed companies develop inbred lines with most of the breeding done using pedigree selection. In Kenya we do not have the luxury of having many breeders from many companies complimenting many breeders in various!ublic breeding roles. In order for us to have a complete breeding system, we nee to do both types of work so that the improvement seen in our breeding nurseries is also reflected in our farmers fields as a result of commercial quality inbred lines usable in commercial hybrid production. To be sure, genetic information obtained from our work is just as valuable as it would be from any source, but Kenya is primarily engaged in a struggle to maintain the ability to feed her people and any investment in research must have a rather quick payoff in terms of this applied goal. Thus our breeding objective dictates a conservative approach which seems to be pushing us toward quick new elite lines that may best be developed by a pedigree breeding system added on to our old work involving mainly recurrent selectIOn and direct selfing. Answer:Chumo. Selection starts from F2 and the selected plants are selfed and within family selection is done in F 3 and by F4 selection is among families to develop sister lines which will be used as SC in hybrid formation. Cross formatIOn is also carried oUl at whatever stage the breeder chooses to supplement the information on plant appearance selection.Question: Brhane. In your presentation it was not clear what attention you give to the heterotic pattern of the component lines making the initial SCs. I assume that the component lines must come from the same heterotic group. Please comment on this issue.Chumo. Choice of the lines first and foremost will depend on the heterotic groups, lines from the same heterotic group must be chosen. The lines are chosen in such a way that one line has the good traits that the other line is weak in.Comment:Ochieng. One of the roles of pedigree breeding would be to \"incorporate\" the hi~yield combinin~ability of lines derived from advanced cycles of selectiOn with traits deSIred either agronomically or for seed production'into distinct inbred lines in different heterotic groups. The Southern Highlands of Tanzania occupy about 26% of the total land area of the country and produ~es about 60% of the maize sold in the market. Owing to its importance in the economy of the country the National Maize Research Programme (NMRP) has always given a lot of emphasis on developing varieties and agronomic recommendations for the area. The Maize Improvement Programme for the Southern Highlands (MIP) operates from the Uyole Agricultural Centre as a sub-programme of NMRP with emphasis on the development of agronomic recommendations and varieties, particularly hybrids, for high and mid-altitude areas.Activities of MIP are divided into breeding, agronomy and plant protection.Maize breeding work involves population improvement, inbred line development and maintenance as well as variety testing. Working populations were formed out of materials inherited from the former East African Community research programmes and from CIMMYT, UTA, USA as well as neighbouring countries.Since 1985, several hundred inbred lines have been generated from different populations and evaluated as lines per se and in some cases as test cross progenies from which some lines have shown considerable potential as parents for new commercial hybrids. One open pollinated variety, TMV-2, has been released for high potential areas above 1500m. a.s.l. and several promising experimental.varieties and hybrids are under test. Agronomic work involves development of maize husbandry packages relevant to the various agro-zones and farming systems of the Southern Highlands. Blanket recommendations earlier given are constantly being refined. Broad areas of research have been on field preparation techniques, plant population studies, fertilizer use (organic and inorganic) weed control (mechanical, chemical and integrated approach), soil fertility maintenance and improvement ( use of green manures, rotations, fallows, intercropping) and studies on interaction of various management factors. Of recent, recommendations have been given on the use of Crotalaria spp as green manure in a maize monoculture based system, and a new herbicide, Laddock (bentazon + atrazine), for control of weeds in maize and time and method of application of urea under Southern Highland conditions.Plant protection research concentrates on entomological problems in maize, such as stalk borers, seedling and storage insects and monitoring of armyworm outbreak. The timing of control of stalk borers using both chemical, mechanical and biological extracts approaches have been significant achievements in the recent past.The Southern Highlands of Tanzania which include the political regions of Iringa, Mbeya, Rukwa and Ruvuma occupy about 26% of the total land area of the country (Figure 1) and produce about 60% of the maize sold in the market. Since  [ r i n\":1 H<''1 ion:IhIVUIIl.l H.'\" j OJ): maize is the major staple food in Tanzania, changes in production of maize in the Southern highlands have significant impact to the rest of the country.A large proportion of the Southern Highlands has an altitude over 900 m.asl. with unimodal rainfall fairly uniformly distributed, and exceeds the minimum requirement for maize production. Areas below 900m. asl generally have unreliable rainfall and maize production in these areas is insignificant.Temperatures are near optimum throughout the growing season (usually above 15°C). Periods of low temperatures and frost do occur in areas beyond 1800 m.asl., but the maize crop is not affected because it happens when the maize is past physiological maturity.Soils are variable with diverse origins and have moderate to low fertility; often one or two nutrient elements being seriously deficient. However, water holding properties and pH are good.Maize production in the Southern Highlands started early in the century mainly in Iringa region (Friis-Hansen, 1988) but significant expansion into Mbeya, and Ruvuma occurred in the late 1960's and into Rukwa in the mid-1970's. The four regions still have more land which can be used in the future for expansion of maize production. Much of the maize is produced on small scale farms but a number of large scale farms have also been in production for several years now. A large proportion of maize is produced under monoculture, the rest being grown in mixtures of various types.Many farmers grow seed produced from the previous crop. There are, however, no distinct local varieties maintained by the farmers mainly due to mixing with improved varieties. The bulk of the crop can be described as population mixtures derived from advanced generations of hybrids and local varieties.Improved varieties have been in the hand of some large scale farmers for some decades, but increased utilization of such varieties occurred after the formation of the Tanzania Seed Company in 1973. Currently open pollinated varieties as well as hybrids are grown. The area consumes over 60% of hybrid seed sold in the country.Before 1974 research on maize was limited and uncoordinated. In that year the National Maize Research Programme (NMRP) was initiated with Ilonga Agricultural Research Institute serving as the co-ordinating centre. Activities of NMRP were extended to the Southern Highlands extensively using the facilities at Uyole and Njombe (Tanganyika Wattle Co. Ltd.-a private company which had already initiated their own research programmes). Details of the NMRP were presented in the Lusaka Workshop (Moshi and Marandu 1985).As a result of the establishment of the Uyole Research Institute in 1970 with a specific geographical area of mandate (Iringa, Mbeya, Ruvuma and Rukwa regions) the need to have a fully fledged crop research pro~ammes for the Southern Highlands became necessary. Maize research actIvities at Uyole were expanded in 1980 under the Southern Highlands Maize Improvement Programme (MIP). The need to concentrate on maintenance and development of parental lines for hybrid production, resulted into a new breeding programme being initiated in 1985 for hIgh altitude environments.The MIP has 4 broad objectives.1.To develop varieties suitable for the environment and farming conditions of the highlands. 2.To maintain and improve parental lines of all current commercial hybrids used in the country.To research on agronomic practices suitable for all the agroecological zones and farming systems in the Southern Highlands.To monitor pests and diseases and recommend control strategy. In order to achieve the above objectives the programme is divided into three disciplines -breeding, agronomy and plant protection. Development of inbred lines and testing them for combining ability.Testing varieties from various sources for use by fanners or incorporation in our populations.So far the programme maintains and produces breeders seed of one open pollinated variety TMV-2 which was released in 1987 for use in high altitude areas.TMV-2 is maintained using the method suggested by CIMMYT (1984) which starts with about 500 half-sib ears from an isolation block as progenitors. The pogenitor ears are planted in a half-sib isolation block with a balanced bulk of the same ears as male rows.Population improvement work started at Ilonga when the NMRP was initiated. A number of populations were formed and improved by the half-sib method for the major zones and for various traits as described by Moshi and Marandu (1985). The populations P62, P84, P301 (Ecuador 573) 'and P90 are now being handled by MIP.Unfortunately, not much information is available on the type and magnitude of genetic variance or heterotic patterns of these materials; hence the chosen method of population improvement was based more on available facilities, manpower and curiosity of the breeders. Extrapolation of information available from Kitale (Darrah ~ill. 1972, ;Harrison, 1970) was helpful.P62 and P84 have been undergoing improvement by half-sib recurrent selection (which combines testing with recombination in an isolation block) and S2 selection procedures with the aim of extracting lines from them and eventually comparing the two methods. P301 is being improved by Sl selection procedure while P90 is bein~maintained and improved by stratified mass selectIOn.Activities 10 each population were begun in different years tl;Lallow preparation time and to avoid peaks of pollination work and testing when manpower was still limited. The different activities in each population are shown in Table 1.Half sib progeny tests.Selection in P62 and P84 was done for a number of traits with emphasis on grain yield, ear height, days to 50% silking and ear rots. In P84adaptation to conditions in which blight could be a problem was considered important. The progenies were planted at Uyole and Njombe for P62 and at Uyole and Ismani for P84 then the results from the two sites were used to select entnes for next cycle as  --------------------------------------------------------------- of selected lines of S1 families perse well as experimental varieties. Table 2 shows the performance of progenies selected to form two experimental varieties from P62. These varieties are now being evaluated in the Tanzania Maize Variety Trials (High series). Similarly two experimental varieties were formed from P84 using data from 1986-87 season.In the future such EV's will be formed after two or three cycles of selection. Emphasis will be placed on yield and adaptation to specific agro-ecological conditions which have not been well covered in the past.Selection of S2 {Jrogenies to include in recombination in P62 and P84 was based on preliminary YIeld tests of the lines per se for both populations as well as yield test of top crosses from P62. The data indicated that there were strong genotype X environment interactions for days to 50% silking which had some effect on gram yield at the locations tested. About 10 -15% of the S2 progenies were selected and used in recombination.Observations in the nursery and during testing suggested that both populations were loaded with numerous undesirable recessive genes which were revealed on selfing.P84 also suffered serious inbreeding depression manifested by weak plants, poor stands, barreness, and reduced plant height. The presence of numerous undesirable genes is due to the fact that the populations bad not undergone any selfing during development; and diversity of the original parents. P84 was developed from various gene pools from the CIMMYT gene bank.As a result of inbreeding depression observed in P84 and P62, it was decided that P301 should be improved by Sl selection method. Also other materials undergoing inbreeding are tested in preliminary yield trials, at 51 and combining ability tests, at S3 and S4 depending on the material and available testers. 51 progenies from P301 are bemg tested in the 1988-89 season. Visual observations su~est that the progenies did not suffer much inbreeding depression and a number of hnes were very vigorous.This method Was chosen to be used with P90 which has been given low priority in favour of P62. Emphasis is placed on visual selection for yield and grain type.variety evaluation Three types of variety evaluation trials are envisaged. The first type includes all evaluations which are of preliminary nature such as Experimental Hybrid Trials and International Co-operative Trials. The entries to these trials are tested at a limited number of locations and the best entries are selected for the next stage of testing Tanzania Maize Variety Trial or used in the breeding nursery. The testing period is usually one season and the number of locations varies depending on availability of seed.The second type of testing is the Tanzania Maize Variety Trials. This is the formal trial from which variety release data is obtained. These are series of trials grouped according to maturity and altitudes. The MIP conducts the series for high and Intermediate altitude. The High series are confined to the Southern Highlands, but the Intermediate series are tested at locations in and outside the Southern Highlands as a joint effort between Ilonga and Uyole.Perfomance of half-sib progenies selected to form EV8562A and EV8562B.  -----------------------------------------------------------  ------------------ Because of the limited area below 900m.asl the low series of TMVf is not usually planted in the Southern Hi~lands, but extrapolation of information is made using data from trials planted outsIde the zone.From these trials summaries are made over locations and seasons to obtain information for variety release. So far several local and imported varieties have been tested and one variety TMV-2 released from the high series (Table 3), while similar information from the Intermediate series in the Southern Highlands was combined with data from outside the Southern Highlands to support the release of TMV-1 a streak resistant variety (Moshi ~ill. 1987).Mean grain yield (T/ha) of EV8290 in comparison with check varieties in the TMVT across four high altitude locations, over three seasons. ---------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------- The third group of trials include on farm trials, farmer managed trials, and demonstration plots. This group of trials has not been very successfully done due to shortage of facilities and manpower. However, arrangements have been done in some cases to share information with other projects, particularly extension projects such as FAO/Kilimo Fertilizer Project which has used TMV-2 as one of the varieties for demonstration or verification depending on location.This kind of feed-back from extension has been useful to reduce the demand for independent facilities between Research and extension as well as sharing ideas before variety release.A~ronomic work has concentrated on broad areas with the aim of obtaining informatIOn for immediate application in the Southern Highlands. This approach was prompted by the rapid expansion of maize production in areas where there were no appropriate recommendatIOns for efficient production of the crop.The broad objectives are: (a)To establish general recommendations for growing maize in the Southern Highlands. (b)To refine the general recommendations by ada{>ting them to specific agro-ecological areas and socio-economic conditions. (c)To investigate alternatives to the use of mineral fertilizers in order to increase grain yield and maintain soil fertility. To meet these objectives trials have been conducted in the following areas:(i) Methods of seedbed preparation (ii) Variety testin( iii) Time of plantmg (iV\\ Use of inor~anic fertilizers (v Crops rotatIOns (vi Methods of weed control (vii Use of organic manures and green manures (viii Plant population density and planting configuration.Results from most of the above trials were assembled together by Coon et al 1984 with recommendations based on agro-ecological zones found in the Southern Highlands.In general the major problems currently observed in the Southern Highlands include:low fertility particularly with respect to nitrogen and phosphorus weed infestation, associated with long growingf period and slow rate of growth for maize due 'to low temperatures particularly early in the season. dependence on inorganic fertilizers for high production despite high cost, irregular supply and late delivery of this input. Recently an attempt has been made to use Crotalaria zanziberica (c. ochroleuca) as a green manure plant. Various ways of using the plant have been considered including rotation, relay cropping and intercropping. However, up to date only the rotation method appears to be of considerable importance.Temu (1986) indicated that if C. zanziberica was ploughed under at flowering time then a maize crop followed, in the second season, savings of up 80 kgjha N could be realized (Fig. 2). However, this method ties up land and requires extra labour to establish and incorporate the green manure.Planting C. zanziberica in the same field as maize resulted in a number of problems which contributed to poor performance of maize. These included:(i) slow growth of C. zanziberica under cool conditions allowing serious weed competition (ii) obstruction during maize harvesting if seeded in all rows (iii) serious competition with maize in warm areasTo solve some of the above problems an attempt has been made to include C. Zanziberica into the Matengo pit farming system which takes advantage of the bio-mass weeded during the establishment of pits.Weed control has been singled out as a major problem in recent years due to increased use of fertilizers as well as continuous maize production with little or no rotation.Approaches to weed management in maize have been: (il mechanical (hand weeding and interrow cultivations) (Ii herbicides (pre-and post-emergence and contact) (Iii cultural (rotations, intercropping) (iv) integrated weed managementTesting of these methods of control has been done with some success. The results of such trials were summarized by Temu 1988.It is recommended that for effective weed control the frequency o1\"hand weeding should be at least twice during the critical period of weed competition.For farmers who can afford to purchase herbicides, Primagram (atrazine and metolachlor), Gesaprim (atrazine) Laddock (atrazine and bentazon) at rates up to 5.1 of the product per hectare are recommended. These herbicide should be complemented by other methods of control such as hand-pulling, interrow cultivation or use of a contact herbicides (like para~uat). To augument efforts to minimize weed infestation, cultural practices includmg early and proper seedbed  Recommendations on fertilizer use (N and P) in the Southern Highlands have been established. In the higher rainfall areas (>800mm p.a.), up to 150 KgN/ha can be applied, while in areas where rainfall is moderate or limiting an applIcation of 60 -80 KgN is adequate. Rate of phosphorus needed for maize production is 20 -40Kg/ha. The higher rates bemg recommendations for the more P deficient areas like Mbozi district. Split applicatIOn of N half at planting under seed and the rest at 80 cm is the best option for small farmers. All P is applied at planting under seed.Methods of application of urea, which is a relatively new fertilizer to farmers in the Southern Highlands, have been discussed by Temu (1989). Split application, broadcastin~and incorporation or placement in furrows along maize rows were possible options for small or large scale operations.So far most of the plant protection work relates to entomological problems. Stalk borers, particularly Buseolafusca,cutwormsAgrotis spp. and stor~e pests such as Sitophilus spp. are the major pests. However, recently other pests which pose considerable threat to maize seedlings have appeared. These include Tanymecus spp, Heterostylus spp. Systates spp. and chafer grubs (Heteronychus spp.).The control of B. fusca has been dealt with using chemical and cultural methods. An attempt has also been made to monitor the movement of the moth by using sex pheromones.Tnals testing various insecticides have been conducted for a number of years and several insecticides have been found suitable for the control of B. fusca. Among the suitable insecticides are: Fenitrothion + Fenvalerate 1.80, (Sumicombi), Cypermethrin lOEC (Ripcord), Phenthoate+ Oimethoate 410:110 gil (Rogodial) and Endosulfan 40 (ThlOdan 40). It was also confirmed that an extract from Tephrosia sp. used by farmers (when other chemicals are not available or affordable) was an effective way of controlling B. Fusca.Since B. fusca survives in maize stover to the next cropping season, it was envisaged that management of maize stover could offer a solution to the control of the pest. A trial to test different ways of stover management was conducted at Uyole for three seasons. . It was observed that maize stover left standing in the field had high larval survival rates compared to stover slashed and chopped into short pieces left on the surface and buried (Fig. 3). It was concluded that chopping maize stover at the end of the season was a feasible method of reducing infestation in the following season if practiced by a large number of farmers.The maize grain weevils (Sitophilus spp.) and maize grain moth (Sitotroga Cerellela) infest maize, often starting in the field carried to stores, causing considerable loss. Kynakil 1% (Malathion) has been used for a long time to control these pests. However, the product looses efficacy within a few weeks after application, making it difficult to store maize until the next harvest. Testing of other chemicals has been done at Uyole with encouraging results. Actellic 50EC and Sumithion 50EC have been found to give good protection if used on the bag along or on both the grain and the bag at a rate of 10 ppm.Other activities include monitoring of armyworms and the larger grain borer (Prostephanus trancatus) which appear sporadically in the Southern Highlands.While the Maize Improvement Programme will maintain its objectives as they are now, the relative importance given to some of the problems may change depending on availability of facilities and manpower. It is mtended to consider the We also think that knowledge of the genetic variances and type of gene actions in our populations would greatly aid decision making in the future.The problem of weevils will be studied systematically as from next season in order to find suitable lasting solutions.Chumo. Have you carried out research to find out how effective Tephrosia is compared to the commercial insecticides in controlling stalk borer.Answer: Marandu. Yes, we tested 4% and 8% of leaf crude extract and found that the higher concentration was effective to reduce damage to economic levels; though not as effective as commercial insecticides. We still need to look at the extract in more detail so that we establish its properties and possibly find a way of concentrating the active ingradient.Question: Chivatsi. In Kenya advanced generations of maize hybrids are not recommended for planting although farmers do it. Is it the same in your country?Answer: Marandu. Same only in that small scale farmers unable to buy certified seed and lateness of seed In circulation leads to this.We recommend to our farmers that they should buy fresh seed of hybrids each season, and after 3-4 years for open pollinated varieties. However, because of insufficient supply of improved seed and late delivery, the farmers tend to select seed from previous crop which may be a hybrid. Further, because the fields are usually small, whatever the farmer selects from previous crops there are high chances that the crop will have been contaminated by improved varieties from nearby fields. Hence the resulting planting is like a mixture of populations which have high yield. The farmers have therefore tended to keep the mixture because they dont see much difference between the mixture and late planted improved varieties.In Ethiopia both high yieldin~hybrids and composite varieties are commercially grown. Eight of the high yielding full season composite varieties currently under commercial use in Ethiopia were either introduced from abroad or synthesized from indigenous or indegenolls exotic germplasm (1) (Table 1). Some of these composites partly related by descent and grown for several generations under similar agro-ecological conditions with limited directed and natural selection in the ~ountry are likely to provide similar performance for a set of agronomic characters of major economic importance. Some maize breeder nd seed producers thus believe that some of these high yielding composites may no longer be considered as distinctly different cultivars. An alternative viewpoint held is that these high yielding varieties are distinct and diverse with regard to per se performance and adaptability and can thus be profitably exploited by selective intercrossing. Taking note of these view points the present study was undertaken to evaluate eight elite composite varieties of maize for their genetic affinity.Eight elite composite varieties of maize with high yield potential and wide genetic base were used in the present study (Table 1). Five of them, namely 2 1. National Maize Team Leader, Breeder. Assistant Research Officers, respectively. Balm Research Centre, P.O. Box 3, Bako, Shewa, Ethiopia.(Bak6 composite II), 7(Bako composite (~), 8(Alemaya composite), 3(EAH-75), 4(Awasa-Jima (C_ 4 ), were developed indigenously while the other three were introduced froin Kenya 6(KCC), 5(KCB) and Tanzania l(UCA). These eight composites and their 28 all possible F 1 crosses excluding reciprocals, were evaluated in a randomized complete block design during the rainy seasons of 1985 and 1986 at Bako and Didesa. In each environment the study had three replications. Each plot comprised four rows, 3 metre long. Middle two rows were used for the record of yield and other data. Spacings of 75 and 30 cm were respectively used between and within rows. Data on grain yield, days to 50 per cent silk emergence, plant height, ear hei~bt and per cent lodging were recorded. Grain yield per plot was adjusted for vanation in plant stand through analysis of covariance, and for grain moisture. Data on per cent lodging was subjected to \"arc sine angular\" transformation before analysis. Data over the four environments were pooled by considering the environments as random variables. Following the analysis of the design of the experiment mid-parent heterosis for yield was computed for each of the ~ur environments. Mid-parent heterosis was used to analyse genetic affinity among parents following the \"hetero-dist\" analysis and AlParray hetero-score of Singh ãI.(2) and Singh (personal communication).Mean performance over the four environments for grain yield, ear height, plant height and lodging are recorded in Table 4.Even though the error variance for grain yield were homogeneous, the variance ratio for genotype and genotype X environments were not sign.ificant. Average yields for the four environments were, however, significant and showed wide variation (Table 2) and were respectively 83.91, 72.64, 40.00 and 48.30 quintals/ha for Bako 1985, Bako 1986. Didesa 1985, Didesa 1986. Data for two environments (Didesa 1985 andBako 1986) fOf which F-test for genotypes was significant were further pooled. In this analysis both genotypes and genotypes X environment interaction were found to be significant. Bako 1986 and Dicfe-sa 1985 Bake compo (C/! AlemaY8 compolite 1.3.6. 7.8.respectively represented high (HYE) and low yielding environments (LYE) and were helpful in further study of the various genotypes included in the study, particularly with regard to grain yield. Based on mean performance over two environments (Table 3) the parent KCB was at par with Jima-Awasa (C4) and Balco com{'osite (Cz) and gave significantly lower yield than other parents. None of the hybnds, however, recorded higher grain yield than EAH-75 which gave highest YIeld. Varied behavior of the parents under two environments (HYE, LYE) as noted from genotype X environment interaction was further evidenced by the performance of Alemaya composite and composite KCC which were respectively low and high yielders in Bako 1986 reversed their position in Didesa 1985 test (Table 2). It was likewise true for Awasa-Jima (C4)' This observation is further supported by the performance of some elite F 1 hybrids namely DCA X KCB, EAH-75 X KCC, and DCA X EACH-75 recorded L8 to 4.6% hi~her grain yield than the best composite during Bako 1986 (HYE), none of the hybnds gave better yield than the best composites at Didesa 1985, in fact above named three hybrids were among the low yieldmg entries under LYE. In contrast to these observations parents like Bako composite II, DCA and EAH-75 were grouped among high yielders under each of the two environments. Composite KCC, the second highest yielding parent under HYE took 80.8 days to produce silks in 50 per cent of the plants (Table 4).The hybrids compared to their parents in general were intermediate to early in flowering suggesting partial dominance for earliness.Per cent mid-parent heterosis for grain yield for the two environments showed considerable variation. It ranged from 35.17 per cent to -23.01 per cent for DCA X KCB and Bako composite II X KCC for Bako 1986 and 31.16 per cent to-60.42 per cent for DCA X KCC and Awasa-Jima (C4) X KCB for Didesa 1985 respectively. Frequency of hybrids with ne~ative estlmates of heterosis was 26 and 10 for Didesa 1985. and Bako 1986, respectively, these two respectively represented the low and high yielding environments. Mid-parent heterosis based on two environments ranged from 18.30 per cent to -22.38 per cent for DCA X KCB and EAH-75 X Alemaya composite respectively, and 19 crosses recorded negative estimates of heterosis.Parents associated with high negative heterosis showed closer affinity and lack of diversity. On the other hand parents associated with high positive heterosis were considered to be diverse and unrelated. Cluster score was established by the number of rays emanating from each parent in the hetero-dist diagram. Cluster scores are recorded in Table 5.Data from Didesa 1985 and Bako 1986 presented a contrast, while in the former environment all parents (except two involved in one hybrid) had negative cluster score while in the latter environment all parents had positive cluster scores (except 2 parents involved in one hybrid).Cluster score (Table 5) for Didesa 1985 (LYE) data suggested that parents 8(Alemaya composite) and 4(Awasa-Jima (C 4 ) respectively had score of -5 and-4 su~esting their closer affinity with other parents. Parent I(DCA) with score of 0 indicated its divergence from other parents. This conclusion was further supported by a positive cluster score of 3 from Bako 1986 (HYE) as well. KCB recorded a score of 4. Overall cluster score indicated that parents I(DCA) and 5(KCB) were most divergent while parent 8(Alemaya composite) was least divergent from others. Thus parents 8(Alemaya composite), 4(Awasa-Jima (C 4 ) 3(EAH-75) and 2(Bako composite II) could form one closely related group. Divergence between parents I(DCA) and 5 (KCB) and affinity between the above named parent is expected on the basiS of the parental materiafs included in their initial synthesis and related past history of selectIOn.ArrayIparental mean (AlP) data combined over two environments (Table 6) were used to further study the relationship among parents. The AlP ratio helped to   3. .12. . . . . L..__._UL~_.. .--._..;.3_,.S.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The A/P ratio and parental mean ranks were closely related in inverse order. Standard deviation associated with array mean broadly followed the order of A/P. Array hetero-score (Table 6) further suggested that the parents I(UCA) and 5 (KCB) were more divergent than other parents.Besides yield, data on other agronomic characters also provided an opportunity to study affinity among parents. Composites KCC and KCB provided an interestlllg situation. Even though the two parents significantly differed in days to silk, F1 crosses of these parents involving five common testers (parents 1(UCA), 2(Bako composite II) 3(EAH-75), 7(Bako composite (C,), and 8(Alemaya composite) provided nearly similar mean values for plan1 height, ear height, and lodglllg (Table 4). Moreover crosses of KCB and KCC with parents I(UCA) and 8(Alemays composite) also yielded similar mean values for days to silk. Mid parent heterosis for yield among these parents was 3.53 per cent. These data suggest that even though these materials were developed from divergent materials (Table 1) the present seed stocks under study over a prolonged period of selection (directed and natural has led to a loss of genetic divergence, however mutual introgression through outcrossing at some occasion cannot be ruled out.Data from the present study suggest that several of the elite composites under evaluation are related and associated with marked genotype-environment interaction. Most of these composites are better adapted to favourable environments. The superiority of F 1 hybrids over parents is better expressed under high yielding environments. ibis suggests the need for introgressing additional germplasm from diverse genetic sources into the locally available well adapted population to synthesize superior composite varieties for extensive exploitation through systematic breeding programme involving evaluation at selected diverse environments in the country. Nevertheless, there is a growing demand for clean and improved seeds of populations. Open pollinated improved composites are being developed from local collections and introductions. Further selection continues on the locally developed and introduced composites to improve plant types and yield. SI fonnation, half-sib recombination and full-sib selection methodologies are duly applied. In the recent past, experimental varieties have been developed and tested. Hence, one of the experimental varieties is in the process of multiplication and distribution.Hybrid varieties have very limited demand, except by the Ministry of State Fanns Development. Minimal effort is being placed to develop lines and hybrids.Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the principal and popular cereal crops grown in Ethiopia. It has the highest yielding potential as compared to other cereals. It ranked first in yield per hectare and total grain yield. The major maize growing areas of Ethiopia are Western, Southern, South-Western and Eastern regions. The national average yield of maize in Ethiopia is generally low ranging fromg 11 to 19 quintals per hectare (Dejene Makonnen, 1979). Efforts to improve maize at Alemaya University of Agriculture have been underway for many years. This task was undertaken in cooperation and collaboration with national and international organizations and institutions. This paper outlines the major tasks undertaken in population improvement and the progress and achievements attained.A positive percentage of growth rate of area under maize production has been obtained in the last decade. As maize became popular and its area of production increased the demand for seeds of improved varieties became significantly high. Many small farmers and producers' cooperatives started requesting for Improved seeds in most parts of the Eastern Highlands. Therefore, to meet the demands of improved seeds improvement of varieties becomes a prerequisiteo By and large the highest percentage of farmers are small holders. Many of these farmers are not well prepared to use hybrid varieties that require higher inputs and management Mirustry of State Farms and Development, whicn comprises a very small sector of the farming system (5%) does require hybrid seeds.Hence, major attention is given for the development of open pollinated Improved populations that can meet the demand of farmers. To a lesser extent effort has also been placed for the development of hybrid varieties.Source materials were mostly obtained from Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mexico and local collections. Different techniques of selection were employed in the improvement of diverse germplasm. The objectives and/or goals of the improvement program were to develop: stable and high yielding varieties superior lines and hybrids the optimum cultural practices To achieve the objectives the selection methodologies depicted in Charts 1-3 have been used. The followin~strategies are also believed to be instrumental for achieving the goals and objectives set up. These are:~ooper~te With national and international organizations and InstitutIOns involve graduate students for their thesis research involve selected farmers for on-farm trials make use of off-season nurseries Results and Discussion .Po~ulations a.t various st~ges of improvement have been introduced from nelghbounng countnes. These mcluded KCC, KCB, DCA, DCB, KCE, ZCA, ICA and EC573 among others. These long cycle populations were tested for their adaptability at various sites including the Eastern Highlands. These introductions showed very good prospect and promise to be used as recommended cultivars with some improvement on their agronomic traits (Benti, 1986).Local collections were recombined with some of these introductions to produce one of the outstanding composites, Alemaya composite for the Eastern highlands and other similar locations. Alemaya composite was initially produced through mass selection. A steady selection and progress of improvement has been attained within the composite. The composite has particularly performed well at Alemaya in the Eastern highlands, Kulumsa, Awassa and Jirnma. Hence it is being multiplied by Ethiopian Seed Cooporation for large scale distribution among the farming community. The composite is characterized as beirlg tall, about 300 cm in height. It produces attactive ears, 34 cm long with 12 to 16 rows. The kernel are mixtures of small, medium and large in size; flint, semi-dent and dent with white endosperm. The composite performed well, yielding as high as 100 quirltals per hectare under optimum experimental conditions.The other improved population developed for the Eastern highlands and ot er similar location is EAH-75. This variety is also very popular, it is multiplied in large quantities by the Ethiopian Seed COf{>oration for large scale distribution. The plants are about 250 cm in height. The vanety produce, large sized ears 33 cm long with 12 to 16 rows of 50 seeds per row. It haskS cleanly and easily. The kernels are mixtures of small, medium and large in size, semi-dent to dent With white endosperm. The variety performs well under optimum experimental conditions.Other series of composites which constitute Mexican germplasm designated CA series have been developed and tested. Some of these composites are early in maturity. However, the vaneties did not extend beyond experiment level.Mostly a white endosperm maize is preferred, nonetheless, a yellow endosperm improved population from local collections through mass selection and ear to row half-sib family selection was developed. The population, known as Bakuri has a maturity rating of 120-135 days; and plant height of 200 cm. The kernels are mixtures of small, medium and lar~e SlZe, generally flint with yellow endosperm. This improved population is distnbuted around Alemaya at a limited scale. The traditionally preferred and commercially produced maize types are white in color, dent and semi-dent in texture. The flinty pop com is not well known and grown by the peasant sector. Nonetheless, pop com is very popular at the urban centers. Very linuted amount of pop com has been imported for urban consumption in the past few years. Attempts have been made to develop a pop com variety that can meet the urban needs and substitute import.Local collections and some introductions from North America have served as a source material for the development of the pop com variety. Through S1 and haJf sib family selection the current pop com variety was developed. The variety matures within 90 to 120 days and yields 40-50 quintals per hectare. It is well adapted to Alemaya, Bako, and Awassa regions. The variety is being multiplied at Alemaya and has been distributed to interested institutions and individuals. The variety tillers, particularly when widely spaced. It produces small ears, the kernels being mixtures of rice and pearl types WIth white endosperm.Introduced and locally produced long cycle populations are tall and late in maturity. They are in general susceptible to lodging under high wind and stormy conditions. Due to lod~ing reduction in yield is recorded. Furthermore, much of the photosynthate is Utilized for the development and maintenance of the lar~e vegetative part of the populations. Many of the composites have similarities III plant type and seed texture. They seem to have shared common gene pools. Hence, It is better to have one or few populations that represent the different composites for different growing sites than having duplicates or similar-types.The improved populations, Alemaya composite, KCC, KCB and DCA were test crossed with EC573. The crossed progenies and including the checks Alemaya composite and EAH-75 were tested at Alemaya, Bako, Jimma, KuJumsa and Awassa. The crosses performed well yielding very high at A1emaya (Table 1). The result indicated that there was no significant difference among the crossed progenies at the specific location.The four composites; namely: A1emaya composite, KCC, KCB and UCAwere pooled together to serve as source material for the improvement per se. The main objective of the improvement program was to develop a stable and high yielding population with reduced to plant type and ear height. Sl plants were developed from the source materials in the first generation. Half-sib recombination among the selected Sl plants was accomplished in the following generation and subsequently, full-sibS were developed from the half-sibs. 250 full-sib families and six local checks were tested in a 16 by 16 lattice design for yield and other agronomic characteristics at more than one location. The top ten best performin~families were recombined to constitute elite experimental variety. The elite expenmental varieties were advanced to F 2 and F 3 generations at an isolation before they were tested for yield. The improvement process takes longer time. Hence, to reduce the period and accelerate the progress an off-season nursery is used for the recombination and constitution of families.Using the source materials, AI. Comp., KCC, KCB and DCA three experimental varieties have been generated at Alemaya. The parental components that constituted EV-1, EV-2, and EV-3 are given in Tables 2,3 and 4, respectively. The selected full-sib families have desirable agronomic characteristics including high yield.The experimental varieties were tested for yield and other agronomic characteristics. They have out performed the origmal source populations; namely: AI. Comp., KCC, KCB and UCA. The experimental varieties yielded hi~b and bave low plant and ear height (Table 5). Experimental Variety-1 is now multlplied on a 10 hectare field of the University farm. Starting next year it will be advanced to on-  Table 4 Grain yield and other agronomic traits of full-sib families (parental components of EV-3)Height (em)No. farm demonstration trial. It will hopefully replace the very tall, late maturing and lodging susceptible composites in the Eastern Highlands and similar agro-ecological zones of Ethiopia.Hybrids have high demand by the Ministry of State Farm and Development. To meet the demand, efforts have been made in the development of hybrid . Large number of lines were developed from the composites using the conventional method of selfing. Lines at various stages of selfin~were top crossed with a well established broad based population to test their combming abilIty. Through top cross test potential lines were screened. For further evaluation selected lines have gone to diallel cross to determine both general and specific combining ability. Diallel cross studies have partly been undertaken by graduate students for their M.Sc. theses research requirement. Lines that are Identified to be good combiners and have had good performances have been multiplied and maintained.Large number of single cross and double cross hybrids have been generated from the lines and tested for various agronomic characteristics in experiment stations.The lines AI.28B, Ba.D, AI.29, AI.30, AI.31, AI.32, AI.33 and AI.34 appeared to be very good in their combining ability and performance. Four single cross hybrids designated Alemaya 79A, Alemaya 79B, Alemaya 79C and Afemaya 79D have been developed using these lines. These hybrids are ready for verification test and release. Some double cross hybrids are also being produced, and they are being tested including this crop season.For the maximum potential expression of the varieties developed the optimum agronomic practices need to be maintained. Thus, density per unit area, date of planting, fertility requirement and others practices were studIed and established for the varieties developed.Benti Tolessa, 1986. Better and stable performance of maize through genetic improvement at Bako. lAR VoU, No.I. Dejene Makonnen, 1979Makonnen, , 1983Makonnen, , 1985. Maize improvement progress report.Alemaya University of Agriculture. Much emphasis will be given to the first contnbution from CIMMYTlIlTA named above and that is gerrnplasm because it forms the major component of maize research in the country and the main source of diverse genetic materials for the country's breeding program. Kawanda Composite B (KWCB) is composed of materials tested and selected under this collaboration, i.e. it was developed from materials of Central and South American origin though it was never released. Kawanda Composite A (KWCA) the present variety being grown by farmers had streak resistance incorporated at rITA Due to the upheavals in Uganda, maize research was affected likewise. The 1985 heavy looting of Kawanda Research Station the then headquarters of Maize research, saw the end of previous years wor!).. Records, facilities and germplasm assemblage that had been made got destroyed. Starting with 1986, a short term strategy of obtaining and screening varieties that are high yielding, resistant to maize streak, other diseases, pests and with other de irable attributes was launched. Focus was on CIMMYT and UTA materials and so far a good number of useful varieties has been identified (Tables 1 and 2).Following the susceptibility of most of the introduced materials to H.turcicum leaf bli~ht, it wa decided to start a program to solve this problem. Some seeds of Population 42 (ETO-Illinois) which IS supposed to have blight resistance were received from CIMMYT Mexico and the material is to be multiplied this year second season. If the material is found promising it will be intercrossed with OUI adapted gerrnplasm.  \" Entries with different letters have significant yield differences at the 5% level. *. Entries with different letters have significant yield differences at Lhe 5% level.In our H. turcicum evaluation work we used two locations Kamenyarrtiggo DFI (hot spot area) and NamuloD,ge Research Station. Leaves heavily infected with blight and approaching full maturIty were collected from three different ecological zones at end of last year.Just before inoculation, the dry leaves were ground into a meal of about the coarseness of wheat bran. Inoculation was done at 6-8 leaf stage by placing a pinch of leaf meal (a leafed thimbleful) into the whorl of each plant. TIus was followed by application of water into the whorl. Ten days later a second inoculation was made usmg two methods; a meal of ground leaves and spore suspension (60,000 spores/plant).Portions of the lesions around their edges were cut, surface sterilized, washed in distilled water and placed in acidified potato dextrose agar (APDA) using aseptic techniques and incubated at 25-30°C. From these samples a culture of the pathogen was transferred to APDA Two to three weeks after the fungus mycelia had covered the surface of the agar. About 10-20 ml of sterile distilled water were added onto the place and the spores including the mycelia on the surface of the agar, were scrapped off using a rubber tipped spatula. The suspension was strained through a layer of muslin cloth.Evaluations were done three times during the growing season. Disease reactions were evaluated using a scale of 1 to 5. Intermediate ratings between two numerals were in some cases used (Table 3).  The strife the country has gone through led to the loss of all breeders inbred lines and other maize materials. Hence an effort to introduce hybrid materials from willing countries and organizations for testing under Uganda conditions was made. The intention being to temporarily continue to import hybrid seed while the breeders carry out an intensive programme to develop local hybrids with emphasis on high yield, disease and pest resistance. It is in this context that eight white maize hybrids were introduced from UTA and tested at Kawanda Research Station in 1985. The 1985 trial was abortive due to the liberation war but,the same trial was repeated in 1986. The objectives were to evaluate the performance of these eight hybrids at Kawanda and compare them with one synthetic variety and one composite variety. The long term objective was to evaluate these varieties in different maize growing areas of Uganda for their yield potential and resistance to pests and diseases. The ultimate goal was to produce them commercially in areas where they would be found suitable.The The experiment was planted in a fairly uniform field located at Kawanda Research StatIOn, in the Lake Victoria Basin with a ferralitic red clay loam soils of Buganda Catena. The mean annual rainfall is 1132 rom which is well distributed but has two reaks, one durin~March-April and the second peak in October-November. The tria was conducted In the second rains. The environment was kept fairly uniform so that the variations observed would be as far as practicable due to the differences in the genotypes.The entries were planted in a randomized complete clock design with four replications. Plot size was 2.25 m wide by 5 m long with a spacing of 75 em between rows and 50 em within each row. There were four rows with 11 hills per row. Three seeds were planted per hill and thinned to two seedlings per hill, giving a perfect stand of 22 plants per row and 88 plants per plot. The estimated plant density was 53,333 plants per hectare.General agronomy included the application of single super phosphate at a rate of 125 kg/ha in the seed bed, a day before planting. Nitrogen in the form of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate was applied when the CrOp was knee high at the rate of 250 kg/ha. A minimum of ten guard rows surrounded the trial to reduce edge effects. The trial was hoe-weeded three times during its wowing period to keep it weed-free. No measures were taken against pests and arumal damage. The trial was guarded against bird damage which were scared away daily from the time the trial was in the milk stage to hard green maturity. Data on most important agronomic traits were collected only on two central rows.The results reported were obtained in the second rains. The environment was kept fairly uniform so that the variations observed would be as far as practicable due to the differences in the genotypes. PLant stand ranged from 50% to 97.7% with hybrid 8505-5 having the Lowest stand of 50% closely followed by K8 at 68% and the remaining entries faUln~between 90% and 97.7%. The differences observed were significant. Plant height measures indicated the entries were generally memum to very tall ranging from 172.5 em in 8505-3 to 230.8 cm in Kawanda Composite A (KWCA). These differences were highly significant. Ear height to a large extent was linearly related to plant height in that tall plants had high placed ears. Again 8505-3 had the lowest placed ear at 69.3 em and KWCA had the highest placed ear at 137.5 em from the ground and the differences were significant.  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For diseases evaluation, only the results for blight and rust are available. Rust was present on all entries being severe on entries 8322-13, KWCA and K8 and mild on 8321-21 and 8505-1 with identical lowest score. Blight was moderate to severe with only KWCA being more resistant than the remaining entries. Although the results indicate that blight was more severe than rust, blight developed late on most entries and did not apparently affect yield. Plants harvested ranged from 59% to 95% of the perfect stand. 8505-5 had the lowest stand closely followed by K8 at 67%. Entry 8321-21 had the highest percentage of plants harvested at 95%. The differences observed affected yteld as discussed later.Number of ears harvested was mainly to indicate the presence or absence of single eared, double eared and barren plants. Except for KWCA and K8 where the number of ears harvested was lower than the number of plants harvested, the remaining entries generally indicated the majority of plants had one ear, but in a few entries one or two plants had more than one ear. It is surprising to note KWCA had less ears harvested than the number of plants harvested because this composite has a naturally high tendency for double ears. Entry 8321-21 had the highest number of ears harvested corresponding to its high percentage of plants harvested. The differences between varieties were highly significant.Ear rot was negligible in all entries except in KWCA and K8 where it was moderate and the differences among entries were significant. The hybrids were more resistant to ear rot than the local varieties.Differences among entries for field yield were highly significant. The observed yield-by-entries interaction indicated the yield potential was not the same f9r each entry. The field yield was adjusted for mOisture content. Separating the mean field yield showed K8 was the lowest yielder and significantly different from all other entries. It was followed by KWCA, 8505-5, 8322-13 and 8505-3 which were not significantly different from each other. These were followed by 8438-19, Samuru-83-TZSR-W-1 and 8505-1 which had similar yields but were significantly higher yielders than the former group. 8321-18 and 8321-21 were the highest yielding group in that order and were significantly different from the rest of the entries. The hybrids outyielded the local varieties K8 and KWCA According to hybrid evaluatIOns of the early and mid -seventies Kawanda Composite A and Kawanda Composite B were performing better than the Kenya Hybrids such as H632, H5013, H5014 etc. but there were environment by vanety interactions as hybrids tended to perform better in Eastern Uganda (Rubaihayo 1975). The 1986 results seem to suggest that the local composite has deteriorated or the liTA hybrids are Superior to the Kenya hybrids when grown in Uganda. However, no conclusions can be drawn as the results In this paper were from one location and one season, yet the results of the seventies were multilocational and for a number of seasons.The number of days to 50% silking were also significantly different with K8 being the earliest to silk at 56 days after planting and was followed by 8428-19 at 69 days. The two being significantly different, but the latter was not significantly different in silking date from hybrids 8321-21, 8505-3 and KWCA 8505-1 and Samaru-83-TZSR-W-1 were the latest to silk. This could be of significant implications especially in the second rains which are short. The farmers who plant late would lose the crop. That is if late silking is positively correlated with late maturity. In this particular trial maturity date was not recorded.Both root and stalk lodging were moderate in all entries. There were significant differences among entries for both traits but the coefficient of variation was over 40% and very high making the results unreliable.In general, all the hybrids had good husk cover. Although the score for K8 was bad (4.3) it was still not significantly different from 8505-5 with a score of 1.3.  However, these results are highly unrelIable as the coefficient of variation was very high.Entries varied significantly for moisture content and that is why the field yield was adjusted for moisture content. Entry Samaru-83-TZSR-W-1 had the lowest moisture content but was among the best 4 yielders, although the high number of plants and ears harvested could have contributed to this high yield inspite of the low moisture content. However, it did not vary significantly from 8322-13, K8, 8505-3 and 8428-19. Entries K8, 8505-3, 8429-19 did not vary significantly from  entries 8321-18, 8321-21 and 8505-5. Entries KWCA and 8505-1 had the highest moisture content and yet KWCA was the second lowest yielder. This could be attributed to the low number of ears harvested but as indicated the yields were all adjusted for moisture content. So other factors were most important in affecting yield results.Plant aspect was a general score of \"look\" or \"appeal\" of the plants in each entry. 8321-21 was best looking closely followed by 8505-1. Entries 8505-3, KWCA and K8 had the worst looking plants. The differences among entries were significant. Ear aspect was also \"look\" and \"appeal\" and entries differed significantly. The best looking ears were of entries 8321-18, 8421-21, 8428-19 and Samaru-83-TZSR-W-1. The worst \"looking\" ears were of entries 8322-13 and K8.Highly significant correlations were observed between field yield and some selected traits and also between plant height and lodging. Significant negative correlations were observed between yield and stalk lodgmg (r =0.7(0), yield and rust disease (r = -0.751) at 5% probability level. This indicated that yIeld tended to decrease as the intensity of stalk lodging, rust and ear rot increased. Root lodging (r = 0.096) and blight (r = 0.021) did not appear to affect yield much. As discussed earlier blight developed late on most of the entries. Probably this is why it had little effect on yield. There was significant positive correlation of yield with the number of ears harvested (r = 0.875, which could indicate yield increase with increase in number of ears harvested.Significant positive correlation (r = 0.596) was observed between plant height and root lodging indicating that root lodging increased as plant height increased. On the contrary stalk lodging showed negative correlation (r = 0.207) ~ndicating there was a tendency for stalk lodging to decrease as the plant height mcreased.The overall results indicated that hybrids evaluated in this trial were superior to the local varieties KWCA and K8 in almost all the traits except resistance to blight where KWCA was superior. More evaluation will be continued to verify the~e results and recommendations made accordingly.Data on several of your linear regression graphs (dipictinS some parameters you recorded) seemed to be very scattered, WIth a lot of outliers, indicating that linear regressions were not the best. What were your correlation coefficients like?Answer: Rubaihayo:1.There was poor germination in K8 and 8505-5 otherwise the remaining entries ranged from 90-97.7%.Although the data was scattered the general trend was linear either upwards or downwards or level. The correlation coefficients were either strongly negative or positive; slightly positive or slightly negative. The r values are given in the main paper.In Burundi, maize is the most important cereals as well as one ofthe most important staple crops in terms of total food production and total area under cultivation. At high altitudes, maize is the most predominant crop. It is grown throughout the country usually in association with beans, peas, bananas etc. and only very rarely is it grown as a pure crop. It is grown ~a rain-fed crop or in the valley bottoms during the dry season by taking advantage of the residual moisture, where there are pOSSibilities of irrigation, it can be grown at any time of the year. In general, yIelds are low due to lack of improved varieties, diseases and poor cultural practices. According to the Annual Report of the Agronomy Department, the total annual production of maize is estimated at 200,000t. Most of the maize produced is consumed locally and only very small quantities are sold. The main is consumed in the form of flour which is used to prepare a thick porridge or it is eaten on the cob as roasted or boiled maize.The bree~ing wor~of the.p~o~ramis ai~ed a~improving popul~tions rather than the developmg hybnds. This IS m confOrmIty With the level of agricultural development in the country where open-pollinated varieties of maize are recommended because of the ease 6f seed multiplication of such varieties. Hybrid varieties will possibly be introduced after all the prerequisites that go with the maize hybrid industry are met. Open-pollinated varieties developed through recurrent selection are by no means always inferior to hybrids.. Recurrent selection for yield conducted in a systematic manner over a number of generations is certain to result in high-yielding populations (Gardner, 1987). By usin& half-sib family selection without a tester, it has been possible to develop high-yIelding maize populations of both local and exotic origin. Table 1 shows the progress made after five cycles of selection from a base population. The basic outline of the method utilized is as follows: Select superior plants with respect to yield from a base population. Seed of the selected plants are planted ear-to-row,one ear row makes a half-sib family. At plantin~, every two rows of families are alternated with one row of plants origmating from a bulk of seeds of all the families; considered as the male row. At flowering all the female rows are emasculated before the shedding of pollen. Off type and undesirable plants in the male rows are destroyed before pollen shedding.At harvest, superior plants in the best families are selected to form a new and improved population. 6.Steps 1-5 are repeated until a desired level of yield is reached. This method has an advantage in that it is quick while at the same time being quite effective for selection for yield. Its disadvantage is that families that form a new population are not tested for their superiority before recombination. Inferior plants in the male row are allowed to pollinate plants in the female rows. Thus mferior genes are carried over to the next generation.Maize varieties that mature early being at the same time high yielding are very much appreciated by Burundi farmers who usually plant another crop such as beans or peas after maize; it is, therefore, necessary that maize variety planted must mature early enough so as to permit the practice of double crol?ping.The method employed in developmg early maturing vaneties is the half-sib family selection. In developing maize varieties that are early, all the plants in the male rows are emasculated at 50 per cent of flowering while those in the female rows are emasculated before the shedding of pollen. In this way late maturing plants, in the female rows are not pollinated and therefore eliminated. Selection for high yield and earliness is done concurrently thereby developing varieties that combine the two characters together. Varieties that meet the farmers' regwrements have now been developed (Table 1). The varieties Mugamba-I (ex-Pool 9) and Imbo-I (ex-Across 7843) are of exotic origin whereas the variety Isega-I (ex-PHA) is of local origin.Seed of the population Pool 9 was obtained from CIMMYT in 1981. A total of 435 families and the bulk of these families were planted in September, 1982. Offtype plants as well as plants with undesirable agronomic characters were eliminated be(ore flowering. At harvest, 60 per cent of the families were retained and planted in 11983 as the first cycle of selection (CI). The same procedure of selection and recombination using half-sib selection method for high rield and earliness was employed in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988, resulting m six cycles (C6) of selection. The fifth cycle of selection (C5) has been released as a commercial variety, having been distributed to the farmers for commercial production.The variety Ise~a.I (ex-PHA)This vanety is developed from a local maize population of the high altitude (P~) region of 13urund! through the selection of the sUI?erior genotypes of the maize grown by farmers m the Mugamba area of Burundi. In 1983, 260 plants were selected. Among these plants, 198 had ears with white grains and 62 plants had ears that had yellow and purple grains. In September, 1983 the 260 families together with the bulk of white-grained seeds were planted and harvested in 1984 during which time 228 plants having ears with yellow grains and 186 plants having ears with white grains were selected and planted in September the same year. The seed of ears with white grains were bulked and served as the pollen donor. 500 families were selected in 1986 and planted in September, the same year. The same procedure continued in 1987 resulting in four cycles (C4) of selection. C4 was released and distributed to farmers as commercial variety.The selection for yield and earliness for the variety Isega 1 and Mugamba 1 was done under associatlon with beans, this being the condition under which varieties released by the program will eventually be grown by farmers. In considering the fact that practically all the farmers in the high altitude areas use farm yard manure (FYM) instead of inorganic manure, selection was also done by applying 20t/ha of FYM.  1987). It occurs in all agro-ecological zones causing considerable reduction in maize yield, sometimes reaching 100 per cent yield loss. MSV is therefore of major economic importance in Burundi. The disease has been known in Burundi for at least 30 years but until recently, it has only been important in the low altitude areas. In 1982, however, a very high mcidence of the disease was observed in maize planted in the valley bottoms, in the high altitude areas, culminating in severe outbreaks in 1983(Zeigler et ai, 1985) ) probably due to changing agricultural practices which have been responsible for the increase in the importance of the maize streak disease in Africa (Rose, 1978). All the maize varieties under commercial production in Burundi are susceptible to MSV disease and exotic varieties from the International Institute of Tropical A~riculture (DTA), although highly resistance to MSV, were not adapted to BurundI. Faced With thIS situation we embarked on a breeding program for maize varieties resistant to streak virus disease. The breeding program for MSV disease has been extremely successful such that at the moment there are two MSV resistant varieties developed by the program, one being adapted to low altitude areas below 1,300m above sea level and the other being ada{'ted to high and medium altitude areas above 1,500 above sea level The two varieues are Imbo-l SR for the low and high altitude streak resistant (HASR) for the high altitude. HASR was developed through selection from the local maize population and !mbo-1 SR was a result of introducin~MSV resistant genes into Imbo-l through the backcross method using llTA reSistant variety as a donor for resistance.Surveys in the farmers' fields revealed a low frequency of maize plants resistant to MSV (Malithano et al., 1987). 150 resistant plants were marked and collected at harvest time. The material was planted ear-to-row at Gisozi Agricultural Research Station. The plants were artificially inoculated with Cicadulina spp., and resistant plants to MSV were selected. Selection for MSV resistant was repeated in each generation by using artificial inoculation and after six cycles of selection, the highly resistance vanety, HASR, to MSV disease was obtained. This variety has been tested in the farmers' field with great success. It will be released for commercial production in October, 1989. The methodology and other field techniques employed in developing HASR are well documented by Malithano et aI., 1987.A conversion program is being carried out to incorporate streak resistance into three varieties that are adapted and perform well in Burundi. One of these varieties is Imbo-1 SR. All these varieties are still being improved for yield and other agronomic characters. Imbo-1 is being converted to Imbo I SR by using the backcross method. Again, a detailed methodology and field techniques employed in developing this variety to MSV resistance are well documented by Malithano et aI. 1987.On-farm trials conducted by the program in collaboration with the farmers serve as a demonstration and confIrmatIOn of the results obtained at the research station. On-farm trials are important in that the farmers are involved in the development of variety or a new cultural practice, thereby making it easy for a new idea or a variety to be easily accepted by them. The program is working closely with over 300 farmers in almost all parts of the country where maize is an important crop.Useful and practical results have been obtained in developing varieties of maize that are high yielding, early maturing and resistant to MSV disease, thereby meeting the most important objectives of the national maize program. The exploitation of a local maize population from which selection for high yield and resistance to MSV has been made is of great significance to Burundi and may serve as a lesson to other national maize programs in the region that there is a lot of latent potential in the local germplasm. We, therefore, need to take a closer look at the local material before introducing exotic germplasm which in many cases may not be adapted to the local conditions. Varieties extracted from the local maize populations in Burundi have been easily accepted by the farmers because the varieties maintain their indigenous agronomic characteristics which farmers usually appreciate. Rufyikiri. Two rows of maize (75cm x 5Ocm) and one row of beans at 20 em of each maize row. The farmers don't plant on lines. After the experiments we try to make these method of planting adopted by farmers.Moshi. One of the varieties released in 1987, Isega-l is multicoloured with red, yellow, white and purple grains while the other two, Imbo 1 and Mugamba 1 were white grained. Do farmers of Burundi have preference for certain colours in the maize grain they utilize?Answer: Rufyikiri. They prefer white grain maize but for vegetable maize they accept the mixed grain maize also.Anab Farah Saidi 1Fried into p~cake Eaten as thick porridge Green ears for roasting INTRODUCfION In Somalia, maize is an introduced crop. Historically, it is believed that the maize crop was probably introduced to Somalia by Portuguese explores in the 16-17 centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the crop was extensively cultivated in the Juba and Shabelle regions.At present, maize is the second most important crop after sorghum and has become a staple cereal in Somalia. It has higher yield potential than sorghum and is grown under supplementary irrigation along the two nvers. In north-west Somalia regions such as Borama and Gabiley cultivation of maize is well practised.The area under maize cultivation in Somalia is estimated to be 44% of the total area allocated for cereals. According to the lastest estimates, maize covers a surface area of 350,000 ha annually with an output of 270,000 t thus giving a yield of about 0.8 t/ha.Almost 95% of the maize production of Somalia is from small scale farmers that use traditional methods of production. They generally obtain very low yields. The reasons for the low yields are:-1.The local varieties used by farmers have low potential yield.Most of the maize is grown under rainfed conditions and irrigation is used in limited areas.Little or no fertilizers are used.Stem borer control is not adequate. To overcome these limiting factors, the main goals of the Somali maize breeding programme at the Central Agricultural Research Station (CARS) are as follows:1.To develop new high yielding varieties which are resistant to insects and are tolerant to drought. 2.To develop synthetic varieties from short term inbred lines. 3.To start development of new composite varieties. 4.To identify, evaluate, and select the most promising local varieties. 5.To continue varietal trials and seed increase. The most common cropping system adapted in almost all maize growing areas in Somalia are, in Gu season farmers grow maize from April to June with average presipitation of 300-400mm and in Der season which has average predpitation of 200-250mm, sesame is grown.The local consumers prefer the white flint types which are used in a number of ways:1.Past efforts in maize improvement in Somalia The introduction of relatively high yielding varieties and selection of hi~er quali~seed from the local land races, increased the interests in maize cultivatIon in Somalia.1. CARS, Ministry of Agriculture, P.O. Box 24, Mogadishu, Somalia Development of high yielding varieties is the main goal of the maize breeding program currentfy goin~on at Central Agricultural Research Station at AFGOI. Three of the maize varIeties developed at CARS are:This broad genetic base composite was developed in the mid-seventies at CARS from the combined germplasm of Somali land races, Guatemala flint and American hybrids.It is variable in plant and grain types but for the most part it is characterized by tall, robust plants of late maturity. Grain colour varies from orange to white to purple but is prodomently light yellow. It has dent to flint grains but is predominantly semi-dent.This is a variety developed from white flint grains selected out from Afgoi composite yellow. It was first grown during Der season in 1979-80. A suitable yield of 4 to 5 t/ha) under experimental conditions was observed at CARS.This material was selected in 1980 from halfsib crosses made between Afgoi composite white and Tanzanian Tuxpeno. This variety is characterised by white semI-dent grain and full season maturity. The average grain yield under experimental conditions at CARS was 5 to 7 t/ha while under farmers' conditions a yield of 2.5 to 3 t/ha was observed.Since 1981 expanded research on maize improvement and development of appropriate production practices have been carried out at CARS. As a result of that effort four promising varieties are in the pipe line to be released in the near future.A major effort at CARS from 1979 to date was introduction of new varieties from CIMMYT. More than 100 different maize varieties were introduced and evaluated. Since 1981, the following materials were found to be promising: Across Experimental single cross hybrids produced significantly higher grain yield than other four types of maize varieties. Experimental three-way crosses and standard hybrids had similar grain yield but significantly higher than the lowest yielding open-pollinated varieties. Experimental single crosses and three-way crosses had the highest linear response while double cross and standard hybrids did not differ. Open-pollinated varieties had significantly the lowest linear response. Experimental three-way crosses had the lowest deviation from linear response while standard hybrids and experimental single crosses had the highest. Number of ears per 100 plants had no impact on linear response of the grain yield.The main objective of a maize breeder is to develop maize genotypes that have high yield potential and good stability of yield when grown in different environments. In countries where maize is the staple food crop and where survival of the majority of the population heavily depends on the crop, stability of yield performance over the years and regions is extremely important. Extensive testing in many locations and over many years is required to determine the genotypes that have the greatest stability of performance. There is no ideal maize genotype which will perform equally well in all environments, but some genotypes are better than others. Stability of production is important because varie,ties with predictable perfprmance are more desired for every farmer and particularly for commercial ones in order to have repeat sales. The importance of genotype x environment interaction is widely recognized as a major issue in basic studIes of gene action, as well as in applied research concerned with genotype evaluation. Breeders have been dealing with it by using different experimental designs, manipulating plot size and shape, number of replications, repeated testing over a series of environments, anQ grouping of breeding material according to regions of adaptation.The concept of genotype x environment interaction dates to the beginning of genetics itself and has been largely on Drosophila. Lerner (1954) has provided arguments favouring the average superiority of fitness of heterozygotes compared to homozygotes when faced with varying environments. Dobzhansky and Wallace 1953, Lerner 1954, andDobzhansky (1955) stress the restriction of the homozygote lMaize Breeders, Mount Makulu Central Research Station Private Bag 7, Chilanga, Zambia. regarding environmental adaptability in contrast to heterozygote versatility and conclude that heterozygotes tend to be more homeostatic. Sprague and Federer (1951) dealt with the concept of homeostasis in the early 1950's as it applies to stability of performance of single crosses, top crosses and double crosses of maize when these are tested in different environments. They found that double-crosses interacted less with the environments than single crosses and concluded that double crosses were superior to single-crosses for stability of performance. Eberhart and Russell (1969), however, studied differences in stability of yield among single-cross hybrids and reported that some single crosses may be as stable for yield as the best double crosses and concluded that stability seemed to be mainly a property of inbred parents. Funk and Anderson (1964) and Rowe and Andrew (1964) reported that heterogeneous maize populations are more stable in yielding ability when grown in different environments than homogeneous populations. Lynch et al (1973) evaluated relative performance of single cross, three-way cross, and double cross maize hybrids recommended for commercial production in Ontario, Canada and reported that single crosses outyielded double crosses and had the same stability. Russell and Eberhart (1968) reported that individual buffering, or developmental homeostasis was becoming more important to maize breeders because of the increased use of single-cross hybrids and to achieve the development of high-yielding single crosses with greater stability of performance, the maize breeder may have to consider change in plant type. Collins et at (1965), Russell and Eberhart (1968), Ristanovic (1969) and Prior and Russell (1975) have reported prolific hybrids to be more stable in yield performance than single-eared hybrids.Stability studies continue to be very important to breeders of other crops too (Ntare and Aken Ova, 1985; Baenzi~er et al., 1985; Beaver et ai, 1985; Norden et  al., 1986; Saeed et al 1987). The objective of this study was to compare the yield and yield stability among different types of newly developed experimental hybrids, open-pollinated varieties and commercially grown standard hybrids. T5-standard hybrids included locally developed and foreign hybrids widely commercially grown m Zambia. R215 is a well known Zimbabwean three-way cross hybrid commonly imported and grown in Zambia. PNR 473 is a Pioneer three-way cross hybrid also widely ~rown in Zambia. MM601 (single cross), MM603 (threeway cross) and MM6I2 (double cross) are local Zambian commercial hybrids which currently occupy over 60% of the total area under maize production in the country.The design was randomised complete block with three replications. All plots were hand harvested, and all ears in the plot saved. We also counted plants per plot and harvested ears, and converted to ears/lOa plants. Moisture percentage was determined for each plot and plot weight was converted to kg/ha of shelled grain at 12.5% moisture.Yield data were analyzed first according to conventional analysis of variance in which maize varieties were considered a fixed variable and years and locations were equated to 12 random environments.Estimates of the stability parameters were obtained by the method outlined by Eberhart and Russell (1966). For each entry, stability is described by three parameters defined with the followin~model; Yij = i + b.Ii. + Sij, where Yij is the variety mean of the jth variety at the Jth environment, Vi is the mean of the lth variety over all environmnents, bi is the regression coefficient that measures the response of the ith variety to varying environments, Sij is the deviation from regression of the ith variety at jth environment, and Ij is the environment index obtained as the mean of the varieties at the jth environment minus the grand mean. An environmental index was established for each environment and individual yields were regressed against the environmental index. Average yield, ~e regression coefficient (b) and mean square for deviation from regression (S d) were computed for each type and each variety within a type.Summarized analysis pf variance for grain yield among varieties in 5 different types to obtain Genotype x Environment interactions is shown in Table 1. Geno!ype x Environments interactions for single cross hybrids (TI) and standard hybrids (T5) were hi~ly significant and very similar. Three-way crosses (TI) had significant interactIOns, while double crosses (1'3) and open-pollinated varieties (14) had non significant interactions. Significant interactions indicate instability of yield performance for varieties in the type but this analysis does not provide for comparing among types for stability of performance. Hybrids within Tl, TI and T5 are highly selected genotypes and therefore differences in the magnitude of the interactions mean squares of these types have been probably caused by specific genotypes.Stability analysis of variance of 25 varieties, five different types with five varieties per type grown in 12 environments are shown in Table 2. Varieties differed significantly in linear response to the environment. The pooled deviation which were used as denominator in the F test of the interactions were highly significant which also indicate that differences in linear response among varieties across environments did not account for all the variety x environment interactions.Mean yields for varieties across all environments ranged from 2915 kg/ha in environment 6 to 8927 in environment 11 (Table 3). The average yield (Grand Mean) over all varieties and across all environments was 5759kg/ha. Yield data in Table 3 indicate that we had a wide range and a ~ood distribution within the range. Five indexes were below the Grand Mean and 7 mdexes above. Variations for mean yield among environments were caused primarily by differences in date of plantin~and soil moisture. Environments 2, 6 and 10 (Mazabuka) were always lower Yielding than other environments because of late planting caused by late arrival of rain and low mean yield of environments 1, 7 and 11 (Golden Valley) were caused primarily by drought stress during the growing season. Stability parameters and ears/lOO plants of 5 o/Pes averaged over 12 environments are shown in Table 4. Average yield in Kg/ha, lmear regression coefficient (b) and mean square deviation (D.M.S.) have been considered as main stability parameters and ears/lOO plant was also included although it was not considered as a stability parameter. Since none of the variety types were selected specifically for prolificacy differences among types for ear number were minor to be considered as a factor which had influence on b or D.M.S. value.  ----------------------------------------------------    ---------------------------------------------------------ENVIRONMENTS T1  --------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------   The relative yields of the types were very different and ranged from 3331 kg/ha for T4 to 6867 kg/ha for Tl (Table4). There were significant and highly significant b values of Tl and 1'2 respectively showing that these types were above average in high yielding environments and below average in low yielding environments. From the data in Table 3 it is obvious that Tl and 1'2 yielded below the average in four lowest yielding environments. The b value for T4 were highly significantly lower that 1.0 (Table 4) showing that this type was below average over all environments. Type 3 and T5 had similar b value and very close to 1.0. The differences in stability of the five ~es of varieties, are also illustrated in Fig. 1.Type 4 (open-pollinated varieties) IS expected to exceed the performance of other types only under very unfavourable conditions.Deviation from the regression (D.M.S.) were highly significantly for all five types. The lowest D.M.S. were for 1'2 and the highest for T5 and T1. Type 3 and T4 had similar of D.M.S. when considering all three stability parameters, T3 would be the most desirable of the five types of varieties. However, considering that each type is composited from 5 highly selected genotypes, this conclusion should be accepted only as a general guide, for very average growing conditions.Much more practically useful conclusions can be drawn by analysing stability parameters for each specific genotype within the types listed in Table 5     ----------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------- New experimental single cross hybrid, MME205 and three-way cross MME305, look promising and competitive with their counterpart check hybrids MM601 and MM603. There is no new double cross hybrid which could be seen as a competitive with MM612 although the general conclusion was that 1'3 (doublecrosses) had the best satisfying definition of a stable type.Our data confirm the study of Eberhart and Russell (1969) that stable single crosses can be identified because of great genetic variation among single-crosses than among double crosses but it would require extensive testing over a range of environmental conditions to identify higher yielding and more stable single crosses suitable for commercial production.It is also important to mention that from a total of 25 maize varieties included in this study, 19 of them were locally developed Zambian varieties. It is expected that continued breeding efforts will give greater yield improvements in all the different types, single-crosses, three-way crosses, double crosses, and superior basic populations. DISCUSSION Question:Makonnen. Were the commercially grown hybrids selected for their yield stability?Answer: Mungoma. Commercially grown hybrids were not selected for yield stability in the sense that no stability analysis was done. They were however tested across environments.W.G. Nhlane 1In Malawi, maize is the primary staple food, especially by smallholder farmers. The Maize Breeding Programme has released several high yielding dent hybrids like MH12, MHlS and NSCM 41 but the rate of adoption of improved dent hybrids has been very low (about 7% of total production) due to: (a) preferred pounding qualities of unimproved local (white Oint type) varieties, (b) better resistance oflocal varieties to storage pests. To respond to farmers' preference for hard endosperm maize, the maize breeding programme embarked on the development of flint hybrids. Homozygous lines were introduced and crossed to a tester line and a number of experimental hybrids were developed. Evaluation of these hybrids was done both on farmers' fields and experiment stations. From these efforts, one hard endosperm hybrid was released in 1986. This was MH16 (single cross hybrid) released for marginal areas of Malawi.In Malawi, endosperm hardness is an important trait for smallholder farmers who grow maize for home consumption. This is because of the way maize is traditionally prepared to produce flour (ufa) which is used to prepare nsima (thick porridge). In producing ufa, the maize pericarp is first removed (dehulled) in the mortar or hammer mills. The dehulled grain is then soaked for few days, dried and milled into m. Flint grain is more suitable for this process than dent grain.Consequently, smallholder farmers tend to grow local flint varieties as opposed to high yielding dent hybrids.The Maize Breeding Programme has released several high yielding dent hybrids like MH12, Mh 15 and NSCM41. However, the rate of adoption of these hybrids by smallholder farmers has been very low (about 7% of total production) because they are not suitable for storage, processing and culinary requirements. This strong preference for flint grain in relation to food processing seems to apply to other parts of the world, notably, Eastern Province of Zambia (Kydd, 1989), Tanzania (Moshi et al, 1985) and Nepal (Sharma et al, 1986).To respond to farmers' preference for hard endosperm maize, the Maize Breeding Programme started breeding for flint hybrids. The objective was to breed hard endosperm hybrids that would have higher or comparable yields with their dent counterparts. It was envisaged that with hard endosperm hybrids, the rate of adoption of hybrids in Malawi by smallholder farmers would increase. The smallholder farmers would also grow hybrids for both home consumption and the surplus for sale.The objective of this paper is to report on the work done on hard endosperm hybrids in Malawi.The lines used for the production of MH16 were AR 154 and Inbred A AR 154 was an introduction from South Africa whilst inbred A was a local inbred tester. AR 154 has 100% flint grain and inbred A is a semi-dent line. AR 154 together with other lines introduced were crossed to inbred A in isolation to produce experimental hybrids (half sib method).The experimental hybrids were evaluated on both Research Stations and farmers fields for three seasons in the marginal areas of Malawi (less than 600 masl). A randomized complete block design with 3 replications was used. Four row plots were planted and only the middle 2 were harvested. A plant density of 37,000 plants per hectare was maintained by using a spacing of 0.90cm between rows, O.3Ocm between hills and planting 2 seeds/hill. Thinlling was done to leave one plant/hill except at the end of the rows where 2 plants/hill were left.FertiHzer application included nitrogen at 120 kg/ha and phosphorus (P 2 0 5 ) at 60 kg/ha. No potassium was applied because soils in the evaluation areas were adequate in potassium availabiHty. Weed control was obtained by applying LASSO as pre-emergent surface spraying, thereafter maintained by handweeding. Data were recorded for grain, moisture content and other agronomic characteristics. Yields were converted to kg/ha and adjusted to 12.5% moisture content. Analysis of variance were completed for each experiment.Malawi hybrid 16 (MH16) was tested for three seasons and the main criterion was yield performance compared to the standard dent hybrid, NSCM 41. The results of grain yield are presented in Tables 1, 2 and 3. Pooled analysis was not done because the data were not homogeneous.In 1983/84 season, the experimental hybrids were tested at 9 sites and the results are presented in Table 1. MH16 had comparable yields with NSCM41 at most sites, and overall, it ranked second whilst NSCM41 occupied third position. In the 1984/85 season, the experimental hybrids were tested at five sites and the results are shown in Table 2. MH16 performed better than NSCM41 at Baka, Bolero and Ngabu, overall, the two hybrids performed equally well. In 1985/86, the experimental hybrids were tested at 7 sites and the results are presented in Table 3. MH16 had comparable yields with NSCM41 at most sites and overall, they ranked 7th and 8th respectively. Table 4 summarizes three seasons data and the results show that MH16 had comparable yield potential with NSCM41. However, the only advantage with MH16 is that it has harder endosperm grain than NSCM41 which has soft dent grain. It is generally accepted that dent varieties have higher yield potential than flint varieties. On the basis of its yield potential and agronomic traits, MH16 was therefore released for the marginal areas of Malawi in 1986. Since then it has been widely grown in these areas. New Thrust in Breeding Flint Hybrids In the winter of 1988, a major thrust in the breeding of hard endosperm hybrids was started. Several advanced inbred lines which were mostly of flint grain texture were topcrossed to two inbred testers, one dent and the other one flint. The two testers were used in order to identify lines that have good combining ability.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------\"-----------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MH16 was the first hybrid with hard endosperm grain texture that took into consideration the smallholders' food processin~methods as well as storage conditions. With the new impetus in flint hybnd initiated in 1988, it is hoped that more high yielding flint hybnds will be isolated for the smallholder farmers. It is envisaged that with the availability of more flint hybrids, the adoption of hybrid maize by smallholder farmers, will increase from the present one (7% of total productIOn). It is also hoped that farmers will grow flint hybrids both for home consumption and the surplus for sale. However, the production of dent hybrids for estate and progressive farmers will continue because of their high yielding potential. Why not cross dent with flint and improve method of preparation?Why did you include Tuxpeno in the hybrid testing? Is it a check?Answer:Nhalane These were short season varieties. Marginal areas refers to area that receive about 3 months of rainfall, which is erratic in pattern.We are already crossing dent x flint lines for the mid altitude hybrids inorder to take advantage of yield potential. For smallholder farmers, method of food preparation can now be done using dehuller machines which have become prevalent in the country.Tuxpeno The best full-season varieties were Across 7728 (Population 28) (Uld Antigua Veracruz 181 (Population 24) from CIMMYT and Ferke LSR-Y81 from UTA but their yields were inferior to that of Pioneer 482, the imported hybrid currently grown in pure stands. In 5 trials in the 2nd season or 1987, the average improvement in yield obtained by crossing these 3 varieties with some local R inbred Jines was 14, 13 and 24%, respectively. This was confirmed in the 2nd season of 1988 in 3 on-station and 3 on-farm trials when the complex hybrid of Ferke LSR-Y81 and of Antigua Veracruz 181 with R 94, a local inbred line with I 137 TN, a South African inbr~line outyielded Pioneer 482 by up to 50%. One of these complex hybrids, Antigua Veracruz 181 x R 94 is being evaluated in commercial plantations in 1989 and, ifthe previous results are confirmed, it will be released in 1990.Presently, Mauritius produces less than 25% of its maize requirements. This is mainly because potential producers do not consider maize production to be financially attractive enough. Besides, numerous climatic, biological and infrastructural constraints limit production; these have already been discussed elsewhere (Govinden and Mauree, 1986).Maize yields average 4.5 tlha but they may not be high enough in view of the cost of production which is high mainly because of the costs of fertihzers and labour and of the need to dry the crop artificially. It is therefore necessary to rationalize the use of expensive !Dputs.In the past 5 years, research has focussed on the development of improved varieties in order to increase yields without increasing the cost of production. Two cropping systems are practised, and they require varieties belonging to two maturity groups. Early-maturing varieties are needed for intercropping with sugar cane; this system accounts for about 50% of production. Full-season varieties are required for 1. Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute, Reduit, Mauritius growin~in pure stands in rotation with sugar cane; this system accounts for the remairung 50% of production. Maize varietal development was initiated almost 2 decades ago when it was found that the local varieties were too tall and late to intercrop with sugar cane and the imported early-maturing hybrids were too susceptible to leaf diseases. However, the breeding programme has been seriously handicapped by a dearth of germplasm. Even when they are meant for research, maize l5ermplasm must compulsorily be grown in quarantine for one cycle, and quarantme facilities are inadequate. This situation still prevails.It is in this context that CIMMYT germplasm was imported in 1983-1984 and the work reported in this paper was initiated. The objective was to measure the yield and morphological characteristics of a range of CIMMYT yellow 'pools and populations in the hope of fmding suitable early-maturing varieties for mtercrop'ping with sugar cane and full-season varieties for growing in pure stands in rotation WIth sugar cane.MSIRI 2, a local 3-way cross hybrid presently grown in interrows of sugar cane is slightly too tall (195-220 cm) and matures slightly too late (100-200 days to harvest at 25% humidity). Under certain conditions, it reduces the yield of intercropped sugar cane. Besides, it is too susceptible to the two main diseases; blight (T turcicum) and rust (P polysora). It does, however, give reasonable yields of 4 t/ha, on average.Two hybrids, Pioneer 482 imported from South Africa and ZS 5206 imported from Zimbabwe are presently recommended for use in pure stands. Both are susceptible to rust, and only In the absence of this disease, do they give acceptable yields averaging 4.5 t/ha. Moreover, they have to be imported and the seed suppliers sometimes cannot satisfy our phytosanitary requirements, thus making our dependency on foreign seed sources even more dangerous.The breeding scheme includes the collection of local germplasm, population improvement and hybrid develo'pment. The evaluation and use of CIMMYT and UTA pools, populations and vaneties were integrated in the on-going variety evaluation and development scheme which includes the following steps:1.All the pools, populations and varieties were grown in quarantine for one cycle and multiplied in isolation. The plots consisted of 2 rows, 6m long. Two seeds were sown per hill and, after 2 weeks, the plants were thinned down to one plant per hill to give 60 p!ants ~er plot ~m which grain yield was measured. There were 3 to 4 replicates In the tnals.The trials also included complex hybrids of some of the varieties with selected local R inbred lines and with 1137 TN, a promising South African inbred line. In all the trials, the cultural practices were those recommended for commercial plantations.On-farm evaluation The best complex hybrids were also evaluated in on-farm trials in 1987 and 1988. Early and mtermediate-maturing hybrids were intercropped with sugar cane; one row of maize was planted in alternate sugar cane interrows. The plots consisted of 2 rows about 100m long. Full-season hybrids were grown in pure stands.Yield was estimated on 3 samples of 60 plants per plot. There were only 2 replicates in the trials which were managed by co-operating growers.Early maturing pools Some of the pools given as early-maturing were found to belong to the same intermediate matunty group as the local check. The grain yields of the truly earlymaturing varieties, With the exception of Pool 22 in the 1st season, were inferior to that of the check (Table 1). With few exceptions, the pools were all rated as highly to very highly susceptible to leaf blight and rust (Table 2). Thus, none of the pools was worth retaining for further work.The pools were all low yielding. The yields of some of the varieties, in particular Mezcla Amarilla (Population 26) and Tocumen ( 1) 7835 (Population 35) were either comparable to, or better than, that of the check in the 1st season but inferior in the 2nd season (Table 1). Since the 2nd season is the main growing season, none of the populations could be proposed as direct replacement of the check. Moreover, all the populations were slightly later-matunng than the check, and this renders them unacceptable for intercropping with sugar cane.Results of the 1986 and 1987 trials also showed that crossing the populations with local R inbred lines led to an improvement in grain yield from 13 to 30% depending on the populations and the inbred lines (Table 3). The best complex hybrids in on-station trials in 1986 and 1987 were Mezcla Amarilla x. R 14, Tocumen (1) 7835 x R 14, Mezcla Amarilla x R 22 and Tocumen (1) x 1137 TN (Table 4). The last two complex hybrids were slightly too late. On the basis of all on-station and on-farm trials to date, the two acceptable complex hybrids, Mezcla Amarilla x R 14 and Tocumen (1) 7835 x R 14 gave 9 and 14% better yields than the check (Table 5), and they were therefore released in 1988 under the code names MSIRI 4 and MSIRI 5, respectively.The best full-season varieties were Ferke LSR-Y81, and IITA variety. Across 7728 (Population 28) and Antigua Veracruz 181 (Population 24) but none was as high in YIeld as Pioneer 482, the full-season check (Table 1). All three varieties were rated as moderately resistant or resistant to rust (Table 2). and this may explain why they were higher in yield than the check at Pamplemousses in the first season.  ------------------------------r-----------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ------------------------------------------------------ As was the case with the other CIMMYT populations, crossin~the intermediate-maturing varieties with R inbred lines improved their YIelds by variable margins (Table 6). The most promising complex hybrids in on-station and on-farm trials in 1988 were Ferke LSR-Y81 and Antigua Veracruz 181 crossed with R 94 and I 137 TN. Across sites, they gave from 42 to 50% higher yields than Pioneer 482 (Table 7). In some trials, the yields of some of the complex hybrids were double that of the check. Two reasons account for this; firstly, many of the complex hybrids have the capability of giving two ears per plant and h~nce of compensating for missing plants. Secondly, the complex hybrids are less susceptible to diseases. If these results can be confirmed in 1989, one of these complex hybrids will be released in 1990.The complex hybrids of intermediate maturity have acceptable yields but they are still too late, and some are not resistant enough to leaf diseases. likewise, the full-season complex hybrids do not have enough resistance to blight. It is therefore proposed to create 2 composites with the best CIMMYT and IITA populations, one of intermediate maturity and one full-season, and to proceed with their improvement with respect to morphological characteristics and resistance to leaf diseases. Later, the improved populations per se and inbreds extracted from them will be crossed with the best local R and promising imported inbred lines such as 1137 TN.In the meantime and in parallel with the population improvement, inbred line extraction has been already started in Tocumen (1) 7835 and Antigua Veracruz 181. The objective is to develop single cross hybrids With local R and promising imported inbred lines.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since the CIMMYT varieties that have so far been evaluated are now outdated, it is proposed to import and evaluate new versions of those populations that have performed well. They are Populations 24, 28, 26 and 35.In view of their poor yields and hi~h susceptibility to leaf diseases, the earlymaturing CIMMYT varieties do not ment further consideration. It is preferable to reduce the crop cycle of the best varieties of intermediate maturity.Results obtained with the varieties of intermediate and late maturity indicate clearly the advanta~e of crossing the varieties with R and other lines rather than of using the varities dIrectly. This work must therefore be pursued.Two complex hybrids involving CIMMYT Populations 26 and 35 with R 14 have been released for cultivation in sugar cane interrow in 1988. More recent results indicate that some yield improvement will be possible by' substituting other inbred lines for R 14. Moreover, as the complex hybrids are still not resistant enough to leaf diseases, blight in particular, It is also necessary to subject them or composites created from them to some population improvement.Compared to Pioneer 482, the full season CIMMYT varieties have not performed well, but their top crosses with R 94 and I 137 TN have out-yielded the control by quite wide margins. If this is confirmed in 1989, one of the complex hybrids will be released in 1990 and will become the first local hybrid to be recommended for use in pure stands. In order of importance, the leading maize producing countries of eastern Africa are Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda and those of southern Africa are Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. These eight countries account for more than 90% of the maize area and production in the eastern and southern Afri a region. The major maize megaenvironments of the region which are highlands, mid-altitudes with high rainfall, mid-altitudes with low rainfall and lowlands are examined in the eight major producing countries to get a regional picture. The implications of the mega-environment analysis on germplasm development for and movement in the region are considered.The DUlin biotic stresses under each mega-environment are discussed as they relate to germplasm development and movement in the region. The most important leaf diseases in the highlands and mid-altitude zones are Puccinia sorghi and Helmintbosporium turcirum. In the lowlands Puccinia polysora and H. maydis are the leading leaf diseases. The maize streak virus disease is becoming increasingly important in the mid-altitude to the lowland zones. Among the insects, Busseola fusca is most troublesome in the highlands and mid-altitude zones whereas Chilo partellus is the main borer in the lOWlands.Throughout the region, the preferred grain type is white dent and white Oint. The highlands and the high rainfall mid-altitudes have negligible moisture stress and generally require germplasm with late to extra late maturity. Since the most important stress in the low rainfall midaltitudes is shortage of moisture the germplasm demand is for early to intermediate maturity types. The lowlands require early, intermediate, late maturing genotypes depending on the moisture situation of the given area. For each mega-environment, it is essential to develop and work on germplasm that has the adaptation and the requisite resistance for the appropriate stresses. Principal stations in each mega-environment which can play crilicallead roles and form a network for germplasm evaluation and development are identified. The final germplasm products desired in the more favourable environments of the major producing countries are generally hybrids and those areas with significant stresses, particularly moisture, desire open pollinated varieties.The maize production areas and production figures as given in Table 1 are good indicators of the current importanc of the crop in the various countries of Eastern and Southern Africa In Eastern Africa, over 90% of the region's five million ha of the maize area is found in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda In Southern Africa, the four principal maize producing countries, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique also account for more then 90% of the region's nearly  --------------------------------------------------- The total tnalZe production in the eastern Africa region is about six and a half million tons with a regional mean yield of 1.3 ton/ha and southern Africa produces four million tons with 1.0 ton/ha mean yield (Table 1). Nearly all the maize in the region is produced under rainfed conditions. The use of improved seed, fertilizers and other inputs and improved cultural practices are variable with the more favored production environments generally US10g more inputs and improved crop production management practices.The main objective of this paper IS to present the major maize megaenvironments of the region and discuss their Implications on maize germplasm development for and movement in the region. This will be done by examining mainly the situation in the above mentioned eight major maize producing countries of the region. These eight countries are the highest priority ones for CIMMYTs activities and as such CfMMYTs efforts concentrate on these countries.The mega-environment concept as elaborated in CIMMYTs Strategic Plan (CIMMYT, 1989) encompasses a broad area sharing similar biotic and abiotic stresses, cropping system requirements, and consumer preferences. Germplasm products developed for a given mega-environment can often be utilized throu~out the region without significant adaptational problems related to the major biotIC and abiotic stresses.The maize mega-environment delineations discussed in this paper generally follow CIMMYTs classification in the \"Maize Production Regions 10 Developing Countries\" (CIMMYT, 1988). In the eastern and southern Africa region, three mega-environments are recognized for maize and these are highlands, mid-altitudes and low altitudes. What is referred to as hi~lands here is sometimes desi~ated as transitional zone and mid-altitude is identified as sub-tropical. Since the s10gle most important factor separating maize mega-environments in eastern and southern Africa is altitude it will be used here as the major criterion. The following altitude definition is used to separate the mega-environmerits:Highlands > 1800 masl Mid-altitude 1000-1800 masl Lowlands < 1000 masl Each of these could be further divided using rainfall and temperature as criteria.The maize area in each of these three altitude ~oups as classified by the 8 m9st important maize countries of the region is given 10 Table 2. In both eastern arid southern Africa, the most important maize mega-environment is the midaltitude zone. Two-thirds of the maize in each of eastern and southern Africa is grown in the mid-altitude environment. In eastern Africa, the bulk of this wne is in the 1600-1800 m altitude zone whereas in southern Africa it is found mostly below 1500 m. Examining the mid-altitude zone distribution on a country basis, Zimbabwe and Tanzania have the largest areas of this mega-environment. In terms of moisture, most of the area and for much of the growing season receives adequate rainfall except selected sub-regions of Zimbabwe and Kenya where the crop is usually under some moisture stress. In general the desired maturity of the crop in the zone is late to intermediate with early germplasm required only for speciaf situations. Therefore the prominent feature of germplasm development for and in this mega-environment is focussing on high yield potential for long season. In Table 2 both for moisture and maturity designations, where two or more designations are shown for a given mega-environment under a given country the order of the letters has a significance in that the earlier mentioned designation is more important and prevalent than the later mentioned one. toMaize production mega-environment areas of the leadin$ maize producers of eastern Africa (Area given ill 1000 ha)Total --------------  -----------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------- Based on area and total production for eastern Africa. the next most important mega-environment is the highland zone where about 20% of the maize of the region is produced. Kenya accounts for half of the highland maize area of eastern Africa. Other countries having large highland maize areas are Tanzania and Ethiopia. In southern Africa, out of the four leading maize produc~countries, the only country with significant highland maize area is Malawi. In the highland zone the crop rarely faces moisture stress and the maturity ranges from late to extra late (6-9 months).For southern Africa, the second most important maize mega-environment after the mid-altitude zone is the lowland where about 25% of the maize area of the sub-region is found. The leading lowland maize country of southern Africa is Mozambique with Malawi a distant second. In eastern Africa, Tanzania is by far the most important lowland maize producer with Kenya having about a fifth of Tanzania's lowland maize area. The crop is ~enerally produced under adequate rainfall with moisture stress occurring sometlmes only. Lowland maize in Zambia, although small in area, -is produced under some moisture stress usually. The desired maize maturity in this mega-environment is from early to late depending on the moisture situation of the specific zone.The relative importance of the different maize diseases occurring in the three major mega-environments is shown in Table 3 for each country where a given disease is of concern. The scores shown in the Table are from 0 to 5 where 0 is the absence of the disease and 5 represents cases where the disease is most serious. For the highlands and mid-altitude situation, the most serious diseases are Helminthosporium turcicum and Puccinia sorghi, particularly in eastern Africa. These diseases are generally of most concern in Tanzania and Kenya. Diplodea and Fusarium rots are of concern mainly in the highland and mid-altitude areas of southern Africa. In the lowlands, Helminthosporium maydis and Puceinia polysora are the main diseases. Another disease that IS dominant in the mid-altitude and the lowland regions is maize streak virus. Kenya and Malawi have Striga in the midaltitude and lowland areas. Germplasm developed for these three megae vironments for eastern and southern Africa must have an acceptable level of resistance of the relevant important diseases of each zone.For purposes of germ{>lasm testing and development, representative hot spot locations for the important diseases are the following:   ------------------------------------------------------------Highlands Mid-altitude Lowlands -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------   The leading maize research stations of eastern and southern Africa classified by mega-environment and country are given Table 5. Biotic and abiotic stresses are, in general, ommon between stauons shown under one column Le. within the same ecolosical zone. Evaluation of the same set of germplasm material is generally meamn~and useful when done across locations WIthin a column. Reaction and adaptauon of a given germplasm is generally' similar across the locations within a column only but not stations contained in different columns. For example, for the higbJand situation, initial screening of a large number of entries could be done in say three lead locations (Kitale, Alemaya and Uyole) and the most promising entries could be further evaluated in a larger number of locations shown under the highlands ecological zone (Table 5) to identify germplasm broadly adapted to and useful in the highlands zone.The mid-altitude zone has the lar~est maize production area as well as the largest number of stations. The stations m this wne are further grouped into high and low rainfall stations. Althou~overall adaptation of germplasm 10 the high and low rainfall mid-altitude stations IS similar, the predominant characteristic of the low rainfall group of stations is that they are often prone to drought stress, hence the importance of early maturity and drought resistance for them. In the high rainfall stations, diseases are generally of major concern. Here again selected lead stations under each column for preliminary germplasm screening can be used before involving a larger number of stations.The lowland stations cover a wide range of altitude from 200-1000 m but movement of germplasm across such stations without losing adaptation is generally quite good. Hi~h temperature with varying moisture availability during the growing period is a speCial feature of the lowland stations. Selected well developed stations are available to serve as lead stations for germplasm development.In consideration of CIMMYTs established sequence of germplasm testing starting with IPTT and ending with ELVT, it is important to plant a trial of a specified characteristic in locations under a column only and not across columns. In T.able 5, lead stations suggested to be included as participants in say IPTT for each mega-environment are indicated. These stations are often hot spot locations for the important biotic and abiotic stresses predominant in that mega-environment. These are also the best developed and the most representative of each ecological wne. Germplasm found useful when tested in these selected stations within a column should be found useful across the entire mega-environment the stations represent. EVTs and ELVTs should be grown in larger number of stations under each megaenvironment. We have seen many instances in the past where trials have been grown in the wrong stations.The use of hybrids and varieties across the different countries of eastern and southern Africa IS variable. The relative proportion of a national'pro~am's effort devoted to hybrid and open-pollinated variety development is indlcallve of the current or the projected use of these final germplasm products in the tDuntry. Table 6 gives the relative distribution of this effort by ecolOgIcal zone for the eight leading 206  ----------------------------------------------------- Guto maize countries of the region. For the highlands of eastern Africa the general emphasis in the region is clearly on hybrids while for the lowlands of eastern and southern Africa the opposite is the case where variety development receives much more attention. In Kenya, for example, 90% of the national maize breeding effort for the highlands concentrates on hybrids. Uganda and the entire southern Africa region have no highland hybrid maIze breeding effort at all. In the mid-altitude zone of eastern and southern Africa, particularly in the hi~rainfall areas, there is generally more effort ~oing into hybnd work. This is partIcularly the case in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia where their respective hybrid programs are the most advanced in the region. In general, the higher potential environments appear to focus more on hybrid development. Tanzania, Ethiopia and Malawi have divided their mid-altitude breeding efforts equally between hybrids and variety.Mozambique is clearly emphasizing variety development for all ecological zones.Typical Varieties and Hybrids Table 7 gives names of typical selected hybrids and varieties adapted to and currently widely grown in the major ecological zones of eastern and southern Africa. Some of the materials such as H625, H511, SR52 and Katumani B are very widely grown throughout the region and have stood the test of time. Obviously any new material developed for a given zone must be superior to the established cultivar for that zone.The preferred grain type in the entire region is white dent and white flint with the former as the most dominant. Most of the maize produced in the region is used as food mainly in the form of stiff porridges (ugali and sadza). There is little yellow maize production or acceptance in the entire eastern and southern Africa except Zimbabwe which produces some yellow maize for livestock feed. There is some effort in Uganda to introduce and produce yellow maize for the purpose of barter trade.The summary of the specifications required for germplasm targeted for the four main maize ecological zones of eastern and southern Africa is given in Table 8.  -------------------------------------------------------------Question: Kedera. What is CIMMYT doing to keep up with the changing disease situation?Answer:Brhane. CIMMYT monitors the changing maize disease situation mainly through its regional programs and its national program linkages. In addition, we have a well established maize plant patholo~unit at headquarters. CIMMYTs main approach of handling the maIze disease situafon is through provision of appropnate sources of genetic resistance.Question: Bueno. As it was shown, almost 2 million ha of maize fall in sub-optimal environments. I would like to hear comments on breeding strategIes (especially as it relates to methodology) for these conditions.Answer: Brhane. Moisture stress is the most important factor in the marginal maize production zones of eastern and southern Africa. CIMMYT is giving mcreased emphasis to suitable ~ermplasm development and appropriate breeding methodologies for mOIsture stress maize production sItuations.One potentially very useful information, generated by the CIMMYT maize physiology unit and one that can effectively be used in germplasm screening for drought resistance, is the high positive correlation between drought resistance and progressively reduced time interval between anthesis and silking periods. Chumo. In developin~germplasm with specific attributes, do you take into consideration heterotIc patterns to ease the utilization of these accessions by hybrid based programs In the region?Answer:Brhane. In about the last five years, CIMMYT bas increased its activities in hybrid maize. One of the servIces the CIMMYT hybrid maize unit will give to National programs will be information on heterotic groupings of different types of germplasm we are developing. However, some special purpose pools and populations developed by CIMMYT may not have well defined heterotic classification because of their initial formation without regard to heterotic separation.Question: Dejene 1. Don't you think it is difficult to classify large region into three megaenvironment?2.What are the factors taken into account to classify the megaenvironment into highland, mid-altitude and lowfands other than the biotic and abiotic factors you mentioned?Answer:Brhane. When few mega-environments are used there is of course the possibility of lumping together environments which are significantly different. However, for the purpose of regional germplasm development you will appreciate the need for defining the regional maize environment into few broad meaningful groups that can be used as target areas. The most dominant abiotic factors used in the mega-environment classification discussed here were altitude, temperature and rainfall and the biotic ones were the most important diseases and insects. Other important factors that should be considered are soils, socio-economics, consumer preferences, etc.Ear rot of maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most devastating diseases in the high ecologies of Kenya. The rotting causes significant yield losses (13-70%) when epiphytotics occur (4): Numerous fungi have been associated with ear rot of maize, however, only a few have been cited as casual agents from various areas (5,8).Maize is often left in the field well beyond physiological maturity before harvest by most farmers. When harvest is delayed, maize kernels may be subjected to invasion by the fungi. Both asymptomatic and symptomatic kernel infection by some fun~associated with ear rot diseases have been implicated in severe maize epi{>hytotlcs and mycotoxicosis of livestock (3) and humans (1,2). Thus it would be deslIable to conduct further research in both areas.The work reported in this paper was undertaken firstly to investigate the effect of delayed harvest and host genotype on the incidence of ear rot, and secondly to determine the endogenous fungal species associated with maize kernels. Harvested ears from each plot were then machine shelled. Randomly selected kernel samples representing healthy kernels, completely rotten and partially rotten kernels were later assayed for endogenous mycoflora. Maize kernels from the three sets of kernels were surface sterilized by submersion in 70% ethanol for 5 sec., soaked for 3 min. in 1.6% NaOC1, and rinsed twice in sterile distilled water. One hundred and thirty surface sterilized kernels from each plot were plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA). After 4 days incubation at 28 0 C, plated kernels were examined for the presence of endogenous fungi.Statistically significant (P:=0.05) differences occurred among the genotypes and between harvests at both locations (Kakamega and Kitale) in 1987 and 1988 tests (Tables 1 and 2). Disease index increased with delayed harvest and was apparent in most genotypes progressively from 8 weeks to 20 week after midsilk stage. The DI values for most genotypes were relatively high at first harvest (presumably at I?hysiological maturi!y) indicating that these host materials are moderately to highly susceptible. With the exception of Inbred R12C2 -50, all others were more symptomatically invaded by fungi compared to their single crosses and hybrids. It seems most likely that the elite inbred lines popularly used in deriving commercial hybrids contribute undesirable genes that confer susceptibility to ear rot pathogens and could be the reason for high incidence of ear rots m some hybrids, especially in the warm humid ecologies of Western Kenya.Fusarium graminearum (50%) and F. moniliforme were the most readily isolated fungi from both the rotten and normal appearing maize kernels. Other mycoflora isolated in low frequencies less than 10% were Diplodia spp., Penicillium spp., Helminthosporium spp. Rhizopus spp. and other Fusarium spp. The progressive increase in symptomatic maIZe kernel infection (DI) by fungi 8 to 20 week after midsilk stage suggests a continuing susceptibility to fungi during kernel development or continued colonization after initial Infection (6). The fact that F. graminareum and F. moniliforme were isolated from both rotten and healthy appearing kernels means that these fungi may pose a potential health harzard when high moisture maize is stored hermetically (9). Rosa Ongeso (7) reported that cancer of oesophagus is becoming prevalent in the high-humid lake Victoria region and since consumption of infected maize grain by F. moniliforme has been  ------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------xDise88e Index detarmined 8 week, 14 week, and 20 we-~s after mldsllklng according to Ullstrup.YValue8 in a column not followeJ by the same lower case latter, r1itter significantly according to Duncans Multiple Range Test (OMRT).ZValues within a raw not follo..,ed by the same upper case letter, differ signiflcantly (P a 0.( 5) according to OMRT.  ----------------------------------------------------------- implicated in South Africa to cause oesophageal cancer, further research in this area should be advanced. Our 2-year results presented herein strongly demonstrated that the decline observed in grain yield and quality could be attributed to fungal invasion resulting from delayed harvest and that maize genotypes differ significantly in percentage of symptomatic kernels/ears infected by field endogenous fungi. Whereas early harvesting at physiological maturity may provide a partial answer, resistance breeding, storage and handling problems also need to be studied concurrently to establish the most cost effective approach to combat ear rot diseases in the humid ecologies of Western Kenya. The challenge is enormous but the hints on its complexity are revealing for the unwary. Maize streak disease caused by maize streak virus (MSV) is one of the earliest virus diseases reported in Africa (Storey, 1925). Although very little was known about plant viruses at the time, some work had been done on maize streak disease in South Africa and Kenya, which contributed immensely to our present understanding of the pathogen (MSV) and its vectors (Cicadulina spp.). The virusvector relationship was well worked out (Storey, 1925(Storey, , 1928) from which it is now known that the virus is transmitted by leaf hoppers (Cicadulina spp.) in a persistent, manner. The pathogen (MSV) was described 10 greater detail later (Bock, Guthrie and Woods 1974) and shown to be isometic particles c.20 om in diameter, usually occurring in pairs. The ratio of the paired to single particles is approximately 8:1. All known hosts are in the Graminea which include crops like maIZe wheat, millet, barley, sugarcane, and wild grass species in the field. Streak disease may be confused with diseases caused by maize mosaic and maize stripe viruses (Kulkarni, 1973). MSV which is the type member of the gemini viruses differs from the other two viruses in particle morphology, besides maize mosaic and maize stripe viruses are transmitted by Pereqrinus maidis and not by Cicadulina spp. as is the case with MSV.Although maize streak disease was reported in East Africa as early as 1936 (Storey, 1936), field incidences were low except South of Lake Victoria and Western Uganda. In Kenya, maize streak disease incidences of 20% and over were very rare except in the coast where incidence approaching 100% occurred from time to time (Guthrie, 1976;Bock, 1980). A survey of virus diseases of maize carried out by Louie (1977Louie ( & 1978) ) agreed with the findings of Bock and Guthrie (Table 1). The highest MSV incidence (37%) was reported in 1978 in Kilifi district (Coast Province). In the previous year, however, the disease incidence was relatively low in nearly all districts surveyed except in Nyeri where it was a little more than in 1978. In Central province (mainly in the highlands 1400m above sea level) the highest disease inCldence (11.6%) was recorded in Nyeri district. It would suffice to say that before 1980. streak disease was a minor lowland problem and that disease incidences fluctuated very widely from year to year. In the highlands the disease was sporadic in occurrence and the inCIdence rarely exceeded 10 per cent.There has been a gradual shift in the distribution of maize streak disease over the last few years. The disease has become a permanent feature in the Kenya highlands above 1700 meters above sea level where it used to be sporadic before the '80s. This trend was observed initially by maize breeders working for Kenya Seed Company who alerted the authors to carry out a disease survey. In (1987) MSV incidence of 33 percent was recorded in Kakamega (Njuguna et aL, 1987). This compared to 0.9% of 1977 does indicate a rising trend. From another disease survey carned out the following year the data in   -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------   From the data in Table 2 it is apparent that MSV incidence was highest in areas above 1700m above sea level in the three districts surveyed. The highest disease incidence was 87 per cent at the highest elevation 2100m. Continuous planting is known to contribute to high disease incidence because of increased disease inocula and high populations of the vector. However, the vector of MSV (Cicadulina spp) is not known to be in high population enough to cause an epidemic above 900m above sea level (Storey, 1936). There are indications that in 1989 MSV incidence in the Central Province is as high as 1988 (Theuri, personal communication). The question that needs to be answered through research is whether there is a new MSV vector adapted to the Kenya highlands above 1500m which is more efficient than Cicadulina mbila.Loss in )jeld caused by MSV is directly related to time of infection and can be up to 61% (Guthrie, 1976). Plants infected at 4th,6th, 8th and 10th leaf stage lose 45, 40, 33 and 25 percent, resJ;>ectively, of grain yield (Bock, 1980). On the basis of field incidence and the time of Infection it is crudely estimated that Central Province probably lost 30-40% maize yield due to MSV in 1988.Although MSV has been controlled to some extent by the use of systemic insecticide to control the vector, the long term practical method of control is through host genetic resistance. Storey and Howland (1966) attempted to transfer resistance derived from across of South Africa maize, Peruvian yellows, and Hickory King into Kenyan maize, and although they produced lines by selective inbreeding which apparently bred true for resistance, subsequent attempts to incorporate this resistance into East Africa Maize were not successful. Storey's resistant lines were not maintained and so they were 'lost'. Screenin~for resistant maize germplasm was continued and in 1976 resistance was identified in a variety Revolution obtained from Reunion (Bock, 1980). This resistant germplasm was then used as a component of the MgA maize population which was being developed at Muguga by the resident maize breeder. Two unrelated maize populations MJ0, and M~B were in the making with a view to produce a hybrid suitable for Centrar Kenya With resistance to maize streak, head smut and turcicum blight (Manwiller, 1983). The two populations were later shelved because of low heteroSIs and bad adaptability. Because of the escalating maize streak epidemic, it became necessary to Import streak resistant maize populations from UTA (Nigeria) and Burundi. The two sources would provide germplasm adapted to lowlands as well as highlands. The aim was to teSt maize germplasm from both sources for resistance against MSV and adaptability, and if found adaptable it would be multiplied and passed on to farmers as a short term solution to the maize streak problem. In the long run research efforts will be directed towards development of Kenyan hybrids maize with streak resistance. The high altitude streak resistant population from Burundi is performing quite well at Muguga (2100 m). At the time of this writing only two plants out of a total of 800 plants have been infected with MSV. This material is planted next to a stand of H511, which at the moment has 25 plants out of 800 infected with MSV. The gerrnplasm from lITA is yet to be evaluated. Comment:Wedderburn. Among the factors which affect the survival of the vectors C.mbila and C. storei in the highlands and the incidence of high MSV is irrigated wheat, or other crops durin& the winter cycle. If so the level of vectors is high and incidence of the VIruS is much higher.Caulfield. In Zimbabwe, streak occurs in winter irrigated areas in a cyclic occurrence. IITAjCIMMYT material has proven very useful in our breedingjbackcrossing program.Muthamia. The incidence of MSV appears to be related to the seasons. The incidence is high in the long rains than in the short rains. It appears the cropping system contributes a lot also in the incidence of MSV.Njuguna.1)The data we have are insufficient to go by, but it appears that in central Kenyan highlands both short rain and long rain season have about the same incidence. During the short rain, it is warmer and this favours vector multiplication.Yes, relay cropping system definitely favours increase of disease incidence.Odongo.Relay planting of maize in central province is quite common, do you think this could be the cause of maize streak increase?2) Increase of maize streak in Western Kenya coincided with increase of sugarcane growing. What is your comment?AnSwer: Njuguna.Yes, relay planting does contribute to high disease incidence but what we cannot tell is why this was not the case in the 70s and 60s and yet the practice was still going on.2) Sugarcane is a host of (MSV) and there is a possibility that it is acting as a resevoir but this WIll need proper study to be able to ascertain that the strain in sugarcane goes into maize.Brbane. Based on the questions and comments we have heard it is obvious that maize streak is a leading production constraint in the entire eastern Africa region. Therefore, to solve the ever growing maize streak problem it requires a concerted regional effort where all the concerned countries should cooperate and participate.Comment:Mwania. In areas above 1700m altitude in central Kenya, maize is grown continuously over the year unlike in lower altitudes where the rainfall is bimodal with a very distinct dry period between the short and long rains.Although the MSV vector may not be very active under the cool hi2hland conditions, it is made readily available (or its incidence is increased) by this continuous maize cropping system; thus making the incidence of MSV hiĩ Hopefully, we will belable to answer this question when this work is carried out.~omment:Saint-Clair. Streak disease does occur at 2200m (Luotu, Zaire). This may be associated with wheat growing in that area as reflected by earlier comments from two guests.Marandu. The spread of MSV into the mid-and high altitude areas observed in Kenya is similar to our observations in Tanzania. We have seen up to perhaps 30% infection in the highlands recently. Unfortunately, we dont have a resistant variety for high altitude areas yet. We need to take account of the alternative hosts of the disease bearing in mind the length of the growing season.We need a joint effort to tackle the problem in the high altitude areas.Maize is the most important cereal crop in Zimbabwe. It is grown throughout the country whereever rainfall or irrigation is adequate. Maize production during the 1986/87 season was approximately 1,677,600 tonnes of which 1,000,000 came from commercial farmers and the remainder from communal areas.Maize is used mainly as a staple food crop and to a certain extent as animal feed. The most important disease affecting maize in Zimbabwe is the maize streak virus (MSV) which is transmitted by an insect Cicadulina mbila Naude (Page et al 1985). The disease has achieved notoriety in several parts of the country (Rose 1974) but its impact on yield has only been recently established (Mzira 1984).Under field conditions MSV disease causes substantial Xield losses (34 to 43%) in three commonly ~rown maize varieties in Zimbabwe (Mzira 1984). There appeared close relationshIps between streak incidence and yield loss, and time of infection and yield loss. VIruS infection occurring within eight weeks after seed emergence was critical and resulted in heavy losses. The rate of spread of MSV in carbofuran treated maize plots was ten times lower than in the untreated plots (Mzira 1984).Impact of MSV disease on maize production can be very devastating, rendering the whole crop uneconomicalm case of heavy infectlOn. The situation can be serious specially with resource poor farmers who solely depend on this crop for subsistence and cash income. On the other hand commercial farmers routinely apply insecticide to their maize crop. A survey conducted during 1984-86 seasons showed that Msv incidence between 30-100% was common in some communal areas (Page et al1985).Cultural methods employed in controlling Maize streak virus include, early planting, removal of alternate host from the field, rogging of plants showing early symptoms of Msv and a completely bare fallow barrier about 10m wide around a land to prevent movement of hoppers into a crop.Although some subsistence farmers carry out the normal crop husbandry practices with the advise of extension personnel, little or no use of the chemicals is practical.This paper describes and discusses experiments on the efficacy of furathiocarb 66.6% sd. as seed dressing for the control of maize streak virus.Field trials to determine the efficacy of the insecticide (furathiocarb 66.6% sd) in the management of MSV were conducted at Henderson (1986), Zimmunya (1987) and Tuli-makwe (1988). The performance of this insecticide was compared to carbofuran 109 and dimethoate 40 e.c. The trials were laid in a factorial design consisting of six treatments and three maize varieties replicated four times. The plot sizes were 4.5 x 5.9m with five rows. The inter-row spacing was 0.9m and intrarow spacing was 0.45m.The treatments used were:-1.Carbofuran 10g2 kg/a.i./ha incorporated in the soil 2.Furathiocarb 109 a.l./kg seed, seed dressing 3.Furathiocarb 20g a.i./kg seed, seed dressing 4.Furathiocarb 30g a.i./kg seed, seed dressing 5.Furathiocarb 40g a.i.jkg see~seed dressing 6.Dimethoate 40 e.c., foliar spraying 7.Control The maize varieties used were any three of the following five in a given year, SR52, R200, R215, R201, ZS 225.. Records were taken on percentage MSV infected plants in the whole population. Yield based on total grain per three net rows per plot; and cob length. Continuous assessment of MSV was conducted by taking weekly counts of plants with disease symptoms for each maize cultivar in the treated and untreated plots.In general the incidence of MSV was low. All the insecticides had a significant effect (P = 0,01) on the MSV incidence. Carbofuran 109 at 2 kg a.i. per hectare (Soil incorparated) and furathiocarb 66.6% sd at 0.5 kg a.i.jkg seed (seeddressing) effectively reduced the incidence of MSV.These were followed br. furathiocarb 66.6% sd at 0.25 kg a.i.jkg seed plus dimethoate 40 e.c. at 0.91 a.i./ha sprayed at two weekly intervals and furathiocarb 66.6% sd at 0.25 kg a.i.jkg seed. Dimethoate 40 e.c. sprayed at fortnightly intervals gave the highest MSV IncIdence (Table 1).Significant differences in avera~e cob length and yield were obtained from treated and untreated maize of all vaneties used in the experiment. There were also significant differences (P = 0.01) in maize yield between the treated and untreated plots. No significant differences were, however apparent in streak incidence within the three varieties tested.All the insecticides treatments showed a significant effect (P = 0.1) on the incidence of MSV. Carbofuran 109 at 2 kg a.i. per hectare reduced the incidence of MSV followed by furathiocarb 66.6% sd used as seed dressing at different rates. There Was a significant difference in the percentage MSV infection between carbofuran and furathiocarb at all the rates as well as the control at 19 weeks after emergence. No significant differences in incidence was obtained between the varieties and the insecticides. The effect of insecticides on the streak incidence was however reflected on the yield (Table 2).In general the incidence of MSV at Tuli-makwe irrigation scheme was high. Furathiocarb 20g a.i.jkg seed reduced the incidence of MSV. There was a significant difference in the percentage infection between furathiocarb and control   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- at 8 weeks after emergence in the three varieties. There was also significant difference between furathiocarb and control at 13 weeks after emergence in the variety R215. Non-significant difference was obtained between the varieties and the insecticide treatment. Significant differences in yield were obtained between the treated and untreated maize plots in all the varieties used in the trial (Table 3). The increases in grain yield of 28,21 and 21.2% were obtained by furathiocarb application as seed dressing in SR52, R215 and R200, respectively.Research on MSV disease has shown that it can cause yield losses of upto 36 percent in the commonly grown maize varieties of Zimbabwe (Mzira 1984). The critical period for MSV infection was found to be 8th to 9th week after seed germination, under Zimbabwean conditions. Furathiocarb (20g a.i.jkg seed) used as seed dressing effectively reduced the incidence of MSV disease as the standard carbofuran 109, resulting in the yield increase of 28,21, and 21 in the maize varieties SR52, R215, R200, respectively.Better yields from the commonly grown varieties can be obtained either by protecting them with soil incorporated or seed dressing insecticides to control the Cicadulina mbila for a period of 7-9 weeks post emergence.The mode of action of insecticides in the control of MSV disease still needs systematic investigation. However at least three different mechanisms single or in combination could be involved. They are the control of the vector Cicadulina mbila increase in host resistance by insecticides or denaturation of the virus in the host whatever the mechanism, it is apparent that insecticides can be a useful tool in the management of MSV in the field, specially as seed dressing, or low technology appropriate for subsistence farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa. However, before a definite recommendation is made it is essential to work the cost-benefit ratio as we~l as the availability?f the cher:nical in the region. Although in.the short term cheIlllcals could be effectlvely used 10 the management of MSV but 10 the long term development of MSV r sistant varieties is the only answer especially considering the economic situation of subsistence farmers as well as the safety of the environment. ABSTRACf Since the last publication of the annotated list of maize diseases in Malawi, new disease occurrences have been recorded and the change in status of some of the diseases has been noted. New disease records include maize dwarf mosaic virus, maize stripe virus, Phaeosopharia maydis and Gleocercospora sorghi. Maize streak virus disease is the economically the most important maize disease followed by cob rots and HelminthosporiWll blights. Cob rots have been recorded to cause an average yield loss of 10% with Fusarium moniliforme, Gibbrella zeae and Diplodia maydis hein; the most common and widespread cob rotting fungi. Maize (Zea mays L.) IS the most important staple food crop for the Malawian population. It occupies 70% of the arable land and more than 1.2 million hectares are planted tomaize annually with a grain production of more than 1.3 million metric tones. The rising demand for food III recent years has turned the crop into not only a very essential food crop, but also a cash crop to meet the urban food requirements as well as other demands.Maize yields in Malawi vary widely, from less than 1 to 4 tonnes/ha depending on various factors among which are diseases. Malawi's national policy is to Increase maize production in order to maintain self-sufficiency in the rural areas and to provide enough food to the growing urban population. The goal is to increase yields per hectare, through improved seed and cultural practices, the use of both manure and chemical fertilizers, and effective disease and pest control measures. Even though the total volume of maize has increased, yield per hectare has stagnated at about 1 tonne/ha. This low yield trend is to some extent due to diseases. Also with the intensification of maize production the maize disease spectrum has changed over the years with the occurrence of more and new diseases and the increase in severity of some of them. This paper reviews the status of maize diseases in the country.Since the publication of two previous annotated lists of plant diseases in the country, considerable agricultural development has and is taking place with parallel changes in the disease status. The earlier recordings of diseases were largely based on observations, as a consequence, a number of diseases of economic importance might have escaped detection. Thus in 1953 Diplodia macrospora, Helminthosporium tureicum, Puccinia sorghi, Puccinia polysora, Sphacelotheca reiliana and maize streak virus disease were the only diseases reported on maize. Maize streak virus was reported to be the most serious disease of maize in the country. The latest list of maize diseases by Peregrine and Siddigi (1972) included a few more new observations which included Cochliobolus heterostrophus, Collectotrichum graminicola, Gibberella fujikuroi, Gibberella zeae, Nigrospora oryzae and Periconia echinochloae. Again in this latest publication, maize streak virus disease was rated the most important maize disease in the country. But during this time Helminthosporium turcicum had changed its status from a disease that was just commOn and widespread to a disease that was causing serious and considerable damage on maize.Thus with the change in status of maize production, the disease spectrum and therefore status has changed with the occurrence of more new diseases and the occurrence of some diseases in epidemic proportions every year.  2 are an average of the 8 locations/field. The minimum size of the fields surveyed was 0.5 hectare.The proforma questionnaire that was used is given in Appendix 1.For purposes of reporting, the most commonly recorded diseases have been grouped accordin&...to ADD (Table 1). Maize streak virus disease is the major disease of maize ('fable 2) in four of the six ADD namely Karonga, Mzuzu, Salima and Uwonde while He/mimhosporium turcicum is the.major disease in only two of the six ADD (Kasungu and Lilon~e). The point to note is that all the four ADD where MSV is the major disease (Fig. 2) are in the low altitude areas (below 800 m above sea level) with warmer and humid environments.During the survey it was possible to determine 'Hot Spot' areas for MSV, Puccinia rusts and He/minthosporium blights (Fig. 2). All of these 'HOT SPOT areas for MSV are in areas where there IS a lot of dry season maize production in Dimbas and rice paddy fields. He/minthosporium blights 'Hot Spots' are in the major maize growing areas of the country.,  x  The role of cob rots on maize production With regard to earlier reports of maize diseases in Malawi, cob rots were not economically important but with the growing of more improved hybrid varieties, a concern for the increase in incidence of cob rots was expressed by the farming community so that there was an immediate need to look at the impact of cob rots on the yield of maize, in addition to determining and priotizing maize diseases in the country, an investigation was therefore conducted during the 1984/85, 1985/86 and 1988/89 cropping seasons on the effect of cob rots on the yield of maize and also to determine the cob rotting fungal flora.Losses due to ear rots have varied between 5% and 13% (Table 3) for the three seasons that the investigation was conducted and for maize planted at the onset of rains. A 10% average loss has been recorded on maize planted with the onset of planting rains. Time of planting seems to affect the incidence of cob rots with more cobs roting on maize planted at the beginning of planting rains.The most common cob rotting eathogens are Fusarium monilifonne, Gibberella zeae and Dipolodia maydis (Table 4). In a survey of lepidopterous stalk borers, three species, namely Busseola fusco, Chilo parteIIus and sesamia calamistis were identified. B. fusca and C. parteIIus were found to the ml\\ior species in Ethiopia.In an attempt to develop integrated management methods for B. fusca various studies were undertaken.Phenology or B. fusca has shown that there are three generations a year in southern Ethiopia. The first generation occurs during the wet season (April -July). The second generation occurs in July but majority of the larvae diapaused from mid September until the end of dry the season. A small proportion of the larvae pupated without diapause to give rise to a third generation.Diapause larvae have two distinct development periods, namely diapause maintenance and post-diapause periods. Water did not enhance pupation or the larvae during the diapause maintenance period. On the other hand, pupation time was influenced by amount of rainfall during the post-diapause period. Delay of pupation was observed when amount ofrain was less than 80mm during this period in the field.Pennisetum purpureum and Sorghum verticilliflorum were found to be ml\\ior wild host plants in Ethiopia. In addition study on the potential of crop residues indicates that the diapause larvae were observed in all sizes of maize stalk left in the field but significantly more larvae occurred in longer stalks. The conventional method or storing stalks upright after harvest constituted a ml\\ior source or carry over populations.On the other band horizontal placement of infested maize stalks for rour weeks was effective in reducing larval populations. The relationship between planting dates and Jl. ~showed tbat maize planted early in the season had significantly lower infestation. Yield loss due to the pest showed a significant increase in late planted maize.Maize (Zea mays) and sorghum (Sorghum bieolor) are the major cereal crops in Ethiopia. The potential yields of these crops, however, are hardly realized especially under peasant system of production where the bulk of the country's crops are raised. Among the major factors causing low yields is the damage by the lepidopterous stalk borers, Busseolajusca (Fuller) and Chilo panel/us (swin.) (Assefa, 1981(Assefa, , 1985)).Although the damage by lepidopterous stalk borers has long been recognized, research data on these pests and their impact on yields of crops were not available in Ethiopia. However, in 1979 crop season maize stalk borer research was initiated by the Awassa College of Agriculture in Southern Ethiopia.The main objectives of the stalk borer research were to determine stalk borer species and their distribution in th country. The second aim was to gain a better understanding on the biology and ecology of the major species (B. jusca) and to develop integrated management methods for the pest. Three stalk borer species, namely, Busseola fusca, chilo partellus and Sesamia calamistis were recorded in Ethiopia (Table 1). B. fusca and C. partel/us were found to be the important species in the country. B. fusca was the dominant species at higher altitude (1160-2500m) and in cooler areas whereas C. partellus was important at lower altitude (510-1700m) and in warm areas of the country.  This study has also shown that there were differences in populations of B. fusca and C. partel/us at similar altitudes but different regions in the west, south and eastern Ethiopia. Swaine (1957) states that the main factor limiting B. fusca distribution is the high temperature at low altitudes. Hence, the distribution of stalk borers based on only altitudinal differences appears misleading.Observations on the phenology of B. fusca showed that there are three generations a year in the Awassa area (Southern Ethiopia) (Fig. 1). The number of generations was variously reported from different African countries. Three generations were observed by Swaine (1957) and Harris (1962) in Tanzania and Nigeria, respectively. From Uganda (Ingram, 1958) and Zimbabwe (Smithers, 1959) two and 2-3 generations were reported. Furthermore, a report from South-Western Nigeria showed four generations during a growing season (Usua, 1968a). The differences in the number of generations per year between countries are probably due to different climatic conditions, vegetations and cropping patterns.The first generation eggs were laid in April in the Awassa area. Pupation of the first generation larvae was recorded in early June to late August with a peak in Second generation consisted of two groups of larvae (diapause and nondiapause) in the field. The non-diapause larvae constituted a small proportion of the total larval populations and pupated from September to October to give rise to third generation eggs.Diapause larvae constituted the great majority of the second generation. These larvae spent nearly six months of the dry season in dry maize stalks.Termination or diapause in the larvae or B. fusca.Application of water to stimulate pupation in diapause larvae of B. fusca indicates the presence of diapause maintenance and the post-diapause periods during the dry season (Fig. 2).The dlapause maintenance period lasted until the end of February in the study area. It was observed that wetting of the diapause larvae had very little influence on pupation during the diapause maintenance period (December, January or February).Water appeared to be essential for successful and timely pupation of the larvae during the post-diapause period (starting from early March). This was shown by an immediate pupation (withm ten days) of the larvae when they had access to water in March, April or May. On the other hand, delay or access to water once the larvae entered post-diapause dormancy increased days to pupation.Diapause larvae of B. fusca probably require a certain length of dry period during the early part of the dlapause development. Access to water in December, January or early part of February resulted in higher percent larvae mortality. Larvae held in dry jars until late April or May also showed a remarkable increase in the larval mortality.In the Awassa area. fifty percent cumulative field pupation of diapause larvae of B. fusca occurred from 17 to 26 April in four out of five years (Table 2). Although the larvae showed immediate response in terms of pupation to contact water during the post-diapause period in the lab the indicated pupation time appeared to have been influenced by amounts of rainfall during this period. Details of study on the relationship between pupation and the weather factors in the Awassa area indicate that cumulative rainfall of 80mm (from the 1st of March) is necessary for induction of pupation of a substantial proportion of the larvae in April. The indicated cumulatIVe rainfall appeared to be necessary to wet the stalks and the larvae so that continued pupation IS induced. Inadequate rainfall (less than 80mm) during the post-diapause period resulted in a delayed pupation. Thus, this study suggests the possibility of predicting the time of pupation of the diapause generation using raInfall data.The potential of various wild host species, Sorghum verticilliflorum (thick and thin stemmed), Pennisetum purpureum and snowdenia spp and cultivated Saccharaum officinarum, to support development of B. fusca was assessed both under laboratory and field conditions.The laboratory study confirmed B,fusca development through adult stages in all hosts tested.Sorghum verticilliflorum (thick-stemmed) and P. purpureum were identified as major host of B fusca ('table 3). In many cases, these two species were comparable with main hosts (maize and sorghum) in terms of development and populatIOns. The two wild host plant species supported a substantial number of insects. Interestingly, S verticilliflorum (thick stemmed) was superior to the main host plants in terms of populations. In addition, proportion of pupae in the population was markedly hIgher in these two hosts compared with other wild host plants and S officinarum. The higher populations of pupae in the sample indicates faster rate of larvae development in the host. On the other hand snowdenia spp did not support B. fusca larvae to pupation. ,  -------------------------------------------------------  verticilliflorum (thin stemmed) were not found to be of rrunor importance. On the other hand, S. verticilliflorum (thick-stemmed) and P. purpureum were identified as major wild host species of B fusca in Ethiopia.Female moths developed on various hos~ylants were able to lay a substantial number of eggs with the exception of S. verticilliJlorum (thin stemmed) in which many of the larvae and/or pupae died before emergence.Non-insecticide Management Practices for B. fuscaThe potential of crop residues as sources of carry over population of B.fusca.The fully grown larvae of B. fusca diapause in tunnels in dry maize and sorghum residues during the dry season. Importance of these crop residues as sources of carry-over populations was assessed in Southern Ethiopia. Stalks of various lengths (ranging from 10 to 100cm) were left in the farmers field when removing the major part for use. Diapaue larvae were found irrespective of stalk size but more larvae occurred in longer stalks (Table 4). The potential of maize and sorghum stalks kept in an upright position immediately after grain harvest contained the highest number of live larvae and pupae. This method of storing stalks would thererore be important in increasing survival of the diapause generation during the dry season.  (Mally, 1920, Deurden, 1953, Blaire, 1971). Collection and complete burning of stalks after harvest (Deurden, 1953) or spreading them thinly in the field throughout the dry season was recommended (Harris, 1962). However, these recommendations are seldom followed by farmers because the crop residues are kept for construction of houses, fences, for use as fuel and for grazing (Adesiyum and Ajayi, 1980;Assefa, 1981). Therefore, an alternative method which would reduce carry-over populations of the insect without affecting the normal use of crop residues was sought. Effect of horizontal placement of infested stalks in the sun in reducing populations of diapause larvae was tested. This study showed that horizontal placement of infested maize stalks for four weeks or sorghum stalks for two weeks was effective in reducing carry-over populations of the insect (Table 5  and 6). Thus, the recommended practice of spreading stalks in the field throughout the dry season or burning them completely is not necessary in the Awassa area. Furthermore, when the stalks of maIze or sorghum are removed, they should be cut at soil level so as to remove most larvae.  -----------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------  Although heavy infestation and damage are often observed, quantitative data on yield loss of maize crop due to B. fusca are not available in Ethiopia. Conse<J.uently B. fusca attack rate and corresponding yield loss of maize in ten successive planting dates were studied in Awassa. To obtain an estimate of yield loss due to the insect, two sets of planting dates were used. One set was treated with insecticide against B. fusca.Infestation rates on maize planted on different planting dates showed two peaks representing two generations (Table 7). The first peak, which represents 1st generation was recorded on the first planting dates (Apnl 10). InfestatIOn by the second generation larvae started on the sixth planting (30 May) reaching a peak in June plantings.  ------------------------------------------------------ The first generation larvae caused a lower rate of infestation than those from the second generation. This appears to be due to high mortality of diapause larvae in the dry season reducing the number of moths emer~ing at the end of the season (Assefa, unpublished; Usua, 1970). In addition, the dlapause generation moths laid fewer eggs than those of the non-diapause generation (Smithers, 1959, Usua, 1967;Assefa, 1989b).On the other hand infestation by the second generation larvae was significantly higher on late plantings. The increased infestation levels by this generation appeared to be due to :an increased fecundity of the moths 2.low mortality of the larvae in the generation 3.oviJ?osition preference to late planted young maize Impact of mfestation by the first and second generation larvae on maize yield was assessed (Table 8). The low rate of infestation by the first generation larvae did not have a significant influence on maize yield. On the other hand, delayed plantings resulted in significantly higher yield losses due to the second generation larval infestation.  ----------------------------------------------------- In conclusion, although conflicting reports were made by various workers with regard to the relationship between planting time and the maize stalk borer, B. fusca and other stem borers the current study clearly shows that planting time has a strong influence on the damage caused by the pest in Awassa.Therefore, to obtain better yields without application of insecticides against B. fusca the study suggests that maize planting should not be extended later than April in the study area. In addition, similar studies are necessary in other areas where B. fusca is considered to be an important pest. Question: Mwania.Is the maize stover ~azed in the field before removal or are the leaves removed (stnpped oft) to allow penetration of sun heat into the stalks in order to kill the stalk-borer larvae?2.How much volume of stover (kilogrammes or Tonnes per hectare) can be obtained from Ethiopian maize (the ones used dunng this study)?Answer: Assefa.1.In some areas stalks and stubble are grazed but very often stalks are removed without being grazed.Horizontal placement of stalks were done without stripping the leaves.I do not have figures on the volume of stover obtained from a unit area. But the farmers want as much stover as possible inorder to use for various purposes mentioned earlier.Adhanom Negasi 1An experiment to control maize weevil, S. zeamais in stored maize with insecticide was conducted at Awasa during 1985/86 season for seven and half months, ten kilogram of maize seeds free from weevil infestation were put in each cloth bag. Methacrifos 2p at three levels (5.0,7.0 and 10.0 ppm), fenithrothion 1% at 7.5 ppm, primiphos methyl 2% at 7.0 ppm, lindane 0.5% at 15ppm, delta•methrin 2.5 at 2ppm and untreated check were arranged in a completely randomized design with four replications. In each bag containing maize seeds, adult weevils were put in artificially right after insecticide$ were applied. There was no significant difference among the chemicals in their performance. However, all the chemicals showed better control of the weevils over the untreated check. Maximum residue level (MRL) of all the insecticides except lindane were below the MRL of FAO/WHO recommendation at the time of application. Analysis for lindane dust showed residue level which is above the maximum residue level of FAO/WHO after seven and half months.Stored product pests are very important in Ethiopian agriculture; considerable amounts of stored products, both in terms of quantity and quality are lost to insect and mite pests occurring in storage in this country (6). In spite of this, not much attention has been given to research on this group of pests in Ethiopia.The only published work on stored product pests in Ethiopia is survey work by Walker and Boxall (7). It was indicated by these authors that the bean bruchld, Cal/osobruchus chinenis (L); the maize weevil S. zeamais Mostsch; the red flour beetle, Triboleum castaneum (Herbst); the Angoumois grain moth, Sitotroga cerealella (Oliv.); the tropical warehouse moth, Ephestia cautella (walk.) are major pests of stored products. Recently, however, the cowpea bruchid, Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) has been increasing in importance especially on cowpea and many other legumes (5).Insect pests such as the maize weevil, Sitophifus zeamais can infest the wowing crop 10 tropical countries and are brought into store at harvest where the Insect pest persists. Seeds already damaged by such primary insect pests are liable to infestation by secondary feeders such as Tribolium casteneum.In most countries, chemical methods of insect control are used in depots and to an increasing extent by farmers. However, research results on the control of storage pests in Ethiopia are scanty (6). The only available data are those of the bean bruchid (5) and results on the chemical control trial against the maize weevil at Awasa (3). Briefly discussion and suggestions for future work on stored product pests in general and stored maize insect pests in particular are given in this paper.An experiment to control maize weevil, S. zeamais with insecticides was conducted at Awassa during 1985/86 season for seven and half months. Ten kilogram of maize seeds free from weevil infestation were put in cloth bags. Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design with four replications. In each ba~containing maize seeds, thirty adult maize weevils, S. zeamais were put in artificIally right after insecticides were applied. The whole experiment was conducted in a closed room with a temperature of 20-27 0 C and relative humidity of 50 to 60%. One thousand and two hundred seeds from each set of bags for each treatment were examined to see the efficacy of the insecticides tested by taking counts on the damaged seeds and counts on the number of living and dead adult weevils at fortnightly intervals for seven and half months. At the final stage of the experiment, wei~ht of seed on each bag of the respective treatments was also taken. Samples of lIndane treated seeds were sent for residue analysis to Shola Crop Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. Samples from the remaining treatments were not sent for residue analysis for their level was already below the maximum residue level of FAO/WHO recommendation prior to application.There was no significant difference among the chemicals in their performance (Table 1). However, all the insecticides showed better control of the weevils over the untreated check. Maximum residue level of all the insecticides except lindane were below the maximum residue level of FAO/WHO recommendation at the time of application as shown in Table 1. Analysis for lindane dust (Table 2) in stored maize showed residues of 0.599 ppm which was above the maximum residue level of FAO/WHO after seven and half months whereas methacrifos, fenithrothion, primiphos methyl and detltamethrin were below the maximum residue level of FAO/WHO recommendation prior to application.   There can be six types of loss in a stored maize due to maize weevil weight loss, food loss, quality loss, monetary loss, seed loss and loss of goodwill. The main loss, and the only one which can be measured accurately, is loss in weight. Weight loss of maize seeds stored at Awasa after seven and half months treated with various insecticides to control maize weevil (Table 3) ranged from 190 grams to 1648 grams or from 1.90 percent to 16.48 percent from the treated primiphos methyl and the untreated check, respectively. This result may show that prior insecticide application could help to prevent weevil damage to maize seeds in store.   -------------------------------------------------------RECOMMENDATION Thus lindane may be recommended for use on maize grains that could only be utilized for seed purpose because of its relatively long residue toxicity whereas maize grains for human consumption may be treated with methaerifos, fenithrothion, prirniphos methyl and deltamethrin provided factors other than mamalian toxicity are not limiting.A country-wide survey of stored product pests in general and stored maize pests in particular and the amount of crop loss must be assessed.Chemical control measures for several stored products and stored maize must be worked out.The possibility of using plant resistance against stored product pest and stored maize pests must be explored.Attempts must be made to use natural pesticides. The neem tree (Azadirechta indica), which is grown as a windbreak in many parts of this country, is a good candidate among the botanical pesticides; research on this aspect must be given due emphasis.6.7. The entire activity of seed maize production, processing and distribution in Kenya is the responsibility of Kenya Seed Company Limited, a private enterprise. While seed certification and testing is handled and supervised by the National Seed Quality Control Services (N.S.Q.C.S.), a designated certifying agency within the Ministry of Agriculture. The company in addition maintains its own internal quality control department to monitor and ensure sale of high quality seed. Production of certified seed maize is accomplished through the planning and proper management of the various interdependent units. These units include variety development, variety evaluation and release, maintenance, multiplication, processing, storage and distribution.Variety development, evaluation and release is mainly the responsibility of the National Maize Programme. The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (K.A.R.I.) was established under the Science and Technology Act of 1979, as a semi autonomous Research Institution which now appraises and conducts all agricultural research in Kenya. In addition to maintenance the company has a minor maize selection programme to complement the KARl effort and principally conduct research in areas associated with seed production. It has been pointed out that improved quality seed is the carrier of the genetic potential for higher crop production (Douglas J.E. 1980). Official seed testing is carried out at the NSQCS laboratory at Lanet. Their regional field inspection section is responsible for seed sampling. The seed quality control procedures are based on those established by the organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Association of the Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) and the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA).Once a breeder has identified a high grain yield maize variety in his initial screening trials the variety is recommended for inclusion in the official Maize National Performance Trials (NPT). The variety is then tested for stability over a wide range of environments, disease and pest resistance plus other agronomic c;haracteristics. These trials are conducted in selected sites and in a standardized format. Meanwhile the variety together with its parental components are also tested for distinctiveness, uniformity and stability of its various morphological characters and to establish authenticity by the NSQCS. Currently each of the four agroecological zones for maize ill Kenya (Late, Medium, Early and Lowland) are catered for by' one such maize NPT. After three seasons data, the co-ordinator submits detailed cumulative data to the National Maize Research Committee. The Maize Research Committee critically examines the data before submitting their release recommendations to the National Variety Release Conunittee.Meanwhile, Kenya Seed Company Research also evaluates the merits and demerits of the varieties in commefClal seed production. This is mainly with respect to flowering patterns, nicking and seed yield potential of parental material (KSC annual report 1988). The National Variety Release Committee comprises of experienced personnel drawn from KARl, the Certification Agency, Kenya Seed Company (KSC), Farmers, extension staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and the university. Once the committee has perused through the recommendations and there is no difference amon~st the members, the variety is afproved, named and released for ~eneral cultivatIon. Usually at this time a list 0 descriptors for the variety is available to all interested parties.The maintenance and seed increase of varieties, composites and hybrid parents and production of the certified seed is not just the responsibility of the seed company but a joint responsibility with the seed certification institution and the National Research Programme. Under various forums seed maintenance and production are discussed. The company recognizes three categories or stages of multiplication in the maize seed production programme.1.Pre-basic (breeder) seed production 2.Basic or foundation (super-elite and elite) seed production 3.Certified (commercial) Seed Production.Pre-Basic Seed A small quantity of seed is usually supplied to the company by the breeder from the research centre responsible for the development of the vanety. The general standard and specific requirements of breeder's seed are frequently not stipulated by the National Seed Quality Control Service (NSQCS) as the breeder is considered to be the highest authority for the maintenance of genetic purity of seeds. This category ofseed is maintained at the company's research centre, Elgon Downs Farm. Endebess.Super -elite is the product of breeder seed. The final stage of basic seed before certified seed production is referred to by the company as elite seed. This category of seed could be a variety, a single-cross hybrid or even a composite. Both the super elite and elite seed production are subject to inspection by the NSQCS.Foundation seed forms the heart of certification and quality control in KSC at this stage is given special emphasis. The company has expanded seed processing unit for all basic seed to include long term seed storage. It is expected that this will alleviate the problem of isolation since larger quantities of seed can be produced less frequently and stored.Certified seed maize is the progeny of basic seed which is distributed to farmers. Most of the certified seed maize is grown on Agricultural DeveloJ?ment Corporation (ADC) farms and the rest by individual fanners on contract With the company. Ever since the hybrid maize birth in 1963, the seed company has contmued to produce adequate quantities of quality seed for the local needs and the surplus has been exported. Various types are offered by the KSC in Kenya and abroad (Table 1). Currently three composites, namely Katumani Comp.B, Coast Composite Maize and Dryland Composite I (DLCl) represent 8% of the total seed maize marketed while varietal hybrids, pm, H511 and H512 represent 15%. The bulk of the seed is from the topcross hybrid H6140 and the double-cross hybrids H625 and H626 which account roughly for 50% of the total seed produced. The double-cross hybrids H622, and the three-way hybrid H632 occupy roughly 20%. The balance is from miscellaneous new maize varieties which the company offers for commercial experimentation from time to time.Seed certification is a quality control system designed to serve the seed com.eany which is the producer and seller, and the farmer who grows the seed. Seed certification rules for seed maize are established both for field and laboratory tolerances for the various categories of seed (Table 2). The internal quality control department together with the NSQCS is responsible at all stages of production, drying, processing, storage and distribution for inspection, sampling and analysis to evaluate seed purity, germination and to identify all factors whIch may reduce seed quality.On receipt of the application form from the grower, the grower is evaluated and the field inspected to determine their suitability for production of seed. Successful applicants are visited regularly by the company field officers to ensure that seed bed J?reparation is timely and satisfactory, isolation distances, cropping history, acquisItion of inputs (fertilizers, herbicides etc) are all met. A plantln& guide is also supplied with the seed which is planted just before the onset of rams. Planting time is a critical period and the company field officers visit the grower to ensure proper machine setting is done so that optimum fertilizer and plant densities are achieved in each of the six female parent rows and the two male rows. The seed growers are advised on when and how to use herbicides and insecticides in order to ensure early and timely control of weeds and pests. They are also advised to start roguing off-type plants as soon as they see them. This exercise as well as desuckering is completed before tassel emergence. Detasselling of the female rows is done before the plants start shedding pollen. This is another very active period for the farmer and the seed company field officers as well as officials of NSQCS. It lasts approximately three weeks for a given crop of seed.At physiological maturity, the crop is ready for harvest. The female rows are separated from the male rows. Sometimes and especially on ADC farms male rows are cut earlier for making silage. Then a pre-delivery cob sample is taken by the KSC internal quality control staff to ensure that the moisture content lies below 35%. Harvestmg is then done using casual labour and the crop is delivered to the off-loading site at the Seed Driers Limited Kitale. Here a delivery sample is again taken for moisture content analysis confirmation. The NSQCS takes also fresh cob samples as the lorries off-load from each crop, dries and shells them into a bulk for post control plots. Seed cobs that arrive at the Seed Driers Umited for processing arl( normally mixed with husks, soil, weed seeds and sometimes seeds of other crops. A series of operations or seed pre-treatment are carried out on the harvested lot so that it fulfils the quality standards established (Ndambuki, 1985). Generally the objective is to obtain the maximum percentage of pure seed with the highest degree of uniformity, vigor and germination. To achieve this, the following is conducted:-Further maintenance of genetic identity and purity of the seed (thro' cob inspection, discarding off-types and rotten tips). Drying to suitable moisture content. Shelling and removal of contaminants.Grading and sizing of the seed. Sampling for tests to confirm high germination capacity. Protection of seed from insect and fungi using suitable insecticides and fungicides. As a consequence of the defined objectives, the qUality standard obtained permit the establishment of commercialization standards so that the farmer knows what to expect from the seed and what he can demand from the seed company. Sampling for various quality tests of the cleaned seed is taken following the International Seed Testing Association guidelines in order to obtain uniform and accurate results in seed testing. This samele is divided into four portions. Two of these are taken to the KSC laboratory while the other two portions are taken to the official laboratory of NSQCS. In order to compare the results from NSQCS laboratory, the KSC also analyses this official portion for various physiological tests (Table 3 a and b). i) Physical tests -Moisture content test: -to attain the required level of under 13%. -Purity Test: to determine exactly how much is present in the seed in terms of other seeds, soils or inert matter percent, insect and mechanical damage. -General seed appearance or 'appeal'.Both pathological and genetic quality tests are not regularly tested in the laboratory but pre-and post-control tests are regularly planted out to test trueness to type, varietal purity and seed borne disease. Post control plots can also indicate the performance of the field inspectors. Germination test carried out in four replicates of 100 seeds each using the pure seed fraction of the purity test in sand medIa at 20°C has given rapid complete germination after seven days. Germination for maize is defined as the emergence and development from seed embryo of those structures indicative of the ability to produce normal plants under favourable conditions in the soil. The dockage tester is a miniature gradin~machine which is used in the laboratory to estimate the percentage of seed cleamng loss. This facilitates quick computation for growers payment on a given seed lot (Table 3c). It also gives a fairly accurate indication on the seed size and quality.Three ~ades of seed maize is available to farmers; the large flats (IF), the medium flats (MF) and the handplant. The LF and the MF are packa~ed in 25 kg for machine plant while the hand planted seed is a cocktail of all sizes mcluding the small and large seeds.The seed comfany realizes that it is the grower -farmer who finally matters and that the potentia of top quality seed may not be realized if seed is not properly planted and grown. The company uses the international plate tester to test for farmers different grades of seed for plantability with various planter plates (Table 4).Full records on receiving seed, drying, temporary storage, treatment, packaging, testing, storage and sales are kept in order to maintain lot identity. Lot Identity and maintenance of processing faCIlities form an important aspect of quality control. To avoid seed contamination and mixing of seeds durin~processing, machines, floors and walls are maintained and kept clean includmg regular fumigation of seed storage facilities to control weevils and other insects. The company understands that lack of identity and traceable records on a lot would defeat the basiC purpose of certification. Labels are used for efficient lot numbering and the variety, field number'lear grown and individual lot printed. The company uses different colour shades 0 packaging material to identify seeds by variety and recommendation zone. Apart from the official sampling described, re-sampling after every six months on stored seed lots is routine for purity and gennination tests, but on request other analysis can also be done. Sealing IS done after the seed lot has been OffiCIally sampled and proved to meet the required standards. For seed going for international trade, three kinds of international seed analysis certificates are issued on behalf of 1STA These lot certificates are either green or orange while the sample certificates are blue. The NSQCS is recognized by 1STA and is responsible for sampling, sealing, labelling, testing and issuance of the orange international lot certificate. The blue sample certificate is rarely used on imported seed whose origin is not from a member of 1STA Finally, it is expected that as the scope of the seed industry expands, delegation to NSQCS for enforcement may require more elaborate responsibility and legally backed effective sanctions against any malpractices. Also as private research takes on it would be necessary to encompass broader aspects of patenting and breeders ri~hts in the current seed law in order to encourage progress and competition in mnovative agricultural research.Phiri. Is it worthwhile to grade the seed planted by small scale farmers considering that they often use a handhoes for planting as opposed to mechanical planting using ox and tractor drawn planter? This question is based on the assumption that seed grade has no significant effect on the final maize grain yield.Answer: Ndambuki. Hand planted seed is a cocktail of all sizes from small to big seed sizes. Only machine planted seed is graded into LF and MF.Que~tion:Ochieng. The Kenya Seed Co. is expected to obtain breeder's seed of parental lines every four seasons/years in order to circumvent possible \"genetic\" drift ac;sociated with maintenance of the lines outside their actual \"home\". How was this time interval arrived at? Should the time interval hold for both inbred lines as well as the populations ~~?Answer:Ndambuki. For open pollinated varieties, every, two years would be suitable since the breeders seed would have been multiplied 2 or 3 times during this period. For inbred lines it has not been necessary to go back for fresh material since 1963. The Company has continued to do a good job plus regular observations at check plots which is done jointly Wlth the national programme breeders.Small holder farms (1-3 ha) contribute about 80% of the total maize production while village farms (10-100 ha) produce about 10%, and both private and public large farms (over 100 ha) account for about 10% of the maize produced. Almost every region produces some maize, but the bulk of it (46%) is produced in the southern highlands where rainfall is reliable and its quantity sufficient (Table 2). Between 1980 and 1988 the area planted with maize increased from 1529000 to 1867000 ha while production increased from 1.7 to 3.1 million tollS.  -----------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------- Currently, nine open-pollinated varieties and four hybrids are recommended for production in Tanzania (Table 3). Breeder seed of Staha, Kito, Kilima, TMV-1, Katumani, Ilonga Composite, UCA and Tuxpeno is produced at Ilonga while that of TMV-2 and inbred lines for hybrids H6302, H614, H632 and H622 are maintained at Uyole research centre. Foundation inbred and single cross seed production is currently done by the a Tanganyika Wattle Company (TANWAT) on contract for the Tanzania Seed Company (TANSEED). The first hybrid maize seed production was developed at TANWAT in 1968 (Orondo, 1988).  Once produced, the foundatIon seed is bought by TANSEED which turns it over to contract growers to produce certified seed. Major contract growers for TANSEED are the National Foundation Seed Farms, TANWAT, government institutions such as research institutes, prison farms as well as above average farmers.The National Foundation Seed Farms contribute about 53% of the total amount of certified seed produced locally. Amounts of maize seed produced during 1976-77 to 1987-88 are shown in Table 4. Of the maize seed produced over 12 years, hybrids and open-pollinated varieties constituted 50.7% (1557 tons) and 49.3% (1517 tons), respectively. Certified seed is processed at TANSEED's processing units at Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro, Njombe and Sumbawanga. Seed is mostly packed in 2,5,10 and 25 kg bags. OccasionaUy, there have been shortfalls in the amount of hybrid seed produced, as a result of which TANSEED has had to import hybrid seed from neighbouring countries (Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe, Table 5). Only about 1.4% of the maize seed imported was open-pollinated. Of the actual maize seed sold by TANSEED, 62% was hybrid while 38% was open-pollinated seed.  ------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------~---------- Seed Certification Seed Certification is done by the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCA) through its headquarters staff at Morogoro, its field inspectors and seed testing laboratory staff. Presently seed testing laboratories are located at Morogoro and Tengeru in Arusha region. The agency reports to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. Foundation and Certified seed production is registered with TOSCA whose staff inspect and monitor the seed crop at critical growth stages.Certified seed is marketed by TANSEED, a parastatal organization in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development which was corrunissioned in 1973. Of the shares in the company, 62.5% are owned by the National Food Corporation (NAPCO) and 37.5% by the Commonwealth Development (CDC).Distribution of seed is effected through TANSEED's four branches (Arusha, Iringa, Morogoro, Njombe), its five depots (Mbeya, Mwanza, Songea, Sumbawanga, Tabora), Tanganyika Farmers Association (TFA), regional co-operative unions, and stockists appointed by the company.As indicated in Table 5, the total amount of maize seed available to TANSEED over 7 years was only 64% of the total amount demanded by regions. Among reasons for the shortfall are shortage of capable and willing contract growers especially for hybrid maize seed, shortage of important inputs such as herbicides, labour for detasselling and weather fluctuations where dependence is entirely on rainfall which is sometime unreliable.Out of the total amount of maize seed available over 7 years, only 69% of it was actually sold. This may be ascribed to lack of awareness among farmers about the importance of improved seeds, high seed prices (Table 1) as well as problems of delivery of certified seed to farmers in some locations.Provision of incentives including attractive seed prices at the different levels of the seed industry will help to'raise maize seed production. Demonstration of the advantages of utilizing improved seed and ensuring that the seed reaches the farmers where it can conveniently be bought will increase utility of improved seed. Chivatsi. With reference to katumani seed production in Tanzania, I am sure that Katumani has evolved quite a bit. How does the Tanzanian Katumani version of compare with the Kenyan Katumani in terms of yield disease resistance and other agronomic adaptations?Answer:Moshi. The Katumani variety used in Tanzania has similar maturity, disease reaction and agronomic adaptation as that used in Kenya. In Tanzania, it is maintained by half sib isolatIOn blocks with mild selectIOn for flinty grain, and better standability. However the basic materials are the same.Comment: Zziwa. To address the question of high seed price in Tanzania so as to enhance demand for improved seed there is need to provide (but not subsidize) credit facilities to the smallholders. In U~anda the Rural Farmers' Scheme of the Uganda Commercial Bank operated 10 numerous village-level bank branches is doing the magic of providing capital to smallholders. The scheme provides inputs (including seed) on credit at 40% interest rate for unsecured loans.A1emseged Aregai 1Maize is an introduced crop in Ethiopia, but because of very favourable agroclimatic conditions in many parts of Ethiopia it has become an important crop. Currently it occupies third place in terms of acreage after tef and sorghum. The estimated area in 1983-84 was 821,000 ha with a mean national yield of about 1.5 ton/ha. The area and production of the important cereals for the year 1983-84 is as follows: The main areas of concentration are the Western, South Western, South and Eastern sectors in the provinces of Wollega, Illubabor, Kafa, GamoGofa, Shewa, Sidamo and Harerge. These areas have extremely variable agro-climatic conditions. The altitude ranges from 500m to 2500m and rainfall from about 400mm to over l000mm during 90-165 days of crop life.The peasant sector accounts for the major part of the ,eroduction (92%) followed by state farms (5.6%) and producers co-operatives (2.4%).The government of Ethiopia is giving increasin~importance to the maize crop because of the high potential for expansion both ill area and production. The ten year prospective plan visualizes an increase of 60% in production by the year 1994. To achieve the objective, attention is being given to evolving of improved varieties and hybrids and developing a technological package for improved practices and appropriate inputs.The institute of Agricultural Research (lAR) and the Alemaya University of Agriculture (AUA) are nationally resIjonsible for maize breeding and improvement. The major part of the breeders activities over the last two decades have been devoted to population improvement programme. Some of the composites released by the national research programme are Alemaya Composite, EAH 75, KCB, KCC, Bako Composite, A511, and Abo-Bako. Most of these released composites and syn heties are better than local varieties but most of them are late maturing, very tall, have hi~h ear placement and very susceptible to lodging. These have, however, made signiflcant contributions to maIZe yield increase in the country.No significant work has been done in breeding maize hybrids by the research institutes. Some of the hybrids introduced from the neighbouring countries (mostly Kenya and Zimbabwe) have done well and outyielded composites and synthetics by 1-2 ton/ha. Important hybrids introduced are H625, H632, H622. SR-52, H511 and CG4141. The breeding programme of JAR has released a maize hybrid BH-140 which is under production from the current year.Seed is the most basic and the cheapest input in agriculture. Programmes for the supply of high quality seed to the farmers should, therefore, command very high 1. Ethiopian Seed Corporation, P.O. Box 2453, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia priority in any agricultural development programme. This fact has been given high priority in developing improved seed pro~ammes in Ethiopia.In 1978 the government of Ethiopia set up a National Seed Council to make recommendations to establish a seed programme for production, processing, quality control and marketing seeds of imJ?roved varieties developed by' the research programmes in the country. The dhiopian Seed Corporation (ESC) was set up in 1979 on the basis of recommendations of the National Seed Council. The ESC has been made responsible for the production, processing and distributing seeds to the state farms and peasant sector 10 the country.In addition to the ESC, limited quantities of seeds are also produced by the Ministry of Agriculture on its fann units at Asella (Kulumsa, Gonde and Ethya) and Asasa. The bulk of the seeds of the field crops are produced by the ESC. The quantities of seeds of different crops produced by the ESC dUrIng the last ten years are as follows: The ESC is an autonomous body under the Ministry of State Farms peveloI;>ment. The head office is located in Addis Ababa with five co-ordination offices (Arsi, Bale; Gojarn, Sidamo and Wolega).The corporation obtains breeder seed from JAR and AVA for production of pre-basic seeds. Two farms with total area of about 2,000 ha are being set up for multiplication of pre-basic and basic seeds. Basic seeds are further multiplied on the state farms and peasant associations are used for the production of commercial seeds.A strong net work of processing plants• and seed stores has been set up. Seeds are processed at six seed processmg plants with a total processing capacity of about 700,000 qts. The corporation has a temporary storage capacity of 200,000 qt. and 78,000 qt. for storage of clean seed.To ensure timely movement of seed to the state farms, the corporation has a fleet of 28 trucks and 18 trailers. These trucks are also used for the movement of unprocessed seed from the state farms and peasants associations to the processing plants of the ESC.The seeds produced by the ESC are marketed by the Agricultural Inputs Supply Corporation (AISCO) to the peasant sector and directly by the corporation to the state farms. The state farms account for 30% of the total seeds distributed by the corporation.Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) Alemaya University of Agriculture (AUA) and Awassa College of Agriculture (ACA)The lAR, AVA and ACA are responsible for breeding of improved varieties of different crops. The varieties developed by these research orgarnzations are tested for 2 years before submitting to the National Variety Release Conunittee.The lAR, AVA and ACA are also involved in the production of breeder seed for supply to the ESC for the production of pre-basic seeds.NVRC is responsible for release and registration of varieties developed by the national research programme or introduced from outside the country. After testing at national or regional levels, the superior varieties are submitted to the NVRC for verification trials. Representatives from lAR, AVA, ESC, MSFD, and MoA are represented on this committee.An outline of the variety trial and release system is as follows: The MoA is responsible for the development of the peasant sector. It is also responsible for the supply of inputs both to the peasant and the state farms sector. The extension service of the MoA helps to increase the use of inputs, including seeds, by the peasant sector. The AlSCO in the MoA is responsible for distributing the seeds produced by the ESC to the farmers. The role of AlSCO is of vital importance in the development of the seed industry in Ethiopia.The MSFD is not only the supervising ministry for the ESC but also serves as major contract seed multiplier and an important user of commercial seed. The seeds are multiplied on the state farms and supplied to the ESC for processing and packaging.Maize seed production of hybrids and open pollinated varieties is organised by the ESC to be produced on the state farms and farms of the ESC. The important areas of seed production are Sidamo (Southern), Wollega (Western) and GOJam (North Western) provinces. These areas are ecologically suitable for seed production of mroze and high yields are obtained.Maize seeds of both varieties (synthetics and composites) and hybrids are produced in Ethiopia. Production of hybrid maize seed has increased from 3210 qt.  --------------------------------- - ----------------------------- It is evident from the above that quantity of hybrid maize seed production has increased by almost 2.5 times during the last five years and it is further expected to increase significantly in the near future as maize hybrids possess considerably higher yield potential than composites and synthetics.The following are the important hybrids, synthetics and composites under cultivation: The hybrids listed above have been introduced from Kenya and Zimbabwe. Hybrid BH140 has been developed by the National Maize Improvement Programme but there is urgent need to release better hybrids for different agroclimatic regions. The basic parental seed of the introduced hybrids is imported every year by the ESC and commercial/certified seed produced in the country. The quality of hybrid maize seed production has imJ?roved in the last few years as a result of ESC's efforts in training its staff in mroze seed production. There is, however, urgent need to train more staff to ensure the quality maize seed production.In Ethiopia, well defined generation system o( multiplication has not yet been adopted fully. The process of seed multiplication proposed to be established by the ESC is as shown below: The seeds, of maize composites, synthetics and hybrids produced are processed and graded at the processing plants of the ESC at Assella, Awassa, Birr, Nekemt and Koffele. Seeds are treated and packaged into 10,25,50 and 100 kg bags.The field should not have grown maize as the previous crop.The seed certification programme has not yet been implemented in Ethiopia but the ESC has developed a system of internal quality control. The inspection is done by the staff of the ESC both in the field and in the laboratory. The field and laboratory standards followed by the ESC are given below: The AMC farm gate prices of maize before 1st January 1988 were Birr 20/qt. There is an urgent need to review the purchase prices so that these are attractive to seed growers. Better price help improve maize seed production both in quality and quantity.Inorder to increase substantially both the yield and total production of maize, a ten-year programme of hybrid maize seed development is planned to be undertaken with the cooperation of AVA and JAR. It is planned that the total area under maize in Ethiopia will increase by about 20 percent, from the 1987/88 level of approximately 1,000,000 ha to 1,200,00 ha. by the end of the ten year programme. WIthin this total, it is further planned that the area planted with hybnd maize seed will be gradually increased from the 1987/88 level of 12,000 ha to 600,000 ha by 1996/97. This will mean that by the end of the ten year period, 50 percent of the total area under maize cultivation in Ethiopia will be planted with hybrid seed.The ten year programme envisa~es that the production of certified hybrid maize seed be progressively increased, In terms of both the area allocated for seed production and the annual quantity of seed produced. The latter will be defined by the requirements for the area to be planted with hybrid seed during the respective years. Over the ten-year period, the area under hybrid maize seed productIOn will be increased from 350 to 4500 ha and the quantity produced from 300 to 13,2oot.It is suggested that mostly double and three-way hybrids be produced, since the seed yield of these types of hybrid is higher and more stable, and their use is more economical for seed producers. Further, they possess considerably higher yield potential than composites, synthetics and local open-pollinated varieties.It is planned that hybrid maize seed production, drying, processing and storage will be continued In Awassa (Sidarno), Ayehu and Birr (Gojam) and Nekemt (Wollega), Le. on the state farms where hybrid maize seed production was initiated. The area under hybrid maize seed production at each of these locations will be increased to 1500 ha.Further more, it is expected that irrigated land will be developed in the Shallo basic seed farm.There are a number of constraints in increasing the total production and yield of maize in Ethiopia. Some of these are;Since the national research programme has not developed sufficient maize hybrids, maize hybrids imported from Kenya and Zimbabwe are grown. The basic seeds of these hybrids have to be imported every year for certified seed production. This does not only cost scarce foreign currency but also the supply is uncertain.Most of the open pollinated varieties released are late and tall with high ear placement thus leading to su ceptibility to lodging and difficulty for mechanical harvesting. Many of the varieties are susceptible to diseases like rust, blight, streak virus and cob rots.There is lack of experienced and committed seed growers, particularly hybrid maize seed production.Seed purchase prices paid to the seed growers are n t remunerative. These were fixed in 1980 and since then have not been revised by the government Lack of interest in the use of hybrid maize seeds by peasant farmers. Non-availability of required inputs such as seed, fertilizers and unattractive produce prices.The research programme has to play an important role in developing new high yielding varieties and hybrids with resistance for as many diseases and pests as possible. A technological package should be developed for different agro-ecological zones with focus on the best variety, the right plantin~time and plant population, use of fertilizer, weed control and crop protectIOn. The extension services have to play an important role to take this technolo~ical package to the peasants. The government should ensure availability of right inputs in time and adopt incentive price policy. These measures will help to increase production and productIvity of maize in Ethiopia.At the last workshop in 1987, a report was presented on seed agronomy research undertaken by the Seed Co-op of Zimbabwe (Havazvidi, 1987). This paper covers some practical economic aspects drawan from the sound and viable seed industry in ZImbabwe (Rattary Arnold, 1982).Hybrid seed has been produced in Zimbabwe since 1947 from inbreds developed from local adapted open pollinated varieties.The early 19605 saw the release of the first sin~le cross bybrid, SR52. Table 1 illustrates the dates of the commencement and cessation of varieties and hybrids. SR52 hybrid was particularly suited to the high potential ecological region which had been saturated with hybrids by the mid-1960s.Early 1970 saw the beginning of the era of hybrids most suited to the medium to low potential regions. This caused a revolution in the acceptance of hybrids in these regions. Table 2 shows the percentage of hybrid types marketed over the past twenty years. Today the use of well adapted hybrids has reached what one would call the economical saturation of over 90% utilisation in the medium to low potential regions and this has largely been due to the superior silk to pollen synchronisation and early maturity.Differences in the synchronisation of hybrids SR52, well suited to the high potential regions and R201, suited to the lower potential regions, during differing seasons can be large (Table 3).  The afford ability of improved seed, especially hybrid, plays a major role in its acceptance by farmers. The price ratio of commercial maize to that of seed cost is important. In examinin~the price of commercial grain to seed, this has ranged in Zimbabwe as indicated 10 Table 4.Hybrids have been well accepted a 1 these price ratios. Commercial yields need to increase by 4% at yields of 3 to05-ha to off-s<]t the extra seed cost if use is made of a sophisticated type liingle cross but at 6 tons-ha the percentage increase would only need to be 2%.Therefore, at commercial yields above 6 tons-1 ha it is an advantage to use the higher potential single/sister cross as they should be capable of yield increases greater than 2%. A seed industry should be aware of seed parent potential yields. Yields have been monitored in Zimbabwe in the case of field seed yields since 1949 and from well managed replicated seed parent trials since 1976. Potential new parents are assessed in these critical trials against known standards prior to their use. As well as yield phenologic and phenotypic characteristics are measured to allow for better advice to seed producers. This can avoild costly errors in the seed fields. The yields from differin~types of seed parents can be seen in Table 5.Surpnsing vigour is achieved with crosses from closely related lines. Sister crosses which are over 90% related are capable of 35% heterosis over their inbreds. Actual field seed yields are on average 40% that of these trial yield levels. N te:lnformation has been derived from replicated trial results grown under nonpollen restriction and with good management. Each type is represented by the mean of two strains except the latter which is the mean of the mbred trials.The seed yields and their variations have a strong effect on the stability of a seed industry. It is essential that seed yields are high enough to allow for an affordable seed to commercial grain price ratio. The breeder needs to bear this in mind as a major requirement in his selection of hybrid types and must incorporate this from the commencement of a breeding project.During the 1965-76 period, when pure single cross hybrids constituted up to 62% of the hybrids produced, the seed yield variations caused wide fluctuations ranging from near inadequate to large surpluses of seed stocks. With the predominance of 3-way hybrids from early 1980 this had reduced these fluctuations. The use of double hybrids can reduce fluctuations even further.The type of hybrid produced in an emerging hybrid program should commence with topcross or double hybrids. Only when the seed industry is firmly established should it consider 3-ways or single hybrids.One of the major restraints to high seed yields is insufficient soil moisture. Over the years irrigatIOn schemes have been developed on seed producing farms in Zimbabwe and today over 70% of the seed hectarage is covered by irrigation. The incidence of ear rot organisms on seed parents can be high in the higher rainfall areas i.e. over 800mm per annum. Inbred seed parents are the most vulnerable. Crosses between closely related lines as a parent can reduce the incidence considerably (Table 6).Great differences have been found between lines. The breeding program has placed great emphasis on freedom from major diseases, especially ear-rots. A specific program has now bred known sources of resistance into new lines which has considerably reduced the level of Diplodia infection. • Unrelated to N3Basically Zimbabwe gerrnplasm has good tolerance to ear-rots. Introduced germplasm is particularly unadapted to areas in Southern Africa with a mean annual rainfall over 800mm especially with regard to leaf blisbt Helminthosporium tureicwn and stalk and ear-rots caused by Dipolodia and Fusanum spp.The date of planting of the seed rop has an effect on yield and the incidence of ear-rots. Early planting in October increases the gross yield but enhances the risk of ear-rots with the result that clean seed yield is reduced. Late plantin~in mid-December reduces both yield and ear-rots but generally the net clean YIeld is lower.The good synchronisation of the silking of the seed parent with the pollen flow in the male parent is a factor which the breeder must take into consideration when selecting the components for a hybrid. The seed industry could carry up to 30% of split-planting type hybrids but any further amount would put an undue strain on the reliable seed supply III difficult seasons.The isolation distances used in a country to separate a seed crop from a source of contamination is often dictated by economics and the density of maize production. In Zimbabwe, the effect of contaminated seed on yield has been tnvestigaled. Significant difference at the 5% level could only be found with greater than 20% contamination.However, in drawing up regulations for isolation the distance used will control contamination to below 1%. Occasionally, up to 5% contamination of yellow in whites is observed. This would still be considered acceptable as the worst effect it will have is a reduction in the crop yield of 3% but in the majority of cases probably only of 1% (Table 8).General isolatIOn distances used range between 100 metres with a male barrier of 50 metres to 350 metres with no male barrier, but for single hybrids this may only be reduced to 200 metres plus a 30 metre barrier. With the high value of irrigated lands employed in seed production it became necessary to look to other means of isolation, other than distance. Time isolation formulae, Table 9, were devised from the extensive phenological data collected on the lines and crosses used in seed production. These were put into practise from the 1981/82 season. They have proved to be very effective III preventing contamination. All these seed crops have had less than 1/2% visible contamination, yellow grain in a white seed hybnd. Table 9 1.Original Formula One 1982: Contaminant planted first followed by seed crop  Intensive investigations have taken place both at the research stations and in seed fields to provide greater knowledge on the factors affectin~variation in the timing of silks and pollen. This data have now been employed m new comprehensive fonnulae in Table 10.The second option of the seed crop planted first necessitates a lengthy time interval. A shorter interval is required in the situation where the seed crop is the second planted. An example of the time intervals for a few combinations IS given in Table 11. A further means of preventing contamination is by employing the Gamathetic gene system which prevents acceptance of normal pollen when both the parents contain the homozygous state for this recessive gene 'ga ga'. Popcorn hybrids are frequently produced under this gene system. The problem has been the unadapted background on which this gene is carried. A few adapted lines have been developed, but this system has not been put into practice.The cost of seed to the farmer needs to be affordable and the price ratio of seed to commercial grain appears to be a sound basis for pricing. This can also allow a realistic return to the seed maize producer, provided seed parents are chosen carefully. Critical replicated trials are needed to support this choice.Time isolation has proved more efficient than distance in preventing contamination. In addition it has allowed maximum use of irrigated sections on seed maize farms.Cantrell. If all services covered by government were removed and placed with a full self supporting seed company, all research, all farmer contacts then this would raise the cost of the final product by possibly over 30% in the suggested ratios.There are currently 20% of production using split time plantings. It is not recommended to have over 30% of this type.Cantrell.What are regulations in Zimbabwe for labelling sister line crosses?How did you arrive at the ideal price of single cross at 10-12 times the price of grain?Answer: Caulfield 1.Sister line crosses are classified as singles for labelling and pricing.The company has a price production model which supports this ratio. Constant for unaccounted variation (99,9% confidence interval) of (DP 9 S-DSS), 1 DayAdjustment for variation of (DP 9 S -DS j ) over different altitudes; add (2 days) for altituae greater than 1300m.Highest value of (DP9S -DS5.) over the seasons at 1300m minus season mean value of (DP 9 5 -DS.s) at 13oom. Add (1 day) for altitude greater than 13OUm.( Constant for unaccounted variation (99,9% confidence interval) of (DS9yDPS) 1 DayAdjustment for variation of (DSqS-DP S ) over different altitudes 0 days for altitude equal to or lower than l300m   ------------------------------   The Zambia Seed Company Limited (Zamseed) was formed in 1980 to take over the duties of the National Agricultural Marketing Board (Namboard). Prior to 1980, the production and importation of maize seeds was organized by Namboard, seed services, now Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI), and the Zambia Seed Producers Association (ZSPA). From its onset, Zamseed proved to be a vigorous young company which had to do a lot of work in order to satisfy the country in its maize seed reQ.uirements. It became fully responsible for the production (through multiplicatIOn), procuring (through importation when necessary), processing and storage, and national distribution of high quality maize seeds. The pro~uctionof.n;J.aize seeds is done through ~ontracts with ZSPA me~~ers who grew basiC and certified seeds under pre-detemuned hectarages and conditiOns.Quality control and certification is conducted by the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI) under the jurisdiction of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives. Seed distribution is done through the co-operative unions acquiring it from the provincial centres and distributing it to rural areas (depots).Maize is the most important dominant staple food in Zambia. It accounts for over 80% of the total value of markete.d agricultural productions. It is extensively grown in inost regions of the country except for the wet, dry or infertile areas where soq~hum, millet or cassava are more adapted. The introduction of new maize vaneties in 1984 has seen a dramatic increase in commercial maize production. Total area planted to commercial maize has increased from 600,OOOha (1986) to 900,000 (1989) and production this year is estimated to 20 million x 90kg bags 1. Zambia Seed Company Limited, P.O. Box 35441, Lusaka, Zambia(1,860.8 thousand tonnes). If the whole area was planted to certified seed, Zamseed will require to produce 450,000 x 50 kg pockets of seed ie. (22,500mt of seed). In order to meet the increasing maize seed demand in the country, the company has resorted to producing three way or double crosses where seed production yields are high.The Zambia seed industry consists of the following components, namely: 1.Agricultural Crop Research 2.Variety Release Committee 3.Zambia Seed Company Limited 4.Zambia Seed Producers Association 5.Seed Control and Certification Institute 6.Co-operative Marketing Unionsand Stockists 1.Agricultural Crop Research This is charged with the responsibility of plant introduction and breeding. It also provides recommendation on varieties on the basis of agricultral environment in the country. Research also is the source of all parent materials (pre-basic seed) to the company. Research also carries out varietal descriptions of new maize varieties to be released especially on the parent material of the inbred lines. This function is undertaken by the Research Branch of the Department of Agriculture.Variety Release Committee This is the committee responsible for the release of all new maize seed varieties to be grown in the country. The committee is made up of diffferent institutions and Zamseed, SCCI and ZSPA are members. It is headed by the Director of Agriculture from the Ministry of Agriculture. Different characteristics for each variety are studied e.g. yield, disease resistance, etc. before a variety is approved for release. Only varieties which have better attributes than the existing ones are released. The committee also recommends the phasing out of obsolete varieties.The functions of the institute were separated from those of research and involve quality control and certification. The institute comes under the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (as controller of seeds). Seed certification is carried out according to OECD rules whilst ISTA regulations govern sampling procedures and laboratory testing.Technical aspects of maize seed production-in Zambia have been broadly described by Wellving (1) while quality control for certification standards are covered under Chapter 352, Agricultural (Seeds) Act of the Laws of Zambia in particular Statutory Instruments No. B3 of 1984 andNo.6? of 1988. 4. Zambia Seed Company Limited This is responsible for the production, processing, storage and distribution of high quality maize seeds through the pronvincial marketing, co-operative unions and stockists. Zamseed is also responsible for procurement (through importation if necessary) of seed maize.Seed maize production is on contract with ZSPA members. Production of seed is located in areas of high agricultural activity. Storage facilities are organised on a similar basis, namely, Lusaka Province, Kabwe/Mkushi -Central Province, Mazabuka -Southern Province and Chipata in Eastern Province.Co-operative Marketing Unions and Stockists About 70% of all the seed maize sold by Zamseed is sold through the provincial co-operative marketing unions. Only 20% is through the stockists while the Zamseed retail outlet sells about 10%. TIllS is the govenunent policy.Zambia Seed Producers Association This is the mother body for all seed growers. It is reponsible for price negotiations and seed crop allocations with Zamseed. Three-way crosseS 3.Open pollinatedAll the above seed classes are produced under natural isolation on contract with ZSPA members. Large areas are allocated to the seed growers. High management is recommended. Certified seed is controlled and inspected by SCCI. Certified seed is controlled and -20% -10%296 inspected by SCCI. The progeny is used to plant commercial crops of maize.Stage 3: Processing and Storage After the shelling of a maize seed crop, the seed is then ready for processing. Prior to Zamseed inception, all the seed processin8 was done by seed growers on the farms. With the increased seed maize productIOn, Zamseed has had to process about 30% of the total production. The trend has also changed to approximately 50% of the total maize produced packed in 10kg pockets. This is sold to the small scale growers in the country.The steps in the processing stages as follows: a.Cleaning or seed maize -physical purity b.Grading or seed maize -into 7 different grades, namely, small flats (SF) small round thicks (SRT), medium flat, round, thicks (MF, MR, MT) large flat, round thick (LF, LRT). Extra small seeds are removed from the seed maize which is ungraded.After the grading of the crop, it is tested for purity, germination and moisture test by SCCL Once it meets the mmimum standards of (99%, 90%, 13.5%), respectively, then seed is dressed with seed dressing, e.g. Thirasan M.The seed is then packed into 50kg, lOkg and 2k~packets, labelled and sealed. This is then ready for sale. It is stored IOto different de{'ots awaiting sale and collectIOn by farmer or the union for distributIOn.Marketing and Distribution Prior to 1981, all the seed maize was old through Namboard. After 1981, all the maize seeds is sold through: a.Co-operative unions -70% b. Stockists c.Zamseed Retail shopThere has been a si~nificant increase in seed maize production both in volume and number of vaneties produced since 1981. In terms ofrange of varieties, a lot of progress has been made where the number of hybrids has increased from two (SR52 and ZH1) to eight namely, MM752, MM601, MM603, MM604, MM612, MMS01, MMS02, MM504. Also under production are two open pollinated varieties namely, MMV400 and MMV600.Between 1981-1984, seed production concentrated on single cross production which was mainly SR52. The picture changed in 1983/84 when the research branch introduced new varieties namely, MM603, MM604 and MMS04. These were the first three-way cross hybrid maize bred and grown in Zambia. Upto date, the trend has changed from 90% single cross production to 70% three way or double cross production. All varieties mentioned above are under seed production with MM603/MM604 by and large dominating the scene '(Tables land 2). One of the results of this change is that seed yield per hectare has increased from 30 x 50kg per  ------------------------------------------------------  hectare to 50 x 50kg per hectare. This has also contributed to cheaper seed available for the majority of the farmers.Maize research programme has continued its research of improving existing varieties and also breedin~new varieties. For the first time in the history of Zambia, a new yellow maize hy-brid (MM62) has been introduced and seed production will start this 1989/90 season. This has been necessitated by farmers who are always looking for better varieties for stock feed. The maize research progranune has also introduced a very early hybrid which will mature in 100 days (MM441 and is earmarked for the drought areas ego Gwembe Valley).Apart from introduction of new varieties, the maize research programme has also improved the existing seed yields through improvement of parent inbred lines. This has been done by introducing sister cross inbred lines where modified single crosses will be grown instead of pure single crosses. In this way, seed yields will be higher and seed costs will be reduced. The demand of seed maize is ever increasing. The reasons for this demand is mainly due to:1.Availability of agricultural credits through various agricultural lending institutions.Favourable producer prices announced by the government especially for maize.Increased number of people going into agriculture with maize being the mostlreferred and most planted crop commercially. 4.Increase number of people going back to the land due to the recent announcements by the government to repatriate people and encourage them to take up agriculture.EXPORT OF SEED MAIZE Seed maize export has improved especially through the introduction of MMV600. Although other varieties are preferred by other countries, Zamseed is unable to export them. This is because the production levels of these varieties do not meet local demand. Table 1 has all details of maize exported to other countries.The problems associated with maize seed production in Zambia can generally be described as those besetting a young seed industry. Seed industry in Zambia has several components and each one of those components has unique problems which affect seed maize production.As indicated earlier on, seed production is currently done on contract basis with members of ZSPA, both large and small. Historically, ZSPA membership was restricted to large scale farmers, who by and large have to watch the market closely for business opportunities vis-a-vis their investments. As a result of this, it has been difficult to sustain seed production at projected levels, as the system does not provide guaranteed production of a given seed crop by the same grower year in and year out. This has resulted into few seed production farrning busmesses on a permanent basis.As a result of the above, there are few growers who have invested in facilities and equipment to provide for stable seed production. Investment in irrigation for seed maize production for instance is almost nil. The effect of this was painfully shown during the 1986/87 season when Zambia experienced the worst drought on record.Due to lack of specialisation in seed production, the majority of seed growers continue to lack technical competence which result in low seed yields of varymg quantity. There has been a decline in ZSPA active membership, particularly at a time when seed production was believed to be non-profitable enterprise. The producer price on offer is usually not perceived to be attractive by seed growers. Producer prices on offer is usually not perceived to be attractive by seed growers. Producer prices can be a very good incentive for investment if they are perceived to be attractIve. This was demonstrated in MMV600 in 1987/86 allocation where additional hectarage of over 700% of original request was taken up within a short time.. Decline in active ZSPA membership has resulted in our inability to raise seed areas comparable to increasing seed demand for both local and export market. Every year, Zamseed fails to meet the hectarage required for seed maize production. Problems faced by the seed growers include:1.Problems with rotation 2.Problems of breakdown of machinery and lack of finance or credit at the last minute. Table 3 also shows that our production is lower than target. This is partly a result of loss of seed crops even after farmers have planted. The loss is caused by:1.Rejections of some crops by SCCI 2.Withdrawal of crops either by the farmers themselves or Zamseed/SCCI.Poor crop stands due to adverse weather conditions experienced during the rainy season. Attempts to recruit new growers have not been successful as the new applicants fail either to command sufficient land that will provide for adequate isolation or to raise the necessary capital for the purchase of inputs, equipment and draught power. Banks do not readily finance seed production enterpnses.The introduction of high seed yields of varieties has taxed to the limit the ability of some of the growers to produce large volumes of seeds at the farm level. The result has generally been delay in delivery of seed beyond agreed dates which has resulted in delayed delivery to the unions. Also lack of plant processing capacity in the past by Zamseed to handle increased production has placed pressure on the seed growers who were not able to handle the crop especially due to lack of labour.Operational problems at SCCI have also contnbuted a great deal to generally frustration and despair exhibited by Zamseed growers and resulted in a lot of dropping out of seed production completely.One way Zamseed has looked into solving some of the problems of procuring the hectarage is trying to involve parastatal owned farms in seed production. However, for commercial business organisations as well as farmers, the major condition for involvement in seed production is a conducive profit margin. Thus the \"price has to be right\" because seed production is a specialised activity of high mana~ement conditions which include, among others, limited hectarage with strict isolatiOn which prohibits normal production.The response has not been favourable and in one case the results were disatrous and most of the seed maize was lot due to mismanagement.secrs centralised seed testing facilities and system result in delays in testing of seed. Insufficient vehicles and inadequate funds with SCCI also contribute to the operational problems.The pace at which new varieties are being developed is increasing. There is, however, the danger that some of these materials are bemg advanced for release without adequate testing. The failure to receive common acceptance for MM606, Provincial Co-operative Marketing Unions Unions are normally ill-funded and end up settlin~or paying accounts very late. The bulk of the seed is sold through them. Both umons and stockists have little product knowledge and so end up storing the seed under poor conditions.Both factors limit the effectiveness of seed on the market. Inaccurate egtimates of seasonal seed requirements sometimes lead to over or under supplying of maize seed by Zamseed. Zamseed also faces the problem of obtaining reliable and co-operative external transporters to move the seed to the provincial cooperative unions on time, result in ineffective distribution of the seed within the provinces by the unions. Zamseed does not sell directly to the farmers and so have unfortunately little contact with end users.The future growth and viability of the Zambia Seed Industry will be influenced by crop research and development, improved processing, handling and storage of seed maize. Also adoption of better production systems by the farmers and better extension and monitoring system by Zamseed. Most important, a functional SCCI and support from seed growers, the Seed Industry has every chance of remaining viable now and in the future.  Abuga. Three-way hybrid crosses make the majority of your current hybrid, up to 87%. In Kenya it is to the contrary oecause we are interested also in the yields obtained from the pollen parents. How have you solved this problem in your horne countries?Answer: Thole. Seed farmers are required to remove the male ears or plants prior to the female harvest so they do not consider the inbred small ears as disadvantage but more as an advantage.Double crosses are grown by emergent conunercial farmers who prefer to keep male lines for grain maize. These farmers prefer to grow double crosses. Big conunercial farmers prefer to grow three-way crosses because it is easier to remove males and also to look at seed yieldjha profit, not silage from males.Question: Muthoka. In Zambia, you are producing SR52 hybrid which is also produced by your neighbour Zimbabwe. How do the seed yields compare from each country?Answer: Thole. Yields of MM752 compares very well to Zimbabwe SR52.shareholders and is required to operate on commercial basis. The company is the major seed producer and essentially multiplies crop varieties which are commercially viable such as maize hybrids and composites, tobacco, vegetables and grass seed.The company has a seed farm where basic seed of various crops is grown. Most of the seed is multiplied under contractual arrangements on pnvately owned estates. Certified seed produced by the National Seed Company is then marketed by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) through its extensive network of depots at the regional and 10calleveI. National Seed Company also sells certified seed at its own premises. The Seed Services Unit works closely with the NSCM to ensure, thorou~, rigorous field inspections are done, and at the same time, the Seed Services determines the quality of seed which is sold to farmers by routinely checking in storage depots of NSCM and Admarc throu~hout the country. An elaborate representation of the above interrelationship is depicted in figure l.At present the government subsidizes seed sold through ADMARC markets and the rationale behind this subsidy is to promote the uptake of improved varieties by smallholder farmers, and to maintain quality control by discouraging smallholders from retaining own planting material.Figure 2 indicates the maize seed supply, a historical situation since 1980. On the hybrids it is evident that in 1987/88-1988/89 seasons, the demand was much higher than seed available. The shortfall in supply was partly due to bad weather (erratic rainfall) of 1987/88 season which coinCided with the gap in production of the major crop variety (MH12) during the 1986/87 season, because of the substantial quantities of carry over seed produced in 1983/84 season. From the trend in uptake of composites, (Figure 2) it is quite obvious that the usage will increase slightly as compared to hybrids.In general, from Figure 2, It is quite evident that the use of improved seed declined until the 1986/87 planting season. Main reasons contributing towards this low uptake is caused by a combination of the common belief that endosperm of the hybrids causes greater incidence of insect attacks in the stored grain and a lower output of flour when the grain is pounded in the traditional manner, high cost offertiliser associated with improved varieties and lack of sufficient guaranteed market. The change in relative producer prices from 1981/82 through 1986/87 was 10% for maize and 100% for groundnuts so much so that farmers went for groundnuts and still used unimproved maize planting material for their subsistence needs. Maize as a crop became more profitable to farmers in August, 1987 when a price increase of up to 36% was made. This has a eositive dramatic effect on the uptake of improved maize seed especially hybrids (Figure 2). Also recently there has been an mtensified effort in extension campaigns to promoting the growing of improved maize varieties for their benefits of high yields per unit area. Methods of preparation fo the hybrid maize have also been explored morder to be in accordance with the traditional way of preparing maize flour. Furthermore, at Chitedze Research Station, breeding of flint hybrids isalso in progress. With this multidisciplinary approach it is envisaged that the demand and uptake of improved maize seed will improve in the comingJears.Looking at the statistics on han ,Malawi's national maize crop amounts to 1,271,000 hectares (3). Domestic improved maize seed sales from NSCM for 1988/89 (Figure 2) accounts for about 113,000 hectares (9.0%) at a seed rate of 25 kg/ha. The requirement for the remaining cropped area are cuvered by uncontrolled planting material saved from previous crop productions. In case of Production and uptake of maize seed composite maize seed, 3-4 generations are allowed before fresh seed is acquired for planting.From two sources of projected seed maize requirements over the next 5 years, it is concurrent that the total demand for improved maize seed of all types will increase annually (Table 1).  ----------------------------------------------- ------------------------------_.-_-- The National Seed Company estimates for oth estate farmers on privately owned land and smallholder farmers. The smallholder seed requirement excludes the estate owners. Despite th former estimating for two outlets, their projected figures are less than the latter. It is of importance to note that a country like Malawi, with a seed market still unsaturated, producing the appropriate quantities of certified seed is most difficult. To (>roduce insufficient quantities of a certain variety might cause disappointment Wltbin a farming population just beginning to realise the benefits of improved seed resulting in unexpected fluctuating demand. It is quite certain that once sales of improved maize eed will point certain direction, planning will be easier.A continuous supply of seed can be produced through certificatioin, the legally sanctioned system for quality control of seed multiplication and production. Its pnmary objective is to maintain and make available to the farming community high guality seed of superior crop plant varieties. The STU is the designated certification authority In Malawi. It prescribes in consultation with a National Seed' Technical Committee, the conditions under which seed is to be produced and the standards to be attained. The procedure for certification in Malawi with reference to maize is outlined below.The establishment of seed quality control systems requires each segment of a seed programme to be properly organised and managed. The availability of improved varieties generated from plant breeding efforts is a prerequisite. In Malawi there are special regulations which govern the release of new maize varieties into the certification scheme. The maize breeders from the government research stations are responsible for developing new varieties. The new variety must be approved by the National Variety Release Committee before being introduced into the production cycle. Varieties released through the system include Malawian hybrid (MH)12, MHlS, MH16, Ukiruguru composite A (UCA) and cbitedze composite A (CCA).In Malawi a three generation system of internationally acceptable nomenclature is recognised (1).Breeders Seed: This is produced directly by the breeder, and is the source of the initial and recurring increases of subsequent generation i.e. basic seed. Breeders seed is passed to National S.C.M. for bulking and distribu tion.Is the progeny arising from breeder seed. Production of this class of seed is a responsibility entrusted to the NSCM. The bulking is done on tbe company's farm. If need be, the seed can also be bulked outside the company's farm (to contracted growers).There is close liaison between the breeders and the Official Seed Testing Unit inspectors (Figure 1) to ensure that standards to which the seed must conform are fulfilled.Certified Seed:Is grown from basic seed and is intended for sale to farmers for purpose other than seed production such as food.Growers wishing to produce seed choose which class of seed they want to multiply. The NSCM is responsible for organising tbe seed production programme. The bulk of the seed is grown on estates under contract. Maize seed growers contract with NSCM and register with STU each year.The primary objecti e of conducting these inspections is to confirm that the seed produced from a crop grown for seed programmes is of the designated variety and has not been contaminated genetically or physically beyond certain specified limits. During the growing season, rigorous inspections are carried out by government inspectors from STU to ensure that prescribed field standards are met. lru;pection is timed so that varietal off -types, or rogues, are easily identified. The rules being enforced are based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Association of Official Seed Certifyin8 Agencies (AOSCA). Typical field standards which are in use for basic and certified maize seed are depicted in Table 2.  Table 3.Maize seed has to be processed inorder to meet the purity standards for certification purposes. The NSCM undertakes the cleaning operation. After final processing of a lot sample to determine seed quality is obtained by government Inspectors from STU. The sample is then submitted to the official seed Testing Laboratory at Chitedze Research Station. The Seed Laboratory an accredited member of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA). The standards for purity, germination and other attributes of seed quality are based on the association's rules. The laboratory is also authonsed by the association to issue International Seed Testing Certificates.The minimum seed standard for maize are shown in Table 3.Seed standards for basic and certified maize seed production.Germination 90% Offtype 0.1 % Purity (analytical) 99% Defects (damaged, diseased, weevilled) 2.5% Another important aspect of the quality control is the post control check plots planted by STU. Samples drawn from each and every seed lot produced by NSCM factory are planted with the objectives to assessing genetic purity and stability, field establishment performance of seedlots with laboratory germination data upon which seedlots are certified and checked for seedborne dIseases. This provides a check on the effectiveness of the certification scheme as a whole and at the same time it draws attention to particular cultivars or class of seed which may be genetically unstable in such a case the breeder may have to reselect the parent material. Unfortunately due to the absence of irrigation facilities at Chltedze Research Station, check plots can not be evaluated until after much of the seed to which plots relate has been sold and planted. Fortunately the incidence of problems has been extremely low. However, the exercise has value in permitting identification of the source of any problems so that remedial action can be taken for the future.Carryover seedstocks are essential in an organised seed multiplication scneme as this is the only way in which unexpected demand of seed and emergencies can be catered for. The Seed Technology Unit monitors seed quality during distribution and storage by resampling annually all carryover seed stocks in ADMARC and NSCM depots. Germination tests are conducted and seedlots with less than 90% germination are rejected and destroyed.Table 4 shows the amount of maize seed which has been rejected and destroyed over the years past.Reject Carryover Seed (metric tonnes)  The Malawi government provides personnel and their salaries, new vehicles and funds for buying equipment. The NSCM meets the cost of inspection and repairs of specialised eqUIpment. This has been going on without setbacks. However, for long term it would be preferable to formally quantify the funding on a per hectare inspected and per tonne sampled and tested basis. The STU would then be properly funded in a regular manner.Legislation is required to enable the Seed Technology Unit perform its quality control functions effectively. A seed act provides a legal framework through which the activities of all sectors of seed industry can be regulated. The Seed Act was enacted in May, 1988. However, the Act is not fully functional because some of the seed regulations are currently being drafted. Despite the fact that the Seed Act is not fully operational, the Seed Technology Unit is still playing a major role in ensuring that farmers get good quality seed.Physically, there is abundant land on large -scale estates for producing the farmers seed requirements. There are factors, however, which have influenced the owners not to indulge in the maize seed enterprise viz:1.In the tobacco enterprise gross margins of not less than K7000jha have been-achieved as compared to K1350jha for seed maize product. Managers have therefore maximized their tobacco leaf production in preference to any other available crop. To this effect, inorder to make maize seed growing attractive seed prices have been jacked up to the order of 60% and all parent seed materials will be free. Already there is an indication that growers will come forth and hopefully an upsurge demand of improved seed will be met locally.There is a growing shortage of labour for farm work. There are three critical peak labour periods in a hybrid seed crop sowing, detasseling, harvestmg and ~radmg. Detasseling clashes severely with tobacco during the reapmg period. Some estates are finding it extremely difficult to recruit sufficient labour to do both tasks simultaneously. This has really resulted in increased rejection of some fields due to not satisfying the field standards.There is potential to spread seed rroduction to distant areas like the southern and northern regions 0 the country in the tea or coffee estates respectively. Some of these places are more than 800km from Lilongwe and place great stram on supervisory attention of both NSCM and the STU.Isolation:Since commercial grain maize production is now economic for the estate, more land is rendered inappropriate for seed maize because of isolation requirements not only for maize on the same estate but also from increased maize productIOn on neighbouring farms. Time isolation is not very feasible due to limitations set by the length of the growing season.The use of single crosses restricts seed yields. These do not yield as much as 3 -way or double cross hybrids. To address this problem, the maize breeders at Chitedze are already exploring the possibility of replacing single crosses with 3 -way hybrids.Recently use of improved maize seed has taken a different direction. The demand has increased due to combination of intensification of extension campaigns and also good producer prices. The situation thus compells the NSCM's future action of plan to boost the maize seed production inorder to cater for the expected upsurge in demand. At the same time storage facilities by both NSCM and ADMARC must be conducive to maintain high seed viability during the transit handling period to the main users -farmers. Simultaneously, the situation is dictating to STU, to excise extensive quality control work inorder to offer the Malawian farming community high quality seed. The proper coordination and linkage of these government and non-governmental organizations will result in giving farmers one of the vital inputs (seed) in the crop improvement programme, hence the agricultural productivity of the country will be sustained.Fundamental to an effective pest control effect is to know your pest. This knowledge must include physiology, ecological requirements, pest-host relationships, reproduction, mechanism and duratIOn of survival, and it's impact on man. For Striga, much is known, but much of our information is sketchy and not clearly defined. The problems with parasitic weeds such as Striga are further exacerbated by the requirements for a stimulant to induce seed germination, complexities of haustorial formation and attachment, and mechanism of toxicity to the host. Our success in developing effective and efficient Striga control strategies is contingent upon continued expansion of our knowledge of Striga.The requirements of preconditioning of Striga seeds before germination will occur are fairly well understood. Seeds must undergo exposure to specific moisture and temperature regimes for a period of time of preconditioning to break dormancy. However, we do not know the environmental parameters and time frame that control preconditioning of Striga for specific sites or zones. Striga seeds in the U.S.A. remain preconditioned for several weeks so long as temperature and moisture conditions remain favorable. We need to know when preconditioning is achieved and for how long Striga remains stimulant receptive in the various Striga areas of Africa. During the period of preconditioning the Striga seeds are receptive to a chemical stimulant produced by maize and sorghum roots which can induce germination. The seeds may also respond to stimulants produced by other crops.Some of the gaps in our present knowledge of Striga are: What are the hosts of the Strigas? What are the false hosts -i.e. the plants that trigger Striga germination but do not function as hosts? These plants could be used to diminish the Striga seed reserve in the soil. After germinatIOn, the radicle develops. Another stimulant triggers the initiation and the formation of the haustoria, a specialized organelle that functions as the interface between the parasite and host. Knowledge of the chemicals involved in this attachment process could lead to control or the development of resistant varieties. After attachment by the haustorium, Striga assumes a parasitic relationship with its host, acquiring nutrients and moisture for its growth and development. But not only does Striga acquire substance from its host, it apparently induces physiological changes that causes irreparable damage to the host's ability to grow and produce grain. This toxic relationship is not fully understood. Unfortunately, we do not know how to protect crops from this damage. If we knew more about this parasite --host relationship perhaps we could be more affirmative in developing control methodology. Some work on this relationship is now being conducted, but much more is needed. The objective of Striga control is to (1) stop reproduction, ( 2) diminish the seed reserve in the soil, and (3) prevent damage by the parasite to the host crop. We have been developing Striga control strategies in the U.S.A. for about 30 years in order to eradicate this pest. We have utilized a variety of treatments that, when integrated into an overall strategy, has been effective m eliminating over 75% of the infestation. Some of the control strategies that we have developed may be adaptable to situations in Africa. Formulating control methodolo~for Striga in developing countries presents an awesome challenge. This effort IS complicated by a diversity of climatic zones, intercropping farming practices, cost of materials, application methodology and the knowledge of users. There is no magical treatment that can solve these diverse problems. However, some of our control measures that we now use may prove to be effective and practical under selected situations in Africa.Preplant Incorporated Treatments: Preplant incorporated treatments are those which are arplied to the soil before crop plantin&. The herbicide is incorporated into the soi to the desired level. Efficacy is contmgent upon af{niform mix of the herbicide into the soil. Herbicides such as Trifluralin (Treflan ) [2, benzenamine) can be used to control Striga if shallowly incorporated into the soil. The maize or sorghum seeds are planted in a furrow or hole below the treated soil. Care must be taken to ensure that no treated soil is directly over the seeds. After crop emerges and is at least 20 cm tall the treated soil is pulled back around the stalk. The treatment will control many grasses and broadleaf weeds and prevent most Striga from emerging -thereby diminishing seed production. Striga does attach to the roots of maize and sorghum and inflicts some yield reducing injury, but there will be much less emergence so that seed production can be more easily prevented by controlling or removing emerged plants. This treatment procedure is less than ideal, but may be used where cowpeas or beans will be interplanted.Preemergence Treatments: This procedure utilizes a herbicide, applied to the soil surface after the crop has been planted but befor R crop emergence. The low vapor pressure herbicide such as Pendimethalin (Prowl ) [n-(1-e~)'lpropy10-3,4  dimethyl-2,6-dinitrobenzenamine), and Metolachlor (Dual ) [2-chloro-N-(2-ethyl-6-methyl phenyl )-N-(2methoxy-1-methylethyl) acetamide) have demonstrated Striga suppression if rainfall moves the matenal into the soil before Striga emergence. These treatments have reduced and/or delayed Striga. They also provide good to e.l<cellent general grass control. They may be used in some mtercropping situations.Systemic Herbicide: The systemic herbicide dicamba (BanveI R ) (3,6-dichloro-2methoxybenzoic acid) has proven to be quite effective in controlling Striga at or soon after attachment. The material is applied to the foliage of the maize/sorghum after which it translocates to the roots. It moves to the nutrient/moisture sink caused by the parasite and accumulates to a toxic level in the parasite. This treatment is dependent on proper timing for effectiveness. It must be applied during or soon after attachment but at least two (2) weeks before the crop begins its reproductive phase. This dicamba treatment has the added benefit of controllinm ost emerged broadleaf weeds that normally compete with the crop. However, It does not provide control of grasses. Dicamba cannot be used in an intercropping situation or where sensitive crops are in the immediate environs of the treatment.Postdirected Treatment: Several herbicides will kill Striga when applied directly onto the parasite. Two very effective treatments are 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic aCId) and/or gramoxone (1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridiniumion). These treatments are most effective if they are applied when Striga is young or is in very early bloom. A surfactant enhances their activity. These materials are applied as a directed spray with minimum contact to the lower portion of the crop stalk. These treatments kill only the plants to which they are applied. A new flush of Striga may soon reappear.The herbicide, oxyfluorfen (GoaI R ) [2-chloro-l-(3-ethoxy-4-nitrophenoxy -4-(trifluoromethyl) benzene] has proven to be an excellent Striga control material. It is aprlied post directed to the soil surface before or soon after Striga emergence. Goa may persist for several weeks, killin~Striga as it emerges. Rainfall facilitates the actiVIty of the herbicide. The combirung of gramoxone at about.5% v/v plus a surfactant not only improves Striga control but also broadens the spectrum of control for other weeds. This treatment cannot be used with intercropping.Stimulants: Research has been conducted over the years to develop material to induce suicidal Striga seed germination in the soil, independeot of a host being present. Although some materials have been found that are effective and show promise for practical use, only ethylene has been put to practical field use. Ethylene IS now a major component of the Striga control program in the United States. When timely and properly applied, ethylene can cause suicidal germination of greater than 90% of the preconditIOned Striga seeds that are present in the soil. Thus, ethylene is an effective and efficient way to apidly diminish Striga seed populations in the soil. The logistics of applying ethylene are such that highly technical methodology is required t transport and inject this material into the soil. This technology makes its use in developing countnes all but impossible, except perhaps in special situations.Soil Fumigants: The use of soil fumigants is a procedure that can effectively rid tbe soil of viable Striga seeds. The three fumi!itnts we use are methyl bromide (bromomethane), me~-sodium (Vapam ) [(Sodium-N-methyldithio carbamate)] and dazomat (Mylone ) (tetrahydro-3,5-dimethyl-2H-l,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione). Methyl bromide is injected into the soil as a liquid and the soil surface covered with a gas tight plastic cover. Vapam is applied as a drench. Mylone is a dry formulation that is applied to the soil surface. Both vapam and mylone are dependent upon rainfall to move the material into the soil seed zone. However, all three of these treatments are very expensive. Methyl bromide fumigation requires highly technical equipment. Vapam and mylone require several millimeters of water to move them into the soil. The only practical uses for soil fumigants in the developing countries would be clean up (sterilize) sites which are to be used for research.Agronomic Practices: Non-chemical ways to deal with Striga is an area of practical opportunity. Areas that show promise include the use of false host crops in rotation, roguing (particularly in situations of low populations), sanitation, resistant varieties and biological control.False Host: The use of false host crops to induce Striga seeds to suicidally germinate can be effective in reducing the soil seed reserve. Such crops as cotton, legumes and some grasses have proven to be effective in seed population reduction if reproduction is denied. We desperately need to know which plants, and particularly crop plants that are compatible with the needs and objectives of the farmers within a given area, are effective as false hosts.Roguing: Roguing out of Striga to prevent reproduction can be effective in seed reserve depletion, particularly in incipient infestations or where the population is scarce. Striga is extremely prolific. One healthy plant may produce as many as 50,000 seeds. Therefore, just a few plants can soon develop into a devastatmg population. Roguing must be done before the pods contain viable seeds. It must be conducted throughout the season, as long as there are plants emerging. Although this practice is labor intensive, it can be a sound investment if diligently used. Sanitation: A method of \"protecting\" an area from Striga is the use of sanitation as related to the use of clean seeds and equipment. Due to the extremely small size of Striga seeds (about .2 mm), it is certain that man assisted spread through contaminated seed and equipment is a major factor in seed dissemination. Another avenue of spread is through the movement of livestock. Striga seeds will pass through the digestive track of animals. Viable seeds have been found in manure ul? to five ( 5) days after ingestion. I believe that, where possible, it is far better to avoId an infestation or eliminate a small infestation than to try to control a general infestation.Resistance: The search for Striga resistant varieties has been a focus of research for a number of years. The results to date have been mixed at best. The prospects for effective resistance/tolerance to a self pollinator such as S. asiatica would appear more promising. Some degree of tolerance has been identified in both maize and sor~hum, but we are far from having what is needed. The problem with developing resistance/tolerance to an obligate outcrossing species like S. hennonthica is much more difficult. There are a few varieties that demonstrate some population suppression or are able to produce in spite of attack, but no complete resistance has been found. There is some inherent dangers in relying on tolerant varieties, because they do provide an opportunity for seed production and increased soil seed load. However, the need is so great and the benefits so large that a continued effort in searching for resistant varieties is necessary.Biological control: Biological control of Striga would be very desirable procedure if effective. In West Africa, insects of the genera Smitronyx and Cerda can commonly be found on Striga. However, Striga is a serious problem in spite of these insects. The prospects for effective biocontrol agents against Striga is not promising.Education: The development of an awareness of the ma~nitude and destructiveness of Striga is a challenge to us all. An educational process IS needed not just to the pe'Ople who are affected -they know the problem. It also must be directed to those who are not yet effected or have only a low infestation. Of ~rave importance is an educational effort to people in administrative decision makmg and funds allocation who will determine the destiny of Striga work in the future. The Striga problem is real. These parasitic pests are devastating. The problem will certainly get worse unless actions of significant magnitude are taken to prevent the progression of proliferation.There is much we know about Strigabut so much we do not know. The fate of millions of people is dependent upon the action taken to deal with this group of plant pests. Answer: Eplee. Nitrogen has shown various levels of activity in suppressing Striga, the mode of action is not clear. We have seen Striga asiatica under \"adequate\" nitrogen levels, therefore Nitrogen may reduce some of the losses due to Striga but will not resolve the problem. Answer: Eplee. As a strong \"sink\" the rarasite assimilates nutrients and minerals from its bast. Why it \"retains\" Mg do not know. Perhaps it may be associated with developing \"sink\" pressures to ensure the flow of moisture/nutrients. This is another case of ''we just don't know\".Zziwa. The policy in Uganda is not to plant maize in areas where cotton is the main crop because maize encourages build-up of Heliothis, American bollworm, a major pest of cotton. It is interesting that growing cotton after maize can rid maize of the Striga problem.Answer:Eplee. Cotton is effective in reducing the seed reserve of Striga if reproduction of Striga is prevented. In light of this information, some choices must be made. Beans would probably contribute to the Heliotbis problem, so take your pick.Question: Ochieng.Has there been established practical use of mycoherbicides in Striga control?Any possibility of use of biotechnology in developing resistance toAnswer:Eplee To my knowledge no practical mycoherbicides are known that is effective against Striga. The subject of biotechnolo~may have promise in pooling sources of resistance into acceptable varieties, as from resistant species to susceptible crops.Nje~: You ~aid that a physical count of ~trigC!, say per unit area, does not sufficiently give a good method of evaluatmg its effect on the crop. What would be your recommendation for an effective method for assessment? Answer:Eplee. Producing a consistent and unifonn stand of Striga is always a problem both in the greenhouse and in the field.Abundant seeds (1000 + per liter) applied to the root zone helps.Moisture is a key factor, don't over water, let pots/plots dry (to incipient wilt) before watering. Don't over fertilize, the more reps the better. In looking for resistance, utilize numbers from most infested pots/plots rather than averaging across all plots.Question:Karangwa. In Rwanda, Striga is important in the low to medium altitudes and causes very severe damages on sorghum. I want to know if it is the same thing in your case.Answer: Eplee. The only place where Striga occurs in the USA is at less than 100 m altitude. This Striga ascatica attacks maize and sorghum. It also attacks hay grasses, sugarcane and rice. Therefore, we conduct the program to eradicate this pest from the USA.Zziwa. What international effort is being made to ensure that Striga weed does not spread to areas where it does not occur presently? Answer: Eplee. There are regulations which prohibit Striga from entering the USA There should be regulations to prevent movement from one infested country to a non-infested area. I am not familiar with noxious weed exclusion laws of the various countries. Since the appointment of its first full-time agronomist in 1964, the maize agronomy research programme at the NAR.C., Kitale, has undergone major modifications as a result of changing farming systems and researcher experiences. From the sole effort of an agronomist to more multidisciplinary teaniwork, the programme has continued to refine old recommendations and to generate improved production technologies appropriate to specific farmer target groups. This paper presents an account of the major reforms made in the research approach, their basis and the breakthroughs that have been achieved in terms of understanding the key agronomic factors affecting maize yields as well as generation of new agronomic recommendations. The steps towards creation of an on-farm research programme and its role in generating appropriate production technologies for farmers is brieny discussed.Maize is the staple food crop in Kenya and is grown by nearly 1.5 million households in the rural areas, of which more that 90% are small-holders. The highland districts to the west of the Rift Valley contribute more than 60% of the total production. Here, and particularly in the Uasin Gishu plateau and Trans Nzoia district, maize is a major cash crop.Detailed information about the natural conditions and farm management in the region is provided by Jaetzold and Schmidt (1983). The region covering the highlands and upper mid-lands to the west of the Rift Valley is quite suitable for maize growing due to the deep, well-drained, fertile soils and an adequate unimodal-type rainfall ranging from about 900 to over 2,000 mm per annum and lasting for at least five months. Except for a few high altitude areas, over 2,400 m above sea level, where frost may occur in some months, the temperatures are favourable for maize. Late maturing maize varieties which take 6-8 months to physiological maturity are suitable for the area. Generally the rainfall starts in March-April, reaching peaks in May and August, such that earlier maturing maize would be ready for harvest during the wet season thereby leading to losses through .. rotting. The farming system is very dynamic in the major maize growing districts because of recent resettlement accompanied by continuous sub-division of the farms. Thus, sole maize cropping is being rapidly replaced by multiple cropping systems which promise to become increasingly complex in future, particularly in the newly settled districts where people of diverse origins have introduced a variety of cultural practices. This project involved sole maize in multifactorial district husbandry trials conducted in the research station, large scale farms or selected well-to-do smallholder farms. The trials were managed solely by the agronomists with no farmer participation except providing a prepared seedbed and being invited to see the results. Following the trials, the agronomic factors were ranked on the basis of yield per se. Farmer recommendations were then made as a packa~e deal and released for use by all maize farmers. Thus, although intercropplllg, With use of the oxplough or hand holes was practised in several western Kenya districts, no recommendations were given specifically for these areas.Further experimentation mainly ill and around the research station between 1972 and expiry of the project in 1977, concentrated on refining the effects of a few individual agronomic factors on sole maize crop yields. By mid-seventies intercropping was becoming a common practice among the small scale farmers around Kitale and realizing this, agronomists felt the need to address themselves to the practice. The initial intercropping trials were basically on-station and researcher-managed without any farmers participation. The recommendations made, for example on maize-bean intercropping, were merely a merger of the packages from the maize and beans commodity research programmes and, as such, turned out to be unacceptable to small-holder farmers.Having noticed the changing cropping systems and tendency for farmers not to adopt research recommendations, agronomJsts began to interact more with the extenSiOn workers and farmers in order to ~ather more information about farmers' practices and problems. This has been achieved through activities, such as field tours and surveys, training and visit (T & V) extension programme, pre-extension demonstrations and on-farm experimentation. Today agronomists are more aware of the manner in which both agronomic and socio-economic factors interplay under small-holder maize croppin~systems.Since the early eighties, agronomists at Kitale adopted a new research approach known as \"On-farm research with a farming systems perspective.\" In this approach, a multi-disciplinary team, including both biological and social scientists conducts surveys in the field to determine the farmers' goals, constraints and opportunities and then carry out formal experiments and verification trials with full farmer participation. This ensures J?roper delineation of farmer target groups and generatiOn of production technologies appropriate and acceptable under farmers' conditions.YIELDS IN THE HIGHLANDS OF WESTERN KENYA Allan (1972) reports six major agronomic factors affecting maize yields in western Kenya, ranked in order of importance as the time of planting, maize genotype, plant population, weed control, nitrogen and phosphate (Table 1). Since this work was based on sole maize crop trials, conducted in the research station, large-scale farms and selected progressive farmers' fields, the ranking obtained by Allan may not equally hold for small-scale farmers whose farm management and cropping systems are different. Field reports (Mwania,1987a;Mwania, et al. 1987) indicated that farmers have adopted the recommendations formulated on the basis of this early work to varyin~extents as the farmers' experiences, objectives and priorities have changed. Field conditions such as soil fertility and weed occurrence have since been modified due to changing cropping systems. Various agronomic trials conducted at Kitale, backed with on-farm research work have shown that not only are several other factors equally or more important than the six identified Table 2: The effect of time of planting on maize response to nitrogen fertilizer (Adapted from Allan, 1972). earlier, but also the agronomic factors interact strongly among themselves and with socio-economic factors under small-holder maize production systems.Although, from Allan's work, it might appear easy to rank the factors affecting crop' production, experience in on-farm research proves the contrary. It may be a fUtile effort to try to isolate some factors, agronomic, socio-economic or both. For instance, seedbed preparation would influence the time of planting, efficiency of weeding or fertilizer utilization and all those would be dependent on timely availability of resources such as money for hiring a tractor or purchase seeds. Furthermore, there has been a tendency to name or designate factors broadly without defining them precisely. Recent detailed investigations on agronorrnc factors based on extension-linked activities and on-farm research have produced further insights into the nature and mechanisms by which such factors influence small-holder maize yields as discussed below.The factor was not considered among the major agronomic factors affecting maize yields; probably with the assumption that farmers would have easy access to tractors, animal draft power or human labour for early seedbed preparation. At present, this is not the case as the physical availability and cost of these inputs in limiting. Seedbed preparation is generally delayed due to a number of reasons. Firstly the few tractors or draft animals are not readily available to the majority of small-holders and secondly, the ground is usually too hard to till until the onset of rains. Yet the onset of rains is quite erratic, frequently with false early onsets. Such intermittent showers tend to encourage weed growth before the actual onset of rains and therefore farmers end up planting on weedy fields. Sometimes the rains come unexpectedly early making the fields too wet and inaccessible. All these effects tend to complicate timmg of planting and subsequent weed management which leads to late planting and/or poor weed control.Preliminary studies on minimum and zero-tillage have been conducted at Kitale. In an experiment to compare maize yields in conventional tillage (one breaking+ one harrowing + burning all stover) with zero-tillage (Glyphosate or Gramoxone + Pre-emergence herbicide + leaving stover), conventional tillage outyielded zero-tillage in three consecutive years, during which period also a build-up in rodent population was observed in the zero-till plots (Wekesa, 1986). Yield differences greater than 1t/ha obtained from this trial were quite significant for small-holder farmers.In some of the high-altitude areas, maize takes a long time to mature (up to a whoJe year), thereby delaying planting and the only solution might be to breed for earliness. Also, where multiple cropping (including relay-preparation operations are done which may affect early development of the crop. Thus, land preparation under small-holder maize cropping systems is a potential issue for research. Some appropriate form of mechanization could help alleviate some of the constraints.Delaying planting for at least one week from the \"real\" onset of rains always leads to reduced maize yields. This time-of-planting effect is attributable to a rapid decline in soil temperature progressively after the onset of rains, where 70kg of grain/ha/day would be lost after two weeks' delay (Cooper and Law, 1976). Whereas \"early\" planting has been the general recommendation, recent on-farm trials have shown that this factor had not been clearly defined (Mwania, et a1. 1987). The onset of rains has been observed to be quite varIable over the years as can be observed from the rainfall data at the Kitale Station. Agronomists and farmers around Kitale are often forced to replant or gap-fill their crops due to this erratic onset of rainfall. The problem of time of plantmg is confounded with that of low plant populations in that, although early planting leads to faster growth and crop vi~our, it poses a risk of poor germination. If planting is done at the first onset of ramfall and the rains disappear immediately thereafter for more than five or so days, germination is adversely affected. Sometimes the rains take so long to resume that farmers realize too late the need to replant, which is itself an expensive exercise. In order to balance the benefits of early planting and high plant densities, farmers delay planting for a week or so to confirm that rallS have actually started but this does not always work. Since poor germination is also a~ravated by high fertilizer doses many farmers avoid using the recommended fertilizer rates or even types. Mo t farmers tend to use their own long-term experience and wisdom and thu , plant on diverse dates. During the on-farm trials, farmers reported that some local old men would predict accurately the onset of rains by observing phenological changes in some indigenous plant species, among other methods. Thus, in order to exploit the benefits of early planting, the rainfall patterns and related features of particular locations within this region need to be studied as a means of developing specific guidelines for planting dates. Studies are currently under way to develop planting and fertilizer application methods that will reduce germination risks.Adoption of improved maize varieties is quite high in western Kenya highlands, being over 90% in the major producing districts (Johnson, et al. 1980). In the more densely populated districts, where some \"second\" generation and local seeds are grown the percent hybrid adoption may be as low as only 60 %. Though late maturing hybrids (6-8 months) are most ecologically suited, farmers with tiny holdings opt for earlier maturing varieties which can produce two crops per year. Early maturing varieties are also preferred by some farmers because they are smaller, less leafy and exert little depressive effect on growth and yield of other intercropped species. Local varieties (landraces) are found in the warmer highland areas next to lake Victoria, where they are preferred for their tolerance to S/riga weed. Different maturity maize types are grown in the escarpments facing the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria basins.Future maize improvement work should be lailored to the development of maize varieties which not only have high stable yields but are also compatible with mall-holder multiple-croppin~systems. Over the years, farmers have gained a lot of experience with maize hybrids and, having recognized certain varietal characteristics, tend to spot quickly weaknesses or instability, such as loss of prolificacy or weight under poor management. Varieties with such characteristics soon become unpopular.Plant populations ranging from 44,000 to 53,000 per hectare are optimum for the late and medium maturing varieties. The lower limit is suitable for drier areas or where heavy storms are likely to cause lodging. The spatial arran~ement is important. In experiments around Kitale, yields of maize plots with Inter-row spacing ranging from 6o-150cm were not Significantly different when a population of 44,444 plants per hectare was maintained by' keeping one or two plants per hill and varying the intra-row spacing accordingly (Mwania and Kiiya, 1983, 19841985. However, keeping more than two plants per hill reduced maize yields significantly. Farmers have been advised to aim at high plant populations by u log a spacing of 75 x 25 em, one plant per hill or 75 x 50 em., two plants per hill. In practice, many farmers, especially those who plant in holes, end up with much lower populatIOns, even when spacings and seedin~rate are proper. This is mainly due to poor germination as a result of erratlc onset of rains scorching of seeds by fertilizer, poor planting and coverage and removal by pests.Farmers planting 2 plants per hill have been advised to maintain the fertilizer rate per hectare by doubling the dose per hill. Such hj]]ed fertilizer promotes seed scorching, leading to poor germination and hence low maize yields as heavy fertilizer doses may not compensate for the low yield due to low plant populations. This is a~ravated by the practice of farmers applying fertilizer in the planting hole without sturing. At Kitale, bean yields of maize-bean intercr0'ps were raised by increasing bean plant populations rather than by changing maIze inter-row spacings. However, planting three maize seeds per hill boosted bean yields as both maize stand counts and yields were reduced. Beans are normally given low fertilizer doses which do not affect germination, but when maize populatIOn is reduced the high bean population receives more light leading to high bean yield. Farmers use these spatial arrangement yield relationships to make agronomic and socia-economics decision in their intercropping system.3.5 Crop nutrition, fertilizer use and soil fertility management Allan (1972) indicated nitrogen and phosphate to be the major nutrients required by maize and showed that response was dictated by good cultural practices, mainly early planting, plant population and timely weeding (Table 2). As more farmers have become aware of the need to apply fertilizers for crops, they have complained about poor germination caused by fertilizers, some believing that certain types of fertilizer spoil the soil. Agronomists and extension workers, concerned about low yields due to low plant population have concentrated on field demonstrations on spacings and seeding rates. Farmers aim at high densities but achieve poor stands because of inappropriate fertilizer placement and mixing. Many farmers give this as reason for not applying the recommended fertilizer rates or types. Occasionally, some farmers top dress phosphatic fertilizers (Mwania, et al. 1987). It bas been observed in the field that plant populations tend to be higher when planting is by oX-J?lough or tractor planter than by hand planting in holes.Comparin~several fertilizer placement methods and rates in both on-station and on-farm trialS, Mwania (1986Mwania ( , 1987) ) observed that application of Di-ammonium phosphate in a furrow, banding along maize rows or broadcasting resulted in higher stand counts and grain yields than application in holes, inspite of stirring the soil (Table 3). This may be attributed to a higher concentration of fertilizer and its higher chance of direct contact with seeds when placed in holes than by other methods.Results of on-station fertilizer trials seldom reflect the situation in farmers' fields. Little or no response to high fertilizer rates occurs in experiment stations due mainly to high soil fertility status coupled with good cultural practices while in farmers' fields it is due to low fertility interacting with other poor cultural practices. Results of on-station experiments are easier to interpret because all or most nontreatment factors are known, while in the farmers' fields, unknown or unexpected nOll-treatment variation occurs. For instance in an on-farm trial on fertilizer application methods, maize yields were si~nificant1ydifferent among the four farms but yield differences due to fertilizer application methods were not significant and neither was there any interaction between fertilizer application methods and farms ( Table 4; Onyango and Mwania, 1988).In the on-farm trial, factors such as timing of land preparation, planting, weeding and top-dressing varied, thus constituting unaccounted for variation. An appropriate fertilizer use recommendation would only emanate from an on-farm trial where the farmers practice with respect to the above factors is monitored as a basis for treatment comparisons, thus usmg more data than yield per se.Past crop nutrition and soil fertility management research concentrated on the use of mineral fertilizers; but recent trends show that developinr ecommendations for nitrogen and phosphate rates alone does not Improve yields under small-holder cropping systems. Despite the big genetic advances made on maize variety improvement and popularised fertilizer use, the actual yields in farmers' fields have reportedly been declining. This decline in small-scale farm maize yield could be attributed to a decline in the natural soil fenility. Soil analysis Table 3: Maize grain yialds (q/ha) and Plant stands (%) obtalned,from various methods and rates of fertilizer application in a Maize-bean intercrop at NAR.C\" Kitale (Source: Mwania, 1986Mwania, , 1987b))  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- data from different farms in western Kenya show that in those districts where soils have been continuously cropped (Bungoma and Kakamega) fertility is correspondingly low. In a pre-extension, crop yields of farms where organic manure had been previously used were almost double those of farms where inorganic fertilizers were used.Most farmers in this area have heard about fertilizers but the real problems are: lack of knowledge and ability to differentiate various nutrient sources, high fertilizer prices and lack of understanding of cost-effective methods for soil fertility maintenance. Since soil fertility is probably the most dynamic factor in time and space, systematic fertilizer use and fertility management trials should be conducted in farmers' fields and recommendations reviewed regularly.The weed problem is small-holder maize rroduction in not just late weeding. Weed management is complicated by the rainfal pattern and cultural practices which lead to a build-up of weeds, costly multiple weedings and poor quality of weeding. The mode of seedbed prep-aration, onset of rains, intercropping and labour or cash availability bear slgruficance on the timing, quality and cost of weeding. Firstly small-holders do very few tillage operations, usually only one breaking, where weed seeds are shallow covered thereby germinating easily. Erratic false early onset of rains encourages weed growth before planting or crop germinatlOn forcing farmers to start weeding early and many times. Weeding done hastily results in poor weeding quality with remnants of standing weeds which compete with the crop for nutrients, moisture and light. Late weeding with removal of soil from plant bases often leads to root lodging before grain filling, a situation which may lead to a total crop failure.The multiple-cropping systems of small-holders also influence weed management acttvities. Farmers,who practise relay-planting, for instance, do secondary land preparation which could help check weed growth. Intercropping maize with crops, such as sweet potatoes, groundnuts or beans may lead to reduced weed growth and one weeding operation may be adequate. Small-holders usually preserve some volunteer plants of weed species which they use as vegetables and these haphazardly growing plants affect weedin~. Some farmers delay weeding deliberately to allow these \"vegetables\" to gerrrunate, thus encouraging heavy growth of the real weeds.Herbicides are widely used in large-scale sole maize cropping but their use is limited under small-holder farming systems. Small-holders have limited resources for the purchase of sprayers or\"herbicides and in addition water is not readily available. Use of herbicIdes requires skills and involves risks which peasant farmers cannot afford. Future weed management research for small-holders should emphasize less on chemical control and more on appropriate mechanisation for land preparation, planting and cultural practices in weed control.3.6.2. Animal pests and diseases , Rodents, birds and insects, especially cutworm!; lead to crop yield losses through reduced plant population, seedling and cob damage, which could attain economic injury levels lD ISolated small maize holdings. These pests, together with the stalk-borer occur sporadically, making routine control unnecessarily risky and uneconomical.Maize diseases occur sporadically also but less frequently. Recently maize streak virus and headsmut have tended to occur more frequently and heavily, particularly in the areas where multiple crops of maize are grown in the same field. During a, maize tour (Mwania, 1984) losses of more than 70% due to headsmut were noted in Nandi and Kericho districts while during an exploratory survey of farming systems in West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet districts (Shiluli, et aI. 1988) farmers indicated non-preference of one maize variety due to its susceptibility to headsmut. The need for intensified crop protection research, based on resistance breeding and cultural practices in small-holder cropping systems is to be emphasized in future (Muthoka, et al. 1987).More than 90% of the farmers in this area are small-holders and practise some form of intercropping, mainly maize-bean intercropping. The crop mixture and cropping patterns tend to become more complex with time as farmers stabilise and farm sizes become smaller. Agronomic factors are generally modified and complex interaction effects occur under such multiple cropping systems. Fanners are usually more conversant with the balance between benefits and costs under an intercrop situation than are the agronomists and this creates a disparity between researchers' and farmers' objectives. Farmers are often satisfied with lower yields obtained from intercrops than the high yields of research because farmers consider nOl only the relative yield totals but also resource-saving factors such as land and labour utilization, risk as well as domestic food diversity and security. Thus, viable intercropping research should have these factors and a farmers' assessment as major criteria for evaluation.Experiments have shown various forms of intercropping to be more beneficial than sole maize cropping, mainly in terms of relative yield totals and land equivalent ratios (Table 5). It has been shown, for instance, that with good management, maize yields may not be adversely affected by intercropping with beans or potatoes, such that beans or ,Potatoes constitute a bonus harvest. However, under small-holder cropping systems IDtercropping affects maize yields in several ways. Some farmers reduce maize populations, usually by widening spacings, in order to accommodate a higher bean population and by so doing reduce maize yields. Others try to achieve high population in widely spaced maize by hilling and this, as discussed earlier tends to affect maize yields adversely. It has been observed that whenever maize in an intercrop performs poorly as a result of hailstorm damage, low soil fertility, moisture stress or low plant population, the beans or potatoes exhibit a compensatory growth and hence greater yields. Farmers use this as a major reason for intercropping and also for not gapping in case of poor germination.In a maize intercrop, yields will usually be maximized by planting the different crop species at the same time at onset of rains. If maize is planted after germination of beans or potatoes, shading effects will add to the time-of-planting effect. Since maize is the main crop beans or potatoes come second in relayintercropping and the yields of relayed beans or potatoes are much lower than those planted as early as maize. Also, in small-holdings, maize is often exposed to shading by tree and tall crops such as bananas and cassava.Crop nutrition and fertilizer use in intercrops remains a relatively less explored area. Although legumes are said to fix mtrogen that could be utilized by a cereal species in intercrop, there is no evidence that maize benefits. Maize-bean intercrops respond well to fertilizer application and in fact, non-fertilized controls show yield depressions in both maize and beans. Generally in intercropping trials, maize yields tend to be boosted when beans or potatoes in the intercrop are also fertilized and that the higher the fertilizer dose for beans or potatoes, the higher the maize yield increases. This is mainly because maize utilizes the remnant fertilizer after bean or potato harvest. In one trial, for instance, maize yields were higher in all plots intercropped with potatoes than those intercropped with beans or the pure maIze stand (Table 6). Being non-leguminous, potatoes could not have fixed  ------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =Gross Margin (Source: Mwania, 1982).nitrogen and therefore, this response was attributed to the remnant fertilizer after potato harvest coupled with other benefits due to earthing up of potatoes, such as better moisture infiltration. This benefit was, however, not realized in some seasons when in the process of earthing up potatoes, maize roots were exposed thUS, resulting in heavy maize lodging. Mwania (1986Mwania ( , 1987c) ) observed that applying fertilizer separately for beans or potatoes intercropped with maize as recommended for their respective sole crops led to an overdose for the whole crop and hence unnecessary costs. Also Onyango and Mwania (1988) observed strong interactions of fertilizer .application methods and farms on yIeld of maize-bean intercrops in farmers' fields. Since in an intercrop, any crop ~ecies could freely utilize the applied fertilizer, one should consider the total pooled\" amount of fertilizer rather than the components intended for individual crop species; and also the method of application.In small-holdings, intercroppin~offers a diversity of organic sources of manure which may be added to the sOlI directly as crop residues or in the form of farm yard manure. Leaf litter falling from crops such as beans, groundnuts, Sesbania spp., p'0tatoes and bananas, may serve to restore soil organic matter content and soil structure. Livestock drop'pings are frequently swept into the fann and in the long-run could contribute sigmficantly to the soil organic status. However, farmers are not making full use of these organic sources of manure. For efficient utilization of fertilizers, rates should be given with the consideration of cultural practices and factors such as the inherent fertility status of the farm, organic sources of manure, method of application, time of planting, spatial arrangements, crop rotations and cropping sequences.Intercrop9ing has influence on labour requirements. Mwania (1982) and Onyango, et al. (1987) observed that labour requirements for planting, weeding and other operations were higher for certain plant populations and spatial arrangements than others, and that the systems with high yields were not necessarily those with high gross margins or returns to invested labour and cash. With such planting patterns which are tedious and labour-intensive to weed, yields could be adversely affected through poor weeding, esrecially if the field is infested with difficult weeds, such as couch-grass or if the initia land preparation was poor. From on-farm studies, agronomists have been able to modify the original recommendation of double bean rows to a single row between maize rows because the latter was found to be less laborious to plant and weed, and yet yields of the two were not statistically different.Under Western Kenya smallholder maize based farming systems the use of family labour is a prevalent practice. For a majority of households, the hiring of labour during criucal operations e.~. {llanting, weeding, etc. is constrained by lack of resources. An imI?ortant charactensllc of on-farm labour is that it is required within a critical time penod beyond which crop losses become inevitable. Even in the more advanced farming areas, smallscale farmers depend heavily on their family labour with a minority being only able to employ one permanent labourer and a few casual labourers. On farm experimental results have shown that weeding which is perhaps the most critical farm operation accounts for about 55% of the total labour requirement on these farms (Onyango, et al. 1987). To avoid crop losses resulting from poor weed control, farmers have to carry out the operation two to four weeks from planting. The incidence of this task falls heavily on those able members of households present on the farm as majority are away at school or in search of offfarm employment. So it is the availability of labour during peak periods and not the total seasonal labour, that is crucial in maize based farming systems. Farmers would therefore be willing to accept improved technologies that make very little demands on labour during peak periods.Gerhart (1975) in a survey of farmers growing hybrid seed in Western Kenya found that cash from crop sales played a key role in maize farming generally. Farmers produce a range of crops, whose cash proceeds are used in the financing of maize fanning. These crops include bananas, sunflower, fingennillet, potatoes, citrus, coffee and tea among others. Maize and beans are, however, the main cash sources for majority of farmers in the region. While beans are an early mid-season crop, maize is the main source of food and cash at the end of the year.. Engagement of members of the households in off-farm jobs also influences the management of maize in this area. Gerhart (1975) found that income from offfarm sources was important in the financing of purchased farm inputs e.g. seeds, fertilizers and labour. Such family members remit part of their salary to the rural areas for farming. He also observed that workers on maize plantations of fonner white settler farms on becoming farmers themselves, were more skilled than those lacking in such exposure. On-farm trials with farmer participation exhibit great farmer-to-farmer variation (Onyango, et aI. 1987;Onyango and Mwania, 1988). Much of this variation is attributable to the fact that farmers differ in the extent to which they mobilise resources from off-farm engagements to crop production and their general commitment to farming. This tends to mask the zonal differences brought about by such factors as soils, climate and altitude which are the major concern of conventional agronomic research.Animal production in this area is the second most important fanning preoccupation. Durin~a survey of 50 farmers engaged in maize farming, 40 owned dairy cattle (Shiluh, et al. 1989). The sale of milk and/or live animals provides cash for the purchase of inputs for maize farming.It was mentioned above that the majority of maize farmers also keep livestock. On such farms livestock manure is easily available and in use for soil imI?rovement to various degrees. With the adoption of intensive grazin~systems whu:h save on land in mixed farms, e.g. semi-zero ~azing and zero grazmg, some farmers use their crop fields for disposal of the arumal waste thereby raising the fertility of crop land. On relatively bigger acrea~es, animals graze openly and their droppmgs improve the soil fertility thus benefittmg crops grown later. The maize stover is a major source of feed in the dry season when conventional feed sources have been exhausted. Other ways of disposing of stover are removal onto contours, incorporating at ploughing and burning (Shiluli, et aI. 1989). Depending on the type of management under which such interactions take place there are corresponding savings in resources allocated for the purchase of artificial fertilizers for crop nutrition.The competition for limited farm labour among different farm activities aIso affects the productivity of those enterprises. We noted earlier that peak labour periods for cropping activities require that the available labour becomes stretched and this inevitably means other activities on the farms drawing on the same labour pool have to suffer. Even though the marginal labour productivity at peak periods is very high and more labour could be attracted at a profitable return to the enterprise, farmers are limited in cash to hire additional labourers. Proposed interventions should not only consider the farmers total labour resources but also the requirement by each acttvity and how farmers distribute the available labour across the activities when the requirements conflict.Risk minimization is another production strategy by small-scale farmers. Mixed cropping and the keeping of lIvestock are methods by which farmers hedge a~ainst losses from one or a few enterprises following adverse production circumstances. Gerhart (1975) in his analysis of risk considered farmers growing sorghum, millet and groundnuts besides the main maize crop, to be risk averse. Farmers see dependence on maize by these farmers as risky because in the event of a crop failure due to insect attack, moisture stress, etc. the family's only' means of survival will be adversely affected. In a diversified agriculture it is unlikely that adverse production circumstances can endanger the whole range of production activities on the farm. Non-adoption of some research technologies such as fertilizer types and/or rates is partly attributed to farmers' fear of risk.From the foregoing discussion on the key agronomic and socio-economic factors affecting small-holder maize production in the highlands of western Kenya, the following points can made. Firstly, approaches to agronomic research for smallholder production should reflect the target groups' circumstances. Thus, recommendations based on large-scale sole maize cropping should not be directly transferred to small-scale farms. Secondly, the interactIOn between agronomic and socio-economic factors is important and should be understood in order to generate appropriate technologies for farmers. It follows that the process of technology generation should involve not only an on-farm agronomic (biological) evaluation but also a socia-economic analysis and farmers' assessment. Results of combined analyses over years (1984, 1987 and 1988) indicated that maize yields did not differ significantly among the various planting patterns of sole crop maize and maize intercropped with beans. Bean yields were highly variable but appeared to be dependent upon the plant population obtained, which was influenced by the planting pattern used.Economic analyses showed significant differences among planting pat~erns of intercropped maize and beans for gross returns, and, despite highly significant year x entry interactions, certain spatial arrangements of maize with beans were consistently favourable in tenns of net benefit to the fanner.Intercroppin~of maize and beans is a common and accepted practice in most parts of Kenya, particularly on small scale farms. What varies from area to area, or even farmer to farmer, is the pattern in which beans are planted in the maize plot.Although most scientists agree that there are advantages in intercroppmg, there is no agreement on what constitutes the advantages (Willey, 1981). This is because different intercropping situations may be assessed by different criteria. These include:1.Where combined intercrop yield must exceed the yield of the higher yielding sole crop. This criterion is based upon the assumption that unit yield of each component is equally acceptable and therefore the farmer's need is simply maximum yield regardless of which crop it comes from.Where intercropping must give full yield of a 'main' crop plus some additional yield of a second crop. This is applied where there is a primary requirement for some essential food crop.Where the combined intercrop yield must exceed a combined sole crop yield. This is important where a farmer needs to satisfy dietary requirements, to spread labour peaks, or guard against market risks. A basic requirement is that intercroppmg should provide more total yield than the crops growing separately. The situation farmers are concerned with must be understood before an assessment of advantages of any intercropping system is made.This paper is pased upon research undertaken at a Centre whose mandate is development and provision of technology suitable for maize production, the main food crop in the area. The yield of beans intercropped with maize is thus 1. Presently an officer in the Department of Settlement considered as a bonus to farmers. The experiment was conducted to determine the most economic spatial arrangement of beans interplanted with maize.The experiment was conducted for five years from 1984 to 1988 at the Western Agricultural Research Centre, Kakamega. The site is 1,585m above sea level on 00 16 Nand 34 0 45(E latitude and longitude respectively. The annual rainfall is 1,935mm with evapotranspiration rismg as high as 1,838mm annually. The rainfall in the area is reliable. The average temperature is 20.6°C.Treatments, listed in Table 1, included various spatial arrangements of maize intercropped with beans, sole crop maize, and sole cro{' beans. The recommended varieties H625 and GLP-2 of maize and beans, respectlvely, were used. Planting of both the maize and beans was done on the same day and fertilizer application was based on the recommended rate for pure maize, i.e. 60kg N + 60kg P205 per hectare.Two weedings were done to control weeds. Stalk borers on maize and aphids on beans were controlled by Dipterex and Diazinon, respectively. Beans were harvested 90-100 days after planting, while the maize was harvested approximately 200 days after plantmg.Data were collected on grain yield and stand of maize and beans, and lodging of maize. Statistical analyses of each year's data and combined analyses over years were conducted. In the analysis of maize grain yield the sole crop bean entry was omitted. Similarly, the sole crop maize entries were omitted from the analysis of bean yield. Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) was calculated for each treatment using the following formula: LER = Yield of maize in mixture + Yield of beans in mixture Yield of sole crop maize Yield of sole crop beansEstimates for the economic analysis were made with the assumption that prices of inputs, maize and beans would be stable and official prices were used (Table 2). The prevailing market prices are sensitive to chan~es in supply and demand and were therefore not used. Only costs of variable Items determined by the treatment were considered. Partial budget was used and dominance analysis was carried oul. Since one treatment dominated all the rest, neither marginal or risk analysis could be carried out.Means for grain yield, in kilograms per hectare, for maize and beans, averaged over 3 year (1984, 1987 and 1988), and ranked according to maize yield, are presented in Table 3. Significant differences amongst entries for maize yIeld were detected at the .Ot percent level of p,robability. Bean yields were highly variable and although the analysis showed significant differences, the results should be viewed accordingly. Inconsistencies in bean plant density obtained appear to have contributed to the variation in bean yield. Bean yields were related to the bean plant density (Figure I), which in turn was primarily determined by the planting pattern us.ed.Maize yields of the sole crop were lower where wider spacing between hills was used, even though it was planted to give the same plant density. This could be partly due to increased competition of 3 plants per hill YS. only one plant per hill at tbe narrower spacing. There was an increase in yield of beans as plant density increased (Bhuong, 1984). The difference in yield of beans in different spatial arrangements cannot be explained by spatial arrangement alone as there is a COST OF BEAN SEED = KSH. 36.00/2 KG problem in singling out the effect of spatial arrangement from that of population (Willey and Osiru, 1972). The best yield for beans in the intercrop was with 2 rows of beans between maize rows spaced 75cm x 9Ocm. Similar results have been reported by the National Agricultural Research Centre, Kitale (1980). Highly significant year x entry interaction effects were observed for all traits analysed.Means for Gross Field Benefit and Net Benefit, averaged over years 1984, 1987 and 1988, are given in Table 4, together with the corresponding total costs that vary estimates for the intercropped entries. The best combination of maize and beans was three maize and two bean plants in the same hole, spaced at 75cm x 9Ocm. This gave a net benefit of Ksh.16,827 per hectare, followed by a combination of two rows of beans between rows of maize spaced at 75cm x 30cm with a net benefit of Ksh.16,473 hectare.Labour for planting and weeding is the factor that makes planting of three beans and two seeds of maize per hill the best combination. If an assumption is made that the labour requirement for all the treatments is the same that will make two rows of beans between rows spaced at 75cm x 30cm the best combination. This assumption was made wben the recommendation for intercropping maize and beans was published (NARC, 1980).Planting rows of beans between rows of maize with 3 plants per bill spaced at 75cm x 90cm had the highest LER of 1.7, followed by 2 beans and 3 maize planted in the same hole spaced 75cm x 90cm apart (Table 5). Two rows of beans between rows of maize s{'aced at 75cm x 60cm and 75cm x 90cm with 2 and 3 maize rlants per hill, respectlve!y, gave the next hi~est LER of 1.5. All combinations 0 maize and beans had LER greater than 1.0 mdicating that intercropping had advantage over sole crop (Willey and Osiru, 1972). The LER rankings did not exactly correspond with the economic analysis rankings since labour costs are not considered in LER. The trends were similar, however.Net benefit rankings of entries for years 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988, given in Table 6, illustrate the year x entry interaction observed. Certain entries, e.g. 5 and 6 (2 rows of beans between maize rows, 75cm x 30cm and 75cm x 6Ocrn. respectively) perform relatively consistently from year to year. Others appear to be more sensitive to environmental variation. Several years testing are therefore important before recommendations are made to the farmer with regard to the most SUitable intercropping practice for a region. 3.Planting 3M + 2B in the same hole, spaced 75cm X 90cm, where labour is a constraint, is the best combination. Planting 2 rows beans between maize, spaced 75cm X 30cm is best where labour is not a constraint. Yields of sole crop maize tended to decline with wider spacing, even when planted to the same total plant density. Yields of beans intercropped as rows between maize was generally higher with greater spacing between maIZe liills.   Odongo. We used last year's prices because inputs were bou~t at prices lower than what they are presently. Labour costs have also cnanged. The economic analysis only remains true as long as costs and prices remain constant otherwise it has to be reviewed every year.Comment: Zziwa. In carrying out economic analysis of agronomic trials it is preferable to consider farm gate prices rather than official prices. Where it IS difficult to determine farm gate prices, an adjustment of prices by upto 10% is appropriate.Answer: Odongo. Farm gate prices are very sensitive to demand and supply and we found the official price more appropriate as such prices may stay for at least a year.Sulphate of ammonia (SA), as all ammonium materials, is known La have an acidifying effect on soil. Acidity is developed through microbial transformations, whereby ammonium cations are oxidized to nitrate ions, hydrogen and water. There is a tremendous difference in the acidifying properties of nitrogenous fertilizer materials. Wolcott (1965) as cited by Donahue et aI., (1977) studied the relative acid forming characteristics of vario~5 nitrogen fertilizers for five years in the USA With an initial soil surface pH of 5.7, sulphate of ammonia reduced soil pH to 4.0, while anhydrous ammonia, ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrate, urea and ureaform reduced soil pH to 5.1, 4.4, 4.8, 4.9, and 5.0 respectively. SA had the greatest acidifying effect, while anhydrous ammonia had the least effect. Another earlier study in the USA by Pierre (1925) as cited by Black (1968), found that when SA was applied at 176 kg N/ha, soil pH was reduced by 0.5 of a unit within one season. Haylett and Theron (1955) as cited by Black (1968) again found out that when SA was applied at 56, 112 and 224 kg N/ha for seven consecutive years, pH of the soil was reduced to 4.83, 4.60 and 4.17 respectively compared to the initial soil pH of 5.36. Even under conservation tillage, use of ammoniacal N in continuous maize production resulted in acidification of the soil surface (Grove and Blevins, 1988).SA fertilizer has been a common source of N for maize in the Southern Highlands. Concern was raised by both farmers and agricultural extension workers in the early 1980 s that continuous use of the fertilizer will reduce soil pH to levels detrimental to crop production, in particular, maize. Low maizeJields observed in some areas of Ruvuma region were claimed to have been cause by low pH because of continuous use of SA. While it is true that SA has a depressive effect on soil reaction, its rate of acidification on various soils of the Southern Highlands had not been studied in order to give relevant recommendations.The objective of this lon~term study was therefore two fold: (1) to investigate the rate of acidificatiOn of SA at low, medium and high rates of 1. Uyole Agricultural Centre, P.O. Box 400, Mbeya, Tanzania fertilization and ( 2) to find out whether the decreasing soil pH would have any effect on maize grain yields in the short period of five years.The trial commenced in the 1982/83 season and was located at Uyole experimental farm (1800m asl, Luvic phaeozems), Mbimba (1500m asl, Haptic phaeozems), Mitalula (llOOm asl, Eutric nitosols), Ismani (1400m asl, Chromic cambisols), Suluti (lOOOm asl, Acri-dystric regosols) and Ndengo (1800m asl, Haplic acrisols). Five rates of SA (0,50, 100, 150 and 200 kg N/ha) and one rate of calciUm ammonium nitrate (CAN) at 150 kg N/ha were studied in a randomized complete block design with four replications. Plot sizes were 7.2m x 3.75m with a net harvest area of 6.0m x 2.25m. Inter-and intra-row spacings of 75cm and 60 cm were used with two plants per stand, giving a plant density of 44,444 plants per ha. Maize cv H6302, H614, H632 and UCA were used, each varietx being ~lanted where it is most adapted. All plots received phosphorus at 20kg/ha as tnple superphosphate (TSP) except at Mbimba where P recommendation is 40 kg/ha. The trial was maintained on the same plot for five years. At the start of the trial, soil samples were taken and analyzed in order to get the base pH. During the period of study, samples were taken and analyzed for pH, however, only data for the fifth year are used in the study. In order to minimize soil drift across plots, manual preparation of the plots was opted for. Control of pests and other agronomic practices were perfomed as recommended for maize in the Southern Highlands.Initial soil pH values for each site are presented in Table 1 while pH values recorded on the fifth year appear in Table 2. The regression of pH on rates of SA application are depicted in FIgures 1 to 6, with their regession coefficients. A statistically significant pH drop (P=0.05) was found at Ismani, Mbimba, Ndengo and highly so (P = 0.01) at Suluti. At Mitalula, the pH change associated with continuous use of SA was not significant statistically and the correlation coefficient was low (r = 0.48). The pH remained almost unchanged for the whole period of study irrespective of the rate of application. At Uxole, the decrease in soil pH only approached significance at 5% level, however, soIl pH dropped quite sharply (by 21.5%) when initial soil pH was compared to the highest rate of SA ap'plication (200 kg N/ha) Table 3. In plots where CAN was applied at 150 kg N/ha (the highest rate recommended for maize production in the Southern Highlands), the soil pH was only marginally affected at most sites (Table 2). This confIrms other earlier observations (Anon. 1975) that CAN is a relatively neutral fertilizer.  .2• b=-0.0066 ns R =0.7~R()'il lC\\l 1'.1) ;m..-'-.'     The highly significant pH drop at Suluti, and the lack of significance at Mitalula are related to their soil characterisitics. It is known that the resistance to change in soil pH (buffering capacity) is related to , among other soil parameters, the cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic matter (OM) and soil texture. In general, the higher the CEC or OM, and the heavier the texture, the higher the buffering capacity (Brady, 1974). At Suluti,the CEC is low (10 meq/100g soil) and the texture is lisht (loamy sands), hence, the soils are more prone to change in soil pH when acidifying fertilizers are used on such type of soils (appendix 1). Mitalula soils appear to have a greater buffering capacity and hence the less change in soil pH. Results on acidification of SA in this study concur with those of Wolcott et al (1965) and others.  Although the soil pH was significantly affected at most sites, the pH change when low rates were used (50 kg N/ha) was only slight in the first five years of study at all sites. This implies that if on average farmers are using SA at low rates, there should not be any worries of significant pH change that would affect crop yields significantly under conditions of no rotation. The real concern would be for farmers who can afford to apply high rates of SA on maize grown continuously for several years.  Effect of soil pH on maize grain yieldIn order to determine whether the decreasing soil pH due to application of various rates of SA has had any effect on maize grain yields, a regressIOn of yield on years at each level of N was performed for each site including the CAN entry. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in grain yield that could be attributed to the decreasing pH at all sites. This could be explained by the fact that although the soil pH was depressed by use of SA, the pH at those sites in year five were still within the tolerable limits for maize production. The oJ;>timum pH range for maize production is 5.0 to 7.0 (lITA, 1982). Also as noted preVIously, the greatest change m soil pH was when SA was applied at high rates. At low rates, the soil pH was slightly affected and so was grain yield. Variation of grain yields between seasons was more attributable to variations in enviromental conditions than on the effect of soil pH at least in the first five years of study.Sulphate of ammonia fertilizer can safely be used as a source of N to maize in the Southern Highlands, however, the soil type and initial pH must be considered. On soils that are already within the very strongly acid range (4.5 to 5.0), the soil reaction is already below the optimum range required for maize production and therefore liming is necessary to increase the soil pH. In those soils where the initial pH falls within the strongly acid range (5.1 to 5.5), farmers should be advised not to use SA for more than two seasons consecutively, and thereafter should chan~e to neutral fertilizers (if available) coupled with rotation and use of organic fertIlizers. On slightly acid to neutral soils (pH 6.1 to 7.0) use of SA is safe up to five years of continuous cropping. It should be remembered however that if the rates of fertilization are high, then the pH of the soil will change more rapidly and that the lighter textured soils will be more affected than the heavier ones. The field extension workers should monitor such trends and advise the farmers accordingly.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Source; Soil Science Sectioo; UAC.A.E.M. Temu ABSTRACf Urea -CO(NH 2 )2' 46%N is currently a relatively new source of nitrogen fertilizer in tile Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Common N sources have been calcium ammonium nitrate -Ca(NH 4 N0 3 )2' 26-27% N and sulphate of ammonia (NH~2S04t21%N. In order to investigate method of its application in maize and ilio to compare its effectiveness with CAN as a source of N to maize, a trial was laid out for seasons at Uyole experimental fann (1,800 m.a.s.l., Luvic phaeozems, pH 6.5), Mbimba (1,500 m.a.s.I., haplic phaeozems, pH 5.5), Nkundi (1,800 m.a.s.I., cambic arenosols, pH 6.5), and Ismani (1,400 m.a.s.l., chromic cambisols, pH 6.5). The trial was laid as a split plot with four replications, fertilizer types in main plots and methods of application in subplots. N was fIxed at 150 kg N/ha and P at 20-40kg/ha as triple superphosphate. Subtreatments included all fertilizer surface applied at planting, surface applied at planting and incorporated, application under seed, split application and all fertilizer applied in furrows after fIrst weeding and covered. Results from combined analysis indicated statistically significant yield differences (P=O.OI) associated with the use of the two fertilizers, however the differences were more attributed to the different methods of fertilizer placement. Surface application of urea and incorporation resulted in the highest maize yield (5.37t/ha) followed by furrow and split application. Placement of the full dose of urea under seed caused serious seedling injury, leading to poor stand and consequently lower yield.Interaction effects involving fertilizer and method of placement were not significant at 1% level or probability. However, season x fertilizer, season x method of placement, location x fertilizer and location x method of placement were all significant at 1% level of probability. It was concluded that split application or placement of urea in furrows and covered were the best options for small-scale fanners, while surface broadcast and incorporation was the best alternative under large scale maize fanning where appropriate equipment is available., One of the most important aspects of fertilizer usage is to know when and how fertilizers should be applied. That depends primarily on the type of crop to be grown and the mobility of the I?articular nutrient applied into the soil (Mengel and Kirkby, 1982). Urea lCO(NH 2 h] 46% N is a very common source of fertilizer N in many countnes, and IS rated nlgll as an excellent fertilizer material because of its very high N analysis. However, in order to derive'the ~eatest benefit from its use, one of the conditions is to establish a method of apphcation in a given area. 2Urea when field applied is normally hydrolyzed rapidly to NH4 + and CO 2 -, resulting in a high concentration of NH 3 and increased soil pH (Singh and Beauchamp, 1987). The potential for loss of N through volatilization from urea, particularly when surface applied has been recognized for many years (Mcinnes et aL., 1986) content, urease activity, leaching, nitrification, soil moisture and temperature, fertilizer type and placement, and rate of application. Since there are so many components affectmg the volatilization process and the fact that not all of them can be manipulated under field conditions, those agronomically possible components should be manipulated to minimize loss of N from urea fertilizer through volatilization.When urea fertilizer is soil incorporated, the major source of N loss is a consequence of nitrification (Reynold and Wolf, 1987). The NH 3 is converted by nitrifying bacteria to the N0 3 -, which is then easily leached. Terman (1979) as cited by Mengel and Kirkby (1982), studied extensively volatile losses of NH3 and concluded that field applied urea should be covered by a soil layer of a minimum of 5 em depth. Urea was mtroduced tor widespread use in the Southern Highlands of Tanzarua in 1985. No prior studies had been conducted to investigate its proper use. The common N sources have been calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) 26-27.5% N and sulphate of ammonia (SA) 21 % N. The former is imported, while the latter is manufactured locally in the country.The objectives of this study were to investigate method of application of urea under the high rainfall, monomodal, long cool season conditions of the Southern Highlands, and to compare its effectiveness as a source of N to maize with calcium ammonium nitrate.The experiment was conducted for two seasons (1986/87 and 1987/88 cropping seasons) at five sites all located in the Southern Highlands. The sites were experimental farms at Uyole (1,800 m.a.s.l.; mollic andosols; pH in water 6.5); Mbimba (1,500 m.a.s.l.; haplic phaeozems; pH 5.5); Nkundi (1,800 m.a.s.l.; cambic arenosols; pH ); Ismani (1,400 m.a.s.l.; chromic cambisols, pH 6.5); and Mitalula (1,100 m.a.s.l.; eutric nitosols, pH 5.9). Treatments included five application methods: 1 1j all fertilizer surface applied at planting 2 surface applied and then incorporated 3 all fertilizer applied under seed at planting 4 split application, half under seed at planting,the rest at 80 em stage of maize ~rowth (5) all fertIlizer applied in furrows after first weeding. Urea and calcium ammonium nitrate were aprlied at 150 kg N per ha. A split plot design with four replic~tions was employed at al locations. Fertilizer type was studied in main plots while time and method was studied in the sub-plots. Main plot sizes were 18.75m x SAm, sub-plots SAm x 3.75m. Net area harvested was 4.2Om x 2.25m. Maize rows were spaced at 75cm apart, while within row~aCing was 60cm with two plants per hill. All plots received phosphorus at 20 kg P ha as triple superphosphate administered at planting under seed. Maize cv. 6302 (Uyole, Mbimba, Nkundi), and UCA (Ismani) were used. Planting was done at the onset of rains (end of November to early December). The trials were kept weed free, and stalk borers were controlled by using Thiodan 35 Ee. After harvesting all maize grain yields were standardized at 12.5% moisture. The data was then subjected to statistical analysis.Maize grain yield data was subjected to statistical analysis combined over locations and seasons (Table 10) in order to deterrninesignificant and important interaction effects. A highly significant difference (P=O.Ql) was. found between the two fertilizer types as sources of N to maize (Table 1). However, individual location analyses (Table 7) revealed that the highly significant difference noted in the  -----------------------------------------------------  ------------------------------------------------------.In furrows and covered 4.08 5.37 4.37 4.92 5.05 LSD (0.01) '0. 32t/ha combined analysis was contributed by one location (Mbimba) while at both Ismani and Nkundi and (less so at Uyole) the two fertilizer types did not differ as sources of N to maize. At Mbimba, CAN perfomed better than urea. The soil reaction at Mbimba could in part explain this differential response. Since ammoniacal fertilizers tend to reduce soil pH (Donahue ~gl.., 1977), urea may have aggravated the already low l?H situation thus causing imbalance (or unavailability) in the uptake of essentIal nutrients consequently lowering yields. The soil reaction at the other sites (Uyole, 6.2; Nkundi, 6.5; Ismani, 6.6) is within the range of greatest availability of essential nutrients in mineral soils. At the same location, season x fertilizer type interaction was highly significant contributing greatly to the highly significant difference noted in the combined analysis (Table 1). The same interaction effect was statistically non-si~ficant at the other sites. Location x fertilizer type interactIOn effect was statistically significant (P=O.Ol) (Table 2), indicating that the maize grain yield response due to fertilizer type was different across locations. However, this effect was only highly significant at Mbimba where CAN as source of N was significantly superior to urea. As an average of both years and locations, CAN performed better than urea (Table 2), but this could be attributed to the fact that some of the placement methods tested (eg. surface broadcast or under seed) had more adverse effect on yield on urea plots than on CAN plots. For example, urea was more prone to loss of N through volatilization than CAN and also significantly caused more serious seedling injury leading to poor plant stand and thus lower grain yield (Table 8). Placement of urea under seed caused a 31.7% reduction in plant stand compared with only 8.9% for the same method in CAN plots (Table 6). Split application of urea where half the rate was placed under seed decreased plant stand by 23.1 %, but there was almost no effect on plant stand in the CAN plots. Other methods of placement had no effect on plant stand.Methods of fertilizer placement differed significantly (P=O.Ol), Table 3, but the interaction between type of fertilizer and method of l?lacement was not statistically significant (Table 5). Surface broadcast and Incorporation was superior to other placement methods (5.37t/ha) perhaps because of even distribution and minimum contact with seed, followed closely by placement in furrows and split application. At Nkundi, irrespective of the method of application employed, grain yIeld was not affected, probably due to the high rate of N applied and the well distributed rainfall in the two seasons which could have mirumized losses by volatilization and leaching. Some studies by Prasad (1976)  and Fenn et. aI., (1976) showed that ammonia volatilization from urea was much less when moisture was not limiting. Even surface broadcast resulted in modest grain yields (4t/ha) across IQcations for the same reasons, however, the method is risky.Terman (1979), Lu et al..,(1987) and others, in independent studies, showed that in order to minimize N losses from urea, and thus maxImize its efficiency, urea should not be surface applied. Incorporation to a depth of at least 5 em was advocated. Non-incorporated urea poses other problems such as creating an acid soil surface arising from nitrification of ammonium (Blevins et al.., 1978 as cited by Fox and Hoffman, 1981). They found that the pH of the surface 5 em of soil droppedfrom 5.7 to 4.6 with yearly' surface applications of 200 to 300 kg N/ha in five years. Split application of fertIlizers is advocated in many countries in an effort to decrease the likelihood of nitrate N losses by leaching, denitrification and runoff. In this study, though split application of urea (half at planting and the remaining at 80cm stage) did not result 10 the highest yields among methods tested, the method has an extra advantage of minimizin~losses of N and ensuring that the maize crop has adequate N at flowering and gram filling stages. The risk of loss of N by surface runoff and leaching is ~eater here in the Southern Highlands than elsewhere as rainfall season is long (5 months) and precipitation heavy (1,000 to 1,5OOmm). The results of this study suggest that surface broadcast (by spreaders) and incorporation (by harrows) appears to be the best choice of application particularly on lar~e-scale maize fanns where equipment i available. Under small farmer conditIons, split application of the fertIlizer or placement in furrows along the maize tows and covering are the best alternatives. When high rates of urea have to be applied by localized methods, care should be taken to ensure that it is sufficiently placed deep and covered with soil to avoid contact with the germinating seed. Loss of stand was noted in all plots where high rate of urea was applied. Surface application of urea cannot be recommended due to possible losses of N by volatilization. Althou~b there was a highly significant season x location x methods of application interactiOn effect, suggesting that there was a differential response of methods of application in the two seasons, further studies covering three to four seasons are needed to better understand this interaction effect. When urea is properly administered, its effectiveness as a source of N to maize is comparable to the more common CAN fertilizer. ShiluH. The method being recommended to farmers (urea furrowing or split application) appears more costly especially for small scale farmers whose labour availability is severely limited during this period. Why not recommend CAN to small scale farmers which is also less costly than urea.Temu. The aim of the trial was not to discourage farmers from using CAN. Since urea was recently introduced and may be the only source of N provided during the cropping season, an appropriate method(s) of its applicatIOn had to be established. Currently urea is cheaper than CAN by over 25% per kg N.Question: Ndegwa. Urea foliar spray is used by some small cereal farmers in Kenya. Do you have any trial or experience on this? Answer: Temu. I have no experience with foliar spray of urea on maize or wheat in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.Question:Low. How does the price of urea compare with CAN per unit of N? Since urea requires more intensive management for application than CAN does this not make it less appropriate for small farmers than CAN?Answer: Temu.As I mentioned earlier, the price of 1 kg N from urea is cheaper by over 25% when compared with CAN. Urea indeed requires more intensive management than CAN, but it is compensated by its lower price per kg N. Sometimes farmers may have no choice, it could be the only source of N available during a particular cropping season.Kamidi. It is known that a seed cannot take up N. It will have to develop roots to take up the N. Since N is very mobile and is therefore easily reached what was the rational of applying it at planting? Answer: Temu. Application of N at planting is recommended in maize production in the Southern Highlands, however, to minimize losses of N through leaching, runoff etc. the N is split applied, 1/3 to 1/2 at planting, the rest at 80cm height of maize growth, after first weeding.Inefficient weed control is one of the main factors causing the low average yield of maize in East Africa (2). In Ethiopia, the national average yield is only about 20 q/ha (1). Among various constraints on maize production, weeds are probably one of the major causes for such low yield. Yield losses of various magnitudes have been recorded due to weed competition in maize at different places and under different sets of conditions (6,8,10,11). The extent of loss i affected by time and frequency of weed removal (13), type and character of competing weeds (14), and other management practices pertainmg to maize production (5). The weed free period necessary for maximum yield varies from place to place. Five weeks after emergence is required in Veracruz and this period extends up to nine weeks in Tuluca Mexico (3). Investigation on the IDteraction of weeds and maize at specific places like Asossa is therefore essential.Maize is an important crop at Asossa and at present manual methods are the only ways of controlling weeds. In such an area where farmers rely on manual weeding by hand, local hoe, sickle and the like, pr per timing of weeding will help reduce the yield loss •due to weed competition, mirumize input cost of production and playa part in the efficient utilization of labour during the time when a number of crop production operations need handling. In order to determine how intensive future weed management programme should be, it is essential to establish the extent of the problem and, to this end, an experiment was initiated with the objectives of assessin~the effect of time and frequency of manual weeding on grain yield other agronorruc traits and economics of maize production at Asossa.The experiment was carried out at Asossa Research Center, Ethiopia (lOoN-4 0 E and 1,550 m.a.s.l.) between 1986 and 1988. The soil was brown reddISh clay with a pH of 5.4-6.0. Land preparation (ploughing and discing) was undertaken using a tractor plough. The testing ites had been cultivated for at least 3-5 years for 1. Institute of Agricultural Research, P.O. Box 2003.Addis Ababa, Ethiopia the production of annual crops. Mixed annuals were the major weeds and their distrib.ution in the field was satisfactorily uniform. Avera~e rainfall during the growing season (May-October) was 1,052 nun. Maize vanety --KCB was planted by hand at a row spacing of 75cm and the distance between plants was 3Ocm. N/P205 was applied once just before planting at 75/75 kg/ha. Treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replIcations. Based on frequency and time of weeding ten treatments were evaluated and all weedin~treatments were applied by the method that most farmers are using in the area l.e., using the local hoe. Treatments were:1.Weeding Weeding 60-65, and 80-85 d.a.s. 7.Weeding 80-85 d.a.s. 8.Weeding 60-65 d.a.s. 9.Weeding 40-45 d.a.s. 10.No weeding Four random samples of 0.25m 2 each were taken for weed counts in all plots, just before 3,6,9 and 12 weeks and weeds were classified into grasses and broadleaved weeds. Population density and height of maize plants at different growth stages and grain yIeld were recorded. The number of persons and time taken to weed each plot were also recorded. Yield data for each experimental year and the three-year average were analyzed using analysis of variance and Duncan's multiple range test was used for mean separation. In addition, correlation coefficients between grain yield and weed count, cost of weeding, population density and height were computed (7). Partial budget analysis (4) was also carried out for each treatment.The predominant annual weeds were Bidens spp. Eleusine incida,Amaranthus spp., Guizotia scabra, Celosia trigyna, Digitaria sp., Eragrostis aspera and Nicandra physaloides. None of these weeds was difficult to control using the hoe or by hand pulling. Grass weeds were generally more abundant than broad-leaved ones at the early stage. In plots where weeding was carried out, broadleaved weeds were observed to germinate heavily and reoccupy the area faster than grasses. Total number of weeds did not vary significantly among treatments and because of weed germination after weeding, numerous weeds only a few centimeters tall were abundant in plots though their competitiveness was low. Number of weeds was not drastically reduced in the weeded plots (Table 1) and hence the calculated coefficient of determination between grain yield and total number of weeds was not negative as expected. Manual labour needed when weeding was carried out after six and nine weeks was comparable. Apparently heavy growth of weeds occurred during the first six weeks of maize growth.Maize germinated 7-8 days after sowing and attained an average height of 15-31, 68-86, 26-137 and 169-233cm three, six, nine and twelve weeks after sowing and at maturity, respectively. During the first six weeks, population density and height of maize plants showed little variation among treatments. Reduced value of both parameters, however, was recorded in the weedy check and in plots where weedlOg was carried out nine weeks and thereafter. Grain yield was positively correlated with population density and height at maturity. As compared to once weeding treatment three weeks after sowing a 55,145 and 255 percent increase in cost of weeding was recorded in plots where weeding was delayed until six, nine or twelve weeks, re pectively. When maize was weeded during the first six weeks, input cost ofweedin~was lower than when weeding operations were carried out after that (Table 2). The correlation coefficient between labour requirement for weeding and grain yield of treatments was calculated to be insignificant and hence yield increase was not influenced by the amount of labour put in. Instead time of weed removal had the greatest effect on grain yield.Termite attack was the major problem at the e~erimental sites. In addition, maize plants were damaged by a hailstorm after flowenng in 1987 and 88. As a result, lodging was severe which brought a 50% average yield reduction compared to 1986. In plots where weeding was carried out late in the season, maize plants were susceptible to lodging and thiS was attributed to disturbance and mechanical damage to maize roots when hoeing was carried out to uproot the weeds. Statistically significant differences in grain yield were obtained among treatments during each experimental year. Such differences were also found in the three-year average yield. Two, three or four times weeding during the first three, six, nine and twelve weeks after sowing gave yields superior to the other weeding treatments (Table 3). Weed removal at an early stage (three and six weeks), or when maize had a height of 15 and 31 em, was found to be the most important period for increased yield. Irrespective of the frequency of weed removal, those treatments that did not include this period gave low yield. Statistically, the interaction between years and treatment average grain yields was insignificant which revealed the performance of treatments during the experimental years to be constant.When different once weeding treatments were compared f r grain yield a delay of weeding operations from the first three weeks by three, six and nine weeks brought a yield reduction of 6,38 and 69%. Except the late weeding treatment (twelve weeks), all the rest have shown 180-500% yield increase over the untreated check. Yield loss due to season long, twelve, nine and six weeks competition was found to be 85,80,60 and 36%, respectively. Based on partial budget analysis of treatments (Table 4), the marginal benefits obtained from one (three weeks), two (three and six weeks), three (three, six and nine weeks) and four (three, six, nine and twelve weeks) weedings were found to be much hi~her than the other treatments using the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (official) price of Eth. birr 21.00/q maize. Since the choice of time and number of weedings is largely dependent on what farmers gained from what they have invested, marginal analysi of selected treatments which gave higher net benefits than the one weeding treatment was calCulated. All except two (three and six weeks), three (three, six and nine weeks) and four (three, six, nine and twelve weeks) weedings were dominated by the one weeding treatment (three weeks). Any treatment was assumed to be dominated if the net benefit obtained was less than or equal to those treatments with lower cost of weeding. Though the marginal rate of return for three (three, six and nine weeks) and four weedings was acceptable, it was much lower than that of the two times weedin~after three and six weeks. Therefore one weeding three weeks afer the first weedmg was more advantageous than two or three more weedings with three weeks interval.Several studies conducted to date (6,9,11,12) show that removal of weeds, as in this experiment, during the first 40 days of maize growth is essential. Results of this experiment indicated that two times weeding during the first six weeks was more economically advantageous than the rest of treatments studied. Three or four weedings with three weeks interval after sowing should therefore be considered as   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   an alternative option following the two times weeding (three and six weeks). Maize in the Asossa area is planted in mid-May and since farmers have other tasks of land preparation and weeding with late planted crops like hotpepper (late June) pulses (mid June) and tef (late August) weeding in the first six weeks alone help to reduce overlapping of workin& activities.Weeding of maIze during the periods identified in this experiment may be impaired due to other important working activities which absorb labour simultaneously with the weeding operations of maize. Other time-saving and less labour demanding weed control practices, should be evaluated in the future. When compared to the farmers' practices in the surrounding area, weeding in this experiment was very thorough and consequently the estimated working hours of weeding might have been higher than farmers would actually employ in their field. In view of this disparity, it is essential to make use of labour saving implements like oxen, tractor, or manually operated ones within the specified time. The identified periods of weed removal of this experiment should be tested in some representative sites of the Asossa area for their compatibility with other crop production activities. Since manual weeding is inefficient in areas where perennial weeds are abundant, the combined use of hand pulling and hoeing with oxen and tractor cultivation and other practices should be encouraged.Maize is by far the most important crop in terms of volume produced, number of farms and cropped area; and it accounts for 70% of the total value of marketed agricultural products and is the main diet of the population in almost all areas in Zambia.Systematic work on maize improvement was initiated in 1978 and several new hybrids and open-pollinated varieties were released during 1982-83 season. However, these new hybrids and varieties do not sufficiently cover all the agroecological zones and neither has the information on their agronomic characteristics been disseminated to meet the requirements of all target groups of farmers. The lack of information relative to their location specific adaptation coupled with pest and disease resistance, drought tolerance and acid soils tolerance in dIfferent agro-ec logical regions limits the potential grain production.Systematic agronomic research was not Utitiated within the Maize Research Team until 1987. As developing improved farming systems is a precondition for improving yields in smallholder and traditional maize farms, there was an urgent need to initiate multilocation trials to examine the response of promising hybrids and open-pollinated varieties lO different management practices. There was also an urgent need to develop extension packages and to establish full collaboration between Maize Research Team and the Adaptive Research Planning Teams located in various provinces. This was considered as a necessary step to ensure that research on maize is actually directed towards satisfying the needs of the smail-scale farmers. These re earch activities were initiated since August 1987. This paper covers the activities relative to the maize agronomy component of the NatIOnal Maize Commodity Research Team of Zambia carried out during 987-88 and 1988-89 cropping seasons.2.The main drawback in the maize production practices currently existing in the country are:1.Late planting due to delay in land preparation 2.Plant densities used are often low 3.Late and inadequate weed control 4.Lack of systematic crop rotations 5.Acidic, low water holdmg capacity and low fertility soils. 6.Low fertility of the soils limit production especially due to inadequate and late application of fertility. 7.Lack of drought and acid tolerant varieties and management mechanism to avoid these stress. 8.Lack of availability of inputs (hybrid seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides) on time or in sufficient quantities and their high price.OBJECfIVES OF THE MAIZE AGRONOMY RESEARCH COMPONENTS The Maize Commodity Research Team of Zambia aims at J?romoting Zambia's self-reliance in food maize by carrying out research activities in the fields of maize breeding, plant protection, agronomy and extension. The Maize Agronomy component's specific objectives are: 1.To conduct agronomic research within the Maize Research Team in all the three agro-ecological regions of the country.To identify management practices which give high and stable yields of new maize varieties under different soil and climatic conditions.To develop improved production packages affordable by small-scale farmers and to set up an operational framework for their extenSIOn to these farmers.To examine the relationship and compatibility between maize and different legume crops, from the standpoint of development of improved technology of intercropping and crop rotation for the maize and legume systems.Multilocation national hybrid and open-pollinated variety trials were conducted during 1987-88 cropping season covering all the provinces and agroecological zones in the country to assess the suitability of various new maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties across different environments. These variety trials included released, pre-release and promising new hybrids and open-pollinated varieties emerging from the breeding program. At all the locations, the trials were laid out in a randomized complete block design replicated thn.e times. For all the trials, the fertilizer rate used was 200 kg '0' + 200 kg urea/ha (full lima recommendation). The data for these two trials are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.National Hybrid Trials This trial had 9 hybrids (8 released and 1 experimental hybrid). The data for the 8 locations represented in Table 1 was very good with low variability. As an average of all. the locations MM 601 ranked first at 8,978 kg/ha followed by MM 604 and MM 612. The experimental hybrid MM 612 which was approved for release in 1988 gave 8,547 kg/ha which was on par with MM 752 and MM 604.At Mansa, the yields ranged from 6,300 kg/ha for MM 504 and MM 612 to 7,310 kg/ha for MM 501 and there was no significant difference between any of the entries. At Mount Makulu MM 601 ranked first producing 10,550 kg/ha which was significantly higher than all other hybrids except MM 612. There was no significant * '0' Compound contains ION-20P-lOK and Urea contains 46%N  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  promising open-pollinated varieties along with a hybrid check (MM 604). As an average of all the 10 locations the hybrid check outyielded all the other openpollinated varieties. There was no significant difference between any of the entries except Pool 16. Among the open pollinated varietjes ZUCA ranked first giving 6,425 kg/ha followed by ARC 7844 and MMV 600.At Mansa, the yields ranged from 5,440kg/ha for MMV 600 to 6,270 kg/ha for MM 604 and there was no significant difference between any of the entries. Yield of EV8076 C4 was very close to MM 604. At Golden Valley MM 604 ranked first 8,854 kg/ha followed very closely by MMV 600 giving 8,315 kg/ha. Pool 16 which i very early maturing variety produced very low yield of 4,461 kg/ha which was significantly lower than all other entries except population 10. At Mount Makulu again the hybrid MM 604 ranked first at 9,130 kg/ha. Similar to the other locations, Pool 16 and Populati n 10 gave the lowest yields due to their very early maturity. At Mochipapa the trend was slightly different from the otber locations, as 4 open-pollinated varieties (ZUCA, MMV 600, EV 8076 C4 and ARC 7844) outranked the hybrid MM 604. However, there was no significant difference in yield between any of the entries.During 1988-89 croppin~season, the national variety trials were re-arranged according to their maturity penods rather than grouping entries as hybrids and open-pollinated varieties. In addition to this, a new dimension was also added to these national variety trials by testing all the varieties under low and high management levels. These trials were carried out at 7 locati ns covering most of the provinces and major agro-ecological zones of the country. At all the 7 locations, the trials were laid out in a split-plot design replicated three times, with the two management levels (low and high) as main plots and the varieties alS SUb~lotS. The low management (similar to small-scale farmers traditional management plots were planted in late December with low plant densities (22,220 plants ha) and received only 100 kg 'D' + 100 kg urea/ha (half lima recommendation) and were weeded only once around 45 days after sowing. The rugh management (similar to existing extension recommendations) plots were planted in early December with recommended plant density (44,440 plants/ha) and received 200 kg 'D' + 200 kg 'urea'jha (full lima recommendation) and were weeded twice at 20 and 45 days after sowing. The objective of these trials was to assess the performance of various hybrids and open-pollinated varieties under different management levels and across different environments.National Medium Maturity Variety Trial This trial had 4 hybrids and 5 openpollinated varieties belonging to both early and medium maturity groups. The data from all the 7 locations are presented in Table 3. Under both the management levels all the four hybrids outyielded the open-pollinated varieties. As an average of all the locations the yield levels under low management ranged from 2,118 kgjha to 8,106 kgjha and under both management levels MM 502 hybrid ranked first.  Among the open-pollinated varieties, Across 7844 ranked first followed by PR 7832 under both the management levels. The recently pre-released Pool 16 performed slightly better than MMV 400 under low management but the trend was reversed under high management. Among the medium maturity group of varieties, the trend was that the varieties that performed well under high management were doing equally well under low management.National Late Maturity Trial This trial had 5 hybrid and 5 open-pollinated varieties belonging to the late maturity group. The data from all the 7 locations are presented in Table 4. Under low management level, MM 603 followed by MM 604 hybrids gave the highest yields whereas under high management MM 752 and 612 hybrids ranked first and second indicating the need for identifying different hybrids for different management situations. However, the yield differences were not significant. Even under late maturity group the yield levels under low management level were fairly low (as an average of all the 7 locations) ranging from 2,073 kg/ha to 3,451 kg/ha and under high management level the yields ranged from 5,479 kg/ha to 7,378 kg/ha. Under low management level except MM 601 and MM 752 all other hybrids outranked the open-pollinated varieties and under high management level except MM 601 all other nybrids outyielded the open pollinated varieties. Among the open-pollinated varieties EV 8076 followed by ZUCA gave the highest yields under high management level whereas under low management level MMV 600 followed by Population 10 gave the highest yields compared to the other varieties.Time of planting is important according to regional requirement and variety adoption. Studies involving different dates of planting are carried out to find out the best possible fit between crop development stages and expected weather conditions at a particular location. The planting date effect per se is perhaps oot yet fully understood and is different in different a~ro-ecological ituations. It is clear throughout the country that there is a strong time of planting effect that, independent of late plantings being immature at the end of the rains, reduces yield drastically. The incidence of diseases and insects can vary considerably with the date of planting even at the same location, and thereby exert an indirect influence on crop yield. Thus cbange in date of planting may be necessary to avoid the problem of disease or insect damage to the crop. The dates of planting studies over a number of years also provide a good basis to study genotype environment interactions.Optimum planting date recommendations for the new maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties for the different agro-ecological zones of the country were not available. Hence, variety x date of planting trials were conducted during 1987-88 crop season in all the 3 agro-ecological zones i.e. at Mansa, Golden Valley and Mochipapa to examine the performance of new maize varieties planted at different times and in different locatIons. In all the 3 locations the trials were laid out in split plot design replicated three times with 3 dates of planting arranged in main {>lots and 6 varieties arranged as sub-plots. Results of variety x date of planting tnals are summarized in Table . Even though there was a slight delay in tart to the season, there was a highly significant effect of planting date on maize grain yields at all the 3 locations. Except for Mochipapa, the highest yields were obtained from the earliest planted treatments. There were no significant differences between first and second planting dates (except in Mansa) implying that it was safe to plant up to mid-December in     Region 1 and II. At all the 3 locations, remarkable (significant) yield reductions were observed as planting was delayed until late December or early January. Across all the maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties tested, the importance of early planting was well e tablished. Most hybrids out yielded openpollinated varieties at all times of planting and at all the locations. Varietal urvival began to show up in the late plantwg depending on whether the variety was streak tolerant or relatively early maturing. For instance at Mansa, streak tolerant hybrids MM 603,604 and 612 continued to push their way up the yield pressure at late planting. Streak tolerant MM 502 gave lower yields than MM 752 at Mansa mainly due to poor germination and low plant stand at emergence and harvest. For the high ramfall areas, the new experimental hybrid MM 612 (which was released recently) proved to be better than MM 752 and as promising as MM 603 particularly for late planting. MM 603 proved to be the most stable and best yielding hybrid across aU times of planting and all locations. However, the decrease in yield of even MM 603 with lateness of planting is obvious. In mo t cases there were highly significant differences both across dates and varieties indicating the need to plant certain varieties at certain periods in different locations. On average over all locations, it was found that early planting was the best where late to medium late maturing hybrids such as MM 752,601603,604 and 612 are to be planted. But with delayed planting it would be safe to plant only streak tolerant hybrids such as MM 601,603,604 or 502.The optimum plant population level may vary markedly according to changes in agro-c1imatic conditions or in varieties. The current plant density recommendation for maize is about 44,440 plants/ha for all regions of the country and for all maize varieties. Blanket plant population recommendations for ali regions of the country have to be replaced by recommendations for defined agroclimatic domains in the main agro-ecological zones. Also, introduction of new hybrid with potential high yields means that old recommendations may no longer be appropriate. Early maturing varieties may have small plants and respond well to higher plant popul tion than late maturing varieties. High yielding potential hybrid may differ conSiderably in their tolerance and response to high levels of plant population. If moisture supply is adequate, a somewhat higher plant population level can be used than that when the moi ture supply is limiting. Re p'0nse to higher levels of plant population is usually great with increased levels of fertility.Optimum plant density recommendations for the new maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties for the different agro-ecological zones of the country were not available. Hence variety x plant popuLatiolllevels trials were carried out during 1987-88 crop eason in all the agro-ecological zones Le. at Mansa, Golden Valley and Mochipapa to examine the performance of new maize varieties planted with different plant densities and in different locations. In all the -3 locations, the trials were laid out in a split plot design replicated 3 times with 6 plant densities arranged as main plots and 6 vaneties arranged as sub-plots. The results from these density trials are summarized in Table 6.There was a general tendency for yields to increase with density at Golden Valley and Mochipapa. Whereas tbis trend was not observed at Mansa. At Golden Valley and Mochipapa most varieties responded noticeably to increased densities with MM 601 markedly so. The analy is of variance showed no density by variety interaction. At Golden Valley there was a significant yield increase (28%) when the densi~was increased from 22 to 44 thousand plants/ha and density increase above that did not re ult in yield increases. The trend was consistent across all the varieties examined. At Mochipapa the trend wa.<; slightly different. There was a 26% yield increase (non-significant) when the density was increa ed from 22-44  ---------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------  thousand plants/ha and when the density was further increased from 44-66 thousand plants/ha there was a significant increase (23%) in yield. At Mansa, which is a high rainfall location, inspite of this cropping season being near normal rainfall season, surprisingly there was no increase 10 yield with any increase in densities ranging from 22-66 thousand plants/ha for any of the varieties tested.In general, the yield levels were very low at Mansa, even for the hi£hest . density treatment in particular for this trial compared to the fertilizer triaf or date of planting trial mainly because this trial was at a low lying spot with waterlogging problem.Open-pollinated variety MMV 400 responded significantly up to 66 thousand plants/ha at Mochipapa. MMV 600 responded significantly only up to 53 thousand plants/ha at Golden Valley. All the hybrids responded up to 66 thousand plants/ha which is contrary to the eai-lier recommendations that densities up to 44 thousand plants/ha only at Golden Valley, whereas at Mochipapa most of the hybrids seemed to tolerate densities up to 44 thousand plants/ha which are sufficient for low rainfall areas with low available soil moisture. At Golden Valley and Mochipapa no significant differences were observed when the number of plants per station were either one or two as long as the total density was maintained at 44 thousand plants/ha.Crops and varieties of the same crop differ in their nutrient requirements and responses to fertilizer. Some varieties are more efficient than others in producmg more yield with a given amount of fertilizer. The response to added nutrients, however, is limited in low rainfall years or areas compared to high rainfall years or areas. In other words fertilizer use efficiency' increases with increased availability of soil moisture. Higher response to fertIlizer is obtained under improved crop management technology tban under traditional management practices.•• Increase in the price of fertilizer from K20/bag of 'D' compound fertilizer in 1985 to K98/bag in 1988 (390% increase) makes the issue of fertilizer use efficiency very important for small-scale farmers throughout the country. As per the current lima recommendations (200 kg/ha 'D' basal + 200 kg/ha urea as top dress) which were formulated in earll.' 80's, farmers were required to spend K55/ha in 1980; K160/ha in 1985; K679(ha in 1988 and todar the same fertilizer would cost K.8,120.ha. Given the escalatLng cost of fertilizers m relation to the market price of maize and the capital constraints of small-scale farmers, researchers have an obligation to tailor fertilizer recommendations to the soil conditions and resource base of their target group. Hence it is necessary to re-evaluate the existing fertilizer recommendations in the context of increased fertilizer prices and response to new hybrids wbich have been released after 1983. It is hoped that these studies will provide sufficient information to develop more realistic fertilizer recommendations especially for the small-scale farmers with limited resources.A series of variety x fertilizer response trials were conducted during 1987-88 cropping season in all the 3 agro-ecolofcal zones. Le. at Mansa, Golden Valley and Mochipapa, to evaluate the response 0 the new varieties to different levels of fertilizer application under different rainfall situations. In all the 3 locations, the trials were laid out in a split plot design replicated 3 times with 7 fertilizer levels arranged as main plots and 6 varieties arranged as sub plots. The results from these fertilizer trials are presented in Table 7.  --------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------- There were highly significant differences between both varieties and fertilizer levels at all the 3 locations. Both the hybrids and open-pollinated varieties showed si~ficant responses to fertilizer application. HIghly significant differences obtamed between varieties signifies differential response of maize varieties of fertilizer application. At all the 3 locations, increased fertilizer application resulted in substantIal increases in yield.At Mansa approximately 94% yield increase was realized by adding fertilizer up to full lima recommendation (200kg 'D' + 200kg urea/ha) and 55% from zero level to half lima recommendation (lOOkg 'D' + 100kg urea/ha). At Mansa MM 502, 603, and 612 gave si~nificantly higher yields compared to MM 752 and MMV 600 at zero level of fertilIZer, and at full lima recommendation MM 752 out-yielded all the other hybrids. At Golden Valley eyen at low levels of fertilizer application the yield levels were quite high (5-7 t/ha) due to the residual effect of a cover crop of sunhemp grown in th same field during the previous season. However, up to 20% yield increase (non-significant) was obtained from zero level to full lima recommendation. At Mochapapa, a significant yield increase (509%) was realized by adding fertilizer up to half lima recommendation and any further mcrease in fertilizer did not result in si~nificant yield increase. At Mochipapa, most of the hybrids responded better wIth fertilizer increase than the open-pollinated variety MMV 400 at Mansa and Golden Valley, MMW 600 responded on a par with most hybrids. In general, some of the new hybrids (MM 601, 603 and 604) seemed to be more stable, giving higher yields both at low and high levels of fertilIzer application. These results clearly indicate that blanket fertilizer recommendations for all regions of the country and for all maize varieties have to be replaced by recommendations for defined agro-climatic domains.To make a general recommendation from the results for these trials, it is clear that it would pay to use full lima recommendation. However, where input supply is limited or where the farmer involved is financially constrained, it would pay to use fertilizer at half lima recommendation.Contrary to the conventional belief that proper time of planting is virtually costless to the farmer, there is increasing recognition that power limitations can restrict the farmer's ability to achieve optimal time of planting. This has led to increased interest in the management of late-planted varieties as a result of agronomically significant interactions between planting date, plant density and fertilizer levels and it is becoming accepted that different management regimes are necessary for late planted crops. So, there is need for working towards management recommendations for late planted maize.There are three schools of thought suggesting the probable reasons for lower yields in late planted maize. The first suggests that late planted crops yield less because they suffer from terminal moisture deficit in a normal season. The second school of thought argues that late-planted maize suffers from streak virus and insect pests. The third one content that the 'Birch effect', or the flush of nitrogen at the beginning of the rains was too short to benefit a late planted maize crop. Farmers know that early planting is important but the peak labour demand prevents them from achieving early planting. Fertilizer is no substitute for early planting. Often, in fact,fertilizer Will show an adequate cost-benefit ratio only when combined with early planting.In the past there has been very little or no research carried out to consider the factorial interaction of different times of planting, fertilizer levels and new maize varieties. Hence, a series of trials were e~rablishcd at Golden Valley, and Mansa regional research stations in 1988-89 cropping season to study these interaction effects. At the three locations the tnals were laid out in a split-split plot design replicated 3 times with 2 planting dates arranged as main plots,S fertilizer levels arranged as sub-plots and 6 varieties arranged as sub-sub plots. The results from these trials are presented in Figure 1.At Mansa, significant yield reductions were observed across the fertilizer levels as planting was delayed from early December to late December. At Golden Valley significant yield reductions were observed mainly at the highest fertilizer level when compared to low levels of fertilizers. At both the locations there was a clear trend for yields to increase (significantly) as the fertilizer rate was increased both at early and late plantings.At both the locations there were significant differences in yield among varieties and fertilizer levels. Significant differences obtained between varieties signifies differential response of maize varieties to different planting dates and fertilizer levels. At both the locations MM 604 and MM 502 showed considerable superiority over MM 752, MM 612 and MMV 600 particularly at late plantings and low levels of fertilizer, further confirming the previous season results. The openpollinated variety MMV 600 was on par or, in some cases even superior when compared to MM 752 particularly when planJed late and also at low levels of fertilizer application. The interaction effects of time of planting and fertilizer levels across different varieties were more striking at Mansa than at Golden Valley.The optimum number of plants per unit area depends on a number of factors among which availability of plant nutrients is of considerable importance. When plants are widely spaced, they may be able to obtain from the relatively large volume of soil avaIlable to the individual plant an adequate supply of plant nutrients. However, when moisture is not limiting, the high yielding ability of maize varieties can be achieved only at plant densities at which competition between plants for nutrients is relatively severe. This means therefore that an adequate supply of nutrients is essential under these conditions.In high rainfall areas of Zambia with conditions of adequate water availability, it is not yet clear whether high plant density concurrently with a heavy rate of fertilizer application can achieve higher maize yields because of the severe soil acidity and poor response to applied fertilizers. In medium and low rainfall areas the interaction effects between plant densities and fertilizer application are not yet fully established. Hence, a series of trials were initiated at Golden Valley and Mansa regional research stations in 1988/89 cropping season to study the interaction effects of different fertilizer levels and different plant densities across different maize varieties. At both the locations, the trials were laid out in a splitsplit plot design replicated 3 times with 4 fertilizer levels arranged as main plots, 4 plant densities arranged as sub plots and 4 maize varieties arranged as sub-sub plots. The results from these trials are presented in Figures 2 and 3.At both Mansa and Golden Valley, there was a general tendency for yields to increase with increase in plant density at the highest fertilizer level only, whereas this trend was not observed at low fertilizer levels. Even at the highest fertilizer level, this increase in yield was significant when plant density was lllcreased from 22 to 44 thousand plants/ha. . At most of the fertilizer levels and plant densities, the three hybrids autyielded the open-pollinated variety MMV 600. No significant differences in yield were observed between the three hybrids at any given fertilizer level or plant density. However at low plant densities and low fertilizer levels, MM 604 showed superiority over the two other hybrids. The interaction effects of fertilizer level and plant densities were more striking at Mansa than at Golden Valley. The high yielding hybrids eventuaUy produced by breeders cannot develop their full yielding ability WIthout the application of approJ;>Tiate packages of production technology. The use of only hybrid seed may Improve yield to some extent, but benefits are greater if both factors, well adapted high YIelding hybrids and corresponding intensive technology of production are applied simultaneously.Lack of appropriate tools, labour bottlenecks at peak reriods of maize growth and low economic capabilities of the majority of smal farmers in the country limit their effectiveness as maize producers. Most of these farmers are not able to do the job properly and at the optimum time. Soil preparation with the hoe is usually not completed in time because the soil is still very hard and dry before the first rains. Unfortunately there is not a substitute for the hoe because animal draught power is not readily available. Consequently, time of planting is delayed.Weed control, fOT the same reasons, cannot be done in time and properly. All these factors are usually interdependent and interactin~. This results in low yields and consequently in low returns and poor income, which in tum lead to poor incentives for improving and expanding cultivation.In the past, there has been very little research carried out to consider the factorial interaction of different production factors. Hence, a series of trials were carried out at Mansa, Mount Makulu, Golden Valley and Mochipapa during 1987/88 and 1988/89 cropping seasons to study the mteraction effects of different production factors (variety, time of planting, plant density, fertilizer and weed control). These production package trials will help to develop economic technology packages that can be recommended to small-scale farmers. These trials will also help in the refinement of earlier packages of technology and also assist the extension personnel to convince the small-scale farmers of the importance of different production factors individually and in different ~mbinations.In all the 4 locations, the trials were laid out in a 2 factorial in randomized complete block design (32 combinations) replicated 3 times. The results are presented in Table 8. As an average of all the locations and both the seasons the results clearly illustrate the importance of each and every production factor towards their contribution to increased maize production. As a single factor improvement, change from local variety to improved hybrid resulted in 88% increase in yield over control, followed by early plantmg, recommended weeding, recommended fertilizer application and recommended density resulting in 79, 66, 59 and 58% increase in YIeld, respectively. By improving only two out of the five factors, the increase in yield ranged from 97 to 195%. Use of improved hybrid seed accompanied with any one additional improved production factor resulted in yield increase over control of approximately 170%. By improving the package from 2 to 3 factor improvement, the yield increase ranged from 167 to 272% and this yield improvement of 272% came from the combination of improved variety, early planting, and recommended weed control. Further improvement from 3 to 4 factor improvement resulted in yield increase ranging from 297 to 418% and finally when all the 5 production factors were improved the yield increase over control was a remarkable 534% (from 1.4 t/ha to 8.8 t/ha yield increase).The results clearly illustrate the fact that the production technology to be adopted by a small scale farmer is related to, and dependent upon many factors which are themselves interrelated, correctly meaning that each and all of them have to be applied in order to benefit from the potential yield capacity of the hybrid seed.In practlce it means that all measures such as planting, spacing, fertilizer application, weed control, accompanied with hybrid seed should be done at the right time in optimum quantities and efficiently.  --------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------- TILLAGE AND WEED MANAGEME STUDIES For growing maize in Zambia, conventionally the small scale farmer either collect and burn the previous crop residue, dig the soil and prepare a flat seedbed or bury the previous crop residue under ridges/hills. Both these methods of land preparatiOn require many labour days. As these small farmers only have their family labour at their disposal and the land preparation can be started only after the onset of rains, very often the maize planting is delayed beyond the optimum planting time and consequently the crop yield is reduced. Therefore, any reduction in the labour required for land preparation can be of tremendous benefit for these resource-poor farmers.Any change in tillage practices is very likely to have a profound influence on weeds growing in the crop. Herbicides are used to control weeds under mechanized zero tillage systems, but their recommendation under the small-scale farmer's situation in Zambia non-practicable. Mulching has been found to reduce weed problems under certain Situations.Therefore, a trial was undertaken to assess the suitability of different tillage systems to ease the labour bottlenecks for land preparation and weed control. Split plot design with three replications was used and two weeding treatments were arranged as main plots and 8 tillage treatments as sub-plot.The data in Table 9 show that the grain yield of maize was relatively high from all the treatments. Statistically only the effects of weeding on grain yield were significant. As expected, the improved weeding (two hand weedings at 20 and 45 days after sowing) resulted in significantly higher yield than the conventional weeding (only one late weeding at 45 days after sowing). The interaction of weeding with tillage was not statistically significant. Similarly the tillage treatments did not influence the grain yield significantly.These results show that even in the treatments where no tillage was performed the crop yield was not reduced. It implies that maize crop can be successfully grown without any tillage for land preparation, provided the weeds are properly controlled. As a consequence of this, farmers can save on the number of labour days spent on land preparation and achieve the following: a)Complete maize planting earlier with zero tillage than with conventional tillage, or b) Can plant larger areas using zero tillage, without delaying the planting and spending any additional labour days, or c) Optimize the planting time and planted area, according to the labour availability.In addition to the above benefits from reduced tillage better soil structure and improved water conservation are the likely results. As these effects can be evaluated only after 2-3 cropping seasons, it is worthwhile to study the structure, bulk density and infiltration pattern of the soil, after the 1989/90 or 1990/91 crop harvest.For sometime now it has been realized that there is a shortfall in production of most crops to meet domestic requirements. Majority of the farmers in the traditional sector have limited resources but many objectives to achieve. For one, farm families' nutritive requirements need to be satisfied and improved. Yet family labour, capital, management and indeed in many cases fertile arable land is limited. For the other, the characteristic poverty of dryland farming imposes stringent  ------------------------------------------------------------6551 7294 692314.1(1) 595.3(2) 1151 production limitations which do not augur well with rapid agricultural production Improvement. By and large, little or very low fertilizer rates are applied to such crops and little disease or pest control measures are taken. This compounded with the ever present risk of unpredictable weather and associated disease epidemics results in crop yields being too low for those farmers to break out of subsistence syndrome. Thus, based on economic advantages and on individual farmers crop preferences, highly complex and diverse traditional mixed cropping systems mvolving maize have been developed designed to meet multiple objectives simultaneously.With this background a series of intercropping trials were carried out during 1987/88 and 1988/89 cropping seasons at Mansa, and Golden Valley, with the objective to improve crop yields in the traditional subsistence sector by replacing the highly complex and diverse traditional mixed cropping systems with simple systems. There is increasing published research suggesting that crop yields are improved considerably by a combination of low monetary inputs with higher levels of crop management practices (choice of crops and varietIes, sowing oates, crop geometry, plant populatIOn, timely weeding, pest and disease control). Intercropping of maIze with vanous other companion crops such as groundnuts, soyabeans, climbmg beans, cowpeas, pigeonpeas and sunflower was examined to assess intercropping advantages from different combinations. The results are presented III Table 10.Considering the performance of maize first across different intercrop combinations at both locations, intercrop maize grain yields were very good ranging from 89% to 100% of the sole maize yield indicating that the competition from other component crops to maize was very minimal. At both locations maize yield differences between different treatments were non-significant. This improvement in intercropped maize yields could be achieved by following additive series technique where in the maize plant population in all the intercrop treatments was maintained at 100% of the sole maize population. Because of the near normal rainfall at both the locations during both seasons, there was little or no competition from the legumes to the maize crops.Considering the performance of other component crops under intercropping situation all the crops gave more than the expected yields of 33% (based on the row proportion of 2 rows maize: 1 row intercrop). In spite of intercrop maize yields in most combinations ranging between 90% and 100% of sOI~maize yields, there was in fact no competition from maize to intercrops. This aga\" was possible by increasing (to 66% instead of 33%) the population of non maize component crops in intercrop situation compared to their respective sole crops. As an average of both the locations and seasons, intercrop chmbing beans followed by pigeonpea ~ave the highest intercrop land equivalent ratio (L.E.R.). The results clearly Illustrate that all the crops examined showed good compatibility with maize and that while maintaining almost 90 to 100% of sole maize yields, reasonable bonus legume yields could be achieved by manipulating the total plant population of the two crops up to 116% (100% maize plus 66% intercrop populations).The intercropping advantage expressed in terms of land equivalent ratios (Total L.E.R.) from different combinations ranged from 34% to 45%. Highest intercrop~ing advantage of up to 45% was achieved from maize/pi~eonpea combinatIOn. As an average of both the locations and seasons, the mtercropping benefits were quite promising indicating that improved biological productivity is possible from improved maize based intercroppmg systems.In Zambia, maize/beans and maize/cowpeas intercrop combinations have proved to be promising and also acceptable. Therefore further agronomic improvement of these combinations was considered as worthwhile and hence a series of trials were initiated to examine the possibilities of increasing the total biological productivity of these systems. The farmer's requirements are to produce a \"full\" maIze yield (Le. as much as a sole crop, and as much \"additional\" legume yield as possible). Current evidence suggests that this is best achieved by having the intercrop population of each crop the same as its sole crop optimum. In this situation, the maize is very much the dominant crop and the growth of the legumes is very much suppressed.Little or no information is available on the suitability of genotypes of either maize or the legumes when grown together as iotercropping combinatIOns. Therefore an experiment was initiated at Golden Valley Research Station to look at some plant characters (including maturity periods) which were considered likely to be important. Six maize genotypes of varymg maturities were grown with cowpeas and beans and without intercrop and the treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replicates. The results are presented in Table 11.Performance of the two combinations in tenns of yield advantage showed quite large differences. Maize/cowpea combination gave yield advantages ranging from 1.23 to 1.39 whereas maize/beans combination gave yield advantages ranging from 1.37 to 1.57. Maize was the more competitive crop in both the combinations. In maize/cowpea combination, intercrop maize L.E.R.'s ranged from 0.78 to 0.91 and in maize/beans combinations the range was from 0.75 to 0.91. In both the combinations MM 612 gave the highest maize contribution of 0.91 and MMV 600 gave the lowest maize contribution indicating variable response of different maize genotypes in different combinations. Intercrop legume L.E.R.'s when grown with different maize genotypes did not differ much as for cowpea the range was 0.43 to 0.48 and for beans it was 0.60 to 0.66. Again both the legumes performed well when grown with MM 612. In both the combinations MM 603 gave the next best advantage after MM 612.Considerin~the total L.E.R.'s in both the combinations, MM 612 gave the highest intercroppmg advantage followed by MM603 and MMV 600 gave the lowest advantage. General intercropping performance appeared to be more closely related to legume yields. The results suggested that the maturity period of a given maize variety may not be having any apparent effect on the intercropping benefit but there could be other plant characters such as plant height or leaf orientation which could be influencing the iqtercropping performance of a given genotype.Sequential growing of crops has for a long time been recognized as an important factor in obtaining good yields. Yields of maize have always been higher when rotated as compared to continuous monocropping. Continued growing of the same maize crop on the same land is detrimental to economic crop production. The basic principle for use of rotation in crop pr:oduction is therefore to strike a balance and arrange such a succession of crops that maximum returns may be drawn from the land, while at the same time maintaining and even increasing its productive capability. Proper crop rotation ensures that soil-borne pests and diseases do not accumulate, soIl fertility and texture is improved or maintained and the weed flora which may vary under different crops can be controlled more effectively. The use of nitro~en [mng le~mes in a rotation is one of the fundamentals of proper crop rotatlon. Crops like soyabeans, groundnuts, beans and cowpeas can also give economic returns and still function to maintain and improve fertility.A number of trials were carried out earlier to test the benefits of continuous maize and maize after soyabeans. The results from these studies have clearly illustrated the benefit of soyabean/maize rotation in terms of improved crop productivity but the quantification of soil nutrient changes has been neglected  , the yield differences between half lima and full lima plots were non-significant due to residual effect of sunhemp crop grown in the previous year. For the ftrst season of the four season crop rotatiOn cycle only maize yields are given as all the treatments had only maize during the first season.During the second season (1988/89), grain yield of maize after a previous season crop of maize was fairly depressed high lighting the problem of continuous maize system. Yields of other crops (sunflower, groundnuts and soyabeans) in the second season after a first season cro~of maize were generally of acceptable level. When this report was finalized, the soil analysis data were not yet available from the soil chemists, hence the yield differences and soil nutrient changes after a second year crop cycle are worth serious consideration when the information becomes available.Hikwa. In intercropping trials, where maize was intercropped with sunflower (a) how much loss in yield was incurred in maize? (b) how much loss in sunflower yields as opposed to either a sole maize crop or sunflower sole crop?There was 5% reduction in maize yield in maize/sunflower intercrop as compared to the sole maize.   In Zambia, population improvement starts with the identification of promising materials introduced from various sources. Judicious selection of initial germplasm is considered to be an important factor for the ultimate success of their breeding programme. Material introduced from CIMMYT and UTA was evaluated in 1985/86 and it was observed that local checks yielded similarly to most introductions (Ristanovic et aI. 1987).The objective of this paper is to report the results obtained from an evaluation of 19 maize varieties under high and low input conditions at two locations in southern Mozambique.The experiments were conducted in the warm crop season of 1988/89 in the Umbeluzi and Chokwe Experiment Stations in southern Mozambique. Both places are located below 25 0 latitude South.The varieties tested are a part of the collection of maize ~ermplasm of the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) and most were Introduced from CIMMYT and other neighbouring countnes. All varieties have had one or more generation of seed increase, usuafly with selection, and their present genetic make up is probably different from that of the original introduced material.In each location 15 early and medium maturity varieties were tested, including two local checks, Matuba (early) and Manica (medium late). Ten of these varieties were common to both places.The experimental design was a randomized complete block with 15 treatments and eight replications. Four replications received pre-emergence herbicide, 100 kg/ha of N as top dressing, seed treatment with Apron for control of mildew and two folia applications of Cypermethrin 20 and 45 days after emergence for control of stalk borers. The other (our rep1ications did not receive any treatment.Plots were formed by four rows 5m long and 0.80m apart. Within row spacing was 0.25m. Data on grain yield and yield components were taken on the two central rows, adjusted to 15% moisture and subillitted to the analysis of variance. Simple phenotypic correlation coefficients, among all traits, were calculated for the experiments conducted in Umbeluzi.Although supplementary water through furrow irrigation was supplied in both locations, the low input experiment in Chockwe suffered a very heavy water stress during most of its cycle, combined with strong weed competition.Planting dates were September 23, 1988 for Umbeluzi and October 27, 1988 forChockwe. Harvesting dates were February 20, 1988 for Umbeluzi and March 5, 1989 for Chokwe.Virus infection was low in Umbeluzi and moderate in Chokwe, but stalk borer infestation was moderate in Umbeluzi and heavy in Chokwe. The control exercised by the insecticide was efficient in both places.The highest yieldin~variety under high input conditions in Chokwe and Umbeluzi was CW-2 a whIte composite developed in Mozambique by intercrossing varieties which had shown tolerance to Maize Streak Virus (lIM 1987). This is a medium maturity composite, with a good level of tolerance to Streak Virus and is currently undergoing selection in our programme. In Umbeluzi several other high yielding varieties were in the same level of significance of CW-2, such as Suwan 8222, EV 8823 SR Ikenne 8149 and the local check Manica. In Chokwe yields were lower and attention should be given to Matuba, CW-2 and Across 7844/26 (Table 1). The local check Matuba was derived by selection from DMR-ESR-W, introduced from UTA, and is currently recommended for the family sector, due to its high tolerance to downy mildew and Streak Virus.Grain yields in Umbeluzi, under low input conditions were still high due, probably, to residual effect of fertilizers applied earlier and low incidence of pests and diseases. Under these conditions, the highest yielding variety was Ikenne 8149, followed by Suwan 8222, Manica and EV 8823 SR, which had all done well with high input.In Chokwe, under low input, grain yields were extremely low, due to very heavy water stress, weed competition and high infestation of stalk borers. The best varieties under these circumstances were Matuba, Across 7844/26 and Mayo 82 (Table 1). It should be noticed, however, that current yields in the family sector are much similar to these (Bruno and Neto 1988).Table 1.Grain yield (t/ha of maize varieties evaluated under high and low input conditions at two locations in southern Mozambique ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------The coefficients of variation showed all expected trend, being lower in the best growing environment of Umbeluzi and higher in the less uniform conditions of Chokwe, specially in the experiment that suffered from water stress, weed competition, diseases and pests (Table 1).The combined analyses of variance for grain yield showed significant differences between in{lut levels in both locations, but the interaction input x variety was not significant in either place.The analysi~over locations and inputs showed significance for locations, inputs and the interaction location x input which is evident considering the very low yields obtained in the low input experiment of Chokwe. Location x variety interaction was also significant, suggesting that different genotypes may be needed for these two environments.The pronounced differences in grain yield amongvarieties may be partially accounted for by differences in plant stands at harvest (Table 2). The performance of the varieties for this trait in Chokwe was again poorer than it was in UmbeluzL Under high input Suwan 8072 DMR produced more ears/plant. However, in the low input experiment aLI varieties produced, on the average,.less than <?ne ear/plant. Only Mayo 82 and Suwan 8075 DMR had values close to uruty. The difficult growing conditions were responsible for a large number of barren plants. The amplitude for this trait was narrow and not a single variety showed a distinctly large number of ears/plant, although final densities for most of them were below 50,000 plants/ha (Table 2). In Umbeluzi the difference between input levels for number of ears/plant was not significant and in both locations the interaction input x variety was also nOI significant. Table 2.Plant stand at harvest (% of optimum density) of maize varieties evaluated under high and low input conditions at two locations in outhera Mozambique.Low input ------------------------------------Cho~'WeUmbeluzi Chokwe ---------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------For the other component of grain/plant, that is weight of grain/ear, differences among varieties were significant at the high input level in both locations and in the low input experiment of Umbeluzi (Table 5). Under high input in Umbeluzi, the largest ears were produced by the varieties Manica, CW-2, and Suwan 8222. In Chokwe, CW-2 and WAM SL had the heaviest ears. Under low input, in Umbeluzi, the heaviest ears were produced by Manica, WAM SL and Kalahari. Except for WAM SL and Kalahari, the other varieties had high grain yields.Ear size was significantly correlated with ~ain yield and weight of grain/plant, with which it had a high coefficient (Table 8), indicating that for these varieties the weight of grain/plant was more dependent on the size of the ears than on their numbers.In Umbeluzi, the difference between input levels of weight of grain/ear was not significant and the interaction input x variety was not significant in both locations.The size of the ears depend on the average grain size and on number of grains/ear. Differences in number of grains/ear among varieties were significant in both locations and levels of input (Table 6).Under hi~h input, in Umbeluzi, the varieties with more grains/ear were the local check Maruca and Kalahari. In Chokwe, Rampur 8075 DMR, Suwan 8072 DMR and Kalahari were the varieties which produced more grains/ear. Expect for Manica, none of the other varieties were among the highest grain yielders.Under low input, the variety with more grains/ear in Umbeluzi was Suwan 8222 and in Chokwe it was Mayo 82 (Table 6).Number of grains/ear was significantly correlated with grain yield, weight of grain/plant and weight of grain/ear, with coefficients of moderate magnitude (Table 8). These two traits were significantly correlated, although the coefficient was of moderate ma~nitude (Table 8). It can be observed, in Table 2, that most varieties under high mput had final stands equivalent to 80% of the optimum plant density (50,000 plants/ha), except Suwan 8072 DMR and 3M in Umbeluzi. Under low input density reduction was in the order of 30-40% with no value conspicuously lower.Matuba and Across 7844/26, which showed the highest yields under low input in Chokwe, had also a relatively small stand reduction under those difficult growing conditions. It should be noticed that most high yielding varieties did not have a marked reduction in the final density.Weight of ~ain/plant may have also been responsible for yield differences among varieties smce it differed significantly among entries in both locations and input levels (Table 3). Additionally it was the yield component which showed the highest correlation with grain yield (Table 8). ---------------------------------------------------~--------In Umbeluzi, under high input, plants of Suwan 8222 showed the heaviest grain weight/plant, followed by CW-2 and Manica. Under low input it was Manica which produced the heaviest weight of grain/plant, followed by Suwan 8222 and Ik~nne 8149 (Table 3). These varieties were among the highest yielders under both input levels (Table 1).In Chokwe, even under high input, grain weight/plant a most varieties were lower than they were in both input levels in Umbeluzi. Suwan 8072 DMR and CW-2 produced the heaviest weights of grain/plant. Under low input, however, weight of grain/plant showed a marked reduction and all varieties had very low values (Table 3).From an examination of Tables 2 and 3 it seems clear that the yield reduction observed in the low input trial of Chokwe was relatively more influenced by reduction of weight of grain/plant than the reduction of plant stands.The difference between input levels for weight of grain/plant was not significant in Umbeluzi and the input x variety interaction was not significant in dther location.Average weight of grain/plant depends on the number of ears/plant and on the mean size of each ear. In Umbeluzi, the variety with more ears/plant was Suwan 8072 DMR (Table 4), but it was not among the highest grain yielders at either input level. The correlation between grain yield and ears/plant produced a  -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------------moderate magnitude (Table 8). It seems that both components of ear size (grain number and grain size) were equally important for its variation.Mean grain size of all varieties at the high input level in Chokwe was significantly larger than at the low input level, but in Umbeluzi the difference between input levels was not significant. In both locations the interaction input x variety was not significant. CONCLUSIONS Some introduced varieties showed higher grain yields than both local checks, but the most promisin~genotype was CW-2, a composite developed in Mozambique by intercrossing varieties which had shown tolerance to Streak Virus in previous evaluations. It emphasizes the importance of exhaustive evaluation of introduced germplasm before its commercial release.In very low yielding environments, the recently released variety Matuba seemed to perform better than most introductions.Input x variety interaction was not significant for any trait evaluated, indicating that relative ranks of varieties were similar in both cropping conditions. If this holds true for all accessions available in our collection, future evaluations may be done at a single input level.Grain yield was more influenced by variations in weight of grain/plant, which was mainly determined by variation in ear size, which, in turn was equally influenced by variations in number of grains/ear and grain size. Maize in Mozambique is grown mainly by small farmers of the family sector, who utilize traditional production systems not conducive to high grain yields. Among many other factors, adequate distribution of plants on the field is fundamental for attainment of maximum productivity. Theoretically, square planting systems are more efficient than rectangular ones, since plants are better distributed over the area and should utilize more efficiently available growth factors (Bl!ttery 1969). However, under field conditions often this has not been observed.\" The effects of variations in row spacings and Flant densities on maize yield and yield components have been reported by severa authors of different countries.In Italy, grain yields of three medium maturity cultivars were not affected significantly by differences in row sp~cings of 0.50 and 0.70m or plant densities of 60, 70, and 80 thousand plants/ha (Mannino et aI. 1987). However, for late maturing genotypes grain yield was highest in rows spaced 0.50m apart and densities o.f 6~~o 70 thousand plal!ts/~a. At 0.70m row spacing, the h!ghest density slgruflcantly reduced gram yIeld (Tano et al. 1987 and Manruno & Tano 1988).In an irrigated experiment conducted by Corleto et al. (1988) in southern Italy, three maize cultivars planted in densities ranging from 40 to 100 thousand plants/ha, showed maximum grain yields at 80,000 plants/ha. Battilani et al. (1986)  came to similar conclusion after testing three maize hybrids with and without irri~ation in densities varying from 50 to 80 thousand plants/ha. They re~orted that ~am yield increased with increasing plant densities, but there was a sigmficant lITigation x density interaction. Optimum density was 60,000 plants/ha without irrigation and 70,000 to 80,000 plants/ha with irrigation.In Poland, Kruczek (1983) evaluated six maize cultivars during two years sown at three different seeding rates and nitrogen levels. Actual densities were 53, 62 and 69 thousand plants/ha in the first year and 46, 60 and 72 thousand plants/ha in the second year. Only two cultivars showed higher yields at the highest plant density. The interaction plant density x N rate was not significant. Dubas and Michalski (1983) compared three maize cultivars in Poland in densities varying from 49 to 102 thousand plants/ha. Average grain yield decreased as plant population increased. One cultivar had its highest yield at 49,000 r.lants/ha and the other two at 66,000 plants/ha. Similar results were obtained by MIImov et  al. (1986) who evaluated four early and medium early hybrids in three plant densities. They found that optimum density was 55,000 plants/ha.Studies conducted by Bakelana et al. (1986) in the USA showed that plant densities ranging from 43,000 to 86,000 plants/ha significantly affected grain yield, which was maximum at 66,000 plants/ha.In Iraq, Moosa and Al-Younis (1987) obtained highest grain yields in rows spaced 1m apart with a density of 80,000 plants/ha. Ologunde and Ogunlela (1984) studied the response of maize to application of five rates of N and three plant densities in two locations of Nigeria. Average grain yield was highest at 48,000 plants/ha, but there was a significant density x N rate interaction in both locations.In the highlands of northern Mozambique several maize varieties were evaluated during three years in plant densities varying from 25,590 to 75,757 p.lants/ha. In the first year there were no significant differences among densities higher than 50,000 plants/ha, inclusive, and in the second and third years all densities higher than 37,878 plants/ha, inclusive, produced statistically similar grain yields. Averaged over all varieties yield was higher at 62,500 plants/ha. However, variety Obregon 7643, widely grown in the mechanized sector of production, had its highest grain yield at 50,000 plants/ha (11M 1987).In the same region of Mozambique grain yield was higher in rows spaced 0.7m apart, but it was not significantly different from the yield obtained in 0.8m rows. Yield of variety Cotaxtla 7921 was higher in 0.7m rows, but Obregon 7643 performed better in rows spaced 0.9m apart (11M 1987). \" Some yield components can be Significantly affected .by variations in row spacings and plant densities. Mannino and Tano (1988) reported that number of grains/ear were highest in low densities. Grain size and number of ears/plant were unaffected by variations in row spacings and plant densities. Dostalek and Hruska (1985) reported a sharp reduction in seed size as plant density increased. Dubas and Michalski (1983) and Tano et al. (1987), observed that increasing plant densities decreased number of grains/ear, seed size and ear weight.The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of variations in row spacing and plant density on grain yield and yield components of two large canopy, late maturing maize vaneties in the highlands of Niassa Province in northern Mozambique.The experiment was conducted in Lichinga, district of Niassa Province in northern Mozambique. The experimental site is located at about 13 0 South latitude and 1300 m.a.s.l. The experimental area was fertilized with a broadcast mixture of 30 kg of N, 60 kg of P20S and 30 kg of K20/ha before planting, plus 60 kg of N/ha as top dressing 40 days after emergence. Carbofuran insecticide was applied to the furrows before planting. Weeds were kept out by hand hoeing. The experiment was planted on November 15, 1988 andharvested on June 21, 1989. Treatments were a combination of late maturing, large canopy varieties Obregon 7643, widely grown in the mechanized sector of production, and Ferke 7822, a promising genotype scheduled to be released as commercial variety; three row spacings, namely 0.6m, 0.8m and 1m between rows and five plant densities, namely 30,40,50,60, and 70 thousand plants/ha.The eXJ?erimental design was a strip-plot with four replications. Row spacings constituted the strips and a factorial combination of varieties and densities were randomized within each block across strips.Plots were formed by four rows 5m long and data on grain yield and yield components were taken on the two central rows, adjusted to 15% moisture and submitted to the analysis of variance.A very common problem encountered in density experiments is the reduction of final plant stands, especially in the higher densities. This was not a handicap in this study since Table 1 shows that both varieties had actual densities fairly close to optimum values and the increment between densities was kept at about 10,000 plants. Grain yield was significantly affected by variation among row spacing, plant density and between varieties. The interaction variety x plant density was also significant (Table 2).For any density, plants were more evenly distributed over the area in the narrowest row spacing and it was expected that they use the available growth factors at that spacing more efficiently. However, grain yield of both varieties increased significantly with wider row spacings and were highest in rows spaced 1m apart (Table 3). In earlier experiments conducted in northern Mozambique, vanety Obregon 7643 showed higher grain yield in rows spaced 0,90m apart (11M 1987).Two explanations are possible for this ap,parent contradiction. There may have been more dry matter accumulation/plant III the narrowest spacing, but it may not have been diverted to reproductive growth. Fast early vegetative growth of these two large canopy varieties may have contributed to early ground coverage in the narrowest row spacing and increased plant competition for light with resulting   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------lower dry matter accumulation per plant. The type of data collected does not allow for an exact explanation of what actually happened.Although both varieties developed sunilar large canopies, Obregon 7643 was higher yieldin~and m re responsive to variation in plant densities, resulting in a significant vanety density interaction. Obregon 7643 showed a steady increase of grain yield from 30,000 to 60000 plants/ha and a small decline at the highest plant density, whereas grain yield of Ferke 7822 increased from 30 to 50 thousand plants/ha and declined thereafter (Fig 1). These results do not deviate much from conclusions reached by many authors. Several experiments have indicated that optimum plant density for maize lies between 50,000 and 60,000 plants/ha (Mannino et al. 1987, Kruczek 1983, Dubas and Michalski 1983, Mikhov 1986and Ologunde x Ogunlela 1984). As an added confirmation, earlier experiments conducted in northern Mozambique produced similar results (11M 1987).The yield component, weight of grain/plant varied significantly among row spacings and plant densities and between varieties, but the interactions among factors were not significant (Table 2).Similarly for grain yield, the heaviest grain weight/plant was obtained in rows spaced 1m apart, followed by a.8m and a.6m rows, respectively (Table 3). The explanation for occurrence of heavier plants at the widest spacing is similar to that given for grain yield. Furthermore, thiS advantage in wei~ht/plant may be explained by either or both number of ears/plant and weight of gram/ear. Contrary to grain yield, weight of grain/plant showed an steady decline as plant densities were increased from 30 to 70 thousand plants/ha. Variety Obl~gon 7643 produced heavier weight of grain/plant, but showed the same pattern of decline as Ferke 7822 (Fi~2). Increased plant competition is the reason for lower weight of grain/plant at higher densities.Since gram yield was maximum at 50,000 or 60,000 plants/ha, it means that reduction in grain weight/plant in these densities was not enough to upset the increase in plants/area. However, after 50,000 or 60,000 plants/ha, the weight/plant was so low that it offs~t the increment in plant density.Number of ears/plant, a component of grain weight/plant, was significantly affected only by variations in plant density (Table 2). These results indicate that variations in this trait cannot explain differences in grain weight/plant observed among row spacing (Table 3).For both varieties, there was a similar and sharp decline in number of ears/plant as density increased from 30 to 40 thousand plants/ha. Decline continued thereafter, but at slower rate (Fig 3).It seems that variety Obregon 7643 is less affected by plant competition than J;;erke 7822, because it did not show barren plants up to 50,000 plants/ha, inclusive, while Ferke 7822 kept one or more ears/plant only up to 40,000 plants/ha (Fig 3).Weight of grain/ear, the other component of grain weight/plant, was significantly affected by variations among row spacing and plant density and between varieties. The interaction row spacing x plant density was also significant (Table 2).For both varieties, heaviest ears were obtained in rows spaced 1m apart, followed by 0.8m and 0.6m rows, respectively (Table 3). It is clear that vanations in this trait were responsible for differences in grain weight/plant observed among row spacings.Variety Obregon 7643 produced significantly heavier ears than did Ferke 7822, but for both varieties the weight of grain/ear declined at similar rates as plant densities increased (Fig 4). Increased plant competition is the reason for lower grain wei~ht/ear at higher densities. Mannino and Tano (1988), Dubas and Michalski (1983) and Tano et ai. (1987)  In Uchlnaa 1\" 1188/\",.It seems that reduction in grain weight/plant observed in the higher plant densities was caused by reductions in both ear number and ear size.Fig 5 reveals that for all three row spacings there was a decline in grain weight/ear due to increased plant density. However, the rate of decline was much more pronounced in the narrowest row spacing, resulting in a significant row spacing x plant density interactioIL This adds to the explanation of why ~rain yield was significantly lower in the narrowest spacing. Pronounced reductIOn in ear size in 0.6m TOWS and similar number of ears/plant among row spacings, determined lower grain weight/plant and consequently lower grain Yield in the narrowest row spacing.Number of grains/ear, a component of ear weight, did not vary significantly amon~row spacings and between varieties, but it was significantly affected by variatIOns in plant density. The interaction variety x plant density was also significant (Table 2). These results indicate that grain number/ear did not influence the variation in ear weight observed among row spacin~s.Fig 6 shows that both varieties had fewer grains/ear in the higher plant densities, but the pattern of decline was different for each variety. Obregon 7643 had more grains/ear than Ferke 7822 at 40,60 and 70 thousand plants/ha, while Ferke 7822 showed higher numbers at 30,000 and 50,000 plants/ha. This difference in behaviour ~ave rise to a significant variety x plant density interaction. Increased plant competItion is the reason for fewer grains/ear at higher densities. Similar results were obtained by Mannino and Tano (1988), Dubas and Michalski (1983) and Tano et al. (1987).Weight of 100 grains, the other component of ear size, was significantly affected by variation among row spacings and plant densities and between varieties. None of the interactions showed Significance (Table 2).Higher values for grain size were obtained in rows spaced 1m apart, followed by 0.8m and 0.6m rows, respectively (Table 3). It indicates clearly that variations in ear weight observed among row spacmgs were strongly influenced by variations in grain size and less determined by number of grains/ear. Mannino and Tano (1988) reported that grain size was not infIuenced by variations in row spacing.Variety Obregon 7643 produced a significantly larger gram size than Ferke 7822, and both varieties howed a similar rate of decline in grain size as plant densities increased ( Fig 7). Increased plant competition is the reason for smaller grain size in the higher plant densities. Mannino and Tano (1988) reported that grain size was not affected by variations in plant densities, but Dostalesk and Hruska (1985), Dubas and Michalski (1983) and Tano et al. (1987) observed a decline in seed size in higher plant densities.Grain yield, grain weight/plant, grain weight/ear and weight of 100 grains were highest In rows spaced 1m apart, followed by 0.8m and 0.6m rows, respectively. Variations in row spacings had no significant effect on number of ears/plant and number of grains/ear.Differences in grain weight/plant observed among row spacings were mainly determined by differences in ear Size, which, in turn, were predominantly influenced by differences in grain size.Variety Obregon 7643 was higher yielding and more responsive to variations in plant density than Ferke 7822. While Obregon 7643 showed increased grain yields up to 60,000 plants/ha, the yield of Ferke 7822 started to decline after 50,000 plants/ha.Obregon 7643 produced heavier grain weight/plant, grain weight/ear and larger grain size than Ferke 7822, but for both varieties these traits declined with increased plant density. '\" , , 'fUI 1122 '\" '.-._-----.\", \" , ' , \" \" \", ,.,,,' ',' Reduction in ear size, due to increased plant density, was much more pronounced in 0.6m row spacing, resulting in lower grain weight/plant and lower grain yield at that particular row sJ?acing.Differences between varietIes in number of ears/plant and number of wains/ear were not si~nificant, but for both varieties, both traits declined with mcreased plant densitIes. Ologunde, 0.0. and Ogunlela, V.B. 1984 The best performing varieties obtained during the first period as well as some local or exotic composites were tested allover the country in 1983. Two of these, 374 and 383 were found to be promising and are presently recommended to the extension service and to seed production services.A wide varietal screening program has been undertaken allover the country since 1985. Several CIMMYT and lITA populations and IRAT varieties and commercial hybrids were tested. IRAT 200 (Ferke 7928) was found to be particularly performing well in the coastal zones of the North and West of the country compared with check varieties. The variety was also selected in the Lake Alaotra area. Its main advantages have been in its reduced height compared to the standard check varieties. It has been found resistant to lodging, particularly during cyclone periods.Two other varieties have been found promising and will be put to preextension tests. They are:Los Banos (1) 8227. This variety has a behaviour similar to that of JRAT 200 in spite of its height. Its main advantage is in the quality of its ~rain (flint orange) highly demanded by Malagasy farmers. This variety is adapted to the lower regions with elevation below 800m.Suwan (1) 8131. This flint yellow variety with reduced height is particularly attractive to the farmers because of its early maturity.1. Centre National de la Recherche Appliquee au Developpement Rural (CENRADERUjFO.FI.FA.)Varietal research program and ruture prospects Emphasis will be placed on varietal development in two priority regions:the highlands, where 55% of the country's maize is produced; the mid-west, a high potential maize region.Two stated objectives are: -formatIOn of varieties adap.ted to higher elevations (higher than 1200 m) and tolerant to acid SOlIs, intended for traditional farming, thus for low fertility conditions. These varieties should also be tolerant to Helminthosporium turcicum and to Puccinia sorghi. For this program we will use local collections introduced varieties from countries which encounter acid soil problems (Brazil, Columbia, South Africa, etc.) A screening method for tolerance to soil acidity is being developed. formation of varieties for mid-elevation (800 to 12oom) on fairly fertile soils which will receive fertilizers. This objective is easier to achieve than the first one. The target cultural conditions are not so extreme. Varietal screenins of introduced materials should bring satisfactory responses. Vaneties must be flint orange to satisfy consumers' preference.(b) Seed production Production of breeder's seed and foundation seed of recommended varieties is assigned to the research service while other categories of seed are produced by the Plant Material Service (SMV) at the Ministry of Agricultural Production and Agrarian Reform (MPARA).Starting with almost nothing in 1983, national seed production increased rapidly. At present \"polyhybrids\" 374 and 383 as well as composite IRAT 200 are multiplied. Marketing problems of produced seeds are encountered as in the 1986-87 period for several reasons related to the infancy of the seed production organization.The objectives of the agronomy program during the second period were: -determining fertility systems for various categories of users with optimal use of imported mineral fertilizer and local fertilizer resources. determining appropriate cultural practices (time and method of planting, maintenance, land preparation, disease and pest control).Different research trials were undertaken among which were the following: economic fertilizer, use trials including organic and mineral fertilizers, organic dates of planting trials with one or several varieties per site. maize based cropping system trials (studies of preceding crops, successions and rotations). various cultural practices trials (planting density, time and method of soil preparation, time and method of fertilizer application, method of controlling weeds and insects.Our choice was placed on regions of traditional maize cultivation which are the most populated in the island, even though some cultural conditions are not always optimum (soil fertility and acidity) but where, on the other hand, rainfall and temperature are rather advantageous.the central region where maize is grown between 1000 and 1800 m the mid elevation region (mid west and mid east) with elevation between 1000 and 800 m. These two regions receive 1100 to 1600 nun of rainfall per year, with mean temperatures of 17 0 -21 0 C and account for more than 70% of the national maize production. and last the northern coastal region where the climate is relatively less favorable but which is considered as a potential region, especially maize for export. limited mineral fertilizer use with low or medium doses that can be afforded by the farmers. study of better balanced moisture of organic and mineral fertilizer.It was shown from these experiments that: fertilizer application is indispensable to obtain correct yields; the most effective elements are, in order of importance, N,P,K, Ca and Mg. nitrogen has a net effect at the first year of application. It has some effect even at relatively low dose (30 units per ha). Nitrogen is the key element for the maize crop on our soils which are most of the time deficient in this element. phosphorus was also found to be an indispensable element as the great majority of our soils are very low in assimilable P (less than 500 ppm of assimilable Olsen P). The response of this element is often Important even in the 1st year of application. To be efficient, phosphorus must be al?plied at relatively high doses when starting to cultivate the soil (partlcularly on newly worked lands) even though correcting doses can also give satisfactory results.The fertility of most soils of maize croppin~region is very poor because these are mostly ferralitic soils (ferralsols, cambisols) fairly desaturated, of low exchange capacity and relatively provided with or~ank matter, except of those volcanic soils of a fairly recent origm (andosols, camblsols) less extended, and those soils of alluvial origin (fluvisols) in the great river valleys of the North west.This bad fertility, aggravated by low percent of adoption of fertilizer use by farmers has lead to development of economical fertilizer with the following emphasis.The maintenance dose, an annual application of 60 to 90 units of P 2 0 5 /ha, gave good results. potassium fertilizer is also indispensable to get a good production, but m general its application is necessarr. only after 2 to 3 years of cropping except on very deficient soIls. As potassium IS subject to leaching it is not recommended to apply high doses but rather modest doses but rather modest doses in 2 or 3 applications as possible. The usual maintenance dose (30 to 45 units of K 2 0 per ha) provides an excellent productivity (75 kg of maize grain per kg of KiD). CalcIUm and magnesium liming based on dolomite which is available in large deposit in Madagascar brings substantial yield improvement by supplying Ca and Mg which are lacking in acid soils (pH between 4.0 and 5.0).Repeated applications of high doses of dolomite (250 to 500 kg per ha) gave good results. Unfortunately, in the present conditions of exploitation and marketing of dolomite, the extended use of this liming agent is slowed down by its high price.In the near future the government is expecting national exploitation of dolomite deposit in order to supply farmers with this product at affordable prices. The use of lime as an agricultural liming is expected as well. An industrial lime factory was created in the suitable region.Cattle manure produced in farm exploitation is in general chemically poor and of low quality, it is often very strawy and used with much soil. Thus, the fertilizing value of such a manure is low, however manure application is always accompanied by an increase of yield. To be efficient manure must be supplemented with chemical fertilizer, mostly nitrogen and phosphorus, but most of the time addition of N, P, K, Ca and Mg is needed.On new lands, particularly those under natural prairies of grasses, application of high doses of manure is necessary to obtain a good level of production in reducing the fallow effect. Application of sole chemical fertilizer, even at very high dose, does not give any production in the first year and even in the second year. Manure, in its strawy state must be plowed under as early as possible before planting to allow it to decompose and not cause a depressing effect by blocking nitrogen. Manure helps to maintain the soil organic status and run the soil microbiological activity.Annual dose of strictly maintenance fertilization of 90N, 60 P205' 45 K20 and 500 kg of dolomite per hectare gave on the average 50 to 60 q/ha of maize gram of improved varieties (composites). To conclude, manure applied on acid ferralitic soils of high and mid elevation in Madagascar must be both complete and balanced.Continued monculture practice of maize, popular with farmers, has reached a certain level of degradation. This is very detrimental to maintaining soil fertility to the soil capital conservation and finally to maintaining an adequate yield level. Fortunately most of the small farmers practice associated cropping which diminishes degradation risks. From the first cycle of experimentation the following results may be drawn: grain legumes (ground nuts, soybean) as well as root crops (cassava) are the most desirable precedIng crops for maize. maize may stay for 2 to 3 years in the system without degrading the soil in fertility. succession of cereals and legumes are advantageous and best are: soybeans -maize -soybean -maize groundnut -maize -groundnut -maize soybean -maize -maize -soybean maize• soybean -maize -soybean efficiency of intensification depends greatly on the considered rotation but it may be said that in general chemical weeding is more efficient on cereals than on legumes, when hand-weeding seems to be the best practice yet to handle weeds when labor is not a problem (in terms of quantity and availability).Farmers, especially those practising hand or even animal drawn agriculture are faced with great time constramt in soil preparation often resulting in late sowing. Dates of planting trials always showed that early sowings done at the onset of the rains are the most productive in the climatic conditions of Madagascar. The most favorable period for maize planting in the high lands is situated between mid-October and end of November as shown by results of trials carried out in different regions of the country: High plateaus 15 October: 59 qJha of maize grain 5 January : 15 qfha Middle West 14 November: 64 q/ha 28 December: 30 q/ha Lake Alaotra region (Middle East)12 October: 57 q/ha 13 January: 23 qJhaThe trial \"Land preparation x dolomite\" showed that land preparation at the be~nning of the season when the soil still has moisture, consisting in breaking up lightly and plowing crop residues under with heavy disks, foUowed after some time by plowing and eventually harrowing, prevents the soil from compacting by eliminating repeated running of the machines on the plowed land. Such a procedure allows a more complete decomposition of cro~residues and manure, a more efficient control of weeds (those whose seeds gernunated after the first operation) are destroyed during plowing.In the area of varietal improvement we have not yet found, for the hiẽ levation regions, varieties that yield better than those recommended long tlOle ago. On the contrary for the low elevations, some CIMMYT varieties gave rather satisfactory results, they are Los Banos (1) 8227 and Suwan (1) 8131. As far as agronomy is concerned the need for fertilizer application and liming was confirmed as well as the benefit from integrating maize in crop rotations.Legesse Dadi and Gemechu Gedeno 1Insufficient supply of plant nutrients is one of the major problems contributing ~o the low yield in Bako area. An on-farm experiment aimed at selecting an agronomically and economically acceptable fertilizer rate was initiated in 1984. Seven selected fertilizer rates were tested on producer cooperatives farmers' fields. The highest yield of 44.7 qt/ba and net benefits of 680 and 841 birr/ba were obtained with the application of 100/50 N!P20S kg/ha using AMC and open market maize prices, respectively. The net-benefits from treatment 41/46 N!P205 kg/ha were 646 and 786 birr/ba using AMC and market prices respectively. Acceptable Marginal Rates of Return (MRR) were obtained from treatments 41/46 N/P 2 0 5 kg/ha and 100/50 NjP205 kg/ha at AMC and open market prices, respectively. This shows that profitability of fertilizer can be increased with an increment in output price. Sensitivity analysis indicated that if the fertilizer price is increased by 10% and 15%, treatment 41/46 N/P 2 0 S kg/ha remains profitable under AMC and open market prices. In conclusion, the station recommendation of 75/75 N/P 2 0 S kg/ha was not economically viable under farmers' conditions. The results from this experiment show that the blanket recommendation of 41/46 N!P205 kg/ha is more profitable at current fertilizer prices and AMC and open market maize prices.In the Bako area of Ethiopia, maize is the dominant crop grown by all farmers and occupies 50% of the cultivated land per household (Legesse el al. 1987). The farmers' maize yield in the area is slightly higher than the national average (Benti et al. 1988) but 60% and 75% lower than the yield obtained from demonstration plots on farmers' fields and at Bako research center, respectively.Insufficient supply of plant nutrients is one of the major problems contributing to the low yield. Farmers use manure to alleviate this problem. However, the problem is not fully solved because of manure scarcity. In the case of producer cooperatives, only draft oxen are owned in common and use of manure is more limited. Farmers also use crop rotation in an attempt to minimize this problem.Fertilizer trials were conducted at Bako research center and a recommendation for fertilizer use by farmers of 75/75 N/PZOS kg/ha was made based on physical response, neglecting socio-economic circumstances facing these farmers especially cash limitation. As a result the fertilizer recommendation was not taken up by farmers. Because of this and other problems, a survey was conducted to assess farmers' socio-economic circumstances. The farmers were delineated into two target groups, individual farmers and producer cooperatives. Grouping of farmers was based on organizational structure and crop management. Organizational structure is important because producer cooperatives have more access to inputs, credit, and extension services. Hence, they differ significantly from individual farmers in some aspects of crop management (fertilizer rate, variety, planting method etc.).On-farm experiments aimed at selecting an agronomically and economically acceptable fertilizer rate were initiated in 1984. These experiments were conducted for the producer cooperative farmers who have more access to fertilizer than individual farmers. Hence, the results are not necessarily applicable to individual farmers who face different input and output prices.The experiments were carried out on farmers' fields between 1984 and 1986. Based on their previous performance at the research center, seven selected fertilizer rates (Table 1) were tested on producer cooperative farms at 2 to 5 locations each year in four sub-districts (wereda).The altitudes of the experimental sites range from 1,640m to 1,840m above sea level. The soils are more or less similar, red-brown clay with average of 60% clay contents. Rainfall ranged from 960mm to 1,101mm while that of research center was 1156mm. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block with one and two replications per site in the second and third year, respectively. The sites were considered as a block for the across year analysis. The plot size was l,OOOm 2 in 1985 and 198m 2 in 1986. The plot size was reduced to minimize the effect of soil heterogeneity among the treatments.Urea and DAP were used as sources of Nand P 2 0 5 . DAP was broadcast at planting. Urea was split into two, one half applied at planting and the remaining half at knee height stage. Maize was planted in rows at a spacing of about 75 x 30 em using oxen. Land preparation, planting time and weed management were set at representative farmers' levels. Planting was done in the second half of May and farmers' weeding practice; hoeing, inter-row cultivation by oxen, hand pulling and slashing were performed on average 22, 29, 56 and 96 days after planting, respectively.History of the experimental sites was recorded during site selection. Relevant agronomic data were collected during the experimental season and labour data were collected at the time the activities for each treatment were undertaken. Maize was manually harvested. Yield was adjusted to standard 12.5 percent moisture.Analysis of variance was carried out on the yield data. For economic evaluation, partial budgeting was used. To estimate the economic parameters, maize was valued at the official fixed price of 26 birr/100 kg and at an average open market price of 30 birr/100kg. Labour was valued at 1.95 birr/day, oxen at hiring price of 0.64 birr/hr, fertilizer at the official fixed prices of DAP 0.72 birr/kg and Urea 0.55 birr/kg for producer cooperatives.Table 2 depicts yield data and statistical results. There were significant differences between treatments in both years and across years. The highest mean yield of 44.7 qt/ha was obtained from 100/50 N/P 2 0 5 kg/ha. According to the Duncan Multiple-Range Test (DMRT) (Gomez and Gomez, 1984), treatments that received 100/50 and 75/50 N/P205 kg/ha gave significantly higher yield than the ch~ck at P=0.05. The center recommendation of 75/75 N/P 2 0 5 kg/ha was not significantly different from the highest yield nor the lowest (the check). The same was true for 41/46 N/P 2 0 5 kg/ha, the blanket recommendation. On average there was a 9 kg grain increment for each kg of nutrient used. The lowest increment of 6.2 kg grain/kg of nutrient used was obtained from the station recommendation.Labour input costs for weeding, harvesting and threshing vary between treatments. The costs for the three operations increased as the rate of fertilizer increased (Table 3). For treatment 100/50 N/P 2 0S kg/ha a total variable cost of 36S birr/ha was estimated while 41/46 N/P 2 0 5 kg/ha caused a total variable cost of261 birr/ha (Table 3).Table 3 shows net benefits from each treatment at two price levels. The highest net benefits of 680 birr/ha at AMC price and 841 birr/ha at open market price were obtained from treatment 100/S0 N/P 2 0 S kg/ha. The treatment 41/46 N/P205 kg/ha gave net benefits of 646 and 786 birr/ha at AMC and open market Ethiopia has a population of 47 million people and it is estimated to be gro~n~at ~.9 per cent per y~ar. If the prese!!t ,trend continues, by the year 2000, EthiopIa WIll have a populatIOn of 65 to 67 rrnlhon people. The economy de(>ends heavily on agriculture. A~iculture contributes around 50 per cent of Ethiopia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), involves 86 per cent of the population and generates over 90 per cent of the export earrungs (DAONCCP, 1988). And its performance inevitably has a ripple effect on other sectors of the country's economy.Ethiopia has a wide range of agro-climatic conditions. One can find arid and wet zones in different parts of the country. There is a wide variation in altitude, soils and temperature. The major cereals ~rown in Ethiopia are tef (Eragrostis tfJI' wheat, barley, maize and sorghum. Maize 1S a relatively recent introduction (16 Century) but its cultivation has increased rapidly because of its high yield potential.As is true of the cereal sector as a whole, the country's self-sufficiency in maize has been declining over the years. Consequently, maize is one of the fOUf national priority crops, the others being wheat, sorghum and barley (Dejene et aI., 1987). Substantial resources are being allocated to support research and extension in maize. This paper outlines the principal socio-economic constraints to maize production in EthIOpia paying particular attention to production technologies.In Ethiopia maize ranks first amon~the major cereals in production and yield per hectare and fourth in total area (Table 1).Maize is widely grown in the eastern, southern, central, south-western and western mid-altitude parts of the country. It is an important crop representing between 40 to 50 per cent of the total production of the western regIOn (Ethiopian Mapping Authority, 1988  ----------------------------------------------------------- Maize is produced under three types of conditions in Ethiopia; small farmers, producer cooperatives (collective farms) and state farms. Compared with the other two sectors, state farms use more modern production technologies such as improved seeds, commercial fertilizers, herbicides, tractors and combine harvesters.Recent data on maize area and production indicate that small farmers cultivate 88 per cent of total maize area and produce 86 per cent of total maize produced in the main season (CSA, 1987). State farms account for six per cent of the area and ten per cent of production. Producer cooperatives contribute less than three per cent of maize area and production (table 2).  Table 3 shows annual growth rates for maize area, production and yield over various periods. For the 40 year period between 1948-50 and 1985-87 maize productiOn in Ethiopia increased from about 0.16 million metric tons to 1.45 metric tons. The average production growth rate for that period was 5.8%. The major source of growth in maize production was through expansion in area which grew at 3.53 per cent annu~ly. The growth in area was even more dramatic between 1948-50 to 1961-63, averaging 9.24 per cent annually over the period.A large number of farmers have shown great interest in growing maize due to its high yield potential (Dejene et aI., 1988) and the fact that it matures early for consumption relative to other food crops. However, as indicated in Table 3, from 1961-63 to 1985-87 ~rowth rate in area under maize and hence growth in maize production has declIned significantly. In fact there was a reduction in maize area between 1970-72 to 1979-81. There are many factors accounting for the decline in these growth rates. These include the droughts of 1974-75 and 1984; lack of oxen and seed in the years following the drought; unavailability ofinputs; and high price of inputs.The growth rate in maize production for the period between 1961-63 to 1985-87 has been on average less than the currently estimated population growth rate of 2.9 per cent per annum. But this is in keeping with the general picture of food production in Ethiopia. For instance, from 1973 to 1984 food production in Ethiopia grew by 2.1 per cent while the population growth rate was 2.9 per cent. The maize production growth rate over the same period was 1.5 per cent (DAONCCP, 1988). Hence maize production as well as food production in general is not keeping pace with population growth.Table 1 shows that maize ranks first in yield per hectare relative to other cereals but this yield is still far below its potential. The growth rate in yield has been low as seen in Table 3 except for the period 1970-72 to 1979-81 when the growth rate on average was about 4% per annum mainly due to changes in the crop reporting system.However, as shown in Table 4 the average maize yield in Ethiopia is high relative to most countries in Eastern and Southern Africa as well as Sub-Saharan Africa. This has been mainly due to (1) the high yields realized by the state farms on average of 2.3 tons per hectare compared to 1.6 and 1.2 tons by the peasant and producers' cooperatives respectively, (2) favourable weather, and (3) concerted effort to promote the use of modern inputs in high potential areas where maize is a major crop. However, the yield is low relative to other developing countries. For the period 1983-87 it was on average 79% of the yield of other developing countries. Source: CIMMYT and FAO tapes.Maize is produced mainly under rainfed conditions by small farmers using little or no purchased (modern) inputs. Farmers use rudimentary implements such as a wooden plow with a small metal tip -\"maresha\"; yoke, and shovels. Generally, irrigation is not used in maize production but farmers with access to irrigable land produce maize in the off-season either using open furrow irrigation or residual moisture on bottom fields. In distribution of fertilizer and seeds, government gives priority to producer cooperatives and state farms. Thus state farms and producer cooperatives use more fertilizer and improved seeds than peasant fanners.Table 5 shows data on cultivated areas by farmers In different regions of the country. Generally the area cultivated per farmer is small ranging from 0.7 to 3.5 ha. On average the maize share of cultivated areas ranges from 21 to 59 per cent in the main maize producing regions of the Western, Central and South Western zones. In some highland areas with altitude of 2000 meters and above such as Bale and Gojam, maize is a backyard crop and the area allocated to it is small.Maize production depends heavily on animals for draft power. Oxen are the main power sources. Most peasant farmers use a pair of oxen for land preparation, seed covering and cultivation commonly known as \"Shilshalo\".Maize fields are plowed on average 2-3 times using local plow called \"Maresha\", drawn by a pair of oxen (Table 6). Many farmers lack oxen (Table 6); they obtain them from neighbors in exchange for labour, grain, and/or cash. Hoe is the major tool for maize land preparation in limited areas producing root crops.  ----------------------------------------------------------- State farms operate mechanized farms covering up to 15,000 ha. Thus state farms and a few producer cooperatives use tractors for maize land preparation and planting. Improved production technologies such as improved seeds, chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides are widely used by the mechanized state farms. Insecticides are sprayed by aeroplanes. State farms out-yield peasant farmers by 1/3 in cereal production. The majority of peasants who produce 86 per cent of the maize crop do not use these modern production technologies, Improved maize varieties and hybrids are most ~ommonly used by state farms, producer cooperatives and farmers around the research centers. Locally produced and imported hybrid seeds are used exclusively by the state farms. H-625 and CG4141 are produced locally and H622, H632 and H511 are imported. A survey done in the Balm area indicated that 40 per cent of individual farmers and all producer cooperatives grow improved maize varieties (Legesse et aI., 1987). The Improved vaneties used by these farmers are usually mixed. In the Nazret area 67 per cent of farmers grow Katumani, an improved variety (Tilahun et al., 1987). However, the overwhelming majority of farmers who produce maize in Ethiopia use local varieties. They usually select seeds from their own fields at the time of harvesting.Nationwide, less than 10 per cent of farmers use chemical fertilizers although in some localities the figure is over 50 per cent (Table 7).  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ----------------------------------------------------------- Some farmers use farmyard manure to improve the fertility of their fields. Many farmers assign their most fertile fields to maize production (Legesse et al., 1987 andAleli~e et al., 1989). For example, farmers in the Adet and Bahar Dar areas grow maIze around their houses, where the crops benefit from the application of manure and household refuse.Weeding practices vary from area to area. Some farmers hoe their maize. In most locations farmers also cultivate with oxen one to three times. According to farmers oxen cultivation removes weeds, reduces lodging, and conserves moisture. It is done on both row planted and broadcast maize. Most farmers supplement shilshalo with slashing.Small farmers and producer cooperatives (PCS) produce maize mainly for consumption. However, a substantial amount of maize is marketed by these groups to meet financial needs. In the Bako area, the amount marketed ranges from 40 to 50 per cent of total production per household (Franzel et al., 1989). State farms produce for the domestic market.Maize is usually sold through three channels: First farmers sell their marketable surplus directly to consumers in open markets. Second, farmers sell to service cooperatives (SCs) on quota basis at fIXed prices. SCs serve as agents of Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) which buys maize for distribution to consumers in cities in grain form. Third, farmers sell to private traders who may market the maize locally or transport it to other areas of the country. The marketin~channels for grain have shifted sharply in recent years. In 1982 service cooperatIves handled 38% of grain marketed. In 1986/87, the volume handled by service cooperatives rose to 80% and the volume handled by private traders fell to 13% (Faught, 1988). Table 8 shows maize purchased by AMC over five years. AMC also purchases maize directly from State farms and PCs on quota basis. Quotas are set at national level and then distributed at different administrative levels: regional, district (Awraja) and sub-district (Wereda). The Wereda distributes its quota to SCs and SCS to PAs. Finally, PAs dlstribute their quotas to farmers. In the first years, quota implementation was a directive from the top based on national needs. Since 1985, however, a degree of flexibility and feed-back from the local level has been introduced in the assessment and distribution of quotas (Franzel et al., 1989).Different criteria are used in allocating quotas. At the national level, past AMC purchases and the planned level of purchase, crop production prospects, estimates of marketable surplus, size of administrative unit, and the number of households are taken into account. Beginning recently at the PA level, quotas are fixed based on perceived wealth of a household using such indicators as area cultivated, number of oxen owned and non-farm income.The AMC price is fixed and uniform throughout the country and over seasons. The maize open market price differs from place to place and over seasons. It is determined by demand and supply relationships. In years of good production, as in 1987, the maize open market price approaches the official fixed price or falls below it. For example, following the huge maize harvest in 1987 in western Ethiopia, maize prices fell below the AMC producer price of 22 birr/lOO kg and even below 15 bm for 100 kg of maize.Maize is stored for consumption or for later sale in local stores, in bags (sacks) and other containers. In some areas it is stored with cobs. The local stores ~ary in size, form and in materials from which they are made. Some of the local stores are made of stick and mud reinforced with tef straw and cow dung. Some are made of bamboo strips and other wooden materials. Underground pits are used to store maize mainly in the eastern part of the country. Maize seeds are stored in cobs in well aerated place or fumigated with smoke to control weevils. These kinds of storage result in substantial losses of maize due to weevils and rodents. Farmers in the Bako area reported 25 to 33 per cent loss in less than six months due to weevils (Legesse et al., 1989). Others have estimated 16 to 20 percent loss in maize grain stored for one year (Anonymous, 1987).Recently many off-fann stores have been constructed by SCS, state farms, the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission and AMC. These stores have larger capacities than those used on-farm.Maize has different uses in Ethiopia. It is used mainly for making \"injera\" (thin pancake-like bread), bread, porridge, and for malting and brewing. The green cob is roasted or cooked and the grain of the cob is eaten. The leaves are used as animal feed and the stalk, when dried, as firewood for cooking. Maize grain is not used for feed, except in rare instances.Cereals provide 69% of the calories in the Ethiopian diet. Maize contributes 27% of these (CIMMYT, 1981). Maize is widely consumed in eastern, western and southern Ethiopia. It is mainly consumed in rural areas. Low income urban dwellers also consume maize because it is much cheaper than the highly preferred food crop, tef. Maize flour blended with 90 per cent wheat flour is used for bread making In urban areas. The use of maize for industrial purposes is not common but there is a plan to establish a plant which will process maize into oil, starch, and glucose (Ethiopian Food Corporation, Personal Communication).Table 9 indicates the consumption of maize in Ethiopia over the last 25 years. The total consumption of maize over this period has more than doubled. The per carita maize consumption has also increased steadily over the same period. The armua growth rate in per capita maize consumption over the same period has been 0.74 per cent. There has been a major decline in the armual growth rate of per capita maize consumption over the last seven years mainly due to the drought of 1984-85 which resulted in substantial decline in production.  1979-81 1985-87 1961-63101985-87 1961-6310 1970-72 1970-1210 1979-81 1979-81 10 1985 Source: CIMMYT and FAD Tapes.At present maize is generally not a highly preferred food in Ethiopia. Even maize producers who consume maize as a staple food prefer to consume tef (Le~esse et aI., 1987). In spite of this problem the growth rate of demand for maize is directly proportional to the populatIOn growth rate. Per capita income growth rate is another important factor which can potentially increase the demand for maize. However, given the zero growth rate for the 1965-1986period (World Bank 1988), the demand for maize will be determined mainly by the population growth rate.Ethiopia has remained fairly self-sufficient in maize consumption over the period 1961-63 to 1985-87. Maize consumption is bound to increase ~ven the high rate of population growth especially in maize producing areas where It is a staple food.The distribution of fertilizer in the country is not efficient. In most cases fertilizer is not distributed in time for planting. This is especially a problem for maize since maize is planted early compared to other crops. For instance, in the Bako area this problem frequently occurs and farmers either delay their maize planting waiting for fertilizer arrival or plant without it.Farmers complain that the fixed maize price which is 22 birr/lOO kg is low. The low fixed price does not encourage farmers to purchase improved inputs to produce more maize. For instance, most farmers also find fertilizer prices to be too high when compared to the official maize selling price. The ratio of fertilizer (DAP) price to maize price is 4.7:1. For individual farmers on-farm maize fertilizer trials at 35 sites over the years 1984 to 1987 showed that assuming fixed AMC prices, fertilizer was profitable at only 3% of the sites. Using local market prices which are much higher fertilizer was profitable at 72% of the sites (Franzel et al., 1989). Hence it would appear that raising official maize prices would encourage the use of fertilizers.A shortage of power also limits maize production. About 70 per cent of farmers in Ethiopia do not have sufficient number of oxen required to pull the local plow, \"maresha\" (Awoke, 1988). Roger Hay (1988) also reported that 29% of all rural households do not own an ox for plowing, the majority own only one. Surveys undertaken by the Institute of Agricultural Research (JAR) in different regions of the country made similar observations. About 65 per cent of farmers in Bako area, 45 per cent in Adet and 37 per cent in Nazret areas have less than two oxen and hence face serious draft power shortages. This problem results in reduced area cultivated, untimely land preparation and plantmg. Poor seed bed preparation in turn, results in poor crop stand and high weed infestation.Low cash income is considered a major limitin~factor to maize production. The credit for developing maize production is insuffiCient. The Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank (AID Bank) extends credit to rural areas; loans to PAs are provided through well established and legally recognized service cooperatives. Producer cooperatives which are not legally recognized cannot receive loans. It thus excludes all the other service cooperatives, producer cooperatives which have not yet attained legal status (Awoke et aI., 1987). Since the location of the AID Bank branches are usually not within the reach of farmers they are not encouraged to apply for loans. Loans are used for oxen, equipment purchase or for developmg infrastructure like grain stores.Nearly all fertihzer supplied to small farmers is sold on credit through their Peasant Associations (PAs). If more than 5 per cent of a PA's fertilizer debt is not repaid then credit is not extended to them the following year (personal communication with MOAstaff). Moreover, farmers who are unable to settle their overdue debts on the previous year's loans are not allowed to receive a new loan (Awoke et al., 1987). If farmers have a poor season they can neither repay past loans nor obtain credit to allow them to increase production in the next season.Weaknesses in research and extension programs are also problems limiting maize production. In recent years many measures have been taken to improve and make the research and extension systems effective. However, these systems are inadequate to develop appropriate technologies and make them available to producers. There is a lack of a strong and well coordinated research -extension linkage at the grass roots level. For exam{>le, in some areas research and extension have contradictory recommendations. ThiS has a negative effect on the dissemination of research findin~s. Research Extension Liaison Committee (RELC) has already been estabhshed by the JAR to bridge this gap. It is hoped that RELC will strengthen the linkage between research and extension although the linlc is still weak.Other socioeconomic constraints on maize production as identified through various surveys conducted by IAR's Farming Systems Research Teams include seasonal labour shortage and inadequate transportation and marketing facilities.The growth in maize production in Ethiopia has been mainly due to wowth in area under the crop. The powth in area has, however, declined substantIally over the last 15 years and growth III production can now be expected to come mainly from increase in yields which are generally low.The majority of maize producers are small farmers who as we have seen hardly use any of the well known yield increasing technologies. These technologies such as improved seeds and chemical fertilizers will have to be made available to farmers in a timely and affordable manner. Lack of draft power is also a major constraint to maize production. This constraint can be relaxed through proVIsion of credit for the purchase of oxen.Marketin~infrastructure such as roads, transportation facilities and storage are essential for mcreasing maize production. At present the majority of peasant producers have limited access to these facilities. If peasant farmers are expected to Increase their maize production through the adoptIOn of modern technologies, improvements in infrastructure will have to be coupled with a lucrative incentive structure. Most importantly, maize prices should be increased relative to inputs' prices. Sustained increase m maize production will arrest the slowly declining selfsufficiency in maize consumption. Maize is grown in all the 32 districts of Uganda, production being highest in the Western districts of Lira and Apac. In terms of area planted, maize is estimated to have occupied in the 1970-78 period, an average of about 8.5 to 10 per cent of the total land under cultivation. The maize area in Uganda peaked in 1976 (527,000 ha) while the lowest planted was in 1980 (258,000 ha). The total area planted in 1988 was estimated to be about the same as in 1970. The yields for the 1970-87 period averaged 1.27 tfha. Lowest yields of 0.8 tfha was recorded in 1984.The decreases in area planted in 1980 and productivity in 1984 relative to the other periods can be I?artially explained by the negative effects of the conventional war of 1979 and the Civil war during the 1981-86 period. Total production of maize increased 5.2 percent from 1970 through 1978, while it has on the average remained about 357,000t since 1980 (Table 1).Several types of maize under rainfed conditions are produced in Uganda, but corn-soft white IS prominent, and is primarily utilized for human consumption. A small proportion of the production enters the commercial marketing channels. Imports have contributed a minimal proportion of total supply and are mainly controlled by the Produce Marketing Board (PMB). About 20 percent of the domestic maize is marketed through PMB and cooperatives. The PMB provides much of the long period storage. The remainin~80 percent is marketed by private traders who provide much of the transport facihties and the money for crop finance. This study describes and anaylises pohcy issues in maize production, marketing, and consumption in Uganda. The policy objectives and the degree of government intervention are presented in the second section. In section III findings and policy implications are presentd. Methods of accelerating maize production and the summary and proposals are presented in sections IV and V respectively. The study was jointly funded by CIMMYT and MFADfUSAID Project.Economics, Makerere University.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLICY OBJECfIVES AND GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION Presently, Uganda's objectives of food and agricultural policy are formulated in the context of an overall strategy for economic growth and development. The agricultural sector is expected to play a leadin~role in providing sufficient food to feed its fast growing urban population, and to mcrease and diversify agriculmral exports so as to enhance the ~eneration of foreign exchange. However, the basic objectives of agricultural pohcy to increase food output, decrease production costs and achieve higher net returns to land and management may conflict or compete with other government objectives.These other objectives include development of the industrial sector, increase exports, increase employment, lower inflation, decrease fiscal and balance of payments imbalances, and provision of higher incomes. Selecting a course of action for example; adoption of an exchange rate policy, price policy and changes in domestic interests to encourage savmgs, requires the acceptance of trade-offs between these various objectives.Production and marketing strategy efforts in maize, however, have been given little attention. In addition to production and research constraints, the possibility of increasing maize supply is severely hampered by the fixed producer prices announced by the government at the start of the fiscal-budget year. Since there is no seasonal variation in price, investment in private storage infrastructure is discouraged.Eventhough maize there is not an explicit government policy concerning corn, the features above combine to provide it considerable control over the prices and the distribution of maize in Uganda. The state-owned institutions, the PMB and the Ministry of Marketing and Cooperatives (Me) were created to control the marketing and distribution of basic agricultural inputs and outputs.However, only about 20 percent is marketed through the PMB and/or MC, the remaining 80 percent is marketed by private individuals. In addition, the PMB had been the exporter and only importer of maize. The importation of maize has been exonerated from all types of tariffs and duties.Agricultural policy simply defined is a statement of goals and objectives and instruments to attain them, aimed at increasing the rate of agricultural development. In pursuit of agricultural development, four basic problems which call for policy statements are encountered:(i) What quantities of agricultural commodities to produce;(ii) What marketing services for consumers and producers to use;(iii) What farm production methods to employ, and(iv) How to divide the national income between the rural and urban population.To address these issues the Uganda Government has adopted agricultural policies which may be divided into four categories, namely: price, marketing, trade and structural policies. The government has invested a vast amount of its resources in price and marketing interventions through institutions such as marketing boards and state trading corporations, but has had difficulty controlling and operating these enterprises successfully.Moreover\\ like any other aspect of economic policy, in pursuit of wider political and socioeconomic objectives, ~overnment marketing agencies have generally paid low real prices to domestic producers, discouraging agricultural development, have sometimes done a poor job of marketing, generally experienced high marketing costs, and caused large market distortions. Thus, the government in implementing agricultural policy, should attempt to invest its resources in marketing interventions that will provide high returns to society. It means, identifying areas of intervention where tht private supply of marketing services is not likely to be forth coming. This can mean less government involvement in many areas of the marketing system and deep involvement in a few segments.An Overview of Agricultural Policy Objectives Uganda's a~ricultural objectives now include policies which work through the price system, poliCies which directly affect the decision environment of producers and consumers, and strategies involving the institutional arrangements used to implement agricultural policies. The government's stated policy objectives are:to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of staple food at the national level and enhance food security. It means increased and stable food supplies; with diminishing dependency on imported foods. to stimulate and increase the production of crops to provide adequate raw materials to the country's agro-industries and to broaden the export base; to increase the contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product and to create employment and income opportunities in the rural sector; to promote a more equitable distribution of income towards closing the rural-urban income gap and improving nutritional standards; to generate government revenue and increase foreign exchange earnings; and to improve the efficiency of state enterprises and cooperatives towards reducing government subsidies and the fiscal deficit. The need to stabilize agncultural prices in order to help farmers in production planning and to ensure the availability of food supplies to consumers at stable and reasonable prices has been a major influence on the design of agricultural policies. However, the goal of raising the relative incomes of Uganda's rural sector has not been a prominent one.. Presently, Uganda is focusing on activities to facilitate further development of competitive production and marketing organizations in order to achieve its development goals.The Produce Marketing Board and Cooperatives and Marketing still act as marketing agents, at prices, of basic a~ricultural commodities such as maize and beans determined by the government III its fiscal budget. Agricultural price policies have kept domestic producer prices of maize well below border price levels at the prevailing exchange rates. This comparison is relevant because border prices represent the trade opportunities Uganda faces. The above state-owned agricultural institutions were created to control the marketing and distribution of basic outPlJts and inputs.However, the PMB coexists with the private sector, and it uses private traders to carry out purchase and distribution of certain agricultural commodities. In addition, the confluent effect of monetary, trade and fiscal policies in the current macroeconomic environment of Uganda work against the agrIcultural sector. Export taxes on agriculture continue to provide over 50 percent of Uganda's tax revenue. And the administrative convenience and efficiency of collecting tax revenue and foreign exchange earnings through the parastatal body is recognized. Thus, trade distortions may account in part for productivity gains in Uganda's agriculture being well below levels obtaine in many other countries over the past decade.A final aspect of discrimination against the agricultural sector concerns the overvaluation of the Uganda shilling. Its effect is to lower the prices of traded goods relative to prices of non-traded goods. For a country such as Uganda. which is small in terms of world markets, an overvalued currency affects prices of exported and imported commodities uniformly. Moreover, it limits Uganda's competitiveness in international markets.And since agricultural products have been a major source of exports, the overvalued exchange rates have taxed Uganda's agricultural export producers heavily. Presently, the government is side-steping this problem by exporting agricultural products through barter trade arrangements.In pursuing its objectives of growth and redistribution for the agricultural sector the Uganda government faces the following seemingly insurmountable constraints of:an unexpandable land base in the context of fixed amount of land, high rates of farm tenancy and population growth; a foreign exchange constraint which is expected to persist well into the 1990's as a result of the debt burden which is hindering the rehabilitation of Uganda's conomy; a history of allocating a relatively low share of public expenditure to agriculture and a larger share of subsidies to the state owned enterprises. a low level of use of better agricultural technologies, which limits aggregate production; structural bottlenecks including inadequate power and water supplies, and lack of transport; and lJladequate budgetary resources to support agricultural services, like extensIOn. With respect to availability of land capable of sustaining productivity gains, there are a number of potential areas in Uganda which still have low population densities of less than 60 persons to a square kilometer (Mubende district in the Central re~ion and Hoima, Kabarole, and Masindi districts in the Western regions). As shown III Table 2, about 66 percent of the total cultivable land has remained unused.In the face of the above situation, maize has been identified as one of the most likely crops whose production should be increased. It is gradually replacing millet and sorghum as the most important cereal crop in the northern {'arts of Uganda. Due to population pressure, intensification of maize productIon will become of increasing importance, and research should focus on intensifying techniques for the future.Uganda has a large potential for maize cultivation in all its regions, but particularly the Western region around Masindi district.  ----------------------------------------------------------- In examining the approach taken for past agricultural policy selection, it is apparent that the majority of decisions have been reached without substantial empirical analysis, particularly with respect to the longer-term impacts of the policy instruments or actions selected. There is no empirical evidence on supply, demand, and marketing response with respect to price changes, institutional and technogical variables. The policy implication is that today, Uganda's policy decision makers are coming to understand and demand more empirically based process and analysis to support decisions.With respect to maize improvement programs limited work has been done when compared to those of cotton and coffee. Clearly, a major problem of the maize industry in Uganda today is not one of demand but supply. Its production can Q.e increased either by expanding the area under maize, or by technological changes such as the introductIOn of new varieties, or both.For maize production to be expanded, the economic returns must be sufficiently high to enable it compete favorably with the other crops grown on the farm. This analysis implies that government has to pursue a vigorous pricing policy to make maize an economically competitive farm enterprise.As concerns marketing, it has been pointed out that PMB and the cooperative have played a key role in implementing government pricing policy. However, marketmg through cooperatives has been popular only with export crops. Hence, very little maize is handled by them. The PMB transactions are carried out on its behalf by licensed private produce buyers who, unfortunately interprete the announced producer price as the maximum price, and are not prepared to buy maize at any higher price.In this context, the existence of public enterprises to implement price policy has had the undesirable effect of induclDg econOIDIC inefficiency in the performance of marketing functions. That is, in addition to the direct effects of piice policy itself, it is clear that resources are being inefficiently allocated by public enterprises in transportation, storage, processin~, and sales functions of agricultural commodities.Therefore, the policy implication is not that the removal of public enterprises from agricultural markets would lead to a resolution of all of the apparent inefficiencies in U~anda's agricultural marketin~sector. Rather Uganda takes advantage of policies which diminish the distortIOn in domestic prices by permitting the private sector to take on a greater role in performin~a~ricultural marketing activities, the need for state enterprises will, with time dinunish accordingly.Under present economic conditions, Uganda's research and new technology development in maize have been scarce. However, research in itself is not meaningful and effective unless its findings are adopted by farmers. In examining the question of accelerating maize production, we need to keep in mind on the one hand, that research is one fundamental.piece, because it increase the availability of new high yielding varieties.On the other hand, policy analysis is the second fundamental piece, because it is a useful instrument to tell us the proportion at which available new maize technology will be utilized. In other words, commodity analysis has been and will continue to be the tool in income and price policy determination. It helps us to determine the shapes of supply and demand curves for maize and its products, identify the critical shifters and measure their technical and economic effects in particular geographic afeas.If we can in fact identify the shifters, which will be at work under the new technology alternatives being analyzed and those brought into play by the policy under consideration we can estimate the rate of implementation of the new production technology, the potential number of producers to be affected, and the relative change in production and consumption of maize.Increasin~maize productivity on Uganda's currently farmed lands, more and better maize vane ties have to be developed that can be grown profitably in areas with poor soils, difficult moisture conditIOns, and other environmental constraints. Because farmers are responsive to the amount of economic incentive provided by the new technology, the adoption of new maize varieties would be rapid. However, a balanced emphasis is needed in linking technological discoveries With economic information and the policy process.. In examining the approach taken for past agricultural policy selection, what emerges is the clear implication that the majority of decisions have been reached without substantial empirical analysis, particularly with respect to the longer-term impacts of the policy instruments selected. We have found that the major problem facing a~riculture in Uganda is instability resulting from a domestic agricultural policy biased against agriculture.There is not a specific policy devoted to promote either maize production or its consumption. However, there is a uniform system of administered prices which does not reflect seasonal price variations or regional differences and not been very conducive to increased production. The poor marketing system has led to large quantities of agricultural commodities produced (including maize) illegally finding their way across the country's borders. While it was beyond the scope of this study to identify and/or rank those marketing activities J?erformed inefficiently, it is clear that in addition to the direct effects of price policy Itself, the resources allocated by public enterprises to perform transport, storage, processing, and sales of functions tend to be used inefficiently compared to the level of performing of these functions by the private sector.In the past, the amount of coordinated research designed to enhance the production and service delivery of hi~h quality seeds as well as the dissemination of agricultural knowledge and information to the farmers throu~programs of extension services and training, have remained substantially madequate. Greater productivity in the agricultural sector will occur in the long-run as farmers learn how to use new production technologies.For unplementation of the thoughts and suggestions presented, we would offer the following proposals:(i) that applied agricultural research su~ply for new technology, in particular to improve maize productIOn be increased, and more emphasis should be put on the various managment and economic aspects of research results; (ii) that as public enterprise are phased out of the marketing of agricultural commodities, public investments in market information, market analysis, and infrastructure should be increased. Perhaps the first priority should be given to the development of a market informatIOn system; (iii) that more investment and time should go to commodity price analyses that feed into commodity policy decisions. Analysis of world and domestic market conditions and forecasts of future producer intentions and consumer demands are also Important; and (iv) that a series of maize specific in-depth empirical economic studies be conducted at the national and regional level. There is a need to provide more detailed analysis of supply and demand responses as well as market behavior. In 1986/87 a survey was conducted to identify the major cultivation systems in the lava region of Rwanda. The research consisted of defining crop rotations in relatively homogeneous areas and identifying, in the above areas, the main operational crop rotations and the major features of farming techniques in use in the same areas.Two major areas were identified: from 1,700 m to 2,100 m, the farming systems were basically characterized by the presence of banana plantations and the timing of the cropping cycles over the two rainy seasons. From 2,200 m to 2,600 m, pyrethrum replaced banana plantations as a perennial crop and farming was practised throughout the year. Change from one system to another was progressively effected from 2,100 m to 2,200 m.The understanding of crop rotations and combinations enables researchers to orient their investigations.The objective of Phase I of the Birunga Maize Project was to remove the technical constraints for the intensification of maize in 7 districts of the lava region (Rwerere, Mutura, Nkumba, Kidaho, Kinigi, Mukingo, Nkuli). Although very variable, this region is considered homogeneous at the national level. The various agricultural features mainly result from the altitude, the exposure (particularly for the Eastern and Western slopes of the Karisimbi) and the types of lava flows on which the soils develop. The technical agricultural diagnOSIs, the search for solutions to the limiting constraints identified and the formulation of recommendations for the region as a whole point to a need to define more precisely the cropping system of the region.A survey was therefore conducted in this context by the Birunga Maize Programme of ISAR. The survey, among otheIs. things, described and characterized the major fanning systems in use in the region . This article describes the areas which may be considered to be homogeneous in terms of crop rotations and combinatIOns and points out the major features of the farming techniques. We shall then see how this approach could generate information on how to orient our agricultural research and efforts.The major part of the survey was carried out through investigations with farmers and follow-up of traditional crops. The two approaches were preceded by a review of the available literature. * A farming system in the strict sense is a set of farming techniques uniformly carried out on a cultivated parcel of land. In a wider sense, a fanning system is a type of farming characterized by rotation, crop combinations and at a lower level, the cropping sequences followed. however, be cautiously considered since the sampling was essentially centred on higher altitude areas: six of the sectors studied were above 2,200 m and two were below 2,200 m while the 2,200 m contour line divides the lava region in two areas of comparable surface. In addition, since the survey was carried out at the national level, the lava region was considered as being homogeneous.A survey by Delepierre and Prefol (1973) gives us a first view of the altitudinal distribution of crops in Rwanda •• Finally the reading of soil occupation maps (Rram 1987, IGNB andMaps of Rwanda 1986) helped to check some of our zonation data (area and location of tree and banana plantations).The Survey The first survey consisted in touring the region during each of the two crop seasons and mappinj?; out the crop rotations (on a 1/100,000 background map). The aim was to locate rew~vely homogeneous areas in terms of roughly assessed percentages of SAD occupied by the various crops (excluding tree plantations). The second survey was used to determine the various rotations practised by farmers. It was carried out on 10 farmers randomly selected in each of the abovementioned homogeneous areas. Each farmer was requested to list for each of his fields the various crops planted over the last 5 seasons and to specify as accurately as possible the respective plantation and crop periods (timing in a series of ten). The analysis of the second survey enabled us to identify regular crop rotations and combinations for all the cultivated fields surveyed in the same area.The foUow-up of the traditional crQR.\\Was carried out in the 1987 A and B seasons during which technical sequences were recorded.The comparison of the rotations or shifts mostly observed with the shift zoning enables us to identify the major agricultural systems of the region.Farming in Lava Soils: Generalities The analysis of ENA 1983/84 throws some light on the major farming features in the lava region (Castanie, 1987). The average size of the farm is approximately 1.1 ha accommodating 5.4 people out of which two are active. Farmers in the pyrethrum plantations (located above an altitude of 2,250 m) were allocated 2 ha at the time of their settlement 25 years ago. 25% of the stock breeders possess more than 6 cattle and 75% of the farmers own some goats or sheep.Cultivated Crops Delepierre and Prefol (1973) present the distribution of crops in Rwanda and in the lava region. The Blrunga region may be divided into two different areas: below the altitude of 2,100 m where beans, banana, sorghum and maize are the major crops; and above 2,200 m where pyrethrum, potatoes, maize, green peas and wheat are found. The system progressively changes between 2,100 and 2,200 m.Tables 1 and 2 summarize some of the conclusions of the national agricultural survey of 1983/84. It is to be noted that the data provided relate especially to the lava region and the higher altitude areas above 2,200m... IGNB Belgian National Geographical Institute • •• SAD Used Agricultural Surface .... Technical sequence (Sebillotte, 1978) is a lo~ical and time regulated combination of cultivatIOn techniques uniformly applied to a cultivated area.     ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------~--------------------------------------------Note: For SAU, the totals are higher than 100% since some crops are associated. free plantations are uniformly spread over the region in a relatively random manner as far as our survey is concerned (Ram, 1987). It is also to be noted that tree and banana plantations generally occupy less deep and more stony soils. In addition banana ptantations are usually situated in the vicinity of a rugo (rugo = dwelling-house plus its paddock).The 2,100 mand 2,200 m contour lines subdivide the region into three areas.Those subdivisions correspond to the presence or absence of crops. The peculiarity of each major area seems to be linked with the basic composition of the soil or its exposure. Rotation 1 (maize in season A and beans in season B) in the banana plantation occupy 20% of the cultivated land; that rotation 2 (sorghum (B)maize/beans (A» occupy 40% of that land; and that rotation 3 (maize/beans (B)sorghum (A» occupy 30%.The vanety of the farming techniques has not been adequately described. We should however point out the major features of those techniques are:The ploughing is always done in 2 to 3 m wide ridges. This technique enlarges the volume of soil available for the roots. Indeed, 60% of the lava soils are adequately deep ( < 30 em). The farmer scrapes the soil until the lava becomes visible between the ridses thus formed. In 40% of the cases, the soil is adequately deep (> 1 m) but the special nature of the soil creates a B horizon which is unfavourable to the penetration of the roots (An~e, 1987; Castanie, 1988). Crops are usually weeded twlce and fields are generally very clean. For maize and sorghum, the weeding often lays bare the roots of the plants, although we cannot confirm that this practice lowers the output.Farmers are aware of the importance of climbing beans. They say the lack of props is the main obstacle to the extension of the species to replace the dwarf beans.Season A and B sorghum and season B maize are planted in a high density manner. One or two thinnings are effected at weedings in order to reach an optimum density while keeping the roots as firm as possible.Season A sorghum is p'lanted from the month of July in the fields of the season B beans stIll unharvested. In dee~soils planting is also done in ridges and pricking out can be done III September to offset the potential failures in ridges. Banana plantations benefit from an important fertility transfer. Canes of sorghum and haulms of beans broUght into the rugo are usually subsequently thrown in the banana plantations.Fanning Systems in the Lava Region Two major systems may be defined from the general results attained for the cultivated crops:We have below 2,100 m a system which can be termed as a banana/beans/sor~hum system. Banana has a higher value in this system because of Its economic importance and the length of time it occupies the soil. Maize is also present although with less importance than the other three crops. The area between 2,100 m and 2,200 m is an intermediate area for the crop rotations and combinations observed. We have above 2,200 m a potato/pyrethrum/maize/green peas system with a less significant wheat crop. This system IS characterized by potato because of its economic value, by pyrethrumFanning systems and erosion: The understanding of crop rotations and combinations facIlitates the knowledge, at any time of the year, of the size of the fallow, ploughed or cultivated land. Companson of the above resul with pluviometric data enables us to assess the erosion risk of a farming system (Castanie, 1987), irrespective of the anti-erosion apparatus developed on the slope.Extension of such a Study to other Regions of Rwanda 5.3.1 Feasibility and Importance It should be possible to extend such a study to other regions. The presentation of already existing data could be sufficient in some cases. A pragmatic synthesis would therefore be undertaken by: -presenting the results in the form of maps and easily legible tables; reaching a consensus between the need for an accurate description (with the risk of multiplying the areas) and the necessity to have operational results (wlth tbe necessary simplification required). In cases where the necessary data are not available, a one-year period would be required to comprehend rotations and combinations for each season. The following year would be used to test the results.It was noted that the results of the research may be readily used by the breeder. It is also a requisite step for any agronomic diagnosis. The same results may also be used to assess water and mineral presence. They can also enable us to quantify the importance of the various crops in a particular region to complete the results of the National Agricultural Survey 1983/84 (on a wider scale).As stated above the inventory of rotations is effected through investi~ation with farmers who are requested to recall the crops cultivated on each of then lands for the last five cycles. The accuracy of the answers decreases with time.Crop rotations are assessed through visual estimations. There is therefore a certain degree of imperfection which could be limited by comparing estimations of two different persons although the accuracy arrived at seems to be generally satisfactory.The description of the crop rotations is done from observations made at the field level. It would therefore be useful to analyse the possible effects of the production systems on the farming systems. In the lava region it is likely that richer farmers do increase the SAU part reserved for cash crops uch as potatoes.The farming systems in the lava region promote an intensive exploitation of the naturall?roduction factors (water, minerals, solar energy) in terms of space (association) and time (rotation). This is made possible by the avaHability of the required labour and the absence of a reaJ dry season. It seems difficult to consider more intensive systems without additional inputs such as new species or varieties, fertilizers, etc.The survey of the systems is an important step towards an objective understanding of agriculture. It enables us to draw conclusions that are readily useful to breeding (selection criteria) and to development (possibility of si~ning agreements with some farmers for the production of off-season seeds). t IS also a prerequisite for any dia~nosis.The efforts reqUired for carrying out such a survey are neither extensive nor extremely demanding. They require a one-year period to observe the various crop rotations and combinations in each of the two farming seasons.Additional work could be undertaken to analyse the farming systems of the region in the framework of agricultural adaptation to the environment. Response of rainfed crops to fertilizer application primarily depends on moisture availability and inherent fertility status of the soil. Peasant farms in Zimbabwe are situated in all the five Natural Regions (agroecological zones) of the country, but they tend to be concentrated more in the semi-arid regions, and on soils that are light textured and less fertile. Agronomy Institute of the Department of Research and Specialist Services in Zimbabwe initiated a trial on farmers' fields at eight sites representing the communal (small scale, peasant) farming areas of the country in 1986, to develop agronomically optimum and economically appropriate recommendations for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization. These trials, managed by research stafTwith the participation of fanners, examined the response of maize to factorial combinations of 0, 30, 60, 90, and UO kg of nitrogen and 0, 20, 40, and 60 kg of phosphate per hectare. Examination of results from the first three years of experimentation ending in April 1989, showed that there was significant response to applied nitrogen at 14 out of the 20 sites. However, there was hardly any response beyond 60 kg N per hectare even in the best of the growing conditions available during the three years. The response to phosphatic fertilizer was statistically significant at only seven out of the 20 sites and only four sites showed significant interactions between the two nutrient factors. At a minimum acceptable rate of return of 100 per cent, nitrogen application was economic at all the 14 sites where the response was statistically significant. About half of these attained the highest marginal rates of return with applications of up to 30 kg per hectare. Calculated at 50 per cent acceptable minimum rate of return, phosphatic fertilizer application was economic at four of the seven sites at which the response was statistically significant. The highest marginal rates of return were obtained at 20 kg per hectare of phosphate in three of the cases.Maize is the staple cereal of the majority of Zimbabweans. Its production aecounts for 70 per cent of the country's total hectarage under cereals. During the past five years, about half.of the maize bought by the Grain Marketing Board came from communal (small-scale, peasant) farming areas. Communal area farms are situated in all the five Natural Regions (agro-ecological zones) of Zimbabwe. However, 91 per cent of them are in Natural Regions III, IV and V (Mataruka and Whingwiri, 1988), which are characterised by low and erratic annual rainfall (450-800 mm) and relatively short seasons, making them unfavourable for intensive rainfed cropping (Vincent and Thomas, 1961). In addition, a large £roportion of the soils in these areas are coarse-grained sands derived from granite (Grant, 1981). These tend to have low levels of available nitrogen and phosphorus, and a low water-holding capacity.Despite these adverse conditions, communal area farmers, who rely entirely on rainfall, continue to grow maize. The Chemistry and Soil Research Institute of the Department of Research and Specialist Services, generated response curves on 1. Agronomy Institute, Department of Research and Specialist Services, P.O. Box 8100, Causeway, Harare, Zimbabwe which fertilizer recommendations for maize are based. However, these response curves were derived mainly from work done in intensive cropping areas on heavy soils. In 1980, the gronomy Institute of the same department, initiated an on-farm trial at several sites to evaluate the applicability of the recommended fertilizer levels to communal area environments, which In the main are situated on lighttextured soils. Levels studied over the years included different proportions (zero, one quarter, half, three quarters, one, and one and a half) of the recommended rates. In most cases the recommended level was about 350 kg per hectare of compound Z (8% N, 14% PZ05' 7% K29, 6.5% S and 0.8% Zn) and about 4q<) kg per hectare of ammonium rutrate (34.5% ). Results from the 1983 to 1985 tnals mdicated that in these environments significant increases in grain yield were generally realised through applications of not more than half of what was recommended after soil analysis (Mataruka and Whingwiri, 1988). Therefore, in 1986/87, the Institute modified this on-farm trial to specifically develop fertilizer recommendations that are agronomically optimum and economically appropriate to the communal farmers.In this paper, results obtained from the first three seasons of the modified trials are discussed both in agronomic and economic terms with a view to further streamline future research.The trial was conducted on farmers' fields during the 1986/87, 1987/88 and 1988/89 cropping seasons. Eight out of the 170 designated communal areas of the country were chosen for this trial. In each season, a different site was selected for experimentation, within a maximum of 5 km radius in any given communal area. This makes a total of 24 extJerimental sites across the three seasons. Soil and rainfall information for these sites IS presented in Table 1. The day-to-day trial management was done by the research staff with farmers only participating in land preparation and weeding.The fertilizer treatments consisted of five nitrogen levels (0, 30, 60, 90 and. 120 kg per hectare) and four P205 levels (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg per hectare) in a randomized complete blocks design.~trogen was applied in the form of ammonium nitrate (34.5% N) and phosphorus in the form of single super phosphate (18.5% P205)' Nitrogen application was split, with 30 kg per hectare applied at planting except in the zero treatment. The remainder was applied as topdress at four to six weeks after pl,mting. All the phosphate and a uniform dressin~of potassium (60 kg K 2 0 per hectare) were applied as basal. All fertilizer applied as basal was band-pfaced in 6-8 cm deep furrows about 10 cm away from the crop rows. A short duration three-way hybrid, R 201, which is widely grown by communal area farmers was planted at a spacing of 0.9 x 0.3 metres (37 000 plants per hectare). The gross plot area was 32.4 square metres with the plots having six rows of six-metre length. Yield measurements were made from the two middle rows, with a metre being discarded at each end of the two rows, leaving a net plot of 7.2 square metres.In 1986/87, which was the driest of the three seasons, trials at four out of the eight sites were not harvested due to drou~ht. However, data were obtained from all the sites in 1987/88 and 1988/89. A combmed analysis of variance was done for 20 sites across the three seasons. This analysis showed significant interaction effects of treatment factors with the season and SIte, on maize grain yield. Due to these seasonal and site effects on grain yield response to nitrogen and phosphorus, a siteby-site analysis was subsequently done. 3.1. Grain Yield Response to Treatment Factors 3.1.1. Response to nitrogen Grain yield responses to nitrogen application were significant (Po=O.OS) at 14 out of the twenty sites (Figure 1). In 1986/87, grain yield responses to nitrogen were significant at two (Marange and Rushinga) out of the four sites. Both sites had low levels of available soil nitrogen. However, responses were significant only up to 30 kg nitrogen per hectare at both sites.In 1987/88, significant responses were realised at seven of the eight sites,with-response at Rushinga being significant up to 90 k~nitrogen per hectare.Zvimba, Chiwundura, Marange and Mutoko showed YIeld responses up to 60 kg per hectare of applied nitrogen, while at Ntabazinduna and Zaka the response was significant only up to 30 kg per hectare (Figure 1). In 1988/89, only five of the eight sites had significant grain yield responses to applied nitrogen. At four of these sites the responses were significant up to 60 kg mtrogen, while at the fifth there was no significant response beyond 30 kg nitrogen per hectare (Figure 1).Available soil nitrogen was low and ranged from about 12 kg (8 parts per million) to about 40.5 k~(27 parts per million) per hectare (Table 1) at all site but one, where there were significant responses to nitrogen application.Significant grain yield responses to applied phosphorus (P20S) were only noted at seven sites. At Marange a'1d Zaka III 1987/88, significant increases in yield were obtained at 60 kg P20-S per hectare. In 1988/89, notable increases in grain yield were realized with P2U-S applications of 20 kg per hectare at Chiwundura, Ntabazinduna and Zaka, while at Mutoko and Marange significant yield responses were obtained only at higher levels of 40 and 60 kg per hectare, respectively (Figure 2). Five of these sites had deficient to marginal levels of available soil P 2 0 S (Table 1).There were very few situations which showed significant nitrogen and phosphorus interactions on grain yields. These were Marange and Zaka in 1987/88, and Cbiwundura and Marange in 1988/89. At these sites, combinations of 30 to 60 kg nitrogen with 20 to 40 kg P 2 0 S per hectare seemed to have yield advantages over other combinations..2. Quantification fFactors lnnuencing Grain Yield Response to Nitrogen.Since season and site strongly influenced grain yield response to applied nitrogen, an effort was made to identify the factors responsible for the differences in response. Inherent soil nitrogen of the experimental sites, and rainfall received throughout the cropping season or during different phases of crop growth were selected as possible factors that could have influenced the response. In order to relate these factor to response, there was need for a single parameter that quantifies the rate of response.The grain yield response to nitro~en howed a curvilinear trend at all sites and there was no significant grain yield lOcrease beyond 60 kg nitr0sen per hectare, except at Rushinga in 1987/88. At 12 of the 14 sites which showed significant response to nitrogen, the relationship up to 60 kg nitrogen per hectare seemed to be linear. Regression anaIy is for the 14 sites showed that at 12 of them 84.4 to 99.8 per cent of the variation in grain yield can be explained by the linear function of nitrogen up to a level of 60 kg per hectare. Corresponding figures for the other two sites were 62.9 and 24.8 per cent.   The slopes from this regression analysis, which represent the rate of response to nitrogen (kg grain J?er hectare per kg of applied nitrogen), were regressed Wlth either available soil mtrogen, seasonal rainfall (pre-planting to matunty) or rainfall in the six weeks when silking and tasseling took place. A linear relationship between the soil nitrogen and the response was almost non-existent. Some relationships between response and seasonal rainfall (r=0.62) and between response and rainfall in the J?eriod during silking and tasseling (r=0.66) were noted. This seemed to underline the importance of moisture aVailability in enhancing response to applied nitrogen.Quantification of soil moisture availability, which is affected by soil texture, would be necessary. This, rather than the rainfall, could be used in grouping sites into different recommendation domains in future.Economic analysis was done with the view to select treatment levels for further investigations. Net benefits and marginal rates of return (MRR) were calculated for those sites at which grain yield responses to nitrogen and phosphorus were singificant.Most communal area farmers in Zimbabwe have no access to credit facilities. Therefore, the minimum acceptable rate of return (MARR) to the farmer must be estimated. Since most of these farmers use their own capital to invest in adjusted and/or improved technologies, they would expect a MARR more attractive than the benefit realised when the money is used to satisfy their other needs. In selecting the MARR, all these aspects were taken into account.The fourteen situations, which had significant grain yield responses to nitrogen application, had varying significant mar~inal rates of return. At an estimated MARR of 100 per cent, in most cases It seemed to be more economic to apply between 30 and 60 kg nitrogen per hectare and occasionally up to 90 kg per hectare (Figure 3).It would not be realistic to expect high returns from phosphorus applied in one season on a specific field, since Its apphcation is most hkely to have an impact on the build up of soil phosphorus and thus be beneficial in the subsequent seasons. These possibilities were taken into account when a MARR of 50 per cent for phosphorus was selected.• Of the seven sites that showed significant grain yield response to applied phosphorus, five produced marginal rates of return above 50 per cent (Figure 4). At four of these, MRR were more than 50 per cent at the lowest level of P205 application (20 kg per hectare).No firm recommendations can be made from this trial as yet. However, the following seem to be apparent:1) Recommendation domains need to be more clearly defined using such parameters as inherent soil fertility and soil moisture availability at critical growth stages. To be accurate, quantification of soil moisture availability should be based on soil physical characteristics, the quantity and distribution of rainfall and evaporative demands.Both statistical and economic analysis suggest that it may not be realistic to have levels higher than 90 kg mtrogen per hectare in future trials on communal farms, since even in the best of the growing  conditions available during the three seasons, there was hardly any response to applied nitrogen beyond 60 kg per hectare. Only a few situations showed grain yield response to phosphorus application. This could be due to its relative unavailability initially, when applied to phosphorus-deficient soils. Therefore, it might be necessary to quantify the cummulative benefits of phosphorus application on the same field over several seasons. In order to circumvent the variability caused by season and site differences, clarity at recommendation stage may be achieved by:doing a sensitivity/risk analysis or calculating marginal rates of return from certainty equivalents, which are in turn based on weighted net benefits and on probabilities of occurence of a certain type of season.Maize is the most important food crop in Malawi as it is the staple food for over 80% of the population. Being a staple food, the Government's aim is to attain and maintain self-sufficiency in maize at both national and household levels even in years of adverse climatic conditions and other natural disasters. Surplus maize is sold to the marketing board, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), at guaranteed prices and tbis maize forms the reserve to meet the country's needs in years of poor production.At present, about 1,190,000 hectares (ha) ofland (about 70 % of the arable land) in Malawi is under maize, with a total production of approximately 1,290,000 tonnes (Department of Agricultural Research, 1986). This gIves an average yield of 1.08 tonne/ha which is very low compared to the 6-10 tonne/ha yields obtained at research stations.With a population growth rate of 3.7% per year, Malawi's population is expected to rise from the present 7.9 million to 10.6 million people by 1995. The per capita maize consumption in Malawi is 250-300 kg per year. Malawi will therefore require 2.64-3.17 million tonnes of maize to feed its population and this maize will have to be produced on the same 1,190,000 ha of land. A big challenge therefore exists to increase the average maize yields from the present 1.08 tonnes to at least 2.10 tonnes/ha by 1995 if the country is to meet its food requirements without expanding the area under maize. Increased maize yields above this level will result In less land required for maize, and this should release land for other crops.A large potential exists in increasing yields through a mix of research, extension, and good marketing incentives. This paper is about some of the maize research conducted in Karonga, Blantyre and Lilongwe A~ricultural Development Divisions (ADDs) by the Adaptive Research Programme 10 the past few years.Maize research in Malawi is mainly done by the Maize Commodity Team based at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station in Lilongwe and the Adaptive Research Teams based in the ADDs. The Maize Commodity Team, comprising of agronomists, breeders, an entomologist, and a pathologist carries out both onstation and on-farm research. The overall objectives ofthis research are:1. to develop maize varieties of high yielding potential with good response to fertilizers, and 2.to determine the best cultural practices for the developed varieties. Adaptive Research Teams conduct most of their research on farms. Their main roles at the ADD are:1.to strengthen research/extension linkages 2.to improve on the low adoption of technologies 3.to fine-tune research recommendations to suit local conditions, and 4.to facilitate and guide commodity research towards priority problems faced by farmers. When fully staffed, each Adaptive Research Team will be comprised of an a~ronomist and a socio-economist. There will be one team in each ADD. Malawi is divided into eight ADDs (Fig. 1). At the moment, there are programmes in seven of the eight ADDs, but only two of them have full team members.Since its inception in the 1983/84 season, Adaptive Research Programme has actively participated in maize research, with over 50% of its programmes dealing with maIze. Before looking at some of this work, it is important first to understand how these programmes are developed. The origin of this trial was the informal fanner survey in Mwamkumbwa area (Chitipa RDP) in March, 1988. In that survey, farmers expressed that in addition to the long dry spells experienced in the area, rains often start late and end early making it difficult for farmers to get high yields from lon~season varieties such as DCA, MH12, and local maize. This necessitated the testmg of early maturing varieties.Early in 1988, the Maize Commodity Team had two early maturing maize composites, CCC and CCD, which were to be released for medIUm to high altitude areas and marginal or low altitude areas, respectively. Adaptive Research saw these composites as a potential solution to the Mwamkumbwa problem and other areas with similar rainfall problems such as Lupembe/Mlare area in Karonga Lakeshore plain and Symon area in Mwanza. Thus m collaboration with the MaIZe Commodity Team, a trial was initiated in the 1988/89 season to evaluate the yield of CC and CCD composites under farmers' conditions and to expose these varieties to fanners and Extension Field staff before fanners start growing them.The trial was conducted on farmers' fields at two sites in Karonga ADD, two sites in Blantyre ADD, and two sites in Lilongwe ADD. In Karonga ADD, one site was at 1,500 m.a.s.1. (Mwamkumbwa) and the other site was at 475 m.a.s.l. (Ngwenyama and Gobede in Symon) while in Lilongwe ADD both sites were at 1,200 m.a.s.l.Tuxpeflo, CCA, and local maize were used as checks in Karonga ADD while Tuxpeflo, CCA, Kalahari Early Pearl, and local maize were used as checks in Blantyre ADD. In Lilongwe ADD, DCA, CCA, and Kalahari Early Pearl were used as checks. The design was a randomized complete block with three replciates per farm in Blantyre and Lilongwe ADDs, and several individual farms as replicates in Karonga ADD.Plot sizes were 6 ridges x O.9m x 6.3m gross and 2 ridges x 0.9m x 5Am net. There were three plants per station, giving a population of 37,000 plants/ha. The trial received 72 kg N/ha in Karon~a ADD and 60 kg N/ha in Blantyre and Lilongwe ADDs. Half of this fertihzer was applied as 20:20:0 within the first two weeks of planting and the other half as CAN at knee high. In Blantyre ADD, the maize was intercropped with semi-determinate cowpeas as is the common practice of growing maize in the area. Weeding and pest control were kept at farmer level.A continual dialogue was maintained with farmers throUghout the growins eason to get their impressions on the earliness in maturity, plant height, and gram flintiness of the new composites. This was done through discussions with individual participating fanners and through fanner Field Days at different growth stages. A Field Day was also conducted for Chitipa RDP Extension Field staff at Mwamkumbwa to give them a chance to look at the new composites.Yields of the seven maize composites are presented in Table 5. In Lilongwe ADD, yields were very low, less than 2 tonnes/ha. This was attributed to termite damage and waterlogging at the Lilongwe and Thiwi Lifidzi sites, respectively. In Blantyre ADD, yields were slightly higher than in Lilongwe ADD, about 2 tonnes/ha. There were no significant (p = 0.10) yield differences between the new composites, CCC and CCD, and the other composites, CCA, Tuxpeflo, Kalahari Early Pearl, and local maize in Karonga and Bfantyre ADDs. Differences in yields between CCC or among CCA, Tuxpeno, alahari Early Pearl, and local maize were also not significant except at Mwamkumbwa where CCA and local maize not only outyielded (p = 0.10) Tuxpeno but also gave higher grain yields than the other composites. The poor performance of Tuxpeno at this site was due to termite damage which showed consistent attack on Tuxpeno, CCC, and CCD relative to CCA and local maize.In Lilongwe ADD, Kalahari Early Pearl yielded higher than the other composites, especially in Thiwi-Lifidzi where it significantly outyielded the oth r composities. In Lilongwe RDP, there was no yield differences between the new composites, CCC and CCD, and the other composites. In Thiwi-Ufidzi the new composites and DCA significantly (p=O.Ol) outyielded CCA but not Kalahari Early Pearl.Lack of diffferences among the composites at most sites suggests that fanners can grow any of these composites and expect the same yields. Fanners should therefore be given a choice on the varieties they may want to grow and the choice of these varieties will depend on varietal characteristics such as earliness in maturity, plant height, and grain flintness which farmers may consider most important. Fanners and Extension Field staff impressions on the new composites were as follows:Earliness in maturity:Most farmers were quite happy with the earliness in maturi~of the new composites, particularly that of CCD, saying that it would easily reheve them of food shortages before the late maturing varieties were ready. In areas where farmers practises relay cropping, farmers may find these composites more suitable than late maturing varieties.Fanners were quite impressed with the flintiness of the new composites, especially that of CCD. Farmers prefer flint to dent maize because of better pounding qualities in flint maize.The much shorter plant size of the new composites compared to CCA, Kalahari Early Pearl, and local maize also impressed farmers. Farmers said that plant lodging due to strong winds in the new composites will not be as high as in the tall varieties., CONCLUSION Differences in yields between the new and the old composites were sm Il in Karonga and Blantyre ADDs. However, significant differences in grain yields were observed in Lilongwe ADD. The varieties farmers may grow should therefore not only depend on ~ain yields but also on varietal characteristics especially differences in time to matunty, plant height, and grain flintiness. This paper reviews the types of results that 6-8 years of on-farm research has developed for maize production by smallholder farmers in southern Africa. It is shown that the technology output has been quite conventional and to date, of limited impact on maize productivity. This has been due to the operational nature of on-farm research and the limited ways it has interacted with component research, extension and policy makers. However it is suggested that the farmer problem orientated approach demonstrated by on-farm research is becoming better understood and appreciated by component researchers and extensionists alike. Ideas are presented on how expansion of this approach will facilitate and widen the potential areas of advancement in smallholder maize production.On-farm research (OFR) has been adopted by most National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in southern Africa with the assistance of donor agencies and International Agricultural Research Centres, as a complement to traditional station-based research. OFR is expected to improve the capacity of NARS to effectively respond to the production problems and opportunities of smallholder fanners, who are not well placed to make their needs known to researchers directly, and who operate under a diverse set of circumstances.OFR teams have conducted diagnostic studies to identify research opportunities and tested potential solutions to production problems in trials under typical conditions faced by farmers in an area. OFR teams have often worked closely with farmers and extension agents in conducting this •research. In deciding what technologies to work on, heavy emphasis has been placed on drawing from existing component (i.e. commodity and disciplinary based) research. Problem identification has tended to concentrate on biological and physical limiting factors and on resource constraints in the one or a few crop enterprises important in the cropping system. These are problem areas where the prospects of utilizing and adapting specific existing technologies as solutions in the short term are good.Many OFR teams in southern Africa have been operational for six years or more and a question that is being increasingly asked by donors and directors of agricultural research and extension is \"what results have been achieved by OPR?\".In this paper we seek to examine that question for smallholder maize produ tion technology in southern Africa. We review the main research thrusts that have been developed by OFR teams and provide some evidence on the type and extent of the productiVlty gains obtained. This review shows that the output from OFR has been quite conventional, as may be expected for a well established smallholder crop such as maize, in which considerable component research has been conducted over a long period of time. However the important new dimension associated with OFR has been the adaptation of these standard technologies to  Traditionally, maize production practices and input levels have been developed assuming early planting, but OFR has shown many farmers are and will continue to be constrained to plant late and as a consequence suffer reduced grain yields (e.g. for Zimbabwe; Shumba, 1984Shumba, , 1988Shumba, , 1989b)). In a survey and a trial over four years (1982/83-1985/86) in Mangwende Communal Area, Zimbabwe, Shumba (1989b) found that the grain yield of hybrids such as SR52 and R215 were reduced by about 1.3% per day for the period from the first effective planting rains until some 50 days later.Recently OFR has suggested that research should therefore devote some effort to developing maize materials and practices specifically for later plantings (Waddington & Kunjeku, 1989). Suggested research includes breedin~maize for early maturity, with ability to tolerate i) deep or shallow seeding assoCIated with rushed planting, ii) weedy seedbeds, iii) low radiation levels, iv) waterlogging early in crop development and v) low soil fertility. An examination of likely benefits from bringing forward the time of first weeding and time of topdress to accommodate the faster rate of crop development with late planting merits attention.Agrononuc monitoring f late planted farmer fields, to identify the causes of low yields, has been underway in Zimbabwe for two years (1987/88 and1988/89) (DR&SS andCIMMYT, unpublished).In ox-cultivation systems in southern Africa draft power shortages are common (e.g. Shumba, 1984;Seubert, 1988;Masi et al. 1988;Baker, 1988) and result in delayed and hurried land preparation after the onset of the rains. Households without their own draft capacity are often forced to wait until draft owners have completed their own initial land preparation. before being able to hire. This results in delayed planting and reduced grain yields.Hurriedly prepared seedbeds also result in low emergence percentages and increased early competition by weeds. Reduced or zero tillage options have been examined to address these problems.On-farm trials compared different combinations of pre-and post-emergence perbicides without tillage, with ox/hand weeding and conventional ploughing (Waterworth & Muwamba, 1989). A combination of Gesaprim (pre-emergence) and Gramoxone (post-emer$ence) gave significantly lower weed scores at the time of top dressing compared With conventional tillage and ox/hand weed control. However gr~n yields were not significantly different. Zero-tillage released 14 m3.1ldays ha-o~weeding labour on land that had been cultivated for 1-2 years and 24 mandays ha-of weeding labour on land that had been cultivated for more than 2 years.In addition. zero-tillage eliminated the need for oxen and provided even seedbeds. Potentially it would allow earlier planting by those having to rely on hired oxen for conventional tillage. A greater cash outlay was required than for conventional tillage but rates of return on this increased investment were of the order of 400%, (assuming market wage rates are wed to value family labour).On-farm trials in Mangwende, Zimbabwe, compared reduced tillage (use of a ripper tine) with conventional mouldboard ploughing. The tine treatment gave no significant yield difference, but resulted in increased weed competition (Sbumba,  1989a & b).Use of t~e tine resulted in a reduction of oxen and labour ~e for plou2bini by 11 hours ha-and a reduction in planting time of22 !Ipurs ha-. However, thetune needed for weeding was increased by 106 bours ba-. Incorporation of berbicide into the reduced tillage option eliminated the extra wee~time required and resulted in a marginal rate of return of 1680% on the extra casb mvestment required (Shumba, 1989a & b). A major advantage of the reduced tillage option is in providin~tbe potential for ox hirers to begin maize planting earlier and so achieve hi~er YIelds. Though in this case that possibility is dependent on ox owners using the tIDe to speed up their ploughing operations.In high potential areas optimu~maize plant population densities are well established (around 40,000 plants ha-). However for semi-arid areas, or in late planting or low input situations in the better areas, optimal plant populations and how they interact with rainfall, variety and soil fertility have not been established (Waddington & Kunjeku, 1989). Surveys and observations on smallholder farms indicate that achieving target plant population densities is a widespread Pfoblem even in high potential areas. Commonly densities of 15-20,000 plants ha-ari. achieved where farmers are aiming at the recommended 35-44,000 plants ha-. Poor quality seed and seedbeds, insect attack, dry spells, soil capping and inappropriate planting equipment and methods are among the reasons for achieving such low plant populations.Plant population density and fertilizer interaction trials indicated that local maize without fertilizer should be planted at 25,00<>-28,000 plants ha-. Uttle response to iertilizcr was obtained beyond half the recommended hybrid rate of 132~haunder ne~average rainfall for the area. A ~igher plant population of 30,000-35,000 plants ha-was appropriate with 66kgN ha-. MMV600 (an improved variety) responded well to fertilif,er so that the fertilizer and plant densIty recommendations (40,000 plants ha-) for hybrid seemed to be also appropriate for MMV600 (Waterworth & Muwamba, 1989).On-farm trials-in Swaziland looked at ways of helping farmers achieve higher plant population densities. Modifications of the ox drawn planter were tested wliich placed basal fertilizer about 2cm to one side of the seed rather than on top of it. This modification raised see~ng emergence from 60% to 80-100% under low rates of basal fertiliZer~lk~ha-), and from 20% to 80% under higher basal applications (22k ha-1 ) (Seubert, Mamba & Patrick, 1988b).AssOCIate trials demonstrated that economic benefits of higher fertilizer applications were dependent on achieving high plant population densities. Other tests provided guidance to farmers on how to calibrate the fertilizer hopper to deliver the required amount of basal fertilizer at planting and how to match seed size with planter plates to minimize seed damage at planting (Seubert et a1., 1988b).In most parts of the region where maize is grown, maize is the dominaot crop in the fanning system. It is grown often as a sole crop or near sole crop for several years 00 the same fiece of land before being replaced for a season by another crop. Over large areas 0 southern Zambia, parts of Malawi and most maize areas in Zimbabwe and Botswana the soils are sandy. To yield well on these soils maize has to receive inorganic fertilizer inputs.Most smallholder farmers apply basal fertilizer after emergence, rather than at plantin$ as is currently recommended on the basis of station research for commerCIal farmers. Reasons given by farmers for delayed applications of basal fertilizer include shortage of labour at planting time, risk of wastin~fertilizer if the plant does oot emerge, and fertilizer 'bum' or 'salt' damage inhibitmg germination.Also, fertilizer topdressings are usually applied late, often just before or even after tasselling, due also to time constraints.Current recommendations on fertilizer rates have been based on responses from early planted, improved materials (usually commercial hybrids). However a significant proportion of the smallholder maize area is planted to local and improved varieties between 30 and 60 days after the \"recommended\" planting dates.The farmer practice of weeding and top dressing when the maize was 60cm tall was compared with weeding and top dressing at 20cm. The earlier weeding and topdressing gave a 20% yield increase.Followin~from earlier station trials that showed no yield loss by applying nitrogen up to SlX weeks after planting compared to application before plantlDg, Eastern Province ARPT tested a mixed basal and topdress application two weeks after emergence, compared with a split application of basal at planting and a topdress at four and 6-8 weeks after emergence. The mixed fertilizer application was combined with first weeding and gave a 25% yield advantage over late (6-8 weeks after emergence) top dressing on demonstration plots over 58 sites. C) ZAMBIA: LUAPULA PROVINCE • Yields with mixed basal and top dressing after emergence were not significantly different from pre-emergence or split post-emergence applications.Early and late nitrogen topdress were also examined in association with weeding technolo~in Swaziland (Seubert, 1986). Research from two years of trials over 16 locations lOdicated that: a) an early (knee high) topdress after weeding gave a significantly higher response to increasLng levels of N than a late (hip high) topdress after weeding. b) faster banded application of ammonium nitrate gave results as good as those from plant by plant applications, suggesting a way of encouraging the earlier application of fertilizer.E) ZIMBABWE 00 fann trials in Mangwende, a hi~potential area in Zimbabwe, indicated no significant yield difference due to basar fertilizer application at planting compared with application after emergence (Shumba, 1989a & b).On-farm trials in two seasons, each with eight sites in high and low rainfall situations in Zimbabwe, indicated no response to P applied as a basal compound dressing and economic analysis suggested that responses to N were only economic if N was applied as a straight fertilizer (Mataruka, Makombe & Low, 1988) (farm level pnce ratio kg N:kg maize grain 10 Zimbabwe in 1988 = 7).F) ZAMBIA: CENTRAL PROVINCE One season of on-farm trials compared Nand P response for early and late plantings. No response to P w¥ obtained and no NxP interaction observed. N was profitable at up to 200kgN ha-for early plantings, but was unprofitable above 100kgN haon plantings 30 days later (Waterworth & Muwamba, 1989) (fertilizer was heavily subsidized in Zambia during these assessments; farm level price ratio kg N:kg maize grain in Zambia in 1988 = 3).Two years of on-farm trials run jointly by the Malawi Maize Commodity Team and ARTs at 8-10 sites per year to exarrune the fertilizer response of 'local' maize when grown in associatIOn with grain legumes under farmer manafement has shoF local maize without added N will yield ~proximately 1400 kg ha-. 30 fg N ha-will raise grain yield by around 600 kg ha-and an additional 30 kg N ha-will give some 350 kg ha-of extra yield, with little response above that (Ngwira & Minjale, 1988;Ngwira, Sakala & Minjale, 1989). This !.?leans that the economics of applying N to local maize is doubtful above 30 kg N ha-(farm level price ratio kg N:kg maize ~rain in Malawi in 1988 = 12). However, when inorganic N fertilizer is combined With ani~al manure N use efficiency appears to improve. For example, in four years of on-farm trials by Lilongwe and Kasi.Ingu ARTs looking at the use of animal manure combined with inorganic fertilizer on lpcal maize, 2.5 t ha-1 of manure pre-planting combined with some 56 kg N ha-top-dress was the most productive. This is now a tentative recommendation. However, only some farmers have access to the manure and only in small amounts (communication from the ART Coordination Unit). Similar work but using compost instead of animal manure indicated that compost reduced maize yields possibly due to N immobilization. It was also noted that farmers were only able to accumulate enough compost to cover approximately 1/8th of their cultivated maize area per year, and preferred to apply the compost to vegetable crops.Localized studies on N response of composites in marginal areas such as Symon area near Mwa~in Blantyre ADD indicated that the most economic response was 40kg N ha-i.e. around half the current recommendation (communication from ART Coordination Unit).Late and inadequate weedin~is a common feature of small farm maize production in the region. Priority gIVen to expanding the area planted, high time demands for hoe weeding and shortage of draft for ox-cultivation all contribute to the weed management problem.The importance of reducing early weed competition in the first 20 days after emergence has been established from station work and generally holds on-farm. On-farm research work in Zambia found this weed competition to be especially critical if it coincides with early dry periods and in the absence of inorganic fertilizer.Some weeds are becoming a serious constraint to maize production. For example, Striga infestations are now an important problem in northern Malawi Adaptive Research in Malawi is conducting surveys to determine how farmers cope with Striga infestations. In Karonga ADD fanners reduce the problem by banking soil around the maize plants and rotating with groundnuts (CommunicatlOn from Malawi ART Coordination Unit).A) ZAMBIA: EASTERN PROVINCE On-farm trials on the timing of weeding and fertilizer applications established appropriate weed control recommendations for ox-cultivator and hand hoe farmers that make heavy demands on family labour time. Results indicated that a 25% yield loss can be expected from delaying first weeding beyond 20 days after emergence of the maize (Waterworth, 1989).These farmers should weed with oxen two weeks after emergence while covering the mixed basal and topdress fertilizer (applied immediately before) in the same operation. This should be followed with hand weeding on the crop row within the subsequent two weeks.These should combine the first weeding with a mixed basal and top fertilizer application beginning 10 days after emergence. A second weeding should follow two weeks later.Weeding maize at 20cm compared to the typical stage (70cm) increased onfarm trial yields by 17%. Combining basal and top dressirig with weeding at 20cm resulted in a saving of six person days per hectare during the peak period and gave a 19% increase in yield compared with basal application at planting and late weeding and top dressing. Superimposing the topdress/weeding at 20cm on farmers' practice (at 7Ocm) resulted in a 40% increase in net benefit, on average over four farmers (Waterworth, 1989).Survey data indicated that all farmers in the research area applied basal after emergence and the first weeding and top dressing were generally done at 70cm. Thirteen percent of surveyed farmers combined a mixed b~al and top dressing with weeding at 40cm and achieved an average yield of 2.3 t ha-.Banded pre-emergence herbicide (Prirnagram) with ox-cultivation showed good promise for effective weed control. Post-emergence herbicide (Gramoxone) with hand hoeing on the crop row also gave good weed control. Twenty five to forty percent yield increases were obtained over ox and hand-hoe cultivation in on-farm, researcher managed trials. Economic evaluation was not performed (Waterworth, 1989).On-farm herbicide trials in Swaziland gave no significant increase in yields over ox/hoe cuitivation, but reduced hand weeding labour time by more than half (by> 70hrs ha-). This saving in labour time could make herbicides economically attractive for households with high opportunity costs for labour. The saving could also facilitate earlier top dressing (see above) and reduce the need for farmers to delay maize planting to ensure that weeding time coincides with school holidays (Seubert, Mamba & Patrick, 1988a).On-farm herbicide trials in Zimbabwe also showed no significant increase in maize yields, but resulted in a saving of labour, which make herbicides economic for households with hi~h opportunity time costs. Economic analysis of trial results also indicated that herbicides could reduce the extra weeding time required with reduced tillage, thus making the reduced (ripper tine) technology econoIDlcally attractive (Shumba, 1989a & b).In hoe-plant systems on ridges, many farmers plant grain legumes between maize plants on the ridge. However farmers often vary the placement and number of grain legume plants between maize plants. Generally farmers aim to achieve some yield of the legume without sacrificing yield from maize. There is need to assess the effect of intercroppin~with grain legumes on maize yield and establish the best legume arrangement WIthin the maize crop given farmer resource constraints.The Lilongwe ART recently concluded four years of mixed cropping trials for local maize or MH12 with either Phaseolus beans or soyabeans. The use of two bean or two soyabean plants between maize stations is now under verification by ART and extension with additional farmers. Even though a yield response was available for three or four plants between maize stations, the extra labour and higher seed requirement appeared to make these higher plant densities for the legumes impractical (W. Mughogho, personal communication).Work by ARTs and the Maize Commodity Team has shown that intercropping local maize with dwarf Phaseolus beans under farmer management generally does not reduce grain yields of local maize (e.g. Ngwira, Sakala & Minjale, 1989).From the above review we may conclude that OFR has played a useful role in selecting and ada{>ting existing \"on-the-shelf' maize technology to fit into various small farm situations (and has had similar success with other crops). However, it is also clear that the expectations from OFR in terms of production impact have not generally been realized.Early reports suggested that the rapid adaptation of appropriate technologies was possible through OFR. Such reports drew on experiences from Latin American countries, such as Panama (e.g. Martinez & Arauz, 1984) and Colombia (e.g. Woolley et aI., 1988) where technologies tested and modified in OFR were adopted by most farmers within four years of the start of the on-farm research programme. OFR projects for southern Africa were developed with high expectations. For example a 1985 USAID report indicated that an OFR project for Swaziland should increase the proportion of farmers producing marketable surpluses by 30% in 10 years, or provide 75% of smallholder farmers with appropriate recommendations yearly (USAID, 1985).The experience in southern Africa to date suggests that OFR has not fulfilled early expectatlOns, partly because those expectations were too high. But also because OFR has been constrained from realizing its full potential, due to implementation problems, as well as limitations imposed by component research content on the one hand and traditional extension attitudes on the other. We now look at those constraints.In many cases the plannin~and implementation of OFR programmes bas not been thoroughly done. DeficienCIes have included the following: a) SuperfiCIal diagnosis of problems. Often this was based on a few days of informal surveyin~in the field and caused by a rush to get to the trial stage. c) Inadequate analysis and interpretation of trial results in relation to the implIcations for fanners and planning of the next cycle of trials. This has often been due to lack of a clear idea about the purpose of the trial or its place in the overall programme. d) All these deficiencies have been exacerbated by a high turnover of donor funded expatriate staff as well as national staff (many to overseas training).There has also been little good documentation of research rationale and results to mitigate the high turnover of staff.An implication of this is that there is still a big need for further training and assistance in the region to improve on the quality of the OFR work being carried out. However, a thesis of this paper is that there are three more fundamental constraints to maximizing OFR potential that require more than just further funding and trainin~to address. Here we call these i) Limitations of the \"pulldown\" approach, iJ) Output use constraints, and iii) Supply constraints.A. Limitations of the \"Pulldown\" Approach Collinson (1982) describes how the role of OFR as introduced into eastern and southern Africa was to assess production improvement potentials and \"pull down\" and adapt those technolo~es from component (i.e. commodity and disciplinary) research to fit into Identified niches. Although on-farm researchers now rarely talk of \"pulling down\" technologies, existing commodity based technologies developed on-station for large-scale commercial farmers remain the main source of solutions for use in OFR (e.g. Collinson, 1987;Merrill-Sands & McAllister, 1988). For a well researched crop like maize it was thought that this pool of available and suitable technology was large and complete. However many of the existing technologies have been found not to be appropriate and the OFR experience has been that the opportunities of utilizing eXIsting technologies to address the production problems identified on smallholder farms are generally limited. These limitations operate less severely in two special situations.The first special situation is where a crop like maize is expanding into a new geo~raphic area; where the most appropriate variety, plant population density, fertilizer use etc. has to be newly establIshed. An example IS Luapula Province in Zambia. Selection of the most suited variety and fertilizer use was done quickly and effectively by OFR teams. But in southern Africa this situation represents a small proportion of the area in which maize is grown. Indeed maize• has already expanded into many semi-arid areas of the region where it is not well adapted, but is in high demand by farmers (Waddington & Kunjeku, 1989).The second special situation is where commodity teams have developed technologies specifically with smallholder farmers innund. An example of this is the maize variety development programme in Zambia. A range of hybrids and improved varieties of maize were developed with varyins maturity lengths and grain types. Through on-farm testing with farmers, most Provrncial ARPT teams in Zambia have been able to choose improved maize hybrids and varieties to suite specific areas, farmers objectives or resource circumstances (Kean & Singogo, 1988). But this has been dependent on having a wide ~fte of improved maize materials to select from with characteristics suited to s lholder needs (found to be early maturity, good performance under low input conditions, storability, retention of seed etc).For most OFR pro~rammes in the region neither of these \"special situations\" apply. What then? OFR IS obliged to \"pull down\" yield maximizing \"ideal technology sets\" that have been designed over time with commercial farmers in mind and are still thought to be relevant, when modified, for most smallholder farmers. In this situation adaptive on-farm research for maize has tried to do one or more of the following three types of activity: a) Reduce yield maximizing input levels to better coincide with other non-ideal levels farmers follow perforce. Examples are: reducin~fertilizer rates for low management and late plantings; using varieties With shorter development cycles for mar~inal areas or late planting; reducing plant population densities when little or no fertilizer is to be applied. b) Adjust ideal management practices to fit with smallholder circumstances and operational constraints. Examples are: mixed basal and topdressing as a smgle dressing of fertilizer applied 2 -3 weeks after emergence in the face of uncertain germination and labour shortages; banding, rather than a spot application of topdress, in the face of labour shortage; tine tillage as against mouldboard pioughing to reduce requirements for draft power in systems that rely on oxen. c) Devise ways of enabling smallholder farmers to move from their current practices towards the known \"ideals\". Examples are: adjusunent to the Safim planter shoe to increase plant population densities; introduction of zero tillage to enable earlier plantin~and improve seedbeds; combining single weeding with a single applicatIOn of fertilizer, both earlier than currently done.Given the limited occurrence of the two \"special situations\" described above, much of the output from OFR has come from (a), (b) or (c)-type activities. These outputs are not easily handled by traditional extension services for three main reasons:1) They require conditional judgements on the part of extension officers ab~ut what input l~vels or.ma~gementpra~tices are appropri~te~or which farmers. ThIS conflicts WIth the perceived role of extensIOn III \"teaching the farmers how to do it the correct way\". Thus OFR results get simplified towards the ideal. For example, in Luapula Province, Zambia, the recommendations formulated yn varieties and fertilizer rates only mentioned hybrids at 60K~N ha-. Consistent on-farm research results indicating the supenority of an open pollinated improved variety when no fertilizer was applied were totally omitted from the recommendations. In Central Province, Zambia, on-farm research results showing the advantage of combining the fertilizer 2)3) 503 application after emergence with an early weeding was turned into a demonstration of early weeding with fertilizer applied at planting (the standard commercial recomm ndation for timing of basal fertilizer). Less than ideal management recommendations conflict with the technical training extension officers have had and the technical orientation they are inculcated with in-service. Thus, results from a number of OFR programmes showing that the application of basal fertilizer after planting, and the mixing of basal and topdressing as a single applicatIon of fertilizer results in little or no yield loss, have not been accepted as recommendations.Changes in practices that save resources or give indirect benefits to other crops or farmers, but do not raise yields per unit of land of the target crop, are difficult to extend through demonstrations and require a systems or community approach. Results that suggest the use of lower input levels often reflect what farmers are already doing and are therefore seen to have no extension implications.Even where technologies get to the stage of being demonstrated by extension, inJ?ut or equipment supply problems can block effective adoptIOn. In southern Afnca some of the on-the-shelf maize production technologies developed originally for large-scale commercial farmers that have been found to be approJ?nate in some smallholder situations, such as zero tillage in Central Province, Zambia and chemical weed control, have not been recommended or extended because of chemical and equipment supply problems and policy.In three Provinces in Zambia, 44% of OFR trials that 20t as far as extension demonstrations got no further because of input supply problems (Waterworth & Muwamba, 1989).Figure 1 attempts to summarise the discussion of the last section. It indicates the relationship between the \"limitations of the pul.1down approach\" and the \"utilization problems\" with extension and policy. In Fig. 1 we also indicate three emerging areas of activity which could help alleviate some of the problems being experienced with technology pulldown, extension receptivity and policy support. We call these:-Integrated research planning \" -Problem orientated approach to extension -Recognition of new clients for research findings The most important contribution of OFR to improving the productivity of smallholder crop enterprises may not be by adapting or fine tuning technologies developed on-station. There is increasing evidence that OFR work has generated an awareness among commodityIdisciplinary research and among extension services of farmer decision making criteria and the importance of non-technical factors in the adoption of technology. Among research scientists and extension officers alike, there is now a better appreciation of the variation in circumstances between groups of farmers, which makes nonsense of \"standard, technically ideal\" recommendations. The notion that it can be useful to develop a range of 'sub-optimal' technical options to fit different circumstances, priorities or capacities of farmers is beginning to gain ground. We suggest there is a need to capitalize on this through increased support to the following three areas of activity: trained, as researchers have been, in the problem orientated approach to re earch and extension (Cernea, Coulter & Russell, 1984). better partnership between research and extension in OFR will go a long way to overcoIDmg the output use constraint from OFR that currently exists. In such a partnership both research and extension would view their roles as diagnosticians and doctors who \"make things better\" as opposed to teachers and preachers who \"proclaim the one and only true word.\"A start has been made in this direction with AGRITEX in Zimbabwe (Low, 1988) and with the Department of Field Services and Research in Lesotho. In Zimbabwe five provinces have run field diagnosis courses for their specialist staff and agricultural extension officers with CIMMYT assistance. These courses teach the farmer problem based approach in a practical setting and have begun to reorientate the way AGRITE) staff view their roles. In Lesotho an on-farm research programme in one district has been jointly planned and is being jointly implemented by a team of 20 extension staff and five researchers (all Basotho), in cooperation with CIMMYT.The Swaziland Cropping Systems Research and Extension Training Project is one well established OFR programme in the region that recognized extension as the major client for its research output. Their Field Support Guides are written directly to extension officers, and their extension training has focused latterly on developing a problem orientated approach to extension (1. Diamond,personal communication). Kean & Singogo (1988) describe considerable interaction at many levels between the Adaptive Research Planning Teams (ARPT) and Extension in Zambia. The establishment of Research Extension Liaison Officers and use of Extension Workers as trials assistants by ARPT have been important. Reports and newsletters have been developed by ARPT specifically for extension.OFR is acquiring (again) a new name. It is OFCOR (On-Farm Client Orientated Research)(see Merrill-Sands & McAllister, 1988). The Client refers to farmers, but the acronym is appropriate at this time because it is becoming apparent that OFR needs to have clients other than farmers, component research and extension.Although input supply problems have been recognized as a constraint to the use of some technologies adapted by OFR, OFR teams have not been adept at orientating their research results and reports to convincing senior executives in Government, parastatals and the private sector of the need to change input supply policies (or showing the costs of not changing them). It is clear that OFR will need to address agricultural policy makers more directly in the future. This will be a role for agricultural economists (many newly trained to MSc level) within OFR teams. Also, until it becomes better integrated with commodity/station researchers and with extension, OFR will have these two ~roups as key clients that they need to convince about the worth of making changes In conventional research agendas or recommendations.In the last 6-8 years, OFR has contributed much to the understanding of maize production constraints on small farms in the re&ion. It has contributed some to improved maize flroductivity. Examples described In this paper included: a) ShoWlng that smallholder farmers require and will accept improved shorter season maize germplasm, with lower yield potential, for later planting and earlier harvesting, and that in countries such as Malawi where much maize is processed on-farm using traditional methods, acceptable maize will require semi-flint grain.In many cases current fertilizer recommendations for maize have been shown to require modification to best fit the local situation of smallholder farmers. Delaying the basal dressing of fertilizer until shortly after crop emergence does not reduce yield but top dress fertilizer should be applied much earlier than currently done by most smallholder farmers. Also, the most economic levels of fertilizer inputs have been shown to be often well below the current recommendations developed solely from biological responses. c)Reduced tillage (combined with effective early weed control) as a possibility to bring forward maize planting dates and so raise ~ain yield in areas where land preparation depends on oxen but is lD short supply. While the production impact potential of OFR has been constrained, OFR has demonstrated the utility of a problem (client) orientated approach to technology development and this approach is now extending into maize commodity research and extension programmes. If these developments can be fostered and encouraged, the prospects for building on the lessons learned and results achieved so far are good, provided that resulting input supply implications are adequately addressed.appropriate technologies for farmers: The case of the bean + maize system in Ipiales, Colombia, 1982-1986. Working Document No. 31, CIAT, Cali. pp. 76.Vanegas. Seems to me that you were talking about how to lessen or to eliminate constraints to OFR and not of constraint as such. Perhaps what you have called output constraint is just either poor design or lack of training, and, is not supply constraint a budgetary one. It is possible that agriculture and pricing policy, public expenditures 10 agriculture, lack of knowledge (knowledge constraint of factors affecting the adoption of technical innovation) and institutional constraints are relevant areas to study their relationships and impacts on OFR.Answer:Low. This paper has 3 parts: a) A view of OFR research thrusts and results over the last 6 years in Southern African countries.A discussion of the reasons why OFR output has not resulted in the levels of impact on production that was expected from early work and in early project plans. c) Some suggestions on how some of the factors constraining the impact of the OFR can and are being overcome in the region.We conclude that:1.OFR has done a good job in developing a good understanding of how farmers' circumstances affect the adoption (or non-adoption) of current recommendations.OFR has concentrated on adjusting and amending recommendations aimed at large commercial farmers -but there have been some constraints as the impact of these adjustments:i.Due to nature of the adjustment work itself having rather low production impact potential.ll.Difficulties that extension have in using the types of output coming from OFR.iii. Problems of input supply (seed, chemicals, equipment) preventing farmers from making use of OFR output in many cases.We suggest that: a) c)More integrated research on specific problem areas, involving specialist disciplines, commodity tearns and OFR teams can improve the content of the technology that developed for target farmers.Extension training to take a problem oriented (management) as opposed to technical/instructional approach can improve the transfer of target specific technologies for farmers facing particular sets of circumstances.Since pricing policy and input supply infrastructure and management does restrict Impact of new technologies we suggest that OFR needs to do a better job in communicating technology findings and potential impact to senior executives in government and parastatals.Yes, we are talking about what the constraints to OFR impact are and how we might move towards overcoming them.","tokenCount":"112970"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3b6de311dd4a5ea1b7b7689a9359c5c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6bd38e20-0892-4c47-b81b-a8ff974390a7/retrieve","id":"1008350030"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0e76c834-b3f2-403f-b3a2-4b828bea0b01","pagecount":"2","content":"Introducing technologies is one of the most common ways that agricultural research and development organizations assist the farmers they serve.The danger is that interventions are introduced without due attention to the demand side -paying insufficient attention to the actual problems faced by farming communities; their constraints and opportunities; and whether the new technologies actually match the local context.In the livestock sector, ILRI staff are often called on to advise smallholder livestock keepers on feed technologies. To ensure the relevance and quality of the advice we provide, we have started to develop a \"discussion tool\" to help us avoid ad hoc and narrow decision making processes.'TechFit' is designed to bridge the space between rural communities and technology developers. It has been developed by ILRI for animal feed interventions but can be adapted to other technologies.TechFit is designed to be a simple, practical discussion tool that non-experts can use to inform the selection of the most appropriate technologies in specific locations and contexts.TechFit supports decision making by systematising the way we collect, structure, screen and prioritise possible feed technologies and interventions using a set of general approaches, and generic classifications. We expect to use the tool in situations where livestock has already been prioritised as a promising livelihood option, and where feed is identified as the most pressing constraint to address.A related tool called the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) can be used to identify these situations and potential interventions. More information about FEAST is at www.ilri.org/feast. those which most closely match the need for and availability of land, labour, cash, input delivery, water and knowledge and skills.The short-listed technologies are then investigated more intensively using conventional action research approaches to ensure they are cost-effective and suited to the local agriecological and socio-economic context.TechFit has been trialled in a few situations and we are still refining the methodology. We welcome inputs, feedback and contributions from interested people. ","tokenCount":"314"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d211827a70aabdd3c05df5e1dcc9a472","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3d7230c-3fc8-40f5-9139-599179fb9842/retrieve","id":"1847050634"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"abbbb3d2-b2f8-4414-a0dc-b747c240066c","pagecount":"142","content":"ILRI director General Jimmy Smith and BMGF country representative Haddis Tadesse, as well as ILRI's Iain Wright and Azage Tegegne provided necessary support to help drive the LMP to fruition.Windy Wilkins of the BMGF deserves a special note of appreciation. Windy saw the value of carrying out this exercise to help the new LRDS in the production of a livestock roadmap and increase the planning capacity of the MoA.We had the good fortune to call on very competent and hard-working professionals to be members of the LMP team, including:Getachew Gebru, animal scientist, co-founder and d/director, MARIL-Ethiopia Solomon Desta, rangeland economist, co-founder and director, MARIL-Ethiopia Asfaw Negassa, agricultural economist, ILRI Kidus Nigussie Brook, animal scientist, senior dairy expert, MoA Gezahegn Aboset, veterinarian, senior veterinary epidemiologist, MoA Henok Mechal, agricultural economist, marketing specialist, Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Industry Development Institute (EMDIDI), Ministry of Industry The work of the LMP team was assisted by many people (see the list below of those who contributed to the expert consultations, provided technical advice and validated the results of the livestock sector analysis (LSA). In addition to those listed, we appreciate in particular the work of the following groups and individuals.v Roadmaps for growth and transformation Tables Table 1: Projected national meat production-consumption balance with combined investment interventions in 2028; with poultry interventions to increase chicken meat Table 2: Increase in number of crossbred cattle in IFD systems in the MRS zone during the GTP II Table 3: Expected increase in total cow milk production from the IFD system during the GTP II (in million litres) Table 4: Households involved in AI and synchronization activities during the GTP II Table 5: Total recurrent and investment costs for breed improvement activities in the MRS system through crossbreeding using AI and synchronization (in ETB millions) Table 6: Investment cost to improve feeding and health in the MRS (in ETB millions) Table 7: Additional recurrent costs to improve feeding and health (paid by IFD farmers) (in ETB millions) Table 8: Total investment costs related to IFD production (in ETB millions) Table 9: Total recurrent costs related to IFD production (paid by IFD farmers) (in ETB millions) Table 10: GDP contribution of IFD system (in ETB millions)Table 11: Household level estimates of annual benefits and costs due to investment in AI and synchronization services in mixed livestock production systems (MRS and MRD) Table 12: Increase in the number of small and medium specialized dairy units during the GTP II Table 13: Annual increase in the number of dairy cattle in the specialized dairy systems Table 14: Contribution of the specialized dairy system to national milk production (in million litres) Table 15: Estimate of forage seed and land needed for forage production to improve small specialized dairy farm units        (Tolera et al. 2012) Table 73: Feed resources available annually in highland and lowland areas (Mengistu 2012) Table 74: Main assumptions and usable biomass production per agro-ecological zone     Figure 9: GTP targets for production, projected consumption, and production-consumption balances for milk from various animal types, and combined milk (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020), (in million litres).Figure 10: GTP targets for production, projected consumption, and production-consumption balances for meat from all livestock types and combined meat (in thousand tonnes), and eggs, (in millions for), (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020) Roadmaps for growth and transformationOver the last 20 years, the Federal Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has prioritized the transformation of the agricultural sector. This approach has been adopted in the current 2010-2015 Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP I) and its successor, the 2015-2020 GTP II. Yet, the absence of clear roadmaps to develop the livestock sector has persistently hindered successful implementation of these previous investment plans. Detailed inter-disciplinary research has revealed the potential benefits of a comprehensive livestock master plan (LMP) in Ethiopia.The LMP sets out investment interventions-better genetics, feed and health services, which, together with complementary policy support-could help meet the GTP II targets by improving productivity and total production in the key livestock value chains for poultry, red meat-milk, and crossbred dairy cows. If the proposed investments-of 7762 million Ethiopian birr (USD 388.1 million), 57% and 43% from the public and private sectors respectively-were successfully implemented, they could eliminate poverty in approximately 2.36 million livestock-keeping households, helping family farms move from traditional to improved market-oriented systems and adding to agricultural GDP.Beyond this impact on rural people, the anticipated transformation of the livestock sector has the potential to impact positively on urban dwellers through lower animal product prices, increased job opportunities, and an enhanced supply of agricultural inputs for industrial production. The success of the LMP is critical to the achievement of food and nutrition security at household, sectorial and national levels.Using the most recently available data, from 2013, the Livestock State Ministry (LSM) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) employed the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) to develop herd and sector models and a baseline assessment of the current state of agricultural development in Ethiopia. This was used to assess the potential long-term, 15-20 years, impact of proposed combined technology and policy interventions, referred to as the livestock sector analysis (LSA).The LSA results then formed the basis for the development of the GTP II livestock targets and the Ethiopia livestock master plan (LMP) for 2015-2020.The LMP is a series of five-year development implementation plans or 'roadmaps', to be used to implement the GTP II.The LSA and LMP interventions were tested using the sector model measures of GoE livestock development and policy objectives for the GTP I and GTP II. The GTP objectives employed to assess the investment interventions of the Ethiopia LMP were to:• Reduce poverty;• Achieve food and nutritional security;• Contribute to economic growth (GDP);• Contribute to exports and foreign exchange earnings; and• Contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation.Using indicators for the above objectives, three key livestock value chains-poultry, crossbred dairy cow, and red meat-milk (from indigenous cattle, sheep, goats, and camels)-were identified in the LSA as potentially contributing to the long-run development of the sector. The LMP, therefore, comprises two sub-value chains for each value chain: smallholder family and commercial specialized production systems. These six sub-value chains are found in one or more of the three major production typology zones of Ethiopia, officially categorized by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA): lowland grazing (LG including both pastoral and agro-pastoral systems), highland mixed crop-livestock rainfall deficient (MRD) and highland mixed crop-livestock rainfall sufficient (MRS).The projected increase in national cow milk production, as a result of the proposed interventions, during the GTP II period (2015-2020) is 93%, a surplus of 2501 million litres over projected domestic consumption requirements. This production increase would make it possible to meet the milk production targets in the GTP II phase, exceeding the growing domestic demand for milk by 47%.This surplus of milk could then be substituted for imported milk products and used domestically for new or additional industrial uses (e.g. in the baking industry), or exported as milk powder or UHT to raise foreign exchange earnings.The proposed combined interventions for red meat-milk production on family farms and among pastoralists and agropastoralists, as well as feedlot development, would result in a 52% increase in total red meat production.Production would grow from 1.275 to 1.933 million tonnes between 2015 and 2020.This would not, however, meet expected consumption growth of 58% by 2020 (to 2.008 million tonnes), leaving a 7% deficit (187,000 tonnes) in the 2015-2020 red meat production and consumption balance. Given the rapidly growing population and increasing incomes in Ethiopia, such projected deficits would put upward pressure on red meat prices and make it very difficult to meet the GTP II red-meat export goals. Furthermore, meeting poverty reduction goals was shown not to be compatible with large reductions in cattle numbers, as called for in the draft Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Livestock Investment Plan of the GoE. That said, the annual growth rate in the cattle population could be substantially reduced if the projected productivity increases were realized; but this may still require substantial incentives for farmers to reduce cattle numbers in household herds.Successful poultry interventions would allow the sub-sector to move to improved family poultry with semi-scavenging crossbreds and for substantial increases in the scale of specialized layer and broiler operations. Such a transformation would contribute considerably to reducing poverty and malnutrition among rural and urban poor, as well as increasing national income.Projected annual chicken meat and egg production in Ethiopia would rise to 164,000 tonnes and 3.9 billion respectively, a 247% increase in chicken meat production by 2020.This would bring the production-consumption surplus for chicken meat from 18,000 to 102,000 tonnes between 2015 and 2020.The combined interventions would also result in an 828% increase in chicken egg production, bringing the egg surplus to 3.1 billion eggs during the GTP II period.Such accomplishments would enable Ethiopia to meet the chicken meat and egg demand for its growing population, and produce a very significant surplus for domestic industrial use or export. The surplus eggs could be processed into egg powder and used domestically for new or additional industrial uses (e.g. in the baking industry), or be exported to generate foreign exchange earnings.Perhaps most importantly, the growth of the poultry sub-sector would enable Ethiopia to close the projected total national meat production-consumption gap. This would also make it possible to meet the CRGE target of increasing the share of chicken meat to total meat consumption from the current 5% to 27% by 2030, but only if chicken is substituted for red meat coming from larger high-emitting ruminants.Taking advantage of the benefits of the potential poultry revolution would thus require substantial investments in promotional activities to change tastes and preferences from beef and mutton, as well as from local to exotic chicken meat and eggs. The substitution of the surplus chicken meat for domestic red meat consumption would also put downward pressure on domestic meat prices and enable an increase in the export of live animals (of cattle, sheep, and goat), potentially raising foreign exchange earnings.Various combinations of the three standard types of livestock technology interventions are needed to generate higher incomes and animal productivity, and to lead to the achievement of the GTP II development objectives: improved genetics, health and feed. The appropriate combinations, depending upon the biophysical, agro-ecological and market conditions facing livestock in the three production typology zones in Ethiopia, include the:• Improvement of cattle dairy through breeding interventions, combining artificial insemination using exotic semen with oestrus synchronization in MRS dairy systems and in peri-urban milk sheds throughout Ethiopia;• Improvement of productivity of local breed animals (cattle, sheep, goats, and camels) for meat and milk through investments in genetic selection (recording schemes, etc.) and in animal health to reduce young and adult stock mortality, and by implementing critical vaccinations and parasite control programs;• Increase of public investment in rehabilitating range and pasture lands to improve feeding and animal management to complement genetic and health improvements;• Promotion of the importation and dissemination of improved semi-scavenging poultry breeds by the private sector and/or through public-private partnerships (PPPs), combined with the improved capacity of private animal health services to provide critical vaccines, in tandem with the continued promotion by the GoE extension services of improved feeding; and• Increase of specialized commercial production units and-where conducive agro-ecological and market conditions prevail-consequent increases in animal numbers for all three commodities, and the adoption of appropriate genetic, health and feed technologies.• The introduction of policy measures to rationalize public and private sector roles in veterinary service provision, leading to the transition to the private provision of clinical services, wherever feasible, and to public oversight and quality regulations;• The promotion of the establishment of more private-sector flour and oil mills to encourage the production of additional feeds from agro-industrial by-products by introducing protective policies against flour and cooking oil imports;• The promotion of land leasing, including land under irrigation, for animal production and the provision of tax incentives and subsidized leasing rates to private entrepreneurs;• The promotion of feed efficiency through the removal of the double-imposition of VAT and excessive customs duties (currently 53%) on feed mill ingredients, as well as the introduction of quality control measures;• The promotion of exports to more remunerative markets through the introduction of a practical and affordable system of animal identification and traceability, as well as food safety and animal health programs through the monitoring of abattoirs and disease surveillance;The development of the Ethiopia LMP was undertaken by the newly created LRDS of the MoA, with technical support from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The work was funded by the BMGF, with supplementary contributions from ILRI and Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).To effectively launch and carry out its work within the context of the coming Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II), the new LSM requires a vision and strategy of what can and needs to be accomplished to develop the sector, along with realistic action plans and 'roadmaps', built on a factual baseline, realistic targets and priority interventions.The LSM refers to these roadmaps as the livestock master plan. The LMP is also needed to inform other GoE policymakers, as well as investors involved in livestock development, on the current status of the sector and the potential of future priority investment options for poverty reduction and economic growth.The LMP is a series of five-year development plans or roadmaps for the key livestock VCs and production systems within each VC, chosen based on GoE priority development objectives. Each roadmap includes specific visions and targets, challenges and strategies, and combined investments in technology and policy interventions, with expected outputs, outcomes and impacts. The roadmaps are also fully budgeted, and include timed and sequenced activity plans (Gantt charts).The LMP, undertaken by the authors of this reports, is based on a 15-year sectorial analysis (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022)(2023)(2024)(2025)(2026)(2027)(2028) to inform the development of the plan. The elaboration of the LSA entailed creating a livestock sector model and then carrying out a quantitative analysis of the present technical performance of the sector and the economic contribution of potential interventions to households, VCs, the livestock sub-sector, the agricultural sector, and the national economy. A set of quantitative tools from the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) were used to carry out the sector analysis. This toolkit was developed by a group of international agencies 1 under the aegis of ALive at AU-IBAR. With technical backup support from international and local research organizations, these roadmaps are meant to be implemented by the LSM, together with other GoE ministries and agencies, at both federal and regional levels, as well as by development partners (donors, development banks, international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), etc.) and private sector actors.What do the LSA results mean for LMP and thus the GTP II?The GTP objectives for livestock include to:• Reduce poverty;• Achieve better food security;• Contribute to national income growth;• Contribute to exports and foreign exchange earnings; and• Contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation.If no investment is made in raising livestock productivity, the LSA projections for the year 2028 show a deficit of 53% for all meat (1.332 million tonnes) and 24% for cow milk (1987 million litres) due to exploding demand (as a result of rapid population growth and rising per capita income) (see Figure 1, Panels C and D). The LSA seeks to identify the species and interventions which would erase these deficits and should thus be prioritized for investment in the GTP II.The LSA results show there were about 11.4 million livestock producing households in Ethiopia in 2013 (Central Statistics Agency (CSA) of Ethiopia, 2013). Cattle were found to be the dominant species 2 in 70% to 90% of livestock producing households, depending upon production zone, and thus cattle dominate smallholder income generation and meat-milk production in all production zones-lowland and highland (MRS, MRD and LG 3 ), as well as in specialized commercial scale production systems. Moreover, as of 2013, cattle were found to account for about 72% of the meat and 78% of the milk produced annually. Cattle thus play a dominant role in producing smallholder income and in meeting domestic meat and milk consumption requirements. Furthermore, based on potential returns per Ethiopian birr invested (internal rate of return, IRR) in available technologies (genetic, feed, and health), the LSA results show investment in cattle productivity in all the production zones has high potential to reduce poverty, contribute to national income growth, meet future domestic consumption requirements, and increase meat and milk exports and foreign exchange earnings.The LSA results show that broad-based improvements in animal health services and genetics for cattle, and other major red-meat producing species in Ethiopia (sheep, goats, and camels), could be achieved, when combined with improved feeding and better management practices:2 A livestock species is classified as dominant if more than half of the household income from livestock comes from that species.3 According to the MoA typology of production zones: MRS is the highland mixed crop-livestock moisture sufficient systems zone. MRD is the highland mixed crop-livestock moisture deficient systems zone.LG is the lowland grazing systems zone (both pastoral and agro-pastoral systems).• Increasing productivity of local breed animals in all production typology zones through health interventions to reduce young and adult stock mortality (YASM), other critical diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD) through vaccinations, and parasite control (endo and ecto-parasites);• Improving grazing lands (pasture and range) for more and better feed production; and• Improving the reproductive and weight gain performance of ruminants, through better provision of animal health services and more and better feed.But, even with these interventions, the projected red-meat deficit will be 7% or 187,000 tonnes in 2028 (Table 1 and Figure 1, Panel A). Therefore, only investing in cattle improvement (or other red meat species) is not sufficient to eliminate the projected overall meat consumption deficit for 2028 or reach the GTP II goals for meat production. The LSA results show it is profitable to invest in cattle improvement in all production zones, as well as sheep in the MRS, goats in the MRD, and camels and goats in the LG. However, investment in poultry improvement is the key to erasing the meat deficit.According to the LSA findings, the transformation of both traditional backyard family poultry and massive expansion of specialized commercial scale broiler and layer units will be necessary to close the future projected gap in total meat consumption requirements. It will be essential to transform traditional backyard family poultry that relies on indigenous scavenging chickens into a market-oriented improved family poultry (IFP) system with semi-scavenging crossbred chickens. When combined with supplemental feeding and adequate health services, this would greatly increase the genetic potential for both eggs and meat. Moreover, the number and size of specialized commercial scale broiler and layer units will need to be substantially increased.Success will also require complementary interventions, including the allocation of sufficient land for poultry feed production (especially maize and soybean) and the effective encouragement of increased private investment in the poultry sector -particularly day-old chick (DOC) and pullet production, and meat and egg processing.The LSA results show that successful investment in poultry improvement could lead to an overall surplus of all meat production over projected consumption requirements by 2028. As shown in Table 1, the expected all-meat surplus in 2028 is projected to be about 11% or 320,000 tonnes (also see Figure 1, Panel C). The surplus chicken meat produced (about 507,000 tonnes in 2028, or a surplus of 453%, Table 1 and Figure 1, Panel B) could then enable Ethiopia to meet its domestic consumption requirement for all meat. If chicken meat could substitute for domestic red meat consumption, this would enable the exportation of beef, mutton and goat meat to raise foreign exchange earnings, in line with GoE meat export policy. However, tastes and preferences for local chicken, known locally as 'doro', would have to be modified through the promotion of exotic chicken meat and changes in cuisine.The surplus of eggs produced (about 88 billion by the year 2028, or a surplus of 9046%) would more than meet domestic needs, (Figure 1, Panel E). The surplus would then need to be processed into egg powder and used domestically for new or additional industrial purposes (e.g. in the baking industry), or could be exported as egg powder to raise foreign exchange earnings.In the case of cow milk, the LSA results show that a future milk surplus could be realized through investment in better genetics, feed and health services, improving both traditional dairy farms and commercial-scale specialized dairy production units. The investment interventions proposed to improve cattle milk production and the VC would transform family dairy farms in the highland moisture sufficient production zone from traditional to market-oriented improved family dairy (IFD) systems. These proposed interventions would also vastly increase the commercial-scale specialized dairy units as well as improve milk production from indigenous (or local) cattle breeds.The LSA results show increasing the contribution of all types of cow dairy farms to national milk production could be brought about by:• Raising the genetic potential of local breeds for significantly higher milk production through crossbreeding with exotic dairy breeds using AI and synchronization in the MRS, and in the dairy sheds and peri-urban areas in the MRD;• Improving the productive, reproductive and weight gain performance of crossbreds, through enhanced provision of animal health services and better feed;• Providing policy support to make land available to investors for forage seed and production, and promoting and enforcing outsourcing of forage production contracts;• Increasing dairy cattle productivity of local breed cows in all production typology zones (MRS, MRD and LG) through health interventions to reduce YASM, coupled with improving grazing land (pasture and range) for more and better feed production;• Organizing producer cooperatives for milk collection and marketing;• Encouraging private sector investment in milk processing;• Improving the specialized dairy production systems through better genetics, feed and health services, while expanding the number of the specialized units to increase the number of dairy cows;• Promoting forage and fodder production and trade, and the production of supplemental concentrates; and• Encouraging agro-processing of oil crops and use of by-products for animal feed.If the proposed investment interventions are successfully put in place, the LSA results project a 29% surplus of 2.4 billion litres of milk by 2028 (Figure 1, Panel D).Thus, these results suggest that the GTP II should not just endorse the substitution of imported dairy products, particularly milk powder, but the creation and promotion of new value-added milk exports to raise foreign exchange earnings. The production of value-added products for export would most likely begin with powdered milk and long shelf-life products like UHT, but could later be expanded to include diversified products, such as cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, etc.Finally, based on the LSA results, the investments proposed in the LMP roadmaps include appropriate combinations of genetic, feed and health interventions and related policy support to improve livestock productivity and the performance of the VCs. The interventions are meant to transform traditional family farms into improved marketoriented systems, improving household incomes, food security, livestock product consumption and nutrition, and contributing to GDP. In addition, the LMP also recommends targeting specialized production systems in each VC (cow dairy farms, beef feedlots, and poultry broiler and layer units) as a way of increasing their contribution to national livestock production and GDP.Finally, based on results of the LSA analysis, to reach the objectives and goals of the GTP II, the key VCs targeted in the LMP roadmaps are:1. Red meat-milk from cattle, sheep, goats and camels• Improved traditional red meat-milk (ITMM) systems in all production zones (MRS, MRD and LG)• Specialized cattle feedlots• IFP in all production zones• Specialized poultry -broilers and layers• IFD systems in the MRS, and in dairy sheds and peri-urban areas in the MRD By increasing the number and productivity of cattle through improvements in genetics, health and feeding, domestic cow milk production will increase by about 93% by 2020, consumption demand will be satisfied, and export of cow milk and milk products will begin.Raise total cattle milk production to 7967 million litres by 2020 through genetics, feed and health interventions to improve traditional family cow dairy production and expand and improve specialized dairy production units.It is recommended that AI and synchronization, combined with feed and health, interventions are carried out in the MRS typology zone, where according to the LSA, AI and synchronization is profitable. The specific targets include:• The number of households participating in the intervention activity will reach 1.3 million by 2020. The expected increase in number of crossbred cattle in IFD systems in the MRS zone during the GTP II will be 3.6 million or almost eight times the base-year number.In IFD, with the adoption of the intervention during the GTP II, crossbred dairy cattle will:• Produce an average of 6 litres of milk per day as compared to 1.9 for local cattle milk (an increase of 216%).• Weigh 375 kg, while the average live-weight of local adult animals is 280 kg.• Have a lactation period of 270 days on average as compared to 200 days for local breeds (an increase of 35%).• Produce an average of 1053 litres of milk per year as compared to 247 for local breeds (a 326% increase).4. The percentage change in the number of crossbred cattle drives the changes in milk production and GDP. Feed: The challenges include:• Limited access to land for production of forage seed and forage;• Inadequate and poor access to quality forage seed and cuttings; and• Planted forage constrained by poor extension and training.These challenges could be addressed through:• Policy interventions to make land available to investors for forage seed and forage production;• The establishment of a forage seed industry; and• Forage seed production and certification.The challenges include:• Inefficient AI services.• Low productivity of local breeds and a low number of improved genotypes.Strategies to help improve genetic potential include:• Establishing and strengthening calf-rearing and heifer-rearing farms through private, public and private-public joint ventures;• Promoting, expanding, and strengthening private provision of AI, and AI with synchronization, services;• Improving the efficiency of public AI services to ensure semen quality, the timing of insemination and heat detection; and• Providing training, backup support and incentives to farmers to work as AI technicians.The challenges include:• Very high calf mortality;• Insufficient animal health extension advice;• Inefficient animal health services;• Inadequate supply of drugs;• Poor quality control of drugs and supplies; and• The lack of a bio-security system in place.These challenges could be addressed by:• Rationalizing and strengthening the animal health regulatory capacity of the federal and regional agencies under the coordination of the LSM.The challenges include:• Seasonal demand fluctuations leading to inconsistencies in milk supply and processing;• A lack of milk quality and grading standards, and enforcement mechanisms;• An absence of quality-based pricing incentives;• Stiff competition from the other beverage industries and limited promotion of dairy-product consumption (competition with soft drinks, etc.); and• Insufficient supply of affordable milk to many consumers.These challenges could be addressed through:• The promotion of investment in UHT, powdered milk production;• The introduction of quality-based standards and pricing to encourage quality milk supply;• The enforcement of milk quality standards; and• Investment in the promotion of dairy-product consumption.Policy: Additional challenges include:• Pricing policies causing disincentives.These challenges could be addressed through the:• Introduction of protective trade policy that includes increasing import tariffs or bans and/or subsidies for domestically-produced milk to enable competition with imports; and• Establishment of a grading and standards system for dairy products.It is recommended that AI and synchronization, combined with feed and health, interventions are carried out in all of the MRS typology zone where it was found to be highly profitable, showing very high IRR values (for small IFD IRR= 32.5% and for medium IFD IRR= 23.7%). In contrast, the AI and synchronization intervention in most of the MRD typology zone is not profitable, as it shows very low IRR values (IRR=1% for small MRD and IRR=5% for medium MRD).However, raising the genetic potential of local breeds to achieve significantly higher milk production through crossbreeding with exotic dairy breeds using AI and synchronization, is recommended in dairy sheds and periurban areas in the MRD and is proving successful in an on-going MoA AI and synchronization campaign. Moreover, crossbreeding is not recommended for LG pastoral and agro-pastoral systems due to feed shortages and high temperatures in the LG typology zone. 5The AI and synchronization intervention will include the:• Adoption of AI and synchronization by 32% of the reproductive female cattle in the MRS by 2020, starting with 10% in the first year (2015/16);• Replacement of local cattle in herds with crossbreds as indicated in Table 1. It is assumed that cattle herd sizes will remain the same, with crossbreds joining and replacing local cattle in herds;• Training of at least 20,000 public and private AI technicians, such as farmer AI technicians, during the five-year GTP II period of activity;• Participation of 1.3 million households in the activity by 2020; and• Training of at least the 1.3 million farmers adopting the technology on better husbandry and feeding practices of rearing crossbred dairy cattle and on the handling of dairy production. Improve feeding and health services in the IFD system• Provide the additional feed supplementation that takes place in the IFD: 1.5-2kg of concentrate per day per lactating cow, as compared to traditional cattle feeding system.• Improve pasture productivity through over sowing, community-based pasture management and utilization scheme, as well as practicing soil and water conservation activities, and gully rehabilitation combined with a cut-and-carry feeding system.• Grass and legume seed and elephant grass cuttings are made available.• Train dairy farmers on livestock feeding and disease control as part of improved management.• Train dairy farmers on forage production in backyards, and part of cropping lands, and on lands under rehabilitation program (set-asides or natural resource management (NRM) enclosures).• Health intervention to reduce YASM of cattle.• Coverage of YASM to be 80% of the households over 20 year period, while the adoption to be linear, reaching 20% of the households in the MRS over the five-year GTP II period.• Access to quality of veterinary services to be improved by rationalizing public/private veterinary services.• Enabling environment and incentives to be created for remote area veterinary practices.• Health services to be improved through the delivery of vaccinations for major diseases like FMD, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), anthrax and pasteurellosis, with control/treatment for external and internal parasites twice a year.Investment in dairy cattle breed improvement in the MRS system through crossbreeding using AI and synchronization• For the five-year GTP II period, a total investment of ETB 148 million is needed to improve the capacity of the AI centres and the related service, and the training of AI technicians (Table 5).• It is assumed that farmers will cover the costs related to each AI and synchronization service provided. The estimated costs per synchronization and per AI service are ETB 100 and 200 respectively. Assuming a double insemination, the cost to the farmer per service is estimated at ETB 340.• At national level the total recurrent cost for the AI and synchronization service covered by the farmer is ETB 2817 million, as shown in Table 5. The investment by the GoE to put in place the AI and synchronization services for the intervention is only ETB 148 million (very good leveraging by the GoE). Investments to improve health and feeding services in the IFD system  At national level, over ETB 1 billion will be spent over the first three years to reduce YASM in all species and all systems. The cost of investment in reducing YASM of cattle in the MRS is ETB 214.5 million. To improve pasture productivity in the MRD and MRS, a total of ETB 443.5 million is allocated for the five years.The cost of investment for the years 2015/16-2019/20 to improve pasture productivity in the MRS is estimated to be ETB 252.8 million 7 . The recurrent cost for health care increases from the current ETB 14 per animal per year to ETB 53 per animal per year. This increment of health service cost is expected to improve the delivery of health services to crossbred animals. An additional feeding cost of ETB 4.2 per cow/day is expected to satisfy concentrate feed demand of crossbred cows in IFD.  • In small-sized IFD, the IRR of the investment at herd level is 32.5%.• In medium-sized IFD, the IRR of the investment at herd level is 23.7%.• The contribution to national milk production of IFD increases from 167 million litres in 2014/15 to 1490 million litres by 2020, an increase of 793%.• The GDP contribution of IFD system increases from ETB 1.1 billion in 2014/15 to ETB 10.0 billion in 2020, an increase of 793%. Additional returns to family resources from the investment in IFD• Incremental net income increase at herd level is ETB 815 for small MRS cattle production system and ETB 3066 for the medium MRS cattle system due to improvement in breed, feed and health interventions in the MRS.• As the results in Table 11 indicate, AI and synchronization integrated with feed and health intervention is not profitable in the MRD. The incremental net income increase at herd level for MRD is found to be ETB -14 for small and ETB -337 in medium MRD cattle production systems. The government and private sector actions required to ensure success are the:• Provision of full support in terms of budget allocation for mobilizing and strengthening AI and synchronization facilities, services and activities;• The creation of AI infrastructure, including regional semen production facilities and cold storage for distribution;• Introduction of more conducive policies and laws establishing clear sanitary standards and regulations, together with enforcement mechanisms;• Establishment and enforcement of quality standards and quality-based price incentives for milk produced and sold;• Provision of continuous training and refreshment training given to AI technicians-public, private and farmers;• Introduction of strong extension services focusing on training dairy farmers in better management of crossbred cattle;• Improvement of animal health services provided to dairy farmers;• Provision of effective technical and business training to all VC actors; and• Expansion of private sector investment in dairy processing.The specialized dairy production systems are improved through better genetics, feed and health services and the units expanded in quantity to increase the number of dairy cows and the contribution of specialized dairy to national milk production. The specific targets for specialized dairy include:  In specialized dairy, with the adoption of the interventions during the GTP II, crossbred dairy cattle will show the following improvements:• Average milk production per crossbred cow per day in small specialized dairy increases from 10 to 12 litres (20% increase);• Average milk production per crossbred cow per day in medium specialized dairy increases from 16 to 19.2 litres (20% increase);• Average milk production per crossbred cow per year in small specialized dairy units increases from 2593 to 2746 litres (6% increase); and• Average milk production per crossbred cow per year in medium specialized dairy units increases from 4608 to 5080 litres (10% increase). Many of the challenges and strategies mentioned in the same section of the IFD roadmap are also pertinent for specialized dairy. Thus, only the most critical specific challenges and strategies which are important to specialized dairy are given here.The challenges include a:• Shortage and unavailability of quality purchased concentrate feed and roughage; and• Lack of effective feed quality control and standards enforcement mechanisms.These challenges could be addressed by:• Making land available for commercial forage production by investors;• Promoting and enforcing outsourcing contracts to produce forage for specialized dairy;• Enforcing feed quality standards, quality monitoring and control;• Promoting the establishment of flour mills to make more concentrate ingredients available; and• Promoting domestic production of cooking oil to replace the importation of cooking oil, and limiting or banning the exportation of oilseeds that affect availability of concentrate feeds.The challenges include a:• Lack of diversity of dairy products and packaging that meets consumption needs of different consumers; and• Shortage of dairy technologists.The needed marketing strategies include: Promoting investment in UHT, powdered milk production, and other value-added products like yogurt, ice cream, cheese, etc.; and  Building the capacity of the dairy technology institute(s).The challenges that require policy support include: An absence of breeding policy; A need for milk-quality standards control and enforcement, as well as grading and pricing policies; A need for an effective land acquisition policy for dairy investments (preferential treatment for accessing land for specialized dairy production and milk processing); The enforcement of a land policy to encourage investment in large scale commercial feed production; A need for incentives for investors to establish dairy processing plants and specialized dairy farms: and  An absence of animal welfare policies.The interventions are not specific to the production typology zone (MRS, MRD, and LG), but to specialized dairy unit size. High yielding crossbred cattle can be kept anywhere if handled properly by commercial specialized farmers.Promoting the production and marketing of improved forage feed and seed including:• Promoting and enforcing outsourcing contracts for non-dairy farmers to produce forage for specialized dairy units;• Changing land use and investment policy to encourage investment in large scale commercial feed production;• Increasing the coverage of the intervention to 60% of specialized dairy farms by 2020; (both small-and mediumsized farms);• Changing the adoption rate gradually over the investment period, increasing to 30% in 2020; and• Leaving recurrent costs to be paid by the specialized dairy farmers.For small size specialized dairy units (average herd size of five):• Additional costs for seed and forage production at herd level will arise as the demand for more improved forages increases. For the small specialized dairy farms, the recurrent costs of improved forage seed increases from the current ETB 50 to 200 per ha, the cost of access to water from ETB 20 to 54 per cow per year, the labour requirements (people per year) change from 1.1 to 1.25 person years per unit; and• The estimate of additional improved forage seed and land needed to produce the improved forage feed is shown in Table 15. For the medium-sized specialized dairy (average herd size of 100):• The area requirement for improved forage cultivation increase from four to six hectares through outsourcing an additional two hectares. The cost of improved forage seed increases from ETB 50 to 200 per ha;• The cost of outsourced forage production is estimated at ETB 15,300 per ha for land rental and contract enforcement. To estimate the cost of the land to produce forage, the opportunity cost for wheat cultivation is used;• Feed purchase decreases from the current 85% to 77.5 % of the total feed consumed by the medium-sized specialized dairy animals;• 715 medium specialized dairy farms will be engaged in forage production outsourcing agreements by the year 2020 (Table 16); and• The additional improved forage seeds and land needed to produce improved forage feeds is shown in Table 17.10 This land could be obtained through outsourcing agreements or the use of the farmer's own land for forage production.11 It is assumed that 75% of the land will be covered by annual and 25% covered by perennial forages. . Increasing milk production from specialized dairy by increasing the number of crossbred dairy cattle• For small specialized dairy system, the number of dairy units will increase from about 57,229 in 2015 to 157,227 by 2020 and the number of units of medium specialized dairy will increase from 400 in 2015 to 715 by the year 2020 (Tables 15 and 17 above).• Herd size of five for small specialized dairy and 100 for medium dairy remain constant until 2020. The number of dairy cattle in the system, therefore, would be 786,135 (5 cattle*157,227 farms) for the small specialized dairy and 71,500 (100 cattle*715 farms) for the medium specialized dairy by 2020. A total of 857,634 cattle will be in the specialized dairy system (Table 13 above). Because the number of crossbreed dairy cattle increases, additional feed is required. Additional demand for concentrate feeds (wheat bran, molasses, and oil cake) by 2020 will reach 756,000 tonnes (Table 18). To sustain both the IFD and specialized dairy systems and meet growing demand for milk and milk products, the following processing facilities are required:• An additional 10 fresh milk pasteurizing plants with a capacity of processing 10,000 litres of milk per day will need to be built in 10 different regional cities of the country, as well as two with a capacity of 100,000 litres per day in or near Addis Ababa during the GTP II period; and• Two milk powder processing plants with a capacity of 400,000 litres of milk per day and one plant with a capacity of processing 5000 litres of milk per hour for long shelf-life UHT milk. 14An investment of ETB 215 million will be required (Table 19) to promote forage production and trade through the establishment of a forage seed industry and support for quality forage seed production and marketing, as well as for outsourced forage feed production. For the 15 years (2013 to 2028) a total investment of ETB 4.467 billion will be needed to establish wheat flour mills. These flour mills are targeted to produce wheat by-products that could be used as supplementary feed to both specialized dairy and cattle feedlots. Though the total investment (ETB 4.5 billion) is meant to establish wheat flour mills in the next 15 years, the real value associated with wheat by-products, as opposed to flour, is comparatively small (ETB 0.8 billion). For the GTP II period, the investment associated with wheat by-product production is ETB 250 million for specialized dairy and 97 million for specialized cattle feedlots.The establishment of milk processing plants will require an estimated amount of ETB 760 million. The investments need to focus on pasteurizing fresh milk and processing milk into UHT milk and powder. Details are shown in Table 22. Total investment in the specialized dairy system Impacts ROI • In small specialized dairy system the IRR of the investment at the herd level is 28.6%.• In medium specialized dairy system the IRR of the investment at the herd level is 42.8%.The contribution of the specialized dairy production system to national milk production increases from 495 million litres in 2014/15 to 1301 million litres by 2019/20 (Table 14).• The increased number of improved units results in an increase in the GDP contribution of the specialized dairy system from ETB 3.6 billion in 2014/15 to ETB 9.6 billion in 2019/20.• The contribution of small specialized dairy to GDP increases from ETB 2207 million in 2015 to ETB 6287 million in 2020 (Table 24).• The contribution of medium specialized dairy to GDP increases from ETB 353 million in 2015 to ETB 751 million in 2020 (Table 24).Table 24: Milk GDP contribution of the small and medium specialized dairy system (in ETB millions) The incremental net income increase at the herd level is ETB 2921 for the small specialized dairy production system and ETB 77,913 for the medium specialized dairy production system due to the forage production and trade promotion intervention investments. The government and private sector actions required to ensure success are the:• Creation of a supportive investment climate with reduced bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining land for forage and seed production, and to set up and build dairy agribusinesses;• Establishment and enforcement of quality standards and quality price incentives;• Development of well-defined contracting procedures, and the enforcement of legal contracts;• Creation of strong links between government agencies and the private sector (specialized dairy farms and smallholder forage producing farms) through a platform or cluster approach;• Creation of more effective extension services, AI infrastructure and health services;• Provision of required technical and business training to all VC actors;• Introduction of policies and laws establishing clear sanitary standards and regulations, together with enforcement;• Investment by the private sector in forage seed and forage production;• Investment by the private sector in flour mills and oilseed processing for concentrates; and• Investment by the private sector in processing to create demand for milk from farmers every day all year round.The interventions proposed to improve cattle milk production and productivity will transform traditional farms engaged in family dairy into more market-oriented IFD systems by:• Raising and realizing the genetic potential of local breeds for significantly higher milk production through crossbreeding with exotic dairy breeds, and AI and synchronization, combined with better feed and health services.Milk production and productivity of commercial dairy system will also increase significantly by:• Bringing more crossbred cattle into the commercial cattle dairy system; and• Increasing the availability of forage feeds by improving forage feed production and marketing.Local cattle, or the vast majority of individual animals, also represent huge potential to bridge the gap between the national cow milk consumption and production. The intervention-mainly targeted at improving animal productive, reproductive and weight gain performance-also affects milk production and productivity significantly in all (MRS, MRD and LG) typology zones. These are achieved by:• The improvement of natural grazing (pasture and range) land, coupled with health interventions to reduce YASM.• A 93% increase in national cattle milk production over the GTP II period (from 4132 in 2015 to 7967 litres in 2020);• An increase in the contribution of cow milk to the national GDP from ETB 28 billion in 2014/15 to ETB 52.9 billion in 2019/20; and• The production of a surplus of 2501 million litres of cow milk over projected domestic consumption requirements by 2020.This surplus could substitute for imported milk products and be used domestically for new or additional industrial purposes (e.g. in the baking industry) or exported as milk powder or UHT (Table 26 and Figure 1) to raise foreign exchange earnings and stimulate production. Roadmaps for growth and transformation  In addition to the above activities, the critical conditions which need emphasis for the success of the plan are:• Encouraging the private sector to invest in milk processing plants and dairy farms;• Ensuring availability of more and better forage seed, production and marketing, and health services in all areas, whether breed improvement is implemented or not; and• Ensuring more effective extension services are available to support production, processing and marketing of quality milk.Red The projected domestic consumption requirements for red meat that arise due to rapidly growing population, increasing urbanization, and rising incomes will be met; and live animal and meat exports will be increased to generate foreign exchange earnings.To raise red meat production in ITMM to reach 1,933,000 tonnes in the year 2020 through the improvement of animal health and feeding, and the implementation of a genetic recording scheme.To increase the herd size, number of fattening cycles and fattening units in the specialized cattle feedlots and increase the total number of animals passing through the commercial feedlot operations to 3.1 million and 6.7 million, by 2020 and 2028 respectively. The objective is to achieve this by expanding the production capacity of the specialized cattle feedlots to 368,305 tonnes of beef from feedlots by 2020.Targets Interventions aimed at increasing red meat output are expected to bring the following changes in animal productivity:• In cattle: a 10% increase in live weight, a 3 percentage point increase in dressing percentage and parturition rate over 20 years, and 1-1.5% annual increase in the off-take rate;• In sheep and goats: a 20% live weight gain, a 3 percentage point increase in dressing percentage, a 4 percentage point increase in parturition rate over 20 years and an annual increase of the adult off-take rate from 4-5%; and• In camels: a 10% increase in live weight, 3 percentage point increase in dressing percentage, 2.5 percentage point increase in parturition rate and an annual off-take rate increase of 2% in adult females. • The total increase in the number of cattle over all production zones grows from 56 to 62 million in 2020 (11% increase). • The total increase in the number of sheep over all production zones grows from 35 to 52 million in 2020 (51% increase). • The total increase in number of goats over all production zones grows from 32 to 44 million in 2020 (36% increase). • The total increase in the number of camels grows from 4.5 to 4.6 million in 2020 (2% increase). • The potential contribution of cattle to red meat over all production zones grows from 840,079 (in 2015) to 1,084,477 tonnes by 2020 (29% increase). • The potential contribution of sheep to red meat over all production zones grows from 114,776 (in 2015) to 196,430 tonnes by 2020 (42% increase). • The potential contribution of goats to red meat over all production zones grows from 97,331 (in 2015) to 171,400 tonnes by 2020 (43% increase). • The potential contribution of camels to red meat grows from 74,000 (in 2015) to 99,000 tonnes by 2020 (34% increase). The potential contribution of cattle to the national cattle milk over all production zones grows from 3,637 (in 2015) to 6,666 million litres by 2020 (83% increase).  The potential contribution of goats to the national production of goat milk in the LG grows from 169 (in 2015) to 353 million litres by 2020 (109% increase). • The potential contribution of camels to the national production of camel milk in the LG, grows from 1 (in 2015) to 1.1 million litres by 2020 (9% increase).Feed: The challenges related to feed include:• Poor quality of grazing lands;• A need for greater knowledge on the use of crop residues; and• Poor availability of concentrates and feed supplements when needed.These could be addressed through the:• Rehabilitation of rangeland/grazing land;• Introduction of better use of crop residues; and• Establishment of flour mills, thus making more concentrates available.Genetic potential: challenges include:• Negative selection of (inferior) bulls for draught purposes and use of inferior bulls for breeding;• Low genetic improvement extension coverage;• Poor recording scheme;• Inadequate local semen collection and processing, and AI delivery; and• Limited knowledge on the selection of higher producing cows for milk production.The challenges of improving the genetic potential of local animals could be overcome through selection strategies: developing a recording scheme, and establishing effective AI service through the use of semen from selected local bulls.Animal health services at production level: challenges include:• Poor animal health extension advice;• Inefficient animal health services;• Inadequate supplies and qualities of vaccines and drugs; and• Poor quality control of drugs and supplies.Strengthening animal health regulatory capacity under the coordination of the LSM is the main thrust of the strategy.The strategy also includes engaging the private sector for the production of vaccines and veterinary drugs.Marketing and processing: challenges include:• Poor market infrastructure and roads;• Poor technical knowledge of VC actors, especially processing technicians;• Inadequate market information; and• Poor linkages between producers, processors and export abattoirs.These challenges could be overcome through capacity building and by building infrastructure.Policy: challenges include:• An absence of breeding policy;• The enforcement of land use policy; loss of land to alternative investments outside livestock; and• A need for protective trade policy through appropriate measures.These challenges could be better addressed through clearly defined guidelines on land use and access rights, and by implementing appropriate land policies.The LG interventions do not involve AI, which are not practiced here. Therefore, genetic progress by improved selection of indigenous breeds is anticipated to be slow. The main proposed technological interventions are:• Feed improvement through better range management, over sowing with grass and legumes, and the control of invasive species. The intervention to improve rangeland productivity includes water development and rangeland improvement by shrub clearing, and the application of fertilizers and herbicide treatment where major shrub encroachment takes place. In later years, additional fertilizer and herbicide treatment will be needed, particularly for poor and fair condition rangelands;• Reduction of YASM: The relevant health interventions include improving access to quality of veterinary services through rationalized use of public/private veterinary services; anti-parasitic control/treatment; and vaccinations;• Promotion of community-based small ruminant breeding;• Breed improvement through better selection and management of male breeding animals; and• Much needed introduction of a herd/flock recording scheme for breed improvement.In the MRS and MRD, the main proposed interventions include:• Breed improvement, involving AI with semen of improved local breeds;• Breed management improvement through the implementation of a herd/flock recording scheme;• The maintenance of a ram to ewe ratio of 1:20 and training/extension to improve the capacity of farmers to select and manage male breeding animals;• The reduction of YASM with vaccines and anti-parasites;• The introduction of integrated fodder crops with food crops;• Soil and water conservation practices on communal grazing lands (gully prevention and rehabilitation);• The timely harvesting of grass, and storage and conservation of hay from communal grazing lands.• Increased efficiency of crop residue use (proper storage, supplementation, treatment including physical treatmentchopping, and urea); and• Over-sowing and rotational grazing.In the LG• The time horizon for the project is 20 years.• The initial investment cost is estimated at ETB one billion (see Table 38 for the LG, and 40 for the MRS and MRD) to be spent over the five years of the project life, covering the training and installation of private veterinary and para-veterinary clinics (basic supplies), subcontracts for vaccinations, and procurement of vaccines and medicines;• For all species, it is assumed that a full vaccination regime (once-twice per year depending on the disease risk) and de-worming, plus a mineral supplementation package, are applied; and• For all scenarios, the annual discount rate assumed is 10%, which is the assumed current social opportunity cost of capital in Ethiopia.  In addition to the investment in reducing YASM (Table 40), investment on pasture land improvement and production is shown in Table 41.   The IRR on investment of ITMM interventions was found to be 23% in the LG, 17% in the MRS, and 38% in the MRD (greater than the social discount rate of 10%).Table 43: Red meat production for the baseline year ( 2015) and 2020 with red meat intervention (in tonnes)  • The total red meat from ITMM grows from 1.3 million in 2015 to 1.9 million in 2020, showing an increase by 52%. • The GDP contribution of red meat from the ITMM system in all typology zones has shown an overall increase by 45% compared to the 2015 GDP. This amounts to ETB 40 billion in 2015, compared to 58 billion in 2020. The following government action is required:• Provide producers with knowledge and better enable access to sufficient production factors (including land, water and finance).• Improve the policy environment.• Ensure adequate forage is made available.• Ensure sufficient vaccine production to meet demand.• Ensure adequate supplements are made available.Targets 23 Ninety-seven per cent of the live animals from the medium-sized feedlot production are exported. 24 The fattening unit sizes are described by the number of cattle per unit. The cycles per year for small units are three. 25 The cycle per year for the medium is 3.4.  Feed challenges include:• Limited access to land for production of forage seed and forage;• Limited support to commercial feedlots in meeting the feed demand;• Inadequate and poor access to quality purchased concentrate feed; and• Lack of effective feed quality control: standards and mechanisms of enforcement.These feed challenges could be addressed through:• Making land for forage production available to investors;• Promoting and enforcing land contracts to produce forage for commercial feedlots;• Promoting the establishment of flour mills and thus making more concentrates available; and• Promoting the establishment of agro-industries for increased availability of by-products that could be used as feed supplements.• Poor animal health extension advice;• Inefficient animal health services;• Inadequate supplies of drugs;• Poor quality control of drugs and supplies;• Poor disease surveillance;• A need for traceability and identification; and• Inadequate quality control in abattoirs.Strengthening the animal health regulatory capacity under the coordination of the LSM is the main thrust.Marketing and processing challenges include:• An absence of quality-based pricing;• A lack of holding area and feedlot space;• A need for more knowledge on meat-cutting and-grading;• Poor links to export abattoirs; and• Few export market destinations.Challenges could be addressed by:• Building the capacity of staff in meat technology;• Increasing training of meat processing staff;• Promoting forward contracting of feedlots and abattoirs; and• Investing in export infrastructure for animal holding and quarantine, as well as programs to ensure food safety and animal health through disease surveillance, monitoring of abattoirs, animal identification and traceability, etc.Policy challenges that require special attention include:• A need for the enforcement of meat quality standards, control, grading, and pricing policies;• A need to ensure full implementation of the policy on breeding;• A need to ensure the development of land policies, or the full implementation of existing policies, related to feed production and land acquisition for feedlot investment;• Inadequate feed quality monitoring and controlling;• The introduction of further incentives to establish feedlots (including land access in appropriate locations conducive to feed production, linkages with export market, and infrastructure-road access, power and water supply);• The promotion of domestic production of oilseed to replace the importation of cooking oil and stop the exportation of oilseeds that affect availability of concentrate feeds;• The promotion of domestic production of grain flour to replace the importation of flour that affects availability of energy concentrate feeds that are by-products of the grain milling industries;• The introduction of protective trade policy to reduce the importation of cooking oil and grain flour; and• The development and implementation of animal welfare policies.The specialized production feedlot system will be improved through better feed and health services, the expansion of the number of specialized cattle feedlot units, and an increase in the number of cattle being fattened. The additional concentrate needed per animal will be 0.15 and 5.2 tonnes per year. The return on investment in cattle feedlots is big and attractive. The benefit/cost ratio is 9 and 1.3 for small and medium feedlots units, respectively (greater than 1). Total red meat production from the specialized cattle feedlot increases by 173% by the year 2020, resulting in an increase from 135,000 (2015) to 368,000 tonnes (in 2020).• The contribution to the GDP by the specialized cattle feedlot system grows from ETB 54 billion in 2015 to 83 billion in 2020, showing an increase by 53%. • Industry strategy developed by GoE in collaboration with industry association.• Access enabled to sufficient production factors (including land, water and finance).• Policy and investment environment (less bureaucracy) to attract and enable private investment in feedlots and slaughterhouses improved.• Feed coming from new and existing sugar plantations and other types of large-scale crop production investments in Ethiopia strategically used.• The potential contribution of ITMM and specialized cattle feedlot to improve food security, red meat consumption and nutrition, and contribute to economic growth is significant, given the production increase shown in Table 56.• However, this can only be realized if:• Investments are implemented by the GoE and private investors in a timely manner and are adequately funded.• Feed needs are given priority. This includes the establishment of flour mills and the increasing availability of roughages, such as crop residues or feeds in the form of agro-industrial by-products. The bulk of additional concentrate feed needs to come from investment by the private sector in flour mills and agro-industries.• An industry strategy is put in place in collaboration with industry associations to enable access to sufficient production factors (including land, water and finance).• The policy environment to attract and enable sustainable growth in feedlots is improved.• Linkages are established for a viable stocker feeder program where the young male stock from the LG are channelled to feedlot operations, thus reducing the grazing pressure in the system.• The establishment of new feedlot operations takes into account the spatial distribution of sugar cane factories, agro-industrial processing plants and milling industries. • Even if all the above conditions are met the red meat (ITMM, cattle feedlots and specialized dairy) production and consumption balance for the period 2015-2020 projects a deficit of 73,000 tonnes by 2020.• Production grows from 1,275,000 tonnes in 2015 to 1,934,700 tonnes in 2020, an increase of 52%.• Consumption grows faster, from 1,275,100 tonnes of red meat in 2015 to 2,008,000 tonnes by 2020, and increase of 58%. Ethiopia will meet its chicken meat and egg demand for its growing population and produces export surpluses. The poultry sub-sector will move away from the traditional scavenging family poultry system (TFP) to the improved semiscavenging family poultry system (IFP) and increase the scale of specialized layer and broiler production (specialized poultry). This transformation will make a substantial contribution to reducing poverty and malnutrition among rural and urban poor.The sub-sector will help close the total national meat production-consumption gap and achieve the CRGE target of increasing the share of chicken meat consumption to total meat consumption from the current 5% to 30% by 2030 by substituting red meat that comes from larger high emitting ruminants.To raise chicken meat production to 164,000 tonnes and eggs to 3.9 billion by the year 2020 through IFP and expanded specialized poultry.Moving traditional (scavenging) family poultry to improved (semi-scavenging) family poultry system Targets • Number of chickens in the TFP drops from 5.7 million hens with followers to 3.4 million hens with followers, a 41% drop.• Number of DOCs in the IFP subsystem grows from 3.0 million in the base year to 10.4 million in 2020, a 246% increase (Table 57). •• The number of IFP-keeping households (farms or units of 25 hens each) increases from 120,000 in the year 2015 to 416,000 in the year 2020, a 247% increase across all typology zones.• The distribution of IFP farms (households) remains 5% in the LG agro-pastoral, 40% in the MRD and 55% in the MRS through the GTP II period (Table 58) • Chicken meat production from IFP increases from 2900 tonnes in the year 2015 to 10,200 tonnes in the year 2020, a 251% increase (Table 59).• Chicken meat production from traditional scavenging poultry reduces from 45,600 tonnes in the year 2015 to 26,900 tonnes in the year 2020, a 41% reduction. • Egg production from IFP increases from 258 million in the year 2015 to 894 million in the year 2020, a 246% increases (Table 60).• Egg production from the TFP decreases from 133 million in 2015 to 78.4 million by 2020, a 41% reduction.• Average culling weight of TFP hens is 1.4 kg at 36 months, as compared to 2.8 kg in IFP at 18 months.• Egg production per hen increases from 42 in TFP to 150 in IFP.• Average egg weight increases to 60 gm in IFP, as compared to 40 gm in TFP.• Flock size per family in IFP increases to 25 hens, as compared to 2 hens and 8 followers in TFP.• Mortality drops from current level of 50% in the TFP to 10% in the IFP.Feed: challenges include:• Limited access to land for production of maize and soybeans for poultry feed;• A need for more cooking oil processing plants in which by-products, such as soybean cakes, could be made available for poultry feeding;• Inadequate and poor access to quality purchased concentrate feed; and• A need for the enforcement of efficient feed quality control and standards.These could be addressed by:• Acquiring land for maize and soybean production;• Promoting and providing attractive incentives (e.g., tax holidays, land) for those private investors establishing agroindustries that would help to increase availability of by-products, such as soybean cake, for use as poultry feed;• Regulating the export of oil crops and import of cooking oils; and• Setting up a mechanism to control feed quality.Animal health services: challenges include:• Low animal health extension coverage;• Inefficient animal health services;• Inadequate drug supplies and quality vaccines (e.g. vaccine for Newcastle disease); and• Lack of efficient quality control of drugs and veterinary supplies.These challenges could be addressed by strengthening the animal health services, extension, and regulatory capacity in the LSM and the regional state agricultural bureaus, and by encouraging private sector investment in animal health services, as well as in input production and distribution.Breeding: challenges include:• Availability of chicken breeds suitable for semi-scavenging production;• Limited investment by the private sector in establishing grandparent, parent and commercial chicken production; and• Low productivity of indigeous breeds.These challenges could be addressed by providing incentives to the private sector for poultry investment, strengthening research to select productive indigenous breeds, and by developing breeds suitable for semi-scavenging production systems.Marketing and processing: challenges include:• Seasonal demand fluctuations (due to fasting) leading to variations in chicken meat and egg supply and processing;• Inefficient DOC and pullet distribution systems;• Attitudinal/behavioural challenges towards producing and consuming eggs and meat from hybrid and exotic breeds; and• Limited cooking and serving skills in relation to chicken meat and eggs.These could be addressed by:• Processing and marketing strategies developed with private sector, farmer groups, cooperatives, etc.;• Providing incentives to and strengthening the private sector in developing market distribution systems and retail outlets for chicken meat and eggs;• Intensifying the promotion and extension work to change the attitudes of consumers towards consuming eggs and meat from hybrid and exotic breeds; and• Developing diverse skills in cooking and serving of chicken meat and eggs to meet the needs of a diverse group of consumers.• A need to ensure the full implementation of policy related to land acquisition for poultry feed production.• A need to safeguard effective implementation of quality monitoring and control mechanisms.• The introduction of policy to discourage the importation of cooking oil and the exportation of oilseeds that affect availability of concentrate feeds.• The introduction of protective trade policy to encourage domestic private investment in poultry production.• The development and implementation of animal welfare policies.The intervention in smallholder poultry upgrades the family backyard poultry production (TFP, with hen and followers) to a higher yielding IFP system. The IFP intervention is based primarily on the importation of exotic breeds to cross with local breeds and create crossbred, semi-scavenging, improved breeds 27 , with complementary health and feed improvement interventions. The adoption rate is expected to be slow at the start, 0.7% in year two, 2016/17, reaching 14% in year five, 2019/20. In the year 2020, chicken meat from the IFP systems will reach 10,200 tonnes and 894.4 million eggs, increases of 251% and 246% respectively.• The estimated amount of poultry feed required for IFP in the year 2020 for:• Maize is 266,600 tonnes; and• Soybean meal is 127,300 tonnes.• The land needed to meet the IFP added requirement in the year 2020:• For maize production is 51,900 ha; and• For soya production is 43,200 ha.• One national and four regional grandparent farms are established and operationalized 28 .• The grandparent foundation stock of suitable tropical exotic semi-scavenging breeds is imported.• The existing regional multiplication centres are upgraded.• Twenty-five new public and private multiplication centres for production of DOCs are established.• Two hundred and fifty new PPP or private production and distribution businesses for three-week old chicks are established.• Some 10.4 million improved semi-scavenging DOCs are produced and distributed in the year 2020.• Coverage for IFP is 58% of the TFP system. The adoption rate is 0.7% in year two, 2016/17 reaching 14% in year five, 2019/20.See the investment sub-section of the cattle feedlot section in the chapter on red meat-milk and cattle feedlot systems.Return on Investment (ROI)• The return from the investment in IFP subsystems is very large and attractive. The benefit/cost ratio is 10.5.• Chicken meat production from IFP increases from 2900 tonnes in the year 2015 to 10,200 tonnes in the year 2020, a 251% increase.• Total egg production increases from 258 million in the year 2015 to 894.4 million in the year 2020, a 246% increase.27 The exotic or crossbred semi-scavenging breeds not specified as alternatives will be tested and chosen in the first year of the GTP II. 28 This is for both IFP and specialized poultry.Targets • The number of chickens in the specialized poultry layers subsystem grows from 0.145 million in base year to 15 million in 2020, a 10,243% increase. The specialized poultry broilers subsystem grows from 0.193 million in 2015 to 85 million in the year 2020, a 43,859% increase (Table 62).• The mortality rate is 10%. • The number of specialized poultry units for layers increases from 290 in the year 2015 to 2400 in the year 2020, and for broilers it increases from 30 in the year 2015 to 2415 in the year 2020.• The average number of birds kept per unit per year for layers increases from 500 in the year 2015 to 6250 in the year 2020 and for broilers it increases from 6400 in the year 2015 to 35,200 in the year 2020. Chicken meat production from specialized poultry increases from 395 tonnes in the year 2015 to 126,800 tonnes in the year 2020, a 31,994% increase (Table 64). • Egg production from specialized layers increases from 28 million in the year 2015 to 2916 million in the year 2020, an increase of 10,314% (Table 65). • Total chicken meat production increases from 48,900 tonnes in the year 2015 to 163,900 tonnes in the year 2020, a 235% increase.• Total egg production increases from 419 million in the year 2015 to 3,888.8 million in the year 2020, an 828% increase.Feed: challenges include:• Limited access to land for production of maize and soybeans for poultry feed;• A need for more cooking oil processing plants in which the by-products, such as soybean cakes, could be made available for poultry feeding;• Inadequate and poor access to quality purchased concentrate feed; and• The enforcement of efficient feed quality control and standards.These could be addressed by:• Acquiring land for maize and soybean production;• Promoting and providing attractive incentives (e.g., tax holidays, land) for those private investors establishing agroindustries that would help to increase availability of by-products, such as soybean cake, for use as poultry feed;• Regulating the exportation of oil crops and importation of cooking oils; and• Setting up a mechanism to control feed quality.Animal health services: challenges include:• Inadequate drug supplies and quality vaccines (e.g. vaccine for Newcastle disease); and• Inefficient quality control of drugs and veterinary supplies.These challenges could be addressed by strengthening the animal health services and regulatory capacity in the LSM and the regional state agricultural bureaus, and by supporting private investment in animal health service delivery, input production and distribution.• A lack of diversity of poultry products and packaging that meets consumption patterns of different consumers;• Seasonal demand fluctuations (due to fasting) leading to variations in chicken meat and egg supply and processing;• Attitudinal/behavioural challenges towards consuming eggs and meat from hybrid and exotic breeds; and• Limited cooking and serving skills in relation to chicken meat and eggs.These challenges could be addressed by:• Providing incentives to and strengthening the private sector in developing market distribution systems and retail outlets for chicken meat and eggs;• Intensifying the promotion and extension work to change the attitudes of consumers towards consuming eggs and meat from hybrid and exotic breeds; and• Processing and marketing strategies developed with the private sector, farmer groups, cooperatives, etc.; and• Developing diverse skills in cooking and serving of chicken meat and eggs to meet the needs of a diverse group of consumers.Policy challenges that require special attention include:• A need to ensure full implementation of policy related to land acquisition for poultry feed production.• A need to safeguard effective implementation of quality monitoring and control mechanisms.• The introduction of financial incentives for poultry farms.• The introduction of policy to discourage the importation of cooking oil and exportation of oilseeds that affect availability of concentrate feeds.• The introduction of protective trade policy to encourage domestic private investment in poultry production.• The development and implementation of animal welfare policies.The interventions for specialized poultry improvement involve increasing the scale of operations and volume of production from specialized poultry farms i.e., specialized poultry layers and broilers. The major intervention proposed for the specialized poultry layers and broilers is increasing the average number of chickens kept per farm and the number of specialized farm units. The average number of broilers per specialized farm/year is expected to increase from 6400 in the year 2015 to 35,200 in the year 2020, and the average number of layers from 500 to 6250. Over the five-year GTP II period, it is anticipated that the existing number of layer and broiler enterprises will reach to 2400 and 2415 units respectively. As a result of these interventions, the production of chicken meat and eggs from the specialized poultry increases dramatically. In the year 2020, chicken meat from the specialized systems reaches 127,000 tonnes and eggs 2.9 billion, an increase of 31,994% and 10,293% respectively.• The estimated amount of poultry feed required for both specialized poultry layer and broiler sub-systems in the year 2020 for:• Maize is 580,000 tonnes; and• Soybean meal is 299,000 tonnes.• Land needed to meet the added requirement by the year 2020:• For maize production is 122,000 ha; and• For soya production is 102,000 ha.• One national and four regional grandparent farms are established and operationalized.• The grandparent foundation stock of suitable specialized breeds (broiler and layer) is imported.• Twenty-five new public and private multiplication centres for production of DOCs are established.• Eighty-five million DOC broilers and 15 million DOC layers are produced for meat and egg production respectively in year 2020.Investments 30A total ETB 7.9 billion investment and recurrent costs are required for implementing IFP and expanding the specialized poultry layers and broilers. This investment is over a 15-year period. The investment costs cover the:• Identification, importation and testing of suitable tropically adapted specialized and IFP breeds (grand-parent or pure breed);• Establishment of grandparent farms which could eventually produce 440 million DOCs per year;• Establishment of feed processing plants, at a cost of ETB 130 million (private investment);• Allocation of sufficient land to produce the key ingredients of poultry feed. Some ETB 5.6 billion are required to lease the land to grow soybean and maize. It is expected the government sets below market land-lease rates to encourage private investors to produce soybean and maize;• Establishment and management of the program for 20 years, at the recurrent cost of ETB 100 million; and• Establishment and management of chicken meat and egg processing plants, costing an additional ETB 770 million. This will be a private sector investment.In total, the investment and recurrent cost, including cost of processing plants, add up to ETB 8.7 billion (see LSA report for details).The investment and recurrent costs for the five roadmap-years add up to ETB 2.4 billion. Of this total, ETB 457.9 million (19%) 31 comes from the public and ETB 1.97 billion (81%) from the private sector. This does not include other recurrent expenses that will be incurred by smallholders with IFP and the specialized poultry farms to procure the parent stock and DOC/pullets and to pay for health and feeding expenses (See Table 67 for details).30 The flock size for layers and broilers in 2015 is 500 and 6400 respectively. 31 The public investment does not include what the government loses by leasing land to poultry investors for less than the market rate.  Return on investment (ROI)• The returns from the investment in the specialized layer and broiler sub-systems are very large and attractive. The benefit/cost ratios for specialized poultry broiler and layer are 1.54 and 1.68 respectively.• Total chicken meat production from specialized broiler increases from 255 tonnes in the year 2015 to 112,000 tonnes in the year 2020, a 43,913% increase (Table 64).• Total chicken meat production from specialized layer increases from 140 tonnes in the year 2015 to 14,500 tonnes in the year 2020, a 10,285% increase (Table 64).• Total egg production from specialized layer increases from 28 million in the year 2015 to 2916 million in the year 2020, a 10,314% increase (Table 65).• Contribution from specialized poultry layers will reach ETB 7582 million in the year 2020.• Government (MoA extension) encouragement of out growers (mother units) through tax exemptions or input subsidies will be required to raise DOCs into three-week pullets for distribution to IFP farms.• A network that involves DOC multiplication centres, pullet out growers (mother units), individual smallholder farmers, women groups and cooperatives will be required to make a successful IFP.• Government should invest in the training of poultry technicians and IFP smallholders in the area of feed and health management of the improved breeds.• Government should give priority to specialized poultry in land allocation to establish poultry farms and produce poultry feeds.• The increase in production of eggs and chicken meat that exceeds domestic demand opens up opportunities for export and processing. Large investments in processing plants will be needed to produce value added products for industrial uses (e.g. powdered eggs) or to meet foreign consumer demand for eggs and egg powder. The government should encourage private investors in chicken meat and egg processing through tax holidays and with low interest loans.• Poultry feed is a critical factor to the success of the specialized poultry operation. There is a need to set up mechanisms for low-cost feed production and formulation at all levels, in particular for IFP producers.• Specialized poultry enterprises should make efforts to link-up with chicken meat and egg processing enterprises to ensure regular access to market outlets, and with maize producers and cooking oil plants to ensure a regular supply of feed.• There is a need to put in place effective extension and health services (public or private) to meet the service needs (health, feed and management) of the coming millions of improved poultry family units.• PPP should be used to manufacture and distribute quality vaccines to keep the exotic chickens healthy.• Other essential components that need to be carried out by farmer groups and cooperatives include:• Out growers (mother units) schemes for pullet production and distribution;• Mini-hatcheries establishment; and• Feed processing plants and slaughtering facilities.The potential contribution of the poultry industry to improve food security, meat consumption and nutrition, and its contribution to economic growth is huge. The total chicken meat production is projected to increase from 48,900 tonnes in the year 2015 to 164,000 tonnes in the year 2020, a 235% increase. Total egg production would increase from 419 million in the year 2015 to 3,889 million in 2020, an 828% increase. However, the above benefits can only be realized if:• The feed problem is resolved;• An effective extension system is put in place;• Private investors in the sector (specialized poultry, processing plants, feed producers) are provided adequate incentives in terms of tax holidays, subsidized land-leasing rates and priority access to acquire land; and• Protective trade policies to encourage domestic private investors in the poultry business are implemented.• If all the necessary conditions above are met, the production-consumption balance for chicken meat will reach a surplus of 96,000 tonnes in the year 2020, while the egg balance will reach a surplus of 3.1 billion during the same period. The figures below depict graphically the production-consumption balance for chicken meat and eggs. • Similarly if the necessary conditions above are met, the contribution of the poultry sub-sector to the GDP increases from ETB 4172 million in the year 2015 to ETB 15,631 million in the year 2020. The contribution from the TFP drops by 41% over the same period.  The IFP system needs to be linked with processors to ensure reliable market outlets for chicken meat and eggs. Regulation is needed to protect the small IFP farmers so that they will not be forced out of business by large specialized poultry farms. The GoE needs to balance the poverty reduction and food security contributions of the IFP sub-sector with the economic growth potential that mainly comes from the larger specialized poultry system. Research is needed to monitor, maintain and ensure the quality of imported breed lines. Continuing research will be needed to identify better yielding breeds, including from among the local breeds.Livestock feed, production and extensionThe high cost and low availability of good quality animal feed from forage and fodder is one of the major constraints, if not the most critical constraint, to increasing productivity of livestock in dairy farms and feedlots, improved family and specialized poultry, and smallholder mixed crop-livestock and extensive livestock production systems (pastoral or agro-pastoral).Underfeeding and malnutrition limit the ability of an animal to reach its genetic potential, measured through such indicators as birth weight and growth rate, milk production, mortality rate, and reproductive performance. For example, under existing levels of farm management in traditional systems, a Horo cow is reported to produce 1.7 litres of milk on average at peak lactation, but 4 litres when it is fed and managed properly (Tolera 2012).Along with genetic and health interventions, supplemental feeding interventions are required to realize the full genetic potential and productivity increases possible from synchronization and AI in crossbred cows, as well as in improved poultry breeds, (LSA report 2014).• The national feed resources potential includes natural pasture (fodder, forage), cultivated forage, concentrates, blood meal, bone meal, crop residues, stubble grazing, brewery and winery by-products, oilseed by-products, molasses, sugarcane tops, other feed resources, such as foliage and pods, maize or sorghum thinning, cactus pear, etc.• The LSA indicates it is possible to make commercial dairy farms or feedlots more productive, if sufficient amount of improved forage is produced through the use of outsourcing agreements between farmers and commercial dairy farms and feedlots (LSA report 2014).• To increase availability of forage feed, either each dairy or poultry farm needs to have sufficient land to produce its own feed or it needs to have access to feed for purchase. Increasing the number of improved family and specialized dairy and poultry units demands the delivery of more and better inputs (including health services and feed) and improved extension services (LSA report 2014).In  (a) Area of the natural pasture was from GoE and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (1990).(b) Area under annual cropping from annual reports, 1979reports, -1989reports, , CSA (1989)).(c) Agricultural industrial by-products (oil cake, cotton seed, bran molasses) from three years (1987/88-1989/90) average (CSA, 1990). Average yield, tonnes of dry matter per hectare, and conversion factors to FU (feed unit) were from MoA (1984).The annual feed availability estimates by Tolera and Mengistu in Tables 72 and 73 respectively are very similar to one another. The estimate by Dirriba as in Table 74 below is higher than the other two even compared to the estimates of the bad seasons. Diriba used a more rigorous methodology that took into account all usable dry matter, including vegetables and fruits wastes. The match between available feed resources and requirements provides regional feed balances, as indicated in Table 75. These feed balances show, under the above-provided assumptions, that in a good year when rainfall is above the longterm average and in-average rain fall years only, the LG/LG agro-pastoral system will have sufficient feed resource to feed the animals in its zone, though accessibility will still be an issue due to distance from watering points and other factors, such as conflict. In all the other zones (the MRD and MRS) there is always a feed shortage for all rainfall 38 Urban and wasteland areas are excluded from the MRS and MRD, hence the percentage of grass and crop land is below 100%. 39 Includes 2% of the area in forage crops, with yields varying from 2 to 3.5 tonnes of DM per ha.situations. This means that under all rainfall conditions, the livestock feed intake falls short of the required standards of 2.5-3.0kg per 100kg live weight, which is the most critical requirement for achieving adequate production levels.Future outlook for feed availability is also a cause of concern. Assuming a 'business as usual' scenario for feed resources (without major feed development interventions), with the growth of animal numbers at the same rate as in the past, as estimated by LSIPT (for example 0.2-1.5% for cattle in the LG), and the same dry matter requirements per animal as above, the total requirements in 15 years will have risen to 56 million tonne of DM for the lowlands, 33 million tonnes for the MRD and 76 million tonnes per year for the MRS, as shown in Table 76. The feed requirements will not be met under any climatic condition. Feed challenges and strategies to transform the livestock sectorHighland feed challenges and strategies• Feed shortages in both quality and quantity is a major constraint affecting animal production in the highland and lowland areas. Options for improving animal feed resources (both forage and processed) in the highland areas are outlined hereunder.• Forages for livestock are obtained from native pastures, crop residues, agro-industrial by-products and improved grown forages. The following options are recommended for improving availability of forage.• At smallholder level, greater attention needs to be given to improved forage production by using available forage technologies. For native pastures, over sowing with improved grass and legume species and bush clearing/thinning from grazing fields is recommended. The use of improved forage varieties with better management techniques, and the enhancement of the quality of crop residues using urea and urea-molasses mixture treatment also needs to be considered. To achieve this, practical training needs to be given in a form of training of trainers of a large number of development agents (DAs) by the regional bureaus of agriculture in collaboration with potential stakeholders at both federal and regional levels.• Shortage of forage seed is a critical constraint to increasing improved forage production. It is thus important to improve the supply of forage seed by making land and credit services available to potential private seed producers to enable them to establish seed companies. It is also important to strengthen the technical and material capacity of government agencies (regional and federal seed enterprises, and research centres) by making forage seed production training available.• Regional and federal investment agencies can play a key role in facilitating private sector investment in forage seed production, while research institutes at regional and federal levels and the MoA will be the main actors in providing capacity-building support to research centres and seed enterprises.• Irrigated land needs to be allocated by regional state government officials to investors for forage production. The federal and regional investment agencies need to avail of private investors or PPPs or public parastatals interested in seed and feed production, and land that is fertile, irrigable and close to market destinations, to ensure sufficient feed supply for the emerging market-oriented livestock operations (example, feedlots and peri-urban dairy).• Quality feed is the major constraint to improving livestock productivity and production. Processed feeds form one of the essential components of the feed used in improved production systems. Market opportunities for processed feed are opening up due to the increasing trend of entrepreneurs investing in small-and large-scale commercial dairy, feedlots and poultry operations.• The problems facing the feed-processing industries are multifaceted and require commensurate solutions by the value chain actors involved. To improve the situation, the following interventions are proposed:• To increase production of quality feed in large-scale commercial operations, government investment policy needs to make large plots of land and credit available to investors at reduced rates to encourage them to invest in animal feed production and processing.• To ensure the quality of processed feed, it is critical that the GoE put the new Ethiopian feed proclamation (Federal Negarit Gazeta of FDRE, 2012) into effect. The proclamation involves feed regulation and control, including feed quality standards, feed safety control, import and export of feed and feed trade among others. The GoE also needs to establish accreditation of private analytical service laboratories to ensure quality feed production. This could be facilitated by organizing forums for dialogue at which concerned stakeholders/policymakers could participate. In this case, professional societies like the ESAP, EVA, Ethiopian Animal Feed Producers Association (EAFPA) and EMDIDI could play critical facilitation roles.• It is essential to increase availability of by-products of oilseed as feed. Processing industries need to be encouraged to process cooking oil locally rather than exporting it unprocessed. The government needs to promote establishment and use of oil extraction and flour milling factories so that more by-products are made available for feed processing industries. Taxes or quotas also need to be levied to discourage imports.• Private sector participation in large-scale production of soybean needs to be promoted to ensure sustained supply of these key ingredients as inputs for feed processing. This can be achieved through facilitating land availability by regional and federal investment agencies, and through the provision of tax incentives in return for investments.• To promote the production of yellow maize for poultry.• Private sector participation in large-and small-scale feed processing companies (local feed formulation and processing) needs to be promoted.• The level of awareness of policymakers of the critical importance of livestock feed needs to be raised by organizing policy dialogue forums in which concerned stakeholders and policymakers participate. Professional and industry associations, and the EMDIDI, could play a leading role in this initiative.• Training visits need to be made to other countries whose feed processing-industry-experience can be taken as a benchmark for developing efficient feed processing industries at home. These types of visits can be facilitated by stakeholders (private investors, government organizations and NGOs) involved in feed and livestock development programs.• The GoE need to revisit animal-feed tax policy so as to avoid double taxation. Periodic tax exemptions for feed ingredients and compound feeds also need to be considered so as to give an initial push to the industry through increased private investment.• The GoE needs to ensure that seasonal fluctuations in ingredients and compound feed prices are minimized and ensure sustainable feed production by advising feed processors to develop storage capacity for processed feeds and the ingredients required to produce these feeds. This can be undertaken by relevant stakeholders (regional bureaus of agriculture, livestock development agencies, MoA, the Ministry of Trade, and NGOs like Agricultural Cooperative Development International/ Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA)). This can be done by organizing public awareness meetings in which the industry owners participate.• Farmers need to be provided with training on animal husbandry, forage production and management, crop residue treatment and utilization, and cattle fattening practices. This can be done at farmers' or pastoralists' training centres by DAs, subject matter specialists (SMSs) and other potential collaborating institutions (government organizations and NGOs) working in the area of livestock development.Feed shortage is a critical constraint that limits the productivity of livestock production in lowland pastoralist and agro-pastoralist systems. Options discussed above to increase improved forage and processed feed for the highland system are largely applicable to the lowland pastoral/agro-pastoral system. Strategies to deal with the challenges are suggested as follows:• Herd management skills of pastoralists need to be strengthened through training on important topics like camel/ shoats/cattle husbandry, pasture production and management, crop residue improvement and utilization, milk handling and clean milk production procedures, etc. This can be done at pastoralists' training centres by DAs, SMS and other stakeholders working in the area.• The GoE and other stakeholders need to promote ecologically sound water point development and distribution in the lowland areas to efficiently utilize the temporal and spatial variability in the availability of forage. This also helps to avoid localized degradation, soil erosion and gully formation that reduces the potential of an area to produce good quality forage.• The GoE and other stakeholders need to promote herd mobility as a strategy to utilize temporal and spatial variability in the availability of forage.• The GoE and other stakeholders need to promote bush clearing/thinning, and the use of controlled burning as a range management technique to increase production of good quality forage.NRM activities to increase forage availability in both highland and lowland systems• Increasing the linkages between crop and livestock production is an effective means by which plant nutrients can rapidly be recycled between farms and animals. This needs to be achieved by promoting the use of crop residues for animal feeding and recycling of manure to crop farms as fertilizer.• The prevailing demographic and economic dynamics in the country will continue to reinforce the importance of crop residue improvement as animal feed. Potential options include: increasing on farm availability of quality crop residues through the selection of better and multi-purpose crop varieties and management practices, and the improved utilization of crop residues by chemical and physical treatment options. This could be achieved through collaborative systems-oriented research, in which crop, livestock and natural resource researchers participate to develop multipurpose crop varieties with high grain and good quality stover yields.• It is vital that NRM activities be integrated with livestock feed production. Options include: growing forage species in enclosures established for rehabilitating degraded grazing lands, and on degraded lands; and using the herbage biomass obtained from these systems as livestock feed, as cut-and-carry fodder, so that a win-win outcome is achieved.• There is a need to integrate reforestation activities with livestock production by incorporating multipurpose tree species like Leucaena, Sesbania and Tagasaste with NRM interventions, so that the fodder can be used as a protein supplement for livestock subsisting on low-quality crop residues and grasses.Ministry report and GTP II • In comparison to the base year, significant positive increases in the production of various commodities were achieved by 2012/13. The report only refers to the first three years of the GTP I. In Table 78, a summary of the projected production levels for the years 2013/14 and 2014/15 are presented. By the year 2014/15, it is anticipated that the volumes produced will have reached 1,383,000 tonnes of meat, 4,976,000 litres of milk and 137 million eggs. • By the end of GTP I (2014/15), it was expected (Table 78) that there would be 1.5 million crossbred cattle, of which close to 540,000 would be crossbred cows. The number of improved DOCs distributed would reach 523,000. Increasing the production of forage and feed will be required to support the growing number of improved dairy and poultry production. It is anticipated that forage seed supply will reach 145,000 quintals in 2014/15. Given the performance of forage seed production so far (see Table 78), it is unlikely that the target set for 2014/15 will be met without the increased participation of the private sector.Current ministry feed strategy LMP/GTP II and feed requirements and strategies for the six targeted VCsCow dairy IFD production in the MRS and MRD (in dairy belts and peri-urban areas)• The AI and synchronization intervention combined with feed and health interventions is recommended to be carried out in the MRS.• During the GTP II, an increase in the number of crossbred cattle is expected in IFD systems in the MRS zone to over four million. This will require increases in improved forage and feed production, and feeding services, involving:• Improvements in pasture productivity through over sowing, a community-based pasture management and utilization scheme, as well as the establishment of soil and water conservation activities, and gully rehabilitation, combined with a cut-and-carry feeding system. Grass and legume seed and elephant grass cuttings also need to be made available.• Additional feed supplementation, in comparison to traditional cattle production, which takes place in the IFD: 1.5-2kg of concentrate per day per lactating cow.• Dairy farmers trained on livestock feeding and disease control as part of improved management.• Dairy farmers trained on forage production in backyards, and part of cropping lands, and on lands under rehabilitation programs (set-asides or NRM enclosures).• To improve pasture productivity in the MRD and MRS, a total of ETB 443.5 million will be allocated for the five years.• An additional feeding cost of ETB 4.2 per cow per day is expected to satisfy concentrate feed demand of crossbred cows in the IFD. This adds up to 2849 million, to be covered by the private sector.• The specialized dairy are improved through better genetics, feed and health services, and the number of units expanded to 157,227 and 715 in small and medium specialized dairy respectively.• In 2019/20, the land area for forage per herd increases to 0.25 ha for small specialized dairy and 6 ha for medium specialized dairy.• In 2019/20, the total area outsourced or cultivated increases to 39,307 ha for small specialized dairy and to 4290 ha for medium specialized dairy.• In 2019/20, the annual forage seed requirement increases to 25,200 quintals for both small and medium specialized dairy.• Additional demand for concentrate feeds (wheat bran, molasses, and oil cake) by 2020 to support the crossbred cattle will reach 755,000 tonnes.Red meat (and milk) from cattle, sheep, goats and camelsThe specific targets for ITMM systems in all production zones (MRS, MRD and LG) include the contribution of:• Cattle to red meat growing production from 840,079 tonnes (in 2015) to 1,084,477 by 2020;• Sheep to red meat growing production from 114,776 tonnes (in 2015) to 196,430 by 2020;• Goats to red meat growing production from 97,331 tonnes (in 2015) to 171,400 by 2020;• Camels to red meat growing production from 74,000 tonnes (in 2015) to 99,000 tonnes by 2020;• Cattle to the national cattle milk production growing from 3,637,000 thousand tonnes (in 2015) to 6,666,000 tonnes by 2020;• Goats to the national goat milk production, growing from 169 (in 2015) to 353 million litres by 2020; and• Camel to the national camel milk production, growing from 1 million (in 2015) to 1.1 million litres by 2020To achieve the above ITMM meat-milk targets, the main proposed interventions are pastureland improvement and seed production in the MRS and MRD, and rangeland improvement and water development in the LG. The total investment cost adds up to ETB 1.3 billion.• Some 243,000 and 1,577,000 tonnes of additional concentrate feed/year is needed for additional 1,633,775 and 303,407 small and medium specialized cattle feedlot animals that will go to beef feedlots by year 2020.• Some 129,831,000 and 2,948,686,000 tonnes of ingredients (bran, molasses, and oil cake) that comprise concentrate feed are needed by year 2020 by small and medium specialized cattle feedlots respectively.• The overall target is to raise chicken meat production to 164,000 tonnes and egg production to 3.9 billion in the year 2020 through IFP and expanded specialized poultry.• The estimated amount of poultry feed required for IFP in year 2020 for:• Maize will be 266,600 tonnes; and• Soybean meal will be 127,300 tonnes.• The amount of land required to meet the IFP added requirement for maize production in year 2020 will be 51,900 ha.• The amount of land required to meet the IFP added requirement for soya production in year 2020 will be 43,200 ha.Specialized poultry production, broilers and layers (2015-2020)• The estimated amount of poultry feed required for both specialized poultry layer and broiler in the year 2020 for:• Maize will be 580,000 tonnes; and• Soybean will be 299,000 tonnes.• The amount of land required to meet the specialized poultry added requirement for maize production in the year 2020 will be 122,000 ha.• The amount of land required to meet the specialized poultry added requirement for soya production in the year 2020 will be 102,000 ha.The following documents were prepared by the Animal Production and Feed Directorate of the MoA to equip extension workers with tools to promote forage and feed extension in rural areas.• Fodder Bank Guideline.• Forage Crop Training Module.• Forage Development Manual.• Forage Seed Production Guideline.• Feed Development Package.The documents need further enrichment to address the forage extension needs of the different production zones, including the LG, and the different livestock species, including poultry.• Research on forage seed production needs to be strengthened to develop crop management technologies that contribute to improved forage seed availability by strengthening the capacity of researchers working in the areas of forage and forage seed production.• Alternative livestock feeding strategies, based on non-conventional feed resources to alleviate the escalating cost of industrial feeds mainly for smallholder farmers, need to be developed. This is to be undertaken through the design of alternative livestock feeding experiments by regional and national research institutions.• Feeding guidelines for different classes of cattle (calves, cows, heifers) and species (cattle, shoats, camels, etc.) need to be developed through the planning and implementation of alternative feeding trials by the national and regional research staff.• Although the process of bush encroachment has been studied to some degree, a number of research issues still need to be addressed as part of a long-term monitoring plan which will promote better understanding of the mechanisms of bush encroachment in the savannah ecosystems. These include: the effects of human settlements; soilseed banks; and competition for soil moisture and soil nutrients affecting the regeneration of invasive woody plants across different landscapes related to grazing pressure.• Although some information regarding the historical patterns of vegetation change is available mainly based on pastoralists' perceptions, field-based monitoring and continued research are needed to confirm these findings.In this regard, the use of earlier aerial photographs, combined with long-term vegetation monitoring, might be required in order to confirm pastoralists' observations of vegetation changes.• The threat of bush encroachment on the pastoral economy needs further research. Generally, the link between climate change and grazing pressure in driving bush encroachment and the consequences on cattle populations requires long-term investigation. This does require a long-term research program in which both national and international research institutes participate.• The long-term effects and the continued monitoring of bush encroachment control methods on the regeneration of invasive woody plants and the restoration of herbaceous plant biodiversity require more research in order to be better understood.• Action research is needed to demonstrate the different bush-encroachment control methods on a small scale that could be linked to the forage reserves of communities. The purpose of this would be to strengthen community education and launch range rehabilitation efforts. The total additional resources required from both the public and private sources are ETB 50,000,000.The contribution of the livestock sector to the national economy is currently small compared to its potential. One of the main causes of the mismatch between herd population size and production output from livestock in Ethiopia is undoubtedly the widespread occurrence of a multitude of infectious and parasitic diseases, causing morbidity, mortality and market restrictions, which drastically reduce animal production.A number of livestock diseases are endemic to Ethiopia which continue to limit livestock productivity and agricultural development. The impact of animal diseases stems from direct losses due to mortality and its indirect effects due to slow growth, low fertility and decreased work output resulting from morbidity. Most livestock diseases have more devastating effects on young animals, as well as actively reproductive females.The direct and indirect losses from livestock disease have significant economic, food security and livelihood impacts on livestock keepers and the national economy. Despite substantial demand for Ethiopian meat and livestock from potential importing countries, exports to those markets often face impediments as a result of stringent animal health requirements and repeated bans. These bans have disrupted trade with major costs to Ethiopian producers, livestock traders and meat exporters.The prevalence of trade-limiting transboundary livestock diseases has denied the country access to international markets and makes it vulnerable to trade bans. In the wake of globalization, many countries are moving to rapidly integrate sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) regulations and World Trade Organization (WTO) principals. As a result, exporting countries are reviewing their policies and practices and major changes are underway that will have an important impact on livestock trade. The escalating standards for livestock and livestock products, with their auditing and certification requirements, present a growing challenge for Ethiopia seeking access to external markets.Ethiopia offers a wide range of processed and semi-processed leather products on the world market. Some diseases are direct causes of pre-slaughter defects on hides and skins, and may be either of viral or parasitic origin. Cockle (an allergic dermatitis from lice and ked infestation) is regarded as an economically catastrophic disease since it causes a downgrading of quality or an over 50% skin rejection rate. Animal diseases also have an important impact on human health, with 60% of human diseases being of animal origin. A wide range of zoonotic diseases are endemic to Ethiopia.• The current delivery of animal health services is inadequate both in terms of coverage and quality.• There are very few private veterinary service providers, other than veterinary drug importers and distributors, a few private veterinary pharmacies and too few operational community animal health workers (CAHWs) usually supported by NGOs.• There are 14 competent and capable diagnostic laboratories distributed throughout the country (Ethiopia Animal Heath Yearbook, 2011) that are a prerequisite for an effective and efficient surveillance system (Map 1).Map 1: Distribution of Federal and Regional Veterinary Laboratories in Ethiopia • Growth of private animal health service delivery is constrained by the absence of an enabling environment and competitive, subsidized, delivery of public animal health services, supplies and drugs.• Only 45% of the country is presently served by public and private animal health delivery systems. Field services are constrained by lack of input supply, high operational costs and lack of transport.• Government budgets do not allow drug imports or domestic purchases to cover more than a part of the annual needs. The ratio of salary expenditures to recurrent costs is high and is increasing.• The National Veterinary Institute (NVI) is producing a wide range of vaccines (16 presently). However, some essential vaccines are not produced or are not produced in sufficient quantity and of high enough quality.• The quality, safety and efficacy of veterinary drugs and biological agents locally produced, imported, distributed and used in the country are not properly regulated and controlled.• Disease surveillance and reporting are poor and irregular, with only about 30-35% of the country's woredas submitting disease outbreak reports each month. This figure is below 5% for pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. Moreover, the sensitivity, specificity and timeliness of the reports are very low.• There is not an autonomous statutory body to regulate the veterinary profession, uphold ethics and educational standards.• The quality of veterinary education is at stake due to the growing number of new veterinary schools in the country. Over the past decade, the number of veterinary schools in Ethiopia has grown from one to 15. With such rapid growth comes the risk of deteriorating educational and professional standards in teaching and professional practice.• The veterinary education system is not geared to address new and growing challenges in the sector, such as trade, and diversification and intensification of production systems.• Well-developed quarantine and certification systems, which comply with international standards, and meet the requirements of trading partners are lacking. This is further compounded by the absence of livestock movement control, and the identification and traceability systems. • Compliance with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is on going, but needs to be substantially strengthened to ensure Ethiopia's compliance with international standards so exports of meat and live animals can grow systematically.• There are poor linkages between federal and regional laboratories, a lack of laboratory and staff capacity, and a quality management system, especially at regional level.• There are poor import quarantine and inspection systems to control the introduction and establishment of exotic diseases into the country through the importation of live animals, animal products, and genetic and pathological materials.• The sound and cost-effective disease control strategies are inadequate, mainly due to a lack of reliable epidemiological information and risk assessment. The implementation of control programs is mainly monitored in terms of the number of vaccinations administered, and not by monitoring the level of the disease targeted for control or eradication.• There are no well-developed, adequately funded and coordinated emergency preparedness and contingency plans for exotic, emerging and/or re-emerging diseases.• The prevention and control of zoonotic and food-borne diseases are poorly addressed and the veterinary service is not providing front-line services. Inspection services are limited to export meat and poorly address primary livestock products, such as milk, eggs, honey and fish.• There are no adequate legal provisions, and enforcement of existing laws is a problem. Existing laws are frequently obsolete and fail to comply with current scientific developments and international standards.• The government has embraced the OIE standards and the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway to enhance quality of animal health services. Veterinary services (VS) management systems generally seem to have benefitted from a nationwide government policy focused on business process re-engineering, incorporating approaches based on sound planning, efficiency, stakeholder service, transparency and accountability.• Coverage of VS has improved over recent years. Veterinary infrastructure in the field is improving as the government moves towards an ambitious target of providing approximately one animal health clinic or post per three kebeles or villages.• Professional staffing in central and regional VS is also improving. This is due to major growth in veterinary and paraveterinary professional training. Over the past decade the number of veterinary schools in Ethiopia has increased from one to 15.• The country has promoted the use of CAHWs in pastoral areas as an alternative service delivery system. Standard training manuals and guidelines have been developed to ensure quality and sustainability of such services.• Memoranda of understanding to clarify roles and responsibilities between national and regional administrative bureaus, the technical NAHDIC, and the VS levels of regional laboratories have been developed and agreed upon.• The NVI, a government parastatal, is producing 16 vaccines against various livestock diseases for local use and at times for export.• Veterinary drug importation has been liberalized and the investment law fully accepts the establishment of private veterinary practices, pharmacies and drug shops, but economic viability is a challenge for veterinary entrepreneurs.• Ethiopia has verifiably eradicated rinderpest. Lessons learned and the expertise that remained after the successful eradication of rinderpest can be utilized effectively for the progressive control of other major diseases.• The diagnostic laboratory system is well established in Ethiopia in terms of physical infrastructure, and there is a cadre of well qualified personnel and equipment layout. The NAHDIC laboratory is implementing a 'quality management system' as part of seeking independent accreditation to ISO-17025. So far the laboratory has been accredited for 14 tests and six diseases.• Over the past few years, considerable efforts have made to improve the quarantine and inspection services to meet the demands of importing countries. Ethiopia has rapidly expanded its exports to traditional markets, while also diversifying into new markets, which has resulted in a steady increase in the volume and value of exports. Standard quarantine facilities are now under construction.• The government has established a new authority, under the auspices of the MoA, to control and administer the quality, safety and efficacy of veterinary drugs, biological and animal feed.There are seven major objectives related to the implementation of the LMP during the five-year period, each with specific outputs and indicators. The seven strategic objectives fall under the following headings:1. The establishment a robust animal health information system by: improving the quantity and quality of monthly disease outbreak and inspection reports; establishing a real-time livestock-diseases-information exchange system conducting risk-based active surveillance on selected TADs (East Coast fever (ECF), Rift Valley fever (RVF), avian influenza (HPAI); understanding the status of selected livestock diseases; supporting the NAHDIC and all regional laboratories in establishing and strengthening epidemiology units and working together with the Veterinary Services Directorate (VSD); and carrying our risk analysis and indicating the level of risk associated with various issues.2. The reduction of the impact of livestock diseases by: reducing the impact of the goat plague (peste des petits ruminants, PPR) and of FMD; reducing lamb and calve mortality; building the capacities of regions in prioritizing and preparing control strategies; improving accessibility of livestock clinical services; engaging the public sector in areas not attractive to the private sector; encouraging and creating conducive situations for the private sector to expand; facilitating the supply of vaccines; preparing and implementing a model herd/flock health program in dairy and poultry farms; and preparing biosecurity systems for the main commodities.3. The increase of the export volume of live animals, meat and meat products by strengthening the quarantine, inspection and certification system, and wining the trust and confidence of trading partners. This is mediated by: increasing the volume of safe and quality export meat and meat products; increasing the number of healthy and bio-secured animals to be exported; building an animal identification, registration and traceability system; and opening up new destination markets.4. The reduction of the impact of zoonotic diseases on human health (consumers) by controlling zoonotic diseases and ensuring the safety of animal products. The key focus areas are: reducing the impact of rabies and tuberculosis (TB) on public health; facilitating the establishment of abattoirs through public-and investor-led spending in regional capitals, zones and woredas; establishing a training institute on meat inspection and food safety; and establishing a One Health forum at federal level and in the main regions.5. The improvement of animal welfare by raising public awareness and introducing good practices.6. The improvement of the implementing capacities of the animal health services of the country through the preparation, endorsement and implementation of various legal frameworks.7. The building of advanced animal health systems through: the re-evaluation of the Ethiopian VS by the OIE as per the 2011 OIE PVS evaluation of the country; the adoption of international standards (as indicated in the PVS evaluation), and the evaluation of regional animal health services, identifying the gaps and enabling the preparation of a strategy to bridge these gaps.The LSIPT also provides tools to help prioritize animal diseases to inform decision-makers on the most appropriate allocation of resources to combat priority diseases. The priority setting is based, first on a selection of the 10 most important priority diseases, based on their incidence. Those 10 most important diseases are then ranked in accordance to their impact on three criteria, the impact on: households and their livelihoods; markets and value chains; and intensification pathways in the production systems (see annex 1 for details).In the case of cattle, the total scores indicate that the three most important diseases are FMD, CBPP and brucellosis. However, when the disease scores are examined individually against their impact on household attributes, market and value chains, and intensification pathways, their order of ranking varies. The order of ranking was FMD, lumpy skin disease (LSD) and brucellosis for market and value chains; whereas the household impact ranking was FMD, CBPP and TB. In the case of intensification pathways, brucellosis, FMD and TB were the top three in terms of the importance of impact.Sheep and goat diseases that indicated an impact on the household, market and value chains, and intensification pathways were PPR, sheep and goats pox (SGP) and contagious caprine pleuropneumnia (CCPP), ranked in that order. The same order of ranking was indicated for market and value chains. However, regarding their impact on household attributes, CCPP ranked first, followed by PPR and SGP.In the case of camels, surra ranked first.In poultry, Newcastle ranks first across all attributes of households and their livelihoods, value chains, and intensification pathways.Following the output from the LSIPT analysis, further discussion with stakeholders led to the elaboration of a priority list of animal diseases across species: FMD, PPR, tsetse-borne trypanosomosis, SGP, CBPP and external parasites (Ekek).Strategies to address the animal health challenge• Based on the outcome of the gap analysis, develop a strategic plan which will be used as a working document in the building of a competent veterinary service in line with international requirements-OIE/WTO.• Develop projects/programs and seek support from the government/donors to improve the veterinary system.• Carry out additional PVS follow-up evaluations to independently measure progress over time.• Enhance active participation and cooperation with regional organizations, and engagement with international organizations, such as OIE and the FAO (the Codex Alimentarius Commission).• Develop and enforce guidelines for veterinary information and disease outbreak reporting systems, including the obligations of private practitioners from village to national level.• Adopt the ARIS 2 system to harmonize the animal health information system at both federal and regional level.• Introduce new technologies, such as the digital pen and mobile phones, to enhance the quality of the reporting system.• Enhance the timely and accurate confirmation of suspected disease outbreaks, currently at very low levels.• Expand the information system by including data coming from veterinary laboratories, abattoirs and quarantine stations.• Strengthen the feedback system to the regions and districts through newsletters, bulletins, year books, websites etc.• Carry our regular active surveillance for diseases selected on risk assessment to inform control strategies and policy development.• Strengthen and build the capacity of federal and regional epidemiology units with adequate staff and facilities.• Promote use of participatory diseases surveillance in disease investigation.• Develop and implement progressive control strategies for trade limiting TADs, such as FMD, PPR, SGP, LSD, CBPP, etc.• Implement the eradication of tsetse and trypanosomosis, in accordance with the Pan-African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC).• Control Newcastle and Gumoro diseases both in the backyard and commercial settings.• Control lice, ked and mange mites which are seriously affecting the leather industry. On-going large-scale campaigns to control external parasites to improve the quality of hides and skins will have to be scaled up to make real impact.• Promote commodity-based and compartment approaches to reduce the risk of trade sensitive diseases.• Promote regional approaches for the control of TADs and harmonize activities with neighbouring countries.• Encourage regional states to set their priorities and strategies for controlling non-TADs, sporadic and production diseases.• Effectively implement the Good Hygiene Practice, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points and the ISO 22000 in export abattoirs.• Develop food safety standards for primary animal products, such as milk, fish, egg and honey.• Ensure the hygiene and sanitation of meat and meat products by maintaining the required cold chain and applying routine personal hygiene from production until it reaches the end market.• Develop standards for meat and offal packing and labelling in close consultation with the industry.• Set and implement minimum standards for the plant design and staffing of domestic abattoirs.• Progressively improve the hygiene and inspection standards of domestic slaughterhouses to equivalence with those of export slaughterhouses.• Support private sector investments in slaughterhouses and gradually sell existing municipal slaughterhouses to private operators.• Extend food safety awareness measures and regulations to animal products, such as milk and milk products, with a priority focus on zoonotic risks, particularly brucellosis and TB, from raw milk.• Establish mechanisms for joint engagement between the ministry responsible for livestock and that responsible for health in the control of zoonotic diseases.• Ensure a clear, legislated chain of command involving singular decision-making authority and accountability during a declared animal health emergency.• Set requirements ensuring regional states comply with national disease reporting and execute national disease control programs in their respective areas, in line with strategies set by the federal veterinary services.• Create a national veterinary committee or equivalent where this committee, the chief veterinary officer and all regional heads of animal health meet together formally and at regular intervals to discuss and agree upon policy and programs, and monitor their consistent implementation throughout the country.• Initially implement a partial-cost recovery arrangement, moving gradually to full-cost recovery, and finally selffinancing sustained clinical services provided by public veterinary clinics.• Improve the coverage and efficiency of clinical services through the provision of an adequate operational budget and transport.• Provide resources towards in-service training and continuous professional development for existing animal health workers.• Set categories and standards, including the plant design, and the number and education level of animal health staff required for veterinary clinics.• Train staff in veterinary clinics in sample collection, preservation and submission to laboratories.• Improve staff evaluation and merit-based promotion to motivate and retain field staff providing grassroots service delivery.• Establish a laboratory quality management system involving proficiency testing and third-party accreditation.• Develop an effective laboratory information management system involving both federal and regional veterinary laboratories.• Build the capacity of the NAHDIC and regional laboratories to meet the growing demand for export-testing and disease surveillance.• Collect and stock file isolates of important pathogens for genetic sequencing and production of effective vaccines.• Develop functional linkages and collaboration between regional and federal veterinary laboratories.• Create strong linkages between field veterinary clinics and regional laboratories.• Initiate cost recovery from the commercial sector for the self-financing of quality laboratory services.• Maintain close working relations and linkages between the NAHDIC and world reference laboratories (OIE/FAO).• Support the NAHDIC to be a reputable and credible laboratory in the region, and to serve as a centre of excellence for selected diseases.• Build analytical capacity to undertake residue testing in foods of animal origin (meat, fish, milk, honey etc.).• Enact and enforce animal welfare legislation and guidelines.• Establish an animal welfare fund for the implementation of legislation and guidelines.• Encourage good farm practices to enhance animal welfare.• Develop a comprehensive communication action plan to produce and disseminate accurate, useful and timely public information on animal welfare.• Encourage the establishment of animal welfare groups.• Endorse and enforce draft proclamations and regulations awaiting approval.• Establish a mechanism to review animal health laws regularly in light of changing disease risks, scientific advances and international SPS and OIE standards.• Raise public awareness among stakeholders of the livestock sector on the existence of laws and regulations governing animal health issues.• Establish mechanisms for the enforcement of existing laws and regulations at all levels.• Establish a disease early warning system and emergence preparedness unit to deal with the epizootics of diseases of major economic and public health importance.• Advance the preparation of both generic and disease-specific emergency plans and operating procedures for priority diseases.• Allocate the necessary financial and human resources to ensure rapid mobilization in response to disease outbreaks.• Include animal disease emergencies as a component of the national disaster response plan.• Develop coordinated and efficient mechanisms to ensure collaboration of all relevant stakeholders.• Outsource certain public goods activities to the private sector through the use of sanitary mandates.• Support existing veterinary physicians and new graduates to set up private rural farm stores (selling veterinary supplies, AI, pesticides and other agricultural inputs). The GoE will need to interest donors in funding projects to support their establishment, including with grants and credit guarantees.• Provide incentives for the establishment of a private animal health service delivery system.• Establish in a timely manner the authority to regulate the importation, production, distribution and use of veterinary drugs and biological.• Develop analytical capacity to undertake chemical tests to determine the nature, content, quality, quantity and potency of veterinary drugs and biological agents.• Equip and staff the analytical laboratory under construction with adequately trained personnel.• Collaborate with the Pan African Vaccine Centre for the quality control of veterinary vaccines.• Establish a laboratory quality management system in the analytical laboratory and secure third party accreditation.• Reduce the availability of substandard and illegally marketed animal drugs.• Establish a drug fund to ensure the adequate, regular and timely supply of drugs to public veterinary clinics.• Enhance the capacity of the NVI to increase the production of CCPP and FMD vaccines, and of new vaccines for diseases, like Mareks, and improve the efficacy and potency of existing vaccines, such as for African horse sickness, LSD and pasturellosis.• Maintain appropriate cold chain and establish cold depots in strategic locations around the country for handling and transporting veterinary vaccines.• Build the capacity of the private sector to import or manufacture appropriate veterinary drugs and vaccines in the country.• Facilitate the development of marketing models for the distribution of veterinary drugs and vaccines through the private sector.• Study cost effective, sustainable and acceptable methods and tools for identification and traceability.• Develop and support the implementation of a livestock identification, registration and traceability system starting with export animals and gradually expanding to the national herd.• Formulate and enact legislation to provide for livestock identification and traceability.• Establish a national livestock registry and traceability data bank.• GoE and private operators to construct quarantine facilities, applying strict management and bio-security procedures for animals to be imported or destined for export.• Negotiate with import and transit countries so that the quarantine facility built and the international animal health certificate issued by Ethiopian veterinary authorities are recogized.• Study and implement the cost-effective and efficient management of the quarantine facilities through the use of PPPs.• Establish a credible certification system and initiate negotiation with trading partners on equivalence and other standards.• Regularly assess the retail and food service meat markets in importing countries and take corrective actions on complaints and feedback on Ethiopian products in order to remain competitive and expand market share.• Regularly assess and compile SPS requirements of potential importing countries, identify those with less stringent requirements and initiate negotiations to penetrate new markets for Ethiopian products.• Develop and enforce standard guidelines to ensure the safe handling of animals during trekking, loading, transporting, unloading, holding, etc.• Strengthen veterinary border posts with the necessary facilities and trained staff.• Harmonize livestock disease control and prevention efforts with neighbouring countries along the common border.• Strengthen import procedures and protocols for live animals, primary animal products, and genetic and pathological materials based on risk assessment.• Scale up the campaigns to control external parasites so as to improve the quality of hides and skins through community participation;• Develop a treatment regime for the prevention and control of parasitic diseases appropriate for the various agroecological areas.• Prepare an animal disease map to plot potential diseases in specific areas, and an animal health knowledge kit with community participation.• Promote information sharing on good practices in animal health advisory/extension services and on lessons learned.• Develop objective and transparent systems for the accreditation, monitoring and supervision of CAHWs.• Link community-based animal health service delivery systems to private pharmacies for regular drug supply and monitoring.• Coordinate the activities of agencies involved in community-based animal health to harmonize approaches.• Enforce the implementation of the guidelines and standardization of training manuals for CAHWs.• Integrate community-based animal health delivery systems into the existing animal health delivery system.The primary focus of research needs to be identifying, testing and adapting existing technologies available from around the world to the Ethiopian context, while strengthening research on areas of strategic or national importance. National institutions will partner with regional and international research organizations that have advanced laboratory and related facilities to undertake advanced basic or strategic research.• Development and technology transfer of a reliable thermostable vaccine against major livestock diseases.• Development of combined vaccines.• Development of DIVA (differentiating infected from vaccinated animals) vaccines.• Development of pen-side tests, diagnostic kits and reagents.• Engagement in epidemiological studies on TADs and socio-economic studies to inform policy and strategy development.• Study of the root causes and appropriate remedies to prevent the darkening of meat and improve its shelf life.Animal health services can have a far reaching impact on the productivity of the livestock and the income Ethiopia realizes from live animals. Significant efforts have already been exerted to attain the GTP I projection of reaching one billion USD from the export of live animals and livestock products. But despite this, targeted income from exports has not been attained. There is a pressing need to address the prevailing challenges so as to meet the ever rising export standards.Reducing YASM is a key immediate strategy, alongside the production of vaccines to improve the national animal health coverage and meet the goals set for the sector. The areas of focus that need to be actively pursued both for domestic consumption and for international trade are: animal health, increased production and productivity of the national stock through improved and strengthened disease prevention, control and eradication programs, and enhanced public protection from zoonotic diseases and due regard for animal welfare.The health interventions and the resultant improvement in productivity of the herd/flock need to be further exploited with better feeding and genetic improvement that aims at crossbreeding and also at the strategic use of the genetic niche in some local breeds for the taste and quality of their meat. Ensuring that an adequate number of adult and marketable live animals are produced is an area that also requires special attention.One important indication from disease reports in Ethiopia (Ethiopia Animal Heath Year Book, 2011) is the stagnation of reporting rates at around 30-40%, which could imply that only certain woredas of the currently recognized 773 are reporting. The Animal Health Directorate of the LSM faces a big challenge to ensure that Ethiopia stands as a reliable actor and contributor to international regulations and standards. Along this line, strategies are needed to ensure that surveillance systems can meet the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases, while recognizing the context of resource limitations. Identifying appropriate tools and incentives that encourage the full participation of both public and private actors will also be critical.Improving animal genetics (2014/15-2019/20)The GoE is committed to raising livestock productivity and production by improving animal genetics with health interventions and livestock husbandry. Genetic improvement is mainly achieved either by the crossbreeding of local animals with exotics or by improving local breeds through selection. Crossbreeding, as well as importing and using pure exotic breeds, needs to be largely targeted at commercial and market-oriented family dairy production systems in the MRS zone, as well as in peri-urban or milk belts in the MRD.The LMP analysis revealed that improving local breeds is the best option for all species in all the family production systems in the other livestock production zones. Due to crossbreeding, it is expected that the number of crossbred cattle will increase by 793% in the family dairy system (Table 80) and by 163% in the specialized dairy system (Table 81). Genetic improvement of local cattle, sheep, goats and camels will continue to be heavily dependent on the results obtained from breed selection activities and the distribution of well performing local breeds (MoA, 2011). In the case of poultry, crossbreeding and the importation of exotic breeds is an option in the specialized poultry systems and IFP systems in all zones.For the IFP, the importation of improved pure tropical breeds and/or the distribution of improved local breeds also need to be prioritized. Improved local pure breeds are the best suited breeds for the IFP (MoA, 2011). Therefore, attention needs to be given to research targeting the improvement of local breeds through selection and the distribution of improved local breeds. Tables 82 and 83 show the change in number of improved and exotic poultry breeds under IFP and specialized poultry, respectively.    Currently, the majority of livestock found in Ethiopia are local breeds. Though there have been campaigns over many years to encourage crossbreeding between local and exotic breeds of almost all species, the number of crossbreds in the country is still negligible. Even in species that have been under crossbreeding for some time, like cattle and poultry, crossbred numbers do not exceed 1% of their total population in the country. Tables 84, 85 and 86 show the production and reproduction performance of local and exotic crossbreed animals under various production systems.Crossbred cattle show about a tenfold increase in milk production and 50% increase in parturition rate compared to local breeds (Table 84). Similarly, crossbred poultry which are kept under specialized production systems show a sevenfold increase in egg production and 90% decrease in mortality (Table 85).  There are about 25 indigenous cattle breeds and types in Ethiopia (IBC, 2004). The major cattle breeds identified so far are Arsi, Begayit, Ogaden, Borena, Goffa, Arado, Nuer, Gurage, Jidu, Afar, Harar, Horro, Smada, Fogera, Mursi, Raya-Azebo, Adwa, Jem-Jem, Sheko, Ambo, Jijiga, Bale, Hammer, Medenece and Abergelle. Exotic cattle breeds so far imported are mainly Holstein-Friesian, Jersey and Simmental. Crosses with these exotic breeds are being used in the medium input production system, with Holstein-Friesians occupying the lion's share.Early genetic improvement activities focused mainly on improving milk production potential of local breed cattle through selection. In the 1960s, the former Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), now the EIAR, implemented an on-station breeding program in different agro-ecological settings, mainly involving breeds such as Horro, Boran, Fogera and Barca.Results from these efforts demonstrated that under careful selection and mating conditions, high levels of milk production was not obtainable. The IAR on-station research results for milk yield of local cattle indicated that Borana, Horo and Barka produce 494, 675, and 559 kg milk per lactation, respectively. Arsi and Fogera breeds also show similar trends, producing 872 kg of milk (EARO, 1999).Dairy cattle breed improvement programs were then directed towards crossbreeding. Hybrid-vigour is an important innovation that raises the potential for increasing milk production from local breeds. Dekeba et al. (2004) reported that average milk production of crossbreed cattle per lactation is five times greater than that of local breed cattle. This increase in milk production, due to crossbreeding, could result in a marketable surplus and increased sales of milk. However, the proportion of crossbreed cattle compared to the total cattle population was still less than 2%. The MoA also established three sheep breeding and multiplication ranches in different parts of Ethiopia. The main objectives of these ranches were to improve meat and wool production of indigenous sheep through selection and crossbreeding. The indigenous breeds that were involved in these programs were Black Head Somali, Menze and Horo (IBC, 2004).42 Based on LSA results for Ethiopia and FAOSTAD data for the other countries. The use of FAOSTAT data for Ethiopia also resulted in its lowest rank for milk production per standing head. 43 The production per standing head is calculated by dividing the total annual production of a species by the total population of same species. .The former IAR and higher education institutions, like the former Alemaya University, Ambo and Jimma Junior Agriculture College, carried out research on sheep, mainly focusing on performance evaluation of indigenous sheep breeds crossed with exotic breeds. The major breeds involved in the research included: Arsi, Horro, Black Head Somali and Afar sheep breeds.Recently (until 2011), the Ethiopian Sheep and Goat Productivity Improvement Program (ESGPIP), established by USAID/Ethiopia, was working on crossbreeding sheep and goats. The overall objective of the program was to increase productivity of small ruminants sustainably in Ethiopia to improve food and economic securities (Teffera, 2008). However, the crossbreds have not proven sustainable under on-farm conditions, and farmers have not adopted them in large numbers.Indigenous goat breeds and types in Ethiopia are Begayit, Ille, Afar, Hararghe Highland, Arsi-Bale, Short-eared Somali, Woyito-Guji, Long-eared Somali, Central Highland, Abergelle, Western Highland, Widar, Western Lowlands, Maefur and Keffa. Moreover, Felata, Arab, Gumuz, Agew and Oromo sub-types of the Western lowlands have been recently reported. Exotic goat breeds have also been imported, mainly with the aim of improving milk production of the local goat breeds. Anglo-Nubian and Toggenberg are exotic goat breeds that were introduced by Farm-Africa and higher learning institutions.In 1988, Farm Africa initiated a dairy goat development program in collaboration with the MoA, the former Alemaya University, Awassa College of Agriculture and several NGOs. The objectives were to identify and characterize the indigenous goats, to describe the traditional goat husbandry practices, and improve milk and meat production of goats through crossbreeding with exotic breeds, such as Anglo-Nubian.Crossbreeds of Anglo-Nubian with Hararghe Highland and of Anglo-Nubian with Somali were introduced and used for milk production by smallholders in central, eastern, southeastern and southern Ethiopia (Teffera, 2000). Toggenberg and their crosses with Hararghe Highland were used for research purposes at Haramaya and Hawasa universities.Very recently, Boer goat semen was imported from the United States for crossbreeding studies at the two universities to try to improve local goat meat production. Moreover, from 2007 until 2011, the ESGPIP was working in all regions with the overall objective of increasing small ruminant productivity to improve food and economic securities (Teffera, 2008).Donkey breeds in Ethiopia are the Jimma, Abyssinian, Ogaden and Sinnar. Major breeds of horses that have so far been well recognized are the Oromo and Dongola. With the exception of two well-known breeds of mule, the Sinnar and Wollo Mule breeds, there are no other well-defined hybrids in the country. In Mekele University, Tigray region, phenotypic characterization of local donkeys has been carried out. However, such activities have to be complemented with proper genetic characterization in order to classify the donkey types found in the region or elsewhere. Wilson (1984) classified and described major camel breeds in the country as the Afar, Borena, Anfi and Somali/ Ogaden breeds. The species of domestic camels found in Ethiopia is the one-humped Camelus dromedarius. The various camel populations in Ethiopia are quite diverse, but there has not been sufficient study of them to characterize the production and reproduction traits of the breeds. Indigenous chicken breeds and types identified so far are Horro, Jarso, Tililli, Tepi and Cheffe breeds that are found in the central highland areas (Tadelle et al., 2003), as well as the naked-neck breed found in the northern, northwestern, western and southern lowland areas of Ethiopia. Exotic chicken breeds-like the Rhode Island Red (RIR), White Leghorn, Lawman Brown, Cobb-500, Fayoumi, Bovans Brown, Arob Acre and Bubcocks-are reared by small-, medium-, and large-scale commercial producers in urban and peri-urban areas. RIR and White Leghorns, as well as their crosses with indigenous chickens, are also used by rural smallholders for egg and meat production.Both crossbreeds and pure exotic breeds are widely used to increase meat and egg production. A number of governmental organizations and NGOs have been involved in distributing pure exotic breed pullets, cockerels and fertile eggs to farmers from abroad, as well as to poultry breeding and multiplication centres in the country. Exotic breeds used as pure and for crossbreeding with the local poultry, are presently the White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Bovans Brown and Bubcocks.Breeds of honeybees identified so far are the Apis melifera adansol, Apis melifera lementica, Apis melifera monticola, Apis melifera litorea and Apis melifera abyssinica. Crossbreeding and importing of exotic honey-bee breeds is very limited. The proclamation on Honey Bees Development and Protection allows only for the importation of honey-bee semen, but not of live bees.The early proclamations and orders include proclamations on the dairy sector, namely, an order to provide for the establishment of a Dairy Development Agency 30/19 (1971) and a proclamation to define the power of the Dairy Development Agency 30/26 (1971). These orders had an impact on the genetic improvement of cattle, particularly in the dairy sector. The orders and the proclamation gave the mandate to the agency to improve the production of milk and productivity of cattle, as well as the marketing of quality milk and the collection of fees from milk products and services.Moreover, recent regulations to establish the Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Technology Institute (143/2008) and EMDIDI (295/2013) were undertaken to increase milk production and supply to processing industries, upgrade the capacity of milk processing companies in product development and processing, and to reduce dependence on milk imports so the nation could become self-sufficient.There is now a draft livestock breeding policy, prepared two years ago, and ready for submission to the Ethiopian parliament. It is expected that when the draft breeding policy is approved by the parliament, it will bring many changes to current breeding activities. The breeding policy document covers almost all species reared in the country and also some others that could be successful raised in Ethiopia in the future. The species included in the document are cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, horses, mules, swine, rabbits, poultry, fish, bees, silk worms, as well as other animals like ostriches, dukes, pheasants, guinea birds, crocodiles, and civet cats.This policy and strategy document focus on local breed improvement through both within-breed selection of indigenous breeds and crossbreeding with exotics, giving due attention to biosecurity and genetic conservation. As many breeds and species in Ethiopia are not well characterized, studying local breed production and reproduction, as well as other characteristics, is recommended to improve performance through organized within-breed selection procedures. Strategies are also included in the draft document on crossbreeding, the importation of exotic breeds (both pure and crossbreeds of exotics) and genetic materials, the establishment of multiplication centres, the development of national livestock recording schemes, breed quality, certification and control systems, and genetic improvement research.Similarly, the 'Guideline on Import and Export of Animals and Animal Genetic Materials' was produced by the MoA in 2012. The document presents the criteria, standards and procedures for importing and exporting animal and animal genetic materials, and covers almost all species indicated in the breeding policy.Challenges and strategiesPrevious studies indicted that there are high within-breed variations in local breeds. Though information is available to begin between-breed selection activities for some species, continuous and structured within-breed selection activities are very limited.• Identify breeding objectives for each species, breeding goals and improvement strategies.• Undertake structured and continuous within-breed selection for best-performing indigenous breeds and distribute and/or cross them with other indigenous breeds.• Develop ranches for genetic conservation, improvement, research and selection, and the multiplication of improved breeds. In addition, control and check if the ranches recently transferred to private companies are performing in accordance with the framework and new agreements signed.• Implement community-based local breed improvement schemes.• Give training to farmers on genetic improvement activities and better animal husbandry.• Produce synthetic or composite breeds.• Crossbreed cattle using AI and bull services to improve cattle productivity.• Encourage and promote commercial heifer, ewe, doe and poultry multiplication ranches/centres and link the ranches/centres to research institutions and dairy farmers.• Train selected farmers as trained farmer artificial inseminators to reduce the critical shortage of AI technicians.• Test and scale up technologies to accelerate the genetic progress through such means as multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, and AI in small and large ruminants, camel and poultry.• Encourage the production and distribution of crossbred dairy cows of 50% Holstein or Jersey Blood to smallholder farmers by strengthening public and private sector AI services, bull services, existing crossbreeding cattle ranches, and regional and federal research centres.• Depending on the status of prevailing husbandry systems, upgrade crossbred dairy cows to 62.5% exotic blood level for market oriented peri-urban farmers with better management systems.• Strengthen the skills of smallholder dairy farmers, DAs and SMSs on dairy animal husbandry (feeding, health, and housing) and on how to improve the reproductive efficiency of dairy cattle (AI technique, synchronization/induction of oestrus). These training activities can be undertaken by the National Artificial Insemination Centre (NAIC), regional and federal research centres, and the Agricultural Technical Vocational and Educational Training Colleges (ATVETs).• Improve the body (physical) condition (energy balance) of dairy animals, increasing forage feed availability by availing seed and other associated inputs for forage production, as well as improved crop residue management and utilization. This can be strengthened by the continuous training of farmers, and technical support and supervision provided by DAs and SMSs at district level.Inefficient public and private AI services for crossbreeding indigenous cattle with exotic breeds is common.• Ensure the GoE promotes and supports private AI services providers and animal health businesses by facilitating credit and business management training. These efforts could be supported by important stakeholders like investment promotion agencies, and development agencies for small and medium enterprises.• Increase the number and service quality of public inseminators by strengthening the capacity of available ATVETs to increase the number of graduates and by improving the academic (theoretical and practical) curriculum. It is advisable for public sector AI services to focus on rural smallholder dairy systems remote from urban areas, while the private sector focuses on AI activities around peri-urban areas.• Encourage the GoE to strengthen the capacity of the NAIC by providing financial support for the upgrading of the facility and the human resources, and fill technical capacity gaps to improve the quality and quantity of semen produced and distributed. The private sector should participate by importing sorted semen and selling it to dairy farmers willing to pay. Regional AI centres also need support from the regional bureaus of agriculture and their livestock agencies. In the process of strengthening the regional centres, the NAIC is expected to play a research and quality assurance role.• Improve feeding systems of animals undergoing AI, using strategies mentioned in the animal feed and nutrition chapter above. This is essential as the efficiency of the AI process is partly determined by the physical condition of the animal (net energy balance).ii. An absence of breeding policy, regulations and strategiesInterest in importing new breeds is increasing with the growth of commercial livestock production systems in Ethiopia. Satisfying this demand is critical to achieve the targeted increases in livestock production and productivity. However, uncontrolled importation and crossbreeding of animals could result in the deterioration of the indigenous genetic pool, without achieving the intended productivity increases.• Finalize the proposed livestock breeding policy and follow up to get its enactment and implementation by the GoE.iii. An absence of organized information, easily accessible to investors and donorsThis challenges refers to the absence of livestock resource maps indicating the potential of different areas in the country in relation to each livestock type.• Develop livestock resource mapping to ease the tracing of the country's important livestock resources.• Establishment of a national database system.• Monitoring of genetic improvement and progress through monthly test-day-based genetic evaluations.• Development of a feedback system for farmers to enable them to select superior bulls as parents for future generations.Government and private sector actions related to improving animal genetics are required to ensure success are the:• Allocation of adequate public funding in support for the mobilization and strengthening of AI and synchronization facilities, services and activities.• Creation of additional required AI infrastructure, including regional semen production facilities and cold storage for distribution.• Introduction of more conducive policies and laws establishing clear sanitary standards and regulations, together with efficient enforcement mechanisms.• Establishment and enforcement of quality standards and quality-based price incentives for milk produced and sold.• Provision of ongoing training and refresher courses for AI technicians-public, private and farmers.• Strengthening of extension services focusing on training dairy farmers in better management of crossbred cattle.• Delivery of effective technical and business training to all value chain actors.• Encouragement of private sector investment in dairy processing through the provision of financial incentives, reduced bureaucracy and increased ease in obtaining licenses and land.• Enforcement of land policies enabling the leasing of land for agribusinesses, including land for processing, and for forage and seed production, as well as for those establishing and building dairy agribusinesses.• Guarantee of an effective DOC production and distribution system. A well-functioning private DOC industry is required for the efficient production and distribution of DOCs to the specialized poultry farms and IFP smallholders.• Encouragement of specialized poultry enterprises to link-up with chicken meat and egg processing enterprises to ensure regular access to market outlets, and with maize producers and cooking oil plants to ensure a regular supply of feed.• Implementation of effective extension and health services (public and private) to meet the service needs (health, feed and management) of the millions of improved family dairy and poultry units in the future.• Engagement of producer cooperatives in the livestock value chain.• Encouragement of private sector involvement in the delivery of inputs and services.Proposed research• The development of a national livestock resource map.• The production of improved pure-line local poultry breeds with enhanced performance which could crossbred with other local poultry breeds and/or distributed to other suitable agro-ecologies.• Crossbreeding by importing selected exotic breeds.• Extending available community-based small ruminant breeding.• Within-breed selection for the development of improved indigenous dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goat, camel and poultry breeds, in cooperation with research institutes.• The crossing of improved indigenous breeds with other indigenous cattle, sheep, goats, camels and poultry (where crossing with exotics is not practical).• The development of synthetic indigenous breeds of beef cattle, sheep, goats, camels and poultry.• The evaluation of indigenous breed potential for economically important traits.• The development of a genetic improvement design for each breed of livestock.In total, there are about 25 breeds or types of cattle, 13 of sheep, 15 of goats, 4 of camels, 4 of donkeys, 2 of horses, 2 of mules, and 6 of poultry, as well as 5 races of honey bees and more than 190 of fish. In addition to the huge genetic variability and potential in the livestock sector, the sheer quantity of the livestock resource base is vast. Nonetheless, satisfying local milk and meat demand remains a critical challenge.Quick-win technologies to satisfy growing demand include the use of AI with synchronization in cattle, and breeding and husbandry improvement in poultry. The findings of the LSA report indicate these technologies, together with improvements in health and husbandry could lead to increases in the production of cow milk, poultry meat and eggs by 93%, 270% and 2312% respectively.Technologies designed to increase livestock productivity in the long term include community-based indigenous breed improvement schemes, which can be applied to all species. It is also critical to note that on its own, genetic improvement cannot bring about the expected increases in productivity, without the successful implementation of complementary improvements in feed, health and husbandry.The effectiveness of feed improvements, such as increased forage production, pasture and rangeland productivity and utilization of crop residues 44 will also depend on the success of the genetic improvement strategies. Similarly, well-known health improvement strategies, such as vaccination for major diseases and the timely treatment of sick animals 45 , need to be implemented in tandem with both genetic and feed availability improvement interventions.Though much research has been undertaken and a lot of technologies are available, especially for cattle, sheep and goats, there has never been a sustained attempt to develop improved indigenous breeds using between and withinbreed selection, with the exception of very recent attempts for sheep and poultry. All stakeholders involved need to continue supporting such attempts so as to produce the desired results as soon as possible. This strategy of local breed improvement is critical for improving family production systems in areas remote from markets and under agroecological conditions which make the introduction of exotic breeds, including for crossbreeding, impractical.In terms of policies and strategies, the proposed livestock breeding policy, when enacted by the Ethiopian parliament and implemented, is expected to advance genetic improvement activities. The availability of the Guideline on Import and Export of Animals and Animal Genetic Materials of the MoA is another opportunity to help regulate importation of animals and genetic materials into the country; but this too must also be vigorously implemented.Institutions and policy environment for the implementation of the livestock master planAfter several years of neglect, the livestock sector in Ethiopia is now considered as one of the key sectors in the broader economic development plans of the country. It has the potential to make a significant contribution to national economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction, as well as increased food security and enhanced human nutrition (CRGE, AGP, GTP).The recent livestock sectors analysis (LSA) provides clear empirical evidence of the sector's contribution to the country's economic growth and development (LSA, 2014). With rapid population and income growth, and increasing urbanization, the demand for livestock and livestock products is growing, presenting huge opportunities for the sector. Despite the potential, the livestock sector in Ethiopia is currently characterized by very meagre performance: poor productivity and limited market orientation, and low levels of commercial offtake (market supply) and competitiveness (Negassa et al., 2012).Furthermore, the analysis of livestock production and consumption indicate that there is currently a huge shortfall in the supply of livestock products. In the absence of investment, these gaps are expected to grow, causing food insecurity and other important economic and social repercussions. However, with certain strategic investment interventions in the sector, assuming an enabling policy and institutional environment, there is a huge opportunity to close the supply-demand gaps. Moreover, there is potential to generate a surplus of livestock products for export markets, enabling the country to benefit from growing export opportunities for livestock products.Sound investment plans and development strategies are crucial, offering the opportunities in emerging domestic and international markets to transform the livestock sector. It is within this optic that the LMP was produced to guide the development of the national livestock sector over the coming 15-20 years.The LMP was formulated on the basis of empirical evidence generated by detailed LSA and value-chain studies. The LSA and the LMP identified key promising areas for investment in the livestock sector, and carried out ex-ante assessments on their technical and financial viability based on bio-physical and socio-economic simulation analyses.The ex-ante analyses demonstrated the technical and financial viability of the proposed investments, following the completion of a cost-benefit analysis. The important question here is whether there is an enabling (institutional and policy) environment, facilitating the realization of the investments proposed in the LMP over the coming 15-20 years.Historically, it has been observed that policies and institutions are quite relevant for the economic growth and development of nations (North, 1990). It is argued that policies and institutions, by determining the ways in which economic actors combine their assets for production and consumption, are the principal determinants of economic growth and development.Institutions and polices hinder the actions and behaviour of economic agents, avoiding undesirable outcomes. They reduce the risks and uncertainties in economic transactions, allowing desirable exchanges and activities to occur and thus encouraging optimal investment activities and outcomes. Certain policies and institutions prevent the implementation of desirable investments, due to risks and uncertainties involved. Thus, it is important to do an inventory of existing policy and institutional issues and identify the gaps which could limit the realization of the LMP.The principal objective of this section is to identify the critical livestock policy and institutional issues that affect livestock development objectives. It seeks to inform policy making processes to create a conducive policy and institutional environment favouring the implementation of the LMP and realization of the GTP strategies. The specific objectives are to: (1) do an inventory of the existing livestock institutional and policy environment;(2) identify gaps in policy and institutions; and (3) provide recommendations on essential policy actions and institutional changes.The information presented here has been collected using different methodologies: a desk review of major policy documents, government directives, regulations, acts, laws; targeted interviews with relevant individuals from the ministry and outside; a review of the LSA; a review of LMP; and a review of research papers.This section provides a review of current major policy and institutional constraints, evidence and proposed actions for selected areas of livestock production: animal health, dairy, poultry, hides and skins, live animals and meat, pastoral and agro-pastoral areas, and breed improvement. The summary results are presented in tabular forms. • Public services are constrained by a shortage of an operational budget;• The enabling environment for private sector development is weak; and• There are limited employment opportunities for new graduates.• The main elements of the role of the public and private sector in animal health, based on the nature of the goods, should be to:• Prepare a policy statement which clearly defines public and private tasks;• Establish a sanitary mandate-delegation for the provision of certain public-goods activities to the private sector; and• Provide loans to interested private service providers.46 Based on the review by Wondwosen Asfaw Awoke. 47 Based on stakeholder discussions.Priority policy or institutional constraint/ gap 47Evidence, group affected and rationale for change Required policy action 2. The absence of an animal identification and traceability system• The absence of traceability system:• Restricts exports to more remunerative markets;• Constrains effective disease control; and• Complicates the backward tracing of disease.• Establish a legal framework that will support the introduction and operation of a traceability system to:• Test on a pilot basis the acceptability of the system and identify its key characteristics, such a cost effectiveness and acceptability by trading partners;• Decide on up-scaling the system; and• Establish a national livestock registry and traceability data bank.3. The need for greater emergency preparedness and a harmonized plan and strategy to prevent and control major TADs• Delays detection of emerging animal diseases, such as HPAI and RVF, significantly increase their impact and control costs.• Limits the impact of ongoing disease control efforts, affecting above all poor livestock keepers.• Strengthen epidemiological survey capacity, and provide incentives and enforcement for regional states to comply with national disease reporting and execute national disease control programs in their respective areas in line with set strategies.• Confirm the prioritization of major livestock diseases for prevention and control based on their importance to trade, livelihoods and the risk of zoonotic exposure, as proposed under LSIPT (see annex 1).• Develop feasible and cost-effective control and prevention strategies for specific priority diseases.• Ensure a clear, legislated chain of command, involving singular decision-making authority, and accountability during a declared animal health emergency;• Strengthen coordination mechanisms, with other agencies including from a 'One Health' perspective.• Establish a sustainable financing mechanism for rapid mobilization in response to disease outbreaks.• Include animal disease emergencies as a component of the national disaster response plan; and• Create of a national veterinary committee, where this national committee, the chief veterinary officer and regional heads of animal health meet together formally and at regular intervals to discuss and agree upon relevant policy and programs and monitor their consistent implementation throughout the country.• Poorly trained graduates.• Eleven faculties opened without considering demand in the job market.• Unemployed young graduates.• Limit the entry of new students into veterinary faculties to match the supply in the labour market.• Harmonize veterinary education among veterinary faculties.• Improve the quality of such education.• Create job opportunities for young graduates in the private sector 5. Lack of livestock movement control system• Diseases transmitted through the unregulated movement of livestock.• Establish animal movement control systems.• Ensure the system is supported by adequate legislative provisions. • Producers feel they do not receive fair prices for their products.• Tanners are not able to collect and process high quality raw material.• Develop, refine and implement a clear and applicable hides-and-skins-leather sector regulation.• Develop an objective grading system for hides and skins.• Create a consistent incentives scheme to encourage producers to improve the quality of their outputs.• Offer financial incentives to promote quality 49 throughout the supply chain from producers to processors and traders.• Encourage agreements or contracts to follow specific practices and protocols at producer or abattoir level which allow for quality premiums.2. Poor quality of hides and skins, and ineffective collection; and a lack of incentives for quality• Producers and traders lose income due to high rejection rates resulting from the poor handling of hides and skins.• Prices are based on the number of hides and skins accepted for processing, rather than quality grading.• Producers and slaughterhouse staff still lack adequate skills.• Establish regulations to encourage private/ public urban/urban slaughter slabs with necessary priority for land lease access and sanitary regulations.• Encourage technicians to visit abattoirs and give advice on the correct flying and skinning procedures without reducing slaughterhouse productivity.• Monitor and assist producers gain access to appropriate chemicals to control ecto-parasite and disease-driven skin quality deterioration.• Encourage the promotion of flawless hides.• Weak extension services and thus poor quality of hides and skins at producer level.• Obstacles to the timely flow of information.• Loose integration amongst the various VC actors.• Weak implementation of regulations.• Implement regulations encouraging government and industry organizations to continue programs aimed at achieving reductions in the level of waste/tannery effluent.• Develop a market information flow mechanism on the price of hides and skins for producers and traders.• Establish stakeholder consultation platforms that bring together public and private sector actors to raise and discuss key policy issues. 4. A need for the implementation of hides and skins trade regulations• The existing proclamation No. 457/97 lacks an enforcement mechanism and is not being adequately enforced.• Raise awareness on the regulation and how it benefits producers and traders alike.• Institutionalize the regulation in the relevant sector bureaus nationally.• Issue regulations on the uniform and timely implementation of the proclamation in all regions and city administrations in Ethiopia. • Consumers are affected.• Enforce the use of demanddriven quality grading for meat and live animal pricing.• Train and certify graders, and provide them with statutory powers.2. A lack of enforcement for the use of a designated live animal and meat transport system• Animals lose significant weight during trucking/ trekking.• Transport conditions of live animals inhumane.• High transaction cost on producers and traders due to loss of animals en route to abattoirs.• Deterioration in quality of meat by not using cold chain.• Enforce and cost the use of designated live animals transport measures.• Enforce use of refrigerated trucks in meat transport• Monitor the regulations on the movement of animals.3. An absence of standards on feedlot management and incentive mechanisms• Significant variability in the quality of meat produced.• Limited knowledge by feedlot operators of costeffective fattening rations.• Little incentive to promote quality.• Develop and/or enforce the standards.• Build the capacity of feedlot operators, including in the design, management and operation of feedlots, best-cost ration formulation and feeding management, and livestock trade and related requirements.4. A need for more effective policy and enforcement of regulations to formalize informal cross-border trade• Reduced revenue to central and regional governments.• Bureaucratic hurdles.• Reduced prices to the producer.• Complexity of transactions high due to the number of actors involved.• Develop guidelines and directives within the framework of the regional initiatives like the AU framework on pastoralism.• Make policy decisions based on a cost-benefit analysis of crossborder trade in livestock.Pastoral and agro-pastoral areas • Low commercialization and a limited number of micro and small enterprises.• Vertical linkages of producers to the market poor.• Weakening of customary institutions, and poor linkage between customary institutions and formal government structures.• Market policies to support timely and reliable market information.• Introduce modalities to support cross-border livestock marketing.• Assist pastoralists in understanding marketing trends.• Provide a substantially extended role to customary institutions.2. A need for greater attention to pastoral development in policies, strategies and programs, as compared to mixed crop/ livestock development• Conflict over resources between herders and cultivators.• The capacity of livestock keepers to respond constrained.• Lack of pastoral community representatives involved in decision making (including policy) which has a direct impact on livelihoods.• Address the risks related to drought/flood and resource conflict.• Undertake further work on access and rights to pastoral land, administration and use.• Undertake participatory pastoral land use mapping and implement directives to guarantee access to land.3. A need for stronger policies and more focused implementation to support the effective functioning of livestock trade corridors designed to mitigate effects of drought• Migratory routes compromised, especially in times of drought and famine.• Introduce and enforce regulations designed to protect livestock corridors.• Allocate adequate resources to build infrastructure needed to make the corridors effective (e.g. water points, feed storage facilities, etc.).• Empower and actively involve communities in the governance of protected corridors.4. A lack information to analyse current practices, identify key constraints, and predict how producers will respond to policy initiatives. 50• Difficult to estimate the economic performance of a sector.• Unreliable statistics obscure the factors which drive changes in livestock population numbers, such as climatic fluctuations.• Make better information available on production practices, marketing decisions, and linkages of the pastoral sector to the larger economy.• Recognize the resilience and adaptive capacity of dry lands.  • Inefficiency of the production system (including low fertility, poor offtake, high mortality).• Inadequacy of the agro-ecological and -production system zonation to prescribe appropriate productivity improvement.• Lack of understanding where local breed improvement and crossbreeding with exotics merits work.• Use AI and synchronization to improve national herd through crossbreeding and/or local selection.• Establish a system of progeny testing and selection of AI bulls.• Develop an efficient and effective supply of quality semen and other inputs, and strengthen established operating systems.• Undertake monitoring and evaluation to avoid indiscriminate crossbreeding.• Ensure the promotion of local breed improvement via selection within.• The delineation of public/private roles recommended, but has not yet implemented.• Limited progress in privatization.• The national AI service too chronically understaffed and under-budgeted to contribute to the sector to the expected degree.• A need for greater awareness of the potential of Al in the rural areas, in tandem with the initiative of improving semen quality, particularly blood level supply of different varieties of bull semen.• A need for greater coordination among the public and private sector.• Gradually develop private AI services, where profitable, with incentives (subsidized and/or guaranteed loans to build clinics).• Encourage private involvement in the AI service delivery, and the importation of genetic germplasm.• Continue providing public services in remote areas where private AI will not go.• Provide technical and financial incentives to rural Al workers.• Increase coverage with a quality, efficiency and cost-effective service to small farmers.3. The need to meet the requirements of buyers, weak sectorial organizationinconsistencies in supply• Old animals sent to slaughter leading to beef discolouration and packaging challenges.• Producers not meeting market requirements and unable to sell animals.• Animals take longer to reach market age.• Facilitate linkages between producers and buyers.• Establish a modality of how to reach big herds in pastoral areas, and use synchronization and AI with local breeds to increase calf birth rates.Land policyLand is one of the critical factors of production upon which the livestock production is based. There is a demand for land for many uses: farming, real-estate development, forestry, protected areas, etc. The allocation of land for different uses is a function of the return to a given usage of land. By law, land in Ethiopia is the property of the government and the farmers and others only have the right to use it.The main issues related to land as a factor of production are: physical availability and accessibility. Land availability in the highland areas, where the road infrastructure is relatively developed, is very limited. Conversely, land might be physically available in the low land remote areas, but accessibility is limited. The shortage of land for animal feed production is a very critical constraint in livestock production.Therefore, in order to increase the availability of land for animal feed production, there has to be security of land use rights and security for contractual agreements between those who lease and those who contract the land. In other words, land contracts for investment purposes should be clearly regulated, creating clear rights and responsibilities for those who hold the right to use land and sub-contractors.There are different organizations which are engaged in livestock research in Ethiopia: the EIAR, national universities, and member centres of the CGIAR. With regard to livestock sector, the domestic research is mainly concerned with the improvement of primary livestock production. However, the research on secondary production, like processing and food manufacturing, is less developed. In order to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the sector, research on the processing and manufacturing sector is both very critical and timely.The LMP and LSA were conducted with the support and collaboration of ILRI. The LSM needs to build in-house capacity to conduct detailed LSAs, implement, monitor and evaluate and formulate new policies and to revise or develop new LMPs after the current one has expired. The LSM needs to develop the institutional capabilities to generate and compile reliable social, economic and environmental statistics which facilitates the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of new investments, policy and intuitional changes. In this regard, it is important to have a livestock policy support unit, capable of implementing the above mentioned activities.The review of existing policies, institutions, laws and regulations related to the livestock sector in Ethiopia indicates that several relevant national policies have been enacted. However, the lack of capacity to enforce these policies is one of the key problems identified in the plan. There are also several outdated policies which need to be replaced or modified to deal adequately with the circumstances currently facing the livestock sector.The ex-ante impacts of the LMP roadmaps demonstrate that investing in the development of the livestock sector during the GTP II phase could reduce poverty and improve the food security of rural people, as well as make livestock an increasing contributor to GDP growth, and also increase exports and foreign exchange earnings.For the specific VCs and interventions, the main conclusions and implications for the GTP II, as well as conditions critical to achieving success, are as follows:The investment interventions proposed in the cow dairy roadmap to improve cattle milk production and the cow dairy VC could transform family dairy farms in the MRS from traditional IFD to market-oriented systems. Moreover, the specialized dairy systems could also be improved through better genetics, feed and health services as the units are expanded to increase the number of dairy cows in the systems.The combined cow milk interventions could result in a 93% increase in national cow milk production during the GTP II period (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020). This production increase would make it possible to meet the all-milk production targets in the GTP II, as well as to meet and exceed the growing domestic demand for all milk (see Figure 9, Panel D). The cow milk production increase would result in a surplus of 2501 million litres of cow milk over projected domestic consumption requirements by 2020 (see Figure 9, Panel A).The surplus created could substitute for imported milk products and be used domestically for new or additional industrial uses (e.g. in the baking industry) or be exported as milk powder or UHT to raise foreign exchange earnings.The critical conditions needed for the success of the cow dairy roadmap are:• Changing land-lease policy to make land available to investors for forage seed and forage production, and dairy farms;• Encouraging the private sector to invest in milk processing plants, especially in UHT and powdered milk production to overcome seasonal fluctuations in dairy product demand;• Introducing quality-based standards and pricing to encourage quality milk supply;• Encouraging the private sector to invest in providing AI and synchronization services;• Ensuring the availability of more and better feed seed and forage production, and marketing, and health services in all areas, regardless of whether breed improvements are implemented;• Introducing more effective extension services to support the production, processing and marketing of quality milk;• Promoting the establishment of flour mills to make more concentrate ingredients available; and• Promoting domestic production of cooking oil to replace importation of cooking oil, and banning the exportation of oilseeds that affect availability of concentrate feeds.The potential contribution of the ITMM production systems (cattle, sheep, goats, and camels) in all production zones (MRS, MRD and LG), and the specialized cattle feedlot to improve food security, red meat consumption and nutrition, and economic growth is very significant, given the anticipated productivity improvements and increase in the size of the sub-sector.The combined interventions indicate a 52% increase in total red meat production. Production grows from 1,275,000 tonnes in 2015 to 1,933,000 tonnes in 2020. However, consumption grows even faster, from 1,275,000 tonnes of red meat in 2015 to 2,008,000 tonnes by 2020, an increase of 58%. Thus, even if the red meat interventions were successful, the red meat production and consumption balance for the period 2015-2020 would still show a deficit of 187,000 tonnes by 2020 (Figure 10, Panel F).Besides not meeting the domestic demand for red meat for the rapidly growing population and increasing incomes in Ethiopia, such deficits can be expected to lead to continuingly high domestic prices for red meat. Moreover, meeting the growing red meat export goals in the GTP II period would also be extremely difficult.Furthermore, to help tackle poverty reduction goals, cattle numbers cannot be expected to fall dramatically, as called for in the draft of the CRGE Livestock Investment plan. However, the annual growth rate in the cattle population could be substantially reduced (yet, this would likely require substantial incentives for farmers to reduce cattle numbers in household herds).To be successful, the red meat-milk interventions need to be supported by meeting the following conditions:• Rising productivity increases health and feed investments (in range and pasture lands), and ITMM systems are adequately funded and implemented by GoE agencies in a timely manner.• Feed needs are met for feedlots, including the establishment of additional flour and oil mills by the private sector for additional feeds from agro-industrial by-products, while the availability of roughages, such as crop residues, are also increased.• A support strategy is developed and implemented, in collaboration with industry and farmer associations, to enable access to sufficient production factors (including land, water and finance).• The policy and investment environments are improved (less bureaucracy) to attract and enable private investment in feedlots and slaughterhouses.• The required policy support would attract and ensure sustainable growth in private feedlots-land availability, reduction in feed ingredient taxes, tax holidays, etc.• The establishment of new feedlot operations takes into account the spatial distribution of sugar cane factories, agro-industrial processing plants, and milling industries.• To facilitate and promote formal exports of live animals and meat, investments are made in export infrastructure for animal holding and quarantine, as well as programs to ensure food safety and animal health through disease surveillance, monitoring of abattoirs, animal identification and traceability, etc.• Linkages are established for a viable stocker feeder program where the young male stock from the LG are channelled to feedlot operations, thus reducing the grazing pressure in the system.If the proposed poultry intervention investments were carried out, the poultry sub-sector could move away from the TFP to the IFP and the scale of the specialized poultry operations could be greatly increased. This transformation could make substantial contributions to reducing poverty and malnutrition rates among rural and urban poor, as well as generating increases in national income.With the success of the poultry investment interventions, Ethiopia will meet its chicken meat and egg demand for its growing population and produce a very significant surplus for domestic industrial use or export (see Figure 10, Panels E and H). Ethiopia will raise chicken meat production to 164,000 tonnes and eggs to 3.9 billion by 2020 through the IFP and the expanded specialized poultry.The combined interventions indicate a 247% increase in chicken meat production by 2020:• Total chicken meat production increases from 49,000 tonnes in the year 2015 to 164,000 tonnes in the year 2020.• The production-consumption balance for chicken meat goes from a surplus of 18,000 tonnes in 2015 to 102,000 tonnes in 2020.The combined interventions also could result in an 828% increase in chicken egg production:• Total egg production increases from 419 million in the year 2015 to 3.9 billion in 2020.• The surplus goes from 537 million to 3.128 billion eggs during the GTP II period.Perhaps most importantly, the growth of the poultry sub-sector would enable Ethiopia to close the total national meat production-consumption gap (see Figure 8, Panel G). It would also make possible meeting the CRGE target of increasing the share of chicken meat consumption to total meat consumption from the current 5% to 27% by 2030, but only if chicken substitutes for red meat coming from larger high emitting ruminants. Taking advantage of the benefits of the potential poultry revolution would thus require substantial investments in promotional activities to shift tastes and preferences away from beef and mutton, as well as from local chicken meat and eggs, towards exotic chicken meat and eggs.Moreover, if the surplus chicken meat could substitute for domestic red meat consumption, this would also enable meat exports (of beef, mutton and goat meat) to be increased to raise foreign exchange earnings, in line with GoE meat export policy.Furthermore, the surplus eggs created could be also processed into egg powder and used domestically for new or additional industrial uses (e.g. in the baking industry), or exported as egg powder to raise foreign exchange earnings.The above benefits can only be realized if:• The feed constraint is resolved by increasing the acreage dedicated to maize and soybean, and ensuring imported nutritional additives are available without excessive custom duties (now 53%);• The private sector invests adequately in DOC and pullet production and distribution, as well as egg processing to make egg powder;• An effective livestock extension system is put in place to train farmers in management of crossbreds in the IFP;• The IFP and specialized poultry systems are linked with processors and retailers to ensure reliable market outlets for chicken meat and eggs;• Regulations are enacted to protect the small IFP farmers so that they will not be forced out of business by large specialized poultry farms. The government will need to balance the poverty reduction and food security benefits of the IFP sub-sector with the economic growth contribution of the large specialized poultry production sub-sector.• Private investors in the sector (specialized poultry, processing plants, feed producers) are provided adequate incentives in terms of tax holidays, subsidized land-leasing rates, and priority in acquiring land;• Protective trade policies are put in place to discourage chicken meat imports, thus encouraging domestic private investment in poultry businesses;• Research to monitor, maintain and ensure the quality of the imported breed lines takes place. Continuing research will also be needed to identify better yielding breeds, including from among local breeds;• Balanced policies are introduced to encourage investment in animal production and meat processing to meet both rapidly increasing domestic demand for meat, and export demand. Otherwise, the exploding domestic demand could continue to put upward pressure on domestic prices and constrain future exports; and Investment in research to better understand demand for livestock products is undertaken, including to inform promotional activities meant to modify tastes and preferences.The LMP results show the proposed investment interventions (better genetics, feed and health services, together with complementary policy support) could help meet the GTP II targets by improving productivity and total production in the key livestock VCs. Furthermore, if all the investment interventions presented in the roadmaps and mentioned below (for poultry, red meat-milk, and dairy) are successfully carried out, they could eliminate poverty in about 25% of livestock-keeping households, or among 2.36 million households (double counting eliminated), as shown in Table 94 below. The total investment costs required to carry out the LMP roadmap are ETB 7762 million. The proportion of investment from the public and private sectors is 57% (ETB 4463 million) and 43% (ETB 3299 million) respectively. Finally, the results for all the targeted VCs thus show that investing in the LMP could help transform family farms from traditional to improved market-oriented systems. This includes all the traditional family systems: cow milk or IFD, the ITMM and the IFP systems. The specialized production systems (specialized dairy, cattle feedlots, and poultry (broilers and layers)) could also be improved through better genetics, feed and health services and by increasing the number of specialized units and livestock in them to increase their contributions to national livestock production and GDP.51 Investments to improve pasture productivity and reduce YASM are included in the investment of red meat-milk and feedlot system. The LSIPT provides tools to help prioritize animal diseases to inform decision-makers on the most appropriate allocation of resources to combat the priority diseases. The priority setting is based, first on a selection of the 10 most important priority diseases, based on their incidence. Those 10 most important diseases are then ranked according to their impact on three criteria:• The impact on households and livelihoods (from the perspective of the farmer based on the impact on the five types of capital possessed by rural households. i.e. financial, natural, human, social and physical capital).• The impact on markets and value chains (from the perspective of industry based on five types of impacts: causes the closure of local markets; depreciates the quality and value of products; causes the closure of processing units; stops demand; and/or prevents access to international markets).• The impact on intensification pathways in the production system (from the perspective of extension service providers, i.e., improvement in genetics, feeding, health inputs, management, and husbandry).These global scores are then weighted in accordance to the share of:• The households in the affected production systems (where livestock is essential for household income);• Total value added generated from the sub-chain affected; and• The animal population in production systems affected (as a percentage of total livestock population by species). In the case of cattle, the total scores indicate that the three most important diseases are FMD, CBPP and brucellosis. However, when the disease scores are examined individually against the impact on household attributes, market and value chains, and intensification pathways, the order of ranking varies. The order of ranking was FMD, LSD, and brucellosis for market and value chains; whereas household impact ranking was FMD, CBPP and TB. In the case of intensification pathways, brucellosis, FMD, and TB were the top three in terms of their importance of impact on the intensification attributes.Sheep and goat diseases that indicted an impact on the household, market and value chains, and intensification pathways were PPR, SGP and CCPP, and ranked in that order. The same order of ranking is indicated for market and value chains. However, with regard to the impact on household attributes, CCPP ranked first followed by PPR and SGP. In the case of camels, surra is ranked first.In poultry, Newcastle ranks first across all attributes of households, value chains and intensification pathways. 52 Scale for scoring from 1 to 5: Totally disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neither disagree nor agree (3), Agree (4), Strongly agree (5) 53 Household attributes considered in the analysis are financial, human, social, natural, and physical capital. The impact of the diseases on these capital assets is considered and scored. 54 The measure of impact of animal diseases on markets using the specific dimension 'disrupting markets and value chains' and attributes, including: the closure of collection markets, depreciation of value, closure of processing units, stoppage of demand, closure of international markets. In the LSIPT analysis each of the attributes are also given policy weight based on the extent to which the national policy highlights the importance of avoiding some aspects of disease impact. 55 Intensification of livestock systems, in this case, the proxies are genetics; feeding; AI, inputs and basic health care; habitat housing; husbandry practices and hygiene. The extent to which national policy highlights these intensification pathways is weighted and is referred to as 'policy weight'. Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) works with the vision of creating market-led modern agriculture and a society free of poverty. To this effect, the ministry strives to promote market-oriented modern agricultural system; conserve, develop and use the natural resources; build the capacity of disaster prevention and preparedness and empower women and youth in development. http://www.moa.gov.et/home","tokenCount":"30163"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cab317fdf8c0bac8a0aeddd078ca2793","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eb4e0fed-021c-43d2-a187-75e7d7dbda83/retrieve","id":"1688973945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b520b335-a079-469b-846b-8c20988d5a56","pagecount":"42","content":"Businesses are influenced by policies, plans and regulations, trade agreements, institutional setups and strength, access to finance and subsidies, technology, matching partners and availability of land, and local infrastructure, which all may facilitate or hinder business sustainability and scalability, also in view of resource recovery and reuse (RRR) (IFC, 2013;Otoo et al., 2016). In addition to these more formal factors, social norms, business culture, as well as local preferences, expectations, environmental awareness, knowledge and perceptions can be powerful aspects of the business enabling environment. The creation of an enabling environment by central, provincial, state and local governments, the private sector, and civil society organizations thus provides the necessary basis for a business to grow. As this goes beyond what the business model canvas does address, it deserves its own chapter.Common drivers of success for investments in RRR are (i) market demand, driven by resource scarcity, like declining water reserves or soil fertility, and (ii) environmental legislations demanding safer and more environmentally sound waste management. Examples are waste disposal limitations, recycling obligations, and carbon emission reduction targets. Both drivers are important but seldom sufficient conditions for RRR success. The first usually creates a market space for the sale of RRR products, while the second pushes for waste prevention, less dumping on landfills, and investments in alternative practices to safeguard environmental and human health. These elements can be seen as 'push-andpull' forces for RRR and their relative importance may vary according to the context or the business model. However, compared to resources like glass, metal or plastic, the organic waste recycling sector is less driven by (in/formal) market mechanisms. Competition from (subsidized) chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels is fierce and hinders the development of market opportunities for compost and renewable energy (Matter et al., 2015). In the case of water reuse, the commonly subsidized freshwater tariffs strongly limit revenue expectations from wastewater sales. All this puts additional weight on the role of policy incentives to support the valorization of nutrients, water and biomass for a circular economy.Table 65 shows how selected enabling conditions for municipal solid waste (MSW) composting can differ among countries in South Asia. While data will have changed, the comparison shows the importance of country specific information.Another important factor is that the RRR value chain cuts across various sectors, which include sanitation/solid waste management, environmental protection, health, renewable energy, food security, and private sector development involving different ministries and levels of governance. Table 66 shows examples of governmental responsibilities in the domain of organic waste management, which however, are seldom organized under a dedicated framework.In the following sections, four groups of key factors of the enabling environment for RRR will be addressed in more detail:Policies, regulations, and guidelines. Finance and financial incentives.Technologies matching resource constraints.Local capacities and stakeholder acceptance.Over the last few years, Europe is spearheading policies and regulations in direct support for the circular economy (Box 17). Although in most low-and middle-income countries the value of water reuse is equally recognized in national water policies, for example, they often fail to define related standards, guidelines, or national targets. Also, international support is limited, with the exception of the World Health Organization's guidelines (WHO, 2006a, b) and the related Sanitation Safety Planning in transition,' including 'End-of-Waste' criteria for recovered raw materials. For these secondary products, quality standards and specifications are needed to ensure market confidence, and not only standards assessing their potential harm.While there are also an increasing number of examples of supporting regulations and mechanisms, experiences from the RRR private sector on their actual accessibility and performance in low-and middle-income countries are largely missing. One of the indicator in the 2017 report of the World Bank on 'Enabling the Business of Agriculture' is the time, cost, and regulation for fertilizer registration. This concerns the import of new fertilizers but is also a key indicator for any enterprise engaged in the creation of new fertilizers or composts from resources embedded in waste. As stated by Muspratt (2016b) there is a significant gap between the speed successful startups bring to markets and which can give them a competitive edge, and the way administrations in many low-and middle-income countries work. While, for example, according to the World Bank (2017), the global average to register a new fertilizer is below one year, significant variation was found across countries with respect to the efficiency and complexity in registering fertilizer products. The time and cost to register a new fertilizer product are lowest on average in OECD high-income and upper-middle-income countries, and highest in low-income countries (Figure 277 4 ). This harsh difference in time is driven principally by lengthy field testing.Many countries in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, only have rudimentary regulatory frameworks for registering fertilizer. And even where legal frameworks are strong and elaborate, the registration process can be very time-consuming and discouraging, or only allows the public sector to register new fertilizer products (Figure 278). In the case of Ghana, where the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) registered its fortified waste compost with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the process, which is similar to the one, described for other countries (Box 18) took 36 months (Nikiema, personal communication), i.e., two years longer than one would expect in Ghana (World Bank, 2017).Where the public sector is partner of the compost production, ADB (2011)  To market a new compost commercially in Bangladesh, the compost manufacturer must obtain licenses for the product and its brand name. Approval for licensing is a two-stage process. First, the compost produced by the manufacturer is tested in government laboratories. Subsequent to compliance with the national standards, the compost is sent for a field trial on crops for two agricultural seasons. If field trial results demonstrate that use of the compost lowers the need for chemical fertilizer and increases yields, the compost and its brand name will be approved. After this stage, the Department of Agricultural Extension issues a license to the compost manufacturer.In Bangladesh, the process for product and manufacturer registration takes approximately 1-2 years. Although the entire process is lengthy, the final government approval of the product indirectly assists in marketing the compost. The Government of Bangladesh is promoting the use of compost as part of its Integrated Plant Nutrient System program through field-level agricultural extension officers who are encouraging farmers to use registered, governmentapproved compost. As a regulatory requirement, the compost producer has to send monthly production data and compost quality data to the Department of Agricultural Extension. Moreover, the department also randomly undertakes quality control tests on the compost for laboratory analysis to ensure compliance. If major deviations from the approved standard are detected, then the government may cancel the license to market compost. The Ministry of Agriculture instructs fertilizer shops all over the county to market only government-approved compost.Source: Waste Concern (ADB, 2011) sector starts buying the compost for city greening programs in parks, landscaping, and roads, where quality requirements are low, while the registration process continues. Without income from the sale of compost, the plant's cash flow will be affected, and the private partner/investor might not even engage or jump off.Particularly helpful can be regulations that combine disincentives, e.g. for environmental pollution with policies that encourage RRR. In Rwanda, for example, the government has regulations to reduce deforestation while at the same time it provides policies for promoting renewable energy (like waste to briquetting enterprises). An often-cited example from Europe is described in Box 19.Without regulatory support, enterprises might find it easier to grow in the informal sector, which can become a significant challenge for society. In urban Ghana, for example, up to 800,000 city dwellers eat every day exotic vegetables produced with raw or diluted wastewater (Drechsel and Keraita, 2014). Although the informal sector had been acknowledged in Ghana's latest national irrigation policy, capacity development, e.g. in safer irrigation methods, remains an exception. Such support, however, would eventually help in reducing the size of the informal sector while promoting growth. A strong lead Ministry with a clearly defined role for promoting private sector development would be helpful in this regard.Resource Recovery and Reuse infrastructure financing varies to some extent between the water, energy, and nutrient/biomass sectors. Many waste to energy projects are commercially driven, with venture financing and bank loans, supported by governmental programs (green growth, renewable energy, rural electrification, etc.) and the carbon market. Financing wastewater reuse, on the other hand, refers mostly to the provision of treatment infrastructure, which is commonly relying on public finance, supported in low-income countries by foreign aid, and with increasing size of the project by multiple partners for risk sharing, including the private sector. California's policy prohibiting landfilling of untreated sewage sludge drove its beneficial reuse as 'Class A biosolids.' In Quebec, Canada, plans are under way to stop landfilling of all organic wastes, including sewage sludges, sorted municipal food waste, green wastes, paper industry sludges, etc. (Hasanbeigi et al., 2012;MDDEP, 2012).municipal solid waste, like in composting projects, shows components of both often relying on 2-4 finance sources (Kaza et al., 2016).The following text will first address common challenges and options for RRR infrastructure financing, looking separately at nutrient, water, and energy recovery, followed by a cross-cutting section on financing operations and maintenance.Organic waste composting: Almost all municipally-run compost systems have benefitted from international, national, state, or local funding to some degree, from the most developed models in high-income countries to burgeoning and innovative models in low-income countries (Table 67). The most common role the private sector plays in composting projects is in operations providing technical, managerial, and process know-how. However, private organizations may also provide loans, grants, equity, and venture capital, when counterparties are creditworthy and there is a clear mechanism to recoup costs and earn a return within an acceptable risk. In countries without developed credit rating systems, a mechanism to garner lenders' trust is through providing key documents such as a comprehensive business plan with detailed assumptions, market and feasibility studies, land concession/provision, environmental permit to operate, feedstock supply agreements, product offtake agreements, and financial forecasts (World Bank, 2013;Oliver, 2016;Kaza et al., 2016).Water and water reuse: The traditional governance and finance models, especially of public sector water utilities, like in Africa, showed a decreasing trend of bankable projects for funding by both the private financial institutions and the international finance institutions (Kruger, 2017). While governments  (Platz, 2009;ADB, 2014). In the example of the Philippines, the Local Government Unit Guarantee Corporation provides credit guarantees for municipalities that seek to finance infrastructure projects through debt issuances.In Dakar, Senegal, on the other hand, the failed setup of a city-level bond without a central government guarantee resulted in important lessons for other African cities (Gorelick, 2017). Innovative models of capital cost co-financing through pension funds (see below) or by the benefiting households (Box 20) have been reported from South Africa, Latin America and India.One stimulus to encourage private investments in water infrastructure has come from low-carbon and climate-resilient (green) bonds where verifiable standards can guide investors. The process can be supported through the setup of Water Financing Facilities or Urban/Municipal National or State Financial Intermediaries, which are assisting utilities in preparing bankable project plans (Oliver et al., 2016). The concept has been proven to be successful also in countries like the Philippines, India, and Colombia. The contribution of RRR in view of energy recovery, water reuse, and carbon cycling offers options to ensure that, in particular, wastewater treatment plants can show green bond features in support of climate change adaptation and mitigation.The trend towards public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the wastewater sector goes beyond operational support but targets private financing initiatives (Mandri-Perrot and Stiggers, 2013). Many middle-income countries are committed to the promotion of private sector participation and particularly interested in the financial schemes that use public funding to leverage private investment. Typically, the private companies involved in delivering the project provide the initial equity, although  Copyright Material -Provided by Taylor & Francis they may invite financial investors to participate either in the initial fund raising or subsequently when the construction risk has passed and it is possible to sell on the project equity at a higher price (GWI, 2010).Official development assistance (ODA) from international development agencies remains particularly strong for solid waste and wastewater management in low-income countries, although for more costly wastewater infrastructure, finance can be significantly more complex with multi-partner cost sharing, investment guarantees, and related risk management arrangements. For wastewater treatment, public financed and owned facilities established by the private partner under a design-build-operate (DBO) or build-operate-transfer (BOT) model are often preferred. The operator is taking no or minimal financing risk on the capital but remains responsible for smooth operations. Also, other types of arrangements are common, including build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) or build-own-operate (BOO) models where the private project development company has or even continues ownership of the facility after the contractual period (GWI 2010). In this catalogue, the BOT case of As Samra (Business Model 19) has been elaborated in more detail given its importance for many RRR projects which share high socioeconomic and environmental benefits, but carry significant political/macro-economic, sector specific, or project related risks, in particular uncertain cost recovery. There are many examples, especially in the purview of financing, which can add risks and encourage or discourage both the public and private sector to invest in RRR (ADB, 2011;Bjornali and Ellingsen, 2014;World Bank, 2016).The same applies to the operational site and the only slowly emerging support of cost recovery through different forms of direct or indirect (green growth) subsidies in low-and middle-income countries.International project finance for the water sector is generally available subject to its (minimum) size.According to Winpenny (2003) a typical minimum project size is USD 50-100 million. Below that level, returns to scale generally tend to make project financing uneconomic, and projects will have to be addressed by the corporate or municipal sectors. For project finance to be a viable option, project revenues and returns to equity must be acceptable, though this does not preclude the use of aid to reduce the debt or equity burden of the project. However, there is a project size (USD 10,000 to USD 100,000) which is often too small for the corporate sector and too large for micro loans (Winpenny, 2003).From the RRR perspective, a common bottleneck in many developing countries is the lack of local capital markets that provide long-term financing for small-and middle-scale infrastructure projectsUsing a mix of grants and loans from central, state and local governments, most wastewater projects in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu between 2006 and 2014 were implemented through either Design Build Operate and Transfer (DBOT) or Design Build Finance Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) models as opposed to BOT models. A DBOT model encouraged technology firms to participate in project execution, and improve the overall design to minimize the cost of the projects. A unique feature was that a portion (14-32%) of the capital expenditure was funded through collection of public deposits levied on households, which is the 'one-time non-refundable deposit' obtained from the users. The advantages of this deposit contribution from the public have been: (i) accountability on the part of the local urban body to provide quality services; (ii) ensuring that households connect to the network upon completion of the construction; and (ii) as the deposit formed the public equity in the project, it reduced debt servicing costs and therefore the monthly user charge (WSP, 2016). (Muspratt, 2016ab), although there are encouraging example of financial instruments in support of local enterprises and business start-ups. In Singapore, for example, the government has initiated 35+ funding and incentive schemes related to clean energy, green buildings and construction, water and environmental technologies, waste minimization and recycling, environmental initiatives, and so forth. This also includes the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), funding for water recycling, and use of alternative sources of water. 5 Other finance examples of case studies across the waste and sanitation sector are described, e.g. by Ali (2004), ADB (2011ADB ( , 2014ADB ( , 2016)), Beltramello et al. (2013) and the World Bank (2016).Energy recovery: Aside from wind and solar energy, the recovery of energy from biomass and waste constitutes important components of total renewable energy investments, which have been shifting towards developing countries for several years (IRENA, 2012). The sector struggled with the failure of energy pricing to account for externalities or the environmental and social costs of production, which has made renewable energy technologies to look more expensive than they really are, compared to fossil fuels. To assess project eligibility with an eye on externalities, the European Investment Bank (EIB), like also other larger banks, provides an interesting example of accounting via the net carbon footprint. The absolute carbon footprint of a project is compared with the carbon emissions in absence of the project. Then a net carbon impact of projects is calculated, using advanced models including industry-specific ones (Griffith-Jones et al  , 2012). Even more than in the water sector, green bonds designed for climate resilient cities are in high demand for the production of environmentally friendly energy as well as reduced methane emissions from better waste management. Green bonds which had in 2015 a total value of around USD 44 billion are commonly issued by larger development banks, but increasingly also by real estate companies, municipalities (Johannesburg), international corporations, and commercial banks (Oliver, 2016). Institutional investors also include pension funds. While smaller pension funds require pooled investment vehicles, larger pension funds have the capacity to invest directly in infrastructure projects (Box 21).As investment in renewable energy (but also wastewater reuse and composting) can take years, or even decades, to yield good returns, 'patient capital' is needed. Unfortunately, however, this is the type of investment that is most difficult to attract in most developing countries, given typical shortterm horizons of private capital markets. Exceptions can be funds that have long-term liabilities such as sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and pension funds (Griffith-Jones et al., 2012) or e.g., pooled local currency bonds with a 15 to 23 years tenor as reported from the water sector (Oliver et al., 2016), aside from support from multilateral development banks.Among the different RRR sub-sectors, it is mostly the compost sector's image that suffered from a large array of failed or underperforming projects, which began with high amounts of grant funding but ultimately collapsed due to inability to support their operational costs (Kaza et al., 2016). Common reasons are the selection of a too complex technology for which repairs and maintenance costs become unmanageable, and limited understanding of the compost market. Public-private partnerships can offer in this regard not only private capital, but also market know-how and the private sector's technical and managerial expertise. This is crucial as experience shows that compost as well as wastewater treatment plants owned or operated by private sector companies are usually functioning better than municipally-operated ones (e.g. ADB, 2011; Murray and Drechsel, 2011). A key criterion are incentives, and operational cost recovery is a strong one, which can be supported by different forms of direct or indirect subsidies. There are many options for RRR related financial instruments to keep the private sector engaged (ADB 2011;ADB, 2016;Eyraud et al., 2011):Tax holidays. Entrepreneurs setting up a compost plant as part of a joint venture or within the private sector could be considered for a tax holiday for a number of years, like an exemption on customs duty, excise duty, value-added tax, sales tax, or other local taxes on equipment, machinery, etc. Tax exemptions could also include the waste derived products, to support sales, while, e.g. tax penalties could be used to prevent resource wastage or tax credits to support, e.g. renewable energy (Box 22).Capital subsidies. Entrepreneurs could be considered for example, for a capital subsidy (or Viability Gap Funding) provided to support infrastructure projects that are economically justified but fall short of financial viability. In the same way, different types of PPPs could be supported with different shares of grant subsidy, equity, and debt from the government or a financial intermediary. Moreover, for any project financed by banks, lower interest rates could be supported by the government, along with a long loan term.A private sector entity operating organic waste-recycling facilities such as compost or waste-to-energy plants should not be asked to pay royalties to the city. Alternatively, tipping fees should be paid by the city for each ton of waste processed by the entrepreneur because waste recycling reduces the landfilling cost. To promote RRR, legislation should however enable the private sector to be paid for every ton of quality waste recycled and sold, not only for every ton collected.The South African Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is Africa's largest pension fund, with over USD 138 billion in assets under management. The GEPF is also the single largest investor in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies. The fund has set aside 5 percent of its portfolio for investing in developmental projects -mostly infrastructure projects supporting positive economic, social, and environmental outcomes for South Africa over the long term. During 2010/11, the fund accelerated investments in developmental projects in different areas including water infrastructure, alternative energy, and environmental projects. In each area, the aim is to maintain a balance between social impact and financial returns. Interesting vehicles to assist smaller pension funds to invest in the infrastructure sector have been developed in some Latin American countries, such as in Chile via infrastructure bonds with insurance guarantees, in Mexico and Peru via investment trusts, and in Brazil via a joint-owed infrastructure company.Common investments are in housing, roads, or renewable energy (OECD, 2012).Concessionary rates for utilities. RRR companies should be considered like other utilities, and be able to access similar concessionary/commercial rates for electricity, fuel, and water supply, if available.Creating parity with chemical fertilizers. Although governments might promote compost use, they are usually providing direct or indirect subsidies to chemical fertilizer companies to the detriment of organic fertilizer and compost manufacturers. Given the environmental benefits of compost, including greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction, it is either recommended to include waste compost at par into the governmental fertilizer subsidy program, as it was introduced in 2016 for example in Ghana, or reduce subsidies to the chemical fertilizer companies, or of fossil fuels which in turn can support green investments, also in renewable energy.Co-marketing compost with chemical fertilizers. Fertilizer companies can be asked to adopt a 'basket approach,' entailing the co-marketing of compost with chemical fertilizers as is now the law in India, supported by a governmental subsidy. The regulation helps, in particular, compost stations that fail to penetrate existing marketing chains. For larger-scale compost plants, the use of fertilizer marketing companies for distribution and sale of compost provides a great advantage. A possible marketing ratio of chemical fertilizer bags versus bags of certified registered compost was also discussed in India (Box 23) and has also been implemented in parts of Sri Lanka.In most developing countries electricity is regulated by the government and utilities are typically owned by the government especially infrastructure for transmission andGreen taxation is being increasingly used to push the circular economy. KPMG identified in a 21-country survey 200 green tax incentives and penalties of which 30 appeared just in the last two years before the survey in 2013. These include landfill taxes, incineration gate fees, accelerated asset depreciation, tax credits, VAT refunds linked to secondary materials purchase, reduced VAT, or VAT refunds on recycled goods (e.g. in China and South Korea).Taxation can be applied at different levels: resource recovery, first industrial use (e.g. fertilizer production) or final consumption (e.g. fertilizer use). A possible taxation package in support of phosphorus recovery and reuse could have different entry points for tax support or penalties:To secure long-term availability and reduce import dependency.To reduce phosphorus losses/disposal into surface waters and ultimately the oceans.To close the phosphorus cycle as far as possible, reducing inputs and outputs and developing recycling.An example of a penalty taxation is the one on nutrient surpluses (over-fertilization) in the Netherlands. Tax penalties to support renewable energy concern, e.g. the use of conventional fossil fuels. Such taxes only exist so far in developed countries. Developing or emerging economies appear to avoid taxing conventional fuel, presumably on the basis that such penalties could damage development and growth prospects. Other options are disposal taxes which are typically imposed per ton of waste resource landfilled or incinerated to catalyze firms' investments in waste reduction and recycling.Sources: KPMG, 2013, Dubois et al., 2015 distribution of electricity. However, in many countries, such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Uganda, the private sector is encouraged to generate (non-conventional) renewable electricity, including municipal waste energy by providing an attractive feed-in-tariff (FIT) and a long-term power purchasing agreement. Supportive agreements accept alternative energy throughout the year and not only in times of peak demand. According to KPMG 6 , the total number of countries with feed-in tariffs globally is over 50. While the goals of FITs are the same in developed and developing countries, there are particular features of the latter that require consideration. For example, FITs in developed countries are generally funded by a premium placed on all energy bills, while in low-income countries external finance might be needed (Griffith-Jones et al., 2012).Carbon market. Energy recovery from MSW or wastewater opens options for earning carbon credits through the CDM, while nutrient-rich wastewater can help to sequester carbon in fast-growing trees. However, the process of CDM registration and certification can take time and have significant transaction costs (Michaelowa and Jotzo, 2005). Examples of additional revenues from carbon credits are the Kinoya Sewerage Treatment Plant in Fiji and the National Biodigester Program in Cambodia (ADB, 2016). Due to the weakening of the carbon market, new initiatives for carbon finance were established (Box 24). Other alternatives could be watershed protection schemes or payments for ecosystem services.Government promotion and awareness raising. Within the market purview, a campaign is needed to generate awareness of the new products and encourage the use of compost and organic fertilizer on its own and as a supplement to chemical fertilizers. This can also be incorporated in the extension activity of the ministry of agriculture and agricultural departments. Where applicable, a media campaign has to be undertaken to encourage source segregation of waste, as a key activity for successful organic waste management. Moreover, the ministry of energy can encourage the use of briquettes, for example, for certain types of industries, promote generation of electricity from biogas, and provide special rates for such electricity.Performance-based subsidies are disbursed based on the delivery of pre-agreed outputs and after independent verification (Trémolet, 2011). This ensures that facilities are constructed according to specifications and based on the desired quality. An application for carbon finance is presented in Box 24. Output-based Aid (OBA) is a form of RBF designed to enhance access to and delivery of infrastructure and social services for the poor through the use of performance-To promote the acceptance of city compost, in early 2016 the Indian Cabinet approved a policy on Promotion of City Compost. The Ministry of Urban Development in consultation with the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers agreed to subsidize compost sale at Indian Rupee (INR) 1,500 (USD 22.5) per ton of city compost. This market development assistance will be paid to fertilizer companies with the expectation of co-marketing city compost with chemical fertilizers. The co-marketing details will be decided by the Department of Fertilizers depending on supply and demand (Government of India, 2016). Earlier suggestions for co-marketing were, for example, to sell one bag of municipal compost with every two bags of chemical fertilizer, or that only a comarketing arrangement gives access to the subsidy on chemical fertilizer. Such a directive would urge fertilizer companies to seek compost from compost stations; turning the common situation around where compost plants have to seek customers.based incentives, rewards or subsidies. OBA was applied for sanitation investments in Nepal and in increasing household access to domestic sanitation in Sri Lanka (ADB, 2016).Relevant information and statistics provide the foundation for monitoring returns on investments.Measuring progress towards green growth in low-and middle-income countries requires some special considerations as these countries face different challenges than other countries, such as a much lower statistical capacity. The OECD has therefore developed a measurement framework for green growth that provides countries around the globe with a robust tool that can be adapted to different national circumstances and priorities. The measurement framework combines the main features of green growth with the basic principles of accounting and the pressure-state-response model. It gives countries the flexibility to focus on the indicators that reflect their own green growth objectives, such as building economic and environmental resilience and ensuring that growth is inclusive (OECD, 2011).Since the 1990s and early 2000s, carbon markets have been a supplementary source of income for those RRR projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon markets generate funding through sales of carbon offsets or credits (e.g. tons of CO 2 reductions) in open markets. However, obtaining carbon credits is time and resource intensive, with a registration process taking between 200 and 800 days. Not only is it costly to register within the carbon market, but the process of calculating and validating greenhouse gas emissions reductions requires consultation and validation with a third party. Therefore, using the carbon markets to fund, for example composting projects, may only be feasible when done on a large scale and may generally be more appropriate for middle-than low-income countries.As of 2017, more than 700 CDM projects converting biomass to energy were listed by UNEP, compared to 281 engaged in wastewater treatment and 46 in composting, both reducing methane production (UNEP, 2017). A challenge, aside from the registration process, is that carbon markets fluctuate over time, with prices peaking at €30 per ton in 2006 and 2008, but dramatically lowering to about €5 per ton between 2012-2016, although there can be significant differences between countries and carbon pricing initiatives (World Bank et al., 2016). Composting projects that have received funding through the CDM include Waste Concern in Bangladesh, earning USD 1.5 million in carbon credits, and the Temesi integrated resource recovery center in Bali.For the latter, while a USD 1.5 million revenue in credit sales was expected, USD 70,000 was required upfront for financing quantification, certification, and registration in the CDM program which makes the CDM not well suited for small scale, community-based composting (Mitchell and Kusumowati, 2013).In response to the weakening carbon credit market, a range of new results-based climate finance (RBCF) initiatives emerged including the World Bank's Pilot Auction Facility (World Bank et al., 2016). RBCF is particularly adept at helping to build an international carbon market. It is an approach where funding is conditional upon the verified achievement of, e.g. predefined emission reductions. This provides assurance to the funder and a continued financing flow for the recipient. The auction facility is a payment mechanism that sets a floor price on the future price of carbon through a public auction. The agreement is facilitated through a tradeable put option,Copyright Material -Provided by Taylor & FrancisInfrastructure and technologies which acknowledge local opportunities and constraints are very important for any investments in low and middle-income countries if an innovation is to survive and succeed. One of the major drawbacks of composting but also wastewater treatment, as mentioned above, was reliance on technology not matching local capacities. Another typical barrier for the implementation of, e.g. organic waste processing is the lack of available land in urban vicinity, ideally free of cost given the social and environmental services RRR provides. Peri-urban land is a precious asset, also for the public sector, and not easily available for various reasons including negative public perceptions of waste management facilities. A secured long-term lease is however important as most RRR investments have a long payback period of, for example, at least seven years for organic waste recycling (ADB, 2011), and for wastewater treatment even longer. Only investments in energy efficiency, like in wastewater treatment facilities, can have much shorter payback periods of less than one to a maximal three years (Barry, 2007). The required land area for a RRR facility will depend on the size of the urban community to be served (i.e. the quantity of possibly available waste), the type of the waste volume matching technology (i.e. gravity thickening or drying beds for liquid fecal sludge), as well as the required peri-urban farm area to 'absorb' the recovered resources, based on a carefully stratified demand analysis (Otoo et al., 2016).Different recovered resources have in this regard very different requirements, even if derived from the same number of households. Figure 279 shows, as an example, a two order of magnitude difference in the basic land requirement for the reuse of wastewater, urine, and fecal sludge (FS) for food production. Urine application requires the most land area given its high nitrogen concentration and alkalinity, which can easily be harmful to plants and limits the application rates. To support for example 100 ha of urban agriculture city-wide, the amounts generated daily in some public toilets might already be sufficient. On the other hand, wastewater-fed aquaculture and wastewater irrigation require the least land for making use of the volume of waste generated by 100,000 person equivalents (pe) of waste producers (Murray et al., 2011).As compost is first of all a soil ameliorant with an impact on the soil lasting longer than any inorganic fertilizer, its application is often limited to once per year. In a comparative analysis, the low frequency makes compost reuse land-intensive with 400-500 ha required, assuming one application of 14 tonnes ha -1 yr -1 . Biogas production, for comparison, might require for the same waste input 200-300 ha, with less than 1 ha for the gas generation and storage, and the majority for farm land if the digestate is returned as soil conditioner. Similar to biogas itself, the reuse 'area' of briquettes is decentralized over many households and comparatively insignificant (Murray et al., 2011).Land and energy demands can be negatively correlated as known from wastewater treatment where, e.g. Waste Stabilization Ponds (WSP) take in India about ten times the area than other treatment systems, while only using about 1-2 percent of their energy needs for the same amount of wastewater.Apart from the land-demanding WSP systems, Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) treatment requires relatively more land but the least amount of energy compared with other treatment systems which provides buyers the right, but not obligation, to sell carbon at the agreed-upon price at a future date. The auction encourages private sector investment in particular in methane reduction projects while efficiently disbursing limited public funds. Three successful auctions took place between 2015 and early 2017 (www.pilotauctionfacility.org;World Bank, 2015).common in India, opposite, e.g. to membrane based systems. Closely related are the O&M costs which are to 40-45% reflecting energy needs (CPCB, 2013), and can be strongly steered by choice of technology (Libhaber and Orozco-Jaramillo, 2013). A key criterion for O&M of wastewater treatment is uninterrupted energy supply, which the infrastructure especially in many low-income countries does not provide, resulting in a trajectory to failure for many treatment systems (Murray and Drechsel, 2011).Thus, the availability of land and technologies with low energy demands or ideally in-house energy recovery constitute important components in support of an enabling environment for technology choice. An example is the different energy requirement for phosphorus (P) recovery, which drive the costs of P removal/recovery. However, as Figure 280 shows, there are also high recovery rates possible at lower costs.In-house energy recovery is most appropriate for countries which can not provide uninterrupted power supply. Moreover, it has the highest potential for cost savings as verified in an increasing number of wastewater treatment plants worldwide (Lazarova et al., 2012). Note: Land area for wastewater (WW) assumes three crop cycles ha -1 yr -1 ; urine assumes two crop cycles ha -1 yr -1 ; raw FS, dewatered FS and co-compost assume one application ha -1 yr -1 . Circle sizes reemphasize land area (Murray et al., 2011, modified).Depending on the nature and size of the RRR project, private partners can range from local enterprises to international companies. Smaller enterprises are more common in the bio-energy and waste-tocompost sectors than in wastewater treatment and often struggle with low credit history, limited capacity to present a bankable project and to realize the right mix of debt and equity investment. In fact, in many low-and middle-income countries, private partners with innovation experience in green technology and knowledge about business development, finance access, and reuse markets are still an exception, in particular at the local government level. The reason for the generally underdeveloped business capacity is that, especially in the municipal waste and sanitation sectors, only one business model determines so far, the game: the public partner pays. As a result, innovation capacity remains low and many tenders only attract the usual sanitation-or waste management-based enterprises with very limited experience, e.g. with the agricultural reuse market, carbon financing, etc. PPP Note: The energy requirements consider also the energy needed to produce the required raw materials (graphic adapted from Morf and Koch (2009); USD 1 = CHF 1.1).remains a significant challenge and private sector participation is not a guarantee for a viable business, in particular in Africa but also large parts of Asia.Capacity related limitations do not only concern possible business partners, or their capacity to maintain more advanced technology, but also other stakeholders along the value chain, especially where the business requires environmental awareness as the adoption of eco-innovations is heavily dependent on consumers' education and attitudes (Beltramello et al., 2013). Source separation, for example, remains a significant challenge for supplying compost station with quality waste, and where recycled waste products enter the market, social perceptions can function both as a promoter and as a barrier for resource recovery and market access, for example where customers have a nonwaste derived alternative. Results-based-financing can support in this respect RRR by catalyzing the design of projects that go beyond resource recovery but provide incentives to households for behavior change, for example, towards waste separation and recycling (Banna et al., 2014). Comparing common experience with the acceptance of waste-derived resources across the presented case studies in sections II to IV, biogas and electricity have the best reception, followed by dry fuel, waste compost, and finally treated wastewater which is often facing the largest acceptance challenges. These challenges might not only relate to possible health risks but also the basic reuse suitability, for example in farming. In the case of Pakistan, treated wastewater got rejected due to its higher salinity than raw wastewater. In the case of compost, farmers might expect more a fertilizer than a soil ameliorant, and struvite crystals are (only) a slow-release fertilizer. Therefore, it is important to understand market expectations, adjust as far as possible the recovered resource to users' preferences, and accompany the introduction of recovered resources with information and training in their use.In view of reclaimed water, public acceptance depends on the kind of reuse, with more distant uses, such as landscape irrigation, being the most preferred option, while potable reuse receives most hesitation (Drechsel et al., 2015). Different factors come into play when promoting social acceptance and behavior change, such as household and gender specific knowledge, trust, attitudes toward the environment, as well as the availability of (perceived safer) alternatives. These social aspects can include religious, cultural, and aesthetic values. As any waste-related facility can generate public questions and opposition, a high level of transparency and public disclosure of information is required. Stakeholder participation in re-use planning, awareness and capacity development programs including market surveys are therefore crucial to address any possible adoption challenges (ADB, 2011;Dolnicar and Saunders, 2006;Holmgren et al., 2015). Planet Earth is at a crossroads. On the one hand, over 4 billion people, many of whom live in developing countries, face unmet needs in core areas such as food, energy, housing and transport. On the other hand, meeting the needs of these large populations (while continuing to satisfy the needs of the other 3 billion who live in developed economies) poses a threat to the finite resources available on the planet.Can we sustain the growing economic, social and environmental pressures caused by increases in global population, urbanization, food consumption and waste generation? If so, how?One thing is clear: the 20th century linear model of urban metabolism is no longer sustainable. That model has already created many environmental and health problems in hungry and thirsty cities. So, policies and investments will be needed to transform this linear model into a circular one. Indeed, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise this and focus on ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, and promoting greater recycling, recovery and reuse of resources. Moving to a circular economy model will not only help mend broken geochemical and hydrologic cycles, but it will also determine how society and economies cope with increasingly important rural-urban interdependencies.The transition to a more balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems can be achieved through closing-the-loop of production patterns within an economic system. This will also help increase the efficiency of limited resources. But such a transition will require innovation, and moreover an approach to innovation that is itself frugal, flexible and inclusive. Such frugal and inclusive technical, social or economic innovations will be more responsive to limits on resources and sensitive to their management, whether financial, material or institutional. They will also require the use of a range of methods designed to turn constraints into opportunities. For instance, by minimising the use of resources in development, production and delivery, and by supporting resource recovery and reuse, such a frugal approach to innovation can result in significantly lower cost products and services. Successful frugal innovations will be able to outperform their alternatives, and can be made available at large scale, as the many cases and models presented in this catalogue show. Often, but not always, frugal innovations also have an explicitly social mission -increasing the number of customers/ members and expanding the service for greater social impact. This is of particular relevance to the sanitation and waste sectors.Thus, there are obvious and strong links between frugal innovation and the circular economy. This begins with learning how to create value out of what others consider \"waste\". Thus, entrepreneurs as well as urban utilities can lead the transition towards a circular economy and become resource stewards by employing frugal innovation techniques and mindsets. The rise of the circular economy can, for instance, help with the adoption of nutrient, water and energy recovery models in support of agriculture and other sectors that the urban metabolism depends on. Cost competitive and successful business entities are very likely to lead the adoption of integrative approaches for multi resource recovery, while capitalizing on pathway drivers, enablers and boosters. Yet, they typically continue to face roadblocks in the shape of draconian regulatory environments and opaque market conditions. Even in highly developed regulatory environments such as in Europe, it is only now that concerted efforts are being made to create regulatory frameworks which see waste as a resource and not only a hazard. Meanwhile, in particular in middle-income countries, resource recovery and reuse initiatives abound. However, sustainable programs at scale are rare. In particular, financial and institutional sustainability is rare and remains a critical challenge. In these countries, an enabling environment is only slowly emerging, especially with respect to financial incentives for green businesses; however, these initiatives are likely to gain pace in the future. This catalogue is intended to serve as a vital input for decision-making in resource recovery and reuse businesses in the urban sanitation-agriculture interface. It presents business models and cases developed from new thinking in different geographical settings in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In these settings, an enabling environment for frugal innovation in the circular economy is only now emerging. Typically, the trajectory from informal to formal, unplanned to planned and unsafe to safe use remains unclear with an often under-tapped potential for frugal innovation. The challenge in many of these cases is to balance success with safeguarding public health, and how best to support these emerging leaders of a circular economy in their capacity-building needs. To that end, this catalogue is designed to be adopted as a handbook at universities for graduate training in applied economics, business schools, resource economics, marketing, environmental studies, civil engineering, international development and public policy. The catalogue is also a compendium of business cases to support departments at universities in Europe and elsewhere that have recently launched Masters programs on the SDGs, to train the next generation of experts for the implementation of SDGs where most efforts are needed, i.e., in low-and middle-income countries, for greater success.It is my strong belief that this handbook is a vital resource for all those seeking to help the world grow sustainably and equitably through the 21st century and beyond. I am confident that it will soon become the standard reference for all those who study and practice these important issues, in developed and developing countries alike.  , 103, 106, 186, 275, 554, 558, 572, 640, 656, 787 ","tokenCount":"7476"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5d381d7ef1ae54e11c824b431f1e2120","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f97b1489-153a-4126-9e3f-1fdf962e7332/retrieve","id":"684284779"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbd5a349-4db7-4d1c-90cd-3b0ab0bff7f1","pagecount":"40","content":"La collection Pro-Agro est une coédition d'Ingénieurs Sans Frontières Cameroun (ISF Cameroun) et du Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA).Parfois appelé « arbre de vie » ou « arbre du paradis » en raison de ses vertus environnementales, médicinales et alimentaires exceptionnelles, le moringa est un arbre à usages multiples dont les feuilles, fleurs, fruits, écorces et racines peuvent être consommés directement. Ses qualités nutritionnelles sont de plus en plus reconnues et pourraient représenter une solution efficace dans le cadre de la lutte contre la malnutrition.Le moringa peut aussi être valorisé sous forme de produits à plus haute valeur ajoutée, tels que l'huile de moringa qui offre une forte plus-value grâce à son prix élevé.De son nom scientifique Moringa oleifera Lam (« Gligandjah » en Fulfulde dans le nord du Cameroun, « Horseradish-tree » en zone anglophone), le moringa est un arbuste de la famille des Moringaceae pouvant mesurer jusqu'à 10 mètres de haut.Sa culture est facile. Il est résistant à la sécheresse et s'adapte à presque toutes les régions tropicales. On le rencontre fréquemment dans les jardins en Afrique subsaharienne. C'est un arbre à croissance rapide, dont les feuilles peuvent être récoltées dès les premiers mois de culture.Avec une taille de près de 10 mètres, le moringa est un arbre à écorce grise ou chamois pâle, lisse ou rarement rugueuse. Son tronc mesure de 20 à 40 cm de diamètre. Les fruits sont des gousses allongées à trois valves, de 10 à 50 cm de long, brunes à maturité et qui contiennent chacune entre 12 et 35 graines rondes, avec une coque marron semi-perméable. La coque présente trois ailes blanches qui s'étendent de la base au sommet. • Sachets en plastique (polyéthylène) perforés de 25 cm x 17 cm, ou paniers en rotin pour la production des plants.• À l'aide de poteaux, construire une ombrière à environ 2,5 m du sol. La couvrir de palmes, en laissant passer environ 50 % de lumière.• Remplir les sachets ou les paniers en rotin avec un mélange de trois quarts de terre noire et d'un quart de sable grossier.La production des plants en pépinière ne doit être envisagée que lorsqu'il est impossible de planter directementLes graines de moringa n'ont pas de période de dormance et peuvent être plantées dès qu'elles sont matures.• Extraire les graines des gousses ; éviter de les stocker longtemps par la suite.• Disposer ces sachets en rangées d'environ 10 m, espacées de 1 m pour le passage.• Pour faciliter leur germination, tremper les graines dans l'eau pendant 48 heures pour ramollir la coque.• Puis, semer 2 ou 3 graines par sachet à une profondeur de 2 cm. La germination aura lieu 5 à 12 jours après le semis. Si au bout de 15 jours maximum la graine n'a pas germé, la remplacer.• Approximativement 14 jours après la levée, procéder au démariage afin de garder les plants les plus vigoureux. Puis, tasser. La croissance des plants à partir des boutures est plus rapide que celle des plants issus des graines, mais les boutures sont plus sensibles au manque d'eau et aux vents violents car elles ne possèdent pas de système racinaire profond.• Prélever des boutures de 2 à 3 cm de diamètre et de 1 à 1,5 m de long environ, sur des branches des arbres ayant un an au moins, de bois dur sans tissus verts ni tendres et qui ne produisent plus de fruits (la récolte va favoriser le développement de nouvelles pousses et la reprise de la fructification). • Avant la mise en pépinière, laisser les boutures à l'ombre pendant au moins 3 jours. • Les planter ensuite dans des pots ou des sacs plastiques de 30 cm x 40 cm préalablement remplis du mélange de 3/4 de terre noire et d'1/4 de sable grossier. Tasser fermement autour de la base de la bouture. • Arroser abondamment mais sans noyer la bouture. Il est souhaitable que l'eau ne touche pas la tige du nouvel arbre.Boutures de moringa en pleine croissance dans une pépinière La densité de plantation du moringa dépend de l'objectif recherché et du système de culture :Monoculture intensive pour la production de feuilles Si l'objectif visé est la culture intensive de feuilles, on choisira la monoculture intensive. L'espacement entre les plants doit être de 20 cm x 20 cm, 15 cm x 15 cm ou 20 cm x 10 cm (soit une densité de 250 000 à 500 000 plants par hectare).Prévoir des allées à intervalles réguliers (par exemple tous les 4 mètres) pour faciliter l'entretien et les récoltes. Ces systèmes intensifs sont adaptés pour une production industrielle mais requièrent, du fait de la forte densité, plus de soins et de moyens pour le sarclage, la fertilisation et la prévention des maladies.Monoculture semi-intensive pour la production de feuilles Pour les petits agriculteurs qui veulent obtenir de bons résultats avec moins de soins, il est envisageable de mettre en place une production semi-intensive. Agroforesterie : culture de moringa en allées, associée à du sojaProcéder à un défrichage intégral, suivi de l'abattage, du dessouchage des arbres et du nettoyage complet du champ.• Pour les plantations de forte densité, procéder ensuite à un labour manuel ou mécanique de la parcelle. • Pour les plantations de faible densité, procéder directement au piquetage et à la trouaison (en forme de cubes). Le piquetage consiste à matérialiser par des piquets ou des jalons l'emplacement futur de chaque plant, afin de respecter les densités de plantation, d'utiliser la capacité maximale du sol et de faciliter l'entretien.Il existe trois modes de plantation : semis direct, plantation directe des boutures et transplantation des plants issus de la pépinière.Il est recommandé de planter les graines directement dans le champ aux endroits indiqués, plutôt que de repiquer les jeunes plants produits en pépinière qui sont fragiles et ne survivent pas toujours au repiquage.• Avant le début de la saison pluvieuse, creuser des trous de 40 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm et les enrichir de 2 à 3 kg de fumier chacun, en fonction de la fertilité du sol. • Tremper les graines 48 heures avant le semis.• Ensuite, les semer à raison de 2 à 3 graines par trou, à une profondeur maximale de 2 cm. • Arroser chaque trou d'environ 6 litres d'eau par jour.• Lorsque les plants ont atteint une hauteur de 25 cm (1 mois après le semis), procéder si nécessaire à leur remplacement et au démariage en laissant uniquement un plant par trou.• Suivre le même procédé de prélèvement et de récolte des boutures que celui indiqué dans la partie 2.3. • Laisser les boutures à l'ombre 3 jours au moins.• Les planter ensuite dans des trous de 40 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. Au moins un tiers de la bouture doit être mis en terre (35 cm pour une bouture de 1 m) • Boucher les trous avec un mélange de terre, de sable et de fumier organique. • Arroser généreusement, sans toutefois noyer la bouture dans l'eau. Il est souhaitable que l'eau ne touche pas la tige du nouvel arbre. Lors de la taille, comme lors du sarclage, il faut laisser la matière végétale sur le sol en la mettant entre les lignes pour limiter le développement des mauvaises herbes et réduire l'évaporation. Cette pratique s'appelle le paillage.Elle est importante pour la production des feuilles. Laissé à une pousse naturelle, le moringa a tendance à produire de longues branches verticales, qui ne produisent des fruits qu'à leur extrémité, entraînant de faibles rendements. Il est donc essentiel de favoriser les ramifications latérales qui donnent au moringa une forme de buisson touffu.Étape 1 : lorsque le plant atteint environ 60 cm, couper la tige principale à 10 cm de son sommet.Étape 2 : une semaine plus tard, les branches secondaires apparaissent. Lorsqu'elles atteignent 20 cm environ, les couper à 10 cm de leurs extrémités.Étape 3 : des branches tertiaires apparaissent et l'arbre forme un buisson touffu avec des feuilles accessibles pour la récolte. Pour que le moringa produise de grandes quantités de feuilles, il faut fertiliser le sol. L'apport de compost (déchets végétaux qu'on a laissés fermenter en tas) et de fumier (déjections animales mélangées à des déchets végétaux) est nécessaire pour le développement du moringa. Le mélange de déchets à décomposition rapide (crottes, végétaux verts et tendres) et à décomposition lente (paille, végétaux secs et fins branchages) assure une fertilisation optimale.• La fertilisation se fait d'abord au moment de la préparation du sol, avant le semis (5 à 6 kg de compost ou de fumier par m²). Soit environ 50 à 60 tonnes de fumier par hectare.Moringa en forme de buissons touffusSemé en saison pluvieuse, le moringa peut germer et se développer sans irrigation. Sa racine se forme vingt jours après le semis, permettant aux jeunes plants de supporter la sécheresse. Cependant, pour une croissance optimale, il est conseillé d'irriguer pendant les trois mois suivant le semis.Pour une production permanente de feuilles, il est nécessaire d'irriguer en période sèche. Les besoins en eau dépendent des zones climatiques :• En zone forestière : la production de feuilles est possible toute l'année sans irrigation, avec une baisse de production en période sèche. • En zone de savane : les plantations peuvent être conduites sans irrigation mais les récoltes de feuilles seront interrompues en saison sèche.  Le traitement chimique ne doit être envisagé que lorsque les autres solutions s'avèrent inefficaces.Des taches sombres peuvent apparaître sur les feuilles et les couvrir entièrement, ce qui cause le jaunissement de la feuille et sa mort. Ceci est provoqué par des champignons. Les symptômes de ces maladies sont souvent difficiles à détecter. Lorsque l'on s'en aperçoit, il est souvent trop tard et la défoliation est la plupart du temps inévitable. Il faut donc inspecter régulièrement les feuilles et les pousses des jeunes plants pour détecter les attaques de champignons, et mémoriser les périodes pendant lesquelles les dégâts apparaissent pour essayer d'intervenir plus tôt la saison suivante.Les produits efficaces et peu onéreux sont à base de mancozèbe ou de manèbe.En culture biologique, il est nécessaire de maintenir un bon niveau de propreté autour des arbres en éliminant les mauvaises herbes qui servent souvent d'hôtes pour les pathogènes. Les extraits de feuilles ou de graines de neem peuvent être pulvérisés pour contrôler les attaques fongiques. Cependant, l'action n'est pas aussi rapide et de longue durée que celle des produits chimiques. Il faut donc appliquer l'extrait le plus tôt possible et à plusieurs reprises. Ce produit non toxique pour l'homme peut être fabriqué localement. L'extrait de feuilles de neem n'est pas aussi efficace que l'extrait de graines, mais il peut être utilisé.Attaque de champignon sur les feuilles de moringa 6Les feuilles de moringa peuvent être récoltées trois à quatre mois après le semis. Les bonnes récoltes se font tous les 30 à 45 jours.• Effectuer la récolte aux moments les plus frais de la journée, tôt le matin ou tard dans la soirée. Éviter que les feuilles soient mouillées par la rosée, en particulier le matin, afin de prévenir le développement de moisissures pendant le transport. • Couper toutes les branches feuillées à 50 cm du sol.• Les transporter hors du champ. Les branches doivent être bien ventilées pendant le transport : pour de courtes distances, des paniers ou des containers plastiques perforés peuvent être utilisés. Ne rien placer au-dessus des feuilles. • Arracher les feuilles des branches hors du champ.• Donner les branches vertes restantes aux animaux comme fourrage.Elles constituent un bon complément protéique.Une densité de 250 000 à 500 000 plants à l'hectare pour un rendement de 16 g de feuilles coupées par arbre, et avec 9 coupes par an sur une période de 4 ans, permet d'obtenir environ 144 à 288 tonnes de feuilles fraîches, soit 24 à 49 tonnes de matières sèches.Les feuilles doivent être séchées rapidement et à l'abri du soleil et de la poussière, ceci pour éviter le développement de moisissures et la dégradation des vitamines par les ultraviolets (UV).Deux principaux modes de séchage peuvent être utilisés :• Le séchage dans un abri : un abri de séchage peut être construit avec des matériaux simples. On peut aussi utiliser une case non habitée. Il faut disposer des nattes à même le sol ou sur des claies où seront étalées les feuilles en couches minces, pour qu'elles puissent bien sécher. • Le séchage des feuilles sur un fil comme pour le séchage du tabac.Les gousses et les graines constituent le deuxième produit à récolter. Un arbre adulte de moringa produit environ 200 à 250 gousses, soit 1 kg de gousses. Les gousses peuvent être récoltées vertes ou sèches.• La récolte de gousses vertes peut intervenir 7 mois après la plantation.• La récolte de gousses sèches, quant à elle, peut avoir lieu environ 6 semaines après celle des gousses vertes. Elles sont prêtes à être récoltées lorsqu'elles changent d'aspect, deviennent brunes, sèches et s'ouvrent facilement.• Les graines sont extraites, mises en sacs et stockées dans un endroit sec.Les branches de moringa étant fragiles, il est déconseillé de grimper sur l'arbre pour récolter des fruits.TRANSFORMATION DU MORINGARiches en vitamines, minéraux et protéines, les feuilles de moringa, transformées en poudre, améliorent l'alimentation des enfants et des mères allaitantes, soignent le diabète ainsi que les troubles digestifs et respiratoires.Pour obtenir de la poudre des feuilles de moringa :• Laver et sécher les feuilles à l'abri du soleil le jour de la récolte.• Deux jours plus tard, séparer les folioles des pétioles puis sécher les folioles pendant 3 à 4 jours. Ramasser et nettoyer les feuilles séchées.• Les piler dans des mortiers ou les broyer dans un moulin à céréales. On obtient une poudre fine et bien verte.• Tamiser, mettre dans des boîtes hermétiques ou des sachets en plastique et stocker à l'ombre dans un récipient pour éviter la contamination.Pour 100 kg de feuilles fraîches entières avec les pétioles, on obtient environ 6,5 kg de poudre de feuilles séchées (broyage au mortier).La poudre de fleurs est produite de la même façon que celle des feuilles, les fleurs étant séchées sur un séchoir à l'abri du soleil. Elle est utilisée sous forme de médicament ou de complément nutritif.Séparés de leurs folioles, les pétioles et les branchettes sont séchés au soleil pendant une quinzaine de jours, puis écrasés au moulin pour obtenir de la poudre. Celle-ci est stockée dans des sacs et peut servir dans l'alimentation animale ou humaine.Fleurs de moringa 7.4 Poudre de racines, de tronc, d'écorces de racines et d'écorces de tronc• Découper le tronc et les racines de moringa en plusieurs morceaux.• Les laver à l'eau, les écorcer puis les réduire en plus petits morceaux.• Regrouper les parties en 4 lots de même nature (racines, tronc, écorces de racines, écorces de tronc). • Les sécher séparément dans 4 paniers pendant une dizaine de jours.Ensuite, les écraser séparément au moulin pour obtenir 4 poudres différentes qui serviront pour le traitement de certaines maladies notamment les oedèmes des jambes, les douleurs dentaires ou la gale.Laisser sécher les gousses sur l'arbre et les ramasser une fois sèches.Retirer ensuite les graines des gousses et les broyer finement en utilisant mortier et pilon.La poudre de graines de moringa sert à l'assainissement et à la potabilisation de l'eau. La quantité de graines broyées nécessaire au traitement de l'eau va dépendre de la quantité de matières en suspension qu'elle contient :Pour 1 l d'eau : y ajouter 50 grammes de graines de Moringa oleifera (graines de moringa ou poudre de graines de moringa). Laisser en contact 30 minutes en agitant de temps en temps et filtrer.Pour 20 l d'eau (contenu d'un grand seau) : préparer d'abord une suspension de 2 cuillerées à café de poudre de graines sèches de moringa dans 1/4 de litre d'eau claire ou bouillie, bien homogénéiser, filtrer. Ajouter cette préparation dans les 20 litres d'eau à traiter en remuant pendant 10 à 15 minutes, puis laisser reposer. Pendant que l'on remue lentement, les poudres de graines de moringa lient ensemble (ou coagulent) les fines particules et bactéries pour en former de plus grosses qui ensuite coulent et se déposent au fond du seau. Au bout d'une heure, vous avez de l'eau claire.Préparation de sachets de thé :• Sécher les feuilles et les branchettes de moringa.• Écraser légèrement les feuilles au mortier.• Puis mélanger la poudre obtenue aux branchettes préalablement découpées en petits morceaux. Emballer le mélange dans des sachets à thé. Le consommer par infusion dans l'eau chaude. Le thé de moringa est souvent utilisé contre le rhume.Ce procédé rend l'eau claire et retire 90 à 99 % des bactéries attachées aux particules solides. Cependant, certains micro-organismes nocifs risquent d'être encore présents dans l'eau, surtout si celle-ci est très polluée. Pour obtenir de l'eau potable, une purification plus poussée est recommandée, soit en la faisant bouillir soit en la passant dans un filtre contenant du sable.Utilisation des graines et de la poudre de graines de moringa pour la purification de l'eau en milieu ruralLe moringa peut être vendu sous forme de plants, de graines, de poudres (feuilles, racines, fleurs, etc.), de thé, d'huile ou encore de fruits (cosses).Au regard de son intérêt médical et nutritionnel, veiller à la qualité des produits commercialisés pour satisfaire et sécuriser votre clientèle.Un plant se vend entre 1 et 3 euros (650 à 2 000 FCFA), pour un coût de production par plant de 0,5 euro (375 FCFA) environ. Il faut environ 4 à 5 mois de travaux en pépinière pour produire un plant de moringa qui soit commercialisable. Le bénéfice par plant vendu varie donc de 275 FCFA à 1 625 FCFA (0,42 à 2,48 euros). Revenus escomptés pour 1 000 plants de moringa vendus Description Coût unitaire (FCFA) Total (FCFA)Vente de 1 000 plants 1 000 000 000Marge brute 600Un kilo de poudre de feuilles séchées de moringa est vendu entre 10 et 50 euros (6 550 à 32 800 FCFA) en fonction des pays. Achat de 1 hectare de parcelle 1 000 000 1 000 000 Un kilo de graines de moringa coûte actuellement, en fonction des pays, entre 30 et 45 euros (20 000 à 30 000 FCFA).Commercialisation de poudre de feuilles de moringaLes feuilles de moringa ont des propriétés nutritionnelles très intéressantes.Les feuilles fraîches de moringa peuvent être mangées crues si elles sont jeunes et tendres. Elles peuvent aussi être cuisinées. Étant donné que la cuisson détruit une partie des nutriments (surtout les vitamines), il est important d'utiliser des techniques de préparation qui préservent le maximum d'éléments nutritifs.Par exemple :• en associant les feuilles de moringa avec d'autres ingrédients (huile, jus de citron, tomates) • en faisant cuire les feuilles pendant une courte durée • en conservant le liquide (eau, sauce) dans lequel elles ont été cuites. Production et transformation du moringa","tokenCount":"3116"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c600977bf044f345d169c135e8fbff81","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d9d4479-55a5-4183-8142-4acf4096f5fa/retrieve","id":"-411616475"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1220e267-add0-46fb-ba02-6bd7536ba8d9","pagecount":"17","content":"Increased interannual climate variability affects agricultural livelihoods throughout the world. In many regions, climate services support decision-makers in their adaptation efforts. The range of these services and the number of associated information products have increased dramatically in recent years. However, the relationships between these products and their use and usability for targeted decision-making have rarely been systematically evaluated. Here, we report on the development of a systematic and user-centered approach to assess climate information products and networks of products; and apply it to products covering the nexus of climate, agriculture, and food security in Guatemala and Colombia. Across both countries, we assessed 28 products used for agricultural decision making, outreach, planning research, and design of emergency responses. While climateonly information products play a central role in each network, information products intended to support agriculture and food security need to integrate information from different themes or disciplines and sources at different scales. We find that major improvements in the credibility, legitimacy, scale, cognition, procedures, recommendations, and content of most existing products are required. Brevity and clarity of language are highlighted as desirable in both countries, as well as use of trusted and publicly-available data, and non-paperbased delivery formats. The approach and methodology are valuable for facilitating the prioritization of actions for improvement and/or the development of new products, thereby helping climate services for agriculture and food security to realize their true potential.Climate variability associated with climate change affects agricultural production and rural livelihoods throughout the world (Porter and Semenov, 2005;Sultan et al., 2005). On average, about a third of the variation in global crop productivity can be attributed to climate variability (Ray et al., 2015). Climate variability is expected to increase, leading to more frequent climate extremes, with adverse outcomes for agricultural production and food security (Osborne and Wheeler, 2013;Springmann et al., 2016;Wheeler and Von Braun, 2013). In response, investments in new climate services (CS) address this challenge by increasing the information available to policymakers, agricultural technicians, and farmers in order to enhance their adaptive capacity (Georgeson et al., 2017;Hewitt et al., 2012;Vaughan and Dessai, 2014). CS may help decision-makers to move away from reactive responses to agricultural and food security crises, towards a more proactive approach of climate risk management (Jones et al., 2017;Wilhite, 2002).CS involve the (co-)production, translation, transfer, and use of tailored climate information to improve decision-making at multiple scales (Vaughan and Dessai, 2014). For example, at the farm scale, a CS may deliver a seasonal forecast to help farmers to select planting dates and crop varieties (Hammer et al., 1996;Soler et al., 2007); at the regional scale, seasonal to interannual climate forecasts could improve decision-making by agronomists (Adams et al. 2003;Jury 2002) and planners responsible for water resource management (Clements et al. 2013) and flood prevention (Rayner et al. 2005). Around the world, CS are often provided through information products such as bulletins, websites, and mobile phone applications that connect technical and/or scientific information to a practical problem (Fraisse et al., 2006;Georgeson et al., 2017;Vaughan et al., 2017). These information products support decision-making if they are tailored to decision-makers' needs and are relevant to the decision-making context (Lemos et al., 2012;Rayner et al., 2005;Rosas et al., 2016).Previous assessments of CS focus on their technical effectiveness. One stream of research examines how well models predict climate and crop yields at the seasonal or inter-annual timescale (Capa-Morocho et al., 2016;Hammer et al., 1996;Ramírez-Rodrigues et al., 2016;Roudier et al., 2016). Another considers the socio-economic value of CS, including organizational aspects and policy contexts that facilitate their use (Solís and Letson, 2013;Tall et al., 2018;Vaughan et al., 2017). These studies look for evidence of behavioral change and downstream development impacts such as yield gains, improved food security, or increased incomes through CS use (Tall et al., 2018;Vogel et al., 2017). Although the need for evaluation of the usability of information products is recognized (e.g., McNie, 2012;Moss, 2016), less emphasis has been placed on understanding the roles of different information products as part of an 'information ecosystem' and on evaluating their usability systematically (Vaughan and Dessai, 2014).Climate services may be produced by a single organization or through a process of co-production. In co-production, the emphasis in on demand-driven products, the integration of different topics, disciplines or fields of knowledge (Vincent et al., 2018), and the deliberate, collaborative product-development work among scientists, technicians, practitioners, and users (Porter and Dessai, 2017). This is an approach to the production of knowledge for decision making that differs from traditional scientific paradigms. To capture the potential contribution of co-production to the effectiveness of CS, evaluation methodologies should view the set of information products under consideration as a whole and not merely as a collection of isolated elements.In Latin America, climate information products for agricultural and food security range from seasonal bulletins produced in the Regional Climate Outlook Forums (RCOFs) to locally-relevant bulletins, websites and mobile phone applications (Baethgen et al., 2016;Fraisse et al., 2006). Most of these products are designed and distributed following a 'loading-dock' model: the information is produced by the supplier with little coordination, collaboration, or consultation with the users or other information providers (Cash et al., 2006;Vogel et al., 2017). Where users lack the technical capacities to understand and contextualize the information they receive, its use and societal benefits are limited (Kirchhoff et al., 2013;Vogel et al., 2017). However, the use, usability, salience, legitimacy, and credibility of existing products have rarely been systematically assessed (see Esquivel et al., 2018). Consequently, little is known about whether and how information products are used as sources of information for decision making, or how they could be improved (Tall et al., 2018;Vaughan et al., 2017). The assessment of climate information products is strategic for Latin American countries. By identifying gaps and improving existing products, such an assessment provides the basis for the emergence of a climate services knowledge network, incorporating a range of products and linking knowledge and know-how held by people and institutions at different locations and scales. In a knowledge network, the flow of knowledge and its adjustment to specific decision contexts depends more on interactions among stakeholders than on formal organizational mechanisms (Kalafatis et al., 2015).Here we present the development and testing of a systematic, fourstep user-centered approach to assess a set of climate information products covering the nexus of climate, agriculture, and food security, made available by a broad range of organizations in Guatemala and Colombia. The assessment approach builds on two methodological foundations: network analysis, to provide a holistic perspective on the set of information products as a whole; and user-centered evaluation to examine the products individually.We first applied the method in Guatemala and subsequently adjusted and validated it in Colombia. In these countries of tropical America, agricultural livelihoods and food security are highly vulnerable to climate change and variability (Bouroncle et al., 2017;Magaña et al., 1999;Poveda et al., 2011;Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012), but differ in terms of organizational context, end-users needs, and the level of user engagement in co-production of CS. Our paper has a dual purpose. We first present the results of the application and validation of the method in the two countries. Then we discuss its strengths and limitations and propose a way forward for the broad-based operationalization of our approach for the assessment of climate information products in Latin America.We developed and validated an approach for assessing climate information products and their network relationships using quantitative and qualitative methods. We define information product as a publication that is periodically made available to a potential target group of users to support their decision-making. Products can contain a combination of data, information, and expert advice, and may use different communication channels, such as websites, mobile phone applications, bulletins, text messages, and radio and television programs. We define information product network as a set of information products that exchange information among themselves in a given geographic and/or thematic context.The workflow of the approach is presented in Fig. 1. In Step 1 we identify the objectives and scope of the assessment, identify relevant information products and examine the relationships between them.Step 2 we explore the integration of themes or disciplines of the information network and information flows between products. In Step 3, we assess the use and usability of individual products and gather product-specific feedback and recommendations for their improvement, applying a user-centered approach. Step 4 draws on the results of Step 3 to derive recommendations for the organizations publishing the products to enhance their usability and their role in the network (e.g. as information providers or integrators). These four steps are described below in more detail.As with any assessment, the first step is to determine the objectives of the process and, specifically, the geographic and thematic scope of the assessment, in collaboration with all the organizations involved. The geographic scope is defined in accordance with the geographic area (s) of interest, while the thematic scope corresponds to products these organizations generate, use, or seem relevant to their work. This is followed by a compilation of an inventory of pertinent information products, using systematic searches and following up on recommendations from experts. If the assessment encompasses products ranging from the national to the local scale, it may also be useful to include supranational products in the inventory (e.g., bulletins of Regional Climate Outlook Forums), if these are related to national or local information products. Thematically, the criteria for inclusion in the inventory can be as broad (e.g. food security) or as narrow (e.g. midsummer drought) as needed. If the initial list is very large or includes products not targeting specific users, it could be useful to reduce the size of the inventory by selecting the most relevant products, with the participation of the organization(s) involved in the assessment and support of other agencies related to the thematic scope of the assessment. This selection should be carried out applying consistent and explicit criteria to avoid biases and maintain consistency in the selection process. For example, it might be decided to eliminate products that only contain forecasts (such as a map of rainfall over the next 48 h) if this information is included in other more elaborate products (for example, including both a map of rainfall and recommendations for farmers).In this case, the scope of the assessment was defined as climate information products containing information related to different themes or disciplines (Balaghi et al., 2010) to support decision making in Colombia and Guatemala. We carried out systematic searches using the Google engine and appropriate keywords. We complemented this search by reviewing the Web pages of governing organizations on the subject, private sector, research centers, and international cooperation agencies. We included in the inventory only products published or updated regularly that had at least one year of continuous publication, and that were available at the time of doing the search (2014-2015 for Guatemala and 2016-2017 for Colombia). We added some products, mainly locally produced, after interviews with key decision-makers of the organizations involved in the assessment. In Colombia, since the initial list was extensive, we selected the most relevant products with the help of IDEAM, the government agency responsible for hydrology, meteorology, and environmental studies. The workforce at IDEAM includes members of staff with specific responsibility for coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture for the provision of agroclimatic services. Finally, the products are described in relation to a defined set of attributes, including theme, scale, and production process.In Step 2, the relationships between the climatic information products of the inventory are established through statistical analysis of citation data. First, the products of the inventory are grouped according to the citation patterns among them. This analysis explores the extent to which products assigned to a particular topic or discipline cite products related to other themes or disciplines, to provide a preliminary indication of the structure of knowledge flows among the products, i.e. how information relevant for decision making is acquired and transferred (Cash et al., 2005). We did this by implementing a hierarchical cluster analysis of citation data. This analysis classifies items into groups based on sets of values of several variables, and is commonly used to explore the structure of multivariate observations. The results of the analysis are displayed as dendrograms, which show groups of items with different degrees of similarity in terms of values of the considered variables (Casanoves et al., 2012). In this case, the dendrograms show groupings of products based on patterns of citations among them.To apply this analysis requires the construction of matrices of citations between pairs of products. For each information product, we reviewed all published editions over a year and counted as a citation the mention of information from another information product using a traditional bibliographic citation system or the reproduction of fragments of information (including maps, graphs, and charts). We then organized the citation data in n-by-n matrices (with n = number of products) with the rows representing the citing products and the columns the cited products (Liu and Wang, 2005). We constructed the matrices following the conventions proposed by Borgatti et al. (2002). First, the names of the products are listed in the same order in the row and column headings; second, the value \"1\" represents the occurrence of a relation (citation data) and \"0\" the absence of one. Thus, for example, a \"1\" in the cell at the intersection between the column headed by product A and the row headed by product B means that product \"A\" is cited by product \"B\". Note that the matrix ignores possible self-citations; so the intersections of columns and rows headed by the same product are all shown as \"0\". We used the R package Cluster (Maechler et al., 2018) to perform the cluster analysis using Ward's method and Euclidean distance. We excluded from this analysis isolated products, that were not cited by and did not cite other products.Next, relationships between products in terms of information flows are Fig. 1. Overview of the assessment approach. Research questions (left side) are presented alongside the methodological approach (center) adopted at each step of the analysis and the tools used for information gathering (right).examined. This stage of the analysis focuses on the structure of networks of information flows. We carried out social network analysis using the citation matrices we prepared for the hierarchical cluster analysis (Hermans et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2017) to identify (a) the products that are important providers of information to other products in the network (measured as centrality, or the number of links that a product has with others) and (b) those that are important communicators of information (measured as betweenness, or the location of a products on the shortest paths between pairs of other products) (Borgatti et al., 2002(Borgatti et al., , 2009)). In the network analysis, nodes in the network are considered interdependent units and the links between the nodes are resource flow channels; the network structure is defined by the relations between nodes, that indicate opportunities for flows of resources (Wasserman and Faust, 2013). We created visualizations of the network analysis and migration analysis displaying origin, destination, direction, and volume of information flow among all products (Qi et al., 2017) using the Igraph (Csárdi and Nepusz, 2006) and Circlize (Gu et al., 2014) packages in R (R Core Team, 2018) respectively.The network diagram shows the results of the network analysis. It shows the nodes (products) and the flows of resources (information) between them. The analysis also distinguishes between different types of products (i.e. their attributes), their role in the network, and the directions of flows of information between them. In our case, the product codes represent the type of publishing organization (color) and the principal theme (shape). The size of the node symbol indicates its importance in terms of the degree of connectedness with other nodes (popularity). The diagram identifies nodes with occupy a central position in the network (i.e. those with large numbers of direct connections to other nodes), those that are important as intermediaries (by linking otherwise unconnected nodes) and those that are located on the periphery of the network (with few connections) The arrows on the lines linking the nodes indicate the direction of the information flow (Borgatti et al., 2002). The description of the network includes a measure of its density, calculated as the number of current connections in relation to the total number of potential connections between products).The network analysis is complemented by a migration analysis, whose results are shown a circular migration plot (Sander et al., 2014), showing the direction of flows of information between each pair of nodes.In Step 3, the level of knowledge and the usability of the products of the inventory are assessed from the perspective of a broad range of users.Information was gathered from users for whom climate information is relevant for their activities in the fields of agriculture and/or food security. Respondents were asked about (i) their level of knowledge of each of the products of the inventory; (ii) the usability of a subset of products, and (iii) key characteristics of an 'ideal' information product. We used a semi-structured interview for this step (see Supplementary Text S1), carried out with decision-makers from governmental, nongovernmental, international technical cooperation, and academic organizations (see Section 2.2). To define the sample, we combined a targeted selection with 'snowball' sampling, asking targeted respondents to recommend other people for an interview. The approximately 90-minute interview included questions related to the mapping of agro-climatic information flows (Blundo Canto, 2015) and knowledge-related questions derived from the literature on agro-climatic information product evaluation (Fountas et al., 2006;Stone and Meinke, 2005). The interviews were carried out in 2015-2016 in Guatemala and in 2018 in Colombia.The interviews comprised five sections, with questions designed to elicit the following information:1. The identity of the user, his or her organization, and position in the organization. 2. The user's area of work and the key decisions he or she makes based on agro-climatic information. 3. The user's knowledge of the products using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (=never heard of this product) to 5 (=I use this product frequently). A maximum of five products was selected from the products rated 4 and 5 by the user for the next steps. If there were more than five products used frequently by the user, the selection considered the relevance of the products for the decision-making process. 4. The user's opinions regarding the usability of the products, following the System Usability Scale (SUS; Brooke, 1996;Lewis, 2018).The SUS is a broadly used, standardized set of questions used to evaluate the usability of a product according to users' perceptions (Lewis, 2018). The test contains ten statements that alternate between positive and negative opinions about different aspects of usability (odd items positive, even items negative) (Brooke 1996, Sauro andLewis 2011). The interviewees express their level of agreement with each statement using a Likert scale from 1 to 5 where 1 equals strongly disagree, and 5 equals strongly agree. The negatively worded statement is included to reduce the acquiescence response bias (Sauro and Lewis 2011). At the end of each statement, we gave respondents the opportunity to comment on the score they had awarded (see Supplementary Text S1, Section 4). For each completed SUS test, we calculated the SUS score following the methodology described by Brooke (1996). Then, we located the median score of each product in the categorical scale proposed by Bangor et al. (2009). Products in the categories 'worst imaginable', 'poor,' and 'ok' were considered unacceptable. Those in the 'good' category were considered marginally acceptable, whereas only those in the categories 'excellent' and 'best imaginable' were considered acceptable. We also counted and transcribed the comments on each statement, and classified them according to the common constraints of climate information products proposed by Patt and Gwata (2002). 5. Qualitative information on the user's perception of an 'ideal' information product with regard to content, format, language, frequency of publication, and the factors that can limit use. We classified the answers into six categories of constraints (Patt and Gwata 2002), namely sources of information and analysis procedures (credibility); review processes (legitimacy); appropriate scale for decision making (scale); clarity of the structure, language and graphic elements (cognition); timely distribution for planning and decision making (procedures); and definition of more specific conclusions and recommendations for different topics and actors (options or choices). We added a category related to the content (main knowledge areas, namely climate, agriculture, and food security) of the set of information products.In Step 4, conclusions of the study are formulated in the form of recommendations for potential improvements both to individual products and the network of products. These are intended to provide feedback, based on the results of the assessment, to the technicians and scientists involved in creating the products, and can be communicated and socialized by various means, including summary reports, detailed reports, and personal meetings.We formulated the recommendations based on the results of the previous steps of the assessment, focusing on (i) the relationship of the product(s) with other products, highlighting its role, for example, as an information provider or integrator (Step 2); (ii) the identity of the current users of the product(s) (Step 3); (iii) users' knowledge and perception of the product(s); and (iv) the main positive aspects and limitations of the products and improvements suggested by users (Step 3).We applied the methodology in Guatemala and Colombia. In both countries, there is a growing availability of climate information products, designed to orient the design, target, and implementation of interventions of a broad range of organizations related to agriculture and food security. In this section, we first describe the main factors that influence the vulnerability of agriculture and food security in both countries, such as exposure to different climate processes, the characteristics of agricultural systems, and the institutional environment. Then we explain the thematic and geographical focus of our work in each of these countries.Guatemala is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and variability in Latin America, with significant exposure to climatic extremes, including droughts. Cyclical drought is a significant climate hazard in Guatemala that has widespread and severe impacts on agricultural production and food security (van der Zee Arias et al., 2012). The cyclical midsummer drought is an extended dry spell during the rainy season that coincides with a critical phase in crop production (van der Zee Arias et al., 2012). In recent years there has been a tendency for this dry spell to start earlier and/or last longer (Aguilar et al., 2005;Hidalgo et al., 2017;Rauscher et al., 2008), and climate projections suggest these trends will continue (Magrin et al., 2014;Marengo et al., 2014). The agricultural sector is dominated by small-scale, resourcepoor producers, with a significant share of the population living in food insecurity (FEWS NET, 2016). Farming systems in substantial parts of the territory show limited adaptive capacity (Bouroncle et al., 2017;Sain et al., 2017). Specifically, public organizations in the agricultural and food security sectors have limited capacity to respond to droughts (Müller et al., 2019). A national adaptation strategy and a framework for the implementation of adaptation policies and instruments are still missing (UN-DESA, 2012). Guatemala ś Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Central America's Regional Climate-Smart Agriculture strategy both recognize the importance of climate information for adaptation and integrated climate risk management (CAC, 2017;República de Guatemala, 2015). The National Meteorological Service (INSIVUMEH), the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAGA), and the Food and Nutrition Security Secretariat (SESAN) lead the production of agro-climatic and food security information, but at the highest level, there is still limited institutional support for these efforts. However, Local Technical Agro-Climatic Committees have been recently (in 2019) been established in five municipalities under the coordination of the INSIVUMEH.Colombia's agricultural sector is also highly vulnerable to climate variability and change (Delerce et al., 2016;Ramirez-Villegas et al., 2012;World Bank, CIAT, CATIE, 2015). In most regions of the country, rainfall is strongly influenced by ENSO, with reductions in precipitation and sometimes widespread drought during El Niño (warm) years, leading to significant agricultural productivity losses, lower farmer incomes and/or higher market prices (CIAT-MADR, 2015; Cortés Bello et al., 2013;Iizumi et al., 2014). Both the public and the private sectors in Colombia are making substantial efforts to adapt to climate variability (IDEAM; PNUD; MADS; DNP; Cancillería, 2017; Ramirez-Villegas and Khoury, 2013). Notably, in 2015 the Nationally Determined Contribution of Colombia towards the Climate Agreement (UNFCCC) established a framework for climate risk management whereby both private and public organizations must co-generate climate services for agriculture through Local Technical Agro-Climatic Committees; these committees have been working for some years in several departments of the country, under the coordination of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (IDEAM; PNUD; MADS; DNP; Cancillería, 2017). In 2017 Colombia launched the National Framework for Climate Services that establishes the National Meteorological Service (IDEAM) as a link between agriculture, health and energy teams for the development of these services. Thus, the workforce at this organization includes members of staff with specific responsibility for coordination with those sectors. These efforts create a complex interplay of stakeholders that cogenerate, transfer and use agro-climate information. As a result, many information products have been created that inform decision making in the context of climate variability, from the national through to the local scale.In Guatemala, we focused on information products that support decision-making related to drought impacts on agriculture and food security in the country's Dry Corridor. We selected the area because of the high risk of droughts; it encompasses nearly 10% of Guatemala's territory (Ministerio de Agricultura Ganadería y Alimentación (MAGA), 2010) and contains 12% of the total population (INE, 2013). Livelihoods in the Dry Corridor are generally based on subsistence maize and bean production and off-farm income-generating activities such as coffee harvesting. Maize and bean production are sensitive to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns (Eitzinger et al., 2012), and as farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, extended droughts reduce yields and exacerbate food insecurity and poverty (Pereyr and Ibargüen, 2015).The focus in Colombia was on information products that support responses to climate variability by the agricultural sector. Geographically, we focused on the departments of Córdoba and Santander since both are involved in ongoing efforts to produce CS, which, however, differ in terms of organizational setting, history, and users. Both have functioning agro-climatic committees, whose role is to generate weather and climate forecasts tailored to local conditions through the participation of farmers, the private sector, research organizations, and national and local government organizations (Loboguerrero et al., 2018). In Córdoba an agro-climatic committee was created in 2015, providing seasonal agro-climatic outlooks for small and medium-scale maize producers across the department ( FENALCE, 2018;Loboguerrero et al., 2018). In Santander, the co-production and use of agro-climatic information are more recent, with the establishment of the agro-climatic committee in 2017.In Guatemala we found 15 information products with relevant information on drought management for agriculture and food security (Bouroncle et al., 2015), seven are related to the monitoring of climate, crops, and food security variables, while eight are related with forecasts of variables of these themes (see Table 1). An iterative approach was adopted to compile the inventory in conjunction with INSIVUMEH, MAGA, and SESAN. As explained above, these are the three leading governing organizations involved in the production of agro-climatic and food security information, and they were involved in the assessment from the outset. An online search identified products published by national and regional (supranational) organizations. The first round of interviews with key decision-makers from these three organizations provided information on further, locally published products. The majority of products identified contain national-scale information and are produced by central government organizations and international cooperation programs. Regional-scale products are produced by intergovernmental platforms and international cooperation programs. A smaller and more recent group of products addresses the need for localscale information and includes bulletins from a municipality and a municipal inter-organizational working group. The last was the only case of product generated in Guatemala through co-production between multiple organizations.In Colombia, from an existing list of 41 climate information products related to climate and agriculture (an initial list, includes 20 additional products related with disaster risk management, fisheries and other themes, Perez Marulanda et al., 2016), we prioritized 13 for the assessment in conjunction with the National Meteorological Service (IDEAM). Three are related to the monitoring of climate, crops and agro-climate variables, white ten are related with forecasts of variables of these themes (see Table 1). As the leading government provider of climate services in Colombia, IDEAM was involved in the assessment from the outset. The selection of products in Colombia was based on two criteria: first, the exclusion of products that include only primary data (most of them produced by the IDEAM), if those data are included in another product of the same publishing organization; second, the inclusion of the products most used by agricultural stakeholders based on the knowledge of IDEAM staff. The 13 products included websites, bulletins, and mobile phone applications at local, national and regional scales that directly support agricultural decision making (Table 1). Three of the products are generated through co-production between multiple organizations (private and public), including in the local agroclimatic committees (Loboguerrero et al., 2018).From the 15 products in Guatemala, two (GTM_N_FMH, GTM_N_PB) had no connections with any other product (that is, they did not cite other products, and other products did not cite them) and were hence not included in the cluster, network and migration analyses. In Colombia, all the selected products were included in these analyses.In Guatemala, the 13 remaining products were grouped into three main clusters according to their scale of application (Fig. 2a). The first group includes a single regional product, namely, the Central American Seasonal Climate Outlook (GTM_R_CACP) of the Climate Forum of Central America. This is the result of the collaboration between the country's national meteorological service (INSIVUMEH) and the other national meteorological services of the Central American region. The second group includes the Crop Monitoring System (GTM_N_CMS) and the Food and Nutrition Security Forecast (GTM_N_FFNS). These are both national-scale products that aggregate sector-specific information from a variety of sources. The third group combines products focused on different themes targeting regional, national, and local scales.In Colombia, the cluster analysis (Fig. 2b) defines two groups of information products according to their production process. The first group includes the co-produced information products; they are grouped because they have a similar citation pattern that reflects a range of different themes considered in the co-production processes. As in Guatemala, the last group combines thematic products prepared in a conventional way targeting users different scales.Dendrograms from cluster analysis of information products with relevant information on (a) drought management for agriculture and food security in Guatemala available in 2015, and (b) agro-climatic information available in Colombia in 2018. The dendrograms show the grouping of information products according to their citation patterns, colors indicate the group of products for a statistical solution of three and two clusters respectively. In Guatemala the citation pattern grouped the products according to their geographical scale, while in Colombia they grouped them according to whether they were co-produced or prepared in a conventional manner.In Guatemala, network analysis shows that the Central American Seasonal Climate Outlook is at the center of the network (Fig. 3a), being both the main source of climate information for the network and the main entry point of regional information. It is cited by eight products as shown by the migration plot (Fig. 4a). The Crop Monitoring System and the Food and Nutritional Security Forecast display good connectedness in the network, although with less centrality (Fig. 3a), and a similar citation pattern in terms of number and diversity (Fig. 4a). These twoInformation products assessed for Guatemala and Colombia. The code includes the country abbreviation, the product scale (L -local, N -national, R -regional) and the acronym of the product name. Main theme: CL -climate, CR -crops, AC -agroclimatic, FS -food security; frequency: D -daily, M -monthly, S -seasonal; type: M -monitoring, F -forecasting. products have the most potential for the integration of information from different themes in the network. Other products, focused on different knowledge areas, are located in peripheral areas of the network (Fig. 3a) and have a lower number of connections (Fig. 4a).In Colombia, the National Agro-climatic Bulletin (COL_N_NAB) is the product with the largest number of connections (Fig. 3b). The Monthly Bulletin on Climate Prediction (COL_N_MBCP) also has a large number of connections in the network (Fig. 3b). Due to the nature of the connections (i.e. mostly as an information provider, Fig. 4b), the COL_N_MBCP is in the second group of products. Members of this group of products generally make fewer citations than they receive; their products cover a range of themes including weather forecasting (COL_N_AMF), short-term (COL_N_AF) and seasonal (COL_L_AFP) agro-climatic forecasting, early warning (COL_L_EWS), and input prices (COL_N_MBI).In both countries, the density of the networks, measured as the number of connections between products in relation to the total number of potential connections, is relatively low (13.5% in Guatemala, and 25% in Colombia).A total of 40 and 35 people were interviewed in Guatemala and Columbia, respectively. In Guatemala, 17 interviewees were based in the capital city, Guatemala City, and the remaining 23 were based in the Dry Corridor. In Colombia, 19 interviewees were based in the capital city, Bogota D.C., and the remaining 16 were based in Santander and Córdoba. In Colombia, most interviewees were from the central government ( 12), whereas in Guatemala, most interviewees were from international cooperation agencies (14). A full list of interviewees, broken down by sector and location, is provided in Supplementary Table S1.In Guatemala, 10 out of the 15 information products were significantly better known by the interviewees working in the capital city than by those working in the Dry Corridor (Table 2). These products, none of which are intended to support local-scale decision-making, were typically rated 4 or 5 by interviewees based in Guatemala City, indicating that they use the product or have done so in the past. By contrast, most of those national-and regional-scale products were rated with a 2 (\"I have heard about it before\") by interviewees based in the Dry Corridor. While none of the products was rated 5 (\"I use it and consult it frequently\") by interviewees in the Dry Corridor they tended to give higher ratings to simple and short-term national-scale climatic products and local produced products.In Colombia, statistically similar levels of knowledge across the three groups of interviewees (Bogotá D.C., Córdoba, and Santander) were found for 9 of the 13 products assessed. These included all national-scale products, and one local-scale information product. This suggests that, unlike in Guatemala, the dissemination of national-scale information products in Colombia is relatively uniform across scales, although not all are widely known. For example, the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Inputs (COL_N_MBI) and the Seasonal Climate Outlook Bulletin (COL_R_CABC) are barely known in the capital city, or in Santander and Córdoba. Both of these are ranked as \"I have seen it once\" at best. Notably, we find that the only local-scale product that is well known by decision-makers of the capital city, Santander and Córdoba is the Agro-climatic Forecasting Platform (COL_L_AFP). This platform provides information for some 30 different localities in 9 departments across the country. Apart from the COL_L_AFP, local information products are only known in the local scale for which they were developed. For instance, the Córdoba agro-climatic bulletin (COL_L_ABC) is very well known in Córdoba, but not even heard of in Santander. The reverse is valid for the Santander agro-climatic bulletin (COL_L_ABS).Fig. 5 shows the uses of information products structured by actions and decisions mentioned by the interviewees across temporal scales (daily, monthly, seasonal) for both countries. Information products are used for three purposes, namely, (1) obtaining advice on agricultural activity planning, (2) receiving early warning of extreme climate events or food security alerts, and (3) organization planning. There are substantial similarities between the type of decision-making supported by information products in the two countries. For agricultural planning, products exist in both countries that are intended to support the (re) programming of field activities, selection of crop varieties, programming of planting and harvesting, and the sale of products. In both In Guatemala the grouping is principally determined by geographical scale; in Columbia the grouping is principally determined by the production processes, i.e. co-produced products vs. those produced by a single organization. Products are identified by product codes; for their full names see Table 1. countries, most of these products contain local-scale information, reflecting the scale at which such decisions are taken. Early warnings of both flooding (daily timescale) and drought (monthly to seasonal) are given by information products in both countries. Finally, with regard to organizational planning, we note a strong focus in Guatemala toward the provision of information products for humanitarian actions that address food insecurity. By contrast, in Colombia, products are used for the design of project proposals and technical assistance programs, the formulation of research guidelines, and deciding on insurance against crop losses.In Guatemala, the mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score for the assessed products varies between 72.5 for the Early Warning System bulletin (GTM_L_EWS) and 90.2 for the Monthly Meteorological Bulletin (GTM_N_MMB, Fig. 6). According to the qualitative scale proposed by Bangor et al. (2009), two products are 'Excellent,' twelve are 'Good,' and one is 'OK.' The highest scoring products are focused on a single theme and provide primary information. The standard deviations show a substantial variation among the scores, which suggests that the Fig. 3. Networks of information products and their relationships as sources and receivers of information in (a) Guatemala, and (b) Colombia. Each node represents an information product, an arrow represents a confirmed relationship between two products: the source and the destination. The shape of the node corresponds to the main theme of the product; the color indicates the type of publishing organization, and the size is proportional to the number of direct relationships it has with other nodes. The position of each node in the diagram is related to its function in information exchange: The closer a node is to the center of the diagram, the more important it is as a provider of information; while the closer it is to other nodes, the more easily can it exchange information with them. The diagram also identifies 'intermediary' products that have a role in transferring information between two otherwise unconnected products. Products are identified by product codes; for their full names see Table 1.interviewees have variable experiences of using the products and that these may not be satisfying the full range of users' requirements. To some extent, the variation may also reflect the subjective nature of the categories used to assess the utility of the products.In Colombia, the range of the mean SUS value for products is wider than in Guatemala, varying from 46.25 for the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Inputs (COL_N_MBI) to 92.00 for Agroclimatic Bulletin of Santander (COL_L_ABS, Fig. 6). The latter is the only product whose mean is close to the 'Best imaginable level' of 100 (Bangor et al., 2009). From the remaining products, ten are scored as 'Excellent,' one is 'Good,' and the least scored product is 'OK.' The two lowest-ranked products were also those with the lowest level of use among interviewed persons (COL_N_MBI, COL_L_EWS; Table 2). As in Guatemala, the product scores does not show any pattern related to scale, theme or publishing organization. However, we note that the top-5 ranked products (from COL_L_ABS with a SUS mean score of 92.00 to COL_L_ACB with a mean score of 80.42) are co-produced bulletins or mobile applications, that is, products where the design is user-friendly and/or that enables direct information transfer to users.The SUS average scores are generally well supported by the qualitative assessments made by comments from the interviewees. We noted, however, that the number of comments that accompany the negative statements of the SUS questionnaire was about double the number of comments that accompany positive statements, in both countries. This suggests that the interviewees tend to use the negative statements of the SUS to express criticism and suggestions (see a summary of comments in Supplementary Table S2).We synthesized suggestions from interviewees for an ideal information product into a single set of characteristics for both countries.  1. The direction of the flow of information is indicated by the arrow, pointing to the source product. A color is assigned to each information product and the colors of the arrows group information flows from the same source product (i.e. citations of that product).Medians of knowledge ratings for information products grouped by work location of respondents interviewed in Guatemala and Colombia. Categories: 1 -I have never heard about this product before, 2 -I have heard about it before, 3 -I have seen it once, 4 -I have consulted it before but I do not use it frequently, and 5 -I use it and consult it frequently. Different letters show significant differences (Kruskal-Wallis test), α = 0.05 (**) or 0.01 (***). The sample (n) of people from Guatemala City who evaluated local products is lower than the total number of interviewees because these products were later incorporated into the process. For full titles of products see Table 1.    1.The 'ideal' characteristics are classified according to the constraints that they overcome following Patt and Gwata (2002) in Table 3 (also see Supplementary Table S2) namely credibility, legitimacy, scale, cognition, procedures, choices, and content.In both countries, the most frequently mentioned desirable characteristics mentioned by interviewees corresponded to different aspects of procedure. Procedures included timely distribution, frequent publication, convenient delivery mechanism/channel (i.e., presentation in public settings, use of mobile phone applications, voice messaging, and radio), and the options of two-way (user-provider) communication and downloadable source information. In Guatemala, the second most frequently mentioned desired characteristic was cognition. Interviewees indicated that the ideal product should be in plain language, logically structures, provide a synthesis of key messages with the help of visual aids (maps, graphs, and their corresponding interpretation), and integrate various types of information (climatic, agronomic, food security). For Colombia, the second most frequently mentioned desired characteristic was credibility, including the use and comparison of trusted sources, and the appropriate explanation of methods, results and uncertainty levels. Less frequently mentioned as desired characteristics, but still considered relevant, were legitimacy and scale. Interviewees in both countries identified the incorporation of local feedback as an important process concerning legitimacy, whereas aggregation of information was the only desired characteristic identified with respect to scale. Differences between countries indicate that most limiting factors are context-specific, reflecting evolving needs for improvement as countries develop better climate services. Users consistently identified specificity (i.e. choices) in the recommendations as an important characteristic of an ideal information product. This desired characteristic is challenging to address since enhanced organizational capacities may be required in order to produce context-specific recommendations. The kind of specific recommendations that users would like to find on the information products might also require enhanced content, i.e. the incorporation of more specific types of data that are not available at present (see \"Contents\" in Table 3). Similarly, changes in the scale of analysis may also be required in order to provide site-and/or sector-specific recommendations.The desirable characteristics of information products identified by the interviewees are consistent with the comments they provided when evaluating the products available with the SUS questionnaire, whether these accompanied any negative or affirmations. This is clearly seen by organizing the results of both exercises according to the scheme proposed by Patt and Gwata (2002) mentioned above (see Table 3 and Supplementary Table S2). The results of both exercises are also consistent with the results and recommendations of previous research on the usability of climate services (Lemos et al., 2012).Obtaining feedback from technicians and scientists involved in the generation of the products that were the subject to our assessment was an essential final step in our research. In both countries, it allowed providers to appreciate users' perspectives on the information they are providing and on the ways in which the information is being provided. All the representatives of information providers we spoke to found the network analysis a novel approach that helped them to understand the broad context in which their information products exist and how they interact with other products. They also said that network analysis could help identify thematic and functional gaps (e.g. links with local networks), which could be addressed by collaborating with other organizations. Over and above these novel features, the assessment was seen as a useful and replicable process that provided confirmation of challenges information providers already knew about and how existing products could be improved. In this sense, results from the assessment process could be used to justify planned changes in current information products. Supplementary Text S2 provides an overview of the feedback from information providers and how it was obtained.Desirable characteristics of information products to overcome constraints (Patt and Gwata, 2002) that limit its usability according to respondents interviewed in Guatemala and Colombia.Credibility -Use of trusted sources and sources comparison.-Explanation of monitoring and forecasting methodologies and assumptions.-Explanation of forecasting uncertainty level. Legitimacy -Incorporation of local feedback.-Inventory of actions taken in response to the provision of the agro-climatic information.-Information aggregated at first-or second-level administrative divisions of the country. Cognitive capacity -Plain language, links to a glossary when necessary.-Logical structure with key messages at the beginning, and synthesis sections for extension agents and farmers.-Visual aids (e.g., diagrams, photos, infographics) with clear captions.-Integration of climatic, agronomic and food security variables in the analysis. Procedures -Timely distribution for planning and decision-making.-High frequency of publication.-Links to original data and downloadable maps.-The apps should allow two-way communication -Appropriate delivery mechanisms (e.g., local meetings presentations, interactive maps or apps with climate forecast and crop recommendations, concise radio messages about key decisions, WhatsApp messages with the link to the products). Choices (recommendations and other information to influence decisions)-Concrete and practical recommendations based on explicit assumptions or scenarios.-Agroclimatic calendars for planning.-Drought impacts on coffee, livestock and drinking water, also relevant for food security.-List of current and planned organizational responses.-Maps with clear spatial references (e.g., areas vulnerable to drought or food insecurity). Contents -Climate: relative humidity observations, ENSO situation and forecast, mid-summer drought forecast, hurricane season forecast, dry spells monitoring, frost forecast, early flood warnings, maps of climate vulnerability. -Agriculture: evapotranspiration data, water requirements for crops, phenology, seed availability, pest and disease warnings, loss and damage estimates, farmer technical assistance budget, crops market prices, availability of financial instruments (e.g. loans and insurances). -Food security: population at risk and affected, acute and chronic malnutrition, access to drinkable water, food reserves, cost of the basic food basket.We designed and applied an approach for assessing information products related to existing climate services for agriculture and food security. Across Guatemala and Colombia, our findings indicate that there are a substantial number of periodically published information products that specifically address these thematic areas. The products contribute in different ways to decision-making processes at both national and local scale, providing both monitoring as well as forecast information. These findings have important implications for the provision of climate services in the two countries.A first finding, emerging from the inventories and in-depth review of the information products, is that most of them seem to be produced following a 'loading-dock' model, in which users are barely involved in the process of product design and implementation (Brasseur and Gallardo, 2016;Cash et al., 2006;Vogel et al., 2017). Exceptions in Colombia are the Córdoba (COL_L_ABC) and Santander (COL_L_ABS) agro-climatic bulletins, where the local technical agro-climatic committees enable the effective and coordinated co-production, translation, transfer, and use of agro-climatic risk management information (Loboguerrero et al., 2018). In Guatemala, the Jocotán Bulletin of Nutritional and Food Security (GTM_L_BSJ), is prepared by the Municipal Commission for Food and Nutritional Security (COMUSAN), a coordination platform involving several organizations. However, our findings indicate that these co-produced products tend to have higher usability scores compared to those produced by single organizations, even though co-produced products play a very different role in the networks in the two countries. This is an interesting finding since the product implementation process was not a principal focus of the initial usability assessment. We consider that this point should be further analyzed (e.g. through interviews with representatives of the organizations that co-produce information products).Second, our analysis relates to the relationships between information products. In both countries, the number of connections is relatively low in relation to the total number of potential connections between products. To some extent, this relatively low connectivity among products may reflect the limited coordination among the organizations which produce them. These gaps in integration between stakeholders and information sources have previously been identified for Colombia and elsewhere (Buizer et al., 2012;Loboguerrero et al., 2018), and can be seen especially in Guatemala, where two products (Forecast Maps for 24, 48 and 72 h [GTM_N_FMH]; and Price Bulletin [GTM_N_PB]) are entirely disconnected from the rest, and thus are not part of the network (and therefore omitted from Figs. 2-4) although they contain information that is not in other products. While it is possible that these products share connections in other contexts, it is clear that they are potentially useful, yet not used, to inform climate-related decisionmaking in Guatemala. In other cases, a lack of connectivity with other information products considered in this study is a result of the specialized nature of the information product and its target user group. This can be seen, for instance, in the Coffee Bulletin in Colombia (COL_-L_ACB), which, as its name indicates, mainly targets the coffee sector. This product may have different connections that would be revealed by analysis of a specialized coffee information products network. Thus, while there are opportunities to enhance organizational coordination and integration in the generation of information products, it is critical to understand the role of each product in the information network and leverage that role in any coordination initiatives.Third, our analysis reveals that in both contexts (Guatemala, Colombia), we find a product that acts as a 'global' information provider. In both cases this global provider is a climate-only information product that virtually all other products refer to; however, in Guatemala it is a Central American product (the Regional Seasonal Climate Outlook [GTM_R_CACP]), whereas in Columbia it is a nationalscale one (the Monthly Climate Prediction Bulletin [COL_N_MBCP]). It is likely that information flow in both contexts would be more restricted if these products did not exist. More importantly, any investment in improving the credibility, legitimacy, scale, cognition, procedures, and content of these highly central products would result in improvements in all the other products that refer to them, and therefore, probably, also to improvements in decision-making processes at both national and local scales. It is notable that both these central products are produced under the leadership or with the involvement of the national meteorological services and are either a direct result of (Guatemala) or input to (Colombia) the Climate Outlook Forum process (Ogallo et al., 2008). Moreover, in both cases these products provide seasonal information, to support seasonal decision-making, and there are recently published studies documenting their forecasting skills that underpin their credibility (Alfaro et al., 2018;Esquivel et al., 2018). In contrast, the Regional Outlook on Food and Nutritional Security (GTM_R_RFAF), occupies, unexpectedly, a less central position in the Guatemalan network. Hence, a further question raised by our results is whether agricultural and food security stakeholders have access to the information they need to effectively link climate forecasts to decisionmaking processes (Buizer et al., 2012;Loboguerrero et al., 2018) or whether there is a lack of skill in integrating climate information in a way that is meaningful to agricultural decision-makers (Briley et al., 2015). This question could be investigated by researching user capacities and needs, and the extent to which the latter are met by the available information products and the information they provide.This study outlines an approach to the assessment of CS based on a combination of network analysis and user-centered analysis. In the following sections, we briefly examine the strengths and limitations of the approach and consider how it could be improved.The typology of evaluations of development projects, programs, and policies proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2002) is useful for delimiting the scope of potential application of our approach, i.e. what it can and cannot be used for. Our approach can be applied to explore the relevance of the CS (e.g. their use and usability by decision-makers with different objectives) and their efficacy in contributing to the flow of information between products (e.g. by revealing the complementary roles of different information products as part of an information network). In this way, our approach can contribute towards remedying deficiencies identified in these respects: one could think about targeting improvements in usability in specific information product or identifying entry points for new climate services (e.g. improved seasonal forecasts) in the information network. On the other hand, our approach does not provide information on efficiency in the use of resources (e.g., time and money required to co-produce information products), nor on the impact of products in terms of behavioral change and downstream development impacts (e.g. avoidance of losses and damage to crop harvests). Nor does the approach consider the sustainability of measures that could be taken to improve the CS (e.g. organizational and policy changes that facilitate the use of CS). Taking all of the above into account, we propose the principal applications of our approach are (i) as a diagnostic tool to identify opportunities for improved provision of CS with an information network (diagnostic assessment); and (ii) to explore the effects of actions taken by projects, programs and policies with the aim of improving the provision and usability of CS.Our experience of the design and implementation of the assessments in Guatemala and Colombia, in addition to findings reported in the literature on the evaluation of user-centered programs and development processes focused on innovation (see for example Guijt and Woodhill, 2002;Birachi et al., 2013), suggest that the approach proposed here will be especially useful for strengthening internal selfassessment processes, oriented towards learning from experience and reflecting on the lessons learned. In any case, the success of this and other assessment approaches will always depend on the quality of the design of the evaluation process, as well as the existence of organizational structures that provide a context that is conducive to their application (Rodríguez Aríza and Monterde Díaz, 2014). Aspects of our approach that contribute towards satisfying these conditions include the iterative nature of the process, the participation of stakeholders throughout the study, the production of data that is comparable across different contexts (see previous section), and its novelty, which was confirmed in meetings that were held to share the results with CS providers in the concluding phase of the study. Staff of these organizations found it interesting to see their products analyzed from the perspective of the broader network of products of which they formed part; our presentation of these results generated lively discussions about how to improve communication flows. Furthermore, the verification of the levels of use of individual products and the SUS scores provided useful insights for CS providers on the effectiveness of their products and ways they could be improved.The application of the approach in Guatemala and Colombia demonstrated its capacity to generate comparable results in different contexts, while the Methods section of this study provides a transparent description of a standardized method for generating comparable results in future applications.A number of changes were incorporated into the methodology between the assessments in Guatemala and Colombia, specifically changes in the order of the interview questions. However, in hindsight, we also consider that some steps in the method were too time-consuming. Specifically, the detailed review of each information product to determine which other products it cited took considerable time, as few products include a reference list. Furthermore, the time required to conduct the interviews and analyze the results could be reduced by limiting the number of open-ended questions, to eliminate the overlap between the comments on the SUS scores and the identification of characteristics of ideal products. There is also scope to improve the graphical presentation of the results to make them more accessible to non-experts. Studies using the assessment approach could explore these and other opportunities to improve both the design and the application of the methodology.The approach could be improved by making more efficient use of resources when carrying out the assessment. Where evaluations include a large number of products and are done regularly, it is desirable to automate and simplify as many elements as possible (e.g. Jarvis et al., 2015). To increase efficiency in the use of available resources, it may be possible to conduct online or interactive-voice-response surveys, instead of face-to-face interviews. While this reduces time, it may also reduce response rates, requiring the survey to be sent to a larger number of personalized contacts (Cook et al., 2000). Moreover, keeping the respondents engaged is recognized as a challenge in online surveys (Heerwegh and Loosveldt, 2008) and occasional face-to-face interaction may still be required. For the information product network analysis, automation of citation searches may be possible, including the identification of elements copied from other information products. Such automated searches become more attractive if they have the capacity to cover several countries and scales. Building infographic layouts that convey statistical and graphical results in a more friendly way will also contribute to more efficient communication of the results.The proposed approach leaves flexibility for integrating improvements and increase the effectiveness on the assessment, either based on lessons learned or in response to specific characteristics of the context. For example, given the importance of co-production processes revealed by this study, we consider it essential to include in the assessment approach a specific procedure to generate information on this topic, using standard principles such as those proposed by Vincent et al. (2018) or Bremer et al. (2019).In operationalizing our assessment approach, it will be essential to ensure that the methodological procedure adopted corresponds to the objectives of the assessment. Organizations leading the assessments could decide to simplify our approach and focus on a specific aspect depending on their own area(s) of interest and availability or resources. For instance, a government might be interested in understanding how connections between products or group of products evolve over time. In that case, only the cluster, network, and migration analyses are needed, and the assessment can concentrate on a desk review of citations and references. On the other hand, a farmers' organization may be interested in knowing whether an information product is used by their target group of extension agents or farmers and whether or not these people find the information product suitable for use. In this case, only the use and usability aspects of the assessment may be required. Depending on the available resources, the cluster, network, and migration analysis can be performed with an inventory that includes all available products, and a subsequent selection can be made for the decision-makers' assessment.Any such assessments should mimic the ideal process of elaboration of the information products and should, therefore, be carried out as far as possible in coordination and collaboration between relevant organizations. If various organizations conduct product assessments in parallel for the same geographic or thematic areas, they should coordinate their efforts to maintain a common framework for assessment and reporting and share data and results.Substantial progress has been made in Guatemala and Colombia in terms of climate variability management, suggesting a transition from reactive crisis response to proactive risk management. Product networks tend to integrate themes or disciplines. However, while climateonly information products are well connected and play a central role in the identified networks, work is needed to develop applied agriculture and food security information products to enable integration of multiple fields of knowledge and perspectives into decision-making processes. Furthermore, the results of the network analysis indicate that further opportunities for information flow exist that are not yet being taken advantage of; as evidenced, for example, by the disconnection of local information products from national-scale products in Guatemala. On the other hand, the results of our user-centered assessment point to the need for major improvements to most existing products in order to respond to the requirements of current and potential users. Brevity and clarity of language are highlighted as desirable in both countries, as well as use of trusted and publicly-available data, and non-paper-based delivery formats. Opportunities to improve CS were revealed by both analytical methods applied in this study. Network analysis identified the potential benefit to the network as a whole of investing in the further development of products that have a strong influence on other products. The user-centered analysis identified a range of potential improvements to individual products. More importantly, any investment in improving the credibility, legitimacy, scale, cognition, procedures, and content of these highly central products would result in improvements in all the other products that refer to them, and therefore, probably, also to improvements in decision-making processes at both national and local scales.Our approach helped to elucidate general configurations of networks, for example by revealing the role of regional and national seasonal climate outlooks as 'global information providers'; as well as identifying areas where there is scope for improvement, for example by improving the connectivity of the regional food and nutritional security outlook in Guatemala. It also helped to identify measures that could be taken to improve the usability and use of existing products. The results of our user-centered assessment suggest that, while sector-specific data is available and capacities exist in both countries, information management does not always meet users' requirements. Enhanced or novel products are required to address constraints identified by the broad range of users interviewed here, most notably in terms of cognition, procedures, and credibility. When generating new products or improving existing ones, it is important to include a range of users' and organizational perspectives through the adoption of more user-driven design processes, in order to fully realize the potential for transforming existing data into useful information products that address users' needs. A user-centered design process and clarity regarding the broader information ecosystem will avoid developing products that (i) are disconnected, unusable or do not end up in the hands of users; (ii) are redundant, or (iii) that do not address existing information needs.Our results were shared with the information providers, generating a first feedback loop between information producers and users. Moreover, the fact that our analysis included users and products at multiple scales helped to capture both the broad range of existing products and a representative cross-section of users' perspectives. The use of standardized questions and a standardized metric (SUS), helped to make comparisons possible across scales and themes. This standardization will also be essential to sustain comparability across time and space when the assessment is repeated and when it is replicated in other countries. Accumulated insights into climate information products and networks may lead to the establishment of benchmarks that can guide quality management. We believe that only through systematic assessment of CS for agriculture and food security can we know whether they are effective in providing high-quality, actionable information to improve the decisions of farmers, extension agents, agricultural organization managers, international cooperation agencies, governments, and others. Such systematic understanding can then help to prioritize actions and co-develop new products. Our systematic assessment approach provides a sound basis for coordinated efforts towards this end.","tokenCount":"10542"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d82203dc3b507d3594e786277f08dc71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af6e4db6-0680-4ef5-a744-81a5e86a039c/retrieve","id":"-1430845277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"00502b39-ad45-4100-a25c-c4d35e81d05b","pagecount":"46","content":"This study was conducted under \"Li-chăn -Livestock-led interventions towards equitable livelihoods and improved environment in the North-West Highlands of Vietnam\", a priority country project of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and continued under the CGIAR initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity. CGIAR research is supported by contributions from the CGIAR Trust Fund. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.No words can express my tremendous gratitude to all the 20 photovoice participants in Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong communes. Their photographs and stories made this report. They are Lường ThịLi-chăn was a project under the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock which aimed at providing research-based solutions to drive smallholder farmers transition to sustainable and resilient livelihoods and to more productive small-scale enterprises that would help feed future generations. Vietnam was selected as one of four priority countries to consolidate research from different disciplines and translate it into a pilot with flexible combinations of integrated interventions from 2019 until end of 2021.The project aimed at stimulating system transformation through bundled livestock-based interventions in North-West (NW) Vietnam, covering the areas of livelihoods, environment, equity, and market access to benefit highland farming communities.Figure 1. Li-chan project sitesIn the northwest of Vietnam, over 94% of the land was classified as sloping, of which 87% had slope above 25 o . The region was home to 30 different ethnic groups with distinct languages, traditions and farming practices. An estimated 80% of the population depended heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods (Lua et al., 2017).Son La was the largest mountainous province in the northwest of Vietnam. The population consisted of 12 ethnic groups, comprising 55% Thai, 18% Kinh, 12% H'mong, 8% Muong and 7% others. The poverty rate was 20% 1 (GSO, 2022).The project site was Mai Son district, which offered a diversity of farm types, from grazing and extensive systems at the top of the mountains to intensive farms with strong crop and livestock integration at the bottom of the valleys, with a variety of socio-economic and ecological conditions. They are characterized in three types (A) intensive system with good access to market and relatively better capacity for innovation; (B) mixed crop-livestock systems and (C) remote extensive and semiextensive system with low access to market. Two communes selected for the project were Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong. The interventions were tailored to three types of farming systems. In Mai Son district, Li-chan is piloted in six villages: Mon 1, Mon 2 (Type A); Oi, Khoa (Type B) and Buom Khoang, Xam Ta (Type C). What is photovoice?Photovoice, or storytelling through photos, is a participatory method which uses photography to enhance dialogues and discussion. Community members are given cameras to take photos of concerned topics. It was first developed by Wang and Burris in 1997 based on the theoretical literature on education for critical consciousness, feminist theory and nontraditional approaches to documentary photography (Wang, 1999).According to Wang and Burris, photovoice is a powerful medium not only for women but also other socially stigmatized status or people who do not read or write in dominant language. Researchers, community groups and photovoice facilitators have used the photovoice method in many different settings and with diverse populations: women (Wang 1999;Havelock 2007;Krieg 2008;McIntyre 2003;Willson et al. 2006 in Palibroda et al. 2019); youth (Strack et al. 2004;Wang 1999;Chanse et al. 2016;Whitney 2006); homelessness (Wang et al. 2000); indigenous and ethnic minorities (Castleden et al. 2008;Krieg 2008;Cam et al. 2019;iSEE 2012;Oxfam in Vietnam & iSEE 2013;Oxfam in Vietnam, iSEE andSIDA 2014 &CARE 2017); sexual minorities (STAR-II project, Hanoi School of Medical 20122; iSEE 2014). In Vietnam, the method was first used in 2002 in a project \"The world through the lens of Hmong children\", whose participants were Hmong girls selling souvenir and working as tour guides in Sapa town. It was used widely by NGOs and research institutes as a tool to explore issues faced by disadvantage people, such as the ethnic minorities, children, informal workers, single mothers, disable and LGBTIs (Giang 2014;Ha et al. 2014). Among CIGAR centers, ICRAF used photovoice as a tool to document the climate change experience of farmers in Vietnam for SIPA project in 2020 3 .In Li-chan's photovoice project, 20 user-friendly cameras were given to 18 farmers (three in each village) and two commune veterinarians in late June 2021. We did not use individual smartphones as many ethnic minority farmers still did not have smartphones. If they had, the photographs did not have high resolution. During June -September 2021, there were three monitoring trips to each village.A photovoice project consist of five steps:• Step 1: Selecting community members (June 2021)In this step, the project officer gave an introduction on the photovoice project, including:-Objectives of the photovoice project. In the context of Li-chan photovoice, farmers would take photos of all livestock-related issues, from which they could identify how they traditionally raise livestock and how they have changed with the project interventions.-Responsibilities and compensations for the photovoice participants -Activity timelineThen each village nominated two -three members to be focal points. The nominated participants are often dynamic people who are entrusted by the villagers. There were six Hmong and twelve Thai ethnic participants from six villages, of which 10 men and 8 women. In fact, the photovoice facilitator encouraged to have one more female Hmong participants but the husband insisted that he participated instead of his wife as Hmong women normally could not drive. He was also worried that his wife did not speak much Vietnamese. The photovoice facilitator still asked that both husband and wife could use the camera as we had illiterate participants in previous photovoice projects. In the end, only the husband used it.•Step 2: Training on using camera and conducting interviews, storytelling (24-25 June 2021)Training on Photovoice includes two parts: (i) photographic techniques, and (ii) asking questions related to the photos, the latter of which is related to the in-depth interview research method.(i) Training on photographic techniques:-How to use a camera: As most of the ethnic minority farmers neither use a camera nor a smartphone camera, they need to be trained. After being trained, they should know how to turn on the camera, take photo and view taken photos. Last but not least, they should know how to charge the camera and insert the battery.-Dos and Don'ts with cameras: To reduce the number of broken cameras when implementing the project -Techniques for taking photos: How to take a beautiful photo. The most important elements in a photovoice project are framing the shot and rule of thirds. The photovoice facilitator should avoid technical advice and let the participants develop their creativity.(ii) Asking question related to the photos:In this step, the photovoice facilitator instruct the photographer to prepare a list of questions.These should be open-ended and specific.In \"Photovoice: A Participatory Action The SHOWED can be used by photographers to interview the people related to the photo, while the PHOTO acronym can be used for the photovoice facilitators to ask the photographers. However, depending on the objective of the photovoice project that the questions can be modified. In Li-chan photovoice, we added questions on livestock practices before and after the project interventions to identify stories of change.Photo: Photovoice training in Chieng Luong communeStep 3: Coaching and selecting photos and stories (June -September 2021)From June -September 2021, the photovoice facilitator paid three visits to the community. In each trip, the photovoice facilitator copied the photos and selected the photos together with the photographers. They wrote the stories and decided on additional information to collect for the stories.During the trips, the photovoice facilitator also coached the villagers on camera use and photographic techniques.In total, 20 photographers produced about 4800 photos and 170 stories from late June to early September 2021.Photo: Photovoice monitoring trips in Buom Khoang and Xam Ta villageStep 4: Validating with communities (September 2021)In this step, the photovoice facilitator instructed the photographer to present selected photos and stories to the community for validation. They decided on formats to present the results. Posters and photo album are common ways of presenting photovoice results. A literature exploring the use of photovoice as a research methodology to identify and explore community health and disability priorities revealed that more than half of photovoice projects (17/29) had exhibit of photos (Hergenrather et al. 2009). In some previous photovoice projects with the ethnic minority groups, the participants also present photovoice stories in forms of art performances such as poem, dance or play.In Li-chan's photovoice project, the results were presented in 30 posters in four exhibitions in Chieng Chung, Chieng Luong communes, Mai Son district and Son La city with the attendance of policy makers at different levels. The photo and stories are also put together in a catalogue \"Livestock Development in Vietnam from Artists' and Farmers' Perspectives\" and in a virtual exhibition 4 .Photo: Photovoice exhibition and photo album Why photovoice?For Li-chan, photovoice was used as a community-based M&E tool with Thai and Hmong farmers in the intervention villages. Photovoice is proved to be a suitable participatory method with the ethnic minority communities in Vietnam through series of projects that use photovoice methodology:• My Culture (iSEE, 2012): 64 photovoice authors belonging to nine ethnicities. This is the first project in Vietnam using photovoice method with ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Photovoice is a suitable method with the ethnic minorities for several reasons:• The photovoice is a lively way to engage community. In all photovoice project, photographers expressed their eagerness to actively participate in the activities. \"This is the first time I hold a camera. I am eager.\" (In a monitoring trip in Chieng Luong commune) \"It was fun when villagers saw me, they called me \"Hi, photographer\". (In a monitoring trip in Chieng Chung commune)\"I draw this camera to say that I am happy to be given a camera to take photo of interesting things and learn new things through talking with the person in the photo about what they are doing\" (Quang Thi Ly, Female, Thai ethnicity)• Photos can help to overcome language barriers: Even though most Thai farmers can speak Vietnamese, the elderly cannot speak the language fluently. In Hmong communities in Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong, only men and young women can speak Vietnamese. In photovoice, the interviewers are Thai and Hmong farmers, who speak the community language. In this aspect, they have more merits than the Kinh ethnic researchers who do not speak the language. This methodology does not require that community participants can read or write.In some previous photovoice projects (e.g. Right and Voice by iSEE and CARE International, Co-research in Sapa by iSEE and Oxfam), there were illiterate participants.• Photos can provide lively and stimulating evidence: The photo themselves are trustworthy evidence of the changes. People can use photos to document and visualize their lives and practices. The audiences also see that these are real events that did happen in real place.Pinto peanut after one month Pinto peanut after two months Photo: Pinto peanut in the same garden by Thao Thi Ganh (female, Hmong)• Photos can be used to stimulate communities' discussion: The stories accompanying the photos are importance sources of qualitative data. There are several kinds of interviews either between the photographers and the people related to the photo or between the photovoice facilitators and the photographers. Additionally, there can be facilitated photo discussion sessions among the photographers and other community members. Photo discussion allows participant to share and discuss the photos they tool and stimulate dialogues about the concerned topics.Photo: Photo discussion session in Chieng Chung commune• Through participating in photovoice project, capacity building of community photographers (or can be called 'co-researchers' in some community-based participatory action research) in photography, participatory research techniques and public speaking, is achieved. They are also given opportunities to voice out their needs, concerns and what works for them. This process also helps the ethnic minorities to gain confidence. Ethnic minorities are widely portrayed as lazy and backward by the media, which reinforces public perceptions. Participatory collaborative research using photovoice rejects these negative stereotypes by placing equal value on the knowledge, skills and experiences of ethnic minority people and researchers. In this photovoice project, farmers said that they felt as if were professional photographers, agronomists or researchers participating in the process.• The photovoice process can trigger social change. The community participants are empowered with skills to advocate for their own communities. They are enabled to reach to policy makers and influential advocates through poster exhibition or their participation in relevant forum and workshops. This process increases their ownership in measures that help improving their situation. When Li-chan project employ community-based M&E, farmers will see with their eyes and hear with their ears what interventions work for them. This will help to facilitate the adoption and scaling out of best-fit interventions among farmers in the community. The photovoice outcomes can also reach further with its influences on policy makers. A policy maker confirmed to plan for increasing livestock heads and cultivated forage area in the local socio-economic development plan basing on the information from photovoice exhibition.Photo: An exhibition in Chieng Chung commune Besides, from the knowledge gaps identified from the photovoice stories, Li-chan's Feeds and Forages flagship prepared and distributed manuals on how to grow and feed cattle and pigs with new forage varieties introduced by the project; Genetics flagship addressed some knowledge gaps in artificial insemination in a workshop in October 2021; Environment flagship also used some photovoice stories and exercises in their reports on nutrient flows in crop-livestock systems 5 .When working with the ethnic minorities, photovoice methodology enables the researchers and community members to become co-researchers and co-learners through equitably sharing of knowledge and experience, overcoming the language barriers. In M&E of an integrated livestock development project, it can help to provide evidence of best-fit interventions in forms of photo and stories. It also helps to trigger wider adoption among community farmers and even further through reaching and influencing program, policy makers and society.As photovoice is a research activity involving human subjects, it requires institutional ethics review and approval. Moreover, as photovoice involves the participants taking photographs of others, this requires another informed consent. For this photovoice project, we used two kinds of consent forms:(i) informed consent to participate with the photovoice participants: In this consent form, it should be clear to the potential participants about the activity objective, their voluntary participation, potential benefits and harms. The participants can withdraw from the participation anytime they want without being penalized.In Li-chan photovoice, there are no big risks except for their time, being exposed to Covid-19 during photo discussion session and extreme weather in Son La province during June -September 2021. The meetings were kept under 30 people and organized in accordance with Son La province and ILRI's Covid-19 prevention regulations. In the case there are storms, the participants do not have to go out to take photos or conduct interviews. It was also added in this consent forms that we would mention the author's names when they want to use the photos. Any interview quotes or photos taken are credited and can only be used with the consent of the authors, interviewees and those who appear in the photo (or their guardians in case of children under 18 years old). As Li-chan photovoice involved photos on livestock production, it did not contain any sensitive photos.(ii) informed consent to waive their rights to photos and interview quotations with photovoice participants and the ones in the photos, answering the photographers' interviews or participating in the photovoice discussion: For this, we use ILRI's Consent Form on Photography/Video/Audio Use for Human Subjects. This form indicated that the person agreed that photographs and quotations of them can be published and disseminated, and that he/she had the rights to ask ILRI to remove their photographs or quotations anytime.However, there were some sensitive stories (e.g. regarding corruption) told to the photovoice facilitator but were not allowed to publish. We did not publish this information but could still use it anonymously.Li-chan photovoice obtained institutional approval from ILRI Institutional Research Ethics Committee.Monetary stipend: In this photovoice project, we paid a stipend of VND 1,500,000 (equivalent to USD 65) to each participant, to compensate for their time participating in training, meeting, discussion and taking photographs for three months.Non-monetary compensation: In some previous photovoice project, non-monetary compensation was offered in forms of giving cameras and memory cards to community participants. In this photovoice project, we took the cameras back at the end of the project to use in other future photovoice projects in accordance with ILRI and CIAT's property management regulations. However, we gave the community photographers printed posters, pictures and an exhibition collection catalogue.The overall objective of Li-chan project is to stimulate system transformation (livelihoods, environment, equity, and market access) to empower highland farming communities through bundled livestock-based interventions in north-west Vietnam. The interventions are tailor-made to different households depending on their locations in the landscape and livestock species that they owned. They are done through identifying, testing and evaluating bundled livestock-based interventions, improving knowledge and skills in animal husbandry, increasing awareness of environmental degradation; identifying institutional innovations that stimulate local livestock product development, market linkages and effective service delivery for a sustainable commercialization, benefiting equitably all gender and ethnic groups; and promoting inclusive policy dialogue at different levels that lead to more conducive and effective policy attention to smallholder crop-livestock smallholder systems.Outputs of the project includes 10 trainings for farmers, animal health professionals and service providers; 155 farm trials; 15 demonstrations; workshops and surveys conducted. Short-termed outcomes of the project are changes in knowledge, attitude and skills of farmers and veterinarians on livestock husbandry and awareness raising of farmers and decision makers on environmental issues. Medium-termed outcomes are adoption of the livestock innovations by farmers and veterinarians and increased understanding of decision makers on livestock development and environmental issues. Longtermed impacts will be increased productivity and contribution of livestock to household income; better support and service delivery from animal health professionals; and use of research results by decision makers in formulating and implementing policies. As this photovoice project was carried out one year after the interventions were implemented, it only covered short-term and, to a certain extent, medium-term changes to farmers and veterinarians. In the next phase of evaluation analyses, the project attributions will be analyzed according to the theory of change.In total, 20 photographers produced about 4800 photos and 170 stories from late June to early September 2021. The photo are diverse many themes, covering all flagship activities, and also other themes such as road condition, labor division, crop production (which were mapped under LLAFS flagship) and culture.(Only relative classification as some stories were related to more than one theme)• Genetics (21 stories): challenge and opportunities of AI, cattle and buffalo breeds, pig breeds, Bản pig preference • Animal Health (28 stories): demo-farm establishment, risks of grazing and necessity of confined stable, vaccination, disinfection, roles of local vets, keeping diary • Feeds and Forages (71 stories): improved forages, time constraints of grazing and collecting forages, preparation of silage, probiotic feed mix and urea-treated straw • Livestock and Environment (18 stories): intercropped with legume, grass contour, erosion, use of manure, composting, use of residues, participatory nutrient flows in livestock-crop system • Livestock Livelihoods and Agri-Food Systems (29 stories): role of livestock as saving, productivity of white pig, market difficulties due to road accessibility, role of children and women in livestock production, CIG establishment • Culture (9 stories): food, handicraft and traditional equipment Many stories show integration and are related to more than one themes: \"This is the cow shed in Sồng A Chứ's house.In the village, there are only two households who have cows in enclosures. The shed was built in April 2021. Chứ's family does not let cows graze in the forest like many other households in Xam Ta village because they are afraid that the cows will fall down cliffs and die. In 2016 and 2017, the family lost five cows for this reason, and they therefore had to confine their cows at home.Between March and November, the cows are locked up until 10 a.m., and then they are herded until 5 p.m. Rice is growing in the fields at this time of the year so the cows need to be watched, otherwise they will damage the rice paddies. For the remaining months of the year, the cows are locked up in the evening and graze around the fields during the day.Currently, there is not enough grass. I can only cut some along the roadside and in the fields, so I have to herd them. Sồng A Chư and Sồng A Vụ, who are the only two households with confined cows, own 18 cows in total. Chứ has five cows and the rest are owned by Vụ. They take turns to herd the cattle to save labour in both households.\"Narrator: Sồng A Chứ, male, Hmong, 25 years old Photographer: Sồng A Tráng, male, Hmong, 23 years oldThere were many stories whose narrators compared the benefits of hybrid breeds to local ones. The hybrid breeds were reported to be bigger, grow faster and have more lean meat.\"They are born after but sold before the local black pigs. After 3-4 months, a white pig can reach 100kg but the Bản pigs only reach 70-80kg after 10 months\" (Female, 27 years old, Thai ethnic)\"A Sind cattle still have more meat and is more productive\" (Male, 31 years old, Thai ethnic) Despite these facts, most farmers still expressed their preference of Bản pigs. According to them, Bản pigs tasted better and could sell at a higher price. Additionally, farmers mainly raised pigs for household consumption, so they did not need high productivity. Another reason was that smallholder farmers often had diverse farming and livestock activities, so they could only take care of maximum 6-8 pigs. They thought because the price of white pig was lower, they had to grow them in large scale to make profit. In several stories, farmers also said that they did not have to buy concentrate for Bản pigs. They just feed them with self-produced maize or collected forages. Thus, hybrid varieties mean more investment to them.\"\"At first my wife was not fond of hybrid pigs because they require a large investment, while their meat price is low\" (Male, 31 years old, Thai ethnic)Preference of Bản pig \"This are my mother's pigs. They are Bản pigs. People here prefer Bản pigs to white pigs as we are more familiar with Bản pigs. Their meat tastes better and price is higher. Thai ethnic people can't raise white and high lean meat pigs because we grow rice and we have upland field as well. For white pigs, we have to buy more concentrate and we had to raise a lot to have profit. Bản pigs fat is normally 10 cm thick though.\" This is a photo of my pig giving birth to six beautiful, healthy and fast-growing piglets. The Li-chăn project supported me with artificial insemination for my pig.The piglets were born at the end of May and weighed almost 10 kilograms after more than a month. In the future, I want to select this breed for insemination but don't know where to do it. All my neighbours are asking to buy my piglets but I want to keep them. Photographer and narrator: Quang Thi Thuan, female, Thai ethnic, 31 years oldLi-chan only conducted AI for pigs and cattle in Type A and B village, where the systems are intensive and animals are confined. In extensive and semi-extensive system (Type C), we could not control if the cattle or pigs were pregnant from AI.It was reported in several stories that farmers still had concerns regarding AI.• Worries that conducting AI would affect the reproductive system of the female pigs \"I am trained to collect Bản pigs' semen and can do it, but I have never conducted artificial insemination before. People don't like AI because they are afraid that AI will affect the reproductive system of the female pigs\". (Female, Thai ethnic, 27 years old).• Local breeds were small, while the exotic breeds were big, thus would cause birth difficulties. Farmers believed that AI could only be performed on Bản pigs which gave birth at least once.• AI cattle services are limited and expensive (450,000 VND; 20 USD)• For direct mating, farmers only had to pay after the pigs get pregnant (150,000-200,000 VND; 7-9 USD); However, they would have to pay for semen and service provider fees for AI, not knowing if the pigs would get pregnant or not.• Concerned that AI would cause defects in animals:\"Li-chan staff conducted AI on a pig in the village. When it gave birth, all except for one were dead. Some didn't have ears. Some didn't have a tail. It was strange. The only one left was small, too\".(Female, Thai ethnic, 21 years old).Genetics flagship staff explained that this was because the mother sow had had blue ear disease before. This was difficult to control; unfortunately, it made some farmers reluctant to apply AI. The flagship explained the reasons and consequences to veterinarians in a workshop in October 2022. However, in a monitoring survey in December 2022, both farmers and village veterinarians still expressed this concern again.• Preference for Bản pig breed \"I bought pigs semen at Cò Nòi market to conduct artificial insemination for my pig. The result was four piglets, but they turned out to be white even though I wanted to get black pigs. I don't know why\" (Female, Thai ethnic, 31 years old)This however could be solved with selection of semen for AI. Using Duroc, the cross-bred ones would still be black. The Genetics flagship gave farmers some address in Mai Son district where they could buy Duroc semen.• Access to quality AI inputs and equipment With pig AI, the main difficulty was access to quality pig semen.staff conducted AI on two of my pigs, they were not pregnant either. All the sows in my village that the project conducted AI for did not get pregnant\" (Female, Thai, 24 years old).Unfortunately, semen bought at the above-mentioned provider in Mai Son district given by the project was not good. The reason might be it was not properly stored at the recommended cold temperature.In one AI round in Mon village, no cases were successful due to semen quality.Regarding cattle AI, potential service providers had difficulties with buying nitrogen bottles to store bull semen. The price for a 15-litre bottle was about 9 million VND (equivalent to 410 USD) and it required regular refill of nitrogen. Before project interventions, several households in Mon 1, Mon 2 and Khoa villages already knew about AI and conducted AI on white pigs before. After Li-chan project conducted trainings on breeding and AI, farmers knew more about the estrous cycle of pigs. They also understood the benefits of AI on pigs and cattle and learnt that it works for the local breeds. Farmers mentioned the following benefits of AI on pigs in different photovoice stories:• Do not have to choose or buy the boars of the wanted breeds • Do not have to transport the boar • Besides paying the fee for renting a boar, they would have to feed it during the mating period • Less time consuming: they would not have to wait for the pigs to \"make acquaintance\". In some cases, the sows refused to mate.\"When the female pig was estrous, I called people to carry the boar to my farm. However, the boar could not perform. The female pig bite it. So I had to call them to take the boar back and wait for the next estrous cycle.\" (Female, Thai ethnic, 25 years old)• Can take advantage of the positive genetic traits: the animal would be bigger and grow faster. Many households used the same boar, leading to reduced genetic fitness. • Safer for farmers as sometime the boar is aggressive • Reduce disease transmission, especially when there was African Swine Fever outbreak in Mon villageBenefit of AI compared to direct mating \"With direct mating, it is difficult to transport the boars. The boar is a big male, and I had to ask for help to load him in a vehicle and put him in a pigsty. My husband was not at home, so it was very difficult for me to carry him. It costs 150,000 dong (7 US dollars) for pig mating services. If most people in the village use the same boar, then it will lead to in-breeding. It takes a lot of time to choose the breeding boar for direct mating. Then the two pigs have to be familiar with each other, so the boar can only be returned the following day. Artificial insemination only takes 10-20 minutes. Artificial insemination is hygienic and free from infectious diseases. For direct mating, as I am not the owner of the boar, I am not sure if I can clean him. After some AI trials of cross-bred pigs and cattle in the four above-mentioned intervention villages, farmers saw with their own eyes that AI also worked for the local breeds, and it had many benefits.For AI on pigs, several farmers already could apply on their pigs or the neighbours' pigs. After coming out of the womb, the piglets must be wiped clean from the tip of the nose, mouth and ears to the feet to ensure that they can breathe normally. After that, the umbilical cord must be tied and cut, followed by cutting the fangs so that the piglets don't hurt the mother's udder when they suckle. These steps must be done quickly so that the piglets can breathe well and get colostrum from the mother. It is very important for the piglets to receive colostrum from their mother because it contains a lot of nutrients with antibodies that increases immunity, enabling the piglets' immune systems to develop as much as possible. After giving birth, the sow should be fed with nutritious food.\" Narrator: Lèo Thị Xiền, female, Thai ethnic, 31 years old Photographer: Hà Văn Chung, male, Thai ethnic, 35 years oldIn general, photo stories cover all animal health interventions effectively, though some reported that they also got knowledge from another veterinarian network in Mai Son district.Use of disinfection \"I am cleaning the pigsty. Firstly, I remove the faeces before washing the pigsty with water. Then, after leaving it to dry, I disinfect the pigsty with a disinfectant bottle given to me by the (Li-chăn) project. After using up this bottle, I will buy another one. I wash the pigsty every week and apply disinfectant spray once a month. I find that the pigsty is less prone to mosquitoes and bugs after spraying like this. I feel more secure after spraying.\" Narrator: Thao Thi Ganh, female, Hmong, 27 years old Photographer: Giang A Lu, male, Hmong, 9 years old \"On the day of this photo, the whole village of Buôm Khoang had their cows and buffaloes injected with the Pasteurella vaccine. The vaccine was provided by the government free of charge.People just needed to pay 2,000 dong (10 US cents) for each syringe. Before the cows are pulled into the bamboo crush for vaccination, the crush needs to be sprayed with disinfectant. When the vaccination is completed for the cattle of one household, the crush is disinfected again to avoid cross infection among cows of different owners. Previously, I only knew about vaccinating and I did not spray disinfectant. Thanks to the Li-chăn project, I am now aware of disinfecting to prevent disease transmission. I hadn't known about the cattle crush until I took part in an artificial insemination training by the Li-chăn project. Without the crush, the cows run around, losing half a vaccine dose sometimes.\" Narrator: Ly A Nu, male, Hmong, 39 years old Photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old Keeping livestock diary, including recording people visiting farms, new animals, using of medicines, vaccines and selling and calculation of profit, was also mentioned to be adopted by more than 10 households that Animal Health flagship gave livestock diary to them.In general, farmers understood the importance of farm management, including food, water container, cleaning farm and composting. However, farm innovation often required a big investment, not all farmers could afford this. In 2020-2021, there were several farm innovations in each intervention villages, including building new stable, adding drink or food container.\"This is a pig stable for Mr. Lo Van Quan. Previously, he had a wooden stable, but it was rotten and he built new concrete stable. He plans to buy a new mother sow and to keep about eight pigs at a time. He also will reserve a separate lot to quarantine the new animal. He got this knowledge from the village vet, and the village vet got it from Li-chan project.\" Narrator and photographer: Luong Van Yeu, male, Thai, 47 years old \"I used to keep buffaloes under the floor of my pillar house without troughs; not even a water trough. This practice made my house constantly wet, affected the animals' health and allowed parasites to grow. It also affected our human health. Buffalo dung was collected and kept under the floor. Following guidance from the new rural development programme, I built a shed for my buffaloes at the end of 2019. As the village leader, I did it to set an example for other villagers to follow. We needed to remove the livestock and poultry and build separate sheds for them. The shed floors must be high, allowing the shed to cool in summer. I had to make a feeder, a water trough and a pipe to drain waste. I also built a separate container to compost both buffalo manure and agricultural byproducts. The composting helps the livestock sheds stay clean and hygienic and generates fertiliser for crops. I do not need chemical fertilisers for my garden.\" Photographer and narrator: Leo Van Quang, male, Thai ethnic, 36 years oldThere were 5 stories mentioning the roles of local veterinary officers in disease prevention and control at both commune and village levels. In each commune, there was one veterinary officer. They were not full-time staff. In all stories, they were described as having important roles in prevention, vaccination and control of livestock diseases, despite low remuneration. They did not have salaries and only got 50 USD as monthly travel allowance. According to the commune veterinarians, their tasks include vaccination, disinfection, recording of animal herdsand vaccination date, and disposing off dead animals.\"Ms. Thu is a veterinary worker in Chiềng Lương commune. She usually vaccinates pigs, buffaloes and cows in the villages. She also educates farmers about the prevention of different diseases such as lumpy skin disease, foot and mouth disease and African Swine Fever in pigs. Previously, when villages such as Mờn and Ý Lường in this commune had an African Swine Fever outbreak, she told people to dispose of the dead pigs instead of eating them. Farmers were advised to disinfect their farms frequently and not leave their animals to roam. There is no vaccine for African Swine Fever, so biosecurity is key in protecting pigs from the disease.Veterinary workers work on a part-time basis, earning only one million dong (40 US dollars) a month, but the workload is huge. During an epidemic, we have to work long days without rest.In the photo, Ms. Thu is wearing gloves. Protective equipment includes clothes, gloves, boots and face masks to protect users from infection. In the case of the slaughter of an animal, it is imperative to wear protective equipment to avoid spreading pathogens to the external environment. Used protective equipment must be burned after the animal's disposal. Currently, people do not understand the consequences of diseases. Some people only get their animals vaccinated when they get sick.Travelling is difficult and there is no electricity and refrigerators to store vaccines in remote areas. The roads to some villages in Chieng Luong are very difficult to access, \"as steep as the road to heaven\". In addition, the cattle are let loose to roam by households. It is difficult to catch them for vaccination. In the uplands, we have to visit the fields to vaccinate the cattle of households while the farmers say, \"There's nothing wrong with the cows.Will you pay for it if it dies because of vaccination?\" Photographer: Lo Thi Khuyen, female, Thai ethnic, 27 years old Narrator: Lo Thi Khuyen and Luong Thi Thu, female, Thai ethnic \"Village veterinary officers are helpful\" \"Before, there was no veterinary officer in Buôm Khoang village. I did not know where to ask for help when my cattle got sick. Since Mr. Nu has started working as a veterinary officer in the village, buffaloes, cows and pigs have been vaccinated. We hope he will have more training to improve his skills in treating the animals. After receiving training from the Li-chăn project, he has been able to advise people on animal husbandry and has explained to us about vaccinations and check-ups for animals when they are sick. Recently, there has been an outbreak of lumpy skin disease in Buôm Khoang village. Given that the cows are grazing far from village, Mr. Nu instructed villagers to bring medicine and syringes to the grazing area for injection.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old \"Mr. Thanh is Khoa village's veterinary officer. He is going to inject anti-parasite for pigs and cows.When lumpy skin diseases hit our village, there were 25 infected cows. Mr. Thanh successfully treated 23 cows except for those that were too small or the family informed him too late. He helps to prevent big economic loss for farmers.\"Narrator and photographer: Leo Van Quan, male, Thai ethnic, 36 years oldFeeds and forages was the theme that farmers took the most photographs about. It is understandable as during the photo-taking sessions, the Feeds and Forages flagship was establishing 155 farmer-led with improved forages. Moreover, feeding animals were what farmers did on daily basis. Among 68 stories on feed and forage theme, most of them were about improved forages.• Improved forages (46)• Making silage (5)• Probiotic mix (2)• Feeds and nutrition for pigs (3)• Urea-treated straw (2)• Grazing (10)In the most significant change exercise described above, many farmers mentioned about improved foraged and nutrition for cattle and pigs as their most significant changes.Dough works by Luong Thi Dung, female, Thai ethnic Drawings by Ha Thi Son, female, Thai ethnic \"Before the training, I only made silage with sugarcane tops. But now I know that grass can be used to make silage as well. Previously, I did not add bran. I learnt from the training that adding bran helps mitigate against mold\" (Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old)Drawing by Lo Thi Khuyen, female, Thai ethnic \"This is Guinea grass provided by the (Li-chăn) project for trial planting. In addition to rice bean, we grow three varieties of grass: Guinea, green elephant and Mulato II.We have harvested 17 kilograms of Guinea grass, 15 kilograms of Mulato II grass and 35 kilograms of green elephant grass on an area of four-square metres. Rice bean is planted to harvest its foliage for feeding the cows. The productivity is satisfactory. Currently, these varieties are suitable for the soil, but I don't know if they are drought tolerant during the dry season.\" (Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old) \"Our cows eat the grasses and forage plants such as green elephant grass, stylo, Guinea grass and banana leaves from the Li-chăn project trials. Before, they were fed with banana stems and VA06 grass only. Now the forage is more abundant and nutritious with added ingredients.\" (Leo Van Quan, male, Thai ethnic, 36 years old)Among the intervention villages, farmers in Mon 1 and Mon 2 villages (Type A) often kept animals in confinement most of the time, sometimes they tied buffalos and cows near the spring, on the side road or in the rice field after harvesting. Farmers in Khoa and Oi villages (Type B) mixed between confining, tethering and grazing. The Hmong in Xam Ta and Buom Khoang (Type C) did not have stables for pigs, cattle, and buffalo, before the interventions. They often grazed cattle and buffalos in a pasture 2 -3 km away and kept pigs in shacks, which were in the forest or near their upland rice or maize fields. The Hmong often live in higher altitude areas, where there is more space for grazing. Some Thai in lower villages also had shacks near Hmong villages. The elderly in the family often stay at the shacks and to take care of the animals.In Chieng Chung, farmers reported to have feed shortage in winter due to lack of forage to collect in dry seasons. This was less a problem in Chieng Luong commune as there the sugarcane harvest season fell in the dry season (October -April). Therefore, farmers could feed cattle and buffalos with sugarcane tops. Regarding these issues, Li-chan interventions included testing cold and drought tolerant forage varieties and trained farmers on feed preservation so that they would have enough feed for their animals the whole year round. Previously, farmers in all villages except for in Xam Ta village planted forages, but mainly Napier and VA06 -a hybrid of Napier and Pennisetum. These varieties would not grow in the dry season.Li-chan tested seven varieties including Green Napier, Mombasa Guinea, Ubon Paspalum, Mulato II, Stylo, rice bean and pinto peanut (Arachis pintoi). Farmers knew more kinds of grass and legume varieties. They could test the new varieties on their land and measure the productivity by themselves.\"By the beginning of August, the elephant grass is very tall, two months after planting. Two varieties of grass are grown on this farm: the pilot green elephant grass and the traditional elephant grass. They were planted on the same day, but the green elephant grass is much taller. The yield is 15 kilograms for each four square metres. Previously, I planted traditional Napier grass. The yield was good, but I don't know exactly how much it was because I didn't weigh it. Definitely the productivity was lower than that of the green Napier grass. This grass is soft. My cows love it, even the stems. The old Napier grass is not as beautiful as the grass the project gave us. The (Lichăn) project's green Napier grass is less hairy, has wider leaves and appears to have a sweet taste.\" Narrator: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old Photographer: Bui Van Tung, male, Muong ethnic, 31 years old In general, farmers preferred cut and carry grass to Ubon paspalum and legumes such as stylo because \"they are tall and easy to harvest\". Some farmers reported that their cattle and buffalos had diarrhea after being fed with Green Napier and some refused to eat Mulato II. Having this information from photovoice, Feeds and Forages flagship prepared a manual on how to feed cattle with the newly introduced varieties. Some farmers suggested that Green Napier contained more water, so they left it to dry overnight. In the manual, Li-chan recommended that farmers should have harvest the grass when it was mature enough. If they harvested grass on rainy day, they should have leave it to dry or mix with rice straw. Farmers should also make their cattle get slowly acquainted to new grass or legume by mixing it with the feed that they were used to or letting them eat the new forage first before adding other kinds of forages.\"If our buffalos don't eat, we will not grow anymore\" \"My buffalos don't like to eat Mulato II. They eat Guinea but not Mulato II. My husband said if buffalos don't eat then we will not grow anymore\" (Quang Thi Soi, female, Thai ethnic, 28 years) \"Leading a farm-trial, I see that Guinea grows fast, have high volume. My cows love to eat Guinea. I also plant Mulato II and Ubon Paspalum. Cows like to eat Ubon Paspalum, but they only eat a few Mulato II leaves and leave all the stem. Maybe they haven't gotten used to it\" (Lo Thi Khuyen, female, Thai ethnic, 27 years old) \"This is a Mulato II garden of Ly A Cho. After two months, he could harvest 13 kg in a four-square plot. It is suitable for the soil here. The productivity is high. When Mr. Cho fed the cows, they only eat a few leaves and did not touch the hard stem.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old Through photovoice stories and discussions, farmers expressed that they preferred Green Napier the most because of its softness and high biomass. However, the photovoice interviews and discussion were taken during rainy season when Green Napier grew well. In dry season, farmers also saw the drought-tolerant benefit of Mombasa Guinea and Mulato II.Through photovoice interviews and discussion, farmers mentioned benefits of cultivated forage:• Secure animal feed, especially in winter • Less time consuming than grazing or collecting forages • Preventing erosion (discussed further in 6.4. Livestock and Environment theme) • Reduce weeds • Protect crops from free-ranging animals • Allow to confine animals and reduce animal death and injuries due to accidents or theft • Allow to confine animals and make compost from animal manure \"It takes all day long to graze cattle\" \"I herd the cattle in son tra (Docynia indica) forest. When the son tra trees are small, we do not herd cattle there because they can eat the leaves. When the trees are three years old, then we can graze cattle so that they eat the grass underneath the son tra. Every morning, at 9-10 a.m. I go herding. I take some rice and a bottle of water. At about 4.30 pm, I gather the cattle to take them home. Some of them will go further than the others in the forest to find more grass. It takes all day long to graze cattle.\" Narrator and photographer: Song A Hia, male, Hmong, 27 years old \"Collecting grass is the most time-consuming\" \"Ms. Ha Thi Tiet (64 years old) has just gotten back from collecting grass for buffalo and cattle. The forest is 3 km away. It takes about two hours to collect grass in the forest. Ms. Tiet and her daughter in law take turn to collect grass. It is the most time-consuming tasks in keeping livestock. Grass is only available in the rainy season\". (Lo Thi Khuyen, female, Thai ethnic, 27 years old) \"Since we started growing grass, we have saved more time and energy. If we cut grass in the forest, we have to look for grass from different places. It takes the whole morning or afternoon to collect only 50 kg. It is not enough for the cattle and buffalo to eat so we have to graze them for half a day as well. Altogether, we spend all day feeding the buffaloes and cattle.\" (Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old) Benefits of cultivated forage \"My wife is going to cut grass in our field, about 100 m from home. It often takes her about 30 mins\" (Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old) \"Now, few people graze their cattle in the fields. They mainly confine their animals. Confinement is better than herding because it only requires grass cutting. Herding is more time consuming. It is easy to tell the animals raised by herding from the confined ones because they are skinny.\" (Luong Thi Dung, female, Thai ethnic, 24 years old) \"Confining animals is less hard for farmers. It requires one person's labour to herd animals in the fields, while one working hour is needed to cut grass for confined animals. Leaving for grass cutting as early as 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., farmers can then go home to do other things afterwards.\" (Luong Thi Than, female, Thai ethnic, 26 years old)\"My wife is weeding the newly planted Mulato II grass which was intercropped in the plum field. When the photo was taken, the grass had been planted only 10 days before. Some people kill grass, but we grow grass. The distance between plum trees is six metres, giving space to grow grass. I plant grass to feed our cattle while creating shade, keeping moisture in the soil and preventing erosion. In this field, I planted plums with soya beans. This is the first time I have intercropped soya beans with plums. I don't have to do weeding in the plum field and at the same time I can harvest soya beans. Currently, I have three cows and one buffalo. I have enough grass because I have sugarcane leaves in the dry season. However, there will be shortage of fodder if I expand the herd.\" (Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old) Picture 1: Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old Picture 2: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldFarmers mentioned the benefits of more nutritious feed proportions for animals. In the dry season in Chieng Chung, or after sugarcane harvesting season in Chieng Luong (in April -May), farmers used to feed cattle and buffalo with rice straw or dried grass. In Mon villages, where they made silage to preserve the nutrition in grass and sugarcane tops, farmers also learned to add more rice bran and keep the bag air tight.\"Before Li-chan, we often let the buffalo eat grass on the roadside, in the forest or rice straw. They don't eat enough so they are thin. Now we know how to make silage, to make use of the crop residues and preserving the nutrition for cattle all year round\" (Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old).\"I now know how to protect silage from mold\" \"Lò Văn Thương has five buffaloes. When fresh sugarcane tops are not available, he uses fermented tops to feed his cattle. Since 2016 and 2017, farmers in Mờn village have been fermenting grass and sugarcane tops to make fodder. Following these pioneers, I also ferment grass for the dry season, when there is a shortage of fodder. Previously, I did not add anything except sugarcane tops. Learning from the training by the Li-chăn project, I know that mixing rice bran helps fermentation, and sealing the bags protects the air-free silage from mold or rotting. My cattle prefer fermented grass.\" Narrator and photographer: Luong Van Yeu, male, Thai ethnic, 46 years old Regarding nutrition for Bản pigs -which often have high proportion of fat (sometime up to 70% according to farmers), Li-chan also provided trainings on balanced nutrition for pigs. Farmers often fed pigs with high carbohydrate feed such as rice bran, maize and dried tapioca, taro or sweet potato, not enough water and keeping the pigs for too long, increasing the fat content.\"Pigs raised to the age of 10-12 months get the best price. Beyond this age, they get fat and can only be sold at a lower price.\" (Luong Van Yeu, male, Thai ethnic, 46 years old) \"Soya bean waste from making tofu can be fed to pigs, it will have more lean meat. Farmers should add legumes in animal feed because it is protein rich\" (Leo Thi Xien, female, Thai ethnic, 31 years old)In many photovoice interviews and discussions, farmers also mentioned the nutritional benefits of legume (soya bean, rice bean, Stylo and Arachis pintoi).\"Legumes make the soil porous and rich in nutrients, while their stems are protein-rich fodder for livestock and poultry.\" (Luong Van Yeu, male, Thai ethnic, 46 years old) \"I have grown pinto peanut 6 plants to feed my goats because they contain more nutrition. I wanted to plant a lot but I had only one bag of seeds. Now I want to plant peanuts on a very large piece of land to feed my goats. When I have a lot, I will share the seeds with my sisters to plant together in order to expand the vegetation to prevent soil erosion and give me fodder for my goats.\" (Thao Thi Ganh, female, Hmong, 27 years old).Most farmers said they would continue to plant forages after the trials, having seen which varieties were suitable for them. Some farmers also shared the stem and seedlings to other farmers to replicate the varieties.\"Next year I will expand the Guinea and Paspalum planted area\" (Lo Thi Khuyen, female, Thai ethnic, 27 years old) \"Even Guinea is not as productive as Green Napier, many households will continue to grow them so that they will have feed for cattle in the winter\" (Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old) \"Once we know from the trials which are the good varieties, we will replicate them and ask other households to plant them. I myself will grow more Green Napier and Guinea because they are tall and easy to harvest.\" (Luong Van Dung, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years old) \"I wanted to replicate this variety for other households in the village\" \"Green elephant grass has been picked and used as seedlings. I could have cut it before, but I wanted to replicate this variety for other households in the village. That's why I left the grass to mature more. The tops are fed to my cattle, while the stems are being given to my neighbours for replanting. Cattle like to eat this grass most of all and its yield is also high. The grass looks like sugarcane, and it is grown like sugarcane too.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldFeed mix and urea-treated straw were technologies that Li-chan project introduced to farmers. The word \"erosion\" was mentioned 21 times in all photo stories. Farmers mentioned erosion control measures such as cover crop, intercropping and grass contour, and use of manure (composting).Because of mono-cropping (cassava, maize and sugarcane), deforestation and the steep typology, land in Son La province in general has been facing severe erosion. Farmers themselves also realized soil degradation due to erosion in many photovoice stories. Farmers were also aware of erosion control measures. They mentioned planting trees, intercropping coffee, plum with Arachis pintoi, grass contour and using manure and composting. They said planting forages meant \"killing two birds with one stone\" in the senses that they would have animal feed while protecting the soil from erosion.\"Mr. Ly A Cho rotates between maize and rice bean to have cover crop for the soil. He could have left the maize dry in the field and the rice bean will grow on the dried maize\" Narrator and photographer: Thao Thi Ganh, female, Hmong, 27 years old\"I use manure for plum trees to increase soil fertility and make soil softer. I did not have time to make compost yet, because I will need rice straw to make compost and then have to wait for a few months before I can use.\"Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldIn the most significant change exercise, there were three groups who mentioned about biomass recycling.\"We should plant forages and use crop residues to feed animals, then use their manure for forages and crops, then feed the animal with forages. It is a cycle\" (Song A Trang, male, Hmong, 23 years old)It was common practice for farmers in Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong communes to use crop residues (e.g. rice straw, taro, sweet potato, pumpkin and soya bean, mung bean leaves and sugarcane top) to feed animals. In type C villages (Buom Khoang and Xam Ta) where grazing was still common, farmers could not collect a lot of animal dung to apply to crops or make compost. In type A and B villages, farmers who confined animals collected animal manure, but they mainly put it in a pile without making compost. In Chieng Chung where most farmers grew coffee, they had abundant coffee peel to add to the compost. Smallholder Thai and Hmong farmers have traditionally diversified farming and livestock keeping activities for self-sufficient income. Nowadays, these practices can still be found in the Thai and Hmong communities in Chieng Chung and Chieng Luong communes. Most households still did not have to buy rice except for Hmong households in Chieng Luong. In the past, the Hmong practised slash and burn, which meant they burnt a plot of forest and cultivated for several years, then burnt new piece of forest glade, after 7-10 years they will return to the former field. However, this practice was only possible with low population and abundant forest. Since the Government restricted slash and burn practice, the Hmong in Chieng Chung changed to irrigated rice. The Hmong in Buom Khoang could not do irrigated rice due to steep and fragmented land, they had to buy rice. In Chieng Chung, coffee is the dominant perennial crop, while in Chieng Luong, most farmers grow sugarcane as a cash crop. Common fruit trees include plum, longan and mango. In Xam Ta, which is over 1000 m above sea level, people grow son tra (Docynia indica) after a forestation project supporting the villagers with the seedlings in 2019.Regarding livestock keeping, most households have more than one species. Most households have poultry and pigs for household consumption. Buffalos are used for both draught power and meat. One average household can have about 5-7 pigs and 1-3 cattle or buffalos. Households who have more than 10 pigs or 6 cattle are considered \"large-scale farmers\" in the village. In Xam Ta, farmers also have the tradition of \"nuôi rẽ\" (keeping together). More well-off people in lowland areas of Mai Son district gave cattle to Hmong households in Xam Ta to take care of. If the cattle gave birth, the odd number belong to the owners and the even number will be given to the households who take care of the cattle. Some households might take care of more than ten cattle, but only half of the herd actually belong to them.Thai and Hmong people also use buffalo or cattle meat in weddings, funerals, holidays and New Year's days and festivals such as kinship festival, rice harvest festival, baby shower or for good health worshipping. A chicken is usually needed for the ceremony. Depending on the number of participants, they would slaughter chicken, pigs, buffalos or cattle.\"At the time of this photo, my grandmother was sick. A witch doctor was invited to make an offering for her and the family to be safe and healthy. In the photo, the witch doctor is praying. My grandmother was sick because the dead people were starving and sending their souls to come back and claim her. Therefore, a pig was sacrificed to make them full and stop asking. Two or three days after the offering, she really got better. The pork was shared by the whole family. The witch doctor was given a head and a leg to worship with at his house. After he returned home, the host family had to stay in the house for a day without going out, and other people were not allowed in. During the meal, the children shared food on a separate tray and the daughters-in-law had a meal on a separate tray as well. The daughters, uncles and aunts shared the same tray as the witch doctor.\" Narrator: Song A Chu, male, Hmong, 25 years old Photographer: Song A Hia, male, Hmong, 27 years old \"A pig was slaughtered for a worshiping ceremony by the Lý family in the village. The ceremony is organised once a year on the 17 th day of the seventh lunar month. This ceremony aims to pray for peace, to wish safe travel for people and to chase away harmful ghosts. The Lý family in the village has 18 households. They all attended the ceremony regardless of their age. A 58-kg pig raised by a household of the Lý family was slaughtered for this worshiping ceremony. The households take turns in hosting the ceremony, so they go to different households in different years. Each household makes a small contribution to purchase a pig, while the rest of the expenses are covered by the host family. In this ceremony, a pig is usually slaughtered, not a buffalo or a cow, because the small number of existing households does not require much meat. In addition, a chicken is needed for the ceremony.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldApart from using livestock for domestic consumption, livestock, especially large ruminants, is a source of household income. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when mobility and export were restricted, farmers considered livestock as a type of saving.\"The daughter of Mr. Cầm Văn Thiêm in Mờn 1 village is feeding cows with elephant grass that they planted. Currently, crop production is not profitable. Therefore, they have to plant grass to feed their livestock, thereby increasing the family's income and making a better life for the children. Mango prices dropped from 15,000 dong (70 US cents) per kilogram before Covid to 2,000-2,500 dong (10 US cents) per kilogram at present. Beef and buffalo meat also decreased in price due to Covid, but the drop in price has been less. Before, beef was sold at 250,000 dong (11 US dollars) per kilogram live weight. Due to impact of Covid, the price has dropped by 20,000 dong to 230,000 dong (10 US dollars) per kilogram. But it will increase after dropping for some time.Farmers may be able to wait for a higher price before selling, but the fruit cannot wait. It will rot and fall down.\" Narrator and photographer: Luong Van Yeu, male, Thai ethnic, 46 years old Up to the end of 2021, Bản pigs and poultry were mainly used for domestic consumption. However, Li-chan interventions to develop more market-oriented pigs and beef value chains were still relevant as most farmers expressed that they wanted to sell livestock for cash income, but their productivity was still low. With the integrated interventions from Genetics, Animal Health and Feeds and Forages flagships, farmers were expected to improve both product productivity and quality (i.e. less fat) to better meet the market demands.Accessibility is a big challenge for the livelihoods of farmers in type C villages (Xam Ta and Buom Khoang). The road conditions affect both their livestock production and sale. The roads are softsurfaced and steep. In the rainy season, sometimes the only way to reach to the village is on foot. They have difficulties transporting materials to renovate their farms. To sell livestock, these farmers have less bargaining power. They have to walk with the cattle to the vehicle-accessible roads or accept the cut of 200,000-300,000 (8-13 USD) per head on the purchase price.\"This is a road in Buôm Khoang village, where cars cannot pass during the rainy season. It is also a challenge for motorbike riders. People can travel from Buôm Khoang village to Chiềng Lương commune People's Committee on sunny days. On rainy days, it is muddy and slippery, causing dirt to stick to wheels. In the rainy season, it takes one hour to ride a motorbike along this seven-kilometre road. This is the only access road. Villagers have to take this road whether they are going to school, to work or to market. If they want to sell a buffalo or a cow, they have to walk for half a day. No truck will come to collect the cattle. Buyers also require farmers to take the cattle to the asphalt road before they buy. Otherwise, they will ask someone else to bring the cattle to them at 200,000-300,000 dong (8-13 US dollars) per head and cut that from the purchase price. It is also difficult to transport materials for building sheds. Transport expenses are as high as the material costs. Therefore, building sheds is difficult for the villagers.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldTraditionally, Thai and Hmong households in Son La often have a shack in the upland fields where they kept the animals and worked on the nearby fields. Currently, this practice is common among Hmong and to a lesser extent, among the Thai ethnic farmers. Those who usually take care of the animals in the shacks were the elder people in the family.\"This is our shack in the upland field. The plum and longan plantations are nearby. Our buffalos, cattle and poultry are all kept there. Usually, my parents stay in this shack and feed the animals. When they are home then my wife and me take turn to stay in the shack\" (Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years old) \"Our shack is in the middle of the forest. It is cold and misty there. My dad goes to feed the pigs at about 5 pm then he sleeps over in the shack and feed them another time in early morning. Then he goes back home during the day. The pigs can go and find food in the forest nearby\" (Song A Mua, male, Hmong, 24 years old) \"Thai ethnic people often have this kind of shacks in the upland fields. While they work in the field, they can also tie the buffalos and cattle there so they can eat the grass nearby. This shack was built 15 years ago. When there was no motorbike, we often walked and stayed in the shack overnight\" (Luong Thi Thu, female, Thai ethnic, 37 years old) Skimming through all the photographs, we could see that there were many images of women, especially photos related to animal feed. Women were the ones to prepare food for the family and feed for animals. This includes also heavy chores such as collecting forage, which was mainly done by women and children. Men usually did the tasks that required driving motorbike. Most Hmong women could not drive especially on soft-surfaced road in rainy season. Men also took care of disease treatment more than women because it often required driving motorbike for 10-20 km to buy medicine. Compared to pigs and poultry, men engaged more in large ruminants like buffalos and cattle as those big animals required masculine strength to handle. There were more than ten photo stories related to children herding cattle and buffalos. In summertime or after school, children usually graze buffalos and cattle in the harvested fields, on the hills or in the forest.\"The grass field is about one kilometre from the house. The road is very steep, so the field is inaccessible by motorbikes. Grass must be carried home on the farmer's back. This load of Lý Thị Hồ weighs about 30 kilograms and the one of Hàng Thị Nanh is 50 kilograms. The grass cutting is mostly done by women and children, while men are hardly involved in it.\" Narrator and photographer: Ly A Trong, male, Hmong, 43 years oldWith the above-mentioned current situation of livestock value chain development, Li-chan promoted establishment of Common Interest Groups (CIGs) as a platform for farmers to share knowledge and information, organize collective purchases and sales in larger volumes, develop marketing networks and access to credit. Through photovoice discussions, farmers mentioned all the benefits of CIGs except for credit access. In reality, among five CIGs: one in Mon village (type A) and one in Khoa village (type B) could get access to credit. The former used rotating micro-credit to give loan to two households and the latter got loan from the Bank of Social Policy.\"People are excited about common interest group\" \"This photo shows people taking advantage of the lunch break during a meeting of the livestock common interest group. After being trained, I realised the benefits of a common interest group in which members share inputs, outputs and linkages with traders as well as the application of biosecurity measures in livestock production. So, I discussed these benefits with other villagers. Referring to the livestock common interest group, people are very excited. At the end of this year, a group will be established. In the village, 11 households are willing to participate, and two households are still considering it. Currently, we are considering two options: pig and cow fattening. Maybe we will apply the cow fattening model first.\" Narrator: Ha Van Kim, male, Thai ethnic, 31 years old Photographer: Lo Van Cuoi, male, Thai ethnic, 41 years oldAfter one year of implementation of interventions, Li-chan met its short-term and medium-term outcomes. Long-term outcomes (i.e. increased productivity and income) needed more time to achieve. Hundreds of stories of change proved that farmers and veterinarians improved their knowledge on animal husbandry, including breeding, artificial insemination, biosecurity, farm management, improved forages, animal nutrition, feed preservation, erosion control, biomass recycling and benefits of collective action. All of the livestock-led innovations were adopted by farmers in the intervention villages.Genetics flagship: There was evidence that farmers changed their knowledge and attitude about improved breeds and artificial insemination (AI). The AI pilot cleared many worries of farmers on crossbred Bản pigs and local cattle. AI on pigs was adopted by more households. AI on cattle remained challenging due to lack of access to equipment.Animal Health flagship: It was relevant to build capacity for local veterinarians as they played important roles in disease management and control in the grassroots. Disinfection was the most widely adopted biosecurity measure. Among introduced farm management interventions, using mineral stone for cattle was appreciated by farmers. Other interventions such as control of visitors and keeping livestock diaries were limited to demonstration households. However, if it had not been for the Covid-19 pandemic, the flagship would have organized cross-learning visits to demonstration farm to introduce the measures to more households.Feeds and Forages flagship: Farmers increased their knowledge on improved forages, animal nutrition and feed preservation. Many adopted improved forage varieties and would replicate in their communities. Feed-probiotics mix, making silage and urea-treated straw were also adopted.Environment flagship: Farmers improved their awareness on erosion and control measures. Some measures such as intercropping, rotating, using grass contour and manure, making composting were adopted among farmers.Livestock Livelihoods and Agri-Food System flagship successfully established five common interest groups in the intervention areas. These groups would be the platform to share and scale out technical innovations of other flagships. It was expected that farmers could get better access to market and stronger bargaining power through CIGs.The limitation of this photovoice project was that it was conducted in a short time (about two months) while it would require a longer time to evaluate farmers' preference of improved forages, for example. In a short period, photovoice provided not only huge materials to analyze for Li-chan project's success but also helped to give a voice to the ethnic minority farmers and reached out to researchers and policy makers.","tokenCount":"11748"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df0015b0fb903670456f7c351a993dfc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H034255.pdf","id":"1728109913"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bc5645ce-2b63-4b3f-9b14-5b8960e46bc7","pagecount":"17","content":"The conversion of climax Dipterocarp forest for agricultural purposes has resulted in a decline in productivity of light textured soils in Northeast Thailand. In order to quantify the degree of chemical degradation that these soils have undergone, a survey was undertaken of 6 representative paired sites where adjacent Dipterocarp forest soils were compared to continuously cropped systems that had been under production from 37 -100 years. Surface charge fingerprints along with soil chemical and physical attributes were determined on selective depth intervals. Significant declines in exchangeable cations and soil organic carbon were observed under the cropped systems resulting in dramatic declines in the surface charge characteristics. The amount of soil organic carbon lost in the 0-10 cm depth interval under the cropped system ranged from 3.84 to 10.11 t/ha. Using a saturation index (S u ) that encompasses an assessment of the degree of degradation taking into account the previous land use, in this case Dipterocarp forest, and that due to anthropogenic disturbance was used to quantify charge diminution. S u values ranged from 52.9 -90.3 % clearly indicating the degree of degradation these systems have undergone due to changed management. Mean net acid addition rates (NAAR) were calculated for cassava and rice production systems that dominate the upland and lowland areas of Northeast Thailand. Values ranged from 1.05 -1.50 kmol H + /ha.yr for the cassava and rice systems respectively. A highly significant pedotransfer function was established to estimate pH buffering capacity (pHBC) using the routinely determined soil attributes of soil organic carbon and clay content. Using this pedotransfer function and the NAAR rates of each of the cropping systems, acidity risk maps were produced for Northeast Thailand for each of the crop production systems.Light textured sandy soils are common throughout the tropics and constitute an important economic resource for agriculture despite their inherent infertility (Panichapong, 1988). Such soils occupy a significant area of the Northeast Thailand plateau (Ragland and Boonpuckdee, 1987), and though originally dominated by climax Dipterocarp forests until 40 years ago, were then extensively cleared for timber and agriculture. Continuous production of crops such as rice, kenaf (rosella), cassava, and sugarcane has resulted in a rapid decline in the fertility status of these soils, with an associated loss of productivity. Northeast Thailand is considered to be a region of limited resources. The major limiting factors are the low inherent fertility of soils, scarcity of water resources, and erratic rainfall patterns and distribution (Panichapong, 1988). Rice is frequently grown in this region on land that has an undulating topography. Initially farmers establish rice crops in this type of topography at the bottom of depressions and subsequently progress up the slope towards the upland (Limpinuntana, 1988). Rice production in the bottom or lower paddies is considerably more stable than rice grown in the upper paddy fields. In this respect rice can only be grown in the upper paddy fields for one to three years out of five because of insufficient water for transplanting (Limpinuntana, 1988). These upland soils have been extensively leached and eroded and consequently have a low inherent fertility, low cation exchange capacity, sandy texture, low water holding capacity, low organic matter content and are acid. Consequently, farmers have moved towards low-input and long-duration crops such cassava and kenaf.The impact of changed land use on charge characteristics is eloquently encapsulated in the charge fingerprint as described by Gillman and Sumpter (1986). This technique provides an assessment of the negative charge characteristics of a soil over the range of pH values that have agronomic significance. It is therefore able to distinguish that portion of the CEC that has the ability to retain basic cations, and predicts changes in CEC as soil solution pH and ionic strength are varied. In addition, it allows an estimation to be made of permanent and variable charge, the influence of components such as organic matter on surface charge expression, and the effects on surface charge associated with anthropogenic disturbance.In the current study, undertaken in collaboration with CSIRO and Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines through funding from Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the focus is on the quantification of changes in surface charge characteristics associated with changed land management under two contrasting cropping systems, namely rice and cassava. When used in conjunction with exchangeable cations extracted from the exchange complex, an assessment of the current and potential cation holding capacity and the impact of imposed management systems can be objectively assessed. Through the construction of charge fingerprints a Saturation Index (S u ) (Noble et al., 2000) was calculated with respect to base cation content and an estimation of the degree of degradation that the soils had undergone from a 'benchmark' state, in this case, remnant Dipterocarp forest. Quantification of the Net Acid Addition Rate (NAAR) under different crop production systems was undertaken. A pedotransfer function to predict soil pH buffering capacity (pHBC) was developed based on intrinsic characteristics of the soil, namely soil organic carbon and clay content, for the suite of soils sampled. Using the pHBC pedotransfer function and the NAAR, acidity risk maps based on a current GIS linked soil data sets for the region were developed for the different cropping systems.A total of 6 paired sites were selected that traversed a toposequence from uplands to lowlands in Northeast Thailand (Table 1). The selection of sites was based on the following criteria: (1) the existence of an undisturbed Dipterocarp forest in close proximity to an agricultural production system; (2) a well defined boundary separating the two production areas; (3) the same soil type in both areas; and (4) little topographical difference (i.e. slope) between the two areas. Samples were collected at five points in each area along a transect at right angles to the boundary separating the two systems. Sampling points were 5 m apart and at each point three augur holes (10 cm diameter) were made and soil samples collected from the 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-50 and 50-70 cm and bulked to form a composite sample.Samples were air dried and sieved to pass a 2 mm mesh. In this initial phase of analysis, a bulked composite sample was made for each of the paired sites of the following depth intervals: 0-10, 20-30 and 50-70 cm. Basic exchangeable cations were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry after replacement with 0.1 M BaCl 2 -NH 4 Cl as recommended by Gillman and Sumpter (1986). Acidic cations were extracted with 1 M KCl and the extractant titrated to pH 8.0 as described by Rayment and Higginson (1992). The effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) was calculated as the sum of basic and acidic cations (Ca 2+ +Mg 2+ +K + +Na + +Al 3+ +H + ). Soil organic carbon was determined by wet oxidation using the Walkley and Black method as modified by Rayment and Higginson (1992) and particle size as described by Coventry and Fett (1979). Charge Fingerprints were determined on the composite samples from each site using the methodology described by Gillman and Sumpter (1986). Records of the amounts of acid or base added to the tubes during the equilibration phase were kept and these converted to cmol c H + /OHadded /kg of soil. These values were plotted against the equilibrium pH for each tube and the inverse of the slope of this relationship was taken to be the pH buffering capacity (pHBC) of the soil.The regression analysis routine of Genstat (Genstat 5 Committee, 1993) was used to investigate relationships between pHBC and selected soil properties to establish a pedotransfer function that could be used to estimate this parameter. Curves associated with the charge fingerprints were fitted using the curve fitting function of SigmaPlot 4.0 for Windows.A Saturation Index (S u ) as proposed by Noble et al., (2000) was used to quantify charge diminution associated with changed land use. The S u index has the following format:where C u5.5 refers to the cation exchange capacity at pH 5.5 of the undisturbed (Dipterocarp forest) soil as determined from the charge fingerprint, and Σ is the sum of the base cations actually present in the system under review. A low S u indicates closeness to the ideal condition for that particular soil.The net acid addition rate (NAAR, kmol H + /ha. year) to the agricultural production system was calculated relative to the adjacent undeveloped Dipterocarp forest at each site for the 0-15 and 15-30 cm depth interval using the following equation (Helyar and Porter, 1989):where the subscripts F and C refer to the undeveloped Dipterocarp forest and developed agricultural production system respectively; pHBC is the pH buffering capacity for each of the (kmol H + . kg -1 . pH unit -1 ) of the developed and undeveloped areas; BD is soil bulk density which was taken to be 1300 kg m -3 ; V is the soil volume in the depth interval under consideration (m 3 ha -1 ); and T is time (years) since the change in land use system. The net acid addition due to the change in land use was estimated from the sum of two depth intervals.The procedure adopted for the development of an acidity risk map was similar to that described by Noble et al. (2002). Using the developed pedotransfer function, a pHBC was assigned to each of the soil series that are present in Northeast Thailand. This is based on the current soil resource map at 1:100,000 scale of the Department of Land Development, Khon Kaen, Thailand. A total of 34 soil series make up this resource map. Using a modification of the model proposed by Helyar and Porter (1989) the following equation was used to calculate the time (T) in years for the pH of the surface soil to drop from its current pH to a pH of 5.0.where T is time in years; pH i is the current measured soil pH; pHBC is mean pH buffering capacity of the soil association (kmol H + /kg.pH); BD is the mean soil bulk density assumed to be 1300 kg/m 3 ; V is volume of soil in the 0-20 cm depth interval; and NAAR is net acid addition rate (kmol H + /ha. year) which was assumed to be 1.05 and 1.50 kmol H + /ha.year for the cassava and rice systems respectively.The Northeast of Thailand has undergone dramatic changes in land use over the past 40 years. This has included a move away from subsistence based agriculture to commercial based farming systems. As such lands that have traditionally been used for paddy production have, in some cases, been used specifically for subsistent rice production for more than 100 years. A move towards upland crop production was started approximately 40 years ago with cassava and sugarcane becoming dominant components of these systems in the last 20 years. The production system is characteristically a rotation that consists of a 5 year cropping cycle followed by a 2-3 years fallow as a means of improving the fertility of these light textured soils.The soil series represented at the 6 sites were the Roi-et (fine-loamy, mixed, isohyperthermic Aeric Paleaquults); Korat (fine-loamy, siliceous, isohyperthermic Oxic Paleustults); and Yasothon (fine-loamy, siliceous, isohyperthermic Oxic Paleustults) (Soil Survey Staff, 1990) (Table 1). All of these series were formed from old alluvium and occur on low, middle and high terraces respectively. These soils are dominated by coarse and fine sand with very low clay contents (range: 2.4 -15.5%) (Table 2 and 3). The texture is relatively uniform down to depth within the profile.Soil pH, organic C, exchangeable basic and acidic cations, effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC), pHBC, CEC b and CEC t for each of the depth intervals are presented in Table 2 and 3. Differences in pH between the Dipterocarp forest and adjacent cultivated sites were not markedly different and no clear trends were observed with respect to changes in pH (Table 2 and 3). In three cases (C1, C2, R5) there was a small decline in the pH of the surface 0-10 cm between the forest and cultivated sites. Differences in exchangeable acidity reflected trends in soil pH with an increase in exchangeable acidity with a decline in pH. Exchangeable acidity was in several cases the dominant cation on the exchange complex as soil pH declined. Exchangeable basic cations were lower in the 0-10 cm depth interval on the disturbed sites, however this trend was reversed with depth suggesting that leaching of basic cations from the surface layer to depth had occurred as a resulted of changed land use (Tables 2 and 3). Of the exchangeable bases, Ca 2+ dominated the exchange complex. It is of note that the concentration of K + on the exchange complex was very low in the surface 0-10 cm of cultivated sites, suggesting these soils would respond to prophylactic applications of K based fertilizers and that there had been significant removal or loss of K with changed land use.Over the intervening period since conversion from forest to continuous agriculture, soil organic carbon declined markedly in the upper soil layers (0-10 cm) (Table 2 and 3). The loss in soil organic carbon resulting from cultivation ranged from 3.84 t/ha on site R3 through to 10.11 t/ha on site R5, a site previously dominated by swamp forest (Table 4). Clearly such dramatic declines in C would have a significant impact on properties associated with cation retention, pH buffering and water holding capacity of these soils.The dominant soil series of Northeast Thailand are sandy with little organic C, and have a clay mineralogy dominated by highly ordered kaolinite and oxides (Panichapong, 1988). Therefore these soils have only modest surface charge, with both permanent and variable charge components. For brevity graphical representations of surface charge fingerprints for each of the composite depths for the forest and cultivated sites are presented for two of the six sites (Figures 1 and 2). The general trend exhibited for each site is that the greatest degree of charge diminution occurred in the surface 0-10 cm depth interval. A distinctive characteristic of the curves derived for the 0-10 cm depth interval at the C1 site is that the negative charge generated varied from approximately 1.1 to 2.1 cmol c kg -1 and 0.5 to 1.2 cmol c kg -1 over the pH range for the forested and cultivated sites respectively (Figure 1). Conversely, for the same depth interval, the negative charge generated for the R4 site ranged from 0.8 to 1.8 cmol c kg -1 and 0.2 to 0.8 cmol c kg -1 over the imposed pH range (Figure 2). The greatest difference in the shapes of the charge curves was observed in the surface horizons, this being ascribed to the larger organic carbon content (Table 2) under the forest sites and clearly quantifies the potentially deleterious impact of clearing and subsequent for agriculture on soils with a relatively low permanent charge component. In short, the role of organic C in maintaining negative charge on these soils is critical for the retention and supply of cations. The fact that the greatest degree of degradation occurs in the surface layers is somewhat heartening since remediation of this charge decline is possible through either soil organic matter conservation or other engineering solutions.For comparisons of surface charge diminution with depth due to changed land use, the CEC b at pH 5.5 was calculated from the surface charge regression curves for each of the sites and are presented in Table 2 and 3. In general the greatest differences between CEC b at pH 5.5 were observed in the surface 0-10 cm (Table 2 and 3). These differences diminished with depth in all cases other than at sites C3 and R5 where the CEC B increased under the cultivated system. This can in part be attributed to the increase in clay content at depth under the cultivated system indicating a degree of heterogeneity of soils at certain site. The decline in organic carbon with cultivation invariably alters the ratio of organic-to-inorganic surfaces, resulting in marked changes in the surface charge characteristics of the soil. In this respect organic carbon has a direct influence on the CEC of the soil as has been clearly demonstrated by Willett, (1995) for light textured sandy soils of Northeast Thailand. Consequently, conservation of organic matter should therefore become the focus of land management strategies.The charge fingerprint allows an estimate CEC T at the inherent soil's pH. If the basic and acidic cations removed by the BaCl 2 -NH 4 Cl and KCl extractants respectively are all exchangeable cations then their sum (the ECEC) should be equal to CEC T at soil pH, within the limits of the experimental error. A graph of ECEC against CEC T at the soil's pH for the forested and cultivated soils shows excellent agreement between these independently determined properties for all depth intervals suggesting that most of the cations extracted were effectively on the exchange complex (Figure 3). Points showing the greatest deviation from the 1:1 line were from surface horizons suggesting some of the cations extracted were not associated with the exchange complex.  A potential measure of the degree of chemical degradation that a soil has undergone due to changed management is quantification of acidification through the percent acid saturation of the cation exchange capacity. A limitation to this method lies in the assumption that the cation exchange capacity is a fixed quantity, and that degradation is associated with increasing occupation of it by Al 3+ , to the exclusion of important nutrients (basic) cations (Noble et al., 2000). In fact, however, the charge fingerprint demonstrates that CEC itself, particularly the agronomically important CEC B , decreases with pH. Hence the saturation index (S u ) was proposed by Noble et al. (2000) to take into account the effect of changed land use on the intrinsic surface charge characteristics of a soil. The S u values were calculated for the 0-10 cm depth interval using Eqtn. 1 and are presented in Table 4. In this respect the S u index ranged from 53-90% when compared to the Dipterocarp benchmark (Table 4). This degree of degradation is considerable and clearly shows the vulnerable nature of these soils to damage associated with changed land use.pHBC and net acid addition rate Associated with changes in soil organic matter, the pHBC declined with declining OC (Table 2 and 3). pHBC ranged from 1.321 to 0.205 cmol H + /kg.unit pH over the depth intervals studied clearly demonstrating the lack of internal resistance of these soils to acid inputs. As these soils exhibited a uniform texture and were dominated by kaolinite, a generalized linear model incorporating all depth intervals as has previously been described by Aitken et al. (1990) was used to develop a pedotransfer function. A highly significant linear relationship between pHBC, and the attributes soil organic carbon and clay content was observed: pHBC = 0.184(±0.037) + 1.004(±0.05)OC(%) + 0.009(±0.004)Clay(%); r 2 = 0.916A comparison of the measured and predicted pHBC using equation 4 is presented in Figure 4. It is of note that the slope of the line is 0.92, which is not markedly different from 1.By substituting the pHBC values into equation ( 1) and knowing the number of years since conversion to agriculture, an estimation of the Net Acid Addition Rate (NAAR) was obtained (Table 4). NAAR ranged from 0.68 to 1.96 kmol H + /ha.yr for the different production systems with the cassava systems having a lower mean rate of acid addition when compared to the rice (1.05 versus 1.50 kmol H + /ha.yr respectively). These are relatively low rates of acid addition compared to other cropping systems in the tropics (Moody and Aitken, 1997). This may in part be attributed relatively low net proton accumulation associated with crop removal and the limited use of nitrogenous fertilizer in these production systems.In an effort to assess the risk of accelerated acidification associated with the production of cassava and rice in Northeast Thailand, a risk map based on the soil resources database of the Department of Land Development was developed. For each soils profile, the pHBC was estimated using equation 4 for the 0-20 cm depth and a mean value calculated for each of the soil series for Northeast Thailand. By using the estimated pHBC for each of the soil series and AAR calculated for rice and cassava production systems, acidity risks maps for each of the production systems were produce depicting the number of years for the soil pH to drop to a critical water pH of 5.0 from its current value using Eqtn. 3 (Figure 5  and 6). Of the total area in Northeast Thailand 40.9 and 45.9 % were classified as lowlands and uplands, suited to the production rice and cassava respectively (Figures 5 and 6). In the case of the upland cassava production systems, 13.2 and 35.3% of the soils were classified as falling into the categories 10.1 -20.0 and > 30 years respectively, before the soil pH falls to pH 5.0 (Figure 5). The majority (50.1%) of the soils fell into the category of 20.1 -30 years. Contrasting this, the lowland rice cropping systems, 66.9 and 16.9% of the soils fall into the categories 10.1 -20.0 and > 30 years respectively, before the soil pH falls to pH 5.0 (Figure 6). It should be borne in mind that the absolute values that are presented in the maps should be treated with caution since we have assumed a constant rate of acid addition and have not taken into account management factors that may influence the rate of acidification. In addition, the soil profiles that form the basis of the database have been collectedduring the period 1966-1988 and therefore may have undergone considerable change in chemical attributes with time (Aimsamut and Boonsompobpun, 1999).During the period 1982 to 1998, 500,000 ha of climax Dipterocarp forest was cleared for agricultural activities, this largely being driven by a population increase in the region of 4.8 million (Office of Agricultural Economic, 2001). The impact of changed land use has resulted in a dramatic decline in the nutrient status of these soils which has been large due to declining soil OC in the region of the profile where the greatest degree of mixing occurs. Moreover, this study clearly demonstrated the fragility of these soils when cleared of their native Dipterocarp climax communities for agricultural production and supports the preliminary findings discussed for this region by Noble et al., (2000). Soils of the region are characteristically light textured sands dominated by low activity kaolinitic clays. With the decline in soil organic matter there has been a concomitant reduction in the CEC and pHBC of these soils thereby reducing the nutrient holding and water supplying capacity of these soils as well as their ability to buffer the effects of acid additions. This has had a significant impact on the productive capacity of these soils and introduces a high degree of risk.Quantification of the degree of degradation associated with charge diminution is eloquently provided through the calculation of the saturation index (S u ). This index provides an unambiguous assessment of the extent of the problem by using a benchmark 'undisturbed' Dipterocarp forest as reference.From a management perspective the index allows both a an assessment of the extent of the problem as well as the degree of remediation that is required to bring the charge characteristics back to their original undisturbed state. As clearly indicated the driver of this charge diminution is the loss of organic carbon due to continuous tillage. The restoration of soil organic matter status would significantly reduce the aforementioned decline in CEC and cation loss due to changed land use. However, this is not easily achievable in tropical and sub-tropical environments where regular cultivation is undertaken in the preparation of seedbeds and weed control. The introduction of longterm grass leys in rotation with crops would increase the soil organic carbon content and have a direct benefit on the charge characteristics of the soil (Noble et al., 1998). However, to resource poor farmers in developing countries whose primary objective is house-hold food security, the implementation of long-term grass leys into their farming systems is often viewed as an unattractive option. In addition, in situ generation of organic matter on these degraded soils may not be possible without large inputs of inorganic fertilizers and water.There is mounting empirical evidence to suggest that 'conservation agriculture' systems are an effective alternative to conventional farming (tillage based) systems that effectively exploit the natural resources upon which they are based without degrading them, and in some cases allowing their restoration (Bot and Benites, 2001). The two essential features of 'conservation agriculture' are notillage and the maintenance of a cover on the soil surface. Significant increases in productivity have been achieved through the adoption of 'conservation agriculture' (Bot and Benites, 2001). However, these responses are contingent on the inherent fertility status of the soil. Furthermore, on highly degraded production systems, the positive productivity benefits associated with the adoption of organic matter conservation systems may have a lag phase associated with a build up of OC to some critical level. This may influence adoption of such practices under particular socio-economic circumstances.The use of high-activity clays and Ca-silicated slags, materials that are commonly found throughout the world and are currently being evaluated in Thailand and Australia, may be a plausible management strategy to permanently increase the surface charge characteristics of degraded soils (Noble et al., 2001(Noble et al., , 2003)). Relatively modest rates of application have been shown to result in a significant enhancement in productivity over a prolonged period. The advantage of undertaking such a strategy is that it may be termed a 'one-off' investment that would only require the 'topping up' of basic cations on a needs basis (Noble et al., 2003).Cassava Site # 1: 0 -10 cm   The graphical representation of risk, as measured in years, associated with the production of the two dominant crops (cassava and rice) in region, reinforces the fragility of these soils. Relatively low inputs of acidity associated with these cropping systems, will in a relatively short period, result in soil pH values dropping to a critical level that would significant impact on yield and the range of crop species potentially grown. This will have a significant impact on food security and the poverty profile for the region.For the suite of soils that are typical of Northeast Thailand, the development of a pedotransfer function based on routinely measured soil attributes of soil organic carbon and clay will assist extension personnel and resource managers in assessing the risk of accelerated acidification associated with different cropping systems. For example, by differentiating soils that are predisposed to accelerated acidification, resource manager may strategically recommend the establishment of crops that have a low net acid addition rate or implement management strategies that minimize the risk of accelerated acidification i.e. prophylactic applications of lime.","tokenCount":"4470"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/3827062754.json b/data/part_2/3827062754.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"feddf5e72ba86ca310514efaad7c96a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5e322b93-a178-4a46-b827-a1352d17000a/retrieve","id":"-17220504"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"aa4fe8fb-c64d-4615-9900-b70cd9236a7b","pagecount":"9","content":"N3 invited its partners, ARARI (Amara regional agricultural research institute), OARI (Oromia agricultural research institute) and EWHA (Ethiopian water harvesting association) for two day meeting with the following objectives:To understand how the partner work with rainwater management and disseminates knowledge to extension services/ ngo's and to farmers/communitiesTo identify a criteria for a suitable and applicable decision making support tool Representatives from the different organizations presented the activities run, identified factor of success and sometimes reason for less successful projects. They also presented their role in different knowledge dissemination platforms.From these presentations water management practices where identified and classified. For a selected number of practices bio-physical, socio-economic and institutional drivers for adoption have been discussed. Also the concept of rainwater management strategy has been defined. Finally, criteria for a suitable decision-making support tool have been discussed. OARI was represented by two representatives from Bako center, ARARI was represented by 2 representatives from the regional research institute in Bahir Dar, and EWHA was represented by the acting executive director. See list of participant in the appendix.In terms of water management, OARI and ARARI promote widely soil conservation techniques in order to increase water holding capacity of soils, but also spread new crop varieties.Both are problem solving oriented and select their activities depending on local needs. Promotion of given practices are based on agro-ecologies, which they acknowledge being too broad for site specific promotion of practices. All activities are preceded by a preliminary study, sometimes including even farm survey suggesting that a huge amount of data is lying at the regional research institute and their centers.Impact assessment is mainly limited to those activities that are run in collaboration with the international research institute (mainly ILRI-SLP).Both organizations are part of an important number of networks to spread information, including the ministry of agriculture and the REFLAC (Research -Extension-Farmers Linkage-Advisory Council meeting). They also organize a whole range of activities such as demonstration, exhibition and leaflets to reach the farmers. Both have a broad network including ngo's, donors or private sector. In addition ARARI takes part in a number of problem oriented stakeholder platforms.EWHA is mainly an advocacy and networking NGO that relies on partners for implementation. EWHA also offers a number of training for trainer on water harvesting and sanitation. They are specialized in water harvesting structures such as broad range of tanks, as well as sand dams.Through the presentations a whole range of water related practices have been identified. Interestingly, ARARI and OARI did not mention micro-irrigations schemes such as tradition river diversions or well at all. This is due to the fact that the management of these structures is the responsibility of the ministry of water and therefore is not within their mandate.The participants were split into two groups which came up with two very different classifications of practices: one focused on the type of practice, the other on the actor who is taking the decision and level of cooperation needed to achieve sound water management. These two classifications could be merged and practices classified along these two dimensions as shown in Table 1.The classification into physical (in-situ, ex situ), biological and technological is well known, but integrating the decision maker led to interesting discussions. Whereas the farm household decision on their farmstead and their fields is pretty obvious, a whole range of practices do only lead to better water productivity or better water availability only if farmers within the area coordinate. For example, if only one farmer in a slope does terraces it will hardly make a difference to him and to the whole watershed. However, if all the farmers on a given slope start making terraces than it will change the water availability of all of them. We refer to a community decision when a practice needs to coordination among farmers.During the classification, it turned out that it was difficult to make a difference between a governmental decisions and community decisions. Indeed, most top-down governmental policies are then implemented by the community, and community decisions often need approval by the government.Coordinating farm households (community)  Table 3 shows the chosen practices that have the most important impact on farmer's livelihood.Interestingly both groups came up with similar interventions: increasing the capacity for supplemental small scale irrigation, agro-forestry and conservation agriculture.Small scale irrigation only works when the access for market for high value crops exist, as enough money can be earned for investing in the infrastructure. Agro-forestry is also an important practice, as it can stabilize soil erosion when planted on the slopes, at the same time, carefully selected multi-purpose tree can increase income, as timber and fruit can be sold on the market. It also increases the soil water holding capacity. Finally conservation agriculture, including minimal tillage combined with bunds and terracing is also seen as very suitable practice for increasing water productivity.Also for this part, two separate groups came up with the two following two definitions:• Any interventions that increase the water productivity and water availability within the watershed.• Efficient and effective management and utilization for a targeted purpose, agriculture, livestock, domestic supply and/or environment, with minimal damage (below economic threshold level) to the land nor to the resource.Discussions around the criteria showed that the partners would like to have an interactive tool, in which they can adjust themselves and possibly introduce the results form their own research.It turns out that the different partner have very different knowledge of GIS , accesses to licensed arcGIS programs as well as internet access. The N3/N4 baseline survey will need to identify the most urgent needs. ARARI is in processes of building a GIS center and has very good infrastructure andThe meeting was very constructive and helped to clarify what N3 is really about. No action-plan could be directly derived from this meeting, as we need first to understand the need and the data available before planning. The major N3 working steps in collaboration are known: contribute to the secondary data collection, contribute to the development of the tool, provide expert knowledge on \"non-mapable\" characteristics, validate maps and tool as well as disseminate the results.N3 team will come up with a proposal the GIS training and its content, as well as a more detailed work plan.","tokenCount":"1032"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e40aeeb65be0629a81e6fe618314f350","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf0246b5-3e6d-4e37-8130-a93559c91a24/retrieve","id":"1676831680"},"keywords":["data coverage","data integration","data representativeness","functional diversity","plant traits","TRY plant trait database"],"sieverID":"d19c3a8d-4fe6-4c36-9f64-4532a854ce8a","pagecount":"70","content":"Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects.We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives.Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants measurable at the individual plant level (Violle et al., 2007)-reflect the outcome of evolutionary and community assembly processes responding to abiotic and biotic environmental constraints (Valladares, Gianoli, & Gomez, 2007). Traits and trait syndromes (recurrent coordinated expressions of multiple traits) determine how plants perform and respond to environmental factors (Grime, 1974;Wright et al., 2017), affect other trophic levels (Lavorel et al., 2013;Loranger et al., 2012Loranger et al., , 2013)), and provide a link from species richness to functional diversity, which influences ecosystem properties and derived benefits and detriments to people (Aerts & Chapin, 2000;Díaz et al., 2004Díaz et al., , 2007;;Garnier & Navas, 2012;Grime, 2001Grime, , 2006;;Lavorel et al., 2015;Lavorel & Garnier, 2002). In the context of the Global Earth Observation Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) species traits are considered an Essential Biodiversity Variable to inform policy about biodiversity change (Kissling et al., 2018;Pereira et al., 2013). A focus on traits and trait syndromes, therefore, provides a crucial basis for quantitative and predictive ecology, ecologically informed landscape conservation and the global change sciencepolicy interface (Díaz et al., 2016;McGill, Enquist, Weiher, & Westoby, 2006;Westoby & Wright, 2006). To fully realize this potential, plant trait data not only need to be available and accessible in appropriate quantity and quality but also representative for the scales of inference and research questions (König et al., 2019). Here we analyse where the TRY plant trait database stands with respect to coverage and representativeness after 12 years of operation. We further review the mechanisms and emergent dynamics helping to increase both.Before the foundation of TRY in 2007, several research groups had already developed major plant trait databases with remarkable success, e.g. the Ecological Flora of the British Islands (Fitter & Peat, 1994), the Seed Information Database (Royal Botanical Gardens KEW, 2008), BIOPOP (Poschlod, Kleyer, Jackel, Dannemann, & Tackenberg, 2003), GLOPNET (Wright et al., 2004), BiolFlor (Klotz, Kühn, & Durka, 2002, 2017), LEDA (Kleyer et al., 2008), BROT (Paula et al., 2009), USDA PLANTSdata (Green, 2009) and BRIDGE (Baraloto, Timothy Paine, Patino, et al., 2010).However, these databases were either focused on particular regions (BiolFlor, LEDA, BIOPOP, BROT, USDA Plants, Ecological Flora of the British Islands, BRIDGE) or specific traits (GLOPNET, SID). A 'database of databases' was in discussion for some time, but it had been impossible to secure long-term funding for such a project. Finally, at a joint workshop of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) and DIVERSITAS, the TRY database (TRY-not an acronym, rather a statement of sentiment; https ://www.try-db.org; Kattge et al., 2011) was proposed with the explicit assignment to improve the availability and accessibility of plant trait data for ecology and earth system sciences. The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) offered to host the database and the different groups joined forces for this community-driven program. Two factors were key to the success of TRY: the support and trust of leaders in the field of functional plant ecology submitting large databases and the long-term funding by the Max Planck Society, the MPI-BGC and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, which has enabled the continuous development of the TRY database.At the time of the foundation of TRY, data sharing was not yet a common practice in ecology (Kattge et al., 2011;Reichman, Jones, & Schildhauer, 2011). This was an important obstacle for scientific progress. The first important step of the initiative was, therefore, to jointly develop a data sharing policy. This was based on permission of data set owners and a 'give-and-take' system: to keep the TRY database growing, the right to request data was coupled to data contribution. Exceptions were data requests for vegetation modelling projects, as modellers typically do not own plant trait data. At an open workshop in 2013, the members decided to offer the opportunity to make data publicly available and trait data contribution was no longer a requirement for data access. In 2014, this decision was implemented in the TRY Data Portal and was immediately followed by an 'explosion' of the number of data requests (Figure 1a  Waltman, van Eck, and Noyons (2010). Due to limited space not all central keywords of small clusters are displayed. Material to display the results in detail using the VOSviewer software is provided in the Supporting Information categorical traits relevant to attribute species to plant functional types (PFTs), and provides the opportunity to publish plant trait data sets and receive a DOI.Trait data via TRY contributed to at least 250 scientific applications and publications (Figure 1a), among these 202 peer-reviewed publications in 83 different scientific journals, covering a broad range of topics, from 'Landscape and Urban planning' to 'Geoscientific Model Development'. Twenty publications were directly related to vegetation model development, while 230 were empirical studies.A cluster analysis of keywords from the peer-reviewed publications shows eight clusters around the central keywords biodiversity, climate change, plant traits, functional diversity, carbon cycle, community, vegetation and environmental filtering (Figure 2). Citations of publications using trait data via TRY have increased exponentially, leading to about 10,000 citations and an h-factor of 46 for the TRY database (Figure 1b).During 12 years of development, versions 1-5 of the TRY database have been released with an increasing number of contributed data sets and trait records (Tables 1 and 2; Figure 1a). Currently, TRY is working on version 6. As of July 2019, the TRY database comprised 588 data sets from 765 data contributors (Table A1).The dynamics of the number of data sets in TRY indicates an increasing success of calls to the scientific community for data contribution in 2007, 2013 and 2019. When the manuscript was submitted, data contributions responding to the call in 2019 were not yet fully integrated into the TRY database. Therefore all analyses presented in this paper are based on versions 1-5 of the TRY database (Table 1). TRY version 5, released on 26 March 2019, contains 387 data sets providing 11.8 million trait records, accompanied by 35 million ancillary data, for 2,091 traits and 280,000 plant taxa, mostly at the species level (Table 2). Data coverage is still driven by a few large (often integrated) databases, but increasingly small data sets (mostly primary data) contribute to the overall coverage (Figure 3a). Plant trait data in TRY can be traced to >10,000 original references. This highlights the breadth of data integrated in the TRY database and its nature as database of databases, a 'second generation of data pooling' (M. Westoby, personal communication, August 24, 2009).We now observe a tendency that new trait-based research is increasingly planned against the background of the TRY database.Coverage and availability of trait data in TRY stimulate trait-based research, which then often leads to the identification of unexpected data gaps. This motivates data mobilization and/or new measurements, which improve the availability of plant trait data for the research community, and-if contributed to TRY-help the database grow. Examples for such a 'feed-forward data integration loop' are provided in Box 1.To support this process, in this article, we take stock of the data compiled in the TRY database and present emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness with a focus on the identification of principal and systematic gaps. Finally, we discuss ways forward and the potential future role of the TRY initiative for the research community.Plant traits can be classified as categorical (qualitative and ordinal) or quantitative (continuous) traits (Kattge et al., 2011). Some traits are rather stable within species (mostly categorical traits), and some of these can be systematically compiled from species checklists and floras (e.g. Weigelt, König, & Kreft, 2019). Restricted, give-and-takeHowever, most traits relevant to ecology and earth system sciences are characterized by intraspecific variability and trait-environment relationships (mostly quantitative traits).Both kinds of traits are compiled in the TRY database, but with a focus on continuous traits. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their particular environmental context.Each such trait measurement has high information content as it captures the specific response of a given genome to the prevailing environmental conditions. The collection of these quantitative traits and their essential environmental covari-  These measurements of quantitative traits are single sampling events for particular individuals at certain locations and times, which preserve relevant information on intraspecific variation and provide the necessary detail to address questions at the level of populations or communities. Within individual field campaigns or experiments, researchers often aim to measure complete sets of these data: all traits of interest for all individuals or species in the analyses. However, across studies and data sets and at large scales, the coverage of these data shows major gaps, which provide major challenges concerning data completeness and representativeness (König et al., 2019).Compared to TRY database version 1 and the state reported in Kattge et al. (2011), TRY version 5 has substantially grown with respect to the number of trait records, traits, species, entities, georeferenced measurement sites and ancillary data (Table 2).The numbers of trait records (individual trait measurements) and entities (individual plants or plant organs on which the measurements have been taken) increased by a factor of about 6 for trait BOX 1 Examples for the 'feed-forward data integration loop' observed in the context of the TRY database • Iversen et al. (2017) indicated that in the TRY database only 1% of trait records were related to roots. This motivated the development of the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED) specializing in the mobilization of fine-root trait records from the literature (Iversen et al., 2017). In the meantime, the first versions of the FRED database have been contributed to the TRY database. The improved number and availability of trait data on roots allowed for a project on root trait functionality in a whole-plant context (https ://www.idiv.de/en/sdiv/worki ng_group s/wg_pool/sroot.html), which motivated additional mobilization of root trait data.• The promising coverage of plant trait data from tundra regions in the TRY database encouraged the inclusion of plant traits in an analysis of tundra ecosystem change, scaling shrub expansion from site to biome (Bjorkman, Myers-Smith, Elmendorf, Normand, Rüger, et al., 2018). In the context of the project, a large number of additional trait data were mobilized by the Tundra Traits Team (Bjorkman, Myers-Smith, Elmendorf, Normand, Thomas, et al., 2018), which have recently been contributed to the TRY database.• Moreno-Martínez et al. ( 2018) estimated the worldwide variation of several leaf traits to improve the parameterization of global vegetation models and remote sensing approaches predicting, for example, gross primary productivity. Due to the low representation of traits for crop species in the TRY database, they could not provide estimates for major agricultural regions (see white spots in figure 5 of Moreno-Martínez et al., 2018). The identification of these gaps motivated mobilization of trait data for crop plants and agro-ecosystems (Engemann et al., 2016;Martin, Hale, et al., 2018;Martin & Isaac, 2015), which were then contributed to the TRY database.• Trait data on plant growth form (tree, shrub, herb, etc.) were compiled by TRY, extended and consolidated in the context of the BIEN initiative (Engemann et al., 2016;Enquist, Condit, Peet, Schildhauer, & Thiers, 2016) and then contributed to the development of the GIFT database (Weigelt, König, & Kreft, 2019). The upgraded plant growth form data were contributed again to TRY.• Plant species richness is unequally distributed across the globe, with the highest species richness observed in the tropics (von Humboldt, 1817). The highest numbers of species with measurements in TRY are also found in the tropics, but as well the largest gap relative to reported species richness: less than 1% of estimated species richness is represented in TRY (Jetz et al., 2016). This principal and systematic mismatch of data coverage and representativeness has contributed to motivate the development of a 'global biodiversity observatory' of in situ measurements and space-borne remote sensing that tracks temporal changes in plant functional traits around the globe to fill critical knowledge gaps, aid in the assessment of global environmental change and improve predictions of future change (Jetz et al., 2016).• TRY is involved in the sPlot initiative to establish a global vegetation-plot database (www.idiv.de/en/splot.html). sPlot supports the analysis of plant communities across the world's biomes by combining vegetation-plot data with traits from the TRY database (Bruelheide et al., 2019). This has resulted, for the first time, in global analyses of plant functional community data (Bruelheide et al., 2018). In contrast to single species measurements or trait values aggregated in grid cells, using vegetation-plot data allows understanding the role of traits for biotic interactions and community assembly processes. In turn, trait data measured in the context of sPlot are contributed to TRY. records and 5 for entities from TRY version 1 (2.1 million trait records measured on 1.1 million entities) to TRY version 5 (11.8 million trait records measured on 5.0 million entities). The average number of trait records per entity increased from 1.9 to 2.4 (Table 2).The number of traits has grown steadily from TRY version 1 to 5, apart from a steep step from TRY version 3 to 4 (Table 2). This step was caused by the contribution of the FRED database, which added about 700 new traits for roots. Data coverage across traits is characterized by long-tail distributions: a small number of traits is well covered by records and species, while the majority of traits has only very low coverage of records and species (Figure 3). However, the number of continuous traits with more than 1,000 records (which are subject to intense data quality assurance during integration) has increased from about 200 in TRY version 1 to 600 in TRY version 5 (Figure 3b). The number of traits with data for more than 100 species has increased from 300 to 700 (Figure 3c). In parallel, the number of records per trait and species ('intraspecific retakes') has increased from almost zero traits with on average more than 10 records per trait-species combination in TRY version 1 to more than 500 in TRY version 5 (Figure 3f).The traits with the best species coverage in TRY version 5 are mostly categorical (Table 3). The categorical traits used for the classification of PFTs-plant woodiness, plant growth form, leaf type (broadleaved vs. needle-leaved), leaf phenology type (deciduous vs. evergreen), leaf photosynthesis pathway (C3, C4, CAM)-are still among the best covered. However, the number of species characterized for each of these traits has substantially increased from TRY version 1 to 5, most significantly for plant growth form from 31,327 to 263,357 species, supported by the contribution from the GIFT database (Weigelt, König, & Kreft, 2019).The quantitative traits with the highest species coverage are still the six traits which were already prominent in TRY version 1 and involved in the analysis of the global spectrum of plant form and function (Díaz et al., 2016): plant height, seed mass, leaf area, leaf area per dry mass, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass and stem specific density (SSD). However, in general, the coverage of continuous traits already present in TRY 1 has substantially improved. This facilitates a more robust characterization of frequency distributions (Figure 4). In The 30 traits that were most often requested (Table 4) are dominated by continuous traits related to the global spectrum of plant form and function (Díaz et al., 2016), the leaf economics spectrum (Wright et al., 2004) and rooting depth. Only seven categorical traits are among these 30 traits. This indicates a switch between well covered-categorical-traits (Table 3) and most frequently requested-continuous-traits (Table 4). The first five most documented traits are categorical whereas among the 10 most requested traits, only one is categorical. However, within continuous traits, there is, in general, a good match between traits characterized for most species and traits most often requested. To some extent this may be influenced by the amount of available data for the individual traits. However, a noteworthy exception is rooting depth, as 10% of requests ask for this trait, while it is 'only' covered for 3,886 species, mostly contributed via the Global Dataset of Maximum Rooting Depth (Fan, Miguez-Macho, Jobbágy, Jackson, & Otero-Casal, 2017). This mismatch indicates a demand for more data on the most relevant belowground traits.From TRY version 1 to 4, the number of species increased slowly, but almost doubled to version 5 due to the contribution of plant growth form data from the GIFT database, which added about 100,000 new species. As in the case of traits, the data coverage for species is characterized by long-tail distributions: few species are covered well by measurements and traits, while the majority TA B L E 3 Traits with best species coverage. The 30 traits covering the highest number of species in the TRY database version 5 and the number of species represented for these traits in TRY version 1. Data type: cat = categorical; con = continuous. Sorted by the number of species in TRY 5   The trait data in the TRY database can be represented by two two-dimensional matrices: the entity × trait matrix, with entities in rows and traits in columns; and the species × trait matrix, with species in rows and traits in columns. Both matrices are characterized as large but sparse: high numbers of entities, species and traits in TRY make the two matrices large, but many cells in the matrices are empty. From TRY version 1 to 5 the size of the matrices has grown by a factor of 15, but at the same time the number of trait records to fill | 129 the cells increased only by a factor of about 5 and thus the matrices became even sparser: the fractional coverage decreased from 0.4% to 0.1% (entity × trait) and 1.4% to 0.4% (species × trait; Figure 5a). This sparsity together with the observed long-tail distributions has consequences, especially for multivariate analyses. Given that on average only two to three traits of the 2,091 traits in TRY version 5 are measured on an individual plant (entity), a multivariate analysis based on individuals is indeed practically impossible, as mentioned by Shan et al. (2012). Even after aggregation at the species level, the decline of the number of species with complete trait coverage when adding a new trait, for example for multivariate analysis, is surprisingly high (Figure 5b). Additionally, the final number of species represented in the analysis is determined by the trait with the lowest species coverage. Therefore multivariate analyses with more than about six traits are still very much limited by the number of species. The same applies when species have to be classified by several categorical traits, like for example in the context of PFTs.The numbers of ancillary data, geo-referenced trait records and trait records with measurement date increased by a factor of almost 10 from TRY version 1 to TRY version 5 (Table 2). The ratio of ancillary data to trait records, therefore, increased from TRY version 1 to 5 from 2:1 to 3:1 and the fraction of geo-referenced trait records from about 33% to 42% (Table 2). The number of geo-referenced trait records with information on measurement date that could be standardized to year, month and day increased from 290,000 in TRY version 1 (15% of all trait records) to 2.5 million records in TRY version 5 (20%).The increasing ratio of ancillary data to trait records indicates growing awareness for the relevance of environmental conditions during plant growth and trait measurements. In this context, geo-references For visibility, only 5% of traits and 0.05% of species are shown (randomly selected, with TRY version 1 as a subsample of TRY version 5; ordering of species and traits by submission date). 'Plant growth form' with entries for almost all species has been selected coincidentally. (b) Multivariate analyses: the decline of the number of common species with an increasing number of traits. Green: the six best covered traits in TRY version 5 (categorical traits: plant growth form, plant woodiness, leaf type, leaf compoundness, leaf photosynthetic pathway, leaflet number per leaf); blue: six traits representing plant form and function in Díaz et al. (2016); red: the best covered quantitative traits representing each of the six plant parts (see Figure 6): shoot (plant height vegetative), reproductive organs (seed dry mass), whole plant (plant lifespan), leaves (SLA), roots (rooting depth) and dead material (litter decomposition rate)3,320 1° × 1° grid-cells; Table 2; Figure 6). Europe still has the highest density of measurement sites, but TRY version 5 also provides good coverage for the United States and China. The number of measurement sites has substantially improved for several other regions as well, for example Central America, Russia, Asia and parts of central Africa. However, there are still obvious gaps in boreal regions (Canada, East Russia) and some parts of the tropics and subtropics, particularly in Africa (Figure 6).To progress from a description of data coverage towards an analysis of representativeness, we need a baseline for comparison. At the global scale, this information has been lacking. Reference data sets have become available only recently for plant growth form (Weigelt, König, & Kreft, 2019) and phylogeny (Smith & Brown, 2018)  trait records to the different parts of the plants has only changed little from TRY version 1 to 5. However, the fraction of records for root traits has substantially increased (from 0.7% to 2.0%), due to the contribution of the FRED database.The most basic approach to characterize functional groups of plant species and their impact on vegetation and ecosystem function is the plant growth form, with its simplest classification to herbs, shrubs and trees. We compare here the fraction of the different plant growth forms for trait measurements in TRY version 5 to a comprehensive baseline of plant growth form for >280,000 of the extant 400,000 species, which is currently developed in the context of the GIFT database project.In GIFT, about 50% of species are currently assigned to herbs, 30% to trees and 20% to shrubs (Figure 8). This distribution is well reflected by the species in TRY (excluding data from the GIFT database). However, the six best covered continuous traits in TRY indicate that this distribution is very much trait dependent, with a bias towards trees versus herbs, while the fraction of shrubs is surprisingly constant and close to the fraction in the GIFT database (Figure 8). The overrepresentation of trees is most obvious for SSD, which is not surprising because SSD is a more general concept derived from wood density, a trait relevant for forestry, timber industry and estimates of forest vegetation biomass. However, the tendency of relatively more data for trees compared to other growth forms is also obvious for SLA, leaf nitrogen content per dry mass and leaf area, but opposite for root length per root dry mass (specific root length), which is frequently reported for herbs.Apart from plant growth form, three additional categorical traits are relevant to determine PFTs commonly used in global vegetation models: leaf type (broadleaved vs. needle-leaved) and leaf phenology type (deciduous vs. evergreen) for tree species, and photosynthetic pathway (C3, C4, CAM) for herbaceous species. TRY provides leaf type and leaf phenology type, for about 10% of the estimated 130,000 tree species worldwide and photosynthetic pathway for about 6% of estimated 200,000 herb species.Smith and Brown (2018) published a series of broadly inclusive seed plant phylogenies. Here we chose the most comprehensive phylogeny (ALLMB), containing 356,305 taxa, as a baseline to visualize the coverage of TRY in a phylogenetic context. Taxa in ALLMB were cut to binomials and consolidated using the TNRS with TPL, GCC, ILDIS, TROPICOS and USDA as the taxonomic backbone (the same approach as for TRY). After consolidation, we could match the taxa in the phylogeny to 208,406 of the 279,875 taxa in TRY. Higher level taxonomy is based on Zanne et al. (2014).Visually, the 208,000 species with data in TRY are well distributed across the 350,000 species represented in the phylogeny of seed plants (Figure 9). An ancestral state reconstruction (ASR)of species trait number confirms that the long-tail distribution previously seen at the species level also holds in a phylogenetic context: some clades are covered very well (bright colours), while most clades have lower data coverage (dark colours). The ASR additionally shows how deep in phylogeny data gaps are rooted. This indicates the potential for, and limits to, phylogenetically or taxonometically informed gap-filling (Schrodt et al., 2015). Examples of high-coverage clades are (parts of) the Pinales, Poales and Asterales. When looking at the six best-covered continuous traits individually, we find these too are well distributed across the phylogeny (Figure 9). here ask if the TRY database provides trait information for a relevant number of plant species in the different regions worldwide. To characterize regions in an ecologically meaningful way we adopt the ecoregions introduced by Olson et al. (2001), which are defined as relatively large units of land containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities before major land-use change. The ecoregions are nested within biomes with biotic communities formed in response to a shared physical climate, most importantly temperature and rainfall. We compare the number of species, which have trait measurements in an ecoregion in TRY version 5 to species numbers per ecoregion estimated by Kier et al. (2005). This approach accounts to some extent for intraspecific trait variation, as it counts only species with at least one trait measurement in the given ecoregion.The 839 ecoregions defined by Olson et al. (2001) are very different in size, from 6 km 2 (San Felix-San Ambrosio Islands temperate forests) to 4,639,920 km 2 (Sahara desert) with species numbers ranging from 0 (St. Peter and St. Paul rocks and the Maudlandia Antarctic desert) to 10,000 (Borneo lowland rain forests). The TRY database contains no trait measurements for 271 mostly small ecoregions and F I G U R E 9 Trait coverage per species projected on a global phylogeny. The presence of trait data for plant species in the TRY database version 5 matched to the global ALLMB phylogeny published by Smith and Brown (2018). Rings surrounding the phylogeny indicate from inside outwards: (i) number of traits per species (innermost ring); (ii) presence of data for six of the best covered continuous traits, specifically: leaf area, leaf area per leaf dry mass (SLA), leaf nitrogen content per dry mass (LeafN), seed dry mass, plant height and stem specific density (SSD). Colours of phylogeny branches represent an ancestral state reconstruction of the number of traits per species. White and grey circles indicate periods of 50 million years. For visibility, only 5% of species (randomly selected) are presented up to 1,400 species for some ecoregions in Europe (Alps conifer and mixed forests) and tropical South America (Napo moist forests, Tapajos-Xingu moist forests). In general, high absolute numbers of species with trait measurements for ecoregions are found in Europe, East Asia, Oceania, Australia, tropical South America and the United States (Figure 10a). East Asia, Oceania and tropical South America are also the regions with the highest numbers of species per ecoregions estimated by Kier et al. (2005;Figure  10b). The best relative coverage in TRY (Figure 10c) is provided for the Marielandia Antarctic tundra (two species estimated and in TRY) and for a large ecoregion in Central Russia (West Siberian taiga, 900 species estimated, 885 in TRY). The species in the Russian ecoregion are measured at several sites relatively well distributed across the ecoregion, but dominated by just one trait, 'mycorrhiza infection intensity' contributed by the mycorrhizal intensity database (Akhmetzhanova et al., 2012). Some other ecoregions are also well covered with data for more than 50% of estimated species (Southeast Australia temperate savanna, Qaidam Basin semi-desert, Córdoba forests and mountain grasslands). Apart from these individual ecoregions spread across the world, large parts of Europe are well covered, with trait data for about 30% of the species number estimated by Kier et al. (2005). Some ecoregions in East Asia, Australia, tropical South America, the Sahara, and the United States are also well covered, providing data for about 20% of estimated species richness. Very low relative coverage (<2%) is observed for major parts of Canada, Africa, western Asia (Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan) and major parts of India.Understanding and predicting intraspecific variation for a relevant number of traits and species is still in its infancy. Given that TRY is collecting trait measurements on individual plants, the TRY data set might be suited to address these questions. A precondition for such analyses is a minimum number of measurements on different individual plants at different sites per trait and species. To assess this issue, we plotted the number of species for which TRY version 5 contains a minimum number of individual measurements (Figure 11a) and the number of species for which TRY version 5 contains measurements from a minimum number of individual sites (Figure 11b) for the 15 best-covered continuous traits. By increasing the minimum number of individuals or sites, the number of species available for analysis decreases sharply (more than exponentially), whereas the exact slope is trait specific. The characterization of intraspecific variation in Kattge et al. (2011) relied on at least 20 individuals per species. Based on this criterion, TRY 5 provides information for hundreds to thousands of species for 14 out of the 15 traits (Figure 11a). Assuming a more realistic limit of 100 individuals per species, SLA and LDMC are sufficiently covered for about 300 species, and four other traits for more than 100 species. Assuming a minimum number of 200 individuals per species, four traits still allow for an analysis of 100 species, and nine traits allow for the analysis of intraspecific variation of more than 10 species. However, the numbers are more humbling if the environmental context is taken into account (Figure 11b). If we assume that trait records from a minimum number of 50 sites per species are necessary to represent intraspecific variation, four traits are sufficiently covered for about 100 species. If 100 sites are necessary, no trait is covered by data for more than 10 species.Plant trait data provide a wealth of information directly relevant in several scientific contexts, from conservation, ecology and evolution to earth system sciences. To fully realize this potential, the TRY  Ciais, Peñuelas, & Viovy, 2016;Sakschewski et al., 2015Sakschewski et al., , 2016;;Verheijen et al., 2013Verheijen et al., , 2015)), extending macroecology and biodiversity by functional aspects (e.g. Bjorkman, Myers-Smith, Elmendorf, Normand, Rüger, et al., 2018;Bruelheide et al., 2018;Craven et al., 2018;Newbold et al., 2015), linking soil characteristics to vegetation attributes (e.g. Boeddinghaus et al., 2019;de Vries et al., 2012;Delgado-Baquerizo et al., 2018) and providing data for global maps of plant traits (e.g. Butler et al., 2017;Moreno-Martínez et al., 2018).The central keywords of the cluster analysis in However, given the number of species has a natural limit and assuming the number of traits will continue to grow, but more slowly, once the most obvious ones have been covered, we expect that the sparseness of the entity × trait matrix will become stable: new data adding new rows for entities, but not many new columns for traits.In comparison, the sparseness of the species × trait matrix should decline in the future; new data will mostly contribute to filling the matrix and increasing the number of species with data per trait. This reduced sparseness of the species × traits matrix will systematically improve the applicability of trait data for macroecology and earth system modelling and will facilitate multivariate analyses for an increasing number of traits. In parallel, the number of records per species-trait combination is increasing: between TRY 1 and 5 it already doubled and will further increase in the future. This increasing number of records per species-trait combination will improve data coverage for analyses of intraspecific trait variation and trait-environment relationships accounting for intraspecific variation. It is noteworthy that the matrix will not only become more complete, but the traits will increasingly be able to inform each other. The 'usual suspects' (i.e. the best covered continuous traits) might not be masters of all traits, but they surely will be very useful as baseline traits and provide a background against which other-maybe more influential-traits can be analysed for coverage, representativeness, orthogonality, etc.Despite unprecedented and continuously growing data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness in many aspects. The best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits relevant to determine PFTs commonly used in global vegetation models. For the traits 'woodiness' and 'plant growth form', even full species coverage is within reach, due to the contribution of data from the GIFT database. For the first time, this provides a global baseline for these traits, which are relevant to understand basic patterns of variation for several other traits (Díaz et al., 2016). With this baseline, future analyses will be able to address representativeness in addition to coverage, which will substantially contribute to better understand the global pattern of plant traits relevant for biodiversity and ecosystem function (König et al., 2019).Most traits directly relevant for ecology and vegetation model- or large total cover). Such species have a particularly large impact on the community weighted mean trait value (Garnier et al., 2004), and particularly large individual trees may overrule remaining trees' attributes (Ali et al., 2019). Initial evidence indicates that abundant species are better covered in TRY than rare species. Bruelheide et al. (2019) show that the 25% most dominant or most frequent species compiled in the sPlot vegetation-plot database are better represented by trait data in the TRY database than species observed on the plots overall. We also checked this for the 227 hyperdominant species of the Amazonia tree flora identified by ter Steege et al. (2013). After the consolidation of species names via TNRS, all 227 hyperdominant species are present in the TRY database, with on average 69 traits per species, which is far above average (see Figure 3e). We therefore conclude that the coverage of trait data in TRY is biased towards the more abundant species in the respective ecoregions-which is reasonable and welcome for many kinds of analyses.We have reported that intraspecific variation in space is increasingly well covered, but variation in time is hard to estimate.Nevertheless, intraspecific variation in time is relevant for several traits to characterize the seasonal variation of plant and ecosystem function (Xu & Baldocchi, 2003;Xu & Griffin, 2006) and long-term trends to inform policy about biodiversity change (Kissling et al., 2018). About half of the geo-referenced trait records have information on the sampling date that could be standardized to year, month and day, but systematic replicates over time ('time series') are rare (but see e.g. the 'Photosynthesis Traits Database'; Xu & Baldocchi, 2003). In principle, 'non-time series' data allow detection of trait changes over time (Craine et al., 2018), but these analyses are very challenging, as most traits demonstrate stronger variation in geographic space along climate and soil gradients than over time.In addition, the variations of traits on different time scales (diurnal, seasonal, inter-annual variation and long-term trends) are superimposed and hard to disentangle. Apart from this, there is a need to collect and report repeated trait measurements from the same location or population to monitor biodiversity change and inform policy, for example in the context of GEO BON (Kissling et al., 2018).Figure 1 shows the most obvious way to mobilize additional trait data: the TRY initiative should regularly send calls for data contribution to the wider scientific community, that is the network of more than 6,000 researchers contributing and using trait data via TRY.These calls should be combined with regular publications of respective reference papers. This can be combined with (a) a systematic collection of data sets from public data repositories, which is becoming more effective with the general move by many journals to require As TRY has been designed as a community cyber-infrastructure based on the idea of incentive-driven data sharing (Kattge, Díaz, & Wirth, 2014), the collaboration and data exchange with other plant trait databases will continue to be the key to achieve a comprehensive representation of plant traits. TRY is, therefore, collaborating with many more recent trait database initiatives, such as, for example, FRED, GIFT, BIEN and the Tundra Trait Team, and since the early days of TRY-GLOPNET, LEDA, SID, BiolFlor, BIOPOP, BROT, the Ecological Flora of the British Isles, eHALOPH, USDA PLANTSdata, BRIDGE and many others. Importantly, these collaborations need to provide mutual benefit. Based on these collaborations, the TRY database may serve as a central node for plant traits in an overarching network of trait databases, currently emerging in the context of the Open Traits Network (Gallagher et al., in press). Finally, new techniques and approaches are gradually becoming available, which may substantially change how plant trait data are collected: remote sensing, citizen sciences, microbiological and molecular screening, etc.We expect that the combination of (a) systematic involvement of the ","tokenCount":"6361"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5699188c5072a407fb61f1d537617465","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/flyer/GCS-REDD-P4-SP.pdf","id":"1469731846"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"08a4163d-617c-49db-aaf8-66fbfc8ce83e","pagecount":"2","content":"Desarrollo de una base sólida de conocimientos y una comunidad para aplcar la experiencia del REDD+ hacia el logro de las 3E.Generación de nuevos conocimientos para orientar y facilitar el cambio tranformacional.Apoyo a los responsables de las tomas de decisiones y profesionales para el logro de resultados y la evaluación de los impactos de REDD+.Del conocimiento a la acción para proteger los bosques tropicales y fortalecer los derechos. El GCS REDD+ (www.cifor. org/gcs) es la investigación enfocada en REDD+ más amplia del mundo, que por más de 10 años ha generado evidencia crucial para el análisis e implementación de REDD+ y otras iniciativas similares. Con trabajo en más de 20 países, el GCS REDD+ ha generado resultados que permiten avanzar hacia un REDD+ \"3E\" (eficaz, eficiente y equitativo).\uD83D\uDD3A Inclusión de turberas en el nivel de referencia de emisiones forestales.\uD83D\uDD3A Asistencia técnica en la construcción de la estrategia nacional sobre bosques y cambio climático.\uD83D\uDD3A Diseño colaborativo con el SERNANP de la publicación \"¿Cómo vamos?\", una herramienta para monitorear procesos participativos en los Comités de Gestión de las Áreas Naturales Protegidas.\uD83D\uDD3A En colaboración con ONAMIAP, adaptación de \"¿Cómo vamos?\" para la gobernanza territorial indígena, con énfasis en el abordaje de la desigualdad de género. Línea de trabajo 1:Hacia la transparencia y rendición de cuentas La fase 4 del GCS REDD+ (2021-2023) se concentrará en identificar las barreras para el diseño y la implementación de políticas y acciones hacia un REDD+ \"3E\" (eficaz, eficiente y equitativo), a la luz de la próxima financiación basada en resultados. El objetivo final es que los responsables de la formulación de políticas y los profesionales diseñen e implementen políticas y acciones REDD+ \"3E\" en favor de los bosques, con base en el conocimiento y las capacidades desarrolladas de forma colaborativa en el marco de este proyecto.y ampliar el espacio políticoBuscamos comprender los factores que promueven y/o impiden cambios del statu quo, y cómo sobrepasar estos retos. Llevaremos a cabo estudios a nivel global sobre la deforestación y las relaciones de poder alrededor de la toma de decisiones sobre los bosques y la gobernanza del cambio climático. Con ello se identificarán las condiciones que permiten un cambio transformacional en la política sobre los bosques y el cambio climático que den paso a políticas forestales REDD+ \"3E\", incluyendo la protección de los derechos y modos de vida de las comunidades indígenas y locales, y las mujeres en estas comunidades.Produciremos evidencia para apoyar la gobernanza ambiental equitativa, incluyendo el cumplimiento de salvaguardas, participación social inclusiva y mecanismos de reclamo efectivos. Presentaremos análisis y guías, con lecciones comparativas enfocadas en Perú, para implementar un enfoque de derechos que salvaguarden los de los pueblos indígenas (y las mujeres en estos grupos), en proyectos REDD+ o similares. Además, presentaremos hojas de ruta prácticas para el cumplimiento de los estándares de salvaguardas REDD+, incluyendo ART-TREES, las que tendrán en consideración los costos y beneficios asociados a diferentes estándares. Finalmente, la herramienta \"¿Cómo vamos?\", que fuera adaptada junto al SERNANP para las áreas protegidas del Perú y con ONAMIAP para abordar la desigualdad de género en la gobernanza territorial, será reeditada y adaptada para apoyar el cumplimiento de las ambiciones climáticas del Perú.Seguimiento y evaluación de las acciones REDD+Esta línea de trabajo brindará información sobre las prácticas para combatir la deforestación y degradación de los bosques que funcionan mejor en diferentes contextos.Tenemos dos objetivos específicos: definir una tipología de las intervenciones en los bosques; y compilar evidencia científica sobre las características del contexto que permiten resultados efectivos en estas intervenciones.Como resultado, presentaremos una matriz de contextointervención fácil de usar, y que adaptaremos para la realidad peruana con los y las participantes de la plataforma de ciencia y políticas públicas. Además, mapearemos diferentes intervenciones forestales en el Perú para evaluar si existe una correlación entre el tipo de intervención y el contexto en el cual ha sido implementado. Junto con la plataforma de ciencia y políticas públicas identificaremos casos para analizar el efecto del contexto en la eficacia de las intervenciones y organizaremos sesiones para refinar la matriz de contexto-intervención y promover el intercambio de conocimientos de las experiencias en Perú y en contextos similares.A partir del árbol de conocimientos sobre la distribución de beneficios (www2.cifor.org/knowledgetree/context) desarrollado por CIFOR; y el trabajo sobre los mecanismos de financiamiento, se hará un mapeo para facilitar el acceso a la información sobre la distribución de beneficios en REDD+ y se promoverá la mejora de los mecanismos existentes. El árbol de conocimientos plantea una guía paso a paso para orientar a los países en el diseño y seguimiento de políticas públicas que permitan el alcance de resultados REDD+ \"3E\". Además, mediante estudios de caso en Perú, junto con aliados locales y actores claves, se identificarán y analizarán los mecanismos emergentes para la distribución de beneficios y los desafíos asociados.Enlazar ciencia y políticas públicas para la acción climática basada en los bosques En asociación con la PUCP, organizaremos una plataforma de ciencia y políticas públicas con un grupo de referencia de 15 a 20 actores clave con el objetivo de compartir, discutir, adaptar al Perú, y validar la investigación de las diferentes líneas de trabajo. En este espacio se desarrollará un marco de diagnóstico y la construcción de escenarios para apoyar el diseño de intervenciones para reducir la deforestación y la degradación forestal en Perú, asegurando que estas cumplan las 3E y sean políticamente viables. El marco de diagnóstico será una herramienta para la toma de decisiones basada en teorías del cambio, estudios de impacto e información y conocimientos fundamentados en contextos específicos. La construcción de escenarios tendrá una visión de futuro para estimar las posibles trayectorias de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en función de diferentes escenarios políticos, y para apoyar el cumplimiento de las metas que el Perú trazó en sus NDC. La ruta de impacto de este proyecto contempla cinco etapas:1. Creación de conocimiento y aprendizaje colaborativo en las cuatro líneas de trabajo, incluyendo la participación de actores clave a lo largo de la investigación, y en la producción del marco de diagnóstico y la construcción de escenarios a través de la plataforma de ciencias y políticas públicas.2. Mejora en el acceso al conocimiento por medio de actividades de coproducción de conocimiento con actores clave a lo largo del proyecto. Estos actores tienen un rol clave en el enfoque de la investigación y el desarrollo de la misma, incrementando así las probabilidades de que adopten y escalen los resultados de la colaboración.3. Cambio en las aspiraciones de los actores clave, incluyendo una mejora del uso de la evidencia generada mediante la coproducción de conocimiento durante el proyecto.4. Cambio en las prácticas de los actores clave, incluyendo un mayor compromiso con las políticas y acciones REDD+ \"3E\" sobre bosques, una mayor disposición y compromiso para su diseño e implementación, e incremento del financiamiento para las iniciativas sobre los bosques.5. Cambio del statu quo por medio del apoyo a la reducción de la deforestación y degradación de los bosques, promoción del desarrollo sostenible y conservación de la biodiversidad.Para obtener más información sobre el GCS REDD+ fase 4, por favor contacte a:Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti j.sarmiento@cgiar.org Coordinador de la investigación en Perú","tokenCount":"1192"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"400d159daa57feda3026636663105ffa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/78e87974-46b5-4188-a75a-42953aa2268f/retrieve","id":"-213174405"},"keywords":["climate change","drought","indirect selection for high yield","low soil nitrogen","quality protein maize","stress resilient maize"],"sieverID":"4ed99201-6239-41ff-abe4-6eb8863f1d50","pagecount":"13","content":") Selection of extra-early white quality protein maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines for drought and low soil nitrogen resilient hybrid production.Maize is an important staple crop for about half of the human population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Due to its economic importance, it is anticipated to become the most important cereal crop by 2025 across the world (FAOSTAT, 2017;Bhadmus et al., 2021). However, factors such as drought and low soil N severely hamper its productivity and production across the sub-region, thereby increasing food and nutritional insecurity (Badu-Apraku et al., 2011;Annor and Badu-Apraku, 2016;Kountche et al., 2019).The current poor maize grain yield of 2.01 t ha −1 in SSA compared to the global estimate of 5.75 t ha −1 (FAOSTAT, 2020) is caused largely by low soil N and drought. Due to climate change and farmers' inability to afford adequate quantities of fertilizers, the effects of the two stresses are very severe under farmers' field conditions in SSA (Annor and Badu-Apraku, 2016;Ertiro et al., 2017).Maize reaction to low soil nitrogen and drought is controlled by similar mechanisms (Badu-Apraku et al., 2012a,b;Obeng-Bio et al., 2019), and the two stresses frequently occur jointly in farmers' fields (Kim and Adetimirin, 1997;Badu-Apraku et al., 2011;Ertiro et al., 2017). Separately, drought and low N can cause grain output reduction of 40-50% (Wolfe et al., 1988;Amegbor et al., 2017;Annor et al., 2019) and 30-90% (Menkir and Akintunde, 2001;Annor et al., 2019), respectively. When these stresses occur jointly and the cultivated varieties are vulnerable, the combined effect could be a total (100%) grain yield loss (Kim and Adetimirin, 1997;Annor and Badu-Apraku, 2016). Therefore, combined nitrogen use efficiency and resilience to drought must be considered when developing maize genotypes for cultivation in SSA.Normal endosperm maize grain contains ∼10% protein. However, the levels of lysine and tryptophan are inadequate. This makes children fed on non-quality protein maize (non-QPM) without other dietary protein sources suffer growth deformities such as kwashiorkor due to malnutrition (Olakojo et al., 2007;Upadhyay et al., 2009;Mbuya et al., 2011;Annor et al., 2019;Bhadmus et al., 2021). Quality protein maize, however, can provide 73% of the protein needs of human beings and contains nearly twice the quantity of tryptophan and lysine in the non-QPM endosperm (Annor et al., 2019;Bhadmus et al., 2021). Conversely, the normal endosperm maize grain can supply only ∼46% of the human protein requirements and has a protein content of ∼1.81% lysine and 0.35% tryptophan (Krivanek et al., 2007;Obeng-Bio et al., 2019). Studies aimed at enhancing the creation of stress (combined drought and low N)-resilient extra-early white QPM inbred lines that reach physiological maturity between 80 and 85 days after planting (Oluwaranti et al., 2008;Badu-Apraku et al., 2012a,b) are therefore crucial in reducing nutritional and food insecurity among the rural, peri-urban, and urban populations in SSA. According to Badu-Apraku and Oyekunle (2012), extraearly maize genotypes mature before the onset of the dry season and are capable of escaping tropical drought. Extra-early maturing white QPM genotypes that contain alleles for resilience to low soil N and drought can survive the drought at the flowering and grain-filling periods during the growing seasons. The drought and low-N resilient maize can overcome the effects of climate change in the tropics, resulting in the reduction of the unpredictability of maize grain yields in SSA, particularly in the savannah zones, and the relatively shorter second growing season in the forest agro-ecological zones of the tropics (Badu-Apraku et al., 2013).Because of the significance of QPM, numerous extra-early white QPM inbreds have been developed by scientists of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Maize Improvement Program (IITA-MIP). The major thrust of the maize improvement program has been to develop drought-resilient and high-yielding QPM synthetic cultivars and hybrids that are resilient to the prevailing stresses for the release and commercialization in SSA. However, this objective cannot be promptly achieved without adequate knowledge and a clear understanding of the responses of inbred lines developed in the program to stress conditions, especially low soil N and drought. According to Betrán et al. (2003) and Meseka et al. (2011), hybrid maize potential is largely linked with the performance of the parents, and hybrids or varieties that have one or two stress-resilient parents usually produce higher yields compared to those with both parents susceptible. Information on the responses of the parental inbreds under the prevailing stress conditions would enhance the development of efficient breeding strategies for generating maize genotypes for stress environments in SSA (Meseka et al., 2006). Hence, the reaction of inbred lines to stresses should be considered by breeders when developing stress-resilient hybrids aimed at overcoming the effects of climatic change in the tropics. However, data on the reaction of the existing extra-early maturing white QPM inbred lines to combined low soil N and drought is insufficient. The present study sought to (i) identify climate-smart QPM inbred lines that can tolerate drought and low N stresses and (ii) determine the association between grain yield and other agronomically desirable characters of 96 extra-early maturing white QPM inbred lines and four inbred checks under drought and low-N conditions.The ninety-six (96) QPM inbreds used in the present study were developed from a cross between Pool 15 SR (a QPM donor source) and two extra-early Striga-resistant (SR) white normal endosperm inbreds by scientists of the IITA-MIP in Nigeria. Backcrossing the single cross hybrids (F 1 hybrids) to the normal endosperm parents resulted in the first backcross (BC 1 ) and second backcross (BC 2 ) filial generations. Subsequently, the BC 2 individuals were repeatedly self-pollinated to obtain 245 extra-early white QPM S 6 inbred lines. Based on the assessment of the opaqueness of the maize kernels under a light box and the results of the field evaluations under drought at locations in Nigeria, 96 QPM inbred lines (Table 1) were selected for the present study.The 96 extra-early white QPM parental inbreds and four low N and drought-resilient normal endosperm maize checks (Table 1) were assessed in low soil nitrogen and moisture stress conditions in Nigeria. The experiment was conducted in drought environments at Bagauda, which is drought-prone lying at longitude 8 • 22 ′ E, latitude 12 • 00 ′ N, with an elevation of 580 m and an annual rainfall of 800 mm, during the 2012 rainy season (July-October). It was  At Ikenne, drought stress was imposed by stopping the irrigation water application 21 DAP to ensure the drought occurred at the bloom and grain-producing stages. Throughout the first 21 days of crop growth and development, a sprinkler irrigation system was utilized to make available 17 mm of water each week, as demonstrated in a similar research conducted by Annor and Badu-Apraku (2016) and Annor et al. (2019). The Ikenne experimental site is characterized as eutric nitisol soils with a high water-holding capacity. At planting, the drought experiments were fertilized by applying 60 kg ha −1 of phosphorus (P), 60 kg ha −1 of nitrogen (N), and 60 kg ha −1 of potassium (K). Additionally, 60 kg ha −1 of nitrogen was applied at 14 DAP. To ensure that the trials were weed-free, gramoxone and atrazine were applied as post-and preemergence weedicides at 5 l/ha of paraquat and primextra. The weedicides application was supplemented by manual weeding.The selected maize inbreds were also assessed at the Mokwa and Ile-Ife experimental sites, which had been continuously depleted of nitrogen for several years by removing the biomass of cultivated maize after each harvesting. To ascertain the amount of nitrogen in the soil, samples of soil were taken from 0 to 15 cm depth for analysis at the soil laboratory of IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria, before planting (after land preparation). The soil analysis was done following the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC, 1984) procedure. Based on the nitrogen level in the soil (soil analysis results), urea fertilizer was applied to bring the nitrogen content of the low soil nitrogen plots to about 30 kg ha −1 , while the level of the optimal nitrogen block was increased to 90 kg ha −1 at 14 DAP. This brought the N, P, and K fertilizers applied to the low N conditions to 30, 60, and 60 kg ha −1 , respectively, while the N, P, and K fertilizers applied to the optimum N conditions were 90, 60, and 60 kg ha −1 , respectively.Muriates of potash and single superphosphate were applied to the low soil N and optimal N fields to achieve 60 kg ha −1 of K 2 O and 60 kg ha −1 of P 2 O 5 . To reduce the nitrogen fertilizer movement from one block to the other, the low and optimal nitrogen experiments were carried out in adjacent blocks set apart by a 10-m alley. The other agronomic practices carried out were as reported earlier for the drought trials.Data were taken on: days to 50% silking (DS) = the number of days between planting and when 50% of the plants' silks appeared; days to 50% anthesis (DA) = the number of days from planting and when 50% of the plants began to shed pollen grains. The anthesissilking interval (ASI) was estimated as the difference between DA and DS; plant height (cm) = the distance between the plant's base and the height of the first tassel branch (for 10 randomly selected plants); ear height (cm) = the distance between the plant's base and the height of the node carrying the upper ear (mean of 10 randomly selected plants); root lodging was taken as the percentage of plants that leaned more than 30 degrees from the vertical; stalk lodging = the proportion of plants that had broken at or below the highest ear node; husk cover = measurement of how tight or loose the ear tip was (rating was on a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 indicating husks densely packed and extending beyond the ear tip and 9 indicating ear tips exposed); ear aspect = the overall look of the ears without the husks (ear aspect was graded on a scale of 1-9 based on ear size, uniformity of size, color, and texture, level of grain filling, and insect and disease damage); ears per plant (EPP) = the number of ears collected per plot divided by the number of plants in a plot at harvest; plant aspect was scored on a scale of 1 to 9 (Amegbor et al., 2017) based on the assessment of overall design of plants in a plot as they appealed to sight; and stay-green characteristic was rated at 70 DAP (10 WAP) on a scale of 1-9 (Annor and Badu-Apraku, 2016) based on the percentage of dead leaves in the low N and drought trials. Harvested ears from each plot were shelled, and grain weight was assessed in tests conducted under low N and drought conditions. The moisture content of the grains was tested using the Kett moisture tester PM-450. Grain yield in kg ha −1 was determined using shelled grain weight and a moisture level of 15%. However, for the optimal experiment, a shelling percentage of 80% for inbred lines per plot was assumed, and grain yield (obtained from ear weight converted to kg ha −1 ) was adjusted to 15% moisture content.The square root transformation method was used to transform the data recorded for stalk lodging, ear rot, and root lodging after converting them to percentages. The Statistical Analysis System (SAS) (SAS Institute, 2011) was used for the analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the data taken across the stresses (low N and drought) and under optimal conditions. The entries (inbreds) were considered fixed factors, while the environments, incomplete blocks within replicates × environment interactions, and replicates within the environments were considered random factors in the ANOVA across the stress conditions. The means that were estimated with SAS were separated by the standard error (S.E).To identify stress-resilient inbred lines for the present study, a base index (BI), which comprised grain yield, plant aspect (PASP), ears per plant (EPP), anthesis-silking interval (ASI), stay-green characteristic (STGR), and ear aspect (EASP), was used as reported by Annor and Badu-Apraku (2016). The stress BI was estimated as follows:To minimize the effects of the different scales, a mean of zero and a standard deviation of BI were used to standardize the traits. A negative BI estimate was an indicator of the susceptibility of an inbred, while a positive estimate was a sign of an inbred's resilience to stress, as reported by other researchers (Annor and Badu-Apraku, 2016).The SAS PROC Varcomp was used to compute the heritability in the broad sense (H 2 ) for the observed variables under stress conditions by estimating the phenotypic and genetic variation of the inbreds. The heritability values were obtained using the formula below:where σ 2 ge is the genotype x environment interaction, σ 2 g is the genotypic variance, σ 2 e is the error variance, r is the number of replicates per environment, and e is the number of environments (Fehr, 1991).The association between the measured traits was determined by estimating the correlation coefficients using the PROC CORR in SAS. Employing the grain yield data for the inbreds, the genotype main effects plus genotype x environment interaction (GGE) biplot analysis was performed to break down the inbred x environment interactions into their components and to obtain the information on the most promising inbreds across the research conditions as described by Yan (2001).The combined ANOVA over four stress environments of the inbred lines revealed differences (P < 0.01) among inbreds and environments for measured parameters in the study. Under optimum conditions, there was genotypic variation for all parameters except for ear and plant heights. The ANOVA also revealed that inbred x environment interaction was highly variable for measured parameters apart from the number of ears per plant (Table 2).Under stress conditions, the mean grain production of the inbreds varied from 447 kg ha −1 for TZEEQI 223-1,567 kg ha −1 for TZEEQI 60, with an overall mean of 1,020 kg ha −1 . Under optimum conditions, grain yield ranged from 744 kg ha −1 for TZEEQI 239-2,582 kg ha −1 for TZEEQI 7, with a mean of 1,838 kg ha −1 . Among the best 15 and worst 10 of the 96 extra-early QPM inbred lines selected based on their performance under stress conditions using the IITA base index, viz. inbreds TZEEQI 60, TZEEQI 7, TZEEQI 111, TZEEQI 78, and TZEEQI 137 with mean grain yield of 1,560, 1,404, 1,529, 15,667, 1,494, and 1,382 kg ha −1 , respectively, proved to be superior in terms of grain yield and resilience to drought and low nitrogen stresses in comparison with the four normal endosperm drought and low nitrogen-resilient normal maize checks (TZEEI 13, TZEEI 21, TZEEI 39, and TZEEI 49) (Table 3). The yield of these QPM inbred lines except TZEEQI 137 was also significantly higher than those of the most stressresilient normal endosperm inbred check, TZEEI 21 (based on the   base index), with a mean grain yield of 1122 kg ha −1 . However, the grain yield produced by the QPM inbreds was not significantly different from that of TZEEI 49, which recorded the highest yield among the checks. The grain yield produced by the QPM inbreds TZEEQI 78, TZEEQI 7, TZEEQI 60, and TZEEQI 111 were also significantly higher than those of TZEEI 13 and TZEEI 39. Under optimum conditions, the QPM inbred line, TZEEQI 7, produced much more grain (2,582 kg ha −1 ) than all the checks except TZEEI 21 (2,362 kg ha −1 ). An average yield decrease of 44% was revealed for the inbred lines across drought and low nitrogen stresses. The grain yield reduction was accompanied by fewer ears per plant, a rise in ASI, days to silking, and poor ear and plant aspects (Table 3). Based on the base index, 57 out of the 96 QPM inbred lines assessed across low nitrogen and drought stresses showed variable degrees of stress resilience (Table 4).. Relationship among the measured characters across stress environmentsIn the current study, grain yield had a high positive association with EPP but significant and negative relationships with days to 50% anthesis, ASI, days to 50% silking, ear height, plant aspect, ear aspect, and leaf death scores across the two (2) stress environments (Table 5). Heritability estimates for the measured traits varied from 0.00 for husk cover to 0.85 for days to 50% silking. The results revealed low heritability for root lodging (0.14), husk cover (0.00), and stalk lodging (0.26). Moderately high heritability estimates were observed for plant aspect (0.46), anthesis-silking interval (0.50), ear aspect (0.56), number of ears per plant (0.39), leaf death (0.47), and ear rot (0.42), while grain yield (0.65), days to 50% silking (0.85), days to 50% anthesis (0.84), ear height (0.73), and plant height (0.72) recorded very high heritability estimates across the two stress conditions (Table 5).. Grain yield performance and stability of selected QPM inbred lines across stress and optimum growing conditionsThe significant genotype x environment interactions and genotypes for most measured traits across stress and optimum conditions justified using the GGE biplot to examine the yield performance and stability of the QPM inbreds across test environments. The GGE biplot is based on the grain yield performance of the 25 (20 best and five worst) QPM inbreds and four normal endosperm inbred checks studied across the stress and optimal conditions. The stability of inbred lines is determined by their projections onto the ATC abscissa. Thus, the longer the projection of an inbred line onto the ATC, the less the stability of the line. Based on these criteria, TZEEQI 7 (Entry 1) was the most stable and highest yielding, followed by inbred lines TZEEQI 60 (Entry 2) and TZEEQI 12 (Entry 10). Contrarily, TZEEI 63 (Entry 11) and TZEEQI 6 (Entry 13) were the least stable and lowest across test environments (Figure 1).To reduce malnutrition and improve food security in SSA, there is a pressing need for drought-resilient QPM inbreds with high nitrogen utilization efficiency (resilient to low N) and genes for drought resilience. Such inbred lines could be utilized to develop high grain-producing QPM hybrids and synthetic cultivars resilient to both stresses. The differences detected among the inbreds, inbred x environment interactions (GEI), and environments observed in this study for most measured traits under stress and optimum conditions suggested that the test environments varied enough to enable the selection of inbred lines with outstanding performance, as indicated by Badu-Apraku et al. (2011, 2016). The results also suggested that adequate genetic variation existed among the genotypes to allow them to be utilized as sources of beneficial alleles for the development of extra-early white QPM breeding populations for resilience to low soil N and drought conditions. The current result agrees with the reports of Badu-Apraku and Oyekunle (2012) and Adu et al. (2021). Moreover, the varied GEI and environments revealed for most of the measured parameters of the inbreds across stress conditions indicated that there could be differences in the expression of the traits under the stress conditions. The implication is that the evaluations of the inbreds in more stressful environments would be required for the identification of the most outstanding inbred lines, as stated by other researchers under drought stress conditions (Badu-Apraku et al., 2011;Edmeades, 2013;Adu et al., 2021) and under low soil N (Meseka et al., 2006). This result endorses the substantial role that the growing environment plays in detecting genotypes with an outstanding performance across the two stress conditions.The most important aim of the current study was to discover outstanding inbred lines for generating climate-smart synthetic cultivars and hybrids for SSA. Such outstanding inbred parents could also be used as sources of valuable alleles for stress resilience. Stress-resilient inbred lines would be priceless in maize breeding programs to develop stress-resilient and high grain-producing synthetic cultivars and hybrids (Betrán et al., 2003;Meseka et al., 2011) for cultivation in SSA. Fifty-seven (57) out of the 96 QPM inbred lines assessed under the stress conditions were found to be resilient to stress at different levels. The stress-resilient hybrids identified also had high grain yield, superior ear aspect, short ASI, high number of ears per plant, good stay-green characteristics, and better plant aspect. Therefore, the superior inbreds identified under stress situations would be valuable for the development of QPM populations in addition to the generation of highyielding and stress-resilient synthetic cultivars and hybrids for commercialization in SSA. They will also be a good source of invaluable alleles for stress resilience.The QPM inbreds TZEEQI 60 and TZEEQ1 7 were the best in terms of stability and yield across environments. The most stable and highest yielding QPM inbred, TZEEQI 7, out-yielded the best low nitrogen and drought-resilient normal endosperm check, TZEEI 21, by 28.0% under stress and 8.5% under optimum conditions. The low levels of yield reduction observed for the top-yielding inbred lines, compared to the checks, indicated the presence of genes for stress resilience in the inbred lines evaluated. The reduction in grain yield, along with an increase in ASI and days to silking, poor plant and ear aspects, and few ears per plant, suggested that the selection for reduced days to anthesis, shorter ASI, increased ears per plant, and good plant and ear aspects is the best method for breeding for stress resilience in the set of inbred lines used. The results in the current study concord with those by Badu-Apraku et al. (2011) and Adu et al. (2021), who suggested that the stay-green characteristic, plant aspect, ASI, and EPP should be considered for selecting genotypes in drought environments. Guei and Wassom (1992) and Badu-Apraku et al. (2023) also indicated that improvement in stress tolerance requires a good stay-green characteristic, shorter ASI, and an improved number of ears per plant. Short ASI, delayed leaf senescence, and an increased number  of ears per plant in stress environments, according to Edmeades et al. (1993) and Zhao et al. (2022), are signs of better growth rates of ovules under stress and increased allocation of assimilates to the emerging ear. The grain yield losses of 44.4% for inbreds under stress conditions in the current study is within the range reported by workers in other studies (NeSmith and Ritchie, 1992;Menkir and Akintunde, 2001;Derera et al., 2008;Badu-Apraku et al., 2011).The moderate to very high estimates of heritability (≥0.30) recorded in the current study for the plant aspect, anthesis-silking interval, grain yield, days to 50% anthesis, ear aspect, number of ears per plant, leaf death, ear rot, days to 50% silking, ear, and plant heights in stress environments showed that the parameters might be easily transferred to the progenies and phenotypic selection would also be effective since additive gene action is more important than non-additive gene action for most of the measured traits. The results also suggested that early generation selection for the characters under stress could be effective, as reported in other studies by Bänziger et al. (1999), Badu-Apraku et al. (2013), and Annor and Badu-Apraku (2016). The results of the present study are at variance with those of Badu-Apraku et al. (2011), who evaluated a set of inbred lines in stress environments and reported that selection for grain yield directly would not be effective due to the low heritability recorded for the trait. The low heritability recorded for husk cover, stalk lodging, and root lodging under stress conditions implied that phenotypic selection of the traits might not be promising, and therefore, the use of selection indices or indirect selection method would be required to assess the genetic values of the traits as indicated by Mhike et al. (2011).The relationship found between grain yield and EPP suggested that the indirect selection of an increased number of ears per plant could result in improved grain yield across the two stress environments. Musila et al. (2010) also reported a strong positive connection between grain yield and the number of ears per plant across stress conditions. Contrarily, a negative relationship was displayed between grain yield and ASI, days to 50% anthesis, ear height, days to 50 % silking, plant aspect, leaf death, and ear aspect, indicating that selection for reduced ASI, ear height, days to 50% anthesis, plant aspect, days to 50% silking, ear aspect, and leaf death could improve grain yield in stress environments. A reliable secondary character for selecting genotypes for stress tolerance must have a strong relationship with grain yield, be highly heritable, and be very simple to record (Bänziger et al., 2000;Adu et al., 2021). Hence, grain yield, ASI, ear height, days to 50% anthesis, plant aspect, days to 50% silking, ear aspect, EPP, and leaf death could be very useful for selecting stress-resilient genotypes among the QPM inbred lines utilized in the current study. This report supported the discoveries of Betrán et al. (2003), Badu-Apraku et al. (2011), Badu-Apraku andOyekunle (2012), Adu et al. (2021) that the most dependable characters for the identification of high yielding maize inbreds in stress environments were plant aspect, ASI, EPP, leaf death, ear aspect, and grain yield. Inbred lines TZEEQI 7, TZEEQI 12, and TZEEQI 60 were found to have exceptional stability and yield across the research environments and ./fsufs. . could be employed to produce outstanding QPM synthetics and hybrids for commercialization in SSA.The inbred lines exhibited differences in the ability to tolerate low N and drought, with an average grain yield reduction of 44.4%. Moderate to high estimates of heritability were displayed by the majority of the studied characters across low N and drought, indicating that several measured characters studied could be easily transferred from the parental inbreds to the progenies and that selection could be done directly. Fifty-seven QPM inbred lines were found to be stress-resilient and could be easily employed as genetic resources for the incorporation of low N and drought-resilient genes into QPM populations in the tropics and the development of stress-resilient synthetic and hybrid cultivars in SSA.","tokenCount":"4295"}
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+{"metadata":null,"keywords":null,"sieverID":"a94d33df-6982-4a2a-a31d-b8194fae01e4","pagecount":"0","content":"i\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado\nInternacional sobre los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura\nii\niii\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado\nInternacional sobre los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura\nGerald Moore y Witold Tymowski\nUICN Serie de Política y Derecho Ambiental No. 57\nUICN 2008\niv\nLa designación de entidades geográficas y la presentación del material en este libro no implican la expresión de ninguna\nopinión por parte de la UICN respecto a la condición jurídica de ningún país, territorio o área, o de sus autoridades, o\nreferente a la delimitación de sus fronteras y límites.\nLos puntos de vista que se expresan en esa publicación no reflejan necesariamente los de la UICN.\nLa UICN declina cualquier error u omisión en la traducción de este documento de la versión original en ingles al español.\nEn caso de discrepancia, sírvase remitirse al texto original.\nPublicado por: UICN, Gland, Suiza en colaboración con el Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la UICN, Bonn,\nAlemania\nDerechos reservados: © 2008 Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y de los Recursos Naturales\nSe autoriza la reproducción de esta publicación con fines educativos y otros fines no comerciales\nsin permiso escrito previo de parte de quien detenta los derechos de autor con tal de que se\nmencione la fuente.\nSe prohíbe reproducir esta publicación para venderla o para otros fines comerciales sin permiso\nescrito previo de quien detenta los derechos de autor.\nCitación: Gerald Moore y Witold Tymowski (2008). Guía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura. UICN, Gland, Suiza. xii + 224\npáginas.\nTraducción: Adolfo Mogilevich\nISBN: 978-2-8317-1059-4\nDiseño de la cubierta: Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la UICN\nFoto de la cubierta: José Esquinas-Alcázar, 2004\nFoto de la contratapa: El Emperador de Hapsburgo Rodolfo II como Vertumno, de Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1591.\nReimpresa con autorización del Castillo Skokloster (Suecia) para utilizarla en relación con el\nTratado Internacional de la FAO sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la\nAgricultura.\nDiagramación: ceterum printdesign - Dieter Müller, Meckenheim, Alemania\nProducido por: Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la UICN\nImpreso por: medienHaus Plump GmbH, Rheinbreitbach, Alemania\nDisponible en: Servicio de publicaciones de la UICN\nRue Mauverney 28\n1196 Gland, Suiza\nTel   +41 22 999 0000\nFax + 41 22 999 0010\nbooks@iucn.org\nwww.iucn.org/publications\nTambién se encuentra disponible un catálogo de las publicaciones de UICN.\nEl texto de este libro fue impreso en papel Novatech 90g/m² hecho de materias\nprimas provenientes de bosques manejados en forma responsable.\nv\nÍndice\nPrefacio ix\nAutores de esta Guía   x\nAgradecimientos  xi\nLista de abreviaturas xii\nIntroducción   1\nAntecedentes   1\nLa naturaleza especial de los RFGAA y su importancia para la agricultura y la   2\nseguridad alimentaria\nLa interdependencia de los países en el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos   4\nRecuadro 1.  Interdependencia y seguridad alimentaria   5\nLos orígenes del Tratado   6\nRecuadro 2.  El Compromiso Internacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos   7\nPor qué se necesita un tratado especial sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la 10\nalimentación y la agricultura\nRelación del Tratado con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica 11\nObjetivos y destinatarios de la Guía 11\nRecuadro 3.  El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica 12\nResumen de los principales componentes del Tratado 14\nDisposiciones generales sobre la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA 15\nDerechos del agricultor 15\nSistema Multilateral de acceso y distribución de beneficios 15\nComponentes de apoyo 17\nDisposiciones financieras 18\nDisposiciones institucionales 18\nCláusulas finales 18\nPREÁMBULO 19\nRecuadro 4.  El fitomejoramiento y la función de los recursos genéticos 23\nPARTE I – INTRODUCCIÓN 31\nArtículo 1 – Objetivos 31\nArtículo 2 – Utilización de términos 35\nArtículo 3 – Ámbito 41\nvi\nPARTE II – DISPOSICIONES GENERALES 43\nArtículo 4 – Obligaciones generales 43\nArtículo 5 – Conservación, prospección, recolección, caracterización, evaluación y 45\ndocumentación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura\nArtículo 6 – Utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos 55\nRecuadro 5. Los sistemas de abastecimiento de semillas y otro material de 57\npropagación y la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA\nRecuadro 6. Realización de los derechos del agricultor a nivel nacional 59\nArtículo 7 – Compromisos nacionales y cooperación internacional 67\nRecuadro 7. La Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual y los 69\nConocimientos Tradicionales\nArtículo 8 – Asistencia técnica 71\nRecuadro 8. El Sistema Mundial de la FAO sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos 71\nPARTE III – DERECHOS DEL AGRICULTOR 73\nArtículo 9 – Derechos del agricultor 73\nRecuadro 9. Unión Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones 75\nVegetales\nRecuadro 10. Red internacional de colecciones ex situ bajo los auspicios 82\nde la FAO\nPARTE IV – SISTEMA MULTILATERAL DE ACCESO Y DISTRIBUCIÓN 85\nDE BENEFICIOS\nArtículo 10 – Sistema Multilateral de acceso y distribución de beneficios 85\nArtículo 11 – Cobertura del Sistema Multilateral 87\nArtículo 12 – Facilitación del acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y 93\nla agricultura dentro del Sistema Multilateral\nRecuadro 11. Derechos de propiedad intelectual sobre los RFGAA   100\nRecuadro 12. Código Internacional de Conducta para la Recolección y la   104\nTransferencia de Germoplasma Vegetal\nRecuadro 13. Acuerdos de transferencia de material   106\nRecuadro 14. La soberanía nacional y los derechos de propiedad   109\nArtículo 13 – Distribución de beneficios en el Sistema Multilateral   111\nPARTE V – COMPONENTES DE APOYO   123\nRecuadro 15. El informe sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos en el 123\nmundo y el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura\nvii\nArtículo 14 – Plan de acción mundial   125\nRecuadro 16. Mecanismo de facilitación para el Plan de acción mundial   125\nArtículo 15 – Colecciones ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la   127\nagricultura mantenidas por los centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional y\notras instituciones internacionales\nRecuadro 17. Los centros de investigación agrícola del GCIAI   134\nArtículo 16 – Redes internacionales de recursos fitogenéticos   137\nRecuadro 18. Redes internacionales de recursos fitogenéticos   140\nArtículo 17 – Sistema mundial de información sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la   143\nalimentación y la agricultura\nRecuadro 19. Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta Rápida (WIEWS)   145\nPARTE VI – DISPOSICIONES FINANCIERAS   147\nArtículo 18 – Recursos financieros   147\nRecuadro 20. Fondo Mundial para la Diversidad de Cultivos   151\nPARTE VII – DISPOSICIONES INSTITUCIONALES   153\nArtículo 19 – Órgano rector   153\nArtículo 20 – Secretario   161\nArtículo 21 – Observancia   163\nArtículo 22 – Solución de controversias   165\nArtículo 23 – Enmiendas del Tratado   169\nArtículo 24 – Anexos   171\nArtículo 25 – Firma   173\nArtículo 26 – Ratificación, aceptación o aprobación   175\nArtículo 27 – Adhesión   177\nArtículo 28 – Entrada en vigor   179\nArtículo 29 – Organizaciones Miembros de la FAO   181\nArtículo 30 – Reservas   183\nArtículo 31 – No partes   185\nArtículo 32 – Denuncia   187\nArtículo 33 – Rescisión   189\nArtículo 34 – Depositario   191\nArtículo 35 – Textos auténticos   193\nRecuadro 21. Legislación nacional y opciones de política para la aplicación   194\ndel Tratado\nviii\nANEXO I   197\nANEXO II   199\nAPÉNDICE 1   203\nTexto del Tratado   205\nix\nPrefacio\nLa entrada en vigor del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y\nla Agricultura constituye un hito muy importante en la gestión y ordenación internacionales de la\ndiversidad biológica. Representa el compromiso de la comunidad mundial con un nuevo tipo de sinergia\ninternacional: una convención independiente que se refiere, al mismo tiempo, a las necesidades\nmundiales de seguridad alimentaria y a los objetivos internacionalmente convenidos relativos a los\nconceptos de acceso y distribución de los beneficios establecidos en la Convención sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica. En sí mismo, este Tratado contribuye a mejorar los medios de vida, prevenir el hambre y\nconservar la diversidad biológica.\nLa presente es la sexta en una serie de guías para la aplicación de determinados instrumentos y\nconceptos internacionales. Su objetivo es promover una mejor comprensión del texto del Tratado y\nsus posibles repercusiones – explicar el texto y algunas de las consideraciones científicas, técnicas y\njurídicas en que se basa. A diferencia de guías anteriores, y como consecuencia de la pérdida imprevista\nde financiación de importancia crítica, en la elaboración de esta Guía no se pudieron utilizar talleres\nde expertos como mecanismo para garantizar su imparcialidad, pero afortunadamente se recibió una\nimportante cantidad de contribuciones directas y comentarios de un amplio grupo de expertos\ninternacionales.\nEl Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la Unión Mundial para la Naturaleza (UICN) y el Instituto\nInternacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) se enorgullecen de haber patrocinado la preparación,\npublicación y distribución de la presente Guía y esperan que sea útil para quienes participen en la\naplicación del Tratado.\nAgradecemos muy especialmente al Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo\nde Alemania y a la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO)\nsus contribuciones financieras que, en combinación con otros fondos de la UICN, han hecho posible\nla publicación de esta Guía.\nAlejandro Iza\nDirector del Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la UICN\nEmile Frison\nDirector General del Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos\nx\nAutores de esta Guía\nGerald Moore fue Asesor Jurídico de la FAO de 1988 a 2000. Actualmente es Miembro Honorario del\nInstituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) de Roma, Italia.\nWitold Tymowski; B.C.L. & LL.B (McGill), B.A. (McGill) es Asesor Jurídico en la Corte Suprema\ndel Canadá e Investigador Jurídico en el Centro de Derecho Internacional del Desarrollo Sostenible\n(CDIDS). El Sr. Tymowski ha practicado derecho mercantil internacional y derecho de la propiedad\nintelectual en el estudio jurídico Stikeman Elliott LLP. Anteriormente trabajó en el Environmental\nLaw and Policy Center (ELPC) de Chicago, Illinois, el Centro de Derecho Ambiental Internacional\n(CIEL) en Ginebra, Suiza y el Centro de Derecho Ambiental de la Unión Mundial para la Naturaleza\n(UICN) en Bonn, Alemania.\nLa serie de guías publicadas por UICN y ELP procura satisfacer una necesidad crítica para el\nderecho internacional de la conservación y el desarrollo sostenible: proporcionar un análisis\nobjetivo realizado por expertos del texto de documentos internacionales de importancia\nfundamental. Se centra principalmente en nuevos instrumentos internacionales y ofrece una\nexplicación de su contenido y su relación con otros instrumentos, documentos de política y\nplanes de acción de gran importancia. Las guías apuntan a constituir documentos de referencia\npara quienes deseen mayor información sobre estos instrumentos y sobre posibles medidas para\naplicarlos.\nA medida que maduren los acuerdos multilaterales sobre medio ambiente, se prevé que en el\nfuturo algunas de las guías se centrarán en la aplicación de los documentos existentes y\nproporcionarán información sobre la política, la legislación, las instituciones y las actividades\nrelativas a su aplicación en los planos nacional e internacional.\nxi\nAgradecimientos\nSe distribuyeron sucesivos borradores de esta Guía en tres oportunidades a un amplio grupo de\ninteresados que representaban una gran variedad de temas y posiciones en materia de agricultura o\nbiodiversidad, entre los que se contaban como mínimo 28 representantes de gobiernos nacionales, 21\nde organismos intergubernamentales y 24 de organizaciones no gubernamentales. Los autores desearían\nagradecer las contribuciones de las siguientes personas que ofrecieron observaciones orales o escritas\ny otra información de interés para la preparación de esta Guía:\nRegine Andersen, Larry Christy, David Cooper, Kate Davis, Jade Donavanik, Jan Engels, José Esquinas-\nAlcázar, Brad Fraleigh, George Greene, Michael Halewood, Robert Lettington, Leslie Lipper, Christian\nLópez-Silva, Daniele Manzella, Ali Mekouar, Haruko Okusu, Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Elpidio Peria,\nFrancois Pythoud, Clive Stannard, Martin Eric Smith, Nuria Urquía, Morten Walløe Tvedt y Tomme\nYoung.\nxii\nLista de abreviaturas\nAcuerdo sobre los ADPIC – Acuerdo relativo a los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad\nIntelectual relacionados con el Comercio\nATM – Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material\nANTM – Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de Material\nCDB – Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica\nCE – Comunidad Europea\nCIIA – Centros internacionales de investigación agrícola\nCIJ – Corte Internacional de Justicia\nCIMMYT – Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo\nCOGENT – Coconut Genetic Resources Network\nCRGAA – Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Agricultura y la\nAlimentación\nCT – Conocimientos Tradicionales\nDPI – Derechos de Propriedad Intelectual\nFAO – Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la\nAlimentación\nFMAM – Fondo para el Medio Ambiente Mundial\nFMIA – Foro Mundial para la Investigación Agrícola (GFAR)\nGCIAI – Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional\nIPGRI – Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos\nOMC – Organización Mundial del Comercio\nOMPI – Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual\nONU – Organización de Naciones Unidas\nPAM – Plan de Acción Mundial para la Conservación y Utilización\nSostenible de los RFGAA\nPNUD – Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo\nPNUMA – Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente\nRFGAA – Recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nUNCED – Conferencia de la ONU para el Medio Ambiental y el Desarrollo\nUNESCO – Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y\nla Cultura\nUPOV – Unión Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales\nVED – Variedades Esencialmente Derivadas\nWIEWS – Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta Rápida sobre los Recursos\nFitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n1\nIntroducción\nIntroducción\nANTECEDENTES\n1 El Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la FAO dispone que ‘‘La Conferencia puede, por una mayoría de dos tercios\nde los votos emitidos y de conformidad con las normas adoptadas por la Conferencia, aprobar y someter a los\nEstados Miembros convenciones y acuerdos sobre cuestiones relativas a la alimentación y la agricultura’’.\n2 De conformidad con el Artículo XIV, la Conferencia debe proceder a votación para aprobar convenciones. El\nresultado de la votación equivale a la aprobación del Tratado por consenso, en el sentido de que ningún Miembro\nvotó en contra.\n3 Artículo 28.\n4 Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, 5 de junio de 1992, I.L.M. 818 (1992).\nEl Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos\nFitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la\nAgricultura (el ‘‘Tratado’’) fue aprobado el 3 de\nnoviembre de 2001 en el 31º período de sesiones\nde la Conferencia de la FAO. El Tratado fue\naprobado con arreglo al Artículo XIV de la\nConstitución de la FAO1 con el voto a favor de\n116 Miembros y dos abstenciones2. Desde\nentonces ha sido firmado por 78 países y entró\nen vigor el 29 de junio de 2004, 90 días después\nde que fuera depositado el cuadragésimo\ninstrumento de ratificación, aceptación,\naprobación o adhesión3. La aprobación del\nTratado representó la culminación de más de\nsiete años de difíciles negociaciones iniciadas\ncon la resolución 7/93 del 27º período de sesiones\nde la Conferencia de la FAO en 1993, que pedía\nque se celebraran negociaciones, por conducto\nde la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura (CRGAA) de la\nFAO, para revisar el Compromiso Internacional\nsobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos en armonía con\nel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica4.\nEl Tratado, en armonía con el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica, tiene por objetivo\nla conservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura (en adelante ‘‘RFGAA’’) como base\nde una agricultura sostenible y de la seguridad\nalimentaria y, sobre todo, tiene en cuenta las\nnecesidades especiales asociadas con esos re-\ncursos. A lo largo de innumerables generaciones,\nlos agricultores se han valido de miles y miles\nde recursos fitogenéticos para producir los\nprincipales cultivos que actualmente alimentan\nal mundo. El futuro desarrollo de la agricultura\ny de la seguridad alimentaria mundial dependerá\nde que los agricultores y fitomejoradores puedan\nseguir consiguiendo con facilidad y a bajo precio\nlos recursos fitogenéticos necesarios para hacer\nfrente a los nuevos desafíos ambientales y\nagrícolas, lo que incluye el acceso a la\ninformación, los recursos técnicos y financieros\ny la capacidad necesaria para aprovechar\nplenamente esos recursos. Una serie de\ncircunstancias que en la práctica han obligado a\nlos fitomejoradores y a los agricultores a\nprocurarse acceso a los RFGAA en forma\nbilateral y las dificultades prácticas de negociar\nlas condiciones de acceso y distribución de\nbeneficios para un número tan grande de\ntransacciones individuales han puesto en peligro\nesta libre circulación de los recursos\nfitogenéticos.\nEl Tratado asegura que se mantenga esta\ncirculación tan fundamental para la agricultura\ny la seguridad alimentaria estableciendo un\nSistema Multilateral de facilitación del acceso\ny distribución de los beneficios respecto de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos más importantes para\nla seguridad alimentaria y respecto de los\ncuales los países son más interdependientes.\nEstos recursos fitogenéticos se enumeran en el\nAnexo I del Tratado.\nPara estos recursos, las Partes Contratantes\nen el Tratado, en ejercicio de sus derechos\nsoberanos sobre sus recursos fitogenéticos, han\nconvenido en facilitar el acceso en forma\nmultilateral. Además, han convenido en\ncondiciones uniformes de acceso y distribución\nde beneficios, con lo que se elimina la necesidad\nde recurrir a negociaciones bilaterales para cada\ntransacción. Estas condiciones uniformes\nincluyen la distribución de los beneficios\nderivados del uso comercial de los RFGAA.\nAdemás, las Partes Contratantes han convenido\nen compartir otra serie de beneficios, como la\ninformación, la formación de capacidad y el\nacceso a la tecnología y su transferencia. Estos\nbeneficios apuntan a que los países en desarrollo\npuedan conservar y utilizar sus propios RFGAA\ny los que obtengan del Sistema Multilateral.\nAunque el Sistema Multilateral sólo cubre ciertos\n2\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nrecursos fitogenéticos que se enumeran, el\nTratado establece un marco para la conservación\ny la utilización sostenible de todos los RFGAA\ny establece el mecanismo institucional para\nvigilar la aplicación de sus disposiciones.\nAntes de examinar en mayor detalle los\norígenes del Tratado, tal vez convenga aclarar\nla naturaleza especial de los RFGAA y su\nimportancia para la agricultura y la seguridad\nalimentaria.\nLA NATURALEZA ESPECIAL DE LOS RFGAA Y SU IMPORTANCIA PARA LA AGRI-\nCULTURA Y LA SEGURIDAD ALIMENTARIA\nLa Resolución 3 de la Conferencia de Nairobi\nque aprobó el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica en 1982, la propia Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Bio-\nlógica5 y el Preámbulo del Tratado6 reconocen\nla naturaleza especial de los RFGAA y la\nnecesidad de buscar soluciones especiales\nrespecto de ellos en forma independiente de otros\nrecursos genéticos7.\nEn el contexto del Tratado8, los RFGAA\n(y los ‘‘recursos fitogenéticos’’) son recursos o\nmaterial genético de origen vegetal de valor real\no potencial para la alimentación y la agricultura9.\nComo tales deben diferenciarse de los propios\ncultivos como productos, es decir, los recursos\nbiológicos. Los RFGAA son importantes como\ninstrumentos o elementos básicos para los\nfitomejoradores, incluidos los agricultores\ntradicionales, que tratan de mejorar los cultivos\no introducir en ellos nuevas características como\nla resistencia a la sequía o las plagas.\nLos RFGAA, o al menos los de las plantas\nque se cultivan, son esencialmente una forma\nde biodiversidad creada por el hombre. Los\ncultivos de los que depende el alimento y la\nsupervivencia humana fueron creados por el\nhombre y, en su mayor parte, no pueden existir\nsin su intervención constante. En el curso de los\nmilenios, los agricultores domesticaron plantas\nsilvestres y mediante un proceso de selección y\nmejoramiento las hicieron aptas para la\nagricultura moderna. Esto se logró eliminando\ncaracterísticas naturales, como la dehiscencia de\nlos frutos antes de la madurez o la dormición de\nlas semillas, que les permiten sobrevivir en la\nnaturaleza. También lo han hecho introduciendo\nnuevas características como mayores\nrendimientos y resistencia a la sequía o a las\nenfermedades. Por lo tanto cada variedad local\nes el producto de la labor de miles de agricultores\nen el curso de muchas generaciones. Los\nRFGAA también dependen de una continuada\nintervención activa del ser humano. Sin el\ncuidado humano y la selección, los RFGAA se\nasilvestrarían y serían de poca utilidad para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. Para mantener un\nrendimiento estable y la capacidad de los cultivos\npara adaptarse a nuevas enfermedades y otros\nfactores ambientales, es fundamental mantener\nla diversidad genética intraespecífica, es decir\nla diversidad genética dentro de cada especie.\nLos agricultores y los fitomejoradores\nnecesitan los RFGAA como elementos básicos\npara mejorar sus cultivos. El mundo necesita\nconstantemente aumentar la productividad de los\ncultivos y crear nuevas variedades mejor\nadaptadas para enfrentar factores ambientales y\nbiológicos o satisfacer las necesidades de las\ncomunidades locales. Para responder a estas\nnecesidades y desafíos, los agricultores y los\nfitomejoradores deben tener acceso a una amplia\nvariedad de RFGAA y a la información esencial\nsobre ellos que les permita aprovecharlos\ndebidamente.\n5 La Decisión II/15 de la Segunda Reunión de la Conferencia de las Partes comienza así: ‘‘Reconociendo el carácter\nespecial de la biodiversidad agrícola, sus características distintivas y los problemas que necesitan soluciones\nparticulares’’.\n6 El primer párrafo del Preámbulo del Tratado dice que las Partes Contratantes están ‘‘convencidas de la naturaleza\nespecial de los RFGAA, sus características distintivas y sus problemas, que requieren soluciones específicas’’.\n7 Véase en general, Carlos Correa, Implications of National Access Legislation for Germplasm Flows, Proceedings\nof the GFAR Conference, 21 a 23 de mayo de 2003, Dresden (Alemania) GFAR/PRGRI, 2003, pág. 37.\n8 Este uso es distinto del que se hace en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, como se indica más adelante.\n9 El Artículo 2 del Tratado define los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura como ‘‘cualquier\nmaterial genético de origen vegetal de valor real o potencial para la alimentación y la agricultura’’. A su vez,\n‘‘material genético’’, se define como ‘‘cualquier material de origen vegetal, incluido el material reproductivo y de\npropagación vegetativa, que contiene unidades funcionales de la herencia’’.\n3\nIntroducción\nLos RFGAA son importantes en dos\nsentidos.\nEn primer lugar, son importantes como\nrecurso inmediato, es decir por las características\nparticulares que pueden ofrecer en cuanto a\nresistencia a las plagas, tolerancia a la sequía,\narquitectura de la planta, sabor o color10. Buena\nparte del aumento de la producción de alimentos\nen el último medio siglo puede atribuirse a\ninnovaciones logradas a través de la selección\nrealizada a partir de los recursos genéticos\nexistentes. Sin embargo, los grandes aumentos\nde productividad conseguidos en zonas de alto\npotencial agrícola no se han replicado en áreas\nmás marginales. También existe un problema de\nerosión genética provocado por el reemplazo de\nla diversidad de material genético en las fincas\npor variedades modernas. Habrá que seguir\naumentando considerablemente la producción de\nalimentos para dar de comer a una población\nmundial que se está multiplicando espectacular-\nmente. Las nuevas estrategias fitogenéticas\ndeberán apuntar a mejorar la sostenibilidad\neconómica y ambiental desarrollando cultivares\nque produzcan rendimientos cada vez más altos\nutilizando menos insumos químicos costosos y\npotencialmente nocivos. Las nuevas variedades\ntambién deberán estar mejor adaptadas a las\nnecesidades de los agricultores locales en áreas\no economías más marginales e incorporar una\nmayor diversidad genética. Todo esto hará más\nnecesario aún disponer de una amplia variedad\nde RFGAA. Aunque muchos países tienen\ngrandes bancos de genes para sus principales\ncultivos, siempre será necesario poder acceder\na una mayor diversidad en los centros de origen\nde las especies cultivadas, para encontrar\nresistencia a nuevas enfermedades por ejemplo.\nLa naturaleza del proceso de mejoramiento\nexige una amplia variedad de recursos\nfitogenéticos para obtener el producto buscado.\nEfectivamente, una nueva variedad muchas\nveces puede ser el producto de generaciones de\nun proceso llevado a cabo por agricultores y fito-\nmejoradores tal vez en muchos países. Incluso\npara desarrollar una determinada variedad\ncomercial nueva, los científicos pueden tener que\nrevisar literalmente miles de muestras hasta\nencontrar una determinada característica\nagronómica. Según el cultivo, los fitomejora-\ndores suelen trabajar con hasta unas 60\nvariedades locales procedentes de 20 o 30 países\ndistintos. Esta riqueza parental, en particular\ncuando se la considera en el contexto de la labor\nde selección y cultivo de generaciones de\nagricultores, significa que es difícil averiguar el\norigen de los productos fitogenéticos o de sus\ndiversas propiedades distintivas, así como\ncalcular la medida en que determinado insumo\ngenético ha contribuido a producir las\ncaracterísticas especiales de una nueva variedad\ncomercial11.\nPero los RFGAA no sólo son importantes\npara los especialistas en fitomejoramiento, tam-\nbién lo son particularmente para los agricultores\ntradicionales en pequeña escala que deben\nmantener la calidad y el rendimiento de sus\ncultivos. Los agricultores tradicionalmente se\nhan dedicado a mejorar los cultivos, eligiendo\nlas semillas para conseguir distintas característi-\ncas deseables y volviendo a plantar sólo las que\ntenían las mejores características. Parte de esta\ntradición de mejoramiento de los cultivos ha sido\nel intercambio de semillas entre agricultores a\nfin de mantener un grado de diversidad genética\ndentro de la especie que pudiera proteger sus\ncultivos contra la fluctuación de los rendimientos\ny las enfermedades y contra otros factores\nambientales. Sin embargo, a medida que los\nagricultores han pasado a practicar más la\nagricultura moderna y comercial, las variedades\ntradicionales y sumamente variables que\nempleaban fueron reemplazadas por otras\nnuevas, lo que llevó a una pérdida general de\ndiversidad, incluida la diversidad dentro de la\nespecie, en las fincas.\nEn segundo lugar, los RFGAA son impor-\ntantes como seguro contra futuras necesidades\n10 Véase en general, Cooper D., Engels, J. y Frison, E. 1994. A multilateral system for plant genetic resources:\nimperatives, achievements and challenges. Issues in Genetic Resources No. 2, mayo de 1994. International Plant\nGenetic Resources Institute, Roma (Italia).\n11 En este sentido, la naturaleza característica de los RFGAA pone en entredicho hasta qué punto la definición de\npaís de origen adoptada en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica se puede aplicar fácilmente a los cultivos\nagrícolas que se caracterizan por la diversidad dentro de una misma especie. La definición parece ser más adecuada\npara reglamentar el acceso a las especies medicinales que crecen en los bosques tropicales. Véase Cary Fowler,\nImplementing access and benefit-sharing procedures under the Convention on Biological Diversity: the Dilemma\nof crop genetic resources and their origins, en Strengthening partnerships in agricultural research for development\nin the context of globalization, Proceedings of the GFAR Conference, 21 a 23 de mayo de 2003, Dresden (Alemania)\nGFAR/IPGRI, 2003, pág. 110.\n4\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nque aún se desconocen. Un gran número de\nvariedades tradicionales genéticamente más\nheterogéneas están siendo reemplazadas por\nvariedades modernas que tienden a ser más\nuniformes, con lo que aumenta la vulnerabilidad\nde los cultivos. Desastres como la hambruna en\nIrlanda al perderse la producción de papas en la\ndécada de 1840 y la destrucción de la industria\ndel café en Sri Lanka por la roya son prueba de\nla necesidad de una mayor diversidad genética\nen los cultivos. Para hacer frente a este tipo de\ncircunstancias nuevas e inesperadas es preciso\nproseguir e incrementar el intercambio de\nRFGAA.\nLa importancia fundamental de los\nRFGAA para la agricultura y la seguridad\nalimentaria fue reconocida por la Cumbre\nMundial sobre la Alimentación, un evento\nhistórico en la lucha contra la inseguridad\nalimentaria que tuvo lugar en Roma en 1996. La\nDeclaración de Roma sobre la Seguridad\nAlimentaria Mundial y el Plan de Acción de la\nCumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación,\nadoptados al finalizar la Cumbre, constituyen el\nmarco de los esfuerzos en marcha para erradicar\nel hambre. El Objetivo 3 del Plan de Acción\ncontiene un compromiso expreso de los\ngobiernos de ‘‘promover la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica\ny de sus componentes en los ecosistemas\nterrestres y marinos, con miras a aumentar la\nseguridad alimentaria’’12. En el Objetivo 3.2 e),\nlos gobiernos se comprometen además a\npromover ‘‘un enfoque integrado de la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA, entre otras cosas mediante sistemas\napropiados in situ y ex situ, una labor sistemática\nde prospección y levantamiento de inventarios,\nenfoques del mejoramiento genético que amplíen\nla base genética de los cultivos y la repartición\njusta y equitativa de los beneficios derivados del\nuso de tales recursos’’. Recíprocamente, en la\nreferencia expresa que se hace en el Preámbulo\ndel Tratado a la Declaración y Plan de Acción\nde la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación,\ntambién se subraya la relación entre los RFGAA\ny la seguridad alimentaria.\nLA INTERDEPENDENCIA DE LOS PAÍSES EN EL ACCESO A LOS RECURSOS FITO-\nGENÉTICOS\nDurante siglos los RFGAA se han intercambiado\nlibre y ampliamente no sólo entre los agricultores\nde una determinada localidad sino también en\nforma más general entre los continentes y\nregiones del mundo. La papa, originaria de los\nAndes en América Latina, es ahora un cultivo\nbásico en Europa y otras partes del mundo; la\ncebada y el trigo se domesticaron primero en el\nCercano Oriente; el arroz es originario del Asia\nsudoriental. Muchas veces los cultivos se\ndesarrollaron mejor en sus nuevos medios que\nen sus lugares de origen, puesto que en estos\notros lugares no solían existir las enfermedades\nnaturales y las plagas que los afectaban en las\náreas de donde eran oriundos. Pero una vez que\nesas enfermedades y plagas se introducen en los\nnuevos medios, los fitomejoradores y\nagricultores pueden tener que volver a los centros\nde origen y de la biodiversidad de los cultivos\npara encontrar formas de resistencia natural. La\nhambruna en Irlanda en el decenio de 1840 por\nla pérdida de la papa es un caso en que hubo que\nbuscar variedades resistentes al tizón de la papa\n(phytophthera infestans) en los centros de origen\nen Sudamérica para salvar la producción de\npapas europea. Un ejemplo más reciente ha sido\nel tizón de la hoja del topinambur, que\namenazaba con destruir los cultivos de\ntopinambur como mínimo en un país del Pacífico\nSur, cultivos que son esenciales para la seguridad\nalimentaria de ese país, que tuvo que buscar en\notros, dentro y fuera de la región del Pacífico,\nnuevas variedades de topinambur resistentes a\nla enfermedad. Otros países de la región tendrán\nque ampliar la base genética de sus cultivos de\ntopinambur para evitar crisis similares. Los\n12 Plan de Acción de la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación. Objetivo 3.1 c) en el Informe de la  Cumbre\nMundial sobre la Alimentación, 1996, documento de la FAO WFS 96/REP, primera parte. El término ‘‘seguridad\nalimentaria’’ se define en el Plan de Acción de la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación. La introducción al Plan\nde Acción declara que debe considerarse ‘‘a nivel individual, familiar, nacional, regional y mundial. Existe seguridad\nalimentaria cuando todas las personas tienen en todo momento acceso físico y económico a suficientes alimentos\ninocuos y nutritivos para satisfacer sus necesidades alimenticias y sus preferencias en cuanto a los alimentos a fin\nde llevar una vida activa y sana’’. Más concretamente, el Objetivo 2.3 dice que ‘‘los alimentos deben ser inocuos,\n... apropiados y suficientes para satisfacer las necesidades de energía y nutrientes de la población’’.\n5\nIntroducción\nministros de agricultura de la región del Pacífico\nreconocieron que era fundamental ampliar la\nRecuadro 1. Interdependencia y seguridad alimentaria\nTodas las regiones y países dependen en mayor o menor grado de los RFGAA de otras regiones\no países, es decir que los países son interdependientes en lo que respecta a esos recursos.\nLos recursos fitogenéticos son también el fundamento de la agricultura moderna y, por lo\ntanto, esenciales para lograr la seguridad alimentaria. La lista de cultivos enumerados en el\nAnexo I del Tratado, que están comprendidos en el sistema multilateral de acceso y distribución\nde beneficios, ha sido confeccionada de conformidad con los criterios de seguridad alimentaria\ne interdependencia.\nUn estudio reciente13 presentado a la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación\ny la Agricultura (CRGAA) de la FAO llegaba a la conclusión de que, en lo que respecta a los\nprincipales cultivos alimentarios, todas las regiones dependían considerablemente de los\nRFGAA de otras regiones: el grado de dependencia de la mayoría de las regiones era de más\ndel 50%. La interdependencia en África central iba de un 67 a un 94%. La interdependencia\nen los países del Océano Índico iba de un 85 a un 100%. Ningún país del estudio se consideró\ncompletamente autosuficiente. La interdependencia de Etiopía se calculaba entre un 28 y un\n56%. Las cifras de Bangladesh iban de un mínimo del 14% a un máximo del 21%. En vista de\nesta considerable interdependencia, la posibilidad de que los países sigan teniendo acceso a\nuna amplia variedad de recursos fitogenéticos de otras regiones es esencial para el\nmejoramiento de los cultivos y, por lo tanto, de importancia crítica para la agricultura moderna.\nLa seguridad alimentaria mundial depende en gran medida de que se sigan mejorando los\ncultivos alimentarios. Un estudio14 realizado por la FAO y presentado a la CRGAA en el\ncurso de las negociaciones sobre la revisión del Compromiso Internacional llegaba a la\nconclusión de que los productos vegetales constituyen una vasta proporción del suministro\nmundial de alimentos energéticos15, en particular en los países en desarrollo de África, Asia y\nel Pacífico. Así, en África las plantas proporcionan el 93% de la energía; en Asia y el Pacífico,\nel 87%; en el Oriente Medio, el 88%; en Europa el 72,5%; en América Latina y el Caribe, el\n81% y en América del Norte, el 73%. El 65% o más de la energía procedente de los alimentos\nproviene de cuatro cultivos y sus derivados: arroz, trigo, azúcar (caña de azúcar y remolacha\nazucarera) y maíz. Los cultivos enumerados en el Anexo I del Tratado aportan en conjunto\nalrededor de un 80% del suministro mundial de energía. A medida que aumentan los ingresos,\ndisminuye la proporción que aportan las plantas y aumenta la de los productos animales.\nbase genética de los cultivos básicos para\ngarantizar la seguridad alimentaria en la región16.\n13 Ximena Flores Palacios, Contribution to the Estimation of countries´ interdependence in the area of plant genetic\nresources, Background Study Paper No. 7, Rev.1.\n14 Nutritional value of some of the crops under discussion in the development of a multilateral system, Background\nStudy Paper No. 11, abril de 2001, preparado por la División de Nutrición de la FAO.\n15 Es decir, el suministro de energía procedente de los alimentos. Para cada nutriente se determinó en el estudio un\nfactor de conversión nutricional que se utilizó para calcular la energía o los nutrientes que proporcionaban los\ndistintos productos de que se ocupa la FAO.\n16 En el punto 17 del Comunicado aprobado en septiembre de 2004, los Ministros de Agricultura de la región del\nPacífico ‘‘Reconocieron que el acceso a recursos genéticos (de plantas, árboles y animales) es necesario para\ngarantizar la seguridad alimentaria a largo plazo. La ampliación de la base genética de plantas, árboles y\nanimales, el mejoramiento genético y la diversificación son cruciales para hacer frente a los rápidos cambios. Es\npreciso apoyar iniciativas regionales como PARCIP del NARI. El acceso y la utilización de recursos genéticos se\nreforzará mediante la participación activa en redes de recursos fitogenéticos, tanto a nivel regional (PAPGREN)\ncomo a nivel internacional (COGENT y BAPNET). Para asegurarse un acceso permanente a los recursos genéticos,\nlos países de la región deberían considerar la posibilidad de aprobar el modelo de acuerdo de transferencia de\nmaterial preparado por la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos, ratificar el Tratado Internacional y firmar el Acuerdo\nConstitutivo del Fondo Mundial para la Diversidad de los Cultivos’’.\n6\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl intercambio de RFGAA ha continuado\na través de los tiempos y casi todos los países\ndel mundo dependen en este momento\nconsiderablemente de RFGAA de otras partes\ndel mundo para su desarrollo agrícola. Además,\nla corriente de esos recursos va en dos sentidos.\nNingún país o región del mundo es totalmente\nautosuficiente en lo que respecta a los recursos\nfitogenéticos que necesita para mantener y\nmejorar sus principales cultivos17.\nSin acceso a la diversidad genética de\nfuentes fuera del país o la región, es imposible\nmejorar debidamente los cultivos de esos países\no regiones. Conservar los RFGAA no es\nsimplemente cuestión de preservar la diversidad\nde opciones de los consumidores en materia de\ntomates o papas; es cuestión de asegurar que siga\nhabiendo tomates o papas y todos los demás\ncultivos para alimentar al mundo.\nLOS ORÍGENES DEL TRATADO\nLos orígenes del Tratado se remontan al\nCompromiso Internacional sobre Recursos\nFitogenéticos (el ‘‘Compromiso Internacional’’),\naprobado por la Conferencia de la FAO en\nnoviembre de 1983 en su Resolución 8/83 (véase\nrecuadro 2), que fue el primer instrumento\ninternacional relativo a la conservación y\nutilización sostenible de los RFGAA. El Com-\npromiso Internacional18 fue un acuerdo\nvoluntario (sin fuerza jurídica obligatoria) que\nprocuraba ‘‘asegurar la prospección, conser-\nvación, evaluación y disponibilidad, para el\nmejoramiento de las plantas y para fines\ncientíficos, de los recursos fitogenéticos de\ninterés económico y/o social, particularmente\npara la agricultura’’19. El Compromiso Inter-\nnacional se basaba en el principio, entonces\naceptado universalmente, de que los recursos\nfitogenéticos constituían ‘‘un patrimonio de la\nhumanidad y de que, por lo tanto, su disponibi-\nlidad no debe estar restringida’’20. De con-\nformidad con ese principio, los gobiernos e\ninstituciones adherentes que controlaran recursos\nfitogenéticos seguirían la política de permitir el\nacceso a muestras de dichos recursos y autorizar\nsu exportación cuando se les pidieran con fines\nde investigación científica, mejoramiento de las\nplantas o conservación de recursos genéticos21.\nAunque el Compromiso Internacional\nobtuvo amplio apoyo22 varios países o bien\nindicaron que no podían apoyarlo23 o se\nadhirieron a él con reservas24 en parte relativas\nal concepto de la libre disponibilidad y su\ncompatibilidad con los derechos del obtentor. Al\nmismo tiempo, se extendía la impresión de que\nno era equitativo un sistema que recompensaba\nlas contribuciones de algunos innovadores al\ndesarrollo de los recursos fitogenéticos mediante\nla protección de variedades vegetales y el\notorgamiento de patentes, pero no reconocía la\nimportante contribución que en el curso del\ntiempo habían aportado las innovaciones de los\nagricultores en la selección y el mejoramiento,\nasí como en la conservación de recursos\nfitogenéticos. También había una creciente\npreocupación en el sentido de que cualquier\nsistema que se aplicara a los RFGAA debía\nreflejar más plenamente los derechos soberanos\nque los países tienen y siempre han tenido sobre\nesos recursos. Para atender a estas inquietudes\nla Conferencia de la FAO aprobó en 1989 una\nserie de interpretaciones concertadas del\nAcuerdo Internacional.25\nLas interpretaciones concertadas recon-\nocían que los derechos de los obtentores esta-\n17 Véase Cary Fowler: Rights and Responsibilities: Linking Conservation, Utilization, and Sharing of Benefits of\nPlant Genetic Resources, en Intellectual Property Rights III Global Genetic Resources: Access and Property\nRights, Eds S. Eberhart, H. Shands, W. Collins & R. Lower, Crop Science Society of America, Madison,\nWisconsin, USA 1998, págs. 34 y 35.\n18 Para el texto completo del Compromiso Internacional véase http://www.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/Spanish/in.htm.\n19 Compromiso Internacional, Artículo 1.\n20 Compromiso Internacional, Artículo 1.\n21 Compromiso Internacional, Artículo 5.\n22 113 países se adhirieron al Compromiso Internacional.\n23 Por ejemplo, Australia, Canadá y los Estados Unidos de América.\n24 Por ejemplo, Alemania, Argentina, Bélgica, Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba, Dinamarca, Egipto, Francia, Hungría,\nIrlanda, Islandia, Israel, Jamaica, México, Nueva Zelandia, Omán, Países Bajos, Reino Unido, Suiza y\nZimbabwe.\n25 Resoluciones 4/89 y 5/89 de la FAO.\n7\nIntroducción\nRecuadro 2. El Compromiso Internacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos\nEl Compromiso Internacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos, aprobado por la Conferencia de\nla FAO en su Resolución 8/83 de noviembre de 1983, fue el primer instrumento internacional\nrelativo a la conservación y utilización sostenible de los RFGAA. El Compromiso Internacional\nera un instrumento voluntario (sin fuerza jurídica obligatoria), al que se adhirieron 113 países.\nAlemania, Canadá, los Estados Unidos, Francia, Japón, Nueva Zelandia, el Reino Unido y\nSuiza expresaron sus reservas oficiales al Compromiso Internacional, al menos en esa\noportunidad.\nEl objetivo del Compromiso Internacional, expuesto en el Artículo I era ‘‘asegurar la\nprospección, conservación, evaluación y disponibilidad, para el mejoramiento de las plantas\ny para fines científicos, de los recursos fitogenéticos de interés económico y/o social,\nparticularmente para la agricultura. El presente Compromiso se basa en el principio aceptado\nuniversalmente de que los recursos fitogenéticos constituyen un patrimonio de la humanidad\ny de que, por lo tanto, su disponibilidad no debe estar restringida’’. En el Compromiso, los\nrecursos fitogenéticos se definían como ‘‘el material de reproducción o de propagación\nvegetativa de las siguientes clases de plantas: i) variedades cultivadas (cultivares) utilizadas\nactualmente y variedades recién obtenidas; ii) cultivares en desuso; iii) cultivares primitivos\n(variedades locales); iv) especies silvestres y de malas hierbas, parientes próximos de\nvariedades cultivadas; v) materiales genéticos especiales (entre ellas las líneas y mutantes\nselectos y actuales de los mejoradores)’’.\nCon arreglo al Artículo 3 los gobiernos que se adhirieran al Compromiso convenían en\norganizar misiones de prospección para identificar los recursos fitogenéticos de posible valor\nque corrieran peligro de extinción en el país de que se tratara, así como otros recursos\nfitogenéticos del país que pudieran ser útiles para el desarrollo, pero cuya existencia o\ncaracterísticas esenciales se desconocieran por el momento. Se mantendrían medidas\napropiadas, legislativas y de otra índole, y en caso necesario se prepararían y aprobarían,\npara proteger y conservar los recursos fitogenéticos de las plantas que crecen en las zonas de\nsu hábitat natural en los principales centros de diversidad genética. Donde hubiera recursos\nfitogenéticos importantes en peligro de extinción, se tomarían medidas para asegurar la\nrecolección y protección científica del material. El material que se mantenía en bancos de\ngenes se conservaría y mantendría de manera que conservara sus características de valor para\nutilizarlas en investigaciones científicas y en el mejoramiento de las plantas y se evaluaría y\ndocumentaría plenamente (Artículo 4).\nQuizás la disposición más importante del Compromiso Internacional sea la relativa a la\ndisponibilidad de los recursos fitogenéticos. El Artículo 5 disponía que los gobiernos e\ninstituciones adherentes que controlaran recursos fitogenéticos seguirían la política de permitir\nel acceso a ellos y autorizar su exportación cuando se les pidieran con fines de investigación\ncientífica, mejoramiento de las plantas o conservación de recursos genéticos. Se\nproporcionarían muestras ‘‘gratuitamente, a título de intercambio mutuo, o en las condiciones\nque mutuamente se convengan’’.\nEl Compromiso Internacional preveía en términos generales la cooperación internacional,\nentre otras cosas para establecer o fortalecer la capacidad de los países en desarrollo en\nmateria de recursos fitogenéticos e intensificar las actividades internacionales relativas a la\nconservación, evaluación, documentación e intercambio de recursos fitogenéticos, selección\ngenética y mantenimiento de germoplasma y multiplicación de semillas. La cooperación\ninternacional también podría dirigirse a financiar actividades relativas a los recursos\nfitogenéticos (Artículo 6).\nEl Compromiso Internacional disponía que se desarrollaran las disposiciones internacionales\nvigentes que aplicaban la FAO y la Junta Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (la\npredecesora del IPGRI) a fin de desarrollar un sistema global de recursos fitogenéticos. Éste\ndebería comprender una red coordinada internacionalmente de centros nacionales, regionales\ne internacionales, ‘‘incluida una red internacional de colecciones base en bancos genéticos\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n8\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nblecidos por la Unión Internacional para la Pro-\ntección de las Obtenciones Vegetales (UPOV)\n(véase el recuadro 9) no eran incompatibles con\nel Compromiso Internacional. Asimismo\nreconocían los derechos de los agricultores\nderivados de su contribución pasada, presente y\nfutura a la conservación, mejora y disponibilidad\nde los recursos fitogenéticos, particularmente de\nlos centros de origen/diversidad26. Una nueva\nbajo los auspicios o la jurisdicción de la FAO, que hayan asumido la responsabilidad de\nmantener en beneficio de la comunidad internacional y aplicando el principio del intercambio\nsin restricciones, colecciones de base o activas de los recursos fitogenéticos de determinadas\nespecies vegetales’’ (Artículo 7). Los gobiernos o instituciones adherentes podían poner\nvoluntariamente sus colecciones en la red internacional bajo los auspicios o la jurisdicción\nde la FAO. Se proporcionaría financiación y medios suficientes para que los centros pudieran\nrealizar sus tareas. El Artículo 7 también preveía un sistema global de información y un\nsistema de alerta temprana, como parte del sistema global.\nCon arreglo al Compromiso Internacional, los gobiernos adherentes y los organismos de\nfinanciación estudiarían la adopción de medidas que permitieran establecer una base financiera\nmás firme para las actividades y estudiarían la posibilidad de establecer mecanismos que\ngarantizaran la disponibilidad de fondos para los centros que enfrentaran emergencias (Artículo\n8). La FAO quedaba encargada de examinar de manera continua la situación internacional en\nmateria de recursos fitogenéticos y de establecer un órgano intergubernamental (la Comisión\nde la FAO de Recursos Fitogenéticos, que posteriormente pasó a ser la Comisión de Recursos\nGenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (CRGAA) de la FAO) para que vigilara la\naplicación de los acuerdos mencionados en el Artículo 7.\nLa Conferencia de la FAO aprobó una serie de interpretaciones concertadas en 1989 y 1991.\nLa primera de ellas, adoptada en la Resolución 4/89 de la Conferencia, reconocía que los\nderechos del obtentor, tal como están contemplados en el Convenio de la Unión Internacional\npara la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales (UPOV), no son incompatibles con el\nCompromiso Internacional y reconocía también la enorme contribución aportada por los\nagricultores de todas las regiones a la conservación y el desarrollo de los recursos fitogenéticos,\nque sirve de fundamento del concepto de derechos del agricultor. La mejor manera de aplicar\nel concepto de derechos del agricultor es asegurar la conservación, el manejo y el uso de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos en beneficio de las generaciones presentes y futuras de agricultores.\nLa segunda interpretación concertada (Resolución 5/89 de la Conferencia) suscribía\nexpresamente el concepto de derechos del agricultor definidos como los derechos que\nprovienen de la contribución pasada, presente y futura de los agricultores a la conservación,\nmejora y disponibilidad de los recursos fitogenéticos, particularmente de los centros de origen/\ndiversidad. Estos derechos se confieren a la comunidad internacional, como depositaria para\nlas generaciones presentes y futuras de agricultores, con el fin de asegurar que esos agricultores\nse beneficien plenamente y continúen contribuyendo.\nLa tercera interpretación concertada (Resolución 3/91 de la Conferencia) reconocía que las\nnaciones tienen derechos soberanos sobre sus recursos fitogenéticos y que las líneas de\nmejoramiento y el material de los agricultores deberán estar disponibles sólo a discreción de\nquienes los han obtenido durante el período de desarrollo. Establecía además que los derechos\ndel agricultor se aplicarán por medio de un fondo internacional para recursos fitogenéticos.\nresolución aprobada por la Conferencia en 1991\nreiteraba los derechos soberanos de los Estados\nsobre sus recursos fitogenéticos y aclaraba que\nlas líneas de mejoramiento y el material de los\nagricultores deberían estar disponibles sólo a\ndiscreción de quienes los han obtenido durante\nel período de desarrollo y que los derechos del\nagricultor se aplicarían por medio de un fondo\ninternacional para recursos fitogenéticos27.\n26 La Resolución dispone que es tos derechos se confieren a la comunidad internacional, como depositaria\npara las generaciones presentes y futuras de agricultores, con el fin de asegurar que los agricultores se\nbeneficien plenamente y continúen contribuyendo, y que se logren los objetivos generales del Compromiso\nInternacional.\n27 Resolución 3/91 de la Conferencia.\n9\nIntroducción\nMientras tanto, las negociaciones sobre\nacceso a los recursos genéticos y la distribución\njusta y equitativa de los beneficios derivados de\nsu uso culminaron en la adopción oficial de un\ntexto convenido en mayo de 1992 en una\nConferencia28 convocada por el Programa de las\nNaciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente\n(PNUMA) en Nairobi (la Conferencia de\nNairobi). El Convenio fue anunciado y abierto a\nla firma casi inmediatamente después en la\nConferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el\nMedio Ambiente y el Desarrollo de 1992 y entró\nen vigor en diciembre de 1993. El Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica ofrece un marco\namplio para la conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los recursos biológicos y una serie\nde compromisos encaminados a compartir los\nrecursos genéticos y sus beneficios, y hace\nespecial hincapié en la adopción de decisiones a\nnivel nacional. Reconoce los derechos soberanos\nde los Estados sobre sus recursos naturales y\nestablece que la facultad de regular el acceso a\nlos recursos genéticos incumbe a los gobiernos\nnacionales y está sometida a la legislación\nnacional. Sin embargo, cada Parte Contratante\nprocurará crear condiciones a fin de facilitar el\nacceso a los recursos genéticos para utilizaciones\nambientalmente adecuadas y no imponer\nrestricciones contrarias a los objetivos del\nConvenio. Cuando se conceda acceso, éste será\nen condiciones mutuamente convenidas y estará\nsometido al consentimiento fundamentado\nprevio de la Parte Contratante que proporcione\nlos recursos, a menos que esa Parte decida otra\ncosa29. Los países en que se utilizarán los\nrecursos están también obligados por requisitos\nespecíficos relativos a medidas para compartir\nlos beneficios derivados de la utilización\ncomercial y de otra índole de los recursos\ngenéticos y otras cuestiones. Además esta\ndistribución de los beneficios se llevará a cabo\nen condiciones mutuamente acordadas con la\nParte Contratante que proporciona los recursos.\nA los efectos del acceso a los recursos y la\ndistribución de los beneficios, ‘‘los recursos\ngenéticos suministrados por una Parte\nContratante son únicamente los suministrados\npor Partes Contratantes que son países de origen\nde esos recursos o por las Partes que hayan\nadquirido los recursos genéticos de conformidad\ncon el Convenio’’30. Algunos comentaristas\n(entre ellos los autores) interpretan que esta\ndisposición es una exclusión expresa que elimina\nel material ex situ recolectado antes de la entrada\nen vigor del Convenio, incluidas las colecciones\nde los centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investiga-\nción Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI), así como\nmuchas colecciones nacionales31. La Conferen-\ncia de Nairobi reconoció la necesidad de buscar\nsoluciones a estas y otras cuestiones pendientes\nrelativas a los recursos fitogenéticos en el marco\ndel Sistema Mundial para la Conservación y\nUtilización Sostenible de los Recursos Fito-\ngenéticos para la Agricultura y la Alimentación\nestablecido por la FAO (véase el recuadro 8)32.\nLa Conferencia pedía en particular soluciones\npara la cuestión del acceso a las colecciones ex\nsitu que no hubieran sido constituidas de\nconformidad con el Convenio y para la cuestión\nde los derechos del agricultor33. Esta petición se\nreforzó en el Programa 2134, aprobado por la\nConferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el\nMedio Ambiente y el Desarrollo, que instaba a\nque se fortaleciera el Sistema Mundial para la\nConservación y Utilización Sostenible de los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos y que se lo ajustara a fin\nde que estuviera en consonancia con el resultado\nde las negociaciones del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, así como el reconoci-\nmiento de los derechos del agricultor.\nLa invitación de la Conferencia de Nairobi\ny de la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre\nel Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo fue aceptada\npor la Conferencia de la FAO en noviembre de\n1993, cuando aprobó su Resolución 7/93 en que\npedía al Director General de la FAO que\nproporcionara un foro destinado a las negocia-\nciones entre los gobiernos para la adaptación del\nCompromiso Internacional sobre Recursos Fito-\n28 Conferencia para la Aprobación del Texto Convenido del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\n29 La Convención no prescribe cómo lo han de determinar las Partes Contratantes. En ausencia de esta prescripción,\nla determinación podría hacerse a nivel nacional o en el contexto de un acuerdo multilateral.\n30 Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, artículo 15.3.\n31 Véase Glowka, et al., Guía del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (UICN Serie de Política y Derecho\nAmbiental No. 30) (IUCN, 1994).\n32 Véase el Acta Final de Nairobi de la Conferencia para la aprobación del texto acordado del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, 22 de mayo de 1992.\n33 Resolución 3, párrafo 4.\n34 Programa 21, documento de las Naciones Unidas A/CONF.151/4 (1992).\n10\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ngenéticos en armonía con el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, para el examen de la\ncuestión del acceso en condiciones concertadas\nmutuamente a los recursos fitogenéticos,\nincluidas las colecciones ex situ no comprendidas\nen el Convenio, y para conseguir la realización\nde los derechos del agricultor.\nComo se mencionó anteriormente, las\nnegociaciones, que culminaron en la aprobación\ndel Tratado, fueron prolongadas y difíciles. Se\ncelebraron en el marco de la CRGAA de la FAO,\ninicialmente en la propia Comisión y posterior-\nmente en un Grupo de Contacto de unas 40\ndelegaciones creado por ésta. En un momento,\nel Presidente organizó una reunión oficiosa de\nexpertos en Montreux (Suiza) para que ayudaran\na orientar las negociaciones. Los Elementos del\nPresidente que surgieron de esa reunión fueron\nefectivamente útiles a ese respecto. Las princi-\npales dificultades procedían de la necesidad de\nequilibrar el acceso con una distribución efectiva\nde los beneficios, la necesidad de tener en cuenta\ncuestiones de propiedad intelectual y la\ncomplejidad intrínseca del tema.\nPOR QUÉ SE NECESITABA UN TRATADO ESPECIAL SOBRE LOS RECURSOS FITO-\nGENÉTICOS PARA LA ALIMENTACIÓN Y LA AGRICULTURA\nEl Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\n(véase el recuadro 3) y las Directrices de Bonn\nadoptadas con arreglo a él han constituido un\ngran avance en la protección de los recursos\ngenéticos y la biodiversidad del mundo y en el\nestablecimiento de regímenes equitativos de\nacceso y distribución de los beneficios. Pero el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica no es\nun mecanismo de aplicación ni se refiere a la\nfunción de los sistemas internacionales vigentes\nni tiene en cuenta directamente las necesidades\nespeciales relacionadas con los RFGAA. En\nparticular, cuando se considera necesario nego-\nciar el acceso a los recursos genéticos en forma\nbilateral y caso por caso, los consiguientes costos\nde transacción, que son muy elevados, sumados\na la reivindicación cada vez más corriente de\nderechos de propiedad intelectual sobre los\nrecursos genéticos, han amenazado con impedir\nel intercambio de los RFGAA de que depende\nla agricultura moderna35. El acceso a los RFGAA\nen forma bilateral es difícil para los agricultores\ny fitomejoradores de todos los países y es\nparticularmente difícil para los de países en\ndesarrollo que son económicamente pobres y\nrelativamente pobres en recursos genéticos.\nEstos países tienen menos perspectivas de\nacceder a los recursos genéticos a través de\nintercambios bilaterales, puesto que no tienen\nlos fondos, la tecnología o las fuentes de\ndiversidad genética original para negociar estos\nintercambios36.\nEl Tratado se refiere expresamente a la\ndisponibilidad de germoplasma. Los países han\ndecidido, en ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos\nsobre los recursos fitogenéticos y en consonancia\ncon el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica,\nestablecer un sistema multilateral de acceso y\ndistribución de los beneficios para una lista\nnegociada de grandes cultivos seleccionados\nsobre la base de su importancia para la seguridad\nalimentaria y el grado de interdependencia de\nlos países en el acceso a esos recursos. Para estos\nrecursos, las Partes Contratantes en el Tratado\nhan convenido en renunciar a su derecho a\nnegociar individualmente condiciones de acceso\ny distribución de los beneficios y a la exigencia\nde dar su consentimiento fundamentado previo\nen forma bilateral y han convenido también en\naplicar condiciones estándar mutuamente con-\nvenidas por todas las partes en forma multilateral,\na fin de garantizar que se mantengan en circula-\nción esos recursos fitogenéticos y de abaratar los\ncostos de transacción.\n35 Si bien el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica disponía que las Partes Contratantes procuraran crear condiciones\npara facilitar el acceso a los recursos genéticos, el propio Convenio requiere que el acceso esté sujeto al\nconsentimiento fundamentado previo y se haga en condiciones mutuamente convenidas. Puesto que el Convenio\nopera a través de las medidas legislativas, de política y de otra índole aprobadas a nivel nacional, estos requisitos\nnecesariamente se han aplicado a nivel bilateral, e incluso caso por caso, lo que ha demorado el intercambio de\nRFGAA hasta tal punto de poner en peligro las actividades de fitomejoramiento de las empresas pequeñas y del\nmundo en desarrollo, en particular.\n36 Véase Cooper D., Engels, J. y Frison, E. 1994, pág. 4.\n11\nIntroducción\nEl Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\ntampoco resolvía la cuestión de las colecciones\nex situ, como las de los centros internacionales\nde investigación agrícola del GCIAI, que habían\nsido adquiridas antes de su entrada en vigor.\nDeterminar la situación de estas colecciones era\nuno de los principales objetivos de las negocia-\nciones y constituye un importante logro del\nnuevo Tratado.\nTanto la FAO como la Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica han acogido con satisfacción el\nTratado porque ofrece una solución especial para\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura que responde a las necesidades\nde los agricultores, de los fitomejoradores y de\nla agricultura sostenible en general.\nRELACIÓN DEL TRATADO CON EL CONVENIO SOBRE LA DIVERSIDAD BIOLÓGICA\nEl mandato original para la negociación del\nTratado, que aprobó la Conferencia de la FAO\nen 1993, destacaba que la revisión del Com-\npromiso Internacional debía estar en armonía con\nel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica y\ndebía tratar las cuestiones del acceso en con-\ndiciones mutuamente convenidas a los RFGAA,\nincluidas las colecciones ex situ y el reconoci-\nmiento de los derechos de los agricultores. Esto\nresume de hecho lo esencial de la relación entre\nel Tratado y el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica. El Convenio se refiere a la diversidad\nbiológica en general y establece el marco para\nsu conservación y utilización sostenible.\nEstablece una serie de compromisos concretos\nrelativos a los recursos genéticos, especialmente\nen cuanto al acceso y la distribución de los\nbeneficios. Aunque tiene en cuenta considera-\nciones económicas y sociales, sus objetivos se\norientan básicamente al medio ambiente. El\nTratado, en cambio, se refiere a las cuestiones\nespecíficas que plantean la conservación y\nutilización sostenible de los RFGAA y sus\nobjetivos se relacionan más con la alimentación\ny la agricultura. Para los RFGAA que se han\nconsiderado especialmente importantes para la\nseguridad alimentaria y respecto de los cuales\nlos países son más interdependientes, que se\nenumeran en el Anexo I del Tratado, las Partes\nhan convenido en un Sistema Multilateral\nespecial de acceso y distribución de los\nbeneficios. Esto no está en contradicción con el\nConvenio, pero es un área en que las Partes en\nel Tratado han convenido que, entre ellas, las\ncondiciones en las cuales se accederá a estos\nrecursos genéticos serán objeto de acuerdo\nmultilateral y no bilateral, y esas condiciones son\nlas que se establecen en el propio Tratado.\nEn las últimas etapas de la negociación del\nTratado, se plantearon preguntas respecto de su\nnaturaleza jurídica y su relación con el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica. En un momento,\nse sugirió que el Tratado podría pasar a ser un\nprotocolo del Convenio. Finalmente, se rechazó\nesta posibilidad y el Tratado fue adoptado como\nacuerdo internacional independiente con arreglo\nal Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la FAO.\nUna de las principales razones para hacerlo fue\nque era esencialmente un tratado sobre agri-\ncultura y no sobre medio ambiente y que, como\ntal, debía responder a las necesidades del sector\nagrícola. Por lo tanto, el carácter agrícola del\nTratado y el necesario apoyo técnico se\nmantendrían mejor situando a su Órgano Rector\ny su Secretaría dentro de la FAO. Sin embargo,\nel Tratado reconoce expresamente la importancia\nde mantener una estrecha vinculación entre el\nTratado, la FAO y el Convenio sobre la Diversi-\ndad Biológica37.\n37 El Artículo 1.2 dice que los objetivos del Tratado ‘‘se obtendrán vinculando estrechamente el presente Tratado\na la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación y al Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica’’.\nOBJETIVOS Y DESTINATARIOS DE LA GUÍA\nEl objetivo de esta guía es ayudar a los países,\ninstituciones y personas interesadas a com-\nprender las disposiciones del Tratado y ayudarlos\nal considerar opciones para su aplicación. No\npretende ofrecer una interpretación autorizada\ndel Tratado ni resolver ninguna de las muchas\nambigüedades del texto. Ésta es función de las\npropias Partes Contratantes, actuando en sus\npropios países o en el Órgano Rector del Tratado.\nDe conformidad con este objetivo, la guía está\ndirigida a los gobiernos, las instituciones\ninternacionales, las instituciones públicas, las\norganizaciones de la sociedad civil y las\nentidades privadas y personas que están\ninteresadas en las disposiciones del nuevo\nTratado.\n12\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nRecuadro 3. El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\nEl Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica es uno de los dos grandes tratados abiertos a la\nfirma en la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo de\n1992. Habiendo obtenido su trigésima ratificación en septiembre de 1993, el Convenio entró\nen vigor el 29 de diciembre de 1993. Al momento de escribirse esta guía, 188 países son\nPartes Contratantes en el Convenio.\nEl Convenio es un hito en la esfera del medio ambiente y el desarrollo en el sentido de que\nadopta por primera vez un planteamiento general y no sectorial de la conservación de la\nbiodiversidad de la tierra y del uso sostenible de los recursos biológicos. Reconoce el argumento\nfundamental de la Estrategia Mundial para la Conservación (1980), de Cuidar la Tierra\n(1991), de la Estrategia relativa a la biodiversidad mundial (1992) y de muchos otros\ndocumentos internacionales de que la biodiversidad y los recursos biológicos deben\nconservarse por razones de ética, beneficio económico y en definitiva supervivencia del género\nhumano, así como por las razones biológicas en que normalmente se fundamenta la\nconservación de la naturaleza. Acepta tácitamente la conclusión reveladora de que tal vez el\nimpacto ambiental que las futuras generaciones más deploren de nuestra época sea la pérdida\nde la biodiversidad, que es irreversible.\nEl Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica tiene tres principios orientadores (la conservación\nde la diversidad biológica, la utilización sostenible de sus componentes y la participación\njusta y equitativa en los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización de los recursos genéticos),\ncon lo que su mandato se extiende mucho más allá de la interpretación convencional de la\nconservación y utilización sostenible para incluir el acceso a los recursos genéticos, el uso\ndel material genético y el acceso a la tecnología, incluida la biotecnología. El Convenio es un\nacuerdo marco que deja a discreción de las Partes la determinación de la forma en que se\naplicará la mayor parte de sus disposiciones. Efectivamente, sus disposiciones se expresan\npor lo general como objetivos y políticas compartidos más que como obligaciones concretas\ny precisas del tipo de las que figuran, por ejemplo, en la Convención sobre el Comercio\nInternacional de Especies Amenazadas de Fauna y Flora Silvestres38. Tampoco crea listas de\nespecies o ecosistemas, o establece objetivos (como hace por ejemplo la Directiva del Consejo\nEuropeo relativa a la conservación de los hábitats naturales de la fauna y flora silvestres39,\nque enumera cientos de especies que deben recuperar niveles satisfactorios). En cambio,\nasigna a cada país la responsabilidad principal de adoptar decisiones y establece un marco\noperativo en que la Conferencia de las Partes ofrece orientación, directrices, sugerencias y\notros instrumentos para facilitar la acción nacional. El Convenio afirma que la conservación\nde la diversidad biológica (a la que en general denomina ‘‘biodiversidad’’)40 es interés común\nde toda la humanidad y que las naciones tienen derechos soberanos sobre sus propios recursos\nbiológicos. La aplicación depende principalmente de la acción de las Partes a nivel nacional,\nlimitándose el Convenio a ofrecer orientación general sobre las mejores prácticas. El Convenio\ncubre la biota terrestre y marina y las Partes Contratantes se comprometen expresamente a\naplicarlo de conformidad con los derechos y obligaciones que tienen los Estados en el contexto\ndel derecho del mar.\nLos principales compromisos contraídos por las Partes en el Convenio incluyen:\nelaborar estrategias, planes o programas nacionales para la conservación y la utilización\nsostenible de la diversidad biológica e integrar, en la medida de lo posible y según proceda,\n38 Convención sobre el Comercio Internacional de Especies Amenazadas de Fauna y Flora Silvestres, 3 de marzo de\n1973, 993 U.N.T.S. 243 (1976) (entró en vigor el 1º de julio de 1975).\n39 Directiva del Consejo 192/43/EEC de 21 de mayo de 1992 relativa a la conservación de los hábitats naturales de\nla fauna y flora silvestre, 1992 O.J. (L 206) 7.\n40 El Convenio define diversidad biológica como ‘‘la variabilidad de organismos vivos de cualquier fuente, incluidos,\nentre otras cosas, los ecosistemas terrestres y marinos y otros ecosistemas acuáticos y los complejos ecológicos de\nlos cuales forman parte; comprende la diversidad dentro de cada especie, entre las especies y de los ecosistemas’’.\n13\nIntroducción\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\nla conservación y la utilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica en los planes,\nprogramas y políticas sectoriales o intersectoriales (Artículo 6);\nidentificar y proceder al seguimiento de los componentes de la diversidad biológica, así\ncomo de las actividades que tengan o sea probable que tengan efectos perjudiciales\nimportantes (Artículo 7);\nadoptar medidas de conservación in situ y disponer lo necesario para aplicarlas, en particular\nestablecer un sistema de áreas protegidas o áreas donde haya que tomar medidas especiales\npara conservar la diversidad biológica; reglamentar o administrar los recursos biológicos\nimportantes para la conservación de la diversidad biológica; promover la protección de\necosistemas y hábitats naturales; promover un desarrollo ambientalmente adecuado y\nsostenible en zonas adyacentes a áreas protegidas; impedir que se introduzcan especies\nexóticas que amenacen especies o ecosistemas nativos; establecer o mantener la legislación\nnecesaria y otras disposiciones de reglamentación para la protección de especies y\npoblaciones amenazadas; preservar y mantener los conocimientos de las comunidades\nindígenas que entrañen estilos tradicionales de vida compatibles con la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica; establecer medios para regular, administrar\no controlar los riesgos derivados de la utilización y la liberación de organismos vivos\nmodificados como resultado de la biotecnología que es probable tengan repercusiones\nambientales adversas (Artículo 8);\nadoptar medidas para la conservación ex situ de componentes de la diversidad biológica\n(Artículo 9);\nintegrar el examen de la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos biológicos\nen los procesos nacionales de adopción de decisiones; adoptar medidas relativas a la\nutilización de los recursos biológicos para evitar o reducir al mínimo los efectos adversos\npara la diversidad biológica; proteger y alentar la utilización consuetudinaria de los recursos\nbiológicos de conformidad con las prácticas culturales tradicionales; apoyar la aplicación\nde medidas correctivas en las zonas degradadas; y fomentar la cooperación entre las\nautoridades gubernamentales y el sector privado en la elaboración de métodos para la\nutilización sostenible (Artículo 10);\nadoptar medidas económica y socialmente idóneas que actúen como incentivos para la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los componentes de la diversidad biológica\n(Artículo 11);\nestablecer programas de educación y capacitación científica y técnica en medidas de\nidentificación, conservación y utilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica y promover\nla investigación que contribuya a la diversidad biológica (Artículo 12);\npromover programas de educación y sensibilización del público (Artículo 13);\nexigir evaluaciones del impacto ambiental que tengan en cuenta los efectos para la\ndiversidad biológica y los reduzcan al mínimo (Artículo 14);\ncrear condiciones para facilitar el acceso a los recursos genéticos en condiciones\nmutuamente convenidas y con el consentimiento fundamentado previo, reconociendo los\nderechos soberanos de los Estados sobre sus recursos naturales; y compartir en forma\njusta y equitativa los beneficios (incluidos los resultados de las actividades de investigación\ny desarrollo) derivados de la utilización comercial de los recursos genéticos con la Parte\nContratante que aporta esos recursos (Artículo 15);\nasegurar el acceso a tecnologías pertinentes para la conservación y utilización sostenible\nde la diversidad biológica o que utilicen recursos genéticos y no causen daños significativos\nal medio ambiente y la transferencia de tecnologías de esa índole, y promover su desarrollo\nconjunto, cuando sea posible (Artículo 16);\n14\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nfacilitar el intercambio de información y la cooperación científica y técnica en la esfera de\nla conservación y la utilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica (Artículos 17 y 18);\ny\n• alentar la investigación en biotecnología, en particular en los países en desarrollo; asegurar\nuna participación justa y equitativa en los beneficios derivados de la biotecnología; y\natender a las cuestiones de seguridad relacionadas con la transferencia, manipulación y\nutilización de organismos vivos modificados (Artículo 19). El Protocolo de Cartagena\nsobre la Seguridad de la Biotecnología41 se negoció para cumplir en parte lo dispuesto en\neste artículo. El Protocolo entró en vigor el 11 de septiembre de 2004).\nLas Partes que son países desarrollados deben proporcionar ‘‘recursos financieros nuevos y\nadicionales’’ para que las Partes que son países en desarrollo puedan sufragar íntegramente\nlos costos incrementales que entrañe la aplicación de medidas de cumplimiento de las\nobligaciones contraídas en el Convenio. Estos recursos se proporcionan a través del Fondo\npara el Medio Ambiente Mundial (FMAM) (Artículos 20 y 21).\nEn la primavera de 2002, la Sexta Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica aprobó las Directrices de Bonn sobre acceso a los recursos genéticos y participación\njusta y equitativa en los beneficios provenientes de su utilización (véase la Decisión VI/24).\nLas Directrices de Bonn tratan de ciertas cuestiones relativas a medidas nacionales sobre\nacceso a los recursos genéticos en varias secciones que se refieren al consentimiento\nfundamentado previo y a la participación en los beneficios.\nLas Directrices de Bonn son un documento en evolución. Son enteramente voluntarias y se\nproponen ofrecer posibles enfoques que pueden ayudar a las Partes, los gobiernos y otros\ninteresados a elaborar estrategias generales de acceso y participación en los beneficios,\nestablecer medidas legislativas, administrativas y de política sobre acceso y participación en\nlos beneficios y/o negociar arreglos contractuales para el acceso y la participación en los\nbeneficios.\nLas Directrices de Bonn identifican los pasos en el proceso de acceso y participación en los\nbeneficios y subrayan la obligación de los usuarios de solicitar el consentimiento fundamentado\nprevio de los proveedores. Identifican los requisitos básicos para las condiciones mutuamente\nconvenidas, definen las funciones y responsabilidades principales de los usuarios y proveedores\ny destacan la importancia de la participación de todos los interesados. También cubren otros\nelementos como incentivos, rendición de cuentas, medios de verificación y solución de\ncontroversias. Por último, sugieren elementos que deberían incluirse en los Acuerdos de\ntransferencia de material y ofrecen una lista indicativa de beneficios monetarios y no\nmonetarios.\n41 Protocolo de Cartagena sobre la Seguridad de la Biotecnología del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, 29 de\nenero de 2000, 39 I.L.M. 1027 (2000).\nResumen de los principales componentes del Tratado\nLos componentes principales del Tratado son las\ndisposiciones generales sobre la conservación y\nla utilización sostenible de los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nlas disposiciones sobre los derechos del\nagricultor, el Sistema Multilateral de acceso y\ndistribución de beneficios, los componentes de\napoyo y las disposiciones financieras. Las demás\ndisposiciones del Tratado se refieren a cuestiones\ninstitucionales y cláusulas finales.\n15\nIntroducción\nLas disposiciones generales sobre la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA se aplican a todos los RFGAA y no sólo\na los enumerados en el Anexo I del Tratado.\nBasándose en el Plan de Acción Mundial para la\nConservación y Uso Sostenible de los RFGAA\n(véase el recuadro 15) y desarrollando temas ya\nplanteados en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, las disposiciones generales del\nTratado establecen un marco moderno para la\nconservación y utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA. El Artículo 5 establece las principales\ntareas que deberán realizar las Partes\nContratantes con respecto a la conservación,\nprospección, recolección, caracterización,\nevaluación y documentación de los RFGAA. Al\nigual que disposiciones comparables del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica relativas\na la identificación, conservación, utilización\nsostenible y vigilancia de la diversidad biológica,\nestas responsabilidades incumben a cada una de\nlas Partes Contratantes, actuando a título\nindividual o en cooperación con otras Partes\nContratantes cuando proceda, y postulan la\npromoción de un enfoque integrado de la\nprospección, conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA. El Artículo 6 dispone\nque las Partes Contratantes elaborarán y\nmantendrán medidas normativas y jurídicas que\npromuevan la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA y ofrece una lista no exhaustiva de los\ntipos de medidas que pueden incluirse. Los\nArtículos 7 y 8 se refieren a los compromisos\nnacionales, la cooperación internacional y la\nasistencia técnica.\nDISPOSICIONES GENERALES SOBRE LA CONSERVACIÓN Y LA UTILIZACIÓN\nSOSTENIBLE DE LOS RFGAA\nDERECHOS DEL AGRICULTOR\nEl Artículo 9 del Tratado se refiere a los derechos\ndel agricultor, de conformidad con lo solicitado\nen la Conferencia de Nairobi para la aprobación\ndel texto acordado del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica42 y la Conferencia de la\nFAO de 1993. El Artículo 9 reconoce la\ncontribución de las comunidades locales e\nindígenas y los agricultores a la conservación y\nel desarrollo de los recursos fitogenéticos que\nconstituyen la base de la producción alimentaria\ny agrícola y declara que la responsabilidad de\nhacer realidad esos derechos incumbe a los\ngobiernos nacionales. Las medidas que deberán\nadoptar las Partes Contratantes incluyen la\nprotección y promoción de i) los conocimientos\ntradicionales de interés para los RFGAA\n(Artículo 9.2 a); ii) el derecho de los agricultores\na participar equitativamente en la distribución\nde los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización\nde los RFGAA (Artículo 9.2 b) y iii) el derecho\na participar en la adopción de decisiones a nivel\nnacional sobre asuntos relativos a la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA. El Artículo 9 adopta una posición de\nneutralidad con respecto al derecho de los\nagricultores a conservar, utilizar, intercambiar y\nvender material de siembra y propagación\nconservado en las fincas, es decir el ‘‘privilegio\ndel agricultor’’, cuestión que fue objeto de\nacaloradas discusiones en el curso de las\nnegociaciones. El texto de avenencia que se\nutiliza en el Tratado reconoce tácitamente que\nlos agricultores pueden tener ese derecho con\narreglo a la legislación nacional; si lo tienen,\nnada de lo que se dice en el Artículo 9 se\ninterpretará en el sentido de limitarlo.\n42 Resolución 3, párrafo 4.\nSISTEMA MULTILATERAL DE ACCESO Y DISTRIBUCIÓN DE BENEFICIOS\nUn tema clave del Tratado es el Sistema Multi-\nlateral de acceso y distribución de beneficios\nestablecido por las Partes Contratantes en la Parte\nIV. El Sistema Multilateral fue establecido para\nfacilitar el acceso a los recursos genéticos de los\nprincipales cultivos alimentarios y especies\nforrajeras y compartir de manera justa y\nequitativa los beneficios que se deriven de la\nutilización de estos recursos, con arreglo a\ncondiciones convenidas multilateralmente.\nMuchos países deseaban que se incluyera\nen el Sistema Multilateral la mayor cantidad\nposible de cultivos. Otros deseaban que el\nsistema comenzara con una lista estrictamente\nlimitada de los cultivos más importantes.\nFinalmente, los negociadores convinieron en una\nlista de cultivos, elegidos aparentemente según\nsu importancia para la seguridad alimentaria y\nsu interdependencia.\n16\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEn la práctica, por lo menos parte de la\nlista que figura en el Anexo I del Tratado fue\nacordada sobre la base de lo que distintos\nparticipantes en la negociación consideraban sus\nintereses, con lo que algunos cultivos impor-\ntantes para la seguridad alimentaria quedaron\nexcluidos43. Con todo, la lista final resultante de\nlas negociaciones sí incluye la mayoría de los\nprincipales cultivos alimentarios, a saber cereales\ncomo el arroz, el trigo, el maíz, el sorgo y los\nmijos; leguminosas como frijoles, guisantes,\nlentejas, garbanzos y caupíes; raíces y tubérculos\ncomo la papa, la batata, la yuca y el ñame,\noleaginosas como el coco, el girasol y el\ncomplejo Brassica y frutas como los cítricos, las\nmanzanas y los bananos/plátanos. No figuran en\nla lista una serie de cultivos que parecerían\nresponder a los criterios de seguridad alimentaria\ne interdependencia como la soja, el maní, la caña\nde azúcar y los tubérculos silvestres emparenta-\ndos con la yuca pertenecientes al género\nManihot, varias frutas y los tomates44. En al-\ngunos casos, algunas especies de cultivos como\nciertas especies de maíz y Brassicas se han\nexcluido expresamente. Además de los cultivos\nalimentarios, la lista del Anexo I incluye 29\ngéneros de forrajes principalmente originarios\nde climas templados.\nSin embargo, no todos los cultivos de la\nlista quedan automáticamente incluidos en el\nSistema Multilateral. Sólo los cultivos que\nincluyen recursos fitogenéticos que están bajo\nla administración y el control de las Partes\nContratantes y son del dominio público, están\ncomprendidos en él (véase el Artículo 11.2. El\nSistema Multilateral también incluye los\nRFGAA enumerados en el Anexo I y mantenidos\nen las colecciones de los Centros Internacionales\nde Investigación Agrícola del GCIAI o en otras\ninstituciones que los han incluido voluntaria-\nmente en el sistema (Artículo 11.5). Las Partes\nContratantes deben tomar medidas apropiadas\npara alentar a las personas físicas y jurídicas\ndentro de su jurisdicción que posean RFGAA\nenumerados en el Anexo I a que los incluyan en\nel Sistema Multilateral. El Órgano Rector debe\nevaluar los progresos realizados en este sentido\nen un plazo de dos años a partir de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado.\nEn el Artículo 12 del Tratado, las Partes\nContratantes acuerdan adoptar las medidas\njurídicas necesarias u otras medidas apropiadas\npara proporcionar acceso facilitado a través del\nSistema Multilateral a otras Partes Contratantes\ny a las personas físicas o jurídicas bajo su juris-\ndicción. El artículo también fija las condiciones\na que estará sujeto ese acceso. Una condición\nimportante es que el acceso se concederá ex-\nclusivamente con fines de utilización y conserva-\nción para la investigación, el mejoramiento y la\ncapacitación para la alimentación y la\nagricultura. El acceso para otros fines puede estar\nsujeto a futuros regímenes, incluidos los que se\ndesarrollen en el marco del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica entre las Partes en ese\nConvenio. Quienes reciban material mediante el\nSistema Multilateral no tienen derecho a\nreivindicar derechos de propiedad intelectual o\nde otra índole que limiten el acceso facilitado a\nlos RFGAA o sus partes o componentes\ngenéticos en la forma en que los recibieron del\nsistema. Al igual que en el Artículo 15.5 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, el\nacceso está sujeto al consentimiento fundamen-\ntado previo de la Parte Contratante que propor-\nciona los recursos, a menos que esa Parte deter-\nmine otra cosa. El acceso facilitado se concederá\ncon arreglo a un Acuerdo Normalizado de\nTransferencia de Material (ANTM) que aprobará\nel Órgano Rector del Tratado.\nEl Artículo 13 del Tratado establece las\ncondiciones convenidas para la distribución de\nbeneficios en el Sistema Multilateral. En primer\nlugar, las Partes Contratantes reconocen que el\nacceso facilitado a los RFGAA constituye por sí\nmismo un beneficio importante del Sistema\nMultilateral (Artículo 13.1). Otros mecanismos\nde distribución de los beneficios incluyen el\nintercambio de información, el acceso a la\ntecnología y su transferencia, la creación de\ncapacidad y la distribución de los beneficios\nderivados de la comercialización (Artículo 13.2).\nLa distribución de los beneficios comerciales se\nlogrará por medio de la participación de los\nsectores público y privado en actividades enume-\nradas en el Artículo 13, mediante asociaciones y\ncolaboraciones. La innovación más notable en\nmateria de distribución de beneficios es sin\nembargo que las Partes Contratantes hayan\nconvenido en que el Acuerdo Normalizado de\nTransferencia de Material incluya el requisito de\n43 Cada país que participó en las negociaciones tuvo la oportunidad de excluir cualquier cultivo de la lista. En\nalgunos casos, si los países hubiesen convenido en incluir determinados cultivos, podrían haber obtenido\nconcesiones recíprocas de otros países sobre otros cultivos.\n44 Véase H. David Cooper, The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, en RECIEL,\nVol. 11 No. 1, 2002.\n17\nIntroducción\nque un receptor que comercialice un producto\nque sea un RFGAA y que incorpore material al\nque haya tenido acceso al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral deberá pagar a un fondo inter-\nnacional u otro mecanismo establecido por el\nÓrgano Rector una parte equitativa de los\nbeneficios derivados de la comercialización de\nese producto (Artículo 13.2 d). El pago será\nobligatorio cuando se impongan restricciones a\nla disponibilidad del producto para futura\ninvestigación y mejoramiento, por ejemplo en\nel caso en que sea objeto de una patente en alguna\njurisdicción. Cuando no se impongan restric-\nciones de este tipo a la futura disponibilidad para\ninvestigación y mejoramiento, el receptor no\nestará obligado a hacer el pago pero se alienta a\nque lo haga. El Órgano Rector, en su primera\nreunión, deberá determinar la cuantía, la forma\ny la modalidad del pago, de conformidad con la\npráctica comercial. El Órgano Rector podrá\nrevisar la cuantía del pago, aunque no está\nobligado a hacerlo, y podrá también evaluar, en\nun plazo de cinco años desde la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado si el requisito del pago obligatorio\nse extenderá a los casos en que no se restrinja la\ndisponibilidad. Los beneficios que se deriven de\nla utilización de los RFGAA deben ir funda-\nmentalmente, de manera directa o indirecta, a\nlos agricultores de todos los países, especial-\nmente de los países en desarrollo y los países de\neconomía en transición, que conservan y utilizan\nlos RFGAA (Artículo 13.3).\nCOMPONENTES DE APOYO\nLa Parte V del Tratado se refiere a los com-\nponentes de apoyo del Tratado. Se trata en\ngeneral de actividades que están fuera de la\nestructura institucional del propio Tratado pero\naportan un apoyo esencial para la aplicación\nadecuada del Tratado y la consecución de sus\nobjetivos. Éstas incluyen la promoción de la\naplicación efectiva del Plan de acción mundial\npara la conservación y la utilización de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura, de carácter progresivo, la promoción\nde redes internacionales de recursos fito-\ngenéticos y la elaboración y fortalecimiento de\nun Sistema Global de Información sobre los\nRFGAA, incluida una reevaluación periódica del\nestado de los RFGAA mundiales.\nDe particular importancia son las\ndisposiciones del Artículo 15 relativas a las\ncolecciones ex situ mantenidas en depósito por\nlos Centros Internacionales de Investigación\nAgrícola (CIIA) del Grupo Consultivo sobre\nInvestigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI).\nComo se indicó anteriormente, los negociadores\ntenían sumo interés en incluir las colecciones de\nmateriales enumerados en el Anexo I mantenidas\npor los CIIA en el Sistema Multilateral, pero el\npropio Tratado no podía disponer directamente\nsobre esas colecciones porque los CIIA tienen\nsu propia personalidad jurídica internacional y\npor lo tanto no pueden ser obligados sin su\nconsentimiento. Además, al no ser Estados, no\npueden ser Partes en el Tratado. Había que\nencontrar, pues, un mecanismo jurídico distinto\npara que quedasen comprendidos los CIIA y sus\ncolecciones. En consecuencia, el Tratado incluye\nahora una disposición en que se pide a los CIIA\nque firmen acuerdos con el Órgano Rector para\nque sus colecciones queden comprendidas en las\ndisposiciones del Tratado.\nLos RFGAA que se enumeran en el\nAnexo I que mantienen los CIIA se pondrán a\ndisposición como parte del Sistema Multilateral.\nLos materiales distintos de los enumerados en\nel Anexo I y recogidos antes de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado se pondrán a disposición de\nconformidad con las disposiciones del Acuerdo\nde transferencia de material utilizado actual-\nmente en cumplimiento de los acuerdos entre los\nCIIA y la FAO. El Órgano Rector deberá\nmodificar este Acuerdo a más tardar en su\nsegunda sesión ordinaria para ajustarlo al\nTratado, en particular a sus disposiciones sobre\nel acceso facilitado y la distribución de\nbeneficios en el Sistema Multilateral. El material\ndistinto del enumerado en el Anexo I que reciban\nlos CIIA después de la entrada en vigor del\nTratado estará disponible para el acceso a él en\ncondiciones que estén en consonancia con las\nmutuamente convenidas entre los CIIA y el país\nde origen de los recursos o el país que los haya\nadquirido de conformidad con el Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica. Las Partes Contratantes\nconvienen en proporcionar a los CIIA que hayan\nfirmado acuerdos con el Órgano Rector acceso\nfacilitado a los RFGAA cubiertos por el Sistema\nMultilateral. También se alienta a las Partes a\nfacilitar a esos CIIA acceso en condiciones\nmutuamente convenidas a los materiales no\nenumerados en el Anexo I que son importantes\npara los programas y actividades de esos centros.\nEl Órgano Rector también procurará\nconcertar acuerdos similares con otras\ninstituciones internacionales pertinentes.\n18\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nLa Parte VI del Tratado se refiere a uno de los\naspectos más importantes, a saber, los recursos\nfinancieros. El Artículo 18 dispone que las Partes\naplicarán una estrategia de financiación que\ncontribuirá a la ejecución de las actividades\nprevistas en el Tratado. Los objetivos de la\nestrategia son potenciar la disponibilidad, trans-\nparencia, eficacia y efectividad del suministro\nde recursos financieros para el Tratado. La\nestrategia de financiación incluirá los beneficios\nfinancieros derivados de la comercialización de\nrecursos fitogenéticos en el marco del Sistema\nMultilateral, pero también comprende fondos\naportados por otros mecanismos, fondos y\nórganos internacionales. En este sentido, las\nPartes Contratantes se comprometen a adoptar\nlas medidas necesarias y apropiadas para\ngarantizar que se conceda la debida prioridad a\nla asignación efectiva de recursos previsibles y\nconvenidos para la aplicación de planes y\nprogramas en el marco del Tratado. El Órgano\nRector podrá establecer objetivos para la\nfinanciación de actividades, planes y programas\nprioritarios. Las Partes Contratantes y otras\nfuentes podrán aportar contribuciones\nvoluntarias pero esta Sección del Tratado no\nprevé pagos obligatorios de las Partes\nContratantes.\nDISPOSICIONES FINANCIERAS\nDISPOSICIONES INSTITUCIONALES\nEl Tratado establece un Órgano Rector\nformado por todas las Partes Contratantes. El\nÓrgano Rector actuará como órgano supremo del\nTratado e impartirá instrucciones y orientación\nnormativa para la aplicación del Tratado y, en\nparticular, el Sistema Multilateral. Todas las\ndecisiones del Órgano Rector se adoptarán por\nconsenso, aunque éste está facultado para\nconvenir por consenso en otro método para llegar\na una decisión sobre cualquier asunto, excepto\nlas enmiendas al Tratado y sus Anexos. El\nTratado dispone también que se designe un\nSecretario del Órgano Rector. Puesto que el\nTratado se aprueba con arreglo al Artículo XIV\nde la Constitución de la FAO, el Director General\nde la FAO nombrará al Secretario, aunque deberá\nhacerlo con la aprobación del Órgano Rector.\nCLÁUSULAS FINALES\nEl Tratado estuvo abierto a la firma entre el 4 de\nnoviembre de 2001 y el 3 de noviembre de 2002\ny está sujeto a ratificación, aceptación o aproba-\nción. Está abierto a la adhesión de todos los\nMiembros de la FAO, incluidas las organiza-\nciones Miembros como la Comunidad Europea,\ny cualquier Estado que no sea miembro de la\nFAO pero sea Miembro de las Naciones Unidas,\nde cualquiera de sus organismos especializados\no del Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómi-\nca. Entró en vigor el nonagésimo día siguiente a\nla fecha en que fue depositado el cuadragésimo\ninstrumento de ratificación, aceptación, aproba-\nción o adhesión, es decir, el 29 de junio de 2004.\n19\nPreámbulo\nPREÁMBULO\nAl igual que en el caso de otros tratados\ninternacionales, el preámbulo forma parte de éste\npero no establece obligaciones con fuerza\njurídica vinculante. Más bien, sirve para explicar\nlos motivos que animaron a los Estados\nnegociadores y los supuestos básicos en que se\nbasa el Tratado. Sirve también para expresar\notros intereses de los Estados y organizaciones\nnegociadores, que tal vez no se hayan tenido\níntegramente en cuenta en las disposiciones\nsustantivas del Tratado.\nSe formula un breve comentario con respecto\na los párrafos del Preámbulo. Muchos de los\ntemas que se indican a continuación serán\nexaminados en mayor detalle en el comentario\nsobre los artículos sustantivos del Tratado.\nLas Partes Contratantes,\nConvencidas de la naturaleza especial de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura, sus características distintivas y sus problemas, que requieren soluciones\nespecíficas;\nHay varias características distintivas de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura (RFGAA) que no se encuentran en\notros componentes de la biodiversidad:\nLos RFGAA son administrados\nactivamente por los agricultores;\nMuchos componentes de estos recursos\nno sobrevivirían sin la actividad\nhumana; los conocimientos y la cultura\nlocales y autóctonos constituyen parte\nintegrante de la biodiversidad agrícola;\nLos RFGAA históricamente se han\nextendido más allá de sus regiones de\norigen y existen fuera de esas regiones\ngrandes colecciones de ellos;\nMuchos sistemas agrícolas económica-\nmente importantes se basan en especies\nde cultivos importadas de otros lugares.\nEllo crea un alto grado de inter-\ndependencia entre los países respecto\nde los recursos genéticos en que se\nbasan nuestros sistemas alimentarios;\nEn cuanto al mejoramiento y la\nutilización de los cultivos, la diversidad\ngenética dentro de cada especie es por\nlo menos tan importante como la\ndiversidad entre las especies, en\nparticular para efectos de mejoramiento\nde los cultivos;\nMantener la corriente del material fito-\ngenético y la diversidad genética en ese\nmaterial es esencial para la labor de\nmejoramiento de los cultivos que\npermitirá a la agricultura hacer frente a\nlos nuevos desafíos económicos y\nambientales y ayudar a lograr la\nseguridad alimentaria mundial;\nLa naturaleza de este proceso de\nmejoramiento fitogenético requiere una\namplia diversidad genética que sirva de\ninsumo para el producto deseable y ello\nentraña dificultades para detectar la\nascendencia original y calcular la\nmedida en que un determinado insumo\ngenético ha sido decisivo para producir\nlas características especiales de una\nnueva variedad comercial;\nHabida cuenta del grado en que el ser\nhumano administra la biodiversidad\nagrícola, la conservación de ésta en los\nsistemas de producción está inherente-\nmente vinculada a una utilización\nsostenible; la preservación en zonas\nprotegidas es menos pertinente a los\nrecursos genéticos cultivados y más\npertinente a las plantas silvestres afines\nde las cultivadas;\nSi bien la conservación in situ (en la\nfinca) de los RFGAA sigue revistiendo\nimportancia primordial, gran parte de\nla diversidad de cultivos actualmente\nse mantiene ex situ en bancos de\ngermoplasma o en materiales genéticos\ny no en las fincas.\nEn este párrafo del Preámbulo se reconoce\nque los RFGAA tienen rasgos y características\ndistintivos en comparación con otros recursos\ngenéticos y plantean problemas específicos que\nlos regímenes actuales relativos a los recursos\ngenéticos no resuelven en forma satisfactoria.\nEl texto del párrafo sigue bastante de cerca\nal de la Decisión II/15 de la segunda reunión de\nla Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre\n20\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nla Diversidad Biológica, que comienza con las\npalabras ‘‘Reconociendo la naturaleza especial\nde la biodiversidad agrícola, sus características\ndistintivas y sus problemas, que requieren\nsoluciones específicas’’. La Conferencia de\nNairobi que aprobó el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, al aprobar la Resolución\n3, que se refería a la relación entre el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y la promoción\nde la agricultura sostenible, reconoció ‘‘la\nnecesidad de buscar solución a las cuestiones\npendientes relativas a los recursos fitogenéticos\nen el marco del Sistema Mundial para la\nConservación y Utilización Sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la agricultura\nsostenible y la alimentación, en particular: a) el\nacceso a las colecciones ex situ que no han sido\nconstituidas de conformidad al presente\nConvenio y b) los derechos del agricultor’’.\nDe esta manera, en el párrafo se enuncia la\nnecesidad de dar un tratamiento especial a los\nRFGAA y, en particular, se justifica el estableci-\nmiento de un Sistema Multilateral para el acceso\na esos recursos y la distribución de sus bene-\nficios.\nAlarmadas por la constante erosión de esos recursos;\nEn este párrafo se reconoce que los RFGAA han\nsufrido y siguen sufriendo erosión y se da a\nentender que ello tendrá consecuencias\nnegativas. Por ejemplo, una reducción de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos ha de limitar el ajuste\nevolutivo de los sistemas agrícolas a los cambios\nen las condiciones ambientales y económicas.\nPor otra parte, los agricultores no podrían reducir\nel riesgo de una mala cosecha o no podrían\nexperimentar con variedades de cultivos o\nmodificarlas a fin de acomodarlas a sus preferen-\ncias y a los cambios en las necesidades, incluidas\nlas necesidades de los consumidores.\nLos RFGAA son esenciales para dos\nfunciones principales:\nLa producción sostenible de alimentos\ny otros productos agrícolas, incluidos\nlos componentes básicos para la\nevolución o el mejoramiento gradual de\nvariedades de cultivos nuevas y útiles;\ny\nAtender a necesidades y a circun-\nstancias nuevas e imprevistas. La trans-\nformación de la agricultura, incluida la\nrápida propagación de variedades\ngeneralizadas de alto rendimiento, ha\nsuscitado inquietud en el sentido de que\nse esté perdiendo la diversidad de las\nvariedades tradicionales y las locales.\nEsto es particularmente pertinente en\nlas zonas en que la diversidad está con-\ncentrada y los agricultores mantienen\nno sólo las simientes locales de pobla-\nciones de cultivos ancestrales sino\ntambién los conocimientos y las\nprácticas que han configurado esta\ndiversidad durante generaciones.\nEn el Informe sobre el Estado de los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos para la Agricultura y la\nAlimentación en el Mundo se citaban ejemplos\nconcretos de casos en que se están re-\nemplazando variedades agrícolas y se están\nperdiendo plantas silvestres afines de las\ncultivadas:\nLa República de Corea del Sur\nmencionaba un estudio según el cual\npara 1993 se había reemplazado el 74%\nde las variedades de 14 cultivos que\nexistían en 1985 en determinadas\nexplotaciones agrícolas.\nChina comunicaba que en 1949 se\nutilizaban casi 10.000 variedades de\ntrigo. Para los años setenta se utilizaban\núnicamente 1.000. China indica\ntambién que se han perdido variedades\nde cacahuete silvestre, arroz silvestre y\nun antepasado de la cebada cultivada.\nMalasia, Filipinas y Tailandia comuni-\ncaban que se estaban re-emplazando\nvariedades locales de arroz, maíz y\nfrutas.\nEtiopía comentaba que la cebada nativa\nestaba sufriendo una grave erosión\ngenética y se estaba perdiendo el trigo\nduro.\nLos países andinos indicaban una\nerosión en gran escala de variedades\nlocales de cultivo nativas y de plantas\nsilvestres emparentadas con las culti-\nvadas. La Argentina, en particular,\nindicaba pérdidas de Amaranthus y\nquinoa.\nEl Uruguay señalaba que se habían\nreemplazado muchas variedades locales\nde hortalizas y trigo. Costa Rica\ncomunicaba que se habían reemplazado\nvariedades nativas de maíz y de\nPhaseolus vulgaris.\n21\nPreámbulo\nChile observaba la pérdida de varieda-\ndes de papas locales, así como de avena,\ncebada, lentejas, sandías, tomates y\ntrigo.\nConscientes de que los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura son\nmotivo de preocupación común para todos los países, puesto que todos dependen en\nuna medida muy grande de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nprocedentes de otras partes;\nEn este párrafo, que se basa en el Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica, se hace referencia a los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura como ‘‘motivo de preocupación\ncomún para todos los países’’. El concepto de\nmotivo de preocupación común da a entender la\nimportancia primordial que revisten estos\nrecursos genéticos para la comunidad inter-\nnacional. Hay que observar que la redacción es\ndistinta de la del Compromiso Internacional\nsobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos, en donde estos\nrecursos se describen como ‘‘patrimonio de la\nhumanidad’’. En la tercera interpretación con-\ncertada adjunta al Compromiso se aclaró luego\nque ello estaba sujeto a la soberanía de los\nEstados respecto de sus recursos fitogenéticos.\nEn el párrafo se recalca que todos los\npaíses dependen en muy gran medida de los\nRFGAA procedentes de otras partes. De hecho,\nla interdependencia entre los países respecto de\nestos recursos genéticos es mucho mayor que\nen el caso de cualquier otro tipo de biodiversidad.\nPara que la agricultura progrese continuamente\nes necesario seguir teniendo acceso a la masa\nmundial de RFGAA. Ninguna región puede\ndarse el lujo de quedar aislada o de aislarse a sí\nmisma del germoplasma de otras partes del\nmundo (respecto de la dependencia de cada país\nde los recursos fitogenéticos de los demás, véase\nel recuadro 1).\nEn los tratados modernos, el concepto de\nmotivo de preocupación común normalmente se\nencuentra junto con el principio de la soberanía\nnacional. La relación entre los dos principios se\nexaminará en mayor detalle más adelante\n(véanse, por ejemplo, el Artículo 5.1 y el recua-\ndro 14).\nReconociendo que la conservación, prospección, recolección, caracterización, evaluación\ny documentación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura son\nesenciales para alcanzar los objetivos de la Declaración de Roma sobre la Seguridad\nAlimentaria Mundial y el Plan de Acción de la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación\ny para un desarrollo agrícola sostenible para las generaciones presentes y futuras, y\nque es necesario fortalecer con urgencia la capacidad de los países en desarrollo y los\npaíses con economía en transición a fin de llevar a cabo tales tareas;\nEn este párrafo se destaca la importancia de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos, incluidas su conserva-\nción, prospección, recolección, caracterización,\nevaluación y documentación, para la seguridad\nalimentaria mundial. En la Declaración de Roma\nsobre la Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial, aproba-\nda en la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación\nen 1996, los líderes del mundo se compro-\nmetieron a tratar continuamente de erradicar el\nhambre en todos los países, con el objetivo\ninmediato de reducir el número de personas\nmalnutridas a la mitad de su número actual para\n2015 a más tardar. En 1996, el número de\npersonas que no tenían alimentos suficientes para\nsatisfacer sus necesidades nutricionales básicas\npasaba de los 800 millones. En la Declaración\nde Roma se reconocía también la necesidad de\ntomar medidas con urgencia para detener la\nerosión de la diversidad biológica. En el párrafo\nf) del Objetivo 2.1 del Plan de Acción de la\nCumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación se señala\nque los gobiernos, en colaboración con todos los\nactores de la sociedad civil, y con el apoyo de\nlas instituciones internacionales, según proceda,\nhabrán de ‘‘promover el acceso de los\nagricultores y las comunidades agrícolas a los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la agricultura y la\nalimentación’’. Según el párrafo e) del Objetivo\n3.2, habrán asimismo de ‘‘promover un enfoque\nintegrado de la conservación y la utilización\nsistemática de los recursos fitogenéticos para\nla agricultura y la alimentación, entre otras\ncosas mediante sistemas apropiados in situ y ex\nsitu, una labor sistemática de prospección y\nlevantamiento de inventarios, enfoques del\nmejoramiento genético que amplíen la base\ngenética de los cultivos, y la repartición justa y\nequitativa de los beneficios derivados del uso\nde tales recursos’’.\n22\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl párrafo incorpora asimismo elementos\nde equidad entre las generaciones, la relación\nentre las generaciones pasadas, presentes y\nfuturas con respecto a la utilización del\npatrimonio común que representan los recursos\nculturales y naturales del mundo45. Se parte de\nla premisa de que cada generación es a la vez\nguardián y beneficiario de este patrimonio\ncomún. En su carácter de guardián, cada\ngeneración tiene ciertas obligaciones morales\nrespecto de las del futuro. Estas obligaciones\nmorales pueden convertirse en normas que se\nhagan cumplir en derecho e incluyen la de\nconservar los recursos, la de evitar efectos\nnegativos y la de resarcir el daño ambiental. En\nsu carácter de beneficiaria, cada generación tiene\nciertos derechos a este patrimonio común, que\nconstituyen la contrapartida de las obligaciones\nmorales que le incumben, en su carácter de\nguardián del patrimonio común, respecto de las\ngeneraciones futuras. La teoría de la equidad\nentre generaciones se basa en tres principios:\nSegún el principio de conservar las\nopciones cada generación debe con-\nservar la diversidad, base de los recur-\nsos naturales y culturales, de manera\nque no se limiten indebidamente las\nopciones que tendrán las generaciones\nfuturas para resolver sus problemas y\nactuar de acuerdo con sus propios\nvalores.\nSegún el principio de preservar la\ncalidad cada generación debe mantener\nla calidad del planeta a fin de que pase\na la generación venidera en un estado\nque no sea peor que aquel en que lo\nrecibió.\nSegún el principio de mantener el\nacceso, cada generación debe dar a sus\nmiembros derechos equitativos de\nacceso al legado de las generaciones\npasadas y preservar este acceso para las\ngeneraciones futuras.\nEn tercer lugar, en este párrafo se especi-\nfica que los países en desarrollo y los países con\neconomía en transición deben ser objeto de\nespecial atención. En muchos casos estos países\nno tienen los recursos financieros y los conoci-\nmientos necesarios para la conservación,\nprospección, recolección, caracterización, evalu-\nación y documentación debidas de los RFGAA.\nSe hace referencia a las necesidades de los países\nen desarrollo y los países con economías en\ntransición en el Artículo 7 (cooperación\ninternacional), el Artículo 8 (asistencia técnica),\nel Artículo 13 (distribución de beneficios en el\nSistema Multilateral y fomento de la capacidad)\ny en el Artículo 18 (recursos financieros).\nEn el Artículo 5 se enuncian las obligaciones\nde las Partes Contratantes con respecto a la\nconservación, prospección, recolección,\ncaracterización, evaluación y documentación de\nlos RFGAA.\nTomando nota de que el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la utilización\nsostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura es un marco\nconvenido internacionalmente para tales actividades;\nEl Plan de acción mundial, aprobado por la\nCuarta Conferencia Internacional sobre los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos, celebrada en 1996,\nenuncia un marco científico y técnico para la\nconservación y utilización sostenible de todos\nlos RFGAA e indica áreas de actividad  priori-\ntarias  convenidas (véase el recuadro 15). En los\nArtículos 5 y 6 del Tratado, que enuncian las\nobligaciones básicas de las Partes Contratantes\ncon respecto a la conservación y utilización\nsostenible de estos recursos, se recurre en gran\nmedida a este marco científico y técnico. La\nimportancia del Plan de acción mundial para el\nTratado (está enumerado entre sus componentes\nde apoyo) se reconoce expresamente en el\nArtículo 14 del Tratado y todas las Partes\nContratantes deberían promover su aplicación\neficaz.\n45 Véase Edith Brown Weiss, Our Rights and Obligations to Future Generations, 84 Am. J. Int´l L. 198 (1990); Edith\nBrown Weiss, The Planetary Trust: Conservation and Intergenerational Equity, 11 Ecology L. Q. 495 (1984).\nVéase también Gary P. Supanich, The Legal Basis of Intergenerational Responsibility: An Alternative View-The\nSense of Generational Identity, 3 Y.B. Int´l Envtl. L. 94 (1992).\n23\nPreámbulo\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\nLos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura son componentes básicos de los\nprogramas de mejoramiento genético e incluyen\ngermoplasma del acervo genético primario,\nsecundario y terciario. El acervo genético\nprimario incluye la variación genética en la\npoblación de una especie y de especies muy\nafines que comúnmente se entrecruzan o pueden\ncruzarse normalmente con la especie en cuestión.\nEl acervo genético secundario incluye la\nvariación genética y las poblaciones de especies\nafines que pueden cruzarse con la especie\nutilizando métodos menos habituales como el\npolen mentor o el rescate de embriones. El\nacervo genético terciario se refiere a toda la\nvariación genética de otros organismos que no\npueden cruzarse con la especie. Habida cuenta\ndel desarrollo de la ingeniería genética, en teoría\nes posible traspasar a una planta genes aislados\nde cualquier organismo (plantas, animales, virus\no bacterias). De esta manera queda un tanto\ndifusa la línea entre el acervo genético secun-\ndario y el terciario (véase Maynard, C. 1996.\nForest Genetics Glossary).\nEn el párrafo se reconoce que el mejora-\nmiento genético de los cultivos puede lograrse\npor muchos medios distintos: la selección de los\nagricultores, el fitomejoramiento clásico o las\nbiotecnologías modernas. Se menciona en\nprimer lugar la selección de los agricultores en\nrazón de su importancia histórica.\nSe vuelve a insistir aquí en el elemento de\nla equidad entre generaciones al hacer referencia\na las necesidades humanas futuras y se destaca\nla importancia de los recursos fitogenéticos como\nmateria prima que puede utilizarse para adaptar\nlos cultivos a cambios imprevisibles en el medio\nambiente. Habida cuenta de que no es posible\npredecir esos cambios en toda su medida, surge\nla correspondiente necesidad de mantener la\nvariación más amplia posible de la biodiversidad\n(acerca de la función de los RFGAA en el\nfitomejoramiento genético, véase el recuadro 4).\nReconociendo asimismo que los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura son la materia prima indispensable para el mejoramiento genético de los\ncultivos, por medio de la selección de los agricultores, el fitomejoramiento clásico o las\nbiotecnologías modernas, y son esenciales para la adaptación a los cambios imprevisibles\ndel medio ambiente y las necesidades humanas futuras;\nRecuadro 4. El fitomejoramiento y la función de los recursos genéticos\nLos agricultores se han dedicado a la selección de semillas y al fitomejoramiento desde los\nalbores de la agricultura, hace ya unos 10.000 años.\nEl científico ruso N.I. Vavilov, profundizando en la labor realizada por Alphonse de Candolle46\nen el siglo anterior, fue el primero en lanzar en los años treinta la idea de que las raíces de la\nagricultura moderna se encontraban en ocho centros geográficos de diversidad genética. Se\ntrataba de concentraciones de diversidad vegetal natural importantes para la agricultura, en\nlas que los agricultores habían originalmente domesticado y desarrollado mediante la selección\ny el mejoramiento los principales cultivos que constituyen la base de la agricultura moderna\ny la seguridad alimentaria. Los ocho centros eran los siguientes: China; la India, con un\ncentro conexo en Indo-Malasia; el Asia Central; el Cercano Oriente; el Mediterráneo; Abisinia\n(Etiopía); México meridional y América Central; y Sudamérica (Perú, Ecuador y Bolivia),\ncon dos centros menores: la isla de Chiloé frente a Chile continental meridional, y un centro\nsecundario al este del Brasil y el Paraguay. Vavilov creía que los centros de diversidad eran\nlos centros naturales de origen de esos cultivos. El Tratado indica que las comunidades y los\nagricultores locales y autóctonos de esas regiones y regiones similares han aportado una\ncontribución especial al mejoramiento de los cultivos agrícolas. Vavilov creía que los centros\n46 De Candolle fue uno de los botánicos más importantes del siglo XIX. Su obra, ‘‘El origen de las plantas cultivadas’’\napuntaba a localizar la región de origen de plantas de cultivo utilizando técnicas tales como la distribución de las\nespecies silvestres afines, derivados lingüísticos, pautas de variación, etc.\n24\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nde origen de los cultivos estaban en las zonas en que se encontraba la mayor diversidad\nnatural de esos cultivos (los ‘‘centros de diversidad’’). Posteriormente se descubrió que no\nocurría necesariamente así y que muchos cultivos tenían centros secundarios de diversidad\nen que había tanta o más diversidad genética. Si bien desde entonces se ha demostrado que\nmuchas de las teorías de Vavilov relativas a la fusión de centros de diversidad natural y\ncentros de origen eran incompletas, sus ideas siguen constituyendo la base de la ciencia\nmoderna de los recursos fitogenéticos.\nLos agricultores crearon los precursores de los cultivos agrícolas modernos seleccionando\nlos genotipos naturales más productivos y resistentes a las enfermedades y combinándolos\nluego con otras variedades de la misma especie a fin de producir variedades nuevas y\nmejoradas. La diversidad natural de los recursos fitogenéticos era y sigue siendo un requisito\nesencial para el fitomejoramiento. Por ejemplo, todas las especies de grano tienen variedades\ncon cáscara y variedades sin cáscara y todas tienen variedades con espigas estables y con\nespigas frágiles. En la naturaleza, características tales como la tendencia de las cápsulas de\nlas semillas a romperse y desperdigar la semilla y la capacidad de las semillas de plantas\nsilvestres de permanecer en dormición y sobrevivir así períodos de sequía son importantes a\nlos efectos de la regeneración natural. Esas características, sin embargo, hacen que tales\nplantas sean menos útiles para el cultivo. La tarea del agricultor consistía entonces en\nseleccionar y mejorar plantas naturales para descartar las características que no eran deseables\ne introducir las deseables, entre ellas la resistencia a las enfermedades. En nuestros días los\nagricultores siguen mejorando los cultivos para tener en cuenta las condiciones ecológicas\ndel lugar. Los agricultores tradicionales tratan también de maximizar la diversidad natural en\nsus cultivos tradicionales (las llamadas ‘‘variedades locales’’ o ‘‘variedades del agricultor’’)\na fin de aumentar la estabilidad del rendimiento y la adaptabilidad a nuevos entornos y reducir\nla vulnerabilidad a las enfermedades. De esta manera, los agricultores tradicionales buscan\ncontinuamente nuevas aportaciones de diversidad genética, sea mediante el intercambio de\nsemillas con agricultores vecinos o fuera de la zona o región agrícola inmediata.\nEl fitomejoramiento científico emplea diversas técnicas, algunas más antiguas y otras más\nnuevas, para inducir la variación, seleccionar los caracteres deseables y propagar y\nmultiplicar nuevas variedades.\nLas técnicas más antiguas consisten en cruzar los organismos parentales con características\ncomplementarias para generar una población de plantas genéticamente recombinadas, de las\ncuales se espera que una pequeña proporción aporte la combinación especial de genes que se\nnecesita. En una variedad moderna pueden combinarse genes de un número muy elevado de\norganismos parentales, procedentes de muchos países o regiones distintos. La variedad VEERY\nde trigo de primavera para pan, desarrollada por el Centro Internacional para el Mejoramiento\ndel Maíz y el Trigo (CIMMYT), que fue el cultivar más importante entre las variedades en\nlos años ochenta, era producto de 3.170 cruzamientos distintos entre unas 51 variedades de\norganismos parentales procedentes de por lo menos 26 países.\nLa mejora genética vegetal moderna depende del acceso a una gran cantidad de variedades.\nEn las primeras etapas del proceso de mejoramiento, los científicos pueden hacer\ninvestigaciones con miles de muestras de germoplasma para buscar nuevas características\nque sean útiles. En general, el fitomejorador trabaja con cultivares o con materiales avanzados\n(elite) existentes, que son materiales ya mejorados por otros fitomejoradores. En otras\noportunidades, sin embargo, tiene que recurrir a las variedades locales, que son variedades\ndesarrolladas por los agricultores en sus campos, o a especies silvestres afines, que son las\nmalezas o especies silvestres afines de las cultivadas. Así ocurre en particular cuando se\nbuscan caracteres de resistencia.\nUsando este material se hacen cruzamientos que dan lugar a miles de combinaciones distintas,\nlas cuales se reducen mediante el ensayo y la selección, generalmente procedentes de plantas\nindividuales, en varias generaciones. Durante el proceso se descarta una enorme mayoría de\nlas combinaciones. En las últimas etapas, normalmente se procede a cultivar y evaluar las\nplantas en diversos lugares para determinar el grado de adaptación de las variedades\nselecionadas a los entornos elegidos. Al terminar el proceso, normalmente el mejorador\n25\nPreámbulo\npresenta un número reducido de variedades muy seleccionadas para una evaluación\nindependiente antes de que se autorice su utilización por el agricultor. A veces se hacen\ncruzamientos que no obedecen al propósito de lograr directamente una variedad, sino de\nproducir organismos parentales mejorados para nuevos cruces (‘‘premejoramiento’’). Gran\nparte de la utilización de los RFGAA reviste esta forma. El desarrollo de nuevas variedades\ndepende de la utilización de recursos genéticos en un período prolongado: todo el proceso de\nmejorar y poner en circulación una nueva variedad de grano puede demorarse por lo menos\n10 años y a veces más. La variedad de arroz IR36, por ejemplo, tiene en su ancestro 15\nvariedades locales y una especie silvestre y fue resultado de unos 20 años de mejoramiento.\nLa biología molecular proporciona nuevos instrumentos para el fitomejoramiento. Actualmente\nes posible traspasar genes de una especie a otra o incluso de animales o microbios a plantas.\nSi bien hasta la fecha se han comercializado relativamente pocas variedades producidas\nmediante esos traspasos de genes, su número aumentará sin duda en el futuro. La contribución\npotencial de las nuevas técnicas es enorme, pero también constituyen una posible amenaza a\nla diversidad genética actual.\nEl fitomejoramiento depende absolutamente de que siga habiendo acceso a una gran variedad\nde materiales. Si bien los productos de la fitogenética que cumplen ciertos requisitos pueden\nestar protegidos por derechos de propiedad intelectual en la forma de derechos o patentes\n(véase el recuadro 11), no hay tal protección para otras innovaciones que no reúnen esos\nrequisitos, entre ellas la selección masal47, un proceso continuo de selección y propagación\nefectuado por generaciones de agricultores.\n47 El término ‘‘selección masal’’ denota el método tradicional de seleccionar material reproductivo adecuado de las\nmejores plantas en una determinada finca o explotación.\nAfirmando que la contribución pasada, presente y futura de los agricultores de todas las\nregiones del mundo, en especial los de los centros de origen y diversidad, a la conservación,\nmejoramiento y disponibilidad de estos recursos constituye la base de los derechos del\nagricultor;\nEn este párrafo se reconoce la importancia de la\ncontribución pasada, presente y futura de los\nagricultores a la conservación, el mejoramiento\ny la disponibilidad de los RFGAA y se introduce\nel concepto de ‘‘derechos del agricultor’’. Este\nconcepto pasó a formar parte del derecho\ninternacional por conducto de las dos primeras\ninterpretaciones concertadas del Compromiso\nInternacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos de\nla FAO. En el Anexo II del Compromiso\nInternacional, aprobado en la Resolución 5/89\nde la Conferencia de la FAO, se definen los\nderechos del agricultor como:\n‘‘Derechos que provienen de la\ncontribución pasada, presente y futura de los\nagricultores a la conservación, mejora y\ndisponibilidad de los recursos fitogenéticos,\nparticularmente de los centros de origen/\ndiversidad’’.\nComo se señalaba en la interpretación\nconcertada, el reconocimiento de los derechos\ndel agricultor estaba vinculado con el reconoci-\nmiento de los derechos del obtentor y, en opinión\nde muchos, establecía un equilibrio con esos\nderechos de carácter más formal. Hasta entonces\nno se habían reconocido ni recompensado las\ninnovaciones logradas mediante el proceso\ntradicional de selección llevado a cabo por los\nagricultores en el curso de muchas generaciones.\nEl párrafo anticipa el texto del artículo\nsustantivo sobre los derechos del agricultor que\nfigura en la Parte III (Artículo 9) del Tratado.\nEn el párrafo se reconoce además que la\ncontribución de los agricultores no está\ndistribuida por igual en todo el mundo sino que\nestá concentrada en ‘‘centros de origen y\ndiversidad’’ de plantas cultivadas y sus especies\nsilvestres afines, que están situados en gran\nmedida en las regiones tropical y subtropical de\nÁfrica, Asia y Sudamérica.\nCon respecto a la acepción de los términos\n‘‘centros de origen’’ y ‘‘centros de diversidad’’,\nvéase el recuadro 4.\n26\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nLas disposiciones sustantivas sobre los derechos\ndel agricultor están enunciadas en el Artículo 9\ndel Tratado. Este párrafo daría a entender que\nlos derechos del agricultor se han de materializar\ny promover a nivel nacional e internacional\nmediante la aplicación de esas disposiciones\nsustantivas.\nExisten sin embargo algunas diferencias\nentre las disposiciones sustantivas y las de este\npárrafo.\nEn primer lugar, la lista de derechos\n‘‘reconocidos en el presente Tratado’’ difiere un\ntanto de la lista de derechos del agricultor que\nlas Partes Contratantes convienen en proteger y\npromover en el Artículo 9. Más importante aún,\nel derecho a conservar, utilizar, intercambiar y\nvender semillas conservadas en la finca se\nenumera en pie de igualdad con los demás\nderechos como elemento fundamental para la\nrealización de los derechos del agricultor. En el\nArtículo 9, la disposición equivalente acerca de\nlas semillas conservadas en la finca está separada\nde las relativas a otras manifestaciones de los\nderechos del agricultor y surte un efecto en gran\nmedida neutro. Si bien las Partes Contratantes\ndeben tomar medidas para proteger los\nconocimientos tradicionales, para proteger y\npromover el derecho a participar equitativamente\nen los beneficios y para hacer posible la\nparticipación en la adopción de decisiones, el\nArtículo 9 no impone obligaciones a las Partes\nContratantes con respecto a las semillas\nconservadas en la finca: el tratamiento de la\nllamada ‘‘privilegio del agricultor’’48 queda\nlibrado en su integridad a quienes adoptan las\ndecisiones en cada país. Así, el Artículo 9 se\nlimita a aclarar que las disposiciones sustantivas\nno limitan los derechos que pueda conferir la\nlegislación nacional. El párrafo del Preámbulo\nAfirmando también que los derechos reconocidos en el presente Tratado a conservar,\nutilizar, intercambiar y vender semillas y otro material de propagación conservados en\nlas fincas y a participar en la adopción de decisiones y en la distribución justa y equitativa\nde los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura es fundamental para la aplicación de los derechos del\nagricultor, así como para su promoción a nivel nacional e internacional;\nparece ir más lejos que la disposición sustantiva\ny sigue más de cerca parte del texto de los\nElementos del Presidente que surgieron de la\nreunión de expertos celebrada en Montreux\n(véase la Introducción). En cambio, la lista de\nejemplos de los componentes de los derechos\ndel agricultor es más amplia en el Artículo 9 que,\na diferencia del párrafo del preámbulo, menciona\nla protección de los conocimientos tradicionales.\nEn segundo lugar, la referencia expresa que\nse hace en el párrafo del Preámbulo a la pro-\nmoción de los derechos del agricultor a nivel\ninternacional debe interpretarse en el contexto\nde las disposiciones sustantivas del Artículo 9,\nque se abstienen cuidadosamente de hacer\nreferencia alguna a los derechos del agricultor a\nese nivel. Ello es intencional y se ajusta a la\nredacción de los Elementos del Presidente que\nsurgieron de la reunión de expertos de Montreux.\nAlgunos países en desarrollo tal vez estén\nconsiderando la posibilidad de incluir un meca-\nnismo nacional para los derechos del agricultor\nen forma autónoma o como parte de la legis-\nlación nacional sui generis sobre los derechos\ndel obtentor, de conformidad con el Acuerdo\nsobre los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad\nIntelectual relacionados con el Comercio49\n(Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC) de la Ronda Uru-\nguay de Negociaciones Comerciales Multi-\nlaterales. Ello encuentra apoyo en la referencia\nexpresa que se hace en el párrafo del preámbulo\na la promoción de los derechos del agricultor\ntanto a nivel internacional como nacional. Los\nderechos del agricultor ya se han reconocido a\nnivel internacional, si bien en instrumentos sin\nfuerza jurídica obligatoria aprobados antes que\nel Tratado (el Programa 21 y la Resolución 3 del\nActa Final de Nairobi).\n48 La ‘‘prerrogativa del agricultor’’ quedó enunciada en general en el Convenio Internacional para la Protección de\nObtenciones Vegetales (UPOV 1991), 2 de diciembre de 1961, 33 U.S.T. 2703, 815 U.N.T.S. 89, revisado en\nGinebra el 10 de noviembre de 1972, el 23 de octubre de 1978 y el 19 de marzo de 1991.\n49 Acuerdo sobre los Aspectos de los Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual relacionados con el Comercio, 15 de abril\nde 1994, Acuerdo Constitutivo de la Organización Mundial del Comercio, Anexo IC, Instrumentos jurídicos –\nResultados de la Ronda Uruguay, 33 I.L.M.81 (1994).\n27\nPreámbulo\nHasta cierto punto, el Sistema Multilateral\nde distribución de beneficios que se establece\nen virtud del Artículo 13 del Tratado, incluidos\nlos pagos que se han de hacer de conformidad\ncon el párrafo 2 d ii) de ese Artículo y que han\nde beneficiar primordialmente a agricultores de\ntodos los países, puede considerarse también una\nmanera de poner en práctica los derechos del\nagricultor a nivel internacional. Ello es con-\ngruente con la Resolución 4/89 de la Conferencia\nde la FAO, en que los Estados adherentes al\nCompromiso Internacional señalaron que ‘‘la\nmejor manera de aplicar el concepto de derechos\ndel agricultor es asegurar la conservación, el\nmanejo y el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos en\nbeneficio de las generaciones presentes y futuras\nde agricultores. Esto podría conseguirse\nutilizando los medios apropiados bajo la\nsupervisión de la Comisión de Recursos\nFitogenéticos, entre ellos en particular el Fondo\nInternacional para Recursos Fitogenéticos’’. En\nla resolución 3/91, la Conferencia de la FAO se\nrefirió a la cuestión en los términos siguientes:\n‘‘... los derechos del agricultor se aplicarán por\nmedio de un Fondo Internacional para Recursos\nFitogenéticos que apoyará los programas de\nconservación y utilización, en particular, pero\nno exclusiva-mente, en los países en desarrollo’’.\nReconociendo que el presente Tratado y otros acuerdos internacionales pertinentes deben\nrespaldarse mutuamente con vistas a conseguir una agricultura y una seguridad\nalimentaria sostenibles;\nAfirmando que nada del presente Tratado debe interpretarse en el sentido de que\nrepresente cualquier tipo de cambio en los derechos y obligaciones de las Partes\nContratantes en virtud de otros acuerdos internacionales;\nEntendiendo que lo expuesto más arriba no pretende crear una jerarquía entre el presente\nTratado y otros acuerdos internacionales;\nEstos tres párrafos deben considerarse en su\nconjunto y constituyen un texto de avenencia\ndestinado a resolver la cuestión de la relación\nentre el Tratado y otros acuerdos internacionales\npertinentes, en particular el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica y diversos acuerdos\ncomerciales de la Organización Mundial del\nComercio (OMC). Con arreglo a la Convención\nde Viena sobre el Derecho de los Tratados50, los\nacuerdos ulteriores entre las mismas partes que\nse refieren a la misma materia dejan sin efecto\nlas disposiciones de los tratados anteriores, a\nmenos que en los primeros se disponga lo\ncontrario. Los negociadores tenían especial\ninterés en evitar este efecto y, al mismo tiempo,\nevitar cualquier idea de jerarquía entre los\ndiversos acuerdos internacionales. Para estos\nefectos, en el primero de los tres párrafos se\nseñala expresamente que todos los acuerdos\ninternacionales pertinentes deben interpretarse\nde manera que se respalden mutuamente para\nalcanzar los objetivos del Tratado, esto es, la\nagricultura sostenible y la seguridad alimentaria.\nEllo remite a una disposición similar del Pre-\námbulo del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Bioló-\ngica que se refiere al carácter complementario\nde los acuerdos internacionales vigentes. En el\nConvenio, sin embargo, los elementos de fondo\ndel párrafo segundo figuran en un artículo\nseparado del corpus, el Artículo 22 51. El párrafo\ndel Tratado no incluye la excepción enunciada\nen el Convenio respecto de la situación en que\nel ejercicio de los derechos y el cumplimiento\nde las obligaciones en virtud de acuerdos\nvigentes puedan causar graves daños a la\ndiversidad biológica o ponerla en peligro.\n50 Convención de Viena sobre el Derecho de los Tratados, 23 de mayo de 1969, 8 I.L.M. 679.\n51 El texto del Artículo 22 es el siguiente:\n1. Las disposiciones del presente Convenio no afectarán a los derechos y obligaciones de toda Parte Contratante\nderivados de cualquier acuerdo internacional existente, excepto cuando el ejercicio de esos derechos y el\ncumplimiento de esas obligaciones pueda causar graves daños a la diversidad biológica o ponerla en peligro.\n2. Las Partes Contratantes aplicarán el presente Convenio con respecto al medio marino de conformidad con los\nderechos y obligaciones de los Estados con arreglo al derecho del mar.\n28\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEn este párrafo se reconoce la compleja relación\nque existe entre los RFGAA, el medio ambiente\ny el comercio, con inclusión de los derechos de\npropiedad intelectual relacionados con el\ncomercio. Todos los sectores deben colaborar\npara una acción eficaz tanto en el plano nacional\ncomo en el internacional. En cierto sentido, el\npárrafo destaca el carácter esencial del Tratado,\nque es básicamente un tratado agrícola y se\nrefiere a los recursos fitogenéticos y a su\nimportancia para la alimentación y la agricultura\ny, en última instancia, para la seguridad\nalimentaria. Por otra parte, la intención era que\nel Tratado estuviera en armonía con el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y con el marco\nque en materia de medio ambiente establecía para\nla conservación y utilización sostenible de toda\nla biodiversidad. La necesidad de que en el\nTratado se tuvieran en cuenta las necesidades\nde la agricultura y los intereses ambientales\nqueda también de manifiesto en particular en el\ntexto del Artículo 2.1, según el cual los objetivos\ndel Tratado se obtendrán vinculándolo estrecha-\nmente con la FAO y con el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica.\nEn el plano nacional, este párrafo también\nda a entender que, a los efectos de la aplicación\ndel Tratado, deberá haber una estrecha co-\noperación entre los ministerios competentes.\nConscientes de que las cuestiones relativas a la ordenación de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura están en el punto de confluencia entre la agricultura,\nel medio ambiente y el comercio, y convencidas de que debe haber sinergia entre estos\nsectores;\nConscientes de su responsabilidad para con las generaciones presentes y futuras en cuanto\na la conservación de la diversidad mundial de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura;\nEste párrafo se remite a una disposición similar\ndel Preámbulo del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica. En el caso del Tratado, sin embargo,\nse hace mayor hincapié en las contribuciones\naportadas en el pasado por los agricultores a la\nconservación y el desarrollo de los RFGAA, que\na su vez imponen a la generación presente la\nresponsabilidad de conservar esa diversidad para\nlas generaciones futuras.\nReconociendo que, en el ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos sobre los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, los Estados pueden beneficiarse\nmutuamente de la creación de un sistema multilateral eficaz para la facilitación del\nacceso a una selección negociada de estos recursos y para la distribución justa y equitativa\nde los beneficios que se deriven de su utilización; y\nEn primer lugar, este párrafo reafirma el concepto\nde que las Partes Contratantes tienen derechos\nsoberanos respecto de sus RFGAA y remite a\ntextos similares del Preámbulo del Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y especialmente\nde la tercera interpretación concertada del\nCompromiso Internacional. Como ya se ha\nseñalado, el concepto de ‘‘derechos soberanos’’\nnormalmente está vinculado al de ‘‘motivo de\npreocupación común’’, expresado en el tercer\npárrafo del Preámbulo. En segundo lugar, este\npárrafo introduce el concepto de Sistema Multi-\nlateral. Reconoce que todos los países pueden\nobtener beneficios del establecimiento de un\nplanteamiento multilateral de los recursos\nfitogenéticos importantes para la seguridad\nalimentaria y respecto de los cuales los países\nson más interdependientes. Se señala además que\neste planteamiento multilateral no es in-\ncompatible con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica ni con el concepto de que los Estados\ntienen derechos soberanos respecto de sus\nRFGAA. De hecho, el párrafo señala que es ‘‘en\nel ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos’’ que las\nPartes Contratantes en el Tratado han convenido\nen establecer un Sistema Multilateral para esos\nrecursos fitogenéticos. Los países, al aceptar el\ntexto del Tratado, convienen en la práctica en\nque, para tener acceso a una determinada\nsubcategoría de los RFGAA, no se necesitará el\nconsentimiento fundamentado previo entre las\nPartes Contratantes respecto de cada operación\ny no será necesario negociar bilateralmente las\ncondiciones de acceso ni de distribución de los\nbeneficios. Más bien, se aplicará un conjunto de\ncondiciones convenidas de común acuerdo en\nel plano multilateral. Al reconocer los beneficios\nmutuos que el Sistema Multilateral puede\nreportar para las Partes Contratantes, en este\npárrafo se reconoce tácitamente que un plantea-\n29\nPreámbulo\nmiento puramente bilateral del acceso y la\ndistribución de los beneficios no se presta al caso\nde los RFGAA y ello obedece a varios motivos:\nEn razón del desplazamiento de\npersonas y recursos en los milenios\npasados, así como de las actividades\nmodernas de recolección, los recursos\ngenéticos de los cultivos más\nimportantes están muy distribuidos ex\nsitu en bancos de genes y en zonas de\nproducción;\nEn todos los países la agricultura\ndepende en gran medida de RFGAA\nque provienen de otra parte; y\nPara que en el futuro se puedan seguir\nintroduciendo en los cultivos las\nmejoras necesarias para la agricultura\nsostenible y la seguridad alimentaria es\npreciso tener acceso en todo momento\na una amplia base genética sin grandes\nrestricciones.\nDeseando concluir un acuerdo internacional en el marco de la Organización de las\nNaciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, denominada en adelante la FAO,\nen virtud del Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la FAO;\nEl Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la FAO\nfaculta a la Conferencia de la FAO para\n‘‘... aprobar y someter a los Estados Miembros\nacuerdos sobre cuestiones relativas a la\nalimentación y la agricultura’’. Los acuerdos\ninternacionales aprobados en virtud de este\nprocedimiento son acuerdos internacionales por\nderecho propio y, una vez que entran en vigor,\ntienen plena fuerza obligatoria para sus Partes\nContratantes. Sin embargo, son aprobados con\narreglo a la Constitución de la FAO y, por lo\ntanto, tienen vínculos con la FAO prescritos en\nesa Constitución. Entre ellos queda incluida la\nfacultad del Director General de designar al\nSecretario del Órgano Rector (Artículo 20), si\nbien únicamente con la aprobación de este\nórgano. Los acuerdos concertados con arreglo\nal Artículo XIV han tenido históricamente cierto\ngrado de apoyo financiero y técnico de la FAO.\nEsta relación constitucional entre el Tratado y\nla FAO reconoce el carácter esencialmente\nagrícola de los intereses que tiene en cuenta el\nTratado y la competencia de la FAO en esta\nmateria. Sin embargo, en el Artículo 1 se recalca\nque el Tratado debe estar estrechamente\nvinculado al Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica para poder obtener sus objetivos52.\n52 Otros acuerdos concertados con arreglo al Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la FAO son: el Convenio para el\nEstablecimiento de la Comisión de Pesca para Asia-Pacífico (1948), el Estatuto Orgánico de la Comisión\nInternacional del Arroz (1948), el Convenio para el Establecimiento de la Comisión General de Pesca del\nMediterráneo (1949) [texto enmendado aprobado por el Consejo de la FAO en su 113º período de sesiones], la\nConvención Internacional de Protección Fitosanitaria (1951) [texto revisado aprobado por la 29 Conferencia de\nla FAO en su 29º período de sesiones (1997)], el Estatuto Orgánico de la Comisión Europea para la lucha contra\nla Fiebre Aftosa (1953), el Acuerdo de Protección Fitosanitaria para la Región de Asia y el Pacífico (1955), la\nConvención que encuadra a la Comisión Internacional del Álamo dentro del marco de la FAO (1959), el Acuerdo\npara el Establecimiento de una Comisión de la FAO para la Lucha contra la Langosta del Desierto en el Asia\nSudoccidental (1963), el Acuerdo para el Establecimiento de una Comisión de la FAO para la Lucha contra la\nLangosta del Desierto en la Región Central (1965), el Acuerdo para el Establecimiento de una Comisión de la\nFAO para la Lucha contra la Langosta del Desierto en el Noroeste de África (1970), el Acuerdo sobre la creación\nde una Comisión Regional de Producción y Sanidad Pecuarias en Asia y el Pacífico (1973), el Acuerdo para\npromover el cumplimiento de las medidas internacionales de conservación y ordenación por los buques pesqueros\nque pescan en alta mar (1993), el Acuerdo para la Creación de la Comisión del Atún para el Océano Índico (1993),\nel Acuerdo para el Establecimiento de la Comisión Regional de Pesca (COREPESCA) (1999) y el Acuerdo para\nel Establecimiento de una Comisión de Lucha contra la Langosta del Desierto en la Región Occidental (2000).\n30\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agriculturaide e plicatif du Traité In ernational sur les Res urces Phytogénétiques pour l’Aliment tion et l’Agriculture\n31\nArtículo 1\nHan acordado lo siguiente:\nPARTE I  – INTRODUCCIÓN\nArtículo 1 – Objetivos\nEn este artículo se enuncian los objetivos y la\norientación general del Tratado y se indica el\nmarco en que se han de adoptar las medidas para\naplicarlo. El artículo prepara el terreno para los\nartículos subsiguientes que establecen obliga-\nciones más concretas. Al definirlos en términos\nprecisos, se hace también posible evaluar\nconstantemente la medida en que se están\nalcanzando los objetivos, puesto que se ha\nestablecido un punto de referencia o un pará-\nmetro para supervisar la aplicación.\nEste artículo, al impartir un sentido general\nde orientación, sirve para:\nAsegurar que se tomen decisiones\nequilibradas. En los casos en que una\nactividad realizada con arreglo al Tra-\ntado pueda estar en conflicto con otra,\neste artículo puede dar ciertas seguri-\ndades en el sentido de que se tienen en\ncuenta todos los intereses. Por ejemplo,\nno sería conforme con él aplicar una\npolítica de acceso a los RFGAA sin\ntener en cuenta la distribución justa y\nequitativa de los beneficios derivados\nde su utilización.\nResolver discrepancias en la interpreta-\nción y posibles conflictos entre distintas\ndisposiciones y ayudar en la solución\nde controversias.\nPor todas estas razones, el Artículo 1\nreviste importancia para todos los que tienen que\nver con el Tratado, en particular el Órgano Rector\ndel Tratado (véase el Artículo 19) y las autorida-\ndes nacionales de las Partes Contratantes encar-\ngadas de aplicarlo dentro de sus jurisdicciones.\nEl artículo tiene también importantes\nconsecuencias jurídicas para los Estados que han\nfirmado el Tratado pero no lo han ratificado aún\ny para los que lo han ratificado pero respecto de\nlos cuales el Tratado no ha entrado aún en vigor.\nSegún el Artículo 18 de la Convención de Viena\nsobre el Derecho de los Tratados, una vez que\nun Estado ha firmado un tratado o manifestado\nsu consentimiento en obligarse por él, deberá\nabstenerse de actos en virtud de los cuales se\nfrustren el objeto y el fin del tratado hasta que\néste entre en vigor a su respecto.\n1.1 Los objetivos del presente Tratado son la conservación y la utilización sostenible\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y la distribución\njusta y equitativa de los beneficios derivados de su utilización en armonía con el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica para una agricultura sostenible y la\nseguridad alimentaria.\nEn el primer párrafo de este artículo se enuncian\nlos objetivos del Tratado:\nLa conservación (véase en particular el\nArtículo 5) y la utilización sostenible\n(véase en particular el Artículo 6) de\nlos RFGAA;\nLa distribución equitativa de los bene-\nficios derivados de su utilización\n(véase en particular los Artículos 9 y\n13); y\nCon el objetivo último de lograr una\nagricultura sostenible y la seguridad\nalimentaria.\nEn estos objetivos se establece, en primer\nlugar, el equilibrio fundamental del Tratado entre\nla conservación y la utilización sostenible y, en\nsegundo lugar, el equilibrio entre estos dos ele-\nmentos y la distribución de los beneficios. En\ntercer lugar, queda de manifiesto que, en última\ninstancia, el alcance y el propósito del Tratado\nson esencialmente de carácter agrícola. En este\ncontexto cabe señalar que la materia a que se\nrefiere el Tratado son los RFGAA tal como se\ndefinen en el Artículo 2: material genético de\norigen vegetal de valor real o potencial para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. El Tratado prevé\nsu conservación y utilización y la distribución\nde sus beneficios a los efectos de alcanzar una\nagricultura sostenible y la seguridad alimentaria.\n32\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n1.2 Estos objetivos se obtendrán vinculando estrechamente el presente Tratado a la\nOrganización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación y al\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nEn este párrafo se señala expresamente que\nlos objetivos del Tratado han de alcanzarse ‘‘en\narmonía con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica’’. Inicialmente, tanto en el Programa\n21, aprobado en la Conferencia de las Naciones\nUnidas sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo\nde 1992, como en la Conferencia de la FAO de\n1993, se pidió que la adaptación del Compromiso\nInternacional se hiciese en armonía con el Con-\nvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. En el Tra-\ntado se establece, dentro del régimen aplicable\na la biodiversidad en general, un régimen más\ndetallado aplicable a los RFGAA. Respecto de\nlos recursos de esta índole incluidos en el Sistema\nMultilateral, el Tratado dispone condiciones\nconcertadas de común acuerdo para el acceso y\npara la distribución de los beneficios que las\nPartes han aprobado previamente en un contexto\nmultilateral.\nEn el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Bioló-\ngica, ésta se define en términos muy generales\ncomo la ‘‘variabilidad de organismos vivos de\ncualquier fuente, incluidos, entre otras cosas, los\necosistemas terrestres y marinos y otros ecosiste-\nmas acuáticos y los complejos ecológicos de los\nque forman parte; comprende la diversidad\ndentro de cada especie, entre las especies y de\nlos ecosistemas’’. Por lo tanto, el Convenio\ncomprende toda la variabilidad entre los distintos\ncomponentes básicos de la vida (esto es, la\ndiversidad genética), las distintas formas de vida\n(la diversidad entre las especies) y las inter-\nrelaciones de la vida (la diversidad entre los eco-\nsistemas). En otras palabras, el Convenio abarca,\ncon fuerza jurídica obligatoria, todos los grados\ny formas de diversidad. El Tratado, en cambio,\nse centra en un aspecto específico de la diversi-\ndad biológica, el de la diversidad de las plantas\nutilizadas para un fin especial, a saber, la\nalimentación y la agricultura. De todas maneras\nes evidente que los objetivos del Convenio y del\nTratado son complementarios y, por ello, ambos\ninstrumentos deben aplicarse en forma armónica.\nA diferencia del Compromiso Inter-\nnacional, en cuyos objetivos se hace referencia\nconcreta al concepto de ‘‘disponibilidad’’, el\nTratado no menciona al acceso entre sus\nobjetivos. De todas maneras, el concepto de\ndisponibilidad está implícito en el de utilización\nsostenible.\nHabiendo definido los  objetivos en el primer\npárrafo, en el segundo se señala un importante\naspecto de los medios por los cuales se han de\nalcanzar. Los negociadores del Tratado recono-\ncieron que los RFGAA constituyen un im-\nportante componente de la biodiversidad en\ngeneral y una base esencial para la agricultura y\nla seguridad alimentaria. Algunos negociadores,\ny en un momento la Conferencia de las Partes\nen el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica53,\nhabían pensado que el Tratado podía aprobarse\ncomo protocolo de este Convenio, lo que natural-\nmente pondría de relieve su dimensión ambien-\ntal. Sin embargo, la dimensión agrícola del nuevo\nTratado y la importancia de los RFGAA para la\nseguridad alimentaria mundial, así como la\nnecesidad de contar con conocimientos\nespecializados de agricultura a los efectos de la\naplicación del Tratado justificaban que fuera\naprobado como acuerdo separado dentro de la\nestructura constitucional de la FAO. En el segun-\ndo párrafo se reconoce esta doble dimensión del\nTratado y se exige que se establezcan estrechos\nvínculos con la FAO, que representa el interés y\nla especialización en la agricultura, y con el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, que\nrepresenta el interés y la especialización en la\nbiodiversidad en general y el medio ambiente.\ni) FAO – La FAO tiene una relación de\nlarga data con los RFGAA, que se\nremonta a los años sesenta54. El\nCompromiso Internacional sobre los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos, aprobado por\n53 Véase Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, Decisión III/11, párr. 18.\n54 Ya en los años cincuenta se habían realizado algunas actividades, pero la Reunión Técnica sobre Prospección e\nIntroducción de Plantas, celebrada en 1961, constituyó la primera iniciativa sobre una base multilateral amplia.\nPara una reseña de la relación de la FAO con los recursos fitogenéticos, véase Robin Pistorius,‘‘Scientists, plants\nand politics: A History of the Plant Genetic Resources Movement’’ (Roma: Instituto Internacional de Recursos\nFitogenéticos, 1997).\n33\nArtículo 1\nla Conferencia de la FAO en 1983, fue,\ncomo ya se señaló, el primer instru-\nmento internacional que se refería a la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible\nde esos recursos. En 1989 la Conferen-\ncia de la FAO aprobó una serie de inter-\npretaciones concertadas del Com-\npromiso Internacional. La FAO es\nademás el organismo del sistema de las\nNaciones Unidas encargado de la\nseguridad alimentaria mundial y fue\nsede de la Cumbre Mundial sobre la\nAlimentación en 1996. Por lo tanto, el\nvínculo con la FAO es lógico, tal como\nlo es la decisión de que el Órgano\nRector y la Secretaría del Tratado\nformen parte de la FAO. Una posible\nconsecuencia a nivel nacional con-\nsistiría en suponer que el ministerio de\nagricultura fuera el ‘‘organismo prin-\ncipal’’. En todo caso, habida cuenta del\ncarácter agrícola del Tratado, el\nministerio de agricultura debería par-\nticipar de cerca en su aplicación.\nii) Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica – En un contexto más amplio,\ncomo se especifica en el Preámbulo, la\ncuestión de los RFGAA está también\nestrechamente vinculada con este\nConvenio. El Convenio, aprobado en\n1992 en el contexto de la Conferencia\nde las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio\nAmbiente y el Desarrollo, sirve de\ncompleto marco para la conservación\ny utilización sostenible de la diversidad\nbiológica y como marco para tener\nacceso a los recursos genéticos y\ndistribuir los beneficios de su\nutilización. En reconocimiento de los\nderechos soberanos que tienen los\nEstados sobre sus recursos naturales\n(incluida la biodiversidad), presta\nespecial atención a la adopción de\ndecisiones a nivel nacional. (Véase en\nel recuadro 3 una descripción del\nConvenio.)\n34\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n35\nArtículo 2\nArtículo 2 – Utilización de términos\nEn un instrumento jurídico, las definiciones\nobedecen al propósito de dar un sentido\nespecífico a ciertos términos empleados en él.\nAl interpretar un tratado, normalmente se da a\nlos términos su sentido ordinario con arreglo al\nuso normal. Sin embargo, puede ser necesario\ndar a algunos términos una acepción especial\ndistinta del uso normal. La forma en que se\ndefinan esos términos puede incidir en la\nnaturaleza y el alcance de las obligaciones\ncontraídas y los derechos reconocidos en el\nTratado y en la práctica lo hará. Las definiciones\nque se encuentran en esta sección son, por lo\ntanto, fundamentales para determinar el alcance\ndel Tratado. Habida cuenta de que la sección\nrelativa a las definiciones forma parte de las\ncláusulas obligatorias del Tratado, las\ndefiniciones que figuran en ellas prevalecerán\nen caso de diferencia con la acepción habitual.\nA efectos del presente Tratado, los términos que siguen tendrán el significado que se les\nda a continuación. Estas definiciones no se aplican al comercio de productos básicos:\nNaturalmente, las definiciones enunciadas\nen el Artículo 2 están limitadas en su aplicación\nal Tratado. En particular, los negociadores han\ntenido cuidado de indicar que las definiciones,\nincluida en particular la de RFGAA, no\ncomprenden el comercio de productos básicos.\nEllo se hizo a fin de que la expresión ‘‘producto’’\nutilizada en el párrafo 2 d ii) del Artículo 13 no\nse interpretara erróneamente en el sentido de que\nse refiere a los productos básicos55. De hecho,\nes importante recordar que el Tratado se refiere\na los recursos fitogenéticos y no a las plantas o\nlos cultivos como productos básicos.\nEn este artículo se definen ocho términos\ny, como se verá en forma más detallada más\nadelante, algunas de las definiciones se basan\nen mayor o menor medida en las que se\nencuentran en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica.\nPor ‘‘conservación in situ’’ se entiende la conservación de los ecosistemas y los hábitats\nnaturales y el mantenimiento y recuperación de poblaciones viables de especies en sus\nentornos naturales y, en el caso de las especies domesticadas y cultivadas, en los entornos\nen que hayan desarrollado sus propiedades específicas.\nLa definición de ‘‘conservación in situ’’ en el\nTratado es idéntica a la del Convenio, con la\nexcepción de la limitación a las especies de\nplantas. En ella se reconoce que existen recursos\ngenéticos tanto en los ecosistemas naturales\ncomo en los agroecosistemas creados por el\nhombre. Así, la definición del término se\nextiende a los recursos genéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura tanto silvestres\ncomo domesticados. Los recursos genéticos\nsilvestres se encuentran in situ y existen en\nentornos naturales tales como ecosistemas y\nhábitats. Las especies domesticadas o cultivadas\nexisten in situ en ‘‘los entornos en que hayan\ndesarrollado sus propiedades específicas’’.\nLa definición que figura en el Tratado de\n‘‘conservación in situ’’, con respecto a las\nespecies silvestres se extiende a la conservación\nde los propios ecosistemas, así como de los\nhábitats naturales de que dependen las\npoblaciones de especies, además de referirse al\n‘‘mantenimiento y recuperación de poblaciones\nviables de especies’’. Esta definición, por lo\ntanto, reconoce tácitamente que no puede haber\nconservación de especies silvestres in situ sin\nconservar el entorno en que existen las\npoblaciones de esas especies.\nCon respecto a la conservación in situ de\nlas especies domesticadas o cultivadas, la\nexpresión ‘‘en los entornos en que hayan\ndesarrollado sus propiedades específicas’’ se\nrefiere a la creación de variedades identificables,\ncomo variedades locales, dentro de sistemas\nagrícolas creados por el hombre. Esto es\naplicable sin perjuicio de que esas plantas estén\no no aisladas, desde el punto de vista\nreproductivo, de las poblaciones silvestres de que\nprocedían. El término se referiría también a un\ncentro de investigación si allí se hubiesen\ndesarrollado las propiedades específicas de una\ndeterminada variedad.\n55 Cabe observar que la acepción común de la expresión ‘‘productos básicos’’ excluiría a los RFGAA. Véase\nwww.investorwords.com/cgi-bin/getword.cgi.\n36\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl término ‘‘conservación in situ’’ aparece una\nsola vez en el Tratado, en el Artículo 5.1 d, según\nel cual cada Parte Contratante ‘‘promoverá la\nconservación in situ de plantas silvestres afines\nde las cultivadas y las plantas silvestres para la\nproducción de alimentos’’.\nA diferencia del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, no hay una definición separada del\ntérmino ‘‘condiciones in situ’’. Sin embargo, su\nsentido se desprende claramente de los términos\nempleados en la definición de ‘‘conservación in\nsitu’’, que se ajusta a la definición que aparece\nen el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nSegún la definición del Artículo 2 de ese\nConvenio: por ‘‘condiciones in situ se entienden\nlas condiciones en que existen recursos genéticos\ndentro de ecosistemas y hábitats naturales y, en\nel caso de las especies domesticadas cultivadas,\nen los entornos en que hayan desarrollado sus\npropiedades específicas’’.\nPor ‘‘conservación ex situ’’ se entiende la conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura fuera de su hábitat natural.\nSalvo la utilización del término más específico\n‘‘recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura’’ en lugar de ‘‘componentes de la\ndiversidad biológica’’, la definición empleada en\nel Tratado es idéntica a la del Convenio.\nEl término incluye la conservación de los\nRFGAA en bancos de germoplasma en la forma\nde semilla, tejido o polen, en plantaciones o en\njardines botánicos u otras colecciones de espe-\ncies vivas, como rodales de conservación ex situ.\nLa definición incluye también a los recursos\nbiológicos cultivados en zonas distintas de\naquellas en que desarrollaron sus propiedades\nespecíficas y que se mantienen en fincas que no\nhan contribuido al desarrollo de esas propiedades\n(por ejemplo, los frutales que se conservan en\nun huerto o un banco de germoplasma en el\ncampo).\nLa conservación ex situ es un instrumento\nimportante para la conservación de la\nfitobiodiversidad, así como para hacer posible\nla recuperación de RFGAA después de\nemergencias naturales o humanitarias y para dar\nacceso continuo a los recursos fitogenéticos a\nlos fitomejoradores, otros investigadores,\nagricultores y comunidades autóctonas y locales.\nEn esos casos, es muy importante que haya\ndocumentación apropiada y de fácil consulta.\nLa única referencia que se hace a este\ntérmino en el Tratado se encuentra en el Artículo\n5.1 e, según el cual cada Parte Contratante, entre\notras cosas, ‘‘cooperará en la promoción de la\norganización de un sistema eficaz y sostenible\nde conservación ex situ’’.\nPor ‘‘recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura’’ se entiende cualquier\nmaterial genético de origen vegetal de valor real o potencial para la alimentación y la\nagricultura.\nPor ‘‘material genético’’ se entiende cualquier material de origen vegetal, incluido el\nmaterial reproductivo y de propagación vegetativa, que contiene unidades funcionales\nde la herencia.\nSe trata de los dos términos más importantes que\nfiguran en el Tratado, por lo que estas\ndefiniciones fueron objeto de un debate\nconsiderable que se extendió hasta el momento\nmismo de la aprobación. El problema más\nimportante consistía en si había o no que ampliar\nla definición de RFGAA para incluir no sólo el\nmaterial genético de origen vegetal sino también\nsus partes y componentes genéticos. Esta\ncuestión guarda estrecha relación con las\ndisposiciones de los Artículos 12 y 13 relativas\nal acceso a los RFGAA y a la distribución de los\nbeneficios en el Sistema Multilateral. En\ndefinitiva, la solución de avenencia consistió en\nno incluir la referencia a las partes y los com-\nponentes genéticos en la definición de los\nRFGAA pero hacerlo en el Artículo 12.3 d en\nrelación con la prohibición de reclamar derechos\nde propiedad intelectual respecto de materiales\nrecibidos del Sistema Multilateral en la forma\nrecibida. Subsisten algunas ambigüedades en el\ntexto del Artículo 12 3 d, y se harán\nobservaciones al respecto en el contexto de ese\nartículo. Según el Artículo 13 2 d ii), el derecho\nde los receptores a obtener derechos de propiedad\nintelectual sobre material derivado de material\na que se tenga acceso al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral está implícitamente reconocido. En\nesta disposición se prevé que los receptores del\nmaterial hagan pagos obligatorios o voluntarios\n37\nArtículo 2\ncuando comercialicen productos que sean\nrecursos fitogenéticos e incorporen material al\nque se haya tenido acceso al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral.\nSegún el texto actual de las definiciones,\npor RFGAA se entiende cualquier material\ngenético de origen vegetal de valor real o\npotencial para la alimentación y la agricultura y,\na su vez, por material genético se entiende\ncualquier material de origen vegetal, incluido el\nmaterial reproductivo y de propagación\nvegetativa, que contiene unidades funcionales de\nla herencia. Estas definiciones son iguales a las\ncorrespondientes en el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica.\nRespecto del contenido de estas\ndefiniciones cabe hacer las tres observaciones\nsiguientes:\nLos RFGAA están sujetos a las dis-\nposiciones del Tratado únicamente en\nla medida en que tengan valor para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. El\nrequisito de que el material genético\ntenga valor real o potencial para ser\ncalificado de RFGAA procede de la\ndefinición correspondiente del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica. En este contexto, cabe\nseñalar que prácticamente todos los\nrecursos fitogenéticos pueden tener\nvalor potencial y, de hecho, ese valor\núnicamente puede concretarse cuando\nsurjan necesidades en el futuro, como\nocurre por ejemplo en el caso de los\ncaracteres resistentes a las plagas o las\nenfermedades. Sin embargo, reviste\nespecial importancia la limitación de\nque se trate de valor para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. De hecho,\nel Tratado comprende exclusivamente\nlos recursos fitogenéticos en la medida\nen que se utilicen o puedan u utilizarse\npara la alimentación y la agricultura y\nno abarca su utilización para ningún\notro fin.\nLos RFGAA se definen como material\ngenético y, según la definición, el\n‘‘material genético’’ contiene unidades\nfuncionales de la herencia. Por lo tanto,\ncabe aducir que las unidades\nfuncionales de la herencia (esto es,\npartes y componentes genéticos tales\ncomo genes individuales o secuencias\nde genes) no son en sí RFGAA, si bien\nson partes o componentes de esos\nrecursos. Sin embargo, la definición\nsigue siendo equívoca a este respecto y\ntal vez sea necesario que el órgano\nrector la aclare.\nEl término ‘‘unidades funcionales de la\nherencia’’ no se define pero parecería\nincluir por lo menos todos los\nelementos genéticos que contuvieran\nDNA (ácido deoxiribonucleico), esto\nes, genes.\nPor ‘‘variedad’’ se entiende una agrupación de plantas dentro de un taxón botánico\núnico del rango más bajo conocido, que se define por la expresión reproducible de sus\ncaracterísticas distintivas y otras de carácter genético.\nEl reino vegetal se ha clasificado en un sistema\njerárquico que contiene muchas divisiones y\nsubdivisiones. En orden descendente, la\nclasificación más común del reino vegetal\nconsiste en división, clase, orden, familia, género\ny especie, denominados grupos taxonómicos o\ntaxones. Si bien los que anteceden son los\ntaxones más importantes, la mayoría de los\ntaxonomistas seguirían con la clasificación hasta\nel nivel de subespecie e incluso de especie\nbotánica.\nEl rango de las especies denota un grupo\nde individuos que comparten gran cantidad de\ncaracteres heredables y que básicamente están\naislados desde un punto de vista reproductivo,\nesto es, los individuos de una especie no pueden\nnormalmente cruzarse por medios naturales con\nindividuos de otras especies.\nAunque el rango de las especies constituye\nuna importante clasificación botánica, es\nevidente que las plantas dentro de una especie\npueden ser muy distintas. Los agricultores\nnecesitan plantas que se adapten al entorno en\nque crecen y a las prácticas de cultivo que se\nempleen. Por lo tanto, utilizan un grupo de\nplantas definido en forma más estrecha y\nseleccionadas dentro de una especie, que se\ndenomina ‘‘variedad’’ (no necesariamente en el\nsentido preciso que le da el Convenio de la\nUPOV).\nSegún la definición que se encuentra en el\nTratado, similar en muchos elementos a la del\nConvenio de la UPOV56 se trata de una\n38\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n‘‘agrupación de plantas dentro de un taxón\nbotánico único del rango más bajo conocido’’\n(esto es, una subespecie o especie botánica).\nAdemás, esta definición aclara que los\ncaracteres distintivos y otros caracteres genéticos\nde la variedad deben mantenerse sin alteración\ndurante el proceso de propagación. En esencia,\nesto refleja los criterios de ‘‘distinción’’ y\n‘‘estabilidad’’ que se enuncian en el Convenio\nde la UPOV. Si una agrupación de plantas no\nreúne estos criterios, no se considerará que se\ntrata de una ‘‘variedad’’ a los efectos del Tratado.\nEl término ‘‘variedad’’ aparece en dos\npartes del Artículo 6 del Tratado. El párrafo 2 b)\nseñala que la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA puede incluir medidas tales como el\n‘‘fortalecimiento de la investigación que\npromueva y conserve la diversidad biológica,\nPor ‘‘colección ex situ’’ se entiende una colección de recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura que se mantiene fuera de su hábitat natural.\naumentando en la mayor medida posible la\nvariación intraespecífica e interespecífica en\nbeneficio de los agricultores, especialmente de\nlos que generan y utilizan sus propias\nvariedades’’. El apartado g) del mismo párrafo\nse refiere al ‘‘examen y, cuando proceda,\nmodificación de las estrategias de mejoramiento\ny de las reglamentaciones en materia de\naprobación de variedades y distribución de\nsemillas’’.\nEs interesante observar que el empleo del\ntérmino en el Artículo 6 b se refiere a las\nvariedades de los agricultores que, de hecho, tal\nvez no siempre cumplan los criterios de\nestabilidad mencionados. Es muy posible que\nhaya una falta de congruencia entre la definición\nde ‘‘variedad’’ y la utilización efectiva del\ntérmino en el Tratado.\nEste término, similar al de ‘‘conservación\nex situ’’ se refiere a la colección física de recursos\nfitogenéticos que se mantienen fuera del entorno\nen que las plantas desarrollaron sus caracteres\ndistintivos.\nLa mayor parte de las colecciones ex situ\nse conservan en bancos nacionales de semillas.\nLos centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola del GCIAI tienen alrededor del 12% de\nlas colecciones ex situ de RFGAA en el mundo57\ny tienen también importantes programas de\nmejoramiento de cultivos, organizados en\ncolaboración con programas nacionales. En\nvirtud de acuerdos concertados con la FAO,\nconservan la mayor parte de sus colecciones ex\nsitu en calidad de ‘‘depositarios’’ y en beneficio\nde la comunidad internacional (véase el recuadro\n10).\nEl término ‘‘colecciones ex situ’’ se emplea\nen el Artículo 11, que se refiere a la cobertura\ndel Sistema Multilateral. Según el párrafo 5 de\nese artículo, el Sistema Multilateral deberá\nincluir también los recursos fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura que se mantengan\nen las colecciones ex situ de los Centros\nInternacionales de Investigación Agrícola del\nGCIAI. En el párrafo 1 del Artículo 15 se hace\nmayor referencia a esta cuestión.\nPor ‘‘centro de origen’’ se entiende una zona geográfica donde adquirió por primera\nvez sus propiedades distintivas una especie vegetal, domesticada o silvestre.\nPor ‘‘centro de diversidad de los cultivos’’ se entiende una zona geográfica que contiene\nun nivel elevado de diversidad genética para las especies cultivadas en condiciones in\nsitu.\n56 En el Artículo 1 vi) del Convenio de la UPOV el término ‘‘variedad’’ se define así:\n‘‘se entenderá por variedad un conjunto de plantas de un solo taxón botánico del rango más bajo conocido que,\ncon independencia de si responde o no plenamente a las condiciones para la concesión de un derecho de obtentor,\npueda\n– definirse por la expresión de los caracteres resultantes de un cierto genotipo o de una cierta combinación de\ngenotipos,\n– distinguirse de cualquier otro conjunto de plantas por la expresión de uno de dichos caracteres por lo menos y\n– considerarse como una unidad, habida cuenta de su aptitud a propagarse sin alteración’’.\n57 Informe sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en el mundo, 1996.\n39\nArtículo 2\nLos términos ‘‘centro de origen’’ y  ‘‘centro de\ndiversidad’’ o ‘‘centro de diversidad de los cul-\ntivos’’ se emplean en el Tratado en dos ocasiones.\nEn primer lugar, en el Preámbulo se reconoce la\ncontribución pasada, presente y futura de los\nagricultores, ‘‘en particular los de los centros de\norigen y diversidad’’. En segundo lugar, según\nel Artículo 9.1, ‘‘las Partes Contratantes recono-\ncen la enorme contribución que han aportado y\nsiguen aportando las comunidades locales e\nindígenas y los agricultores de todas las regiones\ndel mundo, en particular los de los centros de\norigen y diversidad ...’’.\nAl igual que en la definición de con-\nservación in situ, en ésta se hace referencia a las\nespecies tanto silvestres como domesticadas. Sin\nembargo, en la definición se hace hincapié en el\nproceso de domesticación y cultivo que llevan a\ncabo los agricultores y las comunidades indíge-\nnas en los centros de origen y los centros de\ndiversidad de los cultivos, como indica el empleo\nde la expresión ‘‘... adquirió por primera vez sus\npropiedades distintivas’’. En todo caso, puede\nser difícil determinar en un caso concreto dónde\nuna especie vegetal adquirió por primera vez sus\npropiedades distintivas.\nEn el recuadro 4 se encontrará mayor\ninformación acerca de los centros de origen y\nlos centros de diversidad.\n40\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n41\nArtículo 3\nEl ámbito del Tratado está constituido por todos\nlos RFGAA, definidos en el Artículo 2. El\nsistema multilateral de acceso y distribución de\nbeneficios establecido por el Tratado comprende\núnicamente a los cultivos enumerados en el\nAnexo I que sean objeto de ordenación y control\npor las Partes Contratantes y estén en el dominio\npúblico. Sin embargo, el Tratado en su\nArtículo 3 – Ámbito\nEl presente Tratado se refiere a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura.\nintegridad, incluidos los artículos sustantivos\nsobre conservación y utilización sostenible,\ncooperación internacional, el Plan de Acción\nMundial, las redes, el Sistema de Información\nMundial y la estrategia para la financiación,\ncomprende a todos los RFGAA y no únicamente\na los cultivos enumerados en el Anexo I.\n42\n43\nArtículo 4\nEsta disposición reviste especial importancia; si\nbien los derechos y obligaciones en virtud del\nTratado corresponden a las Partes Contratantes\nen él, en la práctica el Sistema Multilateral de\nacceso y distribución de beneficios funcionará\nen parte al nivel de cada persona y en el ámbito\ndel derecho privado de los contratos y de los\nprocedimientos administrativos. Según el\nArtículo 12.5, por ejemplo, las Partes\nContratantes garantizarán que se disponga de la\noportunidad de presentar un recurso, en\nconsonancia con los requisitos jurídicos\nPARTE II – DISPOSICIONES GENERALES\nArtículo 4 – Obligaciones generales\nCada Parte Contratante garantizará la conformidad de sus leyes, reglamentos y\nprocedimientos con sus obligaciones estipuladas en el presente Tratado.\naplicables, en virtud de sus sistemas jurídicos,\nen el caso de controversias contractuales que\nsurjan en el marco de acuerdos de transferencia\nde material concertados en el ámbito del Sistema\nMultilateral. La obligación que contraen las Par-\ntes Contratantes en virtud de este artículo es\nconcreta y no admite excepción. Sin embargo,\nen esta disposición no se exige que cada Parte\nContratante adopte nuevas leyes y reglamentos\nsi está convencida de que los vigentes permiten\ncumplir en forma efectiva las obligaciones\ncontraídas en virtud del Tratado.\n44\n45\nArtículo 5\nLas disposiciones de los Artículos 5 y 6\nbásicamente no suscitaron controversias en las\nnegociaciones del Tratado. Sin embargo, ocupan\nun lugar central en éste y constituyen un moderno\nmarco para la acción relativa a la conservación\ny utilización sostenible de los RFGAA58. Las\ndefiniciones amplían y modernizan las\ndisposiciones anteriores del Compromiso\nInternacional (los Artículos 3 y 4 en particular),\nllevan al ámbito de los RFGAA temas\nArtículo 5 – Conservación, prospección, recolección,\ncaracterización, evaluación y documentación de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura\nenunciados en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica y profundizan las cuestiones\nidentificadas en el Plan Mundial de Acción\naprobado por la Conferencia Técnica\nInternacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos\ncelebrada en Leipzig en 1996 (véase el recuadro\n15), especialmente las calificadas como áreas de\nactividad prioritarias  en la Decisión III/11 de la\nConferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica.\n5.1 Cada Parte Contratante, con arreglo a la legislación nacional y en cooperación\ncon otras Partes Contratantes cuando proceda, promoverá un enfoque integrado\nde la prospección, conservación y utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura y, en particular, según proceda:\nEn el encabezamiento del Artículo 5.1 se insta a\npromover un enfoque integrado de la\nprospección, conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA y, en este sentido, se\nestablece un nexo entre las disposiciones de los\nArtículos 5 y 6. Ninguna de las disposiciones de\nestos dos artículos es autónoma; todas las\nmedidas previstas deben formar parte de un\nenfoque integrado para ser eficaces. Por ejemplo,\nlas actividades consistentes en estudios e\ninventarios no tendrían mayor utilidad si\nposteriormente no se tomaran medidas para\nrecolectar, conservar y utilizar los RFGAA.\nEn este artículo, al igual que en el\nPreámbulo, se reconoce el principio de la\nsoberanía nacional. Específicamente se señala\nque, si bien las Partes Contratantes promoverán\nla prospección, conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA, ello debe hacerse\n‘‘con arreglo a la legislación nacional’’.\nNormalmente, el hecho de que las\nobligaciones de una Parte Contratante en virtud\nde un tratado internacional queden sujetas a su\nlegislación nacional suscita recelo. En este caso\nespecífico, esta cláusula sirve para indicar que,\nincluso cuando las medidas se tomen en\ncooperación con otras Partes Contratantes, las\ndecisiones finales relativas a la promoción de\nun enfoque integrado para la prospección,\nconservación y utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA incumben al Estado en que se\nencuentran los recursos fitogenéticos.\nEn el encabezamiento se reconoce también\nque, en algunos casos, para alcanzar este objetivo\nes muy posible que haya que actuar en\ncooperación con otras Partes Contratantes.\nEs importante observar que en el artículo\nsólo se prevé la obligación de promover un\nenfoque integrado de la prospección,\nconservación y utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA. Esta obligación no incluye la de\nregular, si bien la regulación sería un método\npor el cual los países podrían cumplir su\nobligación de ‘‘promover un enfoque integrado’’.\nEl Tratado no especifica medida alguna en\nparticular, sino más bien una orientación general\nhacia el objetivo que se ha de alcanzar. La forma\nen que se ha de alcanzar queda en gran medida a\ndiscreción de las Partes Contratantes. A este\nrespecto, los párrafos a) a f) sirven de importantes\nelementos para alcanzar los objetivos\nestablecidos en el artículo. Estos párrafos se\nrefieren a tres métodos fundamentales de\nconservación: la conservación en las fincas\n(párrafo c)), la conservación in situ (párrafo d))\ny la conservación ex situ (párrafo e)). Se refieren\n58 Véase, en general, H. David Cooper, The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,\nen Reciel, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2002.\n46\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ntambién a otros pasos en la conservación de los\nRFGAA: los estudios e inventarios (párrafo a)),\nla recolección (párrafo b)) y la supervisión\n(párrafo f)). Las disposiciones relativas a la\nsupervisión se refieren a los tres métodos de\nconservación. La enumeración de actividades y\nmedidas no pretende ser exhaustiva.\nPor último, si bien los diversos apartados\ndel Artículo 5.1 enumeran varias materias en las\nque habría que tomar medidas concretas, el\nempleo de la expresión ‘‘según proceda’’ indica\nque se permite a cada Parte Contratante una\namplia facultad discrecional para elegir los\nmedios más adecuados por los cuales ha de\ncumplir su obligación general.\na) Realizará estudios e inventarios de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura, teniendo en cuenta la situación y el grado de variación de las poblaciones\nexistentes, inclusos los de uso potencial y, cuando sea viable, evaluará cualquier\namenaza para ellos;\nComo queda de manifiesto en la primera área de\nactividad prioritaria con arreglo al Plan de acción\nmundial, la conservación racional, tanto in situ\ncomo ex situ, comienza con estudios e\ninventarios de los RFGAA existentes. Las Partes\nContratantes necesitan saber qué recursos existen\nen sus países antes de poder formular y afinar\npolíticas y estrategias para la conservación y\nutilización de los RFGAA.\nDe conformidad con el Artículo 7 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, los\npaíses que lo han ratificado han aceptado la\nobligación de identificar y supervisar los\ncomponentes de la diversidad biológica que\nrevisten importancia para su conservación y\nutilización sostenibles. Sin embargo, los\ninformes sobre distintos países preparados por\nla FAO en 1995 en relación con la elaboración\ndel Plan de acción mundial indican que a este\nrespecto se han hecho pocos estudios\nsistemáticos respecto de muchos cultivos y sus\nespecies silvestres afines. El mismo principio\nrige con respecto a las amenazas para los\nRFGAA.\nLos estudios sirven para identificar las\nzonas en que hay gran diversidad fitogenética\ngeneral y las zonas en que la diversidad\nfitogenética están en peligro, así como el estado\nde las colecciones ex situ y nacionales. Se trata\nde las bases fácticas que es necesario determinar\nantes de que las Partes Contratantes puedan\nproceder a minimizar y eliminar las amenazas a\nlos RFGAA, como se prevé en el Artículo 5.2.\nLos estudios e inventarios proporcionarán bases\nde datos sobre la identificación, caracterización,\nevaluación y utilización del germoplasma\nexistente de la flora silvestre de un país. Esos\ninventarios son necesarios a fin de formular\nestrategias de conservación adecuada y de\ncerciorarse de que la conservación in situ y la ex\nsitu se complementen.\nEn el párrafo a) se insta a las Partes\nContratantes a prestar atención en sus estudios\ne inventarios a i) la situación de las poblaciones\nexistentes y ii) el grado de variación dentro de\nellas. A este respecto, no queda claro si la\nexpresión ‘‘de uso potencial’’ califica a las\n‘‘poblaciones’’ o a los ‘‘RFGAA’’. Si se inter-\npretara que califica a estos últimos, parecería ser\ninnecesaria y duplicativa, habida cuenta de que\nen el Artículo 2 se define a los RFGAA como el\nmaterial genético de origen vegetal de valor real\no potencial para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nPor esta razón cabría aducir que el término ‘‘de\nuso potencial’’ debería interpretarse en el sentido\nde que califica a ‘‘poblaciones’’. Cualquiera que\nsea la interpretación por la que se opte, resulta\ndifícil determinar qué RFGAA o qué poblaciones\npueden ser de uso potencial, habida cuenta de\nque nuevas condiciones o nuevos problemas\necológicos pueden dar lugar a la necesidad de\ncaracteres distintos que hasta el momento no\nhayan demostrado tener un valor comercial\nefectivo. La referencia al ‘‘uso potencial’’ pone\nde manifiesto el criterio de precaución adoptado\npor el Tratado.\nLa insistencia en el grado de variación de\nlas poblaciones existentes refleja la importancia\nque tiene la diversidad intraespecies, así como\nentre especies de RFGAA, para los programas\nde fitomejoramiento.\nGran parte de los inventarios y estudios\nrecientes se han hecho en entornos seleccionados\nen razón de su gran diversidad. En cambio, ha\nhabido pocos estudios en zonas en que los\ncultivares tradicionales han sido sustancialmente\nreemplazados por cultivares modernos. En su\nmayor parte, la escala de muchos proyectos ha\nsido pequeña y únicamente se han seleccionado\ntres a seis cultivos para su estudio en varias\nlocalidades de tres a cuatro zonas agro-\necológicas. El proyecto relativo a la flora de\n47\nArtículo 5\nEtiopía y Eritrea, sin embargo, sirve de ejemplo\nde un intento por trabajar a una escala mayor. El\nproyecto, iniciado en 1980, apunta a hacer\nestudios e inventarios de toda la flora de Etiopía\ny Eritrea y, una vez terminado, constituirá un\nmanual de tamaño mediano a grande sobre la\nflora africana que comprenderá unas 7.000\nespecies de plantas vasculares de especies\nindígenas y especies cultivadas importantes59. En\nel marco del proyecto, que ha servido para formar\ncapacidad sobre taxonomía vegetal,  se han\nrealizado estudios de diversidad de cultivos intra-\nespecíficos para ayudar a evaluar la cantidad y\nla distribución de la diversidad de cultivos. En\ngeneral, sin embargo, los inventarios y estudios\nde los RFGAA han tendido a dar una idea general\nde la diversidad fitogenética en lugar de\nconstituir una buena estimación general que se\npueda utilizar para la supervisión en el futuro.\nEs importante observar que las Partes\nContratantes también han de evaluar las\namenazas a los RFGAA y esa es la razón por la\ncual hay que identificar los recursos de esta\níndole que se han de recolectar con arreglo al\npárrafo 1 b del Artículo 5.\n59 Véase www.nathimus.ku.dk/bot/fleth.htm.\nb) Promoverá la recolección de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura y la información pertinente relativa sobre aquellos que estén amenazados\no sean de uso potencial;\nSe espera que las Partes Contratantes recolecten\nRFGAA que estén amenazados o sean de uso\npotencial. No es necesario recolectar los recursos\nde esa índole que se utilicen activamente o no\nestén amenazados, aunque en la práctica bien\npuede ocurrir que sean incluidos en las\ncolecciones ex situ para poder facilitar muestras\npara la investigación y el mejoramiento\nulteriores. La recolección de material fito-\ngenético comenzó muy temprano en la historia\n(véase Harlan, Crops and Man), pero en los\ntiempos modernos llegó a su auge a principios\nde los años setenta. Ello se debía en parte a la\nnecesidad de aumentar la contribución de los\nRFGAA al nuevo desarrollo agrícola y obedecía\ntambién en parte a la necesidad que comenzaba\na sentirse de preservar la variabilidad genética,\namenazada por la sustitución de variedades\ntradicionales de los cultivos más importantes por\ncultivares de rendimiento más alto. En su mayor\nparte, las colecciones se conservan en bancos\nde genes. La prestación de apoyo a la recolección\nplanificada y focalizada de RFGAA constituye\nun área de actividad prioritaria en el Plan de\nAcción Mundial.\nEn este párrafo se hace referencia no sólo\na los RFGAA en sí sino también a la\n‘‘información pertinente relativa’’. Las\ncolecciones ex situ de RFGAA son más útiles\npara el fitomejoramiento si los profesionales de\nesta rama tienen información completa acerca\nde las muestras recolectadas e indicios acerca\nde los posibles caracteres que presenten. El\ntérmino ‘‘información pertinente relativa’’ no\nestá definido, pero en el Artículo 12.3 c, en\nrelación con el Sistema Multilateral, se hace\nreferencia a los ‘‘datos de pasaporte disponibles\ny, con arreglo a la legislación vigente, cualquier\notra información descriptiva asociada no\nconfidencial disponible’’. En el artículo 5.1 e se\nmencionan también elementos que podrían\nconstituir ‘‘información pertinente relativa’’.\nUna lectura literal del párrafo no deja claro\nsi la cláusula ‘‘aquellos que estén amenazados o\nsean de uso potencial’’ se refiere a los RFGAA\nque se han de recolectar en general o a aquellos\nrespecto de los cuales se ha de recolectar\ninformación pertinente relativa. Sin embargo, el\nsentido del párrafo corroboraría la primera\ninterpretación más que la segunda a pesar de que\nlas palabras ‘‘la información pertinente relativa\nsobre aquellos’’ no están entre comas.\nc) Promoverá o apoyará, cuando proceda, los esfuerzos de los agricultores y de las\ncomunidades locales encaminados a la ordenación y conservación en las fincas de sus\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura;\nEn este párrafo y el siguiente se separa la\nconservación in situ en las actividades distintas\nde conservación en las fincas y la conservación\nin situ de recursos silvestres fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura (véase el párrafo\nd)). En este caso el Tratado es más específico\nque el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\ny ello obedece al tratamiento que se hace de la\n48\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nconservación in situ en el Plan de acción\nmundial. Es la primera vez que un tratado\ninternacional con fuerza jurídica obligatoria\nreconoce la función especial de los agricultores\ny las comunidades locales respecto de la con-\nservación de recursos genéticos.\nEn el párrafo c) se insta a promover o\napoyar la labor de los agricultores y de las\ncomunidades locales encaminada a la ordenación\ny conservación en las fincas de sus RFGAA. De\nno haber una labor en ese sentido, las Partes\nContratantes deberían tratar de promoverla. De\nhaberla, las Partes Contratantes deberían\napoyarla, cabe suponer que con medios técnicos\ny financieros. Queda a discreción de cada Parte\nContratante la determinación del grado de este\napoyo y los medios por los cuales se prestará.\nHay diversos proyectos que sirven de\nejemplo del tipo de apoyo que se puede prestar:\nEn Etiopía, el Programa de las Naciones\nUnidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) y el\nFMAM financiaron un proyecto para\npromover un planteamiento dinámico\nbasado en el agricultor para la con-\nservación de recursos fitogenéticos60. El\nproyecto, después de construir 12\nbancos de genes de la comunidad, está\ntrabajando para vincularlos con\nsistemas de almacenamiento de\nsemillas empleados localmente a fin de\nincrementar la oferta de semillas y\naumentar su viabilidad. Ello sirve para\npreservar el sistema tradicional de\nalmacenamiento y vincularlo con\ncentros de investigación, universidades\ny ministerios nacionales.\nEl Programa de Utilización y Conser-\nvación de la Biodiversidad en Asia es\nuna iniciativa que hace frente a los\nproblemas de la cada vez menor\ndiversidad genética en el arroz en Asia\ny la insuficiente participación de los\nagricultores en el desarrollo agrícola.\nEl programa se está llevando a cabo en\nBhután, Laos y Viet Nam.\nEs necesario tomar medidas activas para\npromover o apoyar la conservación de los\nRFGAA en las fincas. El fitomejoramiento\nmoderno ha logrado notables resultados en la\ntarea de ayudar a elevar los rendimientos y\naumentar la resistencia a las plagas y enfermeda-\ndes, así como la calidad de los productos alimen-\nticios, especialmente en entornos favorables. Los\nagricultores escogen cultivos y cultivares sobre\nla base de su conjunto especial de condiciones\nde producción y consumo. Los cultivos por los\nque optan determinan también el grado de\nconservación en las fincas. Las decisiones de los\nagricultores obedecen a factores agroecológicos,\nsocio-económicos y de mercado y a la disponibi-\nlidad de material para plantar. En el caso de\nalgunos agricultores, particularmente los de\nzonas de producción muy heterogénea, o en que\nel mercado está muy poco desarrollado, la forma\nmás eficiente de ordenar su sistema agrícola\nconsiste en mantener un conjunto diverso de\nrecursos fitogenéticos. En el caso de otros, sin\nembargo, puede ser más útil optar por un\nconjunto más reducido de recursos fitogenéticos,\nque lleve a un menor grado de diversidad de los\ncultivos. En el primer caso hay un alto grado de\ncompatibilidad entre el interés privado del\nagricultor y el interés público en conservar\nrecursos genéticos y procesos evolutivos para\nsu posible utilización en el futuro. En el segundo\ncaso, sin embargo, los intereses públicos y\nprivados difieren y tal vez sea necesario algún\ntipo de intervención para dar a los agricultores\nel incentivo necesario a fin de conservar recursos\nfitogenéticos en las fincas.\nLa conservación en las fincas es importante\nporque, además de la diversidad genética,\npreserva las interacciones evolutivas que son\nnecesarias para adaptarse continuamente a los\ncambios en las condiciones ambientales, tales\ncomo los cambios en las poblaciones de plagas\no en el clima. Se trata de la mejor manera de\nconservar el conocimiento de los sistemas\nagrícolas en que han evolucionado los cultivos.\nPor último, la conservación en las fincas\nproporciona una fuente continua de germo-\nplasma para las colecciones ex situ.\n60 Véase Report of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel Selective Review of ‘‘Dynamic Farmer-Based\nApproach to the Conservation of African Plant Genetic Resources’’ (1999), que se puede consultar en:\nwww.gefweb.org/COUNCIL/GEF_C15/GEF_15_Inf.21.doc.\n49\nArtículo 5\nLos ecosistemas naturales tienen importantes\nRFGAA, como plantas silvestres, endémicas y\namenazadas, afines de las cultivadas y plantas\nsilvestres que producen alimentos. Esta\ndiversidad genética, en razón de las interacciones\nque generan nueva diversidad biológica, puede\nconstituir un componente económicamente\nimportante en los ecosistemas naturales y no es\nfácil mantenerla ex situ. En los lugares en que\nno se procede a una ordenación sostenible de\nlos ecosistemas naturales, el resultado inevitable\nserá la erosión de los RFGAA.\nEste párrafo se centra en ‘‘la conservación\nin situ de plantas silvestres afines de las\ncultivadas y las plantas silvestres para la\nproducción de alimentos’’. Las plantas silvestres\nafines de las cultivadas, que incluyen a las\nprogenitoras de los cultivos, así como a especies\nmás o menos afines de ellas, constituyen un\nrecurso cada vez más importante para aumentar\nla producción agrícola y mantener agro-\necosistemas sostenibles. Si bien la mayor parte\nde los agricultores y fitomejoradores normal-\nmente prefieren trabajar con cultivares existentes\no con material genético avanzado, porque son\nmás productivos y resulta relativamente más fácil\ncruzarlos, a veces tienen que investigar más a\nfondo para encontrar caracteres específicos\ncuando se enfrentan con plagas y enfermedades\nnuevas o que han evolucionado o con otros\nproblemas ecológicos.\nUtilizando métodos convencionales, por lo\ngeneral es más difícil trabajar con especies\nsilvestres afines de las cultivadas, porque puede\nhaber caracteres no deseables que sea difícil\nseparar del que sí lo es. Ahora bien, cuando se\nusan pueden arrojar resultados bastante notables.\nHistóricamente han aportado muchos genes\nútiles a las plantas de cultivo y las variedades\nmodernas de la mayor parte de los cultivos\ncontienen actualmente genes de sus especies\nsilvestres afines. En las variedades modernas de\npapas, trigo, cebada, arroz, maíz y avena, entre\notros cultivos, los caracteres de especies\nsilvestres afines han aumentado la productividad\ny la tolerancia a las plagas, las enfermedades y\nlas condiciones de cultivo difíciles.\nLa recolección de germoplasma de\nespecies silvestres afines de las plantas\ncultivadas sirve para una gran cantidad de usos.\nSe trata de depósitos de genes que preservan\nalelos de posible utilidad agronómica que no han\nquedado capturados en los genes de los cultivares\nde elite y proporcionan material de referencia\nrespecto del cual se puede acumular información\nmediante los estudios de distintos investigadores.\nLa conservación y utilización racionales de\nplantas silvestres afines de las cultivadas\nconstituyen elementos esenciales para aumentar\nla seguridad alimentaria, erradicar la pobreza y\nmantener el medio ambiente.\nCon el impulso que ha cobrado la\nbiotecnología moderna (o de laboratorio), se está\nhaciendo cada vez más común utilizar genes de\nplantas silvestres afines de las cultivadas y\ntraspasarlos a variedades cultivadas. De esta\nmanera aumenta el valor de esas plantas\nsilvestres para los RFGAA.\nAdemás de los cultivos domesticados, la\nbiodiversidad silvestre aporta una gran variedad\nde plantas comestibles y especies que se han\nutilizado y siguen utilizándose como fuentes\nsilvestres de alimentos. En un momento u otro\nse han utilizado unas 7.000 especies de plantas\npara la alimentación humana. Las fuentes\nsilvestres de alimentos en general siguen\nrevistiendo particular importancia para los\npobres y los sin tierra y son especialmente\nimportantes en épocas de hambruna, inseguridad\no conflicto, en que se perturban los mecanismos\nnormales de abastecimiento de alimentos y las\npoblaciones locales o desplazadas tienen poco\nacceso a otras formas de nutrición. Incluso en\ntiempos normales, los alimentos silvestres suelen\nser importantes para complementar los alimentos\nbásicos a fin de proporcionar un régimen\nalimenticio equilibrado.\nComo ya se ha señalado, la conservación\nin situ apunta no sólo a la conservación de los\nrecursos genéticos sino también a los elementos\ndel entorno en que se han desarrollado.\nTambién es importante la referencia a las\n‘‘zonas protegidas’’. Hay que tratar de asegurar\nla ordenación de las plantas silvestres afines de\nlas cultivadas y otras especies útiles para la\nalimentación y la agricultura dentro de esas\nzonas. Naturalmente, habrá que resolver\ncuestiones relativas a la ordenación comple-\nmentaria de determinadas especies útiles para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y otras formas de\nflora silvestre.\nd) Promoverá la conservación in situ de plantas silvestres afines de las cultivadas y las\nplantas silvestres para la producción de alimentos, incluso en zonas protegidas,\napoyando, entre otras cosas, los esfuerzos de las comunidades indígenas y locales;\n50\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEn este párrafo se reconocen concreta-\nmente los esfuerzos de las comunidades\nindígenas y locales. Al mismo tiempo, se señala\nclaramente que el apoyo a la labor de las\ncomunidades locales no es más que uno de\nmuchos medios por los cuales se puede promover\nla conservación in situ.\nLa labor realizada por la Organización de\nlas Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la\nCiencia y la Cultura (UNESCO) en el Programa\nrelativo al Hombre y la Biosfera sirve de ejemplo\nde apoyo a diversas actividades que revisten\nparticular importancia para la conservación de\nplantas silvestres de importancia genética afines\nde las cultivadas que crecen en hábitats forestales\n(por ejemplo la Reserva de la Biosfera de\nMazatlán en México, en el caso del teosinte/maíz\nsilvestre perenne).\nEntre otros ejemplos cabe mencionar:\nLa Red Internacional para el Mejora-\nmiento de la Banana y el Plátano\n(INIBAP) apoyó proyectos de conser-\nvación in situ de banana y plátano en la\nzona de los Grandes Lagos en Uganda\ny Tanzanía61.\nUn proyecto con asociados múltiples\nsobre conservación y mejoramiento de\nla producción agrícola financiado por\nla Fundación McKnight apoya la labor\nde la Universidad de Guadalajara y del\nInstituto Manantlán de Ecología y\nConservación de la Biodiversidad\n(IMECBIO)62.\nEl componente de México del proyecto\nglobal del Instituto Internacional de\nRecursos Fitogenéticos titulado ‘‘For-\ntalecimiento de las bases científicas\npara la conservación in situ de la\nbiodiversidad agrícola en fincas’’ en el\nYucatán, proyecto que se refiere a las\nplantaciones de café a la sombra y su\nbiodiversidad afín63.\ne) Cooperará en la promoción de la organización de un sistema eficaz y sostenible de\nconservación ex situ, prestando la debida atención a la necesidad de una suficiente\ndocumentación, caracterización, regeneración y evaluación, y promoverá el\nperfeccionamiento y la transferencia de tecnologías apropiadas al efecto, con objeto\nde mejorar la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura;\n61 Véase www.inibap.org/presentation/onfarm-conservation_eng.htm.\n62 Conservación de la Diversidad Genética y Mejoramiento de la Producción Agrícola en México: Un Planteamiento\nBasado en el Agricultor. El proyecto consiste en 1) una descripción y un análisis de las relaciones entre los\nconocimientos de los agricultores, los factores socioeconómicos y la diversidad genética en el agroecosistema\nmilpa de México; 2) una caracterización de la estructura de la biodiversidad de cultivos y la magnitud de la\ncorriente de genes de especies silvestres o cultivadas afines de los cultivos de maíz, fríjol y zapallo y 3) el desarrollo\ny la evaluación de métodos genéticos en la finca para mejorar la productividad de germoplasma de variedades\nlocales mediante la selección masiva de la introgresión del germoplasma mejorado (maíz) o de especies silvestres\no cultivadas afines (fríjol y zapallo). Véase http://www.grep.uedavis.edu/projects/projdet.htm.\n63 Véase web.idrc.ca/en/ev-4937-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html.\n64 Según el primer informe sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en el\nmundo, un 88% de los RFGAA que se mantienen ex situ en el mundo forman parte de colecciones nacionales.\nUna gran cantidad de los RFGAA esenciales para\nla seguridad alimentaria mundial está\nalmacenada ex situ, en su mayor parte en bancos\nde genes nacionales64. Los centros inter-\nnacionales de investigación agrícola del CGIAI\nmantienen también importantes colecciones. La\ndiversidad de las colecciones entraña una ventaja\ny un cierto grado de seguridad, pero muchas de\nlas muestras que se conservan son duplicados\nde muestras que están en el mismo banco de\ngermoplasma y muchas colecciones están faltas\nde fondos y en condiciones peligrosas. En este\npárrafo se insta a organizar un sistema eficaz y\nsostenible de conservación ex situ. Para ello se\nnecesita la cooperación internacional; no es\nposible obtener un sistema eficaz y sostenible\nde conservación ex situ centrándose\nexclusivamente en cada una de las colecciones\nnacionales. En el Plan de acción mundial se\nindica la necesidad de un sistema más racional\nde bancos de genes que evite, en particular, la\nduplicación innecesaria y no deliberada. De\nhecho, en el Plan se insiste en que, al racionalizar\nel sistema actual y hacerlo más eficiente, se\npodrían reducir los costos y liberar fondos para\nampliar las actividades de conservación ex situ.\n51\nArtículo 5\nSegún el Plan, el objetivo consiste en organizar\nun sistema económicamente eficiente y\nsostenible de conservación ex situ que sea eficaz\ny esté orientado al logro de metas. El principio\nde cooperación se menciona también\nexpresamente en el Artículo 16 del Tratado, que\nalienta la cooperación en las redes inter-\nnacionales de RFGAA. El texto del Artículo 5 e\nrecoge este tema al indicar que, para promover\nla conservación ex situ, no es suficiente que las\nPartes actúen de manera separada.\nEn un intento de aumentar la calidad de\nlas colecciones ex situ, la Comisión de la FAO\nde Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y\nla Agricultura ha adoptado y mantendrá en\nexamen una serie de normas técnicas para los\nbancos de genes que comprenden las especies\nsilvestres, forestales y de cultivo. Las normas\nestán destinadas en particular a minimizar la\npérdida de integridad genética de las muestras\nde semilla en el curso del almacenamiento y la\nregeneración. La Comisión de la FAO aprobó\nlas normas a fin de que cobraran valor universal\ny facilitar su adopción por los países. En este\nsentido, las normas, si bien no son obligatorias,\nconstituirán una guía esencial para las\ncolecciones nacionales y para la aplicación de\neste párrafo del Tratado. Con arreglo a los\nacuerdos de depósito que se firmaron en 1994\nentre los centros del GCIAI y la FAO, por los\ncuales las colecciones de germoplasma vegetal\nquedan bajo los auspicios de la FAO, los centros\nse comprometen a ordenar y administrar el\ngermoplasma entregado en depósito de\nconformidad con normas internacionalmente\naceptadas, incluidas, con respecto al\nalmacenamiento, el intercambio y la distribución\nde semillas, las normas internacionales para los\nbancos de genes aprobadas por la Comisión de\nla FAO65. Según el Artículo 15.1 d del Tratado\ndebe incluirse una disposición similar en los\nnuevos acuerdos que se han de concertar entre\nel Órgano Rector y los centros del GCIAI.\nLograr una ‘‘suficiente documentación,\ncaracterización, regeneración y evaluación’’ es\nfundamental para un sistema eficiente de\nconservación ex situ y para que cumpla su\nobjetivo de ‘‘mejorar la utilización sostenible de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura’’. Por ‘‘documentación’’ se\nentiende toda la documentación que debe estar\ndisponible respecto de las muestras en los bancos\nde datos, incluida la relativa a la caracterización,\nregeneración y evaluación de cada muestra. Por\n‘‘caracterización’’ se entiende la categorización\nde los datos según las características altamente\nheredables de las muestras en los bancos de\ngenes, como el color de las flores, que es\nconstante en cualquier medio, e incluiría la\ninformación sobre la índole y la medida de la\ndiversidad genética obtenida utilizando diversas\ntecnologías, entre ellas las técnicas moleculares.\nPor ‘‘regeneración’’ se entiende la necesidad de\ncultivar periódicamente las semillas almacenadas\npara asegurarse de que sigan siendo viables y de\nque quede suficiente semilla para fines de\nconservación y redistribución. Por ‘‘evaluación’’\nse entiende la evaluación de las características\nagronómicas del material, incluida la resistencia\na las enfermedades o a la sequía, mediante\ntecnologías moleculares entre otras. En gran\nmedida, la accesibilidad del germoplasma y su\nutilidad para agricultores y fitomejoradores\ndependerán de que la documentación,\ncaracterización, regeneración y evaluación sean\nadecuadas. En una guía sobre gestión eficaz de\nlas colecciones de germoplasma, recientemente\npublicada por el IPGRI, la FAO y otros66 se\nproporciona información acerca de la mejor\nforma de realizar las actividades de ordenación\nde la información, caracterización, regeneración\ny evaluación.\nEn el párrafo se destaca también que la\norganización de un sistema eficaz de conser-\nvación ex situ requiere el perfeccionamiento y\nla transferencia de tecnologías apropiadas. Este\nes uno de los objetivos del área de actividad\nprioritaria No. 8 del Plan de acción mundial, en\nque se ponen de relieve las necesidades de los\npaíses en desarrollo a este respecto y se insta a\nfortalecer los bancos de genes y mejorar las\nactividades de conservación que realizan los\njardines botánicos. En el Plan se asigna también\nimportancia a la necesidad de establecer mejores\nmétodos de conservación, entre ellos métodos\nadecuados de preservación in vitro y crio-\npreservación, y, en particular, técnicas de bajo\ncosto que sean aptas para las condiciones del\nlugar. Hay muchas especies no ortodoxas\nrespecto de las cuales no existen aún tecnologías\nde conservación adecuadas y eficaces. Por lo\ntanto, las Partes Contratantes deberían promover\nel establecimiento de esas tecnologías en sus\npropios países, en particular porque las\ntraspasadas de climas templados no siempre\nserán adecuadas para las condiciones de los\npaíses tropicales. En la última oración del párrafo\n65 Véase en el recuadro 11 una descripción más detallada de estos acuerdos.\n66 Engels y Visser, 2003.\n52\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nse enuncia el objetivo de mejorar la utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA. No queda claro si ello\nse refiere exclusivamente al perfeccionamiento\ny la transferencia de tecnología o a todo el\ncontenido del párrafo.\nPara promover el desarrollo de la\nconservación ex situ se requiere tanto apoyo\nfinanciero como tecnológico. En este contexto,\nestá en marcha una iniciativa encaminada a\nestablecer un fondo (el Fondo Mundial para la\nDiversidad de Cultivos) que preste apoyo\nfinanciero para el establecimiento de un sistema\neficiente y sostenible de conservación ex situ,\nentre otras cosas mejorando la capacidad de las\ninstituciones, incluidos los bancos de genes, para\ncumplir los estándares internacionales relativos\na las diversas actividades que entraña la\nconservación ex situ (véase el recuadro 20). El\nFondo Mundial para la Diversidad de Cultivos\nfuncionaría a nivel internacional como elemento\nesencial de la estrategia de financiación del\nTratado (véase el Artículo 18).\nYa existen a nivel nacional otros\nmecanismos de apoyo. Por ejemplo, la Estrategia\nNacional para la Diversidad Biológica y Plan de\nAcción de Cuba promueve el establecimiento de\nmecanismos para hacer posible la validación,\nutilización y difusión de material genético\nincluido en colecciones ex situ de plantas que\ntengan importancia económica. Está en marcha\nademás un proyecto para determinar 1) si en los\nhuertos domésticos se mantiene una diversidad\nde especies y variedades que es objeto de erosión\ngenética en otros sistemas de producción, 2) de\nqué manera la comercialización y la introducción\no el mejoramiento de cultivos afectan a la\ndiversidad de especies y variedades en esos\nhuertos y 3) qué actividades focalizadas\naumentan la biodiversidad en los huertos\ndomésticos, mejoran la nutrición e incrementan\nel ingreso familiar.\nEn la medida en que esos mecanismos no\nexistan ya en los planos internacional o nacional,\nen el párrafo se pide a las Partes Contratantes\nque cooperen para establecerlos.\nEn su conjunto, los párrafos c), d) y e)\npueden contribuir al logro del objetivo IX de la\nEstrategia Mundial para la Conservación de las\nEspecies Vegetales: ‘‘lograr la conservación del\n70% de la diversidad genética de cultivos y de\notras especies vegetales de importancia y de\nvalor socioeconómico y que se mantengan los\ncorrespondientes conocimientos locales e\nindígenas’’.\nf) Supervisará el mantenimiento de la viabilidad, el grado de variación y la integridad\ngenética de las colecciones de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura.\nEn el párrafo precedente se hacía referencia a la\nnecesidad de organizar un sistema eficaz y\nsostenible de colecciones ex situ de RFGAA. En\neste párrafo se trata de asegurar que las Partes\nContratantes sigan supervisando la viabilidad,\nel grado de variación y la integridad genética de\nlas colecciones de esos recursos. Esta\nsupervisión podría incluir actividades tales como\nlas de medir periódicamente el contenido de\nhumedad de las semillas y la germinabilidad de\nlas muestras en bancos de germoplasma,\nproceder a la caracterización durante el proceso\nde regeneración a fin de verificar si las progenies\nson variedades puras, realizar estudios de base\npara determinar el grado de variación en las\nmuestras en bancos de germoplasma, evaluar la\nvariación genética y el mantenimiento de la\nintegridad utilizando marcadores moleculares en\ncada regeneración y supervisar los procedi-\nmientos de manejo del germoplasma en los\nbancos a fin de determinar si el material se\nconserva debidamente. Por último, este párrafo\nobedece al propósito de asegurar que se conserve\nla diversidad de cada muestra, sea como semilla,\ncomo tejido o como planta. Para prestar\nasistencia a estos efectos, el IPGRI prepara y\ndistribuye gratuitamente muchas publicaciones\npara ayudar a los bancos de germoplasma en\nestas importantes actividades de manejo y\nconservación 67.\n67 Cabe mencionar como ejemplos: ‘‘Procedures for Handling Seeds in Genebanks’’, Practical Manuals for Genebanks:\nNo. 1 (1985) IPGRI, Roma, Italia; ‘‘Handbook of Seed Technology for Genebanks’’, en Handbooks for Genebanks\nNo. 2 and No. 3 (1985) IBPGR, Roma (Italia); y varios boletines técnicos y manuals publicados por el IPGRI, por\nejemplo, ‘‘A protocol to determine seed storage behaviour’’, Technical Bulletin No. 1 (1996) IPGRI, Roma,\nItalia; ‘‘Accession management. Combining or splitting accessions as a tool to improve germplasm management\nefficiency’’, Technical Bulletin No. 5 (2002) IPGRI, Roma, Italia; y ‘‘A Guide to effective management of\ngermplasm collections’’, IPGRI Handbook for Genebanks No. 6 (2003).\n53\nArtículo 5\ntambién es importante supervisar en forma\nadecuada el material in situ en relación, por\nejemplo, con los efectos de la introducción de\nnuevo material de fuera, los efectos de la\nintroducción de nuevo material genético por los\nagricultores, así como del flujo de genes y la\nsubsiguiente introgresión de taxones de plantas\ncultivadas y de plantas silvestres afines, incluidos\nlos de elementos genéticamente modificados. El\nIPGRI y otros institutos de investigación están\npreparando directrices y otras publicaciones\ntécnicas.\nLas tecnologías que se pueden emplear\npara estudiar el grado de variación de las\ncolecciones y supervisar la integridad genética\nincluyen la caracterización morfológica y\ntécnicas de ADN molecular tales como las\nbasadas en el RFLP, RAPD, AFLP y PCR y los\nmicrosatélites. En la actualidad no se utilizan\ntanto como antes los análisis de la isoenzima y\notras variaciones proteínicas.\nEl párrafo que antecede se refiere básica-\nmente a las colecciones ex situ. Sin embargo,\n5.2 Las Partes Contratantes deberán, cuando proceda, adoptar medidas para reducir\nal mínimo o, de ser posible, eliminar las amenazas para los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura.\nMientras que el Artículo 5.1 se refiere a\nlas medidas que deben tomar las Partes\nContratantes para realizar estudios e inventarios,\nrecolectar y conservar RFGAA, particularmente\nlos que están amenazados, e identificar las\namenazas, el Artículo 5.2 impone a las Partes\nContratantes la obligación positiva de reducir al\nmínimo o, de ser posible, eliminar esas\namenazas. Entre las causas más importantes de\npérdida de diversidad de los RFGAA están los\ncambios en las prácticas agrícolas y la pérdida\nde tierras agrícolas. La utilización de organismos\ngenéticamente modificados en los centros de\ndiversidad puede considerarse también una\nposible amenaza a los recursos fitogenéticos.\nEntre los medios posibles de mitigar las\namenazas incluyen reunir recursos para el\nmantenimiento ex situ, perfeccionar las medidas\nde conservación in situ, adoptar prácticas\nagrícolas que aumenten la utilización de una\ncombinación diversa de variedades y mantener\nla diversidad genética en las variedades de\ncultivos ampliando la base genética de los\nmateriales que se utilizan. En el Plan de acción\nmundial se describen y promueven muchas de\nestas actividades. En un manual técnico sobre\nrecolección de germoplasma se proporciona\ninformación acerca de los procedimientos de\nrecolección a fin de promover la ampliación de\nlas colecciones ex situ, asegurándose al mismo\ntiempo de que la recolección de plantas silvestres\nno amenace el estado de conservación de esas\nvariedades68. Asimismo, en el Manual No. 6 del\nIPGRI, titulado ‘‘A guide to effective manage-\nment of germplasm collections’’ (2003), antes\nmencionado, se indican métodos útiles y\nsugerencias acerca de la forma de minimizar o\neliminar las amenazas a los RFGAA en los\nbancos de genes.\nA fin de poner en práctica esta disposición,\nlas Partes Contratantes tendrán que establecer\nprocedimientos para identificar y cuantificar las\namenazas a los recursos fitogenéticos y sistemas\npara supervisar los cambios en el estado de\nconservación de esos recursos. Ello hará posible\nestablecer oportunamente procedimientos para\nminimizar el efecto de las amenazas y, tal vez,\ntomar medidas correctivas para eliminarlas. Ya\nhan comenzado algunos estudios sobre\nindicadores69 y la FAO y el IPGRI siguen\ntrabajando a este respecto dentro del marco de\nla estrategia de la Conferencia de las Partes en\nel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\n(Resolución COP7/30, por ejemplo) y el\nPrograma de Trabajo sobre Biodiversidad\nAgrícola de esa Conferencia.\n68 Guarino, L., V.R. Rao y R. Reid (eds.) 1995. Collecting Plant Genetic Diversity: Technical Guidelines. CAB\nInternational, Wallingford, Reino Unido.\n69 Véase el documento CGRFA-9/02/10, presentado al noveno período ordinario de sesiones de la Comisión de\nRecursos Genéticos para la Agricultura y la Alimentación y titulado ‘‘Informe sobre el avance del Sistema mundial\nde información y alerta sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura’’, junio de 2002.\n54\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n55\nArtículo 6\nArtículo 6 – Utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\n6.1 Las Partes Contratantes elaborarán y mantendrán medidas normativas y jurídicas\napropiadas que promuevan la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura.\n6.2 La utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura puede incluir las medidas siguientes:\nSegún este artículo, las Partes tienen que elaborar\ny mantener medidas normativas y jurídicas apro-\npiadas que promuevan la utilización sostenible\nde los RFGAA. La obligación impuesta en el\nArtículo 6.1 es absoluta y no contiene elemento\nalguno que la condicione, como la referencia a\nla legislación nacional que se encuentra en el\nArtículo 5.1. En cambio, la lista que figura en el\nArtículo 6.2 simplemente indica ejemplos para\nlas Partes Contratantes de las medidas a que\npodrían recurrir para cumplir las obligaciones\nque les impone el párrafo 6.1 (con sujeción al\ntérmino ‘‘apropiadas’’). Al igual que el Artículo\n5, el Artículo 6 está estrechamente relacionado\ncon las áreas de actividad prioritarias indicadas\nen el Plan de acción mundial, en particular\nampliar la base genética de los cultivos más\nimportantes; aumentar la gama de diversidad\ngenética a disposición de los agricultores, incre-\nmentar la capacidad para establecer nuevos\ncultivos y variedades específicamente adaptadas\nal medio local, estudiar y promover la utilización\nde especies infrautilizadas y reducir la vulnerabi-\nlidad de los cultivos mediante la diversidad\ngenética.\nEn este sentido, el Artículo 6 y el Artículo\n5.2 sientan una buena base para una política que\nestimule la agricultura y, al mismo tiempo, sea\nracional para el medio ambiente y tenga una\namplia base genética.\nEste artículo es mucho más específico que\nlos artículos correspondientes del Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica. El Artículo 6 de\neste Convenio, apropiadamente titulado ‘‘Medi-\ndas generales’’, prevé que cada Parte Contratante\nestablezca o adapte ‘‘estrategias, planes o progra-\nmas nacionales’’ que recojan las medidas\nenunciadas en el Convenio a los efectos de la\nconservación de la biodiversidad y la utilización\nsostenible de sus componentes.\nEn el texto del Convenio no se define la\nexpresión ‘‘estrategias, planes o programas’’,\npero ésta ha sido afinada por las Partes\nContratantes a través de decisiones de la\nConferencia de las Partes y de su aplicación a\nnivel nacional. En su acepción actual, el Artículo\n6 del Convenio se refiere a estrategias y planes\nde acción nacionales sobre biodiversidad, que\nhan adoptado muchas Partes Contratantes. Estas\nestrategias y planes de acción obedecen al\npropósito de promover la cooperación inter-\nsectorial con miras al objetivo de la ‘‘utilización\nsostenible’’ enunciado en el Artículo 10 del\nConvenio.\nA los efectos de la aplicación en el marco\ndel Tratado del concepto de estrategias y planes\nde acción nacionales para la biodiversidad, se\nsuele considerar que los términos siguientes\ndeben entenderse en una secuencia:\nEn las estrategias se enuncian\nrecomendaciones concretas o etapas\npara la acción nacional encaminada a\nla conservación de la biodiversidad y\nla utilización sostenible de sus\ncomponentes;\nEn los planes se explica cómo se han\nde llevar a la práctica las recomen-\ndaciones concretas de una estrategia;\ny\nEn los programas se ponen en práctica\nlas estrategias y los planes.\nLa utilización sostenible de los RFGAA\nes esencial para la seguridad alimentaria a corto\ny a largo plazo. De estos recursos depende el\nsustento de cada habitante de la Tierra.\nConstituyen la materia prima más importante\npara el fitomejorador y el insumo más esencial\npara el agricultor. Estos recursos, con una\nordenación adecuada, no deberían agotarse\nnunca porque no hay una incompatibilidad\nintrínseca entre la conservación (Artículo 5) y\nla utilización (Artículo 6).\n56\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEste párrafo apunta a promover sistemas de\ncultivo diversos que favorezcan la agrobio-\ndiversidad. Los sistemas de cultivo se refieren a\nla finca en general más que a sus elementos indi-\nviduales y obedecen tanto al bienestar general\nde la familia agrícultura como a objetivos de\nrendimiento y rentabilidad. Hay una estrecha\nrelación entre los sistemas de cultivo y el sustento\nporque la agricultura sigue siendo el componente\nmás importante de la vida de la mayor parte de\nla población de las zonas rurales y desempeña\ntambién un papel importante en la vida de mucha\ngente en zonas periurbanas. Así, en este párrafo,\nel Tratado va más allá del alcance de los RFGAA\npara referirse a cuestiones más amplias de agro-\nbiodiversidad, incluso a nivel del sistema de\ncultivo.\nLos sistemas de cultivo entrañan una\ncompleja combinación de insumos que\nadministran las familias pero sufren la influencia\nde factores ambientales, políticos, económicos,\ninstitucionales y sociales. Las instituciones de\ninvestigación y extensión son cada vez más\nconscientes de la necesidad de un enfoque\nholístico, que aproveche tanto los conocimientos\nlocales como los externos, para hacer frente en\nforma efectiva a los problemas de la pobreza y\nla sostenibilidad.\nEn el párrafo se insta a adoptar políticas\nque promuevan la diversidad en los sistemas de\ncultivo. Se insta también a promover sistemas\nde cultivo que favorezcan la utilización\nsostenible de la diversidad agrícola.\nLa referencia a políticas agrícolas\n‘‘equitativas’’ tiene que ver con la necesidad de\nasegurar que la política agrícola no tenga efectos\nque distorsionen el comercio al conceder\nsubsidios encubiertos bajo la apariencia de\nmedidas para promover los cultivos tradicionales\ny la agricultura sostenible.\na) prosecución de políticas agrícolas equitativas que promuevan, cuando proceda, el\nestablecimiento y mantenimiento de diversos sistemas de cultivo que favorezcan la\nutilización sostenible de la diversidad agrobiológica y de otros recursos naturales;\nb) fortalecimiento de la investigación que promueva y conserve la diversidad biológica,\naumentando en la mayor medida posible la variación intraespecífica e interespecífica\nen beneficio de los agricultores, especialmente de los que generan y utilizan sus propias\nvariedades y aplican principios ecológicos para mantener la fertilidad del suelo y luchar\ncontra las enfermedades, las malas hierbas y las plagas;\nEste párrafo se basa en el área prioritaria de\nactividad 11 del Plan de acción mundial, titulada\n‘‘Promoción de la agricultura sostenible\nmediante la diversificación de la producción\nagrícola y una mayor diversidad de los cultivos’’.\nSe señala en particular la necesidad de que haya\nel más alto grado posible de variación o\ndiversidad intraespecífica (actividad 11), así\ncomo de maximizar la variación entre especies\n(actividad 12: ‘‘Promoción del desarrollo y la\ncomercialización de los cultivos y las especies\ninfrautilizados’’). Las prácticas tradicionales de\ncultivo y la ordenación por el agricultor de sus\nvariedades locales a veces aumentan la variación\nintraespecífica como medio de lograr\nrendimientos más estables y una mayor\nresistencia a enfermedades y plagas, así como\nuna mayor adaptabilidad a las nuevas presiones\nambientales. Es importante incrementar la\ninvestigación para determinar cuáles elementos\nde estas prácticas son suficientemente sólidos\ncomo para sobrevivir a los cambios en la\nagricultura.\nLa diversidad en los sistemas de cultivo\nsuele tener particular importancia desde el punto\nde vista de la lucha contra las plagas. Las\nrotaciones breves de cultivos con una base\ngenética uniforme son especialmente vulnerables\na las plagas. Constituyen dos claros ejemplos de\nesta vulnerabilidad la trágica epidemia de la\nplaga de las papas (Phytophthora infestans) en\nIrlanda en el siglo XIX y, más recientemente, la\nepidemia de la plaga de la hoja de maíz\n(Helminthosporum maydis) que tuvo lugar en los\naños setenta en los Estados Unidos. Por lo tanto,\neste párrafo demuestra la importancia de\nmantener la diversidad en la base genética como\nrecurso para agricultores y fitomejoradores a fin\nde desarrollar variedades de cultivo resistentes\na diversas plagas. Una mayor diversidad en los\nsistemas de cultivo puede hacerlos menos\nvulnerables a plagas y enfermedades y ofrecer\nuna mayor seguridad alimentaria. Los sistemas\ntradicionales de cultivo tienden a exhibir una\nmayor diversidad agrícola. En estudios recientes\nha quedado de manifiesto el grado en que los\n57\nArtículo 6\nagricultores tradicionales tratan de conservar y\nmejorar la diversidad genética de sus variedades\nlocales como medio de asegurar la estabilidad\nen el rendimiento y la resistencia a enfermedades\ny a cambios en las condiciones ambientales.\nMuchas veces se traen semillas de fuera de la\nzona agrícola inmediata como medio de\naumentar la diversidad de los cultivos locales;\nen algunas sociedades, esos intercambios de\nsemillas van acompañados de rituales religiosos\no de otra índole70. En el área prioritaria de\nactividad 11 se insiste en la necesidad de\n‘‘prestar apoyo para determinar qué\nactividades utilizadas en el fitomejoramiento,\ninvestigación sobre las plantas y sistemas\nagrícolas fomentan la diversidad en las fincas.\nDicha investigación podrá comprender un\nexamen de sistemas agrícolas homogéneos,\ncomo los basados en el cultivo intercalado, el\npolicultivo, la lucha integrada contra las plagas\ny la utilización integrada de nutrientes para una\nposible aplicación más amplia, así como la\ninvestigación para perfeccionar metodologías de\nfitomejoramiento apropiadas ... Se ha de\nfomentar el apoyo al perfeccionamiento de\nmecanismos y metodologías mejoradas para\nevaluar la vulnerabilidad genética e identificar,\na ser posible, el equilibrio ideal en los cultivos\nentre la uniformidad genética y una diversidad\nque esté en consonancia con los diversos\naspectos prácticos, técnicos y económicos que\nsostengan los ecosistemas.’’ (Plan de acción\nmundial, párrafos 174, 185 y 186.)\nRecuadro 5. Los sistemas de abastecimiento de semillas y otro material de\npropagación y la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA\nLos sistemas que suministran semillas y otro material de propagación, como clones, son\nesenciales para determinar el tipo de material de cultivo que seleccionarán los agricultores y,\nde esta manera, las modalidades de utilización de los recursos genéticos para cultivo. Estos\nsistemas están constituidos por la interacción entre la demanda de los agricultores de variedades\nde cultivo y los caracteres que incorporan, por una parte, y la oferta de esas variedades, por la\notra. Los sistemas de semillas y material de propagación repercuten en las posibilidades de\nselección de variedades que tienen los agricultores, lo cual a su vez afecta a la medida en que\nse ofrece el bien público de conservación de la diversidad y, en última instancia, a la\nsustentabilidad del sistema de utilización. Al formular medidas para promover la utilización\nsostenible es importante entender mejor qué repercusión tienen esos sistemas en la selección\nque hacen los agricultores.\nDesde el punto de vista de la oferta, interesa saber de qué forma se producen las semillas y\notro material de propagación, con inclusión tanto del contenido genético (mejoramiento, por\nejemplo) y la calidad física (producción de semillas y clones), así como la forma en que se\ndistribuyen u ofrecen (mercados, sistemas de extensión, redes de intercambio social) y el\nprecio al cual se ofrecen. El elemento de demanda en el sistema está compuesto por las\ncaracterísticas o servicios generales e individuales que buscan los agricultores en las semillas\ny los clones y los recursos genéticos que incorporan, así como en las características físicas\ndel mecanismo de prestación, esto es, calidad de las semillas y los clones y, en última instancia,\nla disposición de los agricultores a pagar esos productos en efectivo o en especie.\nLos agricultores, y en particular los pequeños agricultores, obtienen las semillas por múltiples\ncauces. En la bibliografía reciente, se consideraba que esos cauces pertenecían a uno de dos\nsistemas generales: el ‘‘formal’’ y el ‘‘informal’’. Este último se suele llamar sistema de\nsemillas ‘‘local’’, ‘‘tradicional’’ o ‘‘del agricultor’’71.\n70 Véase Louette, D. (2000) Traditional management of seed and genetic diversity: what is a landrace? En Genes in\nthe field: on-farm conservation of crop diversity. S.B. Brush (ed.), págs. 109 a 142, IDRC e IPGRI, Lewis Publishers,\nCRC Press LLC; Parzies, H.K., Brocke, K.V., Spoor, W. y Geiger H.H. (2001) Contrasting seed management\npractices for landraces of barley and pearl millet in Rajasthan, India, inferred from gene flow data. Resumen del\nXVI Congreso EUCARPIA, Plant Breeding: Sustaining the Future, Edimburgo, Escocia, 10 a 14 de septiembre\nde 2001.\n71 Cada uno de estos términos tiene un matiz especial y ello causa problemas. Los sistemas ‘‘informales’’ no son\npuramente sistemas ‘‘del agricultor’’ porque los mercados son importantes. Tampoco son exclusivamente ‘‘locales’’\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n58\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl sistema formal de semillas es fácil de caracterizar porque entraña una cadena de actividades\nque culmina en productos claramente distinguibles: semillas certificadas de variedades\nverificadas. La cadena comienza por lo general con el fitomejoramiento, que tiene como\nresultado distintos tipos de variedades e híbridos, y promueve materiales con miras a la\ndistribución y el mantenimiento de variedades formales. Los reglamentos o protocolos formales\napuntan a mantener la identidad y pureza de las variedades, así como a garantizar la calidad\nfísica, fisiológica y sanitaria. La semilla se comercializa a través de puntos oficialmente\nreconocidos, ya sea en forma comercial o por sistemas nacionales de investigación agrícola.\nLa premisa central del sistema formal consiste en que hay una clara distinción entre lo que es\n‘‘semilla’’ y lo que es ‘‘grano’’.\nEl sistema informal es básicamente lo que el sistema formal no es. Las actividades tienden a\nestar integradas y organizadas localmente y el sistema incorpora la mayor parte de los demás\nmétodos por los cuales los propios agricultores producen y difunden semillas y tienen acceso\na ellas; directamente a partir de su propia cosecha, a través del canje entre amigos, vecinos y\nfamiliares o a través de mercados o comerciantes locales de granos. La flexibilidad es lo que\nmás caracteriza al sistema local. En el sistema informal tienen lugar las mismas etapas generales\nque en el formal, pero como partes integrantes de la producción de grano por el agricultor y\nno como actividades separadas. Las distintas etapas tampoco siguen una secuencia lineal ni\nson objeto de supervisión o control mediante reglamentos públicos. Se orientan más bien por\nlos conocimientos y las normas técnicas locales y por las estructuras y normas sociales del\nlugar, entre ellas las fuerzas del mercado. Las variedades pueden ser locales o mixtas.\nEn este párrafo se propugna la participación de\nlos agricultores en el fitomejoramiento para\nobtener variedades particularmente adaptadas a\nlas condiciones sociales, económicas y eco-\nlógicas y se profundiza lo expuesto en el área\nprioritaria 2 del Plan de acción mundial.\nLa referencia a la participación de los\nagricultores guarda relación con el derecho a\nparticipar en la adopción de decisiones que se\nenuncia en el Artículo 9.2 c. El párrafo se refiere\nen particular a los agricultores de países en\ndesarrollo.\nc) fomento, cuando proceda, de las iniciativas en materia de fitomejoramiento que, con\nla participación de los agricultores, especialmente en los países en desarrollo, fortalecen\nla capacidad para obtener variedades particularmente adaptadas a las condiciones\nsociales, económicas y ecológicas, en particular en las zonas marginales;\nd) ampliación de la base genética de los cultivos e incremento de la gama de diversidad\ngenética a disposición de los agricultores;\nEste párrafo sigue los temas a que se refiere el\nárea prioritaria de actividad 10 del Plan de\nAcción Mundial (‘‘Aumento de la potenciación\ngenética y actividades de ampliación de la\nbase’’)72. Los agricultores han producido en el\ncurso del tiempo variedades locales que se\nadaptan particularmente bien a las condiciones\nlocales, incluidas las sociales, económicas y\necológicas, e incorporan un alto grado de\ndiversidad genética intraespecífica. La diversi-\ndad intraespecífica (esto es, la diversidad dentro\nde cada especie a diferencia de la diversidad entre\nespecies) es particularmente importante para que\nlos cultivos sean resistentes a las enfermedades\no a las plagas o se adapten a las condiciones\nlocales de sequía, humedad excesiva u otro\nproblema ecológico presente o futuro. Esto tiene\nmucha importancia en el caso de los cultivos en\ntierras marginales.\nporque los mercados y el intercambio a través de redes sociales conectan diversas localidades. Por último, no son\n‘‘tradicionales’’ en el sentido estricto de la palabra, porque están en constante evolución. Los sistemas ‘‘formal’’\ne ‘‘informal’’ no deben confundirse con los sectores formal e informal.\n72 Véase también D. Cooper y otros. 2001. Broadening the genetic base of crop production. CABI, FAO e IPGRI.\n59\nArtículo 6\nComo ya se ha señalado, la introducción\nde variedades nuevas y mejoradas puede\nincrementar la uniformidad genética y, a medida\nque los agricultores locales recurren a nuevas\nvariedades para tener una mayor productividad,\npuede reducir la diversidad de sus cultivos. Por\nlo tanto, es necesario ampliar la base genética\nde los cultivos, incluso incorporando algunos de\nlos caracteres genéticos presentes en las varie-\ndades locales hasta ahora utilizadas en esos\nlugares, en la medida en que permitan a esas\nvariedades locales ajustarse mejor a las con-\ndiciones especiales del lugar.\nLos agricultores que utilizan métodos\ntradicionales normalmente realizarán esas\nactividades de ampliación de la base genética\nmediante el cruzamiento de nuevas variedades\nmejoradas con sus propios cultivos locales. Sin\nembargo, desde el punto de vista de un agricultor,\nun fitomejorador, una empresa o un instituto, el\ncosto de la incorporación de germoplasma\ndistinto en variedades que ya han sido mejoradas\npuede resultar excesivo y exceder de los\nbeneficios que les puede reportar. Esos\nbeneficios irán no sólo al agricultor sino también\na la comunidad local y a la sociedad en general.\nSe necesita apoyo público para promover\nlas iniciativas de fitomejoramiento en los casos\nen que el sector privado no puede hacerlo por su\npropia cuenta. Sin embargo, debido a su\nconocimiento del lugar y su acceso a variedades\nlocales adaptadas al lugar, la participación de los\nagricultores locales es particularmente útil. Los\nmétodos indicados en el Plan de acción mundial\nincluyen la introgresión de caracteres agro-\nnómicos útiles identificados mediante la\ncaracterización o la evaluación en material\nadaptado localmente o de elite para su utilización\nulterior en programas de fitomejoramiento y la\nampliación de la base genética del material\nmediante la incorporación de una diversidad\ngenética más amplia en general y de caracteres\nadaptados al lugar en particular.\nEstas actividades guardan estrecha rela-\nción con la promoción de una mayor utilización\nde cultivos locales y adaptados al lugar y de\nespecies infrautilizadas, a que se refiere el\npárrafo e) infra, ya que el incentivo para producir\nesos cultivos es mucho mayor si se pueden\nencontrar mercados para ellos.\nEl aumento de la diversidad del material a\ndisposición del agricultor es uno de los objetivos\nbásicos del Tratado. En última instancia, son los\npropios agricultores los que tendrán que utilizar\nesta diversidad para mejorar sus cultivos y\nprotegerse de enfermedades y de fluctuaciones\nen el rendimiento. Si bien no se especifica un\nmecanismo para aumentar la variedad del\nmaterial de esa índole a disposición de los agri-\ncultores, es evidente que pueden ser esenciales\nlos demás componentes del Tratado (entre ellos\nla cooperación internacional, la asistencia\ntécnica, las colecciones ex situ de RFGAA que\nconservan los centros internacionales de\ninvestigación agrícola y, naturalmente, el sistema\nmultilateral). Las modalidades pueden consistir,\npor ejemplo, en facilitar el acceso del agricultor\na colecciones ex situ y en crear condiciones de\nmercado que propicien la disponibilidad.\nRecuadro 6. Realización de los derechos del agricultor a nivel nacional\nA nivel nacional, algunos proyectos de legislación han reafirmado el apoyo al concepto de\nlos derechos del agricultor. Constituye un ejemplo de posible realización de esos derechos a\nnivel nacional la Ley 2001 sobre protección de las variedades vegetales y los derechos del\nagricultor (la ‘‘Ley’’), aprobada en la India en agosto de 2001. Los derechos del agricultor no\nse definen expresamente; sin embargo, según el Artículo 31 del proyecto:\nNada de lo dispuesto en la presente Ley afectará el derecho del agricultor a conservar,\nutilizar, intercambiar, compartir o vender su producción agrícola de una variedad producida\nen virtud de esta Ley ... si bien el agricultor no tendrá ese derecho en los casos en que la\nventa obedezca a fines de reproducción en virtud de acuerdos de comercialización.\nConstituye otra característica de esta Ley el intento de poner a los derechos del agricultor en\npie de igualdad con los derechos del fitomejorador. La Ley reconoce al agricultor el derecho,\nal igual que al fitomejorador industrial, de pedir el registro de una variedad vegetal. En el\nArtículo 16 d se incluye en la lista de solicitantes de registro ‘‘a cualquier agricultor, grupo\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n60\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nde agricultores o comunidad de agricultores ...’’. Los agricultores tienen derecho no sólo a\npedir el registro de una variedad nueva sino también de una variedad propia (Artículo 39 l)\ni)). En la definición, la Ley incluye ‘‘i) las variedades tradicionalmente cultivadas y producidas\npor los agricultores en sus campos o ii) una variedad silvestre afín o una variedad local\ngeneralmente conocidas por los agricultores’’ (Artículo 2 k)). La Ley concede protección no\nsólo a las variedades recientemente obtenidas sino también a las ya existentes (‘‘extant variety’’\nsegún el texto en inglés del Artículo 2 j) de la Ley). Según el Artículo 39 l) i), el registro está\nsujeto a los mismos criterios derivados de la UPOV que son aplicables a los fitomejoradores\ncomerciales. Sin embargo, a la época de publicación del presente documento, el Órgano\nRector de la UPOV no había declarado aún si las disposiciones de esta Ley eran compatibles\ncon el Convenio de la UPOV.\nEl mecanismo de participación en los beneficios constituye en la misma Ley un componente\nfundamental de los derechos del agricultor. La Ley indica dos cauces para proporcionar\nbeneficios al agricultor tradicional. El primero está incorporado en el proceso de registro de\nuna variedad. La Dirección de Protección de Variedades Vegetales y Derechos del Agricultor\npublica el contenido del certificado de registro e invita a reclamar una participación en los\nbeneficios de la variedad. Cualquier persona, grupo de personas u organización no\ngubernamental puede reclamar esa participación en los beneficios. Se establece un\nprocedimiento para dar al obtentor el derecho a oponerse a la reclamación. La decisión\ndefinitiva acerca del monto de la participación en los beneficios queda a discreción de la\nDirección, que tendrá en cuenta tanto el grado y la índole de utilización del material genético\ndel reclamante en la obtención de la variedad como la utilidad comercial y la demanda de\nmercado de esa variedad. La suma concedida será depositada por el obtentor en el Fondo\nNacional de Genes (Artículo 26, párrafos 1 a 6). El segundo cauce para la participación en los\nbeneficios se encuentra en las disposiciones incluidas en la sección relativa a los derechos\ndel agricultor. El texto del Artículo 39 l) iii) es el siguiente:\n‘‘El agricultor que participe en la conservación de recursos genéticos de variedades locales\ny variedades silvestres afines de plantas con utilidad económica y en su mejoramiento\nmediante la selección y la preservación tendrá derecho ... a ser reconocido y recompensado\ncon cargo al Fondo Nacional de Genes ... a condición de que el material seleccionado y\npreservado haya sido utilizado como donante de genes de variedades que se pueden\nregistrar en virtud de la presente Ley.’’\nCualquier persona, grupo de personas u organización gubernamental o no gubernamental en\nnombre de cualquier aldea o comunidad local tiene derecho a reclamar el reconocimiento y la\nrecompensa por sus contribuciones. La reclamación se ha de presentar en cualquier centro\nque haya sido notificado con la aprobación previa de la Dirección central. El centro debe\ncerciorarse de ‘‘...que la aldea o la comunidad local haya aportado una contribución\nimportante a la evolución de la variedad registrada ...’’. Una vez que la Dirección central ha\nrecibido un informe del centro y el obtentor ha tenido oportunidad de hacer valer sus objeciones,\nse puede ordenar el pago de una indemnización al reclamante. El obtentor de la variedad\ndepositará la suma correspondiente en el Fondo Nacional de Genes (Artículo 41, párrafos 1 a\n4).\nOtro ejemplo interesante de posible forma de materializar estos derechos es la ‘‘Legislación\nafricana modelo para el reconocimiento y la protección de los derechos de las comunidades,\nlos agricultores y los fitomejoradores locales y para la reglamentación del acceso a recursos\ngenéticos’’, preparada por la Organización de la Unidad Africana en el año 2000 pero que,\nsin embargo, no ha sido puesta en práctica por ningún país africano. En la Parte V del proyecto\nse definen el concepto y el alcance de los derechos del agricultor:\n24 1) Se reconoce que los derechos del agricultor dimanan de las enormes contribuciones\nque las comunidades agrícolas locales, especialmente las mujeres que las integran, de\ntodas las regiones del mundo, en particular en los centros de origen o de diversidad de\ncultivos o de otra agrobiodiversidad, han aportado a la conservación, el desarrollo y la\nutilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos y zoogenéticos que constituyen la base\ndel fitomejoramiento para la producción alimentaria y agrícola; y\n61\nArtículo 6\n2) Por lo tanto, es preciso reconocer y proteger los derechos del agricultor para que éste\ncontinúe haciendo esas contribuciones.\nEn el Artículo 26 se define el alcance de los derechos del agricultor:\n26 1) Teniendo debidamente en cuenta la equidad entre los géneros, los derechos del\nagricultor incluirán lo siguiente:\na) la protección de sus conocimientos tradicionales sobre recursos fito y zoogenéticos;\nb) obtener una parte equitativa de los beneficios dimanados de la utilización de recursos\nfito y zoogenéticos;\nc) participar en la adopción de decisiones, incluso a nivel nacional, acerca de cuestiones\nrelacionadas con la conservación y utilización sostenible de recursos fito y zoogenéticos;\nd) conservar, utilizar, intercambiar y vender semillas/material de propagación de variedades\ndel agricultor conservadas en la finca;\ne) utilizar una nueva variedad del fitomejorador protegida en virtud de esta Ley para\nobtener variedades del agricultor, con inclusión de material obtenido de bancos de\ngenes o de centros de recursos fitogenéticos; y\nf) conservar, utilizar y procesar colectivamente semillas de variedades protegidas\nconservadas en la finca.\n2) No obstante lo dispuesto en los apartados c) y d), el agricultor no venderá a escala\ncomercial semillas o material de propagación conservados en la finca de una variedad\nprotegida del fitomejorador.\n3) Los derechos del agricultor respecto de una variedad nueva serán objeto de restricciones\ncon el objeto de proteger la seguridad alimentaria, la salud, la diversidad biológica o\ncualquier otra necesidad de la comunidad agrícola de material de propagación de una\ndeterminada variedad.\nEntre otros ejemplos, en 2002 la República de Filipinas promulgó una nueva Ley sobre\nProtección de las Variedades Vegetales73. La Ley, que dispone la protección de las variedades\nvegetales en Filipinas con arreglo al Convenio de la UPOV de 1991 (véase el recuadro 9),\nestá destinada a proteger y asegurar los derechos exclusivos de los fitomejoradores con respecto\na nuevas variedades vegetales que hayan creado, descubierto o desarrollado y cumplan los\nrequisitos de ser nuevas, distintas, uniformes y estables. Se pueden expedir certificados de\nprotección de variedades vegetales con una duración de 25 años en el caso de los árboles y\nlas plantas trepadoras y de 20 años en el caso de los demás tipos de plantas. En el Artículo 43\nde la Ley se disponen excepciones a la protección de la variedad vegetal, que incluyen ‘‘el\nderecho tradicional del pequeño agricultor a conservar, utilizar, intercambiar, compartir o\nvender su producción agrícola de una variedad protegida con arreglo a la presente Ley, salvo\ncuando la venta se hace con fines de reproducción en virtud de un acuerdo de\ncomercialización’’. La Dirección Nacional de Protección de las Variedades Vegetales ha de\ndeterminar en qué circunstancias es aplicable esta excepción, teniendo en cuenta la naturaleza\nde la planta cultivada o sembrada. La disposición es aplicable también al intercambio y la\nventa de semillas entre pequeños agricultores, si bien éstos podrán intercambiar o vender\nsemillas para reproducción y para replantarlas en sus propias tierras.\nEl Artículo 72 autoriza a llevar inventarios para proteger variedades locales contra la\napropiación indebida o la monopolización injusta. Así, en un esfuerzo por proteger los derechos\nde los agricultores contra la posible apropiación por fitomejoradores, la Asociación de\nInvestigación y Producción Agrícolas de la aldea de Campagao decidió establecer un registro\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n73 Republic Act No. 9168, An Act to Provide Protection to new Plant Varieties, Establishing a National Plant Variety\nProtection Board and for Other Purposes, the Philippine Plant Variety Protection Act of 2002.\n62\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ncomunitario de las variedades locales de arroz que han obtenido para asegurarse de que no\nqueden comprendidas en la nueva Ley y, de esa manera, queden protegidas de la apropiación\no monopolización indebida, y para hacer valer los derechos de la comunidad respecto de sus\nrecursos genéticos. ‘‘Tras una serie de reuniones y debates, el grupo formuló una declaración\njurada de la comunidad en el sentido de que todas las variedades de arroz que se mantienen\nen ella estarán protegidas de la Ley sobre Protección de las Variedades Vegetales y que las\nsemillas de esas variedades seguirán estando libremente al alcance de los agricultores para\nusarlas, venderlas, guardarlas o intercambiarlas con otros agricultores. La declaración jurada\nincluye también una lista de nombres y tipos de variedades de arroz que la comunidad ha\nvenido usando y obteniendo continuamente desde que comenzó a participar en el\nfitomejoramiento. El registro incluye también una caracterización básica de las\nvariedades.’’74. El registro será actualizado en cada temporada de cultivo.\nEntre otras propuestas de reconocimiento de los derechos de las comunidades locales, indígenas\ny de agricultores a nivel nacional cabe mencionar:\nEl Gobierno de Zambia ha redactado una ley de protección de las variedades vegetales\nque apunta a proteger las innovaciones de las comunidades locales y los pueblos indígenas\nen consonancia con las obligaciones que le incumben en virtud del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica.\nEn Tailandia, un proyecto de Ley sobre Protección de las Variedades Vegetales combinaría\nel reconocimiento de los derechos de los fitomejoradores a las variedades que hubiesen\nrecién obtenido y la protección de las variedades nativas conservadas y obtenidas por\nagricultores y comunidades locales.\nLa ‘‘Ley de Biodiversidad’’ de Costa Rica (1998) reconoce y protege expresamente las\nprácticas e innovaciones de los pueblos indígenas y las comunidades locales en relación\ncon el uso de componentes de la biodiversidad y sus conocimientos al respecto. La ley\nobliga a la autoridad competente a rechazar cualquier solicitud de reconocimiento de\nderechos intelectuales o industriales por concepto de conocimientos o componentes de\nbiodiversidad ya reconocidos como derechos de una comunidad.\nLa ‘‘Ley de Biodiversidad’’ de Bhután (2003) combate el acceso ilegal a los recursos\ntradicionales, protege los derechos de los agricultores y seleccionadores, establece los\nderechos de propiedad de los agricultores respecto de las variedades vegetales y facilita a\nlos agricultores del país el acceso a fuentes extranjeras de variedades vegetales mejoradas.\n74 Alywin Darlen M. Arnejo, The Community Registry as an Expression of Farmers´s Rights: Experiences in Collective\nAction Against the Plant Variety Protection Act of the Philippines, monografía presentada al CAPRI-IPGRI\nInternational Workshop on Property Rights, Collective Action and Local Conservation of Genetic Resources,\nRoma, 29 de septiembre a 2 de octubre de 2003.\nEste párrafo refleja las áreas de actividad priori-\ntarias del Plan de acción mundial 2 (‘‘Apoyo a\nla ordenación y mejoramiento en fincas de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura’’), 11 (‘‘Promoción de una agricultura\nsostenible mediante la diversificación de la pro-\nducción agrícola y una mayor diversidad de los\ncultivos’’), 12 (‘‘Promoción del desarrollo y\ncomercialización de los cultivos y las especies\ninfrautilizados’’) y, especialmente, 14 (‘‘Cre-\nación de nuevos mercados para las variedades\nlocales y los productos ‘ricos en biodiversi-\ndad’ ’’).\ne) fomento, cuando proceda, de un mayor uso de cultivos, variedades y especies\ninfrautilizados, locales y adaptados a las condiciones locales;\nEn muchos países en desarrollo los cultivos\ninfrautilizados son esenciales para la seguridad\nalimentaria, pero una gran proporción de los\nrecursos de que disponen los fitomejoradores\nestán invertidos en muy pocos cultivos. No todos\nlos cultivos infrautilizados son ‘‘menores’’. El\nmijo y la mandioca (ambos incluidos en el\nSistema Multilateral del Tratado) se cultivan en\nenormes superficies, pero generalmente para\nnecesidades de subsistencia y para los mercados\nlocales. Hay otros cultivos, como el tef\n(Erogrostis tef Zucc.), que tienen enorme\nimportancia en determinadas regiones pero no\n63\nArtículo 6\nPor último, el Tratado reconoce que tal vez\nno siempre sea apropiado ampliar la utilización\nde cultivos, variedades y especies infrautilizados,\nlocales o adaptados a las condiciones locales;\nasí ocurre, por ejemplo, cuando la variedad más\nproductiva o sostenible está muy difundida o\ncuando las necesidades locales de alimentos\nbásicos son tales que sólo se pueden cultivar las\nvariedades más importantes.\nLa Dependencia de Facilitación\nMundial relativa a Especies Infrautiliza-\ndas es una iniciativa con participación\nde múltiples interesados establecida en\njunio de 2002 bajo los auspicios del\nForo Mundial sobre Investigación\nAgrícola (FMIA), cuya organización\nanfitriona actualmente es el IPGRI. La\nDependencia apoya y facilita la labor\nrelativa a distintos aspectos de las\nespecies infrautilizadas a distintos\nniveles que llevan a cabo redes,\norganizaciones, organismos y otras\nentidades en todo el mundo. Su objetivo\nes afianzar a estas entidades y alentar a\nque se contraigan nuevos compromisos\npara el desarrollo de las especies in-\nfrautilizadas.\nInicialmente, la Dependencia se concentra\nen quienes trabajan con especies vegetales y sus\nprincipales actividades incluyen:\ndar mayor acceso a la información\n(utilizando medios tradicionales y\nmodernos);\ncrear una plataforma para debatir\nconceptos, estrategias e instrumentos a\nfin de promover y facilitar la utilización\nsostenible de especies infrautilizadas y\nfacilitar el acceso de las partes\ninteresadas a recursos financieros.\nse producen en grandes superficies.\nA fin de cumplir las obligaciones que les\nimpone este párrafo, las Partes Contratantes\ndeberán tener en cuenta la uniformidad cada vez\nmayor que existe en el mercado agrícola,\nnormalmente como resultado de la promoción\nde variedades nuevas y mejoradas que están muy\ndifundidas, la concentración en la productividad,\nla aparición de mercados mundiales de consumo\ny los cambios en las culturas tradicionales y las\npreferencias de los consumidores. Cuando hay\nmejores oportunidades de mercado y políticas\npropicias para los cultivos y las especies locales\nadaptados a las condiciones locales o infrautili-\nzados, aumenta el incentivo para que los agri-\ncultores sigan utilizando esos cultivos y especies\ny por lo tanto, para conservar la biodiversidad.\nEstas oportunidades sirven también para man-\ntener los conocimientos locales acerca de la\nordenación y los usos de esos cultivos y especies.\nMuchas plantas locales e infrautilizadas se\nprestan a una utilización más generalizada y su\npromoción podría contribuir no sólo a la genera-\nción de ingresos a nivel local sino también a la\nseguridad alimentaria y la diversificación\nagrícola, especialmente en zonas en que los\ngrandes cultivos son económicamente\nmarginales. El Tratado alienta a los programas\nde conservación, investigación y desarrollo que\nexisten en la actualidad a promover esos cultivos\ny especies.\nPara promover una mayor utilización de\nesos cultivos habrá que formar capacidad en los\nagricultores, las comunidades locales, los\ncientíficos y los especialistas en extensión a los\nefectos de identificar los cultivos infrautilizados\nque pueden tener una mayor utilización\nsostenible y establecer prácticas de ordenación\nsostenible, métodos de procesamiento después\nde la cosecha y métodos de comercialización.\nf) apoyo, cuando proceda, a una utilización más amplia de la diversidad de las variedades\ny especies en la ordenación, conservación y utilización sostenible de los cultivos en las\nfincas y creación de vínculos estrechos entre el fitomejoramiento y el desarrollo agrícola,\ncon el fin de reducir la vulnerabilidad de los cultivos y la erosión genética y promover\nun aumento de la productividad mundial de alimentos compatibles con el desarrollo\nsostenible;\nEste párrafo refleja las áreas de actividad\nprioritarias 10, 11 y 13 del Plan de acción\nmundial y guarda estrecha relación con los\npárrafos que le preceden.\nEl texto se refiere a la ordenación y\nconservación en las fincas y a la necesidad de\nampliar la diversidad de las variedades y especies\nque se han de utilizar. Es preciso hacer\ninvestigación, promover el fitomejoramiento y\nampliar la base genética de los cultivos a fin de\nponer a disposición de los agricultores una mayor\n64\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ndiversidad genética que puedan utilizar. Este\npárrafo se centra en la utilización efectiva de esa\ndiversidad en las fincas.\nEl párrafo recalca además la necesidad de\nestrechar los vínculos entre la ordenación,\nconservación y utilización en las fincas, por una\nparte, y el fitomejoramiento y el desarrollo\nagrícola por la otra. Es necesario crear una\namplia diversidad de variedades adaptadas a las\ncondiciones locales y distribuir las semillas. En\neste contexto, la existencia de una amplia gama\nde variedades de semillas y otros materiales de\nreproducción vegetativa aporta a los agri-\ncultores beneficios de muchas maneras, entre\nellas:\ncultivar en diversos entornos;\nmitigar los riesgos de producción;\ncombatir plagas y patógenos;\nevitar o minimizar restricciones por\nconcepto de mano de obra;\nhacer frente a distintas limitaciones\npresupuestarias;\ndar variedad a regímenes alimenticios\nmonótonos;\nproporcionar artículos especiales para\nel consumo; y\ncumplir rituales, crear prestigio y forjar\nlazos sociales.\nSin embargo, la disponibilidad de una\nmayor diversidad de variedades puede quedar\nlimitada por las malas cosechas, la falta de\ninstalaciones de almacenamiento en la finca, la\nfalta de medios para multiplicar las semillas de\ncalidad y sistemas deficientes de distribución de\nlas semillas. Estos problemas pueden ocurrir con\nlas semillas de variedades tanto locales como\ncomerciales. Las empresas paraestatales y\ncomerciales de semillas a veces tienen dificul-\ntades para abastecer de semillas de variedades\nespecíficamente adaptadas a condiciones locales\no singulares. A menudo no pueden ofrecer toda\nla gama de variedades, o semillas de los llamados\ncultivos ‘‘menores’’, de los que tantos\nagricultores dependen, en razón de los elevados\ncostos de transacción y el bajo poder adquisitivo\nde los agricultores. Por lo tanto, es necesario\naumentar la capacidad local de los agricultores\ny las comunidades locales para producir y\ndistribuir semillas de muchas variedades de\ncultivos, con inclusión de algunas variedades del\nagricultor o locales, que contribuyen a la\ndiversidad y evolución de los sistemas agrícolas.\ng) examen y, cuando proceda, modificación de las estrategias de mejoramiento y de las\nreglamentaciones en materia de aprobación de variedades y distribución de semillas.\nLos marcos reguladores de las semillas apuntan\na promover la calidad de las variedades y\nsemillas y, de esa manera, a proteger a los\nagricultores para que no planten semillas\ndeficientes. Las normas relativas a las semillas\npor lo general regulan el análisis y la autorización\nde las variedades, la certificación y el control de\ncalidad de las semillas y establecen el marco\ninstitucional de los consejos nacionales y los\norganismos de certificación de semillas. Los\nsistemas de autorización de variedades apuntan\na que sólo se pongan a disposición del agricultor\nvariedades de valor demostrado. La certificación\napunta a controlar la identidad y pureza de la\nvariedad en toda la cadena de la semilla. El\ncontrol de calidad sirve para cerciorarse de\nelementos tales como la viabilidad, la pureza y\nel buen estado de la semilla. El control de calidad\nprotege también a los productores de buena fe\nde la competencia de colegas menos\nescrupulosos. Las normas relativas a las semillas\npor lo general no están destinadas a influir en la\ndirección que ha de tomar el fitomejoramiento.\nSin embargo, los sistemas de autorización de\nvariedades y los requisitos para la certificación\nde semillas surten importantes efectos indirectos\nen las metodologías de fitomejoramiento y en\nlas variedades resultantes. Los fitomejoradores\ntratan de lograr condiciones de cultivo\nfavorables, una amplia adaptación y uniformidad\nen las variedades.\nHay varias opciones para la reforma del\nmarco regulador. Respecto del fitomejoramiento,\npodría asignarse más importancia a la\ndescentralización de los análisis de variedades,\nal mejoramiento para determinados sectores\nespecializados y a hacer que la selección de los\nsitios, la ordenación de los ensayos y los análisis\nsean más representativos de las circunstancias\nreales de los agricultores. La existencia de\nprocedimientos de registro más sencillos podría\npresentar ventajas a los efectos de la regulación\nde las variedades. Además, esta regulación\npodría ajustarse a fin de asegurarse de que no\ninfluya en la obtención y utilización de\nvariedades públicas o del agricultor o no los\nlimite. Los análisis de los resultados de las\n65\nArtículo 6\nvariedades a los efectos de la autorización\npodrían ser más flexibles. En cuanto al control\nde calidad de las semillas, cabría reconsiderar\nlas normas para asegurarse de que fueran\npertinentes para las circunstancias concretas en\nla agricultura y gran parte de la responsabilidad\npor el control de calidad de las semillas podría\npasar a los productores y comerciantes de\nsemillas, estableciendo al mismo tiempo\nmecanismos bien definidos de supervisión y\ncontrol públicos.\nHabida cuenta de que las situaciones\npueden ser distintas en los diferentes países, en\nel párrafo se observa que deberán introducirse\nlos ajustes que proceda.\n66\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n67\nArtículo 7\nArtículo 7 – Compromisos nacionales y cooperación inter-\nnacional\nEl Artículo 7.1 enuncia las obligaciones básicas\nde las Partes Contratantes, expresadas a dos\nniveles:\n1. La obligación de integrar las\nactividades indicadas en los Artículos\n5 y 6 en las políticas y los programas\nde desarrollo agrícola y rural; y\n2. La obligación de las Partes Contratantes\nde cooperar a nivel internacional en la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible\nde los RFGAA.\nEl primer elemento es idéntico a las\ndisposiciones de los Artículos 6 b) y 10 a) del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, según\nlos cuales se integrarán la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de la diversidad biológica\nen los planes, los programas y las políticas\nsectoriales o intersectoriales pertinentes y en la\nadopción de decisiones a nivel nacional. En este\nartículo del Tratado las obligaciones son más\nespecíficas en el sentido de que se refieren a\nactividades de programas y políticas concretas\ncon respecto a los RFGAA que ya se han descrito\nen los Artículos 5 y 6. La redacción del artículo,\ntal como la de otros, es prescriptiva pero deja un\nmargen de flexibilidad al incluir la cláusula\n‘‘según proceda’’.\nEl artículo reconoce que, si bien las\nactividades especificadas en los Artículos 5 y 6\nson fundamentales para la conservación y\nutilización sostenible de los RFGAA, sólo\npueden ser plenamente eficaces si están\nintegradas en los programas y políticas más\namplios de desarrollo agrícola y rural. Habida\ncuenta de que en las actividades relativas a los\nRFGAA participan instituciones y empresas\npúblicas y privadas, organizaciones no\ngubernamentales, comunidades y particulares de\nlos sectores de la agricultura, el medio ambiente\ny el desarrollo, la integración de las actividades\nexistentes relativas a los RFGAA en el marco\nde un programa nacional unificado abre la\noportunidad de realzar esas diversas actividades\ndentro de un país.\nCon respecto al segundo elemento, las\nPartes Contratantes tienen que cooperar entre sí\nen la conservación y utilización sostenible de\nlos RFGAA. La cooperación puede ser directa,\npor conducto de programas o redes bilaterales o\nregionales, por ejemplo, o por conducto de la\nFAO, a través de programas o actividades\npatrocinados por esta Organización, incluidos los\npatrocinados por la CRGAA, por ejemplo. Puede\ntener lugar también por conducto de otras\norganizaciones internacionales competentes\ncomo el IPGRI u otros centros internacionales\nde investigación agrícola del GCIAI o por\nconducto del nuevo Fondo Mundial para la\nDiversidad de los Cultivos con respecto a las\ncolecciones ex situ.\nSin embargo, los dos niveles de\nobligaciones no pueden considerarse en forma\naislada. Las políticas y los programas nacionales\npueden promover la cooperación internacional\nrespecto del acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos\ny a la distribución justa y equitativa de los\nbeneficios derivados de su utilización. A su vez,\nla cooperación internacional es esencial para\nprestar apoyo a las actividades nacionales de\naplicación del Tratado, particularmente en los\npaíses en desarrollo y los países con economías\nen transición. La existencia de programas\nnacionales eficaces sirve de vínculo entre las\nactividades en el país y las actividades a nivel\nregional y mundial.\n7.1 Cada Parte Contratante integrará en sus políticas y programas de desarrollo\nagrícola y rural, según proceda, las actividades relativas a los Artículos 5 y 6 y\ncooperará con otras Partes Contratantes, directamente o por medio de la FAO y\nde otras organizaciones internacionales pertinentes, en la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agri-\ncultura.\n7.2 La cooperación internacional se orientará en particular a:\nEl Artículo 7.2 destaca algunos aspectos de la\ncooperación internacional que deben constituir\nun objetivo especial y debe leerse junto con la\nobligación básica que enuncia el Artículo 7.1.\nLa enumeración de las actividades prioritarias a\nlas que debe apuntar la cooperación internacional\ny, de hecho, todo el texto del Artículo 7.2, está\ntomada esencialmente del Artículo 6 del\nCompromiso Internacional. La cooperación\ninternacional en el contexto del Artículo 7.2\nincluiría la cooperación regional.\n68\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl párrafo a) se refiere a la necesidad de formar\ncapacidad en los países en desarrollo y los países\ncon economías en transición o aumentar la\nexistente por conducto de la cooperación\ninternacional. En este contexto, cabe señalar que,\na diferencia del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, en todo el Tratado los países con\neconomía en transición son objeto de especial\nconsideración en la misma forma que los países\nen desarrollo. Formar capacidad nacional o\naumentarla es un objetivo esencial del Plan de\nacción mundial.\na) establecer o fortalecer la capacidad de los países en desarrollo y los países con economía\nen transición con respecto a la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura;\nb) fomentar actividades internacionales encaminadas a promover la conservación, la\nevaluación, la documentación, la potenciación genética, el fitomejoramiento y la\nmultiplicación de semillas; y la distribución, concesión de acceso e intercambio, de\nconformidad con la Parte IV, de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura y la información y tecnología apropiadas;\nEl párrafo b) se refiere a la cooperación inter-\nnacional para promover actividades internacio-\nnales relativas a diversos aspectos de la\nconservación, la utilización y el intercambio de\nRFGAA. Se hace especial referencia a la\ndistribu-ción de los RFGAA y la información y\ntecnología apropiadas por conducto del Sistema\nMultilateral establecido en la Parte IV del\nTratado.\nEs imposible hacer una lista exhaustiva de\ntodos los programas y actividades de\ncooperación internacional que están actualmente\nen marcha, pero tal vez proceda señalar algunos\nde ellos. Un grupo estaría constituido por las\nactividades patrocinadas por la FAO y su\nComisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura. Un segundo\ngrupo estaría constituido por las actividades que\nactualmente llevan a cabo los centros del CGIAI.\nUna tercera categoría, que en cierto modo se\nsuperpondría con las dos anteriores, estaría\nconstituida por las diversas redes relativas a\ndeterminados recursos fitogenéticos. Otra estaría\nconstituida por programas bilaterales y\nregionales en un país o en grupos de países.\nTodas estas actividades partirán de la base del\nPlan mundial de acción progresivo y funcionarán\nbajo sus auspicios. Un quinto grupo sería el\nFondo Mundial para la Diversidad de los\nCultivos, establecido a fin de prestar apoyo\nfinanciero a las colecciones ex situ. En sexto\nlugar, el Foro Mundial para la Investigación\nAgrícola (FMIA/GFAR) está movilizando a la\ncomunidad científica y a todas las partes\ninteresadas en la investigación agrícola para el\ndesarrollo a fin de colaborar para hacer frente a\nlos nuevos problemas y aprovechar las nuevas\noportunidades abiertas por los profundos\ncambios que inciden en la investigación agrícola.\nEl Foro Mundial presta también apoyo al\nestablecimiento de una visión mundial común\nde las múltiples partes interesadas en la\ninvestigación agrícola para el desarrollo, para lo\ncual promueve su participación en esa\ninvestigación y la formación de asociaciones\ninnovadoras de investigación y facilita el\nintercambio de información y conocimientos\nentre ellas.\nc) mantener y fortalecer los mecanismos institucionales estipulados en la Parte V;\nLa Parte V del Tratado se refiere a los componen-\ntes de apoyo para la conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA y comprende:\nEl Plan de acción mundial (Artículo 14);\nLas colecciones ex situ de RFGAA que\nmantienen los centros internacionales\nde investigación agrícola del GCIAI\n(Artículo 15);\nLas redes internacionales de RFGAA\n(Artículo 16); y\nEl Sistema mundial de información sobre\nlos RFGAA (Artículo 17).\nEl párrafo c) reconoce que los objetivos\ndel Tratado no pueden alcanzarse sin que las\nPartes Contratantes presten apoyo a los\nmecanismos institucionales mencionados en la\nParte V que, si bien están reconocidos en el\nTratado, existen en forma independiente de él.\n69\nArtículo 7\nRecuadro 7. La Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual y los\nConocimientos Tradicionales\nLa Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI), trabajando en cooperación\ncon otras organizaciones internacionales, proporciona un foro para el debate internacional de\nla política relativa a la relación entre la propiedad intelectual y los conocimientos tradicionales,\nlos recursos genéticos y las expresiones culturales tradicionales (folclore) y está tratando de\nestablecer una variedad de instrumentos prácticos que apunten a proteger los intereses en\nmateria de propiedad intelectual de los poseedores de esos conocimientos, recursos y\nexpresiones.\nEn los últimos años se han planteado importantes cuestiones acerca de la relación entre el\nsistema de propiedad intelectual y:\n• Los recursos genéticos en la agricultura, en el contexto del concepto del Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica de ‘‘acceso a los recursos genéticos y distribución de los\nbeneficios’’;\n• Los conocimientos tradicionales, estén o no asociados con esos recursos; y\n• Las expresiones culturales tradicionales (folclore).\nPor ejemplo, se han planteado cuestiones relativas a la apropiación indebida de conocimientos\ntradicionales por terceros, como la utilización no autorizada de diseños, canciones y danzas\ntradicionales por las industrias de la recreación y la moda a fin de crear obras que están luego\nprotegidas por derechos de propiedad intelectual.\nAdemás, los poseedores de conocimientos tradicionales han expresado la necesidad de tener\nmayor información acerca de las consecuencias para la propiedad intelectual del hecho de\nponer esos conocimientos a disposición de un público más amplio, por ejemplo, la posibilidad\nde utilizar ciertos elementos distintivos de sus conocimientos tradicionales como bienes\namparados en la propiedad intelectual que pueden crear un crecimiento económico.\nLa OMPI, en su carácter de organismo especializado de las Naciones Unidas encargado de la\npromoción de la propiedad intelectual en todo el mundo, ha trabajado durante más de 30 años\nen el campo de las expresiones culturales tradicionales (folclore), muchas veces en\ncolaboración con la UNESCO, y, más recientemente, ha examinado cuestiones concretas de\npropiedad intelectual relativas a los conocimientos tradicionales y los recursos genéticos.\nEn particular, en 1998-1999, la OMPI celebró consultas con una amplia variedad de partes\ninteresadas como comunidades indígenas y locales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil,\nrepresentantes de gobiernos, académicos, investigadores y representantes del sector privado\npara determinar las necesidades y expectativas de los poseedores de conocimientos\ntradicionales en lo que respecta a la propiedad intelectual.\nEn 2000 la Asamblea General de la OMPI decidió establecer un órgano intergubernamental\npara examinar cuestiones de propiedad intelectual relativas a los conocimientos tradicionales,\nlos recursos genéticos y las expresiones culturales tradicionales (folclore). El Comité\nIntergubernamental sobre Propiedad Intelectual y Recursos Genéticos, Conocimientos\nTradicionales y Folclore se ha reunido desde entonces en Ginebra en varias ocasiones. Los\ntemas más importantes que examinaría en el curso de sus trabajos, que comenzaron con una\nreunión en abril de 2001, podrían incluir las cuestiones de propiedad intelectual que plantean:\n• el acceso a los recursos genéticos y la distribución de beneficios;\n• la protección de los conocimientos tradicionales, estén o no relacionados con esos recursos;\n• la protección de expresiones del folclore.\nLa labor de la OMPI en esta materia entraña una estrecha cooperación con otras organizaciones\ninternacionales y supone también la organización de una amplia variedad de actividades de\nformación de capacidad relacionadas con los conocimientos tradicionales, como la publicación\nde estudios de casos y la coordinación de seminarios, talleres y consultas a nivel local, nacional\ny regional.\n70\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEn el Artículo 18 se establece una estrategia de\nfinanciación, cuyos objetivos serán ‘‘potenciar\nla disponibilidad, transparencia, eficacia y\nefectividad del suministro de recursos\nfinancieros para llevar a cabo actividades en el\nmarco del presente Tratado’’. En el comentario\nde este artículo se encontrará un análisis más a\nfondo de la estrategia de financiación. La\nredacción de la obligación indicada en el\nd) aplicación de la estrategia de financiación del Artículo 18\napartado d) reitera en un contexto más general\nel texto del Artículo 18.1, según el cual las Partes\nContratantes se comprometen, en forma solidaria\ny conjunta, a llevar a cabo una estrategia de\nfinanciación para la aplicación del Tratado de\nacuerdo con lo dispuesto en ese artículo. El\nArtículo 7 destaca la necesidad de la cooperación\ninternacional para aplicar la estrategia de\nfinanciación.\n71\nArtículo 8\nArtículo 8 – Asistencia técnica\nLas Partes Contratantes acuerdan promover la prestación de asistencia técnica a las\nPartes Contratantes, especialmente las que son países en desarrollo o países con economía\nen transición, con carácter bilateral o por conducto de las organizaciones internacionales\npertinentes, con el objetivo de facilitar la aplicación del presente Tratado.\nLa inclusión de disposiciones relativas a la\nfinanciación y la asistencia técnica para atender\na las necesidades de capacidad y prestar apoyo\na la aplicación por los países en desarrollo ha\nconstituido una piedra angular de los recientes\ntratados sobre medio ambiente y desarrollo. La\nasistencia técnica, o cooperación técnica, apunta\na transferir conocimientos especializados,\ntecnologías o formas de hacer cosas a personas\ny organizaciones de países en desarrollo. Ello\nse hace de diversas maneras, entre ellas enviar\ngente con los conocimientos del caso a esos\npaíses, capacitar estudiantes de esos países en\npaíses donantes y dar acceso a tecnologías. La\nasistencia técnica puede tener otros objetivos\nademás del desarrollo de la capacidad. Sus\nobjetivos inmediatos pueden incluir los de\nfacilitar, vigilar y supervisar las corrientes de\nrecursos. En última instancia su objetivo consiste\nen aumentar la producción y los ingresos en el\npaís en desarrollo. En este contexto, el desarrollo\nde la capacidad constituye un objetivo\nintermedio de la asistencia técnica.\nLa asistencia técnica es un elemento\nesencial de la asistencia para el desarrollo y sirve\na los países en desarrollo para:\nidentificar, formular y ejecutar\nproyectos;\nRecuadro 8. El Sistema Mundial de la FAO sobre los Recursos Fito-\ngenéticos\nEn la Resolución 3 de la Conferencia Diplomática para la aprobación del texto acordado del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (la Conferencia de Nairobi) se reconocía la necesidad\nde buscar soluciones a las cuestiones pendientes relativas a los recursos fitogenéticos en el\nmarco del Sistema Mundial para la Conservación y la Utilización Sostenible de los Recursos\nFitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura, con lo que se daba mayor impulso a la\nrenegociación del Compromiso Internacional sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. ¿Qué es exactamente el Sistema Mundial y cuál es su contenido?\nEl Sistema Mundial consta de los siguientes componentes:\nUna serie de acuerdos internacionales y otros instrumentos, entre ellos el Compromiso\nInternacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos y ahora el Tratado Internacional sobre\nlos Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura, el Plan de acción\nmundial para la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura y el informe conexo sobre el estado de los recursos\nfitogenéticos en el mundo, así como una serie de códigos de conducta sobre diversos\naspectos de los RFGAA, entre ellos el Código de Conducta para la recolección y\ntransferencia de germoplasma vegetal, las Normas y directrices sobre bancos de genes\ny un anteproyecto de Código de Conducta sobre la Biotecnología.\nUna serie de mecanismos mundiales, que incluyen redes temáticas y de cultivos, la red\ninternacional de colecciones ex situ y el Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta\n(WIEWS).\nUn mecanismo intergubernamental mundial para supervisar y coordinar el desarrollo\ndel Sistema Mundial, inicialmente la Comisión de la FAO sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos\ny actualmente la Comisión de la FAO sobre los Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación\ny la Agricultura y su Grupo de Trabajo Técnico Intergubernamental sobre Recursos\nFitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura.\nLos objetivos del Sistema Mundial consisten en lograr la conservación en condiciones de\nseguridad y promover la disponibilidad y utilización sostenible de recursos fitogenéticos\nproporcionando una estructura flexible para distribuir los beneficios y las obligaciones.\n72\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\naumentar la capacidad institucional de\ngobiernos y organismos de ejecución;\nformular estrategias para el desarrollo;\npromover y llevar a cabo la trans-\nferencia de tecnología; y\nfomentar la cooperación regional y\nsubregional.\nEn el contexto del Tratado, este Artículo,\njunto con el Artículo 7.2 a, reconoce que las\ncontribuciones de los países desarrollados y en\ndesarrollo a la solución de los problemas de los\nrecursos genéticos son diferentes y que su\ncapacidad económica y técnica para superar esos\nproblemas también varía mucho. Por lo tanto,\nse exhorta a las Partes Contratantes a\nproporcionar asistencia financiera, tecnológica\ny asistencia técnica de otra índole en particular\na los países en desarrollo y los países con\neconomía en transición para ayudar en la\naplicación del Tratado. El texto del artículo no\nconstituye una obligación efectiva de prestar\nasistencia técnica. La obligación consiste en\npromover la prestación de esa asistencia, lo que\npuede hacerse bilateralmente o por conducto de\nlas organizaciones internacionales competentes,\ncomo la FAO, el FMAM o los centros del CGIAI.\nSirve de ejemplo el mecanismo de\nfacilitación del Programa de Acción Mundial\npara la protección del medio marino frente a las\nactividades realizadas en tierra, que promueve\nen forma centralizada la publicidad, el\ndescubrimiento, el acceso, la difusión y la\nutilización de información y datos en la materia\nen poder de numerosas organizaciones, para lo\ncual se utiliza la capacidad descentralizada de\nInternet.\nAl igual que en el caso del artículo\nprecedente, los países con economía en\ntransición son tratados en pie de igualdad con\nlos países en desarrollo.\n73\nArtículo 9\nPARTE III – DERECHOS DEL AGRICULTOR\nArtículo 9 – Derechos del Agricultor\nEl concepto de derechos del agricultor fue\nintroducido por primera vez por la Conferencia\nde la FAO en su Resolución 4/8975 como una\ninterpretación concertada del Compromiso\nInternacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos y fue\nluego explicitado en la Resolución 5/89 de la\nConferencia de la FAO. El concepto fue el\nresultado de un debate iniciado en la FAO en\n1979 sobre lo que algunos países consideraban\nuna asimetría en los beneficios que percibían los\nagricultores, cuyos esfuerzos en el mejoramiento\ny la selección de variedades en el curso de los\nsiglos habían aportado una contribución inmensa\na la agricultura moderna, y los productores de\nvariedades comerciales que toman estas\nvariedades de los agricultores como punto de\npartida y recogen los beneficios de lo que se\ncalificó de mejoras relativamente pequeñas. Los\nderechos del agricultor se consideraban un medio\nde recompensar a los agricultores y sus\ncomunidades por sus contribuciones pasadas,\nalentarlos en sus esfuerzos por conservar y\nmejorar los RFGAA y permitirles participar en\nlos beneficios derivados en el presente y en el\nfuturo de una mejor utilización de los recursos\nfitogenéticos a través del mejoramiento de las\nplantas y otros métodos científicos.\nLa Resolución 5/89 de la Conferencia\ndefinía el concepto de derechos del agricultor\ndesde el punto de vista de su fundamentación\nsustantiva, las entidades a que se confieren los\nderechos y los objetivos para los cuales debían\nreconocerse. La definición del párrafo disposi-\ntivo de la Resolución 5/89 dice lo siguiente:\n‘‘Derechos del agricultor significa los derechos\nque provienen de la contribución pasada,\npresente y futura de los agricultores a la\nconservación, mejora y disponibilidad de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos, particularmente de los\ncentros de origen/diversidad. Estos derechos se\nconfieren a la comunidad internacional, como\ndepositaria para las generaciones presentes y\nfuturas de agricultores, con el fin de asegurar\nque esos agricultores se beneficien plenamente\ny continúen contribuyendo, y que se logren los\nobjetivos generales del Compromiso Inter-\nnacional’’. Al declarar que los derechos del\nagricultor se conferían a la comunidad inter-\nnacional, la resolución trataba de diferenciarlos\nde los derechos que tienen los agricultores a título\npersonal a recibir compensación por las innova-\nciones que realizan. Este aspecto fue reforzado\nen la Resolución 3/91 de la FAO que indicaba\nque ‘‘los derechos del agricultor se aplicarán\npor medio de un fondo internacional para\nrecursos fitogenéticos que apoyará programas\nde conservación y utilización en particular, pero\nno exclusivamente, en los países en desarrollo’’.\nLa necesidad de intentar resolver la\ncuestión de los derechos del agricultor fue uno\nde los principales objetivos de la renegociación\ndel Compromiso Internacional, como se indica\nen la Resolución 7/93 de la Conferencia de la\nFAO, que inició las negociaciones del Tratado.\nLa necesidad de hacer efectivos los derechos del\nagricultor se reafirmó en varios otros contextos,\na saber:\nEl capítulo 14, párr. 14.60 a) del Pro-\ngrama 21 (aprobado por la Conferencia\nde las Naciones Unidas sobre Medio\nAmbiente y Desarrollo que se celebró\nen Río de Janeiro en 1992), señalaba\nque los organismos de las Naciones\nUnidas y las organizaciones regionales\npertinentes deberían ‘‘reforzar el\nSistema Mundial de conservación y\nempleo sostenible de recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la agricultura [...] y\ntomar nuevas medidas para hacer\nrealidad los derechos del agricultor’’.\nLa Resolución 3 de la Conferencia de\nNairobi para la Aprobación del Texto\nAcordado del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica reconocía que una\nde las ‘‘cuestiones pendientes’’ para la\nnegociación era la de los derechos del\nagricultor. El  Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica no se refería\nexpresamente a esos derechos.\nEl Plan de acción mundial incluía la\nrealización de los derechos del agri-\ncultor en el plano nacional, regional e\ninternacional como uno de los objetivos\na largo plazo, en el contexto de la\nconservación in situ (párr. 32).\n75 Aunque la Resolución fue aprobada unánimemente por más de 160 países, cabe observar que esto no significa\nnecesariamente que todos los países estuvieran totalmente de acuerdo con el concepto de derechos del agricultor\no la justificación de estos derechos formulada en la interpretación concertada, puesto que, para empezar, algunos\nde ellos no se habían adherido al Compromiso Internacional.\n74\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nUn estudio de junio de 1999 sobre el\nderecho a la alimentación, presentado\na la Comisión de Derechos Humanos,\ninstaba a promover los derechos del\nagricultor como parte del derecho a la\nalimentación, especialmente porque\n‘‘nuestro suministro de alimentos futuro\ny su sostenibilidad pueden depender de\nque esos derechos estén firmemente\nestablecidos’’(Comisión de Derechos\nHumanos, 1999)76.\nEn el curso de las negociaciones del\nTratado, la cuestión de la realización de los\nderechos del agricultor provocó considerables\ndificultades. Uno de los problemas era que, si\nbien la justificación del concepto estaba\nampliamente aceptada, la definición del\ncontenido de esos derechos y las respectivas\nobligaciones seguía siendo vaga y estaba\ninsuficientemente desarrollada. Históricamente,\nlos derechos del agricultor habían pasado a\nsignificar distintas cosas para distinta gente. Para\nalgunos se asociaban al deseo de que existiera\nuna forma de derechos de propiedad intelectual\npara los materiales desarrollados por los\nagricultores; para otros eran un medio de limitar\nque los derechos de propiedad intelectual\navanzaran sobre los RFGAA; un tercer grupo\ntenía más bien una motivación política para\npromover actividades relativas a los RFGAA que\nbeneficiaran a los pequeños agricultores\ntradicionales. A otros les preocupaba que conferir\nlos derechos a la comunidad internacional, como\ndecía la Resolución 5/89 de la Conferencia,\nsignificaba que estos derechos quedaban muy\nalejados de la experiencia de los propios\nagricultores.\nEl tema absolvió un tiempo considerable\nen el curso de la negociación del Tratado y las\ndeliberaciones se centraron en un conjunto de\nderechos que se relacionaban más directamente\ncon los propios agricultores. El Artículo 9 del\nTratado reitera la justificación general de los\nderechos del agricultor en el párrafo 9.1 y luego\nidentifica esos derechos en los apartados a) a c)\ndel párrafo 9.2. En el texto final del párrafo 9.2,\nel concepto de derechos del agricultor ha sufrido\nun cambio enorme en relación con lo que se había\nprevisto originalmente en las interpretaciones\nconcertadas del Compromiso Internacional y ha\nquedado más centrado en los derechos que\npueden tener los agricultores en el derecho\ninterno. La identificación de los distintos\ncomponentes del conjunto de derechos también\narmoniza mejor el concepto de derechos del\nagricultor con las disposiciones del Artículo 8 j)\ndel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\n76 El derecho a una alimentación adecuada y a no padecer hambre: Estudio actualizado sobre el derecho a la\nalimentación presentado por el Sr. Asbjorn Eide en cumplimiento de la decisión 1998/106 de la Subcomisión.\nDocumento de las Naciones Unidas E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/12, párr. 121.\n9.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen la enorme contribución que han aportado y siguen\naportando las comunidades locales e indígenas y los agricultores de todas las regiones\ndel mundo, en particular los de los centros de origen y diversidad de las plantas\ncultivadas, a la conservación y el desarrollo de los recursos fitogenéticos que\nconstituyen la base de la producción alimentaria y agrícola en el mundo entero.\nEn el Artículo 9.1 las Partes Contratantes\nreconocen las enormes contribuciones, pasadas,\npresentes y futuras de los agricultores a la\nconservación y el desarrollo de los recursos\nfitogenéticos, en particular en los centros de\norigen y diversidad y su importancia funda-\nmental para la producción de alimentos y la\nagricultura modernas. En el Artículo 9.1 no se\nestablece expresamente la relación entre esas\ncontribuciones y los derechos del agricultor,\naunque naturalmente se las relaciona\ntácitamente al incluirlas en un artículo titulado\nderechos del agricultor. Un texto similar\nempleado en el Preámbulo se relaciona más\nexplícitamente con los derechos del agricultor.\nEl texto del Artículo 9.1 sigue el punto 3\nde la interpretación concertada que figura en\nla Resolución 4/89 de la FAO. Nótese que, si\nbien en los Anexos del Compromiso\nInternacional sólo se menciona a los\n‘‘agricultores’’, este artículo se refiere a ‘‘las\ncomunidades locales e indígenas y los\nagricultores’’. Esto es una clara muestra del\ncreciente reconocimiento del papel que\ndesempeñan las comunidades indígenas en la\ncreación y preservación de conocimientos de\nvalor para la sociedad en su conjunto. Esta\ndistinción también da a los Estados la opción\nde tratar a las comunidades locales e indígenas\ncomo una clase distinta de los agricultores,\naunque en muchos casos las poblaciones\nindígenas y los agricultores sean en realidad el\nmismo grupo.\n75\nArtículo 9\nCabe señalar también que este párrafo es\nsimplemente una declaración de reconocimiento\ny no crea ningún tipo de obligación jurídica. Sin\nRecuadro 9. Unión Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones\nVegetales\nLa Unión Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales (UPOV) es una\norganización intergubernamental con sede en Ginebra (Suiza) cuya misión es proporcionar y\nfomentar un sistema eficaz para la protección de las variedades vegetales, con miras al\ndesarrollo de nuevas variedades vegetales para beneficio de la sociedad. La UPOV fue\nestablecida por el Convenio Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones\nVegetales77. El Convenio fue aprobado en París en 1961 y revisado en 1972, 1978 y 1991. El\nobjetivo del Convenio es proteger nuevas variedades vegetales mediante un derecho de\npropiedad intelectual.\nConvenio de 1961\ni) Formas de protección – Cada Estado miembro podía reconocer el derecho del obtentor\nmediante la concesión de un título especial o una patente. Sin embargo, en los casos en\nque la ley nacional permitía la protección por los dos medios, sólo se autorizaba uno de\nellos para el mismo género o especie botánica.\nii) Variedades cubiertas – Al incorporarse, cada Estado miembro debía aplicar las\ndisposiciones del Convenio a un mínimo de cinco de los géneros mencionados en el\nAnexo. Posteriormente, los miembros tenían que agregar por lo menos otros dos géneros\nen el curso de tres años y por lo menos cuatro en el curso de seis años. En un plazo de\nocho años los miembros tenían que aplicar el Convenio a todos los géneros enumerados\nen el Anexo.\niii) Alcance de la protección – Debía solicitarse la autorización previa de los obtentores\npara la producción, la comercialización y la oferta a la venta de la nueva variedad y la\ncomercialización del material de reproducción o multiplicación. Sin embargo, se permitía\nel uso de las variedades para la investigación.\niv) Duración de la protección – El Convenio disponía una protección mínima de 18 años\npara cepas, árboles frutales y sus rizomas y 15 años para todas las demás plantas.\nv) Condiciones de la protección – El Convenio permitía la protección de variedades a)\nnuevas, b) distintas, c) homogéneas y d) estables.\nActa de 1978\ni) Número de géneros/especies protegidos – Inicialmente las disposiciones debían\naplicarse a un mínimo de cinco géneros o especies, y posteriormente a un mínimo de 10\nen tres años, a un mínimo de 18 en seis años y a un mínimo de 24 en ocho años. Se\nadmitían exenciones de estas obligaciones si los miembros estaban afectados por\ncondiciones económicas o ecológicas especiales.\nii) Condiciones de la protección – El Acta de 1978 autorizaba la protección de variedades\nde plantas que fueran a) nuevas, b) distintas de cualquier otra variedad que fuera de\ndominio público, c) suficientemente homogéneas y d) estables en su carácter esencial\n(Artículo 6). Cualquier variedad que satisficiera estos criterios podía ser protegida,\nindependientemente de que su origen fuera artificial o natural y de la variedad inicial de\nla que procediera. Esto significa que, a diferencia de las patentes, que normalmente no se\nconceden a los descubrimientos, las variedades de plantas podían ser objeto de protección\nincluso cuando eran ‘‘descubiertas’’.\niii) Naturaleza de la protección – Se agregó una excepción al Artículo 2 1) que permitía a\nun Estado que ya hubiera concedido protección dual seguir haciéndolo, siempre que\n77 Convenio Internacional para la Protección de las Obtenciones Vegetales, 2 de diciembre de 1961, 33 U.S.T. 2703,\n815 U.N.T.S. 89, revisado en Ginebra el 10 de noviembre de 1972, el 23 de octubre de 1978 y el 19 de marzo de\n1991.\nembargo, ofrece un importante fundamento para\nlas disposiciones sustantivas que lo siguen.\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n76\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nnotificara de ello al Secretario General de la UPOV. Además, los países que usaran la\nlegislación sobre patentes para proteger variedades de plantas podían aplicar los criterios\npara la concesión de patentes y el período de protección que autorizara su legislación.\niv) Alcance de los derechos del obtentor – Los derechos reconocidos en el Artículo 5 1)\nson el control sobre la producción con fines comerciales, la puesta a la venta y la\ncomercialización de material de reproducción o multiplicación. Sin embargo, de\nconformidad con el Artículo 5 3) no se necesita la autorización del obtentor para la\nutilización de la variedad como fuente inicial de variaciones a los efectos de crear otras\nvariedades o para la comercialización de esas variedades. En cambio, se requiere\nautorización del obtentor cuando sea necesario usar repetidamente la variedad para la\nproducción comercial de otra variedad. Aunque el texto no lo dice expresamente, en la\npráctica se ha interpretado que la limitación de los derechos del obtentor a la producción\npara los efectos de la comercialización, etc. permite a los agricultores volver a plantar e\nintercambiar las semillas que guardan en su explotación.\nv) Salvaguardia del interés público – El Artículo 9 permite restringir los derechos\nexclusivos de los obtentores en aras del interés público. La Ley Modelo de la UPOV de\n1978 ofrecía tres interpretaciones posibles: mediante la concesión de una licencia\nvoluntaria por el titular del derecho para la explotación de la variedad, licencias\nautomáticas y licencias obligatorias.\nActa de 1991\ni) Variedades que deben protegerse – Los Estados miembros que han sido Partes en el\nConvenio tienen un período de transición de cinco años para aplicar sus disposiciones a\ntodos los géneros y especies vegetales. Sin embargo, los nuevos miembros tienen que\nproteger 15 géneros o especies al adherirse e incluir todos los géneros y especies en el\ncurso de 10 años.\nii) Naturaleza de los derechos del obtentor – El Acta de 1991 representa un cambio\nimportante en relación con la de 1978 en lo que respecta a la naturaleza de los derechos\ndel obtentor. El Artículo 14 los reconoce en cuatro áreas: a) el material de reproducción\no de multiplicación, b) el producto de la cosecha, c) algunos otros productos que se\nexaminan más adelante y d) variedades esencialmente derivadas. Los derechos del obtentor\nrespecto del material de reproducción o multiplicación incluyen: a) la producción o la\nreproducción (multiplicación), b) la preparación a los fines de la reproducción o la\nmultiplicación, c) la oferta en venta, d) la venta o cualquier otra forma de comercialización,\ne) la exportación, f) la importación y g) la posesión para cualquiera de los fines\nmencionados. En el Acta de 1991 se entiende que el material de reproducción o\nmultiplicación incluye las partes de la planta destinadas a la producción de nuevas plantas,\npor ejemplo, las semillas y ciertas partes de las plantas que pueden utilizarse tanto para\nconsumo como para siembra. De particular importancia era la preparación a los fines de\nla reproducción o la multiplicación que tenía por objeto fortalecer los derechos del obtentor\nvigilando la producción en las explotaciones y el uso del material cosechado. Los derechos\nde los obtentores se reforzaron aún más haciéndolos extensivos a los productos cosechados\ny a los productos del material cosechado que usa variedades de plantas protegidas.\niii) Variedades esencialmente derivadas – La inclusión de las variedades esencialmente\nderivadas en el Acta de 1991 se considera en general el cambio más importante introducido\nen el Convenio.\niv) Excepciones – En el Artículo 15 del Acta de 1991 se incluyen dos grupos de excepciones\nde carácter limitado a los derechos de los obtentores. El primero (Artículo 15.1) se refiere\na las excepciones obligatorias que incluyen a) los actos realizados en un marco privado\ncon fines no comerciales, b) los actos realizados a título experimental y c) los actos\nrealizados a los fines de la creación de nuevas variedades, siempre que esas actividades\nno resulten en la producción de variedades esencialmente derivadas. En este grupo de\nexcepciones figura una versión más restringida de la excepción para fines de investigación\nque reconocía el Acta de 1978. El segundo grupo de excepciones, las de carácter\nfacultativo, (Artículo 15.2) incluye las relacionadas con las ‘‘semillas obtenidas en su\npropia explotación’’ o el ‘‘privilegio del agricultor’’. Con arreglo al Artículo 15.2,\ncada Parte Contratante podrá restringir el derecho de obtentor respecto de toda variedad,\n77\nArtículo 9\ndentro de límites razonables y a reserva de la salvaguardia de los intereses legítimos del\nobtentor, con el fin de permitir a los agricultores utilizar a fines de reproducción o de\nmultiplicación, en su propia explotación, el producto de la cosecha que hayan obtenido\npor el cultivo en su propia explotación de la variedad protegida.\nv) Licencias contractuales y el interés público – El Acta de 1991 autoriza restricciones al\nejercicio del derecho de obtentor por razones de interés público (Artículo 17). Sin embargo,\na diferencia de la interpretación del Convenio de 1978, que ofrecía tres opciones para las\nlicencias contractuales, la Ley Modelo de la UPOV de 1991 ofrece sólo dos opciones:\nlicencias voluntarias o licencias obligatorias.\nMiembros de la UPOV al 30 de junio de 2004 y última Acta del Convenio en que el Estado\nes Parte78\nAlemania Acta de 1991 Japón Acta de 1991\nArgentina Acta de 1978 Kenya Acta de 1978\nAustralia Acta de 1991 Kirguistán Acta de 1991\nAustria Acta de 1991 Letonia Acta de 1991\nBelarús Acta de 1991 Lituania Acta de 1991\nBélgica79 Acta de 1961/1972 México Acta de 1978\nBolivia Acta de 1978 Nicaragua Acta de 1978\nBrasil Acta de 1978 Noruega Acta de 1978\nBulgaria Acta de 1991 Nueva Zelandia Acta de 1978\nCanadá Acta de 1978 Países Bajos Acta de 199185\nColombia Acta de 1978 Panamá Acta de 1978\nCroacia Acta de 1991 Paraguay Acta de 1978\nChile Acta de 1978 Polonia Acta de 1991\nChina Acta de 197880 Portugal Acta de 1978\nDinamarca81 Acta de 1991 Reino Unido Acta de 1991\nEcuador Acta de 1978 República Checa Acta de 1991\nEslovaquia Acta de 1978 República de Corea Acta de 1991\nEslovenia Acta de 1991 República de Moldova Acta de 1991\nEspaña82 Actas de 1061/1972 Rumania Acta de 1991\nEstados Unidos\nde América Acta de 199183 Singapur Acta de 1991\nEstonia Acta de 1991 Sudáfrica Acta de 1978\nFederación\nde Rusia Acta de 1991 Suecia Acta de 1991\nFinlandia Acta de 1991 Suiza Acta de 1978\nFrancia84 Acta de 1978 Trinidad y Tabago Acta de 1978\n78 Azerbaiyán, Costa Rica, Egipto, ex República Yugoslava de Macedonia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Islandia,\nJordania, Kazajstán, Marruecos, Serbia y Montenegro, Tayikistán, Uzbekistán, Venezuela, Viet Nam y Zimbabwe,\nasí como la Comunidad Europea y la Organización Africana de la Propiedad Intelectual, han iniciado ante el\nConsejo de la UPOV los trámites para ser miembros de la Unión. Muchos otros Estados que no son miembros\ntienen actualmente leyes para proteger variedades vegetales o proyectos de ley ante sus legislaturas.\n79 Con una notificación con arreglo al Artículo 34 2) del Acta de 1978.\n80 Con una declaración de que el Acta de 1978 no es aplicable a la Región Administrativa Especial de Hong Kong.\n81 Con una declaración de que el Convenio de 1961, el Acta Adicional de 1972, el Acta de 1978 y el Acta de 1991 no\nson aplicables a Groenlandia y las Islas Faroe.\n82 Con una declaración de que el Convenio de 1961 y el Acta Adicional de 1972 se aplican a todo el territorio de\nEspaña.\n83 Con una reserva de conformidad con el Artículo 35 2) del Acta de 1991.\n84 Con una declaración de que el Acta de 1978 se aplica al territorio de la República Francesa, incluidos los\nDepartamentos y Territorios de Ultramar.\n85 Ratificación para el Reino en Europa.\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n78\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nHungría Acta de 1991 Túnez Acta de 1991\nIrlanda Acta de 1978 Ucrania Acta de 1978\nIsrael Acta de 1991 Uruguay Acta de 1978\nItalia Acta de 1978\nEl Artículo 9.2 deja en claro que con arreglo al\nTratado, la realización de los derechos del agri-\ncultor corresponde a los gobiernos nacionales.\nComo se observó anteriormente, esto constituye\nun cambio significativo en relación con el texto\nde la interpretación concertada, que había hecho\nhincapié en el carácter mundial de los derechos\ndel agricultor y en la función primaria que tenía\nla comunidad internacional en la realización de\nesos derechos. Las Resoluciones 4/89 y 3/91 de\nla FAO habían establecido, a este respecto, que\nlos derechos del agricultor se harían efectivos a\ntravés de un fondo internacional. En el Tratado,\neste aspecto mundial de los derechos del\nagricultor se refleja más en las disposiciones del\nArtículo 13 sobre distribución de los beneficios\nen el Sistema Multilateral y el Artículo 18 sobre\nrecursos financieros que en las disposiciones del\nArtículo 9.\nEn el Artículo 9.2 se alienta a cada Parte\nContratante ‘‘de acuerdo con sus necesidades y\nprioridades [...] según proceda y con sujeción a\nsu legislación nacional’’ a adoptar las medidas\npertinentes para proteger y promover los\nderechos del agricultor. Las diversas frases de\ncarácter limitativo son fundamentales para el\nsignificado de la disposición. Las decisiones\nrespecto de las medidas que deben adoptarse para\npromover y proteger los derechos del agricultor,\nsi es que se ha de adoptar alguna, son decisiones\nque cada gobierno adoptará según proceda, en\nel contexto de sus propias necesidades y\nprioridades y de conformidad con su propia\nlegislación nacional. No se exige a los gobiernos\nque tomen estas medidas, sino que se los alienta\na hacerlo cuando resulte apropiado. Por lo tanto,\nla aplicación de las medidas indicadas en los\napartados a) a c) dependerá considerablemente\nde lo que cada gobierno estime apropiado a la\nluz de sus propias prioridades y de su legislación\ninterna. Es probable, pues, que la naturaleza y el\nalcance de las medidas para proteger y promover\nlos derechos del agricultor difieran significativa-\nmente entre los distintos países.\nEl contenido básico de los derechos del\nagricultor a nivel nacional se enuncia en los\napartados a) a c) como la protección de los\nconocimientos tradicionales, el derecho a\nparticipar en la distribución de los beneficios y\nel derecho a participar en la adopción de\ndecisiones a nivel nacional sobre asuntos\nrelativos a los RFGAA. Es importante señalar,\nsin embargo, que los apartados a) a c) sólo\nilustran los distintos componentes de los\nderechos del agricultor pero no agotan las\nmodalidades mediante las cuales estos derechos\npueden hacerse efectivos.\n9.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que la responsabilidad de hacer realidad los\nDerechos del Agricultor en lo que se refiere a los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura incumbe a los gobiernos nacionales. De acuerdo con\nsus necesidades y prioridades, cada Parte Contratante deberá, según proceda y con\nsujeción a su legislación nacional, adoptar las medidas pertinentes para proteger y\npromover los Derechos del Agricultor, en particular:\na) la protección de los conocimientos tradiciona es de interés para los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura;\nEl apartado a) alienta a adoptar medidas para la\nprotección de los ‘‘conocimientos tradicionales’’.\nEn vista del alcance y los objetivos del Tratado,\nel tipo de conocimientos tradicionales que se\nprotegerán se limita a los ‘‘de interés para los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura’’. En este sentido, el alcance de la\ndisposición es más restringido que el del Artículo\n8 j) del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\nque se refiere a una variedad más amplia de\nrecursos biológicos. Sin embargo, en otro\nsentido, el alcance de la disposición podría ser\nmás amplio que el del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica en tanto no se limita a los\nconocimientos tradicionales de las ‘‘comuni-\ndades indígenas y locales que entrañen estilos\ntradicionales de vida’’ como en el Artículo 8 j)\nde ese Convenio. En el Tratado, los conoci-\nmientos tradicionales parecerían referirse más a\nlos conocimientos de los agricultores, un grupo\nque bien puede superponerse con las\ncomunidades indígenas y locales, pero que no\n79\nArtículo 9\nes necesariamente equivalente. En este contexto,\nla cuestión de la protección de los conocimientos\ntradicionales se refiere principalmente a los\nconocimientos utilizados para desarrollar las\nvariedades de los agricultores (variedades\nlocales) y, por lo tanto incorporados en ellas, y a\nciertos conocimientos asociados (por ejemplo\nprácticas concretas de cultivo).\nLa elección de los medios de que se valdrá\ncada Parte Contratante para proteger los\nconocimientos tradicionales relativos a los\nRFGAA depende de ella. El desarrollo de un\nrégimen sui generis para la protección de las\nvariedades de los agricultores es uno de los\nmodos posibles de realizar este componente de\nlos derechos del agricultor86. La cuestión ha\nrecibido considerable atención en la bibliografía,\npero se ha avanzado poco en lo que respecta a\nhacer efectivo este tipo de protección en la\npráctica. La creación de un régimen sui generis\nplantea, de hecho, complejos problemas teóricos\ny prácticos87. Desde el punto de vista teórico,\nno está claro si la protección de las variedades\nde los agricultores mediante un sistema de\nderechos de propiedad intelectual tendría un\nefecto positivo en su conservación o estimularía\nel mejoramiento. En efecto, podría ocurrir que\ncualquier sistema de protección pusiera en\npeligro precisamente las prácticas tradicionales\nque promueven la diversidad genética en las\nvariedades locales. Tampoco está claro si la\nprotección serviría para fortalecer los derechos\nde las comunidades y los agricultores\ntradicionales sobre sus recursos. Podría haber\nmétodos más apropiados, distintos de los\nderechos de propiedad intelectual, para proteger\nesas variedades. Un ejemplo podría ser algún tipo\nde régimen relativo a la apropiación indebida,\nque no otorgaría a los agricultores derechos de\npropiedad intelectual en el sentido de excluir el\nuso por terceros, sino que se centraría en el uso\no la apropiación indebidos del conocimiento.\nNaturalmente, el régimen tendría que definir lo\nque constituye uso o apropiación indebidos88. En\neste contexto, la Organización Mundial de la\nPropiedad Intelectual (OMPI) y su Comité\nIntergubernamental sobre Propiedad Intelectual,\nRecursos Genéticos, Conocimientos Tradicio-\nnales y Folclore han examinado la práctica de\nlos Estados con respecto a la protección de los\nconocimientos tradicionales a través de un\nmecanismo tradicional de propiedad intelectual\ny los elementos que habría que incluir en todo\nsistema sui generis para la protección de los\nconocimientos tradicionales89.\nb) el derecho a participar equitativamente en la distribución de los beneficios que se deriven\nde la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura;\nLa Resolución 5/89 de la FAO introdujo el\nconcepto de la participación de los agricultores\nen los beneficios como uno de los objetivos de\nlos derechos del agricultor90. En la Parte IV del\nTratado, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que\nlos beneficios derivados de la utilización de los\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral vayan fundamentalmente a los agri-\ncultores que los conservan y utilizan, especial-\nmente los de los países en desarrollo y los países\ncon economía en transición91. El Órgano Rector\ndel Tratado determinará la forma en que se distri-\nbuirán esos beneficios, aunque el Artículo 13.2\nespecifica varios mecanismos92 e indica que la\ndistribución de los beneficios debe tener en\ncuenta las áreas de actividad prioritarias del Plan\nde acción mundial.\n86 A este respecto, véase también Carlos M. Correa, Options for the Implementation of Farmers´ Rights at the\nNational Level, South Centre, 2000, Working Paper #8.\n87 Véase Seeding Solutions, Volume 2, Options for National Laws Governing Access to and Control Over Genetic\nResources, The Crucible Group, IDRC, 2002.\n88 Respecto de esta sugerencia, véase Carlos Correa: Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property: Issues and\noptions surrounding the protection of traditional knowledge, documento de trabajo solicitado por la Quaker United\nNations Office de Ginebra, con asistencia financiera de la Fundación Rockefeller, Ginebra, noviembre de 2001.\n89 Véase, por ejemplo, Informe sobre la reseña de las formas actuales de protección de los conocimientos tradicionales\nmediante la propiedad intelectual, WIPO/GRTKF/4/7, noviembre de 2002 y Elementos de un sistema sui generis\npara la protección de los conocimientos tradicionales, WIPO /GRTKF/IC/4/8, septiembre de 2002.\n90 ‘‘c) permitir a los agricultores, sus comunidades y países en todas las regiones participar plenamente de los\nbeneficios que se deriven, en el presente y en el futuro, del uso mejorado de los recursos fitogenéticos mediante\nel mejoramiento genético y otros métodos científicos’’.\n91 Artículo 13.3.\n92 El intercambio de información, el acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia, la creación de capacidad y la distribución\nde los beneficios derivados de la comercialización.\n80\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nSin embargo, el apartado b) debe\nconsiderarse en el contexto de las medidas que\nlos gobiernos nacionales pueden adoptar en sus\npaíses en ejercicio de su responsabilidad de hacer\nrealidad los derechos del agricultor. Algunos\ngobiernos nacionales participarán en la\ndistribución de los beneficios derivados del\nSistema Multilateral en sus países, ya sea a través\nde proyectos para desarrollar la capacidad de los\nagricultores para conservar y utilizar los RFGAA\no por otros medios mencionados en el Artículo\n13. Pero ¿qué otras medidas deberían adoptar\nlos gobiernos nacionales para asegurar que los\nagricultores reciban la porción que les\ncorresponde de los beneficios derivados del uso\nde los RFGAA?\nEn lo que respecta al material que ya está\nen el Sistema Multilateral (es decir los recursos\nfitogenéticos enumerados en el Anexo I\nsometidos a la administración y el control de las\nPartes Contratantes y en el dominio público),\nparecería que la intención es que los mecanismos\nde distribución de los beneficios establecidos en\nel Artículo 13 sean excluyentes. En otras\npalabras, los países a quienes se soliciten\nRFGAA en el marco del Sistema Multilateral no\ntendrían derecho a imponer un requisito bilateral\nde compensación para los agricultores con\narreglo al Artículo 9 además de las condiciones\ndel Sistema Multilateral previstas en los\nArtículos 12 y 13. Sin embargo, en general, los\nRFGAA que se encuentran in situ, aparte de los\nque se encuentran en parques nacionales u otras\ntierras públicas, según la legislación de algunos\npaíses se considerarían propiedad de los dueños\nde esas tierras o como mínimo sujetos a derechos\nde propiedad de esas personas. En esos casos, el\nmaterial no estaría completamente bajo la\nadministración y el control de las Partes\nContratantes93. Por lo tanto, sólo estarían en el\nSistema Multilateral si los incluyera el pro-\npietario en cuestión. Si se desea que así sea,\nhabría que pensar qué incentivos pueden ofrecer\nlos gobiernos nacionales a los agricultores para\nque incorporen sus recursos fitogenéticos al\nSistema Multilateral. También en este caso\nhabría varias opciones para los gobiernos\nnacionales, incluida la participación en proyectos\nde fomento de la capacidad, el mejoramiento\nfitogenético participatorio y otros medios que se\nexaminan más adelante.\nc) el derecho a participar en la adopción de decisiones, a nivel nacional, sobre asuntos\nrelativos a la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura.\nLos agricultores más pobres, y sobre todo las\nagricultoras, suelen quedar excluidos de los\nprocesos de adopción de decisiones a distintos\nniveles, en particular a nivel nacional. Es posible\nque no se reconozcan sus considerables esfuerzos\ne innovaciones en materia de conservación y\nordenación de los recursos fitogenéticos y que,\npor lo tanto, en la política nacional no se atienda\ndebidamente a sus necesidades y prioridades\nespecíficas. En los últimos años se han\ndesarrollado instrumentos y técnicas como la\nevaluación participatoria rural, que se han\nadaptado para utilizarlos en diferentes regiones\ny sectores. Se requieren nuevos ajustes para que\nesos enfoques de conservación y utilización de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos tengan en cuenta las\ncuestiones de género.\nUno de los componentes de los derechos\ndel agricultor, según el apartado c) es el ‘‘derecho\na participar en la adopción de decisiones, a nivel\nnacional, sobre asuntos relativos a la conserva-\nción y la utilización sostenible de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agri-\ncultura’’. Este derecho, que implica el de tener\nvoz en la adopción de políticas nacionales, así\ncomo en las decisiones administrativas relativas\na los RFGAA, debe reconocerse de conformidad\ncon la introducción del Artículo 9.2, es decir,\n‘‘según proceda y con sujeción a [la] legislación\nnacional’’. Como se indicó anteriormente, esto\nsignifica que los gobiernos nacionales tienen\nconsiderable discreción para determinar la\namplitud de ese derecho. La importancia de\ngarantizar la participación de las comunidades\n93 El hecho de que ese material sobre el cual haya un título de propiedad se considere o no ‘‘recursos genéticos’’ en\nlugar de ‘‘recursos biológicos’’ a estos efectos dependerá de la legislación nacional aplicable, así como del resultado\nde las negociaciones actualmente en curso en el marco del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. En este\ncontexto, es interesante observar los posibles efectos de la legislación aprobada recientemente en América Latina\nque declara que los recursos genéticos son parte del ‘‘patrimonio’’ del Estado. Según la interpretación del concepto\nde ‘‘patrimonio’’ (si se aproxima más al concepto de propiedad del Estado o al concepto de soberanía) el efecto\npuede bien ser el de poner a todos los RFGAA en el sistema multilateral, aun cuando se encuentren en tierras de\nlos agricultores.\n81\nArtículo 9\nlocales, indígenas y agrícolas en la adopción de\ndecisiones relativas a los RFGAA se ha\ndestacado en diversos foros94.\nAlgunas legislaciones nacionales han\nempezado a incorporar estos principios. En\nFilipinas, la Indigenous Peoples Rights Act\nreconoce ampliamente los derechos\ncomunitarios. La legislación en materia de\nacceso adoptada en algunos países también\ndispone alguna forma de participación en\nrelación con la recolección de materiales\ngenéticos. El Decreto No. 24795 de Filipinas, por\nejemplo, dispone que los derechos de las\ncomunidades indígenas y locales se tendrán en\ncuenta en relación con los procedimientos del\nconsentimiento fundamentado.\nTambién existen otros mecanismos, no\nnecesariamente establecidos en la legislación\nnacional, para asegurar la participación efectiva\nde los agricultores en la adopción de decisiones\na nivel nacional, por ejemplo la inclusión de\norganizaciones de agricultores o productores en\nórganos importantes de adopción de políticas\ncomo los comités nacionales de recursos\nfitogenéticos, o en otros órganos que adoptan\ndecisiones relativas a recursos fitogenéticos,\nincluidos los comités que se ocupan del registro\nde nuevas variedades96.\nLa realización de los derechos del agri-\ncultor en relación con su participación en la\nadopción de decisiones dependerá de la natura-\nleza de las relaciones entre las comunidades\nlocales, indígenas y agrícolas, por un lado, y los\ngobiernos nacionales, por el otro. A este respecto\npuede considerarse una amplia variedad de\nposibilidades. En todo caso, el reconocimiento\noficial de los derechos del agricultor en el\nTratado constituye ciertamente un importante\npaso hacia la reafirmación de los derechos de\nlos agricultores y de las comunidades a participar\nen la adopción de decisiones que esencialmente\nconciernen al tipo del sistema de agricultura que\nquieren mantener como parte integrante de su\ncultura y estilo de vida.\n94 Véase por ejemplo el proyecto de Declaración de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de las Poblaciones\nIndígenas elaborado por el Grupo de Trabajo sobre las Poblaciones Indígenas.\n95 Decreto No. 247, ‘‘Prescribing a Regulatory Framework for the Prospecting of Biological and Genetic Resources,\ntheir By-Products and Derivatives, for Scientific and Commercial Purposes, and for Other Purposes’’, firmado en\nmayo de 1995. Recientemente el Gobierno aprobó la Ley de la República 9147 Wildlife Act, que contiene\ndisposiciones que reemplazan las del Decreto 247 con respecto a la reglamentación del acceso a los recursos\nbiológicos y genéticos del país.\n96 En Canadá, por ejemplo, las organizaciones de productores están representadas en el Consejo de Investigación\nAgrícola del Canadá (CARC), el Comité Nacional de Expertos en Recursos Genéticos de Plantas y Microbios y\ndiversos comités de registro de variedades.\n97 Véase más adelante en la presente sección, variedades protegidas.\n9.3 Nada de lo que se dice en este Artículo se interpretará en el sentido de limitar cualquier\nderecho que tengan los agricultores a conservar, utilizar, intercambiar y vender\nmaterial de siembra o propagación conservado en las fincas, con arreglo a la legislación\nnacional y según proceda.\nLos derechos de los agricultores a conservar,\nvender e intercambiar material de siembra son\nun tema polémico. Una opinión es que los\nagricultores no deben estar sujetos a restricción\nalguna con respecto al uso o al destino que den\na las semillas, incluidas las protegidas por\nderechos de propiedad intelectual. Sin embargo,\nesta opinión no es compartida por quienes creen\nque el uso irrestricto por los agricultores de\nmateriales protegidos por derechos de propiedad\nintelectual reducirá los incentivos para el\nmejoramiento comercial y creará una amenaza\npara la futura seguridad alimentaria mundial.\nEstas dos opiniones se reflejan en el Acta de 1978\ndel Convenio UPOV, que reconocía tácitamente\nlos derechos del agricultor de volver a usar las\nsemillas producidas en la explotación, y el Acta\nde 1991, que ampliaba el alcance de los derechos\nde los obtentores pero disponía que las Partes\nContratantes podrían, en su legislación nacional,\nautorizar a los agricultores a volver a utilizar en\nsus propias explotaciones semillas protegidas por\nlos derechos del obtentor que hubieran sido\nproducidas en ellas97.\nEl Artículo 9.3, por lo tanto, se ofreció\ncomo una solución de avenencia entre los que\nquerían un reconocimiento positivo con arreglo\n82\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nal Compromiso Internacional revisado de ciertos\nderechos del agricultor con respecto a la\nconservación, la utilización y el intercambio de\nsemillas y los que temían que el Tratado limitara\nlos derechos de los obtentores en contradicción\ncon el Acta de 1991 del Convenio de la UPOV.\nEl texto convenido es neutral a ese\nrespecto. Si bien el Artículo 9.3 no ofrecería una\nbase jurídica suficiente para reivindicar derechos\nen relación con la conservación, la utilización y\nel intercambio de semillas, tampoco restringe las\nopciones que podrían adoptar los gobiernos\nnacionales a ese respecto. Claramente, el texto\nno excluye la posibilidad de que las leyes\nnacionales (incluidas las relativas a los derechos\ndel obtentor y a las semillas) reconozcan\nderechos de los agricultores en relación con la\nconservación, utilización e intercambio de\nsemillas y material de propagación. Tampoco\nimpide que la legislación nacional limite o\nexcluya esos derechos cuando el material de\nsiembra o propagación esté protegido por\nderechos del obtentor o cuando haya que hacerlo\npor factores que tengan que ver con la ordenación\ndel comercio de semillas.\nRecuadro 10. Red internacional de colecciones ex situ bajo los auspicios de\nla FAO\nEl Artículo 7 del Compromiso Internacional sobre Recursos Fitogenéticos disponía que se\ndesarrollara una red coordinada internacionalmente de centros nacionales, regionales e\ninternacionales, incluida una red internacional de colecciones base en bancos genéticos bajo\nlos auspicios o la jurisdicción de la FAO, que hayan asumido la responsabilidad de mantener,\nen beneficio de la comunidad internacional y aplicando el principio del intercambio sin\nrestricciones, colecciones base o activas de los recursos fitogenéticos de determinadas especies\nvegetales.\nEn 1989, la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (CRGAA)\nde la FAO pidió que se organizara la Red internacional de colecciones ex situ bajo los auspicios\no la jurisdicción de la FAO, en razón de la falta de claridad respecto de la situación jurídica de\nalgunas colecciones ex situ nacionales e internacionales.\nLa CRGAA decidió también incorporar en la ‘‘Red internacional’’ la red de colecciones base\no activas ex situ establecida en virtud de acuerdos entre el Consejo Internacional de Recursos\nGenéticos Vegetales y las autoridades nacionales.\nDoce centros del GCIAI firmaron en 1994 acuerdos con la FAO por los que incorporaban la\nmayor parte de sus colecciones (unas 500.000 muestras) a la Red internacional. A través de\nestos acuerdos, los centros reconocieron ‘‘la autoridad intergubernamental de la FAO y su\nComisión para establecer políticas relativas a la Red internacional. También convinieron en\nmantener el germoplasma designado ‘‘en depósito en beneficio de la comunidad internacional\n‘‘y no reclamar la propiedad o solicitar derechos de propiedad intelectual sobre el germoplasma\ndesignado y la información conexa’’. La colección regional de la Red Internacional de Recursos\nGenéticos del Coco (COGENT) mantenida por los gobiernos de la India, Indonesia y Côte\nd’Ivoire se incorporó a la Red por un acuerdo ulterior firmado en octubre de 1998. Los\nacuerdos estaban en vigor por un período de cuatro años automáticamente renovable a menos\nque una de las Partes decidiera otra cosa. Los acuerdos se han renovado automáticamente en\n1998 y una vez más en 2002.\nLa CRGAA vigila la aplicación de los acuerdos y se invita a los centros del GCIAI a presentar\ninformes en su período de sesiones bienal. La CRGAA ha declarado que los acuerdos ofrecen\nuna solución provisional, hasta que termine la revisión del Compromiso Internacional. Ha\nobservado también que la forma final de los acuerdos dependerá del resultado de las\nnegociaciones para la revisión del Compromiso Internacional y que podrá ser necesario revisar\nlos acuerdos a la luz de ese resultado.\nEn el Artículo 15 del Tratado, las Partes Contratantes reconocen la importancia para el Tratado\nde las colecciones ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nmantenidas en depósito por los centros del GCIAI y hacen un llamamiento a esos centros\npara que firmen acuerdos con el órgano rector a fin de someter a esas colecciones a las\ndisposiciones del Tratado. El Artículo 15 enumera las condiciones que deben incluirse en\nesos acuerdos. Una vez firmados, los nuevos acuerdos reemplazarán los acuerdos de depósito\nprovisionales.\n83\nArtículo 9\nA la luz del debate en curso, es preciso hacer\nuna distinción clara según los tipos de materiales\nde que se trate.\nVariedades del agricultor: No cabe\nduda de que los agricultores pueden\nutilizar, intercambiar, vender o disponer\nde otro modo de las variedades que han\ndesarrollado y que no están sujetas a\nderechos de propiedad intelectual de\nterceros. En general, la mayor parte de\nlas variedades de los agricultores\n(‘‘variedades locales’’) están actual-\nmente fuera del sistema de derechos de\npropiedad intelectual, excepto en\ncontados casos. Por lo tanto, no se\npuede impedir al agricultor que ha\ndesarrollado esas variedades que realice\ncualquier actividad en relación con\nellas. Al mismo tiempo, el agricultor no\ntiene medios legales para impedir que\notros usen o reproduzcan estas\nvariedades; esto es precisamente uno de\nlos problemas a que apuntan algunas\npropuestas relativas a la protección sui\ngeneris.\nLa producción propia de los\nagricultores: Los agricultores pueden\nvender, intercambiar o compartir\nlibremente su propia producción, ya sea\nque la hayan obtenido de sus propias\nvariedades o con variedades protegidas\npor derechos de propiedad intelectual\n(a menos que este derecho esté\nrestringido por obligaciones contrac-\ntuales contraídas con los distribuidores\nde semillas). En este sentido, el re-\nconocimiento del derecho a disponer de\nla producción agrícola, como se\npropone por ejemplo en el proyecto de\nley de la India sobre derechos del\nobtentor, no representa concesión\nsignificativa alguna a los agricultores,\npuesto que legalmente ya tienen\nderecho a venderla.\nVariedades protegidas: Sin embargo,\nla situación puede ser sustancialmente\ndiferente en relación con la venta u otras\nformas de distribución de semillas para\nfines de propagación en caso de que las\nsemillas estén protegidas por derechos\nde propiedad intelectual conferidos a\nterceros. Históricamente, la legislación\nnacional de protección de los derechos\ndel obtentor ha tendido a permitir que\nlos agricultores vuelvan a utilizar las\nsemillas protegidas obtenidas en sus\npropias explotaciones (el ‘‘privilegio\ndel agricultor’’)98, aunque normalmente\nha prohibido los actos que podrían\nllevar a una ulterior propagación sin el\nconsentimiento del titular de los\nderechos de obtentor.\nEl alcance del privilegio del agricultor\nha variado en la legislación nacional de\ndiferentes países. El Acta de 1978 del\nConvenio de la UPOV no se pro-\nnunciaba al respecto. Sin embargo, se\nha interpretado que el Artículo 5 1) del\nActa de 1978 tácitamente autorizaba a\nlos agricultores a sembrar e inter-\ncambiar semillas protegidas en el\nsentido de que reconocía al obtentor\núnicamente exclusividad en la produc-\nción con fines comerciales, la puesta a\nla venta y la comercialización de\nmaterial de semillas.\nLa revisión de 1991 del Convenio de la\nUPOV amplió el alcance de los\nderechos del obtentor para impedir la\nproducción o reproducción no\nautorizada de todas las semillas\nprotegidas. Al mismo tiempo, permitía\nexpresamente una excepción facultativa\nal derecho del obtentor que quedaría\nestablecida en la legislación nacional.\nDe conformidad con el Artículo 15 2)\ndel Acta de 1991, cada Parte Contra-\ntante podría restringir el derecho de\nobtentor respecto de toda variedad,\ndentro de límites razonables y a reserva\nde la salvaguardia de los intereses\nlegítimos del obtentor, con el fin de\npermitir a los agricultores utilizar a\nfines de reproducción o de multipli-\ncación, en su propia explotación, el\nproducto de la cosecha que hubieran\nobtenido por el cultivo, en su propia\nexplotación, de la variedad protegida.\nDesde el Acta de 1991 del Convenio\nde la UPOV, la legislación nacional ha\ntendido a restringir en diverso grado el\nalcance del privilegio del agricultor,\n98 El término ‘‘privilegio del agricultor’’ es un uso convencional. La expresión en sí no existe en el Convenio de\n1991, que se refiere sólo a una excepción facultativa a los derechos del obtentor (Artículo 15.2).\n84\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ntanto en los países desarrollados como\nen los países en desarrollo. Así, el\nReglamento (CE No. 2199/94) relativo\na la protección comunitaria de las\nobtenciones vegetales limita el privi-\nlegio del agricultor a ciertas especies\ny requiere el pago de una ‘‘remunera-\nción justa’’ al obtentor para replantar\nsemillas protegidas, excepto en el caso\nde los ‘‘pequeños agricultores’’. En\nBrasil, la Ley No. 9456 (1997) ha\nestablecido que esa excepción no se\naplica en relación con la caña de azúcar.\nSólo beneficia a los pequeños agri-\ncultores que pueden proporcionar a\notros pequeños agricultores o inter-\ncambiar con ellos semillas en forma no\ncomercial.\nEn resumen, los derechos del obtentor\ndejan cierto margen para la práctica de\nlos agricultores de conservar la semilla,\npero la tendencia legislativa reciente ha\nsido restringir el margen disponible\npara esa práctica.\nPodrían considerarse las siguientes\nopciones para conciliar los derechos de\npropiedad intelectual con el derecho del\nagricultor a conservar, vender e intercambiar\nmateriales protegidos por derechos de propiedad\nintelectual, todas las cuales plantean con-\nsiderables dificultades para su aplicación\npráctica:\nDistinguir diferentes grupos de agri-\ncultores con respecto a la resiembra de\nmaterial protegido sobre la base del\nvolumen de la producción, el tamaño\nde la explotación, las especies en\ncuestión, etc., aunque es difícil\ndeterminar estas cosas en la práctica.\nAsí, pues, podría concederse una\nexcepción amplia a los ‘‘agricultores de\nsubsistencia’’ o a los ‘‘pequeños agri-\ncultores’’ que normalmente vuelven a\nutilizar la semilla porque no tienen\nacceso a nuevas semillas para cada\nsiembra o no tienen recursos financieros\npara procurárselas. En cambio, los\ngrandes agricultores del sector\ncomercial podrían estar sujetos a otras\nnormas más estrictas.\nEximir los intercambios de semilla que\ntengan lugar dentro de la misma\ncomunidad, entre vecinos o entre\ncomunidades agrícolas.\nPermitir algunas ventas de semillas\ncomo materiales de propagación, por\nejemplo las que tienen lugar en el\nmercado tradicional de los agricultores.\n85\nArtículo 10\nPARTE  IV – SISTEMA MULTILATERAL DE ACCESO Y\nDISTRIBUCIÓN DE BENEFICIOS\nArtículo 10 – Sistema Multilateral de acceso y distribución de\nbeneficios\nComo se señaló anteriormente, habida cuenta de\nlas características peculiares de los RFGAA, los\nnegociadores del Tratado se centraron en la\ncreación de un Sistema Multilateral para esos\nrecursos, en armonía con el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica. Con este Sistema\nMultilateral desaparece la necesidad de\ndeterminar los países de origen o negociar las\ncondiciones de acceso en cada caso concreto.\nEn cambio, las Partes Contratantes en el Tratado,\nsobre la base de condiciones concertadas\nmultilateralmente, facilitarán el acceso a\nmateriales genéticos de una lista convenida de\ncultivos (que figura en el Anexo I) y distribuirán\nlos beneficios.\nSon numerosas las razones por las cuales\nse necesitaba un Sistema Multilateral para los\nRFGAA. Como ya se señaló, para preservar la\nestabilidad de los rendimientos y la capacidad\nde los cultivos para resistir a las enfermedades y\nadaptarse a otros problemas ambientales es\nesencial mantener un alto grado de diversidad\ngenética intraespecífica en los cultivos. Los\nfitomejoradores, con inclusión de los agricultores\ntradicionales, necesitan tener fácil acceso a una\namplia gama de diversidad genética a fin de\nobtener variedades mejoradas que puedan hacer\nfrente a esos problemas. Es particularmente\nimportante tener acceso a la diversidad genética\nde los centros de origen y de diversidad de esos\ncultivos. Los cultivos suelen obtener mejores\nresultados fuera de sus centros de origen, ya que\npueden estar libres de sus patógenos y parásitos\nnaturales. Sin embargo, en los casos de plagas o\nenfermedades similares es fundamental poder\nvolver a los centros de origen para encontrar\ncaracteres de resistencia. Por ejemplo, cuando\nen el decenio de 1830 se produjo la famosa\nhambruna de la papa en Irlanda fue necesario\nrecurrir a los centros de origen en Sudamérica\npara encontrar caracteres de resistencia al mildiu\nvelloso de la Phytophthora.\nLas necesidades no van en un solo sentido;\ntodos los países y las regiones son en gran\nmedida interdependientes de otros países y\nregiones con respecto a la diversidad fitogenética\npara poder mantener la seguridad alimentaria.\nLos países, especialmente los pobres y en desar-\nrollo, no pueden depender de acuerdos pura-\nmente bilaterales para lograr acceso a la diversi-\ndad fitogenética que necesitan. Esos acuerdos\nno pueden atender a las necesidades continuas\ndel sector agrícola. Establecer acuerdos pura-\nmente bilaterales es además demasiado costoso.\nHabida cuenta de que todos los países hacen\nfrente a las mismas necesidades, la única solu-\nción práctica consiste en establecer un Sistema\nMultilateral de acceso y distribución de los bene-\nficios.\nPara atender a esas necesidades, el Artículo\n10 establece un Sistema Multilateral de acceso\na los RFGAA (de una lista definida de cultivos)\ny distribución de beneficios, así como de acceso\na la información correspondiente.\n10.1 En sus relaciones con otros Estados, las Partes Contratantes reconocen los derechos\nsoberanos de los Estados sobre sus propios recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura, incluso que la facultad de determinar el acceso a\nesos recursos corresponde a los gobiernos nacionales y está sujeta a la legislación\nnacional.\n10.2 En el ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan\nestablecer un Sistema Multilateral que sea eficaz, efectivo y transparente para\nfacilitar el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ny compartir, de manera justa y equitativa, los beneficios que se deriven de la utiliza-\nción de tales recursos, sobre una base complementaria y de fortalecimiento mutuo.\nEn los Artículos 10.1 y 10.2, así como en el\nPreámbulo del Tratado, las Partes Contratantes\nafirman expresamente que tienen derechos\nsoberanos respecto de sus RFGAA y que, al\nestablecer el Sistema Multilateral, están\nejerciendo esos derechos soberanos. Los\n86\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nderechos soberanos sobre los RFGAA y la\nautoridad de los gobiernos nacionales para\ndeterminar el acceso a esos recursos son\nconceptos centrales en el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica. El presente artículo sirve\nde nexo con ese Convenio y deja en claro que el\nSistema Multilateral establecido por el Tratado\nestá en plena armonía con el Convenio. De\nhecho, las normas que enuncia el Artículo 15 del\nTratado respecto del acceso al Sistema Multi-\nlateral y la distribución de los beneficios\nobedecen al propósito de aplicar a los RFGAA,\nentre otros, el Artículo 15.2 del Convenio:\n‘‘Cada Parte Contratante procurará crear\ncondiciones para facilitar a otras Partes\nContratantes el acceso a los recursos\ngenéticos para utilizaciones ambiental-\nmente adecuadas, y no imponer\nrestricciones contrarias a los objetivos del\npresente Convenio’’\nasí como el Artículo 15.4:\n‘‘Cuando se conceda acceso, éste será en\ncondiciones mutuamente convenidas y\nestará sometido a lo dispuesto en el\npresente Artículo’’\ny el Artículo 15.5:\n‘‘El acceso a los recursos genéticos estará\nsometido al consentimiento fundamentado\nprevio de la Parte Contratante que\nproporciona los recursos, a menos que esa\nParte decida otra cosa’’.\nLas Partes Contratantes, al hacerse Partes en el\nTratado, han llegado a un acuerdo a nivel\nmultilateral sobre las condiciones de acceso y\ndistribución de los beneficios respecto de los\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral que serán aplicables en las transacciones\nentre ellas y han dado su consentimiento funda-\nmentado previo sobre una base multilateral como\nmedio de facilitar el acceso a esos recursos\ngenéticos.\nEl Artículo 10.2, además de afirmar los\nderechos soberanos de las Partes, establece el\nalcance del Sistema Multilateral. En primer\nlugar, sirve para un objetivo doble, a saber:\nFacilitar el acceso a los RFGAA; y\nDistribuir en forma justa y equitativa\nlos beneficios derivados de la\nutilización de esos recursos.\nLos dos objetivos deben tener lugar ‘‘sobre una\nbase complementaria y de fortalecimiento\nmutuo’’. Por ello, sería incompatible con el Tra-\ntado que las Partes Contratantes promovieran un\nSistema Multilateral que diera acceso sin distri-\nbución de beneficios o previera la distribución\nde beneficios sin dar acceso. Además, lo ideal\nes que los procesos de facilitar el acceso y\ndistribuir los beneficios se refuercen uno al otro.\nPor último, el Artículo 10.2 dispone que\nlos objetivos del Sistema Multilateral deben\nalcanzarse de una manera que sea ‘‘eficaz, efec-\ntiva y transparente’’. Esta disposición se refiere,\nal menos en parte, a la estructura institucional\ndel Sistema Multilateral y es similar a algunas\npropuestas anteriores, entre ellas las presentadas\nya en junio de 1991 por los participantes en la\nSerie del Diálogo Internacional de Keystone\nsobre Recursos Fitogenéticos en su tercera sesión\nplenaria, celebrada en Oslo, como parte de su\nIniciativa Mundial para la Seguridad y el\nDesarrollo Sostenible de los Recursos\nFitogenéticos.\n87\nArtículo 11\nArtículo 11 – Cobertura del Sistema Multilateral\nUna vez establecido el Sistema Multilateral en\nel Artículo 10 del Tratado, en el Artículo 11 se\nestablece su alcance. Tras muchos debates se\ndecidió que, si bien el ámbito del Tratado en\ngeneral serían los RFGAA (definidos en el\nArtículo 3), el Sistema Multilateral únicamente\nsería aplicable a los RFGAA de una lista\nespecífica de cultivos escogidos en razón de la\ninterdependencia de los países respecto de ellos\ny de su importancia para la seguridad alimen-\ntaria. Ello se debía en parte a que algunos países\nquerían saber cómo se distribuirían los beneficios\nen un Sistema Multilateral limitado antes de\ncomprometerse a una cobertura más amplia. Se\ndebía también a que algunos países querían\nlimitar la aplicación del Sistema Multilateral de\nmanera de permitir arreglos bilaterales para tener\nacceso a otros RFGAA y distribuir sus\nbeneficios.\n11.1 Para tratar de conseguir los objetivos de la conservación y la utilización sostenible\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y la distribución\njusta y equitativa de los beneficios que se deriven de su uso, tal como se establece\nen el Artículo 1, el Sistema Multilateral deberá abarcar los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I, establecidos con\narreglo a los criterios de la seguridad alimentaria y la interdependencia.\nEl Artículo 11.1 señala que el Sistema Multi-\nlateral comprenderá los RFGAA enumerados en\nel Anexo I.\nAfirma también que la lista del Anexo I\nha sido establecida ‘‘con arreglo a los criterios\nde la seguridad alimentaria y la interdependen-\ncia’’. Se trata de una afirmación histórica relativa\na la forma en que se confeccionó la lista. En\nrealidad se propuso un primer proyecto de lista\nsobre la base de la importancia de los cultivos\npara la seguridad alimentaria y la interdepen-\ndencia, aunque los Estados la negociaron\ntambién sobre la base de otros factores. Ahora\nbien, como declaración histórica, la expresión\ntiene una importancia jurídica limitada. La lista\nha sido confeccionada y es la que determina si\nun cultivo está o no comprendido en el Sistema\nMultilateral. Sin embargo, la indicación de la\nbase sobre la cual se formuló la lista tendrá\nimportancia jurídica a los efectos de la\ninterpretación de ésta y, más en particular, a los\nefectos de considerar futuras enmiendas de ella.\nLas enmiendas, según los Artículos 23 y 24,\ndeben ser aprobadas por consenso en el Órgano\nRector. En todo caso, la expresión ‘‘establecidos\ncon arreglo a los criterios de la seguridad alimen-\ntaria y la interdependencia’’ enuncia criterios en\ncuanto a qué cultivos pueden o deberían ser\nincluidos en la lista en el futuro. Igualmente, la\nfrase introductoria del Artículo 11.1 (‘‘Para tratar\nde conseguir los objetivos de la conservación y\nla utilización sostenible de los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y\nla distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios\nque se deriven de su uso, tal como se establece\nen el Artículo 1’’) sirve no sólo de explicación\nde cómo se confeccionó la lista y de instrumento\npara interpretarla, sino también de parámetro\npara las enmiendas en el futuro y de una buena\nbase sobre la cual se podrán hacer adiciones a\nella.\nLa ‘‘seguridad alimentaria’’ es uno de los\ncriterios para el establecimiento de la lista. El\ntérmino ‘‘seguridad alimentaria’’ ha sido definido\nen el Plan de Acción de la Cumbre Mundial sobre\nla Alimentación, en cuya introducción se señala\nque ese término debe considerarse ‘‘a nivel indi-\nvidual, familiar, nacional, regional y mundial.\nExiste seguridad alimentaria cuando todas las\npersonas tienen en todo momento acceso físico\ny económico a suficientes alimentos inocuos y\nnutritivos para satisfacer sus necesidades\nalimenticias y sus preferencias en cuanto a los\nalimentos a fin de llevar una vida activa y sana’’.\nMás específicamente, en el Objetivo 2.3 se señala\nque los alimentos suministrados [deben ser]\n‘‘inocuos, física y económicamente asequibles,\napropiados y suficientes para satisfacer las\nnecesidades de energía y nutrientes de la\npoblación’’.\nSegún esta definición convenida, la\nseguridad alimentaria debe considerarse no sólo\na nivel mundial, sino también a nivel regional y\nlocal. Muchos cultivos menores, por ejemplo,\nson cultivos básicos para la población de una\nregión o una localidad. Es importante señalar a\neste respecto que el Anexo I del Tratado incluye\nel topinambur, el coco, la batata y la almorta,\ncultivos básicos de importancia para\ndeterminadas regiones únicamente. Habida\ncuenta del criterio de la ‘‘seguridad alimentaria’’,\n88\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nel Anexo I debería tener en cuenta un\ncomponente cualitativo. Algunos cultivos\npueden aportar aminoácidos o lípidos que no se\nencuentran con frecuencia, vitaminas, minerales\no algún factor nutricional que facilite la digestión\no mantenga la salud en virtud de sus propiedades\nbactericidas o vermífugas. Este criterio\ncualitativo indicaría que habría que incluir la\nmayor parte de las frutas y los frutos secos, así\ncomo hierbas y especias. En todo caso, está\nampliamente reconocido que la seguridad\nalimentaria depende de una variedad mucho\nmayor de especies vegetales de las que pueden\ncaber en cualquier lista razonablemente\nmanejable.\nPara el Anexo I se recibió una aportación\ncientífica sustancial de expertos por conducto\nde foros tales como seminarios técnicos y\nreuniones de grupos de expertos. En todo caso,\nla postura inicial de negociación de las regiones\nera que algunas querían únicamente seis cultivos\nen el Sistema Multilateral, mientras otras querían\nmás de 400. Habida cuenta de que la lista había\nde confeccionarse ‘‘por consenso’’, las negocia-\nciones comenzaron con la lista de seis cultivos\ny se fueron extendiendo en gran medida como\nresultado de que los países se iban convenciendo\nde la necesidad de incorporar al Sistema\nMultilateral un número mayor de cultivos,\nincluidos muchos de interés para el GCIAI. En\núltima instancia, las Partes Contratantes\nconvinieron en que el Anexo I incluiría alrededor\nde 40 cultivos99 y 29 especies forrajeras (véase\nel Anexo I). De todas maneras, la soja, las nueces,\nel aceite de palma, el lino, la caña de azúcar, el\ntomate y la mayor parte de los forrajes tropicales\nestán excluidos del sistema. Además, también\nestán excluidas algunas especies que forman\nparte del acervo genético que utilizan los\nfitomejoradores de la mandioca, el maíz, la papa\no el fríjol común. La lista no incluye cultivos\nindustriales tales como el té o el café, que, por\nlo tanto, están totalmente fuera del Sistema\nMultilateral.\nAdemás del problema de qué cultivos\nincluir, los negociadores hacían frente al\nproblema conexo de cómo definir cada uno en\ntérminos operativos de manera de que las Partes\nContratantes y otros pudieran saber con cierta\nprecisión qué quedaba comprendido en el\nalcance del Anexo I. Nunca hubo duda alguna\nde que el trigo quedaría incluido en el Sistema\nMultilateral. Pero hay que preguntarse, sin\nembargo, qué quiere decir precisamente la\npalabra ‘‘trigo’’. Grupos de expertos\nproporcionaron información científica sobre\nestas y otras cuestiones (como la de cuáles\nespecies forrajeras son más importantes para la\nseguridad alimentaria). Al final, los negociadores\nen muchos casos seleccionaron los cultivos tanto\nsobre la base de criterios políticos como cientí-\nficos, incluyendo géneros indicativos e indicando\ncuándo un determinado género o una deter-\nminada especie quedaba excluida.\nEn algunos casos los negociadores\ndecidieron excluir determinadas especies\nrelacionadas con un cultivo y en otros excluyeron\nespecies que típicamente se consideran parte del\nacervo genético que el fitomejorador querría\nutilizar o al que querría tener acceso. Cabe\nmencionar como ejemplos el Phaseolus\npolyanthus y la Solanum phureja. La definición\nde la mandioca incluye únicamente a la Manihot\nesculenta, con lo que quedan excluidas del\nSistema Multilateral especies silvestres afines\nque se utilizan en la actualidad para aumentar el\ncontenido proteínico y la resistencia a las\nenfermedades. Por último, algunas definiciones\nson simplemente ambiguas. Por ejemplo, el\n‘‘trigo’’ está incluido en el Anexo I pero definido\ncomo ‘‘Triticum, et al.’’ El sentido de ‘‘et al.’’\nno queda claro. El Órgano Rector puede por\nconsenso agregar o excluir géneros. El grado en\nque la lista sea modificada en el futuro dependerá\nde la experiencia de los países una vez que\nempiece a funcionar el Sistema Multilateral, en\nparticular la medida en que consideren que el\nsistema reporta beneficios reales.\nUn elemento importante en la definición\nde la cobertura del Sistema Multilateral se refiere\na que el Artículo 11 no establece distinciones\nentre el material preexistente que se tenga y el\nque se adquiera después de la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado. También el tratamiento es igual en\nel caso del material recolectado antes y después\nde la entrada en vigor del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica. De esta manera, única-\nmente respecto de los cultivos de RFGAA\nincluidos en el Anexo I, el Artículo 11 del Tratado\nobedecía al propósito de resolver la situación de\nlas colecciones ex situ que no habían sido\n‘‘adquiridas de conformidad con el Convenio\n99 Es difícil ser específico acerca del número de cultivos incluidos. En la lista del Anexo I hay 35 cultivos, pero\nalgunos de ellos, como el ‘‘complejo Brassica’’, incluyen varios cultivos distintos. En otros casos, el cultivo\ngeneral excluye cultivos individuales como ocurre, por ejemplo, en relación con el ‘‘maíz’’.\n89\nArtículo 11\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica’’, como se pedía\nen el Acta Final de Nairobi. En el Artículo 15 se\naclaran otros aspectos.\nDejando de lado su contenido sustantivo, el\ntexto del Anexo I no es claro en algunos aspectos,\nlo que refleja el estado de las ciencias biológicas\ny los cambios que han tenido lugar en los\nconocimientos en el curso del tiempo. Por\nejemplo, el Tratado únicamente reconoce en\nforma implícita el hecho de que taxonomistas y\nfitomejoradores no están de acuerdo acerca de\nlo que queda incluido en el acervo genético de\nun determinado cultivo. Los conocimientos en\nesta materia cambian en el curso del tiempo. Es\ndudoso que la lista de materiales comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral se haya de ampliar y\ncontraer a medida que avance el conocimiento\ntaxonómico de lo que constituye un determinado\ngénero. Partiendo del supuesto de que el Órgano\nRector no querrá llevar a cabo la engorrosa y\ncostosa tarea de constituir su propio órgano\ntaxonómico, cabe preguntarse sobre qué base han\nde decidir las Partes Contratantes y los centros\nsi las categorías/los materiales dudosos están\nincluidos o excluidos. En términos prácticos,\n¿cómo ha de resolver el Tratado los casos en que\nmateriales que se consideran hoy parte del Anexo\nI queden fuera de la lista en razón de cambios en\nlas prácticas taxonómicas?\n11.2 El Sistema Multilateral, como se señala en el Artículo 11.1, deberá comprender\ntodos los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura enumerados\nen el Anexo I que están bajo la administración y el control de las Partes Contratantes\ny son del dominio público. Con objeto de conseguir la máxima cobertura posible\ndel Sistema Multilateral, las Partes Contratantes invitan a todos los demás\nposeedores de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nenumerados en el Anexo I a que incluyan dichos recursos en el Sistema Multilateral\n11.3 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan también tomar las medidas apropiadas para\nalentar a las personas físicas y jurídicas dentro de su jurisdicción que poseen\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo\nI a que incluyan dichos recursos en el Sistema Multilateral.\n11.4 En un plazo de dos años a partir de la entrada en vigor del Tratado, el órgano\nrector evaluará los progresos realizados en la inclusión en el Sistema Multilateral\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura a que se hace\nreferencia en el Artículo 11.3. A raíz de esa evaluación, el Órgano Rector decidirá\nsi deberá seguir facilitándose el acceso a las personas físicas y jurídicas a que se\nhace referencia en el Artículo 11.3 que no han incluido dichos recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura en el Sistema Multilateral, o tomar otras\nmedidas que considere oportunas.\nOriginalmente la intención de muchos de los\nnegociadores consistía en incluir en el Sistema\nMultilateral todos los RFGAA enumerados y no\nsólo los que estaban bajo la administración y el\ncontrol públicos y en el dominio público. Esos\nnegociadores pensaban que ello sería más sen-\ncillo y eliminaría la necesidad de que se cele-\nbraran acuerdos contractuales sobre transferen-\ncias de material para acompañar las muestras\nobtenidas del Sistema Multilateral y, de esa\nforma, se reducirían los costos de transacción.\nLas obligaciones contraídas en virtud del Sistema\nMultilateral tendrían entonces que hacerse\ncumplir por conducto de la política o la legis-\nlación nacional. Varios países, sin embargo,\ncreían que sería necesario limitar las\nobligaciones de las Partes Contratantes al\nmaterial que tuviese bajo su control y respecto\ndel cual fuesen responsables, así como al\nmaterial incluido voluntariamente en el Sistema\nMultilateral, y que las obligaciones vinculadas\na las muestras obtenidas de ese sistema tendrían\nque ser traspasadas por conducto de alguna forma\nde instrumento contractual. Al final, y ya bastante\navanzadas las negociaciones, prevaleció la\núltima opinión. Una vez convenido un plantea-\nmiento contractual para el Artículo 13.2 d ii), se\nhizo inevitable que el Sistema Multilateral\nquedase limitado al material bajo administración\ny control públicos y en el dominio público. De\nhecho, muchos gobiernos creían que únicamente\npodían comprometerse legítimamente al\ncumplimiento de condiciones contractuales\ncuando se tratara de RFGAA que estuvieran bajo\nsu administración y control y en el dominio\npúblico o que hubiesen sido incluidos volun-\ntariamente en el Sistema Multilateral por sus\nposeedores; a su juicio, al tratar de incluir todo\n90\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nel material sujeto a los derechos de propiedad\nde personas físicas o jurídicas dentro de su\njurisdicción se estaría privando a esas personas\nde algunos elementos de tales derechos.\nAsí, el Artículo 11.2 prescribe que el\nSistema Multilateral comprende ‘‘todos los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura enumerados en el Anexo I que están\nbajo la administración y el control de las Partes\nContratantes y son del dominio público’’. En este\ncontexto, cabe observar que, según el primer\nInforme sobre el estado de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura en el mundo, un 88% de todos los\nrecursos de esta índole que se mantienen ex situ\nen el mundo se mantienen efectivamente en\ncolecciones nacionales.\nLa expresión ‘‘bajo la administración y el\ncontrol’’ de una Parte Contratante es una\ncondición de hecho y de derecho. Si la Parte\nContratante efectivamente administra y controla\nla colección se cumple esta condición; en\ncambio, si la colección es administrada y\ncontrolada por una entidad separada respecto de\nla que el Estado no tiene control alguno, la\ncondición no se cumple. Esta cuestión puede\ncobrar mayor importancia en los países que\ntienen un sistema federal y en que los bancos de\ngenes están sometidos al control estatal o\nprovincial o en otros países en que se han\nestablecido bancos de genes como entidades\npúblicas que no están sujetas al control directo\ndel gobierno. En esos países, parecería que,\nprima facie, las colecciones no están\ncomprendidas y para ampliar el sistema de\nmanera de que quedasen comprendidas se\nnecesitaría el consentimiento de las instituciones\nde que se tratase. Esto se dispone en el Artículo\n11.3 del Tratado.\nLa expresión ‘‘en el dominio público’’ es\nuna condición de derecho. Por ‘‘dominio\npúblico’’ se entienden los bienes públicos o, en\nel derecho de propiedad intelectual, el material\nque no está protegido por derechos de esa índole.\nEn este contexto, la expresión ‘‘en el dominio\npúblico’’ tiene claramente la segunda acepción.\nEllo no significa que el Sistema Multilateral no\npueda incluir material protegido por derechos de\npropiedad intelectual. Naturalmente, el poseedor\nde esos derechos puede, con arreglo al Artículo\n11.2, incluir voluntariamente el material en el\nSistema Multilateral. No obstante, esos RFGAA\nno están automáticamente comprendidos en el\nalcance del sistema.\nAsí, el Sistema Multilateral se aplica\nesencialmente a plantas, semillas, esquejes, etc.,\nadministrados y controlados por gobiernos de\nPartes Contratantes y respecto de los cuales no\nhaya derechos de propiedad intelectual.\nQuedarían así excluidos todos los recursos\nfitogenéticos en poder de gobiernos provinciales,\nentidades públicas (no gubernamentales) y\nparticulares, así como cualquier material\nrespecto del cual se hagan valer derechos de\npropiedad intelectual. Varios delegados\nconsideraron que estas restricciones adicionales\neran innecesarias porque los derechos de\npropiedad sobre el material que formase parte\nde las colecciones debía respetarse (véase el\nArtículo 12 3 f). Sin embargo, hay cuatro\nelementos que equilibran esa limitación:\nEn primer lugar, se invita a todos los\ndemás poseedores de RFGAA\nenumerados en el Anexo I a incluirlos\nen el Sistema Multilateral con el fin de\nque éste tenga la mayor cobertura\nposible (Artículo 11.2)100;\nEn segundo lugar, las Partes convienen\nen tomar medidas para alentar a las\npersonas físicas y jurídicas dentro de\nsu jurisdicción a que incluyan en el\nSistema Multilateral los RFGAA\nenumerados que tuviesen en su poder\n(véase el Artículo 11 3);\nEn tercer lugar, el Órgano Rector\nexamina con arreglo al Tratado los\nprogresos realizados en cuanto a la\ninclusión de RFGAA en poder de\npersonas físicas y jurídicas en el\nSistema Multilateral dentro de los dos\naños siguientes a la entrada en vigor del\nTratado (Artículo 11 4); y\n100 El Artículo 11.2 hace referencia a ‘‘todos los demás poseedores’’ de RFGAA enumerados en el Anexo I. ¿Sería\nesto aplicable a los poseedores de RFGAA enumerados en el Anexo I de un Estado que no es Parte Contratante?\nEn principio, no parecería serlo. El Artículo 11.2 se refiere a la cobertura del sistema multilateral entre Partes\nContratantes y la segunda oración parecería completar el concepto de cobertura en el mismo contexto. En todo\ncaso, nada obstaría para que el poseedor de RFGAA enumerados en el Anexo I los pusiera a disposición en las\nmismas condiciones que el sistema multilateral. A la inversa, una medida voluntaria unilateral tomada por el\nposeedor de RFGAA de esa índole que no estuviera dentro de la jurisdicción de una Parte Contratante no crearía\nderechos ni obligaciones para ese Estado que no es  Parte Contratante.\n91\nArtículo 11\nEn cuarto lugar, existe una disposición\nen el sentido de que el Órgano Rector,\ndespués de esa evaluación, decidirá (en\nforma compatible con lo dispuesto en\nel Artículo 19.2) si deberá o no seguir\nfacilitándose el acceso a las personas\nfísicas y jurídicas que no hayan incluido\nlos RFGAA en su poder en el Sistema\nMultilateral (Artículo 11 4).\nLas disposiciones relativas a la evaluación\ny la amenaza de una posible exclusión de los\nbeneficios del Sistema Multilateral obedecen al\npropósito de alentar a los poseedores de colec-\nciones semipúblicas y privadas, como gobiernos\nprovinciales, universidades e institutos de\ninvestigación independientes y particulares a\nincluir voluntariamente sus RFGAA en el\nSistema Multilateral.\n11.5 El Sistema Multilateral deberá incluir también los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I y mantenidos en las\ncolecciones ex situ de los centros internacionales de investigación agrícola del Grupo\nConsultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI), según se estipula\nen el Artículo 15.1a, y en otras instituciones internacionales, de conformidad con\nlo dispuesto en el Artículo 15.5.\nEl Tratado reconoce en el Artículo 15.1 la\nimportancia que revisten para él las colecciones\nex situ de RFGAA mantenidas por los Centros\nInternacionales de Investigación Agrícola del\nGCIAI en depósito para la comunidad\ninternacional, así como las colecciones ex situ\nen poder de otras instituciones internacionales.\nEl Artículo 11.5 incluye en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral a los RFGAA que se mantengan en esas\ncolecciones y estén enumerados en el Anexo I,\ncon sujeción a lo dispuesto en el Artículo 15. A\neste respecto es interesante señalar que los\ncriterios establecidos en el Artículo 11.2 no son\naplicables a los RFGAA que mantengan los\nCentros Internacionales de Investigación Agrí-\ncola. En la práctica, naturalmente, los RFGAA\nque se mantienen en colecciones en depósito no\nestán bajo la administración o el control de una\nParte Contratante. Normalmente, tampoco\nincluyen material que sea objeto de derechos de\npropiedad intelectual, aunque podrían incluirlo.\nEl Artículo 11.5 prevé también la inclusión\nen el Sistema Multilateral de las colecciones\nex situ de otras instituciones internacionales que\nfirmen acuerdos con el Órgano Rector. Se vuelve\na hacer referencia a esto en el Artículo 15.5.\nRespecto de los recursos fitogenéticos\nenumerados en el Anexo I, el acceso y la distribu-\nción de beneficios han de tener lugar de\nconformidad con el Tratado (Artículos 12 y 13).\nLos recursos fitogenéticos no enumerados en el\nAnexo I y recolectados antes de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado han de quedar disponibles de\nconformidad con los Acuerdos de transferencia\nde material que actualmente conciertan la FAO\ny los CIIA (véase el Artículo 15.1 a y b)101.\nEn el Artículo 15 se hace referencia en\nforma más detallada a la función de los Centros\nInternacionales de Investigación Agrícola y otras\ninstituciones internacionales y a las colecciones\nque mantienen.\n101 Artículo 15.1 a) y b) del Tratado.\n92\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n93\nArtículo 12\nArtículo 12 – Facilitación del acceso a los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ndentro del Sistema Multilateral\nEn la Resolución 7/93 de la Conferencia de la\nFAO, por la que se establecieron las negocia-\nciones para revisar el Compromiso Internacional,\nse señalaba que ‘‘la Comisión de Recursos\nFitogenéticos de la FAO, en su Cuarta Reunión,\nconvino en que era preciso aclarar ulteriormente\nlas condiciones de acceso a los recursos\nfitogenéticos’’. Una importante función del\nTratado consiste en facilitar (agilizar o hacer\nrutinario) todas las formas de acceso a RFGAA\nde cultivos incluidos en el Sistema Multilateral.\nEn los términos del Tratado, significa la\n‘‘facilitación del acceso’’. En el Artículo 12 se\nespecifican las modalidades para facilitarlo.\nLa negociación de estas disposiciones fue\ndifícil y se caracterizó por la necesidad de\nmantener un equilibrio entre los objetivos de\nfacilitar el acceso a los RFGAA y distribuir los\nbeneficios. Se caracterizó también por el deseo\nde varias delegaciones de asegurarse de que el\nacceso facilitado estuviese limitado a los\npropósitos de investigación, mejoramiento y\ncapacitación para la alimentación y la agricultura\ny no se extendiera en modo alguno al acceso para\nprocesos químicos o farmacéuticos u otros\nprocesos industriales que no tuvieran relación\ncon la alimentación o el forraje. Había también\ncierta tensión en las negociaciones en razón de\nque era preciso asegurar que los procedimientos\nde acceso estuviesen realmente destinados a\nfacilitar y agilizar ese acceso sin necesidad de\naveriguar el origen de cada una de las muestras,\ny la necesidad por otra parte de asegurarse de\nque las obligaciones impuestas en el Sistema\nMultilateral pudiesen traspasarse a otros\nreceptores y de que estos tuvieran que\ncumplirlas. Existía por último la necesidad\ngeneral de asegurarse de que las condiciones en\nque se facilitara el acceso fuesen claras y precisas\ny de evitar algunas de las ambigüedades que\nhabía en el Compromiso Internacional102.\n12.1 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el acceso facilitado a los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura dentro del Sistema Multilateral,\ntal como se define en el Artículo 11, se conceda de conformidad con las disposiciones\ndel presente Tratado.\nLa indicación de que el acceso facilitado a estos\nrecursos fitogenéticos debe concederse ‘‘de\nconformidad con las disposiciones del presente\nTratado’’ subraya el carácter especial del régimen\nque establece el Tratado. En otras palabras,\nrespecto de los RFGAA el acceso facilitado\ntendrá lugar de conformidad con las cláusulas\ndel Tratado, que a su vez aplican en el ámbito\nmultilateral los requisitos del Artículo 15 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. De esta\nmanera, cabe suponer que no es necesario\ndeterminar las ‘‘condiciones mutuamente con-\nvenidas’’ ni exigir el ‘‘consentimiento fundamen-\ntado previo’’ en cada caso; las condiciones enun-\nciadas en el Tratado son en sí las condiciones\nmutuamente convenidas y constituyen el con-\nsentimiento fundamentado previo, establecido\nsobre una base multilateral. El Artículo 12.1\nsignifica también que las disposiciones relativas\nal acceso facilitado a los RFGAA en el Sistema\nMultilateral no deben considerarse aisladamente,\nsino que hay que tener en cuenta todas las\ndisposiciones pertinentes del Tratado, incluidas\nnaturalmente las relativas a la distribución de los\nbeneficios que figuran en el Artículo 13.\n12.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan adoptar las medidas jurídicas necesarias u otras\nmedidas apropiadas para proporcionar dicho acceso a otras Partes Contratantes\nmediante el Sistema Multilateral. A este efecto, deberá proporcionarse también\ndicho acceso a las personas físicas o jurídicas bajo la jurisdicción de cualquier\nParte Contratante, con sujeción a lo dispuesto en el Artículo 11.4.\nEn el Artículo 12.2 se hace particular hincapié\nen las medidas jurídicas, lo que significa que en\nalgunos países (pero no en todos) tal vez haya\nque promulgar o revisar leyes o reglamentos. El\nacceso facilitado se ha de proporcionar a otras\nPartes Contratantes y a personas físicas o\njurídicas bajo la jurisdicción de cualquier Parte\nContratante. Ello significa que se dará acceso a\n102 Véase CPGR-Ex 1/94/5.\n94\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nparticulares, así como a instituciones u organiza-\nciones que tengan ‘‘personalidad jurídica’’, como\nempresas privadas u organizaciones de la socie-\ndad civil que estén situadas en el territorio de\nuna Parte Contratante o estén organizadas o\nfuncionen en el marco de su jurisdicción. Como\nya se ha señalado, la concesión de acceso\nfacilitado a las personas físicas y jurídicas está\nsujeta al examen que haga el Órgano Rector de\nlos progresos realizados en la inclusión de otros\nRFGAA (material de bancos de germoplasma\nprivados, por ejemplo) en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral.\nCabe señalar que esta disposición no obsta\npara que las Partes Contratantes den acceso a\nentidades que no sean Partes en el Tratado.\nAdemás, la decisión del Órgano Rector de dejar\nde conceder acceso facilitado a particulares o\nempresas de conformidad con el Artículo 11.4\nno significa que en el futuro se les haya de negar\ntoda forma de acceso. La consecuencia, sin\nembargo, sería que el acceso no estaría facilitado\nen el sentido del Tratado y no tendría lugar\nnecesariamente de conformidad con sus\ndisposiciones.\nLa referencia al acceso facilitado a otras\nPartes Contratantes y a personas y entidades\njurídicas bajo la jurisdicción de una Parte\nContratante plantea también una cuestión de\ninterpretación en cuanto a si el material obtenido\ndentro del país al amparo del Sistema Multi-\nlateral quedaría sujeto a las condiciones enuncia-\ndas en el Artículo 12.3 y a las disposiciones sobre\ndistribución de los beneficios del Artículo 13.\nNo cabe duda de que quedarían comprendidas\nlas transferencias internacionales, esto es, las\nsolicitudes de una persona de un país a un banco\nde germoplasma de otro país. Cabe preguntarse,\nempero, cuál sería la situación si una persona\nfísica de un país pide acceso facilitado a material\nde un banco de germoplasma en el mismo país y\ncuál sería la situación, por ejemplo, si un investi-\ngador en un centro internacional de investigación\ncientífica tiene acceso a material enumerado en\nel Anexo I del banco de germoplasma de ese\nmismo centro de investigación.\nNormalmente, los tratados internacionales\nrigen las relaciones entre Partes Contratantes y\nno crean derechos y obligaciones entre las Partes\nContratantes y sus propios nacionales a menos\nque lo diga expresamente el tratado de que se\ntrate. En este caso, la redacción del Artículo 12.2\nrequiere que se conceda acceso facilitado a\npersonas físicas y jurídicas bajo la jurisdicción\nde ‘‘cualquier’’ Parte Contratante (esto es,\nincluidas las personas físicas y jurídicas bajo la\njurisdicción de la Parte Contratante que conceda\nel acceso) y no limita los derechos de acceso a\npersonas físicas y jurídicas de ‘‘cualquier otra’’\nParte Contratante. Según la Convención de Viena\nsobre el Derecho de los Tratados, éstos se han\nde interpretar ‘‘de buena fe conforme al sentido\ncorriente que haya de atribuirse a los términos\ndel tratado en el contexto de éstos y teniendo en\ncuenta su objeto y fin’’103. Dejando de lado el\nsentido literal del Artículo 12.2, bien cabría\naducir en este caso determinado que al interpretar\nque las transacciones de acceso nacional no están\ncomprendidas en el Sistema Multilateral se\ncrearía un resquicio en el Tratado que sería\nincompatible con los objetivos de éste\nenunciados en el Artículo 1. Si los receptores de\nRFGAA pudiesen exigir acceso a material\nenumerado en el Anexo I de los bancos de genes\nde sus propios países fuera del marco del Tratado\ny luego exportarlos a otras empresas o a sus\nfiliales en otras jurisdicciones no sujetas a\nobligación alguna en virtud del Sistema\nMultilateral, éste sería pronto inmanejable en su\nconjunto.\nEn todo caso, a pesar de lo que antecede,\nla situación con respecto a las transferencias\nnacionales sigue siendo poco clara y diversas\nPartes Contratantes la interpretan de distintas\nmaneras.\nTampoco es clara la situación con respecto\na la utilización por investigadores de Centros\nInternacionales de Investigación Agrícola de\nMaterial que se encuentre en el banco del mismo\ncentro. Según los objetivos del Tratado, debería\nconsiderarse que se trata de una muestra obtenida\nal amparo del Sistema Multilateral. Sin embargo,\nlos términos efectivamente empleados en el\nArtículo 12.2 no respaldan tan claramente esa\ninterpretación. En este caso, la muestra no es\nobtenida por una entidad separada sino por el\npropio Centro Internacional de Investigación\nAgrícola, si bien se trata de material ‘‘en\ndepósito’’ de la comunidad internacional. Será\ninteresante ver cómo aplican estas disposiciones\nen la práctica las Partes Contratantes y los\npropios CIIA. Habría consideraciones similares\naplicables a la utilización por mejoradores del\nsector público de material que se mantenga en\nbancos de genes públicos nacionales.\n103 Convención de Viena sobre el Derecho de los Tratados, 1969, Artículo 31.1.\n95\nArtículo 12\nCon arreglo al Tratado, una Parte Con-\ntratante está obligada a conceder acceso a los\nRFGAA en el Sistema Multilateral cuando lo\npida otra Parte Contratante, cuando lo pida una\npersona física o jurídica bajo la jurisdicción de\nuna Parte o cuando lo pida un centro inter-\nnacional de investigación agrícola u otra\ninstitución internacional que haya firmado un\nacuerdo con el Órgano Rector en virtud del\nArtículo 15. Estos son los casos en que debe\nconcederse acceso facilitado de conformidad con\nel Tratado. Como ya se ha señalado, ello no obsta\na que las Partes Contratantes concedan acceso a\notros materiales en otros casos ni obsta para que\nuna Parte Contratante aplique las mismas\ncondiciones a esos otros materiales y casos. En\nla práctica, y a fin de aplicar una serie única de\ncondiciones a todas las transferencias, las Partes\ny los institutos internacionales podrían decidir\nque todo el material se proporcionara de\nconformidad con los términos de los Artículos\n12.3 y 12.4 sobre acceso facilitado, con lo que a\nla vez se simplificaría la administración del\nacceso y se optimizaría la distribución de\nbeneficios sobre una base multilateral. Habría\nque fomentar que se optara por esta solución\nhabida cuenta de los beneficios que entraña el\nacceso a la variedad más amplia posible de\nRFGAA.\n12.3 Dicho acceso se concederá con arreglo a las condiciones que siguen:\nLas condiciones convenidas que se enuncian en\nel Artículo 12.3 se aplican al ‘‘acceso facilitado’’\nen virtud del Sistema Multilateral. Las condi-\nciones de acceso están enunciadas en los ocho\npárrafos del Artículo 12.3. Como se señaló antes\nen el comentario al Artículo 9, relativo a los\nderechos del agricultor, se plantea la cuestión\nde si estas condiciones son excluyentes o se\npueden imponer condiciones nuevas. Sin duda,\nen la medida en que se trate de condiciones\najenas al Tratado, quedan excluidas por la\nredacción del Artículo 12.1, esto es, el acuerdo\nque facilite el acceso en virtud del Sistema\nMultilateral deberá concertarse de conformidad\ncon las disposiciones del Tratado. En lo que\nrespecta a otras disposiciones del Tratado como,\npor ejemplo, el derecho de los agricultores a\nparticipar en forma equitativa en la distribución\nde los beneficios derivados de la utilización de\nRFGAA, se trata de una cuestión que gueda para\nla interpretación de las propias Partes Contra-\ntantes, si bien como principio general parece\nclaro que la intención del Tratado es que la\ndistribución de beneficios en virtud del Sistema\nMultilateral tenga lugar sobre una base multi-\nlateral y no bilateral.\nEn los apartados a) a h) del Artículo 12.3\nse especifican las condiciones en que se concede\nel acceso y se indican las circunstancias en que\nese acceso podría denegarse legítimamente.\nEstos párrafos son fundamentales para el\nfuncionamiento del Sistema Multilateral. En\ngeneral, reconocen la aplicabilidad al material\nde derechos de propiedad intelectual y otros\nderechos de propiedad. Instan a las Partes\nContratantes a facilitar no sólo el material\ngenético sino también información conexa,\ndescriptiva y no sujeta a derechos de propiedad\nintelectual, con inclusión de información sobre\nlos antecedentes de la muestra.\nSin embargo, es importante observar que\nlos párrafos dejan abiertos algunos problemas\nprácticos de aplicación, que deberá resolver el\nÓrgano Rector.\na) El acceso se concederá exclusivamente con fines de utilización y conservación para la\ninvestigación, el mejoramiento y la capacitación para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nsiempre que dicha finalidad no lleve consigo aplicaciones químicas, farmacéuticas y/\nu otros usos industriales no relacionados con los alimentos/piensos. En el caso de los\ncultivos de aplicaciones múltiples (alimentarias y no alimentarias), su importancia\npara la seguridad alimentaria será el factor determinante para su inclusión en el\nSistema Multilateral y la disponibilidad para el acceso facilitado.\nHubo acuerdo en que el material proporcionado\npor conducto del Sistema Multilateral debía serlo\nexclusivamente ‘‘con fines de utilización y\nconservación para la investigación, el\nmejoramiento y la capacitación’’ para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. Por lo tanto, es\nfundamental observar que es la utilización del\nmaterial, y no el material propiamente dicho, lo\nque ha de determinar si es aplicable el Sistema\nMultilateral y ello es particularmente pertinente\nen el caso de los cultivos para aplicaciones\nmúltiples. En el párrafo se señala claramente que\nestán excluidos del acceso facilitado al amparo\ndel Sistema Multilateral las aplicaciones\nquímicas o farmacéuticas u otros usos\nindustriales no relacionados con los alimentos/\npiensos. En consecuencia, quienes quieran\nacceso para esos fines tendrán que hacer\n96\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nacuerdos separados. En todo caso, el texto no\nexcluye la celebración de otros acuerdos para\nusos especiales o de acuerdos regionales que\ncomprendan esos usos. Esto significa que los\nposeedores de RFGAA al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral pueden proporcionar los para fines\ndistintos de los estipulados por el Tratado,\nincluso usos industriales, pero en esos casos no\nserán automáticamente aplicables las\ncondiciones de preferencia previstas en el\nSistema Multilateral.\nEl Artículo 12.3a no permite ni sanciona\nexpresamente el acceso para fines de utilización\ndirecta por los agricultores para cultivo. Sin\nembargo, era evidente que los negociadores no\nquerían que los bancos de genes compitieran con\nla distribución ordinaria de semillas o material\nde propagación a los agricultores y hay que\nconsiderar que ese acceso para la utilización\ndirecta es extraordinario. Se da esta situación,\npor ejemplo, en los casos en que se quiere una\nmuestra para un determinado mercado\nespecializado (una papa de color, por ejemplo)\ny no se necesita mayor mejoramiento, así como\nen casos en que el cultivo propiamente dicho no\nes objeto de mayor mejoramiento (legumbres,\npor ejemplo) o cuando se trata de enriquecer la\ndiversidad genética en las fincas de los agri-\ncultores para la selección ulterior. En el Artículo\n12.3 a no se prevé expresamente el acceso\nfacilitado para aplicaciones directas o para\nmultiplicación. Cabe interpretar que se trata de\nuna exclusión intencional de esa utilización del\námbito del acceso facilitado al amparo del\nSistema Multilateral. Esta situación tiene\nparticular importancia para los CIIA del GCIAI,\npero también se plantea en otros casos.\nActualmente, los Acuerdos de transferencia de\nmaterial que se utilizan con arreglo a los acuerdos\nde depósito entre la FAO y el GCIAI permiten\nel acceso para esos fines. La Comisión, en su\nNovena Reunión (2002), al aprobar los Acuerdos\nde transferencia de material que utilizarían los\nCIIA con arreglo a los acuerdos de depósito con\nla FAO, convino en la siguiente nota:\nEllo no obstará para que los receptores\npongan el material directamente a dispo-\nsición de agricultores o consumidores\npara el cultivo, siempre que se cumplan\nlas demás condiciones enunciadas en el\npresente acuerdo.\nUna interpretación posible, que no sería\ncontraria al texto literal del Artículo 12.3 a ni a\nlos objetivos del Tratado podría ser que, si bien\nla utilización directa para el cultivo no es una\nutilización para la cual puede pedirse acceso\nfacilitado, ello no obstaría para que se propor-\ncionase material a los efectos de su utilización\ndirecta en el cultivo cuando ello fuera conforme\ncon los objetivos del Tratado y necesario para el\ncumplimiento de los mandatos de las\ninstituciones de que se tratara. Ello puede ocurrir\ncon cada vez mayor frecuencia en tanto los\nbancos de genes sirven de refugio para materiales\nutilizados en las fincas que se ven cada vez más\namenazados.\nLa última oración del Artículo 12.3 a crea\nalgunos problemas. Según su texto ‘‘En el caso\nde los cultivos de aplicaciones múltiples (alimen-\ntarias y no alimentarias), su importancia para la\nseguridad alimentaria será el factor determinante\npara su inclusión en el Sistema Multilateral y la\ndisponibilidad para el acceso facilitado’’. Es\nextraño que esta oración figure aquí y no en el\nArtículo 11.1, pues también esa disposición\nparece referirse a la cobertura del Sistema\nMultilateral y no a las condiciones del acceso\nfacilitado. De hecho, la oración parece quedar a\nmitad de camino entre el concepto de ‘‘condi-\nciones de acceso’’ y el de ‘‘cobertura’’. Tal vez\nla palabra clave sea ‘‘determinante’’, lo que\nplantea la interrogante de quién ha de determinar\nque un cultivo específico de aplicaciones\nmúltiples deberá o no quedar comprendido en el\nSistema Multilateral. Si la decisión se toma al\nmomento de la inclusión del cultivo en el Anexo\nI, se toma en forma conjunta por consenso de\nlas Partes Contratantes. En cambio, si se toma\nal momento de solicitar los RFGAA en cuestión,\nestaría primordialmente a cargo de la Parte\nContratante que proporcionase esos recursos a\nla luz de las circunstancias de la solicitud. En el\ncontexto del Artículo 12.3 a, parecería que la\nintención consiste en dejar la decisión librada a\nla Parte Contratante que proporcione la muestra,\nen consulta con la Parte Contratante (o la persona\nfísica o jurídica) que la solicite. Las disposiciones\ndel Artículo 12.3 a presuponen que el RFGAA\nestá incluido en el Anexo I y que la última\noración no obedece al propósito de servir de\nmedio para ampliar esa lista. Por lo tanto, debe\nconsiderarse que se trata de una forma de hacer\nmás estrictas las disposiciones de la primera\noración del artículo.\n97\nArtículo 12\nEl párrafo b) apunta a asegurar el funcionamiento\neficiente del Sistema Multilateral al reducir los\ncostos de transacción y mantener un rápido\nacceso a los RFGAA.\nEl requisito de que el acceso sea concedido\nde manera rápida no suscita comentarios, salvo\nindicar que este requisito debe interpretarse de\nuna manera razonable. Por ejemplo, puede\nocurrir que un banco de germoplasma se quede\nsin material y, por lo tanto, tenga que regenerarlo\nantes de poder atender a sus compromisos de\nsuministro. Naturalmente esto no sería contrario\nal requisito de que el acceso se conceda de\nmanera rápida, a condición de que la demora sea\nrazonable en las circunstancias. Tampoco sería\ncontrario a ese requisito la imposibilidad de pro-\nporcionar muestras por razones de fuerza mayor.\nLa indicación expresa de que no habrá\nnecesidad de averiguar el origen de cada una de\nlas muestras requiere un comentario. Muchos de\nlos negociadores esperaban que todos los\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral quedasen cubiertos automáticamente y\nque no hubiese necesidad de rastrear cada una\nde las muestras ni de establecer alguna forma de\nacuerdo de transferencia de material. Por lo tanto,\nlas obligaciones en el marco del Sistema Multi-\nlateral se harían cumplir por conducto de la\nlegislación nacional y no necesariamente a través\nde un nexo contractual entre el poseedor y el\nreceptor de los recursos fitogenéticos. Hacia el\nfinal de las negociaciones se decidió incluir\núnicamente material que estuviese bajo la\nadministración y el control de las Partes\nContratantes y otros materiales incluidos\nvoluntariamente en el sistema y se adoptó el\nacuerdo de transferencia de material como el\ninstrumento para imponer obligaciones, con lo\nque el sentido de este requisito especial parece\nhaber cambiado un tanto. En cierta medida, la\nutilización de Acuerdos de transferencia de\nmaterial significa que automáticamente queda\nuna constancia formal de cada transferencia. Para\nlas transferencias ulteriores también deberá haber\nacuerdos de esta índole. La disposición de este\nartículo parece significar ahora que los\nposeedores de RFGAA no tendrán que rastrear\ncada una de las transferencias ulteriores del\nmaterial a que se tenga acceso. De ser necesario\naveriguar el origen de material obtenido del\nSistema Multilateral, ello se hará ex post facto,\nes decir, cuando haya un producto que incorpore\nmaterial a que se haya tenido acceso al amparo\ndel Sistema Multilateral y siempre que haya una\ncontroversia en cuanto al incumplimiento de las\ncondiciones de acceso por los receptores\nulteriores.\nEn cuanto al requisito de que el acceso se\nconceda gratuitamente, en general se reconoce\nque se pueden cobrar derechos administrativos,\npero que ellos no deberían exceder del costo real\nni constituir un honorario oculto por concepto\nde acceso.\nb) El acceso se concederá de manera rápida, sin necesidad de averiguar el origen de\ncada una de las muestras, y gratuitamente, y cuando se cobre una tarifa ésta no\ndeberá superar los costos mínimos correspondientes;\nc) Con los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura suministrados se\nproporcionarán los datos de pasaporte disponibles y, con arreglo a la legislación\nvigente, cualquier otra información descriptiva asociada no confidencial disponible;\nEl párrafo c) especifica qué tipo de información,\nademás del germoplasma, se proporcionará.\nLos datos de pasaporte son los datos\nbásicos que describen e identifican al material\nde que se trata. Normalmente incluirán el número\nde identificación de la muestra u otra forma de\nidentidad asignada por el donante o el recolector\n(en el sistema de los Estados Unidos, el número\nde introducción de la planta); la especie, la\nsubespecie y cualquier otro descriptor taxo-\nnómico, el nombre local o de la variedad, el\nestado biológico, esto es, cultivada o silvestre,\nel país o la colección internacional que lo\nproporciona, y datos tales como la ubicación\ngeográfica, la fecha de la recolección y la\nidentidad del recolector. En las listas de la FAO/\nIPGRI se incluyen datos de pasaporte mínimos,\nque se pueden consultar en el sitio del IPGRI en\nInternet. Sin embargo, las listas de datos podrán\ndefinirse en el modelo de acuerdo de transferen-\ncia de material, cuando éste sea aprobado.\nOtra información descriptiva asociada\ndisponible incluiría normalmente datos sobre la\ncaracterización y la evaluación, y se hace\nreferencia a ellos en la Guía en relación con el\nArtículo 5.1 e.\n98\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl alcance de esta obligación, sin embargo,\npuede ser objeto de mayores condiciones y una\ndefinición ulterior en el texto del Acuerdo\nNormalizado de Transferencia de Material\n(ANTM) porque el suministro de toda la\ninformación descriptiva pertinente podría ser\ncostoso y dificil. También hay que resolver de\nqué manera se ha de distribuir la información\ncomo, por ejemplo, si bastaría con una referencia\na la información disponible en Internet.\nEl párrafo c), refiriéndose a otra informa-\nción asociada disponible, enuncia la condición\nde que el material se ha de proporcionar ‘‘con\narreglo a la legislación vigente’’. Tácitamente\nse está haciendo referencia a cualquier infor-\nmación que sea objeto de derechos de propiedad\nintelectual. El derecho de autor y el secreto\ncomercial son particularmente pertinentes en el\ncaso de los datos sobre evaluación.\nHay que señalar que en el Artículo 13.2 a\nse hace referencia más en general al tema del\nintercambio de información, si bien no necesaria-\nmente en el contexto de cada muestra.\nd) Los receptores no reclamarán ningún derecho de propiedad intelectual o de otra\níndole que limite el acceso facilitado a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura, o sus partes o componentes genéticos, en la forma recibida del Sistema\nMultilateral;\nLa disposición del Artículo 12.3 d relativa a los\nderechos de propiedad intelectual fue una de las\nque suscitó más controversia en las negocia-\nciones del Tratado. En el curso de éstas, todos\nlos países estaban de acuerdo en que no debían\naplicarse a los RFGAA en la forma en que se\nrecibieran efectivamente en el Sistema\nMultilateral derechos de propiedad intelectual\ntales como patentes y derechos del obtentor.\nFiguraba una disposición similar en los acuerdos\nde depósito entre la FAO y los CIIA. Este párrafo\nes fundamental para determinar en qué medida\nse pueden aplicar los derechos de propiedad\nintelectual al material al que se tenga acceso al\namparo del Sistema Multilateral. Lamentable-\nmente, esta disposición contiene ciertas ambi-\ngüedades que la dejan abierta a interpretaciones\ndiscrepantes y ello se debe en gran medida a tres\ncuestiones principales:\n1) ‘‘Derecho de propiedad intelectual o de otra índole que limite el acceso facilitado ...’’\nLa disposición prohíbe a los receptores reclamar\n‘‘ningún derecho de propiedad intelectual o de\notra índole que limite el acceso facilitado’’. Los\nderechos de propiedad intelectual se referirían a\nlos de cualquier tipo, en particular patentes,\nderechos del obtentor y secretos comerciales.\nLos ‘‘derechos de otra índole’’ podrían incluir\nreivindicaciones de propiedad de las muestras\nrecibidas.\nA estos efectos, el Tratado no define el\ntérmino ‘‘acceso facilitado’’. Sin embargo, es\nevidente que acceso facilitado es el tipo de\nacceso a los RFGAA en el Sistema Multilateral\nque las Partes Contratantes se han obligado a\nproporcionar de conformidad con lo dispuesto\nen el Artículo 12. El Artículo 12.3 a especifica\nque el acceso facilitado se concederá ‘‘exclusiva-\nmente con fines de utilización y conservación\npara la investigación, el mejoramiento y la\ncapacitación para la alimentación y la agri-\ncultura’’. Así, pues, el Artículo 12.3 d no\nparecería prohibir que se concedieran a los\nreceptores derechos del obtentor o patentes que\nincluyeran una exención respecto del material\nrecibido, ya que esos derechos o patentes no\nsurtirían el efecto de limitar un nuevo acceso\nfacilitado a los RFGAA para esos fines.\nNaturalmente, las oficinas de propiedad\nintelectual podrán normalmente no dar lugar a\nsolicitudes de protección de la propiedad\nintelectual respecto de material recibido del\nSistema Multilateral que no se haya mejorado\nulteriormente en modo alguno. Sin embargo,\ndejando esto de lado, no parece probable que la\nintención de los negociadores haya consistido\nen permitir que los receptores soliciten derechos\ndel obtentor o patentes con exenciones relativas\na la investigación respecto del material recibido\ndel Sistema Multilateral en la forma recibida.\nEvidentemente ello no se ajustaría a la práctica\nanterior, por ejemplo los Acuerdos de trans-\nferencia de material utilizados por los CIIA del\nGCIAI con arreglo a los acuerdos de depósito\ncon la FAO. Habida cuenta de lo que antecede,\ntal vez el Órgano Rector quiera aclarar esta\ncuestión, quizá en el contexto de la aprobación\ndel Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de\nMaterial104.\n99\nArtículo 12\nSobre la base de la estructura de la oración,\nno parecería tratarse de una prohibición de hacer\nvaler derechos de propiedad intelectual o de otra\níndole respecto del material en la forma recibida\ndel Sistema Multilateral, sino de hacer valer\nderechos de propiedad intelectual o de otra índole\nque limiten el acceso facilitado a los recursos\nen la forma recibida del Sistema Multilateral105.\nDe ser ésta la interpretación correcta, la con-\nsecuencia es que no se pueden adquirir derechos\nde propiedad intelectual respecto de los recursos\nni de productos ulteriores derivados de esos\nrecursos si el efecto retroactivo consistiera en\nlimitar el acceso facilitado de otros a los recursos\noriginales a que se tuvo acceso. Normalmente\nlos derechos de propiedad intelectual no limitan\nese acceso.\nEn todo caso, el significado de la oración\nparece ambiguo en el sentido de que muchos\ncomentaristas siguen considerando que la\ndisposición simplemente quiere decir que los\nreceptores no pueden hacer valer derechos de\npropiedad intelectual respecto de los recursos en\nla forma recibida del Sistema Multilateral.\n2) ‘‘Recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, o sus partes o componentes\ngenéticos’’\nEn el Artículo 2 del Tratado se definen los\ntérminos ‘‘recursos fitogenéticos para la alimen-\ntación y la agricultura’’ y ‘‘material genético’’.\nNo ocurre lo mismo, sin embargo, en el caso del\nconcepto de ‘‘partes o componentes genéticos’’.\nEsta expresión, si bien no está clara, cabe suponer\nque incluiría los genes o cualquier parte de éstos\nque se encontraran en las muestras a que se\ntuviese acceso.\nDe ser así, el texto del Artículo 12.3  d\nsignificaría que no se pueden obtener derechos\nde propiedad intelectual respecto de las muestras\na que se tenga acceso al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral que faciliten el acceso a los RFGAA\noriginales, sus genes o cualquier parte de ellos\n‘‘en la forma recibida’’ del Sistema Multilateral.\n3) ‘‘En la forma recibida’’\nLa expresión ‘‘en la forma recibida’’ evidente-\nmente significaría que no pueden obtenerse\nderechos de propiedad intelectual respecto de las\nmuestras recibidas del Sistema Multilateral ya\nque ello, por definición, limitaría el acceso\nfacilitado de otros a esas muestras. Tampoco\npueden obtenerse derechos de propiedad\nintelectual respecto de productos derivados de\nesas muestras si el efecto de esos derechos\nconsistiera en limitar el acceso a las muestras\noriginales, sus genes o cualquier parte de éstos,\nen la forma recibida.\nHay que preguntarse, en todo caso, qué quiere\ndecir ‘‘en la forma recibida’’. ¿Quedarían\nexcluidos los genes aislados de las muestras\nrecibidas porque los RFGAA no se recibieron\nen la forma de genes aislados? ¿La adición de\nun solo gen ‘‘cosmético’’ (mediante transforma-\nción o un retrocruzamiento convencional, por\nejemplo) a una muestra recibida sería suficiente\npara distinguir un nuevo producto del material\nrecibido del Sistema Multilateral? ¿Basta con\nincluir en un nuevo producto un gen esencial-\nmente no modificado?\nSe considera que esas cuestiones están\nresueltas en el derecho y la práctica de la\npropiedad intelectual, reflejados en los acuerdos\ninternacionales y la legislación nacional per-\ntinentes. Cabe suponer que los países las\nresolverán oportunamente, ya sea individual-\nmente en el contexto de su propio sistema de\nderechos de propiedad intelectual o colectiva-\nmente actuando en el Órgano Rector u otro foro\ninternacional adecuado. En el ínterin, el carácter\nambiguo del Artículo 12.3 d y, en particular, de\nla expresión ‘‘en la forma recibida’’ ha hecho,\nque al momento de la aprobación del Tratado,\nvarios países desarrollados insistieran en que\nentendían que la disposición no modificaba o\nlimitaba en modo alguno los derechos de\n104 Según el Artículo 12.4 del Tratado el modelo de acuerdo de transferencia de material que adopte el órgano rector\ndeberá contener, entre otras cosas, las disposiciones del Artículo 12.3 d).\n105 Es difícil interpretar la oración en sentido contrario. En el texto inglés, las palabras ‘‘that limit the facilitated\naccess’’ parecen referirse tanto a  ‘‘intellectual property’’ como a ‘‘other rights’’. Incluso si se interpretaran las\npalabras ‘‘intellectual property’’ en el sentido de ‘‘intellectual property rights’’ y quedasen separadas, el empleo\nde la palabra ‘‘other’’ necesariamente pone en juego la restricción de que ‘‘limit the facilitated access’’.\n106 Véanse las declaraciones formuladas por los delegados de Australia, el Canadá, los Estados Unidos de Amé-\nrica, el Japón y la Comunidad Europea con ocasión de la aprobación del Tratado por la Conferencia de la FAO.\n100\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\npropiedad intelectual protegidos o acuerdos de\npropiedad intelectual vigentes o especiales106. Al\ninterpretar este párrafo, sin embargo, tal vez las\nPartes Contratantes deseen considerar el\ncontexto del Artículo 12 en su conjunto, que\nparece indicar que el motivo para no aceptar que\nse hagan valer derechos de propiedad intelectual\nen ciertas circunstancias consiste en asegurar el\nacceso para los fines de investigación y\nmejoramiento del material recibido.\ne) El acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en fase de\nmejoramiento, incluido el material que estén mejorando los agricultores, se concederá\ndurante el período de mejoramiento a discreción de quien lo haya obtenido;\nAl igual que en el caso de la información sujeta\na derechos de propiedad intelectual, el Artículo\n12 enuncia algunas excepciones relativas a los\ntipos de material genético que han de facilitarse\ny cuándo ha de hacerse. No es necesario\nconceder acceso al material genético ‘‘en fase\nde mejoramiento’’ durante el período de mejora-\nmiento, si bien los agricultores y fitomejoradores\npueden hacerlo si quieren. Si bien la intención\ndel Artículo 12.3 e puede ser razonablemente\nclara, la redacción es un tanto flexible en el\nsentido de que no especifica qué quiere decir ‘‘en\nfase de mejoramiento’’ ni define cuándo termina\nel ‘‘período de mejoramiento’’. El resultado\npráctico, en todo caso, parece ser que no es\nnecesario dar acceso a las líneas de mejoramiento\ny al material genético del agricultor durante el\nperíodo en que son mejorados y conservados\npara utilizarlos en la producción de una nueva\nvariedad. Esta disposición sigue el concepto\nintroducido en el Compromiso Internacional con\narreglo a la tercera interpretación concertada del\nCompromiso Internacional aprobada en 1991\n(Resolución 3/91 de la Conferencia), que\nespecifica en el párrafo 2 de su parte dispositiva\n‘‘que las líneas de mejoramiento y el material\nde los agricultores deberán estar disponibles\nsólo a discreción de quienes los han obtenido\ndurante el período de desarrollo’’. En el\npárrafo e) se ha omitido la referencia expresa a\nlas líneas de mejoramiento, pero éstas están\nnaturalmente incluidas en la referencia general\na los RFGAA en fase de mejoramiento.\nf) El acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura protegidos\npor derechos de propiedad intelectual o de otra índole estará en consonancia con los\nacuerdos internacionales pertinentes y con la legislación nacional vigente;\nEl Artículo 12.3 f asegura que no se extingan\nlos derechos de propiedad intelectual, tales como\nlos derechos del obtentor y las patentes, en el\ncaso de los RFGAA cuando estén incluidos en\nel Sistema Multilateral o cuando se obtenga una\nmuestra de ese sistema. Habida cuenta de que\núnicamente los RFGAA en el dominio público\ny bajo la administración y el control de las Partes\nContratantes están automáticamente incluidos en\nel Sistema Multilateral, este párrafo debe referir-\nRecuadro 11. Derechos de propiedad intelectual sobre los RFGAA\nSegún el Artículo 27.3 b) del Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC de la OMC, los Miembros podrán\nexcluir de la patentabilidad las plantas y los animales, excepto los microorganismos y los\nprocedimientos esencialmente biológicos para la producción de plantas o animales que no\nsean procedimientos no biológicos o microbiológicos. Sin embargo, deben otorgar protección\na todas las obtenciones vegetales mediante patentes, mediante un sistema eficaz sui generis o\nmediante una combinación de aquéllas y éste. En el presente recuadro se examinarán\nsomeramente los tipos más comunes de derechos de propiedad intelectual: las patentes, los\nderechos del obtentor y la información no divulgada (secretos comerciales).\nPatentes\nLas patentes constituyen una forma de protección de la propiedad intelectual de las invenciones,\nsean de productos o de procedimientos, siempre que sean nuevas, entrañen una actividad\ninventiva (que no sea evidente) y sean susceptibles de aplicación industrial (que sean útiles).\nLas patentes entrañan una prohibición (ius excluendi) de la utilización no autorizada de material\npatentado por terceros, generalmente por un período de 20 años. Según el Artículo 28.1 a) del\nAcuerdo sobre los ADPIC, las patentes relativas a productos confieren el derecho de impedir\na terceros ‘‘actos de fabricación, uso, oferta para la venta, venta o importación para estos\nfines del producto sin el consentimiento del titular de la patente’’. En el caso de las patentes\n101\nArtículo 12\nsobre procedimientos, el titular puede impedir la utilización no autorizada del procedimiento,\nasí como la comercialización de un producto ‘‘obtenido directamente por medio de ese\nprocedimiento’’.\nCabe deducir que si una variedad de planta está protegida por una patente, tal vez no sea\nposible utilizar el material de propagación de esa variedad para fines comerciales, incluido el\nde crear variedades nuevas. Igualmente, si se patentan células modificadas, la comercialización\nde cualquier planta compuesta de esas células infringiría la patente. Esa es una de las principales\npreocupaciones de los productores de algodón de la India en vista de la patente sobre todo el\nalgodón transgénico conferida a Agracetus (patente de los Estados Unidos No. 5.169.135) y\nlo mismo ocurre con los agricultores de la región andina con respecto a la patente concedida\na la Universidad del Estado de Colorado (patente de los Estados Unidos No. 5.304.718).\nComo ya se ha señalado, el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC permite a las Partes excluir de la\npatentabilidad a las plantas, si bien esa exclusión no puede extenderse a los microorganismos\nni a los procedimientos que no sean biológicos o microbiológicos. La relación entre plantas y\npatentes varía mucho en las distintas jurisdicciones. Las variedades de plantas pueden quedar\nexcluidas de la patentabilidad y lo están, por ejemplo, en los países europeos en virtud del\nConvenio sobre Concesión de Patentes Europeas107. En los Estados Unidos, en cambio, se\npueden conceder patentes sobre variedades de plantas y de hecho han sido concedidas. También\nhay diferencias entre los países en cuanto a la medida en que las sustancias naturales pueden\nser objeto de protección mediante patentes. La regla general es que únicamente se pueden\ndescubrir sustancias que se encuentren libremente en la naturaleza y, por lo tanto, éstas no\nson patentables. Sin embargo, incluso en este caso puede ser posible obtener la protección de\nmaterial biológico (ADN por ejemplo) aislado de su medio natural o producido por un\nprocedimiento técnico. Sin embargo, si es preciso aislar primero la sustancia, el procedimiento\npara aislarla puede en sí ser patentable. Hay también algunas diferencias en cuanto al alcance\nde la protección conferida a los titulares de patentes.\nEn algunas jurisdicciones, como los Estados Unidos de América, las patentes limitan la\nutilización del material protegido respecto de otras investigaciones y variaciones. En otras\njurisdicciones, como las de Europa, la protección que confiere la patente permite hacer\nexperimentos, incluso para fines comerciales, como excepción a los derechos exclusivos de\nla patente. La patente, al igual que cualquier otro derecho de propiedad intelectual, es de\ncarácter territorial en el sentido de que la protección que confiere únicamente existe en la\njurisdicción del país en que se haya registrado. Esto significa que el titular no puede ejercer\nsus derechos fuera de la jurisdicción en que se ha registrado la patente. Sin embargo, puede\nimpedir que se importen a esa jurisdicción productos que contengan el invento y que se\nfabriquen en otro lugar.\nLos derechos del obtentor\nSe pueden hacer valer los derechos del obtentor respecto de nuevas variedades, a condición\nde que sean distintas, uniformes y estables108. Se pueden reconocer derechos del obtentor a\nfavor de cualquier persona, siempre que la variedad cumpla los requisitos mencionados. Al\nigual que en el caso de las patentes, los derechos del obtentor dan a su titular la facultad de\nprohibir que terceros utilicen el material para fines de producción o reproducción\n(multiplicación) y actos afines (preparar para la propagación, ofrecer a la venta, vender,\nimportar/exportar, almacenar) sin consentimiento del titular. A diferencia de la patente, que\npuede cubrir un proceso de invención sin necesidad de que el producto tenga existencia\nfísica, los derechos del obtentor pueden aplicarse únicamente a una determinada variedad\n107 Convenio sobre Concesión de Patentes Europeas, 13 I.L.M. 268 (1974) (enmendado por Decisión del Consejo de\nAdministración de la Organización Europea de Patentes de fecha 21 de diciembre de 1978).\n108 El requisito de que sean distintos puede considerarse no sólo una condición para la protección sino también como\nuna forma de determinar los límites de ella. Una variedad distinta de una variedad protegida no puede infringir los\nderechos de ésta. Sin embargo, puede (si se cumplen también las demás condiciones) obtener protección por sus\npropios méritos.\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n102\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nse básicamente al material incluido voluntaria-\nmente en él por sus poseedores por invitación y\ncon el estímulo de las Partes Contratantes. Los\nderechos de propiedad intelectual constituyen,\nen general, derechos para controlar el acceso al\nmaterial o la utilización de material. Cuando el\ntitular de esos derechos permite su utilización,\npuede rastrear el material, cobrar ciertos usos y\ncontrolar de otro modo el material. Los titulares\nde derechos pueden también optar por no\nejercerlos. Asimismo, los derechos de propiedad\nintelectual son básicamente de carácter\nterritorial, esto es, están protegidos únicamente\nen las jurisdicciones en que han sido registrados.\nPor lo tanto, la protección que conceden depende\nde la legislación nacional. La legislación\nnacional relativa a los derechos de propiedad\nintelectual, a su vez, debe ajustarse a los acuerdos\ninternacionales pertinentes, como el Acuerdo\nsobre los ADPIC, respecto de las partes en ellos.\nSi el reconocimiento de derechos de propiedad\nintelectual sobre los RFGAA en el Sistema\nMultilateral con arreglo a este párrafo significa\nque el titular de los derechos puede cobrar una\ntarifa a los usuarios como parte del ejercicio de\nesos derechos, se plantea la cuestión de si ello\nes incompatible con los requisitos del Artículo\n12.3 b.\nque debe existir físicamente. Estos derechos se distinguen también de las patentes en el\nsentido de que autorizan concretamente a que otros utilicen el producto (la variedad) para\nfines de investigación y mejoramiento ulterior (la ‘‘excepción del obtentor’’). Con arreglo al\nActa de 1991 del Convenio UPOV, los países pueden también reconocer el derecho de los\nagricultores a volver a utilizar semillas guardadas en su propia finca para su propio producto\n(la llamada ‘‘privilegio del agricultor’’). Cabe deducir que, con arreglo al Artículo 27.3 b)\ndel Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC, el Convenio de la UPOV constituye un sistema sui generis.\nLos países pueden idear también otros sistemas para reemplazarlo o complementarlo. Sin\nembargo, en la actualidad los Convenios de la UPOV son los únicos acuerdos internacionales\nque estipulan un sistema sui generis ya previsto de protección de las variedades de plantas y\nuna ventaja consiste en que los derechos que confiere al obtentor son aceptados en todos los\npaíses que son Partes en el Convenio. Son miembros de la UPOV 54 países, en su mayor\nparte industrializados. Hasta ahora se han hecho partes pocos países en desarrollo, pero esta\nsituación puede estar cambiando como consecuencia del Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC y porque\nes más probable que la mayoría de los países en desarrollo opten por un sistema sui generis\nde protección de las plantas que por un sistema de patentes (véase, en general, Carlos Correa:\nSovereign and Property Rights over Plant Genetic Resources, FAO Background Study Paper\nNo. 2, 1994 y véase también el recuadro 9 supra).\nInformación no divulgada (secretos comerciales)\nLas patentes y los derechos del obtentor no constituyen los únicos derechos de propiedad\nintelectual que pueden hacerse valer con respecto a los recursos fitogenéticos. Entre otros\nejemplos están los secretos comerciales u otras formas de información no divulgada. En los\nlugares en que existe legislación sobre el secreto comercial, el innovador puede proteger la\ninformación no divulgada para que no sea utilizada por otros sin su consentimiento si la\ninformación es secreta, tiene valor comercial porque es secreta y se han tomado medidas\nrazonables para mantenerla en secreto.\nEl párrafo g) especifica que cuando un receptor\nha tenido acceso a RFGAA para fines de\nconservación, el material deberá seguir estando\na disposición del Sistema Multilateral mientras\nel receptor lo conserve. Sin embargo, no impone\nal receptor la obligación de conservar en la\npráctica el material recibido. Algunos bancos de\ngenes o algunos fitomejoradores, por ejemplo,\ng) Los receptores de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura a los\nque hayan tenido acceso al amparo del Sistema Multilateral y que los hayan\nconservado los seguirán poniendo a disposición del Sistema Multilateral, con arreglo\na lo dispuesto en el presente Tratado; y\npueden descartar material que haya dejado de\nser útil o viable. No obstante, si el material se\nconserva, tiene que seguir a disposición del\nsistema en la misma forma que la muestra\noriginal.\nAl parecer, la intención original de este\npárrafo consistía en asegurar que el material a\n103\nArtículo 12\nal amparo del Sistema Multilateral. Cuando se\nponen a disposición productos se plantea además\nla pregunta de si las transferencias deben hacerse\ncon arreglo al ANTM y con sujeción a las\ndisposiciones sobre distribución de los\nbeneficios. La cuestión es importante, porque\nmuchas de las transferencias de RFGAA\nconsisten en material que ya ha sido desarrollado,\npero no reviste aún la forma de una variedad o\nun producto definitivo. Si la obligación de\nutilizar el ANTM cesa al momento en que se\npreparan productos provisionales, la obligación\nde distribuir los beneficios no se transmitirá\ntampoco a los productos definitivos. Hay distin-\ntos puntos de vista a este respecto. En última\ninstancia, la cuestión gira en torno a la inter-\npretación que se haga de las palabras ‘‘trans-\nferencia de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimen-\ntación y la agricultura a otra persona o entidad,\nasí como a cualesquiera transferencias posteri-\nores de esos recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura’’ que se encuentran\nen el Artículo 12.4.\nque se hubiese tenido acceso al amparo del\nSistema Multilateral siguiera comprendido en\néste y no quedase excluido de él una vez que\npasase a manos privadas. Se plantea, sin\nembargo, la cuestión de cuál es el ámbito o el\nalcance de la obligación. Si se tiene acceso a\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral y se los conserva, sin lugar a dudas el\nmaterial original debe seguir a disposición del\nSistema Multilateral y debe proporcionarse con\narreglo al Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferen-\ncia de Material. Cabe preguntarse sin embargo\nsi esto sería aplicable a productos derivados del\nmaterial original a que se hubiese tenido acceso,\naunque con sujeción al respeto de derechos de\npropiedad intelectual o de otra índole respecto\nde esos productos. El Artículo 13.2 d ii) parecería\nsignificar que de hecho se puede denegar la\ndisponibilidad permanente de esos productos,\naunque se desalienta activamente esa práctica:\nel Artículo 13.2 d ii) exige que se haga un pago\nobligatorio en los casos en que esté limitada la\ndisponibilidad permanente de un producto que\nincorpore material a que se haya tenido acceso\nh) Sin perjuicio de las demás disposiciones del presente Artículo, las Partes Contratantes\nestán de acuerdo en que el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura que están in situ se otorgará de conformidad con la legislación nacional\no, en ausencia de dicha legislación, con arreglo a las normas que pueda establecer el\nÓrgano Rector.\nEl párrafo h) confirma que también se dará\nacceso a los RFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema\nMultilateral y que estén in situ, si bien ello se\nhará de conformidad con la legislación nacional.\nCabe suponer que esa legislación, en la medida\nen que se refiera a la aplicación del Tratado\ninternacional, tendrá que ver primordialmente\ncon las modalidades de aplicación (las\nmodalidades de acceso a materiales que se\nencontraran en parques nacionales u otras zonas\nprotegidas o vulnerables, por ejemplo,\nconstituían motivos de preocupación para los\npaíses) y con los procedimientos para la\nrecolección de plantas. En todo caso, la\nlegislación nacional de las Partes del Tratado no\ndebería por lo general imponer nuevos requisitos\no condiciones que no fueran compatibles con el\nTratado y con el Artículo 12 en particular. La\nlegislación nacional relativa al material in situ\ndebe prever el acceso si ello se hace ‘‘sin\nperjuicio de las demás disposiciones del presente\nArtículo’’, como estipula este párrafo.\nLa legislación vigente en algunos países\nque impone condiciones adicionales al acceso a\nlos RFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema\nMultilateral tal vez tenga que ser modificada si\nesas condiciones son incompatibles con lo\ndispuesto en el Artículo 12.\nEn su mayor parte, naturalmente, el\nmaterial vegetal que se encuentre in situ, salvo\nel que se encuentre en parques nacionales u otras\nterrenos del Estado, generalmente no se\nconsiderará en el dominio público y sometido a\nla administración y el control de una Parte Con-\ntratante, pero su condición de ‘‘recurso genético’’\ncon arreglo al Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica puede constituir un problema aparte.\nPor lo tanto, no sería parte del Sistema Multi-\nlateral a menos que sus poseedores lo incluyeran\nvoluntariamente con arreglo al Artículo 11.2.\nDe no haber legislación nacional o en\nespera de que se establezca legislación nueva,\nel acceso tendrá lugar de conformidad con las\nnormas que fije el órgano rector. Naturalmente,\nquedará sujeto a la decisión del órgano rector el\nalcance de esas normas. Como ejemplo de\nnormas pertinentes cabe mencionar el Código\nInternacional de Conducta para la Recolección\ny la Transferencia de Germoplasma Vegetal,\n104\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\naprobado por la Conferencia de la FAO en 1993\n(véase el recuadro 12). Las normas que con el\ntiempo adopte el órgano rector han de ejercer\nprobablemente influencia en las modalidades de\nla legislación nacional en el futuro.\nProbablemente la puesta en práctica de este\npárrafo en la legislación nacional, así como del\nresto de los Artículos 12 y 13, constituya una\ncuestión delicada habida cuenta de que las dis-\nposiciones del sistema multilateral relativas al\nacceso y a la distribución de beneficios única-\nmente son aplicables a los RFGAA para fines\nde utilización y conservación para la investiga-\nción, el mejoramiento y la capacitación destina-\ndos a la alimentación y la agricultura. En algunos\ncasos, bien puede ocurrir que los mismos recur-\nsos genéticos queden sujetos a distintos\nregímenes respecto del acceso según cuáles sean\nlos usos para los cuales se tenga acceso a ellos.\nRecuadro 12. Código Internacional de Conducta para la Recolección y la\nTransferencia de Germoplasma Vegetal\nEl Código Internacional de Conducta para la Recolección y la Transferencia de Germoplasma\nVegetal (el ‘‘Código’’ fue aprobado por la Conferencia de la FAO en su 27º período de sesiones,\ncelebrado en noviembre de 1993. Tiene carácter voluntario y se basa en el principio de la\nsoberanía nacional sobre los recursos fitogenéticos. Su propósito principal consiste en\nestablecer una serie de principios generales que los gobiernos pueden aplicar al formular sus\npropios reglamentos sobre la prospección y recolección, la conservación, el intercambio o la\nutilización de germoplasma o en la formulación de acuerdos bilaterales. El Código propone\nprocedimientos para solicitar o expedir permisos para misiones de recolección, imparte\ndirectrices para los recolectores y establece las obligaciones de los patrocinadores de misiones\nde recolección, los custodios de bancos de genes y los usuarios ulteriores del germoplasma.\nInsta a que los agricultores y las instituciones locales participen en las misiones de recolección\ny propone que los usuarios del germoplasma participen con el país anfitrión y los agricultores\nen los beneficios derivados de la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos.\nEl Código fue preparado de manera que fuera totalmente compatible con el Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica y con el Convenio Internacional sobre Fitoprotección. Con respecto\na la distribución de los beneficios, el Código la deja a la discreción de los recolectores,\npatrocinadores o usuarios, reconociendo, cabe suponer, que ellos participarán en transacciones\ncontractuales o de otra índole con los proveedores de recursos genéticos. El Código se ha de\naplicar en armonía con ambos Convenios, con la legislación nacional del país anfitrión y con\ncualquier acuerdo concertado entre el recolector, el país anfitrión, los patrocinadores y el\nbanco en que se conserve el germoplasma.\nEn el penúltimo período de sesiones de\nnegociación, que tuvo lugar en junio de 2001,\nse introdujo una disposición en la que se\n12.4 A estos efectos, deberá facilitarse el acceso, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en los\nArtículos 12.2 y 12.3 supra, con arreglo a un ANTM, que aprobará el Órgano Rector\ny deberá contener las disposiciones del Artículo 12.3 a, d y g, así como las\ndisposiciones relativas a la distribución de beneficios que figuran en el Artículo\n13.2 d ii) y otras disposiciones pertinentes del presente Tratado, y la disposición en\nvirtud de la cual el receptor de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura deberá exigir que las condiciones del ANTM se apliquen a la\ntransferencia de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura a otra\npersona o entidad, así como a cualesquiera transferencias posteriores de esos\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nestipulaba un Acuerdo Normalizado de\nTransferencia de Material (ANTM)* como parte\nde un acuerdo general sobre la distribución\nNota del Editor: El título del ATM aprobado par la 1a Reunión del OR en Madrid conforme a este Artículo fue el de ‘‘Acuerdo\nNormalizado de Transferencia de Material’’ (ANTM). En esta Guía se utilizará el título oficial del Acuerdo.\n105\nArtículo 12\nEl acceso facilitado debe ajustarse a un\nmodelo de Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferen-\ncia de Material (ANTM) que ha de aprobar el\nÓrgano Rector109.\nComo se señala en el Artículo 12.4, el\nANTM ‘‘deberá contener’’ ciertas disposiciones\ndel Tratado, a saber, el Artículo 12.3 a, d y g, así\ncomo las disposiciones relativas a la distribución\nde beneficios que figuran en el Artículo 13.2 d\nii) y otras disposiciones pertinentes del Tratado.\nLa redacción que se empleó para el Tratado en\neste caso es importante. No será suficiente\nredactar cláusulas para el ANTM sobre la base\nde esas disposiciones o que las tengan en cuenta\nde alguna manera. El Acuerdo deberá contener\nestas disposiciones. Así, el Acuerdo debe recoger\nlas condiciones para la utilización, la limitación\nde los derechos de propiedad intelectual y la\ndisponibilidad permanente para el acceso que se\nenuncian en el Artículo 12.3 a, d) y g), así como\nlas condiciones para la distribución de beneficios\nque figuran en el Artículo 13.2 d ii). Ha de incluir\nobligatoria de los beneficios comerciales de la\nutilización de los RFGAA con arreglo a lo\ndispuesto en el Artículo 13.2 d ii) y se limitaba\nla obligación de facilitar el acceso únicamente\nal material que estuviera bajo la administración\ny el control de las Partes Contratantes y en el\ndominio público. En la práctica, ANTM es el\ninstrumento jurídico que hace posible que las\nobligaciones jurídicas previstas en el Tratado\nsean traspasadas a los receptores y, de ellos, a\nlos receptores ulteriores mediante un nexo\ncontractual. Las controversias relativas a las\ncondiciones del Acuerdo de transferencia de\nmaterial, o el incumplimiento de esas condicio-\nnes, han de ser resueltas por las partes en el\nAcuerdo ante los tribunales nacionales (véase el\nArtículo 12.5 infra). Si bien los requisitos del\nSistema Multilateral se cumplen en el ámbito del\nderecho contractual, ello no modifica la obliga-\nción básica enunciada en el Artículo 12.2, según\nel cual las Partes Contratantes adoptarán medidas\npara facilitar el acceso en las otras Partes\nContratantes.\n109 Habida cuenta de la importancia central que reviste el Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de Material (ANTM)\npara el funcionamiento del Sistema Multilateral, las disposiciones interinas para la aplicación del Tratado, aprobadas\npor la Conferencia de la FAO en 2001 en la Resolución 3/2001, disponen que la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos\npara la Alimentación y la Agricultura, actuando como Comisión Interina para el Tratado, prepare un proyecto de\nAcuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de Material para que lo examine el órgano rector en su primer período de\nsesiones. La resolución dispone también que el proyecto del Acuerdo  incluya condiciones recomendadas para la\ndistribución de los beneficios comerciales con arreglo al Artículo 13.2 d) ii) del Tratado (véase el comentario\nrelativo al Artículo 13.2 d) ii) infra. La Comisión decidió establecer un Grupo de Expertos que formulara y\npropusiera recomendaciones acerca de las cláusulas del ANTM. El Grupo había de estar integrado por expertos\ncon pericia técnica o jurídica respecto del intercambio de RFGAA y con práctica comercial pertinente. El Grupo\nde Expertos, al preparar un proyecto de ANTM, había de abordar varias cuestiones que habían quedado abiertas\nen el Tratado. Algunas de ellas quedan de manifiesto en el mandato del Grupo de Expertos, aprobado en la\nprimera reunión del Comité Interino e incluyen las siguientes:\n• ¿Cuál debería ser la cuantía, la forma y la modalidad de los pagos de conformidad con la práctica comercial?\n• ¿Deberían establecerse distintos niveles de pago para distintas categorías de receptores que comercialicen los\nproductos o para distintos sectores y, en la afirmativa, cuáles deberían ser los niveles, las diversas categorías\nde receptores y los sectores?\n• ¿Hay que exceptuar a los pequeños agricultores de países en desarrollo y países con economía en transición de\nlos pagos y, en la afirmativa, qué es un pequeño agricultor?\n• ¿Qué constituye comercialización según el Artículo 13.2 d) ii) del Tratado?\n• ¿Qué constituye incorporación de material al que se haya tenido acceso al amparo del Sistema Multilateral?\n• ¿En qué casos se considerará que un producto está a disposición de otras personas, sin restricciones, para\ninvestigación y mejoramiento ulteriores?\n• ¿Cómo se definirán los beneficios monetarios y de otra índole para los efectos del modelo de Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material?\n• ¿De qué manera asegurará el Acuerdo la aplicación del Artículo 12.3?\n• ¿Qué cláusulas hay que incluir en el Acuerdo de manera que los receptores queden obligados en virtud de él al\nmomento de aceptar el material del Sistema Multilateral?\nEl Grupo de Expertos se reunió en Bruselas en septiembre de 2004. Su informe, en el que se estudiaban las opciones\nrelativas a las cuestiones que anteceden, fue examinado por la Comisión de la FAO sobre Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura, actuando como Comité Interino para el Tratado Internacional, en noviembre de 2004\n(véase el Informe del Grupo de Expertos sobre las Condiciones del Modelo de Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material,\ndocumento de la FAO CGRFA/IC/MTA-1/04/Rep, octubre de 2004). El Comité Interino decidió establecer un Grupo\nde Contacto que preparara un proyecto de ANTM para su examen por el órgano rector.\n106\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nRecuadro 13. Acuerdos de transferencia de material\nLos Acuerdos de transferencia de material son contratos utilizados para transferir material\ngenético y en los que se enuncian las condiciones en que se transfiere el material. Revisten\ndiversas formas, que van desde un corto documento de envío, aviso de entrega o factura con\ncondiciones mínimas hasta un contrato negociado y firmado que contiene condiciones\nmutuamente convenidas. Las empresas comerciales utilizan habitualmente los acuerdos de\nesta índole  y también los han utilizado los centros del GCIAI desde 1995. El Artículo 12.4\ndispone que se facilitará el acceso a material comprendido en el Sistema Multilateral mediante\nun Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de Material (ANTM) que ha de aprobar el Órgano\nRector del Tratado. El Artículo 15.1 b dispone además que los RFGAA distintos de los\ncomprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral y que mantengan los CIIA del GCIAI se pondrán a\ndisposición de conformidad con las disposiciones del Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material\nutilizado actualmente por los centros en cumplimiento de los acuerdos con la FAO. El Acuerdo\nserá enmendado por el Órgano Rector, en consulta con los centros, a más tardar en su segundo\nperíodo ordinario de sesiones.\nEl Acuerdo de transferencia de material que utilizan actualmente los centros del GCIAI\nEn los acuerdos firmados en octubre de 1994 entre 12 centros del GCIAI y la FAO, en virtud\nde los cuales las colecciones de germoplasma vegetal que conservan los centros pasaron a\nquedar bajo los auspicios de la FAO, se disponía que los centros conservarían el germoplasma\ndesignado en los acuerdos para beneficio de la comunidad internacional y no reivindicarían\nla propiedad del germoplasma ni ningún derecho de propiedad intelectual o información\nconexa sobre él. Los centros se comprometieron a manejar y administrar el germoplasma\ndesignado de conformidad con las normas internacionalmente aceptadas. En virtud de los\nacuerdos, los centros tienen que facilitar muestras del germoplasma designado y la información\nconexa a efectos de investigación científica, fitomejoramiento o conservación de recursos\ngenéticos, sin restricción alguna. Sin embargo, al poner a disposición el germoplasma están\nobligados a asegurarse de que los receptores, y cualesquiera receptores subsiguientes, queden\nobligados por los mismos requisitos relativos a la propiedad, los derechos de propiedad\nintelectual y los principios de gestión de la conservación. Los centros traspasan estas\nobligaciones a los receptores subsiguientes mediante un Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia\nde Material formulado para todo el sistema del GCIAI. Si bien algunos de estos acuerdos\nrevestían inicialmente la forma de acuerdos firmados entre algunos centros y los receptores,\nmás tarde se procedió a simplificarlos y darles la forma de modelos de condiciones que se\nconsideraban aceptadas por los receptores en virtud de su aceptación del germoplasma, tal\ncomo en el caso de las obligaciones que contraen los usuarios de programas informáticos al\nabrirlos. En el noveno período de sesiones de la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura, celebrado en octubre de 2002, la Comisión revisó este ATM\npara recoger algunas de las disposiciones del nuevo Tratado.\nEl Acuerdo de Transferencia de Material que se utilizará para el Sistema Multilateral\nSegún el Artículo 12.4 del Tratado se facilitará el acceso a los RFGAA comprendidos en el\nSistema Multilateral mediante un Acuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de Material que ha\nde aprobar el Órgano Rector. Este Acuerdo ha de contener las disposiciones del Artículo 12.3\na (el acceso se concederá exclusivamente con fines de utilización y conservación para la\ninvestigación, el mejoramiento y la capacitación para la alimentación y la agricultura), d) (no\nse reclamarán derechos de propiedad intelectual respecto del material en la forma recibida) y\ng) (los recursos a que se haya tenido acceso al amparo del sistema se seguirán poniendo a\ndisposición de éste), así como las disposiciones relativas a la distribución de beneficios del\nArtículo 13.2 d ii) y otras disposiciones pertinentes del Tratado. Para una descripción de las\ncuestiones relacionadas con el ANTM, véase el comentario sobre el Artículo 12.4 supra.\nEl Acuerdo que utilizarán los centros del GCIAI para la transferencia de RFGAA fuera\ndel Sistema Multilateral\nLos recursos que no estén incluidos en el Sistema Multilateral, estén en poder de los centros\ndel GCIAI y se hayan recolectado antes de la entrada en vigor del Tratado se han de poner a\ndisposición de conformidad con el ATM utilizado actualmente por los centros, en la forma en\n107\nArtículo 12\nque lo enmiende el Órgano Rector, en consulta con los centros, en su segundo período ordinario\nde sesiones a más tardar.\ntambién ‘‘otras disposiciones pertinentes del ...\nTratado’’. El Órgano Rector decidirá cuáles serán\nexactamente esas otras disposiciones pertinentes.\nEs importante señalar que esas decisiones, al\nigual que todas las del Órgano Rector, deben ser\nadoptadas por consenso (a menos que, también\npor consenso, se decida aplicar otro método).\nDel texto del Artículo 12.4 se desprende\nclaramente que todas las transferencias de\nRFGAA al amparo del Sistema Multilateral que\ntengan lugar entre Partes Contratantes o entre\nentidades sujetas a la jurisdicción de Partes\nContratantes deben hacerse de conformidad con\nel ANTM. Cabe preguntarse qué ocurre con las\ntransferencias a Partes no Contratantes de\nmaterial comprendido en el Anexo I. El texto\ndel Artículo 12.4 no se limita expresamente a\nlas transferencias entre Partes Contratantes. Sin\nembargo, los principios generales de inter-\npretación de los tratados indicarían que no estaría\nprohibido que las Partes Contratantes trans-\nfirieran RFGAA a Partes no Contratantes ni\ntampoco quedarían obligadas a utilizar el ANTM\nsi optaran por hacer esas transferencias. Las\nobligaciones respecto de terceros o respecto de\ntransacciones con terceros tendrían que estar\nexpresamente estipuladas en el Tratado y no\npodrían ser objeto de presunción. En todo caso,\nel hecho de permitir que se hagan transferencias\na Partes no Contratantes en condiciones que\npodrían ser menos onerosas que las aplicables a\ntransferencias entre Partes Contratantes,\nparticularmente con respecto a la distribución\nde beneficios, podría tener el efecto práctico de\nque el Tratado no funcionase.\nAcerca de la cuestión de la transferencia\nde RFGAA que constituyan un producto, véanse\nlas observaciones acerca del Artículo 12.3 g\nsupra.\n12.5 Las Partes Contratantes garantizarán que se disponga de la oportunidad de\npresentar un recurso, en consonancia con los requisitos jurídicos aplicables, en\nvirtud de sus sistemas jurídicos, en el caso de controversias contractuales que\nsurjan en el marco de tales Acuerdos de transferencia de material, reconociendo\nque las obligaciones que se deriven de tales Acuerdos de transferencia de material\ncorresponden exclusivamente a las partes en ellos.\nEl párrafo 12.5 simplemente señala que las Partes\nContratantes se asegurarán de que las partes en\nlos Acuerdos de transferencia de material tengan\na su disposición algún mecanismo en virtud de\nsus sistemas jurídicos para los casos de infrac-\nciones del Acuerdo. Esta disposición se refiere\na los problemas prácticos que ya se han planteado\ncon respecto a la capacidad jurídica de los\ndonantes de recursos genéticos para hacer\ncumplir en los tribunales de otros países las\ncondiciones con arreglo a las cuales se ponen a\ndisposición esos recursos. Estos problemas se\nestán examinando, entre otros foros, en el Grupo\nde Trabajo sobre Acceso y Participación en los\nBeneficios, establecido por la Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Bio-\nlógica a fin de negociar un régimen internacional\npara el acceso y la distribución de los bene-\nficios110.\nCabe señalar que el Tratado no especifica\nla ley ni la jurisdicción aplicables a los Acuerdos.\nNaturalmente, se puede incluir una disposición\nuniforme en el ATM que ha de aprobar el Órgano\nRector. De no haber esa disposición uniforme,\nen cada Acuerdo habrá que enunciar sus propias\nnormas. Cuando en el contrato no se opte ex-\npresamente por la ley o la jurisdicción aplicables,\ncorresponderá a los tribunales de los Estados en\nque se interpongan acciones judiciales deter-\nminar cuál será la ley aplicable y cuál será la\njurisdicción competente con arreglo a sus propias\nnormas de derecho de los contratos y sobre\nconflicto de leyes.\nHay que señalar que el párrafo 12.5 reconoce\nque las obligaciones que surgen en virtud de un\nAcuerdo de Transferencia de Material incumben\nexclusivamente a las partes en ese Acuerdo y no\n110 Véase el informe del Grupo de Trabajo Especial sobre Acceso y Participación en los Beneficios acerca de la labor\nde su tercera reunión, Bangkok, 3 de marzo de 2005, documento UNEP/CBD/WG-ABS/3/7.\n108\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\na las Partes Contratantes del Tratado. Esto\nplantea una cuestión acerca de la forma de hacer\ncumplir efectivamente estos Acuerdos entre los\nreceptores de RFGAA al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral. Si bien el donante original del\nmaterial puede hacer cumplir un Acuerdo de\nTransferencia contra el receptor original, puede\nocurrir que no esté en condiciones de hacerlo\ncumplir respecto de los receptores subsiguientes,\npuesto que no tendrá con ellos un nexo contrac-\ntual. El nexo contractual existirá únicamente\nentre el receptor y el receptor subsiguiente. Sin\nembargo, en esa situación, puede ocurrir que el\nreceptor no tenga mayor incentivo para entablar\nuna acción judicial a fin de hacer cumplir las\nobligaciones del receptor ulterior. Habrá que\nabordar esta cuestión en las cláusulas del ATM\n(en muchos países existen mecanismos contrac-\ntuales para esos efectos) o en el contexto del\nArtículo 21, relativo a la observancia. El Artículo\n21 estipula procedimientos de cooperación\neficaces y mecanismos operacionales para\npromover la observancia del Tratado y para\nabordar los casos de incumplimiento. También\nel Órgano Rector podría ocuparse de esta\ncuestión al redactar el ANTM. Por ejemplo,\npodría considerar la posibilidad de que los\nreceptores asignaran sus derechos y obligaciones\na los receptores subsiguientes en virtud del\nANTM en lugar de concertar nuevos acuerdos o\nde prever en el modelo de Acuerdo que un\nrepresentante del Sistema Multilateral inicie\nprocedimientos de arreglo de controversias en\ncalidad de tercera parte beneficiaria.\nUna cuestión que ya se ha planteado en el\ncontexto de la reunión del Grupo de Expertos\nsobre las condiciones del ANTM consiste en si\nla redacción del Artículo 12.5 excluiría la\nremisión a arbitraje internacional como forma\npredilecta de solución de controversias en virtud\ndel ANTM. En esa ocasión, el Asesor Jurídico\nde la reunión señaló que ‘‘correspondía a las\nPartes Contratantes decidir qué oportunidades\nde interposición de recursos debían\nproporcionarse incluyendo tanto los tribunales\nnacionales como el arbitraje. En su opinión, el\nhecho de que las Partes Contratantes, en el\nejercicio de los derechos soberanos, dispusieran\nun arbitraje vinculante no sería contrario a las\ndisposiciones del Artículo 12.5. En todo caso,\nsiempre quedaría para las partes en el Acuerdo\nde transferencia de material la posibilidad de\nremitirse a los tribunales nacionales para hacer\naplicar los dictámenes del arbitraje inter-\nnacional si fuera necesario’’111. A la sazón, el\nGrupo de Expertos incluyó un mecanismo\nexistente de arbitraje internacional, como la\nCámara de Comercio Internacional, como opción\npara la solución de controversias en virtud del\nAcuerdo Normalizado de Transferencia de\nMaterial, junto con el recurso a foros jurídicos\nnacionales. Se señalaron las ventajas que\npresentaba el arbitraje internacional al permitir\nuna interpretación más coherente del Tratado y\nevitar una multitud de decisiones discrepantes y\ndesperdigadas de varios tribunales nacionales.\nEn la reunión del Grupo de Expertos se planteó\ntambién la posibilidad de que el Sistema Multi-\nlateral, en su calidad de tercera parte beneficiaria\nen el Acuerdo de transferencia de material112\nestuviese representado en el arbitraje inter-\nnacional para resolver la controversia o incluso\ndiera comienzo al procedimiento.\nEn cuanto al derecho aplicable, el Grupo\nde Expertos planteó también la posibilidad de\ndisponer que quedase constituido por los\nprincipios generales de derecho113, el Tratado y\nlas decisiones del Órgano Rector.\n111 Véase el informe del Grupo de Expertos sobre las condiciones del ANTM, documento de la FAO CGRFA/IC/\nMTA-1/04/Rep, octubre de 2004, pág. 22.\n112 En el modelo de Acuerdo de transferencia de material habrá que prever la realización de pagos a un mecanismo\nestablecido por el órgano rector que se utilizará en beneficio de los agricultores de todos los países, especialmente\nlos países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición. El mecanismo establecido en el sistema multilateral\ny, en última instancia, los propios agricultores son en este sentido terceras partes beneficiarias en virtud del\nANTM.\nEl Artículo 12.6 se refiere a la provisión de los\nmateriales necesarios para restablecer los\n12.6 En situaciones de urgencia debidas a catástrofes, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan\nfacilitar el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ndel Sistema Multilateral para contribuir al restablecimiento de los sistemas\nagrícolas, en cooperación con los coordinadores del socorro en casos de catástrofe.\nsistemas agrícolas en situaciones de catástrofe,\nsin perjuicio de que los receptores sean o no\n109\nArtículo 12\n113 Esta fórmula es de uso habitual en el caso de acuerdos concertados por organizaciones del sistema de las Naciones\nUnidas. En este caso, la remisión a los principios generales de derecho, el Tratado y las decisiones del órgano\nrector podrían reducir las discrepancias en la interpretación de las obligaciones en virtud del Acuerdo Normalizado\nde Transferencia de Material y permitirían que el propio órgano rector tuviese una posición de mayor influencia\nen la formulación de las interpretaciones.\nRecuadro 14. La soberanía nacional y los derechos de propiedad\nEl Artículo 10 del Tratado reconoce los derechos soberanos de los Estados sobre los RFGAA\nsituados dentro de sus fronteras territoriales. En el contexto de las condiciones para facilitar\nel acceso a esos recursos, el Artículo 12.3f  hace referencia a los derechos de propiedad,\nincluidos los derechos de propiedad intelectual. Los derechos soberanos y los derechos de\npropiedad no son sinónimos. Cabe entonces preguntarse cuál es la naturaleza de cada uno de\nellos y en qué difieren.\nDerechos soberanos son los derechos que tienen los Estados soberanos independientes para\nlegislar, administrar, explotar y controlar el acceso a sus propios recursos naturales. Incluyen\nel derecho de determinar los regímenes de propiedad aplicables a esos recursos, de quién son\npropiedad, cuáles derechos de propiedad pueden existir y cómo se puede comprobar la\npropiedad.\nLos conceptos de soberanía y derechos soberanos entrañan conceptos de independencia y\nexclusividad; los derechos incumben únicamente a la potencia soberana de que se trate y no\na otra potencia exterior. Esto no quiere decir que la soberanía y los derechos soberanos no\npuedan ser objeto de limitaciones o restricciones. En particular, los Estados soberanos, en\nejercicio de su soberanía, pueden convenir en ejercer sus derechos soberanos de una manera\ndeterminada y con sujeción a normas convenidas, que cobran entonces fuerza obligatoria a\nsu respecto. Esto es en esencia el principio de pacta sunt servanda (los acuerdos deben\ncumplirse), principio en que se basa el derecho internacional en su integridad.\nEn los tratados internacionales sobre medio ambiente y desarrollo, las declaraciones en que\nse reconocen los derechos soberanos de los Estados respecto de sus recursos naturales están\nnormalmente asociadas a obligaciones de administrar esos recursos de manera en que no se\ncause daño a otros Estados o no vulnerar intereses que sean motivo de preocupación común\npara todos los países o para la humanidad en su conjunto. Así, el Preámbulo del Tratado\nreconoce que los RFGAA son motivo de preocupación común para todos los países, puesto\nque todos dependen en una medida muy grande de esos recursos. El Artículo 10 del Tratado\ntiene cuidado en señalar que es en ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos que las Partes\nContratantes han acordado establecer un Sistema Multilateral para el acceso y la distribución\nde los beneficios en relación con algunos RFGAA que son importantes por razones de seguridad\nalimentaria e interdependencia, sistema que entonces cobra fuerza obligatoria respecto de\nellas.\nLos derechos soberanos no son derechos de propiedad, si bien un Estado, en ejercicio de sus\nderechos soberanos, bien puede determinar que ciertos recursos naturales son de su propiedad.\nEl Estado puede también ser propietario, al igual que otras personas físicas o jurídicas, en\nvirtud del régimen de propiedad que haya establecido en ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos.\nLos derechos de propiedad, en cambio, consisten en los derechos de ser propietario de\nbienes, controlarlos y enajenarlos en el marco del sistema de derecho de la propiedad\nestablecido por el Estado. Los derechos de propiedad pueden referirse a bienes materiales o\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\nPartes Contratantes en el Tratado. Como se\nexaminará en otro capítulo más adelante, el Plan\nde acción mundial dedica también a esta cuestión\nel área de actividad prioritaria 3. Si bien no se\nestablecen condiciones especiales, la existencia\nde esta disposición afianza el reconocimiento de\nla necesidad de agilizar el acceso en esos casos.\nEs también evidente que la intención no consiste\nen reemplazar a los proveedores habituales de\nsemilla en condiciones normales ni en competir\ncon ellos.\n110\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ntangibles, como los cultivos en la finca de un agricultor. Puede tratarse también de derechos\nsobre bienes intangibles, con inclusión de información o innovaciones, como los derechos de\npatentes o los derechos del obtentor.\nLos derechos de propiedad intelectual son derechos sobre bienes intangibles. Se distinguen\nde los derechos sobre bienes materiales o tangibles en que su duración está limitada (hasta 20\naños en general en el caso de las patentes y de 20 a 25 años en virtud del Acta de la UPOV de\n1991 sobre los Derechos de los Obtentores). Únicamente se pueden ejercer en el territorio en\nque se han concedido (el llamado principio de territorialidad) y se refieren únicamente al\ncontenido intangible de bienes o procedimientos. En el caso de organismos vivos patentados\n(cuando ello está autorizado), es posible que, en ciertas circunstancias, se considere que esos\nderechos son aplicables a la información contenida en genes u otros componentes subcelulares\no en células, material de propagación o plantas.\nLos derechos de propiedad intelectual confieren el derecho de excluir a otros de la posibilidad\nde reproducir, repetir, utilizar o vender información protegida o innovaciones, o especímenes\no productos individuales producidos utilizando esa información o mediante esas innovaciones.\nEn el recuadro 11 supra se hace referencia a los distintos tipos de derechos de propiedad\nintelectual que son pertinentes a los RFGAA.\nCon respecto a los derechos soberanos y a los derechos de propiedad sobre los RFGAA,\nvéase en general Carlos Correa, Sovereign and property rights over plant genetic resources,\nBackground Paper No. 2, preparado para la Comisión de la FAO sobre los Recursos\nFitogenéticos (actualmente la Comisión sobre los Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y\nla Agricultura) en su primer período de sesiones, celebrado en noviembre de 1994.\n111\nArtículo 13\nLa distribución justa y equitativa de los bene-\nficios derivados de la utilización de los recursos\ngenéticos es un tema central del Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica y del Tratado. El tercer\nobjetivo del Convenio se refiere a la participa-\nción justa y equitativa en los beneficios que se\nderiven de la utilización de los recursos genéticos\nmediante, entre otras cosas, ‘‘un acceso adecuado\na esos recursos y una transferencia apropiada de\nlas tecnologías pertinentes [...] así como me-\ndiante una financiación apropiada’’ (Artículo 1).\nEste objetivo se lleva a la práctica en parte en el\nArtículo 15.7, según el cual se compartirán los\nresultados de las actividades de investigación y\ndesarrollo y los beneficios derivados de la\nutilización comercial y de otra índole de los\nrecursos genéticos. Por su parte, el Tratado prevé\nun Sistema Multilateral de distribución de los\nbeneficios como complemento necesario del\nSistema Multilateral de acceso facilitado. A este\nrespecto, el Tratado supone que el acceso facili-\ntado constituye de por sí uno de los ‘‘beneficios’’\nimportantes que comparten las Partes\nContratantes. Otros beneficios derivados de la\nutilización, incluso comercial, de los RFGAA en\nel marco del Sistema Multilateral se distribuirán\nde manera justa y equitativa mediante:\nEl intercambio de información\n(Artículo 13.2 a);\nEl acceso a la tecnología y su trans-\nferencia (Artículo 13.2 b);\nEl fomento de la capacidad (Artículo\n13.2 c); y\nLa distribución de los beneficios mone-\ntarios y de otro tipo de la comercializa-\nción (Artículo 13.2 d)\nAdemás, las Partes Contratantes\nexaminarán las modalidades de una estrategia\nde contribuciones voluntarias de las industrias\nelaboradoras de alimentos. Este planteamiento\nhace que la distribución justa y equitativa de los\nbeneficios derivados de la utilización de los\nRFGAA sea un elemento fundamental del\nSistema Multilateral, del Tratado en su totalidad\ny de la conservación y la utilización sostenible a\nlargo plazo de los RFGAA.\nArtículo 13 – Distribución de beneficios en el Sistema\nMultilateral\n13.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen que el acceso facilitado a los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura incluidos en el sistema multilateral\nconstituye por sí mismo un beneficio importante del Sistema Multilateral y\nacuerdan que los beneficios derivados de él se distribuyan de manera justa y\nequitativa de conformidad con las disposiciones del presente Artículo.\nEl Artículo 13.1 reconoce que el acceso facilitado\nconstituye de por sí un importante beneficio del\nSistema Multilateral. Si los países no tuvieran\nla posibilidad de fácil acceso a los recursos\ngenéticos que necesitan para mejorar sus\ncultivos, se verían perjudicadas la agricultura y\nla seguridad alimentaria no sólo a nivel mundial\nsino también en cada país. En el Artículo 13.1\nlas Partes Contratantes convienen también en que\nlos beneficios derivados de la utilización de los\nRFGAA en el marco del Sistema Multilateral\ndeben distribuirse en forma justa y equitativa de\nconformidad con los mecanismos que se\nestablecen en el resto del artículo. Algunos de\nestos mecanismos son voluntarios y otros son\nobligatorios. El párrafo emplea la frase ‘‘manera\njusta y equitativa’’ en relación con la distribución\nde los beneficios reproduciendo la expresión\nutilizada en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica. En el caso del Tratado muchos de los\nmecanismos son multilaterales. En otros casos,\nla decisión de qué se entenderá por justo y\nequitativo incumbirá a las propias Partes\nContratantes en la aplicación del Tratado, aunque\nestas decisiones nacionales podrán ser objeto de\nexamen en el Órgano Rector. Al determinar el\nnivel de pagos que se establecerá en el Acuerdo\nNormalizado de Transferencia de Material, el\nÓrgano Rector decidirá directamente qué se\nentiende por equitativo.\n13.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización,\nincluso comercial, de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nen el marco del Sistema Multilateral se distribuyan de manera justa y equitativa\nmediante los siguientes mecanismos: el intercambio de información, el acceso a la\ntecnología y su transferencia, la creación de capacidad y la distribución de los\n112\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEsta disposición enumera los mecanismos de\ndistribución de beneficios previstos en el Tratado\n(intercambio de información, acceso a la tecno-\nlogía y su transferencia, creación de capacidad\ny distribución de los beneficios comerciales) y\nsirve de introducción a los apartados correspon-\ndientes a cada mecanismo. Se pueden hacer tres\nobservaciones en relación con esta introducción:\n1. Los beneficios derivados de la utiliza-\nción de los RFGAA cubren todos los\nusos, no exclusivamente la utilización\ncomercial, sino la utilización comercial\ninclusive;\n2. Al considerar la distribución justa y\nequitativa de los beneficios se deberá\ntener en cuenta el Plan de acción\nmundial, que se utilizará en la práctica\ncomo guía para la aplicación (véase el\nrecuadro 15);\n3. Todo el proceso de aplicación de esta\ndisposición, así como de otras\ndisposiciones del Tratado, tendrá lugar\nbajo la dirección del Órgano Rector.\nEfectivamente, hay varias cuestiones\nrelativas a la aplicación, particularmente de este\nartículo, que exigirán una dirección firme y\ncreativa del Órgano Rector. No todas las\ncuestiones se pudieron negociar completamente\nantes de la aprobación del Tratado y quedan\nvarias, como la redacción del ANTM, detalles\nde sus disposiciones sobre distribución de los\nbeneficios comerciales y los procedimientos para\nhacerlo cumplir, que tendrá que resolver el\nÓrgano Rector. En este sentido, el Tratado es un\ninstrumento dinámico, cuyo éxito dependerá de\nla futura labor de las Partes Contratantes\nconstituidas en Órgano Rector del Tratado.\nbeneficios derivados de la comercialización, teniendo en cuenta los sectores de\nactividad prioritaria del Plan de acción mundial progresivo, bajo la dirección del\nÓrgano Rector.\na) Intercambio de información:\nDebido a la importancia intrínseca de este\nconcepto, en muchos tratados internacionales se\nincluye de rigor una disposición sobre inter-\ncambio de información. Los problemas\nmundiales requieren medidas comunes por parte\nde los Estados y la experiencia de un país puede\nser invalorable para otros que enfrentan proble-\nmas similares. En el Artículo 7.2 b, en el contexto\ngeneral de la cooperación internacional, figura\nuna disposición general relativa al intercambio\nde información y tecnología apropiadas. Sin\nembargo, la disposición del presente párrafo que\nse refiere al intercambio de información debe\ninterpretarse más en el contexto de la distribución\nde los beneficios y, en particular, en relación con\nla utilización de los RFGAA.\nLas Partes Contratantes acuerdan poner a disposición la información que, entre otras\ncosas, comprende catálogos e inventarios, información sobre tecnologías, resultados de\ninvestigaciones técnicas, científicas y socioeconómicas, en particular la caracterización,\nevaluación y utilización, con respecto a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura comprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral. Tal información, cuando no sea\nconfidencial, estará disponible con arreglo a la legislación vigente y de acuerdo con la\ncapacidad nacional. Dicha información se pondrá a disposición de todas las Partes\nContratantes del presente Tratado mediante el sistema de información previsto en el\nArtículo 17.\nLa información que las Partes Contratantes\nconvienen en compartir en este párrafo se refiere\na los RFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema\nMultilateral y será útil principalmente para la\nutilización de esos recursos a los efectos de\nmejorar los cultivos y, por ende, la agricultura.\nLos distintos tipos de información mencionados\nse describen más extensamente en los\ncomentarios relativos al Artículo 5.2 e. Mucha\nde la información, incluida la información sobre\ntecnologías, está en manos de quienes mantienen\ncolecciones ex situ, en particular países\ndesarrollados e instituciones internacionales. A\ndiferencia de las disposiciones relativas a la\nparticipación en los beneficios del Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica, la información\nse intercambiará en forma multilateral, a través\ndel sistema mundial de información previsto en\nel Artículo 17. En el Artículo 12.3 c se trata la\ncuestión de la información vinculada a\ntransferencias concretas de recursos genéticos.\n113\nArtículo 13\nEl Artículo 13.2 a dispone que las Partes\nContratantes y los centros que hayan firmado\nacuerdos con el Órgano Rector pondrán a\ndisposición la información sobre los RFGAA\ncomprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral, que\nincluirá:\nCatálogos e inventarios;\nInformación sobre tecnologías; y\nResultados de investigaciones técnicas,\ncientíficas y socioeconómicas.\nLa referencia a la caracterización,\nevaluación y utilización parece ser una\ncategoría aparte de información que se\npondrá a disposición; estos datos\nrevisten fundamental importancia para\nla utilización de los RFGAA.\nLa información se pondrá a disposición\ncon sujeción a tres condiciones:\n1. Sólo se requiere que las Partes Con-\ntratantes pongan a disposición la infor-\nmación que no sea confidencial.\nNaturalmente, la información confi-\ndencial también puede ponerse a\ndisposición, pero sólo a discreción de\nla Parte Contratante interesada;\n2. La información se pondrá a disposición\ncon arreglo a la legislación interna\naplicable, que comprende la legislación\nsobre propiedad intelectual, incluidos\nlos derechos de autor y las patentes;\n3. La información se pondrá a disposición\n‘‘de acuerdo con la capacidad nacio-\nnal’’.\nEl significado de esta tercera condición no está\nenteramente claro, pero parecería reconocer que\nalgunos países no tienen un alto nivel de\ncapacidad en materia de reunión, análisis y\ncomunicación de información o carecen del\npersonal y los fondos que a veces se necesitan,\ny parecería reconocer también, en consecuencia,\nque el cumplimiento de esta obligación no puede\njuzgarse en forma puramente comparativa, sino\nteniendo presentes estas consideraciones. Por lo\ntanto, no se aplicarían a los países criterios que\nexcedieran de su capacidad nacional a la hora\nde poner la información a disposición de los\ninteresados.\nb) Acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia\nLa redacción de este párrafo sigue de cerca la de\ndisposiciones similares del Artículo 16 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nSegún la Conferencia de las Naciones\nUnidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo\n(UNCTAD), la transferencia de tecnología es ‘‘la\ntransferencia de conocimientos sistemáticos para\nla fabricación de un nuevo producto, la\naplicación de un proceso o la prestación de un\nservicio’’114. La tecnología se transmite de un\nproveedor a un receptor, ya sea dentro de un país\no entre Estados. La tecnología puede asumir\ndistintas formas, pero en general corresponde a\ndos grandes categorías:\nTecnologías inmateriales: Conoci-\nmientos, capacidades y técnicas, como\nlas técnicas de conservación de una\ncomunidad agrícola local, o una\ninvestigación en colaboración en que\nlos investigadores aprenden nuevas\ntécnicas biotecnológicas.\nTecnologías materiales: Objetos\ntangibles como equipo, aparatos o\nsemillas de una determinada variedad\nvegetal desarrollada por un agricultor.\nRara vez se pueden transferir tecno-\nlogías materiales sin la consiguiente\ntransferencia de las tecnologías\ninmateriales que las acompañan.\ni) Las Partes Contratantes se comprometen a proporcionar y/o facilitar el acceso a las\ntecnologías para la conservación, caracterización, evaluación y utilización de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura que están comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral. Reconociendo que algunas tecnologías solamente se pueden\ntransferir por medio de material genético, las Partes Contratantes proporcionarán\ny/o facilitarán el acceso a tales tecnologías y al material genético que está comprendido\nen el Sistema Multilateral y a las variedades mejoradas y el material genético obtenidos\nmediante el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\n114 En relación con la transferencia de tecnología, en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica se consideró esta\ndefinición pero finalmente no se adoptó.\n114\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl Artículo 13.2 b i) dispone que las Partes\nContratantes proporcionarán y/o facilitarán el\nacceso a la tecnología para ciertos propósitos\ndeterminados. El inciso utiliza una redacción\ntomada del Artículo 16.1 del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, en particular al especificar\nlas obligaciones de las Partes Contratantes de\n‘‘proporcionar y/o facilitar’’. No está claro a qué\nse refiere el término ‘‘proporcionar’’. Por\nejemplo, ¿significa proporcionar las tecnologías\nen sí o, en forma más indirecta, proporcionar\nacceso a las tecnologías? La última inter-\npretación parecería estar más de acuerdo con el\ntítulo del párrafo, ‘‘Acceso a la tecnología y su\ntransferencia’’. También se ajusta más a la\nestructura del Artículo 16.1 del Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica. En este sentido, pues,\nla obligación de las Partes Contratantes es pro-\nporcionar o facilitar el acceso a las tecnologías.\nPor lo tanto, cada Parte Contratante puede decidir\nsi proporciona acceso o simplemente lo facilita.\nCabe suponer que, en general, sería más apro-\npiado que las Partes Contratantes proporcionaran\nacceso a tecnologías que fueran de dominio\npúblico, o estuvieran de alguna otra manera\nsometidas a su jurisdicción, y facilitaran el\nacceso a las tecnologías sujetas a propiedad\nprivada. En todo caso, la obligación mínima de\nlas Partes Contratantes será facilitar el acceso.\nHay muchas maneras en que una Parte\nContratante pueden facilitar el acceso a las\ntecnologías. Como primer paso, tal vez examine\nlas políticas y prácticas existentes para\ndeterminar cuáles son las más eficaces y luego\naplicar las medidas adicionales que sean\napropiadas. Las medidas para facilitar el acceso\npodrían incluir:\nIncentivos tributarios y otros incentivos\neconómicos en las Partes proveedoras\npara alentar la exportación y en las\nPartes receptoras para alentar la impor-\ntación;\nReforma de la legislación sobre\ninversión extranjera;\nAsistencia comercial;\nAmpliación de la protección de los\nderechos de propiedad intelectual;\nMecanismos de colaboración en\nmateria de investigación y desarrollo;\nEstablecimiento de centros nacionales,\nregionales o mundiales de intercambio\nde tecnología u otros mecanismos que\nlo faciliten;\nDonaciones; o\nCompra de derechos de propiedad\nintelectual en nombre de otra Parte.\nEl acceso se proporcionará y/o facilitará\ncon los siguientes propósitos:\nLa conservación de los RFGAA;\nLa caracterización de los RFGAA;\nLa evaluación de los RFGAA;\nLa utilización de los RFGAA.\nCada una de estas categorías es importante\ny, en conjunto, cubren bastante bien todo el\ncampo de los RFGAA. Las tecnologías de\n‘‘conservación’’ abarcarían las tecnologías\nrelativas al almacenamiento de germoplasma,\nincluidas las técnicas in vitro, regeneración,\nanálisis fitosanitarios y tratamiento de\nenfermedades en el material almacenado, así\ncomo tecnologías relativas a la conservación in\nsitu, por ejemplo, las relativas a la vigilancia de\nla diversidad genética existente. Las tecnologías\nde ‘‘caracterización’’ comprenderían las relati-\nvas a la categorización de datos morfológicos y\ndatos sobre características hereditarias, como el\ncolor de las flores, que son constantes en cual-\nquier medio, y tecnologías, incluidas las tecnolo-\ngías moleculares, para determinar la naturaleza\ny el grado de diversidad genética. Las tecnolo-\ngías de ‘‘evaluación’’, por su parte, compren-\nderían tecnologías, incluidas las tecnologías\nmoleculares, relativas a la determinación del\nposible valor de los RFGAA para su utilización,\npor ejemplo características agronómicas valiosas\ndel material y resistencia a la sequía o a deter-\nminadas enfermedades. Las tecnologías de\n‘‘utilización’’ abarcarían las tecnologías tradicio-\nnales de mejoramiento vegetal y las biotecnolo-\ngías, como los marcadores moleculares y las\ntécnicas de recombinación del ADN. Si bien\nobviamente el acento se pone en la transferencia\nde tecnología de los países tecnológicamente\nricos, cabe señalar que este párrafo, al igual que\nel precedente relativo al intercambio de infor-\nmación, no se limita a las tecnologías modernas\ne incluiría también, por ejemplo, el acceso a los\nconocimientos y tecnologías tradicionales.\ncomprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el\nArtículo 12. Se proporcionará y/o facilitará el acceso a estas tecnologías, variedades\nmejoradas y material genético respetando al mismo tiempo los derechos de propiedad\ny la legislación sobre el acceso aplicables y de acuerdo con la capacidad nacional.\n115\nArtículo 13\nAsimismo es importante señalar que las\nobligaciones de las Partes Contratantes en\nmateria de acceso a la tecnología y su\ntransferencia dentro de todo este párrafo se\nlimitan a los RFGAA comprendidos en el\nSistema Multilateral (es decir, los RFGAA de\nlos cultivos enumerados en el Anexo I del\nTratado).\nLa segunda oración reconoce que la utili-\nzación de ciertas tecnologías se ha incorporado\nen los nuevos recursos genéticos. Las Partes\nContratantes deberán proporcionar y/o facilitar\nacceso a esas tecnologías proporcionando o\nfacilitando el acceso a los recursos genéticos cor-\nrespondientes, incluidas las variedades\nmejoradas desarrolladas mediante la utilización\nde RFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral, así como a las propias tecnologías. Aun\ncuando el acceso a productos que incorporan\nmaterial al que se hubiera tenido acceso al\namparo del Sistema Multilateral esté restringido,\nlas Partes Contratantes deben proporcionar o\nfacilitar acceso a las tecnologías contenidas en\nesos productos y al propio material genético, en\nlas condiciones establecidas en el Artículo 12.\nEse acceso respeta plenamente los derechos de\npropiedad y la legislación sobre el acceso\naplicables. Presuntamente, en este caso la\nreferencia a la legislación sobre el acceso apunta\nprincipalmente a los requisitos de derecho\ninterno para obtener el consentimiento del\npropietario o del titular de la propiedad intelec-\ntual, a que se hace referencia en el Artículo 12.\n3f del Tratado.\nLa especificación de que ese acceso estará\nsujeto a la ‘‘capacidad nacional’’ es más pro-\nblemática. No puede significar que las Partes\nContratantes no estén obligadas a proporcionar\nacceso a tecnologías que no tienen, lo cual es\nobvio. Por lo tanto, debe tener un significado\nsimilar al del párrafo anterior, es decir que los\npaíses deben proporcionar acceso a las\ntecnologías en una medida que no desborde sus\ncapacidades. En otras palabras, una Parte\nContratante que fuera un país en desarrollo no\nestaría obligada a gastar millones de dólares para\nestudiar técnicas tradicionales de conservación\ncon objeto de atender a una solicitud de otra Parte\nContratante, ni tendría que proporcionar\ncantidades de fotocopias o documentos que\nexcedieran de lo razonable. En cambio, se\nesperaría que los países ricos fueran más\ngenerosos en la transferencia de tecnología.\nii) El acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia a los países, especialmente a los países en\ndesarrollo y los países con economía en transición, se llevará a cabo mediante un\nconjunto de medidas, como el establecimiento y mantenimiento de grupos temáticos\nbasados en cultivos sobre la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y la participación en ellos, todos los tipos de asociaciones\npara la investigación y desarrollo y empresas mixtas comerciales relacionadas con el\nmaterial recibido, el mejoramiento de los recursos humanos y el acceso efectivo a los\nservicios de investigación.\nEste apartado indica medidas que pueden adoptar\nlas Partes Contratantes para proporcionar acceso\na las tecnologías y transferirlas, en particular a\nlos países en desarrollo y los países con\neconomía en transición.\nLa promoción de grupos y redes temáticos\nbasados en cultivos se considera una base\nimportante para el intercambio científico, el\nintercambio de información, la transferencia de\ntecnología y la colaboración en el Plan de acción\nmundial (área de actividad prioritaria 16). Los\ngrupos y redes temáticos también se consideran\nimportantes para compartir la responsabilidad en\nmateria de recolección, conservación, distri-\nbución, evaluación y mejoramiento genético. En\nefecto, el Artículo 16 del Tratado postula el\nfomento de redes internacionales de recursos\nfitogenéticos como uno de los componentes de\napoyo esenciales. Este párrafo se centra en su\nimportancia como vehículo para la transferencia\nde tecnología.\nSe considera que el establecimiento de\nasociaciones para la investigación y el desarrollo,\nincluidas las empresas mixtas comerciales, es\ntambién un medio adecuado de transferencia de\ntecnología. A este respecto, cabe señalar que\nestas asociaciones se relacionan con ‘‘el material\nrecibido’’. Aunque no se dice expresamente, se\nestaría haciendo referencia tácitamente a asocia-\nciones y empresas mixtas comerciales con el\npaís, o la entidad del país, que proporciona los\nRFGAA.\nLa referencia al ‘‘acceso efectivo a los\nrecursos de investigación’’ es similar al Artículo\n15.6 del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica,\n116\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nSegún la primera parte del Artículo 13.2 b iii),\nse debe proporcionar acceso a la tecnología,\nincluida la que está protegida por derechos de\npropiedad intelectual, a los países en desarrollo\nen ‘‘condiciones justas y muy favorables’’. Esto\nse aplica particularmente a:\nla tecnología que haya de utilizarse en\nla conservación; y\nla tecnología que beneficie a los agri-\ncultores de los países en desarrollo,\nespecialmente los menos adelantados y\nlos países con economía en transición.\nEn la segunda parte del párrafo se indica\nla manera en que se hará esto. Las ‘‘condiciones\njustas y muy favorables’’ incluyen las ‘‘condici-\nones favorables y preferenciales’’, cuando se\nllegue a un mutuo acuerdo. Éstas a su vez pueden\nconcretarse mediante mecanismos como las\nasociaciones para la investigación y el desarrollo\nen el marco del Sistema Multilateral.\nLas expresiones ‘‘condiciones justas y muy\nfavorables’’ y ‘‘condiciones favorables y pre-\nferenciales’’ no se definen en el Tratado. Las\nmismas expresiones se usan en el Artículo 16 2)\ndel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, en\nla Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas\nsobre el Cambio Climático, en el Protocolo\nrelativo a las sustancias que agotan la capa de\nozono y en el Programa 21 y tampoco se definen\nen ninguno de estos documentos. También se\nemplean las mismas expresiones en el área de\nactividad prioritaria 15 del Plan de acción\nmundial. En general, ‘‘condiciones justas y muy\nfavorables’’ parecería significar condiciones\nequitativas y que fueran las mejores condiciones\nofrecidas a otros países, es decir, se trataría de\nuna referencia al concepto de ‘‘nación más\nfavorecida’’. ‘‘Condiciones favorables y pre-\nferenciales’’ parece significar condiciones que\nson más favorables que las normalmente\nofrecidas en el mercado abierto; la obligación\nde ofrecerlas se limita a las situaciones en que\ntales condiciones son resultado de un mutuo\nacuerdo.\nPor último, al igual que en el Artículo 16.2\ndel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, y\ntambién el Artículo 13.2 b i) del Tratado, el\npárrafo reitera que el acceso a la tecnología y su\ntransferencia debe respetar los derechos de\npropiedad intelectual. La frase ‘‘protección\nadecuada y eficaz’’ también recoge expresiones\nsimilares del Artículo 16.2 del Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica y establece una relación\ncon el Acuerdo sobre los Aspectos de los\nDerechos de Propiedad Intelectual relacionados\ncon el Comercio (Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC).\nEl primer párrafo del preámbulo de dicho\nAcuerdo se refiere a ‘‘la necesidad de fomentar\nuna protección eficaz y adecuada de los derechos\nde propiedad intelectual’’, mientras que el\nArtículo 27.3 b) dispone que los Miembros de\nla Organización Mundial del Comercio\n‘‘otorgarán protección a todas las obtenciones\nvegetales mediante patentes, mediante un\nsistema eficaz sui generis o mediante una\ncombinación de aquéllas y éste’’.\niii) El acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia mencionados en los apartados i) y ii)\nsupra, incluso la protegida por derechos de propiedad intelectual, para los países en\ndesarrollo que son Partes Contratantes, en particular los países menos adelantados\ny los países con economía en transición, se proporcionarán y/o se facilitarán en\ncondiciones justas y muy favorables, sobre todo en el caso de las tecnologías que\nhayan de utilizarse en la conservación, así como tecnologías en beneficio de los\nagricultores de los países en desarrollo, especialmente los países menos adelantados\ny los países con economía en transición, incluso en condiciones favorables y\npreferenciales, cuando se llegue a un mutuo acuerdo, entre otras cosas por medio\nde asociaciones para la investigación y el desarrollo en el marco del Sistema\nMultilateral. El acceso y la transferencia mencionados se proporcionarán en\ncondiciones que reconozcan la protección adecuada y eficaz de los derechos de\npropiedad intelectual y estén en consonancia con ella.\nc) Fomento de la capacidad. Teniendo en cuenta las necesidades de los países en\ndesarrollo y de los países con economía en transición, expresadas por la prioridad\nque conceden al fomento de la capacidad en relación con los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura en sus planes y programas, cuando estén en\nque alienta a las Partes Contratantes a realizar\ninvestigaciones científicas basadas en los\nrecursos genéticos proporcionados por otras\nPartes Contratantes con la plena participación\nde las Partes que proporcionan los materiales y,\nde ser posible, en sus países.\n117\nArtículo 13\nEl Artículo 13.2 c se centra en tres áreas\nprincipales de fomento de la capacidad, que\ncorresponden a las disposiciones de las áreas de\nactividad prioritarias 15 y 19 del Plan de acción\nmundial:\nEl establecimiento o fortalecimiento de\nprogramas de enseñanza científica y\ntécnica y capacitación en la conserva-\nción y la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA;\nLa creación y el fortalecimiento de\nservicios de conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA, en particular\nen los países en desarrollo y los países\ncon economía en transición; y\nLa realización de investigaciones\ncientíficas, en particular en los países\nen desarrollo y los países con economía\nen transición en cooperación con\ninstituciones de tales países, y la\ncreación de capacidad para dicha\ninvestigación en los sectores en los que\nsea necesaria.\nEl fomento de la capacidad nacional es\nesencial para que los países, en particular los\npaíses en desarrollo o los países con economía\nen transición, puedan conservar sus RFGAA y\naprovecharlos de la mejor manera posible en\nforma sostenible. También es esencial que\npuedan aprovechar de la mejor manera posible\nlas tecnologías transferidas. Uno de los objetivos\ndel nuevo Fondo Mundial para la Diversidad de\nCultivos (véase el recuadro 20) es prestar\nasistencia financiera y técnica para mejorar y\nmantener las colecciones ex situ de RFGAA,\nincluido el fomento de la capacidad nacional.\nLa frase ‘‘teniendo en cuenta las\nnecesidades de los países en desarrollo [...]\nexpresadas por la prioridad que conceden al\nfomento de la capacidad en relación con los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura’’ se agregó para reflejar el hecho de\nque la ayuda externa para el desarrollo debería\nobedecer a las prioridades de los países\nreceptores, expresadas por ellos mismos, y no a\nlas prioridades de los países donantes. Si los\npropios países no reconocen que el fomento de\nla capacidad es una prioridad, es difícil para los\npaíses donantes insistir en proporcionar una\nayuda que de hecho podría ser necesaria.\nvigor, con respecto a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ncomprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan conceder\nprioridad a: i) el establecimiento y/o fortalecimiento de programas de enseñanza\ncientífica y técnica y capacitación en la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, ii) la creación y\nfortalecimiento de servicios de conservación y utilización sostenible de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, en particular en los países en\ndesarrollo y en los países con economía en transición, y iii) la realización de\ninvestigaciones científicas, preferiblemente y siempre que sea posible en países en\ndesarrollo y países con economía en transición, en cooperación con instituciones de\ntales países, y la creación de capacidad para dicha investigación en los sectores en\nque sea necesaria.\nd) Distribución de los beneficios monetarios y de otro tipo de la comercialización\nLas disposiciones del Tratado relativas a la\ndistribución de los beneficios monetarios del uso\ncomercial de los recursos genéticos representan\nuna verdadera innovación teórica, en particular,\nlas que requieren, en determinadas circun-\nstancias, el pago de una proporción equitativa\nde los beneficios comerciales a un Sistema\nMultilateral.\ni) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan, en el marco del Sistema Multilateral, adoptar\nmedidas con el fin de conseguir la distribución de los beneficios comerciales, por\nmedio de la participación de los sectores público y privado en actividades determinadas\ncon arreglo a lo dispuesto en este Artículo, mediante asociaciones y colaboraciones,\nincluso con el sector privado, en los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en\ntransición para la investigación y el fomento de la tecnología;\nEste apartado se remite a las demás disposiciones\nanteriores del artículo, y anticipa las disposi-\nciones concretas sobre distribución de los\nbeneficios monetarios del apartado siguiente.\n118\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nCabe sostener que el Artículo 13.2 d ii) es la\ndisposición más interesante y más polémica\nrelativa a la distribución de los beneficios. Este\npárrafo establece un sistema obligatorio de\ndistribución de los beneficios vinculado con la\ncomercialización de los RFGAA que incorporen\nmateriales obtenidos al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral, en armonía con el Artículo 15.7 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. El\nANTM previsto en el Artículo 12.4 deberá\ncontener el requisito de distribución de los\nbeneficios que obligará al receptor, y a todos los\nfuturos receptores, de germoplasma del Sistema\nMultilateral a pagar, en determinadas circun-\nstancias, una parte de los beneficios monetarios\nderivados de la comercialización de los\nproductos que incorporen material al que haya\ntenido acceso al amparo del Sistema Multilateral.\nEn la primera parte del Artículo 13.2 d ii)\nse establecen esas circunstancias. Cuando un\nreceptor obtenga material del Sistema\nMultilateral y lo utilice para crear un producto\nque ‘‘sea un recurso fitogenético para la ali-\nmentación y la agricultura’’ y luego comercialice\nese producto, estará obligado a pagar ‘‘una parte\nequitativa de los beneficios derivados de la\ncomercialización’’. Debe entenderse que este\nrequisito no se aplicará a la comercialización de\nun producto que no sea en sí mismo un recurso\nfitogenético para la alimentación y la agricultura\n(algunos de esos productos deben considerarse\nen relación con el Artículo 15 del Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica). Tampoco se aplicará a\nla comercialización de un producto comercial\ncorriente, o producto básico, como un cereal para\ndesayuno que contenga trigo producido por una\nnueva variedad creada mediante la incorporación\nde material obtenido del Sistema Multilateral.\nEsto ya quedaba claro en la introducción del\nArtículo 13.2. Sin embargo, sí se aplicará a la\ncomercialización de semillas u otro material de\npropagación de una nueva variedad vegetal – al\nrecurso fitogenético mismo – siempre que la\nnueva variedad incorpore material al que se haya\ntenido acceso al amparo del Sistema Multilateral.\nEn todo caso, la obligación de pagar no se\naplica cuando quien haya desarrollado el nuevo\nproducto lo hubiera puesto a disposición de todos\nlos usuarios, sin restricciones, para investigación\ny mejoramiento ulteriores115. En esos casos, el\nreceptor no está obligado a realizar el pago,\naunque se alienta a que lo haga.\nCuando el receptor está obligado a realizar\nel pago, es el acto de comercialización, y no el\nacto de solicitar el reconocimiento de derechos\nde propiedad intelectual que restringirían el\nacceso futuro al producto, lo que pone en efecto\nla obligación.\nii) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el Acuerdo modelo de transferencia de material\nal que se hace referencia en el Artículo 12.4 deberá incluir el requisito de que un\nreceptor que comercialice un producto que sea un recurso fitogenético para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y que incorpore material al que haya tenido acceso al\namparo del Sistema Multilateral, deberá pagar al mecanismo a que se hace referencia\nen el Artículo 19.3 f una parte equitativa de los beneficios derivados de la\ncomercialización de ese producto, salvo cuando ese producto esté a disposición de\notras personas, sin restricciones, para investigación y mejoramiento ulteriores, en\ncuyo caso deberá alentarse al receptor que lo comercialice a que efectúe dicho pago.\nEl Órgano Rector deberá, en su primera reunión, determinar la cuantía, la forma y\nla modalidad de pago, de conformidad con la práctica comercial. El Órgano Rector\npodrá decidir, si lo desea, establecer diferentes cuantías de pago para las diversas\ncategorías de receptores que comercializan esos productos; también podrá decidir si\nes o no necesario eximir de tales pagos a los pequeños agricultores de los países en\ndesarrollo y de los países con economía en transición. El Órgano Rector podrá\nocasionalmente examinar la cuantía del pago con objeto de conseguir una distribución\njusta y equitativa de los beneficios y podrá también evaluar, en un plazo de cinco\naños desde la entrada en vigor del presente Tratado, si el requisito de un pago\nobligatorio que se estipula en el acuerdo de transferencia de material se aplicará\ntambién en aquellos casos en que los productos comercializados estén a disposición\nde otras personas, sin restricciones, para investigación y mejoramiento ulteriores.\n115 Esto se aplica a un producto que incorpore material al que se ha tenido acceso al amparo del sistema multilateral.\nSegún el Artículo 12.3 d) los receptores no reclamarán ningún derecho de propiedad intelectual que limite el\nacceso a los RFGAA en la forma en que los han recibido.\n119\nArtículo 13\nAunque las disposiciones del Artículo 13.2\nd ii) son innovadoras e importantes, quedan\ntodavía varias cuestiones que tendrá que resolver\nel Órgano Rector.\nLa primera de ellas se indica expresamente\nen la segunda parte del Artículo 13.2 d ii). El\nÓrgano Rector deberá determinar la cuantía, la\nforma y la modalidad de pago en su primera\nreunión, de conformidad con la práctica\ncomercial. Una de las primeras decisiones que\ntendrá que tomar el Órgano Rector será la forma\nde pago. En particular tendrá que decidir si se\ntratará de regalías, un porcentaje de los\nbeneficios, el pago de una suma fija o pagos\ngraduados según el tipo de producto o las\ncircunstancias. También tendrá que determinar\nla cuantía del pago. La rentabilidad relativa-\nmente baja del sector de las semillas sugeriría\nponer un límite máximo a la cuantía. Sin\nembargo, una cuantía demasiado baja podría\nperjudicar la aplicación del Tratado. La referen-\ncia a la práctica comercial podría ayudar al\nÓrgano Rector a tomar sus decisiones, o por lo\nmenos a definir los límites. Sin embargo,\nprobablemente el Órgano Rector tenga en sus\nmanos un problema complicado, ya que puede\nhaber distintas opiniones respecto de lo que\nconstituye la práctica comercial pertinente.\nEl Órgano Rector podrá también examinar\nocasionalmente la cuantía del pago para\nconseguir una distribución justa y equitativa de\nlos beneficios. Podrá también evaluar, en un\nplazo de cinco años desde la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado, si el requisito de un pago obligatorio\nse aplicará también en aquellos casos en que no\nse hayan puesto restricciones a la disponibilidad\nfutura del producto. La redacción de esta última\ndisposición es extraña, pero no es probable que\nla intención haya sido la de limitar la oportunidad\nde revisar la cuantía del pago a los cinco primeros\naños. El Tratado no indica si se podrá realizar o\nno otro examen después de este período de cinco\naños. En vista de que los fitomejoradores bien\npueden necesitar diez años a partir de la entrada\nen vigor del Tratado para crear nuevos productos\nutilizando los RFGAA obtenidos al amparo del\nSistema Multilateral, el plazo de cinco años\npodría ser demasiado breve para evaluar el efecto\nde este mecanismo de distribución de los\nbeneficios.\nHay también otras cuestiones o ambi-\ngüedades que no se aclaran en el texto. Una de\nellas es el significado exacto de la cláusula\n‘‘salvo cuando ese producto esté a disposición\nde otras personas, sin restricciones, para\ninvestigación y mejoramiento ulteriores’’. El\nTratado no indica los criterios para determinar\nsi ‘‘un producto está a disposición de otras\npersonas, sin restricciones, para investigación y\nmejoramiento ulteriores’’. Sin embargo, en las\nnegociaciones se entendía que el sistema\nobligatorio de distribución de los beneficios se\naplicaría a los productos comercializados,\nprotegidos en una forma que limitaría su\ndisponibilidad para investigación y mejora-\nmiento ulteriores, o en los casos en que hubiera\ncircunstancias prácticas, jurídicas o físicas que\nrestringieran la disponibilidad del producto.\nTambién podría aplicarse cuando se obtuvieran\npatentes u otro tipo de derechos de propiedad\nintelectual respecto de cualquier parte o\ncomponente genético del nuevo producto y ello\nsurtiera el efecto de restringir en forma similar\nla disponibilidad del producto.\nLas variedades que incorporan material del\nSistema Multilateral protegidas por derechos del\nobtentor, como los que preconiza la UPOV, no\nestarían sujetas a una distribución obligatoria de\nlos beneficios monetarios, al suponer que esas\nvariedades están libremente disponibles para la\ninvestigación y el mejoramiento ulteriores. En\nalgunas jurisdicciones, los derechos de patente\nno excluyen el uso del material fitogenético para\nfines de investigación ulterior, incluido el\nmejoramiento. En otras jurisdicciones sí\nexcluyen esos usos. No está claro si el titular de\nuna patente en una de esas jurisdicciones podría\nrenunciar a esas exclusiones y quedar así eximido\nde la disposición obligatoria relativa a la\ndistribución de los beneficios. Cabe preguntar\nsi la ‘‘protección por patentes’’ podría en algún\ncaso servir para quedar exento del requisito de\ndistribución de los beneficios monetarios que\nimpone el Artículo 13. Por ejemplo, ¿podría\nalguien patentar una variedad o una línea y luego\ncomprometerse a dar a todo el que la solicite\nuna licencia para usar libremente el material para\nfines de investigación y mejoramiento, y\neximirse así del pago obligatorio? Una ventaja\nque la solución contractual tiene para los\ngobiernos es que cada receptor y usuario de\nRFGAA obtenidos del Sistema Multilateral\ntendrá que determinar por sí mismo sus\nobligaciones contractuales, en particular si el\npago es optativo en una circunstancia\ndeterminada. Tal vez el Órgano Rector deba\naclarar este punto.\nUn segundo posible problema se refiere al\nsignificado del término ‘‘comercialización’’. La\ncomercialización pone en efecto la obligación\nde distribuir los beneficios monetarios, pero cabe\n120\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\npreguntar qué significa exactamente este\ntérmino. ¿En qué punto de la cadena de trans-\nacciones necesarias para la commercialización\nde un producto surgiría la obligación? ¿Surgiría\ncuando el producto se ofrece a la venta, cuando\nse acepta la oferta o cuando se perciben las\nutilidades? En principio, parecería que el término\ncomer-cialización debería referirse en realidad\nal momento en que la venta se ha perfeccionado.\nDe la forma de pago que determine el Órgano\nRector dependerá que haya o no que esperar a\nque se hayan percibido efectivamente las\nutilidades.\nOtra posible cuestión es qué constituye\n‘‘incorporación’’ de material al que se ha tenido\nacceso al amparo del Sistema Multilateral.\nNaturalmente hay distintos métodos de\nincorporación, entre ellos el mejoramiento\nconvencional y los métodos biotecnológicos. Sin\nembargo, la redacción de la disposición sugeriría\nque en un producto se ha ‘‘incorporado’’ material\nal que se ha tenido acceso al amparo del Sistema\nMultilateral cuando en ese producto está presente\nla información genética del material en cuestión.\nPero todavía pueden plantearse cuestiones\ntécnicas en cuanto al grado de incorporación que\nse requiere. Por ejemplo, ¿bastaría cualquier in-\ncorporación del material para satisfacer el requi-\nsito? ¿O lo que se requeriría sería la incorpora-\nción de una parte esencial del material necesario\npara las características deseadas? ¿O se tendrían\nen cuenta distintos niveles de incorporación para\ndeterminar distintas cuantías del pago?\nEl Órgano Rector tendrá que examinar\ntodas esas cuestiones.\nEl Artículo 13.2 d ii) se aplica a todo el\nmaterial a que se haya tenido acceso al amparo\ndel Sistema Multilateral. Abarcaría, pues, todo\nel material enumerado en el Anexo I que se haya\nobtenido de Partes Contratantes, centros\ninternacionales de investigación agrícola u otras\ninstituciones internacionales. Como los centros\ndel GCIAI tienen personalidad jurídica\nindependiente y firmarán acuerdos separados con\nel Órgano Rector, el acceso de un centro a los\nmateriales de otro centro (al igual que el acceso\nde una Parte Contratante a los materiales de un\ncentro) se consideraría un acceso al Sistema\nMultilateral. Por lo tanto, para este tipo de\ntransferencia se requeriría un Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material. Las transferencias\ndentro de un centro (por ejemplo del banco de\ngermoplasma a un fitomejorador o investigador)\npodrán o no ser considerados un acto de acceso\nal amparo del Sistema Multilateral. En efecto,\nse trataría de una transferencia de una ‘‘persona\njurídica’’ a la misma ‘‘persona jurídica’’. Sin\nembargo, los centros del GCIAI están en una\nsituación bastante diferente de la de las Partes\nContratantes puesto que no reivindican la\npropiedad de los materiales y los mantienen en\ndepósito. Será interesante ver si los centros\naceptan aplicar las disposiciones de distribución\nde los beneficios del Tratado en caso de\ncomercializar RFGAA desarrollados sobre la\nbase de materiales de su propio banco y de\nprotegerlos en forma que limite el acceso y\nutilización ulteriores para investigación y\nmejoramiento.\n13.3 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral vayan fundamentalmente, de manera directa o indirecta,\na los agricultores de todos los países, especialmente de los países en desarrollo y\nlos países con economía en transición, que conservan y utilizan de manera sostenible\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nAl igual que en otros artículos del Tratado, en\neste párrafo se reconoce expresamente, y se\nrecompensa, el papel de los agricultores. La\ndistribución de los beneficios, al igual que en la\ndefinición de los derechos del agricultor en las\ninterpretaciones concertadas del Compromiso\nInternacional, no sólo tiene por objeto reconocer\nlas contribuciones pasadas, sino también alentar\nlas presentes y futuras. Así, según el\nArtículo 13.3, los beneficios derivados de la\nutilización de los RFGAA comprendidos en el\nSistema Multilateral deben ir fundamentalmente\na los agricultores, especialmente de los países\nen desarrollo y los países con economía en\ntransición, que los conservan y utilizan de\nmanera sostenible. Los beneficios pueden ir\ndirectamente a esos agricultores, por ejemplo\nmediante asistencia directa sobre manejo y\nconservación de los RFGAA en la finca, o\nindirectamente, mediante, por ejemplo, la\nfinanciación de programas que los beneficien en\nforma indirecta, como la ampliación de la base\ngenética de los cultivos. Si bien los agricultores\nde países en desarrollo y países con economía\n121\nArtículo 13\nen transición serán los destinatarios centrales,\nla redacción no excluye la distribución de\nbeneficios a los agricultores que conservan y\nutilizan de manera sostenible los RFGAA en\npaíses desarrollados, particularmente cuando los\nbeneficios son indirectos.\n13.4 En su primera reunión, el Órgano Rector examinará las políticas y los criterios\npertinentes para prestar asistencia específica, en el marco de la estrategia de\nfinanciación convenida establecida en virtud del Artículo 18, para la conservación\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura de los países en\ndesarrollo y los países con economía en transición cuya contribución a la diversidad\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral sea significativa y/o que tengan necesidades específicas.\n13.5 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen que la capacidad para aplicar plenamente el\nPlan de acción mundial, en particular de los países en desarrollo y los países con\neconomía en transición, dependerá en gran medida de la aplicación eficaz de este\nArtículo y de la estrategia de financiación estipulada en el Artículo 18.\nLos Artículos 13.4 y 13.5 establecen\nexpresamente una relación entre la distribución\nde los beneficios y la estrategia de financiación.\nAunque el Artículo 18 se examinará con mayor\ndetalle más adelante, el Tratado crea una\nestrategia de financiación que movilizará fondos\npara actividades, planes y programas prioritarios,\nen particular en países en desarrollo y países con\neconomía en transición. Las Partes Contratantes\nconvienen expresamente en adoptar las medidas\nnecesarias y apropiadas en los órganos rectores\nde los mecanismos, fondos y órganos\ninternacionales pertinentes para garantizar que\nse conceda la debida prioridad y atención a la\nasignación efectiva de recursos previsibles y\nconvenidos, teniendo en cuenta las prioridades\nestablecidas en el Plan de acción mundial\nprogresivo.\nEl Órgano Rector decidirá cómo se\nutilizarán los beneficios de la estrategia de\nfinanciación. El Artículo 13.5 reconoce también\nque la capacidad de las Partes Contratantes para\naplicar plenamente el Plan dependerá en gran\nmedida de la aplicación eficaz de las\ndisposiciones sobre distribución de beneficios y\nde la estrategia de financiación. En la Conferen-\ncia de Leipzig que aprobó el Plan de acción\nmundial, el suministro de recursos financieros\npara ayudar a los países en desarrollo a aplicarlo\nfue un tema controvertido.\nA pesar de que la Comisión convino en\nexaminar las cuestiones de financiación en el\ncontexto de las negociaciones para revisar el\nCompromiso Internacional, muchos países en\ndesarrollo habían tratado de que los países\ndesarrollados se comprometieran a proporcionar\nnuevos recursos para este fin, aparte de los que\nproporcionaban con arreglo al Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica. Finalmente, la\nConferencia de Leipzig reafirmó el compromiso\nde aportar recursos nuevos y adicionales,\nexpresado en el Programa 21 y en el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica, y especificó que\nen el marco de esos compromisos se debían\ndestinar fondos para financiar la aplicación del\nPlan de acción mundial por los países en\ndesarrollo y los países con economía en\ntransición. La estrategia de financiación del\nTratado es una forma de hacer efectivos esos\ncompromisos.\nHay claras diferencias entre esta disposi-\nción y disposiciones similares del Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y la Convención\nMarco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio\nClimático116. Estos dos instrumentos limitan las\ndisposiciones relativas a la financiación en fun-\nción de la capacidad de las Partes Contratantes\nde cumplir sus compromisos. En el Tratado\nInternacional, en cambio, la limitación se aplica\nsólo a la capacidad de las Partes Contratantes de\nejecutar el Plan de acción mundial y no de\ncumplir las obligaciones que les impone el\nTratado. El Artículo 18.4 b del Tratado es una\ndisposición más amplia que sigue la redacción\nde las disposiciones del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica y la Convención Marco de\nlas Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático.\n116 Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, 9 de mayo de 1992, 31 I.L.M. 849\n(1992).\n122\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEn el Artículo 13.6 las Partes Contratantes han\nconvenido en considerar, en algún momento en\nel futuro, ‘‘las modalidades de una estrategia de\ncontribuciones voluntarias para la distribución\nde los beneficios’’ que se aplicará a las industrias\nelaboradoras de alimentos. Esto se suma a las\ndisposiciones voluntarias de distribución de los\n13.6 Las Partes Contratantes examinarán las modalidades de una estrategia de\ncontribuciones voluntarias para la distribución de los beneficios, en virtud de la\ncual las industrias elaboradoras de alimentos que se beneficien de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura contribuyan al Sistema Multi-\nlateral.\nbeneficios a que se refiere el Artículo 13.2 d ii).\nEl fundamento es que la industria elaboradora\nde alimentos se beneficia en forma más directa\nde la utilización de los RFGAA. Esta disposición\nse relaciona estrechamente con el Artículo\n18.4 f.\n123\nPart V\nPARTE V – COMPONENTES DE APOYO\nLa Parte V del Tratado se refiere a los ‘‘com-\nponentes de apoyo’’, a saber, el Plan de acción\nmundial, las colecciones ex situ mantenidas por\nlos centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola (CIIA) y otras instituciones inter-\nnacionales, las redes internacionales de recursos\nfitogenéticos y el Sistema Mundial de Informa-\nción sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. La expresión\n‘‘componentes de apoyo’’ se refiere a mecanis-\nmos que apoyan al Tratado en su conjunto, pero\ntambién tienen existencia propia independiente-\nmente del Tratado, en particular en relación con\nla Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura (CRGAA) de la\nFAO.\nRecuadro 15. El informe sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos en el\nmundo y el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura\nEl primer informe sobre el estado de los recursos fitogenéticos en el mundo fue preparado\npor una secretaría ubicada en la FAO mediante un proceso participativo dirigido por los\npaíses. El informe, que evaluaba el estado de la diversidad fitogenética y la capacidad a nivel\nlocal y mundial para la gestión, conservación y utilización in situ y ex situ de los recursos\nfitogenéticos, fue presentado a la Cuarta Conferencia Técnica Internacional, celebrada en\nLeipzig (Alemania), en junio de 1996.\nEl Plan de acción mundial, que es un instrumento voluntario (es decir, no tiene fuerza jurídica\nobligatoria), fue preparado sobre la base del informe y negociado y aprobado oficialmente\npor 150 países en la Conferencia de Leipzig mediante la Declaración de Leipzig. El Plan de\nacción mundial enumera veinte áreas de actividad prioritarias organizadas en los cuatro\ngrupos principales siguientes: conservación y mejoramiento in situ, conservación ex situ,\nutilización de los recursos fitogenéticos e instituciones y creación de capacidad. El Plan de\nacción mundial es un plan progresivo que ha de ser vigilado, revisado y actualizado por la\nComisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura de la FAO.\nLos principales objetivos y estrategias del Plan de acción mundial son:\nAsegurar la conservación de los RFGAA como base de la seguridad alimentaria;\nPromover una utilización sostenible de los RFGAA, a fin de fomentar el desarrollo y\nreducir el hambre y la pobreza, especialmente en los países en desarrollo;\nPromover una distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios derivados del uso de los\nRFGAA, reconociendo la conveniencia de compartir equitativamente los beneficios que\nse derivan de la utilización de los conocimientos tradicionales, las innovaciones y las\nprácticas pertinentes para la conservación de los RFGAA, y su utilización sostenible.\nEl Plan de acción mundial apunta a:\nAyudar a los países e instituciones que tienen a su cargo la conservación y utilización de\nlos RFGAA a identificar prioridades para la acción; y\nReforzar, en particular, los programas nacionales, así como los regionales e internacionales,\nincluida la formación y capacitación, para la conservación y utilización de los RFGAA y\naumentar la capacidad de las instituciones.\nEl Plan de acción mundial fue aprobado por la 29ª Conferencia de la FAO en 1997.\nCon la aprobación del Tratado, el Plan de acción mundial cobra una importancia aún mayor.\nEl Artículo 14 del Tratado reconoce al Plan como importante componente de apoyo del Tratado.\nSe exhorta a las Partes Contratantes a promover su aplicación efectiva, incluso por medio de\nmedidas nacionales y, cuando proceda, mediante la cooperación internacional a fin de\nproporcionar un marco coherente, entre otras cosas para el fomento de la capacidad, la\ntransferencia de tecnología y el intercambio de información.\n124\n125\nArtículo 14\nArtículo 14 – Plan de acción mundial\nSe alienta a las Partes Contratantes a promover\nla aplicación efectiva del Plan de acción mundial\n(véase el recuadro 15) como marco internacional,\nde carácter voluntario, para las actividades\nrelacionadas con los RFGAA. Esto se logrará\nmediante:\nmedidas nacionales; y\nla cooperación internacional a fin de\nproporcionar un marco coherente para\nel fomento de la capacidad, la trans-\nferencia de tecnología y el intercambio\nde información.\nAl hacerlo, se alienta a las Partes a tener en\ncuenta el Artículo 13 sobre distribución de los\nbeneficios.\nAunque el texto del Artículo 14 no es\nprescriptivo, el Plan de acción mundial se\nconsidera un marco científico y técnico\nfundamental para la acción en los planos nacional\ne internacional y, en particular, para las\ndisposiciones de distribución de los beneficios\ndel Artículo 13. El primer Plan de acción mundial\nfue aprobado en 1996 y se preveía actualizarlo\nperiódicamente, de ahí el calificativo de\n‘‘progresivo’’.\nLa aplicación del Plan de acción mundial\nserá guiada y vigilada por los países a través de\nla CRGAA de la FAO. Además de los informes\nsobre la marcha de las actividades publicados\npor la Comisión, se ha celebrado una serie de\nreuniones regionales y subregionales para\npromover la aplicación del Plan de Acción\nMundial, con el copatrocinio del Programa del\nGCIAI de Recursos Genéticos para todo el\nSistema y organizaciones de investigación\nagrícola regionales pertinentes.\nReconociendo que el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la utilización\nsostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, de carácter\nprogresivo, es importante para el presente Tratado, las Partes Contratantes promoverán\nsu aplicación efectiva, incluso por medio de medidas nacionales y, cuando proceda,\nmediante la cooperación internacional, a fin de proporcionar un marco coherente, entre\notras cosas para el fomento de la capacidad, la transferencia de tecnología y el intercambio\nde información, teniendo en cuenta lo dispuesto en el Artículo 13.\nRecuadro 16. Mecanismo de facilitación para el Plan de acción mundial\nDesde la aprobación del Plan de acción mundial, se ha adquirido considerable experiencia en\nmuchas áreas de importancia crítica para su aplicación. Esto incluye la labor relativa a la\nordenación en las fincas de los recursos fitogenéticos, el mejoramiento fitogenético\nparticipatorio y la promoción de una mejor comprensión de los sistemas de semillas locales.\nSe han creado programas nacionales de recursos fitogenéticos en muchos países y las redes\nestablecidas en muchas subregiones ofrecen plataformas adecuadas para la participación de\nlos interesados y para la integración de la conservación con el uso sostenible en el sector del\nmejoramiento vegetal y de las semillas117.\nSin embargo, el deseo de muchos interesados de que el Plan de acción mundial contribuyera\na una acción coherente en materia de conservación in situ y ex situ, utilización sostenible de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos y fomento de instituciones y de la capacidad no se ha hecho\nplenamente realidad. Una de las razones es que todavía no existe un dispositivo internacional\neficaz que facilite la aplicación del Plan de acción mundial.\nPartiendo del ejemplo de un mecanismo de facilitación que dio buenos resultados, como el\ndel Programa Mundial de Manejo Integrado de Plagas, la FAO ha creado un mecanismo de\nfacilitación a fin de establecer un enfoque más completo e integrado para la ulterior aplicación\n117 Véase FAO, Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, mecanismo de facilitación de\nla aplicación del Plan de Acción Mundial para la conservación y utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura, CGRFA-9/02/9, novena reunión ordinaria (Roma, 9 y 14 a 18 de octubre de\n2002).\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n126\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n118 Véase el informe del segundo período de sesiones del Grupo de Trabajo sobre recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura. Documento de la FAO CGRFA/WG-PGR-2/03/Report, noviembre de 2003.\ndel Plan de acción mundial. La propuesta fue presentada a la CRGAA en su noveno período\nde sesiones, en octubre de 2002, que ‘‘puso de relieve que la aplicación del Plan debía estar\nimpulsada por los países, pero que también había que concentrarse en facilitar el suministro\nde recursos técnicos y financieros a los países en desarrollo, especialmente los países menos\nadelantados, y a los países con economía en transición. Había que conceder también la\nmáxima prioridad al fomento o la creación de asociaciones para la aplicación del Plan, a la\npromoción de relaciones entre los sectores de la ordenación de los recursos fitogenéticos, el\nfitomejoramiento y las semillas, a la creación de redes y a la facilitación de la comunicación\ncon las organizaciones internacionales y los donantes’’.\nLa propuesta se volvió a examinar en el segundo período de sesiones del Grupo de Trabajo de\nla CRGAA sobre recursos fitogenéticos, en noviembre de 2003. El Grupo de Trabajo, que\npresenta informes a la Comisión, dejó la redacción de los objetivos del mecanismo de\nfacilitación en manos de la propia Comisión pero convino en sus principios operativos,\nactividades y estructura operacional. El mecanismo de facilitación, que recibirá orientación\ngeneral de la Comisión y de su Grupo de Trabajo sobre RFGAA, tendrá su sede en la FAO y\nfuncionará en asociación con el IPGRI en forma que atraiga y facilite la participación de\notras organizaciones internacionales. Sus actividades incluirán proporcionar información sobre:\ni. Fuentes y disponibilidad de recursos financieros, técnicos, materiales y de información;\nii. Relaciones entre interesados;\niii. Prioridades, funciones y condiciones de los donantes y receptores;\niv. Mejores prácticas y normas y procedimientos;\nv. Casos dignos de mención por sus buenos resultados;\nvi. Establecimiento de redes;\nvii. Planes, compromisos, metas e indicadores; y\nviii. Cualquier otra información relativa a los recursos necesarios para aplicar el Plan de\nacción mundial118.\nEn su décimo período de sesiones, celebrado en noviembre de 2004, la CRGAA examinó la\npropuesta del Grupo de Trabajo y convino en que el objetivo del mecanismo de facilitación\ndebía ser facilitar la aplicación del Programa de acción mundial y alentar la movilización de\nrecursos técnicos y financieros para hacerlo. La Comisión aprobó los principios operativos,\nlas actividades y la estructura operacional del mecanismo de facilitación.\n127\nArtículo 15\nArtículo 15 – Colecciones ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura mantenidas\npor los centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investiga-\nción Agrícola Internacional y otras instituciones\ninternacionales\nLos Centros Internacionales de Investigación\nAgrícola (CIIA) del GCIAI mantienen\nimportantes colecciones ex situ de RFGAA y\ntambién realizan importantes programas de\nmejoramiento de los cultivos, organizados en\ncolaboración con sistemas nacionales de\ninvestigación agrícola. Aunque los Centros del\nGCIAI sólo mantienen en la actualidad\naproximadamente un 12% de las muestras que\nse conservan en condiciones ex situ en el mundo,\nconservan un porcentaje comparativamente más\nalto de la diversidad conocida, en gran parte\ncomo consecuencia de la composición de las\ncolecciones. En promedio las variedades locales\ny las variedades silvestres afines representan sólo\nel 16% de las colecciones nacionales. En los\ncentros del GCIAI la proporción es del 73%119.\nAdemás, en general, las colecciones del GCIAI\nestán bien mantenidas y bien documentadas. La\ncombinación de estos dos factores las convierte\nen un recurso incomparable de gran utilidad para\nlos mejoradores. No es de sorprender, pues, que\nlas colecciones se usen considerablemente: la\ninvestigación sobre la entrada y salida de\nmuestras de los bancos de germoplasma del\nGCIAI demuestra que prácticamente todos los\npaíses del mundo son beneficiarios netos de los\nintercambios de germoplasma120. Por lo tanto,\nlas colecciones del GCIAI son importantes no\nsólo para los fitomejoradores del propio Grupo\nConsultivo, sino que sirven también como\nimportante recurso para cualquier sistema\ninternacional de conservación y gestión del\ngermoplasma.\nBuena parte del material recolectado\nprocede de misiones conjuntas. Siempre se han\nfacilitado a los programas y bancos de\ngermoplasma nacionales muestras duplicadas de\nlos materiales recolectados. Los resultados de\nla investigación (como los datos de\ncaracterización y evaluación) se han puesto\nposteriormente a disposición de los programas\nnacionales para que pudieran usar y desarrollar\nlos recursos en forma más completa y eficiente.\nEn muchos casos, se proporcionaron fondos y\ncapacitación a científicos nacionales para que\ntrabajaran con los materiales.\nLos países han podido obtener del GCIAI\nmuchos más materiales de los que habrían\npodido aportar individualmente. Incluso en el\nmomento más intenso de las actividades de\nrecolección, los países en desarrollo pedían\ncuatro muestras por cada una que aportaban. En\nlos últimos años la relación ha llegado a ser como\nmínimo de 60 a 1. Desde 1994, los Centros han\ndistribuido a los países en desarrollo más\nmuestras que las que recolectaron desde la\nfundación del GCIAI.\nLas colecciones de los centros constituyen\npara los países una ‘‘póliza de seguro’’ contra la\npérdida de diversidad a nivel nacional. Más de\n40 países han podido obtener del GCIAI\nmateriales que ya no estaban disponibles en el\npaís que originalmente los había proporcionado\na un Centro.\nLos Centros producen y proporcionan\ngermoplasma valioso y mejorado gratuitamente\na los países. Todos los años los Centros envían\ncientos de muestras, producto de su investiga-\nción, a programas nacionales y otros destina-\ntarios. Por su volumen, la distribución de\nmateriales mejorados deja muy atrás la de\nvariedades locales, variedades silvestres afines,\netc. que constituyen el grueso de los materiales\ncomprendidos en el acuerdo con la FAO. Los\nproductos de la investigación de los Centros\nofrecen enormes beneficios económicos a los\npaíses en desarrollo, como demuestran los dos\nejemplos siguientes: a) en los últimos 30 años,\nel 85% de las variedades del trigo de primavera\npara pan y el 86% de todas las variedades de\ntrigo duro de primavera autorizadas por países\n119 FAO (1998). Estado de los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura en el Mundo. Roma:\nFAO.\n120 Fowler, C., Smale, M. and Gaiji, S. (2001) ‘‘Unequal Exchange? Recent Transfers of Agricultural Resources and\ntheir Implications for Developing Countries’’, Development Policy Review, Vol. 19, No. 2.\n128\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nen desarrollo y sembradas por sus agricultores\ntenían en su ascendencia trigo producido por el\nCentro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz\ny Trigo (CIMMYT); b) aunque el ñame es uno\nde los cultivos más importantes del mundo, en\nparticular para poblaciones de bajos ingresos,\npocos países en desarrollo tienen siquiera un\ncentro de mejoramiento fitogenético del sector\npúblico dedicado a ese cultivo. Por lo tanto, la\nmayoría de los programas nacionales y los\nmillones de agricultores a los que sirven\ndependen considerablemente del Instituto\nInternacional de Agricultura Tropical en África\npara conseguir variedades de ñame productivas\ny resistentes a las enfermedades.\nLa situación jurídica de las colecciones del\nGCIAI siempre ha sido ambigua. En 1994, 12\nde los Centros del GCIAI firmaron acuerdos con\nla FAO por los que ponían sus colecciones de\ngermoplasma bajo los auspicios de esta\nOrganización. En esos acuerdos, se reconocía\nque los Centros mantenían las colecciones en\ndepósito en beneficio de la comunidad\ninternacional. Su situación se discutió\nampliamente en las negociaciones relativas al\nTratado, de lo que resultó el Artículo 15,\ndedicado a estas colecciones.\nEn términos generales, el Artículo 15 hace\nun llamamiento a los CIIA del GCIAI para que\nfirmen acuerdos con el Órgano Rector a fin de\nincorporar sus colecciones ex situ al régimen del\nTratado. Estos acuerdos son necesarios para que\nlas colecciones queden comprendidas en el\námbito del Tratado, ya que los CIIA tienen su\npropia personalidad jurídica y su propio sistema\nde gestión y no están obligados por las\ndisposiciones del Tratado a menos que den su\nconsentimiento. Sin embargo, como no son\nEstados, no pueden ser Partes en el Tratado por\nderecho propio. En virtud de estos acuerdos, los\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema\nMultilateral se distribuirían de conformidad con\nel ANTM común a las Partes Contratantes y los\ncentros.\nLos RFGAA distintos de los enumerados\nen el Anexo I y recogidos antes de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado también se distribuirían de\nconformidad con un acuerdo distinto de\ntransferencia de material (basado en el que se\nutiliza actualmente, con las enmiendas aprobadas\npor el Órgano Rector). El material no\ncomprendido en el Sistema Multilateral que se\nreciba y conserve después de la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado estará disponible en condiciones\nmutuamente convenidas con el país de origen\nde los recursos o el país que los haya adquirido\nde conformidad con el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica u otra legislación aplicable.\nOtras disposiciones del Tratado relativas a los\ncentros son similares a las que rigen actualmente\nen virtud de los acuerdos entre la FAO y el\nGCIAI. No hay disposiciones relativas a un\ntratamiento diferencial de las Partes Contratantes\ny quienes no lo son en relación con los materiales\nque los centros ponen a disposición con arreglo\nal Tratado.\n15.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen la importancia para el presente Tratado de las\ncolecciones ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nmantenidas en depósito por los centros internacionales de investigación agrícola\n(CIIA) del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI).\nLas Partes Contratantes hacen un llamamiento a los CIIA para que firmen acuerdos\ncon el Órgano Rector en relación con tales colecciones ex situ, con arreglo a las\nsiguientes condiciones:\nEl Artículo 15.1 define el alcance del Tratado\ncon respecto a los Centros. Concretamente,\nutiliza una redacción similar a la del acuerdo\nprevio con la FAO en la referencia a las\ncolecciones ex situ mantenidas en depósito por\nlos centros. Además, hace un llamamiento a los\nCentros para que firmen acuerdos con el Órgano\nRector del Tratado en relación con esas\ncolecciones ex situ121. ‘‘Hacer un llamamiento’’\na los Centros es una expresión más enérgica que\n‘‘invitarlos’’ a firmar esos acuerdos, pero no\nsupone dejar sin efecto las atribuciones de\ngestión del GCIAI, como ocurriría si el Tratado\ndeclarara expresamente que las colecciones son\nparte del Sistema Multilateral. En realidad, las\ndisposiciones del Tratado se aplican a:\ntodos los materiales mantenidos ‘‘en\ndepósito’’ por los Centros a la fecha en\nque firmen acuerdos oficiales con el\n121 El Tratado se refiere expresamente a los materiales mantenidos ‘‘en depósito’’, es decir los designados oficialmente\nen los acuerdos con la FAO.\n129\nArtículo 15\nÓrgano Rector, con prescindencia de\nque esos materiales procedan o no de\ncultivos enumerados en el Anexo I; y\nlos RFGAA de los cultivos del Anexo I\nadquiridos después de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado.\nSin embargo, las disposiciones del Tratado\nsobre acceso facilitado y distribución de los\nbeneficios no se aplicarán a los materiales de\ncultivos no incluidos en el Anexo I, como el\nmaní, la soja y la mayor parte de los forrajes\ntropicales adquiridos después de la entrada en\nvigor del Tratado. Esos materiales se adquirirán,\nen el caso de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, de conformidad con las\ndisposiciones de ese Convenio sobre la base del\n‘‘consentimiento fundamentado previo’’ y en\n‘‘condiciones mutuamente convenidas’’ o, en el\ncaso de quienes no sean Partes en el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica, en otras\ncondiciones bilaterales. Es importante señalar\nque ello no impediría que un Centro adquiriera\nesos materiales en condiciones acordes con el\nTratado y que permitieran distribuirlos con\narreglo al mismo modelo de Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material. Los apartados del\nArtículo 15 distinguen entre RFGAA incluidos\ny no incluidos en el Anexo I en lo que respecta a\nla forma en que los Centros administrarán esos\nmateriales.\na) Los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura que se enumeran en\nel Anexo I del presente Tratado que mantienen los CIIA se pondrán a disposición de\nacuerdo con las disposiciones establecidas en la Parte IV del presente Tratado.\nDe conformidad con este apartado, los Centros\npondrán a disposición los materiales que se\nenumeran en el Anexo I, que constituyen la gran\nmayoría de las muestras que mantienen, de la\nmisma manera que lo hacen las Partes en el\nTratado. Esto significa que las normas para\nmanipular la mayor parte del germoplasma que\nmantienen los Centros serán exactamente las\nmismas que se aplican a los países que son Partes\nContratantes. Como se indica en otra parte de\nesta Guía, estas disposiciones del Tratado\ncontienen todavía algunas ambigüedades. Una\nvez que esas ambigüedades se resuelvan para las\nPartes Contratantes, quedarán también resueltas\nautomáticamente para los CIIA.\nb) Los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura distintos de los\nenumerados en el Anexo I del presente Tratado y recogidos antes de su entrada en\nvigor que mantienen los CIIA se pondrán a disposición de conformidad con las\ndisposiciones del Acuerdo de transferencia del material utilizado actualmente en\ncumplimiento de los acuerdos entre los CIIA y la FAO. El Órgano Rector modificará\neste Acuerdo de transferencia de material a más tardar en su segunda reunión\nordinaria, en consulta con los CIIA, de conformidad con las disposiciones pertinentes\ndel presente Tratado, especialmente los Artículos 12 y 13, y con arreglo a las siguientes\ncondiciones:\nEl Artículo 15.1 b establece las condiciones en\nque los centros administrarán y pondrán a\ndisposición los materiales no comprendidos en\nel Anexo I recogidos antes de la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado.\nLa intención del Tratado parece ser que\nlos centros administren los materiales no\ncomprendidos en el Anexo I que mantienen ‘‘en\ndepósito’’ prácticamente de la misma manera que\nlos materiales comprendidos en el Anexo I. Sin\nembargo, hay algunas diferencias, y también\nposibles ambigüedades en el texto de este\nartículo. El texto dice que los RFGAA distintos\nde los enumerados en el Anexo I y recogidos\nantes de la entrada en vigor del Tratado se\npondrán a disposición en las condiciones del\nAcuerdo de Transferencia de Material (ATM)\nque utilicen los Centros en ese momento hasta\nque sea enmendado por el Órgano Rector para\nreflejar las disposiciones del Tratado relativas\nal acceso y la distribución de los beneficios. La\nexpresión ‘‘utilizado actualmente’’ significa\nutilizado en el momento de entrada en vigor del\nTratado. Esta formulación general puede causar\nciertos problemas en el sentido de que algunos\nmateriales recogidos por los Centros antes de la\nentrada en vigor del Tratado pueden haberse\nadquirido con condiciones que impidan tratarlos\nde esta manera. Desde la entrada en vigor del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, e\nincluso antes, los Centros han recogido materia-\nles en condiciones mutuamente convenidas con\nel país en que lo hacían. En el caso de la mayoría\nde los materiales no comprendidos en el Anexo\nI que se han recogido de esta manera no sería\n130\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nproblema administrarlos en forma coherente con\nel Tratado. Sin embargo, podría no ser así en\nalgunos casos en que los materiales se recogieron\ncon sujeción a ciertas condiciones. Evidente-\nmente, los negociadores del Tratado no tenían\nla intención de que la redacción del Artículo 15.1\nb dejara sin efecto los acuerdos que los Centros\nhubiesen concertado con los países cuando\nrecogieron los materiales. Por lo tanto,\nprobablemente haya que resolver este problema\nen los acuerdos que los Centros concierten con\nel Órgano Rector del Tratado. Estos acuerdos\ntal vez deban aclarar que los Centros\nadministrarán los materiales no comprendidos\nen el Anexo I de conformidad con el Artículo\n15, excepto en los casos en que las condiciones\nen que los materiales se adquirieron no lo\npermitan.\nUna situación similar podría presentarse\ntambién en algunos casos con respecto a\nmateriales comprendidos en el Anexo I. Con\narreglo al Tratado, las Partes Contratantes se\nhabrán obligado a proporcionar acceso facilitado\na los RFGAA de los materiales comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral. Sin embargo, las\nPartes no Contratantes no se habrán comprome-\ntido a hacerlo, y los Centros tal vez no puedan\nrenegociar o dejar sin efecto acuerdos con países\nque han incluido condiciones relativas a la forma\nen que los Centros pueden utilizar o distribuir\nesos RFGAA.\nEl Artículo 15.1 b dispone también que los\ncentros seguirán ateniéndose al ATM utilizado\nactualmente hasta que el Órgano Rector apruebe\nun acuerdo enmendado que refleje las\ndisposiciones pertinentes del Tratado. El texto\ndel párrafo encomienda al Órgano Rector la tarea\nde ultimar las enmiendas del ATM a más tardar\nen su segunda reunión ordinaria.\nEl ATM que actualmente utilizan los\ncentros incorpora algunos cambios convenidos\npor la CRGAA de la FAO en su noveno período\nde sesiones en 2002 como medida provisional\npara ajustarlos a algunos de los conceptos\nutilizados en el Tratado. Todos los Centros\ninteresados aceptaron los cambios convenidos\npor la Comisión y los adoptaron el 1º de mayo\nde 2003. Esos cambios provisionales todavía no\nincorporan las disposiciones obligatorias sobre\ndistribución de beneficios del Artículo 13.2 d.\ni) Los CIIA informarán periódicamente al órgano rector de los Acuerdos de\ntransferencia de material concertados, de acuerdo con un calendario que establecerá\nel Órgano Rector;\nEl Artículo 15.1 b i) también se aplica\núnicamente a los materiales no comprendidos en\nel Anexo I mantenidos en depósito por los\nCentros y recogidos antes de la entrada en vigor\ndel Tratado. Los centros deben presentar\ninformes periódicos al Órgano Rector sobre los\nAcuerdos de transferencia de material\nconcertados. Se supone que esos informes\nenumerarán los receptores de los materiales\nproporcionados con arreglo a los Acuerdos. Los\nCentros ya llevan este tipo de registro y, por lo\ntanto, les será fácil cumplir la obligación. Cabe\nseñalar que la obligación de los Centros es\ninformar al Órgano Rector de los Acuerdos de\ntransferencia de material concertados por ellos.\nEste inciso no requiere que los Centros rastreen\nla ulterior transferencia del material (véase el\ncomentario del Artículo 12.3 b).\nii) Las Partes Contratantes en cuyo territorio se hayan recogido los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura en condiciones in situ recibirán muestras de\ndichos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura previa solicitud,\nsin ningún Acuerdo de transferencia de material;\nEl Artículo 15.1 b ii) permite restituir los recursos\ngenéticos a las Partes que los proporcionaron al\nCentro sin recurrir a un ATM. En los acuerdos\nactuales con la FAO hay una disposición similar\na ésta, con la diferencia de que esos acuerdos\nhablan de repatriación al ‘‘país que proporcionó\nel germoplasma’’, que puede no ser\nnecesariamente el país en que se recogió el\nmaterial in situ.\nEsta disposición puede crear dificultades\nprácticas de aplicación, porque es posible que\nlos Centros no siempre sepan dónde se recogió\nel material in situ. La consecuencia práctica de\nesta distinción entre los dos acuerdos (es decir,\nlos acuerdos ‘‘en depósito’’ y los nuevos\nacuerdos con el Órgano Rector) tal vez no sea\nsustancial. El material siempre estará disponible,\nla cuestión es simplemente si se requerirá o no\n131\nArtículo 15\nun Acuerdo de transferencia de material. En el\nTratado, la ‘‘restitución’’ se aplica sólo a los\npaíses en los cuales se recogió el material en\ncondiciones in situ. En los demás casos, el acceso\nse realiza conforme a las reglas normales\nestablecidas en los Artículos 12 y 13.\niii) Los beneficios obtenidos en el marco del acuerdo antes indicado que se acrediten al\nmecanismo mencionado en el Artículo 19.3 f se destinarán, en particular, a la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura en cuestión, en particular en programas nacionales y\nregionales en países en desarrollo y países con economía en transición, especialmente\nen centros de diversidad y en los países menos adelantados; y\nEste inciso presupone que el Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material que acompañará los\nmateriales no comprendidos en el Anexo I\ntambién contendrá una disposición sobre\ndistribución de los beneficios similar a la\nutilizada en el Sistema Multilateral, incluida la\ndistribución de los beneficios monetarios y de\notro tipo de la comercialización con arreglo al\nArtículo 13.2 d ii). El Artículo 13.3 del Tratado\ndispone de qué manera se emplearán los\nbeneficios derivados de la utilización de los\nRFGAA comprendidos en el Sistema Multi-\nlateral. Éstos deben ir fundamentalmente, de\nmanera directa o indirecta, a los agricultores de\ntodos los países, especialmente de los países en\ndesarrollo y  los países con economía en\ntransición que conservan y utilizan de manera\nsostenible los RFGAA. Los beneficios que se\nobtengan con arreglo al ATM que ha de\nacompañar el material no comprendido en el\nAnexo I están fuera del Sistema Multilateral. Por\nlo tanto, quedan también fuera de la prescripción\ngeneral del Artículo 13.3 y se requiere una\ndisposición especial que estipule la forma en que\nse utilizarán.\nEl Artículo 15.1 b iii) especifica que los\nbeneficios obtenidos en el marco de un ATM se\ndestinarán en particular a la conservación y\nutilización sostenible de los RFGAA en cuestión,\nen particular en programas nacionales y\nregionales en países en desarrollo y en países\ncon economías en transición, especialmente en\ncentros de diversidad y en los países menos\nadelantados. En otras palabras, si un receptor de\ngermoplasma utiliza el material recibido en\nformas que den lugar a la aplicación de las\ndisposiciones de distribución de los beneficios\ndel Acuerdo de transferencia de material, los\nfondos generados se dirigirán a la conservación\ny utilización sostenible de los RFGAA en\ncuestión, en particular en los países en desarrollo,\netc. Esto significaría que habría que llevar un\nregistro separado de los recursos generados y de\nla utilización que se les da. Cabe señalar que, al\nutilizar la expresión ‘‘en particular’’, este párrafo\nindica prioridades para la utilización de los\nbeneficios pero no descarta completamente otros\nusos.\niv) Los CIIA deberán adoptar las medidas apropiadas, de acuerdo con su capacidad,\npara mantener el cumplimiento efectivo de las condiciones de los Acuerdos de\ntransferencia de material e informarán con prontitud al Órgano Rector de los casos\nde incumplimiento.\nEl Artículo 15.1 b iv) se refiere a la cuestión de\nla responsabilidad de los centros de mantener el\ncumplimiento de las condiciones de los Acuerdos\nde transferencia de material. Este párrafo, que\nsólo se refiere a los RFGAA no comprendidos\nen el Anexo I, es sustancialmente similar al\nacuerdo que ya rige entre la FAO y los centros\ndel GCIAI. El acuerdo actual con la FAO no\nexige, por ejemplo, que los centros vigilen el\ncumplimiento ni que tomen medidas para hacerlo\nefectivo, por ejemplo, recurriendo a una acción\njudicial. Esta cuestión se aclaró en declaraciones\nconjuntas hechas a la Comisión de Recursos\nGenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nde la FAO por la FAO y el IPGRI en nombre de\nlos centros del GCIAI al comunicar la firma de\nlos acuerdos de depósito y posteriormente en\nrelación con la ejecución de los acuerdos122.\n122 Véanse el informe de la Primera Reunión Extraordinaria de la Comisión de Recursos Fitogenéticos, noviembre de\n1994, párr. 37 (el texto de la primera Declaración Conjunta figura en el documento CPGR Ex1/94/Inf.5/Add.1);\ny el informe parcial sobre la Red Internacional de Colecciones Ex situ bajo los auspicios de la FAO, presentado en\nla octava reunión ordinaria de la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura en abril\nde 1999, documento CGRFA-8/99/7.\n132\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl uso de la palabra ‘‘mantener’’ en lugar\nde ‘‘asegurar’’ indica que los países no esperan\nque los Centros garanticen el cumplimiento;\nsimplemente esperan que los centros distribuyan\ndebidamente los materiales de conformidad con\nlas disposiciones del ANTM, que tomen medidas\napropiadas dentro de los límites de su capacidad\npara procurar el cumplimiento y que notifiquen\nlos casos de incumplimiento cuando tomen\nconocimiento de ellos. Con este sistema se ha\nlogrado un elevado grado de cumplimiento de\nlos Acuerdos de Transferencia de Material\nactualmente utilizados por los Centros.\nCabe señalar también que el Artículo 12.5\nrequiere que las Partes Contratantes ofrezcan la\noportunidad de presentar un recurso, con arreglo\na sus ordenamientos jurídicos, en caso de in-\ncumplimiento de las condiciones de los Acuerdos\nde Transferencia de Material.\nc) Los CIIA reconocen la autoridad del Órgano Rector para impartir orientaciones\nsobre políticas en relación con las colecciones ex situ mantenidas por ellos y sujetas a\nlas condiciones del presente Tratado.\nd) Las instalaciones científicas y técnicas en las cuales se conservan tales colecciones ex\nsitu seguirán bajo la autoridad de los CIIA, que se comprometen a ocuparse de estas\ncolecciones ex situ y administrarlas de conformidad con las normas aceptadas inter-\nnacionalmente, en particular las Normas para los bancos de germoplasma ratificadas\npor la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura de la\nFAO.\ne) A petición de un CIIA, el Secretario se compromete a prestar el apoyo técnico\napropiado.\nf) El Secretario tendrá derecho de acceso en cualquier momento a las instalaciones, así\ncomo derecho a inspeccionar todas las actividades que se lleven a cabo en ellas y que\nestén directamente relacionadas con la conservación y el intercambio del material\ncomprendido en este Artículo.\ng) Si el correcto mantenimiento de las colecciones ex situ mantenidas por los CIIA se ve\ndificultado o amenazado por la circunstancia que fuere, incluidos los casos de fuerza\nmayor, el Secretario, con la aprobación del país hospedante, ayudará en la medida de\nlo posible a llevar a cabo su evacuación o transferencia.\nEl Artículo 15.1 c a g se aplica a todos los\nmateriales comprendidos en el Tratado que se\nmantengan en los CIIA. Cada uno de estos cinco\napartados tiene un precedente en los acuerdos\nexistentes con la FAO. En realidad, la redacción\nde esta sección del Tratado se basa en esos\nacuerdos. Para facilitar la comparación, en el\ncuadro siguiente se presentan las referencias\ncorrespondientes a cada párrafo:\nTexto del Tratado Párrafo correspondiente de los acuerdos FAO-GCIAI\n15.1 c Artículo 6\n15.1 d Artículo 4 a) y Artículo 5 a)\n15.1 e Artículo 5 b) y Artículo 7 b)\n15.1 f Artículo 4 b)\n15.1 g Artículo 5 c)\nLa diferencia más evidente entre el texto del\nTratado y el de los acuerdos concertados por la\nFAO y el GCIAI se observa en el Artículo\n15.1 c. Según los acuerdos entre la FAO y el\nGCIAI, los centros reconocen la autoridad de la\nFAO y su Comisión para establecer políticas para\nla Red Internacional. El Tratado se refiere, tal\nvez con más precisión, a la autoridad del Órgano\nRector ‘‘para impartir orientaciones sobre\npolíticas’’ en relación con las colecciones ex situ\nmantenidas por los Centros y sujetas a las\ncondiciones del Tratado. En la práctica, sin\nembargo, es difícil imaginar circunstancias en\nque los centros no seguirían las orientaciones\nimpartidas por el Órgano Rector.\nEn realidad, la diferencia entre el texto de\nlos acuerdos concertados por la FAO y el GCIAI\n133\nArtículo 15\ny el texto del Tratado es básicamente cuestión\nde forma. Los Centros han indicado que\ncontinuarán recibiendo con agrado la orientación\nsobre políticas que los gobiernos expresen\ncolectivamente a través del Órgano Rector y la\nComisión de la FAO y que seguirán esas orienta-\nciones. En la práctica, en ciertas oportunidades\nlos centros han recabado activamente ese tipo\nde orientación sobre cuestiones concretas, como\nla interpretación de la frase ‘‘germoplasma e\ninformación conexa’’ que figura en los acuerdos\nentre la FAO y el GCIAI.\n15.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan facilitar el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura que figuran en el Anexo I al amparo del\nSistema Multilateral a los CIIA del GCIAI que hayan firmado acuerdos con el\nÓrgano Rector de conformidad con el presente Tratado. Dichos centros se incluirán\nen una lista que mantendrá el Secretario y que pondrá a disposición de las Partes\nContratantes que lo soliciten.\nEl Artículo 15.2 prevé la reciprocidad al requerir\nque las Partes Contratantes ‘‘faciliten el acceso’’\na los RFGAA cubiertos por el Anexo I. La frase\n‘‘facilitar el acceso’’ se usa para describir lo que\nlas Partes Contratantes están obligadas a propor-\ncionarse unas a otras y, por lo tanto, este párrafo\ndispone que se proporcionará acceso a los\ncentros en las mismas condiciones que a los\ngobiernos que son Partes Contratantes en el\nTratado. Esto facilitará la labor de recolección\nque realicen los centros.\n15.3 El material distinto del enumerado en el Anexo I que reciban y conserven los CIIA\ndespués de la entrada en vigor del presente Tratado estará disponible para el acceso\na él en condiciones que estén en consonancia con las mutuamente convenidas entre\nlos CIIA que reciben el material y el país de origen de dichos recursos o el país que\nlos haya adquirido de conformidad con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica\nu otra legislación aplicable.\nEl Artículo 15.3 expresa la política vigente en el\nGCIAI, a saber, que los centros adquieren nuevos\nmateriales de conformidad con el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica, es decir, con el\n‘‘consentimiento fundamentado previo’’ y sobre\nla base de ‘‘condiciones mutuamente aceptadas’’\nu otra legislación aplicable. La subsiguiente\ndistribución de estos materiales se hace según\nlas condiciones convenidas en el momento de la\nadquisición. Este párrafo requiere que los centros\nsigan aplicando esta práctica. Este enfoque se\npodría aplicar también a los materiales del Anexo\nI recogidos en el pasado en condiciones específi-\ncas, en particular si se hubieran adquirido de\nfuentes que no son Partes en el Tratado. Cabe\nseñalar que la referencia al ‘‘país de origen de\ndichos recursos’’ difiere de la redacción usada\nen el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nEl Artículo 15 del Convenio se refiere a los\n‘‘países de origen de los recursos o que los hayan\nadquirido de conformidad con el Convenio’’.\n15.4 Se alienta a las Partes Contratantes a que proporcionen a los CIIA que hayan\nfirmado acuerdos con el Órgano Eector, en condiciones mutuamente convenidas,\nel acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura no\nenumerados en el Anexo I que son importantes para los programas y actividades\nde los CIIA.\nEl Artículo 15.4 ofrece a los centros un\ninstrumento del que no disponen las Partes\nContratantes en el Tratado. Este párrafo reconoce\ntácitamente la importancia de la investigación\nde los centros sobre cultivos no comprendidos\nen el Anexo I y alienta a las Partes Contratantes\na proporcionar acceso a los RFGAA de estos\ncultivos. Aunque algunos cultivos de importancia\npara el GCIAI no están incluidos en el  Anexo I,\nel Artículo 15.4 ofrece cierto apoyo a la labor de\nlos centros sobre ellos. Cabe suponer que los\ncentros podrán informar al Órgano Rector de sus\nexperiencias en lo que respecta al acceso a los\nmateriales no comprendidos en el Anexo I y\nestarán entonces en mejores condiciones de\npromover el cumplimiento de esta disposición.\n134\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl Artículo 15.5 simplemente afirma que el Ór-\ngano Rector podrá concertar acuerdos con otras\ninstituciones de conformidad con el Artículo 15.\nSin embargo, no se indica qué se entiende\npor ‘‘instituciones internacionales pertinentes’’.\nCabe suponer que la expresión se ha dejado\nintencionalmente abierta para que cualquier\ninstitución que tenga una colección de RFGAA\npueda ser parte en un acuerdo. Un ejemplo podría\nser el Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investiga-\nción y Enseñanza (CATIE).\n15.5 El Órgano Rector también procurará concertar acuerdos para los fines establecidos\nen el presente Artículo con otras instituciones internacionales pertinentes.\nRecuadro 17. Los centros de investigación agrícola del GCIAI\nADRAO – Asociación para el Desarrollo del Cultivo del Arroz en el África Occidental\n(WARDA – West Africa Rice Development Association)\n01 B.P. 2551, Bouake 01, Côte d’Ivoire\nCorreo electrónico: warda@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para aumentar la productividad sostenible de sistemas\nde cultivos basados en el arroz en África occidental, especialmente el arroz cultivado en\nmanglares, en valles interiores, en tierras altas y con riego.\nCIAT – Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical\nApartado Aéreo 6713, Cali, Colombia\nCorreo electrónico: ciat@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas sobre el mejoramiento de frijoles, yuca, forrajes tropicales\ny arroz para América Latina y manejo de recursos en agroecosistemas húmedos en América\ntropical, incluidas las laderas de las montañas, los márgenes de los bosques y las sabanas.\nCIFOR – Centro de Investigación Forestal Internacional (Center for International Forestry\nResearch)\nP.O. Box 6596, JKPWB Yakarta 10065, Indonesia\nCorreo electrónico: cifor@cgnet.com\nInvestigación colaborativa y actividades conexas en sistemas forestales y silvicultura,\nespecialmente en los trópicos y promoción de la transferencia de tecnología y la adopción de\nnuevos métodos de organización social para el desarrollo nacional.\nCIMMYT – Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo\nLisboa 27, Apartado Postal 6-641, 06600 México, D.F., México\nCorreo electrónico: cimmyt@cgnet.com\nInvestigación sobre el aumento de la productividad sostenible del maíz y el trigo en países en\ndesarrollo, con especial referencia al mejoramiento genético.\nCIP – Centro Internacional de la Papa\nApartado 5969, Lima, Perú\nCorreo electrónico: cipa@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y capacitación multidisciplinarias coordinadas sobre la creación y transferencia\nde sistemas de producción mejores y sostenibles, incluido el mejoramiento genético de la\npapa, la batata y raíces y tubérculos andinos.\nICARDA – Centro Internacional de Investigación Agrícola en las Zonas Áridas\n(International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas)\nP.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Siria\nCorreo electrónico: icarda@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y capacitación para aumentar la productividad de los sistemas de cultivos y\nganaderos en Asia occidental y el norte de África, incluido el mejoramiento genético del\ntrigo, cebada, lentejas, porotos, habas y forrajes.\n135\nArtículo 15\nICLARM – Centro Internacional para la Ordenación de los Recursos Acuáticos\nBiológicos (International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management)\nMC P.O. Box 2631, 0718 Makati, Metro Manila, Filipinas\nCorreo electrónico: iclarm@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para mejorar la productividad y ordenación de recursos\nacuáticos, incluidos los costeros, los de los arrecifes de coral y los sistemas integrados de\nagricultura y acuicultura.\nICRAF – Centro Internacional para Investigación en Agrosilvicultura (International\nCenter for Research in Agroforestry)\nUnited Nations Avenue, P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya\nCorreo electrónico: icraf@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y capacitación para promover sistemas agroforestales centrados en alternativas\na la agricultura de roza y quema en los trópicos húmedos y la solución al problema del\nagotamiento de las tierras en la región subhúmeda y semiárida de África.\nICRISAT – Instituto Integracional de Investigación de Cultivos para las Zonas Tropicales\nSemiáridas (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics)\nPatancheru P.O., Andhara Pradesh 502 324, India\nCorreo electrónico: icrisat@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para aumentar la productividad y sostenibilidad de la\nagricultura en los trópicos semiáridos, incluido el mejoramiento del sorgo, el mijo perla, el\nmijo africano, el garbanzo, el guandú y el maní.\nIFPRI – Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones sobre Políticas Alimentarias\n(International Food Policy Research Institute)\n1200 17th Street. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-3006, USA\nCorreo electrónico: ifpri@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y difusión de conocimientos e información sobre estrategias y políticas\nalternativas en el plano nacional e internacional para atender a las necesidades del mundo en\ndesarrollo en forma sostenible.\nIIIG – Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Ganaderas (ILRI – International\nLivestock Research Institute)\nP.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, Kenya\nCorreo electrónico: ilri@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para mejorar la salud, nutrición y productividad animal\nen explotaciones en pequeña escala en los países en desarrollo, incluida la caracterización y\nconservación de la diversidad genética de forrajes tropicales y razas ganaderas.\nIIMI – Instituto Internacional de Ordenación del Riego (International Irrigation\nManagement Institute)\nP.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka\nCorreo electrónico: iimi@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para mejorar los sistemas de recursos hídricos y la\nordenación del riego en países en desarrollo y apoyo para la introducción de mejores\ntecnologías, políticas y modalidades de ordenación.\nIITA – Instituto Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (International Institute of Tropical\nAgriculture)\nPMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria\nCorreo electrónico: iita@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para ayudar a los países de África subsahariana a aumentar\nla producción de alimentos en forma ecológicamente sostenible, incluido el mejoramiento\ngenético de la yuca, el maíz, el caupí, la soja, el ñame y el banano/plátano.\ncontinúa en la página siguiente\n136\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nIPGRI – Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (International Plant Genetic\nResources Institute)\nVial delle Sette Chiese 142, 00145 Roma, Italia\nCorreo electrónico: ipgri@cgnet.com\nActividades de investigación, capacitación e información destinadas a apoyar la conservación\ny utilización de los recursos genéticos para la agricultura y silvicultura en todo el mundo,\nespecialmente en los países en desarrollo. Especial interés en el banano/plátano y en otras\nimportantes especies no cubiertas por otros centros.\nIRRI – Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre el Arroz (International Rice Research\nInstitute)\nP.O. Box 933, 1099, Manila, Filipinas\nCorreo electrónico: irri@cgnet.com\nInvestigación y actividades conexas para generar y difundir conocimientos y tecnologías\nrelativos al arroz que sean beneficiosos desde el punto de vista ambiental, social y económico\na corto y largo plazo y que ayuden a fortalecer la investigación nacional en los países en\ndesarrollo.\nISNAR – Servicio Internacional para la Investigación Agrícola Nacional (International\nService for National Agricultural Research)\nAddis Abeba, Etiopía\nCorreo electrónico: isnar@cgnet.com\nApoyo a los sistemas nacionales de investigación agrícola mediante la promoción de políticas,\nestrategias y una financiación apropiadas, el desarrollo de mejores técnicas de gestión de la\ninvestigación y la difusión de la información pertinente.\n137\nArtículo 16\nArtículo 16 – Redes internacionales de recursos fitogenéticos\nLas redes son importantes plataformas para el\nintercambio científico, el intercambio de\ninformación, la transferencia de tecnología y la\ncolaboración en la investigación, así como para\ndefinir y compartir la responsabilidad en\nactividades como la recolección, conservación,\nla distribución, la evaluación y el mejoramiento\ngenético. Al establecer contactos entre quienes\nse dedican a la conservación, la ordenación, el\ndesarrollo y la utilización de los RFGAA, las\nredes pueden promover el intercambio de\nmateriales en condiciones mutuamente\nconvenidas y contribuir a una mejor utilización\ndel germoplasma. Además, pueden servir para\nestablecer prioridades para la acción y formular\npolíticas y de medio de dar a conocer a diversas\norganizaciones e instituciones opiniones\nrelativas a determinados cultivos o posturas\nregionales comunes. Tanto el Plan de acción\nmundial (véase el área de actividad prioritaria\n16) como el Tratado reconocen la importancia\nde las redes como mecanismos para la\nconsecución de sus objetivos. Es importante\nnotar que en este caso se trata de todos los\nRFGAA, y no sólo los enumerados en el Anexo I.\nA los efectos de la presente Guía, se ha\nhecho hincapié en tres tipos de redes\nidentificados en el Plan de acción mundial: redes\nde cultivos, redes regionales y redes temáticas.\nRedes de cultivos – Las redes de cultivos,\nunas de las primeras redes de recursos\nfitogenéticos que se organizaron, suelen estar\nclaramente dirigidas a las necesidades de los\nusuarios. Los fitomejoradores e investigadores\npueden desempeñar un papel central junto con\nlos administradores de recursos fitogenéticos y\nla conservación del germoplasma tiene lugar en\nestrecha relación con su utilización, ya que los\nrecursos fitogenéticos a menudo son importantes\npara aumentar la productividad. Estas redes\ntienden a centrarse menos en cuestiones de\npolítica, aunque el intercambio de germoplasma\npuede ser una actividad importante. A los efectos\ndel presente estudio se incluyen en esta categoría\nlas redes de semillas, que también podrían ser\nconsideradas redes temáticas.\nRed Internacional de Bambú y Ratán\n(INBAR).\nRed Mundial Beta.\nRed Internacional de Recursos\nGenéticos del Coco (COGENT).\nRed Internacional de Recursos\nGenéticos de la Cebada.\nRed Internacional de Recursos\nGenéticos del Arroz.\nRed Asiática para los Recursos\nGenéticos de la Batata (ANSWER).\nRed de Investigación sobre Semillas\nForestales especializada en manipula-\nción y almacenamiento de semillas\nrecalcitrantes e intermedias de árboles\nforestales tropicales.\nExperimento mundial sobre creci-\nmiento lento de la batata in vitro.\nRedes regionales – Las redes regionales\nde recursos fitogenéticos desempeñan una\nimportante función en la conservación y, en\nalguna medida, en la utilización de esos recursos,\ncomo queda de manifiesto en sus objetivos.\nTienden a centrarse primariamente en la\nconservación y ocupan en ellas un lugar central\nlos bancos genéticos y las colecciones de\nrecursos genéticos. En el marco de la\nconservación, estas redes suelen ocuparse de\nmuchas cuestiones a que se refiere el Plan de\nAcción Mundial y su programa puede incluir una\namplia variedad de actividades relativas a la\nrecolección, regeneración, caracterización,\nevaluación y documentación de recursos\ngenéticos, así como investigación, capacitación,\napoyo a los gobiernos en materia de políticas y\ntoma de conciencia en el público. Muchas de las\nredes se refieren expresamente al Plan de acción\nmundial en su documentación.\nComité Regional para el Sudeste Asiático\n(RECSEA). Creado en 1977, com-\nprende cinco países.\nPrograma Cooperativo Europeo de los\nRecursos Fitogenéticos (ECP/GR).\nCreada en 1980, esta red está totalmente\nfinanciada por sus miembros.\nRed de Recursos Fitogenéticos de Asia\nOccidental y África del Norte\n(WANANET).\nRed de Asia Meridional de Coordinadores\nde Recursos Fitogenéticos (SAC); Red\nde Asia Oriental de Recursos Fito-\ngenéticos (EANET).\n138\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nPrograma Europeo de Recursos Genéticos\nForestales (EUFORGEN).\nRed de Investigación Bananera para África\nOriental y Meridional (BARNESA).\nRed de Recursos Genéticos para África\nOccidental y Central (GRENEWECA).\nRed Mesoamericana de Recursos Fito-\ngenéticos (REMERFI).\nRed Andina de Recursos Fitogenéticos\n(REDARFIT).\nRed Amazónica de Recursos Fitogenéticos\n(TROPIGEN).\nRed Norteamericana de Recursos Fito-\ngenéticos (NORGEN).\nRedes temáticas – Este tipo de red incluye\nuna gran variedad de mecanismos que se ocupan\nde temas específicos y podrían clasificarse en\nnumerosas subcategorías. Algunas redes temá-\nticas, como la Red de Investigación sobre\nSistemas Agrícolas del África Occidental y el\nConsorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la\nEcorregión Andina (CONDESAN), se centran\nparticularmente en la sostenibilidad de los\necosistemas y suelen adoptar un planteamiento\nintegrado que combina objetivos de conser-\nvación y desarrollo y presta atención a todos los\ncomponentes y niveles de integración de los\necosistemas agrícolas y a las interacciones entre\nesos componentes. En algunos casos, la red\npuede estar centrada en el desarrollo y la trans-\nferencia de una tecnología particular, como es\nel caso de la Red de Cooperación Técnica en\nBiotecnología Agropecuaria para América Latina\ny el Caribe (REDBIO) o las redes cuyo objetivo\nes compartir información. Otras se centran\ndirectamente en aspectos de la biodiversidad y\nlos recursos fitogenéticos, por ejemplo, la Red\nsobre Diversidad Botánica de África Meridional\ny la Red Africana de Etnobotánica. Las redes\ntemáticas se caracterizan a veces por estar\nfuertemente orientadas a las actividades en el\nterreno o por su carácter regional (por ejemplo\nCONDESAN). También desempeñan un papel\nimportante los aspectos de política y toma de\nconciencia. El origen de estas instituciones puede\nser sumamente variado, sin embargo suelen estar\nmuy representadas las organizaciones de la\nsociedad civil (ONG, por ejemplo).\n16.1 Se fomentará o promoverá la cooperación existente en las redes internacionales\nde recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, sobre la base de los\nacuerdos existentes y en consonancia con los términos del presente Tratado, a fin\nde conseguir la cobertura más amplia posible de éstos.\nLa redacción de este párrafo expresa una decisión\nde política de quienes negociaron el Tratado de\ndedicarse a reforzar las redes existentes, más que\ntratar de establecer una serie de nuevas redes.\nNaturalmente, esto no excluye la posibilidad de\nestablecer nuevas redes cuando sean necesarias.\nNo todas las redes funcionan igualmente\nbien. Entre los factores que influyen en la\neficiencia y eficacia de las redes figuran los\nsiguientes:\nFinanciación – Las redes suelen\nfinanciarse como proyectos y reciben\napoyo por períodos de tres o cuatro años\nque pueden ser difíciles de renovar.\nComo consecuencia de ello, a veces\nquedan inactivas al final del proyecto.\nUn problema crónico es la dificultad de\nobtener recursos en forma continuada.\nLas redes financiadas por donantes en\nel marco de un proyecto pueden decidir\nintencionalmente que han de ajustar su\nevolución al ciclo del proyecto. Las\nredes evolucionan constantemente y en\nun ciclo de tres o cuatro años se puede\ncubrir la necesidad de una evaluación\ninterna periódica. Las redes del Centro\nAsiático de Investigación y Desarrollo\nde Hortalizas (AVRDC) están previstas\nde esta manera, lo que les permite eva-\nluar su impacto en el momento apropi-\nado. En esta situación es importante que\nlos patrocinadores indiquen si las redes\nrecibirán financiación, en qué condici-\nones, para qué objetivos y posiblemente\ndurante cuánto tiempo. Otros modelos\nde financiación incluyen la autofinan-\nciación (por ejemplo el Programa\nCooperativo Europeo de los Recursos\nFitogenéticos (ECP/GR). La auto-\nfinanciación tal vez sólo sea posible\nen redes maduras y, en la mayoría de\nlos países en desarrollo, las posibili-\ndades de que las redes se autofinancien\nplenamente son limitadas.\n139\nArtículo 16\nEquilibrio de intereses – Puede ocurrir\nque los participantes tengan menos voz\nen las actividades de la red en razón de\nproblemas tales como el control de una\nred por los donantes o su centralización\nexcesiva. Por lo tanto, es necesario\nidentificar los interesados y bene-\nficiarios de la red de acuerdo con\nobjetivos claros y asegurarse de que\ntengan voz en su dirección y participen\nen la vigilancia o evaluación. La\ntendencia a que quienes financian la red\ntengan más voz en su dirección debe\nequilibrarse con un reconocimiento de\nla importancia del sentido de\nidentificación de los miembros con la\nred. Las redes cuyos miembros las\nconsideran verdaderamente propias\nsuelen sobrevivir en caso de\nrestricciones financieras gracias a la\ncontribución de tiempo y recursos de\nsus miembros. Asimismo, deberá\nmantenerse un equilibrio entre la\nparticipación pública, privada y del\nsector civil de acuerdo con los objetivos\nde la red.\nAdministración – La administración\nde una red, sea ésta formal o informal,\nes fundamental para su eficacia. La\nexistencia de un país coordinador o una\ninstitución coordinadora con ventajas\ncomparativas claras puede facilitar una\nbuena administración. También son\nimportantes las decisiones colectivas\nsobre cuestiones fundamentales como\nla estrategia futura, los planes de trabajo\ny el presupuesto: por ejemplo, para\ntomar decisiones colectivas sobre las\nactividades de la red y la asignación de\nrecursos pueden ser necesarias\nreuniones frecuentes del comité\ndirectivo en que participen todos los\nmiembros de la red. También puede ser\nimportante organizar con frecuencia\nreuniones técnicas de coordinación a fin\nde elaborar planes de trabajo y\npresupuestos para su aprobación.\nClaridad de objetivos y planificación\n– Algunas redes se inician en forma\nmuy promisoria, pero no tienen una\ndefinición clara de qué pretenden\nlograr. Si no se definen claramente los\nobjetivos, es imposible asegurarse de\nque se incorporen participantes que\ndesean promoverlos. Las redes\nnecesitan objetivos concretos para\ndesarrollar programas dinámicos,\ncontrolables, con metas claras y\nalcanzables, de manera que los\nparticipantes puedan trabajar con una\nfinalidad común, lo que aumentará las\nposibilidades de una participación\nproductiva y el sentido de identificación\ncon el proyecto.\nConciencia de los intereses comunes\n– A fin de que la labor de todos los\ninteresados se complemente es\nimportante que los miembros de una red\nreconozcan sus intereses comunes y que\ntodos ellos obtengan beneficios. Tiene\nque ser evidente para todos los\nmiembros que su acción colectiva\ntendrá como resultado una utilización\nmás eficiente de sus limitados recursos\nhumanos y físicos.\nSentido de identificación con la red –\nEl sentido de identificación con una red\nsuele depender de la participación en\nlas decisiones importantes, en particular\nlas relativas a la distribución de los\nfondos. Esta cuestión está también\nestrechamente ligada a otras de\nimportancia como la claridad de los\nobjetivos y el nivel de participación en\nla red, factores que, para ser analizados\na fondo, exigen una mayor comuni-\ncación con los participantes.\nAdaptabilidad – La organización de\nuna red evoluciona en atención a\ndiversos factores. Para ser sostenibles,\nlas redes deben ser adaptables. Las\nredes necesitan planificar para el\ncambio y la evolución, observar sus\nactividades y reevaluar sus objetivos.\nSe han recomendado las siguientes\nmedidas para reforzar las redes y su función en\nla aplicación del Tratado:\nAlentar a los países a que finalicen el\ninventario de las redes, incluidas las\nredes temáticas y las orientadas a las\nactividades in situ;\nAprobar una evaluación ulterior de la\ncontribución de las redes existentes a\nla aplicación del Plan de acción mundial\ny el Tratado, incluida su eficacia,\nposiblemente mediante un examen más\na fondo a nivel subregional de\ncuestiones relativas a las redes, sus\nfunciones y las posibilidades de\ncomunicación y sinergias que ofrecen,\no podrían ofrecer, entre distintos grupos\nque se dedican a la conservación y\nutilización sostenible de los RFGAA,\ny un ulterior examen de las relaciones\n140\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ny sinergias entre los distintos tipos de\nredes pertinentes, dentro de países y\nregiones y también entre ellos;\nLlegar a un acuerdo acerca del futuro\ndesarrollo del marco para la evaluación\ninterna de las redes, en colaboración\ncon ellas, lo que incluye la identifica-\nción de redes ‘‘modelo’’ y la presenta-\nción de estudios de casos que ilustren\ndistintos tipos de redes; y\nAprobar la colaboración oficial con el\nPrograma sobre el Hombre y la Biosfera\nde la UNESCO.\nRecuadro 18. Redes internacionales de recursos fitogenéticos\nEl término ‘‘red’’ puede referirse a muchos mecanismos distintos entre personas, instituciones\ny países, tanto formales como informales, y se ha dado una gran variedad de definiciones de\nlo que se entiende por redes de investigación agrícola. Sin embargo, de ellas se derivan\nvarios principios comunes:\nParticipación voluntaria;\nObjetivos comunes para tratar problemas complejos que varias personas o instituciones\nresolverán mejor que una;\nIntercambio ‘‘multilateral’’ (de resultados de la investigación, materiales, información,\ntecnologías, etc.);\nAdministración participativa; y\nBeneficios para los miembros como resultado de la colaboración.\nSin embargo, aparte de estas características comunes, las redes que contribuyen a la\nconservación y utilización sostenible de los RFGAA varían considerablemente en muchos\naspectos, por ejemplo en su constitución, objetivos, modus operandi, financiación y estructura\norgánica. Un importante elemento que se debe tener en cuenta es hasta qué punto se trata de\nuna estructura formal. Esto puede depender no sólo de la antigüedad de la red y de su grado\nde desarrollo institucional, sino también de su función. La red internacional de colecciones\nex situ bajo los auspicios de la FAO, por ejemplo, es necesariamente una red muy estructurada,\nmientras que un grupo de trabajo de científicos dedicado a determinado tema técnico puede\ntrabajar eficazmente en red durante varios años sin una estructura formal.\nLas redes pueden contribuir a la aplicación del Tratado de las siguientes maneras:\nConservación in situ – Muchas redes regionales de recursos fitogenéticos y redes con\nuna orientación in situ, como la red mundial de reservas de la biosfera del Programa sobre\nel Hombre y la Biosfera, se dedican a la conservación in situ. Las redes temáticas centradas\nen la agroecología y el desarrollo de la comunidad también pueden contribuir promoviendo\nprácticas agrícolas sostenibles y sistemas agrícolas más diversos. Algunas redes regionales\ny de cultivos también se ocupan de la conservación in situ. En general, parecería haber\nconsiderable margen para mejorar las relaciones entre estos distintos tipos de redes.\nConservación ex situ – La red internacional de colecciones ex situ bajo los auspicios de la\nFAO, que incluye las colecciones de los centros del GCIAI y de COGENT, se ocupa de la\nconservación ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos. Muchas redes de cultivos se dedican\nactivamente a establecer relaciones entre colecciones ex situ y a ofrecer un panorama\nmundial de estas colecciones; además proporcionan un mecanismo para realizar ensayos\nde nuevos materiales y proceder a su desarrollo ulterior. Las redes regionales de recursos\nfitogenéticos también contribuyen a la conservación ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos y\nsuelen servir de nexo entre asociados que administran grandes colecciones de RFGAA.\nAsimismo, está muy reconocida la función de la red internacional de jardines botánicos en\nla conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos, aunque el Plan de acción mundial indicaba\nque era preciso reforzar la implementación.\nUtilización de los RFGAA – Las redes de cultivos por lo general se dedican en gran\nmedida a la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos y al ensayo y desarrollo cooperativos\n141\nArtículo 16\nde materiales mejorados. Suelen contribuir al mejoramiento genético de los cultivos y en\nmuchos casos a la ampliación de las bases genéticas. Aunque el desarrollo de cultivos\n(mejoramiento) y la conservación no tienen por qué ser objetivos contradictorios, tampoco\npuede darse por sentado que la presencia de una red dedicada al cultivo signifique una\ncontribución a la conservación o la utilización sostenible del acervo genético del cultivo.\nLas redes regionales de recursos fitogenéticos, así como las redes de cultivos subutilizados\ny de especies medicinales, contribuyen a promover el desarrollo y la comercialización de\ncultivos y especies subutilizados, así como a desarrollar nuevos mercados para variedades\nlocales y productos ‘‘ricos en diversidad’’. Además, las redes de semillas son importantes\npara apoyar la producción y distribución de semillas.\nIntercambio de información – El intercambio de información es una de las funciones\nmás importantes de todas las redes, por lo que la armonización de las bases de datos y\nsistemas de información, así como la creación de capacidad para las comunicaciones\nelectrónicas, debe ser reconocida como una importante prioridad. La Red de información\nsobre los recursos genéticos para todo el sistema (SINGER), el Sistema Mundial de\nInformación y Alerta Rápida (WIEWS) sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Agricultura\ny la Alimentación, y las Bases de Datos Centrales Europeas sobre Cultivos son ejemplos\nde redes mundiales y regionales que vinculan las actividades de sus asociados en materia\nde intercambio de información.\nComo se indica en el Artículo 16.1, el objetivo\nde esta disposición es conseguir la cobertura más\namplia posible de los RFGAA. Esto requiere la\nparticipación de la amplia variedad de\ninstituciones mencionada.\n16.2 Las Partes Contratantes alentarán, cuando proceda, a todas las instituciones\npertinentes, incluidas las gubernamentales, privadas, no gubernamentales, de\ninvestigación, de mejoramiento y otras, a participar en las redes internacionales.\nAunque no se imponen obligaciones\nconcretas y se deja a las Partes Contratantes\namplia libertad para determinar qué se entiende\npor ‘‘alentar’’, el artículo reconoce sin embargo\nla función que tienen las Partes en el Tratado en\nla construcción de redes sólidas y amplias.\n142\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n143\nArtículo 17\nArtículo 17 – Sistema mundial de información sobre los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura\nUn sistema mundial eficaz de información sobre\nlos RFGAA, su conservación in situ y ex situ y\nlas maneras en que pueden utilizarse en forma\nsostenible es un componente de apoyo esencial\npara el Tratado. Actualmente, muchos de los\nRFGAA del mundo están insuficiente o\ndeficientemente documentados en relación con\nlo que se debería saber sobre ellos para optimizar\nla conservación, el acceso y la utilización. La\ninformación sobre las variedades silvestres afines\nde las cultivadas y sobre los recursos genéticos\nde las explotaciones agrícolas existentes in situ\nes particularmente deficiente. También es\ndeficiente la distribución de información entre\nlos países. Una documentación apropiada sobre\nlos recursos fitogenéticos y el intercambio de\ninformación sobre esos recursos no sólo es útil\npara las actividades de conservación, sino que\ntambién puede proporcionar orientación y\nasistencia para la utilización de los RFGAA y\nañadir valor a esos recursos. El modo más eficaz\nde reunir e intercambiar información es a través\nde la cooperación entre países en el marco de\nredes.\nPartiendo de la base del Artículo 13.2 a,\nsegún el cual los beneficios derivados del uso\nde los RFGAA se distribuirán de manera justa y\nequitativa mediante un mecanismo de\nintercambio de información, el Artículo 17\ndispone la creación de un sistema mundial de\ninformación sobre los RFGAA.\n17.1 Las Partes Contratantes cooperarán en la elaboración y fortalecimiento de un\nsistema mundial de información para facilitar el intercambio de datos, basado en\nlos sistemas de información existentes, sobre asuntos científicos, técnicos y\necológicos relativos a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\ncon la esperanza de que dicho intercambio de información contribuya a la\ndistribución de los beneficios, poniendo a disposición de todas las Partes\nContratantes información sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura. En la elaboración del sistema mundial de información se solicitará\nla cooperación del Mecanismo de facilitación del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica.\nEl Artículo 17.1 requiere que las Partes\nContratantes elaboren y fortalezcan un sistema\nmundial de información para facilitar el\nintercambio de información sobre asuntos\ncientíficos, técnicos y ecológicos relativos a los\nRFGAA, con la esperanza de que dicho\nintercambio contribuya a la distribución de los\nbeneficios.\nAunque el Tratado no estipula mayor cosa\nen cuanto a contenido sustantivo, el Artículo 13.2\na señala que el sistema mundial de información\nincluirá información sobre los RFGAA\ncomprendidos en el Sistema Multilateral,\nincluidos ‘‘catálogos e inventarios, información\nsobre tecnologías, resultados de investigaciones\ntécnicas, científicas y socioeconómicas, en\nparticular la caracterización, evaluación y\nutilización’’.\nEl Sistema mundial de información que se\n‘‘elaborará y fortalecerá’’ se ha de basar en los\nsistemas de información existentes. Uno de ellos\nes el Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta\nRápida (WIEWS), establecido por la FAO. Otras\nbases de datos sobre los RFGAA son\nadministradas por otras instituciones inter-\nregionales, regionales y nacionales como la Red\nde información sobre los recursos genéticos para\ntodo el sistema (SINGER) del GCIAI (véase el\nrecuadro 19).\nEl artículo también se refiere expresamente\nal mecanismo de facilitación establecido en el\nArtículo 18 del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica para asegurar que todos los gobiernos\ntengan acceso a la información y las tecnologías\nnecesarias para su labor en materia de\nbiodiversidad. La misión del mecanismo de\nfacilitación es promover y facilitar la\ncooperación técnica y científica dentro de los\npaíses y entre ellos; elaborar un mecanismo\nmundial para intercambiar e integrar la\ninformación sobre la biodiversidad y desarrollar\nla red humana y tecnológica necesaria.\n144\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nSegún el Artículo 17.2, el Sistema mundial de\ninformación, a partir de la notificación de las\nPartes Contratantes, también alertará de los\npeligros que amenacen el mantenimiento eficaz\nde los RFGAA.\nEl sistema WIEWS establecido por la FAO\nya contiene un sistema preliminar de alerta rápida\nsobre la erosión genética. Actualmente se está\nampliando el alcance de ese sistema para incluir\nel Sistema de Información sobre Semillas\nelaborado por la FAO en los años setenta y el\nSistema de Alerta Rápida sobre la Erosión\nFitogenética (actualmente en etapa de diseño)\n(véase el recuadro 19).\n17.2 A partir de la notificación de las Partes Contratantes, se alertará de los peligros\nque amenacen el mantenimiento eficaz de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura, con objeto de salvaguardar el material.\n17.3 Las Partes Contratantes deberán cooperar con la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos\npara la Alimentación y la Agricultura en la realización de una reevaluación\nperiódica del estado de los recursos fitogenéticos mundiales para la alimentación\ny la agricultura, a fin de facilitar la actualización del Plan de acción mundial\nprogresivo mencionado en el Artículo 14.\nEl primer informe de la FAO sobre el estado de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos en el mundo (véase el\nrecuadro 15) fue preparado por una secretaría\ninternacional ubicada en la FAO mediante un\nproceso participativo impulsado por los países.\nEl informe, que evaluaba la situación de la\ndiversidad fitogenética y la capacidad a nivel\nlocal y mundial para la ordenación, conservación\ny utilización in situ de los recursos fitogenéticos,\nfue presentado en la Cuarta Conferencia Técnica\nInternacional, celebrada en Leipzig (Alemania)\nen junio de 1996. El informe constituyó la\nreferencia científica y técnica para la preparación\ndel Plan de acción mundial aprobado por la\nConferencia de Leipzig. Este párrafo indica que\ndebería adoptarse un procedimiento similar para\nla futura actualización del Plan de acción\nmundial progresivo.\nEl propio Plan de acción mundial progresivo\nconstituye un componente de apoyo esencial del\nTratado y sirve de marco técnico convenido para\nla acción nacional e internacional. El Plan de\nacción mundial, producto de la cooperación de\ntodos los países, se elaboró con contribuciones\nde todos ellos en un proceso altamente\nparticipativo. El Artículo 17.3 procura asegurar\nque continúe este proceso de cooperación. Como\nel Plan de acción mundial es un componente de\napoyo del Tratado y no uno de sus componentes\nesenciales, la responsabilidad de actualizarlo no\nincumbe al Órgano Rector sino a la CRGAA de\nla FAO. Las Partes Contratantes deben cooperar\ncon la Comisión para garantizar que el proceso\nde actualización esté bien coordinado con el\nÓrgano Rector del Tratado.\n145\nArtículo 17\nRecuadro 19. Sistema Mundial de Información y Alerta Rápida (WIEWS)\nEn el contexto de los componentes de apoyo del Tratado, el Artículo 17 dispone que las\nPartes Contratantes cooperarán en la elaboración y fortalecimiento de un Sistema mundial de\ninformación y que se alertará de los peligros que amenacen el  mantenimiento eficaz de los\nRFGAA. El sistema WIEWS, creado por la FAO, es un mecanismo dinámico de alcance\nmundial para promover el intercambio de información entre los países Miembros, reuniendo\ny difundiendo información sobre los RFGAA, y un instrumento para contribuir a la evaluación\nperiódica del estado de los RFGAA en el mundo. El sistema fue establecido de conformidad\ncon los artículos 7.1 e) y f) del Compromiso Internacional y con las recomendaciones de la\nComisión de Recursos Fitogenéticos (ahora CRGAA).\nEl sistema WIEWS actualmente consiste en:\nUna serie de bases de datos relacionadas, resultantes de las aportaciones directas de los\nEstados Miembros y de actividades de recolección de datos, a saber:\nuna base de datos de perfiles de países;\nla base de datos de las colecciones ex situ con información resumida de los fondos de\nrecursos fitogenéticos (más de 5 millones de muestras correspondientes a 18.000\nespecies) transmitida por más de 1.500 bancos genéticos nacionales, regionales o inter-\nnacionales;\nla base de datos de legislación y reglamentación sobre RFGAA y semillas (70 países);\nla lista mundial de fuentes de semillas (aproximadamente 8.000 entradas de 150 países);\ny\nla lista de variedades de cultivo (unas 65.000 variedades de 1.249 cultivos).\nUna red mundial de corresponsales nacionales para el intercambio de información sobre\nRFGAA, propuestos oficialmente por los gobiernos; y\nUn directorio de documentos y actuaciones relativos a:\nlas actividades de la red mundial de intercambio de información sobre RFGAA;\nel Sistema de Alerta Rápida sobre la Erosión Genética;\nel Plan de acción mundial; y\nenlaces con un gran número de bases de datos nacionales e internacionales sobre RFGAA\nque proporcionan información sobre sus actividades y colecciones.\nActualmente se está ampliando la información del Sistema, que incluirá el Sistema de\nInformación sobre Semillas creado por la FAO en los años setenta y el Sistema de Alerta\nRápida sobre la Erosión Fitogenética (que actualmente está en etapa de diseño).\nHay otras bases de datos sobre RFGAA administradas por otras instituciones internacionales,\nregionales y nacionales, como la Red de información sobre recursos genéticos para todo el\nsistema (SINGER) del GCIAI. Existen planes para mejorar los enlaces entre esas bases de\ndatos.\n146\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n147\nArtículo 18\nEl Artículo 18 dispone que las Partes\nContratantes llevarán a cabo una estrategia de\nfinanciación para la aplicación del Tratado. Es\nimportante señalar que la estrategia de\nfinanciación no es un fondo o mecanismo\nfinanciero concreto (aunque el Artículo 19 se\nrefiere al establecimiento de un mecanismo\napropiado, como por ejemplo una cuenta\nfiduciaria para recibir fondos). Estas\ndisposiciones son totalmente diferentes del\nmecanismo financiero establecido con arreglo\nal Artículo 21 del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, función que ahora ha sido\npermanentemente asignada al Fondo para el\nPARTE VI – DISPOSICIONES FINANCIERAS\nArtículo 18 – Recursos financieros\nMedio Ambiente Mundial, y no están en absoluto\nrelacionadas con ese mecanismo. A diferencia\ndel Artículo 20 del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, este artículo no obliga a las Partes\nContratantes a proporcionar nuevos fondos. La\nestrategia de financiación es más bien una\nestrategia convenida para movilizar fondos,\nprincipalmente de fuentes existentes y a través\nde cauces existentes, aunque también cubrirá los\nrecursos financieros previstos en el propio\nTratado, como los pagos obligatorios y\nvoluntarios realizados con arreglo al Artículo\n13.2 d ii).\n18.1 Las Partes Contratantes se comprometen a llevar a cabo una estrategia de\nfinanciación para la aplicación del presente Tratado de acuerdo con lo dispuesto\nen este Artículo.\nEl Artículo 18.1 requiere que las Partes\nContratantes lleven a cabo una estrategia de\nfinanciación para la aplicación del Tratado de\nconformidad con las disposiciones de este\nartículo. La aprobación y revisión periódica de\nla estrategia de financiación incumbe, con\narreglo al Artículo 19, al Órgano Rector. Este\npárrafo indica que las Partes Contratantes,\nconjunta y solidariamente se comprometen a\naplicar la estrategia de financiación que adopte\nel Órgano Rector. Como veremos, ello puede\nhacer necesario adoptar posturas en otros foros\nde financiación a fin de asegurar fondos\nsuficientes para la conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA. También puede incluir\nla cooperación para la creación y el\nfuncionamiento de otros mecanismos de\nfinanciación, como el nuevo Fondo Mundial para\nla Diversidad de Cultivos (véase el recuadro 20).\n18.2 Los objetivos de la estrategia de financiación serán potenciar la disponibilidad,\ntransparencia, eficacia y efectividad del suministro de recursos financieros para\nllevar a cabo actividades en el marco del presente Tratado.\nEl Artículo 18.2 deja en claro que, además de\nque haya más recursos financieros disponibles,\nla estrategia de financiación también debe tratar\nde que haya más transparencia, eficacia y\nefectividad en el suministro de esos recursos.\nTransparencia significa que los países quieren\nque los mecanismos de asignación y aportación\nde recursos financieros no funcionen a puertas\ncerradas sino que tomen sus decisiones en forma\ntransparente y rindan cuentas de su actuación.\nLa eficacia y efectividad se refieren a la\naportación de recursos financieros y a su uso.\nLos recursos financieros se utilizarán para\nrealizar actividades con arreglo al Tratado. En\nsu mayoría, éstas obviamente incluirán\nactividades con arreglo a los Artículos 5, 6, 7, 8,\n14, 16 y 17 del Tratado, aunque también podrían\nincluirse los componentes de apoyo del Tratado.\nEl resto, por supuesto, tendrá que decidirlo el\nÓrgano Rector.\n18.3 Con objeto de movilizar financiación para actividades, planes y programas\nprioritarios, en particular en países en desarrollo y países con economía en\ntransición, y teniendo en cuenta el Plan de Acción Mundial, el Órgano Rector\nestablecerá periódicamente un objetivo para dicha financiación.\nComo se indicó anteriormente, corresponde al\nÓrgano Rector adoptar la estrategia de financia-\nción con arreglo al Artículo 19, y el Artículo 18.3\ndeja en claro que el Órgano Rector también\nestablecerá periódicamente objetivos para la\nfinanciación en el marco de la estrategia. El\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n148\nTratado no especifica los criterios para establecer\nesos objetivos; sin embargo, al confiar las\ndecisiones al Órgano Rector, requiere que éstas\ntengan en cuenta el Plan de acción mundial\nprogresivo, lo que lógicamente supondrá algún\ntipo de reconocimiento de las áreas de actividad\nprioritarias establecidas mediante los procesos\ndel Plan de acción mundial. Con esta referencia\nse entiende que las Partes esperan que el Plan,\nperiódicamente revisado, ofrezca un marco\ncientífico y técnico convenido para las decisiones\nfinancieras, como lo hace para otras actividades\nnacionales e internacionales en materia de\nconservación y utilización sostenible de recursos\nfitogenéticos.\n18.4 De conformidad con esta estrategia de financiación:\na) Las Partes Contratantes adoptarán las medidas necesarias y apropiadas en los\nÓrganos Rectores de los mecanismos, fondos y órganos internacionales pertinentes\npara garantizar que se conceda la debida prioridad y atención a la asignación efectiva\nde recursos previsibles y convenidos para la aplicación de planes y programas en el\nmarco del presente Tratado.\nEl apartado a) obliga a las Partes Contratantes a\nbuscar activamente apoyo en los ‘‘mecanismos,\nfondos y órganos internacionales pertinentes’’\npara que se conceda la debida prioridad y\natención a la ‘‘asignación efectiva de recursos\nprevisibles y convenidos’’. Aunque el párrafo no\nlo indica, esos mecanismos, fondos y órganos\ninternacionales pertinentes podrían incluir, por\nejemplo, el Fondo para el Medio Ambiente\nMundial (FMAM), el Fondo Mundial para la\nDiversidad de Cultivos, el GCIAI y el Banco\nMundial.\nEl FMAM, ahora establecido permanente-\nmente como mecanismo de financiación del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, incluye\nexpresamente la diversidad biológica agrícola\nentre sus principales áreas de interés. Sin\nembargo, con arreglo a su estrategia operacional,\nla utilización de los recursos del FMAM para\nproyectos de biodiversidad debe ajustarse a las\norientaciones recibidas de la Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio. En decisiones recientes\nadoptadas por el Consejo del FMAM en atención\na decisiones de la Conferencia de las Partes en\nel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, se\nrequiere una referencia directa al Compromiso\nRevisado (Tratado), así como al Plan de acción\nmundial en el programa operacional del Fondo\nsobre conservación y utilización sostenible de\nla diversidad biológica importante para la\nagricultura y se subraya la importancia de la\ncolaboración con la FAO y otras instituciones\ndedicadas a la agricultura.\nActualmente se está organizando el  Fondo\nMundial para la Diversidad de Cultivos, que con\nsu fondo de dotación y otros fondos prestará\napoyo a las colecciones ex situ de RFGAA (véase\nel recuadro 20). Otros ‘‘mecanismos, fondos y\nórganos internacionales pertinentes’’ probable-\nmente incluirían el GCIAI, la importancia de\ncuyas actividades se destaca en el Tratado (véase\nen particular el Artículo 15), así como el Banco\nMundial, bancos regionales de desarrollo, etc.\nEl uso de los términos ‘‘convenidos’’ y\n‘‘previsibles’’ significa que la financiación debe\nser acordada entre los países receptores y los\nmecanismos de financiación y que los fondos\ndeben asignarse de manera que los receptores\npuedan hacer planes para su desembolso y estar\nseguros de que serán desembolsados oportuna-\nmente (es decir, anualmente, en forma bienal,\netc.).\nEs importante observar que la obligación\nque contraen las Partes Contratantes no es la de\nasegurar la asignación eficaz de recursos\nprevisibles y convenidos, sino meramente la de\nasegurar que se conceda la ‘‘debida prioridad y\natención’’ a la asignación de esos recursos. Los\nnegociadores dejaron en claro que no podían\ncomprometerse a más, porque cada uno de estos\nórganos tiene su propio gobierno que determina\nlas respectivas prioridades y la asignación del\npresupuesto. Sin embargo, sí significa que las\nPartes Contratantes en el Tratado se han com-\nprometido a asegurarse de que los órganos de\nfinanciación apropiados no pasen por alto la\nfinanciación para el Tratado y de que se dé la\ndebida prioridad a las actividades del Tratado.\n149\nArtículo 18\nEste párrafo refleja las disposiciones del Artículo\n20.2 del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nEn el caso del Convenio, los países en desarrollo\nse referían a compromisos de recursos\nfinancieros nuevos y adicionales para que los\npaíses en desarrollo pudieran sufragar ínte-\ngramente los costos incrementales convenidos\nque entrañara la aplicación de medidas en\ncumplimiento de las obligaciones contraídas por\nellos en virtud del Convenio y beneficiarse de\nlas disposiciones del Convenio. En el presente\npárrafo del Tratado se hace referencia al resul-\ntado de los esfuerzos de los países desarrollados,\nen particular, por movilizar recursos financieros,\ntanto a través de los mecanismos indicados en\nel párrafo anterior como de sus propios\nprogramas bilaterales y regionales de asistencia.\nLos países en desarrollo y los países con\neconomía en transición, por su parte, deberán\ndar la debida prioridad en sus planes y programas\na la creación de capacidad en relación con los\nRFGAA. De esta manera, el artículo refuerza los\ncompromisos establecidos en los Artículos 5, 6,\n7 y 13.2 c.\nb) La medida en que las Partes Contratantes que son países en desarrollo y las Partes\nContratantes con economía en transición cumplan de manera efectiva sus\nobligaciones en virtud del presente Tratado dependerá de la asignación efectiva, en\nparticular por las Partes Contratantes que son países desarrollados, de los recursos\nmencionados en el presente Artículo. Las Partes Contratantes que son países en\ndesarrollo y las Partes Contratantes con economía en transición concederán la debida\nprioridad en sus propios planes y programas a la creación de capacidad en relación\ncon los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nc) Las Partes Contratantes que son países desarrollados también proporcionarán, y las\nPartes Contratantes que son países en desarrollo y las Partes Contratantes con\neconomía en transición los aprovecharán, recursos financieros para la aplicación del\npresente Tratado por conductos bilaterales y regionales y multilaterales. En dichos\nconductos está comprendido el mecanismo mencionado en el Artículo 19.3 f.\nEste párrafo está redactado como una\ndescripción, más que como un compromiso. El\nefecto de esta disposición es indicar que son parte\nde la estrategia de financiación las corrientes\nexistentes y futuras de asistencia financiera por\nconductos bilaterales, regionales y multilaterales.\nEstos conductos también comprenden el\n‘‘mecanismo apropiado’’ que ha de establecer el\nÓrgano Rector con arreglo al Artículo 19.3 f para\nrecibir los recursos financieros que le sean\naportados a los efectos de la aplicación del\nTratado, incluidos naturalmente los beneficios\nmonetarios y de otro tipo de la comercialización\na que se refiere el Artículo 13.2 d ii) y los\nrecursos voluntarios a que se refiere el Artículo\n13.6.\nd) Cada Parte Contratante acuerda llevar a cabo actividades nacionales para la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura, de conformidad con su capacidad nacional y sus recursos\nfinancieros. Los recursos financieros proporcionados no se utilizarán con fines\nincompatibles con el presente Tratado, en particular en sectores relacionados con el\ncomercio internacional de productos básicos.\nSegún este párrafo, cada Parte Contratante\nllevará a cabo actividades nacionales para la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA y será responsable de su financiación.\nLas actividades nacionales a que hace referencia\neste apartado son las indicadas en los Artículos\n5, 6 y 7. Aunque no se dice expresamente que\nesas actividades nacionales son sus propias\nactividades nacionales, está claro que ese es el\nsentido. El párrafo, pues, corrobora las\nobligaciones de los Artículos 5, 6 y 7. La\nobligación contraída también supone algunas\nsalvedades. Por una parte, no se refiere a todas\nlas actividades nacionales mencionadas en el\nTratado sino simplemente a actividades\nnacionales. También está restringida por la\nexpresión ‘‘de conformidad con su capacidad\nnacional y sus recursos financieros’’. Las Partes\nContratantes tienen la obligación de realizar\nactividades nacionales, pero sólo en la medida\nde sus recursos científicos, técnicos, financieros\ny humanos nacionales. Con esa limitación, toda\nParte Contratante debe hacer todo lo posible por\ncumplir el objetivo establecido. El párrafo está\nbajo el título de ‘‘recursos financieros’’ y, por lo\ntanto, el acento se pone en la responsabilidad de\ncada Parte Contratante de financiar sus propias\nactividades nacionales.\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n150\nSegún la última oración del párrafo, los\nrecursos financieros proporcionados no se\nutilizarán con fines incompatibles con el Tratado,\nen particular en sectores relacionados con el\ncomercio internacional de productos básicos. La\nintención de esta oración es impedir que las\nPartes Contratantes otorguen subsidios u otras\nmedidas de apoyo a la agricultura cuyo propósito\nno sea realmente la aplicación del Tratado sino\nsubsidiar la producción agrícola y determinadas\nexportaciones agrícolas, con lo cual se\ndistorsionaría el comercio. Esta disposición es\nsimilar a la salvedad expresada con la frase\n‘‘políticas agrícolas equitativas’’ en el Artículo\n6.2 a.\ne) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios financieros derivados de lo\ndispuesto en el Artículo 13.2 d formen parte de la estrategia de financiación.\nComo se vio anteriormente, el Artículo 13.2 d\nse refiere a la distribución de los beneficios de\nla comercialización de los RFGAA compren-\ndidos en el Sistema Multilateral. Como cabe\nsuponer, los beneficios financieros derivados de\nese mecanismo formarán parte de la estrategia\nde financiación. Hay que señalar que se hace\nreferencia a todo el Artículo 13.2 d, aunque en\nrealidad la mención de los beneficios financieros\nse refiere a los pagos obligatorios y voluntarios\nque deben hacerse con arreglo al Artículo 13.2\nd ii).\nf) Las Partes Contratantes, el sector privado, teniendo en cuenta lo dispuesto en el\nArtículo 13, las organizaciones no gubernamentales y otras fuentes también podrán\nproporcionar contribuciones voluntarias. Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el\nÓrgano Rector estudie las modalidades de una estrategia para promover tales\ncontribuciones.\nEstas contribuciones voluntarias parecerían\nincluir:\ncontribuciones con respecto a la\ndistribución de los beneficios comer-\nciales de material respecto de cuya\ndisponibilidad ulterior para investiga-\nción y mejoramiento no se imponen\nrestricciones (véase el Artículo 13.2 d);\ncontribuciones voluntarias de las\nindustrias elaboradoras de alimentos\n(véase el Artículo 13.6); y\ntodas las demás contribuciones\nvoluntarias.\nEl Órgano Rector ha de considerar la\nmanera de promover esas contribuciones\nvoluntarias.\n18.5 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que se conceda prioridad a la aplicación de los\nplanes y programas convenidos para los agricultores de los países en desarrollo,\nespecialmente de los países menos adelantados, y los países con economía en\ntransición, que conservan y utilizan de manera sostenible los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura.\nPartiendo de lo dispuesto en el Artículo 18.3,\nen el Artículo 18.5 se indica que se concederá\nprioridad a la aplicación de los planes\ny programas convenidos para los agricultores\nque conservan y utilizan de manera sostenible\nlos RFGAA, especialmente de los países\nen desarrollo, los países menos adelantados y\nlos países con economía en transición. Nótese\nque esta prioridad para la financiación coin-\ncide con lo estipulado en el Artículo 13.3\nsobre la distribución de los beneficios derivados\nde la utilización de los RFGAA comprendidos\nen el Sistema Multilateral.\nAl igual que el resto del Tratado, este artí-\nculo reconoce la contribución que aportan los\nagricultores por el hecho de conservar y utilizar\nde manera sostenible los RFGAA y la necesidad\nde promover y apoyar sus futuras contribuciones.\nLa referencia a los planes y programas ‘‘conveni-\ndos’’ parece significar que los planes y programas\ntendrán que ser convenidos con los propios\npaíses receptores y con la plena participación\nde los agricultores y los fitomejoradores.\nTambién podría constituir en parte una referencia\nindirecta a los planes y programas convenidos\nestablecidos en el Plan de acción mundial\nprogresivo.\n151\nArtículo 18\nRecuadro 20. Fondo Mundial para la Diversidad de Cultivos\nEl Artículo 5.1 e del Tratado dispone que las Partes Contratantes cooperarán, según proceda,\npara promover la organización de un sistema eficaz y sostenible de conservación ex situ. El\nArtículo 18 prevé una estrategia de financiación para la aplicación del Tratado. En el marco\ndel área de actividad prioritaria 5 del Plan de acción mundial se deberá proporcionar, entre\notras cosas, apoyo financiero adecuado para mantener las colecciones ex situ existentes.\nPara poner en práctica lo que antecede, la FAO y los centros del GCIAI, en particular a través\ndel IPGRI, han promovido la creación de un fondo conocido como el Fondo Mundial para\nla Diversidad de Cultivos, a fin de contar con una fuente permanente de financiación para la\nconservación a largo plazo ex situ de material genético y de asegurar la conservación y\ndisponibilidad de los recursos fitogenéticos de mayor importancia para la seguridad alimentaria\nmundial y la agricultura sostenible. El Fondo prestará apoyo en particular para el\nmantenimiento de colecciones de RFGAA que cumplan las normas convenidas en materia de\ngestión y disponibilidad de los recursos genéticos y ayudará a los titulares de colecciones\npotencialmente admisibles a mejorarlas de manera que puedan cumplir las normas de gestión\nconvenidas y reunir las condiciones para recibir donaciones de mantenimiento, con el objetivo\nde promover un sistema eficaz de conservación ex situ mundial, eficiente desde el punto de\nvista económico y orientado a la consecución de objetivos, de conformidad con el Plan de\nacción mundial. Se trata de un fondo internacional independiente, con su propio Consejo\nEjecutivo. Sin embargo, operará en el marco del Tratado y constituirá un elemento esencial\nde la estrategia de financiación del Tratado, de cuyo Órgano Rector recibirá orientación\nnormativa general. El Consejo Ejecutivo estará compuesto de miembros designados por el\nÓrgano Rector del Tratado Internacional y por los donantes de fondos (Consejo de Donantes),\nasí como por la FAO y el GCIAI. El Consejo de Donantes tendrá a su cargo la supervisión\nfinanciera de las operaciones del Fondo. Se prevé que el Fondo concertará un acuerdo de\nrelación con el Órgano Rector del Tratado.\nEl Acuerdo de establecimiento del Fondo entró en vigor el 21 de octubre de 2002 y el Fondo\nya ha sido oficialmente establecido y de hecho ha comenzado a distribuir recursos. Hasta que\nse celebre el primer período de sesiones del Órgano Rector del Tratado, un Grupo Provisional\nde Expertos Eminentes ejerce las funciones del Consejo Ejecutivo.\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n152\n153\nArtículo 19\nPARTE VII – DISPOSICIONES INSTITUCIONALES\nArtículo 19 – Órgano Rector\nEl Artículo 19 prácticamente no necesita\nexplicación. Establece el órgano supremo del\nTratado: el Órgano Rector. El Órgano Rector\nestará formado por representantes de todas las\nPartes Contratantes. Además, podrán asistir a las\nreuniones del Órgano Rector observadores y\norganizaciones no gubernamentales. Su función\nprincipal es dirigir y supervisar todo el proceso\nde aplicación y ulterior desarrollo del Tratado.\nEn vista de que algunas cuestiones comprendidas\nen el Tratado aún no están plenamente resueltas,\nen particular con respecto al funcionamiento del\nSistema Multilateral, la función de adopción de\ndecisiones del Órgano Rector será particular-\nmente importante.\n19.1 Queda establecido un Órgano Rector para el presente Tratado formado por todas\nlas Partes Contratantes.\nEl Órgano Rector estará formado por todas las\nPartes Contratantes. El Tratado no dispone la\ncreación de un órgano ejecutivo de composición\nlimitada para guiar la aplicación del Tratado entre\nlas reuniones del Órgano Rector, aunque en cierta\nmedida la Mesa que se establecerá con arreglo\nal Artículo 19.11 puede desempeñar esa tarea.\nEl Órgano Rector tendrá que adoptar importantes\ndecisiones en su primera reunión, a saber:\nDeterminar la cuantía, la forma y la\nmodalidad de los pagos que se harán\nen relación con la comercialización\n(Artículo 13.2 d ii));\nExaminar las políticas y los criterios\npertinentes para prestar asistencia\nespecífica en el marco de la estrategia\nde financiación convenida que se\nestablezca con arreglo al Artículo 18\n(Artículo 13.4);\nAprobar la estrategia de financiación\npara la aplicación del Tratado (Artículo\n19.3 c); y\nExaminar y aprobar los procedimientos\ny los mecanismos operacionales para\npromover la observancia del Tratado y\nabordar los casos de incumplimiento\n(Artículo 21).\nComo sólo las Partes Contratantes podrán\nparticipar en esta primera reunión, probable-\nmente muchos países traten de acelerar sus\nprocedimientos de ratificación para asegurarse\nde poder participar.\n19.2 Todas las decisiones del Órgano Rector se adoptarán por consenso, a menos que\nse alcance un consenso sobre otro método para llegar a una decisión sobre\ndeterminadas medidas, salvo que siempre se requerirá el consenso en relación con\nlos Artículos 23 y 24.\nEl Artículo 19.2 especifica que las decisiones\ndel Órgano Rector se aprobarán por consenso y\nno por votación. En este contexto, consenso\nsignifica que la decisión se adopta sin que\nninguna Parte Contratante exprese su oposición\no se niegue a sumarse al consenso. Este\nprocedimiento concede efectivamente a cada\nParte Contratante el derecho de vetar las\ndecisiones del Órgano Rector. En la práctica,\npuede ocurrir que muchas Partes Contratantes\nno estén totalmente de acuerdo con una posible\ndecisión del Órgano Rector pero no quieran\noponerse al consenso y ejercer su derecho de veto\nsobre esa decisión. Aunque insiste en el requisito\ngeneral del consenso en la adopción de\ndecisiones, el artículo permite que el Órgano\nRector decida que algunas cuestiones pueden\nresolverse por otro método de adopción de\ndecisiones, supuestamente algo menos que el\nconsenso, siempre que la decisión de recurrir a\nese otro método de adopción de decisiones se\ntome por consenso. En todo caso, esos métodos\nmodificados de adopción de decisiones no se\npueden aplicar a la aprobación de enmiendas al\nTratado (Artículo 23) o a sus anexos (Artículo\n24), que se consideran de tal importancia que\nexigen siempre consenso.\nLa mayoría de los Tratados procuran\npromover el consenso en la adopción de\ndecisiones. En este sentido, el criterio del Tratado\ncoincide con el del Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, por ejemplo, que dispone que el\nreglamento de la Conferencia de las Partes en el\nConvenio debe aprobarse por consenso y es en\nese reglamento donde se establecen las normas\n154\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ndetalladas sobre adopción de decisiones. El\nReglamento aprobado por la Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica incluye algunos elementos que hasta\nel momento de escribir la presente Guía nunca\npudieron resolverse y siguen entre corchetes 13\naños después de haber entrado en vigor el\nConvenio (Reglamento del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, artículo 40). En la versión\nactual del Reglamento (en la que todavía no se\naprobó el texto entre corchetes), las decisiones\nde la Conferencia de las Partes sobre todas las\ncuestiones de fondo sólo pueden tomarse por\nconsenso. El único mecanismo no consensual en\nel Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica se\nrefiere a la aprobación de enmiendas (Artículo\n29) y anexos (Artículo 30), que se hace por\nvotación de dos tercios de las Partes presentes y\nvotantes, pero no crea obligación a las Partes\nque no desean quedar vinculadas (los países que\nno ratifican la enmienda o los que presentan una\nnotificación en relación con el anexo, de con-\nformidad con el Artículo 30).\nEl Órgano Rector del Tratado también\npodría elaborar y aprobar un reglamento que\npermitiera la adopción de decisiones por voto\nde la mayoría o de una gran mayoría en ciertas\ncircunstancias. En primer lugar, en la práctica,\nlos negociadores siempre actuaron por consenso\nen la redacción del Tratado y, en segundo\nlugar, algunas de las decisiones que debe adoptar\nel Órgano Rector son tan importantes que todas\nlas Partes tienen que estar de acuerdo para que\nlas decisiones tengan sentido. En la última parte\nde las negociaciones, algunos países trataron de\nelaborar una lista de decisiones importantes que\nsiempre requerirían consenso. Resultó tan larga\nque finalmente se abandonó la idea. Las\nenmiendas al propio Tratado y a sus anexos y a\nla lista de cultivos del Anexo I comprendidos en\nel Sistema Multilateral eran motivo de especial\npreocupación para algunos países, que querían\nmantener derechos de veto sobre cualquier\ncambio en la lista que pudiera poner en peligro\nel equilibrio general del sistema.\nDesde el punto de vista de las ventajas, el\nconsenso suele ser preferible como método\nbásico de trabajo en los foros multilaterales\nporque las votaciones pueden dividir a los\nmiembros y dejar a algunas partes con la\nsensación de que no se las escucha. El consenso\ntambién puede crear un mayor compromiso en\nlos miembros del grupo porque todos aceptaron\nuna solución. Además, es más probable que las\npartes apliquen las decisiones que han aceptado\ny el consenso hace más probable la aceptación.\nSin embargo, el proceso de creación de un\nconsenso requiere tiempo y disciplina.\n19.3 Las funciones del Órgano Rector consistirán en fomentar la plena aplicación del\npresente Tratado, teniendo en cuenta sus objetivos, y en particular:\na) impartir instrucciones y orientaciones sobre políticas para la supervisión y aprobar\nlas recomendaciones que sean necesarias para la aplicación del presente Tratado, y\nen particular para el funcionamiento del Sistema Multilateral;\nLa función general del Órgano Rector es\npromover la aplicación del Tratado y, esencial-\nmente, promover el logro de sus objetivos. Al\nhacerlo, deberá impartir instrucciones y\norientación normativa y adoptar decisiones.\nComo en el Tratado quedan sin resolver cierto\nnúmero de cuestiones relativas en particular al\nfuncionamiento del Sistema Multilateral, quizás\nlos asuntos más importantes en lo inmediato se\nrelacionen con ese tema en particular. Por\nejemplo, el Órgano Rector tendrá que decidir la\ncuantía, la forma y la modalidad de los pagos\nque se efectuarán con arreglo al Artículo 13.2 d\nii) y, de hecho, todo el ANTM. Otras cuestiones\nimportantes se referirán a la adopción de la\nestrategia de financiación.\nb) aprobar planes y programas para la aplicación del presente Tratado;\nc) aprobar en su primera reunión y examinar periódicamente la estrategia de financia-\nción para la aplicación del presente Tratado, de conformidad con las disposiciones\ndel Artículo 18;\nLas disposiciones del párrafo b) no requieren\ncomentario. La adopción, según el párrafo c),\nde la estrategia de financiación del Tratado\nrevestirá particular importancia, especialmente\ndesde el punto de vista de la confianza de los\npaíses en desarrollo en la eficacia de las disposi-\nciones del Tratado relativas a la distribución de\nlos beneficios y la voluntad de los donantes de\n155\nArtículo 19\naportar los recursos financieros necesarios. En\neste contexto, es probable que se pida al Órgano\nRector que en su primera reunión concierte un\nacuerdo de relación con el nuevo Fondo Mundial\npara la Diversidad de Cultivos en el marco de\neste tema del programa. Se prevé que el Fondo,\nque aportará recursos del fondo de dotación y\nde otras fuentes para las colecciones ex situ, será\nun elemento de la estrategia de financiación.\nd) aprobar el presupuesto del presente Tratado;\ne) estudiar la posibilidad de establecer, siempre que se disponga de los fondos necesarios,\nlos órganos auxiliares que puedan ser necesario y sus respectivos mandatos y\ncomposición;\nEsta disposición es lo más concreto que dice el\nTratado en cuanto a la creación de un mecanismo\nfinanciero. Probablemente consistirá en una\ncuenta fiduciaria establecida con arreglo al\nEl presupuesto del Tratado probablemente\nconsista, al menos inicialmente, en los gastos de\nEn el propio Tratado no se dispone la creación\nde ningún órgano subsidiario, como el órgano\nsubsidiario de asesoramiento científico, técnico\ny tecnológico establecido en el Artículo 25 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. El\nÓrgano Rector está, pues, en libertad de decidir\nsobre la creación de esos órganos subsidiarios,\nde considerarla necesaria. Antes de tomar\ncualquier decisión sobre la creación de esos\nórganos, el Órgano Rector necesitará contar con\nun informe sobre la disponibilidad de los fondos\nnecesarios.\nf) establecer, en caso necesario, un mecanismo apropiado, como por ejemplo una cuenta\nfiduciaria, para recibir y utilizar los recursos financieros que se depositen en ella con\ndestino a la aplicación del presente Tratado;\nReglamento Financiero de la FAO que recibirá\nlos pagos correspondientes a la distribución de\nlos beneficios comerciales con arreglo al Artículo\n13.2 d y diversas contribuciones voluntarias.\nEl Órgano Rector tendrá que establecer\nrelaciones y cooperar con otros órganos diversos\nque se ocupan de los RFGAA. Esta disposición\nmenciona expresamente la Conferencia de las\nPartes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica como principal ejemplo. En efecto, el\nArtículo 1.2 del Tratado deja en claro desde el\nprincipio que los objetivos del Tratado sólo se\npodrán lograr vinculando estrechamente el\nTratado al Convenio sobre la Diversidad Bio-\nlógica y a la FAO. También deberán establecerse\nrelaciones con el nuevo Fondo Mundial para la\nDiversidad de Cultivos, para lo que se pedirá\norientación normativa general al Órgano Rector.\nh) examinar y aprobar, cuando proceda, enmiendas del presente Tratado, de conformidad\ncon lo dispuesto en el Artículo 23;\ni) examinar y aprobar y, en caso necesario, modificar los anexos del presente Tratado,\nde conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo 24;\ng) establecer y mantener la cooperación con otras organizaciones internacionales y\nórganos de tratados pertinentes, en particular la Conferencia de las Partes en el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, sobre los asuntos abarcados por el presente\nTratado, incluida su participación en la estrategia de financiación;\nLa aprobación de enmiendas al Tratado y a los\nanexos exigirá consenso. En vista de que la lista\nde cultivos enumerados en el Anexo I es relativa-\nmente limitada, muchos países querrán ampliarla\ntan pronto como sea posible a la luz de la\nexperiencia en la aplicación del Tratado. Sin\nembargo, el requisito del consenso tal vez\ndemore esa ampliación.\nfuncionamiento de las reuniones y la secretaría.\n156\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEsta será una importante función del Órgano\nRector, en vista de que la confianza en el Tratado,\nespecialmente por parte de los países en\ndesarrollo, dependerá de que se materialicen\nefectivamente los intercambios de recursos con\narreglo a las disposiciones del Tratado relativas\na la distribución de los beneficios.\nj) estudiar las modalidades de una estrategia para fomentar las contribuciones\nvoluntarias, en particular con respecto a los Artículos 13 y 18;\nk) desempeñar cualesquiera otras funciones que puedan ser necesaria para el logro de\nlos objetivos del presente Tratado;\nSe trata de una disposición general y normal que\nfigura en la mayor parte de los acuerdos\ninternacionales. Por ejemplo, varios artículos del\nTratado permiten al Órgano Rector adoptar\nmedidas concretas para las cuales el Artículo 19\nno le confiere las correspondientes atribuciones,\nfuera de esta disposición general, a saber:\nArtículo 11.4 – Dispone una evaluación\npor el Órgano Rector de los progresos\nlogrados por los países para alentar a\nlas personas físicas y jurídicas bajo su\njurisdicción a incluir en el Sistema\nMultilateral los RFGAA incluidos en\nla lista que están en su poder;\nArtículo 12.3 h – En ausencia de\nlegislación nacional, establecer normas\ncon respecto al acceso a los RFGAA\nque están in situ; y\nArtículo 12.4 – El Órgano Rector\naprobará un Acuerdo Normalizado de\nTransferencia de Material que con-\ntendrá disposiciones para el acceso\nfacilitado de conformidad con los\nArtículos 12.2 y 12.3.\nl) tomar nota de las decisiones pertinentes de la Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y de otras organizaciones internacionales y órganos de\ntratados pertinentes;\nm) informar, cuando proceda, a la Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica y a otras organizaciones internacionales y órganos de tratados\npertinentes de los asuntos relativos a la aplicación del presente Tratado; y\nEstas disposiciones definen la naturaleza de la\nrelación entre el Órgano Rector del Tratado y la\nConferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre\nla Diversidad Biológica, así como otras organiza-\nciones internacionales pertinentes. La relación\nno es de subordinación sino de cooperación. El\nÓrgano Rector tomará nota de las decisiones\npertinentes de otros órganos y, a su vez, les\ninformará de los asuntos relativos a la aplicación\ndel Tratado. Estos órganos rectores también\npueden decidir que han de prestar cooperación\npara otras actividades además del intercambio\nde información.\nn) aprobar las condiciones de los acuerdos con los CIIA y las instituciones internacionales\nen virtud del Artículo 15 y examinar y modificar el Acuerdo de transferencia de\nmaterial a que se refiere el Artículo 15.\nSon dos asuntos importantes que debe decidir el\nÓrgano Rector. Las colecciones ex situ\nmantenidas por los CIIA son de vital importancia\npara el éxito del Tratado. El Tratado no puede\nregir directamente estas colecciones, puesto que\nlos CIIA tienen su propia personalidad jurídica\ninternacional pero no son Estados y, por lo tanto,\nno pueden ser Partes en el Tratado por derecho\npropio. Con arreglo al derecho internacional, un\ntratado no puede imponer obligaciones o\nderechos a terceros sin su consentimiento. Por\nlo tanto se optó por la firma de un acuerdo\nseparado entre el Órgano Rector y los CIIA como\nmedio para incorporar estas colecciones al\nTratado. El Artículo 15.1 b dispone que el\nAcuerdo de transferencia de material actual-\nmente utilizado por los CIIA con arreglo a los\nacuerdos de depósito con la FAO será modificado\npor el Órgano Rector, a más tardar en su segunda\nreunión ordinaria, en consulta con los CIIA.\n157\nArtículo 19\n19.4 Con sujeción a lo dispuesto en el Artículo 19.6, cada Parte Contratante dispondrá\nde un voto y podrá estar representada en las reuniones del Órgano Rector por un\núnico delegado, que puede estar acompañado de un suplente y de expertos y\nasesores. Los suplentes, expertos y asesores podrán tomar parte en las\ndeliberaciones del Órgano Rector pero no votar, salvo en el caso de que estén\ndebidamente autorizados para sustituir al delegado.\nA través del Artículo 19.4, el Tratado adopta el\nmétodo de ‘‘un Estado, un voto’’ con lo que\nasegura que todos los Estados tengan igual voz\nen el proceso de adopción de decisiones. Esta es\nuna regla tradicional del derecho internacional\nderivada del principio de igualdad soberana. La\núnica excepción a esta regla es el caso de las\norganizaciones regionales de integración eco-\nnómica, como la Comunidad Europea, que\ntendrán en cuestiones de su competencia un\nnúmero de votos igual al de sus miembros que\nsean Partes Contratantes en el Tratado.\n19.5 Las Naciones Unidas, sus organismos especializados y el Organismo Internacional\nde Energía Atómica, así como cualquier Estado que no sea Parte Contratante en\nel presente Tratado, podrán estar representados en calidad de observadores en las\nreuniones del Órgano Rector. Cualquier otro órgano u organismo, ya sea\ngubernamental o no gubernamental, que esté calificado en sectores relativos a la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y que haya informado al Secretario de su deseo de\nestar representado en calidad de observador en una reunión del Órgano Rector,\npodrá ser admitido a menos que se oponga un tercio como mínimo de las Partes\nContratantes presentes. La admisión y participación de observadores estará sujeta\nal reglamento interno aprobado por el Órgano Rector.\nEste artículo, idéntico al Artículo 23 5) del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, se\nrefiere a dos cuestiones distintas: la admisión de\nobservadores y, una vez admitidos, su derecho a\nparticipar en las reuniones del Órgano Rector.\nFaculta al Órgano Rector a regular la admisión\ny la participación de observadores mediante su\nreglamento interno aprobado de conformidad\ncon el Artículo 19.7.\nSin embargo, este artículo ya menciona\nalgunas reglas básicas relativas a la admisión.\nHay dos casos diferentes. El primer caso incluye\nlas instituciones que, por su propia naturaleza,\ntienen derecho a participar y, por lo tanto, están\nadmitidas ipso facto. Éstas son las Naciones\nUnidas, sus organismos especializados y\ncualquier Estado que no sea Parte en el Tratado.\nEl segundo caso incluye todas las demás\ninstituciones, sean o no gubernamentales. Éstas\ndeben someterse a un procedimiento de admisión\nque requiere:\ncalificación en el campo al que se\nrefiere el Tratado;\nnotificación a la Secretaría de que\ndesean ser admitidas como observa-\ndoras; y\nausencia de objeciones por parte de un\ntercio como mínimo de las Partes\npresentes en la reunión en cuestión.\nEste último requisito indica que el procedi-\nmiento no garantiza una admisión general a todas\nlas reuniones futuras. En cambio, las institu-\nciones del segundo grupo deben volver a solicitar\nser admitidas como observadoras para todas las\nreuniones subsiguientes. Una vez admitido, el\nÓrgano Rector también tendrá que determinar\nel derecho del observador a participar en la\nreunión.\n19.6 Una organización Miembro de la FAO que sea Parte Contratante y los Estados\nmiembros de esa organización Miembro que sean Partes Contratantes ejercerán\nsus derechos de miembros y cumplirán sus obligaciones como tales, de conformidad,\nmutatis mutandis, con la Constitución y el Reglamento General de la FAO.\nActualmente sólo una organización cumple los\ncriterios de esta sección. En noviembre de 1991,\nla Comunidad Europea fue admitida como\nprimera organización Miembro de la FAO. La\nadmisión de la Comunidad Europea tuvo lugar\ntras la adopción de enmiendas a la Constitución\ny Reglamento General de la FAO que autorizaron\nla admisión como Miembros de organizaciones\n158\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nregionales de integración económica cuyos\nintegrantes les hubieran transferido competencia\nen asuntos comprendidos en el ámbito de acción\nde la FAO. Como sus países miembros le han\ntransferido competencia en ciertas cuestiones, es\nla Comunidad Europea quien debe participar y\nejercer el derecho de voto cuando se trata de\nellas. Con arreglo a la Constitución y el Regla-\nmento General de la FAO, una organización\nMiembro ejerce sus derechos de forma\nalternativa con sus Estados miembros que sean\nMiembros de la Organización. Esto significa que\nla Comunidad Europea ejerce derechos de\nMiembro en las materias respecto de las cuales\ntiene competencia exclusiva y que sus Estados\nMiembros ejercen esos derechos en relación con\ntodos los asuntos respecto de los cuales no hayan\ntransferido su competencia a la Organización.\nEn las cuestiones en que la Comunidad Europea\ny sus Estados Miembros comparten la com-\npetencia, ambos podrán hacer uso de la palabra\ndesde el punto de vista de su propia competencia,\npero sólo uno o la otra podrán ejercer el derecho\nde voto. La distribución de competencias entre\nla Comunidad Europea y su Estados miembros\ndebe constar en una notificación al Director\nGeneral de la FAO que se ha de distribuir a todos\nlos Estados Miembros. Más importante aun es\nel hecho de que la Comunidad Europea y sus\nMiembros deben notificar a la FAO, antes de\ncada reunión de la Organización, de la\ndistribución de competencias y del derecho de\nvoto respecto de cada tema del programa de la\nreunión. La presente disposición requiere aplicar\nel mismo sistema a la participación de la\nComunidad Europea y sus Miembros en el\nÓrgano Rector del Tratado.\n19.7 El Órgano Rector aprobará y modificará, en caso necesario, el propio Reglamento\ny sus normas financieras, que no deberán ser incompatibles con el presente Tratado.\nEl Tratado no establece el reglamento y las\nnormas financieras del Órgano Rector sino que\nle encomienda la responsabilidad de\nestablecerlos él mismo. Como se especifica en\nel Artículo 19.2, esos textos deberán aprobarse\npor consenso. El reglamento naturalmente no\npuede cambiar las reglas aplicables, por ejemplo,\na la aprobación de enmiendas al Tratado o a sus\nanexos, puesto que ello sería incompatible con\nlas disposiciones del Tratado.\n19.8 Será necesaria la presencia de delegados en representación de la mayoría de las\nPartes Contratantes para constituir quórum en cualquier reunión del Órgano\nRector.\nEl requisito de un quórum tiene por objeto\ngarantizar que no se tomen decisiones sin que\nesté presente un número suficiente de las Partes.\nCon arreglo al Artículo 19.8, la mayoría (50%\nmás una) de las Partes actuales constituye\nquórum en cualquier reunión del Órgano Rector.\nLas organizaciones regionales de integración\neconómica, como la Unión Europea, cuentan\npara el quórum en cuestiones de su respectiva\ncompetencia con el número de votos que tengan\nen esos asuntos.\n19.9 El Órgano Rector celebrará reuniones ordinarias por lo menos una vez cada dos\naños. Estas reuniones deberían celebrarse, en la medida de lo posible, coincidiendo\ncon las reuniones ordinarias de la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura.\nA fin de cumplir su finalidad, el Órgano Rector\ndebe reunirse regularmente. Como se señaló\nanteriormente, el Tratado es un instrumento\ndinámico y hay una gran cantidad de cuestiones\nen que se necesitarán las instrucciones y\norientación normativas del Órgano Rector. Sin\nembargo, como ocurre con otros asuntos, el\nTratado deja al Órgano Rector en libertad de\ndecidir con qué periodicidad se reunirá, siempre\nque sea por lo menos cada dos años.\nEl artículo alienta al Órgano Rector a\ncelebrar sus reuniones ordinarias en forma\nconsecutiva con las de la CRGAA. La razón para\nhacerlas es que la CRGAA retendrá algunas\nfunciones de importancia para el Tratado, como\nla preparación de informes sobre la situación de\nlos RFGAA del mundo y la actualización del\nPlan de acción mundial progresivo. Al celebrar\nlas reuniones en forma consecutiva se reducirán\nlos costos, lo que contribuirá a la participación\nde representantes de los países en desarrollo.\nTambién será más fácil coordinar las decisiones\ndel Órgano Rector, por una parte, con las de la\nComisión, por la otra.\n159\nArtículo 19\nEl Artículo 19.10 prevé dos motivos distintos\npara celebrar reuniones extraordinarias del\nÓrgano Rector:\n• Cuando el Órgano Rector lo considere\nnecesario; y\n19.10 Se celebrarán reuniones extraordinarias del Órgano Rector en cualquier otro\nmomento en que lo considere necesario éste o previa solicitud por escrito de\ncualquier Parte Contratante, siempre que esta solicitud cuente con el respaldo\nde un tercio por lo menos de las Partes Contratantes.\n• Cuando una Parte Contratante lo solicite\npor escrito con el respaldo de un tercio por\nlo menos de las Partes Contratantes.\n19.11 El Órgano Rector elegirá su Presidente y sus Vicepresidentes (que se denominarán\ncolectivamente ‘‘la Mesa’’), de conformidad con su Reglamento.\nEl Artículo 19.11 prevé la elección de un\nPresidente y Vicepresidentes de conformidad con\nel Reglamento que se adoptará con arreglo al\nArtículo 19.7. No se especifican las atribuciones\nde la Mesa, pero ésta podría estar llamada a\ndesempeñar una importante función en la\nsupervisión de la aplicación del Tratado entre\nlas reuniones del Órgano Rector. Sin embargo,\nel propio Órgano Rector probablemente retendrá\nla facultad de adoptar decisiones sobre\ncuestiones importantes, actuando por consenso.\n160\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n161\nArtículo 20\nEl Artículo 20 define la función que corresponde\nal Secretario en el marco del Tratado y la forma\nen que será nombrado. Según este artículo, la\nSecretaría debe prestar apoyo práctico y\nadministrativo al Órgano Rector. La experiencia\nArtículo 20 – Secretario\nha demostrado que un tratado internacional\núnicamente puede funcionar de forma satis-\nfactoria si es complementado por una secretaría\nque lleve a cabo una serie de funciones entre las\nreuniones del Órgano Rector.\n20.1 El Secretario del Órgano Rector será nombrado por el Director General de la\nFAO, con la aprobación del Órgano Rector. El Secretario contará con la asistencia\ndel personal que sea necesario.\nHabida cuenta de que el Tratado fue aprobado\nen virtud del Artículo XIV de la Constitución de\nla FAO, además del Artículo 20.1 existen ciertas\nnormas aplicables al nombramiento del\nSecretario. Según estas normas, por ejemplo, el\nSecretario debe ser funcionario de la FAO. En\neste caso, el nombramiento debe hacerse ‘‘con\nla aprobación del Órgano Rector’’. Los textos\nbásicos de la FAO, en particular la Parte R, dan\nal Órgano Rector un papel de apoyo del Director\nGeneral en cuanto a la selección del Secretario\ndel Tratado. Sin embargo, no está claro cómo ha\nde evolucionar esta función en el futuro, y esto\ndependerá de la práctica del Órgano Rector. En\ntodo caso, cabe prever que se presentará al\nÓrgano Rector una propuesta relativa al\nnombramiento del Secretario y que éste no\nentrará en vigor hasta que el Órgano Rector dé\nsu aprobación.\n20.2 El Secretario desempeñará las siguientes funciones:\na) organizar reuniones del Órgano Rector y de cualquiera de sus órganos auxiliares\nque pueda establecerse y prestarles apoyo administrativo;\nb) prestar asistencia al Órgano Rector en el desempeño de sus funciones, en particular\nla realización de tareas concretas que el Órgano Rector pueda decidir asignarle;\nEl Artículo 20.2 b sirve de disposición general,\nhabida cuenta de que el Secretario debe realizar\nlas tareas concretas que el Órgano Rector decida\nasignarle.\nc) informar acerca de sus actividades al Órgano Rector.\n20.3 El Secretario comunicará a todas las Partes Contratantes y al Director General:\na) las decisiones del Órgano Rector en un plazo de 60 días desde su aprobación;\nb) la información que reciba de las Partes Contratantes de acuerdo con las disposiciones\ndel presente Tratado.\n20.4 El Secretario proporcionará la documentación en los seis idiomas de las Naciones\nUnidas para las reuniones del Órgano Rector.\nNormalmente, en el caso de los tratados\nconcertados en el marco de la Constitución de\nla FAO, para las actuaciones del Órgano Rector\núnicamente se utilizarían los idiomas oficiales\nde la Organización. El ruso no es idioma oficial\nde la FAO, habida cuenta de que la Federación\nde Rusia no es miembro de la Organización. En\nel caso especial del Tratado, los negociadores\naceptaron incluir el ruso como idioma auténtico\nhabida cuenta de que Rusia es Parte ya en el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica y los\nnegociadores expresaron su deseo de\nproporcionar los mayores incentivos posibles\npara que el Tratado tuviera el mayor número\nposible de miembros.\n162\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nUna función de particular importancia asignada\nal Secretario se refiere a la cooperación ‘‘con\notras organizaciones y órganos de tratados’’. En\nel Tratado se pone de relieve reiteradamente que\n20.5 El Secretario cooperará con otras organizaciones y órganos de tratados, en\nparticular la Secretaría del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, para conseguir\nlos objetivos del presente Tratado.\ndebe ser aplicado en coordinación con otros\ninstrumentos internacionales, en particular el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\n163\nArtículo 21\nEl Órgano Rector examinará y aprobará, en su\nprimera reunión, los procedimientos de coopera-\nción eficaces y los mecanismos operacionales\npara promover la observancia del presente\nTratado y para abordar los casos de incumpli-\nmiento. Estos procedimientos y mecanismos\ncomprenderán, en caso necesario, la supervisión\ny el ofrecimiento de asesoramiento o asistencia,\ncon inclusión de los de carácter jurídico, en\nparticular a los países en desarrollo y los países\ncon economía en transición.\nEs cada vez más común en los acuerdos\ninternacionales incluir disposiciones relativas a\nla observancia de las cláusulas de un tratado. Se\nencuentran disposiciones similares a la\nenunciada en el Artículo 21 del Tratado en el\nProtocolo de Montreal de 1987 relativo a las\nsustancias que agotan la capa de ozono123, el\nConvenio de la Comisión Económica para\nEuropa sobre el acceso a la información, la\nparticipación del público en la toma de\ndecisiones y el acceso a la justicia en materia de\nmedio ambiente124, el Protocolo de Kyoto de\n1997 de la Convención Marco de las Naciones\nUnidas sobre el Cambio Climático125 y el Pro-\ntocolo de Cartagena del año 2000 sobre la\nSeguridad de la Biotecnología126 en el marco del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nTambién se está considerando activamente la\nposibilidad de incluir procedimientos de\nobservancia en otros acuerdos internacionales.\nEn 2002 el PNUMA aprobó una serie de\nDirectrices sobre cumplimiento y aplicación\nobligatoria de los acuerdos multilaterales\nrelativos al medio ambiente. Las Directrices\nenuncian distintas consideraciones, propuestas,\nsugerencias y posibles medidas para que los\ngobiernos las tengan en cuenta al establecer o\nafianzar los procedimientos de observancia.\nHay que distinguir los procedimientos de\nobservancia de los mecanismos de solución de\ncontroversias. En términos generales, estos\nArtículo 21 – Observancia\núltimos están destinados a dirimir controversias\nentre dos o más partes relativas a una cuestión\nde interpretación o aplicación del tratado de que\nse trate. El procedimiento de solución de una\ncontroversia está limitado por el alcance de la\ncontroversia propiamente dicha y por las partes\nen ella. Los procedimientos de observancia, en\ncambio, se refieren más a cuestiones generales\nde cumplimiento o incumplimiento, con inclu-\nsión de intereses comunes en el Tratado, y no es\nnecesario que los haga valer una parte en una\ndeterminada controversia. Los procedimientos\nde solución de controversias son de carácter\ncontencioso mientras que los de observancia no\nlo son. Los procedimientos de solución de\ncontroversias se refieren a controversias que han\nsurgido en el pasado, mientras que los de\nobservancia apuntan en mayor medida a superar\ndificultades que puedan plantearse en el futuro.\nLas conclusiones del mecanismo establecido en\nvirtud de los procedimientos de observancia no\nse limitan a las partes en una controversia y,\nnormalmente, no tienen fuerza obligatoria.\nSegún el Artículo 21, el Órgano Rector,\nen su primera reunión, examinará y aprobará\n‘‘procedimientos de cooperación eficaces y ...\nmecanismos operacionales’’ para promover la\nobservancia del Tratado y para abordar los casos\nde incumplimiento.\nEl elemento temporal no suscita observa-\nciones, salvo señalar que el Órgano Rector tendrá\nen su primera reunión un programa completo y\nque el establecimiento de un mecanismo y un\nprocedimiento completos de observancia tal vez\nrequiera un debate considerable.\nLa expresión ‘‘de cooperación’’ da a\nentender que los procedimientos de observancia\nque se establezcan deben estimular un examen\ny un diálogo amistoso para abordar los casos de\nincumplimiento y que no deben ser contenciosos.\nLa expresión ‘‘eficaces’’ da a entender que hay\n123 Protocolo de Montreal de 1987 relativo a las sustancias que agotan la capa de ozono, 16 de septiembre de 1987,\n26 I.L.M. 1550 (entró en vigor el 1º de enero de 1989), enmendado por 30 I.L.M. 539, enmendado por 32 I.L.M.\n875 (1991).\n124 Convenio de la Comisión Económica para  Europa sobre el acceso a la información, la participación del público\nen la toma de decisiones y el acceso a la justicia en materia de medio ambiente (Convenio de Aarhus), 25 de junio\nde 1998, 38 I.L.M. 517 (1999).\n125 Protocolo de Kyoto de 1997 de la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático, 10 de\ndiciembre de 1997, 37 I.L.M. 22 (1998).\n126 Protocolo de Cartagena sobre la Seguridad de la Biotecnología del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, 29 de\nenero de 2000, 39 I.L.M. 1027 (2000).\n164\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nque equilibrar la forma en que reaccione una\nParte Contratante ante dificultades de\nobservancia, por una parte, y la causa, el tipo, el\ngrado y la frecuencia de esas dificultades, por la\notra. La referencia a la necesidad de promover\nla observancia indica que hay que adoptar un\nplanteamiento genérico de las cuestiones de\nobservancia y ayudar a las Partes a lograr la\nobservancia. En cambio, la referencia a los casos\nde incumplimiento da a entender que habría que\ntener en cuenta los problemas y las dificultades\nreales en relación con el incumplimiento, con\ninclusión tal vez de las dificultades con que\ntropiecen distintas Partes. El artículo hace una\nreferencia expresa también a los ‘‘mecanismos\noperacionales’’, lo que indica la posibilidad de\nestablecer un órgano o un comité especial para\nque considere cuestiones de observancia.\nLos procedimientos y mecanismos han de\nincluir la supervisión del cumplimiento de las\ndisposiciones del Tratado y el ofrecimiento de\nasesoramiento o asistencia. La referencia a la\nposibilidad de ofrecer asesoramiento o asistencia\nde carácter jurídico reviste particular interés.\nHabida cuenta de que muchas de las cuestiones\nde observancia relativas a la aplicación del\nTratado probablemente queden comprendidas en\nel ámbito del derecho privado, especialmente en\nlo tocante a lograr la observancia de las disposi-\nciones del modelo de Acuerdo de transferencia\nde material, muchos países en desarrollo y países\ncon economías en transición verán con buenos\nojos que se prevea formalmente esa asistencia.\nCabe señalar que los proveedores de RFGAA\nno tienen un interés financiero directo para llevar\na los tribunales las denuncias de impago de\ndeudas contraídas en virtud del Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material, en particular porque\nlos pagos con los que se pone en práctica el\nArtículo 13.2 b ii) se hacen al mecanismo de\nfinanciación del Tratado y no a ellos. Por lo tanto,\nen esos casos tal vez se justifique especialmente\nel asesoramiento o la asistencia de carácter\njurídico prestados por una fuente vinculada con\nel Tratado. Cabe señalar en este contexto que la\nFAO tiene una capacidad bien establecida para\nla prestación de asistencia jurídica.\nOtros métodos de observancia incluyen las\nnormas sin fuerza obligatoria, la difusión de\nconocimientos, los mecanismos de colaboración\ny el dominio de la retórica. Por ejemplo, la Carta\nMundial para la Naturaleza127, de carácter no\nobligatorio, impone deberes generales de\nejecución a los Estados Miembros pero no\nestablece mecanismos concretos para la\nobservancia. En cambio, el texto pone de relieve\nla educación de la población, la difusión de\nconocimientos científicos, la investigación\ncontinua y la cooperación entre diversas\nentidades internacionales, la divulgación de\ninformación sobre planificación y evaluación\nambiental y la consulta y la participación del\npúblico en esa actividad.\nEn las negociaciones no se hizo referencia\nexpresa a una cuestión conexa, la de cómo se ha\nde lograr coercitivamente el cumplimiento de los\nAcuerdos de transferencia de material (respecto\nde los materiales enunciados en el Anexo I y los\nde otra índole), salvo dar a entender en el Artículo\n12.5 que primordialmente ello se hará\nrecurriendo a los sistemas jurídicos nacionales.\nEn la actualidad, en virtud de los acuerdos entre\nla FAO y los centros del GCIAI, el sistema en\ngran medida se regula a sí mismo y se disuade\nde las infracciones graves primordialmente por\nmedios no jurídicos y por la amenaza de darles\nuna publicidad negativa. Las cuestiones\ngenerales relativas a la forma de hacer cumplir\nlos Acuerdos de transferencia de material (si se\ndetermina que cada infracción de un acuerdo de\nesta índole constituye una infracción de la Parte\nContratante que tiene jurisdicción respecto de\nese Acuerdo) podrían absorber gran parte del\ntiempo del comité u otro mecanismo de\nobservancia que se establezca en virtud del\nArtículo 21. Naturalmente, en esta cuestión se\nconcentrará también el debate en el Órgano\nRector cuando se trate de redactar el modelo de\nAcuerdo de transferencia de material. Además,\ntambién es probable que las cuestiones generales\nrelativas a la observancia de ese modelo estén\nentre las cuestiones más importantes a que habrá\nde enfrentarse cualquier mecanismo operacional.\n127 La Carta Mundial, por tratarse de una declaración de la Asamblea General, no es estrictamente vinculante en\nderecho internacional; sin embargo, contiene declaraciones de derecho internacional consuetudinario y un texto\nmuy prescriptivo. Véase E. Brown Weiss, P.C. Szasz & D.B. Magraw, International Environmental Law: Basic\nInstruments & Reference (Nueva York, Transnational, 1992).\n165\nArtículo 22\nArtículo 22 – Solución de controversias\nLa obligación de los Estados de resolver las\ncontroversias por medios pacíficos está bien\nestablecida en derecho internacional y\nconsagrada en el Artículo 33 de la Carta de las\nNaciones Unidas, que enuncia una lista de\nmecanismos de solución de controversias a\ndisposición de los Estados, entre ellos ‘‘la\nnegociación, la investigación, la mediación, la\nconciliación, el arbitraje, el arreglo judicial, el\nrecurso a organismos o acuerdos regionales u\notros medios pacíficos de su elección’’. Los\nmecanismos previstos en el Tratado se basan en\nesa lista; se trata de disposiciones bastante\nhabituales y recogen prácticamente palabra por\npalabra los procedimientos de solución de\ncontroversias indicados en el Artículo 27 del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\nComo ya se ha señalado, hay que\nestablecer una distinción entre los\nprocedimientos de observancia establecidos en\nel Artículo 21 y los procedimientos para la\nsolución de controversias establecidos en el\nArtículo 22. Mientras que los procedimientos de\nobservancia se refieren a las formas de examinar\ny abordar las cuestiones de incumplimiento en\ngeneral, las disposiciones del Artículo 22 son\naplicables cuando hay una controversia efectiva\nentre dos o más Partes Contratantes acerca de la\ninterpretación o aplicación del Tratado. Las\ncontroversias que surjan en virtud del Tratado\ndeben ser resueltas de conformidad con las\ndisposiciones de éste. El Tratado establece un\nproceso progresivo que facilita la solución de\ncontroversias al someterlas a mecanismos cada\nvez más intrusivos y formales. Las obligaciones\nde negociar dan a las Partes la oportunidad de\nresolver una controversia entre ellas en una\nforma que sea satisfactoria para ambas. Los\nmecanismos no obligatorios mediante terceros,\ncomo los buenos oficios o la mediación, permiten\na las Partes en la controversia obtener un punto\nde vista imparcial acerca de ella. Por último, si\nnada más arroja resultados, las Partes pueden\nsometer la controversia a procedimientos\nvinculantes, tales como el arbitraje o el arreglo\njudicial. La posibilidad de que ulteriormente se\nllegue a un arreglo arbitral o judicial vinculante\nejerce también presión sobre las Partes para que\nresuelvan la controversia antes de perder cierto\ngrado de control respecto del proceso.\nHay que señalar que el procedimiento de\nsolución enunciado en el Artículo 22 se refiere\núnicamente a las controversias entre Partes\nContratantes en el Tratado. Tal vez haya que\nestablecer procedimientos separados de solución\nde controversias en los acuerdos que concierten\nlos centros internacionales de investigación\nagrícola y el Órgano Rector en el caso de\ncontroversias dimanadas de la interpretación o\naplicación de esos acuerdos. Las controversias\na que dé origen la interpretación o aplicación\ndel modelo de Acuerdo de transferencia de\nmaterial serán resueltas, al parecer, con arreglo\na la legislación nacional, de conformidad con\nlos procedimientos enunciados en esos acuerdos.\n22.1 Si se suscita una controversia en relación con la interpretación o aplicación del\npresente Tratado, las Partes interesadas tratarán de resolverla mediante\nnegociación.\nCuando se suscita una controversia y mientras\ndure, son las Partes en ella quienes muchas veces\nestán en mejor situación para llegar a un arreglo.\nPor esa razón el Artículo 22.1 dispone que la\nnegociación es el primer paso en la solución de\nuna controversia. Se trata de una norma\nfundamental y tradicional de solución de\nconflictos.\nEl Tratado no define la expresión ‘‘contro-\nversia’’, que parece referirse a toda situación\nentre las Partes que ellas mismas consideren una\ncontroversia. En particular, las controversias no\nse limitan a las diferencias de derecho sino que\npuede tratarse de cualquier combinación de\ncircunstancias de hecho o de derecho y de\npolítica.\n22.2 Si las partes interesadas no pueden llegar a un acuerdo mediante negociación,\npodrán recurrir conjuntamente a los buenos oficios de una tercera parte o solicitar\nsu mediación.\nCuando las Partes no resuelven sus diferencias\nmediante negociación entre ellas, el Tratado\ndispone que entre en escena un tercero. Este\ntercero no dirime la cuestión, sino que aconseja\na las Partes. Por lo tanto, la diferencia entre los\nbuenos oficios y la mediación depende en gran\n166\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nmedida del grado de iniciativa que adopte el\ntercero que interviene para llegar a una solución.\nBuenos oficios: La institución de los\nbuenos oficios ha sido calificada\nmuchas veces de ‘‘diplomacia dis-\ncreta’’, ya que el proceso suele consistir\nen encomendar la controversia a\npersonalidades con antecedentes\nespeciales y respecto de las cuales\nambas partes están de acuerdo. Podría\ntratarse, por ejemplo, de Jefes de\nEstado, del Secretario General de las\nNaciones Unidas o de personas que\néstos designen.\nMediación: Al igual que los buenos\noficios, la mediación es un comple-\nmento de la negociación, pero el\nmediador participa activamente, está\nautorizado a formular sus propias\npropuestas e incluso se espera que lo\nhaga y a interpretar, así como a trans-\nmitir, las propuestas de cada una de las\npartes a la otra.\nEn ambos casos, el tercero podría ser otra\nParte en el Tratado, un órgano creado en virtud\nde éste, un órgano o una organización externos\no incluso un mediador profesional.\n22.3 Al ratificar, aceptar o aprobar el presente Tratado, o al adherirse a él, o en cualquier\nmomento posterior, una Parte Contratante podrá declarar por escrito al\nDepositario que, en el caso de una controversia no resuelta de conformidad con lo\ndispuesto en el Artículo 22.1 o en el Artículo 22.2 supra, acepta como obligatorio\nuno o los dos medios de solución de controversias que se indican a continuación:\nAl igual que en el caso del Artículo 27 3) del\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, una de\nlas Partes puede en cualquier momento declarar,\npor comunicación escrita enviada al Depositario\ndel Tratado, que acepta una solución obligatoria\nde la controversia mediante arbitraje (párrafo a)),\npor la Corte Internacional de Justicia (párrafo\nb)) o de ambas formas cuando hayan fracasado\nla negociación, la mediación o los buenos oficios.\na) arbitraje de conformidad con el procedimiento establecido en la Parte 1 del Anexo II\ndel presente Tratado;\nAl recurrir al arbitraje se traspasa un límite entre\nlos métodos diplomáticos de arreglo y fallo de\ncontroversias. Esta diferencia queda más de\nmanifiesto en el hecho de que el laudo arbitral\nes vinculante. Al optar por el arbitraje, las partes\nen una controversia invitan a otra entidad a que\nresuelva por ellas. Sin embargo, el arbitraje\npermite a las partes constituir y poner en marcha\nsu propio tribunal. En consecuencia, tiene el\natractivo para los Estados partes en una contro-\nversia de que pueden elegir árbitros a personas\nen quienes tengan confianza, y de esta manera\npueden por lo menos ejercer influencia en el\nprocedimiento que se aplicará para resolver la\ncontroversia.\nEl proceso de arbitraje, enunciado en la\nParte 1 del Anexo II, consta de los elementos\nsiguientes:\nNotificación al Secretario (Artículo 1);\nEstablecimiento del tribunal arbitral\n(Artículos 2 y 3);\nAlcance de la decisión (Artículo 4);\nAtribuciones del tribunal arbitral:\naprobar un reglamento (Artículo 5) y\nrecomendar medidas provisionales de\nprotección (Artículo 6);\nObligación de las Partes de propor-\ncionar información (Artículo 7);\nCarácter confidencial (Artículo 8);\nCostas (Artículo 9);\nIntervención (Artículo 10);\nReconvenciones (Artículo 11);\nProceso de adopción de las decisiones\n(Artículo 12);\nNo comparecencia de una de las Partes\n(Artículo 13);\nPlazo para la decisión (Artículo 14);\nElementos de la decisión (Artículo 15);\nCarácter definitivo de la decisión\n(Artículo 17); y\nControversia relativa a la decisión\n(Artículo 17).\n167\nArtículo 22\nLa remisión de una controversia a la Corte\nInternacional de Justicia es una cláusula común\nde último recurso en muchos acuerdos inter-\nnacionales. El procedimiento que se ha de aplicar\nen los asuntos sometidos a la Corte se enuncian\nen el Estatuto de ésta.\nSin embargo, el hecho de recurrir a la Corte\nsuscita dificultades porque la competencia de la\nCorte dependerá del acuerdo de las partes y\nrelativamente pocos países han aceptado la\njurisdicción obligatoria de la Corte. Además,\nprobablemente la remisión a la Corte sea costosa\ny lenta, por lo que no se presta a una solución\nrápida de la controversia.\nCabe señalar que la presentación a la Corte\nInternacional de Justicia no es posible cuando\nuna de las partes en la controversia es una\norganización, tal vez la Comunidad Europea con\nrespecto al Tratado, porque sólo los Estados\npueden comparecer ante la Corte. Por lo tanto,\nlas controversias en que participe la Comunidad\nEuropea tendrán que ser sometidas a arbitraje\ncomo procedimiento de último recurso.\nb) presentación de la controversia a la Corte Internacional de Justicia.\n22.4 Si en virtud de lo establecido en el Artículo 22.3 supra las partes en la controversia\nno han aceptado el mismo procedimiento o ningún procedimiento, la controversia\nse someterá a conciliación de conformidad con la Parte 2 del Anexo II del presente\nTratado, a menos que las partes acuerden otra cosa.\nEn los casos en que las Partes Contratantes no\nhayan aceptado ninguno de los procedimientos\njudiciales indicados en el Artículo 22.3 (el\narbitraje o la Corte Internacional de Justicia) y\nla negociación, la mediación o los buenos oficios\nno hayan arrojado resultados, la controversia\ndeberá ser sometida a conciliación. Es obliga-\ntorio someter la controversia a conciliación, a\nmenos que las Partes acuerden otra cosa.\nEl Instituto de Derecho Internacional ha\ndefinido la conciliación como:\nUn método de arreglo de controversias\ninternacionales, cualquiera que sea su índole, por\nel cual una comisión establecida por las partes,\na título permanente o ad hoc para conocer de\nuna controversia, procede a un examen imparcial\nde ella y trata de establecer las condiciones de\nun acuerdo que las partes puedan adoptar o de\nprestarles la asistencia que hayan solicitado con\nmiras a resolver la controversia128.\nMientras que la mediación es una\nextensión de la negociación, la conciliación da\na la intervención de terceros un carácter jurídico\nformal y la institucionaliza de manera com-\nparable, pero no idéntica, al arbitraje.\nLa conciliación es básicamente una\nnegociación institucionalizada. Una de sus\ncaracterísticas distintivas consiste en que el\ninforme de la comisión reviste la forma de una\nserie de propuestas y no de una decisión. Así,\nincluso en los casos en que las cuestiones de\nderecho han constituido una consideración\nprincipal, el informe es bastante distinto de un\nlaudo arbitral y no es obligatorio para las partes.\nLa Parte 2 del Anexo II establece el\nmecanismo siguiente:\nCreación y composición de una\ncomisión de conciliación (Artículo 1);\nNombramiento de los miembros de la\ncomisión (Artículos 2 a 4);\nProcedimiento para la decisión\n(Artículo 5); y\nCuestiones de competencia (Artículo\n6).\nSi bien ello no está previsto en la Parte 2\ndel Anexo II, la práctica normal es que la\ncomisión fije a las partes un plazo de unos pocos\nmeses para presentar su respuesta. Si las\npropuestas son aceptadas, la comisión prepara\nun texto de acuerdo en que consta el hecho de\nque ha habido conciliación y se enuncian las\ncondiciones del acuerdo. Si las condiciones\npropuestas son rechazadas, la conciliación ha\nfracasado y las partes no están sujetas a ninguna\nobligación ulterior.\n128 Regulation on the Procedure of International Conciliation, Art. 1., págs. 385 a 391, Ann. IDI 49-II (1961).\n168\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n169\nArtículo 23\nArtículo 23 – Enmiendas del Tratado\nEl Artículo 23 se refiere a las enmiendas del\nTratado e indica:\nQuién puede proponerlas (Artículo\n23.1);\nCómo han de ser aprobadas (Artículos\n23.1 a 23.3);\nCómo y cuándo entran en vigor\n(Artículo 23.4); y\nDisposiciones especiales relativas a las\nOrganizaciones Miembros de la FAO\n(Artículo 23.5).\nSi bien algunas partes de este artículo son\nidénticas al Artículo 29 del Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica (véanse los Artículos 23.1,\n23.2 y 23.4), existen diferencias de importancia,\nprimordialmente en cuanto a la disposición del\nArtículo 29 3) del Convenio en el sentido de que,\nsi bien se hará todo lo posible por llegar a un\nacuerdo por consenso, las enmiendas pueden\nadoptarse, como último recurso, por mayoría de\ndos tercios de las Partes presentes en la reunión.\nEsta posibilidad no existe en el contexto del\nTratado, según el cual las enmiendas únicamente\npodrán aprobarse por consenso. Como ya se ha\nindicado, durante las negociaciones algunos\npaíses señalaron que esta norma era esencial para\n23.1 Cualquiera de las Partes Contratantes podrá proponer enmiendas al presente\nTratado.\n23.2 Las enmiendas del presente Tratado se aprobarán en una reunión del Órgano\nRector. La Secretaría comunicará el texto de cualquier enmienda a las Partes\nContratantes por lo menos seis meses antes de la reunión en la que se proponga su\naprobación.\n23.3 Todas las enmiendas del presente Tratado se aprobarán exclusivamente por\nconsenso de las Partes Contratantes presentes en la reunión del Órgano Rector.\n23.4 Las enmiendas aprobadas por el Órgano Rector entrarán en vigor, respecto de las\nPartes Contratantes que las hayan ratificado, aceptado o aprobado, el nonagésimo\ndía después de la fecha del depósito de los instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación\no aprobación por dos tercios de las Partes Contratantes. Luego, las enmiendas\nentrarán en vigor respecto de cualquier otra Parte Contratante el nonagésimo día\ndespués de la fecha en que esa Parte Contratante haya depositado su instrumento\nde ratificación, aceptación o aprobación de las enmiendas.\n23.5 A los efectos de este Artículo, un instrumento depositado por una Organización\nMiembro de la FAO no se considerará adicional a los depositados por los Estados\nmiembros de dicha organización.\nasegurar que se tuvieran en cuenta sus intereses\nfundamentales en todos los aspectos del\nfuncionamiento del Tratado, con inclusión de sus\nenmiendas. El requisito de que haya consenso\nconstituye, en este contexto, un derecho de veto\nque tienen todas y cada una de las Partes\nContratantes.\nSegún el Artículo 23.4, cada país debe\naceptar en forma separada una enmienda para\nque le sea aplicable. Ello significa que es posible\nque las enmiendas entren en vigor en distinto\nmomento para distintos países.\nEl Artículo 23.5, relativo a las Organiza-\nciones Miembros, constituye una norma habitual\ndestinada a asegurar que los instrumentos de la\nComunidad Europea y de sus Estados miembros\nno se cuenten dos veces. Si la Comunidad\nEuropea y todos sus Estados miembros (actual-\nmente 25) depositan instrumentos de ratificación,\naceptación o aprobación, el número total de\ninstrumentos será de 25 y no 26.\nComo se examinará en el Artículo 24, el\nprocedimiento establecido en este artículo será\ntambién aplicable a cualquier enmienda de los\nAnexos.\n170\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n171\nArtículo 24\nArtículo 24 – Anexos\nEl Tratado, al igual que muchos acuerdos\ninternacionales, contiene anexos y este artículo\naclara la relación entre el Tratado y sus anexos\n(Artículo 24.1). Confirma además una norma\ntradicional del derecho de los tratados en el\nsentido de que los anexos forman parte integrante\ndel Tratado.\n24.1 Los anexos del presente Tratado formarán parte integrante del Tratado y la\nreferencia al presente Tratado constituirá al mismo tiempo una referencia a\ncualquiera de sus anexos.\n24.2 Las disposiciones del Artículo 23 relativas a las enmiendas del presente Tratado se\naplicarán a las enmiendas de los anexos.\nSe prevé que, con el tiempo, se intro-\nducirán cambios en los anexos y el Artículo 24.2\nestablece el procedimiento para ello. También\nen este caso se consideró que los anexos, y el\nAnexo I en particular, eran tan importantes para\nel equilibrio del Tratado que se insistió en el\nconsenso.\n172\n173\nArtículo 25\nArtículo 25 – Firma\nEn muchos tratados, al igual que en éste, el acto\nde la firma constituye el procedimiento por el\nque se expresa el consentimiento inicial. Según\nel Artículo 25, el Tratado estará abierto a la firma\ndurante un año. La Resolución aprobatoria del\ntexto del Tratado fue adoptada por la Conferencia\nde la FAO el 3 de noviembre de 2001. En general,\nla firma de un tratado por un Estado no significa\nque consienta en obligarse en virtud de él a\nmenos que el Tratado lo especifique. Natural-\nmente, el Tratado indica en el Artículo 28 que\nentrará en vigor únicamente después de la\nratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión.\nSin embargo, al firmar un tratado el Estado\nacepta abstenerse de actos que ‘‘frustren el objeto\ny el fin de un tratado’’ mientras no haya mani-\nfestado su intención de no llegar a ser parte en\nél (véase el Artículo 18 de la Convención de\nViena sobre el Derecho de los Tratados). En el\nEl presente Tratado estará abierto a la firma en la FAO desde el 3 de noviembre de 2001\nhasta el 4 de noviembre de 2002 para todos los Miembros de la FAO y para cualquier\nEstado que no sea miembro de la FAO pero sea Miembro de las Naciones Unidas, de\ncualquiera de sus organismos especializados o del Organismo Internacional de Energía\nAtómica.\ncaso de este Tratado, los objetivos se enuncian\nen el Artículo 1.\nLa lista de Estados que tienen derecho a\nfirmar el Tratado procede de la llamada fórmula\nde Viena. En este caso, sin embargo, se\nmencionan en primer lugar los Miembros de la\nFAO, y no los Estados Miembros de la FAO, de\nmanera que la Comunidad Europea pueda firmar\nen su carácter de Organización Miembro de la\nFAO. Sin embargo, también pueden firmar el\nTratado Estados que no sean miembros de la\nFAO, como Rusia.\nDespués del período en que el Tratado está\nabierto para la firma, los Estados que quieran\nhacerse partes en él tendrán que seguir el\nprocedimiento de adhesión establecido en el\nArtículo 27.\n174\n175\nArtículo 26\nArtículo 26 – Ratificación, aceptación o aprobación\nCon arreglo al derecho internacional, un Estado\nquedará obligado en virtud de un tratado\núnicamente cuando tome medidas afirmativas\npara demostrar que consiente en quedar\nobligado. En teoría no hay límite para los medios\npor los cuales un Estado puede expresar su\nconsentimiento. Las expresiones utilizadas en el\nArtículo 22, ‘‘ratificación’’, ‘‘aceptación’’ y\n‘‘aprobación’’ son distintos tipos de declara-\nciones por las cuales un Estado expresa oficial-\nmente que está dispuesto a quedar obligado en\nvirtud del Tratado.\nEl presente Tratado estará sujeto a ratificación, aceptación o aprobación por los\nMiembros y los no miembros de la FAO mencionados en el Artículo 25. Los instrumentos\nde ratificación, aceptación o aprobación se depositarán en poder del Depositario.\nLa ratificación constituye el método más\ncomún para expresar el consentimiento. Los\nprocedimientos de ratificación son una cuestión\nconstitucional interna en cada país y con\nfrecuencia difieren de un país a otro.\nEl Artículo 26 exige que los instrumentos\nde ratificación, aceptación o aprobación, para\nsurtir efecto, sean depositados en poder del\nDepositario.\n176\n177\nArtículo 27\nArtículo 27 – Adhesión\nLa adhesión surte el mismo efecto que la\nratificación. En ambos casos, un Estado acepta\nquedar obligado en virtud del Tratado. La única\ndiferencia consiste en que la firma lleva a la\nratificación (o su equivalente), mientras que un\nEstado únicamente puede hacerse parte en un\ntratado cerrado para la firma adhiriéndose a él.\nEn este sentido, la expresión de consentimiento\nen obligarse expresada mediante la adhesión\nconstituye un procedimiento en una sola etapa.\nEl presente Tratado estará abierto a la adhesión de todos los Miembros de la FAO y de\ncualesquiera Estados que no son miembros de la FAO pero son Miembros de las Naciones\nUnidas, de cualquiera de sus organismos especializados o del Organismo Internacional\nde Energía Atómica a partir de la fecha en que expire el plazo para la firma del Tratado.\nLos instrumentos de adhesión se depositarán en poder del Depositario.\nDe conformidad con el Artículo 25, el\nTratado quedó cerrado para la firma el 4 de\nnoviembre de 2002, fecha a la cual habían\nfirmado 78 Estados. Los Estados o las\nOrganizaciones Miembros que no hayan firmado\nel Tratado pero quieran hacerse Partes Con-\ntratantes en él deberán hacerlo ahora mediante\nel procedimiento de adhesión.\n178\n179\nArtículo 28\nArtículo 28 – Entrada en vigor\nLas Partes en el Tratado no quedan obligadas en\nvirtud de él hasta que entre en vigor. El Artículo\n24 de la Convención de Viena reitera que la\nforma y el momento en que un tratado entra en\nvigor depende de la intención de las partes. Por\nlo tanto, en la mayoría de los tratados se indica\nque entrarán en vigor una vez que lo hayan\nratificado un cierto número mínimo de Estados,\naunque otros no lo hayan hecho.\nSegún el Artículo 28.1, el Tratado entrará\nen vigor el nonagésimo día después de la fecha\nen que haya sido depositado el cuadragésimo\ninstrumento, a condición de que por los menos\n20 de los instrumentos hayan sido depositados\npor Miembros de la FAO. La condición de que\npor lo menos 20 Miembros de la FAO hayan\nexpresado su consentimiento formal en quedar\nobligados en virtud del Tratado obedece al hecho\nde que éste fue aprobado en el marco de la\nConstitución de la FAO. El 31 de marzo de 2004\n28.1 A reserva de lo dispuesto en el Artículo 29.2, el presente Tratado entrará en vigor\nel nonagésimo día después de la fecha en que haya sido depositado el cuadragésimo\ninstrumento de ratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión siempre que hayan\nsido depositados por lo menos 20 instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación,\naprobación o adhesión por Miembros de la FAO.\n28.2 Para cada Miembro de la FAO y cualquier Estado que no es miembro de la FAO\npero es Miembro de las Naciones Unidas, de cualquiera de sus organismos\nespecializados o del Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica que ratifique,\nacepte o apruebe el presente Tratado o se adhiera a él después de haber sido\ndepositado, con arreglo al Artículo 28.1, el cuadragésimo instrumento de\nratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión, el Tratado entrará en vigor el\nnonagésimo día después de la fecha en que haya depositado su instrumento de\nratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión.\nse depositaron en poder del Director General de\nla FAO 13 instrumentos (incluido el de la\nComunidad Europea). Como resultado, el\nTratado obtuvo el número necesario de\ninstrumentos (40) y entró en vigor el 29 de junio\nde 2004.\nSegún el Artículo 28.2, para cada Parte\nContratante que ulteriormente ratifique, acepte\no apruebe el Tratado o se adhiera a él, el Tratado\nentrará en vigor el nonagésimo día después de\nla fecha en que haya depositado su instrumento\nde ratificación, aceptación, aprobación o\nadhesión. Esto significa que las obligaciones\npodrán entrar en vigor para distintas Partes en\ndistinto momento.\nAl 13 de enero de 2005 se habían\ndepositado en poder del Director General de la\nFAO 65 instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación,\naprobación o adhesión (véase el Apéndice 1).\n180\n181\nArtículo 29\nArtículo 29 – Organizaciones Miembros de la FAO\nEl Artículo 29.1 se refiere a las Organizaciones\nMiembros de la FAO, tales como la Comunidad\nEuropea. Las Organizaciones Miembros tienen\nque ejercer sus derechos como Miembros de la\nFAO en forma alternativa con los Estados que\nlas integran y son también Miembros de la FAO.\nSegún el Artículo II.5 de la Constitución, las\norganizaciones regionales de integración econó-\nmica que soliciten ser Miembros de la Organiza-\nción deberán, en el momento de la solicitud,\npresentar una declaración de competencia, en la\nque se especifiquen las materias respecto de las\ncuales los Estados Miembros les han transferido\ncompetencia. Se presume que los Estados Miem-\nbros conservan la competencia respecto de todos\nlos asuntos en relación con los cuales no se hayan\ndeclarado expresamente o notificado a la FAO\ntransferencias de competencia. Según el Artículo\nII.7 de la Constitución se deberá notificar al\nDirector General, quien comunicará la notifica-\nción a los otros Estados Miembros de la Organi-\nzación, cualquier cambio en la distribución de\ncompetencias entre la Organización Miembro y\nsus Estados miembros. Habida cuenta de que el\nhecho de hacerse Parte puede afectar a la\ndistribución de competencias, normalmente la\nOrganización Miembro tiene que notificar esos\ncambios al Director General de la FAO.\nEs comprensible que otras Partes Contra-\n29.1 Cuando una Organización Miembro de la FAO deposite un instrumento de\nratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión del presente Tratado, la\nOrganización Miembro, con arreglo a lo dispuesto en el Artículo II.7 de la\nConstitución de la FAO, notificará cualquier cambio en la distribución de\ncompetencias de su declaración de competencia presentada en virtud del Artículo\nII.5 de la Constitución de la FAO que sea necesario a la vista de su aceptación del\npresente Tratado. Cualquier Parte Contratante del presente Tratado podrá, en\ncualquier momento, solicitar de una Organización Miembro de la FAO que es\nParte Contratante del Tratado que informe sobre quién, entre la Organización\nMiembro y sus Estados Miembros, es responsable de la aplicación de cualquier\nasunto concreto regulado por el presente Tratado. La Organización Miembro\nproporcionará esta información dentro de un tiempo razonable.\n29.2 Los instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación, aprobación, adhesión o denuncia\nque deposite una Organización Miembro de la FAO no se considerarán adicionales\na los depositados por sus Estados Miembros.\ntantes quieran saber quién representa a la Comu-\nnidad Europea y a sus Estados Miembros respec-\nto de una cuestión determinada y a quién hay\nque imputar la responsabilidad por el cumpli-\nmiento de las obligaciones de los miembros en\nvirtud de tratados internacionales. Por lo tanto,\nla segunda parte del Artículo 29.1 autoriza a\ncualquiera de las Partes Contratantes a preguntar\na una Organización Miembro que sea Parte en\nel Tratado quién, entre la Organización Miembro\ny sus Estados Miembros, es responsable cuando\nse trate de cualquier asunto concreto regulado\npor el Tratado. La Organización Miembro debe\nproporcionar esa información dentro de un plazo\nrazonable.\nSegún el Artículo 29.2, los instrumentos\nde ratificación, aceptación, aprobación, adhesión\no denuncia que deposite una Organización\nMiembro no cuentan además de los depositados\npor sus Estados Miembros. Como ya se ha\nseñalado, se trata de una disposición destinada a\nasegurar que ni la Comunidad Europea ni sus\nEstados Miembros tengan ‘‘doble representa-\nción’’ por el hecho de que una organización sea\nMiembro además de los Estados que la integran.\nAsí, el instrumento de ratificación de la Comuni-\ndad Europea no podría sumarse al de sus Estados\nMiembros cuando se tratase de determinar si 40\npaíses han ratificado el Tratado.\n182\n183\nArtículo 30\nArtículo 30 – Reservas\nSegún el Artículo 2 de la Convención de Viena\nsobre el Derecho de los Tratados, se entiende\npor reserva una declaración unilateral, cualquiera\nque sea su enunciado o denominación, hecha por\nun Estado al firmar, ratificar, aceptar o aprobar\nun tratado o al adherirse a él, con objeto de\nexcluir o modificar los efectos jurídicos de\nciertas disposiciones del tratado en su aplicación\na ese Estado. El Artículo 19 de la Convención\nde Viena dispone que:\nUn Estado podrá formular una reserva en\nel momento de firmar, ratificar, aceptar o aprobar\nun tratado o de adherirse al mismo, a menos:\na) que la reserva esté prohibida por el\ntratado;\nb) que el tratado disponga que únicamente\npueden hacerse determinadas reservas,\nentre las cuales no figure la reserva de\nque se trate; o\nNo se podrán formular reservas al presente Tratado.\nc) que, en los casos no previstos en los\napartados a) y b) la reserva sea incom-\npatible con el objeto y el fin del tratado.\nLa Parte R de los Textos Básicos de la\nFAO, que rige la formulación y puesta en práctica\nde los convenios y acuerdos concertados en\nvirtud del Artículo XIV de la Constitución de la\nFAO, como el presente Tratado, permite incluir\nreservas en esas convenciones y acuerdos. El\nhecho de que esas reservas estén o no permitidas\ndependerá, naturalmente, de las disposiciones a\nese respecto del acuerdo de que se trate. En este\ncaso, el Tratado, en su Artículo 30, prohíbe todas\nlas reservas.\nEsta estricta disposición obedece probable-\nmente al deseo de preservar el equilibrio entre\nlas diversas obligaciones establecidas por el\nTratado, que podría quedar en peligro si las\nPartes Contratantes tuviesen derecho a formular\nreservas.\n184\n185\nArtículo 31\nArtículo 31 – No partes\nEl presente artículo obedece al deseo de quienes\nlo redactaron de que el Tratado tuviese la\naplicación más amplia posible y, por lo tanto, de\nalentar a los Estados que no fuesen Partes\nContratantes a pasar a serlo.\nLa cuestión del trato de quienes no fueran\nPartes llegó a causar polémica en el curso de las\nnegociaciones, especialmente desde el punto de\nvista del acceso a los materiales al amparo del\nSistema Multilateral. La cuestión consistía en si\nel Tratado debía estipular un tratamiento\ndiferente, y posiblemente discriminatorio, de\nquienes no fuesen partes. Al final no se incluyó\nen el texto del Tratado una disposición expresa.\nBásicamente, de esta manera la cuestión es\ndiscreción de cada una de las Partes Contratantes.\nNo hay disposición alguna que exija a las Partes\nContratantes no dar acceso a los RFGAA\nenumerados en el Anexo I a los países que no\nhayan aceptado quedar obligados por el Tratado.\nLas Partes Contratantes estimularán a cualquier Miembro de la FAO o a otro Estado\nque no sea Parte Contratante del presente Tratado a aceptarlo.\nTampoco hay disposición alguna que les exija\ndar ese acceso. Las disposiciones del Artículo\n11.3 y 11.4, relativas a las decisiones en cuanto\na si se ha de seguir facilitando el acceso a\npersonas que no hayan incluido sus RFGAA en\nel Sistema Multilateral, se refieren únicamente\na las personas naturales o jurídicas sometidas a\nla jurisdicción de las Partes Contratantes y no a\nlas sometidas a la de quienes no lo sean.\nEl Artículo 31 del Tratado, al referirse a\nquienes no son Partes, se limita de esta manera\na establecer que las Partes Contratantes han de\nalentar a cualquier Miembro de la FAO u otro\nEstado que no sea parte en el Tratado a llegar a\nserlo. Esto obedece al propósito de que las\ndisposiciones del Tratado tengan la cobertura\nmás amplia posible. Si bien es obligatorio alentar\na los no miembros, el Tratado no especifica qué\nmedios se han de emplear para ello.\n186\n187\nArtículo 32\nArtículo 32 – Denuncia\nEl Artículo 54 a) de la Convención de Viena\nsobre el Derecho de los Tratados dispone que\nuna Parte podrá retirarse de un tratado siempre\nque lo haga conforme a las disposiciones de él.\nAsí, el Artículo 32.1 señala que una Parte\nContratante podrá denunciar el Tratado en cual-\nquier momento después de transcurrido un plazo\nde dos años desde su entrada en vigor. La\n32.1 En cualquier momento, después de la expiración de un plazo de dos años desde la\nentrada en vigor de este Tratado para una Parte Contratante, ésta podrá notificar\nal Depositario por escrito su denuncia del presente Tratado. El Depositario\ninformará inmediatamente a todas las Partes Contratantes.\n32.2 La denuncia surtirá efecto pasado un año después de la fecha en que se haya\nrecibido la notificación.\ndenuncia se hace notificando al Depositario por\nescrito la decisión de denunciar el Tratado. El\nDepositario, a su vez, debe informar de in-\nmediato a todas las Partes Contratantes.\nSegún el Artículo 32.2, la denuncia surte\nefecto un año después de la fecha en que se haya\nrecibido la notificación.\n188\n189\nArtículo 33\nArtículo 33 – Rescisión\nEl Artículo 33 se refiere a la rescisión del\nTratado. Habida cuenta del texto de este artículo,\nla única manera en que puede quedar sin efecto\nel Tratado consiste en que el número de Partes\nContratantes quede por debajo de 40, a menos\nque las Partes restantes decidan lo contrario por\nunanimidad.\n33.1 El presente Tratado quedará rescindido automáticamente cuando, como\nconsecuencia de las denuncias, el número de Partes Contratantes descienda por\ndebajo de 40, a menos que las Partes Contratantes restantes decidan lo contrario\npor unanimidad.\n33.2 El Depositario informará a todas las demás Partes Contratantes cuando el número\nde Partes Contratantes haya descendido a 40.\n33.3 En caso de rescisión, la enajenación de los bienes se regirá por las normas\nfinancieras que apruebe el Órgano Rector.\nHabida cuenta de la rescisión automática\ndel Tratado según el Artículo 33.1, es esencial\nque el Depositario informe a todas las Partes\nContratantes que queden cuando su número se\nreduzca a 40.\nPor último, el Artículo 33.3 se refiere a los\naspectos financieros de la rescisión.\n190\n191\nArtículo 34\nArtículo 34 – Depositario\nEl Depositario del Tratado tiene importantes\nfunciones oficiales. En particular, hace las veces\nde receptor y fuente de información sobre el\nTratado, lo que incluye:\ninformación con respecto a la selección\ndel medio de solución de una contro-\nversia, entre el arbitraje o la remisión a\nla Corte Internacional de Justicia\n(Artículo 22.3);\ninstrumentos de ratificación, aceptación\no aprobación (Artículo 26);\ninstrumentos de adhesión (Artículo 27);\ny\nnotificaciones de denuncia (Artículo\n32).\nEl Director General de la FAO será el Depositario del presente Tratado.\nAdemás, el Depositario debe informar a\nlas Partes:\nde las denuncias (Artículo 32); y\nen caso de que el número de las Partes\nse haya reducido a 40 (Artículo 33).\nLas funciones de Depositario del Tratado\nestán asignadas al Director General de la FAO,\npráctica normal en el caso de tratados concerta-\ndos en el marco de la Constitución de esta\nOrganización.\n192\n193\nArtículo 35\nArtículo 35 – Textos auténticos\nTodos los textos auténticos del Tratado lo son\npor igual y se presume que las disposiciones del\nTratado tienen el mismo sentido en cada texto\nauténtico. Sin embargo, pueden darse casos de\ndiscrepancias entre versiones en idiomas\nauténticos. En estas situaciones, la discrepancia\nLos textos árabe, chino, español, francés, inglés y ruso del presente Tratado son\nigualmente auténticos.\npuede resolverse únicamente mediante la\nnegociación y la modificación de una o más\nversiones de conformidad con el Artículo 23.\nPara agregar una versión auténtica es necesario\nenmendar el Artículo correspondiente (en este\ncaso el Artículo 35) del Tratado.\n194\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nRecuadro 21. Legislación nacional y opciones de política para la aplicación\ndel Tratado\nSegún los Artículos 26 y 28, las obligaciones impuestas por el Tratado entran en vigor para\nun Estado cuando:\nHaya expresado oficialmente su disposición a quedar obligado por el Tratado; y\nEl Tratado esté en vigor.\nLa ratificación permite a los Estados participar en toda la estructura internacional establecida\nen virtud de las disposiciones del Tratado, en particular el Sistema Multilateral de acceso y\ndistribución de los beneficios. Permite asimismo a las Partes participar en el Órgano Rector\ny proteger sus intereses en las diversas cuestiones de que se ocupará este órgano en la tarea\nde promover la aplicación efectiva del Tratado. La participación en el Tratado entrañará\nnaturalmente gastos para financiar las actividades de la Secretaría internacional prevista en\nel Tratado una vez que éste entre en vigor y para la participación en la labor del Órgano\nRector. Sin embargo, la ratificación no entrañaría otros pagos obligatorios directos a otras\nPartes Contratantes, como países en desarrollo o con economía en transición. Se parte del\nsupuesto de que, en su mayor parte, el sistema de distribución obligatoria de los beneficios\nprevisto en el Tratado funcionará por conducto y dentro del marco del derecho interno (derecho\nde los contratos) mediante los Acuerdos de transferencia de material.\nPor otra parte, si un Estado no ratifica el Tratado, las posibilidades de los fitomejoradores del\npaís de obtener los RFGAA que necesitan de fuentes situadas fuera del país (incluidos los\nCentros Internacionales de Investigación Agrícola) podrían reducirse y el costo sería mayor.\nIgualmente, el acceso a colecciones en un país que sea Parte en el Tratado tendría que regirse\npor acuerdos bilaterales de acceso con un costo de transacción mucho mayor129.\nCada una de las Partes en el Tratado contrae ciertas obligaciones de importancia, entre ellas\nlas de:\npromover un enfoque integrado de la prospección, conservación y utilización sostenible e\nlos RFGAA (Artículo 5.1);\nreducir al mínimo o eliminar las amenazas para los RFGAA (Artículo 5.2);\npromover la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA (Artículo 6.1);\nrealizar los derechos del agricultor (Artículo 9);\nconceder acceso facilitado a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ndentro del Sistema Multilateral de conformidad con lo dispuesto en la Parte IV del Tratado\n(Artículo 12); y\nasegurarse de que existan posibilidades de recurso con arreglo a sus sistemas jurídicos\nnacionales en caso de diferencias contractuales relativas a un Acuerdo de transferencia de\nmaterial (Artículo 13).\nUna vez que estas obligaciones estén vigentes, la Parte deberá cumplirlas mediante la adopción\nde medidas nacionales. Al parecer, en la mayoría de los casos no sería necesario introducir\ncambios en la legislación interna para aplicar el Tratado. En muchos países puede ser posible\nhacerlo en el ámbito administrativo sin necesidad de nueva legislación interna. Sin embargo,\nhabrá que introducir algunos cambios en los procedimientos relativos a los poseedores de\nRFGAA ex situ, especialmente en relación con los Acuerdos de transferencia de material, de\nmanera que esos procedimientos se ajusten a los requisitos del Tratado.\n129 Véase, en general, Bert Visser, Derek Eaton, Niels Louwars y Jan Engels, Transaction costs of germplasm exchange\nunder bilateral agreements, en Strengthening partnerships in agricultural research for development in the context\nof globalization, Proceedings of the GFAR conference, 21 a 23 de mayo de 2003, Dresden (Alemania), GFAR/\nPRGRI, 2003, págs. 51 a 80.\n195\nArtículo 35\nExisten numerosas opciones para los países que deciden promulgar legislación interna. En\ntérminos generales, el Tratado impone obligaciones generales y deja librada a la discreción\nde las Partes la forma en que se han de cumplir. Se procedió de esa manera para asegurarse de\nque las Partes pudieran cumplir sus obligaciones con arreglo al Tratado de una manera\ncompatible con sus propios objetivos, políticas y recursos. Por esta razón, excede del ámbito\nde la presente Guía indicar disposiciones concretas que podrían convertirse en legislación\ninterna. Por otra parte, la responsabilidad respecto de los RFGAA puede estar distribuida\nentre diversos niveles de gobierno, del nacional o subnacional al municipal, cada uno de los\ncuales tiene su propio ámbito de competencia.\nPor lo tanto, y a título de principio general, las Partes tendrán que examinar sus actuales\nregímenes legislativo y regulador con respecto a los objetivos del Tratado y tomar las medidas\nprácticas que sean necesarias para establecer un mejor marco legislativo que vaya en apoyo\nde la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los RFGAA. Cabe señalar que la legislación\nes más eficaz cuando se formula y aplica como parte de una estrategia general que incluya\nplanificación, educación e incentivos. Por ejemplo, el Artículo 7.1 del Tratado se refiere a la\nintegración de las actividades mencionadas en los Artículos 5 y 6 en los programas y las\npolíticas de desarrollo rural y agrícola y a la promoción de la utilización sostenible de los\nRFGAA.\nAl convertir las obligaciones impuestas por el Tratado en derecho interno, de hacerse ello\nnecesario, sería importante determinar si la cuestión de los RFGAA debe abordarse mediante\ncambios en la legislación vigente o ser objeto de una ley nacional separada o si una sola ley\ndebería comprender las obligaciones impuestas tanto por el Tratado como por el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica. A primera vista, habida cuenta del carácter complementario\nde los dos regímenes, no hay nada intrínsecamente contradictorio que obste a la adopción de\nuna legislación unificada.\nExisten, sin embargo, importantes distinciones entre el Convenio y el Tratado y la más\nimportante de ellas es su ámbito. El Convenio aborda la diversidad biológica en términos\nmuy amplios, con inclusión de la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos\ngenéticos, así como el acceso y la distribución de los beneficios. El Tratado, en cambio, tiene\nun ámbito más estrecho y se refiere en forma más detallada a la conservación y utilización\nsostenible de los RFGAA. Con respecto a los recursos de esa índole enumerados en el Anexo\nI, las Partes en el Tratado han convenido en un Sistema Multilateral especial de acceso y\ndistribución de los beneficios. Como ya se ha señalado, la intención es que este mecanismo\nsea compatible con el Convenio y represente el primer mecanismo multilateral para su\naplicación.\nEn los casos en que ya se haya promulgado o redactado legislación interna para poner en\npráctica el Convenio, será necesario revisarla para determinar su compatibilidad con las\ndisposiciones del Tratado, especialmente con respecto al acceso. Cuando la legislación\ndestinada a poner en práctica el Convenio establezca un sistema de consentimiento informado\nprevio y de condiciones mutuamente convenidas sobre una base bilateral para el acceso a los\nrecursos genéticos en general, tal vez sea necesario examinar muy en particular la cuestión\ndel acceso facilitado a los RFGAA dentro del Sistema Multilateral. Tal vez sea menester\ntambién revisar el derecho interno de los contratos y los procedimientos judiciales internos a\nfin de cerciorarse de que haya posibilidades adecuadas de recurso en el sistema jurídico\nnacional en caso de incumplimiento de las obligaciones del Acuerdo Normalizado de\nTransferencia de Material.\n196\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n197\nAnexo I\nANEXO I\nLISTA DE CULTIVOS COMPRENDIDOS EN EL SISTEMA MULTILATERAL\nCultivos alimentarios\nCultivo                          Género Observaciones\nÁrbol del pan                 Artocarpus Árbol del pan exclusivamente.\nEspárrago                       Asparagus\nAvena                             Avena\nRemolacha                     Beta\nComplejo Brassica        Brassica et al. Comprende los géneros Brassica, Armoracia,\nBarbarea, Camelina, Crambe, Diplotaxis, Eruca,\nIsatis, Lepidium, Raphanobrassica, Raphanus,\nRorippa y Sinapis. Están incluidas semillas\noleaginosas y hortalizas cultivadas como la col, la\ncolza, la mostaza, el mastuerzo, la oruga, el\nrábano y el nabo. Está excluida la especie\nLepidium meyenii (maca).\nGuandú Cajanus\nGarbanzo Cicer\nCitrus Citrus Los géneros Poncirus y Citrus están incluidos como\npatrones.\nCoco Cocos\nPrincipales aroideas Colocasia,\nXanthosoma Las principales aroideas son la colocasia, el\ncocoñame, la malanga y la yautía.\nZanahoria Daucus\nÑame Dioscorea\nMijo africano Eleusine\nFresa Fragaria\nGirasol Helianthus\nCebada Hordeum\nBatata, camote Ipomoea\nAlmorta Lathyrus\nLenteja Lens\nManzana Malus\nYuca Manihot Manihot esculenta exclusivamente.\nBanano / Plátano Musa Excepto Musa textilis.\nArroz Oryza\nMijo perla Pennisetum\nFrijoles Phaseolus Excepto Phaseolus polianthus.\nGuisante Pisum\nCenteno Secale\nPapa, patata Solanum Incluida la sección tuberosa, excepto Solanum\nphureja.\nBerenjena Solanum Incluida la sección melongena.\nSorgo Sorghum\nTriticale Triticosecale\nTrigo Triticum et al. Incluidos Agropyron, Elymus y Secale.\nHaba / Veza Vicia\nCaupí et al. Vigna\nMaíz Zea Excluidas Zea perennis, Zea diploperennis y\nZealuxurians.\n198\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nForrajes\nGéneros Especies\nLEGUMINOSAS FORRAJERAS\nAstragalus chinensis, cicer, arenarius\nCanavalia ensiformis\nCoronilla varia\nHedysarum coronarium\nLathyrus cicera, ciliolatus, hirsutus, ochrus, odoratus, sativus\nLespedeza cuneata, striata, stipulacea\nLotus corniculatus, subbiflorus, uliginosus\nLupinus albus, angustifolius, luteus\nMedicago arborea, falcata, sativa, scutellata, rigidula, truncatula\nMelilotus albus, officinalis\nOnobrychis viciifolia\nOrnithopus sativus\nProsopis affinis, alba, chilensis, nigra, pallida\nPueraria phaseoloides\nTrifolium alexandrinum, alpestre, ambiguum, angustifolium, arvense, agrocicerum,\nhybridum, incarnatum, pratense, repens, resupinatum, rueppellianum,\nsemipilosum, subterraneum, vesiculosum\nGRAMINEAS FORRAJERAS\nAndropogon gayanus\nAgropyron cristatum, desertorum\nAgrostis stolonifera, tenuis\nAlopecurus pratensis\nArrhenatherum elatius\nDactylis glomerata\nFestuca arundinacea, gigantea, heterophylla, ovina, pratensis, rubra\nLolium hybridum, multiflorum, perenne, rigidum, temulentum\nPhalaris aquatica, arundinacea\nPhleum pratense\nPoa alpina, annua, pratensis\nTripsacum laxum\nOTROS FORRAJES\nAtriplex halimus, nummularia\nSalsola vermiculata\n199\nAnexo II\nANEXO II\nParte 1\nARBITRAJE\nArtículo 1\nLa parte demandante notificará al Secretario que las partes en la controversia se someten a arbitraje\nde conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo 22. En la notificación se expondrá la cuestión que\nha de ser objeto de arbitraje y hará referencia especial a los artículos del presente Tratado de cuya\ninterpretación o aplicación se trate. Si las partes en la controversia no se ponen de acuerdo sobre el\nobjeto de la controversia antes de que se nombre al presidente del tribunal, el tribunal arbitral\ndeterminará esa cuestión. El Secretario comunicará las informaciones así recibidas a todas las\nPartes Contratantes del presente Tratado.\nArtículo 2\n1. En las controversias entre dos partes en la controversia, el tribunal arbitral estará compuesto de\ntres miembros. Cada una de las partes en la controversia nombrará un árbitro, y los dos árbitros así\nnombrados designarán de común acuerdo al tercer árbitro, quien asumirá la presidencia del tribunal.\nEse último árbitro no deberá ser nacional de ninguna de las partes en la controversia, ni tener\nresidencia habitual en el territorio de ninguna de esas partes en la controversia, ni estar al servicio\nde ninguna de ellas, ni haberse ocupado del asunto en ningún otro concepto.\n2. En las controversias entre más de dos Partes Contratantes, las partes en la controversia que\ncompartan un mismo interés nombrarán de común acuerdo un árbitro.\n3. Toda vacante que se produzca se cubrirá en la forma prescrita para el nombramiento inicial.\nArtículo 3\n1. Si el presidente del tribunal arbitral no hubiera sido designado dentro de los dos meses siguientes\nal nombramiento del segundo árbitro, el Director General de la FAO, a instancia de una parte en la\ncontroversia, procederá a su designación en un nuevo plazo de dos meses.\n2. Si dos meses después de la recepción de la demanda una de las partes en la controversia no ha\nprocedido al nombramiento de un árbitro, la otra parte podrá informar de ello al Director General\nde la FAO, quien designará al otro árbitro en un nuevo plazo de dos meses.\nArtículo 4\nEl tribunal arbitral adoptará su decisión de conformidad con las disposiciones del presente Tratado\ny del derecho internacional.\nArtículo 5\nA menos que las partes en la controversia decidan otra cosa, el tribunal arbitral adoptará su propio\nprocedimiento.\nArtículo 6\nEl tribunal arbitral podrá, a petición de una de las partes en la controversia, recomendar medidas de\nprotección básicas provisionales.\n200\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nArtículo 7\nLas partes en la controversia deberán facilitar el trabajo del tribunal arbitral y, en particular, utilizando\ntodos los medios de que disponen, deberán:\na) proporcionarle todos los documentos, información y facilidades pertinentes; y\nb) permitirle que, cuando sea necesario, convoque a testigos o expertos para oír sus declaraciones.\nArtículo 8\nLas partes en la controversia y los árbitros quedan obligados a proteger el carácter confidencial de\ncualquier información que se les comunique con ese carácter durante el procedimiento del tribunal\narbitral.\nArtículo 9\nA menos que el tribunal arbitral decida otra cosa, debido a las circunstancias particulares del caso,\nlos gastos del tribunal serán sufragados a partes iguales por las partes en la controversia. El tribunal\nllevará una relación de todos esos gastos y presentará a las partes en la controversia un estado final\nde los mismos.\nArtículo 10\nToda Parte Contratante que tenga en el objeto de la controversia un interés de carácter jurídico que\npueda resultar afectado por la decisión podrá intervenir en el proceso con el consentimiento del\ntribunal.\nArtículo 11\nEl tribunal podrá conocer de las reconvenciones directamente basadas en el objeto de la controversia\ny resolver sobre ellas.\nArtículo 12\nLas decisiones del tribunal arbitral, tanto en materia de procedimiento como sobre el fondo, se\nadoptarán por mayoría de sus miembros.\nArtículo 13\nSi una de las partes en la controversia no comparece ante el tribunal arbitral o no defiende su causa,\nla otra parte podrá pedir al tribunal que continúe el procedimiento y que adopte su decisión definitiva.\nSi una parte en la controversia no comparece o no defiende su causa, ello no impedirá la continuación\ndel procedimiento. Antes de pronunciarse la decisión definitiva, el tribunal arbitral deberá cerciorarse\nde que la demanda está bien fundada de hecho y de derecho.\nArtículo 14\nEl tribunal adoptará su decisión definitiva dentro de los cinco meses a partir de la fecha en que\nquede plenamente constituido, excepto si considera necesario prorrogar ese plazo por un período\nno superior a otros cinco meses.\nArtículo 15\nLa decisión definitiva del tribunal arbitral se limitará al objeto de la controversia y será motivada.\nEn la decisión definitiva figurarán los nombres de los miembros que la adoptaron y la fecha en que\nse adoptó. Cualquier miembro del tribunal podrá adjuntar a la decisión definitiva una opinión\nseparada o discrepante.\n201\nAnexo II\nArtículo 16\nLa decisión definitiva no podrá ser impugnada, a menos que las partes en la controversia hayan\nconvenido de antemano un procedimiento de apelación.\nArtículo 17\nToda controversia que surja entre las partes respecto de la interpretación o forma de ejecución de la\ndecisión definitiva podrá ser sometida por cualesquiera de las partes en la controversia al tribunal\narbitral que adoptó la decisión definitiva.\nParte 2\nCONCILIACIÓN\nArtículo 1\nSe creará una comisión de conciliación a solicitud de una de las partes en la controversia. Esta\ncomisión, a menos que las partes en la controversia acuerden otra cosa, estará integrada por cinco\nmiembros, dos de ellos nombrados por cada parte interesada y un Presidente elegido conjuntamente\npor esos miembros.\nArtículo 2\nEn las controversias entre más de dos Partes Contratantes, las partes en la controversia que compartan\nun mismo interés nombrarán de común acuerdo sus miembros en la comisión. Cuando dos o más\npartes en la controversia tengan intereses distintos o haya desacuerdo en cuanto a las partes que\ntengan el mismo interés, nombrarán sus miembros por separado.\nArtículo 3\nSi en un plazo de dos meses a partir de la fecha de la solicitud de crear una comisión de conciliación,\nlas partes en la controversia no han nombrado los miembros de la comisión, el Director General de\nla FAO, a instancia de la parte en la controversia que haya hecho la solicitud, procederá a su\nnombramiento en un nuevo plazo de dos meses.\nArtículo 4\nSi el presidente de la comisión de conciliación no hubiera sido designado dentro de los dos meses\nsiguientes al nombramiento de los últimos miembros de la comisión, el Director General de la\nFAO, a instancia de una parte en la controversia, procederá a su designación en un nuevo plazo de\ndos meses.\nArtículo 5\nLa comisión de conciliación tomará sus decisiones por mayoría de sus miembros. A menos que las\npartes en la controversia decidan otra cosa, determinará su propio procedimiento. La comisión\nadoptará una propuesta de resolución de la controversia que las partes examinarán de buena fe.\nArtículo 6\nCualquier desacuerdo en cuanto a la competencia de la comisión de conciliación será decidido por\nla comisión.\n202\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n203\nAPÉNDICE 1\nAPÉNDICE 1\nLos instrumentos siguientes han sido depositados en la fecha que se indica (al 13 de enero de 2005):\nParticipante Firma Ratificación Aceptación Aprobación Adhesión\nAlemania 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nAngola 10/10/2002\nArgelia 13/12/2002\nArgentina 10/06/2002\nAustralia 10/06/2002\nAustria 06/06/2002\nBangladesh 17/10/2002 14/11/2003\nBélgica 06/06/2002\nBhután 10/06/2002 02/09/2003\nBrasil 10/06/2002\nBulgaria 29/12/2004\nBurkina Faso 09/11/2001\nBurundi 10/06/2002\nCabo Verde 16/10/2002\nCamboya 11/06/2002 11/06/2002\nCamerún 03/09/2002\nCanadá 10/06/2002 10/06/2002\nChad 11/06/2002\nChile 04/11/2002\nChipre 12/06/2002 15/09/2003\nColombia 30/10/2002\nComunidad Europea 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nCosta Rica 10/06/2002\nCôte d’Ivoire 09/11/2001 25/06/2003\nCuba 11/10/2002 16/09/2004\nDinamarca 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nEcuador 07/05/2004\nEgipto 29/08/2002 31/03/2004\nEl Salvador 10/06/2002 09/07/2003\nEmiratos Árabes Unidos 16/02/2004\nEritrea 10/06/2002 10/06/2002\nEspaña 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nEstados Unidos de América 01/11/2002\nEstonia 31/03/2004\nEtiopía 12/06/2002 18/06/2003\nEx República Yugoslava de Macedonia 10/06/2002\nFinlandia 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nFrancia 06/06/2002\nGabón 10/06/2002\nGhana 28/10/2002 28/10/2002\nGrecia 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nGuatemala 13/06/2002\nGuinea 11/06/2002 11/06/2002\nHaití 09/11/2001\nHonduras 14/01/2004\nHungría 04/03/2004\nIndia 10/06/2002 10/06/2002\nIrán, República Islámica del 04/11/2002\nIrlanda 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nIslas Cook 02/12/2004\nIslas Marshall 13/06/2002\nItalia 06/06/2002 18/05/2004\nJordania 09/11/2001 30/05/2002\nKenya 27/05/2003\nKuwait 02/09/2003\nLetonia 27/05/2004\nLíbano 04/11/2002 06/05/2004\nLuxemburgo 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nMadagascar 30/10/2002\n204\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nParticipante Firma Ratificación Aceptación Aprobación Adhesión\nMalasia 05/05/2003\nMalawi 10/06/2002 04/07/2002\nMalí 09/11/2001\nMalta 10/06/2002\nMarruecos 27/03/2002\nMauricio 27/03/2003\nMauritania 11/02/2003\nMyanmar 04/12/2002\nNamibia 09/11/2001 07/10/2004\nNicaragua 22/11/2002\nNíger 11/06/2002 27/10/2004\nNigeria 10/06/2002\nNoruega 12/06/2002 03/08/2004\nOmán 14/07/2004\nPaíses Bajos 06/06/2002\nPakistán 02/09/2003\nParaguay 24/10/2002 03/01/2003\nPerú 08/10/2002 05/06/2003\nPortugal 06/06/2002\nReino Unido 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nRepública Árabe Siria 13/06/2002 26/08/2003\nRepública Centroafricana 09/11/2001 40/08/2003\nRepública Checa 31/03/2004\nRepública del Congo 14/09/2004\nRepública Democrática del Congo 05/06/2003\nRepública Dominicana 11/06/2002\nRepública Popular Democrática de Corea 16/07/2003\nRepública Unida de Tanzanía 30/04/2004\nSanta Lucía 16/07/2003\nSenegal 09/11/2001\nSerbia y Montenegro 01/10/2002\nSierra Leona 20/11/2002\nSudán 10/06/2002 10/06/2002\nSuecia 06/06/2002 31/03/2004\nSuiza 28/10/2002 22/11/2004\nSwazilandia 10/06/2002\nTailandia 04/11/2002\nTogo 04/11/2002\nTrinidad y Tabago 27/10/2004\nTúnez 10/06/2002 08/06/2004\nTurquía 04/11/2002\nUganda 25/03/2003\nUruguay 10/06/2002\nVenezuela 11/02/2002\nZambia 04/11/2002\nZimbabwe 30/10/2002\n205\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nTRATADO INTERNACIONAL SOBRE LOS RECURSOS\nFITOGENÉTICOS PARA LA ALIMENTACIÓN Y LA AGRICULTURA\nPREÁMBULO\nLas Partes Contratantes,\nConvencidas de la naturaleza especial de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura, sus características distintivas y sus problemas, que requieren soluciones específicas;\nAlarmadas por la constante erosión de estos recursos;\nConscientes de que los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura son motivo de\npreocupación común para todos los países, puesto que todos dependen en una medida muy grande\nde los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura procedentes de otras partes;\nReconociendo que la conservación, prospección, recolección, caracterización, evaluación y\ndocumentación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura son esenciales\npara alcanzar los objetivos de la Declaración de Roma sobre la Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial y el\nPlan de Acción de la Cumbre Mundial sobre la Alimentación y para un desarrollo agrícola sostenible\npara las generaciones presente y futuras, y que es necesario fortalecer con urgencia la capacidad de\nlos países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición a fin de llevar a cabo tales tareas;\nTomando nota de que el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la utilización sostenible de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura es un marco convenido\ninternacionalmente para tales actividades;\nReconociendo asimismo que los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura son la\nmateria prima indispensable para el mejoramiento genético de los cultivos, por medio de la selección\nde los agricultores, el fitomejoramiento clásico o las biotecnologías modernas, y son esenciales\npara la adaptación a los cambios imprevisibles del medio ambiente y las necesidades humanas\nfuturas;\nAfirmando que la contribución pasada, presente y futura de los agricultores de todas las regiones\ndel mundo, en particular los de los centros de origen y diversidad, a la conservación, mejoramiento\ny disponibilidad de estos recursos constituye la base de los derechos del agricultor;\nAfirmando también que los derechos reconocidos en el presente Tratado a conservar, utilizar,\nintercambiar y vender semillas y otro material de propagación conservados en las fincas y a participar\nen la adopción de decisiones y en la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios que se deriven\nde la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura es fundamental\npara la aplicación de los derechos del agricultor, así como para su promoción a nivel nacional e\ninternacional;\nReconociendo que el presente Tratado y otros acuerdos internacionales pertinentes deben respaldarse\nmutuamente con vistas a conseguir una agricultura y una seguridad alimentaria sostenibles;\nAfirmando que nada del presente Tratado debe interpretarse en el sentido de que represente cualquier\ntipo de cambio en los derechos y obligaciones de las Partes Contratantes en virtud de otros acuerdos\ninternacionales;\nEntendiendo que lo expuesto más arriba no pretende crear una jerarquía entre el presente Tratado y\notros acuerdos internacionales;\nConscientes de que las cuestiones relativas a la ordenación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura están en el punto de confluencia entre la agricultura, el medio ambiente\ny el comercio, y convencidas de que debe haber sinergia entre estos sectores;\n206\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nConscientes de su responsabilidad para con las generaciones presente y futuras en cuanto a la\nconservación de la diversidad mundial de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura;\nReconociendo que, en el ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura, los Estados pueden beneficiarse mutuamente de la creación de un\nsistema multilateral eficaz para la facilitación del acceso a una selección negociada de estos recursos\ny para la distribución justa y equitativa de los beneficios que se deriven de su utilización; y\nDeseando concluir un acuerdo internacional en el marco de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas\npara la Agricultura y la Alimentación, denominada en adelante la FAO, en virtud del Artículo XIV\nde la Constitución de la FAO;\nHan acordado lo siguiente:\nPARTE I – INTRODUCCIÓN\nArtículo 1 – Objetivos\n1.1 Los objetivos del presente Tratado son la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y la distribución justa y equitativa\nde los beneficios derivados de su utilización en armonía con el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica, para una agricultura sostenible y la seguridad alimentaria.\n1.2 Estos objetivos se obtendrán vinculando estrechamente el presente Tratado a la Organización\nde las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación y al Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica.\nArtículo 2 – Utilización de términos\nA efectos del presente Tratado, los términos que siguen tendrán el significado que se les da a\ncontinuación. Estas definiciones no se aplican al comercio de productos básicos.\nPor ‘‘conservación in situ’’ se entiende la conservación de los ecosistemas y los hábitats naturales\ny el mantenimiento y recuperación de poblaciones viables de especies en sus entornos naturales y,\nen el caso de las especies domesticadas y cultivadas, en los entornos en que hayan desarrollado sus\npropiedades específicas.\nPor ‘‘conservación ex situ’’ se entiende la conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura fuera de su hábitat natural.\nPor ‘‘recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura’’ se entiende cualquier material\ngenético de origen vegetal de valor real o potencial para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nPor ‘‘material genético’’ se entiende cualquier material de origen vegetal, incluido el material\nreproductivo y de propagación vegetativa, que contiene unidades funcionales de la herencia.\nPor ‘‘variedad’’ se entiende una agrupación de plantas dentro de un taxón botánico único del rango\nmás bajo conocido, que se define por la expresión reproducible de sus características distintivas y\notras de carácter genético.\nPor ‘‘colección ex situ’’ se entiende una colección de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura que se mantiene fuera de su hábitat natural.\nPor ‘‘centro de origen’’ se entiende una zona geográfica donde adquirió por primera vez sus\npropiedades distintivas una especie vegetal, domesticada o silvestre.\nPor ‘‘centro de diversidad de los cultivos’’ se entiende una zona geográfica que contiene un nivel\nelevado de diversidad genética para las especies cultivadas en condiciones in situ.\n207\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nArtículo 3 – Ámbito\nEl presente Tratado se refiere a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nPARTE II – DISPOSICIONES GENERALES\nArtículo 4 – Obligaciones generales\nCada Parte Contratante garantizará la conformidad de sus leyes, reglamentos y procedimientos con\nsus obligaciones estipuladas en el presente Tratado.\nArtículo 5 – Conservación, prospección, recolección, caracterización, evaluación y documen-\ntación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\n5.1 Cada Parte Contratante, con arreglo a la legislación nacional, y en cooperación con otras\nPartes Contratantes cuando proceda, promoverá un enfoque integrado de la prospección,\nconservación y utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura y en particular, según proceda:\na) realizará estudios e inventarios de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura, teniendo en cuenta la situación y el grado de variación de las poblaciones\nexistentes, incluso los de uso potencial y, cuando sea viable, evaluará cualquier amenaza\npara ellos;\nb) promoverá la recolección de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y\nla información pertinente relativa sobre aquéllos que estén amenazados o sean de uso\npotencial;\nc) promoverá o apoyará, cuando proceda, los esfuerzos de los agricultores y de las\ncomunidades locales encaminados a la ordenación y conservación en las fincas de sus\nrecursos fito-genéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura;\nd) promoverá la conservación in situ de plantas silvestres afines de las cultivadas y las plantas\nsilvestres para la producción de alimentos, incluso en zonas protegidas, apoyando, entre\notras cosas, los esfuerzos de las comunidades indígenas y locales;\ne) cooperará en la promoción de la organización de un sistema eficaz y sostenible de\nconservación ex situ, prestando la debida atención a la necesidad de una suficiente\ndocumentación, caracterización, regeneración y evaluación, y promoverá el\nperfeccionamiento y la transferencia de tecnologías apropiadas al efecto, con objeto de\nmejorar la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la \nagricultura;\nf) supervisará el mantenimiento de la viabilidad, el grado de variación y la integridad genética\nde las colecciones de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\n5.2 Las Partes Contratantes deberán, cuando proceda, adoptar medidas para reducir al mínimo o,\nde ser posible, eliminar las amenazas para los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura.\nArtículo 6 – Utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos\n6.1 Las Partes Contratantes elaborarán y mantendrán medidas normativas y jurídicas apropiadas\nque promuevan la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura.\n6.2 La utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\npuede incluir las medidas siguientes:\na) prosecución de políticas agrícolas equitativas que promuevan, cuando proceda, el\nestablecimiento y mantenimiento de diversos sistemas de cultivo que favorezcan la\nutilización sostenible de la diversidad agrobiológica y de otros recursos naturales;\nb) fortalecimiento de la investigación que promueva y conserve la diversidad biológica,\naumentando en la mayor medida posible la variación intraespecífica e interespecífica en\n208\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nbeneficio de los agricultores, especialmente de los que generan y utilizan sus propias\nvariedades y aplican principios ecológicos para mantener la fertilidad del suelo y luchar\ncontra las enfermedades, las malas hierbas y las plagas;\nc) fomento, cuando proceda, de las iniciativas en materia de fitomejoramiento que, con la\nparticipación de los agricultores, especialmente en los países en desarrollo, fortalecen la\ncapacidad para obtener variedades particularmente adaptadas a las condiciones sociales,\neconómicas y ecológicas, en particular en las zonas marginales;\nd) ampliación de la base genética de los cultivos e incremento de la gama de diversidad\ngenética a disposición de los agricultores;\ne) fomento, cuando proceda, de un mayor uso de cultivos, variedades y especies infrautilizados,\nlocales y adaptados a las condiciones locales;\nf) apoyo, cuando proceda, a una utilización más amplia de la diversidad de las variedades y\nespecies en la ordenación, conservación y utilización sostenible de los cultivos en las\nfincas y creación de vínculos estrechos entre el fitomejoramiento y el desarrollo agrícola,\ncon el fin de reducir la vulnerabilidad de los cultivos y la erosión genética y promover un\naumento de la productividad mundial de alimentos compatibles con el desarrollo sostenible;\ng) examen y, cuando proceda, modificación de las estrategias de mejoramiento y de las\nreglamentaciones en materia de aprobación de variedades y distribución de semillas.\nArtículo 7 – Compromisos nacionales y cooperación internacional\n7.1 Cada Parte Contratante integrará en sus políticas y programas de desarrollo agrícola y rural,\nsegún proceda, las actividades relativas a los Artículos 5 y 6 y cooperará con otras Partes\nContratantes, directamente o por medio de la FAO y de otras organizaciones internacionales\npertinentes, en la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura.\n7.2 La cooperación internacional se orientará en particular a:\na) establecer o fortalecer la capacidad de los países en desarrollo y los países con economía\nen transición con respecto a la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura;\nb) fomentar actividades internacionales encaminadas a promover la conservación, la\nevaluación, la documentación, la potenciación genética, el fitomejoramiento y la\nmultiplicación de semillas; y la distribución, concesión de acceso e intercambio, de\nconformidad con la Parte IV, de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ny la información y tecnología apropiadas;\nc) mantener y fortalecer los mecanismos institucionales estipulados en la Parte V;\nd) aplicación de la estrategia de financiación del Artículo 8.\nArtículo 8 – Asistencia técnica\nLas Partes Contratantes acuerdan promover la prestación de asistencia técnica a las Partes\nContratantes, especialmente a las que son países en desarrollo o países con economía en transición,\ncon carácter bilateral o por conducto de las organizaciones internacionales pertinentes, con el objetivo\nde facilitar la aplicación del presente Tratado.\nPARTE III –  DERECHOS DEL AGRICULTOR\nArtículo 9 – Derechos del agricultor\n9.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen la enorme contribución que han aportado y siguen aportando\nlas comunidades locales e indígenas y los agricultores de todas las regiones del mundo, en\nparticular los de los centros de origen y diversidad de las plantas cultivadas, a la conservación\ny el desarrollo de los recursos fitogenéticos que constituyen la base de la producción alimentaria\ny agrícola en el mundo entero.\n9.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que la responsabilidad de hacer realidad los derechos del\nagricultor en lo que se refiere a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\n209\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nincumbe a los gobiernos nacionales. De acuerdo con sus necesidades y prioridades, cada\nParte Contratante deberá, según proceda y con sujeción a su legislación nacional, adoptar las\nmedidas pertinentes para proteger y promover los derechos del agricultor, en particular:\na) la protección de los conocimientos tradicionales de interés para los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura;\nb) el derecho a participar equitativamente en la distribución de los beneficios que se deriven\nde la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura; y\nc) el derecho a participar en la adopción de decisiones, a nivel nacional, sobre asuntos relativos\na la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura.\n9.3 Nada de lo que se dice en este Artículo se interpretará en el sentido de limitar cualquier\nderecho que tengan los agricultores a conservar, utilizar, intercambiar y vender material de\nsiembra o propagación conservado en las fincas, con arreglo a la legislación nacional y según\nproceda.\nPARTE IV – SISTEMA MULTILATERAL DE ACCESO Y DISTRIBUCIÓN\nDE BENEFICIOS\nArtículo 10 – Sistema multilateral de acceso y distribución de beneficios\n10.1 En sus relaciones con otros Estados, las Partes Contratantes reconocen los derechos soberanos\nde los Estados sobre sus propios recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nincluso que la facultad de determinar el acceso a esos recursos corresponde a los gobiernos\nnacionales y está sujeta a la legislación nacional.\n10.2 En el ejercicio de sus derechos soberanos, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan establecer un\nsistema multilateral que sea eficaz, efectivo y transparente para facilitar el acceso a los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y compartir, de manera justa y equitativa,\nlos beneficios que se deriven de la utilización de tales recursos, sobre una base complementaria\ny de fortalecimiento mutuo.\nArtículo 11 – Cobertura del sistema multilateral\n11.1 Para tratar de conseguir los objetivos de la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y la distribución justa y equitativa\nde los beneficios que se deriven de su uso, tal como se establece en el Artículo 1, el sistema\nmultilateral deberá abarcar los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nenumerados en el Anexo I, establecidos con arreglo a los criterios de la seguridad alimentaria\ny la interdependencia.\n11.2 El sistema multilateral, como se señala en el Artículo 11.1, deberá comprender todos los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I que\nestán bajo la administración y el control de las Partes Contratantes y son del dominio público.\nCon objeto de conseguir la máxima cobertura posible del sistema multilateral, las Partes\nContratantes invitan a todos los demás poseedores de recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I a que incluyan dichos recursos en el\nsistema multilateral.\n11.3 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan también tomar las medidas apropiadas para alentar a las\npersonas físicas y jurídicas dentro de su jurisdicción que poseen recursos fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I a que incluyan dichos recursos en\nel sistema multilateral.\n11.4 En un plazo de dos años a partir de la entrada en vigor del Tratado, el órgano rector evaluará\nlos progresos realizados en la inclusión en el sistema multilateral de los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura a que se hace referencia en el Artículo 11.3. A raíz de esa\n210\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nevaluación, el órgano rector decidirá si deberá seguir facilitándose el acceso a las personas\nfísicas y jurídicas a que se hace referencia en el Artículo 11.3 que no han incluido dichos\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en el sistema multilateral, o tomar\notras medidas que considere oportunas.\n11.5 El sistema multilateral deberá incluir también los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura enumerados en el Anexo I y mantenidos en las colecciones ex situ de los\ncentros internacionales de investigación agrícola del Grupo Consultivo sobre Investigación\nAgrícola Internacional (GCIAI), según se estipula en el Artículo 15.1a, y en otras instituciones\ninternacionales, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo 15.5.\nArtículo 12 – Facilitación del acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura dentro del sistema multilateral\n12.1 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el acceso facilitado a los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura dentro del sistema multilateral, tal como se define en el Artículo\n11, se conceda de conformidad con las disposiciones del presente Tratado.\n12.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan adoptar las medidas jurídicas necesarias u otras medidas\napropiadas para proporcionar dicho acceso a otras Partes Contratantes mediante el sistema\nmultilateral. A este efecto, deberá proporcionarse también dicho acceso a las personas físicas\no jurídicas bajo la jurisdicción de cualquier Parte Contratante, con sujeción a lo dispuesto en\nel Artículo 11.4.\n12.3 Dicho acceso se concederá con arreglo a las condiciones que siguen:\na) El acceso se concederá exclusivamente con fines de utilización y conservación para la\ninvestigación, el mejoramiento y la capacitación para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nsiempre que dicha finalidad no lleve consigo aplicaciones químicas, farmacéuticas y/u\notros usos industriales no relacionados con los alimentos/piensos. En el caso de los cultivos\nde aplicaciones múltiples (alimentarias y no alimentarias), su importancia para la seguridad\nalimentaria será el factor determinante para su inclusión en el sistema multilateral y la\ndisponibilidad para el acceso facilitado;\nb) el acceso se concederá de manera rápida, sin necesidad de averiguar el origen de cada una\nde las muestras, y gratuitamente, y cuando se cobre una tarifa ésta no deberá superar los\ncostos mínimos correspondientes;\nc) con los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura suministrados se\nproporcionarán los datos de pasaporte disponibles y, con arreglo a la legislación vigente,\ncualquier otra información descriptiva asociada no confidencial disponible;\nd) los receptores no reclamarán ningún derecho de propiedad intelectual o de otra índole que\nlimite el acceso facilitado a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\no sus partes o componentes genéticos, en la forma recibida del sistema multilateral;\ne) el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en fase de\nmejoramiento, incluido el material que estén mejorando los agricultores, se concederá\ndurante el período de mejoramiento a discreción de quien lo haya obtenido;\nf) el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura protegidos por\nderechos de propiedad intelectual o de otra índole estará en consonancia con los acuerdos\ninternacionales pertinentes y con la legislación nacional vigente;\ng) los receptores de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura a los que\nhayan tenido acceso al amparo del sistema multilateral y que los hayan conservado los\nseguirán poniendo a disposición del sistema multilateral, con arreglo a lo dispuesto en el\npresente Tratado; y\nh) sin perjuicio de las demás disposiciones del presente Artículo, las Partes Contratantes\nestán de acuerdo en que el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la\nagricultura que están in situ se otorgará de conformidad con la legislación nacional o, en\nausencia de dicha legislación, con arreglo a las normas que pueda establecer el órgano\nrector.\n211\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n12.4 A estos efectos, deberá facilitarse el acceso, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en los Artículos\n12.2 y 12.3 supra, con arreglo a un modelo de Acuerdo de transferencia de material, que\naprobará el órgano rector y deberá contener las disposiciones del Artículo 12.3a, d y g, así\ncomo las disposiciones relativas a la distribución de beneficios que figuran en el Artículo\n13.2d ii) y otras disposiciones pertinentes del presente Tratado, y la disposición en virtud de\nla cual el receptor de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura deberá\nexigir que las condiciones del Acuerdo de transferencia de material se apliquen a la\ntransferencia de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura a otra persona o\nentidad, así como a cualesquiera transferencias posteriores de esos recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura.\n12.5 Las Partes Contratantes garantizarán que se disponga de la oportunidad de presentar un recurso,\nen consonancia con los requisitos jurídicos aplicables, en virtud de sus sistemas jurídicos, en\nel caso de controversias contractuales que surjan en el marco de tales Acuerdos de transferencia\nde material, reconociendo que las obligaciones que se deriven de tales Acuerdos de\ntransferencia de material corresponden exclusivamente a las partes en ellos.\n12.6 En situaciones de urgencia debidas a catástrofes, las Partes Contratantes acuerdan facilitar el\nacceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura del sistema multilateral\npara contribuir al restablecimiento de los sistemas agrícolas, en cooperación con los\ncoordinadores del socorro en casos de catástrofe.\nArtículo 13 – Distribución de beneficios en el sistema multilateral\n13.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen que el acceso facilitado a los recursos fitogenéticos para\nla alimentación y la agricultura incluidos en el sistema multilateral constituye por sí mismo\nun beneficio importante del sistema multilateral y acuerdan que los beneficios derivados de\nél se distribuyan de manera justa y equitativa de conformidad con las disposiciones del presente\nArtículo.\n13.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización, incluso\ncomercial, de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en el marco del\nsistema multilateral se distribuyan de manera justa y equitativa mediante los siguientes\nmecanismos: el intercambio de información, el acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia, la\ncreación de capacidad y la distribución de los beneficios derivados de la comercialización,\nteniendo en cuenta los sectores de actividad prioritaria del Plan de acción mundial progresivo,\nbajo la dirección del órgano rector:\na) Intercambio de información:\nLas Partes Contratantes acuerdan poner a disposición la información que, entre otras cosas,\ncomprende catálogos e inventarios, información sobre tecnologías, resultados de\ninvestigaciones técnicas, científicas y socioeconómicas, en particular la caracterización,\nevaluación y utilización, con respecto a los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y\nla agricultura comprendidos en el sistema multilateral. Tal información, cuando no sea\nconfidencial, estará disponible con arreglo a la legislación vigente y de acuerdo con la\ncapacidad nacional. Dicha información se pondrá a disposición de todas las Partes\nContratantes del presente Tratado mediante el sistema de información previsto en el Artículo\n17.\nb) Acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia:\ni) Las Partes Contratantes se comprometen a proporcionar y/o facilitar el acceso a las\ntecnologías para la conservación, caracterización, evaluación y utilización de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura que están comprendidos\nen el sistema multilateral. Reconociendo que algunas tecnologías solamente se pueden\ntransferir por medio de material genético, las Partes Contratantes proporcionarán y/o\nfacilitarán el acceso a tales tecnologías y al material genético que está comprendido\nen el sistema multilateral y a las variedades mejoradas y el material genético obtenidos\nmediante el uso de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ncomprendidos en el sistema multilateral, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo\n212\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n12. Se proporcionará y/o facilitará el acceso a estas tecnologías, variedades mejoradas\ny material genético respetando al mismo tiempo los derechos de propiedad y la\nlegislación sobre el acceso aplicables y de acuerdo con la capacidad nacional;\nii) el acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia a los países, especialmente a los países en\ndesarrollo y los países con economía en transición, se llevará a cabo mediante un\nconjunto de medidas, como el establecimiento y mantenimiento de grupos temáticos\nbasados en cultivos sobre la utilización de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y la participación en ellos, todos los tipos de asociaciones\npara la investigación y desarrollo y empresas mixtas comerciales relacionadas con el\nmaterial recibido, el mejoramiento de los recursos humanos y el acceso efectivo a los\nservicios de investigación;\niii) el acceso a la tecnología y su transferencia mencionados en los apartados i) y ii)\nsupra, incluso la protegida por derechos de propiedad intelectual, para los países en\ndesarrollo que son Partes Contratantes, en particular los países menos adelantados y\nlos países con economía en transición, se proporcionarán y/o se facilitarán en\ncondiciones justas y muy favorables, sobre todo en el caso de tecnologías que hayan\nde utilizarse en la conservación, así como tecnologías en beneficio de los agricultores\nde los países en desarrollo, especialmente los países menos adelantados y los países\ncon economía e transición, incluso en condiciones favorables y preferenciales, cuando\nse llegue a un mutuo acuerdo, entre otras cosas por medio de asociaciones para la\ninvestigación y el desarrollo en el marco del sistema multilateral. El acceso y la\ntransferencia mencionados se proporcionarán en condiciones que reconozcan la\nprotección adecuada y eficaz de los derechos de propiedad intelectual y estén en\nconsonancia con ella.\nc) Fomento de la capacidad\nTeniendo en cuenta las necesidades de los países en desarrollo y de los países con economía\nen transición, expresadas por la prioridad que conceden al fomento de la capacidad en\nrelación con los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en sus planes\ny programas, cuando estén en vigor, con respecto a los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura comprendidos en el sistema multilateral, las Partes\nContratantes acuerdan conceder prioridad a: i) el establecimiento y/o fortalecimiento de\nprogramas de enseñanza científica y técnica y capacitación en la conservación y la\nutilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nii) la creación y fortalecimiento de servicios de conservación y utilización sostenible de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, en particular en los países\nen desarrollo y los países con economía en transición, y iii) la realización de investigaciones\ncientíficas, preferiblemente y siempre que sea posible en países en desarrollo y países con\neconomía en transición, en cooperación con instituciones de tales países, y la creación de\ncapacidad para dicha investigación en los sectores en los que sea necesaria.\nd) Distribución de los beneficios monetarios y de otro tipo de la comercialización\ni) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan, en el marco del sistema multilateral, adoptar medidas\ncon el fin de conseguir la distribución de los beneficios comerciales, por medio de la\nparticipación de los sectores público y privado en actividades determinadas con arreglo\na lo dispuesto en este Artículo, mediante asociaciones y colaboraciones, incluso con\nel sector privado, en los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición\npara la investigación y el fomento de la tecnología.\nii) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el acuerdo modelo de transferencia de material\nal que se hace referencia en el Artículo 12.4 deberá incluir el requisito de que un\nreceptor que comercialice un producto que sea un recurso fitogenético para la\nalimentación y la agricultura y que incorpore material al que haya tenido acceso al\namparo del sistema multilateral, deberá pagar al mecanismo a que se hace referencia\nen el Artículo 19.3f una parte equitativa de los beneficios derivados de la\ncomercialización de este producto, salvo cuando ese producto esté a disposición de\notras personas, sin restricciones, para investigación y mejoramiento ulteriores, en\ncuyo caso deberá alentarse al receptor que lo comercialice a que efectúe dicho pago.\n213\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nEl órgano rector deberá, en su primera reunión, determinar la cuantía, la forma y la\nmodalidad de pago, de conformidad con la práctica comercial. El órgano rector podrá\ndecidir, si lo desea, establecer diferentes cuantías de pago para las diversas categorías \nde receptores que comercializan esos productos; también podrá decidir si es o no\nnecesario eximir de tales pagos a los pequeños agricultores de los países en desarrollo\ny de los países con economía en transición. El órgano rector podrá ocasionalmente\nexaminar la cuantía del pago con objeto de conseguir una distribución justa y equitativa\nde los beneficios y podrá también evaluar, en un plazo de cinco años desde la entrada\nen vigor del presente Tratado, si el requisito de un pago obligatorio que se estipula en\nel acuerdo de transferencia de material se aplicará también en aquellos casos en que\nlos productos comercializados estén a disposición de otras personas, sin restricciones,\npara investigación y mejoramiento ulteriores.\n13.3 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios que se deriven de la utilización de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura comprendidos en el sistema\nmultilateral vayan fundamentalmente, de manera directa o indirecta, a los agricultores de\ntodos los países, especialmente de los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en\ntransición, que conservan y utilizan de manera sostenible los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura.\n13.4 En su primera reunión, el órgano rector examinará las políticas y los criterios pertinentes para\nprestar asistencia específica, en el marco de la estrategia de financiación convenida establecida\nen virtud del Artículo 18, para la conservación de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación\ny la agricultura de los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición cuya\ncontribución a la diversidad de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ncomprendidos en el sistema multilateral sea significativa y/o que tengan necesidades\nespecíficas.\n13.5 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen que la capacidad para aplicar plenamente el Plan de acción\nmundial, en particular de los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición,\ndependerá en gran medida de la aplicación eficaz de este Artículo y de la estrategia de\nfinanciación estipulada en el Artículo 18.\n13.6 Las Partes Contratantes examinarán las modalidades de una estrategia de contribuciones\nvoluntarias para la distribución de los beneficios, en virtud del cual las industrias elaboradoras\nde alimentos que se benefician de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\ncontribuyan al sistema multilateral.\nPARTE V – COMPONENTES DE APOYO\nArtículo 14 – Plan de acción mundial\nReconociendo que el Plan de acción mundial para la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los\nrecursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, de carácter progresivo, es importante\npara el presente Tratado, las Partes Contratantes promoverán su aplicación efectiva, incluso por\nmedio de medidas nacionales y, cuando proceda, mediante la cooperación internacional, a fin de\nproporcionar un marco coherente, entre otras cosas para el fomento de la capacidad, la transferencia\nde tecnología y el intercambio de información, teniendo en cuenta lo dispuesto en el Artículo 13.\nArtículo 15 – Colecciones ex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura\nmantenidas por los centros internacionales de investigación agrícola del Grupo\nConsultivo sobre Investigación Agrícola Internacional y otras instituciones inter-\nnacionales\n15.1 Las Partes Contratantes reconocen la importancia para el presente Tratado de las colecciones\nex situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura mantenidas en depósito\npor los centros internacionales de investigación agrícola (CIIA) del Grupo Consultivo sobre\nInvestigación Agrícola Internacional (GCIAI). Las Partes Contratantes hacen un llamamiento\n214\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\na los CIIA para que firmen acuerdos con el órgano rector en relación con tales colecciones ex\nsitu, con arreglo a las siguientes condiciones:\na) Los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura que se enumeran en el\nAnexo I del presente Tratado que mantienen los CIIA se pondrán a disposición de acuerdo\ncon las disposiciones establecidas en la Parte IV del presente Tratado.\nb) Los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura distintos de los enumerados\nen el Anexo I del presente Tratado y recogidos antes de su entrada en vigor que mantienen\nlos CIIA se pondrán a disposición de conformidad con las disposiciones del Acuerdo de\ntransferencia de material utilizado actualmente en cumplimiento de los acuerdos entre los\nCIIA y la FAO. El órgano rector modificará este Acuerdo de transferencia de material a\nmás tardar en su segunda reunión ordinaria, en consulta con los CIIA, de conformidad con\nlas disposiciones pertinentes del presente Tratado, especialmente los Artículos 12 y 13, y\ncon arreglo a las siguientes condiciones:\ni) los CIIA informarán periódicamente al órgano rector de los Acuerdos de transferencia\nde material concertados, de acuerdo con un calendario que establecerá los órganos\nrectores;\nii) las Partes Contratantes en cuyo territorio se han recogido los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura en condiciones in situ recibirán muestras de\ndichos recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura previa solicitud,\nsin ningún Acuerdo de transferencia de material;\niii) los beneficios obtenidos en el marco del acuerdo antes indicado que se acrediten al\nmecanismo mencionado en el Artículo 19.3f se destinarán, en particular, a la\nconservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura en cuestión, en particular en programas nacionales y\nregionales en países en desarrollo y países con economía en transición, especialmente\nen centros de diversidad y en los países menos adelantados; y\niv) los CIIA deberán adoptar las medidas apropiadas, de acuerdo con su capacidad, para\nmantener el cumplimiento efectivo de las condiciones de los Acuerdos de transferencia\nde material e informarán con prontitud al órgano rector de los casos de incumplimiento.\nc) Los CIIA reconocen la autoridad del órgano rector para impartir orientaciones sobre políticas\nen relación con las colecciones ex situ mantenidas por ellos y sujetas a las condiciones del\npresente Tratado.\nd) Las instalaciones científicas y técnicas en las cuales se conservan tales colecciones ex situ\nseguirán bajo la autoridad de los CIIA, que se comprometen a ocuparse de estas colecciones\nex situ y administrarlas de conformidad con las normas aceptadas internacionalmente, en\nparticular las Normas para los bancos de germoplasma ratificadas por la Comisión de\nRecursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura de la FAO.\ne) A petición de un CIIA, el Secretario se compromete a prestar el apoyo técnico apropiado.\nf) El Secretario tendrá derecho de acceso en cualquier momento a las instalaciones, así como\nderecho a inspeccionar todas las actividades que se lleven a cabo en ellas y que estén\ndirectamente relacionadas con la conservación y el intercambio del material comprendido\nen este Artículo.\ng) Si el correcto mantenimiento de las colecciones ex situ mantenidas por los CIIA se ve\ndificultado o amenazado por la circunstancia que fuere, incluidos los casos de fuerza mayor,\nel Secretario, con la aprobación del país hospedante, ayudará en la medida de lo posible a\nllevar a cabo su evacuación o transferencia.\n15.2 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan facilitar el acceso a los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura que figuran en el Anexo I al amparo del sistema multilateral a\nlos CIIA del GCIAI que hayan firmado acuerdos con el órgano rector de conformidad con el\npresente Tratado. Dichos centros se incluirán en una lista que mantendrá el Secretario y que\npondrá a disposición de las Partes Contratantes que lo soliciten.\n15.3 El material distinto del enumerado en el Anexo I que reciban y conserven los CIIA después\nde la entrada en vigor del presente Tratado estará disponible para el acceso a él en condiciones\nque estén en consonancia con las mutuamente convenidas entre los CIIA que reciben el material\ny el país de origen de dichos recursos o el país que los haya adquirido de conformidad con el\nConvenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica u otra legislación aplicable.\n215\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n15.4 Se alienta a las Partes Contratantes a que proporcionen a los CIIA que hayan firmado acuerdos\ncon el órgano rector, en condiciones mutuamente convenidas, el acceso a los recursos fito-\ngenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura no enumerados en el Anexo I que son importantes\npara los programas y actividades de los CIIA.\n15.5 El órgano rector también procurará concertar acuerdos para los fines establecidos en el presente\nArtículo con otras instituciones internacionales pertinentes.\nArtículo 16 – Redes internacionales de recursos fitogenéticos\n16.1 Se fomentará o promoverá la cooperación existente en las redes internacionales de recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura, sobre la base de los acuerdos existentes y\nen consonancia con los términos del presente Tratado, a fin de conseguir la cobertura más\namplia posible de éstos.\n16.2 Las Partes Contratantes alentarán, cuando proceda, a todas las instituciones pertinentes,\nincluidas las gubernamentales, privadas, no gubernamentales, de investigación, de\nmejoramiento y otras, a participar en las redes internacionales.\nArtículo 17 – Sistema mundial de información sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura\n17.1 Las Partes Contratantes cooperarán en la elaboración y fortalecimiento de un sistema mundial\nde información para facilitar el intercambio de datos, basado en los sistemas de información\nexistentes, sobre asuntos científicos, técnicos y ecológicos relativos a los recursos fitogenéticos\npara la alimentación y la agricultura, con la esperanza de que dicho intercambio de información\ncontribuya a la distribución de los beneficios, poniendo a disposición de todas las Partes\nContratantes información sobre los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nEn la elaboración del Sistema mundial de información se solicitará la cooperación del\nMecanismo de facilitación del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica.\n17.2 A partir de la notificación de las Partes Contratantes, se alertará de los peligros que amenacen\nel mantenimiento eficaz de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\ncon objeto de salvaguardar el material.\n17.3 Las Partes Contratantes deberán cooperar con la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la\nAlimentación y la Agricultura en la realización de una reevaluación periódica del estado de\nlos recursos fitogenéticos mundiales para la alimentación y la agricultura, a fin de facilitar la\nactualización del Plan de acción mundial progresivo mencionado en el Artículo 14.\nPARTE VI – DISPOSICIONES FINANCIERAS\nArtículo 18 – Recursos financieros\n18.1 Las Partes Contratantes se comprometen a llevar a cabo una estrategia de financiación para la\naplicación del presente Tratado de acuerdo con lo dispuesto en este Artículo.\n18.2 Los objetivos de la estrategia de financiación serán potenciar la disponibilidad, transparencia,\neficacia y efectividad del suministro de recursos financieros para llevar a cabo actividades en\nel marco del presente Tratado.\n18.3 Con objeto de movilizar financiación para actividades, planes y programas prioritarios, en\nparticular en países en desarrollo y países con economía en transición, y teniendo en cuenta\nel Plan de acción mundial, el órgano rector establecerá periódicamente un objetivo para dicha\nfinanciación.\n18.4 De conformidad con esta estrategia de financiación:\na) Las Partes Contratantes adoptarán las medidas necesarias y apropia das en los órganos\n216\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nrectores de los mecanismos, fondos y órganos internacionales pertinentes para garantizar\nque se conceda la debida prioridad y atención a la asignación efectiva de recursos previsibles\ny convenidos para la aplicación de planes y programas en el marco del presente Tratado.\nb) La medida en que las Partes Contratantes que son países en desarrollo y las Partes\nContratantes con economía en transición cumplan de manera efectiva sus obligaciones en\nvirtud del presente Tratado dependerá de la asignación afectiva, en particular por las Partes\nContratantes que son países desarrollados, de los recursos mencionados en el presente\nArtículo. Las Partes Contratantes que son países en desarrollo y las Partes Contratantes\ncon economía en transición concederán la debida prioridad en sus propios planes y\nprogramas a la creación de capacidad en relación con los recursos fitogenéticos para la\nalimentación y la agricultura.\nc) Las Partes Contratantes que son países desarrollados también proporcionarán, y las Partes\nContratantes que son países en desarrollo y las Partes Contratantes con economía en\ntransición los aprovecharán, recursos financieros para la aplicación del presente Tratado\npor conductos bilaterales y regionales y multilaterales. En dichos conductos estará\ncomprendido el mecanismo mencionado en el Artículo 19.3f.\nd) Cada Parte Contratante acuerda llevar a cabo actividades nacionales para la conservación\ny la utilización sostenible de los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura,\nde conformidad con su capacidad nacional y sus recursos financieros. Los recursos\nfinancieros proporcionados no se utilizarán con fines incompatibles con el presente Tratado,\nen particular en sectores relacionados con el comercio internacional de productos básicos.\ne) Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que los beneficios financieros derivados de lo dispuesto\nen el Artículo 13.2d formen parte de la estrategia de financiación.\nf) Las Partes Contratantes, el sector privado, teniendo en cuenta lo dispuesto en el Artículo\n13, las organizaciones no gubernamentales y otras fuentes también podrán proporcionar\ncontribuciones voluntarias. Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que el órgano rector estudie\nlas modalidades de una estrategia para promover tales contribuciones.\n18.5 Las Partes Contratantes acuerdan que se conceda prioridad a la aplicación de los planes y\nprogramas convenidos para los agricultores de los países en desarrollo, especialmente de los\npaíses menos adelantados, y los países con economía en transición, que conservan y utilizan\nde manera sostenible los recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura.\nPARTE VII – DISPOSICIONES INSTITUCIONALES\nArtículo 19 – Órgano rector\n19.1 Queda establecido un órgano rector para el presente Tratado, formado por todas las Partes\nContratantes.\n19.2 Todas las decisiones del órgano rector se adoptarán por consenso, a menos que se alcance un\nconsenso sobre otro método para llegar a una decisión sobre determinadas medidas, salvo\nque siempre se requerirá el consenso en relación con los Artículos 23 y 24.\n19.3 Las funciones del órgano rector consistirán en fomentar la plena aplicación del presente\nTratado, teniendo en cuenta sus objetivos, y en particular:\na) impartir instrucciones y orientaciones sobre políticas para la supervisión y aprobar las\nrecomendaciones que sean necesarias para la aplicación del presente Tratado, y en particular\npara el funcionamiento del sistema multilateral;\nb) aprobar planes y programas para la aplicación del presente Tratado;\nc) aprobar en su primera reunión y examinar periódicamente la estrategia de financiación\npara la aplicación del presente Tratado, de conformidad con las disposiciones del\nArtículo 18;\nd) aprobar el presupuesto del presente Tratado;\ne) estudiar la posibilidad de establecer, siempre que se disponga de los fondos necesarios,\nlos órganos auxiliares que puedan ser necesarios y sus respectivos mandatos y composición;\nf) establecer, en caso necesario, un mecanismo apropiado, como por ejemplo una cuenta\nfiduciaria, para recibir y utilizar los recursos financieros que se depositen en ella con\n217\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\ndestino a la aplicación del presente Tratado;\ng) establecer y mantener la cooperación con otras organizaciones internacionales y órganos\nde tratados pertinentes, en particular la Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la\nDiversidad Biológica, sobre asuntos abarcados por el presente Tratado, incluida su\nparticipación en la estrategia de financiación;\nh) examinar y aprobar, cuando proceda, enmiendas del presente Tratado, de conformidad\ncon lo dispuesto en el Artículo 23;\ni) examinar y aprobar y, en caso necesario, modificar los anexos del presente Tratado, de\nconformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo 24;\nj) estudiar las modalidades de una estrategia para fomentar las contribuciones voluntarias,\nen particular con respecto a los Artículos 13 y 18;\nk) desempeñar cualesquiera otras funciones que puedan ser necesarias para el logro de los\nobjetivos del presente Tratado;\nl) tomar nota de las decisiones pertinentes de la Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio\nsobre la Diversidad Biológica y de otras organizaciones internacionales y órganos de\ntratados pertinentes;\nm) informar, cuando proceda, a la Conferencia de las Partes en el Convenio sobre la Diversidad\nBiológica y a otras organizaciones internacionales y órganos de tratados pertinentes de los\nasuntos relativos a la aplicación del presente Tratado; y\nn) aprobar las condiciones de los acuerdos con los CIIA y las instituciones internacionales en\nvirtud del Artículo 15 y examinar y modificar el Acuerdo de transferencia de material a\nque se refiere el Artículo 15.\n19.4 Con sujeción a lo dispuesto en el Artículo 19.6, cada Parte Contratante dispondrá de un voto\ny podrá estar representada en las reuniones del órgano rector por un único delegado, que\npuede estar acompañado de un suplente y de expertos y asesores. Los suplentes, expertos y\nasesores podrán tomar parte en las deliberaciones del órgano rector pero no votar, salvo en el\ncaso de que estén debidamente autorizados para sustituir al delegado.\n19.5 Las Naciones Unidas, sus organismos especializados y el Organismo Internacional de Energía\nAtómica, así como cualquier Estado que no sea Parte Contratante en el presente Tratado,\npodrán estar representados en calidad de observadores en las reuniones del órgano rector.\nCualquier otro órgano u organismo, ya sea gubernamental o no gubernamental, que esté\ncalificado en sectores relativos a la conservación y la utilización sostenible de los recursos\nfitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura y que haya informado al Secretario de su\ndeseo de estar representado en calidad de observador en una reunión del órgano rector, podrá\nser admitido a menos que se oponga un tercio como mínimo de las Partes Contratantes\npresentes. La admisión y participación de observadores estará sujeta al reglamento interno\naprobado por el órgano rector.\n19.6 Una Organización Miembro de la FAO que sea Parte Contratante y los Estados Miembros de\nesa Organización Miembro que sean Partes Contratantes ejercerán sus derechos de miembros\ny cumplirán sus obligaciones como tales, de conformidad, mutatis mutandis, con la\nConstitución y el Reglamento General de la FAO.\n19.7 El órgano rector aprobará y modificará, en caso necesario, el propio Reglamento y sus normas\nfinancieras, que no deberán ser incompatibles con el presente Tratado.\n19.8 Será necesaria la presencia de delegados en representación de la mayoría de las Partes\nContratantes para constituir quórum en cualquier reunión del órgano rector.\n19.9 El órgano rector celebrará reuniones ordinarias por lo menos una vez cada dos años. Estas\nreuniones deberían celebrarse, en la medida de lo posible, coincidiendo con las reuniones\nordinarias de la Comisión de Recursos Genéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura.\n19.10 Se celebrarán reuniones extraordinarias del órgano rector en cualquier otro momento en que\nlo considere necesario éste o previa solicitud por escrito de cualquier Parte Contratante, siempre\nque esta solicitud cuente con el respaldo de un tercio por lo menos de las Partes Contratantes.\n218\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n19.11 El órgano rector elegirá su Presidente y sus Vicepresidentes (que se denominarán\ncolectivamente ‘‘la Mesa’’), de conformidad con su Reglamento.\nArtículo 20 – Secretario\n20.1 El Secretario del órgano rector será nombrado por el Director General de la FAO, con la\naprobación del órgano rector. El Secretario contará con la asistencia del personal que sea\nnecesario.\n20.2 El Secretario desempeñará las siguientes funciones:\na) organizar reuniones del órgano rector y de cualquiera de sus órganos auxiliares que pueda\nestablecerse y prestarles apoyo administrativo;\nb) prestar asistencia al órgano rector en el desempeño de sus funciones, en particular la\nrealización de tareas concretas que el órgano rector pueda decidir asignarle;\nc) informar acerca de sus actividades al órgano rector.\n20.3 El Secretario comunicará a todas las Partes Contratantes y al Director General:\na) las decisiones del órgano rector en un plazo de 60 días desde su aprobación;\nb) la información que reciba de las Partes Contratantes de acuerdo con las disposiciones del\npresente Tratado.\n20.4 El Secretario proporcionará la documentación en los seis idiomas de las Naciones Unidas\npara las reuniones del órgano rector.\n20.5 El Secretario cooperará con otras organizaciones y órganos de tratados, en particular la\nSecretaría del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica, para conseguir los objetivos del\npresente Tratado.\nArtículo 21 – Observancia\nEl órgano rector examinará y aprobará, en su primera reunión, los procedimientos de cooperación\neficaces y los mecanismos operacionales para promover la observancia del  presente Tratado y\npara abordar los casos de incumplimiento. Estos procedimientos y mecanismos comprenderán, en\ncaso necesario, la supervisión y el ofrecimiento de asesoramiento o asistencia, con inclusión de los\nde carácter jurídico, en particular a los países en desarrollo y los países con economía en transición.\nArtículo 22 –Solución de controversias\n22.1 Si se suscita una controversia en relación con la interpretación o aplicación del presente\nTratado, las Partes interesadas tratarán de resolverla mediante negociación.\n22.2 Si las partes interesadas no pueden llegar a un acuerdo mediante negociación, podrán recurrir\nconjuntamente a los buenos oficios de una tercera parte o solicitar su mediación.\n22.3 Al ratificar, aceptar o aprobar el presente Tratado, o al adherirse a él, o en cualquier momento\nposterior, una Parte Contratante podrá declarar por escrito al Depositario que, en el caso de\nuna controversia no resuelta de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Artículo 22.1 o en el\nArtículo 22.2 supra, acepta como obligatorio uno o los dos medios de solución de controversias\nque se indican a continuación:\na) arbitraje de conformidad con el procedimiento establecido en la Parte 1 del Anexo II del\npresente Tratado;\nb) presentación de la controversia a la Corte Internacional de Justicia.\n22.4 Si en virtud de lo establecido en el Artículo 22.3 supra las partes en la controversia no han\naceptado el mismo procedimiento o ningún procedimiento, la controversia se someterá a\nconciliación de conformidad con la Parte 2 del Anexo II del presente Tratado, a menos que\nlas Partes acuerden otra cosa.\n219\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nArtículo 23 – Enmiendas del Tratado\n23.1 Cualquiera de las Partes Contratantes podrá proponer enmiendas al presente Tratado.\n23.2 Las enmiendas del presente Tratado se aprobarán en una reunión del órgano rector. La\nSecretaría comunicará el texto de cualquier enmienda a las Partes Contratantes por lo menos\nseis meses antes de la reunión en la que se proponga su aprobación.\n23.3 Todas las enmiendas del presente Tratado se aprobarán exclusivamente por consenso de las\nPartes Contratantes presentes en la reunión del órgano rector.\n23.4 Las enmiendas aprobadas por el órgano rector entrarán en vigor, respecto de las Partes\nContratantes que las hayan ratificado, aceptado o aprobado, el nonagésimo día después de la\nfecha del depósito de los instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación o aprobación por dos tercios\nde las Partes Contratantes. Luego, las enmiendas entrarán en vigor respecto de cualquier otra\nParte Contratante el nonagésimo día después de la fecha en que esa Parte Contratante haya\ndepositado su instrumento de ratificación, aceptación o aprobación de las enmiendas.\n23.5 A los efectos de este Artículo, un instrumento depositado por una Organización Miembro de\nla FAO no se considerará adicional a los depositados por los Estados Miembros de dicha\norganización.\nArtículo 24 – Anexos\n24.1 Los anexos del presente Tratado formarán parte integrante del Tratado y la referencia al\npresente Tratado constituirá al mismo tiempo una referencia a cualquiera de sus anexos.\n24.2 Las disposiciones del Artículo 23 relativas a las enmiendas del presente Tratado se aplicarán\na las enmiendas de los Anexos.\nArtículo 25 – Firma\nEl presente Tratado estará abierto a la firma en la FAO desde el 3 de noviembre de 2001 hasta el 4\nde noviembre de 2002 para todos los Miembros de la FAO y para cualquier Estado que no sea\nmiembro de la FAO pero sea Miembro de las Naciones Unidas, de cualquiera de sus organismos\nespecializados o del Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica.\nArtículo 26 – Ratificación, aceptación o aprobación\nEl presente Tratado estará sujeto a ratificación, aceptación o aprobación por los Miembros y los no\nmiembros de la FAO mencionados en el Artículo 25. Los instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación\no aprobación se depositarán en poder del Depositario.\nArtículo 27 – Adhesión\nEl presente Tratado estará abierto a la adhesión de todos los Miembros de la FAO y de cualesquiera\nEstados que no son miembros de la FAO pero son Miembros de las Naciones Unidas, de cualquiera\nde sus organismos especializados o del Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica a partir de la\nfecha en que expire el plazo para la firma del Tratado. Los instrumentos de adhesión se depositarán\nen poder del Depositario.\nArtículo 28 – Entrada en vigor\n28.1 A reserva de lo dispuesto en el Artículo 29.2, el presente Tratado entrará en vigor el nonagésimo\ndía después de la fecha en que haya sido depositado el cuadragésimo instrumento de\nratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión siempre que hayan sido depositados por lo\nmenos 20 instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión depositado por\nMiembros de la FAO.\n220\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n28.2 Para cada Miembro de la FAO y cualquier Estado que no es miembro de la FAO pero es\nMiembro de las Naciones Unidas, de cualquiera de sus organismos especializados o del\nOrganismo Internacional de Energía Atómica que ratifique, acepte o apruebe el presente\nTratado o se adhiera a él después de haber sido depositado, con arreglo al Artículo 28.1, el\ncuadragésimo instrumento de ratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión, el Tratado\nentrará en vigor el nonagésimo día después de la fecha en que haya depositado su instrumento\nde ratificación, aceptación, aprobación o adhesión.\nArtículo 29 – Organizaciones Miembros de la FAO\n29.1 Cuando una Organización Miembro de la FAO deposite un instrumento de ratificación,\naceptación, aprobación o adhesión del presente Tratado, la Organización Miembro, con arreglo\na lo dispuesto en el Artículo II.7 de la Constitución de la FAO, notificará cualquier cambio en\nla distribución de competencias de su declaración de competencia presentada en virtud del\nArtículo II.5 de la Constitución de la FAO que sea necesario a la vista de su aceptación del\npresente Tratado. Cualquier Parte Contratante del presente Tratado podrá, en cualquier\nmomento, solicitar de una Organización Miembro de la FAO que es Parte Contratante del\nTratado que informe sobre quién, entre la Organización Miembro y sus Estados Miembros,\nes responsable de la aplicación de cualquier asunto concreto regulado por el presente Tratado.\nLa Organización Miembro proporcionará esta información dentro de un tiempo razonable.\n29.2 Los instrumentos de ratificación, aceptación, aprobación, adhesión o denuncia que deposite\nuna Organización Miembro de la FAO no se considerarán adicionales a los depositados por\nsus Estados Miembros.\nArtículo 30 – Reservas\nNo se podrán formular reservas al presente Tratado.\nArtículo 31 – No partes\nLas Partes Contratantes estimularán a cualquier Miembro de la FAO o a otro Estado que no sea\nParte Contratante del presente Tratado a aceptarlo.\nArtículo 32 – Denuncia\n32.1 En cualquier momento, después de la expiración de un plazo de dos años desde la entrada en\nvigor de este Tratado para una Parte Contratante, ésta podrá notificar al Depositario por\nescrito su denuncia del presente Tratado. El Depositario informará inmediatamente a todas\nlas Partes Contratantes.\n32.2 La denuncia surtirá efecto pasado un año después de la fecha en que se haya recibido la\nnotificación.\nArtículo 33 – Rescisión\n33.1 El presente Tratado quedará rescindido automáticamente cuando, como consecuencia de las\ndenuncias, el número de Partes Contratantes descienda por debajo de 40, a menos que las\nPartes Contratantes restantes decidan lo contrario por unanimidad.\n33.2 El Depositario informará a todas las demás Partes Contratantes cuando el número de Partes\nContratantes haya descendido a 40.\n33.3 En caso de rescisión, la enajenación de los bienes se regirá por las normas financieras que\napruebe el órgano rector.\n221\nTratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\nArtículo 34 – Depositario\nEl Director General de la FAO será el Depositario del presente Tratado.\nArtículo 35 – Idiomas\nLos textos árabe, chino, español, francés, inglés y ruso del presente Tratado son igualmente auténticos.\n222\nGuía Explicativa del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura\n\n\n","tokenCount":"114180"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f32b5f3c5151db5ff2fa55f4b82c6204","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b8a27056-7fe5-430e-9a93-dc7c459f3fcf/retrieve","id":"-485716228"},"keywords":["flooding","rice","germination","flood tolerance","genotypes"],"sieverID":"95363eae-8ac0-45ce-b166-93bf0017f5fa","pagecount":"13","content":"The rising cost of transplanting rice has made direct seeding an affordable alternative for rice establishment, particularly in Africa. However, direct seeding, while cost-effective, faces crop establishment challenges due to flooding. Uncontrolled water, driven by erratic rains in low-lying areas or uneven fields, limit germination. Rice possesses the unique ability of anaerobic germination, enabling it to sprout and emerge in oxygen-deprived conditions. Understanding rice's response to anaerobic stress during germination is crucial for resilience breeding. Africa, although relying on direct seeding, has made limited progress in addressing flooding during germination compared to Asia. Anaerobic stress tolerance ensures successful crop emergence even in oxygen-limited environments and can help suppress weeds, a significant challenge in directseeded rice cultivation. This study aims to contribute by screening for potential rice donors exhibiting anaerobic stress tolerance. We screened 200 rice genotypes at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro, Tanzania, primarily focusing on landraces with untapped potential. Using an alpha lattice design, we conducted two anaerobic experiments in September and October 2022, adding 7 cm of standing water immediately after dry seeding for flooded and maintaining a 2 cm water level after germination in the control for duration of 21 days. We identified potential donors based on selection index computed from genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) using eight variables: germination at 14 DAS, germination at 21 DAS, seedling height at 14 DAS, seedling height at 21 DAS, shoot dry matter at 21 DAS, root dry matter at 21 DAS, culm diameter at 21 DAS, and root length at 21DAS. Ten genotypes emerged as the most promising, exhibiting at least 70% germination in floodwater at 21 DAS and greater selection indices. These genotypes were like:Flooding poses a significant threat to rice cultivation in lowland areas, impacting crop germination, growth and yield significantly (Septiningsih et al., 2009). Various forms of flooding stress, such as flooding during germination, submergence during the vegetative stage, prolonged water stagnation, deepwater conditions, and floating, are common challenges faced by rice farmers (Ismail et al., 2012). In Africa, where a considerable portion of rice cultivation relies on direct seeding, the issue of poor germination due to flooding is particularly devastating (Kuya et al., 2019). This problem is exacerbated by unpredictable weather patterns, including irregular rainfall, which affects nearly 38% of the African rice cultivation area, primarily rainfed lowlands (Diagne et al., 2013). Farmers in Africa predominantly opt for direct seeding due to its convenience in terms of crop establishment, labour efficiency, and cost-effectiveness for water management (Kuya et al., 2019). However, this practice is highly susceptible to early floods, which create an anaerobic environment that disrupts the typical aerobic ATP production necessary for germination (Hartman et al., 2020). Under anaerobic conditions, ATP production is significantly reduced, hindering normal germination and robust seedling emergence. Nevertheless, certain rice cultivars have evolved unique adaptations that exhibit relative higher starch metabolism to fuel embryo growth and coleoptile elongation under these low-oxygen conditions (Pucciariello, 2020).Limited information is available regarding anaerobic germination within the African context, with only a handful of studies shedding light on this aspect of rice cultivation in Africa. Notably, Agbeleye et al. (2019) screened nearly 2000 O. glaberrima accessions using a 10 cm water depth at the Africa Rice Center research station, situated at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. This study successfully identified TOG 5980, TOG 5485, TOG 5505, TOG 16704, and TOG 8347 as promising breeding resources with significant survival rates under anaerobic conditions. Another study by Asante et al. (2021) contributed to this field by identifying five genotypes, namely OBOLO, ART68-12-1-1-B-B, ART64-31-1-1-B-B, CRI-1-21-5-12, and CRI-Enapa, which exhibited at least 70% survival when subjected to screening in 10 cm water depth, out of a pool of 100 rice genotypes. While reports on anaerobic germination in Africa remain scarce, it is worth noting that this area of study has seen more comprehensive exploration on a global scale, particularly in Asia. Numerous experiments have been conducted, encompassing assessments of cultivar survival during germination, coleoptile elongation, and the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Jiang et al. (2004) identified five QTLs (qAG-1, qAG-2, qAG-5a, qAG-5b, and qAG-7) associated with anaerobic germination using recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between Kinmaze (japonica) and DV85 (indica). Moreover, Jiang et al. (2006) expanded on this by uncovering two QTLs (qAG-5 and qAG-11) related to anoxia tolerance using F2 populations of USSR5 and N22. Angaji (2008) furthered our knowledge by evaluating 150 BC2F2 progenies of Khaiyan and IR64. His study observed a continuous distribution of germination ranging from 0 to 68%, identifying four QTLs  contributing to 12% to 29.24% of the phenotypic variation. Angaji et al. (2010) screened over 8000 rice accessions and revealed several cultivars with significant survival including Khaiyan, Khao Hlan On, Cody, Dholamon 64-3, Liu-Tiao-Nuo, Ma-Zhan Red, Sossoka, Kaolack, Kalongchi, and Nanhi. Notably, Khao Hlan On was further studied through crossing with IR64. Through QTL analysis on their BC2F2, five QTLs responsible for flooding tolerance, with qAG-9-2 having the most substantial effect, accounting for 33.5% of the variation. Septiningsih et al. (2013) delved into QTL mapping with F2:3 families of Ma Zhan Red and IR42, leading to the discovery of several QTLs  governing AG tolerance. Among these QTLs, qAG-7.1 contributed the most, explaining 31.7% of the phenotypic variation.Similarly, Baltazar et al. (2014) observed survival rates ranging from 3% to 90% using 300 F2:3 lines resulting from a cross between IR64 and Nanhi. A major QTL (qAG-7) was identified on chromosome 7, accounting for 22.3% of the phenotypic variation. Kim and Reinke (2018) revealed three QTLs (qAG-1a, qAG-1b, and qAG-8) linked to anaerobic germination from a population following a cross between Tai Nguyen and Anda. Baltazar et al. (2019) identified four AG-conferring QTLs (qAG3, qAG7.1, qAG7.2, and qAG7.3) through genotyping 190 F2:3 lines from IR64/Kharsu 80A, displaying a phenotypic variance ranging from 8.1% to 12.6%. Recently, Yang et al. (2022) pinpointed OsTPP1, a candidate gene located in locus 3 of chromosome 2, using RILs derived from a cross H335 and CHA-1 with significant upregulation during anoxia in tolerant lines. A significant milestone thus far has been the identification and cloning of the trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase gene, OsTTP7, from the major QTL qAG-9-2 (Kretzschmar et al., 2015). This gene plays a vital role in sugar regulation, promoting germinating embryo growth and coleoptile elongation, ultimately leading to successful crop establishment. The emphasis on coleoptile elongation has emerged as a crucial determinant for rice survival under flooding and is essential for screening (Ismail et al., 2012;Hsu and Tung, 2015;Zhang et al., 2017;Kuya et al., 2019;Pucciariello, 2020;Su et al., 2021;Thapa et al., 2022).Tanzania, one of the largest rice producers in Africa and second only to Madagascar in the Eastern, Central, and Southern African region (Boniphace et al., 2015), extensively relies on direct seeding for rice cultivation. The country plays a vital role as a food supplier, even catering to neighbouring nations (Andreoni et al., 2021). Regrettably, Tanzania is prone to flooding, particularly in its low-lying rice cultivation regions, which account for a substantial 71% of rice cultivation (URT, 2019). Despite its significant contribution, rice productivity in Tanzania remains low, averaging 2.3 tons per hectare (URT, 2021), and significantly lower during severe weather events. Major rice-growing valleys experience a further drop in productivity, falling to less than 2 tons per hectare in the face of unexpected erratic rainfall and floods (Kwesiga et al., 2019). Several surveys have highlighted the escalating risks of flooding in Tanzania's rainfed lowlands, posing a threat to the country's food security (Balama et al., 2013;Mugula and Mkuna, 2016;Brüssow et al., 2019;Ires, 2021). Remarkably, none of these studies have reported any screening aimed at assessing flooding tolerance, including anaerobic germination, within the dominant direct seeding system. Consequently, to unravel the intricacies of anaerobic germination and make a meaningful contribution to both African and global research in this field, continuous screening of diverse germplasm is deemed crucial to identify robust donors. Therefore, our study endeavours to make this contribution to this field by identifying new donors from an untapped population.The screening experiments were conducted in September and October 2022 in the screenhouse at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) crop museum in Morogoro, Tanzania. To maintain suitable conditions, fans and shade nets were installed in the screenhouse to partially control temperature and prevent water overheating. Daily air and water temperature measurements were taken at 7:00 AM and 1:00 PM (Supplementary Figure S1A, B). The screen house was equipped with tap water, which had a pH reading of 6.93 and an electrical conductivity (EC) of 0.08 mS/cm, as measured using a HI991301 Multimeter. The soil used was obtained from the SUA model training farm, located at coordinates 6°50'35.68272''S and 37°39'7.65324''E, and its characteristics are detailed in Supplementary Table S1.The study consisted a total of 200 test genotypes, predominantly comprising landraces (104), lines (61), and improved varieties (35). These genetic materials were primarily sourced from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) centers in Dakawa and Burundi, with a few obtained directly from rice farmers in Tanzania's rice-growing regions (Table S2). Additionally, IRRI Headquarters contributed eight checks, categorized as tolerant, including Ciherang Sub 1 AG1, Khao Hlan On, Ma Zhan Red, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2, and susceptible, such as IR64, Swarna Sub1, FR 13A, and Ciherang Sub1. To clarify the source, we included accession numbers for the formally recognized and catalogued genotypes in the International Rice Genebank Collection (IRGC), Genetic Stocks Oryza (GSOR) collection and West Africa Rice Breeding (WAB). Unfortunately, the majority of the germplasm consists of traditional landraces primarily known to local farmers. Consequently, only the formally recognized genotypes are presented with both accession numbers and accession names, while the rest are listed with accession names only.Phenotyping for tolerance to anaerobic stress during germination was conducted following the 2021 IRRI Phenotyping protocols for abiotic stress tolerance in rice (https://books.google.co.uk/books? id=dwMlEAAAQBAJ), with some minor modifications in screening structures, flood water level, and data collection.To ensure reliable results, two experiments were conducted in the same screenhouse, one in September and another in October, using a 14 x 16 alpha lattice design. Each experiment included flooded and control (aerobic/non-flooded) setups as per the recommended protocol. Instead of using concrete tables as specified in the protocol, we used plastic crates (60 x 40 x 30 cm) capable of retaining water. Two replications were established, each consisting of 16 plastic crates. Each genotype (entry) appeared once within each replication, except for the checks, which were randomly replicated three times.We filled and levelled sieved soil up to 10 cm in plastic crates. Each genotype was represented by two rows of sown seeds, with each row containing 15 dry seeds. This adjustment was made to accommodate the limited space available, as the protocol recommended a minimum of 17 dry seeds per row. Seeds were sown at a depth of 0.5 cm, labeled, and covered. The distance between rows of the same genotype was 1.5 cm, and for rows of different genotypes, it was 2.5 cm. Each plastic crate accommodated 14 entries.After seeding, water was carefully added to each crate to reach a 7 cm level from the soil surface, although the level was lower than the protocol recommendation of 10 cm. This water level was maintained for 21 days in the flooded setup. In the control setup, the soil was moistened to allow germination, and then a 2 cm water level above the ground was maintained for 21 days.Initially, we recorded the initial number of seeds sown for each genotype immediately after seeding, as well as the number of surviving seedlings 14 and 21 days after seeding. This latter measurement, termed 'number of seeds germinated' in this study, referred to those seedlings that emerged above the water surface. Percentage germination (survival) served as the primary determinant for identifying flood-tolerant cultivars, and it was calculated using the formula: Percentage Germination = (number of seeds germinated per entry/total seeds sown per entry) * 100.However, in an effort to enrich the identification of vigorous floodtolerant donors, we expanded our data collection to include additional growth parameters. These parameters encompassed seedling height (cm), which was measured 14 and 21 days after seeding using a standard ruler. Furthermore, we assessed root length (cm) and culm diameter (mm), measuring them 21 days after sowing using a standard ruler and a digital Vernier caliper, respectively. To complete the assessment, we harvested sampled seedlings and subjected them to drying at 70°C for three days, yielding measurements of shoot dry matter (g) and root dry matter (g), which were then weighed.To obtain DNA samples for genotyping, rice seeds were pregerminated for three days and then transplanted into trays filled with a nutrient solution for 21 days of growth. Leaf samples, crucial for DNA extraction, were collected using a 6 mm diameter leaf puncher, with four leaf discs taken from each rice genotype, selected from young, healthy leaves. Subsequently, the leaf discs were freeze-dried in preparation for DNA extraction and genotyping. Genotyping was conducted using the 1k-RiCA (1k Rice Custom Amplicon Assay), a designed assay based on Illumina's TruSeq Custom Amplicon 384 Index Kit technology (Arbelaez et al., 2019). This assay includes one thousand strategically selected Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Cornell_6K_Array_Infinium_Rice and the 3,000 rice genomes datasets (Thomson et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2018). It is an economical method for amplification and sequencing, known for its outstanding precision and efficiency, particularly in populations of the indica subspecies. Furthermore, this assay enhances genomic predictions. The genotyping process was carried out by AgriPlex Genomics in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, using the plexseq method following the plexseq workflow, which includes assay design and genotype calling. All SNPs were genotyped across the samples simultaneously. Subsequently, SNP analysis was performed using a Custom SNP-calling Pipeline to identify the variants, which were then aligned to the reference Nipponbare rice genome MSU7 version (Kawahara et al., 2013).The data quality was assessed by subjecting them to the Bonferroni test, which helped detect and remove outliers. Phenotypic data, genotypic marker data, and QTL data were formatted to facilitate straightforward analysis. The analysis involved single experiment analysis (SEA), and multienvironment experiment (MEA) analysis using LMMsolver in R package (Boer and van Rossum, 2021).For single experiment analysis, cleaned phenotypic data was used to produce the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) for each trait in each experiment using a linear mixed model of y = b 0 + b 1 * r + u + b + ϵ.Where: y is the response variable, b 0 is the intercept, b 1 is the coefficient associated with the fixed effect of replications, r is the fixed effect variable for replications, u represents the random effect variable for genotype, b represents the fi xe d effe ct variable f or bloc ks within replications, ϵ is the residual term that captures the unexplained variation.The data from experiment 1 and 2 for anaerobic conditions were analysed together similar to the analysis across aerobic conditions and BLUPs were calculated in each environment. Similarly, the MEA analysis used data from the single experiments in the two environments to produce BLUPs for each trait in each genotype using a model of yWhere:y is the response variable, b 0 is the intercept, E is the fixed effect variable for the two environments, b 1 is the coefficient associated with the fixed effect of the environment, r is the fixed effect variable for the replications, b 2 is the coefficient associated with the fixed effect of the replication, B is the fixed effect variable for the blocks within replications, b 3 is the coefficient associated with the fixed effect of the block, u represents the random effect variable for genotype, ϵ is the error term. Subsequently, cleaned genotypic marker data were analyzed to generate the genomic relationship matrix (GRM) (Endelman, 2011). Genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) were generated based on genetic evaluations incorporating the SEA and GRM. Additionally, phenotypic correlations were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficient and heritability was calculated as ratio of genetic variance to total variance using ASRelm. Finally, selection indices were calculated using the GEBVs and the weighted values for each trait. The index consolidated the GEBVs of all traits for a genotype into a single value, assigning weights based on their relative importance for anaerobic germination (Ceron-Rojas and Crossa, 2018). Similar weights were used for selection under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The scales were specified as: The study employed Genomic Estimated Breeding Values (GEBVs) to identify robust donor lines. Unlike the more common Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS), which typically requires a larger number of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and focuses on a few significant GWAS peaks, our approach utilized a limited number of markers. This allowed us to comprehensively assess the overall value of each line as potential parents. To enhance the selection process, we calculated a selection index for each genotype, incorporating eight traits with predefined weights (relative economic weights) assigned to each trait. This was done using an equation adapted from Pesěk and Baker (1969), given as: I = o n i=1 b i x i where, \"I\" is the selection index, b i is the weight for the i-th trait, and x i is the phenotypic value of the i-th trait. These weights were primarily based on each trait's contribution to anaerobic stress tolerance. The most critical traits, percentage germination (survival) at 14 and 21 days after seeding (DAS), received the highest weights. These traits are commonly used as key indicators for selecting lines adapted to anaerobic stress (Septiningsih et al., 2013;Baltazar et al., 2019;IRRI, 2021). Following these, shoot dry matter received a relatively high weight, followed by seedling height at 14 DAS, which had a weight similar to that of root length. Seedling height at 21 DAS and root dry matter were assigned equal weights, while culm diameter received the lowest weight.The 208 rice genotypes subjected to genotyping passed the quality control threshold, surpassing a 66% pass rate and achieving a successful call rate of 93.9%. The sample mean heterozygosity was 2.3%, while poor data for samples and markers was 1.4% and 7.9% respectively. However, the identification of variants harbouring AG1, a QTL known for conferring tolerance to anaerobic stress during germination and included in 1K RiCA, was limited due to its low coverage. The call rate for the AG1 QTL, indicating QTL absence, was 36.1%, while the uncall rate reached 64.9%. The study observed that none of the test genotypes scored as positive for AG1 QTL availability. Notably, the highperforming genotypes that exhibited tolerance to flooding stress in this study were predominantly uncalled for AG1 QTL. Moreover, the study observed a wide range of Genomic Estimated Breeding Values (GEBVs) for the traits assessed among the cultivars under flooded conditions. This diversity greatly facilitated the selection process (Table S3). For germination 14 DAS, GEBVs ranged from -4.98 to 74.58%, while germination 21 DAS showed values between 9.77 and 87.91%. Seedling height at 14 DAS displayed variations from 10.78 to 21.98 cm, and at 21 DAS, it ranged from 19.46 to 40.98 cm. Culm diameter exhibited GEBVs from 1.65 to 1.68 mm, root length from 5.09 to 7.35 cm, shoot dry matter from 0.01 to 0.04 g, and root dry matter from 0.003 to 0.01 g.There was a wide variation in germination rates among the screened rice genotypes under anaerobic conditions, ranging from 0% to 100%. In contrast, most rice genotypes under control conditions exhibited nearly 100% germination. In Experiment 1, the germination rate at 14 days after seeding (DAS) was 98.2% under control conditions but dropped significantly to 29.2% under anaerobic conditions. Notably, several genotypes, including Mpaka wa Bibi, Kanamalia, Tarabinzona, and Wahiwahi, exhibited strong early emergence with germination rates of 74.1%, 76.9%, 82.1%, and 86%, respectively. Among the checks, the known tolerant check, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2, displayed higher germination rates compared to other checks (Table S4). In Experiment 2, the aerobic germination rate was 98.4%, while the anaerobic germination rate was slightly lower at 31.1%. Germination rates increased at 21 DAS under anaerobic conditions compared to 14 DAS. In Experiment 1, seedling emergence increased from 29.2% at 14 DAS to 59.8% at 21 DAS, indicating a 30.6% increase. In Experiment 2, seedling emergence increased from 31.1% at 14 DAS to 47.5% at 21 DAS, indicating a 16.4% increase. Control (aerobic) conditions maintained consistent germination rates of 98.2% and 98.4% at 14 and 21 days after seeding, respectively. Overall, the anaerobic experiments displayed an emergence rate of 29.4% at 14 DAS, significantly lower than the control with 98.3%. Some specific genotypes, including BG90-2, IR117842-11-1RGA-1RGA-1RGA-2, IR15T1302, TXD 307, and Yunyin, failed to emerge from the water at 14 days after seeding. At 21 DAS, seedling emergence in the anaerobic experiments was 53.7%, compared to 98.4% in the non-flooded condition. Germination rates ranged from 14.4% to 85.9% in the flooded condition, while in the control condition, they ranged from 54.5% to 100% (Figure 1). Additionally, some outstanding germination was displayed by Wahiwahi, Tarabinzona, and Mpaka wa Bibi. Wahiwahi attained the highest germination rate of 86% under flooding stress, followed by Tarabinzona and Mpaka wa Bibi, each with 80% germination at 21 DAS. These genotypes outperformed the tolerant check Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2, which had a germination rate of 79%.Other traits, including seedling height, root length, shoot dry matter, root dry matter, and culm diameter, were also significantly affected by the anaerobic condition. In Anaerobic Experiment 1, the average seedling height at 14 DAS was 13.4 cm lower than that in the control, which had a seedling height of 25.9 cm. In Experiment 2, seedling height was 17.6 cm lower in the flooded environment compared to the control, which had a height of 31.6 cm. At 21 days after seeding, seedling heights in the anaerobic experiments remained lower compared to their respective control setups. The average seedling height in the anaerobic experiments was 15.6 cm and 32.4 cm at 14 and 21 DAS, respectively, while their controls had heights of 28.8 cm and 44.1 cm. Root growth in the anaerobic experiments was restricted, with a length of 6.5 cm under anaerobic conditions compared to 9.0 cm in non-flooded conditions. Seedling dry matter, including shoot and root dry matter, was lower in the anaerobic experiments compared to the dry matter in their control setups. In the anaerobic experiments, the average shoot dry matter was 0.025 g, while it was 0.071 g in the control. The average root dry matter was 0.071 g in the anaerobic experiments, whereas the control setups had 0.014 g. Additionally, culm diameter was also affected by floods, displaying an average diameter of 1.7 mm compared to 2.7 mm in the aerated environments. Detailed information regarding phenotypic performance is provided in Table 1.A very strong positive correlation was evident between germination at 14 days after seeding (DAS) and germination at 21 DAS, irrespective of whether the conditions were flooded or under control (Figure 2). Additionally, significant positive correlations observed between traits such as germination at 14 DAS and seedling height at 21 DAS (r = 0.615) in flooded conditions, as well as between seedling height at 14 DAS and 21 DAS (r = 0.615) in control conditions. In contrast, the correlation between culm diameter and other traits appeared generally weak, indicating a limited relationship between culm diameter and the other recorded traits.The study revealed high heritability for germination, seedling height, and shoot dry matter, even in the presence of flooding stress. The trait with the highest heritability (H 2 = 0.71) was germination 14 days after seeding, which was consistently maintained in both experiments 1 and 2 (Table 2). Seedling height at 21 days after seeding, germination at 21 days after seeding, and shoot dry matter also displayed relatively high heritability. However, certain traits such as root length, culm diameter, and root dry matter exhibited low heritability. Notably, among all the recorded traits, root length displayed the lowest heritability.The effects of anaerobic stress on the germination and growth of direct-seeded rice were assessed by comparing the anaerobic (flooded) condition with a control condition (non-flooded or aerobic). The effects of the stress on various traits were quantified as percentage reduction (Figure 3). Overall, the anaerobic stress had severe effects on certain traits, particularly germination 14 days after Germination response of rice cultivars to anaerobic stress compared to aerobic condition using BLUPs. DAS indicates days after seeding, and BLUPs stands for best linear unbiased predictions. seeding (DAS), shoot dry matter, and root dry matter compared to the control condition. In contrast, lesser effects were observed for traits such as seedling height 21 DAS and root length. Notably, parameters like germination and seedling height were significantly affected at 14 DAS than 21 DAS.Ten test entries have emerged as promising candidates for anaerobic stress adaptation during germination, primarily due to their robust selection index. These entries not only exhibited substantial best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) for germination percentage at 21 days after seeding (DAS) but also displayed vigorous emergence in flooded conditions, maintaining a survival rate of at least 70 (Table 3). Interestingly, our study revealed exceptional performance in both aerobic and aerobic-anaerobic conditions, with thirteen genotypes excelling in the former and seventeen entries displaying remarkable performance across environments, despite the primary focus of our study being anaerobic stress tolerance. These genotypes displayed the largest selection index values and consistently achieved germination percentages of no less than 80% at 21 DAS. For a more Phenotypic correlations of traits under anaerobic and control experiments. comprehensive overview of the genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) and selection indices of all 208 genotypes, refer to Table S4. In contrast, among the checks employed in our study, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2 stood out with the highest germination percentage of 79% when seeded under flooded conditions at 21 DAS. It's worth noting that the germination rates of the other checks fell below the 70% threshold. Consequently, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2 was the sole known check among our selections that exhibited robust germination performance.Anaerobic germination is a unique characteristic of rice seeds that allows the initiation of the germination process and subsequent emergence despite unfavourable flooding stress (Ghosal et al., 2019;Panda and Barik, 2021). This study observed diverse responses of genotypes to anaerobic stress during germination and early seedling growth. Genotype-specific responses to oxygen deficiency during the germination stage have also been reported by Ray et al. (2016), suggesting the importance of varying responses for the selection of tolerant lines. Tolerant genotypes that survive under limited oxygen conditions are considered potential candidates for anaerobic germination (Ray et al., 2016). Maintaining a relatively high metabolism has been identified as advantageous for surviving anaerobiosis (Ismail et al., 2009). Therefore, tolerant cultivars had increased expression of a-amylase triggered by low sugar levels, unlike intolerant cultivars (Ismail et al., 2012). Rice varieties tolerant to anaerobic stress generally exhibit higher sugar levels, while susceptible cultivars tend to have higher starch concentrations and lower sugar (Mondal et al., 2020).In this study, the 10 potential genotypes identified exhibited significantly higher survival rates under limited oxygen conditions, characterized by increased germination, seedling growth, and biomass accumulation compared to other genotypes. Partheeban et al. (2017) also reported greater seedling vigor in highly tolerant cultivars compared to moderate and susceptible ones under anaerobic stress. Furthermore, Mondal et al. (2020) found that genotypes tolerant to anaerobic stress displayed higher amylase activities, resulting in increased germination and subsequent seedling growth. Therefore, these genotypes hold significant potential as donors in breeding for anaerobic stress tolerance.The strong positive correlation between germination at 14 and 21 days after sowing (DAS) underscores the critical role of early emergence at 14 DAS in mitigating flooding stress and promoting successful establishment. Early germination tightly correlates with rapid seedling growth, exemplified by the strong association between seedling height at 21 DAS and emergence at 14 DAS. These findings underscore the significance of early germination and growth in mitigating the impacts of flooding. Ismail et al., 2009 observed robust establishment of tolerant rice under limited oxygen conditions due to vigorous early growth. In contrast, this study observed limited relationships between culm diameter and other studied traits, irrespective of the growing conditions. These findings imply that culm diameter is not significantly linked to changes in other traits during the early stages of germination. Furthermore,   weak correlations were observed between root traits and other characteristics, particularly under anaerobic conditions. This aligns with the fact that root growth is severely constrained during flooding, as the plant directs its energy towards seedling emergence to access oxygen more efficiently. This prioritization of starch breakdown for coleoptile elongation, facilitating oxygen uptake, comes at the expense of root development. (Singh et al., 2017;Pucciariello, 2020;Hirano et al., 2023).To enhance breeding efforts, heritability plays a crucial role that cannot be overlooked (Roy and Shil, 2020). Heritability quantifies the extent to which a trait can be inherited by offspring (Ajmera et al., 2017). The success and efficiency of breeding programs take into account not only genetic variations and genetic advancement but also heritability (Abebe et al., 2017;Adhikari et al., 2018). Hence, in this study, having prior knowledge of trait heritability is imperative. Several key traits essential for anaerobic germination, such as germination rate, seedling height, and shoot dry matter, exhibited high heritability, suggesting their potential for successful improvement. As pointed out by Demeke et al. (2022), traits with higher heritability play a significant role in determining the potential for population enhancement. Conversely, traits like root length, culm diameter, and root dry matter displayed lower to medium heritability, indicating a lesser genetic influence on these rice characteristics during flooding stress.Under flooding stress, oxygen diffusion is severely hindered, making it difficult for normal aerobic respiration to occur (Ma et al., 2020). The lack of oxygen becomes lethal for rice survival. However, certain rice cultivars can successfully establish themselves under low or no oxygen conditions (Ray et al., 2016). There are variations among genotypes in terms of flooding tolerance, which suggests their potential for rice establishment during anaerobic stress. In this study, variations among genotypes in germination under submergence stress were observed, with some exhibiting very low survival rates while others showed high emergence. Different cultivars respond differently to oxygen deficits, with some unable to survive and others displaying varying degrees of tolerance (Angaji et al., 2010;Thapa et al., 2022). Moreover, all the traits assessed in this study were largely affected by floods compared to the control condition. Submerged seeds experienced delayed seedling emergence, which could be attributed to interference with metabolism under anaerobic stress, resulting in low energy production. Magneschi and Perata (2009) highlighted that only 2 ATP molecules are produced from 1 molecule of glucose under anaerobic conditions, while nearly 38 molecules of ATP are produced under normal conditions. With such limited energy supply to germinating seeds, even emergence is compromised. Similarly, under restricted oxygen conditions, the normal process of root respiration is altered, affecting nutrient uptake and seedling growth (Miro and Ismail, 2013). Hartman et al. (2020) also emphasized that low energy generation due to oxygen deficit during flooding stress leads to reduced crop survival and growth.Tolerant cultivars are in high demand due to their ability to maintain high germination rates and successfully overcome stress (Chamara et al., 2018). It's impressive that the observed variation in performance among the screened rice genotypes resulted in the identification of some outstanding cultivars. Among them, Wahiwahi, Tarabinzona, and Mpaka wa Bibi displayed vigorous seedling emergence. The known anaerobic stress-tolerant check, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2 (Mondal et al., 2020), exhibited slightly lower germination rates than the three genotypes. Moreover, out of the ten genotypes identified as tolerant, five were landraces. These included Kubwa Jinga, Wahiwahi, Magongo ya Wayungu, Mpaka wa Bibi, and Kanamalia. Miro and Ismail (2013) found that landraces are better adapted to flooding stress compared to modern cultivars. Mohanapriya et al. (2022) observed robust crop establishment and vigor of traditional landraces under oxygen-limited conditions. Additionally, Barik et al. (2019) noted the great potential of utilizing landraces to adapt to anaerobic stress in direct-seeded rice. Therefore, the results of this study provide a breakthrough of great importance in advancing our understanding of anaerobic germination.Successful crop establishment of rice under low or no oxygen conditions is crucial, as it enhances resilience in flood-prone areas. In this study, we observed significant variation in germination and growth attributes, underscoring their importance for selection. Exceptional results for aerobic condition and across aerobic-anaerobic environments are also included. The selection was based on a selection index generated from GEBVs (Genomic Estimated Breeding Values) for multiple traits and BLUPs (Best Linear Unbiased Predictions) for germination 21 DAS (days after seeding), as described in the methodology.Notably, we identified Afaa Mwanza 1/159, Rojomena 271/10, Kubwa Jinga, Wahiwahi, Magongo ya Wayungu, Mpaka wa Bibi, Mwangaza, Tarabinzona, IB126-Bug 2013A, and Kanamalia as candidates tolerant to anaerobic stress. Some genotypes, like Tarabinzona, Mpaka wa Bibi, and Wahiwahi, exhibited the highest survival rates and germination slightly greater than the best tolerant check, Ciherang Sub1 AG1 AG2. These resources for breeding were characterized by vigorous phenotypic emergence, selected in complement with genomic value. As a result, researchers can use these valuable resources for QTL mapping with biparental or multi-parent populations. The results contribute to the limited African knowledge on flooding tolerance and are likely to strengthen efforts in resilience breeding. Therefore, the identified genotypes' tolerance to anaerobic stress holds global significance, given the current challenging weather dynamics.","tokenCount":"5536"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba3460a7ca9cf1181c6b9b2bae8daa16","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/207cc5cc-f717-4d4f-95b5-83ec35bfd6f8/retrieve","id":"690765700"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b386b4db-c082-49aa-ac10-85b85ee5c813","pagecount":"2","content":"Unit 1 covers:• A welcome by the organizer and/or trainer • An icebreaker (see Resources)• Introduction to the curriculum and its content • Unit 1 material covered in the slides (Lessons 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3) • A coffee/tea break Unit 1 contains more theory and fewer interactions compared with other Units, which can make it more challenging. Pay attention to physical signs of participants getting tired or overwhelmed.There are breaks for questions after each 7 slides. You can use these for clarification purposes and ask participants to save the longer philosophical discussions for the end of each Lesson to ensure flow.Unit 1 can be covered in a half-day, or 3 hours. It can be broken down into two blocks, with a break in the middle:• Welcome, icebreaker and lesson 1.1 The slides should be modified to include the following:• Wording that can be unclear to participants • Examples relating to context • Photos/drawings to make the slides visually appealing","tokenCount":"159"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15c2a69b16ba9688cb7d8a8ecbd303fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H017838.pdf","id":"-1337884993"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db10ce72-2a84-4413-bb6a-834ecb73be8f","pagecount":"50","content":"This investigation was carried out by Mr, A.S. Channabasavanna at the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), ColGrnbo over a period of 3 months from Z October 1995 to 31 December 1 9 9 5 . During this period, Mr. Basavanna was introduced to field research on water management, conducted a rapid appraisal survey of Mahaweli System H, identified a few researchable issues, conducted a field-study of water distribution problems in a distributary turned over to Farmer Organization while the farmers were preparing the land for paddy sowing;acd, analyzed the results to identify the cause, effect and impact of water distribution on land preparation and paddy sowing. The outcome of the study is this report.-,[.Mr. Basavanna was introduced to a number of new methodologies (participant observation, key informant discussion and questionnaire survey) while carrying out this research. Being an Agronomist by profession, he was a b l e to see the importance of field water management research beyond the on-farm boundary particularly at the main system level to provide reliable, adequate and timely supply to farmers so that they can adopt the agronomic packages suggested by t h e extension agencies.The main message that he got out of this research is the importance of agency (Irrigation Department) working closely with farmers to distribute t h e water equitably between the head and tail end of a distributary and the impact of not distributing water equitably on the farm income and productivity.We believe that Mr. Basavanna has understood the basics of water management research methodologies as well as the importance of water management research in the context of introducing agronomic practices. With the knowledge he has gained, we are s u r e that when he goes back to his University, he would be able to build on w h a t he has learned to enrich and expand his own knowledge on water management as well as to contribute through field water management research to improve irrigated agriculture in large irrigation systems in India. Paddy is one of the most important crops of S r i Lanka and is grown in an area of 556,982 ha occupying 2 7 , 7 % of the total irrigable area. Paddy cultivation in Mahaweli System H system of Kalawewa during Maha (1991-92) season was 29,294 ha with an average yield of 4.87 ton/ha. against the National average of 3.51 tonjha. (AnnOn.1993). Paddy i n this area is mostly irrigated by gravity from Kalawewa reservoir which gets its water supply mainly from Mahaweli system, Presently, the water distribution in t h e system is not meeting the demands of farmers in terms of adequacy, reliability and timeliness. There is considerable potential to increase paddy yield in this system through improved irrigation water management, especially w a t e r management.System H is located i n the N o r t h -Central province and lies within Kala Oya and Malwathu O y a basins.The total irrigated extent in this area is 42,000 ha of which 28,000 ha is under the Mahaweli system (Hewavisenthi and Silva, 1994).Mahaweli water supplied to System H is first diverted at Polgolla and then at Bowatenna into the Kala Oya basin .The water thus diverted is then distributed to main tanks of Kandalama, Dumbulu Oya and Kalawewa.The Kalawewa has a capacity of 1223.34 MCM with three off take main canals (RB canal, LB canal, Yoda ela) and three minor canals (Bulaluwewa goda ela, Kalawewa goda ela and Bulan K u l a r n e ela). The Kalawewa RB canal is also known as t h e Nava Jaya Ganga; it originates at the RE3 outlet sluice and ends at the Pahamuniyagarna tank 50 km away. The RB canal is the principal conveyance system for delivering w a t e r to Nochchiyagama, Talawa, Tambuttegama and Eppawala blocks of system H. The canal h a s a capacity of 32.5 m3 I / s .block is located at the t a i l end of the system H and comprises 3 6 6 8 ha. of irrigable land (Fig 1.1) . Among' the distributaries D 3 / 4 1 5 has been handed over to farmer organization during Yala of 1995. This distributary was constructed during 1 9 7 8 -79, and takes off from Branch Canal 8 .The length of the D3 / 4 1 5 canal is 4590 m. with bottom width and height of 1.8 m and 1.0 m at head section and 0.3 m. and 0.67 m at the t a i l end. It irrigates 281 ha of irrigable land through 28 field channels each designed to deliver 1 cusec (28.3 Ips). This channel is the one selected for detailed investigation. The command a r e a of this channel consists of Reddish brown soil with good drainage. The seepage and percolation loss of this distributary i s considered 10 % of the discharge while computing the flow along the distributary.System H provides irrigation to the total irrigable area during Maha season where farmers cultivate paddy extensively; but during Yala,irrigation is provided to only 50 % of the area. During Yala Bethma system is followed where each farmer is allotted half an hectare to cultivate and tail end farmers have to move to head reach of t h e system. The farmers asked to cultivate less w a t e r consuming crops like onion, chilli, etc. b u t most of the farmers grow paddy. During' 1995 Yala, only 4.2 % and 8.3 % of the farmers took up pure crop of chilli and onion respectively (Table 1.1) , while 58.3 % of farmers went for paddy; in yala 1995 most farmers lost their crops due to inadequate water supply.Water distribution :The Project Co-ordinating Committee for System H assists the Resident Project Manager (RPM) in water management issues. The most important function of this Committee is to manage the main sluice operations of the Kalawewa, Dambuluoya and Kandalama tanks. The Committee meets periodically (usually monthly and more frequently during periods of water shortages) during the irrigation season to review the water issues in relation to the available storage and irrigation demand and to ensure that the available water is distributed equally to the farmers at the main off take levels.Water issue schedules for each block are prepared by t h e Block Irrigation Engineer by considering the various aspects like physical system capacity, type of crop grown and the area proposed to be cultivated under each crop. Requirements are submitted to the RPM through Block Manager. The water is issued to each block as p e r the request made by t h e block manager and it is t h e responsibility of the Engineering Assistant (EA) to distribute the water to each distributary. Further, within the distributary the water is shared under the guidance of Farmer Organization leader if that particular distributary has been handed over to the farmer organization. If not, the work is attended by Jalapalaka under the guidance of Engineering Assistant. With in the field channel, farmers distribute the water among themselves.Presently, water distribution in t h e system is unstable and unpredictable partly due to unreliable inflow to the Mahaweli reservoirs causing fluctuation of flow to the reservoirs and tanks. Farmers at the head reach of t h e reservoir/tank system usually receive more than sufficient water in time, while at the tail reach water supply is inadequate and unreliable. Some farmers even pump water from their small wells for supplementing canal irrigation. Before the start of this research, a diagnostic analysis was carried out to identify issue related to water management and to select a site for further investigation.Initially project reports and records containing crops grown, distribution of water from Kalawewa to the tail end distributaries were perused through at MEA, RPM office, Tambuttegama. The matter was f u r t h e r discussed with the Resident Project Manager, DRPMs (Agriculture, General,   Irrigation, Land Community Development). These reports and discussions indicated that Nochchiyagama Block at the tail end of t h e system H is having water management problem and is facing water shortages. This block under Mahaweli system was compared with Rajangana Irrigation System operated by Irrigation Department by visiting the command area of Rajangana and discussing with IE, Rajangana, It was found that Rajangana is a water s u r p l u s system having less water management problems. Finally it w a s decided t h a t Nochchiyagama would be the best place for water distribution studies. Subsequently a survey was conducted by visiting all the distributaries and field channels of Nochchiyagama B l o c k .information on farmer backgrounds, farmer organization activities, distribution of water, soil types and major crops grown was collected. Farmers were interviewed at random at various distributaries regarding their problems in distribution of water, cultivation of crops, availability of inputs, farmer organization activity, co-cperation of farmers i n sharing of water, etc. These matters were also discussedwith the concerned officials like Block Manager, Irrigation Engineer, Engineering Assistant, Agricultural Officer, Field Assistants and Unit Manager . Based on t h e s e reviews and interviews, the following important water management issues were identified ; Fewer water controls along the distributary and consequently farmers interference with the working of physical structures due to not getting adequate water.Weak farmer organization with no training of farmers and supervision staff. e. Submergence of land causing water logging problem.Among the distributaries visited D3/415 distributary was finally selected for the study. The main objective of this investigation is to study the impact of irrigation system management on agronomic practices, particularly on land preparation and sowing of paddy. Also, t h e study focuses on the role of farmer organization and irrigation staff in the distribution of water and other related aspects which affect agrononiic practices.Organization of the report :While this chapter give an introduction to system H of Mahawell; diagnostic approach adopted to identify water management issues in system H; selection of a distributary f o r f u r t h e r investigation; and objectives of t h e study, chapter 2 discusses the methodology adopted and data collected. Chapter 3 analyzes t h e data and discusses t h e results. Chapter 4 compares and contrasts the r e s u l t s obtained under this study with those obtained by using a structured questionnaire as a p a r t of this study'. The l a s t chapter gives the conclusions and a few recommendations The study was primarily initiated by collecting essential data on the system H from the IIMI and other publications available with IIMI at Colombo. The existing literatures were reviewed and a tentative schedul-e of work was framed for diagnostic analysis of the system H. Further, detailed information on t h e area irrigated, s o i l tape, water distribution pattern, crops grown, cultivation practices, yield levels, activity of farmer Organization were collected from the records maintained at Mahaweli Economic Agency, Thambuttegama and Nochchiyagama.A sample of 55 farmers with 20 at the head, 17 at the middle and 18 at t h e tail of the distributary were selected for this study. These farmers attitude, behaviour, activities and daily operations relating to water issues and distribution were monitored carefully during the land preparation and sowing periods. Problems and questions faced and gosed by farmers were discussed with concerned field level officials like Engineering Assistant, farmer organization leader and Jalapalakas. T h e distribution of w a t e r and communication of information among farmers, jalapalaka, farmer organization and agency were carefully observed, and r e c o r d e d . The participant observation activities such as opening and closing of f i e l d channel gates, interfering with the working of field channels and gates, putting obstruction across distributary and cross bunding etc.The day-to-day farmer activities in response to system performance was recorded.Observations made in t h e neighbouring distributaries which are not handed over to farmer organization were a l s o recorded to draw conclusions with regard to impact of turnover on system performance.Discussion with key informants :Data collected from observations and records w e r e critically studied and discussed with the resident Project Manager, Deputy Resident Project Managers and Information and Development Unit at Thambuttegama. The matter was then discussed with block manager, Unit manager and concerned agency personnel at Nochchiyagama. Along with t h e day-to-day observation of field activities, the problem noticed were discussed with the farmer organization leader, jalapalakas and field agency personnel. A careful record of all the discussions, observations during the field work which analysis.and activities was made each day formed the data base for furtherWater measurements : I During the study, daily d a t a on irrigation water flow at the distributary head was recorded from the scale fixed on t and downstream side of the off-take. Water issue i n sel channels at the head, middle and tail reaches of the distributary were measured by float method as described by Michael (1981).Daily rainfall recorded at Nochchiyagarne meteorological Ettation was obtained and recorded.  Data so collected w e r e tabulated; graphical p l o t s were made wherever necessary and analyzed. Data collected from questionnaire w a s entered into computer and frequency distribution of the selected variables was obtained. The data so obtained formed t h e basis for discussion and analysis of t h e results which are presented in the next c h a p t e r .3.1 Introduction :The study had indicated that the major constraint was that there were unpredictable issues of water in the distributary head and that the water distribution along the distributarywas unequal. The unequal distribution of water was considered due to t h e number of causes as shown in Fig 3 .1. Also, the unequal distribution of water had impact on t h e agricultural practices and a f f e c t e d the farmers profitability and production. The inter relationship between the causes and impacts due to unequal distribution of water are discussed in the following sections. The water used for land preparation is found to be very much higher than what was planned. It was planned by t h e Irrigation Engineer to give 12.5 inches of water for land preparation in 4 weeks time. An addition of 2 . 5 inch is also permitted if needed. However, it was observed that both the head and tail reach farmers had used twice the planned amount , whereas farmers at the middle used 2.5 times the planned irrigation water (Table 3.1). Apart from this t h e y have received 19.4 inch of rain water which has not been utilized efficiently.Although the head and tail reach farmers received the same amount of water, it is the way (timeliness) in which t h e y receive water matters. The tail end farmers did not receive water for t h e first t w o weeks. Then they received water for the last 4 weeks which was very high during the forth week. More than unequal distribution of w a t e r , it is the unreliable distribution which h a s caused great hardship to farmers of t a i l end.What was noticed in the distributary is the untimeliness of supply and unpredictable supply to the tail end.Causes :Main system supply n o t adequate and fluctuating :The date of release of water and other operations were decided by the Mahaweli Water Management Panel at Colombo. This decision is mainly based on the reservoir storage and the probable expected inflow to the reservoirs. H o w e v e r , the actual date of water issue to different Blocks w a s fixed in Kanna meeting where farmer organizations p l a y a major role (Table 3.2 and 3 . 3 ) .It was noticed that farmers prefer water issue in their channels after the  onset of rainfall which will help in their operations, particularly in bund trimming and smearing of Lunds.The main role of the MEA is to issue water at the head of the distributary according to the farmers need based on the type of operation schedule developed by the farmers and rainfall occurrence. JaLapalaka appointed by t h e MEA is the only authorized person to operate the distributary gates; he does this job according to the instruction of Engineering Assistant (EA) . The Dchannel g a t e is n o t operated daily by jalapalaka; but the slight variation in discharges was mainly due to fluctuation in the main/branch channel.Water issues in the study distributary was affected mainly by rainfall and unexpected repair work in Kalawewa w h i c h in t u r n affected land preparation and paddy sowing (Fig. 3.2)As per the agency calculation, water delivery was to be 20 cusec at the D-channel head for f o u r weeks from the d a t e of first issue. However, the recorded delivery was 20 to 24 cusec ( F i g 3 . 2 ) extended upto six weeks. Due to heavy rains the w a t e r was not issued during t h e second and third week after release of water and f o r 4 days from 11.11.95 to 14.11.95 on account of repair work in Kalawewa. The closer of the head gate of the distributary w a s not discussed and the suggestion of farmer organization was not taken into consideration while closing the .head gate.The unexpected closer had adversely affected land preparation a t the tail end.Farmer organization has no direct role. in operating the disturbutary head gate, but they can put furth the problem in the Unit Co-ordinating Committee meeting held every first week of the month.If the problem is not solved, it will be discussed in the Block Co-ordinating Committee which will be held during the second week of every month. It was noticed that most such water problems will not get solved easily and by the time a decision is taken, it will be too late to implement s u c h decisions.It i s the responsibility of the farmer organization leader to distribute t h e water within the distributary once the water is issued at the D-channel head by the MEA. As discussed earlier MEA i s s u e s 20 cusec of water a t D-channel head which has to be distributed through 28 turnouts. The schedule was to i s s u e 5 inches of water to 2/3 of the area f o r the f i r s t 2 weeks; during the next two weeks t h e remaining 1/3 area gets 5 inches of w a t e r while the other ( 2 / 3 ) area gets 2.5 inch of water. An additional 2.5 inches of water is provided if necessary.I n order t o e x e c u t e this schedule, several options can be thought of :i. having a . cross regulator at the distributary covering 2 / 3 r d area of the 'distributary to hold and divert thewater along the field channels, ii. the field turnouts must be gated with adjustable gates so that water supply to these turnouts can be adjusted to divert the required quantity depending on t h e depth of water in the distributary. iii. the distributary canal cross section is designed in such a way that as the discharge decreased along the distributary length, the cross section of the channel is reduced to keep the depth constant; In D3/415 distributary the last option was adopted. However this option would interfere with pushing the whole discharge to the downstream 1/3rd! area under Rotational water distribution (RWD) unless if the cross section is made sufficiently large. Since the field turnout gates can not be operated precisely to allow a planned discharge due to design limitations, implementation of an operation schedule as designed by the MEA in this distributary is very difficult to achieve. In other words, the system is not designed to match the operational schedule stipulated by the MEA. This, then is one of the major causes for rnaldistribution of water between the head and tail reaches of the distributary. One may argue that even if the system is capable of delivering such planned discharge, would the farmers distribute the water according to planned schedule is another management question to be dealt with separately. The mere fact their the system is inadequate to handle the planned flow has exacerbated the unequal distribution of water between the head and tail reaches of the distributary.It was noticed that no definite pattern of distribution of water was followed by the farmer organization during the land preparation. This is clear from Table 3.4 where t h e variations in issue of water can be noticed within and between t h e turnouts. The maldistribution resulted in major differences in water availability from one turnout to another in this distributary. Similar situations were reported by Tabbal and Wickham (19761, Valera and Wickham (1976)  and Early et.al. (1978). Generally the tail end portion had serious deficiency of water and the availability is erratic -In this distributary, it w a s originally planned to give water from the tail end, but water was given first to the middle reach followed by head reach for the reason that the field channels at the tail section were not cleaned and also due to on-going field channel construction work which could not be completed. It is also true that head end farmers resisted changes, as they believe that they may be affected by this method of rotational water distribution from tail to head (Robert Chamber, 1980). It was observed and recorded that tail end farmers got water 19 days later against 3 days l a t e r at the head compared to no delay at the middle section after water release in t h e distributary.  Soil type is not suitable; land levelling not done properly :The major soil t y p e in this distributary is reddish brown earth which is sandy in nature. Under such soil condition it was very difficult to maintain saturation f o r long time, store and keep the standing water;this problem of not able to have standing water in the field is one of t h e main reasons f o r not preparing the land using rain water since rainfall is not sufficient enough to hold standing water in the field and tractor owners won't come for ploughing. 'Moreover, even distribution of water and water depth in the field is possible only if t h e land is uniformly levelled; this is more important in the case of paddy field. The topography of land is very undulating with a slope of 2 to 3 % or even more. band within the basin (liyadde) is also not levelled properly which prompts the farmers to u s e more water to keep the field f u l l y covered with water. This in turn creates increased drainage. The adverse effect of storing unequal depth of water was more sever when this was coupled with receipt of heavy rainfall. During t h e present season, it was observed that two acres at the middle section were submerged with rain water and water level did not recede even a f t e r one week thereby destroying paddy which was just germinating.Levelled land coupled with proper drainage will enable a m o r e even distribution of water and prevent soil erosion because of the gentler movement of water (Donald C . Taylor, 1980). A proper land levelling will reduce labour r e q u i r e d for distribution of water, and problems of field drainage and flooding may become less.On argument against land levelling, however, is the cost of undertaking the land levelling, and possible short-term decrease in yield because of disruption of top soils. The soil depletion can be overcome by using legume crops and adding organic manures.It is suggested that at least land levelling within basin (1iyadde)is to be done properly to save water and increase paddy y i e l d .At present the D3/415 distributary has been handed over to farmer organization for management; subsequent to transfer, no attention is given by t h e agency t o provide necessary technical assistance to operate the distributary. It is essential for the agency to monitor the water distribution operation and h e l p them whenever t h e y are in difficulty.  Transparent rule and water scheduling not framed and enforced:A s discussed earlier once the water is issued at the distributary head it is the responsibility of the farmer organization leader to distribute the water within t h e distributary. There are two jalapalakas (one for head to middle and the other for middle to tail end) appointed by farmer organization leader to operate the turnouts. It was noticed t h a t there is no direct link between the jalapalakas, but they meet t h e farmer organization leader every day or whenever necessary and act according to his instructions. No proper schedule was followed during t h e land preparation period by t h e farmer organization l e a d e r . The total area under the turnout, stage of land preparation and rainfall occurred were not taken into account for the issue of water. Jalapalakas were found to operate the t u r n o u t s whenever farmers requested for water. This was also a major reason f o r uneven distribution of water.A s per the MEA schedule of operation, during t h e first two weeks only 2/3 of the area should be given water, then remaining 1/3 area should get water during this next two weeks. Farmer organization leader was n o t followed this schedule. Instead he opened all the gates simultaneously and l a t e r he attempted to distribute water by closing some gates arbitrarily as he desired. This created lot of inconvenience and unpredictable supply to t h e tail reach farmers.The other cause for poor operation of the turnouts is due to non-payment of wages by the farmer organization for the work done by the Jalapalakas. Although arrangements were made by the farmer organization to pay 10 kg of paddy by each farmer quite a few farmers did not pay to Jalapalakas, particularly farmers at the tail reach who are n o t satisfied with the water supply services.After t h e delivery of water to the turnout, farmers s h a r e that water among themselves, after discussing with each other under t h e leadership of t u r n o u t leader. Even though there w e r e no transparent rules framed, sharing of water below t h e turnout was found to be without any conflicts.Adequate support services not available ( t r a c t o r s , labour charge is high) :Initially during land preparation period non-availability of water, tractor, labour, finance or combination of t h e s e w e r e found to be the main constraints (Table 3 . Availability of water, tractor and combination of water and labour were equally important at head section, while middle section farmers did not experience much problem for water as they were the first to be issued with water. About 23.4 % of the tail end farmers (of t h e total)  experienced water as the main constraint.Rain water was considered not sufficient to pass tractor rotovator by tractor owners and therefore hiring of tractor was not possible as there w a s . n o standing water.T h e r e were no bullock power in t h i s distributary to use in this situation. However, most of the constraints were overcome in due course of time except water constraint which remained as the main hurdle for effective land preparation.It was also noticed that wages for labour were very high which a l s o came in the way of land preparation. Tail end farmers had sufficient time, and therefore followed attham practice, while the head and middle reach farmers are forced to hire labours. Farmers who had finance problem delayed the land preparation.It is well known fact that getting work done by tractor is more quicker than by bullock power. It was observed that the maintenance of bullock is difficult due to l a c k of grazing land during yala. Only two farmers at the tail end maintained draught animals with difficulty and used them for land preparation. Only one farmer h i r e d bul1ock.s €or ploughing. Rent paid f o r tractor and bullock p a i r was the same (Rs.4000/ha f o r two ploughings); most farmers thought that use of tractor was considered superior and quicker.It was a l s o observed that when water was abundantly available, as in the head reach area, farmers have sufficient time to complete the land preparation in stipulated time; whereas, farmers in the tail reach did not get water for t h r e e weeks and when they did get water, they w e r e able to complete the land preparation operation within four weeks time. On the other hand, most of the farmers in the middle reach who received water first were able to complete the land preparation within four w e e k s . It was a l s o noticed that the head reach farmers received water f o r 42 days; middle reach farmers for 32 days; and tail reach farmers for o n l y 15 days. So, one may conclude from the above findings that too much water availability also makes the farmers to become complacent and t a k e it easy in completing the work of land preparation in time.Weak l e a d e r s h i p from farmer organization : It w a s found that farmer organization failed to maintain equitable distribution of water and satisfy tail end farmers. During t h e first two weeks only the head and middle reaches got water but tail end received water from the end of third week, but that too not continuously (Fig d.The and evenFarmer organization leader was more interested in executing contract work rather than in distribution of water.No co-operation of head and middle end farmers.No guidance from the agency in distributing the water after the distributary was handed over.IMPACT :Use of more water for land preparation with extended duration :head and middle reach farmers got water as per schedule got excess from the date of issue of water, but the tail end farmer received water from the third week on wards, t h a t too w i t h uncertainty (Table 3 . 6 ) . Even then with all uncertainty the t a i l end farmers took just f o u r weeks to complete their land preparation ( 8 0 % I while the rest took six weeks. The head and middle reach completed 8 0 % of the first ploughing by t h e second week itself, and middle reach farmers completed 80 % of their second ploughing by the third week, but head reach farmers prolonged second ploughing for no proper reason. On the other hand, tail end farmers completed 80 % of first and second ploughing by t h e fifth and sixth weeks respectively. Middle reach farmers completed 80 % of sowing paddy by fourth week followed by head (sixth week) and tail end farmers (seventh week) (Table 3.7).Generally it was noticed that middle and tail reach farmers quite actively participated in land preparation and sowing, but head reach farmers were not so, t h i s may be due to the fact that they were sure to get adequate water continuously and whenever they want.It was also observed that tail reach farmers received water only for 15 days against 42 and 32 days by the head and middle reach farmers respectively. However, tail reach farmers received higher discharge as compared to others which helped them to complete land preparation in a short time (table 3.8).T h e r e was good amount of rainfall during the second week a f t e r issue of water (16.2 inch) and the MEA stopped issuing water during this period.This, instead of helping in land preparation, delayed it, and this is more so in the case of tail end farmers; Weeks Cusec  F . P \" s.P** Sowing   the tail end farmers made no attempts to harness t h e rain water for land preparation. This may be due to : i.ii.iii.iv.V.T h e i r attention was on upland cultivation.Soil being sandy in n a t u r e , it is difficult to keep standing water on sandy s o i l without adequate canal water.There e x i s t s a practice called Attham, where farmer families help each other and work t o g e t h e r . Therefore, farmers moved to other areas where water was issued earlier and therefore, they could not make use of rain water.. (Farmers who had taken up land for lease at the head reach were busy in preparing that land.Hiring of t r a c t o r was not possible, because tractor operators expects standing w a t e r to pass rotovator.Farmers in the tail end prefer to g r o w other field crops :Water distribution has d i r e c t impact on land preparation which intern affects the cultivation practices like varietal selection, application of fertilizers, pesticides and other farming operat ions.All these practices affect yield and cost of cultivation. Even though all the farmers g r o w paddy extensively, tail end farmers t r y to include other field crops such as chillies (22 % ) in the red brown earth soils while paddy is grown in lowland areas with LHG soils. Such cultivation of o t h e r field crops in the head and middle reaches was not common (Table 3 . 9 ) .Extended time of land preparation f o r c e s the farmers to go for short duration ( c o a r s e ) paddy varieties. It was noticed that tail reach farmers use more s h o r t duration and bold seeded varieties (75%) compared to middle (50 % ) and head reaches ( 2 5 % ) (Table 3 . 9 ) .Although these varieties produce the same yield as long duration (fine) varieties, yet their low price in the market reduces the net return to the farmers.  Labour wages being very high IRs.l25/= per day for women and Rs.150/= per day for men) made many farmers to follow attham in which farmers work together in collective farming operations helping each other. However, this practice is more prominent at the tail reach (83 % ) where there was sufficient time f o r land preparation activities and water received was not regular, In the head and middle reaches where they get early and assured water supplies t h e y engage wage labours to g e t the work done in t i m e (Table 3 .lo) , 3-4.6 Breaking of channels; farmers not d i s c i p l i n e d : i:i' e After taking over by the farmer organization the practice of choking and damaging the structures was found to be not reduced. Out of t h e 25 turnout gates 3 were slightly damaged so as to take water whenever they want.Farmers have n o t been disciplined sufficiently to work as a team; considerable effort is needed to motivate them and make them work as a unit.Enforcement of discipline among farmers is also necessary.Blaming the turnover concept f o r a l l the i l l s :There was no substantial evidence that conflicts were prevalent within turnout in distributing the water. It was found that they work together helping each other. However, quarrelling among the tail end farmers, t h e farmer organization leader a n d -t h e jalapalaka was noticed for non issue of water (Table 3.11). T h e conflict was taken to t h e Unit Co-ordinating Committee meeting. The farmers were asking f o r r e l e a s e of more water to solve t h e i r problems.The data collected during land preparation phase indicates that farmers appreciate the existence of farmer organization but resent that the farmer organization failed in distributing of water equitabally. Farmers at the t a i l end indicated that water flow w a s better when MEA operated the system (Table 3.12). Farmer organization leader also feel that there was some lapse and this is due to not receiving adequate technical h e l p from them the agency.From the observation it was also felt that sufficient training and assistance of agency is very essential till they become capable of operating the system independently and efficiently.   With Jalapalaka  f:3 . 4 . 9Unequal net income : ~ The d a t a i n Table 3.13 indicates that farmers at the head r e a c h get higher yield and higher net return followed by t h e middle and tail reach farmers. The reduction in yield and net return by t h e t a i l reach farmers was respectively to a tune of 20 % and 2 2 % over t h e head reach farmers. There was not much difference in cost I invested for cultivation. The benefits cost ratio indicates that head reach farmers were much benefitted t h a n the tail reach. Gross R e t u r n ( R s / h a j 4 2 0 2 5 3 7 5 5 7 3 6 5 8 6Ccst of cultivation (Rs/ha) 1 7 5 7 1 1 6 5 0 0 1 6 3 7 5Net R e t u r n Information collected by the participant observation method and data collected by questionnaire method were analyzed and the results were compared .with each other to ascertain the applicability and utility of these methods. The results obtained by these two methods reveal that b o t h the methods produce comparable results in most of the cases with slight deviation in a very few cases (Annexure-I).A typical comparable and contrasting results obtained by these two methods are presented below.A s indicated by the questionnaire method it is true that all farmers could not complete their land preparation within four weeks. it was noticed that 80 % of the farmers could finish land preparation within four weeks, but generally it took five to six weeks by which a l l the farmers could complete their land preparation. However the reason for delay was different in the head and tail reach areas. Head reach farmers faced with problems like non availability of labour, tractor and excess water, while tail end farmers expressed difficulty in getting water, and hiring tractors.Similar to participant observation method questionnaire method a l s o indicated that at tail reach more farmers (25 % ) cultivated other c r o p s . Data disagrees with the type of crops grown. When data was collected by questionnaire method farmers stated that t h e y have cultivated vegetables instead of chilli. Chilli is the actual crop grown by the farmers.The questionnaire method indicates that there was no difference in duration of seed paddy selected by the head and t a i l end farmers, while participant observation method indicates that tail-enders used short duration varieties.Questionnaire method also indicates that the farmers though appreciative of t h e presence of farmer organization, they are dissatisfied with t h e management of water distribution. It was clear from t h e data that most of the tail reach and nearly 50 % of t h e head reach farmers are not satisfied with water distribution practice adopted by the farmer organization leader.In the participant observation method, the tail reach farmers often expressed that Mahaweli Economic Agency would be the best to operate the water issues but in questionnaire survey they f a i l e d to express this idea; it may be due to the fact that they might have forgotten the difficulties they experienced during land preparation. this clearly indicates that there is c e r t a i n loss of information depending upon when t h e questionnaire survey is conducted.The a5ove comparison indicates that both t h e methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Some of these are; 1 .The Participant observation method produces time-series data while the questionnaire method provides crosssectional data.The participant observation method captures t h e progress as well as the end result (outcome) while farmers recall through questionnaire focuses more on outcome than on process. In many cases, once t h e problem is solved, the farmers forget the ordeals undergone before that problem is solved and therefore, there is loss of information if the questionnaire is administered at a later date.In t h e questionnaire method, one must foresee what t h e process and outcomes would be and those aspects need to be included or e l s e one would miss the important points. In o t h e r words, designing and administering a questionnaire to extract correct information is a very important step in the questionnaire method; whereas in the participant observation method, it is important to t r a i n process documentor to observe more critically the on-going process and activities without making h i s presence much visible. P r o p e r l y designed and administered questionnaire should produce the same result as that of a properly conducted participant observation method. However, participant observation method is laborious, time consuming, c o s t l y and requires skilled and trained, participant observer, while questionnaire method requires less stringent skill and training.CHAPTER 5The following a r e the salient conclusions and recommendations arising out of this study:1.3 .7 . 8 .Paddy, one of the most important cereal crops of S r i Lanka, is grown in system H where there is considerable potential to save water through improved water management and to improve total production.Water supply in the main system (main and branch canals) was unstable and fluctuating causing variable discharge through off-take head of distributary channels.The operational schedule proposed by the MEA for the distributary canal does not match with the physical system design of t h e distributary. Therefore, farmers used an ad-hoc method of water distribution resulting in unequal and unreliable distribution between the head and tail-reach farmers.Presently, farmers are using excess w a t e r for land preparation. The excess varies anywhere between 100 to 150 percent more than what was planned.Rainfall is riot effectively used during the land preparation period.The distributary level water distribution is not effectively carried out by t h e farmer organization leader.Farmer organization needs technical support from the agency and adequate training for building their capacity to implement the water distribution schedule.Weak leadership of f a r m e r organization, insufficient strengthening of farmer organization and inadequate support from the agency are t h e main causes f o r the inefficient water management in the turned over system.Farmers at the head reach were not showing much interest to complete their land preparation in time so as to provide water to the tail-end farmers.  Growing of o t h e r field crops like chilli is on t h e increase in the tail-end compared to head and middle reaches.The head reach farmers a r e found to be benefitted more and got higher return than t h e middle and tail reach farmers. The unreliable water supply along t h e distributary was considered by the tail-end farmers as the major cause f o r less net return than the head and middle reach farmers.Participant observation methodology was found to be more suitable f o r detailed analysis of the process and outcomes of irrigation activities while questionnaire method is more suited to g e t the outcome of the irrigation activities.The MEA has to develop an operational schedule which will match with the existing physical system design, taking into account t h e existing state of control and regulating structures and the rainfall occurrences.The farmer organization needs training in implementing the operational plan.The agency has to work w i t h farmer organization i n a participatory mode in implementing t h e operational schedule till t h e farmers develop sufficient capacity to manage water distribution on their own. Every e f f o r t must be made to use rainfall effectively and reduce excess water utilization during the land preparation period.The trend of raising other field crops during both Maha and Yala must be encouraged and sufficient support needs to be provided to improve area cultivated with o t h e r field crops.The communication gap now existing among the agency, farmers and the farmer organization must be removed and effective interaction needs to be established for the successful functioning of the turned over system.","tokenCount":"7629"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b50f727d73af8935d740921bda4023d4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1c2f2889-1021-431a-9172-fb90c87f01a5/retrieve","id":"-905005304"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e886fd8b-8783-4abd-ae1f-81c82a91b5c0","pagecount":"3","content":"To advocate and assist cross-learning between complementary CPWF projects, in August 2007 CPWF Theme 1 (Crop Water Productivity Improvement) announced the availability of funds for travel grants to Theme 1 project members. CPWF Project 15 'Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system: Improving crop water productivity, food security and resource quality in the sub-humid tropics' application to visit CPWF Project 11 'Rice landscape management for raising water productivity, conserving resources and improving livelihoods in upper catchments of the Mekong and Red river basins' was approved, and executed in February 2008. The following story discusses the possibility of validating a successful agroforestry system developed by Latin-American farmers and technicians, with small-scale farmers of South-east Asia uplands.Slash and burn (SB) is an ancient form of agriculture practiced in around 25 per cent of the tropical land area. Even though SB agriculture does not guarantee food security and is recognized as a non-sustainable, environmentally unfriendly practice, farmers persist on using it for the short-term benefits it provides. SB practice continues to be the cheapest immediate source of firewood for householders and of nutrients for crop development, and an efficient method to control the incidence of pests and diseases on major staples.Combating deforestation and land degradation to mitigate the negative effects of agriculture on the environment are some of the major forces driving governments to outlaw SB. This may be perceived as the easiest route to impede slash and burn practices, but it certainly not the most effective. Resource-poor farmers simply need to produce food to subsist, and unless they have access to feasible agricultural alternatives, they are unlikely to stop burning. Unfortunately, there are few ready alternatives to SB practice, especially for small-scale farmers forced to produce on marginal lands in the tropics.In Honduras, an indigenous production system known as 'Quesungual' was identified by environmental technicians and then improved in collaboration with local farmers. CPWF Project 15's Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS) is a smallholder production system with a group of technologies for the sustainable management of water, soil and nutrient resources in drought-prone areas of hillsides agroecosystems of the sub-humid tropics. Farmers and development organizations had reported that in the short term QSMAS might be as productive and profitable as the SB system.In contrast to systems based on SB practice, the QSMAS principles of 1) no SB, 2) permanent soil cover, 3) minimal disturbance of soil, and 4) efficient use of fertilizer, contribute to improved food security, livelihoods and natural resources management through water efficient, soil conserving technologies. In the last decade, QSMAS has been promoted and successfully disseminated between resource-poor farmers in southwest Honduras as an alternative to replace the SB traditional production system.Among the specific objectives of CPWF 15 is to evaluate and document potential areas in the tropics that are suitable to QSMAS. Testing of QSMAS as an alternative to SB system through validation work with farmers in Nicaragua and Colombia has yielded significant results beyond expectations due to high acceptance of QSMAS by farmers and local authorities. Due to its good agronomic performance, in terms of productivity, the system successfully spread beyond the validation sites in Nicaragua. Site similarity analysis (SSA), used to define extrapolation domains for QSMAS, had identified other tropical regions with possibilities for its adaptation, including Southeast Asia (SE Asia) around the catchments of Mekong River in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and China.Preliminary extrapolation domains in Southeast Asia for the Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS).Both CPWF 15 and CPWF 11, the 'Rice landscape management for raising water productivity, conserving resources and improving livelihoods in upper catchments of the Mekong and Red river basins' project, are addressing similar research for development issues in their respective target areas. Both projects work with small-scale farmers facing similar problems that are limiting productivity and sustainability (e.g. soil erosion, poor sustainability and reduced crop-water productivity) in hillside areas with steep slopes where SB is the predominant production system.Given the similar contexts and the probabilities for QSMAS adaptation to SE Asia according to the SSA, a visit to the target region of CPWF Project 11 in Vietnam and Lao PDR was organized with the following objectives to:  Exchange information on the management practices used by farmers in the production systems located in steep slopes  Become familiar with the technologies being promoted by CPWF 11 for their potential targeting to similar areas of Latin America, and  Share CPWF 15 knowledge and experience on QSMAS with CPWF 11 staff and partners, with a view to conduct a preliminary assessment of the suitability of QSMAS as an alternative to SB system in the uplands of SE Asia.Aracely Castro, a Visiting Researcher of CIAT and also a QSMAS project PhD student, visited Lao PDR and Vietnam. Visits to CPWF 11 field sites in company of project staff and partners provided unique opportunities for the exchange of knowledge and resulted in a better understanding of the biophysical, socioeconomic and political contexts in the target region, and the knowledge of the technologies being tested and/or promoted by the Rice Landscape Management project.For CPWF 15, the main product of this visit is the knowledge of paddy rice production in both, uplands and lowlands, as an option to increase rice production in rural areas of Mesoamerica. In a second phase, technologies being promoted by CPWF 11 can be explored as opportunities for crop diversification and improved linkages to markets extend the benefits of QSMAS in Mesoamerica. For both projects, the main future objective could be the validation of QSMAS (or its principles) as a suitable alternative to SB system to improve food security and sustainability in the face of climate risks and land degradation in uplands of Lao PDR and Vietnam.Expected outcomes from this common objective could be contributing towards national objectives of protecting ecosystem services and local possibilities for the incipient policies on payment for environmental services that are being promoted in these countries.There is a need for a more rigorous feasibility study to explore the potential of QSMAS in sloping lands of SE Asia before initiating any efforts for its validation and adaptation. The study could include: Water and Food -the CPWF bimonthly newsletter http://www.waterandfood.org/newsletter/","tokenCount":"1024"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a24ebc59b4e90d68722231306d2992e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/afb0d1d3-29c7-42d9-944a-b1cfa55a395e/retrieve","id":"-374991336"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1c05e872-e830-4e43-a34c-6d09bc0221f1","pagecount":"27","content":"The new CGIAR GENDER Platform will contribute to the One CGIAR mission of ending hunger through science-driven transformation of food, land and water systems in the context of climate change, by reimagining the CGIAR gender-research-for-development agenda. We envision a new era in which food systems transformation and gender equality reinforce one another, accelerating and amplifying benefits that are equitable, sustainable and lasting. This report outlines the broad scope for developing an evidence hub that will be integrated with the Platform resource centre and highlights best practices and examples in establishing a user-friendly knowledge hub.The CGIAR Gender Platform Evidence Hub which will be housed in the Platform Resource Center is envisioned to be a mechanism to consolidate the collective knowledge on credible, legitimate and relevant evidence in the realm of gender and food systems. It provides a basis for debating and building evidence-based knowledge and practice in the Platform's focus areas. The evidence hub will act as a central repository for collective intelligence or arguments in gender in agriculture and food systems. Some proposed hub titles are included below -1. Gender in Agricultural Systems: an Evidence Repository (GASER) 2. Agriculture Systems and Gender: Insightful Long-term Evidence (AGILE)Based on the Evidence Gap Mapping exercise and identified key themes and sub themes of interest, the evidence hub will be organized into sections and subsections that are easily navigable and readily accessible. Along with the insights and resources categorised as mentioned, the hub will also host the EGM visual map as well as a forum for online stakeholder discussions.The hub will be a go-to repository for incremental evidence in the space of Gender and Food Systems. The hub will house different types of resources such as publications (journals, reports, policy briefs etc.), datasets, and multimedia, both internal to the CGIAR community and from the larger ecosystem.The intent of the evidence hub is to enable the audience and the research/academic community to -• Explore and debate the key challenges for the Gender in Agriculture movement. The community can link these challenges to issues, claims, organisations and solutions they are concerned with. • Members of the community can add a description of their work including geographical location and other relevant details. • Current questions can be posted, explored and discussed and new solutions proposed to tackle the major challenges. • Relevant evidence and resources for the community can be shared to contribute to the evidence base.The following graphic illustrates the key elements of a knowledge management framework for the GENDER platform, to position GENDER as the go-to-place for high quality evidence and knowledge on equitable and sustainable food systems.The evidence hub will aim to pool resources generated by the Platform, CGIAR partners such as national agricultural research and extension systems, university partners, advanced research institutions, nongovernment organizations, multilateral institutions and governments with whom CGIAR collaborates, and other entities. It will also consolidate and showcase key issues, insights and evidence from major websites and aligned repositories that have published thought provoking material on the subject (such as IFPRI's e-library https://ebrary.ifpri.org/digital/collection/p15738coll2/id/129389/; Data 2xhttps://data2x.org/ etc.)The hub will map both the social (people, organisations etc.) and discourse (issues, hypothesis, evidence etc.) ecosystem. Resources will be crowdsourced from the social ecosystem to triangulate information that is identified and filtered from the discourse ecosystem.Based on a review of literature around effective knowledge management and dissemination practices, and a review of evidence platforms across sectors and domains, the following practices and strategies are recommended for establishing an evidence hub for the CGIAR GENDER platform:A thorough mapping of different stakeholder groups and audiences and profiling their user journeys is essential to ensure that they are able to access required information and meet their goals in the least number of clicks possible. Consulting users from the outset can build buy-in, improve evidence uptake and engagement with the hub.The below image provides a snapshot of the user pathway through the hub from landing on the portal to visiting key touchpoints.Source: https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/user-journey-map/The journey mapping should include identification of personas of target customers and mapping their potential experience on the site. Thereafter a narrative or a story can be developed based on the derived user personas and touchpoints and this story can be visualised through user friendly layouts.Before commencing the hub design, a sample end user group (through internal networks) could be approached with a structured questionnaire to understand the various user paths and characteristics.The information should be organized using relevant taxonomy, keywords and themes/groups that are commonly used by the stakeholders in the sector as well as determined from the EGM exercise. Search engine optimization can be achieved through the right combination of keywords. Resources can also be grouped and presented for different users e.g. resources for researchers, resources for policymakers, and so on.• Organise content based on different goals of seeking information as indicated in the graphic below:Website navigation is an important element of designing a user-friendly evidence portal. Mapping user flows is a key step that will inform the design of the interface. At this stage, it is important to consider the following points:• What information are different user groups likely to search for?• What are the different entry points to the evidence portal? E.g. through Google search, email campaigns, social media • What actions are they likely to take once they have discovered the information they are looking for? E.g. download publication/data, share publication etc. Following is a simplified example of a potential user flow for an evidence hub:• The user arrives at the homepage → From the homepage the user clicks on the Resources tab → From the Resources tab the user uses the search menu to look for outputs related to a specific research theme → From the search results generated, the user downloads the first output Some best practises in terms of ease of navigation include -1. Type of menu -based on the number of links to be housed under the hub, we could use the mega menu style (for more links) or the cascading menu style (for fewer links). This will depend on the key user profiles 2. Add an interactive site map -the site map can be in the form of a video tutorial that would explain how to navigate the hub to the end user 3. Use of labels and icons -intuitive labels and icons can be used with menu links to communicate the information 4. Search versus navigation -use both in tandem to address the different user groups and individual preferences 5. Ready display of information -use simple classification categories to reduce search time Based on the user flow mapping exercise, the navigation should be intuitive and query forms should provide relevant filters for enabling users to generate reports and search for outputs accordingly. Relevant fields can include themes and sub-themes related to the platform's strategic agenda, region, type of output, year. Advanced filters can be added over time, as the volume of outputs stored on the hub gradually increases.Example: dynamic knowledge map to visualise outputs and enable rapid discovery Open Knowledge Maps presents a topical overview for your search term based on the 100 most relevant documents for your search term. This feature can be added over time, to speed up discovery of relevant information by research area or theme. Interactive evidence gap maps provide users a birds-eye view of the evidence base on a specific theme, identify areas with little to no evidence, and can facilitate collaboration across the CGIAR and development ecosystem. As a starting point, we will integrate the EGM visual in the evidence hub and at a later stage this can be expanded into a more comprehensive open knowledge map.Integrating principles of visual hierarchy is essential to deliver a user-friendly interface.• For text-heavy websites and sections, an F-shaped pattern can be used to draw the user's attention to the most important sections of the website. In this case, the F-shaped pattern can be used to display the search filters and results (example below-3ie Development Evidence portal). Example: IDEO's card style display• Finally, A/B testing can be carried out with a sample of users to understand which interface works better. Such pilots can be conducted with closed user groups from the immediate CGIAR family and ecosystem partners. Design thinking workshops can also be conducted to capture any design elements that might have been overlooked while conceptualising the architecture and layout of the evidence hub.Collating and making evidence available on the hub is only the first step in improving access to credible evidence. Research by the Alliance for Useful Evidence suggests that enabling uptake through targeted communication strategies, and engaging with users (The Science of Using Science, 2016) is crucial in enabling research uptake. Designing a package of communication strategies including email marketing campaigns, and innovative social media strategies can generate higher traffic. Moreover, hosting a dedicated blog on the platform can be an effective channel for presenting non-technical summaries and actionable takeaways of publications and outputs.User engagement can be boosted by collecting feedback from a sample on a periodic basis and analysing user journeys to identify any shortcomings in design. For instance, CGIAR and IFPRI use Altmetric to show how many have accessed a specific article, and how many have cited or mentioned it on social media platforms. Having a dedicated forum for chats with experts and practitioners can result in higher traffic to the hub and improve engagement with knowledge products and offerings. Further, creating a network of evidence champions and a vibrant community of practitioners that serve as ambassadors for the platform's work can enable wider reach as well. A lot of evidence centres also encourage cross platform tracking of mentions of the evidence hub (in twitter and other social media platforms) which can be adopted during platform design. These efforts can be aligned with existing initiatives such as CGIAR Dgroup to minimise duplication of efforts, ensure optimal use of resources and aim for greater integration across the ecosystem in line with the objectives set for 'One CGIAR'.Digital storytelling techniques and innovative formats such as video abstracts, explainers, interactive graphics and infographics can help translate key messages into digestible formats for different audiences. This approach has the potential to elucidate complex concepts and research in a compelling and accessible manner while retaining the nuances of various forms of research and the voices of beneficiaries and other stakeholder groups.Example: CGAP's infographic on segmenting smallholder households and interactive data hubThe evidence hub should allow different users to build progressively and collaboratively on the same content, thus facilitating collaborative knowledge production and discovery. The system should allow users to easily add evidence or present counter-evidence to other claims, thus triggering conversations and knowledge sharing between people who tackle similar issues. Finally, the evidence hub should allow users to visualize, explore and be part of a social network of contributors. This would ensure sustainability of the hub beyond just sharing or showcasing resources in the areas of gender and agriculture.It is important to conduct a baseline assessment of the current traffic to the GENDER platform and establish key metrics that will be tracked to assess the evidence hub's reach. This is important for understanding trends in user behaviour and enhancing the hub's reach over time. A number of factors influence website traffic including navigation, design, on-page and off-page Search Engine Optimisation, use of relevant keywords, loading speed, linkages with social media channels and campaigns, among others. Analysing traffic can inform strategies for course correction with respect to content, layout and design of sections, if required.Some of the relevant metrics that can be tracked in this regard are:• Audience data -number of visits, number of unique visitors and growth in these numbers • New vs returning visitor ratio • Number of views of specific pages/outputs, downloads and social shares of outputs • Length of time per visit • Campaign data -for instance, whether email marketing campaigns or social media campaigns are more effective in driving traffic to the hubA robust process flow is required to govern all activities related to uploading, updating and managing information on the hub using a content management system. This will ensure that the hub remains upto-date with relevant information and build its influence and credibility as a go-to platform for evidence on the subject.The process flows should also illustrate the linkages between the hub and CGIAR ecosystem, including protocols for depositing outputs and metadata in proper institutional or platform repositories, and editorial and style guidelines, in line with CGIAR and the GENDER platform's policies.2. Representative icons -Use of intuitive icons ensures that the user readily understands the message without having to spend time on the content or text. 3. Dashboard -A dynamic summary dashboard in a ticker form provides a quick overview of the extent of information accessible through the hub at any point in time. 4. Simple search bar -The search bar placed on the right for and within the dashboard provides a clean and simple tool to explore content for a new user who might not be looking for any specific information but in general wants to understand what is available in the hub. 5. The spotlight section showcases the most current and seminal knowledge output (publication, data etc.) that provides the user with a quick link to new research and insights without the need to search or go through all the resources.The sample themes page showcases the suggested content under the first tab in the header menu. The theme pages will typically have a short description of the themes and sub themes and provide an option to search for particular resources under the theme.The knowledge output page showcases the learning outputs under three categoriesa) CGIAR group resources: This category houses all resources produced by CGIAR and its group entities b) Global evidence: This category houses all resources in the area of gender in agriculture and food systems from relevant sources around the globe c) Evidence map: This tab showcases the evidence in a visual form such as a open knowledge map Under each category, along with a search function for users who intend to search with specific keywords, there is an option to search by topics, type and region. This elaborate search bar is intentionally placed in the sub page under knowledge products so that the user is able to filter using more than one option under each category (for e.g. resources such as publications and data, from India and China). For the more rigorous search filter, left alignment is ideal so that the outcomes of the search are prominently displayed on the right for ease of access.The discussion forum page organises user discussions according to the themes and conversations are neatly packaged under the relevant queries or topics initiated by the user. These discussions can be tagged and directly linked to the resources for content upload and download.The other two layouts suggested below provide a variation to the homepage content organisation according to the user eye movement, click efficiency and functionality.The suggestive layouts for the main pages of the evidence hub is intended to drive usage and enhance end user experience through simple and intuitive placements and a clean and efficient design. The final layout will, however, depend on the target audience, a/b testing, budget and technical capabilities, the desired content placement and other such important factors that might be a priority for the Platform organisers.The costing of the hub microsite development (based on rates in India) assuming 10-15 unique pages comes to around INR 6,00,000 (~USD 8500). Further details are provided in the table below - ","tokenCount":"2580"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b722a67d7bd387471a61651014571f71","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/195aef7e-3ed9-4df7-98f7-2e447cd83266/retrieve","id":"-1063121568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4f60cf02-6750-4623-a15d-42aa781f7f3e","pagecount":"4","content":"works with public, private and non-profit partner organizations to increase income, food and nutrition security of livestock value chain actors in the Mopti, Timbuktu and Sikasso regions in Mali. The program works to improve animal health delivery services and promote health interventions that reduce disease burden in livestock, increase availability of quality feed biomass, and improve feed utilization and husbandry practices together with facilitation of market access by producers.The program seeks to foster the transformation of livestock value chains through the development of partnerships among key stakeholders. Innovation platforms are seen as a mechanism to harness collective action to address the constraints and opportunities pertaining to animal health and ruminant livestock value chains development as a whole. In this specific context, they have been established to empower livestock value chain stakeholders to scale up innovative solutions to sectoral challenges.The initial phases in the establishment of innovation platforms focuses on ways of addressing policy and organizational barriers inhibiting access by producers to adequate animal health inputs and services. These spaces also serve as an 'incubator' for the design and rollout of innovations that remove bottlenecks to livestock value chain development. This, hereby, benefits all participants by improving access to inputs and services and enhancing the business environment.Innovation platforms have been established in 31 program communes. A 'commune'-an urban or rural territorial collectivity acting as a legal entity with financial autonomy-is the unit of intervention. In this case, a commune comprises 6-35 villages. Each commune comprises an established municipal council of elected officials. The municipal council regulates the affairs of the commune, particularly those relating to economic, social and cultural development.The stakeholders include direct actors such as livestock producers and traders; transporters and butchers; women's cooperatives; local promoters of small livestock feed enterprises; milk processors and associations of private veterinarians 1 ; and public and private 1 Collectif des Vétérinaires du Mali, Association Nationale des Vétérinaires Mandataires du Mali.An innovation platform is a space for information sharing and learning to improve the coordination and promotion of changes in agricultural practices. Individuals-often representing different organizations and sectoral interests-come together to identify problems and ways of taking advantages of existing opportunities. They may design and implement activities as a platform, or coordinate activities assigned to individuals by a project (Kilelu et al. 2013;Tucker et al. 2013). input and service providers such as government agencies 2 ; non-governmental organizations 3 , communal leaders and microfinance institutions.This process involved the following steps:1.An analysis of existing multi-stakeholder initiatives in target communes as a way of leveraging those with similar goals and learning from their successes and weaknesses. 2.The identification of and consultation with project partners leading the facilitation of the innovation platforms.The provision of training to program partner institutions on facilitation and leadership using material (http://learning.ilri.org/course/detail/80) from the International Livestock Research Institute. 4.The formal establishment of the innovation platforms. 5.The development of an action plan. 6.The development of monitoring and evaluation tools. 7.The elaboration of a capacity development strategy.The initial interventions have been articulated around priority constraints identified by the program through a participatory process together with stakeholders. As such, they constitute an entry point to (1) generate tangible results; and (2) serve as an incentive for stakeholders to engage in innovations responding to other important local priorities.For producers to become more market oriented, they need to access quality extensions services, sustainable and organized farmer institutions, well developed market channels, and more favourable credit and financial products. The key program outputs include the development and implementation of strategies increasing access to extension services, innovative livestock marketing approaches, and appropriate credit and financial products for producers and private veterinarians.To help make progress in these areas, the platforms have focused on:  the design and testing of sustainable partnerships models for capacity development in disease control and prevention, herd and flock management and feeding, as well as access to quality animal health services;  the design and testing of alternative livestock marketing models; and  increasing access to credit and finance by value chains actors.Because of the broad range of members engaged in the platforms, their priorities, interests and entry points are often diverse. In order to deliver on program outputs-while responding to platform expectations not prioritized by the program-the innovation platforms first agreed on keys activities as a starting point. Five key areas of common interest have been selected.Strategies for increased participation of producers in livestock vaccination campaigns: The platforms catalysed a participatory process to guide the planning and evaluation of vaccination campaigns through information sharing and feedback. Community approaches to animal census set up by the platforms have helped obtain improved statistics on livestock population for use by private veterinarians seeking to estimate vaccine demand. In this way, the platforms have enhanced participation of producers in vaccination campaigns, generating further business for private veterinarians. The platforms have encouraged the timely supply of vaccines by facilitating the signing of contractual agreement between private veterinarian associations, financial institutions, and the Central Veterinary Laboratory. b) Support for the development of business models for a livestock fattening scheme: The main role of the platforms here has been to facilitate sheep and cattle fattening activities with a particular emphasis on supporting linkages between producers and local (Laham Industries) and regional markets in Côte d'Ivoire, the Republic of Guinea and Senegal.Support for the development of business models for women's cooperatives: The platforms foster a conducive environment for women producer cooperatives to diversify their sources of income through the development and rolling out of viable business models, such as the production of mineral blocks for livestock feeding. d)Development of a community-based Bracharia seed system: Through participation in the platforms, model farmers have been identified. They are encouraged to get involved in the Bracharia seed production business and were provided with training. e)Capacity development: The platforms facilitate the implementation of capacity development activities for value chain actors on animal health, food safety and livestock production through the promotion of an integrated technological package (health, feeding and housing).Some of the lessons learned in the process include: a.The importance of the relationship between understanding the process and developing shared objectives, and enhancing participation. b.The importance of the involvement of key value chain stakeholder representatives from the beginning to creating synergies and enhanced complementary collective actions. The absence of some keys actors may discourage the involvement of others who need their support. c.The need to have a self-financing mechanism to ensure the sustainability of the platforms, in order to avoid collapse after the life span of the project. d.The need to constantly strengthen platform governance and leadership for the process to become sustainable. e.The importance of a good communication strategy in raising platform visibility through the sharing of success stories. This raises trust in the process in the eyes of the community and can act as an effective incentive-based strategy in increasing participation.The  ","tokenCount":"1135"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ceee0f8d277284519a9ca6de2d25f994","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b94d3747-3751-4c73-a41a-24fbc87a9c08/content","id":"1548212838"},"keywords":["biofortification","stable carbon isotope","vitamin A+","carrot","GCCIRMS","vitamin A effectiveness","vitamin A efficacy"],"sieverID":"9f932c69-002e-4b47-b0a6-e1a52ef598fb","pagecount":"8","content":"Background: Crops such as maize, sorghum, and millet are being biofortified with provitamin A carotenoids to ensure adequate vitamin A (VA) intakes. VA assessment can be challenging because serum retinol concentrations are homeostatically controlled and more sensitive techniques are resource-intensive.Objectives: We investigated changes in serum retinol relative differences of isotope amount ratios of 13 C/ 12 C (d 13 C) caused by natural 13 C fractionation in C 3 compared with C 4 plants as a biomarker to detect provitamin A efficacy from biofortified (orange) maize and high-carotene carrots.Biofortifying staple and horticultural foods with provitamin A carotenoids can sustainably ensure adequate vitamin A (VA) 8  intakes (1) and mitigate potential hypervitaminosis A risks caused by preformed VA in high-dose supplements and fortified foods (224). The bioefficacy of high provitamin A (orange) maize, defined as the production of retinol from consumed provitamin A carotenoids (5), has been demonstrated in gerbil studies (6, 7) and single-meal feeding studies in humans (8,9). To evaluate health-promoting interventions in humans, efficacy and effectiveness trials are conducted. Efficacy trials are char-acterized by ideal circumstances that maximize the likelihood of observing a treatment effect: a selected homogeneous population, standardized intervention, and experienced providers or study facilitators. Effectiveness trials are characterized by real-world circumstances designed to determine whether the intervention works as actually used or adopted: a broad heterogeneous population, less standardized treatment protocols, and usual providers (10,11). A human bioefficacy study determined that orange maize (OM) is an efficacious VA source in children (3), but to our knowledge effectiveness trials have not yet been carried out.Liver VA concentration is the gold standard for evaluating VA status (12); however, this is only feasible in animal studies or in special cases in humans. Serum retinol concentrations are homeostatically controlled over a wide range of liver reserves (12214), are affected by infection and inflammation (15,16), and are nonsensitive indicators of changes in VA status (12). Furthermore, several indicators used for VA assessment, such as serum retinol and dose-response tests, are qualitative because they only distinguish deficiency from adequacy. Studies performed for provitamin A-biofortified maize in humans have used multiple blood draws for postprandial response (9) or stable isotope methods with intrinsically labeled maize (8) and tracer VA doses for isotope dilution (3). These techniques require dosing and multiple blood samples per subject, which may not be practical in large-scale effectiveness studies, particularly in children.Most plants used for food, including staples such as wheat and rice, are C 3 plants; however, there are a few notable crops used for human consumption that are C 4 plants (e.g., maize, millet, sorghum, sugar cane) (17). C 3 plants discriminate more against 13 C during photosynthesis and therefore have lower 13 C enrichment than C 4 plants (18). 13 C content at natural abundance concentrations is often expressed using the d notation, which refers to Vienna Pee Dee Beleminite (VPDB) and is expressed as  (22,23); however, the difference between C 3 and C 4 plants is maintained, as noted with lutein obtained from marigold compared with maize (229.9& 6 0.2& and 219.8& 6 0.3&, respectively) (23). This difference gives the potential to in vivo metabolites in determining dietary plant origins based on 13 C composition. Because no carbon is gained or lost during the cleavage of b-carotene or other provitamin A carotenoids to VA (24), the d 13 C of serum retinol can reflect the dietary sources, including preformed and provitamin A (25). The principle of isotope mass balance states that the amount of heavy isotope in a system is a linear combination of its components (19), which could be used to quantitatively estimate the relative contributions of dietary vitamin A sources.Several C 4 crops are being biofortified with provitamin A carotenoids; in addition to maize, sorghum (26) and millet (27) are also targets. C 4 plants often have advantages over C 3 plants under conditions of drought, heat, and CO 2 or nitrogen limitations, and for this reason they are major crops in tropical and subtropical regions (28). Furthermore, they may play a vital role in food and nutrition security under changing climates (28,29). These biofortified varieties should be confirmed for VA bioefficacy and effectiveness at the population level.This controlled study was undertaken to determine whether b-carotene efficacy from OM could be demonstrated with the use of shifts in the d 13 C of serum retinol from the natural enrichment of maize feeding and comparing these values to the d 13 C of liver VA, liver VA concentrations, and serum retinol concentrations. The d 13 C was determined with GC combustion isotope ratio MS, which is known for its high degree of precision at natural abundance concentrations (30). Mongolian gerbils are a useful model for human absorption and metabolism of provitamin A carotenoids (31233). Findings in maize could also extend to millet and sorghum because of their similar 13 C enrichment.Maize. The biofortified OM was developed at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico as part of its HarvestPlus biofortified maize research project (34). Seed was shipped from Mexico to Zambia, and the grain of this OM variety was produced on a commercial farm in Central Province, Zambia.Orange maize was stored frozen (220°C to 210°C) after harvest. White maize (WM) is a locally consumed variety in Zambia. Both varieties were hand-carried to the University of Wisconsin to be used in this study.Carrots. Carrots from the USDA carrot breeding and genetics program were grown by the University of California Desert Research and Extension Station in sandy loam soil in October and harvested in March. Carrots were refrigerated at 2°C until shipped overnight from California to Wisconsin. Upon arrival, they were returned to 2°C until freeze-dried for feed preparation. The genotypes used (i.e., high carotene mass and B2327) were selected for high b-carotene concentrations.Gerbil feed. Gerbil feeds were formulated with assistance from Harlan-Teklad to meet National Research Council-recommended macro-and micronutrient needs (35). Feeds were 50% maize by weight (36) and were modified by adding carrots at 1.5% by weight (Supplemental Table 1). Maize, carrots, or the VA fortificant provided the sources of VA. The retinyl palmitate used as the fortificant was dry vitamin A palmitate (250,000 IU VA/g; DSM Nutritional Products Ltd.) and was added at a concentration to meet ;50% of estimated utilization rates found in previous studies [2.7 2 5.1 mg retinol activity equivalents (RAEs)/100 g body weight (33,37)], resulting in a target concentration of 0.25 mg RAE/g feed. All other feed constituents were constant between groups. Treatment groups were differentiated by 3 factors: OM compared with WM, orange carrots (OCs) compared with white carrots (WCs), and VA fortificant (VA+ compared with VA2) in a 2 3 2 3 2 factorial design.Gerbils and study design. Gerbils for this study were a random subset of a larger gerbil feeding study (n = 85). Male 28-d-old Mongolian gerbils (Charles River Laboratories) were group housed during VA depletion (2-3/cage) and treatment (2/cage). Animal handling procedures were approved by the University of Wisconsin College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Animal Care and Use Committee. Gerbils were weighed daily for 2.5 wk and thereafter 3 times/wk. Room temperature and humidity were held constant with a 12-h light/dark cycle. Gerbils consumed ad libitum. During the depletion period (days 1-14), all gerbils consumed WM, WCs, and VA2 feed. After 14 d, a baseline group kill (n = 5) was performed by exsanguination while the gerbils were under isoflurane anesthesia. The remaining gerbils were weight matched and allocated into 8 groups (n = 5-7/group) for the treatment period (days 15-77). After a 62-d treatment period (day 77), a final kill (n = 50) was performed as described previously.Carotenoid and retinoid analyses. All sample analyses for carotenoids and retinoids were performed under gold fluorescent lights to prevent photo-oxidation and isomerization. Feeds were analyzed for carotenoids by a published procedure for extraction (38) and an HPLC system (36). Feeds were analyzed for retinol with the same extraction and a minor modification of the HPLC system for retinol (39); solvent A was acetonitrile:water (92.5:7.5, vol:vol), and solvent B was acetonitrile:methanol:dichloroethane (80:10:10, vol:vol), both with triethylamine (0.05%, vol:vol). Serum retinol was extracted with a modified published procedure (40). Briefly, ;1 mL serum, 1 mL ethanol, and 25 mL C23 b-apocarotenol in methanol were extracted twice with 1.5-mL hexanes, dried under nitrogen, resuspended in 80 mL methanol, and injected onto the first HPLC system for quantification and primary purification (3). Liver retinol and retinyl esters were analyzed by a modified published procedure (39); retinol and retinyl esters were summed to report total VA. Modifications included using ;0.5 g liver and C23 b-apocarotenol as the internal standard, resuspending the dried aliquot in 100 mL methanol:dichloroethane (75:25, vol:vol), and using a 25-mL injection volume of reconstituted sample for HPLC. 13 C determinations. Serum retinol was further processed for 13 C content by a published procedure (3), including an additional HPLC purification step, drying under vacuum centrifugation, resuspension into hexanes, and injection onto the GC combustion isotope ratio mass MS system (Supplemental Figure 1) (25). A separate aliquot of the liver lipid extract was saponified and extracted (7); the resulting retinol was purified and analyzed similarly to serum retinol.Maize and carrot total carbon d 13 C were determined using an elemental analyzer combined with isotope ratio MS (41). Retinyl acetate from the VA fortificant was saponified and analyzed similarly to liver VA. All feed samples were analyzed in triplicate.Estimation of maize contribution to dietary vitamin A. The mass balance (isotope balance) equation (19,30) was adapted to the population level and solved for the relative contribution of maize to the total VA intake in terms of serum retinol d 13 C& of the test and control groups (Supplemental Methods):where n is RAEs expressed as moles and the corresponding subscripts ''maize'' and ''combined'' refer to contribution from maize and total VA, respectively. Mean serum retinol d 13  below the VA deficiency cutoff of 0.1 mmol VA/g liver ( 14) after treatment. Both provitamin A carotenoid sources increased liver VA concentrations considerably. The mean liver VA concentrations from all groups that consumed OC were not different from each other and were much greater than all groups that consumed WC. Within the WC groups, both groups that consumed OM had higher VA liver concentrations than their respective WM controls. The VA fortificant, which was meant to meet 50% of the estimated requirements of gerbils, did not notably improve VA stores. All groups that consumed the VA fortificant had liver VA concentrations that were similar to their respective controls without the VA fortificant. Nonetheless, the group that consumed appreciable VA from fortificant only (WMWCVA+) had a mean liver VA concentration >0.1 mmol/g and was not significantly different from the baseline group (P = 0.08), which meant they were able to maintain initial VA status. Serum retinol concentrations did not differ between groups despite a wide range of liver VA concentrations, and serum retinol was not correlated to liver VA concentrations (R 2 = 0.028).Serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C. Serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C had good agreement (Figure 2), indicating that the accessible serum retinol pool is highly reflective of the major liver VA store. When serum retinol d 13 C was analyzed with 3-factor ANOVA, all main effects, the VA 3 carrot interaction, and the maize 3 carrot interaction were highly significant (all P # 0.0001). The VA 3 maize interaction (P = 0.09) and 3-factor interaction were not significant. Because of multiple interactions, 1-factor ANOVA with post hoc analysis was then used to analyze the data, including the baseline group.Serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C by group showed similar responses to treatment (Figure 3A, B). All groups that consumed OM had significantly greater VA d 13 C than the corresponding WM controls. By contrast, all groups that consumed OCs had much lower VA d 13 C values compared with corresponding WC controls. The group that consumed the VA fortificant as the primary VA source (WMWCVA+) had serum d 13 C that was not significantly different than the VA fortificant (227.9& 6 0.5& compared with 227.4& 6 1.2&). The group that consumed VA almost entirely (>99.9%) from maize had a serum retinol d 13 C of 220.6& 6 0.7&.Estimation of maize contribution to dietary VA. Plots were made with the use of Supplemental Methods Equation 4 of 3 pairs of control and test groups (Figure 4). The proportion of dietary VA predicted from Supplemental Methods Equation 5in the model agreed well with analytical values; all 3 test group means were within the 95% confidence limits. Supplemental Methods Equation 5can be simplified to include data from the OMWCVA2 group assuming the group mean adequately represents the serum retinol d 13 C of gerbils that consumed VA almost entirely from maize (>99.9%). Therefore, the relative contribution of maize to total dietary VA in a population can be estimated by the serum retinol d 13 C group means of the control and test (combined) groups:Experimental and analytical variation. Experimental and analytical CVs were very low for d 13 C and their corresponding 13 C isotopic abundance ( 13 C/total carbon) values (Supplemental Table 2). All d 13 C CVs for individual experimental groups were #3.4%, and all 13 C isotopic abundance CVs for individual experimental groups were #0.23%. The analysis of d 13 C in serum retinol allowed the determination of provitamin A efficacy from biofortified maize compared with feeds containing minimal VA, provitamin A carotenoids, preformed VA, or a combination of sources when contrasted to an appropriate control group. Furthermore, the relative contribution of maize to total VA intake was quantitatively estimated and verified against analytical determination. The first advantage is high sensitivity to detect provitamin A maize consumption because of low variation within groups that consumed the same feeds. Circulating retinol concentrations are homeostatically controlled outside of severe hypo-or hypervitaminosis A (12,42,43) and frequently do not respond to VA interventions (3,14,44,45), both of which were observed in this study. However, they are still often used as a primary outcome to evaluate populations and interventions aimed at improving VA status (46), which may not detect the potential effects of b-carotene or VA interventions that use more sensitive methods (3,44,45). A second advantage is that a single blood sample after long-term consumption is required. More sensitive methods used as outcomes in VA studies, such as isotope dilution (3,44) or appearance in serum ( 9), use multiple blood draws. This is undesirable-especially when working with children-and can complicate recruitment and follow-up during studies (47). Finally, no external isotopically labeled material or VA analogues, which are used for isotope dilution, tracer, and modified dose-response tests (12,14,48), are required. These compounds are often expensive and technically demanding to produce and prepare. Together these advantages show promise for future efficacy or large-scale effectiveness trials to evaluate crop adoption and consumption, especially in populations or settings in which resources are limited and multiple sample collections are not practical.Variations in natural abundance ratios of stable isotopes (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen) measured from numerous sources (e.g., breath, hair, nails, plasma, RBCs, and specific molecules such as alanine) have been used as biomarkers for dietary origin (49). An early study noted elevated d 13 C in breath CO 2 after the consumption of sugar (50), and more recent applications have further developed the methodology. For example, d 13 C was measured from several tissues to assess sugar intake (51), and serum total carbon d 13 C was lower after an intervention to decrease sugar-sweetened beverage intake (52). Nitrogen-15 enrichment varies between plant and animal protein sources, and this natural difference has been correlated with meat and fish intake in numerous studies (49). Reduced serum retinol d 13 C was demonstrated in response to increased consumption of C 3 vegetables containing provitamin A carotenoids, including carrots and pumpkin (25), which we also demonstrated in this study.Other studies have applied GC combustion isotope ratio MS to measure per-labeled 13 C b-carotene (53) and lutein (54) absorption, enabling the characterization of the appearance and disappearance of carotenoids in plasma after the ingestion of physiological amounts from food. Traditional MS could  theoretically be used to apply our proposed method, although instead of a single CO 2 peak with 3 mass traces from the combusted retinol to determine the 13 C: 12 C ratio (Supplemental Figure 1), mass distributions of retinol would need to be compared, and adequate precision would first have to be demonstrated.Although enzymatic isotope effects are established in plants and yield differences in 13 C enrichments both in classes of metabolites (i.e., starch compared with lipid) within plants (22) and between plants exhibiting different photosynthetic systems (18), it is relatively unknown whether similar effects can be observed for VA in animals and affect organ partitioning given that numerous enzymes participate in VA metabolism (55). Excellent agreement between serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C indicates that in a paradigm of constant long-term consumption, the use of serum retinol d 13 C is a suitable alternative to represent that in the major liver store.Serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C of treatment groups agreed with data in the literature. Lipids and carotenoids are reduced in 13 C by ;5-10& compared with total carbon (22,23), which agrees with our results that OC total carbon had a d 13 C of 225.6&, and the treatment group that consumed OCs as the predominant VA source (WMOCVA2) had a mean liver VA d 13 C of 229.8& (a difference of 4.2&). OM total carbon had a d 13 C of approximately 211.0&, and the treatment group with the only appreciable VA dietary source as OM (OMWCVA2) had a mean liver VA d 13 C of 220.5& (a difference of 9.5&). Furthermore, the liver VA d 13 C from these 2 groups corresponded well to lutein obtained from marigold (a C 3 plant) compared with maize (229.9& and 219.8&, respectively) (23). Serum retinol d 13 C was similar in the gerbils that obtained VA from the fortificant only (WMWCVA+) to the d 13 C of the fortificant itself.Although natural 13 C enrichment is suitable for distinguishing provitamin A carotenoid efficacy from maize compared with a WM control feed in a trial setting, this study revealed limitations on its use as a purely diagnostic tool for VA status. In addition to the baseline group, 4 treatment groups had similar serum retinol and liver VA d 13 C despite widely varying liver VA concentrations. These treatment groups either consumed either both OM and OCs or both WM and WCs, and the resulting enrichment was a mixture of the sources. Although WM and WCs are both very low in provitamin A carotenoids, each contributed small amounts to the feed (maize: 5.2 6 1.1 ng b-carotene/g feed; carrots: 4.5 6 0.4 ng b-carotene/g feed), which would be reflected in the d 13 C values. However, groups that consumed OM had considerably higher serum retinol d 13 C and liver VA concentrations than their respective controls that consumed WM. If a population that consumed OM demonstrated elevated serum retinol d 13 C, it could be inferred that their VA status is greater than or equal to a control population that consumed WM depending on the initial VA status of the population. d 13 C shifts reflect the consumption of provitamin A maize but are not a replacement for evaluating VA status, such as isotope dilution methods (3). Isotope dilution or dose-response tests could be used on a subset of randomly selected individuals to confirm desired VA status in efficacy or effectiveness studies.Liver VA concentrations were not different between all groups that consumed OCs regardless of additional VA from OM or the fortificant, likely reflecting the downregulation of provitamin A bioconversion (56, 57) and a relatively minor impact of the VA fortificant compared with OCs. Despite this, the serum retinol d 13 C was still able to distinguish the feeds in which provitamin A carotenoids were obtained from OM or OCs. This is important considering some populations targeted for biofortification have substantial intakes of VA, even if intake varies seasonally (58,59). Although these reports highlight a need for more sensitive markers of VA status to ensure interventions do not lead to the chronic overconsumption of VA (2,3), biofortification of staple foods with provitamin A carotenoids can mitigate seasonal gaps in provitamin A consumption and reduce the chances of excessive preformed vitamin A intake caused by the regulation of absorption and bioconversion of provitamin A carotenoids (56,57). A 62-d treatment period was sufficient to have serum retinol d 13 C reflect that in the major body pool (i.e., liver) in this study, but this time requirement in humans likely depends on a number of factors, including the baseline body pool of VA, dietary VA intake, and the rate of VA metabolism. Labeled VA doses mix with body stores within 26 d after administration to adults (60) and 12 d in children (61); however, it will likely take longer for serum retinol d 13 C to accurately reflect regular dietary consumption. If the VA pool size increases as the intervention intends, this equilibration time would be shorter.","tokenCount":"3520"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1a283566e7af007ccdd9fb5f35afdc55","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a8c3e3b9-4adf-4410-bad2-43e30d89a0ef/retrieve","id":"-910077890"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"40551a4e-3ba7-485d-b0d7-3aae88c18cbf","pagecount":"16","content":"Malnutrition is a major challenge in Africa. The recent famine has focused attention on the need for prediction and prevention of nutrition crises in Africa. Scientists can use recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and a combination of traditional and new data sources to generate real-time insights into and dynamics of nutrition and food security to help predict and prevent future emergencies.Dr. Jennifer Blanke, in her keynote address, highlighted the bank's renewed focus on addressing nutrition to improve gray matter infrastructure and the bank's response to the current food crisis under the Say-no-to-Famine framework. She hailed the development of early warning systems to enhance nutrition resilience in Africa, citing the recent devastating effects of floods in Sierra Leone that have implications for health and nutrition, and the impact of drought on micronutrient-rich and animal-based foods. Dr. Blanke stressed that a new paradigm shift to strengthen NEWS for food and nutrition security is urgently required, and pledged close collaboration between AfDB and CIAT in this effort.Highlighting the work of the MERIAM Project, Allison Greenberg articulated the complexity of nutrition and underscored the need to understand the root cause of malnutrition, which is not just the lack of food. Malnutrition has many multisectoral causes, which are difficult to generalize and often change in different contexts and settings. She noted that many existing early warning systems are not always effective for nutrition early warning as they report nutrition crises at their peak rather than before their onset, thereby making a case for NEWS. Clearly, many efforts focus only on food security early warning systems, which capture only half the picture. Greenberg emphasized the need to focus not only on strengthening and using information from existing systems but also on pulling in complementary data that can provide the big picture.A panel discussion was designed as an interactive session with the facilitator asking questions of the panelists, and engaging in follow-ups and probes. Some of the questions posed to panelists follow:• What is the economic case for investing in nutrition early warning?• What is AI and what is its role in nutrition early warning?• What are the data needs required by NEWS versus the current data ecosystem in Africa?• How will a more accurate, precise, and focused prediction change the way leaders respond to nutrition crises?• What institutional structure is needed to address the current nutrition status in Africa?The panelist responses are summarized below: According to Rositsa Zaimova, Dalberg Data Insights (DDI) uses both traditional and nontraditional data sources on various agricultural, food security, and nutrition indicators to pick up trends for food security. Currently, scientists rely heavily on survey data usually referred to as mainstream data. However, DDI has shown that non-traditional data such as satellite data and mobile phone communications can generate good-quality data to enable the prediction of a food crisis and plausibly a nutrition crisis. Determining data needs vis-à-vis current data available is also crucial. The use of these two types of data will be critical in developing NEWS.Sir Gordon Conway, a member of the Malabo-Montpellier Panel and professor of international development at Imperial College London, said:\"Why has [malnutrition in Rwanda] gone down? Because cross-ministerial and government groups meet on a regular basis and are responsible for the problem. … We need to get these modeling efforts to be feeding into crossministerial committees in a way that they can understand.\"Through the Menti® platform (www.menti.com | code 62 55 40), an online audience participation/ feedback internet portal, delegates submitted questions and comments to the session. Below is a thematic synthesis of the comments from the delegates on the development, validation, and deployment of NEWS. More detailed comments are contained in Annex 1.There is a need for the NEWS project to engage in policy advocacy and awareness creation to build support and overcome barriers at the policymaker level. Delegates emphasized the need for more accountability and proactive action on future crises, unlike what is evident on the current crises that remain largely ignored. There is a need to create more accountability among decision makers to deploy resources in advance of a crisis.The audience urged the creation of awareness on what AI is and its potential to prevent nutrition crises in Africa. Nutrition is an economic, socio-cultural, and political issue that needs to be examined as such by policymakers and those supporting them. To augment the uptake of AI, engagement with decision owners at the regional, national, and up to the household level was urged.Nutrition is an economic, sociocultural, and political issue that needs to be examined as such by policymakers and those supporting themConcerns were raised on the availability of good-quality and reliable data. For NEWS to be effective, there is a need for real-time reliable data collection, efficiency in analysis, and dissemination that would allow for timely early warning. It was also pointed out that broad data variations are evident between international and national sources, and this should be addressed. It is necessary to think through how the use of AI can affect the work of smallholder farmers, directly benefit those affected by malnutrition, and how these data will be disseminated for action to be taken.There is a need to effectively package data and models on food security and nutrition based on end-user data consumption habits: from policymakers all the way to end beneficiaries. Existing data and models are too complex for effective action.The silo approach to tackling food security, agriculture, and nutrition-related problems is to blame for the lack of sustainable solutions: each category of experts lacks visibility of what the others are working on. This fragmentation has led to limited actions and impacts. Other concerns related to overall nutrition and not necessarily to NEWS were raised, pointing to the need for the NEWS project to work in collaboration and to find synergy with other stakeholders working on nutrition-related projects. These concerns include whether the new approach of NEWS fits into approaches already in use in the project countries and the complementarity between NEWS and climate-smart agriculture initiatives to address food and nutrition security.Building political will for decision makers to use early warning systems to prevent a crisis from happening and for at-risk communities to obtain the information they need to build resilience is crucial. In addition, involving the different stakeholders across nutritionrelated sectors in the research on and development, validation, and deployment of NEWS is key. This will pool both financial and technical resources from a diverse partnership while assisting in the validation of the models and building a sense of ownership, making it easier for decision makers to incorporate NEWS into existing policies and programs.In summary, the key takeaways from the session were the following:• Africa needs a data revolution powered by its young people to drive a new green revolution for food and nutrition security for all.• Smallholder farmers should not be left behind.• There is a crucial need for more sensitive nutrition early warning.• There is a need for a human-centered design that decision makers find user-friendly.• Artificial intelligence can play a role in generating insights beyond what humans are able to.• The importance of good, reliable data, traditional and non-traditional.The importance of a good partnership for implementation.Annex 1: Detailed Delegates' Inputs into the News Conversation as Captured by Menti ®The session captured detailed inputs from the delegates via Menti® and these are reproduced verbatim below by theme. These themes will be useful in developing the outline of the second NEWS white paper on the design considerations of NEWS. The highlighted questions and comments stand out in this regard, and will form part of the white paper outline.• If no action is being taken on current nutrition crises, what makes you think there will be action on future crises?• We need to address the issue of political will from African governments to ensure they are enrolled and are part of the solutions.• How will you convince politicians to deploy resources in advance of nutrition crises? Early warning does not translate into early action.• In addressing nutrition, we need to understand that nutrition is not just an economic issue; it is also a social, cultural, and political issue.• Most prevalent malnutrition is caused by a lack in productive/dietary diversity. What role do policies have in promoting diversification?• Early warning systems are at the level of policymakers yet the people most affected by malnutrition are often too distant from the action.• What does artificial intelligence mean and what evidence is there on the ground? Why is it artificial?• I am skeptical of the technology fix. When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.• Also, we really cannot predict the future. We can only explore possible future scenarios, anticipate, and proactively prevent malnutrition.• We live with hunger to really understand what NEWS is all about.• The professor [Conway] has hit the nail on the head. We need less grammar if we are to make headway• Is food insecurity an early warning for nutrition insecurity? If so, how are you using existing tools on food security?• To address food and nutrition security, we must ensure that climate-smart agriculture is taken into account to the fullest.• Quality and quantity of food are the two sides of food security. How does the model proposed by MERIAM work?• How will NEWS integrate climate changes in terms of impact on yields?• Almost no discussion has been held on irrigation to enable year-round food production and income and food security as a major part of the solution for Africa.• At the core of resilience decisions, you need real-time reliable weather data connected to proper analysis and dissemination mechanisms.• What type of data will be needed to train effective AI systems for effective nutrition surveillance?• Speed in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating the data is key for early warning. What are the innovations for allowing timely warning?• Data collection and quality of data in Africa; what is the availability of reliable baseline information?• Finding reliable data (often conflicting sources, international vs national). There is often a broad variation.• Availability of reliable data.• The concern is that the way is too complex and long winded to provide evidence that we are already aware of. We need action.• Data quality issues: Who is the target audience of NEWS? Can it make heads and tails of this complex work? Intra-household malnutrition?Simplifying and adapting AI and big data into existing contexts• Although AI can have myriad applications in agriculture, what can be the consequences for smallholder farmers?• Having data is one thing. But how will these data get to the people on the ground for implementation?• The biggest challenge, which is actually an opportunity, is to support and expand multipurpose data systems and ensure open access.• Even though models are great avenues for expressing complex matters in a palatable way, they are full of all manner of assumptions.• I think Dr. Cisse captured one of the weaknesses of models. They hardly capture weak signals and emerging trends that aren't very visible yet.• The majority of the people affected by malnutrition are poor and not very sophisticated. How can we make data and AI accessible to them?• Can you resume your new approach for early systems and does it go along with those already deployed in the countries you're working in?• What is the potential of the MERIAM in providing data and information that help predict malnutrition and help mitigate against it?Other considerations: synergy and collaboration across systems• Do you see the \"school farm\" model as a cost-effective and sustainable solution to school meals?• Has anyone done an analysis of any correlations between season of birth (e.g., at or between rainfed harvests) and stunting?• How do you account for household inequities in nutrition?• The production of nutrient-enhanced crops is key to reducing malnutrition and promoting good health.• Cornell University carried out a study in Zambia that found that families irrigating their land were 50% less likely to have stunted children.","tokenCount":"1982"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4cb0ec76c272d710256db39e4983536","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/14b432ff-4a1c-4d3c-adde-783895f75d89/retrieve","id":"91320267"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ece6c288-01c5-4058-a98a-c136a470a350","pagecount":"62","content":"Application of farm yard manure (FYM) provides sufficient amounts of phosphorus (P) needed by crops and also alleviates inherent deficiencies of important soil micronutrients. The concentrations of important micronutrients involving zinc, boron and iron were above the critical thresholds in systems with FYM application as opposed to systems without FYM.Reduced tillage and conventional tillage practices result in different populations/communities of soil fungi that are distinct from the microbial communities occupying soils in undisturbed natural sites.Application of FYM alone or in combination with fertilizers increased microbial richness and diversity, and microbial structures for zinc solubilization, phosphorus solubilization and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.Application of FYM alone resulted in higher bacteria richness relative to FYM combined with multinutrients (that include lime).Application of FYM stimulated CO 2 fluxes compared to either omission or application of nitrogen at higher rates; and this positively coincided with increase in soil moisture. For instance, the CO 2 fluxes in the treatment with application of FYM was 45.2 mg/m²/h, and this was significantly higher than the CO 2 fluxes in the plots without FYM (32.9 mg/m²/h) or plot with the application of 90 N (28.6 mg/m²/h). This is an indication that FYM systems enhance soil microbial activity.Mineralization of N is increased with reduced tillage relative to conventional tillage, with surface residue application relative to no residues. Application of N at the moderate rates of 60 kg N ha -1 seems to depress N mineralization.Residue addition increases soil microbial pool and activities. Relative to systems without residues, application of residues in the reduced tillage systems significantly increased PhoD gene abundance, pointing to increased P-cycling. In addition, the counts of unique organisms were higher in the agronomic systems with residue addition compared to systems without residue application.Practicing reduced tillage with nitrogen addition increased diversity of phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms compared to reduced tillage without nitrogen addition and conventional tillage with nitrogen application.Enzyme activities (Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and acid phosphatase (ACP)) are increased with combined or sole applications of FYM and residues compared to \"fertilizer only\" without organic resources, pointing to the inhibitory effects of increased availability of fertilizers on phosphatases and their activities. Also, reduced tillage has more potential for enzymatic P cycling as observed with higher ACP enzyme activity in the reduced relative to conventional tillage systems.Application of bio-inoculants, in addition to other amendments slightly increase crop and forage yields relative to non-incorporation of bioinoculants. The use of bio-inoculants in forages increased Napier yields by approximately 2 t ha -1 .Soil chemical analysis across the key treatments of the long-term trials in western Kenya (Table 1) shows that:• INM3 has a greater range of soil test values for most of the parameters relative to CT1. This relates to the range of integrated soil fertility management practices implemented in INM3 including combinations with FYM, crop residues and agroforestry (Tephrosia).• In the INM3 site, treatments with manure (alone or in combination with other soil management practices) mostly had elevated pH, Ca, Mg, Zn, SOC, K and CEC. The lowest soil test values were under no input and fertilizer only treatments.• P application increased available P. Manure also increased P.• In CT1, the lowest values for most parameters are under reduced tillage with no fertilizer inputs. For B, however, the highly intensified systems (maize-soybean rotations applied with both N and P) had the lowest boron consistently, an indication of year by year nutrient mining. A more balanced soil fertility regime, e.g. including FYM could reverse this decline. • In comparison, the undisturbed site has the highest overall pH, SOC, N, Ca, Mg, B, Na, EC and CEC. Here, concentrations of Mn and B were several times higher than in the treatments in INM3. In addition, concentration of Na of 27.9 ppm in the undisturbed site was 70-200% higher than in the treatments of the two long-term trials (INM3 and CT1) while that of SOC was 40-90% higher.• Available P and exchangeable K in the soil were extremely low (being 1.5 ppm and 91.5 ppm, respectively) in the undisturbed site compared to the experimental site. The low P is because of fixation of P without replenishments in the high P fixing soils of the experimental sites.The most interesting finding is that sustained application of FYM at the rate of 4 t/ha per season, as done in the longterm trials, is adequate to supply the needed P (at the current level of yields) and alleviate inherent deficiencies of important soil micronutrients such as zinc, boron and iron. Without application of FYM, the concentrations of these micronutrients are below the critical thresholds. Although not as high as for other micronutrients, the application of FYM increased Cu by 10%.While plots without fertilizer application had average soil available P just at the lower critical level of 15 mg/kg soil, application of FYM alone increased the P to 22 mg/kg of soil while application of P fertilizer and also its combination with FYM increased the soil available P to values way above even the 30 mg/kg of soil, where no P application is needed. Interestingly, reduced tillage without P treatments have very low soil available P, and also the lowest zinc (1.6 to 4 times lower than other treatments) and both nutrients are often lost through erosion. Low biomass production and therefore cover could expose these treatments to erosion through runoffs. The increase in soil pH with application of farmyard manure from 4.84 to 5.25 is consistent with findings of Opala et al. (2012), Mucheru-Muna et al. (2014) and Liu et al. (2017) attributed to liming effects of farmyard manure when humic materials adsorb Al and Fe Oxides with corresponding release of hydroxyl ions (Hue et al., 1986;Neina, 2019).Among the soil physical properties assessed, only bulk density was influenced consistently by tillage with reduced tillage having 1.19 compared to 1.10 g/cm -3 under conventional tillage (data not shown).  Two sets of microbial sequencing were conducted. The first one was for SR2019 season followed by a second sampling in SR2020 season. In both cases, fresh soils were collected at plot level separately for each 3 replicates of implemented treatments. In the first set, DNA was extracted from 0.2 g fresh soil samples using Phenol-Chloroform Isoamyl (PCI) Alcohol DNA Extraction procedure in Embu University laboratory and analyzed using Illumina sequencing in MR. DNA labs in USA. Briefly, 0.2 g soil were suspended in 200 µl of solution A (containing 100ul Tris-HCl (pH8.0), 100 mM EDTA (Ph8.0); vigorously vortexed, 5 µl of Lysozyme (20mg/ml solution) added and mixture incubated in a water bath (37 °C) for 30 minutes. 400 µl of lysis buffer (containing 400 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 60 mM EDTA (pH 8.0), 150 mM NaCl and 1 % sodium dodecyl sulfate) was added, incubated at room temperature for 10 minutes. Thereafter, 10 µl of Guanidinium thiocyanate (GITC; for protein digestion) was added and solution incubated (65 °C) in a water bath for 2 hours. After digestion, 615 µl of phenol chloroform isoamyl (i.e., 1:1 volume) was added, solution centrifuged (13200 rpm) for 5 minutes (at 4 °C) and the step repeated again. The supernatant was taken, 150 µl of sodium acetate and 600 µl isopropyl alcohol (2-propanol) added, solution briefly mixed by inversion and left at room temperature until the precipitation settled down. The contents were centrifuged (13200 rpm) for 10 minutes, supernatant discarded and resultant DNA pellets washed in 300 µl of 70% ethanol. The DNA pellets were re-centrifuged (10000 rpm) for 1 minute, supernatant discarded, pellets air-dried and thereafter dissolved in 30 µl of PRC water. DNA quality was checked on 1% agarose gel electrophoresis for further studies. The DNA pellets were lyophilized and shipped to MR DNA (www.mrdnalab.com, Shallowater, TX, USA) for sequencing.In the second set, fresh soils were sampled and shipped to BeCrop for DNA extraction and sequence analysing. All the samples were of topsoil taken within a depth between 5-15 cm. Each sample from a single plot was made pooling together top soil from three random spots in each plot and extracting the DNA from this composite sample. Soil samples were stored at −80 ºC until DNA extraction. DNA extraction was performed using the DNeasy PowerLyzer PowerSoil Kit (Qiagen). Libraries were prepared following the two-step PCR protocol from Illumina and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq using pair end sequencing (2×300 bp). Libraries were prepared by amplifying the 16s rRNA V4 region and the ITS1 region using Biome Makers® custom primers (Patent WO2017096385). Raw sequences were analyzed using Vsearch using default parameters 54. Briefly, raw paired-end fastq sequences were merged, filtered by expected error 0.25, dereplicated, and sorted by size. We filtered out chimera sequences and clustered the remaining sequences into 97% identity OTUs, considering in further analyses only groups with at least two sequences. Combined sequences were then mapped to the list of OTUs with at least 97% identity, resulting in an OTU table with OTU sequences quantified per biological sample. OTUs were classified with the SILVA 123 database through the SILVA-NGS pipeline.The distribution of soil bacteria and fungi observed, based on the first set of DNA analysis in SR2019, were similar across the two long-term trials (Table 2). The initial analysis of the first set of data showed the key influences of soil microbes are related to addition of manure alone or in combinations with residues or chemical fertilizers in INM3 (Figure 1). The tested treatments are therefore evaluated mostly with regard to these management practices while relating to nutrient application within these management practices. The analysis presented is mostly with the second set of microbial DNA analysis which we consider more robust compared to the first set obtained through a commercial laboratory. Towards the end of the section, analysis relating soil parameters to the first set of microbial analysis is done since these were collected during the same season.  Microbial populations in undisturbed sites (predominantly under grasses and scattered shrubs) are distinctly different from cropped fields (Figure 2). Practicing reduced tillage with surface residues also results in microbial populations that are distinguished from conventional tillage systems (also with residues). Also, a shift in microbial populations is observed due to application of FYM. The greatest shift in soil microbes is observed with combined application of FYM and micronutrients such as Zn and S (Figure 3). This treatment had been applied with lime, at 2 t/ha, during long rains seasons of 2016 and again in 2017. The profound microbial shifts in the FYM+MN is therefore most likely due to the liming.  Reduced/minimum tillage and conventional tillage practices result in different populations/communities of soil fungi (Figure 4). These are distinct from the microbial communities occupying soils in undisturbed natural sites. Continuous maize monocropping has also a microbial community that is slightly shifted from the maize-soybean rotations and intercrops. Out of all the fungi taxa observed (at species level), only 20 were significantly affected by management practices namely, presence or absence of FYM and its combinations with micronutrients analyzed together with an undisturbed natural site (Figure 5). Consistently, with the exception of Scolecobasidum sp., management practice without application of FYM had the lowest abundance. With exception of a few cases, both application of only FYM, and its combination with micronutrients, increased abundance of specific fungi taxa in the same way. Combined application of FYM and micronutrients had particularly high effects on Penicillum victoriae, Penicillum javanicum, Lipomyces kononenkoae and Penicillum skrjabinii. Penicillium species are known heterotrophs, depending on different sources of organic carbon, mainly plants and animal matter, for their metabolic nutrition (Krebs et al., 1997). Incorporation of FYM enhances nutrient and organic matter availability that most microbes utilize for growth and development while micronutrients are important for microbial DNA formation and replication. Key highlights on affected species include:• Scolecobasidum sp. are amongst oligotrophic microorganisms (Samerpitak et al., 2015), with the ability to survive in environments with very low nutrients. This explains the increased abundance of Scolecobasidum sp. in the agronomic management system without application of FYM.• Aspergillus bombycis, an aflatoxigenic fungi (Peterson et al., 2001), is an aerobic fungus dominating oxygen-rich environments, and prefer growing on carbon rich sources (as contributed by FYM), explaining their increase in systems with application of FYM. This fungal species also doubles up as an oligotroph, characterized by slow growth, low rates of metabolism, and generally low population density.• Penicillium species are known zinc solubilizers (Khande et al., 2017); and their abundance is likely to be positively influenced with zinc availability elevated with micronutrients applications. This partly explains the increased abundance of Penicillium javanicum, Penicillium shearii, Penicillium skrjabinii and Penicillium victoriae in the systems with combined application of FYM+micronutrients compared to FYM alone. Besides, out of all the fungal taxa (at genus level) identified, only 11 were significantly affected by soil management systems (Figure 6). Except for 2 genera (Septoria spp. and Scolecobasidium spp.) out of the 11, FYM application increased the abundance of the remaining fungi in INM3. Septoria spp. are renowned fungi that cause numerous leaf spot diseases on field crops, forages, among others, and the reduction in their abundance following FYM application is beneficial for crop production.  Haematonectria haematococca q = 0.00376 Malbranchea sp. q = 0.00404 Penicillium javanicum q = 0.00777 Penicillium shearil q = 0.00721 Penicillium skrjabinii q = 0.00604Penicillium victoriae q = 0.0065 Phialophora sp. q = 0.0065 Remersonia sp. q = 0.00373 Scolecobasidium sp. q = 0.0055 Septoria sp. q = 0.00674 Thermomyces Ianuginosus q = 0.0016 Vermispora spermatophaga q = 0.00741 Westerdykella cylindrica q = 0.00591 Aspergillus deflectus q = 0.00691 Aspergillus bombycis q = 0.00877 Exophiala pisciphila q = 0.0064 Gymnascella aurantiaca q = 0.00373 Helicoma sp. q = 0.00649 Lipomyces kononenkoae q = 0.00406 Lomentospora prolificans q = 0.00197 As with microbial abundances, application of FYM alone or in combination with multinutrients significantly increase both diversity and richness of bacteria and fungi (Figure 7; Table 3). Interestingly also, application of FYM alone resulted in higher bacteria richness relative to FYM combined with multinutrients. This points to the possibility of reduced tolerance/increased susceptibility of some microbial species (both bacteria and fungi) to the micronutrients applied. On the other hand, application of organic inputs such as FYM are accompanied by microbes that may be absent previous in a system (Ye et al., 2017). Without manure application (-FYM treatment), agroforestry practices slightly improve the Shannon index of the bacteria (green vs red dots). Increased Shannon diversity means more diverse yet more even populations of microbial species present.Shannon indices for fungi (ITS) was 3.48 in the undisturbed site and this was not different to those of INM3 (3.19 to 3.48; Figure 7). Most bacteria prefer colonizing environments with low C/N ratios (Eiland et al., 2001), thus explaining the increased diversity in systems with application of both FYM and FYM+micronutrients. Thermpmyces q = 0.00877 Septoria q = 0.00601 Gymnascella q = 0.00187 Malbranchea q = 0.00203 Thermomyces q = 8e-04Haematonectria q = 0.00189 Remersonia q = 0.00223 Vermispora q = 0.00623 Helicoma q = 0.00432 Scolecobasidium q = 0.00423 Table 3. Bacteria and fungi richness in different management practices and undisturbed site as observed in western Kenya in 2020.Shannon indices for bacteria and richness were not different comparing treatments of CT1 although richness was different (higher under cropped systems) when compared to the undisturbed site (Figure 8). The cropped fields are characterized by increased incorporation of external inputs as well as different plant species (cereals and legumes) while the undisturbed site is mostly on grasses and scattered shrubs thus resulting is different environmental conditions and nutrients availability (Alemu and Bayu, 2005;Bolo et al., 2021;Upchurch et al., 2008). Nevertheless, practicing conventional tillage with residue incorporations increases (not significantly) diversity of soil bacteria but reduces that of fungi relative to conservation agriculture practices. Tillage is detrimental to fungi through occasional breaking of their hyphae. Conservation tillage practices (reduced tillage with surface residues) has similar diversity indices with the undisturbed sites. Values with different letters in the same column for a specific long-term trial are significantly different at P<0.05. In summary, shifts in microbial populations result from the influence of reduced tillage systems in CT1, sole application of FYM or a combination of FYM and micronutrients in INM3 site, as a result of organic matter and nutrients availability.Soil organic matter provides organic carbon that acts as food source for the microbial populations (Khatoon et al., 2017).A few farmer fields ( 12) with various cover crops were assessed for microbial abundances to start understanding microbial conditions outside researcher-controlled fields. Fungi species richness ranged from 163 to 235 while bacteria species richness was 223 to 374 (Figure 9). The field with highest richness was under dolichos and was the only field where lime had been applied.  The 20 most abundant fungi and bacterial species were identified and those of fungi are the most variable across farmer fields. For these fungal species, Phoma spp, a fungal phytopathogen, was absent under the dolichos system (also with lime, see AZM00X in Figure 10) but was increasingly abundant in fields with grain amaranth. All the fields had less Septoria spp., also a plant phytopathogen, relative to the undisturbed sites. On the other hand, Fusarium spp. was mostly common in the farmer fields but was least common in the undisturbed site. One farmer field with Canavalia had particularly high Aspergillus spp., a fungi involved in aflatoxin infestations (Figure 28, AZM03P), but also a phosphorus and zinc solubilizer. In another field (AZMO3Q), Calcarisporiella was quite abundant compared to other fields. The high variations in abundances of specific species under farmer fields represent the diversity in management practices employed. However, a detailed assessment of these on-farm management practices, their intensity and how they influence microbial abundances and functions is still needed, including the influences of landscape positions (due to transfers of microbes through soil movements).The next section deals with only the soil microbes involved for known functions such as solubilization of Zn and P. These are often referred to as functional groups and were identified from our overall microbial dataset.  Extensive literature reviews were conducted in this study to identify and map specific genera and species of soil bacteria and fungi (contained in the data obtained from sequencing) to their specific functions including solubilization of phosphorus and zinc. An evaluation of management practices on overall community of plant growth promoters was undertaken followed by specific focus on phosphorus and zinc solubilizes.The diversity of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (66 species of bacteria) is reduced with application of multi-nutrients (Figure 11). The low Shannon diversity index with application of multi-nutrients is accompanied by a strong shift in the community structure while presence of manure results to only a small shift in the microbial structure. With the exception of Paenibacillus turicensis promoted by presence of multinutrients, and Clostridium sp. consistently elevated with both FYM and FYM+MN, 18 other plant growth promoting rhizobacteria were highly depressed in the FYM+MN treatment (Figure 12). The remaining 46 species were either not or only slightly affected (q>0.01) by the management practices. The application of FYM improves the diversity of zinc solubilizing soil bacteria in western Kenya (Figure 13). The increase is related to the SOC observed in these systems. Ordination plots show that zinc solubilizing bacteria are shifted under FYM+MN relative to the other management practices. The communities of Zn solubilizing bacteria with and without FYM are essentially the same (data not shown).  Of the 18 bacteria genus involved in zinc solubilization that are identified and analysed with regard to treatment effects, the following results are observed (see Figure 14):• Application of multi-nutrients highly increased Bradyrhizobium spp. but reduced Rhizobium spp., Sphingomonas spp. and Sporosarcina spp. As opposed to Rhizobium spp., Bradyrhizobium spp. are slow growing microbial species (Sameshima et al., 2003).• Application of P without multi-nutrients, greatly increased Sporosarcina spp. both with and without FYM.• Application of FYM highly increased Lysinibacillus spp. Just like Sporosarcina spp., Lysinibacillus spp. are amongst the copiotrophic Firmicutes that respond quickly to changes in labile nutrient availability (Schostag et al., 2019), as potentially contributed by the FYM.• Nitrogen application increases the Shannon diversity index of the overall community of zinc solubilizing soil bacteria (Figure 15). Bradyrhizobium q = 0.00483Rhizobium q = 0.00371 Lysinibacillus q = 5e-05 Sphingomonas q = 0.00505 Paenibacillus q = 0.00482 Sporosarcina q = 0.00567The community of P solubilizing bacteria under FYM+MN was shifted away from the cluster of P solubilizing bacteria without FYM application. The community with only FYM application was only slightly shifted from that with no FYM application (data not shown). Of 22 P solubilizing bacteria genera evaluated, 3 were significantly affected by soil fertility management (Figure 16). Application of multinutrients highly increased Bradyrhizobium but decreased Rhizobium, both nitrogen fixers yet essentially different species. Also, application of FYM especially in absence of chemical phosphorus, increased Flavobacetrium. Besides Bradyrhizobium and the Sphingomonas (reported earlier under zinc solubilizers), Kitasatospora are clearly distinguished with application of FYM+MN demonstrating the microbial shifts (Figure 17). CCA plots (not shown) confirmed these 3 organisms to clear follow FYM+MN treatment group while all others (except Enterobacter) had a centroid distribution.   Log-relative normalised Bradyrhizobium q = 0.01273 Flavobacterium q = 0.00749 Rhizobium q = 0.00876Reduced tillage accompanied by nitrogen application increased the diversity of P solubilizing bacteria (Figure 18). Without nitrogen, the diversity of P solubilizing bacteria is similar to that of conventional tillage with nitrogen application. The two genera influenced (P<0.05) by the tillage are Mesorhizobium spp. (elevated under reduced tillage) and Gemmatimonas spp.(decreased under reduced tillage; data not shown).Under CT1 and also INM3, there was no overall effect on diversity for fungi and also none of the fungi genera was affected by treatments tested. A total of 39 pathogenic fungi identified based on literature were assessed with regard to soil fertility management. Application of FYM or its combination with multinutrients had no significant effect on any of the pathogenic fungi species.Only Cercospora hayi, a pathogenic fungi associated with Brown spot disease in banana fruit, was decreased with application of P under systems both with and without FYM (Figure 19). None of the analyzed pathogenic fungi were affected by treatments in CT1 long-term trials.Shannon Diversity Index The metagenomic data provides insights on the vulnerability of the microbial ecosystem to develop common plant diseases based on pathogens detected. Risk of diseases within the two trial sites and across the management practices is mostly related to Aspergillus rot, charcoal rot and red root rot (Figure 20). Fusarium rot and Nigrospora rot are also potentials. These risks are observed across all treatments. For legumes, Fusarium wilt and Anthracnose are the expected risks observed from the soil metagenomic data (Figure 21). Cercospora hayi q = 0.00394New partnerships were created through this project. One is partnership between the Alliance of Bioversity/CIAT and Field4Ever, a metagenomics group using BeCrop platform which allowed for a fresh set of soils to be collected and analyzed. A second partnership is with University of Guelph in Canada where specific genes, indicators of soil microbial functioning, were analyzed.  Farmers should conduct agronomic practices cognizant of real risk of Aspergillus rot, charcoal rot and red root rot on cereals and Fusarium wilt and Anthracnose on legumes.The assessment of stability of soil microbes is performed with limited comparisons that were possible through the BeCrop analysis platform implemented by Field4Ever. Here, only 3 treatments could be compared at a time. From the results, the application of FYM seems to stabilize soil biodiversity (Figure 22). The number of organisms found in some samples of the no FYM treatment and that were not present in any sample of the other treatments (uniqueness; with FYM) were 232, way higher than the <100 considering application of FYM. On the other hand, the common organisms (affinity) to all 3 samples analyzed in each treatment were fewer without than with FYM. The huge variations in microbial diversity from sample to sample within the treatment without FYM may indicate instability. These are only preliminary assessments of microbial stability and further work will be needed with the data already at hand. Implementation of agroforestry system of maize in rotation with tephrosia combined with some residue application consistently increased diversity and the number of unique organisms followed by maize-tephrosia rotation with no fertilizers while continuous maize monocropping with addition of inorganic fertilizers (a high amount of N) had the lowest diversity, uniqueness and affinity (Figure 23). The high uniqueness simultaneously with high presence of common organisms within samples of the agroforestry practice is a good indicator of stability. Occurrence of soil organisms comparing conservation and conventional tillage with different fertilizer N inputs within the CT1 long-term trial based on BiomeMarkers analysis. All treatments are under maize-soybean rotation, had residues applied at 2 t/ha (surface for reduced tillage (RT) and incorporated under conventional tillage (CT)) and all had P application at 60 kg/ha. N=nitrogen.Conservation agriculture practices of reduced tillage with and without application of nitrogen fertilizer have elevated diversity of soil micro-organisms and have more unique species relative to conventional tillage system (Figure 24). Thus, although the number of common organisms within all the samples of a treatment are the same, overall diversity is better under reduced tillage.• Application of FYM is important in stabilizing the microbial populations• Conservation agriculture practices support increased microbial diversity and unique species relative to conventional tillage• The practice of agroforestry (maize-tephrosia rotation) with or without additional residues and no fertilizers increases microbial diversity and their uniqueness relative to the growing of continuous maize monocropping with inorganic inputs. Overall analysis of the 2019 microbial data, consistent with the 2020 dataset, shows that application of FYM either alone or in combination with fertilizers and crop residues plays an important role in increasing the abundance of a majority of soil bacteria that perform several roles in nutrient cycling. Compared to no input treatment and fertilizer only treatments, addition of manure alone or in combinations with residues or chemical fertilizers in INM3 significantly increased the abundance of several microbial groups/species (Table 4). However, there were cases, albeit fewer, where combined application of inorganic N and P fertilizers and residue only significantly increased the abundance of microbes e.g., Nitrosovibrio spp. and Clostridium spp. (also Aspergillus spp., Burkholderia xenovorans) even over a manure applied treatment. In each site, means followed by similar letters in each column are not significantly different. P applied at 45 kg/ha (unless specified); N applied at 60 kg/ha (unless specified), residue applied at 2 t/ha; Manure applied at 4 t/ha; Uns=uncultivated site at least for the last 6 years. Grey rows represent treatments with FYM. Practicing conservation agriculture also results in a community of soil microbes distinguished from conventional tillage practices (Figure 27). The significant soil factors positively influencing the bacterial communities under long-term reduced tillage are pH, Ca, Mg, K all of which are related to a liming effect of the conservation tillage practice. These factors (except Ca) also significantly and positively influence the fungal community under conservation tillage. On the other hand, the microbial community under conventional tillage (both for fungi and bacteria) are positively related to Mn. Under both reduced and conventional systems, nitrogen (related to SOC) is influencing bacterial community (P=0.051) and Boron influence fungi (P<0.05). Canonical correspondence analysis shows a distribution of soil microbes (plant growth promoting bacteria) with a continuum ranging from only organics (FYM) to only chemical fertilizers (+N+P plots; Figure 28), consistent with trend for all bacteria and fungi. The significant (P<0.05) soil chemical properties influencing the microbes are pH, K, Ca, S, Fe and N. The application of FYM increases concentration of these soil parameters. At the genus level, Zinc solubilizing bacteria followed similar distribution as the plant growth promoting bacteria and were significantly influenced by P and B in addition to the pH, Ca, S and Fe. In the subsequent analysis, the bacteria and fungi are combined in analysis. In CT1, nitrogen cycling Nitrospira japonica, Bacillus spp. and Bradyrhizobium spp.; N and P cycling Gemmatimonas spp. and sulfur oxidizing Thiobacillus spp. are more positively correlated with sulfur, zinc and iron availability than the rest of the species (Figure 29a and b). Nitrogen cycling Nitrospira species was also correlated with available nitrogen and soil organic carbon. Phosphorus cycling arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus spp.) was negatively correlated with soil P and pH. Clostridium spp., Rhizobium spp., Bacillus spp. and Glomus spp. were more correlated with potassium and copper availability in CT1. Specific microbial species (combining bacteria and fungi) involved in solubilization of zinc are significantly affected by micronutrient (Zn) availability (Figure 30), and these zinc solubilizers are grouped in two major categories, with systems applied with FYM grouped separately from those without FYM application (data not shown). Application of FYM increased the population of key zinc solubilizing microbes including Burkholderia spp., Bacillus spp., Bradyrhizobium spp., Azospirilium spp., Pseudomonas spp., Gluconacetobacter spp., and Mesorhizobium spp. Manure application is associated with increased soil fertility necessary for the plant and microbial growth (Malosso et al., 2005). Zinc solubilizing genera belonging to Pseudomonas spp., and Bacillus spp., Rhizobium spp. (Kamran, et al., 2017) are copiotrophs (Fierer et al., 2007), that is, thriving in nutrient-rich environments. Extracellular enzymes are secretions by a cell, in this case microbial cells, which function outside of that cell to break down complex macromolecules into smaller units to be taken up by the cell for growth and assimilation. These enzymes are therefore involved in cycling of nutrients. Here, four main enzymes cycling C, N and P in the soil were investigated. These are:1. Beta-glucosidases (GLU, also known as Cellobiases) are important enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of cellobiose to glucose in the soil, thus important for C cycling.2. Beta-glucosaminidase (NAG, also known as N-Acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase) is an important enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of chitin, which is converted to amino sugars that are major sources of mineralizable N in soils; thus very important in nitrogen and carbon cycling in soils.Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and acid phosphatase (ACP) are important enzymes exuded by fungi and bacteria and catalyze the hydrolysis of organic phosphorus compounds to inorganic polyphosphates that occur in soils, important for soils deficient in phosphorus. ACP enzymes are predominant in acid soils while ALP enzymes, specifically originate from soil microbes, predominates in neutral or alkaline soils (Spohn & Kuzyakov, 2013).Colorimetric methods were used to assess the enzymes following the protocol developed by Tabatabai (1994). Briefly, for ALP and ACP, 1 gram fresh soil was weighed in three replicates (one for moisture, control and enzyme activity assessment), and 4 ml of modified universal buffer (MUB; pH 6.5 for acid phosphatase (ACP); pH 11.0 for alkaline phosphatase (ALP)); 0.25 ml of toluene and 1 ml of 115 mM para-Nitrophenyl Phosphate (p-NPP) solution added (Plate 1). The flasks were stoppered, briefly mixed, incubated (370C; 1 hour) followed by addition of 1 ml of 0.5 M CaCl, 4 ml of 0.5M NaOH; centrifugation (5000 rpm, 10 minutes) and reading the supernatant concentrations at 400 nanometres (nm) using a spectrophotometer. The procedure for assessment of Beta-glucosidase enzyme activity (GLU) was similar to that of ACP except for the difference in substrates (50 mM para-Nitrophenyl -β-D-glucopyranoside (p-NPG)) and use of Tris (hydroxyethyl) amino-methane (THAM) as opposed to NaOH (for ACP) to terminate the reaction. The procedure for assaying N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase (NAG) commonly known as Beta-glucosaminidase was similar to that of GLU, except for the difference in substrates (10mM para-Nitrophenyl-N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminide (pNP-NAG)) and buffers (100 mM Acetate buffer; pH 5.5) used. A unit of potential enzyme activity was expressed as the amount of either p-NPP, p-NPG or pNP-NAG released in one hour per gram dry soil.The results from the extracellular enzyme assays showed that;i. Application of FYM has more potential for enzymatic nutrient cycling especially when applied in combination with residues; for example, ACP enzyme activity is significantly higher in system with combined FYM+residue addition compared with either sole application of FYM and/or combined application of residue and fertilizers (Table 5).ii. Application of \"fertilizer only\" without organic resources reduces ALP activity compared to combined application of fertilizers and organics.iii. Reduced tillage increases ACP enzyme activity compared to conventional tillage systems. The higher ACP activity under reduced than conventional tillage systems was similarly observed in a recent study Table 5. Soil extracellular Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Acid phosphatase (ACP), Beta-glucosidase (GLU) and Beta-glucosaminidase (NAG) enzyme activities (µmol P-nitrophenol g-dry soil -1 hr -1 ) in INM3 and CT1 experimental sites. (Margenot et al., 2017;Kihara et al., 2018) in the site; and this is attributed to increased organic matter content, substrate availability and microbial biomass pool in the reduced than conventional tillage systems.In addition, assessment of microbial resource allocation to nutrient cycling (data not shown) showed that;i) Overall microbial resource allocation to P acquisition, as a ratio of GLU/ACP, ranged from 0.15 to 0.30; being highest in the system with combined application of P+FYM, implying increased P cycling in the system.ii) Microbial resource allocation to N acquisition, as a ratio of GLU/NAG, ranged between 2.36 to 4.8, being highest in the system with FYM application, indicating the benefit of FYM in improving N cycling.The increase in extracellular enzyme activities following addition of FYM, important for improving soil health, is related to soil organic matter, nutrients availability, improved soil chemical and physical characteristics. Previous studies have reported increases in the activities of Alkaline phosphatase (Chen et al., 2019), Acid phosphatase (Liang et al., 2014), B-glucosidase (Liang et al., 2014) andB-Glucosaminidase (Acosta-Martinez et al., 2011;Brennan and Acosta-Martinez, 2019) following application of FYM.The increase in the enzyme activities under reduced tillage relative to conventional tillage can also be attributed to high organic matter content at the top soil that stimulate the proliferation of the microbes associated with the production of nutrient-cycling enzymes. Within the same site, Margenot et al. (2017) observed 40% increase in Acid phosphatase enzyme activities in the reduced tillage relative to conventional tillage systems. Similarly, reduced tillage has been reported to increase B-glucosidase (Chen et al., 2019) and B-glucosaminidase enzyme activities (Zhang et al., 2014). Values are means of the different enzyme activities (µmol P-nitrophenol g-dry soil -1 hr -1 ) in the two sites. Means followed by similar letters in each column in each site are not significantly different. P applied at 45 kg/ha (unless specified); N applied at 60 kg/ha (unless specified), residue applied at 2 t/ha; Manure applied at 4 t/ha. Table 6. Correlation coefficients between soil chemical and biological variables (microbial richness and diversity; and extracellular enzyme activities (Beta-glucosidase (GLU), Beta-glucosaminidase (NAG), Acid Phosphatase (ACP) and Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)) potential enzyme activities) in INM3 site.Relating the enzyme activities with soil parameters and diversity of bacteria also revealed interesting results. GLU and ACP were positively influenced by soil pH, N, SOC, K, Ca, Mg, B, Zn and CEC (Table 6). They also related positively with bacteria richness and diversity. In addition, ALP related positively with pH, Ca, Mg, Cu and CEC. Increasing amount for soil available P decreased ACP and to some extent GLU, as also observed elsewhere (Olander and Vitousek 2000). It has also been suggested that mineral phosphates act as competitive inhibitors depressing phosphatase activities (Lemanowicz et al., 2016). Soil pH influences nutrient availability and thereby microbial biomass, richness and diversity hence the concentration of inhibitors or activators in the soil solution (Dick et al., 2000). The observed simultaneous increase in GLU and ACP point to increased microbial pool involved in production of the two enzymes. # represents µmol P-nitrophenol g-dry soil -1 hr -1 . MBC (Max) = microbial biomass carbon (potential maximum), SD=Shannon diversity, PGPR= Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.Within microbes, there are specific genes that encode the specific enzymes involved in nutrient solubilization. These genes were studied to provide insights into microbial activities. Two genes, PhoD and PhoC, are important in P cycling as they encode phosphatase enzymes (acid and alkaline phosphatase) that take part in solubilization of recalcitrant inorganic P compounds. PhoD gene is responsible for encoding alkaline phosphatase while PhoC gene is responsible for encoding acid phosphatase enzymes. The activities of these two enzymes were investigated.Data obtained through partnership with Guelph University show that bacterial 16S rDNA abundance strongly positively correlated with PhoD and PhoC gene abundances (P<0.0001; Figure 31a). It is interesting that zinc is also influencing the availability of PhoD gene with increasing zinc levels reducing the attainable counts of gene copies (Figure 31b). PhoD and PhoC abundance were both highest in long-term sole manure application and lowest in no input (control) treatment for PhoD and in sole residue application for PhoC (see Figure 32 for PhoD). Within the conservation tillage treatments (CT1 trial), residues are key in driving the abundances of PhoD genes. Significantly higher PhoD was also observed with residue relative to no residue application in the reduced tillage maize soybean rotation with fertilizer application treatment (data not shown). Tillage, fertilizer management and cropping systems did not produce any particular pattern of influence on the tested genes.Thousands 1,000.00 Additional relationships between the enzyme activities and the different genes encoding for phosphorus cycling enzymes (i.e., PhoD for ALP and PhoC for ACP) revealed that GLU activities was positively correlated with ACP and ALP. In addition, PhoC positively correlated with PhoD gene abundances (Table 7).  While manure elevates phosphatase production demonstrated through high PhoD and PhoC (Luo et al., 2019), these are suppressed by application of fertilizer P. Zhang et al. (2012) observed that phosphatase production is induced at low phosphate levels. Soils with low available P favor the activity of phosphatases and PhoC and PhoD genes (Nannipieri et al., 2011). When microbes are faced with P scarcity, they upregulate the expression of the specific functional genes (i.e., PhoC and PhoD) that encode phosphatases (Vershinina and Znamenskaya, 2002). The reduction of PhoC and PhoD gene abundance with elevated nutrient supplies (e.g. manure application combined with inorganic fertilizers) in our study reflects higher concentrations of plant-available P; and this is consistent with the negative feedback mechanism proposed by Olander and Vitousek (2000).It is startling that N application did not seem to influence the tested genes. Low PhoD and PhoD gene copies following inorganic N fertilizer application is observed in different parts of the world and attributed to lowered soil pH i.e., increased soil acidity and overall decreased soil microbial abundance and diversity (Chen et al., 2019;Jorquera et al., 2014). Other studies (Mandal et al., 2007;Marklein and Houlton, 2012;Tan et al., 2013), however, reported increased phosphatase following N application and attributed it to increased demand for P by the increased crop biomass. The inconsistent results could be due to the quantities of N applied, or other environmental factors and management.Management influences on soil fungal to bacterial (F:B) ratio F:B ratio is a good indicator of environmental changes in soil. Application of fertilizer only may promote the proliferation of nutrient dependent microbial species, resulting to increased individual species counts, but poor microbial structure.The F:B ratio (based on sequences analyzed at MR DNA) was higher in the management systems with FYM compared to treatments with either P applied or combined application of P and FYM (Figure 33), implying that sole application of FYM has positive influence on soil microbial structure. Higher F:B ratio implies fungal dominance while lower ratio is bacteria dominance often in the nutrient rich environments (Strickland and Rousk, 2010). When manure and/or plant residues are applied as mulch, fungi often prosper because their hyphae are able to grow into the litter.Under the long-term conservation tillage (CT1) trial, there was not much variation in the F:B ratio due to treatments applied, only a slight increase due to residue application in both conventional and reduced tillage.In INM3, F:B ratio were negatively correlated with soil available P (significantly at P<0.05; R 2 =-0.37*) but not to any other variable even in CT1. Microbial nutrient mineralization was assessed using in-situ resin core incubation method previously employed by Kihara et al. (2018). Briefly, ion exchange resins were buried, protected within PVC pipes (see Plate 4), in selected agronomic management systems 2 weeks after planting and retrieved on monthly basis (i.e., after 1 and after 2 months), and the concentrations of nitrates, ammonium and phosphates calorimetrically determined. This was followed by determination of the market value of the equivalent quantities of N and P nutrients mineralized, based on the current market prices of the nutrients (i.e., assuming N source as urea and P as Triple superphosphate).Eight treatments (i.e., 4 management systems in each trial of INM3 and CT1) were selected for the study. The following considerations were made:• A no-input treatment was required against which the effects of sole P fertilizer input on nutrient mineralization would be determined.• All the other treatments had P for INM3 and P+residues for CT1. Being common across treatments, these applications were assumed to affect mineralization the same way.• There was no topdressing in any of these systems to avoid direct interception of fertilizer-based nitrogen by the resins.We also hypothesized that:• Nutrient mineralization (and the subsequent monetary benefits) would be higher after 60 days compared to 30 days since by then, more organic matter (i.e., provided by manure, residues, etc.) would have been decomposed and mineralized by the microbes• More nutrients would be mineralized in the reduced tillage than conventional tillage systems due to more microbial biomass in the reduced than conventional tillage systems.• Addition of nitrogen at the moderate rate of 60 kg N ha -1 as done in the long-term trials would reduce nutrient mineralization as microbes don't have to work for it.• More nutrient demands under intercropping would result in more nutrients mineralized than under rotation systems.• Combined application of inorganic fertilizer and organic (FYM) result in nutrient-rich systems causing low nutrient mineralization by microbes.In general, and although not always, higher N mineralization and monetary value of nutrients are observed after 60 days compared to 30 days of incubation in both sites. Both highest N and P mineralization were observed after 60 days of resin incubation in both the conservation tillage systems in CT1 and the integrated soil fertility management systems in INM3.Plate 4. PVC installations for protection of ion-exchange resin incubated in the field for mineralization assessment (Photo: Peter Bolo/Alliance).The following observations are made on N and P mineralization for the periods of 30 and 60 days of resin incubation:i. Reduced tillage resulted in more N mineralization than conventional tillage systems, as expected, being 6 and 18 kg N ha -1 for 30 and 60 days of resin incubation, respectively.ii. Application of crop residues within reduced tillage increased N mineralization by 7 and 18 kgs for 30 and 60 days of resin incubation.iii. In the CA system, maize-soybean intercropping conferred highest N mineralization (45.81 Kg N ha -1 equivalent to Kshs 5976 ha -1 ) and highest P mineralization (3.98 Kg P ha -1 equivalent to Kshs 1559 ha -1 ) after 60 days of incubation (Table 8).iv. In the ISFM long-term trial, no-input agroforestry system (i.e., maize-tephrosia) had the highest N mineralization (20.6 Kg N ha -1 equivalent to Kshs 2682 ha -1 ) after 30 days of incubation, and the highest also at 60 days. This indicates increased microbial activity in this no-input maize-tephrosia system.v. As expected, addition of N (in CT1 where both systems had P added), decreased N mineralization by 21 and 13 kg N ha -1 during 30 and 60 days of resin incubation, respectively.vi. The control treatment (no-input) in INM3 consistently increased N mineralization and economic benefits after 30 and 60 days of incubation. Nitrogen mineralized was increased by at least 12 and at least 4 kg N ha -1 during the 30 and 60 days of resin incubation, respectively.vii. Phosphorus mineralization varied from 0 to 4.9 Kg P ha -1 , with this higher value being equivalent to Kshs 1900. CA systems often have higher residue concentrations and higher microbial abundance compared to CT systems (Kihara et al., 2018) and this could contribute to the increased nutrient mineralization, and subsequently the observed higher monetary values in the CA than CT systems. Similarly, intercropping systems often have higher plant and microbial diversity than rotation systems (Kihara et al., 2018). The higher nutrient mineralization (and economic benefits) in the intercropped than rotation systems could also reflect increased substrate availability that is utilized by the soil microbes in the mineralization.Microbial activity is often limited by P availability in P-deficient soils (Cleveland et al., 2002) and P application stimulates organic N mineralization (White and Reddy, 2000). In a recent study, Mehnaz et al., (2019) reported that addition of P caused higher incorporation of N in microbial biomass, preventing its further mineralization into NH 4 + . The responses also depend on the fertility conditions: after application of N and P the activities of denitrifiers increased by 15-228% in the low fertility soil, but reduced by 18-46% in the high fertility soil (Wang et al., 2019).The increased mineralization with 60 days of incubation is expected due to extended periods of microbial activity in decomposition. However, Hanselman et al. (2004) provided caution with studies involving extended incubations. They argued that under short-term basis (<45 days), in situ incubation methods may provide reasonable estimates of nitrogen mineralization compared to long-term incubations (>45 days). As time increases, there is consistent depletion of nutrient sources, immobilization, and other external interferences coupled with deterioration of soil conditions.The activity of microbes is implied by the evolution of CO 2 . We measured CO 2 comparing sole application of manure, nitrogen and a no nitrogen treatment in 2019 (all treatments were applied with P and K). The measurements were taken across a whole season (12 different dates of measurements; Plate 3). For the data analysis, repeated measures analysis of variance was done in Genstat while boxplots to show the overall distributions of the fluxes were plotted in R statistics.For the analysis of variance and CO 2 released on the 3 different treatments, timing was included as the variate, treatment structure were the treatments while the blocking structure were the four replicates. CO 2 fluxes were significantly (P<0.01) influenced by treatment with application of FYM resulting in significantly higher fluxes (45.2 mg/m²/h) than both the omission and the application of 90 N (32.9 and 28.6 mg/m²/h, respectively; Figure 34). The model also showed a significant effect of timing of sampling (P<0.01). Following this, we regressed the fluxes with ambient temperatures and soil moisture and observed that the attainable fluxes were correlated with these climatic variables (Figure 35). The fluxes increased with increase in soil moisture. On the other hand, increased soil temperatures beyond 35 °C decrease CO 2 fluxes. As CO 2 is a proxy of microbial activity, these results may imply that practices that promote moisture conservation and regulate soil temperatures from reaching higher extremes favor microbial activity. On the other hand, N 2 O fluxes were also significantly influenced by treatments, and were significantly (and equally) higher in both treatments with either application of FYM or nitrogen at 90 kgN/ha compared to no-input control (Figure 36). The use of bio-inoculants is important to maximize on the beneficial role of soil microbes such as in nutrient acquisition, and increase crop resistance to pests and diseases and thereby promote crop growth. Gross margins capture overall treatment effects and are particularly useful when multiple crops are involved. Maize total aboveground biomass yield ranged from 3.48 t/ha in reduced tillage no-fertilizer treatment to 11.42 in the conventional tillage full fertilizer plus residue treatment. The yields were similar to those observed in other seasons in the long-term trial. Out of the 10 treatments included, 6 increased gross margins by 50 to 246 US$ in inoculated relative to un-inoculated (Table 10). On the other hand, 4 treatments had reduced gross margins by 37 to 193 US$ with inoculation relative to no-inoculation. Besides, inoculation with biofertilizers had slight effects on maize height (3.30%), circumference at basal diameter (2.13%) and leaf area index (6.04%), maize stover yields (4.21%), maize grain yields (10.47%) and total maize yields (2.52%) relative to non-inoculated plots (data not shown). A similar observation is made with soybean where, at the 50% podding stage, inoculation with biofertilizers slightly increased biomass (11.0%), canopy cover (27.09%), basal diameter (21.13%), nodules counts (1.52%), nodule fresh (8.42%) and dry weights (4.77%) compared to no inoculation. At harvest, inoculation with biofertilizers slightly increased soybean grain yield (4.15%). While these results point to potential for a positive result with bio-inoculants, they are not convincing enough for applications by farmers.Plate 2. Physiological variations in forages inoculated (B) and non-inoculated (A) with biofertilizers in Thika trial.The effectiveness of biofertilizers is an issue of ongoing debate. The effects of bioinoculants on crop yields have been inconsistent, some studies either reporting increases or decreases. A previous study within the region (Majengo et al. 2013) reported an increase in soybean yields following inoculation with commercial biofertilizers; whereas Faye et al (2020) reported little effects of different inoculants, either for sole or combined application, on the soybean yield, nutrient uptake and other physiological attributes. It is not clear where to peg the inconsistency in crop yields with biofertilizer applications; whether it is the quality of biofertilizers, suppression effects of the indigenous organisms. At the moment, we are not aware of any policy dimension around biofertilizers nor a system in place to ensure high quality. Thus, more research and policies should be formulated in terms of the quality and effectiveness of the biofertilizers.In our case, combined application of biofertilizer and inorganic P did not seem to confer more benefits than biofertilizers alone. Also, plant tissue concentrations for various macronutrients and micronutrients were in general not affected by inoculations except for some increases in Zinc for both maize and soybean and Iron for maize (see the means and ranges in Table 10 and 11). Interestingly, the concentrations of important micronutrients are still below the required thresholds for human nutrition. For instance, the critical threshold for zinc in maize grain is between 40-60 mg/kg, but this is higher than the maize grain zinc concentration levels in both the inoculated and non-inoculated plots. This is a pointer that although yield performance of cereals may be high, more management efforts are required to simultaneously address both yield and the micronutrient gaps for proper nutrition.Table 10. Total above-ground biomass maize yield and gross margins for combined maize and soybean in the inoculated (B) and non-inoculated (A) systems in CT1 long-term trial.Means followed by similar letters in each column are not significantly different from each other. RT = Reduced tillage; CT= Conventional tillage; +R = residue added (2t/ha); -R = lacking residue; M-S = maize-and soybean rotation; M/S = Maize and soybean intercrop. Despite that inoculation had no effect on grain nutrient concentrations, three important treatment effects are observed with soybean:1) reduced tillage with P application resulted in the highest concentrations in soybean grain zinc that was by +6 ppm more compared to same treatments under conventional tillage,2) reduced tillage with no fertilizer inputs had the lowest concentration of soybean grain zinc being by -15 ppm lower than with fertilizer application (it also had lowest grain K and P) and,3) growing pure crop of soybean resulted in the highest concentrations of soybean grain Zn and Fe with or without inoculation (Table 12).The poor soil fertility treatments (with no fertilizers or no residues) had the lowest grain nutrient concentrations relative to other treatments. Improved understanding of soil fertility management influences on quality of produce is important and is one important indicator under regenerative agriculture practices.  Food supply should be matched with appropriate nutrition. Little is known on the effects of soil management on nutritional quality of the produce including supply of sufficient quantities of important proteins and micronutrients.Alleviating health disorders related to micronutrient deficiencies is a health goal.Reduction in crop productivity and yields due to damage by pests and pathogens has continually been met by application of chemical pesticides; that may not only accumulate in edible plant tissues, prompt pathogen-resistance, but may also alter the functional and beneficial soil microbial structure. There is need for research to identify good agricultural practices that control abundance and activity of soil-borne microbial pathogens in environmentally friendly, economical and sustainable ways.There is now overwhelming evidence of soil fertility management effects on microbial diversity, abundances and activity under researcher-controlled fields. Future research should focus on how these are influenced under farmers' own conditions and management practices. This should extend to the range of cover crops and soil protection measures employed by farmers, including tropical forages.Application of manure and of lime clearly have good influences on soil life. It will be good to understand if also antihill soils (and their combinations with manures), and vermicomposts and vermijuices (bio-pesticides from vermicomposting) can achieve similar positive influences as these are easily accessible to farmersThe current methods of assessing soil health are complex, expensive and require technical expertise. There is need to develop simple, observation-based, soil health assessment tool(s) that can rapidly, and universally, be used infield by both researchers and small-holder farmers to assess the ecosystem health of their agronomic management practices.The inconsistent responses of different biofertilizers/bio-inoculants to crop productivity should be further explored. We are not aware of a policy dimension around biofertilizers nor a system in place to ensure high quality. Also, the influence of biofertilizer applications on shifts to soil microbial community and functional structures was not given attention in the current study.Development of a better understanding of soil biota under different agroecological zones, land use and management, and soil types is necessary for improvement of soil health and realization of self-sustaining ecosystem.Microbial study geared towards identification, quantification and mapping of soil biota and their activities under these different contexts will be important in developing better soil health management approaches. ","tokenCount":"8882"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c67f76730a16fbf12e1d02261c90cc49","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1ea5017-50cf-4d19-a258-f11a25cfe844/retrieve","id":"1115985981"},"keywords":["livestock","statistics","household survey","rapid appraisal","constraint analysis"],"sieverID":"0583a722-417d-4e9f-99f7-3a7865b42216","pagecount":"10","content":"The growing demand for food of animal origin developing countries, stimulated by population growth, gains in real per capita income and urbanization, represents an opportunity for some livestock dependent poor to escape poverty. However, because of the dearth of livestock-related data, the linkages between livestock, economic development and poverty reduction remain to a large extent unclear, which constrains the design, implementation and monitoring of pro-poor livestockrelated policies and investments. This paper provides an introduction to the Gates-funded Livestock in Africa: Improving Data for Better Policies Project being implemented by AU-IBAR, FAO, ILRI and WB. This project has the overarching objective to assist African governments in better collecting and analyzing data which support public and private investments in the livestock sector that benefit the less well-to-do.A variety of livestock-related data can be collected at country level, but the current limited understanding of the livestock-poverty interface makes it difficult to identify priority data to gather and process for formulating policies and investments which promote equitable growth of the livestock sector. In addition, the role and mandate of the public sector in providing specific information is often unclear, and stakeholders tend to look for data and indicators which support specific investments or government objectives -such as, for example, the number of livestock to be vaccinated or prices for live animals in major regional markets -often disregarding the broader livestock-poverty interface. There are also technical difficulties associated with 'measuring livestock', due to the existence of hundreds of breeds; regular and irregular herd mortality and reproduction rate; livestock movements; impact of livestock age and animal diseases on productivity; and others.The Livestock in Africa: Improving Data for Better Policies Project will inventory existing livestock-poverty data and data sources in Uganda, Tanzania and a West African country to be decided, and establish communications amongst users and suppliers of livestock statistics to pilot new methods for collection, validation and analysis of data and dissemination of indicators, which facilitate both public and private investments in the livestock sector. In developing new methods and approaches, the Project will (a) combine production, value chain and consumption data to better understand the livestock-poverty linkages; (b) identify key indicators that provide insights not only on production and productivity but also on other livelihood-supporting services provided by livestock; (c) take a demand-driven approach and design a targeted communication and advocacy strategy to support the mainstreaming of key livestock data / indicators into national statistical systems. What matters, in fact, is not the one-off generation and analysis of data, but the continuous availability of livestock statistics to identify good investment opportunities, either for the public and the private sector.Limited information is a major constraint to economic development: it makes it difficult for public and private actors to design and implement effective and equitable investments, and encourages moral hazard behaviours that create economic inefficiencies. This is overwhelmingly the case for agriculture, where output is generated both by a vector of inputs directly controlled by the producer and by a series of state-contingent uncontrollable variables (e.g. mean temperature), which may encourage moral hazards (Hayami and Otsuka, 1993).Most countries in the developing world, where growth in agriculture is critical for reducing poverty level, 'lack the capacity to produce and report even the minimum set of agricultural data necessary to monitor national trends or inform the international development debate' ( UN, 2010, p.11;Chilonda and Otte, 2006;Perry and Sones, 2010). In the last decade, a number of initiatives have been thus launched to support the collection and analysis of agricultural data and statistics, including the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), the Wye Group on Statistics on Rural Development and Agriculture Household Income and the UN Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (UN, 2010). This paper introduces to the Livestock in Africa: Improving Data for Better Policies Project (henceforth the Livestock Data Project), jointly implemented by the Africa-Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the World Bank (WB). The project, launched in 2010, has the overarching objective to assist African governments in better collecting and analyzing data which support public and private investments in the livestock sector that benefit the poor, and to integrate key livestock data into national statistical systems, which only can ensure the continuous availability of livestock statistics necessary to formulate and implement effective and equitable investments in the sector. It builds on the evidence that there are limited statistics for livestock-related povertyfocused investments (e.g. AU, 2010;AU-IBAR, 2009) and that, because of the nature of both livestock and livestock production systems, collection and analyses of sector data requires ad hoc approaches and techniques (e.g. FAO, 1992;Hurley, 1957).The paper is organized as follows: the next section presents a snapshot of the current availability of livestock data in Africa, and in the developing world in general, with the aim to identify major issues and shortcomings. Section three and four present the Livestock Data Project, and how it attempts to identify key livestock-poverty data and statistics and to facilitate their integration into the national statistical system. Section five concludes with a review of the project's challenges.There is broad consensus that available data are insufficient to formulate and implement public and private sector investments contributing to an efficient and equitable development of the African livestock sector, and that greater investments are needed in livestock data collection and analysis (e.g.  (Dokalyo, 2009;Malainine, 2001).Livestock data are rarely collected on a regular basis and, in most cases, current statistics are based on data extrapolations, though extrapolation models are often unable to take into adequate account the rapid changes which are occurring in the livestock sector (e.g. changed consumption patterns; new epidemics).Quality of data is mixed, in terms of timeliness, completeness, comparability and accuracy, and data collection and analysis are rarely, if ever, integrated into the national framework of agricultural statistics.In conclusion, current livestock data are useful to depict major trends, make general cross-country analyses and support investments in some specific livestock domain, such as to mitigate the impact of animal diseases. They give little insights on how livestock contribute to the national economy and to household livelihoods and, hence, on how to design investments which promote a pro-poor development of the sector.Lack of panel data on pastoral production systems thwarts the possibilities of formulating investments which promote an efficient use of resources available in arid and semi-arid lands, including livestock. Whereas several studies have documented pastoralist production systems and pastoralist livelihoods in detail (e.g. Niamir-Fuller, 1999), the tools these studies use are time and cost intensive and not appropriate for monitoring trends in the pastoral economy on a regular basis. More practical ways are to be developed if statistical authorities are to collect, process and disseminate data and statistics on pastoral production systems.There are at least three key issues associated with measuring pastoral economies. First is that there is no standard definition of pastoralism, which may be identified on the basis of economic parameters (how much do livestock contribute to household income?), agro-ecological parameters (where do the household lives?), ethnic dimensions (to what tribe does the household belong to?), by exclusion (e.g. by defining crop and mixed crop-livestock farmers) or by combination of more than one variable. Each of the different approaches has its own advantages and weaknesses: for instance, using an economic definition could produce high variability in the number of pastoralists across the years because of rapidly changing livelihood strategies associated with weather fluctuations. The second issue relates to pastoralists' regular or opportunistic movements along the year, which makes it difficult to set up a system of standard collection of data. Trekking routes may change from year to year (nomads may even change route after being informed of survey operations) and counting all animals that pass along a route is difficult; aerial or satellite surveys are powerful instruments to measure livestock population in vast arid and semi-arid areas, but they do produce little information on the pastoral economy, i.e. on their own they are a blunt tool for designing programmes and investments; water points, which have been used as sampling units in some countries (e.g. Southern Ethiopia and Iran), are often unknown to statistical authorities and present high seasonal variability, both in numbers and capacity of watering livestock, i.e. livestock data collected at water points may result extremely variable across the years. The third issue is about interpreting data on pastoral peoples, so as to come out with investment options which are consistent with their livelihood system. In effect, given the multiple roles that livestock play in pastoral economies and the oftentimes opportunistic use of markets by pastoral peoples, using standard production or profit functions to identify key constraints affecting their livelihoods may lead to biased conclusions and policy indications (Blench, 1999;FAO, 1992;Randall, 2006).The Livestock in Africa: Improving Data for Better Policies Project is a three-year (2010-2012) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and jointly implemented by the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the World Bank (WB), in close cooperation with national governments and institutes. It aims to first pilot and develop methodologies for identifying, collecting and analyzing livestock data, which promote pro-poor investments in Uganda, Tanzania and a West African country to be decided (Niger or Mali), and then to support their institutionalization into the national framework of agricultural statistics, which only can ensure the continuous design and implementation of efficient and equitable investments in the livestock sector. In order to identify core livestock-data relevant for the livelihoods of the poor and, hence, for promoting investments in the livestock sector that benefit the less well-to-do, the Project makes use of different databases and methods of collecting and analyzing data and indicators.Large scale national household surveys are the basis for documenting poverty in developing countries and are possibly the best source of data to examine the livestock-poverty linkages at micro-level (e.g. Chen and Ravaillon, 2008;Deaton, 1997). Current surveys, however, rarely include more than a few livestock-related questions and are not particularly useful for looking at the livestock-poverty interface. As a consequence, there is partial appreciation of the many ways livestock can contribute to household livelihoods and of the data that should be collected to formulate pro-poor investments in the sector.The Livestock Data Project will use (i) the FAO Rural Income Generating Activities (RIGA) database, comprising 32 households surveys covering 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America (Davis et al., 2010) and (ii) household level data produced by the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study -Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) Project in seven African countries (Carletto, 2010; http://go.worldbank.org/TNOUO6ZE40), including some with a specific focus on livestock (e.g. see box 2), to make analyses of the livestock-poverty linkages at household level and identify some key data / indicators that best measure the contribution of farm animals to household livelihoods.The Livestock Data Project will test and administer at least two targeted household survey modules to collect livestock data at the level of production and along the value chain, for example by including in the current LSMS questionnaires questions on the consumption of pasteurized milk and on preferred retail market format, or by oversampling purposely selected households, such as dairy producers, urban consumers or pastoralists. This will allow, on the one hand, getting micro information on some marketing and consumption issues -such as on wholesaler price, level of processing; and retail formats preferred by consumers -and, on the other, exploring with new methodologies to better measure some key livestock parameters -such as animal breeds, milk production and even the pastoral economy.Nationally representative household surveys provide enough information to draw inferences on agricultural production activities (e.g. data on land ownership and land area, number of parcels, crops grown and livestock owned, use of fertilizers and pesticides, use of plows or tractors are often available) but offer little information on the rural off-farm economy (e.g. on traders, processors, wholesalers and retailers) and on the consumption of food of animal origin, whose appreciation is critical for designing and implementing pro-poor livestock sector investments 1 (Barrett et al., 2001;Jabbar et al., 2010;Rich et al., 2009).The Livestock Data Project will use rapid rural appraisal techniques -including literature review, analysis of secondary sources, semi-structured interviews with key informants, direct observation, mapping (see Chambers, 1981) -to identify consumption trends and market opportunities for a variety of livestock products in the project countries and to describe those value chains linking smallholders to selected high-potential markets. The ultimate objective is to identify data / indicators for product and value chain characteristics (e.g. freshness; retail format; trading patterns) that facilitate / hamper smallholders participation in lucrative livestock markets.If combined, household surveys and demand / value chain analyses could be a powerful tool to identify core livestock data / indicators which are relevant to design investments in the sector that benefit the poor. Constraints analysis methodologies (e.g. Devendra, 2007;Gelan and Muriithi, 2010;Nordlund et al., 2007) will be used to analyze household level and market / supply chain data to identify those constraints that bind the most smallholder livestock keepers, both at the farm level and beyond the farm-gate (e.g. technology inefficiencies, unproductive breeds, limited information on output price, inability to meet some hygiene standards, etc.). A systematization and ranking of constraints would allow identifying a core set of livestock data to collect and indicators to disseminate to facilitate the design and implementation of pro-poor investments in the sector, either from the public and the private sector.From a technical perspective, the Livestock Data Project will be innovative in its attempts to focus on livestock data which are relevant to poverty reduction, and to combine micro data at the production, supply chain and demand level to identify key indicators that, in the pilot countries, will contribute to identify potential pro-poor investment options, both for the public and private sector. From a developmental perspective, however, what matters is not the one-off generation and analysis of data, but the continuous availability of livestock statistics to identify good investment opportunities. A major challenge confronting the Livestock Data Project, therefore, concerns the integration of key livestock data into national statistical systems.The Livestock Data Project will make an inventory of available data / databases in each pilot country to investigate if and where there are opportunities to integrate relevant livestock statistics into the components of the national statistical systems. In Uganda, for instance, the National Genetic Resource Centre and Data Bank may start collecting data on given cattle breeds on a regular basis; the Livestock Marketing Information System of Tanzania could be improved to also include data on processed livestock products; etc.There could be, however, limited incentives for the institutionalization of livestock-poverty data into national statistical systems, as in no country there is one authority which is overall responsible for 'poverty reduction', and the livestock sector is largely in the hands of technical Ministries that primarily look for those data / indicators necessary to accomplish their technical tasks. For instance, the Department for Animal Health may be just interested in estimates of the number of animals to budget its vaccination campaigns; the Department of Trade may be just interested in data on imported and exported quantities to better assess earnings from import tariffs; etc. Communication and advocacy will be therefore critical elements for Project's success. In particular, the Project will highlight the potential of livestock as a tool for poverty reduction and economic growth by disseminating evidence that both public and private investments in the sector, if based on appropriate data, may generate handsome returns. In addition, the various methodologies of data collection and analyses will be documented in a sourcebook, which will provide guidelines for national governments and other livestock stakeholders to first identify core livestock statistics and then include them into national / agricultural statistical systems, both in the Project countries and others. In any case, the full and effective integration of livestock data into the national statistical system depends on the development of a master sample frame for agriculture, which includes livestock, and that concepts, definitions, classifications and quality dimensions become standardized across all livestock data collection exercises, thereby ensuring comparability and joint use of data from different sources (UN, 2010).Lack or insufficient information on livestock reduce the investments incentives in the sector for both public and private sector actors, leaving untapped the many potentials of livestock sector growth to contribute to economic development and reduce poverty. The Livestock in Africa: Improving Data for Better Policies Project aims to first pilot and develop methodologies for identifying, collecting and analyzing livestock data, which facilitate pro-poor investments in the sector in Uganda, Tanzania and a West African country to be decided (Niger or Mali), and then to support their institutionalization into the national framework of agricultural statistics, which only can ensure the continuous design and implementation of efficient and equitable investments in the livestock sector.The Project's focus in on data related to livestock, poverty and markets, based on the assumption that a sustainable and inclusive development of the sector can be ensured only if (poor) livestock operators have the incentives to enhance their production and productivity, i.e. farmers need accurate and timely price signals to where and when sell their production surplus (Spielman and Pandya-Lorch, 2009). Household surveys and rapid appraisals will be used to identify key constraints that thwart smallholder access to market, suggest investment options that would enhance the contribution of livestock to their livelihoods, and recommend key livestock data to be regularly collected, processed and disseminated to ensure the continuous formulation and implementation of pro-poor and socially desirable investments in the sector. A communication and advocacy strategy will support the institutionalization of key livestock data into national statistical systems and a sourcebook will be prepared to provide guidelines for pro-poor livestock-data collection, analysis and dissemination.The project's success will depend on its capacity to address three critical issues. The first is that there is asymmetric information concerning data gaps and needs for livestock. Countless livestockrelated variables and indicators could be generated and used to better guide policy and investment decisions. However, only data users (producers, the government, development actors, and a host of others) can clearly articulate which ones they need, and in what form. The Livestock Data Project should be therefore largely demand driven, and its activities detailed and adjusted as data users in each country recommend. Second, it is tricky to identify micro-level data to be collected to formulate equitable livestock investments, and then recommend that national statistics offices collate those data on a regular basis, as household surveys are not routinely implemented in all countries. A comprehensive review and understanding of existing databases (and their rationale) is therefore essential to identify appropriate institutional options to integrate livestock into national statistical systems. Finally, stakeholders tend to look for data and indicators which support specific investments or government objectives, such as for example the number of livestock to be vaccinated or prices for live animals in major regional markets, and disregard the livestock-poverty interface.There could be thus limited incentives for the institutionalization of livestock-poverty data into national statistical databases, unless the Project effectively proves that investing in the livestockdependent poor generates handsome returns in terms of both poverty reduction and economic development.","tokenCount":"3203"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8c2a9d14af0f4b820b9bfd622649061","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bbba9b78-dbd8-45f3-be4c-80b2ad020086/retrieve","id":"-1734633791"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9d6341c8-0727-4dab-8ce8-889945fcce7d","pagecount":"1","content":"Perennial soybean (Neonotonia wightii Wight & Arn.) is a herbaceous perennial forage legume that is mainly used as pasture or hay for animals [1][2][3] . It is a nitrogen fixing legume that can be grown as a cover or fallow crop 2 and contributes to improved soil fertility and productivity of crops 2,3 . It is a drought tolerant climate adaptive species 2,3 with an annual productivity of up to 10 tons DM/ha 2 . The ILRI Genebank holds over 400 accessions with little information on the collection. Generating information and understanding the collection through genotyping and phenotypic characterization is necessary to promote greater use and to rationalize and efficiently curate the collection. Preliminary passport data assessment showed some potential duplicates in the collection. In line with this finding, we used a molecular approach to study the identified potential duplicates.The genotyping produced 31,064 SNP markers for 77 accessions.The hierarchical clustering (Figure 2) and PCA (Figure 3) show the genetic relationship of the accessions.The accessions were differentiated from each other with varying level of genetic distance (0.008-0.262 Nei's distance, 0.123-0.370 Roger's distance and 0.469-0.914 Hamming distance) (Table 1).No duplicate accessions were identified based on the GBS data, but there was high genetic similarity which generally aligned with the passport data.❖ Thus, the results from this study demonstrate that genotyping data can be used to complement the passport and phenotypic data to assess potential duplicates and for efficient curation of germplasm in the genebank.Seeds of the selected accessions were grown in a greenhouse (Figure 1) ❖ Genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves collected from healthy growing seedlings and sent for genotyping at SEQART, ILRI Nairobi, Kenya.The genotyping data were used to assess the genetic distance/similarity among the accessions.The genetic relationship among the accessions was visualized using hierarchical clustering, principal component analysis, genetic relationship matrix and genetic distance. Figure 1. Neonotonia wightii plants  ","tokenCount":"311"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5c2e4749443338ce3afdf35f99065a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a0ae06ac-3846-41bf-ad15-7e7a8482545a/content","id":"-1065166200"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a659c73c-5f41-4cf0-adf9-43bc4866766c","pagecount":"27","content":"The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is a non-profit international agricultural research and training organization. CIMMYT focuses on sustainable agri-food systems and improved livelihoods through research on maize, wheat and other food crops.Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works for a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. Its research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.Dietary shifts such as preference from cereals toward animal proteins may reshape the global food system in the future. The food system changes may threaten the environment, changing land-use patterns and increasing GHG emissions. Therefore, a sustainable food system is needed for supplying future food demand. However, there is a gap in the food demand literature that foresee the likely composition of a future global food basket. This study fills this gap by quantifying the future trend in dietary change and its effects. It combines the insights from several case studies. The focus of these case studies were partly on trend analysis and partly on identifying the determinants and levels of key demand elasticities. The latter is crucially important as demand elasticities drive many quantitative foresight models. Several key insights stand out from this study: (i) although per capita consumption of global staple cereals is likely to decline in many countries, total demand will increase, (ii) higher demand for animal protein worldwide is expected, (iii) increased demand for quality and healthy food, and (iv) a heterogeneous reorientation of future food basket is likely, varying from Asian to African countries. The results from our study can guide policymakers to design policies that improve sustainable food production and align with increased diversified diets.The PIM-initiated and CIMMYT-led project \"Effects of dietary change on the future demand for major cereals\" was a collaborative effort across the CGIAR involving researchers from CIMMYT, ICARDA, IITA, IRRI and IFPRI as well as a CRP Wheat funded contribution by Oxford University.The objective of this project was to determine consumption pattern changes, linked to the relevant global drivers of change in some key countries. This allowed the team to explore expected changes in demand under different scenarios (urbanization, population, prices). Dietary change was analyzed according to rural-urban axis. The team used the case studies to provide well-documented examples of actual and potential dietary change.The insights gleaned from these studies is of crucial importance for technology development for major cereals as well as providing insights into the expected pathways related to the One CGIAR impact area of nutrition and health.Director CIMMYT Integrated Development ProgramIn foresight and ex-ante analysis, drivers of change are crucial for explaining \"what if\" scenarios. A number of key factors (global drivers of change, pressures, and events) shape both the future farming and consumer demand around the globe as well as the context in which they will operate.To ensure food and nutrition security, both the supply-side and the demand-side indicators are important to consider and should be well-balanced. The primary global drivers of change are climate change, demographic and economic developments. Secondary drivers of change related to the first drivers include urbanization, technological convergence, and changing political ambitions. Pressures that are the result of these global drivers include health-related issues such as enduring chronic malnutrition on one side and obesity on the other side of the spectrum, and unequal wealth and income distribution. The above-mentioned drivers, pressures, and events could force farmers, consumers, civil societies, and policymakers to reassess priorities and interventions. In the proposed study, drivers of change, pressures, and events will be analyzed separately. Within international agricultural research for development settings, the emphasis has been placed heavily on the supplyside of food security interventions. However, under the new CRP (CGIAR research program) system, research programs have shifted their focus more towards agri-food systems. This is because previously the demand-side drivers were mostly overlooked whereas more emphasis was given on the supply-side indicators. Diets are changing and will continue to change with the changes in income, demography, lifestyle, and climate. For example, in the case of maize, this results in a shift in the relative importance of the commodity for human consumption compared to animal feed.In the case of wheat, for instance, we see a marked rise in demand in societies where wheat is historically not the staple food. Moreover, gaps between economic value and nutritional value could result from contextual factors that shape the decision-making of food systems actors, related to policy, regulation, governance, or even perceptions of policymaker incentives. Urbanization trends and overall economic development will usher dietary change for both urban and rural consumers, although the nature of such changes has not been well explored to date (Tschirley et al., 2015).Recent studies have looked into existing and potential diets and the associated impacts, including for health, environment and society (Hedenus et al., 2014;Jalava et al., 2014;Fanzo, 2015;Schader et al., 2015;de Boer et al., 2016;Springmann et al., 2016;BMGF and UKAID, 2017). Resources available in terms of land, fresh-water and key nutrients such as phosphate are becoming more scarce. An added environmental aspect of consumption patterns are the direct and indirect effects of consumption on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Currently the major (cereals, rice, wheat and maize) account for more than half of the total caloric intake globally and these cereals are the primary source of dietary energy in the low-income countries (FAO et al., 2015). The importance of these major cereals is expected to grow in the future. However, understanding the patterns of dietary change is extremely important in order to prioritize research and development efforts to ensure that both quantitative and qualitative malnutrition decreases over time.However, the current area of arable land dedicated to the production of cereals world-wide dominates other agricultural land uses. Understanding how cereal demand is likely to develop over the next decades is therefore not a trivial matter. Global integrated assessment models such as IMPACT, GLOBIUM and MAGNET tend to use static demand elasticities in terms of income elasticities and price elasticities. Often these elasticities are taken from literature and can at times date back many years.An update of elasticities of demand is therefore warranted. To do so two different approaches can be used. The first is a top-down macro-level approach where over time apparent demand for cereals is linked to trends in income, prices, and other key determinants of consumption such as urbanization.The second approach is a more bottom-up approach, where these same aspects are studied at a more granular level. The latter approach is more data intensive than the former, which generally relies on national level statistics, while the latter requires household level expenditure data as well as key information related to drivers of change. The comparison of the outcomes of the two approaches can help determine how demand elasticities in foresight models can and should be updated.In an effort to contribute this area, in 2018, the CGIAR research program (CRP) on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) in its cluster of activities on foresight which was part of the flagship program on \"Technological Innovation and Sustainable Intensification\" organized a series of studies on future demand of key commodities. As part of that endeavor, a project was undertaken to study the effects of dietary change on the future demand for major cereals. The overall objective of the study was to examine consumption pattern changes, linked to the relevant global drivers of change in some key countries. This allowed us to explore expected changes in demand under different scenarios (urbanization, population, prices). Dietary change was analyzed according to the ruralurban axis, for separate sub-national regions depending on context. We used the case studies to provide well-documented examples of current and potential dietary changes. The purpose of this discussion paper is to provide a synthesis of this research as well as some related studies.In Chapter two, we discuss the different analytical approaches used to explore the future demand for major cereals. In Chapter three we provide brief background information on some of the specific geographies targeted in our studies. In Chapter 4 we highlight the main results of the case studies and in Chapter 5 we draw some overall conclusions and identify further steps for research.Empirical based statistical regression models have been used extensively to analyze consumption demand. This body of work has focused on explaining and understanding current or past consumption patterns, using cross-sectional data. Whereas the focus of our studies is on changing demand as we look towards the future. Starting point for the micro-level analysis were two studies conducted with a focus on wheat (Mottaleb et al., 2018b(Mottaleb et al., , 2018a) ) and some work done in advising the Mexican government on future developments in the maize sector (Govaerts et al., 2019). For that purpose, the foresight team at CIMMYT developed a simulation model based on econometrically estimated structural equations that captured trends in maize consumption using household expenditure data linking the outcomes with key parameters that play a role in future scenarios: income levels and urbanization. The underlying logic is based on the notion that if you are able to identify a link between key drivers, impacts or responses of change for which there are future projections, you can also provide insights into the changes in demand. The key requirement is the ability to link the key change indicators to the level of analysis.For projecting future demand, in general, either national or global agricultural sector or economywide models are deployed using quantitative methods offer insight into general developments in supply and demand (Hubert et al., 2010;Tilman et al., 2011;Robinson et al., 2015;Brooks and Place, 2019). One of these approaches is embodied in the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) model of the global agricultural economy (Robinson et al., 2015). Foresight models, such as the IMPACT model, take changing consumption into consideration in an endogenous manner. This is done through a series of income and price elasticities at national level. The underlying logic is that these overall elasticities capture in the aggregate the intricacies of elasticities at lower levels of aggregation.One of the ways to determine these underlying elasticities is through trend analysis. In trend analysis the long-term changes in demand are analyzed, often using time series analysis methods.As part of the study to get a better understanding of the changing demand of major cereals various methodologies were used falling into this array of approaches just highlighted. In the following paragraphs the different approaches will be described and discussed brieflyIn the IMPACT model consumer demand for commodities is modeled with exogenous price and income elasticity parameters (Robinson et al., 2012). The IMPACT demand elasticities are originally based on United States Department of Agriculture-estimated elasticities and adjusted to represent a synthesis of average, aggregate elasticities for each region, given the income level and distribution of urban and rural population 1 . Over time the elasticities are adjusted to accommodate the gradual shift in demand from staples to high-value commodities like meat, especially in developing countries.This assumption is based on expected economic growth, increased urbanization, and continued commercialization of the agricultural sector. IMPACT treats household demand with one representative consumer per country.Using the IMPACT model Springmann (2021) analyzed the climate-change impacts on nutrient levels in staple grains that could negatively impact mineral deficiencies amongst at-risk populations, in particular, of iron and zinc. By pairing nutritional, dietary health and dietary-scenario analyses, Springmann found that replacement of refined grains by whole grains could help compensate the climate-change-related reductions in iron and zinc concentrations in wheat, rice, maize, and improve dietary risks related to low wholegrain/fibre intake. A more comprehensive dietary-change strategy of adopting healthy and sustainable diets would impart further nutritional and health benefits, whilst also contributing to climate-change mitigation (Springmann, 2021).The impact model is a partial equilibrium model that calculates interactions across the agri-food system through elasticities. Elasticities are crucial drivers of model outcomes. In the case of demand, economic theory postulates three elasticities that influence demand: income elasticities, own-price elasticities and cross-price elasticities. In the IMPACT model income elasticities, and ownprice elasticities of demand are used. The IMPACT model does not use and cross-price elasticities of demand. The demand elasticities in IMPACT are exogenous and added to the model as parameters defined over commodity, country, and year as well as households and a concept called elasticity revision. The household concept is somewhat misleading as there is only one household defined per country. Even though the elasticities are split over urban and rural households, the values are identical.The strength of the IMPACT model is in its ability to identify the big picture interactions in agri-food systems linked to major drivers of change. Springmann (2021) concludes that climate change is expected to have detrimental impacts on food security, including on nutrient availability, due to reductions in crop yields and nutrient concentrations of crops. Production level interventions are not sufficient to address food security complementing such strategies by interventions at the consumption level could help mitigate the nutrient impacts of climate change, whilst improving dietary health and, for the case of comprehensive dietary changes towards healthy and sustainable diets, contribute to climate-change mitigation (Springmann et al., 2018). To do so the study estimated the nutrient content of foods by pairing the consumption of each food group with its nutrient density as reported in the Global Expanded Nutrient Supply (GENuS) dataset, a global dataset of nutrient supply of 23 nutrients across 225 food categories for over 150 countries (Springmann, 2021). Springmann specified two dietary adaptation scenarios to the climate change impacts on nutrient levels. The first one included a scenario in which all grains are consumed as whole grains. The GENuS dataset account for the proportion of grains consumed as whole grains and those consumed as refined one, based on regional processing estimates (Wessells et al., 2012).Using national level data, average apparent consumption of different food items can be studied. Frija (2021a) calculated the diet composition, expressed by the average per-capita food commodities consumption for 1960 and 2018 and estimated the projected values for 2050 with a focus on Asia, Sub Sahara Africa, and North Africa. The study focused on food commodities (both crop and animal) which are essential source of protein macro nutrients which constitute 50% of human body's dry weight. The study considered a wide range of both animal and crop food and calculate the level of their integration in the average daily diet of a capita in the different considered countries. Projections were conducted based on times series data (from 1961 to 2018) and using different regression methods which have been applied depending on the data quality for a given commodity and country, to generate future consumption values up to 2050 (Frija et al., 2021a(Frija et al., , 2021b)).Two time series analysis approaches have been used on a selected number of wheat-producing countries. The first is Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model estimation procedure, the second is the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model estimation procedure. By applying a suitability analysis of the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model estimation procedure using Johansen's cointegration test, to determine if there was co-integration of key variables. This procedure found that for many country datasets countries' variables are cointegrated, making the application of the VAR estimation procedure unsuitable. As an alternative, the Vector Error Correction (VEC) model estimation procedure was applied. This approach was applied to wheat demand in a wide variety of countries (Mottaleb et al., 2021b).The almost ideal demand system developed by Deaton and Muelbauer in the early 1980s (Deaton and Muellbauer, 1980) has been used extensively for demand analysis over the past four decades. This approach has been used in different ways to project future demand. An extension of the almost ideal demand system is the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) (Banks et al., 1997).It considers the existence of non-linear engel curve which is not expressed in the standard almost ideal demand system. It allows the inclusion of household characteristics. By using characteristics that can be related to general trends and drivers of change, it becomes possible to use this approach for simulating future demand.The approach used by Mottaleb et al. (2018) for estimating demand in Bangladesh is to use Household Income and Expenditure Surveys, and applying a two-stage quadratic almost ideal system estimation procedure, the study separately estimates the expenditure elasticities for rural and urban households for five food items: rice, wheat and rice and wheat products, pulses, fish and vegetables. Second, using the estimated elasticities, projected population and the per capita GDP growth rates, this study projects the consumption of the sampled food items by 2030 (Mottaleb et al., 2018b).In modeling demand for cereals in Uganda, Mottaleb et al. ( 2021) followed several steps. Mottaleb et al. assumed a rational household head who allocated the daily per capita total food budget XUGX to different food items in a way that maximized utility. The allocation of the daily food budget (for the household as well as per capita) can be endogenously determined by several factors. Thus, XUGX can be a function of a number of exogenous variables. The study considered a two-stage budgeting procedure, in which it is assumed that a household first decides on the per capita daily total food budget. In the next stage, a household decides how much of the daily per capita total food budget will be allocated to each of the six food items under the assumption that prices of the food items, household demographic structure, and the major source of livelihood can affect the daily per capita budget allocation to the sampled food items.The authors applied the endogeneity-corrected Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) estimation approach separately for rural and urban households. From the QUAIDS model, they estimated the price and expenditure elasticities for the sampled foods and then they estimated the aggregate demand for the sampled food items considering population projections and GDP growth rates up to 2030 (Mottaleb et al., 2021a).Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa ( 2019) use the approach to analyze the effects of dietary change on the future demand for major cereals in Uganda and Nigeria, focusing on the difference between urban and rural households (Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa, 2019). Bairagi et al. (2020) analyze the differences in rice food consumption patterns for urban and rural households in Vietnam using the approach. They point out that there are five important lessons that can be learned from past applications of the approach. First, elasticities are important tools for designing and reforming price and food policies globally, so demand studies are growing. Second, observe a large variation in both estimated price and income elasticities are observed across countries, so one size (fiscal policy) might not fit for all. Third, if large variation in estimates originates from methodological attributes, then the right approach, quality data and more disaggregated analysis are needed for reducing potential estimation biases. This is very important because biased estimates could lead to designing inappropriate policies. Fourth, as also pointed out by Cornelsen et al. (2015), cross-PE is limited in the demand literature. Finally, since many poor and developing countries have been growing tremendously in recent years, updated estimates are needed with new information to reform policies for further economic development.Finally, Bairagi (2022) also recently estimated price and expenditure elasticities for seven food categories for rural and urban Filipino households, using Stone-Lewbel (SL) price indices and the quadratic almost-ideal demand system (QUAIDS) model.Assuming that major cereals are homogenous commodities does not do justice to the variety within the commodities and the possible implications for changing demand. Data that allows this type of analysis is scarce and at present it has not been possible to do a comparative analysis across multiple crops. However, there is a good example of disentangling the drivers of demand for fragrant rice in South and South-East Asia (Bairagi et al., 2020a) using rank-ordered logistic regression with incomplete ranking choice data.For the analysis of cereal consumption in Mexico as part of a foresight study into the future of the maize sector, a different approach than QUAIDS was used. The basis is still utility maximization and diminishing propensities to consume as incomes rise. Using a systems of equations consumption patterns linked to income levels differentiated by urban / rural dimension across the different regions of Mexico were analyzed and used for future projections (Kruseman, 2016;Govaerts et al., 2019).The case studies can be divided into three groups.The first group looks at global picture using broad data sets such as the FAO food balance sheets. This allows comparison across multiple countries and years. Time series analysis and trend analysis are applicable (Frija et al., 2021a;Mottaleb et al., 2021b). The focus of these studies has been on Africa and Asia.The second group contains country-level case studies based on much more granular datasets, often for single years or a limited number of years. Food demand elasticities are estimated with crosssectional household-level data. By focusing on structural characteristics driving demand and relating those structural characteristics to key driver of change metrics, future simulations can be done.The second group of studies focused on the country commodity combinations. Even when other food items were considered, the focus has been on major cereals and therefore we mention only the major cereals that were the focus of the studies.The studies covered changes in demand for wheat in Bangladesh (Mottaleb et al., 2018b(Mottaleb et al., , 2018a)); Rice in Vietnam (Bairagi et al., 2020b); Maize in Nigeria (Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa, 2019); Maize in Uganda (Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa, 2019;Mottaleb et al., 2021a), wheat and to some extent maize in Nepal (Mottaleb et al., 2022) ); rice in the Philippines (Bairagi et al., 2022); and maize in Mexico (Govaerts et al., 2019).The third group uses global foresight modeling tools to identify future demand-related challenges. An example of such a study is Springmann (2021) that explores the environment-nutrition nexus in changing demand at the global level with countries as the lowest level of demand aggregation.Globally, major cereals consumption has been constantly growing and is expected to further increase by 2050. Trend analysis reveals that the most important proportion of the South Asian diet refers to major cereals (including rice, maize, barley, and wheat) (Frija et al., 2021a). In terms of diet composition, the consumption trend between 1961 and 2050 is the same for almost all countries, with increasing consumption of animal source food by 2050 (see Figure 1 below).Figure 1 Historical, present, and expected future diet composition for selected Asian countries, with relative importance of major cereals, animal source food and legumes and pulses. (Frija et al., 2021a) Major cereals consumption has been constantly growing and is expected to further increase by 2050.The overall diet trend in SSA is different from what we see in Asia or MENA, with decreasing relative importance of animal source food in the diet between 1961 and 2050. Mozambique is an exception for this case where the per capita consumption of animal source food is expected to increase over the years (see Figure 2 Figure 2 Historical, present, and expected future diet composition for selected African countries, with relative importance of major cereals, animal source food and legumes and pulses. (Frija et al., 2021a).This analysis further showed that: § Per capita wheat consumption in Middle East and North African (MENA) countries is not expected to increase by 2050. The growth of wheat demand in the region is going to be mostly driven by population growth. Per capita wheat consumption is however expected to increase in many Asian and sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. § While a dominant future trend of substituting grain cereals with higher-value energy-dense foods, such as fish and meat protein, is clear in most countries, the opposite trend, with the decreasing relative importance of animal source foods by 2050, has been identified in many SSA countries. § Per capita legume consumption has been decreasing in most analyzed MENA and SSA countries, including India.Results of this foresight analysis help to better guide future research and development investments in food security, especially for commodities which will be highly needed for the global diet. The future growing demand for wheat for example (especially SSA and South Asia) need careful consideration for filling the agronomic and varietal research gaps in these new geographies (Frija et al., 2021b).The results from QUAIDS analyses in the different countries reveals elasticities that vary amongst regions within the countries analyzed as well as between urban and rural populations and between income groups.Comparison of the results of the case studies calculating compensated elasticities can be observed in Table 1. In projecting demand for the sampled food items in 2030 and 2050, these studies used the weighted average of the elasticities across the groups identified. Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa (2019) for instance find that urban demand for rice would be more than 50% that of rural demand by 2030 in Nigeria. By contrast, in Uganda, the demand for maize would be more than 3 times higher in rural areas compared to urban areas by 2030. These results imply that rural development in Uganda should put an emphasis on raising land productivity whereas in Nigeria, rural development should raise the productivity of both agricultural land and labor, which are likely to become scarce in the future (Gbegbelegbe and Msukwa, 2019). Mottaleb et al. (2022) find that that the consumption demand of the sampled commodities would increase with the GDP and population growth in Nepal. For example, by 2050, the demand for wheat, maize, and rice will increase by 43%, 58%, and 34%, respectively, from the consumption level in 2016-18. This study also demonstrates that the consumption demand for noncereal food items such as pulses, vegetables, meat and fish would also increase by 2030 and 2050 than the 2016-18 level. Based on the findings, this study strongly suggests policymakers to invest both in cereal and noncereal subsectors of agriculture, firstly to combat extreme poverty and hunger in Nepal, and secondly to ensure income of the rural agricultural households, as more than 66% of the employed labor force in Nepal is currently engaged in agriculture. Mottaleb et al (2018a;2018b) find that in 2030 both rural and urban households in Bangladesh will consume more wheat, pulses and fish, but the urban households will consume less rice compared to the current levels of consumption in 2015. They find that with the increase in income and urbanization, this traditional rice-consuming country is increasingly consuming more wheat. The changes in the relative consumption in Bangladesh are prominent both in rural and urban areas. The literature often is based on the premise that with increasing income, households switch from staple cereals to high food-value items. The studies highlight the need to also consider within-staple substitution.Bairagi (2020b) find a large variation in the estimated price elasticities (-0.05 to -0.88) and expenditure elasticities (-0.16 to 2.56) in Vietnam. Food types, urban status and income groups can explain this variation. We also find that the staple food, rice, is already an inferior good for rich urban households in Vietnam. Moreover, food preferences are evolving away from rice but towards animal proteins (fish, pork, chicken, eggs and milk), fruits and vegetables, irrespective of urban status and income groups. As the Vietnam economy continues to grow with a doubling of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next decade, per capita rice consumption in both urban and rural areas and across different income groups will continue to decline, whereas demand for other high-value products will rise.How these results compare to elasticities used in the IMPACT model can be observed in Table 2. There are clear discrepancies between the elasticities used in the IMPACT model and those calculated using the QUAIDS approach and granular household consumption data. The minor changes over time in the elasticities in the IMPACT model provide a range of values that do not include the calculated elasticities in the case studies. Mottaleb et al. (2022) find that aggregate demand for both cereal and non-cereal food items will increase. Unlike some previous studies (e.g. Pingali, 2007;Pingali et al., 2019), they conclude that it is important to invest in both cereals and non-cereal food crops, including pulses and vegetables, to ensure basic food security and to nurture human health. Interestingly, compared to coarse rice and maize, wheat is an income elastic food item. With increases in income and urbanization, and lifestyle changes, the demand for fine rice and wheat will increase across Asia and Africa (Gandhi et al., 2004;Nagarajan, 2005;Mason et al., 2015;Mottaleb et al., 2018c). Frija et al. (2021a) concludes that future diets will evolve differently across regions and countries. While a dominant pattern of the substitution of grain cereals with higher-value energy-dense foods, such as fish and meat protein, is clear in most studied countries, still other specific trends are identified, especially in SSA where the future consumption of meat products will be growing at relatively lower rates compared to other cereals and dry legumes. Another trend is also related to the increasing future demand of wheat in most analyzed countries and regions where wheat is expected to take a higher share of the diet in most of the countries by 2050.The set of studies synthesized here present a step in identifying the pathways of how drivers of change shape the demand for major cereals, based a number of case studies. The next step entails comparing to other analyses and filling in the key knowledge gaps in order to improve the demand equations in quantitative foresight models. The insights gleaned from these studies can also inform policy debates related to food and nutrition security.","tokenCount":"4938"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8de002b825e8b032220b9c7ab352c581","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6a9cdcd-3801-4c10-af2e-e78ee3e35511/retrieve","id":"1968140838"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15782b4b-d98a-4736-90e9-fcfc008acd51","pagecount":"40","content":"The CGIAR Gender and Breeding Initiative (GBI) brings together plant and animal breeders and social scientists to develop a strategy for gender-responsive breeding with supporting methods, tools and practices.This tool will enable you to evaluate the gender-responsiveness of individual traits of a breeding product: usually a plant variety or an animal breed. To be gender-responsive, breeding programs should always perform this check, even if the conclusion is that a product has no gender-sensitive trait.The tool queries which individual traits are preferred by men and women users or customers for any given breeding product. It takes into account four well-researched causes of gender inequity in agriculture that can be widened or reduced by introducing new plant varieties or animal breeds. The tool generates two different gender impact scores, one for \"do no harm\" that will flag any negative gender impacts that breeding programs will want to avoid and another for positive benefits that a breeding program may include in its objectives (Figure 1). A product profile is the full set of targeted attributes, or the ideotype, that a new plant variety or animal breed is expected to meet to be successfully released onto a market segment. Attributes are traits with a specific level defined either in absolute or relative terms (Ragot et al. 2018: 5). Use this tool to evaluate gender dimensions of plant or animal traits in a breeding product profile when deciding if a product should be advanced:• Determine whether a product profile has any implications for gender equity • Assess whether a trait meets minimal \"do no harm\" standards according to an evidence-based gender analysis• Characterize the positive benefits of a trait for women users • Document the process of taking gender into account in the trait prioritization process.Poor women farmers are important end-users of new crop varieties and animal breeds. More than two billion people live on almost 500 million farms of less than two hectares in poor countries, supporting half of the world's undernourished people and most of the people living in absolute poverty (Nagayets 2005). For breeding programs with social welfare and development goals, aiming to maximize adoption of their products by resource-poor farmers, a key consideration in product advancement should be the likely impact of a new product on women farmers, processors and other female beneficiaries.Gender-responsive breeding ensures that the perceptions, interests, needs and priorities of women and men (which differ because of their different roles and responsibilities in farming) will be considered in planning and decision-making (Box 1).The tool conducts an analysis of gender gaps in agriculture to help a breeding program detect whether a given trait has implications for gender equity in farming and in the rest of a commodity's value chain.Gender equity is not the same as gender equality, which is based on the premise that women and men should be treated in the same way. Delivering the same variety (or animal breed) in the same way to both men and women will not always produce equitable results. Women and men often have different needs. A gender equity approach takes account of different needs and is based on the premise that different breeding strategies may be needed to produce outcomes and impacts that are equitable.The G+ Product Profile Tool generates positive and negative ordinal values for a gender impact score to help breeders score and rank the traits to prioritize.When breeding programs develop new crop varieties or animal breeds, they usually start with many promising candidates and progressively select a few. Selection involves deciding whether to advance a variety or animal breed under development to the next stage of breeding.The tool's gender analysis is especially relevant at the stage of variety design in the breeding cycle, but it can be useful whenever there is a product advancement decision.The G+ Product Profile Query Tool can be used to identify what breeders need to know about gender differences regarding a given trait, providing a structure for a breeding team to consider the evidence that backs up each score. Scoring involves a judgment based on evidence, and the tool will help determine whether the team has adequate evidence on the essential gender difference(s) for scoring a specific trait. This documentation is summarized by the tool and should be read and discussed by the breeding team.The tool can be used to pinpoint the issues where breeding teams need more evidence on a gender difference that may harm or benefit women users. The tool assesses and records whether there is sufficient evidence for scoring a trait on each potentially significant gender difference. If the tool reveals that evidence for an important gender difference is too weak to generate a score, this can help focus research planning to learn more about this gender difference.The G+ Product Profile provides breeding programs with a practical answer to the question \"What can a breeding program do to be gender-responsive?\" (Box 1). The tool is intended to be used by a multidisciplinary breeding program for making product advancement decisions.To arrive at gender impact scores, the tool requires judgments based on evidence from research about gender gaps in a well-defined population or customer segment. These judgments, and the supporting research, should be performed by a social scientist trained in gender analysis. The scores, judgments and evidence should be discussed by the social scientist with the breeders interested in the traits being evaluated.1) Know when, where, and why women are an important beneficiary group. Take into account important differences in constraints faced by women and men farmers that breeding can influence.2) Anticipate how design decisions (e.g., defining plant ideotype, prioritizing traits, targeting and testing varieties with farmers) may impact and be influenced by women's labor, resources and opportunities.3) Design breeding objectives specifically to benefit women farmers when they are an important beneficiary group who require a special approach, and consider their needs, constraints and knowledge more generally in the breeding program.4) Be accountable, making sure that the success of the breeding program is measured in ways that include positive impacts for women, as well as for households or farmers in general. Step 1: Write a product profile proposalUsing the G+ Product Profile Tool requires prior social targeting. This means the tool must be applied to a well-defined customer segment (see Glossary) that the program has decided to target (see The G+ Customer Profile Tool).• The tool draws on the information about gender relations and trait preferences that are found in a gender-responsive customer profile. If there is no customer profile, the gender analysis for the tool will involve compiling some of this information.• Ensure that the scoring judgements are based on information that is representative of the customer segment under consideration.• If you are using the tool's templates for recording results of the analysis, the name of the customer segment should be entered into the product profile proposal (Annex I) and the scoring matrix (Annex IV).The traits of interest should be identified from an already existing breeders' product profile proposal.Discussion with breeders about the list of traits may cause you to add one or more traits that are important from a gender perspective, so that the gender impact scores of all the traits of interest can be compared.• If a breeders' product profile is not available, then make a list of traits under consideration for the breeding product and enter these into the Product Profile Proposal Template (Annex I).There is no blueprint for a breeding product profile. What matters is that the matrix contains two columns for gender impact in addition to columns for each of the other criteria breeders use to evaluate traits. This is illustrated in the template.• Each trait listed in the product profile proposal that is to be evaluated will require one G+ Product Profile Questionnaire (Annex II) and one Scoring Matrix (Annex IV).StepThe tool builds on well-documented aspects of gender gaps in agriculture that are associated with gender differences in technology choice directly relevant to plant or animal traits (Wodon and Blackden 2006;FAO 2011;World Bank 2012;Alkire et al. 2013;Quisumbing et al.2014). By changing the productivity of factors like land, water, labor, capital and knowledge on small farms, a new breeding product can also change, for good or for ill, the gender relations that govern how equitably these resources are accessed, owned and shared between men and women. For example, yield increases where women do a lot of unpaid work in harvesting crops or milking cows, may increase drudgery and increase their workload (Woden and Blackden 2006). Figure 1 summarizes the gender gaps in the target customer segment for which information is needed to make the judgments called for by the Tool's questionnaire.Gender analysis for the tool considers other social categories, besides women. The tool's questionnaire and the \"do no harm\" and positive benefit analysis can be applied flexibly to men, women or to any other gender-related social category, such as \"women peri-urban traders\" or \"adolescent women farmworkers\" for example.Value chain actors: Social categories of special interest for trait evaluation are gendered value chain roles: for example, men and women processors who often face different opportunities, process different end-products and have different trait preferences. Processors may be subdivided by gender into different segments with different roles, such as women on-farm food processors and male factory owners. Conversely, value chain roles may override gender differences: commercial growers may have similar trait preferences, whether they are men or women, because they are meeting demand from the same type of processor.To apply the tool's questionnaire flexibly, the gender-related social category of interest should be inserted into the tool questionnaire as illustrated in Box 2.• This tool treats each gender-related social category as a customer segment. If you are using the tool's templates to record the results of the analysis, the name of a social category should be added to that of the customer segment in the product profile proposal (Annex 1) and scoring matrix (Annex IV).Each social category you plan to use (women growers, men growers, women processors etc.) will require a scoring matrix and will obtain positive, neutral or negative gender impact scores for each trait evaluated.Box 2. Intersection of gender: insert the social category to be used for the analysis into the G+ Product Profile tool questionnaire Example: Question 1 applied to three different social categoriesQuestion 1: Drudgery a. Does the trait involve a harmful increase in the unpaid, family labor input by women semicommercial farmers in the target customer segment, to produce or to use the product, including marketing or processing for household consumption or sale? b. Does the trait involve a harmful increase in the unpaid, family labor input by men commercial farmers in the target customer segment, to produce or to use the product, including marketing or processing for household consumption or sale? c. Does the trait involve a harmful increase in the unpaid, family labor input by women processors in the target customer segment, to produce or to use the product, including marketing or processing for household consumption or sale?Code: enter the code for your chosen response into the scoring matrix for this trait -Increases drudgery with serious harm to individual or household health and welfare for a majority (more than half of the total) in the target customer segment = -2 -Increases drudgery with moderate harm for a majority or the variety release is conditional on implementing a guaranteed remedial intervention to remove this obstacle for a majority = -1 -No significant increase = 0 -!!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score -Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Step 3: Describe gendered trait preferencesThe G+ Product Profile is designed for use by breeding programs targeting customer-segments principally composed of resource-poor growers, processors and traders as well as consumers. Men and women often express different trait preferences that reflect the gendered division of rights and responsibilities in farming and in the value chain, and there are well-established methods for identifying such preferences (Bellon, 2001;Ashby, 1990). Box 3 illustrates some of the differences in trait preferences that might need to be considered in gender-responsive breeding. There will not always be significant gender differences in trait preferences. To be gender-responsive, product profile development should still check and see if gender matters.Data from 39 empirical studies Traits mentioned more often or ranked higher by women than by menEarly maturing Food securityEase of harvesting and transport Ease of threshing The tool questionnaire requires information about trait preferences of men and women. This provides a cross-check on the judgments about gender gaps (Box 4).• For easy reference it is convenient to summarize what is known about customer trait preferences in a trait preferences summary sheet (see Annex II).• Data on gender-differentiated trait preferences is often incomplete. Completing the trait preferences summary sheet will provide a picture of data sources and data quality issues. This can be used to plan remedial data collection.• Trait preferences are clues to a customer's problem or opportunity, in the face of constraints and needs that are often harmful to welfare.• The potential for harm or benefit perceived by customers for a trait may not be readily identified in the gender gap analysis.• Negative evaluation of a trait that contradicts a neutral gender impact score derived from the gender gap analysis can be a signal that the gender analysis is incomplete.• Disagreement about the positive value of a trait among men and women (or other social categories) in the target customer segment suggests that there may be conflicts of interest. For example, when most men think that a trait will confer a market advantage, but the majority of women value the trait negatively, because it will increase their workload.• Customers' conflicts of interest are important for gender-responsive breeding.Conflicts may be resolved by customers bargaining over what to plant (or what type of animal to raise). In the household, or in a commercial relationship, women may not have the power to exercise their preference. The analysis of gender relations should provide insight on whose opinion is likely to predominate and why. A breeding program then has to evaluate a trade-off between traits and decide which members of the customer group to favor or to disadvantage.• Disagreement about the negative value of a trait in the target customer segment can indicate that the segment includes customers with different, competing objectives and requirements. It may be necessary to subdivide the target customer segment, and then clarify whose preferences are important for the breeding program's objectives.The G+ Product Profile questionnaire (Annex II) consists of 11 questions that are applied to each trait of interest. \"Do no harm\" considers the possible harm that introducing a new trait might cause women, to minimize the risk of releasing a variety that could exacerbate existing gender inequities. Positive benefit analysis queries the likelihood of a breeding product sustaining and enhancing women's control over livelihood resources.• Each question requires a response in the form of an evidence-based judgment to be made by a social scientist trained in gender analysis, ideally in conversation with a breeder familiar with market-led breeding approaches.• Each response is coded as defined in the questionnaire.• Each judgment is based on research information about gender gaps in a well-defined population or customer segment. This information should support conclusions that are representative of the customers.• The data sources and any data quality issues must be noted and form part of any presentation of the results.If the information is not adequate to form a judgment in response to a question on the tool questionnaire, it should be coded with:!!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score.The social scientist completing the questionnaire should write a narrative explanation of the coded judgment underneath each question to provide a report on the gender analysis for a given trait that can be read by breeders.This is an overview of the questionnaire. Each question is applied to each trait in the product profile (see full questionnaire, Annex II).• Questionnaire part 1: Gender gap questions 1-4 Use the tool to examine four criteria related to gender equity in agriculture that represent a standard for \"do no harm\", meaning that women should not be worse off in any one of these four aspects.• Questionnaire part 2: Negative trait preferences questions 5-6 Assess gender-differentiated trait preferences that have negative implications. Examine men's and women's preferences to identify agreement or difference of opinion and whether men and women favor different trade-offs for a given trait.This is an overview of the questionnaire content. Each question is applied to each trait in the product profile (see full questionnaire, Annex II).• Questionnaire part 3: Gender benefit questions 7-9.Use the tool to examine three types of benefits that are critical for determining if women farmers will benefit from a breeding product. A benefit is defined as an advantage derived from using a breeding product, including the satisfaction of practical needs (e.g. nutritious food) and strategic needs (e.g. market power)• Questionnaire part 4: Positive trait preferences questions 10-12Assess gender-differentiated trait preferences that have positive implications for the trait in question. Examine men's and women's preferences to identify agreement or conflict of opinion and whether men and women favor different trade-offs on a given trait.Step 6 score gender impactUse the tool's scoring matrix (Annex IV) to analyze the set of 12 coded judgments for an individual trait generated by applying the tool's questionnaire (Box 5). Record the result in the positive benefit or \"do no harm\" column of the product profile proposal (Annex I).Box 5.Step by step guide to scoring gender impact using the scoring matrix (Annex IV)Use the Scoring Matrix worksheet to score ONE trait• You will generate two gender impact scores for each trait.• Record the score in the product profile column for \"do no harm\" or positive benefit.• Part 1 of the scoring matrix covers the gender gap questions 1-4.• Part 2 covers negative preferences of women and men with respect to the trait from questions 5 and 6.This generates a gender impact score for \"do no harm\". Enter this score in the space provided on the scoring matrix sheet.• Part 3 of the scoring matrix covers the gender benefit questions, 7-9• Part 4 covers positive preferences of women and men with respect to the trait from questions, 10, 11 and 12.This generates a gender impact score for positive benefits. Enter this score in the space provided on the scoring matrix sheet.Follow the scoring guide provided at the bottom of the scoring matrix template:If you have scored -2, no further scoring is required for \"do no harm\".If you have scored 0, no further scoring is required for \"do no harm\".If you have scored -2, no further scoring is required for \"do no harm\".Note: Agreement of men and women for a negative valuation for the trait is given more weight than a zero derived from questions 1-4 because it suggests a strong likelihood of low acceptance of the trait by all producers in the target customer segment. It also suggests revisiting the gender gap analysis that may have missed something about the trait that is of significance to most men and women in the target customer segment.If you have scored -1, no further scoring is required for \"do no harm\".Note: Changes in production introduced by breeding may need to be accompanied by another innovation, e.g. small threshers. Thus, identifying a trait with a negative gender impact might not be a reason to avoid it, but rather signal the need for mitigation by ensuring that the release of the variety is accompanied by a complementary innovation.• \"Avoid or amend\" signals the importance of considering whether breeding objectives need adjustment to meet women's needs and preferences. If a majority of women express a negative valuation for the trait, this is given more weight than a zero derived from questions 1-4 because it suggests that the gender gap analysis has missed something about the trait that is significant to most women in the target customer segment.Enter -2 in the \"do no harm\" column of the product profile. This signals a definite need to weigh the potential for a harmful outcome in trait prioritization.One item scored -2 or two items scored -1 based on questions 1-4 in part 1 is sufficient to decisively conclude \"reject\"Steps 1&2Step 3If all items in Part 1 are zero or only one item in part 1 is scored -1, then scoring will check what has been learned from the negative preference evaluations in part 2Step 4If all items in Part 1 and Part 2 are zero, this is decisive for concluding \"neutral\".If the majority of men and women agree on a negative valuation, this is decisive for concluding \"reject\"Enter -2 in the \"do no harm\" column of the product profile.If a majority of women in the target customer segment express a negative evaluation, even if most men do not agree, or if men's opinions are unknown, this is decisive for concluding \"avoid or amend\".Enter -1 in the \"do no harm\" column of the product profile.Enter 0 in the \"do no harm\" column of the product profile.Step 6Step 5Part 3 of the scoring matrix covers the \"gender benefit\" questions 7-9.Part 4 covers positive preferences of women and men with respect to the trait from questions 10, 11 and 12. Follow the scoring guide provided at the bottom of the scoring matrix template:If you have scored 3 here, no further scoring is required for positive benefit.If you have scored 0 here no further scoring is required for positive benefit If you have scored 2 here, no further scoring is required for positive benefit.Note: Agreement of men and women for a positive valuation for the trait either confirms the positive benefit for women identified in questions 7-9 or it contradicts the zero identified there. Agreement about the positive value of a trait is given more weight than a zero derived from questions 7-9 because it indicates that there is a strong likelihood of acceptance of the trait by men as well as women farmers in the target customer segment. The score \"important\" signals the opportunity for trait prioritization to promote a desirable feature of the product from the perspective of gender equity.Note. This conclusion either confirms the positive benefit identified in questions 7-9 or it overrides a zero result from those questions. If a majority of women express a positive valuation for the trait, this is given more weight than a zero derived from questions 1-4 because it suggests that the \"gender benefit\" analysis may have missed something about the trait that is of significance to most women in the target customer segment. Finding that most men do not positively value the trait (or their opinion is unknown) signals the need for further analysis to understand if and why men's and women's preferences diverge, and to identify trade-offs that may cause them to value the trait differently.Enter 3 in the positive benefit of the product profile. This signals that the trait should be prioritized because it is probably of high value to women in the target customer segment.Any item scored +2, or more than one item scored +1, based on the questions in Part 3 is decisive for concluding \"required\"Step 3If all items in Part 3 are zero or only one item is scored +1, then the scoring will check what has been learned from the positive preference evaluations in Part 4.If all items in Parts 3 and 4 are zero, this is decisive for concluding \"neutral\"Enter 0 in the positive benefit column of the product profile. The interpretation is that the analysis has detected no issue related to gender equity.If the majority of men and women agree on a positive valuation, this is decisive for the conclusion \"important\"Enter 2 in the positive benefit of the product profile.If a majority of women in the target customer segment express a positive evaluation, even if most men do not (or if men's opinions are unknown) this is decisive for concluding \"nice to have\"Enter 1 in the positive benefit column of the product profileSteps 1&2Step 4Step 5Step 6The gender impact scores assigned to a trait are the products of expert judgment and are only as valid and reliable as the evidence and interpretation supporting the judgment.• The scoring matrix provides a checklist of all the questionnaire items where information is inadequate.• Gender experts will need to define their standards for \"satisfactory evidence\" and share these with breeders. (For further discussion of standards see The Gender Tool Box). The tool requires this supporting argument to be explained in the column provided for \"commentary.\"Step 7: Complete the product profile proposal with gender impact scoreLook at scores for all the traits together: the whole product.With gender impact scores entered into the product profile proposal for all the traits in question, the gender-responsiveness of the whole product can be assessed.A gender-responsive breeding program should at least opt for a neutral gender impact score of 0 on \"do no harm\" in a product profile. A value of 0 on both \"do no harm\" (Box 6) and on \"positive benefit\" (Box 7) identifies a gender-neutral breeding product. A program that aims to positively benefit women will opt for a profile that contains at least one trait with a positive gender impact score. The tool will not make this decision about what traits to include in the product profile: it is a decision about breeding program objectives and desired impact.Example 1.The trait in question is the bran content (percent) of sorghum flour after manual (on-farm) processing. (derived from Isaacs et al., 2018) The customer segment is small-scale, West African sorghum producers.In Part 1, none of the \"do no harm\" questions 1-4 scored -2. Three of the questions lacked sufficient information to generate a score. However, question 4 scored -1. This identified the issue that sorghum, while generally considered a men's crop in West Africa, is also grown by women on their own plots to supplement children's meals and for generating own income. Low quality is associated by women with high bran content of this important food source controlled by women.Information on preferences is available and this was examined to see whether this confirms or throws doubt on the analysis in Part 1. In the example, the majority of women in the target customer segment expressed a negative valuation for varieties with a high percent of bran content after hand processing. No information was available on men's opinions. The scoring guide provides a conclusion of \"avoid or amend\" and a score of -1 is entered in the \"do no harm\" column of the G+ Product Profile.The example underscores the need for precise information, not only about the use of the product, but about who controls different aspects of its production, processing or sale and about the proportion of the target customer segment affected by changes in varietal performance. Even with partial information, the gender analysis draws attention to a potential harmful effect that should be considered in trait prioritization.The trait in question is the shelf-life of fresh cassava roots. (derived from Teeken et al, 2018) The customer segment is women and men producing cassava on a small-scale in southwestern Nigeria.One of questions 1-4 scores -1. This identifies a potential conflict of interest between men and women regarding the shelf-life of fresh cassava roots and the opportunity for sale to distant markets. Men desire increased opportunity to sell to other markets while women rely heavily for income on processing cassava that they either grow or purchase in the local market. If longer shelf-life and expanded market access increase prices in the local market, this may be detrimental to women's income generation.Other questions had insufficient information to score. Following the scoring guide, one item = -1 in Part 1 is not decisive.Examination of trait preferences confirmed that women have different priorities than men.The scoring guide provides a conclusion of \"avoid or amend\" and a score of -1 is entered in the \"do no harm\" column of the G+ Product Profile. This result indicates that prioritizing improved starch quality as a breeding objective may not be the most gender-responsive option. In this example, the main constraint identified is gender inequity in market access. It may not be possible for breeding to address this inequity directly. An option may be to consider prioritizing other traits that would increase the supply of fresh roots and stabilize local prices, or, if local prices increase, improve the return to food processing carried out by women.The trait of interest is early maturity of cassava. (derived from Olaosebikan et al.,2018).The customer segment is women and men producing cassava on a small-scale in southwestern Nigeria.One of the \"gender benefit\" questions scored +1, because women favor early-maturing varieties that enable them to weed less often. Some labor for weeding is provided by the household, mainly by women. It is unclear what proportion of women producer-processors in the target customer segment would benefit. Therefore, it is not possible to say that a significant reduction in drudgery would benefit most women in the target customer segment.Two of the questions lacked sufficient information to score them. Following the scoring guide, this is not decisive.Information on preferences was examined to see whether preferences confirm the analysis.In the example, the majority of women as well as most men in the target customer segment expressed a positive valuation for the trait. The scoring guide provides a conclusion of \"important\" and a score of 2 is entered in the positive benefit column of the G+ Product Profile.A trade-off occurs when making one choice in favor of something means losing something else, usually a benefit or an opportunity. Or a trade-off may involve accepting something harmful because you will get something good that you calculate outweighs the harm (Box 8).The key point is that when breeders prioritize traits to be included in a product, this involves making a choice about whose preferences take priority. A choice about a trait is also a choice about people.\"Do no harm\" and positive benefit gender impact scores should not be added together to make one score, because they each represent a potential trade-off.For example, a trait may include:• Gender impact scores of both positive benefit and negative harm. It may be best to sacrifice the positive benefit in order to \"do no harm\". Or vice versa, it might be desirable to capture the positive benefit and run the risk of doing some harm.• Two or more traits with competing characteristics, such that you cannot have both, with different value for men and women. For example, you can either have large grains and lower yields or small grains and higher yields. Women may prefer higher yields (more food) and men may prefer larger grains (better sales). Breeders must decide which trait, which preference and thus, which social group to prioritize.• Traits with a positive benefit and other traits with a negative \"do no harm\" score. A breeding product profile can only accommodate a few traits, so some of them must be eliminated from the product profile or an additional, new product must be defined.1. Trade-offs on a single trait: Compare gender impact scores of the same trait. Does the positive benefit of the trait outweigh the risk of harm for the customer?2. Trade-offs between multiple traits for one customer: Compare gender impact scores of different traits for one customer. Does the positive benefit of one trait outweigh the negative harm of a different trait?3. Trade-offs between social groups: Compare gender impact scores on all the traits for women and on all the traits for men (or all the social categories considered). Is it important to include traits in the final product profile that benefit one social group more than another?Remember, at a minimum, a gender-responsive program will aim for a gender impact score of 0 or neutral on all traits to be included in the final product profile. n. NARRATIVE SUMMARY Briefly explain the rationale for gender impact scores for each trait. Describe any important trade-off between opportunity for benefit or risk of harm.Gender gap question 1: Drudgery Does the trait involve a harmful increase in the unpaid, family labor input by women in the target customer segment, to produce or to use the product, including marketing or processing for household consumption or sale? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Increases drudgery with serious harm to individual women's or household's health and welfare for a majority in the target customer segment -2Increases drudgery with moderate harm for a majority, or the variety release must be accompanied by a guaranteed mitigation to remove this obstacle for a majority -1No significant increase 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here ___________________________________________________Women in Ethiopia objected to modern short-straw sorghum varieties that would increase their work load (Mulatu and Belete 2001).In East Africa, maize adoption lagged because women objected to harddent maize varieties that were difficult to grind and so increased their workload (Ashby and Polar 2019). In West Africa, women were critical of NERICA rice because it increased their field labor in weeding and bird scaring (Lodin 2012).Gender Gap Question 2: Displacement of women's productive activity.Can the trait involve a reduction in, or removal of a major activity for production, use or marketing that women in the target customer segment rely on for income generation? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%. Women in Ethiopia objected to modern short-straw sorghum varieties that reduced their income from sale of cooking fuel (Mulatu and Belete 2001).In Nigeria, processing traits of cassava such as sweet varieties that are low in fiber, low in moisture, easy to peel, and have food color (cream when toasted into gari and white when processed into fufu and abacha) are more important to women. In the four regions, the men paid attention to processing traits, but ranked them as less important than agronomic traits (e.g., yield). Because women process most of the cassava, they mentioned processing traits (e.g., being easy to peel) more often than the men did. When cassava is difficult to peel, women have less time available for other important tasks and end up cutting off some of the good root with the peel. Being hard to peel not only lowers the efficiency of women's labor but also lowers the crop's economic yield (Teeken et al. 2018).In Uganda, about 78% of hybrid banana varieties evaluated for release had low heat-retaining capacity, which made the cooked food harden very fast when served. The hybrids required prolonged cooking time to soften the texture and so required more labor to gather fuelwood, which was an additional burden to the already overworked women (Sanya et al. 2018).Can crop improvement associated with the trait depend critically on access to an essential input (e.g., water, fertile land, labor, capital, transportation, knowledge, technology) that is more difficult for the women to obtain than for men? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Access to and control over at least one essential input is seriously unequal to the disadvantage of a majority of women in the target customer segment -2Access to and control over at least one essential input is seriously unequal to the disadvantage of a majority of women, or the variety release must be accompanied by a guaranteed mitigation to remove this obstacle for a majority -1No prevailing gender inequality in access to an essential input for a majority 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _____________________________________________In Tanzania, the improvement of traditional grazing systems (ololili) depended on having power and status in the community to claim land to establish an ololili, to discourage other people's livestock from invading it, and building fences to protect it: all these were difficult for women livestock keepers, particularly for poorer women and widows. These governance constraints needed to be addressed in parallel to any technical intervention to ensure equitable outcomes. In fact, planting droughtresistant crops in the ololili could cause more invasions by neighbors stricken by extreme drought. This would mean that, as a result of the intervention, participating farmers (particularly women and widows) who could not defend the ololili would lose all their forage and thereby be worse off (Galiè et al. 2018).Gender gap question 4: Control of products and by-products Can the trait remove or reduce the quantity or quality of a product (e.g. a traditional intercrop) or by-product (e.g. fodder), a source of food (e.g. edible leaves) or source of income-generation normally under the control of women in the target customer segment?In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Loss of product or income will be incurred with serious harm to health and welfare of a majority of women or their children in the target customer segment -2Loss will be incurred with moderate harm to health and welfare of a majority of woman or their children -1No loss for a majority 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _____________________________________________In East Africa, poultry are mostly under the care of women and are a vital source of income and food under their control. A study of chicken producers' trait preferences in Ethiopia found that men focused on productivity, health, and marketing of chickens. Their interest in poultry was mainly to scale up to an intensive, commercial scale of production, prioritizing productivity and sales of birds. In contrast, women wanted to increase the scale of production, but to keep this at a household level, and thus valued the traits that allowed chickens to be kept in an extensive system while increasing productivity. In part, this was because women were constrained to supply the increased labor and space required to keep chickens at a commercial scale. In some countries, as poultry production has become more profitable, men have taken it over from women (Ramasawmy et al. 2018).Known gender-differentiated trait preferences that have negative implications for the trait in question.Question 5: Negative trait preferences (WOMEN) Do women in the target customer segment value the trait negatively? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Yes: the majority value it negatively -1NO: most women do not value the trait negatively 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _____________________________________________ Question 5: Example of women's negative trait preferences Women in Burkina Faso object to modern white grain sorghum varieties because women depend on red-grained sorghums for producing malt for local beer, an important source of income (vom Brocke et al. 2010). In central Malawi (Chiwona-Karltun et al. 1998) the poorer women reject sweet cassava because bitter cassava is less likely to be stolen from their fields, despite the extra post-harvest labor required to remove the toxic compounds from bitter varieties.Question 6: Negative trait preferences (MEN) Do men in the target customer segment value the trait negatively? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Yes: the majority value it negatively -1NO: most men do not value the trait negatively 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _____________________________________________ Question 6: Example of men's negative trait preferences In Uganda, there was a significant difference between women and men in the overall acceptability score for hybrid M9: women who cooked the banana tended to appreciate hybrid M9 more than men did. Men generally rejected M9, despite the big bunch, because it did not attract a higher market price (Sanya et al. 2018).Gender benefit question 7: Reduce drudgery Can the trait involve a beneficial decrease in the unpaid, family labor to produce or to use the product by women in the target customer segment, including marketing or processing for household consumption or sale? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%. Women responsible for rice harvest preferred tall rice varieties for ease of harvesting (Gridley 2002;Manzanilla et al. 2014). Women who transported harvested pearl millet panicles from the fields preferred long panicles for easier handling (Baidu-Forson 1997). Women responsible for threshing sorghum and rice wanted traits that made threshing easier (Kudadjie 2006); the same was true for pearl millet (Baidu-Forson 1997, see also Dorward et al. 2007;Manzanilla et al. 2014).In Nigeria women farmers in four regions preferred early maturing cassava varieties to reduce the number of times that they need to weed (Teeken et al. 2018).Can the trait maintain or increase employment, as hired field labor on or off-farm, or in agroenterprise, so that women in the target customer segment can generate income under their discretionary control? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Increases or maintains women's employment with significant gain in their own income for a majority of women in the target customer segmentIncreases or maintains women's employment with moderate gain in own income for a majorityNo significant decrease for a majority 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _____________________________________________In Malawi, women who sell leaf sauce in the local market valued positively the edible leaves of cowpea and cassava (Chiwona-Karltun et al. 1998;Kitch et al. 1998) In Nigeria, women who processed cassava foods (gari, fufu and abacha) prioritized traits important for these products: sweetness, low in fiber, low in moisture, easy to peel, suitable food color (cream when toasted into gari and white when processed into fufu and abacha).Gender benefit question 9: Are women-controlled products or by-products increased or improved?Can the trait maintain or increase the quantity or quality of an important product or by-product of the variety or animal breed (e.g., food, seed, fodder, manure, fuel) normally under women's control?In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.At least one important product or by-product under the control of women is significantly improved for a majority of women in the target customer segmentAt least one important product or by-product under the control of women is moderately improved for a majorityNo product or by-product under the control of women is affected for a majority 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here ___________________________________________ Question 9: Example of trait preferences related to women's control over products or by-productsIn Mali, sorghum grain produced by women on their own plots is a safety-net used for feeding children outside of the main meals and when the men's granaries run empty (Bauchspies et al. 2017). Women prefer early maturing and tall sorghum varieties which can be intercropped in their groundnut fields. The men, who are responsible for producing sorghum as the staple cereal for the main family meals, value positively high-yielding varieties to plant as monocrops (Christinck et al. 2018). In Nigeria, men ranked cassava yield as more important than processing traits given importance by women (Teeken et al. 2018). In several countries, commercialization of shea nut led men to increase their involvement in producing and using revenue from what had been primarily a women's activity (Kent 2018).In several African cases, women's control of income declined as total household income increased from beans, groundnut and soybeans (Njuki et al. 2011).Question 10: Positive trait preferences (WOMEN) Do women in the target customer segment value the trait positively? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Yes: the majority of women value it positively -1No: most women do not value the trait positively 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _________________________________________ Question 10: Example of women's positive trait preferences Low-caste women in western Rajasthan preferred early flowering and high tillering varieties of pearl millet that performed well on poor quality land (Christinck 2002). Men and women bean producers who derived higher utility from production traits (i.e. yield and drought tolerance) comprise a target customer segment that preferred varietal traits associated with improved production. This segment was 54% of the sample, especially women (61% of members). These people had poor access to land and water. A different segment consisted of wealthier men and women who preferred quality traits such as taste and cooking time over production traits. They comprised 46% of the sample, 60% of whom were men (Katungi et al. 2018).Question 11: Positive trait preferences (MEN) Do men in the target customer segment value the trait positively? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%.Yes: the majority of men value it positively -1No: most men do not value the trait positively 0 !!! Warning signal: not enough information available to score Not relevant to the target customer segment = 9Write your narrative assessment of the data here _________________________________________ Question 11: Example of men's positive trait preferences In Mexico, men are mainly responsible for maize production. Men prefer traits related to production, while women valued other traits, related to consumption (Smale et al.1998). Unlike women, men preferred aspects of cowpea fodder quality for feeding livestock (Kitch et al. 1998). In Nigeria, men and women farmers in all regions generally expressed a preference for earlymaturing varieties-for men, to make quick cash, and for women, to reduce the number of times that they need to weed (Olaosebikan et al. 2018).Question 12: Positive trait preferences: Do women in the target customer segment value (rank) this trait more highly than men, and why? In scoring, \"majority\" means \"more than half of the total\" e.g., 51%. In Mexico, women and men rank maize traits in different order of priority reflecting different objectives and responsibilities (Bellon et al. 2003;Bellon 2006).  Breeding product. The tangible result of breeding, usually in the form of a crop variety or animal breed with specific attributes of a defined value, that have been targeted by breeders.Customer (for a breeding program). An actor who will potentially use the new crop variety or livestock breed produced by the breeding program.Customer profile. A description of the target users of a breeding product, to help the breeding program prioritize customers. The description may include customer's gender, role in the value chain and location. A G+ Customer Profile identifies product preferences that are important for women and ensures that their preferences are reflected in the design of new products.Customer segment. A group of users who have both a common set of constraints and a common, unique and relatively homogenous need (demand) for a breeding program product.\"Do no harm\" analysis. An analysis of the possible harm that introducing a new trait might cause to women or any social category of customers identified for the analysis. The \"do no harm\" analysis is designed to minimize the risk of releasing a variety that could increase gender inequity.Gender gap. Differences between men and women regarding access to factors of production (land, labor and capital), as well as access to information, freedom of movement and other resources and opportunities.Gender equality. Men and women are treated in the same way.Gender equity. Targeting men and women differently, if need be, to produce outcomes and impact that are equitable.A number from -2 (reject) to 3 (required) based on the \"do no harm\" analysis and \"positive benefit\" analysis which ranks the traits in a potential new product (e.g., crop variety), taking into account whether the trait will harm or benefit women.Gender perspective. A view of men and women, which considers their links, roles, responsibilities, and their potential for conflict or cooperation in households, communities and societies.Ensuring that the different perceptions, interests, needs and priorities of women and men are considered in planning and decision-making.Household. A group of people who eat and sleep in the same house. Households are generally responsible for reproduction (e.g. raising children). Rural households especially often work together to produce goods, such as a harvested crop, but this does not mean that everyone in the household shares the same objectives or preferences.Positive benefit analysis. An analysis of the likelihood that a new trait will be beneficial to women and men or another social category of customer defined for the analysis.","tokenCount":"8054"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"17a31b91d08152756b14d884d6fe8900","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e22421ed-f39f-4f9a-a14f-0c9baa3b684c/retrieve","id":"1273667544"},"keywords":["Banana bunchy top disease (BBTD)","Musa spp.","Pentalonia nigronervosa","virus genome"],"sieverID":"59889735-c528-4040-9325-ae71b7869fca","pagecount":"8","content":"The genetic variability of banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) isolates from the Great Lakes region of Africa (GLRA) spanning Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda was assessed to better understand BBTV diversity and its epidemiology for improved disease management. DNA-R and DNA-S fragments of the virus genome were amplified and sequenced in this study. These two BBTV fragments were previously used to classify isolates into the South Pacific and the Asian groups. Phylogenetic analyses based on nucleotide sequences involving GLRA isolates and those obtained from the GenBank database were carried out. Sequence similarity for both DNA-R and DNA-S fragments ranged between 99.1 to 100.0% among the GLRA isolates, 96.2 to 100.0% and 89.7 to 94.3% between the GLRA isolates and those previously clustering in the South Pacific and the Asian groups, respectively. These results showed that GLRA isolates belong to the South Pacific group and are phylogenetically close to the reference Indian isolate. The similar banana cultivars and BBTV isolates across the GLRA implied that the disease may have mainly spread through exchange of planting material (suckers) between farmers. Thus, farmers' awareness and quarantine measures should be implemented to reduce BBTV spread in the GLRA.Musa spp. (banana and plantain) is a staple food crop for approximately 400 million people worldwide and nourishes over 70 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (AATF, 2003). This crop is ranked the first in terms of contribution to the total annual agricultural production in Burundi and Rwanda while it is the second after cassava in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) (FAOSTAT, 2009). The perennial nature of banana, compared with other staples, allows households to access food all-year round, providing significant amounts of micronutrients (Kumar et al., 2011). Among banana cultivars grown in Africa, plantain types (AAB genome) are mainly found in the humid lowlands of West and Central Africa, while the highland cooking and beer banana (AAA-EA) which contribute to approximately 30% of world banana production are common in the Eastern African highlands (Tenkouano et al., 2003). Eastern Africa, including the Great Lakes zone, is considered as a secondary centre of diversity for the highland banana (Karamura et al., 1998;Tenkouano et al., 2003) where smallholder farmers grow a mixture of 5 to 10 different cultivars around their homesteads (AATF, 2003). Banana plantations are subjected to various natural calamities, in particular viral diseases, limiting their production. Among the viral infections, banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) is reported as the most destructive disease (Dale, 1987;Islam et al., 2010;Stainton et al., 2012).BBTD was first reported from the Fiji Islands in 1889, but its causal agent was only identified 100 years later in 1990s (Magee, 1927;Wardlaw, 1961;Kumar et al., 2011), and was given the name, banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) (Karan et al., 1994). Currently, BBTV has spread to 33 countries worldwide (excluding the Americas) including 13 African countries (IITA, 2010).BBTV spreads from one location to another by exchange of infected planting material and from plant to plant through the banana aphid, Pentalonia nigronervosa Coquerel (Hemiptera, Aphididae), but is not transmitted mechanically (Thomas and Dietzgen, 1991;Foottit et al., 2010). The banana aphid transmits the virus with high host specificity to Musa spp. in a circulative and persistent manner (Hafner et al., 1995;Hogenhout et al., 2008;Foottit et al., 2010). In the plant, replication of these circulative viruses is frequently restricted to the phloem providing a route for uptake and inoculation of viruses between plants via stylet-feeding aphids (Hogenhout et al., 2008). The virus is also transmitted over long distances through the movement of BBTVinfected planting materials (Kumar and Hanna, 2008;Vishnoi et al., 2009;Kumar et al., 2011).BBTD is easily recognizable from other banana diseases by its characteristic symptoms consisting of dark green streaks on leaves and petioles, marginal leaf chlorosis, dwarfing of the plant and leaves that stand more erect and bunched at the top of the pseudostem, forming a rosette with a 'bunchy top' appearance (Magee, 1927;Su et al., 2003).The BBTV is a member of family Nanoviridae, genus Babuvirus belonging to a group of circular singlestranded DNA (cssDNA) viruses (Allen, 1987;Amin et al., 2008;Karan, 1995). It is an isometric virus with a genome consisting of at least 6 fragments (Harding et al., 1993;Horser et al., 2001;Hu et al., 2007) and two components were considered in this study. The DNA-R encodes the 'master' Rep (M-Rep) that directs self replication in addition to replication of other BBTV genome fragments (Harding et al., 1993;Karan et al., 1994;Theresa, 2008). On the other hand, the coat protein (CP) is encoded by DNA-S for the integral BBTV fragment (Horser et al., 2001). Based on sequence analysis of DNA-R and DNA-S (CP) fragments, respectively, Karan et al. (1994), Wanitchakorn et al. (2000) and Kumar et al. (2011) demonstrated that BBTV isolates can be clustered into two distinct groups. The 'South Pacific' group comprising isolates from Australia, the South pacific region, South Asia (that is, India, Pakistan) and Africa; while the 'Asian' group comprises isolates from China, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam (Horser et al., 2001). Although BBTD has long been recognised (Magee, 1927), molecular characterisation of BBTV began in the early 1990s (Harding et al., 1993). In Africa, a handful of BBTV isolates from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been characterized (Wanitchakorn et al., 2000;Kumar et al., 2011) which includes only a single isolate originating from Burundi (accession AF148943). To date, significant molecular characterization using a substantial number of samples from the African Great Lakes region is lacking. To better understand BBTV diversity and its epidemiology for accurate BBTD management, knowledge of the molecular nature of BBTV in Africa is required. In this study, the DNA-R fragment and the coat protein (CP) (Wanitchakorn et al., 2000;Horser et al., 2001;Furuya et al., 2005;Kumar et al., 2011) were used to characterize BBTV isolates from the African Great Lakes region. BBTV isolates from the GLRA were compared with isolates already available in existing GenBank databases to assess their relationship with the Asian and South Pacific groups. In addition, the likely sampling site at different altitudes and influence of banana cultivar on sequence mutations within the GLRA were considered.Banana leaf samples were collected in regions affected by BBTD in three countries namely Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda from April to May 2010. Duplicate pieces of banana leaves of approximately 4 cm 2 each were taken from the youngest leaf of a banana plant displaying advanced BBTD symptoms. Leaf pieces were placed in individual Petri dishes lined with silica gel for the duration of the transport and transferred to the laboratory, where they were extracted and stored at -20°C pending use (Chase and Hills, 1991). In all, 37 samples were collected from five Provinces of Burundi (Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural, Bururi, Cibitoke and Makamba), 22 from three districts in the Eastern South Kivu DR Congo (Kabare, Nyangezi and Kamanyola) and 20 from the Rusizi district of the Western Province of Rwanda, giving a total of 79 samples. These samples were collected from diverse local banana genotypes namely AAA-EA, ABB, AAB and AABB types cultivated at different altitudes across the three countries. Diagnostic tests confirming the viral status of samples were performed using previously described PCR analysis (Harding et al., 1993;Thomson and Dietzgen, 1995).Leaf pieces were placed in mesh plastic bags (Agdia Biofords, France) and 2 ml of extraction buffer at 4°C was added (Busogoro et al., 2009). The crude extract was obtained for each sample by thoroughly crushing banana leaves before being dispensed in three 200 µl aliquots and stored at -20°C pending PCR analyses. PCR amplifications were carried out using diluted extracts (1:100 in distilled water). The PCR amplification was performed using specific primer pairs previously described for BBTV CP and DNA-R fragments (Harding et al., 1993;Thomson and Dietzgen, 1995;Amin et al., 2008). All 79 samples were first subjected to the PCR amplification of a 349 bp fragment of the putative BBTV replicase gene using primer pairs BBT1 forward (5'-CTCGTCATGTGCAAGGTTATGTCG-3') and BBT2 reverse (5'-GAAGTTCTCCAGCTATTCATCGCC-3') for detection of the virus in different samples (Harding et al., 1993;Thomson and Dietzgen, 1995). The selected representative positives samples were then amplified using primer pairs, MREPF forward (5'-GAATTCAAGAATGGAATAATTC-3') and MREPR reverse (5'-GAATTCCTCTAATAACCC-3') described by Amin et al. (2008) targeting amplification of DNA-R fragment, whereas primer pairs CPXI.PRI forward (5'-GCTAGGTATCCGAAGAAATCC-3') coupled with BBTV3C.EXP reverse (5'-ATAAAGCTTTCAAACATGATATGT-3') described by Wanitchakorn et al. (2000) were used to amplify the BBTV DNA-S coat protein fragment.The PCR reactions were set up in a final volume of 50 µl comprising 5 µl of crude extract (diluted 1:100 in distilled water), 5 µl of 10x PCR buffer (Roche), 6 µl of MgCl 2 (25mM), 1.2 µl (200 µM/each) of dNTPs mix, 1 µl of each primer (0.5 µM), 0.25 µl (1.25 u/50 µl) of Taq DNA polymerase obtained from Fermentas-France and sterile distilled water (30.55 µl) was added to make the final volume (Amin et al., 2008;Burns et al., 1995). The PCR procedure was performed using MyCycler from Bio-Rad, Belgium. The thermocycling scheme consisted of denaturation at 94°C for 4 min; 40 cycles of 30 s to 1 min at 94°C, 1 min at 52°C and 2 min at 72°C followed by a final elongation step at 72°C for 10 min. The amplified products were visualized by electrophoresis in a 1% (w/v) agarose gel using ethidium bromide staining along with 100 bp ladder from Fermentas, France. Gels were then photographed on a digital gel documentation system. PCR products were quantified in ng/µl using NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer machinery with a limit of 1.80 values at A260/280 absorbance ratio. Amplified specific products to each of the DNA-R and CP fragments were then shipped for subsequent sequencing, using the same primer pairs, at Macrogen in South Korea.The nucleotide sequences of BBTV DNA-R and CP fragments of the GLRA isolates were compared in a pairwise matrix with existing BBTV and Abaca bunchy top viruses (ABTV) sequences obtained from the GenBank database using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) available on the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) (Theresa, 2008;Vishnoi et al., 2009). Multiple alignments for sequence comparison were performed using CLUSTALO (Thomson and Dietzgen, 1995;Amin et al., 2008). The genetic diversity of BBTV isolates was determined between GLRA isolates and those representing reference isolates from the previously described Asian and South Pacific groups including a previously sequenced Burundian isolate (AF148943) and other isolates from sub-Saharan Africa (Kumar et al., 2011). The consensus trees were generated using neighbour-joining algorithms with 100 bootstrap replications with Sea View Version 4.2.9 (Gouy et al., 2010).The BBTV was confirmed in all 79 samples collected from symptomatic banana plants using a primer pair targeting the putative replicase gene (349 bp) of the BBTV genome. Among these positive samples, BBTV DNA-R and CP fragments of 27 representative samples covering the different localities and banana varieties were amplified using corresponding primer pairs of each fragment. Among those samples, 14 same isolates were successfully amplified for DNA-R and CP in addition to 8 and 5 different isolates for DNA-R and CP, making a total of 22 and 19 isolates, respectively. The PCR products of DNA-R (1111bp) and CP (550bp) fragments (Figure 1) were sequenced and used in comparisons.The phylogenetic analysis was carried out using the sequences of a 475 bp product representing the BBTV-CP fragment. The sequence comparisons showed a nucleotide sequence identity between the BBTV isolates from the GLRA (sequenced in this study) greater than 99%. The GLRA isolates showed nucleotide sequence identity ranging from 97.2 to 99.7% with the South Pacific group which include isolates from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), whilst they share only between 89.8 and 94.3% identity with CP nucleotide sequences of Asian isolates. On the other hand, pairwise comparisons between CP nucleotide sequences from the Asian and South Pacific groups showed higher sequence variability among isolates of the Asian group (99.3 to 92.0%) than among isolates from the South Pacific (100.0 to 95.2%). Phylogenetic analysis based on the BBTV CP nucleotide sequences confirmed the clustering of BBTV isolates into two major groups, the Asian and the South Pacific groups. The South Pacific group consists of all GLRA isolates including Burundian isolate (AF148943) that was deposited earlier in GenBank and Indian isolate (EF584544) followed by isolates from sub-Saharan Africa and Fiji (Figure 2). Within the South Pacific group, three sister subgroups with high bootstrap support (99%) were distinguished. The first subgroup includes all GLRA isolates (sequenced in this study), the Burundian isolate (AF148943) previously reported and the Indian isolate (EF584544). The second subgroup is represented by all sub-Saharan isolates, while a single isolate from Fiji (AF148944) was classified in the third subgroup. The Asian group was divided into two main subgroups, the subgroup which includes isolates from China, Japan, Philippines and Taiwan and the subgroup of Vietnam's isolates with bootstrap support of 92 and 56%, respectively (Figure 2).Sequence analysis was carried out using a 238 bp DNA fragment for each of the 22 isolates, corresponding to the core region of the BBTV DNA-R. The core region was considered for the purpose of sequences comparisons using the same size of the majority of reported BBTV sub-Saharan Africa isolates available in GenBank database. Nucleotide sequence comparisons showed greater than 99% identity among GLRA isolates. BBTV GLRA isolates showed high levels of nucleotide sequence similarity with the South Pacific group (96.2 to 100.0%) compared with the Asian group isolates (89.7 to 93.4%). In addition, the nucleotide sequence variability was rather high within the Asian group (99.3 to 89.3 %) compared with those of the South Pacific group including the GLRA isolates (100.0 to 95.8%).Phylogenetic analysis based on Rep sequences using the neighbour-joining method has also confirmed the previous reports of the clustering of BBTV isolates into the Asian and the South Pacific groups with high bootstrap support (100%). Four subgroups were distinguished among South Pacific isolates, the first includes all GLRA and SSA isolates followed by the Indian isolate (AF 416470-In); the second subgroup includes isolates from Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Hawaiï and Pakistan, while Egypt is in its own subgroup. The GLRA and other SSA isolates show the closest relationship with a Maharashtra isolate from India.Among the GLRA isolates, the 2 isolates collected in DR Congo (JN204218-18DRC and JN204217-13DRC) at different altitudes and from different banana cultivars ('Malaya' and 'Yangambi Km5') were grouped together, whereas four isolates from the south of Burundi (JN204206-36Bdi, JN204204-33Bdi, JN204205-35Bdi and JN204203-30Bdi), collected in similar locations but from different banana cultivars ('Yangambi Km5', 'Igisahira', 'Indarama' and 'Kayinja'), formed another subgroup. Interestingly, among SSA isolates, the Cameroun isolate (JF755989-TV13.1) grouped together with the GLRA isolates, while 9 other isolates from SSA belonged to a different subgroup (Figure 3).This study contributed to better knowledge of the GLRA BBTV genome in comparison with other isolates from South Pacific and Asian zones based on two BBTV genome fragments (DNA-R and CP). The BBTV-CP GLRA sequences compared with those of the South Pacific and the Asian groups showed nucleotide differences ranging from 0.7 to 2.8 and 5.7 to 10.2%, respectively. This corroborates previous estimations of 3% variability among the South Pacific group isolates and around 6% across the Asian group isolates (Wanitchakorn et al., 2000). On the other hand, using BBTV DNA-R fragment (Rep) of GLRA isolates, a range of 0.9 to 3.8% and 6.6 to 10.3% of nucleotide differences were comparable to the previous averages of 3.8% among South Pacific group isolates and approximately 10% between the two groups (Karan et al., 1994). Additionally, the phylogenetic analysis using these two genome fragments strongly confirmed that all GLRA isolates belong to the South Pacific group (Figures 2 and  3).Among the South Pacific isolates, based on the CP nucleotide sequences, the Indian isolate (EF584544) showed a closer relationship with the GLRA isolates than other SSA isolates. Using the core region of the DNA-R fragment, all BBTV isolates from sub-Saharan Africa grouped together followed by the Indian isolate. Additionally, the interrelationships among the SSA isolates showed that Cameroon isolate (JF755989) fell within the group of GLRA isolates. Karan (1995) had suggested that BBTV infections should have two major sources, one in Asia and another in the South Pacific, while Stainton et al. (2012) based on the evidence of reassortment and recombination events within and between the Asian and the South Pacific BBTV subgroups support the hypothesis of the same geographical origin of both subgroups. Irrespective of the means of the first BBTV introduction, the GLRA isolates fall within the South Pacific group and may spread through either the traditional farmers' practices of intra-and inter-regional exchange of suckers for planting material or introduction of infected plants from research stations (that is, as observed in Rwanda during the survey, banana field of ISAR research station at Bugarama, Rusizi valley, have been reported to have contributed to the spread of BBTV in surrounding areas). Aphids may have extended the spread between plantations at a local level (Kumar et al., 2011). The two gene sequence-based phylogenies (Figures 2 and 3) suggest that the virus isolates from the GLRA could have originated from India rather than from other countries of the South Pacific through exchange of non indexed virus-free banana plantlets before development of diagnostic molecular tools.In the Great lakes region, previous survey work (Sebasigari and Stover, 1988) suggested in 1987 that BBTD might have been present since the early 1970s in the Rusizi valley (encompassing parts of Burundi and Rwanda) while the DNA-R sequence variation was around 0.9% among GLRA isolates. In other countries within the south Pacific group such as Pakistan, the DNA-R sequence variations of 0.45% were reported 20 years after disease identification compared with 2% reported over 80 years in Australia (Karan et al., 1994).The BBTV isolates across the three countries of the GLRA were grouped together. This suggests similarity in origin of GLRA isolates which were most likely distributed through exchange of planting material. It is likely that the virus was introduced in the Rusizi valley and its surrounding regions of Burundi, Eastern South-Kivu DR Congo and Rwanda by the exchange of 'Yangambi Km5'-(AAA genome) banana variety commonly grown in those regions. This is a cultivar that originated from INEAC Yangambi Agricultural Research station in the central DR Congo where BBTV was reported as early as the 1950s (Wardlaw, 1961;Kavino et al., 2007).The BBTV isolates from the same region, but of different altitudes and banana cultivars, were grouped together. This implies the likely virus mutation according to the introduction period regardless the different types of banana cultivars or altitudes, corroborating previous reports which stated that sequence variation of the virus is strongly dependent on the period of time it has spent in a region (Tenkouano et al., 2003, Amin et al., 2008).Overall, the use of tolerant cultivars should be associated with collective eradication of BBTV-infected mats to reduce virus inocula for long term BBTV management. In fact, the lack of farmers' awareness on transmission and management practices could be the main factor explaining the continuous spread of BBTD in the GLRA. Therefore, there is a need of stricter regional policy in an attempt to manage BBTD and prevent further spread of the virus in areas not yet affected by the disease. This involves raising farmers' awareness and implementation of quarantine measures. Further research on the virus using all six BBTV fragments should study the sequence variation and provide a complete view of the evolutionary processes based on BBTV likely recombination and re-assortment within the African Great Lakes region.","tokenCount":"3215"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0e6a41ba8f47ca6056903ffeff23cee1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/978d3a80-2aaa-4d1e-a04f-a8c15a787f3b/retrieve","id":"-587009973"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d5039c5-96a6-4628-96f3-212d975c1b97","pagecount":"31","content":"Many countries are now focusing on promoting mutually supportive implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Yet a key challenge is building the necessary capacity at national level to understand the interface between the two treaties, harmonize national legislation and design effective measures for implementation.Ronnie Vernooy facilitating the tandem workshop (Photo: Chencho Dorji/NBC)The National Biodiversity Centre under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Bhutan, is the National Focal Point for the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) as well as for the Nagoya Protocol (under the Convention on Biological Diversity). Since 2012, the Centre has been working together with Bioversity International to promote the mutually supportive implementation of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol under the umbrella of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiatives Phase 2 (GRPI 2). 1 In recent years, a number of awareness raising activities about the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol were organized in Bhutan by the NBC and Bioversity International. To further strengthen national capacities for effective implementation of both treaties a so-called \"Tandem Workshop\" was held for key national stakeholders to deepen the understanding of the mutually supportive implementation of both treaties (hence, the use of the word tandem).The Tandem Workshop on the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing & The Multi-Lateral System of Access and Benefit-Sharing under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food & Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the first of its kind in the country, was organized on 29 th September, 2017, by the National Biodiversity Centre, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests. The aim was to strengthen national capacity and share knowledge on the mutually supportive implementation interface between the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA, in the context of broader national policy goals; and to identify the core issues of the implementation interface of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol.The participants came from the Department of Agriculture, Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority, Bhutan Alpine Seeds (company), Department of Forest and Park Services, RDC Yusipang, RDC Bajo, Legal Unit-MoAF, Royal University of Bhutan, UNDP CO, College of Natural Resources, Bioversity International and the National Biodiversity Centre.The program included short presentations about Bhutan's seed systems, the background and achievements of the GRPI 2 initiative, and ways to strengthen the national capacity to implement the ITPGRFA. These presentations were followed by a series of intensive group exercises to obtain a better understanding of the mutually supportive implementation of the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol. Participants did the group exercises with the help of a number of learning scenarios. 2The National Biodiversity Center (NBC), Ministry of Agriculture and Forests in collaboration with Bioversity International organized the workshop with financial support from Bioversity International. UNDP-Bhutan and GEF also supported the workshop financially through their project \"Implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing in Bhutan\".A total of 27 people (Annex II) including researchers, academics, lawyers, conservationists, developers, regulators and entrepreneurs, representing government agencies, research institutes, private sector, development partners, and academic institutions participated in the workshop.The one day workshop was divided into two parts (Annex III). The first part of the workshop was focused on setting the stage with three presentations. An introduction to community seed banks in Bhutan was presented by Mr. Rinchen Dorji, NBC. He was followed by Dr. Ronnie Vernooy, Bioversity International, who highlighted the importance of mutually supportive implementation. The session was closed with a presentation by Mr. Lhab Tshering, NBC, on the background and achievements of the GRPI 2 initiative in Bhutan jointly implemented by Bhutan and Biodiversity International.The second part of the workshop was focused on group work. The participants worked in groups of four consisting of 6-7 people. Each group choose two learning scenarios from a total of eight and then discussed how best to find solutions for the challenges that the scenarios represented. Each group then presented their solutions to the plenary. This was followed by a plenary discussion on the scenario with all the participants facilitated by Ronnie Vernooy, Bioversity International.A.1. You are the director of a national genebank with a well-known sorghum collection. You receive a request from Biofuels Solutions Inc. asking for a number of sorghum accessions for use in their research and development programme. What are your options? What rules apply? How do you ultimately resolve the issue? A.2. You have received samples of maize under the SMTA for use in your organization's breeding programme. You have conserved copies of those materials. You receive a request from Biofuels Solutions Inc. for samples of that conserved material. What rules apply? What do you do? Solutions: A1. The group considered that they needed to share the sorghum with Biofuels Solutions Inc. for use in their research and development programme given that sorghum is an Annex 1 crop under the ITPGRFA. The important step identified was to double-check if the intended purposes are precisely according to the purposes defined in the ITPGRFA (if positive, the accessions can be transferred by means of a SMTA). If the purposes are different (for example, not for food and agriculture), the next step is to discuss another (access and benefit sharing or ABS) agreement based on mutually agreed terms for sharing the accessions. The group considered that by all means there needs to be a legally binding agreement.A2. The group considered that either ITPGRFA or ABS rules could apply depending on the purpose(s) of utilization. In this case, it was considered instrumental to determine Biofuel Solutions Inc.'s objective(s) and then decide the solutions as outlined below: PURPOSE Scenario 1: for Food and Fodder Scenario 2: for Fuel 3 rd party transfer by means of a SMTA and give the samples to Biofuel Solutions Inc.3 rd party transfer by means of SMTA is not allowed and reject the transfer ITPGRFA ABSIn such a scenario, the genebank director needs to consider a series of questions to determine how to proceed. Concerning A1., given that sorghum is one of the crops listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA, the important question is to determine if the PGRFA in question is under the management and control of the Contracting Party concerned and in the public domain and also if its proposed use is for food and agriculture. If so, then the transfer can be made using a SMTA, but if not the transfer should be considered under the Nagoya Protocol.The SMTA and national checkpoints established for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol  The group presented a flow chart highlighting the transfer flow and its required permits. However, in this type of case scenario, if the transfer is using a SMTA, whether or not it belongs to crops listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA, the provider needs to notify the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA via the Secretary of the ITPGRFA. The ITPGRFA's Secretariat developed a software -Easy SMTA-which providers can use to generate SMTAs and report electronically to the Governing Body. In case the transfer is granted using a permit or its equivalent (and not the SMTA), the involved officially designated representative of the Nagoya Protocol in the country needs to notify the ABS Clearing-House.Group work sessions (Photo: Ronnie Vernooy/Bioversity International)You have been designated as your country's competent national authority under the regulatory regime for implementing the Nagoya Protocol.D.1. You receive a request to collect samples from coconut trees that grow along the country's publicly owned beaches. How do you respond? D.2. There are wild relatives of teff and cassava growing in some nationally protected areas. An agricultural research organization in another ITPGRFA member state has written requesting permission to organize a collecting mission to gather samples of these plants. What are your options? What rules apply? How, ultimately, do you reply? Why?Solutions: D1. The group decided to assess the purpose for which the sample is needed and which part of plant is needed. If it is listed in the Red-list then special considerations apply. Only after answering the above questions, a decision can be made to use a SMTA, but if it is for commercial purpose then an ABS agreement should be developed. D2. The group considered that it will not allow to collect from protected areas. In the case of Bhutan, the Bhutan Forest and Nature Conservation Act and its rules and regulations apply.The group presented a clear outline on the threshold questions to determine which set of rules applies for this request. Some additional questions to be asked are, for D1: Are coconuts one of the crops listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA? Are the PGRFA in question under the management and control of the Contracting Party concerned and in the public domain and, therefore, automatically included in the MLS? What other land management or environment protection rules currently exist that may regulate how the coconuts are managed and/or accessed? The combination of the application of other laws involved and the ITPGRFA is that, if and when, a decision is made to allow collecting pursuant to the laws applying to the area in question, the PGRFA will eventually need to be transferred under SMTA. Simultaneous application of these different rules will require close cooperation between the competent authorities involved. If the requestor is located in a country that is not a Contracting Party to the ITPGRFA, it is up to the provider country to decide using the SMTA or enter into a separate bilateral agreement with the requestor subject to the laws implementing the Nagoya Protocol.Regarding D2. Many of the same considerations concerning the scenario D1 are relevant to this scenario as well. The key questions to be asked are is it listed in Annex I of the ITPGRFA? Are the PGRFA in question under the management and control of the Contracting Party concerned and in the public domain and, therefore, automatically included in the MLS? What other land management or environment protection rules currently exist that may regulate how the crops are managed and/or accessed? If the requirement of these other land management or environment protection rules are met, then samples of the Manihot esculenta subspecies flabellifolia can ultimately be transferred to the requesting party using the SMTA. Access to teff and other cassava wild relatives may be subject to national rules for implementation of the Nagoya Protocol assuming the request is for the purpose of utilization as defined in the Nagoya Protocol.You are the head of a national crop genebank. You have received a request from a researcher in a neighboring country for samples of some chickpeas from your collection. Your country acceded to the CBD in 1998 and ratified the ITPGRFA in 2003 and the Nagoya Protocol in 2013.E.1. There is no national law implementing any of these agreements.E.2. There is a national access and benefit-sharing law from 2000 that says all access to any genetic resources in the country must be subject to the PIC of the competent authority appointed by the minister of the environment and must include a number of mandatory benefit-sharing terms that are not consistent with the SMTA.For both cases E.1 and E.2, what do you do? Why?Solutions: E1. The group considered to send the materials with signing of a MTA based on the commitment to CBD.E2. In this case too, the group considered to share the material through a MTA under the Nagoya Protocol and negotiate benefits as per the existing ABS laws.The case 1 is related to no implementation due to lack of national laws and it adds to the genebank manager's uncertainties.The crucial questions to be considered are: Is the material in the MLS? Does the genebank manager need a national law to go ahead and make MLS available using the SMTA? With regard to case 2, the pertinent question is which legal obligation takes precedence: the older national law or the more recently ratified international agreements? The answer depends upon the political and legal system of the country concerned.The second key point is to understand who has the authority to sign the SMTA.You are the head of the national genebank. Your genebank holds a wide range of both Annex I and non-Annex I materials that have been collected over the last 20 years. In case of F1, the genebank manager's uncertainty can be attributed to concerns about needing to justify her actions in light of the fact that genetic resources issues are highly politicized in her country. In such cases, the genebank manager may need to consider a number of different questions to help overcome her uncertainties namely: Are all the Annex I materials in the collection actually included in the MLS? Does she have the authority to decide how material in the genebank is handled? Whereas for F2, Contracting Parties to the ITPGRFA have no obligations to provide facilitated access to non-Annex I materials. They have the discretion/legal right to develop ABS agreements as providers of such materials pursuant to national laws implementing the Nagoya Protocol. However, there may be cases -such as in this scenario -when it may make sense to make non-Annex I materials available using SMTA, but some questions to consider in making this decision include: Are there significant benefits that could be gained by developing bilateral ABS agreements for the non-Annex I materials rather than transferring them using the SMTA? If so, do those benefits outweigh the benefits that would be gained through the crop improvement programme overall if the SMTA is used? Which sets of benefits are the most likely to actually materialize? Are the project partners open to developing new ABS agreements under the project, or will the prospect of having to negotiate such agreements discourage them, and possibly drive them away? Will the transaction cost for the genebank to develop new agreements for non-Annex I materials be sustainable over the long run? Such analysis is very crucial before deciding to make the materials available using SMTA.You work with a farmers' collective that maintains a collection of maize seeds (an Annex I crop). Another farmers' group in another country, with which you have close ties, has asked you for some samples. Your country has ratified the ITPGRFA (which says that Parties will take policy measures to encourage voluntary inclusions of materials in the MLS) as well as the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol. Your farmers' collective just wants to share the seed and does not care particularly what legal instrument it uses to send the materials. Can it just send the materials to the farmers group using the SMTA? Or some other instrument? Does it need to get permission first? If so, why? From whom?Solutions:The group presented to seek guidance of NBC-Focal Point and then accordingly seek approval of the Competent National Authority (MoAF) following the centralized system in place. The group pointed out the need to sign a MTA and also negotiate benefits.Commentary:In such case, there is no single correct answer of which legal regime applies, or how they apply. The answer depends partly on the political and legal systems of the countries concerned and partly on the roles of the state and non-state actors in the process. There are four ways the situation could ultimately be resolved: 1. The farmers send the materials themselves using an SMTA. 2 The farmers' collective deposits the maize in their country's national genebank, which subsequently sends samples to farmers' collective in the recipient country, using the SMTA. 3 The materials are sent using an access and benefitsharing agreement negotiated pursuant to measures implementing the Nagoya Protocol. 4. The farmers send the materials themselves subjected to whatever terms and instruments they decide are most appropriate, without any requirements pursuant to the ITPGRFA or the Nagoya Protocol. However, the important factor is that all these ways are subjected to specific conditions.Group presentations (Photo: Chencho Dorji/NBC)You are a smallholder farmer who intercrops maize, common bean, banana and coffee.H.1. The local extension officer from the sub-district office of the national agricultural research organization comes to your house explaining that she is conducting a collecting mission as part of a large research programme involving local, national and international research and development organizations. They are looking into ways to improve these crops so that they perform better under changing climate conditions, both in your country and abroad. She asks if you have seeds or cuttings that you are willing to share.H.2. A seed breeding company representative stops by and asks you for seeds or cuttings of some of the plants he finds interesting.H.3. The local extension officer comes by with a master's student working for the national genebank. They ask if they can have some seeds and cuttings to deposit in the genebank.What do you do in each case? What rules apply?Solutions: H1. The group decided to first discuss and find the purpose for sharing of the seeds or cuttings and request to share information for the crops grown. Then they would share the seeds or cuttings after finding a way to track the seeds for planting materials taken from them. The critical question they would use before sharing is how the sharing of the seeds/cuttings would benefit them in the future? They would negotiate benefits if the purpose is research and subsequent commercialization.H2. The group proposed to find out more more about the seed breeding company representative and the company as well as the reasons for its purpose and types of immediate and long-term benefits/acknowledgements that the company is willing to give. Last, they would consider the legal implications of sharing as per existing rules in place.H3. The group again proposed to discuss the proposal enquiring about its purpose and probe into the mentioned gene bank, enquire about what types of general benefits they were willing to provide, the location of the genebank and its management status. The group would also seek answers concerning the possibility of getting both old and new seeds from the genebank for free. Concerning the rules, they suggest the existing national rules would apply.In most countries, materials in farmers' fields and community genebanks would not be considered to be managed and controlled by the national government and therefore, not automatically included in the MLS. This analysis assumes that the farmers is in such a country and that she has not yet put her material voluntarily into the MLS. Accordingly, all three scenarios would likely be governed by the laws that implement the Nagoya Protocol, assuming that the uses of the materials would fall within the scope of the Nagoya Protocol.\"The workshop was designed in a simple yet effective way keeping in consideration all kinds of audience. In particularly, for a person working at the National Biodiversity Centre as the focal agency of the ITPGRFA it was not only insightful but also very helpful by promoting critical analysis of relevant case scenarios.\"\"The workshop was very informative and an eye opener for a person like me who is not from the agricultural background. I learned a lot about seed banks and their importance, the ITPGRFA to co-operate on seed and also the seed related business.\"\"The workshop was indeed useful to make the participants know about the status of the MLS and the ITGRFA, ABS policy in Bhutan, and the existence of SMTA and MTA. We also heard about the genetic base of crops and about community seed banks in the country. Third, participants have an idea about the activities of the National Biodiversity Centre and its collaboration at the global level.\"\"I strengthened my capacities related to the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol.\"'The workshop greatly enhanced our knowledge on the status, challenges and scope for the ITPGRFA at national and international levels. Through the group work on the different scenarios, it further helped build our capacity to implement the Treaty effectively. The workshop was very useful for us to analyze which particular scenarios are applicable in Bhutan and also how to handle more complex conditions. We now feel confident enough to take decisions easily with regards to PGRFA exchange.\"\"The workshop was very useful. Especially I learned about the mutually supportive system of implementation of the Nagoya protocol and the ITPGRFA through an analysis of many case scenarios. I realized how important seeds are for agriculture to address food security and nutrition. Many international experts come together, formulated and regulated various laws and treaties for our own requirement and peace.\"\"The workshop was useful to learn about the protocol related to seed banks, their management and laws regarding their operation. Working in groups with senior colleagues also provided me new insights I was not aware of before.\"2. Do you foresee that you will be using what you have gained from the workshop in your work? If so, in which way(s)? If not, why not? \"Definitely yes. Because being a national focal point for NP and ITPGRFA, all the lessons learned from the workshop will be useful for us.\"\"In the National Genebank, the workshop has immense impact since we will have to work with transfer and exchange of PGRFA at all levels, for which we will have to draw up agreements in line with the policies of Bhutan and international agreements like the ITPGRFA and CBD.\"\"Yes, very much. We will be revisiting our biodiversity bill and subsequently its regulations; during that period, I will be using what I have gained in the workshop to strengthen our legal frameworks and make it more mutually supportive.\"\"I may not put into use all that was taught and learned during the two day workshop, but definitely, some knowledge and information particularly on MTA and ABS will be of much use deciding on what crop varieties needs to be sent abroad or brought in for various research and development activities.\"\"Now that I have gained an insight to deal with difference case scenarios, I can apply the knowledge learnt during an actual case.\"\"I can foresee that I can use it and share with my colleagues what I have gained from the workshop. Since I am working in the genebank, I have to assure seed quality as per protocol and deliver services to communities and the international arena at large in due consultation with office stakeholders and as per rule of law. I can share knowledge with and update my field colleagues during collection times about the ITPGRFA and Nagoya protocol to some extent. I also would like to share with our valued farmers about the existence of treaties and protocols during seed collection time.\"\"Being a representative of the Royal University, I feel I can share about the knowledge I gained from the workshop with my colleagues working in the colleges related to agriculture, so that they can share it with the students in the classrooms. I also have the handouts you have given to us which I can pass on to colleges so that it may benefit the agricultural students.\"\"The information received from the workshop will be shared with my fellow colleagues in the National Seed Centre, i.e. the application of SMTA and MTA, the use of the MLS for the sharing of genetic resources, and various policies at the global level.\"\"Most of the lessons and concepts learned were fairly new to me and I may not be able to apply the lessons in my work immediately. But the laws and procedures related to working with seed banks will be instrumental in working with and assisting the programs of seed banks in the future.\"\"Yes. I will be involved in the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.\"\"The things that I learned from the workshop are very insightful and I will certainly use in my future work. There is a research project with JICA about organic weed control in rice, which also involves the cultivation of some of their new varieties. Since I gained a lot of knowledge from the workshop, I advised the project counterparts regarding the requirements which most of us miss to do. For instance, the SMTA for the imported rice and soybean varieties was not obtained and I briefed both the counterparts on the importance of the SMTA and other aspects I learned from the workshop.\"3. Do you have any other feedback on the workshop?\"It was well organized. My view is that the workshop would have been very nice if the workshop was two-three days.\"\"This workshop was very helpful in bringing together national stakeholders and sharing our knowledge on both CBD/NP and ITPGRFA. I hope in the future we are able to replicate such workshops at the regional level and include farmers, researchers and academicians.\"\"The workshop was very informative and educational especially for someone like myself who did not have much experience or information with regards to the seed systems of the country as well as the world.\"\"The workshop should include field trips to NBC, cover pre-information like Annex 1 crop, non-Annex 1 crops, background information like about the Nagoya protocol, so that all participants from other agencies will have better understanding.\"\"The workshop was useful in many respects. It would make the outcome of the workshop even more explicit if there was a system of evaluating and tracing the process of implementing the lessons learned in the workshop.It is recommended for a future workshop.\"\"The workshop had diverse participants and it involved a lot of group work, which is one of the best ways to learn; besides, the resource person was very competent in his own field.\"\"It will be good to have another such workshop in the future.\"\"This kind of workshop proved very useful for the capacity building and awareness on the effective implementation of ITPGRFA at a National level and we look forward to such workshops in other implementing countries as well. We are very grateful to Bioversity International for holding the first ever such workshop in Bhutan.\"  Policy actor and network analysis to map key policy actors, networks and coalitions that influence plant genetic resources policies and laws, understand flows of information and financial resources and decision making processes, identify actors not included, but who should be included, and make suggestions for more inclusive processes. The eight country analyses raised the awareness of key stakeholders and contributed to building/strengthening a national policy platform. Mapping flows of plant genetic resources and demonstrating the interdependence on external germplasm. The country studies provided empirical evidence of the very large extent to which the eight countries are dependent on foreignsourced plant genetic resources for their agricultural research and development (including breeding) and ultimately for food security.  A case study methodology to document the experiences, achievements and challenges of community seed banks to systematize experiences and explore options to link farmers to the ITPGRFA and make them benefit from better access to diverse, quality seeds. The research activities also provided country overviews of seed regulations and how they can be adjusted to promote and support community seed banks and contribute to on-farm and in situ agro-biodiversity conservation, both legally binding obligations of all contracting parties to the ITPGRFA. Country case studies were included in a book about community seed banking experiences from around the world edited by Ronnie Vernooy, Pitambar Shrestha and Bhuwon Sthapit, published by Routledge/Earthscan.The multi-sectoral, multi-institutional and multi-stakeholder approach used by the project strengthened inter-institutional collaboration and cooperation in national efforts to implement the ITPGRFA and MLS. It created the necessary awareness among key stakeholders and facilitated the continued active participation of them in the ITPGRFA/MLS implementation processes. The approach was also effective to bring together the policy actors responsible for ITPGRFA implementation on the one hand and Convention on Biological Diversity-Nagoya Protocol on the other.  National policymakers and stakeholders most actively appreciate the value of the ITPGRFA/MLS when it enhances their country's collective capacity to adapt to climate changes through the ability to access and use materials through the multilateral system. Second, when it overcomes systematic blockages to dynamic forms of ex situ and in situ conservation and sustainable use, where the MLS is implemented as part of a process of promoting novel forms of cooperation between genebanks, breeders, and collective action organizations at community levels (e.g. community seed banks). Policy implementation projects that do not include capacity building to help countries take advantage of the MLS as recipients and users of PGRFA (and instead focus entirely on putting systems in place for them to supply PGRFA) are less likely to make progress, because they do not 'speak to' policymakers', scientists' and farmers' sense of their country's immediate needs. Policy development and implementation efforts need to be accompanied by well-funded, wide-reaching communication campaigns to raise awareness among stakeholders generally, and to place indirect (but strategic) pressure on policymakers to take action. Most developing countries need to adopt new, or dramatically improve existing, national PGRFA information systems to manage and publish information about materials they are making available through the MLS. They also need training in conducting searches on other organizations' information systems to locate potentially useful germplasm. National stakeholders are increasingly demanding that project support and policy development programmes to implement the ITPGRFA/MLS and the Nagoya Protocol should be interlinked given that the two agreements are so closely related, and they need to be implemented in harmonious, coordinated ways.In response to the demand for mutually supportive implementation of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol, Bioversity International, in collaboration with the ABS Capacity Development (Germany, http://www.abs-initiative.info/), the CBD Secretariat (Canada, https://www.cbd.int/abs/), and the ITPGRFA Secretariat (Italy, http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/en/), have organized a series of regional and national capacity development workshops. The aim of these workshops is to support focal points of both international agreements to work (more) effectively together towards common goals and to address the following challenges: ","tokenCount":"4923"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf81183b7428de6ea346ec344579ac5e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c8c058b-6bf7-46c5-b5e7-accaef3c353d/retrieve","id":"-786512477"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f99ee48-2b4d-4fb2-987e-4202d747a94c","pagecount":"25","content":"The adverse impacts of climate change on aquatic food systems (AFS) and the people who depend on AFS for livelihood security are inequitably distributed between and within countries. People facing the highest risks and experiencing the severest impacts of climate change are those who already experience multidimensional inequalities in their lives, particularly because of their gender, class, age, indigeneity, ethnicity, caste, religion, and the physical and political conditions that can create additional vulnerabilities. In this paper, we conducted a scoping review of the literature that explores the links between climate change, gender, and other social identities, and AFS. The review was complemented by an analysis of representative data on women and men aquaculture farmers in Bangladesh from 2018 to 2019. We also analysed data from the 2019 Illuminating Hidden Harvest project. The study relied on the gendered agrifood system and aquatic food climate risk frameworks to guide on literature search, review, and data analyses. Our findings show that intersecting identities disadvantage certain AFS actors, particularly young women from minority ethnic groups, and create challenge for them to manage and adapt to climate shocks and stresses. Examples of gender-responsive and transformative interventions are highlighted from our review to showcase how such intersectional disadvantages can be addressed to increase women's empowerment and social and gender equality.An aquatic food system according to the WorldFish Centre is \"the complex web of all the elements and activities that relate to foods from water, along with parts of the broader economic, social, and natural environments in which they are embedded. It encompasses the steps from production all the way to consumption, as well as outcomes related to nutrition, public health, food security, social and economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability\". Aquatic foods are harvested from inland and marine fisheries or produced through aquaculture. They contribute to global food and nutrition security, poverty alleviation, and economic development [1]. Over the past decades, AFS have been experiencing unprecedented stresses from anthropogenic activities, including over-exploitation of resources, habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change [2,3]. Concerning the latter, rises in temperature, ocean acidification, and climate extremes [4][5][6], for example, can all have a negative impact on AFS. Under a high-emissions, no-mitigation scenario, lower-income countries in Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and South and Southeast Asia are projected to face high climate risks to nutrition and health, social, economic and environmental outcomes of AFS by 2100 [7,8]. The AFS of higher-income countries are projected to experience low to medium climate risk even though these countries are among the highest emitters of greenhouse gases [7].Broadly, people who face the highest risks and experience the most severe impacts of climate change are those who already experience multidimensional inequalities [9]. It is particularly pertinent to view risks associated with climate change and people's abilities to (in) adequately respond to climate change challenges through a gender and intersectional lens due to the ways in which gender and social inequalities get produced and reproduced in AFS and disproportionately disadvantage women and marginalized groups [9,10]. Women are especially vulnerable to challenges created by climate change because of their higher dependence on natural resources [11,12]. Yet women experience limited coping and adaptive capacities to climate change challenges owing to their multiple, competing responsibilities carrying out productive, household, and care work compared to men [12][13][14][15]. Unequal gender norms and power relations sustain this status quo [16].This article investigates how gender, and other social identities, influence the adaptive capacity of AFS in the face of climate change. It explores the abilities of AFS actors to manage climate change risks and build resilience in AFS in gender-equitable ways. This paper addresses the following research questions: (1) How do gender and other social identities impact livelihoods in AFS experiencing climate change challenges? and (2) What are the coping strategies and adaptation and mitigation measures used by women and men whose livelihoods depend on AFS to deal with climate change?To help explore these questions we first developed a conceptual framework that maps how climate shocks and stresses interact with gender and other socio-economic variables to shape AFS outcomes. Guided by this conceptual framework, we conducted a literature search and review from 2017-2022 on empirical studies that examined the interactions between gender and other social identities, climate change, and AFS. This timeframe was chosen to include the most recent research on the topic, while generating a realistic amount of information to process within the scope of the review The key findings from the review highlight how gender and other social identities shape people's capacities to respond and adapt to climate shocks and stresses in AFS. Finally, we assessed participation rates of women and men in AFS using a global dataset developed by the Illuminating Hidden Harvest project and examined the key factors that influence women's adaptive capacities and resilience in a major aquaculture-producing country (Bangladesh) as a case study.The overall aim of this paper is to show what we know about women's participation and resilience in AFS. Good practices were reviewed, and recommendations made based on these good practices.We drew on [17] gendered agrifood system and [7] aquatic food climate risk frameworks to guide our literature search and review and data analyses. Fig 1 depicts our conceptual framework. In the upper part, climate risk is a function of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability. Stresses and shocks caused by climate change affect AFS in multiple ways, through rising water temperatures and sea levels, ocean acidification [2], reduction in dissolved oxygen levels, increased hurricanes, and cyclones [2], alteration of fish migratory patterns [18], declines in the capture and production of aquatic foods [19], among many others. As AFS change, those dependent on aquatic foods for sustenance and livelihood security can be negatively impacted by increases in aquatic food prices or income losses through reduced catch/production, and even by being forced out of AFS altogether [19,20].People's exposure to the impacts of climatic stresses and shocks is determined by their relative dependence on AFS, species, and ecosystems [3]. Broadly speaking, the effects of stresses and shocks are felt more strongly for people with higher dependence on aquatic foods for food security and nutrition, income, and as part of socio-cultural practices [21][22][23]. The relative severity of the effects of climate change stresses and shocks clearly depends on the geographic location of people who depend on AFS [24]. Finally, disparities in climate risk arise from differentials in the vulnerabilities of men and women to the effects of climate stresses and shocks. Among social-economic factors such as health and economic status, the equity of AFS governance structures-particularly the ability of women and men to claim access to and control over the resources they need to participate effectively in AFS-contribute to how well they are able to manage and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change [25].In the lower parts of Fig 1, four interrelated dimensions of gender equality mediate AFS components and operate along two axes: (1) the formal/informal and (2) systemic/individual [26]. Importantly, the adaptive capacities of AFS actors are influenced by gendered and intersectional power dynamics at these levels. Intersectionality is premised upon the understanding that power inequalities arise from the ways in which multiple social identities, such as gender, age, marital status, religion, caste, indigeneity, ethnicity, and educational status interact to create unique experiences and advantages and disadvantages for individuals and communities [10,[27][28][29] as they work to mitigate and adapt to the challenges they face. These interactions ultimately contribute to the differences we observe in AFS outcomes with respect to health and nutrition, gender equality and women's empowerment, the environment, social cohesion and well-being, and a range of economic and livelihood outcomes (right side of Fig 1). Fig 1 suggests that climate change interventions that address social and gender disparities in AFS outcomes must adopt approaches at the individual, systemic, formal, and informal levels to increase the agency and access to and control over resources of women and marginalized groups and transform unequal social and gender norms and discriminatory policies and governance structures. Table 1 presents definitions of key terms used in our conceptual framework.A scoping review framework was used to carry out the search and review. Scoping reviews identify the different evidence types (qualitative or quantitative) available on a particular topic and integrate this material through mapping or charting [40]. The process was divided into four steps: (1) identifying relevant studies, (2) screening and selecting relevant publications, (3) charting the data and information, and (4) assembling, summarizing, and reporting the results (Fig 2).We limited our search to primary research articles in English published in peer-reviewed academic journals between January 2017 and October 2022. This timeframe was chosen to include the most recent research on the topic, while generating a realistic amount of information to process within the scope of the review. University of Amsterdam web library databases including Google Scholar, Clarivate Web of Science and Scopus were used. The search string was based on key components of the paper's conceptual framework: aquatic food (sub-) systems, gendered and intersectional inequalities, vulnerabilities, and adaptive capacities, as well as related outcomes and interventions.A total of 14,135 papers were obtained. The software package Cadima was used to identify and delete duplicates, resulting in a final sample of 1,966 original papers. Cadima was further used to screen article abstracts based on the inclusion criteria described below:1. articles presenting primary qualitative or quantitative data through case studies, or evidence-based reviews.2. articles with a clear focus on AFS and,This process resulted in 32 articles for inclusion in our review. Nvivo was used to code the selected articles. They were categorized using the following classification: year of publication, country-specific risk profile [7], methodology, aquatic species focus, means of production (fisheries or aquaculture) (Table 2). Nine papers used quantitative research methods, 19 used qualitative research methods, and 4 used mixed methods. Most papers focus on a small subset of communities or a localised region in the world. The article set was complemented by a purposive literature review to help set the stage in the introduction, and to explain and reflect on the findings. This resulted in a final count of 125 publications.There are a few limitations to the scoping review methodology we employed. First, we limited our search to journal articles in English. This may have had consequences for geographic scope: majority of the papers reviewed focused on Asia and Africa and with the remainder on Definition SourceThe potential for AFS to fail to provide sufficient, appropriate, and accessible food to all, nutrition, and health benefits, or worsen the economic, social, and environmental outcomes. Climate risk is a function of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability.[ [30][31][32] Climate shocks The instantaneous events caused by climate change that typically occur in a short period, whereas stresses refer to events caused by climate change that are often chronic and last for an extended duration. [33,34] Hazard This includes processes that range from brief events, such as severe storms, to slow trends, such as multi-decade droughts or multi-century sea-level rise [35] ExposureThe fact or condition of being affected by the social, economic, and environmental implications of climate change in AFS.[36]The state of relying on or being controlled by the social, economic, and environmental landscape of AFS.[36]The propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected, and it carries several elements, including sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt.[37] Adaptation Adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems as a result of real or anticipated climate-related stresses and their impacts. It refers to changes in systems, methods, and structures to minimize possible harm or to take advantage of opportunities brought on by climate change.[38]Limiting the quantity of emissions released into the atmosphere and lowering the existing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) by strengthening carbon sinks.[38]Refers to creating of, or the outcome of equal opportunities for women and men by removing formal barriers. This involves changing policies that exclude (primarily) women from equal access to fisheries jobs, markets, or other resources. [39] Gender equity This is the process by which equality can be achieved by acknowledging the different positions of women and men in society and compensating for those differences. This includes capacity development aimed towards women, but also programs that incorporate elements of gender and power at several different levels.[39]https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000309.t001Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania. Second, since our literature search focused on academic peer reviewed journal articles, our paper may have failed to capture relevant information in grey literature. Third, the methodological focus of case studies in our literature review sample was mostly qualitative. This may pose limitations to drawing generic conclusions.To complement the scoping literature review, we conducted an analysis of secondary data. First, we used a dataset developed by the Illuminating Hidden Harvests (IHH) project to assess the participation rates of women and men in small-scale fisheries globally (S1 Data). This included household income and expenditure surveys from 78 countries in the period 2008-2018. Data on aquaculture were not collected. The IHH dataset provides sex-disaggregated employment estimates for the pre-harvest, harvest, processing, and trading stages of the fishery value chain, and estimates the number of people involved in small-scale fisheries for subsistence. Regional estimates of employment and subsistence were then estimated by extrapolation from these 78 countries to the regional level using weighted regression analysis and validated through comparison with other global datasets (Additional information 2). We conducted an elaborate search to find representative and gender-disaggregated quantitative data on either aquaculture farmers or small-scale fishers for complementary analyses on gender-based differences in resilience and adaptive capacity but found very limited datasets meeting these requirements. Second, we analysed data collected by the 2019 Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) to explore the linkage between adaptive capacity and resilience of women and men aquaculture farmers. The use of the BIHS is motivated by the importance of Bangladesh as an aquaculture producer, the country-level representativeness of the dataset, and the detailed data related to adaptive capacity and resilience obtained through interviews with both men and women aquaculture farmers. For small-scale fisheries a representative and sex-disaggregated dataset was not available. After isolating households engaged in aquaculture (n = 2,279), we used data from the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) module to carry out our analysis. The WEAI module contained information on both male and female primary decision-makers. We calculated sex-disaggregated average values on variables that are believed to correlate with adaptive capacity and resilience, such as access to resources and information, influence in community decisions, group membership and the time available for non-reproductive work (Additional information 3). To assess whether the differences in means were statistically significant we used t-tests for continuous variables and two-proportion Z-tests for binary variables.The findings from our scoping literature review and analyses of the two datasets are presented under three broad heading based on the synthesis of the conceptual framework (  gender data in AFS, (ii) gender and resilience, and (iii) climate change and intersecting social identities.AFS data are insufficiently sex-disaggregated particularly with respect to formal national-level fisheries statistics. This appears to be for the following reasons. First, more effort has been directed to research (including boat-based, gear-driven, and finfish fishing among others) in capture fisheries, which men dominate [41,42]. Although women dominate near-shore and on-shore fishing and gleaning, and shell-fisheries, these fisheries remain understudied and thus overlooked despite their importance to the livelihood resilience of often marginalized peoples and the contributions of such activities to food security and nutrition [43]. Importantly, women's work in these aspects of fisheries tends to be relabelled, not as fishing, but rather as (for example) minor work \"mussel collectors\" and framed as complementary and supportive to that of men who engage in actual fishing [44]. Second, global and national fisheries statistics focus on men-dominated formal markets. Less research attention is paid to smallscale retail, and informal markets, where women mostly dominate [41,45]. Third, conceptual biases in statistical models frequently undervalue the unpaid labour women provide to AFS. This includes making and repairing fishing nets and traps, procuring bait, repairing, and maintaining their husband's clothing for their fisheries' work, cooking for family and deckhands, contributions in some cases to administrative running of fisheries enterprises, and fish processing. These tasks are widely taken for granted, seen as 'helping out' and not valorised [46][47][48][49].The aforementioned conceptual biases are reinforced by, fourth, the assumption that the efficacy of fisheries management can be adequately optimized by studying catch and fishing efforts and that other dimensions of small-scale fisheries, such as nutrition security and the livelihood security and adaptability of the poorest to climate change are less important [50]. Fifth, an underlying conceptual bias can be detected. The framing of men as fisheries actors is global and cross-cultural and is reflected in the normative framing of fishers as fishermen, including in languages like Portuguese that have a feminine form-pescadora in this case-yet rarely use them [51]. Linguistic invisibilization at higher levels is reinforced by women, as well as men, in fishing households themselves. Women rarely identify themselves as fishers or fisherwomen, nor does the wider community [52] see also [53], on how people literally may not see women's work). Iterative processes develop which continually screen women's work in fisheries from view [43,54].The IHH study ( 2023) is an attempt to correct gendered data biases. It confirms that sexdisaggregated fisheries data, particularly in formal national-level fisheries statistics, remain rare (Additional information 4). However, as represented in Fig 3 estimates that women comprise 50% of the trading and processing workforce, and that 45% of the fishers in small-scale, subsistence-oriented fisheries are women (Additional information 5). However, women comprise 15-19% of the actively employed (Additional information 6). These findings hold true for all world regions, including Asia and Africa, which have the largest populations dependent on fisheries for their food security, nutrition, and income (see S1 Fig).Our review shows that sparse research on the gender-climate change-AFS nexus has been conducted. Several empirical studies reviewed for this study examine the adaptive responses of small-scale fishers and seafood-farming households and communities to stressors. They note that gender intersects with other socio-economic determinants of (in)equalities. The continual interactions generated contribute to power and agency differentials between different population groups. However, intersectionality does not form an analytic criterion in most articles and thus the implications of how gender intersects with other social identities to influence adaptive responses are insufficiently analysed [55,56]. Focusing only on men and women as dichotomic actors-without delving deeper into how gender intersects with other social identities-makes it difficult to understand the advantages and disadvantages for certain actors in AFS to respond to climate change [57]. We present our findings on gender and resilience in four sub-categories namely, gender and agency, gendered access to and control over AFS resources and gender norms and gendered policies and governance.More than half of the literature review sample (n = 17) discussed individual and group agency in the context of climate change adaptation and risk management by AFS actors. Effective individual and group agency has the potential to facilitate individuals, households, and communities to cope with, forecast, and adapt to, extreme climate shocks and stresses over time [13,[58][59][60]. Women and men from coastal fisher households in Bangladesh use gender-specific local knowledge on food and water provisioning, share experience from past climate shocks, and negotiate through religious and social networks, to create short-term survival strategies and move towards longer-term adaptation to climate change [58] Heiltsuk women in Canada's Pacific Coast are changing fisheries governance through developing measures to protect the herring stocks in their traditional territory-particularly through ensuring restored access to the spawn-on-kelp fishery. They are achieving this through extending the remit of their gendered roles and responsibilities in the community and ensuring that they are heard in national fisheries governance forums [61].Yet the agency of local communities is often frustrated by gender-blind, top-down policies, research frameworks and interventions, which fail to invest sufficiently in understanding local dynamics and needs. In the wake of Hurricane Maria (2017) in Dominica, many young people took advantage of the National Employment Programme to move out of fisheries. However, the intervention unintentionally undermined community resilience and local adaptive capacity because it ignored community support strategies. Young farmers and fishers relocated away from their communities, resulting in weakened family and community ties, additional financial pressure on families already in crisis, and negative outcomes for community food security, household incomes and social networks [60].4.2.2 Gendered access to and control over AFS resources. About 75 percent of the literature review sample (n = 24) discussed access to resources as central to climate change adaptation and risk management. Of these, all discussed access to material resources including land, equipment, housing and infrastructure, and formal and informal credit. A subset of 37 additionally discussed resources such as knowledge, skills, and social networks. Our review shows that gender is one important determinant of access to resources such as credit, fishing boats and gear, fish processing tools and technical trainings, and the node of fishery value chains that they can access. However, social identities such as marital status, health status, education status, geographic location, and economic class, intersect with gender to influence the ability of specific categories of individuals and social groups to access and control resources [62][63][64]. In Egypt, where both women and men are involved in fish trading, the educational level and number of dependents in the household affect which women and men participate more actively in their businesses and generate more profits [64]. In Malawi, widowed and divorced women fish traders participate and benefit from market access more extensively than their married counterparts. This is because they do not need to obtain permission from their husbands [65]. In Ghana, poor male fishermen involved in primary harvesting of fish are strongly affected by declining fish catch due to a combination of climate and non-climatic pressures. Wealthier women, who are gear owners or involved in fish trading, tend to are less impacted because they have alternative fishers to work with [66]. A government relocation program in Fiji for indigenous i-Taukei communities impacted by coastal erosion recognized that all women in the targeted communities play a key role in subsistence fishing for their households with men working in agriculture and other jobs further inland and created a fish farming (aquaculture) invention to help create an alternative form of income generation. However, program planners failed to recognize that women were differentially affected by age, health, and income status. One unintended project outcome was that elderly and sick women lost access to fishing as a consequence of being relocated further away from the shore. At the same time, these women did not have disposable income to buy the farmed fish sold by the younger women participating in the intervention. Overall, they lost access to food and status [67].A noteworthy finding from the review is that small-scale fisheries in some countries are under increasing pressure from economically wealthier and better-connected new entrants to fisheries from other sectors such as agriculture, which face negative consequences from climate change. In Malawi and Ethiopia, for example, declining crop productivity due to climate stress and shocks has led to state interventions encouraging farmers to engage in mixed farmingfishing livelihoods or in seasonal fishing [68,69]. In Thailand declining prices for certain commodity crops such as rubber and oil palm has meant that an increasing number of rubber and oil palm farmers are shifting to fishing and competing for catch in the sea [70]. On the southwest coast of Bangladesh, increasing salinity intrusion into coastal lands is resulting in a decline of rice farming, paving the way for an expansion of shrimp farming for export [71]. In some cases, new entrants are more powerful than existing fisher communities. They may have more and better assets (motorized boats, new technology, investment), and wider and more influential social networks and education, than artisanal fisherwomen and men. This results in the latter being pushed out to the base of the fishery value chain and facing further decline in their agency, income, and wellbeing [70][71][72].In Bangladesh, our analysis of the 2018-2019 BIHS data (See S1 Table ) shows that, compared to their male counterparts, women aquaculture farmers experience weaker access to the extension services, credit, and other productive capitals they need in order to be able to adapt to climate change and achieve resilience. Bangladeshi women aquaculture farmers are much less likely than men to own means of transportation, a mobile phone (for contacting customers), and fishing equipment. Only 7% of the women have interacted with an extension agent compared to 29% of men (Fig 4).Men's interactions with extension agents are more intensive because widely prevailing religious and socio-cultural norms discourage women's mobility and interactions with non-family men. In terms of decision-making, women are less likely to be involved in decision-making around whether to take credit and how to use it.About 65 percent of the literature review sample (n = 21) discuss how gender norms influence AFS actor climate change adaptation and risk management strategies. However, only a few studies explore the dynamic nature of gender norms and how, and why, they change in particular contexts and differentially among groups of women and men with various social identities. Limited research attention has been paid to how formal actors and institutions influence processes of normative change. Indeed, the gender analysis in most of the reviewed literature is largely focused on women and men roles, responsibilities and to some extent benefits, rather than on gender dynamics and agency.The review highlights that gender norms are context-specific, and that they strongly influence the work women and men do within fisheries and aquaculture, the spaces they work in, how their work is recognised and valued, and the coping strategies that women and men develop, and adopt, for climate change and climate shocks. The most universal gender norm is that women are broadly responsible for conducting household and care work within the household. This includes looking after and educating children, caring for elderly or sick people, cooking, obtaining water if relevant, cleaning, and a range of other tasks which vary according to locale. In Bangladesh, the 2018-2019 BIHS dataset suggests that women spend significantly more time on such tasks than men with men engaged more strongly on productive work, particularly paid work (see Fig 5). Notably, during the data collection, men and women were asked (separately from each other) about their daily time investment (in minutes) in specific tasks, such as farming, fishing, reproductive work, productive work, and communal activities. However, it is important to note that Bangladeshi women conduct many productive tasks at home or in the vicinity, for example post-harvest processing, livestock care, tending vegetable gardens, etc. These are frequently ignored because many survey schedules assign such work to the reproductive domain [73,74].An important characteristic of small-scale fisheries is the gendered division of space, whereby men fish in the open sea/large lakes using boats and fishing gears. In contrast, women's work is mostly shore-and land-based using little equipment. This gendered division of space affects the location of women and men within small-scale fisheries value chains. Men are involved in primary harvesting and larger scale marketing whilst women work in shore-and land-based fishing, processing, and trading activities [47]. When external interventions by state and other development actors do not take this gendered division of work and space into account, they can end up reinforcing gender norms that limit women's resilience and adaptive capacity. Coping strategies to climate shocks such as male outmigration can worsen income and livelihood options for women since they are left with more household and community responsibilities, and still face gendered challenges accessing resources at community level and participation in community forums [75,76]. In coastal fisher communities in Bangladesh, for instance, the ability of households to respond to and adapt to climate shocks, and to increased salinity, can be limited by institutional targeting. The long-term out-migration of male household heads is a coping strategy, but support services are often slow to react the reality of changes in population dynamics, decision-making, and who does what in the home. Women, although they may have become de facto household heads, may be completely overlooked for weather warning systems, or by extension agents. This hampers the abilities of such households to achieve resilience and undermines the efficacy of men's coping strategies for household well-being [75,77,78]. A study of 20 livelihood development projects implemented in coastal Indonesia found that projects that do not consider women's household, caregiving and community responsibilities often increase women's time burdens without suitable compensation and will likely be abandoned once the project ends [79]. In small-scale fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean the temporary migration of women traders to more distant fish trading sites due to reduced local fish catch is becoming more common because their earnings are increasing critical to household income [59].4.2.4 Gendered policies and governance. About 40 percent of the literature review sample (n = 13) discussed how policies and governance interact influence the climate change adaptation and risk management strategies of AFS actors. Most articles were constructed around a dichotomous (women: men) rather than a gendered approach to understanding gender dynamics. At the formal-systemic level, the review shows that the lack of representative sexdisaggregated data in the fisheries sector and the low recognition of women's work and contributions is a major factor driving the lack of attention to women's needs and benefits in fisheries management [80,81]. Broadly, the review shows that although some gender-equality policies and funds exist at national level, these often do not inform fisheries policies due to lack of interdepartmental coordination and lack of resources to translate gender policies into practice [82][83][84].In terms of staffing, women are under-represented in fisheries management and policy development globally. Very few women occupy senior management and decision-making positions [85,86]. For example, in Canada, the expertise of Inuit women, who occupy a prominent role in Inuit society, though they have achieved some success in relation to salmon, remains marginal to mainstream climate change policy and strategy. Indigenous forms of leadership and consultation processes are not visible, or incorporated, into formal and institutional levels of governance [87]. Inadequate research and consultation with local communities can lead to projects which harm rather than help [60,70,71]. VaTonga Communities in Binga District, Zimbabwe, are unable to exercise their full fishing rights in the Zambezi catchment, although everyone wishes to do so. This is because local authorities fail to involve these communities in fisheries planning and management design. This is accompanied by lack of transparency around access rights; and people's exclusion is reinforced by their lack of knowledge and poverty [25].With respect to community level decision-making processes, the review shows that women are widely underrepresented in fisher producer groups and in community-level leadership structures. Turning to Bangladesh, the findings show that women aquaculture farmers are significantly less likely to be involved in aquaculture producer groups (17% of men versus 6% of women) and are less likely to occupy leadership roles (see Fig 6) (2018-2019 BIHS data). The benefits, including developing social networks, derived from producer group membership are thus less accessible to women. However, in credit or microfinance groups we see an inverse pattern: Bangladeshi women are more likely than men to participate in these groups (47% of women versus 16% of men) and it is also more likely for women to be leaders of these groups. The same data set indicates that a large proportion of women are uncomfortable speaking in public settings regarding their opinion on infrastructure-related matters or high capital investments (Fig 6). Intriguingly, though, women aquaculture farmers do not rate their influence in the community lower than men aquaculture farmers. This might be because women compensate for the lack of formal/public influence through exerting informal influence on other women, their spouses, or other household members.In our literature review, articles discussed outcomes and impact of climate change in relation to income and livelihoods (n = 31) and health and nutrition (n = 26). Several articles discussed the implications for gender equality and empowerment of actors (n = 23), and the social wellbeing of communities (n = 17). The environmental effects of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture under pressure of climate change was weakly addressed in the reviewed articles, with only 6 articles briefly discussing this.Declines in species distribution, increasing seasonal variability, sea-level rise, and increasing frequency of extreme events such as floods, high temperatures, and tidal surges are having a significant negative impact on fishing economies, livelihoods, and incomes at local and global levels [7,54,71,88]. Women and men who already lack material assets such as land, equipment, savings and immaterial ones such as education and skills are typically the hardest hit [7,89].Studies show that the impact of short-term coping strategies in the immediate aftermath of climate shocks, as well as longer-term climate-adaptation strategies on the health and diet of different AFS actors are greatly influenced by gender and other intersecting inequalities [71,90,91]. Pregnant women from indigenous communities living in rural Uganda are generally more strongly impacted by weather variability than non-indigenous women. Compared to non-indigenous women, the overall health of mothers and children among Batwa indigenous women worsened when there was significant food insecuritydespite investments in their access to prenatal care. Underlying ethnic and gender inequitable norms and practices help to explain these findings. Indigenous Batwa tend to farm lower quality land and have less access to off-farm income generation opportunities due to ethnic biases against them. The marginalization of these communities, and particularly women, make it more difficult for them to develop effective strategies to adapt to climate change [92].Transgender, intersex, and non-binary people face increased health risks during and after natural disasters due to unequal access to emergency relief and shelters as a direct consequence of discriminatory exclusion [93] This is especially true for queer people who can face social prejudice, discrimination, stigma, and violence [94,95].More broadly, inadequate access to assets and resources often leads to short-term coping strategies among the most marginalized groups which fail to progress into adaptive resilience. This can have long-term implications for the health and well-being of the entire household though women's health and well-being can be worse affected. For example, women in economically poor fisher households in Bangladesh and among poor lower castes in India, have been shown to deprive themselves through reducing or foregoing meals and personal healthcare as a household coping strategy during periods of climate shock [58,71,96].The impact of the climate crisis on AFS can lead to adverse impacts on the social cohesion and well-being of coastal and fisher communities. The breakdown of social networks is mostly felt by the poorest: they suffer through livelihood loss, resource scarcity, conflict, and migration [58,71,72].Several studies on social cohesion and well-being in coastal and fishing communities document increased Gender Based Violence (GBV) as a consequence of climate change [63,65,81,[97][98][99]. GBV can limit women's participation in fish value-chain activities, and women also run the risk of GBV when trying to defend their access to fishing grounds (ibid.).As aquatic resource scarcity grows in the communities hit most by the climate crisis, the level of violence against women is likely to increase [100,101]. The loss of livelihoods and resources that the most at-risk communities are facing result in conflicts between different categories of fishers, based on their wealth status and ownership of assets such as mechanised boats, as well as within communities and within families [72,102].Transactional sex is another facet of GBV. 'Fish for sex' or sex for resources is common in some fishing communities [65,69,102]. As the impacts of the climate crisis continue to devastate livelihoods and create resource scarcity, there is likely to be more pressure on women to engage in transactional sex to obtain the resources they need. In the countries around Lake Victoria, where eutrophication due to excessive nitrogen loading is increasing, fish catches are declining significantly. This is promoting the 'fish for sex' economy, because women traders can acquire favoured access to fish through engaging in transactional sex. Due to shortages of fish women traders are travelling increasing distances to obtain fish. At the same time, male fishers are similarly travelling further to capture fish and use a variety of landing beaches and they also maintain a wide range of sex for fish relationships with women traders. These practices are leading to an increase in HIV/AIDs and leading to the loos of women and men in their prime years [103][104][105].The literature review revealed that some aquaculture and fishing practices which aim to promote climate-adaptation can contribute to environmental degradation. Shrimp farming, which thrives in brackish water and is promoted by the Bangladesh government as a climate-adaptation strategy, further salinizes water and reduces drinking-water supplies. Women often have to travel further to obtain potable family drinking water, have reduced income to buy nutritious food, and face health problems, including birth and pregnancy complications, due to increased exposure to salinity [75]. Inland fisheries in Africa's Great Lakes region are recognized for the contribution they can make to climate adaption due to their significantly lower land, water, and feed resource use footprint compared to aquaculture, livestock and livestock production [106]. However, some inland fisheries techniques raise environmental concerns. These include chemical water pollution (e.g. use of chemicals for fishing), surface water pollution (e.g. oil spills from fishing vessels and suspended matter such as fragments of plastic, rubber or other fishing materials), and carbon emissions from trawlers [107,108]. Non-fisheries sources of pollution also raise considerable health concerns. In India, children exposed to higher concentrations of agro-chemicals in water during the first month after conception experience poorer health outcomes on a variety of measures including higher mortality and morbidity, and reduced height-for-age and weight-for-age in infants under five years [109]. In districts with higher shares of surface water in Vietnam, the share of fish consumption is higher, and the share of meat consumption is lower than in districts with less surface water. Households in water-rich areas may have a higher probability of being exposed to toxic chemicals-caused by run off of farm chemicals and industrial plantsdue to higher fish consumption [110]. Overall, though, aquatic foods have a lower carbon footprint than many other animal-based foods [111].The findings from our scoping literature review and secondary data analyses indicate that women are central yet underrecognized actors in small-scale fishing and aquaculture economies. There is still a very long to go to realize SDG Goal 14 on Life Below Water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development in ways that strengthen the economies of small-scale AFS actors, and in particular that strengthen the livelihoods, resilience and agency of women in these systems.In response to the widespread perception that state actors and institutions are failing to respond effectively to the decline of the fisheries sector globally, women-led NGOs and fisher organisations are advocating and implementing bottom-up fisheries management tools and policies in countries as diverse as South Africa, Chile, and Mexico [80,112]. Existing genderresponsive policy guidelines such as FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Small-Scale Fisheries, the IHH 2023 report, and the gender integration and intersectionality in food systems research for development guidance note by the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH) [113] are helpful to legitimize such efforts from the actors who are most actively involved in AFS value chains as well as most directly impacted by the impact of climate change. Ensuring women's freedom to participate actively in meetings on the same terms as men in governance structures must be a strong programmatic objective [114][115][116][117].Looking to the future, gender-responsive and sex-disaggregated macro-level models and projections forecasting the future impacts of climate change on AFS at global and country levels will help to guide global policy and funding priorities. Gender -responsive and sex-disaggregated approach would include balancing involvement of marginalized women and men in maintaining their livelihoods through diversification with adequate financial compensation, and labor-saving and productivity enhancing technologies, improving their resilience to climate change, and securing nutritious food for themselves and their families are important while considering sex, age and other social markers.The review further shows that gender and social inclusion approaches in small-scale AFS are frequently limited to ensuring women participate or gain access to resources to increase their productivity or income. It is rarer for the underlying structural factors that continually reproduce unequal gender norms and relations that marginalise women to be challenged or transformed [12,79,118,119]. Our analysis suggests that AFS interventions and policies need to be more systemic in addressing gender and power inequalities at individual, systemic, informal, and formal dimensions. Some valuable initiatives show what is possible. For instance, several governments have adopted climate-adaptation and mitigation strategies to help manage depleted ecosystem resources and support the most marginalized groups, including women. Studies of oyster fisheries in Ghana and Gambia illustrate how collaboration between government, research organizations, and civil society organizations under the Sustainable Fisheries Management Project boosted coastal oyster fisheries co-management and increased the capacity of poor women and youth oyster harvesters by giving them formal user rights to the protected fisheries area, and recognizing their contribution in maintaining the resources [120,121].Knowledge development in association with strengthening women's agency is an important aspect of enhancing the agency of women in general, and marginalized groups of women and men to engage in positive adaptation measures [62]. As part of this, promoting strong women role models through facilitating their transgression of the traditional gender division of labour can be valuable. With support and training, women can successfully take on typically male responsibilities and play an active role in coastal and marine conservation. A women-led NGO in Mexico increased agency and awareness among local fisherwomen and men on marine conservation and provided enabling opportunities for local women to transgress their traditional gender roles through learning new skills such as diving. Women gained respect and decisionmaking power in their families and in local and regional fisheries forums [117]. In Vietnam, a project which provided well-directed training and support reduced gender biases in fisheries and improved women's income and active participation. This was facilitated through the involvement of local male leaders and women's husbands in gender training ( [62,97]. Similarly, in Myanmar, government initiatives that supported women's participation in household decision-making were significantly and positively correlated to improved technical efficiency of aquaculture farms and increased productivity due to the improved ability of households to allocate and organize productive resources optimally [114]. Further examples of successful strategies include training women in improving dried fish production [122], strengthening the co-management of fragile coastal mangrove ecosystem for oyster fisheries [120], developing participatory community-based marine conservation management plans [112], providing loans and training to women fish retailers for value addition in fish products [63,65], and promoting inland fish farming to women and men [62]. For example, in Bangladesh WorldFish promoted women's ability to manage their ponds using novel learning approaches. This resulted in significantly higher fish productivity, fish diversity, and income generation, as well as improvements in women's control over income and assets, though wider determinants of women's empowerment were unaffected [123,124].Promoting opportunities for fisherwomen to diversify their income beyond fisheries can be valuable. This has been promoted in Bangladesh [125] and in the United Kingdom. Here, women's work outside fisheries often provides stable income for small-scale fisher households that are increasingly threatened by climate irregularities [88].We conclude that further evidence-based-and action-orientated-research is needed to inform targeted and place-based climate interventions that address existing power inequalities and work to change social relations towards more equity and inclusion.Based on the literature review and the supplementary datasets from Bangladesh and IHH we propose below some key action pathways for research, interventions, and policy to enable and contribute to gender-transformative and climate-resilient AFS.First, policy, research and interventions must address multi-dimensional power inequalities. At the research and intervention levels, it is important to engage both women and men to complement gains in income, food security and livelihood diversification, with increased decision-making power of women on resource allocation and income. Household-based approaches that involve men as well as women are important to strengthen intra-household collaboration on productive and household and care tasks, and to strengthen jointness in decision-making in all domains. At an institutional level, it is important to commit resources and funding for gender sensitisation at community level, and in government and research agencies. This can help to reduce gender inequality in staffing and pay and change attitudes and practices that restrict women's mobility and active participation in public meetings, consultations, and forums. These are the first steps in creating a transformative change by addressing key normative barriers for gender equality. At the policy level, climate adaptation policy must be informed by women's contribution to small-scale and subsistence fisheries and aquaculture, the different needs of women and men, improving commercial returns to women and the specific constraints they experience (due to gender, socio-cultural and religious norms, access to and control over resources and labour, and time constraints). Mitigation strategies must be gender-responsive, including balancing the increasing involvement of marginalised women and men in livelihood diversification with adequate financial compensation, and labour-saving and productivity-enhancing technologies.Second, women's work throughout aquatic food value chains must be recognised, documented, and valued. At intervention/project level, this can be done by integrating gender and intersectionality within the theory of change and collecting-and analysing-sex-and genderdisaggregated data for effective monitoring, evaluation, and learning. At the research level, there is a need for more mixed-methods approaches, value-chain analyses and large-scale quantitative studies on women's work across the fisheries and aquaculture value chain (pre-production, post-harvest processing and trade), including women's contribution to subsistence fisheries and to the informal markets. At the policy level, funding and resources should be earmarked for systematic collection of quantitative as well as qualitative data on women's contributions in aquatic food value chains in order to formulate evidence-based, genderresponsive policies that recognise and utilise the agency and knowledge of marginalised actors. This will facilitate more sustainable and custodial management of aquatic food resources.Third, research on climate change and small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, with a gender and intersectional lens, is critical to determine heterogeneity and agency in the adaptive capacities of AFS actors, and to catalyse activism. This approach opens avenues for interventions and policy that integrate local AFS actors as part of the solution, rather than as the problem, thus bolstering sustainable, equitable and resilient AFS. There should be a specific focus on two factors. The first one is closer interdisciplinary engagement between socio-ecological resilience analysis and gender analysis in research on climate change and AFS. This should combine ongoing efforts to increase and improve the collection of sex-disaggregated data in smallscale fisheries and aquaculture systems research together with developing high-quality gender analysis on socio-ecological dynamics in small-scale fisheries. Second, studies should go beyond a household and gender-dichotomous focus in qualitative and quantitative research for a better understanding of climate change-driven adaptive choices by women and men on livelihood diversification in different contexts. Studies that link gender and AFS research to the fisheries and global political economy through a feminist political economy research agenda could also support women's activism. This is because women, including indigenous women, have a significant role to play in articulation of climate action strategies.","tokenCount":"7806"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"161a431a7e396ba2f7621ecff5df9d92","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d1cc8077-03b1-42e2-a95e-b5f45b36c1af/retrieve","id":"1327493413"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7de9df56-35e6-44c9-8540-692e7c4a9919","pagecount":"42","content":"The objective of this study was to analyze the scalability of the cassava seed agribusiness models that have been supported under the CASS project in Rwanda. Phone interviews with key-informants formed the basis for analyzing the agribusiness cases. The study presents general conclusions, bottlenecks and recommendations for further development and scaling of cassava agribusiness seed models in Rwanda.Funding, acknowledgement and photo credits Annex A: Overview of key-informants potential for sustainability and scaling than others. We would like to emphasize that this is normal and what should be expected when designing and piloting new seed system models.The scaling recommendations and bottlenecks identified in this report should therefore be interpreted as giving an early indication of how key-informants perceive the scalability potential of the various cases and models. Bottlenecks or risks should not necessarily stop agribusiness case or model development, but taken into account when making decisions on which case and model development to continue and how. What is very important is to see projects such as CASS as temporary interventions that can support capacity sharing, stakeholder collaboration or independent agribusiness seed model testing. Project teams and broader stakeholders should always think beyond the project to ensure that there is ownership, sustainability and continuity to ensure diverse groups of farmers have access to clean and affordable cassava seed.More detailed information on the conclusions, bottlenecks and recommendations can be found in Section 4.Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a major staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa with over 200 million people depending on it for a large part of their calorie intake (Manyong et al., 2000). The overdependency on local cassava varieties and informal seed sources by farmers in Rwanda has contributed to the spread of cassava viral diseases. Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) are currently the most threatening biotic stresses to cassava production in East and Central Africa (Legg et al., 2001;Tumwegamire et al., 2018).The use of improved planting materials made available through formal seed sources, that assure seed quality, is one way to prevent future disease outbreaks. In order to increase the availability of, and farmers' access to, such materials there is increasing interest to develop seed agribusiness models (Kilwinger et al., 2021).Seeds of vegetatively propagated crops (VPC), such as cassava, differ significantly from those of legume and cereal crops in many ways. VPC seed is a vegetative plant part (e.g., a stem) rather than seed (e.g., maize grain) and because of this, it is usually big in size and perishable. This makes the multiplication and distribution of VPC seed different and more challenging than that of non-VPC seeds. Despite the above-mentioned challenges, in places where cassava is very important, one would still consider producing and distributing VPC seed through for-profit or non-for-profit agribusiness models.An agribusiness model can be defined as a representation of how an organization views, creates, distributes, and captures value for itself (via a profit formula), and for users (defining the value proposition). Although agribusiness models are often associated with profit making, this is not necessarily true. It can be argued that non-profit organizations, including farmer organizations or those focusing on agricultural development, can also develop seed agribusiness models that are non-profit focused.Extracted from: Schut et al., 2020. Achieving impact at scale is one of the greatest challenges facing the development community and the term 'scaling' is increasingly popular in the world of public research for development. Scaling usually refers to the adaptation, uptake and use of innovations such as practices, technologies, and market or policy arrangements across broader communities of actors and/or geographies. In research for development, scaling is usually perceived to be the result of deliberate efforts and interventions that lead to defined societal outcomes such as securing public health, sustaining food availability, living within planetary boundaries, creating jobs and growth, and promoting equality of opportunity. In that sense, scaling is associated with positive change and high target numbers have become an indicator for those funding, implementing, and evaluating research for development to assess the success of projects, policies, programs and other types of interventions.In the context of the CASS project, scaling refers to the ambition to expand or apply the agribusiness models and learning beyond the original scope of the project. This may include tailoring the agribusiness models to work in other locations, with other partners to increase access to and use of clean cassava seed in Rwanda.As part of the Cassava Agribusiness Seed System (CASS) project, 3 agribusiness models for cassava seed multiplication and distribution were explored in Rwanda. Each agribusiness model had 1 or 2 specific agribusiness cases.The private company led agribusiness model focused on identifying a private entrepreneur interested in cassava seed agribusiness, provide them with entrepreneurship competencies, and help them to network with other stakeholders to produce and market quality seeds to the user farmers. The assumption is that seed demand would be high enough to give the entrepreneur, and indeed the agribusiness, sufficient market for seed. The company could choose to produce seed itself or source it from existing individual seed multipliers and market it.As part of the CASS project activities, the following agribusiness case has been supported in Rwanda:• Business case 1.1: INGABO SyndicateCassava processors provide a market for root producers. It is assumed that they have sufficient influence to motivate farmers to use clean seed from approved sources. They can influence/motivate them through a price incentive, input credit, or other incentives. The clean seed would be acquired from private seed multipliers or produced by producer cooperatives. By doing so, farmers would create a market for clean seed for seed entrepreneurs while achieving better yields. The processor would also benefit from more quantities and better quality of roots i.e., targeting certain varieties.As part of the CASS project activities, the following agribusiness cases have been supported in Rwanda:• Business case 2.1: KINAZI Cassava Plant • Business case 2.2: KIAI CooperativeCassava seed is mostly produced and used locally due to its bulky, perishability and storability challenges. This gives advantage to entrepreneurs within the community to produce and market seeds to their neighbors. The community led model is designed to do this. It is anticipated that the cooperative and private seed entrepreneurs will, thanks to networks with research programs i.e., RAB and other partners, drive introduction of new improved varieties and multiply clean seed for farmers around them.As part of the CASS project activities, the following agribusiness case has been supported in Rwanda:• Business case 3.1: CDAN CooperativeThe below map provides an overview of where in Rwanda the agribusiness cases are located. The objective of this study was to analyze the scalability of the cassava seed agribusiness models that have been supported under the CASS project in Rwanda. Through the analysis of the agribusiness cases, the study aims to generate scaling recommendations and identify bottlenecks for the further development and scaling of the agribusiness models.The methodology employed in this assessment focused on collecting data through structured phone interviews with key-informants and other purposefully sampled stakeholders involved in the development or working of the agribusiness models and cases. Annex A provides an overview of these key-informants. Data was analyzed mainly qualitatively.Interviews were conducted between mid-February and early March 2022. A typical phone interview took between 15 and 25 minutes for key-informants involved in agribusiness case and 60 to 90 minutes for project staff, involved in many agribusiness cases. The information was captured in a GoogleSheet: https://forms.gle/9MU56BTsRduhwFx18. In total, 29 interviews were conducted. In some cases, the same respondents were interviewed multiple times due to their involvement in multiple agribusiness models and cases. Respondents represented farmer cooperatives and syndicates, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private sector, research organizations and government.The collected data was complemented with other documentation and knowledge generated by the project throughout its implementation. These include scientific publications, project reports, and field visit observations and conversations with partners.In the below sections, basic information is provided for each of the four CASS agribusiness cases, followed by a scalability analysis based on data collected through the phone interviews. In this agribusiness model, the INGABO-established private company negotiates agribusiness arrangements with individual and cooperative seed multipliers that would have seed multipliers multiply seed and INGABO markets it. Through these arrangements, INGABO would market the seed and get commissions for its services while seed multipliers would benefit from increased market opportunities as well as less investments in marketing the seed. Since INGABO has existing good working relationship with farmers (including seed multipliers) and is known as an advocate for them, this was expected to enable the initial negotiations. Other stakeholders such as financial institutions and processors were expected to be involved as their services would be needed to finance and create more agribusiness opportunities, respectively. Partners involved Eight key-informants were interviewed in February and March 2022. They included representatives of farmers and farmer cooperatives/ syndicate (4), research organizations (2) and NGOs (2). Based on their views and perspectives, the following analysis can be provided:Current development stage of the cassava seed agribusiness case is perceived to be not ready for scaling. None of the respondents indicated that the model is proven to work, but is still in ideation (12%), design (25%) or testing stage (63%) (below left graph).Interviewees have mixed opinions about whether agribusiness case development will continue beyond the CASS project. 24% Thinks it is (very) unlikely that the case development will continue, and 38% thinks it is likely that case development will continue. Another 38% is not sure. None of the interviewees is fully convinced that agribusiness case development will continue beyond the CASS project (above right graph).Key-informants are of the opinion that the model is not operational and mainly used by/ within the project. This implies that we do not yet see other non-CASS project organizations copying or using the private company led agribusiness model (below left graph). The majority of key-informants is either not sure (43%) or think the agribusiness case is unlikely to expand (29%) beyond the CASS project. The remaining 28% is a bit more optimistic about the likelihood of the case to continue or grow after the CASS project (above right graph). Key respondents generally feel that within the agribusiness case, equal opportunities are created for male and female farmers, for young and old farmers, and for subsistence-and market-oriented farmers. There are no immediate concerns about gender, age or other types of inequalities in relation to scaling the agribusiness model.One key-informant mentioned a potential risk in when cassava seed would be traded, poor farmers may not have access to clean seed. This is in line with findings by Kilwinger et al., (2021) who concluded that commercial-oriented farmers have better access to formal seed sources compared to subsistence-oriented farmers.The dominant majority of respondents feels that government will play an important role in scaling this private company led agribusiness model. However, government would need to work in partnership with private sector and/or NGOs and development organizations. It seems that a public-private partnership model is most suitable. 50% of the respondents was unsure whether scaling partners would be willing/ able to invest their own resources in scaling the seed agribusiness model. 37.5% was more optimistic and could see partners invest their own resources.Other organizations that could be involved in further developing and scaling the agribusiness model include: Kinazi Cassava Plant would influence production and use of clean seed by motivating root producers to use clean seed of improved varieties. It was assumed that through its potential influence on producers as the biggest buyer of roots, Kinazi Cassava Plant can motivate producers, through price incentive or other means, to acquire and use cassava clean seed. The clean seed can be acquired from private seed multipliers or produced by producer cooperatives. Once Kinazi Cassava Plant understands and accepts the role it can play to help its root suppliers to achieve better yields and become more resilient to disease outbreaks through use of clean seed, it is believed that it has the capacity to do it. This agribusiness model was designed to engage Kinazi Cassava Plant and its partners to achieve this goal. Partners involved Six key-informants were interviewed in February and March 2022. They included representatives of farmers and farmer cooperatives (2), research organizations (2) and NGOs (2). Based on their views and perspectives, the following analysis can be provided:The current development stage of the cassava seed agribusiness case is perceived to be not ready for scaling. None of the respondents indicated that the model is proven to work. Rather, the model is being designed, tested and improved according to the key-informants (below left graph).Interviewees are quite optimistic that the agribusiness case development will continue beyond the CASS project (above right graph). Again, the informants are optimistic about the likelihood that cassava seed agribusiness case use would increase beyond the CASS project (above right graph).Respondents generally feel that within the agribusiness case, equal opportunities are created for male and female farmers and for young and old farmers. Two respondents feel that the model may benefit market-oriented farmers more than subsistence-oriented farm households. The cassava seed business model is not being used in practiceThe cassava seed business model is used by organisations involved in the CASS projectThe cassava seed business model is being used by a few non-CASS organisationsThe cassava seed business model is being used by many non-CASS organisationsMost respondents feels that government will play an important role in scaling this agribusiness model, in partnership with the Kinazi Cassava Plant and NGOs/ development organizations. It seems that a public-private partnership model is most suitable. 66.6% of the respondents were unsure whether scaling partners would be willing/ able to invest their own resources in scaling the seed agribusiness model. 33.3% was more optimistic and could see partners invest their own resources.Other organizations that could be involved in further developing and scaling of the agribusiness model include: There is no sufficient capacity for early Generation seed production at the cooperative/farmer level An additional challenge could be that farmers interests would be more directed to root production than seed in the future.According to the majority of the respondents there is no long-term strategy or plan on how to sustain the cassava seed agribusiness model beyond the lifetime of the CASS project. Such a strategy should be co-created with the Kinazi Cassava Plant, seed multipliers and regulatory authorities.The interviewees identified the following key next steps for the agribusiness case:• Validating the model because we are yet to know the viability; KIAI is a cooperative of 72 members (24 women) located in Gatsibo district. Although they operate a small-scale processing machine, their processing capacity is enough for the flour market they currently have. The quality of flour is not very good, but it is better than other locally produced flours, mostly home-made. However, their flour price is also much higher than that of other -locally or home-made -flours. The packaging capacity is low, making their flour not appealing and not proving the difference in price. KIAI usually encourages members and other farmers to grow cassava which it buys from them and processes.The coop also provides technical information for root production to producers. The assumption with this agribusiness model, and KIAI as an agribusiness case, was that the cooperative would be engaged and strengthened in terms of management to play a role in introduction of new varieties, (clean) seed multiplication and use by members. This would also result in better storage root yields and supply for processing. Partners involvedSeven key-informants were interviewed in February and March 2022. They included representatives of farmers and farmer cooperatives (2), research organizations (2), government (1) and NGOs (2). Based on their views and perspectives, the following analysis can be provided:Current development stage of the cassava seed agribusiness case is perceived to be not ready for scaling. None of the respondents indicated that the model is proven to work but is still under design (14%) or testing stage (86%) (below left graph).Interviewees are rather optimistic about whether agribusiness case development will continue beyond the CASS project. 57% thinks it is likely that the agribusiness case development will continue compared to 14% who believe it is unlikely that agribusiness case development will continue. 29% is unsure (above right graph). The majority of key-informants are not sure the agribusiness case use would continue or increase beyond the CASS project. Two informants expect use to increase whereas one informant thinks this scenario is unlikely to happen (above right graph).Respondents generally feel that within the agribusiness case, equal opportunities are created for male and female farmers, for young and old farmers and for market-subsistence-and market-oriented farm households. No real equality issues are foreseen when scaling this processor-led agribusiness model.Most respondents feel that NGOs or development organizations will play an important role in scaling this agribusiness model. Partnerships with government and/or private sector are proposed a model in fewer cases. Respondents were unsure whether scaling partners would be willing or able to invest their own resources in scaling the seed agribusiness model, though 2 out of the 7 respondents believe this is a realistic scenario.Other organizations that could be involved in further developing and scaling the agribusiness model include: The cassava seed business model is not being used in practiceThe cassava seed business model is used by organisations involved in the CASS projectThe cassava seed business model is being used by a few non-CASS organisationsThe cassava seed business model is being used by many non-CASS organisations Opportunities Risks Potential cassava production and market in the area (Assuming it worked) insufficient market for products; poor conditions for cassava production There are many small-scale cassava processors in the country Limited market for clean cassava seed Job creation to many people; wealth creation; resilience to cassava diseases Limited market for cassava flour Farmers would get increased incomes; international market can be exploited Complicated management (member based) which delays decision making; management issues They had a big market share for cassava flour before, so, they can regain it; the current cooperative management is good and strong Root production may surpass the coop capacity to process which may disturb the agribusiness model altogether Members are the first market for seed and other products; easy dissemination of information Cooperative is based around root market and members are seed market According to the respondents there is no long-term strategy or plan on how to sustain the cassava seed agribusiness model beyond the lifetime of the CASS project. This creates the risk that the ongoing investments by the CASS project will come to a standstill when the project stops.The interviewees identified the following key next steps for the agribusiness case: Eight key-informants were interviewed in February and March 2022. They included representatives of farmers and farmer cooperatives (4), research organizations (2) and NGOs (2). Based on their views and perspectives, the following analysis can be provided:The majority of key-informants see this model as still being under testing and improvement (87%), with one informant convinced that the model is already proven to work (13%) (below left graph).Key-informants are very positive about the likelihood of continued agribusiness development, with 62% being optimistic that case development will continue beyond the CASS project (above right graph). Current use of the cassava seed agribusiness case is mainly benefitting CASS project partners. One informant believed this agribusiness case is already benefitting organizations that are not part of the project (below left graph).The likelihood that cassava seed agribusiness case use would increase beyond the CASS project is relatively high according to 75% of the key-informants. The remaining 25% is unsure whether expansion would actually happen beyond the project (above right graph).Respondents generally feel that within the agribusiness case, equal opportunities are created for male and female farmers, for young and old farmers and for market-subsistence-and market-oriented farm households. No real equality issues are foreseen when scaling this agribusiness model.Additional responsible scaling issues mentioned:• Seed market reduces when you grow and scale (competition);• In case of absent control of quality, they can spread disease in the community. The cassava seed business model is not being used in practiceThe cassava seed business model is used by organisations involved in the CASS projectThe cassava seed business model is being used by a few non-CASS organisationsThe cassava seed business model is being used by many non-CASS organisationsInsufficient post-harvest technologies and value addition which would all improve root market as well as seed marketThe agribusiness model is region specific, testing and adapting it to new location is very important Majority farmers are cassava growers; open to entrepreneurs outside the cooperative Limited market for cassava roots which influence seed market New improved varieties like NAROCASS; availability of market such as Kinazi Cassava Plant and schools for sweet varieties Lack of/ limited seed market Members are seed producers and seed market According to most of the respondents there is no long-term strategy or plan on how to sustain the cassava seed agribusiness model beyond the CASS project.The interviewees identified the following key next steps for the agribusiness case:• Validating it for longer to see whether or not it is viable; In line with Kilwinger et al. (2021), we would like to reiterate different types of seed agribusiness models are required to provide clean cassava seed to different groups (types/categories) of farmers. Therefore, the objective should not be to identify one best model, but to explore what combination of cassava seed agribusiness models is most likely to deliver clean seed and combat cassava pest and diseases at scale. Careful coordination is needed to ensure that one approach or intervention does not contrast with and/or undermine the others.When critically reviewing the key-informant assessment of the agribusiness models and cases, we can draw the following conclusions:1. None of the agribusiness cases/ models are currently ready for scaling According to the majority of the key-informants, all CASS Rwanda agribusiness models need further design, testing and validation. None of the models is currently ready for scaling. This implies that further research/ development investment is needed to improve or finetune the models before investments in scaling should be considered.According to the key-informants, the current use of the agribusiness models is limited to the CASS project partners. We do not yet see other partners or organizations using or replicating the model. This is quite normal given the fact that the models are still being tested and validated.cases Key-informants have varied opinions about the likelihood that agribusiness model and case development will continue beyond the CASS project. They seem to be a bit more optimistic about the continued development of the processor-led and community entrepreneur-led agribusiness models.There is a general absence of long-term strategies or plans on how to sustain the cassava seed agribusiness model (development) beyond the CASS project. For those agribusiness models and cases where there is no clear strategy or plan, the CASS project should develop an exitstrategy that provides clarity and manages expectations among key public and private stakeholders.Key-informants have no major concerns with regards to potential inequalities that scaling the cassava seed agribusiness models could create. Key-informants mentioned that the Kinazi Cassava Plant processor-led agribusiness model is likely to benefit commercially-oriented farmers' more than subsistence-oriented farmers. Continuous monitoring of responsible agribusiness case/ model development and scaling should be a priority.In scaling the agribusiness models, government, private sector and NGOs are expected to play a role. It is quite remarkable that a number of key-informants sees government playing a key role in scaling the private-and processor-led agribusiness models. In most cases, publicprivate partnership will be needed to address the various issues related to scaling cassava seed agribusiness models (e.g. certification, market creation, multiplication, capacity development, etc.).The \"what's in it for me\" needs to be clarified for key stakeholders Key-informants find it unlikely that scaling partners will invest their own resources in scaling the agribusiness model development and scaling. This implies that key stakeholders currently do not see sufficient benefits in investing, which is problematic. The \"why should we invest our company, project or government resources in this?\" needs to be clear.From the identified risks and opportunities, we were able to identify a number of crosscutting bottlenecks for developing and scaling cassava agribusiness seed system models in Rwanda:Several key-informants mentioned that developing the cassava seed sector requires continuous investment in the overall cassava sector, which includes making the sector more climate resilient, improving crop management, market development, etc. The Rwandan government could incentivize and promote investment in the cassava sector in a continuous manner, not only during crises.Currently, incentives for farmers to invest in clean cassava seed are insufficient. There are no 'push' mechanisms (e.g. policies, subsidies or other incentive mechanisms) that stimulate farmers to regenerate their cassava seed regularly, and there are also no 'pull' mechanisms (e.g. incentives emerging through the cassava root market) that motivate farmers and multipliers to invest in having and using clean seed. Lessons learned from other countries show that 'pull' mechanism often emerge from having a stable and profitable market for cassava products.Key-informants identified key capacity gaps that hamper the development of a cassava clean seed sector. Capacity gaps include limited understanding of how cassava seed degeneration influences productivity and pest and disease pressure, need for collective action to reduce pest and diseases, efficient seed multiplier cooperative management and growing cassava as agribusiness which includes having access to new cassava varieties and novel agronomic practices.In line with the conclusion that scaling most of the agribusiness models would require publicprivate partnerships, there is a need among stakeholders to agree on roles and responsibilities. It was quite concerning to read that key-informants believe government should play a lead role in scaling private company led agribusiness models. Government should definitely play a role, but the private partner should be leading. A potential role division for different stakeholder groups could look as follows:• Government: seed certification, create (tax) incentives, enabling policy environment, incentivize cassava market development. Depending on the specific agribusiness model, these stakeholder roles and responsibilities should be specified. Roles and responsibilities should align with the key mandates and interests of the different organizations. This will have the highest change of success.1. Distinguish between scaling within the agribusiness cases, and scaling the agribusiness models During the interviews with the key-informants, scalability was often perceived to be sustaining the agribusiness cases (beyond the CASS project), or increasing seed production within the agribusiness case. This is only one dimension of scaling; focused on increasing the direct seed production capacity or direct seed market for those who multiply the seed. However, real impact at scale can be achieved through scaling the models rather than scaling within the specific agribusiness cases. Scaling the agribusiness models implies going from having 1 seed multiplication cooperative to having 50 of those cooperatives, or supporting the entrepreneur led model in 100 communities rather than 1 community. Here new challenges and risks will emerge, such as inter-cooperative or -community multiplier competition, market saturation, etc. Business case stakeholders may not always be interested in supporting the scaling as it may go against their direct agribusiness interest (e.g. scarce product/ high demand drives up seed market prices).The most important thing is to first ensure that the aspired agribusiness model shows sufficient potential (does it work and can it sustain itself under the current conditions), before considering such a model to be scaled. Some models may be difficult to scale, due to the unique features of model or partners involved. The processor led model set up around the Kinazi Cassava Plant is quite unique in the sense that there are no comparable plants that operate in a same way or at the same scale as Kinazi.In order to manage expectations it is important to either develop longer-term strategies for seed agribusiness model/ case development and scaling (for those that show sufficient potential) or exit strategies (for those that show insufficient potential). It is extremely important that the agribusiness case stakeholders have clarity about what kind of support they can still expect (or not) from the CASS project team.As most of the models are not ready for scaling and are still undergoing testing and validation, we would recommend the following next steps:• Step 1: Decide which models show sufficient potential to further develop. Keep in mind that models should be able to sustain themselves on the long-term (without an external project support) • Step 2: Co-create concept notes to ensure a joint vision on next steps and division of roles and responsibilities among CASS partners and agribusiness case stakeholders • Step 3: Mobilize funding to conclude testing and validation to find out whether the model could work in uncontrolled conditions (again this means without external project support)There is an overall lack of willingness to pay/ invest in clean cassava seed. This is not limited to farmers, but also applies to government and private processors. For the successful expansion of clean seed use in Rwanda, it is essential to understand the existing barriers that different stakeholder groups experience for investing in clean seed, and what could lift such barriers. For government this could focus on exploring how investments in clean cassava seed could reduce cassava import, earn foreign currencies, improve food security and income for smallholder farmers. For private sector this could focus on exploring how investments in clean cassava seed could improve productivity, reduce losses due to pest and diseases, or provide access to premium markets. For private sector and cooperatives this could focus on market analyses and return on investment projections. There is a need to go beyond concluding that there is unwillingness to pay or invest, towards exploring what could trigger such willingness.Research could play an important role in doing this.There is an overall concern of whether key agribusiness case stakeholders are able to invest their own resources in continuing agribusiness case development and use. In addition, there is not a lot of optimism with regards to scaling partners being able to invest their own resources in scaling the agribusiness models. In terms of ownership and sustainability, it is extremely important that scaling partners co-invest in projects or initiatives aimed at scaling the models. When co-investing there is a higher likelihood that model development is to align with their strategic needs and interest (e.g. that there are profitable), which increases the scalability potential. Co-investment may be in-kind (e.g. providing staff capacity and land), but preferably are complemented by in-cash investments as well. Cash investments usually trigger internal \"what is in it for us?\" or \"why should we invest our scarce resources in this?\" discussions which are essential for developing models that can provide actual benefit and can sustain beyond project investment. Here again, research could support foresight analysis and ex-ante assessments of projected benefits for different public and private stakeholders if the model would be used at scale.","tokenCount":"5092"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"87052d81153004681025f88186ca6ef8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/070bcc7c-ba70-4807-bd34-d51315cc8784/retrieve","id":"237828088"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d95195fb-9f7d-4d87-b0c1-705c71fb9486","pagecount":"2","content":"Once manuscripts have been accepted by a journal, publishers require authors to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement. Under ILRI contracts, the intellectual property of information products written by ILRI staff belongs to ILRI. Therefore, any agreements MUST be signed on behalf of ILRI by the Legal Counsel.Increasingly, publishers will publish our products with open licenses and such options should be negotiated (and paid for if required; most donors allow us to budget such costs into projects).For books, many publishers recognize that we want to make the full digital product open access through our repository six months after publication, especially where we agree to 'buy back' an agreed number of print copies. This can be negotiated at contract stage and cleared with the Legal Counsel.Where publishers are reluctant to publish open access, CGIAR recommends that authors use an Author Addendum to ensure we retain key rights to deposit and re-use.As soon as the peer review process has concluded and your article manuscript has been finalized, deposit a copy of the manuscript into CGSpace-ILRI's information products repository.➢ Share Promote your published products; use consistent, permanent DOI and CGSpace HANDLE addresses to facilitate discovery and help track attention and citations.Under the terms of CGIAR and ILRI polices on open access, \"Best efforts\" shall be used to make all information products-including journal articles, books and chapters-open access, \"subject always to the legal rights and legitimate interests of stakeholders and third parties, including intellectual property rights, confidentiality, sensitivity, farmers' rights and privacy.\"➢ Peer-reviewed journal articles Should be deposited in a suitable repository and made open access as soon as possible, ideally at the time of publication, and no later than 6 months from the date of publication. Where an author publishes in a closed access journal, he/she shall selfarchive in an Open Access repository a digital version of the final accepted manuscript (the \"postprint\" version).The full digital version of books and book chapters shall be made open access as soon as possible after publication and in any event within 6 months either through self-archiving or other suitable publication arrangements. Some investors, BMGF for instance, require us to comply with global access provisions and our open access policies are designed to facilitate this.","tokenCount":"367"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8464b9093f750742307e3456a95017f3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1802a59-8f59-4144-ac02-e8ab429dc275/retrieve","id":"1902000179"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0dd610af-c4b4-4440-be23-e7acc0d1f532","pagecount":"4","content":"La agrobiodiversidad ofrece una serie de servicios que pueden reducir los impactos adversos de las sequías y las plagas. La agrobiodiversidad esta compuesta por las diferentes variedades (incluyendo variedades tradicionales y cultivares) de los cultivos que resultan de la interacción entre las condiciones biofísicas (ej. ecosistemas más húmedos o secos) y condiciones sociales (ej. conocimiento de los agricultores y agricultoras) (Zimmerer et al. 2019). En este sentido, es crítico enfatizar el rol de las guardianas y los guardianes de semillas en la conservación, intercambio y uso de la agrobiodiversidad. Algunos de los servicios que brinda la agrobiodiversidad para reducir los impactos adversos de las sequías y las plagas son (Garbach et al. 2014):• Ser fuentes de genes de resistencia o tolerancia • Controlar plagas y enfermedades • Regular el clima • Purificar del agua Aunque se han identificado algunas funciones clave de la agrobiodiversidad, muchas de sus dinámicas e interrelaciones complejas siguen sin estar completamente comprendidas.Figura 1. Variación temporal de la sequía en Ecuador y Perú en los últimos 30 años. Estos mapas usan el índice SPEI que está basado en la precipitación y evapotranspiración potencial (Beguería et al. 2024). La gradiente de color muestra si el lugar en el mapa fue más seco (con colores más rojizos) o más húmedo (con colores más azules). Dependiendo del tipo de sequía y el momento en el que ocurran, estas pueden causar diversos impactos negativos en las condiciones de vida de las poblaciones rural-urbanas (Figura 2). En la producción agrícola, se espera que las plagas ataquen más intensamente y se adapten a nuevos ecosistemas. Por ejemplo, se espera que las condiciones de sequía favorezcan la proliferación del gusano blanco o gorgojo de los Andes (Premnotrypes sp.) y, en consecuencia, incrementar el daño en el cultivo de papa (Solanum sp.). La sequía, además, puede causar perdidas totales o parciales en la producción, y también la reducción de la diversidad asociada como la de los polinizadores (Figura 2). Más allá del impacto en la actividad agrícola, las sequías pueden causar inseguridad alimentaria, incremento en la volatilidad de los precios de los alimentos, cambios en las dietas de las comunidades, y reducción del agua de riego, entre otros (Figura 2). Lo primero que se necesita hacer es la caracterización de la agrobiodiversidad. Esto quiere decir conocer las características que tienen las diferentes variedades (incluyendo razas y cultivares) de los cultivos. En los Andes, por ejemplo, conocemos qué de las más de 3000 variedades de papa, algunas son más tolerantes a la falta de agua que otras. La mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) es un excelente ejemplo, ya que se ha demostrado su uso eficaz en el manejo tradicional del gorgojo de los Andes. Sin embargo, se desconoce si todas las variedades de mashua tienen un efecto similar sobre esta plaga o si existe variación entre ellas. Así, la caracterización permite identificar variedades, conocerlas mejor y saber cómo conservarlas y utilizarlas. Conociendo las características de la agrobiodiversidad se puede:• Apoyar la visibilización de los derechos de los agricultores y agricultoras para garantizar que puedan conservar y utilizar la agrobiodiversidad de manera libre y sostenible, particularmente en situaciones de sequías y emergencia de plagas.• Apoyar a diseñar mecanismos concretos para compartir beneficios que permitan a los agricultores y agricultoras ser más resilientes a sequías y plagas.• Reducción en el agua de riego • Reducción del agua para consumo del hogar • Conflicto sobre manejo de los recursos hídricos Figura 2. Ejemplos de impactos de las sequías en los sistemas alimentarios","tokenCount":"581"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d65f974d712b4c74bbf43e90a60d85bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a4fd1c97-343d-4ee7-b091-1de0cc89886a/content","id":"879568311"},"keywords":["Wheats","Plant production","Production factors","Fannmanagement","Cultivation","Crop management","Cropping systems","Sustainability","Sowing",",Conservation tillage","Zero tillage","Green manures","Crop residues","Fertilizer application","Application rates","Soil improvement","Pest control","Disease control","Weed control","Yields","Small fanns","Technology transfer","Innovation adoption","Trends","Forecasting","Research projects","Developing countries Bed planting","CIMMYT AGRIS category codes: F01 Crop Husbandry F07 Soil Cultivation Dewey decimal classification: 633.115"],"sieverID":"be46f296-b9a9-4ddb-b42d-8316accf0d04","pagecount":"42","content":"CIMMYT is an internationally funded. nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGlAR comprises over 50 partner countries. international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Financial support for CIMMYT's research agenda currently comes from many sources, including governments and agencies of Australia., ';-~'.The implementation of conservation tillage practices is widely considered to be essentiat,tp the maiht~J:l,~~,restoration, and/or improvement of the sustainable productivity base!'~f:~~~i~ble crop production systems. This is certainly true for highly erodable hillside areas under annual crop production and for other potentially fragile cropping systems where soil physical, chemical, and biological parameters appear to be deteriorating (phillips and Phillips 1984).There are nearly as many definitions of conservation tillage in the literature as there are scientists who are involved in tillage research. For the purpose of this paper, conservation tillage is broadly defined as a tillage system that leaves enough crop residue to adequately protect the soil from erosion throughout the year (Reeder 1992). Zero-tillage is a category ofconservation tillage in 'which the soil is left undisturbed fromthe harvest of one crop to the seeding of the next crop, with only slight soil disturbance associated with creating a narrow slot in which to place the seed (and in some cases, fertilizer) (Dickey 1992). Obviously this latter definition implies that crop residues are also managed to provide adequate erosion control.These definitions reflect the fact that most conservation tillage research and implementation have focused mainly on rainfed situations where crop residue retention to enhance both erosion control and moisture retention is of paramount importance. In cool, high rainfall, rainfed conditions, however, the retention of crop residue can aggravate stand establishment and facilitate disease development if the residues are not managed properly and/or if proper rotations are not followed.In contrast, the application of conservation tillage to irrigated cropping systems, especially those including wheat, has been very minor throughout the world, except for several small areas where sprinkle irrigation is used (Zimbabwe, for example). Where gravity-applied irrigation is practiced, there has been essentially no adoption of conservation/zero tillage for wheat in both developed and developing countries, even though approximately 42% of the wheat produced in developipg countries is irrigated largely by gravity irrigation delivery systems (CIMMYT 198~~fif,his i$;mainly due, in my opinion, to the belief by most researchers and fanners that ~ero tillage is mainly Ji practice to be implemented for erosion control and moisture conservation, which represenf minor problems in most irrigated production systems. In fact, the need for total or even partial retention of crop residues as a requirement to implement sound zero-tillage can be somewhat relaxed for most gravity-irrigated situations, since the potential role that crop residues will play will be less for erosion control and moisture conservation, and more for soil improvement.This paper gives most emphasis to characterizing zero-till planting systems and describes potential constraints to their adoption by small farmers. Suggestions to resolve these constraints are given, as well as a description of CIMMYT's efforts to develop a bed-planting system that provides unique opportunities to reduce tillage and manage crop residues in both rainfed and gravity-irrigated cropping systems.Characteristics and adoption of conservation tillage systems Phillips (1984) summarized a series of potential advantages of zero tillage planting sY~l~Ws~>,;>';~! listed in Table 1. Obviously the list is not complete but illustrates what most successful\" practitioners of zero-till have encountered: 1) erosion can be dramatically reduced when zero-till is combined with proper crop residue management; 2) moisture conservation is nonnally improved in low precipitation, rainfed conditions; 3) crop tum-around times are reduced; 4) soil characteristics are improved; and 5) in many cases, production costs are reduced.The same author summarized the potential disadvantages of zero tillage planting systems (Table 2) (Phillips 1984). Clearly the most important potential problem or disadvantage for fanners who shift from conventional to zero tillage planting involves possible changes in incidence and severity of weeds, insects, disease pathogens, and rodents; important as well is that farmers need to have an appreciation and understanding of\"knowledge-intensive\" solutions to make zero tillage work. The above authors did not mention ,another potential disadvantage of zero-till planting systems, which is the tendency for surface compaction to occur in some soils/cropping systems if controlled traffic lanes are not used to restrict machinery traffic in the field (Bolaiios 1991).Table 3 indicates the steady increase in the adoption of conservation tillage in general and in the specific category of zero tillage for several countries and regions in 1990-1995 and gives an estimate for the year 2000. Table 4 presents estimates made in 1995 for the use of zero tillage in several countries and regions. Clearly the developing countries that have made great strides in the use of zero-tillage have been Brazil and Argentina,both characterized by having extensive areas of rather large-scale, mechanized agriculture. Recent estimates indicate that Brazil alone now has over 6 million ha under zero-till planting systems.The availability of data on the use of conservation or zero tillage by small farmers in developing countries is extremely limited. However, Wall (1998) provides estimates for the use of zero tillage by small fanners in several countries/regions which readily indicate the very low or essentially non-adoption of zero-till planting systems by these fanners. It is not clear, however, if these estimates include the traditional practice, still fairly commonly used by small farmers in Mexico and Central America, of dibble-planting maize and beans into untilled, sloping lands where crop and weed residues have been hand-chopped and left on the surface; or similarly, the traditional practice, used by small fanners in south Asia, who broadcast seeds of pulse and oilseed crops into the standing or recently harvested rice crop located in lowland, mainly rainfed, rice fields, using what must be the simplest zero-till planting system.CIMMYT, as well as many other national and international institutions, are now placing a high priority on developing appropriate conservation/zero tillage technologies to extend to small fanners. Table 6 provides a list of CIMMYT agronomists currently involved in this activity, their locations, and their addresses.Constraints to the adoption of zero-till by small wheat farmers Table 7 lists some major reasons for the lack of adoption of zero-till planting systems by small wheat-producing farnlers in developing countries. They are briefly discussed below.Lack of appropriate small-scale planters Probably the most crucial factor limiting small fa11l!er use of zero tillage is simply the lack of appropriate, small-scale planters (especially for wheat) that can be used with draft animals or small 2-or 4-wheel tractors. Such planters must be small, yet able to penetrate untilled soil to both place and cover the seed, usually through variable amounts of crop residues on the surface, and this causes difficult design issues. The requirements for zero-till planters suitable for row . planted crops like maize or soybean which have between-row spacings nonnally ranging from 60 100 em are more readily r~solved. Such prototype planters for use with draft aniInals have been developed in several countries. One such planter is being commercially manufactured and distributed in Brazil, where it is being used by increasing numbers of small farnlers to plant by zero tillage maize and soybean as well as other. row crops (Wall 1998).Progress in developing small-scale, zero-till wheat planters has been much slower, mainly because of the narrower row-spacings (10-30 .cm) used for wheat. Designing a small-scale planter that can plant several rows (at least 2-4) in one pass into untilled soil through surface residues and be pulled by draft animals has proven to be a challenge. Some attempts have been made to use the single-row zero-till planters described above to plant wheat but making multiple, close passes to obtain close-seeded rows of wheat has proven difficult, especially with draft animals.The University of Pantanagar, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, has made excellent progress in developing a small zero-till planter (planting 6-10 rows) that can be used with small horsepower, 4-wheel tractors but not, as yet, with draft animals. The planter has been used mainly to seed wheat zero-till following flooded rice under conditions where a long turnaround time for preparing land for wheat is common after harvest of the transplanted rice crop. Delay in planting wheat past the optimum date (around mid-November) in northwest India and Pakistan leads to dramatic yield reductions, as seen in Figure 1. Therefore the time that can be saved by planting wheat zero-till is of utmost importance in that region, as well as in south Asia and China, where the rice-wheat rotation is widely followed. Likewise, zero-till planting could be used to reduce turnaround time for wheat planted in rotation with other SUlluner crops such as cotton, soybean, and maize in the same region.The main drawback of the Patanagar zero-till seeder is that, as currently designed, it cannot handle seeding into high levels of crop residues (most fanners currently remove almost all the rice straw) but simple modifications can be made to allow zero-till planting into residues. The planter's soil opener design (based on the inverted T shank) and seed and fertilizer delivery system could serve as models for smaller zero-till planters that could be used with 2-wheel tractors or draft animals.Researchers in several countries of south Asia have also been developing technologies for \"surface seeding\" wheat. Surface seeding is similar to the previously. described practice (common in the region) of relay-planting pulses or oilseeds into the standing rice crop. Pre-genninated wheat seed is broadcast into rice soon before or just after the rice harvest. The technique works best on finely textured soils when soil moisture content is near saturation but there is no standing water. Farmer field trials using surface seeding in Nepal have clearly demonstrated dramatic reductions in wheat production costs, increased wheat yields, and better wheat quality. This is the result of planting 15-25 days earlier, which is possible with surface seeding because it eliminates the need to wait for the soils to dry-down sufficiently to permit tillage and subsequent planting (Hobbs et al. 1997).Another innovation in south Asia is the work being done by CIMMYT scientists Peter Hobbs and Scott Justice in Nepal and Craig Meisner in Bangladesh (see Table 6), along with their national program colleagues, to adapt the versatile 2-wheel Chinese tractor for either zero-till or one-pass reduced-till planting of wheat after rice (Hobbs et a/; 1997). The potential role that these low-cost, 2-wheel tractors may have for small farmers in developing countries for tilling, planting, hauling, pumping water, driving small threshers, etc., is tremendous, and explains their rapid adoption outside of China, in Bangladesh and Nepal. The 2-wheel Chinese tractor should be evaluated with small fanners in many other developing countries as a potential \"next-step technology\" to provide a more direct avenue to implement conservation/zero tillage as well as to improve labor-use efficiency.There are several, somewhat contrasting constraints associated with crop residue management that inhibit small fanner adoption of zero tillage planting systems.First, in many cases, sufficient crop residues are not left on the soil surface. Many small fanners remove all crop residues for either animal fodder and/or fuel. Furthennore, in many dryland, non irrigated areas where rainfall is low and quite variable, the total amount of crop residues at harvest may be very reduced and variable (perhaps too little to provide adequate ground cover) because of the direct association between residue yields and low crop yields. In most situations, farmers who convert to zero tillage, but continue to remove crop residues for feed/fuel or obtain very low residue yields, will usually produce lower yields than with conventional tillage practices. This is especially true in low rainfall, dryland areas or where conditions are conducive to severe wind or water erosion.This premise is fully supported by the results of a long-tenn trial being conducted under rainfed conditions at EI Batan, Mexico (CIMMYT Headquarters), in which wheat and maize are grown continuously as monocrops or in rotation (one crop per year), with zero or conventional tillage and with all residues retained or removed.Table 8 presents the wheat and maize yields for the various treatment combinations used in this trial averaged over the 1996 and 1997 crop cycles (see Appendix 1 for individual crop cycle yields and the ANOVA over both crop cycles for both crops). It appears obvious that for either continuous or rotated maize or wheat, when zero tillage was used combined with crop residue removal, yields were consistently lower than when residue was retained. Furthennore, in most cases, the zero-till yields for either crop-regardless of rotation-were also lower than when conventional tillage with residue removal was practiced (this is more clearly illustrated by the residue management/tillage means given in Table 9).A good rule of thumb is that zero-tillage should probably not be implemented if it is not possible to maintain sufficient residues for adequate ground cover, especially under erosion-prone, low but-intense-rainfall, dryland conditions. However, much research is needed to detennine adequate or \"threshhold\" levels of residues for each soil, topographic, climatic, and cropping system situation. For example, can small famlers remove the top part of the maize plant (from just below the ear) or cut wheat to a certain stubble height to provide a substantial part of their fodder requirement yet leave enough residue in the field for satisfactory zero-till planting? Answers to such questions are needed to provide guidelines to small farmers for prope~ implementation of zero tillage practices.Second, in most irrigated high-yield environments (and for many high rainfall, rainfed conditions), a contrasting situation is often the case: too much crop residue is produced, which may lead to zero-till management problems. This has been one of the prime factors inhibiting the use of zero tillage with residue retention in surface-irrigated, wheat-~ased cropping systems, except where most residues are physically removed for fodder or other purposes, or burned (if no economical use of the residues is available). Residue removal is currently practiced by fanners using the Pantanagar zero-till planter in the rice-wheat rotation in India.Rice straw yields from high yielding, irrigated rice crops in south Asia can reach 6-10 t/ha; wheat straw yields can range between 5-9 t/ha. In the irrigated, wheat-maize rotation in the Yaqui Valley in the state of Sonora in northwest Mexico, wheat straw yields can reach 6-10 t/ha and maize stover yields 8-12 t/ha (Sayre and Moreno 1997). In all these cases, crop residue levels can cause problems in designing zero-till soil openers that could successfully: 1) pass through the field without plugging or dragging residue (especially for zero-till wheat planters with their nonnal, close row-spacing); 2) place the seed into the untilled soil at the proper depth without pushing uncut residue (called hairpinning) into the seed slot; and 3) achieve proper, unifonn seed coverage and optimum soil contact. In addition, under flood irrigation conditions, the presence of residue can dramatically interfere with the efficient movement of irrigation water through the field.Third, to facilitate an efficient, unifon11 zero-till planting operation, the retained crop residues must be chopped and unifonnly distributed. Large, mechanized fanners who have adopted zero till perfonn these activities by attaching to their combines straw choppers that both chop and spread the residue or by using tractor, PTO-powered flail or rotary choppers after harvest. These options are largely beyond the reach of most small fanners, especially those who hand-harvest (wheat, for example) and remove the bundles from the field to be threshed elsewhere or even those who harvest in the field (maize, for example) and leave all or part of the residues in situ.The first situation is probably the most difficult to resolve. If the fanner hand-harvests and removes a major part of the crop residue to thresh the grain outside the field, the logical solution is to return the residue and distribute it evenly over the field. This is obviously labor intensive, and its feasibility may depend upon the fann-Ievel benefits that may be obtained from zero-till planting if the residue is returned to the field. Removing wheat straw at harvest and later returning it to the field (usually following composting) is commonly practiced by many small fanners in China to maintain soil productivity. Though in this case conventional tillage is used, the example illustrates that returning residue to the field, whether as compost for more sustainable production with conventional tillage or to provide adequate ground cover for zero-till, may be feasible for small-scale fanners.In the second situation, where the crop is harvested in the field by hand or machine and the residues are left in place, some method is needed for chopping the residue that preferably does not involve high-powered machinery. The Brazilians have developed a knife-roller (rolo-jaja in Brazil) that is being used by both small and large fanners. The knife-roller is made by placing an axle through a drum, allowing the dnlln to rotate, (the drum may be no more than a meter wide for small-scale models) and then filling the dnlln with sand (or even water, if the drum is well-sealed) to provide weight. Knife blades the width of the drum are attached at regular intervals around the drum. The blades cut the residues (length of cut is detennined by the space between the knife blades) as the dnnn is rolled, pulled through the field by draft animals or by 2-or 4-wheel tractors. The knife-roller can be readily made by local blacksmiths or machine shops and meets most requirements for implementation by small fanners.Finally, a common and frustrating situation is uncontrolled community grazing, where fanners simply release their livestock to graze freely throughout the surrounding area, especially during the dry off-season, in one-crop-per-year locations. Some fanners retain crop residues in their fields to enable them to implement effective zero-till planting only to find that their neighbors' livestock have grazed-off the residue.Fencing-in the fields is one solution, albeit usually expensive, often beyond the economic reach of small fanners and usually does not provide complete protection. Another solution is the organization of the community's commitment to control free-grazing with realistic and enforceable penalties against those who do not participate.Fertilizer management in zero tillage systems obviously varies over the myriad production systems in terms of which sources to apply and how, when, and where they should be applied to achieve the most efficient utilization. It is clear that nitrogen (usually the most widely used and most costly fertilizer, and the nutrient most easily subject to loss) requires the most attention by famlers practicing zero tillage and that it has received more research attention.Selecting the source of N fertilizer is important especially if surface broadcasting is to be used. The possibility of losses through volatization can be quite high when N fertilizer is surface broadcast into crop residues, especially if urea is used. Ammonium nitrate is a more appropriate source because it is not subject to volatization losses (Thomas and Frye .1984). In addition, when N fertilizer is surface broadcast into heavy layers of crop residue, surface microbes can tie up a substantial amount of the applied N for varying periods of time (Domitruk and Crabtree 1997).Most zero-till farmers prefer to apply a part or all of the N (and in some cases P and K) mechanically by band placement into the soil at planting, usually followed by a second application in the same manner when the applied N is divided. Band placement ofN into the soil through the residue can markedly improve N-use efficiency compared to surface broadcasting (Domitruk and Crabtree 1997). Band application at planting is feasible for essentially all crops including wheat when appropriate zero-till planters are available. However, the ability to both plant and band fertilizer introduces another design requirement that may constrain the development of small-scale zero-till planters for small fanners (especially for wheat). In addition, a second, mechanized, direct-band application in normal, narrow-row-spaced wheat is extremely difficult to do without damaging the crop. Therefore, farmers who want to produce zero-till wheat (both large-and small-scale) and who also want to do a second, split application ofN will likely need to rely on some manner of broadcast application. In those cases, fertilizer source and conditions at the time of application will be of utmost importance to enhance N-uptake efficiency.The management of P and K as well as other, less mobile nutrients in zero-till planting systems is somewhat less complex than managing Nand S, which are more mobile and more easily lost through improper management. Surface broadcasting of low-mobile nutrients like P and K can result in their stratification, over time, near the soil surface. This may not be a problem except when the surface soil layer where they are concentrated becomes so dry that active uptake by .. roots is inhibited (Domitruk and Crabtree 1997). The most efficient way to manage the lessmobile nutrients in most situations may also be by direct band placement near the seed at planting, but this may further complicate designing small-scale, zero-till wheat planters.Finally, there has been very little research on how to efficiently manage sources of farmyard manure in zero-till systems. A trial with irrigated wheat planted using zero-till on pennanent beds was conducted at the CIANO experiment station in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico, during the 1995/96 crop cycle. One of the treatments was chicken manure broadcast on the soil surface just prior to planting to provide 180 kg N/ha. Other treatments involved different rates of N applied just prior to planting as surface-applied urea for comparison. The treatment receiving the 180 kg Nlha as chicken manure yielded 5110 kg/ha and the treatment that received 150 kg N/ha as urea yielded 5500, indicating that N:-use efficiency with the manure treatment was only slightly less than with urea.Potential weed, disease, and insect problems Most zero-till practitioners have discovered that the key to minimizing potential problems associated with weeds, diseases, and insects is crop rotation. In the case of diseases and insects, this means primarily crop rotation using varieties with disease or insect resistance, if available. Minimizing weed problems also implies using crop rotations and, in addition, rotating herbicides associated with normal weed control for the different rotated crops as well as the conscious use of different herbicides, over time, on any given crop in the rotation. The fact that most zero-till systems rely more heavily on chemical weed control than many conventional tillage systems may hinder small farmer adoption, given the problems associated with herbicide costs and availability, the scarcity of and cost of application equipment, and the potential lack of proper application knowledge and infonnation (Domitruk and Crabtree 1997).Obviously, the importance of crop rotations in most crop production systems is well known, regardless of tillage practice; however, since the retained crop residues required for most zero-till systems can harbor diseases and insects that may use them as a bridge from one crop cycle to the next, crop rotations are essential for most zero-till environments.Farmers in Brazil currently plant more than 6 million ha by zero-till. However, very early on they realized they could not practice the common soybean-wheat or maize-wheat rotations with zero tillage that had been used for so many years with conventional tillage (and which had led to severe erosion). The soybean-wheat rotation did not provide enough durable crop residues, especially after soybeans grown during the hot, humid summer, to control erosion during the following, cooler season. Maize or sorghum had to be included in the rotation (with the grain harvested) but also to provide a better source of crop residues more resistant to rapid breakdown. In some cases, cover crops like black oats (Avena strigosa) were added to the rotation, purely to be chopped soon after heading and left on the surface as grolmd cover (Fernandes et al. 1991).The wheat-maize rotation under zero-tillage provided sufficient residue for ground cover to guard against erosion in most cases, but these same residues led to extensive foliar blights in wheat and• Fusarium problems in both maize and wheat. Additional rotation crops including soybean, canola (Brassica sp.), and black oats were added to help reduce disease carryover by the surfaceexposed maize and wheat residues (Fernandes et al. 1991).Ifmodifying the crop rotation is essential to minimize the negative impact of weeds, diseases, and insects caused by changing to zero-till systems, any factor (economic or otherwise) that interferes with this crop diversification will almost certainly constrain the adoption of zero-tillage by both small-and large-scale fanners. In different parts of the world, fanners have recently shifted to zero-till planting with residue retention yet have continued to grow maize and small '\\ grains in rotation. The problems associated with Fusarium in all crops have led to tremendous economic losses and farmer disappointment with zero-till.The previous sections of this paper have attempted to emphasize the potential benefits of conservation/zero tillage systems and yet not overlook the obvious constraints inhibiting adoption by small fanners. Specific factors believed to hinder adoption by small fanners have been presented along with some suggested solutions. Without a doubt, modem zero tillage is primarily a mechanized technology for large-scale farmers and could remain so if innovative . thinking and •actions are not brought forward. We may be somewhat short-sighted if we simply rely on ttempts to \"scale-down\" what large, zero-till fanners are now doing, although their experie ces and equipment designs certainly will be (and already are) useful in many cases. Howev r, small-scale producers, especially of wheat, who use zero tillage are still few and far betwee .To addr ss this issue, about seven years ago the CIMMYT wheat agronomy group initiated researc to determine whether planting wheat on permanent beds might offer new, alternative approac es to solve some of the constraints that hinder small fanner adoption of conservation tillage actices.Plantin wheat (and other crops, for that matter) on beds with conventional tillage is not new in areas were surface irrigation using the furrows between the beds to deliver irrigation water is practic d. For row crops such as maize, cotton, sorghum or soybeans, usually one row of the crop is Ianted on the top center of each bed. However. in these areas wheat is nonnally planted by drill ng or broadcasting the seed on the flat, tilled soil followed by fonnation of the furrows (usuall 70-100 em apart) for subsequent irrigation.Wheat lanting on beds, however, has been dramatically changed by researchers and fanners in northw st Mexico over the past 20 years. Farmers in this irrigated region plant wheat on beds prepare before or at planting that are 70-100 cm wide (from center bed to center bed) by seeding 2-4 ro s on top of each bed spaced 15-30 cm apart. No wheat is planted in the furrows between the bed , which are used to apply irrigation water. The bed width chosen by fanners for wheat is compat ble with the requirements for other crops in their rotations (mainly maize, cotton, safflo r. sorghum, and soybean) to ensure machinery compatibility between crops (Sayre and Moren 1997). The innovative placement of a defined number of rows of wheat on top of the beds c mbined with the fact that over 90% of the farmers in the region have adopted the system stimul ed the current effort at CIMMYT aimed at investigating the potential for bed-planting system to extend to other parts of the world.Figure summarizes our current thinking on the possible uses of bed-planting systems. Though most f: nners in northwest Mexico who plant on beds use irrigation and conventional tillage, our researc has clearly shown that bed-planting of wheat and other crops can be applied in rainfed conditions and can provide opportunities to reduce tillage dramatically through the use of permanent beds. Emphasis here will be on discussing the use of penllanent beds for either rainfed or irrigated conditions.One fact that has been constant throughout our work on bed-planting wheat is that not all available wheat varieties will perfonn well on beds. Some varieties may perfonll very well when planted conventionally in narrow rows on the flat, but not on beds. Other varieties perfonn well under both planting systems. Table 10 presents the results of a trial carried out under irrigation in northwest Mexico with eight bread wheat varieties that clearly illustrates this. A crucial first step in initiating research on bed-planting wheat is to test a wide spectnl1n of varieties with differing heights, tillering abilities, phenologies, and canopy architectures. Close cooperation between wheat breeders and agronomists to jointly identify and understand the proper plant type needed for optimum perfonnance on beds is highly recommended.Table 11 presents a list of potential advantages of pennanent bed-planting that includes both fanners' reasons for adopting beds (compiled from survey infonllation in Mexico) and observations from our research results. Most are self-explanatory. but some are discussed in more detail within a brief description of relevant results of our on-going research.Permanent beds are initiated using a conventional tillage that allows well-fonlled beds to be made and the initial crop planted. Subsequently, no additional tillage is used except to reshape the beds as required, by passing a winged-shovel in the furrow (usually before planting each crop but may be less often depending on crop and soil type). No tillage is made on the top of the bed except that associated with planting. If crop residues are chopped and retained. a cutting-disc may need to be placed ahead of the reshaping shovel to allow its free passage thro\"ugh the furrow without clogging with residue during the simple bed-reshaping process (this same equipment can be used for mechanical weed control when feasible).The appropriate bed width must be carefully determined, especially when pennanent beds are being established. Major considerations are: 1) compatibility for the various crops to be grown in rotation and 2) compatibility with planting and bed-reshaping equipment. We have found that keeping the bed width at 70-100 cm allows maximum flexibility for field access by famlers and makes the design of small scale planting and bed-reshaping equipment for use with draft animals or 2-wheel tractors more feasible. In our experience wider beds (1.5-2.5 m) are difficult to use . . with existing equipment for efficient planting and weed control. especially in small-scale applications.In 1992 a trial was initiated at CIMMYT's station in northwest Mexico to study the long-term effects of pennanent beds (with bed re-fonnation before planting each crop as the only tillage) for planting wheat and maize in rotation under irrigation. The trial included different crop residue and N management strategies.Table 12 presents the average wheat yields for the five crop cycles (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997). All pennanent bed treatments gave higher yields than conventional tillage (where beds were destroyed by tillage after harvest and remade-the common farmer practice) with best perfonnance where all crop residues were retained (although similar to the pennanent bed treatment with all residues burned). These results clearly show the potential for this system to finally provide fanners growing wheat under irrigation with a feasible technology to reduce tillage, retain crop residues, and still use gravity irrigation. in the furrows.This trial has provided infonnation to illustrate that several soil quality indicators have improved over the five-year period. Figure 3 compares the effect of tillage and crop residue management on soil aggregate size. Larger soil aggregate size usually indicates better soil physical status. The largest mean aggregate size occurred with permanent beds and full residue retention, and the . smallest size where continuous burning has been practiced (residue burning is the most COmll.10n fanner practice in the area). Conventional tillage with residue incorporation (the baseline check treatment) had an intennediate mean aggregate size.Figure 4 compares levels of soil microbial biomass (8MB) at two depths for the same treatments shown in Figure 3. Dramatically lower levels were seen where residues were burned. especially in the 7-15 cm profile. The other treatments had similar total 5MB levels but marked differences for the two depth profiles. Both Figures 3 and 4 support the assumption that pennanent beds with residue retention can lead to significant improvements in soil quality indicators, as has been found in other conservation tillage systems (Phillips and Phillips 1984).Pennanent beds offer new degrees of freedom to fanners in tenns of field access. The furrows between beds provide a built-in system to control machine, human, and draft animal traffic. Farmers in Mexico (and we in our research) restrict all traffic to the furrows, abating compaction on top of the bed where seeding occurs.Enhanced field access has important implications for weed control, since fanners can practice mechanical weed control between the beds (a new alternative for wheat) or use the furrows to apply herbicide over a wide range of crop development stages without phys~cally damaging the crop by trampling. In addition, the furrows offer an opportunity to use a much broader spectrum of herbicides than can be applied over the top of the wheat crop by later season directed applications in the furrows, with cone-protectors when needed. In addition, hand weeding wheat ismore efficient because the defined row orientation on the beds allows easier identification of grass weeds and easier access and removal.But perhaps the most important field-acceSs advantage for wheat is the flexibility bed-planting provides to allow fertilizer placement where and when it can be most efficiently used. Fertilizer, especially N fertilizers, can be applied by direct placement in bands in between the wheat beds or rows when the wheat plant can make most efficient use without trampling the crop. A decision can be made to delay the bulk of applied N fertilizer until after the crop is up and growing (without having to rely on more risky broadcast application) when more decision-making infonnation to judge N requirement is available compared to before planting.Figure 5 shows yield results for a trial where two N rates were applied either as basal application (banded into the bed) at planting or at the Ist node stage (banded 35 days after crop emergence). The zero N check is included for comparison. At the 150 kg N/ha rate, higher yields were obtained with the 1st node application, whereas no timing difference was observed for the 300 kg N/ha rate (probably outside the response range). Figure 6 presents the whole plant; total Nuptake results for the same treatments indicate markedly higher N-uptake levels for the 1st node application at both N rates. These data were used to calculate N-uptake efficiencies for the treatments adjusted for the N taken up in the zero N treatment and are shown in Figure 7. Dramatic increases in N-uptake efficiency for both N rates (especially for 150 kg N/ha) were obtained.Similar positive results from delaying all or part of the applied N until the 1st node stage have been observed on wheat quality parameters. Figure 8 shows the response in bread wheat loaf volume when a total of 150 kg N/ha is applied (all or part) at different times. Dramatic increases occurred when all or part of the N was applied at 1st node as compared to all applied at planting. These results show how improvements in N-use efficiency can be achieved by delaying all or part of the N application to around the 1st node stage. Large cost savings to fanners appear possible and, of equal importance, less N may be lost to into the environment through volitization or leaching. The ability of fanners to accomplish this is greatly facilitated by the bedplanting system.Research to apply pennanent beds for rainfed conditions has only just begun at CIMMYT. We are strongly convinced that bed-planting (with or without tillage) offers a very sound method for planting wheat and other crops under high rainfall conditions where excessive moisture can cause waterlogging. The furrows between the beds provide natural drainage channels to rapidly remove the excess water from the field. Bed-planting also can be very effective for drainage Where shallow water tables result in excess surface moisture, especially after rain or even with irrigation.Under low rainfall conditions where moisture is limiting, our initial results demonstrate that moisture can be effectively conserved with proper residue retention and management (residues are concentrated in the furrow bottoms)' on permanent beds. F~ll'thenllore, where conditions allow, small dams can be placed at regular intervals in the furrows (collU110nly referred to as tied ridges) at a height slightly lower than the top of the bed to allow drainage if excess moisture is present; this helps prevent excessive rain nln-off; We are finding that this technique can efficiently conserve moisture with only minimal retention of crop residues, thereby providing another valuable technology that allows a small fanner to reduce tillage, conserve moisture, and use a major part of the crop residue for fodder. Considerable new efforts are underway at CIMMYT to explore the application of pennanent beds to wheat-based rainfed production systems.Small fanners have been largely by-passed by the rapid adoption of conservation/zero tillage planting systems that is occurring in many parts of the world. Currently, most available equipment to implement these technologies is too large for use by small farnlers. Researchers have'tended to ignore the potential application of conservation/zero tillage by small-scale fanners, but this is beginning to change, especially in developing countries, where the vast majority of small fanners live and work.Genuine constraints do exist that inhibit the realistic development of appropriate technologies, but they are not insurmountable if researcher common sense is combined with fanner knowledge and participation in the development process. Work on wheat bed-planting systems at CIMMYT, which strives to combine the remarkable flexibilities and alternatives provided by the method (characteristics so much needed and appreciated by fanners) with the potential to markedly reduce tillage and to properly manage crop residues in both irrigated and rainfed conditions, is hopefully a step in the right direction.Reeder, R. 1992. Making the transition to conservation tillage. p. 4. In: Conservation tillage systems and management: Cr'n residue management with no-till, ridge-till, mulch-till. 1 51 ed. \"MWPS-45\". MidWest Pian Service. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Sayre, K. D. and O. H. Moreno. 1997 . .Table 1. Potential advantages of zero tillage planting systems.a• Reduced erosion.• Reduced production costs.• Improved crop turnaround times.• Increased land-use efficiency.• Improved water use.• Improved soil physical, chemical, and biological characteristics.a Adapted from Phillips and Phillips, 1984. Table 2. Potential disadvantages of zero tillage planting systems.-• Reduced soil temperatures during cool periods lead to stand establishment problems. • Weed control may be more problematic.• Disease, insect, and rodent incidence may change/increase. • Aesthetics of field difficult for some farmers to accept. a Adapted from Phillips and Phillips, 1984. Table 3. Percent of agricultural land under conservation .tillage (including zero-tillage) and zero-tillage alone in the USA, Canada, South America, Western Europe, and Australia.   Reduced and zero tillage/seeding with residue management. Rainfed wheat-based system for both the small farmers in mountain valleys and hill-sides and the mechanized eastern plains of Bolivia. Actively evaluating, modifying and developing small and moderate scale zero-till plantin~ equipment. Conventional, reduced-till, zero-till and raised-bed seeding systems with residue management for rainfed wheat based systems. SmalI farmer emphasis and investigating small scale planters and weed control equipment.Reduced-till, zero-till and raised bed seeding systems in irrigated small farm rice-wheat systems. Emphasis on testing smalI zero-till and bedplanting seeders for small 4-wheel tractors and application of Chinese 2wheel tractors with associated tillage and seeding attachments. Testing direct surface seeding of wheat into standing or recently harvested rice.Reduced tillage seeding and direct surface seeding ofwheat into standing or recently harvested rice in both rainfed and irrigated rice-wheat systems. Small farmer focus and involved in extension ofthe use of Chinese 2-wheel tractors. Bed-planting systems for conventional and reduced (permanent beds) tillage with residue management for both minfed and irrigated wheat based systems. Developing small scale seeders for bed-planting.Reduced and zero tillage planting systems with crop residue management. Focus on small farmers in rainfed maize based systems in sloping, erosive land. Testing small scale reduced and zero-tillage seeders.Reduced and zero-till seeding in maize-based systems with small farmers in sloping. erosive lands. Crop residue management and use of strategic cover/mulch crops.Table 7. Main constraints affecting the adoption of zero-tillage planting systems for wheat and other crop by small farmers.• Lack of appropriate small-scale planters.• Crop residue management issues:• Removal of residues for fodder and/or fuel.• Inadequate residues in low yield environments.• Excess residues in high yield environments.• Uncontrolled community grazing of residues.• Lack of appropriate small scale equipment to chop and evenly distribute residues. • Problems associated with fertilizer application/management including both chemical and organic fertilizer sources. • Potential development of new or intensification of existing weed, disease, or insect problems.   # Means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly at LSD (0.05).• LSD (0.05) for genotype means is 398 kglha; Interaction LSD (0.05) is 684 kglha.Table 11. Advantages of permanent bed-planting systems for wheat production.• Facilitates reductions in tillage and provides opportunities for crop residue management in gravity irrigation systems. • Improves irrigation water management as compared to flood irrigation.• Can reduce the dependence on crop residue retention under dry, rainfed conditions to conserve rainfall when combined with tied-ridges. • Provides drainage system, where waterlogging conditions can occur.• Establishes a defIned controlled traffIc system by restricting machinery and animals to the furrows eliminating compaction in the seeded area on top of the bed. • Facilitates fIeld access allowing:• Opportunities for mechanical weed control, thereby reducing herbicide dependence.• Opportunities to band apply nutrients (especially N) when and where they can be most efficiently lised. • Usually allows use of lower seeding rates compared to conventional planting systems.• Usually reduces crop lodging compared to conventional planting systems.• Leads to rapid turnaround times between crops when a bed width common to all crops in rotation is used. • Leads to improvements in chemical, physical, and biological soil characters especially for the untilled surface of the bed.c Table 12. Grain yield (kg/ha at 12% H 2 0) for bread wheat produced in a maize-wheat rotation on beds under different tillage, residue management, and N-rates averaged over five crop cycles (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997).       ","tokenCount":"7002"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ffa2578e4e017819e85d7e87aebfa132","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/559fac39-cbd8-4449-a3a8-48b92b8b9ad7/retrieve","id":"-1430259599"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e7ee7442-3964-4b23-8268-d19f19c7f306","pagecount":"1","content":" There are expanding opportunities in the Tanzania dairy value chain resulting from increased demand for more and better quality milk. Exploiting the opportunities requires upgrading technological and institutional capabilities of value chain actors to boost productivity and market growth. Investments in the sector need to promote scalable approaches that enable smallholder producers to sustainably and competitively participate in growing dairy markets. Well facilitated multi-stakeholder processes can effectively mobilize key actors to engage in learning and co-innovation that is necessary to upgrade the Tanzania dairy sector. Milk producers can invest in groups/co-operatives that enable members to access resources and reduce individual risk to increase their productivity and marketing. Supply chain actors (producers, input/services and milk buyers) should build trustful business relationships in order to grow their enterprises and the dairy sector. Invest funds for joint ventures between public and private sector actors to enable scaling up of technical and institutional innovations to grow inclusive and sustainable dairy sector businesses. Increase investment of the public sector in building a conducive policy environment through increased funding and strengthening its internal capacity to support the sector. Invest in multi-stakeholder processes and platforms at different levels and for specific purposes, and build capacities and institutional support for these.Pictures  MSPs improved coordination between smallholder milk producers (groups) and stimulated business linkages (with input/service providers and milk buyers) especially in Lushoto (intensive system). MSPs enabled matching of technical support (e.g. farmer training, technology/services access) to farmers' needs but translating these linkages into outcomes such as increased productivity is not immediate. MSPs can stimulate growth of markets through business partnerships in the value chain that can result in more and better quality milk and dairy products. Government's supportive role in providing an enabling environment for growth of the dairy sector is not always consistent.This document is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. April 2017 Expanding the Tanzania dairy sector starts with finding leverage points to address various technical and institutional barriers affecting productivity and market integration especially of poor smallholder producers. A study assessed the effect of multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) facilitated by the Maziwa Zaidi program to tackle identified barriers through novel business linkages. The study was conducted in 6 sites in Tanga region including Handeni (Kibaya, Sindeni, Kwediyamba) and Lushoto (Ubiri, Mbuuzi, Wena ) districts.Maziwa Zaidi thanks all donors and organizations which globally support the work of ILRI and its partners through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"408"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0dbef7dc0983889235256d1500f74234","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6dfac4b-2cab-411d-9200-757bfdcd3a15/retrieve","id":"-60792613"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"43312059-719e-4a59-a776-d101be6d33f5","pagecount":"1","content":"• A climate-related capacity building program should enhance the capacity and ability of developing country parties to implement adaptation and mitigation actions (Article 11.1 of the Paris Agreement)• A key challenge is to ensure socially-inclusive training that fosters equality of both opportunity and outcome, particularly for cohorts who are poor or otherwise marginalized When deciding to apply to the CLIFF-GRADS program, many participants faced significant challenges related to their family situation and financial limitations…Outcomes from the CLIFF-GRADS training 50% of women who applied won the fellowship Female awardees reported as a challenge making a joint decision with their family about accepting the award. Just 3% of male awardees faced this Applicants and their host supervisors coincided in that the program has contributed the most to:Encouraging research rigor and increasing opportunities for their career Improving students' knowledge about GHGE quantification and mitigation 92% of applicants were assigned to a project of their interestTo make this program more inclusive towards women, applicants and their supervisors suggested:• Easing application requirements for women• Increasing the program's visibility• Enhancing the financial support for women• Increase mentorship for female scientists However, graduates reported they have faced limitations in being able to secure funding for their work Although more male applicants than females (8 percentage points more) reported being a caregiver when they applied, a higher proportion of female applicants reported care activities as a challenge when deciding to apply. For men, it was more challenging to support their families economically.\"As a mother, a wife, a student and a care giver, it was not easy. Had my job to attend to, little kids and my elderly mom to take care of….\" \"I have the responsibility to financially support my family, including paying school fees for my two sisters and three brothers…\" Awardees faced as a challenge getting through the visa process According to supervisors' perspectives, although 81% of awardees performed as expected, 19% did not because of insufficient technical skills and knowledge 25% 13%","tokenCount":"327"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"642d0aef7e7dc39d92f50965078824f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/47e382ba-01ef-436e-9cd3-56509fba3405/retrieve","id":"-778934124"},"keywords":["drought tolerance, stomatal conductance, transpiration, vapour pressure deficit, water use efficiency, wild banana species, breeding predicted transpiration rate","Eq, equation","g s , stomatal conductance","h, hour","ITC, International Transit Centre","kPa, kilopascal","L, liter","LA, leaf area","m, meter","min, minutes","mol, moles","m tot , total weight","PC, principal component","s, seconds","se, standard error","ssp., subspecies","R 2"],"sieverID":"ecc367b4-0c51-48a9-9a4d-cbd6de08a563","pagecount":"13","content":"The rise in global temperature is not only affecting plant functioning directly, but is also increasing air vapour pressure deficit (VPD). The yield of banana is heavily affected by water deficit but so far breeding programs have never addressed the issue of water deficit caused by high VPD. A reduction in transpiration at high VPD has been suggested as a key drought tolerance breeding trait to avoid excessive water loss, hydraulic failure and to increase water use efficiency. In this study, stomatal and transpiration responses under increasing VPD at the leaf and whole-plant level of 8 wild banana (sub)species were evaluated, displaying significant differences in stomatal reactivity. Three different phenotypic groups were identified under increasing VPD. While (sub)species of group III maintained high transpiration rates under increasing VPD, M. acuminata ssp. errans (group I), M. acuminata ssp. zebrina (group II) and M. balbisiana (group II) showed the highest transpiration rate limitations to increasing VPD. In contrast to group I, group II only showed strong reductions at high VPD levels, limiting the cost of reduced photosynthesis and strongly increasing their water use efficiency. M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana thus show the most favourable responses. This study provides a basis for the identification of potential parent material in gene banks for breeding future-proof bananas that cope better with lack of water.Climate change projections predict that global temperatures will continue to increase this century (IPCC et al., 2021). This temperature rise is not only affecting plant functioning directly, but is also increasing air vapour pressure deficit (VPD) (Hatfield and Prueger, 2015;Ficklin and Novick, 2017;Grossiord et al., 2020). VPD represents the atmospheric water vapour demand and is defined as the difference between the saturation and actual vapour pressure in the atmosphere (Monteith and Unsworth, 2013). The saturation vapour pressure, the water vapour that air can hold, increases exponentially with temperature and has been increasing as global temperatures rise (Lawrence, 2005). The actual vapour pressure (i.e. absolute humidity in the air) on the other hand has not been rising at the same rate as the saturation vapour pressure, therefore increasing the worldwide VPD (Ficklin and Novick, 2017;Grossiord et al., 2020). The impact of this rising VPD is often underestimated compared to other climate change consequences, but periods of high VPD have recently been linked with large-scale tree mortality (Breshears et al., 2013;Williams et al., 2013) and strong yield reductions (Challinor and Wheeler, 2008;Lobell et al., 2013).Plants respond to the vapour pressure deficit encountered at the leaf level, the leaf-to-air vapour pressure deficit (VPD leaf ). The leaf temperature can after all deviate from that of the ambient air by transpirational cooling or heating through radiant energy. For a given stomatal opening, transpiration would increase linearly with VPD leaf , without any gain in carbon uptake. Stomatal conductance (g s ) however decreases with increasing VPD leaf , avoiding excessive water loss, but restricting carbon uptake (Dai et al., 1992;Monteith, 1995;Oren et al., 1999). In angiosperms the reduction of g s in response to an increase in VPD leaf is believed to be abscisic acid (ABA) mediated (Xie et al., 2006;Bauer et al., 2013;McAdam and Brodribb, 2015). Upon an increase in VPD leaf , g s is reduced by a rapid ABA biosynthesis (i.e. within 20 min) presumably located in the leaf phloem parenchyma cells and stomatal guard cells (Kuromori et al., 2014;McAdam et al., 2016). The trigger for ABA interference under high VPD leaf is believed to be a drop in water status (McAdam and Brodribb, 2016;Sack et al., 2018), which has been linked to a limited maximal hydraulic conductance at the leaf, stem and/or root level in comparison to the transpiration (Brodribb and Jordan, 2008;Zhang et al., 2013;Choudhary et al., 2014;Ocheltree et al., 2014;Schoppach et al., 2016). Essential gatekeepers for this hydraulic conductance are aquaporins. They are present all along the water transport pathway from root to stomata. Aquaporins were less abundant in soybean and pearl millet genotypes that showed a reduced transpiration rate at high VPD leaf (Sadok and Sinclair, 2010;Devi et al., 2015;Reddy et al., 2017).Despite the reductions in g s , the transpiration rate usually increases with increasing VPD leaf . Only at high VPD leaf significant decreases in transpiration rates have been observed (Franks et al., 1997;Fletcher et al., 2007;Gholipoor et al., 2010;Ryan et al., 2016). These transpiration responses are commonly described by a segmented pattern where the slope of transpiration rate versus VPD leaf is significantly reduced after a specified breakpoint.Significant differences in segmented transpiration responses to VPD leaf have been observed across-and within-species (Fletcher et al., 2007;Gholipoor et al., 2010;Ryan et al., 2016). While some species or genotypes already reduce transpiration rate significantly at low VPD leaf , others show only a reduction at higher VPD leaf or even maintain the increasing transpiration rate. Restricting transpiration rate at high VPD has been suggested as a key drought tolerance breeding trait as excessive water loss is avoided and might be saved for later in the growing season (Vadez, 2014;Sinclair et al., 2017). Limiting transpiration above a VPD threshold can increase the daily transpiration efficiency but the reduced water use may compromise the yield potential. Reduced transpiration limits carbon uptake, thereby hampering photosynthesis and yield (Richards, 2000;Lee et al., 2020;Eyland et al., 2021). Moreover, care must be taken that the so-called saved water is not merely lost by evaporation or transpiration by neighbouring plants.The transpiration rate response to VPD was shown to be highly heritable in wheat (Schoppach et al., 2016). Models predict that in drought-prone environments limiting transpiration at high VPD would improve maize and soybean yields by maintaining more soil water available later in the season during flowering or grain filling (Sinclair et al., 2010;Messina et al., 2015). In these drought-prone regions, the negative effect of g s reduction on A during vegetative growth could be compensated later in the growing season (Sinclair et al., 2010;Messina et al., 2015). Improved maize hybrids which, amongst other traits, showed reduced transpiration at high VPD leaf indeed increased yields under water-limited conditions (Gaffney et al., 2015), while for durum wheat cultivars this was only the case under severe drought conditions (Medina et al., 2019).The current set of edible bananas is complex and has resulted from different parental routes and several back crosses (De Langhe et al., 2010;Perrier et al., 2011;Martin et al., 2020a;Cenci et al., 2021). The hybrid banana genomes are unbalanced with respect to the parental ones, and inter-and intra-genome translocation chromosomes are relatively common (Christelováet al., 2017;Nemecǩováet al., 2018). Most, if not all, cultivars have genomes consisting of different proportions of A-and B-genome chromosomes and/or recombinant chromosomes originating from different parents. Similar to other tropical species, bananas are very sensitive to VPD, with reductions in transpiration when VPD exceeds 2 -2.3 kPa (Aubert and Catsky, 1970;Carr, 2009;Eyland et al., 2022). Thomas et al. (1998) observed a diverse response in three banana cultivars with different genomic constitutions. Despite these efforts, the transpiration responses to VPD remain largely uncharacterized across diverse banana species.Evaluation of crop wild relatives for inclusion in breeding schemes is receiving increasing attention nowadays, given their naturally acquired tolerances and resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses (Hajjar and Hodgkin, 2007;Dempewolf et al., 2017). Hence, the main objective of this work was to evaluate gene bank accessions belonging to wild banana (sub)species that can be crossed to elite edible parents. Apart from 3 unknown ancestors of the edible bananas, the M. acuminata (A genome) subspecies banksii, zebrina, malaccensis and burmannica form together with M. balbisiana (B genome) the most important parental donors of the current edible (AAA, AAB and ABB) varieties (Perrier et al., 2011;Christelováet al., 2017;Sardos et al., 2022;Martin et al., 2023). Hence, evaluating their stomatal and transpiration responses under increasing VPD at leaf and whole-plant level is of major interest to breeders. Transpiration rate limitations at high VPD have been indicated as a key breeding trait for high water use efficiency (Sinclair et al., 2010;Vadez, 2014;Messina et al., 2015;Ryan et al., 2016). Given these indications, we hypothesize that adequate stomatal reactions towards VPD is an important subtrait to breed for drought resilient varieties and that there is intraand interspecies variability among the banana crop wild relatives. This work could therefore provide the basis for systematically screening gene banks containing crop wild relatives of banana for their transpiration at high VPD, with the aim to identify potential parent material for drought tolerance breeding.A diversity panel of 9 wild banana gene bank accessions belonging to 8 (sub)species (Table 1) were phenotyped for their transpiration response to VPD. Plants were grown in 2.5 L pots filled with peat-based compost and maintained under well-watered conditions. Plants were grown in the greenhouse for 6 -8 weeks before moving to the growth chamber (Bronson PGC-1400, the Netherlands). The growth chamber contained an air mixing fan and LED panels providing a light intensity of 250 μmol m -2 s -1 for a 12 h photoperiod and a light spectrum with blue:red:far-red ratio of 1: 1.5: 0.15. Plants were acclimated to the growth chamber for one day under a day/night temperature and relative humidity of 27/24.5°C and 78%, respectively. The next day the VPD step-changes were initiated by altering relative humidity, while temperature was maintained at 36°C during this day. VPD was increased by decreasing relative humidity as temperature fluctuations would not only affect VPD but also aquaporin conductance and water viscosity in xylem and mesophyll cells (Matzner and Comstock, 2001;Yang et al., 2012). At light onset relative humidity was maintained for 90 min at 87%, after which it was subsequently decreased to 78, 68, 62 and 56%, each for 60 min. Average VPDs at each step were 0.77, 1.36, 1.93, 2.34 and 2.64 kPa. Plants were maintained under well-watered conditions by daily watering before light onset. Measurements were taken before 14:00 to avoid afternoon stomatal closure (van Wesemael et al., 2019;Eyland et al., 2021).Gas exchange responses to step increases in VPD leaf were measured every 60 s on the middle of the second youngest fully developed leaf using a LI-6800 infrared gas analyser (LI-COR, USA). Light intensity and CO 2 concentration were maintained at 250 μmol m -2 s -1 and 400 μmol mol -1 , respectively. Leaf temperature was maintained at 36°C. Relative humidity went from 85 to 75, 65, 55, 45 and 35%, reaching VPD leaf of 0.91, 1.50, 2.09, 2.69, 3.28 and 3.87 kPa. Note that measurements were stopped early if the drying capacity of the infra-red gas exchange system was saturated and unable to maintain reduced relative humidity. The intrinsic water use efficiency ( i WUE) was calculated as i WUE = A/g s with A being the photosynthetic rate. At every VPD leaf level the steady-state g s , A, E rate (transpiration rate) and i WUE after 60 min was calculated. The maximum g s was calculated as the highest g s observed across all VPD leaf levels. Segmented regression was performed on the transpiration rate response to increasing VPD leaf for each accession by using a nonlinear mixed effect model in which the intercept was assumed to vary at individual plant level (segmented R package, Muggeo, 2008). This analysis calculates the optimal breakpoint in the transpiration response with a different linear response before and after the breakpoint. To determine the effect of the reduction in stomatal opening on the transpiration, the transpiration reduction (f E ) was determined according to Franks et al. (1999) and Ryan et al. (2016) (Figure 1). For each individual, a linear regression was fitted through the transpiration rate at the first two VPD leaf levels (0.90 and 1.50 kPa). This linear regression was then extrapolated to predict the transpiration rate (E pred ) at higher VPD leaf levels (2.69, 3.28 and 3.87 kPa) (Figure 1). The percentage decrease of the actual measured transpiration rate (E meas ) compared to E pred (Figure 1) was then quantified at each VPD leaf level:The percentage of limitation of the photosynthetic rate (A) by g s reduction was calculated at every VPD leaf level by comparing the measured A (A meas ) with the overall maximally measured A (A max ) (McAusland et al., 2016):Eq: 2Stomatal reduction (f stom ) with increasing VPD was defined as the absolute slope between stomatal conductance (g s ) and log e (VPD leaf ) as described by Oren et al. (1999):Eq: 3where a is the estimated g s at VPD leaf 1 kPa.Plants were placed on balances (0.01 g accuracy, Kern, Germany) to register their weight every 10 s. The soil was covered by plastic to avoid evaporation and ensure only water loss through transpiration. Transpiration during each VPD step was calculated by differentiating 5 min average total weight (m tot ) at the start of the VPD level with the 5 min average total weight at the end of the VPD level:Eq: 4Transpiration was normalized by leaf area (LA) and the time (t) passed. LA was quantified by destructive leaf area imaging at the end of the experiment.Segmented regression was performed on the transpiration rate response to increasing VPD for each accession by using a nonlinear mixed effect model in which the intercept was assumed to vary at plant level. Transpiration reduction (f E ) was determined according to Eq. 1 with linear regression between the two first VPD levels (0.77 and 1.36 kPa) and comparison between E pred and E meas at the highest level (2.64 kPa).All data processing and statistical analysis were carried out in R (V3.6.2). Genotypic differences were tested by applying analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a post hoc Benjamini & Hochberg correction. Significance of the segmented response of transpiration rate to VPD compared to a linear response was determined by the Davies Test (segmented R package, Muggeo, 2008). K-means clustering of accessions was performed on the average scaled output of the segmented regression, the transpiration reduction, the stomatal reduction and photosynthesis limitation, including measurements by leaf gas exchange and by whole-plant transpiration were included (Hartigan and Wong, 1979). Clusters were optimized across 10,000 random sets of cluster centres and plotted on the first two principal components. Quantification of the transpiration reduction (f E ) according to Franks et al (1999). and Ryan et al. (2016). A linear regression was fitted through the transpiration rate at the first two air-to-leaf vapour pressure deficit (VPD leaf ) levels. This linear regression was extrapolated (dashed line) to estimate the transpiration rate (E pred ) at VPD leaf of 2.69, 3.28 and 3.87 kPa. E pred was then compared to the measured transpiration rate (E meas ) to calculate f E (Eq. 1).The transpiration response was measured at leaf and wholeplant level while relative humidity was stepwise decreased and VPDs consequently increased. The response to increasing VPD at leaf and whole-plant level was described by the segmented regression of transpiration rate versus VPD, the transpiration reduction (Eq. 1), the photosynthetic limitation under increasing VPD (Eq. 2) and the stomatal reduction (Eq. 3). K-means clustering was performed on the output variables measured by both leaf gas exchange and whole-plant transpiration (Table 2). Three clusters were identified and plotted along the first two principal components (Figure 2). The first principal component was mainly determined by the limitation of photosynthetic rate (A) at high VPDs and the transpiration reduction at leaf and wholeplant level (Table 2). Important variables in the second principal component were the slope before the breakpoint in transpiration rate with increasing VPD and the stomatal reduction (Table 2). Cluster I consisted of only one species: M. acuminata ssp. errans (Figure 2). In group II M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana clustered together (Figure 2). Group III contained 6 accessions: M. acuminata ssp. banksii (2), ssp. burmannica (1), ssp. burmannicoides (1), ssp. malaccensis (1) and ssp. microcrocarpa (1) (Figure 2).With increasing VPD leaf , g s decreased in all accessions (Figure 3A, Table A.1). The transpiration rate initially increased, but eventually reached steady-state or even declined (Figure 3B). The transpiration rate and g s of M. acuminata ssp. errans were lowest and differed significantly from all other accessions at VPD leaf exceeding 1.50 and 2.09 kPa, respectively (Figures 3A, B, Table A.1). Under a VPD leaf ≤ 2.9 kPa, the highest transpiration rates and g s were observed for M. balbisiana and M. acuminata ssp. burmannica. However, when VPD leaf increased further, the g s of M. balbisiana decreased stronger than M. acuminata ssp. burmannica, translating only in M. balbisiana in a lower transpiration rate (Figures 3A, B, Table A.1). As g s decreased with increasing VPD leaf , the CO 2 uptake was limited and A decreased (Figure 3C). The lowest A was observed for M. acuminata ssp. errans and ssp. burmannicoides, with significantly lower A compared to all other accessions except M. acuminata ssp. zebrina (Figure 3C, Table A.1). The intrinsic water use efficiency ( i WUE) increased with increasing VPD leaf (Figure 3D). i WUE was highest in M. acuminata ssp. errans and differed significantly from all other accessions as VPD leaf exceeded 1.5 kPa (Figure 3D, Table A.1). The lowest i WUE were observed for M. acuminata ssp. burmannica and ssp. burmannicoides (Figure 3D).In all accessions there was a decrease in the slope of transpiration rate versus VPD leaf (Figure 3B). This response was described by a segmented regression with a specified breakpoint after which the slope of the transpiration rate decreases. A significant breakpoint in transpiration rate in response to VPD leaf was identified in all accessions (Figure 4). Across accessions the breakpoints ranged between 1.75 and 2.5 kPa with M. acuminata ssp. errans having a significant breakpoint at the lowest VPD leaf (Figures 4, 5). Two M. acuminata ssp. banksii accessions and ssp. microcarpa showed the highest breakpoint in transpiration rate (Figures 4, 5). The groups defined by k-means clustering differed in their segmented transpiration response (Figure 5). Group I consisted only of M. acuminata ssp. errans, the subspecies with a breakpoint (a reduction in transpiration rate) at the lowest VPD leaf , as well as the lowest slope (the lowest E rate ) before the breakpoint (Figure 5). Group II, consisting of M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana, had a breakpoint at a relatively low VPD leaf around 2 kPa and a negative slope after the breakpoint (Figure 5). This negative slope indicates a net decrease in transpiration rate, which was not observed in the other accessions. In group III all accessions kept relatively high transpiration rates at relatively high VPD leaf .Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica, ssp. burmannicoides and ssp. malaccensis had a breakpoint at relatively low VPD leaf , but maintained a high slope of transpiration rate afterwards while the M. acuminata ssp. banksii accessions and ssp. microcarpa showed only a significant breakpoint in transpiration rate at higher VPD leaf , (Figure 5).The transpiration reduction (f E ) (Eq. 1, Figure 1) representing the increase in stomatal resistance with increasing VPD leaf also differed significantly across accessions (Figure 6A, Table A.2). Reductions in transpiration ranged between 37 and 59% at the highest VPD leaf of 3.87 kPa (Figure 6A, Table A.2). The highest reductions in transpiration were observed for M. acuminata ssp. errans, ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana (Figure 6A). The transpiration reduction of group I and II was significantly higher compared to group III at all VPD leaf levels (Figure 6A, Table A.2).Three phenotypic groups (I, II, III) were defined by k-means clustering based on the stomatal reduction, transpiration reduction and photosynthetic limitation under increasing VPD (see variables in Table 2). Both variables measured by leaf gas exchange and wholeplant transpiration were included. Lines and regions represent the three phenotypic groups from k-means clustering plotted along the first two principal components (Table 2). The first principal component was mainly determined by the limitation of photosynthetic rate at high VPDs and the transpiration reduction at leaf and whole-plant level. Important variables in the second principal component were the slope before the breakpoint in transpiration rate with increasing VPD and the stomatal reduction. The decrease in stomatal opening with increasing VPD leaf limited the photosynthetic rate (A). In all accessions there was a significant increase in the limitation of A with increasing VPD leaf (P < 0.01) and the limitation ranged from 7 to 17% at the highest VPD leaf level (Figure 6B, Table A.3). The limitation of A was highest in M. acuminata ssp. errans from VPD leaf 2.69 kPa onwards, followed by M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana (Figure 6B, Table A.3). The limitation of A was significantly higher in group I compared to group II and III from VPD leaf 2.69 kPa onwards (Table A.3). At VPD leaf of 3.28 and 3.87 kPa group II had a significantly higher A limitation compared to group III (Table A.3). Across accessions the limitation of A at higher VPD leaf (≥ 2.69Slopes and breakpoints of the segmented transpiration rate response to step-increases in leaf-to-air vapour pressure deficit (VPD leaf ). (A) Relation between the breakpoint in transpiration rate and the slope before the breakpoint. (B) Relation between the breakpoint in transpiration rate and the slope after the breakpoint. Three groups (I, II, III) were defined by k-means clustering and are represented by black lines connecting the included accessions. All segmented responses were significant (P < 0.05). Data represent the optimal estimated value ± se. (n=3-7).  The stomatal reduction (f stom ), defined as the slope of g s versus log e (VPD leaf ) (Eq. 3) differed significantly across accessions (Table A.4). Highest stomatal reduction was observed in M. balbisiana, while M. acuminata ssp. errans showed lowest reduction (Figure 7, Table A.4). The stomatal reduction was strongly correlated to the maximum observed g s (R² = 0.88, Figures 7, A.1). No significant differences across previously described groups was observed (Table A.4).The whole-plant transpiration rate increased between 98 and 197% with increasing VPD (Figure 8). The lowest transpiration rates were observed for M. acuminata ssp. errans with significant differences compared to all other accessions from VPD 1.93 kPa and beyond (Figure 8, Table A.5). Transpiration rates of all other accessions were double compared to M. acuminata ssp. errans at the highest VPD level (Figure 8, Table A .5).A significant breakpoint in whole-plant transpiration rate response to VPD was identified in all accessions (Figure 9). The breakpoints ranged between 1.6 and 2.2 kPa, with M. acuminata ssp. errans and M. balbisiana having the lowest breakpoint (Figures 9,10). The slope after the breakpoint was strongly negative in M. acuminata ssp. errans and ssp. zebrina (Figures 9,10). Accessions belonging to group I or II thus showed breakpoints in transpiration rate at lower VPD values and/or strongly negative second slopes (Figure 10).The whole-plant transpiration reduction (f E ) (Eq. 1, Figure 1) of M. acuminata ssp. errans was significantly higher compared to all other accessions (Figure 11, Table A.6). The second highest transpiration reduction was observed for M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana (Figure 11,Table A.6). Group I (M. acuminata ssp. errans) showed a significantly higher transpiration reduction compared to group II and III (Table A .6). Group II (M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana) showed a significantly higher transpiration reduction compared to group III (Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica, ssp. burmannicoides, ssp. malaccensis, ssp. banksii and ssp. microcarpa) (Table A .6).The whole-plant transpiration reduction was significantly correlated to the transpiration reduction measured at leaf level at similar VPD (R² = 0.52, Figures 11, A.1). Similarly, the whole-plant transpiration reduction was significantly correlated to the limitation of A measured at leaf level for VPD leaf exceeding 2.1 kPa (R² = 0.50 -0.73, Figure A.1).Diversity in transpiration patterns with increasing VPD has been observed among different genotypes of many crops such as maize, sorghum and soybean (Fletcher et al., 2007;Gholipoor et al., 2010;Yang et al., 2012). We observed a significant change in the Stomatal reduction (f stom ) in relation to the maximum observed stomatal conductance (max g s ). The f stom and max g s were significantly correlated (R² = 0.88, P < 0.001). Data represent mean ± se (n=3-7). Significance is shown in Table A.4.Transpiration reduction (f E ) and limitation of photosynthetic rate (A) with increasing leaf-to-air vapour pressure deficit (VPD leaf ). (A) f E in response to increasing VPD leaf . f E was determined as shown in Eq. 1. (B) Limitation of A in response to increasing VPD leaf . The limitation of A was determined as shown in Eq. 2. Data represent mean ± se. (n=3-7). Significance is shown in Tables A.2, A.3. transpiration rate of 9 wild banana gene bank accessions already at VPD levels between 1.6 and 2.5 kPa (Figures 4, 9). These values are in line with the general transpiration rate reduction of banana at VPD 2 to 2.3 kPa reported by Carr (2009) and the modelled VPD responses of Eyland et al. (2022). The breakpoints in transpiration rate were at similar VPDs compared to other crops (Gholipoor et al., 2010;Yang et al., 2012;Ryan et al., 2016). However, in other crops several genotypes were identified without a breakpoint as they maintained a linear increase in transpiration rate with increasing VPD (Fletcher et al., 2007;Gholipoor et al., 2010;Yang et al., 2012). Moreover, temperature and other environmental factors like radiation and soil water potential have been shown to interact with VPD in banana (Eyland et al., 2022). These complex interactions explain why a fixed VPD level per accession, where a reduction in transpiration takes place, cannot be defined without taking the other environmental conditions in account.The wild banana accessions clustered in three groups based on their leaf gas exchange and whole-plant transpiration response to VPD (Figure 2). Accessions of group I and II, M. acuminata ssp. errans, M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana, showed the highest transpiration rate limitations. This is in line with our previous observations under fluctuating conditions: M. balbisiana showed together with M. acuminata ssp. errans the most pronounced response by strongly decreasing their transpiration rate (Eyland et al., 2022). As reported by Oren et al. (1999), the stomatal reduction was significantly correlated to the maximum g s FIGURE 9 Whole-plant transpiration rate (E rate ) response of 9 wild banana accessions to step-increases in air vapour pressure deficit (VPD). A significant breakpoint in transpiration rate was identified for all accessions (P-value Davies Test < 0.05). Solid grey lines represent slopes of the modelled segmented response. Grey point and dashed grey line represent the breakpoint in transpiration rate and the VPD of the breakpoint. Data represent mean ± se (n=4-8). Whole-plant transpiration rate (E rate ) response to step-increases in air vapour pressure deficit (VPD) for 9 wild banana accessions. Note that VPD values slightly differed between accessions depending on the maximal drying capacity of the growth chamber. Data represent mean ± se values after 60 min at a specific VPD level (n=4-8). Significance is shown in Table A.5.(Figures 7, A.1). This indicates that accessions with higher g s under low VPD leaf show higher stomatal closure at increasing VPD leaf . However, M. acuminata ssp. errans (group I) showed a very strong stomatal response, despite its low g s . As a consequence of this strong stomatal restriction, the i WUE of M. acuminata ssp. errans was significantly higher compared to all other accessions (Figure 3D). In contrast to the very conservative behaviour of M. acuminata ssp. errans, the accessions of group II displayed high g s and A when VPD leaf was favourable in addition to early or strong transpiration rate reductions at high VPD leaf . This behaviour is assumed to be beneficial in drought-prone areas with periods of high VPD (Sadok and Sinclair, 2010;Vadez, 2014), as water is used efficiently and saved for later in the growing season. Some accessions of group III also showed a breakpoint in transpiration at a relatively low VPD leaf , but a high transpiration rate was kept and a net transpiration increase continued with rising VPD leaf (Figures 4,  5). Hence, these accessions display a more risk taking behaviour, thereby risking hydraulic failure (Sade et al., 2012).Transpiration reductions at leaf level were validated at the whole-plant level (Figure 11). Accessions belonging to group I and II showing the highest transpiration rate limitations at leaf level also showed significant breakpoints in whole-plant transpiration rates. These breakpoints occurred at low VPDs after which transpiration rate increases were limited (Figures 5, 9).The physiological and molecular origin of the observed genotypic variability still remains to be elucidated. This evaluation of leaf and whole-plant responses gives an idea on how fast imbalances in water supply and demand develop, as well as on the stomatal responsiveness to these imbalances. The restricted transpiration phenotype under high VPD has been linked in other crops to a limited hydraulic conductance by reduced expression of specific aquaporins (Sadok and Sinclair, 2010;Devi et al., 2015;Reddy et al., 2017). However, the high correlation between hydraulic and stomatal conductance and the challenge to measure hydraulic conductance in banana makes it challenging to separate these two processes in the current experimental setup (Turner et al., 2007). Nevertheless, given the low modelled maximal transpiration rate of M. acuminata ssp. errans (Eyland et al., 2022) and the low observed constituent conductance and transpiration (Figures 3A, B) it can be hypothesised that this species is characterised by a low hydraulic conductance. In contrast, group II and III accessions are hypothesized to have a better hydraulic conductance, allowing Transpiration reduction measured at whole-plant level (f E , wholeplant) at VPD 2.64 kPa in relation to the transpiration reduction measured at leaf level (f E , leaf level) at VPDleaf 2.69 kPa. The f E at leaf and whole-plant level were significantly correlated (R² = 0.52, P < 0.05). Data represent mean ± se (n=4-8). Significant differences between accessions or groups are indicated in Tables A.2, A.6.Slopes and breakpoints of the segmented whole-plant transpiration rate (E rate ) response to step-increases in air vapour pressure deficit (VPD). (A) Relation between the breakpoint in whole-plant transpiration rate and the slope before the breakpoint. (B) Relation between the breakpoint in whole-plant transpiration rate and the slope after the breakpoint. Three groups (I, II, III) were defined by k-means clustering and are represented by black lines connecting the included accessions. All segmented responses were significant (P < 0.05). Data represent the optimal estimated value ± se (n = 4-8).increased transpiration with increased evaporative demand. However, the early and strong interference of group II accessions, i.e. M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana, might point towards a high hydraulic capacity but a fast stomatal reaction to an increasing water imbalance. The robustness of M. balbisiana to increased evaporative demand has already been reported in literature. During a collection mission in Papua New Guinea, it was the only species found almost always in open habitats (Eyland et al., 2020). Under these conditions of high evaporative demands, survival would only be possible if the species is equipped with a high water uptake and transport capacity, as well as reduced stomatal conductance (Eyland et al., 2020). Genotypic variability in stomatal response might be dependent on the speed of ABA anabolism and catabolism, as well as on the number of ABA receptors. Additionally physiological and molecular measurements are required to validate these hypotheses.As demonstrated in other crops, identification of this conservative behaviour towards VPD, opens up possibilities to improve drought tolerance of cultivated banana hybrids. M. balbisiana is a parent to many edible bananas belonging to the AAB, ABB and AB genome groups and their subgroups. Moreover, in line with the conservative behaviour of M. balbisiana in response to VPD (Figures 3,4,6,8), it has been indicated in many studies that edible bananas with a high portion of B genes are related to drought tolerance (Ekanayake et al., 1994;Thomas et al., 1998;Turner and Thomas, 1998;Thomas and Turner, 2001;Vanhove et al., 2012;Kissel et al., 2015;Van Wesemael et al., 2018;van Wesemael et al., 2019;Eyland et al., 2021;Uwimana et al., 2021;Eyland et al., 2022). Also M. acuminata ssp. zebrina is a parent to several edible bananas (Carreel et al., 2002;Perrier et al., 2011;Nemecǩováet al., 2018;Baurens et al., 2019;Martin et al., 2020a;Martin et al., 2020b;Jeensae et al., 2021), among others the East-African highland banana subgroup (i.e. Mutika/Lujugira). The East-African highland banana subgroup, endemic to the East-African highlands, is due to its risk taking behaviour sensitive to drought (Kissel et al., 2015;van Wesemael et al., 2019;Eyland et al., 2021;Uwimana et al., 2021). Hence, identification of drought tolerance traits in M. acuminata ssp. zebrina populations provides opportunities to mitigate climate change impacts in this and all other important subgroups. So far, not much is known about the contribution of M. acuminata ssp. errans to edible bananas. The accession screened in this study and representing M. acuminata ssp. errans, has been proved to be complex in genome with ancestries coming from 'malaccensis', 'zebrina' and 'burmannica/siamea' (Martin et al., 2020b).The reduction of transpiration response to high VPD is a key trait for water use efficiency and diversity among wild banana relatives was observed. Reductions in transpiration ranging between 37 and 59%, translated in an increased WUE of 54 to 166%. M. acuminata ssp. errans, on the one hand, responded most conservative, but was also characterized by low g s overall. M. acuminata ssp. zebrina and M. balbisiana, on the other hand, showed strong stomatal closure while maintaining relatively high carbon uptake under low VPD. These two (sub)species thus show favourable responses for a specific sub-trait linked to high water use efficiency, providing a potential basis for the identification of parent material for breeding more drought resilient bananas.","tokenCount":"5583"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1ff8b2e4c126855cd5132f5e2fe9b666","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/641b4672-7c31-4cff-8343-89076a2b3440/retrieve","id":"-1853410616"},"keywords":["functional wheat","trans-ferulic acid","nitrogen management","environment interaction","antioxidant Conceptualization, Y.Z. (Yan Zhang) and Z.H.","methodology, Y.Z. (Yong Zhang), Z.H. and W.T.","software, W.T.","validation, Y.Z. (Yan Zhang), Z.H. and W.T","formal analysis, W.T. and F.W.","investigation, Y.T. and J.L.","resources, Y.Z. (Yan Zhang), K.X., Z.Z., J.Y. (Junliang Yan) and J.Y. (Jun Yan)","data curation, W.T. and F.W.","writing-original draft preparation, W.T.","writingreview and editing, Y.Z. (Yan Zhang), W.T., Z.H., Y.Z. (Yong Zhang), K.X., Z.Z., J.Y. (Junliang Yan) and J.Y. (Jun Yan)","visualization, W.T.","supervision, Y.Z. (Yong Zhang) and Z.H.","project administration, Y.Z. (Yong Zhang) and Z.H.","funding acquisition, Y.Z. (Yong Zhang"],"sieverID":"8ac99ce0-9bf2-445a-bcfe-9e8fe2bef2cd","pagecount":"9","content":"The health benefits of whole wheat grains are partially attributed to their phenolic acid composition, especially that of trans-ferulic acid (TFA), which is a powerful natural antioxidant. Breeders and producers are becoming interested in wheat with enhanced health-promoting effects. This study investigated the effects of different nitrogen (N) application rates (0, 42, 84, 126, and 168 N kg ha −1 ) on the phenolic acid composition of three wheat varieties in four locations for two years. The results indicate that the different N rates did not affect the TFA concentration but that they significantly affected the concentrations of para-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, and cis-ferulic acid in the wheat grains. A statistical analysis suggested that the wheat phenolic acid composition was predominantly determined by wheat variety, though there existed some interaction effect between the wheat variety and environments. The TFA concentration of the variety Jimai 22 was generally higher (with a mean value of 726.04 µg/g) but was easily affected by the environment, while the TFA concentration of the variety Zhongmai 578 (with a mean value of 618.01 µg/g) was more stable across the different environments. The results also suggest that it is possible to develop new wheat varieties with high yield potential, good end-use properties, and enhanced nutraceutical values.Wheat is a staple food worldwide [1]. Variety, growing environment, and the application of nitrogen fertilizers are important factors affecting wheat yield, protein content, and end-use quality [2][3][4]. Wheat is not only an important source of energy but also a good source of functional ingredients [5][6][7]. The consumption of whole wheat products has been associated with reduced risks of chronic diseases, including type II diabetes, obesity, and some types of cancer [8,9]. These health benefits can be partially attributed to the phytochemicals in wheat grains [10,11]. Trans-ferulic acid (TFA), a powerful natural antioxidant, is the most predominant phytochemical in whole wheat [12]. Most wheat phenolic acids are ester-linked to cell wall (poly)saccharides [13][14][15]. The health-promoting potential and possible mechanism of wheat phytochemicals have been intensively characterized and summarized in some literature reviews [16][17][18][19]. Driven by consumers' desires for healthier food ingredients and final products, a higher content of phytochemicals, especially phenolic antioxidants, is becoming another important parameter in evaluating wheat quality [20][21][22].In recent years, studies have investigated the factors determining phenolic acid composition in whole wheat grains. Similar to other agronomic traits, wheat variety is an important factor affecting phenolic acid composition [23][24][25][26][27]. For example, the HEALTH-GRAIN Diversity Screen reported a range of >3.5-fold across the concentration range for total phenolic acids in 135 winter wheat varieties [24]. Several studies have reported that Plants 2022, 11, 2237 2 of 9 some wheat varieties accumulated higher concentrations of phenolic acids in dry and hot cultivation years [28][29][30]. It is well known that nitrogen fertilizer is a very important factor influencing the yield and quality of wheat grains. Previous studies have also evaluated the effects of nitrogen fertilization and its interaction with other factors on wheat phenolic composition. In a previous study, it was reported that increased N application (from 180 to 300 kg N ha −1 ) led to increased concentrations of insoluble ferulic acid and vanillic acid [31]. However, this range of nitrogen application rate is much higher than that of farmers' general practices. Furthermore, only one wheat variety was investigated, and the effect of nitrogen fertilizer may be dependent on wheat variety. Our previous study found an interaction effect of N and sulfur (S) on the concentration of trans-ferulic acid: at S = 0, an increased N rate (from 56 to 146 kg N ha −1 ) led to an increased TFA concentration, and at S = 22 kg ha −1 , a different N rate did not influence the TFA concentration [28]. However, a following study suggested that intensified field management practices, including the increased application of nitrogen fertilizer, fungicide, and micronutrients, led to a decreased concentration of TFA [32]. However, it was unknown which factor of the intensified management practices was the major contributor to the decreased TFA. In summary, previous studies have usually contained several factors that may influence TFA concentration, and the effect of the N rate is still not clearly understood. A study mainly focusing on the N rate and wheat phenolics in different varieties is still needed.Our hypotheses were that different N rates are not a major factor determining TFA concentration and that wheat phenolic acid composition is mainly affected by wheat variety. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (1) investigate the effect of different N rates (N0, N42, N84, N126, and N168 kg ha −1 ) on wheat phenolic acid composition and to (2) assess the most important factor affecting wheat phenolic acid composition and its interaction with other factors. Three elite Chinese wheat varieties were harvested in eight natural environments (over two years, at four locations each year). To the best of our knowledge, this is the most thorough study investigating the effect of N fertilization on wheat phenolics in terms of the number of N levels, wheat varieties, and different environments. For all three varieties, under the conditions of eight environments (a total of 24 conditions), the effect of N fertilization was consistent and barely interacted with other factors. The reliable and clear results of this study may help to elucidate the effect of N rate on the accumulation of wheat phenolic antioxidants. This information may also be instructive to wheat production, aiming at producing grains with enhanced natural antioxidants.Three elite Chinese bread wheat varieties, namely, Zhongmai 578, Jimai 22, and Zhongmai 255, were investigated in this study. Zhongmai 578, developed from Zhongmai 255/Jimai 22, was released in the northern and southern parts of the Yellow and Huai Valleys covering the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, northern Anhui and Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, and central Shanxi, as well as southern Xinjiang, in 2020, 2021, and 2022. It is becoming a leading variety, with a sowing acreage of around 340,000 ha in the 2021-2022 harvesting season, due to its high yield potential, superior pan bread-making quality, good disease resistance, tolerance to high temperatures during the grain-filling period, and early maturity, as well as broad adaptation. Zhongmai 578 is also widely used as a parent in various breeding programs across China. Jimai 22 has been the milestone variety in the northern part of the Yellow and Huai Valleys for the last 15 years, and it has a high and stable yield, and broad adaptation. Zhongmai 255 was released due to its superior qualities for both pan bread and Chinese noodles.Field experiments were performed during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 wheatgrowing seasons at four locations, namely, Anyang, Henan province (36 (36 • 42 36.00 N 119 • 06 6.98 E). Urea (NH2) 2 CO (N% = 46.67%) was used as the nitrogen (N) fertilizer. For each wheat variety, the field experiments included five urea application rates: 0 (N content = 0), 90 (N content = 42), 180 (N content = 84), 270 (N content = 126), and 360 (N content = 168) kg ha −1 , designated as N0, N42, N84, N126, and N168, respectively. Each treatment comprised three replicates. Other field management practices were the same for all locations. After harvest, wheat seeds were stored at 4 • C until further analysis.Analytical standard phenolic acids (4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, para-coumaric acid, trans-ferulic acid, and sinapic acid) were purchased from MACKLIN (Shanghai, China). Other general chemicals and ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) mobile phases (water with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and acetonitrile with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid) were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA).The extraction of esterified phenolic acids was performed according to our previous studies [28,32]. In brief, 1 g of whole flour was hydrolyzed with 10 mL of 2M NaOH under nitrogen for 3 h. The mixture was then acidified to pH = 2 with concentrated HCl and extracted three times with ethyl acetate. The combined organic phase was evaporated to dryness, re-dissolved using 2 mL HPLC-grade methanol, and filtered through a 0.45 µm filter. All extracted samples were kept at −20 • C and analyzed within 2 days.The phenolic acid composition was analyzed using an UPLC-PDA system from Waters Corporation (Milford, MA, USA) with an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 (2.1 mm × 50 mm) column. The UPLC gradient protocol was programed according to our previous report with some minor modifications [33]. In brief, the mobile phase A was HPLC-grade water containing 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid, and the mobile phase B was HPLC-grade acetonitrile containing 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid. The mobile phase flow rate was 0.4 mL/min, and the percentage of mobile phase B was kept at 6% from 0 to 1.0 min, which then increased linearly to 14% from 1.0 min to 3.0 min and increased linearly to 16% from 3.0 min to 5.5 min. The column was re-equilibrated with the original mobile phase condition (A = 94%, B = 6%) for 3 min between each injection. Each phenolic acid was identified by a comparison with the retention time of the corresponding analytical standard and quantified using an external calibration curve at 280 nm. Due to the lack of analytical standard, cis-ferulic acid was tentatively quantified using the external calibration of trans-ferulic acid.The raw experimental data (concentration of each phenolic acid) are expressed as mean ± standard deviations from three biological replicates. Further data analysis was performed using the PROC GLIMMIX method in SAS version 9.4 (Cary, NC, USA). Year, location (loc), wheat variety (V), N rate, and their interactions were considered as fixed effects. Replicate (rep), rep(year), rep(loc), N*rep(year), and N*rep(loc) were considered as random effects.In this study, six monomeric phenolic acids, namely, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, para-coumaric acid, trans-ferulic acid, sinapic acid, and cis-ferulic acid, were detected in the extracts of whole wheat flours. The concentration of TFA ranged from 491.40 ± 28.20 to 831.25 ± 3.80 µg/g whole wheat flour (WWF). The concentrations of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, and para-coumaric acid were found to be at lower levels, usually less than 30 µg/g WWF. The concentration of cis-ferulic acid and sinapic acid ranged from 38.42 ± 0.18 to 103.38 ± 2.19 µg/g and from 11.88 ± 0.65 to 98.97 ± 6.41 µg/g WWF, respectively. These results are comparable to those of previous studies [17,19,25].The result of ANOVA is tabulated in Table 1. The effect of the wheat variety (V) was found to be significant (p < 0.001) for all the phenolic acids. The effects of location (L) and harvest year (Y) were also significant for most types of phenolic acids detected in this study. The effect of L*V*Y was also significant (p < 0.001) for TFA and for most other phenolic acids. These results agree with the previous consensus that both wheat variety and environment affect the phenolic acid composition in wheat grains [29,31,33,34]. The effect of the nitrogen (N) application rate was not significant (p > 0.05) for the concentration of TFA or the predominant phenolic compound in whole wheat, but it was significant (p < 0.001) for para-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, and cis-ferulic acid. L*N was significant (p < 0.05) for TFA. Since the major objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the nitrogen application rate on TFA, these results are discussed in detail in the following section. As shown in Table 1, the effects of L and V on TFA were significant (p < 0.001). Overall, across all environments, the variety Jimai 22 had the highest mean concentration of TFA (726.04 µg/g), followed by Zhongmai 578 (618.01 µg/g) and Zhongmai 255 (583.07 µg/g). Regarding the location effect, in both 2020 and 2021 years, the wheat produced from Huaibei had the highest mean concentration of TFA (681.83 µg/g), and the wheat from Liaocheng had the lowest concentration of TFA (616.03 µg/g). The interaction effects between L, V, and Y are plotted in Figure 1. Though the variety Jimai 22 generally contained a high concentration of TFA, this concentration was easily affected by the different environments. In the Huaibei location, the TFA concentration of Jimai 22 decreased significantly (p < 0.05) from 811.73 µg/g in 2020 to 646.48 µg/g in 2021. Similarly, in the Weifang location, the TFA concentration of Jimai 22 decreased significantly (p < 0.05) from 771.56 µg/g in 2020 to 704.24 µg/g in 2021. In contrast, the TFA concentration of Zhongmai 578 was more stable across the different environments. This result suggests that Jimai 22 could only accumulate more ferulic acid under certain environments and that the three varieties might differ in the pathway of TFA accumulation. 2020 had more TFA than the grains from 2021, especially in the case of Jimai 22. These results suggest that drought stress was not the predominant factor among all the environmental factors determining TFA concentration. In summary, the final concentrations of TFA in the wheat grains were determined by the interaction effect between the wheat variety and environmental factors, including, but not limited to, the different locations and harvest years. This result is consistent with a recent study that also reported significant effects of variety and location on wheat phenolic acid composition [35].  Several previous studies have reported that dry weather condition (drought stress) during the grain-filling stage might enhance the TFA concentration in wheat grains [28][29][30]. In this study, the four locations had similar temperatures during the wheat growth period (Table 2). In May and June of 2019-2020, Huaibei was the location with the most precipitation, and Liaocheng was the driest location with the lowest precipitation. However, the samples from Huaibei contained the highest TFA, while the samples from Liaocheng had the lowest TFA. Similarly, considering the Huaibei location, the growth period of 2019-2020 had more rainfall than that of 2020-2021, but the wheat grains from 2020 had more TFA than the grains from 2021, especially in the case of Jimai 22. These results suggest that drought stress was not the predominant factor among all the environmental factors determining TFA concentration. In summary, the final concentrations of TFA in the wheat grains were determined by the interaction effect between the wheat variety and environmental factors, including, but not limited to, the different locations and harvest years. This result is consistent with a recent study that also reported significant effects of variety and location on wheat phenolic acid composition [35]. One major goal of this study was to elucidate the effect of different nitrogen fertilizer (as urea) rates. The single effect of N rate on the concentration of individual phenolic acids is plotted in Figure 2a-d for trans-ferulic acid, para-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, and cis-ferulic acid, respectively. In Figure 2a, it seems that the wheat grains contained relatively more TFA at either a very low (N0 and N 42) or a very high N (N168) level. However, this difference was not significant at a confidence level of p < 0.05. However, the effect of N rate on other major phenolic acids was significant (p < 0.05). The L*N interaction for the TFA concentration was significant (p < 0.05), and it is plotted in Figure 3. There were some differences under different N rates and at different locations. In Anyang, the TFA concentration increased with an increase in the N rate. In the other three locations, the TFA concentration generally decreased first and then increased along with the increased N application. However, most of these changes were not significant at a confidence level of p < 0.05. Previously, we reported that, under sulfur-sufficient conditions, increased N application had no effect on wheat trans-ferulic acid concentrations [28]. The result from this study confirms our previous finding. Taken together, these two studies comprise four growth years, various locations, and representative wheat varieties in both China and the United States. Based on these results, it is concluded that the nitrogen application rate did not affect the concentration of trans-ferulic acid in the wheat grains. A similar result has also been previously reported [34]. This observation can be partially explained by a previous study, which reported that different N rates did not affect the transcriptions of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) or cinnamate 4-hydroxylse (C4H), the key enzymes of the phenylpropanoid pathway [36].In Figure 2b,d, an increased N level led to decreased concentrations of para-coumaric acid (from 20.09 µg/g in N0 to 18.27 µg/g in N168) and cis-ferulic acid (from 64.19 µg/g in N0 to 59.91µg/g in N168). In contrast, an increased N level generally led to an increased concentration of sinapic acid, from 58.59 µg/g in N0 to 66.68 µg/g in N24. Though these changes were considered statistically significant, the changes in the absolute values were not huge. An increased N rate led to opposite changing trends for the different phenolic acids. This result suggests that there existed a hidden metabolic pathway for the different phenolic acids that was affected by the different N rates.To summarize, the data in this study indicated that the different N rates were not a major factor determining the phenolic acid composition of the wheat grains, though the effect of the N rate might be significant under the conditions of certain experimental designs and statistical methods. The concentration of phenolic acid, especially trans-ferulic acid, was mainly determined by wheat variety and the matrix of natural environmental factors. The content of the functional ingredients in some wheat varieties, such as Zhongmai 578, was stable across the various environments and the different nitrogen application levels. The development of a new wheat variety with enhanced health benefits seems to be a practical and promising goal for wheat breeders, as previously claimed by Shewry et al. [20].   In Figure 2b,d, an increased N level led to decreased concentrations of para-coumaric acid (from 20.09 µg/g in N0 to 18.27 µg/g in N168) and cis-ferulic acid (from 64.19 µg/g in   In Figure 2b,d, an increased N level led to decreased concentrations of para-coumaric acid (from 20.09 µg/g in N0 to 18.27 µg/g in N168) and cis-ferulic acid (from 64.19 µg/g in N0 to 59.91µg/g in N168). In contrast, an increased N level generally led to an increased This study investigated the effects of different nitrogen (as urea) application rates, growth locations, and years on the phenolic acid composition of three Chinese elite wheat varieties. Our results demonstrate that nitrogen fertilizer usage was not a major factor affecting wheat phenolic acid composition. Wheat variety was the predominant factor determining wheat phenolic acid composition. The effect of environmental factors was also dependent on the wheat variety. The concentration of trans-ferulic acid, a powerful natural antioxidant, in Zhongmai 578 was stable across the different environments and management practices. Future studies are necessary to understand the genetic basis and regulatory network for the production of phenolic antioxidants in whole wheat grains.","tokenCount":"3102"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"536680d488a14c9fb64f87bf80e01ba0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e2bafb49-8301-4290-bb3c-f4663ad34dd1/retrieve","id":"-121695807"},"keywords":["Gender","stakeholders","policies","climate change"],"sieverID":"0b2d7fe8-b25e-42ed-886e-6ec26df1bf5d","pagecount":"49","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Climate change affects food production directly and indirectly, through crop and livestock loss, decreased employment opportunities, and climate-induced human migration associated with climate impacts on agriculture, among many other pathways (IPCC, 2018).These impacts are likely to be more severe by 2030 and beyond, placing global food security and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people at risk (Ross et al., 2019). Rural communities in developing countries are expected to be affected more than those in developed countries because of their extensive dependence on natural resources and weather dependent activities for their livelihoods (Dasgupta et al., 2014).While the notion that climate change is a global problem is widely accepted, solutions remain highly controversial, with different disciplines and stakeholders providing multiple recommendations (Sun and Yang, 2016). Climate change has been described as a \"wicked problem\" -one whose complexity and discourse continuously changes and involves the interests of multiple actors (Collins and Ison, 2009;FitzGibbon and Mensah, 2012). The use of conventional tools and processes of knowledge production around such a dynamic issue has been disputed, leading to a need for shifts in methods that analyze the interconnections between cause and consequences across scales. Moving beyond expert-driven science to coproduction of knowledge and social learning is expected to generate more equitable sciencedriven solutions that are attuned to the local context (Collins and Ison, 2009;FitzGibbon and Mensah, 2012).Central to this learning process is the need for social and gender transformative research that informs policy engagement processes and the design of gender-responsive climate change policies. Women's considerable involvement in agriculture and their role to sustain the livelihoods and food security of their households highlights the need to address the gender gap in terms of access to resources, productivity, and vulnerability in agriculture in the wake of climate change (Chanana-Nag and Aggarwal, 2020;Gumucio et al., 2019;Huyer, 2016;Huyer and Partey, 2020). These are influenced by sociocultural and gender norms that need to be addressed to reduce the vulnerability of women and men to climate change effects (Alston, 2014).Climate change is likely to perpetual existing social (IPCC 2014) and gender (Dankleman, 2010) inequalities. Recognition of the differential realities between women and men is an important prerequisite to ensuring that actions aimed at adaptation and mitigation are gender-responsive. Ignoring gender issues in agriculture in the face of climate change constrains the successful and sustainable implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, posing threats to global food systems (Huyer, 2016).One of the major challenges in addressing climate change is the disconnect between stakeholders including the scientific community, politicians of various countries, large corporations, small to medium-sized enterprises, industries, social activists, consumers, and the media, among others (Sun and Yang, 2016). This presents a lack of shared understanding of climate change as a problem, the roles and responsibilities that organizations may play, and the potential solutions offered by research. While there is agreement about the need for stakeholder engagement in climate change decision-making processes, detailed methods and outcomes of stakeholder engagement for climate change policy development are rarely published, particularly approaches that address gender equality in climate policy. Therefore, there is a gap of empirical data on best practices for stakeholder engagement in the climate change policy-development arena that integrates gender considerations. This paper presents a synthesis of stakeholder engagements, outcomes, lessons learned and good practices of engaging multiple stakeholders in integrating gender considerations in climate change and agriculture policies drawing from the experiences of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). We articulate the kind of research conducted, the key stakeholders and how they were involved, outcomes of different engagements, the lessons learned (including successful approaches), challenges experienced, and gaps requiring further research. We analyze stakeholder engagement efforts in five regions: East Africa, West Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, although the analysis extends to continental levels. By consolidating this information, we hope to contribute to the literature documenting lessons on stakeholder engagement regarding climate change and gender-sensitive policy analysis and design.A stakeholder is a group or individual who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization's objectives. Stakeholder engagement is an empowering process as it helps stakeholders with a stake in an issue to have input and exert a degree of control on what happens in their own lives and communities (Ulrich, 1983 cited by Gregory et al., 2020).While instrumental approaches view stakeholder engagement as a means to an end and focus on managing stakeholders to attain a purpose (Jones et al., 2018) the critical view of stakeholder theory places emphasis on values which also set the boundaries demarcating the issues of relevance to stakeholders (Edward et al., 2004). Several authors have recognized the influence of stakeholder power in building alliances, information exchange and coordination, with the invisible stakeholder ties being highly influential in the implementation of an intervention. Hence it is important to capture the role of the complex political and power dynamics in multi-stakeholder engagement processes (Fliaster and Kolloch, 2017;Gregory et al., 2020;Pouloudi et al., 2016).We employ the framework of principles for effective agricultural research for development programs developed by Vermeulen and Campbell (2015) and adopted by (Dinesh et al., 2018) to frame the stakeholder engagement process in the context of CCAFS gender and climate change policy projects. These publications also originate from the CCAFS program and advance a theory-informed approach for identifying and analyzing stakeholders, allocating resources, maintaining a dynamic orientation, and understanding politics and power relations among stakeholders. The framework is presented in Table 1 below. For each principle, we reflect on instances in which the projects used the principle effectively and in some cases we observe that the principle could have been taken into consideration more for improved effectiveness. Points of leverage are areas where a small intervention can lead to large changes. Weak leverage points have limited ability to drive change, therefore it is essential to identify leverage points which are tangible and have the ability to drive change.Effective AR4D programs should invest a third of resources on research, a third on engaging with next users and a third on improving the capacity of next users for uptake of research. This does not mean strict allocation of financial resources in thirds, but adopting an approach which puts emphasis on partnerships and capacity building, in addition to generating sound science.Rather than creating new processes and events, science-policy engagement efforts should join existing processes of next users wherever possible. This includes boundary spanning work between researchers and user groups to define products and to foster dialogue.Enhancing credibility, i.e., scientific adequacy of technical information, is key to successful science-policy engagement. Cash et al. (2003) found that in addition to credibility, salience and legitimacy are important factors to respond to the needs of next users, and to ensure that the process is fair and respectful of stakeholders. Researchers should use a strategy based on high impact publications, research and open access policies to enhance their scientific credibility and thus support science-policy engagement processes.Co-learning processes facilitate knowledge exchange, coproduction and learning in the science-policy engagement process. Research products should be tailored and translated through co-learning processes to suit needs of next users.Power relations, including the status of individuals involved in the engagement process may affect the outcomes of the process. This is especially true in the case of the agricultural sector, where knowledge is highly politicized and researchers need to navigate power relations. Also, in the context of power and influence, the United Nations Environment Program has called for gender equality in all sciencepolicy activities, to avoid aggravating existing inequalities (UNEP 2017). This principle proposes that researchers should be mindful of gender and other power differences.Strengthening the capacity of farmers and agricultural sector actors such as extension services is a priority to enable farming communities to cope with climate change impacts. Capacity enhancement efforts can both help next users better articulate demand, and to effectively translate knowledge into actions at the field level. In this context, AR4D has a role to play, and the principle proposes that research efforts should focus on enhancing the capacity of next users and research partners and measuring progress.AR4D efforts integrate research activities and outputs with an impact pathway leading to development outcomes, and international development partners pursue this pathway to realize impacts for higher-level goals such as improved livelihoods and food security. This principle proposes mainstreaming higher-level goals of poverty reduction, gender equity, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and improved nutrition in policy engagement efforts to help focus on development outcomes.Mechanisms for internal learning, such as a theory of change approach, can help balance research efforts with the priorities of next users. Researchers should include processes to review the theory of change, re-align the strategy for impact, and seize emerging opportunities in order to be successful.Effective communication between researchers and next users is a key boundary management function, and the emphasis of communication efforts has shifted from generic approaches to targeted ones which facilitate knowledge brokering. This principle proposes that research efforts should develop communications strategies to link closely with the impact pathways identified.Source: Adapted from Dinesh et al. 2018.The focus of this paper is on CCAFS projects that worked explicitly on engaging with stakeholders to integrate gender-responsiveness into government policies related to agriculture and climate change. Projects that were engaged with policy makers and addressed gender concerns as a sub-component of broader issues were not included because our main interest was in those activities for which gender sensitivity was the driving force. We gathered primary and secondary data for this paper. Secondary data were collected by searching the archive of CCAFS-related publications available through cgspace.cgiar.org and doing keyword searches on the CCAFS website for blog stories and news updates related to 'gender', 'policy', 'stakeholder', 'engagement' and other related terms. These sources served as the basis for a literature review during which we extracted such information as the types of stakeholders involved, the modes of engagement, frequency, challenges identified and results achieved. In total, we gleaned information from 27 documents which were a combination of working papers, project reports, blog stories and peer-reviewed articles. In addition to this literature review, we also conducted key informant interviews and email discussions with project leaders and other colleagues within the CCAFS research program to collect more detailed information and focus on issues that were not addressed in the literature such as power relations. We interviewed 12 CCAFS researchers involved in gender and policy engagement. The topic guide used for these interviews is included in Annex 1 and the positions and organizations of the individuals are listed in Annex 2. Data from the interviews were analysed using content analysis to identify emerging themes, meanings, and relationships. Data from both primary and secondary sources were then analysed using the stakeholder principles presented in the framework above (Table 1).One of the main limitations faced during this study was the difficulty of recall for the whole period during which CCAFS has been in operation. While there were a few staff members who have been with the program since its inception, others joined more recently and some who had worked for CCAFS earlier in the program have since left. Our topics of interest as laid out in the analytical framework were not always written up in the project documentation, and so we had to piece together information from the key informant interviews with colleagues who were not always part of the project activities at their inception. As such, issues around how stakeholders were selected or how frequently they were engaged may not be as well documented as we would have liked.This section presents CCAFS's approaches to stakeholder engagement in climate change or agriculture policies that address gender inequalities, the main lessons learned, and the challenges of working with multiple stakeholders in policy-related projects. In general, CCAFS activities over the past 10 years have included project components that were designed explicitly to create awareness among policy makers about the need for gender-responsive climate change and agriculture policies. These activities included gender awareness-raising engagements, sharing of evidence regarding gender differences in agriculture and climate change, conducting policy analyses on the gender sensitivity of existing policies and assisting in policy revision with an aim to making specific policies more gender-responsive. We use the framework of stakeholder principles listed in Table 1 to analyze the activities related to engagement in policy processes involving gender concerns carried out by CCAFS projects.Table 2 below summarizes the projects, geographic scope, the types of stakeholders engaged, methods of engagement and outcomes of the engagement process. Fuller descriptions of the projects can be found in Annex 3. This principle proposes the identification of interventions that can bring about major changes. Stakeholder engagement within the projects was done strategically, particularly when the topic being put forward for consideration, such as gender mainstreaming, was not accepted universally as necessary to address. Several projects conducted situation and gender analyses to establish an understanding of the local, national or regional context, to identify which stakeholders to engage and to discover entry points that would yield results.In Uganda and Tanzania, the PACCA project team conducted situational analyses to understand the existing level of gender consideration in agricultural and natural resource policies and budgets at national and sub-national levels. A doctoral researcher dedicated to this analysis helped keep the topic of gender at the forefront of the project's work. The analysis helped the team find entry points to engaging with stakeholders on the topic of gender and climate change at difference governance levels. The CCAFS SA regional project's work in Nepal also reviewed existing climate and agricultural policies.In the Shaping CAC Policies project led by the Aliiance of Bioversity and CIAT (ABC), there was a post-doctoral researcher dedicated to the gender component of the research and engagement. The project also invested resources to understand the countries' contexts and analysis of stakeholders to engage before final selection of the focus countries and stakeholders. There was a deliberate effort to select and engage stakeholders with an observable interest in gender to take part in the workshops on gender and inclusive policy as remarked by one of the key informants: In Shaping CAC Policies, the project chose to focus on Peru and Nicaragua because Peru had been working on a gender and climate action plan, which offered a window of opportunity.It was also easier to travel to Peru from Colombia, where the researchers were based, which facilitated the engagement. In Nicaragua, CCAFS and ABC had support through a partnership with CATIE, a regional institute for tropical agricultural research and higher education. CATIE had already been implementing some projects that included gender capacity building, so the Shaping CAC Policies project was able to build upon that and engage with decision makers who had already been involved with CATIE. The Ministry of Agriculture in Nicaragua also had already established a gender unit, which made it easier to find entry points through which to connect.The work of CCAFS's Gender and Social Inclusion (GSI) team, along with inputs from the East and West Africa regional teams, used a specific point of leverage with the Africa Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES) group to contribute technical content to gender submissions to the UNFCCC, submissions to the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), as well as supporting opportunities to integrate gender into national policies, such as the Nigeria Gender and Climate Action Plan, NAPs and NDCs. One of the GSI team members who was on staff when the work began had already been involved in meetings on gender integration in Kenyan climate change policies and became a temporary member of the African Working Group of Gender and Climate Change. Getting involved in the AGNES group and contributing technical and financial support to their workshops allowed CCAFS to participate at that point of leverage to help inform the African Group of Negotiators submissions, which in turn helped formulate some national submissions as well. These engagements with strategic groups helped provide points where substantive technical inputs plus a relatively small amount of financial support helped in the development of submissions representing African positions on gender integration to international bodies such as UNFCCC.This principle entails an approach that emphasizes engaging through partnerships and building capacity while also generating science. Partnerships for delivery and scale are central to the CCAFS processes as well as capacity development. Several respondents reported the importance of taking time to build relationships, being patient and persistent in cultivating a rapport with decision-makers, and building consensus with multiple stakeholders. By using the principle of allocating resources in three-thirds, that emphasis on building and maintaining partnerships remains at the forefront.Most projects included in this study reported investing time and allocating resources to working with Ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Gender, and sometimes with specific gender units in those Ministries. The stakeholders engaged were identified purposely by the leading partners, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture or Gender, and/or snowball stakeholder identification where stakeholders recommended other actors within their networks. The Shaping CAC Policies project worked directly with Ministries of Gender and brought them together with Ministries of Agriculture to harmonize the activities.Additionally, the project team worked with the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), a body that governs all the Ministries of Agriculture in the Central America region. The CCAFS SA regional project in Nepal and the PACCA project in Tanzania worked only with women policymakers, and other projects worked with a mix of men and women decision makers. In Uganda, the PACCA project tried to get more women representatives attending stakeholder meetings at national and sub-national levels in response to the low women representation at multi-stakeholder forums.The common methods of engagement were stakeholder meetings, capacity building workshops, webinars, and learning platforms. The CCAFS SA regional work in Nepal also involved site visits to farming communities with women leaders and policymakers. Capacity development workshops on the integration of gender in climate policy, negotiations and actions enhanced partners' commitment to addressing gender in climate policies and negotiation for gender action plans at the international and national levels. CCAFS projects in the regions invested in action research to generate evidence that informed the climate policy processes, resulting in technical reports, policy briefs, and training manuals among other outputs.The GSI team was especially cognizant of the importance of allocating resources to engaging with next users and building capacity. A good deal of the work with the AGNES group was investment of staff time in building the relationship and financial support for the meetings where submissions to the UNFCCC on gender topics were prepared. The GSI team also lent technical support for the organization of meetings and contributed to the content of submissions as part of the engagement process. These meetings took place in parallel with the preparation of submissions on agricultural topics under the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, and there were opportunities for cross-learning between the gender and agriculture groups and joint capacity building on issues related to gender and climate change and other topics as well, such as how to contribute to reports produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The relationships built in these engagements also led to further opportunities, such as the involvement and support for aGender and Climate Change Action Plan for Nigeria and the UNFCCC's Gender Action Plan.It is important to acknowledge that spending time building relationships and investing in engagement can be costly, hence the need for dedication of one-third of both time and financial resources. The project length was sometimes too short for this to happen effectively, thereby affecting the attainment of the desired goals. Issues of budget cuts meant that some planned activities could not take place, and this was further hindered by lack of continuity of project activities. As one project team member reported: \"Sometimes, we might aspire to create better policies or better programs, but the reality is that we might not have money or budget to do these activities.\" This is a reminder for the agricultural research for development community that adopting the three-thirds principle requires proper and realistic planning at the beginning of a project.This principle acknowledges building on existing processes rather than creating new processes and events. Adding support to groups that were already working on the same or similar issues provided better opportunities than trying to start from scratch and avoided the risk of duplicating efforts. For example, the Shaping CAC Policies project found through their initial situation analysis that the Ministry of Agriculture in Nicaragua had a gender unit. This institutional arrangement created an entry point for sharing findings from the gender and agricultural policy analysis, and the institutional organization allowed for more free-flowing communication. CATIE had been doing projects that included gender capacity building and training for the partner organizations with which they were coordinating, and this made engaging with those decision makers who had been involved in CATIE's projects more fruitful. The ministry officials had more capacity to act upon the information and results that the project were sharing, and were able to consider incorporating them into environmental planning they were involved in for certain regions of Nicaragua. The CCAFS researchers also found a window of opportunity to contribute to an ongoing process in Peru's work on a gender and climate action plan which took place early in the project. Joining in this external process gave the opportunity to contribute knowledge and evidence developed by CCAFS on gender and agriculture under climate change.The engagement through the GSI and East Africa teams in the AGNES group was also an example of the benefits to joining an external process. The connections formed with AGNES members from various countries opened up opportunities to participate in national processes that were underway. One example arose within the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives. The Ministry has embarked on a process to develop a gender policy for the agricultural sector but it had stalled for several years.When the ministry was ready to restart the process, CCAFS was able to join with the Ministry and other partners to help move it forward.This researchers who could contribute to the group. In the beginning, the major challenge for the gender component of the AGNES work was identifying experts on gender and climate change issues. One respondent noted, \"Gender is a very specific field, so you also need experts who can support the process\". Collaboration with AGNES also led to a background paper on gender implications of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture that provided information to African negotiators prior to the meetings of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (Masiko et al., 2019). Another collaborative output is a conceptual framework, supported by the CCAFS GSI team, that helps guide countries on integrating gender into climate policies (Chingarande et al., 2020).In West Africa, the CCAFS regional team and GSI team helped support the development of a gender profile of climate smart agriculture in Ghana (CCAFS 2020). This work was undertaken to help address the need for data and evidence on gender dimensions of CSA practices and gender differences in agriculture and climate change. It was noted by several projects that lack of data on gender in agriculture and the gender dimension of CSA practices at national levels makes integration of gender considerations difficult in the policy process.The work in Ghana revealed an urgent need for a comprehensive census at the national level and the establishment of a monitoring system to ensure that credible information is made available on a continuous basis, as a foundation for effective decision-making. Participation by CCAFS researchers in establishing such systems using validated research instruments used elsewhere aids in building the program's credibility.In PACCA in Uganda, learning alliances were formed and gender issues were presented at each meeting to broaden stakeholders' understanding of the concerns related to gender and climate change, enhance appreciation of their importance, and develop the skill to integrate gender in climate-related policies. This project incorporated such issues at each learning alliance meeting because of the understanding that gender-focused policy engagement needs to incorporate awareness-raising and capacity building at each governance level and be underpinned by solid research that can support the integration of gender concerns in policy discussions. In addition to research products focused on gender concerns, the project also would provide information on the current climate and possible future climate scenarios as part of the effort to build scientific credibility in other areas in addition to gender research.The CliSM project on agro-climate information services (ACIS) for women and ethnic minority farmers in Southeast Asia also used the provision of credible scientific outputs through action research to help build credibility and inform policy processes. A knowledge generation platform was established to share lessons on the provision of ACIS to women and minority farmers that were applicable to policy development and revision. The evidence generated by the platform was then used in ongoing policy dialogues with stakeholders and helped to scale the project activities from sub-national activities to the national level.Co-learning and co-production of knowledge are key to the stakeholder engagement process to generate products suited to stakeholder's needs. During the engagement processes, projects used different strategies to elicit perspectives on specific issues. For instance, within the collaboration with AGNES, the strategy used to address gender issues was to have a separate group during workshops to develop the relevant gender submissions outlined in the Paris Agreement follow-up process. CCAFS gender experts also participated in codeveloping the knowledge products described above in principle four. The separate gender and agriculture groups of AGNES would meet and develop their submissions in parallel but then present to each other at the end of the workshop so that they could each comment on the work of the other. In this way, gender concerns also became integrated into the agriculture submissions. One of the respondents recounted the early days of AGNES meetings:During the meetings, when the discussions were going on and gender kept coming up, a group was set aside to focus on gender issues. There were deliberate discussions to include gender in UNFCCC negotiations. As AGNES, during the workshops, the agriculture and gender groups meet separately but also try to encourage gender experts to join the 'agriculture' group to ensure the work of the agriculture group contains a gender element. The gender and agriculture groups sit together and go through each other's submissions for an opportunity to give feedback.Within PACCA, the learning alliances were key to gaining a better understanding from the stakeholders of what the barriers were and what possible solutions they proposed for improving integration of gender concerns in policies. Developing and carrying out those solutions jointly ensured that the stakeholders had buy-in to the process and were more likely to take action as a result.The Shaping CAC Policies project worked with the CCAFS Latin American regional team to collaborate with stakeholders in the region and produce policy briefs. The CCAFS researchers requested stakeholder input and shared the briefs with them. The project team distributed a newsletter to them to ensure regular contact.Co-learning and co-production of knowledge were also key in the CliSM project in Southeast Asia. In the first phase of the project, a participatory scenario planning approach was designed based on the understandings of local contexts and stakeholders. Agro-climate information obtained during the preparations was communicated in the workshop by the facilitators. During the workshop, the participants consolidated and acted upon this information in combination with local knowledge and technical/scientific information to produce agro advisories. These agro-advisories were communicated amongst the local community through various channels, and the evidence of their use was then fed back into policy dialogue processes.While this principle advises researchers to be aware of gender and other power differences They might not even be part of the process of decision-making.\"In East Africa, researchers from the CCAFS regional team indicated that providing funding to the stakeholder engagement processes increased the power to suggest inputs, while those who were not providing funding had less power. Another problem encountered by the CCAFS projects was that stakeholder engagement processes were often conducted with technical officers within ministries who often do not hold much power compared to the actual policy and law makers (high level ministry officials and national legislators). However, they have staying power, while the policy and law makers may change at every election, with resulting changes in policy-makers' interest. Within the AGNES group, some of the members did serve on their country's negotiations team, but others were only in an advisory capacity to the negotiators who had a seat at the UNFCCC table. One major obstacle encountered in the AGNES engagement was the power of the chair of the AGN to decide whether or not to formally submit the gender submissions that were prepared. In at least one instance, the gender submission that was prepared by the gender team members in AGNES was not submitted on behalf of the AGN.In the Nepal activity led by the CCASF SA regional team, in which women decision makers were taken for site visits, one of the challenges faced after those visits was the inability of some of the local level policy makers to directly influence policy. They were unable to make themselves heard in the final planning processes at higher levels. One of the respondents noted, \"there was no rejection to introduce gender in policies but there was a tension between policy (theory) and practice among the actors in the local reality.\" The language used to articulate gender issues and the importance of integrating gender in policy was a critical element in getting stakeholders' buy-in. This was mentioned by respondents the PACCA and Shaping CAC Policies projects. One of the key informants reported:A lot of us are researchers or academics and you can be theoretical but it's not helpful when you're trying to talk with someone in a ministry. As gender specialists, we have to explain why gendersensitive policy-making is as important as gender inclusion in projects.Within the AGNES partnership in Africa, a major emphasis on capacity enhancement has benefited the AGNES members by improving knowledge of gender and climate change issues and provided support in international negotiations. The CCAFS GSI project team supported several African gender researchers to attend the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP),where specific networking and capacity building events were held. There were mentoring relationships that developed out of these events, and the attendees had opportunities to experience side events as speakers and participants. The GSI team also helped support AGNES events in Kenya and Senegal where capacity building was a focus alongside In the Shaping CAC Policies project, close work with the gender unit within the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture resulted in a series of workshops to build their capacity to introduce gender issues in climate change, agriculture and food security activities. The outcome of the workshop was a gender guide that they used in further workshops with about 20 organizations in Guatemala. The gender guide helped inform institutions in Guatemala on how to introduce gender at the design, implementation, and monitoring stage. The Ministry of Agriculture Gender Unit also used the guide to develop a more specific manual for extension agents to help integrate gender considerations in their field work. Guatemala presented the guide to the Gender Network of the Central American Agricultural Council, which motivated other countries to tailor the guide to their specific contexts. For example, Honduras has developed its own guidelines for gender and CSA based on the experience of Guatemala. A larger project, Resilient Central America, is using the manual to diagnose the level of gender inclusion in the formulation of the Climate Resilience Plan for the bean value chain in Hunduras. The Shaping CAC Policies project also worked on capacity building within universities, focusing on including gender issues in technical curricula. The activities were designed and implemented because there were people in some ministries and development organizations who had some basic awareness of the importance of gender considerations for policy making, but there were other people who were not aware of thinking that way. The capacity building was important to get everyone to the same level of understanding of the importance of incorporating gender considerations in policy and program design.This principle proposes mainstreaming higher-level goals of poverty reduction, gender Gender can sometimes be discussed as an issue and written into a policy as a formality at the national level, but gender discourse can become neglected as those national policies are translated down to the subnational level (Acosta et al., 2019a). These tensions between the formal discourse of gender equality and the informal, local discourse, were documented by the doctoral researcher affiliated with the IITA-led project in Uganda and Tanzania (Acosta et al., 2019a;Acosta et al., 2019b). There is a tension between what is politically correcthaving gender-sensitive language included -and what it implies in practice. The language used to articulate the importance of integrating gender in policies and the meaning that actors attach to 'gender' can also be problematic. Other respondents noted the need to avoid being seen as 'activists', as this deters stakeholder's interest in addressing gender issues in policy. This also relates back to the principle of building scientific credibility.It looks like gender issues are important in the region including the fact that we are writing all these documents. It looks like there are many documents about gender but it's only on the paper. The more I work on gender, the more I realize that its politically correct but then at that the same time, when these actors talk about or explain how they address gender issues, it is very clear that they do not necessarily make a good effort to introduce these gender issues.It was noted by the CCAFS East Africa regional team, however, that increased recognition of gender issues at UNFCCC is influencing their importance at national levels and spurring countries to create gender focal desks.This principle entails processes that allow for reviewing the theory of change, re-aligning the strategy for impact, and seizing emerging opportunities to be successful. Within the interviews conducted, this principle was noted as having received the least emphasis within the various projects. A recent review of the whole CCAFS program noted that, in general, the program's theory of change is not revisited in a systematic manner (CGIAR Advisory Services (CAS) Secretariat, 2020). The CCAFS GSI leader does discuss and coordinate with the Program Director and leaders of the flagship and regional programs, however this is not formalized.Lack of a systematic monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to track the outcomes was cited by respondents as an issue, with no indicators to measure progress toward gender equality in the face of climate change. This had been noted as a challenge earlier, and a study on possible gender-related policy indicators which can be used to monitor projects' progress has been published to aid CCAFS in addressing this issue (Tavenner et al., 2020).Respondents also cited a lack of evidence-based recommendations to inform decisionmaking as a challenge. The PACCA project undertook and analysis of the integration of gender issues in national and subnational policies and budget and developed recommendations for improving the progress (Ampaire et al., 2020) which helped inform the project design. In general, CCAFS has undertaken efforts to collect and present good practices and lessons learned from its projects in the form of Info Notes and other communication products targeted both to an external audience and internal staff.This principle proposes that research for development efforts should develop communication strategies to link closely with the impact pathways identified. Several strategies were used to aid communication among different stakeholders. Communication channels included electronic platforms (e.g. email, newsletters, blogs, social media, and websites), policy briefs, as well as interviews, and focus group discussions to get feedback.The mode of communication varied with the type of stakeholder, objectives of the engagement and timing. Farmers were engaged at the farm level using field visits as platforms for consultation and sharing information while policymakers, decision makers, development practitioners, donors and researchers were engaged through meetings, workshops, learning alliances, conferences, and other online platforms (such as webinars, email and websites). The frequency of engaging with stakeholders ranged from weekly, monthly, quarterly to biannually. Regular interactions with stakeholders improve the ownership of the project. However, in certain instances, stakeholders did not maintain consistency in participation as new stakeholders come on board, and others dropped-off. This is not a concern limited to engaging with decision makers on gender issues; it is a general issue in working with governments as administrations change through elections and ministry officials change as well.One effective way that respondents mentioned to communicate strategically was through the use of champions to give voice to the issues. CCAFS support in the form of financial contributions to meetings or travel to international events for key champions in both Kenya and Uganda helped raise the profile of gender issues within climate change discussions. A strategic ally within AGNES kept gender-sensitive issues at the forefront in climate change policy discussions and was very valuable in pushing work forward.Applying the 10 principles of effective research for development programs to analyze the data revealed an interplay between the principles. The principles reinforce each other, thereby aiding advancements in stakeholder engagement processes. Overall, understanding the local context and type of stakeholders to engage was a very critical entry point in engaging stakeholders on gender and climate change issues. Gender analysis of climate change and agri-food policies enabled the stakeholders to identify the points of leverage, allocate resources to the partnerships, strengthen capacities, and build scientific credibility as discussed below.The identification and selection of stakeholders and participants who were in influential positions and had an interest in gender issues helped the project staff to work closely on agriculture and climate-related policies or plans and integrate gender considerations in the process. Making connections between different governance levels -regional, national, and subnational levels nurtured consistency in implementation. For instance, the use of learning platforms at different governance levels in Uganda facilitated the harmonization of policy requirements between levels. Additionally, working closely with next users such as the ministries and regional bodies e.g. in Central America facilitated the integration of gender issues in the ministries and the scaling of interventions at regional, national and sub-national levels. This implies that stakeholder identification and engagement need to be strategic to include influential stakeholders who can facilitate the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming at different levels and hold institutions to account for gender equality outcomes. Working on already existing draft policies stimulated partners' interest and willingness to engage and act upon proposed recommendations.Although these approaches were effective, they may potentially result in selection bias and exclusion of minorities, although multiple iterations during snowball selection can reduce this likelihood (Leventon et al., 2016). The role and relationship of the researcher with stakeholders is very critical for people to open up and contribute to addressing the issue being put forward. Good rapport between the researchers and stakeholders aids the cultivation of a mutually supportive role, with each stakeholder playing their role without raising their expectations (Herron and Zoraida, 2018).The use of diverse modes of communication improves transparency and acceptance of research results and helps stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of the objectives of the engagement (Mulema and Mazur, 2016). Projects used in-person meetings, emails, phone and video calls and newsletters to remain in touch with stakeholders. This fostered the adoption of the results in national plans, strategies and policies. For instance, in Vietnam, the outputs of the CLiSM project's agro-advisories workshops were adopted by the local government and people's organizations which also facilitated behavioral change.Communications relates to M&E in the context of measuring the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement because engagement is not possible without clear and regular communication efforts. \"Engagement … seeks to overcome alienation, foster communication, and stimulate reform\" (Taylor et al., 2003, p.261). M&E for the progress toward inclusion of gender-sensitive and gender-responsive in policies is different from monitoring, evaluating and learning from engagements with multiple stakeholders (see Tavenner et al., 2020 for recommendations on the former). In terms of M&E for engagement processes, lessons that can be drawn from the projects profiled here include documenting a number of factors that can contribute to fruitful partnerships. Keeping records of the length and nature of the relationship with key partner organizations, tracking the number of outputs that are jointly (co-)produced, documenting the types of stakeholders represented during participation processes and noting any marginalized groups that need further representation, and periodically revisiting any prior theory of change together with key partners and noting where adjustments should be made can all help demonstrate the depth of the engagements undertaken.Working with policymakers who had already been trained or previously involved in genderrelated projects facilitated by the researchers generated more positive results. The policymakers who had prior knowledge and skills on incorporating gender considerations in projects and had already established a working relationship with the researchers were more readibly able to include gender-specific recommendations into their government plans and also delivered on the outcomes more easily. Gaining the trust of stakeholders before their involvement in the process and nurturing this trust throughout the engagement process fostered success in regions although it varied. Champion (2007) and Champion and Wilson (2010) emphasize the importance of longer-term relationships of any engagement and argue for ongoing collaborative processes rather than single, one-off events to cultivate trust. The lessons synthesized here support this finding.A challenge to the principle of capacity enhancement mentioned by several projects was the effect of staff turnover or inconsistency in participation. Individuals who participate in such capacity development sessions may be shifted to other ministries or departments, leaving a gap in the position they vacated. Similarly, bringing people together in AGNES meetings for capacity building is effective but it is difficult to maintain the same attendees each time.Respondents noted that stakeholder engagement processes were characterized by power imbalances that influenced stakeholders' agency. Although women leaders and the institutions with the mandate to address gender issues were involved in specific processes, their participation did not necessarily transform power relations among actors, a finding in line with Chandra et al. (2017) who note that power analysis is rarely addressed in the CSA literature and that power relations have the ability to shape the policies around gender, agriculture and climate change. Patriarchal norms influenced the extent to which stakeholders committed to fully engaging women in decision-making forums and implementing gender-responsive policy actions that call for greater equality in control over resources. For instance, the representatives from the Ministry of Gender in Central America and women leaders in Nepal were not considered fully legitimate decision-makers.Patriarchal relations remained firmly entrenched and were difficult to challenge. This was also documented in Nepal, where findings showed that the implementation of climate change adaptation policies was influenced heavily by power relations (Nagoda and Nightingale 2017).These dynamics were also experienced in the engagements facilitated by AGNES, hindering submission of gender position statements at the UNFCCC. Norms that place men in decision making roles contribute to male dominancy in decision-making platforms, in addition to other factors that constrain women from taking advantage of available opportunities. The disparities between the international gender mainstreaming ideology and local meanings of gender mainstreaming which influence the policy interactive processes are well documented (Acosta et al., 2019a;Acosta et al., 2019b;Wittman, 2010). The respondents did not offer concrete recommendations or lessons learned on how to improve the management of power relations, making this area one that deserves more research and understanding of how to overcome these challenges.The use of scientific evidence enabled the researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to contextualize the problem and the type of engagements needed and actions to be undertaken, tapping into already existing interventions (Ampaire et al, 2020;Gumucio and Tafur Rueda, 2015;Paudyal et al 2019). The engagement of policymakers and decisionmakers in co-production of gender analyses of the existing situations (particularly from the policy arena) resulted in policy briefs that identified gender-related gaps and informed the actions to be undertaken (such publications include AGNES, 2020; Masiko et al., 2019;Chingarande et al., 2020). Those policy briefs then served as leverage points through which to further advance collaborations, similar to a finding of Harvey et al. (2021) which identified policy briefs as boundary objects through which the spheres of decision making and science could be linked. It should be noted that in some cases, leverage points were not necessarily identified strictly through science but by the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time to be tapped to contribute to ongoing or planned processes.Several interactive approaches were applied across the regions to aid co-learning and coproduction of knowledge that informed the investment options. The guidelines, manuals, This paper has synthesized CCAFS's experiences in engaging multiple stakeholders in gender and climate policy processes using both empirical research and a literature review. Despite the increased recognition that women and men play different roles in agriculture, have different preferences, and that climate change impacts them differently, climate change policies have not fully integrated gender (see Huyer et al., 2020). Stakeholder engagement is touted as a critical ingredient in climate change policy decisions and governance to address gender inequalities in agriculture under climate change. Using the framework of stakeholder principles, the analysis shows that a diversity of stakeholders were engaged in the gender and climate policy processes with the Ministries of Agriculture and regional bodies being the main stakeholders.Stakeholders with whom to engage on gender issues were strategically identified since the topic is not accepted universally as necessary to include in climate policy. This has to be accompanied by gender awareness and capacity development to challenge the stereotypes and get the stakeholders' buy-in to the integration of gender in climate policy. Introducing gender concerns into agriculture and climate policy can be a challenging and daunting process where policymakers lack the awareness and capacities to diagnose and address gender issues. Identification and engagement of influential stakeholders at multiple governance levels, with an interest and prior experience in gender integration, facilitated harmonization, institutionalization, and scaling of gender mainstreaming initiatives at different scales --to some extent --by influencing other actors.Gender analysis of existing climate change and agri-food policies was a very critical step towards initiating stakeholder engagement on gender and climate policy issues. Research enabled the project staff to identify the points of leverage to strengthen the engagement of relevant stakeholders, allocate resources to the partnerships, strengthen capacities, and build scientific credibility in gender-smart climate policy. The process was mediated by effective mechanisms for communication, co-learning, and knowledge production to advance gender in climate policy documents.Tensions are inherent in engaging multi-stakeholders in climate policy processes that address gender issues. Stakeholder engagement processes that tackle gender inequalities in climate policy need to recognize the existing power structures and stakeholders' relations which influence the equal treatment of women and men. Although the gender unit of the ministries and other gender experts were involved in the processes, they had less power to influence the inclusivity of agriculture and climate-related policy decisions at the regional and national levels. This might be attributed to cultural norms, the gendered language structure, and social structures in place. This calls for researchers with an interest in gender and the skills to manage power dynamics in multistakeholder processes. Lack of systematic monitoring systems can lead to gaps in the availability of gender-disaggregated data to inform decisions and co-learning among stakeholders, making it difficult to track whether decisions improved livelihoods and gender equality outcomes more widely. Going forward, more systematized mechanisms for internal learning can improve engagement processes and be even more successful in seizing opportunities to inform integration of gender concerns in agriculture and climate change policy making. o What were the outcomes/achievements related to the process?o How were arguments for and against specific gender issues related to the subject matter managed?","tokenCount":"7954"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13058d3c036bdc6d4e49005d74caefc9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3008af1f-877e-4eee-ab9b-c3c73cf3c4d2/retrieve","id":"-741200218"},"keywords":["Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 19, 45-56. a +, Occasional","++, Common","+++, Very Common","* Present in cattle and potentially infectious"],"sieverID":"f34533c3-f52f-48e5-9fa1-7ec1deb933df","pagecount":"272","content":"This series contains the results of original research supported by ACIAR, or material deemed relevant to ACIAR's research and development objectives. The series is distributed internationally, with an emphasis on developing countries. Contents Preface and Acknowledgments 1 1. Worm control for small ruminants in Southeast Asia R.A. Sani and G.D. Gray 3 2. The economic impact of worm infections in small ruminants in Southeast Asia, India and Australia R.S. McLeod 23 3. Developing and testing integrated approaches to sustainable parasite control in small ruminants with farmers in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia A.M.P. Alo 35 4. Anthelmintic resistance in small ruminant parasites: implications for smallholders in Southeast Asia G.M. Hood 51 5. Appropriate breeds and breeding schemes for sheep and goats in the tropics R.L. Baker and G.D. Gray 63 6. Options to overcome worm infection for small ruminant producers in NepalThe Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) was established in June 1982 by an Act of the Australian Parliament. Its primary mandate is to help identify agricultural problems in developing countries and to commission collaborative research between Australian and developing country researchers in fields where Australia has a special research competence.Where trade names are used this does not constitute endorsement of nor discrimination against any product by the Centre.Sustainable technologies for the control of worm parasites of goats and sheep in the tropics have been developed through a series of international research projects, several of which have been supported by ACIAR.ACIAR funded a collaborative project between research organisations in Southeast Asia for ILRI and regional partners to explore new ways to control helminth parasites in the tropics. The project aimed to increase small ruminant production in Southeast Asia by controlling internal parasites, which are one of the major constraints to sheep and goat production in the tropics. Control of internal parasites also provides an avenue for general improvement in husbandry methods.The three objectives of the project were: to prevent the spread of resistance to anthelmintics (dewormers) used for control of nematode parasites of sheep and goats in Asia; to assess genetic variation in resistance to gastrointestinal nematode parasites in different breeds of sheep and goats; and to disseminate information about control of internal parasites in the tropics. This publication and the accompanying CD draw together information from a number of sources to describe the state of research and development on worm control in sheep and goats in Asia and the Pacific.This publication can also be downloaded from the ACIAR website: www.aciar.gov.au.iii Peter Core Director Australian Centre for International Agricultural ResearchThe chapters in this volume were written originally between 1999 and 2001 to support the efforts of projects being implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute with partners in Asia and Australia. Now updated, and together with the accompanying CD, they describe information which, at the beginning of the projects, we believed was lacking or incomplete because much of the research on parasite control in small ruminants in our partner countries was not readily available. The difficulties of publishing applied research of local importance in international media are widely acknowledged. If published, it is often in national journals and, quite appropriately, in the national language of the country where the work has been carried out. However, local publication denies the authors the opportunity to have their work reviewed by peers in the international scientific and development community and denies regional and international readership access to the new research. When an international journal editor returns a well-written paper to its author commenting that 'the topic is not of sufficiently wide interest to our readership', that is often accurate and understandable as most paying subscribers will be in Europe or North America, but little comfort to millions of farmers, thousands of extension workers and hundreds of scientists whose livelihoods in the tropics are either constrained or occupied by the problems of worm control.Supporting information was therefore a priority for the projects which funded this collection of 'grey' literature that is 'not cited internationally'. Our rationale has been that efforts to develop new approaches to worm control, develop new technologies, and adapt existing technologies, would be strengthened by making this store of knowledge and experience available to the project partners and their research teams. This has been done within the project by publishing the early versions of these chapters and internal documents and circulating electronic versions on CD. As these initial projects drew to a close in 2003, it was timely to gather them in a single volume.The chapters vary in style and content reflecting the different needs of the partner countries and the amount of information available. In a few cases, some original research is described briefly. Although being published formally here, the work is ongoing, and updates will be available electronically through the authors and the project website which can be accessed via ILRI at www.ilri.org or directly at www.worminfo.org.The assessment of the the importance of small ruminants and the needs for parasite control in Nepal (Chapter 6) was undertaken against a background of substantial research of sheep and goats in Nepal, principally by scientists based at the Lumle and Pakhribas research centres. That research is reviewed in Chapter 15.The accompanying CD contains all these chapters and many other tools and resources to assist those with an interest in worm control. The immediate beneficiaries will be researchers about to embark on a new research project, extension or development workers trying to solve immediate parasite problems or develop local control strategies, and teachers of animal, veterinary and extension science who will benefit from a more complete approach to worm control than provided by the lists of chemicals and parasites which dominate the conventional literature. The final beneficiaries, of course, we expect to be the millions of poor livestock keepers who depend on sheep and goats, those who have no livestock but may use small ruminants as a pathway to build some assets and income, and subsistence farmers who may see the opportunity to expand their livestock farming to a more marketoriented enterprise.The list of people and institutions to be acknowledged is long and reflects the breadth of the partnerships that have been developed and exploited to bring Better Worm Control for Small Ruminants in Asia to the press. The logos of their institutions alone would occupy several pages. Gathering and synthesising the information and development of the decision support tool Goatflock is a specific output of a project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (TAG 443), where Ahmed Sidahmed has provided critical support and insights into our efforts. That project has been implemented in parallel with a project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (PN97133) where John Copland has been a staunch advocate of applied research to benefit poor farmers. ACIAR contributed much to the earlier research being summarised here, notably in Indonesia, Malaysia and Fiji, and has contributed the funds to edit, publish and distribute this book and CD. Jenny Edwards provided critical interpretation and skilful editing of many chapters.The names and institutions of those involved in these projects are reflected in the authorship and their affiliations listed in the following pages. Missing, however, are the hundreds of their collaborators and the thousands of farmers across the region who have given up their time to answer questions, record data and travel hundreds of thousands of kilometres to create this information and knowledge. That they have done so reflects the importance they give to small ruminants as a source of livelihood in their communities and the degree to which helminth infections reduce the many benefits that sheep and goats can provide. From this publication, we hope that these constraints are better understood and that more people will find better ways of overcoming them.Two-thirds of the world's poor live in Asia below nationally defined poverty lines and 479 million (65%) of them are poor livestock keepers who derive a large part of their household welfare from domesticated animals (LID 1999, Thornton et al. 2003). In Southeast Asia, the focus for this volume, the comparable figures are 161 m and 62 m (38%) with great variation between countries, between agroecological regions, and between communities with close or distant access to cities. Rural Southeast Asia is a group of countries with diverse cultures, economies and politics which is also characterised by mixed farming systems. These systems are often described by their staple crop, eg rice, yam or maize, which is significant for the farming culture. Nevertheless, with the possible exception of intensely irrigated farming systems, livestock are common to all systems: poultry, small and large ruminants and pigs are ubiquitous and an essential part of the management of economic and natural resources. For example, at the three project sites (described in Chapter 8) in the Philippines, livestock are a major part of the village economies, which are usually described as based on rice, coconuts or fishing. Thus, it is not appropriate, in the context of rural poverty in Southeast Asia, to describe the vast majority of livestock keepers as being engaged in the livestock sector, but rather that the livestock sector is highly integrated into complex livelihoods based around multiple commodities and sources of income. Livestock are an essential part of existing systems and offer opportunities for high-value production (IFAD 2002). This contrasts with temperate farming systems where farmers are often dedicated to large-scale sheep or goat production. The parasites and hosts may be the same, but the nature of the problems caused by parasites and the options available for overcoming them are different and varied.The rapidly changing patterns of demand for livestock and livestock products (dubbed the Livestock Revolution by Delgado et al. 1999, and others) point to livestock production being an increasing component (at least in value) of the agricultural economies of Southeast Asia. The extent to which the rural poor will benefit from these changes depends on how livestock can be integrated into developing markets, the potentially negative effects of industrialised production in rural areas and whether cheaper livestock products benefit the rural poor as R.A. Sani and G.D. Gray 1. Worm control for small ruminants in Southeast Asia consumers as well as producers. There is scope for small ruminants to play an important role for smallholder farmers in accessing these new markets.In Southeast Asia the dominant livestock species are large ruminants (cattle and buffalo), pigs and poultry. With the exception of Indonesia, goats and sheep are relatively few. Their significance, however, which is now being exploited in several countries, is that they are small livestock in high demand and can thrive on low inputs and local resources. Their significance in South Asia is much greater and Chapters 6 and 15 on Nepal, with reference to India in Chapter 6, are useful points of reference.The focus of this volume is on small ruminant production, the effects that nematode parasites have on their productivity and ways of overcoming these effects. In some chapters, 'avoidance' takes on more significance than 'direct confrontation'. There are many technical ways to remove worms from goats and sheep and make them grow better, the simplest being drug treatment, and in conventional economic terms, these treatments are cost effective with a high return on investment. Poor people, however, are not secure enough (Wood 2003) to make this type of investment: either they have higher priorities for cash-in-hand, they are uncertain if their animals will survive, or they have little confidence in when and how their animals will be sold, and their price. Thus, any attempt to increase goat and sheep production to benefit the poor must address the wider reasons for the failure of the poor to invest in technical solutions. This became increasingly obvious to the authors involved in the preparation of this volume and, as will be seen in several chapters, understanding and addressing social and market issues are highly significant. This volume is arranged in two sections. The first section describes some advances in techniques and in the thinking behind worm control for smallholders in the humid tropics. Questions addressed include how to estimate the costs and benefits of control measures, how to make best use of genetic variation in resistance, how to use computerised tools in assessing control interventions, and how to use participatory approaches to help in devising sustainable control options.The second section includes separate chapters on published, 'grey' and some previously unpublished information from Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Malaysia, Thailand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia are included in a single chapter as there has been little work on small ruminants in these countries.The origins of this volume, and much of the work that is presented in it, lie in a workshop held in Bogor in 1996, the proceedings of which were published by ACIAR (Knox and LeJambre 1996). That workshop took a very wide look at all the potential options available for worm control in the region and it is essential reading for those who are interested in a more comprehensive account of all possibilities. How much progress has been made in the eight years since the Bogor workshop? There certainly have been some technical advances, but as predicted at the workshop, no miracle drugs or vaccines have appeared on the world market. A pessimistic view might be that the problems have worsened with increased resistance to anthelmintics. A more optimistic view is that there is wider understanding of all the elements that contribute to worm control: technical, social and economic, and that these need to work in harmony for the end point of worm control to be realised: improved livelihoods for poor farmers from their sheep and goats.A key objective of this volume, and the accompanying CD, is to bring to a wider audience the treasure trove of material in technical reports, in the so-called 'grey' literature, and in journals which are not widely circulated and in languages not widely understood. The most obvious example of this is in Indonesia where much research on parasite control is published in Bahasa Indonesia. Subandriyo and colleagues have tried to both summarise and translate many important publications (Chapter 9). This overview chapter will take the same path, by singling out the control options and exploring their potential contribution to worm control, examining integrated approaches and finally considering the potential for worm control as an entry point for sustainable small ruminant production rather than an isolated problem. This is preceded by a review and discussion of the evidence for nematodes being an important problem for sheep and goats and, very briefly, a recap on the parasites and their hosts.A wide range of parasites are found in sheep and goats in Southeast Asia. They are mainly Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus spp., followed in prevalence by Strongyloides papillosus, Oesophagostomum spp., Moniezia spp, Trichuris spp., Cooperia, the rumen and pancreatic flukes, Bunostomum, Fasciola spp. and also Eimeria spp. The cooler climes of Nepal and North Vietnam also host Teladorsagia and Nematodirus.The breeds of sheep and goats available in the region are described in each of the country chapters. There are many, and their origins are diverse, leading to a conclusion that there is sufficient diversity of genetic resources in the region to satisfy the genetic needs of all possible small ruminant enterprises. The Indian subcontinent is the origin of most breeds but some, such as the Barbados Blackbelly and Santa Ines sheep, and Boer goats, have been imported recently from the Americas.Goats and sheep are often kept for food security and emergency sources of cash. (G.D. Gray) The null hypothesis: controlling worms is a waste of time and money Given the investments in parasite control in the last century, is it worth stepping back and reconsidering the evidence for worms being a problem for sheep and goats in the tropics? Is it possible that investing resources in the control of worms in sheep and goats is not worth the effort, that these resources can be better invested elsewhere? Is it so obvious that parasites constrain production and that public and private funds should continue to be thrown at the problem? A premise of this entire volume and the basis of a significant section of the pharmaceutical industry and the scientific community is that the benefits of removing gastrointestinal nematode worms from sheep and goats outweigh the costs. In commercial large-scale production of small ruminants with well-defined markets at least, the short-term costs and benefits are well understood. In smallholder production systems, this is far from the case. In part, this is because the benefits of small ruminants are so many, for example, as assets, for weed control, and as sources of fertiliser and security. These benefits are very difficult to quantify. But also there are very little data on the effect on the more conventional parameters of value such as growth, mortality and offtake of meat, milk and fibre, which themselves are often hard to value because of informal and non-metric markets, especially in real farming systems outside the artificial confines of research stations. These data are reviewed below, less to provide an overall estimate of the effects of worms, than to discuss the various ways of doing so. Having reviewed this evidence, a case can be made for reducing the need for such estimates of loss, except as a starting point for the design of options for intervention. The more critical cost and benefits, and those needed by the agencies who will pay for them, are those of the interventions themselves. The benefits of a single intervention, for example improved grazing management to reduce mortality from nematodes, may have a much wider benefit than simply 'worm control'.Data from Southeast Asia is sparse. Comparison between parasitised and non-parasitised goats in two villages in southern Luzon (Que et al. 1995) showed that they differed in growth by several kilos over a period of six months, representing a good return on investment from a single dose of anthelmintic. Beriajaya and Copeman (1996) studied goats and sheep on 50 farms in West Java, Indonesia to investigate the seasonal effect of nematode parasitism on weight gain of recently weaned sheep and goats. Weight gains of untreated animals were compared with those of an otherwise similar group treated each two weeks with oxfendazole or albendazole to suppress nematode parasitism. During the dry season, animals grew much faster than in the wet season and anthelmintic treatment had no effect on weight gains. In the wet season, however, weight gains of both groups were lower and the effect of anthelmintic was to increase growth rates in treated sheep by 25 per cent. Pralomkarn et al. (1996) investigated the effects of internal parasites on growth rates of goats in village environments in southern Thailand in a humid tropical climate and found the growth rates of goats drenched every three weeks were significantly higher than for those left undrenched and that drenching had most effect on animals on a lower plane of nutrition.The effects of parasitism are more obvious in losses due to mortalities. In Malaysia, goat mortalities were monitored closely in two studies. Among a flock of grazing goats monitored from birth to 14 months of age and not given dewormers, postmortem examination showed deaths due to trichostrongyles were 32% (Daud et al. 1991). Symoens et al. (1993) studied 13 goat smallholdings over 15 months and found a mortality rate of 74% for animals up to one year old and 34% adult mortality. Postmortem examination confirmed the major causes of death as pneumonia and haemonchosis.These first three studies illustrate several difficulties in arriving at good and meaningful estimates of the benefits of worm control. First, there is a need to establish populations of animals which are free from worm infection. In each of the studies this was done by anthelmintic treatment, which needs to be properly applied using a fully effective chemical. In all cases the chemical used was short-acting, lasting only a few days. The treated animals would therefore become infected with larvae from the grazing they shared with non-treated animals within a week. In the case of the Indonesian study, the chemical was given every fortnight which would probably never allow adult worms to develop. However, immature worms would certainly have been present. Thus, studies of this type will always underestimate the worm effect when the control groups are not free of infection. The second issue is timing.The study by Que lasted six months and we do not know what happened to the animals after observation ceased. Was there compensatory growth in the wormaffected groups, as is often observed in on-station experiments? Third, criteria used for 'effect' in all the experiments were growth rate and liveweight at the end of the trial. The implication drawn from the trials was that this liveweight difference could be translated into a financial loss by using a market price per kilo of liveweight. No account is made of the timing of sale (farmers often wait until an emergency or a particular season to sell animals) or the ability of the farmer to get market price for the exact weight of the animal. It is hard to know whether this over-or underestimates the effect of worms as the market value may be based Grazing sheep and goats are exposed to many threats including dog attack. (D. Yulistiani) on more qualitative traits such as 'condition' or 'colour'. Certainly, no account is taken of the other attributes of the animals, such as manure production (likely to be depressed along with appetite in infected animals), or the costs of tending and young animals with diarrhoea. At face value it makes economic sense to spend money on a simple anthelmintic. Que estimated a benefit-cost ratio of several hundred to one of doing so. But, by and large, smallholder farmers do not treat their animals. There must be more to this than simple economics.In this volume the economics of parasite control are considered at the national (Chapter 2) and household (Chapter 4) levels.In south and central Asia and Africa more detailed studies have been completed. In tropical Africa, two comprehensive studies have been undertaken in Nigeria (Osaer et al. 2000) and Senegal (Ankers 1998) that also use anthelmintics to keep as many worms as possible out of a control group of animals. These studies were more comprehensive because they measured many more animals (hundreds) over a longer period (years) and many more traits. As the trials lasted for more than one growing season, a key measurement could be made -offtake. The engine-room of any livestock production system is the female of reproductive age and, if the main product is meat, the critical measures of engine efficiency are reproductive rate and mortality rate. The more and heavier offspring weaned and the sooner she becomes pregnant after birth. the more efficient will be the herd or flock. Both Osaer et al. and Ankers et al. measured very large reductions (26 and 46% respectively) in offtake in the groups not treated with dewormer. As noted above, it is likely that these effects are underestimates because of the short-term nature of the anthelmintic. Neither study recorded an effect of growth and only in goats was there a reduction in liveweight gain. Was this because of the different breeds used or the relatively low rainfall in the study areas? Of critical importance, had offtake not been measured in these two studies, it might have been concluded that worms had little or no effect on production.In a similar type of long-term study, Thomson et al. (2000) measured offtake in Syrian sheep flocks and found such a small effect that it barely covered the cost of the dewormer. Presumably (but this is only speculation) this is because of the dry environment and low worm challenge. Indeed, a scan of Table 1.1 might suggest that, as annual rainfall increases over 10-fold from 300 mm in Syria to nearly 4 m in Java, both the magnitude of loss increases and the nature of loss changes: from offtake to reduced growth to high mortality. Had Pralomkarn, Que and Beriajaya and colleagues been able to measure offtake this hypothesis, perhaps, could have been strengthened. Ghalsasi et al. (2002) addressed the difficulty of completely removing the worm population in a study on the sheep flock in Maharashtra, India by using an intraruminal capsule containing a macrocyclic lactone which prevents incoming larvae form establishing. By comparing these animals with others treated every three months with ABZ and others untreated they were able to show that the infrequent treatment had no effect, but by complete suppression of the worm population the annual offtake per female in the flock increased by 22%. This raises a question for all the studies mentioned here; had the worm population been completely suppressed, would the effects have been even greater?It is safe to conclude that worms do affect production in goats and sheep, that the effects are likely to vary for many reasons, including those associated with geography, that most of the costs and benefits to smallholder farmers have not been included in estimates and that the use of short-acting chemicals has led to underestimates of the true total impact of worm infections.In a series of, so far, unpublished studies in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, smallholder goat and sheep farmers participated in discussion groups which focused on the problems they faced. The leaders of the discussion groups were extensionists with backgrounds in animal health and production and the discussions were organized in such a way that the starting points were the most serious problems affecting the lives of the farmers and their families. Not surprisingly these were often lack of income and lack of savings to deal with medical emergencies and education expenses. None of the farmers milk their goats or sheep and they described the problems associated with them most often as 'mortality of young' and 'sickness and diarrhoea', especially during the wet season. While it may be possible to interpret some of this sickness and death to parasitism, it is impossible to quantify how much without the long-term and detailed studies. For the smallholder farmers there are two important needs. The first is to address the problem in their terms -reducing mortality and signs of sickness are obvious ways of doing this. Possibly more important, however, and hidden from the farmers, are the losses due to lost capacity to produce more lambs and kids. Addressing the second problem requires a more prolonged effort by scientists and extensionists to provide information to increase awareness of the potential gains. The initial outcomes of such an effort in the Philippines are presented in Chapter 3 and a tool for estimating the effects of reproduction using a computer model (Goatflock) is described in Chapter 7.Reduce focus on absolute losses and increase focus on benefits from interventionsThe rationale of all these studies has been as a preliminary to designing effective options or control programs that minimise the impact of worms on 'production' however narrowly or widely that is defined. The options available to farmers now are: grazing management, improved nutrition, better housing and water supply, better control of breeding and use of chemical dewormers. With the exception of some dewormers, every one of these interventions has a much wider impact than just of worm infections. For example, using tree fodders to reduce intake of infective larvae also has an effect on the overall nutritional status of the animal, improving its resistance to infection and also its growth and resistance to other diseases. Thus, the overall benefits of any component of a control program should consider the total range of benefits for production and health. Likewise, removal of manure to prevent re-infection around housing creates opportunities for applying the manure as fertiliser. Fodder trees can improve rice yields through leaf fall into paddies. Very quickly the estimate of benefits and attribution of a particular intervention becomes complex and beyond simple analysis of single factors and their short-term effects.An example of this approach is illustrated in Table 1.2The most important diseases among pigs and large ruminants in the uplands of Lao are classical swine fever (CSF), fowl cholera (FC), toxocariasis and haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS). While biologically these diseases are quite distinct, the range of control options that might be introduced for any one disease would have an effect on the others and lead to a decrease in the impact of related groups of diseases, eg neonatal enteritis and roundworms in pigs, roundworms of cattle and buffalo (other than Toxocara) and coccidiosis in poultry. This is quite apart from the increase in capacity required for the control of a single disease which would have flow-on effects across the extension service.In summary, there remains the need for accurate definition of the parasites that infect sheep and goats and the direct impacts that they are having on easily measurable aspects of production. The more important effects, however, on reproduction rate, intermittent mortality and contribution to the farming systems and household economy are much more difficult to estimate.The most important question facing investors in livestock health and production is how to allocate their resources and some of the interventions that can help control small ruminant parasites have wider benefits which are not usually considered.Details of these options are contained in the country chapters. This summary highlights the common practices and possibilities.Most countries in Southeast Asia have all three of the currently available broad-spectrum groups of anthelmintics, with benzimidazoles being the most widely used. Levamisole and macrocyclic lactones, in particular ivermectin, are used at levels directly related to the affluence of farmers, availability of government subsidies and ease of availability. The narrow-spectrum haemonchicide closantel is also available in a number of forms, as a single chemical and in combination.The extent of anthelmintic resistance has been estimated in a number of ways.Counting worm eggs in faeces using flotation methods has provided large amonts of clinical and epidemiological data. (G.D. Gray)Use of chemical dewormers is an important option for smallholders and other farmers. A study in East Africa Nguti et al. (2002) -showed that under more extensive grazing in a humid tropical system, 25% of the mortality of young Red Maasai and Dorper sheep could be attributed to parasites. Effective chemicals need not be expensive and could be made widely available, but their use is increasingly constrained by the emergence of worms that are resistant to anthelmintic drugs, for example in Malaysia (Dorny et al. 1993(Dorny et al. , 1994;;Sivaraj et al. 1994aSivaraj et al. , 1994b;;Rahman 1993Rahman , 1994)), Thailand (Kochapakdee et al. 1995) and Indonesia (Dorny et al. 1995). In the Philippines, benzimidazole resistance in a field population of Haemonchus contortus from sheep has been confirmed in Mindanao (Van Aken et al. 1994). Benzimidazoles have been in continuous widespread use for up to 20 years in the Philippines with little use of other chemical groups. Using an in vitro larval development assay (LDA) in the Philippines the mean benzimidazole efficacy for goats was 82% and for sheep was 62% (Ancheta et al. 2004).In Vietnam, deworming of goats is not a common practice, with only 4-8% of farmers using chemical dewormers because the cost is prohibitive. In that country an anthelmintic trial with goats on smallholder farms and on an institutional farm showed benzimidazole efficacy of 70-80%, levamisole of 80-92% and ivermectin of 75%. In south Thailand, benzimidazoles failed to effectively reduce faecal egg counts while levamisole was relatively effective and ivermectin still effective. In Fiji, resistance to fenbendazole and levamisole has been detected. Resistant worm populations are emerging against the three main groups of anthelmintics in Malaysia, providing clear evidence that anthelmintic resistance in parasites of small ruminants in that country is rapidly increasing. It is perhaps fortunate that most Asian countries with small ruminants have used mainly benzimidazoles. This has led to the fair conservation of the broad-spectrum anthelmintics such as levamisole and macrocyclic lactones, meaning they can still be drawn upon if required. However, the cost of such imported manufactured products can be the major limiting factor in their future usage. Chemical dewormers are mainly manufactured for cattle and sheep and the products or their dosages may not necessarily be extrapolated for use in goats. Albendazole sustained release capsules were not effective in goats but they are extremely effective in sheep in Fiji (Chapter 13).Deworming chemicals can be highly effective if used correctly at the right time. (K.C. Patawaran)Comparative pharmacokinetics of albendazole in sheep and goats revealed that the systemic availability of the drug was the same in both species but peak levels were achieved earlier and fell off faster for goats, indicating a faster metabolic rate of albendazole in goats. Therefore, based on the disposition of ABZ metabolites in plasma, equivalent activity of ABZ in sheep and goats might be obtained by increasing the dose rate for goats from 4.75 to 7.5 mg/kg, that is, 1.5 times the recommended dose for sheep (Hennessy et al. 1993).In relation to this, Dorny et. al (1994) demonstrated that closantel was active for a shorter time in Malaysian village goats than it is generally expected to be in sheep -at least 4 weeks at a dose of 7.5 mg/kg given orally. Thus, with a pre-patent period of 3 weeks for H.contortus FECs in sheep would appear, at the earliest, 7 weeks after closantel administration. The period when FECs reappeared after closantel administration (5 mg/kg subcutaneously or 10mg/kg orally) in the village goats was 6 weeks. However, taking advantage of the sustained activity of closantel, which not only prevents reinfection but also resulted in a 72.5-86.8% lower egg deposition on pasture during a 2-month period, it is recommended that in Malaysia closantel be used for strategic drenching alternately with broad-spectrum anthelmintics.Given the opportunity, farmers would use anthelmintics as they perceive animals given these drugs to be fatter, healthier and to have better appetites. So, for these reasons farmers are willing to invest in parasite control. However, the reasons they don't use anthelmintics are: small flock sizes which makes purchasing large packets of anthelmintics unviable; the cost of the drugs; and their unavailability at the village level. In Indonesia a system was proposed where farmers could form an association to make bulk purchases of anthelmintics, which could be dispensed in smaller quantities according to flock size and also bought at discounted prices (Misniwaty et al. 1996). The anthelmintic cost as percentage of total revenue from selling fattened sheep is only about 3%. Hence, making anthelmintics available to farmers on a non subsidised free market is viable (Scholz, 1992). Misniwaty et al. (1994) also suggested that the most effective method of anthelmintic distribution is an extension worker who is organized as a supplier in a certain area. Apart from being a job responsibilty, through this delivery network a certain income would be a motivating drive. The improvement of the delivery arm for anthelmintics would have an overall general benefit in the distribution of other health tools such as antibiotics, vaccines and future approaches.Given the pivotal role of anthelmintics in many worm control programs it is foreseen that their use will increase in Asia. Therefore, it is imperative that animal health workers be educated on the \"do's and don'ts\" of anthelmintic use for the sustainable conservation of present-day drugs.Animals which are better nourished are better able to withstand the effects of worm infection than those given a low plane of nutrition. Resistance of the animal to larval establishment can be enhanced by improved protein nutrition (Sykes & Coop, 2001). In tropical Asia, small ruminants rely mainly on grazing grass and forages which often have low nutritive value and are given little or no protein supplementation.Increasing protein quantity and quality for animals from commercial sources may be a costly option. Therefore, practices have focused on utilising locally available feed resources such as tree leaves, farm by-products and cut forages. However, under grazing conditions, there are no published studies which either directly or indirectly implicate nutritional status as having an impact on parasite levels in either sheep or goats.However, a report by Handayani and Gatenby (1988) investigated the interaction between system of management (grazing versus stall-feeding), nutrition (legume supplementation versus no legume) and helminthiasis (with and without anthelmintic) in sheep in North Sumatra. They concluded that legume supplementation reduced the egg count of grazing lambs that were not given anthelmintic but the supplementation had no significant effect on mortality or growth rate.The non-significant effect was probably due to the small sample size (four lambs per group). However, a closer look at the raw data revealed that there was a 50% reduction in mortality in the groups given the higher levels of legume supplementation compared to unsupplemented lambs. Also, there was a trend of 5-10 fold increase in growth rates among the supplemented undrenched lambs. The existing worm burden that was not removed at the start of the trial had obliterated the benefits of legume supplementation in the untreated grazing group, which probably contributed to the high mortality rate of grazing lambs (38%). There was undisputably a very large effect of anthelmintic treatment on survival and growth rate of lambs that were given suppressive treatment. Beriajaya and Copeman (1996) suggest that as FEC were the same throughout the year it was the low levels of nutrition during the wet season that affected the pathogenicity of gastrointestinal nematodes. Farmers also realise the importance of supplementing their animals' diet. Dahlanuddin (2001) surveyed farmers in Lombok, Indonesia and found that goats were offered a wide range of 30-40 different forages. Native grasses and Sesbania grandiflora were mostly offered, as single diets and, more often, as mixed diets. The latter, as well as other tree leaves and agricultural byproducts, were used even more during the dry season when native grasses were less available. The use of tree and shrub leaves reduces intake for ground-based and contaminated feeds. The highly nutritious Leucaena leucocephala was not used in some areas due to the temporary aversion by goats which farmers thought was permanent. Rice straw, although abundantly available, was not popular because goats rejected the straw.Preston's work in Cambodia showed that diets for growing goats containing cassava foliage supported better growth and feed conversion, and exhibited protective mechanisms (presumably due to the content of condensed tannins in the cassava) against nematode parasites than similar basal diets supplemented with freshly cut grass. Dry matter digestibility was apparently depressed on the cassava, compared with the grass diets, but this negative nutritional effect appeared to be more than compensated by the much higher protein intakes with cassava. Most goats in Vietnam grazed extensively on native grasses but only for about 2 hours daily, which means that the animals do not eat sufficiently. Only 12-23% of farms there supplemented with shrub and tree leaves such as Leucaena, jackfruit and Flemingia. It is all very well to recommend supplementing the animal diet with nutritious forages but if these are not easily available, it is not an option for the farmer. So, in these cases a simple recommendation to allow the goats to graze for a longer period may be more appropriate. Symoens (pers. comm.) advised increasing the length of the grazing period for goats in smallholder systems from four to six hours, especially when the forage diet is mainly grasses. This allowed an increase in the quantity and quality of forages selected and ingested.Locally produced oral dewormers are used for worm control by farmers and recommended by some animal health workers. Plant remedies are often practised by farmers not only as traditional panacea for good health but also because modern anthelmintics may not be available or are too expensive. However, the use of plant extracts as anthelmintics needs to be further investigated as there is a potential for their use in organic and conventional production systems. Caution needs to be exercised when comparing results from different studies using plants, as the origin and preparation form of the plant may have differing efficacies against worms.Most reports on apparent success of plants in eliminating visible endoparasites such as ascarids and tapeworms need to be viewed with caution. They may well be acting as laxatives and not strictly related to an anthelmintic effect. Few references exist to those helminths which cannot be easily seen (Hammond et al. 1997). In Indonesia there is a wealth of information on the use of medicinal plants in small ruminants, particularly with less visible helminths. These refer to the economically important helminths which are the trichostrongyles. In particular, papaya seed suspension and papaya sap have been tried in several studies in vivo as well as in vitro with Haemonchus contortus infections and adult worms respectively and exhibited anthelmintic activity. However, two studies reported on the toxicity of papaya sap causing some pathology of the gastrointestinal tract mucosa. Other plant extracts were from nicotine, Areca catechu, Curcuma aeruginosa, Zingiber purpureum, Monordica charantia and Morinda citrifolia, all of which showed varying degrees of anthelmintic activity against H. contortus.Spores from the free-living fungus Duddingtonia can prevent contamination of grass with worm larvae. (R.A. Sani)Medicinal plants seem to be hugely popular with ruminant farmers in the Philippines (Mateo, 1996). Several plants have been tested for their efficacy as anthelmintics for goats in the Philippines. Crude extracts of Mimosa pudica and Tinosphora rumphii were highly effective against Haemonchus larvae in vitro and in reducing worm egg counts and worm numbers (Faelnar 1997;Fernandez 1995). In Malaysia fresh leaves of neem (Azadirachta indica) are provided to animals. Current studies in Vietnam on effects of plants on Haemonchus larvae in vitro showed promising results with extracts of some legumes, namely Leucaena leucocephala, Acacia mangium and Calliandra sp.Farmers of small ruminants in rural Indonesia use traditional veterinary medicine extensively. Dano and Bogh (1999) rightly stated that herbal remedies have undergone many years of clinical trials and, as they prove reliable, are accepted by the users. It is only when scientists attempt to extract the 'active ingredient' from various parts of these plants in various ways in their experiments (which sometimes yield negative results) that the plants are deemed useless. However, scientific validation of such plants is crucial to be acceptable to mainstream veterinary practices. It is therefore an exciting yet challenging area of research to embark upon. A rigorous evaluation of some African herbal dewormers recently reached the same conclusion: that evaluation of these traditional remedies needs to be made with traditional healers, using standard guidelines, as controlled trials often show no or small effects on parasite burdens (Githiori 2003).Research on biological control using nematophagous fungi as a new component for future integrated control of parasites of small ruminants has been ongoing for about five years (Larsen 2002). In many areas of Southeast Asia this novel tool is particularly useful as humidity and temperature are not limiting factors for the germination of fungal spores, which also applies to development of infective larvae. In India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and China, nematophagous fungi have been isolated and/or results in experimental conditions have indicated the potential of using fungi in reducing nematode infections in ruminants (FAO 2002). Beriajaya and Ahmad (Indonesia, 1999) used Arthrobotrys oligospora for biological control of nematode parasites of sheep. They infected 20 young sheep free of helminth infection with 5000 L3 of Haemonchus contortus, and six weeks later all sheep were divided into two groups of 10. One group received a number of A. oligospora four times at twoweekly intervals, and the other group was a positive control. Examination was based on faecal worm egg counts and recovery of larvae after culturing of faecal samples. The results showed that the group receiving fungi produced fewer larvae than the control.However, the two major obstacles that need to be addressed if this form of biological control is to be introduced in Asia, are the delivery system and the affordable large-scale manufacture of fungal spores.Breeding approaches to decrease the impact of nematode worms on goats and sheep are increasingly important and many breeds of goats and sheep perform better in the presence of worm challenge than other breeds available to the farmer (see Chapter 5). These include the Red Maasai, Barbados Blackbelly, St Croix and Garole sheep and East African goats. The simplest breeding approach is to replace the currently used breed, which may have been introduced quite recently, with an adapted breed of proven productivity and reduced need for other inputs for worm treatment.There is sufficient genetic variation in resistance to nematodes within breeds of sheep to allow selection for increased resistance but this would only be applicable in production systems where breeding can be controlled and there is systematic measurement of production. This has happened in the field in Merino, Romney, and Blackface sheep, and Cashmere and Guadeloupe goats. In Australia and New Zealand there are commercial breeding schemes which include resistance to nematodes in their breeding objectives.Measurement of resistance is by collection of faeces from young sheep under challenge and counting the nematode eggs in the laboratory. This number, combined with production measurements, is used to select the next ram, buck or breeding female.The greatest genetic change in modern time has been to decrease the resistance of indigenous breeds by the introduction of exotic breeds with greater dependence on chemicals for worm control.The immediate benefits of using worm measurements to select breeding stock come from the monitoring of disease levels and improved worm control. This usually means less use of expensive and increasingly unreliable chemicals. Genetic gains depend on the intensity of selection and the numbers of animals measured. Genetic resistance can be used as part of an integrated health program, with adoption of rotational grazing systems, improved nutrition and management, confinement during risk periods and better use of chemicals.There are no commercially available vaccines for any gut nematode parasite of any host, including man and it is unlikely that a commercial vaccine will be produced for sheep or goats in the foreseeable future. Progress towards a vaccine against Haemonchus is most likely to come from a recombinant version of the hidden gut antigens which are known to be immunogenic and effective in suppressing infections in a variety of field conditions (Smith 2004XX). The research and development tasks for producing such a recombinant antigen in commercial quantities, finding an appropriate adjuvant and delivery systems and making the product available for relatively poor farmers are considerable.The foundation for any program on parasite control is based on a sound knowledge of epidemiology of parasite infection in a particular area. We now know that parasite control programs for smallholder farming systems in tropical Asia utilise strategic drenching, a combination of confined and grazing systems, improved nutrition and controlled breeding. The countries which have epidemiological information on nematode infections in sheep and goats include Indonesia, Fiji, Philippines, Nepal, Malaysia and Thailand. These countries are thus in a stronger position to plan and implement parasite control programs.The only practical option for reducing reliance on anthelmintics depends on enhancing resistance of the animal to larval establishment by improved protein nutrition.and minimising exposure to parasites.A substantial amount of information has been generated from Fiji to utilise these two broad approaches, utilising knowledge on epidemiology and integrating it with rotational grazing and use of medicated urea-molasses blocks (UMB). When medicated UMB was provided to pregnant does grazing on permanent pastures, the number of animals showing clinical signs of parasitism was reduced three-fold. So, the use of UMB reduced the frequency of treatments and suppressed the periparturient rise in FEC in pregnant ewes. In a 10 paddock, 35-day rotation system medicated UMB reduced the number of salvage drenches four-fold, provided pregnant does had access to the blocks for two cycles of the rotation in the six-cycle trial period. UMB provided to young and maiden ewes not only improved their reproductive performance at first lambing and reduced the number of salvage drenches based on FEC but, more importantly, nearly halved lamb mortality rates. The increase in milk yield and quality afforded by the blocks enhanced the survival of lambs at weaning. These findings have important implications in reducing treatment costs and lamb mortalities, both of which are vital considerations for the smallholder farmer.There is a vast amount of epidemiological information on helminth diseases from Indonesia. The effect of season, time of grazing and host age on gastrointestinal worm burden and carcass percentage of sheep in Java provides useful discussion (Kusumamihardja, 1988). Sheep grazing in the dry season have significantly lower worm burdens (average 1108 worms) than those grazing in the wet season (average 1928 worms). More interestingly, in the dry season sheep grazing in the mornings are at a higher risk of contracting heavier worm burdens (1969 worms) than those grazing in the afternoons (290 worms) whereas there was no difference grazing at any time of the day in the wet season. These worms were identified to belong to the strongyle group. These findings also corresponded with work by Sumartono (1985) who found a trend of highest egg production by Haemonchus contortus in the morning, which declined in the afternoon and was lowest in the early evening. These findings suggest that Increased income from meat, milk products and fibre is one consequence of good management and worm control.during the wet season it is advisable to confine animals and stallfeed them to reduce exposure to infective stages of the parasite and to graze animals in the afternoons in the dry season. These grazing tactics may be adopted in areas which have distinct wet and dry seasons, such as some areas in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam.The above integrated approaches are limited to the technologies and are designed for application by a farmer on the recommendation of an advisor or other extension agent. Inclusion of the farmer in development of ideas and technical options and their evaluation, as well as the application of the technology, involves a different approach to the research and development process. The term 'participatory' is often applied to a process that involves farmers and other important people who influence them and are affected by their successes and failures. Their involvement is not just as recipients of technology but as active contributors to research and development. One such approach is described in this volume by Alo (Chapter 3). It is worthwhile commenting here on the technology options that were agreed to be feasible, available and affordable by some farmers in the Philippines. They were:Use of effective chemicals -incorporating knowledge on anthelmintic resistance and use of alternative delivery methods such as feed blocks.Quarantine drenching is an appropriate strategy for institutions and large commercial suppliers of stock.Improved nutrition -including the use of tree and shrub leaves to reduce intake for ground-based and contaminated feeds; plants with possible direct or indirect anthelmintic effect and cut-and-carry methods, especially during times of heavy rain or heavy pasture contamination.Grazing management and housing -improved housing to reduce stress through better ventilation, shelter, manure and feed management, rotational grazing and management of contaminated areas around housing.Controlled breeding -includes timing of breeding to produce young susceptible kids and lambs when worms can be best managed; considering possible increase or decrease in genetic resistance when deciding to use new genetics, especially 'upgraded' or 'improved' bucks and rams.A participatory process of testing and evaluating these strategies alone and in combination has shown that controlled breeding has been the least successful. This outcome is location specific and other farmers working with other researchers in other farming systems may reach different conclusions.There are a number of ways in which scientists and others can informally discuss worm control and related issues and interact with other communities working on these problems. The following list will be useful as a starting point to accessing this increasingly electronic world of information sharing and debate.FAO networks and discussion groups FAO has supported a Network for Helminthology in Africa which can be accessed at www.worms.org.za/. This group recently conducted an electronic conference on \"Managing Worms Sustainably -we need to reconsider present recommendations\". The unedited contributions can be obtained from /econf/manworm.doc.The 'novel approaches' series of meetings Three meetings have been held -in Armidale, Australia; Baton Rouge, USA; and Edinburgh, Scotland. The fourth is in Merida, Mexico, with the theme: \"Worm control or worm management: New paradigms in integrated control\" indicating that some changes in thinking about worms and parasites are under way. The objectives of these meetings are to:1) update the scientific community on the current state of knowledge of novel approaches for the control of helminths in livestock,2) investigate the limitations affecting the application of this knowledge and3) investigate what strategies can be adopted to overcome the limitations.The SParC newsletter and websiteOriginating from a project funded by ACIAR and IFAD in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the SparC newsletter has been produced in paper and electronic format since 1998. The newsletter and a wide collection of resource material are available through the website associated with these projects, www.worminfo.org and also included with this volume.In livestock smallholdings in Asia there is a need to change the emphasis from a disciplinary approach where studies are focused on chemical control, genetics or grazing management to a multidisciplinary approach where the integration of all disciplines is recognised as necessary. A further step, still being researched, is recognising that the full participation of farmers and other stakeholders is essential from the beginning of a research or control program if the results are to be useful and sustainable in the long term. Additionally, we speculate that gastrointestinal nematodes in small ruminants might be more usefully considered as indicators of poor management than as a problem in their own right. The economic cost of roundworm parasitism alone does not justify allocating funds toward parasitological research and extension (Perry and Randolph 1999).The ability of research outcomes to reduce control and production-loss costs should guide funding decisions. Hence this attempt to quantify the potential economic benefits of reducing roundworm impact in the target countries. Decreasing the impact of roundworm parasitism is difficult, since conventional parasite control using anthelmintics has been adversely affected by increasing drug resistance in parasite populations. Gray (1999) noted that greater attention to the development of SPC strategies, which entail strategic anthelmintic treatment, genetically resistant hosts, improved management, vaccines, supplementary feeding and biological control, is needed.2. The economic impact of worm infections in small ruminants in Southeast Asia, India and AustraliaLarge flocks of small ruminants are found in Southeast Asia and Australia. The numbers of goats in target Southeast and southern Asian countries are illustrated in Figure 2.1. Asia and Australia differ in their agro-climatic conditions and livestock production practices and so the nature of small-ruminant production and the impacts of internal parasitism also vary. To systematically assess the economic impact of roundworm parasitism, national flocks are characterised into village (small-scale sedentary), commercial and transhumant systems. Parameters such as meat production and wool yield are detailed in Table 2.1 for each representative system. These parameters provide a baseline from which yield reductions, as a result of roundworm parasitism, can be estimated.Indonesia has the largest small-ruminant flock in Southeast Asia: about 15 million goats and eight million sheep. The national flock size has been increasing over the past 20 years in response to the growing demand for meat.The Philippines and Nepal have the next largest flocks of small ruminants. Goats are widespread in the Philippines but sheep are uncommon, despite efforts to integrate sheep production within tree cropping systems.Goat and sheep production is not widespread in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. National flock sizes are small in these countries and large ruminant production is of greater economic importance. In Thailand and Malaysia small-ruminant production is becoming less important, perhaps because of increasing population pressure and greater urbanisation.The smallholder village, or sedentary, production system is most commonly found in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Nepalese hills and the Philippines. Traditionally, milk consumption has been low in Southeast Asia and smallruminants are reared for supplementary income from meat production.In India and Nepal, many sheep and goats are raised within transhumant systems. Madan (1996) indicated that 30% of sheep in arid areas form part of permanent, seasonal or temporary migratory flocks, with movement dictated by the timing of monsoon rains. In mountainous regions, sheep are also raised as part of migratory systems. Flocks are often maintained for four or five months under stall-fed production, then handed to a Chopan (professional shepherd) for grazing in alpine pastures from April to November (Madan 1996).The economic impact of worm infections in small ruminants in Southeast Asia, India and Australia The most important nematode genera of Asia and Australia include Haemonchus, Trichostrongylus, Strongyloides and Oesophagostomum. Roundworm parasitism generally increases with the onset of the wet season in most tropical countries, however, there has been only limited examination of the seasonal trend in host worm burden and infectivity of pasture. To gain an appreciation for the seasonal prevalence of Haemonchus in countries where epidemiological data are limited, a simulation model (Barnes et al. 1988, Barnes and Dobson 1990a, 1990b) was adapted for this Wool production (kg/adult/year) (g) --4.5Wool production (kg/immature/year) (g) --2.3 (a) Adult goat liveweights are derived from Ibrahim (1996) and Saithanoo et al. (1997). (b) Immature goat liveweight is derived from Saithanoo et al. (1997).(c) Adult composition is derived from Saithanoo et al. (1997). nematode species. The model was further developed to assess worm control options. Results of the simulations are included in relevant country assessments.It is difficult to quantify the extent to which internal parasites are constraining small-ruminant production in Asia as few field trials have been conducted to estimate the size of the problem. Goat flock productivity data from villages in Thailand (Saithanoo et al. 1997) indicate annual mortality rates of 39% for kids and immatures, and 7.2% for adults. For the purpose of this analysis, it is assumed that 1% of adult goats, and 5% of immature goats, suffer roundworm related mortality.Major assumptions relevant to the economic impact assessment are shown in  (Ndamukong et al. 1989a); and 29% of sheep in Indonesia (Batubara 1997). Few studies have been carried out in the tropics to clearly identify the impact of roundworms on flock productivity, although Adeoye (1994) found that 27% of sheep deaths were related to helminth infection in village sheep of southwest Nigeria.The economic impact of worm infections in small ruminants in Southeast Asia, India and Australia   Barger and Southcott (1978), Anderson (1972Anderson ( , 1973)), Anderson et al. (1976), Thompson andCallinan (1981), andBrown et al. (1985) in the high rainfall areas of Australia.Mortality data from Australian field trials using roundworm susceptible merino sheep (Barger and Southcott 1978, Anderson 1972, 1973, Anderson et al. 1976, Thompson and Callinan 1981, Brown et al. 1985) have been used to estimate sheep production losses within Asian production systems.Assumptions are included in Table 2.3. Roundworm parasites cause mortality as well as production losses in small ruminants that recover from the effects of infection.During the period of infection, milk production, growth and manure production are typically reduced. The severity of reduced productivity is a function of stock age, breed, physiological status and level of nutrition.A set of production-loss tables have been compiled (Table 3) to estimate the losses associated with roundworm infection.Selected studies of productivity in parasitised goats have been conducted in southern Luzon, Philippines. Que et al. (1995) showed that dewormed and parasitised goats differed in growth by 4 kg over a period of eight months. Howlader et al. (1997aHowlader et al. ( , 1997bHowlader et al. ( , 1997c) ) described the pathological, parasitological and production changes in immature goats infected artificially with H. contortus. The growth of kids born of infected mothers was also affected.Adult sheep are generally considered to have greater natural resistance to the impact of internal parasites and their production losses are assumed to be lower than those of immature animals.  Que et al. (1995). In this study it was found that treated goats were 3.6 kg heavier than controls. It was assumed that 10% of this loss estimate would be experienced by average village goats. (b) Meat losses of 0.8 kg for adult sheep and 1.2 kg in immature sheep are consultant estimates derived from studies by Barger and Southcott (1978) and winter rainfall trials by Anderson (1972Anderson ( ,1973)), Anderson et al. (1976), Thompson and Callinan (1981) and Brown et al. (1985). (c) Wool losses of 0.2 kg for adult sheep and 0.2 kg in immature sheep are consultant estimates derived from studies by Barger and Southcott (1978) and winter rainfall trials by Anderson (1972Anderson ( ,1973)), Anderson et al. (1976), Thompson and Callinan (1981) and Brown et al. (1985).Production losses, estimated for each representative livestock system, are aggregated to country level using national small-ruminant flock size information (FAO 1999). National production losses are multiplied by livestock product prices to estimate the aggregate economic value of losses. The annual costs of roundworm parasites in selected Asian countries are shown in Figure 2.2. Of the target countries in the project, the aggregate costs of roundworm parasites are greatest for Indonesia, where it was estimated that the disease cost $US 13 million in 1999.Of the total roundworm-inflicted production loss estimated for Indonesia, $7.1 million was attributable to goat production and $5.6 million to sheep production. The estimated loss for sheep production is significantly larger than that calculated by Temaja in 1980. The increase may be a result of increased flock size and product prices over the past 20 years.Small ruminant producers in Nepal and the Philippines were estimated to experience the next largest economic loss from roundworms. Economic loss estimates are largely proportional to numbers of small ruminants.Roundworm-loss estimates have also been updated for India and Australia. These countries have large smallruminant flocks and, hence, substantial annual economic losses: $103 million and $111 million, respectively. The Australian cost estimate is similar to that calculated by McLeod (1995), but has decreased with lower wool prices and a smaller flock. Strategic parasite control programs have been developed for both India and Australia. Lubulwa et al. (1996) quantified largeThe economic impact of worm infections in small ruminants in Southeast Asia, India and Australia Preliminary simulation analysis suggests that production losses associated with roundworm parasitism could be substantially reduced by adopting improved management recommendations. At this early stage of the SPC project it is counterproductive to suggest the most desirable combination of management practices, as this strategy is still to be formulated. However, if an SPC package could be devised that would reduce the effect of these parasites by 15% for adopting farmers, and 10% of sheep or goat owners were also to adopt the package, the economic benefits outlined in Figure 2.3 would be realised.Indonesia would gain the largest economic benefits from 10% adoption of an SPC program that reduced productivity losses by 15%. Based on current prices and prevalence data included in the analysis, Indonesian farmers would capture $0.2 million in annual benefits.SPC adoption gains would also deliver substantial benefits for farmers in the Philippines and Nepal.Given that SPC recommendations will be formulated for Nepalese farmers in the mid-hills, transhumant producers are not likely to capture substantial benefits. Changes in SPC adoption level and flock size substantially affect estimated economic benefits. Consequently, on-farm research should be carried out at benchmark sites, representative of major agro-ecological zones, to develop SPC recommendations that maximise adoption. Studies have shown that improved parasite control generates financial benefits (Misniwaty et al. 1994) but adoption remains low. Constraints to the adoption of SPC need to be identified and innovative approaches to promote SPC practices investigated. During the past 10 years there has been a big push to introduce or strengthen a user perspective in adaptive agricultural research. Technology development is said to be a complex, multi-stranded, and multi-directional process, involving many actors, other than scientists, in the formal research system (Cramb 2000). The evolution of a particular technology depends not only on its scientific merits but also on the actions of development coalitions -loose groupings of actors who combine their resources to push for a particular path of technical change (Biggs and Smith 1998). Thus there is a need for active participation of stakeholders to generate technologies that are not only 'well-developed' but also adopted in a sustained manner (Gabunada et al. 2003).These This chapter discusses how worm control technologies for small ruminants were developed and tested in three TAG 443 participating countries -Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines -with particular emphasis on the Philippines where project analysis is most advanced.Although the paths taken by the countries were different, common lessons point to one thing: it is extremely valuable to involve the beneficiaries of technology development in all phases of a project. In this case, not only did it accelerate the adaptation and advancement of new farming practices but it also improved the livelihoods of the participating small-ruminant keepers.A.M.P. AloDeveloping and testing integrated approaches to sustainable parasite control in small ruminants with farmers in the Philippines, Vietnam, and IndonesiaThe participatory technology development process There was no ACIAR-SPC project implemented in Vietnam. So, using SPC literature from different countries, the Vietnamese project selected and evaluated specific approaches, both on-station and on-farm, to generate a basket of technologies to offer farmers. In essence, the Vietnamese project was initially researcher-managed although jointly planned and assessed by farmers and researchers.Vietnamese farmers selected options that suited them from the initial basket of technologies and research plans were generated by combining farmers' local knowledge with the technical know-how of the researchers. Most research was done on farms but some, such as evaluating the effectiveness of medical plants on larvae, was done in the laboratory. A technical team helped farmers with their experiments by facilitating group discussions and helping collect and analyse data. Focus (treatment) and non-focus (control) farmers then came together with the technical team to jointly evaluate the experiments. Suitable technologies with 'good impact' were packaged as best-bet options for sustainable parasite control. Problems detected during the testing stage were also investigated. More problems emerged after each cycle, so the process of technology development (testing, monitoring and evaluating, modifying and refining) was repeated several times. The best-bet options were then offered to other farmers interested in replicating the experiments of focus farmers. These farmers, however, were not researcher-guided but allowed to decide how things best suited their conditions (Binh et al. 2003).In contrast, in the Philippines and Indonesia, technology testing was farmer-planned, designed and managed. This meant that farmers, largely independent of the project team (Alo 2003, Subandriyo 2003):  Field-based training courses were then held to inform farmers about the options available to help solve their problems. Farmers were invited to select any technology option they wanted to try on their farm. It was made clear to them that along with this opportunity came the responsibility of finding the needed resources and of managing their chosen project. Farmers were not forced to try approaches that did not match their beliefs, resources or capabilities.Participatory monitoring and evaluation were used to assess the dynamic process with farmers choosing an initial technology-mix, testing the options on-farm and adapting them until they arrived at the mix of options that best suited their circumstances. Results were used to select a group of technologies that farmers felt were best suited to them and that could be scaled up or disseminated to other farmers and communitiesa farmer-generated basket of technologies.The main aim of the project is to control worms but the technology baskets developed were holistic and considered all aspects of goat management. The options offered provided potential solutions to the major goat production problems of farmers, the foremost being mortality from poor management (Alo 2003;Subandriyo 2003;Binh et al. 2003).The project teams in Vietnam and Indonesia are still at the participatory monitoring and evaluation stage.Although some preliminary results from Vietnam have been collected, no detailed assessment has been conducted. The Philippine project has completed this stage and their results have been analysed.Community-based approachThe problem of parasitism among small ruminants markedly constrains farm productivity in the Philippines.The challenge is to empower farmers with knowledge about goat production and health, to improve productivity, minimise worm infestation and ensure farmers receive the economic returns due to them. This is best achieved through the active participation of farmers in planning, field validation and evaluation, thus the Philippine team supported the central role of the farmers in the TAG 443 project.A community-based integrated approach to goat worm control was employed. The project's activities can be classified into: Focal site selection involved three levels of screening: regional, followed by provincial and then municipal or village level. Once focal sites were identified, the project started to be institutionalised at each location.Local working groups, consisting of representatives from the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Unit, Provincial Veterinary Office, the municipal/city agriculture office, municipal/city planning and development office, and the village council, were established in the provinces of Cebu and Pangasinan (the provinces with most goats). After some capacity building the groups identified a set of criteria to select farmer cooperators.After farmer cooperators were selected social mobilisation (field trips, on-farm training, and technology workshops) began. This led to the development of baskets of technology options from which farmer cooperators selected technologies for testing. Farmers' experiences and evaluation were the basis for adoption, rejection or modification of technologies. were finished. One cooperator even deferred adoption of rapid rotational grazing to October 2001 as he did not have the budget for the divisional fences required.Testing was deferred at most sites because most farmers were not immediately able to construct a pen, the primary prerequisite of all the baskets. Hence, on-farm trials across sites officially started in July 2001, or two months after the last farmers' training workshop.Initially, farmers were asked to construct a pen or remodel their existing shed to meet the project's recommendations of: Each farmer was given the freedom to design his own pen or to modify other designs. Each pen was then evaluated by all project participants using a score sheet. Everyone benefited from the exchange of ideas and ultimately constructed the pen most appropriate to their circumstance.After constructing the pen, farmers were asked to confine their animals either all day long (complete confinement) or just at specific times of the day or night (partial confinement), depending on the chosen technology mix. About a month before the rainy season started, the local government technician dewormed all the ruminants in the community to ensure that they were clean before testing started. To monitor the feeding activities, farmers were required to note, during the initial month, the length of time they spent on each activity, the kind of feed they collected and an estimate of the weight of forage per feeding. The farmers had the freedom to choose the forages they wanted to use for their animals.To avoid inbreeding, the farmers were asked to exchange bucks or upgrade their breed by using an Anglo Nubian buck lent by the local government unit to the site.Each month, the local working group (i.e. representatives from local government agencies in the concerned region) recorded animals' weights and collected faecal and blood samples. Samples from Cebu were analysed in the diagnostic laboratory of the regional Department of Agriculture and those from Pangasinan at Central Luzon State University. For accurate identification, all animals were eartagged. Larval development assays were performed at the diagnostic laboratories, as required and when the facilities and expertise were available.Results, including faecal egg count (FEC), blood packed cell volume (PCV) and recommendations from the project's veterinarian, were provided to farmers after every analysis. Part of the agreed participatory monitoring and evaluation protocol was the regular sharing of experience by the farmers with the secondary stakeholders (i.e. the local government unit representatives) and the team. During these sessions, the project researchers interpreted the worm profile per farm as the farmers narrated their experiences, experiments and lessons learned. These sessions doubled as in-course assessment periods.Subsidies/incentives given to farmers for testingUnlike traditional government programs, this project did not give any incentives to farmers for testing the technology options. From the start, it was emphasised that this was not a goat dispersal project and that loans would not be provided. The only benefit that the project promised was knowledge empowerment through the conduct of technology-based learning workshops. However, to ease the financial burden on the farmers, the local government units provided inputs such as dewormers and forage seeds at the start of the project.In Liloan, a focal site in the Visayas, the local government units even constructed animal housing for four of the six cooperators, with the agreement that costs be repaid after a set period of time.Although farmers initially found it difficult to operate independently (especially in Liloan), after almost two years they have demonstrated that they no longer need to rely on the local government units.Free grazing or tethering of goats was the traditional practice used by cooperators at the three project sites. Goats were allowed to graze freely or were tethered in available communal pasture during the day and placed under a tree in the backyard or makeshift shelter at night. Housing for goats, although provided by a few, was still considered an innovation at all the sites. Hence, worm infestation in goats was generally high. Worm-related disease was the primary cause of mortality and to cope with this farmers were forced to immediately sell or slaughter affected animals to prevent further losses. Farmers made little attempt to consult veterinarians or seek advice from livestock experts, primarily because goats were not a priority commodity or a significant program of the local government.TAG 443-Philippines introduced baskets of technology options revolving around worm control but including strategies for all aspects of goat production management. Rather than choosing a single technology, farmers mixed and matched options to best fit their needs. Since each combination was chosen to suit individual conditions they were identified as farmer-generated baskets of technologies. This differs significantly from the traditional approach of experts coming to a village with readymade technology plans. The project's strategy gave researchers opportunities to understand each farm and gave the clients freedom to choose options based on their perceptions and needs.Researchers and farmers both make important contributions to developing new ideas and technologies. (G.D. Gray)Table 3.1 Farmer-generated baskets of technologies (FBTs)FBT 1: Complete confinement is the banner technology of this basket. Specifically, animals were Complete confinement completely confined during the rainy season but were allowed to graze freely in summer. + strategic deworming Animals were housed and fed grasses in stalls. Leaves of local trees and shrubs were given as supplement. Goats were strategically dewormed a month before the onset of the rainy season and the second dose, if necessary, followed at the peak of the rainy months. A medicated urea molasses mineral block (MUMMB) was supplied within two months of the rainy season and an improved buck was introduced in the herd to further upgrade their stocks.FBT 2: Rapid rotational grazing is the primary component of this basket. However, for another farmer Rapid rotational grazing who tested this on their pasture land, rotational herding was done (that is, continual movement + strategic deworming of a herd over a large area). For rapid rotational grazing, the pasture was divided into 10 paddocks and animals transferred from one paddock to another after 3.5 days. They were housed at night and during inclement weather. Just as in FBT 1, grasses were cut and carried to the stalls, tree leaves used as supplement, MUMMB supplied for two months of the rainy season, strategic deworming employed, and an improved buck introduced.FBT 3: This basket is the closest to the farmers' traditional practice. Partial confinement and strategic Partial confinement + deworming are its main components. Animals were confined at night and during inclement strategic deworming weather. However, when the weather was good, they were either tethered and transferred from one site to another predetermined non-grazed site every 3.5 days, or allowed to graze freely. Even during rainy months, animals were allowed out of the pen so long as it was not raining and the ground was dry. Animals were supplemented with tree leaves and shrubs upon return to the pen, strategically dewormed, MUMMB-supplemented and mated to an improved buck to further upgrade the stocks.Ultimately, after months of testing, farmers came up with three baskets of technologies (Table 3.1). These were generated through a dynamic process with farmers choosing an initial technology mix, testing it on their farms and making modifications or refinements until they arrived at the one that best suited their circumstances.Housing, as explicitly detailed by Brown et al. (2003), was a requirement of all of the baskets. Most cooperators adopted a housing design introduced by the project with some farmers adapting and improving an adopted design. Houses were made from cheap local materials:wood, bamboo and used galvanised iron. Many cooperators could obtain some of these materials at no cost, however, for purposes of analysis, these were assigned an estimated value to arrive at a more accurate picture of the cost of the technology mix. Some cooperators and members of their families supplied the labour in the construction while others hired labour to help. Whether family or hired labour was used, a value was assigned to represent the opportunity cost of labour.Stall-feeding is a component technology common to all farmer-generated baskets of technologies. However, this practice is most intensive in FBT 1 with animals being completely confined and thus entirely dependent on gathered feeds. Labour for gathering grasses and tree leaves and shrubs is the most important resource required for this practice.Feed was abundantly available at the focal sites and could be freely gathered.All of the farmer-generated baskets of technologies included chemical deworming. Initially, cooperators followed strategic deworming, which consisted of providing the animals with chemical dewormer a month before onset and during the peak of the rainy season. However, cooperators later decided to deworm only before the rainy season, primarily because animals were confined and tree leaves (stall fed) with anthelmintic action were available. Chemical dewormers were provided to farmers at no cost through the local government units but a value was assigned to determine the costs incurred by farmers if they were required to pay.The three technology mixes also used MUMMB as a dewormer, but only during the initial stage of the project.All cooperators opted to improve their stock using improved bucks of the Anglo Nubian bloodline. Anglo Nubian stock grows faster than traditional stock and marketable size can be achieved after a much shorter growing period. In addition, it has better reproductive performance. Improved breeding could be done by purchasing an improved buck and making it part of the herd, by hiring a buck for natural insemination or by using artificial insemination.Of the 16 cooperators, only three were willing to test FBT 1 (complete confinement) at the start of the process. Most farmers (11 out of 16) initially chose FBT 3 (partial confinement), as this was most similar to their traditional way of raising goats. However, eight of the original 11 farmers who opted for FBT 3 eventually shifted to FBT 1.Identifying market prices, trends and the demands of consumers is essential for good technology development.(K.C. Patawaran)Reasons cited for rejecting partial confinement and opting for complete confinement were as follows:Better time management -complete confinement allows more time for other chores and commercial enterprises.Better disease management -as reflected in their monthly FEC-PCV monitoring sheets, fewer incidences of morbidities (worm and respiratoryrelated) were recorded, as goats were prevented from feeding in contaminated pastures and protected by the pens from the harsh weather. Fewer deaths were also observed.Ease of operation -farmers do not have to bring goats to grazing areas four times a day, run to secure them when it rains and haul them back when the rain stops. Farmers are no longer exhausted from looking after grazing goats and looking for pastures with enough green grasses.Pastureland need not be available -farmers without much land can run a goat enterprise through complete confinement; available land can be used for other crops throughout the year, hence can contribute to higher farm productivity.Not labour intensive -when goats are confined, only one person is needed to gather feed, clean the pen, give water and perform other minor chores.When animals are allowed to graze, at least three people are needed to ensure that the herd is in one place and to bring them home without loss.Better social relationships -once goats are confined, there is less conflict with neighbours as the goats are prevented from trampling on other people's crops and gardens.Better nutrition management -farmers who tried FBT 1 believed that they were better able to choose appropriate forages and balance the nutrition for their goats with stall-feeding than with tethering. Moreover, once they had learned about the use of tree leaves and shrubs, they were able to establish forage gardens near their goat sheds, reducing the need to transport forages from field to shed.Two of the three farmers who began with, and stayed with, FBT 3 also wanted to shift to FBT 1, but neither had the resources to do so. One was a widow tending a store, without any house help and the other did not have enough money to expand his animal pen. Only one farmer was completely happy with FBT 3 and had no plans to shift. This farmer had almost 40 goats in December 2002 and unlimited access to 5 ha of pasture land near his homestead. Although he has occasional problems with parasitism, he feels that his animals are better nourished through his practice of rotational tethering in the field.Only two farmers were willing to try FBT 2 -rapid rotational grazing. Both had access to vast lands that could be divided, if not with fences, by stakes. They also had surplus manpower to help transfer animals from paddock to shed and back to paddock. Moreover, since their stock sizes were quite large, totally confining all the animals and stall feeding them one by one was seen as impractical.Resource endowment (e.g. labour, capital, land) served as the primary consideration for farmers when choosing a particular technology mix. This was followed by ease of operation, the effect of the technologies on the animals and the effect on social relations.After testing technologies in the field, some farmers were keen to adapt the options to better suit their needs and situation. Pen design and operation, in particular, were critically assessed and adapted by farmers. Some modifications are listed in Table 3.2 and shown in the photos below. Increasing pen elevation makes it easier to collect dung.Benefits to farmers from participatory technology developmentIn the Philippines and Vietnam, stock sizes increased as farmers tested the FBTs. The increase in stocks can be attributed to a decrease in worm-related diseases and mortalities (Table 3.3), which, in turn, was due to improved competence in goat management. The data imply that adoption of FBTs was effective in controlling worm-related production losses.The FBTs had a positive financial impact as indicated by the net incremental income figures listed in Table 3.4. These figures consider both the benefits and costs associated with the technology mixes. As stock numbers increase, and the initial costs of establishing the enterprise are reduced, income continues to rise.These improvements are large considering that most cooperators started with a small number of stock (some with just three animals). The number of females in the initial herd determined, to a large extent, the net benefit derived from the project. As discussed earlier, the primary benefit derived from the FBTs was a reduction in mortality rate. Therefore, as female stocks multiplied it became possible to engage in breeding (Brown et al. 2003).  The human and social dimensions also showed rewarding improvements. Knowledge levels improved by 548% and attitude by 75%. Farmers also developed their skills in managing and increasing their stock, establishing forage gardens, designing animal pens, experimenting (testing, observing, and deducing) with different options, detecting parasitism and administering proper deworming protocols (Alo et al. 2002).Farmer participation in technology testing also affected the way farmers dealt with people outside their households and the way their social environment treated them. Specifically, there were marked improvements in the following:I Farmer-to-farmer extension activities -other farmers who saw the improvements on participating farms sought advice and the farmer cooperators were able to teach them what they had learned. Of the 284 people who visited the 16 cooperators, 99 pursued similar goat enterprises in their villages. This can be expressed as a 35% influence on the cooperators' social environment and 450% increase in technology testers.Departure from local government unit dependency syndrome -initially, some farmers at one site depended largely on their local government unit for support for de-wormers, detection of parasites, forage garden materials and even housing materials.As their competence improved, there was marked departure from this dependency (Table 3.5).Commercial visibility -participating farmers have also gained recognition as commercial sources of good stock. The farmers take pride in having established a better price for goat meat. In Tobor, the farmers united to peg the price to P100/kg liveweight during lean months and P150/kg during peak season. As they have been known to produce good quality stock, buyers now accept the price that they set.Community strength -the common experience generated a strong bond between the participants. In Tobor, farmers felt that they could now mobilise each other for support. In establishing their forage garden, for instance, they were able to get seeds from the local government unit, from the project and even from one of the cooperators who had established a Napier garden (i.e. Pennisetum purpureum, a large grass that grows in bamboo like clumps and is used for forage and windbreaks).They are now united by the common goal of making their individual village a respected source of goats. Personal confidence and wealth -the confidence levels of all cooperators have increased from the lowest to the highest rating: they believe they can make their goat enterprises booming businesses in the near future. Farmers felt extremely wealthy after two years with the project, not just because they were able to sell goats, but primarily because they were able to reduce mortality. Above increase in income, they valued the experiences, knowledge, contacts and skill that they gained and the opportunities all these initial gains might bring them. Moreover, they were enormously proud to have helped pull 35% of their community out of poverty.Within the participating communities there was a transformation from individual to group empowerment. Personally and socially the farmer cooperators increased their capacity and strength to do things for themselves. They were able to influence 35% of their community (99 other farmers) and help them to try the new technologies.With the development of the right mix of technologies by the actual technology-users, researchers need not push for their adoption. The technologies will spontaneously diffuse, from farmer to farmer, throughout the entire community, pulling more and more families out of poverty (Alo et al. 2002).This project clearly demonstrates that farmers can be active participants who can bring intellectual contributions to the development process. In developed countries where anthelmintics have been continuously used for the past 30 years, resistance to broad-spectrum anthelmintics is now widespread, and threatens the viability of sheep and goat enterprises (Waller 1997a). In many parts of Southeast Asia, small ruminants are raised in backyards by resource-poor farmers. Broad-spectrum anthelmintics are considered expensive and used infrequently, except by relatively wealthy farmers and on government farms. As a result, although anthelmintic resistance has been found in many countries in the region, it has not yet reached the alarming prevalence reported in the major sheep-raising countries of the southern hemisphere (Waller 1997a).Rising global demand for livestock products (Delgado et al. 1999), however, makes intensive and semiintensive production of small ruminants an increasingly attractive enterprise for smallholders in Southeast Asia. This development is likely to increase stocking rates, with a concomitant rise in the intensity of parasitism. Anthelmintics comprise a powerful tool in the suite available for controlling gastrointestinal parasites, and so conservation of their efficacy is an important goal for livestock development agencies in Southeast Asia.This chapter reviews the current status of anthelmintic resistance in Southeast Asia, and examines the implications for smallholders, for whom anthelmintics offer one key to the control of parasitism and the development of enterprises based on small ruminants. Alternatives to the use of anthelmintics -such as nutritional strategies and grazing managementare also considered, since these have significant potential for reducing the selection pressure for anthelmintic resistance.Almost all of the anthelmintic groups used in developing countries are also available in Southeast Asia (see www.worminfo.org/anthelbase). However, their availability to smallholders depends on the wealth of the local community, proximity to drug stores, and the whims of local government units, which sometimes provide free or subsidised anthelmintics for smallholders.In the Philippines, benzimidazoles are widely available, levamisole/tetramisole products are harder to find, and macrocyclic lactones are available primarily from G.M. Hood 4. Anthelmintic resistance in small ruminant parasites: implications for smallholders in Southeast Asia veterinarians or drug stores in large towns. For example, a recent survey of 19 drug stores (Patawaran et al. 2003) found that benzimidazoles were available and recommended in 95% of stores, levamisole/tetramisole products in 63%, and the macrocyclic lactone group sold in smaller quantities (16% of stores). Narrow spectrum drugs and piperazine and its derivatives were also available. There seems to be a bias among veterinarians and other experts toward benzimidazoles: 106 of 119 Philippine experts surveyed by Ancheta et al (2004) recommended the use of benzimidazole products, while only one recommended levamisole/tetramisole, even though the most popular benzimidazole product (albendazole) can be toxic to pregnant goats. In other countries, levamisole and tetramisole, which are comparable in price to the benzimidazoles, are both recommended and readily available.Most poor livestock keepers do not buy anthelmintics for strategic drenching programs. Instead they use ad hoc treatments for sick animals or locally grown herbal remedies. When anthelmintics are used, it is likely to be at sub-optimal doses. Drug stores in Southeast Asia usually stock broad-spectrum anthelmintics in small, often single dose, packages because smallholders can rarely afford to treat more than one or two animals. Singledose preparations can lead to under-dosing if used for heavy animals. For example, 220 mg mebendazole capsules are only sufficient for 18 kg animals, and 2 g sachets of levamisole hydrochloride for 20 kg animals.The availability and high price of these products, in combination with low levels of literacy and poor understanding of dose rates, means that under-dosing is probably frequent in Southeast Asia. Under-dosing is also likely to occur through the use of poor quality generic products. The quality of anthelmintics used in Southeast Asia has not been assessed, but studies in Africa (van Wyk et al. 1997, Wanyangu et al. 1996) indicate that some generic products have sub-optimal concentrations of the active ingredient.Most investigators in Southeast Asia have used the in vivo faecal egg count reduction test (Coles et al. 1992) to detect anthelmintic resistance. This intuitive test is readily applied in large flocks and herds (more than 15 animals) but needs a follow-up visit for the second sample, and can overestimate the prevalence of levamisole resistance (Grimshaw et al. 1996, Maingi et al. 1998). It is also less precise than in vitro methods (Le Jambre 1996). The in vitro egg hatch essay (Le Jambre 1976) is useful for detecting benzimidazole resistance, and has been used in peninsular Malaysia (Rahman 1993). A new in vitro test, the larval development assay (Hubert andKerbouef 1992, Lacey et al. 1990), has been used in recent work in Indonesia and the Philippines (Ancheta et al. 2004, Beriajaya et al. 2003, Venturina et al. 2003). It has two principal advantages over other methods: first, it provides quantitative results for levamisole and benzimidazoles, and a qualitative result for the macrocyclic lactones; second, it needs just a single sample -no follow-up visit is required. The second feature means it can be used in smallholders' flocks and herds or at markets and abattoirs (Venturina et al. 2003). It should therefore now be possible to obtain accurate estimates of the prevalence of anthelmintic resistance.Most of the sheep and goat producing countries of Southeast Asia have reported some degree of anthelmintic resistance. In Indonesia, which has the largest population of small ruminants, low levels of resistance to benzimidazoles have been detected on the island of Java (Beriajaya et al. 2003), but no resistance was detected to benzimidazoles, levamisole or ivermectin in surveys conducted in Sumatra (Dorny et al. 1994b). In the Philippines, benzimidazole resistance was first reported in Haemonchus contortus in Mindanao (Van Aken et al. 1994), and has since been reported from many locations throughput the Philippine islands (Ancheta andDumilon 2000, Venturina et al. 2003).Resistance to levamisole is apparently less common, probably reflecting usage patterns (Ancheta et al. 2003).Farmers in Malaysia and Thailand are relatively wealthy compared with those in other countries of the region, and anthelmintics are therefore used more often. Studies on small numbers of goats in Thailand (reviewed in Kochapakdee et al. 2002) indicate that benzimidazole resistance is present, but that resistance has not yet emerged to levamisole or the macrocyclic lactones.In nearby peninsular Malaysia, however, suspicions of resistance to benzimidazoles and levamisole were first reported by Dorny et al (1991), benzimidazole resistance was confirmed in 1991 (Dorny et al. 1993) and levamisole and ivermectin resistance were reported by Sivaraj and Pandey (1994). Subsequently, national surveys found 50% of sheep farms and 75% of goat farms had benzimidazole resistance, and resistance to levamisole, closantel and ivermectin was also detected (Dorny et al. 1994a).The study of Dorny et al (1994a) is one of the few in Southeast Asia to yield an estimate of prevalence based on a random sampling procedure. The survey included a substantial proportion of the national goat population (2.3%) and is therefore likely to have yielded a good estimate of prevalence -albeit using a selection procedure that is not convincingly random. Other estimates of prevalence in Southeast Asian countries depend on purposive sampling (i.e. targeted, nonrandom sampling) schemes, and have almost certainly yielded biased estimates. In particular, government and large commercial farms, which notoriously use suppressive treatments, are over-represented in almost all surveys (e.g., Ancheta et al. 2003, Chandrawathani et al. 1999). There is, therefore, a clear need for active surveillance of anthelmintic resistance using statistical sampling procedures (Cochran 1977).Worldwide, two factors have emerged as having the greatest predictive value for anthelmintic resistance: frequency of treatment and transfer of stock. Of these, high frequency of treatment is of overwhelming importance (Martin et al. 1984) and has also been most consistently associated with anthelmintic resistance in Southeast Asia (Ancheta et al. 2003, Chandrawathani et al. 1999, Dorny et al. 1994a).Importation of anthelmintic resistance by transfer of stock is a potentially significant threat to smallholders because government and commercial farms, which serve as sources of stock for the larger smallholder sector, use anthelmintics intensively to reduce parasite burdens and maintain high productivity of grazing sheep and goats. Recent evidence shows that importing of stock and restricting access to shared grazing (a potential larval refuge) is correlated with decreased efficacy (Ancheta et al. 2004). Beriajaya et al (2003) have shown that resistance is easily transferred to smallholders by dispersal of stock from government farms. The quantitative importance of stock transfer remains unknown. Refugia -locations where eggs and larval nematodes escape exposure to anthelmintics -are more common in the humid tropics than in major sheep producing regions of the world, and so dilution of emergent resistance alleles should be expected. It would nevertheless be prudent for managers of government farms to apply quarantine drenching treatments before dispersing stock to smallholders. Quarantine treatment with several efficacious anthelmintics, either serially or as a mixture, should minimise the risks of transfer of worms carrying alleles for anthelmintic resistance.Other risk factors such as farm size and size of animal management group have also been identified (Ancheta et al. 2004, Venturina et al. 2004), but such factors are invariably colinear with drenching frequency and are therefore difficult to interpret.Gastrointestinal parasitism is widely regarded as the most serious constraint to the development of small ruminant enterprises in the humid tropics (Carmichael 1993). Indeed, it can be argued that the tiny populations of sheep and goats in most Southeast Asian countries have already reached a carrying capacity dictated, not by feed resources, culture or markets, but by intense challenge from gastrointestinal parasites.Introducing anthelmintic resistance by transfer of stock is a potentially significant threat to smallholders.To assess the impact of resistance on smallholders we need to consider the three main farming systems under which small ruminants are raised in Southeast Asia: traditional tethering, stall-feeding, and extensive grazing systems.Tethering, mainly of goats, in backyards, on wastelands, on crop residues and on roadsides is practised throughout Southeast Asia. It is the dominant method used for goats in the Philippines, and seems designed to maximise the impact of coccidiosis and helminthosis by ensuring close contact with faeces. Faecal egg counts are higher in tethered animals than in grazed animals (Magona and Musisi 2002). Also, the inability of tethered animals to select forages probably decreases nutrient supply (Muir et al. 1995), which is known to enhance the pathogenicity of gastrointestinal parasites (Coop and Kyriazakis 1999).Tethered goats and sheep are primarily raised by the poorest smallholders. They are usually raised as a sideline to cropping and receive little care. The owners cannot afford the suppressive anthelmintic regimes needed to minimise parasitism and have limited access to livestock extension services (and furthermore do not actively seek such services). Anthelmintic resistance is consequently of negligible importance in this system.Stall-feeding systems are dominant in the uplands of Java where most of Southeast Asia's small ruminants are raised. The houses used in these systems have a raised, slatted floor to allow faeces and urine to drain away.The collected manure is composted with rejected feed and used in a tightly integrated crop-livestock system (Tanner et al. 2001). If grazing is precluded and houses are well designed, it is possible to reduce exposure to parasites under stall-feeding conditions (see Chapter 3), but increases in parasitism and faecal egg counts in stall-fed systems frequently occur. For example, Knox (1990) reports higher worm burdens in stall-fed sheep in West Java (Garut) than in grazed lowland sheep near Cirebon. Likewise, in Tanzania, diarrhoea and gastrointestinal parasitism were significantly higher in stall-fed than grazed goats (Kusiluka et al. 1998).Exposure to helminth larvae in stall-fed animals probably occurs through faecal contamination of floors and feeding troughs (Kusiluka et al. 1998). Larvae are also introduced via forages, especially grasses, that are cut low to the ground (Nguyen Kim Lin et al. 2003).Laboratory procedures need to to be standardised and well managed. (G.D. Gray)The area around houses is likely to be rich in helminth larvae and provides another source of infection for stock that are allowed to graze occasionally.Javanese smallholders who practise stall-feeding do not commonly use anthelmintics (Beriajaya, pers. comm.), but the combination of stall-feeding and anthelmintic treatment can significantly improve productivity (see Chapter 3). A suppressive anthelmintic regime is used in one of the most productive stall-feeding systems for goats -the SALT 2 demonstration maintained by the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center in the Philippines -in which more than a dozen milking goats and their offspring are raised on less than a hectare of forages (Laquihon andPagbilao 1998, Partap andWatson 1994).The value of anthelmintics in stall-feeding systems, and consequently the likely impact of resistance, is an open question. Much research on helminths and the use of anthelmintics in the humid tropics has used grazing stock; the portals by which housed stock acquire infection and the interaction with control and treatment methods has been little studied. With good housing design, rigorous enforcement of zero-grazing, and attention to the height at which forages are cut, it seems likely that stall-fed animals could be maintained with limited or no recourse to anthelmintics. It is also relatively simple to provide housed stock with strategic nutritional supplements to improve resistance to parasites, or with biological control agents such as nematophagous fungi (Waller and Faedo 1996). Including tree leaves in the diet -and perhaps those with high levels of condensed tannins -could also help control parasitism and provide smallholders with a sustainable means of income generation.Holistic research is sorely needed for stall-feeding systems. Such research should, at the very least, model the interactions between parasites, forages, livestock and soil properties. As an example of the need for such research, consider the current upsurge in applied research on the use of plants containing condensed tannins to reduce parasitism in goats (e.g. Kahiya et al. 2003, Nguyen Kim Lin et al. 2003). Cassava is one such plant with high levels of condensed tannins. It can sustain high growth rates in goats (Nguyen Kim Lin et al. 2003), but also rapidly depletes soil nutrients.Leguminous forages, on the other hand, replenish soil nitrogen and have high levels of condensed tannins but, on fertile soils, produce less biomass per hectare than grasses or cassava. The optimum choice of forages in any particular situation will depend on complex interactions among soils, livestock and parasites, and the economic factors that drive decision making.Large-scale grazing of small ruminants is not commonly practised in Southeast Asia. For many years, intensive research by the Small Ruminant Collaborative Research and Support Program (SR-CRSP) in Indonesia explored possibilities for increasing the productivity of grazing sheep and goats under plantation conditions in Sumatra and elsewhere (Horne et al. 1995, Iniguez et al. 1991). SR-CRSP research showed that -with effective anthelmintics and suppressive drenching programsit is indeed possible to graze small ruminants in the humid tropics and achieve high productivity (Horne et al. 1995). But adherence to the required drenching programs is difficult to maintain, and the growth of small ruminant enterprises in Sumatra has occurred primarily using stall-feeding systems (Sinulinga et al. 1995). In nearby Malaysia, some plantation owners have turned to cattle, rather than small ruminants, to avoid crippling losses from pneumonia and helminthosis (Ibrahim 1996).The emergence of anthelmintic resistance dims prospects for unmanaged grazing of small ruminants in the humid tropics.Resistance has yet to be reported from Sumatra, but surveys of smallholder farms are being conducted in South Sumatra in 2003 (Beriajaya, personal communication), and experience elsewhere suggests that the regimes used, for example, at Sungai Putih (Horne et al. 1995), will inevitably lead to resistance.Grazing management could help reduce dependence on anthelmintics in the humid tropics. A drench and move policy was used in the SR-CRSP research to minimise dependence on anthelmintics, although reinfestation with worms to pre-treatment levels is reported to have occurred within four to six weeks (Horne et al. 1995).A particularly promising grazing strategy is rapid rotational grazing (Barger et al. 1994) in which ten plots are grazed in sequence for three and a half days at a time. This schedule ensures that stock are moved before eggs mature to the L3 stage, and do not return to the same plot for more than a month. Owners of large flocks and herds might have the necessary discipline and fencing to adhere to such a rigorous grazing schedule. For smallholders, however, the technique has generally proved impractical (see Chapter 3).The population of small ruminants in Southeast Asia is unlikely to increase without major changes in current practices to control worms. Improved practices are discussed in this volume and have been amply reviewed elsewhere (eg, Waller 1997b). For immediate practical implementation by smallholders, however, the strategy that stands out is wider adoption of stall-feeding systems.Stall-feeding is growing in popularity in the Philippines (see Chapter 3), Malaysia (Chandrawathani, personal communication), and Sumatra (Sinulinga et al. 1995). For smallholders, stall-feeding has many advantages over grazing systems including: Moreover, meeting the feed requirements of small ruminants encourages the development of forage plantings which can be used to reduce soil erosion in upland agroecosystems (Stur et al. 2002).It seems likely, therefore, that the legacy of anthelmintic resistance will be a general reduction in grazing by small ruminants and a move toward intensive production using forages. In some areas, this is actually a welcome development. The poorest people in Southeast Asia often live in upland communities, where they are heavily dependent on unsustainable cropping methods (Coxhead and Buenavista 2001). Integration of stallfed small ruminants within these upland systems would minimise grazing damage and create incentives for planting perennial forages as hedgerows and along farm borders to minimise soil erosion. The challenge for parasitologists is to develop sustainable methods to control parasites so that livestock can be integrated into agroecosystems that are currently dominated by cropping.  The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, the information available on breeds of sheep and goats that are resistant or resilient to helminthiasis (mainly the GI nematodes) infections are reviewed. This is important information for inclusion of appropriate breeds in integrated endoparasite control programs, which may include resistant breeds or genotypes, improved nutrition, strategic drenching, improved management (e.g. housing animals in the wet season) and rotational grazing (Barger 1996, Waller 1997, Alo et al., this volume). However, most of the breeds of sheep and goats that have been identified as resistant or resilient are tropical indigenous ones. Many people, including smallholder farmers in the tropics, often perceive these relatively small indigenous breeds to be 'unimproved' with low genetic potential for increased production.Almost invariably, larger breeds with higher growth rates are assumed to be more productive and often the larger breeds are exotic breeds that are poorly adapted to tropical conditions. Therefore, the second part of this paper discusses how practical breeding programs in the tropics might be developed taking into account both adaptability (disease resistance is just one component of adaptability) and productivity. Particular emphasis is placed on the need to better understand different farming systems in the tropics, their production objectives and the different constraints to increasing productivity before embarking on genetic improvement programs.Resistance to infections with endoparasites is defined as the initiation and maintenance of responses provoked in the host to suppress the establishment of parasites and/or eliminate parasite burdens. Resilience (or tolerance) is defined as the ability of the host to survive and be productive in the face of parasite challenge (Woolaston and Baker 1996). For livestock challenged with GI nematode parasites the degree of resistance has usually been assessed in terms of worm counts at necropsy or faecal egg counts (FEC) during an infection period in live animals. In lambs it is well documented that faecal egg counts are highly correlated with worm counts (Woolaston and Baker 1996). Resilience has R.L. Baker and G.D. Graybeen defined in terms of productivity (e.g. live-weight gain or wool production) under nematode challenge compared to productivity in non-infected animals (Albers et al. 1987). In New Zealand, resilience has been defined as the number of anthelmintic treatments needed over a given period of pasture challenge (usually several months) with nematode parasites (Bisset and Morris 1996). Packed red cell volume (PCV) and mortality rates have also been used as proxies for resilience (Baker et al. 2003). When sheep are infected with the blood-sucking parasite Haemonchus contortus they become anaemic and this is measured by PCV, which is a good indication of how the animal is managing to cope with the pathogenic effects of the parasite and to survive when infected. However, other studies (e.g. Albers et al. 1987) treated both FEC and PCV as two different measures of resistance.Much of the recent research on genetic resistance to GI nematode parasites (endoparasites) in sheep and goats has concentrated on quantifying within-breed genetic variation and selection of resistant (high responder) and susceptible (low responder) lines of sheep as reviewed by Gray (1991), Gray and Woolaston (1991), Gray et al. (1995), Woolaston and Baker (1996) and Baker et al. (2001Baker et al. ( , 2003)).However, there have been many reports since the mid-1930s of variation among breeds of sheep in resistance to GI nematodes, particularly to Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus spp. and Ostertagia (Teladorsagia) spp. Gray's (1991) review summarised 23 publications on this subject and this was expanded to 34 publications in a review by Baker et al. (1992).With a few exceptions most of these studies were carried out in temperate environments in North America, Europe and Australasia. Some of the important conclusions from reviewing these publications are the following:Host resistance to H. contortus has been most commonly found. There is also evidence for resistance to Ostertagia spp. and Trichostrongylus spp.Resistance has been demonstrated both with artificial infection and natural pasture challenge.Usually with natural challenge animals are exposed to several parasite genera with one or two predominating.Faecal egg counts (FEC) have generally been used to measure resistance, but worm counts after necropsy have also been made. Resilience has usually not been assessed, but PCV has been commonly measured and can be used as a proxy for resilience when H. contortus is the predominant nematode parasite. Production traits and mortality rates have been recorded less frequently.Resistance has been demonstrated in both lambs and mature animals (ewes, rams and wethers).It appears unlikely in sheep that differences in feeding behaviour among breeds is a major cause of resistance since many breeds have been shown to be resistant both under natural pasture challenge and with indoor artificial challenge.The experimental design used in nearly all these breed comparisons was poor. In particular, the number of animals of each breed evaluated was too small (commonly about 5-10), very few studies took account of variation among sires within breeds, and sampling method was not stated. Requirements for adequate experimental designs for breed evaluation experiments have been comprehensively reviewed and discussed by Dickerson (1969).How animals are sampled and the family structure (i.e. number of sires and progeny per sire) are critical factors.While the experimental design of many studies on breed variation for resistance to endoparasites can be criticised, it is reassuring to note that some breeds have been identified as resistant in a number of independent studies. This applies particularly to the Florida Native and Gulf Coast Native in the USA (Loggins et al. 1965, Bradley et al. 1973, Zajac et al. 1988, Amarante et al. 1999a, 1999b, Bahirathan et al. 1996, Miller et al. 1998, Li et al. 2001), the Barbados Blackbelly (Yazwinski et al. 1979, 1981, Goode et al. 1983) and the St. Croix (Courtney et al. 1984, 1985a, 1985b, Zajac et al. 1990, Gamble and Zajac 1992, Zajac 1995, Burke and Miller 2003) and for these breeds it can be concluded that they are relatively resistant to GI nematodes.Most of the breeds identified as being relatively resistant are indigenous or 'unimproved' breeds. This presumably reflects the fact that these breeds have been under natural selection for resistance for many centuries with no anthelmintic treatment.In the past 10 years or so there has been increased interest in characterising a number of indigenous tropical sheep and goat breeds for resistance to endoparasites in tropical environments. While both the Barbados Blackbelly and St. Croix are tropical breeds that originated from the Caribbean, all the studies relating to them quoted above were carried out in the USA. However, there was anecdotal evidence in the Caribbean that the St. Croix may have been somewhat resistant to endoparasites (Hupp and Deller 1983).In Southeast Asia nearly all the recent breed comparison studies for sheep and goats (Table 5.1) suffer from the same deficiencies in experimental design noted in the earlier reviews. However it is pertinent to note that the St. Croix has been shown to be resistant in studies in both Indonesia and the Philippines under very different climatic (hot and humid) and management conditions than those used in the original studies carried out in the USA. Similarly, Barbados Blackbelly crosses wereIntroduced breeds of goat and sheep need to be assessed for their ability to survive and reproduce in all conditions; Anglo-Nubian buck. (G.M. Hood)  shown to be resistant in Indonesia. Although there is no strong evidence from the studies summarised in Table 5.1 from Indonesia that the Indonesian Thin Tail sheep are resistant to H. contortus, some recent reviews (Subandriyo 2002, Raadsma et al. 2002) show that this breed is more resistant than susceptible Merino sheep, but not as resistant as the St. Croix. In two small studies in Thailand and the Philippines native indigenous goats were more resistant than Anglo-Nubian crosses or purebred Anglo-Nubian and Saanen goats (Table 5There is also some preliminary evidence in the Philippines that Boer goats may be somewhat resistant to endoparasites.Sheep-breed comparisons that have been carried out in Africa are summarised in Table 5.2. In the case of the Red Maasai breed from East Africa there is an interesting progression from the small studies originally undertaken by Preston andAllonby (1978, 1979) to the comprehensive studies carried out by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILCA 1991, Baker et al. 1999, 2002, 2003). We can now confidently conclude that the Red Maasai breed is both resistant and resilient to endoparasites and particularly to H. contortus. In addition to the sheep breeds that have been reasonably comprehensively characterised as resistant to GI nematodes there are other interesting tropical breeds that may be resistant. This is based almost entirely on the anecdotal evidence that these breeds survive and thrive in the stressful environments where they are found under severe disease challenge. These include the West African Djallonke sheep which may be resistant to both endoparasites and trypanosomiasis (Baker 1995, Osaer et al. 1999) and the Garole sheep in India (Ghalsasi et al. 1994). A study done in Maharashtra, India (summarised in Table 5.1), comparing the resistance to H. contortus of F1 Garole crossbred lambs with that of Bannur, Deccani and 1/2 Bannur-1/2 67  50) Saanen ( 14) Deccani lambs, found that lambs with 50% Garole genes were significantly more resistant than the other breeds and crosses tested and lambs with 50% or more Bannur genes ranked second in resistance (Nimbkar et al. 2003). It is worthy of note that the Carribean St. Croix sheep originated from West Africa and are probably related to the West African Djallonke sheep (Bradford and Fitzhugh 1983).It is also interesting that the Javanese Thin Tail and the Garole might be related since they both carry the FecB (Booroola) gene for prolificacy (Davis et al. 2002).The evidence for genetic variation for resistance to endoparasites among goat breeds is limited (Tables 5.1 and 5.3) and most of these studies suffer from the same shortcomings in experimental design noted for sheep. As for sheep, it is usually the indigenous goat breeds (e.g. the Alpine goats in France and the Small East African in Kenya) that are more resistant.It is possible that the mechanisms or level of resistance may be different in sheep and goats since, as goats are predominantly browsers, they are likely to have been under less intense natural selection for resistance (Baker et al. 2001). Indeed, it is known that goats are innately more susceptible to nematode parasites than sheep when they only have pasture available to graze (Pomroy et al. 1986), but the degree of susceptibility can differ for different parasite species (Gruner 1991).In those areas where browse is freely available it is often observed that the prevalence of endoparasites is higher in sheep than goats (Vercruysse 1983, Papadopoulos et al. 2003). This may not tell us anything about the relative resistance of sheep and goats to endoparasites, but could just reflect different feeding behaviour, i.e., sheep are predominantly grazers while goats are predominantly browsers. Hoste et al. (2001) also demonstrated that for goats, unlike sheep, different feeding behaviour can account for differences in resistance. Saanen goats were shown to have lower egg counts over a five-month period than Angora goats in an environment where both pasture and browse were available. This difference was mainly explained by the fact that Angora goats were predominantly grazers while Saanen goats were predominantly browsers.Virtually all the research on genetic variation to endoparasites in sheep and goats has concentrated on the nematode parasites. In many areas of the tropics and temperate regions of the world liver fluke (trematode) infections (Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica) are also an important constraint to sheep and goat production (FAO 1992). While it is well documented that sheep can mount an effective immune response (self-cure) to nematode parasites, it has been demonstrated that they are unable to acquire resistance to liver flukes (e.g. Haroun andHillyer 1986, Boyce et al. 1987). This may be why there has been little research on genetic resistance to liver fluke infections and few studies published. Boyce et al. (1987) found significant breed differences in faecal egg counts and fluke counts after five breeds of sheep were experimentally infected with F. hepatica. Barbados Blackbelly sheep were the most susceptible to infection while St. Croix and Florida Natïve sheep were the most resistant. While none of the breeds demonstrated an ability to resist re-infection with F. hepatica, clear breed differences were detected in response to the primary infection. Wiedosari and Copeman (1990) reported relatively high resistance to F. gigantica in Javanese Thin Tail sheep, although there was no contemporaneous breed comparison. Roberts et al. (1997aRoberts et al. ( , 1997b) ) compared the resistance to F. gigantica of Indonesian Thin Tail sheep (sampled from Java and Sumatra) with St. Croix sheep and F2and F3 crosses between these breeds (Table 5.1). They concluded that the Indonesian Thin Tail sheep were more resistant than St. Croix sheep and that resistance may be controlled by a major gene with incomplete dominance. In contrast, the Indonesian Thin Tail sheep were as susceptible to F. hepatica as the Merino sheep that they were compared with (Roberts et al. 1997a).It is now well documented that indigenous livestock that have evolved over the centuries in the diverse, often stressful tropical environments, have a range of unique adaptive traits (e.g. disease resistance, heat resistance, water tolerance, ability to cope with poor quality feed, etc) which enable them to survive and be productive in these environments (Fitzhugh and Bradford 1983, Devendra 1987, Baker and Rege 1994). In some cases the physiological basis of adaptation has been investigated in great detail, as illustrated by the detailed review of the physiological basis for the superior digestive capacity, efficient nitrogen economy and efficient use of water in desert goats (Silanikove 2000). However, more commonly this detailed assessment is not available, but it is still possible to infer 'adaptability' by measuring total flock productivity, efficiency or net benefits of different breeds (e.g. Fitzhugh and Bradford 1983, Bosman et al. 1997, Ayalew et al. 2003). Some recent studies will be described to illustrate this point.A study (summarised in Table 5.2) shows that under natural pasture challenge there was no difference in resistance to endoparasites between the indigenous Menz and Horro sheep evaluated in the highlands of Ethiopia (Tembely et al. 1998, Rege et al. 2002). However, under artificial challenge there was some evidence that the Menz may be somewhat more resistant than Horro lambs (Haile et al. 2002). The most dramatic and most economically important breed effect in this study was for mortality rate for which the overall cumulative mortality from birth to 12 months of age was 37.3% for the Menz and 67.6% for the Horro lambs. Mukasa-Mugerwa et al. ( 2000) investigated the causes of lamb mortality and found that the most important cause of death for lambs from birth to 12 months of age was pneumonia, which accounted for 54% of all deaths. Endoparasite infections as a cause of mortality were of limited importance in both breeds (accounting for about 10% of deaths).        1997). It also made a much more comprehensive study of productivity. The net benefits of goats to a household were calculated by aggregating the value added by physical products (meat, manure and milk) to socio-economic benefits (saved interest/premium on credit/insurance) and deducting purchased inputs. The result was then expressed as net benefit to each main limiting resource of a household: flock metabolic size, land and labour. There were increased net benefits per unit of land or labour from mixed flocks (i.e. those with both indigenous goats and Anglo-Nubian crosses) under improved management compared with indigenous goats under traditional management. This could be due to the crossbred goat, or the improved management or both.It was then shown unequivocally that in flocks using the improved management package the crossbreds did not produce more net benefits than indigenous goats either in mixed or separate flocks per unit of flock metabolic weight, per unit of land or per unit of labour. These findings explained the low adoption rate of the exotic crosses by the smallholder farmers. However, the improved management package was successful in improving the net benefits to farmers with indigenous goats. Therefore, it was concluded that household welfare could be improved in the crop-livestock, mixed smallholder production systems of the Ethiopian highlands by better management of indigenous goats without the extra organisational effort and cost of producing crossbreds. This study also demonstrated again the superior adaptability in this environment of indigenous goats and the importance of assessing this adaptability, not just in terms of physical products (i.e. meat, milk and manure) but also accounting for socio-economic benefits.Another important issue when assessing flock productivity is to recognise the potential importance of genotype by environment interactions. We concluded earlier from the studies summarised in Table 5.2 that Red Maasai sheep were more resistant to endoparasites than Dorper sheep. These studies were undertaken in many different locations in Kenya, ranging from the sub-humid coast to the semi-arid highlands. Therefore, we can safely conclude that there is no genotype by environment interaction for resistance as the Red Maasai were consistently the most  (2002). There were important breed by location interactions for growth, mortality rates and reproduction rates. When all these parameters were combined it was found that the indigenous Red Maasai sheep were three to five times more productive and efficient than Dorper sheep in the humid-coastal environment. In the semi-arid environment Dorper sheep were slightly more productive than the Red Maasai, but there was no significant difference in flock efficiency between the breeds. In this study efficiency was measured as kg of total meat offtake per megajoule of metabolisable energy per day, but this still ignores any differences between the breeds in input costs (e.g. health care costs will be lower in a Red Maasai flock than a Dorper flock) or socio-economic benefits. The reason for this interaction was that the Dorper sheep were very poorly adapted to hot humid conditions, which was reflected in their low growth rates, low reproductive rates and high mortality rates. The conclusion from this study is that breed of choice in a hot, humid environment is the Red Maasai, while in an arid or semi-arid environment there is little to choose between the two breeds. The Dorper breed was introduced to Kenya in the 1960s. It has gradually increased in popularity in the semi-arid Kenyan highlands mainly because of its size and growth potential and is popular with the Maasai herdsmen who cross it with their Red Maasai sheep. Judicious crossbreeding like this may be justified as long as the crosses include at least 50% Red Maasai blood to maintain at least some degree of endoparasite resistance (Baker et al. 2003, Nguti et al. 2003).Despite the well documented fact that most indigenous sheep and goats in the tropics are well adapted to their stressful environments there is still a commonly held view that they are 'unproductive' because of, for example, their small size and high mortality rates. This has resulted in many misguided livestock improvement development programs importing exotic breeds, which are assumed to be more productive based on their performances in their benign temperate environments of origin. Often theyThe Philippine native sheep has been bred from Merinos imported from Mexico. (G.M. Hood) cannot even survive in the tropical environments into which they are introduced. Although some development agencies are now appreciating the importance of an integrated systems approach to livestock improvement in the tropics (e.g. Ayalew et al. 2003) this has been the exception rather than the rule.Before initiating any livestock improvement program it is important to have a good understanding of the production systems and the relative importance of the different constraints to production in these systems. The amount and distribution of rainfall are often principal determinants of system characteristics. For sheep and goat production in the tropics, two important systems are mixed crop/livestock farming systems in the medium to high potential agricultural areas and livestock-based grazing systems in the drier (arid and semi-arid) range or desert areas. Included in the crop/livestock farming systems are both small subsistence level farms, large commercial operations specialising in cropping with livestock usually playing a secondary role, and also commercial operations with reasonably large livestock enterprises. In all these systems sheep and goat production is often secondary in importance to crops and other livestock activities. In pastoral, transhumant and ranch farming systems ruminants graze rangelands to produce food and income. Cattle, sheep and goats are often managed in common herds under the care of owners, their family members or herders. During the day these herds may travel considerable distances in search of grazing and water. However, with few exceptions, they are closely confined at night as a safeguard against predators and theft. Confinement of livestock at night is also a feature of the crop/livestock farming systems.Although the more detailed characteristics of tropical sheep and goat production vary from region to region around the world, some constraints are common to all tropical farming systems. The three broad categories of constraints are ecological, biological and socioeconomic (Fitzhugh and Bradford 1983). Most production systems are affected by several of these and often there are important interactions among them.Ecological constraints include land (area, topography, altitude, soil fertility) and climate (rainfall, temperature, humidity, growing season). Of these ecological constraints only soil fertility is readily amenable to human intervention and then only when improvements are economically justified, which is more likely to be the case in crop/livestock systems. In some large-scale, commercial farming systems, shelter (e.g. trees or buildings) can be provided to help lower heat stress.In smallholder systems in the high rainfall tropical environments, confinement of sheep and goats during the rainy seasons is an option, although this also means that labour must be available to provide feed in a cut and carry system.Biological constraints include low quantity and quality of feed supplies, lack of drinking water (particularly in the arid and semi-arid grazing areas), high disease prevalence, theft and predation and perceived poor genetic potential.Socio-economic constraints include:  Once the production systems and constraints to production have been characterised and quantified for a particular tropical environment or region then there are some logical steps that should be followed to implement a genetic improvement program. This would ideally include the following: Descriptions of these steps have been published elsewhere (e.g. Ponzoni 1992, Harris andNewman 1994) and it is not within the scope of this paper to describe them in detail. Rather, we will discuss the steps in which breeding for adaptability and productivity in tropical sheep and goats requires special consideration, with particular attention to developing breeding programs for smallholder farmers. It is important to note that although the steps outlined above appear in a linear order, in fact there is interdependency between many of these steps, as will be illustrated later.During the process of quantifying constraints to production and developing integrated livestock development objectives it may become clear that development of breeding programs should not be attempted. For example, the small desert breeds of goats such as the Black Bedouin are exquisitely adapted to fragile desert environments after thousands of years of natural selection (Silanikove 2000), and the best breeding strategy now is to let natural selection continue without external interference with either their genetic potential or their desert environment.At the outset of planning a breeding program the targeted livestock production and marketing system should be defined and then all traits that affect the profitability of that system should be identified. Decisions about which traits to target for genetic improvement should ideally be based on the extent to which each trait affects profitability (per head or per unit of labour or land), not on whether the trait is difficult or easy to measure or change genetically. This is of particular relevance to disease resistance or adaptation, which are not always easy to measure or change genetically and so are often ignored. Historically, breeding objectives and relative economic values (REV) of different traits in the breeding objective were first derived purely in terms of economic returns for different traits (e.g. the dollar values for an additional kilogram of meat, an additional kilogram of wool or an additional lamb weaned) without any attempt to take into account the costs of production and develop profit functions. Although these may not have been optimally designed breeding objectives they were still a good first step in getting breeding programs established and genetic progress was achieved. Over time the breeding objectives and REVs were refined as the data on input costs were obtained or derived (e.g. feed costs for grazing livestock) to allow the calculation of more comprehensive profit functions (Ponzoni 1986).In many tropical countries the economic data needed to develop comprehensive profit functions will be scarce.Efforts have been made to develop these functions for hair sheep in Cuba (Ponzoni 1992) and in Kenya (Kosgey et al. 2003(Kosgey et al. , 2004)). Solkner et al. (1998) argue strongly that 'The decisive but most frequently missing step in the design of village breeding programs is the definition of a breeding objective'. They also suggest that breeding objectives must be formulated in close collaboration with smallholder farmers with particular attention to the importance of risk avoidance, particularly in marginal environments. For many smallholder farmers in the tropics with hair sheep or goats, a simple and practical breeding objective may simply be increased financial returns from meat production per unit of limiting resource (e.g. per head, per unit of land, per unit of labour) or net income (which may include income from meat, milk and manure) from the sheep or goat unit. This is also the time when a rational decision can be made about whether a genetic improvement program is justified at all in terms of financial returns or increased profitability of the enterprise.Reports are conflicting about the profitability of small ruminants under traditional smallholder management in the tropics, with some indicating low or negative profitability (e.g. Soedjana 1996, Bosman et al. 1997, Seleka 2001, Kosgey et al. 2003) and others profitability (e.g. Upton 1985, Itty et al. 2001). However, there is strong evidence from several of the studies showing a lack of profitability that smallholder farmers often keep sheep or goats primarily as a ready source of cash income (e.g. acting as a bank), for socio-cultural reasons (e.g. for use in ceremonies such as weddings or funerals), as an insurance against crop failure and for manure rather than just for production of meat or milk. When these additional factors are included in the economic analyses then the production systems are profitable (e.g. Bosman 1997, Kosgey et al. 2004).The three pathways of genetic improvement are selection among breeds or populations (e.g. strains within breeds), selection within breeds and crossbreeding designed to exploit heterosis and/or combine the merits of different breeds. These genetic improvement options are not incompatible, but once a particular crossbreeding system is chosen and it has stabilised, then any further genetic progress can only be achieved through selection within the new crossbred population. In many tropical sheep and goat production systems there is often scope to use both between-and withinbreed genetic variation in breeding programs (Baker 1995, 1996, Woolaston and Baker 1996).Choice of the most appropriate breed or breeds to use in a sheep or goat enterprise should be the logical first step when initiating a breeding program. However, this assumes that sufficient information is available on which to make rational breed choices, which very often is not the case. Historically, and especially during colonial times in Africa and Asia, it was assumed that the small local indigenous breeds of livestock in the tropics must be unproductive and many larger exotic temperate breeds of cattle, sheep and goats were imported to rectify this perceived problem. This was almost always a mistake and these exotic breeds did not survive unless they were given a level of care (e.g. management, feeding, disease control) that led to expenses far above anything smallholder farmers could afford. More recently, that is, within the past 10-20 years, there has been increased interest and awareness of the many unique attributes that the indigenous hair sheep breeds and indigenous goat breeds in the tropics have to offer. This is well illustrated by the studies summarised in Tables 1-3. For example, in Southeast Asia: Often, even when the merits of different breeds have been compared, the decision should be made to utilise, and perhaps improve, the local indigenous breed. A good example is the Red Maasai sheep breed in the humid climatic zones of Kenya. The two most important biological constraints to production in this environment are endoparasite infections (predominantly H. contortus) and quantity and quality of feed. There is increasing evidence documenting the spread of anthelmintic resistance in Kenya (Wanyangu et al. 1996). So, it is important to use a breed that is resistant and/or resilient to endoparasites and that needs minimal or no treatment with anthelmintic drugs if kept on an adequate level of nutrition. Smallholder farmers almost invariably rank increased size and growth potential as important traits they would like to increase in their sheep and goat flocks (Kosgey, pers. comm., Jaitner et al. 2001).In this situation a simple and practical breeding program may be to select the heaviest purebred Red Maasai rams in a management system where they are exposed to endoparasites while grazing and not drenched. Those that survive under such a management regime should be those that are more resistant and/or resilient to endoparasites and there is no need to have to resort to recording FEC or PCV to ascertain this. Due consideration would have to be taken of animal welfare issues in such a management system to ensure that mortality rates were kept to a manageable level.Management strategies can also be developed to permit drenching of individual animals that are clearly suffering from the effects of endoparasites and will die if not treated. For infections with H. contortus the simple FAMACHA test developed in South Africa is a useful diagnostic tool (Vatta et al. 2001). This test is based on a colour chart with five colours depicting varying degrees of anaemia, which are compared with the colour of the mucous membranes of the eyes Shepherds in India are evaluating crosses between the highly prolific Garole, locally adapted Deccani and the high-carcase quality Bannur breeds. (G.D. Gray)of sheep or goats. Those animals with the palest eye colour are severely anaemic and should be treated. Depending on the proportion of rams treated from birth until the age they are selected for breeding (e.g. commonly about 12-15 months of age) this can be included in the selection process as an independent culling level. For example, it may be possible to identify a reasonable number of rams that were never drenched over this period and then within this group the heaviest, functionally sound (i.e. no structural defects) animals could be selected. Such a breeding scheme would not result in a rapid rate of genetic change in growth.If a rate of 1% per year was achieved, this would mean that rams that averaged 30 kg at one year of age initially would be 33 kg after 10 years of selection. This is not a dramatic change and many farmers are looking for a quicker response. The easiest way to do this is to embark upon a crossbreeding program.The benefits of crossbreeding schemes are (1) to combine the merits of different breeds and (2) to utilise heterosis (also commonly called 'hybrid vigour'). Heterosis is measured as the extra performance of the crossbred over the average of the parental breeds. The increase in performance ranges from 0 to 10% for growth traits and from 5 to 22% for fertility and mortality traits. These effects are additive, so for combined production traits, like weight of lamb weaned per ewe mated per year, heterosis commonly ranges from 15 to 25%. As a simple example, if a local breed has a mature weight of 30 kg and another breed (maybe an exotic imported breed) has a mature weight of 50 kg, then a first cross (F 1 ) animal is expected to have a mature weight of 40 kg (half 30 kg + 50 kg) if there is no heterosis. If there is 5% heterosis for this trait then the F 1 will have a mature weight of 42 kg. One can immediately see the large effect derived from combining the additive effect of two breeds even if there is no heterosis, and this increase will be achieved in one generation. However, it may not be as simple as this. If the local breed has an annual mortality rate of 20%, but the exotic breed in the new environment is not adapted and has a mortality rate of 50%, then the F1 cross with no heterosis is expected to have a mortality rate of 35%. It can easily be shown that this increase in mortality rate will often be of far greater importance in terms of its effect on total flock productivity or profitability than the increase in growth rate (e.g. Upton 1985).Breeds can be used in crossbreeding programs in four main ways. These are substitution of an existing breed by a new breed, new breed formation based on crossing two or more breeds, specific crossbreeding in a stratified breeding system and rotational crossbreeding.Combinations of these different crossbreeding programs are also possible.If the new breed (B) is clearly more desirable than the original local breed (A), then one can just keep on 'backcrossing' with that breed until, after about four to five generations, breed A has effectively been replaced with breed B. For example, if the original sheep breed was an indigenous hair breed and there was a desire to establish a wool industry then backcrossing with a breed such as a Merino or a Corriedale would achieve that aim. This was exactly how the Merino and Corriedale breeds were originally established in the highlands of Kenya where they are reasonably well adapted.When the same approach was followed in hot and humid environments the new breeds were not at all adapted and usually did not persist. It is also possible to introduce new breeds to a country or region by importing live animals, semen or frozen embryos although these are more expensive options. The recent importation of Rambouillet Merino sheep from the USA into the Philippines is a good example of importing a new breed that is poorly adapted to the hot humid environment. In contrast, the St Croix hair sheep imported from the USA into Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (Table 5.1), have proved to be much better adapted to the hot, humid climates found in these countries both as purebreds and in crosses with indigenous breeds.The simplest way to form a new breed is to cross breed B with breed A to form a first cross (F 1 = B x A), then mate B x A males with B x A females (inter-se mating) to form an F 2 population and then continue the process of interbreeding to the F n generation (often called a composite or synthetic breed). This was the method used to produce the Coopworth (Border Leicester x Romney) and Perendale (Cheviot x Romney) breeds in New Zealand and the Dorper (Black-headed Somali x Dorset Horn) breed in South Africa. Usually breeds are chosen because they have attributes that breeders want to combine into the new synthetic breed. For example, the Dorper breed was produced to combine the adaptive merits of the Black-headed Somali hair sheep with the growth and milk production of Dorset sheep. The final result was a hardy meat breed that did not need shearing and was productive under harsh veldt conditions in South Africa (Milne 2000). Selection can take place during the interbreeding phase to ultimately produce a new breed with desired characteristics -for example, improved reproduction and fleece weight in the Coopworth (Coop 1974) and minimal wool production and certain colour patterns in the Dorper (Milne 2000). It is possible to combine more than two breeds to form a synthetic, which has the advantage of combining the attributes of more breeds but the disadvantage is that the logistics of breeding are more complicated. For example, the Kenyan Dual Purpose goat was produced by interbreeding the local Galla and Small East African breeds with the exotic Toggenburg and Anglo-Nubian breeds (Mwandotto et al. 1992).The Red Maasai sheep are resistant to worms and highly productive in areas of high parasite challenge. (R.L. Baker)These crossbreeding schemes require a reasonable flock size (e.g. about 50 or more breeding females) so are not of interest to smallholders with small flocks. However, they can be employed by pastoralists who often have larger flock sizes. The simplest example of a specific crossing system is the use of a terminal sire breed (B) on a proportion of the flock (about 30-40%) to produce F 1 progeny (B x A) but with the rest of the flock being straight-bred (A x A) to supply female replacements. Often all F1 progeny are sold or slaughtered for home consumption. Many Maasai pastoralists in Kenya follow this sort of system by using the Dorper breed as a terminal sire over their Red Maasai flocks. However, the F 1 female progeny can be quite productive in the breeding flock when maintained under reasonable feeding and management conditions. Rotational crossbreeding may then be used to mate the Population size and structureThe important factors here include the number of males and females in the breeding nucleus which then affect the selection intensities that can be achieved and the inbreeding rate (Falconer 1989, Kinghorn 1995).As a rule of thumb, a closed nucleus breeding flock should include a minimum of about 150 breeding females mated to at least five breeding males with breeding males being replaced annually with a male offspring and breeding females being kept in the flock for no longer than three to four matings. However, the larger the nucleus flock the better as this allows larger selection intensities and lower inbreeding rates to be achieved. Ponzoni (1992) recommended that a closed nucleus flock of 500 breeding females and seven new sires per year should be 'the absolute minimum below which the establishment of elite nucleus flocks should not be contemplated'.It is important to make the clear distinction between the traits in the breeding objective which are identified solely on the basis of their economic importance to the enterprise and the selection criteria, which are the traits actually measured in the flock to predict the breeding objective. If, for example, the breeding objective was increased meat production, then possible selection criteria may be body weight taken at different ages (e.g. at weaning or at market age), female reproduction rate and mortality rates. In the temperate developed world there may also be measurements of carcass quality such as fatness or meatiness which can be estimated on the live animal using ultrasonic measurements. However, this is only justified if the market rewards the producer for improved carcass quality, which is rare in the temperate developed world and almost non-existent in the tropical developing world. However, in some markets (e.g. the Middle East) fat-tailed sheep command a considerable premium and this trait could therefore be a factor in deciding which breed to use.Selection criteria need to be able to be measured, heritable, variable and correlated with the traits in the breeding objective. Heritability is the efficiency of transmission of parental phenotypic superiority to the next generation and, in theory, can vary from zero to one, but for animal production traits it varies from zero to about 0.60. It is possible that the traits in the breeding objective may also be selection criteria.If, for example, the breeding objective is increased milk production then the obvious selection criteria to measure is milk production of the does or ewes. However, it is not possible to measure milk production on the males in the population and they must be selected either on breeding values derived from milk records from their female progeny or from their female relatives (e.g. dam or grand-dam). The breeding value of a particular trait for an animal is a description of the value of that animal's genes to its progeny. The genes an animal carries are not known so we never know what the true breeding value is but it can be estimated from heritability estimates, the records of the individual (i.e the phenotype) and, if available, records of the individual's relatives (Falconer 1989, Kinghorn 1995).Heritability estimates are low for fitness traits such as reproductive rate and mortality rates (0.01-0.10), moderate for growth and milk production (0.2-0.3) and high for carcass quality traits (0.4-0.5). In theory, genetic parameters such as heritabilities and genetic correlations are specific to a population and a given environment. In practice, estimates of these parameters for the production traits (e.g. reproduction, growth) have been found to be relatively robust across breeds and different environments and it is common to assume one set of parameters for a wide range of circumstances. For many disease resistance traits such assumptions are questionable as there is a physiological interaction between pathogen activity and production which may mask the underlying genetic relationships (see the review of Woolaston and Baker (1996) for a detailed discussion of this issue with regard to resistance to endoparasites). There is now good evidence for sheep in temperate climates that resistance to a number of diseases (e.g. endoparasites, footrot, blowfly strike) is moderately heritable (0.20-0.40), although heritability of resilience to endoparasites is lower (about 0.10). However, there is limited evidence for the heritability of disease resistance in tropical sheep and goats. It appears that resistance to endoparasites in resistant breeds like the Red Maasai may be very lowly heritable (Baker et al. 2003). Similarly, resistance to endoparasites in goats in the tropics has been reported to be very lowly heritable (e.g. Woolaston et al. 1992), but some recent studies have been more encouraging and suggest moderate estimates (Baker et al. 2001).Some traits are expensive, impractical or impossible to measure and this includes some of the production traits (e.g. lifetime productivity, feed intake of grazing animals, carcass quality, behaviour) and many of the disease resistant and adaptability traits (e.g. metabolic efficiency, water tolerance, heat tolerance). In some cases indirect measures have been developed but in others measurable traits do not exist at present. However, where breeds or genotypes have been demonstrated to have the required attributes such as disease resistance or adaptability, then these genetic qualities can be harnessed by using those breeds or by crossbreeding with them without any need to resort to within-breed selection. It is also important to remember that the rate of genetic progress per generation in a breeding flock is proportional to the selection intensity (which is a constant for a given breeding structure), the degree of variability (i.e. the phenotypic variance) and the heritability (Falconer 1989). Some of the traits which are lowly heritable, such as reproduction rate, are also extremely variable and the expected rate of genetic progress of about 2% of the mean per year is similar to what is expected from traits such as growth or milk production which have moderate heritabilities but are less variable. FEC, which is commonly used as a predictor of resistance to endoparasites, is highly variable and usually has an over-dispersed skewed distribution. Even when transformations have been applied to FEC to normalise the variance (e.g. logarithms or square root), it still tends to be a fairly variable trait with a moderate heritability at least in susceptible breeds. It must also be remembered that while selecting for several different traits may be justified, the more traits that are included as selection criteria the less genetic progress that will be made for each one of them.The developed world contains well documented breeding structures where genetic improvement takes place in a small proportion of the total industry (e.g. nucleus breeding flocks or the registered stud industry) and then genetic improvement is passed on to the commercial industry through sale of males (rams or bucks) or semen. This structure works well as long as the nucleus breeding flocks are achieving genetic improvement. This genetic improvement then flows through to the commercial sector. If, however, the nucleus flocks are not making any genetic improvement then no improvement will flow through to the commercial flocks. Historically, the registered stud industries in many developed countries put a lot of emphasis on traits not always closely related to productivity or profitability such as colour, type and body shape. In Australia and New Zealand open and closed group breeding schemes were established originally as a way of breeding livestock with emphasis on productivity and provided competition with the more traditional stud industry for provision of breeding stock. Today the registered stud industry displays a very different attitude, with many breed societies encouraging, or making mandatory, the recording of economically important traits (Hammond et al. 1992). Many tropical developing countries do not have breed societies and their existence is not essential to achieve genetic improvement. However, it is most unlikely in most tropical developing countries that performance recording will be logistically feasible in large numbers of smallholder or pastoralist flocks. For this reason, some form of open or closed nucleus breeding structure has been widely advocated so that the performance recording effort can be concentrated in one large nucleus flock or several reasonably large ones (Ponzoni 1992). Often the nucleus flocks have been established on government research stations and while this may have been successful initially when external funding was available, when this ceased these flocks were often disbanded (Madalena et al. 2002). There are also questions about whether the management systems that are adopted on well-funded government research stations are relevant to the environments under which the improved genotypes are expected to perform in low-cost, low-input smallholder systems.Once nucleus breeding has been successfully implemented there is usually a need to establish a multiplication tier of farmers to ensure that reasonably large numbers of rams or bucks are available for the commercial industry. Jaitner et al. (2001) have discussed some of the constraints to doing this in relation to nucleus breeding schemes for Djallonke sheep and West African Dwarf goats which have been initiated by the International Trypanotolerance Centre in The Gambia. They highlighted, in particular, the constraint of individual farmers' small flock sizes (2-3 breeding females) and suggested that a possible solution was to establish village flocks as multipliers. This resulted in a combined flock size of about 30-50 ewes or does which would then be mated to improved rams or bucks from the nucleus once all the breeding males in the villages had been sold or castrated.Recently, plant breeders have been carrying out breeding programs in some tropical countries in collaboration with smallholder farmers (e.g. Eyzaguirre andIwanaga 1995, Bellon andReeves 2002). For example, farmers evaluate different crop varieties and give their views on what they consider are the important crop characteristics. FAO and ILRI are developing and testing 'breed survey guidelines' which, among other things, seek farmers' views on important livestock characteristics and their perceptions of the value of different breeds and strains of livestock (Rege and Rowlands, pers. comm.). Although it may be more difficult with livestock than plants to develop farmer-assisted breeding programs, there is scope for some innovative research and development on this topic.This could take place in smallholder flocks, use modern participatory methods to gain insights into how smallholders make decisions about livestock and set breeding objectives, and use DNA technology to assist with identification of parentage.Choice of buck and timing of mating can be controlled by keeping males and females separate for most of the year. (G.M. Hood)The experimental design used to evaluate sheep and goat breeds for resistance to endoparasites needs to be improved. In particular, attention needs to be paid to the number of sire families evaluated per breed with a minimum of 15 required and a minimum of five offspring per sire family. The 15 sires should also be as unrelated as possible.At least two breeds must be compared in each experiment.Despite the poor experimental design used in many published studies there is now good evidence from a number of independent studies that some tropical sheep breeds are resistant and/or resilient to endoparasites (predominantly Haemonchus contortus). These include the East African Red Maasai, the Florida Native and Gulf Native in the USA and the Barbados Blackbelly and the St Croix from the Caribbean. The Indonesian Thin Tail sheep have been shown to be resistant to the liver fluke Fasciola gigantica.There is much less evidence for breeds of goats that are resistant to endoparasites but the Small East African goat in Kenya and the Alpine goat in France have been shown to be resistant breeds.There is strong evidence that breeds of sheep and goats that are indigenous to the tropics have much more to offer for small-holder farmers than is often appreciated. There is an urgent need for more comprehensive breed evaluation studies that assess the total biological and economic productivity of these breeds with particular attention to their adaptation to stressful tropical environments. Adaptation in the tropics includes not only disease resistance but also heat resistance, tolerance of water shortages and the ability to cope with poor quality and quantity of feed.Prior to initiating any livestock improvement programme in the tropics it is important to have a good understanding of the production systems and the relative importance of the ecological, biological and socio-economic constraints to production in these systems. Genetic improvement programmes usually should only be attempted once the nutritional, health, management and socio-economic constraints have been resolved.Crossbreeding programmes with non-adapted imported breeds should be discouraged for low input smallholder systems in the tropics. However, crossbreeding among the indigenous tropically adapted may be an option in some farming systems.  The kingdom of Nepal is a landlocked country lying between India and China, on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. The country has a land area of 147,180 sq km. It is 800 km from east to west and varies from 144 to 240 km north to south, between longitudes 80-88°E and latitudes 26-31°N.The three main physical regions of the country are based broadly on altitude. To the south of the country is the terai which is fertile, flat, low-lying land between 50-300 m and 25-32 km wide. Rising from the terai plains, at an altitude of 300-2500 m, and following an east/west alignment, are two ranges of hills collectively referred to as the mid-hills. Lower elevations of this region are known as the Siwalik (or Churia) Hills and higher elevations as the Mahabharat Lekh Range. Between the Mahabharat Lekh and the high Himalayas, covering elevations from 2500-5000 m, are another series of mountains commonly referred to as the high-hills. The high-hills ring a transitional zone and generally align north/south as a result of the rivers draining through them from the high Himalayas. To the north of these high-hills are the Himalayas proper at 5000-8800 m, aligned east/west and including the highest mountains in the world. These last two zones are either sparsely inhabited, or are uninhabited, with most land above 5500 m being permanently snowbound.The climate and therefore the natural environment of the country are influenced by two factors. First, Nepal is in sub-tropical latitudes so that temperatures at low altitudes are warm to hot. Superimposed upon, and modifying, this potentially subtropical climate are the effects of altitude and aspect, which result in markedly diverse microclimatic temperature and rainfall conditions. Hence the natural environment can show great variation within a particular location.The climate of the terai is subtropical, with the natural seasons being determined by the monsoon rains which affect the entire Indian subcontinent. In the low to midhills (300-2500 m), the climate is classified as warm temperate and above this, between 2500 and 4500 m, cool-temperate. The high hills (2500-5500 m), comprise an alpine zone, while above 5500 m, the temperature is almost always below freezing point.Rainfall varies from as little as 500 mm per annum, in the rain shadow areas to the north of the high Himalayas, to over 5000 mm in areas to the south of some of the major Himalayan massifs. For most of the country, R.K. Bain, B.R. Joshi, D. Gauchan and G.D. Grayaverage rainfall lies between 900 and 1900 mm per annum, becoming progressively drier from east to west.The greater part of this rain falls during the monsoon, between the middle of June and the end of September.In general, there are four major and distinct seasons in Nepal: winter (December-February); spring (March-May); summer (June-August); and autumn (September-November).Annual per capita GDP in Nepal is about USD 220. With a human development index of 0.332, Nepal ranks 151st out of 174 countries (the average in South Asia is 0.444) (IFAD 1998). Life expectancy at birth is 54 years, infant mortality is estimated at 98 per thousand and only 31% of the adult population (only 13% of the women) are literate. The daily calorie intake is estimated at 1957 per capita.With the present population growth rate of 2.3% per annum and a growth rate of less than 3% in the agricultural sector, Nepal faces an increasingly serious risk of food deficit and poverty. Marginal farmers, small farmers and the landless account for 89-96% of those living below the poverty line in rural areas. Just over half the population live in the hills and mountains and 60% of this group live below the poverty line (APP, 1995) compared with 42% in the terai. Holdings of less than 1 ha account for 82% of the total in the mountains and 77% in the hills, compared with only 59% in the terai (CBS 1998). Land holdings tend to be smaller in the hills (0.7 ha/household) and mountains (0.8 ha/ household) compared with the terai (1.3 ha/household).Reducing poverty and commercialising subsistence agriculture are key government goals. The Ninth Plan which started in 1997 emphasised poverty alleviation and aimed to reduce the proportion of those living below the poverty line from 42% to 32% by 2002-03. This was to be done largely through growth of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP 1995) placed increased emphasis on livestock development to generate national economic growth and improve the livelihood of the rural poor in the hills and mountains.The contribution of livestock is projected to increase, from the present level of 31%, to 45% by the end of the plan period (2015). Highest growth has been estimated for the hill and mountain regions of the country. Within the livestock sector, the contribution of small ruminants is 12% but this needs to be substantially increased in future to achieve the planned levels of growth and improvements in rural poor livelihoods.Using a livelihoods analysis approach, a range of indicators pertaining to the five classes of capital, as defined by Carney (1998), were considered. On the basis of these indicators, it was apparent that poverty increases from the plains to the mountains. There is also a trend for the more remote districts in the west of Nepal to be poorer than their more accessible counterparts to the east.Table 6.1 provides a summary of some of the indicators examined and the proportion of districts in each region that are in the lowest third of the country's ranking. It is evident from Table 6.1 that, by most measures, the hill and mountain regions are ranked lower than the terai.In particular, access to natural resources is a constraint in the hill districts, while access to financial, social and physical capital, all highlight the problems of remoteness in the mountain districts.Population growth in Nepal is about 2.3% per annum, which is limiting access to natural resources in the hills.The population of the hill districts rose by 45.5% between the census of 1981 and that of 1991, while the mountain districts' population rose by only 7.8%.In part, population growth in the mountain districts is reduced by outward migration, although this appears to be a destabilising influence on the farming system and may further erode aspects of social capital.There is a trend towards improved access and communication as roads and telecommunications permeate the more remote districts. Farmers in the hills and mountains are vulnerable to occasional natural disasters which, in the past, have brought famine to remote districts. Landslides are not unusual, while hailstorms, earthquakes, droughts and floods are all reported in the literature as being past causes of distress.Rinderpest has been present in the past and peste des petites ruminantes is a threat to the sheep and goat livestock system that has the potential to seriously threaten livelihoods.Livestock contribute 31% of Nepal's GDP and small ruminants 12% (LMP 1993;APP 1995). Small ruminant production is an important component of mixed farming systems and an important source of cash generation and livelihood for resource poor farming communities (including women and marginal farmers) who are unable to invest in large ruminants. These animals are an important source of liquid assets for poor farm families and women during famine, illness and emergencies. Goat meat has wide acceptance in all the communities 99 and ethnic groups in Nepal. The demand for both goat meat and live animals in rural and urban areas is increasing for consumption and religious sacrifices.The price of goat meat has more than doubled in the past five years compared with that of poultry and buffalo meat, indicating its importance and unfulfilled demand for it. Women contribute significantly to livestock raising, providing 70% of the work effort and are reported to be more knowledgeable than men about treating sick animals (APP 1995).Mountain communities prefer to raise sheep for meat, wool and manure production. Sheep wool production also provides income and employment opportunities for rural women. Woollen products (hand-made carpets, blankets, Pashmina) produced from sheep and goat wool are major sources of rural income and livelihoods.Hand-made carpets and Pashmina shawls are the major export products of Nepal.Small ruminants raised by poorer farmers do not attract the attention of the mainstream scientific establishment and little effort has been made to improve their economic prospects. Cash resources are limited and uptake of credit low. Together with poor access to technology and information, these constraints limit farmers' ability to use capital intensive techniques.Farming systemsMost farms in the hill districts are small-holder mixed enterprises. Cropping areas are mainly terraced, producing rice, wheat, barley, maize, potatoes and vegetables. Both rain-fed and irrigated systems are found and agro-forestry is practised. Livestock consist of cattle, buffalo, goats and poultry. Forests are used as a forage resource for grazing and browsing livestock.Livestock contribute manure and traction to the crop system and benefit from by-products and weeds from the cropping areas.Small ruminants, particularly Khari goats, are managed in sedentary systems in the hill districts. Goat management practices are influenced by location, availability of pasture and communal grazing, availability of family labour, cropping pattern of the area and market prospects. Animals are kept in one area throughout the year and are penned at the homestead at night. Night pens are normally small sheds made of local materials, which may or may not be raised constructions with 100There is increasing conflict over lands used for grazing and forestry which can be reduced by confining goats. (G.D. Gray)slatted floors. They may be semi-stall-fed or stall-fed (Ghimire 1992). However, grazing on waste or fallow land and browsing in bush or forest areas close to the village are more common. Because of limited availability of fodder and pastures in grazing land, in many places the animals are routinely supplemented at the stall with grasses, straw or fodder tree leaves. Food grains and salts may also be provided. Animals are watered during the day on the way to grazing.With present management techniques, productivity is low, there is little selection or breeding control and some relatively unproductive animals may be maintained and compete for scarce feed resources. Throughout the year, goats must compete with cattle and buffalo and poor pasture quality forces animals to use forest resources. Continuous grazing of the same limited grazing areas may contribute to the build-up of heavy parasite burdens and contribute to low productivity.Diseases and parasites are regarded as major constraints to production in the sedentary production system. In fact, farmers ranked disease as the first constraint to increased productivity of sedentary goats.Various diseases (reported on a symptomatic basis) have been reported in goats and sheep under sedentary management. Among them, the prominent causes of losses are diarrhoea, fever, respiratory problems, skin infections, worm and fluke infections, foot and mouth disease, contagious ecthyma and coenuriasis. In addition to the common problems, peste des petits ruminants and setariasis have also been reported, in some parts of the country, during the past few years.Sick animals are treated as and when is necessary, first by traditional methods and then by veterinary ones if the animal does not recover. Many ethnoveterinary practices are used, for example, leaves of Cannabis indica for the treatment of scour and garlic bulbs for plant poisoning. However, the effectiveness of these is uncertain.Parasitic diseases (including gastrointestinal nematodes, liver fluke and external parasites) of small ruminants are regarded as the most important cause of reduced productivity among goats in sedentary management systems in Nepal. Parasitic diseases were ranked first by farmers and this view has been further supported by studies showing superior response by animals treated with anthelmintics. Infection is mostly confined to the wet summer months, with low levels of infection during the winter and dry summer months. The main nematode genera found are Haemonchus, Trichostrongylus and Oesophagostomum, with Cooperia, Strongyloides and Bunostomum being found less often (Joshi 1997(Joshi , 1999)).Trichostrongylus and Oesophagostomum may be the cause of the goat diarrhoea reported by farmers while Haemonchus on its own (or in combination with Fasciola) may be a significant cause of mortality or reduced productivity on these farms.The effect of gastrointestinal nematodes on animal production was evident in studies in which the growth rate of the animals given regular anthelmintic treatment was higher relative to untreated animals reared alongside (Joshi 1998). The daily weight gain of anthelmintic-treated kids was up to 2.5 times that of untreated kids under sedentary conditions. These responses show that controlling parasites can greatly improve goat productivity in this system.The following options, either alone or in combination, could help to reduce the effects of helminthiasis in sedentary flocks. These options might form a suitable list from which farmers could choose most-favoured options for further study, as part of participatory onfarm adaptive research. They are: have inadequate food production from their limited marginal farms, most of them suffer from food insecurity during some parts of the year (mostly during the preharvest period). Goat raising plays a critical role in meeting the food security and livelihood needs of these households.Goats are grazed close to the village, in communal grazing lands and forests, during the day and kept in sheds close to the house overnight. Little supplementary feeding is provided to animals in the sheds. The number of animals kept by each household ranges from 1 to 18 with an average of 6-7 animals per household. Goats are of the indigenous hill breed (Khari) and are small.There are several critical constraints to smallholder goat production in the village. Farmer-perceived constraints were listed after group discussion with 14 farmers and then pair-wise ranked. In order of importance, these were: disease, lack of knowledge about goat raising, capital constraints and feed scarcity, and family labour constraints. Labour is a constraint in small families in which there is a shortage of adults to take care of the animals.Diarrhoea was the most important disease symptom reported by the goat farmers. Other important symptoms mentioned were: watering from the nose, occurrence of fever and stomach swelling. The severity of disease is greatest in young animals during the rainy season (May-September).Goatkeepers use both traditional and chemical methods to control disease when animals develop diarrhoea. Some use cooked lemon extracts (chook), cannabis or garlic to control the initial stages of the disease symptoms. Farmers resort to the use of chemicals/anthelmintics only when traditional methods do not work well. Drugs and associated information are normally obtained from agroveterinary suppliers at Bharatpur (Chitwan district).Technical information and chemicals are rarely obtained from the local government livestock extension office. Farmers rarely receive relevant information from radio or other communication methods.Sedentary system case study -Pyughar VillageTranshumance sheep and goat production in the mountain districtsAgro-pastoralism is the dominant form of farming in the mountain districts. Transhumance livestock production is integrated with limited cropping of barley, buckwheat and potatoes. Livestock contribute significantly to farmers' livelihoods and provide the soil fertility necessary for continued cropping.Most of the sheep and goats in mountain districts are raised under the transhumance system of management. Animals are moved to different altitudes and climatic conditions throughout the year and are never penned or fed cut forage. This migratory movement is determined by the availability of fodder, the farming system and the climatic conditions. In the migratory flocks sheep and goats are raised together (sheep comprising the higher proportion). Baruwal sheep and Sinhal goats, well known for their flocking tendency and hardiness, are the principal breeds used in this system.During early summer (May to early July) flocks migrate up to alpine pastures, grazing and browsing in the forests.From late July to early September animals feed on the alpine meadows and gain sufficient body weight before descending through the forests again in late September.From October through to April flocks graze in the fields and forests adjacent to the lower altitude villages.Shepherds of the transhumance flocks report disease and predation as important causes of animal loss.The most common ailments reported are 'six-month disease' (a disease of unknown etiology), diarrhoea, pneumonia, mange, contagious ecthyma and abortion.In addition, land leeches and nasal leeches are also reported as a serious nuisance to the animals. The main season for six-month disease is spring (April-May) and autumn (September-October), while diarrhoea is most common during the monsoon, and pneumonia and mange during winter. Most of the ailments are treated with available herbs and veterinary medicines are only used when the flocks are in accessible locations.The commonly used herbs are garlic, satuwa and kutki. Transhumance is the production system used for sheep and goat flocks in this mountain village. Farmers normally keep mixed flocks of sheep and goats (sheep comprising the higher proportion). Indigenous sheep (Baruwal) and goats (Sinhal) are raised in high mountain alpine pastures during the summer rainy season and grazed in the crop fields and forests/bush in the lower hills during winter. The number of animals per flock ranges from 250 to 500. Flocks are either owned by an individual or two to four owners. There is a declining trend in migratory sheep production in the village, with only five flocks currently in the community where formerly there had been 10.Semi-structured interviews and discussions with herders and owners revealed that the important constraints to migratory small ruminant production were: (i) diseases;(ii) predation from leopards and bears; and (iii) land leech nuisance to animals. An allergic reaction in sheep feeding on pastures containing a hairy caterpillar (which is a serious pest of Alnus nepalensis) was also reported as serious by one of the sheep owners.Chhamase ('six-month') disease was perceived to be the most serious disease of sheep by the owners and shepherds. This disease kills young animals four to six months old causing significant economic losses to their owners. Fever and diarrhoea are the common symptoms of this disease, which occurs during migratory movement of the flocks (April-May and October). The other important disease reported by shepherds, which appears in some years, was blindness disease in sheep (probably a tapeworm cyst). Goats were reported to be relatively free from disease compared with sheep. However, sometimes diarrhoea from worm infection kills goats. Diarrhoea is severe in goats during the rainy season (June-September).Herders normally use herbal plants and also antibiotics (if available) to control Chhamase in sheep. For goat diarrhoea they use cooked lemon extracts (chook), garlic and other herbal remedies to control the initial stage of the disease. They obtain drugs and the information from agroveterinary suppliers in Pokhara and from the Agricultural Research Station at Lumle.Transhumance system case study -Ghandruk villageFew options for improving helminth control can be suggested for the transhumance system and none that could be readily or immediately implemented. Gaps in the understanding of the epidemiology of parasite species in this management system require further study.While such studies have the potential to contribute to the productivity of the system and the livelihoods of the shepherds and owners, there are many logistical problems to undertaking such work.Because poverty and small ruminant production are clearly linked, the focus for any project activities should be the sedentary goat production system in the hill regions and the migratory sheep and goat production system in the mountain regions. The poverty focus of activities would be enhanced by paying greatest attention to the more remote areas in the west of the country.The participatory exercises described here with farmers in the hill region highlighted that farmers recognise their lack of knowledge as a constraint to production. If farmers' demands for better knowledge were met and they were trained in simple skills associated with parasite control, there is a real chance that sustainable control practices might be adopted.Allied to the above, the establishment and use of farmer research groups to undertake participatory testing of most-favoured options, chosen by farmers from the list of control options, might result in useful practical adaptation of these strategies. Such an exercise might provide valuable information on the process which could be extrapolated to the other countries in the project.Further data are needed before valid control options for the migratory system in the mountains can be implemented. The logistical problems in undertaking this work should not be underestimated. However, the 106 Options to overcome worm infection for small ruminant producers in Nepal Discussion and observation with farmers in their own surroundings builds trust and yields better data. (G.D. Gray)benefits from a greater understanding of the diseases present in this vulnerable and marginalised system would help increase its potential to meet the livelihood requirements of the region. Source material for an advisory note for sedentary system goat-keepers in NepalInternal parasites cause death and reduced production of meat, milk, fibre and manure from sheep and goats throughout Nepal. In the hill regions, problems are caused by nematode worms in the stomach and intestines and flukes in the liver. Options for better control include grazing control and management, stall-feeding and use of anthelmintics.When does the problem occur?While animals may be continuously infected and experience production losses all year round, clinically apparent signs are mainly found during the wet summer months of the monsoon period (July to September).What are the causes?Animals acquire burdens of Haemonchus, Trichostrongylus and Oesophagostomum causing a highly pathogenic multi-species parasitic gastroenteritis syndrome.In addition, animals are frequently infected with Fasciola which increases the severity of the condition.Trichostrongylus and Oesophagostomum cause a profuse diarrhoea, with a consequent failure to efficiently absorb nutrients in the intestine. Haemonchus and Fasciola cause a protein loss in the stomach and liver and reduced efficiency of stomach and liver function. In addition, Haemonchus is a blood feeder and leads to blood loss and anaemia.Under current management, animals tend to revisit the same grazing areas regularly during the wet season and it is presumed that high levels of infectivity build up on the pasture of these areas. In addition, since pasture is at its most abundant during this time, supplementation with cut fodder is reduced, encouraging animals to have higher intake of infected herbage and at the same time reducing the total quality of feed intake.Grazing control  For smallholders to benefit from rising demand for livestock products, they need to increase herd and flock sizes so that livestock form a significant part of their farming income. With the notable exception of West Java -where sheep form a large component of the farming mix -small ruminant populations in Southeast Asia are small (FAO 2002). At the household level, this is reflected as small herd sizes. Parasitism is one of many constraints that limits the creation and development of small ruminant enterprises. Parasitologists often report the effects of parasitism on physiological parameters, growth rates, reproduction and mortality, but it is relatively rare to see these effects translated to farming systems and the decisions made by smallholders.Parasitism as a constraint to the development by smallholders of a medium-sized enterprise based on meat goats, and demographic models will be used in this chapter to assess the impact of mortality, reduced growth rates and delayed reproduction on both annual productivity and herd size. The set of models considered here includes a stochastic version that uses individual animals as the unit of study. It is therefore well suited to modelling smallholder systems in which the number of animals is small and the fate of individuals important.The observed mortality rate in tropical goats is one of the chief constraints to the growth of herd size, but opportunistic harvesting also prevents smallholders from developing medium-scale enterprises.We use the Leslie matrix (Leslie 1945) as the basis for model development because of its close links to life tables and the availability of a large body of analytical theory (Caswell 2001). The model we consider, however, is an extension of that formalism which includes a group of classes to represent the stages of the breeding cycle, as illustrated in Figure 7.2.G.M. Hood  Survival of male kids is modelled as a simple chain of age classes; the survival of adult males is not considered at all in the model. The availability of bucks for mating enters by proxy as a conception probability.Each of the arrows in the life-cycle diagram represents a parameter, or set of related parameters, which must be estimated. Unfortunately, a complete set of survival and reproduction parameters is rare in field studies or surveys of smallholder populations. We therefore use an amalgam of published estimates and best guesses to parameterise the model. Specific suites of parameter estimates are available as scenarios in the ('GLORIA') software package.The simplest version of the model treats the parameters as deterministic rates. Under these conditions, the life-cycle diagram can be mapped to a population projection matrix, which allows the dynamics of the model to be written:Where A is a square population projection matrix, and Nt is a column vector in which each element represents the number of animals in each class at time t. For this class of model, an array of analytical tools (Caswell 2001) can be employed to understand the relationship of demographic rates to the productivity of the population. In particular, the dominant eigenvalue, λ 1 , of the projection matrix, A, gives the population growth rate. We will use the annualised population growth rate as an index of the potential rate of harvest for each scenario.A more realistic version of the model treats the survival parameters in the model as probabilities and the reproductive parameters as the means of specified distributions. Although this stochastic version of the model has intractable mathematics, it can easily be simulated to estimate quantities like the population growth rate. The particular advantage of the stochastic model is that it allows us to consider the fate of a small herd of one or more females and to understand the risks that smallholders face due to parasitism-related mortality and other causes.We first consider model behaviour using a default set of key parameters. (Many other parameters are used in the model, but this is a key set likely to be affected by parasitism.) These have been estimated from field surveys in the Philippines, where goats are principally raised by tethering on crop residues and roadsides. Under these conditions, mortality from parasitism and other causes is high (Table 7.1).Given these parameters, analysis of the deterministic model yields a population growth rate of only 3% per annum, making it difficult to produce surplus stock for sale and increase herd sizes. An additional difficulty is illustrated in A second set of parameters illustrates the population growth rates achievable when parasites are controlled and mortality is low (Table 7.2). These parameters have been estimated using data collected in the Philippines (see Chapter 3) where, among other feeding and management options, wet season housing has been provided, and haemonchosis has been controlled by regular anthelmintic treatment. The principal change here is the reduction of mortality to rates similar to those found in temperate climates, together with a slight increase in the conception rate to reflect higher body weight and better condition score.Analysis using the 'Housed' parameter set yields a population growth rate of 79% per annum for the deterministic model and 78% for the stochastic version (mean of 1000 runs), with almost two surplus kids produced per breeding female. There is also a profound decrease in the variability of the outcome.The GLORIA software package provides tools for investigating this variation in detail, but a simple indication of the magnitude of the change can be obtained by comparing the coefficient of variation (CV = standard deviation divided by the mean) in the size of various age classes at the end of a 36-month simulation. For the default parameter set, we obtain a CV in the final size of the breeding herd of 66%, while for the 'Housed' scenario we obtain a CV of 21% for the breeding herd. A similar decline in variation is observed in all age classes.116The impact of parasitism on the development of small ruminant populations in Southeast Asia   The unpredictability of the farming system with the default high mortality rates may help to explain the lack of development of small ruminant enterprises in Southeast Asia. Most goats in the region are kept as an easily liquidated asset for the purchase of medicines, payment of school fees and other needs.The demand for cash must often arise at times when surplus male kids are not available, so that owners are forced to sell breeding females. The combination of low inherent productivity and urgent cash requirements could, therefore, enforce a low ceiling on herd size. So, it is pertinent to consider the possible trajectories that a smallholder might follow in attempting to build a larger herd from a small initial holding.Consider the case in which parasitism and other major sources of mortality have been controlled, but in which there is an urgent need for cash on an annual basis that must be satisfied by selling goats -to pay school fees, for example. Using the model, scenarios will be considered with and without this cash requirement, and the rates at which a goat enterprise can develop will be contrasted. The endpoint will be a herd size of about 12 breeding females, starting from an initial herd of four animals two adult females (one of which is pregnant) and a six-month and eight-month-old female kid.Figure 7.4 shows the mean of 100 trajectories using the 'Housed' parameter set, but with the imposition of a ceiling of 12 adult breeders (that is, breeders are culled to reduce herd size when the ceiling is exceeded). Each of the panels of the figure shows the result of simulations under a different set of financial circumstances. Figure 7.4a assumes that no urgent cash requirement exists, so that surplus kids and adults are simply sold as they become available. Under these conditions, mean herd size grows quite rapidly to reach a steady state capacity at about four years. In each of the 100 trajectories, the herd never died out.In Figure 7.4b a 'cash requirement' has been imposed, forcing the owner to sell three goats in August every year. The rule imposed here is that surplus stock are sold first to meet the cash requirement, but breeders are also culled if necessary. Under these conditions,The impact of parasitism on the development of small ruminant populations in Southeast AsiaSelling more young goats at better prices will allow youngsters to spend more time at school. (G.M. Hood) mean herd size grows relatively slowly and the final herd size is lower than that attainable without the cash requirement. The error bars of the figure show that the variation between trajectories when the cash requirement is imposed is extreme compared to the relatively predictable dynamics of the first scenario. The variation is partly driven by the extinction of some herds -in 18 of 100 simulations, the herd died out before six years had elapsed.Figure 7.4c shows the result of simulations in which the cash requirement is spread over three months, as would occur if an interest-free loan were obtained. In this case, mean herd size grows somewhat faster than in Figure 7.4b to a slightly higher plateau. More importantly, herd size reached zero in only 8 of 100 simulations. The differences between the scenarios of Figure 7.4 should not be surprising to development workers. The transition from bare subsistence to earning a modest income from any agricultural enterprise is difficult. Smallholders must cope with unpredictable changes in the weather and economic circumstances, which will drive managerial decisions, so that an optimum path for development of the enterprise cannot be followed. For small ruminants in the tropics, nutrition and the control of parasitism are key technological innovations that sustain viability, but appropriate markets and economic structures must be also in place to help smallholders succeed. As Figure 4c suggests, obtaining credit at a reasonable rate of interest, rather than the punitive rates prevalent under village conditions (e.g. Calara and Lapar 2001), may allow farmers to make better decisions.The consensus which emerges from the literature published in the Philippines in the last 20 years is that there is a need to increase production of small ruminants in the country and that helminth parasites are a 'major constraint on production'. The greatest opportunity appeared to be the integration of sheep and possibly goats in plantation crops, especially coconuts but, at present, 'backyard' production is by far the dominant production system. A comprehensive review (Dar and Faylon 1996) identified the range of constraints on the substantial goat (2.63m head in 1996) and emerging sheep (30,000 head in 1996) industries and do not restrict these to animal health. That paper describes the medium term Philippine livestock R&D priorities 1995-2000 which included the aim of controlling and eradicating economically important diseases of swine, poultry and ruminants: The key phrase in this objective is 'economically important' and Ducusin and Faylon (1996a) [later published in the Philippines (Ducusin and Faylon, 1996b)] tackle the question of the importance of gastrointestinal helminths in Philippine sheep and goats and list the parasites present. Further, they agree with Manuel (1983a) and Parawan (1988) and many anecdotal reports, that nematode parasites limit small ruminant production. Parawan concludes his discussion on the integration of livestock with tree crops with:The most important aspect of health and diseases on grazing livestock under tree crops is the problem of internal parasites. The problem is aggravated by the shading effect which favours parasite egg survival and persistency Typical of published observations is that of Villanueva and Soriano (1988) who concluded a report of a study of feeding water hyacinth meal to young sheep:There was however an observed stunted growth in the experimental animals but this disturbance was due to external and internal parasites;or Bautista and Vaughan (1983) The two main strategies that emerge from the literature for increasing small ruminant production are:The development of new industries integrated with tree crops including coconut, mango, oil palm, pepper, calamansi, coffee and rubber (Villar 1984(Villar , 1995;;Tacio 1998;Alvarez et al. 1985;Subsuban et al. 1995;Faylon et al. 1989;Castillo 1994).Increased efficiency of existing extensive and intensive production systems (Villar 1984;Faylon and Villar 1988).A national survey documented by Faylon and Villar (1988) characterised the current stock of sheep in the Philippines and determined the existing components of sheep production systems. Management, husbandry and herd health practices were identified with the aim of formulating a national framework for sheep research and development. Among their many findings, deworming and vaccination were the most commonly employed herd health practices. A very general account of ruminant development in developing countries was written from an international perspective by Madamba (1989).No matter what national or international objectives are identified, the challenge remains, despite substantial research efforts, of how to achieve these objectives and to prevent parasitism from denying farmers their economic returns.A slaughter study of 40 goats from sale stands in Manila and Quezon City (Manuel and Madriaga, 1966) found four nematode species: Trichostrongylus sp., Haemonchus contortus, Oesophagostomum columbianum and Trichuris ovis. This was also the first Philippine description of Eurytrema pancreaticum, the pancreatic fluke.The parasites (helminths and protozoa) of goats from a large number of provinces in the Philippines have been subjected to an extensive study (Tongson et al., 1981). 1230 faecal samples were examined and 39 goats necropsied. From the faecal examinations the four outstanding genera were Trichostrongylus, Haemonchus, Oesophagostomum and Strongyloides found in 1117, 1073, 1047 and 524 of the samples respectively. The actual counts are not presented. This was the first report of Strongyloides papillosus in the Philippines.In a comprehensive account of the worldwide distribution of paramphistomes Eduardo (1988) lists Cotylophoron cotylophorum as a rumen fluke of sheep and goats in the Philippines, Carmyerius synethes and Fischoederius cobboldi as rumen flukes of goats and the pancreatic fluke Eurytrema pancreaticum in goats. Tongson and Trovela (1980) found no correlation between faecal egg counts and worm burdens in 'grade Spanish Merino' sheep of various ages infected with Haemonchus contortus, Oesophagostomum, Trichostrongylus and Cooperia.Likewise there was no correlation between worm size and worm burden but there was a significant correlation between adult female numbers and faecal egg count. The ages of the sheep at slaughter were 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months with four animals killed at each age.In assessing the value of the lack of correlation the small number of animals in each class needs to be noted.Although not conclusive, this paper reinforces the warning that egg counts alone are not necessarily an indication of worm burden, although they are a direct measurement of pasture contamination.Faeces from 60 sheep of varying ages were examined and larvae cultured (Matibag et al., 1991). Trichostrongylus and Haemonchus dominated the cultures, 'strongyles' dominated the egg counts with Strongyloides and five other nematode genera present.Haemonchus eggs and larvae as they develop from laying to hatching and moulting to infective larvae.From the studies it can be summarised that using faecal samples alone for parasite identification is imprecise especially if only eggs are used for identification and are not allowed to develop to later free-living larval stages which can be more readily identified. Slaughter studies which permit identification of adult worms and parasitic larval forms are always preferable but not always practical.One study strongly supports the concept of rapid rotational grazing systems in the Philippines (Barger 1996). [An interesting early reference to rapid rotational grazing systems in tropical conditions may be found in Spindler (1936) and Thomson and Carr (1957) who said that, in the tropics, small ruminants should be kept off pasture for 21-28 days.] Worm eggs from a native goat infected with several nematode species were maintained either under direct sunlight or in shade for several weeks, and at weekly intervals the viability of the eggs and larvae developing from them were estimated.Although the study was undertaken in Petri dishes and a direct comparison with pasture conditions cannot be made, the viability of deposited eggs to be recovered as larvae after 4 weeks was nil in the sunlight exposed samples and very low in the shaded samples (Tongson and Dimaculangan, 1983). The humidity of the samples was maintained at >85% throughout.The recommendation from this study was that pastures should be rested for at least 4 weeks after grazing by infected goats and that this should be tested under field conditions. Alvarez et al. (1991) showed that goats supplemented with ipil-ipil, but grazing in a rotational system rather than continuously, have a 'slight advantage' in terms of liveweight gain. This could be the result of diet quality, parasites or a combination of these.A worm control program (Anon, 1981) for cattle describes the principles of strategic, tactical and offensive drenching for Philippine conditions. Drenching 2-3 weeks after the first heavy rains is suggested as a good strategy along with a mid-summer drench and one after soaking regular rains. It is not said if these strategies should also apply to small ruminants. Manuel (1983b) provided the following worm control program for ruminants:1. Calves should be treated against large ascarid and threadworms at the age of 1 month 2. Lambs and kids should be treated against Strongyloides at the age of 1 month.3. Calves, kids and lambs should be treated against other gastrointestinal helminths at the age of 3 months.4. Drench all animals (young and old) at least once a year preferably 1 month after the onset of heavy rain.5. Pasture rotation should be practised.There is no evidence in this paper or later of these programs being tested experimentally against any other.In an overview of livestock parasites in the Philippines, Manuel (1980) stated that \"sheep and goats in this country are equally affected [by liver fluke, as buffaloes] but the condition is not considered a serious problem\": the prevalence is the same but level of morbidity and mortality is less.Several recent studies may reflect a change in approach to worm control as they describe seasonal variation on nematode infections in sheep and goats. Rosillo (1995) found that H. contortus and S. papillosus were present in ewes all year round when ewes were sampled regularly. Gemino (undated), Pangilinan (1998) ArrietaThe control of helminths in small ruminants in the PhilippinesFeed supplementation (eg with urea molasses blocks) increases growth and reduces the impact of parasites. (G.D. Gray)(1998), Dilla (1998) and Gorospe (undated) examined faeces of goats of different age classes on a research farm in Neuva Ecija for a six month period from the dry to the rainy season. The dominant parasites were Haemonchus and Trichostrongylus with a distinct seasonal increase. Although limited in nature this trend towards longer term studies is encouraging. As part of these studies counts of parasitic and non-parasitic larva on pasture were also undertaken (Anon, 1998).A more detailed study of the seasonal pattern of helminth infection of goats in La Union was reported by Barcelo and Camalig (1997). Although not a full report, the study extended over two complete years and, with the exception of April in the first year when Trichostrongylus made up more than 50% of the larvae which emerged from culture, the dominant species was Haemonchus which for all other months comprised more than 90% of the cultured larvae. This was reflected in the numbers of infective larvae in soil and herbage although only Haemonchus and Trichuris larvae were recovered (time of sampling not given). Marbella (1991) undertook some epidemiological studies which led to the establishment of a goat herd health program in the Bicol region of southern Luzon. The unit of measurement of a range of gastrointestinal parasites and Dictyocaulus was 'prevalent'; simple flotation and sedimentation techniques being used to detect the presence and absence of nematode eggs and larvae, and trematode eggs. Twelve farms with at least 10 does were used across the region, representing three major climatic types. Four commercial dewormers (three BZs and tetramisole) were also tested for efficacy. Identification of nematode genera was made on the basis of egg morphology. Overall, there were no major differences between wet and dry seasons, between climate type and between worm genera in the two samples collected -one in the wet and one in the dry.The experiments which led to the herd health program involved sampling of does 1-2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after treatment with a dewormer which was given to three different groups of does at monthly, 3-monthly or 6-monthly intervals in each of the three regions.The results show albendazole used in Masbate was very poorly effective (measured by change in prevalence). Tetramisole in all regions was poorly effective. Confirmation of our interpretation of the experimental protocol with the study author is required. Goats drenched monthly gained most weight over a 6-month period. This is possibly the first circumstantial evidence of anthelmintic resistance in the Philippines and could become a focus for a future survey of resistance.Kingscote (1968) estimated the impact of parasites in general on Philippine sheep and goats as 10% of the value of production and included 'unthriftiness, death and predisposition to other diseases' as the sources of that loss. Justification for this figure is not provided because none was available: economic estimates of the wide and long-term effects of helminth infections are difficult to obtain experimentally, especially under field conditions. However, comparison between parasitised and non-parasitised goats in two barangays in southern Luzon (Que et al., 1995) showed that they differed in growth by several kilos over a period of 8 months representing a good return on investment from a single dose of anthelmintic. Such studies are often difficult to interpret (see Chapter 1) when the experimental and control (treated) animals are, as in this case, grazed separately on different farms. Nevertheless the result does point to a substantial impact of helminths on growing goats. A series of papers by Howlader et al. (1997aHowlader et al. ( , 1997bHowlader et al. ( , 1997c) ) describes the pathological, parasitological and production changes in young goats of different ages infected artificially with varying doses of H. contortus. Kids born of infected mothers had their growth affected by infection (about 70g/day over 5 weeks after birth compared with around 20g/day for the kids of uninfected dams) but this impact was not dependent on infective dose. Growing goats gained less weight than uninfected counterparts: about 4g/day in infected kids compared with about 19g/day in uninfected kids. Once again, the effect was not dependent of the level of infection given to the experimentally infected animals. In the same growing goats there was no effect of infection on circulating leukocyte numbers and a moderate effect on erythrocyte numbers. Related studies (Howlader et al., 1996a(Howlader et al., , 1996b) ) showed similar effects on growth and blood parameters as the result of Haemonchus infection.It is difficult to relate these results to field conditions but once again they point to a significant impact on the performance of young and old goats.Medicinal plants have attracted attention from various groups in the Philippines whose interests have been on, but not restricted to, their anthelmintic effects. Loculan and Mateo (1986) surveyed 22 barangays in Lipa City and identified the plants being used as medicines and their intended effect. The plants with purported anthelmintic effect for ruminants are shown in Table 8.1. Other publications by Mateo (1986 and1996) contain similar information.A more comprehensive list of anthelmintics for large animals (it is not stated which are for ruminants) was published by Mateo (1987) and is summarised in Table 8.2. Claud and Mateo (1988) conducted interviews in Batangas province and found that in 100 responses from 18 barangays, 89% of respondents were using herbal medicine and 'obtained satisfactory results'. Nineteen medicinal plants were identified. These were prepared in a variety of ways and some were used to treat parasitism. Fernandez (1991) screened some local plants for their efficacy against Haemonchus contortus and found that eight were effective. Further studies on two of these have been published in abstract form: a 'crude extract' of Mimosa pudica was 93.6% effective against Haemonchus larvae in vitro and was 'as good as a commercial dewormer' in vivo in a dose response trial in terms of worm egg count reduction and reduction   (Mateo, 1987) in worm number post mortem (Faelnar, 1997). Tinosphora rumphii 'stem crude extract' was 85.6% effective in vitro and at a non-toxic dose level in vivo half of the experimental animals had their 'worm burdens significantly reduced' (Fernandez, 1995). Salazar et al. (1986) report (in abstract form) 72 plant species used for livestock and poultry health but give no details of which plants were used for internal parasites.Jovellanos (1997) dramatically demonstrated the efficacy of two out of three plant extracts in the treatment of gastrointestinal nematodes in cattle. The plant products were atis (custard apple: Anona squamosa), papaya (Carica papaya) and pineapple (Ananas comosus). The studies were conducted at Santa Barbara, Pangasinan. Forty cattle were selected with FECs over 400 epg.Albendazole was used as a control in one group of 10 cattle and the remainder were divided into three groups of 10 given a single treatment with dried powdered leaves of the three plants with molasses as a 'lick'. Cooperia and Haemonchus were the dominant species. The efficacies of the treatments were: albendazole 100%, Ananas 98.46%, Anona 95.53% and Carica 'no effect'. Efficacy was based on FEC. The cost of treatment with the plant extract was estimated to be the cost of molasses alone at P 9.5 per animal compared with P 37.33 per animal for albendazole treatment.Cost of collection and preparation of the extracts were not reported.There have been few published studies which either directly or indirectly implicate nutritional status as having an impact on parasite levels in either sheep or goats under grazing conditions. Supplementation with concentrates fed as a replacement for 'grasses' in confined goats resulted in decreased FEC in 1-yearold native and Anglo-Nubian goats over a 6-month period while harbouring a nematode infection dominated by Haemonchus and Trichostrongylus (Barcelo and Camalig 1998).Sevilla (1990a) reviewed approaches to feeding small ruminants and mentioned a range of supplementation strategies appropriate for high-fibre diets in the tropics.Sevilla rejects what he describes as 'traditional feeding standards' as a suitable approach to feeding small ruminants in the tropics where there are limited options for feed resources which can be highly variable. Studies such as that of Magay and Perez (1984) may fall into the 'traditional' category as they fed young native goats highly prepared diets, based on leguminous leaves and starch grains. Such feeds are not always available and the prescriptive recommendations from that study may apply only in certain circumstances and, we would argue, circumstances that are rarely found in real farming situations. Boloron and Magadan (1982) made detailed recommendations for the improved nutrition of cattle and dairy goats using pasture and concentrates under backyard conditions. Castillo (1982) discussed fibrous agricultural residues and noted that winged bean residues had lower digestibility in goats (49%) than in cattle and carabao (63%).High protein supplements such as Azolla (Sevilla et al., 1987) have been investigated and have been extensively reviewed (Sevilla, 1990b). In the case of Azolla the growth of animals with its leaf as a dietary component grew less well than those with comparable amounts of ipil-ipil (Leucaena) leaf.A large number of supplementation trials have been undertaken using cassava leaves (Manihot esculenta) (Baquirquir and Coruña, 1989), ipil ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) (Faylon and Momongan, 1985;Aliling, 1980;Abilay et al., 1981;Patricio et al., 1990;Rasjid and Perez, 1982) and kakawate (Gliricidia sepium) (Siasico et al., 1990;Siasico and Coruña, 1990). If stated, all these trials cited were conducted in pens. In some cases the animals were dewormed before the start of the trial but in most cases no mention is made of parasites or treatment for parasite control. It is possible therefore that the effect of parasites may have influenced the outcome of these studies.Other supplements that have been tried include biogas sludge (Cruz, 1981), urea-molasses (Gerona et al., 1984), urea-supplemented wheat straw (Ordoveza and Johnson, 1983), rice straw with urea-molasses (Lapuz, 1982;Trung et al., 1990), dried poultry manure (Bazar and Intong, 1991), water hyacinth meal (Villanueva and Soriano, 1988) and vegetable waste (Anon, 1982).Lanting and Sevilla (1998) found that inclusion of the tanniniferous legume Flemingia improved growth and intake of sheep fed a Stylosanthes based diet. They did not investigate the impact on parasites.There have been some grazing trials using supplementation. Gerona et al. (1984) compared the production of supplemented and non-supplemented castrated goats grazing at 20 head/ha. The supplement was molasses/urea at two ratios, 20:1 and 10:1.Both supplemented groups gained more weight than the control group but the conclusion, similar to studies with sheep under coconuts (Faylon et al., 1991), was that goats need additional supplementation if pastures are not to be degraded at these stocking rates. Alvarez et al. (1991) showed that goats which were supplemented with ipil-ipil but grazing in a rotational system in Pampanga, Luzon, have a 'slight advantage' over goats given the same level of supplement but grazed continuously. Pastures were also in better condition under the rotational system.A general pattern that may be emerging is that for agronomic reasons it is essential to supplement sheep and goats if they are to graze continuously in coconut plantations at the stocking levels used in these studies.Goat kids in the feed trough can defecate on feed, increasing chances of parasitism. Goats from Balungao, Philippines. (G.M. Hood)One future research application may be to investigate the timing and nature of nutrient supplementation to optimise animal production, pasture conservation and parasite control.There are no published studies on genetic differences in resistance to helminths between sheep and goats, within breeds of sheep and goats and only one account of breed differences among goats but none for sheep. However it is likely that parasites have been present in all the studies described in this section and that they have contributed to some extent to the observed difference sin production. The extent of their effect is not known.Interpretations of comparisons of any trait: disease, production and anatomical, between sheep and goat are notoriously difficult unless they are constrained to known diets and behaviours. Palo et al. (1995) elegantly demonstrated the comparative feed selectivity of sheep and goats using oesophageal fistulae. Goats were shown to be more selective and eat the forages of higher nutritive value. This may be important for intake of parasitic larvae that tend to be consumed from the low parts of more erect species rather than on the leaves of trailing or erect broadleaf plants. Bato and Sevilla (1988) used oesophageal fistulae to investigate diet selection of goats on improved and unimproved pastures.Production differences between and within breeds Matias et al. (1997) list seven exotic and three local breeds of goats and 10 exotic and three local breeds of sheep (Table 8.3). The numbers of each breed have not been accurately estimated.A number of studies have sought to compare native goats with varying levels of cross with Anglo-Nubians. These are summarised in Table 8.4.There are several notable features. In none of the studies are sires identified or accounted for in the analysis of differences between 'breeds' and no attempt is made to account for heterosis in evaluation of the crosses.One intensively analysed study was by Karnuah et al. (1992) on 76 does of five genotypes which varied in their proportions of the two breeds, from 100% Anglo-Nubian to 50% Anglo Nubian and 50% Native. They concluded that crossbred animals were more productive across a range of parameters. Aurelio et al. (1987) and Bautista and Vaughan (1983) studied crosses of Anglo-Nubian and Native (473 does) and Anglo-Nubian and Saanen crosses with Natives (number unknown) with mixed results which were heavily influenced by weather.A substantial comparative study of milk production and kidding performance at two farms in Mindanao could not distinguish breed effects from management effects (Amonruji and Rigor, 1988) although on reading the methodology a comparison between Anglo-Nubian and Anglo-Nubian crosses should have been possible in at least one location. The data to support their conclusion that 'there were no differences in milk production on the basis of ... breed' are not presented. Castillo (1983) and Villar et al. (1984) were able to analyse data from the Philippine Rural Life Centre from 1979 to 1981 and 1980 to 1982 respectively in which four breeds were represented. No breed or cross emerged with a clear productive advantage. Parawan et al. (1987) was able to study under village conditions the performance of Native and Anglo-Nubian crosses in a rainfed coconut system in Mindanao. The conclusion was that Native goats performed better when 3-5 were present in the production 'module' but not as well at lower numbers. It would be interesting to re-analyse that data on a 'weight of kid weaned per doe joined' basis. Kharel and Lambio (1990) published an exhaustive study on morphological differences which showed that Native goats raised in villages are a different size and shape to Anglo-Nubian goats raised on research stations.The Dadiangas goat breed (a hybrid of Native and several introduced breeds) found mostly in Mindanao has been advocated as a good 'prospect' (Anon, 1990(Anon, , 1992;;Villar, 1995). No comparative trials of their productivity have been published.Future use of blood packed cell volume as a measure of anaemia resulting from Haemonchus infection, the baseline haematological study by Ducusin et al. (1995) in sheep grazing in coconut plantations may be useful.131   Arboleda (1986Arboleda ( , 1987) ) discusses the animal genetic resources available for livestock production in the Philippines. Although not entirely complimentary about the livestock of smallholders, describing them as 'nondescript mongrels with low performance potential', Arboleda makes some telling points about the priorities of smallholders. He argues that smallholders have been using smaller carabao for breeding while using their larger animals for draught power, leading to a continual decrease in the size of the local animals. This raises the possibility that some similar effects may exist for sheep and goat populations with larger males and females being sold off for slaughter. Although enthusiastic about the upgrading of local stocks he has a cautionary message for poultry, 'Today, many small farmers still prefer to raise chickens based on their ability to survive and reproduce under minimal care and management'.Again, this may also be true for sheep and goat populations. In the 1986 paper Arboleda tabulated the comparative performance of four exotic goat breeds and the Philippine Native from several studies.Like many authors, Arboleda uses the term 'Native' for sheep and goat populations which have been present in the Philippines for many years and which cannot be assigned to any distinct or recently imported breed.Because of the island nature of the Philippines, lack of a sophisticated breeding and marketing system for small ruminants and the occasional infusion of exotic genes, it is likely that populations of 'native' goat will be genetically heterogeneous. reservoirs for traits which, if lost, may never be recoveredAmong the traits that could be used to identify the important genetic resources are 'alternate traits such as disease and parasite resistance'.The technology to make sophisticated estimations of breeding values (EBVs) for livestock is available in the Philippines and has been applied to some sets of data from local livestock populations (Bondoc, 1995). The application of this 'Best Linear Unbiased Prediction' (BLUP) technology can only be made where accurate and, if possible, extensive pedigrees crossing several generations of large populations of animals are available. Equally critical is the need for performance data which can be manipulated in such a way that it can all be assessed as if it had been generated at a single time. This 'contemporary comparison' and use of complex pedigrees can be made possible using computers which today are commonplace. At the heart of the use of BLUP (or any breeding program) is the accuracy of the pedigrees, the quality of the performance data and the ability of livestock breeders to make decisions based on the numbers produced.In the study by Bondoc (1995) 324 weaning weights from the goat farm of UPLB covering 9 years, four sire breeds (10 sires), four dam breeds, two sexes, three types of birth and 87 dams were analysed. This analysis led to the conclusion that weaning weights were decreasing with time but not due to genetic effects.The study would also have produced estimated breeding values for weaning weight. If 'increased weaning weight', 'decreased weaning weight' or 'no change in weaning weight' was part of a breeding objective for this flock then these EBVs would be valuable in making the correct selection decisions. The effect of this on liveweights at later ages could not be predicted.A tantalising abstract from Maglunsod and Natural (1988) addressed this question of correlations among bodyweights of Anglo-Nubian and 'grade' kids at birth and 6, 8 and 12 months of age. The abstract refers to some 'breed' differences but the correlations are not given. In a related study, Aurelio and Natural (1988) report that purebred Anglo-Nubian does had shorter kidding intervals but 50% Anglo-Nubian 50% Native does had larger litter sizes. heritabilities ranged from 0.66 to 2.04. On this basis it was stated \"birth weight is heritable, hence selection for the trait can help bring about improvement of productivity of goats\". This bold statement contrasts with the more perceptive conclusion made that \"overall [despite increased birth weight of kids from Anglo-Nubian does] improvement in meat productivity using 50% Anglo-Nubian grades is the most promising compared to the 75% and purebreeds in terms of overall performance\". This conclusion is made in part because of the increased litter size of 2.09 seen in 50% crosses compared with 1.64 and 1.58 in 75% and purebreds respectively and equivalent kidding intervals of 326, 293 and 240 days.A smaller study on 20 does joined to either a Saanen or Anglo-Nubian buck sought to measure breed effects but in fact was measuring sire differences (Udin, 1985).In that study all kids were wormed at 1 month of age.A study of goats which were mostly imported (i.e. not born in the Philippines) was conducted by Beltran (1981). A total of five Saanen, eight La Mancha, nine Toggenbergs, six Anglo-Nubian and 13 locally-born 'crossbreds' were compared for milk quality and quantity. These genotypes were spread unequally and were unbalanced across three farms and little can be concluded about any breed effect. Aurelio (1987) analysed a substantial set of data from 5 years of records from does at PGSC (Tables 8.5, 8.6 and 8.7). Anglo-Nubian (100%) and 75% and 50% crosses with Native animals were present. His results partly support those of Maglunsod (1987).136The control of helminths in small ruminants in the Philippines The evidence for a systematic effect of breed on kidding interval is not so strong in this study and, although based on small numbers, the trend from South Leyte on a total of 23 does suggests that Anglo-Nubians have shorter kidding intervals.After a trickle Haemonchus contortus infection Native goats (aged 3-4 months) had a lower FEC, lower worm burden and higher PCV than Anglo-Nubian grade goats (Barcelo and Ancheta, unpublished data). This is the only evidence so far brought to the attention of the project which indicates a difference in resistance between any two 'breeds' in the Philippines. The group of Native and Anglo-Nubian does which produced the progeny used in that trial were joined in an uncontrolled way (i.e. pooled mating) to between three and five bucks of each breed.Average faecal egg counts over the whole experimental period are given in Table 8.8. This is not a complete representation of the result. At week 9 there was a five-fold difference in FEC with Anglo-Nubian the higher of the two breeds. A trickle infection of Haemonchus contortus was given three times a week for 3 weeks (a total of about 7000 larvae) and there was little difference in the course of FEC trajectory until about week 8 of infection when the FEC of the Anglo-Nubian grades 'took off' to a five-fold difference. At week 12 some kids were slaughtered; the worm counts are given in Table 8.9.   Caudilla (1983) measured FECs from August to February in 'confined' goats at the Dairy Training Research Institute at Los Banos and presented these results as comparisons between the three breeds represented in the nine animals in the study (three per breed). There were no significant differences between the average FECs of the Toggenburg, Alpine and Anglo-Nubian animals.Use of anthelmintics and anthelmintic resistance Johns (1983) describes albendazole as a useful broad spectrum anthelmintic. Campbell (1987) describes ivermectin as an even more useful anthelmintic and there is a study of ivermectin in sheep under coconuts (Barcelona, 1994) which shows that it works well against gastrointestinal nematodes.  Cabrera (1992) gave albendazole at the MRDR to does at the 10th and 20th days of pregnancy. One out of the eight does gave birth to a kid with forelimb abnormalities but cause could not be definitely attributed to the drug treatment as there was no comparable group of untreated does.Benzimidazole resistance in a field population of Haemonchus contortus from sheep has been confirmed in Mindanao (Van Aken et al., 1994). More recently, methods have been developed for a larval development assay (LDA) to be used on farms in such circumstances (Venturina et al., 2002). Using the LDA the efficacy of BZ anthelmintics in the Philippines was estimated by an in vitro larval development assay using samples from over 200 farms representing areas of the country with high goat and sheep populations (Ancheta et al., 2004) The range of BZ efficacy estimated from the LDA results was 0-100% with mean efficacy of 82% and 64% for goats and sheep respectively. There were significant associations between efficacy and parameters measured to characterise the sampled farms: size of animal management group, FEC of sample, recent importation of stock and no access to common gazing were all correlated with decreased efficacy. Likewise, low efficacy was associated with reported frequency and number of years that BZ drenches had been used.As a guide to the stocking rates that might be used for different grazing systems in coconut plantations, Faylon et al. (1991) recommended a rate of five sheep/ha on the basis of the productivity per ewe and the overgrazing that took place at 10 head/ha.In that trial no impact on coconut yield was detected but it should be noted that no ungrazed areas were used for comparison. Soil structure and organic matter also improved at both stocking rates. Sabutan and King (1993) investigated interactions between sheep and goat growth rates, forage types and stocking rates in a grazing trial in Kabacan, Cotobato over 5 months in 1989 and 1990. Of interest to this project is that the stocking rates ranged from 40 to 80 goats per ha. Elephant grass yielded more and the goats lost more weight than sheep during the trial, possibly due to declining pasture availability. Leucaena was available as browse to all animals.Posas (1981) compared goat production and impact of soil, pasture and coconut production at stocking rates of 20, 40 and 60 goats [2, 4 and 6 Animal Units (AU)] per ha. Rotational grazing was practised and rotation was initiated by visual inspection of the pasture. Confined animals grew less well than grazing animals in terms of gain/ha.year. In discussing these results Posas says \"liveweight, however, is not very important economically since goats are mostly sold in the market per head\". This infers that mortality is a more important production parameter and in that study the overall mortality was around 27% in both confined and grazing animals. Neither parasites nor parasite control are mentioned in the study but it should be noted that the 'confined' animals were released for 1 hour per day for exercise when they could have been exposed to high levels of parasitism.On a steeply sloping site (32% gradient) Mandal (1988) showed that goats caused significantly heavier run off and erosion when grazing density reached 3 AU/ha. year under coconuts.A study on sheep grazing native vegetation under mangoes (Bejo, 1992) showed that 8-16 head/ha was the optimum stocking rate. The introduction to the thesis states \"sheep are the most ideal ruminant to integrate with mango because of its less destructive feeding behaviour\".Increased supply of goat and sheep meat provides opportunities for employment. (G.D. Gray)These conclusions are based on an incomplete search of the Philippine literature. However we consider it unlikely that there have been any major published studies that the authors have not yet encountered in the sources investigated or as citations in individual articles.The range of helminth parasites in sheep and goats in the Philippines has been documented.There are worm control recommendations in place but these have not been tested against possible alternatives.There is little information on the economic impact of any helminth parasite of sheep and goats under farming conditions.There is no information available on the level and frequency of use of anthelmintics or the extent of anthelmintic resistance.Several studies indicate the potential for the use of plant extracts as anthelmintics.Although such an effect has not been described in the Philippines there is a wide range of nutritional options available for improving resistance to parasites. Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) is the most widely tested proteinaceous supplement and there is ongoing research on a tanniniferous legume.There is little genetic information available to suggest that any one breed or genotype has superior resistance to endoparasites: the sole unpublished study suggests that Native goats are more resistant than Anglo-Nubian.Under village conditions Parawan et al. (1986) measured the productivity of native sheep. Although the aim of their trial was to look at the growth of castrates vs. non-castrates they demonstrated that such trials are possible. The trial was based at the ASEAN Goat and Sheep Centre. Domingo et al. (1991) measured the performance of 201 grazing ewes and pasture composition during a 12-month period finding that there was weight loss in the rainy season and weight gain in the dry. No supplements are mentioned in the abstract, nor any parasites, but lamb mortality was slightly higher in the rainy season (9.5% compared with 8.7%). Lambing interval of ewes which lambed in the wet was 22 days longer than for those which lambed in the dry. Ramos (1981) compared tethered, confined and 'loosened' goats and found that loosened goats had the highest growth rates and provided the highest net economic return.Finally, a very general paper by Guss (1983) argued that grazing goats in the tropics may not be successful and it may be necessary to resort to a totally confined system on raised slatted floors. He concludes \"In the Philippines … this simple inexpensive housing system has helped control internal parasitism and has resulted in much better milk production\" Unless a sustainable system for the control of helminth parasites can be developed, Guss may yet prove to be correct.There have been no detailed comparisons of any sheep or goat breeds for productivity under grazing or semi-confined conditions.There have been studies on grazing sheep and goats that can be used as guidelines for experimental design.In common with several Asian countries with large Muslim populations, small ruminants are important for farmers with small areas of land, or who are landless and can access only the forest, cropping or plantation land of others. Of the seven million sheep and 12 million goats in Indonesia (FAOSTAT 2002, available at http://apps.fao.org/default.htm) 53% of the sheep and 90% of the goats are on the island of Java with sheep being more common throughout the wetter areas of the country. Sheep and goats are raised for a variety of purposes including meat, milk and manure production, cultural and religious functions, and investment.Indonesian sheep (Sumatra thin tail, Javanese thin and fat tail) and goat breeds (Kacang and Etawah Grade) are well adapted to the extreme tropical environment, temperature fluctuations, high humidity, low quality forages and high parasite infestation. The production system generally consists of confinement at night and grazing during the day. One of the major constraints of this production system is endoparasitic infection (Handayani and Gatenby 1988). Helminth diseases regarded as economically important for small ruminants in Indonesia are haemonchosis and fascioliasis (Soetedjo and Nari 1980, Ronohardjo et al. 1985, Ronohardjo and Wilson 1987). Ronohardjo et al. (1985) estimated the annual loss caused by fasciolosis and haemonchosis in large and small ruminants at 32 and 7 million USD, respectively. Thus, several institutions and large projects have devoted resources to basic and applied research in this area.The focus of this work has been in Java but one large project -the Small Ruminant Coordinated Research Project (SR-CRSP) -invested heavily in addressing the major constraints to small ruminant production, including internal parasitism, throughout Indonesia. Subandriyo, T. Sartika, Suhardono and G.D. GrayThis chapter reviews the Indonesian literature on endoparasite control for small ruminants. Literature reported generally includes journal articles, papers from meetings and conferences, undergraduate, master and PhD dissertations, and abstracts and research reports published after 1980. Some relevant earlier articles have also been included.Building on the summary of Carmichael (1993), Table 9.1 lists the most important endoparasites of goats and sheep in Indonesia.Several other endoparasites, of lesser economic importance, have also been described. They include the genera: Bunostomum, Chabertia, Cooperia, Dicrocelium, Gongylonema, Moniezia, Ostertagia, Paramphistomum, Schistosoma, Strongyloides, and Trichuris (Arifin et al. 1996, Atomowisastro and Kusumamihardja 1989, Beriajaya 1984, Carmichael et al. 1992, Dorny et al. 1996, Effendy and Sumiaty 1999, Firmansyah 1993, Mirza et al. 1996, Ridwan et al. 1996, Soetedjo and Nari 1980).For studies of the biology and pathology of Haemonchus contortus and Fasciola gigantica in small ruminants in Indonesia, refer to the Sustainable Parasite Control in Small Ruminants bibliographic database (see Preface for details).Endoparasitic infection is widespread and a major constraint to small ruminant production where continuous grazing is practised, particularly grazing associated with tree cropping (Carmichael 1990). The findings of Carmichael et al. (1992), from sheep grazing rubber plantations, suggest helminthiasis is a perennial, not a seasonal, problem in Indonesia. It is expected that reducing the time animals spend in a pasture by increasing the frequency of rotation or lengthening the rotational cycle can depress the population of parasites on pasture, and thus increase animal productivity. Carmichael et al. (1992) showed that sheep grazing pasture under rubber plantations, 12-14 weeks after contamination with worms, had dramatically reduced faecal egg counts compared with sheep allowed to graze the pasture within 4-6 and 8-10 weeks. The total worm burdens of sheep allowed to graze 8-10 and 12-14 weeks after pasture contamination were reduced by 83% and 96% respectively, compared with the 4-6 weeks group. This is consistent with control measures based on rapid rotational grazing (Barger et al. 1994) which depends on relatively short survival of larvae on pasture in the tropics.Similar results were reported by Batubara et al. (1995Batubara et al. ( , 1996) ) in their studies of infectivity of pastures contaminated with H. contortus. The lowest mean number of abomasal worms was found in animals grazing pastures that had not been grazed for 12 weeks (average total worm count 29 worms) compared with Atomowisastro and Kusumamihardja 1989, Anaemia, poor growth, low milk Beriajaya 1984, Beriajaya 1986, Carmichael supply in ewes, weakness, death et al. 1992, Chotiah 1983, Darmono 1982, Dorny et al. 1996, Effendy and Sumiaty 1999, Mirza et al. 1996, Nasution 1988, Ridwan et al. 1996, Soetedjo and Nari 1980, Soetjedjo et al. 1980, Wilson et al. 1993 Atomowisastro and Kusumamihardja 1989, Appetite depression, colubriformis Beriajaya 1984, Beriajaya 1986, Beriajaya poor growth, diarrhoea and Stevenson 1986, Dorny et al. 1996, Ridwan et al. 1996Oesophagostomum Arafin et al. 1996, Beriajaya 1984  1980, Wilson et al. 1993 irreversible ill thrift leading to wasting and death in adult sheep, particularly in integrated plantation grazing animals grazing pastures that had not been grazed for nine (37 worms) and 6 weeks (80 worms). Gatenby and Batabura (1994) recommend that pastures should be rested for at least 10 weeks before animals are returned.In contrast, Ginting et al. (1996) found that 1-week grazing followed by a 6-week resting period had better worm control potential than both a 12-week grazing with 12-week resting period and 6-week grazing with 6-week resting period. Their study looked at the effects of grazing management and levels of concentrate supplementation on parasite establishment in two genotypes of lambs (Sumatra and crossbred St. Croix x Sumatra) infected with Haemonchus contortus. Improving the nutritional status of lambs by increasing the level of supplement offered may have depressed the establishment of Haemonchus contortus in the lambs. The two genotypes had similar faecal egg counts at a supplement level of 0.5% bodyweight, but at 1.6% bodyweight the crossbred lambs had a lower worm burden than the Sumatra ones.Whatever the optimum period for larval numbers to decline on pasture, the decision to leave the pasture ungrazed must balance the conflicting needs of feed availability, feed quality, ability of sheep and goats to graze tall, regrown pasture, and the need to reduce infestation with infective nematode larvae.Time of grazing has also been shown to affect worm burden (Mirza andGatenby 1993a, 1993b). Groups of four lambs were grazed in the morning (0800-1200h), at midday (1100-1500h) or in the afternoon (1400-1800h) while a control group was stall-fed with grass cut in an ungrazed area. The stall-fed control group maintained few worm eggs per gram of faeces (epg) (geometric mean 0.5). Lambs grazed in the morning, midday and afternoon, had geometric mean epg values of 48, 15 and 31, respectively. The lower worm burden of the midday group is attributed to the dryness of the pasture at midday. Although the stall-fed group had the lowest epg, their weight gain was not as high as the midday-grazed group, presumably because the nutrition of the grazed pasture was superior. In 1982 Kusumamihardja studied the effect of season and time of day on the presence of nematode larvae on grass. Larvae numbers were higher in the wet season than in the dry and the number on leaf blades was highest in the morning. Another study by Kusumamihardja (1988) also reported that the degree of nematode infestation during the rainy season was significantly higher than in the dry season but found no age group (lambs, young, and adult) effect. In the dry season, worm burdens were significantly higher in the group grazed in the morning than in the group that grazed in the afternoon. However, there was no significant difference between morning and afternoon grazing during the wet season. Carcass dressing percentage was affected by season, age of sheep and period of grazing. Higher carcass percentages were recorded: The benefits of reduced grazing time, therefore, like the resting of pasture for many weeks, need to be balanced against possible reduced intake and nutritional status. Zabell et al. (1992) reported that washing forage, using forage from ungrazed areas and allowing animals to graze in rotational systems all resulted in lower transmission of strongyles than if contaminated forage or dried contaminated forage were fed.To control Fasciola infections, Suhardono et al. ( 1998) recommended that animals be fed fresh rice straw that had not been immersed in water. This was based on the observation that sheep fed on the bottom wet 10 cm of the rice stalks, which harbour 98% of the flukes, become much more heavily infected than those fed on stalks cut above 10 cm.Traditional veterinary medicine is used extensively by smallholders in rural Indonesia and has significant potential to solve sheep health problems (Adjid 1990).  (1991( ), Murdiati (1991)), Gultom et al. (1991), andMurdiati andMuhajan (1991), lists the most common medicinal plants used to treat worm-infected ruminants in Indonesia. The most common medicinal plants used for worms in Bogor, West Java, are the leaves of Antidesma bunius (huni) and Cyclophorus nummularifolius (deduitan) (Adjid 1990, Mathias-Mundy 1992, Wahyuni et al. 1992).Children often care for small ruminants and benefit most from increased family income. (G.D. Gray) Use of these plants by farmers does not necessarily mean they are effective as dewormers. Many plants and their products have been tested in vitro and in vivo for efficacy and such studies are described here.The anthelmintic properties of both the seed and sap of Carica papaya (papaya) have been studied in vitro and in vivo in sheep. Beriajaya et al. (1997) reported that 1.5% solutions of ground papaya seed killed adult H. contortus in vitro within two hours and 1% solutions of papaya sap had the same effect within 4.5 hours. Subsequently, Beriajaya et al. (1998) used papaya seed as anthelmintic on sheep infected with 10,000 larvae. In this study papaya seed was oven-dried at 37°C for 24 hours and ground into a powder. The powder was given to three groups of experimental animals at 0.75 g/kg, 1.5 g/kg and 3.0 g/kg body weight, daily for one week. The numbers of adult worms present were not significantly different among the three treatments and the control group, but egg counts were.It was concluded that papaya seed could be used as anthelmintic in sheep if given for a long time. Gunawan (1992) gave young worm-infected Javanese fat tail rams suspensions of papaya seed at several dosages (3.6, 7.2, and 10.8 g per 100 ml) and compared the animals' egg counts with those of infected rams treated with levamisole at 8 mg/kg body weight and infected controls. Results showed that papaya seed effectively reduced the egg count of sheep, but was less effective than levamisole. Murdiati (1997) showed that sheep artificially infected with H. contortus given 0.75 g/kg body weight of papaya sap had significantly reduced worm egg counts compared with controls.The effect of papaya sap on sheep artificially infected with H. contortus was reported by Kusnadi (1999). Four weeks after infection, the animals were divided into five groups: three groups were given papaya sap orally at 0.5, 0.6 or 0.7 g/kg for three days; one group was treated with albendazole (Valbazen) at 5 mg/kg for three days; and the control group was not treated. Faecal and blood samples were collected 157 Confinement of goats offers employment opportunities in the cutting and carrying of feed. (G.D. Gray)weekly from zero to 6 weeks. At the end of the study period the animals were slaughtered to obtain worm counts. Papaya sap at the given dosages had low efficacy in reducing H. contortus infection and the 0.7 g/kg dosage was toxic. Satrija et al. (1999) also did not recommend using papaya sap for controlling gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep due to high toxicity.Post-mortem examination showed that papaya sap seemed to cause haemorrhage as a result of erosion in the gastrointestinal mucosa possibly due to proteolytic activity of enzymes in the sap. There is no information on an increased use of papaya products as a routine deworming treatment.Karo- Karo (1990) reported the effect of nicotine extract. Extract from chopped tobacco leaves (0.94%) at dosages of 27-207 mg per animal was found to enhance H. contortus egg production in goats, however, a dosage of 311 mg depressed egg production by 78%. Nicotine extract was able to reduce egg numbers but not the number of adult worms. Beriajaya et al. (1998) studied the effect of Areca catechu (pinang) seed extracts on adult H. contortus in vitro. A. catechu seeds were sliced, oven-dried at 40°C for four days, ground and then sieved with a 75 µm mesh. Solutions of A. catechu were made at concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 g/ml. All worms were killed when incubated with any of the A. catechu solutions. The solutions had a similar effect on larvae with more larvae being killed as the concentration increased. The results of this trial indicated that A. catechu, which contains the alkaloid arecholine, may have anthelmintic effects in vivo.The efficacy of Curcuma aeruginosa (temu hitam) tuber was compared with 15 mg/kg of mebendazole in sheep infected with digestive tract worms (Agustin 1994). C. aeruginosa and mebendazole both reduced egg counts but the commercial product was more effective. C. aeruginosa tuber at dosages of 3, 6 and 9 g reduced egg counts by 83%, 90.5% and 91%, respectively. Bendryman et al. (2000)  Zingiber purpureum (bangle) tuber was used in the form of infusion and extract against larvae and adult H. contortus in vitro (Herawaty 1998, Murdiati et al. 1998). Murdiati et al. (1998) concluded that extract and infusion of Zingiber purpureum both have anthelmintic effects. Mahfoed (1995) reported on the anthelmintic properties of pressed Monordica charantia (pare fruit) at concentrations of 100%, 50% and 25% with adult H. contortus in vitro. Levamisole solution at 0.0032% was used for comparison. At a concentration of 100% the efficacy of M. charantia did not differ significantly from that of levamisole with both killing more than 50% of the worms after seven hours. Mulyaningsih (1995) studied the anthelmintic activity of Morinda citrifolia (mengkudu) fruit juice in sheep. M. citrifolia juice was administered orally once a week for nine weeks. The juice reduced the worm numbers, increased body weight and influenced the haematology of infected sheep. Extraction studies to trace the active ingredient in the M. citrifolia fruit were reported by Hildasari (1998) and Murdiati (2000). The chloroform fraction, containing alkaloid and anthraquinone, was the most effective against adult worms (100% death after two hours) and worm eggs. However, Nurhayati (2000) used the chloroform extract of M. citrifolia fruit on sheep infected with H. contortus and found that it did not significantly reduce the number of worms and egg production of the sheep.Several studies of the effectiveness of commercial deworming products have been conducted. The cost, activity spectrum, effectiveness, and toxicity of commercial anthelmintics vary significantly. Soetedjo et al. (1980) found that, despite the presence of large populations of infective H. contortus larvae on pasture and herbage grasses, a single injection of disophenol in smallholder sheep suppressed the numbers of H. contortus to low levels for up to 3 months.Comparing the broad-spectrum anthelmintic, levamisolephosphate, with the long-acting narrow-spectrum product, closantel, in naturally infected village sheep showed that levamisole could significantly improve the weight gain of animals (Beriajaya andStevenson 1985a, 1985b). Based on the slaughter value of the treated animals and the cost of the drug used, there was a clear financial benefit from treating the sheep. Beriajaya and Stevenson (1986), comparing four anthelmintics in sheep and goats, found that broad-spectrum anthelmintic significantly increased weight gain. Closantel treatment, which was effective in removing Haemonchus but had little effect on the other nematode species, did not result in significant improvement in weight gain. Similarly, no weight gain was seen using disophenol, a longacting narrow spectrum anthelmintic given as a single injection. These results suggest that nematodes other than Haemonchus are the cause of reduced weight gain.Butchers, abattoir workers and associated labourers benefit from increased supply of animals. (G.D. Gray)In a study on albendazole in naturally infected local sheep in Cirebon, Beriajaya (1986a) reported that the group treated with albendazole at a dose rate of 3.8 mg/kg every month for six months had a significantly lower average egg count than the control group. However, in Garut (Beriajaya, 1986b), differences in growth rate were not significant between treated and untreated groups. This is probably because sheep in Garut were confined and so the egg count was too low to have a marked effect on growth rate. Hartati (1989) reported that sheep naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodes and then treated with albendazole at 4 mg/kg grew significantly better than untreated sheep. However, red blood count, haemoglobin, PCV and total plasma protein were only slightly higher than those of the control group.Noviyanti (1992) used ivermectin dosages of 50, 100 and 200 µg/kg in goats and reported that the levels of erythrocytes, haemoglobin, PCV, lymphocytes, monocytes and neutrophils did not significantly differ between treated and control animals. Eosinophil count was the only blood parameter that showed a significant change.A comparison of ivermectin and doramectin, at a dosage of 200 µg/kg in sheep infected with gastrointestinal nematodes, found no significant difference between the two products in reducing egg count or improving growth rate (Pariyadi 1997).Tetramisole treatment, combined with farm management practices, controlled gastrointestinal helminth infections in sheep (He et al. 1990). However, helminthiasis in this group of sheep was found statistically to be 20% associated with reduced mean live weight, indicating the need for more effective, broad-spectrum anthelmintics to improve animal productivity.Thiophanate at 70 mg/kg, albendazole at 5 mg/kg, pyrantel-pamoate at 20 mg/kg and levamisole HCl at 8 mg/kg were all effective against strongyle infection in sheep (Sudarmadi 1989). Thiophanate and pyrantelpamoate significantly increased the erythrocyte count, haemoglobin concentration and percentage PCV.Albendazole significantly increased the erythrocyte count and haemoglobin concentration but not PCV, while levamisole significantly increased PCV, but not erythrocyte count and haemoglobin concentration. Dorny et al. (1995) studied anthelmintic efficacy in sheep on a breeding farm and on seven smallholder farms in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Albendazole was tested on all farms and febantel, levamisole and ivermectin just on the breeding farm. On the large breeding farm the efficacy of albendazole, febantel, ivermectin and levamisole was 99%, 100%, 99% and 95%, respectively. The efficacy of albendazole was 100% on the seven smallholder farms. The results indicate that there was no anthelmintic resistance at the study sites.The use of anthelmintics to control Fasciola was studied by Brotowidjojo (1975Brotowidjojo ( , 1983) ) and Kusumamihardja (1978). Brotowidjojo (1975) looked at the efficacy of clioxanide and rafoxanide on F. hepatica in sheep, 6 and 12 weeks post-infection with 100 viable metacercariae. It was concluded that rafoxanide at 3.75 mg/kg could be recommended for treating immature infections of F. hepatica and that 7.5 mg/kg was appropriate for adults. Clioxanide, because of its substantially reduced efficiency intra-abomasally, was not recommended for use against immature flukes but was found to provide a variably moderate to high efficiency against adult infections at the recommended dose rate of 20 mg/kg. Furthermore, it was suggested fasciolicides that do not contain a nitro-group, such as clioxanide and rafoxanide, were effective when given orally (preferably by drenching) without previous oral administration of copper sulphate solution. Kusumamihardja (1978) used Dovenix (active ingredient nitroxinil) against natural gastrointestinal nematodes and Fasciola infections in five sheep and reported that one died a day after treatment. Post-mortem examination showed that Dovenix was very effective against Fasciola spp., but killed nematodes relatively slowly. Gatenby et al. (1992aGatenby et al. ( , 1992b) ) studied the effectivenes of nitroxynil, praziquantel and albendazole against pancreatic fluke (Eurytrema pancreaticum). Results showed that albendazole and praziquantel significantly reduced the level of pancreatic fluke infection, but neither drug reduced it to a negligible level. More frequent or higher doses of the drugs may be more effective, but would almost certainly not be economical. Nitroxynil appeared to be ineffective in controlling pancreatic flukes, but it reduced nematode egg counts.Currently, internal parasites are controlled by regular administration of anthelmintics, but resistance to these drugs is emerging in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia (Venturina et al. 2003, Beriajaya et al. 2003; and described in detail in Chapter 4).Cost-benefit analyses of parasite control in sheep using commercial anthelmintics show good returns on the health care investment. Marginal return using parasite control amounts to Rp 42,000 revenue for Rp 4200 treatment expenses. This suggests that making anti-parasite treatment available to farmers on a non-subsidised free-market basis is viable. The rapid improvements in animal condition from just one treatment, and the provision of practical information, are likely to make farmers willing to invest in parasite control (Scholz 1992). Misniwaty et al. (1994) reported that anthelmintic cost was only 1.8-3.0% of the total revenue received from selling fattened sheep.Theft can be prevented by total confinement while kids and lambs are fattened for market. (G.D. Gray)Possible anthelmintic distribution schemes, via livestock traders, local poultry shops and extension workers, were discussed by van Schie et al. (1992). The livestock traders cover a large area and are able to visit farmers, but farmers do not trust them as much as extension workers. Extension officers only visit a limited number of farms. The disadvantage of local poultry shops is that farmers have to go to the shop to buy the product but the advantage is that they no longer depend on another person to deliver the medicines. Kartamulia et al. (1993) stated that there is an urgent need to redefine the respective roles of government and the private sector in the delivery of livestock services.In particular, the animal health sector offers attractive opportunities for greater private involvement. Reasons why farmers do not use animal health care products include: small flock sizes, the expense of products due to the large sizes sold (e.g. 1 L bottles of anthelmintic) and the difficulty in obtaining products at the village level. To overcome these problems, an animal health delivery network for distributing anthelmintics was developed by the Small Ruminant Coordinated Research Project and Research Institute of Animal Production Station at Sungai Putih, North Sumatra together with local livestock services and wholesalers of animal medicine. This study, reported by Misniwaty and Kartamulia (1993), Kartamulia et al. (1993), Misniwaty et al. (1994) and reviewed by Misniwaty et al. (1996), indicated that the most effective way to distribute animal health care is via an extension worker who is organized as a supplier in a specific area.Biological control Beriajaya and Ahmad (1999) investigated the use of nematophagous fungi, Arthrobotrys oligospora, as a biological control for H. contortus. Twenty young sheep, free of helminth infection, were orally infected with 5000 H. contortus L3 larvae. After 6 weeks, half of the sheep were treated with the fungi (four times over the following period of 6 weeks). Egg counts and faecal cultures indicated that the group that received fungus produced fewer larvae than the control animals. This preliminary study shows that nematophagous fungus can reduce live L3 H. contortus larvae numbers.Biological control for fasciolosis can be targeted at the intermediate host of Fasciola, the snail (Lymnaea spp), or at the larvae of Fasciola that still lives in the snail.Studies of Echinostoma revolutum larvae as an agent for biological control of F. gigantica have been conducted by the Research Institute for Veterinary Science (Balitvet) and reported by Estuningsih (1991Estuningsih ( , 1998a,b),b). Estuningsih concluded that the dominant antagonism of E. revolutum over F. gigantica in L. rubiginosa and the reduction of fecundity and longevity of snails infected with E. revolutum could be useful for biological control of F. gigantica (1991, 1998a).The competitive interaction of snails with Lymnaea rubiginosa, the intermediate host of F. gigantica has also been studied. After 8 months the population of L. rubiginosa decreased and the population of snails Thiara scabra and Physa doopi increased. The competitive interaction does not seem to be due to competition for food but to chemical factors, possibly water-soluble pheromones (Estuningsih, 1998b).Suhardono (1998) proposed biological control of F. gigantica in rice fields by means of competition between trematode larvae in the snail L. rubiginosa. Ducks naturally infected with trematodes, were used as the source of competitive larvae. The study showed that Fasciola infection in L. rubiginosa was depressed by other trematodes which were more dominant in infecting the snail intermediate host.Several immunological studies to find candidate vaccines for haemonchosis and fasciolosis have been conducted (Tables 9.3 and 9 While publications about the effect of nutritional supplementation on small ruminant production are readily available (Subandriyo 1993), research on the effect of nutritional supplementation on their endoparasite infestations is limited. Handayani andGatenby (1986, 1988) studied the effect of four levels of legume supplementation in conjunction with two grazing management schemes and anthelmintic treatment or non-treatment. They found that sheep on low levels of nutrition are more susceptible to helminthiasis than well-fed animals.In 1988, Ginting reported that supplementation of concentrate feed (high plane nutrition) in lambs infected with H. contortus, reduces worm burdens and can reduce the need for anthelmintics to control endoparasites. Although feed supplementation can reduce susceptibility to parasite infection, the response varies according to breed and level of infection. This indicates that interaction between genotype and environment affects susceptibility to parasite infection (Ginting et al. 1996). Beriajaya and Copeman (1996) studied the effect of season on gastrointestinal nematodes and weight gain in recently weaned sheep and goats. The effect of parasitism was assessed by comparing weight gain of untreated animals with that of animals treated with oxfendazole or albendazole every 2 weeks. There was no difference in weight gain between treated and untreated sheep and goats during the dry season.During the wet season weight gain dropped by half in untreated animals and by about 20% in treated animals.As faecal egg counts for each group were the same throughout the year the low level of nutrition during the wet season was the main determinant of pathogenicity of worms. Improved nutrition during the wet season, particularly for the first 10 weeks after weaning, may remove the need for anthelmintic therapy. Beriajaya et al. (1995) tested feeding blocks containing 3% phenothiazine in solidified molasses (Wormolas, Animeal Australia Ltd) for their ability to control gastrointestinal nematode infections, and their effect on mineral status, in village sheep in Cirebon.The mean egg count of the treated group decreased from 576 epg to 123 epg and the percentage of sheep producing viable larvae decreased from 50% to 24%. In contrast, egg counts of the control group increased from 768 epg to 4840 epg and the percentage of sheep producing viable larvae increased from 65% to 84% over the same period. In the treated group the number of Haemonchus larvae declined significantly (36% to <6%) and at the end of the trial Trichostrongylus larvae predominated in larval cultures (>80%). Mineral analysis of untreated sheep revealed deficiencies in sodium and copper, low levels of zinc and normal levels of potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.The feeding block significantly affected sodium and zinc status but not copper although sufficient levels of this element were available. Comparison of bodyweight gains showed a significantly higher rate of increase in the treated animals Genetic variation in resistance to parasites Genetic variation in resistance to parasites has been reported in a series of studies conducted by the Small Ruminant CRSP in collaboration with the Research Institute of Animal Production and Research Station of Central Research Institute for Animal Sciences at Sungai Putih, North Sumatra. Results were reviewed by Subandriyo et al. (1996) and Subandriyo and Widjajanti (1999).Genetic research on differences in resistance to H. contortus among sheep breeds is summarised in Table 9.5.Studies of the resistance of sheep to the liver fluke, F. gigantica, have been mostly conducted by the Research Institute for Veterinary Science (RIVS, Balitvet) in collaboration with ACIAR. Research shows that Indonesian thin-tail sheep are relatively resistant to the liver fluke. Wiedosari (1988) and Wiedosari and Copeman (1990) first showed that Indonesian thin-tail sheep, in this case Javanese thin-tail, expressed high innate resistance to challenge with metacercariae from F. gigantica when compared with an equivalent challenge in buffalo and cattle. Rumantiningsih (2000) showed that Javanese fat-tail sheep were more susceptible to F. gigantica than Javanese thin-tail ones. Spithill and colleagues confirmed the resistance expressed by Indonesian thin-tail sheep in comparison with Javanese fat-tail and Merino sheep (Wiedosari et al. 1994, Roberts et al. 19951996a1966b1997a1997b1997c, Estuningsih et al. 1996, Spithill 1996). Roberts et al. (1997a) deemed the basis of the acquired resistance in Indonesian thin-tail sheep to be an exceptional immunological capacity to respond to an antigen, or an immunological suppressant, peculiar to F. gigantica. That molecule, produced by juvenile parasites, warrants further study, as a candidate for a vaccine.A series of studies by Roberts et al. (1995Roberts et al. ( , 1996a, l997c) , l997c) showed that a dominant gene may induce the mechanism of resistance in Indonesian thin-tail sheep. They also found indications that IgG2 acts as blocking antibody that interferes with the mechanism of resistance. Hansen et al. (1999) postulated that IgG2 could act as a blocking antibody for protective effector responses against F. gigantica in sheep and that the Indonesian thin-tail sheep, by downregulating IgG2 responses, have an enhanced capacity for killing F. gigantica in vivo.In developing health control strategies at least three non-veterinary factors must be considered: farmer needs, production systems and climatic factors (Wilson et al. 1996). The priority given to solving problems identified by farmers has led to a farmer-first approach using participatory methods such as those described in Chapter 3. Strategies to minimise disease problems include intervening in animal and pasture management, using chemical agents, and developing host resistance though breeding and nutrition. These strategies and their delivery must be developed as part of an integrated approach to disease control incorporating research, extension, government and private sectors, suitable technology, training and recognising the needs of farmers. The farmer-first approach implies that research and extension must at least include farmers and ideally be led by them.The problems of farmers, however, are rarely simple and, even if identified as being caused principally by parasites, will often include several genera of nematodes and flukes. According to Brotowidjoyo (1990) parasitic infections in domestic animals are generally polyparasitic rather than monoparasitic and are dependent upon a myriad of hosts, parasites and environmental factors. Currently, parasite control is usually based on chemical treatments that have disadvantages such as drug resistance (Beriajaya and Batubara 1996). This has proven to be the case in recent studies (Venturina et al. 2003, Beriajaya et al. 2003) on farms that use anthelmintics intensively.During the Small Ruminant Collaborative Research Support Program, researchers designed training materials to teach farmers improved strategies for animal raising. This information became the basis for a manual titled the Sheep and Goat Production Handbook for Southeast Asia (Merkel and Subandriyo 1997). The book contains a wealth of information relevant to the development of an integrated approach to worm control. The third edition was developed to be used by: The support of diagnostic services is essential to make good decisions about deworming. (G.D. Gray)As Merkel states, 'The greatest impact and benefit will occur when all three: farmers, extensionists and scientists, work together' (Merkel and Subandriyo 1997).Small ruminant endoparasites in Indonesia, and their intermediate hosts, have been well-documented.Grazing management studies show that rotational grazing, cutting forage at midday and/or at 10 cm above the ground, and washing forage, all reduce levels of worm infection.Smallholder farmers, particularly in Java, use traditional veterinary medicine against worms. The efficacy of the medicinal plants must be confirmed scientifically.Several studies of the effectiveness of commercial deworming products have been conducted. However, information on the level and frequency of anthelmintic use and the extent of anthelmintic resistance is limited.An animal health delivery network for distributing anthelmintics and treatment information has been developed. It needs to be further tested and extended to other locations.Preliminary information on biological control options for fasciolosis and haemonchosis has been reported.Several immunological studies to find candidate vaccines for haemonchosis and fasciolosis have been conducted but the development of an effective vaccine remains an important challenge.A wide range of information on the use of nutritional supplementation to improve production exists. However, there is little data about the effect of nutritional supplements on parasite infestation.There is little or no difference in susceptibility or resistance to H. contortus between sheep genotypes but large variation within each genotype. Indonesian thin-tail sheep appear to have innate resistance to F. gigantica.There is little data on worm control for goats in Indonesia.Despite the extensive basic and applied research on parasite control in Indonesia, worms remain a constraint to small ruminant production. There has been little evaluation of the benefits of this research. The impact upon communities may be difficult to measure, for example, the spillover benefits of using appropriate chemicals at correct dosages, and greater numbers of better-trained extension workers, are hard to quantify. Many of the technologies work well in controlled settings but have had low levels of adoption by farmers. Hence, the need for a new approach to improving the control of worms in sheep and goats, using a model like that described in Chapter 3.Murdiati, T.B., Beriajaya, G. Adiwinata. 1997 Although small ruminant production has been an important part of Malaysian agriculture for many years it is relatively minor compared with other sectors of the livestock industry. Since the mid 1980s efforts to expand the industry have focused on integrating sheep into the more than four million hectares of oil and rubber plantations (Ibrahim 1996).The 2000-01 figures from the Department of Veterinary Services, Malaysia, estimate the goat and sheep populations to be about 235,000 and 131,000, respectively.Only one study, by Fadzil in 1977, has attempted to measure the cost-effects of parasitism in small ruminants in Malaysia. Losses (deaths, treatment costs and condemnation in abattoirs) in goats due to parasitism were estimated at RM 44,400 (now USD 11.7). This is considered a gross underestimate because it was extrapolated from a 5-year record of the Central Animal Husbandry Station, Kluang, which recorded that only one in 937 goats died of parasitism each year. Other more recent studies, which record mortality, quote much higher figures.This review covers work reported after 1980 on small ruminants pertaining to control of gastrointestinal parasitism in Malaysia. The details of some studies that could contribute to formulating control measures are included. Significant recommendations of some reports are also included.The endoparasites found in goats and sheep in Malaysia were described by Shanta (1982), Sani et al. (1985Sani et al. ( , 1986)), Amin et al. (1990) and Wahab and Adanan (1993). Common endoparasites include: were reported by Shanta (1982) as rare and were not found in the later studies. Perhaps these parasites were from imported goats and sheep.R.A. Sani, M. Adnan, T.S. Cheah and P. ChandrawathaniTo assess the natural resistance of goats to parasitism, 46 goats, monitored from birth to 14 months, were not given any dewormer (Daud et al. 1991). Post-mortem examinations revealed that 32% of deaths were due to worms (mean H. contortus count 808, T. colibriformis 1177) and 30% of deaths to pasteurellosis pneumonia.The goats that died of pneumonia also harboured worms (mean H. contortus count 236, T. colubriformis 203).It was postulated that the worm burden, representing mild haemonchosis, weakened the goats so they subsequently succumbed to infection by Pasteurella sp., leading to pneumonia.Pasteurella haemolytica is part of the normal flora of the nasopharynx of various animals and causes pneumonia when animals are stressed. Zamri-Saad et al. (1994) demonstrated that sub-clinical haemonchiasis (dosing with 4000-5000 infective larvae), without significant reductions in total serum protein or packed cell volume, stressed goats enough to induce sufficient immunosuppression and allow the development of experimentally induced pneumonic pasteurellosis.In a 15-month study on 13 goat smallholdings in the state of Selangor, the mortality rate for animals up to 1-year-old was high at 74% (Symoens et al. 1993).Adult mortality was 34%. Pneumonia, mainly caused by Pasteurella sp., and haemonchosis were found to be the major causes of deaths in all age classes. Sam-Mohan et al. (1995) noted a mortality of 16% from clinical haemonchosis in lambs and ewes that grazed on vegetation under oil palm trees.Epidemiological studies in goats suggest that grazing goats ingest many infective H. contortus, T. colubriformis and O. columbianum larvae at all times of the year in Malaysia (Sani et al. 1985, Dorny et al. 1995, Ikeme et al. 1986, Cheah and Rajamanickam 1997).Further studies of the biology and pathology of endoparasites in Malaysia have been conducted (Sani et al. 1994, Sam-Mohan et al. 1995, Cheah and Rajamanickam 1997, Daud et al. 1991, Dorny et al. 1995, Sam et al. 1995, Israf et al. 1996a, 1996b).Grazing managementStudies of trichostrongyles on open pasture and on vegetation under tree crops found that eggs developed to infective larvae in a minimum time of 3.5-4 days after faecal deposition and most larvae developed within 7 days. Infective larvae on open pasture survived for 5-6 weeks, on vegetation under rubber trees for 6-7 weeks and on vegetation under oil-palm trees for 5-8 weeks (Sani et al. 1994, Sam-Mohan et al. 1995, Cheah and Rajamanickam 1997). Earlier it was thought that larvae survived much longer in the microenvironment under the canopy of tree crops (Sani and Rajamanickam 1990). The relatively short larval survival times observed allows for the integration of grazing management with worm control. Small ruminants can safely graze for 3-4 days in an area which is 'rested' for 5-6 weeks.During a 5-month trial, sheep grazing in a rotation system, with 3-4 days on and 31 days off each paddock, had significantly lower mean egg counts compared with sheep permanently grazing the same pasture and receiving a monthly drench of closantel (Chandrawathani et al. 1995). A three and a halfmonth study showed that sheep perpetually grazing the same area under mature rubber trees had higher egg counts compared with ones rotationally grazing in a hedgerow planting system-3-4 days on and 35 days off each area (Sani et al. 1996).The control of worms in small ruminants in Malaysia, like elsewhere, relies heavily on chemical de-wormers or anthelmintic drugs. Shanta et. al (1978Shanta et. al ( , 1980Shanta et. al ( , 1981aShanta et. al ( , 1981b) ) published a series of reports on the use of benzimidazole compounds against gastro-intestinal worms of goat. These trials report a high level of efficacy. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, other anthelmintics were also used. Avermectin derivatives were noted as being highly successful in numerous reports (Sani and Siti-Suri 1989, Rajamanickam et al. 1990, Wahab et al. 1993, Wahab 1997, Chandrawathani et al. 1998a). Closantel was also reported to be effective (Dorny et al. 1994a, Chandrawathani and Adnan 1995, Chandrawathani et al. 1996a). A postal survey on the use of anthelmintics suggested that most farmers used the four major classes of drugs (Chandrawathani et al. 1994).Anthelmintic resistance has been suspected in Malaysia since the 1980s with unofficial reports of drug failures.In the early 1990s unpublished reports, particularly from institution farms, noted the ineffectiveness of anthelmintics. Dorny et al. (1991) in an investigation of the efficacy of currently available anthelmintics in Malaysia in 10 smallholder goat farms, reported suspected benzimidazole resistance of H. contortus on two of the farms, using the faecal egg count reduction (FECR) test. Levamisole resistance was also detected on two of the farms investigated.A nationwide survey reported the presence of benzimidazole resistance in 33 out of 96 smallholder goat farms by means of an egg-hatch assay (Dorny et al. 1994b). Correlation was found between drenching frequency in the previous 2 years and the presence ofThe Sanat Ines sheep from Brazil is one of several breeds imported to Malaysia for evaluation. (G.D. Gray) benzimidazole resistant worms. Wahab (1994) also reported resistance to benzimidazole by H. contortus on eight out of 10 commercial goat farms in the northern region of the country. Chandrawathani et al. (1996b) successfully used a netobimin-levamisole combination drench in goats with a benzimidazole resistant strain of H. contortus. However, 40 days after treatment, as a result of re-infection, the FEC reached pre-treatment values. Hence, a drug-dependent method of control is only a short-term solution.Ivermectin and benzimidazole-resistant strains of H. contortus were isolated on an institution sheep farm that served as the source of breeding stock to farmers in Malaysia (Sivaraj and Pandey 1994).Simultaneous resistance of H. contortus to benzimidazoles and ivermectin and of T. colubriformis to benzimidazoles and levamisole was found in sheep on another institution farm (Sivaraj et al. 1994). Moxidectin was found to be effective against both worm species present on the particular farm, however, the authors do not recommend using moxidectin when ivermectin resistance is known. Resistance to three anthelmintic classes on the same farm is particularly serious when the farm supplies breeding stock to smallholder farmers, and is hence 'exporting' animals with drugresistant worms.The investigation by Chandrawathani et al. (1999) of 39 sheep and nine goat farms showed that most had worm populations resistant to all classes of anthelmintics, providing clear evidence that anthelmintic resistance in parasites of small ruminants in Malaysia is rapidly increasing. On a large government farm that served as a sheep breeding centre, anthelmintic resistance increased in 3 years from being a moderate problem to one where total chemotherapeutic failure has occurred (Chandrawathani et al. 2003).Rajamanickam et al. (1992) tested an imported commercial anthelmintic feed block on a group of sheep and found relative success in reducing the FEC below levels in conventionally drenched sheep and untreated controls. This is particularly significant as all three groups grazed together with other sheep that had no access to the block and that were not drenched.In a study of sheep grazing under rubber trees, (Sani et al. 1995) animals were given locally made urea molasses block with: no anthelmintic, 0.5g/kg fenbendazole, or supplemented with palm kernel cake meal. There was little difference between egg counts of animals receiving fenbendazole and those getting the unmedicated blocks. Even the supplemented animals were able to minimise the incidence of new infections. It is assumed that, provided the larval challenge is 'light', the improved nutrition provided by the blocks, irrespective of incorporation of anthelmintic, as well as the supplementation, is sufficient to effectively reduce the incidence of new infections. Further work by Maria et al. (1996), where urea molasses blocks, medicated or not, were effective in reducing new infections, lends support to this assumption. Hence, it is recommended that unmedicated blocks be given when supplementation is needed, so reducing the likelihood of anthelmintic resistance. Chandrawathani et al. (1997) gave medicated urea molasses blocks to all animals in a smallholder sheep farm at a restricted economical intake of 60g/day/animal. The animals grazed permanently on heavily contaminated vegetation (indicated by egg count >7000 epg) under oil palm trees. After an initial moxidectin drench and access to the blocks, egg counts remained below 300 epg over 3 months.This aspect of ethnoveterinary medicine is at a fledgling stage in Malaysia although there are undocumented reports of the use of tamarind juice and legumes to treat worms in goats.When fresh leaves of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica) were fed to a group of trichostrongyle-infected sheep, faecal egg counts and larval recoveries were reduced.The number of worms recovered in the neem-fed sheep was only 5-15% that of the control sheep (Chandrawathani et al. 2002c). Neem leaves were acceptable to the animals and there was no indication of toxicity. Clearly, there is potential for more investigation into the anthelmintic properties of the plant.There are few reports in Malaysia on genetic resistance to parasites. Over a period of 9 months, worm egg counts were monitored in weaned lambs of the local long-tail wool sheep and compared with those of the imported 'Cameroon' (Djallonke) hair sheep crosses (Pandey 1995). This study found that the crossbreeds were more resistant to H. contortus than the local wool sheep. However, a later study on the same farm of 42 female 50% Poll Dorset x Malin (Malaysian indigenous breed) wool sheep and 20 female 25% Cameroon hair sheep grazing together, showed no difference in egg counts from birth to 13.5 months (Sani 1994). It is important to note that the wool sheep on this particular farm have been selected for improved production and hence, inadvertently, possibly also for worm resistance, for more than 15 years.A newly imported hair breed from Brazil, the Santa Ines, was studied for worm resistance purely because there were many animals available from which nucleus flocks of resistant and susceptible animals could be created. Selection of this breed, based on field and challenge infections, showed 20-30% resistant individuals. Mating of the resistant individuals produced resistant offspring (Sani et al. 2000).Large-scale sheep and goat production is commercially viable where there is strong demand and efficient marketing. (R.A. Sani)Initial bio-control research in Malaysia used the fungus, Arthrobotrys oligospora, found in cattle dung, on Strongyloides papillosus larvae (Chandrawathani et al. 1998b).Investigations of the more robust Duddingtonia flagrans, as a nematophagous inclusion in animal feed are continuing. Studies of D. flagrans began with a faecal survey for naturally occurring nematode-trapping fungi (Chandrawathani et al. 2002a). The fungus was grown on local media such as wheat grains, padi and millet, prepared for feeding to small ruminants and also incorporated into urea molasses blocks. These two delivery methods (feed granule supplement and nutrient block) were found to be suitable for feeding sheep and goats. Studies of an isolate of D. flagrans, identified by the Veterinary Research Institute, showed that it could reduce larval development by nearly 95% in worm-infected animals fed six million spores each (Chandrawathani et al. 2002b). When spores were incorporated into feed blocks, the spores were less effective. Furthermore, how blocks containing fungal spores are stored affects the efficacy of the fungus.It is ideal to store them in cold room facilities as this can extend the shelf life of the spores.Further trials were conducted on penned animals artificially infected with H. contortus, using dose rates of 125,000 and 250,000 spores per kg as a feed supplement, as well as via blocks. The spores were able to reduce larvae by 80-90% within 48 hours and the effect was seen at least 3-4 days post treatment.In another trial on grazing sheep fed with 500,000 spores/kg, spores tended to reduce pasture contamination, thereby lowering the rate of re-infection of sheep, over a period of 3 months. Untreated controls had higher faecal egg counts as a result of continuously grazing contaminated pastures. The total worm counts of tracers indicated a higher level of larval contamination in the pastures grazed by the untreated control sheep.In the final trials on large-scale sheep farms in Infoternak and Calok, fungal spores were fed at a dose rate of 500,000 spores/kg. Results clearly showed that simultaneous use of spores and a 10-paddock, rapid, rotational-grazing strategy was an effective way to reduce pasture contamination to a minimum, such that anthelmintics need not be used. This demonstrates the ultimate use of nematode-trapping fungi in systems for which anthelmintics are ineffective because of resistance.Goats kept on coastal fringes of eastern Malaysia eat only shrubs and have no worm burdens. (P. Dorny)The worm profile of small ruminants in Malaysia, and the nature of infection in traditional smallholdings, on open pastures and under plantation crop management have been documented. This provides for a sound foundation to formulate control programs for worms in the various animal management systems. The wide availability of the major groups of anthelmintics coupled with government subsidies for ruminant health has led to the emergence of widespread anthelmintic resistance. However, chemical dewormers remain the most used form of control. Strategic treatment based on faecal egg count (FEC) appears to be well adopted on government and commercial farms. The animal health worker monitors the FEC of the farm by sending samples to the nearest government laboratory. The managers are advised to treat if 30-40% of the flock has FEC>1500.When treating animals it is recommended that drugs are rotated (ie, two drugs per year) and that strict precautions, such as fasting animals before treatment and calculating dosage based on the heaviest animal, be adopted.Grazing management using rotational systems based on epidemiological knowledge is a success on government farms that use the practice consistently. Rotational grazing has not been well adopted in plantations because plantation managers are not convinced of the benefits. Moreover, plantations currently prefer rearing cattle, rather than small ruminants, as cattle appear to be less problematic and provide better returns.Feed blocks are very popular but their cost is a constraint. Their popularity stems from improved productivity from increased nutrition, rather than the medication in the block. This has been clearly demonstrated by comparing the performance of non-medicated and medicated blocks.Breeding for resistance works well in the hands of researchers but as there is no organized breeding plan for worm resistance on government farms this approach to worm control has not been adopted by government breeders and multiplier farms. Selection of breeding animals is based on body weight and breed conformation. Sheep breeding farms are now using only hair breeds which were imported because of their reputation for resistance to worms.Biological control using nematophagous fungi is in the developmental research stage.When animal rearing is a secondary source of income, farmers are less willing to experiment with, or commit to, techniques to improve their husbandry. Smallholder farmers usually depend solely on chemical control.The farmers who succeed in making small ruminants a primary enterprise are those who have invested heavily in their farms and are open to suggestions.Entrepreneurial producers use a worm control program. They ensure good sanitation, apply principles of good nutrition and provide proper housing with raised, slatted flooring. They do this in the name of good management rather than consciously thinking of sustainable parasite control. After their considerable investment in the small ruminant enterprise these farmers will adopt other practices instead of depending on chemical dewormers. Farmers who face anthelmintic resistance confine their animals and feed them cutand-carry forages.The future for work on worm control in small ruminants in Malaysia, apart from exploring medicinal plants, is to expose farmers to the available options. The continuing education process of animal health workers who are closest to the farmers therefore cannot be overemphasised.Thailand has about 150,000 goats and 43,000 sheep (FAOSTAT 2003). Almost 90% of the total goat population is found in southern Thailand, mainly in the five provinces close to the Thai-Malaysian border where Thai Muslims are concentrated. In contrast, sheep occur across the country. Gastrointestinal parasites increase mortality in small ruminants, slow growth of young animals and affect the performance of adult animals. They are likely to be a significant constraint to sheep and goat productivity in Thailand (Kochapakdee et al. 1993a, 1993b, Pralomkarn et al. 1994).There are fewer goats and sheep than large ruminants, such as cattle and buffalo, and they are less important economically. However, most small ruminants are owned by smallholder farmers, and are therefore economically important to the rural people. The government has been trying to increase goat numbers in the country by providing loans to farmers to buy breeding goats from government farms. Farmers have formed cooperative groups to raise goats to sell as breeding stock to other farmers. In recent years, goats have attracted the attention of private companies because of the high price they command at market. In 2000, the CP Hybrid Co Ltd imported a large number of Boer and Saanen goats from South Africa and Australia.This chapter compiles the results of research relevant to the control of internal parasites in small ruminants in Thailand. As little research has been conducted in sheep, the chapter focuses on worms in goats and discusses best control options for this species.Only two publications on the prevalence of endoparasites in sheep in Thailand have been located (Sukapasana 1987, Churnnanpood et al. 1988). The following endoparasites were found in the faeces of lambs grazing at a research station: Strongyloides papillosus, Cooperia, Haemonchus, Oesophagostomum, Trichostrongylus spp. and Moniezia benedeni (Sukapasana, 1987). Oocysts of coccidia were also found. S. papillosus and M. benedeni were only found in 20 and 60% of the sampled sheep, respectively. All of the other endoparasites were found in 100% of samples. Moreover, the first eggs/oocysts S. Kochapakdee and S. Saithanoowere found in the faeces 3-5 weeks after birth, which suggests that lambs were ingesting parasite eggs/oocysts immediately after lambing.  (Suttiyotin 1987, Kochapakdee et al. 1991). However, the degree of infestation of these parasites should be compared in terms of percentage of infection and numbers of eggs per gram of faeces (epg), both mean and range. Suttiyotin (1988) found that the frequency of animals infected with gastrointestinal nematodes, coccidia, Strongyloides, Trichuris and Moniezia were 92, 83, 55, 11 and 0%, respectively. Kochapakdee et al. (1991) also found the infection with coccidia (96%), stomach roundworm (95%), Strongyloides (62%), Trichuris (19%) and Moniezia (4%).Counting the number of eggs (or oocysts) in faeces is a simple way to quantify the degree of infection with parasites. In a study by Kochapakdee et al. (1991) in village goats, the average egg count of stomach roundworm was 1264, with 33% of sampled animals having counts above 1000. The average oocyst count of coccidia was 2293 and 58% of the animals had counts greater than 1000. The counts for Strongyloides eggs were low (295 eggs/g) and 88% of the sampled animals had counts less than 500. The findings suggest that only stomach roundworm, coccidia and Strongyloides are commonly found in goats in Thailand and, based on count data, that only stomach roundworms and coccidia may affect the productivity of goats.Several factors affect prevalence of endoparasite in goats, including: season, type of management, genotype and age of the animals. Suttiyotin (1987) found that worm egg counts were higher during the monsoon months (October-December) than in the dry period. However, Kochapakdee et al. (1993a) did not find differences in counts of gastrointestinal nematodes when sampling monthly from October to January but this was probably due to higher than average rainfall occurring in January of the year of study.The type of management system employed affects the prevalence of endoparasites. Kochapakdee et al. (1991) found that egg counts for stomach roundworms were greater for goats raised in fishing villages than for those raised in rice/rubber villages (1415 vs 1149).In fishing villages, goats typically graze together in lowland areas where conditions are well suited to parasite infestation. In contrast, most goats in rice and rubber villages are raised by tethering, with four to six per family, so the spread of parasites is low. In another study, Kochapakdee et al. (1993b) compared worm egg counts of weaned goats raised on two different research farms belonging to the university. Egg counts were much higher at the farm with wet, tall and dense pasture, ideal for larval survival and ingestion, than at the site with dry and sparse pasture.Research suggests that animals may gain some form of immunity to worms as they get older or have a more prolonged exposure to infection. Suttiyotin (1987) reported that pre-weaned kids had higher egg counts than weaned ones (370 vs 208). Kochapakdee et al. (1991) also found that young goats with milk teeth had higher egg counts than mature goats (1523 vs 1004).Studies of the effect of genotype on egg count had varying results. No difference in egg count was found between Thai-native goats and Thai-native x Anglo-Nubian crosses grazing together under village conditions (Kochapakdee et al. 1994). However, Kochapakdee et al. (1993b) found that egg counts of weaned goats raised under research farm conditions were 491, 1982 and 2320 for Thai-native, 25% Anglo-Nubian cross and 50% Anglo-Nubian cross, respectively. Choldumrongkul et al. (1997) and Pralomkarn et al. (1997) also found that Thai-native kids had much lower egg counts than Anglo-Nubian cross kids suggesting they have some form of genetic resistance.Kids at Hat Yai farm had higher pre-weaning growth rates and weaning weights than those raised at Klong Hoi Kong farm (Kochapakdee et al. 1993b). One reason for this difference is the effect of gastrointestinal nematodes with egg counts at Klong Hoi Kong farm being higher than those at Hat Yai farm (3655 vs 117).Research in stations, such as the KHK research station pictured here, can provide understanding of the epidemiology and production characteristics of local and imported breeds. (S.Saithanoo)The effect of gastrointestinal parasites on the growth rate of Thai-native and Anglo-Nubian cross goats was studied in a village environment in southern Thailand (Kochapakdee et al. 1995b). Goats were grazed on native pasture without supplementation from 0 to 9 weeks and then provided with a concentrate supplement from 9 to 18 weeks. They were also divided into three groups according to anthelmintic treatment (untreated, 3-week interval treatment or 9-week interval treatment). The egg count of goats in the untreated group reached 1250 and remained at this level throughout the experiment. Goats treated every 3 weeks had higher growth rates than those in the untreated group or the 9-week-treated group. However, without concentrate supplementation, treated goats only gained slightly. In contrast, goats grew faster with concentrate supplementation, even the untreated ones (Table 11.1). There was no significant difference in growth rate among the genotypes during the period of no supplementation. However, when fed a concentrate supplement, the Thai-native goats had significantly lower growth rate than the 25% Anglo-Nubian or 50% Anglo-Nubian crosses (Table 11.1). Kochapakdee et al. (1993a) and Pralomkarn et al. (1994) also found that 50% Anglo-Nubian male weaners grazed on native pasture without supplement only maintained their weight, while they gained weight substantially when supplemented with concentrate. These findings suggested that without adequate nutrition, crossbred goats do not outperform the natives and that anthelmintic treatment alone does not result in increased weight gain unless the nutritional status is also improved.Under improved management, however, no significant difference was found in the growth rate of treated and untreated female weaners (Pralornkam et al. 1994) and the average egg count was lower. The lower egg count may be due to rotational grazing every 4 weeks. This suggests that, in addition to nutrition, improved management could be a way to control parasite infestation.Four studies investigating the association between parasite infestation and blood constituents in goats have been conducted in Thailand, one in village conditions (Kochapakdee et al. 1995) and three under improved management systems (Pralornkarn et al. 1994, Pralornkarn et al. 1997, Choldumrongkul et al. 1997).Worm control for small ruminants in Thailand  In a village where goats were continuously grazed in one paddock, Kochapakdee et al. (1995b) found that after 9 weeks of grazing, the average egg count of untreated goats was 2289 while the average for goats treated with anthelmintics every 3 weeks was only 46. Packed cell volume and haemoglobin concentration were lower in the untreated group. These findings contrast with those from goats rotationally grazed at the university farm (Pralornkarn et al. 1994) where treated and untreated goats had similar blood constituent levels. The difference between the two studies is probably due to the severity of infestation with the egg count of the untreated group in the study of Pralornkarn et al. being only 600. Under continuous gazing at the university farm, Choldurnrongkul et al (1997) did not find differences in blood constituents between treated and untreated kids either. Pralornkarn et al. (1997) found that artificially infected weaner kids had decreased packed cell volume, haemoglobin, total protein and albumin, compared with non-infected goats. This decrease occurred between week 4 and week 9 of infection, which relates to the maturity of the worms. Moreover, weight gain of kids in this study was 36-64% lower than in control kids.  1994) reported a study conducted on the university farm using 24 Thai-native x Anglo-Nubian cross female weaners which compared the anthelmintics fenbendazole, albendazole and ivermectin. In another experiment 84 goats raised on the university farm were treated with albendazole, fenbendazole, levamisole or ivermectin (Kochapakdee et al. 1995). In all three studies faecal samples were collected from individual animals on day 0 and then once again 2 or 4 weeks later: on day 14 (study 2 and 3) and day 28 (study 1). The efficacies of the anthelmintics were calculated by faecal egg count reduction test (Table 11.2).The lower efficacy of anthelmintics in study 1 may be due to the time of faecal sampling rather than to the drugs themselves. Anthelmintics had not been used in   (1994); c Kochapakdee et al (1995b) the village previously so resistance is not likely to occur. Reinfestation of parasites may have occurred by day 28 and resulted in higher counts. In study 2, all anthelmintics were effective at reducing egg counts. However, in study three, only ivermectin was highly effective and worms showed resistance to albendazole and fenbendazole.Both the Department of Livestock Development and Prince of Songkla University agreed that farmers should deworm their goats for the first time at the age of 8-10 weeks. After that, treatment should depend upon the severity of infestation. If animals are severely infested, they should be treated again at weaning (aged 3-4 months). Adult goats should be treated every 2-3 months during the rainy season and every 4-6 months in the dry season.There is evidence of genetic variation in resistance to helminths between and within breeds (Gray et al. 1995). Therefore, breeding of animals resistant to internal parasites is an alternative method, complementary to other methods of control. The effect of trickle infection with a sheep strain of H. contortus in Thai-native, 25% Anglo-Nubian cross and 50% Anglo-Nubian cross was evaluated (Pralomkarn et al. 1997). Thai-native goats were more resistant to H. contortus in terms of parasitological and blood parameters compared with the Anglo-Nubian crosses. This may be due to the evolution of Thai native goats in an environment where H. contortus is an important parasite. In this study, a large variation among goats within and between genotypes in parasitological variables was observed.During the course of infection, Thai native goats exhibited less change in blood parameters than their crosses with Anglo-Nubian goats. Choldurnrongkul et al (1997) also found a difference in egg count between genotypes: Thai-native kids had much lower egg counts than the Anglo-Nubian crosses.Based on our experience in Thailand we have proposed eight best-bet options for controlling worms in sheep and goats. The best choice for individual farmers will depend upon their objectives in raising small ruminants and their available resources or the level of resources they are prepared to invest. The proposed methods are listed below.1) Stall feeding: this option has already been adopted among farmers who raise goats for live sale, meat or milk. Many farmers already know the benefits of this option and are willing to invest the necessary resources.2) Stall feeding and tethering: tethering alone, even when they are moved frequently, cannot supply all the nutrients animals need. Therefore, goats should be provided with extra feed, minerals or supplements during the night in the form of stall feeding.3) Proper housing: good quality housing with an elevated slatted floor is commonly used and farmers appreciate the benefits it provides. The roof and walls should be designed to protect goats from drafts, strong winds and rain. Steps should not be too steep or slippery and ideally should have something to prevent the animals from falling down. Feed and water troughs should be built so that animals cannot soil the feed. Some farmers light a fire under the house to keep it warm. Smoke from the fire can also repel insects and other external parasites. Fire also keeps the ground and faeces underneath dry. Mineral blocks are cheap, easily available and contain all the minerals which the animals need, so they can replace salt containers.4) Shrub/tree leaf supplementation: plants such as leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and Streblus asper have been used as fodder for goats. Many farmers believe that goats that eat grass plus tree leaves grow better and are healthier than those that eat grass alone. They believe goats obtain extra nutrients and medical compounds from the alternative forage. However, fast-growing trees like Gliricidia sepium, Sesbania (S. sesban; S. grandiflora) can also be used as a buffer for leucaena or in areas unsuitable for growing leucaena. If this option is to be adopted, it needs adequate numbers of trees to meet the amount of feed that the animals need. Trees also need to be lopped regularly and have fertiliser applied to obtain maximum production. For this option to succeed, good records need to be kept and an appropriate method used to keep males and females apart.7) Medicated urea mineral molasses blocks: these are not used in Thailand although urea mineral molasses blocks have already been used for large ruminants and therefore could easily be introduced to small ruminants. There is no information available on prevalence, impact on production, economic impact or methods of control of endoparasites in sheep.Most published results on endoparasites in goats are derived from research at the Small Ruminant Research and Development Research Centre, Prince of Songkla University. The studies covered prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites, their impacts on growth as well as on blood constituents and use of anthelmintic control.There is evidence of nematode resistance to benzimidazole in goats raised on institutional farms.A study under village conditions showed that anthelmintic treatment alone did not improve performance of crossbred goats unless the nutritional status was also improved.One study suggests that Thai native goats are more resistant to gastrointestinal parasites than Anglo-Nubian crosses.There is very little documentation on small ruminants in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam. This chapter comprises information available from annual reports of these three countries which were produced according to the objectives of the IFAD TAG 443 project. The information from Lao is basically on goat production, its constraints, technical training needs and ongoing research.Cambodia had conducted a survey of goat distribution and prevalence of parasites as well as a series of trials to study the effect of nutrition on parasitism. Vietnam tested several technologies for worm control at the farmer level and assessed the impact. This chapter is devoted to describing the goat situation in these three countries as well as the related research that was conducted.The population of small ruminants in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam is 150 000, 5000 and 550 000 respectively, comprising almost exclusively meat-type goats. The goat population in Cambodia was estimated very recently but the figure is likely to be only 60% of the actual population. Goats are mainly kept by village farmers with 3-10 head, 10-49 head and 6-20 head per farmer in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam respectively. There is constant demand for goats at relatively stable prices. The price for goat and sheep in liveweight is higher than for pigs and cattle. Goat rearing requires a low labour input compared to cropping. Hence, many poor families show interest in participating in goat projects because they have available labour, the necessary feed resources and it is easy to develop as part of the traditional farming system. Goat production has a significant impact on farmer households and so goats can be a first step out of poverty.Diseases were the main cause of small animal mortality but the diseases were not identified in Lao. However, goat owners complained of footrot, orf (facial eczema) and worms in their stock. A survey conducted in six villages in Luang Prabang province indicated that the highest mortality of goats was in two upland villages with an average of 2.0-2.5 head per household annually. Goat mortality also appeared in two villages in the mountainous agroecosystem with an average of 1.5-2.0 head per household annually. There was Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was the most reported disease in goats in Cambodia. There is no vaccination available for FMD. Farmers also reported deaths of goats but the causes were not known as there is no diagnostic facility in the provinces. Farmers report diarrhoea and skinny goats which may be linked to parasitic diseases. The common complaints or constraints in rearing goats were skinny goats and not enough feed which, again, may be linked to parasitic diseases and poor nutrition.Flock productivity data from village production systems in Vietnam indicated that mortality rate of kids and immature goats was 35-45% and of adults was 8.5%.Although the exact contribution of roundworm parasitism to annual flock mortality is unknown, it was estimated that about 15% adult mortality and 51% kid mortality were closely related to gastrointestinal parasitism.Cambodia and Vietnam identified the internal parasites commonly found in goats (Table 12.1). The worms are listed according to importance. The goats in all three trials were confined individually in raised floor wooden pens with slatted floors. Water was always available.In Trial 1, the basal diet was fresh brewer's grains (high protein) offered at 20% above observed intakes and supplemented with the foliages fed at approximately 10% (fresh basis) of the liveweight of the Bach Thao goats. Foliage from cassava supported the highest growth rate in the goats and the lowest faecal worm egg counts. Worm egg counts were highest in goats fed the natural grasses and growth rates were 30% lower compared to cassava. Very low growth rates were observed when the legume, Flemingia, was fed. It was concluded that cassava has a high potential as a protein-rich feed for goats kept in confinement.Goat production, parasites and testing of control options in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam In Trial 2, a basal diet of fresh brewer's grains at a restricted level of 50% of the expected ad libitum intake was provided to Bach Thao goats. The supplements were foliage from cassava, cut natural grasses or a mixture of the two on a 50:50 basis given ad libitum.The feeds were offered twice a day. All animals were treated with ivermectin before starting the experiment. With foliage supplementations using cassava only, cassava + grass, and grass only, the average daily weight gains were 91.7g/day, 115 g/day and 80 g/day respectively and faecal egg counts were 67, 63 and 466 epg. The high growth rates and good feed conversion in this trial probably relate to the breed and higher protein content of the diet. The lower egg counts in goats supplemented with cassava suggest there is a possible direct anthelmintic effect on parasites, or an indirect effect though additional protein or condensed tannins in cassava.In Trial 3, native goats were fed a basal diet of wheat bran (low protein) supplemented with foliage from cassava, cut natural grasses or a mixture of the two on a 50:50 basis given ad libitum. The animals were not dewormed except for a fourth group given grass alone, which was dewormed with ivermectin. The average daily gains were modest, mainly because the goats were slow to adapt to the cassava foliage. Worm egg counts declined steadily from initial high values in the cassava groups. However, egg counts in the grass group remained low throughout the experiment.Considering the results of the three experiments, it would appear that cassava foliage could contain compounds -possibly condensed tannins -that are useful in preventing parasitism in goats.In Vietnam, the process of selecting technologies to be tested was to fully discuss all available options with farmer groups and, once agreed, the farmers took part in trials which were designed and run by the project team with the farmers fully cooperating and benefitingBanana stems are a good feed resource but require family labour. (G.D. Gray)from the results. The researchers led the process and provided the technical and, in some cases, financial support. This process has resulted in some very promising and practical options which are being carried forward to participatory farmer evaluation.Grazing compared to confinement. These two systems of managing goats were compared to study the effect of confining goats in order to prevent access to worm larval stages. All goats were treated with an anthelmintic at the beginning of the trial; one group of goats grazed freely without supplementation and the other group was confined and fed foliages. At the end of the 4-month trial period the average daily weight gain of the confined goats was 10 g more and the FEC was 40-60% less than their grazing cohorts. Although the results of the trial appeared promising, the farmers considered that confining goats was too tedious as it meant having to cut grass or foliage. They prefer goats to graze, which minimises labour.Biological control. This option of worm control used two approaches; one was to use ducks to kill snails, which are an intermediate host of trematodes, and the other was the mechanical dragging of soil to kill pasture mites which serve as intermediate hosts of cestodes. Using ducks to kill snails reduced Fasciola infections by 60%. When goats were raised on farms which turned over their soil the incidence of cestode infection was lessened by 57% compared to the farms which did not practise soil turnover. This option was found to be suitable for the farmers in Vietnam because it also improves crop cultivation.Improved nutrition. This control option was selected to study the effect of improved nutrition on the worm burden of growing goats. Six three-month-old weaner goats each on 10 farms were fed with foliage and given concentrates at 1% bodyweight. The concentrates were given twice a day; in the morning before grazing and in the afternoon after grazing. After 5 months they attained an average daily bodyweight gain of 62 g/day compared to the unsupplemented goats at 33 g/day, an improvement of over 87%. Although there was no significant difference in FEC between the two groups of animals, during the trial period the FEC in the control goats was 10-27% higher compared to the FEC of supplemented goats. Farmers understand that improved nutrition increases animal productivity and health. However, this requires investing in feeds and building of sheds. Some farmers have applied this option especially in dairy weaner goats to increase bodyweight before selling.Sanitation. In Vietnam bad hygiene is common in traditional animal management. It is closely related to the transmission of disease and parasites. This procedure aimed to show farmers the benefits of good hygiene practices. On nine goat farms manure was disposed of daily and clean water provided while another nine farms maintained their traditional management. All goats were dewormed before the start of the trial. During the trial period of 6 months the FEC on the `clean' farms was 20% lower than on the farms not practising good sanitation. Differences in the first 3 months of the trial were much higher suggesting that the sanitation had delayed the re-infection of the animals. Bodyweight gains of the goats over the trial period were also 20% higher on the `clean' farms (60 g/day) compared to those in the traditional system (50 g/day). This study clearly demonstrated that good sanitation and the provision of clean drinking water reduced infections with worms and increased weight gains in goats under village conditions.Improving on-farm hygiene as a measure to control internal parasites is simple to apply and maintain and will probably be adopted easily by farmers. Farmers see the benefits -diarrhoea decreases, weight gain increases and there is organic fertiliser for crops.Chemical deworming. Farmers in Vietnam do not often use chemical drenching. The purpose of this trial was to study the efficacy and impact of conventional dewormers. The following efficacies against nematodes were found: levamisole, 80-92%; mebendazole and fenbendazole, 70-80%; and ivermectin, 75%. These results are a combination of results from 50 goats on five village farms and 50 goats from the Goat and Rabbit Research Center (GRRC). When goats were kept on farms practising good hygiene and with sufficient nutrition, deworming could be done at 7-9 month intervals; 50% of such goats had FECs of 0-1250 epg and diarrhoea was not frequently sighted, while 42% of goats kept in the traditional system had FEC of 1000-2500 epg.Farmers in the trial obtained knowledge about chemical dewormers and on how and when to deworm. Where anthelmintics were provided to four sites to control parasites; goat production increased by about 15-20%.The technical team was also educated on the sensible use of anthelminthics and warned that frequent use of chemicals can lead to drug-resistant parasites.Breeding management. Good bucks were provided to farmers to improve breeding on the focus farms. Farmers were informed of the negative effects of inbreeding and introduced to animal management and controlled breeding. For this, they needed to build housing. Farmers were supplied 30% of the total value of a buck, while very poor farmers were supplied 100%. After 2 years, bucks were transferred to other farms. From 5 months onwards, all male kids were managed and grazed in separate areas.After 2 years the results of using improved goat breeding showed in increased production.Formal training courses for extension students build capacity among agriculture graduates. (Dinh Van Binh) Medicinal plants. Initial results indicated that mimosa, papaya and leucaena have detrimental effects on larvae of Haemonchus in vitro. Some plants used in the treatment of diseased animals were identified to contain anti-parasitic activity.This option is easily available to control parasites, especially in rural areas. However more research is needed.After testing and evaluating technology options for control of gastrointestinal parasites on farms, best bet options were packaged by discussion and ranking with participant farmers. Meetings with farmers were held in the villages to introduce technology options for controlling parasites that farmers could select to apply on their farms. Farmers selected options to suit their situation. To evaluate the impact of the various options, participatory assessment was done with focus and other farmers in villages with the participation of extension officers to compare between the new and old (traditional) systems. After 1 year, results are good (Table 12.2). On these farms mortality was reduced by 51%, production increased by about 69% and there was an income benefit of 56% (Table 12.3). In the new system 42% of goats had low FEC of ≤500 epg and 58% had medium to high FEC of 500 to > 3000 epg while in the old system only 11% of goats had low FEC and 89% had medium to high FEC. Therefore, in the new system 35% fewer goats had medium to high FEC.Other non-participating farmers are beginning to show interest in applying these new technologies on their farms to improve production and reap benefits.Goat production, parasites and testing of control options in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam  Change of habit (%) -60Note: Income was measured by identifying total income (from cultivation, husbandry and other sources) and dividing by the total number of people in the household.There were four main constraints according to farmers who responded to a survey in Lao and these were similar to constraints identified from discussions held with farmers in Cambodia, which were: The 80 goat farms in the new system are from the initial 125 farms investigated. They were monitored for 1 year applying different technology options. Data were compared using percentage change between the two systems. Gastrointestinal parasite infection was animals with worm eggs present.This chapter brings together the results of small ruminant worm control research in Fiji. Where the results have not been published in the scientific literature, an attempt is made to provide as much information as possible on the research trials. If the research has been previously published, only a brief description is provided. It is hoped that the information will be useful in the design of best-bet worm control options and that, through the sharing of these results, costly duplication of research activities can be avoided.Gastrointestinal parasites have been a constraint to small ruminant production in Fiji ever since small ruminants were introduced into the country in the 1850s. It is of interest that much of the early literature on livestock production in Fiji does not mention worms as a constraint to goat production. It is thought this is because goats tended to be reared in small herds under close supervision. However, early attempts at sheep farming in Fiji were modeled on the extensive systems of Australia and New Zealand with the aim of producing wool for export and mutton for local consumption. Under this management system worms were found to be a major constraint to the establishment of a local sheep industry. Table 13.1 contains a list of the important parasites of small ruminants found in Fiji.P. Manueli 13. Worm control for small ruminants in Fiji This view is still current today and it is generally acknowledged that worms comprise the major animal health problem limiting small ruminant production in Fiji (Walkden- Brown andBanks 1986, Manueli 1996) with Haemonchus contortus and Trichostrongylus colubriformis being the most common. Effects of worms on small ruminant production include stock mortalities, reduced animal productivity and increased production costs from preventative treatments.The development of anthelmintic resistance in some small ruminant herds and flocks in Fiji (Banks et al. 1987) has made the importance of the development of sustainable parasite control methods imperative for the survival of small ruminant industries in Fiji.A recent participatory survey of 34 progressive small ruminant farmers (Manueli unpublished data) indicated that worms remain a major constraint to the expansion of the small ruminant industries in Fiji. During the survey the farmers identified three dimensions of the worm problem that need to be addressed. These were: The first documented report of research into helminth control in Fiji is that of Baker (1970). This report documents 5 years of research work carried out from 1965 to 1969 on the newly established Government Sheep Farm at Nawaicoba. Trials into gastrointestinal parasitism during this period include a comparison of locally available anthelmintics and the use of a rotational grazing system.A study was conducted comparing the effects of the anthelmintics phenothiazine, thiobendazole and minitic on growth rates of yearling sheep transferred to the Animal Quarantine Station on the wet side of the island. Lamb liveweight gains did not increase greatly after treatment with any of the specified drugs nor was there any retardation in weight gain in animals in the period before the next anthelmintic treatment. No information is available on the total worm burdens or faecal egg counts of animals in the trial although it is reported that larvae of all of the normal species of bowel worms were cultured and that eggs of Dicrocoelium dendriticum were seen in one faeces sample. The results of the trial indicated that worms were not a major problem with yearling stock in the wet zone.The development of a rotational grazing system was also studied during this period. Unfortunately there is little available information on the design of the trials and no parasitologcal data are presented in the report.The results of the research indicated that the adoption of a system of grazing paddocks for 4 days followed by a 28-day spell was effective for controlling parasites in adult stock, and that only two to three drenches a year are needed to maintain health.  Singh et al. (1972) compared suppressive fortnightly anthelmintic treatment as recommended by Baker (1970) for growing stock with a 30-day rotational grazing system using five paddocks. The 9-month trial used four groups of animals: set stocked undrenched (SU), set stocked drenched (SD), rotationally grazed undrenched (RU) and rotationally grazed drenched (RD). The mean liveweights of the RD and SD groups were found to be higher at the completion of the trial than those of the SU and RU groups. Egg counts of all groups were recorded at 4-weekly intervals. Egg counts of the SU and RU groups were higher than those of the RD and SD groups at all stages of the trial, and eggs were recovered from the faeces of animals in SU and RU groups more frequently than in the SD and RD groups. Some sheep in the undrenched groups needed to be drenched three or four times during the trial to prevent deaths. From these results Singh et al. (1972) concluded that helminth control was absolutely necessary for sheep rearing in Fiji, that it would be feasible to drench animals less frequently than fortnightly, and that rotation with a 4-weekly resting period was useless. drug to which no parasite resistance was found with 54% of the farms carrying strains of parasites resistant to either fenbendazole, levamisole or a combination of both levamisole and fenbendazole (Banks et al. 1987).The research trial investigated the survival and seasonal pattern of egg hatching of H. contortus and T. colubriformis on pasture at two sites, wet zone and dry zone (Banks et al. 1990). Each month, a separate pasture plot at each site was contaminated at weekly intervals with H. contortus and T. colubriformis eggs. The plots were sampled at regular intervals and the infective larvae identified and counted.Infective larvae numbers on pasture were highest 7 days after the last contamination and there was considerable seasonal variation in the survival of larvae on pastures. In the wet zone, survival was shorter in the wet season (5-9 weeks) than the dry season (13-17 weeks). Larval survival on the dry zone plots was found to be much more variable. T. colubriformis larvae were found on pasture in all months except the 2 driest (August and September). The survival of H. contortus larvae on pasture appeared to be more sporadic possibly in response to changes in available moisture.The development of worm eggs and larvae on pasture was investigated. Pasture plots were contaminated with known numbers of parasite eggs in the faecal pellets of naturally infected does. Recovery of eggs and larvae from faecal pellets on pasture at 12-hour intervals was carried out in July, October, January and April.By 72 hours after exposure to parasites 97% of eggs had developed to the first larval stage, with the first third-stage larvae (L3) appearing by 96 hours after contamination. Development to the L3 stage appeared to occur faster in January and April (96 h) than in July and October (144 and 108 h respectively) (ACIAR, 1990a).The experiment investigated seasonal patterns of worm burdens and the effects of physiological status in grazing goats in the wet and dry zones of Fiji over a 12-month period. Groups of 20 does were set stocked on paddocks in the dry (five does/acre) and wet (10 does/acre) zones of Fiji and drenched at 6 and 4-weekly intervals, respectively, to maintain health. Every 2 months, four young worm-free tracer animals were introduced to the herds for 2 months and then slaughtered. In May and June worm-free dry (four) and lactating (four) does were introduced into the herds for 2 months and also slaughtered.H. contortus and T. colubriformis were the dominant parasite species but Oesophagostomum columbianum and Taenia ovis were also sometimes found. Tracers became infected throughout the year although worm burdens were higher in the wet zone. Mean worm counts varied considerably from month to month at both sites and no reliable pattern of infection was detected, although it appeared that H. contortus and T. colubriformis burdens were highest during the cool months (July and August) in the dry zone. Worm counts of mature dry does appeared to be similar to those of young growing animals indicating that there was little development of age resistance. Differences in worm counts between lactating and dry does were small, which was indicative of an absence of immunity.There was no evidence of arrested development in H. contortus indicating that development to adult stages occurred throughout the year (ACIAR 1994).Data collected from epidemiological studies was used to develop a simulation model of parasites on pasture. Development of the simulation model was then continued in a following project, ACIAR 8913 (ACIAR 1988).In larger sheds, pregnant, non-pregnant and young animals can be fed separately. (ACIAR)Testing potential worm control measures in goats -Phase 1Trials were carried out in the wet and dry zones to compare the following three treatment regimes:1. NORM -normal control measures of 4-weekly (wet zone) and 6-weekly (dry zone) drenching in set-stocked goats 2. RG -rotational grazing where animals grazed a paddock for a period (4 weeks in the wet zone, 6 weeks in the dry zone) before being drenched and moved to a second paddock while the first was spelled for an equivalent period of time 3. SD -strategic drenching using 6 fortnightly drenches of ivermectin, with a dose of closantel administered with the last dose of ivermectin.In the wet zone, faecal egg counts and larval cultures showed no differences between the RG and NORM treatments with larval cultures indicating that H. contortus and T. colubriformis were present. Egg counts of the SD animals were low (but never falling to zero) during the drenching period, and increased as soon as drenching had ceased, necessitating the termination of the SD treatment 7 months later. In the dry zone both the NORM and RG treatments had low egg counts over the duration of the trial and this may have been due to low levels of pasture contamination resulting from the drought before the start of the experiment. There were no differences between either the NORM and RG treatments in egg counts, although liveweight gains were slightly lower in the RG group (ACIAR 1988).Testing potential worm control measures in goats -Phase 2The following three treatment regimes were compared in the wet and dry zones:1. NORM -as above 2. RRG -rapid rotational grazing of eight paddocks with animals grazing a paddock for 4 days before resting the paddock for 28 days 3. SD -as above.Individual animals in NORM and RRG groups were drenched when their egg counts exceeded 1000 epg.In the wet zone, egg counts of NORM animals exceeded 1000 epg three and five times, respectively, in the two replicates. In the dry zone animals in the NORM replicates required 10 and seven drenches, respectively. Egg counts of SD animals remained low until 25 weeks after the start of the trial (13 weeks after the last closantel dose). They then rose to levels similar to those in the NORM group. Animals in the RRG group needed less frequent drenching than the NORM animals with replicates in the dry zone needing four and six treatments, and replicates in the wet zone needing two and nil treatments, respectively (ACIAR 1990a).Two groups of 10 does were grazed on pastures naturally infected with H. contortus and T. colubriformis. Five does in one group received ewe-strength albendazole capsules containing 3.85 g of albendazole (ET) and five were maintained as controls (EC). Five does in the second group received lamb strength capsules containing 2.1 g of albendazole (LT) and five does were maintained as controls (LC). The capsules were designed to release the anthelmintic over 3 months. Forty-eight hours after capsules were inserted all does were drenched with a double dose of ivermectin (400 ug/kg) to remove adult worms.The use of both lamb and ewe albendazole capsules appeared to delay the establishment of patent infections by 2 weeks in comparison to controls, however, after 6 weeks the egg counts of treated animals were equal to or greater than those of control animals.The experiment was terminated after 8 weeks as the capsules were clearly unsuitable for use in goats (ACIAR 1988).Forty ewe hoggets naturally infected with H. contortus and T. colubriformis were drenched with ivermectin and allocated to one of two paddocks. One group of 20 ewes received ewe strength albendazole capsules containing 3.83 g of albendazole (ET). The other group acted as a control and was drenched every 8 weeks.The albendazole capsules totally suppressed the production of parasite eggs in the faeces of treated animals for 120 days. This suppression occurred in spite of the fact that capsules used were '90 day' (ACIAR 1990).The entire sheep flock at the Nawaicoba Station was converted to a minimal drenching program. This involved drenching lactating ewes three times during lactation, lambs and hoggets monthly, and dry ewes only when they had signs of infection. After a year, only 19 of the 600 ewes had required anthelmintic treatment over and above the treatments allocated to lactating ewes (ACIAR 1990a).Mecistocirrus digitatus had previously been identified in cattle in Fiji but not in goats. Eggs were recovered from female worms from the abomasum of cattle at slaughter and incubated for 8 days in a sterile culture medium. Infective larvae were recovered and used to infect two goats (200 larvae/goat). The M. digitatus larvae exhibited only a low ability to establish in goats (ACIAR 1990).The gums of sheep and goats made anaemic by Haemonchus are pale and can be examined quickly.(ACIAR)Sixty mature does were drenched with a double dose of ivermectin (400 ug/kg) at the beginning of the dry season and allocated to one of two treatment groups: night yarding (N) or shedding at night (S). The animals grazed the same pastures but were separated at night when they were either locked in a shed (S) or a night yard (N). Does in both groups had similar worm burdens, despite the fact that infective larvae numbers were much higher in the night yard than in the pasture ones (ACIAR 1988).A pilot study was done to estimate the heritability of faecal egg count in goats. Blood and faecal samples were taken from 129 kids, 3-4 months old and sired by six bucks on a government goat station, 6 weeks after they had been drenched with ivermectin. Significant effects of sire were seen on egg counts and haemoglobin, but not packed cell volume. The heritability of egg count was estimated at 0.45. Investigations into the heritability of faecal egg count were continued in ACIAR Project 8913 (ACIAR 1988).Twenty weaner lambs, 20 dry ewes and 20 lactating ewes were drenched with ivermectin and grazed together on a 15 ha paddock naturally infected with H. contortus and T. colubriformis. ACIAR PN 8913: Ecological and host-genetic control of internal parasites of small ruminants in the Pacific IslandsProject 8913 was designed to build on the results of the epidemiological studies of ACIAR project 8418.In addition, the project investigated the heritability of faecal egg count in goat and sheep populations in Fiji to examine the feasibility of breeding for parasite resistance.Six goats and six sheep were maintained under controlled conditions and fed a complete ration for a period of 2 weeks. Each animal received a single intra-ruminal dose of 7.5 mg/kg albendazole directly into the rumen and 10 ml blood samples were collected at 0, 2,4,8,12,24,30,36,48,72,96 and 120 hours after dosing. Two of the sheep were not included in the analysis as no anthelminitic was detectable in their plasma samples. The systemic availability of albendazole metabolites was the same in both goats and sheep. Peak albendazole sulphone levels occurred earlier, and fell off faster, in goats than in sheep, indicating a faster rate of albendazole metabolism in goats (ACIAR 1994).The results of investigations into host genetic controls have previously been published in the scientific literature (Woolaston et al. 1995, Woolaston et al. 1996, Woolaston et al. 1992) and so will only be discussed briefly.Faecal egg count data were collected from 1513 weaner goats (<365 days old) and 951 adult (>365 days old) goats on government research stations from 1988 to 1992. During 1988 and 1989 animals were carrying naturally acquired, mixed parasite infections, but in 1991 and 1992 animals were treated with closantel 1 month before sampling. Goats were treated to remove H. contortus from their worm burdens in an attempt to minimise between animal variation in the ratios of H. contortus and T. colubriformis.There appeared to be an effect of age on egg count (adult: 508 epg, weaner: 1385 epg) indicative of a possible age-acquired immunity to parasites. Birth status appeared to affect egg counts with twins and triplets having higher values than singles. Heritability estimates of faecal egg count obtained in both weaners and adult goats did not differ significantly from zero.Haematological data collected in 1988 and 1989 when H. contortus was present in the worm burden indicated that neither packed cell volume nor haemoglobin measures were of use as indicators for resistance. It was concluded that there was very little scope for within-herd genetic improvement.Egg-count data were collected from a total of 1826 weaner sheep from 1988 to 1993. During 1988 and 1989 the sheep were carrying naturally acquired mixed parasite infections, but from 1991 to 1993 H. contortus was removed by drenching with closantel 4-6 weeks before sampling.of a 50:50 coconut meal to mill mix ration. Individual animals whose egg counts exceeded 1000 epg were drenched to maintain good health.Results indicated that the medicated blocks were efficacious in controlling egg counts: on average, animals in the FBZ-UMB group required only 1.9 treatments per animal to maintain health as compared with 7.25 for the UMB and 7.35 for the NORM groups. FBZ-UMB and NORM groups exhibited similar and significantly higher liveweight gains than those of the UMB group. For the NORM group this is thought to be due to nutritional supplementation. Analysis of plasma fenbendazole levels in the FBZ-UMB varied between individual animals, which indicated variations in block intakes (ACIAR 1991).Alternate strategies for fenbendzole-medicated feed blocks in goats (A)Sixty yearling does from the previous experiment were dosed with ivermectin and allocated to one of the following three treatment groups (two replicates/treatment):1. FBZ-UMBAUR -unrestricted access medicated blocks 2. FBZ1-UMB2 -access to medicated block for 1 week, then unmedicated block for 2 weeks 3. FBZ1-UMB3 -access to medicated block for 1 week, then unmedicated block for 3 weeks.Individual animals were drenched when their egg counts exceeded 1000 epg.FBZ-UMBUR animals had lower egg counts than other animals on most occasions. Numbers of animals requiring drenching over the 22 weeks of the trial were 12, 36 and 26 per respective group. Average body weight gains for the period were 6.3 kg, 5.0 kg, and 4.5 kg, respectively and average medicated block intakes were 4.0 g/head/day, 31.9 g/head/day, and 13.4 g/head/day (ACIAR 1992).Alternate strategies for fenbendazole-medicated feed blocks in goats (B)This experiment was similar in design to the previous experiment but a fourth group, managed as per normal station practices (4-6 weekly drenching and daily supplementation 150 g/head/day of a 50:50 coconut meal to mill-mix ration), was included (NORM). FBZ-UMBUR, FBZ1-MB2 and FBZ1-UMB3 treatments had lower egg counts than the NORM treatment throughout A wide range of ingredients can be incorporated into urea molasses blocks for manufacture on farm and in small enterprises. (ACIAR)the trial. Drenching of animals was done on 30, 24, and 26 occasions for the FBZ-UMBUR, FBZ1-MB2 and FBZ1-UMB3 treatments, respectively, compared with 81 for the NORM treatment. H. contortus and T. colubriformis dominated larval cultures. Body weight gains were 3.0 kg, 3.1 kg, 3.6 kg and 6.6 kg, respectively (ACIAR 1992).Sixty-four pregnant does were divided into two even groups and allocated to separate 7 ha pasture plots.The experiment began mid-May and the does were expected to kid in the last week of June. Does in one group (FBZ-UMB) were given access to unmedicated blocks until one month before their expected kidding date, when they were drenched with ivermectin and their blocks were changed to medicated. No does were drenched unless they showed clinical signs of infection.The second group was subjected to normal station management including regular drenching (NORM).Egg counts of the FBZ-UMB group were lower than those of the NORM group on all occasions. They also needed fewer drenches than the NORM group (25 and 78, respectively). H. contortus and T. colubriformis dominated larval cultures. Average doe liveweights and kid birthweights were similar for the two treatments.Weaning weights of the NORM group were higher as a result of their access to coconut meal supplements from birth; kids of the FBZ-UMB group were not supplemented during the trial (ACIAR 1992).Sixty pregnant female sheep were allocated to the following three groups:1. FBZ-UMB -medicated blocks 2. UMB -unmedicated blocks 3. CON -no blocks.All animals were grazed during the day and housed at night. The FBZ-UMB and UMB had access to their blocks at night. A fourth group was later selected from the general herd for comparison. They were not housed at all but subjected to normal station management (NORM). The trial was run for 18 weeks.Urea molasses blocks can be mixed by hand in a drum or in a small concrete mixer. (ACIAR)Animals in the FBZ-UMB group tended to have lower egg counts throughout the trial. The UMB group had lower egg counts than the CON and NORM, though it was necessary to drench all UMB animals in week 12 to prevent mortalities.Block intakes in the UMB group over the duration of the trial were much higher than in the FBZ-UMB groups.There was no significant effect of treatment on ewe body weights, but there was a major difference in the weight of lambs at weaning. Lambs of the UMB group were 5 kg heavier than those of the FBZ-UMB and CON groups. The weaning weights of the lambs of the NORM group were a further 2 kg behind the FBZ-UMB and CON groups. There appeared to be a benefit from improved nutrition in both egg count and weaning weights in the UMB treatment. Low block consumption appears to have limited the effectiveness of the FBZ-UMB in this trial. At weaning the ewes were removed from the trial and the lambs retained in their treatment groups for experimentation (ACIAR 1991).Fenbendazole-medicated feed blocks in lambs after weaning (A)Lambs weaned from ewes in the previous experiment remained in their respective treatment groups (FBZ-UMB, UMB, CON and NORM). If group sizes were not even, additional lambs of similar weights and ages were added. Animals not receiving blocks were supplemented with a 50:50 coconut meal to mill-mix ration as per normal station management.Animals in the NORM treatment exhibited high egg counts and needed to be drenched monthly. Over the trial period egg counts were lowest in the UMB group followed by the FBZ-UMB, CON and NORM treatments. The lower egg counts in the UMB group appear to be due to improved nutrition as a result of access to the blocks. During the trial, block intakes in the UMB group were much higher than the FBZ-UMB group. Liveweight of UMB lambs was higher than those of other groups at the completion of the trial but this appeared to be due to their higher initial liveweights (ACIAR 1992).Fenbendazole-medicated feed blocks in periparturient sheep (B)Sixty pregnant ewes were dosed with Ivomec and then allocated to one of two treatment groups and grazed in separate 2 ha paddocks. One group had access to medicated blocks (FBZ-UMB) in its night shed, the other to unmedicated blocks (UMB). Egg counts were significantly lower in the FBZ-UMB group on all occasions. It was not necessary to treat any of the ewes and the FBZ-UMB effectively suppressed the periparturient rise in egg count.Ewes in the UMB group all needed to be treated in the third month of the trial. FBZ-UMB block intakes were higher than for UMB (38.8 g/head/day vs 1.4 g/head/day). H. contortus and T. colubriformis dominated larval cultures, Oesphagostomum spp. was also present in small numbers.Ewe liveweights and lamb birth weights were not significantly affected by treatment, but lamb weaning weight at 3 months of age was significantly higher in the FBZ-UMB treatment than the UMB treatment (17.2 kg vs 14.6 kg). At weaning, the ewes were removed from the trial and the lambs retained in their treatment groups for further experimentation (ACIAR 1992).Fenbendazole-medicated feed blocks in lambs after weaning (B)Lambs born in the previous experiment were retained in their respective treatment groups (FBZ-UMB and UMB). ACIAR PN9132: Nutritional and chemo-therapeutic strategies for sustainable control of gastrointestinal parasites of ruminantsProject 9132 was an extension of project 8523. A trial was carried out to investigate the possibilities of using medicated and unmedicated blocks to control worms in goats managed in a rapid rotational grazing program.Fenbendazole-medicated feed blocks in conjunction with rapid rotational grazingThis experiment was designed to test the use of medicated blocks in conjunction with rapid rotational grazing in a 10-paddock, 35-day rotation scheme. Sixty pregnant does were allocated to one of three treatment groups each with two replicates of 10 does per group:1. FBZ-UMB35 -rotational grazing with medicated blocks for the first cycle of rotation 2. FBZ-UMB70 -rotational grazing with medicated blocks for the first two cycles 3. UMB -unlimited access to unmedicated blocks.A separate group of 20 does, maintained under normal station management (NORM), were kept nearby. NORM does were fed a ration of 250 g/head/day of a 50:50 coconut meal to mill-mix ration from 28 days before their expected kidding date, until the end of the trial, which ran for 30 weeks. Animals with egg counts above 1000 epg were drenched to maintain good health.Does in the FBZ-UMB70 treatment had significantly lower egg counts over the period of the trial. During periods when the FBZ-UMB70 and FBZ-UMB35 treatments had access to medicated blocks no parasite eggs were detected in their faeces. Goats in the NORM treatment had the highest egg counts at all times, followed by the UMB treatment. Numbers of animals requiring anthelmintic treatment to maintain health were 6, 25, 38, and 25 for the respective treatment groups. Doe liveweights at the completion of the trial in the FBZ-UMB70, FBZ-UMB35 and NORM treatments were similar, but liveweights of does in the UMB treatment were lower. A similar pattern was seen in the liveweights of kids at weaning.Nutritional supplementation given to the NORM group appears to have been sufficient to compensate for the losses in production seen in the UMB treatment. This resulted in final doe liveweight and mean kid weaning weight being similar to those of the FBZ-UMB70 and FBZ-UMB35 treatments.Effect of worm control and nutrition on development of young ewes (9132 A) respectively). Ewe conception rates, lambing percentages and total weight of lambs weaned were increased by FBZ-UMB and UMB with the former providing a greater increase. The benefits in reproductive performance are thought to be caused by the higher mating liveweights of the FBZ-UMB and UMB groups. The large benefits in total weights of lambs weaned per treatment are caused by nutritional benefits from UMB and the benefits of worm control and nutrition in the FBZ-UMB treatment (Table 13.2). In comparison with unsupplemented controls, weight of lambs weaned per treatment was increased by 82% and 138% for the UMB and FBZ-UMB treatments, respectively.At the completion of the trial the ewes were returned to the main flock and subjected to normal station management. An investigation of their performance 234 Worm control for small ruminants in Fiji  in the 1995 lambing season reveals no significant differences in pre-mating liveweights or their subsequent reproductive performance, indicating that there is no carryover effect of early suppressive anthelmintic control (FBZ-UMB) or nutritional supplementation (UMB) on ewe reproductive performance.The results of the previous experiment demonstrated the benefit of the continuous use of the medicated blocks. A second trial was designed to investigate the effects of strategic use of the fenbendazole medicated blocks (FBZ-UMB) to reduce usage of the anthelmintic and costs and to avoid possible problems of drug resistance that could develop with the extended use of the fenbendazole blocks. Manueli et al. (unpublished) tested a program of short-term use of FBZ-UMB in conjunction with unmedicated blocks (UMB) to determine the optimal time for their prophylactic use. A group of 150 ewes (15-months old) were divided into six even groups according to bodyweight and allocated to 2 ha paddocks. The two groups were given:  During the experiment it was necessary to salvage treat individual FBZ-UMB, UMB and CON ewes 4, 14 and 32 times respectively. Larval cultures indicated that Haemonchus spp. and Trichostrongylus spp. were dominant and that Oesophagostomum spp. were also present but in low numbers. Treatment differences in ewe reproductive performances and liveweights during the experiment were not significant. Treatment had a substantially positive effect on numbers of lambs weaned and the total weight of lambs weaned (Table 13.3).The results of trials 9132A and 9132B clearly demonstrated beneficial increases in weight gain by using FBZ-UMB and UMB compared with unsupplemented controls. However, the experiments failed to clearly identify the mechanisms by which the benefits accrued. In an attempt to identify the mechanism by which this occurred, Manueli et al. (unpublished) investigated the effects of FBZ-UMB on the growth of lambs and the milk production of ewes. Seventy-two pregnant, 21-month old, Fiji ewes were divided into six even groups according to bodyweight and allocated to 1 ha paddocks. Two groups had unlimited access to FBZ-UMB (0.75g FBZ/kg), two to UMB and two received no supplementation (CON). Animals with egg counts above 3000 epg were drenched with anthelmintic to avoid unnecessary mortalities. Ewe milk production was estimated three times at monthly intervals using the oxytocin injection (1 ml oxytocin) and hand milking method and the milk fat and milk protein contents were determined. Mean 63-day milk yield was estimated by multiplying mean daily milk yield by the number of days between the three milkproduction estimates.Log transformed (Log(FEC+1)) egg counts were lowest for the FBZ-UMB group (370 ± 288 epg) and highest for the CON group (2878 ± 290), while the UMB group (2790 ± 291) was intermediate. Despite the use of salvage treatments some ewes died (FBZ-UMB: 2, UMB: 6, CON: 10) from an outbreak of haemonchosis during the latter part of the trial. Ewes that died were replaced with animals that had been drenched before entering the trial and this may have affected mean treatment egg counts and milk yields. Four, 12 and 39 salvage treatments were required for the FBZ-UMB, UMB and control groups, respectively.The mean daily milk production of ewes from the FBZ-UMB group was significantly higher than production from the UMB and CON groups. Milk composition (as a percentage) was not affected by treatment, however, there was a significant effect of treatment on mean daily milk yield, mean daily milk fat production and mean daily milk protein production (Table 13.4).The differences in milk production were reflected in numbers of lambs weaned and total weights of lambs weaned in the various treatment groups (Table 13.5).Research into the use of nematophagous fungi to control worms in small rumiannts in Fiji began in 1996. The first investigations, in conjunction with the CSIRO and under the aegis of ACIAR, involved conducting a survey to try to collect the nematophagous fungus Duddingtonia flagrans from local small ruminant farms (Manueli et al. 1999).Some 2712 faecal samples were collected and cultured from a total of 26 sheep and goat farms in Fiji. The survey yielded 23 nematophagous fungi isolates. Eleven of these were lost and a further 12 were identified as belonging to one of four species of the genus Arthrobotrys.Subsequently, an isolate of D. flagrans was imported from CSIRO in Australia and a series of pen and field trials conducted. D. flagrans chlamydospores were fed to animals carrying naturally acquired worm infections, and the percentage of their faecal egg counts recovered as infective larvae was monitored.D. flagrans was effective in trapping infective larvae in faecal cultures at a range of dose rates (Manueli unpublished data). The trapping of infective larvae resulted in reductions of up to 90% in the numbers of larvae recovered from larval cultures. Replicated field trials aimed at investigating the use of D. flagrans under grazing conditions are on-going. Initial results are variable with larval recoveries from grazing animals fed D. flagrans daily, ranging from 0 to 60% of those from control animals without access to D. flagrans.Anthelmintic resistance means that it is necessary to develop sustainable parasite control measures.The most important worms of small ruminants in Fiji are H. contortus and T. colubriformis; M. digitatus does not readily infect goats.Larvae survive on pastures all year round. Infective larval stages are generally available on pasture by 4 days after faecal contamination with parasite eggs.Rotational grazing using eight paddocks over 28 days or 10 paddocks over 35 days can be effective for the control of worms in small ruminants.Reducing the number of paddocks in a 28-day rotational grazing system makes it ineffective.  Fenbendazole administered at a dose rate of 3.0 g/kg liveweight can reduce egg counts and larval hatch rates to zero. Fenbendazole medicated blocks (FBZ-UMB) can be used to control worms in sheep and goats provided block intakes are adequate. There is much variation within flocks and herds in FBZ-UMB intakes.FBZ-UMBs can reduce the need for drenching in small ruminants. The strategic use of FBZ-UMBs with unmedicated blocks can be effective in controlling worms in small ruminants. FBZ-UMBs can be used in conjunction with RRG to control worm infections in small ruminants.Improved nutrition can be beneficial in helping worm-infected small ruminants overcome and/or withstand the effects of infection.In young ewes worms can affect reproduction by delaying the attainment of oestrous, resulting in fewer lambs. This is exacerbated by sub-optimal nutrition. This effect does not carry over. These effects on reproduction do not occur in well-grown ewe hoggets.Worms cause reductions in ewe total milk yields, total fat yields and total protein yields. Worms affect the growth rates of lambs from birth to weaning.Nematophagous fungi surveys were unable to identify D. flagrans in Fiji.Biological control using D. flagrans has potential but problems of delivery and fungal culture methods need to be addressed. Pen trials have been successful though results in field trials have been variable.Internal parasites are seen as a primary threat to the expansion and improvement of smallholder production of sheep and goats in the humid tropics. This chapter reviews the literature on internal parasitism of small ruminants in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Documentation is limited because, in the past, small ruminants in PNG have been perceived to be less important than pigs, poultry and cattle. Accordingly, human and financial resources available for research have been limited.PNG has extremely variable agro-ecological conditions. Although it is entirely in the wet tropics, altitude ranges from sea level to above 4000 m and annual rainfall varies from 1000 mm to more than 6000 mm. For the purposes of the present review, it is possible to restrict discussion to the following three broad climatic zones.1. Permanently wet lowlands and mid-altitude areas up to 1200 m, with rainfall from 2000 to 5000 mm.2. Dry or seasonally dry lowlands with rainfall less than 2000 mm and pronounced dry periods of up to six months of the year.3. Highlands from 1200 m up to the limit of cultivation, about 2700 m. The highlands are cooler with an even temperate climate. There are occasional frosts above 1800 m, and rainfall is between 2000 and 3500 mm, with slight seasonality.Essentially there are two types of sheep and one type of goat in PNG, as discussed by Quartermain (2002). A.R. QuartermainEndoparasites present in small ruminants of PNGThe first recorded list of parasites of sheep and goats was derived from a government veterinary laboratory and field reports by Anderson (1960). Egerton and Rothwell (1964) updated Anderson's list with confirmed diagnoses. At that time they estimated there were only 500 sheep and 6500 goats in PNG, mainly in the highlands (i.e. above 1200 m). The list is shown in Table 14.1.Subsequently, Asiba (1987) added Mecistocirrus sp., previously reported in cattle, to the list for sheep, while Owen (1988Owen ( ,1998a)), identified Trichostrongylus axei, Cooperia curticei, Trichuris ovis and possibly Trichuris skrijabini in sheep. It appears, from the few studies with larval culture, that the dominant genera are Haemonchus, Cooperia, Trichostrongylus and Oesophagostomum. Fasciola hepatica is economically important, but geographically restricted, while cestodes are thought to be unimportant (Asiba 1987).Other than lists of identified species, there are no published studies of internal parasitism in goats in PNG. It might be expected that parasitism would be less of a problem for goats, which browse more, than for sheep, but this has yet to be verified. The findings and comments made in this chapter for sheep, generally 242 Internal parasites of small ruminants in Papua New Guinea Trichuris ovis * also apply to goats. In the mixed-species, institutional flocks that are managed with intensive daytime grazing in paddocks, both species are treated alike in receiving regular (usually monthly) dosing with anthelmintics. Manua (1994) reported a study of smallholder sheep and goat farms in the highlands and stated that, although animals were not drenched, they were found to be healthy and losses from gastro-intestinal parasites to be small. However, no data are included to support this statement.Studies on Priangan sheep in the dry lowlands have been carried out in three locations. The first was the National Veterinary Laboratory, where a small flock (established in the 1950s) grazes on a small area of pasture with supplementary feeding as necessary.The area has an annual rainfall varying from 500 to 1500 mm and a seasonal dry period from May to November. From 1980 to 1994 the flock, ranging in size over the years from nine to 35 ewes, was monitored weekly for faecal egg counts (Owen and Awui 2000).No anthelmintics were used up to 1984 but thereafter sheep were treated when egg counts (eggs per gram) were higher than 5000 or sheep showed symptoms. Pre-weaning mortality to 12 weeks averaged 20.2%. Over all years, only 0.06% of rams and 0.36% of ewes had egg counts higher than 10,000, with most high counts in ewes coinciding with lambing. This lambing rise occurred in 64.2% of births, usually peaked at 5000 and returned to normal within 4-8 weeks without treatment. Counts in lambs were more variable with 14-76% of yearly average egg counts lower than 500 and 0-6% higher than 10,000. Most lambs showed a rise between 7 weeks and 3 months of age.Haemonchus contortus was the most prevalent parasite in egg counts over 3000 but otherwise Trichostrongylus species prevailed. The former could cause death with egg counts over 10,000 but the latter was not lethal even with egg counts up to 36,000. Strongyloides papillosus was frequently seen in lambs, constituting up to 50% of the larvae with egg counts over 3000.Oesophagostomum columbianum and C. curticei were present at low levels. Pastures remain infective all year round and more so in the wet season. There was little variation from year to year. Parasitism, generally due to lack of timely treatment, was linked to the deaths of only five ewes and five lambs over the 15 years. Five Corriedale ewes present during the first few years showed little resistance to parasites and had consistently higher egg counts than the Priangans. It was concluded, overall, that the majority of the Priangan animals showed a level of either resistance or tolerance that enabled them to survive and produce under poor nutritional and high parasite challenge conditions.Another study, carried out with the Priangan flock at the National Veterinary Laboratory (Owen 1988), was designed to evaluate closantel as an anthelmintic with residual activity and high efficacy against H. contortus. Sheep with egg counts above 500 were treated with either 7.5 or 15.0 mg/kg. After treatment, egg counts dropped markedly within 3 days and remained low for 7-10 weeks, depending on the dose rate.Haemonchus eggs vanished from the faeces of the treated sheep but gradually increased during weeks 5-8 and reached pre-treatment levels by weeks 12-13.Haemonchus remained at 69% of the larval population in untreated cohorts. When all sheep were dosed with 15 mg, control continued for 21 weeks and egg counts were only half of the pre-treatment levels at 26 weeks. The proportion of Haemonchus larvae dropped from 51% to nil within 3 days, began to re-appear in week 9 and gradually increased back to 50% in week 23.Trichostrongylus larvae dominated when Haemonchus was absent and declined as the latter reappeared.It was concluded that the benefits of closantel are only realised when all sheep are dosed, with benefits lasting up to 5-6 months.The other two dry lowland locations where sheep were studied were Erap in the Markham Valley, and Urimo on the Sepik Plains. The former has an average annual rainfall of 1250 mm with a little seasonal variation, while the latter has a similar climate but with a higher rainfall (1850 mm). The government Priangan flock at Erap was derived from the sheep of Southeast Asian origin accumulated in 1971 from scattered remnants and, subsequently, was used to establish the other main institutional flocks and the Highlands Halfbred sheep. Holmes and Absolum (1985) reported the results of a trial where, at each site, a total of 20 wethers aged 6-18 months were divided into groups and treated with levamisole (Nilverm). The sheep were drenched at 0, 4, 8 or 12−week intervals over a period of 12 months at Erap and 9 months at Urimo. Erap sheep were setstocked at five sheep/ha on pasture while those at Urimo grazed over a large area during the day and were housed at night. Egg counts were measured every 4 weeks. The treated wethers out-performed the controls at both sites but only marginally at Urimo. The highest monthly average egg count in the untreated sheep was only 3060 at Erap and 856 at Urimo. Drenching reduced egg counts but there were no differences among drenching intervals. The response was greater in the younger sheep but there were no correlations between growth rates and counts within or across sites.Larval cultures showed Haemonchus and Cooperia to be dominant at Erap and Trichostrongylus at Urimo. It appears that parasitism is a minor problem for these sheep, under these conditions, at low stocking rates.Observations at Erap also suggest that housing sheep on slatted floors at night did not reduce parasitism.The only formal study in the wet lowlands was at another treatment site used in the levamisole study by Holmes and Absolum (1985). The site was on the coast and had an annual rainfall higher than 4000 mm. Twenty sheep grazed freely over about 40 ha of swampy pasture during the day and were housed at night on a slatted floor. Egg counts were low in all groups, the monthly average ranging from 8 to 270 in the untreated sheep. Treatment reduced counts but differences among drenching intervals were inconsistent. Although drenched wethers grew faster than untreated animals, this was only significant for the smaller, younger sheep. Across all three sites in the Holmes and Absolum (1985) study, small drenched wethers grew at 0.54 kg/week compared with 0.32 for untreated sheep. In spite of this response, it was concluded that even under these very wet conditions, with a low stocking rate, internal parasitism is a minor problem. a 50% increase in weight gain for the wether hoggets but much of this could be attributed to better pasture growth and utilisation. Mixed grazing with sheep and cattle is not a practical option for most smallholder farmers in PNG. Asiba (1987) drew attention to the lack of information about basic health and production of smallholder sheep flocks but stated that gastrointestinal nematodes cause significant losses in flocks set-stocked for any length of time. Subsequently, he elaborated on the situation in the highlands by drawing on his own experiences as a regional veterinarian, and on National Veterinary Laboratory reports from 1977 to 1994 (Asiba 1995).However, much of this information again came from Menifo. Supported by evidence from autopsies, the majority of deaths could be attributed to parasitism. Pneumonia commonly showed up in post mortems and this could be secondary to stress caused by parasitism.Evidence from a prolonged dry spell in 1993 suggests poor nutrition as a predisposing factor. Fifteen sheep monitored in successive weeks in February 1994 had egg counts ranging from 120 to 11,740. The author suggests that eggs persist on the pasture in the Eastern Highlands for up to 5-6 months and hence egg counts remain high even after dosing with benzimidasole or levamisole drugs. The suggestions for institutional flocks in the highlands are controlled grazing, improved nutrition, and monitoring of egg counts so treatment can be applied as needed. Strategic drenching immediately after weaning, at the onset of the rainy season if one exists, and before lambing could be useful. Sheep of the National Agricultural Research Institute at the Tambul highlands station (2,240 m) are grazed on pasture and all sheep are drenched monthly. However, drenching is not practised by 10 smallholder keepers of sheep and goats in the Tambul area (F. Dua, pers. comm.).The only trematode of concern is F. hepatica which was inadvertently introduced from Australia with early sheep introductions and established itself in the highlands where its intermediate host, the snail Lymnaea viridis, thrives, given suitable environments. Distribution of the snail is limited by temperature to areas above 600 m and is uneven. Fasciolosis is a particular problem at Menifo. Owen (1989) has described the epidemiology, using fluke-free weaner lambs over a period of 22 months at Aiyura. Metacercariae can be found on pasture throughout the year if sheep have access to snailcontaminated sites. The presence of swampy areas, drainage lines or ponds gives persistent snail populations which can spread onto pasture whenever prolonged heavy rain saturates pastures and soils. It appears that 125 mm of rain in a 4-week period is necessary for infected snails to move onto saturated pasture and liberate cercariae. There was considerable variation between lambs with one weaner having 446 flukes in its liver after only 2 months of grazing exposure while another had only one fluke. Sheep are liable to acquire low level infection leading to chronic fasciolosis at any time when continuous contamination of pasture occurs. However, acute fasciolosis may occur with heavy grazing under wet conditions when snails migrate onto flooded pastures or when sheep have access to areas that remain permanently wet.Parasite species identified include one trematode, two cestodes and 14 nematodes.No work has been done specifically on goats.  Small ruminants are an important source of cash generation and livelihood for resource-poor farming communities in Nepal. The livestock sector contributes about 31% of Nepal's gross domestic product and small ruminants alone comprise roughly 12% (LMP 1993, APP 1995). The 6.61 million goats and 0.84 million sheep in the country (FAOSTAT 2002) are reared under either sedentary or migratory management systems. Migratory management is used for about 65% of sheep and about 35% of goats (LMP 1993) in the northern districts of Nepal, adjoining the southern flank of the Himalayas, while sedentary management is used in the rest of the country. Goats are primarily reared for meat and manure and are regarded by farmers as the second most important animal species for generating cash income (Gatenby et al. 1990). Sheep are kept for wool, meat and manure. In the eastern region of the country about 80-85% of farming families are involved in sedentary goat management (Gatenby et al. 1990). However, on average, the percentage of households involved in sheep and goat rearing varied between 46 and 55%, depending upon the region of the country, increasing from the low terai regions to the mountain regions (Table 15.1).B.R. Joshi  A later study reported that the annual loss from parasitic gastroenteritis alone would be about 9.2 million USD (Joshi 1996). These estimates may vary but together they indicate the national importance of this problem.This chapter collates information on gastrointestinal nematode infection of small ruminants in Nepal.Relevant production research is also included. It attempts to include not only the published literature but also unpublished information presented in annual reports and similar documents.A detailed survey of the worms of small ruminants in Nepal (Joshi 1997) gave similar findings (Table 15.3) to earlier studies at the generic level (Singh et al. 1973, Morel 1985, Thakur and Thakuri 1992, Jha et al. 1993) except that Nematodirus was not recorded in this study.As well as the worms listed in Table 15.3, some uncommon parasites have also been recorded in sheep and goats in Nepal, namely Eurytrema cladorchis (Mahato 1987) and Dinobdella ferox (Mahato et al. 1989). The presence of Fasciola gigantica, Fasciola hepatica and the intermediate form of Fasciola species from the goats of Palpa district was reported by Lohani and Jaeckle (1981/82). Moniezia, Stilesia, Coenurus cerebralis, Echinococcus granulosus, Fasciola gigantica and Paramphistomum and lung worms were also recorded in the study by Singh et al. (1973). Thakur and Chand Thakuri (1992) reported that June-August was the main season for worm infection in goats in the eastern hills of Nepal and that there was 100% infection during the month of July. Further, Joshi (1995) studied various aspects of the epidemiology of worms in sheep and goats from sedentary and migratory management systems in the western hills of Nepal. The rate of pasture infection was determined by grazing naïve (born and reared indoor) tracer lambs with the flocks for successive months of the year and then rearing them indoors before slaughter. It was recorded that the peak of pasture infection was during the wet summer months (June-September), and that it gradually declined during the drier winter months. The highest level of infection was acquired by the tracer lambs during the month of June in both management systems. Thus infection of animals was closely related to the development of larvae on the pasture and their intake by grazing animals. The proportion of hypobiotic larvae in the lambs grazed with the sedentary flocks was low (5% during January and February) but high in the lambs grazed with migratory flocks (60 and 70% during September and August).In the same study, evaluation of the grazing pasture for its infectivity showed that high altitude pastures were heavily contaminated with nematode larvae. Larvae were recovered up to 4170 m above sea level. There were distinct trends according to the altitude range. At the lower altitudes (below 2300 m), Trichostrongylus spp., Ostertagia spp. and Haemonchus contortus were all present, at 2300-4000 m, Trichostrongylus spp. and Ostertagia spp., and above 4000 m, only Ostertagia spp. (Joshi 1996).Joshi (unpublished) studied the development and survival of H. contortus larvae at different altitudes in the hill region and recorded that eggs and larvae survived considerably longer at the lower altitudes and during the cold winter months. Eggs became larvae within one week from May to October at both altitudes but needed six to eight weeks during January and February.The longest survival was recorded for the larvae put on the pasture during the month of May at the lower altitudes (26 weeks) and during April at the higher altitudes (24 weeks).Joshi (unpublished) also studied the development of H. contortus derived from sheep and goats in the corresponding and alternate host species. It was recorded that fecundity of an isolate of H. contortus derived from goats was higher in both sheep and goats (Table 15.4). In particular, the percentage of gravid female worms at 28 days post-infection was higher with the goat strain in both sheep and goat species (68 and 90%). However, with the sheep strain, the percentage of gravid female worms was higher in goats than sheep (82 and 36%, respectively).Internal parasites of small ruminants in Nepal Peri-parturient egg rise had different trends in sedentary and migratory management systems (Joshi, unpublished). Sedentary ewes had a steady rise in egg count two weeks post parturition, whereas the peri-parturient egg rise trend was erratic in the migratory ewes. There was no peri-parturient egg rise in the sedentary nannies (in fact a decline was observed) but an increase was observed in the migratory nannies. These trends are difficult to explain, but might have been influenced by the grazing management. The other factor might be that all lambing and kidding were during the winter months when it was dry and cold with low or no possibility of infection from the pastures. These studies indicated that peri-parturient egg rise might be of epidemiological significance in sheep kept under migratory management.Feeding of rice straw, which plays such an important role in the transmission of Fasciola to stall-fed buffaloes (Joshi 1987), does not seem to have any role in the epidemiology of gastrointestinal nematode infection of small ruminants.Commercial anthelmintic treatment Joshi (1996aJoshi ( , 1996bJoshi ( , 1999) ) monitored the effect of worms on small ruminant productivity managed under sedentary and migratory management. A group of animals was maintained worm free by regular anthelmintic treatment and managed together with untreated pair-matched control animals (under normal farming management). No supplementation was provided. Weight gain and faecal egg counts were monitored for six months (in sedentary animals) to one year (in migratory animals). The results of the study show a significant effect of worms on the weight gain of the animals (Table 15.5).The performance of migratory animals after a single drenching was studied by Joshi and Joshi (1999).Weight gain was encouraging but the study was conducted for only a short period (up to May). Shrestha et al. (1990) demonstrated significant improvement in the growth rate of goats treated with anthelmintics and supplemented with maize grain (@10 g/kg body weight) over the untreated controls.A single anthelmintic treatment increased the daily weight gain from 28 g/day to 47 g/ day in the yearling male goats and was profitable, whereas supplementation without anthelmintic was not economically profitable.Goat housing with good ventilation, shelter and space for manure collection can be made out of local material. (G.D. Gray)This study, however, did not indicate the level of infection, management system or the time and duration of the study.The effect of anthelmintic treatment during the summer monsoon months and/or nutrition was studied in village goat flocks (Kadariya and Joshi 1994). Anthelmintic treatment and better nutrition significantly improved mean weight gain per day as follows: It was interesting to note that, in addition to body weight gain, the age of first kidding, kidding-conception interval, kidding interval and kidding percentage were also significantly reduced in the treated and supplemented groups. However, there was no effect on twinning percentage. Among the untreated animals about 10% mortality was attributed to parasitic gastroenteritis.Internal parasites of small ruminants in Nepal In a similar study, Gurung et al. (1994) supplemented feed with mustard cake and maize and compared the weight gain of anthelmintic treated, and untreated, castrated male goat kids. In the anthelmintic treated goats, growth rate was 59% higher than in the untreated groups. Mustard cake alone also significantly improved growth: 'Despite infection of gastrointestinal nematodes, supplementation of mustard cake as a protein source increased the growth rate of fattening goats in the undrenched group'. There was no consideration of the level of infection and its dynamics after the interventions.McTaggart and Wilkinson (1981Wilkinson ( , 1982) ) studied the growth response of terai goats with ad lib berseem (leguminous forage) feeding and reported a daily weight gain of 98 g. This dropped to 29 g/day with grazing on natural pasture only. Anthelmintic treatment contributed marginally to weight gain, but it was also shown that berseem feeding resulted in self-cure among untreated kids.The effect of experimental infection with Fasciola gigantica and different levels of nutrition on Nepalese hill goats was studied by Pakhrin et al. (2000). Although the recovery of flukes was higher (55 flukes) in the concentrate-fed goats than those grazing on fodder trees (1 fluke), the concentrate-fed ones had a higher daily weight gain (61 g/day compared to 39 g/day) and the condition of the liver was normal. Thus, improved nutrition reduced the pathogenicity of the parasites. Though not conclusive, fodder trees appear to reduce fluke establishment in goats and it may be possible that some tree fodder has similar effects on the establishment of gastrointestinal nematodes. This needs to be further investigated.Some plant products have been evaluated for their anthelmintic properties in Nepal, for example, Euphorbia roulina has been tested against Ascaris suum of pigs and has been recorded to be very effective (Mahato and Rai 1988). Other plants (roots of Imparata cylindrica and Morus indica roxburgii, bulb of Allium satirum, seeds of Litsea cubeba) were evaluated against buffalo ascariasis (Neoascaris vitulorum) and found to expelMaking compost from manure provides fertiliser and prevents contamination of pasture with worm eggs and larvae. (D. Pezo) adult worms but were not comparable to commercial anthelmintics (LAC Annual Report 1987/88). These studies (and those mentioned at the end of the previous section) indicate the potential of some plant products to be used as anthelmintics but more detailed studies are needed.The only study on goat worms used a commercially available Indian herbal product -Krimos Powder (Bharatiya Booti Bhawan). This was found to be ineffective compared with fenbendazole and mebendazole (Thakuri et al. 1994). Farmers have reported the use of various plants (bark of Melia azedarach, buds of Dhurteli, buds of Ainselu and juice of ginger) against worm infection of farm animals (Joshi et al. 1997) but the anthelmintic efficacy of these plants has not been scientifically evaluated.The resistance of three indigenous sheep breeds (Kage, Baruwal and Lampuchhre) to artificial H. contortus infection was evaluated by measuring faecal egg counts and recovering worms (Joshi 1995). Kage sheep were most resistant to the challenge infection of H. contortus and Baruwal were most susceptible.Production performance of different breeds  (Dhakal et al. 1985).When the performance of migratory Baruwal sheep was compared with that of their crosses with Polwarth and Border Leicester it was found that most reproduction parameters were comparable between the native sheep and the exotic crossbreeds. However, wool production in the crossbreeds was significantly higher than in the native animals. Notably though, survival of native sheep in the migratory management systemAccurate weighing scales at markets ensures farmers are rewarded for increased body size. (G.D. Gray)was considerably higher than for the cross-breeds, probably because of the better flocking behaviour of native sheep (Dhaubadel andKarki 1996, Rasali 1995).When the performance of sedentary native Khari goats was compared with that of their crosses with exotic breeds Jamunapari, Beetal and Barbari in the eastern region of the country, the native goats were found to be more profitable (Oli 1987). Later, at Bandipur goat farm, the performance of seven breeds -two native (Sinhal and Khari), two exotic (Jamunapari and Barbari) and three crosses between local and exotic breeds (Khari x Jamunapari, Khari x Barbari and Khari x Kiko) -was compared (Upreti and Khanal 1997). Results clearly showed that both native breeds were more profitable than the exotic breeds or their crosses.The epidemiological studies in the mid-1990s were helpful in designing control strategies for both sedentary and migratory systems of small ruminant management in Nepal. Until then, methods of parasite control were based on anthelmintic drenching without any consideration of season. Drenching was usually conducted during the winter months or when the animals were clinically sick. Joshi (1995) recommended the strategic use of anthelmintics for better control of endoparasites. Pasture management techniques for worm control are not applicable under Nepalese conditions.The strategy suggested required:1) protecting vulnerable animals, particularly young animals, from heavy challenge during the peak transmission period (wet monsoon months)2) treating adult animals, especially lactating ewes, at the beginning of dry winter to avoid winter weight loss3) using anthelmintics in a feed-based formulation for sedentary sheep 4) treating goats, both young and adults, during wet summer months 5) studying and evaluating plant products with anthelmintic properties and using them at the field level 6) stall feeding, particularly during the wet seasonThis review will need to be updated as further information becomes available. Although it is difficult to draw conclusions, the findings of many of the papers reviewed can be summarised as: ","tokenCount":"59930"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"051908f729690bccd139b5fdc06f46f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3476893-91e9-414b-b19a-85d6b06d6750/retrieve","id":"-345956545"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fe548526-1749-4ccf-a32f-b1c7d0edae15","pagecount":"2","content":"Project Title: P1599 -Catalyzing farmer innovations and the adoption of promising management and technological options to facilitate the development of low-carbon cattle value chains in Latin America • I1715 -Fertilization strategies that reduce emissions of nitrous oxide in forage grasses on farm in the low tropics (https://tinyurl.com/2pp33efp)• I2515 -Sustainable forage-based production systems in Colombia towards precision and remote livestock (https://tinyurl.com/2g34offy)• I1105 -Grazing management innovation to improve animal production and reduce GHG emissions (https://tinyurl.com/2kbovh52)• I1475 -CCAFS-validated animal nutrition model for methane emissions in Colombia: a tool to develop low-emission livestock options and strategy (https://tinyurl.com/2qqcsggz) Narrative of Evidence: The events were organized around themes interspersing climate change, GHG inventories and mitigation practices. Part 1 was about introducing climate change and measuring methane livestock emissions, IPCC National GHG Inventories and methodologies. Part 2 focused on IPCC National GHG Inventories and guidelines by IPCC. Part 3 was on main Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) in agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sectors. A practice exercise was held to calculate methane emissions from the AFOLU sector in accordance with the IPCC guidelines. Each student presented results with data from their own country and answered questions about results. This course took place November 16-18, 2021, via Zoom and students were officials from the ministries of agriculture and environment of seven countries in Central America and the Caribbean.• Review of existing policies and programs and synergies with other policy domains (e.g. animal health, food security, feed hygiene and safety, trade) to support scaling up of LED• 45 -Increased capacity for innovations in partner research organizations • 40 -Increased capacity of partner organizations, as evidenced by rate of investments in agricultural research Contributing Centers/PPA partners:• CIAT (Alliance) -Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT -Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)• CCAFS -Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security • Livestock -Livestock","tokenCount":"302"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e65c4f5c4f25d078e0350d29471cc196","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6ec0ee4-ff2f-4395-9245-bdaa3b7263c7/retrieve","id":"-1715434369"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f35d8dd0-ab4a-4a6a-8ed4-3a9cec7db16b","pagecount":"1","content":"Is everyone expected to use OCS? Most staff will use OCS in one way or another. Training and support will be offered.What will happen to the old system when we go live? Data currently being managed from systems that shall be replaced by OCS e.g. SUN System and HR4U, will be migrated to the new system. The old systems will be available for reference purposes only.Will data about my project budget be private, or will it be accessible to others? Data will only be available to those who are authorized to view them.Why are we sharing a system with several CGIAR Centres? Sharing OCS will help us collaborate with them and will enable us to better coordinate our efforts in implementing CRPs.What will it mean for all staff? Weekly time registration in OCS will be mandatory for all staff; The timesheets will be easily available and prefilled with previous activities etc, so that you will not have to spent more than 1 or 2 minutes on it each week. Travel advances, related reimbursements and other payment requests will all be requested and processed online, meaning less paper work. So fewer trips to the finance department and you can easily check the status of each request.For OCS questions and suggestions email AskILRIOCS@cgiar.org. For up-to-date issues related to the OCS such as implementation progress, FAQs, or documentation, please visit: http://ilri-ocs.wikispaces.com/.This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence. August 2015","tokenCount":"246"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9a2a8515d9f045d06f687148efcc87df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f20030b6-b328-4066-adc6-3d2f7939ed13/retrieve","id":"1218450213"},"keywords":["Index insurance","asset risk","bifurcated wealth dynamics","nonlinear growth","poverty traps","safety net","risk preference elicitation","pastoralists","Kenya"],"sieverID":"c3ead016-1f75-48b2-a4c2-b7cbbc3497d3","pagecount":"46","content":"This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a new index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) product designed to compensate for area average predicted livestock mortality loss in northern Kenya, where previous work has established the presence of poverty traps. We simulate household-specific wealth dynamics based on a model parameterized using rich panel and experimental data from the region. The simulations allow us to investigate patterns of willingness to pay for asset index insurance that is imperfectly correlated with individuals' loss experience. The bifurcated livestock dynamics associated with the poverty trap gives rise to insurance valuation that is highly nonlinear in individual herd size. Willingness to pay among vulnerable groups who most need insurance are, on average, lower than commercially viable rates but subsidization of IBLI premiums appears to offer more cost-effective poverty reduction than direct transfers to the poor.Index insurance has gained widespread interest in recent years as an instrument for reducing uninsured risk in poor rural areas that typically lack access to commercial insurance products. These financial instruments make indemnity payments based on realizations of an underlying index -based on some objectively measured random variable -relative to a pre-specified threshold, the \"strike\" (Barnett et al. 2008). Index insurance offers significant potential advantages over traditional insurance. Because indemnity payments are not based on individual claims, insurance companies and insured clients need only monitor the index to know when payments are due. This sharply reduces the transaction costs of monitoring and verifying losses, while also eliminating the asymmetric information problems (i.e., adverse selection and moral hazard) that bedevil conventional insurance. These advantages have sparked considerable interest in index insurance for poor regions otherwise lacking formal insurance access (Barnett and   Mahul 2007).The advantages of reduced transaction costs and asymmetric information problems, however, come at the cost of increased \"basis risk\", the imperfect correlation between an insured's loss experience and the behavior of the underlying index on which the index insurance contract is written. A contract holder may experience losses but not receive a payout if the overall index is not triggered. Conversely, the aggregate experience may trigger indemnity payments even to insurees who experience no loss.Given this tradeoff between basis risk and reduced incentive problems and transactions costs, the impact of index insurance on well-being remains unknown, especially in the case of index insurance on assets that determine the time path of future earnings and welfare. And because index insurance is so new, with limited uptake and predictable questions about the quality of the initial contracts, there is no empirical evidence yet as to the impact of index insurance on the well-being of otherwise-uninsured poor populations. This paper offers some initial, ex ante impact assessment findings related to a specific index insurance contract that is scheduled to go on sale in early 2010.It also offers an innovative approach to establishing the welfare effects of and willingness to pay for asset insurance and demonstrates how the presence of asset thresholds associated with poverty traps can affect insurance valuation and performance.The arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) of east Africa are among the poorest regions on Earth, with severe (less than $1/day) poverty rates routinely in excess of 75%. Given meager rainfall and infrastructure, the pastoralist populations who inhabit these areas rely heavily on extensive livestock grazing for their livelihood. Recent economic research, building on extensive prior ethnographic work, finds that east African pastoralists operate in an environment characterized by multiple herd size equilibria characteristic of poverty traps (Lybbert et al. 2004, Barrett et al. 2006). The prominent role that covariate climate risk plays in driving pastoral poverty traps (Santos and Barrett 2007) and growing concern that droughts are driving growing numbers of pastoralists into destitution (Sandford 2006, Little et al. 2008), naturally motivated the recent development of index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) against catastrophic herd loss in the northern Kenyan ASAL (Chantarat et al. 2009a). These IBLI products are being commercially piloted beginning in January 2010.Like typical insurance, IBLI compensates for livestock loss. But unlike traditional insurance, it only compensates for covariate herd losses that are predicted by the historical relationship with remotely sensed Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) measures; an indicator of vegetative cover widely used in drought monitoring programs in Africa. These data are publicly available in near-real time and objectively verifiable. Chantarat et al. (2009a) explain the details of the IBLI contract design and show that it performs extremely well out-of-sample in insuring against catastrophic covariate shocks in this region. In this paper we use household-level panel data to simulate the impact of IBLI on Northern Kenyan pastoral households' welfare dynamics. This paper makes several novel contributions to the literature. First, IBLI insures assets rather than income. Although the overwhelming majority of the global insurance market insures assets through property and casualty, life or health insurance products, most index insurance on offer in the developing world focus on replacing lost income, typically due to rainfall shocks that affect crop production. The loss of productive assets like livestock potentially disrupts future income processes, not just current earnings.Furthermore, in the presence of a poverty trap, shocks that push herd sizes below a critical threshold at which herd dynamics bifurcate can have especially severe consequences. The point of bifurcation is critical because below this threshold the rate at which the livestock asset is depleted due to death loss far exceeds any short run possibility of rejuvenating the herd. Thus insurance that effectively protects households from slipping into the poverty trap can be of especially high value. Conversely, insurance that consumes scarce resources and fails to protect the household from catastrophic shocks can do damage. Given these considerations, we evaluate IBLI's performance using a dynamic model rather than the usual static approach employed in the existing literature. We show that the effectiveness of IBLI depends on initial herd size relative to the bifurcation threshold as well as, to a lesser degree, on household-specific basis risk and risk preferences.Second, rather than modeling performance for a representative agent, as is the norm in the extant literature (Skees et al. 2001; Turvey and Nayak 2003; Vedenov and   Barnett 2004; Deng 2007), we explicitly study how IBLI performance varies based on variation in household characteristics, such as initial herd size, and key basis risk and risk preference parameters. And rather than making assumptions about these parameters, we estimate them from panel data and field experiments from the area. Contracts that perform well for a representative household may not prove effective for the majority nor for target sub-populations. We show that to be the case with IBLI.Third and finally, household-level simulation analysis allows us to compare the outcomes of various subsidization programs and targeting schemes. Our analysis finds that IBLI subsidies targeted toward vulnerable-but-non-poor pastoralists create an effective safety net by protecting such households from slipping into a poverty trap after a drought. This reinforces prior work suggesting that safety net interventions targeting the non-poor can reduce poverty in the long run by stemming the rate of inflow into the ranks of the chronically poor following a shock (Barrett et al. 2008).The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly explains the study locations and the data. Section 3 introduces IBLI. Section 4 then describes the dynamic model we use in the simulations and introduces the certainty equivalent herd growth rate, which we use as a key performance evaluation criterion. Section 5 estimates distributions of basis risk, risk preferences and other key household characteristics necessary for the simulations. Section 6 reports the estimated IBLI performance and how this varies based on identifiable household characteristics. Section 7 estimates households' willingness to pay for the optimal contract and district-level aggregate demand for IBLI. Section 8 then explores how alternative approaches to offering IBLI commercially or with safety net subsidies affect wealth and poverty dynamics in the system. Section 9 concludes.Extensive livestock grazing represents the key livelihood in the northern Kenyan ASAL.Pastoralists move their herds in response to spatiotemporal variability in forage and water access. Northern Kenya experiences bimodal rainfall, defined by long rains that fall March-May, followed by a long dry season (June-September) season, then a short rains season from October-December followed by a January-February short dry season. We henceforth refer to the March-September period as the LRLD season (for long rains and long dry), and the October-February period as SRSD (for short rains and short dry).When the rains fail, especially over two rainy seasons in a row, catastrophic herd losses commonly ensue.We investigate IBLI performance in Marsabit District, Kenya, for which this product was developed on a pilot basis. We use data from four locations -Dirib Gombo, Logologo, Kargi and North Horr (Figure 1) -from which we have two complementary household-level data sets: panel data collected quarterly from 2000-2002 on around 30 households in each location by the USAID Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program \"Improving Pastoral Risk Management on East African Rangelands\" (PARIMA) project (Barrett et al. 2008), and a separate survey fielded during May-August 2008 among 42 households in each location (Chantarat et al. 2009c). The latter survey included field experiments to elicit risk preferences.Table 1 summarizes key characteristics of the four study locations. 1 Dirib Gombo, on Mount Marsabit, enjoys relatively higher rainfall and is occupied mostly by cattle-and smallstock-keeping Boran pastoralists who also rely on town-based livelihood opportunities to complement their meager livestock holdings. Logologo is along the main road, with a relatively more arid climate and larger cattle and smallstock herds based on transhumant pastoralism. Kargi and North Horr are very arid locations on opposite edges of the Chalbi dessert, where camel-and smallstock-keeping pastoralists rely on longer distance migrations to cope with greater spatiotemporal variability in forage and water availability.Sample households rely on livestock and livestock products for 18-87% of their income. Severe poverty is widespread and inversely correlated with herd sizes because livestock are the main productive asset owned in the region. As a result, livestock mortality is considered the main threat to pastoralists' livelihood. Households' seasonal livestock loss 2000-2002 (including a bad drought in 2000) ranged from the lowest average seasonal rate of 7% in North Horr to a high of 21% in Dirib Gombo. The long-1 All summary statistics are weighted by appropriate stratified sampling weights. term consequence of the 2000 catastrophic drought can be seen in the drastic reduction in overall mean herd size from 25 TLU at the beginning of 2000 to 15 TLU at the end of 2008. Extreme (>20%) herd losses occurred in roughly 20% (10-15%) of seasons in Dirib Gombo and Logologo (Kargi and North Horr). These catastrophic losses were typically due to covariate shocks related to forage and water availability, while modest losses of individual animals were more commonly idiosyncratic experiences (e.g., due to predators or injury). For IBLI to be commercially viable, the insurance underwriter adds a premium loading 0  a over the actuarially fair rate -i.e., the rate estimated based on the empirical distribution of NDVI -to take into account administrative costs, model uncertainty and required profit margins. 2 The loaded premium rate for coverage season t and location l, quoted as a percentage of total insured herd value, can therefore be calculated as(2)The left panel of Table 2 summarizes the predicted mortality indexfor each of the four study locations constructed using the full NDVI series available from 1982-2008 and the livestock mortality forecasting model developed by Chantarat et al.   (2009a). The predicted herd mortality indices average 8-9%. The right panel of Table 2 also shows the actuarially fair IBLI premium rate, which varies across locations due to differences in the distributions of predicted herd mortality index. In what follows, we use 54 seasons of predicted area average herd mortality and the associated fair premium rates to evaluate IBLI performance.With this simple background on the region, the data and IBLI behind us, we now develop a simple dynamic model that accommodates the nonlinear, bifurcated herd dynamics previously observed in the region, with a critical herd size threshold typically in the range of 10-20 tropical livestock units (TLU) 3 (Lybbert et al. 2004, McPeak 2004, Barrett et al.   2006, Santos and Barrett 2007). This model generates multiple welfare equilibria, the lowest of which is associated with a poverty trap. As will be clear, the presence of the threshold affects the valuation of IBLI conditional on a household's current herd size.Denote the herd size, in TLU, realized by household i in location l at the beginning of season t (and so at the end of season IBLI. This latter component includes mainly idiosyncratic shocks experienced by specific households -such as conflict, raiding, predation, accidents, etc. -as well as other covariate risk unrelated to range conditions -such as disease outbreaks -although we find the latter is relatively small compared to the covariate component. Together these processes generate the net stochastic herd growth rate in period t, which nets out herd offtake and mortality rates from the reproduction and herd recruitment rates so that the seasonal herd accumulation can be characterized by Setting the subsistence consumption level at 0.5 TLU per season per household, 4Figure 2 illustrates the nonlinear expected net herd growth estimated nonparametrically 5 using observed household herd data (birth, mortality, purchase, exchange, sale, slaughter and transfer rates) in 2000-2002 and 2007-2008. This pattern implies the bifurcated herd threshold at around 15 TLU per household -consistent with previous findings (Lybbert   et al. 2004, McPeak 2004, Barrett et al. 2006, Santos and Barrett 2007) -below which herds collapse over time toward a stable equilibria of 0 TLU, implying an exit from pastoralism. Above that threshold, herds grow toward a high level stable equilibrium size of 55-60 TLU.Household i derives intertemporal utility based on a simplified Constant Relative Risk Aversion (CRRA) function defined over livestock wealth asBecause of the direct link between herd and welfare dynamics, the certainty equivalent growth rate of stochastic herd dynamics provides a direct household welfare measure. Define the certainty equivalent herd growth rate as the constant net herd growth rate with respect to the initial herd, ilt H , that yields the same intertemporal utility as the expected intertemporal utility obtained from the stochastic herd dynamics.Specifically, the certainty equivalent growth rate, c il  , of the stochastic herd dynamics,, can be written as 6 (6)Using this formulation, IBLI increases household welfare if it increases the certainty equivalent herd growth rate relative to that of the uninsured herd dynamics. Therefore, a risk premium growth rate,, provides a measure of dynamic welfare improvement due to insurance. This measure has general applicability to dynamic welfare analysis with respect to any asset insurance.The certainty equivalent growth rate thereby provides a convenient measure of the intertemporal welfare impact of IBLI given the underlying herd dynamics, in contrast to 6 If 1   , this can be written more generally as)) ( ( )the existing literature, which concentrates on static impact analysis. 7 This is important because IBLI performance in the initial insured seasons affects performance in later seasons through the reinforcing impact of herd dynamics where growth patterns are nonlinear, as in this setting. For example, if IBLI fails to protect household from losses in the initial seasons that set it on the herd decumulation trajectory, IBLI's long-term performance could be compromised by the initial herd collapse and ensuing dominant herd dynamics. Because the welfare and growth effects of loss vary depending on where in the herd size distribution one experiences loss, standard insurance performance measures based on induced changes in outcome distributions will not suffice in this setting.IBLI compensates for covariate livestock mortality loss based on the predicted herd mortality index in each location, ) ( ˆlt ndvi M. For simplicity, we assume that the household insures either all or none of their herd at the start of each season, which enables us to compare fully insured herds under several contract specifications against the case of no insurance. The insured herd size realized at the end of coverage season t for a household in location l can thus be written aswhere ilt g ~ represents the non-mortality component in the net growth rate in (3).IBLI thus reduces expected net herd growth in good seasons by the IBLI premium, a lt  , but IBLI should at least partially compensate for losses during periods of substantial covariate herd mortality through the indemnity payment, lt  . Given certain cost and uncertain benefit, the household-specific basis risk with respect to the contract 7 Another approach concentrates on measuring changes in the distribution of the insured outcome based on mean-variance measures, e.g., coefficient of variation, value at risk and downside risk measures (Skees et  al. 2001; Turvey and Nayak 2003; Vedenov and Barnett 2004). Since that approach ignores the insuree's risk preferences, it may misestimate the benefit of insurance (Fishburn 1977; Breustedt et al. 2008).is thus a key determinant of IBLI performance. According to (1) and ( 7), basis risk depends on the correlation between the predicted area average mortality index,, and the individual-specific mortality rate, ) , ( ~ilt lt ilt ndvi M  . The larger the proportion of predictable covariate loss in a household's individual mortality loss, the greater the gains from IBLI.We further investigate the basis risk in IBLI by disaggregating the householdspecific mortality rate into a beta representation form of the hedgable predicted mortality index. Specifically, household-specific herd mortality ) , ( ~ilt lt ilt ndvi M  is orthogonally projected onto the predicted area average mortality index as 8 ( 8). Here il  reflects household i's long-term average mortality rate, which implicitly reflects householdspecific characteristics that determine their livestock loss (e.g., herding ability), l  ˆ is the long-term mean of the predicted mortality index for location l and ilt  reflects other losses that are not correlated with the covariate component captured by the index.This beta representation allows us to identify distinct, interrelated householdspecific basis-risk determinants,. The coefficient i  measures the sensitivity of the household's mortality experience to the predicted herd mortality index in its area.1  i  represents the case in which deviations of household i's livestock losses from its long-term average are, on average, perfectly explained by variations in the predicted area average mortality index, while 0  i  corresponds to the case, where these two series are independent. If the household-specific mean mortality il  is relatively similar to the location-specific mean predicted mortality rate l  ˆ, then the closer i  is to one, the better will the predicted mortality index explain household's losses, and so the lower the basis risk. Pastoralists with i  lower (greater) than one or with il  lower (greater) than l  ˆ therefore tend to over (under)-insure their herd mortality losses using IBLI. The risk component ilt  reflects the relative proportion of household's overall losses that are not manageable by IBLI. The greater its variance, 2 il  , the larger the basis risk.Our analytical framework thus emphasizes the standard theoretical result that the risk management effectiveness of any IBLI contract specification,  depends on household-specific variation in these key basis risk determinants and risk preferences. A critical innovation with this approach is that the presence of a threshold-based poverty trap further implies that IBLI performance also depends on household herd size. This analytical framework serves as the basis for the estimation and simulation in Section 5.In order to show analytically how IBLI valuation might deviate from the standard insurance evaluation in the presence of bifurcated asset dynamics, we discretize the nonlinear net herd growth in (4) into a simple additive form:and ) and the uncovered component with 0, this implies the expected herd dynamics:This allows us to derive recursively two stable intertemporal welfare levels:into the poverty trap, a long-run equilibrium herd size close to zero.We consider the expected impact of IBLI when pastoralists can insure all of their herds at period t with a contract priced at lt  that pays lt  in a bad season withand pays nothing during a good season with probability P. Holding risk preferences and basis risk determinants constant, we will show that the dynamic welfare effect of an IBLI contract varies with initial herd sizes at time t. In particular, four distinct cohorts emerge.(1) For the first cohort, IBLI cannot alter their herd dynamics. Their beginning herd size is too far beneath the critical herd size threshold to grow past * H by the end of the season since even in a good season and without insuranceIBLI only provides typical insurance in reducing the probability of herd loss during a bad season, while the premium payment speeds up herd decumulation during good seasons.By (6), the IBLI valuation is the same as that in the standard insurance case without bifurcated asset dynamics:For this cohort, the value of IBLI (reflected in a positive risk premium growth rate) depends on the extent to which IBLI imperfectly compensates for the insured's losses and household-specific risk preferences. However, since households in this cohort convergeto the low-level equilibrium with or without insurance, IBLI offers them relatively little in the way of economic relief.(2) The second cohort consists of pastoralists expecting to grow their herds.Beginning herd sizes are modestly above * H and grow if the season is good and when they do not pay the insurance premium. However, paying the insurance premium dropsin a good season. Because IBLI shifts down their herd growth trajectory, the risk premium growth rate is effectively taxed by 1 1, as is evident from the certainty equivalent growth rate:The value of IBLI is therefore lower than it would be absent the bifurcated herd dynamics, holding risk preference and basis risk determinants constant.(3) The third cohort consists of pastoralists with beginning herd sizes slightly above but still vulnerable to the risk of falling below * H . IBLI protects this cohort from falling below * H while their herd size remains above * H after paying the insurance premium,Since IBLI preserves their herd growth trajectory, IBLI increases their insurance valuation relative to the case without bifurcated asset dynamics by the factor . 1 1For this reason, the dynamic welfare impact of IBLI for this cohort is(4) The last cohort consists of pastoralists with herd sizes so large that even without insurance they are not expected to fall below the critical herd threshold after covariate shocks;.Thus IBLI would not alter their herd dynamics, just like the first cohort (with the smallest herds). But because these larger herd sizes have higher expected net herd growth, H  , their valuation of IBLI is significantly more than those in the first cohort according to (15)Overall, cohorts three and four -the wealthier segments of this at risk populationrepresent the main source of demand for IBLI in this setting. The expected thresholdbased performance of IBLI in the presence of bifurcated wealth dynamics mirrors the patterns found in Lybbert and Barrett (forthcoming) in a different poverty trap model that does not consider insurance options.In what follows, we simulate households' herd dynamics and key performance determinants -household risk preferences and basis risk -as a first step towards exploring the effectiveness of IBLI contracts over many sets of seasons, with different initial seasonal outcomes.The main component in estimating and simulating herd dynamics is the net herd growth rate in (3). We estimate the non-mortality component separately from the mortality component as we are particularly interested in estimating the key basis risk determinants directly from the correlations between individual households' livestock mortality and the location-specific predicted herd loss index that triggers IBLI payout.We Next, we estimate the relationship between household-specific herd mortality rates and the location-average predicted mortality index described in (8). We pool four seasons of household-specific mortality rates across the four 2000-2 study locations. A linear relationship between deviations of the two from their long-term means is then estimated using a random coefficient model with random effects on the slope coefficient, commonly known as \"beta\".This model, estimated by maximum likelihood, allows us to take into account variations of slope coefficients across households. 11 The estimated slope coefficient represents the degree of sensitivity of household's mortality loss to the predicted 9 Epanechnikov kernel function is used and the optimal bandwidth is chosen according to Silverman's Rule of Thumb. 10 Growth rates were constructed using observations on births, purchases, borrowing and lending of animals, exchanges, sales, slaughters and transfers.11 Estimation of models of beta-representation (e.g., the CAPM model in financial econometrics) generally rely on the seemingly unrelated regressions model for sector-specific equations, which allows for unrestricted error structures (e.g., due to potentially cross-sectional correlations). In our case, we do not have enough longitudinal observations of individual households to apply that model.covariate mortality index for their location. Of course there may still be other covariatebut-unpredicted components, in addition to the idiosyncratic component, in the model's disturbances, which can potentially result in cross-sectional correlation. In an attempt to disaggregate these two components in the disturbances, the predicted seasonal householdspecific residual ilt ˆ is projected onto its location-specific mean each season lt  . 12 So the model we estimate can be summarized as ( 16) We show in Figure 3 the distributions of estimated household betas, as well as the unpredicted component of mortality losses, ilt  for these four locations. 14 Overall, the beta distribution centered around 0.8 with considerable variation, 15 ranging from -0.35 to 2 with a standard deviation of 0.5. The distribution of the mean-zero unpredicted component of mortality losses also exhibits high variation, ranging from -0.42 to 0.44 with a standard deviation of 0.12. This dispersion indicates considerable basis risk in IBLI in spite of the product's very strong out-of-sample performance (Chantarat et al.  2009a), and the potential for significant, predictable variation in performance across households.We then estimate parametrically the best fit joint distributions, by location, of the estimated household-specific characteristics  using the @Risk program, which allows us to specify a correlation matrix that captures pairwise relationships between these variables, and the upper and lower limits of the distributions.The best-fit distributions were then chosen based on the χ 2 goodness of fit criterion. The estimation results are reported in Appendix 2.Using these estimated distributions, we then simulate herd dynamics of 500 representative households in each location as follows. For each location, we randomly draw 500 combinations of household-specific  from the joint distributions -each of which represents a simulated representative household. For each simulated household, we then randomly draw 54 seasons of idiosyncratic components of mortality loss, ilt e , from the location-specific distribution. 16 We also randomly draw 54 seasons of location-average unpredicted mortality losses, lt  , from the values estimated according to (16). We are now ready to analyze the effectiveness of IBLI by simply comparing herd dynamics with and without IBLI. We construct 54 pseudo sets of 54 consecutive seasons from the existing vegetation data letting each observation serve as an initial period once in a revolving 54-season sequence with the working assumption that these 54 seasons repeat themselves in sequence. 17 This allows us to evaluate performance of IBLI taking into account different possible initial realizations of stochastic range conditions.We consider five IBLI contracts with five strike levels of five percent increments from 10-30%. Households are assumed to insure their entire herd. For each contract, we simulate the resulting insured herd dynamics based on (7) using the distribution of location-specific seasonal predicted mortality index ) ( ˆlt ndvi M and the location-specific premium rate shown in Table 2.As we compute the value of insurance based on the expected utility approach, the certainty equivalent herd growth depends on household discount rates and risk preferences. For simplicity, we assume no discounting, 1   . We calibrate householdspecific CRRA parameters based on a simple experimental lottery game run among the households in June-July 2008. Our risk elicitation game follows the simple method used in Binswanger (1980, 1981); Eckel and Grossman (2002); Barr (2003) and Dave et al.   (2007). Households were first given 100 Ksh for participating. Then we introduced five lotteries, which vary by risk and expected return. Respondents were invited to use their 100 Ksh to play one of the five lotteries for a real prize, if they wished. If they decided to pay 100 Ksh to play, they were then asked to choose their most preferred lottery to play.A fair coin was then tossed to determine their prize. Six categories of risk aversion associated with six (geometric mean) coefficients of relative risk aversion,{0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.7, 1}, were derived based on households' choices (Chantarat et al. 2009c).Appendix 4 summarizes the results of this risk preference elicitation experiment. For each location, we then randomly assign each simulated household with one of the six CRRA parameters based on the observed wealth strata specific distributions of CRRA. Varying patterns of IBLI performance emerge for pastoralists with herd sizes around the critical herd threshold, i.e., for those whose herd dynamics are very sensitive to shocks. Panel (b) represents a pastoralist with an initial herd size of 15 TLU immediately at or slightly below the critical threshold. This pastoralist was hit by large covariate shocks that so disrupted his asset accumulation that he ended on a decumulating growth path without insurance. But with IBLI imperfectly compensating for the losses, decumulation was averted, and the result was a stabilized growth trajectory.Because IBLI changes his herd dynamics by insuring against catastrophic collapse, the certainty equivalent herd growth associated with IBLI should be relatively high due to the added effect of the bifurcated herd dynamics in the system.Panel (c) presents the opposite case, in which a pastoralist with the same initial herd size of 15 TLU could slowly climb onto the herd growth trajectory during good vegetative seasons if he did not pay an IBLI premium. If his luck holds, he could escape the poverty trap without IBLI; the premium payments in this case actually retard 18 Our model assumes away possible indirect benefits of IBLI, such as its potential to crowd in finance for ancillary investment and growth. If IBLI crowds in credit access, it may alter the growth trajectory and the critical herd size threshold, opening up the possibility that IBLI benefits the least well-off pastoralists as well. Our data do not permit credible parameterization of such shifts, so we abstract from them in this analysis.progress. The difference between panels (b) and (c) purely reflect the ex post effects due to random draws of seasonal condition and reflect the great value of insurance when it proves to have been needed, and also the adverse effects on those who enjoyed a streak of good luck.Panel (d) presents the case of a pastoralist with 20 TLU, who would be vulnerable to shocks that could knock him onto the decumulation trajectory in the absence of effective insurance. Indeed, we see that for vulnerable households just above the critical herd size threshold, well-designed IBLI can effectively move them away from the poverty trap, substantially lessening the probability of herd size collapse. This is the population that benefits most, in expectation, from IBLI.Panel (e) depicts the common pattern of IBLI performance for pastoralists with large initial herd sizes -e.g., 30 TLU -who face little immediate danger of falling into destitution. IBLI contracts provide typical insurance, reducing the probability of herd losses, while seasonal premium payments also reduce the chance of reaching extremely large herd sizes. This simply reflects the second-order stochastic dominance of the insured herd sizes relative to the uninsured.The ex ante wealth impacts on IBLI performance shown in Figure 6, however, holds constant other household-and location-specific characteristics that determine a household's basis risk exposure associated with IBLI. 19 Holding other things equal, pastoralists with low (high) beta will tend to over (under) insure their herd losses with IBLI, and so they end up paying higher (lower) prices for IBLI that offer unnecessary (insufficient) compensation for their losses, on average. IBLI performance should vary based on the location-specific distributions of uncovered asset risk and the distributions of covariate shocks. On average, IBLI performance will be higher among households with lower dispersion of uncovered risk, i.e., less basis risk. In addition, IBLI performance is also expected to be higher among households in the locations with a higher probability of insurable covariate losses, i.e., greater risk exposure covered by insurance.We now consider the performance of actuarially fair IBLI contracts conditional on contract specifications and household characteristics. Table 3 reports the change in certainty equivalent herd growth rate (also referred to as the positive risk premium growth rate) associated with IBLI for 15 stylized households (with individual mean mortality fixed at the location-averaged mean predicted mortality index) in each of the four locations. 20 Various interesting results emerge.First, we observe that IBLI performance varies with beginning herd sizes, confirming the patterns shown in Figure 6. IBLI gains are negligible for pastoralists with the lowest herd sizes (5 TLU) and highest for those with the herd sizes around the critical herd threshold (e.g., 15-20 TLU). IBLI does not seem well suited for the poorest herders, whose low endowments leave them trapped by the underlying dynamics of the system, not by uninsured risk exposure. By contrast, those with marginally viable herd sizes are especially susceptible to shocks thus insurance is potentially of considerable benefit to them.Second, IBLI performance tends to improve as beta increases, holding other things equal. This implies that over-insuring tends to have far larger adverse impact on herd dynamics than does underinsuring. Indeed, IBLI typically benefits most those with beta=1.5 rather than those whose herd sizes tend to move one-for-one with local averages. Households with greater-than-average risk exposure (e.g., beta>1) find IBLI especially valuable, despite only-partial coverage from IBLI.Finally, these simulations suggest that the IBLI contract with a 10% strike level outperforms other contracts, on average, even though the 10% strike contract is more costly than the others. The greater protection apparently is worth it given the risk of falling beneath the critical herd size threshold. This effect is most pronounced for those with initial herd sizes just above the threshold (at 20 TLU), whose vulnerability to shocks is best addressed with a low strike insurance contract.Having observed how variations in household-specific characteristics could affect individual-level IBLI performance, we now explore how the observed location-specific distributions of those characteristics affect IBLI performance at a more aggregate scale.Table 4 first reports the overall performance of actuarially fair IBLI contracts among 2000 simulated pastoralists across the four locations.The 10% strike contract appears to have the highest performance holding other things equal. On average, actuarially fair IBLI contracts with a 10% strike level result in a 17% increase in the long-term mean herd size, and a reduction in downside risk of 12%. 21 On average, certainty equivalent herd growth increases only modestly with increasing risk aversion.In general, effective demand for IBLI (e.g., positive risk premium herd growth rate) exists in all locations for IBLI contracts with less than a 30% strike, with the highest demand for the 10% strike contract. But not everyone benefits. Figure 7 presents the cumulative distributions of the improvement in certainty equivalent growth rates with respect to three different IBLI contracts in these four locations. At least half the households benefit from an IBLI contract with a 10% strike (slightly lower proportions for other strike levels) with the positive risk premium growth rates associated with the contract ranging up to almost 100%. The distribution of valuations for the 10% contract clearly dominates that of the other contracts in these locations.The preceding analysis offers a glimpse into prospective demand patterns for IBLI. So far, we have explored the performance of IBLI contracts sold at actuarially fair premium rates. But an insurer needs to add a commercial loading. This will change the impact of IBLI on herd dynamics by changing the premium paid for insurance. We can use this same simulation model to estimate demand for IBLI by searching for the a lt  that drives the risk premium growth rate to zero. In this section, we explore demand for the 10% strike IBLI contract previously shown to have the greatest expected benefit for most pastoralists in the region.21 These two measures are used widely in the mean-variance evaluation approach of agricultural insurance. Downside risk reduction is measured by semi-variance reduction of the insured herd dynamics with IBLI relative to the uninsured herd. Specifically, semi-variance of the insured herd dynamics over a set of consecutive seasons T t,..., , denoted by  , relative to some threshold, for example, household's long-term mean herd size il H , can be well written as 2 ) 0 , ( ) (We first estimate the maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for IBLI of each simulated pastoralist by searching for the maximum premium loading ) (a according to(2) that still yields a non-negative risk premium growth rate. The expected maximum willingness to pay conditional on household initial herd size is then estimated nonparametrically across 2000 simulated pastoralists. The average herd-conditional WTP is shown in Figure 8, plotted against the observed herd size distribution.WTP for IBLI above the actuarially fair rate is only attained at herd sizes of at least 15 TLU, just around the threshold at which herd dynamics bifurcate. Since most households' herds fall below the threshold level, this implies limited potential demand for even actuarially fairly priced IBLI. Expected WTP increases at an increasing rate for those with herd sizes between 15-20 TLU and then continues to increase significantly toward its peak at an average 18% loading at the herd sizes around 40 TLU -just below the high-level herd size equilibrium -after which there is no statistically significant change in WTP as herd size increases. The clear implication is that WTP may not be high enough for a commercially viable IBLI absent subsidies.Based on these estimated distributions of households' WTP for IBLI in each location, we now study potential aggregate demand. Specifically, we construct a districtlevel aggregate demand curve for Marsabit District as follows. Assuming that the 2000 simulated households in the four study locations are randomly drawn from the total population of 27,780 households in 28 locations in Marsabit District, 22 we treat each simulated household as representing approximately 14 households in the District population. We then order the WTP across the population and plot the premium loadings (a) against the cumulative herd sizes of the population whose WTP would support commercial demand at that loading level.Figure 9 displays the estimated aggregate demand curve for IBLI in Marsabit District and disaggregates it for each of three herd size groups: (i) the low herd group (with < 10 TLU) representing the 26% of the population that currently finds itself on a herd decumulation trajectory into a stockless poverty trap, (ii) vulnerable pastoralists (with 10-30 TLU) representing the 47% of the population who risk collapsing into the poverty trap with the next uninsured shock to their herd size, and (iii) the better off pastoralists (with > 30 TLU) who represent the 27% of population that control most of the District's livestock herd and who, in the absence of an unusually severe shock or series of such shocks, should be securely on a growth path.Aggregate demand for IBLI seems very price elastic with reduction in quantity demanded by 55% as the fair premium rate is loaded by 20%, and a further 26% reduction with an additional 20% premium loading. If the commercially viable IBLI contract rate is set at a 20% loading, these highly elastic aggregate demand patterns show potential aggregate demand of approximately 210,000 TLU in Marsabit District alone.These patterns highlight several points. First, large herd owners will be the key drivers of a commercially sustainable IBLI product. Second, the apparent price elasticity of demand in these locations implies that a small premium reduction (e.g., through subsidization) can potentially induce large increases in quantity demanded. For example, as Figure 9 shows, a decrease in premium loading from 40% to 20% could potentially induce more than a doubling of aggregate demand. Third, while IBLI appears most valuable for the most vulnerable pastoralists (those with herd sizes around 10-30 TLU) as it could protect their herd dynamics from catastrophic shock, most of their WTP lies well below the commercially loaded IBLI premium (i.e., at least a 20% loading). This, as we showed in Figure 6 panel (c), is due to the possibility that high premium payments will impede herd accumulation across the herd growth threshold.Premium subsidization may therefore be important if it is socially desirable to stimulate IBLI uptake among vulnerable populations. Might IBLI subsidies provide a cost-effective and productive safety net in broader social protection programs sponsored by governments or donors? That is the final question we explore using these simulation models.In order to investigate whether IBLI subsidies might effectively provide a productive safety net for pastoralists in northern Kenya, we first explore herd and poverty dynamic outcomes (using an asset poverty line of 10 TLU) of these 2000 simulated pastoralists under four different scenarios: (i) without insurance, (ii) with commercially loaded IBLI (assuming a 20% premium), (iii) with an optimally targeted premium subsidization scheme that maximizes asset poverty reduction outcomes, and (iv) with comparable, needs-based subsidization targeted to the poorest households with less than 20 TLU.The targeted premium subsidization scheme is optimized by searching for the combination of subsidized premium rates targeted to different herd groups -(a) the poorest (<10 TLU), (b) the non-poor likely to fall into poverty in the longer run (10-20 TLU), (c) the vulnerable non-poor (20-30 TLU), (d) the secure pastoralists (30-50 TLU)and (e) the large-scale pastoralists with >50 TLU -that yields the lowest poverty outcomes. The results (details available by request) imply that the optimal premium subsidization scheme would provide IBLI free to group (b) and at the actuarially fair premium rate for the vulnerable non-poor groups (c) and (d), with no subsidization to groups (a) and (e). We compare this with two needs-based schemes: subsidized to the fair rate %) 0 (  a and free provision targeted to the less well off pastoralists with herd sizes less than 20 TLU.In each of these scenarios, the simulated household herd at the end of each season reflects the household's optimal insurance choice -i.e., insure if (induced) WTP exceeds the (subsidized) premium rate, do not insure otherwise. Therefore, the herd outcomes for the case of strictly commercial IBLI, for example, largely represent the outcomes of the insured herds of the well off pastoralists who demand WTP even at commercial rates and the uninsured herds of the rest of the population. By contrast, under the optimal subsidy scheme, mean herd sizes increase more than 80%, relative to the no insurance case, over the course of a quarter century.Likewise, the asset poverty headcount decreases slightly over time and stabilizes at a level about 10% lower than without insurance. Subsidized IBLI protects many targeted pastoralists herds against collapse beneath the critical growth threshold.The most distributionally progressive, strictly need-based schemes achieve less than half of these optimal outcomes. While they follow similar (herd size increasing and poverty decreasing) patterns, we still observe increasing poverty headcounts even with free IBLI for the poorest. This simply reflects the fact that IBLI provides little benefit for pastoralists with low herd sizes or with high basis risk exposure. Perhaps counterintuitively, allocating scarce resources to subsidize the vulnerable non-poor may do more to keep long-term poverty headcount rates down than allocating the same resources to the poorest.In this simple simulation, the average cost of the optimal targeted subsidization scheme, which reaches 20%-50% of the population over 54 historical seasons, is roughly $50 per beneficiary per six-month season. 23 This implies a $20 per capita cost per one percent reduction in the poverty headcount rate, in contrast to $38 for the needs-basedscheme. An effective safety net can be both cheaper and more effective in stemming long-run poverty than traditional transfer programs (Barrett et al. 2008).Covariate livestock mortality is a key source of vulnerability among east African pastoralists and often drives households into extreme persistent poverty. In the presence of poverty traps resulting from well-documented nonlinear herd growth dynamics in the region, effective risk management becomes potentially important as a means of reducing long-term poverty rates. This paper offers novel dynamic estimates of the welfare effects of a new index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) product developed to address precisely this problem; IBLI is scheduled for pilot sales in early 2010 in northern Kenya.Our analysis adds to the current literature because of our focus on asset riskrather than income risk -and the existence of bifurcated asset dynamics in the northern Kenyan pastoral system. These two characteristics require important innovations in ex ante impact assessment of insurance. We develop a dynamic simulation model and a modified expected utility-based evaluation criterion in order to take into account the potential dynamic impact of IBLI. We use household-level parameter estimates including household-specific risk preferences elicited from field experiments as well as basis risk parameters estimated from panel data from the region to explore a) key patterns of variation in IBLI performance, b) patterns of willingness to pay, and c) the aggregate demand for IBLI.We find that household initial herd size -i.e., ex ante wealth -is the key determinant of IBLI performance, more so than household risk preferences or basis risk exposure. IBLI works least well for the poorest, whose meager endowments effectively condemn them to herd collapse given prevailing herd dynamics. By contrast, IBLI is most valuable for the vulnerable non-poor, for whom insurance can stem collapses onto a trajectory of herd decumulation following predictable shocks.We find that a 10% strike contract consistently outperforms higher strike level contracts. District-level aggregate demand appears highly price elastic with potentially limited demand for contracts with commercially viable premium loadings. Because willingness to pay is especially price sensitive among the most vulnerable pastoralists (i.e. those not currently caught in a poverty trap, but on the verge of falling into one) for whom the product is potentially most beneficial, subsidization of asset insurance as a safety net intervention may prove worthwhile. Simple simulations find that relatively inexpensive, partial subsidization targeted to households with herd sizes in specific ranges can significantly increase average wealth and decrease poverty, at a rate of just $20 per capita per one percent reduction in the poverty headcount rate. Note: % Migration represents the percentage of the household herd that moves at least once over the year. 1 TLU is worth approximately 12,000 KSh, equivalent to roughly US$160 based on October 2009 exchange rates (75.05Ksh/US$). Income is calculated from the sum of market value of milk and meat production, crop production, livestock trading, business, salary earnings, casual labor wage and other petty trading.        1982-2008   Simulated (1982-2008)   Observed in PARIMA (2000-2002)  Simulated (1982-2008)   Estimated (2000-2002, 2007-2008)   Observed (2000-2002, 2007-2008)   Appendix 3: Summary of Baseline Simulation Results","tokenCount":"7767"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"036867ace8af51c8dd98722d2175ff09","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/836a39f8-f03c-41dd-be40-8d317e30e542/retrieve","id":"-960142278"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"662b1e4a-9257-4b40-ae96-b24f921a1a59","pagecount":"46","content":"We also wish to acknowledge with appreciation the information received from stakeholders, breeding programmes, CGIAR centres, research projects and the various research institutes who contributed. The authors take responsibility for any omissions or errors.ii ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in RwandaThis study is part of the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) programme's action learning theme on matching global commitments with national realities. The theme used case studies to reflect upon climate resilience and access and benefit-sharing (ABS) mechanisms, specifically with respect to the national policy and legal environment for ABS, and the practical issues involved in the access to and exchange of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) through the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) or the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from the Utilization of Genetic Resources of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol/CBD). The objective of the study was to analyse how climate change has affected agricultural productivity in Rwanda, and the strategies that have been put in place to facilitate access to PGRFA required for climate change adaptation. PGRFA exchanges between different stakeholders in and out of the country were studied using secondary data from various institutions, such as the Rwanda National Genebank (RNGB), CGIAR centres, ITPGRFA Secretariat, breeding programmes, regional research projects, breeders' networks and farming communities. A key informant survey, consisting of 52 respondents from various research and breeding programmes, was also used to augment the data obtained from secondary sources. In addition, climate and crop suitability modelling was used to identify collections of PGRFA that could potentially be suitable for climate challenges at present and in the future.Findings show that CGIAR centres continue to play a critical role in the exchange of genetic resources for crop improvement and technology transfer in Rwanda. Apart from crop improvement, breeders' networks and regional projects have also enhanced knowledge and information dissemination among breeders and other stakeholders. Although most of the materials exchanged for crop improvement are from ex situ collections, famers have contributed, through informal seed systems, to the maintenance of in situ genetic resources by identification, conservation and sometimes even the restoration of varieties with useful traits for climate change adaptation. The RNGB's main function is the conservation of genetic resources; however, the genebank needs to be strengthened to perform other critical functions, such as characterization of PGRFA and information management. The Rwandan government is in the process of implementing the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol in a mutually supportive manner by involving a task force that consists of the focal person for the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol, and the relevant stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI). Table 1. Effects of climate change on major crops in the 2050s (1 -1.5 ºC increase) ..................................... Table 2. Inflows of PGRFA into Rwanda from CGIAR centres (2007 -2014)            The whole world is experiencing climate change with greater weather extremes, changes in rainfall distribution, and increasing droughts and floods. These phenomena have a negative impact on the environment and on people's lives and livelihoods (GEF, 2010), especially in Africa. In Rwanda, historical famines that occurred in 1916Rwanda, historical famines that occurred in , 1999Rwanda, historical famines that occurred in , 2000Rwanda, historical famines that occurred in , 2005Rwanda, historical famines that occurred in and 2006 affected agricultural productivity and food security (Government of Rwanda/European Commission, 2006;Downing, 2009). Before the genocide against the Tutsi of 1994, Rwanda had a reliable network of more than 150 weather observation stations, including five synoptic (main) stations, and six agro-meteorological stations, with the remaining stations dedicated to capturing rainfall and temperature variables only. The only reliable weather station left is located at Kigali International Airport. An analysis of historical temperatures at Kigali indicates that minimum temperatures have been rising faster than maximum temperatures, but with a general overall rise in temperature, particularly since 1992. All of the climate model scenarios show future increases in mean annual temperature. Climate change models predict increases in temperature of between 1.5 to 3 degrees Celsius (ºC) by the 2050s (Downing, 2009). The data, based on downscaled data for Kigali's airport weather station, reports an increase in average maximum monthly temperatures of around 1.5 to 2.7 ºC (for a business-as-usual, no mitigation scenario) by the 2050s (2046 -2065), with the greatest increase in temperature occurring in the period July to September. The trends in monthly average minimum temperatures project a rise of 1.7 to 2.8ºC for the same period, with the greatest temperature increase occurring in the period June to August (REMA, 2011).Changes in precipitation are less certain. Although the intensity, frequency and spatial distribution of precipitation are unknown, all the climate model scenarios show that average rainfall regimes will change, ranging from positive to negative anomalies across the models (REMA, 2011). Most of the projections suggest that average annual rainfall will increase, particularly in some seasons, indicating a potential flood risk. However, some models show reductions in rainfall in certain months. A shift in the timing of seasons is being reported in certain regions and this is already having a significant impact on agriculture (Downing 2009).Agriculture is the backbone and main driver of economic development in Rwanda, contributing to more than 36.7% of GDP, employing more than 80% of its population (MINAGRI, 2010;REMA, 2011) and supplying 90% of the nation's food and nutritional needs (Byamukama et al., 2011). Rwanda's agriculture sector is the sector that is most vulnerable to climatic change. The impacts of climate change are mostly due to erratic rainfall and increasing episodes of extreme drought and flood. Consequently, agricultural production in Rwanda is characterized by low productivity; increased incidences of pests and disease, loss of crop genetic diversity and ultimately food insecurity and poverty. Ensuring the sector's resilience against existing and future climatic change is a national concern for long-term development. Strategies for adaptation to climate change have included the use of genetic resources and seeds that possess useful traits, such as drought and flood resistance. These useful traits can be obtained from collections of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) in different genebanks (national or international) or through breeding and crop improvement. All these options require access and benefit-sharing (ABS) mechanisms through which materials can be exchanged.The pilot project of Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa (ISSD Africa) aims to work on complex challenges that are of strategic importance to support the development of a marketoriented, pluralistic, vibrant and dynamic seed sector in Africa. This study looks at how climate change affects agriculture and ultimately the PGRFA needs of Rwanda. It also analyses the trends in access to and exchange of PGRFA for climate change adaptation, the stakeholders involved, and the policy issues for ABS in Rwanda.Secondary data obtained from the Rwanda National Genebank (RNGB), the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the database of Genesys, 1 were analysed to show trends in flows of PGRFA in and out of the country, and within the country. Regarding primary data on germplasm exchange, a survey instrument (Appendix 1) was sent to key informants from agricultural and agriculture-related institutions in Rwanda, namely the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB); the University of Rwanda (UR); the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI); the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA); farmers' cooperatives, including Imboneramuhinzi Cooperative, Imbaraga Cooperative, Ubumwe Cooperative and Amakiriro Cooperative; Voice of Community Organization (VCO); the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB); and the National Industrial Research and Development Agency (NIRDA). It aimed to collect information from stakeholders in various institutions that are related to the conservation, use and management of PGRFA, and institutions that deal with climate change mitigation, adaptation and policy. The questionnaire sought to understand the impacts of climate change on agriculture, crop diversity and breeding with respect to climate change and the varieties released and currently in use. Stakeholders were asked to provide information regarding exchanges of PGRFA, terms and conditions of exchange, and best practices or lessons learned from such exchanges within and out of the country. The survey yielded 52 respondents.The study also draws upon an analysis of two communities in Rwanda that were selected to demonstrate how climate change drives interdependence, and to identify present and future PGRFA needs for the communities. Two reference sites were chosen, namely Bugesera and Rubaya in Gicumbi district; both communities produce beans as a major food crop but with different agroecologies. The research strategy involved a step-by-step methodology linking various participatory approaches, in combination with GIS and crop suitability modelling, to select suitable varieties of beans for climate change adaptation. The identification of potentially suitable accessions was carried out by matching similar climates using bioclimatic variables relevant for bean growth i.e. temperature and precipitation. A total of 19 bioclimatic variables were extracted using the BIOCLIM algorithm at a resolution of 2.5 arc minutes 2 with the programme DIVA-GIS. Most of these variables were associated with the different precipitation and temperature regimes characteristic of the diverse habitats of beans. Locality (GIS) data from accession specimens were used to extract the variables using ArcGIS 10. The accessions were then clustered according to three variables that are relevant for bean growth (average annual temperature, annual precipitation, and agro-ecological zone); we calculated the average annual temperature and annual precipitation variables using the formulas ((tmin1+tmax1)/2+(tmin2+tmax2)/2+(tmin n +tmax n )/2)/12, and (prec1+prec2+prec n ) respectively.Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in RwandaThe first set of 20 varieties of beans were identified at the RNGB; they comprised a mix of varieties collected from various places in Rwanda, plus five improved varieties. These varieties were tested by farmers in Bugesera and Rubaya. A second tranche of 20 potentially adapted varieties that were originally collected in Ethiopia, Congo, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda were identified in the Genesys database. Those materials were listed as being held in the genebank of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, and thus available under the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) pursuant to CIAT's Article 15 agreement with the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA. The samples were requested from CIAT but only eleven out of the 20 requests were sent from CIAT because the rest were no longer available in their collection.An analysis of the policy and regulatory environment for ABS and climate change was conducted in order to provide insights into the facilitative or inhibitive aspects of ABS regulations on access to and exchange of genetic materials required for climate change adaptation.There were 52 respondents to the survey: 84.6% were male and 15.4% were female, distributed across seven districts; 25% of respondents were members of cooperatives in Gicumbi district. RAB was the institution that was most represented, with 38.5% of respondents; it has a mission of developing agriculture and animal husbandry through reforms, and using modern methods in crop and animal production, research, agricultural extension, education and training of farmers in new technologies. Considering climate change challenges, the RAB's mission is to increase the productivity of crops, livestock, and natural resources by applying scientific knowledge in the generation and dissemination of appropriate technologies to sustainably enhance the quantity, quality and profitability of agricultural products for improved livelihoods.According to a report by REMA , past climate trends indicate that the mean annual temperature gradually increased from 1971 to 2007, from an average of 19.8 ºC in 1971 to 20.7 ºC in 2007, showing an increase of 0.9 ºC in 27 years (REMA, 2010). The report further notes that the number of warm days (with temperatures exceeding 30 ºC) increased, from five days in the 1970s to 26 days in the 2010s, while the number of rainy days decreased from 150 in the 1970s to 125 in 2010s. Recently, these changes have been coupled with the shifting and shortening of growing seasons, rainfall variability and increased incidences of droughts and floods (REMA, 2010). The details in REMA's report were further corroborated in interviews with key stakeholders who felt that there have been recent and significant changes in the following climate-related aspects: (i) irregularity of rainfall, encompassing changes in quantity of rain water or variability in rainfall (46%); (ii) drought length and unexpected drought (41.7%); (iii) disasters (29.3%); (iv) changes/increase in temperature (12.2%); (v) outbreaks of pests and increase in incidence of disease (10.4%); and (vi) unpredictable agricultural season (10%).Temperature and precipitation changes, and other related climate variability, have led to a shortening of the growing seasons and a shifting of planting dates, with heavy and erratic rainfall causing floods, soil erosion, landslides, and river flow changes. As a result, there has been a reduction ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda in agricultural yields or in the areas suitable for agricultural production, and a proliferation of pests and diseases, impacting on food security and livelihoods (Gishinge, 2014). Finally, climate change has also resulted in a loss of genetic resources.Findings from the current studies by Ngoga, Mutabazi and Thomas (2013) have confirmed that climate change impacts on livelihoods and nutrition; soil and water; cropping season; plant genetic resources; animal genetic resources; and agricultural production. The three main impacts of climate change on livelihoods in Rwanda are hunger/migration, chronic poverty and malnutrition. Land dryness is considered to be the main impact of climate change on soil. In case of long periods of drought, farmers sustain their crops by referring mainly to wetland cultivation and irrigation techniques, and constructing water tanks. In relation to cropping season, climate change has mainly resulted in a shift in the planting dates and a shorter growing season.Climate projections show increases in temperature and precipitation. Median projections of temperature indicate a rise of around 1 ºC by the 2020s, 1.5 -2 ºC by the 2050s and 2 -3 ºC by the 2050s. Median projections for precipitation show an increase of up to 7% by the 2080s (Conway, 2002). Changes in precipitation are less predictable than temperature. Although the intensity, frequency and spatial distribution of precipitation are unknown, all the climate model scenarios show that average rainfall regimes will increase, indicating a risk of flooding (Msaki, Tambi and Bangali, 2015). The projected changes will result in greater prevalence of disease and risks related to extreme weather events, such as drought and floods. The Rwandan economy relies on rain-fed agriculture. Climate change and its variability affect the agricultural sector, which is itself vulnerable. Loss in crop and livestock productivity; loss of agro-biodiversity; pest and disease incidence; land degradation; and loss of soil fertility due to soil erosion, increasing soil carbon decomposition and diminution of water resources, are alarming drivers of food insecurity, poverty and household vulnerability.Recent studies show that bananas, beans, maize, cassava, rice, and horticultural crops are the main crops and improved varieties being cultivated in Rwanda to ensure food security, as well as to improve farmers' capacity to cope with climate change impacts (Ngoga, Mutabazi and Thomas, 2013;Gishinge, 2014).Important impacts on the sector, as emphasized by the survey respondents, are as follow: (i) food and nutrition insecurity (50%), i.e. cited by more than 50% of respondents); (ii) poverty (45.8%); (iii) decreased agricultural production (40.5%); (iv) new outbreaks of pests and diseases (more than 24%); (v) insufficient quantity of seed (18.9%); increase in flooding events (15.7%); decrease in water for irrigation (12.5%); shifting seasons i.e early starting dry season (10.8%); scarcity of livestock fodder (6%); and lack of information and insurance for farmers (5.9%).On the issue of climate change impacting on plant genetic resources, Ngoga, Mutabazi and Thomas (2013) point out that sorghum, millet, groundnut and pigeon pea are being abandoned due to climate change mainly because they are longer maturing and do not perform well under current climate conditions where seasons have become shorter.The main reasons such crops are being neglected are (i) low productivity of the crop or variety, which is the central cause; (ii) late maturity of the crop or variety; (iii) scarcity of arable land; (iv) low pest resistance of the crop or variety; and (vi) an agricultural intensification policy that tends to promote ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda other crops such as maize and beans, which are considered as key food security crops. All these contribute to the neglect and underutilization of these crops, therefore contributing to the reduction and loss of species' diversity in general and agro-biodiversity in particular.Source: Gishinge ( 2014)The above-mentioned study by Gishinge demonstrates that agricultural production has been mainly impacted by climate change, lack of soil fertility and land shortage, lack of fertilizers and lack of improved seed. Major causes of low crop production are drought, followed by scarcity of arable land, insufficient agricultural inputs and flooding (Gishinge, 2014). Changing climatic conditions have resulted in a significant decrease in agricultural productivity. Consequently, food insecurity and malnutrition are on the rise throughout the country, especially in the southern part of the country, which has been experiencing long dry spells and prolonged drought.The effects of future climate change on some of the crops that are significant for food and livelihood security are summarized in Table 1. According to findings from several studies (Schlenker and Lobell, 2010;Adhikari Nejadhashemi and Woznicki, 2015), climate change in Africa will lead to a reduction in yields of cereal crops such as maize, rice, sorghum and wheat, mainly due to a projected increase in Frequency ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda temperature (1 -2 ºC) and variable precipitation, coupled with flood risk, water and temperature stress, and the shortening of growing seasons. In Rwanda, all the different IPPC emissions scenarios projected 3 indicate a reduction in yields for maize, beans and coffee. Coffee would be more affected by these changes, specifically because of its sensitivity to temperature increases. Although a decrease in the yield of sorghum and millets is projected, the area suitable for sorghum and millet production would increase, suggesting that these two crops will in future be important for resilience and adaptation. Disease prevalence would also increase in all the crops resulting in lower productivity. Reduction in suitable areas 10% 3 The IPPC emissions scenarios -B1, A1B and B2 -are scenarios that characterize alternative developments of energy technologies: A1FI(fossil fuel intensive), A1B (balanced), and A1T (predominantly non-fossil fuel). The B1 storyline and scenario family describes a convergent world with the same global population that peaks in mid-century and declines thereafter, as in the A1 storyline, but with rapid changes in economic structures toward a service and information economy, with reductions in material intensity, and the introduction of clean and resource-efficient technologies. The B2 storyline and scenario family describes a world in which the emphasis is on local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Source: Schlenker and Lobell (2010); Adhikari, Nejadhashemi and Woznicki (2015)The aforementioned survey demonstrated that the Rwandan government is pursuing several strategies for climate change adaptation, such as breeding drought-tolerant varieties of maize, integrated pest and disease management, and irrigation schemes for vegetable and fruit production in particular (Figures 2 and 3 below).  Cultivation of drought-resistant crops or varieties. In relation to cassava and sorghum cultivation, cassava is more developed while sorghum is neglected. New cassava varieties are currently being cultivated and are also pest resistant, in comparison to the local varieties that have been almost abandoned. Furthermore, cassava is well processed and is an important staple food in the diet of people. Processing of agricultural products. Processing crops contributes to the added value of the crop products and generates more income. Cassava processing, for example, has been developed for many reasons, including (i) it is the most drought-resistant crop; (ii) it grows in many agro-ecological zones; and (iii) its market is guaranteed and the demand for processed products is very high. Cassava flour, known locally as 'Ubugali', has been well incorporated into the diet of local people everywhere in the country. Cultivation of early-maturing crops or varieties. Early-maturing varieties of crops such as beans and maize can be used to combat climate challenges, but such crops are often drought intolerant and in times of severe drought this may result in crop failure and loss of productivity. Storage of crop yields. This strategy (i) provides food for households during prolonged periods of drought; (ii) provides seed for the next cultivation season; and (iii) generates income in periods when crop yields are in high demand. Development of irrigation systems for rice production. Data from the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR, 2012) for the Bugesera district indicate that irrigated land represents 3% of the total cultivated area, and that over the last five years rice production has risen from 4 to 7.5 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) (Bugesera district, 2013). Early planting. This strategy is interesting when rain falls at the expected time, otherwise early planting is unsuccessful. Its efficiency can be improved if reliable data on weather forecasts are available for the short-, medium-and long-term.Indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) is community-based knowledge that people have been using for years, and which is for the most part not documented or protected. The origin of ITK should be recognized as lying foremost with the ITK holders and their communities, and should be the basis of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and access and benefit-sharing (ABS) management frameworks. It is, therefore, necessary to identify, document and protect ITK from indiscriminate exploitation, in order to ensure effective access and profitable commercialization for the benefit of communities. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 75,000 plant species are used for traditional medicine. In Rwanda, ITK from local communities consists of strategies that farmers use for mixed cropping, dry planting, erosion-control mechanisms, seed selection and the saving of seed from previous seasons. Farmers are aware of the impact of climate change on their environment and have mechanisms to cope with this impact (Ngoga, Mutabazi and Thomas, 2013). They implement strategies based on ITK to prevent and control plant diseases and pests using organic methods, including the use of manure; the use of crop-specific planting techniques, such as planting mixed varieties of beans or maize in the same plot; the practice of cyclical planting and harvesting to prevent the spread of diseases; and the use of traditional and organic preservatives for post-harvest storage. Farmers also have indigenous knowledge that they use to predict weather and select suitable varieties for the coming season.Although farmers routinely use and apply ITK in many farming activities, national legislation is still not clear on ABS issues or farmers' rights. The law is vague in relation to who owns the genetic resources and the land; and with regard to which rules the pharmaceutical companies, botanical gardens or other institutions should comply with in order to access resources and traditional knowledge.The Rwanda National Genebank (RNGB) in Rubona has developed an operational plan that focuses not only on the conservation of forestry and agro-forestry species, but also on cultivated crop and pasture species, which are currently informally conserved (RAB, 2013). The list of accessions held in the RNGB that are adapted to different agro-ecological zones includes: 119 bean accessions (including ten improved varieties released in 2010)  30 maize accessions  45 soybean accessions  33 pea accessions for low altitude agro-ecological zones  Four groundnut accessions for low altitude agro-ecological zones  240 sorghum accessions for low altitude agro-ecological zones (comprising 19 landraces and five improved accessions) 121 cowpea accessions for low altitude agro-ecological zones (all landraces)  Three rice accessions for low altitude agro-ecological zones (all landraces)  Eleven finger millet accessions  Seven wheat accessions  Three sunflower accessions  Eight sweet potato varieties, all of which are improved.Rwanda, like every other country, is not self-sufficient in plant genetic resources, and depends on genetic diversity in crops from other countries. Plant breeders in Rwanda continue to rely on diverse plant genetic resources to facilitate the exchange of desirable traits for the improvement of crops. ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in RwandaThe following cases highlight the achievements of research and breeding efforts in Rwanda 4 . For wheat, 192 lines were evaluated at Kinigi station, and 26 lines were evaluated at Rwerere station. Based on yield data, eight lines were selected in the first season of 2013 and advanced to the second season of 2013 for further testing. In the sorghum programme, F1 seed was generated from an early-maturing farmerpreferred sorghum variety and a late-maturing farmer-preferred variety. In the sweet potato research activities, eight varieties with a yield average of 22.5 t/ha were released; four clones, namely RW11-2560, RW11-2910, Gihingumukungu, and Ukerewe are orange or yellow-fleshed storage roots, while the remaining four clones -RW11-17, RW11-1860, RW11-2419 and RW11-4923 -are white-or cream-fleshed varieties. New varieties of soybean, namely SB24, Sc. Saga, Sc. Squire and Sc. Sequel, with potential yield between 2.7 and 3.5 t/ha have also been released.In Source: ITPGRFA Secretariat (2015)3.7 Crop improvements in Rwanda resulting from access to and exchange of PGRFAThe wild ancestor of the common bean was a climbing type of bean. The twining (climbing) ability, seeding, branching, rooting and tolerance to diseases and pests were features for survival in the thick tropical forests of Latin America, where the common bean was domesticated more than 10,000 years ago. It was very prolific (high seed production). The climbing beans grown in Rwanda have retained similar adaptive attributes of their progenitor. Beans came to Africa about 400 years ago, but they were not completely alien to Rwanda as demonstrated by the pockets of wild and semi-wild climbing beans that still exist in the northern highlands today.Beans are the main staple food of the population of Rwanda, and provide a major source of protein and calories. The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is an important subsistence crop for smallholders; it is a major source of protein and provides other nutrients such as iron and zinc. In Rwanda, around 29 kg of beans are consumed per person, per year -the highest consumption in the world. Rwanda is a relative newcomer to the bean export market; the country traded up to 6,500 tonnes of dry beans per year between 2005 and 2010.The RAB and the Rwanda Agricultural Research Institute (ISAR) have released more than 30 climbing bean varieties in the last five decades. Fifteen were released more recently in 2010 and 2012. Besides higher yields (3.5 -5.0 tonnes per hectare), the varieties had better resistance and tolerance to prevailing diseases and climatic stresses such as drought. Others, especially the navy-white, yellow, red kidney and red mottled seed types fetched premiums in local and regional markets, selling for as much as twice to four times more than ordinary prices.More recently, eight of the released varieties were found to have higher contents of micronutrients, particularly iron and/or zinc. These varieties were intensively promoted for better nutrition and for the alleviation of anaemia and other micro-nutrient nutritional deficiencies, especially among children and women. The varieties released are adapted to the major agro-ecologies in the country.Better still, many of the Rwandan varieties have been adopted in many countries across Africa, where they had been introduced. With climbing beans, farmers are climbing out of poverty, and at the same time combating food and nutritional insecurity. The adoption of climbing beans is currently estimated at 65% in the country. It is close to 100% in many districts of the northern highlands. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 hectares in Rwanda are covered with climbing bean varieties (Table 3). ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda Key: *B -second growing season (September to December); **A -First growing season (February -April) Source: RAB Annual Report ( 2013)The exchanges that resulted in the varieties listed above were facilitated mainly by CIAT, through the use of SMTAs, either as material under development or landraces from their collections. The Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) gave essential support by providing a platform to facilitate exchanges of these materials between member countries. PABRA is a breeders' network that works in conjunction with CIAT; breeders have exchanged varieties and improved lines of beans between 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa through the network. Rwanda is part of this network. Over 550 new varieties of beans have been released through this network in the 13 member countries.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food for approximately 500 -800 million people living in developing countries (Bull et al., 2011), and worldwide it is second only to maize (Zea mays L.) in the production of starch (Howeler, Lutaladio and Thomas, 2013). In the developing world, cassava is amongst the top four most important crops in terms of production. The potential yield of cassava is estimated at 90 tonnes of fresh roots per hectare under well-managed conditions (El-Sharkawy, 2004). Cassava plays a key role in food security and income generation for many smallholder farmers in developing countries (Ceballos et al., 2004;El-Sharkawy, 2004;Tumuhimbise, 2013). In East Africa, cassava is eaten after boiling, or processed into flour to make porridge, local brew, and bread; sweet varieties lacking cyanogenic glycosides can be eaten raw (Kamau, 2006;Mkumbira et al., 2003). ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in RwandaIn Rwanda, cassava is an important staple food and is currently being promoted as a cash crop through the establishment of cassava processing plants. In addition to its tuberous root, its leaves are treated as a vegetable known as 'Isombe'. Cassava is consumed in various forms (as a paste, bread or flour, boiled for breakfast, mixed with beans, vegetables, etc); methods of cooking and preparation vary from one individual to another. It occupies the third place after banana and sweet potato for reducing hunger and poverty in the country (FAOSTAT, 2011). Although cassava is a major food crop, its production is threatened by the lack of good cultivars (early bulking, high yielding, and disease resistant); low soil fertility; poor agronomic practices, and postharvest losses.Farmers and breeders prefer cassava varieties based on traits such as cookability; delayed postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD); dry matter content; early bulking; good colour of flesh (preferably white); pleasant odour; satisfactory flour produced (good quality, taste, colour); high yield; long storage in the field; the degree of acceptability at market); multiple cuttings produced; multiple uses; resistance to pest and diseases; sweetness; viscosity, and Vitamin A content.In the RAB, the development of new cassava varieties has been carried out to select clones that are resistant/tolerant to pests and diseases, and which are high-yielding and acceptable in taste and palatability to end users. An on-farm evaluation was carried out on four cassava clones (NASE3 0P/4, NASE3 0P/3, PDB/11, and PDB/13) during season A of 2012 in 17 sites countrywide. After an evaluation at harvesting time, three clones -NASE4 0P/4, PDB/11 and PDB/13 -were given preference by farmers.Maize was introduced in Rwanda in 1960 and has become a major crop for food security and income generation for small-scale farmers in Rwanda; it ranks first among pulse and grain crops in annual production. Maize cropping systems have experienced unprecedented development and radical changes over the past five years. Maize productivity increased from 1.2 tonnes per hectare (t/ha) in 2008 to 2.6 t/ha in 2012 as a result of the crop intensification programme, whose breeding objectives changed from the development of adapted open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) to hybrid varieties that are high yielding and stress tolerant. However, this level of productivity is still low and more crop improvement initiatives are being undertaken to achieve the potential for maize productivity in the country. The main varieties of maize planted in Rwanda include the following: M081, RHM102, M104, M102, Z607, KH500-46A, KH500-31A and RHM103. In 2013, twelve inbred lines, developed from ZM607 and Pool 32, were completed and are being used to generate hybrid varieties. In addition, twelve inbred lines were advanced from S5 to S6.Rice is a cereal crop that was introduced in Rwanda in the 1950s; its production has become a significant component of the agricultural sector in the country. Rice is grown in developed flood valleys or in marshland areas. Major varieties of rice available in Rwanda include the following: Basmati 370, Kigoli 370, Nerica 9, and WAT 9. These are improved varieties with pedigrees from India (Basmati) Rwanda (Kigoli 370) and the Africa Rice Center (Nerica 9).Sorghum is a resilient crop, particularly in relation to changing climatic conditions and pests and diseases. The sorghum breeding programme conducts variety maintenance and develops new varieties. In total, 234 sorghum varieties are being maintained. Breeders' seed, pre-basic seed and basic seed of the following released varieties of sorghum were produced at Rubona, Karama, Mututu and Nyamagabe stations: Kigufi, Ikinyaruka, IS21219, IS8193, IS20983, IS25377, N9, BM1, BM33, BM 27, Kat 369, Mabereyingoma and Muhimpundu. In total, 120 kg of breeder seed, 570 kg of pre-basic seed and 5,180 kg of basic seed were produced and distributed in 2012/13. These new varieties are currently being used by farmers for both beer and food production.Rwanda is the third largest consumer of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) in Africa per capita; nine out of ten farming households in Rwanda cultivate sweet potato. Sweet potato is becoming an important crop for food security, forming a major part of the diet of both rural and urban communities in Rwanda.The varieties of sweet potato grown in Rwanda include white sweet potatoes and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. In February 2013, the National Plant Variety Release Committee of Rwanda approved the release of the following six dual-purpose cultivars of sweet potato: RW1117, RW111860, RW112419, RW112560, RW112910, and RW114923 (RAB, 2013). In addition, orangefleshed sweet potato (OFSP) vines from the International Potato Center have been distributed to farmers for trials through the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) project, which has been implemented by CIP in Rwanda. The project has reached 50,000 direct beneficiaries.Wheat (Triticum sativum L.) is an important cereal crop for small-scale farmers at highland altitudes (1,900 -2,500 metres above sea level) in Rwanda. The average national wheat yield increased from 900 kg/ha in 2007 to 2,100 kg/ha in 2012, while the potential mean wheat yields for Rwanda under low-, medium-and high-intensity production conditions should be 3,681 kg/ha, 3,986 kg/ha and 4,151 kg/ha respectively. One of the major factors constraining wheat productivity in Rwanda is the lack of high-yielding, pest-and disease-tolerant varieties. Selection for improved yield performance was carried out on three sets of wheat accessions from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).Different germplasm evaluation trials were carried out at high elevation as an activity of the Africawide Rice Breeding Task Force, in collaboration with Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice). A total of 134 varieties from CIMMYT were evaluated in Cyabayaga, Nyagatare district, with 28 varieties being promoted to the next stages. One hundred varieties with tolerance to iron toxicity have been introduced in Rusuli and Rugeramigozi, in order to select parents to be used in breeding activities. In Rusuli and Rwamagana, 35 cold-tolerant varieties were advanced from multi-location environmental trials to participatory advanced trials (PAT), where farmers were invited to participate in selecting the best lines.  , 2014). Furthermore, it recommends that access to genebanks be improved to support the development of varieties with appropriate adaptive characteristics, and that ITK be used to identify adaptive strategies that contribute to food security for farming communities. Ensuring farmers have access to plant genetic resources and varieties of crops that are suitable, and which can withstand climate-related challenges through various channels -i.e. breeding and research, or the identification of potentially adaptable material from communities or from national, regional or international genebanks -depends on having the necessary access and benefit-sharing regulations and policies in place. This study uses two reference sites to demonstrate the changing climates and changing needs for genetic resources in these communities.The insights presented below correspond to climate analyses and participatory research conducted with farmers from the two study sites in Rwanda (Bugesera and Rubaya). To start with, reference sites and crops of interest were identified based on the relative importance of these crops for the communities' economies and for food security. For the selected sites already mentioned above, the common bean was selected as the reference crop based on farmers' preferences as well as the relative importance of beans as a source of protein and as an important contribution to smallholders' livelihoods. A participatory action research and learning approach was used to facilitate discussions with farmers from the two selected communities about changes observed in climate and weather patterns; their coping mechanisms; preferred varieties in terms of yield, drought tolerance, and resistance to pests and diseases; and desirable traits for climate change adaptation.An analysis of climate change scenarios resulted in the identification of present and future climaterelated stresses in the selected reference sites. Thereafter, a combination of GIS and climate modelling, based on selected bioclimatic variables of minimum, maximum and average temperatures, as well as average precipitation for bean growth and development, was used to identify accessions suitable for the four sites under two scenarios: present and future projected (2050s) climate and weather patterns (Appendix 5). Three possible sources of these accessions were identified as i) material in farmers' fields found and conserved in situ through farmer-managed systems; ii) national genebank collections from the RNGB; and iii) materials held by different genebanks around the world including CGIAR genebanks, available through the database of Genesys.The first tranche of 20 accessions of beans was identified from farmers' fields and the RNGB, and a further 20 were identified from regional collections held by CIAT. These accessions were multiplied and distributed to farmers for testing.Following climate analysis, past climate trends indicate that in both the two sites minimum temperatures increased slightly between 2008 and 2015; precipitation also increased, albeit with a lot of variability. This is in line with the perceptions of farmers who have reported increased dry spells with erratic rainfall of increasing amounts and shifting planting/growing seasons in the two sites (Figures 4 and 5). ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda erratic rainfall in the reference sites. Based on the predicted increase in temperatures and precipitation, bean crop yields will be lower, while the excessive humidity resulting from an increase in precipitation will lead to a greater prevalence of fungal and bacterial diseases and pests. Source: WorldclimAn assessment of bean genetic materials potentially adapted to present climatic conditions of Rubaya revealed the existence of 28 accessions available in the RNGB. When the climatic conditions projected for the 2050s were considered, the number of potentially adaptable bean accessions from the RNGB decreased from 28 to 16. Twenty-eight accessions were identified in the regional collections held by CIAT as being potentially adaptable to the present climatic conditions of Rubaya, while 16 accessions, located in six countries (Ethiopia, Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) were identified as being potentially adaptable to the future projected climate of the 2050s. Currently, Rubaya's highland-type climate is suitable for climbing bean varieties, but as temperatures increase in the 2050s Rubaya will be more suitable for bush varieties of beans. For the Bugesera site, 29 out of 101 accessions held by the RNGB are suitable for present climatic conditions; while the number of genebank accessions potentially adaptable to the projected climatic conditions of the 2050s decreases to 21 (Figure 10). Looking at regional collections held by CIAT, 15 out of 65 accessions are suitable for present climatic conditions in Bugesera, while ten accessions are suitable for the projected climatic conditions of the 2050s (Figure 11). Therefore, there are fewer bean accessions in national and CIAT collections for the 2050's climate than there are for today's climate (see Figures 10 and 11). ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda  Rwanda's policy of land consolidation and its programme of crop intensification have led to an evolution of the Rwandan agricultural sector. Under the programme, the government procures improved seed and fertilizers, which it distributes to farmers in selected zones chosen for their food crop production potential, focusing on a few priority crops. The programme has had a negative impact on the activities of the RNGB because local varieties of crops cannot be grown freely by farmers. This has led to a loss of genetic diversity and limited access to diverse seed.In 2010, Rwanda became a contracting party of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). In March 2012, Rwanda ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from the Utilization of Genetic Resources of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol/CBD). These two ratifications then led to the development of an enabling regulatory framework for access and benefit sharing in the country. A ministerial order governing access to PGRFA and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization in Rwanda has been prepared, but there is a gap regarding the appropriate ABS mechanism for non-Annex 1 PGRFA. In a step towards implementing the Nagoya Protocol in Rwanda, a Nagoya Protocol Steering Committee was recently formed, and a task force on the mutual implementation of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol has been established. The process has also involved the identification of relevant stakeholders for the implementation of ABS.In addition to the aforementioned activities, recent capacity-building initiatives targeted breeders and other researchers on the use of SMTAs for the transfer of materials, and on modalities for carrying-out collections from farmers' fields using prior informed consent (PIC). Awareness-raising activities, focused on the ITPGRFA and other ABS issues related to the Nagoya Protocol, have also been carried out. In 2013 and 2014, other capacity-building initiatives targeted breeders and researchers to use GIS and crops suitability modelling to identify PGRFA that are suitable for climate change adaptation.Community-based initiatives have played a critical role in the access to and exchange of PGRFA. Although some are informal, or focus on the distribution of relief seed, several initiatives have not only helped to improve access to seed in times of disaster but they have also helped to restore lost seed varieties, and in some cases introduce new varieties of seed to farmers; these initiatives are further discussed below.A coalition of agricultural research centres, Seeds of Hope (SOH), was involved in the rebuilding of Rwanda after the genocide of 1994. The involvement of research in emergency relief and rehabilitation was unusual at the time and SOH had to forge its unique complementary role.Louise Sperling (2007) found that stressed communities usually need help in restoring the farmers' ability to buy and use locally available seed, more than they need seed imports. Improving the effectiveness of seed-related responses to disaster, seed systems are seen as central to smallholder ISSD Africa Climate-resilient seed systems & access and benefit-sharing in Rwanda agriculture, and seed aid as key to supporting it. Through extensive collaborative efforts, Sperling notes that changes are the result of several mutually reinforcing synergies: research to polish technical and social insights; non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with wide experience on the ground to shape practice; and the United Nations' normative clout for promoting better practice. She describes the programme as having helped define the role of research organizations in restoring germplasm, seed systems and research capacity to countries that have suffered cataclysms. In terms of farmers' involvement, she realized that \"women bean farmers know a great deal about managing beans and targeting bean mixtures according to diverse growing conditions, whether poor soils, richer soils or sowing under stands of banana\" (Sperling, 2007). She noted that with about 1,500 phenotypes found throughout the country, a Rwandan woman may test perhaps 100 bean varieties during her life. Both the Rwanda research system and the CIAT team were highly geared towards impact. The programme focused on strengthening seed systems that are under stress, and on addressing the more urgent needs of drought-tolerant varieties.\"Likewise, the diversity of local varieties is often maintained during disasters, while new varieties may be lost, especially if supplies have not been sufficiently integrated into the routine functioning of local seed channels. The programme showed, in short, that seed-related problems in crises are not so much the lack of seed -be it grain, cuttings, tubers or other planting materials -but more the lack of access to that seed because farmers cannot afford it as a result of the crisis or the breakdown of social networks\" (Sperling, 2007).In conclusion, Sperling states that \"seed-aid providers need to appreciate that relief seed is not effectively used when it is treated as a logistic exercise, narrowly focusing on transporting seed as an input. Instead, seed security must be assessed, farmers' needs understood and strategies developed to strengthen seed systems\" (Sperling, 2007).Over the past decade, the CGIAR's post-crisis rebuilding approach has grown beyond technology transfer to emphasize strategic research that helps partners to:  diagnose and solve food security problems  rebuild human and institutional capacities for agricultural research; and  make relief aid more effective and efficient.Agriculture in Rwanda has been rendered vulnerable due to climate change. Climate change is leading to biodiversity losses, increased incidences of pests and diseases, and ultimately low productivity and food insecurity. Subsequently, Rwanda has introduced several measures to integrate climate change in its agricultural policy and planning; these have included the restoration of lost PGRFA, breeding and crop improvement, conservation in situ and ex situ, irrigation, and sustainable use of natural resources such as forests and wetlands. Although these adaptation measures have been initiated to cope with climate extremes, more work needs to be done to ensure present and future food security and livelihoods are improved.The use of PGRFA has been identified as one of the most useful adaptation strategies. The cultivation of selected crops and varieties with traits such as high productivity, drought resistance, early maturity, and disease and pest resistance, will require a system of facilitated access to PGRFA that are potentially adaptable, and investment in breeding and crop improvement. Past trends in PGRFA exchange in Rwanda show that the CGIAR centres are the most important partners in facilitating access to and distribution of PGRFA for various breeding programmes. The RAB's breeding programmes have also played a critical role in crop improvement and in the dissemination of improved varieties to farmers. The RNGB is at the forefront of restoring varieties that were lost during the genocide in 1994, but it still needs to be strengthened to increase the number of collections in the genebank, conduct a characterization of the collections, and improve on information systems, maintaining records on exchanges and movement of PGRFA so that genebank materials are more accessible to breeders.Although there are still no clear mechanisms in place for ABS, recent policy developments in Rwanda have seen an attempt by the main stakeholders to implement ABS according to the Nagoya Protocol and the ITPGRFA in a mutually supportive manner. The setting-up of committees to take care of ABS issues in both the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol is seen as a positive step towards ensuring that ABS mechanisms are in place. Capacity building and awareness raising among stakeholders, such as breeders and farmers, are also very important to ensure that ABS processes are inclusive, and that any mechanism that is put in place is consultative.Adger, W. N., Huq, S., Brown, K., Conway, D. and Hulme, M. (2003)   ","tokenCount":"7857"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb534c8010d934fccae7a8f79616d5a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/05f18a43-bbb9-4ce0-9030-aee9972d58f8/retrieve","id":"-526456741"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c832f66a-faa9-4327-8f59-09341e8832f0","pagecount":"2","content":"Strengthening the seed value chain is key to any sweetpotato intervention. Getting disease-free starter material is essential. Quality orange-fl eshed sweetpotato vines (8.6 million) have reached 16,700 households in one year, eight months.The overall goal of this project is to contribute to improved nutrition and food security in Where are we working?The project is being implemented in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) and the Tigray region in the north of Ethiopia. At present, the project covers a total of 75 kebeles (villages) in 20 woredas (districts) in the two regions.How are we making it happen?CIP, in collaboration with implementing partners, is employing a four-pronged approach to achieve the project goals: i. Technical and fi nancial support to the national research system (TARI & SARI), private sector and farmers the production of quality planting material for OFSP root production ii. In collaboration with NGOs (Mums for Mums, Egna Leegna, Goal, Farm Radio International and Women's Association of Tigray), we carry out intensive nutrition awareness and behavior change campaigns to promote consumption of So far, the regional research institutes (TARI and SARI) produced and acclimatized over 140,000 in vitro plantlets of two OFSP varieties. Approximately 600,000 basic, disease-free vine cuttings have been distributed to almost 140 private and decentralized vine multipliers for further multiplication in the two regions. The 140 OFSP vine multipliers have been linked to suppliers of quality basic primary seed materials. In addition, 38 net tunnels (16 onstation and 22 on-farm), which protect disease-free starter material from virus-transmitting insects, were constructed to enhance production of clean planting material. The project has so far distributed 8.6 million vines reaching 16,700 households. Twenty-four school gardens have been established in the two regions and received 670,000 OFSP cuttings for multiplication. In Tigray 18,450 school children consume OFSP as part of the school feeding program. With respect to promotional activities, at least 56,000 people were reached through diff erent nutrition and OFSP promotional activities (cooking demonstrations, school gardens/feeding, nutrition counselling at health posts). 3,200 change agents including extension offi cers, model farmers and other offi cials from the bureaus of health and agriculture were trained in various aspects on OFSP agronomy, post-harvest handling, processing, and marketing.The project has already started establishing collaboration with private tissue culture laboratories interested in engaging in producing OFSP pre-basic and basic planting material to supplement production from the national research institutes. These laboratories will be linked to primary and secondary vine multipliers. Additionally, the project will expand the on-station and on-farm net tunnel activities and pilot drip irrigation and on-farm conservation technologies to further strengthen seed system. Regarding promotion activities, the project will continue promotion activities, especially the very popular cooking demonstrations, will be expanded and consolidated in the newly established intervention districts. We will strengthen our promotion activities in urban areas, especially those targeting traders and processors.","tokenCount":"473"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4223afe8ea83f0c5f3567f799b66cac6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b904a343-c4ae-470d-b671-a818378831ea/retrieve","id":"-1905497277"},"keywords":["Pastoralist","livestock traders","livestock marketing association","local authority and district livestock marketing council Cost $125","000 More information"],"sieverID":"a68f6b7b-ca42-4e4e-955e-a2ad3508911a","pagecount":"100","content":"website www.iirr.org The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that aims to improve the quality of lives of the rural poor in developing countries through rural reconstruction: a sustainable, integrated, people-centred development strategy generated through practical field experiences. Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA),tant -though underestimated -part of the economy of many African countries. But they face huge challenges in trying to sell what they produce. They are scattered across vast expanses of dry rangeland, without the roads, basic infrastructure and services that farmers in more favoured areas take for granted. Many move from place in search of pasture and water, making it hard to provide them with the services they need. With few market opportunities, they have little incentive to improve their production. Periodic drought can force herders across an entire region into relying on outside assistance. How, then, to improve the markets for pastoralist products and help pastoralists overcome the cycle of poverty? This book offers some solutions. Drawing on 15 cases from nine countries: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda, it identifies four key features of pastoralism in Africa (mobility, extensive grazing, the use of common land, and local breeds). It presents the challenges and opportunities of marketing live animals, meat, milk and leather products. It discusses better ways to ensure that pastoralists have the inputs they need to produce efficiently: animal health, feeding, and breeds and breeding. It investigates the services that are required for the marketing chain to function: market information, financial services, transport, marketplaces, processing facilities, and quality control. It looks at three aspects of the skills and organization needed for pastoralist markets to function: capacity building, organization, and gender issues. Finally, it makes recommendations for government and donor policies, and discusses the best places for development efforts to intervene in order to improve marketing.Throughout, the book focuses not just on pastoralists but also on other actors in livestock value chains, including traders, processors such as abattoirs and dairies, and service providers such as financial institutions, advisory services, government and development organizations. • The pre-writeshop participants who attended a meeting in Nairobi on 1 August 2012 and helped develop the book structure and identify potential authors. • All the individuals (see next page) who contributed the cases, participated in the writeshop in Nairobi in December 2012, and drafted the other sections of the book. • The resource persons who provided technical inputs during the writeshop. Special thanks to Eric Mwaura, who carried out the background study that provided the context of the publication.• The team at IIRR's Africa regional office, especially Janet Nyaoro, who provided facilitation and managed all logistics, and Isaac Bekalo, who provided overall leadership and donor liaison. • The editorial team, led by Paul Mundy, who worked on individual manuscripts and brought the various pieces together to produce the publication. • The artists Bonaventure Nyotumba and Alfred Ombati, who drew the illustrations and designed the cover. • The non-government organizations, pastoralists and government officials who did not participate in the writeshop but whose cases are reflected in this book. • Andrew Shepherd of CTA, for many valuable comments and suggestions during the planning and editing. • Dominic Graham and Bree Oswill of Mercy Corps Ethiopia for additional information.The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), which provided the grant that enabled most of the writeshop activities to take place.The Catholic Organisation for Relief & Development Aid (Cordaid) The Ford FoundationThe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)2 Pastoralism in Africa P aStoraliSm iS an important part of the economy in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but exactly how important is hard to tell. Collecting data in pastoral areas is difficult, and much production, trade and consumption goes unrecorded. Families consume much of what their livestock produce themselves, or barter it for grain and other items, so it never enters the formal economy. Official statistics are likely to underestimate the true importance of pastoralists and their production system.Overall, pastoralists and agropastoralists occupy 43% of Africa's land, and account for over a quarter of the total population: some 50 million pastoralists and up to 200 million agropastoralists live in the continent's arid and semi-arid lands. In countries such as Somalia and Mauritania, they form a majority of the population. With 7 million pastoralists and agropastoralists, Sudan and Somalia have the largest numbers, followed by Ethiopia with 4 million.Pastoralists and agropastoralists own a third of Africa's cattle, half the sheep and goats, and almost all the camels. The largest numbers of animals are found in East Africa: Sudan leads with an estimated 18 million cattle, 18 million goats and 22 million sheep. In West Africa the most animals kept in pastoral or agropastoral systems are found in Niger (1 million cattle, 6 million goats, 4 million sheep) and Mauritania (1 million cattle, 4 million sheep and 6 million goats) (Rass 2006).In West Africa, the contribution of the livestock sector to agricultural GDP ranges from 5% in Côte d'Ivoire to 44% in Mali. It provides employment for about 50% of the economically active population in West Africa. Livestock helps integrate the Sahel region economically: cattle, sheep and goats are among the biggest exports from landlocked countries to the coast.In Central Africa, livestock contributes an estimated 27% of the GDP in Chad, 13% in Cameroon, and 9% in the Central African Republic. These three countries export livestock and livestock products to the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and São Tomé and Principe.In East Africa, Sudan and Somalia are major livestock exporters to the Gulf; Ethiopia has a substantial informal export trade through Somalia, and a growing formal export trade to the Gulf, Egypt, Sudan and elsewhere. Livestock export facilities along the northern Somali coast and in Djibouti continue to grow, often with private-sector investment. In East Africa, pastoralist areas are also used for wildlife conservation and tourism, especially in Kenya and Tanzania, although the extent to which tourism revenues benefit pastoralists is unclear. In Sudan, the pastoralist-dominated livestock sector contributes 80% of the agricultural GDP. In Ethiopia the livestock-dependent leather industry is the second-largest source of foreign currency after coffee. In Uganda, pastoralists and small-scale livestock producers are the fourth-largest contributors to foreign currency earnings.In Southern Africa, pastoralism accounts for about 60% of the national cattle herd in South Africa, and pastoralism is an important source of meat exports. In Namibia, the pastoralist-dominated livestock sector contributes 28% of the agricultural GDP, and 3% of total GDP. Namibian 7 Moving herds, moving markets 2 Pastoralism in Africa need. Nearly all important social events in pastoral areas involve livestock. Dowries, for example, are calculated in terms of the number of animals that must change hands.The overwhelming feature of Africa's drylands is obvious: most of the time, they are dry. What little rain falls is highly seasonal and unpredictable, and tends to fall in patchy but heavy showers. The vegetation is sparse, but after the rain, the brown soil erupts into a lush expanse of green. This unpredictability makes it impossible to grow crops consistently without irrigation.Pastoralism is ideally adapted to this environment. It is the only system that can consistently support people's livelihoods and produce valuable products in these harsh areas (Köhler-Rollefson 2012). It can do this because of four key features: mobility, extensive grazing, the use of common land, and the use of local breeds. These contrast with livestock-keeping by settled farmers, in which crossbred or high-yielding exotic breeds are kept in the same area on private land, and are fed with cultivated fodder and commercial feed. Pastoralists use few inputs (except labour); farmers use larger amounts. Agropastoralism falls somewhere between these two extremes (Figure 1).pastoralists hold 80% of the national cattle herd, and cattle contribute about one-third of the income of traditional households (African Union 2013).Governments do not have a uniform approach to defining pastoralists. For example, in Ethiopia the authorities put a \"pastoralist\" tag on geographical areas where these groups predominate (Brussels Development Briefings 2012). In Kenya, arid and semi-arid districts are clearly demarcated, but are not officially labelled \"pastoralist\". In Uganda, while the general public recognizes different pastoralist groups, the government regards only the Karamojong (and the Karamoja region) as pastoralist.Pastoralists have been defined as \"people making a living in drylands and obtaining a given percentage of their gross agricultural as opposed to total income from livestock\" (Rass 2006). Another definition groups them according to their mobility, ranging from entirely mobile \"exclusive pastoralists\" to semi-settled \"agropastoralists\":• Exclusive pastoralists are livestock producers who have no permanent settlements, grow no crops, and depend on the sales of animals and livestock products to buy grain. Some communities migrate over long distances, commonly along set routes where they may have standing agreements with farmers to make use of their crop residues. Other pastoralist groups may move their herds only short distances between wet-and dry-season pastures.• Transhumant pastoralists have a permanent homestead, grow some crops mostly for home use, and may move only parts of their herds in search of grazing. • Agropastoralists are semi-settled, hold land-rights, and grow their own staple crops and sometimes crops for sale.Pastoralists' herds can be quite large, because livestock are their main asset, and they need a minimum number of animals to survive drought cycles (Rass 2006). The herds of agropastoralists are often smaller.In reality, the systems often overlap. Settlement politics, economic development and changing environments further reduce the differences and are moving the balance more and more towards agropastoralism.This book uses a combined economic and cultural definition: pastoralists are those who earn a large part of their living from livestock and livestock products. We use the term \"pastoralists\" to cover all three types: exclusive, transhumant and agropastoralists.Because their animals are such a crucial part of their lives, the pastoralists' daily and seasonal activities are centred on the animals' needs. To make sure they have enough to eat and drink, they must be guided to the best pastures and waterholes. To prevent them from straying and to protect them from predators and thieves, they must be guarded day and night. Diseases must be controlled, breeding managed, and calves, lambs and kids cared for. The animals must be milked, and the milk turned into butter so it can be stored.Animals are also the basis for traditional social support systems in many pastoral communities. Pastoralists may loan animals to relatives, or employ herders to take care of a portion of the herd, so spreading their risk in case of drought, disease or theft. They may give animals to others to help them recover from a disaster, and expect others to reciprocate if they themselves are in Highperformance breedsMoving herds, moving markets 2 Pastoralism in Africa• Market movements Roads are scarce in pastoralist areas, and transport is scarcer. So herders or traders have to drive the animals they wish to sell to the market -often over huge distances. They follow traditional routes where grazing and water are to be had. Despite this, the animals often arrive thin and exhausted, and some may die along the route.Such movements are often well-established, with particular groups having set areas and migration patterns. In many societies, the elders (almost always men) decide on long-distance movements and coordinate with other groups in the area. The herding itself is typically done by younger men or hired hands.Settled livestock keepers have a range of options for feeding their animals. They may allow them to graze on natural vegetation, on sown pasture, or on stubble after the crop harvest. They may keep them confined with fences, by tethering them with ropes, or by having someone tend them to make sure they do not wander off. They may put the animals in a pen or stall, and feed them with cut forage, hay, silage, or commercial feed. The farmer has a lot of control over what and how much the animals eat. Water is generally plentiful, so animals rarely go thirsty.Pastoralists have far fewer alternatives, and far less control. Larger herds and bigger areas mean that fencing, tethering and stall-feeding are not options: someone has to herd the animals to prevent them from straying. The animals have to eat what they can find -and that may be very little. Water is scarce: the area that can be grazed depends on the location of scattered wells, ponds and waterholes. In the dry season and during droughts, many such water sources dry up, and animals have to trek long distances to drink.We discuss feeding in more detail in Chapter 4.Settled livestock keepers typically graze their animals or grow forage on land that they own or have exclusive use to. They may also send their animals out to graze on common land, such as communally owned pasture, hedgerows and roadsides. These areas are located close to the homestead; the farmer typically brings the animals back home each evening. Pastoralists, by contrast, are overwhelmingly dependent on common land. They graze their animals there for much or all the year, moving wherever there is grass and water, and sharing the resources with other herders. After the harvest, they may herd their animals onto farmland to graze on the crop residues. Farmers usually welcome this: they know that the animals suppress weeds and fertilize the fields with their dung. Many pastoralist groups have time-honoured un-Many farmers welcome pastoralists' animals onto their land to graze on crop residues. Some even sow forage crops for the animals to graze on.Below we contrast pastoralism with livestock-keeping by settled farmers. It should be remembered, however, that a wide range of gradations exist between these two extremes. And the two systems are not mutually exclusive: settled farmers may manage some of their animals in a pastoral system, and vice-versa.Settled livestock keepers can keep their animals in a single location -perhaps even confined to a pen or stall. They can do this because they have enough feed and water all year round. Pastoralists cannot do this: they have to move from place to place because grass and water are scarce in the drylands. By moving from place to place, they can seek out locations with the best pasture and adequate water.Moving around also helps pastoralists avoid certain pests and diseases. But it can also spread pathogens from one place to another, and livestock risk picking up pests and diseases from local herds or wildlife. Governments try to overcome such problems by imposing quarantines, banning the movement of animals from infected areas, and running vaccination campaigns. We discuss health issues further in Chapter 4.Mobility means flexibility. Many pastoralists divide their herds, keeping most milking animals close to the homestead and sending the non-milking animals further afield -along with a few lactating females to keep the herders supplied with milk. In wet years there is ample pasture and water, and herds can expand to exploit them, converting grass into meat and milk. When rainfall is patchy, the herds can move to where there is grazing to be had. In drought years, they can be split up and taken to different locations to reduce the pressure on limited water and pasture, and to increase the chances that at least some will survive.We can distinguish three types of movements.• Seasonal movements Pastoralists go where there is grass to graze on and water to drink. They follow the rain: in the wet season in East Africa, for example, they herd their animals into the lowlands that are otherwise dry, while in the dry season they retreat to the wetter, higher ground. In West Africa, pastoralists follow the rains: south (or to the Niger Valley and shores of Lake Chad) during the dry season, and north in the wet season (see Figure 5 in Chapter 3). They may alternate between two areas, spending part of the year in each one (this is called transhumance). Herders try to limit grazing in a particular area to give the vegetation a chance to regrow. They often reserve certain areas for use during emergencies: they will allow their animals to graze there only during a severe drought. Pastoralists may avoid areas that are infested with diseases or parasites, or use them only at certain times of the year when the threat has declined. In West Africa, for example, pastoralists migrate over long distances to avoid problems with tsetse flies. • Daily movements Animals are often kept in enclosures during the night to protect them from predators and thieves, and go out to graze during the day. Herders make the most of diverse grazing sites -hedgerows, field borders, fallow fields and crop residues, as well as places where rain has fallen and the grass has grown. They may herd several animal species together: camels, cattle, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys all have different fodder preferences. That makes maximum use of the available vegetation.Moving herds, moving markets 2 Pastoralism in AfricaFrom a marketing point of view, these four features (mobility, extensive grazing, the use of common land, and local breeds) are disadvantages. Animals that are constantly on the move have little opportunity to put on weight. And it is difficult to sell or buy a moving product: imagine trying to arrange to pick up milk from a dairy herd when you do not know where the animals will be from one day to the next. Extensive grazing on poor vegetation means that animals cannot produce the consistent quality and quantity of products that modern markets demand. A reliance on common land is increasingly challenging when the trend is towards the private ownership and exclusive use of land. Local breeds may be hardy and survive in tough conditions, but they produce little milk, and their meat is tough.To market pastoralist products effectively, it is necessary to find ways to balance these four key features with the needs of marketing. There are two main ways of doing this:• Adapting production to suit the needs of marketing For example, milk producers may split their herds: they keep their milking animals in a particular area to make it easy to sell the milk, while the other animals range widely in search of pasture. Other approaches include improving breeding stock and veterinary services, supplemental feeding, and the creation of feedlots to fatten underweight animals.derstandings with farmers to do this. Some farmers rent their land out to pastoralists; others own cattle that they put in the herders' care. While many groups share pastureland and water resources in an amicable way, disputes inevitably occur. Farmers object when the herders' cattle trample their fields, eat standing crops and muddy water supplies. Disputes arise along the routes that pastoralists use to herd their animals to and from dry-season pastures, and to market. Conflicts also occur between groups of pastoralists. Raiding other groups' livestock is a longstanding practice in many areas. In the days of bows and arrows, this led to few deaths, but nowadays many pastoralists have automatic weapons, and raids may lead to heavy loss of human life. They turn large tracts of land into effective \"no-go\" areas, where only one group, or none at all, can graze their animals. Government attempts to suppress the violence are sometimes heavy-handed. Cross-border raids can lead to international tensions. The climate of insecurity in pastoralist areas dampens trade and investment, hampers development efforts, and contributes to the overall poverty of such areas.Fencing (or \"land grabbing\") is another problem. Farmers have fenced off many of the better pasturelands and started to use them for growing crops. New fences keep animals away from water sources and block migration routes. Livestock corridors are becoming narrower and fewer. Pastoralists are being excluded from traditional grazing grounds and transit corridors by large-scale land acquisitions for commercial crop production and the gazetting of wildlife reserves or national parks. Such lands are often the pastoralists' traditional emergency dry-season grazing lands. As a result they are forced into ever more marginal areas. Some pastoralists respond by trying to get exclusive use of the land for themselves, or by parcelling out traditional grazing land to particular families or clans (Box 1).Settled livestock keepers have an option: they can keep local breeds that are adapted to the prevailing climate, feed and management conditions. Or they can choose crossbred or high-yielding \"exotic\" animals, such as the black-and-white Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle familiar in Europe and North America. Such exotics (and to a certain extent the crossbreeds too) have to be pampered: they have to get the right types and amount of feed, enough water, suitable housing, and modern veterinary care. Not for them a life of trailing through the bush in search of a few blades of dry grass. With the right inputs and conditions, they produce large amounts of meat and milk.Pastoralists need animals that can survive in much harsher conditions, with long treks over difficult terrain, sparse grass and thorny vegetation, little water and only traditional veterinary care. That means hardy local breeds that are adapted to such conditions. But these breeds have a downside: they grow slowly and produce less meat and milk than their high-yielding cousins. That does not matter in traditional production systems: pastoralists merely keep a few more animals to get the production they need. But is a problem when it comes to marketing: processors, retailers and consumers want a reliable supply of uniformly high-quality meat and milk. It is hard for local breeds kept under pastoralist conditions to supply this.Pastoralists also spread their risk by keeping large herds: a lot of animals can make the best use of abundant grazing during times of plenty. And in a drought, at least a few animals will survive and allow the herd to be rebuilt quickly when the rain begins to fall again. They also keep several types of animals -camels, cattle, sheep and goats -which can feed on different types of vegetation.We discuss breeds further in Chapter 4.Land: Communal or private?Harshin, a pastoralist district in eastern Ethiopia, is divided into 13 communities. The area has good grassland and forest areas where sheep, goats and camels are raised. In the early 2000s, some pastoralists started creating private enclosures on parts of the communal rangeland. This instigated a widespread grabbing of the rangeland.The community elders decided to divide the land peacefully among themselves rather than to fight over it. In the end, 12 of the 13 communities decided to convert their communal rangeland into privately owned parcels. Only one community, Abokor Ahmed, decided to retain its communal land. The elders there convinced their community that it was in their best interests to keep the land communal. Now pastoralists from the other communities come there during times of drought to use the communal rangeland. This has saved many animals from different areas in the last few years.Garba-Tula, part of Isiolo county in Kenya, is inhibited by Borana pastoralists. The area has good pasture, but water is scarce. When customary use of communal land weakened, the pastoralists started grazing anywhere, without considering the seasons. That caused degradation and made it hard for the pastoralists to survive even minor droughts.The elders decided something had to be done. With the help of educated people in the community, in 2005 they passed a bylaw, based on a traditional law, that divided the land into three areas: a grazing area that could be used only during the rainy season, another area to be grazed only during the dry season, and a reserve to be used only during times of drought. This allowed them to manage their rangeland better and helped save 96% of their livestock during the 2009/10 drought, which killed many animals in other areas.  • Adapting marketing to suit the needs of production Approaches include building marketplaces, abattoirs and dairies in pastoralist areas; reorganizing the management of marketplaces, organizing cooperatives to collect milk or market animals, organizing transport, and working with traders to improve their efficiency.This book draws largely on the 15 cases described in Chapter 8. Table 1 summarizes key aspects of the production systems represented by these cases.• Income Livestock account for at least 50% of the income in all cases, and up to 90% in some.• Products include live animals, milk, meat and leather products.• Herd size Some herds are small, with only a few animals -though this may be misleading: in the urban camels case in Ethiopia (Case 12), a family may have a large number of animals, but keep only one or two in town to produce milk for sale. In several of the cases, a household may own over 100 animals. Dairy producers tend to have smaller numbers of animals than those who produce live animals.• Breeds In all the cases, the pastoralists keep local breeds. In some, they also keep improved local breeds or crossbred animals. There are very few animals of exotic breeds. • Mobility The pastoralists typically herd their animals between 3 and 25 km each day, for example from the night enclosure to the grazing area or water source and back again. Some do not migrate at all: they keep their animals in the same general area all year round. Others migrate huge distances: 200 km in the case of Somali pastoralists in Ethiopia (Case 1), and 275 km for the Peulh in Niger (Case 15).Pastoralists spread their risk by keeping various species and breeds of animals.3 Markets for livestock and livestock productsLive animals are a vital source of income for pastoralists. Case T hiS chapter looks at the actual and potential markets for pastoralist products, and at the opportunities and constraints pastoralists face when serving these markets. It also looks at the strategies they might use to reach these markets.Pastoralists often view their animals as a source of wealth and status: the bigger the herd, the richer its owner. Animals have much the same status in pastoralist societies as big houses, fancy cars or paintings by famous artists in Western cultures. Pastoralists keep livestock not to makeBut pastoralists' attitudes towards selling animals are changing. As droughts have become more frequent, and as market opportunities appear, some pastoralists have started selling more livestock than before. Many now sell their animals whenever the need arises.Pastoralists produce a variety of livestock products: dairy products (milk, yoghurt, butter, etc.), live animals, meat products, hides, skins and wool. In the countries where they live, pastoralists supply 60% of the beef, 40% of the sheep and goat meat, and 70% of the milk. This book focuses solely on the marketing of live animals, meat, milk, skins and hides.Pastoralists also engage in other types of activities. They use their animals to transport goods, pull ploughs and carts, thresh grain, lift water, and power mills. In some areas, camels are a tourist attraction and are used for riding. Many men go to the cities in search of work: Maasai security guards, often dressed in their traditional red blankets, are a familiar sight in the city of Nairobi and at tourist destinations. Another important source of income is gums and resins extracted from trees that grow in the drylands; these products are widely used in printing inks, food and confectionery, and incense.When they sell their animals or products, pastoralists are at the start of a marketing chain (or \"value chain\", or \"supply chain\") that leads eventually to the consumer. There may be only a few actors in this chain, or there may be many (Figure 2).The pastoralist sells milk direct to a consumer (two actors)The pastoralist sells an animal to a butcher, who slaughters it and sells meat to consumers (three actors)The pastoralist sells milk to a primary collector, who sells it to a secondary collector, who sells to a market trader, who retails it to a consumer (five actors)The pastoralist sells an animal to a trader, who sells it to a larger trader, who sells it to an abattoir, which slaughters it and sells the carcass to an exporter, which ships it abroad and sells it to wholesale butcher, which sells cuts of meat to a supermarket, which retails them to consumers (eight actors) money, but to save money: their animals are a savings bank on four legs. Pastoralists are therefore reluctant to sell their animals even when the price is high, as that means converting a visible, productive asset under their direct control into something far less trusted: cash. They may decide to sell only when they see no alternative, when the animals are starving and the price has dropped to a fraction of its previous level.Nevertheless, pastoralists cannot meet their food and other requirements from livestock alone: some poorer pastoralists acquire up to 85% of their food needs. They sell animals to buy staples such as maize and sorghum, as well as household items.This means that the relative price of livestock and cereals is important, especially for poorer households. During a drought, feed and water are scarce, so animals get thin, fall ill and produce little milk. Their owners are forced to sell them in order to survive. More and more animals appear on the market, many of them emaciated, and the price falls. At the same time, the drought means that cereals are in short supply and demand for them rises, so they get more expensive.The reasons pastoralists sell the animals they do, when they do, can be hard for outsiders to understand. They do not necessarily fit well with the demands of modern trading systems. The timing of sales may be driven by particular cash needs rather than market demand, and be less predictable than required for the optimum operation of abattoirs. The animals that pastoralists wish to sell may not be of the breed, age, weight and sex favoured by abattoirs.Pastoralists' orientation towards the market varies considerably across Africa, with some groups in East Africa selling animals only rarely, while others sell animals to traders who export them to the Middle East. Cash is scarce in many areas, and much trading is done by barter. West African pastoralists have evolved sophisticated, long-distance trade networks that serve coastal cities, and use these to gather information about both market conditions and forage resources. Pastoralists in Botswana regularly supply animals to abattoirs for export.Milk is a regular source of income for many pastoralists, especially for women.Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock products leaders guide what is and is not permitted in a particular area. All of these things may facilitate (or hinder) trade and the operation of the chain. We refer to them as the chain context.Both competition and collaboration are important in marketing chains. A seller and a buyer compete with each other because they have conflicting interests: the buyer wants to get a high price, while the seller wants to pay as little as possible. They may haggle fiercely before they reach agreement -or they may not reach agreement at all. If they do so, they must collaborate in order to agree on a transaction, in which an animal or product changes hands in exchange for money. They have to agree on a price, the amount and quality of the product being traded, and the place and time of the trade. The buyer may offer the seller credit, or the seller may agree to a delayed payment.They have to agree on details such as who pays for transporting animals, who is responsible for feeding and watering them, and when the payment is made. Each partner in the transaction has to trust that the other will keep to the terms of the deal. The actors at each stage in the chain may also compete with each other. A pastoralist with a flock of goats to sell may accept a lower price than another herder who also needs to sell some animals. The price goes down. Two traders, on the other hand, may bid against each other, driving the price back up again. Adapted from KIT and IIRR (2010) The length and complexity of the chain depends in part on the type of market served (see Types of markets below). Chains with few actors tend to be local and involve small numbers of animals (or small volumes of products): the product does not move more than a few kilometres from the place of origin. They may be informal and rely on barter rather than cash exchange. Chains with more actors tend to cover longer distances, incorporate more processing or value addition, and involve larger volumes. They are more formal, and have more stringent requirements in terms of quality and hygiene.The actor at each stage in the chain adds value to the product. The most obvious source of value is the pastoralist who raises the animal or produces the milk. But a trader also adds value by selecting animals, bulking them (buying enough to fill a lorry) and transporting them to market. A butcher adds value by slaughtering the animal, cutting up the carcass into usable pieces, and disposing of the waste materials. A supermarket adds value by packaging the cuts, chilling them to preserve them, adding information on labels, and presenting them in a convenient place for consumers to buy.Each actor also takes on risk. The pastoralist's risk is obvious: the animal may die before it can be sold. The trader also takes on risk: the animals may be diseased, die on the way, or turn out to be below standard. A supermarket may be left with produce it cannot sell.Each actor also incurs costs. The pastoralist incurs the costs of raising the animal, feeding and watering it, and bringing it to a place where it can be sold. The trader incurs the costs of buying many animals and transporting them to a market. The supermarket incurs the costs of packaging, chilling, labelling and retailing. These costs include many components: equipment, fuel, wages, overhead, etc.A marketing chain can work only if each actor in the chain makes a profit. If one makes a loss (for example, if the trader is robbed on the way to market), the chain cannot function, and everyone loses. Producers cannot sell their products, traders and processors do not have anything to do, and consumers have to go without livestock products. The frequent complaint that \"traders exploit the pastoralists and make all the money\" ignores the value that they add, the risks they take, and the costs that they incur.A marketing chain cannot work in isolation. It depends on a number of other people and organizations that provide services to the actors: veterinarians who check the animals are healthy, feed suppliers, pharmacies, microfinance organizations, NGOs who provide training, transport firms, packaging suppliers, and so on. The government (both national and local) may also supply some of these services, as well as infrastructure such as roads, electricity and markets, and information about prices. These are known as chain supporters (Figure 3).The chain actors and supporters operate within a context that includes the larger economy, currency exchange rates, price fluctuations, and the weather. Government policies also set the framework within which the chain operates: they charge taxes and customs duties, grant licenses, set standards, enforce quarantines and bans, regulate animal movements, ensure the quality of drugs, operate veterinary services, maintain security and the legal system. Traditional rules and local Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock products aged farms and ranches, where animals are raised on feed concentrates. This form of industrialized livestock production often excludes and undermines pastoralists and small-scale producers. Africa currently contributes just 2% of global trade in livestock and livestock products. Nevertheless, this rise in demand is a huge opportunity for African suppliers, including pastoralists. In particular, the Middle East is a large and promising market for livestock and meat. Africa's growing cities with their supermarkets, restaurants, institutional buyers and rising middle classes are also large potential customers.People in pastoralist areas can also earn more by adding value to their products, for example by doing more of the processing locally. They can also compete in niche markets, such as for organic products, or by complying with animal-welfare and other ethical standards.Improvements in roads are opening up pastoralists' areas, and many pastoralists have been quick to take advantage of new technologies such as mobile phones, which enable people to share information and transfer money.Many barriers stand in the way of pastoralists, traders and processors taking advantage of these opportunities.Production constraints Pastoralists face many challenges in producing products that the market will accept. Periodic drought cuts production in bad years, and creates huge uncertainty even in good years: it forces herders to keep more animals than they might otherwise need. That reduces the number of animals that pastoralists are willing to sell. And if they do sell, they may wish to part with old, thin or infirm animals. They are unwilling to sell young animals, as these are the basis for the herd in the future. The market, on the other hand, prefers younger animals for their tender meat.Pastoralists' needs -to be mobile, graze their animals on available pastureland (especially on common land), and for hardy local breeds -make it hard for them to produce for the market (see Chapter 2). Diseases cut production and productivity, resulting in traders or abattoirs rejecting animals, and in movement restrictions and export bans. We cover these issues further in Chapter 4.Inadequate services It is difficult for the government and development organizations to provide services in sparsely populated areas, especially where much of the population is on the move. Services that urban residents take for granted are absent, hard to find or expensive. Take banking as an example: a typical bank runs branches in fixed locations, and it likes its customers to have a fixed address. Other examples include roads, electricity, clean water supplies, information and communications, financial services, retailers, security, education and health care for children and adults, as well as livestock-specific services such as input suppliers, veterinary care, marketplaces and processing facilities.Few private firms are willing to invest in areas where the risks are high and the potential for profit is low. The same problems also make it difficult for pastoralists to access the services they need: they cannot visit a bank if they are hundreds of kilometres away across a trackless expanse of bush.We discuss the difficulty of providing such services, and some ways of doing so, in Chapter 5.Pastoralists have a deep knowledge of their animals and their environment (if they did not, they would not be able to survive). But most have little formal education: many, especially the women, are illiterate. They have few business skills and lack an But competitors can also benefit from mutual collaboration. It is not worth taking few cupfuls of milk into town to sell. But by putting them together with her neighbours' milk, a dairy producer may be able to fill a couple of jerry cans and hire someone on a motorbike to transport them to market. Traders, too, may collaborate: they may fix prices, or agree not to compete with each other for suppliers or customers. Supermarket companies may agree on a set of standards to ensure quality. Such collaboration may be benefit producers: for example, the existence of standards may make it possible for them to supply new markets. Or it may act to the producers' disadvantage, for example where traders collaborate to drive down the prices they pay to producers.Competition and collaboration are also important for chain supporters who provide inputs and services such as drugs, feed, transport and advice. In theory (and given effective regulation to prevent fakes), competition keeps the prices of these low, and the quality high. In practice, however, there are too few providers for competition to be effective. The providers of inputs and services can charge high prices, and quality may be poor. That creates a vicious circle: it reduces demand, making it unattractive for other providers to enter the market. Collaboration is also important: advisory services, input suppliers and marketing agencies may collaborate to make sure their services are mutually compatible.All actors in the chain have a common interest in collaborating to make the chain as a whole work better. They all want the transactions in the chain to be smooth, and consumers to be satisfied. They may undertake joint activities, such as introducing innovations, exchanging information or lobbying for policy change.For the chain to work smoothly and to benefit all the actors in it, collaboration and competition must be in balance. Groups of pastoralists can agree to pool their milk or their stock for sale, making it easy and convenient for the trader to buy in bulk rather than having to source small amounts from many scattered producers. Many traders welcome such initiatives. Or the pastoralists may be able to cut out the trader altogether by taking the milk to town themselves and selling direct to a dairy. That should give them a better price -more than enough extra to cover the cost of transport -though they must also recognize that the time they spend is also a cost.Many efforts at developing the marketing of livestock products focus on making the marketing chain work more smoothly -and especially to benefit the producers by helping them sell more and capture a larger share of the value of their product. That may mean increasing competition (for example, by setting up business service centres), fostering collaboration (such as helping producers form a cooperative), or some combination of these.Livestock production is a fast-growing sector globally, due in part to changing diets as incomes rise and more people live in towns and cities. Most of the increase in demand is in developing countries, offering important marketing opportunities for pastoralists.The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that global meat and milk production must double by 2050 to cater to this demand (FAO 2009). The increasing global production in livestock products is dominated by a few countries, notably Brazil and China (for meat) and India (for milk). Much of the increase in global output has been from intensively man-Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock productsAnimals and meat Pastoralists may sell to local traders (who are often pastoralists themselves) who visit their homes or encampments, or bring their animals to the local market for sale. Farmers and hauliers may buy animals to pull a cart or plough, while smallholders may purchase a female for breeding or milk production. A local butcher may buy perhaps one animal a day, slaughter it and hang the carcass in his or her shop. Consumers come to buy meat cut directly from the carcass. A lack of electricity and big coolers makes it impossible to keep meat for long, so it has to be sold quickly before it spoils. This trade is informal, with each producer typically selling one or a few animals at a time. An exception is the annual Feast of the Sacrifice in Muslim areas, when large numbers of animals are herded into the towns for slaughter.The market may be a long way from the pastoralist's home area. The pastoralist may herd the animals all the way to where they can be sold, or may hire (or entrust them to) someone else, often a relative, to do this. Alternatively, a trader may buy the animals and drive them to the market.Milk Many pastoralists produce milk for their own use. They drink it fresh, or use it to make butter, ghee and other products (though not cheese, which is rare in most areas). They sell surplus milk either direct to consumers, or more usually to small-scale collectors, who go from house to house to collect small amounts of milk, which they then take to a shop or market for sale. Milk goes off quickly in the heat, so much is already sour by the time it is sold. The milk is not tested for quality before sale, and hygiene is often a problem.Local markets: easy, but low-value For pastoralists, local markets are the easiest, cheapest and least risky to supply. There are few quality controls: it is still possible to sell thin animals and sour milk. The costs of transport, equipment, documentation and tax are relatively low. Processing is rudimentary, and only traditional skills are needed: herding, butchering, butter-making, etc. The understanding of, or orientation to, the market. They also lack the technical skills needed, for example, to produce quality products that the market demands, or to add value to their products, for example by making cheese out of milk.Pastoralists often have strong allegiances to their clan or extended family, and interpersonal communication systems often work amazingly well. But such systems are poorly adapted to marketing needs, where deals must be made with strangers, and producers must band together in groups in order to achieve the scale needed to supply a customer.Women are at a particular disadvantage in many pastoralist societies: they may be prohibited from travelling far from home, and their husbands and brothers may make all the big decisions and control the family's income. We discuss these issues further in Chapter 6.Policies and intervention points Policies matter in pastoralist areas -perhaps more so than in most other types of agricultural production. While things are generally improving, all too often, policies hinder rather than facilitate production and marketing by pastoralists. Whether by design or accident, governments and other influential bodies make it hard for pastoralists to raise animals, produce milk, and find a market for them.This can change. Chapter 7 offers some suggestions for policy priorities and for the appropriate point of interventions to promote the marketing of pastoralist products.Pastoralists' markets for their animals and products are highly varied, so it is difficult to generalize. But they tend to fall into four broad types: local, national, cross-border and export, depending on whether they are formal or informal, and serve domestic or foreign consumers (Figure 4).Local markets tend to have the lowest costs and risks, and are the easiest for pastoralists to serve. They impose limited demands in terms of quality. But they also have the lowest prices and potential returns for the pastoralists.Export markets are at the opposite end of the spectrum: they involve greater risks and higher costs, and usually have stringent quality requirements. But the prices and potential profits are highest.National and cross-border markets are intermediate. Serving a national market may imply the need to comply with strict quality requirements, but the levels of cost and risk tend to be lower than for the export market. The cross-border trade may have quality requirements that are similar to the domestic market, but the costs and risks of moving animals long distances across international boundaries are higher.This trade is more formal, with animals passing through an abattoir, and milk being processed in a dairy. Animals and meat Animals or products destined for the national market may start off first in the local marketing system. Larger traders may buy animals at the local markets, or small-scale traders may act as their agents, collecting a group of animals and shipping them to an abattoir, or to feedlots where they can be fattened until they are ready for slaughter.But pastoralists may also supply animals directly to the abattoir. They may organize groups to do this: a single pastoralist may not have enough animals to make it worthwhile to hire a lorry, while a group can easily fill one (Box 2). That allows them to bypass the small-scale traders and negotiate higher prices.The abattoirs slaughter the animals, and produce carcasses, skins and hides and other products for sale. They may sell the carcasses to wholesalers or retail butchers for further processing: cutting them into joints, packaging, labelling, making mincemeat and sausages, etc. Some abattoirs perform these steps themselves. The meat may be sold to institutional buyers such as schools and restaurants, or to butchers' shops or (increasingly) supermarkets for sale to individual consumers.Milk Dairy producers cluster around cooling and processing plants because of the difficulty of keeping milk fresh. Milk collectors may deliver milk directly to the dairy or to designated collection points, where the dairy arranges for it to be picked up and transported to a cooling plant or straight to the processing plant.The milk is tested for fat content, non-fat solids (which shows whether the milk has been diluted), and acidity (which checks for bacteria). It is then pasteurized, cooled, packaged and distributed to wholesalers and retailers. It may also be converted into other products such as yoghurt, butter or cheese.National markets: higher value, but more requirements Pastoralists can earn more by selling to national markets. But to do so, they have to supply what the market demands: better-quality animals and products, in bulk, and on a regular basis. They may have to promise to supply a certain number of animals (or amount of milk), of a certain quality, at a particular time. Keeping such promises can be difficult for pastoralists who live in an uncertain environment and who move from place to place.Nevertheless, national markets are a promising outlet for pastoralists. Africa's burgeoning cities are a reliable market for meat, milk and other products. Many countries with pastoralist Supermarket chains have strict quality requirements.government imposes few restrictions or taxes. The producers often know their end-customers, so know their tastes and requirements.But local markets are low-value markets. Animals and livestock products fetch a low price, and traders, processors and transporters tend to make a bigger profit than the producers.Local markets are also low-volume. They cannot absorb large amounts of a product at any one time, as local demand is limited. Prices fluctuate wildly as a result. A pastoralist who turns up at a small market with a big herd of cattle will not be able to sell them all, and is likely to see the price go through the floor. This is particularly a problem during drought, when many pastoralists want to sell their animals at the same time.Local markets can, however, be an attractive outlet for pastoralists because they are less demanding than other markets. Improving facilities and services can make these markets more efficient and profitable for buyers and sellers alike.Examples in this book Six of the cases in this book address the local market:• Case 2 Co-management of livestock markets in Kenya • Case 6Inclusive management of cattle in Farakala, Mali • Case 7Governance and self-management of cattle markets in Benin • Case 11 Formalizing faraqa annani women's milk marketing groups in Ethiopia • Case 12 Urban camel-milk production in Ethiopia • Case 14 Boosting milk production by supporting the emergence of local dairies in Burkina Faso.When pastoralists get to the market, will there be anyone there to buy?Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock products populations do not produce enough animal products to satisfy their domestic demand, so import meat and powdered milk from abroad. There is a great deal of scope to develop marketing chains from pastoralist producers to the cities within each country. This may be less risky than trying to export to global markets, where competition is fierce and consumer standards can be fickle and costly to attain.Examples in this book Eight of the 15 cases in this book deal with national markets: a reflection of their importance to the future of livestock marketing in Africa:• Case 1Revitalizing agricultural/pastoral incomes and new markets project, Ethiopia National borders cut through many pastoralist areas. Most borders are invisible on the ground: the only way to tell you have crossed the border is to look at the flag flying in front of a school building, or to check the uniforms worn by the local police. There are few roads, and communications and administration are limited. Many border areas are poorly integrated with the rest of the country.Many pastoralist groups periodically herd their animals across a national border: their wetseason grazing may be on one side, and the dry-season pastures on the other. Such transhumance involves lots of animals: in West Africa (Figure 5), more than two million cattle are thought to be driven every year to Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Nigeria (SWAC-OECD/ECOWAS 2008). More than a million animals move from Mauritania to Mali and Senegal -between 5 and 10% of Mauritania's total herd (IRIN 2006). In the Horn of Africa, from October to December 2011 over 350,000 animals passed through monitored border points (FSNWG 2012). Over 80% of the animals were traded informally (FEWSNET 2010). Many of the animals are taken to the ports of Djibouti, Berbera and Boosaaso, from where they are exported to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states (Figure 6).Cross-border movements are rarely captured in official statistics. There are few monitored crossing-points, and herders may prefer to avoid them anyway to escape taxes, restrictions, delays and hassle.Many of the animals that cross a border go back again in the next seasonal migration. But many are sold. The pastoralists may have family, friends and business contacts on either side, so the opportunities for informal trade are great.Cross-border markets: high demand, but high risk The high demand for meat in receiving countries is what drives the cross-border trade. But this trade is riskier than selling them inside a country. Governments frequently view it as undesirable and illegal. They attempt to curb or control it: they try to collect taxes, enforce export bans and quarantine regulations, avert conflicts between different groups, and prevent incursions by groups from the other country (Box 3). Poor transport 29 Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock productsWhile cross-border trade is informal and deals mainly in live animals, export markets are more formal in nature and also handle meat, hides and leather goods. Where prices and conditions are right, Africa's pastoralists engage in a significant level of global trade. The major markets are South Africa (in southern Africa), the Middle East (for East Africa) and Europe. Meat To serve the meat export market, pastoralists deliver live animals to an abattoir, perhaps through a chain of intermediary traders. The abattoir slaughters the animals, processes the carcasses, and chills or freezes them before shipment. Export markets demand high-quality products, and processors and exporters must be certified and subjected to strict checks. The Kenya Meat Commission is an example (Box 5).The Middle East is the main market for live animals from Somalia and Ethiopia (see above under Cross-border markets). This trade has meant that over the last 30-40 years, Somali pastoralists have shifted from a subsistence livelihood in which they relied mainly on milk and meat as staple foods, along with a little grain, to a livestock export-oriented market economy with fairly sophisticated trade links.In southern Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe have preferential chilled-beef export quotas with Europe. While commercial operations dominate this trade, pastoralists with sufficiently large herds also take part. However, these countries have failed to meet their export quotas, and despite huge investments and subsidies in intensive livestock systems, they are seeing their competitiveness in global markets erode.With over 100 million animals, Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa. Most belong to pastoral communities, and some 95% of the livestock for official export and meat production come from pastoral areas. Because most live in remote regions bordering neighbouring countries, pastoralists rely on informal, cross-border trade.The government of Ethiopia recently decided to increase its earnings from livestock exports. To do this, it is trying to control the informal trade and bring it into formal channels. It has introduced new controls, such as increasing the number of customs points and patrols, and banning the trade of fodder from the highlands to pastoral areas where the cross-border trade takes place. These initiatives have adverse effects on the pastoralists and others who depend on the trade.Livestock exporters taking animals from Mali to Senegal frequently faced harassment and complained of having to pay illegal taxes at the many checkpoints on the road between Bamako and Dakar. The Fédération des groupements du bétail et de la viande du Mali (the Federation of Livestock and Meat Interprofessional Groups, FEBEVIM) and its partners (including SNV) investigated this issue, and prepared an information dossier for the Malian Prime Minister. The president of FEBEVIM met the Prime Minister to brief him about the situation.As a result, the Prime Minister brought up the subject in a meeting in May 2011 with his Senegalese counterpart and the ministers of agriculture and commerce of the two countries. An agreement was reached to reduce the number of checkpoints from over 40 to just three: at Kidira (Mali), Tambacounda and Diamniandjo (both in Senegal). A special commission is charged with following up this decision. and security and informal taxes and tariffs are further problems. All these restrictions also affect the pastoralists' traditional mobility patterns, and deprive the pastoralists and many others of income.Development organizations and some governments recognize the importance of cross-border trade. Two examples:• The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has a cross-border trade project that attempts to simplify trading across borders. It is based on the notion that greater freedom of trade helps food security. The simplified trade regime it has designed aims to make it easier for small-scale traders to take goods across borders. • The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has introduced an international transhumance certificate -a type of passport for transhumant herds. This legal backing gives pastoralists confidence to move with their livestock and sell them. Similar initiatives in East Africa would ease pastoralist movement in the region.Cross-border trade is also hampered by both formal and \"informal\" (illegal) taxes imposed by police, customs officials and others (Box 4).Examples in this book Despite its importance, cross-border trade is difficult for donors and governments to deal with. Only one of the cases in this book attempted to do so: the Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4). One of this project's many initiatives was to establish markets and other facilities near border-crossing points. But this aspect of the project was not very successful, due to a lack of cooperation from neighbouring countries and from the pastoralists themselves, who clearly preferred their existing informal arrangements for crossing the border.Many pastoralists prefer to use their traditional routes rather than go through the official border posts.Moving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock products an additional set of specialized services -inspection, certification, freezing, shipping, insurance, etc. -that are not needed in other chains. The costs of these services also add to the end price. So while the customer abroad may pay more for the same product as one in the national market, the benefit does not necessarily accrue to the producer. It is swallowed up by all the intermediary links in the chain, and by the service providers that enable the chain to function. The pastoralists may in fact get little more than if their products had been sold locally. Indeed, the pastoralist may not even be aware that an animal or product is destined for a high-value foreign market.Because of the difficulties in opening up an export market, there is a danger of becoming overdependent on a single market or customer. This market is easily disrupted, for example if a disease outbreak occurs, or if the customer chooses to source supplies from elsewhere.Examples in this book Three of the cases in this book deal with export markets, all handling live animals or meat:Maasai Animal Health and Livestock Marketing Project, Kenya • Case 4Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project, Tanzania • Case 9Lobatse abattoir, Botswana.Both the Kenya and Tanzania projects also targeted the national markets in their countries.We can think of four different approaches to developing products and markets. The product may be one that the pastoralists already produce (such as camel milk), or they may develop a new type of product (camel cheese). They may sell it to an existing market (such as people in the local town), or they may sell it to a new market they have not served before (consumers in the capital city). There are four possible combinations (Figure 7):• Existing product, existing market. This is called market penetration.• Existing product, new market. This is called market development.• New product, existing market. This is called product development.• New product, new market. This is known as diversification.We briefly discuss each approach in turn. Table 2 summarizes the approaches used by the 15 cases in the book.The market penetration strategy means improving the sales of an existing product within a market that the pastoralists already serve. For most pastoralists, this means serving the local and cross-border markets. Demand is growing in both these markets as urban populations rise and become more prosperous, and people want to buy more meat and dairy products.Market penetration was the main strategy pursued by the cases in this book: it was used by nine of the 15 cases. This reflects the relative ease and low level of risk of this strategy. Doing so means sticking with the known. Working with familiar products avoids the need to train people in completely new skills; it is possible instead to build on their existing skills and production methods. Working with an existing set of buyers also avoids having to look for new buyers in an unfamiliar environment.Leather Leather and leather goods are important sources of foreign exchange for some countries. Ethiopia's leather exports, dominated by the pastoralist sector, account for 12% of the country's total trade. Hides and skins are Uganda's fourth biggest export earner; the trade relies on pastoralists and smallholder producers for 95% of its produce (Muhereza 2004).Milk Trade in pastoral dairy products rarely gets much attention, yet camel milk is an under-exploited commodity that offers great potential in both domestic and international markets. The global market for camel milk, most of which is produced in dryland areas, is estimated at $10 billion, with 200 million customers in the Arab world alone (FAO 2006). Two countries with a dominant pastoralist population and a large national camel herd, Somalia and Mauritania, have both established commercial camel milk enterprises that collect milk from fully mobile producers. Europe, the United States and Canada are big potential customers. In 2013, the European Union approved a license for importing camel milk products from the United Arab Emirates. African producers could follow suit.Export markets: potentially high-value, but hard to serve Export markets typically pay more for livestock and livestock products than the other types of markets discussed here. If pastoralists can supply animals or products to the export market, they have an opportunity to make larger profits. But first they have to overcome many more hurdles than are typical for the other markets discussed above. A large number of skilled and expensive services may be required: processing, freezing, transport, certification, export handling and shipping. Finance has to be available to cover the purchasing, insurance and other costs. Importers may impose tariff and non-tariff barriers, and may ban imports altogether in response to (say) a disease outbreak.Animals for export must be well-fed and in good condition. They must come from areas that are certified free of disease. International requirements for hygiene, sanitation and traceability are high, and they change from time to time. Bureaucracy may prove a more formidable enemy than the harsh climate where the animals are raised.For some commodities (such as camel milk), it is difficult to get permission to export to the most lucrative markets. In the absence of veterinary care and certification agencies, it is impossible for pastoralists to prove that their animals or products comply with such requirements.Livestock chains serving export markets usually involve more actors than those for other markets. In addition to the pastoralists, traders, abattoirs and processors, they also include exporters, plus importers, processors, wholesalers and retailers in the importing country (where costs are likely to be higher than in the country of origin). Each of these performs a function in the chain, and must cover its costs and make a profit. That pushes the end price up. Plus, exports requireLarge livestock traders in northern Kenya have signed agreements with the Kenya Meat Commission, the country's largest meat processor. They buy animals from pastoralists and supply them to the Commission's abattoir in Athi River, near Nairobi. There, the animals are kept in a holding ground for fattening until they can be slaughtered and sold on the national market or exported. This arrangement offers the producers good prices and assures the Commission a continuous supply. The Commission exports meat to the Middle East and other countries in East, Central and North Africa.More information: www.kenyameat.co.keThe popularity of this strategy also reflects the scope for improving the efficiency of existing chains for pastoralists' products. Many such chains have serious bottlenecks: marketplaces and abattoirs are non-existent, are inefficiently run or lack suitable facilities; milk collection is slow and unhygienic; pastoralists lack the services they need to produce and market animals. By identifying and overcoming these bottlenecks, it is possible to reduce costs, improve quality, increase sales and boost profits for the pastoralists as well as for others in the marketing chain.Market development means taking an existing product and finding new buyers for it. This strategy was adopted by five of the 15 cases. In all five, this meant taking a product that had been marketed locally, and seeking buyers in the national market. In addition, three cases also tried to expand into markets abroad: the Maasai Animal Health and Marketing project in Kenya (Case 3), the Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4), and the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5). Four of the cases dealt with live animals; two (in Tanzania and Uganda) also handled meat. Only one, the dairy operation in Niger (Case 15) was concerned with milk; it developed the market for this product in Niamey, the national capital. Box 6 gives an example of how pastoralists are supplying a traditional product (camel milk) to a new market.Shifting from a local to a national or export market may add big hurdles to the marketing process. A significant amount of market research may be necessary: identifying and contacting a new set of potential buyers, finding out their demands, and convincing them to purchase the product. The product has to be of sufficient quality and available in suitable amounts to serve this market. ) and the tanneries project in Tanzania (Case 10). In both instances, the projects aimed to produce new products (meat, meat products, leather goods). They both sold to a new (for them) market: buyers in Nairobi in the Lomidat case; the local and national markets for the tanneries. Diversification is the riskiest, highest-cost strategy because it means developing new products and opening new markets at the same time. That may be inevitable for some new products: thereBiltong: A new product to meet market demandThe Lomidat slaughterhouse buys livestock from herders in Turkana in northern Kenya, and slaughters them and produces carcasses and a range of meat products. It has signed contracts to supply various distributors in Nairobi. It also advertises its products on its website.Biltong is traditional dried meat known as ngatosa among the Turkana community. It is a way of preserving meat, especially during drought when the animals are dying. Lomidat has modernized biltong production by introducing protected drying cages, specialized meat striping and marinating. The drying cages are protected and cutting done in a special room using modern technology. The slivers of meat are then sun-dried to produce a unique flavour.This product has gained popularity in Turkana and with many Kenyans and foreigners.More information: Case 8; www.lomidatmeat.co.keMarket research is important to understand where and to whom pastoralists might sell their products.Product development means developing new products to serve a market that the enterprise already sells to. There is considerable potential for this. For example, pasteurizing milk, chilling it and putting it into sealed containers converts a product with a very short shelf-life (fresh, warm milk, sold from a bucket) into one that is safer and can be stored for longer. Making butter, cheese or yoghurt does the same. Abattoirs and butchers can produce specific cuts of meat, package them hygienically and attractively, and chill or freeze them. For urban consumers that is far more attractive than traditional meat retailing (chunks hacked off a hanging carcass in an open, fly-ridden shop). Meat processors turn everything from the cow (except the moo) into saleable products: sausages, mince, burgers, meatballs, dried spicy meat (biltong, Box 7), deboned meat, bones packed for soup, lard, pet-food, horns, and a whole range of offal and offcuts. Tanneries convert low-value hides and skins into belts, shoes, jackets, upholstery, fly whisks (made from the tails), and many other leather goods.Such processing raises the value of the product, reduces wastage and attracts greater income. By selling these products to an existing range of buyers, an enterprise can earn more but avoid the costs and risks of trying to enter a new market.It can be hard to judge whether a product is in fact new. Is, for example, pasteurized milk a different product from unpasteurized milk, or merely a slight improvement on it? The consumer may not notice the difference, and may be unwilling to pay extra for the safer product. In general, it is worthwhile to invest in the additional processing needed if there is a big enough price differential (which may mean educating customers), or if there are significant other advantages (such as less wastage, or the need to comply with safety requirements).Several of the cases in this book developed new products, but they did so mainly to serve a new market (which we classify as diversification, see below). None appears to have pursued product development as its major strategy in its own right -or, at least, their work in this area is not described in our brief descriptions. This is surprising given the apparent potential for this strategy. One might expect that a customer for milk might also be interested in buying yoghurt, or someone who buys meat might want to choose mince or sausages. Perhaps the cases did in fact pursue product development, but our write-ups do not mention it.From Isiolo to Eastleigh: The camel milk market in KenyaThe cool highlands around Nairobi are a big dairy production zone. Farmers there keep dairy cows, and deliver milk to several dairies in the capital. That is not enough for the many Somali residents in the suburb of Eastleigh. They prefer the special taste of camel milk. But there are no camels anywhere near Nairobi.That is an opportunity for camel owners around Isiolo, a town in the drylands nearly 300 km to the north. Women traders ship jerry cans full of milk on the buses that head towards Nairobi every day. Some 7,000 litres are sold a day. At KSh 200 ($2.50) per litre -more than double the price of cow milk -the trade is worth KSh 1.4 million ($16,000) a day.More information: Abdikadir Mohamed, www.livestockcouncil.or.keMoving herds, moving markets 3 Markets for livestock and livestock products branding could also be used to sell livestock products. Such opportunities have been little explored so far. They would require high quality and clever marketing (both of which are expensive), but bigger potential benefits for producers and others in the marketing chain.Camel milk: A niche product with huge potential.may be insufficient demand in an existing market to justify investing in new processing equipment, for example. Set up an abattoir or a big dairy to tap into the local supply of animals or milk, and it automatically means seeking out a new, more distant market.Because it requires special expertise and significant investment, diversification is not something that pastoralists can easily do themselves. The tanneries in Tanzania (Case 10) are an example: establishing them required training the workers in a whole new set of skills, providing them with start-up capital, and helping them with marketing.Pastoralist marketing chains may be oriented towards two different types of market: mass or niche. A mass market is one where the identity and particular qualities of the product are not important. Go into a supermarket, for example, and pick up a packet of milk, and you are probably not interested in where the milk came from or who produced it. Any litre of milk is just like any other. Similarly with meat in the butcher's: you want to buy beef. Any beef will do, as long as it is acceptable quality and the price is right.Niche markets are the opposite of mass markets. Here, the product stands out because of its particular qualities or features. Examples are spicy sausages that are specialties of a region, cheese made from camel milk, and a Louis Vuitton leather belt. Consumers like these items because of their taste, appearance, high quality and prestige, and because they are different: they are not mass products.Most pastoralists serve mass markets. Their animals and milk are not distinguished in any way from products from other sources. Often they come in at the lower end of the quality and price range, for the reasons outlined in Chapter 2. Production costs and risks are low, but so are profits.But pastoralism also offers opportunities for niche marketing. The animals are raised on grass with few or no external inputs. The meat has different qualities from that produced by stall-fed animals raised on concentrates. That opens up the possibility for organic certification or marketing under a special label such as \"range-fed\". Pastoralists produce unique products, such as camel milk, which is reputed to have medicinal benefits (Box 8). New products could be developed: a dairy in Mauritania has developed camel cheese (LPP et al. 2010). In Kenya, groups such as the Maasai have a strong visual image, which is much used to promote tourism and to sell handicrafts. Such Supplying products to these outlets requires an emphasis on hygiene and quality, high-quality packaging, and barcoding according to the Ministry of Trade's specifications.More information: Vital Camel Milk Ltd., www.vitalcamelmilk.com 4 Production inputs M arketS require healthy and well-fed animals to fetch good prices. To produce high quality products regularly, an animal needs a steady supply of fodder, vaccines and other inputs. If it gets sick or hungry, its production will drop, and its marketability will be reduced. If it dies, it is a total loss for its owner.Pastoralists who want to produce for markets have a number of options. They can provide their animals with more and better feed and veterinary care, keep more animals, switch breeds, or any combination of these. All of these scenarios require some change -access to more grazing land if pastoralists want to keep more animals; changes in feeding, healthcare and perhaps breeds if they want to intensify production. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa tend to favour the second option. Most governments also want to reduce herd sizes: land is getting scarce and more valuable, and officials still think of pastoral production as degrading the land -despite recent findings to the contrary. Not all countries are set on destocking, though: Mali is considering increasing its national herd.The type and level of feed, drugs and breeds required for livestock marketing depend on the level of market orientation and the production system. The more intensive a system, the more inputs it needs. Location and environment also play a role: pastoral systems in remote and harsh environments are difficult to improve and intensify. Pastoralists are excellent livestock raisers, and their breeds and systems are extremely well adapted to their challenging environment.Production inputs for livestock marketing need to meet the following goals:• Keep animals healthy and prevent disease spread.• Maintain and improve the output of meat and milk.• Facilitate the production of safe, quality products.• Meet consumer demands and comply with legal requirements.• Avoid negative impacts on the environment.While these principles are true for all livestock producers, pastoralists require different inputs and ways to deliver them from (say) farmers living near a big city. This chapter discusses three types of inputs: animal health, feeding, and breeds and breeding. Often a combination is needed: improving a breed, for example, will not yield more milk unless it goes hand-in-hand with better feeding and health care.This chapter does not try to be a comprehensive summary of efforts to improve pastoralist production. We focus instead on those aspects that have a clear impact on marketing. Such campaigns may be in the longer-term interests of pastoralists (or at least, of those who are able to get their herds recognized as disease-free), but hamper movement and trade in the short term. They are a huge impediment for those herders who are unfortunate enough to live in areas not designated as disease-free.Four groups provide animal-health services in pastoral areas: the government, non-government organizations, pastoralists themselves, and the private sector.Governments used to be important providers of animal health-care services: they employed veterinarians and livestock extension workers to provide preventive and curative treatment, advise on health and production, monitor diseases and ensure product quality and safety. But such staff were never numerous in pastoralist areas, and the restructuring of government services means that now most of the few remaining staff focus on disease surveillance and quality and safety issues.Remote rangelands are unattractive postings for professionals, and government staff tend to have limited budgets for transport, so are tied to their health posts. That is of little use in areas where most of the herders move from place to place in search of pasture.Livestock diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia are endemic in parts of Botswana because buffaloes and other wildlife act as carriers. Cattle from these areas may not be taken out of this area, and the meat must be consumed locally. A special slaughterhouse handles these animals.More information: Anthony MachariaAnimal health problems hamper livestock marketing for four reasons:• They reduce production Sick animals grow more slowly, produce less milk and meat, get weak and may die. • They raise costs Keeping animals healthy with vaccinations and dipping costs money.Treating sick animals with commercial medicines costs even more. • They cut market value Even if a sick animal recovers fully, it is likely to be smaller than its age-mates. It will be graded lower, and fetch a lower price. • They can eliminate markets Substandard animals and contaminated milk are likely to be rejected at some stage in the marketing chain: by a trader, the dairy or abattoir, or the importing country.The three main types of health problems affecting pastoralist livestock are weakness due to a lack of feed and water, parasites, and infectious diseases. These problems are interrelated: many parasites carry infectious diseases, and hungry animals are prone to fall ill. Lack of feed and water This is especially serious during drought, when rangelands have little to offer in the way of grass, browse or water. We discuss this below in the section on Feeding.Parasites Internal parasites (such as intestinal worms and liver flukes) and external parasites (ticks and biting flies) weaken animals, can carry diseases, and reduce the value of meat and hides. Pastoralists try to avoid them, for example, by keeping clear of areas infested with tsetse flies (which carry trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness), and by moving animals around (which prevents the build-up of parasite numbers). Internal parasites can be treated by \"drenching\" the animals (forcing them to drink a deworming medicine). Many external parasites can be treated by \"dipping\" (running them through a trough filled with a chemical), by spraying them, or by pouring a medicine onto their backs (the medicine spreads over their skin and kills or drives away the parasite).Infectious diseases A range of infectious diseases afflicts pastoralists' livestock, cutting production and weakening and killing animals. They can have a big effect on marketing: an outbreak can trigger restrictions on livestock movements and trade, affecting a wide area and a large number of producers. Importing countries may ban shipments of any livestock products from an infected country. Such bans are immediate and have a significant effect on pastoralists, who see their market disappear overnight (Box 9). Once a ban is imposed, it can be very difficult to get it lifted, even after the initial problem has been resolved. And in the meantime, customers will have found alternative sources of supply, making it that much harder to revive the original export channels. Some diseases are endemic; they are impossible to eradicate because wildlife act as a reservoir. This is the case for several diseases in Botswana, for example (Box 10).Pastoralists have little influence on the presence or spread of such diseases, and they can do little to control them. Governments and international agencies respond with vaccination campaigns, quarantine requirements and restrictions on livestock movements. The most successful of these has been the eradication of rinderpest, a viral disease that devastated herds across much of Africa. Following a sustained vaccination campaign, the disease was declared eradicated worldwide in 2011.The effect of import bansIn the year 2000, Saudi Arabia imposed an import ban on all livestock and livestock products from the Horn of Africa because of an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in the region. The ban lasted until September 2009. This led to reduced prices and affected the local economy in the Horn. Many poor pastoralists and traders migrated to urban areas, where most lack the skills necessary to get a job. Poverty and unemployment increased. When the ban was lifted, the demand for export-quality meat increased. Prices went up, and pastoralists' income improved (see also Figure 6 in Chapter 3).Botswana depends on the export market for its beef, especially to the European Union. Whenever there is an outbreak of disease such as foot-and-mouth disease, exports stop. The domestic market is limited. Other products produced at the time of the ban cannot be sold.More information: Fews Net 2010 (Horn of Africa); Case 9 (Botswana)Pastoralists in Tanzania are nearly always on the move with their animals, so they have few opportunities to go shopping. Their chance to buy general goods, including veterinary drugs and supplies, is livestock market day. Private traders display their drugs on \"moving tables\" -cloths spread on the ground under a shade tree. These entrepreneurs move from one market to another. Before the start of the market, pastoralists order the medicines they need from the trader. If they earn enough from selling animals, they can pay the trader. If not, the trader normally provides the drugs on credit; the pastoralist promises to pay at the next market. But there is a legal problem with this arrangement: in Tanzania veterinary pharmaceuticals may be sold only from a fixed location. Moving from market to market is, strictly speaking, illegal.Non-government organizations (NGOs) and development projects have filled some of the gap left by the withdrawal of government services. While staff are likely to be well-qualified and highly motivated, they are dependent on short-term project funding, so such services are unsustainable in the long term.Many NGOs and development projects have trained community animal-health workers (sometimes known by the unfortunate acronym CAHWs, which is pronounced \"cows\"). In many such schemes, these workers are supposed to charge for their services and for the drugs they provide. The intention is that they can make enough money to cover their transport costs, buy new supplies and equipment, and earn a profit.The private sector offers veterinary services and sells drugs and equipment. Many towns in pastoralist areas have \"agrovet\" stores that sell drugs and equipment, and that provide advice to livestock keepers. They are often run by the few private veterinarians to be found in pastoralist areas. Small-scale traders also sell drugs at markets (Box 11).Pastoralists deal with many disease problems themselves using a combination of modern treatments and their own centuries-old health care and management approaches. But since colonial times, such \"ethnoveterinary\" practices have been branded as \"useless\" and as \"witchcraft\". Many young people are no longer familiar with the approaches of their parents and grandparents (Box 12). Interest in ethnoveterinary medicine has grown substantially over the past decades, but it still has to gain widespread acceptance, and is only rarely used in development projects.Pastoralists can find commercial drugs in agrovet shops and markets (Box 11). So the main problem is not necessarily drug availability. Rather, it is the low quality of the drugs. The sellers are frequently untrained, and the drugs may be expired, diluted or fake. Some medicines are repackaged and sold in small portions without printed instructions. Even if the instructions are included, they may be incomprehensible to ordinary people or illiterate herders. As a result, drugs are frequently used at the wrong dosages or to treat the wrong diseases. The animals fail to recover, and disease-causing organisms evolve resistance to the drugs. If the owner sells a sick animal, it is likely to fetch a low price and may pose a risk to consumers from the disease or drug residues.Negative experiences with failing drugs reduce pastoralists' trust in the system, so they do not invest in animal health care. Agrovet stores do not invest in quality products, and a vicious circle ensues, curbing attempts to stimulate marketing.To overcome the problems with drug and service supply in pastoral areas, governments and NGOs have been turning to donors for funding to distribute medicines and services for free or at reduced prices. But free services are usually short-lived and do not provide pastoralists with reliable animal health care in the long-term. And as pastoralists come to expect such freebies, they are reluctant to pay the full cost of medicines and services. That makes it harder for private businesses to make a profit from animal health services.Your best milking cow is ill, but you are miles from the nearest road. Anyway, you have no money to buy drugs. What do you do? You search for a particular plant, pound the seeds into a paste, mix it with water, and force the animal to drink it. You learned about this plant from your mother, and she learned it in turn from her mother.Through observation, trial and error, pastoralists have over centuries developed many ways to prevent their animals from falling ill and restore them to health. Some of these \"ethnoveterinary\" practices are, to modern eyes, strange and are unlikely to be effective. But some do in fact work, and for certain conditions they can be cost-effective alternatives or complements to modern treatments. If a pastoralist cannot find a veterinarian or afford drugs (which is most of the time), they may be the only option if an animal falls ill.Ethnoveterinary treatments have disadvantages: they are often cumbersome to prepare, and the ingredients may be out of season or hard to find. Such practices tend to be regarded as obsolete or are branded as witchcraft, so they are becoming disused and forgotten. Pastoralists are left with nothing if they cannot get modern drugs, or if the drugs do not work.More information: ITDG and IIRR (1996) Moving herds, moving markets 4 Production inputsVeterinary pharmacies in the Somali Region of Ethiopia used to get most of their supplies from informal traders in Somaliland, as well as from development projects, and from wholesalers in Addis Ababa.A Mercy Corps programme called Revitalizing Agricultural/Pastoral Incomes and New Markets (RAIN) brought managers of these pharmacies together with veterinary input wholesalers from nearby cities. The programme took both groups to Addis Ababa to meet suppliers and see the range of animal-health products available. The pharmacy managers realized they had more options for buying their drugs. As a result, they now get up-to-date information and better quality drugs at competitive prices. Plus, they acquire the drugs legally -before, they had mainly bought from the black market.The RAIN programme also made a concerted effort to link animal health workers to private veterinary pharmacies. It invited pharmacists to help train the animal health workers, and to serve as ongoing sources of information about the drugs and services they had on offer. Appreciating that this would lead to better business and more income, the pharmacists agreed to give the animal health workers a discount on their products.The end-customers, the pastoralists, can now buy more effective drugs at cheaper prices, so they can produce and sell more milk. Many recent approaches to improve animal health-care services in pastoralist areas aim to stimulate the private sector: community animal health workers, private veterinarians and veterinary pharmacies. The idea is to give them the skills, linkages and financial motivation they need to provide such services, and to keep providing them into the future. The more they sell and the more services they provide, the more money they make. If things run well, their services will eventually pay for themselves, leading to a strong, sustainable animal health system in pastoralist areas.The following sections show how projects have helped private-sector providers recognize opportunities and improve their services and inputs, in turn enabling pastoralists to boost their milk production and sell better-fed animals for slaughter. A common element in many of these projects is the linking of stakeholder groups. The make-up and complexity of set-ups vary from individual providers to integrated service hubs; some offer feed and other inputs beside drugs and animal health services. Many of the projects also build the capacity of pastoralists in some form or other. Government veterinarians can be involved among the providers, but they frequently have supervisory functions.Private veterinary pharmacies may not be aware of the range of drug wholesalers they can buy from. When they depend on a single wholesaler, they are forced to pay the prices the wholesaler asks, or turn to the black market. They also may not be aware of the spectrum of drugs available on the market. Exposing private veterinary pharmacies to a wider range of choices can create competition on the wholesale market. The pharmacies can compare prices, get better deals and improve the range of goods they can offer to the pastoralists (Box 13).Since the 1970s, projects and NGOs have trained pastoralists as animal health workers. As these come from and usually stay with communities, they know what their peers need and where the The government organizes compulsory vaccinations against only two diseases, leaving animals unprotected against many other ailments.In 2009, SNV helped the Agro-pastoralists' Association in Atacora/Donga to set up a three-person animal health team. This team partnered with two companies that sell veterinary products to offer prophylactic treatment for livestock. They taught agropastoralists how to identify diseases, treat affected herds, buy veterinary products in bulk, and monitor health operations.In 2009 and 2010, more than 26,000 animals on nearly 600 farms were treated. That cut the agropastoralists' normal veterinary costs by half, reduced the mortality of calves from 20% to less than 1%, boosted milk production, and made huge improvements to the animals' general health.In Mangodara municipality in western Burkina Faso, SNV helped the local breeders' union link with private veterinarians and local livestock ministry officials to deal with animal health issues. The union and local officials have set up four outlets to sell drugs, resulting in an increase in the number of animals treated from 17,000 in 2010 to 23,000 in 2011.Meat producer cooperatives in Uganda have formed an umbrella cooperative that sources inputs and hires veterinary personnel to provide technical know-how to agro-pastoralists. Every member contributes a modest payment for this service.More information: Albert Houedassou (Benin), Ouedraogo Tipoco Brigitte (Burkina Faso), Joshua Waiswa (Uganda) herds are, even in remote areas. While not all countries allow this approach, it has proven an efficient way to deliver health care in remote areas. If animal health workers offer good services and quality drugs, pastoralists are more than willing to pay them. But to stay active, the workers need to be linked to private or public veterinarians and have access to a reliable drug supplier.Input providers and pastoralists also need to understand the other's system and interests, know the range of available choices and have access to information. Mercy Corps achieved these goals by involving private veterinary pharmacies to train community animal health workers. As a result, the animal health workers got access to a reliable source of reasonably priced drugs and information.Heifer International's Maasai Animal Health and Livestock Marketing Project went a step further. It trained pastoralists as animal health workers and as dawa (agrovet) shopkeepers, and helped them set up their own shops. In this way the project was able to extend health care services into more remote areas (Box 14).A number of projects in East and West Africa are working through pastoral associations rather than training individuals. If there are no local institutions to build on, they help pastoralists organize themselves into cooperatives or associations. The cooperatives' bargaining power enables them to buy the necessary inputs at low prices (Box 15).Various projects have established centres offering both inputs and services. These centres or \"service hubs\" are often located near milk-collection points and livestock markets, where they are well-placed to serve agropastoralists who live nearby. Because they have a fixed location, they are less well-suited to serving mobile herders from far away.Heifer International in southern Kenya partnered with two Maasai organizations: the Loita Development Foundation and the Keekonyokie Suswa Trust. The idea was to set up dawa (agrovet) shops in the pastoralists' home areas. Local young men and women were recruited and sponsored for training in animal health. Through the animal health service providers and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Livestock Development, a series of workshops were held on animal husbandry and social development. Equipped with their new knowledge and with a supply of drugs, the young Maasai were ready to operate the dawa shops.More information: Case 3One way to improve the availability of drugs is to help pastoralists set up their own agrovet stores.• Building the capacity of pastoralists and helping them to organize themselves in producer groups and cooperatives can give them access to better and cheaper inputs and services, and can enhance their bargaining power. • The more mobile the pastoralists, the more mobile and flexible the services need to be. In very remote areas and where national law allows, useful approaches include using pastoralists as community animal health workers, and building on their ethnoveterinary knowledge. • To avoid drug abuse and malpractice, public-sector functions such as ensuring drug safety and disease control need to be strengthened.More than 95% of the animals sold in the livestock markets in sub-Saharan Africa are raised on rangelands. Pastoralism uses land unsuited for crops to produce meat, milk and other products.But just because it is bad for cropping does not make a piece of land good for grazing. The biggest problem is the climate: dry seasons are long, and the wet seasons are short and unreliable. When it does come, the rain can be heavy, resulting in brief floods but adding little water to the soil. Grass and other plants grow quickly when there is water, but then lose nutrients as they dry.Owners of livestock in intensive production systems can control how much feed their animals get, and can predict when they will be ready for market. Pastoralists have no such luxury. Their animals are unlikely to gain weight quickly, and they may lose it again during the dry season or if the rains fail. Underfed animals produce little milk and tough meat. Worse, a drought may kill large numbers of animals, destroying wealth and negating years of herding effort.The challenge is in feeding animals throughout the year -especially in the dry season. Development initiatives, and pastoralists themselves, use a number of strategies to get livestock and products ready for market. They often build on the pastoralists' extensive knowledge of drylands and livestock production, as well as on their existing practices.When the grazing in an area can no longer support livestock, pastoralists need to move further away to find pasture and water. In doing so, they risk coming into conflict with other pastoral groups and with farmers. Such conflicts not only hamper migration and access to land and water; they can cost the lives of people and livestock, and restrict economic activities and trade. In conflicts with settled groups, pastoralists are almost invariably the losers: they wind up getting pushed into marginal lands far from markets and other services. While they have used the rangelands since time immemorial, the pastoralists rarely have formal rights to do so.Efforts to guarantee and increase access to rangeland include:• Legally safeguarding the traditional rights of pastoralists to use rangeland and watering points (Box 18). • Conflict-mitigation and peace-building activities.• Establishing watering points (boreholes, dams) at key locations.• Preventing the conversion of rangeland into bush dominated by unpalatable thorny species.• Maintaining migration corridors.• Preventing the fencing of rangelands and their conversion to other uses. Some hub models put more emphasis on building the capacity of pastoralists' organizations, while others focus on enabling livestock specialists to serve pastoralists. A good example of the first approach is the East African Dairy Development project, which has embedded the provision of inputs and services in cooperatives and farmer organizations (Box 16).An example of the second approach is a FARM Africa initiative in Kenya. This has established Sidai, a franchise system of retailers to sell a range of products and services. Sidai aims to set up a network of 150 franchised livestock service centres owned and managed by qualified livestock professionals. The centres are franchised out to vets or other qualified livestock specialists, who are then trained and supported by FARM Africa (Box 17).• New approaches in animal health need to draw on and enhance the involvement of the private sector. • Private drug suppliers and service providers need incentives. Building their capacity and linking them with wholesalers and pastoralists can help them to provide appropriate services and earn more, thus making it more attractive for them to work and invest in pastoral areas.In Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, limited access to agricultural inputs and services constrains milk production and productivity. The East African Dairy Development Project helped smallholder dairy farmers and agro-pastoralists to establish hubs for business development and agricultural advisory services managed by farmer cooperatives.The project mobilized milk producers and helped them register as dairy cooperatives. These cooperatives signed contracts with agricultural advisory services and input suppliers so their members could get services on credit. The cooperatives handle milk sales: they pay the advisory services and suppliers, deducting the cost from the amount paid to the producers.This arrangement became known as the \"hub model\". By the end of 2011, it covered over 750 extension advisors, 535 animal health workers, 320 insemination technicians and 109 agrovet shops. It enables many milk producers to get inputs and services such as animal health, artificial insemination, feeds and feeding regimes, training and financial services. It has built an efficient marketing chain that has transformed the lives of farmers and created a vibrant dairy industry.More information: Case 13In dry parts of Kenya, an innovative franchise chain called Sidai Africa Ltd was established in 2011 to provide quality animal health services and inputs to pastoralists. Sidai, which means \"something good\" in the Maasai language, was started with support from FARM Africa, but operates as commercial company. Its franchisees offer a range of services, including artificial insemination, training in feeding and management, vaccination and disease control, and advice on livestock, feed and milk production. It has a strong, easily recognized brand and currently has 38 outlets throughout Kenya serving 60,000 customers. It aims to expand to 150 outlets by 2015.More information: www.sidai.comGrazing on fallow fields In many regions, farmers allow pastoralists to graze their fields after the crop harvest. Both sides benefit: the pastoralists get their animals fed, and the farmers get their fields fertilized. Perhaps the most spectacular example of this practice is in the vast floodplains of the Inner Niger Delta of Mali. Each year, Peulh pastoralists bring their animals to graze on the bourgou (Echinochloa stagnina) grass and fallow rice fields. Hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and goats descend from the dry plateaus on either side of the Delta to graze on this bounty. A ceremony to mark the annual crossing of the river at the town of Diafarabé has been recognized by Unesco as a world cultural heritage. The animals leave again at the beginning of the rainy season, when it is time for the farmers to plant their crops.Specially planted forage As access to land becomes tighter, farmers have started taking advantage of the high fodder needs of pastoralists during the dry season. The farmers have established \"animal feed reception areas\" where they grow forage on their harvested fields rather than leaving them idle. A dairy marketing project in Niger plans to build on this trend (Box 19). Pastoral field schools in Kenya teach herders how to sow grasses and make hay (Box 20). And an SNV project in Mali is helping agropastoralists plant cowpea and stylo (Box 21).During the rainy season, Tuareg and Peulh (Fulani) camel and cattle keepers graze their animals in northern Niger. When fodder becomes scarce during the dry season, they move south for better pastures. The exact time of their movements varies from year to year depending on the duration and amount of rainfall. Farmers in the Madaoua and Konni areas in the south of the country have started capitalizing on the pastoralists' demand for dry-season fodder. After harvesting vegetables, they grow forage on their fields. The pastoralists can buy the cut forage, or they can rent fields with standing forage to graze their livestock. This scheme has two benefits for the farmers: they can charge a considerable sum for the forage, and they get their fields fertilized for free with animal dung.SNV is hoping to build on this local initiative in a proposed dairy project in the south and southeast of Niger. This will promote fodder crops as part of the dairy marketing chain.Maintaining access to rangelands is vital for pastoralists.Unfortunately such efforts are often inadequate in the face of overwhelming trends towards more restricted access. Even if pastoralists are granted legal safeguards, these are not always respected. Just because a law is on the books does not mean that it will be enforced. \"Landgrabbing\" is common in many areas, with cultivation expanding steadily, and rich individuals and foreign investors fencing off large areas for use as hunting reserves.Pastoralists use a number of techniques to ensure their herds have enough to eat in the dry season and during droughts.Emergency grazing areas One of these is to maintain emergency pasture areas to be grazed only during droughts. Pastoralists have elaborate systems to regulate the use of these pastures and punish unauthorized grazing. Afar and Borana pastoralists do this in Ethiopia (IIRR et al. 2004: p. 125). In Tanzania, pastoralists have a technique called ngitiri, in which transhumant herds feed on standing hay, grazing in one area while other areas are held in reserve for dry-season grazing.The Tanzanian government is trying to reduce conflict among pastoralists and farmers. The Villager Land Act of 1999 and the Grazing Land and Animal Feed Resources Act of 2010 emphasize proper land use plans, in which pastoralists have legal rights to graze their herds while maintaining rangeland resources by observing the carrying capacity of the land. Despite these good intentions, the laws are not always enforced.The government also decided to parcel out to pastoralists some of the land it holds through the National Ranching Company. The company subdivided some of this land into 124 ranches of 2,000 to 5,000 hectares each, and leased them to pastoralist groups.These initiatives have worked. When the dry season hit, pastoralists moved their livestock in search of pasture and water as usual. But this time land conflict was minimal. The pastoralists now had experience owning land and engaging in rangeland development. They knew all about constructing water-supply and disease-control infrastructure such as earthen dams, boreholes and dips. So they had an understanding of basic conservation issues and an appreciation that animal feed production and conservation could -and should -be compatible.More information: Jeremiah Temu Hungry, weak animals fetch low prices -if they live long enough to be sold.they offer hands-on training so participants get practical experience with the subject and bring in and exchange their own knowledge and experience.Making hay and silage Grass and other forage crops can be cut and dried for long-term storage. Where there are no giraffes, as in Niger, hay bales can be stored in trees (Box 22). Another way to conserve forage is to shred it, pack it densely in a pit, and cover it to seal it off from oxygen. It will then ferment into silage.Supplementary feeding can help to get at least part of a herd through a drought. Feeding concentrates for a few months can be far more cost-effective than destocking (selling off animals) and restocking (getting new ones) after the drought. Other situations requiring supplementaryTeaching pastoralists to make hay and silage in NigerIn the Sahelian countries the rainy season lasts only three months, so in many areas pastoralists struggle to feed their animals through the dry season. GAJEL Sudu Baba is an association of young pastoralists formed in 2009. The name is most appropriate: GAJEL is an abbreviation for Groupement d'action culturelle et de développement des jeunes éleveurs, or \"group for cultural action and development of young livestock keepers\". Sudu baba is a Peul term for a family home where the whole community can enter.GAJEL Sudu Baba asked SNV to train 17 trainers how to produce and conserve forage (things like periodic cutting, drying times and storage conditions) and how to make feed supplements. The training consisted of lectures, practical sessions, demonstrations and monitoring.As a result of the training, the association members stockpiled more than 18,000 bales (about 90 tons) of high-quality fodder in three locations. This made it possible to sell quality animals at various markets for good prices.Another technique pastoralists use to cope with dry-season fodder shortages is to split their herds. The bulk of the herd migrates in search of greener pastures, while sick animals and lactating cows and their calves stay near the homestead and get special fodder.Nowadays pastoralists use this technique to supply urban milk markets. In Niger, for example, some pastoralists have moved part of their milking herd close to Niamey, the capital, while the rest of the herd grazes in the rangelands. The owners of the urban camels in Ethiopia (Case 12) use a similar tactic: the milking animals are brought into town so they can be near the market, while the rest of the herd is kept in the traditional pasturelands.Growing forage Rather than relying on others to grow forage crops, agropastoralists can plant their own. Pastoral field schools are a useful way to teach people how to build up a seed bank, seed pastures and grow forage crops (Boxes 20 and 21). These \"schools\" take place in the field;What to do about deteriorating pasture in parts of Turkana and Pokot counties? Terra Nuova and Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Belgium worked with the Lomidat slaughterhouse to promote fodder production. These organizations ran field schools where pastoralists learned how to grow various native grasses: Cenchrus ciliaris, Chrysopogon plumulosus, Cymbopogon sp., Enteropogon macrostachyus, Sehima nervosum and Eragrostis superba.The initiative built fodder banks and started a programme of seed multiplication. The seeds were harvested and the field school participants learned how to make hay bales.Seeds were harvested from the plots and sown in a new location (the original plots also regenerate). Repeating this process expands the area sown with these grasses. Areas planted so far include Naweregai, Kapelbok, Lorus, Riokomor, Pokot Central, Amolem and Termach.Growing forage in Sikasso, MaliSince 2010, SNV has been helping the Union Régionale de la Filière Bétail et Viande (the regional meat and livestock industry union) in Mali to produce forage crops to help tide agropastoralists over the dry season. As part of the Projet d'Appui à la Productivité de l'Élevage (Livestock Productivity Support Project), SNV helped train 40 agropastoralists and provided each of them with a starter pack of 1.2 kg of cowpea seed, and some fertilizer and pesticides. These producers produced over a tonne of seed, which they sold back to the union, then repaid the cost of the inputs.In the following year, the animal production regional directorate trained a further 120 agropastoralists to produce seed of cowpea and stylo. Each grower sows one-tenth of a hectare of the forage, producing up to 60 kg of seed. The dried stems and pods can be stored and used as fodder.Agropastoralists across the area have now adopted this fodder-growing practice. The union has a reliable supply of fodder seed that it can sell to its members.A traditional way to store valuable fodder: put it in a tree.feeding are to maintain milk production in dairy enterprises, and to fatten animals that are going for slaughter.Feed markets Getting commercial fodder, crop stover, mineral licks and agro-industrial products such as oil cakes and bran in pastoral areas can be difficult. Private-sector feed traders exist in cities and where infrastructure allows. The service hubs and livestock centres (see above under Animal health) also sell livestock feeds. But in some countries it is difficult for feed providers to get supplies as shipments from areas with surpluses may be banned. In Ethiopia, for example, it is not allowed to bring fodder from the productive highlands to the dry lowlands where more pastoralists live. In Botswana, where livestock diseases are a concern, the government limits cross-border mobility and the transportation of livestock feed.Responding to emergencies In the past, emergency response projects commonly brought in fodder from the outside. But this distorts local feed markets. To reduce such distortions, new approaches source supplemental feeds from local vendors (Box 23).Fodder blocks FAO has developed a method to produce lick blocks made of molasses, urea and salt. These blocks provide some of the energy, nitrogen, minerals and vitamins that animals One way to conserve forage is to put it in a sealed pit.When pastoralists in Botswana want to sell their cattle, they have four choices:• They can sell individual animals direct to local butchers. This is quick and easy, but the price tends to be low, and the butcher can take only a few animals. • They can sell their animals to a company that runs a feedlot. The company fattens the animals and sells them on to the Lobatse abattoir. That gives the owner instant cash, and the feedlots will accept more animals -but they want only young cattle. • They can pass the animals on to the manager of a feedlot near the abattoir. The feedlot fattens the animals and sells them to the abattoir on behalf of the owner. The abattoir deducts a fee per day for the feedlot, then pays the owner the remainder of the price. This gives the best price, but the owner has to wait for the money. • They can sell direct to the Lobatse abattoir. They do this for animals that are ready for the market, and for older animals that the feedlots are not interested in.More information: Case 9Consumers in the Middle East prefer meat from Ethiopia's Afar region, an arid area inhabited by nomadic pastoralists. But the harsh climate in this area means there is little feed, and animals often lose weight or die before they can be brought to market.No commercial supplier of feed supplements operates in the area, so an FAO project helped set up a local group to make multi-nutrient molasses-urea feed blocks. These are nutritious and easy to transport. They are made at a feed-processing unit established by the project for jobless local people. The project trained the group how to make blocks and to manage a cooperative.The group now supplies pastoralists with quality feed supplements, reducing the severity of feed shortages. While they are a convenient source of feed, the blocks are still in short supply, and some pastoralists think they are expensive. More effort is needed to popularize the technology.More information: Binyam Kassa EngidasewMercy Corps' PASTORAL II programme in Niger aimed to improve the food security of over 4,000 agropastoralist and pastoralist households in the Filingué department of Niger. Part of it is a voucher scheme that enables the pastoralists to buy supplementary feed for their core breeding stock during a drought. Mercy Corps and the government extension services identified 12 feed vendors in the department. It conducted a market assessment of these vendors, to check each one's stock, prices, level of business, supply mechanisms, financial capacity, and experience with NGOs. It organized a meeting with all 12 vendors to introduce and explain the intended voucher process. This meeting agreed on feed prices (i.e., the value of the vouchers) to avoid price fluctuations and speculation.Out of the twelve vendors, six met the criteria and were selected to participate in the voucher system. Vouchers were distributed to over 2,700 pastoralist and agropastoralist households. They could exchange them for supplementary feed at the approved vendors. As a result, over 400 tonnes of feed was distributed to 2,700+ head of cattle over a 60-day period.This project showed that private-sector vendors can be used in an emergency response to drought. Doing so is faster than usual procurement procedures, and does not distort the local market.Feedlots can be used to fatten animals before slaughter.In contrast to specialized exotic dairy or beef breeds, many local breeds are generalists: they produce milk, manure, meat and leather, and may be able to carry a load or pull a cart too. That does not mean that local breeds are all the same. They differ greatly in their production potential and other traits. Some are better milkers, others are more suitable for meat production, and still others are survival experts (Box 26).Pastoralists know the conditions they live in, and no one appreciates the importance of maintaining vigour and quality in animals more than they do. If they see a quality animal, they are eager to use it for breeding. Crosses with local breeds are faster-growing and better producing than the local parent, while better adapted to the local conditions than the exotic parent. Where conditions allow, pastoralists are keen on such crosses, as exotic livestock has the reputation of a \"Mercedes\" in livestock. In Kenya, for example, many dairy producers keep crosses with Ayrshire and Holstein-Frisian cattle.An alternative for improving production is to introduce adapted breeds from other areas with similar climatic and environmental conditions. In fact, quite a few pastoral breeds are the result of such introductions and crosses. Boran cattle, for example, perform better than Tanzanian short-horn zebu in terms of growth, body size and milk production (Box 27). Boran is a pastoral breed from Ethiopia and has been further improved by ranchers in Kenya. Zebu-Boran crosses will produce better than the zebu parent, but may not be as tolerant when a drought strikes: they cannot realize their production potential without sufficient feed and water.Development organizations have begun to appreciate that local breeds have valuable genetic characteristics and must be part of a successful breeding programme. But the spread of new breeds feed on low-quality forage need. They can improve the performance of dairy and meat animals also in normal times, and help overcome dry-season feed shortages (Box 24).Feedlots Feedlots are facilities where livestock can be fattened up for a few months before slaughter so that their carcasses meet market requirements. Feedlots commonly do not graze the animals but keep them in pens and feed them with fodder trucked to the facilities. Ramat Livestock Enterprises (Case 3) in Kenya runs its own feedlot. The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana works with outside feedlot operators (Box 25).Pastoralists have an array of strategies to feed their animals. Strengthening these and complementing them with appropriate new techniques can help overcome dry-season fodder shortages, help save core breeding stock, and avoid distortion of the local market. Possible measures include:• Facilitating access to land and helping pastoralists settle conflicts.• Teaching pastoralists how to grow and preserve forage.• Providing seeds of locally adapted forage species to pastoralists.• Training other community groups to produce and sell fodder supplements such as nutrient blocks.• Sourcing supplemental feed from local vendors during emergencies.Farmer field schools and other participatory training methods that incorporate participants' views and knowledge will help ensure that the techniques are appropriate to the local conditions.Governments should work with pastoralists to determine the ideal number of animals for each area, and to design rules to avoid exceeding it.Keeping the right breeds is important for marketing. While livestock raisers in intensive production systems are concerned primarily with production -the amount of meat or milk an animal can produce in a particular time -pastoralists are more worried about more basic questions: Can the animal survive on scrubby vegetation? Will it tolerate the many endemic pests and diseases? Can it walk long distances on stony ground? An animal that a European farmer would dismiss as too small and scrawny may have all these attributes: it will survive far better in the drylands than a prize European cow.Many attempts have been made over the years to introduce high-yielding stock from temperate climates into traditional pastoralist systems. But few of these efforts have been successful: the exotic animals need pampering if they are to survive at all, let alone produce more than the local breeds. Pure breeds from temperate climates are mostly confined to high-potential areas, rather than the drylands. The harsher the environment, the fewer exotic stock are found in mobile pastoral herds.Under such conditions, the pastoralists' own breeds perform much better than the imported animals. While they may produce less milk and meat than their high-yielding cousins in kinder climates, the fact remains that even when food and water are scarce they can still produce something.In Niger, pastoralists have developed five cattle breeds to fit the conditions in different parts of the country. All five are particularly suited to zebu milk production:• Azawak Probably the best milker of the five. Under good ranching conditions, it produces an average of 6-8 litres of milk a day. A lactation lasts 7-8 months, for a total output of 800-1,000 litres. It also has good zebu beef traits, with a carcass yield of 50%. • M'Bororo This race is found throughout the country. It can produce an average of 3-4 litres a day, and its lactation lasts up to 6 months. M'Bororo can walk long distances. • Djéli The milk output is low, about 2-3 litres per day in early lactation. Duration of lactation is 160-200 days for an average production of 400-450 litres.• Goudali An excellent meat producer with three uses: milk, meat and traction. A cow produces an average of 1,000-1,100 litres in 230 days (or about 5 litres/day). The cows are very docile and easily milked. • Kouri Found on the shores of Lake Chad, kouri cows produce an average of 4-6 litres a day, or 1,260 litres in 260 days.Such breeds open up opportunities for breed improvement (see also Box 30).More information: Saratou Malam Goni in pastoral areas means it is sometimes difficult to find good material of some breeds. There is a danger that the local breeds will die out and their valuable genetic resources will be lost.Breeding management Strategies for controlling breeding in pastoral communities are varied because of the nature of pastoralism. Regular exchanges of animals among different communities could eliminate the problem of inbreeding, for example, but they are sometimes prevented by cultural restrictions against selling high-quality animals.Breeding associations How can interest among pastoralists in their own breeds be revived? Promoting associations for local breeds (such as a Zebu breeders' association) and organizing livestock fairs can help. Associations can host competitions where livestock keepers can exhibit good animals and win prizes (Box 28). Such activities are good fun and can be wonderful morale boosters. In such activities, pastoralists must always be in the driver's seat, especially when it comes to selecting animals for breeding programmes in remote areas.Breeding records Pastoralists are often able to memorize the ancestry of their animals in great detail and over several generations. Breed-improvement programmes can build on this ability and encourage pastoralists to keep written ancestry records that focus on particular pedigrees and traits. That will make it possible to improve breeding and market animals more effectively. Such systems must be simple and efficient. It is best to develop them together with the pastoralists.A focus on males Much of the focus of suggested breeding interventions is on the male animals. This is because one male can mate with many females, so it can have a big influence on the type of animals in a herd. \"Progeny testing\" (allowing young males to mate with a few females and then testing their offspring for milk or meat production) is a good way to determine their genetic quality. The males with the best offspring are then allowed to mate with many females. If the males with good test results are owned communally, everyone in the community gains from the males' improved genetics. The other side of the coin works as well -castrating the inferior malesSwitching breeds in Shinyanga, TanzaniaDuring the dry season of 2001, Mashishanga a pastoralist from Shinyanga, drove his herd of Tanzanian short-horn zebu to Rukwa in search of feed and water. The short-horn zebu is known for its tolerance for harsh environments (a good thing), but also for its slow growth rate, small body size, and low value (bad things).During a visit to a ranch owned by the National Ranching Company, Mashishanga spotted a magnificent cattle breed called Boran, an indigenous breed adapted to the local environment. He wanted to know if the animals were suited to pastoral conditions. The answer was yes: provided they were dipped, de-wormed and given enough pasture, they could be raised on rangeland. He asked whether he could buy some. The answer was again yes. So Mashishanga sold off his zebus for the best price he could get, and bought a Boran bull and four cows. His friends thought he was crazy: they said he was gambling with his stock. But they also kept a watchful eye on how things went.Fast-forward 5 years. Mashishanga's Borans were exemplary and his fellow herders were jealous. He then surprised them again by selling all 400 of his zebus to buy 100 Borans. And by coincidence, the government subdivided some of its ranches and allocated some parcels to pastoralists interested in modern livestock production. Mashishanga got a piece of land.The moral is that pastoralists can turn animals from a cultural value into a business venture. Mashishanga's Borans weighed four times his old zebus (1 tonne as opposed to 250 kg). The animals fetch good prices, as much as TSh 1.5 million ($937), compared to TSh 350,000 ($220) for a zebu.How is our hero doing now? He is now the proud owner of a house in Rukwa town. In August 2012 he owned 300 Boran cattle, each weighing 800-1,000 kg. When sold, each will bring in TSh 1-1.5 million ($625-937). He is improving his animals: he has bought a young Boran bull for TSh 3 million ($1,874), and had 50 cows inseminated with pure Boran semen. Mashishanga is doing well. And no-one is laughing at him any more.Although pastoralists are experts in traditional breeding techniques, they have little experience in modern methods. To promote breeding technology and improve husbandry, the Tanzanian government hit on the idea of an animal parade. Every year from 1 to 8 August, Tanzanians celebrate Nane Nane, a national festival where exemplary farmers are awarded prizes. One of the most popular activities of the festival is when the best animals from each zone are paraded in front of the guest of honour. The best animals receive prizes. For the last two years, Boran bulls from the pastoralist area in Rukwa have won first prize, which comes with a cash award of TSh 10 million ($6,250). Both Rukwa Borans were sold for relatively high prices to the guest of honour. This event has promoted breeding and husbandry practices among livestock farmers throughout the country. The success of Rukwa livestock farmer has influenced their peers from other areas and many have adopted the breed.Many pastoralists are eager to improve their animals through breeding.The introduction of new breeding technologies in pastoral areas has met with even less success than the introduction of exotic breeds. Artificial insemination is a case in point. Pastoralists do not have much faith in this technology -how can you judge the quality of a bull if you cannot check it? Besides, artificial insemination requires the strict separation of breeding males from the herd -which is not always possible when a herd moves around, as it often meets other herds on its way.Artificial insemination is also labour-intensive and needs facilities such as transport and tanks of liquid nitrogen (rare in remote areas!) to inseminate the females in the short period they are in heat. Even in developed countries, it is mostly used for dairy production and seldom for beef production on ranches. This is likely to be also the case in Africa: it will be more useful for settled agropastoralists in more favoured areas.Some service hubs and livestock centres offer artificial insemination for dairy animals. They are sited near cities and milk-collection points, so are likely to be used on nearby herds.Embryo transfer, in-vitro fertilization, cloning and genetic engineering are even less suitable for pastoral conditions, but may play some role in dairy production and on breeding stations. Where they are available, such breeding services are mostly undertaken by private companies and research institutions.• Local breeds are crucial to pastoral production. Any attempt to increase production through breeding needs to balance the desire for higher yields with the ability of the animals to cope with the local conditions and fulfil other needs of the pastoralists. • Marketing efforts can make use of the differing production potentials among and within local breeds. Animals with promising characteristics can be selected and used to improve the breed. Pastoralists should be involved in choosing which breeds to improve, and in selecting which animals to use. • Breeding projects that source animals from pastoralists and improve them on station should ensure that pastoralists can benefit from the results as quickly as possible. • Careful crossbreeding with appropriate breeds and the introduction of adapted breeds from other dryland areas can enhance production, especially in areas with better infrastructure and conditions. • Conserving local breeds requires policy and institutional support. When designing breeding and restocking programmes, policymakers must appreciate the value of local breeds.or preventing them from mating stops them from passing on their undesirable characteristics to the next generation. Pastoralists themselves have a range of methods to do this. Open nucleus breeding programmes These are on-farm breeding programmes that select and breed high-quality animals and multiply them for distribution to herders. Boxes 29 and 30 illustrate how such programmes operate. To speed up the breeding, such projects tend to select males based on the performance of their sisters and half-sisters (this is known as \"sibling testing\"). This is not as reliable as progeny testing, but is quicker, because it is not necessary to wait for the offspring to start producing milk or meat before choosing which males to use for further breeding.Such breeding programmes should work with pastoral communities and use the pastoralists' livestock to build up the base herd. They need to carefully explain the process to the pastoralists. They should return good animals to the pastoralists as soon as possible to maintain their faith and interest. Pastoralists should help select which animals are included in the nucleus herd to make sure that the animals indeed suit their needs.Maruzi Ranch, a state-owned ranch in Apac, Uganda, breeds East African zebu, a cattle type wellsuited to tropical and pastoral conditions. The ranch has started a breeding scheme to serve pastoralists in northern Uganda. In this scheme, livestock keepers choose male and female animals with good genetics from their own herds and take them to the ranch, where they form a \"nucleus herd\". The ranch then checks the animals and selects those that have the best characteristics. The best males are kept for breeding on the ranch; their offspring are supplied to the herders who participate in the scheme. The males that do not qualify for the nucleus herd are returned to their owners, who may use them for breeding if they wish (they have the results of the tests so know which ones are good). This approach means that improvements quickly spread throughout the herd. This scheme is called an \"open-nucleus\" herd because new female animals may be added periodically to the nucleus herd. It contrasts with a \"closed-nucleus\" herd, in which no new animals are brought in from outside; such a herd is built up exclusively from the offspring of the original animals.More information: Joshua WaiswaSmallholder and pastoral milk production around Niamey, the Nigerien capital, relies largely on local breeds and crossbred animals. To improve dairy production, the government has set up four ranches in pastoral areas to breed purebred animals. The ranch in the village of Toukounous, for example, keeps Azawak cattle. It has over 4,000 hectares of land and a laboratory for artificial insemination.Staff select, multiply and disseminate two strains of Azawaks: milkers that produce more than 10 litres of milk per day, and beef animals which may weigh up to 600 kg.The milkers can produce up to 15 litres of milk per day; they are the best dairy Azawaks in West Africa. The milk is sold to a milk processor in Niamey. The Association pour la rédynamisation de l'élevage au Niger (AREN) teaches its women members how to make cheese.Pastoralists can buy improved animals from the ranch for breeding. But the animals are very expensive, so only rich farmers can afford them. Animals are sometimes also made available to poorer pastoralists.Source: Saratou Malam Goni 5 Services A ny marketing system depends on a range of services that help identify a product and bring the producer together with potential customers. Livestock producers in more favoured areas can usually take such services for granted. They can deliver their animals by lorry to a nearby marketplace, where traders vie with each other to buy the best animals. Milk producers can have their milk picked up by tanker trucks each morning; it arrives in the dairy ready cooled. Abattoirs and dairies have inspectors and laboratories that check product safety and quality.Such facilities are scarce or absent in pastoralist areas. Information about potential buyers and prices is scarce and unreliable. In the absence of roads and transport companies, animals have to be trekked rather than trucked. A lack of refrigeration means that milk that is fresh when it leaves the producer is sour by the time it arrives at its destination.This chapter looks at six types of services that make markets tick: market information, financial services, transport, market facilities, processing plants, and controls to ensure quality. We deal with each one separately, but as with production inputs (Chapter 4), these services depend on and build on each other. An excellent transport system, for example, is of little use without good market information, well-run marketplaces and good processing facilities.Even though they live in remote areas, pastoralists often know quite a lot about their market: they know where and how they can sell animals, who their buyers are, and the price they are likely to get. They find this out in various ways: from visitors and traders, from family and clan contacts in town, and through their own experiences of selling animals.But until recently, such information could travel only as fast as someone can walk, and word of mouth can be unreliable. Some informants are untrustworthy: a well-informed buyer who arrives in a remote pastoralist camp is unlikely to give the current market price if he can get away with paying less.Plus, prices are not the only information that pastoralists need if they are to market their animals and other products effectively. Are the roads safe? Will a particular trader be buying next week? Does the abattoir have a big order to fill? Is a severe drought on the way? Has the ban on exports been lifted? Does the vet store have a supply of vaccines? The answers to such questions may make the difference between a regular day's herding and a 200 km trek to the nearest market. The lack of such information substantially increases the costs of doing business and reduces market efficiency and profits.Traders, collectors, processors, and other actors in the marketing chain also need various types of information. Some of this overlaps with the types of information that pastoralists need; some is specific. A meat processor, for example, needs to know about regulations governing meat hygiene. Because they are in towns and cities, actors further along the chain tend to be able to get information more easily than those out in the bush. For the chain to function smoothly, there has to be a level playing-field where all the chain actors have access to the information they need to make good decisions.Ensuring a reliable supply of reliable information to pastoralist areas is difficult for various reasons:• Many pastoralists have low levels of formal education, or are illiterate.• Electricity, roads, telephones and internet access, which city people take for granted, are scarce in pastoralist areas. • Collecting and disseminating information is difficult and expensive because of the remoteness and rough terrain. • Government data systems fail to reflect a lot of the trade in pastoralist products.Various organizations provide market information to users.Development organizations and governments often establish market information systems. The development organizations provide the initial expertise, but they tend to work in project mode, so phase out when the funding ends. The government provides the permanence and sustainability that such systems require. The LINKS scheme in East Africa (Box 31) is an example of this type of approach.Processors may realize that it is in their interest to disseminate market information to their suppliers and customers. The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) is an example of this: it keeps pastoralists informed about prices, requirements, hygiene, disease control, and other topics. This helps ensure a trouble-free supply of quality animals to the abattoir.The media -radio stations and mobile phone companies -may transmit the information to attract an audience (radio) or because they can charge users for it (mobile phones).Producers' organizations such as cooperatives collect and disseminate information that is in their members' interests. Doing so makes membership of the organization more attractive and boosts the amount of product that the organization handles.Various initiatives to improve access to market information services have been tried in different countries. Here we discuss the following:• The internet and mobile phonesInternet services are improving in many areas of Africa, and in some countries mobile coverage is now widespread -though it is patchy in sparsely populated areas. Many pastoralists now carry mobile phones: if they are within reach of a phone signal, it is easy to call their contacts in town to get the latest prices and news.In addition, various initiatives offer services to provide such data (Box 31). Such services already exist for crops (for example, www.esoko.com), and providers are now expanding them to livestock. Most of these initiatives are fairly new, and it is unclear how successful or sustainable they will be. The main users may be traders, brokers and processors and other intermediaries rather than producers themselves. But it improves the functioning of the chain as a whole, so increases the demand for products and benefits pastoralists indirectly.Mobile phones offer several advantages for market information systems:• Limited costs Mobile phone networks and services are set up by large companies with deep pockets. Market information services can piggyback on these: they do not have to build their own infrastructure. Mobile phones are increasingly popular and widespread, even in remote areas. People buy them for their own use, so it is not necessary to spend large sums to promote them or to provide them to users. Since people readily buy airtime to use their mobile phones, the system can be designed to charge them per message. That helps cover the costs of the service. • The last mile Since many people have their own phone, they get the information directly: it is not necessary to arrange for intermediaries to relay the information the \"last mile\" to large numbers of users.Pastoralists have various ways -traditional and modern -to get marketing information.• Data gathering and dissemination Mobiles can be used at both ends of the information chain. A small number of data collectors can be given smartphones to gather data on prices, etc., and transmit it to a central processing point. Regular users can receive the information via SMS either by requesting it or by subscribing to a service. They do not need a sophisticated phone to get the information. • Tailoring Messages can be tailored to individual needs (unlike, say, radio broadcasts).Someone who wants information just on goat prices in the local market does not have to sift through mountains of unrelated information before finding the price of goats. • Structured information Many types of market information are highly structured: prices, volumes, locations, addresses, etc., can all be stored in a database in standard formats. That makes data-processing and packaging easy.Where information is less structured (as in extension advice), it may be necessary to have intermediaries to help people find and use it. Box 32 gives an example of one such initiative in Uganda.Rural information centres set up in pastoralist areas can play a key role in facilitating access to information. The centres may be equipped with different communication technologies, such as community radio, satellite television, telephone and fax lines and internet service. They can offer secretarial services to the community, such as typing and printing documents, photocopying, binding, scanning, mobile money, and many others.Major challenges in operating rural information centres are unreliable power and a population that is largely illiterate. Box 33 describes rural information resource centres set up by the Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union.Many pastoralists have radios, and listen to stations that broadcast in their own languages. Community radio stations, especially in West Africa, broadcast local news and information. Market information services can provide price and other information to such stations for broadcast. Both sides benefit: the information service gets its information disseminated at little or no cost, and the radio station offers a service that attracts listeners (Box 34).Producers' cooperatives are an important source of market information for their members. They communicate with their members through group meetings, regular interactions, and individuals who act as messengers (Box 35).Market information systems should be timely, reliable, simple and cost-effective. They should be tailored to the particular group (or groups) they are targeting, both in terms of the content of the information and the methods used to reach them. The users should be involved in the design, development and testing of the system.Currently being piloted in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, LINKS provides regular information on prices and volumes for most of the major livestock markets in these countries. It also covers forage conditions, disease outbreaks, conflicts and water supplies. LINKS is an integral part of the region's early warning systems and helps to identify potentially critical food shortages.The system collects, analyses and disseminates information needed by producers and traders. It provides market information on request almost in real time via SMS text message, email, WorldSpace radio and the internet. It combines the use of global positioning systems, mobile phones, radio, computing analysis and web-based platforms. A technical team has developed a growing database of extension information from agricultural research organizations and specialists. This information is reviewed by a board of experts before it is put online. The knowledge workers retrieve the information and pass it on to the livestock keepers. They also gather information on production and markets and upload it to the database. The database contains information on crops, livestock, weather, market prices, transport, input locations and mobile-money agent locations, tailored to suit the needs of smallholder dairy farmers and agropastoralists. The information is updated constantly, enabling the livestock keepers to plan and react to the challenges and opportunities they face.More information: David Balikowa; www.ckw.applab.org/section/index; http://tinyurl.com/qcawwnhA feasibility study for the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries recommended setting up livestock marketing and resource centres in producer communities. These are intended to get services closer to livestock producers and improve their ability to market their products. Three centres have been established in the districts of Luwero, Masaka and Mbarara. A fourth one will be set up in Kitgum to serve people in the Karamoja region. The centres provide information on livestock markets, prices, demand and orders. They offer training and serve as meeting points for livestock producers. Solar panels provide electricity. The centres also offer internet access and reading materials in various languages. They are staffed by two extension workers: a veterinarian and a social worker.The centres have help with artificial insemination services, livestock marketing and information dissemination. Some livestock keepers use them as their mailing address. The centres are owned by the Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union, whose members are primary cooperative societies of meat producers, mainly based in the pastoral areas of the country.Market information systems must be designed to be sustainable. A lack of sustainability is particularly a problem with donor-funded projects. Possible sources of funding include the regular government budget, the private sector (such as via advertising), and user fees (as with mobile-phone based systems).Market information systems should build on or complement existing and traditional systems. That makes it more likely that people will find them credible and will use them.In traditional systems, pastoralists have very little need for cash. A large part of their diet is milk, butter and meat, and they make many of the things they need. Transactions are often by barter rather than cash. They swap a live animal, a pot of milk or jar of butter for items they cannot produce themselves, such as grain, clothes, sugar and tea. Agropastoralists may exchange some of the crops they grow for things they need. Beads -used in traditional jewellery -are an important medium of exchange in some areas: a pastoralist may swap some butter (which is perishable) for a bag of beads (which are not), and later exchange the beads for a sack of maize from a farmer. The farmer can then trade the beads with another pastoralist for a goat or more butter.But as they enter the modern economy, pastoralists have an increasing need for money. It is hard to barter a live goat for all the things a pastoralist needs on those rare occasions he or she visits town. Plus, school administrators and tax collectors are unlikely to accept a pot of butter instead of cash.Nevertheless, pastoralists are not necessarily \"poor\". Their assets are on the hoof rather than in the form of land, buildings or bank balances. Add up the net value of a pastoralist's camels, cattle, sheep and goats, and it can reach a sizeable sum. But pastoralists are understandably reluctant to convert their livestock into paper money. They look at a herd and know that if it is managed properly, it will produce enough meat and milk to support a family. And in normal conditions, a herd automatically increases in value with each new calf, kid or lamb.Paper money, on the other hand, is hard to trust, does not increase in value, and is difficult to manage for someone who is illiterate and is unused to the cash economy. Paper money is easy to spend unwisely, easy to lose, and easy to steal. Bank accounts are even more abstract: numbers written in a book or stored in a computer are hard to appreciate. Many pastoralists prefer to save an asset they can see and control.Nevertheless, money is vital for anything but the simplest markets to function. Interventions such as milk marketing groups and abattoirs introduce cash into the rural economy, and help people get used to this as a medium of exchange and a store of value.Even though a pastoralist with a healthy herd is not \"poor\", a lack of capital can be a serious problem. A transport firm may want to be paid in cash up front to ship a load of cattle to the city where it will fetch a good price. During a drought, food and feed may be available, but only in exchange for cash: few traders want to accept a half-dead animal in exchange for a bag of maize. And it is during such times of hardship that the price of animals collapses, making the animal worth far less than it was during the rains.Using community radio to disseminate market informationLivestock producers in Wajir, a dry district in northeastern Kenya, can listen to the local radio for clues on how the market in Wajir town is performing. The Kenya Livestock Marketing Council employs data monitors to collect livestock market information about prices, volumes and sales from the market. The information is broadcast in a one-hour programme to listeners within a 60-kilometre radius. This area has a population of about 300,000 people. The programme also includes interviews with livestock producers, traders and the data monitors.Getting information to pastoralists and traders was difficult until community radio arrived in the town. Now, the producers have improved their negotiating positions, and prices have risen. Some even call into the radio station for information.Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Belgium is using a combination of mobile phones and local radio to collect and disseminate information on crop and livestock markets. This is a joint project with Telecom Without Borders (an international NGO specializing in telecommunications) and with two local market information systems focusing on crops and livestock.The project has provided local data collectors with smartphones and has trained them how to gather information on market prices. The data collectors then transmit the data to the market information systems, which validates them before forwarding them to community radio stations for broadcast in the local language.The system operates in the departments of Dakoro, in the centre of the country, and Say, in the west. It speeds up data collection, reduces the processing work required (as it is not necessary to retype the information), and makes the information available to users faster.More information: Abdikadir Mohamed (Kenya); http://tinyurl.com/mzm8ugc (Niger)Mobilizing suppliers for the Lomidat abattoir in KenyaThe Lomidat Pastoral Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd is the body that owns the Lomidat abattoir in northern Kenya. Its members are Turkana pastoralists from all over Turkana district. As the owners of the abattoir, the cooperative and its members have an interest in supplying it with animals for slaughter.Cooperative officials and abattoir managers travel around the district together to procure animals. They visit livestock holding-grounds and pastoralists' kraals to identify potential sellers.The abattoir arranges to pick up animals at particular dates and locations. The cooperative lets its members know when and where these will be through its market centres, meetings called by local chiefs, and other networks. It also informs members of the current market prices.Other traders dislike this system because the producers know what price the abattoir is willing to pay -which is often higher than the traders want to offer.More information: Case 8 Because banks do not view pastoralists as viable clients, they have developed few financial products tailored to their needs. The amounts and repayment terms of loans are designed for salaried types or urban businesspeople, or perhaps farmers who grow irrigated crops, rather than a herder who raises goats.In both East and West Africa, many pastoralists are Muslims. But few banks offer loans and other financial products that comply with sharia (Muslim law).Insurance faces the same problems as credit: the biggest threat is drought, which is likely to affect large areas and many animals at the same time. In order to deal with such risks, insurers would have to charge premiums at a level that few pastoralists would be willing to pay. Plus, it is much harder for an insurer to keep track of mobile animals than a fixed asset such as a building or a standing crop. Without formal insurance coverage, pastoralists prefer to handle risk in the traditional ways: moving out of drought and trouble-prone areas in search of fresh, secure grazing; and entrusting part of their herd to family members in a different area. Insurance coverage is more likely to be available for limited periods or transactions, such as to cover the transport of animals by lorry to a market.A lack of financial services at the production end of the chain has big effects on the marketing of pastoralist products. It forces pastoralists to sell their livestock at a low price and at disadvantageous times. It makes it difficult for traders and abattoirs to get a regular supply of quality animals, and dairies have to contend with limited and fluctuating supplies of milk.Traders face similar problems: few financial services are tailored to their needs. When they buy animals, they need to pay cash on the spot; but few traders have enough working capital to do this, and it is hard for them to get credit. That limits the number of animals they can buy at one time, so restricts the number that the pastoralists can sell to them.Financial services further along the chain are better developed because they are similar to services needed for non-livestock products. But they can still be an impediment. Exports require a letter of credit -an assurance that the agreed sum will be paid -to be deposited with a bank. Getting such assurances can be difficult and time-consuming. The lack of a formal banking system in Somalia hinders that country's exports of livestock, its major commodity.The situation is exacerbated by a lack of government policy to promote financial services for pastoralists. A few banks, often government-owned, do operate in rural areas, but there are few incentives for others to do so.Nevertheless, various financial services exist that can help overcome these problems. We will focus on three:Cash is wonderfully portable, but that makes it attractive to thieves. Vehicles and people who transport large amounts of cash through pastoralist areas are a popular target for bandits. A successful trip to the market can turn into a disaster if your vehicle is held up by armed men.Pastoralists often rely on other people to deliver cash and other items to their destination. They ask a relative who is travelling to town to deliver something for them and to pick up the money.For most commodities, a range of financial services are needed to make production and marketing run smoothly. A crop farmer, for example, can get credit to pay for seed and fertilizer. He or she may be able to get insurance to cover the risk of production losses caused by fire, hail or other hazards. It may be possible to arrange prepayment for a crop before it is harvested. Warehouse receipt systems make it possible for farmers and traders to delay the sale of grain until the price is right (and they want to sell). The buyer can transfer the money to the farmer's bank account, avoiding the need for cash (and the risk of it getting stolen).Livestock marketing in pastoralist areas lacks all of these services. Commercial banks find rangelands unattractive places to invest. The population is sparse, so demand is low. Why build a branch out in the bush when you can attract ten times as many customers by putting it in the city? Plus, many pastoralists have no fixed address, and may lack official documentation. Their main assets -their animals -are easy to move, so banks do not trust them as collateral for loans. Why give a loan secured on a herd of animals, if that herd may be over the border in the neighbouring country if you try to seize it when the borrower defaults? Banks like certainty -which pastoralists cannot give them. They think the risks are too high.In addition, pastoralist areas are inherently risky because of the climate. Periodic droughts affect large areas. Large numbers of animals die and pastoralists move away in search of feed and water. Many people at the same time may be unable to repay their loans. The losses may overwhelm a lending institution.Not surprisingly, banks in pastoralist areas are concentrated in the few towns, and their main clients are the townsfolk. Many banking services require the customer to visit the bank branch. That is easy for townspeople, but hard if your camp is several days' walk away.Pastoralists and traders find it hard to get loans, insurance and other financial services.can. And because the suppliers want to do business with the processor in future, they are more likely to repay a loan.External finance Different financial organizations tend to offer credit to different actors in the marketing chain (Figure 9): microfinance institutions serve pastoralists, cooperatives and smallscale traders, while banks offer financial services to larger traders and processors. In many cases, the private sector is reluctant to set up such schemes because of the costs and risks involved. Governments may step in with special arrangements to offer affordable loans. The Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya (Box 38) is one such initiative: it loans money to Ramat Ltd., a livestock trader, which lends it on to young people so they can buy animals. The goal of such schemes is often to demonstrate to the private sector that making loans to pastoralists (and otherRamat Livestock Enterprises Ltd, a community-owned trading company in Narok County, Kenya, buys animals from local Maasai pastoralists and sells them on to other traders. But it has problems sourcing enough animals from the pastoralists in the county.Because it is well-organized and successful, Ramat has also been approached by various commercial banks and microfinance institutions. But these charge interest rates that are too high to be attractive.The government's Youth Enterprise Development Fund has lent Ramat KSh 10 million ($115,000) -its biggest-ever loan to a community organization. Ramat lends this on to local young people so they can buy animals to supply to Ramat. The Youth Fund charges Ramat 8% interest a year; Ramat in turn charges the young people 12%. Ramat uses the 4% difference to cover the costs of running the scheme and to offset any defaults.Everyone benefits from this scheme: pastoralists sell more animals; the young people can earn money and learn how to run a business; Ramat gets more animals that it can sell on to its buyers. Drivers of buses and lorries will often do this for a small fee. This arrangement may be informal and depend on trust. But some companies have regularized this as a service they offer for a set price -a kind of bus-based courier service. Mobile phones are revolutionizing cash transfers in rural Africa. Because mobile phones are now common in rural Africa, even in pastoralist areas, this is an important, and safe, way of transferring cash. Mobile money systems such as M-Pesa (Box 36) enable people to transfer cash securely. Even without such a system, people can transfer funds by buying airtime scratchcards and then crediting the airtime to someone else's phone. The recipient can then redeem the unused airtime for cash at a shop.Chain liquidity Actors in livestock chains find it difficult to get loans. This is especially true for the pastoralists, for the reasons described above. The most common sources of credit are their trading partners: the people to whom they sell animals or milk. Providing credit is in the interests of these buyers because they want a reliable supply of products. For example, a trader may loan money to a producer if the producer promises to sell to the trader. Similarly, an abattoir may loan funds to a trader so the trader has enough cash to buy animals and bring them to the abattoir for slaughter. Such loans made by trading partners are known as chain liquidity (Figure 8).The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana is an example of this in action (Box 37). Because the processor knows its suppliers, it can make a better judgement of their creditworthiness than a bankThe Lobatse abattoir in Botswana offers three types of loans to pastoralists and other suppliers:• Loans to feedlots so they can buy young animals for fattening.• Loans to pastoralists to buy feed.• Advance purchases of animals from pastoralists.These loans ensure that the abattoir is supplied with suitable animals, and enable it to predict when and how many animals it can expect to receive. Box 36 M-Pesa for cash transfers M-Pesa is a mobile banking scheme pioneered in Kenya by Safaricom, a mobile phone provider. It allows people to deposit money with an agent (such as one of thousands of small shops that sell scratchcards for people to pay for phone calls). The customer can send a text message to the person who is to receive the money. The recipient then goes to an agent nearby with the message, and picks up the money. In some places, the M-Pesa scheme can also be used to pay bills and deposit money in a bank account. The M-Pesa scheme has been extended to several other countries, and is expanding its range of financial services. It has also spawned various other schemes elsewhere.More information: www.safaricom.co.keExternal financing for pastoralists in West AfricaThe government of Burkina Faso has established a development fund to support livestock production. Financed through a tax on exports of cattle, goats and sheep, this fund offers loans for livestock activities, as well as to support training and animal health work. Both individuals and groups can apply for loans between $2,000 and $10,000. The fund charges 7% interest. Microfinance institutions that borrow money from the fund typically lend it on to borrowers at 13-15%.In 2011, SNV supported a union of livestock keepers in the Boucle du Mouhoun region to submit project proposals to the fund. As a result, the fund lent a total of $40,000 to seven projects to buy and feed cattle for sale.FADEL, the Financière africaine pour le développement de l'élevage (African Fund for Livestock Development), was formed in 2009 with support from several foreign partners, a Malian bank, the government of Mali, and livestock raisers in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Its capital is FCFA 50 million ($100,000), divided into 5,000 shares of FCFA 10,000 ($20) each. Based in the southern Malian city of Sikasso, it acts as a microfinance lender. People can borrow after they have been members for 6 months. They use the money for various purposes: fattening animals for sale, producing milk, petty trading, buying and selling cereals, and purchasing farm inputs. Interest rates vary according to the type of activity. Loan amounts range from FCFA 250,000 to 1 million ($525-$1,100).More information: Tipoco Brigitte Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso), Bonaventure Dakouo, http://tinyurl.com/m35edgn (West Africa)Tanzania Investment Bank's credit for processorsCommercial interest rates in Tanzania are very high, and loan conditions are very stringent. That makes it difficult for the pastoralists and the traders and processors of livestock products to qualify for loans. The Tanzania Investment Bank, a government-owned bank, has a special loan window for processors and others who add value to livestock products. The borrower has to present a business plan to the bank, explaining how it will use the money. For example, the bank may support a feedlot to purchase animals from pastoralists and fatten them up for sale to an abattoir.The bank is expanding this loan window into a larger programme to finance agricultural projects. This will offer short-, medium-or long-term loans to groups of producers who are organized as a cooperative, as well as companies and microfinance institutions involved in agriculture. It will also consider start-ups that meet certain criteria. It will charge low interest rates: 4% for on-lenders and 5% for end-borrowers. On-lenders may not charge the end-borrowers more than 8% interest.The repayment period ranges between 6 months and 15 years, depending on the nature of the activity being financed. There is a grace period (before the borrower has to start repaying), also depending on the type of activity.More information: Jeremiah Temu; www.tib.co.tz/agriculturefinance.php clients) can in fact be a viable proposition. But they run the danger of undercutting and crowding out investment by the private sector in serving these clients.At the start of the chain, individual livestock keepers find it hard to get loans. But if they organize themselves into a group or cooperative, they may be able to attract loans from a microfinance institution, which they can then invest in an enterprise such as trading livestock. Alternatively, the group may lend the money on to its individual members. The group takes on the task of lending out small amounts to lots of mobile pastoralists: it decides who gets a loan, handles repayments, chases members who are in default, and shoulders the risk of someone not repaying.Box 39 describes two initiatives to promote such external financing.While commercial lenders may be reluctant to lend to individual pastoralists, they are much more likely to lend to a business that has fixed assets, collateral, and a bank balance. A bank may lend money to an abattoir, for example, so it can buy animals from pastoralists and pay them immediately. Box 40 outlines a credit scheme in Tanzania that does this, and that is expanding into lending also to cooperatives and microfinance institutions.Savings and credit cooperatives Another way for pastoralists to get credit is to organize themselves into savings and credit cooperatives. The group members save a small amount on a regular basis, putting it into a common kitty. Members can then borrow a sum from the kitty, repaying it with interest (Figure 10).Such schemes are common among smallholder crop and livestock farmers. They are used in pastoralist areas too, both to cover general expenses and to finance marketing.Savings and credit cooperatives may be standalone (the first example in Box 41), or they may be run by or organized around a marketing organization such as a milk-collection centre or a craft-making cooperative (the second example in the box).vouchers Vouchers can be a useful addition to a credit scheme. An organization may issue vouchers to pastoralists, who can use them to pay for items such as inputs or services. The input Moving herds, moving markets 5 Services or service provider then redeems the vouchers with the issuing organization (Figure 11). Heifer International's East Africa Dairy Development Project (Case 13) uses such an approach to support milk producers in Uganda. This arrangement allows the producers to decide what inputs and services they buy, but restricts their range of choices (the vouchers cannot be used to buy beer, for example). That makes sure that the credit is used to boost production, and not for other purposes. Sharia-compliant credit Traditional banks and microfinance institutions charge interest on loans in order to recoup their costs, cover the risk of default, and to make a profit. But sharia, or Islamic law, regards this as usury, so prohibits it. Because many pastoralists are Muslims, they cannot obtain loans from such institutions. In their eyes, to do so would be to commit a sin.Sharia-compliant financial institutions overcome this by finding ways to offer loans that avoid charging interest. In Ethiopia, Mercy Corps found that no banks were offering sharia-compliant loans, so it set up its own fund to do so (Case 1). It has also worked with the government of the Somali Region to introduce a loan scheme (Box 42).Drought is by far the biggest cause of livestock deaths in northern Kenya. A prolonged period of dry weather can decimate a herd and throw a pastoralist family firmly into dire poverty. Insurance could compensate the herders for their losses, but traditional approaches to insurance do not work in pastoralist areas. In traditional insurance policies, the insurer pays out if the person insured reports a loss. That doesn't work with livestock (have the animals really died, or has their owner merely moved them somewhere else?). And pastoralist areas are too big and remote for insurance agents to verify losses on the ground.Two developments are beginning to overcome these difficulties: the development of index-based insurance and the arrival of mobile phones (Box 43).Terra Nuova and Vétérinaires sans Frontières Belgium have organized and trained several groups of pastoralists in northern Kenya on how to manage a community banking scheme.Each group elects a chairman, secretary and treasurer. It has a lockable moneybox with two padlocks. The group's treasurer holds one key, while the secretary keeps the other. The chairman looks after the box itself, but has no key.The group meets twice a week to put savings into the box. Each person's contribution is put into his or her account book. One member can then borrow money from the box at a low interest rate.The group members have started petty trading activities such as buying and selling livestock drugs.The East African Dairy Development Project, implemented by Heifer International, has helped set up 22 community milk-chilling plants in Rift Valley Province in Kenya. These plants collect milk from pastoralist milk producers, chill it and sell it on to retailers and consumers.Ten of the plants have a shareholding arrangement that acts as a savings-and-loans scheme for members. People who deliver milk to the centre can opt to have part of the price (typically 5 or 10 shillings, 6-10 US cents a litre) paid into a shareholding fund in their name. If they need a loan, they can borrow up to three times their shareholding amount. So if a member has a shareholding of KSh 300, she can borrow up to KSh 900 ($10) -a useful sum in rural Kenya.The cooperative charges 12% interest -much lower than the commercial rate of 20%. It redistributes any profits from its sales to the shareholders in the form of a dividend.The cooperative also gets low-interest loans from commercial banks and lends the money on to its members.More information: Sylvester Nyadero (Turkana and Pokot), Reuben Koech (East African dairy project)Introducing sharia finance to pastoralist areas in EthiopiaThe lack of sharia-compliant financial services has long been a problem in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.In 2011, the first such institution, the Somali Microfinance Institute Share Company, was launched. This was part of an initiative by Mercy Corps as part of the US Agency for International Development's Revitalizing Agricultural/Pastoral Incomes and New Markets project.The company now has offices in Fiq, Jijiga (the capital of the Somali Region) and 14 other locations, staffed by 76 men and 31 women. It has disbursed birr 14,000,000 ($740,000) in loans, 80% of which have been to women. These loans are typically in amounts of birr 4,000 ($212) per initial one-year loan. Repayment rates have been excellent, with no defaults and many clients repaying their initial loans in full. Over 3,000 clients have saved birr 36,000,000 ($1,900,000).The company has established a sharia committee of respected local elders to advise it on microfinance and to make sure that the loans are acceptable to local people. This has been very successful in helping people to trust the new system. Mercy Corps arranged for the company managers and the sharia committee to visit Hargeisa, in neighbouring Somaliland, to see how sharia-compliant finance works there.More information: Emma Proud; www.mercycorps.org Credit and voucher schemes make it possible for pastoralists and traders to invest in production and marketing.• To use and benefit from financial services, pastoralists need to become part of the cashbased economy. This implies big changes in the way they and others do business. • The success of financial services for pastoral communities depends on an enabling regulatory and legal framework, as well as favourable terms of trade for livestock and livestock products.• Financial services are just one of several components that need to be in place for the marketing of pastoralists' products to work smoothly. Other components include access to inputs, markets and marketing infrastructure, land and appropriate technology. • A range of financial services are required. The traditional focus in agricultural development projects has been microcredit, but other services, including money transfer, savings and insurance, may be equally important. • Financial services must be tailored to the needs of each of the actors in the marketing chain.Credit and insurance services must be designed specifically for pastoralists: a scheme that works well for crops or sedentary livestock is unlikely to be suited (or would need to be heavily adapted) for mobile livestock. Close involvement of the pastoralists, together with a thorough understanding of their needs, constraints, goals, priorities, production system and environment, are needed to design appropriate financial services. • The services must be delivered to pastoralists in an appropriate way. Mobile phones and agrovet stores offer flexible ways to reach large numbers of scattered clients at an affordable cost.Pastoralists tend to live in remote, inhospitable areas. Some major roads are well maintained, but many are terrible, and feeder roads are few and bumpy. Many so-called \"roads\" hardly deserve the name, and they may be impassable during part of the year. Holding pens and loading ramps for livestock are few. Transport companies are scarce, and there are few vehicles suitable for transporting animals, milk or meat. Overloading is a common problem; it can be cruel and lead to the death of animals. Speeding is another problem, and can result in serious accidents. These problems increase the cost of transport as well as the time taken to deliver the produce.Herding animals is cheaper than loading them onto a lorry, so most animals are trekked from one grazing area to another, and to the processing centre or market -which may be hundreds of kilometres away. Disadvantages include:• There are few grazing and watering facilities on the way, and many animals die en route.When they arrive at market, the animals are skinny, hungry and thirsty. The quality of meat suffers, and the animals are liable to fetch low prices. • Herding animals can spread diseases if they pass through disease-ridden areas or come into contact with wildlife or local herds. • The security of animals and herders can be a problem: cattle-rustling is common in some areas and often leads to loss of human lives. • In some areas, the movement of livestock is hampered by the growth of bushes and shrubs such as mesquite, a weedy, thorny shrub that has been introduced as part of regreening schemes. • Once the animals arrive at their destination, their owners can hardly drive them all the way back to their home areas, so find themselves in a weak bargaining position. They are forced to take the prices that are offered.Most of these problems can be avoided if the animals are moved by lorry.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has developed an insurance scheme that avoids the need to verify the loss of animals. Instead of counting carcasses, it relies on satellite images of the vegetation. A computer model relates this to the expected levels of livestock mortality. If the vegetation is so sparse that the model predicts that 15% of the animals will die for lack of fodder, the insurance scheme will pay out. ILRI works with three insurance companies to provide the service in Marsabit district in northern Kenya. Pastoralists pay about $1 to insure a sheep or goat, $10 for a cow, and $14 for a camel. The amount varies depending on how risk-prone the area is: in dry Upper Marsabit the premium is 5.5% of the value of the animal; in wetter Lower Marsabit it is 3.25%. To pay for the premiums, most herders sell a few goats.Twice a year, at the end of the long dry season in September and after the short dry season in February, the computer model calculates whether the 15% threshold has been reached. If so, it triggers a payment to the relevant policyholders. The policyholders do not need to submit a claim; they receive the payment automatically. The idea is to cover only severe droughts; mild droughts and other causes of livestock deaths are not covered.The scheme was launched in 2009, when it sold nearly 2,000 insurance policies and collected almost $47,000 in premiums. The second dry season covered was drier than the threshold, so the insurance company paid out a total of over $20,000.Mobile phones make it far easier to keep in touch with large numbers of scattered clients, handle small transactions, and even to sell insurance policies and pay out compensation for losses. The Kilimo Salama (\"Safe Agriculture\") insurance scheme in Kenya, introduced by the Syngenta Foundation, is an example that could be expanded to cover pastoralists.This scheme was designed for maize and wheat. Local agrovet dealers sell policies to farmers. They use a paperless system with dedicated software to record details and to confirm immediately to the farmer that the policy has been approved. The agrovets use the mobile phone-based M-Pesa system (Box 36) to transfer payments.Unlike the ILRI initiative, this scheme relies on automated weather stations to record rainfall. The farmers also receive tailored extension messages using data from their local weather station. If the weather station indicates that rainfall is below a certain threshold, the farmers receive an automatic payout, also via M-Pesa.In 2012 the scheme was expanded to cover dairy cattle under an arrangement with Heifer Kenya and the Tanykina Dairy Cooperative in Eldoret.Where roads are in fair condition, milk is often transported using motorcycles, pickup trucks, small lorries, tractors and even insulated road tankers. These reduce delivery times, improving the product quality. But using motor vehicles is more expensive than bicycles, so requires larger amounts of milk to be bulked. The buyer must be willing to pay a premium price to cover the cost of transport and bulking.Meat, milk and other dairy products are highly perishable and must be handled carefully before and during transportation. Refrigerated vehicles are needed to transport them over long distances. But they are expensive and depend on a cold chain: they pick up a product that is already refrigerated, and deliver it to a destination that also has refrigeration. That restricts their use to the large-scale transport between locations which have reliable electricity and cooling facilities (Box 44).Without refrigeration, it is advisable to collect and transport milk and meat during the cool of the morning.Specialized vehicles for transporting animals are expensive, but ordinary lorries can be modified by providing straw, sawdust or sand on the truck bed, and by using partitions to support the standing animals. Drivers should be experienced; they must avoid overloading, speeding and abrupt braking. Moving animals after sunset reduces heat stress.The most suitable form of transport varies from place to place: it depends on the terrain, the state of the roads, the distance to be covered, the cost of using the vehicle, and the volume of milk to be transported. It is therefore not possible to recommend a specific means of transport for all pastoral areas.Two of the cases in Chapter 8 give examples of improvements in vehicles:• The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) invested heavily in improved livestock transport. For example, it provided cattle wagons for the railway, and built sidings to make it easier to load and unload animals. • Socroprolait in Burkina Faso (Case 14) increased the number of milk collectors and started using motorbikes rather than bicycles to deliver the milk to the processing plant.The lack of refrigeration in most pastoralist areas severely limits the market for meat. If the animals are slaughtered and processed without cooling, the meat has a limited shelf life, so it can be marketed only locally. The only alternative is to transport the live animals to an abattoir which has cooling facilities for meat -which means a long trek or subjecting the animals to many hours crammed onto the back of a lorry bumping along dusty roads. The Lomidat abattoir in Turkana, northern Kenya, has found a third alternative. It chills or freezes the meat, then loads it onto refrigerated trucks and takes it to the main meat markets in Kenya, including the capital city of Nairobi, 900 km or 15 hours away.Maintaining this cold chain has opened up new markets for the pastoralists of Turkana, allowing them to compete on product quality and safety in the cities. The refrigerated lorry can carry more carcasses than a stock lorry, and it is not necessary to stop en route. That makes transporting chilled meat cheaper and faster than moving live animals.More information: Case 8 Similar problems affect the milk marketing chain. With no cooling equipment or electricity in rural areas, milk has to be transported warm, usually in unhygienic, plastic jerry cans, often on foot, by bicycle, or on donkeys and camels. Without treatment, it spoils quickly and can be transported only over short distances. That restricts the area that can supply milk and the number of herders who can produce for the market.There are four main approaches to overcoming transport problems:• Improving roads • Improving vehicles • Reducing the distance to be covered • Improving facilities en route.The main roads in many pastoralist areas are gradually being improved through major road-building programmes, often foreign-funded. The refurbished roads are either asphalted or are all-weather gravel. The discovery of oil in northern Turkana district in Kenya is likely to result in big improvements to roads in the area. Expanding the network of feeder roads is particularly important for livestock production and marketing.Major road improvements cost a lot, but they have numerous benefits. They boost the overall economy, improve national security, integrate remote areas, combat the effects of drought, etc. They make livestock production and marketing easier and improve access to inputs and services. But greater accessibility may also bring problems: think of greater competition from cheap imports and an influx of outsiders to farm previously remote land. It also encourages settlement along the roads, reducing pastoralists' access to grazing land.The marketing of livestock products depends on suitable transport and other infrastructure.Without markets and processing facilities nearby, pastoralists transport to deliver their products to customers and markets. The type of transport needs to be tailored to local conditions. Refrigerated vehicles are useful to carry large amounts of frozen goods between locations that have reliable electricity and cooling facilities. Elsewhere, simpler forms of transport are more appropriate.Building abattoirs and other processing facilities in pastoral areas aids marketing and makes it possible to preserve pastoral products and bulk them for transportation.Where transport by road or train is not possible and pastoralists have to trek their animals long distances to markets, establishing watering, feeding and health-care facilities on the way can help keep the trekked animals in good condition.Permitting pastoralists to keep lactating animals close to cities aids milk marketing by offsetting the need to transport this perishable product a long way.Pastoralists can sell their animals and products to various buyers: to traders and aggregators, to processors such as abattoirs, butchers or dairies, or directly to consumers. Traders and aggregators in turn sell to processors, retailers or consumers. The markets may be formal or informal, within the country or abroad (see Chapter 3).Many transactions occur directly between individuals, or between individuals and an organization. For example, a pastoralist sells a few animals to a visiting trader who arrives with a pickup truck; the trader then delivers the animals to an abattoir. But such transactions tend to rely on established relationships: the pastoralist already knows the trader, and the trader knows the abattoir. Often, the buyer has an advantage in a particular transaction: he or she has better information on prices and can go elsewhere to find the animals or products required. The result: buyers tend to have more negotiating power and can push the price down.Marketplaces offer many advantages over such individual trades. By bringing together many potential buyers and sellers, both sides have more choice. A seller is more likely to find a buyer willing to pay an acceptable price. A buyer is more likely to find someone who wants to sell the amount and quality of the product desired. If the products, buyers and sellers all come together at one place and time, trade is a lot more efficient: it is not necessary to travel huge distances in search of a few, marginally acceptable animals. Both buyers and sellers get more information about products, trading partners, prices and availability. All these advantages lead to larger volumes of trade and more stable prices.For marketplaces to work well, they have to be in convenient locations, have suitable facilities, and be well run. Unfortunately, markets for livestock and livestock products in much of Africa fall short of these requirements.There are relatively few markets in pastoral areas. That forces animals or products to be brought a long way, with all the risks inherent in herding and transport (see the previous section). Traders have to visit individual farms or encampments to find animals to buy; herders have to either wait for a trader to arrive (and accept the price offered), or trek their animals to the nearest market, which may be hundreds of kilometres away.Another way to reduce problems with transport is to cut the distance that the animals or products have to be moved. This can be done in several ways:• By establishing markets or processing facilities closer to the producers The Lomidat abattoir (Case 8) was established in Turkana to provide a market close to the district's producers. It has since established five satellite market centres around the Turkana district to make it easier for pastoralists to bring in their animals for sale. The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) built over 50 markets where pastoralists could sell their animals.• By organizing collection points where individual producers can deliver their animals or products. The animals or products are bulked before they are loaded onto a vehicle. This was the approach used by the Mieso Pastoralist Secretariat in Ethiopia (Case 11) and the Kiboga Cooperative in Uganda (Case 13). Both these established collection centres where producers could bring their milk each day.• By moving production closer to the market Caafi Mascuud did this when he started keeping milking camels in town (Case 12).A final way to improve transport is to improve the facilities along the route. These facilities include designated holding centres with loading ramps, water and feeding facilities, along with improved security. The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) used this approach, as did a multi-country project in West Africa (Box 45).Transport is a key constraint for producing and marketing products in remote regions. Better roads and infrastructure are urgently needed to overcome this constraint. But they also result in profound, unpredictable changes. For example, they may make settlement and investment in hitherto remote areas more attractive for outsiders. That may bring population growth, the overexploitation of resources, and the further marginalization of pastoralists.In West Africa, huge numbers of animals raised in the inland Sahelian countries are sold in coastal markets in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Togo. The Projet d'Appui à la Productivité de l'Elevage (Livestock Productivity Support Project) helped create livestock corridors to make it easier for herders to trek their animals the long distances required. It built infrastructure for feeding and watering the animals, including water pans, feed stores, pastures, rest areas, fences, loading ramps and veterinary drugstores. Five cattle markets were established along the corridors and equipped with veterinary and feed stores, wells and water troughs. These facilities are made available to pastoralists and cattle traders at fair prices.The animals are moved slowly, taking many days to reach markets. Because they get enough water and feed, the animals stay in good condition and fetch a good price on arrival.The project was implemented by the French NGO Acting for Life, in association with SNV and several local and national organizations. It was funded largely by the European Union.More information: http://tinyurl.com/bocglwb; Albert Houedassou Well-constructed livestock markets should provide facilities for the safe and stress-free handling of animals, loading ramps, clean water, fences, shaded rest areas and offices. Perimeter fences improve security, prevent animals from straying, and make it possible to charge fees for vendors, buyers and visitors. Markets can be made more attractive by providing facilities such as stores selling drugs, feed and food, and by offering services such as microfinance, market information and extension.A disadvantage of livestock markets is the danger of spreading disease. This is particularly a problem if animals remain unsold: if they have picked up a disease at or on the way to the market, returning them to their place of origin risks spreading the infection. In Uganda, unsold animals are supposed to be quarantined for a specified period of time to minimize such risks. Livestock markets require facilities for health inspections, quarantine and emergency slaughter of animals.Two of our cases focused on improving the infrastructure of existing markets. Both of these combined improved infrastructure with changes in the management. The Farakala market in Mali (Case 6) was run-down and poorly managed. SNV helped build a new market and set up a joint management scheme (see below). In Benin, a project built fencing, an administration building and other facilities at the Bassila market. It also helped reorganize how the market was run (Case 7).The problem is sometimes not the physical facilities, but the way they are managed. Services such as security, maintenance and health controls are poor. Small numbers of intermediaries control Some livestock markets arise spontaneously as a group of buyers and sellers become accustomed to meeting at a particular place and time. But such locations tend to be inadequate: they lack the facilities and management required to function efficiently. And not enough markets emerge to serve all the potential buyers and sellers in a particular area.National and local governments have an interest in establishing livestock markets. These stimulate the local economy and help drive development. They can act as a magnet for other types of trade and services: people who attend the market have money to spend on other things as well. They make it easier to control the movement of livestock and prevent diseases from spreading. Taxes and fees can be a source of revenue.Creating a new market does not just mean putting up a few holding pens and telling people to come next Tuesday. It requires both careful planning of infrastructure and organizing buyers, sellers and service organizations. Choosing the location and planning the facilities together with the pastoralists can enhance their acceptance. The new market at Suswa, west of Nairobi in Kenya (Case 3), is an example. It was established by Ramat Livestock Enterprises, a local marketing company that had an interest in making sure it succeeded. Ramat put in a feedlot, water supply and other facilities, and organized the running of the market.In northern Kenya, the Lomidat abattoir discovered that it needed to make it easier to pastoralists in the surrounding area to sell their animals. So it set up a series of satellite market centres at strategic sites around the district (Box 46). These serve not just the abattoir but other buyers too.The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) is an example of a major initiative that established a large number of markets and other facilities to serve the livestock trade. Most of these were successful, though the border markets were not. These were designed to channel and control the cross-border trade in live animals. But pastoralists and traders preferred to stick to their traditional trading routes that bypass what they see as burdensome and costly interference.Those markets that do exist tend to be ill-equipped. Many are merely open areas where people have agreed to meet and trade. They lack facilities such as holding pens, feeding and watering troughs, perimeter fences, administration buildings, toilets, loading ramps and access roads. Facilities for trading meat and milk are rudimentary: a blood-soaked piece of cardboard placed on the dusty ground; a sweltering room where women sit with jerry cans of rapidly fermenting milk. Hygiene, quality, volumes and prices all suffer.The Lomidat Pastoral Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, the company that runs the Lomidat abattoir, has built five market centres to source animals for the abattoir. The markets are located on livestock migration routes in Lokangae, Letea, Kanakurudio, Lokori and Namouroputh. They were established in collaboration with the local pastoralist communities. Each market has loading ramps and other facilities. The idea is to turn them into permanent markets that operate on set days, so bringing together producers and buyers and creating a permanent market linkage.To attract buyers and sellers -and to function efficiently -a marketplace needs fencing, water and feeding points, shelter, toilets, and a loading ramp.Direct sales from pastoralists to buyers save pastoralists from having to transport their animals or products to markets. While such sales often rely on established relationships and mutual trust, they often give an advantage to the buyers, who have better access to price and other outside information.Marketplaces can overcome this disadvantage, but they are rare or inadequate in pastoral areas. Functioning markets are needed in locations that pastoralists can reach easily. They should have facilities suitable for selling animals and perishable products.Including pastoralists in the planning of marketplaces can enhance their acceptance. Retail stores and services such as microfinance, market information and extension can make marketplaces more attractive.Good management is key to the functioning of a marketplace. Joint management by local authorities and councils of market users can overcome the shortcomings that both groups may have when managing a market alone. To make the joint model work, both sides need to communicate well with each other and clearly delineate their responsibilities. An alternative is to have the marketplace run by a company or cooperative.Most livestock products need some kind of processing before they can be consumed. There are two exceptions: milk, which can be sold straight from the udder, and live animals used for breeding or draught.But fresh milk does not keep long: if it cannot be sold straight away, it has to be pasteurized and chilled to stop it from going off. It can also be turned into a huge range of subsidiary products: butter, ghee, yoghurt, buttermilk, cheese, ice cream, etc. All of these have to packaged hygienically and cooled to extend their shelf life.Slaughtering animals produces carcasses, as well as various other useful products: the inner organs, bone, fat, horns, hides and tails. The carcasses can be sold as sides (of beef) or whole (for sheep and goats), or cut into a range of joints. The meat may be minced or turned into sausages, luncheon meat, biltong (strips of dried meat), or many other products. The meat products may be chilled or frozen, or packaged and labelled ready for retail. Abattoirs also produce a lot of waste, which must be disposed of safely.Tanneries turn fresh hides and skins into leather and suede: the raw materials for shoes, clothing, furnishings and many other products.Processing facilities such as abattoirs, tanneries, chilling plants and dairies are rare in pastoralist areas. Building them would have several benefits. It would bring the immediate buyer closer to where the products are produced. It would increase demand for livestock. Because processing tends to be labour-intensive, it would create jobs, boost local incomes and integrate remote areas into the cash economy. Abattoirs also make it possible to \"destock\" herds (reduce the number of animals) when drought threatens -so making it possible for pastoralists to earn money from animals that would otherwise die for lack of feed and water (Box 47). the trade and earn the biggest slice of profit. Fees, if they are collected at all, are pocketed by corrupt officials.Some marketplaces are owned and managed by local governments, but government officials usually lack the knowledge and skills needed. At worst, they tend to regard the markets as a burden, or merely as a convenient source of revenue. Other marketplaces are owned by cooperatives, but these often lack the capital needed to invest in facilities and the authority required to enforce rules. The result is mismanagement and neglect. Buyers and sellers vote with their feet: they take their trade elsewhere.Joint management A common solution among the cases in this book is to manage the market jointly, with the local authority and a council of market users both taking responsibility. This approach was used by the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (Case 2) in reorganizing the governance of dozens of markets in Kenya. In the Farakala market in Mali (Case 6), the local cooperative managed the market, but this had no money to invest in facilities. The donor insisted on the local authority taking ownership as a condition for investment in new facilities. In the Bassila market in Benin, SNV organized a general assembly of all market stakeholders and a management committee with representatives of each group (Case 7). That put an end to the dominance by a small group of brokers.Company-run markets Another method is for a company or cooperative to set up and run the market itself. This was the approach used by Heifer International and Ramat Livestock Enterprises (Case 3) and the Lomidat abattoir (Case 8) in Kenya. The company or cooperative has an incentive to make the market a success: the Lomidat abattoir wants to ensure a regular supply of animals for slaughter, while for Ramat, the market is its main activity and source of income.Good market facilities make trading easier and more efficient.It is possible to raise some of the funds locally, e.g., by organizing producers or traders to invest their savings in the venture. But this is likely to cover only a fraction of the costs. The investment and expertise must therefore come from outside: through the government, a development project or a private-sector venture, or through some kind of joint arrangement.Six of the cases in this book describe establishing new processing industries. Three of these set up abattoirs: the Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4), the Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union (Case 5), and the Lomidat slaughterhouse (Case 8). Two cases established dairies: the Mieso Pastoralist Secretariat's faraqa annani small-scale dairies in Ethiopia (Case 11) and the Kiboga cooperative's milk-chilling plant in Uganda (Case 13). In addition, the project in Maswa, Tanzania, (Case 10) founded several tanneries to make use of locally produced hides and skins.None of these cases illustrates a purely private-sector commercial venture. This may reflect how the cases were selected (via the networks of development organizations). More likely, though, it reflects the reality that commercial ventures are unwilling to risk investing large amounts of capital in areas they regard as risky, without the additional investment and collaboration with the government or a development project. Until this hurdle is overcome, economic development in pastoralist areas is not likely to be self-generating.All of the cases above involved development organizations, the local or national government, and producers' organizations. Such organizations have a social or developmental orientation. Tensions inevitably arise when they try to establish a commercially viable operation: they may not be in a position to make the decisions necessary to make sure the venture is profitable and sustainable. To do this, they require professional managers who have the necessary skills and orientation.To make things more complicated, the processing industries that are set up must combine commercial viability with a social mission. They not only have to make a profit (or at least break even financially); they must also serve a particular group of people: the pastoralists who supply them, and the staff they employ. They must offer favourable prices and terms and additional services. For example, the Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) pays the same price as in neighbouring South Africa, and is obliged to accept all the animals that herders wish to sell to it. A purely commercial venture with no social mission would not expect to offer such perks, and would not incur the additional costs involved.That means that development interventions that aim to establish processing industries in pastoralist areas have to overcome three hurdles:But such facilities rely on several preconditions. Most crucially, they require electricity, roads and a water supply -all of which are scarce in pastoralist areas. They also rely on a skilled, settled, labour force -which is also absent. For these reasons, processing facilities, where they exist at all, are to be found in the few towns in pastoralist regions.Processing facilities also require specialized equipment if they are to turn out products that can be sold to national supermarkets or exported. Dairies need vats, heaters, coolers, pumps, testing equipment, churns and refrigerated road tankers. Abattoirs need feedlots, holding pens, loading areas, slaughtering facilities, processing lines, cool rooms, butchering and packaging equipment, waste-handling facilities, and refrigerated lorries to transport the products. Tanneries need equipment to handle the corrosive salt and other chemicals used to preserve and tan hides.This equipment is costly and requires significant levels of investment, along with expertise in designing and managing the facilities. Pastoral areas have neither the money nor the right skills.The Lomidat slaughterhouse in Turkana, northern Kenya has modern slaughter facilities and welltrained personnel. It is a state-of-the-art facility that provides pastoralists with ready markets for their produce. It saves the pastoralists the problem of walking long distances to sell their animals, and offers them a decent price. The Kenyan government is setting up similar abattoirs in Garissa, Pokot and other pastoral areas. These facilities will be available for pastoralists to slaughter animals when drought threatens to decimate their herds, so avoiding huge losses.More information: www.lomidatmeat.co.ke ... but processing facilities do not have to be fancy to be useful.Establishing new processing facilities from scratch can require a lot of investment... The processing plants try to overcome these difficulties by making it easier for suppliers to sell them their animals or milk. A common strategy is to set up satellite collection points (see the section on Transport above). The Kiboga cooperative in Uganda (Case 13) established milk-collection points, as did the Mieso Pastoralist Secretariat's faraqa annani milk-marketing groups in Ethiopia (Case 11). This approach works for animals too: the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya has set up satellite livestock markets. These satellite centres may be merely somewhere where the products can be bulked and then picked up; or they may do some processing, such as chilling, testing, grading and slaughtering.Another way to improve the flow of inputs is to make it attractive for pastoralists to sell their output. The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana offers three different credit schemes for feedlot owners and pastoralists (Case 9). Other strategies include undertaking to buy all the animals that the pastoralist wishes to sell, and offering above-market prices.Among the local rural population in pastoralist areas, demand for processed products is limited: the population density is low, and many people already produce all the animal products they need. So the main markets are likely to be in the local towns, distant cities, and abroad.Without chilling facilities and a cold chain, milk producers have to be close to their markets. Hawrindé Biradam's collection centre is in Say, a mere 55 km from Niamey, the capital of Niger (Case 15). Socoprolait is located in Houndé, a provincial capital on the main road between the two main cities in Burkina Faso (Case 14). All the milk processors described in the cases have a network of retailers who sell their output.Abattoirs tend to serve more distant markets, and have to put considerable effort into finding and securing buyers. The Lomidat slaughterhouse in northern Kenya (Case 8) serves customers in Nairobi and elsewhere; it emphasizes the quality of its products. The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) sells its products through subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa. It has a European Unon quota of nearly 19,000 tonnes a year, but has not yet been able to supply the full amount. It must comply with the importing countries' strict quality requirements and compete with producers from the USA, Australia and Brazil. (An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has currently interrupted exports, emphasizing the importance of strict disease control to comply with the requirements of export markets.)Milk and meat are perishable and easily contaminated. In many instances, small changes such as improving hygiene during milking and slaughter and transport can significantly improve their shelf life and quality.The establishment of processing facilities in pastoral areas supports the marketing of perishable products. However, sophisticated facilities require infrastructure and specialized equipment, so can be very expensive. Outside investment by the government, development projects or private-sector ventures is needed to support such facilities.Faced with seasonal changes and emergencies, it is difficult for pastoralists to keep processors regularly supplied with quality animals and milk. Processors can establish satellite centres where• They must identify investment opportunities that the private sector has somehow failed to exploit. • They must switch from a development orientation to a commercial posture in order to create a viable enterprise. • They must incur the additional costs required by their social mandate. While these hurdles are common in many areas of development work, they are particularly challenging in pastoralist areas because of remoteness, the lack of infrastructure, the mobility of their suppliers, and the extreme seasonal variations in supplies.It may not be necessary to invest in very expensive modern facilities. Even fairly rudimentary equipment can greatly improve the hygiene and quality of the product. A simple concrete slab with an adequate supply of clean water can greatly improve the hygiene and handling of meat. Replacing plastic jerry cans (which are impossible to clean) with aluminium churns can greatly reduce the contamination of milk. Such equipment may be enough if the product is sold fresh on the local market. Only meat and milk destined for distant urban markets may need to be chilled or frozen.The Socroprolait dairy in Burkina Faso (Case 14) gives an example of some simple changes that can greatly improve the processing of livestock products. The cooperative speeded up milk collections by using motorbikes rather than bicycles. That improved quality and enabled the cooperative to collect milk from further away and from more producers. It now uses a gas stove, rather than wood, to pasteurize the milk.It is hard to ensure a regular supply of animals or milk in the quantities and of the quality required. Milk producers, for example, are likely to have little surplus milk during the dry season, when water and fodder are scarce. Herders may want to hold onto their animals and multiply their herds when grazing conditions are good; they may also want to retain as many animals as possible during a drought in the hope that at least some pull through. When drought strikes hard and they are forced to sell, many herders may want to do so at the same time. A lot of emaciated animals arrive at the abattoir at the same time; they have to be fattened up before they can be slaughtered.Pastoralists understandably want to fulfil their own families' needs first. They make sure they have enough to eat, and have enough to tide them over the hard times ahead, and only then consider selling a surplus. For settled farmers, buying feed is usually the biggest expense, so they want to sell animals as soon as possible. Pastoralists, on the other hand, send their animals out to graze, so have no feed costs and no pressure to sell. Their decision to sell may instead depend on their need for cash, for example to cover school fees or emergency expenses.In addition, many pastoralists move their herds over long distances in search of pasture. It is hard to collect small quantities of milk from a herd that moves from place to place. It is also impractical to deliver animals to an abattoir if they are hundreds of kilometres away and far from a road.Maintaining the quality of inputs is also difficult. Thin animals need to be fattened; diseased animals have to be treated and quarantined. Sour milk cannot be made fresh, and milk that has been diluted or contaminated can ruin a whole batch.Adequate facilities are vital to check and maintain quality. These include handling facilities and equipment (holding pens, loading ramps, clean water supplies, sanitary facilities) at markets and abattoirs, testing equipment and refrigeration facilities at abattoirs and milk-collection centres, and suitable equipment for transport and storage (cool-boxes, aluminium or stainless milk cans and milking pails, refrigerated trucks). Abattoirs that accept substandard animals need feedlots to fatten them up before slaughter.The Processing section above lists six cases where a new processing industry was established to turn low-quality local products into items that could attract a higher-value market. Several of the other cases describe attempts to improve facilities to boost quality:• Ramat Livestock Enterprises in Kenya (Case 3) has a feedlot at its market in Suswa, to bring animals up to market weight. • The Lobatse case in Botswana (Case 9) illustrates some alternatives to the abattoir managing its own feedlot: the abattoir runs several credit schemes to ensure good-quality animals arrive at its unloading pen. • The Kiboga dairy in Uganda (Case 13) used a loan to buy a milk cooler -which generated enough profit for the cooperative to buy a second one in 2 years.But the new facilities have to be appropriate: the Lesitu Annani Gorbo dairy cooperative in Ethiopia (Case 11) got a new refrigerator, but cannot use it because the area has no power supply.New facilities usually require changes in procedures: more careful handling, new steps in processes, better record-keeping. Staff have to be trained how to use the facilities correctly if they are to have the desired impact.There may be opportunities to improve procedures without lots of new equipment. An example of this is in the Socoprolait dairy in Burkina Faso (Case 14), where speedier collection improved milk quality without the need for new gear.Formal markets for meat and milk require that products are inspected at various stages in the marketing chain.Live animals leaving livestock markets are supposed to be inspected by professional veterinarians and have a movement permit issued to the transporter. While the markets provide the opportunity to control the movement of livestock and therefore spread of diseases, they also provide infrastructure for proper handling and inspection of the animals.A veterinarian checks animals when they arrive at the abattoir, and an inspector checks the meat after slaughter for diseases and other problems. Grading of animals and meat may allow producers to get a premium price for good quality. All the abattoirs described in the cases have such procedures.Milk also goes through several inspections: on acceptance by the dairy, and at various stages in processing. These tests aim to detect things like the fat content, whether the milk has been adulterated, as well as the presence of bacteria and things like antibiotics and chemicals that may harm consumers. Two of the five dairy cases mention such testing: the Kibogo West Livestock Cooperative Society in Uganda (Case 13) and Socoprolait in Burkina Faso (Case 14). The two pastoralists can deliver their products, and where they can get access to fodder, credit and other services.The poor quality of livestock and products produced by pastoralists is one of the major hindrances to selling to high-value markets. They often fail to meet the requirements of processors or retailers, or reach official standards set by the government. There are various reasons for this:• Animal quality Animals may be thin or diseased when they arrive at the market or abattoir because of a lack of feed or veterinary treatment. They may have walked long distances to reach their destination. They may be over-(or more usually under-) weight, and older than the buyers' require. Owners often prefer to sell their older or non-productive animals, keeping the younger animals for their own use. • Awareness People are often unaware of the need to maintain hygiene, and do not know how to do so. Traditional methods of milking, slaughtering, and curing hides and skins reduce the product quality. For example, herders sometimes use urine to clean milk containers, apply cow dung on teats to prevent calves from suckling, and milk animals without washing their hands first. • Contamination Animals may be suffering from mastitis, which makes the milk unsuitable for consumption. Treatment with antibiotics or acaricides (medicines used to control ticks) may leave unacceptable levels of residues in the milk. Producers, collectors or traders may add water to milk to increase its volume. • Water A lack of clean water makes it hard to maintain hygiene in meat and milk production. • Equipment Equipment is often inadequate. Milk may be carried or stored in open buckets, where it is easily contaminated. It is transported in plastic jerry cans, which are impossible to keep clean, despite repeated washing. Slaughtering and butchering slabs are rare, so many animals are killed and cut up on the ground, leading to contamination. Without chilling facilities and fly screens, meat and milk go off quickly. • Distance and delays The long distance to collection centres may mean that milk deteriorates during transport. • Inspection Inspection, testing and grading services are needed to ensure that the products are of acceptable quality. But such services are absent in many pastoral areas. There are not enough trained personnel or testing facilities. • Incentives There are few incentives for producing good-quality products. Milk, for example, is sold on the basis of weight or volume only, not butterfat content or acidity. Understandably, producers do not see the value of testing and grading their milk; they prefer to sell to buyers who are not fussy about quality.Better facilities and procedures require people who know how to use them. Training is vital, both for the people who operate the facilities, and for the producers who supply the animals or milk. We cover this aspect in detail in the next chapter.To serve local, informal markets, testing is not vital: the time from production to consumption is short, so products such as meat and milk do not need to be stored for a long time. Formal markets, however, require a rigorous inspection system. Actors further along the marketing chain, such as processors, retailers and consumers, will reject any products that do not conform to their quality expectations. They are also likely to stop buying from the supplier of the offending items. One dud batch can ruin a business relationship -and an entire marketing chain. So if producers and processors want to benefit from the higher volumes and prices offered by a formal market, they have to inaugurate adequate quality controls. That requires investment in equipment, personnel and procedures, along with constant vigilance.A sustainable system for testing should be effective but simple, reliable, cheap to operate, and appropriate for the pastoralist setting. Ideally, this should be done by pastoralist communities themselves.For live animals and meat, this means training herders, traders and abattoir staff on animal quality, as in Ramat Livestock Enterprises in Kenya (Case 3). Community-based meat inspectors can identify diseased animals and meat, and report problems to professional veterinary workers using mobile phones. Where necessary, samples can be sent to distant laboratories for further examination.Livestock and meat inspection and grading services are essential at all slaughter facilities. Routine medical examination of meat handlers is necessary and should be vigorously enforced by the relevant national health or standards or meat regulatory agency.For milk, it means establishing simple tests on milk at rural milk collection centres. These enable the producers and buyers to grade the milk before it is accepted. Tests include visual inspection and tasting, and testing using simple equipment. Collection centres should obtain the skills, equipment and materials needed to do this. Young people can be trained in testing and grading. Key points early in the marketing chain -markets, abattoirs and milk-collection centres -must have adequate facilities for checking and maintaining quality.Producers and processors should be trained on how to deliver and produce superior products. They should get a price incentive for doing so.Interventions to improve quality must be appropriate. That depends on the local situation and the target market: it would be unprofitable to invest a lot in top-notch quality in order to serve an informal local market. For formal national or international markets, however, such a concern for quality is unavoidable.Ethiopian dairy cases that serve local markets (the faraqa annani groups in Case 11, and the urban camels in Case 12) do not appear to include testing.Such quality tests have to be done on site and the results have to be available immediatelybefore diseased meat is further processed or the contents of a contaminated churn are mixed with wholesome milk. That means the abattoir or dairy has to invest in the trained staff and special equipment required.Perhaps the most important way of improving quality is to provide incentives to producers and processors to deliver superior products. That means inspecting or testing animals and products, paying a premium for those that exceed a certain standard, and penalizing (and if necessary rejecting) those that are substandard.Few of the cases in this book specifically mention such incentives, but several of them do state that the product is tested (see Improving inspection above). Examples are the Kibogo cooperative in Uganda (Case 13) and Socroprolait in Niger (Case 15). The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) is obliged to accept all animals that it receives, but it grades them and pays the herders accordingly.Creating a market can give producers an incentive to supply a quality product. The new tanneries in Tanzania (Case 10) are an example of this. They buy quality hides from pastoralists at a premium price -ten times what traders usually pay. The camel milk market in Kenya (Box 6) is another: consumers in distant Nairobi are so eager for camel milk that they pay double the price of cow milk. That is enough to make it profitable to transport the milk 300 km from rangelands around Isiolo to the capital.It is vital to control the quality of products from pastoralist areas if they are to marketed competitively.6 Skills and organization T he previouS two chapters focus on building opportunities for pastoralists and other actors to produce, process and market livestock products. But by themselves, opportunities are not enough. People need the knowledge and skills to take advantage of the opportunities that arise. That implies the need to build human and social capital -the subject of this chapter. By \"human capital\" we mean individual skills and abilities; by \"social capital\" we understand the relationships among people.We look first at the capacity needs of various actors in pastoralist marketing chains, and ways to build this capacity. We then turn to efforts to organize pastoralists and other actors to make the marketing chain more efficient. Finally, we investigate the theme of gender and the role of women in pastoralist marketing.The initiatives in this book followed four main approaches to capacity building:• Improving existing activities This means enhancing people's abilities to do something they already do. Examples are training livestock raisers on animal health and feeding, enabling milk producers to improve milk hygiene, and helping producers market their products. The aim is to increase the volume or quality of the product (so raising its value), or to reduce the costs of producing and marketing it. • Enabling people to get services This involves enabling people to obtain services such as credit, inputs and market information that they need to improve their production and marketing. • Adding activities in the marketing chain This means enabling people to take on additional activities, such as bulking milk, setting up a dairy, or organizing a market. The aim is to increase the value of the product by improving its handling, processing it, or by making the chain more efficient. • Establishing new functions Several of the projects created new organizations (or radically revised old ones) and types of employment. Examples are the Lomidat abattoir in Kenya (Case 8), the tanneries in Tanzania (Case 10), and the dairies in Uganda (Case 13) and Burkina Faso (Case 14). The jobs created are full-time (or seasonal), and the people employed typically get a wage or salary. Many of these jobs require new types of skills: slaughtering and butchering animals, for example, or running dairy equipment.The first three of these capacity-building approaches mean that people take on additional activities in the chain. For example, a pastoralist may also start processing and bulking milk, tak-Efforts to improve the marketing of livestock products focus on four main groups: pastoralist men and women who produce the raw products (mainly meat and milk), the people who process the product, traders, and service providers. Each of these groups has different capacity needs and faces different situations, so the methods of building their capacity vary.The members of these groups are not necessarily different individuals: they may be one and the same. A pastoralist who raises livestock may also buy animals from friends and neighbours, and sell them on to someone else. A dairy producer may collect raw milk and process it before selling it. Organized into groups, pastoralists may take turns to collect, process and sell their products.Pastoralists Pastoralists face various capacity-related problems in producing and marketing their products. They do not know how to produce the required quality, so prices are low; they produce small amounts of meat and milk, so cannot sell in bulk. Their limited understanding of markets and market opportunities means they cannot negotiate better prices or conditions. They typically have low levels of formal education, and many are illiterate or innumerate.Pastoralists need to improve their abilities in various areas if they are to improve the volume and quality of their output, reduce their production costs, and get the services they require. They need to learn new skills so they can supply the products that higher-value markets demand. These skills include:• Livestock production This covers animal breeding, health, feeding, hygiene and milk production.• Finance This includes financial literacy, record keeping, monitoring costs and income, saving, and obtaining and repaying loans. • Communication This covers obtaining and using market information, lobbying and advocacy. • Business and marketing These are the skills needed to identify and meet the requirements of a profitable market. They include market assessment, product selection, and identifying and negotiating with buyers. • Organization and leadership These are skills to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of production and marketing. Examples include forming and managing organizations, planning, monitoring, managing meetings, and record-keeping.ing over some of the functions of a processor or trader. The fourth approach means that people become more specialized: they perform fewer functions in the chain. A worker in an abattoir or a lorry driver is unlikely to be fully engaged in raising livestock, for example. Do marketing chain actors become more specialized or more generalized over time? As marketing chains become more sophisticated, we can see both trends. Livestock keepers tend to specialize in certain types of production (such as dairying), but they also take on new activities (such as checking quality and bulking the milk). At the same time, new specialist jobs arise in the chain: milk testers, equipment maintenance staff, marketing managers, drivers and guards. Some of these jobs are skilled (and tend to be well-paid); others require lower levels of skill and tend to attract lower pay. Over time, fewer people are employed in production, and more are employed further down the chain in processing and marketing.Capacity-building efforts rarely start from scratch. Pastoralists traditionally process their own products: herders may slaughter an animal and cut the meat into strips to dry it; milk producers may turn their raw product into butter. Similarly, pastoralists already sell their products locallywhich implies they already have certain marketing abilities and traditional skills that they can build on. Indeed, the traditional ways of doing things may have advantages (such as local availability or lower cost) over the new approaches. And people like what they are used to: it can be difficult to persuade a milk producer to give up using the familiar calabashes or plastic jerry cans in favour of expensive aluminium churns.When designing capacity-building interventions, it is important to assess the skills that people already have, and to fill the gaps. This assessment is best done in a participatory way to ensure that it is accurate and reflects people's opinions, and to encourage a feeling of ownership.SNV's work in Burkina Faso and Benin is an example of how this can be done. SNV hired a local capacity builder to bring the various actors (in this case, pastoralists, transporters, local authorities and input suppliers) together to analyse the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the local livestock marketing chains. This analysis was turned into action points that would convert the opportunities into profitable activities. The analysis also identified capacity gaps to be filled to ensure success (Box 48).Bringing stakeholders together to improve market functioning in Burkina Faso SNV aimed to improve the governance of livestock markets in the Boucle de Mouhoun region in Burkina Faso. It began with a participatory dialogue involving all the various groups with an interest in the market. This identified constraints to the smooth operation of the markets, and suggestions for improvements. The market management committees were reorganized and trained, and project staff helped them develop a code of conduct to regulate the markets' functioning. Better governance in turn made the markets more attractive for livestock sellers, increasing the number of animals on offer, and attracting more buyers.More information: Tipoco Brigitte Ouedraogo101Moving herds, moving markets 6 Skills and organization Several of the projects described in this book built the capacity of livestock producers in these areas. Ramat Livestock Enterprises (Case 3), for example, trained young Maasai men and women in livestock management, conservation, grazing, animal health and entrepreneurship. The Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5) offers training in livestock management and business skills. The Kiboga cooperative in Uganda (Case 13) organizes farmer training, exchange visits, field days and seminars on business opportunities. In Burkina Faso, SNV and the Socroprolait dairy (Case 14) arranged for members to get training on feeding and care of dairy cattle. And the Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) keeps pastoralists informed about market requirements through the mass media, meetings and field days.Traders and brokers In this category we include traders (who buy and sell animals or livestock products) and brokers (who bring buyers and sellers together and arrange sales, but who do not purchase the items themselves). The latter are sometimes called \"middlemen\".The importance of traders and brokers in the marketing chain is often under-appreciated. Indeed, many pastoralists and development organizations regard them as exploitative and accuse them of ripping off poor producers.While there may be an element of truth in this -for traders naturally try to get the best value -their contribution to the marketing chain is often underestimated. They perform a vital role: they purchase animals or milk from the producers or processors, bulk them and transport them to the buyers at the next stage in the chain. They take on a huge amount of risk: what if the lorry has an accident on the road, and the animals are killed or injured? What if the milk goes sour before it reaches its destination? What if the abattoir rejects a load of animals because of poor quality or disease? Many development initiatives try to organize producers to bypass traders and market their products directly. But they often run into problems because the pastoralists do not have the skills or linkages necessary, and are not able to take on the risks.Brokers perform a more subtle function. They bring together buyers and sellers who might not otherwise meet each other. They also reduce the risk of one party or the other cheating: they check the quality of the product and ensure that the buyer is in a position to pay.Rather than trying to bypass or replace traders and brokers, it makes sense to build their capacity to work with suppliers (the pastoralists) and to market livestock products more effectively. Making the chain more efficient will increase the quality and volume of the products in the chain, and will reduce losses. That is potentially to everyone's benefit, including the pastoralists.There is another reason to work with traders (and processors, for that matter), even if our real goal is to improve the lives of pastoralists. There are relatively few traders compared to pastoralists. That means that if the traders become more efficient, a much larger number of pastoralists stand to benefit. We return to this issue in Chapter 7.By building the capacity of traders, development initiatives have an opportunity to replace the traditional adversarial relationship between traders and pastoralists with one of mutual respect and cooperation. It is necessary to change attitudes on both sides: the pastoralists need to see the traders as providing a vital link in the marketing chain, while the traders need to see the pastoralists as valued suppliers who can supply them with a high-quality product.To do this, traders need a range of skills:• Group governance and managing relationships with suppliers and customers.• Selection, care and handling of animals and livestock products at buying, during transportation and the point of sale. This cuts losses and ensures that a good-quality, valuable product enters the marketing chain and generates profits at each stage in the chain.• Marketing This covers how to identify potential markets and use market information to improve decisions on buying and selling. • Negotiation skills for arranging mutually beneficial transactions.• Financial management, including budgeting, obtaining credit, record-keeping and currency conversion.Several of the cases in this book included capacity building for traders, brokers and market managers. They include the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (Case 2), the Coopérative Agropastorale de Farakala in Mali (Case 6), and the Bassila market in Benin (Case 7). Box 49 gives another example from Burkina Faso.Processors Processors transform the raw product, so adding value to it. Examples are pasteurizing raw milk, cooling it and packaging it; slaughtering animals, butchering the carcasses and producing packaged cuts ready for sale; and tanning hides and turning the leather into shoes and belts. We can also include here things that make the original product more valuable: bulking, grading, quality control, transport and storage.The livestock breeders' union in the Boucle du Mouhoun region has around 1,200 members. They market their animals at municipally owned cattle markets. But these markets did not function well, making them unattractive places for livestock sales. SNV helped the market users diagnose the problems, identify solutions, and reorganize the markets. Training was a big part of this intervention. The market management committee, breeders, brokers and traders were trained in management, marketing and simple accounting procedures. The committees now use notebooks to collect information on transactions and to keep track of finances. These records are open to all, increasing transparency and boosting the various actors' trust in the market system. Some of the processors are themselves pastoralists; they are organized into cooperatives to process their own products before selling them. Other processors are located further along the chain: in milk-collection centres, dairies, livestock markets, abattoirs and tanneries.Some of the skills that processors need depend on the product: handling milk obviously needs different skills from turning live animals into joints and sausages. Other skills, such as business planning and management, are more generic.• Processing techniques In milk-collection centres and dairies, this includes milk testing, grading, processing into various products, packaging and delivery. In an abattoir, it means livestock reception, quality control, health inspection, slaughter, butchering, the production of products such as sausages and dried meat, packaging and delivery. In tanneries, it includes the preparation of hides and skins, tanning, and the manufacture of belts, shoes and other products. Often these skills require people to learn how to operate and maintain certain types of equipment. Workers in all three types of enterprise need to learn about hygiene, sanitation and workplace safety. • Business management The managers of processing facilities need skills such as business planning, purchasing, organizing suppliers, marketing, accounting, budgeting and financial planning, record-keeping, customer and personnel management, and compliance with government requirements.All the dairying projects in this book trained the workers at milk-collection centres and dairies in a range of milk-handling and processing skills. In the case of meat, the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya (Case 8) had its staff trained in various skills. The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) established the Meat Industry Training Centre to improve the skills of workers in the meat industry, while the tannery project in Maswa, Tanzania (Case 10), focused on training pastoralists to convert previously worthless skins and hides into leather goods.Service providers These include extensionists, animal health workers, bank staff, business service providers, and the staff of local and national government and non-government organizations. These service providers tend to fall into two main groups: people from outside the drylands (from an urban or farming background), and pastoralists themselves.The first group may have good specialist skills, but they typically have little direct experience of pastoralism or the challenges that pastoralists face. It is necessary to build their understanding of such issues so they can serve pastoralists better (Box 50). Plus, many find the remote drylands an unattractive place to work, so staff turnover tends to be high. Recruiting and training new staff is disruptive and costly.An alternative is to build the capacity of pastoralists themselves to offer services. Such individuals have a good understanding of the pastoralists and pastoralism, but they tend to lack the technical skills and background necessary to act as a bridge to the non-pastoralist world. It is therefore ne-In Nyanza, in western Kenya, Heifer International introduced a dairy goat project. Veterinary extension officers were expected to support the programme. But most of them were not familiar with dairy goat issues. Heifer persuaded the government to cover dairy goat production in detail in training for extension officers.cessary to train them in such fields. The training of community animal health workers (Chapter 4) is an example of this. And several of the cases in Chapter 8 use this approach; the Ramat project (Case 3) and the Loimidat slaughterhouse (Case 8), for example, have arranged for training in animal health. But even this approach does not eliminate the problem of turnover: many trainees see their newly acquired skills as a ticket to a more attractive job elsewhere.All groups For all groups, it may be useful to offer capacity building in issues such as human health (including HIV and AIDS), gender, nutrition, personal finance and savings and loans.Training is the obvious way to build capacity, and many projects do this. But it is by no means the only way -or even the best way. This section looks at training and the alternatives.Pastoralists Arranging training for pastoralists can be difficult for various reasons. There are many of them, and they are scattered across wide areas, coming together only rarely. Many are illiterate or have limited formal education. It can be hard to find trainers who speak their language and understand their situation. Roads are few and electricity is scarce. There are few suitable training facilities in pastoralist areas.For these reasons, many organizations decide to train pastoralists indirectly. Rather than trying to organize training for pastoralists themselves, they train local capacity builders such as local NGOs and community organizations, which then train the pastoralists. They also train influential intermediaries such as community leaders, chiefs, opinion leaders, local authorities, and radio presenters. These then pass on their new skills and knowledge to the pastoralists they come into contact with, either through formal courses or through informal interaction. The private sector also has a big role to play: traders, input suppliers and financial institutions can pass on information to pastoralists who use their services.It can be particularly difficult to reach women pastoralists: in many cultures, the women travel less than the men, and it may be unacceptable for male trainers to meet and interact with them.Training may take place under trees, in a school, church or mosque. The location must be convenient and on neutral territory: pastoralist may be reluctant or afraid to visit each other's \"turf\".The training must be relevant to the pastoralists' situation and needs. There is little point in teaching about cooling equipment that requires electricity, for example, if the nearest source of power is several days' walk away. Indigenous cooling systems are more practical. Boxes 54 and 55 illustrate the types of training that two projects have offered to pastoralists.Training traders and brokers normally takes the form of short courses, aiming to equip traders with specific skills using well-developed tools and guidelines. It is important to invite the right people to attend the course and to agree on the venue and timing. Many traders and brokers have a lot of experience in their field, so training has to be designed to build on this and give them extra knowledge and skills that will make the chain as a whole more efficient.Valuable topics may include things like linking the traders to credit providers and other services, helping them identify new market opportunities, compliance with grades and standards, business planning and financial management skills. Training should also help traders to realize that it is to their benefit to work together with their suppliers to develop the chain.Processors It is often easier to arrange training for processors than for the other groups we have discussed here. They tend to work in one place (a dairy, abattoir or tannery), which often has been established by the project. Many processing activities follow a set series of steps, use certain equipment, or follow certain rules (such as hygiene and workplace safety). Processors tend to face a smaller range of problems than (say) livestock producers who must deal with unpredictable variations in weather, grazing, health and markets.The initiatives in this book use a range of other techniques to build the capacity of producers, traders and pastoralists, often in conjunction with training. We discuss each of these techniques below. Many of the remarks above on training also apply to these other techniques, so we will not repeat them here.Coaching This is commonly used to follow up on the training to ensure the acquired skills are used properly. They can be done at homesteads and in small community groups. The facilitator observes how things are done and helps the people involved to correct any errors. This is useful in maintaining hygiene, for example, or in preparing animal feed. It is also useful to help pastoralists improve their skills in things like record keeping and animal breeding.Coaching is particularly valuable as the advice can be tailored to the situation and needs of each individual. But the big disadvantage is the cost: working on a one-to-one basis with individuals is time-consuming, especially if they are scattered over a wide area. That makes it impractical for most types of capacity building. It is most appropriate where the activity is concentrated in one place, such as an abattoir or dairy, and the coaching can be combined with training, inspections and other activities.Demonstrations Because many pastoralists are illiterate, demonstrations are a useful way of imparting knowledge and skills. They are useful for practical skills such as record keeping, the preparation of animal feed, milking, storage of milk, and the use of local and introduced technologies. The demonstrations may be carried out by the facilitator or by participants themselves. They can be combined with other capacity-building methods, including training, coaching, and exchange visits.Exchange visits This approach is useful where there are two groups, one of which is advanced in knowledge, skills and results. The less knowledgeable group visits and learns from the advanced group. Exchange visits can be highly motivational as they increase the confidence of both groups and equip them with an \"I can make it\" attitude. The visits can be arranged within the same locality or other localities, depending on the time and budget available. Successful visits require a clear goal for learning, a schedule, a set of activities, and a facilitator to guide discussions and explain concepts and events. The facilitators may be outsiders or come from the host community. It is important for the visitors to reflect on their visit and decide what they can do when they are back home. The visits can be backed up with training, coaching and demonstrations.Exposure visits Producers, traders and processors can learn a great deal through visits to markets, dairies, abattoirs, potential customers, banks, breeding farms, trade fairs and research institutions. They can gain an idea of what happens to their animals or milk further along the marketing chain, and come to understand the needs of the processors, buyers or consumers. They can learn about opportunities and services that they can use, such as how to get credit or obtain information on prices and demand. Such visits can introduce them to potential business partners and build links with services such as research, finance and market information. Visits can combine a tour of facilities (a dairy or abattoir), interviews with managers and staff, presentations and question-and-answer sessions. It may be useful to have participants go through an exercise, such as asking them to find out prices or to conduct some market research.Community radio Radio is a powerful and unifying tool especially if the presenters speak the local language and address local problems. Community radio often resonates better with local listeners than commercial radio. Various programming formats can be used, including educational programmes, interviews, short spots similar to advertising, regular features such as a listing of theDeteriorating pastures in parts of Turkana and Pokot counties in northern Kenya meant less feed and lower-quality livestock. Terra Nuova, Vétérinaires sans Frontières-Belgium and the Lomidat slaughterhouse formed field schools to train pastoralists how to grow fodder, make hay bales, and produce fodder seeds. The field school members set up fodder banks and produced seeds of these species for distribution. The harvested seed was sown during the rains in different locations where the grasses would be expected to regenerate naturally. The seed from these new areas was then sown in more new areas to help spread these desirable species.More information: Case 8As part of its efforts to improve livestock marketing, Heifer Kenya's Maasai Animal Health and Livestock Marketing Project supported the training of young Maasai men and women on animal health and business skills. The pastoralists learned a range of topics, including animal husbandry, environment conservation, responsible livestock management, land-use conservation, and gender and HIV/AIDs. The project set up Ramat Livestock Enterprises to market animals. This company has established a training centre for pastoralists on livestock production and marketing, along with a range of other skills.More information: Case 3Training milk producers and collectors to enhance milk quality in NigerOne-quarter of the milk that arrived at the collection centre in Say was not good quality, so had to be rejected. This was because the producers milked into calabashes and stored the milk in plastic cans that are impossible to clean properly. The milkers did not wash their hands, and the milking enclosure was not clean. Many of the producers live a long way from the collection centre, so the milk would go off in the heat before it arrived. SNV trained the milk producers and collectors so they could improve hygiene. It taught them to use easy-to-clean metal containers, keep the milk cool by wrapping the containers in wet sacking and putting them in the shade, and to send it to the collection centre quickly. It used a combination of drawings, demonstrations and learning-by-doing.The quality of the milk arriving at the centre is now better, and only 5% has to be rejected. The producers earn more money. They can now afford to buy feed and other inputs to increase production further.Moving herds, moving markets 6 Skills and organization day's prices, etc. Radio can be complemented by printed materials such as photographs, brochures and audio recordings for use in training.Local resource centres A community resource centre offers advice and other services to pastoralists and other clients. The advice may cover a wide range, from market information to production techniques and early warning of drought and disease outbreaks. The centre may also sell equipment and inputs such as feed and medicine, and offer veterinary and vaccination services. It may produce and distribute simple extension manuals and offer training courses.Such extension centres are often government-run, as in Ethiopia. They may also be privately run, as is the Sidai chain of livestock service centres in Kenya (Box 17), or the Ramat training centre in Kenya (Box 51).Unlike most of the other capacity-building interventions, such resource centres are permanent institutions rather than short-term interventions. That means they require continuous funding. This can be a problem: staff, rent, transport, equipment and supplies all have to be paid for. Most such centres rely on a combination of donor funding, user fees and sale of products to support themselves (Wongtschowski et al. 2013).Marketing initiatives may aim to improve existing activities, help people get services, and add to their current production and marketing activities. Or they may establish entirely new functions, creating new full-or part-time jobs. The capacity-building requirements will depend on which of these approaches is used.Attempts to build capacity should build on the knowledge and skills that people already have. A participatory needs assessment should identify these capabilities, and point out gaps to be filled.Different actors have different capacity needs. Pastoralists generally require skills in livestock production, finance, communication, business, marketing, organization and leadership. Traders and brokers may need skills in group governance; the selection, care and handling of animals and livestock products; marketing, negotiation and financial management. Processors typically need to gain technical and business-management skills. Depending on their background, service providers may need to gain an understanding of the pastoralist production system, or learn technical skills. For all groups, it may be useful to build their capacity in health, gender, nutrition, personal finance and savings and loans.It is difficult to reach large numbers of pastoralists directly. It may be more appropriate to work through intermediaries such as local NGOs, community organizations, local leaders, chiefs and radio presenters. It may also be possible to work through traders or processors who buy the pastoralists' products.Pastoralists already are organized into various networks and clans -some of which deal with marketing. For example, many Somali women milk producers supply milk to a chain of collectors and retailers who bulk the milk, arrange for it to be transported to town, and sell it there. Some, but by no means all, of these relationships are based on family ties; many are based on mutual trust between business partners who are not related to each other, and who may not even know each other (LPP et al. 2010 p. 104).Nevertheless, indigenous organizations are often inadequate or impose restrictions that impede marketing. In Kenya, for example, traditional rules prohibit the bulking of milk from two different clans. The sale of animals may have to be approved by clan elders. That makes it hard for individual pastoralists to manage their livestock as an enterprise.In common with many rural development initiatives, the cases in this book relied heavily on organizing groups of pastoralists (as well as traders and processors) to improve the production and marketing of livestock and livestock products. Even where an initiative focused mainly on establishing a dairy or abattoir, it still formed groups of producers to supply it, rather than to rely on relationships with individual suppliers.Why do development initiatives rely so much on organizing beneficiaries into groups? It's basically a question of \"economies of scale\". That is economic jargon for the idea that it is cheaper and easier to do things at a big scale than at a small scale. It is in the interests of various actors -processors and traders, pastoralists, the government and service organizations -to ensure that pastoralists are organized for marketing.Organizing groups has many benefits for the group members themselves, for other actors in the marketing chain, and for the government and development organizations.Benefits for group members Pastoralists (and processors and traders) can gain in many ways from getting organized. By selling in bulk as a group rather than small amounts as individuals, they can negotiate higher prices and supply a wider range of buyers. They can serve markets that they would not otherwise be able to reach: a dairy is not interested in buying a few litres of milk from each of hundreds of dairy producers, but will be interested in buying in bulk from a group. Being part of a group makes it possible for individuals to comply with the demands of high-value urban and export markets.Being in a group makes it possible for the members to share tasks. They do not all have to take their milk to the market every day; one person can collect the group's output and take it to town. That saves time and money, and frees everyone else to do other things. It also makes it possible for individuals to specialize on what they are good at: selling, keeping records, taking care of the animals' health, etc. Or the group may hire a specialist manager to take on such tasks.Marketing together can open up new possibilities for adding value to the product by processing it. There is little point in turning a single cup of milk into butter; but put it together with everyone else's milk, and you have enough to make a good amount of butter that is worth selling. It may even be worth setting up a dairy by investing in bulking, testing, chilling and packaging equipment.Group members can get services that are open only to groups, or that require a certain amount of capital. They can apply for credit from microfinance institutions (or form their own savings group), get advice from extension services, and pool their savings to invest in equipment or a vehicle.Sharing is another benefit. The members can share information and experiences, draw on each other's expertise, help each other, and learn from each other. They can encourage and support each other, making it possible to improve how they produce and market their products. A group of traders, for example, can support each other with market information, or work with the government and producers to make a marketplace function more efficiently.A group has a more powerful voice than its individual members. The group can negotiate with buyers, input suppliers and service providers, and can lobby the government.Benefits for other actors in the marketing chain Other actors in the marketing chain can also benefit when their trading partners get organized. An abattoir needs a regular supply of healthy animals of the right type, age and weight. While some pastoralists have big herds, they may not want to sell a lot of animals at the same time. One way to get a regular supply of animals for slaughter is to organize the pastoralists into groups, so each member delivers a certain number of animals on an agreed date.Dairies face a similar problem. They need a regular supply of good-quality raw milk. It would be impractical to pick up small amounts of milk from each producer; instead, the dairy gets producers to bring their milk to a central collection point in each village, where it can be tested and picked up.Similar considerations affect livestock traders, who find it expensive, time-consuming and risky to travel from farm to farm and from encampment to encampment, in search of a few animals to buy. By arranging purchases from an organized group of producers, they can save time and money, and be assured of a supply of good-quality animals.Organizing their suppliers brings other advantages for processors and traders. They can somewhat even out the drastic seasonal fluctuations that afflict the supply of animals and milk in dryland areas. They make it possible to train producers in improved production methods, quality, animal health, and other issues. That can increase both volumes and the quality of product.But if producers get organized, that may bring disadvantages for processors and traders. The producers may demand higher prices without making corresponding improvements in their product quality, quantity or reliability. They may demand services such as credit and transport. They may choose to sell to someone else. For these reasons, processors and traders need to consider carefully whether it is in their interests to support the producers to get organized. Often the benefits are long-term and not obvious, while the shortcomings are clear and immediate.Benefits for the government and service organizations The government and service organizations such as development agencies, research institutions, extension services, credit agencies and business service providers find it difficult and expensive to serve large numbers of widely scattered, poorly educated pastoralists. If the pastoralists are organized, providing them with services becomes a whole lot easier. The pastoralists' group becomes the intermediary through which these services can be supplied. Development organizations can offer their members training. Financial institutions can provide them with credit (with repayments guaranteed by the group as a whole). Business service providers can arrange marketing, information services and input supplies. The government has a partner with which it can negotiate, and through which it can announce and implement new policies.The function of a group determines its size, membership and level of organization, and sets the group's relationship with the state and other stakeholders. For example, if the organization is to bulk meat for export, it needs a large number of members, a wide scope to maintain a reliable supply, and strong ties with the government and other actors. A local group of dairy producers that bulks milk has a much smaller scale.We can identify various types of groups in the production and marketing of pastoralist products (Figure 12). Each performs a different role, though in practice there is considerable overlap among these types.Single-actor groups These groups are made up of one type of actor at a single stage in the marketing chain: producers, processors or traders. They make it possible for their members to obtain inputs, produce more efficiently, market their produce, save money, and exchange information. They may be based on existing or traditional groups (often made up of relatives or clan members), or be newly organized. Some examples:• Milk-collection groups The women's milk-marketing cooperatives in Ethiopia (Case 11) are based on traditional faraqa annani groups. They collect milk from their members and sell it to consumers. • Livestock marketing groups Herders get together to market their animals as a group.The higher volumes and solidarity give them greater bargaining power when negotiating with buyers. The Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5), organized pastoralists into beef-producers' cooperatives. • Processing groups These include the tannery cooperatives in Tanzania (Case 10) and dairy cooperatives in Uganda (Case 13), Burkina Faso (Case 14) and Niger (Case 15). Some of these already existed; others were set up by the projects described in this book. • Savings and credit groups These may be stand-alone groups or part of groups that have other functions, such as marketing or the purchase of inputs.These groups may focus on a single type of activity (such as collecting and marketing milk), or they may provide a range of services to their members (savings, loans, input supplies, bulking, quality control, marketing, etc.).The groups may be informal or formal (with a constitution and bylaws). Registering as a cooperative brings various advantages: it gives the group a legal identity, allows it to apply for a bank account and credit services, makes it easier to transact business on behalf of its members, and makes it possible to hire staff and own facilities.Cooperatives are popular in development projects and the government as a way of managing enterprises. There are three main reasons for this:Because of the logic of production Where a number of producers each have only a small amount of milk or a few animals for sale, they can earn more by collaborating in marketing or processing their product. Forming a cooperative is an obvious way of formalizing such an arrangement. This was the case for all four cases describing milk-production groups: the faraqa annani groups in Ethiopia (Case 11), the East Africa Dairy Development Project (Case 13), Socoprolait in Burkina Faso (Case 14), and the milk-collection centres in Niger (Case 15), as well as the tanneries in Tanzania (Case 10) and the livestock marketing cooperatives in Uganda (Case 5).As a way of conferring ownership on local people Some enterprises could very easily (and perhaps more efficiently) be run as a private enterprise or even by the government. But donors prefer to confer ownership on local people, organized into a cooperative for this purpose. The enterprise itself is typically incorporated as a company owned by the cooperative. This was the case for the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya (Case 8).To encourage investment and commitment by local people Cooperatives have the possibility of raising capital from their members by charging membership fees and by selling shareholdings. But not enough can be raised in this way to pay for land or expensive equipment. They therefore rely on donor or government support for these items -as in the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya (Case 8), the tannery cooperatives in Tanzania (Case 10), and Socroprolait's dairy in Burkina Faso (Case 14). Even though they raise relatively small amounts of money, membership fees and shareholdings are good ways to encourage members to feel that the cooperative is theirs. If people feel they own the cooperative, they will feel responsible for it: they will use it to market their produce, participate in meetings and help make it a success.These three rationales are not mutually exclusive: many of our cases have elements of all three. While they are popular, cooperatives have their own problems. Starting a cooperative means organizing members, creating administrative structures and procedures, training leaders and managers, and ensuring the members understand the commercial logic. Corruption, a lack of commitment, side-selling and sustainability are all potential problems. It may be necessary to hand-hold a cooperative for several years before it can stand on its own. Development agencies put huge amounts of effort into such activities.Running a cooperative among mobile pastoralists is a particular challenge: it is impossible to hold regular meetings, for example, if the members are scattered widely. For this reason, most pastoralist cooperatives are based around a fixed facility, such as a milk-collection point or abattoir. Their activities may be highly seasonal, coinciding with periods when the producers have a surplus to sell and are in the vicinity.Second-and third-order associations These consist of several primary cooperatives, grouped together as a regional association or a national union. They provide services that individual cooperatives cannot, such as large-scale marketing, negotiation with large trading partners, and bulk purchases of inputs. Some examples:• The Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union Ltd, which is composed of 33 livestock producer cooperative societies from different parts of Uganda, including from pastoral areas (Box 54). • The Regional Union of Livestock and Meat (URFBV) groups several livestock cooperatives in the Sikasso region of Mali (Case 6).Several second-order unions can unite to form a federation or alliance to facilitate information flow and to lobby policymakers. These are often advocacy and lobbying platforms rather than business organizations. Some set regulations governing the conduct of their members.• The Uganda Cooperative Alliance is an alliance of cooperatives from the credit, livestock and livestock products sectors. • The Ethiopian National Dairy Forum, founded in 2010, focuses on dairy issues.• The Federation of Livestock and Meat Interprofessional Groups (FEBEVIM) in Mali does many things, including collecting, analysing and disseminating market information for its district-level members (Box 4).In a cooperative, the members elect a committee that either manages the organization directly or appoints a professional manager to do so. That has advantages: it means the management is accountable to the members and (in theory at least) operates in their best interests. But it can also be cumbersome: changes have to be approved by the members, making it difficult to be nimble when quick decisions are needed. And laws in many countries restrict what a cooperative can and cannot do.Companies A company is a more flexible form of organization: the management is appointed by a board of directors who represent the owners (the shareholders). The managers have more freedom to make decisions, and the company can aim to make a profit -an important incentive to increase efficiency and cut costs.Our cases include several such organizations, all engaged in processing:• Ramat Livestock Enterprises markets livestock in Suswa, Kenya (Case 3). It is owned by two local development organizations, the Loita Development Foundation and the Keekonyokie Suswa Trust, which hold 45% of the shares each. Heifer Kenya, the international development organization that supported its establishment, retains 10% of the shares. • The Lomidat Pastoral Multipurpose Co-operative Society, which runs the Lomidat slaughterhouse in northern Kenya (Case 8), is a hybrid of a cooperative and a company. While it was established with donor funds, it is owned by the 1,600 cooperative members who have bought shares and who earn dividends when it earns a profit. • The Uganda Meat Farmers Company Ltd, set up by the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5) is a public-private partnership that runs an abattoir. Pastoralists own 51% of the shares.Livestock producers in various parts of Uganda have organized themselves into primary cooperative societies. The producers run and manage these cooperatives themselves. They encourage savings, mobilize inputs and services, and run veterinary shops.To increase their members' income, 33 of these cooperatives have formed a national union, the Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union. This gives the members \"free\" veterinary, extension and market information services. It buys animals from both members and non-members, and provides artificial insemination and vaccination services, and trains members on record keeping and business skills.The union lobbies the government in support of the livestock keepers, and helps develop standards for meat. It has also been able to attract investors and development institutions to enhance livestock production. The union invests its profits in land and an abattoir to produce meat for export.The union is a member of the Uganda Cooperative Alliance.More information: Case 5 All these companies were set up through the project concerned. Our cases do not include any examples of a project working with an existing local private company.Chain linkages These are relationships between actors in the marketing chain who buy from and sell to each other, and with service providers such as microfinance institutions. They may be informal, ad-hoc relationships between, say, a group of pastoralists and a trader. Or they may be more formal: for example, a dairy may sign a contract with producers' organizations for a regular supply of milk. Some examples:• In Ethiopia, the RAIN project linked traders to feed suppliers and abattoirs (Case 1).• Also in Ethiopia, the system of keeping milking camels in town has given rise to links between the camel owners, local farmers who grow forage, and milk retailers (Case 12). • The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana has various credit arrangements to source animals from pastoralists (Case 9).Multi-actor groups focusing on a single step in the market chain These groups bring together two or more types of market chain actors: the sellers and buyers in a particular transaction, perhaps along with the government, financial institutions, business service providers, etc. They aim to make a particular type of transaction more efficient, increase volumes and quality, and reduce waste. Some examples:• Milk-collection groups that collaborate with livestock cooperatives or dairies (the Eskunfalan and Lesitu Annani Gorbo cooperatives in Ethiopia, Case 11; and AREN and Hawrindé Biradam in Niger, Case 15). • Market-management committees Examples are the marketing associations organized by the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (Case 2), and the joint market management arrangements in Mali (Case 6) and Benin (Case 7).Commodity associations These are broader assemblages of actors, including pastoralists, traders, processors, retailers, consumers, business service providers, financial services, and the government. They look at the commodity chain as a whole and try to find ways to make it more efficient to benefit everyone. Such commodity associations have various advantages:• They promote the fair distribution of added value among the different categories of actors.• They make it possible for the sector to regulate itself in terms of price, quality and quantities.• They improve efficiency by enhancing communication and information exchange at different levels. • They allow for negotiation, lobbying and advocacy with government.• They make it possible to brand products or promote them commercially.• It is easier to manage one commodity rather than several at a time.However, such associations often face problems such as:• Pastoralists' interests are not always taken into account. Processors and traders may come to dominate the group. • It can be difficult to fund the association in the long term.• To ensure fairness, the government can participate and have a moderating role, but it must not drive the process.An example of such an association is the Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (Case 2).Networks These are formed by individuals or groups in different locations to exchange information rather than to manage trade. The Renaissance Livestock Network in Uganda (Box 55) is an example of such a network.Innovation platforms An innovation platform is a group of individuals (who often represent organizations) with different backgrounds and interests: livestock keepers, traders, food processors, researchers, government officials, etc. The members come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities and find ways to achieve their goals. They may design and implement activities as a platform, or coordinate activities by individual members (CGIAR 2013). Box 62 in Chapter 7 gives an example of such a platform.Where development initiative helps create a facility such as an abattoir, dairy or market, it faces a choice: who should own and run it? Our cases illustrate several of the choices. We have discussed cooperatives and companies above. Here are some other possibilities.Individual entrepreneurs Development projects rarely seem to work directly with individuals. Reasons for this include equity (a fear of giving unfair advantages to a few lucky individuals), cost (it is more time-consuming and costly to deal with lots of individuals rather than groups -if the groups already exist), and impact (training a group is likely to have a bigger effect than training a few individuals).But for certain activities, it may be more appropriate to work with individuals than with groups.• The RAIN project in Ethiopia (Case 1) provided traders with credit, making it possible for them to buy animals from pastoralists during the drought. • In Kenya, Ramat Livestock Enterprises (Case 3) trains young Maasai as traders; they buy animals from pastoralists and sell them through the marketplace that Ramat runs.In both of these cases, the individuals occupy a key place in the marketing chain: they buy animals from large numbers of pastoralists, so influencing what they do will automatically affect everyone they buy from.Our cases do not contain any examples of ownership of a facility being conferred on individuals. This approach has been tried in other fields, however: an AGRA-funded project in northern Ghana identifies local businesspeople to own and manage grain warehouses, while another AGRA project in Mozambique has individual entrepreneurs operate threshing equipment (KIT and AGRA 2013). These individuals are selected by the community and have to agree to strict rules -for example, they are not allowed to sell the equipment. There is no reason such approaches could not be tried for pastoralist products.The Renaissance Livestock Network in UgandaIn January 2012, a dozen livestock producers in Uganda started a network to exchange information and skills. Four times a year, the network members visit one of the members: a different member each time. The network has also involved some livestock raisers in neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi.More information: Alex Kamugisha, reline@fiesta.cc or ruhombej@hotmail.comThe development project (or the government itself) may set up a facility, to be owned and run by the government, or by a government-owned parastatal organization. This is common for larger facilities such as abattoirs, and those with national significance, such as training institutions and border marketplaces.• The Lobatse abattoir in Botswana (Case 9) was established by the colonial government in the early 1950s, and is still owned by a parastatal organization, the Botswana Meat Commission. • The Kenya Meat Commission, founded in 1950, runs the country's largest abattoir, in the town of Athi River, near Nairobi. It runs a second abattoir in Mombasa, along with depots and distribution facilities. • The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) built a large number of livestock markets and other facilities, including an abattoir and a training centre. The government retains control of the markets, but the abattoir has been privatized. The training centre is controlled by an autonomous government-owned body.However, experience shows that governments are not very good at running commercial operations. Civil servants are often not able to make the commercial decisions needed to manage an enterprise properly. The government may interfere, for example by requiring an abattoir to buy emaciated animals at a loss during a drought, or using profits as a source of funds but failing to invest in the enterprise. Corruption is also a problem in many government-run operations. The Kenya Meat Commission, for example, has a history of poor management and financial instability. It was closed for 15 years because of mismanagement, reopening only in 2006. In 2013, the commission went into crisis again because of high debt levels.Local authority The national government may operate large-scale enterprises of national significance. Smaller-scale, local facilities, especially public infrastructure such as livestock markets, are sometimes run by the local authority. Indeed, three of the four cases in this book that concern marketplaces have local authority involvement. They illustrate some of the advantages and problems that local authorities face in managing such facilities:• They often lack the expertise and funding to manage the markets they own. The Co-management of Livestock Markets in Kenya project (Case 2) tried to improve how markets are run by involving user representatives in the management. The idea is that the people who use the market have a better idea of what is needed, and what will work, than a civil servant. • On the other hand, they offer stability and the opportunity to tap into government funds.That was why the donor insisted that the local authority, rather than a cooperative, own a market constructed in Farakala, Mali (Case 6).Even if it does not own or manage a market, the local authority can provide vital support in the form of a land allocation, favourable decisions, and expertise. Or it can hinder a project it does not like. So is it important to involve the local authority throughout, as in the cooperative-run market in Bassila, Benin (Case 7).Joint ownership and management Several of the cases exhibit hybrid arrangements where two or more types of organization own or manage a facility. These include:• Public-private partnerships The Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5) built an abattoir, which is run as a public-private partnership, with pastoralists owning 51% of the shares.• Joint management committees The local livestock markets in Kenya (Case 2), Mali (Case 6) and Benin (Case 7) are all run by committees that include the local authority and representatives of the market users. • Board memberships By retaining a nominal shareholding and seat on the board, donors can help guide cooperative-owned enterprises through their first few years of operation. An example of this is Heifer Kenya's 10% stake in Ramat Livestock Enterprises (Case 3).Various actors may take the initiative in organizing groups. In most of our cases, it was NGOs or development projects that brought individuals together and introduced them to the idea of forming an organization. While NGOs and other development organizations have a lot of expertise in community organizing, they suffer from the problem of short-term funding: once the project is over, there is no one to continue to provide the support that newly formed cooperatives need. Sometimes a follow-up project can help a group that has not yet managed to become self-sufficient. This happened in the case of the Hawrindé Biradam milk collection centre in Niger: established under a prior project, it was operating well below capacity until SNV helped reorganize it (Case 15). Governments are more permanent partners -though they may also rely on short-term donor funding for development projects. They helped form organizations in at least two of our cases: the Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) and the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5). Both of these were large-scale government-led initiatives supported with donor funding. But Africa has a long history of failed government initiatives to promote cooperatives: such efforts have often been heavy-handed, and pastoralists are understandably suspicious of them.Other marketing chain actors may also help pastoralists get organized. In Botswana, the Lobatse abattoir organizes pastoralists to supply it with animals (Case 9). So too do the Lomidat slaughterhouse (Case 8) and Ramat Enterprises (Case 3) in Kenya. In each of these cases, the actor doing the organizing is the pastoralists' main customer, so occupies a key position in the marketing chain.Finally, group members themselves may organize themselves without any outside assistance. This occurred in the urban camels case in Ethiopia (Case 12). Such arrangements tend to be informal and haphazard -but more flexible and perhaps more sustainable than the more formal arrangements.Organizing pastoralists for marketing faces particular challenges. We have referred to many of these already: the vast distances and poor infrastructure in dryland areas, the mobility of the target groups, the seasonality of production, the clan structure prevalent in many areas, the low levels of formal education, pastoralists' suspicion of outsiders, and the cultural difficulties of working with women (see the section on Gender below). Nevertheless, here are some tips.Begin with those who are interested That is most likely to be poor pastoralists who do not have access to market. They can increase their opportunities and income if they are organized as a group. For example, the owners of a few dairy cattle quickly see that by bulking their milk they will be able to sell it.But it is not always the smallest-scale producers who are most interested. Pastoralists with a small herd may want to sell animals only in an emergency. Owners of larger herds may be more interested in joining a group because they are more cash-oriented and see the possibility of increasing their income.Individuals who are not interested in working together should not be forced to join a group. This has particularly been a problem with cooperatives formed by government initiatives. The basis for forming groups and cooperatives should be the common interest of the members, not a government target or a donor's need to achieve a project goal.Build on existing groups where possible Pastoralists have a unique way of living and may not share a common interest with other people. Traditionally, pastoralists are organized along kinship lines into tribes and clans. Development initiatives need to consider the dynamics of these groups. Interventions should not collide with customs and tradition, but should take them into account and build on them where appropriate -for example by planning milk-collection routes and siting collection centres accordingly.Where traditional self-help groups exist, it may be best to build their capacity in production and marketing, rather than trying to found entirely new groups. On the other hand, an existing group may be unsuited for marketing; in such cases it may be better to start a new group from scratch.Pay attention to socio-cultural dimensions Consider gender, age, and social and cultural norms when forming groups. For example, pastoralist women tend to refrain from participating in social activities. It may be better to form women-only groups than to insist on mixed groups. Try to give opportunities to women, young people and the disabled who lack opportunities in society to help them realize their potential and improve their chances in the market.Development workers who help groups get organized need a good understanding of the local culture, informal laws and tribal rules. They must also understand how people communicate with each other. Pastoralists and traders have long-established ways of disseminating information. In Afar, northern Ethiopia, for example, any passer-by is called upon to sit and pass on messages from people elsewhere. Clan leaders use this system, known as dhagu, to transfer information to everyone in their clan relatively quickly through word of mouth. It is also a useful way to reach illiterate community members.Provide the right skills Marketing groups need a range of skills: leadership, transparency, group organizing, constitutions and bylaws; a knowledge of formal laws; financial management, record keeping and business planning; technical knowledge about production and processing; an understanding of their markets; and communication.Build sustainable groups For groups to be sustainable, good organization alone is not enough. Groups also need a reliable source of income, which they can sustain and develop further after the development intervention has phased out. That means a clear business model, a business plan that enables them to earn a profit, the ability to put the plan into practice, and the ability to adjust it as required.Many groups, especially those that are formed in a top-down manner, fail to offer their members clear benefits. The group ends up benefiting a few members only, often those who are in control. To avoid this common problem, the group has to offer clear advantages to its members: higher prices for their products, extra convenience in selling, or low-cost inputs. Without such incentives, members will be unwilling to pay their membership dues or sell through the group. Over time, the group will dwindle and die.Organizing groups along the livestock and product marketing chain can make the allocation of resources and the distribution of profit more efficient. Groups can address the common issues faced by individual pastoralists. Efforts to organize them should be directed towards enhancing pastoralists' abilities to find the best solutions to their problems and finding ways to deliver services cheaply and efficiently Such efforts should also try to reduce their vulnerability vis-à-vis the wider society, and provide a platform to help them make their voices heard. Special attention is needed to reduce the marginalization of women, youth, disabled people and the elderly.The most appropriate form of management and ownership of a facility will depend on the particular situation. Where possible, the users of the facility should have a stake in the ownership and management. But cooperatives are hard to establish and sustain. Development initiatives should consider alternatives, including helping individual entrepreneurs set up and run facilities. Often, a hybrid arrangement, such as joint ownership and management, may be the best approach.Women pastoralists play an important role in livestock production. In many places, it is the women and girls who look after the household while the men and boys are away tending the herd. They look after pregnant female animals and their calves, kids and lambs, and take care of sick animals that cannot keep up with the main herd. They milk the lactating animals and make sour milk and butter: important parts of the diet of many pastoralist families.These generalizations do not apply everywhere: there is a large amount of variation among production systems and ethnic groups regarding who owns the animals, who takes care of them, Begin with those who are interested in improving their production and marketing.who sells the products, and who gets the money. All kinds of combinations occur. In some societies, for example, women are not allowed to milk at all, or they are responsible for only some types of animals. In other instances they may own and milk a certain type of livestock but not trade their products. Elsewhere, they may be the main traders, while production is men's work.The role of women is also changing. Trends include:• The increasing number of men who spend large amounts of time working in the cities • The rising number of households that are headed by women as a result of such migration, or because of the AIDS epidemic • The increasing demand for milk in the cities, opening up opportunities for small cooperatives • Women's increasing responsibility for managing sheep and goats.Nevertheless, pastoralist women face huge challenges in producing and marketing livestock products. In some societies they are prohibited from travelling without their husbands and interacting with men who are not close relatives. They may be tied to the home by a string of household duties: cooking, cleaning, fetching water, looking after children and the elderly. Men make the big decisions. They have the sole right to sell animals, and so control the income.If parents send their children to school at all, it is often the boys that go. The poorly educated daughters are married off young. In numerous societies, women are traditionally not allowed to own or inherit assets such as land and animals. Where services such as extension and credit address pastoralists at all, they tend to be geared towards men rather than women. Women are rarely members of groups, and they have little say in organizations dominated by men. They learn few marketing skills, and get little information about marketing. Women are neglected in livestock and trade policies because trade liberalization tends to focus on exports.Governments and development organizations have recently come to appreciate the importance of including women in livestock marketing interventions. Eight of the 15 cases in this book mention women; one (the faraqa annani milk-marketing groups in Ethiopia, Case 11) dealt with women-only groups. In some of the other cases that mention them, women were either the majority of the beneficiaries -as in the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya (Case 8) and the urban camels story from Ethiopia (Case 12). In several they were a minority, for example in the Ramat story in Kenya (Case 3), the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5), and the Farakala dairy in Mali (Case 6). Even if they were a minority, it is encouraging to note that the interventions targeted women and gathered gender-related information about the beneficiaries.Not surprisingly, women figured prominently in the cases dealing with dairying, and less so in those concerned with live animals and meat. This stereotype should not be taken too far, though: women are three-fifths of the members of the Lomidat Pastoral Multipurpose Co-operative, which supplies animals to the Lomidat slaughterhouse in Kenya (Case 2). And in the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5), the number of women selling cattle rose from zero in 2008 to 250 in 2012.Structure This means the institutions that limit or create opportunities for individuals. Such institutions include the attitudes of men towards what women are permitted (or not permitted) to do, customary laws, and government policies. There are various ways of changing these: sensitizing men (and women) to expand their view of acceptable activities for women (and men); using the mass media to promote gender equity; lobbying government to change laws restricting women's ability to own and inherit land and animals; encouraging elders to promote women's interests; and encouraging the registration of assets jointly for couples, rather than in just the husband's name. If it is not possible to demolish a barrier, it may be possible to bypass it. For example, women in Somalia get around a traditional ban on their travelling by entrusting canisters of milk to male drivers, who transport them to town, where other women sell the milk (LPP et al. 2010).Activities These are the range of tasks that women (and men) perform. Women can take on new tasks in the production, processing and trading of animals and livestock products. For example, in the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5), a small but increasing number of women have started selling cattle. In Nyiro, in northern Kenya, women are planning to make and sell sweets made of camel milk (Box 57). Women may also share tasks, as when they take turns to collect and deliver milk to a collection centre (as in the faraqa annani milk cooperatives in Ethiopia, Case 11). They can also improve the quality and amount of their output by improving things like feeding, animal health and hygiene. Training (see Agency above) is an important way to improve their ability to do this.Governance This refers to how the marketing chain is managed. It covers things like organizing marketing groups (and ensuring that women are part of them); requiring a certain number of the management positions to be occupied by women; creating links between the producers and potential buyers; building infrastructure such as livestock markets and dairies nearby within the reach of women; and providing financial services designed for women (Boxes 61 and 62).• Understand the situation of pastoralist women, the problems they face, and the changing roles they are playing. Consider the different needs of women and men producers, traders and processors.Milk is important in Peulh households in Benin: it is both a source of food, and the women sell it to pay for things like clothes and household expenses. Because it is highly perishable, they turn it into a type of cheese called wagashi. This is traditionally made by coagulating the milk using Calotropis procera (a fruit with a bitter sap). More recently, it has been made using CECALOP, a coagulant powder produced by researchers at the National University of Benin. But inadequate hygiene, low quality and poor marketing have harmed the image of wagashi, and its price. SNV has helped train women in production techniques and has provided them with various small items of production equipment to improve the quality and presentation of their product. This has led to a 25% price rise for wagashi and faster trade in this product. The introduction of CECALOP has made it possible to make 20% more cheese from each litre of milk.Five strategies to improve gender equity KIT et al. (2012) identifiy five broad strategies for improving gender equity in marketing chains:• Building on tradition Most of our cases that mention women fall into this category.Pastoralist women already are involved in producing livestock and (especially) dairy products, so it is relatively easy to expand their involvement in this area. Box 56 gives another example of this approach. • Creating space for women in male-dominated chains One case (the Maasai Animal Health and Livestock Marketing Project in Kenya, Case 3) trained both young women and men pastoralists as entrepreneurs to source animals from producers for sale at the Ramat market. However, none of the cases reports about women going into previously male-only activities (butchering or live-animal export, for example).• Organizing for change The faraqa annani milk-marketing groups in Ethiopia (Case 11) are the only instance where women-only groups were used to promote women's interests.In other cases, groups were mixed. • Standards and certification This covers labelling products as \"made by women\". None of our cases used this approach. • Gender-responsible business This refers to special efforts to promote women in a company. In Socroprolait in Burkina Faso (Case 14), a woman now manages the dairy.KIT et al. also identified four dimensions of gender equity: agency, structure, activities and governance. Agency This is a woman's (or man's) individual capabilities. The initiatives aimed to improve these through training in various skills. Training can be designed specifically for women, and offered at times and in places that are convenient for them. Skills include both traditionally \"female\" subjects (such as livestock health, milk hygiene and dairying) and subjects more usually aimed at men (such as financial management and improving understanding of the market). Because many pastoralist women are illiterate, literacy training and efforts to promote girls' education can have a big, though longer-term, impact.One way to improve gender equity is to build on areas where women are already active.Camel milk for women's food security and income in Nyiro, KenyaDuring a drought, Samburu men and boys go off with their cattle in search of distant pasture and water, leaving their camels behind with their families. The camels are a crucial source of milk for the women, children and old men who are not able to move with the main herd. One camel can produce up to 10 litres of milk a day. But what if the family has no camels? They suffer a lot, and often end up dependent on relief handouts. Since 1999, Heifer Kenya has supported over 400 poor and vulnerable women pastoralists by training them in camel husbandry and giving them highly productive camels to look after. The women have started marketing committees to sell surplus milk on market days. Their families now have enough food, and are no longer dependent on relief. The women want to make sweets from the milk to earn more money.More information: Reuben Koech• Incorporate the concerns of pastoralist women in the design of interventions, and ensure that women participate actively in different project phases and activities. • Build women's skills (their \"agency\") through training in technical skills, improving their literacy and numeracy, and building their abilities in negotiation and business management. • Support women's access to productive resources such as water, land, fuelwood, markets and knowledge. This means pressing for changes in formal and customary laws that restrict their activities, empowering them to take on a bigger role in the household and the community, making capital accessible to women, and sensitizing men to the potential of women contributing more to the household. (This is the \"structure\" dimension referred to above.) • Support women's ability to earn income and their diversification into enterprises such as processing and selling livestock and animal products, and producing and selling forage, medicinal plants and wildlife products. (This is the \"activities\" dimension.) • Strengthen women's role in decision-making, for example by organizing women-only groups, imposing quotas for women in mixed groups, and enabling them to capture the benefits of being involved in markets. (This is the \"governance\" dimension.)Livestock trading is the major economic activity in eastern Ethiopia, an area dominated by pastoralists. Much of the trade is across the border with neighbouring Somalia and Somaliland, and it is risky, so is deemed unsuited for women. Oxfam organized a group of women from Harshin, near the Somaliland border, and trained them in developing and managing a business. The group was organized as a cooperative, licensed by the government, and received some seed money (part loan and part grant).The women used the money to buy their first batch of animals, which they resold at a profit. As they earned more and grew in confidence, they started to fatten animals for up to 3 months. They have now grown into a significant livestock trading group and deal with various organizations that help pastoralist communities reduce their herd sizes during drought. They also export animals through both formal and informal channels.Few women in Dukana own livestock or other assets, and they find it hard to get loans. FARM Africa started a savings-and-credit scheme to help them, based on the Grameen Bank's well-known model from Bangladesh. It helped 23 women to form a pilot group. These were mostly single mothers or widows who already ran small businesses such as processing and selling hides, running butcheries and kiosks, and trading livestock.The women made money, gained in confidence, and were able to expand their businesses. With greater assets, they could start to borrow from other lending institutions. The project managers saw how effective this approach was and expanded the scheme to other groups and districts. Building women's confidence and helping them get organized can improve their ability to interact with people from outside pastoralist society.7 Policies and development interventions T he economy of dryland areas rests on a meagre resource base. Faced with poor soils, a dry climate and unreliable rainfall, people there have little option but to raise livestock. They produce only a few types of products -mainly live animals, meat and milk. They rely on services that both are thinly spread and lack depth: if a road becomes impassable or a processing plant fails, producers in an entire region can be left without a market.Contrast this situation with more favoured areas. There, farmers can choose from dozens of different types of crops and livestock, a wide range of potential customers, and alternative sources of services. If one fails, there are plenty of substitutes.All this makes policies and development interventions important in pastoralist areas -probably more important than in most other areas. Get them right, and they can have a big impact: the local people have a chance of prospering. Get the policies and interventions wrong, and people may be left even worse off than before.We look first at the policies of governments and other organizations, before turning to a discussion of where best to intervene to promote the marketing of pastoralist products.Unfortunately, many policies that affect pastoralist areas hinder rather than help the production and marketing of livestock and animal products. Some problems:Bias against pastoralism Historically, many governments have regarded pastoralism with suspicion. Policies have tried to persuade (or force) pastoralists to settle in one place, or restrict their access to land and water. Governments allocate large tracts of apparently unused land for irrigation schemes, nature reserves or foreign investment, even though this land may be an important traditional grazing area for herders. In disputes between pastoralists and farmers, governments often side with the crop growers.Uniform policies Policies that are designed for large producers or high-potential areas are rarely suited to small-scale or mobile producers. In Kenya, for example, the Dairy Industry Act does not recognize small-scale milk producers (which includes most pastoralists). It does not distinguish between the wetter highlands (where most milk is produced) and the pastoral areas, which have low milk yields. It assumes that all milk is sold to milk-processing companies, even if there are no such companies in the production area. Someone who sells milk directly to a hotel or to a neighbour is guilty of an offence.Outdated policies Some policies and laws are old: they have been overtaken by a changing world. In Kenya, many disease-control efforts are guided by an act of parliament adopted in 1905. The law requires all cattle to be dipped on a weekly basis to control ticks and other external parasites. But most of the communal dips that are supposed to be used are no longer functional.Lack of pastoralists' voice Pastoralists are often on the margins of society, are poorly informed, and have little political power. They have little say in many of the policies that affect them. Despite considerable progress in some countries, too many policies are still imposed from the top down, without enough local consultation.Control rather than facilitate Governments often seem to wish to control pastoralists' activities rather than facilitating them. For example, they may try to channel cross-border trade through certain border posts in order to prevent the spread of diseases and to levy tax. The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project's border markets (Case 4) are an example of this approach. But pastoralists find such restrictions burdensome and expensive, so ignore or avoid them. Impose too many rules, and only large-scale producers, processors and traders can comply with all the tests and paperwork. Small-scale actors (including individual pastoralists and cooperatives) cannot compete.Poor implementation and lack of enforcement On the other hand, good policies are good only if they are enforced. For instance, movement bans and quarantine requirements have to be enforced strictly if they are to prevent a disease from spreading. Partial enforcement is ineffective and encourages people to try to circumvent the rules. Staff entrusted with implementing policies and advising the people affected often have little experience or expertise in the subject concerned. Too many players may be given the task of implementing a policy without adequately Many politicians are interested in livestock issues only at election time. defined responsibilities, authority or coordination. In some cases, the agencies concerned are not aware of the policies they are supposed to implement.Conflict with customary rules Many policies do not recognize that local people have their own customary rules that have governed them over many generations. These rules cover subjects such as access to pasture during the wet and the dry seasons, ways to deal with disease outbreaks, the marketing of livestock, and the disposal of dead animals. All pastoralist communities have their own traditional methods of controlling diseases and treating sick animals. Policies imposed from above rarely consider these traditional approaches.Lack of dissemination Governments tend to put too little effort into public awareness. With little access to information, pastoralists too may not be aware of the policies that affect them. It is one thing to pass a law; it is quite another to keep the concerned people informed.When we talk about policies, we normally think of the national government's decisions, laws, rules and regulations. National governments are indeed the most important source of policy: they make decisions about everything from education to exports, and from transport to taxation. They may lavish resources on particular areas (and neglect other areas); they may subsidize, tax or ban certain activities; they build and maintain major roads, and provide services such as policing, security and extension advice. Government agencies set standards and grades for products, monitor compliance by actors in the marketing chain, and may even run major facilities such as abattoirs. What they do, what they do not do, and how they do it, can have a major impact on the fortunes of an area and the people who live there.National governments are rarely monolithic: various ministries and agencies affect pastoralist areas: agriculture, livestock, trade and industry, infrastructure, interior, finance, etc. Their policies may not always align with one another. And national governments are not the only sources of policy. Here are some others.International agreements Pastoralists frequently cross national borders, making collaboration among national governments important. Various regional organizations are developing policies on pastoralism -many of them aiming to make pastoralist's lives easier (Box 60).Emerging regional policies to support pastoralists East Africa The Intergovernmental Authority on Development finalized its regional policy framework on animal health in 2009. In the same year, a draft policy framework for food security in pastoralist areas was released by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). This was issued as part of the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. A COMESA project aims to simplify trading across borders in order to boost food security. West Africa Members of the Economic Community of West African States have passed a series of laws to protect pastoral land, enhance livestock mobility and ensure priority rights to use resources. Progress has been made in formulating legislation to enable pastoralists' mobility through an international transhumance certificate. Central Africa Supportive policies range from government mobile schools for pastoralist children during their migration in Chad, to the allocation of land and veterinary services to pastoralist communities.Importing countries These may impose food-safety and traceability requirements, and may put a blanket ban on imports if, for example, there is a disease outbreak in an exporting country. Getting permission to import a particular product can be very difficult: Europeans cannot enjoy camel cheese made in Mauritania, for example, because the European Union does not recognize it as a product category (LPP et al. 2010).Local authorities Local governments develop bylaws covering things like herd movements, land use and access to water in their districts. They may manage markets, maintain feeder roads, and try to resolve local disputes.Traditional authorities These develop and enforce traditional laws, and exert pressure on local people to conform. In some countries they have the power to impose fines and other punishments on people who break these rules. They may also mediate disputes among individuals and groups.Private sector Traders, processors and retailers set standards (or apply the standards agreed by national standards authorities), decide what products to buy (and from whom), and where to sell them. Banks and microfinance institutions decide on loan policies and the availability of credit. Business development services offer advice and inputs. In many marketing chains, a big actor such as a supermarket chain or an abattoir has a disproportionate amount of power, and can coordinate the whole chain (or impose its will upon it).Donors and development agencies These may decide to invest in certain locations or types of activities, for example to make a marketing chain more efficient or to instigate a new one. Their activities may have a big impact locally (as evidenced by several of the cases in Chapter 8). Many development projects aim to pilot new approaches in the hope that governments will find them useful enough to replicate on a larger scale. Donors and development agencies tend to work through short-term projects, so their direct influence is temporary; they hope to have a more lasting effect by building sustainable institutions (such as a cooperative or a profitable marketing chain that perpetuates itself).The recommendations below are for policy directions for all of the institutions in the previous section, not just for national governments.Production Policies should support pastoralists to produce high-quality products, and should encourage them to engage in the market economy. That includes the following:• Support pastoralism Facilitate (rather than hinder) the pastoralist mode of production.That means finding ways to facilitate mobility, enable herders to gain access to pastureland and water, keep access to land open, and maintain and enhance locally adapted livestock breeds (see Chapters 2 and 4). • Mitigate the effects of drought Drought is inevitable in the drylands, so it is vital to prepare for it so that as many people and animals can survive and recover quickly afterwards. Approaches include developing and managing emergency water points and pastures, facilitating movement to other areas, encouraging destocking before a drought, and helping build up herds afterwards (IIRR et al. 2004).• Control infectious diseases Import bans can destroy a thriving trade overnight, so it is vital to avoid them. Measures include vaccination campaigns, quarantine requirements, and appropriate (but not excessive) restrictions on movements. • Promote animal health Facilitate the provision of appropriate animal health services, for example by expanding the role of community animal health workers. Improve the control of the quality and safety of veterinary drugs.Services Policies should aim to support services that facilitate marketing. In general, the aim should be to ensure that pastoralists have access to the same range of services that producers in other areas enjoy (Chapter 5). Suggestions include:• Improve transport Improve trunk and feeder roads that link production areas with markets. Establish and maintain corridors where pastoralists can herd their animals between their traditional grazing areas and the market. Ensure that these corridors offer adequate access to feed and water. • Invest in other infrastructure This includes basic facilities such as electricity and telecommunications, as well as market-related facilities such as marketplaces, milk-collection points, dairies and abattoirs. Simple but robust facilities (such as slaughter slabs) may be more appropriate than the latest technology (such as automatic equipment).• Ensure access to market information Ensure that accurate, up-to-date market information is made available. That means collecting information on live animals and milk; disseminating information via the mass media, market billboards, the internet and mobile phones; and expanding the areas served by mobile phone signals.• Bring facilities to pastoralists Make services such as schools, markets, processing facilities and credit provision more accessible to pastoralists. This may mean building new local markets and other facilities, improving how existing facilities are managed, or making them mobile (such as mobile schools and banks, or money-transfer services that use mobile phones). It also means designing them so pastoralists can use them easily: having schools in pastoralist areas teach subjects related to pastoralism, and designing loans with the pastoralist production cycle in mind.This means removing unnecessary restrictions, reducing taxes, and facilitating cross-border trade. Taxes collected from the pastoral production and marketing should be reinvested in pastoralist areas (Box 61).Livestock are one of the most repeatedly (and perhaps the most highly) taxed agricultural commodities in Africa. But livestock taxes and transit fees are rarely used to improve the physical structure or efficiency of livestock markets. The governing principle should be to levy user fees and taxes on livestock producers and traders for visible, tangible services and to maintain and upgrade production and marketing facilities.Taxes in various countries may be too high, multiple, or even illegal. In southern Somalia, illegal levies of $3 per camel, $2 per cow and $1 per sheep or goat have been reported. Such levies reduce pastoralists' incomes and discourage them from selling their livestock. Lowering taxes and eliminating such illegal levies would encourage trade.Ensure fair competition Avoid distortions that exclude certain actors from the market, and eliminate cartels and government monopolies.Improve quality and image Find ways to promote the quality and image of pastoralist products. Explore niche markets for promising products such as local specialties such as biltong (Box 7 in Chapter 3) and camel milk (Box 8).Coordinate services Coordinate the provision of services to ensure that they support one another. Livestock marketplaces, for example, require roads, transport, health services and credit facilities if they are to function well.Skills and organization Policies should try to build the human and social capital of pastoralists so they are better able to take advantage of opportunities to market their products (Chapter 6).• Build skills This includes training pastoralists, processors, traders and service providers in appropriate skills, and using other capacity-building approaches. For pastoralists, this includes how to produce for the market, finance, communication, business, marketing and organizational leadership. For traders, it includes group governance, management of animals, marketing, negotiation and finance. For processors, it covers processing techniques and business management. • Organize groups Groups are key to marketing both animals and milk. Various types of groups may be appropriate for different situations: producer cooperatives, organizations to link producers with traders, forums that bring together producers and traders with government and service providers, and commodity associations that cover all stakeholders in a particular marketing chain. • Organize second-order associations Encourage the formation of unions of cooperatives to represent the interests of pastoralists in negotiations with traders, processors and service providers, and to lobby local and national governments. • Support women All pastoralists face difficult challenges, but women are at an additional disadvantage. Efforts are needed to build women's skills in production and marketing, create more opportunities for them, involve them in a wider range of activities, and strengthen their role in making decisions.The process of formulating policies must take pastoralists' views more into account. Some suggestions:• Listen Ensure that pastoralists are involved in developing and implementing policies.Encourage them to get organized so they can influence policy decisions. • Review Revise policies and laws to bring them up to date, taking into account pastoralists' opinions. • Build on traditional laws Understand traditional laws and institutions, and build on those that affect production and marketing of livestock and livestock products. Help communities develop bylaws based on traditional rules. • Improve data collection and analysis The data on pastoralist production and marketing are poor and out of date. Bad data are unlikely to lead to good policies. To convince policymakers, it is necessary to have convincing data that show the effects of current policies, and the likely gains to be made by changing them.It is possible to intervene at different points in the marketing chain to support and develop pastoralist marketing. Where should governments, donors and development agencies intervene?The best place to intervene is not always obvious. Production systems and marketing chains can be complex, and the needs and opportunities are many. Each stakeholder will tend to see the problems that affect him or her, and may disregard other issues. Researchers in different scientific disciplines also have their own biases. It is necessary to analyse the situation from different angles, and to gather opinions from different sources, before identifying the bottlenecks where interventions can be most cost-effective. Here are three ways of doing this:• Marketing chain analysis This involves following a product from the producer to the consumer, and identifying the chain actors who buy, sell, process and handle it at each stage. It also means identifying the individuals and organizations that support the chain through services (such as inputs, information or finance), and understanding the relationships among them. It identifies bottlenecks in the chain and ways these can be overcome. • Participatory needs assessment This means assessing needs not as an academic exercise to be done by outside professionals, but by involving the stakeholders themselves in identifying their own needs. This is particularly important in pastoralist chains because of the lack of reliable data and because of the power differences between stakeholders. Methods include participatory appraisal, focus group discussions, institutional mapping and interviewing key informants. • Innovation platforms (Chapter 6) can be a good way of identifying potential intervention points. They bring together different stakeholders in the chain to discuss problems, identify potential solutions, and coordinate the intervention. Box 62 gives an example of how this was done for goat marketing in Zimbabwe.We can identify four possible intervention points: directly with pastoralists, further along the chain (for example, with traders or processors), with service providers, and with government (Figure 13). We discuss each in turn below.Participatory needs assessment is a first step in designing an intervention. The biggest problem in keeping goats in Zimbabwe? High mortality rates. Over a quarter of smallholders' goats die before they can be sold or slaughtered. That is a huge loss for the goat raisers. So the solution is to improve feeding and veterinary care, right? Wrong. Researchers at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics set up an innovation platform (a forum of stakeholders in goat production and marketing) to discuss the problems. The members realized that raising goats was not profitable, so the farmers lacked an incentive to improve production.The major bottleneck was the lack of formal markets where they could sell their animals: most were sold at the farm gate. So the project built sales pens for small stock at marketplaces, and introduced monthly auctions. That made it possible for goat raisers to sell their animals more easily: some 85% of animals are now sold through the auctions. The innovation platform also persuaded the local abattoir to reduce the fees it charges for slaughtering goats. As a result, the price of goats has roughly doubled since 2008. Goat raisers invest much of the income in goat production, especially in buying feed. Mortality has dropped as a result. This involves working directly with pastoralists and their organizations to help them improve their production and marketing. Examples include training dairy producers on feeding and milk hygiene, training herders on animal health and how to make feed supplements, and organizing pastoralists into cooperatives. Eight of the 15 cases in Chapter 8 used such approaches (Table 3).Especially for non-government organizations, this is an attractive approach because it means working directly with the poor. Pastoralists are usually the most disadvantaged actors in the marketing chain, so helping them directly should empower them to deal more effectively with other members of the chain. It is possible to build the marketing chain upwards if one starts from the lower segment of the chain.At least that is according to theory. But this approach has a major limitation: the difficulty and cost of trying to reach large numbers of mobile, scattered, poorly educated people in a deprived area. We have already discussed two ways of getting around this problem: organizing groups of pastoralists, and working through intermediaries such as local community organizations (Chapter 6). In addition, sustainability may be a problem: the types of changes in behaviour and attitudes required may take years of work to make permanent. For these reasons, working directly with pastoralists was the main focus in only one of the 15 cases (the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme, Case 5). Further along the chain (traders and processors)Service providersFaced with these difficulties, it is often better to work with actors further along the marketing chain, such as traders and processors. This approach has four potential advantages:• It is easier and cheaper to work with a few traders, or with a processing plant, than to try to reach lots of scattered producers. • The approach can create or rehabilitate facilities such as abattoirs, dairies and marketplaces that are vital for marketing. • It has the potential to influence a large number of producers indirectly. A cattle trader, for example, will pay more for good-quality animals, giving the pastoralists an incentive for supplying them. The trader may even train the pastoralists on health and feeding in order to guarantee a reliable supply (Figure 14). • It has the promise of greater sustainability because more people, in more roles, have an incentive to maintain and further develop the system.We can see this approach most clearly in Case 1, where the Revitalizing Agricultural/Pastoral Incomes and New Markets project provided loans to traders in Ethiopia so they could buy animals from pastoralists during a drought. The project also linked the traders to feed suppliers and abattoirs.Other cases used similar approaches. It is in the interests of dairies to organize their suppliers to bring their milk to a collection point for bulking. That makes it easier to check quality and reduces the cost of picking up the milk. Similarly, the abattoirs organize and train livestock keepers to ensure deliveries of well-fed, healthy animals. Box 63 gives another example, in which shearing sheds run by traders were used to reach large numbers of shepherds.Eleven of the 15 cases used such approaches: nine worked with processors, and two with traders (Table 3). For most of them, this was their main point of intervention, though seven of the ten also worked directly with pastoralists.While this approach seems attractive, it suffers from two potential drawbacks: it can be difficult to monitor impact, and the intervention may benefit the traders or processors rather than the people intended -the pastoralists. For example, a dairy that gets its suppliers to bring their milkPrivate wool traders in Lesotho run shearing sheds where pastoralist shepherds bring their sheep and goats to be shorn. But the quality of the wool and cashmere used to be low because the animals were unhealthy and poorly fed. The sheds were sometimes poorly run, the wool was incorrectly graded, and pricing was not transparent. Mngcunube Development Pty Ltd, a consulting firm, worked with the traders to improve their operations. Mentors from the firm helped the traders improve their operations, maintain records, and improve grading. They helped the traders determine fair prices, and ensured that these were clearly displayed so the shepherds would know how much money they could expect. Payments were made promptly, within 2 weeks after shearing. The mentors also trained local people as animal-health workers, and helped them set up their own businesses.As a result, the number of pastoralists bringing their animals in for shearing increased: in the 2006/7 shearing season, nearly 3,000 shepherds brought in 59,000 sheep for shearing. Prices paid to shepherds for wool rose by 14% in a single year. The health of the animals improved dramatically, with mortality rates falling from 25% to less than 5%. By working with 10 traders, you may be able to benefit 1,000 pastoralists.By working with the abattoir that buys from the traders, you can benefit 10,000 pastoralists.By working with a service provider that serves abattoirs, it may be possible to reach 100,000.By changing government policy, you can reach 1,000,000.so it has an effective monopoly over purchases of livestock or milk, and can dictate terms to the other actors in the chain.The dominant actor depends on the chain. In some marketing chains, for example, big supermarket companies play a dominant role: they can dictate terms to their suppliers, who in turn try to squeeze the best value for money out of their suppliers. In many of our cases, it is the processor which is the dominant player -at least in the parts of the chains that the cases report on.Producers are in a weak position: they have few alternative customers, and must accept the prices and terms on offer. In our cases, the development agencies tried to strengthen their hand in three ways:• By helping them get organized, so strengthening their ability to negotiate.• By helping them seek new markets, so bypassing the current dominant actor.• By ensuring that the processing facility was owned either by the pastoralists themselves (through a cooperative) or by a trusted third party (a community organization or the government).Another option is to work with service providers to improve the functioning of the chain. This was the main approach used by five of our 15 cases (Table 3), all concerned with building marketplaces or improving how they were managed. For another three cases, it was a secondary point of intervention. Additional services covered the provision of feed, animal health and transport, and establishing training institutions. Chapter 5 and Box 63 also illustrate the provision of services.The logic of intervening with service providers is similar to that for traders and processors. Doing so is easier than serving large numbers of producers; it can alleviate bottlenecks that restrict production or marketing; it is possible to benefit a large number of poor people indirectly.A possible problem with using service provision as the intervention point is the ability to target the desired group of beneficiaries. Improving a market, for example, may benefit traders more than producers. There is a danger that by increasing the efficiency of trading and the number of animals for sale, the price per animal may actually go down rather than up. On the other hand, a thriving market may have many benefits: in Bassila, in Benin, the reorganized livestock market has attracted people to sell and buy many other products, boosting the overall economy of the area (Case 7).By targeting or working through government, it may be possible to improve the marketing of pastoralist products throughout the entire country. Chapter 8 includes two large-scale government efforts: the Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project (Case 4) and the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme (Case 5). But the primary focus of these was on developing local services (transport and marketplaces in Tanzania) and on organizing pastoralists (in Uganda). We have no examples of governments changing (say) taxation policies or laws governing livestock movements, which would have a systematic effect on marketing. We also have no examples of lobbying and advocacy by pastoralists or development organizations to push for policy changes.to a collection point is imposing the cost of bulking on the suppliers, but may not offer a higher price for the bulked product. Similarly, a trader may decide to pocket any profit rather than passing it on to the producers. An example of this is where large-scale traders have established their own feedlots and holding grounds so they can add value themselves. Rather than paying a good price for slaughter-ready animals, they buy animals that they can fatten up and sell at higher prices. A higher volume of trade does not always mean that pastoralists benefit.In theory, competition should reduce any tendency for individual traders or processors to make excessive profits: other traders or processors will see the potential and also enter the market. The producers will then have a choice of whom to sell to.In practice, however, this often does not work. Markets in pastoralist areas are often very \"thin\": there is room for only one, or a few, traders, who may easily collude with each other to keep the prices they pay to producers low. There may be only one abattoir or dairy in the area, Loans from the RAIN project (Case 1) made it possible for traders to buy animals during a drought, purchase feed, and sell them to abattoirs. That kept the marketing system running and benefited everyone.Local government Several of the cases in Chapter 8 discuss working with local authorities to promote marketing in their districts. Local governments have played a very constructive role in providing land (for example, for the Lomidat abattoir in Kenya, Case 8), supporting changes in the management of markets in Kenya (Case 2), and improving the management of markets in Mali (Case 6) and Benin (Case 7). But in none of the cases were they the major focus of the intervention.Private companies These are conspicuous by their absence in our cases. There is only one joint venture represented (the abattoir constructed by the Uganda Meat Export Development Programme, Case 5). Several other cases depict cooperative-owned companies, but they are not the same as private firms. Perhaps this absence is a result of the particular cases chosen for this book, or a general tendency for development projects to avoid working with the private sector. Or perhaps it reflects the general lack of attractiveness of the drylands for private investment.Retailers None of our 15 cases focused on retailers as a point of intervention. Possible approaches would be to persuade supermarkets to stock pastoralist products such as camel milk (Box 8), or to work with butchers and milk retailers to improve the quality of the products they sell.Consumers Similarly, none of our cases focused on consumers. It would be possible, for example, to run a marketing campaign to increase the demand for pastoralist products, or to try to influence public opinion to get a change in the policies of the government or big retailers. Such efforts would have a potentially big effect on pastoralist marketing as their effects cascaded back through the chain to the producers.In only three of our cases was the intervention focused exclusively at a single point in the marketing chain (Table 3). In 11 of the other cases, it focused on two or more points. It seems that simple solutions with a single point of intervention are relatively rare. Rather, the situation usually requires initiatives to tackle several issues at once in order to overcome a problem in marketing.Here are some guidelines for selecting where to intervene to improve the marketing of pastoralist products:• Address the key bottlenecks A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Strengthening this link will make the whole chain stronger and more efficient. Conversely, there is little point in trying to solve a particular problem if there is a narrower bottleneck somewhere else in the chain. Often, it will be necessary to address several problems at the same time to overcome a particular bottleneck. Partnerships with other organizations can help address complex issues. • Intervene where it is most beneficial Select the intervention points that have the potential to benefit the most people, or the neediest people. This may mean working with traders, processors or service providers, rather than (or as well as) with pastoralists. • Cut your coat according to your cloth It is not possible for a single project to solve all the problems in an area. Projects should be realistic, and tackle only those problems that they have a chance of resolving.• Take power differences into account When deciding where to intervene, it is important to understand the power relationships among the various actors. Design interventions to strengthen the weaker actors in the chain. T he Somali region of Ethiopia is hot, dry and has erratic rainfall. In May 2011, the rains did not come as expected at the end of the long dry season. That reduced the amount of pasture and almost dried up the birkads -cement-lined ponds -which are Somali pastoralists' only source of water in the dry season. These pastoralists had to trek further than usual in search of water and pasture for their camels, sheep and goats. Hunger, thirst and constant movement weakened the livestock and made them ill.There are few markets in this remote region, so by the time the animals reach the market they are so weak that they fetch a very low price. Some die on their way. So taking animals to market is a big risk for pastoralists. Fewer animals sold means less market activity. Sales can take a long time to recover after a drought.Traders who buy animals often lack the capital to purchase large numbers. The pastoralists can sell only as many as the traders buy. The traders on their part, lack feed to give to the animals to fatten them before sale.Instead of assisting the pastoralists directly, RAIN decided to support the traders who buy animals from them. If the traders could continue to buy animals at a fair price throughout the drought season, then the pastoralists would benefit.RAIN offered interest-free loans of $15,000 each to 17 traders for four months. These loans were issued by Mercy Corps, as at the time no banks were offering sharia-compliant loans. The traders could use this money to travel around the area and buy animals.RAIN linked the traders to feed suppliers who sold feed to the traders so the animals could be fattened before sale. Mercy Corps paid 25% of the initial sales price to encourage this investment.The traders used to sell their animals informally to Somaliland. RAIN linked them with abattoirs in highland Ethiopia, where there is a lot of demand for meat for export.As a result of the project, some 4,500 households from 23 drought-affected woredas (districts) sold 10,600 livestock at fair prices. By the end of the drought, households in the project sold an average of 15 more sheep or goats than those not supported by the project.The livestock market continued throughout the drought. That benefitted the pastoralists immediately and into the future. New market channels for animals were established -2,400 sheep and goats were sold to the highland abattoirs.The market for feed was strengthened: a total of 120 tons of feed were sold.Overall, the project resulted in benefits of $472,000, after loan repayment. Of this, 86% went to pastoralists, 8% to traders (including their expenses for transport, feeding, watering and veterinary care), and 6% to government (mainly from currency fees). L iveStock marketS in pastoral regions in Kenya do not function well. Facilities are often dilapidated or lacking entirely: holding pens are run down, and there are no loading ramps, feed stores or toilets. Markets are insecure, and theft of stock is common. A lack of control means that fees are not collected and funds go missing. A few traders control trade. All these things discourage traders and buyers from using the facilities.Why are livestock markets so often poorly managed? They are the responsibility of the local authorities, which have many other duties and lack the skills and resources to do a good job. If they have suitable policies, these are often not implemented. This is even a problem where a development project has built a market and handed it over to the local authority. After the project finishes, the local authority cannot maintain it.The Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (KLMC) approached the local authorities in 26 markets in eight counties to explore ways of improving market management. It introduced the idea of co-management, where a partnership of local authorities and communities jointly manage the market. This is not easy, as it means the local authority has to share responsibilities for running the market and control over the funds it generates.Introducing this new approach consisted of three steps. First, KLMC introduced the idea of co-management to the local authority, starting with the top executives, and then guiding the approach through the council's lengthy decision-making process and suggesting changes to local regulations and bylaws.Second, KLMC helped the people who used the market to form a livestock marketing association to represent their interests. The marketing association included respected representatives of producers, traders and people living nearby.Third, KLMC brought the local authority and the marketing association together to agree on how best to manage the market. KLMC trained them on the skills they would need. The whole process of needs assessment and training involved the participants.Once agreement was reached, the association took responsibility for managing the market. It can decide on things like the facilities that need improvement, security, coordination, promotion, information, fee collection, disease control and surveillance.Partnerships have been established in 26 markets in Samburu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale, West Pokot, Baringo, Turkana and Garissa. The number of animals traded has risen by 30%, as local producers discovered they no longer have to sell their animals elsewhere to get a good price. Animals now fetch better prices as good facilities and services attract both buyers and sellers. In Chepararia market in West Pokot, for example, the price of a goat or sheep had gone up in the 6 months after start of the co-management project.More trade and higher prices mean that the association can collect higher fees. Security has been improved, and revenues are up by 50% at areas in Isiolo, Baringo, and West Pokot, among others. The local authority gives between one-fifth and one-half of the revenue to the association to cover management expenses. Corruption has declined as the association keeps a close eye on the finances. Nevertheless, both the local authority and the marketing association need continuous training to deal with new challenges as they arise. With more income, pastoralists now have money to maintain and repair the markets themselves. Reuben Koech, reuben.koech@heifer.org, www.heifer.org T he loita and Keekonyokie Maasai are among the poorest people in Kenya: more than half live on less than a dollar a day. The two groups live in southwestern Kenya close to the border with Tanzania. They own 70,000 cattle, 200,000 sheep and 240,000 goats. Preventable diseases are a big problem: they kill 30% of the animals. Marketing their animals is also difficult: trekking them to Nairobi to sell can be a risky business as the city is 200 km away, and the animals get weak and may die en route. Local traders buy the animals based only on how the animals look ,instead of by weight. The pastoralists have little choice but to accept the low prices that traders offer, but they have few incentives to sell more.Deforestation and soil erosion in the Maasai home area mean that water and pasture are scarce, especially during drought. And the traditional culture makes it hard for women and young people to get jobs, do business and earn money.Heifer Kenya has been helping the Loita Development Foundation and the Keekonyokie Suswa Trust to tackle these problems. They have set up agro-veterinary shops and vaccine centres in the area so they can buy medicines and other inputs and get their animals vaccinated.In 2007, Heifer and the two local organizations formed Ramat Livestock Enterprises Ltd. to market livestock. This company set up a market at Suswa, 80 km west of Nairobi, along with a feedlot, water reservoirs, weighing facilities, and a 140-ha pasture sown with improved forage. The holding ground can handle 800 cattle and 1,500 sheep and goats. IFAD financed a biogas facility to turn manure into electricity. Heifer trained the Ramat board and management to run the market, which serves abattoirs in Nairobi as well as exporters who supply to the Middle East.The project has trained young Maasai men and women as entrepreneurs. The Ramat market sources animals from them; the animals they bring to the market are often thin, so are fattened in the feedlot for some time before they are sold. Healthy, well-fed animals fetch a better price, and traders now purchase by weight. The pastoralists now regard livestock as a business, and their incomes have increased. During drought, pastoralists can bring their animals for grazing at the Ramat holding ground. They pay Ramat a fee for this service.Ramat has become a training centre for pastoralists to learn how to manage their livestock better. The Loita Development Foundation and Keekonyokie Suswa Trust work with their communities and introduce new management practices. People have learned about tree-planting, controlling runoff, collecting water, controlled grazing, and issues such as gender and HIV/AIDs. Together with other partners, Heifer Kenya has supported the training of young men and women on animal health and business skills. The pastoralists have become more conscious in caring for the environment.Vitamins, minerals and medicines are now available, and regular vaccination has improved the animals' health. As a result, livestock mortality has been cut in half.Young people can now get loans from the government's Youth Enterprise Development Fund through Ramat. With the businesses created by the project, more people now have jobs.Local organizations consult the people and pastoralists are now more involved, giving them a sense of belonging and pride. Women pastoralists have revived their groups and formed new ones. They are more active now in livestock trade.Pastoralists and other agencies have copied the project's approach, and the government is planning to replicate it in other arid and semi-arid pastoralist areas. Jeremiah Temu, jeremiahtemu@yahoo.com I n the 1980s, the livestock industry in Tanzania was facing serious problems. The marketing infrastructure and veterinary services were poor. Tanganyika Packers, a big processor, had lost its sanitary certificate, so there was a sharp decline in exports, and domestic demand for the expensive cuts fell as consumers became concerned about quality. Livestock transport was erratic because only one-quarter of the railway cattle wagons were functional, so the livestock owners had to trek their animals to market. The cattle lost weight and became ill or even died on the way; if they made it to the abattoir, their meat was tough. Herds of cattle trampled the ground on their way to market, causing disputes with landowners along the way. The country's slaughter facilities were low-standard, and there were few facilities to chill the meat. Butchers were obliged to sell all the meat on the day of slaughter.The Tanzania Livestock Marketing Project aimed to revitalize livestock marketing by building and rehabilitating the necessary infrastructure. It focused on 15 regions of mainland Tanzania north of the central railway line, where more than 75% of livestock population is found. The majority of the livestock holders in this area are agropastoralists and pastoralists from the Sukuma, Gogo, Maasai and Taturu tribes.The project restored and constructed 90 night camps, 56 markets, 15 checkpoints, 13 holding grounds, 9 railway sidings and 60 cattle wagons. It also built an abattoir with a capacity of 200 cattle and 200 sheep or goats. Other initiatives included establishing the Meat Industry Training Centre at Dodoma to improve skills of meat-industry workers, and a web-based livestock marketing information system, www.lmistz.net, set up jointly with Texas A&M University.Improvements in rail and road transport have cut the mortality rate from 5% to 0.2%. With a modern abattoir providing quality slaughter services, exports of meat have resumed, and shipments of cattle, sheep and goat meat to the Middle East have picked up. Exports rose from zero in 1997/98 to 840 tons in 2011/12. Domestic marketing has also improved as a result of better facilities, lower costs and fewer delays. Access to common markets has increased competition among traders, and prices of livestock have improved. Both producers and traders are willing to pay higher fees for the improved services.The government still controls the livestock markets, holding grounds, night camps and checkpoints. However, its general policy is to not engage in livestock marketing or production, so the Dodoma abattoir has been privatized. The Meat Industry Training Centre has been handed over to the government-owned but autonomous Vocational Educational and Training Authority.Not surprisingly, the project has not solved all the problems in Tanzania's livestock industry. Animals still have to be transported a long way to the abattoir. It is better to construct slaughter facilities near the production areas and to transport meat rather than live animals. Many pastoralists still do not see livestock keeping as a business, so the number of animals they sell has risen only slightly.Informal trade across the borders into neighbouring countries persists. Although they offer better infrastructure and services, 10 border markets built by the project are not functioning. Pastoralists still use the alternative, informal routes, and the neighbouring countries do not regulate livestock movement or enforce trade legislation. Joshua Waiswa, nabangijoshua@gmail.com U ganda iS full of gold, according to a report published in 2006. But this is not the shiny stuff that has to be dug out of the ground (though the country has plenty of that too). Instead of precious metals, the study looked at the country's meat export prospects, and the \"gold\" it identified walks around on four legs -in the form of cattle.Two-thirds of Uganda's cattle trade are concentrated in a corridor that runs across the country from northeast to southwest. Small-scale agropastoralists dominate production, but they raise their animals mostly for subsistence. The potential for exports is largely untapped.There are a number of reasons for this. The meat sector does not meet the minimum requirements for exports because of a whole list of reasons: livestock disease, poor market infrastructure, outdated legislation, limited financial resources, poor animal-identification and traceability systems, weak animal welfare, poor breeds, inadequate services, the absence of good abattoirs, and so on. But the most glaring problem was a complete lack of organized cooperatives. The best way for livestock keepers to realize the wealth from their cattle was to form cooperatives, the study reasoned.The Uganda Meat Export Development Programme was the government's response. This multi-year initiative aimed to improve local livestock marketing and meat exports. It helped the livestock keepers to form local beef cooperatives, and then create an umbrella organization, the Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union Limited.The initiative encourages the herders run their livestock enterprises as a business. It offers insemination services to improve breeding, promotes disease control, and enables the pastoralists to get involved in policy decisions.The local cooperatives offer a variety of services to their members. They coordinate insemination services, with 1,000 cows inseminated in 2012 (up from 575 the previous year), and a conception rate of 70%. They market their members' animals: in 2012, 2,155 animals were sold through the cooperatives, up from zero in 2008. They also facilitate the training of their members in livestock management and business skills. The number of cooperatives has risen from four in 2008 (with 209 individual members) to 33 in 2012 (with 2,651 members) in 17 districts. Many of the cooperatives run businesses: there were 18 such enterprises in 2012. Profits per pastoralist rose from just $4 in 2010 to $ 77 in 2012.Three marketing resource centres have been established in the cattle corridor. The programme has also established an abattoir, the Uganda Meat Farmers Company Ltd. This is a private-public partnership, with pastoralists owning 51% of the shares. Slaughter-line equipment came from Nortura, a Norwegian agricultural cooperative that operates abattoirs.Women pastoralists and young people have benefited from the programme. More women now sell cattle: in 2012, over 250 women did so; the figure for 2008 was zero. Young people have got informal and formal employment in the livestock industry. T hurSday iS market day in Farakala. People come to buy, sell, meet and talk. There is a brisk trade in food, clothes and household items. But the livestock market used to be very quiet. It was in poor condition: it consisted just of an open area with livestock pens made of mud brick -which is easily damaged by cattle and rain. Because the market lacked a perimeter fence, people could come and go as they pleased. That made it impossible to charge user fees, and thefts were common.The market was managed by a local cooperative of livestock keepers -the Coopérative Agropastorale de Farakala -but it had no money to invest in the facilities. The market was not an attractive place for large-scale traders to come to buy fattened cattle. So cooperative members preferred to take their animals to Sikasso or Niena, larger places a day's trek away, where there were more traders and sellers could expect a higher price. But trekking the fattened animals was risky: they could not be fed or watered along the way, and many arrived thin and exhausted.The European Union agreed to finance a new market, but on condition that the local municipality owned the facilities. SNV helped the municipality, cooperative and the regional union to agree on what facilities to build and how to manage them. The municipality did not have the staff or capability to manage such a market, so it transferred responsibility for management to the cooperative. The district government of Sikasso provided land for the new market, and the project constructed permanent livestock pens, a surrounding wall and gates, and other facilities. That made it possible to control the movement of animals in and out of the market, and to collect fees.The project trained members and leaders of the cooperative, as well as the managers and staff of the municipality, on how to manage the market and deal conflicts that arise while the animals are being trekked there. Formal agreements were made to specify who was responsible for what.The cooperative collects a fee of FCFA 150 (about 30 US cents) for each animal bought or sold in the market. One-quarter of the fees go to the municipality; the cooperative uses the rest to pay for running the market and for maintenance. It has used some of the profits to build a ramp to load animals onto lorries. It charges a fee of FCFA 5,000 ($10) for loading a lorry.To deal with theft, the cooperative has set up surveillance committees in the surrounding villages to check the identity of animals being herded to and from the market. The committees are empowered to detail any suspicious herds until their legality is established.The livestock market is now a busy place on Thursdays. The number of cattle sold each week has risen from 40 in 2011 to 55 in 2012. Revenues have also risen, from zero in 2010, to FCFA 8,200 ($16) per week in 2012. Nearly all the animals that local breeders raise are now sold in Farakala. A dozen or so traders from Sikasso and Segou come to the market to buy stock -something that happened very rarely before. Some 15-20 livestock keepers sell each week. The number of animals sold and income generated may seem small, but the crowds are attracting people to buy and sell sheep, goats, food, and other items. The livestock sellers save money on transport or trekking, and can spend their newly earned money in Farakala rather than in the bigger towns. The municipality and cooperative have a sustainable source of income, and the number of thefts reported has fallen to zero. Relations between the commune administration and the market users have improved. L iveStock marketS in Benin have traditionally been controlled by influential local businessmen known as dilaalis, who acted as intermediaries between livestock sellers and buyers -making big profits for themselves in the process. This brokerage role was a long-standing practice that aimed, in part, to help pastoralists to negotiate their way in the market. But it had evolved into a secretive transaction that mostly benefitted the broker. In the cattle market, each dilaali would delineate his own space, where he would drive in stakes where he would tie the sellers' animals. The dilaali would then give the seller a small amount of money (around FCFA 100) to go and \"buy food\", or ask him to wait under a tree. With the seller out of the way, the dilaali would agree on a price with the buyer. Unaware of the real price paid for the animal, the seller's bargaining position was undermined, and he would have to accept the price offered. The dilaali kept the balance for himself.When Benin was decentralized in 2000, the dilaalis came under increasing criticism from livestock sellers as well as the local governments, which could not collect market fees because of a lack of financial records. The lack of transparency and professionalism in managing the market was a bottleneck in raising the incomes of both the local government and the producers.In 2009, UCOPER, a breeders' organization in the municipality of Bassila in northern Benin, asked SNV for help. SNV began to work with local people to improve the management of the livestock market in Doguè, a town in the municipality.SNV helped create a general assembly of all the market stakeholders, and a market management committee to represent each group. SNV helped the stakeholders to develop a new vision for the market and inform everyone about how they would all benefit. It established a market fund, which collects fees per animal sold: FCFA 1,000 ($2) from the buyer and the same amount from the seller. It also charges parking fees for vehicles. The committee members were trained in budgeting and financial management so they could use revenues from the market effectively for local development.SNV also addressed the professionalization of the dilaalis. Rather than brokering individual cattle sales, they were given a new role: supervising market transactions in their allotted area, ensuring the traceability of all animals sold, and maintaining transparent records to ensure revenue was collected properly. They were paid FCFA 500 ($1) per animal sold in their space. This is as much as they would earn from a typical sale under the old system.The donor and the market fund co-financed improvements in the market infrastructure: fencing, an administration building with an office, meeting room and store, a sanitation block, loading ramp, and a water point with a drinking trough. They invested a total of FCFA 95 million ($190,000) in these improvements.The management committee consists of 11 members, elected by the traders, sellers and dilaalis. It implements decisions made by the general assembly, which meets at least four times a year -and more often if necessary.The livestock keepers, the weakest players in the marketing chain, used to be at a disadvantage compared to the market brokers. They are now empowered, and can negotiate a more realistic price for their animals. The dilaalis offer a professional service that maintains order in the market and collects revenue for the government. Because of this, the market has become an attractive place to buy and sell.The number of animals bought and sold has increased, and the market's turnover rose from under $2,600 in 2008 to over €20,000 in 2011. The market's contribution to the local authority'sThe dilaalis used to broker deals. Now they supervise transactions and maintain records.budget has multiplied tenfold in just two years: from annual revenues of under $600 in 2008 to over €6,500 in 2011.The positive results are an inspiration for other livestock markets in the region. A 3-year pilot project has been launched in the neighbouring markets at Atacora and Donga to replicate the approach.Since 2008, the number of permanent market employees (secretaries, controllers and dilaalis) has doubled from 17 to 36. More than twice this number benefit indirectly from the new jobs. Most are young people, who no longer have to leave the area in search of work.The market is now a busy place. Vendors come to sell things like food, drink, clothes, ropes and even motorbikes. The bustle attracts still more customers, boosting economic activity in and around the area.  T urkana diStrict, in northwestern Kenya, is big, dry and dusty. Its half-million human inhabitants are far outnumbered by some 3.3 million livestock, including 200,000 cattle, 2 million goats, and 1 million sheep.Until recently, the district's pastoralists found it difficult to sell their animals. They relied on a network of small, medium and large traders and butchers, who often bartered livestock for cooking pots, beads (used to make traditional decorations) and other items. There was little cash in the local economy, and, ignorant of the true value of their animals, the pastoralists often got a raw deal. They were understandably hesitant to sell animals -a reluctance reinforced by the advisability of maintaining a lot of animals as a way of surviving the periodic droughts that plague the area.Indeed, local people regard a large herd as an indicator of wealth, much as urban people look at the size of their neighbours' house or car. Raiding livestock from other groups is traditional in the area. Rustling parties used to carry bows and arrows; now they are armed with automatic weapons, making raids far more dangerous.The shortage of cash and the lack of security have severely restricted economic activity in the district, which remains one of the poorest in Kenya. Since the end of the Sudanese civil war, several aid organizations have moved their offices across the nearby border into newly independent South Sudan. That is good news for South Sudan, but has deprived Turkana district of an important source of employment and income.How to create a more efficient market and enable the pastoralists to benefit from a cash economy? In 2008, Terra Nuova and AMREF, in collaboration with the Turkana County Council, established a slaughterhouse at Lomidat, about 9 km from the town of Lokichoggio, to serve the needs of pastoralists in the district.The owners of the slaughterhouse are the members of the Lomidat Pastoral Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited, an association of pastoralists who supply animals to the slaughterhouse. Members paid a fee of KSh 500 ($5.75), and also bought shares in the cooperative: the minimum shareholding is KSh 2,000 ($23). The members earn dividends based on their shareholdings. The cooperative currently has 1,500 members (three-fifths of them women), of whom 700 are fully paid-up.The slaughterhouse has about 1,000 hectares of land, kindly donated by Turkana County Council to the cooperative. Two hectares are fully fenced; the remaining land is used as a holding ground for the livestock awaiting slaughter. The slaughterhouse has its own borehole and a 35,000 litre high-level water tank. It takes electricity from the national grid to power cooling cabinets and other equipment. A standby generator supplies power if the grid supply breaks down. It is the only government-licensed slaughterhouse in the district. Five new livestock market centres have been built in various areas of Turkana county (in Lokori, Namorouputh, Lokangae, Letea and Kanakurudio), and a sales yard at Kakuma has been rehabilitated. The idea is to start regular market days at these centres to attract both buyers and sellers. A buyer from the slaughterhouse, accompanied by a cooperative member, will visit these centres to buy animals. Other buyers can also purchase animals for their own needs. The centres are not yet fully operational, but the first few events have been held and have attracted a lot of custom.Prime cuts of meat, sausages and striped meat are among the Lomidat slaughterhouse's products.The slaughterhouse employs 28 staff (22 of them ethnic Turkana). Employment priority is given to local people. A cottage industry to make bone ornaments is developing.Lomidat has been certified by the government as a class \"A\" abattoir. This means that it can now sell its meat and meat products in the whole country. It is looking forward to certification as an export slaughterhouse. It has signed an agreement to supply carcasses and meat directly to niche markets in Nairobi. The slaughterhouse has a refrigerated lorry to deliver products to distant locations.The slaughterhouse has established a cash market for animals. That encourages peaceful trading rather than the frequent raids.The slaughterhouse can slaughter large numbers of animals if there is a drought in the area and pastoralists need to reduce their herd sizes because of lack of feed and water. It aims to extend its procurement to other districts in Kenya (West Pokot, Baringo and Samburu), as well as South Sudan and northeast Uganda. P aStoraliStS are the main livestock raisers in Botswana. Exports of live cattle and beef have long been a vital source of income for the country. Before independence in 1966, the pastoralists used to sell one or two cattle to European traders so they could buy grain and other items. The traders exported them to South Africa. In the early 1950s, the colonial administration established the Lobatse abattoir, 70 km southwest of Gaborone, so it could export beef to the United Kingdom, the colonial power. In 1965, the abattoir was transferred to the control of the newly created Botswana Meat Commission. This is the only entity allowed to export live cattle and beef.When the United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973, the abattoir was upgraded to conform to new, more stringent standards, and it was accredited for the European market. The abattoir is obliged to accept all the cattle that pastoralists deliver to it. It slaughters the animals, grades the meat, and chills or freezes it before export. It also supplies local wholesalers, retailers and butcheries. The abattoir pays the best prices for good-quality animals.The Lobatse abattoir encourages pastoralists to supply young animals, which produce tender meat that fetches a high price. It operates three schemes to do this:• The Feedlotters Advance Scheme gives loans to feedlots to buy young animals from pastoralists, fatten them up and deliver them to the abattoir after 40-90 days. • The Cattle Feed Advance Scheme advances a cheque to pastoralists so they can buy feed for the animals that they will deliver to the abattoir. To prevent misuse, the cheque is made out to the feed supplier rather than the pastoralist.• The Direct Cattle Purchase Scheme pays the pastoralists part of the price of their animals in advance. The animals are branded as being owned by the abattoir. The pastoralists can use this money to fatten the cattle before delivering them to the abattoir.The Botswana Meat Commission has a monopoly over livestock exports. To ensure that pastoralists get a fair price, it has to pay the same price as in equivalent markets in neighbouring South Africa. This is higher than the domestic price offered by butchers in Botswana. After it has covered its costs at the end of the year, the abattoir distributes any surplus funds as a bonus to the pastoralists who have supplied it during the year.Together with the veterinary department, the abattoir informs pastoralists about the requirements of the beef for export and the prices they can expect. This information includes hygiene, transportation, disease control and the age of animals. The abattoir uses the mass media, and organizes village meetings and field days with the cattle producers' association and other stakeholders.In 2011, over 4,000 pastoralists supplied 91,000 cattle to the Lobatse abattoir. Some individuals provided just one animal; others supplied more than 200 a year. Numbers vary from year to year depending on disease outbreaks, drought and other factors. The annual turnover of the abattoir is about $28 million.The abattoir faces various challenges:• As Botswana's population grows and the country develops, local demand for quality meat is rising. Local butchers are increasingly competing with the abattoir for the best animals. • Competition from other exporters such as the USA, Australia and Brazil is increasing, and customers' requirements are changing. • A lack of insurance makes it hard for pastoralists to deal with shocks such as disease outbreaks. Such outbreaks also mean the abattoir currently cannot export to the European Union. • To comply with the European Union requirements, the abattoir has to be closed periodically for refurbishment. F ew tanzanian pastoralists make much effort to produce quality hides and skins. Their indifference is justified -the traders who buy the products pay as little as $0.06 per hide or skin. This low return makes these products virtually worthless -and the effort to produce them a waste of time. But if these raw products can be turned into leather goods, the story is very different.The district council in Maswa, a town near the western city of Mwanza, realized that the local pastoralists were missing out on a potentially significant source of income. So it asked the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute in nearby Mabuki for help. Together, they designed a project to start tanneries to process the hides and skins into higher-value products.The tanneries turn a previously worthless byproduct into a valuable item.The project organized 69 pastoralists in Maswa into three groups, each of which registered as a cooperative tannery. They were then trained how to process the hides and skins into shoes, bags, belts and other leather goods. Traditional training techniques were supplemented with demonstrations and excursions.After the training, each group was provided with $600 as start-up capital. The leather goods they produce are now sold at each tannery, in local markets, and at exhibitions and trade fairs outside Maswa.On average each month, the three tanneries together process a total of 28 hides and 48 skins, and earn a profit of $6,133. This is more than the grant from the Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Fund, so over a year, the investment brings returns 12 times the original investment.The tanneries now buy quality hides from pastoralists for $1.33 each, and skins at $1.00 each. That is roughly 10 times what the producers used to get from traders. The tanneries now offer significant incentives to the pastoralists to produce quality raw products. Both the tannery operators and the herders now earn from a commodity that used to bring them nothing. Zelalem Yilma, zeyilmak@yahoo.fr; Biruk Hailu, burew2@gmail. com; Binyam Kassa, binyam.kassa@gmail.com W omen in the Kareyu and Hawssa agropastoralist communities in Ethiopia's mid-Rift Valley have a tradition of working together to sell milk. They run groups they call faraqa annani (Afan Oromo for \"milk rotation\"). Each group has 2-4 members, who take turns to collect milk from the other group members -the same amount from each one. The woman goes from door to door to pick up the milk, then takes it to market to sell.That is better than each of the women trying to sell small quantities of milk on her own: when it is her turn, she has enough milk to make a trip to the market worthwhile. She can spend the income how she pleases.But the system is also inefficient. Collecting milk from door to door takes time, and it is a long way to the market. The market price is unpredictable, and the woman would often try to sell her milk cheaply so she could get home. If she did not manage to sell it all, she had to bring it home again and turn it into sour milk or butter.In 2008, the Mieso Pastoralist Secretariat helped two sets of faraqa annani groups reorganize themselves as cooperatives: the 28-member Lesitu Annani Gorbo Dairy Cooperative in the Kereyu community, and the 15-member Eskunfalan Dairy Cooperative, from the Hawssa community. A central milk collection and bulking point was established for each cooperative.The two cooperatives collaborated: Eskunfalan cooperative was in a remote location, far from a market, so it was linked to the Lesitu Annani Gorbo cooperative, which is closer to Mieso town. The project trained the women on how to manage a modern dairy, for example, on hygiene and record keeping. ILRI donated a modern churn so they could make butter efficiently, as well as a refrigerator. The cooperatives negotiated milk prices and supplied their members with market information. They also provided improved forage to supplement traditional livestock feeds.The women can now take their milk to the nearby central collection point, instead of having to go round the houses and then haul it to the market. They have learned how to manage a modern dairy business. They cannot yet use their refrigerators, though, as their area still has no electricity.Selling in bulk has meant better prices: $0.55 per litre, compared to $0.22-0.44 per litre before. The assured market has reduced wastage, as they can now sell all the milk they produce. Bulking has let them increase the quantity of milk they sell to 100-240 litres per day. Before, they sold only 23-30 litres. They can also make and sell butter for $8.30 per kilogram. Abdurehman Eid, abdurez4000@yahoo.com; Seid Mohamed and Abdi Abdullahi P aStoraliStS around the town of Godey, in arid southwestern Ethiopia, follow a seasonal pattern when herding their camels. In the dry season, they keep them near the river, where pasture is more plentiful. But in the rainy season, they drive them further away so as to conserve the riverine pastures for grazing later in the year.The camels give birth and start producing milk during the rainy season, when the animals are far from the town. The distance makes it hard for the women, who are responsible for managing the milk, to bring it to town for sale. Being away from home a long time can result in quarrels with their menfolk. In the dry season when the herds are closer to the town and marketing is easier, the sparse pasture means that there is less milk to sell. The result: the women earn little from the milk, a lot of milk in the rainy season goes unsold, and urban consumers have to look for other sources of milk.Caafi Mascuud was the first to find the solution to this problem: he started keeping camels in the town. It started by accident: in the early 1990s, he brought a she-camel to town to sell so he could pay for his wife's medical expenses. When he failed to sell it, he was not ready to take it back to his rural home, so he kept it at a relative's compound in the town. Then it gave birth, and started to produce milk. He had been to other countries and seen camels kept in towns to produce milk. Why, he reasoned, could he not do the same?This was a bigger step than it sounds: Ethiopian pastoralists think that camels kept in town will become ill and may even die. They say that camels should stay in the countryside, where they can graze on natural pastures. And they consider cultivation as a dirty job, so rarely grow forage crops.Caafi's innovation has led to a new pattern of milk production around Godey. More and more camel herders started copying him, and the number of camels kept in and around the town boomed. Farmers grow crops on land near the river, and sell them to the pastoralists as forage. Some pastoralists have started growing forage to feed to their camels. They keep non-milking animals in the rural areas as before.The Pastoral and Agropastoral Research Institute in the Somali Region has helped by studying which types of fodder can be grown, and by providing technical advice on veterinary services.This innovation has had benefits all round. Urban consumers get fresh milk, the pastoralists can now earn an income, and the farmers have a market for their forage. The pastoralist women no longer have to walk a long way to sell the milk, and have fewer quarrels with their husbands.The creation of a market for forage has had big benefits. In the 2008 drought, it was reported that around 17,000 camels were saved by forage produced by farmers in the Godey area. The different groups have come to realize that they depend on one another.The better-quality fodder has boosted the average household's milk production to 4.5 litres a day. With an average price of 13.8 birr per litre, an urban pastoralist household earns around 62 birr ($3.50) a day. This income has enabled them to buy land and build houses in the town.Before: Camel-raisers milked their animals in the rangeland, but had problems selling the milk. Now: They keep some milking animals in town, where they can sell the milk easily.The Kiboga cooperative raised money for a milk-chilling plant by selling shares to members. It supplemented this with a bank loan and a credit facility from the project. It used this capital to buy a 5,000-litre milk cooler and accessories, a 10,000-litre water tank and a generator (since the area had no electricity). The cooler was installed in March 2009, and within 2 years the cooperative had saved enough to buy a second one.The cooperative set up milk-collection centres in the surrounding area, where milk collectors and individual farmers deliver milk every morning using bicycles and motorcycles. The milk is tested and graded there, before being taken in hired trucks to the chilling plant. The cooperative also hires an insulated tanker lorry to deliver the chilled milk to Sameer Agriculture and Livestock, Uganda's largest dairy.The Kiboga cooperative has become a hive of activity, collecting milk, testing, grading and chilling it, before transporting it to the city and marketing it. It coordinates the provision of support services for its members, including milk testing and grading, animal health services, feeds and feeding, artificial insemination, an agricultural input shop, and savings and credit services. It also organizes farmer training, exchange visits, business opportunity seminars and field days.The cooperative has hired and trained professional staff to manage the chilling plant and market the milk. The project has invested in building the capacity of the cooperative leaders to ensure it is governed well.An important innovation has been the use of vouchers to pay for services. The cooperative issues vouchers to members, who can use them to pay for services and inputs on credit. The service providers present the vouchers to the chilling-plant management for payment. The chilling plant then deducts the equivalent amount from the amount it pays to producers for their milk.These interventions have nearly quadrupled the price of milk that the cooperative members receive, from 7 to 26 US cents per litre. They can now to sell all their milk in both the wet and dry seasons, and can invest in improved dairy animals to produce more milk. T he Supply of milk in Burkina Faso falls far short of demand for many reasons. A lack of feed means that cows produce little, especially in the dry season. It takes too long to deliver the milk to the processing plant, so a lot spoils. Even more is lost while waiting for processing. The milk is heated over a wood fire to kill the bacteria it contains -but the firewood has to be collected, and the processing plants lack thermometers to control the temperature. The workers did not have the equipment or knowhow to produce high-quality milk, and the plants were not well managed.Despite these problems, Burkina Faso clearly had potential for dairying, and milk is a major source of income for livestock keepers.In 2004, pastoralists in Tuy province, in the west of the country, formed the Société coopérative des producteurs de lait (Cooperative Society of Milk Producers, or Socoprolait) to solve these problems. This cooperative collects, processes and sells milk on behalf of its members. It persuaded the government to build a processing unit in Houndé, the provincial capital. This unit began production in November 2007. The cooperative now has 184 members, who own about 4,500 cattle. It benefits its members by collecting, processing and selling the milk they produce. But it faces a range of challenges, so in 2010 it entered into a partnership with SNV to undertake various improvements.The partnership trained the cooperative members on feeding and care of dairy cattle so they could produce and store feed for use during the dry season, when forage is scarce. It trained the processing unit workers on improved methods and hygiene. It introduced management techniques to improve the cooperative's governance and accountability, and helped develop a business plan. It strengthened the role of women in decision-making (a woman now manages the processing unit).The best way to improve the quality of the milk was to reduce the time between milking and arrival at the processing plant. The cooperative now employs more people to collect milk, and they use motorbikes rather than bicycles. That has cut the delay to just 2 hours, and has made it possible to collect milk from up to 40 km away from the plant.Everyone now observes basic rules of hygiene throughout the process of collecting, transferring and processing the milk. The raw milk is systematically tested, and a gas cooker is now used to heat the milk, removing the need for firewood. The pasteurization time has been reduced, cutting the total time needed for processing.Milk production has gone up: a cow now produces an average of 2-4 litres per day in the rainy season and about 1 litre in the dry season. The cooperative now collects 45% more milk: a total of 37,000 litres in the 2010/11 season, compared with 24,000 litres in the previous season.As a result, the cooperative members earned a total of €12,576 in 2010/11, up from €8,705 in 2008/9. Twelve new retailers joined the Socoprolait sales network, and the cooperative has created 14 new jobs at the processing unit. D emand for milk is high in Niamey, the capital of Niger. But the three large and several small dairies there cannot source enough milk locally. They are forced to rely on imported powdered milk instead.The 20 or so villages around Say, a town about 55 km from Niamey, have a good potential for milk production. Production is about 7,500 litres a day during the rainy season. But it could be a lot more.In 2009, an Italian NGO helped a milk-producers' association called Hawrindé Biradam establish a collection centre in Say. But after the project ended, the centre had problems collecting enough milk of sufficient quality. It was collecting only 300-400 litres a day, way below its capacity of 1,600 litres. Hygiene was a problem as the producers and collectors used calabashes and other containers to hold the milk. The centre staff lacked skills, and the livestock keepers did not see milk production as a business. Women did most of the milking, but they had received little training on production and marketing.A big livestock association, AREN, was also involved in milk production, but it did not cooperate with Hawrindé Biradam, even though some producers were members of both organizations.During its initial study of the situation, SNV realized that Hawrindé Biradam and AREN could both benefit from working together. It held joint workshops with the two organizations to explore the opportunities and ways to do this. It conducted a feasibility study of the collection centre, and is helping it develop a business plan. It linked the two organizations to financial institutions so they could get loans to pay for supplementary feed, veterinary services, aluminium cans, sieves and other basic equipment. It trained milk producers (including the women), collectors and the centre staff in milk hygiene; these in turn trained their neighbours. It supported the establishment of a feed bank where livestock keepers can buy wheat bran or groundnut cake to feed their animals during the dry season. That helps maintain milk supplies during this time. It linked the collection centre to retailers in Niamey so it could sell high-value products such as yoghurt and cheese.AREN and the Hawrindé Biradam collection centre now work together: 10 collectors pick up milk each day from individual producers or groups in 12 villages. They pour the milk into a plastic container and take it to the collection centre by bicycle. This has improved the milk hygiene and quality, and profits have increased because of the higher-value products and market.The year 2011 was difficult because of a long drought: both the cattle and their owners went hungry, and milk production did not increase. The next year, 2012 was better, and the centre more or less broke even, but people were still recovering from the drought. The collection centre expects that 2013 will be better still, and it will be able to make a profit.It is still a challenge to get the members of Hawrindé Biradam to see the collection centre as a business. SNV is supporting a business plan to explore its opportunities and is training the staff on proper record-keeping and monitoring. A follow-up project aims to install solar power systems at the collection centre and two rural areas to power cooling and pasteurization equipment. ","tokenCount":"60941"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c413c4f670823c1f937f7fb1c3f8b307","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a620273-d993-4161-94cb-e43776f39da3/retrieve","id":"-143220820"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8cead2af-f0ed-4ff8-b6ee-6d9af4cef53e","pagecount":"54","content":"and the United States of America. Responsibility for ILCA publications rests solely with the centre and with such other parties as may be cited as joint authors. Until 1982, the centre's two main series of scientific publications were Systems Studies and Monographs. These two series have now been superceded by the present series of Research Reports.Prior to the establishment of smallholder dairying, research was conducted at the Chitedze Agricul tural Research Station on the improvement of indigenous cattle, the Malawi Zebu, for the purpose of producing milk. After a series of selection trials, the results indicated that the genetic potential for the Malawi Zebu was about 2 litres per cow per day, which is too little to provide the basis for a dairy indus try. Further research was conducted into introducing Friesian blood into the Malawi Zebu to combine the high milk-producing ability of the Friesian and the adaptation to the local environment of the Malawi Zebu. Other related activities such as forage productivity and management regimes were also investigat ed at Chitedze.Another milestone in the development of smallholder dairying in Malawi was the setting up of a cattle multiplication unit in Bwemba to complement the activities at Mikolongwe. These two centres were established to produce crossbred cows for distribution to farmers. The Veterinary Department provided services to smallholder farmers in the form of crossbred cows, artificial insemination and drugs. Extension services include training farmers in all aspects of dairy husbandry including hand milk ing and heat detection. Another government organisation which played a role in the development of dairying is Malawi Milk Marketing which is responsible for collecting milk at the various milk centres and for processing and distribution of milk.The emphasis in this report is on the evaluation of reproductive and productive performance of the crossbred cows found most commonly on smallholder farms in the Southern Region of Malawi . The per formance of various crossbred cows at Bwemba, Tuchila (near Mikolongwe) and at Chitedze Research Station, as well as that of pure-Friesian cows at Mikolongwe, is also evaluated.The first section of this report presents analyses of productive and reproductive traits of crossbred cows on smallholder farms. The second section deals with the body weight changes of crossbred female calves at Chizombezi and the general performance of crossbred cows at Tuchila, the third station that provides crossbred cows to smallholder farmers. Section three concerns the performance of crossbred and pure-Friesian cows at Bwemba and Chitedze. Results from the analysis of reproductive and produc tive traits on the pure-Friesian herd at Mikolongwe are presented in section four.In the final section an attempt is made to tie together the performances of the various crosses and pure Friesians on smallholder farms and at the multiplication and research centres. Special thanks are due Dr Sam Kamvazina, Chief Veterinary Officer and Head of Animal Health and Industry in the Ministry of Agriculture, Malawi, for the interest he showed in the study and also for allowing the second author, Mr Lidie Nkhonjera, to work with ILCA on the study for a 3-month period.Several people and organisations have con tributed to the development of the smallholder dairy scheme in Malawi. The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the executing agency of the United Nations Development Pro gramme (UNDP) which initiated the dairy pro gramme, and Drs Cleave Allan and D. Vandiek, Mr J. Kristenssen and Mr Peter Frank, all of FAO, for their work in planning, establishing and running the programme in the early years. The efforts of these people could not have succeeded were it not for the support of various government ministries and departments. The authors wish to acknowledge the Department of Agriculture in Malawi for providing extension personnel and training facilities; the Department of Animal Health and Industry for providing dairy cows, in semination and marketing services, veterinary services and personnel; and the Department of Agricultural Research for providing basic infor mation and data on the management of dairy cows.The financial contributions of ILCA's Train ing Committee and the Highlands Programme in Ethiopia, and the personal involvement of Drs Frank Anderson, Martyn Butterworth and John Trail are gratefully acknowledged. The assistance of the staff of ILCA's Computer Unit, especially Mr Jeffrey Durkin and W/z Almaz Teklesenbet, are also acknowledged.The main objectives in establishing a smallholder dairy industry in Malawi were: • to provide fresh milk for the increasing popula tion; • to reduce imports of milk byproducts; and • to provide an alternative source of income to farmers.Malawi is a land-locked country with an area of 118 484 km2, a third of which is covered with water. The country lies south of the Equator, between latitudes 9°30'S and 17°S and longitudes 33°E and 36°E. A map of Malawi showing admin istrative regions, districts and major towns is shown in Figure 1. The climate is subtropical. Rainfall is unimodal occurring between November and April. The rainy season is followed by a long dry season from May to October. The average annual rainfall ranges from 750 mm in the drier parts of the country to 1000 mm in the wetter parts. The mean annual rainfall for the period 1972-81, recorded at four meteorological stations representative of the area in which the smallholders and multiplication centres operate, is shown in Table 1. The monthly mean rainfall at the Chileka meteorological station for the period 1972-1980 is shown in Table 2.The objectives of the analyses reported here were to:• Compare the important reproductive and pro ductive traits of crossbred dairy cattle on small holder farms and at multiplication and research centres; • Measure the influence of environment (years, seasons, etc.) on dairy production traits; • Assess the suitability of various crosses to the different agricultural areas; and to • Determine the trends in dairy production over the years. The amount of rainfall received differs greatly among the six areas. Blantyre North and Mulanje West are relatively dry compared with the other areas, and maize is the most important crop in these two areas. In the drier parts of the region, the maize crop is usually sufficient to last the fanner and his family for 3-4 months. Cattle sales supplement farm income.Dairying has become a popular enterprise , as it provides a source of regular income. In order to receive crossbred dairy cattle under the dairy de velopment scheme, the farmer must provide 0.8 ha of pasture for each two cows. The farmer must also attend a 2-week course in dairy manage ment and construction of a dairy parlour and housing facilities for the cows and calves.The development of crossbred heifers (1/2 Friesian) in the Southern Region of Malawi is based on exotic Friesian bulls and 'off-type' cows, which are a composite of Sussex, Brahman-type and Africander-cross cattle. Figure 2 shows the move ment of crossbred cattle from the point of origin at Chizombezi to the smallholder's farm.In Chizombezi, where the 1/2-Friesian calves are produced, three lines of cattle are kept: 1. Single and multiple sire Sussex; 2. Single and multiple sire Brahman-type; and 3. 'Off-type' Sussex-Brahman-type-Africandercrosses.The 'off-type' cross animals originate from an intermixing of surplus cows from the pure lines (Sussex and Brahman-type) and Africander crosses. The composition of 'off-type' cattle at Chizombezi is, therefore, not exactly known. The 'off-type' female cattle are mated to Friesian bulls supplied from Mikolongwe to produce the 1/2-Friesian calves at Chizombezi. The 1/2-Friesian calves are sent to nearby Chikowa at 6 months of age, where female calves and castrated males are reared. Female yearlings are sent to Tuchila where they are inseminated with imported Frie sian semen. Calving takes place at Tuchila. Cows are sold to smallholder dairy farmers 3 to 4 weeks after calving. The 3/4-Friesian calves are reared at Tuchila. Male calves are castrated when 6 weeks old. Heifers are inseminated at 2 1/2 years of age to produce 7/8-Friesian calves, after which the 3/4-Friesian cows are sold to smallholders. Simi larly, some 7/8-Friesian cows are sold to small holders after producing 15/16-Friesian calves. The 15/16, 31/32 and higher-grade Friesians are retained at Tuchila for milking or sold to commer cial dairy farmers.Some management practices at Chizombezi, Chikowa and Tuchila and on smallholder farms lead to difficulty in identification of the cows and their sires, both of which are vital to genetic anal ysis of production records. Some of these man agement practices are described below.• Records were not kept on which breeds went into the formation of the 'off-type' line. As a result the exact composition of the 'off-type' females used in producing 1/2-Friesian crosses was not known. • Because several Friesian bulls were put in with a herd of 'off-type' females (multiple breed- Friesian Milking Herd ing), the sires of the 1/2-Friesian crosses were not known. • New identification or tag numbers were assigned to animals that lost their original iden tification or tag numbers while in transit in Chikowa and Tuchila and when on smallholder farms. In most cases no reference was made to the original identification and the animals received entirely different identification numbers. As a result, where information on a cow was missing at the smallholder level, the cow could not be traced to any of the transit stations. • Accurate and easily verifiable production in formation was not kept for all crossbred cows that were milked while in transit at Tuchila. Thus some smallholders did not know the calv ing date of the cow, the breed of the cow, its parity or its partial production while at Tuchila. • Extension specialists who visited smallholders did not record production each month but waited for several months and tried to record several months' information at one time. This led to inconsistent recording of information, gaps in information, wrong calving dates and failure to record dry-off dates. Given these problems, only records that pro vided information that could be used to obtain re productive or productive performance or both were included for analysis. To this end the follow ing actions were taken: 1. The identification or tag number on the 'Life History and Lactation Sheet' was checked against calf registers from Chizombezi and Tuchila. The breed of the cow could be deter mined from the register, and its date of birth used to confirm the reported parity number.Where the parity number was missing, a 'most likely' parity number was assigned according to the age of the cow. 2. Effort was made to determine the partial milk yield of the cow while it was awaiting sale at Tuchila, so as to credit the cow with its full yield. 3. Where most of the relevant information, such as birth date of cow, calving date, parity number, total yield and drying-off date, were available but cow identification was missing, an arbitrary but unique four-number identifi cation was assigned to the cow. 4. Where there was no indication that the cow was dried-off but the cow had been milked for more than 5 months, both the cumulative yield and the last milking date were recorded. Records were rejected if:• The breed of the cow was not indicated or found. • Thedateofbirthofthe cow , date of calving and parity were all missing. • Information was available for only one lacta tion and the birth date of the cow was missing and where only partial lactation yield was avail able (no drying-off date) covering less than 5 months. • Information was available for only one lacta tion with no date of birth and where data on more than 30 days of milk yield while in transit at Tuchila were not found. A total of 350 records were excluded from the data following this process. The data set used in these analyses therefore represent a subset of all data that were recorded. The authors believe that the final subset of data used in the analyses represents a random sample of the population and that the results from the analyses will not be biased as a result of the editing procedure. All subsequent analyses are subject to the constraints and assumptions listed above.Individual records were built up for each cow for each parturition and for each trait to enable dif ferential, as opposed to joint, editing of records. Thus for example, cows with no information on number of days open were excluded from the analysis of days open but were included in the analysis of milk production or lactation length. This gave rise to unequal numbers of records for the various traits. Basic information for each cow for a given trait included parturition number, breed, date of birth (when known), current and previous calving dates, lactation milk yield and drying-off date.The individual traits analysed in this study were age at first calving, calving interval, days open to conception, lactation length, milk yield per day of lactation, length of dry period and an nual milk yield.All characters were analysed by least squares procedures (Harvey, 1977) using fixed effects models. The Harvey's Least Squares program sets up the normal least squares equations after imposing sigma (g-) restrictions on the par ameters such that, within a given effect, the solu tions to the various levels of that effect sum to zero. Typical models used included fixed effects of breed group, area, year of birth or parturition, parity number (a proxy for age of cow) and inter action between breed group and area. Due to the limitations of the Harvey's Least Squares pro gram in terms of the number of effects or levels of effects that can be fitted at one run, herd effects were not included in the models used when con sidering all smallholder records from all six agri cultural areas. In order to study the influence that herds may have exerted on the various traits, the two areas with the largest number of records were selected and data analysed with models that in cluded herd effects.The residual mean square was used as the error term to test the significance for each charac ter analysed. Linear contrasts of least squares means were computed to determine the signifi cance of differences between two groups. More comparisons were made than the number of de grees of freedom. Therefore, not all comparisons are independent, and the error rate over the en tire set of comparisons may be different from that indicated by the level of probability. Tests of sig nificance associated with linear contrasts, although not independent, can be taken as guides as to whether the observed values could have occurred by chance.In this report the term 'least squares mean' refers to a linear function of least squares solutions to certain effects in the statistical model used for the analysis. Specifically, the least squares mean for row i (or level i of an effect) is defined as the arith metic average of the cell means (solutions) for all cells in row i. Since the Harvey's Least Squares program imposes the restriction that the solutions of all levels of a given effect sum to zero, the least squares mean of a level of an effect is the sum of the least squares solution to the overall mean ef fect and that of the particular level of an effect.The manner in which the various sums of squares are computed means that the hypothesis being tested in the Analysis of Variance table is that of 'equality among means for levels of an ef fect, after accounting for all other effects in the model', so that the significance or non-significance of differences among levels of a main effect is in dependent of other main effects and interactions in the model.Where a mean square (MS) generated for the Analysis of Variance table is exceptionally large or small, the figure is truncated or magnified and multiplied by the appropriate power of 10 which is indicated in the column under which the mean squares are presented. Thus a mean square of 10 464 may be presented as 1046 in a column headed by MS x 10-1. All other figures appearing under the same column are modified to conform to this pattern. Similarly a mean square of 0.173 may be presented as 173 in a column headed by MS x 103. Thus all figures recorded as mean squares in the various Analysis of Variance tables should be read as 'derived mean squares after the original mean square has been modified by the operation indicated at the top of the column under which the figure appears'.Unadjusted or raw means and standard deviations for the various traits considered in this study are presented in this report as X ± SD and must be differentiated from the 'overall mean' re ported in the tables showing least squares means.Each farmer established a pure stand of leucaena, and a mixed stand of Napier grass and Silverleaf desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum). In the drier areas Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) was also planted. A minimum area of 0.8 ha per two-cow unit was required. Cattle were zero-grazed on ad libitum basis. During the dry season hay was fed to cattle in the drier areas while silage was fed in the wetter areas. Liberal amounts of a mixture of maize bran (medeya) and dried leucaena leaves were fed when available. Dry cows received this mixture once every day. All cows were confined to stalls as a means of conserving energy, for easy detection of heat and to avoid contact with local Malawi Zebu bulls.After parturition calves stayed with their dams for 5 days, after which they were separated. Hand milking started on the fifth day. The calf suckled for 30 minutes twice a day, after the morning and evening milking. Calves were weaned at 12 to 15 weeks old, depending on the physical condition of the calf. Male calves were castrated 3 weeks after weaning and reared for fattening. Cows were sprayed once a week. Deworming was done twice a year, before and after the rains. Each farmer kept daily records on milk yields, breeding and calf birth dates.Reproductive performance Three measures of female reproductive perform ance, namely age at first calving, calving interval and days open, were analysed with the aim of identifying environmental factors that might have influenced these characters and to obtain un biased linear estimates of the differences in the relevant environmental factors. Reproduction in dairy cattle contributes to herd replacement and is the precursor of milk production. Reproductive traits are more important to the smallholder dairy farmer who has one or two cows than to the owner of a large herd, since failure to reproduce means a complete loss of income. Also, culling a barren cow is more difficult for a smallholder than for the owner of a large herd.Age at first calving: The mean age at first calving for 165 heifers (110 half-Friesian and 55 threequarter-Friesian crosses) was 37.7 ± 6.8 months with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 18%. Birth dates of cows were grouped into four seasons; April-May, June-August, September-October and November-March.The analysis of variance for age at first calv ing is shown in Table 3. Only breed group and Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter following indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.There was a significant difference in age at first calving (P < 0.05) between breeds, heifers with 50% Friesian inheritance calving for the first time 3 months earlier than cows with 75% Frie sian inheritance (Table 4). This apparent incon sistency was also observed by Kiwuwa et al (1983), who found that heifers with 87.5% Frie sian blood calved for the first time later than heif ers with a lower percentage of Friesian inherit ance. The significant differences in age at first calving among years of birth of the cows appear to have followed the rainfall pattern over the years. Rainfall in 1972/73 amounted to 559 mm in Chileka and 948 mm in Chichiri, while the corresponding figures for 1975/76 were 856 mm and 1336 mm (Table 1). Age at first calving of heifers born in these years were 42 months and 35 months, respectively. This effect may be related to the availability of maize for supplementary feed. In years of poor rainfall yields of maize are low, and all the maize is used for human consumption. Thus the mean age at first calving of 38.0 months obtained on smallholder farms was achieved probably without much feed supplementation. This suggests that modest levels of feed supple mentation with maize bran and rice bran could further reduce age at first calving.  5.The long calving interval of almost 16.7 months observed in this study is attributable to the long days-open period of almost 7.5 months. The period of 7.8 months from calving to concep tion observed in Zomba was possibly the result of deficiency of phosphorus in the soil and hence phosphorus deficiency in the animals' diet. The smallholders' reluctance to allow artificial insemi nation of their cows in the early phase of the pro ject, failure of the farmers to detect heat and inef ficiency in the artificial insemination service all tended to extend the days-open period. Although lactation number did not have a significant effect on calving interval and days open, these charac ters appeared to decrease with increasing lacta tion number (Table 5).Milk production traits considered in this study were total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per lactation day and dry period.Analyses of variance for total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per lactation day and dry period are shown in Table 6 and estimated least square means are given in Table 7.Total lactation milk yield: The mean total lacta tion milk yield was 2225 ± 1040 kg (CV = 46%). Agricultural area, breed group, year and month of calving, and area by breed interaction each had a significant effect on total lactation milk yield (Table 6). Total milk yield was highest in Zomba and Thyolo North where feed resources are more uniform throughout the year and where the ma jority of smallholders were new to livestock enter prise. Farmers in these two areas were prepared to accept innovations from extension agents more readily than their counterparts elsewhere who had previous experience in raising the Malawi Zebu and who resisted the idea that crossbred cows should be managed differently. Also, small holder dairy operations were first started in Thy olo North and hence farmers in that area had gained more experience in handling crossbred dairy cows than farmers elsewhere. Cows with 75% Friesian inheritance produced significantly more milk than cows with 50% Friesian inherit ance (2424 kg vs 1953 kg). A separate analysis that included 18 cows with 87.5% Friesian blood showed that the mean total lactation yield for the 7/8 Friesians was 3206 kg. These levels of produc tion were achieved on smallholder farms with the same management regime for all breed groups. Ignoring differences in lactation length (401 vs 391 days), milk yield of cows with 75% Friesian inheritance on smallholdings in Malawi was sim ilar to cows with 75% Friesian inheritance on smallholder farms in Ethiopia (2424 kg vs 2317 kg) (Kiwuwa et al, 1983).A regression of lactation yield on years showed that total lactation yield decreased by 90 kg per cow per year. However, fewer records were available after 1979, which may, in part, account for the lower estimates of milk yield in later years. As the herd size increased beyond the limit of 2 milking cows set by the extension agency there was no corresponding increase in land allocated to pasture, with the result that the amount of feed available for each cow has decreased over the years.Month of calving also had a significant influ ence on milk production (Table 6). Cows that calved in November through April produced more milk than those that calved in May through October (2308 vs 2075 kg). These differences fol lowed closely the monthly rainfall distribution, which determines the availability of feed. One could, therefore, adopt breeding management strategies that would result in cows calving in November through April, but the need for a con tinuous supply of milk to the urban centres and the small herd size per smallholder do not justify There was a significant effect of area of oper ation by breed interaction on milk production. In Blantyre North and Mulanje West, where rainfall is poor and feed supply is inadequate, cows with 50% Friesian inheritance and those with 75% Friesian inheritance gave similar milk yields. However, in areas with adequate feed supply, such as Zomba, Thyolo and Blantyre South the 3/4 Friesians produced about 1000 kg of milk more than the 1/2-Friesian crosses. Rhodes grass for hay and cottonseed hulls are being introduced into the dry areas of Blantyre North and Mulanje to increase feed supplies.Lactation length: The mean lactation length was 390 ± 150 days with a CV of 38%. Analyses of variance in Table 6 show that year and month of calving had significant effects (P < 0.05) on lacta tion length. Regression analysis of the estimated least squares means on years, coded one through 10, shows that lactation length decreased by 14 days per lactation. The effect of month of calving on lactation length closely followed that on total lactation yield. The figures indicate that where farmers realised that cows that calved in a favour able month were capable of producing more milk there was a tendency to milk those cows longer. In general the long lactation periods found in this study reflect the problems encountered by farmers in getting their cows pregnant by artificial insemination. This observation is supported by the long lactation periods during the first 4 to 5 years of the smallholder dairy scheme, when heat detection was difficult for smallholders.Milk yield per day of lactation: The mean milk yield per day of lactation was 5.9 ± 2.4 kg with a CV of 41%. Area of operation, breed group and year of calving had significant effects (P < 0.01) on milk yield per day of lactation. The effect of breed group on milk yield per day of lactation was similar to the effect of breed on total lactation yield. Cows with 50% Friesian inheritance pro duced an average of 5.3 kg of milk/day, compared with 6.2 kg/day for cows with 75% Friesian inher itance. In a separate analysis, 7/8 Friesians gave an average of 7.3 kg of milk per day of lactation.Dry period: The mean dry period observed in this study was 128 ± 120 days with a CV of 94%. Anal ysis of variance showed that none of the factors tested had a significant effect on this trait. How ever, the data show a trend that dry period in creased as lactation length decreased. This sug gests that the shortening of the lactation period was not due to an improvement in the lactation cycle by the smallholder farmer but was a result of constraints, most likely feed availability, that forced cows to dry up while the foetuses they were carrying were still young.As stated by Kiwuwa et al (1983), varying milk output over different lactation lengths makes it difficult to compare animal performance directly using the individual traits of lactation milk yield, lactation length, dry period and calving interval. To overcome this problem, we studied annual milk yield per cow, which combines reproductive and productive performance. Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follo wing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.Annual milk yield per cow: Annual milk yield per cow was calculated as total lactation milk yield divided by calving interval (days) x 365. The mean annual milk yield for 516 records was 1721 ± 706 kg with a CV of 41%.Area of operation and breed group had sig nificant effects (P < 0.01) on annual milk yield per cow (Table 8).  9. The differences in annual milk production and total lactation yield between 1/2 Friesians and 3/4 Friesians were 471 and 364 kg, respectively. The larger difference in annual yield reflects the superior reproductive performance of the 3/4 Friesians. A similar analysis of the performance of cows in the most productive area, Zomba, and the least productive area, Blantyre North, gave differences of 1010 kg for total lactation yield and 730 kg for annual milk yield. The smaller differ ence in annual milk yield reflects the longer calv ing interval of cows in Zomba, and hence their poorer reproductive performance.The limitation on the Harvey's Least Squares pro gram as to the number of classes of fixed effects that could be analysed at one time made it im possible to study the effects that herd manage ment might have had on reproductive and pro ductive traits on the entire set of smallholder dairy records. As a compromise, Blantyre North and Thyolo North were chosen for the study of herd effects on milk production traits. The two Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No let ter following indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.areas were chosen because they had the largest number of records and also represent two ex treme environments. Blantyre North lies in a lowrainfall area and thus has limited feed resources, while Thyolo North has adequate rainfall and feed resources. A further restriction imposed on the data from these two areas was that herds with only one record were excluded from the data before analysis. Whether or not concentrate (maize bran) is fed and differences in the levels of concentrate fed are among the most-readily recognised manage ment practices that could be expected to influence animal productivity. However, information was not available in the data used for this study to dis tinguish between farmers who fed or did not feed concentrate to their dairy animals. Thus, statisti cally significant differences among herds found in this study were assumed to be partly due to differ ences in health care, watering and feeding in gen eral, without distinguishing between concentrate and non-concentrate feedstuffs.Total lactation milk yield, lactation length and yield per lactation day: The means for total lac tation milk yield, lactation length and milk yield per lactation day were 1742 ± 600 kg, 386 ± 125 days and 4.7 ± 1.5 kg, respectively, for Blantyre North with CVs of 34, 33 and 32%. The corre sponding figures for Thyolo North were 2722 ± 1197 kg, 397 ± 147 days and 7.0 ± 2.2 kg, with CVsof44,37and31%.Analyses of variance for the three traits in the two areas are presented in Table 10.There were highly significant differences (P < 0.01) between herds for all three traits in Blantyre North but differences were significant only for yield per lactation day in Thyolo North (P < 0.01). This indicates that management prac tices have a greater effect on production para meters where resources (e.g. feed) are insuf ficient. Breed did not have a significant effect on any of the three traits in Blantyre North but had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on total lactation yield in Thyolo North. This reinforces the obser vation that breed groups are likely to express their full potential only when resources are optimal. Year of calving influenced total lactation yield and milk yield per day of lactation in Blantyre North and total lactation yield and lactation length in Thyolo North, while month of calving influenced only total milk yield in Blantyre North, indicating that month to month variation in the availability of resources is more critical in resource-deficient areas.AnnuaI miIk yield per cow: The mean annual milk yield per cow was 1527 ± 363 kg with a CV of 24% in Blantyre North. The corresponding figure for Thyolo North was 2039 ± 746 kg with a CV of 37%.Analysis of variance of annual milk yield is laid out in Table 11.Herd effects were highly significant in Blantyre North (P < 0.01) and were also significant in Thyolo North (P < 0.05) (Table 11), emphasising that differences in management practices have a greater effect in resource-deficient areas. Year of calving had a highly significant effect (P< 0.01) on annual milk yield in Blantyre North but not in Thyolo North. Breed group, month of calving, lactation number and breed by month interaction had no significant effect on annual milk yield per cow in either Blantyre North or Thyolo North. As was observed in Section 2, the exact breed composition of the 'off-type' female cattle that were used to produce the crossbred calves was not known but was believed to be a mixture of Sussex , Brahman-type and Africander-cross cattle. In this section the birth weight of Fj female calves produced from Friesian bulls and 'off-type' fe males, and their growth rate from birth to wean ing are analysed. Crossbred cows, mainly 3/4, 7/8 and higher-grade Friesians, are kept at Tuchila to provide milk for growing calves left behind by the F] heifers sold to smallholders, and their per formance is also summarised. The number of re cords at Tuchila did not warrant detailed analysis. However, the means presented are the best avail able figures from a station-type operation with which performance of the crosses at the small holder farms can be compared.parturition calves stayed with the dams for 24 to 48 hours, after which they were placed in a calf pen and bucket fed milk diluted with increasing amounts of water over a period of 10 weeks and then weaned. The male 3/4-Friesian calves were castrated at 4 to 6 weeks old. Females were in seminated with Friesian semen at 2 1/4 years old to produce 7/8-Friesian calves. Half-and 3/4-Friesian cows were usually sold to smallholder fanners while 7/8-Friesians and higher grades were kept at Tuchila. In the absence of a weighing scale approxi mate birth and weaning weights were obtained for calves by the use of a weigh-band. All animals at the station were dipped in Supona solution every week and were drenched regularly.The two main breeding seasons at Chizombezi were from the middle of May to August and from December to March. 'Off-type' heifers at Chi zombezi were put to a number of Friesian bulls from Mikolongwe at 2 to 2 1/2 years old or at a breeding weight of about 300 kg.Pregnant heifers were steamed up by feeding a production ration from the seventh month of pregnancy. The production ration was usually compounded from soya bean, pigeon pea, maize, maize bran and cottonseed cake, depending on the availability of these materials on the market. Pregnant heifers were separated from the rest of the females about two weeks before calving, and were introduced to milking-shed practices. After On the basis of the frequency of births in the var ious months at Chizombezi, four seasons of calving were created for the analyses of the birthweight and growth-rate data on 1/2-Friesian fe male calves. These seasons were November to March, April to May, June to August and Sep tember to October, and comprise the two main breeding seasons and accidental breedings occur ring between the main breeding seasons.  P<0.01Season of birth and year of birth had signifi cant effects (P < 0.01) on all four traits (Table 12).The estimated least squares means for the four traits are raid out in Table 13.Birth weight: The mean calf birth weight for 580 female calves was 30. 1 ± 3.6 kg with a CV of 12% . Calves born between April and August were significantly heavier than those born between September and March (P < 0.05).With the exception of 1983, calf birth weight at Chizombezi has been declining since 1974 (Table 13 Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follow ing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.The 200-day adjusted weaning weight and daily weight gain of calves decreased between 1974 and 1981 (Table 13). The regressions of 200day weaning weight and daily weight gain on years indicated that these characters had been de creasing by 3.6 and 0.16 kg/year, respectively. The regressions were significant at the 10% level of probability.The seasonal effects on calf birth weight, 200-day adjusted weaning weight and daily weight gain follow the patterns of rainfall and availability of feed. Calves born after the major rainy season were heavier as a result of more green feed being available to their dams during the later phases of pregnancy , while calves born in September through March were lighter at birth due to poor nutrition of dams in the dry season which begins in June. However, the calves born at this time benefited from the increased feed avail ability during the next rainy season and hence weaned 15 kg heavier than calves born in other seasons.The unadjusted means of reproductive parameters calculated for crossbred cows kept at Tuchila are given in Table 14. The few data available suggest that age at first calving has been increasing over the years. This is contrary to the trend found with data from the smallholder farms. On the other hand the mean calving interval of 432 ± 16 days and the mean days open of 154 ± 16 days found for 60 cows at Tuchila were much lower than figures estimated for smallholder herds (510 and 231 days). There do not seem to be any year trends in calving interval and days open at Tuchila.The mean total lactation milk yield for 52 crossbred cows at Tuchila was 3121 ± 211 kg (Table 15). A breakdown of milk yield by breed of cow gave figures of 1240 kg for 1/2 Friesians, 3850 kg for 3/4 Friesians, 2962 kg for 7/8 Friesians and 4840 kg for 15/16 Friesians. The higher mean total lactation yield observed at Tuchila compared with the mean for smallholder herds (2225 kg) is the result of the higher percentage of high-grade cattle and the better feeding strategy at Tuchila. The lower mean yield for the 1/2 Frie sians at Tuchila compared with 1/2 Friesians on smallholder farms (1950 kg) could be explained by the fact that the 1/2 Friesians kept at Tuchila were those that failed the minimum milk yield standard of 5 kg per day during the first 3 weeks postpartum and hence were not sold to small holders.The milk yield per day of lactation in Tuchila was fairly stable from 1977 to 1980 but fell in 1981 . This trend was also observed in the smallholder herds, which suggests that the government farms and research stations also suffered from feed shortages as a result of the poor weather in 1981 .  Breeding and milking cows: Heifers were mated for the first time when they attained a minimum weight of 340 kg at about 29 months of age. Until November 1983 seasonal breeding was practised, the breeding season being December to February. Pregnant heifers were separated from the other heifers and were placed in a semiintensive feeding facility and then brought to the main cow herd to await calving. Cows and heifers were 'steamed up' from the seventh month of pregnancy until calving. Cows and heifers in their last month of pregnancy were separated from the main herd for parturition. Calves stayed with their dams for 2 days, during which the dams were not milked. From the 3rd to the 7th day postpartum the cows were milked once a day in the morning, after which the calves were suckled. From the 8th day the cows were milked twice a day. Milk from each cow was weighed at each milking. The calves were suckled by the dams for 30 minutes after morning and evening milkings. Calves were weaned at 12 weeks old, and male calves were cas trated about 3 weeks after weaning. Since 1981 calves have been weighed every 2 weeks until weaning.Weaner calves: Weaners were kept at the station for a year, during which they were allowed to graze during the day but were penned at night. Each weaner received 1 .5 to 2.0 kg of maize bran per day. After one year, female yearlings were put in a semi-intensive facility where they grazed day and night and received maize-bran supple ments. The yearlings were kept under this system until they reached a minimum weight of 340 kg, at about 2 1/4 years old, and were then served.Yearling steers were put on feeding trials or were fattened for slaughter.Health management: The cattle were drenched against worms and flukes every 3 months, and were sprayed once a week. The most common health problems on the station were diarrhoea among calves and weaners, and footrot and mas titis among cows. Mortality among both old and young stock was minimal.The The movements of cattle between Bwemba and Likasi are depicted in Figure 3. received 6 litres of milk per day, 3 litres in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, for a period of 3 to 4 weeks. Calf-ration concentrate was also fed ad libitum. At 20 weeks of age calves that met health standards and body conformation criteria were sent to Likasi where females were reared to join the breeding herd and steers were sold to stall-feeder farmers. Calves that failed to meet the selection criteria were treated for worm infes tation and fed to a standard condition before being sent to Likasi for rearing.Age at first calving Analysis of variance of age at first calving of Friesian-Malawi Zebu crossbred cows and Friesian cows at Chitedze is shown in Table 16. Pregnant crossbred cows from Likasi were put to gether with pregnant and non-pregnant pure Frie sians on their arrival at Bwemba. Cows in the final month of pregnancy were isolated in a partlyroofed pen, where calving took place. Cows were fed concentrate during milking at a rate of 1 kg concentrate per 2 kg of milk produced. Silage (Rhodes grass/maize/Napier grass) and Rhodes grass hay were fed ad libitum. Most cows were machine-milked twice daily, but those going to farmers were hand milked. The milk produced by each cow was weighed at each milking.Calves were suckled by their dams for 48 hours after birth and then separated from their dams. Calves were sent to a calf pen where each Only year of birth of the heifer had a signifi cant effect (P < 0.01 ) on the age at which the heifer calved for the first time (Table 16).The mean age at first calving was 42.0 ± 6.3 months (CV 15%). The means of age at first calv ing for heifers born between 1970 and 1974 and between 1975 and 1978 were 40 and 45.5 months, respectively, with a peak of 54.5 months for heif ers born in 1977 (Table 17). There was no appar ent reason for the observed increase in age at first calving.Although the effect of breed group on age at first calving was not significant, there was a trend for heifers with a larger proportion of Friesian in heritance to be older at first calving. This suggests that feeding levels at the station were inadequate for both the crossbreds and the pure Friesians.   18). Calving interval was significantly longer in 1977 (543 days) and 1980 (598 days) than in other years (Table 19). The corresponding figures for days open were 268 and 316, respectively. These differences may have been due to residual effects of experimental treatments imposed on the cows, but the possibility of nutritional stress due to climatic effects in these years cannot be ruled out.The breed group by season of calving interac tion indicates that Friesians that had calved pre viously between January and June calved again 143 days later than those that calved previously between July and December. This trend was also observed for the l/2-Friesian-l/2-Zebu crosses, but the difference was only 42 days. Cows that calved in January through June were exposed longer to the period of feed shortage (May through October) after calving than were cows that calved in July through December. The mag nitudes of the differences also indicate that cows with more Friesian inheritance were more vulner able than those with less Friesian blood. This is also supported by the estimated least squares means of 407, 484 and 513 days calving interval for the 1/2-, 3/4-and 7/8-Friesian cows, respect ively, though the differences were not statistically significant.Total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per lactation day and dry periodThe means for total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per day and dry period were 21 16 ±602 kg, 330 ±84 days, 6.5 ±1.7 kg and 141 ± 114 days, respectively, with corresponding CVs of28,25,26and81%. Analyses of variance of total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per lactation day and dry period are presented in Table 20.Breed group and year of calving had signifi cant effects (P < 0.01) on total lactation yield and yield per lactation day but not on lactation length. Lactation number also had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on yield per lactation day (Table 20). Within variable groups row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follow ing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.The total milk yield and yield per lactation day were similar for the 3/4, 7/8 and pure Friesians, and were greater than those of the 1/2 Friesians. Total lactation yield peaked at the fifth lactation, though the yield at this lactation was not signifi cantly different from those of the other lactations except for the first (Table 21). The significant effect of year of calving on total lactation yield and yield per lactation day was due to the very poor yields in 1977 and 1980, which were about 30% lower than overall mean yields. The significant effect of year on dry period (P < 0.01) also resulted from the unusually long dry periods in 1977 and 1980, which were 59% and 77% longer than the overall mean. There was no obvious difference in the rainfall patterns in 1977 and 1980 that would explain the deviations from average performance in those years.The mean annual milk yield per cow was 1671 ± 592 kg, with a CV of 35%.Analysis of variance of annual milk yield per cow is presented in Table 22.Breed group, lactation number or parity and year of calving had significant effects (P < 0.01) on annual milk yield (Table 22). The estimated least squares means are laid out in Table 23. Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follow ing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance. The pattern of influence exerted by breed group, lactation number and year of calving on annual milk yield per cow was similar to that ob served for total lactation yield and yield per lacta tion day. Productivity was again lowest in 1977 and 1980.  The mean age at first calving for 145 crossbred heifers born at Bwemba was 36.8 ± 6.6 months, with a CV of 18%. None of the factors studied (breed group, year and month of birth and breed group x month of birth interaction) had a signifi cant effect on age at first calving. The estimated least squares means for age at first calving are laid out in Table 24.The mean calving interval and days open for 338 calvings at Bwemba were 407 ± 90 days and 129 ± 93 days, respectively. Breed group, month of previous calving and breed group by month interaction showed signifi cant effects (P < 0.01 ) on calving interval (Table 25) and breed group (P<0.01) and breed by month of calving had significant effects (P<0.05) on days open. Lactation number or parity and year of calving did not show any significant effect on days open and calving interval. The estimated least squares means for calving interval and days open are laid out in Table 26.There is an apparent pattern in the length of calving interval (Table 26), in which cows that calved previously in December through March had the longest calving intervals and those that calved previously in April through July had the shortest calving intervals: the calving intervals of cows that calved previously in September through November were of intermediate duration. This pattern appears to be contrary to that which would be expected from the rainfall pattern, and hence the availability of green feed, but follows the pattern of availability of supplementary feed.Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter following indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance. Year of calving had significant effects (P<0.01) on total lactation yield, lactation length and yield per lactation day, and lactation number had a significant effect (P < 0.01) on lac tation yield (Table 27). None of the factors stu died had a significant effect on dry period.The estimated least squares means for the four traits are laid out in Table 28.Total milk yield increased from lactation one through five after which it fell. Total lactation yield and yield per lactation day were highest in 1977 and 1979 and were lowest in 1981.Dairy productivity: The mean annual milk yield per cow was 2405 ± 802 kg, with a CV of 33% .Analysis of variance of annual milk yield per cow is shown in Table 29.Lactation number or parity and year of calv ing showed highly significant effects (P < 0.01) on annual milk yield per cow. Month of calving and breed group were not significant.The estimated least squares means for annual milk yield are presented in Table 30.  Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follo wing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance. Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05) . No letter follow ing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance. Within variable groups row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter fol lowing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.The Mikolongwe livestock unit supplies Friesian bulls for the production of Fi crossbred cows at Chizombezi (see Figure 2). Analysis of production records from Mikolongwe livestock unit provides useful information about the expected per formance of crossbred cows produced from Frie sian bulls and 'off-type' females.The Mikolongwe livestock station was founded in the early 1930s as a private estate. The govern ment took over the estate in the early 1950s to serve as a centre for livestock and poultry im provement. The station was essentially a multi plication centre, while the Chizombezi, Chikowa and Tuchila substations, which are part of Miko longwe, either bred or reared animals. Dairying activities started in Mikolongwe and the substations in 1973. The Mikolongwe livestock station maintains a milking herd of pure-Friesian cattle and supplies Friesian bulls to Chi zombezi station, which produces crossbred heif ers for smallholder dairy farms.Pure-Friesian heifers were inseminated for the first time when they attained a minimum weight of 320 kg at about 18 months of age. Heifers and cows in their seventh month of pregnancy were 'steamed up' until calving. Pregnant heifers also received training in milking-shed practices. Cows and heifers in the last two weeks of pregnancy were separated from the herd and went into calv ing boxes. The calf stayed with the dam for 48 hours. The dam was not milked on the first day, but on the second day the dam was milked after the calf had been suckled. From the third day calves were separated from the dams and arti ficially reared, receiving 4 kg of milk/day. Calves were fed with either milk diluted with water or skim milk in addition to calf ration from the sec ond week until weaning at 16 weeks of age. The calves received calf-ration supplements until 20 weeks of age, after which they grazed and re ceived silage and hay supplements during the dry season. Bull calves were not castrated unless they showed signs of abnormalities. All heifers joined the breeding herd except those that showed abnormalities such as blindness or loss of teat. Culling took place after the first calving.The cows were milked twice daily. Milk was weighed for each cow at each milking. Calves were weighed both at birth and at weaning. All animals were dewormed at 3 month intervals.Cattle were dipped against ticks once every week in a solution of Supona. The major health prob lem was eye infection. Post-weaning mortality among calves was about 10%.The dairy cattle herd at Mikolongwe as of May 1984 comprised 60 milking cows, 15 heifers of breeding age, 39 young heifers and 50 calves.The means for calving interval and days open for 213 calvings at Mikolongwe were 470 ± 145 days and 192 ± 148 days, respectively, with corre sponding CVs of 32 and 77% .Analyses of variance of calving interval and days open are presented in Table 31.Only lactation number or parity had a signifi cant effect (P < 0.05) on calving interval and days open (Table 31).The estimated least squares means for calv ing interval and days open are laid out in Table 32.Calving intervals were longer after the fourth parity. Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter follow ing indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.Total lactation yield, lactation length, milk yield per day of lactation and dry periodThe means for total lactation yield, lactation length, yield per lactation day and dry period for the Friesian herd at Mikolongwe were 3407 ± 1241 kg, 354 ± 110 days, 9.3 ± 2.4 kg and 101 ± 103 days, respectively, with corresponding CVs of 36, 31 , 26 and 102% . Analyses of variance for the four traits are presented in Table 33. Lactation number or parity had significant effects on total lactation yield (P < 0.05), yield per lactation day (P < 0.01) and dry period (P < 0.05) but not on lactation length. Year of calving significantly influenced lactation yield, yield per lactation day and lactation length (P < 0.01) but not dry period. Month of calving had a significant effect only on yield per lactation day (P < 0.05) (Table 33).The estimated least squares means for the four characters are displayed in Table 34.The fifth lactation gave the highest total yield, but yield per lactation day was highest dur ing the fourth lactation (Table 34).Total lactation yield and yield per lactation day have been declining since 1979. Total milk yields in 1980, 1981 , 1982 and 1983 were 17, 56, 59 and 69% lower than the mean, respectively. The same trend was found in yield per lactation day.The mean annual milk yield per cow was 3077 ± 960 kg, with a CV of 31%.Analysis of variance for annual milk yield is shown in Table 35.Lactation number and year of calving had significant effects (P < 0.01) on annual milk yield per cow.The estimated least squares means for annual milk yield per cow are presented in Table 36.Annual milk yield per cow generally in creased with increasing parity number and peaked during the fourth lactation as a result of the shorter calving interval associated with the fourth lactation. The pattern of influence of year of calving on annual milk yield was the same as on the total lactation yield and yield per lactation day, i.e. a drastic drop in milk yields from 1980 onwards. The decline in production coincided with deficiencies in feed supply as a result of poor weather during this period. Within variable groups, row means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P < 0.05). No letter following it indicates that the variable group did not show a significant difference in the analysis of variance.In this section dairy production characters as re ported for the smallholder herds and various government dairy units are compared, bearing in mind the differences in management regimes at the various units. The comparisons are across dif ferent breed compositions and across different geographical areas, and hence across different rainfall and feed-availability zones. The expected performance of Fi crossbred cows is considered first, using estimated figures reported elsewhere in this report and some assumptions.The average performance of Fi crossbred cows for a given character can be predicted if the midparental mean for that character and the average percent heterosis are known. The predicted per formance is calculated as 0.5 (Pi + P2) + (% hete rosis x 0.5(Pi + P2)), where Pi and P2 are the average performances of the parents. The estimated average performance of pure bred Friesians at Mikolongwe, and rough esti mates for the 'off-type' cows at Chizombezi and for Malawi Zebu cows in terms of lactation milk yield, lactation length, yield per lactation day and calving interval are shown in Table 37.The approximate percentages of heterosis for lactation milk yield, lactation length, yield per lactation day and calving interval, derived from figures reported by McDowell (1983), are shown in Table 38, with the predicted and actual perfor mance for Fi cows, and the differences between predicted and actual values. The actual production of F] crosses (1/2 Friesian-1/2 'off-type') on smallholder farms was about 20% less than the predicted performance, and lactation length was longer than expected, mainly because some of the cows had difficulty conceiving (Table 38). Calving interval was only about 6% longer than the predicted value. Fig ures for the 1/2 Friesian-1/2 Malawi Zebu at Chitedze Research Station followed the same trends. These observations are, however, subject to the appropriateness of the heterosis percentages used for the various traits. If lower values for heterosis were used, the differences between the predicted and actual values would be smaller. The figures presented in Table 37 and 38 suggest that, theo retically, the F] crossbred cows both on the small holder farms and at the stations are performing at close to the level that could be expected from their genetic make-up. However, as shown earlier, the productivity of the animals has been declining, and year-to-year analysis would reveal a wider gap between predicted and actual performances.No accurate data on mature cow body weight are available from any of the livestock centres in Malawi because none of the stations have weigh bridges. Mature body weights were taken using a weigh-band, which is adequate for the purpose of administering drugs, such as during drenching, but is of no use in evaluating breed productivity.Mature body weights, obtained using a weigh-band, of a sample of 1/2-, 3/4-and 7/8-Friesian cows on smallholder farms were 400, 410 and 500 kg, respectively. The corresponding figures at Tuchila rearing centre were 432, 400 and 490 kg. No figures were available for Friesian -Malawi Zebu crossbred cows, but visual observations in dicate that they are smaller and lighter than Frie sian-'off-type' crosses. Performance of 7/8 Friesian Zebu and Friesian cows at Chitedze and Bwemba 1/8 Malawi Chitedze and Bwemba are about 10 km apart, and are both government units. Both have 7/8 Frie sian-1/8 Malawi Zebu and pure-Friesian cows. The aim of the comparison was to determine how the different objectives of the two units -Chitedze is a research station and Bwemba is a multiplication centre -and hence possible differ ences in their management practices, might have influenced the performance of the two breeds of cattle.Age at first calving for the 7/8 Friesian-1/8 Malawi Zebus was 37 months and that of pure Friesians was 36.9 months at Bwemba. The corre sponding figures at Chitedze were 45.8 and 45.4 months. Thus there was no difference between the two breeds for age at first calving, but heifers at Bwemba calved at 8 months younger than the heifers at Chitedze. Yields per lactation day for the 7/8 Friesians and the pure Friesians were 9.4 and 9.5 kg, respectively, at Bwemba, and 7.3 and 7.4 kg, respectively, at Chitedze. Annual milk yield per cow at Bwemba was 2580 kg for the 7/8 Friesians and 2620 kg for the Friesians and 1960 and 2070 kg, respectively, at Chitedze. Thus, the performances of the 7/8 Friesians and the pure Friesians were similar at the two units, while age at first calving was 20% lower and milk yield 30% higher at Bwemba than at Chitedze.The most readily identifiable differences in management between the two centres which might account for the observed differences in per formance are the seasonal breeding practices and the constant level of concentrate feeding at a rate of 4 kg per cow per day at Chitedze, as opposed to continuous breeding and differential concentrate feeding according to production as practised in Bwemba.Performance of Friesian -Malawi Zebu crosses and Friesian -'off-type' crosses Milk yield per lactation day and annual yield per cow were used in comparisons among breeds at government stations and on smallholder farms. The two traits were chosen because milk yield per lactation day overcomes the problem of differ ences in milk yield over various lactation lengths, while annual yield per cow takes into account dif ferent calving intervals.The crossbred cattle on smallholder farms in the Southern Region of Malawi were developed from Friesian bulls and 'off-type' cows (a mixture of Sussex, Brahman-type and Africander-cross cattle), while the crossbred cattle at Bwemba, Chitedze and on smallholder farms in the Central Region were based on the Friesian and the Malawi Zebu. A comparison was made between the per formance of the larger, Friesian-'off-type' cross es in the relatively feed-deficient Southern Re gion and the smaller Friesian-Malawi Zebu crosses in the Central Region. Because there were no data on crossbred cattle on smallholder farms in the Central Region the mean perfor mance of Friesian -'off-type' cattle on small holder farms and at Tuchila was compared with the performance of the Friesian-Malawi Zebu at either Chitedze or Bwemba or their mean perfor mance at the two stations.Ages at first calving for 3/4 and 7/8 Friesians were 35 and 36 months, respectively, in the Southern Region, and 43 and 46 months in the Central Region. The mean yields per lactation day for the 1/2, 3/4 and 7/8 Friesians in the South ern Region were 5.2, 8.2 and 8.3 kg, respectively, compared with 5.6, 7.1 and 8.1 kg in the Central Region. The mean annual milk yield per cow of the 7/8 Friesians at Tuchila in the Southern Region was 2600 kg, compared with 2580 kg at Bwemba in the Central Region. The mean annual milk yield per cow of the 15/16-Friesians was 3000 and 2650 kg at Tuchila and Bwemba, respectively. Thus, apart from the lower age at first calving of the crosses in the Southern Region, the Frie sian -Malawi Zebu crossbred cattle in the Central Region performed at the same level as the Friesian-off-type' crossbred cattle in the south, in spite of the larger body size of the Friesian -'offtype' crosses. These data suggest that there is little reason why the Malawi Zebu should not be used to produce crossbred cows for smallholders in the Southern Region. The smaller body size of the Friesian-Malawi Zebu crosses is an advan tage in the Southern Region where feed resources are less than in the Central Region.Information on age at first calving was not avail able for Mikolongwe because birth dates of cows were not known. Pure Friesians at nearby Tuchila, under similar management, calved first at 37 months of age , which was the same as observed at Bwemba, but 8 months younger than the estimat ed figure for Chitedze.Mean yields per lactation day for Friesians were 9.7, 9.5 and 7.4 kg at Mikolongwe, Bwemba and Chitedze, respectively.Thus, the performances of Friesian cattle at Mikolongwe and Bwemba were very similar in spite of the differences between the environ ments. This suggests that herd management can minimise the effects of environmental factors that have short-term influences on dairy production. The difference between the figures from the re search station at Chitedze and the multiplication units suggests that there is a lack of consultation between research and field activities relative to the development of a common direction in national livestock policies and goals.The data used in the analyses of dairy productivity on smallholder farms were only a sample of all possible data. The sample data were obtained after much effort in retrieval and editing. This points to rather inadequate systems of data re cording on the smallholder farms and of data stor age at various govenment offices. If data recorded on the smallholder farms are to be used to moni tor the progress of the dairy industry and as a source of information for implementing breeding programmes, a better system of cow and sire iden tification should be introduced at the centres where crossbred cows are produced, at rearing and steaming-up centres and on smallholder farms. A recording system that will reduce the amount of paper work involved should replace the present system. To minimise the effort in volved in recording the data, smallholders should be provided with small weighing scales or measur ing cylinders, and the extension officers who visit farmers each month should be provided with pocket calculators.The information obtained from smallholder farms and government units revealed problems in reproductive performance among dairy cattle. Advanced age at first calving followed by long calving intervals were very common. Long days-open periods were identified as a major cause of the long calving intervals. Feed deficiency ap pears to be a main causal factor in lengthening the reproductive cycle . The upgrading of the cattle on smallholder farms and increases in herd size have not been accompanied by increases in feed re sources. Crossbred cows with more Friesian blood and larger feed requirements are managed in the same way as lower grade cattle in the herd. Herds have expanded beyond the recommended size as there is no market for the surplus calves. The decline in dairy productivity on both small holder and government farms since 1979 may be due in part to the effects of changes in the climate but a possible decline in the quality of manage ment cannot be ruled out.Any management strategy that will reduce feed requirements, especially on smallholder farms, could improve the situation and probably reverse the fall in dairy productivity. In this con nection, an attractive option is to introduce smaller crossbred cows and to develop a system to absorb surplus calves from the smallholder farms. A crossbreeding programme based on the Friesian and the Malawi Zebu could replace the larger Friesian-'off-type' crossbred cows on the small holder farms in the Southern Region.","tokenCount":"11159"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aca53384bc68e4dbdf6a8fc1c22fb198","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1d1615aa-41c8-497b-866b-39e9d9022e07/retrieve","id":"-962372508"},"keywords":["Azucena","Burkina Faso","local variety","Oryza sativa"],"sieverID":"648e2f72-cb52-4543-8689-5a002825ad20","pagecount":"13","content":"Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), which is only found in Africa, threatens rice farming on the continent. A local Oryza sativa cultivar collected from Burkina Faso (named BM24), was evaluated with that of well known highly resistant and tolerant cultivars. Firstly, three RYMV isolates were used to characterise the differential interaction within the cultivars. Secondly, disease kinetics of symptom expression and virus titer on leaves at 21 days after inoculation were assessed using the BF1 isolate. Thirdly, the allelic profile of O. sativa varieties using SSR marker RM101 located on chromosome 12 was also assessed. IR64 showed susceptibility to all isolates; while Tog5681 was resistant to all isolates. Ng122 overcame the resistance of Gigante, with mild leaf symptoms at 42 dpi. Azucena and BM24 had, therefore, different resistance level regarding the three isolates (Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144). When infected with the isolate, BF1, BM24 and Azucena exhibited same resistance patterns in early growth stages with delayed of symptoms appearance, but BM24 outperformed Azucena at later stages. The virus content in the two accessions, at 14 days post inoculation, was statistically different with BM24, showing less virus compared to Azucena. However, the two accessions depicted an identical allelic profile at RM101 locus.Le virus de la panachure jaune du riz (RYMV) est endémique seulement en Afrique, et fait des ravages dans les rizières du continent. Une variété de riz local (appelée BM24), résistante au RYMV et collectée au Burkina Faso a été comparée avec des cultivars bien connus qui sont résistants ou tolérants au RYMV. Tout d'abord, trois isolats ont été utilisés pour caractériser les interactions différentielles au sein des cultivars. Ensuite, la cinétique de l'expression des symptômes de la maladie et le titre en virus sur les feuilles à 21 jours après inoculation ont été évaluée avec l'isolat BF1. Enfin, le profile allélique des variétés de Oryza sativa a été évalué au marqueur SSR RM101 situé sur le chromosome 12. La variété IR64 s'est avérée sensible à tous les isolats tandis que Tog5681 s'est montré résistant à tous les isolats. L'isolat Ng122 a surmonté la résistance de Gigante avec la présence de symptômes modérés à 42 jours après inoculation (JAI). Azucena et BM24 par contre ont eu différents niveaux de résistance en présence des trois isolats (Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144). Lorsqu'ils sont infectés avec l'isolat BF1, BM24 et Azucena expriment le même niveau de résistance avec un retard de l'apparition des symptômes dans les premiers moments suivant l'inoculation mais au-delà de 14 JAI, les symptômes apparaissent plus rapidement chez Azucena comparé à BM24. A 14 JAI, le titre de virus contenu dans e cultivar Azucena est bien supérieur statistiquement à celui de BM24. Cependant, les deux cultivars ont eu un profile allélique identique au locus RM101.In Africa, two rice species are cultivated, the African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and the Asian rice (Oryza sativa). These two rice species are affected by Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) disease, which is only found on this continent (Kouassi et al., 2005). The screening of cultivars belonging to both cultivated species, by several authors identified two major genes of resistance: RYMV1 and RYMV2, which provide high levels of resistance (Fomba 1988;Ndjiondjop et al., 1999;Rakotomalala et al., 2008;Thiémélé et al., 2010). High resistance is characterised by symptomless plants and the blockage of virus movement inside the plant (Ndjiondjop et al., 2001).African rice bears the RMYV1 gene that has 3 alleles (Rymv1-3; Rymv1-4; and Rymv1-5); while one allele (Rymv1-2) was found in Asian rice (Albar et al., 2006). Rymv1-2 has only been detected in Gigante and Bekarosaka, which are two cultivars of Asian rice var. indica (Ndjiondjop et al., 2001;Rakotomalala et al., 2008). RYMV2 was recently found in the African rice cultivar Tog7291 (Thiémélé et al., 2010). Moreover, some cultivars of Asian rice var. japonica showed partial resistance, associated with tolerance, which is under multi-genic control (Ghesquière et al., 1997;Albar et al., 1998;Ioannidou et al., 2000). Partial resistance is expressed only at the early stages of infection. It is characterised by delayed and reduced virus accumulation in leaves, and delayed virus invasion in bundle sheath tissues (Ioannidou et al., 2003). The tolerance in Azucena was apparent at the later stages of infection, and was characterised by reduced symptom expression, despite high virus titer (Ioannidou et al., 2000). Partial resistance was reported previously in cultivar Azucena (Albar et al., 1998;Pressoir et al., 1998;Ahmadi et al., 2001;Boisnard et al., 2007).Preliminary research identified only a quantitative trait locus (QTL) on chromosome 12 providing host plant resistance to RMYV in the cultivar Azucena (Ghesquière et al., 1997). Later, three QTLs on chromosomes 1, 2 and 12 respectively, were suggested to be involved in the partial resistance mechanisms of Azucena. QTL1 appears to be implicated in the resistance of virus accumulation and the expression of symptoms; while QTL2 and QTL12 were said to be involved in mechanisms contributing to the decrease in virus accumulation and symptom expressions (Albar et al., 1998).The complementary epistasis between QTL12 and QTL7 was identified as a genetic factor controlling the virus titer and conferring resistance to Azucena (Pressoir et al., 1998;Ahmadi et al., 2001). The QTL12 close to the indica-japonica zone of differentiation is bracketed in an interval of 2.23 Mb that includes the RM101 locus (Boisnard et al., 2007). This interval is relatively large due to lack of recombination and, therefore, makes it difficult to fine map QTL12 involved in the partial resistance of Azucena. Another O. sativa source of resistance to RYMV was identified in a screening of rice landraces from Burkina Faso (Kam et al., 2013).The objective of this study was to characterise the response to RYMV infection in this local cultivar (BM24) against well known highly resistant and tolerant cultivars.Virus multiplication and inoculation. Four RYMV isolates were used in this study in 2015: one from Burkina Faso (BF1) and three from Niger (Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144). Niger's isolates were from a collection kept at the Plant Pathology Unit of Africa Rice Center. The isolates were selected due to their interaction with different resistance genes and alleles (Sow et al., 2015). BF1 is an aggressive RYMV S2 strain, previously employed in the characterisation of QTL7 and QTL12 in Azucena (Albar et al., 1998;Pressoir et al., 1998;Ahmadi et al., 2001). Isolates Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144 were multiplied on the standard susceptible cultivar, IR64, for 2 weeks. The BF1 isolate provided by the Institute of Research and Development (IRD, Montpellier, France) had already been multiplied in cultivars IR64 in 2006 and stored at -80°C in liquid nitrogen. Mechanical inoculation was performed with infected leaf samples ground in phosphate buffer at pH 7.2 (10 ml g -1 of leaf sample). Carborundum (600 mesh) was added to the extracts as an abrasive agent. Mechanical inoculation was carried out by rubbing the extracted sap on the upper and lower leaf surfaces of 2 weeks old plants by finger-dipping in the inoculum.Cultivar resistance to Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144 isolates. The first experimental setup was performed in a greenhouse at the Africa Rice Research Station at Cotonou, Benin. Resistance of accession BM24 was evaluated using three isolates (Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144). The experiment was conducted in the presence of four cultivar checks, namely Gigante and Tog5681; which bear the Rymv1-2 and the Rymv1-3 recessive resistant alleles, respectively; the highly susceptible cultivar IR64 and the moderately resistant cultivar Azucena. The experimental design was with three replications. The main plots were the four treatments (isolates Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144 and a non-inoculated control) and the sub-plots were for testing accessions and check cultivars.The plot unit was an individual plant in a plastic pot of 5 L. The disease scores were monitored weekly from 14 days postinoculation (dpi) until 49 dpi. Plant height was measured at 49 dpi to estimate height reduction between inoculated and non-inoculated plants. The disease notation was as described in standard evaluation system for RYMV symptoms of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, 2002). The severity scale ranged from 1 to 9. There were five classes of symptoms classification under the following scores: 1 (no symptom observed; i.e., highly resistant or HR), 3 (green leaves with sparse dots or streaks; i.e., moderately resistant or MR), 5 (general mottling on the leaves and 6 to 25% of reduction of plant height; i.e., moderately susceptible or MS), 7 (yellowing and stunting; i.e., susceptible or S) and 9 (for necrosis to plant death; i.e., highly susceptible or HS).Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on plant height data using GeneStat software Version 12 (Payne et al., 2009). Linear model was defined as:Where: y ijk = the plant height for accession i of treatment j in replication k, µ = the mean effect, a i = the i th effect of the accession i, t j = the j th the effect of the treatment j, r k = the r th the effect of the replication k, a.t ij = the interaction between accession i and treatment j, •ε 1 is the main plot error term, and ε 2 the subplot error term. The Least Significance Difference (LSD) test at 5% level was used for mean comparison.As disease scores were measured at different times, a repeated measured model was adopted for the ANOVA and was computed using the software GeneStat version 12 (Payne et al., 2009). The model used was as follows: Where: y ijkn = the disease score for accession i of treatment j in replication k at time n, µ = the mean effect, a i = the effect of the accession i, t j = the effect of the treatment j, r k = the effect of the replication k, T n = the effect of the time n, a.t ij = the effect of the interaction between accession i and treatment j, a.T in = the interaction between accession i and time n, t.T jn = the interaction between treatment j and time n, a.t.T ijn = the three way interaction effect between accession i with treatment j and time n, ε 1 = the main plot error term, and ε 2 = the subplot error term.Cultivars resistance to BF1 strain. The second experimental setup was undertaken in a glasshouse at the Institute of Research and Development in Montpellier, France. The temperature ranged from 28 to 32°C, and there were 12 hr of light per 24 hr, and 80 to 90% relative humidity. Accession BM24 was evaluated along with Asian rice accession HB18B from Burkina Faso, seven Asian rice accessions from the rice collection of the Mini Gene Bank (MiniGB) of the \"Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement\" (CIRAD, Montpellier, France), and three check cultivars (IR64, CG14 and Azucena). The seven accessions of the MiniGB were three Asian rice var. indica (ASD1, CO18 and PTB9), three Asian rice var. japonica (Pagaiyahan, Jumali and Malapkit-Pirurutong) and one accession from Glaszmann's group V (ARC13829).Twenty-eight plants of each accession were sown in a tray of 28 holes, with 14 plants in one tray; and the remaining14 plants in another tray. Then, each tray included two different accessions allocated randomly. The seed trays were replicated twice in the two treatments (the control non-infected and the infected) and arranged in a completely randomised design. The last fully expanded leaf for each plant was mechanically inoculated, 2 weeks after sowing with BF1. Such an aggressive isolate was selected to maximise differences in host response to infection among resistant and susceptible cultivars. The 1-9 scale for disease scoring was used to record leaf number at 4, 7, 11, 14 and 21 dpi. Plant height was measured at 7, 14, and 21 dpi to compare height differences between accessions at early stages. The area under symptoms progression curve (AUSPC) was calculated as Boisnard et al. (2007) to measure disease progress as:Where:S i and S (i+1) were the symptom scores at time T i and T (i+1) , respectively, and n was the total number of observations.The ANOVA for plant height, leaf number and disease score considering the accession × treatment interaction was computed using the GeneStat software Version 12 (Payne et al., 2009). A t-test was used to compare the mean performance of inoculated accessions and their respective control.At 14 dpi, the last fully expanded leaf of each individual plant was collected to evaluate virus content through the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ELISA tests were performed as described in Ndjiondjop et al. (1999).A piece of 20 mm of the last leaves was cut at 14 dpi for DNA extraction with the aim of comparing the allelic profile of locus RM101 in chromosome 12. The DNA was extracted as described by Edwards et al. (1991). The PCR amplification was performed in a 96-well thermocycler (Tgradient, Biometra) on 5 ng of DNA in a 15 µl final volume of buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl pH 8, 100 mM KCl, 0.05% w/v gelatin, and 2.0 mM MgCl 2 ) containing 0.1 µM of reverse primer RM101, 0.08 µM of forward primer RM101, 200 µM of dNTP, and 0.1 U of Taq DNA polymerase. The PCR protocol used included the initial denaturation at 94°C for 4 min, 35 cycles of 94°C for 60 s, hybridisation temperature 55°C for 60 s and 72°C for 60 s; and a final elongation step at 72°C for 8 min. The products of amplification were revealed on 2% agarose gel.isolates. There were significant accession × treatment (P < 0.001), time × accession (P = 0.049), and time × treatment (P = 0.013) interaction effects for host plant resistance to RMYV.Ng122 isolate triggered more symptom expression in varieties Azucena, BM24, IR64 and Tog5681 than isolates Ng117b and Ng144 (Fig. 1). Ng144 infected more Gigante than both Ng117b and Ng122. IR64 showed susceptibility to all isolates with a score above 5, with leaf mottling and yellowing; while Tog5681 showed inconspicuous symptoms with scores below 2 (Fig. 1).There was a highly significant accession × treatment interaction (P = 0.003) for plant height (Table 1). Plant height differences between the infected accessions of BM24, Gigante, and Tog5681, vis-à-vis their respective controls, were not significantly different (P > 0.05) across the three isolates. Both Ng144 and Ng122 induced a significant height reduction in Azucena (P < 0.05) and IR64 (P < 0.05, respectively.Ng122 caused pronounced symptoms on IR64 (disease score > 7), but induced limited damage on Azucena (disease score =3). The three isolates induced up to 10% plant height reduction in the local cultivar BM24 (Table 1). Ng144 and Ng122 overcame the resistance of Gigante, causing a 14% plant height reduction (Table 1). In contrast, Tog5681 did not show a significant plant height reduction (< 3%) for the three isolates.The accessions displayed different resistance and susceptibility patterns as visualised by symptoms and measured by plant height (Table 1). Tog5681 was resistant to all isolates. Gigante showed no symptom to the isolate Ng117b until 42 dpi, where sparse dots appeared on its leaves. Ng122 overcame the resistance of Gigante, with mild leaf symptoms at 42 dpi; and had a 14% plant height reduction at 49 dpi; while symptom expression was noted in this cultivar at 28 dpi and 14% plant height reduction at 49 dpi when infected by Ng144 (Table 1).Azucena had green leaves, with sparse dots and a relatively high plant height reduction (21and 11%) when infected with Ng117b and Ng122, respectively. In contrast, mild symptoms on leaves and a statistically significant plant height reduction was observed for Azucena after being inoculated with Ng144 (Table 1). BM24 showed a 10% plant height reduction and mild symptoms (green leaves with sparse dots) throughout the screening period when inoculated with all isolates. Azucena and BM24 had therefore different resistance level regarding the three isolates.Resistance to BF1 strain. Leaf symptoms varied among accessions and across time (Table 2). Symptoms were not noticed at 4 dpi. A significant accession × disease score interaction was noted at 7 and 14 dpi (P = 0.0003 and P = 0.018, respectively). At 7 dpi, most accessions (except Azucena and BM24) exhibited leaf symptoms. The leaves of BM24 were still symptomless at 11 dpi (Table 3).Leaf symptoms were noticeable in all accessions at 14 dpi. Symptoms were delayed in Azucena and BM24, until 11 and 14 dpi, respectively. None of the accessions was symptomless to BF1 at 21 dpi. There was a highly significant accessions × treatment interaction for plant height at 7 and 14 dpi (P < 0.0001). Plant height was significantly different between the infected accessions and their respective non-inoculated controls at 7 and 14 dpi (Table 3). Although, Azucena and BM24 did not show leaf symptoms at 7 dpi, BF1 induced a significant plant height reduction in both (65 and 45 mm, respectively). This plant height reduction increased at 14 dpi: 107 mm for Azucena and 67 mm for BM24, respectively. A 10%, plant height reduction was observed in Malagkit and BM24 at 7 and 14 dpi (Table 3).Malagkit and CG14 showed susceptibility as the susceptible check IR64, while Azucena and BM24 showed partial resistance. Azucena and BM24 had delayed symptom expression for at least 11 days, but Azucena showed more symptoms than BM24 at 11 dpi however, the two accessions had score 3 at 21 dpi.The accessions × treatment interaction for leaf number was non-significant. Infected and control plant differed in their leaf number that increased significantly with time (Table 4). IR64 was the most susceptible cultivar as measured by the AUSPC, while BM24 and Azucena had the lowest AUSPC (Fig. 2).Symptom expression evolved rapidly in the susceptible cultivars such as IR64, while it was delayed in the partial resistant cultivars Azucena and BM24. ELISA revealed a highly significant (P < 0.001) viral content among accessions at 14 dpi. Viral content was  significantly lower in BM24 than in Azucena (Fig. 3). The assessment of the RM101 locus profile distinguished three groups with different allele sizes (Fig. 4).The first group (260 bp allele) included IR64, CG14, HB18B, Jumali, Malapkit-Pirurutong and Pagaiyahan, while ARC, ASD1, CO18 and PTB9 were in the second group (300 pb allele), and third group (320 bp allele) consisted of Azucena and BM24.Interactions with Ng117b, Ng122 and Ng144 isolates. The screening with different RYMV isolates (Ng117b, Ng122, and Ng144) confirmed the host plant resistance of local cultivar BM24 (Table 1). It also demonstrated that this cultivar has partial host plant resistance, which seems to be similar to the one found in the Asian rice var. japonica cv. Azucena (Albar et al., 1998). BM24 had 10% plant height reduction and mild symptom expressions against Ng117b, Ng122, and Ng144 (Table 1). Partially resistant plants, even with mild symptoms, may show stunted growth after RYMV infection. The resistance mechanism delaying symptoms or blocking RYMV spreading appears to affect plant growth. Tog5681 was resistant to RYMV isolates Ng117b, Ng122, and Ng144 with inconspicuous height reduction. Differences in plant height between inoculated and noninoculated control plants, along with disease scoring provide a reliable assessment of host plant resistant to RMYV. Azucena and BM24 had distinct host plant resistance to the isolates included in our research. This finding could be due to different resistance genes or QTLs in these accessions, which limit RYMV damage to the host plant (Ioannidou et al., 2003;Ventelon-Debout et al., 2008). The virulence of novel isolates of RYMV against major genes for RYMV resistance was established by Fargette et al. (2002a). Several authors have established that virulent isolates overcome the major gene RYMV1 (Sorho et al., 2005;Hébrard et al., 2006;Traoré et al., 2006;Pinel-Galzi et al., 2007;Poulicard et al., 2009;Traoré et al., 2010). This finding was not surprising because of high mutation rates in RYMV, which is a virus that evolves rapidly (Fargette et al., 2008a).Multiple RYMV strains are widespread in Africa (Pinel-Galzi et al., 2007;Fargette et al., 2008b;Salaudeen et al., 2010). The West African strains were confirmed to mostly include isolates with threonine (\"Tpathotype\"); while a few isolates (called \"Epathotype\") had glutamic acid. Ng122 is virulent to the host plant resistance of Tog5681 at 42 dpi. This isolate could have a threonine at codon 49. According to Traoré et al. (2010), only RYMV isolates with a threonine at codon 49 of the viral protein genome-linked (VPg) can break the resistance allele Rymv1-3 (found in Tog5681). Ng144 broke Gigante's host plant resistance to RYMV (Fig. 1). This host plant resistance was also ineffective against Ng122. Ng122 could belong to a subset of isolates with virulence matching the recessive resistance alleles Rymv1-2 and Rymv1-3 found in Gigante and Tog5681, respectively. The Rymv1-2 allele is known to be ineffective against isolates with \"Epathotypes\" (Pinel-Galzi et al., 2007;Poulicard et al., 2009). Very few RYMV isolates from West African S2/S3 strains overcame host plant resistance of both Gigante and Bekarosaka (Pinel-Galzi et al., 2007;Poulicard et al., 2009). \"T-pathotypes\" seldom overcome host plant resistance provided by Rymv1-2. On the contrary, they easily overcome host plant resistance from Rymv1-3 present in Tog5681 (Pinel-Galzi et al., 2007;Poulicard et al., 2009;Traoré et al., 2010). Moreover, Traoré et al. (2010) established that some T strains (S2/S3) and some T isolates from Niger were able to overcome host plant resistance of both Gigante and Tog5681. Partial resistance, along with high resistance due to major gene(s), could be the best strategy to control RYMV.Resistance to BF1 strain. Screening for partial resistance with BF1 over 21 dpi was able to characterise the 12 rice accessions (Table 2). BF1 induced very different symptoms at early stages of infection. Symptoms were expressed in all accessions at 21 dpi. Likewise, ELISA at 14 dpi was able to discriminate susceptible and partially resistant accessions. Two weeks after inoculation appears to be the optimal period to assess virus titer when assessing for partial resistance to RYMV (Ghesquière et al., 1997). Cultivars combining partial resistance with tolerance may be less affected after RYMV infection, but they will remain as reservoirs of this virus (Ioannidou et al., 2000).Screening with BF1 further corroborated the previous finding, and suggests that BM24 and Azucena could have same genotype at the RM101 locus, which is associated with QTL12 that provides partial resistance to RYMV (Ioannidou et al., 2000;Boisnard et al., 2007).BM24 could be used for QTL12 fine mapping, which has been difficult in offspring derived from IR64 and Azucena (Boisnard et al., 2007). QTL12 appears to be close to the indica-japonica zone of differentiation and recombination between Azucena and IR64 seldom occurs (Ghesquière et al., 1997;Boisnard et al., 2007). Besides its partial resistance to RYMV, Azucena shows tolerance to this virus at later stages (Ioannidou et al., 2000(Ioannidou et al., & 2003)). The DNA profiling at the RM101 locus was, however, the same for both Azucena and BM24. The partial resistance in Azucena has been shown to be due to both QTL12 and QTL7 (Pressoir et al., 1998;Ahmadi et al., 2001;Ioannidou et al., 2003); while the tolerance was associated with the expression of QTL1 (Ioannidou et al., 2000). QTL mapping research should therefore, be undertaken on BM24 cultivar to elucidate if it shares the same QTLs of Azucena.Partial resistance alone cannot block virus infection and further multiplication (Ioannidou et al., 2003). Other resistance genes to RMYV are, therefore, needed to provide better host plant resistance to this virus. Combining monogenic and multi-genic host plant resistance may lead to durable resistance in the cultigens (Van Der Plank, 1966;Rubiales and Niks, 2000).Screening with the three different RYMV isolates (Ng117b, Ng122, and Ng144) has confirmed the high level of host plant resistance of the O. glaberrima check variety TOG5681; while the resistance breaking events occurred in the O. sativa check variety Gigante when infected by the isolate Ng144. The local cultivar BM24 has moderate resistance across the three isolates. Also, this cultivar shows partial host plant resistance, which seems to be similar to the one noted in Asian rice var. japonica cv. Azucena. Screening with BF1 further corroborates the previous finding, and suggested that BM24 and Azucena could have same genotype at the RM101 locus, which is associated with QTL12 that provides partial resistance to RYMV. QTL12 appears to be close to the indica-japonica zone of differentiation and recombination between Azucena and IR64 seldom occurs. BM24 could be used for QTL12 fine mapping, which has been difficult in offspring derived from IR64 and Azucena.","tokenCount":"4014"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"924b598c65dcd5bed7c373b21a0ad27e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/657c7a56-6a91-48fd-ba3c-c6dd13612b7b/retrieve","id":"-733242418"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6c910cc7-b98c-476f-8b97-57352d13c0c3","pagecount":"16","content":"This publication has been prepared as an output of the Foresight Initiative. Any views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by the CGIAR System Organization.Section 1: Fact sheet and budget 2Section 2: Progress on science and towards End of Initiative outcomes 4Section 3: Work Package progress 9Section 4: Key results 14Section 5: Partnerships 20Section 6: CGIAR Portfolio linkages 21Section 7: Adaptive management 23Section 8: Key result storyFirst, the Foresight Initiative is maintaining and enhancing unique modeling and data systems that allow state-ofthe-art analysis of food, land and water systems in developing countries and across the world. These tools and data are international public goods that put CGIAR at the center of global foresight for food systems transformation. For example, the SPAM database tracks, at a pixel-scale, where crops are produced around the world; the RIAPA country models track how agrifood systems link to national economies and populations in over 30 countries; and the IMPACT model captures global agrifood systems and trade and interactions with natural environments and climate. In 2023, Foresight and its partners worked to ensure that CGIAR's modeling systems reflect the latest understanding of the drivers of food, land and water systems transformation. Our ability to track and project outcomes across all five CGIAR Impact Areas was also enhanced.Second, Foresight is making modeling systems available and accessible to everyone. This includes developing and disseminating documentation and software via the Initiative's new Foresight Portal and other CGIAR and partner websites. Foresight also provides innovative training opportunities to strengthen the capacity of our partners to understand, use, and develop foresight tools. In 2023, this included seven in-person training workshops conducted together with our partner research networks in Africa and South Asia, and the launch of a new and innovative online training course targeting graduate students in Africa. Importantly, Foresight partnered with the National Policies and Strategies Initiative to conduct workshops in their eight focus countries and to support their training-of-trainers strategy.Third, Foresight is using modeling systems to conduct high quality research with partners to address major development and policy concerns. Working with leading national, regional and global partners around the world (see Sections 3 and 5), Foresight is conducting research on the major drivers of food, land and water systems transformation. This includes analysis of climate, technological and dietary change in global and national agrifood systems. Foresight is partnering with national research centers in large developing countries to share capacity, incorporate their national perspectives, and foster cross-country exchange. Foresight also responds to demands for foresight and modeling analysis from government and other partners and responds to global shocks and food crises using the Initiative's new Foresight and Rapid Response Modeling System (FARRMS). Having a dedicated research program with well-maintained modeling capabilities, coupled with flexibility to respond to unanticipated demands and crises, allows the Initiative to influence the global foresight agenda and produce high-quality research outputs while also being policy relevant, timely, and impactful.Finally, Foresight is communicating results of joint analysis through ongoing engagement with governments, international organizations, funders and other partners as part of an iterative process to inform decision-making about the future of food systems through enhanced knowledge, trust, and ownership of foresight analysis and findings by our partners at national, regional and global levels.Be�er-informed global and regional decision-making -Global and regional partners contribute to and use foresight analysis to inform their decisions about investments to transform food, land, and water systems in ways that improve nutri�on, livelihoods, equity, climate adapta�on and mi�ga�on, and environmental outcomes.Na�onal and sub-na�onal government agencies use system transforma�on research to implement policies and programs that reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience and environmental sustainability of food, land, and water systems.Private sector actors invest in business prac�ces or models that promote sustainable and inclusive food systems and consump�on of sustainable healthy diets, especially among nutri�onally-vulnerable popula�on groups.Global funding agencies and na�onal governments use research evidence in the development of strategies, policies, and investments to drive sustainable transforma�on of food, land, and water systems to meet mul�ple CGIAR impact area targets.CGIAR partners develop and scale innova�ons that contribute to the empowerment of women, youth, and other social groups in food, land and water systems.Be�er-informed na�onal policy choices -Governments and other decision makers in at least five countries contribute to and use foresight analysis be�er reflect climate and other risks in policy dialogues and decision-making, including policies and investments designed to make food, land, and water systems more resilient, while recognizing synergies and trade-offs with other goals rela�ng to nutri�on, livelihoods, equity, and the environment.Improved access to foresight tools and data -Na�onal, regional, and global partners in at least five countries and two regions contribute to and have access to state-of-the-art foresight tools, data, and systems-level metrics that iden�fy major drivers and impacts on food, land, and water systems at na�onal, regional, and global levels under alterna�ve future scenarios.Strengthened na�onal foresight capacity -Na�onal partners in at least five countries where foresight capacity is s�ll nascent, and other partners as appropriate, gain enhanced knowledge, ap�tude and skills with foresight tools, data, metrics, and analysis relevant to food, land, and water systems, through access to innova�ve training and delivery pla�orms and through collabora�ve research.End hunger for all and enable affordable healthy diets for the 3 billion people who do not currently have access to safe and nutri�ous food.Li� at least 500 million people living in rural areas above the extreme poverty line of US $1.90 per day (2011 PPP).Close the gender gap in rights to economic resources on, access to ownership of, and control over land and natural resources, for more than 500 million women who work in food, land, and water systems.Turn agriculture and forest systems into a net sink for carbon by 2050, with emissions from agriculture decreasing by 1 Gt per year by 2030 and reaching a floor of 5 Gt per year by 2050.Stay within planetary and regional environmental boundaries: consump�ve water use in food produc�on of less than 2500 km3 per year (with a focus on the most stressed basins), zero net deforesta�on, nitrogen applica�on of 90 Tg per year (with redistribu�on towards low-input farming systems) and increased use efficiency, and phosphorus applica�on of 10 Tg per year.Megatrends affec�ng food, land, and water systems at global and regional scalesAddressing regional and na�onal challenges and priori�esEnhancing access, transparency and use of tools, data, and metrics Addressing future challenges to food, land and water systems requires rigorous foresight analysis to understand interactions across multiple scales, trade-offs between goals, and options for achieving those goals. Yet most of the world's foresight tools and data systems pay insufficient attention to developing countries. As a result, many policy decisions affecting the world's poor and malnourished populations and the resources they manage are made without the benefit of rigorous analysis of emerging challenges and policy trade-offs. Moreover, as food, land and water systems transform, as linkages to global markets strengthen, and as climate change and other challenges become more pressing, the drive towards more comprehensive and sophisticated foresight tools is accelerating, leaving developing countries further behind. The Foresight Initiative is working with global and national partners to close this gap through four key actions that jointly contribute to the five CGIAR Impact Areas and multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).First, the Foresight Initiative is maintaining and enhancing unique modeling and data systems that allow state-of-the-art analysis of food, land and water systems in developing countries and across the world. These tools and data are international public goods that put CGIAR at the center of global foresight for food systems transformation. For example, the SPAM database tracks, at a pixel-scale, where crops are produced around the world; the RIAPA country models track how agrifood systems link to national economies and populations in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America; and the IMPACT model captures global agrifood systems and trade and interactions with natural environments and climate. In 2023, Foresight and its partners worked to ensure that CGIAR's modeling systems reflect the latest understanding of the drivers of food, land and water system transformation. This included incorporating the latest climate projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, expanding our ability to model extreme climate events and global market disruptions, and updating the drivers of technological change and productivity growth based on information from CGIAR Centers. Our ability to track and project outcomes across all five CGIAR Impact Areas was also enhanced. Third, Foresight is using modeling systems to conduct high quality research with partners to address major development and policy concerns. Working with leading national, regional and global partners around the world (see Sections 3 and 5), Foresight is conducting research on the major drivers of food, land and water systems transformation. This includes analysis of climate, technological and dietary change in global and national agrifood systems. Foresight is partnering with national research centers in large developing countries to share capacity, incorporate their national perspectives, and foster cross-country exchange. Foresight also responds to demands for foresight and modeling analysis from government and other partners and responds to global shocks and food crises using the Initiative's new Foresight and Rapid Response Modeling System (FARRMS). In 2023, the Initiative analyzed El Nino impacts in Eastern and Southern Africa; assessed the compounding effects of the recent pandemic and global food crisis; and supported the design and prioritization of national agricultural investment plans in four African countries. Having a dedicated research program with well-maintained modeling capabilities, coupled with the flexibility to respond to unanticipated demands and crises, allow the Initiative to influence the global foresight agenda and produce high-quality research outputs while also being policy relevant, timely, and impactful.Finally, Foresight is communicating results of joint analysis through ongoing engagement with governments, international organizations, funders and other partners as part of an iterative process to inform decision-making about the future of food systems through enhanced knowledge, trust, and ownership of foresight analysis and findings by our partners at national, regional and global levels.The Foresight Initiative also encountered several challenges in 2023. Among these were uncertainty in the amount and timing of funding, and adverse impacts of that uncertainty on the establishment of new partnerships, some of which were ultimately delayed until 2024. Another challenge involved managing scope. Foresight as an activity covers a vast scope, and indeed the entire CGIAR Portfolio of Initiatives conducts foresight in various ways on particular topics related to the future of food systems. Within that broad scope, the Foresight Initiative focuses on links across diverse thematic areas, interactions across scales, and trade-offs between goals and Impact Areas, looking months to decades into the future. The Initiative necessarily focuses on selected topics, goals, and geographies -to the exclusion of others. This requires managing expectations while being responsive to partners' demands.These and other areas of progress, challenge, and response are described further in Sections 3 to 8 below.EOIO 1: Better-informed global and regional decision-making.Foresight continues to develop and enhance cutting-edge tools for analysis of global and regional food system challenges, opportunities and tradeoffs, including the IMPACT and SPAM modeling systems and databases. Foresight uses these international public goods to support better-informed decision-making for food system transformation at global and regional scales, including for the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, and funding partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Foresight does this by working closely with leading national research institutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America (including the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, and their counterparts in Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia and South Africa) as well as leading global research institutions (including the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and Wageningen University).Foresight is continually enhancing state-of-the-art country-level analytical tools, including the RIAPA and FARRMS modeling systems, to respond to partners' demands for high quality policy modeling analysis related to prioritizing investment plans and assessing climate risks affecting national agrifood systems. First, governments in three focus countries requested and are contributing to national climate vulnerability assessments using CGIAR foresight modeling and data systems. Second, governments in four countries requested and/or are using CGIAR modeling analysis to support national agricultural development plans. Third, Foresight and its national partners are completing studies on past and future drivers of agrifood system transformation. These studies are already informing decision-making by governments and donors. Finally, Foresight's agrifood system and household level metrics on hunger, diets, incomes, and employment are being used to inform policies and track transformation at national and global scales. Foresight is improving access to foresight tools and data through our openly accessible GitHub repository for open-source code for foresightrelated models and tools and through the innovative Foresight Portal. The material also comes with documentation to ensure transparency. The documentation includes scientific publications and user guides on foresight models, data, and metrics. The Foresight Portal also provides access to new and enhanced metrics for foresight analysis and novel tools to access and visualize data and metrics. Foresight data and results have also been shared directly with United Nations agencies, international financial institutions, funders, other CGIAR Research Initiatives (including National Policies and Strategies and Market Intelligence), and research partners around the world.Through the community of practice discussion forum on the Foresight Portal, we have created a means to interact with users and solicit feedback to ensure demand-driven updates to the material provided through the portal. Foresight is collaborating with national partners through research networks such as the Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI) to provide opportunities for analysts in at least nine countries to enhance knowledge, aptitude and skills with foresight tools, data, metrics, and analysis relevant to food, land, and water systems. This is achieved through direct, instruction-led training, channeled via the Initiative's Work Package 2 (on national policies) as well as using innovative online training. The online training course, now moving from design to roll-out stage, is increasing access to foresight analysis beyond the individuals, institutions, networks and countries with which Foresight has established formal capacity-sharing collaborations. While participants from at least six countries attended in-person training events in 2023, the beta testing cohort of the online training course included participation from five countries in Africa and elsewhere.Section 3: Work Package progress WP1: Megatrends affecting food, land, and water systems at global and regional scalesEnhanced biophysical and socioeconomic modeling tools to explore food-land-water system impacts and strategic policy op�ons relevant for low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).Global Forum with partners.Global synthesis & outlook report.Global and regional partners have access to foresight analysis to inform their decision-making on policies and investments to accelerate food, land, and water systems transforma�on in ways that improve nutri�on, livelihoods, inclusion, climate adapta�on and mi�ga�on, and environmental outcomes. Global and regional partners develop a shared situa�onal awareness regarding policy challenges and priori�es, recognizing the spa�al and temporal heterogeneity associated with the impact of major drivers on development outcomes.Be�er-informed global and regional decision-making -Global and regional partners contribute to and use foresight analysis to inform their decisions about investments to transform food, land, and water systems in ways that improve nutri�on, livelihoods, equity, climate adapta�on and mi�ga�on, and environmental outcomes.Work Package 1 progress against the theory of change Work Package (WP) 1 develops and applies cutting-edge analytical tools, including the IMPACT and SPAM modeling systems and databases, and works with leading research institutions around the world to analyze the major biophysical and socioeconomic trends affecting -and affected by -food, land, and water systems at global and regional scales over the next several decades. WP1 pays particular attention to interactions between Impact Areas and regions, which in turn shape the complex choices faced by decisionmakers in the countries that are the focus of WP2.In 2023, we engaged with key strategic partners including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, BMGF, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the USAID, including during the 2023 Foresight Partnership Forum in Nairobi (Output 1.2.3). We also interacted with the Independent Science for Development Council in relation to their work on megatrends.In response to demand from partners, we invested in enhancing biophysical and socioeconomic data and analytical tools, including the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), which enable us to examine changes in land, water, climate, diets, pests and pathogens, and other factors more accurately. This innovation in turn improves understanding of food, land, and water system impacts and policy options relevant for low-and middle-income countries (Output 1.1.2). A multidisciplinary team of scientists from 11 CGIAR entities and several partner institutions contributed to this key output.We also continued our series of briefs on the state of foresight analysis on major changes that will affect food, land, and water systems over the next several decades. In 2023 these focused on the future of FLW systems in key regions (West and Central Africa, Central and West Asia and North Africa, and Southeast Asia), resources (land), shocks (El Nino), commodities (aquatic foods, rice , and pulses), and Impact Areas (gender equality). This collection will feed into a global synthesis report (Output 1.2.1) highlighting synergies and trade-offs across the five CGIAR Impact Areas.Data is collected from farmers to halp them make decisions about trade-offs to boost income and improve production, while also reducing GHGs though improved forages. Credit: ©CIAT/GeorginaSmith WP2: Addressing regional and national challenges and priorities Be�er-informed na�onal policy choices -Governments and other decision makers in at least five countries contribute to and use foresight analysis be�er reflect climate and other risks in policy dialogues and decision-making, including policies and investments designed to make food, land, and water systems more resilient, while recognizing synergies and trade-offs with other goals rela�ng to nutri�on, livelihoods, equity, and the environment.Work Package 2 progress against the theory of change WP2 develops and applies state-of-the-art analytical tools, including the RIAPA and FARRMS modeling systems, to examine the drivers of food, land, and water systems transformation and inform decisionmaking at the country level. In 2023, the focus broadened from Africa to South Asia and to more demand-driven policy research. The country agrifood system diagnostic studies are in their final stages. Research partners in the six focus countries are completing studies on the drivers of agricultural growth, and agrifood system transformation studies were completed and published for 20 countries. Consolidated country reports will be jointly published with partner institutions. The global agrifood system database was updated and expanded to include income and sex-disaggregated employment data for 2000-2021. Future databases will include new metrics on agrifood system greenhouse gas emissions and water use.Climate integrated assessment models (CIAMs) were developed and piloted in the focus countries. The Malawi pilot study on \"Climate Risks and Agrifood Systems\" was presented to government and research partners and led to new training and research activities with the national planning and finance ministries. Similar government engagement, research collaboration, and training activities are planned for the other focus countries (Output 2.3). Model databases were updated and published for six countries (see Kenya example) and the climate analysis has been completed for all African countries. This allows Foresight to conduct climate risk analysis and respond to policy demands beyond the current focus countries.A rapid response study of El Nino's impacts on national food security was conducted. Deep-dive analysis with Malawi's planning commission led to joint publications and media outreach. Ongoing demand-driven studies include (1) assessing poverty and food security impacts of ongoing conflict in Sudan; (2) evaluating Kenya's proposed tax reforms' impacts on agrifood systems; and (3) informing national agricultural investment plans in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania.WP3: Enhancing access, transparency, and use of tools, data, and metricsOutput Documenta�on and improved access to standardized, regularly updated, and interoperable versions of CGIAR's core foresight models, tools, and databases spanning food, land and water systems.Searchable online databases, accessible data and metrics, training material, and other resources shared on the Foresight Portal.New and improved metrics and data visualiza�on tool for tracking changes across food, land and water systems, including systems-level outcome metrics to inform policy and investment decision-making.Global, regional, and na�onal partners contribute to and have access to advanced foresight tools and systems-level metrics that iden�fy major drivers of and impacts on food, land, and water systems at global, regional, and na�onal scales under alterna�ve future scenarios. Global, regional, and na�onal partners use foresight tools and metrics to diagnose challenges, set priori�es, manage risks, track progress, and inform decision-making to transform food, land, and water systems in ways that improve nutri�on, livelihoods, inclusion, climate adapta�on and mi�ga�on, and environmental outcomes.Improved access to foresight tools and data -Na�onal, regional, and global partners in at least five countries and two regions contribute to and have access to state-of-the-art foresight tools, data, and systems-level metrics that iden�fy major drivers and impacts on food, land, and water systems at na�onal, regional, and global levels under alterna�ve future scenarios.Work Package 3 progress against the theory of change WP3 contributes to the dissemination of international public goods by enhancing access to CGIAR's core foresight models and tools to help governments and researchers, particularly in developing countries, conduct foresight analysis amidst increasing complexity in food, land, and water systems. In 2023, WP3 continued to generate improved and updated documentation of foresight models and tools such as multiplier analysis and the open ontology-agnostic Interoperable Information Asset Metadata Schema (OIMS). WP3 generated data and metrics-related documentation on various social accounting matrices. In terms of new and improved metrics for tracking changes across food, land, and water systems, WP3 added data for multiple countries to the innovative Uber H3 Level 6 Hexagons Database for characterization of sub national units for key countries. WP3 also supported the development of open access tools for generating new and improved metrics including the tool for extracting climate data (Clim2Agri); OIMS related JSON scripts. WP3 supports the development of better data visualization tools to allow better understanding of the data and metrics by analysts and decision-makers. This includes the Shiny application for consulting climate data online. More tools are in the final stages of development.Furthermore, WP3 maintains an accessible online portal for foresight tools and training materials, currently undergoing renovation based on stakeholder feedback and aligned with CGIAR standards. The technical architecture, including UX aspects, is designed with input from communication experts to ensure alignment with CGIAR branding. 2023 saw the pre-launch of the foresight portal with some content, as well as the Foresight portal WordPress theme code (available for others to use) and a staging site for the portal with Foresight portal content at the final stages of development. The novel content includes a discussion forum for the community of practice on foresight.WP4: Enhancing foresight skills and making learning actionableDemand-driven capacity strengthening through needs analysis, in-person and online trainings.Monitoring, Evalua�on, Learning and Impact Assessment (MELIA) system.Knowledge sharing in form of audience tailored materials and Community of Prac�ce (CoP).Global, regional, and na�onal partners can use foresight tools and metrics themselves to diagnose challenges, set priori�es, manage risks, track progress, and make more informed policy and investment recommenda�ons affec�ng food, land, and water (FLW) systems.Na�onal partners in focus countries, and other partners inside and beyond CGIAR, are informed consumers of foresight analysis and can use it more effec�vely to inform strategic planning, decision-making processes, and impact assessments.Strengthened na�onal foresight capacity -Na�onal partners in at least five countries where foresight capacity is s�ll nascent, and other partners as appropriate, gain enhanced knowledge, ap�tude and skills with foresight tools, data, and analysis relevant to food, land, and water systems, through access to innova�ve training and delivery pla�orms and through collabora�ve research.Work Package 4 progress against the theory of change 2) integration of the annual budget for assessing value-for-money by output; and 3) enriched collaboration details to track scientists' locations, delivered results, and collaborations. In 2024, emphasis will be on enhancing interoperability with other systems that will support scaling the related innovation with other Initiatives. Output 4.2.4 (Knowledge Sharing): The Foresight community of practitioners brings together about 100 colleagues (roughly 40 percent of whom are women) from all CGIAR Centers, national research institutions, and implementing agencies through quarterly virtual meetings. Meetings include presentation of exciting new work, followed by small group discussions and exchange. WP4 is also working with WP3 to embed a community of practitioners platform into the Foresight Portal to facilitate further interaction between members. Team members also shared knowledge through professional meetings, including the International Rice Congress and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association meetings. The foresight portal was delayed in 2022 but is now well underway, increasingly capturing accessible, transparent foresight models, tools, data, metrics and other resources, and helping partners access the latest available data and analytical tools.The major components of this Work Package, namely in-person and online training opportunities, community of practitioners, and the monitoring evaluation and learning system, are in place and being adapted to the needs identified in the pause and reflect sessions. Capacity sharing for develop.Innova�on development 1 1 37 23 16Rather than targeting specific policy changes, Foresight seeks to inform how tens of thousands of decision-makers around the world understand their situations and outlooks make better decisions today to arrive at improved food systems in the future. Foresight's contributions focus on Systems Transformation but also extend to Resilient Agrifood Systems and Genetic Innovation. Reflecting our focus on interactions across food system challenges, regions, and impacts, Foresight contributes to all five Impact Areas. Results reflect our regional focus in East and Southern Africa and South Asia, including our six focus countries in those regions, and our global work. Engagement in these regions includes capacity strengthening, joint analysis, co-creation of knowledge products, and dialog to inform decision-making.Not targeted: The result did not target any of the Impact Area objec�ves.Significant: The result has made a significant contribu�on to any of the Impact Area objec�ves, even though the objec�ve(s) is not the principal focus of the result.The result is principally about mee�ng any of the Impact Area objec�ves, and this is fundamental in its design and expected results. The result would not have been undertaken without this objec�ve. Foresight partners with policy research institutes closely connected to national governments in 18 countries in Africa and South Asia. In 2023 we expanded our partnership network to include leading agricultural research institutions in key regional economies across the global south, namely China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina.Foresight reported 187 results in 2023, of which 148 were knowledge products. Reflecting our commitment to improving access to foresight data, modeling tools and resuls, almost all were findable and accessible, and most were also interoperable and reusable. Foresight reported 187 results in 2023, of which 148 were knowledge products. Reflecting our commitment to improving access to foresight data, modeling tools and resuls, almost all were findable and accessible, and most were also interoperable and reusable.Countries with par�cipa�ng ins�tu�ons The innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled condi�onsThe innova�on is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under uncontrolled condi�onsThe innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under semi-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is validated for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on is being tested for its ability to achieve a specific impact under fully-controlled condi�onsThe innova�on's key concepts have been validated for their ability to achieve a specific impact F���������� The innova�on's key concepts are being formulated or designedThe innova�on's basic principles are being researched for their ability to achieve a specific impactThe innova�on is at idea stage Of this total of 20 innovations, six were at early stages (up to proof of concept), 11 were at intermediate stages (up to prototype), and two were proven innovations. (In addition to results formally reported as innovations, we note that innovations are taking place throughout the Initiative's activities -in engagement, in capacity sharing, in data and models, in analysis, and in communication of results.)Innovations by type and nature Less resultsConnections are sized by the number of reported results. Collaborations where only one result was reported with a linkage between two Initiatives are excluded.Foresight is working closely with other CGIAR Initiatives to achieve shared goals and outcomes, including:• With the National Policies and Strategies (NPS) Initiative and national partners to analyze impacts of El Nino and other agrifood system shocks on prices, incomes, and food security, and to engage with decision-makers to inform policy choices; and to conduct agrifood system diagnostic studies in these same countries, as well as states in India. Foresight's public goods allow NPS to provide timely, high-quality analysis for various government requests and facilitate cross-country comparisons and global trends. Additionally, Foresight offers training materials that NPS can adapt and deliver in-person, often through training-of-trainers approaches.Initiatives to analyze climate change impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation in focus countries.• With the Gender Impact Platform and Gender Equality Initiative to assess the state of foresight knowledge on gender and food systems transformation, and to analyze investment needs to close gender earnings gaps.• With the Excellence in Agronomy Initiative on how climate risks affect crop yields and farm management practices.• With the Diversification in East and Southern Africa Initiative to analyze impacts of climate change on production of major commodities in Eastern and Southern Africa, and to explore policy options to increase diversification.• With the Market Intelligence (MI) Initiative to analyze the potential of different breeding investments to meet changing patterns of demand and supply under alternative future socioeconomic and climate conditions. MI is a user of Foresight information to (1) enrich its set of impact opportunity and projected benefit indicators with future projections, and (2) project its set of \"current\" market segments to the future.• With the Digital Innovation Initiative and other partners to develop new ways to share foresight-related data and models.• With the Sustainable Healthy Diets Initiative and other partners to analyze the cost of healthy diets for different regions and population groups under alternative future scenarios.• With other Initiatives through sharing of foresight-related data, tools, and staff expertise. Given the ongoing CGIAR reform process and associated uncertainties, it is essential to maintain continuity to deliver on the Initiative's workplan and outcomes.Shift focus from standalone country climate change assessment reports to climate-informed analysis of agrifood system investment priorities.Rather than focusing on standalone country climate reports, there is greater demand from government partners for climateinformed analysis of their agricultural development strategies and investment plans. WP2's final country climate assessment reports will reflect this shift in focus.Conduct regular inventories at model and data level to identify the status of documentation that is needed in order to prioritize what documentation needs to be generated, improved or updated.Documentation is a living process. There is a constant need to update various types of documentation around models and tools, and data and metrics, as these tools and data themselves continued to be updated and improved.Improve identification of key users of Foresight data and metrics and their requirements in terms of how the data and metrics are presented.Need to ensure that generation of data, metrics and related visualization tools are based on end-user needs and requirements.There is a need to bring the two training platforms (in-person and online) closer together and make them complementary to each other, building on an understanding that the in-person training offers depth while the online training offers scaling capability.Fundraise for new joint proposals with partners, and identify new areas of use for the Initiative's outputs.This emerged as a key point during the pause and reflect process. CGIAR pooled funds are often not enough to deliver against our ambitious theory of change.Foumban market, Cameroon. Credit: Jasmine HalkiForesight's work to develop cutting-edge analytical tools, strengthen accessibility and capacity, and produce high-quality research to inform decision-making also complements related non-pooled (bilateral) projects, including:• With USAID and BMGF to develop new tools and metrics to track the drivers of inclusive agricultural transformation; to support FARRMS and analyze climate and global market shocks; country model database development and documentation; and inform national and development partner investment priorities within the agrifood system.• With the EAT-Lancet Commission to examine the impacts of future diets on health and planetary boundaries -including to improve attention on issues of concern to low-income countries.• With the Asian Development Bank to analyze challenges to food systems in the Asia-Pacific region under changes in climate, demographics, and markets, and explore policy and investment options to address these challenges.Section 8: Key result story  Researchers in developing countries rarely have access to the advanced modeling and data systems that developed countries and the CGIAR use to analyze trends, policies, and priorities within food, land, and water systems. This makes evidence-based decisionmaking more difficult, leading to less (cost-)effective policy choices and crisis management. To address this gap, the Foresight initiative is working with partners, especially in Africa and Asia, to develop models and databases as international public goods, transfer them to local institutions, and provide training opportunities tailored to partners' needs and expertise.In 2023, the Foresight Initiative conducted seven training events in eight countries and provided a total of 808 person-training days to participants from 17 countries. To sustain the transfer of modeling assets and capabilities while also reaching a broad audience, the Initiative's training program takes multiple forms, including open online courses, in-person in-country workshops, and a \"training-oftrainers\" approach. This is proving successful, with partners using CGIAR foresight and modeling systems to conduct their own research and inform policies.Online training: Foresight has developed a novel online training course that introduces modeling fundamentals to students, with a focus on developing countries and CGIAR's modeling systems.The first cohort of students took the online course in 2023 and this included young graduate students from Africa and elsewhere.Additional introductory courses will be conducted in 2024, and advanced modules will be added. The Foresight Portal hosts an online training course and provides space for a growing community of modeling practitioners.In-person training: Foresight also conducted a series of in-person training courses in 2023. The Initiative has adopted a network approach to training by partnering with the Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI) and with the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). This approach will strengthen the capabilities of both local institutions and individual researchers.The ANAPRI training program is implemented together with the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) and supports a large ANAPRI-led project, Policy and Investment Prioritization through Value Chain Analysis (PPVC). This is novel because training is offered in the context of a real-world locally led project. Trainees not only learn how to use CGIAR's modeling tools but can immediately apply their skills in a practical setting as members of a project implementation team. A similar \"learning-by-doing\" approach is being followed with research institutes in the SANEM network. Going forward, Foresight will continue to implement its innovative training program that includes both online and in-person courses coupled with \"learning-by-doing\" and a \"training-of-trainers\" approach. This diverse approach is already proving to be successful at building, and hopefully sustaining, foresight and modeling capabilities within key partner institutions across developing countries to foster the continued development of decision-analysis infrastructure.The Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes values our partnership with the CGIAR Foresight Initiative. Their support enhances our capacity for policy analysis, facilitating access to vital data and PPVC modeling tools. The Initiative's commitment to on-demand capacity-building for our Modelling Services Center is invaluable, advancing ANAPRI's mission significantly.Antony Chapoto, Interim Executive Director, ANAPRI","tokenCount":"5901"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"99ef0cc7570f149d07a471e69c00d898","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40129596-ab07-475c-8eff-a504edd84669/retrieve","id":"372647869"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0e8a0db2-7d8c-4b66-8220-9e1f2276e5fd","pagecount":"26","content":"www.cipotato.org FOREWARD This training manual has been developed for purposes of training ware potato farmers under the USAID-FTF Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) project in potato value chain. The training uses a 'learning farm' approach concept which aims at providing local farmers with hands-on experience in modern potato production technologies by practicing together with the trainers. A learning farm is a designed farm set-up demonstrating modern technologies in production in comparison with the farmers local experiences. This side by side comparison with farmers help in enhancing the learning experience and informing farmers decision making in improving their production practices. The manual gives a step wise module to be used by the training facilitators working with farmers. The modules provide background information useful during establishment of the learning farm, and the training of farmers. The modules are separated into three different sessions corresponding to different stages of crop development to facilitate practical involvement of the farmers during the training sessions. The manual has been developed using simple language understandable to farmers and adapted to local context of the project implementation areas. However, many aspects have been generalized as they apply to all potato production activities and most of the recommendations are based on research done or national recommendation from research organizations. The training modules in this guide covers production activities from site selection to the post-harvest handling of the crop. It also provides indication on how to set up learning farm as a class for farmers training.The manual emphasizes on farmers' full participation in the whole training process with the trainers only guiding the process. For more details, other resources can be explored.The learning farm training concept has been designed specifically in this case to give potato farmers in the farming community a hands-on experience training with various potato production information and modern technologies. The training module involves combination of theoretical explanation of ideas and practical's in the field over a period of three contacts corresponding to the critical stages of potato crop during the season.The process of setting up a learning farm involve selection of a farmer in the community/or group who is willing to host the learning farm. The farmer is then subjected to a set of minimum criteria which he/she should meet to ensure that the learning farm will be accessible to the farmers for trainings and reference. The idea is for the farmers to have the feeling of ownership as the host is an ordinary farmer like them.For the purposes of this project the training sessions for potato production are divided into three section each corresponding to the critical stages in the potato crop development i.e.: planting stage, vegetative stage and harvesting stagePotato is an important crop in Kenya after maize in terms of production and consumption. It is also a major source of income and employment to many households. Demand is constantly growing with diversified and changing consumption patterns in rural and urban area.Yields are still low of less than 10 t/ha compared to up to 25 t/ha attained by some progressive farmers. Even with the low yields many farmers still prefer growing potato because of its profitability compared to the alternative crops that are grown in the same area.Consequently, expansion of production area has been observed as mechanism of increasing production to meet the growing demand. However, this has an adverse effect on environment and ecology.On that note this manual has been produced to assist extension staff in training ware potato farmers to improve their production through improvement of productivity per unit area as opposed to expansion of production area which has proved unsustainable.Understanding the growth stages of potato crop is important in devising  Stage IV: Tuber bulking Tuber cells expand with the accumulation of water, nutrients and carbohydrates. Nutrients move from the leaves down to the tubers which enlarge. The leaves start turning yellow.Vines turn yellow and lose leaves, photosynthesis decreases, tuber growth slows and vines eventually dies. Tuber dry matter reaches a maximum and tuber skins set.Potato crop should be cultivated in open field, not under the shade. The ideal field in which to plant a potato crop, should have a deep, well-drained and loose soil. Naturally loose soils, which offer the least resistance to development of the tubers, are best, and loamy and sandy loam soils that are rich in organic matter, with good drainage and aeration, are the most suitable. The soil should be free from bacterial wilt and nematodes. Potatoes can tolerate a range of soil pH values of 5.0 -6.5. pH levels lower than 5.0 will produce poor quality tubers and abnormal growth, while high soil pH will cause problems such as common scab.History of a field for potato production should be well known. Planting potatoes in the same piece of land season after seasons will encourage the buildup of diseases such as bacterial wilt and other pests in the soil. To prevent buildup of diseases and pests, proper crop rotation is recommended for a period of at least three seasons. During this period, other crops unrelated to potato can be grown.Avoid using tomatoes, black night shade, capsicums (the peppers) eggplant and other known crops from solanaceae family which are alternative hosts to many pests and diseases of potato. Volunteer potatoes in the field can also harbor disease during the break crops and spread the disease later hence should be removed when spotted in the field.Land preparation for potato should aim at producing deep, loose seedbed with minimum of clods. Potato requires loose soil to maximize their growth, bulking potential and consequently yields. It is thus recommended to plough the soil to a depth of 30cm. This can be done by hoes, tractors or animal drawn ploughs.Proper ploughing has several positive aspects which include; improving soil conditions, reducing weeds, pests and diseases, and prevention of soil erosion. Well decomposed manure can be used at a rate of 5-10 tonnes per hectare. Heavy fertilization of potato with nitrogenous fertilizer should be avoided because it encourages excessive foliage growth, delays tuber growth and may produce tubers with hollow hearts.Potato cultivation usually involves intensive soil tillage throughout the cropping period, which often leads to soil erosion. Slope planting of potatoes can result in higher runoff and soil loss than on fallow plots. Therefore, potatoes should be planted along the contour. A lot of runoff and soil loss is also much after potato is harvested and the land left bare without any ground cover. This leaves soil exposed to different forms of erosion.Planting cover crops provide vegetative cover for soils susceptible to erosion.Cover crops can be used in association with potatoes to: protect your soils from erosion, improve soil fertility and structure, prevent nutrient leaching, provide a source of N (if legumes are used and improve pest management (e.g. weeds and nematodes).It is important for farmers first to choose potato varieties that meet their preferences. The quality of the seed potato is also very important to ensure a good production. A good crop starts with good seed. Quality of potato seed is determined by: 1. Variety: the seed should be of the right variety and not be mixed with different varieties.2. Health: the seed should be free of seed borne diseases (hence the need to know crop history of the seed).3. Physiological age: the seed tuber must be at the optimum stage of physiological development at the time of planting.4. Physical defects: it should be free of internal and external damages.5. Tuber size: it is best if of 'medium' size (30 to 60 g).The dormancy period of the potato varieties frequently used varies between 70 and 100 days. Seed tubers with short and strong multiple sprouts are extremely important for a high yield. Development of the sprouts is primarily affected by the light intensity. If the tubers are well exposed to diffuse light, the sprouts will be slow in growth, colored and sturdy. Seed tubers held in the dark will develop pale and long sprouts that are easily broken off. Long sprouts will deplete the seed tuber, which would also shrivel. Seed tubers with short, firm sprouts can be transported to the field with a minimal risk of sprout injury. Potatoes can be planted in two ways; 1. Planting in such a manner as to leave the field quite flat, with this one to two hilling will be required.2. Planting can also be done in pre-made beds with this method only one hilling might be required.Seed Potato tubers are planted by placing them in rows. For ware potatoes, the rows should be spaced 75 cm apart, for seed potato crops the row to row distance should be reduced to 60 cm to encourage individual plants to produce more tubers of smaller size. In both cases, the tubers in a row should be a placed at 25 -30 cm distances depending on the size. Place seeds at the planting points with their sprouts facing upwards. Ensure that seed of same size category are planted together in one area, this will result in uniform crop which will facilitate better management.No matter what type of cultivating or hilling implement is used, tillage should not take place in wet soils. Working wet soils results in compaction and clods that will present problems at time of harvest.Seed plot technique provides an opportunity to improve the farmers seed stock by purchasing small quantities of quality seed and multiplying it in the cleanest part of the land to get better quality seed for use in the following season. This technique can help in meeting part of the large requirement of healthy seed. The size of seed plot will be determined by the expected area under production the coming season and/or the amount of quality seed a farmer can afford to purchase.Seed plot should be place on the top most part of the farm. Land should be ploughed well to a depth of 20-30 cm. The seed plots should be made on raised beds of 15 cm high and of width of1.5 m for easy operations from the side of the bed. The length of the bed can vary depending on the size of the land. Fertilizer should be applied based on the recommended rates for potatoes. Application should be on the entire bed and mixed well. Tubers are planted at a spacing of before placing the first tuber.Crop management should be done as for other potato crop including disease and insects' management. However, it should be noted that on seed plot weeding and hilling is done by hand pulling of the weed on the beds then adding soil from the sides to raise the bed to approximately 5 -10 cm height from the initial height. Example: calculating seed plot size and number of tubers needed for 1 ha. The size of the seed plot will depend on the seed needs for the area expected to be under production the coming season. Before setting up a seed plot one needs to first determine their seed requirements depending on their preferred spacing as discussed above in planting. Assuming 1 ha of land requires 2000 kg/ha (2 ton per hectare) of seed. An average sized seed tuber weighs 50 g/tuber. Then this will mean 40000 tubers are required for 1 ha. At multiplication rate of 10 then you need to plant 4000 tubers. (The principle of seed plot technology is to maximize on numbers of seed sized tubers hence the spacing is reduced to 30 cm by 30 cm). 4000 tubers will require (0.09 X 4000) = 360 m2 Hence a farmer will require 360m2 of land to produce enough seed for 1 hectare using approximately 4 bags (50Kg) of seed.Weeding and hilling Two important operations after germination of potatoes is weeding and hilling/ridging. Weeds compete with the potato crop for light, nutrients and water.If weeds are not reduced, crop yields can be severely reduced. The presence of weeds in a potato field can also increase disease levels on potato by allowing the aphid populations to survive in times the field is not cropped to potatoes.In potato, weeds are controlled while hilling is being done. Hilling is the operation whereby soil is moved from in-between the potato rows towards the stems of the emerged potato plants thereby forming a uniform ridge. Hilling is important to allow the potato plant to produce many tubers; in the absence of hilling the plant simply produces less tubers and more above-ground stems. Potato crops are usually hilled twice: The first time some 4 weeks after emergence, while the second hilling then takes place 6 to 8 weeks after emergence. Avoid hilling when the canopy is closed.Hilling up is done initially by loosening the soil around the potato plants, and piling it up around the plants. The height of the ridges after the first hilling up should be around 30 cm. For the second hilling up, remove soil from the furrows and pile it up around the plants. You should do this more carefully to avoid damaging the plant roots. The height of the ridges after the second hilling up should be about 60 cm.Hilling in a potato crop is essential for the following reasons:• In the stage of tuber initiation, the stolons that are not underground will not develop in tubers but into stems • Tubers that are not sufficiently underground are exposed to light which triggers the formation of a green pigmentation of the skin. Tuber greening causes the accumulation of solanine, a toxic component that may cause food poisoning. Solanine is not destroyed by cooking, not even by frying in hot oil.Consequently, potatoes with pronounced greening or with signs of damage should not be eaten.• High hilling allows tuber development without deformation in a loose soil and protects from excessive humidity• High ridges provide better protection from insect pests, e.g., the potato tuber moth• Ridging also contributes to weed management Care should be taken to avoid damage on potato plant root system and also causing lesions on the roots and tubers, thus increasing the risk of disease.Potential disease problems include bacterial wilt, late blight, viruses, early and other emerging diseases in the country like blackleg (Dickeya spp) and potato cyst nematode (PCN).Bacterial wilt is a disease caused by the bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. It does not only infect potatoes, but can also damages plants such as chili, tomato, tobacco and eggplant, as well as several species of weeds. This disease is extremely dangerous, especially in regions where potatoes are cultivated intensively. The symptoms of bacterial wilt infection can be seen on all parts of infected plants. They begin to wilt, starting from the tips of the leaves or where the stems branch out, and then spreading to all parts of the plant. Leaves become yellow at their bases, then the whole plant wilts and dies. When stems are cut a brown colored ring will be visible.When a tuber is cut in half, black or brown rings will, however, be visible. If left for a while or squeezed, these rings will exude a thick white fluid. A further symptom is fluid coming out of tuber eyes. This can be signified by soil sticking to tuber eyes when crops are harvested. Serious infection causes tubers to rot. The disease can spread from field to field or from plant to plant in one field via:Infected seed, water, soil, farming tools and livestock and people. The disease will spread rapidly in the warmer temperatures in storage areas, and will cause tubers to rot. Infected seed can also be a source of the disease in the field.Currently there in no registered chemical for controlling Bacterial wilt.Management principles for bacterial wilt are as follows:1. Planting potatoes in soils free from bacterial wilt.2. Using healthy seed not infected with bacterial wilt.3. Rotating potato crops with other non-solanaceous crops such as cereals.Good practice is to rotate potatoes with corn, leeks, cabbages or sweetpotato.4. Removing infected plant debris before planting and clearing weeds away before planting, while plants are growing and at harvesting time.5. Using composted organic fertilizer not infected with bacterial wilt.6. Carefully managing irrigation in the field by digging channels that allow water to flow freely from the field. Bacterial wilt will spread rapidly in flooded fields. Also when watering the field, try to make sure water does not flow over the surface of the field.  Reducing the spread of the disease can be done through application of contact fungicides which can reduce infection and influence the formation of spores and the spread of rot on the leaves.Once the crop is infected by the disease it is advisable to use the systemic fungicide.A common problem when cultivating potatoes is reduced yield from one generation to the next. Farmers often consider the cause to be old and degenerated seed potatoes.In fact, this yield reduction is caused by viral infections residing in the seed tubers.These diseases are very varied and display a multitude of symptoms. It is difficult for farmers to gain an understanding of viral diseases because:1. Their causal agents are tiny and invisible to the eye.2. Viral infections rarely cause plants to become damaged or die. The symptoms visible, if any at all, are changes in the shape of plants.Consequently, most farmers consider viral diseases harmless.   • To make tubers harden more quickly so they can be harvested sooner.Normally, you can harvest plants two weeks after pruning.• To prevent diseases spreading from plant stems to tubers. Viral diseases in particular will spread to tubers if stems begin to wilt and dry out. The same occurs to other diseases such as late blight, stem rot and bacterial wilt. Timely harvesting can help avoid serious pests and disease damage. Leave tubers on the ground for a while to allow any soil caked on them to dry out and fall off, as soil left on tubers can cause them to rot. Tubers should then be sorted, separating healthy ones from damaged ones, and big ones from small ones (depending on what the market demands). Do not leave tubers in the field for too long as they may be attacked by pests such as potato tuber moth.Harvesting methods affect tuber quality. Potatoes can be harvested in two ways, directly by hand or by using a hoe. Harvesting by hand takes longer and is more labor intensive, but will produce good quality, undamaged tubers. Using a hoe is less time-consuming and labor intensive, but some tubers will be damaged in the process.After harvesting, you should sanitize the field, by gathering and destroying harvest remnants such as plant parts, rotten tubers etc. Post-harvest sanitation is an important part of controlling various pests and diseases, by removing sources of contamination for the next crop.Certain actions are not favorable for potato tubers and they should be avoided:• Do not leave the tubers in the full sun for more than the time required to dry(2 hours at most)• Do not harvest tubers when the soil is waterlogged or during heavy rain• Do not wash freshly harvested tubers• Do not throw tubers from a distance but deposit them carefully in a box or in a basket. Sorting should be done by separating damaged and undamaged tubers and classifying them according to weight. Gather and destroy any rotten tubers.Packing must be done carefully to avoid bruising tubers. Produce can be sold while it is still in the field, particularly when prices are high and not too many potatoes are available. When the main harvest takes place; farmers must store harvested tubers in a storage area until prices improve. Be careful to avoid any damage when transporting produce from the field to the storage area. Aspects to pay attention to in the storage place are temperature, humidity and air circulation.  it should be recorded in production records and also all sales must be recorded in income records sheet. The farm economic analysis can be done by calculating the profit.Profit = Total income -total costs of production o Total income -Total harvest sold (kg) x price (money value per kg).o Total costs of production -By adding together the labor costs and production costs.","tokenCount":"3337"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"89080bbf6cde0a0702bb1c82c97eeebd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dd9b4b6e-9502-4578-b941-242906a1fb59/retrieve","id":"-1860221430"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7f0d66ab-a75a-4d11-8b1b-53a9fa549351","pagecount":"37","content":"Despite the progress made in conceptualizing and advocating for secure community-based land and forest tenure rights, there is a critical lacuna in advocacy and policymaking processes pertaining to community-based freshwater tenure rights. Moreover, water tenure as a concept has only recently gained significant traction in global policy circles. This report analyzes national and international legal pathways for recognizing customary forms of community-based freshwater tenure rights held by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. It employs a methodological framework and builds on an analysis of community-based water tenure systems that was developed and applied by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in the publication Whose Water? A Comparative Analysis of National Laws and Regulations Recognizing Indigenous Peoples', Afro-Descendants',and Local Communities' Water Tenure. Based on the key findings of this analysis, in particular the frequent dependence of IPLCs' legally recognized customary water tenure rights on their legally recognized land and/or forest rights, this report further analyzes national constitutions, national legislation governing water, land, forests, environmental protection and other related matters, international and national case law, and international and regional human rights laws, to explore how legal frameworks are recognizing and protecting customary water tenure rights across sub-Saharan Africa. The findings and recommendations provide a basis for analyzing the comparative effectiveness and potential drawbacks of these legal pathways for the recognition and protection of customary water tenure and ultimately for future work refining and improving legislation and assessing progress in its implementation and enforcement.Community-based tenure systems followed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) around the world regulate access to and use of natural resources on at least half the world's landmass (RRI 2015). The security of IPLCs' land and natural resource tenure rights is vital to supporting rural food and livelihoods security, poverty reduction, conflict avoidance and management, and sustainable development. Growing awareness of the importance of community-based tenure rights has sparked global progress in their legal recognition, particularly for community lands and forests. For instance, between 2002 and 2017, indigenous and local communities' forest tenure advocacy spurred a 40% increase in forest areas legally recognized as owned by and designated for communities (RRI 2018).Progress in the legal recognition of community-based tenure rights within the rural land and forest sectors has benefited from a consistent consideration of land and forest tenure of IPLCs and the distinctive relationships of these communities with the territories and resources they have historically stewarded. IPLCs primarily hold resources at the community level, and their tenure systems comprise of an interrelated set of land and resource rights that provide a critical basis for their selfdetermination, cultural identity, livelihoods and economic advancement. Secure land and resource tenure are a key foundation of IPLCs' proven capacity to significantly contribute to equitable and sustainable land and resource management, resource conservation, and climate resilience (RRI 2020a). Despite the progress that has been realized from conceptualizing and advocating for secure community-based land and forest tenure rights, advocacy and policymaking processes pertaining to communitybased freshwater tenure rights remain a missing but critical aspect of this discourse (RRI and ELI 2020). While the concept of \"water tenure\" draws significantly from a large body of work stressing the critical importance of customary water rights (Burchi 2005;Ramazzotti 2008;Boelens and Bustamante 2005), it has only recently gained traction in the global policy arena. This burgeoning momentum can largely be attributed to a growing acknowledgement of the inherent ecological, legal and socioeconomic interlinkages between terrestrial and water resources, along with the critical role of freshwater security in achieving sustainable and climate-resilient landscapes, rural livelihoods and food security (FAO 2020).Despite the multi-faceted role of water tenure in achieving development and climate goals, freshwater rights of communities around the world are under increasing threat from unsustainable development, rising pollution, land use changes and major demographic shifts. These impacts are exacerbated by climate change effects that are increasingly affecting freshwater distribution (over both space and time), availability and quality. The legal recognition of the freshwater tenure rights of IPLCs is critical to ensure that communities are able to protect those rights in the face of increasing competition.In many cases, the security of IPLCs' water tenure rights hinges on the interface between communities' customary laws and government laws that may or may not recognize customary rights as legally valid. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 60% of the land area is estimated to be held under customary tenure (Wily 2011a;RRI 2015RRI , 2020b)). The importance of formally recognizing IPLC customary land and forest tenure rights has increasingly been reflected in international policies and laws, 1 and in diverse national legislative reforms throughout the continent (RRI 2015(RRI , 2018)). Across sub-Saharan Africa, the legal recognition and protection of indigenous and community water tenure are a critical aspect of securing and protecting IPLCs' water security, particularly where third parties may be threatening communities' water rights. However, this does not imply that legitimate recognition emanates only from the state or that states have legitimate authority to revoke or undermine the customary water tenure rights of IPLCs. The legal recognition and protection of customary tenure is only one aspect of overcoming the issues IPLCs face in accessing and defending their water rights, in particular the numerous challenges in effective implementation and enforcement of existing legal protections.Customary tenure encompasses the relationships between IPLCs and their natural resources (including land and water) which are governed by a set of customary rules and norms that communities use to express and order their 1 See the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Art. 27 (UNGA 2007); Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) (FAO 2012); Governing Tenure Rights to Commons: A guide to support the implementation of the VGGT (FAO 2016); International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, Art. 8 (ILO 1989); and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNGA 2019).ownership, possession, management, use and regulation of those resources. These rules and norms derive from and are sustained by the community itself (rather than from the political authority of the state), are primarily unwritten and passed down orally through generations of community members, and are generally perceived as legitimate and binding on the community and its members. 2 Customary tenure systems are almost universally community-based, with resources primarily held at the community level for an unlimited duration (Wily 2011b).While customary law is commonly associated with longstanding traditional practices, customary tenure often embodies highly adaptable rules and norms that continually evolve in response to the changing needs of the community, the management requirements of community resources, the influence of government policies and statutory requirements, and other external developments such as evolving technology (Wily 2011b). The term \"living customary law\" captures the fact that customary tenure systems are far from static, but rather represent the cumulative and ongoing adaptive responses of communities' norms to political, economic, ecological, social and legal changes and influences. The resilience of customary tenure systems is largely related to their ability to respond and adapt to local conditions and needs, and to their being embedded in the specific social and cultural mores of the communities in which they evolve (Wily 2011b). However, as land and water resources become increasingly scarce, customary tenure systems can be vulnerable to the influence of \"power politics\" that favor the privileged and exclude more vulnerable members of communities from access to and control over resources, often reflecting the influence of statutory norms and the relative weakening or undermining of customary governance systems and laws. Customary tenure systems throughout Africa have been profoundly impacted in this manner by decades of colonial and post-independence government influence (Cotula 2007). This report analyzes national and international legislative pathways for recognizing customary forms of communitybased freshwater tenure rights held by IPLCs in sub-Saharan Africa (RRI and ELI 2020). It employs the methodological framework and builds on the analysis developed and published in RRI and ELI (2020). RRI and ELI (2020) conceptualized and defined the rights most central to securing community-based freshwater tenure and assess the \"community-based water tenure regimes\" (CWTRs) (i.e., legal frameworks recognizing IPLC freshwater rights) established under the national laws of 15 African, Asian and Latin American countries.The methodology applied in RRI and ELI (2020) was developed through a series of expert consultations and refined through its application in three pilot countries. The analysis was subject to a rigorous review by 43 national and international experts. The methodology built on other Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) methodologies for conceptualizing and tracking community land and forest tenure rights but broke new ground by conceptualizing community-based water tenure as a bundle of community-based freshwater rights that interact to support and promote communities' physical survival, cultural vitality, livelihoods and sustainable development. It accounts for the complex, overlapping entitlements established by a variety of national laws, regulations and case law comprising CWTRs.Data from RRI and ELI (2020) show that although the customary water rights of IPLCs are recognized in over 80% of the legal frameworks analyzed across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this recognition commonly emanates not from water laws but from constitutional provisions, land or forest laws or a combination thereof. The frequent absence of an explicit recognition of customary water tenure rights in national water laws leaves the water security of many communities highly dependent on their legally recognized land and forest rights. The report also demonstrates that the \"land-water nexus\"-whereby the legal status of communities' water rights depends on the recognition of their community land and forest rightsis common across community-based tenure regimes, and especially pervasive in Africa (RRI and ELI 2020). Legislative nexuses between IPLCs' freshwater and land rights can mirror the integrated manner in which many IPLCs customarily govern their territorial land and water resources. Yet, the recognition of communities' customary resource rights in land and forest laws is often not specific to water, which can undermine the effective protection of customary water rights. These laws are especially ill-equipped to recognize the customary water rights of pastoralists and other nomadic IPLCs whose water rights are often dependent on water legislation and laws specific to pastoralists (see, e.g., Government of Mali 2001). Since tenure regimes characterized by the land-water nexus often lack sufficient coherence and specificity with respect to the particular water rights of communities and of community women, the security and integrity of IPLCs' customary territorial rights are commonly vulnerable, particularly where land, forest and water laws contradict one another (RRI and ELI 2020). This report uses RRI and ELI (2020) as a departure point to explore the legal challenges surrounding IPLCs' customary water tenure security throughout sub-Saharan Africa. It places particular emphasis on: (1) the centrality of various legislative, ecological and management nexuses between IPLCs' customary land, forest and water tenures; (2) existing legislative avenues for recognizing customary water tenure in jurisdictions that separate the recognition of customary land and customary water rights; (3) opportunities to reinforce IPLCs' interrelated customary water tenure rights within the emerging understanding of the human right to water under international law; and (4) the specific challenges of securing women's customary water rights within IPLCs.As noted, this report uses RRI and ELI (2020) and its findings as a point of departure for exploring the legal pathways for recognizing and protecting customary water tenure rights in sub-Saharan Africa. Additional research undertaken by the authors included a review of relevant literature and of national and international legislation and case law.Important caveats apply to this report. The research is limited to the content of the written legislation and cases assessed. It neither attempts to assess the realization of customary water tenure rights in practice in the countries highlighted nor the content of customary laws. The authors recognize that state-made laws are often passed without consultation with IPLCs, and that the provisions recognizing customary laws and practices may therefore not reflect the actual practices or priorities of IPLCs. This report does not imply that the only legitimate recognition of customary water tenure rights emanates from the state or that states have legitimate authority to revoke or undermine the customary water tenure rights of IPLCs. Moreover, legal recognition and protection of customary tenure represent only some of the challenges IPLCs face in accessing and protecting their water rights. In particular, there are numerous challenges in effectively implementing and enforcing the legislative protections of these rights.While the legal recognition of customary tenure rights is not a panacea for all IPLC resource challenges, it does provide a critical basis for securing and protecting those rights in many contexts. Consequently, exploring the legislative and judicial pathways for recognizing customary water tenure in sub-Saharan Africa enables a critical analysis of the opportunities to achieve meaningful recognition and protection of customary water tenure within existing frameworks, as well as a basis for assessing progress towards the implementation and enforcement of those legal provisions.The conceptualization and application of water tenure are still somewhat nascent. This can be attributed in part to the fact that water is a fugitive, inherently shared and essentially public resource, all characteristics that make it difficult to conceptualize water tenure in the same way that tenure is framed for its terrestrial counterparts (FAO 2020). While the specific mechanisms of water tenure are still being refined, its broader concept should be understood as both a legal and social construct and can be defined as \"the relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, between people, as individuals or groups, with respect to water resources\" (FAO 2020). A core set of rights lies at the center of water tenure that constitute the fundamental elements of relationships between and among rightsholders and the resource.Despite continued progress in recognizing communitybased land and forest tenure rights of IPLCs, the conceptualization of their water tenure is just gaining momentum. The community-based tenure of IPLCs who primarily hold resource rights can be defined as \"arrangements in which the right to own or govern land and natural resources (such as freshwater) is held at the community level.\" Community-based freshwater tenure rights consist of the \"bundle of rights\" most essential to these communities' relationships with freshwater resources (RRI and ELI 2020). While IPLCs' freshwater tenure rights fundamentally emanate from the inherent legitimacy of their customary claims to natural resources, the bundle of legal rights comprising secure community freshwater tenure are commonly recognized under state-issued laws. These include rights of use, both substantive and procedural rights to guarantee access and control over water resources and rights to recourse when entitlements are threatened or terminated. The bundle of rights approach is adapted from wellaccepted conceptualizations of land and forest tenure and the approach clarifies the core rights constituting water tenure regimes and facilitates a more holistic understanding of the ways in which community-based land, forest and water tenure rights interact and influence each other (RRI and ELI 2020).To understand which rights within community-based water tenure systems are legally recognized, RRI and ELI (2020) defined a community-based water tenure regime as \"a distinguishable set of national-level, statutory laws and regulations governing all situations in which freshwater rights of use and at least either governance or exclusion are held at the community level.\" Thus, the minimum requirement for a legal framework to constitute a CWTR is that it recognizes communities' rights of use and at least either governance or exclusion. While this definition was developed in the context of research meant to analyze only national-level government laws, the bundle of rights approach can also be used to assess the extent and security of customary water tenure rights as they are traditionally understood and exercised in practice, regardless of their statutory acknowledgment.In considering the legal recognition of customary water tenure systems under national laws, it is important to acknowledge that state-issued laws often define the bounds of a single rights-holding \"community\" or other community-based entity capable of holding water tenure rights in a manner that does not necessarily align with communities' self-identification. For example, Kenya's Constitution (Republic of Kenya 2010) defines \"marginalized community\" as \"a community that, because of its relatively small population or for any other reason, has been unable to fully participate in the integrated social and economic life of Kenya as a whole; a traditional community that, out of a need or desire to preserve its unique culture and identity from assimilation, has remained outside the integrated social and economic life of Kenya as a whole; an indigenous community that has retained and maintained a traditional lifestyle and livelihood based on a hunter or gatherer economy; or pastoral persons and communities, whether they are-nomadic or a settled community that, because of its relative geographic isolation, has experienced only marginal participation in the integrated social and economic life of Kenya as a whole.\" Kenya's Community Land Act defines \"community\" as \"a consciously distinct and organized group of users of community land who are citizens of Kenya and share any of the following attributes: (a) common ancestry; (b) similar culture or unique mode of livelihood; (c) socioeconomic or other similar common interest; (d) geographical space; (e) ecological space; or (f) ethnicity\" (Republic of Kenya 2016a, Sec. 2). Liberia's Land Rights Act defines community as \"self-identifying coherent social group or groups comprising people of all ages, gender, beliefs, and other backgrounds who share common customs and traditions and reside in a particular land area over which members exercise jurisdiction communally by agreement, custom or law and manage their land in accordance with customary practices and norms. A community may thus define itself to be a single village, town, clan, or chiefdom, or a group of villages or towns or clans\" (Republic of Liberia 2018, Art. 2(7)).Other fundamental limitations concerning the scope, specificity and establishment of some CWTRs include legislative failure to meaningfully distinguish among heterogeneous constituents of a given community (such as differences between the legal standing or rights of men and women), and legal requirements for communities to be incorporated as a legal entity or obtain a permit or license in order to enjoy legal water rights recognized by the CWTR.Community-based water tenure regimes offer varying levels of recognition for the full bundle of rights that may be held by communities (see Box 1). The extent of existing legal protections for this suite of rights is important in the context of the growing scarcity of and pressures on freshwater resources, incidences of largescale land and water acquisitions (sometimes called \"grabs\") and the marked need to reduce the persistent inequities undermining poverty alleviation in rural African communities. Secure community rights to use and govern freshwater for multiple purposes are not only necessary for the survival, health, food security and livelihoods of communities, but also support their ability to effectively steward water resources in the context of their territorial resource management practices, while preserving their cultural identities and knowledge. The ability to protect those rights by excluding third parties from negatively impacting water resources or by enforcing community rules around water is critical, but often overlooked in legal tenure systems (RRI and ELI 2020). Even where these rights are recognized, national laws frequently impose administrative requirements on communities in order to vest those rights (RRI and ELI 2020), which mostly take the form of permitting or licensing requirements, regulations compelling communities to create and/or register specific types of institutions, or requirements for communities to complete an approved resource management plan. 3 These requirements can enable more effective and sustainable use and management in some circumstances. However, they are often not tailored to the needs and rights of communities, and can impose onerous financial and other burdens where governments lack the capacity to support their implementation (van Koppen and Schreiner 2018).In addition to the high stakes surrounding the effective recognition of community-based freshwater rights for communities themselves, legal recognition also connotes high stakes for policymakers tasked with governing common pool resources such as freshwater. The very fact of statutory recognition and the granting of legal status to customary rights places IPLCs within the \"politics of recognition,\" raising difficult questions of legitimacy, power, autonomy and self-determination while also highlighting distributive justice imperatives to achieve Box 1. Community-based Water Tenure: The Bundle of Rights.Use rights. Communities use water resources for multiple purposes and laws often distinguish between various categories or levels of water use in determining entitlements. Generally speaking, these categories broadly distinguish between: (1) domestic water uses, * or uses for basic human or subsistence needs; (2) small-scale productive uses or uses for livelihoods beyond a subsistence level but not commercial in nature; (3) commercial use rights that generate income at a higher level and often imply much higher levels of water use; and (4) water uses for cultural or religious purposes. An important characteristic of legally recognized IPLC water use rights is their duration. While some are recognized for an unlimited duration (and are therefore consistent with the perpetual nature of customary tenure systems), others may statutorily impose temporal limitations on IPLC customary water uses.Transferability rights. In some cases, communities are statutorily authorized to transfer water rights, particularly those associated with a permitted entitlement. However, the notion of transferability of commonly-held resource rights in community territories often contradicts IPLCs' customary concept of the indivisibility of their territorial rights. Allowing the alienation of water rights can negatively impact collectively managed water governance systems, leading to dispossession of community water resources and the disruption of communities' way of life and associated customary systems for natural resources governance.Exclusion rights. The right to exclude outsiders enables rightsholders to protect their water rights and resources from capture or abuse by third parties. Since water is a fugitive resource, claims to water often overlap. Moreover, the legal recognition of water rights must balance the need for exclusivity with the fact that water is an essential public resource and a human right. Therefore, exclusion rights are seldom absolute in the water context, thus enabling third parties to access water to satisfy domestic or basic human needs.Governance (rulemaking, planning, management, dispute resolution and enforcement) rights. These refer to the rights of communities to plan, make and implement decisions with respect to the abstraction, use, allocation and development of their water resources. These also include the right to make rules regulating community water, to enforce those rules against community members and third parties and to resolve internal conflicts related to water.Due process and compensation rights. These are procedural rights that enable communities to protect their substantive water rights. They include rights of notice and access to information prior to developments or activities that could threaten or negatively impact communities' water rights, rights to consultation and participation in decisions regarding those development or activities, and rights to appeal decisions impacting water rights in a court of law and to receive fair compensation if those rights are infringed or terminated.equitable and sustainable development for all (Roth et al. 2015). The process of recognizing customary water rights may also raise questions of how best to ensure a core minimum suite of human (and often constitutional) rights to communities, where customary systems fail to support or even undermine the realization of those rights. This is particularly salient for rural women's water rights.Whether customary systems have maintained their integrity or been eroded over time by statutory requirements or political and economic dynamics, there is a need to protect the historically vulnerable and persistently marginalized IPLCs relying on customary water rights from the increasing threats from more powerful actors. The recognition of these rights is also inextricably linked to the realization of a broad suite of human rights held by all rural people, including rights to life, food, adequate standard of living and a healthy environment, and is a vital component of a rights-based approach to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Where customary water laws and rights are not recognized, they are at risk of being overlooked, ignored, manipulated or eroded in the face of competing claims for water resources. This poses a substantial threat to communities' water security and, in turn, to their livelihoods, food security and resilience to economic and climatic shocks.Recognition of the critical importance of secure tenure rights to the specific situation of IPLCs and their distinctive relationships with the territories and resources they have historically and collectively stewarded has led to positive developments in international and national laws. Yet, as highlighted above, advocacy and policymaking processes regarding community-based freshwater tenure rights have substantially lagged behind the land and forest sectors. Emerging evidence of the various ways in which a legal \"land-water nexus\" provides IPLCs with recognized customary water rights underlines the need for a better understanding of how to leverage these rights. At the same time, it is imperative to align these rights through national water legislation that more explicitly recognizes the role and importance of customary water tenure regimes and clarifies the relationships between those regimes and legislative water rights systems.The following sections explore the specific modalities through which international and national policies, case law and legislative frameworks recognize and protect customary water tenure rights.While there are no enforceable international legal instruments specifically dedicated to the recognition and protection of IPLCs' water rights, the progressive articulation of customary international laws related to the rights of IPLCs include definitions of territorial and land-related rights that encompass the water resources connected to those lands/territories. These international legal instruments reflect the ecological relationships between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, support the integrated manner in which IPLCs steward these ecosystems, and stress the need to recognize the full bundle of IPLC customary rights to land and water resources as an underlying basis for the realization of their human rights and sustainable development.The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), approved by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2007, provides a clear articulation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples to own, use, develop and control their \"traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources\" (UNGA 2007, Arts. 25, 27-8). UNDRIP articulates evolving customary principles of international law with respect to Indigenous Peoples and is an important source of non-binding \"soft law,\" despite the position of some African governments that the concept of indigeneity does not apply to specific groups within an African context. In fact, 35 African States voted in favor of passing UNDRIP in 2007, numerous ethnic groups identify as Indigenous Peoples across the African continent, and the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights recognized the validity of this self-identification in 2017, with respect to the Ogiek peoples of Kenya (ACHPR 2017, paras 105-112).The legal recognition of Indigenous Peoples' customary freshwater rights is supported by UNDRIP, which calls upon countries to legally recognize and protect their lands and resources with \"due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the indigenous peoples concerned\" and specifically to recognize Indigenous Peoples' land tenure systems within these territories. It thus urges countries to recognize a comprehensive set of natural resource rights as inherent to Indigenous Peoples' territories. Notably, some Latin American countries have made UNDRIP's provisions enforceable through national legislation. 4While the Central African Republic-which includes the ancestral territories of three Indigenous Peoples (IWGIA 2019)-is currently the only African signatory to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169, the ILO Convention provides a strong basis for recognizing and protecting indigenous and tribal peoples' customary freshwater rights (ILO 1989). The Convention recognizes indigenous and tribal peoples' enforceable rights to the \"natural resources pertaining to their lands,\" ensuring that these rights shall be specially safeguarded, including the rights to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources (ILO 1989, Art. 15). Where States assert ownership of resources pertaining to communities' lands, they are required to consult communities prior to undertaking or permitting programs for the exploration or exploitation of such resources. Such consultations must be carried out \"in good faith and in a form appropriate to the circumstances, with the objective of achieving agreement or consent to the proposed measures\" (ILO 1989, Art. 6). Communities must also receive fair compensation for any damages incurred as a result of such activities (ILO 1989, Art. 15).The African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, ratified by 54 African countries, recognizes the collective rights of African \"peoples\" but does not define the term (ACHPR 2005). 5 The Charter requires that natural resources be \"freely disposed of\" by all peoples in the exclusive interest of the people and \"in no case shall a people be deprived of\" this right (OAU 1981, Art. 21). The African Commission's Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities states that the rights of \"peoples\" should be available to indigenous populations/communities and minorities in Africa (ACHPR 2005).In 2019, the Commission adopted Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa, recognizing the right to water and calling upon States parties to adopt all necessary measures to implement the Guidelines in their legislation through a rights-based approach (ACHPR 2019). The Guidelines specify that States should protect water resources that are of cultural significance to local and traditional communities and guarantee access to individuals and communities who depend on those resources for their domestic and livelihood needs (ACHPR 2019, para 1.5). Specifically, the Guidelines call upon States to \"consult, cooperate and engage\" with Indigenous Peoples to protect traditional water management systems for their ancestral lands and to respect Indigenous Peoples' access and use of natural resources in their territory as \"intrinsically related to their right to life, food, self-determination and the right to exist as a people\" (ACHPR 2019, para 27.1). Further, any \"limitations on the right of indigenous peoples to their natural resources, including water resources, can only flow from the most urgent and compelling interest of the state\" (ACHPR 2019, para 27.2). More broadly applicable provisions include recommendations that States: (1) take positive measures to ensure participation in decision-making and access to water of vulnerable and marginalized groups; (2) promote gender equality and the protection of women' and girls' water rights (including strengthening customary and statutory mechanisms for defending or protecting women's rights to water); and (3) require transparent, maximum and effective community participation, including the free, prior and informed consent of communities, in decision-making and monitoring of developmental activities that may affect the use of and equitable access to water resources (ACHPR 2019, paras 8.5, 8.8). The Guideline's due process provisions are applicable to all communities and include conducting human rights and environmental impact assessments that must consider the \"impact on the spiritual, religious and cultural rights of indigenous peoples and other traditional communities, customary people's rights and community existence including livelihoods, local governance structures and culture\" (ACHPR 2019, para 29.3(v)). Taken together, this is a clear (if non-enforceable) mandate for African States, of which 54 have ratified the Charter, to recognize, protect and provide safeguards for customary water rights of their IPLCs.The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) were adopted unanimously by the Committee on World Food Security in 2012 following an international consultative process to engage multiple stakeholders in their drafting (FAO 2012). The adoption of the VGGT provided an important consensus around normative standards for responsible governance of land, forest and fisheries, focusing on the protection of marginalized and vulnerable groups whose food security and livelihoods rely largely on the use of natural resources as commonly held property. The VGGT articulate the critical importance of legal recognition and protection of community-based and customary land and resource tenure rights as an essential aspect of IPLCs' cultural identity and well-being, as well as a cornerstone of achieving food security, secure livelihoods and sustainable development (FAO 2012). The VGGT provide strategic guidance to both State and non-State actors on how to take a rights-based approach to the governance of land and resource tenures and specifically acknowledge the \"social, cultural, spiritual, economic, environmental and political value\" of land, fisheries and forests to Indigenous Peoples and other communities employing customary tenure systems. The VGGT call upon States to legally recognize and protect customary tenure by ensuring \"equitable, secure and sustainable rights\" to the land and resources held by communities and to promote effective and meaningful participation of all community members, including vulnerable and marginalized members, in decision-making regarding tenure \"through their local or traditional institutions.\" While the VGGT recognize the importance of water to land, forest and fisheries tenures, it was decided not to include water tenure as it was too nascent a concept at the time (FAO 2012, Preface). More recently, the question of aligning water tenure with the VGGT has re-emerged (FAO 2020). Numerous countries and private sector entities have made commitments to comply with the VGGT.In 2018, the UNGA approved the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, which recognizes the \"special relationship and interaction between peasants and other people working in rural areas and the land, water and nature to which they are attached and on which they depend for their livelihood\" (UNGA 2019). The Declaration also expands the scope of many of the protections enshrined in UNDRIP to all communities with resource-based livelihoods, including sedentary local communities, pastoralists and other nomadic or semi-nomadic communities, which includes most African communities practicing customary tenure (UNGA 2019).Protected rights include individual or collective rights to access and sustainably use and manage land and water bodies to achieve an adequate standard of living; to have a place to live in security, peace and dignity; to cultural development; and to safe drinking water and \"water for personal and domestic use, farming, fishing, livestock keeping and for securing other water-related livelihoods, ensuring the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of water\" (UNGA 2019, Art. 17). States are called upon to take all appropriate measures to remove and prohibit discrimination in relation to the right to land, to legally recognize tenure rights, including customary tenure rights and to protect legitimate tenure, including \"the natural commons and their related systems of collective use and management\" (UNGA 2019, Art. 18). States are also required to \"respect, protect and ensure access to water, including in customary and community-based water management systems, on a non-discriminatory basis\" and to take measures to guarantee affordable water for personal, domestic and productive uses and prevent third parties from impairing these rights, prioritizing human needs above other water use rights (UNGA 2019, Art. 21). This Declaration is remarkable not only for its inclusiveness in terms of rightsholders, but for its explicit inclusion of an expansive interpretation of those communities' water rights. While international legal protections for Indigenous Peoples can exclude many African communities that practice community-based tenure (either because they do not identify themselves as indigenous, or because the state does not recognize the application of indigeneity to communities within its jurisdiction), this Declaration clearly includes all communities holding land and water resources customarily. It is also an explicit assertion of the need to specifically recognize the rights of communities not only to water for domestic uses and basic human needs, but also to support their realization of an adequate standard of living and development through the protection of community-based water rights for livelihoods and productive uses.In 2003, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) adopted General Comment 15 on the Right to Water, acknowledging that the human right to water is \"indispensable for leading a life in human dignity\" and a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights, including an adequate standard of living, health and food (CESCR 2003). The right is defined as including \"sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses.\" This includes water for drinking, cooking and personal and domestic hygiene requirements (CESCR 2003, para 2). The human right to water was recognized by UNGA (2010) as entitling every person to \"sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses\" (i.e., drinking, cooking, personal sanitation and hygiene). The right to water \"is also inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the rights to adequate housing and food… [and] should also be seen in conjunction with other rights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights, foremost among them the right to life and human dignity\" (CESCR 2003, para 3). Accordingly, States are encouraged to consider ways to ensure the provision of water for meeting basic human needs and the best mechanisms, such as legally recognized water rights, for addressing other waterrelated human rights in ways that advance equity and non-discrimination in water resources allocation and management (UNGA 2010).General Comment 15 also notes the \"importance of ensuring sustainable access to water for agriculture to realize the right to food\" and stresses that particular attention should be paid to disadvantaged and marginalized farmers (including women) to have equitable access to water and water management systems (UNGA 2010, para 7). It also establishes that States should pay \"special attention\" to \"individuals and groups who have traditionally faced difficulties in exercising this right,\" including women, minority groups and Indigenous Peoples. To achieve this, countries should ensure that women are included in decision-making regarding water resources and entitlements, that traditional water sources in rural areas are protected and that \"Indigenous Peoples' access to water resources on their ancestral lands is protected from encroachment and unlawful pollution\" (UNGA 2010, para 16).As a social and economic right, the obligation on States to realize the right to water for its citizens is one of \"progressive realization,\" which implies a \"constant and continuing duty… to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards the full realization\" of the right (UNGA 2010, paras 17-18). States are also under immediate obligations, including the duty to respect the right to water, or to refrain from doing anything to interfere with its enjoyment. This specifically includes refraining from \"arbitrarily interfering with customary or traditional arrangements for water allocation\" (UNGA 2010, para 21). States are also obligated to protect the right, including through the prevention of third parties from interfering with the right to water and by providing \"an effective regulatory system\" including genuine public participation, and to fulfill the right by adopting necessary measures to realize the right within national legislative systems (UNGA 2010, paras 24-26). General Comment 15 also elaborates on the normative content of the right to water, clarifying that the most essential obligations of the right apply to water for basic human and domestic needs (UNGA 2010, paras 24-26).When included in national law, the right to water can provide an important foundation for IPLCs and women in those communities to assert their legal rights to a minimum quantity and quality of freshwater. At the national level, legal mechanisms for achieving the right to water have included recognition of the right (as either a human or a fundamental legal right) at the constitutional level, as well as various legal mechanisms for realizing the right, such as prioritizing allocation for domestic uses or prioritizing and protecting the specific water rights of vulnerable or marginalized users (including IPLCs).While the core of the human right to water is broadly accepted to include an (accessible and safe) amount essential to survival, the full context of General Comment 15 underlines the critical importance of States paying special attention to the rights of IPLCs and avoiding arbitrary interference where communities are realizing those rights through customary frameworks. Taken in conjunction with the recognition of IPLCs' territorial rights (including rights to freshwater) and the expansion of this recognition to a broader set of rural communities practicing customary tenure, there is a pressing need to more clearly define States' legal obligations to realize, respect and protect a broader range of IPLCs' customary water rights. In addition, these efforts need to be linked to the human right to water and associated human rights of IPLCs who rely on community-based tenure systems. This is supported not only by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (as described above), but also by the African Commission's Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa, which specify that States must protect water resources that are of cultural significance to local and traditional communities and guarantee access to individuals and communities who depend on it for their domestic and livelihood needs (UNGA 2019, para 1.5). Moreover, the Committee on World Food Security provides clear policy recommendations that include achieving equal access to water for all, prioritizing the most vulnerable and marginalized and implementing policies to effectively meet their livelihoods and food and nutrition security needs (HLPE 2015).Contemporary national legal systems employ a variety of pathways to recognize customary water tenure rights. These include legal provisions that specifically recognize the broad customary rights of Indigenous Peoples and/ or local communities, provisions that regulate the management and conservation of natural resources (including water), and provisions that control the use and exploitation of land and natural resources (RRI and ELI 2020). These provisions can emanate from national constitutions, sectoral land, water and other natural resource laws, framework environmental laws, legislation specifically recognizing the rights of certain communities or of customary institutions (e.g., chiefs or traditional authorities) and, increasingly, from the decisions of national and international courts. Legislative provisions for protecting customary water tenure rights can also be found in the procedural guarantees of a variety of laws providing for access to information, recognizing rights to participate in decision-making, and requiring social and environmental impact assessments, among others (RRI and ELI 2020).National constitutions support the recognition and protection of customary water tenure rights in numerous ways. A study assessing 52 African constitutions (Cuskelly 2011) found that 33 of them referred to customary law in some form but varied widely in the scope of their recognition. Some constitutions provide general recognition of customary law and institutions, while others provide more specific recognition of the role of those institutions in regulating customary land and natural resources. The Malawian Constitution recognizes existing customary laws as having the force of State law (except where they are inconsistent with the constitution), enables the creation of traditional courts presided over by traditional authorities with jurisdiction over cases in customary law and prohibits customary practices that discriminate against women, particularly those that deprive them of property (Republic of Malawi 1994, Secs 24(2); 110, 200). Similarly, Namibia's Constitution recognizes \"both the customary law and the common law of Namibia…to the extent to which such customary or common law does not conflict with this constitution or any other statutory law\" (Republic of Namibia 1990, Art. 66). The Namibian Constitution also calls for the legal establishment of a Council of Traditional Leaders to \"advise the President on the control and utilization of communal land and on all such other matters as may be referred to it by the President for advice\" (Republic of Namibia 1990, Art. 102( 5)). The Constitution of Zambia recognizes Zambian customary law that is consistent with the constitution as part of its national laws and establishes a House of Chiefs consisting of five chiefs from each province, elected by the chiefs, to represent them in duties including initiating and deciding on matters of customary law and practice, making proposals on the areas of customary law that require codification and advising the Government on traditional and customary matters (Republic of Zambia 2016, Secs 1(1); 7(d); 169(5); 254(1)).Other constitutional provisions relate to the recognition of customary territory or lands, which can, in certain cases, include customary waters appurtenant to those lands. These examples of constitutionally-based land-water nexuses are explored below.While the constitutional provisions mentioned earlier broadly recognize existing customary water laws and rights, their lack of specificity provides scant protection for those rights. They must be interpreted and applied in conjunction with additional constitutional and/or statutory provisions in order to provide a sound legal basis for the recognition of customary water rights. Data from RRI and ELI (2020) showed that although IPLC customary water rights are recognized in over 80% of the legal frameworks analyzed across Africa, Asia and Latin America, this recognition does not mainly emanate from water laws, but rather from constitutional provisions, land or forest laws or a combination of these laws. Over 70% of the 32 legal frameworks recognizing customary water rights are also characterized by a land-water nexus, whereby communities' freshwater rights depend on the legal recognition of community land, forest or territorial rights (RRI and ELI 2020). Kenya's Constitution, for example, legally recognizes community land as \"vested in and held by communities identified on the basis of ethnicity, culture, or similar community of interest,\" and defines community lands as including land \"lawfully held, managed or used by specific communities as community forests, grazing areas or shrines; ancestral lands and lands traditionally occupied by hunter-gatherer communities; or lawfully held as trust land by the county governments…and any other land declared to be community land by an Act of Parliament\" (Republic of Kenya 2010, Arts. 61, 63). The constitution also defines land as including \"any body of water\" on or under the surface of that land (Republic of Kenya 2010, Art. 260). Kenya's Community Land Act of 2016 further defines customary land rights to include those \"conferred by or derived from African customary law, customs or practices provided that such rights are not inconsistent with the Constitution or any written law\" and vests all community lands held under customary tenure in communities (Republic of Kenya 2016a, Secs 2, 4(3)). Taken together with the constitutional definition of land, this provides strong legal recognition for customary surface water and groundwater tenure rights appurtenant to community lands held under customary tenure (Republic of Kenya 2016a, Pt II, Sec. 5(3)). Similarly, Zambia's constitution legally recognizes customary land and its Lands Act of 1995 recognizes customary tenure over these lands (Republic of Zambia 2016, Art. 254). The Lands Act states that land in a customary area shall continue to be so held and recognized, and any provision of this Act or any other law \"shall not be so construed as to infringe any customary right enjoyed by that person before the commencement of this Act\" (Republic of Zambia 1995, Art. 7( 1)). This statement not only recognizes customary land tenure rights, but also the suite of customary rights that are appurtenant to that land tenure, including customary water rights.In some cases, the land-water nexus provides the only recognition of customary or community-based water rights. Liberia, for example, has no national framework water law and so the recognition of customary water tenure rights derives from its land and forest laws. The Liberian Land Rights Act of 2018 provides enforceable legal recognition of all customary lands, including the right to \"possess and use\" the water resources thereon (Republic of Liberia 2018, Art. 33(2)(ii)). The Act recognizes communal ownership of customary land and water resources and creates Community Land Development and Management Committees to oversee their management. Notably, these committees must have equal representation of men and women, thus ensuring broader rights for women in water management (Republic of Liberia 2018, Art. 36( 6)).Forest laws can also provide pathways for the recognition of certain communities' customary water rights in their community forest lands. Zambia's Forests Act defines forest lands as including the biological diversity therein, which is defined under the Act to include aquatic ecosystems within forests (Republic of Zambia 2015, Art. 2). The Act further recognizes local communities' rights to participate in the management of forests and their biological diversity and defines forest and forest-adjacent local communities to include those holding land under customary tenure (Republic of Zambia 2015, Art. 2). In Liberia, in order to vest rights to control, manage and use community forest resources, including water resources, communities must form a Community Forest Management Group and conclude a management agreement with the Forestry Development Authority (Republic of Liberia 2009). Similarly, Liberia's Community Rights Act defines community forest lands as \"forested or partially-forested land traditionally owned or used by communities for socio-cultural, economic and development purposes\" (Republic of Liberia 2009, Sec. 1.3). Regulations spell out that communities' rights to access, manage, use and benefit from their forest resources is vested once the community and the Forestry Development Authority have formally signed a Community Forest Management Agreement (Republic of Liberia 2009, Sec. 2.1). 6   Legal recognition of the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples or other ethnic groups can also provide the basis for recognition and protection of customary water rights. In 2011, the Republic of Congo passed the first African legislation providing specific legal protection for Indigenous Peoples (République du Congo 2011). The law states that Indigenous Peoples have a right to own, possess, access and use the lands and natural resources that they have traditionally used or occupied for their subsistence and livelihoods (République du Congo 2011, Art. 31). The State is obliged to facilitate delimitation of these lands on the basis of indigenous customary rights and to ensure legal protection, whether or not communities hold the title to those lands. Protections include due process rights for indigenous communities prior to decisions or measures that could impact their land or resources, including participation in socioeconomic and environmental impact assessments (République du Congo 2011, Arts. 3.6, 39). A separate decree elaborates on the consultation and participation requirements applicable to indigenous populations, requiring consultation when any plans, measures or programs/projects related to economic or industrial development are proposed in their territories that could restrict the enjoyment of communities' rights or threaten their well-being or the well-being of the environment (République du Congo 2019). The consultations, carried out by a commission set up by the minister responsible for human rights and organized through institutions representing the indigenous communities, \"takes place with respect for the principle of free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous populations and the guarantee of their right to determine their priorities.\"In 2020, similar draft legislation was passed by the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and is expected to be voted upon by the country's Senate to become enforceable. The Bill includes provisions protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples to the lands and natural resources that they traditionally own, occupy or use, as well as the right to fully enjoy all natural resources and the benefits derived from environmental services on the lands they traditionally own, occupy or use. Projects or developments likely to impact these lands and natural resources must be subject to a social and environmental impact study and cannot be initiated without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples potentially impacted by those activities (République Démocratique du Congo 2020, Arts. 42-46).Customary water rights may also be protected through due process requirements outside of water legislation. National constitutions, environmental protection laws, land laws and other sectoral domestic laws may simultaneously shape the due process rights of IPLCs relating to freshwater resources. International treaties, regional basin-level agreements and international court decisions may also be instrumental in transboundary contexts. RRI and ELI (2020) found that due process rights were recognized in some form across all community water tenure regimes, although regimes with a landwater nexus provided markedly stronger compensation rights to communities. At the same time, in instances where due process provisions do not explicitly address water resources or IPLCs' water rights, they risk not being implemented or enforced.Environmental impact assessment provisions frequently include requirements to notify relevant stakeholders (which may include IPLCs) and provide them with an opportunity to comment and sometimes participate in decision-making processes when a proposed project or development has the potential to impact water resources in a way that could infringe communities' water tenure rights. Permitting requirements for mining or other potentially harmful activities may also provide opportunities for prior notification and consultation where licensed activities could harm IPLCs' rights.Procedural guarantees such as these are particularly important and serve as a last but crucial resort where communities' water tenure rights of use, governance and exclusion are not adequately recognized or protected under legislation. Notably, these protections are often more robust in the case of water tenure regimes that have a land-water nexus, as land rights (and thus appurtenant water rights) are more consistently accompanied by a range of due process requirements related to potential expropriation (RRI and ELI 2020).Recent decisions of regional and national courts highlight the role of the judiciary in recognizing and protecting the customary water rights of IPLCs through the application of human rights laws and the progressive articulation of legally recognized indigenous and community territorial and resource rights. In 2017, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights awarded a landmark victory to the Indigenous Ogiek People who have been repeatedly evicted from their ancestral home in Kenya's Mau Forest Complex (ACHPR 2017). The Mau Forest is Kenya's largest water drainage basin and the country's most significant ''water tower'' -mountainous forests from which Kenya's major rivers originate. The government has justified the continued displacement of the Ogiek as necessary to protect Kenya's water supply and the integrity of the ecosystem. The Court's decision, however, found the government's actions to be unlawful and recognized the Ogiek as an Indigenous People deserving of special protection deriving from the continued subjugation and marginalization that they have faced (ACHPR 2017, para 111). Drawing on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Court affirmed the Ogiek's rights to their ancestral territories (ACHPR 2017, paras 122-28). Given the Ogiek's valid ancestral forest land and resource ownership claims, their capacity as Indigenous Peoples to effectively conserve their resources, and the fact that the Mau Forest's degradation largely stems from other causes, the Court concluded that the Government of Kenya had violated seven separate provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. These include the Ogiek's rights to non-discrimination, property, culture, religion, natural resources and development. Despite this decision recognizing the Ogiek's ability to sustainably manage the resources of their ancestral homes within the Mau Forest, the Kenyan government has continued to justify the repeated evictions of Ogiek communities in the years following the landmark ruling based on a perceived threat to conservation, and has yet to implement the ruling of restoring the Ogiek's land and resources (Kobei et al. 2020).The Ogiek decision is significant for its recognition of the critical role of Indigenous Peoples in Africa as effective stewards of their territories and resources, including freshwater. The Court rejected the Kenyan government's assertions that the Ogiek's removal from their ancestral home was in keeping with public interest and that the communities were the primary cause of environmental degradation in the forest. Instead, the Court found ample evidence that the degradation's main causes were encroachments upon the land by other groups and \"government excisions for [non-Ogiek] settlements and ill-advised logging concessions\" (Kobei et al. 2020). This case was referred to the African Court by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and is the first case to have reached a hearing stage, setting important procedural as well as substantive legal precedents for future cases (Cultural Survival 2017;Vigliar 2017).A non-African landmark case further highlights the profound connections between the fundamental human rights of IPLCs, their territorial rights and the critical role of those communities in maintaining the integrity of water resources within their territories. In the Atrato River Case, Colombia's Constitutional court ruled that the severe pollution resulting from the government's failure to control illegal mining in the Atrato Basin, coupled with its failure to appropriately consult with communities in the Basin prior to granting legal mining concessions, was in violation of the rights to life, health, water, food security, healthy environment, culture and territories of the Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities living in the basin (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, para. 9.39). The court's verdict relied on the concept of ''biocultural rights'' of indigenous and ethnic communities to administer and exercise sovereign autonomous authority over their territories and natural resources, according to their own laws and customs (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, paras 5.11 et seq). Specifically, the court held that biocultural rights \"result from the recognition of the deep and intrinsic connection that exists between nature, its resources and the culture of the ethnic and indigenous communities that inhabit them, all of which are interdependent with each other and cannot be understood in isolation\" (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, para 5.11). The legal bases for these rights emanate both from national legislation and international law, including the ILO 169 Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), UNDRIP and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2016 which reiterate the rights of IPLCs to their land, territories and natural resources, among others (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, paras 5.19 et seq). The court found that despite the lack of a right to water under Colombia's Constitution, such a right exists because of its indispensability in guaranteeing a set of broad rights more directly protected by the constitution, including rights to life, food, health and work, and stressed the foundational importance of the right to freshwater as integral to notions of territorial rights (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, para 5.50). Equally as important was the fact that the court also extended the notion of biocultural rights to grant legal personhood to the river itself, designating the Government of Colombia and the ethnic communities in the Basin as legal guardians of the river and significantly expanding the legal role of IPLCs in the Basin as legal stewards of the resources therein (Constitutional Court of Colombia 2016, para 9.32).Despite the critical role that customary water tenure rights play in ensuring the food security, sustainable livelihoods, economic progress, health and well-being of rural communities throughout Africa, water laws have generally failed to explicitly recognize these rights and clarify their relationship to statutory provisions governing water allocation, entitlements and institutional mechanisms for community-based water management. As explained earlier, the majority of customary water rights enjoying legal recognition and protection find their basis in land and other resource-related or environmental laws through a \"land-water nexus.\" This section focuses on exceptions to this trend, highlighting ways in which national water laws contribute to the recognition and protection of customary water rights and the various legal mechanisms that are being applied to those ends.Namibia's Water Resources Management Act stands out for its explicit recognition of all \"customary rights and practices in relation to watercourses\" under customary law or attached to a customary land right as defined under the country's Communal Land Reform Act (Republic of Namibia 2013, Art. 1). Beyond this broad recognition, the Act requires that existing water uses, customary rights and customary practices of any traditional community be taken into consideration by governments when issuing new abstraction and use licenses for surface water or groundwater (Republic of Namibia 2013, Arts. 45(2)(j), 56(5)(d)(i)). Although the extent of the \"consideration\" given to these rights is not defined in the Act, the general regulations of the Communal Land Reform Act specify that lawful residents of communal land (land held in trust for the benefit of traditional communities residing in those areas) may abstract water from any watercourse for household purposes and may abstract water for other purposes with the permission of the relevant Chief or Traditional Authority, thus legally recognizing the authority of the Chief over customary water tenure arrangements (Republic of Namibia 2002, Art. 17(1); Republic of Namibia 2003, Art. 33(3)-( 4)).Mali's Water Code is notable for its acknowledgment of customary water rights while also asserting that water is a public good. The Code enshrines the principle of public water ownership, stating, \"water is a public property,\" while also recognizing that \"water can be the object of private appropriation…in conditions fixed by the law and while respecting customary rights recognized to rural populations and, provided they are not contrary to public interest\" (Government of Mali 2001, Arts. 2-3). The Code does not specify what these customs are, nor does it explicitly acknowledge customary water rights. In contrast, Mali's Pastoral Charter clearly acknowledges pastoralists' customary water rights, recognizing and legally protecting all rights to use natural resources (including water) for pastoral purposes, without requiring a permit or fee. The Charter also recognizes customary rights over Bourgoutières (floodplains), for pastoral communities who have demonstrated \"the usual and prolonged exercise of pastoral activities on an area belonging to the State's domain or a community's territory,\" and grants these communities priority access and use of the water resources for pastoral activities in those areas (Government of Mali 2001, Art. 50).The Malian example also highlights the role of legal prioritization of customary uses or users in protecting customary water tenure rights. Of the 39 community water tenure regimes across Africa, Asia and Latin America identified and analyzed in RRI and ELI (2020), 64% (including those in Mali) prioritized water for domestic uses and 56% (including those in Mali) specifically prioritized the domestic use rights of indigenous and local communities over other rightsholders. Another example of such prioritization is the Turkana County Water Act in Kenya. The 2010 Kenyan Constitution decentralized water services to the county level and, despite confusion regarding the relative roles of counties and national government following the enactment of the 2016 Water Act, counties have passed water legislation to implement these functions. Turkana County, which is home to a large population of pastoralists, provides specific protections for pastoral livelihoods by prioritizing water for those livelihoods above all but domestic water uses in its Water Act (Republic of Kenya 2019, Art. 5). The Act further requires the relevant department to take special measures to provide water to pastoralists during times of drought or other pastoral-based disasters (Republic of Kenya 2019, Art. 6).Mali's Pastoral Code also highlights the use of permitting exemptions to enable the free access and use of water rights for specific purposes or specific communities, which can greatly facilitate IPLCs' exercise of customary water use rights. 7 While most national water laws exempt water used for domestic purposes or basic human needs from permitting requirements, water uses for livelihoods or small-scale productive uses frequently require permits (RRI and ELI 2020, p. 6). Such permitting requirements often impose restrictions based not only on the purpose of the permitted use, but also on the manner, timing and source of abstraction, and on the duration of the water use right. While some countries exempt specific livelihoods uses, such as Mali's Pastoral Code, others include specific livelihoods or small-scale productive uses in the definition of ''domestic'' uses that are exempted. For example, Zambia's Water Resources Management Act of 2011 exempts all domestic and non-commercial uses, defined to include: drinking, cooking, washing, bathing or sanitation; subsistence gardening and support of livestock not being commercial livestock husbandry; subsistence fishing; the making of bricks for the private use of the occupier; the dipping of (non-commercial) livestock and firefighting (Republic of Zambia 2011, Art. 2). Malawi's Water Resources Act of 2013 exempts domestic uses from licensing requirements, defining these uses to include human consumption; washing and cooking; watering not more than 30 livestock units; irrigating a subsistence garden and watering a subsistence fishpond (Republic of Malawi 2013, Art. 2).As noted above, while permitting systems can provide important benefits for water agencies, including monitoring and regulating water abstraction levels and uses, facilitating more effective resource management and financing water administration and infrastructure, they are rarely tailored to the priorities, needs and capacities of IPLCs and to the often oral nature of customary water tenure systems. These systems place what are often onerous financial and administrative burdens on communities. Moreover, research has demonstrated that the limited permitting capacity of many African governments restricts their ability to reach small-scale rural water users and leaves these communities outside the legal system and vulnerable to infringements on their water rights, including for small-scale productive or livelihoods purposes (Schreiner and van Koppen 2018).Water laws can also be leveraged to protect customary water tenure rights by enshrining due process rights to prior notification, consultation and appeal when activities or proposed activities (including proposed policies, laws, plans, or projects) by third parties threaten those rights.As noted, Namibia's Water Resources Management Act of 2013 recognizes customary water rights and practices in relation to watercourses under customary law, and requires the relevant ministry to \"have regard to… the existing water use by any traditional community from the relevant water resource and the extent of customary rights and practices in relation to the water resource\" among other considerations when determining whether to grant a license to abstract and use surface water or groundwater (Republic of Namibia 2013, Arts. 45(j), 56(5)(f)(i)). Similarly, Malawi's Water Resources Act of 2013 requires a consideration of the \"existence of any traditional community and the extent of customary rights and practices in, or dependent upon, the water resource to which an application for a license relates\" in determining whether to grant water abstraction and use licenses; such licenses must also be subject to \"the protection of…uses by virtue of customary rights and practices\" (Republic of Malawi 2013, Arts. 41(i), 43(b)). There are no specific requirements to determine whether and how customary rights should be protected in such decisions.Customary law is constitutionally recognized in Zambia and includes customary water law that does not conflict with the constitution or other national legislation (Republic of Zambia 2016, Sec. 7). The Zambian Water Resources Act of 2011 is less clear about the role of traditional water practices in recognized customary areas, stating only that the Water Resources Management Authority must ensure that customary practices that are considered \"beneficial to water resource management\" are taken into account in the management of water resources (Republic of Zambia 2011, Sec. 5(2)). The Act also provides due process rights for customary water holders, requiring that the Water Resources Management Authority \"shall not allocate any water in a customary area without first consulting the traditional authority in that area and taking into consideration the local customs and practices which are beneficial to water resources management\" (Republic of Zambia 2011, Sec. 6). It also stipulates that permits for water use in customary areas that are likely to substantially affect water supplies for domestic and non-commercial purposes must have both approval of the relevant traditional authority and put in place alternative means for securing water for the occupants' domestic uses (Republic of Zambia 2011, Sec. 63). Similar to Namibia's regulations, these provisions not only require that customary water practices be accounted for in allocation and permitting decisions, but also recognize the authority of the Chiefs over customary water rights within their territory.In many countries, water legislation requires communities or groups of users to form institutions for water governance and management of shared resources, such as users' associations, in order to vest their rights to water. These provisions can enable communities to assert their customary water rights once they have met the legal requirements to form and operationalize such institutions. Kenya's Water Act, for example, enables the establishment of Water Resource Users' Associations (WRUAs) as community-based water management institutions that, once legally established, can contract with the National Water Resources Authority to develop a management plan governing their designated water resource (Republic of Kenya 2016b, Art. 29).While statutory institutions for community-based water management can enable the creation of more equitable, gender-inclusive and sustainable management practices, they are rarely structured to specifically support and protect customary water governance practices in meaningful ways. Indeed, they often reflect and reinforce local power structures, entrenching existing gender inequities. Analyses across African countries have demonstrated that users' associations rarely meet the criteria for being truly user-driven and participatory, but remain topdown and externally influenced in their creation and implementation (Aarnoudse et al. 2018). In Kenya's Water Act, for example, no mention is made of the relationship of WRUAs to the clear recognition of customary water rights pursuant to the Community Land Act. This gap leaves open the question of whether certain customary water rights on community lands can vest without the formation of a WRUA. In an equally restrictive fashion, Zambia's Water Resources Management Act provides that only the government may constitute water users' associations (WUAs) for any area of a catchment. Communities cannot themselves instigate the formation of a WUA, although they are entitled to nominate members to be part of a WUA in their catchment area who are then responsible for a number of local water resource governance functions (Republic of Zambia 2011, Secs 24(2), 25). In both these situations, legislative failure to explicitly align the creation and operationalization of users' associations with existing customary water systems leaves customary tenure rights vulnerable to being disregarded, manipulated (i.e., through elite capture) or fundamentally altered (e.g., through fixing of inherently adaptive rules, imposing limited duration of rights, etc.).Rural women have differentiated water needs, priorities, knowledge and responsibilities for both domestic and productive water uses. They play critical yet undervalued roles in water management at the household and community levels, and evidence shows that the effectiveness of water sector interventions in rural areas is strongly associated with women's participation (Narayan 1995). Despite widespread international recognition of the critical role of women in water governance and decision-making, there is a significant gap between policy and practice. Gender discriminatory norms that persist in many African countries and extend to the internal governance processes of many IPLCs, are reinforced by the lack of laws specifically recognizing and protecting women's water use and governance rights. Conversely, gender blind laws or laws that blatantly discriminate against women's resource rights may also undercut existing gender-positive norms of IPLCs, some of whose resource governance practices are more gender-equitable than the structures pervading government systems (RRI and ELI 2020;RRI 2017;van Koppen 2017).The ability of women within IPLCs to effectively exercise control over their water resources is, in large part, dependent on national laws that recognize and actively facilitate women's leadership roles in water governance. RRI and ELI (2020) assessed national laws governing 39 community-based water tenure regimes across 15 countries for explicit recognition and protection of women's water use and/or governance rights (at the community level), and found that only a third (13) of the regimes acknowledge these rights. Of these, only five were specific to water resources, indicating a strong reliance of the minimal protections that women have for their water rights on some form of land-water nexus.For example, the recognition of customary water rights in Kenya is premised on the recognition of customary land tenure pursuant to the Community Lands Act, as described above. Registered communities under this Act must have a community assembly, led by an elected 7-15-member Community Land Management Committee, which manages community land (and appurtenant water resources) and prescribes rules and regulations (Republic of Kenya 2016a, Sec 15). This election process for the Committee must take account of the \"two-thirds rule,\" requiring no more than two-thirds of elected members to be of one gender. The Act also prohibits gender discrimination in \"all dealings with customary land\" (Republic of Kenya 2016a, Sec 30).Zambia's Water Resource Act stands out for providing water-specific protections for women's water rights, although these protections are in the form of \"enforceable policies\" that lack specific guidance on how to implement them. Zambia's water law requires that management of water resources \"shall be governed\" by a number of principles, including that \"there shall be equity between both genders in accessing water resources and, in particular, women shall be empowered and fully participate in issues and decisions relating to the sustainable development of water resources and, specifically, in the use of water\" (Republic of Zambia 2011, Sec. 6(k)).While these provisions technically require that women are represented in land (and water) decision-making and management leadership positions, the likelihood that they effectively guarantee non-discrimination and promote women's active and meaningful participation in community water governance in practice is less certain. These findings are supported by findings in other global analyses demonstrating scant recognition for women's rights to community lands and forests. Taken together, the significant reliance of women's water tenure rights on a land-water nexus and the failure of community-based land tenure regimes to effectively recognize and protect women's land and forest rights underscores the critical need for governments to prioritize gender-sensitive and coherent legislation that recognizes and protects women's land, forest and water tenure rights across sectors. 8Unpacking the Implications of the Land-Water Nexus for Customary Water TenureThe findings of this report indicate that the customary water tenure rights of IPLCs throughout sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly recognized in international and national laws. IPLCs' customary water tenure could also be significantly strengthened through advancements in the interpretation and implementation of the human right to water to address the suite of rights necessary for communities to maintain sustainable livelihoods and food security.While the existence of land-water nexuses can provide more diverse pathways for the recognition and protection of IPLCs' customary water tenure, and specifically for women within those communities, the failure of most countries to harmonize tenure recognition and protections across the land, forest and water sectors leads to inconsistencies or even contradictions across those laws that ultimately undermine the security of recognized customary water rights. This is evident in Kenya, where the land-water nexus is based on both the national constitution and land sector legislation, which make clear that customary water rights are held by communities on customary lands without requiring a license. Yet, the Kenyan Water Act (passed in the same year as the Community Lands Act ( 2016)) makes no reference to these existing water tenure rights, thus creating legislative incongruity and potential confusion about the Water Act's regulation of communities' governance, abstraction and use of water (RRI and ELI 2020). Discussions with Kenyan officials charged with implementing the Water Act confirmed that there is continued institutional uncertainty on how to implement these provisions. In countries like Liberia, where the land-water nexus provides the only legal recognition of communities' water tenure rights, the lack of specificity in land and forest laws leaves these rights open to interpretation. These instances underline the critical need to harmonize provisions recognizing and protecting customary land and natural resource tenures with water rights regulated under water sector legislation.The prevalence of the land-water nexus as a common basis for the recognition and protection of IPLC women's water use and governance rights underscores the imperative to strengthen women's land and forest tenure rights. Where land, forest or other legislation only implicitly recognizes women's water governance rights (for example, by requiring their representation in community natural resource governance institutions), raising awareness about existing legal rights is necessary to promote their effective implementation. More broadly, there is a pressing need for national water legislation to include explicit provisions to ensure non-discrimination in women's access to and use of water resources and to promote their active engagement in community-based water governance.Countries in Africa might also draw on international experiences that highlight more comprehensive, waterspecific approaches to recognizing and protecting IPLCs' customary water rights within their territories. In Peru, for example, water legislation gives the traditional water rights of IPLCs specific and heightened protections within legally recognized community territories. The law also recognizes community-based water rights in the areas where communities live, regardless of whether their land rights are legally recognized, thus incentivizing the titling of community territories while ensuring that even landinsecure communities have protected freshwater rights (República del Perú 2009, Arts. 44, 46, 64;República del Perú 2010, Art. 69). The Law on Hydric Resources mandates that the Peruvian State recognize and respect native and peasant communities' rights to use water resources within their lands and the watersheds where they are located for survival, cultural, transportation and economic purposes (República del Perú 2009, Art. 64). This right is considered superior to other rights, inalienable and must be respected in accordance with \"ancestral practices and customs\" (República del Perú 2009, Art. 64). Native and peasant communities have preferential access to water resources within their lands and are accorded the same rights as are granted to legally incorporated water user organizations under the law (República del Perú 2009, Arts. 11.6, 32, 64;República del Perú 2005, Art. 72).Bolivia has gone even further in recognizing IPLC resource rights within customary territories by adopting both UNDRIP and the ILO 169 Convention as enforceable national law, thereby granting indigenous and tribal peoples the rights to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired (República de Bolivia 1991). Additionally, the 2009 Bolivian Constitution requires the government to \"recognize, respect and protect the uses and customs of the community, of its local authorities and the rural native indigenous organizations over the right, management and administration of sustainable water\" (República de Bolivia 2009). Finally, Bolivia's Institutional Framework Regulation Act of 2004 recognizes the right of indigenous, native and peasant communities to conduct sustainable administration of water resources, respecting their authorities, recognizing their traditions, customs, easements and cultural knowledge about water use and providing a legal guarantee (or legal protections) over water sources used for agricultural and forestry purposes (República de Bolivia 2004, Art. 5(f)).The examples from Peru and Bolivia demonstrate how broad, community-focused and water-specific recognition of IPLC customary water rights in IPLC-focused legislation and overarching water legislation can provide robust protection for IPLC customary water rights within their territories. Such legislation enables communities to continue to adapt and integrate those practices into their broader territorial governance frameworks. Such integrated, tenure-based approaches could be tailored to the specific context and needs of various African IPLCs.Beyond recognizing the various ways in which the landwater nexus can strengthen the customary water tenure of IPLCs and harmonizing water sector laws to ensure that they are aligned with such protections, the examples provided here demonstrate how water legislation in many countries can also be strengthened in specific ways that support the recognition and protection of customary water tenure.Water legislation almost universally regulates access to and use of water resources through some type of water use authorization or permitting system. While these requirements can enable more effective and sustainable use and management and manage conflicts between users, they are infrequently tailored to the needs and rights of IPLCs, imposing often onerous financial and other burdens in contexts where governments frequently lack the necessary capacity to support implementation of these requirements (Schreiner and van Koppen 2018). In particular, permits required for livelihoods-based water uses of IPLCs can hamper the realization of interrelated rights of water, food security, development and standard of living, particularly for the 70% of Africans dependent on rural agricultural livelihoods (Schreiner and van Koppen 2018). Despite this, RRI and ELI (2020) found that 44% of the 39 community water tenure regimes analyzed require communities to obtain a permit to use water for livelihood purposes. The limited capacities of many African governments to achieve legal mandates for permitting these uses means that many governments fail to notify IPLCs of the need for permits and to provide them with the information and practical means necessary to acquire a permit. As a result, many IPLCs continue to operate in contravention of statutory requirements that fail to properly support customary water tenure systems (Schreiner and van Koppen 2018). Customary rights to water use for livelihoods and small-scale productive uses must therefore be clearly recognized and supported across sectoral legislation, including exemptions from or tailoring of permitting requirements for IPLCs, where appropriate.Similarly, where water laws call for institution of users' associations or other community-based water management or governance institutions, these provisions often fail to recognize and build on the existence of customary water tenure rights. The legitimacy and effectiveness of such institutions are often questioned, leading to implementation failures or even competition between legislatively-established and customary institutions or traditional authorities (Aarnoudse et al. 2018). More flexible approaches that build on customary practices and institutions while aligning them with human and constitutional rights can not only facilitate more effective and sustainable local water management, but also protect against intra-community discrimination in those practices. 9Another legal tool that can strengthen customary water tenure rights is the prioritization within water legislation of customary users and/or specific uses that would benefit IPLCs.For example, Mali's Pastoral Charter provides priority access to and use of Bourgoutières (floodplains) for pastoral communities who have demonstrated \"the usual and prolonged exercise of pastoral activities on an area belonging to the State's domain or a community's territory.\" Similarly, the Turkana County Water Law in Kenya prioritizes water for pastoral livelihoods above all other uses except domestic (Republic of Kenya 2019, Art. 5). Liberia's Community Rights Law prioritizes community members' access to and use of resources (including water) within their community forests (Republic of Liberia 2009, Sec. 5.4). Other legislation prioritizes allocation to customary uses or users during emergencies or in times of drought/water shortage. The Turkana County Act, for example, requires the relevant department to take special measures to provide water to pastoralists during times of drought or other pastoral-based disasters (Republic of Kenya 2019, Art. 6).While such provisions are included in some countries' water (or other) legislation, the lack of details surrounding these provisions can inhibit their effective implementation. For example, many laws prioritize water for agriculture without differentiating between small-and large-scale water users (Schreiner and van Koppen 2018). Specific prioritization of small-scale users, customary users and livelihoods-based uses, and the application of such prioritization to inform allocation, dispute resolution and management of water during times of shortage, drought or emergencies could be a powerful tool to protect customary water tenure rights.Rights to prior notification, effective and meaningful consultations and compensation when water tenure rights are infringed or terminated are essential protections enabling IPLCs to learn about, influence and even prevent activities or developments that may impact their water resource tenure rights. These provisions can emanate from a diverse set of laws which can provide multiple avenues for asserting these procedural guarantees. At the same time, where due process provisions are not specific to water resources (as in many tenure systems based on land-water nexuses) or to IPLCs' water rights, there is a risk that they will not be implemented in those contexts. The lack of detailed guidance on how to carry out consultative processes can also inhibit meaningful engagement, particularly in the case of IPLCs that are often remote from seats of government, speak different languages, have less experience participating in government processes and may require specific mechanisms to ensure that all members of the community are equitably represented. Due process rights emanating from different sectoral laws may also require effective coordination across agencies.To address power differences between IPLCs, historically marginalized community members and external actors, both international and, increasingly, national laws are requiring not only consultation with communities prior to decisions or activities that could negatively impact their land and water resources, but also consent. The right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) is clearly articulated as applying to Indigenous territorial (including water) rights under UNDRIP and the ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Rights, and additional treaties, such as the CBD. 10 FPIC is rooted in the right to self-determination of all peoples under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. For Indigenous Peoples, FPIC is broadly accepted as a basic right. This approach is supported by several regional statements and bodies in Africa, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Pan-African Parliament, and the African Mining Vision, which have all endorsed the use of FPIC with local communities facing impacts from mining, extractives and natural resource projects more generally (Greenspan 2014). Notably, the ACHPR, in its Resolution on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Natural Resource Governance, calls on States to ensure participation of communities in decision-making on natural resource governance, \"including the free, prior and informed consent of communities\" (ACHPR 2012). Further, a handful of countries now include the right to FPIC in national laws, including Liberia. 11 Despite this progress, most countries in Africa have not embedded FPIC in their water or environmental laws, so the water tenure rights of many 9 Considerable work on the concept of institutional bricolage provides examples of adapting existing institutional frameworks to new needs. See Cleaver (2012); Merrey and Cook (2012); Suhardiman and Scurrah (2021). 10 The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) stipulates that \"access to traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities should be subject to prior informed consent or prior informed approval from the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices;\" as well as FPIC in the context of genetic resources and the Conference of the Parties of the Convention have decided that FPIC should be implemented before certain activities related to indigenous knowledge and resettlement, among others (CBD 1992, Art. 8(j) IPLCs in Africa continue to depend on the implementation and enforcement of less comprehensive consultative requirements.It is also notable that due process rights for communities in transboundary contexts are often limited or completely missing (RRI and ELI 2020, p. 42). The analysis conducted by RRI and ELI (2020) found that 13 of the 15 countries assessed had no transboundary due process protections for communities living in internationally shared basins. The absence of transboundary due process protections is a particularly salient threat to communities' customary water rights. Without the ability to engage in processes involving prior notice, consultation and appeal, communities lack the legal means of asserting their bundle of community-based water tenure rights, regardless of how strongly protected these rights may be under national legislation.An exception to the lack of transboundary protections found in the analysis conducted by RRI and ELI (2020) was Article 17(1) of the Convention on the Sustainable Management of Lake Tanganyika, which requires States parties) to: adopt and implement legal, administrative and other appropriate measures to ensure that the public, and in particular those individuals and communities living within the Lake Basin: (1) have the right to participate at the appropriate level, in decision-making processes that affect the Lake Basin or their livelihoods, including participation in the procedure for assessing the environmental impacts of projects or activities that are likely to result in adverse impacts; and (2) are given the opportunity to make oral or written representations before a final decision is taken.The Agreement on the Establishment of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission also recognizes transboundary due process rights held by the public, although there is no specific mention of community rights or the status of all water users. Africa is home to 63 transboundary river basins that cover 64% of the continent's land area, including many areas customarily claimed by IPLCs. 12  The failure to include due process rights as enforceable requirements of international water agreements thus leaves communities vulnerable to the impacts of decisions made across national boundaries.Another avenue for asserting due process rights emanating from proposed activities in transboundary basins is where such rights are included in the national impact assessment or other sectoral laws of the country undertaking the activity. In the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) pertaining to Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay) (ICJ 2010), transboundary impact assessment processes are deemed a \"requirement under general international law\" as an obligation between States, but the specific due process rights of citizens or groups impacted in one State are determined by the impact assessment requirements of the impacting State's laws.As illustrated above, pervasive commitments to eliminate discrimination against women at the international and national levels and to promote their equitable participation in water governance have not translated into genderoriented reforms within most water legislation, which continues to be predominantly gender-blind. Despite evidence that women's secure tenure facilitates improved land and water outcomes and contributes to broader family food security, children's health and increased sustainable agricultural productivity, women's water tenure security continues to rely on insufficient legal protections (Scalise and Giovarelli 2020;Sanjak 2016;Landesa 2012). Without specific provisions recognizing and protecting women's water rights, water laws often reinforce the gender discriminatory norms that can be found in many African countries and frequently extend to the internal governance processes of many IPLCs. While land-water nexuses can create opportunities for women in these communities to assert their water tenure rights, a more integrated approach to customary land and water tenure rights is needed to effectively safeguard their water use and governance rights. The lack of specific protections for IPLC women's water governance rights can also exacerbate gender inequalities in community decision-making processes and due process procedures (RRI and ELI 2020, p. 52).Strengthening women's water tenure is a clear pathway for achieving gender equality, as well as multiple sustainable development and climate goals by empowering women and girls to act as positive drivers for poverty alleviation, social development and economic growth. Genderoriented gaps in the recognition of customary water rights are a problem not only for IPLC women, but for their entire communities who depend on women's unique water-oriented knowledge, leadership and water roles to traditionally govern freshwater resources. Notably, global research demonstrates that stronger legal protections for IPLC women's community-based resource rights are often associated with stronger protections for the resource rights of their entire communities, thus contradicting notions that governments or other stakeholders must choose between prioritizing the resources rights of women or those of IPLCs (RRI 2017). The research and legislation presented in this report underscore the critical importance of meaningfully distinguishing among heterogeneous constituents of a given community to ensure that marginalized and/ or vulnerable members are equitably empowered by legal frameworks recognizing the community-based freshwater rights of IPLCs. Recognizing customary rights within legislative systems and aligning them with human rights and non-discriminating standards can accelerate the protection of these vulnerable groups within communities, and can benefit the tenure security, resilience and prosperity of both IPLC women and communities as a whole.There is a clear need to clarify and build consensus around the concept and application of community-based water tenure, particularly as it applies to customary rights regimes. This will require raising international awareness of the importance of water tenure in general, as well as of the specific ways in which communitybased water tenure regimes support and enable IPLCs to achieve equitable and sustainable development and protect their full suite of human rights. Critically, it will also require countries to take specific steps towards a stronger recognition and protection of the customary water tenure rights of IPLCs, acknowledging that these rights must be contextualized within the broader set of territorial rights that enable these communities to protect their cultures and distinctive ways of life in ways that enhance their ability to effectively steward water resources, support sustainable livelihoods and food security, and enhance their resilience to climate change. To this end, governments and other law-making bodies should prioritize the following actions:Promote legal empowerment of and support for IPLCs, including IPLC women. This will ensure that they are aware of their legally recognized water tenure rights and have the capacity to legally assert and enforce them. Such activities should also involve awareness raising across government ministries and civil society that interface with IPLCs and the establishment of pro bono legal services for IPLCs to assert their legally recognized rights.Legally recognize the full bundle of community-based water tenure rights, including the use and governance rights of women within indigenous and local communities. Given the pervasiveness of the land-water nexus, such recognition will often require legal reforms across land, forest, environmental and water legislations.Provide unambiguous recognition and protection to IPLC women's water rights. This will require a crosssectoral understanding of the ways in which these rights can be strengthened in a harmonized manner that involves indigenous and local community women's substantive participation and that directly responds to their needs and priorities.Harmonize laws across land-water nexuses and promote cross-sectoral coordination for more integrated community-based tenure governance. Lawmakers should evaluate laws across land, water, forest, gender, and other relevant sectors to identify and remedy overlaps and gaps, and to ensure that IPLCs' recognized water tenure rights are consistently recognized and protected across those sectoral laws and recognized in a manner that is gender-sensitive and supports communities' priorities, customary norms and traditional practices.Strengthen national water legislation to explicitly recognize and protect community-based and customary water tenure rights, particularly the water uses and governance rights of women within those communities, in ways that acknowledge the linkages across their land and water tenures and provide them with broader economic and livelihood opportunities.Prioritize livelihoods-based water rights of IPLCs by assessing where legal requirements can be tailored more closely to the needs and capacities of communities (e.g., by eliminating, reducing or streamlining permitting requirements), better supporting communities' access to and use of water for sustainable livelihoods and food security, and by legislatively prioritizing the livelihood use rights of communities and other vulnerable rightsholders.Strengthen due process rights of communities living in transboundary basins. National governments, basin organizations and regional bodies tasked with the strategic development of international water laws should prioritize the inclusion of IPLC-specific rights to prior notification, consultation and appeal to ensure that IPLCs have the legal means to protect their territorial water resources from transboundary threats.","tokenCount":"15433"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11383df288e32633a59b4d64fdf26266","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b7ad70e-3d67-4838-ba37-98150820966a/retrieve","id":"-683524136"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7f00fa0c-2444-4240-a60d-84f42316ca7c","pagecount":"22","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-Urban and peri-urban dairy farming are emerging as an important component of the milk production system. The sector contributes to employment, asset generation and poverty alleviation. However, there are challenges affecting the sector. Feed and feeding management is one of the challenges facing dairy farmers.Dairy farmers have limited knowledge and skills about feed resourcing mechanisms (including improved forage cultivations and efficient use of locally available feed resources), feed budgeting and planning, feed farm record keeping and postharvest feed handling and using (including feed storage, processing and diet optimization). Since feed cost accounts for more than 70% of all dairy production costs, dairy farmers need to be equipped with knowledge, skills and practices in fodder/feed production, improving the quality of on farm available feed resources and feed conservation. Dairy farmers must also make decisions based on an analysis of properly kept dairy farm records.The overall objective of the training and mentoring is to increase milk production and productivity by developing the knowledge and skills of female and male dairy farmers in improved dairy farm management practices.By the end of the training and mentoring, dairy farmers will be able to:• Apply fodder and forage production and conservation strategies for dairy cows at the farm level.• Optimize and use on farm available feed resources for dairy cows.• Produce simple concentrate ration on the farm.• Improve milk production and productivity by properly feeding dairy cows.• Balance gender roles in dairy cattle feeds and feeding management.• Minimize feeding costs in dairy production.• Fodder and forage production and use at the farm level • Optimization and conservation of on farm available feed resources for dairy cows • Balanced ration development and production of simple concentrate at farm level • Proper feeding of dairy cows for improved milk production and productivity • Feed budgeting and planningThe training and mentoring process adopts an experiential and collaborative learning approach drawing on dairy farmers' knowledge and experience. Learning activities are arranged in a way that encourages farmers to go through a process whereby they first reflect on their experiences. Then, they link these reflections to new information introduced and how they can apply it. During the training, farmers will pause and reflect from time to time on what they have learned, relate it to their experience and think about how they can apply it. Exploring farmers' views and experiences will enable the facilitators to identify knowledge gaps and introduce new knowledge to address these gaps. Figure 1 shows the learning activities and process.Unlike conventional training, collaborative and experiential training starts with what the participants already know or their experiences (Exploration). This encourages farmers to learn from one another, explore and analyse the problem (knowledge and practice gaps), own the problem and seek solutions (new knowledge). The exploration stage will also help trainers adjust content and depth to the needs of farmers (major knowledge and practice gaps). No PowerPoint presentations will be used for community training (instead a checklist of talking/discussion points will be used to structure the flow and progression of learning). Pictures/posters, storytelling and questions will be used to facilitate discussion/experience sharing.Then, new knowledge is introduced to address knowledge and practice gaps or supplement farmers' understanding/experience in an interactive way. Key takeaway action messages are communicated to integrate and reinforce learning and motivate farmers for acting. This will lead to engaging farmers to identify action points that they will take individually and/or collectively to apply the learning. The action points also serve as the basis for providing monitoring and mentoring support for farmers after the training. The training will use a mixed and couple's training approach, where applicable, to ensure knowledge application and increase outcomes. Involving partners in the training will ensure better articulation of dairy farmers' problems and contextualization of the training content. This will also help facilitate training application (outcomes) as the partners continue supporting the dairy farmers after the training. Participating couples (both wife and husband) in dairy farmer training and mentoring will increase collaborative learning, joint actions, balanced role sharing and training application at the household level.A training transfer action plan will serve as the basis for providing household based mentoring and monitoring support for dairy farmers. The household based mentoring approach 1 will involve not only the household head, which probably is a man, but it involves all members of the household (husband, wife, children and caregivers). In addition to transforming household gender relations and division of work, the approach will facilitate collaborative learning and action among household members that will lead to the adoption of improved dairy management practices as a family business. Figure 2 shows the household based mentoring process.1. Please see Lemma et al. (2016)  The training and mentoring support will be delivered by partners. In addition to action plans by dairy farmers, the partners will conduct participatory dairy farm assessments and identify critical action points for improvement. During the mentoring process, the partners will take pictures of dairy farm conditions and improvements made during the mentoring support. Dairy farmers can also be encouraged to take pictures of their improved dairy management practices. This will help conduct photo monitoring of the dairy farm situation before and after the training and mentoring intervention. Following the training, a minimum of three rounds of mentoring and advisory support is recommended for dairy farmers. By the end of the training and mentoring process, in addition to the photo monitoring, the partners will hold discussions with the dairy farmers to capture their training and mentoring experience and capacity created to sustain the changes.• A complete grasp of the training content will take two days of training time. It will be delivered in community centres to create easy access to men and women dairy farmers, create a safe/comfortable learning environment for farmers and facilitate practical/peer learning using farm visits. It is recommended that the training be delivered in sequential half day sessions with about a month interval to allow farmers time for reflection and cater to farm and household activities. There will be three rounds of training in half day sessions delivered at a community centre. Sequential training sessions can be scheduled parallel to the dairy herd health interventions.By the end of each training round, dairy farmers will make action points to apply the learning. Each successive training session will start off with a recap of the previous session to create logical progression between sessions/training rounds.Pre and post training assessments can be done using objective questions such as True or False or Correct or Wrong responses. The questions which cover both knowledge, attitude and practice aspects are based on the core messages of the training content. Additionally, behaviour observation checklists can be used to monitor knowledge retention, application and practice change over time (Figure 3). The photovoice method can also be used. Dairy farmers can be encouraged to take pictures of their existing situation before the training/interventions and what they think are their improvements. Photo monitoring can be a useful method to engage farmers in deeper/reflective discussions and capture changes. Iden(fy desirable and feasible dairy farm management prac(ces that farmers are minimally expected to prac(ce.Develop a checklist with Correct or Wrong scoring to observe and monitor prac(ce changes over (me due to successive advisory/mentoring visits.The dairy farm situa(on before and aDer the mentoring support will be compared to capture incremental changes due to the training and mentoring interven(on.Nutrition plays important role to maintain the health and productivity of dairy cattle. In this session, dairy farmers will learn about production and use of improved forages to supplement crop residues and pasture roughages. They will learn about recommended management practices for selected improved forages and postharvest feed handling and using.By the end of the session, dairy farmers will be able to:• Identify alternative feed resourcing mechanisms.• Produce improved fodders and forages on the farm for dairy cattle feeding.• Conserve (hay and silage making) surplus forage for dry season dairy cattle feeding.• Apply postharvest feed handling and using, including feed storage, processing and diet for improved efficiency and profit. • Identify the roles of women and men in determining cattle feeding management.• Forage and fodder production strategies.• Planting and managing improved forages. • Production of selected improved forages and their recommended best practices.• Division of family labour and role of gender in fodder/forage production. 2. Encourage them to share stories/experiences about their dairy farm management practices.3. Expand the discussion to include opportunities and challenges for good dairy management practices.4. Summarize farmers' responses and highlight the main points.5. Introduce that you will discuss improved feed and feeding management for dairy cattle.• What do you see in the picture?• Does the picture reflect your situation?• What opportunities and constraints do you face to practice what you see in the picture?• What factors do you consider when selecting improved forages to grow?• What factors influence forage yield?Summarize the discussion and highlight the main points.Then, building on farmers' experiences, introduce new knowledge on backyard fodder/forage production. Discuss the following points, asking farmers for examples.Check for understanding and ask farmers if they have any questions.• Producing improved forages can help dairy farmers solve feed challenges and improve animal diets by supplementing natural pastures and crop residues. • Backyard forage/fodder production involves the production of highly productive forages and browse planted within house compounds and around their boundaries.  • Choose best fodder and forage production strategies based on your own situation.• Improved forage crops need proper agronomic care for better yield and quality.• Select the best forage and fodder species for your farming situation.• Selected improved forage and fodder production, management and using involve the role of both family members.Dairy farming demands the efficient use of available feed resources. In this session, dairy farmers will learn about feed conservation and improving the digestibility and nutritional quality of locally available feed resources (mainly crop residues that have poor nutrient content and digestibility) through practices such as physical, chemical and biological treatments.In addition, to be profitable, dairy farmers need to store feed for dry season feeding and avoid unnecessary price increases. During the rains, there is more surplus pasture and fodder than at any other time of the year. Feed conservation is one of the components of feed management to ensure year round feed availability. Maximizing the conservation of feed during surplus production and during the right time needs the involvement of both women and men farmers.By the end of the session, dairy farmers will be able to:• Apply feed conservation techniques to improve the quality of crop residues.• Evaluate the quality of forages.• Explain the importance of proper conservation and the role that bulk forages play in the diet. • Appreciate gender issues in every and each feeding processing and feed management. • Do you think ruminants like crop residues? If yes, in which form (wet or dry) and why? If not, why? • Which crop residue is more preferred by animals? Why?• Do you exercise crop residue treatment to improve its nutritional quality and digestibility?• What is the role of women to improve the quality of crop residues? Summarize the discussion and highlight the main points.Then, discuss the following points, asking farmers to share their experiences.• Concentrates are nutrient rich feeds that provide more nutrients (energy and/or protein) than an equivalent amount of bulk roughage. • Failure to feed enough concentrate supplements, especially early in the lactation, is the main reason why many cows give much less milk than they are capable of, which reduces the profit the farmer could have made. • Also, soon after calving cows cannot eat enough bulk to provide all the nutrients they need and supplements, including concentrates, are especially needed at this time.Find out farmers' experiences in making balanced rations for their milking cows.Discussion questions:• What proportion of concentrate and roughage do you use in making ration for your milking cows? • What role do women and men play in formulating balanced rations for dairy cows? Summarize the discussion and highlight the main points.Then, building on farmers' experiences, discuss the following points.• Good quality roughage should be available all the time, as much as possible.• Freshly cut fodder, silage and hay are examples of good quality roughages.• Dairy cows should be fed green fodder and other roughage feeds without limit (ad lib) before going for concentrate supplementation. • Both male and female farmers make a balanced ration for their dairy cattle.The feeding systems of dairy cows are managed by considering the dairy production system and availability of feeds at the farm. In general, the feeding system of dairy cows in rural areas is mainly free grazing whereas in urban dairy systems feeding of dairy cows dominates the supplementation of additional feeds. In rural areas, supplementation of animal feed resources is not practiced mainly due to a lack of awareness by male and female farmers, especially among women farmers.By the end of the session, dairy farmers will be able to:• Identify factors that affect the amount of feed an animal will consume.• Identify how to feed dairy cows for improved efficiency and profit.• Explain how much concentrate to feed milking cows and dry cows and how to feed them. • How do you feed crossbred cows?• What are the main feeds you feed to crossbred cows? • What do women and men play in feeding dairy cows? Summarize the discussion and highlight the main points.Explain how to feed cows at various stages of lactation for profitable milk production, asking farmers to share their experiences.• The quantity and quality of feed provided largely determines the dairy animal's health and productivity and the quality and safety of its milk.• Understanding the nutrient requirement of dairy cattle at different growth and lactation stages is very essential to optimize cows feeding to increase milk yield and reduce costs. • Concentrate mixtures (homemade/purchased) need to be fed with appropriate proportions of roughages to make them balanced in composition to meet the requirements of the type of animal they are intended for.Find out farmers' dairy cows feeding practices. Ask farmers to share their experiences.• What is the quantity and quality of water supplied to dairy cows?• What is your experience in using feed and watering troughs?• What is the division of family labour in dairy cow feeding?Summarize the discussion and highlight the main points.Then, building on farmers' experiences, discuss the following points. Check for understanding and ask farmers if they have any questions.• Immediately after calving, the cow has a low appetite and will not eat as much feed as the body may require but needs a lot of nutrients. • Therefore, a good feeding schedule for a milking cow should:Ø Achieve a high peak yield early in lactation and a high total lactation yield. Ø Prevent too much weight loss. Ø Enable the cow to go on heat, become pregnant, and produce a healthy calf. Ø Make the best use of the feeds available. Ø Support milk production which both male and female smallholder farmers should equally understand.Record keeping is an important element of good dairy production. In this session, dairy farmers will discuss the importance of keeping feed and feeding records and the challenges and opportunities for keeping good records so that they make feed budgeting and planning decisions based on an analysis of feed and feeding records.By the end of the session, dairy farmers will be able to:• Explain the importance of feed and feeding records as an integral part of good dairy farming practice. • Keep good feed and feeding recording.• Identify criteria for good record keeping.• Make feed budgeting and planning decisions based on analysis of feed and feeding records.• Dairy production as a business-oriented farm activity • Importance of keeping feed and feeding records • Essential information for feed and feeding record keeping Ask dairy farmers to pair up and discuss the following: Why are you a dairy farmer? Is it to produce milk for yourself and your family? Is it to generate cash? Or is it for both milk production and cash generation?In the plenary, ask dairy farmers to share their responses.Consolidate the discussion to emphasize that dairy farming practices have changed over the years.In the past, most dairy farmers produced milk equally for both food and cash. But today dairy farming is more specialized, where dairy farmers produce milk for the market. Explain that just as demands in life have changed over the years, so have dairy farming practices. Life requires more cash today than in the past. It is therefore important to begin to look at the dairy farm more as a business than as a source of food.Ask dairy farmers to close their eyes and think of the most successful dairy farmer they know. Then, ask them to identify what makes this dairy farmer successful.Write down their responses on flipchart paper and highlight the main points.Ask dairy farmers what it will require them to manage their dairy farm as a business. Brainstorm mindsets and skills that they will require to be business oriented in their dairy production activities.Mention that a dairy farm business cycle is a useful way to develop a business orientation or thinking. Explain each component of the farm business cycle.Step 1: Diagnosis A study of the dairy business identifies problems that are limiting the farm's performance (finding out what is wrong) and opportunities that can improve performance (finding out what more can be done).Step 2: PlanningExploring options and making decisions about the steps to follow to achieve an objective or goal. It is about looking into the future.Step 3: ImplementingEnsuring that the plan can be realized. This involves organizing, producing, monitoring, and marketing. Organizing involves arranging the resources and people needed to carry out the plan.Monitoring involves keeping track of progress being made on tasks and activities of the plan and checking to see if things are going as planned.Step 4: Evaluating Deciding whether the plan worked and whether the goals were achieved. It involves taking a longer look at what you have done and measuring it against your expectations.Ask the participants the following question: If you meet a dairy farmer who says they had a good milk yield last season, what question are you most likely to ask the farmer?Give participants time to think about the question and write down their responses on flipchart paper.In the plenary, ask dairy farmers to share their questions.Explain that there are a lot of things to be asked but the answers depend on dairy farmers keeping records.Discuss with the participants why it is important to keep dairy farm records. Encourage them to share their experience in using farm records.1. What is the purpose of dairy farm records?2. How can records help dairy farmers?3. What can happen if records are not kept?Mention that records are important to analyse the performance of the dairy farm business.Ask the participants to identify types of records they think are needed for a dairy farm.Write down their responses on flipchart paper. Then, focus the discussion on feed and feeding records. Ask dairy farmers to identify what information they would record regarding feed and feeding.Write down their responses on flipchart paper and highlight the main points.• Record keeping is an important element of good dairy production. To run a successful and profitable dairy as a farm business, records of the identification of cattle, financial records, production records, health records and records of animal feeds should be kept. • With no records, dairy farmers must depend on their memory (the gut feeling) while making decisions regarding dairy farm practice. • Importance of keeping good dairy farm recordings: Ø Dairy farm records provide the basis for tracking and evaluating performance.Ø Provides up to date information for planning and decision-making at different levels and aspects of the dairy farm.• Dairy farm records must be useful, simple and action oriented.• Feed records give information about the type and quantity of feed production and feed purchase and price of feed. • Feeding records give information about dairy cattle identification, feed type and quantity of feed intake. Ask development partners to describe how they could use the training approach and material to inform their training activities.","tokenCount":"3380"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e706dc84ed0897b88b1daaff9a7f63e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ddec4533-1027-4bc3-b2c3-9f5d50056e2a/retrieve","id":"-907151764"},"keywords":["Fusarium head blight","seed phenotyping","seed morphological characters","wheat","visual scores","SmartGrain","Cgrain Value™"],"sieverID":"d0d13cd0-29e5-4288-a8fc-be436204931b","pagecount":"13","content":"Fusarium head blight (FHB) is an economically important disease affecting wheat and thus poses a major threat to wheat production. Several studies have evaluated the effectiveness of image analysis methods to predict FHB using disease-infected grains; however, few have looked at the final application, considering the relationship between cost and benefit, resolution, and accuracy. The conventional screening of FHB resistance of large-scale samples is still dependent on low-throughput visual inspections. This study aims to compare the performance of two cost-benefit seed image analysis methods, the free software \"SmartGrain\" and the fully automated commercially available instrument \"Cgrain Value™\" by assessing 16 seed morphological traits of winter wheat to predict FHB. The analysis was carried out on a seed set of FHB which was visually assessed as to the severity. The dataset is composed of 432 winter wheat genotypes that were greenhouse-inoculated. The predictions from each method, in addition to the predictions combined from the results of both methods, were compared with the disease visual scores. The results showed that Cgrain Value™ had a higher prediction accuracy of R 2 = 0.52 compared with SmartGrain for which R 2 = 0.30 for all morphological traits. However, the results combined from both methods showed the greatest prediction performance of R 2 = 0.58. Additionally, a subpart of the morphological traits, namely, width, length, thickness, and color features, showed a higher correlation with the visual scores compared with the other traits. Overall, both methods were related to the visual scores. This study shows that these affordable imaging methods could be effective to predict FHB in seeds and enable us to distinguish minor differences in seed morphology, which could lead to a precise performance selection of disease-free seeds/grains.In the countries of the Baltic Sea region, the most widely cultivated crop is winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), (Shiferaw et al., 2013;Chawade et al., 2018). While efforts are made to achieve sustainable intensification of high grain yields in wheat production, the emergence and increase in the virulence of plant pathogens conversely leave the nutritional integrity and production of wheat grains at risk (Castro Aviles et al., 2020). The decrease in grain quality and protein content negatively impacts the use of the grains and therefore affects food security and safety (Asseng et al., 2019). Fusarium head blight (FHB), mainly caused by the fungus Fusarium graminearum Schwabe [teleomorph: Gibberella zeae (Schwein) Petch], is one of the wheat diseases with a major impact on wheat grain yield and quality. FHB can dramatically reduce grain quality and yield through the formation of sterile and wizened florets. FHBinfected grains suffer from major marketing, consumption, and processing constraints, which is the buildup of mycotoxinsmainly deoxynivalenol (DON) (Del Ponte et al., 2022). DON inhibits protein synthesis, cutting off normal cell function, which is hazardous for the consumption of humans and animals (Polak-S ́liwińska and Paszczyk, 2021). FHB disease management strategies rely on integrating several cultural practices such as fungicide treatment, crop rotation, mixed culture, and tillage (Gilbert and Haber, 2013). However, growing FHB-resistant cultivars is seen as a more sustainable and durable strategy for mitigating disease epidemics, thus avoiding large economic losses. Hence, identifying sources of novel resistance is a key component in pre-breeding activities that can be introgressed to develop commercial FHBresistant cultivars.The resistance components for FHB, commonly known as resistance types, have been defined into type I to type V (Mesterhazy, 2020): type I is resistance to initial infection, type II is resistance to disease spread (Schroeder and Christensen, 1963), type III is resistance to damage of Fusarium-damaged kernels (FDK), type IV is resistance to the buildup of DON toxins, and type V is tolerance. Traditionally, studies on FHB resistance have relied on measuring the symptoms in spikes and kernels (resistance types II and III). Type II is assessed by rating the visual symptoms on the spikes, which appear as bleached, yellowish or discolored, and stunted (Zakieh et al., 2021;Steed et al., 2022). FDK is quantified traditionally by estimating the amount of visibly damaged kernels, which appear smaller, shriveled, and in a range of colors from pale pink to brown (Delwiche et al., 2010), according to a predetermined scale for visual assessments or by employing manual tools (Ackerman et al., 2022). Comparisons between both types of resistance (resistance types II and III) have revealed that it would be more efficient and consistent to estimate FHB than the degree of colonization on the spike (Agostinelli, 2009;Balut et al., 2013;Khaeim et al., 2019;Ackerman et al., 2022). However, screening by either manual or visual assessments is a labor-and timeconsuming process for rating genotypes, is biased due to the subjectivity of visual assessments, and has low reproducibility among experiments (Barbedo et al., 2015;Khaeim et al., 2019). As a result of the previously cited limitations, the use of image analysis approaches has been investigated to evaluate FDK, particularly in estimating morphological characteristics. However, the existing different imaging approaches have their disadvantages and trade-off in terms of costs, time expenses, resolution, and precision when considering an application (Saccon et al., 2017).Among the investigated methods, Iwata and Ukai (2002) and Iwata et al. (2010) investigated changes in grain shape using elliptic Fourier descriptors of two-and three-dimensional features from vertically and horizontally located seed images. Despite the accuracy reached, there are limitations in terms of image resolution and regarding the manual handling of samples during the procedure. Menesatti et al. (2009) presented a method to classify FHB in wheat-infected kernels-according to the shape criteria-into the following groups: chalky, shriveled, or healthy. The method proved to be functional to categorize kernels as chalky or healthy, but not for shriveled or gravely affected samples. Jirsa and Polisěnská(2011) developed a model for the identification of Fusarium-damaged wheat kernels using image analysis. The characterization of healthy or damaged kernels based on color parameters revealed a high accuracy compared with the shape and DON content parameters. However, image processing was done with manual selections and comparing only 40 kernels-either heavily damaged or healthy-without considering any halfway stage. Similarly, the use of hyperspectral imaging for detecting Fusarium sp. in seeds has been previously investigated (Delwiche et al., 2010;Shahin and Symons, 2011;Bauriegel and Herppich, 2014;Barbedo et al., 2015;Femenias et al., 2022;Rangarajan et al., 2022;Yipeng et al., 2022). The methods have been shown to be accurate and have identified more factors involved in FDK. A more advanced technique based on X-ray computed tomography has been implemented for evaluating seed shape in finer detail (Gomes and Duijn, 2017;Liu et al., 2020). Nevertheless, inconsistencies because of specular reflection, correct wavelength selection, kernel orientation, selection of reference parameter, costs of acquisition devices, and the storage requirement for highly dimensional and massive data sets may be limiting the application of these methods (Dissing et al., 2013;Lu et al., 2020).In the face of the constraints cited earlier, automated and light-weight free software for grain image analysis have been developed (Wang et al., 2009;Komyshev et al., 2017;Colmer et al., 2020;Zhu et al., 2021); some examples of them are GrainScan (Whan et al., 2014), which analyzes size and color features, and SmartGrain (Tanabata et al., 2012), which analyzes size and shape features. Both software are instantaneous in image recognition despite the position, overlapping, or the number of seeds. Alternatively, commercially available imaging instruments for grain image analysis combine hardware and software, including WinSEEDLE (Regent Instruments Inc.), Seed Count (Next Instrument Pty Ltd.), Vibe QM3 Grain Analyzer (VIBE), and Cgrain Value ™ (Cgrain AB). The instruments use optical or flatbed scanners to extract features such as size, shape, and color in the color representation hue, saturation, and light (HSL). However, SeedCount and Vibe QM3 Grain Analyzer only scan the top surface of the samples, thus omitting morphological characteristics that are not in the viewing area. A more advanced instrument is Videometer Lab (Videometer A/S, Denmark), which provides rapid color, shape, and texture measurements. Videometer Lab is ideal to use in analyzing kernel surfaces, but it requires certain expertise and allows the analysis of only a few samples at once.In this context, this paper has three objectives; first is to investigate the applicability of low-cost digital image analysis to predict FHB infection in harvested grains through morphological traits. This will offer more insight into the traits that are correlated to the degree of FDK. The second objective is to compare the applicability of the two methods used for grain image analysis-SmartGrain, and Cgrain Value ™ -in terms of consistency and throughput. The third one is to illustrate the processing chain and result interpretation with a descriptive data analysis.Wheat kernel samples were collected from an experiment under accelerated indoor growth conditions (Zakieh et al., 2021) using winter wheat genotypes from two different sources. The first source consisted of 338 genotypes (breeding set) provided by the Swedish agricultural cooperative (Lantmännen Lantbruk, Svalöv, Sweden). The second source consisted of 181 germplasm genotypes (genebank set) provided by the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (Nordgen), with highly diverse plant materials including landraces and old cultivars.Plants were grown following an augmented block design in a climate-controlled chamber. After germination, the plants were subjected to a vernalization period of 57 days at 3°C with 8 h of daily light at medium-high light intensity (LI) of 250 mmol m −2 s −1 . At the end of the vernalization period, the climatic conditions were adjusted with a gradual increase in temperature and LI for the acclimatization of the plants to the next phase of accelerated growth conditions. Once the acclimatization period was concluded, the plants were left to grow at a constant temperature of 22°C. The accelerated growth conditions were adapted by exposing the plants to a prolonged daily light duration of 22 h, with LI at 400 mmol m −2 s −1 of uniform light intensity from LED light plates. Under these accelerated growth conditions, the plants were watered daily and fertilized weekly using first a combination of a high-phosphate and high-nitrogen soluble fertilizer SW-BOUYANT 7-1-5 + Mikro + KH 2 PO 4 , then only with a high-nitrogen fertilizer, and finally with a high-potassium soluble fertilizer Yara Tera Kristalon NPK 12-5-30 with S and Mikro.After completing the anthesis stage, at 33 days postacclimatization, the plants were moved to a glasshouse chamber with relative humidity (rh) of 60% and a constant temperature of 24°C for 24 h to allow their adaptation to the new growth conditions prior to inoculation. Thereafter, the winter wheat spikes were spray-inoculated with an inoculum suspension prepared from the harvested spore of F. graminearum and F. culmorum, with a concentration of 5 × 10 5 spore/ml. Subsequently, the plants were left to incubate at 90% rh with 16/8 h dark/light cycle at a constant temperature of 24°C for 48 h before adjusting the climatic conditions back to 60% rh. The plants were eventually left to grow under the latter conditions for 24 days before harvesting the seeds. Eight isolates from F. graminearum and F. culmorum species were used in inoculating the plants provided by the Swedish agricultural cooperative Lantmännen Lantbruk. An inoculum preparation was carried out by incubating the fungal spores at 24°C for 4 days in dark conditions to allow for mycelial growth on SNA media plates. Later, the fungal plates were exposed to near ultraviolet UV radiation for 10 h to induce macroconidia formation. Afterward, the fungal plates were incubated for 4 days at 24°C in dark conditions. Finally, macroconidia spores were collected to make the inoculation suspension with the provided concentration after adding the surfactant Tween ® 20 0.002% (v/v) final volume of the inoculum. A more detailed protocol is described in Zakieh et al. (2021).In order to evaluate FHB resistance on a large number of genotypes, a modified visual scoring of the FHB disease severity method was adopted. The method took into account the incidence of all FHB symptoms across the main tiller spike of each genotype. Therefore, disease severity was assessed as the percentage score of infected spikelets relative to all spikes, regardless of symptom continuity on the same spike. FHB development was scored at 6, 8, 10, and 12-days post-inoculation (dpi) (Stack and McMullen, 1998). The FHB disease severity scores varied between 100 to 5% for the most susceptible phenotypes and the most resistant ones, respectively. Finally, the results of the visual scores were validated by association mapping, thus identifying the quantitative trait loci of FHB resistance (Appendix 1).Two different grain phenotyping methods were employed in this study: an automated imaging instrument with software and hardware named Cgrain Value ™ which is commercially available (Cgrain AB) and the free software named SmartGrain developed by Tanabata et al. (2012) and can be downloaded from the Quantitative Plant website (Lobet, 2017). The implementation of both methods is described in the following sections.For image acquisition, the seeds were captured with a low-cost image protocol acquisition from a top-view angle of 55 cm above the seeds and placed manually on a flat surface using a digital singlelens reflex camera Canon EOS 1300D (Canon U.S.A. Inc., Huntington, NY, USA), which has a resolution of 18 megapixels, mounted on a Kaiser RS-1 repro stand. The camera was tethered to the software digiCamControl (Istvan, 2014) with optimal exposure settings based on the best seed view, F-Stop 1/160, exposure time 1/ 10, and ISO 800. The seeds were placed manually per genotype uniformly on a blue cardboard that was used as a background on a stand aside from a 15-cm ruler for further analysis. Digital images were stored with 3,456 × 2,304-pixel resolution in JPEG format (Figure 1, top images).The image analysis was thereafter carried out using SmartGrain software following its default protocol (Tanabata et al., 2012). Briefly, the image scale was set up by taking a known sample from the ruler and registering it on the software. Then, the segmentation method by color was chosen, the precision sensibility was set at the minimum value of \"1\", and the seed detection intensity was at a maximum value of \"4\" to obtain all possible shape details; the rest of the parameters were set to default. Finally, all the processed images were saved as TIFF files, and the results were saved in a CSV format. The software provides seven morphological characteristics: area seed (AS), perimeter length (PL), length (L), width (W), length-to-width ratio (LWR), circularity of the seed (CS), distance between the intersection of length and width, and the center of gravity (DS). AS corresponds to the total number of pixels of the segmented seed, this parameter estimates the seed size. PL refers to the length measurement of the seed outline. L corresponds to the major length measurement in the axis and W to the minor length axis measurement. CS estimates how round the region of interest is (seed), and it is calculated as 4ÂpÂAS PL 2 . LWR is calculated by L W , and it provides an idea of the seed shape between rectangular and circular depending on the value. The distance between the transverse axis from the outline of the seed (IS) and the center of gravity (CG) is used to estimate DS [described in detail by Tanabata et al. (2012)].For single kernel analysis, seeds were scanned with Cgrain Value ™ , which is an analytical imaging instrument. The deviceImages of the different levels of Fusarium head blight severity on winter wheat seeds. The rating of disease severity ranged from (A) 0 to (F) 100%. Scoring was based on the proportion of total infected spikes to the total amount of spikes. The top images were obtained for the SmartGrain analysis, and the bottom images were acquired using the Cgrain Value™ instrument.inspects each kernel through a unique mirror design covering more than 90% of the grains' surfaces in every image. The analysis starts by pouring into the metal bowl of the Cgrain Value ™ a batch of seeds per line and per genotype. The seeds rotate into the bowl and then, one by one, are photographed and analyzed simultaneously. After the analysis is completed, three different reports are created (result file, stat file, and image file). The result file consists of the morphological characteristics for each batch of seeds (seed count, thousand kernels, etc.), the stat file provides data per individual seed of a group (length, width, etc.), and the image file corresponds to the single seed images acquired (Figure 1, bottom images).The instrument provides nine morphological attributes: length (L), width (W), thickness (T), average width (AVG.W), volume (V), weight (WT), light, hue, and saturation. Parameters such as L, W, and T are estimated by taking the longitudinal measurement of the axis major, higher minor, and minor, respectively. In the case of AVG.W, as the seed is received as a three-dimensional image, the measurement is referring to the mean of the average curvature. V corresponds to the seed volume obtained from the 3D image. For WT, the device has an internal balance, so while acquiring the image, it also weighs the grain. Color parameters, hue, saturation, and light are also determined by the instrument; it specifies the color base of a sample, how saturated it is, and how bright it is, respectively.Statistical analyses were conducted using R (Team, R. C, 2013). The visual scorings of the last time-point on infected spikes, including cultivars with zero symptoms, were included in a file together with the mean values per genotype of the results given by Cgrain Value ™ and SmartGrain. Each replicate of the data set was filtered by missing data (NA). Those with NA along the four replicates were removed and those with presence in more than one replicate were substituted using FactoMineR (Leê t al., 2008) and missMDA (Josse and Husson, 2016) packages.Then, using the Agricolae R package (De Mendiburu, 2014), the checks in each augmented block were used to adjust the means for each trait per replicate, the model of which is as follows:where y il corresponds to the adjusted means of the i th wheat cultivar in the l th block, u is the general mean value, G il is the effect of the i th wheat genotype in the l th block, b 1 is the l th block effect, and ϵ il is the residual. Subsequently, using the adjusted means, the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) was calculated using the randomized complete block design option in META-R 6.04 (Alvarado et al., 2015) based on the following model:where y ijm corresponds to the BLUE of the i th genotype from the j th population in the m th replicate, u is the general mean value, S j is the effect of the j th source of material, G ijm is the effect of the i th genotype in the m th replicate, R m is the m th replicate of the effect, and ϵ ijm is the residual effect. The source of wheat genotypes S j was considered the grouping factor. The BLUEs data previously centered were used to predict FHB using a multiple regression model:Where for i=n observations: y i corresponds to the dependent variable, x i to the explanatory variables, b 0 corresponds to yintercept (constant term), b p corresponds to the slope coefficients for each explanatory variable, and ϵ corresponds to the error of the model (also known as the residuals). Three models were created using the morphological traits provided by both methods (Cgrain Value ™ and SmartGrain) as independent variables and visual scorings as the dependent variable. One model combines all the traits, and two others use the traits provided by each method. To build each model, the data set was partitioned employing the function \"createDataPartition\" of the caret package (Kuhn et al., 2020) into 70% for model training (training set) and the remaining 30% for evaluating model performance (test set). Subsequently, the model was fitted to the training set, and it predicted the responses using the test set.To evaluate the quality of the predictions and mitigate the possibility of errors due to the random data partitioning, the cross-validation was executed 100 times, which means resampling the data set, and the mean of the criterion was taken as the final result.This study examined a total of 16 morphological traits, including size, color, and shape of winter wheat grains from the genebank and breeding sets with different levels of FHB infection. Nine traits were obtained with the instrument Cgrain Value ™ and seven traits with the software SmarGrain. The distribution of all the morphological traits measured by the two methods showed a Gaussian distribution (Figure 2). In order to understand the association between these traits and FHB resistance, a comparison with the traits measured of 80 FHB susceptible and resistant genotypes was performed. For this purpose, five genotypes per replicate (four replicates) from both sets, breeding and genebank, were selected based on the FHB severity scores on the spikes, genotypes scored as 0% (visually non-infected or resistant), and ones scored as 100% (visually infected or susceptible). Among the infected and noninfected selected groups, there was a 22.61% reduction in V and 11.32% in AS. Other parameters also showed a reduction, such as T_RAW at 10.60%, W at 8.30% in both methods, and WT at 22.63%. Additionally, L was reduced according to the results by 1.96% in Cgrain Value ™ and 2.26% in SmartGrain. Similarly, CS and PL showed a decrease, but in less proportions with 4.60 and 3.25%, respectively. The minimum seed L measured was 4.59 mm for non-infected and 4.50 mm for infected genotypes. On the other hand, color parameters expressed major changes compared with all the other morphological traits. Hue and the light increased with the infection by 19.91 and 8.28%, respectively, while saturation decreased at about 15.52% (Table 1). According to the analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA), the morphological traits L, W, T_RAW, light, and hue were highly significant (P< 0.001), likewise with V, CS, and saturation (P< 0.01), indicating a clear association with FHB disease severity level. Meanwhile, the parameters WT, AS, LWR, PL, and DS did not indicate any significance but still showed slight differences between infected and non-infected grains.Additionally, a principal component analysis (Figure 3) was performed to show the response of all the seed traits studied regarding the disease infection and how they correlate to each other. The proportion of total variance on the two first principalFrequency distribution of the different morphological traits of wheat genotypes seeds from the breeding and genebank sets collected with (A) the Cgrain Value™ instrument and (B) the SmartGrain software.components and correlations represents 60.50 and 19.90%, respectively, of the total variance. The LWR trait was shown to be the higher positive in the first principal component; similarly, hue was shown to be positive but in a lesser proportion. In the same component but with negative loading, we found CS as the variable with the highest contribution; the traits W from both methods, AVG.W, and T_RAW were also projected onto this component with a loading of a slightly lesser norm. Although saturation was also projected onto this component, it was shown to be the smallest loading. On the other hand, in the second principal component, the traits DS and L from both methods, PL, AS, V, and WT showed a high positive loading with similar proportions, whereas the trait light was the only one with a negative loading into the second principal component and the one with less projection among all the traits. In general, all the seed morphological traits assessed expressed variability and influence in the two principal components. In addition, as can be observed in the graph, the variation of LWR has an opposite projection to the CS trait, expressing a good indicator to study the deformation of the grains caused by the disease infection.Considering Table 1, the mean values for the same morphological traits measured by both methods (L and W) across the two sets, genebank and breeding, were similar. The difference between infected and non-infected seeds was 0.11 mm in L in both methods and between 0.21 and 0.25 mm in W and AVG_W. Both methods provide important parameters for seed morphology studies. Cgrain Value ™ provides V and WT values and color information. Although these are important characteristics for different study purposes, mainly for identifying FHB-infected kernels, SmartGrain, in turn, provides information such as PL, AS, and CS that can show variabilities between infected and non-infected seeds. Here the BLUES for all the measured parameters were correlated with each other and in association with the visual scorings on the spikes (Figure 4). A moderate to high positive correlation was found with the color parameter hue, and a low positive correlation with light was given by Cgrain Value ™ and LWR as well as given by SmartGrain (r = 0.65, r = 0.36, and r = 0.27, respectively). Negative correlations were also found between the visual evaluations of symptoms and the other characteristics in different levels of strength of association. There was no correlation between FHB visual scoring and DS (r = 0.01).The multiple linear regression model developed to identify the contributions of the 16 different morphological traits provided by Cgrain Value ™ and SmartGrain expressed a high moderate prediction (R 2 = 0.58), (Figure 5A). Aiming to identify which of both methods used in this study provides a higher prediction and also to identify the best morphological traits to predict FHB, two more models were constructed: one for the results given by Cgrain Value ™ and another one for the results of SmartGrain. The model of Cgrain Value ™ traits showed a moderate prediction (R 2 = 0.52), (Figure 5B). On the other hand, the model of SmartGrain traits showed medium-low prediction (R 2 = 0.30), (Figure 5C), clearly showing that the first model had  Sorted upper triangle correlation matrix among the morphological attributes of the wheat genotype seeds from the breeding and genebank sets collected with the Cgrain Value™ and the SmartGrain software. a higher prediction than separately. In addition, the morphological parameters that are the most suitable to assess FHB in grains above all the 16 evaluated were identified. According to the regression model and the ANOVA analysis, the parameters that provided more information about the disease are the length, width, thickness, average width, circularity, and the color parameters in the color representation HSL (Table 2). The sensitivity test showed that these variables provide the highest value of R-square, (R 2 = 0.52). These morphological traits are enumerated from most significant to least significant in Figure 6.This study compared the potential performances of two different image-based methods to predict FHB. The results of both indicated that morphological seed traits are functional for predicting FHB among two different sets of genotypes evaluated. Furthermore, a comparison of the applicability of the two methods was properly addressed by evaluating the cost, accuracy, and time efficiency-for instance, to extract dimension, shape, and color parameters, Cgrain Value ™ utilizes a unique mirror design to inspect all possible angles of  individual kernels in the sample. Additionally, image capture and processing are instantaneous, thanks to the hardware and software combination. Conversely, image acquisition using the SmartGrain system was carried out over a relatively long period, yet image processing was done relatively fast. However, compared with Cgrain Value ™ , the earlier approach is cheaper considering the cost of the tools used in image capture, requiring a simple RGB camera, a static frame, and the free software.On the other hand, the morphological traits, based on the statistical analysis results, that showed significant correlations to the visual scores were color traits in the HSL color representation and thickness from Cgrain Value ™ , length and width, from both methods (Figures 5, 6). Although the other measured morphological traits were not significantly correlated to the visual scores, infected grains still expressed differences in these traits that may be ultimately informative about seed health and refine the prediction (Table 1). Nevertheless, DS was not correlated and did not express significant differences in infected seeds of FHB, but it could prove useful in other applications.The evaluated visual scores of the symptoms associated with FHB-bleached, yellowish or discolored, and stunted spikeswere previously validated by the identification of several loci by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) (Appendix 1), in a previous study with the same plants and visual scorings (Zakieh et al., 2021). The proposed methods aim to replace costly and labor-intensive genetic analysis.Therefore, the prediction of both methods studied here appears to be consistent for FHB with the assigned traits concerning the phenotype-genotype association. Previous investigations showed a high correlation between symptoms that are present on wheat heads and the rate of kernel damage (Goŕal et al., 2018). Therefore, it is feasible to reference the estimated visual scores of disease severity to establish similar results of association/disassociation with the corresponding assessments of grain traits following the methodology in this study.An important aspect to highlight is that the percentage of disease severity can be assessed, where, in contrast to disease spread from the point of inoculation, it offers less intensive labor by spray inoculation of a larger number of wheat genotypes. Additionally, unlike point-inoculated wheat spikelets, spray-inoculated spikes allow for evaluating the degree of damage caused by the disease to all kernels of the infected spike. Within this work frame, whole spike kernels are investigated for their characteristics rather than the damage to a limited number of kernels caused by Fusarium colonization from the point of inoculation. This, in turn, is expected to shorten the period for disease resistance assessment, lower its cost, and be less labor demanding.The results indicated that the traits with a higher correlation to FHB were length, width, thickness, and especially color values in HSL color representation. Moreover, Cgrain Value ™ was advantageous to SmartGrain in terms of the time required for image capture and outperformed the latter when applied to a large number of samples, yet SmartGrain processes samples fast and is cheaper in comparison to Cgrain Value ™ . Although the disease prediction showed a low-moderate accuracy for SmartGrain and a high-moderate accuracy for Cgrain Value ™ and the results of both methods combined, this is attributed to the prediction reference, Sensitivity plot of the morphological characteristics to predict Fusarium head blight in wheat. The parameters are organized from the best predictors to the less significant to predict the disease. Color lines indicate the significance, considering red as the most important predictor and pink as the less important one. The highlighted regions reflect the correlation of the parameters among each other.which corresponds to FHB disease severity scorings done on the spikes. However, the novelty of this study resides in the accuracy reached even with a different reference source, but which is directly related. Additionally, as the plant material genotypes and visual scores were validated by GWAS analysis, then the results presented here are phenotype-genotype-associated.","tokenCount":"5096"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c3f8dc426de502ee352cd68d3538994","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/553d60e7-6b3c-49a5-b016-8dda29b9f192/retrieve","id":"1614287661"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"610a5f29-6b89-45e0-9663-2e0574c99a81","pagecount":"12","content":"The IYRP sub-working group on LDN• Created in 2022 to:• support the IYRP Global Coordinating Group (GCG) and the International Support Group (ISG) • respond to the invitation of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to raise awareness about rangelands and pastoralists • support the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) 2026• 1 st virtual meeting in July 2022• develop a policy brief to address the UNCCD process and raise awareness about rangelands and pastoralism • make recommendations to the UNCCD COP and to the UNCCD Member States, Donors, Civil Society and other Parties  • To recognize mobility of livestock through pastoralism as a viable management solution for healthy rangelands and sustainable livelihoods• To identify and revise economic policies that have detrimental effects on rangelands and pastoralists• To promote integrated policies that provide and recognize the multifunctionality of land• To adopt participatory governance models that recognize pastoralists at the heart of stewardship and care for rangelandsThe IYRP International Support Group is calling on➢ Committing to achieving Land Degradation Neutrality through sustainable rangelands management and pastoralism will help address food security, climate change, economic development, livelihoods and human well-being. ➢ The suggested actions by the IYRP International Support Group to the UNCCD is to encourage policy dialogues for knowledge generation and sound interventions aimed at:✓ improving the political, financial, and institutional enabling environment of rangelands; ✓ supporting pastoralism as a well-functioning system and committing to reducing pressure from anthropogenic and climatic stressors; ✓ strengthening enabling policies to enhance public and private sectors' investments in LDN and land restoration; ✓ capitalizing on the successful lessons obtained from other livelihood systems in dryland areas to address the challenge of sustainably producing food; and ✓ advocating for more investments in sustainable development and restoration of rangelands.","tokenCount":"292"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0508e57adf732e9845dad035acce0a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/457fff93-a20a-4dca-9907-05d9e945c194/retrieve","id":"-57876008"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c3bdad33-c297-4b19-b7b6-6152b3345fce","pagecount":"62","content":"In addition to the challenge of creating market incentives for reducing aflatoxins, there is also an economic challenge in reducing the costs of control. A wide range of control methods exist, including cultivation practices and postharvest handling. There are also limited means for mitigating effects of exposure. None is in wide use in developing countries due to cost, logistics, and lack of incentives (brief 11). However, preliminary estimates in Kenya show that a simple package of low-cost interventions, such as improved drying and storage, could be effective (brief 10), indicating potential for change if markets reward aflatoxin reduction.As both a food safety risk and potential barrier to trade, aflatoxins pose challenges that cut across policy sectors. From a public health perspective, the risk assessment framework is widely embraced as the best method for addressing food safety risks (brief 14). Very few risk analyses have been carried out for aflatoxins in developing countries, and this approach could be more widely applied to help focus efforts based on dietary exposure, \"hot spots\" where aflatoxin levels are particularly high, use of preventative approaches, and communication strategies to reach producers and consumers with risk-mitigation messages.From a market perspective, it is clear that differences among countries in aflatoxin standards (and ability to meet standards) tend to reduce international trade or to divert low-quality exports to lower-value markets (brief 12). At the international level, Codex Alimentarius standards provide guidance on appropriate levels of aflatoxins, and these serve as an international reference (brief 13). Codex standards are set through an international process of data gathering and consensus building, but more data are needed from developing countries so that standards can be developed that properly reflect risk conditions in diverse circumstances.Policy initiatives to address aflatoxin control are underway in PACA, in other regional organizations, and in individual countries (brief 15). For example, there are regional approaches to setting standards or to biocontrol registration, which can reduce the costs of individual country action and may promote regional trade.A flatoxins, naturally occurring carcinogenic byproducts of common fungi on grains and other crops, occur more frequently in the tropics, particularly in maize and groundnuts. Persistent high levels of aflatoxins pose significant health risks in many tropical developing countries. In addition, they are also a barrier to the growth of commercial markets for food and feed, including exports. In the European Union (EU) countries and the United States strict standards have been set to minimize aflatoxins on crops consumed in foods or as animal feed. Where aflatoxins are more widespread and costs of mitigation and testing are higher, meeting such standards remains challenging.Attention to aflatoxin issues from the policy community has increased in recent years, with growing recognition of their health risks as well as the barrier they pose to market development. The 2002 imposition of new, stricter aflatoxin regulations in the EU has raised concerns about the future for African exports of groundnuts and other crops. Local food procurements by the World Food Programme in Africa in 2007 encountered significant levels of aflatoxins, thus raising awareness of potential contamination in food supplies for the poor. The recent formation of the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) demonstrates the commitment of governments and donors to addressing this public health and market development issue.Because aflatoxins are a pervasive environmental risk, control will require a multifaceted approach. Many different efforts will be required to move toward higher quality food and reduced food safety risk. The briefs in this series thus provide several perspectives on solutions for reducing aflatoxins. The series begins with what is known about the health risks from aflatoxins, as this is the foundation for public health policy. Next, efforts to build new market channels and incentives that can improve aflatoxin control are considered. The international trade and policy context for action in developing countries follows, including how risk analysis might inform policy. Finally, briefs from several CGIAR centers outline how new technologies and new detection methods can overcome constraints to aflatoxin control.Aflatoxins pose both acute and chronic risks to health. Exposure to aflatoxins is particularly high for low-income populations in the tropics that consume relatively large quantities of staples such as maize or groundnuts. Consumption of very high levels of aflatoxins can result in acute illness and death, as observed in Kenya in recent years (brief 2). It is well established that chronic exposure to aflatoxins leads to liver cancer (especially where hepatitis is prevalent), and this is estimated to cause as many as 26,000 deaths annually in Africa south of the Sahara (brief 3). Other effects of chronic exposure are less understood due to the difficulties in establishing causality when putative effects are correlated with a number of adverse health determinants. Chronic exposure is associated with immune suppression and higher rates of illness. For infants, exposure is associated with stunting, but the specific role of aflatoxins in stunting has not been identified (brief 4), just as a dose-response relationship has also not been identified. Animal studies provide ample evidence that high levels of aflatoxins in animal feeds have adverse effects for animal health, growth, and productivity. These are suggestive of such effects in humans, but animal studies typically involve much higher levels of aflatoxin exposure than is usually observed in human populations (brief 5).Markets in developing countries generally do not reward reduced aflatoxins in crops because it is difficult to discern aflatoxin contamination or its risks. The presence of mold is a potential, but highly imperfect, indicator of aflatoxin contamination. Surveys in a few African countries show that farmer knowledge and awareness are far from perfect, as are storage and drying practices (brief 7). While some moldy grain is diverted to uses that somewhat reduce direct human exposure (such as for brewing and animal feeds), quality differentiation based on either market rewards or public standards is still unusual in most developing countries.Commercial markets can provide incentives for reduced aflatoxins, but this may mean new institutional arrangements to communicate requirements to producers. A comprehensive approach to supply chain management such as that used by Mars, Inc. (brief 6) is a well-integrated, holistic process to better manage aflatoxin risks throughout a supply chain. This kind of comprehensive \"from farm to consumer\" approach is required even when value chain actors lack the ability to employ sophisticated statistical sampling methods. For example, identification of highrisk elements of the supply chain should help prioritize those areas where market actors can intervene to reduce the incidence of aflatoxins. The World Food Programme's Purchases for Peace program (brief 9) has a simpler approach: the introduction of basic grain quality evaluation tools. These tools can be seen as an essential building block, providing the foundation for quality assessment and evolution toward improved supply chain management.Another approach is to change handling and processing. TwinTrade, an NGO operating in Malawi, is introducing groundnut shellers, which reduce mold growth and contamination, and is also diverting contaminated product to a new market outlet through peanut oil processing (brief 8). IITA is working closely with Doreo, an NGO operating in West Africa, to introduce aflatoxin biocontrol agents to Nigerian farmers to improve the quality of supply in the feed grain market, thus providing incentives for adoption of this new technology (IITA 2013). Taken together, these market intervention examples suggest that reducing aflatoxins will require changes in both institutions and technologies.Because growth of the molds that produce aflatoxins is affected by multiple factors, control is thus complex. Good management practices in crop production, drying, handling, and storage are necessary but not always sufficient for control (brief 18). Resistant strains can be identified, but resistance is a complex characteristic, and thus considerable research is required for incorporating resistance along with desirable agronomic characteristics for different production environments (briefs 17 and 18). Thus, while some progress is being made, both host resistance and improved management will require long-term efforts in research and extension.Biocontrol offers a preventative measure to reduce the levels of aflatoxins arising during cultivation and thus during storage as well; it consists of the application of non-toxic fungus strains that outcompete the toxic strains (brief 16). This technology is already in widespread use in the United States and is now being adapted to tropical maize and groundnuts. Field trials indicate that this new technology has potential to reduce aflatoxins substantially at their initial source: in farmers' fields.Development of new detection and diagnostic tools that are cheaper, more reliable, and more easily used in the field is also underway (brief 19). Such tools would facilitate both public monitoring for aflatoxins as well as the development of commercial markets for improved-quality grain.While there are growing concerns about aflatoxin issues in tropical environments, little is definitively known about their public health risks or about effective market and technology solutions. There is thus a continued need for multidisciplinary and comprehensive research to inform policy and to test potential solutions. Such research can use the tools of risk analysis to better inform policymakers about the scope of public health risks. Given the nature of this food safety risk, solutions need to be evaluated within the context of the entire supply chain. This includes assessing incidence and exposure, evaluating the costs and benefits of control at different intervention points, and testing how interventions could be adopted by different market actors. Such research could identify where market incentives can support improved food safety and better health outcomes for poor consumers.Since these outbreaks occurred, the CDC and the Kenya Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation have focused on prevention efforts to reduce aflatoxin contamination in homegrown maize. During the 2006 outbreak investigation, a portable screening tool was adapted for rapid assessment of aflatoxin contamination in maize in the rural village setting. This tool was used to identify households with contaminated maize, a key step in the maize-replacement effort.A Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) study was carried out in 2006 to compare the benefits of replacing the current system, an aflatoxicosis intervention strategy designed to urgently identify contaminated maize and guide replacement efforts for the aflatoxicosis affected focal area of the Eastern Province. The study determined that society would save US$913.71 per aflatoxicosis case prevented by adopting the proposed new strategy-that of field testing homegrown maize for aflatoxin contamination using the portable rapid screening technology followed by laboratory confirmation (Saha 2009).In May-June 2010, a surveillance system that involved the use of moisture meters coupled with rapid test kits and a laboratory confirmation system detected extensive contamination in both Eastern Province and Coastal Province. Visual inspection was most frequently used (95.0 percent), followed by laboratory testing (84.2 percent) and then moisture meter testing (84.2 percent). At the time of the assessment, only 5.3 percent of millers employed rapid test kits. MoPHS tested aflatoxin levels at large, commercial maize millers throughout Kenya, with the majority indicating that they employ various methods to prevent aflatoxin contamination. The sensitivity of the test strip (Agri-Strip) technology in comparison with the laboratory confirmatory tests was 92 percent (Saha 2009). This meant that 8 percent of the maize tested falsely negative, posing a risk of aflatoxicosis for the population in the affected area. (Saha 2009).The findings from the population survey suggest that there is a large population at risk of aflatoxicosis in Kenya, particularly in Eastern, Coastal, Central, and Nairobi Provinces, with children below 15 years of age being most at risk. An innovative evidence-based strategy is urgently needed in Kenya to decrease aflatoxin exposure. Resources are also needed to quantify the burden of disease and associated health effects as well as to decrease aflatoxin exposure. We propose the following policy recommendations:As suggested by the CEA data, a substantial potential reduction in aflatoxicosis cases and savings to society can be brought about by adopting the proposed aflatoxicosis intervention program (Saha 2009).One practical and innovative approach to preventing morbidity from aflatoxin exposure during outbreak times is dietary interventions, such as the use of refined calcium dioctahedral smectite clay, branded under the name NovaSil. NovaSil binds aflatoxins with high affinity and high capacity in the gastrointestinal tract, preventing its bio-availability.Due to widespread food movement across the region, a regional approach to containing aflatoxin exposure, such as the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), should be the focus.A flatoxins are a group of about 20 chemically related toxic chemicals produced primarily by the foodborne mold Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus. Aflatoxins contaminate a variety of staple foods including maize, peanuts, and tree nuts; they cause an array of acute and chronic human health disorders. Aflatoxin-contaminated maize was the most likely cause of the 1981 and 2004 acute aflatoxicosis outbreaks in Kenya, which resulted in 317 illnesses and 125 deaths, respectively (Strosnider et al. 2006). Aflatoxin B1, the most toxic of the aflatoxins, is a potent liver carcinogen, causing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in humans and a variety of animal species. There is also an increasing body of evidence that aflatoxins modulate the immune system (Williams et al. 2004;Jiang et al. 2005) and may lead to stunted growth in children (Gong et al. 2002(Gong et al. , 2004;;Khlangwiset et al. 2011).This brief summarizes information on the two chronic conditions for which the greatest body of evidence exists for a linkage with aflatoxin exposure: aflatoxin-induced liver cancer and aflatoxinassociated childhood stunting. A brief description is given of studies linking aflatoxins to immune system modulation.For decades, it has been known that aflatoxin exposure causes liver cancer in humans and a variety of animal species. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified \"naturally occurring mixes of aflatoxins\" as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Concomitant exposure to aflatoxins and the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is common in developing countries and greatly increases HCC risk (Wu et al. 2013). Individuals with both exposures have multiplicatively greater risk of developing HCC than those exposed to aflatoxins or HBV alone (Groopman et al. 2008). A recent systematic review and meta-analysis determined that the risk of developing liver cancer was over 6 times higher in individuals with detectable aflatoxin biomarkers than in those without, over 11 times higher in individuals with chronic HBV infection than in those without, and over 73 times higher in individuals with both detectable aflatoxin biomarkers and HBV positivity compared with those with neither risk factor-a nearly perfectly multiplicative relationship (Liu et al. 2012).Two separate analyses have been conducted to estimate the global burden of liver cancer attributable to aflatoxins. Liu and Wu (2010) used a quantitative cancer risk assessment approach, using dose-response data for the relationship between aflatoxins and liver cancer risk in populations of HBV-negative and HBV-positive individuals (JECFA 1998; Henry et al. 1999) and multiplying the corresponding cancer potency factors by aflatoxin exposure data for multiple nations worldwide. In their analysis that included about 5 billion individuals around the world (summing populations across nations for which aflatoxin data were available), they estimated that 25,200-155,000 liver cancer cases annually could be attributed to aflatoxin exposure.In a follow-up study, Liu et al. (2012) used a different approach to estimate global burden of cancer caused by aflatoxins: estimating population-attributable risk from a systematic review and metaanalysis of 17 epidemiological studies on aflatoxins, HBV, and liver cancer in Africa and Asia. It was estimated that about 23 percent (21-24 percent) of all HCC cases annually maybe attributable to aflatoxins, for a total of up to 172,000 cases per year. Since liver cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and mortality rapidly follows diagnosis, the contribution of aflatoxins to this deadly cancer is significant.Aflatoxin exposure has also been associated with childhood stunting: a condition in which the child's height for his or her age is two standard deviations or more below a World Health Organization (WHO) growth reference. Stunting is important from a public health perspective because it is associated with effects such as increased vulnerability to infectious diseases and cognitive impairments that last well beyond childhood (Ricci et al. 2006). Khlangwiset et al. (2011) summarize the epidemiological studies that show an association between child growth impairment and aflatoxin exposure (the reader is referred to that study for an indepth explanation of the available studies). They note that studies in Togo and Benin in West Africa (Gong et al. 2002(Gong et al. , 2004) ) show that height and weight for children's ages are lower in a dosedependent fashion for higher aflatoxin exposures, and children's growth over eight months was also compromised. Two studies of infants and children in The Gambia (Turner et al. 2003(Turner et al. , 2007) ) show that aflatoxin-albumin adduct (AF-alb) levels in maternal blood, cord blood, infant blood, and children's blood are associated with poorer growth indicators. AF-alb is a biomarker of aflatoxin exposure and biological activation in humans. Aflatoxin levels in household flour in Kenya were associated with wasting in children (Okoth and Ohingo 2004). A Ghanaian study (Shuaib et al. 2010) linked mothers' AF-alb levels with low-weight babies at birth. In Iran, two studies (Sadeghi et al. 2009, Mahdavi et al. 2010) showed that aflatoxin M1 in mothers' breast milk was associated with reduced length and weight of infants at birth. Khlangwiset et al. (2011) also provide discussions of animal studies linking aflatoxin exposure with impaired growth outcomes, and of the importance of aflatoxin-free weaning foods.At the moment, because of the relatively small number of epidemiological studies undertaken and the limited nature of dose-response relationships, it is not possible to conduct a quantitative risk assessment definitively linking an aflatoxin dose with a particular risk of stunting in a population. Further studies to explore the relationship between aflatoxins and childhood stunting are currently underway. However, while causality has not yet been confirmed, the body of evidence consistently shows an association between aflatoxin exposure and growth impairment in children. Several studies have examined the link between aflatoxin exposure and markers of immune system modulation in humans. Jiang et al. (2008) found that in HIV+ and HIV-study subjects in Ghana, higher levels of AF-alb were associated with lower levels of CD4+ T regulatory cells and naïve CD4+ T cells, as well as lower B-cells-all cells associated with immune responses. In an earlier Ghanaian study, other types of cells involved in immune response were found to be lower in individuals with higher AF-alb (Jiang et al. 2005). Another study showed that Gambian children with higher levels of AF-alb had lower levels of secretory IgA in their saliva, another immune parameter (Turner et al. 2003). Taken together, these few studies indicate that aflatoxin exposure is associated with changes in markers of human immune systems. How these changes actually correlate to disease outcomes, however, is less clear and was beyond the scope of the studies.Because aflatoxins are one of the most significant risk factors for liver cancer, one of the deadliest cancers worldwide, controlling its presence in the food supply is critical. It is possibly responsible for up to 172,000 liver cancer cases per year, most of which would result in mortality within three months of diagnosis. Possibly even more critical from a global public health standpoint is the link between aflatoxin exposure and childhood stunting, which can lead to a variety of adverse health conditions that last well beyond childhood. However, at the moment there is insufficient evidence for a quantitative risk assessment to evaluate exact daily doses of aflatoxins that lead to particular levels of risk or adverse health outcomes in children. Additionally, while aflatoxins may lead to immunomodulation, not enough information is currently known about how this leads to particular adverse health outcomes in humans. However, the human health evidence points to aflatoxins' association with multiple adverse effects; hence, it is important to reduce human exposures to aflatoxins in the diet to the extent that feasible methods allow.T hough having steadily fallen over the last decades, linear growth retardation remains a serious problem, with an estimated 170 million children under five years of age being stunted. (A stunted child is too short for its age, having a height below -2 standard deviations of the World Health Organization's reference height for his or her age and sex.) Growth retardation in young children is associated with delays in cognitive development, lower school achievement, and both lower earnings and a higher probability of non-communicable chronic diseases at adulthood. Key then is to make universal improvements to maternal and child health and nutrition in the first 1,000 days (that is, the period from conception to when the child reaches 24 months of life). Providing multiple micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy, improved complementary feeding, and better hygiene would reduce the prevalence of stunting by only an estimated 20.3 percent (Bhutta et al. 2013). Research efforts are therefore focusing on identifying presently unknown causes of growth retardation.Evidence from human and animal studies and current knowledge of the biological mechanisms of action of aflatoxins suggest that chronic exposure to aflatoxins might lead to stunted growth. This brief summarizes the existing evidence and reviews possible solutions that could be applied if future research confirms the causal relationship between aflatoxin exposure and growth retardation. It begins with an overview of the criteria that must be met to conclude that aflatoxins cause stunting.To prove a causal relationship between aflatoxin exposure and stunting, four criteria must be met:1. Aflatoxin exposure and growth retardation must be associated.2. Exposure to aflatoxins should precede the growth retardation.3. The effect needs to be biologically plausible.4. The effect cannot be due to confounding factors.In terms of the last criterion, one confounding factor particularly challenging to rule out is the socioeconomic status (SES) of the household. Children in poorer households are often fed diets deficient in micro-or macronutrients and suffer from more frequent infections, both of which contribute to growth retardation. If these factors are associated with aflatoxin exposure and are not adequately controlled for in the analysis, the magnitude of the aflatoxin-growth association will be overestimated.While only a small number of observational studies have been carried out, the majority has found strong associations between aflatoxin exposure and stunted fetal, infant, and child growth, thus providing evidence for the first criterion for causality. Some studies have shown the temporal relationship as per the second criterion. Even though the effect is biologically plausible (criterion 3, see \"biological mechanisms\" below), the possibility that the association is (at least partially) due to confounding factors, as per the fourth criterion, has not been adequately addressed. Findings from published studies addressing at least two causality criteria are summarized below.In Ghana, women exhibiting high serum aflatoxin levels at delivery-a marker of having been exposed over the last two to three months-were more likely to have a low-birthweight baby; no association was found with having a baby small for gestational age or with preterm birth (Shuaib et al. 2010). The analysis controlled for SES, but no details were provided on how this was done, making it difficult to evaluate if confounding was adequately controlled for.A study in The Gambia showed that exposure occurred before the linear growth retardation: serum aflatoxin levels in pregnant women and in infants at 16 weeks of age were strong predictors of linear growth during the first year of life. Cord blood levels were not associated with birth weight or length (Turner et al. 2007). The Gambia study did not control for SES.A study in Benin and Togo found that the serum aflatoxin level was 30-40 percent higher in stunted children one to five years of age than in non-stunted children, after controlling for confounders including socioeconomic status, child age, and sex. Details on the measure of SES were not provided by the authors (Gong et al. 2002). Finally, the same authors studied the linear growth of 200 Togolese children 16 to 37 months of age over an 8-month period. Children in the highest serum aflatoxin albumin quartile grew 1.7 cm less than children in the lowest quartile, after controlling for age, sex, baseline height, and SES. As in the previous study, the authors did not provide details on the SES measure used (Gong et al. 2004).Although the findings are generally consistent, none of the studies adequately controlled for factors that could potentially confound the association between aflatoxins and child growthsuch as household socioeconomic status, child dietary intake, and child morbidity. Another possible confounding factor is child age. Because growth retardation is a cumulative process, stunting increases with age. Exposure to aflatoxins through the diet is also strongly associated with age; thus if age is not properly controlled for in the analysis, the degree to which aflatoxins and child growth are associated will again be overestimated.A large number of studies conducted with different animal species consistently found that experimental exposure to aflatoxins led to reduced weight gain (brief 5). The evidence suggests that this is at least partially due to reduced feed intake and less-efficient feed conversion. A small number of studies further suggest that in utero exposure negatively affected fetal growth (Khlangwiset, Shephard, and Wu 2011). An important remaining question is to what extentThe known biological mechanisms of aflatoxins make an impact on linear growth plausible. Human and animal studies indicate that aflatoxins cause immunosuppression (which in turn can lead to repeated infections and, consequently, growth retardation in young children), impairs protein synthesis, and changes the hepatic metabolism of micronutrients (Khlangwiset, Shephard, and Wu 2011). It has also been suggested that aflatoxins together with fumonisin and desoxynyvalenol (two other mycotoxins commonly found in maize and groundnuts) mediate intestinal damage similar to environmental enteropathy (Smith, Stoltzfus, and Prendergast 2012). Environmental enteropathy is characterized by increased gut permeability, which is a disruption of the tight junctions that allow the membranes of intestinal cells lining the gut to form an impermeable barrier, and villous atrophy, which is erosion of the microscopic, finger-like tentacles that line the wall of the small intestine, reducing the surface area by leaving a virtually flat surface. This condition leads to chronic systemic immune activitation and malabsorption of nutrients, which in turn may lead to growth retardation.Human exposure to aflatoxins can be reduced by improved cropping, harvesting, and storage practices and by switching to crops or foods less prone to aflatoxin contamination. The adverse effect of aflatoxins in the body can be mitigated through food additives that bind aflatoxins in the gut and through chemopreventive agents that reduce the toxicity of aflatoxins.Food additives operate as \"enterosorbents\" that trap aflatoxins in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. A well-studied example is calcium montmorillonite clay (marketed as NovaSil), which binds aflatoxins in the GI tract and consequently reduces its bioavailability. A clinical trial in which Ghanaian adults were given a placebo, either a 1.5-or 3-gram clay capsule, daily for three months led to a net reduction in serum aflatoxin levels of 21 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in the low-and high-dose groups (Wang et al. 2008). Whether this reduction is sufficient to result in meaningful improvements in linear growth (should the association between aflatoxin exposure and growth be found to be causal) is unknown. An important concern is the clay's capacity to bind micronutrients, which might reduce their bioavailability in the gut and hence lead to or aggravate micronutrient deficiencies. The treatment in the Ghana study was not associated with reductions in serum micronutrient levels (Afriyie-Gyawu et al. 2008), but the intervention period was relatively short, which might have allowed homeostatic mechanisms to maintain serum micronutrient levels. NovaSil has not been tested in pregnant women and young children who are particularly prone to micronutrient deficiencies.Chemopreventive agents such as chlorophyllin (a derivate of chlorophyll) and oltipraz (an antischistosomal drug) have been found to intervene in the biochemical pathway linking liver cancer to aflatoxin exposure. To what extent these chemopreventive agents might be relevant in mitigating the effect of aflatoxins on linear growth retardation is not known.An important consideration when promoting the use of enterosorbents or chemopreventive agents at scale is to make sure that they are not interpreted as a substitute for good crop husbandry and that they do not unintentionally encourage the use of foods not fit for human consumption.The current evidence suggests that aflatoxins are a likely cause of linear growth retardation in children. Controlled intervention studies are needed, however, to unambiguously establish the causal relationship and to quantify to what extent the current level of aflatoxin exposure contributes to the global burden of stunting. These studies also need to evaluate if reducing exposure remedies the functional correlates of stunting (such as delays in cognitive development and future economic productivity). Given the known carcinogenicity and acute toxicity of aflatoxins, preventive measures aimed at lowering aflatoxin exposure of children in the womb and of young children should be taken irrespective of the findings of these studies. Khlangwiset, P., G.S. Shephard, and F. Wu F. 2011 A flatoxicosis affects both people and animals. In fact, it was first discovered in 1961 when more than 100,000 turkeys and other farm animals died from a mysterious disease in the United Kingdom. The cause was found to be aflatoxins in the feed.Aflatoxins occur in many animal feed concentrates including cereal grains, soybean products, oil cakes (from groundnuts, cottonseed, sunflower, palm, and copra), and fishmeal. Brewers grains (a byproduct from the production of cereal-based alcoholic drinks) can have high levels. Pasture, hay, straw, and silage are more prone to contamination with other types of mycotoxins that will not be considered in this brief.In general, livestock in intensive systems are at higher risk of dietary exposure than animals in extensive systems. Worldwide, a high and increasing proportion of dairy cattle, poultry, and swine are kept in intensive systems; aflatoxins are thus likely to be an increasing problem.In countries where regulation for aflatoxins in animal feeds exists, the total permissible aflatoxin levels in animal feeds range from 0 to 50 parts per billion (ppb) with an average of 20 ppb (FAO 2004). (Standards for individual feed components may be higher.) Studies find that in developing countries around 25-50 percent of samples have levels above 20 ppb and contamination of 100 to 1,000 ppb are not uncommon (Binder et al. 2007, Rodrigues andNaehrer 2012).The effects of aflatoxins depend on various factors: genetic (species and breed strain), physiological (age, nutrition, and exercise) and environmental (climatic and husbandry). Fetuses are very susceptible to even low levels, and young and fastgrowing animals are more affected than adults. Males are more susceptible than females. There is considerable variation by species. A list of animals in order of decreasing sensitivity runs rabbits>ducks>turkeys>chicken>fish>swine>cattle>sheep. Rats are susceptible and mice are resistant. Ruminants, if old enough to have a functioning rumen, are relatively resistant.Very high levels of aflatoxins cause acute toxicosis and death in livestock and fish. Chronic consumption of lower levels can cause liver damage, gastrointestinal dysfunction, decreased appetite, decreased reproductive function, decreased growth, and decreased production. In addition, immune-suppression results in greater susceptibility to other diseases. Adverse impacts are more severe when there is co-contamination with other mycotoxins.Chronic aflatoxicosis probably has greater economic impacts than acute disease. Numerous studies show a worsening in food conversion ratios, a decrease in average daily gain, and a decrease in body weight for animals experimentally fed aflatoxins (Khlangwiset et al. 2011). Additional losses occur in the livestock sector if grain and feed do not meet standards for animal feed. Moreover, the nutritive value of grains and cereals is reduced by contamination with the mold that produces aflatoxins. Economic loss also occurs if livestock and fish products do not comply with the standards for aflatoxins in human foods.Aflatoxin B1 is metabolized to aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in the liver and excreted in the milk of dairy cows. Because aflatoxins are degraded by flora in the cow's rumen, the amount of AFM1 excreted in milk is only around 1-7 percent of the total amount of aflatoxin B1 ingested. Higher-yielding animals consuming large amounts of concentrates typically have higher levels in their milk. The presence of mastitis may increase the secretion of aflatoxins.While levels of mycotoxins in cereals may reach thousands of ppb, levels in milk are generally less than 100 ppb. However, aflatoxins in milk are of concern because milk consumption is often higher among infants and children, who are likely to be more vulnerable. Accordingly, many countries set a lower threshold for aflatoxins in milk. AFM1 ranges are between 0.02 and 5 ppb, with 0.05 ppb the most common (Mohammadi 2011).Aflatoxin levels are around three times higher in soft cheese and five times higher in hard cheese than the milk of origin. But because cheese is more concentrated, using aflatoxin-contaminated milk for cheese production is risk mitigating (for example, if ten liters of milk makes one kilogram of cheese and aflatoxins are five times higher in hard cheese, then the exposure of humans from consuming one kilogram of cheese is half as much as the exposure from consuming ten liters of milk). Aflatoxins may also be present in yogurt and other dairy products. Recent studies have suggested that a related toxin called aflatoxicol may also be excreted in significant amounts in milk, a subject that requires further research.Trace levels of aflatoxins and their metabolites may also carry over into the edible tissue of meat-producing animals. Poultry feed contaminated at the level of 3,000 ppb may result in levels of 3 ppb in poultry meat. Aflatoxins may be carried over from feed to eggs at ratios ranging from 5,000-125,000 to 1 (Zaghini et al. 2005). These transfer rates are much lower than for milk, and surveys in developing countries typically find levels of less than 10 ppb in meat and offal. Given the relatively low quantities of animal-source food consumed, this is not likely to present a major contribution to overall consumption of aflatoxins in the diet. However, processed fish has been found to be significantly contaminated with aflatoxins (Adebayo-Tayo et al. 2008) and may represent a risk. Mold-fermented foods such as fermented meat may also contain aflatoxins, but there is very little information regarding the level of aflatoxins in traditionally processed foods. The general methods of aflatoxin management (plant breeding, biocontrol, pre-and postharvest practices, and nutritional strategies) are discussed in other briefs and here we focus on methods primarily applicable to animal feeds.The addition of binding agents such as zeolite clays and aluminosilicates is effective in reducing toxicity. When binding agents are included in feed at a ratio of 200 parts feed to 1 part binding agent, they reduce most of the harmful effects of aflatoxins at levels of 1,000 ppb for pigs and 7,000 ppb for poultry. The cost is around $0.25 per ton of feed.Blending: One method of reducing moderate levels of aflatoxin contamination is to blend contaminated grain with clean grain (blending one kilograms of grain with aflatoxin contamination five times above the limit with nine kilograms of grain exhibiting no detectable aflatoxins would result in ten kilograms of grain with aflatoxins at 50 percent of the permissible amount).Decontamination: Ammoniation is a safe and effective way to decontaminate aflatoxins; it has been used with success in many countries, yet is not legal in others. The average costs are 5-20 percent of the value of the commodity. Nixtamilization, the traditional alkaline treatment of maize in Latin America, can reduce toxicity and has potential for wider applications. Other chemical and biological agents have been effective in experiments but are not yet commercially developed.Being fed to appropriate livestock may be the best use of most aflatoxin-contaminated corn. Although there are no currently established levels at which aflatoxins can be guaranteed safe for livestock, many animals, especially mature animals, can tolerate aflatoxins well. Many experimental studies do not show any statistically significant effects from low levels of aflatoxins, and there is a consistent pattern of fewer effects from aflatoxins at lower doses and increasing effects at higher doses. Moreover, there appear to be no scientific papers describing any toxic effects of mycotoxins when present at very low levels (AFSSA et al. 2009). Growth depression associated with aflatoxins is affected by factors other than species and age; for example, rats on high-protein diets with 500 ppb aflatoxins exhibited better growth than rats on low-protein diets without aflatoxins. Exercise and absence of other mycotoxins from the diet are also protective. Depending on species, age, and length of trial, experiments have found no effects from aflatoxins at levels from 200 to 5,000 ppb and significant effects at levels from 20 to 10,000 ppb. Table 1 demonstrates the appropriate levels of contaminated foods that may be fed to livestock.Aflatoxins, like other mycotoxins, can seriously reduce livestock productivity. In poor countries, livestock are often fed highly contaminated grains considered unfit for human consumption and are thus at risk of acute toxicosis. Chronic aflatoxicosis is probably a major cause of economic loss, especially for farmers raising pigs and poultry in intensifying systems. Aflatoxins can transfer from feed to animal-source products, but there is minimal information about or testing of these products in developing countries. Risks are likely to be highest in the case of milk, processed fish, and indigenous fermented meat, fish, and dairy products. Important information gaps requiring urgent research include the prevalence of aflatoxins in animal feeds, serum, and animalsource foods; the current economic impacts of aflatoxins in animal feed in developing countries; the most cost-effective means of managing aflatoxins in animal feed; and the impacts of aflatoxins in animal source food on human health especially in high-risk communities (such as those with very high consumption or riskincreasing practices such as smoking fish). Markets 6. Managing Mycotoxin Risks in the Food Industry:The Global Food Security Link Aflatoxins: Finding Solutions for Improved Food Safety I n order to bring about true food security, the world must achieve more than the availability of sufficient amounts of affordable and nutritious foodstuffs. It must also ensure that foods are safe. To do so requires going beyond in-factory quality management processes and to instead cover the entire supply chain from \"farm to fork.\" Food safety incidents involving raw materials can be traced back through all key points of the food production system, including growing, harvesting, storage, manufacture, and distribution. Of these incidents, mycotoxin contamination-of which aflatoxin is the predominant concern-represents the largest proportion of raw material-related food safety issues. This paper will discuss the approach that Mars Incorporated, one of the world's largest food manufacturers, takes to managing mycotoxin risks throughout its supply chains. It closes by recommending actions to better manage the global challenges that mycotoxins present.The need for an integrated, holistic approach to reducing the risk of mycotoxins is clear. The approach adopted by Mars Incorporated, as summarized in Figure 1, includes three essential risk-based steps-crop survey, supplier quality assurance, and factory quality management-plus procedures for strategic sampling, testing, and analysis. Each of these rigorous, science-based steps must be applied according to the particular context, be it climate, growing region, disease, pest infestations, seed selection, and adherence (or not) to good agricultural practices (GAP).Mycotoxin management starts with the collection of crop-specific agronomic data and regional crop surveillance information for each new crop year. This data will provide information on the potential mycotoxin distribution, which can be used to perform quantitative risk assessments to direct purchasing strategies, supplier qualityassurance requirements, and sampling/testing protocols (such as mycotoxin types and levels, risk areas, and crops affected).Raw material suppliers must understand the potential mycotoxin risks associated with materials they purchase, store, and later sell for feeds or further processing. This includes a solid understanding of regulatory requirements and customer food safety standards to ensure appropriate levels of monitoring, correct storage, and adequate control procedures. A clear specification is essential. Supplier quality assurance works with the raw material supply base to audit and verify the effectiveness of mycotoxin control programs to ensure that potential food safety risks are appropriately managed before the materials are shipped and subsequently received at production facilities. All of these activities should be audited to ensure compliance.Mycotoxin risk management at the factory level starts with inbound inspection, sampling, and testing as a means of verifying that deliveries meet quality and food safety requirements. This is also risk-based. Information and data from earlier steps in the process are used to direct the extent of sampling and testing done at the factory gate (for example having all inbound trucks or a lesser number evaluated based on the crop risk evaluation). A point of caution is that solely using factory gate testing to accept or reject inbound loads will fail without an understanding of crop and supplier risks. Finished product verification testing must also be risk based, whereby finished products manufactured from higher-risk materials may be evaluated lot for lot, placed on positive release, and subjected to final verification testing prior to market release. Conversely, finished products manufactured from lower-risk materials may not require positive release and can be evaluated at reduced frequency to verify effectiveness of up-front controls.Because mycotoxins are not evenly distributed, the sampling strategy needs to be risk based and designed to increase the chance of detecting \"mycotoxin pockets\" in or across inbound loads. The sample-preparation steps must also be validated to ensure not only that they are compatible with the mycotoxin quantification method employed (HPLC or ELISA) but also that the results are accurate and reproducible within statistical limits.The accuracy of sample preparation and testing protocols must be routinely verified by a recognized proficiency authority (such as the Food Analysis Performance Scheme or FAPAS) as a means of Managing Mycotoxin Risks in the Food Industry: The Global Food Security Link  benchmarking results against other testing laboratories with known mycotoxin types and concentrations. Since mycotoxins are not evenly distributed, the probability of detecting pockets of elevated concentrations in a single truck is low.Sampling should be performed using manual or automated probes that are inserted at ten points. Each probe is inserted from the top to the bottom of the received load and collected as a continuous core of material. Mycotoxin quantification is performed by analyzing a composite of the ten probes taken from across the received load (per USDA GIPSA recommendations).As such, each of the components explained above are part of a comprehensive quality management process, which at Mars is structured as summarized in Figure 2.To maximize the value of each test, it is important to trend mycotoxin test data for each raw material/supplier combination across a rolling 30-lot sample size. This helps to normalize the variance within a single truckload, allowing for a better understanding of material risks and comparison between suppliers of the same raw material. Through both leverage of large volumes of data and collaboration with key partners (such as IBM), we have been able to validate and optimize, through statistical analysis, best practices for sampling and mitigation mechanisms. (A list of supporting references can be found in the appendix section of this publication.)Food safety is a high-level concern for food security. Of the many food safety issues, mycotoxins present a specific and significant challenge to global food security, especially for key food crops eaten by hundreds of millions of malnourished people, particularly those in Africa. The consequences of mycotoxin contamination impact the ability of food companies to use local materials, but overcoming this barrier presents an opportunity for all. We will only be able to drive reliability of supply chains if all manufacturers operate to the same standards and risk management assessments. Mars Incorporated believes that many elements of food safety are pre-competitive, and every day the company generates thousands of data points that, aggregated with other industry data, have the potential to strengthen operating practices across food value chains. In order to prevent material rejected by one manufacturer from re-entering another's supply chain, we must create a standardized approach to mycotoxins and ultimately to food safety management.The material quality management process described in this brief is an example of a well-integrated, holistic process that can significantly better manage the challenges and reduce the barriers and consequences that mycotoxins create. Additional policy recommendations could build the needed framework to significantly increase the value of this process and increase the likelihood of reducing the risk of mycotoxins through multidisciplinary solutions.Obtaining acceptable improvements will require the coordination of a comprehensive and complex network of actions by a wide range of appropriate players from smallholder farmers to multinational food companies and regulators, supported by a \"food safety\" scientific and policy research agenda promoted by robust food safety management initiatives. Self-regulation-managed through a real-time, open source platform to be accessed by small, medium, and large manufacturers-seems the most reliable and robust way to ensure that the bar for food safety manufacturing practices is raised across the globe. The pressing need to improve the safety of our food supply is clear, and we should further understand how we can make this a pre-competitive space where experience, knowledge, and research should all be fostered for the common goal of achieving a safe and secure food supply for the benefit of farmers and consumers around the world.David Crean (david.crean@effem.com)   I n 2004, the Kenyan Ministry of Health invited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization to investigate cases of high-fatality jaundice in Eastern Province. Testing of the maize food supply found high levels of aflatoxins, suggesting that the 125 lives lost and 317 cases reported were a result of aflatoxin poisoning.Work began in 2008 to examine the situation on the ground and to develop technologies to reduce the risk posed by aflatoxins to both humans and animals. Surveys were carried out by AflaSTOP, a project-co-funded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by the Meridian Institute in partnership with ACDI/VOCA and Agribusiness Systems International-designed to examine storage and drying technologies that prevent further aflatoxin contamination. These surveys found that while most Kenyan farmers are aware of the dangers of aflatoxins and have ideas about preventing contamination, they still possess misinformation about the ways in which the fungus can be detected, the importance of testing, and what to do with grain when there is a problem. Furthermore, there is currently no premium offered to farmers in the marketplace for \"clean\" or \"aflatoxin-free\" maize; there is no simple, cheap testing method; and consumers lack awareness about the dangers of aflatoxins.In early 2012, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the University of Nairobi, and AflaSTOP conducted a storage survey among 50 farmers in Eastern Province's Meru and Makueni counties. Later that year, AflaSTOP carried out a similar survey of 50 farmers in Trans Nzoia county, Rift Valley Province (North Rift). These two provinces were surveyed because they represent very different ecological environments, with Eastern Province being more drought prone, having a higher incidence of aflatoxins, and containing a larger segment of poor farmers. In North Rift, farmers are generally wealthier, less affected by extremes in weather conditions, and experience a lower incidence of aflatoxins. This brief presents the findings of these surveys.Given that the severe outbreak of aflatoxicosis in 2004 and a second outbreak in 2010 were centered in Eastern province, it is not surprising that 93 percent of farmers surveyed in Meru and 100 percent in Makueni had heard of aflatoxins, while only 48 percent of farmers in North Rift were familiar with the term. Exactly half of the farmers in North Rift who had heard of aflatoxins thought that it was a \"poison found in spoiled maize.\" In comparison, 43 percent of farmers in Meru felt that it was caused by wet or rotten maize. Twenty percent of farmers in Makueni agreed with 25 percent of their counterparts in North Rift that it was a \"mold that attacks maize.\" These insights reveal a limited understanding of what aflatoxins are and how they are formed.When asked specifically about the causes of aflatoxins, 65-71 percent of farmers in Makueni and Meru and 54 percent of North Rift farmers identified poorly dried and or wet maize as the cause, followed by poor storage (11 percent in Meru, 15 percent in Makueni, and 21 percent in North Rift). Twenty percent of Makueni farmers identified drying maize on the ground as a source of contamination, while 11 percent of Meru farmers identified rain on the grain as a problem. Interestingly, in North Rift, where awareness is lowest, there is a perception among 17 percent of those surveyed that shelling wet maize will cause aflatoxin contamination. Farmers, particularly in Eastern Kenya, clearly have some recognition of the connection between postharvest handling and aflatoxin contamination. In terms of threats to human health, a large percentage of farmers in all provinces agreed that aflatoxins cause death, followed by about 25 percent who felt that it causes stomach problems.Despite some level of awareness, 57 percent of farmers in Meru stated that they did not know how to tell if maize was affected by aflatoxins, while 60 percent in Makueni and 75 percent in North Rift answered that they could tell, identifying the \"discoloration of the maize\" as a key tell-tale sign-even though the presence of aflatoxins cannot be detected visually. Moldiness and wetness were other indicators listed by all farmers. In Eastern Kenya, 20 percent of farmers also identified finding insects in their maize as an indicator of aflatoxin contamination. Farmers reported receiving their information about aflatoxins from extension workers and media such as radio, TV, and newspapers. Extension officers played a much more prominent role in Makueni, with 60 percent of farmers indicating that they heard about aflatoxins from this source, while 67 percent of those in North Rift and 50 percent in Meru reported receiving their information from the media.Almost all farmers in North Rift said that they knew how to prevent aflatoxins-by \"drying maize properly\" and \"storing it properly\" on a raised platform in a dry store. The majority of farmers in Eastern answered similarly. Of the farmers in Meru, 18 percent claimed not to know any way to prevent aflatoxins-compared to zero of their counterparts in Makueni. That said, nearly all farmers surveyed were afraid to allow their own families to consume wet or discolored maize, with the majority instead feeding it to their livestock. In terms of family health problems, the majority of farmers did not believe that maize consumption was a culprit.With regard to mold, about three quarters of farmers from North Rift and almost all farmers in Eastern Province took precautions to prevent it from affecting their maize stores by drying their grain before putting it into storage either as cobs or grain. However, within the first month of storage, 54 percent of North Rift, 50 percent of Meru, and 20 percent of Makueni farmers had mold problems, which raises questions about whether their grain is actually dry enough for storage. Once mold was detected, farmers dealt with the problem in various ways. Airing the maize was a dominant method in North Rift, compared to Eastern Province where there was not a dominant method. All farmers indicated that they used the damaged crop for animal feed, salvaged what remained for consumption or sale, changed the storage containers used, or aired the maize.A second aflatoxin-control effort was Aflacontrol. This project was implemented by IFPRI in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), ACDI/VOCA, University of Pittsburgh, the Institute d'Economie Rurale (IER), and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Aflacontrol found that consumers were willing to pay a premium of 20-30 Kenyan shillings (KES)-or US$0.25-0.37-per 2kg bag for clean maize over poor quality product (presence of 5 percent moldy grains), and an additional premium of 10-15KES ($0.13 -0.19) /2kg bag for maize that was clean and tested clear of aflatoxins. This willingness was positively influenced by consumer income and negatively by consumer age. The Aflacontrol project concluded that in order to intervene successfully there needed to be a low-cost product differentiation in the market that was also credible with consumers.The subsequent work of the AflaSTOP project found that 28 percent of farmers in North Rift and about half of the farmers in Eastern Province claimed to be willing to pay for a drying machine or service that cost up to 225KES/90kg bag ($29.41/mt), the higher proportion in Eastern Province perhaps reflecting a higher awareness of the dangers of aflatoxins or difficulties faced when drying wet grains at harvest (current drying costs are estimated at $42/mt).Farmers have demonstrated a willingness to pay for services that improve postharvest handling, but there is limited investment in developing such services that would have the added benefit of helping to reduce aflatoxin levels. Data shows that consumers are willing to pay for food that will not adversely affect the health of their families, but there is no credible method of ensuring that the food they buy is safe.At the moment there is no clear consumer demand for aflatoxin-free maize. Incentives to change behavior, therefore, need to be centered around household consumption given that farmers consume large quantities of the maize they produce, store their household stocks, and sell this maize into the market. Considering the work of Aflacontrol and AflaSTOP and the respective levels of farmer awareness on the ground, it is thus clear that any intervention to reduce aflatoxin contamination and the consumption of infected grain will require the following:• Sustained information campaign targeted at farmers via radio and other spoken media• A comprehensive marketing campaign heightening consumer awareness and the demand for tested and labeled grain• The establishment of a credible and low-cost system for testing and labeling grain• Technology effectively commercialized by the private sector that addresses the harvesting constraints of smallholder farming Sophie Walker (swalker@acdivoca.org) is a Regional Africa advisor at Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), Washington, DC. Bryn Davies (bnedavies@gmail.com) is a consultant working with AflaSTOP in Nairobi.I n the 1960s, Africa south of the Sahara controlled 90 percent of the international groundnut market, valued in today's money at US$220 million annually. Although the market has since rocketed to $1.2 billion, Africa's share has plummeted to just 5 percent. A key factor in this substantial decline in earnings has been the strict food import regulations on safe levels of aflatoxins imposed by highly regulated Western markets.The World Bank estimates that the EU's tightening of the Maximum Allowable Levels (MALs) of aflatoxins to four parts per billion cost African countries $670 million in annual export losses of cereals, dried fruits, and nuts. Underinvestment in infrastructure and systems, coupled with a lack of incentives and information, has made it difficult for smallholders in Africa to respond to these market demands for better aflatoxin controls. China, Argentina, and the United States have emerged as global leaders by continuously investing and improving aflatoxin management practices.Aflatoxins are more than a barrier to trade for smallholdersthey are a serious risk to public health. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.5 billion people are chronically exposed to the toxin through the consumption of staple foods, leading to cancer and childhood stunting as well as contributing to immune disorders. Over the past decade, efforts to tackle aflatoxin contamination in Africa have focused on practices within formal export value chains. In countries like Malawi, however, 60 percent of groundnuts are sold on poorly regulated local or regional markets, exposing populations to high levels of the toxin and undermining food security and nutrition interventions. Improvements to processing, storage, and trading practices are therefore urgently needed along the smallholder groundnut supply chain in order to sustainably address the economic and health impacts of aflatoxins.Although aflatoxin contamination points have been identified along the supply chain, the key challenge remains the complex set of factors driving inappropriate farming, postharvest, and consumption practices. Any attempts to change practices need interventions that will be accepted, adopted, and maintained by smallholder farmers. A good example is the case of African groundnut farmers who have traditionally shelled groundnuts by hand. This painful and time-consuming task is mostly done by women, who spend an estimated 4 billion hours hand shelling each year. The shells are often softened in water to ease the process, and the shelled nuts are subsequently kept in unsuitable storage conditions on-farm until the crop is taken to market. Moisture introduced during shelling promotes fungal growth on the nuts, and the long storage times in poor conditions further increase the risk of aflatoxin contamination. Hand-operated mechanical shellers make the shelling process ten times faster and remove the need to wet the groundnuts, significantly reducing contamination at the farm level.Basic equipment, such as mechanical hand shellers, can often be too expensive for individual smallholders to purchase. Twin is working with two partners-Exagris, the UK-based agri-business, and National Smallholder's Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM)-to develop sustainable business models for the distribution and maintenance of the technology at an affordable price. Local entrepreneurs could be engaged to establish rental services for equipment with a maintenance contract, or farming organizations could invest in equipment to help their members improve both their labor efficiency and practices for the management and control of aflatoxins. This is but one example of a simple, cost-effective intervention that can significantly reduce contamination at a key entry point, thereby resulting in more reliable access to international markets as well as reducing the levels of aflatoxins entering local food systems via informal markets. To ensure optimal impact, the introduction of new technology should be accompanied by systematic changes, such as buying and storing nuts in shell and improving storage practices.While interventions along the value chain can greatly reduce levels of aflatoxins in formal and informal human food chains, evidence from more regulated value chains suggests some level of contamination may still occur. For example, in 2012 the US maize crop had higher than usual levels of aflatoxin contamination as a result of unusually hot and dry growing conditions. Similar problems occurred in in Germany and Holland in 2013 when milk was found to be contaminated with M1 aflatoxin. The incident, traced to maize grown within the EU, was detected and managed by following standard EU testing procedures. Even if developing countries improve aflatoxin management along their supply chains, the limited testing, consumer awareness, and market regulation in these countries is likely to result in exposure to unsafe levels of aflatoxins, especially among the food insecure.In order to reduce risk for vulnerable communities in the absence of market regulation, there is a need for innovative, safe, and economically viable uses for contaminated products to be developed in combination with programs to raise awareness. In the case of contaminated groundnuts, the production of groundnut oil is an example of the potential to convert high-risk stock into a safe value-added product. Groundnut oil has been identified by Malawi's National Export Strategy as a key regional export and import-substitution product in the country's effort to diversify from tobacco dependency. Once contaminated nuts have been pressed into oil, a simple filtration process that removes protein can significantly reduce aflatoxins to safe levels. This results in both a nutritious product and access to value-added markets for crops that would otherwise be considered waste-or irresponsibly dumped on local markets. Groundnut oil is a high-value product in demand both locally and internationally, with global production doubling over the past 30 years. Pilot crushing programs and market research are underway in Malawi to better assess the profitability of largescale pressing facilities.The waste product of pressing groundnuts for oil, known as press cake, can be treated with clay for safe use in animal feed. The contaminated press cake is added to normal feed and mixed with clay, which binds with the toxin while the food is digested by livestock. Clay feed additives are already used extensively in the United States and the EU as anti-caking agents to improve the physical properties of feed. That these additives increase health benefits to the animals by binding aflatoxins further strengthens the economic case for the inclusion of the clay. Establishing alternative uses for aflatoxin-contaminated groundnuts reduces waste and prevents dangerous products from entering the food systems of poor and marginalized people. It also provides both access to new markets and more consistent access to value-added international markets, thereby increasing farmer incomes.Currently, there is limited quality grading or price differential for groundnuts sold on Malawi's markets. With little price incentive to produce higher quality products, smallholders consequently choose not to invest their time, energy, and resources in producing quality nuts. Most smallholders also have low awareness levels of the health implications of aflatoxins. Higher awareness may act as an incentive for farmers to change their practices to protect their families and communities. However, even farmers aware of the risks do not have access to affordable, rapid aflatoxin testing equipment to assess quality at either the farm gate or buying station. Therefore, alternative indicators can be used to assess the risk of aflatoxin exposure, such as quality of grading and the presence of moldy nuts.One viable alternative to testing for aflatoxins is testing moisture content using low-cost portable meters. Twin and NASFAM are piloting a buying system in which smallholders receive a bonus for selling groundnuts with low moisture content. Financial incentives that encourage good drying practices can significantly reduce aflatoxin contamination because fungal growth on groundnuts stops when the moisture content falls below 7 percent. The costs of the bonus scheme are offset by weight savings made at the point of purchase and in transport costs because dry nuts are lighter than wet nuts. Furthermore, by investing at this point in the supply chain, producer cooperatives and processors, who shoulder most of the risk of containers being rejected due to safety regulations in the EU and elsewhere, can more reliably identify products acceptable to international markets.The complex nature of aflatoxin contamination means a holistic and multidisciplinary approach is required in order to change pre-and postharvest practices. Furthermore, developing innovative market mechanisms to remove aflatoxins from the human food chain may bring sustainability and scale to these interventions. The entire supply chain needs to share the cost of interventions to control and manage aflatoxins, as smallholders-the poorest in the supply chaincannot bear this financial burden alone. Expertise from a variety of stakeholders must come together to develop and coordinate a system-and industry-wide response to the problem of aflatoxins in smallholder value chains. Agricultural researchers, public health and nutrition practitioners, technical farmer trainers, trading and farmer organizations, and ultimately the companies that purchase the products all have a part to play. Without such a concerted effort, smallholders will continue to lack the necessary incentives and capacity to respond adequately to market demands and thus to compete in the global marketplace.Working within market realities and taking a sector-wide approach is essential to addressing the issue of aflatoxin control. Agricultural, health, nutritional, and value chain experts need to work together to:• raise awareness of the public health impacts of consuming unsafe food,• improve drying, sorting, and storage both on-farm and throughout the value chain,• provide training and access to equipment to change inappropriate practices, such as by facilitating access to mechanical shellers to stop hand shelling, and A flatoxins are a major concern for the World Food Programme (WFP). The organization procured more than 2.1 million metric tons of mixed commodities from international markets in 2012, including 417,000 metric tons of maize grain and approximately 49,000 metric tons of maize meal. The WFP ranks both commodities as \"risky\" due to the safety threat posed by aflatoxin contamination. Maize products are deemed less risky than other commodities such as groundnut-based ready-to-eat foods, which in addition to presenting microbiological risks also target the most vulnerable. But given that maize products are widely used commodities within WFP programs, the organization gives the threat of aflatoxins in maize particular attention.In 2012, 77 percent of the WFP's food procurement came from developing countries (OECD 2013). In order to guarantee that food goods are fit for human consumption, WFP uses independent inspection services to perform end-product testing prior to taking ownership. In 2012, over 388,000 metric tons of maize and 33,000 metric tons of maize meal purchased in Africa had an aflatoxin content that did not exceed the WFP's specification of 20 parts per billion (ppb). With WFP increasingly sourcing locally the food that it distributes, the organization is focusing on addressing food safety and food quality issues upstream. Proper supplier management and support lead to a drastic reduction in the rejection of food by ensuring that the product is up to general safety standards and, particularly, is below tolerated aflatoxin levels.Purchase for Progress (P4P) is a pilot program that integrates WFP's food purchasing power with the technical expertise of other partners and uses farmer organizations to help connect smallholder/ low-income farmers to markets to help raise their incomes. Under P4P over 64,000 metric tons of maize were purchased in 2012 from smallholder farmers from regions in Africa prone to high aflatoxin levels. Yet in 2010 WFP rejected two sets of consignments in Kenya as well as large quantities of India-sourced maize due to high levels of aflatoxins (with levels reaching up to 110 ppb). Following those outbreaks, WFP issued a guidance note that emphasized mandatory aflatoxin testing ands introduced a Standard Operating Procedure for sampling and testing maize grain at the farm gate.Since then WFP has actively worked to reduce aflatoxin levels through the promotion of good practices. It has offered, through various partners, training across 12 P4P countries, covering practical aspects of postharvest handling (drying, sorting, storage, transport, etc.) and quality control (inspection and testing), thereby building a preventive approach to food quality and safety, particularly in regard to aflatoxins. The WFP, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich, published a standardized manual, the P4P Training Manual for Improving Grain Postharvest Handling and Storage, which sets out the best training materials and methods. Available in both English and French, this user-friendly manual addresses the specific needs of smallholder farmers and provides instructions for trainers.WFP is also committed to playing a greater role in terms of preinspection with the development of cost-effective solutions for food testing in the field. The Blue Box-a portable 18-gallon aluminium box containing grain-testing tools-allows for on-thespot screening of food quality parameters and grading at any stage of the supply chain, be it at the farmer, processor, or inspection and procurement levels. The Blue Box was first developed for farmers in Guatemala at a time when WFP was purchasing locally produced fortified blended foods that used ingredients, including maize, sourced locally from smallholder farmers. A first inspection of maize in 2007 led to the rejection of cargos due to non-compliant kernel size. With the rollout of P4P, limiting food rejection became an important focus combining early detection (via Blue Box) and early prevention (via postharvest training). Early detection of suitable lots results in a reduction of rejected consignments and leads to significant savings for the farmers, who do not have to bear unnecessary transport costs. Various parameters can lead to the rejection of an entire lot, and not just for aflatoxin contamination. Parameters controlled for include moisture, defective grains (such as for broken or discolored kernels, mold or insect damage, or extraneous material), and aflatoxin levels.In areas lacking basic infrastructure, such as in conflict zones, the Blue Box can provide an interim solution that permits WFP to continue operating and procuring locally. In South Sudan, for instance, the absence of inspection services and analytical capacity has resulted in maize samples being shipped to other countries with appropriate equipment for aflatoxin control. On top of the extra cost incurred, the extended lead time for receiving analysis results was also counterproductive, keeping local suppliers from completing transactions in a day. To overcome this situation, WFP's Sudan Country Office provided the government with Blue Boxes to assist them in grading and performing safety controls.By boosting quality control practices, the Blue Box can help private operators enter markets with more rigorous standards. In Mali, where no legislation regarding aflatoxins exists, WFP's market was targeted by Moulins du Sahel (MdS), a well-established local private processor. High aflatoxin levels, up to 400 ppb, prohibited the procurement of maize by WFP in 2011. The next year MdS decided to use the Blue Box for verifying aflatoxin levels in incoming maize and identifying lots below 20 ppb, which allowed sales to WFP to finally proceed.The Blue Box is also widely used by WFP procurement officers. In Burkina-Faso for example, joint WFP missions with P4P and procurement officers aim at minimizing food rejection by screening farmer organizations. Commodity quality controls are integrated into the market research phase, and the selection of grain suppliers is not solely based on price. The Blue Box is used to determine the level of aflatoxins in harvested grains and to identify those meeting WFP contractual specifications. Training of WFP officers provided by the Blue Box supplier also provides the opportunity to bring other key players, such as food inspectors and food suppliers, to the table, thereby contributing to the mutual acceptance of WFP requirements regarding aflatoxin levels and detection means.Initially developed for farmers, the Blue Box has surprisingly found many applications and users along the supply chain. One reason behind its success is that the Blue Box offers a set of tools that controls parameters directly influencing the price paid to the farmer or even if the consignment is accepted or rejected. However, aflatoxin testing has not been embraced by all. Farmer organizations often find the absence of electricity, the cost per test, and the inconsistent availability of batteries and other consumable Blue Box components to be inhibiting. In response, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has developed a fast, simple, and affordable test kit-a solution that can reduce costs from US$6 down to $1 per sample tested. Receiving the most praise has been the moisture meter, as moisture is often a key pricedetermining criterion. This portable battery-run device also provides an excellent precautionary check for aflatoxins.WFP's presence in local markets provides a platform to raise awareness about aflatoxins and food quality. Working with governments, farmers' organizations, and suppliers, WFP can stimulate and support improvements in food quality. The above efforts, combined with WFP's procurement standards, have helped create a spill-over effect of practices enhancing food quality in the markets where WFP operates. Many traders made investments in quality assurance equipment, such as drying and cleaning equipment, in order to meet WFP standards, thereby opening up additional export opportunities (WFP 2013;Wagacha and Muthhomi 2008).As a major purchaser, WFP plays a leading role in piloting innovative approaches. Its one-two approach of pre-inspection coupled with preventive measures has led to positive results, as shown by local procurement figures for maize products. Switching from end-product testing to preventive measures, not only for aflatoxins but for quality and safety parameters in general, is one area in which WFP can increase cooperation with local authorities and influence policy design and execution. This is already occurring. WFP supports appropriate entities in setting up laboratories and works closely with inspection bodies. In parallel, cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is leading to guidance for the design of mycotoxin sampling plans and the interpretation of results. WFP, with its extensive presence in the field and its growing involvement at various levels of the supply chain, is thus an interface that transmits innovative approaches and tools developed for the management of aflatoxins. In the field, WFP provides technical support and rigorous follow up, helping to ensure that preventive approaches are adopted to secure food quality.Stéphane Méaux (stephane.meaux@wfp.org) is a programme officer in the Food Safety & Quality unit, World Food Programme (WFP), Rome. Eleni Pantiora (eleni.pantiora@wfp.org) is a food safety expert in the Food Safety & Quality unit, WFP, Rome. Sheryl Schneider (sheryl.schneider@wfp. org) is a programme officer in the P4P unit, WFP, Guatemala.T his brief overviews the Aflacontrol project, a multidisciplinary effort from 2009 to 2012 that sought to provide empirical evidence of the cost-effectiveness of aflatoxin risk-reduction strategies along maize and groundnut value chains. The project aimed to assess the potential for farmers, consumers, processors, and traders to uptake and adopt these control strategies and interventions.Data on aflatoxin levels in maize sampled were collected from 2009 to 2011 at different points along the value chain-at pre-harvest, in storage (at 15-to 30-day intervals), and monthly in selected markets-from three regions of Kenya: Upper Eastern, Lower Eastern, and South Western. Examining maize in Kenya, Mahuku et al. (2011) found a greater than expected prevalence of aflatoxins at levels that were well above the legal limit of ten parts per billion (ppb). Though Eastern Kenya is where the highly publicized deaths associated with aflatoxicosis occurred in 2004, a huge variation of aflatoxin levels above ten ppb was also found in farmers' fields and stores in Western Kenya. Furthermore, the proportion of maize with aflatoxin levels greater than ten ppb was higher in farmers' stores and markets, suggesting that current practices for drying and storing maize do not adequately minimize exposure to aflatoxins.Groundnut samples were also collected at the same intervals from three regions in Mali-Kayes, Kita, and Kolokani-and aflatoxin prevalence levels were analyzed. Waliyar et al. (2011) found aflatoxin levels in the fields greater than 20 ppb in over 33 percent of the total sample across the study regions. Furthermore, aflatoxin levels in Kenya increased in storage and in the markets, suggesting that, as with maize, current groundnut drying and storage practices are inadequate.Based on this prevalence data, the project used a probabilistic framework to develop baseline risk assessment models that focused on pre-and postharvest prevalence as well as actions that individuals might take at home to reduce aflatoxin prevalence. The output was used to analyze cost-effectiveness. As there were limited data on the effectiveness of implementing control measures in Africa, an expert elicitation was administered to a panel to provide guidance on the potential effectiveness of selected measures to reduce aflatoxin risk for maize and groundnuts. The findings were combined with cost data on different storage methods from unpublished data from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and estimated costs of biocontrol from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in order to facilitate the costeffectiveness analysis (Narrod et al. 2011a(Narrod et al. , 2011b)).To assess the cost-effectiveness of combinations of aflatoxin control options, we combined the output of the risk assessment with a cost-effectiveness analysis for a select group of pre-and postharvest technologies. The preliminary findings suggest that treatments that reduce prevalence the most are more costly. When considered in combination, however, groups of less-costly treatments emerged as cost-effective alternatives to single, more expensive options. The differences depended not only on stated costs and revealed effectiveness, but also on the considered option's lifespan (that is, how often it must be repurchased). In the case of maize, for instance, a few low-cost options that need to be replaced on a regular or semiregular basis, such as drying on tarp, were found to be cost-effective, as were more expensive options with longer life spans, such as plastic and metal silos. The lifespan of the biocontrol option is not sufficiently known, yet it is a key factor in determining its cost-effectiveness. The analysis assumed a lifespan of one year, which meant that the full cost of applying this option was borne within a single growing/harvesting cycle, making the approach non-cost-effective. If in reality the lifespan is longer (that is, the treatment does not have to be repeated every year), then biocontrol could be a cost-effective approach. Findings from the cost-effectiveness analysis need to be interpreted with care until both good experimental data on the effectiveness of various measures in the context of Africa and a better understanding of the lifespan of the various methods are available to provide us a true understanding of their costs.Our interest in the types of household practices that might reduce aflatoxin levels led us to conduct focus group interviews followed by household surveys in 2010-2011 (Bett et al. 2011;Hellin et al. 2011;Ndjeunga et al. 2011;Tiongco et al. 2011a). We found that basic knowledge of aflatoxins was extremely low in both countries (Narrod et al. 2011c(Narrod et al. , 2011d)). Households in the drylands of Kenya, where aflatoxicosis outbreaks occurred in 2004, had a higher perception of risk, as expected, but low knowledge on the actions needed to minimize exposure to aflatoxins. These observations suggest that a lack of understanding of the problem contributes to poor control of aflatoxins in that region. The survey also showed that most farmers who had heard of aflatoxins obtained that information from local language radio broadcasts and from extension workers. Preliminary research findings suggest that being involved in selling maize has no effect in terms of action to reduce aflatoxin risk in Kenya. Mali households that are more market oriented (that is, sell more than 25 percent of their production) seem to be more likely to take action to ensure better crop management and to mitigate risk by using better storage facilities.The survey also looked into the influence of behavioral factors on an individual's adoption of strategies to reduce aflatoxin risk. A contingent-valuation method was used to capture the willingness of farmers and other value chain actors to pay for aflatoxin control technologies. Based on preliminary research, Tiongco et al. ( 2011cReducing Aflatoxins in Africa's Crops: Experiences from the Aflacontrol Project CLARE NARROD Focus 20 • Brief 10 • November 2013 and 2011d) conclude that producers in both Kenya and Mali with more assets were hypothetically more willing to pay for aflatoxin risk-reducing technologies. It is thus important to know what types of information would be needed to get farmers with limited resources to adopt aflatoxin reducing strategies. Furthermore, their findings suggest that in the drylands of Kenya, where outbreaks of aflatoxicosis have occurred, respondents were more willing than those in other regions to pay for improved seeds as well as for tarpaulins and metal silos for drying and storing grain.Furthermore, about half those surveyed in Kenya reported taking maize home to dry on tarpaulins, which would limit direct exposure of the maize to dirt. Such exposure is problematic because aflatoxins are a toxic substance emitted by fungi that are abundant in agricultural soil in the tropics. Given that poor postharvest practices and storage conditions are also known to increase aflatoxin prevalence, we asked a number of additional questions concerning postharvest practices. About 30 percent reported leaving maize uncovered in the fields, and the most common reported storage practices were either using a room in the house or an improved granary with a wooden wall (Bett et al. 2011). In Mali nearly half of those surveyed reported drying groundnuts in large piles in the field. As in Kenya, few Malian farmers used storage structures; of those that did, traditional granaries were the most common.Given that aflatoxins can be neither smelled nor tasted and that a laboratory test is needed to determine whether the levels in a product exceed the safety threshold, in the household survey experimental auctions were used for maize and groundnuts certified as being free of aflatoxins (De Groote et al. 2011). Preliminary analyses of collected data suggested that consumers are willing to pay a slight premium for maize labeled \"tested\" and also that the premium was positively associated with increased schooling and was higher in affected regions. Preliminary results in Mali found people were also willing to pay a premium for groundnuts tested and labeled free of aflatoxins (see Tiongco et al. 2011 b). However, in both cases the premium did not cover the cost of off-the-shelf low-cost testing methods. Currently the typical field-based test methods cost around US$5-7 per test and require expensive chemical readers that cost around $4,000. Because of the costs and complexity of testing for aflatoxins, testing in much of the developing world is therefore limited to commercial establishments and is nonexistent in rural areas.These findings suggest that rural people still know little about the harmful effects of aflatoxins and ways to reduce it. Though there are currently initiatives that aim to control aflatoxins in developing countries, gaps remain in our understanding of both what will work in a developing country context and whether food-insecure individuals will alter their behavior if given improved information about aflatoxins. Further, as very few of the existing risk reduction methods have actually been deployed in developing countries under nonexperimental methods or nonsubsidized studies, there are still gaps in our understanding of which methods will lead to widespread voluntary adoption by rural populations. Effective low-cost testing methods that will work under rural conditions in developing countries are needed.To be effective in the long term, aflatoxin risk reduction efforts in developing countries need to also be directed at (1) educating families, farmers, stakeholders along the value chain as well as governments about the health risks associated with mycotoxins and the social and economic costs of reducing this risk; (2) reducing the risk of aflatoxins and other harmful mycotoxins by the application of appropriate agricultural practices; (3) investing in local capacity to support further activities both to reduce mycotoxins in agricultural products and to monitor mycotoxin levels in crops and the local population; and (4) providing the tools (data and risk management capacity) for locally driven policy reform that creates an effective regulatory environment to ensure domestic food safety in rural and urban areas and also facilitates trade opportunities in the region.M any interventions have been developed to reduce aflatoxins or their adverse effects on human health. Often not considered, however, is the likelihood that these strategies will be adopted in the countries that need them most-where aflatoxin-related risks are highest. This brief summarizes two aspects crucial to the adoption of new technologies and methods: the costs and the efficacy of the different interventions. This brief categorizes aflatoxin risk-reduction strategies into preharvest, postharvest, dietary, and clinical settings, and summarizes the costs and efficacy of each strategy in reducing either aflatoxins in food or their adverse impacts in the body.Because most mycotoxin problems begin and develop in the field, strategies are needed to prevent toxigenic fungi from infecting growing plants. Developing genetic resistance to Aspergilli in maize and groundnuts is a high priority (Cleveland et al. 2003).A number of resistant inbred maize lines have been identified (Maupin et al. 2003). Sources of resistance to each of these pathogens have been identified and incorporated into public and private breeding programs, and have also been extended to include germplasm lines from Africa (Brown et al. 2001). Potential biochemical markers and genetic-resistance markers have been identified in crops, particularly in maize, which are now used as selectable markers in breeding for resistance to aflatoxin contamination (Chen et al. 2007). Now that the sequencing of the A. flavus genome has been completed and genes that potentially encode for enzymes involved in aflatoxin production have been identified, genomics as a tool for combating aflatoxin biosynthesis has gained ground (Yu et al. 2008). Similar efforts have been made in groundnuts (Holbrook et al. 2006).Transgenic crops may also play a role in reducing preharvest aflatoxin accumulation. Insect damage is one factor that predisposes maize to mycotoxin contamination because insect herbivory creates kernel wounds that encourage fungal colonization and insects themselves serve as vectors of fungal spores (Munkvold et al. 1999). Bt maize contains a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which encodes for crystalline proteins that are toxic to certain members of the insect order Lepidoptera. Earlier Bt events showed only mixed success in controlling aflatoxins in a variety of studies (Wu 2007).Biocontrol of aflatoxins refers to the use of organisms to reduce the incidence of Aspergilli in susceptible crops so as to reduce aflatoxin contamination. The most widely used biocontrol method employs atoxigenic strains of Aspergilli that can competitively exclude toxigenic strains from colonizing crops. These biocontrol methods have been used in maize, groundnuts, and cottonseed worldwide (Dorner et al. 1999;Cotty et al. 2007;Atehnkeng et al. 2008).Cultural practices-including crop rotation, tillage, timing of planting, and management of irrigation and fertilization-can also help to prevent Aspergillus infection and subsequent aflatoxin accumulation by reducing plant stress (Munkvold 2003). Ultimately, a combination of preharvest strategies, as described above, may be needed to adequately prevent mycotoxin contamination in the field (Cleveland et al. 2003).Postharvest aflatoxin accumulation remains a threat in developing countries. Hence, knowledge of the key critical control points during the harvesting, drying, and storage stages in the cereal production chain are essential in developing effective prevention strategies postharvest (Magan and Aldred 2007). Possible intervention strategies include good agricultural and storage practices-including early harvesting, proper drying, sanitation, proper storage, and insect management, among others (Wagacha and Muthomi 2008). This also holds for tree nuts such as pistachios, which have experienced a dramatic drop in aflatoxin reduction in Iran due to improved drying and storage conditions over the past decade (Wu 2008).An effective way to remove existing aflatoxin contamination is by sorting aflatoxin-contaminated kernels from relatively cleaner ones. This can be done by either simple physical methods (such as handsorting) or flotation and density segregation methods (Kabak et al. 2006). After sorting, steps to further reduce aflatoxin risk include controlling moisture levels in stored crops, temperature, and insect pests and rodents. Combinations of these methods to reduce postharvest aflatoxins have been tested for efficacy in rural village conditions. Turner et al. (2005) describe a postharvest intervention package to reduce aflatoxins in groundnuts that was tested in Guinea. The package consisted of education on hand-sorting nuts, natural-fiber mats for drying the nuts, education on proper sun drying, natural-fiber bags for storage, wooden pallets on which to store bags, and insecticides applied to storage floors.A variety of dietary interventions can reduce aflatoxin-related health risks. One simple dietary intervention, where feasible, is to consume less maize and groundnuts in favor of other food crops that have significantly lower aflatoxin contamination, such as rice, sorghum, and pearl millet (Bandyopadhyay et al. 2007;Chen et al. 2013). Where it is not easy to make such a dietary shift, however (such as where maize and groundnuts have traditionally been staples), other dietary interventions may prove helpful.One class of dietary interventions involves adsorption of aflatoxins. Adsorbent compounds, such as NovaSil clay (NS), can prevent aflatoxicosis in many animal species when included in their diet. They do so by binding aflatoxins with high affinity and high capacity in the GI tract (Phillips et al. 2008). Green tea polyphenols (GTPs) have been shown to inhibit chemically-induced cancers in animal and epidemiological studies (Fujiki et al. 2002). Chlorophyllin sequesters aflatoxins during the digestive process and hence impedes its absorption (Egner et al. 2001).A variety of substances have the potential to reduce aflatoxininduced liver cancer by inducing phase 2 enzymes that convert aflatoxins' carcinogenic metabolite into a less harmful form that can be excreted (Kensler et al. 2005).There is recent evidence that some lactic acid bacteria have the ability to bind aflatoxin B1 (Hernandez-Mendoza et al. 2009). Hence, inclusion of culturally appropriate fermented foods in the diet may be a feasible method of partially reducing aflatoxin risk. Other methods of food processing, such as extrusion processing at temperatures greater than 150 degrees Celsius, can moderately reduce aflatoxins and other mycotoxins (Bullerman and Bianchini 2007).Vaccinating children against the hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been shown to significantly decrease HBV infection (Zanetti et al. 2008). Though having no impact on actual aflatoxin levels in diets, the vaccine reduces aflatoxin-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by lowering HBV risk, thereby preventing the synergistic impact of HBV and aflatoxins in inducing liver cancer. Khlangwiset and Wu (2010) have summarized the costeffectiveness information for different interventions to reduce aflatoxin-induced adverse health effects. These findings are summarized below and placed in the context of usefulness in resource-poor settings.Estimates hold that aflatoxin-resistance breeding in crops can reduce aflatoxins up to 70 percent in groundnuts in both high-and low-income nations, where the cost would be calculated in terms of research and development while the benefits would be reaped by growers. Transgenic Bt maize has been shown in various studies to be cost-effective in reducing aflatoxins and other mycotoxins, but this option is not feasible in many parts of the world-including most African nations-where transgenic crops are not approved for commercialization. Costs of biocontrol methods have a range of US$42-79/hectare, and depending upon the severity of aflatoxin contamination in a given year, could range from hardly any aflatoxin reduction to reductions of up to 80 percent under preharvest conditions. Unless subsidized, the costs would most likely be borne by growers, who would also reap the benefits of aflatoxin reduction. The feasibility of biocontrol use would depend upon biosafety regulations in nations as well as the ability to harness local resources to develop and maintain biocontrol strains. Irrigation and insecticide use can also effectively reduce aflatoxin levels in crops and generally meet with regulatory approval. Simple postharvest interventions to improve drying and storage conditions of food crops can be a cost-effective way to reduce aflatoxin contamination in resource-poor settings.Dietary interventions to reduce adverse effects of aflatoxins in the human body are less definitive in terms of costs and effectiveness in reducing harmful effects. While NS, green tea polyphenols, chlorophyllin, and other dietary constituents have been shown to reduce aflatoxin bioavailability or markers of adverse effects in animals and humans, less information is available regarding how much constitutes an \"effective\" dose, how frequently they must be taken to effectively reduce risk, how they should be formulated for consumption, and hence what the accompanying costs and efficacies are. Moreover, their acceptability in different parts of the world where populations are at high risk of aflatoxin exposure would depend upon the specific cultural context.This brief has sought both to describe the scientific knowledge base (efficacies) and economic factors (costs and stakeholders) concerning aflatoxin risk-reduction strategies that could be deployed worldwide and to highlight the importance of economic feasibility. Policymakers can use this information to decide (1) whether the benefits (market and health) outweigh the costs of implementing the strategies; and (2) if so, then which stakeholders would pay the costs and which would benefit in the long run, to resolve potential mismatches in economic incentives (Wu et al. 2008). This information can also help researchers who are developing further aflatoxin control strategies to roughly position their interventions among various existing strategies in terms of economic feasibility.Understanding the costs, efficacy, and affected stakeholders of different aflatoxin control interventions could potentially help decision-makers-be they government policymakers or farmers or consumers-to optimally allocate resources, with the ultimate aim of improving public health. A ccording to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, countries can choose their own Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Standards (SPS) to protect human, animal, and plant health as long as they are nondiscriminatory and justifiable by science. This discretion has resulted in regulations that can serve as a significant barrier to trade, as revealed by numerous disputes within the WTO (Josling, Roberts, and Orden 2004).Aflatoxin regulations have attracted notice for their potential role in restricting trade. For example, total peanut meal imports by European Union (EU) countries fell from more than one million tons in the mid-1970s to just 200,000-400,000 tons annually after 1982, the year mycotoxin regulations were first tightened in the EU. In 2002, the EU further tightened standards, leading to concern about the impact on exports from Africa. Two groundbreaking papers on the trade impact of aflatoxin regulations (Otsuki et al. 2001a(Otsuki et al. , 2001b) examined cereals and groundnuts, respectively. Their large estimates of the negative effects of aflatoxin regulations on African trade (greater than US$750 million dollars annually in the two trades combined) received much attention. Even UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, at the time, cited these numbers when he called for a balance between the potential public health benefits of stringent aflatoxin standards and the economic pain that African countries experienced as a result.For several reasons, however, assessing the effects of SPS standards is extremely difficult. First, standards can vary in intensity, which can be difficult to measure. In this context, aflatoxin regulations are somewhat easier to measure since they are specified as parts per billion (ppb) and hence do directly measure the intensity of product standards. A restriction of 4 ppb is clearly more restrictive than 20 ppb and is likely to create a bigger trade barrier. Second, standards do not change often and do not change across exporters to any particular market. Empirical estimations produce robust results only when there is sufficient variation in the data to identify the effects of one variable on the other. Hence, many studies have focused on the significant changes implemented in the EU in the early 2000s. Finally, as other factors influence trade over time, it can be difficult to isolate the impact of standards on trade in any given commodity market.Given these difficulties in measuring the impact of standards on trade, it is not surprising that the findings of subsequent research on the impact of aflatoxin regulations have been more mixed than those reported in the two papers by Otsuki et al. Using a different empirical model and ex post data, Xiong and Beghin (2012) show that the tightened EU regulations did not significantly further reduce African groundnut exports, contradicting the ex-ante analysis of Otsuki et al (2001b). Furthermore, based on interceptions data (export rejections at the border), Diaz Rios and Jaffee (2008) argue that the contamination levels from many exporters are much higher than the limits imposed by European standards. The variations in standards, therefore, do not alter trade because contamination levels are usually so high that many exporters would find it difficult to meet even less-restrictive standards. This means that while standards are a potential barrier to trade, relatively small changes in standards may not visibly impact trade.The maize market also provides evidence on the market losses from aflatoxin regulations. Maize, one of the most highly traded staples, is highly prone to aflatoxin contamination. Thailand was regularly ranked among the top five maize exporters during the 1970s and 1980s. But partly due to aflatoxin problems, Thai maize is regularly sold at a discount, having cost Thailand about $50 million per year in lost export value (Tangthirasunan 1998). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the direct costs of mycotoxin contamination of maize and peanuts in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines) has amounted to several hundred million dollars annually (Bhat and Vasanthi 1999). More recently, preliminary results of research by Munasib and Roy (2011) suggest that a 10 percent increase in the gap between standards of importers and exporters is associated with as much as a 4.4 percent decline in maize exports from lowincome countries.One issue is just how big the differences in standards may be. Considering a set of 48 countries with established limits for total aflatoxins in food, Dohlman (2003) found that standards varied widely, ranging from 0 to 50 parts per billion. Preliminary research by Munasib and Roy (2011) suggests that maize regulations in different countries have become increasingly stringent over time. The EU harmonized its regulations in 2002, and members joining since then have been required to apply these new regulations. In the Czech Republic, for example, the permissible limits on aflatoxins went down to 2 ppb from 5 ppb when it joined the EU in 2004. Hence, both the harmonization of standards in 2002 as well as the entry of new members into the EU implies that globally the average level of regulation related to aflatoxins has increased. It can thus be expected that standards will play a growing role in restricting trade.More than a decade has passed since the implementation of harmonization by the EU. African exports of groundnut products had already declined to modest levels before this harmonization, and fluctuations in trade over the last decade cannot be directly associated with these recent changes in European standards (Figure 1). African exports, particularly of groundnuts, experienced a secular decline since the 1970s because of several other factors, including changes in preferences in importing countries and increases in domestic demand in Africa. African exports were declining anyway, and African exporters who were unable to meet the new higher standards in 2002 would likely not have met the earlier less restrictive standards either.Standards remain a potentially important barrier to trade, and meeting them is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for market access for many exporters in low-income countries. Reducing domestic levels of contamination and improving effective standards domestically in low-income countries could set the stage for greater market access for exports. Improving domestic standards (in line with health and other benefits) could reduce the SPS barrier for exporting countries and increase exports of aflatoxin-affected products.  1 9 6 4 1 9 6 7 1 9 7 0 1 9 7 3 1 9 7 6 1 9 7 9 1 9 8 2 1 9 8 5 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 7 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 9East Africa Southern Africa Central Africa West Africa North AfricaSource: Author's calculation, 2012.The high correlation (r = 0.99) reveals the reliability of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect and quantify aflatoxins in breeding programs.A flatoxin contamination of food commodities poses major challenges to both public health and trade. It remains a global problem in part because of the attention given to it over the past decades has been insufficient both quantitatively and qualitatively. Reducing aflatoxin contamination in a sustainable manner requires a new approach. What is required is a holistic understanding of the public health, social, market, and technological dimensions of the problem in order to construct effective solutions. This brief focuses on one of the key aspects of any solution for reducing public health and trade risks due to aflatoxin contamination: the setting and implementation of internationally agreed standards.The Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and implemented through the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), establishes international standards, guidelines, and codes of practice that provide a basis for food safety management in all countries. Codex standards are explicitly recognized by the World Trade Organization as the reference for food safety in international trade. Several Codex texts refer specifically to the management of food safety risks due to aflatoxin contamination. Effective national programs for reducing aflatoxin contamination require an awareness of these international standards and how they are developed, an adequate regulatory framework that enables implementation and enforcement of relevant standards, and the necessary support to facilitate uptake of good practices by value chain operators.FAO and WHO provide neutral and independent scientific advice that serves as the foundation of Codex's work. Based on the risk assessments of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JECFA), a number of Codex standards on mycotoxins have been developed, including standards for the maximum levels for aflatoxins in a number of commodities and codes of practice for preventing contamination.Codex maximum levels (MLs) for aflatoxins in food or feed are the maximum concentration recommended by the CAC to be permitted in that commodity. These MLs are an important tool that both regulators and industry can use to demonstrate that levels of aflatoxin present in a commodity do not exceed tolerable risk. Codex establishes MLs on the basis of assessments carried out by JECFA that determine both population risk for given exposures to aflatoxins over a lifetime and the difference in the levels of public health protection afforded by different regulatory scenarios. In carrying out its evaluation, JECFA considers all available information regarding: the toxicity of the contaminant; the levels and patterns of contamination at various stages of production, handling, and marketing; and the dietary exposure of the population, including consideration of subpopulations that might be particularly vulnerable. Given the variability in production systems-both within and among countries-it is important that data reflecting the range of realities be considered when arriving at conclusions on tolerable levels that then become the objective determinant of acceptability of consignments on the market.It is essential that more developing countries recognize the value of contributing to setting global standards by generating data that reflects the realities of their national context. For example, FAO and WHO are currently working with the governments of Sudan, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Mali to generate data on levels and patterns of mycotoxin contamination in sorghum to contribute to deliberations within the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods. Strengthening the technical capacities within developing countries to generate, collect, and analyze reliable data on the public health and economic impacts of aflatoxin contamination and to communicate effectively with policymakers on related riskmanagement options would enable these countries to take a more proactive role in determining priorities for setting Codex standards. A 2010 FAO report noted that the organization's Codex-related capacity-development program had so far succeeded in improving the involvement of developing countries in decisionmaking within Codex but less so in \"decision-shaping.\"As outlined in the previous section, MLs are essential regulatory tools for protecting public health. It is widely recognized, however, that reliance on testing is an inefficient and ineffective approach to the control of food contaminants (FAO 2003(FAO , 2008)). In particular, aflatoxin contamination is notoriously heterogeneous, which increases the difficulty of estimating true contamination levels of affected lots. Adopting good practices at all stages of the food chain to minimize infection by toxigenic molds and the accumulation of mycotoxin contamination is the best way to reduce levels of these fungal toxins in the food supply.Recognizing this, Codex has placed emphasis on the development of Codes of Practice to guide countries in the adoption of good practices-both pre-and postharvest-in order to prevent contamination. These Codex codes are developed through expert input and are based on available evidence of hazard reduction or hazard accumulation at various points of the food chain for different production systems. The plurality of Codex guarantees an opportunity for all countries to ensure that these Codes are relevant to their particular national situation; harnessing that opportunity requires a commitment from countries to participate effectively within the Codex \"system.\" problem of aflatoxin contamination requires that countries actually adopt Codex MLs into national legislation and also that they adapt Codes of Practice to the local context to facilitate uptake of good practices by value-chain operators. Countries may adopt standards that differ from Codex recommendations if such action can be justified by a risk assessment and if the same level of protection applies to imports as well as to local production. Effective regulatory oversight to ensure that foods reaching the market are within established regulatory limits depends on the political will both to develop technical capacities and facilities in the country and to provide the financial resources necessary to run monitoring and surveillance programs. Furthermore, modern food control systems are based on the notion that the producers, traders, processors, and retailers have the primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of the foods they market by implementing the necessary controls at all stages of the food chain. Governments cannot address the problem of mycotoxin contamination without considering the question of how food businesses can be enabled to operate profitably while being in compliance with existing codes and limits.Little will be gained by countries establishing food safety regulations that can neither be implemented by industry nor enforced by regulators. Key then is to determine when it is appropriate to make a requirement less stringent and when it is imperative to set ambitious goals for raising critical capacities that allow necessary requirements to be met.In many countries, an impact assessment of regulations is an integral part of the process for proposing new or revised regulation. The high public health burden caused by aflatoxin contamination adds great urgency for governments to raise their country's respective capacities to meet internationally agreed-upon regulation. In many developing countries diets of the poor and vulnerable tend to be less varied than diets of more affluent consumers. Consumption of staples, such as maize, that are susceptible to aflatoxin contamination is much higher in some developing countries. For example annual per capita consumption of maize in Lesotho is 150 kg compared to only 1 kg in Sweden. This fact, along with the efficacy of aflatoxin control programs, contributes to the observation that while aflatoxin exposure in Africa ranges from 10 to 180 ng/kg body weight/day, exposures in Europe and North America range from 0 to 4 and from 0.26 to 1, respectively. Correlated factors render the public health implications in Africa even more serious (Liu and Wu 2010). If the only consideration was public health, logic would support the promotion of more-stringent aflatoxin control in some low income, less developed countries.This brief underlines the fundamental role of Codex standards and well-functioning systems of food control in reducing population exposure and related public health and trade risks associated with aflatoxin contamination. There are a number of requirements to creating sound regulatory frameworks at both the international and national levels:• Broad international commitment to contributing to the work of Codex is required to ensure that these international standards that are the reference for food safety in international trade fully consider the realities of production systems in developing countries.• \"Rational\" support for developing national capacities for effective implementation of national standards and Codes of Practice is required. Such rational decisions must come from consideration of all available evidence regarding the public health, social, and economic implications of possible action or inaction regarding aflatoxin control. To this end, emerging evidence on newly recognized public health impacts of aflatoxins, such as in the area of stunting, needs to be closely considered.• National authorities must pay careful attention to the practicability of their national regulations. Countries that recognize the imperative to reduce population exposure to aflatoxins should not only limit their attention to the ability of regulators to enforce regulation but should also consider the local industry's ability to meet requirements while still being able to compete successfully on the market.• There is need for foresight in understanding and reacting to the new challenges and opportunities provided by changing technological and physical environments. Climate change, for instance, is likely to lead to increased occurrence of aflatoxins and other mycotoxins (and possibly their increased co-occurrence) in many countries just as new technologies may prove effective in contributing to future efforts at aflatoxin control.Renata Clarke (Renata.Clarke@fao.org) is a senior officer and Vittorio Fattori (Vittorio.Fattori@fao.org) is a food safety and quality officer at the Food Safety and Codex Unit, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome.R isk assessment is a powerful tool for helping risk managers and policymakers to understand risk, evaluate risk control options, and make decisions that balance the benefits of risk reduction with the costs of mitigation. This brief shows how the principles of risk assessment and risk management could be applied to aflatoxins to support public health policy. It first describes risk assessment, then discusses some of the insights provided by risk assessment that are relevant to aflatoxins, and finally considers the key implications for aflatoxin policy.In risk assessment terminology, risk is defined as the combination of adverse impacts on human health and the likelihood of their occurrence. The principles of risk assessment apply to any substance or process that adversely affects human health, but food risk assessments are typically applied to physical, chemical, or microbiological hazards. (Hazards, defined as anything that can harm human health, are often categorized as physical, chemical, or biological.)A risk-based approach to food safety focuses on the severity and likelihood of human health impacts. Risk assessment helps answer the questions that matter to policymakers and the public: \"Is this dangerous?\" \"Is it a big or small problem?\" and \"What can best be done about it?\" Risk assessments may be qualitative (where risk is categorized by descriptors such as \"low,\" \"moderate,\" or \"high\") or quantitative (where risk has numerical values).Quantitative risk assessments typically provide a point estimate with a measure of uncertainty (for example 50 deaths in Kenya per year due to a given hazard with a 95 percent confidence interval of 40 to 60 deaths). Risk assessments can identify the actors or conditions that generate most risk and hence allow risk targeting. They can identify control points where risk may be most effectively reduced. These features make risk assessments useful for decisionmakers.Because hazards can decrease or increase along the pathway from production to consumption, and because risk is dependent on exposure, the level of a hazard at a given point in the value chain is not always a good indicator of risk to human health. Risk will depend on the amount consumed, duration of consumption, hazard levels in the food at final point of consumption, as well as vulnerability of the person ingesting the hazard. Hence riskbased approaches that take into account these determinants to impute net impacts on human health are useful for targeting risk reduction efforts.Only a limited number of risk assessments have been conducted for aflatoxins. Acute toxicity may result in tens to hundreds of deaths per year (brief 3). Aflatoxins are potent hepato-carcinogens, especially in people infected with hepatitis B and C. Most assessments take a broad scope with many assumptions (JECFA 1998;Shepherd 2008;Wu et al. 2010). Risk assessments suggest a substantial proportion of the global health burden of hepatocellular cancer is attributable to aflatoxins. There is a strong association between aflatoxins and both stunting and immunosuppression in children (briefs 3 and 4). However, a causal relation has not been established, making this risk difficult to quantify.Even when quantitative assessments are limited, important insights can be garnered by applying the principles of risk assessment to the problem of aflatoxins. A starting insight is that eliminating all risk is usually prohibitively expensive or completely infeasible. The public and policymakers often demand \"zero risk\" but an axiom of risk assessment is that \"there is no such thing as zero risk.\" Especially when hazards are natural and widespread (as is the case for aflatoxins), their total elimination is unfeasible. It is important to educate stakeholders on the nature of risk and the frequent need to accept a negligible, low, or acceptable level of risk.The acceptable level of risk is a societal decision, one that should take into account the costs of risk management as well as the potential public health benefits. In developing countries, the potential costs of aflatoxin reduction can be a relatively high percentage of current food prices (briefs 10 and 11). Furthermore, the costs of determining aflatoxin levels may be high when diagnostic tools are not available. This means that enforcement of standards that demand very low levels of aflatoxins, such as those in the EU and the US, may not be feasible under current conditions in many developing countries.Another principle of risk assessment is that risk is multisource; in the case of aflatoxins several different foods have been associated with high levels of contamination. Hence food safety risks need to be addressed using a dietary rather than a commodity perspective.Risk is not the same for everyone. In the case of aflatoxins, diet and hence exposure tend to vary in predictable ways by gender, age, socioeconomic status, and agroecosystem, suggesting that some subpopulations are more vulnerable. In the EU, for example, the standard for aflatoxins in milk is stricter than for other foods because milk is consumed by infants and children who, because of their rapid growth, are especially vulnerable to aflatoxins. Because people in developing countries often eat large quantities of a small number of staples (for example, maize in East Africa), they may be more at risk than people who have more diversified diets. A corollary is that exposure levels and sources will change as diets become less staple-based; evidence suggest that this is already occurring in China.Risk is often heterogeneous, and targeting \"hot spots\" is an effective use of scarce resources. Aflatoxin risks are not only heterogeneous over space (in terms of agroecosystems and crops)The Role of Risk Assessment in Guiding Aflatoxin Policy but also over time (for example, risks are higher under drought conditions), requiring flexibility in response. It is important to identify the minority of producers who are creating most of the risk and the minority of consumers who are bearing most of the risk. These need to be the first target of interventions.Risk management is incremental and cumulative, with farmlevel actions, such as drying, storage, and handling, all potentially contributing to reducing aflatoxins. Risk management takes a whole value chain or \"farm to fork\" perspective and because hazards such as aflatoxins are costly to reduce and may increase between production and final consumption, preventive measures can be the most important means of risk mitigation. Identifying critical control points where prevention is most effective can focus efforts to mitigate risks. In the case of aflatoxins, elimination is challenging and people are not widely treated for aflatoxicosis, so control at the beginning of the supply chain is likely to be most efficient and cost-effective.Risk management includes the appropriate management of contaminated crops. Because risks differ depending upon use, diverting crops with higher levels of aflatoxins to certain uses, such as animal feeds or brewing, can reduce human exposure. However, animal feed use will pose a different set of risks when humans consume animal source foods (brief 5). Moreover, market segmentation requires some means to determine levels of aflatoxins, and such tests are not yet in wide use in developing countries, limiting the ability of market actors to sort for aflatoxin levels. Technologies for decontamination also exist-with associated risks, costs, and benefits.Much of the motivation for aflatoxin control has emerged from concerns about market access and the development of commercial food and feed markets. The value of risk assessment is to reframe policy efforts with a focus on public health. The above insights from risk analysis provide some guidance for emerging health-oriented policies to address aflatoxin contamination.Basic data on the prevalence of aflatoxins and associated risk are largely lacking for developing countries. Specific risk assessments for developing countries, crops, and animal-source foods are a useful first step to support policymaking and risk communication. It is important that these be accompanied by economic studies on the costs of mitigation and social (including gender) studies on the feasibility, sustainability, and differential impacts of mitigation.One of the key messages for policymakers is the need to consider the role of international standards carefully. This evaluation should take into account the realistic trade opportunities, costs of risk reduction, and domestic public health priorities. Policies need to encourage risk reduction without setting up standards so costly to meet that they discourage compliance, especially among poor farmers and consumers. On the other hand, formal adoption of international standards can prevent \"dumping\" of sub-standard products from other countries, and this may be a motivation for their adoption in commercial markets. Collective adoption of regional standards by groups of trading partners that reflect the realities of production conditions and mitigation costs may be a reasonable step towards promoting regional trade.For many developing countries domestic and regional markets are much more important than export markets for the food crops most affected by aflatoxins. For foods consumed on the farm or sold on informal markets of developing countries where most poor farmers sell their products and most poor consumers buy their products, regulation has little reach. In these markets value chain actors are the primary risk managers, and risk communication will be important for motivating changes in practices. (Risk communication is defined as an interactive process of information and opinion exchange on risk among risk assessors, risk managers, and other interested parties.) Policymakers need to support such risk communication, including information about simple riskreduction measures. Over the longer term, the development of rapid diagnostics and new control technologies through research can support the development of market incentives to reward aflatoxin control.FoodRisk.org has a wide range of material on risk assessment at http://foodrisk.org. WHO has resources on microbial risk assessment at www.who. A flatoxins are highly toxic fungal metabolites produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus and related species in diverse foods and feeds. These toxins have wide-ranging impacts on human and animal health, trade, and food security. Tropical regions between 40°N and 40°S of the equator, which include the entire African continent, are chronically affected by aflatoxins.Furthermore, traditional crop-production practices that are widely used in Africa expose crops to stress and fungal invasion. The harvesting, drying, and storage practices expose produce to pest attack, soiling, and increased moisture, further increasing risk of contamination of food and feed produce. The problem of aflatoxin contamination, moreover, disproportionately affects the resourcepoor segments of society.The heavy reliance on single dietary staples, such as maize, subjects African populations to increased risks of aflatoxin exposure. In addition, aflatoxins adversely affect African countries' access to bigger export markets by making it harder for them to meet the regulatory standards of developed importing countries. These toxins also undermine efforts at regional integration, particularly the free trade agreements of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa.Due to the complex nature of the problem, prevention and control of aflatoxin contamination requires a comprehensive, systematic approach involving a broad range of stakeholders in Africa and beyond. A prerequisite to this approach is institutional support and political will at the country, regional, continental, and global levels. This policy brief provides an overview of how the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) is mobilizing political support for actions to address the aflatoxin problem on the continent. The brief provides background on PACA and highlights five approaches that PACA uses to win support to advance its objective of abating the aflatoxin challenge in Africa.PACA is an innovative consortium aimed at coordinating aflatoxin mitigation and management across the health, agriculture, and trade sectors in Africa. It seeks to provide consistent coordination and coherent leadership for the continental efforts on aflatoxin control.In March 2011, stakeholders from African governments, the private sector, funding organizations, farmers' organizations, and other civil society groups met at the seventh Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) Partnership Platform meeting. Recognizing the need for an Africa-wide approach to the prevention and control of aflatoxins, the participants urged the African Union Commission (AUC) to oversee the establishment of a continental Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Working Group and to explore a partnership for aflatoxin control in Africa. The AUC, working with partners representing interests across relevant sectors in Africa, developed structures and approaches for the effective functioning of what would become PACA. On October 31, 2012, PACA was formally launched and a Steering Committee was inaugurated by the AUC.PACA is dedicated to accuracy in data and information gathering, including in the realm of aflatoxin contamination, consumption, and exposure patterns as well as subsequent impacts across the African continent. To that effect, PACA will commission country assessments to achieve fast-track, country-specific, multisectoral understanding of the aflatoxin situation. PACA and its partners will use regional and national stocking studies and stakeholder consultations to generate baseline information on aflatoxin prevalence and impact. Scoping studies are also planned to survey research facilities and expertise on the continent as well as available technologies and their suitability for adoption in the African context. Such information is vital to inform policymakers and regulatory bodies of the burden the aflatoxin problem poses and how it is handled on the continent. Stakeholders engaged in promoting food safety also require evidence to determine their areas of prioritization.PACA also compiles and reviews existing data and information and makes them available for wider use. PACA is initiating independent expert panel reviews of aflatoxin control technologies as a basis for regional and country-level scaling-out and scalingup. In addition, PACA will assess the credibility of critical data by evaluating the soundness of methodology used in data collection and analysis. PACA is working on establishing an electronic data management system, including an online aflatoxin prevalence map for Africa. Initially, this will be hosted in the Animal Resources Information System (ARIS 2) of AUC. In collaboration with partners, country teams will be trained on data collection methods and will be responsible for entering data. PACA also supports capacity building through strengthening laboratory testing capacity and promoting standardized protocols. Currently many African researchers focusing on aflatoxin management lack suitable laboratory facilities. PACA has thus started brokering linkages between these researchers and institutions such as CGIAR centers that have state-of-the-art facilities both in and outside of Africa.Effective aflatoxin mitigation efforts require enabling policy and institutional environments. PACA seeks to thoroughly understand the existing policy landscape in Africa through both scoping studies and gap analysis. Surveys are being initiated to assess the policies, regulations and standards, institutional settings, and regulationenforcement challenges that currently exist in African countries. Needs for policy or policy reforms will also be assessed.Aflatoxin regulation can be achieved within a comprehensive framework of food safety policy. PACA will assist countries by supporting policy development, guiding policy reviews, and catalyzing regional cooperation. To improve the policy landscape, PACA will facilitate independent technical reviews, expert support, training, and experience-sharing between countries.From the outset, PACA has been conceived to fit into the CAADP framework. This framework was endorsed by African heads of state in 2003 as the primary continental program to guide agricultural growth, food security, and rural development. CAADP operates through investments under four inter-related pillars. PACA has particularly been considered as an important program contributing to accelerated growth in the agricultural sector by raising capacities to meet the increasingly complex requirements of three of the pillars: (1) food security; (2) domestic, regional, and international markets; and (3) research and technology.Embedding PACA within the CAADP implementation mechanism will allow review of National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans, which are implementation plans prepared by countries after signing on to a CAADP compact or agreement, to include aflatoxin control components. This, in turn, would allow resources for aflatoxin control to be committed at the country level. Initially, PACA will develop guidelines for review of Investment Plans (IPs) in order to mainstream aflatoxin control. Countries with evidence of not only a severe aflatoxin problem but also a welldeveloped investment plan will then be chosen to initiate highlevel engagement with countries and RECs through the AUC. The resulting technical review report and its recommendations endorsed by country-level deliberations will then form the basis for modifying IPs and mobilizing resources to implement aflatoxin control initiatives based on the newly agreed upon country IP. PACA will also use other existing mechanisms and institutions to work with RECs and countries on the continent.PACA supports mainstreaming of aflatoxin issues into SPS activities at continental, regional, and national levels. Aflatoxins, being a complex multisectoral food safety issue, should be addressed in a holistic manner and could get support from policymakers and regulatory authorities by aligning continent-level coordination with the broader SPS frameworks through PACA. Moreover, regional aflatoxin standards and regulations could be promoted through the harmonization efforts that are underway by RECs. Therefore, strengthening SPS systems through the CAADP process, RECs, and national regulatory agencies in Africa would contribute to aflatoxin control by directly promoting regulation enforcement and by creating incentives via increased trade and reduced transaction costs.Harmonization of SPS measures is vital to the improvement of market access and both interregional and international trade. SPS capacity is unevenly distributed across Africa. Countries with weaker SPS capacity will find it more difficult to trade with countries whose SPS capacity is stronger. Uneven trade relationships will tend to widen if SPS barriers are not addressed. PACA advocates stronger SPS capacity and a harmonized approach to SPS issues across regions in Africa.Adopting a three-track coordinated approach Adopting a three-track coordinated approach From the outset, PACA was born from recognition of the need for holistic and coordinated approaches to addressing the complex problem of aflatoxin contamination in Africa. PACA pursues threelevels of coordination: (1) working toward coordinated continental, regional, and national efforts and impact; (2) addressing the effects of aflatoxins across the sectors of agriculture and food security, trade, and health; and (3) integrating policy and advocacy, capacity building, preharvest and postharvest measures, and regulations and standards. Such a holistic approach is the most viable way for the continent to address the aflatoxin problem.The way forward PACA employs multiple approaches to mobilizing support for achieving regionally harmonized standards and regulations, for the generation and dissemination of suitable technology-based solutions, for the generation and dissemination of knowledge and information to inform policy, and for increased investment in aflatoxin control initiatives. PACA's strategic plan for 2013-2022 has been endorsed by the PACA Steering Committee in August of 2013 and is already being implemented. PACA plans on fully utilizing events during the Year of African Agriculture (2014) to showcase its strategic thrust areas and aflatoxin control activities on the continent. Direct engagement with PACA will ensure that stakeholders involved in funding and implementing aflatoxin research, prevention, and control activities in Africa align their efforts with the continental strategic plan and the AUC frameworks while both avoiding overlaps and building on synergies. A flatoxin exposure is frequent and widespread in most African countries where the key staples, maize and groundnuts, are particularly vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination. Aspergillus flavus is the major cause of aflatoxin contamination although other aflatoxin producers are less frequently implicated. These fungi are ubiquitous in Africa where they occupy soil, colonizing diverse organic matter, and produce spores that associate with crops leading to aflatoxin formation in both fields and crop stores.Exposure to aflatoxins can be reduced, at considerable cost, with monitoring and crop destruction. Effects of preharvest and postharvest interventions have thus far proved to be inconsistent, continuing to leave farmers vulnerable to contamination. Furthermore, although storage conditions are generally good in advanced agriculture systems, aflatoxins frequently form prior to harvest. Nevertheless, integrated aflatoxin management practices are recommended to reduce contamination. Preharvest crop contamination with aflatoxins costs farmers in the United States hundreds of millions of dollars annually (Robens 1988). In 1988, major US crop organizations joined the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to form the Multi-crop Aflatoxin Working Group to increase research toward ending repeated epidemics of aflatoxin contamination; the development of resistant crops through breeding and transgenics were major emphases for the twenty years of this effort. However, when the program was discontinued in 2008, commercially useful resistant crops had not been developed (Brown et al. 2013), indicating that the pursuit of host resistance is a risky research strategy not guaranteed to succeed.Fortunately, there was an unexpected and different kind of advance: a biological control technique that greatly reduces aflatoxin contamination of all susceptible crops across broad areas in a cost effective manner. This biocontrol, which is manufactured and marketed to scale in the United States as either Afla-guard® or Aspergillus flavus AF36, has been proven to be safe and environmentally sound with over a decade of testing and commercial use on cottonseed, groundnuts, maize, and pistachios. The technique reduces the aflatoxin-producing potential of fungal communities associated with crops by over 80 percent with a single application (Cotty 2006). These biocontrol products reliably reduce aflatoxins during crop development and maturation and remain the most effective aflatoxin prevention tools available in the United States. The biocontrol approach has been adapted to African environments.Aspergillus flavus occurs in nature in complex communities composed of diverse genetic groups called vegetative compatibility groups, which vary widely in aflatoxin-producing capacity. Some produce variable amounts of toxins (called toxigenic strains) while others produce none (called atoxigenic strains). Communities in different locations vary in composition and, as a result, in average aflatoxin-producing potential. This potential to produce aflatoxins influences the extent to which crops become contaminated. Modulating the structures of fungal communities in favor of atoxigenic strains can drastically reduce aflatoxins because the causal agent of contamination is reduced. Application of carefully selected atoxigenic strains at appropriate stages in crop development (just before resident Aspergillus populations begin to increase) shifts the community composition within the production area from one dominated by aflatoxin producers to one in which beneficial atoxigenic strains dominate. This results in decreased crop aflatoxin contamination. Changes in the A. flavus community structures induced by atoxigenic strain applications occur without increases to the overall amount of A. flavus in the environment and without increases in the amount of the crop infected.Aflatoxin-producing fungi infect crops in the field. Although contamination frequently occurs prior to harvest, aflatoxin producers stay with crops during harvest, transport, and storage. If the storage environment is humid and warm, crop infection and the contamination process continue. Similarly, use of atoxigenic strains to competitively exclude aflatoxin-producers in the field provides carryover benefits in storage. One is that there are fewer aflatoxin-producers moving into storage. A second is that the atoxigenic strains stay with the crop and continue to protect against contamination until use.Biocontrol technology with atoxigenic strains uses native strains of A. flavus to competitively exclude both aflatoxin-producing A. flavus and other aflatoxin producers from the crop environment. These strains are selected from nature through an intense process using microbiological, DNA, and field-based methodologies to ensure that they are environmentally safe and adapted to provide effective, long-lasting, and area-wide reductions in aflatoxins (Mehl et al. 2012).The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of USDA, and partners have successfully adapted this competitive displacement technology for use on maize and groundnuts in various African countries, developing biocontrol products with the trade name Aflasafe™. Aflasafe™ consists of a mixture of four native atoxigenic strains specifically targeted for a particular country or agroecosystem. Multistrain products such as Aflasafe™ may be superior to singlestrain products because they display both immediate and long-term efficacy in diverse environments (Probst et al. 2011).The method of production and application of atoxigenic strainbased biocontrol products can be fairly simple. A mixture of spores of biocontrol strains can be coated on a grain carrier (such as sorghum), which also serves as a food source. The atoxigenic strains grow and multiply on and disperse from the carrier to initiate displacement of aflatoxin-producers in the field. The product is applied 2-4 weeks prior to crop flowering. For small fields, the product can be tossed onto crop and soil by hand at an application rate of 10 kg/ha.Field testing of distinct biocontrol products in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal is producing extremely positive results (albeit as yet not peer reviewed or formally published; IITA 2013). The products have reduced aflatoxin contamination of maize and groundnuts consistently by 80-90 percent, and even as high as 99 percent, both at harvest and after poor storage. Product development is currently also underway in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. The products in each country contain unique strains native to the target country and are developed in close collaboration with national institutions. National capacity building in all aspects of biocontrol product development is a key component of this collaboration. More recently, IITA and USDA-ARS have begun to develop regional products that will contain atoxigenic strains co-occurring in all target countries in the region. Regional products will reduce the burden of costly biopesticide registration processes and increase market reach.With approval from national regulatory agencies, farmers have applied Aflasafe™ products in more than 3,000 ha in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Senegal. In the countries where aflasafe development is most advanced (Nigeria, Senegal, and Kenya), farmer need and demand for Aflasafe™ will likely far exceed supply from the current lab-scale manufacturing method. A demonstrationscale manufacturing facility with a production capacity of five tons of Aflasafe™ per hour will be operational in October 2013 at IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria.Modifications to fungal communities caused by application of biocontrol strains carry over through the value chain, discouraging contamination in storage and transport even when conditions favor fungal growth. Unlike other methods of aflatoxin management requiring many time-consuming actions at various critical control points, biocontrol is a simple intervention in the field that by itself dramatically reduces aflatoxin contamination in crops from harvest until consumption.Positive influences of atoxigenic strain applications carry over between crops and provide multiyear benefits. A single application of atoxigenic strains may benefit not only the treated crop but also rotation crops and second season crops that miss a treatment. Additionally, because fungi can spread, as the safety of fungal communities within treated fields improves, so does the safety of fungal communities in areas neighboring treated fields. For this reason, registration of the atoxigenic strain Aspergillus flavus AF36 by the US Environmental Protection Agency is classified as in the public interest.Prior to large-scale use in a target country, biocontrol products must be registered with the respective national biopesticide regulatory agency. Registration is based on efficacy, safety, quality, and social/economic value of a product. Several efficacy, toxicology, and eco-toxicology parameters must be satisfied prior to registration. Gathering such data is expensive. For biopesticide registration in some countries, a fast-track system is in place that allows requests for science-based waivers for some registration data requirements. Negotiations for such waivers for registration are a significant challenge. To overcome this problem, regulatory agencies and key senior policymakers are consulted and sensitized before biocontrol product development begins in each country. These agencies are considered partners in the development process, and their advice is incorporated into research. For example, Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control required a poultry-feeding study with Aflasafe™ to determine the safety of the product and waived other toxicity data requirements when the product was found safe in the study. Except in a few African countries, the biopesticide registration procedure is not well developed. Efforts are underway to develop regional guidelines for biopesticide registration to enable use of biopesticides in all countries in the region when approved by the regional regulatory agency.Although Aflasafe™ is available for purchase, there may be other mechanisms for supplying farmers with Aflasafe™ either on an emergency basis or through the development of nonprofit governmental or nongovernmental organizations. In the United States., a governmental organization (The Arizona Cotton Research and Protection Council) supported by a crop tax distributes the atoxigenic strain product, Aspergillus flavus AF36 to farmers in Arizona at cost.Biocontrol technologies, in conjunction with other aflatoxinmanagement tools, can profitably link farmers to markets, improve health of people and animals, and increase food safety. Technology has a high cpacity to reduce aflatoxins. Widespread biocontrol adoption cannot occur, however, without first creating a flexible and enabling system for biopesticide regulation in tandem with other policy and institutional support. Licensing and stewardship of biocontrol products must receive attention to ensure that the quality and affordability of the products are not compromised. IMPROVED FOOD SAFETY Aflatoxins are toxic and highly carcinogenic secondary products produced by the Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) and Aspergillus parasiticus family of molds. When produced on a susceptible crop, aflatoxins contaminate maize grain products, threatening human and animal health. A. flavus is an opportunistic pathogen occurring with higher incidence on maize grown under stressed conditions, including late-season drought and high temperatures during kernel filling. Insect or mechanical damage to kernels can increase the infection rate of A. flavus and aflatoxin levels, which can also worsen with poor harvesting and storage conditions because grain that is insufficiently dried prior to storage provides an ideal environment for fungal growth. In addition to proper storage conditions, management strategies to reduce aflatoxin contamination also include biological control: the use of non-toxin producing A. flavus strains to prevent further infection by toxin-producing strains. Additionally, decontamination is sometimes possible, although the decontaminating agents themselves may be harmful and expensive. An important, safe, and preventative strategy for aflatoxin elimination is the development of host-plant resistance in order to inhibit fungal colonization or toxin production. Host resistance is an economical approach that is easy to disseminate, requires no additional production or management resources, leaves no harmful residues, and is compatible with other control measures, including proper storage and biological control. This brief highlights the advances that have been made to date in the identification of host resistance to A. flavus and aflatoxin accumulation while also laying out the breeding requirements for developing resistant maize cultivars.Because aflatoxins are toxic at very low levels, detection methods must be sensitive and accurate. Although different methods can be used to detect and quantify aflatoxins, an inexpensive, robust, and high-throughput method is needed for large-scale breeding programs. The bright greenish-yellow fluorescent (BGYF) light technique can quickly detect maize lines supporting high fungal growth. This method uses a black light assay to observe fluorescence from kojic acid, a secondary metabolite produced by A. flavus in grain. Lines that show fluorescence are eliminated, and those with no fluorescence must be assayed using the more sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), high performance liquid chromatography or ultra-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC or UPLC), or affinity columns to determine aflatoxin levels. A cost-efficient ELISA technique is used at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for routine detection and quantification of aflatoxins in breeding programs, providing results that correlate well with UPLC (Figure 1).Maize kernel infection by A. flavus is highly variable under natural conditions. Selection of resistance genes relies on the ability to subject all plants both to equally high levels of active fungal infection to avoid escapes (plants that look resistant because they have not been infected) and to high-throughput phenotypic screening capacity. Aflatoxin trials must be carried out in replicated field plots over multiple years and locations because resistance is highly affected by the environment in which the infected plants are grown. Several techniques for mass inoculation of maize germplasm under field and laboratory conditions have been developed and are available (Brown et al. 1993). Standardized systems for data acquisition and exchange among breeding programs, such as those developed by CIMMYT, also help to accelerate both the identification of A. flavus-and aflatoxin-resistant germplasm and the development of tolerant maize cultivars.Methods to achieve resistance to A. flavus and aflatoxin accumulation include (1) prevention of fungal infection of maize, which is especially important under stressed environmental conditions; (2) prevention of subsequent growth of the fungus once infection has occurred; (3) inhibition of aflatoxin production following infection; and (4) degradation of aflatoxins by the plant or fungus. Development of aflatoxin-resistant varieties is thus a complex process that may include direct selection for resistance to fungus and aflatoxin accumulation, indirect selection for resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, or selection for morphological traits such as ear, kernel, and husk characteristics that impede or delay fungal introduction or growth. Breeders at CIMMYT are evaluating known sources of aflatoxin resistance under drought conditions, as well as drought-plus heat-tolerant germplasm for possible resistance to A. flavus and aflatoxin accumulation. Sources of resistance to many of these factors have been identified and are now being combined to develop aflatoxinresistant maize germplasm adapted to various agroecologies. Doubled haploid (DH) technology produces new pure breeding lines in a very short time as compared to the several generations needed to create pure lines via traditional self-pollination. DH technology is being used at CIMMYT to rapidly develop inbred lines combining A. flavus and aflatoxin resistance with other important agronomic traits. These DH lines are now being evaluated to identify new superior lines combining aflatoxin resistance, drought and heat tolerance, and good agronomic performance.Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for both fungal and aflatoxin accumulation resistance have been mapped, and the transfer of these QTL into new elite germplasm is underway. This is a challenge for breeders, as A. flavus and aflatoxin resistance is controlled by a large number of genes with small effects whose performance varies by environment. Markers linked to QTL or genes associated with aflatoxin resistance may enable rapid selection gains for resistance. The recent elucidation of the fungal aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway and the regulatory genes for this pathway provide theGenes, QTLs, and genetic mechanisms contributing to A. flavus and aflatoxin resistance are being identified using new tools and techniques. Next-generation sequencing and association mapping is being used to identify DNA and RNA sequences involved in resistance. Final confirmation of genomic regions providing improved resistance using near Iisogenic lines is nearing completion for several QTL and gene sequences at CIMMYT and the US Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS). Finally, new techniques involving RNA interference (RNAi) gene silencing may allow transgenic maize plants to resist infection by A. flavus, using DNA sequences from the fungus itself to allow recognition and prevent growth of the fungus in the plant.Accumulation of aflatoxins in maize occurs following a complex series of interactions among maize, the environment, the pathogen, insects, and crop-management practices. Selection must be done simultaneously for multiple stresses in order to combine drought and heat tolerance, resistance to insects (especially ear-feeding insects), and resistance to the pathogen. These stress tolerances must be combined with improved agronomic performance in new maize varieties for adoption of aflatoxin-resistant cultivars to occur, as farmers will not grow low-yielding varieties regardless of aflatoxin resistance. The negative impacts of aflatoxin consumption are generally slow and difficult to recognize, while hunger due to insufficient food is immediate and pressing. The challenge is to systematically identify the best sources of resistance, introduce them into adapted maize germplasm, and make the germaplasm available in areas where aflatoxin contamination is a problem. Established procedures for field inoculation, measurement of aflatoxin levels, and generation of doubled haploids, together with new techniques for implementation of marker-assisted breeding, gene expression studies, proteomics, and RNAi, will lead to more opportunities for efficient development of aflatoxin-resistant elite maize cultivars. Work has progressed on the development of resistant maize varieties, and resistance is being pyramided and combined with other disease and abiotic (heat and drought) stress-resistance genes by several collaborating institutions. Because this is a long-term process, no new cultivars are yet ready for release. Good progress has been made, yet final testing of new breeding lines must be performed in replicated field trials before release. Support for aflatoxin resistance breeding must continue in the meantime.  T he groundnut, or peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), is an important food and fodder crop in the farming systems of developing countries. The seed is high in oil (close to 50 percent for many varieties) and protein (~26 percent) and an important source of vitamins and dietary fiber. Groundnuts, like all legumes, are also important due to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, a critical and often limiting nutrient for crops in degraded soils. Global groundnut production is concentrated in Africa (40 percent) and Asia (55 percent). As discussed in other briefs in this series, high aflatoxin levels pose human health risks and are also a barrier to expanding trade in and commercial use of groundnuts and other crops.Aflatoxins are chemical metabolites naturally produced by the soilborne saprophytic fungi Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) and A. parasiticus (or less commonly by A. nomius) that contaminate groundnuts and other crops in the field or during post-harvest handling. Contamination varies from year to year as well as within the field and is particularly high when plants are exposed to stresses toward the end of the growing season. Preharvest infection and aflatoxin contamination often occur when the plant is exposed to moisture and heat stress during pod development, when pods are damaged by insects or nematodes or when they are mechanically damaged during cultural operations. Due to the reliance on rainfall for watering crops and the recent variations experienced with weather patterns, these conditions commonly occur. Postharvest infection in groundnuts is influenced by shelling methodology, relative humidity, temperature, and insect damage. Some strains of A. flavus also produce cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), a harmful mycotoxin that is currently not regulated (Abbas et al. 2011). In most developing countries the level of aflatoxin contamination is extremely high. For example, results of recent studies in Mali have shown levels of contamination in groundnuts in excess of 3,000 parts per billion (ppb) with a mean contamination of 164 ppb (Waliyar et al., forthcoming). These levels are much higher than international standards allow for human consumption (4 ppb in the EU and 20 ppb in the United States). Results from Mali have revealed that only 30-55 percent of all groundnut products are safe to eat by EU standards (Waliyar et al., forthcoming). Further, results from our studies in Mali show that granaries have a significantly higher aflatoxin load during the storage period (October to June) due to high moisture and temperatures recorded during this time of year (IFPRI 2012). It is thus imperative to improve management of aflatoxins in groundnuts for food, health, and nutritional security.Several approaches to reducing aflatoxin contamination have been proposed (Table 1). The rationale for most aflatoxin management practices relates to the effective management of moisture, particularly after the cessation of rains, to ensure that plants will not undergo moisture stress. It is also important to ensure that pods are well formed and not breached by pathogens or insects. On-farm tests have been conducted in several countries in Asia and Africa to investigate not just technologies, such as the use of varieties that are tolerant of or resistant varieties to A. flavus, but also cultural practices, such as the use of soil amendments, and postharvest handling on yield and aflatoxin contamination.Rural farmers in developing countries are often resource poor and have a limited ability to implement integrated management approaches. Host plant resistance, when combined with pre-and post-harvest strategies, is thus often the most practical and effective approach. For the past decade, breeding groundnut varieties resistant Reducing Aflatoxins in Groundnuts through Integrated Management and Biocontrol  to A. flavus infection has been a focus of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). A number of varieties with resistance to or tolerance of A. flavus infection and aflatoxin contamination have been released or are in various stages of testing. Study results indicate that, despite high variation in A. flavus infection and subsequent aflatoxin incidence, significant improvement in the level of varietal resistance (less than 20 ppb contamination) is possible because we were able to identify varieties that showed less than 4 ppb aflatoxin-in comparison to susceptible varieties with more than 2,000 ppb. Breeding efforts have focused on reducing groundnut maturity periods to escape end-of-season drought, and the emphasis has been on the identification of short-duration farmerpreferred lines with resistance to or tolerance of Aspergillus spp.A number of agronomic practices minimize preharvest infection by A. flavus (Table 2). Among them are the applications of lime (or any calcium source) and farmyard manure (FYM). Studies have shown that application of lime alone can reduce aflatoxin contamination by 72 percent, while application of FYM reduces aflatoxins by 42 percent under field conditions. When combined, the two treatments result in aflatoxin contamination being reduced up to 84 percent.Cultural practices, starting with harvesting the crop at the right maturity and wind row drying, have been shown to be effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination in groundnuts. In addition, management practices-such as using appropriate drying techniques (including drying on raised surfaces or on mats), reducing kernel moisture content to 8 percent, proper threshing methods, and sorting the kernels before sale or consumptionsignificantly influence the level of aflatoxin contamination. Aflatoxin reduction under these practices can vary from 63 to 88 percent depending on location. Practices such as wetting groundnut shells to facilitate shelling increase the risk of aflatoxin contamination.A biocontrol agent refers to a microbial antagonist that keeps the disease-causing agents in check by reducing their populations to economically insignificant levels around the susceptible or target host organ/tissue, resulting in no disease incidence. Several bacterial and fungal biocontrol agents have already been screened all over the world to identify potential antagonists to A. flavus.Although promising biocontrol agents have been identified for groundnut aflatoxin management, research is more advanced on other crops such as maize (brief 16). In terms of the peanut, one commercial non-toxigenic A. flavus strain, NRRL 21882, has been commercialized (as Afla-guard®) thus far in the United States (Dorner 2005). However, its efficacy in multi-environment and multi-state conditions and under longer time horizons has yet to be understood. ICRISAT has identified a host of potential biocontrol agents that work against aflatoxin-producing molds in groundnuts, including antagonistic bacteria (Pseudomonas spp), fungi (Trichoderma spp), and actinomycetes (Streptomyces spp) strains. Promising biocontrol agents tested under greenhouse and field conditions in Africa and Asia proved to be very effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination by 79 percent (Harini et al. 2011). Efficacy demonstrations in the field with these biocontrol agents also were effective. ICRISAT is working with commercial providers to assess the potential of making the biocontrol agents more widely available to small-scale farmers.There are various simple cultural and other practices that can be used to manage aflatoxins in groundnuts. To enhance the management of aflatoxins in groundnuts, it is recommended that locally adaptable practices be identified, tested on-farm, and scaled up for groundnut farmers. Biocontrol is also a promising strategy for future development. Challenges to the adoption and use of good practices for aflatoxin management include lack of farmer knowledge, little market reward for quality due to a lack of standards and diagnostics, and little attention to this issue from policymakers.Farid Waliyar (f.waliyar@cgiar.org) is the director of the West and Central Africa division of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Bamako. Moses Osiru (m.osiru@cgiar.org) is a senior scientist of pathology at ICRISAT, Mali. Hari Kishan Sudini (h.sudini@cgiar.org) is a senior scientist of groundnut pathology at ICRISAT, Patancheru. Samuel Njoroge (s.njoroge@cgiar.org) is a senior scientist of pathology at ICRISAT, Malawi. R esearchers, donors, and governments are calling for the scale of the response to the aflatoxin problem to be informed by the scope of the risks involved. While current research establishes that a great deal of the global food supply is at risk, especially in developing countries, information on aflatoxin contamination and potential interventions is far from comprehensive, hindered in large part by a lack of information on the quantitative, geographic, and temporal occurrence of the toxins in various commodities. A set of diagnostic solutions is required that can span the dimensions of both scale (from smallholder farmer bags to large silos) and setting (from smallholder farms and village mills to large commercial mills). Of particular need is a new generation of inexpensive and portable diagnostics for testing on the front lines, particularly at the farm and village mill. These diagnostics must be underpinned both by sampling methods appropriate to developing countries and by reference labs accessible to key partners along the value chain on the ground.The problem: Lack of diagnostics for use in the field the field Two broad types of information are needed about aflatoxins: one is the scope and severity of the problem, as well as potential solutions, and the other is the quality, end use, and price differences of at-risk commodities. The aflatoxin problem cannot be addressed with the current network, which largely comprises a few minimally equipped laboratories using a non-standardized set of procedures.A number of ongoing initiatives seek to address this lack of accessible, affordable, and context-appropriate diagnostics. One effort is the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)-funded Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) CAAREA project, encompassing a multidisciplinary team focused on diagnostics as one part of a multi-pronged approach to reducing aflatoxins. The project has established an aflatoxin research and capacity-building platform at the BecA-International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Hub in Nairobi, Kenya, which is open to biosciences researchers focused on improving food security in Africa.Aflatoxin risks are related to the concentration of mycotoxins in food commodities consumed by both humans and production animals. The first consideration for the development of appropriate diagnostics is sampling and scale. Measuring aflatoxin levels in grain products is complicated by the extremely skewed distribution of mycotoxin. Consequently sampling/sub-sampling is widely recognized as the largest source of error in aflatoxin measurementaccounting for up to 90 percent of the error in testing the variance in aflatoxin levels between the measured sub-sample and the whole sample, compared to variance from the analytical test itself (Whitaker 2003). Less than 1 percent of kernels may be contaminated, but these kernels can contain extremely high aflatoxin levels: up to 1,000,000 nanograms per gram (ng/g) for individual peanuts (Cucullu et al. 1986) and 400,000 ng/g for individual maize kernels (Shotwell, Goulden, and Hesseltine 1974). It is thus critical for the accuracy of any analysis that a \"representative\" sample is obtained for testing. Various sampling and sub-sampling protocols exist (Richard 2006), but these have generally been designed for container and truckload sampling and are not readily applicable to Africa's small-scale farming and village mills. Even the sampling of truckloads of 20 kg bags of grain is complicated when these bags have not originated from a single source, as occurs often with deliveries to commercial mills in Africa. Research efforts are underway to test a range of samples along the less-studied smaller end of the scale, from single kernels to ears in a field, to develop context-and diagnostic testappropriate sampling procedures. Such sampling strategies are as important as the tests themselves.A number of established diagnostic technologies are already available. However, as shown in Table 1, they are typically expensive, have lower throughput, and are not portable and therefore not available for use in the field.Available methods of analysis range from the in-field rapid diagnostic strips such as AgriStrips used in rapid test kits to competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with colorimetric detection to spectroscopic methods.Aflatoxins possess significant ultraviolet (UV) absorption and fluorescence properties, and chromatographic methods-either high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or thin layer chromatography (TLC) with UV or fluorescence detection-are widely used. Such methods require sample extraction and extract clean-up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) or immunoaffinity chromatography (IAC) followed by chromatographic separation and aflatoxin detection. Total aflatoxins can also be measured by direct fluorescence measurements of these purified extracts (for example, VICAM).Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technology offers the advantage of \"dilute and shoot\" techniques where simple sample extracts are analyzed without clean-up, and with the added advantage of multi-mycotoxin analysis whereby a range of mycotoxins can be analyzed in the same sample analysis run (Sulyok et al. 2006).A new generation of cheap and portable diagnostics is needed so researchers, regulators, the private sector, extension agents, and others can address the problem in developing countries. A few promising technologies under exploration include near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), electronic nose (e-nose), and paper microfluidics.NIR is a rapid, non-destructive, predictive technology that has long been used routinely in plant breeding and in industrial applications to simultaneously predict multiple parameters. NIR can be used with solid or milled material and on liquids such as milk. NIR has identified correlation with aflatoxin levels and could possibly be used in the screening of high levels of aflatoxins (above 200-500 parts per billion or ppb) in milled grains-though so far they have not been proven able to detect levels at regulatory limits for human consumption (10-20 ppb). Some developed countries have different limits for feeds (up to 300 ppb) for which NIR may be suitable. NIR may help in the removal of extremely contaminated kernels (above 1,000 ppb) via single-kernel sorters that have been developed based on spectral sorting (Pearson et al. 2004); spectral sorting for aflatoxins is already done commercially for groundnuts in the United States. Wet chemistry suggests that, if successfully developed, this approach could reduce the contamination levels of bags of maize grains from almost 100 times the legal limit to below the legal limit by removal of as little as three percent of the contaminated grains (Turner et al. 2013).E-nose is a technology that uses an array of sensors to detect volatiles emanating from a sample. Like NIR, wet chemistry measurements are used to calibrate e-nose to predict a given chemical. E-nose, which is currently being used in a project designed to detect diseases in human breath (Berna et al. 2013), is also being adapted for possible use in aflatoxin detection. Advantages include that it could largely overcome sampling issues because the headspace is produced by the entirety of a sample; there is no sample preparation required, except for milling; and it could potentially be as portable and cheap as an inexpensive mobile phone.Other recent developments include an immunoassay-based lateral flow device that can quantitatively determine four major aflatoxins in maize in only ten minutes (Anfosi et al. 2011). Paper microfluidics are also being developed for various food safety issues by organizations such as Diagnostics for All, and may provide inexpensive and rapid point-of-use diagnostics.","tokenCount":"25930"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"776e3f1c0440cbe31641adb99d079278","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b35a0124-0f9b-4f3e-bd32-b9d06f81d677/retrieve","id":"2024186397"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"65cf3a96-a71a-4419-8846-4fa5fe7ecaf1","pagecount":"59","content":"Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements of the Center, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.We communicate with the Audit Committee regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.The management of the Center is responsible for the preparation of financial statements of the Center that give a true and fair view in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. The management is also responsible for such internal control as the management determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements of the Center that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.In preparing the financial statements of the Center, the management is responsible for assessing the Center's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the management either intends to liquidate the Center or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements of the Center as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditors' report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.As part of an audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing, we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also: (a) Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements of the Center, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.(b) Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Center's internal control.(c) Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the management.(d) Conclude on the appropriateness of the management use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Center's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditors' report to the related disclosures in the financial statements of the Center or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditors' report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Center to cease to continue as a going concern.  The accompanying notes are in integral part of the financial statements.An International Non-Profit Organization On April 22, 1993, an international agreement was signed by a number of countries, recognizing the Center as an international organization. The Center's mission is to strengthen livelihoods and enhance food and nutrition security by improving fisheries and aquaculture. The Center has research sites and/or offices in fourteen countries (2016: fourteen) including the headquarters in Penang, Malaysia.There have been no significant changes in the nature of the activities of the Center during the financial year.The financial statements of the Center were authorized for issue by the Board of Trustees in accordance with a resolution on April 20, 2018.WorldFish operates under agreements entered into with the governments of the respective host countries. Under these agreements, the Center and its assets are not subject to any taxation of income.CGIAR donors, represented by the CGIAR System Council, approve and fund 11 Research Programs and 3 platforms, the totality of which is refers to as the Portfolio. Each CRP/platform to be led by a designated Center (Lead Center). The Lead Center is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the CRP/platform by program participants and for all payments to and reporting from program participants. Program participants include other Centers who are subcontracted by the Lead Center.CGIAR Fund donors can designate their contribution to one or more of three funding \"Windows\". For Window 1 funds, the System Council sets the overall priorities and makes specific decisions about the use of the fund such as allocation to CRPs/platforms, payment of System Costs and/or any other use required to achieve the CGIAR mission. Window 2 funds are contributions designated by Fund Donors to one or more specific CRPs/platforms. Window 3 funds are contributions designated by the Fund Donors to individual centers.The CGIAR funded CRP/platform portfolios consists of Phase 1 Research Programs, which are those that were implemented between 2011-2016 and Phase 2 Research Programs for those that commenced in 2017 and are scheduled to run through 2022.WorldFish was the Lead Center for the Phase 1 CRP 1.3 Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS), which started in July 2011 and ceased operations in June 2016. WorldFish also participated in the implementation of CRP 2 (Policies, Institutions and Markets), CRP 3.7 (Livestock and Fish), CRP 4 (Agriculture for Nutrition and Health), CRP 5 (Water, Land and Ecosystems) and CRP 7 (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) during the year 2016. WorldFish is the Lead Center for the Phase 2 CRP 11 FISH which commenced operations in January 2017 and is scheduled to run for a period of six years. During 2017 WorldFish also participated in the implementation of Phase 2 CRP 23 (Policies, Institutions and Markets), CRP 22 (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) and the platform for Big Data in Agriculture.The financial statements of the Center have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).For all periods up to and including the year ended 31 December 2016, the Center prepared the financial statements in accordance with the CGIAR financial guideline series No. 2 -Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (February 2006).The transition to IFRSs is accounted for in accordance with IFRS 1: First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, with January 1, 2016 as the date of transition. The changes in accounting policies as a consequence of the transition to MFRSs and the reconciliations of the effects of the transition to IFRSs are presented in Note 3.The financial statements have been prepared on a historical cost basis, except for leasehold building classified as property, plant and equipment that have been measured at deemed cost. The deemed cost was determined by assessing the fair value of the assets as at January 1, 2016. The financial statements are presented in thousands of US Dollars and all values are rounded to the nearest thousand (US$000), except when otherwise indicated.In the current financial year, the Center has applied applicable amendments to IFRSs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) that are mandatorily effective for an accounting period that begins on or after 1 January 2017. The adoption of these amendments has had no effect on the financial statements of the Center.At the date of authorization for issue of these financial statements, the new and revised standards which were in issue but not yet effective and not early adopted by the Center are as listed below: IFRS 9Financial Instruments (1) IFRS 15Revenue from Contracts with Customers (1) IFRS 16Leases (2) IFRIC 22Foreign Currency Transactions and Advance Consideration (1)(1) Effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2018, with earlier application permitted.(2) Effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019, with earlier application permitted.Management will adopt the abovementioned Standards and reflect them in the financial statements when they become effective and anticipates that the adoption of these IFRSs will have no material impact on the financial statements of the Center in the period of initial application. However, the impact of the adoption of the abovementioned Standards on the financial statements is still being determined and thus has not been incorporated into these financial statements.The following are the significant accounting policies applied by the Center in preparing its financial statements:The Center prepares its financial statements under the accrual basis of accounting. Under the accrual basis of accounting, transactions and events are recognized when they occur (and not when cash or its cash equivalent is received or paid) and these are recorded in the accounting books and reported in the financial statements during the periods to which they relate. Expenses are recognized in the Statement of Activities on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earnings of specific items of revenue.Net assets represent the residual interest in the Center's assets remaining after liabilities have been deducted. They are classified as either undesignated or designated:(a) Undesignated net assets -Net assets which is not designated by management for specific purposes.(b) Designated net assets -Net assets which have been restricted by management as reserve for replacing Property, plant and equipment or have been invested in Property, plant and equipment.The majority of the Center's revenue is derived through the recognition of revenue from restricted donor grants. Restricted grants (including Government grants) are those received from a transfer of resources to the Center in return for past or future compliance with specific donor imposed conditions. These grants are recognized as revenue once there is reasonable assurance that the Center has complied with the conditions attached to the grant. Restricted grants are recognized as revenue to the extent of expenses for that grant are incurred.According to the Advisory Notes provided by the Consortium, the Lead Center of a CRP is required to recognize as revenues all Window 1 and Window 2 revenues of the CRP, including those executed by participating centers. All payments to partners are initially recorded as receivables and only expensed once the partner has satisfied the conditions of the grant including the submission of technical and financial reports.Other service revenues and gains are recognized in the period in which they are earned.The financial statements of the Center are measured using the currency of the primary economic environment in which the Center operates (the \"functional currency\"). In preparing the financial statements of the Center, transactions in currencies other than the Center's functional currency (foreign currencies) are recorded at the rates of exchange prevailing on the dates of the transactions. At the end of each reporting period, monetary items denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated at the rates prevailing on that date. Non-monetary items carried at fair value that are denominated in foreign currencies are retranslated at the rates prevailing on the date when the fair value was determined. Non-monetary items that are measured in terms of historical cost in a foreign currency are not retranslated.Exchange differences arising on the settlement of monetary items or on translating monetary items at the end of the reporting period are recognized in statement of activities.Exchange differences arising on the translation of non-monetary items carried at fair value are included in statement of activities for the period except for the differences arising on the translation on non-monetary items in respect of which gains and losses are recognized directly in other comprehensive income. Exchange differences arising from such non-monetary items are also recognized directly in other comprehensive income.Wages, salaries, paid annual leave, bonuses and social security contributions are recognized as expenses in the year in which the associated services are rendered by employees of the Center. Short-term accumulating compensated absences such as paid annual leave are recognized when services are rendered by the employees that increase their entitlement to future compensated absences. Short-term non-accumulating compensated absences such as sick leave are recognized when the absences occur.Certain employees of the Center are members of state-managed retirement benefit plans operated by government. The Center is statutorily required to contribute a specified percentage of salary costs to the state managed retirement benefit plan. The Center has no further payment obligations once these contributions have been paid.The Center operates defined contribution retirement benefit plans for all qualifying employees. The assets of the plans are held separately from those of the Center in funds under the control of trustees.The Center operates a defined retirement benefit scheme for its eligible employees. The computation of the cost of these benefits is prepared by an independent actuary based on the condition of the plan and following IAS 19 on defined benefit plans. Actuarial calculations are based on various assumptions, which in the future may differ from actual circumstances.Re-measurements, comprising actuarial gains and losses, and the return on plan assets (excluding interests), is reflected immediately in the statement of financial position with a corresponding debit or credit to net assets through other comprehensive income in the period in which they occur.Re-measurements are not reclassified to statement of activities in subsequent periods.Past service cost is recognized in statement of activities in the period of a plan amendment. Net interest is calculated by applying the discount rate at the beginning of the period to the net defined benefit liability or asset. Defined benefit costs are categorized as follows:• Service cost (including current service cost, past service cost, as well as gains and losses on curtailments and settlements); • Net interest expense or income; and • Remeasurement.The retirement benefit obligation recognized in the statement of financial position represents the actual deficit or surplus in the Center's defined benefit plans. Any surplus resulting from this calculation is limited to the present value of any economic benefits available in the form of refunds from the plans or reductions in future contributions to the plans.Property, plant and equipment are tangible assets with cost in excess of US$1,500 that are held for use in research activities, administrative and technical support activities; and expected to be used for more than one accounting period.Property, plant and equipment are initially measured at cost. Cost comprises its purchase price and all other incidental costs in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use. Subsequent to initial recognition, property, plant and equipment are carried at cost less accumulated depreciation and accumulated impairment losses. Short-leasehold land and building and improvements thereon are amortized over the lease period or, if shorter, the useful economic life of the property or improvement concerned. In the event of termination or expiration of the respective host country agreement, all immovable assets will revert to the host country.On January 17, 2000, the Center signed a Headquarters Agreement with the Malaysian Government for establishing WorldFish (also known as ICLARM) headquarters in Batu Maung, Penang, Malaysia. The headquarters agreement granted the Center immunities and privileges that are normally granted to diplomatic and international organizations operating in Malaysia to facilitate the Center's global activities. A Headquarters Lease Agreement was also signed as a supplement to the Headquarters Agreement, making available to the Center a research site of 5.4 hectare at nominal annual rent for a period of 30 years with an option for renewal for another 30 years and thereafter by agreement of both parties. In the event of termination or expiration of the agreement, the land and facilities (buildings and fixtures) shall revert to the Malaysian Government.On February 15, 2000, the Center commenced operations at a temporary office site in Penang, Malaysia and moved to its current headquarters in June 2001. The current headquarters was officially inaugurated on August 13, 2001.At the date of transition to IFRS, the Center has elected the transition exemption under IFRS 1 to adopt the fair value of leasehold building as at January 1, 2016 as its deemed cost. Under IFRS, the Center adopted the cost model for its leasehold building. Following initial recognition, leasehold building was measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses where leasehold building was depreciated over its remaining lease term.Depreciation begins when the asset is available for use and is computed using the straight-line method over its estimated term of useful life as follows:Short-leasehold land, building and infrastructure 25-30 Furniture, fixtures and equipment 5 Vehicles 5 Computers and software 3As of December 31, 2017, the unexpired lease periods of the short leasehold land is 12 years.The estimated useful lives, residual values and depreciation method are reviewed at the end of each reporting period with the effect of any changes in estimate accounted for on a prospective basis.Property, plant and equipment acquired for direct use in donor-funded projects are fully depreciated in the year of purchase. These are recorded as assets in custody and remain the property of the respective donors until the expiration of the agreement or contract. Assets are monitored by the Center until such time that the donor, in consultation with the Center, decides on the disposition.An item of property, plant and equipment is derecognized upon disposal or when no future economic benefits are expected to arise from the continued use of the asset. Any gain or loss arising on the disposal or retirement of an item of property, plant and equipment is determined as the difference between the sales proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset and is recognized in statement of activities.Government grants are recognized where there is reasonable assurance that the grant will be received and all attached conditions will be complied with.When the grant relates to an expense item, it is recognized as income on a systematic basis over the periods that the costs, which it is intended to compensate, are expensed.Where the grant relates to a non-current asset, it is recognized as deferred grant revenue in the statement of financial position and transferred to income in equal amounts over the expected useful life of the related asset.At the end of each reporting period, the Center reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any). Where it is not possible to estimate the recoverable amount of an individual asset, the Center estimates the recoverable amount of the cash-generating unit to which the asset belongs. When a reasonable and consistent basis of allocation can be identified, corporate assets are also allocated to individual cash-generating units, or otherwise they are allocated to the smallest group of cash-generating units for which a reasonable and consistent allocation basis can be identified.Recoverable amount is the higher of fair value less costs to sell and value in use. In assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate that reflects current market assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash flows have not been adjusted.If the recoverable amount of an asset (or cash-generating unit) is estimated to be less than its carrying amount, the carrying amount of the asset (or cash-generating unit) is reduced to its recoverable amount. An impairment loss is recognized immediately in profit or loss.Where an impairment loss subsequently reverses, the carrying amount of the asset (or cashgenerating unit) is increased to the revised estimate of its recoverable amount, but so that the increased carrying amount does not exceed the carrying amount that would have been determined had no impairment loss been recognized for the asset (or cash-generating unit) in prior years. A reversal of an impairment loss is recognized immediately in profit or loss.Provisions are recognized when the Center has a present obligation (legal or constructive) as a result of a past event, it is probable that an outflow of resources embodying economic benefits will be required to settle the obligation and a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation. The expense relating to a provision is presented in the statement of activities net of any reimbursement.Financial assets and financial liabilities are recognized in the statement of financial position when, and only when, the Center becomes a party to the contractual provisions of the instruments.Financial assets and financial liabilities are initially measured at fair value. Transaction costs that are directly attributable to the acquisition or issue of the financial assets and financial liabilities (other than financial assets and financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss) are added to or deducted from the fair value of the financial assets or financial liabilities, as appropriate, on initial recognition. Transaction costs that are directly attributable to the acquisition of financial assets or financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss are recognized immediately in statement of activities.Financial assets of the Center consist of 'Cash and cash equivalents' and 'Accounts receivable'.Accounts receivable are non-derivative financial assets with fixed or determinable payments that are not quoted in an active market and are measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method, less any impairment.Financial assets are assessed for indicators of impairment at the end of each reporting period. Financial assets are considered to be impaired when there is objective evidence that, as a result of one or more events that occurred after the initial recognition of the financial asset, the estimated future cash flows of the financial assets have been affected.Accounts receivable are carried at anticipated realizable value. An allowance is made for doubtful receivables based on a review of all outstanding amounts. Subsequent recoveries of amounts previously written off are credited against the allowance account. Bad debts are written off during the year they are identified as irrecoverable. The write off of receivables is carried out only after all efforts to collect have been exhausted.The Center derecognizes a financial asset only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire, or when it transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership of the asset to another entity.On derecognition of a financial asset in its entirety, the difference between the asset's carrying amount and the sum of the consideration received and receivable and the cumulative gain or loss that had been recognized in other comprehensive income and accumulated in equity is recognized in the statement of activities.Financial liabilities, are initially measured at fair value, net of transaction costs. Financial liabilities are subsequently measured at amortized cost using the effective interest method, with interest expense recognized on an effective yield basis.The effective interest method is a method of calculating the amortized cost of a financial liability and of allocating interest expense over the relevant period. The effective interest rate is the rate that exactly discounts estimated future cash payments through the expected life of the financial liability, or (where appropriate) a shorter period, to the net carrying amount on initial recognition.The Center derecognizes financial liabilities when, and only when, the Center's obligations are discharged, cancelled or they expire. The difference between the carrying amount of the financial liability derecognized and the consideration paid or payable is recognized in the statement of activities.Leases are classified as finance leases whenever the terms of the lease transfer substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to the lessee. All other leases are classified as operating leases.Operating lease payments are recognized as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term, except where another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern in which economic benefits from the leased asset are consumed. Contingent rentals arising under operating leases are recognized as an expense in the period in which they are incurred.In the event that lease incentives are received to enter into operating leases, such incentives are recognized as a liability. The aggregate benefit of incentives is recognized as a reduction of rental expense on a straight-line basis, except where another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern in which economic benefits from the leased asset are consumed.This comprises cash in hand, petty cash funds, currencies awaiting deposit and local or foreign currency deposits in banks which can be added to or withdrawn without limitation and are immediately available for use in the current operations. Also included are any short-term, highly liquid investments that are both readily convertible to known amounts of cash and so near their maturity date that they present insignificant risk of changes in value.The preparation of the Center's financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the period. Although these estimates are based on management's best knowledge of current events and actions, actual results could differ from those estimates. These estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis and as adjustments become necessary, they are recognized in the financial statements in the period they have become known.Significant estimates include assumptions used in estimating the recoverability of project expenditures and the determination of the allowance for doubtful contributions receivable from donors, the useful life of capital assets and the appropriate measurement of accrued liabilities.The financial statements for the year ended as of December 31, 2017 are the first the Center has prepared in accordance with IFRS. For periods up to and including the year ended as of December 31, 2016, the Center prepared its financial statements in accordance with CGIAR Financial Guidelines No. 2 (FG2).Accordingly, the Center has prepared these financial statements which comply with IFRS applicable for periods ending on or after December 31, 2017, together with the comparative period data as at and for the year ended December 31, 2016, as described in the summary of significant accounting policies.In preparing the financial statements, the Center's opening statement of financial position was prepared as at January 1, 2016, the Center's date of transition to IFRS. This note explains the principal adjustments made by the Center in restating its FG 2 financial statements, including the statement of financial position as at January 1, 2016, statement of activities and the statement changes in net assets for the year ended December 31, 2016.The estimates at 1 January 2016 and at 31 December, 2016 are consistent with those made for the same dates in accordance with FG2. The estimates used by the Center to present these amounts in accordance with IFRS reflect conditions at 1 January 2016, the date of transition to IFRS and as at 31 December 2016. Certain reclassifications and re-groupings have been made to the prior year's financial statements to enhance comparability with the current year's financial statements. As a result, certain line items have been amended in the statement of financial position, statement of activities, statement of changes in net assets and statement of cash flows, and the related notes to the financial statements. Comparative figures have been adjusted to conform to the current year's presentation. Under FG2, the cost of the short leasehold land paid was charged to statement of activities. At the date of transition to IFRS, an increase of $3 (31 December 2016: $3) was recognized in property, plant and equipment. Following initial recognition, leasehold land was measured at cost less accumulated depreciation where leasehold land was depreciated over its remaining lease term. This amount has been recognized against net assets.ii) Leasehold building (HQ)Under FG2, the cost of the building paid was charged to statement of activities. At the date of transition to IFRS, the Center has elected the transition exemption under IFRS 1 to adopt the fair value of leasehold building as at January 1, 2016 as its deemed cost. An increase of $562 (31 December 2016: $522) was recognized in property, plant and equipment. Following initial recognition, leasehold building was measured at cost less accumulated depreciation where leasehold building was depreciated over its remaining lease term. This amount has been recognized against deferred grant revenue (see note b).Under FG2, the Center recognized costs related to its pension plan on a cash basis. Under IFRS, pension liabilities are recognized on an independent actuarial assessment. At the date of transition to IFRS, an increase of $78 (31 December 2016: $44) was recognized in employee defined benefit.Under FG2, government grant/ donation received from governments was charged to statement of activities. At the date of transition to IFRS, an increase of $562 (31 December 2016: $522) was recognized in the statement of financial position as deferred grant revenue which related to capitalization of the leasehold building.The net effect of the recognition of the property, plant and equipment, employee defined benefit liability and the deferred grant revenue was reflected in the restated net assets as at January 1, 2016. Subsequently the net impact of the annual depreciation of the PPE, the amortization of the deferred grant revenue, and the actuarial assessment of employee defined benefits have been reflected in the restated Net Assets as at December 31, 2016.Effect of IFRSs adoption for the statement of activities for the year ended December 31, 2016.Under FG2, short leasehold land and building previously not capitalized under property, plant and equipment. Following initial recognition, leasehold land and building was measured at cost less accumulated depreciation where leasehold land and building was depreciated over its remaining lease term. This additional depreciation and amortization has been recognized as an expense in the Statement of Activities for 2016.The additional yearly depreciation of $40 was not recognized under CGIAR Financial Guidelines and therefore not included under the operational expenses. This additional depreciation has been recognized as an expense in the Statement of Activities for 2016.The recognition of a deferred grant revenue requires annual amortization into revenue. This additional revenue of $40 has been recognized in the Statement of Activities for 2016.Employee defined benefit expense has been determined via an independent actuarial assessment and include the service costs, contribution, interest expenses and impact of foreign exchange fluctuation that was not recognized under CGIAR Financial Guidelines and therefore not included under the operational expenses. These expenses of $2 have been recognized in the Statement of Activities for 2016.The transition from FG2 to IFRS has not had a material impact on the statement of cash flows.Managing financial risk is one aspect of the risk management practices of WorldFish. The Center's activities expose it to a variety of risks including: low impact of scientific activities; misallocation of scientific efforts away from agreed priorities; loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity; business disruption and information security failure; short-term liquidity crisis and long-term financial viability issues; transaction processing failures; loss of assets; and failure to recruit, retain, and develop personnel and overall staff safety and security. Risk dimensions taken into consideration in managing the risks of the organization include: a) Impact: Defined as the severity of the risk to the Center if a given risk event occurs.b) Likelihood: The probability of a given risk event occurring based on currently available information regarding the effectiveness of mitigation strategies in place.c) Timing: The expected period in which a given risk may arise.Financial risks that the Center face include market risk, credit risk and liquidity risk. Mitigation of these financial risks is carried out by management and supported by the Internal Audit unit under the direction of the Board of Trustees. A key element of the Center's risk management program is minimizing potential adverse effects on its financial performance. This requires the identification, evaluation and mitigation of financial risks where appropriate. The Board of Trustees reviews and approves policies for managing the risks of the Center.Market risk is the risk that the fair value of future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices. Market prices comprise interest rate risk, currency risk and other price risks.Foreign currency risk is the risk that the fair value or future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in foreign exchange rates. The exposure to the risk of changes in foreign exchange rates relates primarily to the Center's operating activities and specifically to: a) Situations where expenses are incurred in a different currency from the donor grants that are funding them; b) Fluctuations to the value of assets (cash and receivables) held in currencies other than the functional currency (USD) of the Center. This occurs when the Center is required to pre-finance activities on behalf of donors.In order to mitigate the foreign currency risk, the Center seeks to keep excess cash not required for working capital purposes in USD and seeks to contractually match expense related obligation with the origination donor currency to remain naturally hedged to any fluctuations in the rates, wherever possible.The Center has maintains most of its financial instruments in USD however there are some financial instruments denominated in variety of currencies at year end. The non-USD currencies in which it has the greatest exposure are the Euro, Australian Dollar, and Pound Sterling.The impact on the net surplus (deficit) of the organization of a reasonably possible change in the US dollars exchange rate in comparison to the Euro, Australian Dollar and Pound Sterling can be determined by considering the 1 year high and low exchange rate for each currency: Credit risk is the risk that a counterparty will not meet its obligations under a financial instrument or donor contract, leading to a financial loss. The Center is exposed to credit risk from its operating activities (primarily for Account receivables -Donors) and from its financing activities, including deposits with banks and financial institutions, foreign exchange transactions and other financial assets. Donor and CGIAR system office and other centers receivables are closely reviewed on a monthly basis and follow-up actions are carried out to recover the balances due. Other receivable balances are not material and are monitored on an on-going basis and provisions are made where necessary for doubtful accounts.Cash and cash equivalents are held with reputable local and international financial institutions with good credit ratings. Cash and cash equivalents are invested to safeguard the funds and with an investment objective of minimizing loss exposure.Ultimate responsibility for liquidity risk management rest with the Board of Trustees, which has establish an appropriate liquidity risk management framework for the management of the Center's short, medium and long term funding and liquidity management requirements. The Center manages liquidity risk by maintaining adequate reserves, short term investment and continuously monitoring forecast and actual cash flows, and by matching the maturity profiles of financial assets and liabilities.The following The carrying amounts of financial assets and financial liabilities recognized in the financial statements approximate their respective fair value due to the relatively short-term maturity of these financial instruments.Cash and cash equivalents at December 31 consist of: The Center operates a defined benefit plan for its eligible employees in accordance with the terms and conditions of employment between the Center and its employees. The WorldFish Board of Trustees released the previous restriction of net assets set aside for the replacement of Property, plant and equipment. As a result, $949 of designated net assets were transferred to undesignated during the year.WorldFish is the Lead Center for CRP 11 FISH which commenced in January 2017.WorldFish In the ordinary course of business, WorldFish becomes involved in various legal actions.The Center and the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt entered into an agreement on March 31, 1997 (ratified on December 8, 1997) to establish a regional center in the Arab Republic of Egypt.As provided for in the agreement, the Egyptian government made available to the Center the exclusive utilization of certain real estate, including facilities and equipment, owned by the Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research at Abbassa, Abou Hammad-Sharkia Governorate.In accordance with the recent legal amendments related to the Egyptian real estate tax law, the Center has been assessed in the amount of Egyptian Pounds (E£2,469) (equivalent to $146) in real estate taxes in relation to the use of the property. Management is currently disputing this assessment and taking necessary action to appeal for an exemption to the real estate taxes. The final arbitration date is not yet fixed. As of date of the issuance of these financial statements the ultimate outcome of such actions cannot be ascertained at this time. However, management believes that the resolution of this matter will not have a material adverse effect on the financial statements.No events have occurred from the reporting date to the date the financial statements are authorized for issue, which would require adjustment to, or disclosure in the financial statements. ","tokenCount":"6179"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7249e7ac80a3b689691364aa6176286e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e1e27e0e-8150-4d1d-9be2-c7671f7f3664/retrieve","id":"-804323920"},"keywords":["CIRAD","NRI","PRODAR (in Lima)","IDRC","CIP","JITA","SEARCA","UPWARD","CARE","CRS","Foodnet. CIPASLA (Colombia)","CLODEST (Honduras)","Africare (Uganda)","TIP (Tanzania)","ADD-Lilongwe (Malawi). ODAR-IICA (Peru)","members ofPhAction (GTZ","NRI","JIRCAS","ACIAR","CIRAD","FAO","liTA","CIP","IFPRI","IRRI); ASARECA (Foodnet)","the W.K CGIAR system linkages: Enhancement and breeding: 35% Crop production systems: 20% lnformation: 25% Livestock 10% Training: 10% 4"],"sieverID":"a3e2297c-0ea4-40a8-88ce-7d63dcf3a377","pagecount":"175","content":"National and local training programs have been implemented in at least four countries in Latín America, Asia and/or East Africa. At least two Impact studies and/or results from participatory monitoring and evaluation. systems document the effect ofRII projects' approaches, methods, tools or organizational principies on the diversity and rate of innovation in the beneficiary groups and on capacity to undertake risky innovation. Gender mainstreaming implemented in at Jeast one system wide partnership with national programs in Asia.2007 Assessing results to date of mainstreaming of participatory research methods and gender At least six lnnovation Case Studies document and analyse significant processes of improving capacity to innovate.The first stage of a cumulative meta-analysis of innovation case studies investigating the effect of capacity to innovate on food security and income generation is available. At least two novel RII projects' approach or methodology devised originally in Latín America adapted to conditions in Southeast Asia and/or Eastem Africa and used on a significant scale with up to three national or intemational partners.A major report disseminated analysis for use in agriculture and natural resource management in the CGIAR system.Users: The Institute works primarily on behalf of small-scale farm producers and agro-enterprises together with the businesses and agencies that serve them, including prívate, public and not-forprofit organizations, community-based organizations and farmer organizations. Among the rural poor, women and ethnic minorities and their organizations are especial! y important as beneficiaries.Objectives: The Rural Innovation Institute improves the capacity to innovate of resource poor, rural producers and businesses by increasing the scale and impact of new methods and approaches developed by the lnstitute's projects and programs to strengthen competitiveness, client-driven experirnentation and knowledge sharing. All the work ofthe Institute is carried out in its projects which are presented in the Mediurn Term Plan as separate LogFrarnes: SN 1 Rural Agro-enterprise Development {RAeD); SN3 Participatory Research Methods (IPRA) and SN4 lnformation for Development (InfoCom). The Institute also hosts the COlAR Prograrn on Participatory research and Oender Analysis (PROA). All resources are allocated through the projects.Outputs: l . A territorial approach and associated methods and tools for the participatory design and execution of rural agro enterprise development designed, vali_ dated and in widespread use. These demonstrably diversify and add value to the production of resource-poor, rural producers and businesses. 2. Participatory research principies, approaches, methods, tools and organizational principies for client-driven experimentation and a leaming selection approach to innovation in a resource-toconsurnption framework and show how these strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to support and work with farmer-led research and improve the capacity of farmers to manage risky innovations. 3. Improved approaches, methods and tools using new information and communications technologies (ICTs) developed, validated and in widespread use. These improve the capacity to innovate by obtaining, generating and sharing information and knowledge of resource poor producers, agro enterprises and businesses in rural communities and the R&D organizations serving them. 4. Mainstrearning gender analysis and equitable participatory research to promote leaming and change in CO centers and NARS so that they can better target the demands ofbeneficiary groups, particular} y poor rural women.Resource-poor producers and businesses improve capacity to innovate in order to assure food security, link to markets, compete effectively and increase income generation.Milestones: 2005 At least three Innovation Case studies document and analyze significant processes of improving capacity to innovate. At least one novel Rll projects' approa<.>h or methodology devised originally in Latín America adapted to Southeast Asia and/or East Africa and used on a significant scale with a national partner. Up to four impact studies of participatory research completed and available through the RIIrelated websites.Mainstreaming gender analysis and equitable participatory research to promote leaming and change in CO centers and NARS so that they can better target the demands ofbeneficiary groups, particularly poor rural women . training programs have been -Absence of social conflict at resource-to-consumptíon implemented in at least four the reference sítes framework and show how countries in Latín America, -Data available from the these strengthen the capacity Asia and/or East Africa, reference sites of R&D institutions to Impact studies and/or results -A vailability of information support and work with from participatory from partners farmer-led research and monitoring and evaluation improve the capacity of systems document the effect farmers to manage risky ofthe project's participatory innovations.approaches, methods, tools or organizational principies on the diversity and rate of farmer-led innovation in the beneficiary groups and on their capacity to undertake risky innovation. The results and lessons are in use in at     OBSc CIA T Proj ect Linkages  The Institute continues to build on the established reputation of sorne long-standing areas of work such as agro-enterprise development and participatory research. At the same time the Institute is developing novel strategic initiatives including Enabling Rural lnhovation in East Afiica; the Learning Alliances; a Knowledge Sharing facilitation role in the CGIAR system; eleaming courses ; the study of innovation histories, innovation ecologies and. the role of social capital, networks and \"netchains;\" andan initiative to support indigenous peoples' ethnic entrepreneurship. New kinds of partnership are al so being developed such as that initiated with secondment of a staff member to the Global Forum on Agricultura! Research (GF AR) based in F AO, Rome this year.The RII budget in 2004 was US $5,291 ,459 in 2004 2 ofwhich 16 percent was unrestricted core (See Figure 6). Proposal development requires a very significant portion of the time of RII staff at alllevels. The initiative and contribution ofNationally Recruited Staff associates and assistants to developing proposals and securing grants are increasingly important and deserve especial recognition. Overall in 2004 RII projects submitted 52 proposals, an average of 6.5 proposals per IRS PhD-level scientist (including those principally involved in management). Grant proposals submitted in 2004 totaled US $19 million ofwhich 13 percent were approved to date and 87 percent are still pending approval.A considerable proportion ofRural Innovation-related work is carried out in other CIAT projects (see table on page 16). In 2004, RII projects had 15 joint publications involving other CIA T projects. Sorne of this work involves Rll staff in new research initiatives, and sorne of it involves use of methods and approaches developed in collaboration with RII support.Partnerships and Alliances RII projects report 205 active partnerships in 2003-4, many of which are clustered into learning alliances that are a very significant aspect ofhow RII does its work. Most research is action research conducted in close association with or \"piggybacked\" onto the application ofRII approaches and methodologies by partners and/or capacity development for use of those approaches and methods. In 2004 RII has 4 7 active partnerships of this type.A Learning Alliance is an agreement between a research partner and development partners( including donors and the prívate sector) to carry out a joint process of action-research on a development-oríented intervention or program that is using sorne RII methods, tools and approaches. Leaming Alliances take a very different approach from the technology transfer that characterized relationships with development partners in the past. The Alliance involves collaborative monitoring, evaluation, knowledge-sharing and capacity development about good practices for the management of innovation processes.Leaming Alliances advance rural innovation on two fronts. First as a way to conduct action research that advances fundamental and strategic understanding ofhow to develop and improve capacity to innovate. Thus Leaming Alliances provide RII projects with proof of concept on a Jarge scale. Second, as a way for RII to realize its comparative advantage in research through . engagement in fieldwork that advances both the program objectives of development partners as well as the uptake, scaling out and impact of RII research products. These products are the intemational public goods-the approaches and methodologies-that are refined and subjected to proof of concept in the context of large scale efforts to provide solutions for the rural poor.The Learning Alliance concept is itself experíencing rapid uptake within and outside the RII. CIA T first experimented with this approach in 2000 with CARE in Nicaragua. From there the idea moved to East Africa where a six nation Leaming Alliance was set up with Catholic Relief Services, CRS. New Alliances facilitated by agro-enterprise development objectives have since been established in Central America and the Andean region. The success of the Eastem A frica learning alliance between CIA T and CRS has led to the development of a global Jearning alliance in which 30 CRS country programs have pledged $850,000 of their prívate resources to implementa tools based \"leaming alliance\" in East, South an West Africa, South and South East Asia and Andean and Central America. This is a significant new endeavor for the RAeD project and wiU enable the team to fine tune many activities across a wide range of territoríes. The impact on development partners has been substantive in terms of a shift from relief to enterpríse development and from a focus on agricultura] production to a focus on marketing.Within RII the concept of a Learning Alliance has begun to catalyze closer project integration: in response to an invitation from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Andean Program to presenta proposal. The RII projects in Latín Ameríca are designing an Alliance with the Foundation and its partners for combined input from agro-enterprises, participatory research and information for development. This builds on RII's work for the Kellogg Foundation supporting evaluation ofthe Foundation's 30-plus clusters ofintegrated projects (Conjuntos Integrados de Projectos) in their Latín Ameríca program. Another leaming alliance was formed to advance development methodologies of farmer experímentation and participatory research in Ecuador. The alliance characterized \"good-practice\" approaches to FPR in Ecuador being used by three organizations: World Neighbors, IIRR and INIAP. The approaches characterized were CIALs, FFS, Farmer-to-Fanner and Experimental Trials. The sharing of information at a workshop led to the stakeholders' recognition ofthe need to continue sharing experiences, seek complementarities and pursue opportunities for further scaling-up of these approaches.A new leaming Alliance is being sought around the theme of ethnic entrepreneurship. Rural poverty is often concentrated in ethnic minority groups and indigenous people's communities. At the same time ethnic entrepreneurs are recognized as sorne ofthe most successful innovators who . design ingenious strategies for marketing and production using both indigenous and externa} technologies.Institutional leaming and change is an integral part of any Leaming Alliance and the CGIAR ILAC (lnstitutional Learning and Change) Initiative has included the CIA T Leaming Alliances and one of its concepts and cases. The concept of a learning Alliance is increasingly identified on a broad front intemationally with innovation at CIA T. Over the past 30-40 years, many developing countries have experienced a slow separation between the focus of public sector research organizations and the cornmercial research interests ofthe entrepreneurial prívate sector world. Research on \"Public-Private Partnerships for Agroindustrial Research\" developed methods and tools that will facilitate more effective partnerships between public sector agricultura! research organizations and the prívate sector. The main assurnption behind public-private partnership initiatives is that although goals and incentives maybe different, there is a 'comrnon space' where interests can converge and it is around this comrnon space that public-private partnerships can evolve. However, ifthis common space is hidden then joint initiatives will not occur. Research is testing hypotheses about the common interest areas between public and prívate interests and developing methodology to facilitate the design of public-private partnerships for innovation, which is low cost and improves the negotiation and decision-making process.Many of the problems that face small-scale rural producers are related to the effects of trade liberalization, globalization, foreign investment in traditional markets and their effects on market supplies and prices. Macro-economic trends are important to Rurallnnovation's strategy to improve market engagement by small-scale producers. A 2004 study showed developing countries reliant upon a limited range of traditional commodities face staggering losses. This bleak situation is reflected in the dramatically falling terrns oftrade for many African countries and suggests a profound downtum in their economic outlook. The conclusions ofthis study are that decision-makers and development agencies should give urgent consideration to the following: (i) Improving the negotiating powers of LDCs for global trade, (ii) Managing the over-supply ofprimary product exports, (iii) Stimulating production of added-value products (iv) Strengthening Market Information Services and (v) Developing export strategies based on highly differentiated higher value products and (vi) Reducing imports of goods that can be competitively produced domestically. These measures are required to regain more ethical trading values between rich and poor nations in regard to existing products and wherever possible to find innovative ways of adding value to commodities before export, such that a higher percentage of the final market price is realized in the producing countries.Rurallnnovation's focus on the interaction among information, technology and social organization is now being reflected in intemational concern with the digital divide which is shifting focus from connectivity towards the importance of capacity building and local content development. Recently-initiated research in collaboration with Imperial College London is applying social network analysis to rural information exchange. A comprehensive literature review on the importance of information flows in supply chain management provided a . framework in which to assess the ways in which ICTs can enhance information networking for the poor. This initial work on information exchange in supply chains has identified the concept of a \"netchain\" to explain the differences information flows in supply chains. Empirical research in Bolivia has been launched this year to increase our understanding ofnetchains and ofhow information is shared between producer groups and to identify where infon'nation bottlenecks exist in supply cbains. By assessing the role that information intermediaries can play to overcome these barriers, the project hopes to improve producer groups' access to information and to create new opportunities in the production and marketing of high-value crops.Academic researchers' agree that the speed at which experiences in ICT practice are evolving makes action research a desirable methodology for understanding the complexities facing practítioners and for speaking with authority on the factors affecting the current state of play. RII's research on \"ínformation intermediaries\" grew out ofprevious work on community telecenters. The idea was to identify individuals and groups, who with appropriate training and support, can serve as a bridge between di verse formal sources of information on agroenterprise development and the many people in rural communities who lack access to those information sources or have little confidence or interest in them.A pilot research study is investigating tbe potential of grupos gestores de comunicación in relation to the panela (unrefined sugar) supply chain, which is quite important in Cauca Departrnent, Colombia. 1bree communications undergraduate studa:1ts from the University of Cauca are invpolved in this research. During 2004 they examined information flows within and between the groups, using focus group discussions and surveys to determine how members communicate, how frequently, and how effectively.Innovation histories and innovation briefs are being constructed to enable Rll to build a database of case studies that can eventual! y be used for meta-analysis that will give insight into underlying principies and dynamics of rural innovation processes. Methodology for constructing and learning from innovation histories was devel<:>ped and implemented this year and published as an ILAC Brief, distributed at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting. ILAC (Institutional Learning and Change) is a new initiative in the CGIAR System.A comparison was made of the innovation histories of CIALs in Honduras and Colombia, the two countries with the most CIALs established that institutionally sustainable CIALs are supported by an network of organizations who enjoy mutually beneficia! relationships. The actions taken to register the ASOCIALs in Honduras as legal entities and build their capacity to attract and manage projects on their own are belping build the links that the ASOCIALs need for their long-term sustainability. As of 2003, however, those links were not yet sufficient so their remains a role for the host organizations to continue to seek funding. To reach the long-term sustainability that the ASOCIALs seek, they will have to learn how to operate as small NGOs and/or providers of services that can win contracts and projects and pay staff salaries. CIAL and ASOCIAL members in Honduras are linked on average to 7 organizations within their respective communities, and six organizations outside. Through these linkages CIAL members are influencing local decísion-makers and local development agendas.ínnovate. Second, that accountability ora sense of responsibility on the part of leaders and cítizens can be enhanced by adopting long-term collective goals as a result of the planning process. Third, that participatory rural planning approaches enhance Jeaming at different hierarchical Jevels of organizations and so improve the coordination of development efforts by articulating clients (demand) and service providers(supply) from one leve] to the next, from the bottom up. The Rural Planning approach is being used to articulate municipal plans at the departmental level, and departmental plans at the national leve! in the different case studies . The \"Resource to Consumption\" framework is being tested by research in Africa. This focuses on understanding the linkages between the technology development process and inarket opportunities and how this can generate criticallinks between investment in natural resources, markets and incentives for their adoption. In a research-extension-university-NGO-farmer group continuurn, CIA T and its partners are working in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda to explore and understand how market orientation Ieads to improved NRM at the farm level. Analyses of research to date highlight examples where identifying potential markets for existing and new products has led to increased investment in NRM and how developing innovative agricultura} technologies that meet the specific needs and constraints of different income levels and gender groups leads to improved livelihoods.Enabling Rurallnnovation is the name for the combination of rural innovation approaches from the participatory research (IPRA), agro-enterprise (RaeD) and information for development (INFOCOM) projects being applied to test the resource-to-consumption framework in East Africa. Agricultura} research and development organizations are increasingly under pressure to shift from enhancing productivity of food crops to improv1ng profitability and competitiveness of small-scale farming, and linking smallholder farmers to more profitable markets. What is not obvious however, is how to make small-scale farming more market oriented, or how to integrate participatory research approaches to marketing and agroenterprise development. In Africa, CIA T is testing an integrated approach for demand-driven and market-oriented agricultura! research and rural agro-enterprise development. This approach termed Enabling Rural lnnovation (ERI) offers a practica] framework to link farmer participatory research and market research in a way that empowers farmers to better manage their resources and offers them prospects of an upward spiral out of poverty.ERI uses participatory processes to build the capacities offarmers' groups and rural communities in marginal areas to identify and evaluate market opportunities, develop profitable agroenterprises, intensify production through experimentation, while sustaining the resources upon which their livelihoods depend. The approach emphasizes integrating scientific expertise with farmer knowledge, strengthening social organization and entrepreneurial organizations through effective partnership between research, development and rural communities. By strengthening human and social capital, ERI encompasses effective and proactive strategies for promoting gender and equity in the access to market opportunities and improved technologies, and in the distribution ofbenefits and additional incomes.• Is the Enabling Rural Innovation framework an effective mechanism for reaching women and the poor? How are the ERI processes contributing to changes in rurallivelihood strategies?Is the community enterprise development process reaching the women and marginalized members of the community? Do women and the poor benefit? Results ofaction research applying the ERI approach in pilot sites in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania show that small-scale farmers are not always attracted by higher economic returns. Rather they use a range of economic and non-econornic criteria for selecting their existing crops and livestock for new marke~s, as well as new crops for new markets. Evaluation ofmarket opportunities stirnulates farmers' experimentation to reduce risks, access new technologies, and improve the productivity and competitiveness ofthe selected enterprises. Lessons Iearned suggest that building and sustaining quality partnerships between research and development organizations, government, private agribusiness sector; and building necessary amount ofhuman and social capital over a certain period oftime are critica} for achieving success in small-scale agroenterprise development. This however, requires that an explicit scaling up strategy be mapped out to link successful community processes to meso and macro level market institutions at the national and regionallevels.Scaling out RII approaches from Latin America to Africa and AsiaThe National Agricultura} Advisory Service (NAADS) was established\"to assist Uganda make the transition from a production based, Government supported extension service, to a demand led extension agency that will incremental} y operate on afee paying basis. This is an ambitious program given the status of existing extension capacity and to support of this process, RAeD undertook a multi-sector market opportunities study to assess product demand, using Kampala, the capital city, as a proxy for demand in Uganda. This demand profile providing an objective means for prioritising enterprise options that could be prometed by extension officers at the district Ievel. In all countries, participatory market research has been carried out, with serví ce providers facilitating farmers' visits to local, regional and in sorné cases markets in the capital cities of their respective countries to identify attractive market options. The farmers then rigorously evaluate each option identified using a set of criteria that they themselves develop, based on the communities' priorities for meeting food production and income generation.The results ofthese experiences were presented in a workshops held in each country, and shared with institutions that are in the process ofinitiating 'enabling rural innovation' activities. By the end ofthis year the experiences and lessons learned will have been brought together in a practica! field guide for market facilitators.We ha ve made gains in building capacity of partners in applying ERI approaches to strengthen their work. These approaches are now being tested and evaluated by partners in leaming si tes in Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania. Additionally, a significant number ofpartners have institutionalized these approaches in their institutions; e.g. Coo Versalles had increased beyond 3,000 liters 1 da y, generating an additional US$150,000 per annurn in incorne dueto a 100% increase in the milk's sales price and a 130% increase in sales volume.The PRGA Program is collaborating with CIA T 's (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) Participatory Research in Agriculture (IPRA) Program on a study ofthe impact oflocal agricultura! researcb committees in Cauca, Colombia. This study examines the impact of one particular method of incorporating farmer participation into the research process. The methodology is based on the establishment oflocal agricultural research committees (CIALs) in rural communities, wbich act as research services for their cornrnunities. This method was developed in CIA T in the 1990s and is currently in use in approximately 250 cornrnunities in severa] Latin American countries. This irnpact study aims to better understand how effective the CIAL methodology is in ensuring that benefits reach a large proportion ofthe population and also how CIAL members benefit from their participation.In another stud y the development of second-order organizations of CIALs was evaluated. These organizations are playing a very important role in facilitating the interactions among the farmer groups, local governments and externa) agents that intervene in local development. The CIALs have continued doing research on new technologicai options to adapt them and make them accessible to the low-resource farmers in order to improve their quality of life. To date, there are eight second-order associations: 2 in Colombia (CORFOCIAL and UNICIAL), 5 in Honduras distributed across 4 regions (ASOCIALAG0 . This collaborative study with EMBRAP A assesses the impacts, and potential impacts, of a participatory cassava-breeding project implemented in several areas of northeast Brazil over a period of eight years by EMBRAP A/CNPMF (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agroprecuária/Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Mandioca e Fruticultura Tropical) . The study . assesses the soundness of the methodology implemented in the project by asking if participant farmers were representative of the other. farmers in their communities. It also asks: what is the . adoption potential ofthe varieties developed in the project? Who adopted (or is likely to adopt) them? Why, and what benefits accrue from adoption? What difference does the institutional arrangement through which a participatory plant-breeding project is implemented make for the adoption potential? Finally, what were the costs of participation?Participatory Barley Breeding This joint project with ICARDA assesses benefits and costs ofiCARDA's (lnternational Center for Agricultura! Research in the Dry Areas) participatory barley breeding approach as compared to the conventional ( centralized) breeding approach, both at the farmer Jevel and as returns to research. Preliminary analysis ofthe data has been completed and the results were presented at the 25th lnternational Conference of the lnternational Association of Agricultura} Economists (IAAE) Durban, South Africa in August 2003. The methods used include economic methods of measuring benefits from adoption and \"process impacts,\" which occur because ofthe participation itselfrather than because ofthe technologies developed.In a new effort CIA T and other CGIAR centers embarked in April 2004, on an initiative to foster KM/S within and among centers and their partners. InforCom obtained a significant competitive grant from the CGIAR and contracted a half-time senior scientist to coordinate the project, in close collaboration with other centers that have expressed strong interest in this work, the Organizational Change Program (OCP), the more recent Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) initiative and the CGIAR ICT-KM Program. The general objective ofthe KM/S project is to foster a learning-oriented, knowledge-sharing culture in the CGIAR that improves its performance in strengthening food security, reducing poverty, and pres~rving natural resources in developing countries. The project will review past experience with KM/S and generate commitment to the approach, support the development and implementation of KM/S strategies and facilitate access to KM/S tools and téchniques. Success in obtaining this grant is a testimony that InforCom, although stíll in an early stage of development, has established a definite ni che and a reputation for high quality.Forum for Sustainable Developmen t Development partners and in particular local govemments forman important segment ofRII clients. RJI is collaborating wíth the W.K.Kellogg Foundation in the design of a baseline evaluation of approximately 20 Project Clusters (CIPs) distributed throughout numerous municipalities in Central America, North East Brazil and the Andean region. Each CIP is based on an Alliance among multiple institutions working in local development, including local government. Data was collected by the Foundation 's evaluation team in a series of participatory workshops with local stakeholders in the CIPs and processed at CIAT. The data analysis produced a set of descriptive tables and charts for each CIP which are of considerable interest not only to the projects but to municipal planners and decision-makers. In addition a paper on the Latín American context for local development was prepared for the Foundation by the GIS analysis team led by Glenn Hyman. They developed an interactíve, web-based Forumfor Sustainable Development using•GIS analysis in which the data on the murucipalities included in the Kellogg Program can be consulted, and which enables municipalities to compare the results of their programs with results in other municipalities, and to interact about this information. The Forum was pilot tested with sorne munícipalties in Valle Department, Colombia and stimulated so mucb interest tbat municipalities sent tbeir staffto CIAT to learn more about it. The Foundation has also expressed interest in using tbe Forum. Tbe evaluation baseline documents the extent and quality ofthe multi-intstitutional Alliances and it sbould be possible to monitor how fuese use the Forum and its impact on tbeir knowledge sharing.Created witb tbe objective to put at reach of the farmers all tbe information that tbeir peers in other countries have generated. This web system is also recognition of the farmer communities that have believed in tbe CIAL metbodology; and through which they have developed scientific research important for tbeir geographic areas. On tbe otber hand, it is a system tbat can belp many rural research and development institutions to know tbe fanners ' criteria for tbe selection oftechnology. Furthermore, it could be an information resource on generation and adoption of technologies for the farmers tbemselves, which would be used in the development programs for their dissemination.The software Expertise was ratified as one oftbe main components ofthe CGIAR VRC (Virtual Resource Center) platform under the C4D initiative ICT -KM C4D (Content for development). This software will bring great benefits to partners as well asto rural communities in the confonnation of groups in knowledge sharing processes.The CÍAT USI complemented Enrica Porcari's report \"Collaboration Systems for Virtual Teams: Report to the CGIAR CIO\", published on 26th ofFebruary 2003, witb a special emphasis on free open source software solutions. The general approach was an exploration of the state of the art of open source collaboration tools, and their possible solutions and services offered. Then, we applied tbe knowledge gained lo the particular needs of the CG Centers. We found that free open source software packages do existas a good altemative to commercial collaboration software. We are convinced tbat there will not and should not be any single solution solving it all. Software packages usually have a special focus and become best ofbreed of sorne area. So combining two or three software packages will give berter results for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the communities.To increase tbe competitiveness of small-scale agro-enterprises through te~hnical and marketing innovation RaeD has developed a metbodology entitled \"Groups for Innovation in Rural Agroindustry'' (GIARs). GIAR is essentially a support group, made up by representatives from research, commerce, education and technícal organizations that focused on assisting small agroenterprises within an identified market cham. The GIAR group works like a commercial research unit, to identify bottlenecks• and increase supply chain efficiency, product quality and ultimately product sales. The GIAR methodology has been successfully applied to Cassava and Panela (raw sugar) processing in Cauca Provinée, Colombia. By using the GIAR approach, more than 100 Panela producers in Cauca Province ha ve tested and adopted improved varieties, increased processing capacity (kg Panela 1 h) of their sugar\"plants by up to 21 0%; significan ti y reduced firewood consumption and eliminated burning of old tyres. The GIAR has al so found ways to improve product quality; enter new markets, including export opportunities, through product differentiation and consolidate a producers association. This year, the methodology was also expanded with new activities on Panela market chains in Honduras.SIDER is an initiative designed by Inforcom and RAeD to support small-scale business communitíes through a continuous exchange ofknowledge, experiences and 1earning among local actors and their support services. The system is based on simple ICT tools that have been developed through active participation of producers and local community support organizations see website, (http://www.caucasider.org/). In 2004, the RAeD team focused on incorporating a market information service into SIDER, starting with a weekly price system for the main products from principal cities in Cauca and neigbboring provinces. To facilitate the distribution ofthis information 15 native American and Afro-Colombian radio stations in the province agreed to broadcast SIDER data. To promote the approach two workshops were held which led to an agreement by the stations to produce 12 programs that combine traditional contents with those from the SIDER business information Web site. Through this process, information for commercial development is being distributed to many thousands of clients in the province.Tradenet, is a new web-based product developed as •part of an F AO funded evaluation of market information systems developed in Uganda over the past 5 years by FOODNET. The analysis revealed that a major problem in the efficiency and cost of delivering market information services (MIS) was a lack of access to low cost, user friendly softWare systems that could assist in data collation, synthesis and distribution. To overcome this problem RAeD established a relationship with a Ghanaian based ICT business Incubator Company, Busylab to develop an appropriate web-based MIS platform that could facilitate information flow and also integrate lCT options including, web, mobile phones, SMS, satellite data channels, FM radios and mobile print media services. The beta version ofthis software http://www.tradenet.biz/ is now being pilot tested with the Ugandan national market information service and if successful, this product will be commercialised through a public:private sector company. This service will support up to 7 million farmers in Uganda and has potential for application in many other countries seeking a similar service. The findings from this work were recent1y summarised in a paper submítted for publication to F AO and ASARECA monograpbs series.In a new project funded by the New Zealand Government, RAeD is working with two local stakeholder consortia for agro-enterprise development in Cauca, Colombia and Y oro, Honduras. In late 2003, a diagnostic study identified priorities for new and improved services, including marketing, information, accounting and legal services, and post-héil\"Vest training/technical assistance. During 2004, each consortium has facilitated the establishment of these new services through the creation and promotion of an eoterprise risk fund that provides incentives for new service providers to enter these rural markets. The consortia are managing a process that includes training potential providers in t}le design of new serví ces, and the development of proposals, business and market plans for their sustainable delivery in the target area. These new services wil1 be operational in late 2004. Monitoring and evaluation ofthe new services will continue tbrougb 2005. Methodological differences between the two locations are developing, and will be reflected in the field guide that will result from this (and other) experiences. The first version ofthe business development services guide will be devdoped in Spanish and thereafter translated into English and French, for use in Asia and Africa The BDS tools being developed in Latin America are simultaneously being assessed and adapted to South East Asia. The use of an enterprise risk funds is also being designed in both continents to catalyse innovative ofnew approaches to BDS.This year InforCom demonstrated the potential of computer-supported collaborative learning, or e-learning, as a means of making k.nowledge and other results of agricultura} research more widely available and more relevant to development professionals in rural areas. Ambitious and creative course development with partner organizations and active participation in the planning of a CGIAR initiative called the Global Open Agriculture and Food University (GO-AFU) led to a grant from USAID to develop two courses with the University ofFlorida, Gainesville in the USA which will open the door to University degrees for participants in CIA T -facilitated elearning. CIA T's first distance education course was launched. In collaboration with Colombia's Universidad Nacional, we completed the development of a course begun last year, entitled Exsitu Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. It got under way in mid-August and runs until mid-November 2004.From Aug.-Oct. a review ofliterature was conducted to cover topics such as the training of facilitators, facilitation and leadership, participation, participatory actionresearch, poverty, FFS, farmer-to-farrner methodology, agricultura! knowledge and information systems, strategic extension and other related topics. The PROINP A study (A synthesis of knowledge-sharing methodologies anda proposal for new methodological arrangements) will provide us with an additional up-to-date review of literature in our area of interest: \"Pro-poor RD&TI methods and methodologies.\"The Intemational Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is leading the design ofthis initiative in collaboration with CGIAR centers and other actors. InforCom actively participated in an electronic forum and later in the Task Force Meeting and Donor Dialog on this subject in August at IFPRI headquarters. lnforCom will provide a report on its first pilot distance-education course for the GO-AFU Web site.InforCom staff made good use of the multimedia training tool developed last year on setting up community telecenters. It proved effective for conducting orientation sessions with individuals and organizations involved with new telecenters established at two of CIA T's research reference sites-:Yorito in Honduras and San Dionisio in Nicaragua-thróugh government COlUlectivity programs. The too} was also used to develop a new project on ICTs for rural development in Bolivia. The use of animation, the colloquial language, and other features of this tool are clearl y effective with our intended audiences in rural communities.Capacity development continues to be a significant feature of Enabling Rural lnnovation in Africa, and the Institute's work with participatory methods in Latin America and Asia. In each continent a critica! mass of capacity is being built with partners, most ofwhom are now conducting a significant proportion of the training. The Institute is increasing its involvement in the development ofUniversity courses and degiees as a•strategy for institutionalizing this teaching capacity. For example, in Africa approximate]y 200 R&D personnel from various institutions have been trained this year in applying ERI approaches and total of 120 R&D personnel have been trained in establishing and implementing project-level and communitybased PM&E systems. Of these, 71% are KARI researchers and technical officers and 29% are their extension and NGO partner. Lessons from applying ERI approaches have been documented and shared at various national and intemational venues including conferences, workshops and meetings. Five regional workshops have been conducted to support regional NARS partners to develop proposals and mobilize funds to support ERI activities.The development of an integrated, ni.ultidisciplinary team of scientists from different projects and competencies, which is working in ERI to address a common development challenge.Starting in 2002, RII and CA TIE have offered a joint yearly training course on competitive strategies for smallholder market chains to a total of 49 participants. Based on the demand for this training and the lack of similar courses in Latin America, both organizations decided to organize a post-graduate diploma program in the area ofrural enterprise development. The objective ofthis course is to prepare service providers (NOOs, public sector agencies, universities, among others) with the necessary tools to facilitate effective linkages between rural communities and dynamic markets. The first two modules were offered in 2004 .Those that successfully complete the four modules will re\"ceive a diploma in Rural Enterprise Development from CATIE and CIA T. It is expected that the first class of participants will graduate in 2005.Demand for the agro-enterprise guides has led to their re-organization and updating for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. Five Guides will be published at the end of 2004.Strategic partnerships with the goal of integrating gender analysis and participatory research into agricultura] and natural-resource management research practice were formed in 2002 and 2003 by the PRGA Program. Small grants and methodological support were provided to CGIAR Centers for institutionalizing gender-sensitive participatory research. This has resulted in each Center conducting institutional assessments to determine the opportunities and constraints to mainstre~ing gender-sensitive participatory approaches.Mainstreaming gender analysis with Regional networks and NARS Numerous workshops and capacity development•events were supported by PROA in 2003-4 to address the Program's goal ofmainstreaming gender analysis. The PROA Program has initiated a partnership with the Association for Strengthening Agricultura! Research in Eastem and Central Africa (ASARECA), one ofthe three SROs in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the perio~ 2004-2006, the PRGA Program, in collaboration with ASARECA, proposes to strengthen, consolidate and mainstream participatory research and gender analysis in a high-priority, high-visibility program that recognizes and prometes gender equity and gender-sensitive participatory approaches as an important strategic process to enable research for development to become demand-driven.PROA in collaboration with IDRC, Canada and the North East Network (NEN, eastem Himalayan region), has brought together researchers involved in biodiversity and naturalresource management related projects for iterative training in social and gender analysis concepts and methodologies. A team of extemal researchers and trainers has worked with a group of 18 participants from the region.The China Agricultura! University is a leading proponent for the use of participatory research in agricultura! research and development in China. In p~ership with Rll's IPRA and PROA several activities are underway to support the effort of the College of Rural Development to mainstream participatory research methods in the Chinese agricultura} research system .•In Latín Arnerica securing special project funding for research is increasingly challenging. A significant proportion ofthe Institute's intellectual capital is vested in the nationally recruited associates, research assistants and technicians who develop and train in many of the methods and approaches. They are based in Colombia, but increasingly must find resources to. support this work elsewhere. One solution being pursued vigorously, is to increase the level of effort in proposal subrnission and to engage with Colombia at regional and national scales for the development ofRural Innovation projects for Colombia. Overall in 2004 Rll projects submüted 52 proposals totaling US $19 mili ion of which 13 percent were approved to date and 87 percent are still pending approval.Another solution is to develop new types of partnerships through which resource mobilization can be jointly undertaken to achieve complementary research and development goals ofthe partners. These partnersbips emphasize the co-development of innovations and provide an opportunity for Rll to conduct strategic researcb on how to irnprove capacity to innovate via engagement in development processes . An example is the new Andean Region Learning Alliance in whicb the partners' goals are development and who loo k to RII for action researcb on themes they have identified and that they anticípate will make their development work more effective. Another example is the process under discussion with the Kellogg Foundation to support their network of community-based Centers tbroughout Latín America with joint research, methodology testing and knowledge sharing.A serious challenge is the persistence ofthe mid-20th Century, technology transfer model of innovation, still deeply entrenched in the CGIAR but largely discarded. everywhere else. Modem innovation systems required by markets to respond to client demand are based on the idea of codevelopment oftechnologies and this is the approach tbat has cbaracterized CIAT's rural innovation work for over two decades. Rural innovation-related researcb in the CGIAR has always been primarily funded by non-core resources. In the 1980ties and early 1990ties special projects and the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Program were an altemative source of high quality PhD scientists and operational funds beca use most of the biological research was primarily core funded. In the 1990ties, a couple of systemwide programs addressed this need. However as core funding has declined or been routed to Challenge Programs which do not 1 include Rll-related research in their portfolios, social science is competing unfavorably with biotechnology and soil science for special project funds, and tends to be oflower priority (viz. the closure ofiSNAR, the only Center with a social and management science focus). So long as donors and the CG's Science Council cbaracterize rural innovation-related research in the CGIAR asan aid to technology transfer, funding innovative research in the social sciences will continue to be problematic. This means that the type of creative applied social science research that was done in the 1990ties and that fuels today's demand for Rural Innovation methodologies and research products is undemourished. We are basically living off our intellectual fat without being able to reinvest the desirable Jevel of effort in a new wave of ideas and applications.One solution is to bring this issue to .the attention of donors and the priority setting process in the CGIAR and this has begun. Another solution is to nest strategic research into contracts for development services, and a second is to respond to demand from development partners for research which is driven by their projects and goals. This is especially challenging because rural innovation staff essentially have to piggyback ''blue-sky\" research onto a demanding service provision function in sorne cases, subject to exigent micromanagement by the donor in question. The difficulties this can create are illustrated by the recent experience in Asia. However successes in this respect have been achieved in the Leaming Alliances.Africa and Asia continue to be major poles for scaling out and resource mobilization, pulling the node of project management towards these regions and thereby increasing the complexity of project management and of research coordination. An important challenge is to sustain a coherent, cornmon research focus in the projects across multiple sites and special projects, all of which must be tailored to meet specific donor and partner interests. The solution is to pursue a few cornmon research themes across sites and continents as is the case with PM&E for example.The development ofhigh quality partnerships is critica} and enormous time and effort must be devoted to partnership development. One solution is the emergent trend to engage with major intemational partners in an alliance that has broad geographical coverage as is the case with the Global Alliance with Catholic Relief Services.5. Indicators l. Software Rent-Agro-In 2004, a serious effort was made to address final software bugs and the first Spanish language version of RentAgro has now been thoroughly tested. As a result of this work, the software received drastic aesthetic and functional changes. The next stage in the development ofRentAgro is to deliver the product to the Legal Office (Germán Arias) to begin legal processes. RAeD is currently taking advice on whether to copyright this software with the future aim of making RentAgro a commercial product or at least protecting the product within the public domain. The team is also working on the possibility ofmaking this product available asan online facility. The rationale for developíng the online version is based on the ongoing popularity of the powerpoínt presentation developed by C. Ostertag on financia! profitability models. In this case our partners and clients would ha ve the opportunity of putting the theory into practice. ln 2005, the team therefore will develop a planto launch this new software and translate the product into English such that is wíll be available to a wider international audience. Developing scalable market information services -Tradenet Based on previous work undertaken in Uganda and Eastern Africa, for the development of market information it became increasingly apparent that there were no effective, off the shelf software packages that could be used address the increasingly complex needs of national market information services. To overcome this problem RAeD established a relationship with a Ghanaian based ICT business lncubator Company, Busylab to develop an appropriate web-based MIS platform that could facilitate information flow and also integrate ICT options including, web, mobile phones, SMS, satellite data channels, FM radios and mobile print media services. The beta version ofthis software http://www.tradenet.biz/ is now being pilot tested with the U gandan national market information service and if successful, this product will be commercialised through a public:private sector company. Updating Agro-enterprise Guides: Dueto increasing demand for the agro-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(i) A Guide to territorial cbaracterisation and developing partnerships (ii) A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (iií)Strategies for improving the competitiveness of market chains for small-scale producers (iv)Collective marketing for small-scale producers (v) A Guide to evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of2004 in English and subsequently translated into French, Spanish and Vietnamese and Lao for use in the learning alliance prograrns planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. New Guides are also being developed in:-(vi)Guide to developing public:private sector partnerships for practioners (vii) Guide to developing public:private sector partnerships for prívate sector (viíi) Guide to developing public_:private sector partnerships for policy makers (ix)User manual for Rent-Agro InforCom staff developed first drafts of documents on two methods: one on using ICTs to strengthen local organizations and the other on support information intermediaries in rural communities. A prototype Information System on Rural Agroenterprise Development (SIDER) is now available online at <www.caucasider.org>. A guide -ILAC brief writing up Innovation histories: a usefullearning too l.8. A comrnunity-based PM&E system designed and adjusted to a wide range of L.A. situations 9. A strategy for practica} application ofM&E systems adjusted to Bolivian PITAs 6. Publications Lise 4   1 -!..:SNl- .::::::;::. =Ptaining Manuals    Rural communities in many developing countries face unprecedented challenges; they need to protect their natural resources, build complex, multi-sector livelihood strategies and improve agricultural productivity in the face ofhistorically low commodity prices and increasing competition. In today's ever more globalised market place, small-scale agricultural producers need to find innovative and robust ways to compete in an environment where their success in the marketplace will determine their immediate and future prospects.To address these challenges rural producers need to adopta new generation oftechnologies, embrace a new information realm and gain enterprise skills to evaluate and invest in market opportunities as they arise and change. The most successful rural producers in the near future will be those who can produce efficiently and conserve their resource base, add value to their primary commodities, differentiate products and develop organizational structures to take on larger commercial initiatives.To enable rural communities to achieve these goals, the next generation of\"service providers\" and policy makers must also acquire the skills and knowledge such that they can assist poor rural communities to understand tllls accelerating and exciting new world and enable them to meet the • needs of an ever more dynamic and disceming market plaée.The Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project (RAeD) project, working closely with other CIA T projects, such as InfoCom, IPRA and partners from the public and prívate sector, is developing, and testing a range of new particípatory tools and support services that will assist business decision making and enterprise development in rural areas In 2002 and 2003, the project focused on decentralising RAeD activities, with new Agroenterprise project work starting in Eastem and Southem Africa and S.E. Asia. In 2004, this expansion phase has continued, through several initiatives including:-(i) the development of a leaming alliance with the Catholic Relief Services to implement a global \"learning alliance\" for agro-enterprise in 30 countries and (ii) new multi-organisational strategic alliances, with public and prívate sector partners in Central and Andean America and (iii) through \"action alliances\" with large farmer organizations in Bolivia and Colombia. To support these new initiatives the RAeD team has worked on a second, updated set of learning tools in preparation of these scaling up processes.Other promising initiatives include (i) developing methods to facilitate public: prívate sector partnerships in Latín America, (ii) finding new and more strategic applications for the principies underlying the \"learning alliance concept\" and (iii) developing new tools to evaluate and strengthen business support services, through a grant from a new donar, NZAID. These activities were under intensive development in 2004 with the hope of new implementation in 2005.As indicated last year, Rupert Best, the founding Project Manager 1eft RAeD in July to take on a new role within GFAR in Rome. In June, the new project manager, Shaun Ferris, was hired and is currently managing the project from Kampala, Uganda. RAeD is in the process ofrecruiting two new agro-enterprise specialists, one to be stationed in Southem Africa, and another in to support activities in S. E. Asia.Objective: To undertake research and develop methods and information systems for use by local practitioners in the participatory design and execution of rural agro-enterprise by which the production of smallholders can be diversified and value-added.l. Methods for identifying and developing viable market opportunities that incorporate smallscale farmer selection criteria. 2. Methods and tools for developing local capacity to select and develop postharvest processing and handling technologies. 3. Options and tools for integrating collective action with business organization to establish sustainable enterprises. Gains: Rural populations and their service providers in Central Arnerica, Andean Region, Eastern and Southem Africa, and Southeast Asia gain enhanced capacity to establish small-scale agro-processing enterprises. Linkages improved between markets, added-value processing, and consumers. Sustainable production practices catalyzed and adopted more widely. Pro poor trade policy agenda better articulated from the perspective of small-scale rural producers in target areas. Percentage decrease in rural poverty index in selected areas of Africa, Asia, and LA.By the end of2007, the project has complemented its actívities in the reference sites by establishing alliances with important partner institutions in LA who are widely using the methods, tools, and institutional models developed by \\he project. These products ha ve been adapted by partners in Asia and A frica and are applied in a selected number of si tes on both continents.2005 (1)  Markets and market integration are fast becoming the focus of a new generation of research and development projects across the developing world. This shift retlects a general political transition towards free market economics and a greater reliance on market based growth. For many developing countries this has meant a rapid change in priorities that were fonnally based on food security and subsidised agriculture towards more liberalised Government policies that encourage investment in more commercialised agriculture targeting all opportunities at the local, national, regional and overseas markets.This new environment offers the rural farming communities with both opportunities and threats many of which will be decided at the highest level through a new round of multilateral trade agreements being decided within the Doha round. At the mesa and micro levels, rural communities will need to adjust to the trade based changes that will slowly filter through the marketing system.To support and facilitate rural communities in this transition, support services will also need to re-engineer themselves to be in a position to pro vide robust analysis of market options and offer their clients with a range ofbest practises such that marketing rhetoric can be translated into positive impact in the field. RAeD is keenly aware that making this transition is not a simple task and that is will take many years of incremental change before most national R&D institutions and non Governmental organisations, the front line ofR&D activities, will have the necessary skills and capacity to support the policy changes that are being designed and decided in meetings from Doha to the national parliaments and local administrations.To take on this challenge the RAeD project has developed a strategy which is based on tbe principies ofleaming. This approach is being developed with our partners to develop methods and tools that will enable our clients to undertake market research, design appropriate enterprise options and strengthen business support services to facilitate agroenterprise development in a profitable and sustainable manner. Towards this end the proj ect has developed five types of outputs, which make up RAeD's Territorial Approach to Agro-enterprise Development:l. practica! approaches to partnership formation with a business agenda 2. decision-support tools for identifying products with high market and production potential and methods to systematise this information 3. business oriented methods to design and implement agro-enterprises within a market to value chain perspective, that can respond to scale anda range of investment options 4. strategies for creating support services that rural agro-enterprises need in order to thrive, 5. the development oflong term partnerships with local, national, and intemational organizations to promote this important change Demand for CIA T's agro-enterprise research findings and methods are increasing with new requests for joint activities from a range of partners wanting to test and adapt the information systems, methods and training materials to local needs. The current developments in the \"leaming alliances\" have also expanded with partners in at least 30 countries from Africa, the Americas and Asia, seeking more specialised types of partnerships, sorne tools based, sorne more st:rategic in nature and others focusing on business requirements. Through these alliances, CIA T' s findjngs are being tested more systernatically, research challenges are more focused and the team is able to work withln dedicated partnershlps that are generating new findings more quickly and also russeminating these results more effectively through ever more efficient ICT options.Marketing This year's majar advances focus on finding ways of scaling up processes using new methods and information systems from the Territorial Approach to Enterprise Development.Tools methods and information to identify market opportunities Updating Agro-enterprise guides: Dueto increasing demand for the agro-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(a) A Guide to territorial characterisation and developing partnersbips (b) A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (e) Strategies for improving the competitiveness ofmarket chains for small-scale producers (d) Collective marketing for small-scale producers (e) A Guide to evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of 2004 for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation.• Application ofthe tools: The Ugandan National Agricultura! Advisory Service (NAADS) was established to transform the Government supported extension agency, into a new demand led service. To support this process RAeD undertook a multi-sector, market opportunities survey to assess demand for a range of products, using Kampala, as a proxy for national demand. The study included six product categories, viz:-a) livestock, b) roots, tubers and bananas, e) fruits and vegetables, d) legumes and oil crops, e) cereals, and f) high value products. The analysis, revealed demand for the products that farmers already produce and market potential for new products. Majar trends identified in the retail sector related included the arrival ofthree multi-national supermarkets and the use of mobile phones in trading. Tbe survey information has been documented and integrated into a database for use by NAADS officers and service providers to assess market options for their clients and make decisions on which types of services to offer.To increase the competitiveness of small-scale agro-enterprises RAeD developed a methodology entitled \"Groups for Innovation in Rural Agro-industry\" (GIARs). GIAR is a support group that provides technical and marketing support to small agro-enterprises within an identified market chain. The GIAR methodology has been successfully applied to cassava and panela (raw sugar) processing in Cauca Province, Colombia. Using this approach, more than 100 panel a producers in Ca u ca Province ha ve adopted improved varieties, increased processing capacity up to 21 0%; and eliminated buming of tyres as fuel. The GIAR has improved product quality; enabled new markets, including export opportunities and consolidated a producers association. In 2004, the GIAR case study for panela processing in Cauca was selected for presentation at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting, to be held in Mexico 25-28th October, 2004.The purpose of this project is to develop tools that foster action research based publicprivate partnerships for agro-industrial development. The project, funded by BMZ and being implemented by ISNAR (IFPRI), CIA T and both regional and national research programs. Activities focus on three components: training and diffusion, research, and implementatíon. In 2004, RAeD has (i) evaluated previous agro-enterprise training courses in the Andean Region, the Southern Cone and Mesoamérica; (2) completed and published results from actíon:-research in Ecuador and Dominican Republic and (3) written three guides for differentiated stakeholders. • Learning Alliance Going Global: Over the past two years, RAeD has been working on a series of initiatives to sea le up the use of the Territorial Approach to Enterprise development, with a range of organisations. The Catholic Relief Serví ces (CRS), an Intemational NGO, has been particularly interested in the RAeD methodology as a means to retool its staff profile. CRS's strategic vision is to be alead agro-enterprise organisation in the next decade with the ability to enhance market engagement ofpoor communities. Following the success of two pilot learning alliance programmes, in Central America and Eastem Africa, CRS have asked RAeD to develop a global development alliance. This project wíll buíld upon exístíng agro-enterprise programs and expand the agro-enterprise \"learning alliance\" approach to new countries in West & Central Africa, South America and South and South East Asia. To date 30 CRS country programs have committed funds to a value of $850,000 to support this new inítiative. The project aims to improve the Iivelihoods of 36,000 farm familíes and 200,000 beneficiaries over a 30 month period. This project will commence at the end of2004 with field work in Ql ofFY 05.• In Central America, (a) three training and learning workshops were held with clients in the region; (b) seven market studies were conducted in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua; (e) a virtuallearning platform was launched (www.alianzasdeaprendizaje.org);• In the Andes, RAeD facilitated three workshops to lay the groundwork for a leaming alliance proposal to link research, development, donors and the public sector with 13 partner agencies in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Significant impact has also been achieved through support of ongoing action allíances with producer organisations in Colombia.• In Africa, the learning alliance continued with in country monitoring and a final workshop on participatory market chain analysis, enterprise design and BDS. Eight CRS country programs participated:-Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar and Malawi.• Mainstreaming RAeD tools: To achieve scale, RAeD is developing links with other educational institutions involved in marketing methods to catalyst rural innovation. RAeD has started this process by incorporating training materials into CATIE's agricultura! diploma course in Central America and seeking to repeat this success with ICRA in Africa.In Latin America funding continues to be a problem, particularly in regard to staffing issues. RAeD is suffering from a lack of funds to support local staff and also faces a threat oflosing one senior staffunless additional resources are found. This has meant that staff are being hired on 6 month contracts or to undertake specific tasks. Solutions • This issue has not yet been resolved, although discussions between all the staff members has been frank and supportive. The issue is to find sufficient income to support the existing staff. However, the task offinding sufficient funds should not only be considered the role CIA T management and RAeD senior staff, but a task that all RAeD members seek to address. • Revenue: Senior staff members and national staff are being asked to seek any opportunities to engage new donors and al so to seek out consultancy work that will bring in additional revenue to support local staff and purchase capital items as required.Incentives are being developed such that if national staff members are able to find additional investment then RAeD will seek ways to provide an annual bonus. This system is currently under discussion.• In South East Asia, concerns were raised by Budget &Finance that funds from SDC maybe cut dueto a slow initial spending rate from the SADU project.Capital item purchasing has also been delayed dueto lack ofproject permits in both Laos and Vietnam.Project field work has been delayed dueto local political concerns that prevented project work and led to delays in decisions to implement activities in alternative areas.Lack of a marketing and business development specialist on the project to develop a coherent strategy for marketing opportunity identification, market promotion, market orientation, or market linkage. This delay was a product of existing staff profiles and negotiation with the donor .....• Following a recent meeting in Hanoi, the SDC represeritative confinned in writing that CIA T would not loose any unspent funds on the SADU project as these finances were committed to the project.The SADU tearn is working with MARD representatives to find out where the project can operate. Ifnot in the politically sensitive areas ofDak Lak, then other sites, such as Hao Binh, need to be confirmed. This process is now underway and should be resolved in the next 2-3 weeks. • Rod Lefroy, CIAT's Regional Coordinator, is following up with MARD representatives and local officials in both Laos and Vietnam to gain project perrnits. This will enable the project to purchase goods tax free and also allow for the release of a substantial amount of capital funds.• A head hunting recruitment has taken place to identify candidates for the position of a marketing-specialist. This person will be recruited as soon as SDC give the green light to proceed.In Africa, sorne delays in agro-enterprise activities were caused by a change in the project manager's position. This has led toa 2-3 month review of global activities. This was exacerbated by a concurrent delay in hiring of a new agroenterprise specialist following a recruitment action in June, 2004, which failed to identify a suitable candidate.Project funding is a concem and a series of new proposals to raise in come to expand activities are being developed.• The new project manager is now in place and after undergoing a series of orientation meetings, the new candidate is now in a better position to focus on the work at hand. • A person has now been identified for the African position and will take up this role in the first quarter of2005. • Three proposals have been submitted to donors in the past 3 months and there is hope that at least one ofthese will be funded for expansion of activities in 2005.lndicators: List Technologies, Methods & Tools .Software Rent-Agro-In 2004, a serious effort was made to address fmal software bugs and the first Spanish language version ofRentAgro has now been thoroughly tested. As a result ofthis work, the software received drastic aesthetic and functional changes. The next stage in the development ofRentAgro is to deliver the product to the Legal Office (Germán Arias) to begin legal processes. RAeD is currently tak.ing advice on whether to copyright this software with the future aim of mak.ing RentAgro a comrnercial product or at least protecting the product within the public doma in. The team is also working on the possibility of making this product available as an online facility. The rationale for developing the online version is based on the ongoing popularity ofthe powerpoint presentation developed by C. Ostertag on financia) profitability models. In this case our partners and clients would ha ve the opportunity of putting the theory into practice. In 2005, the team therefore will develop a plan to launch this new software and translate the product into English such that is will be available to a wider intemational audience.Developing scalable market information services-Tradenet Contributors: Shaun Ferris and Mark Davies* Busynet director Based on previous work undertak:en in U ganda and Eastem A frica, for the development of market information it became increasingly apparent that there were no effective, off the shelf software packages that could be used address the increasingly complex needs of national market information services. \"t~H'Y\"Jfll) lio7t'fl\"\" .• H.Qt\"~;ftf-Q it~lf()bt \"/ r~-\"f.f ~ r 'ICITI-.,..r&ll':.liElectronic modules • Fair Trade information service:-In 2004 the Information Service on Fair Trade was officially Iaunched on 8th May, as part of the 1nternational Fair Trade Da y, a high pro file website promotion was Iaunched. The si te received 10,519 entries from June-September with a growth rate of 29% and a monthly average of 2,629 visits.• RAeD website. The RAeD website holds first place among the 15 CIA T projects in number of visits, totaling 121,272 visits from Oct. 2003-0ct. 2004. Moreover, among the 10 documents downloaded most frequently from CIAT, 8 are from RAeD; the document Model for Financia! Profitability occupied first place with 104,330 downloads. The RAeD team will be upgrading the site in 2004/5 by integrating a new section on Methods and Tools for Agri-business development from the World Bank and also tested the beta on-Jine version ofRent-Agro. SADU website: A new website has been developed to promote the activities ofthe new, SDC funded Agro-enterprise project in S.E Asia, the SADU team (Small-scale Agroenterprise Development for the Uplands ofVietnam and Laos) have recently established a new website to post progress of the project. See www.saduproject.orgUpdatíng Agro-enterprise Guides: Due to increasíng demand for the agro•-enterprise guides, the RAeD team has re-organised and updated the main guides, these include:-(x) A Guid~ to territorial characterisation and developing partnerships (xi)A Guide to identifying market opportunities for small-scale producers and processors (xii) Strategies for improving the competitiveness ofmarket chains for small-scale producers (xiii) Collective marketing for small-scale producers (xiv) A Guide to •evaluate and strengthen rural business development services. These Guides will be published at the end of 2004 in English and subsequently translated into French, Spanish and Vietnamese and Lao for use in the learning alliance programs planned for 2005. These guides are also supplemented with other manuals on marketing basics and application ofbusiness techniques in rural innovation. New Guides are also being developed in:- Oberthur, T., Lundy, M. 2004 Oberthur, T., Lundy, M., Cock, J. 2004. New opportuníties for hillside farmers: matching product quality, envíronments and market demand for high value agricultural products. Presented to BMZ, Germany. Value Euro 1.3 million (approved 9 with reduced budget).Ostertag, C.F.; Barona, J.F. ;Sandoval, O.A.;Izquierdo, D.A. 2004. Proyecto de Apoyo al Desarrollo Empresarial Rural. Presented to the Secretaría de Agricultura de Nariño, Colombia 10 US$60.000. 60,000New directions for 2005.In addition to the on-going activities that RAeD is already comrnitted to fulfilling in 2005, the following areas are proposals of work that the tearn is aiming to develop. Implementation ofthis work however, deperids on funds being available:-Deve/oping new work areas with interna/ partners Closer links witb IPRA: In 2004, there have been severa! meetings held to find ways in which IPRA and particularly the CIAL methodology can be integrated in a practica} manner with RAeD activities. Joint ventures in Bolivia have preved an opportunity for the tearns to work together, and there are plans to develop other joint projects in 2005. Closer links witb Land Use team: As part ofthe expansion ofthe work on public: prívate partnerships, RAeD is aiming to develop closer links with the Land Use project team, in arder to apply the lessons learnt within new sectors, such as the coffee sector in Latín America.Leaming alliance: Much ofthe project activities in 2005 will focus on implementing the various Iearning alliance partnerships that have been developed over the past 2 years. In the last part of2004, team efforts will focus on finalizing the suite oftraining materials that RAeD is planning to use for the various training programs. In the first quarter of 2005, these materials will be supplemented with power point presentations and all materials will be translated into the three majar languages such that the process can proceed in English, Spanish and French. As this is a major endeavour, it is anticipated that the team will meet to undertake a week long write shop to complete the development of a common set of materials.Pro poor Policy: The global commodity crisis debate is an ongoing issue that is having an increasingly negative effect on the growth prospects for many developing countries, particularly those dependent upon the export ofa narrow range ofraw commodities. Over-supplied markets have led to commodity prices faJling to a 40 year low and the financia} losses being incurred by many developing countries is more prolonged and more severe than those that occurred during the Great Depression. CIA T is well placed to undertake two types of research that will contribute to raising awareness and hopefully to addressing this truly global issue, through:-(i) the collation and repackaging of complicated technical trade information into more easily digested trade briefs that can be circulated and debated at the nationallevel and (ii) to undertake primary research into the impact of current trade policies on key agricultura] sectors and or the implications of adopting new approaches, such as supply management, on future economic prospects.Market Information: RAeD is working on two projects that are developing new software tools to assist national partners in the collation and delivery of market information. This activity will expand as demand grows for the comrnercial products being developed.Seed evaluation: The Food Aid industry is a high profile activity that is likely to play a dominant role in many parts of Africa in the next decade. However, the food supply is also supported by seed aid and it is this area which RAeD is intending to analyse, with a view to introducing processes that link the local marketing actors more effectively into the system. The aim being to reduce market distortions created by hand-outs and other safety nets.RAeD is seeking to work with partners in education to mainstream the principies of agroenterprise and small-scale busil'less development into institutional courses.To develop and disseminate participatory research (PR) principies, approaches, analytical tools, indigenous knowledge and organizational principies that strengthen the capacity of R&D institutions to respond to the demands of stakeholder groups for improved levels ofhuman well-being and agroecosystem health Outputs l. PR approaches, analytical tools and indigenous knowledge that lead to the incorporation of farmers and other users' priori ti es in R&D agendas developed for interested institutions 2. Organizational strategies and procedures for PR 3. Professionals and others trained as facilitators of PR 4. Material and infonnation on PR approaches, analytical tools, indigenous knowledge and organizational principies developed 5. Impact ofSN-3 activities documented 6. CIA T projects and other institutions supported and strengthened in conducting PR 7. Capacity ofthe SN-3 team strengthened~ Users involved at early stages in decisions about innovation development ~ Methods available for incorporating user preferences; participatory methods applied on a routine basis in CIA T research; at least three LA universities with the capacity to teach PR methods ~ New and better links between farmers group and local markets ~ At least 1 S links and agreements with grass root farmers organizations, NGOs and R&D institutions to establish PM&E in four macroregions in Bolivia as a contribution to the new Solivian technology system (SffiTA) ~ Prelimjnary impact study about the CIAL 15 influence in both cornmunities with and without CIALs, taking into account factors such as education, ownership ofland and animals, Iiteracy, yield improvement, women's participation and scaling out ~ Building on the lessons from LAC, participator)r monüoring and evaluation (PM&E) systems are being tested at both the cornmunity and project level with seven projects in three pilot learning sites (Kisii, Kitale and Mtwapa in Kenya) in Africa. ~ In Bolivia important progress has been made in the adaptation ofPM&E systems so that they can be readily incorporated in their technological innovation projects (PITA), enabling the farmers to exercise greater control over their projects and then give feedback on their execution to the project suppliers ..... Research in Afiica focuses on understanding the linkages between the technology development process and market opportunities and how this can generate criticallinks between investment in natural resources, markets and incentives for their adoption. In a research-extension-university-NGO-farmer group continuum, CIA T and its partners are working in Malawi, Mozarnbique, Tanzania and U ganda to explore and understand how market orientation leads to improved NRM at the farm level. Analyses of research to date highlight examples where identifying potential markets for existing and new products has led to increased investrnent in NRM and how developing innovative agricultural techno1ogies that meet the specific needs and constraints of different income levels and gender groups leads to improved livelihoods.An important focus of researcb has been on understandi~g the various dimensions of social capital as a strategy for strengthening the decision-making capacity of communities. A diagnosis of social capital in U ganda using a combination of research approaches has generated understanding on the different dimensions, levels and types of soci~l capital; strength of social capital and potential for community joint action; forms of ínter-and intra-bousehold support, village-level interactions and wider scale linkages; gender roles, responsibilities and resource access; pattems of participation and interest in NRM initiatives and local bylaws (rules and regulations) formulated by different stakeholder groups; and constraints to adoption/compliance with bylaws for different groups, particularly women, the elderly and the poor.Building on lessons from LAC, PM&E systems at both community and project levels are being tested in three pilot learning sites (Kisii, Kitale and MtWapa in Kenya), with seven projects. The PM&E framework includes: Expected results at different levels (outputs, outcomes, impacts), processes, activities and indicators, targets and baselines for each of them, as well as frequency of monitoring. A part of this process has been identifying baseline needs and developing tools for data collection where gap exists. Additionally, there have been efforts to integrate PM&E within existing research activities and project implementation to make this process a component of good project management. Additionally, community-driven PM&E systems were initiated in the pilot learning sites. Currently, there are 17 farmer groups applying PM&E for reflection and learning (11 in Mtwapa,4 in Kitale and 2 in Kisii). Community-driven PM&E systems were initiated through a process of intensive training of the research teams on how to facilitate their establishment. Achievements are as follows:./ Lessons from managing and sustaining partnerships have been applied to strengthen research for development processes in at least 3 countries in East Africa ../ Communities in pilot learning sites have been empowered to analyze their opportunities and plan activities on farmer experimentation and community enterprise development to address their income and food-security needs ../ At least 200 R&D personnel from various institutions have been trained in applying ERI approaches ../ A total of 120 R&D personnel have been trained in establishing and implementing project-level and community-based PM&E systems. Ofthese, 71% are KARI researchers and technical officers and 29% are their extension and NGO partners ../ The CIAT team has trained 17 farmers groups (approx. 340 farmers) directly and . indirectly by the scientists, extension and NGO staff; and they are now irnplementing commuruty-based PM&E systems ../ Lessons from applying ERI approaches have been documented and shared at various national and international venues including conferences, workshops and meetings ../ At least five regional workshops have been conducted to support regional NARS partners to develop proposals and mobilize funds to support ERI activities ../ The development of an integrated, multidisciplinary team of scientists from different projects and competencies, which is working in ERI to address a common devdopment challenge. This group is also operationalizing the integration across CIA T institutes (RII and TSBF).This year, the project \"Promoting Change\" (FOCAM) in Bolivia has increased its presence in the different pilot zones ofthe project, implementing the systems directly in the commuruty groups and developing their capacities for creating the local capacity. Likewise, the project has entered into a large quantity of agreements with diverse NGOS and system suppliers to implement new systems in the• so-called expansion zone. In both types of action the methodology facilitates clearing up the objectives and indicators ofthe projects, follow-up on them and evaluate them precise! y by the direct beneficiaries. These actions are enabling the beneficiaries give feedback opportunely to the suppliers on the good or regular execution ofthe project and malee corrections in due time. The project has actions in three of the four macroregions in which the Bolivian System of Agricultura! and Livestock Technology has divided the country. In general terms the FOCAM project has accomplisbed the following:• More than 20 agreements and letters of intent have been signed between NGOS and community groups with CIA T -FOCAM to apply or pro vide support for the PM&E processes in different Bolivian regions.There is sufficient infonnation to malee an adaptation of the methodology PM&E to the Bolivian tecbnological innovation projectsThey have trained more than 100 farmer-promoters (farmers) and 150 technicians in the methodology, to be applied in the community projects and will become a means of participatory evaluation of their projects.They ha ve created a national tearn of technicians and farmers as trainers who ha ve begun their process of disseminating the methodology.More than 15 specific experiences are being documented by technicians from tbe national team of trainers.A database was initiated with the information from the community groups and wil1 then be input into the large database that the foundations in charge of each of the macroregions are developing.• Successful application of PM&E methodologies at different levels of the SIBT A system will prompt decision-making levels to introduce PM&E processes as an integral part of the system at the level of Foundations, technology-service providers and local groups.During the period Aprill-June 30, the Project Coordinator and bis Bolivian counterpart Eduardo Nogales were dedicated to two different kinds of activities: (a) socializing the project among different stakeholder groups and (b) organizing the Project \"platform.\" In both activities, face-to-face encounters were preferred to Internet dialog with most of their counterparts. This increased the number oftrips to FTDA and service providers' headquarters.The socialization of the project took place in a variety of fora that included project coordinator meetings with the four executive directors of the FTDAs, two workshops to exchange ideas about the project with the FIT project coordinators and other groups of staleeholders, meetings with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Affairs (MACA), its Technological Development Unit (DDT), as well as visits paid by the FIT 8 Bolivian Coordinator to groups of technical assistance-service providers, which included negotiation of their participation. These included GAlA S.R.L., ADAPICRUZ, Reingeniería Total, Agro XXI, UNEC Agrocentral and AGROCINTI, all of whorn ha ve successfully executed PITAs in the four agroecoregions and who are willing to participate in the Project.The socialization process was a difficult task. Severa! stakeholders and sorne collaborators understood this project as \"a quick way to replicate a PITA\"; others thought that the project would contribute resources to foundations so that they would be able to repeat successful PITAs to wider farmer audiences. Sorne were hesitant to collaborate given their misunderstanding that the Project would provide rnechanisrns for farmers to access PITAs for free, etc. It was an interaction-intense task to help everyone understand that this project was interested in improving the quality ofthe methodological relationship between •technical service providers and farmers in order for the latter to irnprove the quality oflearning and adoption. •The institutional plat(orm •was organized around the four Foundations for Agricultura} Developrnent (FTDAs). There technical personnel, financed by FIT 8, will carry out the PM&E of project activities along with the technical assistance of PITA serví ce providers, who have agreed to host the Project in terms of the use of their physical prernises and other facilities. The Bolivian Project Coordinator willliaise with these people to keep track and lead events. The general Project Coordinator, together with PROINP A, will be working on the conceptual and rnethQdological guidelines ofknowledge management. These will be inputs for the training of facilitators. Agreements ha ve been reached to rnake payments to both the FTDAs and the technical assistance service, providing agencies for their participation in the project-an investment of nearly US$60,000.At the end of this reporting period, all actors are on stage and ready to initiate the leaming process. Beneficiary farmers are expecting to start as soon as possible. Nonetheless, in several of the methodological trials we will havl? to wait for the planting season. The service providers are expecting that the new rnethodologies to be field tested will irnprove their work from here on. Many nonparticipating service providers have asked to attend the training sessions so that they too can participate. The FTDAs have rnade all adrninistrative decisions to hire a professional who is able to carry out the PM&E of the project at the field Ievel.From Aug.-Oct. a review ofliterature was conducted to cover topics such as the training of facilitators, facili~ation and leadership, participation, participatory action-research, poverty, FFS, farmer-to-farmer methodology, agricultura! knowledge and information systems, strategic extension and other related topics. The PROINP A study (A synthesis ofknowledge-sharing rnethodologies anda proposal for new rnethodological arrangements) will provide us with an additional up-to-date review ofliterature in our area of interest: \"Pro-poor RD&TT methods and rnethodologies.\" Innovation histories . We developed a methodology for constructing and learning frorn innovation histories. A description of the approach was published as an ILAC Brief and distributed at Annual General Meeting. ILAC (Institutional Learning and Change) is a new initiative in the CGIAR Systern. A comparison ofthe innovation histories ofCIALs in Honduras and Colombia, the two countries with the most CIALs, was begun and yielded sorne initial findings. These include the following: • Institutionally sustainable CIALs are supported by an interlinked network of organizations who enjoy mutually beneficial relationships. • The actions taken as part ofthis Project to register the ASOCIALs in Honduras as legal entities and build their capacity to attract and manage projects on their own are helping build the links that the ASOCIALs need for their long-term sustainability. As of2003, how~ver, those links were not yet sufficient so their rernains a role for the host organizations to continue to seek funding. To reach the long-term sustainability that the ASOCIALs seek, they will have to learn how to operate as small NGOs and/or providers of serví ces that can win contracts and projects and pay staff salaries. • CIAL and ASOCIAL members in Honduras are liriked on average to 7 organizations within their respective communities, and six organizations outside. Through these linkages CIAL members are undoubtedly in:fluencing local decision-makers and local development agendas~A learning alliance to develop the p.otential for rural innovation in Ecuador: Characterization of the methodologies of farmer experimentation and PRWe characterized \"good-practice\" approaches to FPR in Ecuador being used by three organizations: World Neighbors, IIRR and INIAP. The approacbes characterized were CIALs, FFS, Farmer-to-Farmer and Experimental Trials. The sharing ofinformation ata workshop led to the stakebolders' recognition ofthe need to continue sharing experiences and seek complementarities.Application of social network analysis (SNA) to agricultura! researcb Stafffrom IPRA and PRGA were trained in InFlow, a program to analyze social networks in preparation for applying the approach with partners. We also leamed how SNA can be used to map innovation networks in communities and how these maps can be used to both suggest beneficia] change as well as monitor implementation.The second-order organizations of CIALsThese organizations are playing a very important role in their regions, facilitating the interactions among the farmer groups, local governments and extemal agents that intervene in local development. The CIALs have continued doing research on new technological options to adapt them and make them accessible to the •low-resource farmers in order to improve their quality of life. To date, there are eig}\\t second-order associations: 2 in Colombia (CORFOCIAL and UNICIAL), 5 in Honduras distributed across 4 regions (ASOCIALAG0 16 , ASOCIAL Yorito 17 \" ASOCIAGUARE 18 , ASOCIAL 16 The Association of CIALs of the Yojoa Lake Region. 17 Tbe Association ofCIALs ofYorito. 18 The Association of CIALs of tbe Y eguare Region.Vallecillos 19 \" and CIADR0 20 ), and 1 in Nicaragua (COFOCIC). In other countries such as Bolivia, these organizations have not been created, but they have been strengthened internally, forging strong linkages with local governments and the markets.Although individual case studies show promising signs of success and robust results at the comrnunity level, the greater challenge líes in linking micro-leve} community processes to higher macro-level processes, where market opportunities and institution¡il conditions may offer better opportunities for small-scale farmers. The challenge is creating conditions under which national market imtiatives can support and benefit small-scale poor fanners in marginal conditions. These include promoting efficient market institutional innovations and support services such as microfinance, market information systems, business services, pricing policies, inputs marketing, extension advice and rural infrastructure.The success ofPMR is highly dependent on the development of effective quality partnerships with research and extensions systems, NGOs, business support services and farmer communities. However, considerable efforts are still needed to forge effective partnerships with the prívate sector, business services and high-level policy and government institutioQ.S.Given the diversity of activities involved in ERI, the success of this work is highly dependent on the development of effective quality partnerships with research and extensions systems, business support services, private-public partrierships, NGOs and farmer communities. Lessons learned suggest that it is important to build a critica! amount ofhuman and social capital to create institutional commitments and clarity in understanding of the roles, responsibilities and expectations of the different partners. lt is also critica! to develop early in the project a simple Problems encountered and functional PM&E to build in regular reflection activities with communities and partners, to ensure that lessons are documented, and to enabh~ adjustments to the project to be made in a timely manner. However, considerable efforts are still needed to forge effective partnerships with the private sector and high-level policy and governrnent institutions and initiatives in marketing. These are key for the sustainability of rural agroenterprises and for scaling up, linking community micro initiatives to high-level macro economic policies. There are sorne important challenges of linking fanners to markets. These are related to improving market institutions and market behavior for small-scale farmers. Market institutions are indeed critica! to the expansion of production possibilities and to improving of the perfonnance of small-scale agriculture.• • Does market orientation benefit women and the poor? When promoting marketoriented production, there is need for a better understanding of intra-household and community dynamics to assess the differential and distributional effects ofmarketoriented production on different categories of farmers. Rather than focusing onJy on women as is the case in many \"gender'' strategies, our strategy has been to encourage and sustain active participation and cooperation ofboth men and women in the project activities and creating gender awareness at the community level through the use of interactive adult education methods.Job tumover continues to be a serious problem in many government institutions and especially the NGOs in Latín America, above all in Bolivia. Today, said organizations contract their personal for specific periods oftime that are generally not more than 18 mo. This type of co\"ntracting restricts their participation in new initiatives because their operational plans are set by the project directors so it is very difficuJt to include new activities or make changes in them. A possible solution to this problem would be to get outstanding results and then a strong dissemination to the decision-makers at the level of SIBT A to convince them of the benefits that these methodologies could have and adopt them as part ofthe parameters of evaluation from the standpoint ofthe end-us~r or requester. When contracted, the technicians shouJd initially be trained before beginning to apply them with the different groups of requesters..The present situation of competitiveness for the resources for research has resulted in a greater dedication of our time as researébers to become searchers of resources. This circumstance affects the quality of research. Moreover, a large part of those resources are available mostly for projects where the technologies developed by our projects are required in development programs for their imrnediate implementation. Thus it would be convenient to create sorne teams within each project or ~nstitution that can support these initiatives, providing sufficient inputs so that said people can write and negotiate the proposals with the partners and/or donors. Similar! y, these projects for developing capacities without much commitment to research could eventu~Jy finance other scientific initiatives for generating new approaches or methodologies.Mechanismsfor PM&E \"\" Finalize the establishment ofPM&E processes at remaining learning sites: Kakamega and Embu. This will include capacity development activities workshops as well as on practica} training \"\" Continue to strengthen the communities' capacity to apply PM&E information for self-reflection and learning. This will also involve continuous capacity development at the community level and the design of simple tools for data collection and analysis that can be easily applied in the field by communities and project staff \"\" Develop tools for analyzing and synthesizing data gathered from the leaming sites and designan interactive user-friendly database system to manage the data. \"\" Design a simple PM&E reporting system for linking the different PM&E systems to allow an agile flow of information and feedback between rural CÜmmúnities and R&D systerns ( communities -projects -centers -institutional). This will include simple tools for aggregating and reporting the micro-leve! data collected by PM&E processes to facilitate its use for decision-making at different levels and to provide feedback and learning. \"\" Conducta systematil( evaluation and review ofPM&E processes in place to document lessons and experiences. This will involve as analysis of achievements to date, identification of methodological aspects that are effective, areas for further research, and specific are that need adaptation and modifications. • Lessons and experiences will be documented and disseminated through feedback and review meetings with key stakeholders and policy-makers in KARl ; presentations at meetings and serninars; and through different types of publications.Consolidate lessons and scaling up the ERI framework. This will include the following strategy:\"\" ERI will scale up to several other countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and DRC. To support this scaling up process, the ERI team will also support partners to mobilize funds to support this process \"\" Gender and equity dimensions ofERI will be strengthened. This will include developing a strategy and research on HIV/AIDS and impact of agricultura] technology choice, and how linkage to markets can support people living with HIV/AIDS, especially women who are the most vulnerable. \"\" ERI will focus on ensuring that CO!fllllunity enterprise projects are functional and documenting the lessons and experiences from this process \"\" F:inally, enhance focus on strengthening our partnerships and creating new partnerships \"\" A strategy for scaling up at different levels will be implemented within the community, across to other communities, within the district, within the country (nationally) and across countries (intemationally)../ Continue supporting the implementation of PM&E systems and CIALs in the project pilot zones ./ Follow up the trained technical personnel in participatory. methods in the expansion areas of the project ./ Strengthen linkages with FDTAs and SIBTA ./ Continue adjusting the database that will feed into the database of the Bolivian Foundations so that the information of the farrners' groups on the execution of theii project will be incorporated in their current evaluatiori systerns ./ Strengthen the contribution of PR methods to the improvement of SIBT A ./ Identify fanner organizations to initiate joint activities and evaluate the contribution of participatory methods in the articulation of their demands within SIBT A Innovation histories ./ Complete histories of the adoption of four bean varieties in East A frica and share the findings with the stakeholders involved through and institutionallearning and change process ./ Complete CIAL and CLA YUCA cassava-processing innovation histories . ./ Present the approach at t}le American Evaluation Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia Interaction with the Kellogg Foundation projects Support the integrated project sets, CIP and the Learning Centers and Exchanging ~ow how (CAIS) of the Kellogg Foundation in Latin America in the incorporation and adaptation of participatory methodologies in their projects. Emphasis is on creating a capacity in the different region, implement M&E to analyze the lessons learned for similar institutionalization processes.    During the frrst few months of the reporting period, we demonstrated that the Project is capable of incorporating new ideas and methods into its strategy so as to seize opportunities for working with other COlAR centers and national partners in novel and exciting ways. Specifically, we incorporated knowledge management and sharing (KM/S) into our work by undertaking a new project on thls subject with funding provided by the World Bank througb the COIAR's Information and Communication Technology-Knowledge Management (ICT-KM) Program.After the project's start in April, we hired a senior scientist half-time to coordinate the project, and we organized a planning workshop (held in June), jointly with the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) initiative. Based on workshop outcomes, we embarked on four pilot projects, in collaboration with the Bellanet Intemational Secretariat in Canada, aimed at applying KS techniques to deal with important issues in three COlAR centers (including CIAT) and the Water and Food Challenge Program. We also joined forces with ILAC in a consultancy on the relationship ofhuman resource policies and procedures in three COlAR centers to K.MJS and ILAC. In addition, we began organizing a training course on facilitation for COlAR staff and througb Bellanet made progress in putting together a toolkit on KM/S techniques.As a consequence ofthat work, we have modified InforCom's project outputs as follows, substituting KM/S for our previous emphasis only on finding and obtaining agricultura} information: l.Techniques and tools with which intematiomd and national R&D institutions can better share knowledge.Computer-mediated distance-education (e-learning) programs and multimedia products on CD-ROM tbat convey science-based methods in forms that are useful for development professionals.Strategies for using community telecenters as a means to integrate new ICTs into rural development.Strategies for enabling information intermediaries to construct and share knowledge in rural communities, using ICTs and other communications media.Approaches for developing local information systems that reinforce participatory R&D.InforCom continued to refine and deliver its original outputs (2-5) through work at CIA T headquarters and in our \"field Jaboratory'' in nearby Cauca Department. We made good progress, for example, in strengthening and expanding our partnerships with local NGOs and universities, with a view to enhancing sustainability and scaling out the methods we have developed with them. We also made a good start toward documenting the methodologies developed in Cauca for strengthening local organizations through the use of new ICTs and for supporting local information intermediaries.Largely on the strength of that work, InforCom succeeded in obtaining support from the UK's Department for Intemational Development (DFID) for a project in Bolivia, aimed at enhancing the information networks of agricultura! supply chains, with the aid of new information and oommunications technologies (ICTs). The project got under way in April, and we quickly consolidated our alliances with Bolivian partners, took steps to begin strengthening their current information and communications initiatives, hired a local project coordinator, and began characteriza~on of information networks at the community level.That achievement underscores severa} important messages about InforCom. First, our outputs are evidently appealing to donors and partners. Second, on the basis oftheir interest, Project staff are capable ofbuilding strong partnerships in a short time for collaboration in research and development. Third, we are le:arning quickly to execute project activities efficiently outside CIAT's host country through strong teamwork, involving our counterparts in Bolivian partner institutions, staffbased at headquarters, and locally hired staffin Bolivia. And fourth, through new projects we are integrating our work more closely with that of other CIAT projects, both within and beyond the Center's Rural Innovation Institute.As an example of this last point, our new project in Bolivia is closely linked with CIA T initiatives in that country on participatory research methods. Moreover, the project directly involves Center colleagues working on land use, and it draws heavily on our collaborative work in Colombia with CIA T specialists on rural agroenterprise development.InforCom further reinforced its ties with other Center projects by contributing actively to the development ofLearning to Innovate (LTI), one ofthree initiatives launched by CIAT in 2003 to address major development challenges through more concerted research efforts. Severa! ofLTI's outputs are closely aligned with those oflnforCom.We are hopeful that new projects, still at the proposal stage, will be approved in late 2004 or early 2005, enabling us to advance even further on the fronts mentioned above, that is, in building partnerships, delivering outputs through efficient teamwork, and integrating our work with that of other CIA T projects, in search of new ways to generate greater development irnpact. Of course, not all the proposals we prepared this year were accepted, but even the unsuccessful ones preved to be important learning experiences. This introduction gives the impression that lnforCom staff did little else besides develop new projects. Without doubt, this activity---though critical for enabling the project to move forward-came at the cost of documenting and publishing the results of impact assessment obtained through the InforCauca Project, corripleted in 2003. Nonetheless, we hope to make up for this shortcoming in the next reporting period. And we are building a strong research component into our new project in Bolivia, with a view to having publishable results in 2006. Toward this end we have arranged for a PhD student in economics at Imperial College London -Wye Campus to carry out her thesis research within the framework ofthe project. Already, she has prepared a thorough and comprehensive literature survey, which offers a good basis for defining the project's research questions and methodologies. In Bolivia, for example, we made more than a half dozen such presentations to the various organizations--8IBT A, FDT As, AOPEB, Finrural, and Fundación PROINPA--involved in the FIT3 Program. We also presented our work on several occasions to the various local and intemational NGOs involved in the Conjuntos Integrales de Proyectos (CIPs}, which are supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Bolivia and Peru. These latter presentations wer:e made in connection with the development of a new project that would operate in both those countries with Kellogg support.Simi1arly, in Colombia, InforCom staff made about a half dozen presentations on our work to representatives of diverse organizatlons, including Jan In connection with our work on grupos gestores de comunicación in Colombia, InforCom staff helped organize four training workshops for farmers and other members of rural communities on various topics, including design and organization ofthe Web site ofthe Infonnation System for Rural Agroenterprise Development (SIDER), visioning exercises for communitybased groups, project development, and preparation and dissemination of news bulletins. The average number of participants in each of these events was 20 farmers.In connection with the FIT3 Project in Bolivia, InforCom staff provided training on topics such as Web publishing and media relations to colleagues at two FDTAs (Chaco and Trópico Húmedo).lnforCom helped organize and hosted in June a planning workshop for our KM/S Project and the ILAC inititiative, which was attended by 22 people from seven CGIAR centers and severa} ofits programs, including the Water and Food Challenge Program, ICT-KM Program, and Gender and Diversity Program.During July InforCom staff organized two workshops on the dissemination of agroenterprise-related information for an association of radio programs serving indigenous and AfroCoJombian communities in Cauca Department.InforCom stafftook part in two important regional workshops on ICTs for development: La Ond@ Rural: Taller Latinoamericano sobre radio, nuevas tecnologías de información y comunicación y desarrollo rural, held at Quito, Ecuador, in April, and the III Encuentro Regional de Telecentros, held at Sao Paulo, Brazil, in May.Rural Innovation Institute: Information and Communications for Rural Communities (lnforCom)Objective: To strengthen local capacity for innovation by better enabling rural communities and the R&D organizations that serve them to obtain, generate, and sbare information and knowledge, with the aid ofnew information and communications technologies (IGTs).Techniques and tools with which international and national R&D institutions can better share knowledge.Computer-supported collaborative learning (e-learning) programs and multimedia products on CD-ROM that convey science-based methods in forros that are useful for development professionals.Strategies for using community telecenters 28 to integrate the use of ICTs into rural developrnent.Strategies for enabling information intermediaries to construct and share knowledge in rural cornmunities, using ICTs and other communications media.Approaches for developing local information systems that reinforce participatory R&D. . Worlcing document on strategies for linking• Strateg:ies designed in 2005 with four Solivian farmer organizations to community telecenters in partners for linking farmer o rganizations with Bolivia. community teleceoters in tOur to six communities.• Generic approach documented in 2005 with one . Generic approach available in Spanish, in print • Local organizations collalxlrate in characterizing intermediaries to construct and share knowledge Colombian partner for supporting inforrnation and PowerPoint.supply~bain iofonnation networks and designing in rural communities, using lCTs and othcr intennediaries in rural communities.• Working document reporting on characterization improvements. communications media.• Supply-chain inforrnation networks characterized of supply-chain inforrnation networks and on during 2005 in four to six rural communities of plan. ned improvements in Bolivia. Bolivia, as a basis for strengthening these nctworks with four local partners.Approachcs for developi~ local informal ion • Web-based market inforrnation systerns • Market information systerns available online.• Local partners maintain commitment to systems that reinforce participatory R&D. devclopcd or improvcd in 2005, with Ccntcr support, dcvelopi~ online market infonnation systerns. by one local orgmization in Bolivia and anotber in Colombia.---L -----Communication strategies for learning and change with partners.Project heading: Project on Communication and Publications.Accelerated learning and cbange from the generation ofnew, widely applicable methodologies for enhanced gender analysis, participatory research, irnpact assessment for institutional learning and change, and organizational development for mainstreaming these approaches in the practices, structures, and processes of organizations. Considerable savings for, and increased impact of, participating CGIAR Centers and NARJs through increased and efficient use ofthese methods.Capacity for these methods will be strengthened and disseminated through an established network of trained trainers from these participating institutions. Poor rural women will be important participants in, and beneficiaries of, research. The\"development and adoption of diverse germplasm will be greatly accelerated in major food cropsAt least 12 partner institutions (2 CGIAR Centers and 10 NARJs) incorporate gender analysis and participatory research into core (mainstream) plant-breeding or natural-resource management research. Action research undertaken and too1s developed for enabling scientists to capture product and process impact, and to integrate learning from impact assessment into research planning and adaptation.A core capacity in tbe partner institutions (at least 2 CGIAR Centers and 1 O NARis) has been institutionalized in tenns of people trained in the methods, changes irnplemented in research organizations, multi-year funding cornmitted, and insthutional policies adopted, such that the scientific use of gender analysis and participatory research is an organic part of research, project design, staff recruitment, and capacity building in the participating institutions.Capacity ofiARC and NARS scientists to use good-practice gender-analysis, participatory research, impact-assessment and organizational-development methods is considered strengthened through training oftrainers.Poor rural women farmers, poor farmers in general, CGIAR Centers, NARis, NGOs, and rural grassroots organizations.The collaboration ofthe PRGA Program with its partners (IARCs, NARS, NGOs, universities, grassroots organizations) has been through the provision of direct grants, workshop costs, and inkind contribution of senior staff for joint proposal development and studies. The collaborative arrangements are detailed below.  -lmpa.ct-assessment studies.-Extemal review reporte.- -Monltoring and evaluation by the PRGA Program.-Collaborators' reporta.-PRGA Program's Annual report and web-site.-Published field manual . .-Tra.ining reporta.-Collaborators' reporta.-PROA Program's Annual report and web-site.-PRGA Program publications.-Workshop proceedings.-Potentlal partner lnstitutions are willing and interested In collaborating with the PRGA Program.-With support from the PRGA Program, working groups are wil1ing and interested in collaborating with düTerent partnen!.-Funding partners interested in supporting fnútful engagement with partners.-Potential partner institutions are willing and interested in collaborating with the PROA Program.-Funding partners interested in supporting capacity building. -IARCS and partner institutions willing to commit budget and human resources for internal capacity development.Overall Output U: Evt.ctence or the impact o{ particlpatory reaearch {PR) anct gender analyala (GA) methocta aaaeaaect, anct methocta ctevelopect to permit impact aaaeaament (lA) reaulta to be effectively inte¡ratect lnto reaearch anct ctevelopment (R&D) cteciaion-maldng. \\.-At least 3 collaborative-impact atudies are -lA studles and methods publiahed as PRGA Working documenta.-PRGA PrograJn's publications, briefs, presentations, peer reviewed joumal articles, books, web-site.-PRGA Annual reporta, workshop proceed.ings.-Published studies (PRGA worldng documenta) on lA tools and methods, and assessments of their effectlvenese in lmproving the ueefulnesa of lA and stimulating organizational lea.rning an change.-PRGA PrograJn's Annual reports, Program's web-site.-Collaborators' reporta.-lARCa and partner institutlons willing to collaborate in lA.-Funda available to conduct empiricalstudies.-Partner lnstitutions interested and willing to participate in action research.-Funding partners interested in supporting these initiatives.Research Highlights in 2003-04  • F ARA will work closely with only one Sub-Regional Organization during its fmt phase (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006), with a view to up-scaling of lessons and best practices to other SROs later. )\"> ASARECA: Recently initiated partnership will seek to strengthen, consolidate and mainstream gender analysis and participatory research in a high-proftle program to research-for-development to become demand-driven.)\"> LiBird (Nepal): Received direct grant for farmer-led participatory plant breeding of upland maize. A survey in 2003 assessed process irnpacts, including costs of using participatory approaches, and organizational implications of making such approaches sustainable. )> CARFJLaos: Joint assessment of results of gender-mainstreaming process (2002)(2003)(2004) to detennine best practices of gender main5treaming.   )-The currículum for capacity development for mainstreaming has included impact assessment as a major category in all workshops.Output 2: Evidence ofthe impact ofparticipatory research and gender analysis methods assessed, and methods developed to permit impact-assessment results to be effectively integrated into research and development decision-making 2.2.1. Activity 2.1. Develop original impact-assessment frameworks tailored to the particularities of assessing the impact of participatory methods, and develop tools that improve the information resultingfrom impact assessment in order to facilitate institutionallearning and change processes)-A Workshop on Cutting-edge Issues in Impact Assessment is scbeduled for 2005, on tbe recommendation of the PRGA Advisory Board. The objective is \"to build capacity in impact assessment and also to foster mutual learning among the impact-assessment practitioners within the CGIAR, by allowing participants to present their experiences and empirical results, as well as to bring outside experts to present topics of mutual interest.\"The papers (edited) and presentations will be made available so that participants can later give seminars at their own centers. )-Jointly with CIAT's participatory research project (IPRA), the PRGA Program submitted a proposal on strengthening rural innovation ecologies to BMZ. The project will establisb Innovation Field Schools to improve innovation ecologies, i.e. identify, implement, monitor and evaluate actions designed to make local conditions more conducive to faster and equitable innovation. )-To synthesize results from publisbed impact assessments of participatory researcb and gender analysis, and as a means of sharing information to facilitate institutional learning and cbange, an annotated bibliography on participatory research and gender analysis in agricultura! and natural-resource management research is being prepared. )> CIMMYT and the PRGA Program are conducting a meta-analysis of participatory methods used by CIMMYT projects. This should provide a general overview and understanding ofthe concept ofparticipatory research approach at CIMMYT, its history, and the contexts in which participatory research occurs. A standardized format will be used to allow comparisons between studies. Results are expected in late 2004. )> An impact study has been conducted on the CIA T Cassava Project in Asia, jointly with CIA Tanda consuJtant (from Agrifood Consulting Intemational), and with funding from the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA). The Project used fanner participatory research (FPR) to test and develop best practices for controlling erosion and maintaining soil fertility in cassava-based systems, in Thailand and Vietnam. Key infonnant interviews, focus group discussions, partiCipatory rapid rural appraisal, and participatory rural appraisal were used to gather impact data (adoption oftechnologies on farmers' own fields). The full report is available, but highiights include the following:• Adoption of soil-conservation techniques was greater in Vietnam than in Thailand. Vetiver-grass hedgerows have been adopted in Thailand, but mainly as a result of promotion by the Royal Family. Overall, however, contour-ridging is more popular than hedgerow-planting, mainly as a result of less labor involved and the fact that the Jand does not have to be set aside for hedgerows. Soil conservation would be expect~ to reduce the rate of soil loss, so that while one would not expect an increase in yields, one wouJd expect that participants would have higher yields than non-participants (everything else being equal). However, there is no evidence from multivariate analysis that the yields of the two groups are significantly different. • Project training courses have had a significant, but limited impact on intercropping adoption; despite higher retums from an intercrop system, most fanners do not wish to reduce their cassava yields in retum for increased benefits from intercropping. Fanners in Vietnam are more willing to undertake intercropping than their Thai counterparts. • Fertilizer adoption (chem.ical and organic) has increased in both countries: in Thailand, adoption is greater among project-participants, but they use Jess than their non-participant counterparts; while in Vietnam (with equal adoption of use among all fanners), participants use greater quantities. The driving factor has been income, suggesting that the project impact per se, while not insignificant, is not the whole story. However, the project has affected the type offertilizer used. • The project demonstrated that wealthier households are more likely to adopt new technologies than their poorer counterparts. The FPR approach self-selects farmer-researchers who are more willing to take risks and experiment, and have the land to do so. )> A multi-step econometric analysis was conducted ofthe CIAT Asia Cassava Project data, to: (1) determine factors affecting individuals' decisions to participate, (2) understand determinants of adoption of soil-conservation and soil-fertility management techniques, and (3) determine how participation and adoption affect behavioral and productivity outcomes. ","tokenCount":"18444"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d625e953e9912725a223df15d75d20e3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a87ec9fb-abb5-4e88-96f3-999ca67066ee/content","id":"-833190045"},"keywords":["Fodder","feed","triticale","dairy cows","poultry","whole-family training","on-farm demonstrations"],"sieverID":"a5d8dc07-4831-48f0-95ca-cf273d09531a","pagecount":"12","content":"In Bangladesh, high quality fodder is scare from December to May for ruminant livestock and feed is expensive throughout the year for poultry. A project was conducted in the cool dry Rabi (December-February) seasons of 2005-06 and 2006-07 to promote triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) as a high quality dual-purpose fodder and feed for small-scale dairy and poultry producers. During 2005 and 2006, 504 farm families from six districts in north western and central Bangladesh received training on triticale cultivation and its utilization as a green fodder for dairy cows and for grain. Printed training manuals and visual training materials (including a DVD docudrama) were developed, used in training, and distributed widely. On-farm demonstrations on triticale production were mounted with each trained farm family in two years using a dual-purpose fodder and grain type triticale variety, WRF-7, that earlier on farm research had identified to perform well in Bangladesh. High quality grass fodder was obtained by cutting the vegetative triticale plants either twice (at 35 and 50 days after seeding (DAS)) or once (at around 40 days), while the later ratooning tillers produced grain. In 168 farmer demonstrations in 2005-06, the green fodder yield ranged from 4.9 to 20.0 t/ha fresh mass (0.7 t/ha to 2.7 t/ha dry mass) from one cut at 35 DAS and 7 to 28 t/ha fresh mass from two cuts at 35 and 50 DAS. Overall, 62% of farmers reported yields above 10 t/ha of fresh green fodder. A mean grain yield of 1.8 t/ha was obtained from WRF-7 after two cuts on-farm. Straw yields ranged from 0.8 to 7.1 t/ha dry mass. 324 farmers hosted similar demonstrations in 2006-07 and reported higher yields of green fodder, ranging from 7.4 to 33.7 t/ha fresh mass from one cut at 40 to 42 DAS. A higher mean grain yield of 2.8 t/ha was obtained from WRF-7 after one cut for fodder in 2006-07. Assessments of WRF-7 dual-purpose triticale by farmers were very positive, with 97% wanting to grow triticale again in more land ranging from 0.04 ha to 0.81 ha (Table 3). From experience, many farmers decided it was more efficient to cut triticale once for green fodder. Almost all farmers reported benefits to milk production and farm income from feeding triticale fodder to cows. It was concluded that smallholder dairy farmers in North-West Bangladesh can easily produce sufficient amounts of quality fodder for dairy cows and feed for poultry from WRF-7 dual-purpose triticale during periods of severe fodder shortages.Dairy farming is an important part of the rice-based mixed farming systems in Bangladesh. A major constraint to the expansion of dairy holdings in Bangladesh is the scarcity of quality fodder, which is marked in a lean season from December to May (Saadullah, 2002;Haque et al. 2007). Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) is a human-made cross between rye and durum wheat. It is characterized by good performance under unfavourable production conditions (including acidic soils and drought), an ability to produce higher biomass and high re-growth after grazing or cutting, and its usefulness as a feed grain for monogastric animals (Varughese et al., 1997). It is a useful dual-purpose crop for grain and forage biomass (Andrews et al., 1991). Triticale is relatively well known as a high quality green fodder or silage in temperate and Mediterranean Europe (Gentinetta et al., 1983;Mosimann, 1998), but less is known about its performance in sub-tropical environments.Tests internationally and in Bangladesh have shown the quality of triticale green fodder to be similar to that from several forage legumes such as lathyrus (Lathyrus sativa) or ipilipil (Leucaena spp.) and well above grass forages, with 24.7% crude protein in the dry matter and metabolizable energy values of 10.6 MJ/kg dry matter (Gohl, 1981;Belaid, 1994;Flores et al., 1994;Haque et al., 2007). Triticale hay was also high quality, while the straw was twice as nutritious as rice or wheat straw and its grain contained more protein (15.8%) than other cereals. Its fodder is rich in lysine and tryptophan; two amino acids essential for the growth and development of livestock. Initial feeding trials conducted by Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) and CIMMYT also indicated that cattle performance (as measured by live weight gain) can increase significantly and this contributed to higher dairy production (Sarker et al. 2007).Triticale was introduced into Bangladesh in the mid 1970s and was found to grow well during the cool dry Rabi (November-March) season, giving grain yields similar to or above those from wheat (Sufian, 1979). The crop needs little management, and moderate amounts of fertilizer and water. It is able to produce two cuttings of quality green fodder at the time that small-scale dairy farmers face a severe shortage of quality fodder, while later in crop development, the ratooning tillers produce grain (Ahmed and Meisner, 2002;Haque et al., 2007). Staggered plantings of triticale from early November to mid December provide a steady fodder supply in the lean season. The national Wheat Research Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) has released a dual-purpose triticale, WRF-7 (originally from CIMMYT), that has performed well under research conditions. During 1999-2002, when WRF-7 triticale was assessed in Bangladesh as a dual-purpose quality fodder and grain crop during the lean season, high quality grass fodder was obtained by cutting green triticale plants twice, at 35 and 50 days after seeding. In 54 on farm demonstrations conducted throughout Bangladesh in 2001-02, 6-15 t/ha of fresh mass fodder was produced from two cuts within 50 days after sowing (Fig. 1) (Haque et al., 2007). After two cuts, WRF-7 triticale crops then grew on to yield 1.1-2.4 t/ha of grain for poultry feed or human food, which was about 30% more than from the grain triticale BAT-1 (Fig. 2) (Jahan et al., 2001;Haque et al., 2007). Thus, WRF-7 dual-purpose triticale was identified as an exciting new option with great potential to significantly reduce fodder and feed scarcity in Bangladesh during the Rabi season, and thereby increase smallholder milk and meat production (Ahmed and Meisner, 2002;Jahan et al., 2001;Haque et al., 2007). To promote dual-purpose triticale as a lean season high quality fodder and feed for smallscale dairy and poultry production in Bangladesh, we undertook a project in the 2005-06  Each whole-family training session took place over half a day with 8-10 farm families and the participation of 3-4 adult male and female members from each family. Farmers received information and asked questions about the production of green leaf fodder and grain from triticale. Land preparation, planting techniques, fertilizer use, irrigation and weed management were all covered. Farmers were shown when and how to cut the green fodder twice at 35 and 50 DAS. Further information was given on how farmers should feed triticale to their cows and the benefits to expect. Information on silage and hay making techniques was also provided. The harvest and uses of triticale grain were discussed, as well as the need to preserve some seed for replanting.A An on-farm demonstration of triticale production was prepared for the 2005-06 season, and given to each of 180 families that had participated in whole-family training. Each family received sufficient seed (at 120 kg /ha) of WRF-7 (dual fodder and grain type triticale) and fertilizer (at 100-60-40-20 kg/ha NPKS) to plant 800 m 2 of land. A copy of the triticale production and utilization manual and a signboard were also given. Two-thirds of the N and all the PKS was applied as a basal dressing before final land preparation. All except two farmers grew the triticale. Most of the demonstrations were planted within the recommended period of 17 November to 10 December 2005. The first irrigation was given at the crown root initiation (CRI) stage followed by a top dress of the remaining N as urea. All participating families cut triticale leaves from the demonstrations and fed the fodder to their cows from December 2005 to February 2006. The triticale plants were cut 4 cm above ground level at the first cut (35 DAS) and 8 cm at the second cut (50 DAS). After each cutting for green fodder, a light irrigation was given followed by an extra top dress of 50 kg/ha urea. Most farmers irrigated once again during the early grain filling stage. Farmers were trained by extension staff to measure green fodder, grain and straw yields from their fields. Data were obtained from 149 farms after triticale grain harvest in 2005-06. These assessments were verified at some sites through crop cuts made by research and extension staff. From oven dried samples, we calculated first cut fodder dry mass = 12-15 % of fresh mass and second cut fodder dry mass = 17-18 % fresh mass. In the on-farm demonstrations with WRF-7 during 2005-06, the green fodder yield ranged from 4.9 to 20.0 t/ha fresh mass (0.7 to 2.7 t/ha dry mass) from one cut at 35 DAS and 7.0 to 28.0 t/ha fresh mass from two cuts at 35 and 50 DAS (Fig. 3). Overall, 62% of farmers reported getting more than 10 t/ha of fresh fodder in 2005-06 (Fig. 3). Although grain yield and grain-size decreased with late planting, and with increased frequency and later timing of grass cutting, high grain yields (up to 3.5 t/ha with a mean of 1.8 t/ha) were obtained from WRF-7 after two cuts on-farm (Fig. 4). Thirty-one percent of farmers reported grain yields of 2-3 t/ha, while 64% obtained 1-2 t/ha (Fig. 4). Straw yields ranged from 0.8 to 7.1 t/ha dry mass (Fig. 5). All except 8 farmers made one cut. Fresh fodder yields were considerably higher than the previous year and ranged from 7.4 to 33.7 t/ha (Fig. 3). In 2006-07 an estimated 81.5 t of triticale grain was produced by farmers participating in the demonstration program. Grain yields in 2006-07 ranged from 1.19 to 5.9 t/ha with a mean of 2.8 t/ha, which was 55.6% higher than 2005-06 (Fig. 4). The straw yields were 2.2 to 6.8 t/ha in 2006-07 (Fig. 5). During 2006-07, farmers reported the triticale grain produced in the six districts was utilized as follows; 23% was sold to other farmers, 23% fed to cattle or poultry, 23% as human food, 25% seed for next year cultivation, and the remaining 6% for other purposes. Many growers were interested to try triticale grain as human food. A doubleblind taste test with farmers showed that 'chapattis' made with 50 wheat: 50 triticale flour were consistently selected as the best indicating that triticale grain could be acceptable to make flat breads for human consumption in Bangladesh. During 2005-06, 5.0 t of WRF-7 triticale seed were produced and stored at the Regional Wheat Research Sub-station, Rajbari, Dinajpur and the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Jamalpur for the 2006-07 program. A total of 6.3 t of WRF-7 seed and 0.6 t seed of several new triticale advanced lines were produced at the same locations in 2006-07. This seed will be used to continue the demonstration program and to give to other farmers that approached DLS or other project staff with interest to grow triticale. Many farmers also preserved seed for planting. 20.4 t was retained for planting in 2007-08 while 23.6 t that was sold or given to other farmers potentially available for planting.During March 2006, information was collected from triticale growers of 2005-06 on benefit to feed triticale fodder, grain and straw to the cattle. Almost 100% growers reported that the milk yield was increased and quality of milk was improved during triticale feeding (Table 1). They also reported that cattle health was improved during triticale fodder, grain and straw feeding period (Table 1). In general farmers are reluctant to spare land for fodder cultivation of their cattle due to land scarcity during rabi season.In between Aman rice harvest and boro rice establishment there is a fallow period for an about 50 to 65 days. Thirty growers reported (Table 1) that they could easily fit triticale fodder crop in that fallow period and able to harvest about 20-30 t/ha of fresh triticale quality fodder for their cattle without sacrificing boro crop land. Feedback was also collected from triticale growers related to problems to grow triticale. Seventy-nine growers reported few problems they observed to grow triticale (Table 2), i.e., irrigation problem, bird and rat attack, etc. These are very common problems for most of the rabi season crop production in Bangladesh. The training and demonstration program described with WRF-7 dual-purpose in Bangladesh from 2005 to 2007 has shown great production potential and dairy farmers' interest in the crop, both for quality fodder production during the lean Rabi season for feeding to dairy cows and increasingly as an animal feed and human food grain. Farmers were very interested to learn about how to grow and use the crop. They were saving WRF-7 seed to sow in subsequent seasons and for sale to interested neighbours. After they had experienced producing and using triticale, there was a high level of interest by farmers in continuing to grow and expand triticale plantings, in better ways to produce the crop and in additional innovative ways to use it. Triticale growers' survey of 2006 shows that out of the 149 growers, 145 growers (97%) wanted to grow triticale in 2006-07 season (Table 1 and Table 3). Information on the magnitude of triticale benefits on milk and poultry production are emerging from related work. A feeding trial at BLRI, Savar station showed a large (46%) increase in cow live weight gain and a 36% increase in milk yield (but no change in milk quality or dry matter intake) in cows fed triticale silage compared with those fed rice straw over a period of nine weeks (Sarker et al., 2007a). In another feeding trial, triticale grain was a good replacement for wheat in the feed blend for chickens in Bangladesh (Sarker et al., 2007a). The average daily live weight gain of cows in the silage group (1.27 kg/d) was significantly (p<0.05) higher than those fed rice straw (0.87 kg/d). Many farmers reported 30-100% increased milk yields during December 2005, January and February 2006 while feeding triticale fodder (Sarker et al., 2007a).and similar benefits in 2006-07.An assessment of the broader economic and other benefits that smallholder dairy farmers achieve from using triticale as a fodder and for grain is needed and such work is now underway. Costs of production for dual-purpose triticale were similar to those for wheat and maize, but lentil costs were lower. Dual-purpose triticale for fodder and grain had the highest gross return of several enterprise options studied. Dual-purpose triticale increased the profitability of small farms with a few cows. A farm can earn additional net farm income of Taka 3400 with two dairy cows for 30 days (Alam et al., 2007). One major drawback with triticale is that it can only be grown during the cool November-February period, producing green fodder in December and January in Bangladesh. However, fodder shortages persist during February to May. Some triticale can be dried as hay for later use and the straw can be also fed later on. However, maize is another multi-purpose fodder and feed for the lean season that is more flexible in planting time throughout Bangladesh. Maize is rapidly expanding as a grain crop in the country and can provide large amounts of green fodder and silage after triticale has finished. Future work should examine fodder production systems that combine staggered plantings of triticale followed by fodder maize to assure farmers of fodder throughout the fodder lean season.In conclusion, results of the study indicate that WRF-7 triticale variety is promising for the production of quality fodder and feed for dairy cows and poultry farms in North West Bangladesh during the period of fodder shortages. Introduction of promising new triticale lines will increase production further, as will use of improved crop management practices. Given the good yields and farmer interest, and continued difficulties with wheat production, prospects for significant triticale grain production for human food are very good in Bangladesh and a larger promotion and awareness initiative on this is recommended.","tokenCount":"2661"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3edf4cf418291a81b6cf72af3e9cbcc0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1ad22299-6f1e-40f3-921f-87c7f97ad342/retrieve","id":"1543738093"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f0004519-d212-42fb-ad1f-a5bc3563290d","pagecount":"10","content":"The Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA) project team has embarked on an initiative to assess and enhance the OH landscape in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). To achieve the institutionalization and operationalization of OH, the project team has developed a multifaceted evaluation tool to assess the status of OH across research and innovation, governance, education, and implementation. The major findings of this assessment reveal a complex landscape of challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia. Within research and innovation, Ethiopia faces gaps in institutionalization and awareness of OH approaches and principles. In the field of education, participants emphasize the absence of formal OH education aligned with the education system in Ethiopia, emphasizing the need for robust action to align OH approaches and principles into the existing curriculum. Additionally, the governance structure for OH is not fully institutionalized, necessitating policy attention and resource allocation. Implementation of OH efforts also encounters challenges due to the lack of formal institutionalization and dedicated budgets. The Ethiopian COHESA team has developed a comprehensive plan to address these major thematic findings through advocacy, documentation of evidence, capacity building, and the championing of OH at all levels (regional and national). This case underscores the importance of government ownership and collaboration among stakeholders to bridge gaps and establish a solid foundation for OH in Ethiopia. This work also sheds light on Ethiopia's journey toward institutionalizing and implementing OH practices and serves as a valuable resource for other countries seeking to embark on similar initiatives.The incremental value of this case lies in shedding light on the OH landscape in Ethiopia and efforts made to align OH principles and approaches in education, research, and services. Based on the results from the assessment undertaken, this case will share the strategic approach the Ethiopian COHESA team has taken to position OH in education, governance, research, and services.Ethiopia has established the National One Health Steering Committee (NOHSC) composed of agriculture, health, environment, and wildlife sectors as voting members and other stakeholders including NGOs and bi-and multi-lateral organizations as members. The NOHSC has been functional since 2017, coordinating OH plans and activities in the country. Although the sectoral ministries committed to establishing the national committee, the committee does not have its own office, or allocated budget for joint OH activities.Downloaded from https://cabidigitallibrary.org by 86.174.89.92, on 08/21/24. Subject to the CABI Digital Library Terms & Conditions, available at https://cabidigitallibrary.org/terms-and-conditionsIn Ethiopia, the focus of OH has long been on zoonotic diseases which has informed One Health strategic plan and the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the different Technical Working Groups (TWGs).The COHESA team in Ethiopia has contributed to the improved state of One Health governance by offering opportunities for members of the NOHSC to participate in strategic discussions and draw lessons from other African country's on OH governance structures and operations. Besides, a series of media-based advocacy was carried out on the need to improve OH governance in Ethiopia. This is believed to have contributed to recent measures taken by government with an establishment of OH secretariat with regulation no. (Federal Negarit Gazette, 2015). This is considered an important step to improve coordination of OH in Ethiopia.In addition to the OH governance, the COHESA team engaged broader OH stakeholders in various consultations. Such stakeholders include public sectors (health, education, agriculture, environmental protection, and wildlife), CSOs working on OH, educational and research institutions, professional associations, and the media to contribute to the integration of OH into their plans in Ethiopia. Such engagement enhances awareness on OH at different levels.The results from the baseline assessment improve understanding of OH programming, governance, coordination, and alignment of OH into education, research, and services. Evidence from the baseline assessment helps readers understand the state of OH in Ethiopia including challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, the findings offer entry points to improve interventions in the respective areas. After engaging with this case study, readers will be able to:• apply the OH assessment tool to elicit OH interventions within the framework of the national context in Ethiopia;• evaluate institutionalization of OH -governance structure, roles, accountability, and gaps and opportunities in Ethiopia;• analyse the OH landscape including governance, integration of OH into education, and research in Ethiopia; and• explore and identify potential synergies and collaboration with OH stakeholders in the OH domain thereby fostering cross-sectoral cooperation for improved health outcomes in Ethiopia;Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa, known for its diverse landscapes, rich cultural heritage, and significant biodiversity. With a population of over 120 million people, Ethiopia faces challenges from infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases, food safety concerns, and environmental health issues (Husein, 2020). The emergence of pathogens such as influenza, SARS, MERS, H1N1, SARS Cov 2, Ebola virus, and Mpox virus has drawn much global attention during the last five decades. Ethiopia is not immune from these challenges. At least 60% of today's emerging infections are of zoonotic origin (domestic and wild animals) which is facilitated by climate change where Ethiopia is believed to be a hotspot (Otte and Pica-Ciamarra, 2021;OHHLEP et al., 2022). The reasons for these zoonotic changes are complex as they involve human health and social behavior, animal behavior and interactions with humans, and environmental factors (Rahman et al., 2020). As a result, OH research can help to take account of the complex interplay between human, animal, and environmental health.OH is advocated to coordinate humans, animals, and the environment in response to emerging and reemerging infections, antimicrobial resistance, and food safety-aligned health approaches (Desta, 2016). Ethiopia has established the National One Health Steering Committee (NOHSC) composed of agriculture, health, environment, and wildlife sectors as voting members and other stakeholders including NGOs and biand multi-lateral organizations as members. The NOHSC has been functional since 2017, coordinating OH plans and activities in the country. These four sectors signed a memorandum of understanding in 2017 which served as a milestone to roll OH approaches and principles in Ethiopia. The NOHSC developed its strategic plan for 2018-2022 and defined anthrax, rabies, brucellosis, Rift Valley fever, and zoonotic avian influenza as its strategic focus (Pieracci et al., 2016;Ethiopian National One Health Strategic Plan 2018-2022, 2018). This work on zoonoses has been positive; however, other aspects of OH such as environment/ecosystem health, AMR, and other OH issues are now gaining momentum after COHESA's intervention has started.The NOHSC established TWGs representing human, animal, and environmental health sectors. The groups mainly focus on facilitating surveillance and prevention of emerging and re-emerging zoonoses in Ethiopia (Erkyihun et al., 2022). Although the NOHSC has played an important role in charting strategies and manuals to improve surveillance and prevention of the different zoonotic diseases, there have been limitations in coordination and functional communication between sectors, and no national budget allocated for coordinated OH activities. Despite efforts made by NOHSC, limited awareness about OH approaches and principles is pervasive within the general public including research and higher training institutions (Fascendini, 2019).Non-governmental organizations and development partners are the major contributors to the nonprogrammatic activities of the NOHSC (Erkyihun et al., 2022). OH initiatives in Ethiopia like One Health Regional Network for the HORN of Africa (HORN), the Global OH initiative of the Ohio State University (GOHi), the African OH University Network (AFROHUN), and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (STPH) have played useful role in capacity building in research, education, laboratory, and grant writing on OH (HORN Project, 2017;AFROHUN, 2021;Erkyihun et al., 2022).To break down siloes, improve OH coordination, and avoid duplication, the COHESA project operates in 12 ESA countries and aims to build OH knowledge and sharing, governance, education, and research and generate innovative OH solution to address practical problem(s) (Capacitating One Health in Eastern and Southern Africa (COHESA), 2021). The team comprises a multidisciplinary group of experts specialized in human health, veterinary medicine, environmental science, and public health policy, embodying the One Health approach by integrating diverse perspectives and expertise to address health challenges at the human-animal-environment interface.Ethiopia was selected as a case study for the COHESA project due to its complex health challenges linked to its diverse ecological systems and significant agricultural practices, which are representative of broader regional issues. The country's established One Health framework under the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and its significant burden of zoonotic diseases provide a unique opportunity to implement and study integrated health interventions, offering valuable insights that are applicable both locally and in similar settings across the project's other target countries.The OH initiatives in Ethiopia are silo focused on their objectives and partners, which at times were found to duplicate due to a lack of coordination mechanisms which is key to COHESA's aims to avoid duplication of work.Addis Ababa University is a multiplier (i.e. Ethiopian COHESA team); \"multiplier\" refers to dedicated teams within each participating country that are responsible for amplifying the impact of One Health initiatives locally. It has carried out a comprehensive baseline assessment to understand the current status of OH in Ethiopia focusing on OH research, governance, education, and implementation in 2022. Key informant interviews (KII) and a focus group discussion (FGD) were conducted toward the aforementioned aims with representation from academia, government, and the private sector. In addition to the KIIS and the FGD, a literature review was conducted, including grey literature on OH in Ethiopia.Primary data from interviews were analysed using open code software and following thematic analysis, while findings from the desk review were abstracted following the themes defined in the objective.This baseline assessment of OH in Ethiopia has generated valuable evidence on gaps in OH governance, implementation, education, and research, as well as opportunities for improvement. The findings identified key gaps in the integration of OH into development activities and called for a transdisciplinary approach in governance, implementation, education, and research practices in Ethiopia. This approach would enable teams from various disciplines and sectors to collaborate on innovative and sustainable solutions to existing problems. The COHESA project has introduced innovative tools that engage multiple sectors and disciplines in its routine activities. For example, the project conducted a net mapping exercise for the joint identification of problems and solutions, hosted a sandpit event for interdisciplinary co-creation of problems and innovative solutions, and organized a science café to bring together journalists, bloggers, and social media experts to define and develop strategies for OH media reporting.Primary data were collected from 21 key informants (19 males and 2 females) and one FGD (five male and one female participants). Participants were selected from various sectors such as government, academia, NGOs, and research institutions based on their expertise and involvement in One Health activities.Educational accomplishments of participants reveal the highest degree attained was a PhD (42%), Master's (48%), and Bachelor's (10%). Participants had diverse expertise spanning human health, public health, veterinary medicine, basic sciences, animal health, environment/ecology, social sciences, policy level experts, natural sciences, food sciences, and pharmacy. Current positions encompassed roles such as researchers, project coordinators, program directors, and experts in animal and human health and environmental sciences. Institutional representation of participants shows that 29% were from NGOs, 29% from research institutes, 24% from academia, and 19% from the public sector with more than 3 years of experience in their field.OH governance involves the coordination of different government sectors, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions around the OH agenda. Findings from key informants of multiple disciplines and sectors reveal there is a national OH platform to coordinate OH in Ethiopia, which is the NOHSC in Ethiopia. However, participants argued that the platform lacks an institutionalized governance structure with defined lines of accountability and financial resources to plan, coordinate, and monitor OH activities in the country. The existence of the NOHSC is a step forward in OH governance; however, the effectiveness of the NOHSC in terms of coordination of broader components of OH including AMR and food safety and ensuring government ownership of such initiative is an area for improvement.An FGD participant indicated \"I think OH is not owned by any sector. As it stands now, it is run by a committee composed of volunteer members who have other responsibilities. To make OH an agenda, particularly for public sectors, the essence of OH should be recognized by government authorities at the decisionmaking level. As such, institutionalization of OH governance and allocation of resources is critical to ensure ownership and accountability\" (Male participants from Research institution).The assessment highlighted the existence of a national OH platform in Ethiopia, which brings together multiple sectors. However, there were concerns about coordination mechanisms and resource allocation for joint OH plans. With the recent regulation by the Council of Ministers of the government of Ethiopia, OH is instituted under the Ethiopian Public Health Institute with the mandate to coordinate muti-sectoral and multi-disciplinary OH programs (Federal Negarit Gazette, 2015), while advocacy on institutionalization and governance of OH through COHESA may have contributed to the decisions made by the Council of Ministers. Moving forward, COHESA continues to improve the capacity of the new coordination mechanism and assist in rolling out OH functions at different levels (regional and national). This ongoing support includes facilitating the development of strategic plans, improving inter-sectoral communications, and ensuring that resource allocations are effectively managed to address the complex health challenges facing EthiopiaFindings from the desktop review, KIIs, and FGD indicate the application of OH practically in the public sector is limited. The lack of awareness about OH, its components, and how to integrate OH approaches and principles across the relevant sectors, disciplines, and research, as well as mandates that do not offer the opportunity to work together has limited OH implementation. One of the key informants argued that:\"OH is about getting out of comfort zones to work with the multisectoral and multi-disciplinary team and collaborative spirit to join hands on an agenda of common interest. Unfortunately, professionals in different sectors lack awareness of OH approaches and principles and there are not institutional mechanisms to ensure OH approach even within the same institution let alone between sectors and disciplines due to a limited understanding of the value of OH and how it works as well as lack of determination to get out of the comfort zone\". (Female, Mph, representing government institute).Implementation of OH related to institutional strategic plans reveals that sectors typically have strategic plans for 5 years based on KII and FGD responses. These plans failed to mention OH or disciplinary and sectoral collaboration to implement planned activities, and OH issues often require long-term planning beyond 5 years. Implementation of OH is not integrated and remains siloed at sectoral levels. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Health and Agriculture was found to have joint plans and collaborations on surveillance and zoonotic disease control when an epidemic occurs.The assessment indicated that while there are some OH initiatives in Ethiopia, this remains piecemeal and non-institutionalized. Gaps in surveillance, zoonotic disease control, addressing AMR, food safety, and cross-sectoral collaboration were critical. There is a need for broad-based engagement of stakeholders and the public at large in OH activities. In response, COHESA has taken steps in this line where broadbased collaboration is initiated with such as the Ministry of Education, professional associations, and the media that were not brought on board in earlier OH efforts in the county.COHESA efforts have not only framed awareness building on OH at the public level as well as advocacy at the policy level, setting the stage for further integration of OH strategies into national health policies and educational curricula.The COHESA project in Ethiopia encompasses a comprehensive approach to One Health education, integrating both formal educational programs and continuing professional training. Participants of the interviews from different sectors and disciplines shared useful evidence on the existing educational landscape vis-à-vis OH in Ethiopia. The assessment revealed that OH in education programs in Ethiopia lack clarity of purpose and direction on how to address OH in the education activities both at primary/ secondary and tertiary educational levels. Participants had differing views on formal OH health training. Two participants from an academic institution advocated for the importance of formal training in OH for which they have developed a curriculum and are currently awaiting approval. While there was support for formal OH training, another participant from the academic institution expressed frustration over graduates of OH degree program struggling to find employment. This sentiment was contrary to three government sector participants suggesting the need for formal OH training indicating there is a gap between training and employers about OH. One of the participants described:\"…we have to be informed by success stories on whether we need OH formal training or not. However, there is broad recognition of the need to train students of all disciplines on principles and approaches of OH.\" (Male participants from academic institutions).The assessment revealed that OH is not aligned with education activities at schools in lower levels and universities. COHESA's effort to standardize the education sector's response to OH has helped to draw cross-cutting OH competencies across countries of Eastern Africa through the Inter-University Council for Eastern Africa (IUCEA). Although Ethiopia is not part of this council, it has benefitted from interpreting an existing country-level endeavor to integrate OH into educational activities. As such, the COHESA country multiplier organized a technical working group composed of the Ministry of Education, various universities, and professional associations to define entry points for OH integration into education and research activities. In line with this, the working group has gone through a series of steps to draft documents that guide the integration of OH into existing school and university curricula as well as research activities.Findings from participants uniformly attributed the lack of OH evidence in Ethiopia to institutionalized coordination mechanisms. Innovation in OH research was argued to have benefited from the OH data depository system or data sharing mechanism. Existing academic and research institutes with expertise in relevant OH fields failed to neither bring their sectoral expertise to work together on jointly designed OH projects nor share data of the same theme.Findings from the desk review in Ethiopia reflect sectoral siloed work. There are a considerable number of studies focused on zoonotic diseases such as tuberculosis, echinococcosis, brucellosis, gastrointestinal bacteria (which includes Salmonella, Campylobacter, toxigenic Escherichia coli, and Listeria), rabies, toxoplasmosis, and cysticercosis/taeniasis (Teshome, 2019;Cavalerie et al., 2021); however, these studies do not use an OH approach. In addition to research on zoonoses and infectious diseases, there is some evidence on ecosystem/range land health, antimicrobial resistance, and pesticide residue, but they are not framed with OH principles in their research methods (Teshome, 2019;Abera et al., 2022;Abunna et al., 2022;Fujita et al., 2022;Waage et al., 2022). Evidence from primary data has also underscored gaps in OH data generation and sharing among the broad stakeholders who would benefit from this information.The baseline assessment reveals that there is a need for more structured and coordinated OH research and innovation efforts in Ethiopia. While there are research institutes and academic institutions with expertise in diverse fields, there is no unified approach and funding for collaborative research on OH. Gaps in knowledge sharing and research prioritization were identified. Within the aims of COHESA, the Ethiopian multiplier address these shortcomings by developing guidelines that universities and research institutions could The baseline assessment explored existing potential synergies in OH activities between like-minded institutions in Ethiopia (Table 1). Several OH-related activities are ongoing in Ethiopia and are supported by different stakeholders, most of whom are international organizations. Nonetheless, limited coordination and information are shared among these stakeholders with a potential implication of duplicative efforts. Through COHESA, the Ethiopian team will work toward establishing a platform for stakeholders of the different OH activities to share experiences, lessons, and challenges of OH. This has promoted synergy between initiatives by different stakeholders but also expanded the OH agenda. By sharing knowledge and resources and offering a joint platform during COHESA functions and stakeholder forums, the project aims to solidify partnerships and avoid duplications.Understanding of the current OH landscape in Ethiopia reveals exciting opportunities, challenges, and entry points for improved OH interventions. Following the baseline assessment, our COHESA multiplier in Ethiopia has advocated for institutionalization of OH governance which may have contributed to the recent regulation (Regulation No. 529/2023). This regulation has established multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary OH coordination under EPHI. This is believed to improve coordination, resource allocation, and governance of OH in Ethiopia.The multiplier (COHESA team in Ethiopia) has implemented a broad-based OH partnership involving professional associations, education sector, universities, research institutions, and the media.These partnerships are designed to improve collaborations and exchange of lessons and experiences which may serve the new OH coordination platform with the opportunity to engage all stakeholders working on OH and/or could contribute to OH endeavors in Ethiopia.COHESA's successful engagement of universities, research institutions, and the education sector to align OH in the education and research domains is believed to have a far-reaching impact. Development of modalities and tools to align OH into existing courses and alignment of OH approaches and principles in calls for research and review processes would improve inter-and trans-disciplinarity of the research undertaking. The guidelines and tools developed on these would impact the alignment of OH into teaching and research activities in selected universities to expand to more such institutions.Furthermore, a participatory approach to identifying innovative research for OH solutions has resulted in AMR being identified as an OH problem that remains siloed in understanding, tracking, recording, and reporting among others. Development and refinement of an inter-disciplinary proposal to generate evidence through multiple, disciplines, and sectors was done using a Sandpit approach to define problems, and actionable research questions, develop proposals, pathway forward, and evaluate for granting. This sandpit event was an intense and dynamic process where teams were drawn from different perspectives and could develop concepts for innovative projects. Through a competitive process between teams, an innovative solution is planned to bring a functional OH approach to AMR in Ethiopia.These efforts collectively signify a transformation in the OH framework in Ethiopia, evidencing the impact of our initiatives on both policy and practical levels.The COHESA project team in Ethiopia has made a remarkable contribution to the effort to advance the OH agenda in Ethiopia. Interventions are guided by results generated from multi-disciplinary and multisectoral sources and the participatory planning, and problems identified through baseline assessment, desk reviews, and ongoing interventions will help address some of the critical OH challenges in Ethiopia.Before the assessment, Ethiopia's OH landscape faced challenges, including a lack of institutionalization of OH governance, minimal coordination between sectors, and limited integration of OH principles into education and research, and gaps in service/implementation. The assessment provided useful entry points for intervention including on the need to strengthen One Health governance structure where the advocacy efforts is believed to have contribute to the establishment of One • What are the key challenges and opportunities for implementing an OH approach in your country, and how do these differ across sectors and disciplines?• In your opinion, what are the critical elements required to institutionalize OH principles at the national level, and how can this be achieved effectively?• Reflecting on the gender imbalances if participation in the Ethiopian baseline assessment is an indication of a long way to go to make OH gender sensitive in governance, research, and education, how can OH be more inclusive?• What role do academic institutions play in advancing OH education and research, and how can their contributions be strengthened to address the identified gaps? • How can awareness creation and advocacy efforts be enhanced to promote a better understanding of OH among policymakers, researchers, and the general public in your country?• Considering the lessons learned from the COHESA project in terms of broader, knowledge management, and alignment of OH in education and research, it is important to consider broader engagement of stakeholders involved in OH activities.• What impact do you envision OH having on public health outcomes in your country, both regionally and nationally, and how can these outcomes be measured and evaluated over time?• What OH governance structure will be followed by the secretariat with what capacity? This would define the level of coordination and alignment of OH approaches and principles into sectoral functions? The secretariat refers to the coordinating body overseeing the implementation of OH initiatives in Ethiopia. It consists of representatives from various sectors, including health, agriculture, environmental protection, and wildlife conservation, and aims to ensure the effective rollout and coordination of OH programs.","tokenCount":"4028"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0bf66971eeca7ebbb18e793a7952f2d8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6d3a9a3-49c7-4613-99a6-ac098e1d7f80/retrieve","id":"705891371"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ab4349f9-4ade-4728-a597-c334cf5df127","pagecount":"88","content":"This report reviews the effectiveness of seed aid in Kenya, with emphasis on the prooess and products of aid delivered during tñe Long Rains 1997 (February to June). While focusing 00 a single seasoo just after a drougbt, it draws on a history of almost 10 years ofrepeated seed aid. with yet another intervention being organízed as this report is being written. From an 'intemal' organizational perspective. the report explores how the seed aid was managed at tñe cornmunity level and then puts this in the view of an 'externa)' perspective that examines the effects of seed aid interventions on the longer-term sustainability ofKenyan farming systems. One of the unique features of this report is its inc)usion of a strong component of smallholder fanners' own assessments and retlections on the effectiveness of the seed-aid intervention.A worksbop on seed-system analysís was also funded under this grant--drawing from the Kenya findings but also on a range of seed interventions in Eas! and Central Africa (Sornalia. Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda) and select sites beyond (e.g .• Honduras and the 'Mitch'-related emergency assistance). This workshop, helil June 21-24, 2000, in Kampala. Ugsnda, sougbt lo accomplish the following: l. Exchange and synthesize 'better practices' among seed-system interventions in East and Central Africa; 2. Developlrefine conceptual tools formare ¡nformed design of seed-system interventions.The proceedings of the U ganda workshop are published as \"Targeted seed aid and seed-system interventions -strengthening srnall-farmer seed systems in East and Central Aftica\".  3: Table 4: Table 5: Table 6:Table 7:Table 8: Table 9: Table \\O: Table 11: Table 12: Table 13: Table 14:Table 15: Table 16: Table 17: Table 18: Table 19: Table38: Table39: Table40: 1. This report reviews tbe effectiveness of seed aid in Kenya, witb emphasis on tbe process and products of aid delivered during tbe Long Rains 1997 (February to June j, While focusing on a single season just afier a drought, it draws on a history of almost 10 years of repeated seed aid, with yet another interventíon being organized as this report is being written. One ofthe unique features ofthis report is its inclusion of a strong component of smallholder farmers' own assessments and reflections on Ibe effectíveness oflbe seed-aid intervention.2. Seed aid, as distinct from food aid, is a relatively new phenomenon in the Horn of Africa (dating within the last decade) and both seed aid and seed-system support have yet lo be seen as something fundamentally different from food aid and food-assistanee support.Seed aid is differen!!Tom food aid ín a! leas! three key aspects:Seed is no! intrinsically useful. It has (o be adapted to the immediate biophysical environment, and adapted 10 farmers' potential management levels. It also has a built-in, ofien narrow, time límit for usefulness.-Seed interventions aft'ect the heart of a farmer's agricultura! systcm-such as farmers' prograrnming (ofland, labor, intercropping patterns )--and lie il into a routine that assumes a certain stabilíty. Further, allbough seed is often given under Ihe rubric of short-terrn interventíon (the 'Seed and Tools' paradigm), ils effects on the agricultura! system can be !ongtenn.-Seed is costlier than food for all key actors (farmers, implementers, donors).3. In Kenya, seed aid has been delívered on a fairly large scale~about every olher season sinee 1992~ and across a large number of dístricts. The focus has becn heavily on maize over the years and Ibroughout Ihe regions.4. The case study draws from research al four siles where seed aid distribution has taken place (Machakos, Baringo, Makueni, Embu/Mbeere). These siles were chosen so as lo compare and contras! aid delivery by a variety of organizations, both government and nongovernmenl (NGOs), with slight1y differen! approaches 10 seed-system support in similar agroecological contexls.The study examines both the internal process and efl'ecls of seed aid delivered during lhe Long Rains 1997 (February to June), along with the external process and effects:-Internal process and effects rcfers to issues such as the appropriateness ofthe crops and varieties distributed and the targcli llg of seed-aid recipients.-External process and effects examines how the seed-aid inlervention affccted filrmers' broader agricultural management strategies and whether the seed helped farmers get back on their feet and establish a sustainable means of aceessing desired seeds.n. The internal process and effects of seed 1. Most farmers interviewed receíved seed aid in 1997 (77.8%) wilh the sites managed bylbe Government ofKenya (GOK) generally givingmaize and beans (plus vegetable seeds in Baringo), and the NGOmanaged sites distributing sorne maize and beans plus a range ofmore drought-tolerant crops (eowpea, 1 sorghum, millet, pígeon pea). One site also prograrnmed in a component offarmer capacity building (in improved seed production).2. Farmers generally assessed the crops and varieties given as appropriate. The more drought-101erant crops wcre also deemed 'acceptable'-as long as mail.e was one oflhe elements in the aid package. Furthermore, farmers commented on the high quality oflhe seed; most ofthe funners sampled did not routinely use certífied seed or maize hybrids (except in Baringo). Theyrecognized the 'luxury valuc' of hybrids, but not necessarily just for direet sowing. Farmcrs can exchange the packaged maize for urgentlyneeded items (for example, food staples such as salt, sugar, and oH). Seed aid in this sense achieves a 'currency' function. Thus, the 'products' delivered received high ratings.3. Farmers expressed strong disconlent with al! three 'process' variables--that is, Ihe tíming (generally late), targeling (not transparent), and quantilies ofseed received (too little). The less rigorous targeting was directly related lo lesser quantities received per farmer. Overall, the process variables were raled higher at a single site where a prior assistance/development program had been eslablished.4. Eaeh ofthe four siles had speeific built-in biases in targeting, with thepossible exception ofa govemment-managed site (Machakos) where there was a blanket dístribution for all appearing at public meetings. Apparent biases inc1uded those who organized into work groups (Makueni), Catholics (EmbulMbeere), and those with access lo irrigated plots (Baringo). There was sorne evidence that poorerpopulations were a180 specifically reached in the EmbulMbeere sample.5. Lack oftargeting transparency i8 creating social fríctions. Farmers cited 27 differenl (sometimes conflicting) eriteria used to selee! recipients. At GOK-managed sites, all expect seed as part of a 'public good' and 'tbeir right.' The fuzzines8 in targeting al80 refleets an ambiguity in the goals set for the seedaid distribution (see poin! II. 7, below).6, While vouchers were not given, exploration oftbeirpotential acceptability showed farmers very divided as 10 theirusefulness and acceptability. Much depends on (a) the availability ofloeal crops/varieties, even ifpurchasing power is guaranteed, and (b) the will power of farmers to use the cashlvoucher solely for seed stocks.Different kinds of farmers seem lo prefer different options, based lo a certaín extent on wealth. The very poorest prefer seed aid because oftbeir fear of diverting money and because the maize hybrid is beyond theír normal reach, Richer farmers--a good number ofwhom receíved seed aid--••generally feel equally disposed lo the two options because hybrids are what tbey normalJy use and they have little trouble reaching the seed stocks. The issue of distance to market cross-cuts wealth categories, as does a concern Iha! 'quality' seed (local quality seed as wel! as certified) just isn't available in local markets.In areas where aid organizations are experimenling with non-maize options, farmers sometimes prefer the seed aid jusI because tbe crops or varieties tbey desire (green grams, cowpeas, millets) may no! be easí1yaccessed otherwise.7. Most fundamentalIy, the inlernal analysis sbowed thatthe goals of giving seed aid were not very transparent in the foureases analyzed. Based on an analysis ofpraetice, there were al leasl four different goals:--10 fiU a lemporary seed gap--for Ihe farma lo have somelhing lo planl -10 encourage self-help, or for farmers 10 aehieve a self-sustaining seed-produetion slrategy lO give a gifi lo a poli/ieal conslituency-'-political combined with farming goals lo slimulate 'progressive' modern farming praetiees.None ofthese goals is inherently negative, although the first two probably more closely parallel goals aspired lo in emergency stress situations. However, the multitude oí goal s, and accompanying approaches, create confusion ahout what the seed is for and create false expectations as well as unnecessary dependencíes.8. Even the small number of cases suggests Ihat seed aíd (procuremenl and delívery) ís more effectíve when decentralized:TIle choice of crops and varielies can be more local and tailored to the environment. Targeting on a smaller seal e is more accurale A range oC approachcs is possible, rather than standardized ones. In sorne cases, seed alone may be needed; in others, skíll building may prove crucial, and in slill others, novel approaches in erops and crop management may be vitaL 1Il. Externallogic of seed aid: Has it served to strengthen farmers' seed and agricultural systems?L Since 1992, on average, eaeh farming family has received seed aíd twíce, with a hígh of 10 times. Thus, most farmers, irrespective oí wealth, have received seed aid more than once in the last decade. Those in the 'church sample' (EmbulMbeere), who correlated more with poorer segments, received seed aid once in about every two seasons. Farmer comments suggest that many have come to expect 'ernergency' aid on a continued basis.2. Seed aid of maize, whích was the ¡ion's share of aid given, provided 14% ofthe total rnaíze sown in the Long Rains 1997, while for beans, aíd seed represented 11 % ofthe total sown. TIle situation for sorghum and cowpea was slight1y different because aid agencies mos! often gave these crops expressly lo diversip¡ farmers' crop profiJes in more drought-prone arcas. Aid seed for these minoríty crops accounted for 33% and 27% oflhe total seed SOV.'Il for sorghum and cowpea, respectively. Thus, during the emergencyperiod, furmers accessed the majority oftheir seed for all fouT crops analyzed (maize, beans, sorghum, and cowpeas) by themselves. Across crops, a large portion of seed was sourced from local markets (not stockísts), even in ecologically stressed arcas.3. The research assessed the portion offarmers relying on seed aid for 100% oftheir seed sown during (he Long Rains 1997. Overall figures varied from 14% to 66% of [armers al each site. However, a closeranalysis, bycrop, shows thal onlysix farmers (cut ofl71 total across sites) relied 100% on seed aid for their key crops--that ís, those crops in whích they themselves normally invested. For most farmers, seed aid supplíed their full seed stocks for a single crop only ífthe crop were relatively new or oflower priority (as in the case of cowpea, sorghmn, pigeon pea, or millet), or in the case oí incomegenerating vegetables such as onion, kale, and tornato.4. Across sites, farmera primarily assessed thoir top two príority crops as maize and beans, with some of the more drought-tolerant crops cíted in thi .. , nlace al unirrigated sites and the íncome-generating vegetables ciled where the supplyofwalerwas more reJiable. TIle matchíng offarmers' priorities with what !hey received as aid showed that, overwhelmingly, farmers received al leas! one oflhe crops they consider 'most' importan!.5. Farmers can 'normally' use sorne seven pOlentiai channels for accessing seed . Formaize, nearly a1l farmers regularly use home-saved maíze seed as their maín source and, a180, regularly use the local market 10 10p off supplies. Use ofstockist seed, that is, use oíimproved varieties and certífied seed, is key only in the Baringo sample, although between one-quarter and a third of farmers in Machakos and EmbulMbeere claim lo use ít 'occasionally.' Certified seed and hybrids are rarely used in Makueni. TIlis overwhelming dependence on local maize seed perseveres in a context oC very vigorous and prolonged government efforts to promole hybrid and certified material.6. For beans, across sites, farmers use home-saved stocks as their central source for seed. However, local markets appear as an equally used souree. Given that bean seed can easily be selected out from the prevíous harvest (Le., as it í5 self-pollinated), it is surprising how many farmen get bean seed off-mrm every season or every other season (about 30% across the siles), with high amounts being acquired in this way (70% plus ofstocks). Thus, most furrners get more than halftheir bean seed off-farm on a regular basis.7. For both maize and beans, the Kenyan data run counter to what is ofien taken as a truism when describíng farmer seed systems: that ís, that about 80% ofthe seed used by 'normal farmers' comes from their own stocks and !hat acccssing off-farm seed sources is 'abnormal.' The Kenyan material shows that small fanners routinely rely on local markets for a significant portion oftheir seed.8. Fanners overwhelmingly expressed dissatísfaction with their maize-procurement strategy, with the notable exception ofBaringo where the 'progressive' sample accesses seed from stockists. The large majority can't afford certified seed (and find the prices exorbitant) and complain about the local market: the right varieties are no! available, the seed is poor qualíty, merchant~ cheat on quantity, and the distances are too great.Thís widespread dissa!isfaction seems relativeJy serious for a crop Ihat tbnns ¡he core oftheir agriculture. 9. For bean-seed acquisitíon, fanner sentiment is al so strong and c\\ear across sites. The largo majority find themselves heavily tied to the local market-spending money but not sure ofthe quality they are receiving. Because beans are self-pollinated, fanners generally regard bean seed as somelhing they shouldn't have to buy, using the money instead for school, medicine, and [ood. Overall, what does the 'average' farmer want in tenns ofbean seed? Self-sufficiency. She wants to save seed money, lo save transport getting seed, and she wants the seed on time--all implying that home-saved seed is lhe way to go.10. Have seed trends improved for maize and beans over the las! decade? Apparently not-jusl the opposite. Prices have gane up, exchange networks have become weaker, and deteriorating soil fertility and fragmentabon have meant smaller harvesls. The few positive developments--some new varieties, the emergence ofseed aid, the packaging ofvarieties in srnaller packet~o little to counteract very strong negative forees.11. There i8 no concrete evidence that seed aid, per se, is strengthening farmer systems. Those who have received it once are nol necessarily less likely to receive il again, and the amounts given were not significant in the contexl of funners' overall seed-procurement strategies. Further, the main crop given--hybrid maize--does not ensure lbat farmers can become less dependen! on outside sources: it only performs in better conditions and has a built-in deterioration mctor. Considering!hat il only treats a symptom, and perhaps no! in the mas! effective way, seed aid (Seed-and-Tools), as currently delivered, seems to be a rather costly inlervention.IV, Characterlzing seed system constraints and opportunities: The Kenya case 1. The external analysis ofthe farmers' seed situation in Kenya raises a number offundamental questions about the type ofproblem seed aid ls and was supposed to alleviate. Seed-and-Tools programs-thal is, the delivering of quantitíes of seed and basic lools on a one-offbasis (the kind ofintervention being practiced in Kenya}-are designed lo help furrners out ofa temporary, and well-defined, acule situation. Seed and lools are given in a context where a series of assumptions are made, whether they are consciously articulated or no!: tha! farming systems bave suffered an acule jolt and farmers have losl vital seed tha! given a discrele injection of seed-a boost-furmers will have the means to plant the seed given: Iha! labor and inputs are adequate to plan! and harvest, and that tbe situation is sufficiently secure tbat tbe seed given, once, will help furmers re-establish an independent means ofproducíng and accessing their 0\\\\'11 seed.2. The external perspective on seed aid has documented the general vulnerability offarmers' seed systems and overall agricultural systerns. For some Kenyan farmers, the last decade has been one in which they have suffered droughts on a repeated basia. Between distinct, severe dry periods, their fanning systems have operated well, However, witb sharp drops in rainfall, like tbat in 1991-92 and in 1996, they have required help from tbe outside 10 gel back to where tbey were, These furmers have been experiencing repeated acure stress.3, For many Kenyan fanners within tbe sample, the seed stresses they describe are neither acute nor repeatedly acute. Theyare there on acontinua1 basis, Small plots (and harvests), unreliable rainfall, lack of adapted varieties, poorly adapted crops (like maize in many areas), distant markets, scarcity of cash to purchase seed-•all oftbese things hinderthe fanners' ability 10 produce andlor access sufficient quantities ofseed each season, While seed-and-tools treat theirproblems as acule; indeed, their stress situatíon is a chronic one, 4, A framework is started within this report for examining aCUle. repeated acule. and chronic stresses, cross-cutting these seed-system disastertypes with root causes: agroecological and politicalleconomic, as well as seed-system issues tbemselves, In plotting material relating to seed-system functioning from tbe Kenyan case, economic and polítical constraints leap forward as a major fanner-articulaled constraint. Further, the analysis shows tbat focusing on seed and variety issues,per se, Is not effective for dealing with the real bottlenecks in many seed-system situations.5. Tho issue of'right seedlcrop' is examined in the context of emergency versus nonemergency sítuations, At a mínimum, crops/varietíes for emergency interventions need to be adapted to filnners' biophysical environment adapted lo farmers' preferences adapted to farmers' management conditions promoting risk aversion.'Right variety/crop' is also examined on the basis of acute, repeated acute, and chronic seed-system stresses.6, Hybrid maize proves to be a poor choíce in the context of acute, repeated acute, and chroníc stress situations, Most filnners do not roulínely access hybrid maize seed from the stockist and therefore probably do not have the management expertise wilh which lo nurture the 'aíd' varieties, Moreover, most maíze hybrids have not traditionally ¡. 'n designed for suboptimal environments and the built-in genetic deterioratíon ofhybrids doesn't necessarilypromote self-relíance for those fanners who cannol afford 10 renew their stocks annually. Simply, the overriding bias on hybrids-•across years and regions--makes ¡he situation something 'Jfan extreme or classic case ofignoring a basic emergency principIe of promoting risk aversíon.7, A range of seed-system support interventions in East Afríca-which go beyond seed-and-tools-is reviewed, These interventions have various goals, such as delivering more locally adapted varietíes, ensuring tba! even tbe poorest farmers can gel new materials, improving the quality of fanners' seed, and even helping farmers earo money from seed-production operations. They iIlustrale Ihat a body of work is emerging to help address some ofthe more chronic constraints lo seed-system heallh.8. A paramount challenge 10 strengtheningtbe systems bywhich fanners access seed rests in a more refíned diagnosis ofwhere tbe constraints and opportonities He. Analysis of seed systems-farmer, formal, and !hose !hat aim to integrate!he two-is a relatively new field. Prior to a decade ago, developmentwork focused almost exclusively on supporting!he institutionalízed, formal seed sector. In Afiica, seed-system experts estimate lbat such institutional channels may supply farmera with, al most, 5% oftheir seed, tbe obvious exception being maíze in areas where hybrids are widelyused.9. The report ends by sketching the full components of a seed system and tbeir interlinkingrelationships.Continuing to deliver seed-and-lools may be analogous to putting a band-aid en a gushíng wound. Only a more-targeted diagnosis can lay!he foundations for more-targeted interventions-interventíons that have longer lasting positive impacts.Section 1This report has modest, yet focused, goals\" It aims to examine the effectiveness of a single season of emergency seed aid, delivered in Kenya during the 1997 'umg Rains' (from February to June). It examines the internal process and effects ofthe seed-aid intervention as it unfolded in fOUT different regions, through the Govemment ofKenya (GOK) and through two nongovemmental implementers. Intemal process and effects refers to such issues as the appropriateness ofthe crops and varieties distributed and the targeting of seed-aid recipients. Equally, this study considers the external process and effects of seed aid and examines how the seed-aid intervention did (or did not) help farmers overcome what looked like an acute stress situation (that is, a reduced hervest due to marked drought). An examination ofthe external process and effects loob atthe effectiveness ofthe aid in the context ofthe farmers' broader agricultural management strategies and asks whetherthe seed helped farmers get back on their feet and re-establish a sustainable mode ofaccessing desired seeds (see Annex 1 forterms ofreference for the study). Much of these analyses come from a previously unheard viewpoint: the perspective ofthe end-user-male and female smallholder furmers\"This report also has a second main goal. Using the Kenya case study as a grounded base, it aims to stimulate the development of conceptual models, management guides, and practical tools fur sharpening external interventions in the area of seed-system support\" The term seed system refers to the range of components that make a seed system sustainable. This includes all phases !Tom seed and variety testing, to multiplication, to different channels of distribution and storage. Each phase embraces technical and social organizational fOI1IlS---4Jperating al levels from the household upwards. Finally, we incJude in !he notion of seed system, a11 systerns lhat filrmers may use-Iocal, formal, and any intermediary/intertwined forms. (The lasl section ofthe report discusses in sorne depth Ihe concept and practice of seed systems.)Seed, !he physical input planted into a field (which has genetic, physiological, analytical, and sanitary qualities), is only one critical elemen! to sustaining a seed system--and not always the crucial one lo support in times of a social or ecological disaster. Reaching this second goal, development ofrefined and practical lools and guides, requires longer time horizons tbat go beyond the fmalization ofthis report. A first significant step has been completed in the convening of a workshop from June 21-24, 2000, in Kampala, Uganda, entitled \"Targeted seed aid and seed system interventions: Strengthening small filrmer seed systems in East and Central Africa.\" This workshop drew together a group of seed-system and disaster-management specialists to forward our understandíng of(a) how 10 characterize the components of seed systems, (b) how to dístinguish among differenl kinds of seed-systern stresses (with accompanying indicators), and (c) how lO start to link a more accurate diagnosis oC seed-syslem stress with a more targeted method of outside intervention support. (Annexes 5 and 6 contain the seminarprogram and list of participants, respectively.) Case studies were drawn predominantly !Tom East and Central Africa (Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, and Ethiopia), but lessons were also drawn from key; more far-flung sites, such as Honduras (the HurricaneMitch inlerventions).The Kenya Seed Aid report and the complementaryworkshop (funded also under grant #LAG-41 I 1-00-3042-00) both aim lo encourage thinking beyond what have become somewhat simplistic orseed-and-tools interventions.Every country in the Horn of Africa has experienced drought, civil disturbance, or both within the last 10 years, with many regions having experienced stress on a near continuous basis (for exarnple, fue Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, Burundi, and northern Rwanda). A pessimist might say that instability-rather than its opposite--is becoming ¡he norm for East and Central Africa. One ofthe results ofthe prolonged turmoil is that repeated 'emergency interventions' are taking the place ofneeded longerterm research-and-development (R&D) programs.Along with disasters, either natural or man-made, have come increasing infusions ofboth food and seed aid. For instance, as this report ís beíng written, the Government ofKenya has called for US$ 100 million in food aid and US$ I million in seed aid for a single season, and the United Nations has jusI appealed for US$ 377.7 million for emergency assistance in Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Kenya combined, including US$ 8.9 million for seed~ and other agricultural needs (Dehai-news 2000).Seed aid, as distinct from food aid, is a relatively new phenornenon in the Horn of Africa. A recent comprehensive review of seed-aid prograrns (ODI 1996), which interviewed nongovemmental organizatíons (NGOs), nationa! agricultura! research systems (NARS), government ernergency branches, and international agencies, found Ihat seed aid--or specifical1y, seed-and-tools, whích represents the dominant form of seed aid-is a concept ofthe last 10 years. 2 Reviews of relief and rehabilitation journals (e.g., Dísasters), operational manuals, and a range of personal comrnunications from field practitioners) also show ¡hat the seed-aid paradigm has deveJoped squarely on ¡he tracks of food-aid procedures. Seed and seed-system support has yet lo be secn as somethíng fundamentally dífferent from food aid and food-assístance support.Repeated drought in Kenya over the last ) O years has resulted in repeated, near continuous distributíons of seed aid. Since 1993, when a governmenl body, the Emergency Drought Recovery Programrne (EDRP), was first formed to deal wíth the effects of droughl in arid and semi-arid areas, yearly seed-aid distributions have taken place across a broad range ofKenyan ecologies. Government structures havo also responded to the (pereeíved) increasíng frequency of drought by starting to construct preparedness units, such as district-level drought-emergencyplans and district disaster-relief cornmittees.Drought is nol a new phenomenon in Kenya. One specialist describes 18 significan! droughts in the century between 1883 and 1984-übout one every five-and-a-halfyears (Downing el aL 1989), Most evidently, droughl is related lo fluctuatíons in weather patterns and, hence, local water availability. However, equally important is thal this 'lack' has to be linked to specific spatial and temporal parameters associaled with the resource base that communities access. For example, whetherthe amount ofland farmers have access toand from which they can get a harvest-has remained constant (Sandford 1979). J Landholdings ín Kenya havo decreased overthe last 20 years, perhaps by as much as 15% for smallholder farmcrs (author's estimate). Drought or its acute effects rnay he hecoming more common largely because farming systems, and particularly poorer farm holdings, are increasingly less resílíent (with less land, fewer crops, and less, little, or no surplus to slore).The history and importance of seed aid in KenyaThe decade of Ihe 19905Seed aid has heen distributed by the Governmenl ofKenya on a relatively large scale since 1992. In raet, there has been a distribution nearly every season since then. While there may have been ísolated seed-aid efforts by NGOs in single regions or siles before 1992, Ministry of Agriculture records (complemented by íntematíonal organization and NGO oral histories), sugge5t the concept and practíce of seed aid in Kenya dates back only eight years or, al most, 16 seasons.During Ibis consultancy, it did not prove possible lo trace Ihe exact amounts ofaid or crop/varíety pro files delivered duríng the differenl governmental seed-aid interventions. While official records c1early publisbed tbe amounts requested, delineated byprovince and by crop, managers attest that funds received were routinely below those requested and that the crops/varieties requested were often not tbose in stock al the Kenya Seed Company (KSC), which is Ihe near total supplier of government-coordinated seed aid. (One reason forthis bias may be Ihat the KSC offers the GOK seed against credit.) Thus, while official dístricl and MOA requests included seed aid in the form of sorghum, cowpeas, or beans. it was overwhelmingly hybrids and vegetable seeds (onions, kale. tomatoes)--that is, more commercial crops-that have been received on a dependable basis from KSC during the last eight years of emergency assistance.Govemment seed distribution, Long Rains 1997For the period under íntensive review, Long Rains ¡ 997. Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) records document the amounts delivered on a nationwide basis (table 1).Records from the Office ofthe President (OP) further give some ínleresting insights into the ímportance of government seed-aíd seed in relation to the total seed planted in a given dístrict. Among the eight districts (out of 46) which filed final seed-distribution reports in 1997, the (\"ange in importance ofseed aid was impressive, witb government maize-seed 3id accounting for an area rangíng from srnall (6%) to large (54%) (table 2). These kinds ofstatistics, however imperfect or incomplete, are important for assessingjust how vital outside aid was (or was not) in tbe various regions.A similar table (table 3) has been constructed for data reported to the Office oflhe Presiden! on other crops, notably vegetables and rice. The number of cases is too small to draw firm insights, but it looks as if govemment aid has been a vehícle for promoting vegetable gardening during emergencies.   In brief, seed aid has been delivered on a fairly large seale about every other season, and aeross a large number of distriets. The focus has been heavily on maize across regions and years.Seed !lid versus food aid ¡ .:In introducing and exploring the meme of seed aid, it is important to highlight how distinct it i8 ftom food aid. The qualities mat distinguish seed are different ftom ones Iha! identifY food: seed occupies a central role in thefarming (notjust digestíve) system, and seed aid in general i8 probably eostlier for all actors than is comparable food aid. These points are elaborated below and each should dramatically affect how such aid i8 operationalized.Seed as djstjnct (rom food Seed in itselfis not intrinsically useful. To provide benefits lo the fanner, il has to be adapted lo the immediate biophysical environment and adapted to farmers' potential management levels, which include no! just laborbulaccess lo potentiallycritical inputs (manure, fertilizer, etc.). Seedalso has a built-in, often narrow, time limit for usefulness: if nol planted in jusI the right seasonal intervals, it may not germinate, or mature, or survive a drought.Seed is also nol a producI whose value may be irnrnedialelyvisible. While analytical purity and sanitary quality can be sometirnes visually assessed, genetic and physiological trailS often become apparenl only after the seed is planted and first emerges (ODlI996). Therefore, the procurer has lO have unusual expertise-in both the characteristics ofthe variety/seed and the specific contexts in which it might be sown.Seed interventions take place at the heart of a farming systemSeed interventions affect the heart ofa farrner's agricultural syslem. They affeet a farrner's prograrnrning (of land, labor, intercropping pattems) and they tie her to a routine that assumes a certain stabílity-that what is sown can be harvested, five months or even up to one year later.Although seed is ofien gíven underthe rubric ofshort-terrn intervention (the 'seed-and-tools' paradigm), its effeclS on the agricultural syslem can be significantly long-termo Under a positive scenario, furmerappreciated varieties may be sown season after season (at least ror the self-pollinated crops; hybrids have built-in self-destruction). Under a negative scenario, poor seed can spread disease ror a season or twO. More drarnatically, seed aid gíven again and again can alterthe profile offurrning syslems and even render them less stable. The widespread distribution ofmaize in the southern regíons of Arnca has certainly been blarned for this latter effect (van Osterhout 1996).Seed is more expensive than food for all actors Logically, it would seem lhat seed aid is more expensive for all actors involved (although follow-up ca1culations stiJl need to bemade).'Far the donar, a good-quality variety or seed is more expensive per unil than whal one would buy for grain. The process of delívery is also costlier if one aims lo both target the 'seed-short' populatíons and couple the croplvariety with a compatible agroecological envíronment. Simplyput, more 'niches' (and hence, the delivery of more 'niche products') need lo be considered Iban is necessary with a blanket food distribution, or even a targeted one. The window of deliverytime is also more narrow (discounting food-aid situations where populations are in critical disttess).\"or thefarmer. seed aid is certainlynot a 'no-strings' gift. It uses up the furmer's land and labor al critical moments. Planting seed and tending the growth/harvest periods has several kinds of opportunity coslS.Seed aid may substitute for other cropslvarieties that Ihe farmer could also have sown. And seed-related activities take searce time away ftom activities that are not seed-related.FinalIy, seed aid is especially expensive when it has to be repeated. One ofthe key rationales for giving seed aid versus just food is Ihat it can help farmers get back on their feet to produce their own food in the not-so-near future.It ís clear that the rendering ofusable seed aid is a formidable task. Also given the huge amounts spent on seed aid, it is odd tbat relatívely few in-depth analyses exist for guiding such operations. The how-to guides known by the author are all very recent-and variable in their coverage ofthemes and quality (ODl1996; The rationale for seed provision during and after emergencies is that it can re-establísh a 'self-help' mode within cornmunities affected by emergencies. Once familíes have basic seed and basic tools, they can start the process ofproducing their own food andJor making money from selling crops.Second, whíle secd aid is often given under Ihe rubric of'emergency' support, by its nature, the giving of seedhas to be pul within a developmental andJor recovery context. Something planted today, during an emergency, may bear fluit five to nine months later in a changed eontext. If re-sown, seed can have socioeconomic, production, and bio-environmental effects for several years onwards.Rationale for case study oC secd aid in KenyaSeed aid, as truly distinct from jaad aid, is a relatively new type of intervention, and there have been few evaluations ofi!. Thís Kenya case aims to explore some ofthe strengths-and constraints-imposed by seed aid, as welI as to feflect on the paradigm of seeds-and-tools itself. In ¡he immediate context, tbis type of analysis aims to make the process and product of seed aid more effective, especialIy fOf the beneficiary-the smallholder farmer. However, the longer-term goal of such an analysis is to reduce tbe need for emergency seed assistance, through defining strategies Ihat both (a) strengthen secd systems tbemselves and (b) build a capacity for a more locally based seed response.The next section presenta the general methods used in the study. Section 3 then analyzes the intemal process and effects of seed aid in 1997. Section 4 provides the external complement, looking al the longer terrn of'external process and effects' ofseed aid. Based on such insights, section 5 offers insights into characterizing different types of seed-system stress and ways oflinking more targeted action to stress.The four site cases are discussed and contrasted so as to Icam from their differing strengths and challenges. No direct comparisons orjudgments should be made, as the implementers' contexts for giving seed aid varied greatly, for example, in terms of scale, funds available, and flexibilíty to act at al! phases.The aim ofthis overall study is to construct a set of scenarios for better practice.Summary: Key Points l. Seed aid, as distinct from food aid, is a relatively new phenomenon in the Hom of Africa (wíthin the last 10 years). Seed aid and seed-system support has yet to be seen as something fundamentally different from food aid and food-assistance support.2. Seed aid is different from food aid in at least three key aspects:--Secd is not íntrinsically useful. It has to be adapted to the irnmediate biopbysical environment, as well as to farmers' potential management levels. It also has a built-ín, ofien narrow, time limít for usefulness: ifnot planted in just the right seasonal intervals, it maynot germínate, mature, or survive stress periods.-Seed interventions affect the heart of a fanner's agricultural system. They affect the farmer's programming (ofland, labor, lntercropplng pattems) and they tie her lnto a routine that assumes a certain stability. Further, although seed ls often given as a short-term intervention (the seed-andtools paradigm), lts effects on the agricultural system can be very long-termo -Seed ls costlier than food for all key actors (farmers, implementers, donors).3. In Kenya, seed aid has been delivered on a fairly targe scale-since 1992, about every other season and aeross a large number of districts. The foeus has been heavily on maize across regions and throughout theyears.4. The ease study examines the intemal process and effects of seed aid delivered during the Long Raíns 1997 (February to lune), along with the external process and effects:-Internal process and effects refers to such issues as the appropriateness ofthe crops and varieties dístributed and the targeting of seed-aíd recipients.-External process and effects examines how the seed-aíd íntervention affected farmers' broader agricultural-management strategies and whether the seed helped farmers gel back on their feet and establish a sustainable means of accessing desired seeds.5. Much ofthese analyses draw from the perspeclive of end-users: male and female smallholder farmers.6. Two fundamental tenels of seed aid are proposed:The purpose of seed aid is to jump-start farmjng communities back jnto a self-help mode.Seed aíd has lo be put within a developmental andlor recovery context. Seed sown can have socioeconomíc, production, and bio-environmental effects for severa! years onwards.Section 2This report draws information and lnsights from varied sources. Substantial written documentation was provided by al! direct collaborators: the (}Qvemment ofKenya, Ministry of Agriculture, Office oflhe President, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Catholic ReliefServices (CRS), the Diocese of Embu Parish, and GerrnanAgro-Action (GAA). This information encompassed in-house logístical notes and correspondences, operational reports, and select intemal program evaluations spanning the emergency program cycle (from first stages ofproblem identification through to post-intervention assessments). Direct interviews were held among seed-aid managers and planners at various levels of operation (key personnel ofthe Office ofthe President and Ministry of Agriculture, NGO managers and individuals who designed specific emergency and development fieldactivities, church leaders, and developmentlrelieffield stafi) (see Annex II for a list of persons contacted). Extensive interviews were also conducted with end-users, beneficiaries, or local decision-makers. Sorne 171 furmerinterviews were conducted in the four main sites ofMachakos, Makueni, EmbulMbeere, and Baringo, with a pre-test phase taking place at a fifth site (Thika).Four siles were chosen for carrying out intensíve farmer interviews (Annex III lists specific locales). These sites were selected to provide a basis for discussing and contrasting aid delivery by a variety of organizations with slightly different seed-system support approaches in similar agroecological contexts. The choice of siles was alBO heavily dependent on institutional interest in collaooration. Only ir implementers were open 10 an intensive evaluation oftheir activitie&-an exchange ofinsights-were sites considered. Thís study was partially designed to stimulate self-reflection.Table 4 sketches the key parameters ofthe sites-•~all in areas where there had becn some seed-aid distribution. These tend to be smallholder arcas with lower, sporadic ralnfall. In Baringo and Machakos, the ímplementers were Ministry of Agriculture district staff. In MbeerelEmbu, Ihe Diocese distributed the seed aid, with financial and sorne technical support from an NGO, Catholic ReliefServices.ln Makueni, German Agro-Action, another NGO, was the key implementer. GAA had ínitiated an exlensive program in strengthening the seed system prior to drought, starting in 1995. Their aim was to rnaintain nutritíonal standard s partly by diversifying crops and improving methods oflocal seed production. This prior development activity proved 10 be critical in Iheir making better-targeted and -ínformed interventions during emergencyperiods.Table 4: Field sites chosen for study of seed aid given long rains 1997 Direct interviews with farmcrs were carried out in July 1998. University and professional enumerators were first trained in a two-day workshop along with a t\" .¡-day pre-test. In Machakos, Makueni, and Baringo, sampling ofthose lo be interviewed was done randomly, within general zones where seed aid was recorded to have been distributed in 1997. In the olhertwo areas (EmbulMbeere and Thika), the intennediary organizations provided detailed lists of farmers who had supposedly received seed for the 1997 Long Rain season.Interviews were always conducted in Ihe locallanguage (which ofien was not Swahili) and lasted about one haur each. Both male and fernale farmers were inlerviewed, with bolh men and womell on the interview team. The 1997 Long Rain was choscn as a season for specific study becausc the last aid package was given al Ihal point in time and it was close enough lo remember in sorne detail. While (he sarnpleof 171 farmers rnay be loo smal! lo extrapolate for national or even regional statistical analysis, the sarnple was unusually large [ortbe intensive inlerview format adopted. Certainly in terms offarmer insighls, Ihis analysis is the most complete one on the process and effects of seed aid in Kenya to date.In pre-fieldwork visits in both February 1998 and June 1998, a wide range of aid organizations, disaster-reHef specialists and agricultural managers were consulted (see annex 3). Individuals were given ample opportunity to comment on the tcrms ofreference, tbe project design, and the initial findings. This was done both through private cornmunicatÍon (rendezvous, email) as well as in organized public meetings (see poin! 4 below).Most oftbe more-infonned publications on seed aid and seed-system relief(in both the officia! and gray !iterature) are products oftbe last five years. We used tbe term informed to refer 10 reportsldocuments tba! recognize tbe cQmplexity of small-fanner seed systems. They recognize tba! fanners may relyprincipally on their own seed systems (sometimes called farmer, local, or infonnal seed systems) or drawprincipally from fonnal seed systems (depending on the crop}-or a combinatíon ofthe two. Infonned seed-system perspectives al so recognize the dynamic between social aspects of seed systems (e.g., is your neighbor going lo lend you the seed or not?) and its technical dimension (varietal choice, aspocts of seed quality, etc.). Sorne ofthe Iiterature reviewed is directlycited in tbis reporto A more extensive bibliography will appear in the compendium workshop proceedings on \"Targeted seed aid and seed-system interventions: Strengthening small-farmer seed systems in East and Central A frica.\"A public pre-study preparalory and familiarizatíon meeting was held in Naírobi al the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) on March 13, 1998. Similarly, a public pre-closure was held at the same institute onJune 26, 2000, to discuss results and interpretations among collaborators-before finalization ofthis reporto These public consultations very much affected the design ofthe initial program as we1J as the interpretation of results. Meetings were attended by a range of organizations: for example, representatives from USAID, The World Bank, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Office ofthe President, scientists from international agricultural research centers (CIAT and ICRISAT), scientists from KARI, and personnel from NGOs (CRS, GAA, and World Vísion).Finally, a workshop, held in Kampala in June 2000, served as a sounding board foc presenting tbe preliminary results oftbis Kenya seed stody. As tbeworkshop brought together seed-aid and disaster-relief specialists working in East and Centra! African regions, the seminar served to contextualize tbe Kenyan cases amidst a wider range of similar rehef actions in such countries as Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic oftbe Congo.l. Intensive analysis was done at four sites where seed-aid distribution took place in 1997 (Machakos, Baringo, Makueni, EmbulMbeere). The sites were chosen to provide a basís for discussing and contrasting aid delivery by a variety of organizations (govemmenl and NGO) with slightly different approaches to seed-system support in similar agroecological contexts.2. The metbods encompassed extensive field interviews (171), a literature review, broad consultation with seed-aid practitioners, two publíc meetings, and a targeted workshop bringing toge(her seed-system analysts and disaster-management specialists.Oftbe 171 households interviewed, 133 (77 .8%) received seed at tbe fOUT sites (including tbe test site). This section draws on botb groups--lhe receivers and non-receivers of seed-when surnmarizing qualitative insights and reflects on the internal process and effects ofthe seed-aid distribution. This 'internar type of analysis is sometimes programmed in a follow-up action by governments (see, for example, Anon. 1997) orimplementing NGOs (e.g., CRSlKenya-DRI 1997). Taking place shortly after implementation (eitber during tbe planting season or just after harvest), this 'internal evaluation' explores questions of crop and variety choice, logistical procedures (timing and metbods of distribution), adequacy of amounts given, and beneficiarytargeting. This internal evaluation of a seed-aid intervention may be used 10 help sharpen tbe process ofgiving seed aid in future deliveryperiods, Once tbe decision has been made to embark upon a seed-and-1ools programo Products of seed aid: Farmers' perspectiveTable 5 shows tbe crop profile of seed aid given in 1997 at each oftbe four sites. At tbe governmentmanaged seed-distribution sites, Machakos and Baringo, fanners generally were provided maize and sorne beans, as has been tbe trend since tbe beginning of seed-aid distribution in 1992 (see GOKlMOA seed-aid liSIS). In addition, aid recipients ín Baringo, most ofwhom had access to írrigated plots, received a range of vegetable seeds. These latter crops are key for income generation by supplying more greens to urban markets.Maize and beans also were given at the NGO-managed distribution sites, EmbulMbeere and Makueni, tbough 10 a significantly smaller proportíon offanners. As al! four sites are semi-arid and prone 10 tbe effects of drought, tbe NGOs, botb GAA and CRS, have been workíng to diversity tbe crop profile of fanners in their rones of action. Witbin tbe scope of seed-aid distribution, both promoted more droughltolerant crops, such as cowpea, millet, green gram, and pigeon pea. While all tbe crops given as aid in these latter siles are known lo fanners, few listed them as among theirpriority crops (see section 5). The diet of Kenyans, even in these drought-prone areas, is very much rooted in maize and beans, however vulnerable tbeir actual production may be.From the fanners' perspective, the crops given as seed aid (table 6), as well as the varieties (table 7), were appropriate. lt proved unnecessary 10 disaggregate these data by site, given the high coincídence among responses. Interviews showed that fanners, fundamentally, expect maize and beans for seed aid, altbough in sorne oftbe drier areas, additions such as sorghum and cowpea are acceptable as long as maize seed is one ofthe elements in tbe aid package. (Most fanners were given two different crops as seed aid during tbe same season.) From Ihese comments, we see that seed aid has saved farmen¡ money for certified seed, introduced new varieties, introduced new crops, and introduced/slimulated progressive farming practices. AH ofthese may or maynot be important-but are nol necessarily related lo alleviating acute stress.Oua]itv of seed received Across sites, both the quality and germination properties ofthe seed given were deemed remarkable (table 8). Simply pul, mos! farmers have nol used certified seed--or only when given il free. In the case ofmaize, the seed aid, which consisted primarily ofhybrids (the 500 series and 600 series) and tbe composite variety Katumani, was al80 highly valued because most farmen¡ (except in Ihe Baringo sample) did nol routinely SQw hybrids (see section 4 on routine procurement sourees for further discussion).Unlike many seed-aid sítuations, farmen¡ in tbis Kenyan sample recognized 'tbe value' ofthe seed commodilies delivered, but nol necessary jusI for direct sowing. Fanners repeatedly mentioned how easy it is to exchange tbe two-kilo package of maize for an ilem Ihat mighl be more urgent1y needed (for example, slaples such as salt, sugar, and oil). Seed aid in Ihis sense is achicving a 'currency function' beyond its more írnmediate sowing (and hence production) value. How did these fanners' subjective assessments ofthe appropriateness of seed compare witb their actual practices? At least according to farmers' testimony, tbe great majority ofthe aid seed was sown-across crops and across locations (table 9). For instance, 85% offanners sowed all (100%) ofthe maize seed Ihey receíved as aid, while 72% ofthose receiving cowpea sowed all (100%) ofthis erop given as aid. The relatively lower proportion of sorghum and cowpea sown reflects fanners' secondary preference forthis erop, although by absolute standards, the percentages sown indicate positive interes!. Reading the table, 83% ofthose who received sorgbum seed sowed at least half ofthat aid given.  In practice:• It is hard to exclude anyone. Usuallya baraza (local meeting) is caBed and those who want seed present themselves. Frequently, pre-packaged seed (in 2-kg and 5-kg packages) needs lO be opened lo accommodate increased demando One oflicer commented, \"Not unusually, a very needy person may get but a cupful of seed. Sometimes it is so líttle, they say, '1 don't even want that.'\" Farmers themselves also help lo corrupl the process away from ¡ls original goals, saying, \"Everything free from the government should be forus all.\"• Local committees may be highly política! in choice ofbeneficiaries. Many non-needy are included as seed aid comes increasinglyunder the rubric of a 'govemment gift.' AIso, elected oflicia!s have a vested interest in ensuring that theír own constituencies are well-served-whether they are in need of seed or nol.• The social pressures are such that those who receive may be obliged to redistribute to those who do nol. Government oflicers insightfully remarked that the poor could be disadvantaged in the long ron ifthey did not share with others. They are invo!ved in social networks ofhelp. So, ifthey don't share seed, neighbors won't help them with other activities, such as labor exchanges: \"You get free seed and don't share with me-don't come to me for other help.\"2. In theory, there ís an analysis of need and beneficlaries tbrough identification onocal zones where there are production shortfalls. Percentage shortfalls are estimated (e.g., from 5 Tlha to I T/ha), vulnerable zones are identitled, and then a percentage ofthe 'needy' is suggested (e.g., \"20% ofthe population in this zone probably cannol huy seed on their own\").Inpmctice:• The buís for estimating the percent of seed needed withm a zone is not clear. Seed needs are calculated on the basis ofvague acreage estimates of crops in the given zone during normal times. For example, the seed needs are extrapolated bymultiplyíng recommended sowing rates by estimated total area, then divided by a seemingly arbitrary percentage of'seed-needy,' i.c., to cover 20% ofthe acreage ofcrop x in zone y, then 20\"10 ofthe acreage ís assumed to equate with 20% ofpopulation.• Officials also franklyadmitted they rarely have the resources to travel across their zones to see the full variability in harvest perfurrnance.• In brief, government officials well recognize that there are significant polítical, social, and technical constraints to targeting well. The polítical and social pressures are especially embedded and wi11 be difficult lo alter. Officíals also admit that not targeting often results ín too little seed being received by the truly needy.By theit range of complaints (\"too little seed because too many receive\"), farmen also see the targeting issue as a challenge that needs to be better addressed-sooner rather than later. Over 20 different eritena by which farmers thought the need had been targeted (or not) were given from among the 133 farmers who received aid (table 11). Clearly, there is need for a great deal more transparency in choosing seed-aid recipients; the lack of clarity is creating ftictíons withín communities. Unfortunately, and particularly because the seed distribuled by !he Government is perceived to be of such elite or exotic quality (certitied rnaize hybrids), the general ralionale for seed aid is no! c1ear-cut for rnany.The notion that 'Ihe besl fanners' should gel the seed or tha! 'all citizens should gel Ihis gift' does nol tit well with nonnal visions of who should received seed aid in times of stress.Table 12 furtherrefines perceptions ofwhat types offanners received seed aid, bysile.In Makueni, the implementer GAA strove to give aid lo those organized inlo groups-who could continue to produce seed on a longer-tenn basis.-In Embu/Afbeere, farmcr complaints suggest Ihal Catholics were given preference and Iha! sorne no! deserving seed received substantial arnounts. In the zones sampled, Church leaders thernselves seerned unusualJywell-informed about grass-roots developments and reitera!ed these same targeting concerns. Well-kept Church records (name, ID, village, religion, seed lypes, date received) al80 noted a high proportion of recipients as Catholics.In ¡he GOK/,}fOA-implemented site in Machakos, fanners were unclear iftargeting went on al all (and rumors were rife}.--In ¡he GOK/MOA -implemented si/e in Baringo (identified by the DAO), targeting seerns to ha ve followed distinctive and perhaps atypical critería for model or progressive fanners.Beyond these [armer perceptions, in section 5 we look at how important the seed aid received was to the beneficiaries-in tenns oftheirtotal seed planted. While therewere evídent biases in the targeting, which had little to do with seed need, Ihere is some evídence, partícularly at the Makueni and Embu/Mbeere sites, tha! the recipients were indeed among those most in need of outside seed support.That ¡s, in botb ofthese siles, the seed aid deJivered accounted for a significant portion ofthe seed planted for tbeir staple crops (section 5).FinalIy, botb tbe offícial guidelines and practice oftargeting suggcst that tbe goals ofthe seed aid may be both varíed and unclear. This issue of'what goals for seed aid' is pursued in the concIuding discussion portion oftbis section. The quantity of aid received per recipient is, of course, a function ofthe total amount available and the number ofthose receiving any seed at alL As table 13 shows, the amounts receíved varied markedly, even at a single site, with Baringo having the highest divergence of I to 15 kilos ofmaize received by single farmers, and Makueni appearing to have the most equal distribution. Across sites, the mrmers' biggest complaint about tbe maize received was the small quantity, with the number of complaints highest at Machakos, where a generalized, untargeted, government distribution took place. There, a cluster offarmers received almost nothing (0.1, 0.2, 0.25 kg). Indeed, there maybe costs of targeting well (the technical cosls ofleamingw\";ch farmers need seed, as well as the polítical and social costs of'not giving lo all'). However, Ihere are algO substantial-'-and direct--<:osts lo no! targeling. Those mosl in need may receive only token help, tha! ís, not enoUgh lo make a difference to theír lack of agricultural viability.Fínally, we end this sectíon on ¡he process of seed-aíd delivery by lookíng al the question of vouchers.Vouchers were no! used duríng the 1997 aid intervention, although they are currently being programmed in CRS's work for Ihe Short Rains 2000 season.While stiII within the realm of'aid,' the logic ofvouchers is based on the notion that (a) farmers are bettcr al decíding which crops and varieties most suit their needs and (b) farmers will normally procure, locally, the variety and seed material they know to be adapted to their environment. Theoretically, vouchers 8hould al80 support, rather than undermine, the seed markets running locally (whether or no! truly local, these are open markets or local seed shops known as 'stockists,' which sell certified seed of cornmerciallyreleased varieties), While seed vouchers have been tried in Uganda by Sasakawa Global 2000, theiruse in Kenya seen1S relatively unknown, During the course of the interviews, farmers were asked their views on vouchers: Would they prefer vouchers (or cash to buy seed), or did they have a preference fOf getting the physical seed itself during emergency bandout operations?Fieldwork showed the voucher issue to pose two very different sorts of challenges and concems for farmers: (a) the availability ofloca! crops/varieties even if purchasing power were guaranteed and (b) the 'wm power' of farmers to use the cashlvoucher for seed stocks when other needs were jusI as pressing (paying school fees or buying basic food supplíes, such as salt, sugar, or cooking oil). It was interesting-•and surprisingto note tha! a good number of funners did not want anything at aH for buying local seed, They voted [or the seed option specifically because they equate 'aid' with the certified maize hybrids delívered in govemmentassístance programs, As mentioned abo ve, at aH sítes samp!ed, such hybrids as those froro the Kenya Seed Company are perceived byroany as an incredible luxury good, whích is notto be passed over (even ifone has enough ofhislher own seed), Table 14 quantitatively summarizes the relevance ofthese conceros by regíon, The variability in even such a small sample is intriguing, and qualitative insights are elaborated in the discussion sections be!ow, [1 '10,61 Comments on vouchers by site Makueni. In Makueni, farmers overwhelmil¡gly said they did not want vouchers or cash. Only four (13%) indicated they could gel the appropriate varieties and wanted the cash. Half stressed that they could not get the varieties they most desired, focusing on the govemmentcertified maize seed, which is a coveted luxuryproduct. Reinforcing this view, many also mentioned the significant costs incurred while traveling (that is, the market is just too far) and their lack offuith in the local sellers (e.g., \"they mix varieties, mislabel varieties,\" etc). The remaining group (37%) glossed over the seed issues (potentially, they could purchase what they needed), but were simply reluctant to have the money in their pockets. Women, in particular, mentioned the fear of díverting needed seed money for urgently needed food and school fees. Embu/Mbeere. At Embu/Mbcere, relatively more farmers (58%) wcre predisposed lo Ihe cashl voucher idea. Unlike Makueni, few (12%) fell they could not get desíred seed ifthey had money. (They purchase local maize varietics here, as well as cowpeas, beans, etc., and have no speciaI attachment to the newer maíze hybrids.) However, even though sorne confirmed they could access seed locally, a good number (30%) did not want the cashlvoucher coupon as they feared using it for other purposes. This reluctance to have cash in the pocket serves as a rough 'informal' indicator ofpoverty andlor a lack of control over how themoney will be used, Some also stressed how much they appreciated having the seed aid dírectly delivered, rather than havíng lo walk the 10-20 km to market. Machakos. Farmers were equally divided over vouchers, primarily for rcasons of economics (not seed issues). Farmers' priority crops here were mainlymaíze and bcans, with an occasional cowpea fan. Desired varieties ofmaize (e.g., 511) and beans (e.g., Nyayo) are easy to get al stockists, wíth beans also available al the rnany open markets. Those who wanted seed mainly expressed concems about diverting the voucher/cash resources elsewhere. Baríngo. Farmers here voted primarily for the voucher/cash option, They use hybrid maize and commercial vegetable seeds anyway~-the same they receive from relief sources. A few didn't trust themselves to spend the money as targeted (and by their comments, these were probably the poorest among the group),Use of a voucher ,ll'stem: yes or no?Analysis ofthe responses suggests that different kinds of farmers prefer different options, based to a certaín extent on wealth. The very poorest prcfer seed aid because oftheir fear of díverting money and because the maize hybrid is beyond thcir normal reach. (Whether hybrids are appropriate for such a group of farmers needs to be seriously debated.) The richer farmers-a good number ofwhom receíved seed aid-generally feel equally disposed to the two options: hybrids are what they normally use and they have littlc trouble reaching the stockist. The issue of distance to market (particularly in Makueni and among the aged) cuts across wealth categories, as does the concem that 'quality' seed (local quality seed as well as certified) just ¡sn't available in local markets. In aJ\";ition, in areas where the NGOs are experimenting wíth non-maíze optíons, farmers sometímes preferthe seed aid,just because the crops and varieties ofcrops tbey desire (green grams, cowpeas, millet) may nol be easily accessed. As one farmer stated, \"Crops in Ihe market ofien come from Ihe richer agricultural zones and are not locally adapled.\"Tbe pros and cons of using vouchers are further explored in the following discussion.Discusslon: Internal process and effects of seed aidIt is important to note Ihal the Govemment ofKenya and sorne ofthe NGOs have themselves previously commissioned studies to determine the íntemallogic oftheir seed aid (Anon. 1997;CRS-Kenya-Dri 1997).One report, Monitoring ofReliefSeed Distribution (Anon. 1977), specifically saw as its objective \"to visit selecled districts in Eastern, Central and Coast Provinces lO monitor relief distribution and ascertain !hat seed was received and distributed on time, in !he right varieties and reached fue intended beneficiaries.\" The conclusions were unusually frank, but not necessarily analytically framed or tsrgeted lo audiences in a way !hat could encourage better practice. Sorne extracts follow:Malindi district decided to target family holdings and give adequate seed for J acre per family-while mosl districts issued seed lo whoever lumed up.Embu-The quantity each recipient received ranged from I kg lO IOkg. This was based on the number of farmers lhat turned up.Mwingi District--The exacl numberofbeneficiaries is difficult lO ascertain as traditions in Ihe district diclate tha! no one can be denied seed, thus all who turned up during distribution received at leasl a small quantity, estimated al less Ihan 1/4 kg.In the discussion section following, we aim 10 reflect on [OUT central issues raised by !he previous analysis oflhe internal delivery of seed aid: goals, targeting, vouchers versus seed, and overall organization.(Discussion of'which crops and varieties' is included in section 5, where Ihe fuller farming systems are brought into view.) Here, we compare and contras! lessons from the four differen! sites, as well as drawing from the insights ofboth aid practitíoners and farmers, specífically to stirnulate more consc1ous decisÍon making in seed-aid program design and delivery.The goals of giving seed aid are not very transparent ín the four cases analyzed. Based on analysis of practice, there seem to have been at leas! four different ones. Seed was given:/0 jiU a lemporary seed gap-Jor Ihe farmer lo have something lo planlThis was mosl evident in the Embu/Mbeere case, where a variety of crops were given (including sorne ofthe more drought-tolerant) and where those receiving aíd were generally a needy group.This was c1earest in the Makueni case, where farmers receíved traíning in irnproved seedproduction techniques, were organized into collaborative groups, and were also encouraged lo pul more emphasis on drought-tolerant crops.lo give a gift 10 constituency-polítical combined with Jarming goals Machakos is the type case here. Farmers' standard crops-maize and beans-were given as seed to all who turned up, although Ihe certified maize seed was an extra bonus for many.Complete lack oftargeting resulted in relatively small quantities of seed reeeived perperson.The Baringo seed distribution illustrates !his goal. Progressive farmers were targeted with hybrid maize and income-generating vegetable seeds.None ofthese goals is inherently negative, although the fírst two probably more closely parallel Ihe goals aspired to in emergency stress situations. However, the multitude of goals, and accompanyíng approaches, created confusion among the general population about what the seed is for, and perhaps created false expectations as well as unnecessary dependencies---as exemplifíed in the following farmer staternents.Embu: \"Seed relief aid should be given throughout the year, whether during emergency periods or normal periods, because there are sorne farmers who have enough land but can't make use of il because of financial problems. The most serious problem is the high price of seeds [an access pro b l em l• ..\"It is very difficult lO gel seeds from the local market or any other place because ofthe price-so seed relief should be encouraged more.\" [No. 7] Minimally, the goals of a seed-aid operation should be transparent lo aIl (donor, implementer, fdrmer) and should be matched with an active stralegy lo reach those goals. In the current Kenyan situatíon, we seem to have hidden goals and multiple (even conflicting) expectations.A confusion of goals necessarily translates into a muddled targeting situation, although it is difficult to say which ofthese precedes the olher. Further, withoul a definilion of goals beforehand, it is very hard lo judge the effectiveness of subsequent targeting.Among the siles visited, several targeting strategies have been noled. Programs such as Ihe MOA distribution in Machakos achieved zonal targeting: Le., everyone in the zone received aid (known as 'blanket distribution' or 'equi-distribution'). In the other areas, attempts were made lo target specific groups wilhin zones. This encompassed the more vulnerable in both the ChurchlCRS-sponsored distributíon ofEmbu! Mbeere and the GAA-sponsored seed prograrn in Makueni, while the MOA-sponsored program ofBaringo seemed to target the more progressive farmers (those with 'exemplary farming practices'). The Church sample had the additional targeting critcrion ofreaching Catholics. Thís may have been an oulcome rather lhan an explicít strategy, as prayer houses proved lo be the major channels of dissemination.What is clear within the Kenyan context is that lack of clear goal s for the seed aid, which leads lo unclear messages abou! who the beneficiarles are, could create significant fuetion among those who dispense the seed as well as among many ofthe recipients. There were repeated accounts of Ibe very needy receiving insignificant amounts. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority (95% ofthose interviewed) indicated that Ibe seed aid was simply \"too Httle.\" This statement could also be interpreted as a sign ofthe increasing dependency and expectations offarmers on outside, 'free' support.In theory, Ibe targeting scenario posed in Ihis Kenya study should be a relatívely easy one technically, in Ibat the populations are physically stable (compared lo refugees on the move) and have Iived in Ihcir home areas for at least sevcml seasons. Sorne further technical parameters would need 10 he addressed: how to define seed-vulnerable populatíons in an emergency situation, and then how to distinguish those who are experiencing acute seed stress (that i8, stress just this season because of drought, for example) from those who are chronically seed-stressed (and require outsíde help nearlyevery season). Specific indicators and strategies for distinguíshing stress populations are elaborated in the complementary volume lo this report (workshop proceedings).However, many (most?) ofthe challenges in remedying targeting concems are polítical and/or social and líe beyond the scope ofthis study. In public distribution zones, populations hlIve been given the sense that seed aid is their right and a gift from the government.The question ofvouchers might be best explored in a more analytical manner than has becn done to dale. A country-wide strategy lo pro mote the voucher option (or not) would, a priori, disadvantage sorne farmers.In arcas where stockists regularly operate and aíd givers tend to give certífied seed of major crops anyway, a voucher system could work well-and save money in the seed-dístributíon process. In areas where seed markets function poorly (Iittle seed,little variability in crops, few reliable seed sources forwell-adapted crops), seed aid in the form ofseed might actually be more effective, assuming donors delíver seed of locally adapted crops and varietíes. Table 151ays out sorne ofthe key variables important in the decisionmaking process abaut whether to gíve vouchers. 1 [farmer 1 fear 1 will divert cashlvoucher for other Questíon: Do stockists favor products adapted purposes mostly for (he more favorable zones, and of erops tha! tend to be more cornmercialized? Question: Would the voucher system guarantee the farmer a mínimum quantíty of seed? Organization: Centralized or decentralized Fínally, a closíng reflection on the organization ofthe seed-aid process, Even this small number of cases suggests that seed aid (procurement and delivery) is more effective when it is done in a decentralized manner,The choice of crops and varietíes can be tailored more to the local environment.-Targeting on a smaller scale is more accurate, ¡ ! -A range ofapproaches i8 possible, rather Ihan standardízed ones, ifseed aid is tied lo the actual cause, In sorne cases, seed alone may be needed; in others, skill buílding may prove crucial; and in still others, novel approaches to crops and crop management may be vital.The need for a greater basket of approaches rnay be clearer when we look at sorne ofthe effccts of 10 years of seed aid, within a broader, farming-systems context in lhe next section, Summary: Key points 1. Three-quarters ofthose inteTVÍewed (77 ,8%) received seed aid 1997. At GOK-managed sites, maize and beans were primarily given, with those al Baringo also receivíng vegetable seeds, NGO-managed sites also distributed maize and beans, and further distributed seed of more droughHoleranl crops (cowpeas, sorghum, millet, pigeon peas }-to promote their use. The single site at Makueni programmed in an aid component offarmer capacity building (in improved seed production).2. Farmers generally assessed the crops and varieties that were given as appropriate. The more droughttolerant crops were also deemed 'acceptable' as long as maize is one ofthe elements in the aid package. Over 85% oftbe maize and bean seed was sown, witb relatively lower proportions of the cowpea and sorghum seed.3. The quality of seed given was deemed exceptional: most farmers sampled do not routinely use certified seed or maize hybrids (exception in Baringo). Farmers recognize tbe luxury value ofhybrids, but not necessarily just for direct sowing. They can exchange the packaged maize forurgentlyneeded items (forexample, food staples such as salt, sugar, and oil). Seed aid in this sense achieves a currency function.4. AH three proeess variables were generally deemed problematic by furmers: timing (generally late), targeting (not transparent), and quantities received (too littlc). The less rigorous targeting was directly related to lesser quantities received per furmer. Overall, the process variables were generally rated higher at Makueni, wbere a prior assistance program had becn cstablished.5. Each oflhe four sites had specific built-in biases in targeting, witb the possible exception ofthe govemment-managed site Machakos, wbere there seems to have been a blanket distribution for everyone who appeared at public meetings. Apparent biases were noted at Makueni (those who organi7~d into work groups), EmbulMbeere (Catholics), and Baringo (those with access lo irrigated plots). There was sorne evidence that poorerpopulations also were specificallyreached in Embu! Mbeere.6. Lack oftargeting transparency (i,e., 27 different--and at times conflicting-criteria cited by farmers) creates social frictions. At GOK-managed siles, all expect seed as part of a 'public good.' The fuzziness in targeting is also related lo an ambiguity in the goals set [or the seed-aid distribution (see point 8, below). , None ofthese goals lB lnherently negative, although the first two probably more closely parallel goals a.spíred 10 in emergency stress sltuatíons. However, the multitude of goals, and accompanying approaches, create confusíotÍ aoout what seed ls for and create false expectations as well as unnecesssry dependencies. 9. Even the small number of cases suggests that seed aid (procurement and delivery) is more effective when decentralized:-The choice 01 crops and varieties can be more local and tailored to (he environment.-Targeting on a smaller scale is more accurate.-A range 01 approaches is possible, rather (han standaroized ones. In some cases, seed alone may be needed; in others, skill building may prove crucial; and in still others, novel approaches fo crops and crop management may be vital.Section 4This section looks at tbe effectiveness oftbe aid in the context offanners' bTOader agricultural-management strategies. It examines whetber tbe seed aid given helped fanners .. get back on their feet\" and re-establish a sustainable mode ofaCi:essing desired seeds. To arrive at tbis longer-term perspectíve, this sectíon revíews fanners' history of seed aid and its relative ímportance among tbe otber seed-procurement strategies fanners have, during botb emergency and more TOutine agricultural periods.HIstory from tbe perspective of seed-aid recipientsThe introduction (section 1) gave a glimpse ofthe govemment view oftbe history of seed aid. It started on a large scale in 1992, and seed has becn distributed nearly every year since tben. More detail on tbe 1997 distribution showed tbat tbe seed aid given, mostly maize, provided between 10% and 35% oftotal seed sown, by district.1ms section looks at tbe history of seed aid in Kenya from a farmer-centered perspective, witb tbe profile of aid delivery al four specific sites. Those interviewed (in July 1998) were asked to recaIl tbe number of times and type of seed aid they had received since 1992. For each fanning family, tbe donor oftbe aíd, crop, variery, and dates were all recorded. However, given the relatively long lime period forrecall, it ís Iikely tbat farmers underestimated tbe times theyreceived aid over the prevíous eight years.Table 16 indicates the number oftimes, since 1992, tbat fanning families received seed aid. On average, each famíly has received aid slightlymore tban twice, witb an impressive high of 10 times. In Machakos, Baringo, and Makueni, sampling oftbose intervíewed was random witbin general zones where seed aid was recorded to have occurred in 1997. In tbe other two areas (EmbulMbeere and Thika), lhe intennediary organizations contacted provided detailed lisis offanners who had supposedly received seed forthe 1997 Long Rains season (although a number oftbe fanners on tbe lisis c1aimed not to have received seed aid). The lalter two samples were to loosely correJate wilh '!he poor.' The These sources are obviously among those for procuríng seed of their two main crops, but to varying degrees. Maize and beans are very different in terms of seed issues. Hybrid maize in Kenya has been heavily prcmoted by both the govemment and prívate sector (Hassan and Karanja 1997) and, if planted according 10 recommendations, should be totally renewed each season. Hybrid maize can potentially be accessed by most farmers at the smalllocal stockist shops-all they need is money. Improved varieties of beans have also been developed byrcsearch (e.g\" Mwezi Moja, Mwitamania). However, they are less readily available from Ihe formal seed sector and, as a self-poJlinated crop, OOans can be resown season after season (with sorne disease limitations), even usíng the new varietal materials.Tables 17 and 18 show how farmers accessed their maize and bean seed for the Long Rains of 1997. Seedaid maize, which was the Iion's share ofaid given, provided 14% ofthe total maize sown, while aid for beans reached 11 % ofthe total.The situation for sorghum and cowpea (tables 19 and 20) was slightlydi fferent, as aid agencies most often gave Ihis crop expressly lo. díversify the farmers' crop profile (that is, to promote more drought-tolerant crops in arcas where farmers were slill concentrating resources on their cheríshed maize and beans). Aid seed for Ihese minority crops, therefore, proved more significant in relation lo the total sO-wn.  . . .These tables show that during the emergency perlod, farmers accessed the majority oftheir seed by themselves for all fOUT crops analyzed: maize, beans, sorghum, and cowpeas... =Also clear is the central importance oflocal markets (not stockists) for accessing seed, even more than home-saved stocks, Note that the source local markets proved to be the most importan! even during a socalled ecologically stressed periodo :1Finally, table 21 homes in on the central question that an aid agencymight ask: How many farmers reHed on seed aid for 100% ofthe seed sown of a particular crop? Would there have been farmers who would have had no seed in the absence of a seed-aid intervention?Table 21: Farmers who relied 00 seed aid for 100% of tbe seed sowo oC a givco crop, Loog Ralos 1997  21 suggests, at first glance, that seed aid seems to have becn importan! for an impressive number of farmers, varying from 14% to 66% who used it for 100% oftheir crop ateach site. However, a closer analysis, by crop, shows that only six farmers (one al Makueni and five at Embu) relied 100% on seed aid for their key crops-that is, those in which they thernselves normally invested_ For most farmers, seed aid supplied their full seed stocks ofa given crop only ifthe crop were relativelynew or lowerpriority, as in the case of cowpeas, sorghum, pigeon peas, millet, or the income-generating vegetables such as onions, kale, and tomatoes.Would farmers have endured severe seed shortages had seed aid been not given? From OUT sample, the evidence is far from conclusive and veers towards a 'no.' However, this reflectíon should be tempered by the importance of aid to the EmbulMbeere sample, which, by several parameters, was more focused on the peorer agricultural segments.Farmen' agricultural and seed systems: What is normal (i.e., a non-emergency period)?It i5 hard to judge how abnormal any situation is unless one understands how things operate in more routine times. This basíc, even banal, reflection, seems to have been consistently overlooked in shaping the large majority of seed-aid interventions lo date---<:crtainly those going on in Kenya in the last 10 years. To-date, a simple línkage has been made: when harvests are sHghtly lower, maybe even cut in half, give filrmer8 seed aid-immediately! There has becn HUle or no effort 10 examine the resiliency of fimners' agricultural or secd systems, or to question whether physically giving farmers secd i8 the best among several potential 5trategies (altcrnatives including, forexample, giving farmers vouchers to access seed themselves, or subsidizing local-rnarket seed prices for a period oftime). Seed is given without diagnosing what the constraint may be, or whether there is a seed constraint (aside frorn the faet that the harvest of a given crop rnay be lower than normal). This lack of diagnosis and )ack oflinderstanding ofthe seed system itself is particularly flagrant in a situation such as Kenya, where seed aid has been given sorne lOor more out of 16 consecutive seasons.In this section, we take a broader víew and examine farmers' curren! 'routine' agricultural strategíes: What are the priority crops? How is seed for these crops normally accessed? Sorne the key changes farmers perceive as hindering or enhancing seed systems over the last decade are also considered.Fanners desígnated theír priority crops at each ofthe four sites, using their own key critena (tables 22 to 24). As always, maize carne first across sites and then beans, despite the important differences among Canners' own agricultural conditions (sorne having access 10 írrigation, sorne not). This access to or lack of wateris reflected more in their thírd choice of crop. Those without supplemental water (al! but Baringo) were íncreasíngly ínterested in the more drought-tolerant crops, while those belonging 10 írrigated schemes (Baringo) were experirnenting with vegetable gardening (Cor sale al town and uroan rnarkets).Table 22: Prlority crop l-farmers' assessments at each site (% oUarmers) fROP .  i Green grarn ~.--~--------~---------_T-----~IIi Kale I Cabbage : : ---------t ----• • -• --, ---------r ' --------+ ------i l 3Wbcn fuese priority crops are matched against whal was actually given (table 25), we see thal according lo Ihe farmerg' views, Ihe crops gíven as aid malched lo a largc extenl [armers' own crop priorities. Overwhelmingly, farmers received al least one oflhe crops they considered mosl importan!. This issue of Ihe 'right' crop is explored-and debated-in section 5,  Farmers also offered insights into their normal strategies for accessing seed fOf their key crops of maize and beans. Their sources were described, along with the ftequency seed was procured off-farm and the relative amounts procured !Tom off-farm sources. Getting botb !Tequency and relative amounts ís important for understandíng fanners' opportunitíes and constraínts. A farmer who gets most ofher bean seed offfarm every season may be financiaJly stressed, eatíng her fuJl harvest before tbe next sowíng. This is very díffcrent !Tom a farmer who may seek a handful of seeds every season to test new varieties.Farmers' routine strategies for procuring maize are summanzed in tables 26 lhrough 28, Except for lhe case ofBaringo, nearly all farmers regularly use home-saved maize seed (kernels harvested lhe season before) and al80 regularly use the local market to top-off supplies, Use of stockist seed (that is, lhe use of improved varieties and of certified seed) 18 near universal only in lhe Baringo sample, allhough between one-quarter and a third of farmers in Machak08 and EmbulMbeere claim to use it •occasionally.' Offarmers sampled in Baringo, generally 100% use a stockist for acquiring seed; 89% use a stockist every sea son; and about 78% use a stockist lO renew all ofthcir seed, This is a very different scenario from those sampled in Makueni, There, very few farmers ever access maize seed from a stockist (6%), relatively few get maize off-farrn every season (20%), and when theydo, ilis notusually 100% oflheirneeds (only 13.3% of farmers gel 100% oftheir seed off-farm),Table 26: Maize--farmers' normal proc:urement Bounes for seed ('Yo of farmen citlng source)  Qualitative insights from Ihe different siles further differentiate among fimners' concems and constraints in reference to Ihe maize cmp. Agaín, we use Makueni and Baringo as examples ofthe more extreme.In Makueni, fimners highlight Iheirvery vulnerable farming conditions. They describe frequent dmughts in Ihe area, with mutine Iy poor maize harvests. F armers use home-saved seed except when it is losl to drought, and then they buy from the local market. Even local market secd is deemed expensive: fimners rarely use a stockist Stockist slores are few and far between in Makueni, and many farmers feel the improved varieties on offer are not aclapted to their rocal growing condítions. Verytellingly, two out ofthe 30 farmers interviewed listed \"emergency aid maize secd\" among their routine sources of secd procurement. 6   In Makueni, the message was Ihe same, again and again: bul When rains are low, maize is lost•-we buy seed from local marke!. [No. 130)We prefer home-saved seeds, so we can save money for other purposes [school fees, foodJ. The qualityofseedsboughlisunknown. [No.136JIn Baringo, the scenario described for acquiring maize is quite different. Clearly, those with access lo irrigation want hybrids and certificd seed-and are prepared lo pay for it These very different contexts--irrigatedlprogressive practices in Baringo and rainfedllocal routines in Makueni-are not sufficiently refiected in government seed strategies in these regions. They al! gel maize, with modifications only in the choice ofvariety.The case ofbeans is different from maize. As beans are self-poJlinated, farmers potentially have more control over their seed supplies: Iheycan resow a small portion ofwhat Ihey harvest. Tables 29, 30, and 31 summarize furmers' strategies for procuring bean seed. Across sites, home-saved stocks are a central source of secd. However, local markels appear as an equalIy used source. Given Iha! bean secd can be easily selected out from Ihe previous harvest, it is surprising how many fanners gel bean seed off-farm every season or every olher season (about 30% across the sites)-and how much-most furmers (70% plus) gel more than halftheir seed off-fann on a regular basis. Complaints were rampan! aboul the low quality oflocal market seed, so (he varieties and secd they get off-fann are certainly no! better than what they harvesl themselves. This unusualIy high amounl ofbean seed accessed off-farm is an index of poverty (no! ofprogressive farmers improving their seed). Note tha! in the Machakos sample, sorne fanners routinely listed emergency seed aid as a source ofbeans, while others highlighled theiruse offood slores fur bean seed. Note aloo lbat in the descriptions for both maize and beans, fanners felt they could rarely gel seed from relatives.     For both maize and beans, tbe data shown above contradict was is often taken as a truism when describing furmer seed systems: lhat 'normal' farmers use about 80% oftheir seed !rom their own stocks and thal accessing off-farm secd sources is 'abnormal' (Cooper .1993). The Kenyan material shows that small furmers routinelyrely on local markets for seed. Similar in-depth secd studies in three other African countries (Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo) also show Ihat smallholder furmers rely heavily on markets for bean seed, a self-pollinatcd crop (Sperlíng el al. ¡ 996). Perhaps in sorne 'good ole days' farmcrs were self-sufficient in Iheir inputs, but certainly not now. This observation has important implications for action: ensuring lbat local markets can deliver good-quality seed may be as important as increasing the farmers' ability to produce more seed inputs oftheir O\"-'D.AssessmenvReflection: Farmers' routine procuremenl strategies lt is one thing for an outsider to comment on Kenyan farmers' high use oflocal markets (and a commerciany oriented assessor might scorn their lack ofuse ofstockists). However, more relevant is how farmers themselves reflect on the adequacy oftheír 'routine' seed-procurement strategíes. How do they see lhe trends ofthe last decade, and what do farmers themsel ves hope for?In the case of maize, farmers overwhelmíngly expressed unhappiness with tha waythey get maize seedagain, wilh Ihe notable exception ofBaringo where Ihe 'progressive' sample accessed seed from stockists (table 32). For the large rnajority, sorne maize seed is home-saved and sorne is bought!rom local markets; relatives give littlc support. Farmers cannot afford certified seed, find the prices exorbitanl, and, as in many seed studies (e.g., David 1996;Sperling el al. 1996), complain about Ihe local market-the right varieties not available, seed peor quality, merchants cheating on quantity, and the distance. This widespread dissatisfaction secms serious for a crop Ihat forms the core oftheir agriculture.  There have been vigorous efforts to promote the use of improved maize varieties and practices among all furmers-to achievewhat is sometimes called 'Africa's emergingmaize revolution' (Byerlee and Eicher 1997). Yet, a widespread analysis from a nationwide Kenyan survey in 1992-93 showed benefits accruing moslly to larger-seale fimners and farmers in higher potentiaJ zones, rather than smallholders (Hassan and Karanja 1997): \"farmers' major reasons for not using improved seed were that an appropriate variety was lacking, seed was expensive, or they were unaware ofimprovcd seed. The reasons limiting farmcrs' adoption offertilizer includcd ¡Is expense and unavailability\" (Hassan et alforthcomíng, as cÍted in Hassan andKaranja 1997:p. 84).Do farmcrs in our sample see the trend as improving? Apparently no!. Sorne ofthc more detailed comments, using an example from Machakos, suggestjust the oppesite: \"yíelds are decreasing, prices are going high, and former exchange networks no longerfunction as well\" (table 33). Should this rhetoric just be attributed to 'old people complaining about bettertirnes'? Within om sample, discontent is simply too widespread to he writlen off so easily.  . 67 m mHave bean-procurement strategies changed over lhe last 10 years? Farmers' assessments are even more damning for beans tban formaize (table 36). Again, taking an éxample from Machakos, lhere are concrete reasons for farmers' overall disconten!. The onlypositive move in lOor so years seems to have been lhe availability of one or two new varieties.   This section has documente<! the relative unimportance oC sced aid in fanners' overall seed-procurement strategies during an emergency periodo Perhaps the quantities of seed aid gíven were too little (o make a dent (as farmers complained), or perhaps farmers really needed líttle outsíde help for seed, knowing how and where to access it and with Iimited financial means were able to do so. In both cases, a very expensive seed-aíd operation proved not to be a critical elernent in farmers' accessíng seed for 1997.The data also confront the myth that normal smallholder farmers save most oftheir seed and only turn lo outside sourees when very stressed. Local markets have long been equally important in topping off supplies and adding new varieties-for the very poor who have lo restock each season, as well (Sperling and Loevinsohn 1993). Local markets, themselves, need to become a more central focus of development efforts, to ensure that a diversity of varielíes, locally adapted varieties and crops, and quality seed can be purchased locally. This ímpHes íncreased work on local-Ievel seed production, distríbution, and marketing. It also implies that research must lake a much more aggressive role in working with farmers to develop 10callyadapted varieties thal combine productíon gains with desired quality traits. These issues are explored again in seclion 5.Finally, this external perspectíve on seed aid has documenled the general vulnerability offarmers' seed systems and overall agricultural systems. Farmers in both acule stress (drought) and routine times are heavi1y tied lo purchasing large amounts ofseed, even Ihe self-pollinaled types, and mainly choose lo do so at local markets. There have been few positive developments lo support their seed systems over the last 10-years-jusI a new variety here and there.There is no concrete evidence that seed aid,per se, is strengthening farmer syslems. Those who have received it once are not necessarily less likely lo receive it again. The amounts gíven were no! significant in the context offarmers' overall seed-procurement strategíes. Furthermore, the main crop given-hybrid maize-does not ensure that farmers can become less dependent on outside sources: it performs only in favorable conditions and has a built-in deterioration factor. Al best, the seed aid has served as a temporary stop-gap mcasure for the very needy. Considering Ihat it trea!s but a symptom, and rnaybe no! in the most effective way, seed aid (seed-and-Iools), as being currently delivered, seems lo be a rather costly inlervention. These issues are pursued in section 5.Summary: Key Points l. Since 1992, on average, each farming family has reccived seed aid twice, with a high of 1 O times. Thus, most farmers, irrespective ofweaJth, have received seed aid more than once in the last decade. Those in the 'church sample' (Embu/Mbeere), who correlated more closelywith poorer segments ofthe population, received seed aid about once in everytwo seasons. Farmer comments suggest that many have come to expect 'emergency' aid on a continued basis.2. Seed aid ofmaize, which was the Hon's share ofaid given, provided 14% ofthe total maize sown in Long Rains 1997, while forbeans, aid seed represented 11 % ofthe total sown. The situatíon for sorghum and covl!pea was slightly different, as aid agencies mos! often gave these crop expressly lo diversif'y fanners' crop profiles in more drought-prone areas. Aid seed forthese minority crops accounted for 33% and 27% ofthe total seed sown for sorghum and cowpea, respectively. Thus, during the ernergency period, farmers accessed the rnajority oftheir seed bythemselves for all four crops analyzed: maize, beans, sorghum, and cowpeas. Across crops, a large portion of seed was sourced from local markets, not stockists, even in ecological\\y stressed areas.Ihe key crops in which Ihey Ihemselves nonnally invest. F or mos! farmers, seed aid supp lied Iheir full seed stocks of a single crop only iflhe crop were relativeIynew or lower priority-as in Ihe cases of cowpea, sorghum, pigeon pea, and míllet--{)r an income-generating vegetable such as onion, kale, and tomato.[1 ne case study explored farmers' routine crop and seed-procurement strategies so assess how 'abnormal' Iheir practices were during Ihe designated emergency. 6. For beans, acros8 sites, filrmers use home-saved stocks as Iheir centrsl souree for seed. However, local markets appear as an equally used Bouree. Given Iha! bean seed can easily be selected out trom the prcvious harvest because it is self-pollinated, it is surprising how many furmers gel bean seed off-farm every season or every other season (about 30% across the sites) and how much they gel off-farm (at least 70% of stocks). Thus, most farmers gel more Ihan halftheir bean seed off farm on a regular basis.7. For bolh maize and beans, the Kenyan data contradict what is ofien taken as a lruism when describing farmer seed systems in Amea: that ¡s, that 'normal' filrmers use about 80% oftheir seed !Tom their own stocks, and that accessing off• farm is 'abnormal.' This Kenyan study shows that small farmers routinely rely on local markets for a significant portion oftheir seed.8. Farmers overwhelmingly expressed dissatisfaction with Iheir maize-procurement strategy, with Ihe notable exception ofBaringo where the 'progressive' sample accesses seed trom stockists. The large majority cannot afford certified seed (and find tbe prices exorbitant), and complain about the local market: Ihe right varieties not available, seed quality poor, merchants cheating on quantity, and distances. This widespread dissatisfaction seems relatively serious for a crop that forms Ihe core of theÍr agriculture. 9. For bean-seed acquisition, farmer sentiment is also strong and clear across sites. The large majority find themselves heavily tíed to the local market, spendíng money without being sure ofthe quality they are receiving. Because beans are self-pollinated, farmers generally regard bean seed as something they should not have lo buy-using the money for school, medicine, and food instead. Overall, what does the 'average' farmer want in terms ofbean seed: self-sufficiency. She wants to save seed money, lo save tranSPOrt getting seed, and she wants Ihe seed on tíme-all ímplying that home-saved seed ís the way to go in these drought-prone areas.Section 5CHARACTERIZING SEED-SYSTEM CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES: THE KENYA CASEThe 'externa!' analysis ofthe fanners' seed situation in Kenya (section 4) raises a nurnberoffundamental questions about the type ofproblern seed aid is and was supposed to alleviate. Seed-and-tools programs, that is, tite delivering of quantities of seed and basic tools on a one-tirne basis (tite kind ofintervention tita! is beingpractieed in Kenya), are designed to help funners outofternporary and well-defined acute stress.Seed-and-tools are given in a eontext where a series of assumptions are rnade, whether these are cousciously articulated ornot:-that farrning systerns have suffered an acute jolt and farrners have lost vital seed -that a di serete ínjection of seed will boost farrners' means to plant tite seed given, with labor, inputs, and the security adequate forplanting and harvesting -that the one-time provision of seed will help farrners re-establish an independent means of producing and accessing their own seed -that seed will be sufficientIy appropriate to fit in (adapt) and maybe even strengthen furrners' agricultural syslems (help them to evolve in positive ways).The early rationale for giving seed aid, rather than only food aid, was specifically lo help farrners regain their means ofproduetion and lo set them off in independent ways. However, what is happening in Kenya is that these oue-time 'push to self-sufficiency interventions' are beingrepeated and repeated. Has the problem or constraint been adequately diagnosed? Have the appropriate support activities been well defined? Have the support activities been designed lo link lO the specific problems or constraints al hand?The problem: Characterizing the constraints in Kenyan farmer seed systems-the broadview \\Vhcn this studywas initialed, 'the problem' was presented as an acute one: Kenyan farmers suffered drought in the season prior to 1997 and needed critical seed lo sow the next time rains fell. The solution was given as seed, and the studywas to evaluale the effectiveness ofthe seed-delivery program; tita! is, the internal process and products: were the right varieties given, were they given on time, were they given in an equitable manner (see TOR, Annex 1). The goal was to rnake seed-and-Iools interventions more effective, more on the mark.However, as the work unfolded, using both government documents and perspectives (top-down overviews) and dmwing on valuable farrner-based data and insights (bottom up), it became clear that the drought situation was nol a one-offaffair. It was no! a discrete, acute disaster situation. For sorne Kenyan farmers, the last decade has been one in which they have suffered droughts on a repeated basis. Between distinct and severe dry periods, their farming systems have operated welL However, with sharp drops in rainfall, like that in 1991-92 and in 1996, they have required help from the out~ide-to get back to where they were. These farrners have been experíencing repeated acute stress. There are probably a range of reasons why these repeated acute (well-defined and delíneated) stresses are occurring, sorne ofwhich are meteorologicaL (Whetherthere has been a significant decline inrainfull on a longer-tenn basis in Kenya is debatable, wíth a discussion ofpossíbJe climate change being oulside the scope ofthis report.)For many Kenyan farrners within the sample, however, the seed stresses they described are neither acute nor repeated acute-they are there on a continual basis. Small p10ts (and harvests), unreliable minfall, lack of adapted varieties, poorly adapted crops (Iike maize in many areas), distant markets, scarcíty of cash lo purchase seed-alJ hinder theír being able to produce andlor access sufficient quanlities of seed each season. Whíle seed-and-tools treat their problems as acute, indeed theír stress situation is a chronic one.A first artempt to conceptualize these different situations appears below (table 39). The first two columns ofthe table are faírly self-evident, and distinguish acute from repeated acute and from chronic di stress sítuations, usíng agroecologícal stresses lo differentiale among the three types. Severe drought once ís dífferent from severe drought every 10 years (repeated acute) and is different again frorn farming in an extremely dry area on a constant basis (chronic). The second two columns start to indicate, by building a theoretical framework, Ibat chronic, acute, and repeated acule situations affecting seed systems may be spurred byevents other Ihan agroecologícal ones. Disasters andlor constraints can be economicaUyor • politically induced, and a small number ofvariables that constrain seed systemsmay be direclly seed ami! or variety related. Using Ibis framework as a basis, we have started to plol Ibe infonnation ernerging from Ihis Kenyan case study. Table 40 suggests Ibal Ihe agroecological slresses are, perhaps, but one part oflbe full constraining picture. In Ibis first attempt to grasp the whole, economic and political constraints certainly leap forward as a major farmer-articulated problem. Further, the table suggests that focusing on seed and variety issues,per se, can be very inelfuctive in dealing with the real bottlenecks in many seed-system situations. Similarly, solving ¡he physical seed issue may not help seed systems lo function more effectively for any length of time. Much depends on what the problem(s) is. 7   In building from this initial framework, we start lO address two central issues for seed-system support interventions. The first directly addresses Ibe seed and variety issue: which crops/varieties, when? The second asks, more broadly, what might be Ibe appropriate range ofinterventions needed to bolster Kenyan fanners' seed systems?  ---._--.~ principIes. A recent FAO-sponsored workshop on Restoring Farmers' Seed Systems in Disaster Situations (FAO 1999) also reiterated the need fOf highly tailored types of seed aid. There, the term adopted was \"variety-sensitive aid,\" encompassing the idea ofboth adapted and farmer-acceptable varieties. It was further suggested !ha! the range ofvarieties on offer should be diverse enough 10 meet fanners' critical needs (e.g., varieties for different foods, differentplanting periods) (Sperling 1999).Tailoring crops/varieties to tJ:pe of crisis Logically, additional criteria could be tailored to the notion of'right crop or variety,' depending on the stress. To encolll1lge reflection, several examples are given below, which link directly to the 'seed-stress framework' introduced aboye.• Ifthe stress has been acute and farmers are at a significant 1088 forplanting material and food, crops that are quicker maturing would seem to be the more logical. This situation can be iIlustrated in an example!Tom the 1994 Rwanda war/genocide. Farmers lost almost half oftheir beans in the field when the conflict escalated al harvest lime 1994. As irnmediale aid, they strongly preferred the bush type ofbean thal matures in about three months, rather than the much higheryielding climbing-bean type, which may take fourto five months. Both bush and climbing beans are priority crops for Rwandan farmers in normal times (and are seen as highly complementary in the same farming syslem), bul bush beans were deemed more crucial in the first stages of emergency-recovery. So sequenclng of crops is key if one assumes lbat the aeute crisis will end, with more normal planting oonditions being re-established.• Ifthe stress has been more cbronlc (or even 'repeated acute'), CTOpS that perform beíter during tbe specific stress conditions might be more appropriate. Drought in Kenya seems lo be occurring more frequently and seems to be more widespread: seed distributions for every season since 1992 show public awareness ofthis trend. The choice of seed-aid crops in NGO, but not govemment, distributions are starting lo reflectpractícal knowledge ofthis trend. Crops líke sorghum and green gram mayprove more tolerant to droughl stress than hybrid maize in select locales.• Ifthe stress la cbronic, then more capaclty-building crup choiees may be appropriate. By Ihis, we suggest Ihal sorne erops can be more easily managed by farmers and more casily sustained over seasons. For instance, farmers who are chronically short oftheir own home-saved seed and are chronically sort of eash lo top-off stocks with market purehases mighl be better offwith open-pollinated or vegetativelypropagated erops. The latlcr can be replanted without external resources and would be preferable lo fertilizer-responsivel-demanding hybrid maíze or commercial vegetable seed Ihat requires special care or inputs. Chronie stress also demands a more holístic seed-system approach, beyond issues of seed and variely (see \"linking types of non-seed-aid interventions,\" below).Other examples can be developed, and a more comprehensive framework is needed for linking type of stress with the appropriate nolion ofthe 'righ! erop.' Simplyput, the righ! crop for an emergency situation may not the mosl appropriate fOT longer-Ierm recovery. The 'right crop/variety' should be chosen in relation lo the type of stress encountereu. As base enteria, all 'nghl crops' have lo be adapted (bio-physícally, soeially, and in terms of management practíces) and have to be aeceptable 10 farmers. Then variables such as crop maturily, and ability lo push fanners on the palh lo self-sustainability, mighl be faetored in as key elements.Linking type of seed stress to non-seed-aid interventions to support seed systems A range of current interventions in seed-system support in East Amca aim lo strengthen farmer seed systems in the longer termo Their aims inc1ude delívering more localIyadapted varieties, ensuring that even 54 the poorest fanners can get new material s, improving the quality offarmer seed, and even helping fanners earn mone: !Tom seed production operations. Annex 7 (prepared by S. David) summarizes over a dozen of these programs. They iIIustrate that a body ofwork is emerging to help address sorne ofthe more chronic constraints to seed-system health.However, a good deal ofthe challenge to strengthening the systems by which farmers access seed lies in a more refined diagnosis ofwhere the constraints and opportunities lie. Analysis ofseed systems-farmer, formal, and those that aim to integrate the two-is a telatively new field. Prior to a decade ago, development work focused almost exclusively on supporting the institutionalized or formal seed sector, as this was the supposed vehicle through which farmers would receive modern varieties emerging !Tom the formal research system. In Africa, at least, seed-system experts now estimate that such institutional channels may supply farmers with, at most, 5% oftheir seed, the obvious exception being maize in areas where hybrids have attained wide use, such as the Southern African Region and the higher-potential areas ofKenya and other Eastern African countries (personal cornmunication, see the companion volume to this report).This section ends by making the first steps to understanding what the full components of a seed system might be and how they need to be linked. The companion volume starts to layout a methodology for diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses ofthe various seed-system components. More-targeted diagnosis should directly lead to more-targeted interventions, with longer-Iastingpositive impacts.Moving toward characterizing stresses in seed systems: A more refined view A seed specialist, someone who focuses on producing and distributing seed as a physical input, might feel comfortable with viewing the building blocks of a 'seed system' as four basic units: testing the material, multiplying it to ensure availability, distributing it to ensure access, and then possible storage. At each of these stages, both varietal issues (which genetic material s?) as well as seed issues (quality, quantity) are considered. These four basic blocks appear in a linear fashion in figure 1, although, of course, the end feeds into the beginning and so the cycle re-starts. A person wilh more of a seed-systems perspective would add a series of filtering lenses, so as to make these blocks more realistic or closer to what actually happens. First, each of Ihe blocks obviously has technical content: e.g., what level of genetic purity; how much multiplied? Equally, each block has a strong social content or set of social dynamics: which varieties are preferred by different farmcrs; how will the multiplication be organized so people will work together; how can the channels be made userftiendly so Ihat all have access? In addition to Ihe technical analysis and Ihe analysis of social dynamics, one might even add a lens of \"institutional analysis,\" since Ihe kind oftechnical and social strategies are intimately tied to Ihe institutions (whether formal or local) through which one works (figure 1).The situalion is complicated further by the increasing evidence that farmers use a variety of seed systems for differenl crops and for different purposes. For inSlanee, Ihe same farmer might get cassava cuttings from her neighbor in exehange for labor, buy her beans from one of Ihe local open markets, and purchase her maize from a stockist in a specialized govemment slore. And from time to time, these different systems intersect; for example, maize bought from Ihe stockist is exchanged wilh the neigbbor and sown for several seasons, Ihus affecting its quality. Figure 2 (prepared for differenl purposes by Almekinders and DeBoef (2000) slarts to indicate the complex relationships between farmer and formal syslems: sometimes linking, sometimes no!.The point in selting up these conceptual diagrams is because they help serve as a grounded base for diagnosing Ihe strengths and weaknesses of different seed-system components that might need strengthening in an emergency situation and beyond. Al! might be well with the testing and multiplication blocks, but the main boltlenecks in a crisis period might have to do with tbe distribution channels. Seed i5 available in theory, but farmers may be afraid to go to public plaees (because of war) or may just not have the means to buy from the market (they have lost assets during Ihe crisis), Neither of these problems is mosl effectiveJy soJved by giving seed. In the first inslance, the seed intervention might focus on ensuring 5ecurity; in the other, vouchers or credit might be considered. The issue of seed-system diagnosis, developing indicators of seed-system health, and Iinking specific problems with specific solutions forms the core intere\"t oflhe complemenlary volume to Ihis reporl, Such a volume was not anticipated al the beginning ofthe Kenyan seed study, mainly because the TOR inadequately anticipated the fundamental Kenyan seed-system needs.• adapted to fimners' bio-physical environment • adapted to farmer's preferences • adapted 10 farmers management conditions • those Ihat facilitate risk aversion.'Right variety/crop' ís also examined by differentiating acute, repeated acute, and chronic seed-system slresses.7. Hybrid maize is a poor choice in Ihe context of acute, repeated acute, and chronic stress situations. Most farmers do not roulinely access hybrid maize seed from Ihe stockist, do nol have Ihe management expertise, and maynot even have the appropriate bio-physical environment in which nurture Ihe 'aid' varieties. Suboptimal environments and limiled knowledge do nottally up lo promoting risk-aversion during a stress periodo Further, the built-in deterioration factor for hybrids does not necessarily promo!e self-relianee in Ihe longer-term for Ihose farmers who cannol afford lo renew their stocks on an annual basis. Simply put, Ihe overriding bias on hybrids-which have boen developed mostly for more favored environments, allhough recently hybrids have been developed for short-season environmenls-makes the situation somewhat an extreme case ofignoring basic emergency principIes.8. A range of seed-system support interventions in East Africa is reviewed. These interventions go beyond seed-and-tools and have vanous airns including delivery of more locally adapted vaneties, ensuring Ihat even the poorest farmers can gel new materials, improving the quality of farmer seed, and even helping farmers earo money from seed-production operatíons. The review iIlustrates that a body ofwork is emerging lo help address sorne oflhe more chronic constraints lo seed-systern health.9. A paramount challenge to strengthening the systems by which farmers access seed rests in a more refined diagnosis ofwhere the constraints and opportunities lie. Analysis of seed systems-whethera !armer system, Ihe formal sector, or a system Ihat aims to integrate the two-is a relatively new fie\\d.Prior to a decade ago, development work focused almost exclusively on supporting the institutionalized or formal seed sector. In Africa, seed-system experts estimate that such institutional channels rnay supply farmers wílh, at most, 5% oflheir seed, Ihe obvious exceptíon being maize in areas where hybrids are well adapted and have attained wide use. The case srudy explored fanners' routine crop and seed-procurement strategies to determine how <abnormal' the pracrices were (OI were not) during the designated emergency. To-date. seed aid has been given without diagnosing what the constraint may be. There has a150 been titde effort to examine the resiliency of farme! agricultural or seed systems) or to question whether giving farroees the seed physically 15 the best among several potential strategies.Specific manuals on seed aid are even more recent and date within the last five yeaes: ODr 1996¡ Oxfam 1999; Coneem, n.d., Drought should not be equated with a lack of rainfall, per u, but r.ther the degree of r.iofall, whích induces a shortage of sorne vital economk good such as a harvesr oc forage. Sandford (1979) explores this relative nObon of drollghl in sorne detail..fThis issue of food tosts versus seed costs is pursued more fulJy in me complementaty workshop voJume.s The Diocese at Embu, recognizing a growing sease oC seed-aid dependency. has proposed \"seed-payback mech.nísm.\" (Father ¡ren, Oíocese of Embu, person.1 communic.lion, 1998).","tokenCount":"17651"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2719f2b9b97cc584da240ce120552d2d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.cimmyt.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:11529/10548773/3","id":"299798975"},"keywords":["Biological yield","Economic N dose","Yield attributes","Zero-tilled direct-seeded rice"],"sieverID":"85fea648-19fc-47b6-8cda-664cfb999ad7","pagecount":"6","content":"A field study was framed in rice crop under conservation agriculture (CA) based rice-wheat system at experimental farm of Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA)-CIMMYT, Ladhowal, Punjab, India during kharif 2019. In the present study, nine treatments were imposed out of which four are CA-based treatments (ZT-N0, ZT-N50, ZT-N75 and ZT-N100), four are CA coupled with subsurface drip fertigation (CA+) based treatments (SSD-N0,SSD-N50, SSD-N75 and SSD-N100) and puddled transplanted rice (PTR) treatment as farmer's practice. The findings of the study showed that PTR treatment out yielded in terms of yield attributing characters and biological yield than other treatments. CA+ treatment (SSD-N100) resulted higher biological yield (2.8%) than CA-based treatments (ZT-N100). SSD-N100 dominated ZT-N100 and PTR treatment in terms of plant N content (both grain and straw), total N uptake and N harvest index. PTR treatment resulted 22-33% higher ANUE than ZT-N100 and SSD-N100 treatments.Rice-wheat (RW) is the dominant cropping system in the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) of South Asia. India has about 10 Mha under RW system (Ladha et al. 2009). Age old conventional tillage and crop establishment methods of rice are laborious and time consuming, resulting in higher cost of cultivation thus making RW system unsustainable. Due to decline in the groundwater table level in RW area of north-west India, water scarcity has become the major concern for the future sustainability of this cropping system. Now, efficient use of water has become imperative in agriculture in the regions where water is scarce. Further, this issue calls for diversification of RW system and shift in rice based production systems. Conservation agriculture (CA) based on the principles of reduced tillage, crop residue management and diversified crop rotation offers vast potential in this aspect. Surface drip irrigation system can also tackle the issue of water scarcity and can enhance the water and nutrient use efficiency (Sharda et al. 2017). But lateral anchorage is the major hindrance for the adoption of surface drip irrigation system in rice. Contrary to this, subsurface drip fertigation (SSDF) system resolves the lateral anchorage issue and enables smooth inter-cultural operations throughout the cropping period (Sidhu et al. 2019). CA with subsurface drip irrigation has immense advantages over CA alone and conventional tillage-based flood irrigated (PTR/ farmer's practice) rice in terms of water use and saving (Ayars et al. 1999). SSDF system facilitates synchronization of water and nutrient availability with the crop demand enabling uniform delivery of water and nutrient through single delivery system. Thus, this system eliminates the gaseous loss of applied N due to high temperature, labour requirement for broadcasting and application of water after broadcasting (Jat et al. 2014). Further, sub-surface drip irrigation system with inline/online emitters has greater potential to cut off total water requirement by wetting only rhizosphere area and curtailing evaporation (Evett et al. 1995). Smouldering of harvested crop residues can also be resolved by the adoption of CA+ system. Although alternative tillage and crop establishment options have previously been evaluated in RW in the IGP, these are mainly focussed on yield and water productivity. Only a few studies have examined the combined effectsof contrasting crop establishment, irrigation methods and N doses on plant growth, crop physiology, grain yield and economics of RW system. Therefore, the present investigation deals with impact of different crop establishment techniques i.e. PTR, CA alone and CA+, irrigation methods and N rates on biological yield, yield components and nutrient use efficiency of rice under conservation agriculture-based rice-wheat system.The field experiment was conducted at experimental farm of Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA)- CIMMYT,Ladhowal (30.99 °N latitude,75.44 °E longitude,229 m amsl), Punjab, India. The region is characterized by a subtropical and semi-arid climate with annual rainfall of 734 mm.The experimental site has flat and well drained sandy loam soil texture (Typic Haplustept). Before laying out the current experiment, the field was under conservation agriculture + sub-surface drip fertigation (CA+) based rice-wheat system for last five years.In sub-surface drip fertigation plots, the laterals of polyethylene with an inner diameter of 16mm were buried at 15cm depth parallel to crop rows. The in-line emitters with a discharge of 2.0 l/hr were fitted at 30 cm apart in the laterals. The spacing between two lateral lines was 67.5cm which will supply water for 3-rows of rice. Nitrogen was fertigated through venturi meter with desired injection rate.A short-duration rice variety (123-125 days maturity period) PR 126 was sown during kharif 2019. The experiment was framed in a randomized complete block design with nine treatments combinations with three replications. The size of each plot was 135 m 2 (25 m × 5.4 m) and a 2.5 m wide irrigation channel was provided in between two plots. The treatments under CA+ system were zero-tilled direct-seeded rice (ZTDSR) + sub-surface drip fertigation: without N (SSD-N0), 50% of recommended dose of N(RDN) (SSD-N50), 75% of RDN (SSD-N75) and 100% of RDN (SSD-N100); CA treatments were ZTDSR + flood irrigation system: without N (ZT-N0), 50% of RDN (ZT-N50), 75% of RDN (ZT-N75) and 100% of RDN (ZT-N100); Puddled transplanted rice system + flood irrigation system @ 120 kg N/ha (PTR). Nitrogen as urea was applied treatment-wise in 3-equal splits to PTR treatment at transplanting, at 3 rd and 6 th weeks after transplanting. In flood irrigated zerotilled direct-seeded rice (ZTDSR) plots, N was applied in 4-equal splits at 10, 21, 42 and 56 days after sowing (DAS). Similarly, to sub-surface drip (SSD) fertigated ZTDSR plots N was fertigated/applied at 10 days intervals up to panicle initiation stage. A common dose of 60 kg P 2 O 5 + 40 kg K 2 O + 25 kg ZnSO 4 /ha was applied as basal in all the ZTDSR plots.Number of tillers and panicles were counted at harvest and wereexpressed as tillers/m 2 and panicles/m 2 , respectively. Number of grains in each panicle were counted from randomly selected five plants in each net plot, averaged and expressed as number of grains per panicle. After drying and cleaning, a representative grain sample was taken from the final produce of each net plot and weight of 1000-grain was recorded and expressed in grams (g).Two border rows of both directions and also 0.5m in opposite direction (length wise) were left and then the remaining area of each plot was harvested. The weight of total harvested produce (total grain + straw) from each net plot was recorded after sun/air drying and expressed as biological yield in kg/ha.The harvest index was computed by dividing economic yield (grain yield) by the respective biological yield (total produce) and expressed in percentage.Economic yield × 100 Biological yieldNitrogen (N) content in grain and straw was determined by CHNS analyser. N uptake was computed as:N uptake (kg/ha) in grain/straw = [% N in grain/straw× grain/straw yield (kg/ha)];Total uptake of N (kg/ha) = N uptake in grain + N uptake in straw Nitrogen use efficiency (AE) was calculated as: Agronomic efficiency (AE) (kg grain yield increase/ kg N applied) = (Grain yield (kg) in fertilized plot-Grain yield (kg) in control plot)/ kg of N appliedQuadratic relationship between fertilizer N rates and grain yield was developed for two different application methods of ZTDSR plots. Optimum N dose (N op ) and economic optimum N dose (N eop ) were calculated using quadratic regression equations, market price of rice grain (` 15/kg) and cost of fertilizer N (` 12/kg of N). The N eop was defined as the rate of N application where ` 1 of additional fertilizer N returned ` 1 in grain yield, and was based on the assumption that fertilizer N was the only variable cost and all other costs were fixed. The ratio of the cost of fertilizer N to the price of rice grain was referred to as cost: price ratio (CPr).The N op /N eop doses were calculated as:where, Y is grain yield (kg/ha), x is fertilizer N rate (kg/ ha), and a, b, c are regression parameters.The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model procedures of the statistical analysis system (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) for randomized block design. The differences between treatment means were compared using a LSD test at P<0.05 (Gomez and Gomez 1984).Total number of tillers, panicles per square meter, total number of grains/panicle and test weight of rice was significantly varied with different crop establishment techniques, N doses and irrigation methods. Total number of tillers, effective tillers/m 2 , grains/panicle and test weight was significantly higher in puddled transplanted rice than other treatments (Table 1). These findings are in line with the findings of Jat et al. (2019). The total number of tillers in ZT-N50 and ZT-N75 was at par with ZT-N100. Among ZT and SSD treatments, application of 100% RDN recorded significantly higher numbers of tillers, panicles/m 2 than unfertilized treatments (SSD-N0 and ZT-N0), 50% of RDN treatments (SSD-N50 and ZT-N50) and at par with 75% of RDN treatments (SSD-N75 and ZT-N75). Different crop establishment techniques and N doses and irrigation methods had significant effect on biological yield (Table 1).Among the treatments, PTR plots out yielded than all other imposed treatments due to increase in source strength, i.e. yield attributes (Jat et al. 2019). Under SSD treatments, fertigation of 100% RDN had 54.9% more biological yield than SSD-N0. SSD-N50 and SSD-N75 plots produced higher biological yield (39.52-47%) than SSD-N0, respectively. Similarly, under CA-based zero-tilled flood irrigated treatments biological yield increased with increase in N doses. Across the treatments, non-significant difference was observed in harvest index. Among the crop establishment techniques, N doses and irrigation management treatments, harvest index (HI) ranged from 37.9 to 41.3 (Table 1). Higher yield in SSD-N100 than ZT-N100 treatment can be ascribed by direct root feeding with water and N through fertigation resulted in less loss of N and unceased availability throughout the crop period (Sidhu et al. 2019). This establish better source in terms of LAI, plasticity, net photosynthesis and biomass production and finally biological yield in SSD-N100 than ZT-N100 treatment (Bhatt and Kukal 2016).Across the treatments, a significant correlation between total tillers/m 2 , panicles/m 2 and rice grain yield was also observed from Pearson correlation plot. In ZTDSR flood and ZTDSR with SSDF plots, yield attributing characters were total number of tillers and number of panicles per square meter (Fig 1A). Application of 100% RDN increased the panicle density and showed significant correlation with grain yield (Fig 1B ). Direct root feeding of water and nutrient in SSD treatments favoured to produce more tiller and panicles than CA-based treatments (Sidhu et al. 2019). Evett et al. (1995) also hypothesized that yield increase instead of water cut-off in sub-surface drip irrigation may be due to more water available for plants for effective use within the effective rhizosphere zone. SSD-N100 and ZT-N100 plots produced significantly higher grains per panicle than their respective control treatments (ZT-N0 and SSD-N0) and were at par with all other treatments. The test weight of rice variety PR 126 ranged between 17.5-22.4 g across the treatments (Table 1). Similar findings are also reported by Singh et al. (2019).Among the imposed treatments of crop establishment techniques, irrigation methods and differential N doses, significant difference were observed in term of grain and straw N content and total N uptake in rice (Table 2). Application of 75% and 50% RDN through broadcasting under ZT and through SSDF recorded higher grain N and straw N content. In terms of total N uptake (grain+straw) and N harvest index (NHI), SSD-N100 plots dominated PTR and CA-based plots. Synchronization of balanced N supply with plant demand through SSDF system remobilized more mineral N to plant and then organic N from plant parts to grain during grain filling (Zhang et al. 2017). As a consequence, an increased N content in grain, straw, total N uptake (6.9%) and NHI (3.82%) were obtained in SSD-N100 plots than PTR treatment. These findings are in conformity with the findings of Rajwade et al. (2013) and Veeraputhiran (2000). Alam et al. (2020) and Parihar et al. (2020) also reported increased soil N storage and availability in CA-based practices due to sequestration of N through decomposition of surface retained residue, more aggregation, better soil physical properties and biochemical properties. So, applied nutrients are locked up in the intra-particulate organic matter and soil microbial biomass which upsurges the soil mineral N pool and remobilization of mineral N to organic N. Hence, an increased grain N content straw N content, total N uptake (0.27%) and NHI (3.13%) were obtained in ZT-N100 than PTR plots.Among all the treatments, the agronomic NUE (ANUE) of puddled transplanted rice was recorded highest (31.6 kg grain increase/kg N applied) (Table 2). The ZT treatments had higher ANUE than SSD treatments. Among the ZT treatments, ANUE of ZT-N50 was higher followed by ZT-N100 and ZT-N75. The data indicated that broadcasting of N decreased ANUE with increased N dose. In accordance with the findings of the present study, other researchers across the globe also confirmed low ANUE in low-land rice cultivation (Fageria and Filho 2001) and puddled sown condition (Cassman et al. 1993, Fageria et al. 2003). However, in SSD treatments, ANUE increased with increase in N dose due to single rate and 10 days fixed fertigation schedule (frequent but precise) of N through sub-surface drip fertigation system (Sharda et al. 2017 andSidhu et al. 2019).Optimum N rates in rice: A quadratic relationship between differential N doses and grain yield of rice under different N fertilization methods in ZTDSR plots is depicted in Fig 2 . The model adequately ascribed the quadratic relationship between grain yield and N application with proportion of variability close to 1 (P=0.01). This model is the most appropriate model for determining N doses for economic yield (Fig 2) (Fageria and Baligar 2001). The optimum N dose and economic optimum dose under broadcasting of fertilizer was 250.6 and 243.6 kg/ha whereas in case of fertigation it was 221.3 and 216.3 kg/ ha, respectively (Table 3).A sub-optimal application of 80-100 kg N/ha to highly responsive direct-seeded rice was found in ZT-DSR and SSD-DSR treatment for which adoption of different establishment methods become less-economical due to lower yield (Norman et al. 1997). Higher N requirement in direct-seeded rice (up to 180-200 kg/ha) than PTR was also reported by Ahmed et al. (2016). Sharmiladevi and Ravikumar (2019) also fertigated rice with 240 kg N under sub-surface drip fertigation for optimization of N schedule. Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that DSR plots could not express its full potential due to limited N application.Therefore, a higher N dose may be recommended for DSR plots (both in CA and CA+ system) for achieving higher economic yield and making it more profitableamong the farmers.","tokenCount":"2438"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da61b43e9c005556ca56c3ca58af91d0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/de1d5856-c5ac-4113-bb17-78da9abc6eb9/retrieve","id":"1883372597"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"45b39a25-3c68-464c-a8d1-997191a4ab6a","pagecount":"1","content":"Dyer et al. (1) report a rapid decline in maize varieties grown by Mexican farmers, arguing that their results are in contrast with previously reported work. We believe that the support for this rapid decline is weak, and that the contrast with previously reported work is false.Dyer et al. ( 1) set up a straw man: they show that average household maize diversity reported in case studies has increased over time and then argue that their own finding is flawed because of the nonrepresentative nature of these studies. Indeed, these studies were not designed for that, and any such interpretation is spurious. Methodological differences between case studies, such as the sample size and survey effort, are very important, but Dyer et al. did not investigate these. Differences between studies explain 69% of the variance in diversity (P = 0.003), much more than is explained by time (12%).Dyer et al.'s (1) paper subsequently presents an analysis of household varietal richness based on survey data from 2002 and 2007. The authors argue that their Mexico National Household Survey (ENHRUM) is a consistent data-collection effort that can be used to investigate maize genetic erosion. However, it is not clear how the survey effort was kept constant within and between the 2002 and 2007 surveys. This aspect is important because interviewees often mention varieties sown in smaller quantities only after being prompted in different ways or during a visit to the field. In the ENHRUM manual (2), there are no instructions for surveyors to assure that interviewees list all varieties.Differences in survey effort may also explain the low number of varieties of ENHRUM compared with case studies more narrowly focused on maize diversity.Dyer et al. ( 1) focus only on householdlevel data, arguing that community level data are less reliable. However, because crop genetic erosion is a process that occurs in (meta)populations, community-level data are critical. The ENHRUM data do not reveal whether varieties discarded by a particular household still survive in the community. Households may be able to regain discarded varieties if seed is still grown and exchange networks keep functioning (3). The household-level analysis is unable to capture this crucial element of crop diversity dynamics.On the other hand, the reliability of community-level analyses should benefit from recent methodological progress. The challenge of community definition in diachronic studies can be overcome by accounting for the spatial distribution of knowledge in and across communities (4). Varietal identity problems can be overcome with genetic data (5).Dyer et al. ( 1) address an important question. We emphasize the need for betterdesigned research to assess the current status and the dynamics of crop diversity. We need a new generation of crop diversity monitoring studies at multiple scales of observation that draw from multiple methods in the social and natural sciences.","tokenCount":"463"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/4409081027.json b/data/part_2/4409081027.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..56f9d14375198bd0bb939a748e018eba01b76e86
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0bdedda5f15174d5c954d6f1ac480da0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f151c016-febb-4163-a325-b1c8382c9902/retrieve","id":"1029921796"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9b6ae80a-5abb-4012-9770-93f35a0db2b4","pagecount":"2","content":"• Fasciolosis is caused by the trematode parasite Fasciola hepatica, the common liver fluke, as well as by Fasciola gigantica.• Fasciolosis affects all grazing animals, dogs, cats and humans but the main hosts are ruminants such as sheep, goats and cattle. It is particularly harmful for sheep.• People (and dogs and cats) are normally infected by ingesting contaminated plants or drinking contaminated water. Fasciolosis in people is classified as a neglected tropical disease (NTD).• Livestock become infected by grazing on contaminated pastures or trough contaminated hay.What are the symptoms of Fascioliasis?In sheep, the disease can be acute, subacute or chronic.• Acute: sudden death or dullness, anemia, dyspnea, ascites and abdominal pain may be observed.• Subacute: rapid weight loss, anemia, submandibular edema and ascites in some cases.• Chronic: progressive weight loss, anemia, submandibular edema, diarrhea and ascites.The disease is caused by the migration of large numbers of immature flukes through the liver, the presence of adult flukes in the bile duct, or both.  ","tokenCount":"162"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/4410598244.json b/data/part_2/4410598244.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..53ec22ed50f19239b8b77b58ca2867a4952a1be7
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf24c330c7136e556e909573eb846682","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ae8a3025-b25f-49c9-b2d0-9c90489746ca/retrieve","id":"355035505"},"keywords":["Mecanismos de retribución","servicios ecosistémicos","iniciativas","MERESE hidrológico J33","Q25","Q57"],"sieverID":"9a35e383-ee02-409f-956c-ea91fb777110","pagecount":"91","content":"Sunass; y a todos los colegas e instituciones que vienen impulsando los Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos Hidrológicos, pues a través de su experiencia y participación en las entrevistas ha sido posible la elaboración del presente estudio.Cuadro 1. Iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos identificados a nivel nacional Cuadro 2. Áreas naturales protegidas y zonas prioritarias de conservación en las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos Cuadro 3. Servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos      Hay un avance importante entre las iniciativas MERESE hidrológicos identificados entre 2013 y 2020 debido a la mayor disponibilidad de información sobre el tema, el aprendizaje continuo de las mismas iniciativas y al progreso logrado en el marco normativo. La gran mayoría de nuevas iniciativas están relacionadas a las EPS quienes vienen liderando, en conjunto con la Sunass y sus oficinas desconcentradas, las nuevas iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos. La normativa ha permitido acelerar este proceso, sin embargo, aún quedan desafíos por resolver. Por otro lado, las negociaciones con los grupos de regantes son más complejas; sin embargo, las iniciativas del MERESE de Cumbaza (San Martín) y el Fondo de Agua Quiroz -Chira (Piura) han brindado una serie de aprendizajes para estos procesos. Las iniciativas de AquaFondo (Lima) y del Fondo Regional del Agua de Piura (FORASAN) son las únicas que involucran a empresas privadas en los esquemas de los MERESE hidrológicos. Los contribuyentes son poblaciones representadas principalmente por comunidades campesinas altoandinas. Es de resaltar la presencia minoritaria de comunidades indígenas o nativas entre los contribuyentes. Llama la atención el menor número de iniciativas que se desarrollan en ecosistemas de selva baja. Finalmente, el contexto actual de pandemia por la COVID-19 ha generado la paralización de algunas de las actividades de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos que supone un nuevo reto para las instituciones y organizaciones que los lideran.Desde el punto de vista institucional sobresalen los cuellos de botella relacionados con los roles de los gobiernos regionales y locales en la priorización de inversiones para mejorar el impacto de las acciones desarrolladas en el marco de los MERESE hidrológicos. Para el caso específico de las EPS, estas requieren adecuar su estructura organizativa para atender los desafíos presentes en el diseño de los MERESE y la ejecución de los fondos recaudados. Sobre los cuellos de botella económicos, las principales limitaciones están relacionadas con la sostenibilidad financiera de los MERESE hidrológicos, pues la mayoría de las iniciativas posee fuentes limitadas de recaudación. Frente a ello será importante un mayor involucramiento de sectores como el energético, agrario, turismo y en general del sector privado; además de desarrollar esquemas costo efectivos para optimizar las inversiones en las cuencas priorizadas. Los cuellos de botella técnicos están principalmente relacionados con la falta de capacidad técnica para monitorear y evaluar los impactos de las actividades que realizan los contribuyentes sobre los SEH; la falta de información sobre qué actividades son efectivas para la recuperación, conservación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas fuente de los SEH; y sobre metodologías para evaluar el retorno de inversión para retribuyentes, como por ejemplo las EPS. Los cuellos de botella no son estáticos, varían dependiendo de la fase en la que se encuentran las iniciativas y están relacionados unos a otros. Es posible que en la medida en que se resuelvan los cuellos de botella existentes surjan otros nuevos. Sin embargo, lo ideal es que cada vez sean menos, con el fin de tener implementados los MERESE hidrológicos en un menor tiempo. Los años de experiencia acumulada por las instituciones y organizaciones que lideran y promueven los MERESE hidrológicos han permitido identificar lecciones aprendidas para el diseño y la implementación de ellos. El trabajo coordinado entre el MINAM y la Sunass ha hecho posible el desarrollo de un marco legal favorable y claro respecto a los MERESE hidrológicos, siendo un ejemplo exitoso de colaboración entre instituciones del gobierno. Un elemento importante para el diseño de los MERESE es la disponibilidad de instrumentos metodológicos 3 que permitan generar la información necesaria para el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos. En el diseño de los MERESE también es importante identificar y definir los roles de las instituciones y organizaciones que participan en su desarrollo y fortalecer la articulación entre ellas. Otro elemento importante son las estrategias de comunicación internas y externas. Los encuentros entre los diversos grupos de actores que forman parte de los MERESE, en particular los retribuyentes y contribuyentes, crean espacios de diálogo y confianza necesarios para todo el proceso. También se identificó que la asistencia técnica permanente en el diseño e implementación de los MERESE en saneamiento son clave. Asimismo, la conformación de plataformas de buena gobernanza (PBG) es importante para la articulación y gestión de los MERESE hidrológicos. Como lecciones aprendidas en cuanto a financiamiento se pueden mencionar dos: (i) reconocer que los fondos recaudados son fondos semilla y (ii) contar con una estrategia de diversificación de fuentes de financiamiento que daría sostenibilidad al mecanismo en el tiempo. Por último, es de suma importancia contar con instrumentos o estrategias de reporte con el fin de que todos los actores se encuentren debidamente informados.El concepto de pago por servicios ambientales (PSA) 4 surge frente al creciente deterioro de los servicios ambientales y la necesidad de encontrar mejores paradigmas para la conservación (Wunder, 2005). Hacia la década del noventa se reportan los casos pioneros sobre esquemas de mercado de servicios ambientales en Latinoamérica (Porras et al., 2010). El concepto de PSA se define como transacciones voluntarias entre beneficiarios y proveedores de servicios, condicionadas a reglas acordadas de manejo de recursos naturales para garantizar la continua generación de servicios fuera del sitio (offsite services) (Wunder, 2015). En la práctica, son pocos los esquemas PSA que cumplen estrictamente con los criterios definidos por Wunder 5 ; por ello, son definidos como \"esquemas de tipo-PSA\" (Wunder, 2008). En Latinoamérica los esquemas de tipo-PSA son un conjunto de mecanismos financieros o económicos donde se relacionan pagos o incentivos económicos con decisiones de uso de tierra orientados a proveer y asegurar un servicio ambiental (Quintero, 2010).El Estado peruano, por su parte, teniendo en cuenta los esquemas de tipo-PSA que venían gestándose en diferentes lugares del país desde el 2005, tomó la iniciativa de establecer una definición propia ajustada a la realidad nacional. A través de la Ley de Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (Ley n.° 30215), aprobada en junio del 2014, se adopta la terminología de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (RSE) en lugar de Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA), al mismo tiempo que define a los Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos como:Esquemas, herramientas, instrumentos e incentivos para generar, canalizar, transferir e invertir recursos económicos, financieros y no financieros, donde se establece un acuerdo entre contribuyentes y retribuyentes al servicio ecosistémico, orientado a la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de las fuentes de los servicios ecosistémicos. (Artículo 3c. Ley n.° 30215) 4. No existe un consenso a nivel internacional sobre la nomenclatura de este tipo de mecanismos. En muchas ocasiones se utiliza indistintamente la denominación de Pagos por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) y Pagos por Servicios Ecosistémicos (PSE). En el Perú, el Ministerio del Ambiente ha adoptado la terminología de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (RSE).5. Wunder (2008) establece cinco criterios para para definir los PSA: (1) transacciones voluntarias donde (2) un servicio ecosistémico bien definido (o el uso de la tierra correspondiente) es (3) 'comprado' por uno (o más) compradores de servicios ecosistémicos (4) de un proveedor de servicio ecosistémico (mínimo uno) (5) si y solo si se asegura la provisión del servicio ecosistémico (factor de condicionalidad) (Wunder, 2008).Aquellos beneficios económicos, sociales y ambientales, directos e indirectos, que las personas obtienen del buen funcionamiento de los ecosistemas, tales como la regulación hídrica en cuencas, el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad, el secuestro de carbono, la belleza paisajística, la formación de suelos y la provisión de recursos genéticos, entre otros, señalados en el reglamento de la Ley n.° 30215. (Artículo 3b. Ley n.° 30215) Esta ley marca un precedente a nivel nacional dando respaldo a los mecanismos que, derivados de acuerdos voluntarios, establecen acciones de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de las fuentes de los servicios ecosistémicos con el objeto de asegurar la permanencia de los ecosistemas.El presente estudio busca evidenciar el estado de avance de los Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos Hidrológicos (MERESE Hidrológicos) en el Perú, al mismo tiempo que analiza los cuellos de botella existentes en el desarrollo de esta herramienta de conservación e identifica los principales aprendizajes desde la promulgación de la ley. La evaluación del estado de avance de las iniciativas de MERESE se realiza comparando los resultados de los estudios previos desarrollados en 2015 y 2018.Una iniciativa de los MERESE hidrológicos es un esquema de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos, circunscritos en una unidad hidrográfica, donde su principal interés es la implementación de acciones que mantengan, incrementen o mejoren la calidad, cantidad y oportunidad del recurso hídrico para sus diversos beneficiarios (EPS, Juntas de usuarios de agua para riego, hidroeléctricas, empresas privadas, entre otros). Una iniciativa tiene el potencial de generar uno o más acuerdos entre los contribuyentes y retribuyentes y que aún no han sido inscritos en el Registro Único de los MERESE.Este documento ha sido elaborado por la Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), en colaboración con el Ministerio del Ambiente del Perú (MINAM) y la Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento (Sunass), instituciones que en los últimos años vienen trabajando de forma activa en la promoción de los MERESE hidrológicos.El objetivo principal del estudio es determinar el estado de avance de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos, identificar y analizar los cuellos de botella que vienen enfrentando y compartir las lecciones aprendidas.Entre los posibles usos del estudio, se espera que los hallazgos sirvan como orientación, para que las instituciones competentes prioricen acciones que permitan revertir los obstáculos encontrados y potenciar las buenas prácticas. De ser así, se fortalecerá a los actuales MERESE hidrológicos, a la vez que se promoverá la creación de nuevos mecanismos.El presente estudio recoge los resultados del trabajo realizado sobre los MERESE hidrológicos en el 2015, 2018 y 2020. En el 2015 el Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) 6 llevó a cabo entrevistas semiestructuradas a las instituciones promotoras de los MERESE hidrológicos en el Perú, obteniendo información sobre el estado de avance de estos mecanismos y las dificultades que afrontaban para llegar a su implementación. En el 2018, el MINAM, financiado por el Programa de Inversión Pública para el Fortalecimiento de la Gestión Ambiental y Social de los Impactos Indirectos del Corredor Vial Interoceánico Sur -II Etapa (Programa MINAM + CAF), repite el ejercicio del 2015 incluyendo a las nuevas iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos en desarrollo y otras instituciones importantes como las Oficinas Desconcentradas de la Sunass (ODS). Para el presente estudio, la Alianza Bioversity International CIAT, el MINAM y la Sunass unen esfuerzos para sistematizar la información disponible sobre los MERESE hidrológicos a nivel nacional.La información recolectada durante el 2015, 2018 y 2020 ha permitido evidenciar el progreso de los MERESE, así como identificar cuáles cuellos de botella han sido absueltos y cuáles persisten en la cons-6. Desde el 2020 el CIAT es parte de la Alianza Bioversity International y el CIAT que brinda soluciones científicas que abordan las crisis mundiales de malnutrición, cambio climático, pérdida de la biodiversidad y degradación ambiental. trucción de este mecanismo financiero para la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas. Además, ha permitido identificar los aprendizajes en el proceso de diseño e implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos. Debido a que el 2020 estuvo fuertemente marcado por la emergencia sanitaria por la COVID-19, se incluyó una sección sobre los efectos de la pandemia en el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos.La segunda sección de este documento presenta la metodología utilizada para evaluar el estado de avance de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos e identificar los cuellos de botella y aprendizajes; la tercera sección muestra los conceptos utilizados en este estudio sobre los MERESE hidrológicos y la normativa vigente al respecto; la cuarta sección expone las principales características de las iniciativas de los MERE-SE hidrológicos al 2020; la quinta sección presenta el estado de avance de las iniciativas; en la sexta sección se reseña la gobernanza en los MERESE hidrológicos; en la séptima sección se describen y analizan los cuellos de botella y las limitaciones que persisten en el diseño e implementación de los MERESE; la octava sección presenta un breve análisis de los efectos de la CO-VID-19 en el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos; y por último, la novena sección presenta los principales aprendizajes en el proceso de diseño e implementación de los mismos.El estudio ha sido elaborado a partir de la revisión de información bibliográfica, consultas a expertos, realización de encuestas y la provisión de información por parte de Sunass. Parte de la información bibliográfica estuvo conformada por los estudios desarrollados por las propias iniciativas y que fueron facilitados para propósito de este estudio. Asimismo, se consideró la normativa vigente gestada por el MINAM y la Sunass con relación a los MERESE hidrológicos.La encuesta fue compartida mediante una plataforma virtual con las instituciones que lideran las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos entre noviembre del 2020 y enero del 2021. La encuesta incluyó preguntas para cubrir 6 aspectos: i) información del encuestado; ii) información general de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos; iii) características generales de las cuencas donde se encuentran ubicadas las iniciativas iv) descripción de las iniciativas con preguntas específicas para definir en qué etapa y nivel de avance se encuentran; v) los cuellos de botella u obstáculos de los MERESE hidrológicos para avanzar hacia o en la implementación; y vi) efectos de la COVID-19 en el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos.Adicionalmente, la Sunass compartió información clave sobre el estado actual de las iniciativas conducidas por las EPS a nivel nacional mediante una matriz que incorporó las mismas categorías utilizadas en la encuesta virtual. Además, se realizó una entrevista al director de la Dirección de Ámbito de la Prestación, Luis Acosta, con el fin de conocer los cuellos de botella, aprendizajes y los efectos de la COVID-19 en el desarrollo de los MERESE de las EPS.En el presente estudio, para medir el avance de las iniciativas, el proceso hacia la implementación se dividió en fases, a través de las cuales la mayoría de las iniciativas han pasado para llegar a la etapa de implementación (figura 1). Para cada una de las fases se definieron actividades, a las cuales de acuerdo con su cumplimiento se les asignó un puntaje (anexo 1). Con este puntaje y sus respectivos criterios se proporciona un marco común para comparar el estado de avance de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos en el país 7 . Cabe resaltar, sin embargo, que el estado de avance constituye una medida de progreso y no del grado de éxito o el nivel de calidad alcanzado en cada actividad.7. Debe tenerse en cuenta que las EPS de acuerdo con la Directiva n.° 039-2019-SUNASS-CD consideran otra forma de presentar las fases: Diseño, Reconocimiento de la tarifa y Ejecución. Para mayor detalle revisar la sección Avances en la construcción de los MERESE hidrológicos (p.32, nota al pie 10) y la Directiva n.° 039-2019-SUNASS-CD.Para la identificación de los cuellos de botella, la encuesta incluyó preguntas sobre los diferentes tipos de dificultades en los procesos para alcanzar la implementación de los MERESE. Los cuellos de botella fueron agrupados por tipo: Para el propósito de este estudio, un cuello de botella se define como las actividades o aspectos que disminuyen la velocidad del proceso de implementación de un MERE-SE, incrementando el tiempo de diseño e implementación, reduciendo el número de casos implementados en el país, y aumentando los costos de su implementación.El análisis de los cuellos de botella es un proceso iterativo, dado que este varía dependiendo de los cambios que suceden en un proceso a través del tiempo, o porque la solución de un cuello de botella no ga-rantiza que no vuelvan a presentarse elementos que disminuyan el desarrollo de los procesos.Finalmente, los resultados obtenidos fueron validados y complementados con información adicional provista por diferentes actores relacionados a los MERESE hidrológicos, obtenida en diferentes reuniones.El intercambio de conocimientos con diferentes expertos en la temática sumado a la experiencia de quienes impulsan estos mecanismos ha enriquecido sustancialmente el estudio, otorgándole una visión crítica de estas iniciativas en el Perú.FOTO: Michell León/Proyecto MERESE-FIDANormativa y conceptos generales de los MERESE La ley de los MERESE y su reglamento buscaron, desde el contexto nacional, dar el marco legal a los procesos para la implementación de iniciativas de los MERESE, brindar los lineamientos generales para ordenarlos y orientarlos, así como promover su aplicación en nuevos contextos; y, de manera simple, hacer operativo el concepto de pago por servicios ambientales en el contexto peruano.La ley junto con su reglamento define a los MERESE como instrumentos que, a través de acuerdos voluntarios entre quienes ayudan en la provisión de los servicios ecosistémicos y quienes se benefician de los mismos, generan, canalizan, transfieren e invierten recursos económicos en la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de las fuentes de los servicios ecosistémicos. Asimismo, define a los contribuyentes como personas naturales o jurídicas, públicas o privadas, que mediante acciones técnicamente viables contribuyen a la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de las fuentes de los servicios ecosistémicos. Mientras que, a los retribuyentes los define como personas naturales o jurídicas, públicas o privadas, que, obteniendo un beneficio económico, social o ambiental, retribuyen a los contribuyentes por los servicios ecosistémicos.La Ley de Modernización de los Servicios de Saneamiento, Ley n.° 30045, aprobada en junio de 2013, identifica como uno de sus principios: \"las entidades prestadoras de servicios de saneamiento y la Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento (Sunass) deben establecer en el Plan Maestro Optimizado (PMO), mecanismos de compensación ambiental y manejo de cuencas\" (Congreso de la República, 2013). En junio de 2016 se aprueba su reglamento bajo Decreto Supremo n.° 013-2016-VIVIENDA, donde se define que las EPS tienen la función de \"incorporar en el PMO, de acuerdo con lo establecido por la Sunass, los mecanismos de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos\". En el subcapítulo V sobre la Reestructuración tarifaria, uno de sus artículos determina lo referente a los MERESE, indicando \"mediante Resolución tarifaria, la Sunass establece los mecanismos de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos que son incluidos en el PMO de la EPS y son reconocidos en la tarifas (…); la administración de dichos recursos, que comprende su ejecución, es responsabilidad de la EPS, para lo cual se constituyen fideicomisos, cuentas intangibles en bancos o celebran convenios con entidades privadas especializadas en ejecutar proyectos de protección, conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de las fuentes. La ejecución de dichos recursos se encuentra bajo la supervisión de la Sunass\" (Decreto Supremo n.° 013-2016-VIVIENDA). El 63 % de las cuencas de aporte identificadas pertenecen a la Vertiente del Pacífico, mientras que el 38 % restante a la Vertiente del Amazonas. Del total de iniciativas, 52 se desarrollan en un solo departamento y 2 se tratan de iniciativas birregionales (MERESE EPS SEDACAJ -Jequetepeque y MERESE Cuenca Ica -Huancavelica). Las iniciativas birregionales suponen un reto en su implementación, pues requieren una arquitectura institucional más compleja para la gobernanza del mecanismo y la administración de los fondos.Arequipa, La Libertad y Puno son los tres departamentos donde no se identifican iniciativas vigentes; el resto de las regiones tiene al menos una iniciativa en su jurisdicción. El departamento de Lima es el que presenta el mayor número de MERESE hidrológicos (6) junto con San Martín (6) y seguido de Ica (5), Junín (5) y Cusco (5).11. También conocido como MERESE Rumiyacu, Mishquiyacu y Almendra (RUMIALBA).12. El Gobierno Regional de Tumbes aprobó por Acuerdo de Consejo Regional n.° 031-2018/GOB.REG.TUMBES-CR-CD, el reconocimiento del Grupo Impulsor para la creación del Fondo para la Gestión Integrada del Agua en la Región Tumbes (FONGIAT).El panorama regional de iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos ha ido cambiando con el paso de los años. Al 2015 el departamento de San Martín 13 concentraba la mayor cantidad de MERESE hidrológicos, mientras que Lima e Ica contaban con dos y una iniciativas, respectivamente (Quintero & Pareja, 2015). Asimismo, departamentos que al 2015 no contaban con ningún proceso de MERESE como Ucayali, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Moquegua y Tacna actualmente cuentan con al menos una iniciativa de MERESE hidrológico en curso.La figura 2 muestra la distribución de las iniciativas a nivel nacional. Las dimensiones de las cuencas hidrográficas involucradas en los MERESE hidrológicos varían desde cuencas muy pequeñas como la de Polvorín -Tunqui Cueva del ME-RESE Chontabamba, provincia de Oxapampa de la región de Pasco con un área conjunta de 922 ha; hasta cuencas de gran extensión como la del Nanay en la provincia de Maynas de la región Loreto, con un área de 1 721 343 ha. Las iniciativas que se desarrollan en cuencas de gran extensión significan un reto para la gestión, gobernanza y administración del MERESE hidro-lógico. En estos casos, se priorizan áreas de acuerdo con el estado de conservación, al aporte hídrico y a otros criterios determinados por los gestores de los MERESE. La priorización ha servido para orientar los fondos de inversión en un área que pueda evidenciar los resultados de las acciones. La priorización también ha servido para el proceso de levantamiento de información en campo, considerando que no será posible recolectar datos hidrológicos y socioeconómicos en toda la cuenca (Caja 1).conservación. Esto realza aún más el rol clave que poseen los contribuyentes en los múltiples esfuerzos de conservación y las oportunidades para pensar en el diseño de otros MERESE que incluyan los diversos servicios ecosistémicos presentes. Asimismo, pone en evidencia el rol central del Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas por el Estado (SERNANP), los gobiernos re-gionales y locales, así como organizaciones de la sociedad civil que conducen y apoyan la gestión de áreas naturales protegidas y áreas de conservación en territorios donde se inscriben las iniciativas MERESE hidrológicos. El cuadro 2 muestra los tipos de zonas prioritarias de conservación asociados a los MERESE hidrológicos. Las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos tienen diferentes objetivos en relación con los SEH que proveen los ecosistemas. Los objetivos responden principalmente a un problema en particular, vinculado al recurso hídrico, además de las necesidades de los retribuyentes. Debe considerarse que las iniciativas MERESE pueden presentar más de un objetivo, pues no son excluyentes, y por el contrario buscan mejorar las condiciones de los servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos desde diferentes aristas.Los objetivos suelen definirse en la fase de diagnóstico a la par de la identificación de las zonas de interés hídrico y los servicios hidrológicos que estas proveen. De las cincuenta y cuatro iniciativas identificadas, veinticinco aún no tienen un objetivo definido para el MERESE hidrológico.Como se observa en la figura 3, veintiuna iniciativas reportaron como objetivo, la recuperación del servicio ecosistémico de regulación hídrica. El reglamento de la ley MERESE (Ley n.° 30215) define que \"los MERESE de regulación hídrica son aquellos que, mediante la implementación de acciones, generan, mantienen, incrementan o mejoran la calidad, cantidad y oportunidad del recurso hídrico dentro de los parámetros requeridos para el uso poblacional, riego y generación de energía, entre otros\" (Artículo 26) (MINAM, 2016). De los veinte casos reportados, quince corresponden a uso poblacional donde la gran mayoría de iniciativas tiene como retribuyente a una EPS; mientras que cuatro iniciativas corresponden al uso agrario, y la restante es una empresa privada como retribuyente.Por su parte, doce iniciativas reportaron como objetivo, la recuperación del servicio ecosistémico de control de erosión de suelos. Todos los casos corresponden a iniciativas de EPS donde se busca mejorar la capacidad de los ecosistemas para disminuir las fuerzas de erosión producidas por el agua. Asimismo, once iniciativas de MERESE hidrológico reportaron como objetivo, la recuperación del servicio ecosistémico de calidad de agua. En este grupo predominan las iniciativas lideradas por las EPS (siete casos) y en menor medida iniciativas vinculadas a prestadores no EPS (dos casos) y empresas privadas (dos casos).Por último, dos iniciativas lideradas por la sociedad civil reportaron otros objetivos orientados a un ecosistema específico: la conservación de bosques tropicales (primarios y secundarios) y la conservación, protección y recuperación de bosques y páramos. En ambos casos se entiende que la conservación de estos ecosistemas permitirá asegurar la provisión de agua para los sistemas hídricos.FOTO: Marañón -Michell León -NCI Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos HidrológicosAunque todos estos objetivos buscan el beneficio de todos los actores de la cuenca, es importante destacar el esfuerzo conjunto que las EPS, la Sunass y el MINAM han realizado en priorizar cuál es el SEH de interés de la EPS y por el cual esta recaudará e invertirá la retribución económica. La herramienta de gestión denominada \"Diagnósticos Hidrológicos Rápidos\" 14 ha sido de gran utilidad en este proceso.A pesar de que la Ley n.° 30215 contempla la retribución de servicios ecosistémicos como un mecanismo para la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas fuente de los SEH, se reconoce en las iniciativas estudiadas que adicional a los objetivos de carácter hidrológico, se encuentran los objetivos de carácter social.Las instituciones que lideran los MERESE hidrológicos esperan que la retribución supere los costos de oportunidad de realizar actividades de conservación y/o recuperación de los ecosistemas. Con ello, las iniciativas también intentan contribuir a mejorar la calidad de vida de la población que coopera en la provisión de los SEH, quienes por lo general se ubican en la parte alta de la cuenca y cuentan con recursos económicos escasos. Estos objetivos también están relacionados con las acciones indirectas que se proponen en los MERESE hidrológicos, es decir aquellas acciones que se plantean fuera del ámbito de intervención y que responden a una preocupación por alcanzar la sostenibilidad de las inversiones realizadas; además buscan la disminución de la presión sobre los ecosistemas priorizados. Algunos ejemplos son las acciones desarrolladas en el marco del MERESE EMUSAP en la microcuenca Tilacancha, Amazonas (Caja 2); y el MERESE EPS Moyobamba en las microcuencas Rumiyacu, Mishquiyacu y Almendra en la región San Martín.14. Esta herramienta ha sido desarrollada por la Incubadora de proyectos del MINAM, con el apoyo de Condesan y la Sunass. El concepto de esta herramienta es compatible con lo expuesto en la Resolución de Consejo Directivo n.° 011-2015-SUNASS-CD, donde se hace referencia al Diagnostico Hídrico Base.FOTO: Michell León/FOREST TRENDS Caja 2.El MERESE EMUSAP de la microcuenca Tilacancha, ubicada en la provincia de Chachapoyas del departamento Amazonas, contempla proyectos productivos para las comunidades priorizadas, identificadas como contribuyentes. El Plan de Inversión elaborado por EMUSAP S.A., empresa recaudadora y ejecutora de los fondos del MERESE, contempló un proyecto de apoyo a la cadena productiva de lácteos y otro proyecto de apoyo a la cadena productiva de papa. Ambos proyectos buscan mejorar las condiciones de producción de las familias campesinas mediante el mejoramiento de pasturas y semillas de papa y acciones sanitarias sobre el ganado y la producción agrícola. Los agentes líderes de los MERESE hidrológicos son aquellas instituciones u organizaciones, públicas y/o privadas, interesadas en desarrollar un MERESE hidrológico y que apuestan por liderar y conducir el proceso de diseño, negociación e implementación de la iniciativa. La evidencia muestra que los liderazgos son cambiantes y pueden responder a modificaciones en el marco legal, los recursos económicos y humanos de la institución y organización que lo lidera, o a un proceso de transferencia para hacer sostenible la iniciativa MERESE. Los datos también muestran que los liderazgos no siempre son de una sola institución; surgen alianzas estratégicas entre diversas instituciones del sector público y la sociedad civil.Los agentes líderes de las iniciativas han sido clasificados en cuatro grupos: i) institución pública, ii) sociedad civil, iii) institución pública y sociedad civil, y iv) sociedad civil y empresa privada. La clasificación se ha realizado en función de los datos recopilados para este estudio.El grupo institución pública está compuesto por instituciones del sector público como el MINAM, gobiernos regionales, provinciales y distritales, además de las EPS y las ODS. El grupo denominado sociedad civil aglutina a ONG, institutos de investigación, comunidades campesinas, comités, y juntas de usuarios de riego. La evidencia muestra que los liderazgos no necesariamente corresponden a un solo grupo, también se forman alianzas estratégicas entre las instituciones públicas y la sociedad civil, corresponde al tercer grupo. Por último, el cuarto grupo representa las alianzas entre la sociedad civil y las empresas privadas que apuestan por liderar procesos para implementar los MERESE hidrológicos en el territorio peruano.La figura 5 muestra la distribución de agentes que lideran los MERESE hidrológicos que fueron identificados al 2020. Se observa que el 76 % (41) de iniciativas son lideradas por instituciones del sector público. El 92 % de iniciativas en este grupo son conducidas por las EPS. Esta cifra evidencia el efecto del Decreto Legislativo n.° 1280 que regula la implementación de los ME-RESE hidrológicos para las EPS. La norma contempla que la Sunass brinde asistencia técnica a las EPS para el desarrollo de los instrumentos necesarios para iniciar la recaudación y ejecución de una reserva para los MERESE hidrológicos, haciendo que en la práctica también lideren las iniciativas.Entre el 2017 y el 2018 fueron inauguradas las Oficinas Desconcentradas de la Sunass (ODS) con el objetivo de tener una mejor regulación de la prestación de los servicios de saneamiento en las regiones del país, permitiendo un mayor acercamiento a los usuarios de los servicios de saneamiento. Asimismo, ha permitido reforzar el trabajo desarrollado por la Sunass en las regiones. De acuerdo con sus competencias, viene promoviendo el diseño e implementación de los MERESE con las EPS. En algunos casos las ODS han contribuido o realizado el DHR y la caracterización de contribuyentes, instrumentos necesarios para el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos de acuerdo con la Ley n.° 30215. Mediante la Directiva de la Sunass, la institución ha elaborado un acondicionamiento de la mencionada ley para el caso particular de las EPS. Asimismo, se ha observado que las ODS también fomentan la articulación entre diversos actores involucrados en la cuenca de aporte para las EPS. En ese sentido, han contribuido y fomentado la formación de plataformas de buena gobernanza o grupos impulsores para el diseño e implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos.El resto de las iniciativas lideradas por instituciones públicas se trata de gobiernos regionales (2 casos). Una de ellas es la iniciativa del Fondo Regional del Agua de la región Piura (FORASAN), que fue creada en una alianza interinstitucional entre el GORE Piura y la Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA), delegando su liderazgo al Consejo de Recursos Hídricos de la cuenca Chira -Piura. Por último, se identificaron alianzas entre las EPS y otras instituciones públicas como el MINAM y el SERNANP. Tal es el caso del MERESE Cañete y MERESE Jequetepeque -SEDACAJ, donde el MINAM viene concluyendo el proyecto MERESE -FIDA \"Conservación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas altoandinos del Perú a través del Pago por Servicios Ambientales para el alivio de la pobreza rural y la inclusión social\" desde donde se ha contribuido a la institucionalidad de los MERESE, además de establecer un fondo fiduciario para el monitoreo de las acciones de conservación y uso sostenible implementadas en el marco del proyecto.En la figura 4 también se observa que el 15 % (8) de iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos son lideradas por alianzas entre instituciones del sector público y la socie-dad civil. Cuatro iniciativas corresponden a alianzas estratégicas entre las EPS y comités de gestión, comunidades campesinas o asociaciones civiles. Se identificaron tres casos de alianzas entre gobiernos locales y asociaciones civiles; y un caso de alianza entre una asociación civil, una comunidad campesina, y la autoridad local de agua.EUn caso particular en este grupo es el MERESE Ica -Huancavelica donde la Junta de Usuarios de Aguas Subterráneas del Valle de Ica (JUASVI) y la comunidad campesina de Choclococha conducen el MERESE hidrológico de la mano del MINAM. En el MERESE Ica -Huancavelica el MINAM ha apoyado en la elaboración del diagnóstico de los servicios ecosistémicos (DSE) de la cuenca integrada del río Ica permitiendo contar con una caracterización de la infraestructura natural de la cuenca integrada y una evaluación sobre el estado de conservación de los principales ecosistemas altoandinos. Asimismo, esta herramienta brinda información sobre el estado de la población, los actores vinculados con el acceso y aprovechamiento del recurso hídrico y la condición de los ecosistemas en la cuenca del río Ica y su trasvase. Además, se realizó una caracterización hidrológica y se propuso acciones para invertir los recursos que se buscan recaudar con el MERESE hidrológico. Con los resultados del diagnóstico se planteó talleres de sensibilización orientados a promover la participación de los actores centrales en el esquema planteado en el DSE del MERESE Ica-Huancavelica, las comunidades campesinas priorizadas como posibles contribuyentes y las juntas de regantes como posibles retribuyentes. Asimismo, se realizaron capacitaciones en la formulación de proyectos a los Gobiernos Regional de Ica y Huancavelica y a las EPS con fines de complementar las futuras intervenciones con los recursos de las juntas de usuarios. El MINAM también ha contribuido en la formación del Comité Ecosistémico del MERESE que reúne a los Gobiernos Regionales de Ica y Huancavelica, SUNASS, EMAPICA, representantes de las comunidades priorizadas, MANRHI, ANA, MINAGRI y MINAM. Debido a la pandemia se detuvo el proceso de suscripción del acuerdo de MERESE, generando la suspensión del inicio de las actividades de recuperación del SEH.Por otro lado, el 7 % (4) de estas iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos al 2020 son lideradas por organizaciones de la sociedad civil. Una iniciativa, MERESE Ica -Huancavelica, es la única liderada por una comunidad campesina (CC. Choclococha de Huancavelica) y una junta de usuarios de agua para riego (Junta de Usuarios de Aguas Subterráneas del Valle de Ica) que durante la fase de diseño viene recibiendo el acompañamiento del MINAM (Caja 3). Tres iniciativas corresponden a liderazgos de organizaciones que trabajan en la zona y tienen un contacto directo con las poblaciones y comunidades priorizadas como contribuyentes. El trabajo realizado por estas organizaciones ha sido clave para el establecimiento de acuerdos y compromisos con las comunidades y poblaciones priorizadas (contribuyentes). En muchos casos también cumplen un rol de asistencia técnica para la iniciativa. Debe considerarse que estas organizaciones insertan las iniciativas MERESE en proyectos con fondos que brindan un primer impulso para el establecimiento del esquema. Por ese motivo, logran destinar fondos a actividades en el marco de los MERESE, por ejemplo, procesos de sensibilización, acciones de conservación para afianzar los acuerdos, asistencia técnica, entre otros. Esta situación deja entrever el papel clave que la sociedad civil ejerce en el desarrollo de los mecanismos, pero a la vez el reto que tiene cada iniciativa de consolidar un esquema donde la intervención de estas organizaciones no sea indispensable durante la fase de implementación y en su sostenibilidad en el tiempo. De esta manera resultan importantes los procesos de transferencia de la iniciativa cuando el proyecto matriz termina.La constitución del Fondo del Agua Quiroz -Chira es el resultado del aporte del proyecto \"Asegurando la provisión de agua en las cabeceras de cuenca de la Región Piura: Establecimiento de un fondo ambiental para la gestión participativa de ecosistemas andinos\", apoyado por el Programa de Manejo Forestal Sostenible en la Región Andina del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) mediante el financiamiento del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Finlandia. Si bien el proyecto culminó alcanzando una serie de logros como la reforestación de bosques con plantas nativas y frutales, la creación de viveros forestales y la implementación de sistemas de riego, entre otros. La iniciativa logró consolidarse como un Fondo para la conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas altoandinos de la cuenca Quiroz y Chira asegurando el compromiso de socios fundadores que hoy en día son retribuyentes. Se trata de la Junta de Usuarios San Lorenzo, Junta de Usuarios Valle del Chira, Municipalidad Provincial de Ayabaca, Municipalidad Distrital de Pacaipampa, y Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional, que bajo diversas modalidades (aporte económico, apoyo técnico, proyectos de inversión de infraestructura natural, entre otros) aportan al Fondo de Agua. De acuerdo con Naturaleza y Cultura, organización que lidera desde la creación del Fondo hasta ahora, el principal reto fue comprometer fondos de los regantes, considerando que el sector agrícola es quien demanda mayor agua. Luego de un proceso de sensibilización y desarrollo de capacidades, se ha logrado que las Juntas de Usuarios aporten de manera continua al Fondo del Agua. Asimismo, mediante estrategias de transparencia donde son las mismas Juntas de Usuarios, por medio de sus representantes, pueden conocer y dar cuenta de qué es lo que se realiza con sus aportes.El Fondo de Agua Quiroz -Chira ha logrado trascender la vida del proyecto que fundó la iniciativa. Asimismo, ha logrado establecer un liderazgo compartido entre organizaciones de la sociedad civil como son la junta de regantes y las comunidades campesinas con el apoyo técnico de Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional (Caja 4).Finalmente, el 2 % restante corresponde a iniciativas lideradas por la sociedad civil y el sector privado (1). Es el caso del Fondo de Agua para Lima y Callao -AquaFondo, que junto a The Nature Conservancy, Backus y Nestlé realizan inversiones en infraestructura natural en la subcuenca de Santa Eulalia, una de las principales cuencas de aporte para la provisión de agua para Lima y Callao. Los resultados muestran que el involucramiento de empresas privadas en la conducción de los MERESE hidrológicos aún es bastante reducido. La labor de AquaFondo es una muestra de las oportunidades para que las empresas privadas participen activamente en inversiones sostenibles en servicios ecosistémicos que aporten a la seguridad hídrica teniendo como soporte la investigación científica para medir el impacto de las inversiones.A lo largo del desarrollo de las iniciativas MERESE y en el actual análisis, se registra un cambio importante sobre el número de iniciativas y las instituciones que lideran estos procesos. La figura 5 muestra los liderazgos de las iniciativas MERESE hidrológicos entre el 2013 y el 2020, a la par del número de iniciativas identificado en cada año. Se evidencia el crecimiento de los MERESE que son liderados por alguna institución pública donde en siete años se pasó de 2 a 41 iniciativas. Este crecimiento se explica principalmente por las iniciativas impulsadas a partir del D.L. n.° 1280 y la promoción de los MERESE por parte de la Sunass en las EPS. Por otro lado, el liderazgo de la sociedad civil en los últimos siete años se ha reducido considerablemente. La figura 6 muestra que para el 2013 las organizaciones de la sociedad civil eran las que lideraban los procesos de los MERESE hidrológicos, mientras que con el paso de los años han cedido el rol de líder en el proceso a otras instituciones, a la par que nuevas iniciativas surgen con liderazgos fuera de la sociedad civil. Esto no significa que las organizaciones de la sociedad civil no participen activamente en el diseño e implementación de los MERESE; esta tendencia puede explicarse por los procesos de transferencia que han realizado las organizaciones de la sociedad civil a instancias de gobierno o compartidos liderazgos con ellas. Es relevante indicar que varias de las iniciativas que fueron lideradas por la sociedad civil, en particular por ONG, surgen en proyectos puntuales con plazos determinados y donde eventualmente, ceden su liderazgo a otros actores locales (Caja 5). En algunos casos, las ONG siguen participando activamente en los mecanismos como parte de un grupo más amplio de actores, el cual se organiza como grupos gestores o grupos técnicos de apoyo para la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos. Ins�tución pública Ins�tución pública y sociedad civil Sociedad civil Sociedad civil y empresa privada Caja 5.El MERESE EPS Moyobamba nace bajo el nombre de \"Compensación por servicios ecosistémicos en las microcuencas Rumiyacu, Mishquiyacu y Almendra\" en el departamento de San Martín. Esta iniciativa, pionera para el país, actualmente está liderada por el Comité Gestor del Mecanismo de Retribución de Servicios Ecosistémicos -Moyobamba y la EPS Moyobamba. Esta iniciativa nace del esfuerzo conjunto entre la sociedad civil (CONDESAN), el Gobierno Regional de San Martín a través del Proyecto Especial Alto Mayo (PEAM) y la cooperación internacional (GTZ, hoy GIZ). Los procesos iniciales del MERESE hidrológico se condujeron en el marco de la alianza interinstitucional, donde también se involucró a la EPS Moyobamba. En el 2006, la EPS Moyobamba incorpora en su Plan Maestro Optimizado (PMO) el requerimiento de prevenir y mitigar los impactos que vienen ocurriendo en las microcuencas de las que se abastecen de agua. Bajo la Resolución n.° 080-2007-SUNASS-CD del Consejo Directivo se aprueba el incremento de la tarifa bajo una serie de condiciones, entre ellas la formación de un Comité de Gestión del MERESE hidrológico. En el 2008 se logra constituir formalmente el Comité Gestor conformado por un amplio número de representantes institucionales de la zona, la provincia y el departamento. Es así como se elaboran y aprueban sus estatutos y se conforma el primer Consejo Directivo. Actualmente el Comité Gestor, hoy con personería jurídica, y la EPS Moyobamba son quienes lo lideran. Debe señalarse que parte del proceso de consolidación del MERESE hidrológico significó el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de los actores que forman parte del Comité; esto considerando todas las funciones que tiene el Comité como coordinar, promover y concertar con diferentes actores para la implementación del MERESE; generar y difundir información; gestionar otras fuentes de financiamiento; realizar el monitoreo del cumplimiento de los acuerdos; entre otras.Si bien las organizaciones de la sociedad civil han disminuido su protagonismo en liderar los procesos, no han dejado de promover y, en menor medida, liderar estas iniciativas (Caja 6).En la microcuenca Batán en la región San Martín, Amazónicos por la Amazonía (AMPA) lidera un MERESE mediante el proyecto auspiciado por Andes Amazon Fund en el distrito de Pólvora, provincia de Tocache. La microcuenca priorizada se ubica en la concesión para la conservación Bosque de Maná Hermoso. Mediante el MERESE se busca habilitar con agua a la cuenca baja de la microcuenca Batán debido a que no todas las comunidades cuentan en su totalidad con acceso a este recurso para uso doméstico. Previo a la implementación del pago de la retribución se acordó conjuntamente, que las condiciones de acceso al agua para consumo doméstico debían mejorar. AMPA crea la JASS \"Agua, Salud y Vida Valle Nuevo Horizonte\" para atender la prestación del servicio de agua potable. En paralelo, se articulan con la Municipalidad Provincial de Tocache para que esta refaccione el sistema de tuberías y logre llegar a las nueve comunidades involucradas. Mediante fuertes campañas de sensibilización y difusión del MERESE hidrológico se ha logrado comprometer a nueve comunidades que realizan el aporte de un sol por conexión de agua, destinado a un fondo que se ha denominado \"Fondo Verde\". En paralelo, se ha formalizado la conformación del Comité Gestor del MERESE de la microcuenca Batán, integrado por representantes de las comunidades Nuevo Horizonte, Primavera, Nuevo Casma, Nuevo Pataz, Bolívar, Nuevo San Antonio, Maná Hermoso y Challuayacu. Este comité tiene la labor de fiscalizar la administración de los fondos recaudados por la JASS. Por el momento se ha definido que el monto recaudado sirva para actividades de control y vigilancia del ámbito de la microcuenca Batán, y progresivamente la reforestación de las fajas marginales. AMPA es quien lidera la iniciativa, pero esperan que su gestión pueda ser asumida en su totalidad por el Comité Gestor.Por último, el involucramiento de las empresas privadas en liderar los procesos de los MERESE hidrológicos es reciente y se desarrolla en alianza con la sociedad civil. El único caso que se registró es el del Fondo del Agua para Lima -AquaFondo que lidera el ME-RESE junto a The Nature Conservancy, Backus y Nestlé. AquaFondo realiza inversiones en proyectos de infraestructura natural integrando conocimientos y técnicas ancestrales en la subcuenca Santa Eulalia, la cual aporta el agua para Lima y Callao. Con ello, se busca mejorar el servicio de regulación hídrica con el fin de aumentar la disponibilidad del recurso.La identificación de los contribuyentes y retribuyentes en el marco de la cuenca hidrográfica es una de las primeras tareas en la construcción de un MERESE hidrológico. En la fase de diagnóstico se suele tener un panorama general sobre los actores que se relacionan por medio de la provisión y uso del recurso hídrico. Para la etapa de diseño se espera que se prioricen contribuyentes y retribuyentes de acuerdo con los intereses de la iniciativa. La priorización de los retribuyentes suele ser más fácil que la determinación de los contribuyentes, debido a que los primeros están relacionados a los beneficiarios del SEH. En el caso de los contribuyentes, en cambio, es necesario identificar previamente la zona prioritaria de interés hídrico de la cuenca, lo cual puede requerir de la realización de estudios y salidas de reconocimiento de campo.Es usual que en los esquemas de los ME-RESE hidrológicos que tiene como objetivo mantener o mejorar el servicio de regulación hídrica, los ecosistemas que se asumen clave para la provisión de SEH usual-mente se encuentran en las zonas altas de las cuencas. En estas zonas suelen ubicarse también los contribuyentes, los cuales se pueden definir de acuerdo con el tipo de organización, naturaleza jurídica y por el tipo de tenencia de la tierra. El tipo de organización se refiere a si se trata de una comunidad campesina, comunidad indígena, asociación de productores o mancomunidad. Si se trata de la tenencia de la tierra se identificarán propietarios o posesionarios. La figura 7 muestra la distribución de los contribuyentes priorizados en las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos al 2020. Entre el conjunto de contribuyentes priorizados en los MERESE hidrológicos se evidencia que los propietarios o posesionarios individuales (23 %) y las comunidades campesinas (26 %) son el tipo de contribuyente más frecuente, representando en conjunto casi la mitad de estos (49 %). En menor porcentaje se encuentran las comunidades indígenas, áreas naturales protegidas y asociaciones de productores. Caja 7.El MERESE Cañete es liderado por la EPS EMAPA Cañete y el Sernanp, con el apoyo del proyecto MERESE-FIDA del MINAM. La Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos -Cochas (RPNYC) es el contribuyente en este MERESE y la EPS EMAPA Cañete ha optado por la modalidad de contrato directo con el Sernanp que administra la RPNYC. A la fecha se cuenta con un Plan de Intervenciones que será implementado por el Sernanp de acuerdo con el área priorizada por la EPS mediante la herramienta DHR. Será importante dar seguimiento a esta iniciativa pues representa el primer caso para el sector saneamiento de modalidad de ejecución bajo contrato de retribución con los contribuyentes.Entre las 54 iniciativas MERESE identificadas hasta el momento, casi la mitad (43 %) se encuentra en proceso de identificación de los contribuyentes. La gran mayoría son iniciativas relativamente nuevas impulsadas por las EPS y con el apoyo técnico de la Sunass. Esta cifra guarda relación con el estado de avance 15 en el que se encuentran las iniciativas; gran parte de ellas se encuentra en una fase de diseño y en proceso de elaborar estudios para priorizar qué actor formará parte del esquema ME-RESE hidrológico. Adicionalmente, muchas EPS presentan problemas por la limitación de sus recursos, afectando la realización de estudios previos a la implementación. En particular, el 2020 fue un año más difícil por el contexto de pandemia y las mayores limitaciones en los recursos financieros. Se espera que esta situación pueda regularizarse y retomar los procesos de priorización de contribuyentes.Debe resaltarse que la identificación de las características de los contribuyentes es de suma importancia para el establecimiento de acuerdos para el funcionamiento del esquema MERESE. De esta manera se ase-gura el reconocimiento de las necesidades y demandas de los contribuyentes buscando articularlas con los objetivos en el esquema de los MERESE hidrológicos.En cuanto a la priorización de los retribuyentes, se trata de un proceso dinámico y que puede tomar tiempo en llegar a acuerdos concretos. Existen factores que definen los procesos de negociación con los posibles retribuyentes, entre ellos el contexto en el que se diseña el MERESE hidrológico, la capacidad de negociación que tenga la institución que lidera la iniciativa, el acceso a información que permita demostrar la importancia de recuperar y conservar áreas prioritarias para el SEH, la disposición de participar de los retribuyentes, entre otros. La figura 8 muestra la priorización de retribuyentes, esto significa la identificación de los posibles aportantes para el MERESE Hidrológico. Es de resaltar que esto no significa que en la actualidad realicen algún aporte; sin embargo, permite tener una muestra de qué tipo de usuarios y actores comprenden los MERESE hidrológicos en el país.Figura 8. Retribuyentes priorizados al 2020 15. Para mayor detalle revisar la sección 5: \"Avances en la construcción de los MERESE hidrológicos\" (p. 40)Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos HidrológicosComo se muestra en la figura 7, actualmente, los principales retribuyentes son las EPS que abarcan a usuarios de agua potable. Las EPS se encargan de recaudar fondos para los MERESE por medio de su tarifa; sin embargo, también hay presencia de JASS, por ejemplo, en las iniciativas ubicadas en los distritos de Chontabamba y Huancabamba de la región Pasco, la iniciativa en la microcuenca Batán en la región San Martín y el MERESE Copallín Cajaruro en Amazonas. Las iniciativas lideradas por el Instituto del Bien Común en Oxapampa (MERESE Chontabamba y MERESE Huancabamba) y AMPA (MERESE Microcuenca Batán) han priorizado el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de las JASS antes de iniciar el proceso de recaudación. Se espera que, con el fortalecimiento de las JASS, la administración de los fondos recaudados sea eficiente y logren implementar estrategias de transparencia para crear un ambiente de confianza entre los retribuyentes. Estas iniciativas resultan importantes como estudios de caso para evaluar los MERESE con usuarios de agua potable en zonas rurales. Debido a la situación de las microcuencas de donde provienen los SEH, han encontrado que el MERESE se adecúa a sus necesidades de conservación y recuperación y a su disponibilidad de generar un fondo para que sean invertidas en estas acciones.El 12 % de retribuyentes son identificados como usuarios de agua para riego. De acuerdo con la Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA), en el Perú el uso que demanda mayor cantidad de agua es el agrario en el consuntivo, es decir volumen de agua que se consume efectivamente en la actividad, lo cual supone el 89 % de la demanda total consuntiva (Autoridad Nacional del Agua, 2013). En tal sentido, resulta muy importante las iniciativas que priorizan a los regantes como retribuyentes en los esquemas de MERESE hidrológico.A nivel nacional las juntas de usuarios de riego están organizadas en la Junta Nacional de Usuarios de los Distritos de Riego del Perú -JNUDRP, una organización civil privada sin fines de lucro, que actualmente representa a 114 juntas de usuarios del país, las cuales a su vez agrupan a más de 1 656 comisiones de usuarios y una base social de más de dos millones de productores agrarios debidamente empadronados en el ámbito nacional. Si bien existen juntas de usuarios en la costa, sierra y selva, las primeras son las que manejan una mayor superficie agrícola, mayor infraestructura hidráulica y son más dependientes de sistemas regulados, como por ejemplo reservorios abastecidos por agua superficial proveniente de la misma cuenca o por trasvase de cuencas vecinas. De las cinco iniciativas vinculadas a juntas de usuarios, tres de ellas se ubican en la costa (MERESE Ica -Huancavelica, Fondo de Agua Quiroz -Chira y Fondo Regional del Agua de la región Piura); mientras que las restantes se ubican en regiones de la Amazonía (MERESE Cumbaza en la región San Martín y MERESE Copallín Cajaruro en la región Amazonas) (Caja 8).Caja 8.La comunidad campesina de Copallín en la región Amazonas lidera el MERESE hidrológico Copallín en coordinación con la Asociación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (APECO) y la Autoridad Local del Agua (ALA) Utcubamba. La comunidad administra un Área de Conservación Privada donde se conservan 11 500 hectáreas de bosques tropical montano. Esta área provee de agua a 5 mil familias dedicadas al cultivo del arroz. Los usuarios de riego se encuentran organizados en la Junta de Usuarios de Bagua y Utcubamba, además de las Comisiones de Regantes de las microcuencas Copallín, San Juan, Naranjos, El Ron y Naranjitos ubicados en los distritos de Copallín y Cajaruro. Desde el 2008, APECO viene trabajando campañas informativas y de sensibilización con las organizaciones de regantes con el fin de dar a conocer la importancia de la ACP Copallín para el mantenimiento de la calidad y cantidad del agua en las microcuencas de interés. A fines del 2019, se llegó a un acuerdo a nivel de autoridades de los usuarios de riego; sin embargo, el proceso de socialización se vio interrumpido por el inicio de la emergencia sanitaria por la COVID-19.Las juntas de usuarios incluyen a empresas agroexportadoras, por lo que el diseño de un MERESE en donde participa un usuario agrario debe considerar que los aportes económicos de estas empresas serán adicionales al que se establezca como la retribución de la junta de usuarios para el MERESE, lo que demandaría acercamientos y negociaciones específicas con estas empresas. Las iniciativas para juntas de usuarios no cuentan con una ley específica que regule su participación en los esquemas de los MERESE hidrológicos; sin embargo, cuentan con el artículo 28 del reglamento de la Ley n.° 30215 en el que se indica que aquellas juntas de usuarios u operadores de infraestructura hidráulica que prevean en sus planes de operación, mantenimiento y desarrollo de la infraestructura hidráulica la inversión en acciones de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas podrán suscribir acuerdos de MERESE. En este marco las iniciativas vigentes dan cuenta del éxito y los procesos necesarios para entablar compromisos con los regantes dentro del marco de la mencionada ley.Como se mencionó líneas arriba, la priorización de los retribuyentes no necesariamente significa que estos realicen algún aporte en la actualidad. De las iniciativas identificadas, el 72 % de ellas reporta al menos una fuente de recaudación efectiva por concepto de MERESE, es decir, existe una recaudación, y por lo tanto un fondo para financiar acciones de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas que proveen servicios hidrológicos. El 24 % no registra ninguna recaudación a la fecha de recolección de datos, y el 4 % restante no cuenta con información. Del 72 % de iniciativas con recaudación MERESE, cerca del 26 % de estas vienen ejecutando los recursos.Además de los recursos obtenidos por los retribuyentes, en algunas iniciativas MERE-SE hidrológicos se han identificado recursos por parte de los gobiernos regionales y locales mediante la formulación y ejecución de proyectos de inversión. De acuerdo con la Ley n.° 30215, los gobiernos regionales y locales deben promover y facilitar la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos; además de cumplir e implementar los li-neamientos, directrices, procedimientos, metodologías, entre otros, que desarrolle el MINAM para el diseño e implementación de los MERESE. El rol de los gobiernos regionales y locales es clave para la promoción y desarrollo de los MERESE, potenciando el impacto de las intervenciones en las áreas priorizadas por proveer servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos (Caja 9).Caja 9.Para la iniciativa en la cuenca Cachi en Ayacucho, implementada por la EPS SEDA Ayacucho, el Gobierno Regional de Ayacucho apoyó con la formulación de un perfil de proyecto para que la EPS pueda ejecutarlo con los fondos recaudados. Para ello, el GORE Ayacucho recibió del MINAM un estudio de pre-inversión donde se incorporaron algunos temas para cumplir con los requerimientos de la unidad evaluadora, concluyendo en un perfil de proyecto de inversión. En paralelo, la Gerencia de Recursos Naturales y Medioambiente del mencionado GORE incluyó nuevos proyectos sobre recuperación de servicios ecosistémicos de regulación hídrica para las microcuencas que componen la cuenca del río Cachi en el Plan Multianual de Inversiones (PMI). Esta inclusión de nuevos proyectos en la cartera del GORE Ayacucho permitirá que las inversiones se articulen con el área de interés hidrológico y lograr mejores resultados y un mayor impacto en la conservación y recuperación de áreas priorizadas por el MERESE EPS SEDA Ayacucho.Como se indicó en la sección 2 (Metodología), para medir el avance de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos 16 , en este documento, se dividió el proceso hacia la implementación en cinco fases: preliminar, diagnóstico, diseño, negociación e implementación. Cada fase contiene una puntuación donde los casos más avanzados (en implementación) alcanzan los 20 puntos. Para un mayor detalle de la herramienta revisar el Anexo 1.• La fase preliminar se determina por la existencia de personas y/o instituciones interesadas en impulsar un MERE-SE. Para ello se plantean reuniones periódicas entre los actores interesados para definir el alcance del MERESE.• Durante la fase de diagnóstico se define de forma clara el objetivo del ME-RESE, se identifican todos los actores de la cuenca hidrográfica priorizada, se realizan diversos estudios (línea base biofísica, estudios legales, financieros y/o de valoración económica, etc.), se identifica la zona de interés hídrico y los servicios que esta provee.• La fase de negociación supone el interés de los retribuyentes y contribuyentes en participar del esquema planteado, también se acuerda un potencial monto de aportación por parte de los retribuyentes interesados. Asimismo, se identifican junto con los contribuyentes los tipos de acciones de conservación, recuperación y/o uso sostenible que son viables de realizar en la zona de interés hídrico. Por último, se firman acuerdos o contratos entre los retribuyentes y contribuyentes.• La fase de implementación supone la recaudación de los retribuyentes, se transfiere lo recaudado a los contribuyentes o se ejecuta bajo diversas modalidades, se implementan las intervenciones previstas en la fase de negociación, y por último se realiza el monitoreo de los acuerdos y del impacto de las intervenciones implementadas a través del MERESE. Se plantea como un elemento transversal la formación de una Plataforma de Buena Gobernanza conformada por diferentes actores públicos y privados con el objetivo de monitorear el cumplimiento de los acuerdos y supervisar la transparencia de la retribución.Cabe resaltar que las fases señaladas en el presente documento no obligan a que los MERESE lleven a cabo estas fases, en el mismo orden, o las sigan de manera imperativa, a excepción de las iniciativas conducidas por las EPS que cuentan con una normativa propia para la incorporación del MERESE en la tarifa de agua potable y la ejecución de la reserva Por otro lado, el 28 % (15) de iniciativas cuentan con el puntaje completo en las fases preliminar, diseño, diagnóstico y negociación, alcanzando casi la totalidad de la fase de implementación. En este grupo se encuentran 5 iniciativas MERESE hidrológicos, lideradas y gestionadas principalmente por EPS, que les hace falta realizar el monitoreo del impacto de las intervenciones, es decir están muy próximas a completar los criterios que definen la fase de implementación. El resto de las iniciativas de este grupo han logrado la recaudación de los aportes de los retribuyentes sin aún ejecutar los fondos, y por lo tanto aún no pueden monitorear los acuerdos firmados con los contribuyentes.Asimismo, los gráficos muestran que el 50 % (27) de iniciativas alcanzan la fase de negociación sin necesariamente haber concretado acuerdos entre los retribuyentes y contribuyentes. La gran mayoría de iniciativas de MERESE hidrológicos en este grupo (22) son lideradas y gestionadas por EPS que cuentan con una tarifa aprobada por Sunass donde se incorpora el fondo de reserva para el MERESE. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, las iniciativas aún se encuentran en proceso de priorizar a los contribuyentes para identificar las posibles acciones de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible que serán implementadas en la zona de interés hídrico. En este grupo hay 15 iniciativas que presentan las mismas características en cuanto al estado actual: todas ellas han definido la zona de interés hídrico, por defecto se conoce que serán las propias EPS quienes recaudarán y administrarán los recursos económicos que aportan los usuarios de agua potable y cuentan con una tarifa aprobada donde se incorporan los costos asociados a los MERESE.Por otro lado, el 11 % (6) de iniciativas alcanzan la fase de diseño sin necesariamente haber cumplido con los criterios para completar la fase de diagnóstico. Dos iniciativas ubicadas en este grupo, conducidas por EPS, aún no han realizado ningún estudio para identificar la zona de interés hídrico y los servicios hidrológicos que esta provee; y por defecto se tiene identificado que la EPS será quien recaude y administre los recursos económicos que aportan los usuarios de agua potable. Otras dos iniciativas han logrado identificar la zona de interés hídrico y aún se encuentran en proceso de priorizar a los contribuyentes. Debe resaltarse que estas dos iniciativas MERESE corresponden a EPS que aún no cuentan con tarifa aprobada por la Sunass donde se incorporen los costos asociados al MERESE. Las otras dos iniciativas son impulsadas por gobiernos regionales, una de ellas no presenta ningún avance sustancial desde el 2018, mientras que la otra se encuentra en proceso de terminar los estudios de base e iniciar negociaciones con el retribuyente identificado.Finalmente, se reporta la iniciativa MERESE Olmos en fase de diagnóstico; mientras que la iniciativa MERESE Tumbes se encuentra en fase preliminar. Por el momento, esta última cuenta con un grupo impulsor que viene gestionando la formulación de estudios hidrológicos, económicos y legales que permita la creación del Fondo para la Gestión Integrada del Agua en la Región Tumbes (FONGIAT). Nº Plataforma de Buena Gobernanza MERESE hidrológicoLa Ley n.° 30215 estipula la creación de Plataformas de Buena Gobernanza de los ME-RESE. La plataforma es un espacio donde confluyen diferentes actores del sector público y privado, vinculados al MERESE, con el fin de monitorear el cumplimiento de los acuerdos y supervisar la transparencia de la retribución. Estos espacios significan una oportunidad de encuentro y diálogo entre los diversos actores, permitiendo conocer cuáles son las expectativas y demandas dentro del marco del MERESE. También se constituye como un espacio para tomar decisiones consensuadas. No en todos los casos toma el nombre de Plataforma de Buena Gobernanza, hay iniciativas que lo denominan Comité Gestor del MERESE hidrológico, Grupo Técnico de Gestión o Comité Impulsor (este corresponde usualmente al nombre en fase inicial). La constitución de una plataforma que cumpla con estas características puede darse en cualquiera de las fases planteadas en la construcción de un MERESE, por eso es considerado un elemento transversal a la iniciativa. Una de las funciones del Ministerio del Ambiente con relación a los MERESE es promover la conformación de Plataformas de Buena Gobernanza. Actualmente, el MINAM viene acompañando procesos de gobernanza en los MERESE Ica -Huancavelica, MERESE Cañete, y MERESE Jequetepeque. Actualmente, el 43 % de los MERESE identificados cuenta con una Plataforma de Buena Gobernanza, mientras que el 57 % restante aún no desarrollan una plataforma con los fines mencionados anteriormente. La figura 11 muestra la conformación de 22 Plataformas de Buena Gobernanza entre el 2008 y 2020 (no se cuenta con información del año de conformación de una de las plataformas).Otro elemento importante sobre la gobernanza en los MERESE hidrológicos es la articulación con otros espacios de gobernanza como son los Consejos de Recursos Hídricos de Cuenca (CRHC) promovidos y liderados por la Autoridad Nacional del Agua (ANA). Debido a que los MERESE hidrológicos se inscriben en una cuenca hidrográfica (de acuerdo con su alcance, varía entre microcuenca, subcuenca o cuenca) resulta importante su articulación con los CRHC, los cuales son espacios institucionales de diálogo, donde los actores relacionados a la gestión del agua en las cuencas discuten sus problemas con el fin de llegar a consensos, tomando acuerdos y comprometiéndose con la implementación de las acciones en sus respectivas cuencas. Mediante los CRHC, los actores de la cuenca participan en la planificación, coordinación y concertación para el aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos hídricos en sus respectivos ámbitos mediante el Plan de Gestión de Recursos Hídricos de la Cuenca.La ANA ha planificado la implementación de 29 CRHC en total, de los cuales a la fecha se han creado 12, y 3 de ellos se encuentran en proceso de conformación. Los CRHC creados son: Tumbes, Chira -Piura, Chancay -Lambayeque, Chancay -Huaral, Quilca -Chili, Caplina -Locumba, Jequetepeque -Zaña, Chillón -Rímac -Lurín, Tambo -Santiago -Ica, Vilcanota -Urubamba, Mantaro, y Pampas. Los CRHC en proceso de conformación son: Tambo -Moquegua, Titicaca, y Mala -Omas -Cañete. Se esperaría que las Plataformas de Buena Gobernanza de los MERESE hidrológicos, los Grupos Impulsores, Comités de Microcuenca o plataformas afines al monitoreo y supervisión de los MERESE hidrológicos puedan ser incorporados dentro de los CRHC. Resultaría importante la articulación de ambos, considerando que se comparte el interés en la gestión de recursos hídricos en la cuenca priorizada.Actualmente, el MINAM viene implementando el proyecto MERESE -FIDA \"Conservación y uso sostenible de ecosistemas altoandinos del Perú a través del pago por servicios ambientales para el alivio de la pobreza rural e inclusión social\" desde donde se impulsa el MERESE Jequetepeque. Previo al diseño del MERESE, en la cuenca se identificó la existencia del Consejo de Recursos Hídricos de Cuenca Jequetepeque -Zaña. La estrategia fue establecer a la Plataforma de Buena Gobernanza como un Grupo de Trabajo del CRHC, de esa manera se insertó al MERESE dentro de la agenda del CRHC. Por otro lado, el Fondo Regional del Agua (FORASAN) de Piura se encuentra gestionado por el CRHC Chira -Piura bajo la Secretaría Técnica del propio Consejo.Los cuellos de botella son las actividades o aspectos que reducen la velocidad de avance de un proceso existente. Es decir, no son limitaciones para que exista o no el proceso, sino aquellas que durante un proceso hacen que este sea lento y no llegue a su fin. Los cuellos de botella pueden ser de diferente tipo. En el presente documento se presentan los cuellos de botella de los siguientes tipos: jurídicos, institucional, social, técnico, económico o político.Para este análisis se han dividido las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos en dos grupos: iniciativas que son conducidas y lideradas por una EPS (Grupo 1) 20 e iniciativas que no son lideradas por una EPS (Grupo 2). El análisis sobre cuellos de botella en los MERESE de las EPS consiste en una evaluación general del sector saneamiento a cargo de un representante de la Sunass. Para el resto de iniciativas de MERESE hidrológicos, la información fue reportada por sus representantes mediante un formulario.Desde el sector saneamiento se identifican tres cuellos de botella para las iniciativas de MERESE de las EPS. En primer lugar, un cuello de botella institucional donde se reconoce que varias EPS aún no logran incorporar la conservación y recuperación de las fuentes de agua en su cultura institucional. Desde el sector saneamiento se ha promovido un nuevo enfoque en las EPS que ha significado un cambio de paradig-ma para el sector, pues se plantea trabajar con un enfoque integral en el marco de la gestión integral de los recursos hídricos. En tal sentido, los MERESE han contribuido a abordar este enfoque, permitiendo que las EPS atiendan las fuentes de agua y no únicamente los puntos de captación y distribución. De esta manera, se aproximan a las cuencas de aporte desde un enfoque de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible, pues se entiende que beneficia la cantidad y calidad de agua que requieren las EPS para sus operaciones. Pese a los avances de la Sunass, se identifica que las EPS requieren adecuar su estructura organizativa para atender los retos de este nuevo enfoque, donde se incorpora la infraestructura natural como parte de las estrategias para gestionar el saneamiento. Esta adecuación permitirá la incorporación de especialistas ambientales necesarios para el diseño y ejecución de los MERESE.Un segundo cuello de botella identificado por el sector es de tipo técnico y corresponde a la ausencia de metodologías para determinar la ganancia hídrica en términos monetarios por la implementación de acciones en las cuencas de aporte. Las EPS y el sector saneamiento, han avanzado en generar evidencia hidrológica en base a los sistemas de monitoreo hidrológico que ahora son parte del diseño de los MERE-SE. Sin embargo, persiste la ausencia de metodologías para rentabilizar la ganancia 20. La información para esta sección ha sido documentada por medio de una entrevista al director de la Dirección de Ámbito de la Prestación de Sunass.hídrica por acciones de conservación o recuperación en las cuencas en aporte, de tal manera que pueda evaluarse posibles ahorros y retorno de la inversión que realiza la EPS.El tercer cuello de botella que identifica el sector saneamiento es de tipo técnico y corresponde a la ausencia de esquemas costo efectivos para las cuencas amazónicas. Una característica específica de las EPS de la Amazonía es el tamaño reducido de las empresas y la generación de fondos reducidos en relación con el tamaño de sus cuencas de aporte. En este escenario, la Sunass viene trabajando en identificar la forma óptima, desde un enfoque costo efectivo, para diseñar las inversiones en los MERESE con estas características. Por el momento el sector ha identificado algunas respuestas, pero se requiere mayor articulación con otros actores que también hacen uso del recurso hídrico, y otros que puedan proporcionar evidencia como la academia.Por otro lado, al analizar los cuellos de botella reportados por los actores de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos del Grupo 2 (no lideradas por una EPS) se identificaron que varios de ellos responden a factores de contexto que impiden que se den las condiciones habilitantes para el desarrollo de estas. Un primer factor es la inestabilidad política en algunos gobiernos regionales y locales que ha perjudicado el avance de iniciativas vinculadas a ellos. A falta de una estrategia en las instituciones que logre darle continuidad a los MERESE frente a cambios de funcionarios o técnicos, los procesos se paralizan. Este ha sido el caso de la iniciativa de la cuenca del río Santa, los entrevistados indicaron que la inestabilidad en el Gobierno Regional de Áncash en años previos perjudicó procesos en curso, entre ellos los relacionados al MERESE de la cuenca del Santa. Hasta la fecha esta iniciativa se mantiene en fase de diseño desde el 2015. Un segundo factor se identificó en iniciativas donde los retribuyentes son usuarios de agua potable gestionada por una Junta Administradora de Servicio de Saneamiento (JASS) o municipalidades locales. En estas iniciativas la prestación de los servicios de saneamiento es deficiente, siendo un factor de contexto que debilita el desarrollo del MERESE. Por ejemplo, el MERESE Batán, en la región San Martín, señala que la JASS no tiene la capacidad de brindar un buen servicio a las nueve comunidades y por lo tanto los usuarios no suelen dar el aporte para el MERESE de manera continua. En el MERESE Chontabamba, en la región Pasco, la situación es similar. La provisión de agua potable bajo la responsabilidad de la Municipalidad Distrital de Chontabamba no es buena desde la perspectiva de los usuarios y por lo tanto hay un grupo importante que tiene reticencia a comprometerse con un pago adicional para el MERESE.Un tercer factor es la falta de voluntad política para acompañar procesos que impulsen los MERESE. En algunas iniciativas como las de Oxapampa y Huancabamba, ha sido importante el reconocimiento de los acuerdos entre contribuyentes y retribuyentes por una institución pública como la Municipalidad Provincial de Oxapampa. Entre los procesos asociados a voluntades políticas se encuentra el reconocimiento del MERESE hidrológico como tema de interés regional, provincial o distrital; o el reconocimiento de las áreas de interés para conservación; o la renovación de convenios necesarios para avanzar con las acciones del MERESE; entre otros.En cuanto a los cuellos de botella, en el grupo 2 (iniciativas no lideradas por EPS) los cuellos de botella institucionales están vinculados a las instituciones e instancias existentes para la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos y los roles que cumplen. Los entrevistados reconocen que aún existen dificultades institucionales que retrasan el avance de los MERESE por la falta de claridad en el rol de los gobiernos regionales y locales para la priorización de inversiones en recuperación de ecosistemas y de infraestructura natural en sus planes de gobierno. Esto se evidencia con la diferencia abismal que existe entre las obras de infraestructura física en comparación con los proyectos de infraestructura natural. Las estadísticas municipales generadas en el 2019 por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI) muestran que durante el año 2018 las municipalidades del país ejecutaron obras de infraestructura destinadas principalmente a la construcción y mejoramiento de la infraestructura vial, sistema de agua y saneamiento e instalaciones educativas; sin contar ningún registro sobre las inversiones realizadas en infraestructura natural (INEI, 2019). Asimismo, a nivel nacional, el 61,2 % de municipalidades cuentan con una oficina o unidad ambiental. Dentro de la estructura municipal este es el órgano de apoyo para mejorar la protección, fiscalización y manejo de la información ambiental, así como el uso de los recursos naturales (INEI, 2019). Si bien el Estado viene trabajando en integrar la infraestructura natural con la infraestructura física, aún queda mucho por avanzar.Asimismo, las iniciativas de MERESE hidrológicos del grupo 2 identifican cuellos de botella económicos que están relacionados a las limitaciones de fuentes de recaudación y la sostenibilidad financiera. Las iniciativas que vienen ejecutando los fondos MERESE, reconocen que las fuentes de recaudación aún son limitadas para poder atender la demanda de recuperación y conservación que requiere el área priorizada. Prueba de ello es la limitada participación de sectores FOTO: Walter H. Wust fuera de los usuarios de agua, la evidencia mostrada en la sección Contribuyentes y Retribuyentes indica que los principales retribuyentes en las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos reportadas al 2020 provienen del sector saneamiento (EPS) y en menor medida de los usuarios de riego, las empresas privadas y los prestadores no EPS. Resalta la ausencia de sectores como el energético y la reducida presencia del sector agrario y de las empresas privadas, también usuarios de los recursos hídricos, que podrían ser retribuyentes en los esquemas de los MERESE hidrológicos. En este contexto será importante entender cuáles son las razones de la poca participación de estos sectores en los MERESE hidrológicos con el fin de elaborar estrategias para atraer a estos sectores. Dos iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos identifican cuellos de botella sociales. Estos se encuentran relacionados con la voluntad de los pobladores y/o instituciones en apoyar el desarrollo de los MERESE hidrológicos y también con posibles conflictos sociales que impiden llegar a acuerdos. El MERESE Ica -Huancavelica es una iniciativa que se desarrolla en un territorio con una larga y compleja historia de conflictos vinculados a la escasez de agua en la cuenca del río Ica y de Alto Pampas (Oré & Muñoz, 2018). Pese a existir un escenario con tensiones sociales relacionadas al aprovechamiento del recurso hídrico, las comunidades campesinas tienen el compromiso de participar como contribuyentes en el esquema MERESE. Sin embargo, el desarrollo del MERESE en este territorio deberá considerar las fricciones preexistentes con el fin de brindar soluciones basadas en el diálogo y los consensos. Por otro lado, la iniciativa MERESE Batán identifica que existe desconfianza entre los contribuyentes debido a la deficiencia en el servicio que brinda la JASS. Como se mencionó anteriormente, los cuellos de botella están relacionados unos a otros y sus soluciones también deberán planificarse de manera integral, pensando en todas las dimensiones afectadas.Por último, solo una iniciativa del Grupo 2 (no conducidos por una EPS) identificó un cuello de botella técnico. Estos se encuentran vinculados a los vacíos de conocimiento acerca del funcionamiento y/o gestión de un MERESE hidrológico, la ausencia de datos hidrológicos, entre otros. En este tipo de cuello de botella se identifica la falta de capacidades técnicas para la formulación de proyectos de inversión orientados a la conservación, la recuperación y el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas. En el aspecto técnico es de suma importancia la elaboración de estudios hidrológicos, como también del diagnóstico de los servicios ecosistémicos en general y de las poblaciones que habitan las áreas priorizadas, con el fin de comprender el territorio y diseñar en base a evidencias científicas las acciones para la conservación, la recuperación y el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas. En algunas iniciativas este proceso resulta en un cuello de botella, pues no se dispone de capacidades técnicas para elaborarlos, así como criterios para diseñar un esquema de intervenciones acorde a los recursos financieros disponibles y las necesidades de conservación y recuperación del área priorizada. Los estudios de línea base son importantes para medir los resultados e impactos de las prácticas de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas.El estado de emergencia nacional declarado en marzo del 2020, ante el avance de la COVID-19, marca un hito en la historia del país. La pandemia ha generado grandes impactos económicos, sociales y ambientales, siendo el 2020 un año fuertemente marcado por confinamientos estrictos que generaron la paralización de la gran mayoría de actividades consideradas no esenciales bajo ese contexto. Esta situación ha significado grandes retos para el país, donde las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos también sufrieron los efectos del contexto actual. Para este breve análisis sobre los efectos de la COVID-19 en las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos se han considerado los tipos de cuellos de botella identificados en el estudio.Desde el sector saneamiento se han identificado dos efectos generales producto del contexto de emergencia sanitaria: (i) la suspensión de la recaudación de fondos ME-RESE, y (ii) el fortalecimiento del interés por el agua y los ecosistemas. El 10 de abril de 2020 se aprueba el Decreto de Urgencia n.° 036-2020 con la finalidad de establecer medidas complementarias que reduzcan el impacto negativo de la COVID-19 y contribuyan a la continuidad de la prestación de los servicios de saneamiento a la población. En tal sentido, el artículo 5 del mencionado decreto autorizó a las EPS a suspender por 5 meses el pago destinado a los fondos de inversiones y las reservas por Mecanismos de Retribución por Servicios Ecosistémicos (MERESE), Gestión de Riesgos de Desastres (GRD) y Adaptación al Cambio Climático (ACC), y utilizarlos para gastos de operación y mantenimiento de los servicios de agua potable y alcantarillado. Por esta razón, diversas EPS se han acogido al mencionado decreto de urgencia, haciendo uso de sus fondos y reservas de MERESE, GRD y ACC para solventar los gastos de operación y mantenimiento de los servicios de saneamiento. En el caso de las reservas MERESE, se observó que dicho fondo fue utilizado, principalmente, entre los meses de abril y agosto, ascendiendo a un monto total aproximado de S/ 1,7 millones. Esto ha generado que las EPS enfrenten dificultades presupuestales y presenten retrasos en el proceso de implementación de los MERESE, que actualmente vienen regularizando.Pese a las dificultades que enfrentan las EPS en sus operaciones en un contexto de emergencia sanitaria, el sector saneamiento considera que dicho contexto ha reforzado el interés por conservar el agua y los ecosistemas. De esta manera se presenta una oportunidad para fortalecer la comu-nicación sobre la importancia de la conservación, la recuperación y el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas y cómo los MERESE contribuyen a ello.Por su parte, el Grupo 2, iniciativas MERE-SE fuera del sector saneamiento, identificó los siguientes efectos (figura 12): (i) paralización del desarrollo de estudios de base en seis iniciativas; (ii) desvinculación parcial o total del proceso de algunos actores en cinco iniciativas; (iii) paralización de los procesos para la suscripción del acuerdo de los MERESE en cinco iniciativas; (iv) paralización de intervenciones o ejecución de proyectos de inversión en tres iniciativas; (v) paralización o disminución de la recaudación. El primer efecto descrito se relaciona a iniciativas que se encuentran entre las fases de diseño y negociación, donde suelen desarrollarse los estudios de caracterización de la cuenca. La gran mayoría de iniciativas del Grupo 2 (aquellas que no son lideradas por EPS) se encuentran en fase de implementación, perjudicando las inversiones en las zonas de interés hídrico, así como el financiamiento de otras actividades que son cubiertas por el fondo de los MERESE. Por último, solo una iniciativa identificó otros efectos fuera de los señalados y corresponde a la suspensión de la elaboración del plan de intervenciones que es habilitante para la firma del acuerdo voluntario. Por su parte, AquaFondo fue la única iniciativa que no reportó ningún efecto por la COVID-19. Ellos lograron ejecutar proyectos durante el 2020, asumiendo los sobrecostos para implementar los protocolos sanitarios, alcanzando a entregar una obra en noviembre. La ejecución de proyectos por parte de AquaFondo permitió generar ingresos en la población contribuyente en un momento de crisis generalizada. Los aprendizajes son el resultado de la experiencia acumulada en estos doce años de diseño e implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos en el país. El MINAM, quien lidera este proceso, de la mano con instituciones aliadas como la Sunass, los gobiernos regionales y locales, además de la cooperación internacional y la sociedad civil, han logrado identificar elementos clave para el diseño e implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos en el país. A continuación, se presentan los principales aprendizajes.  • Implementar campañas de comunicación donde se difunda la importancia y necesidad de implementar un MERESE hidrológico y los avances e impactos de este: ha resultado clave que durante el proceso de negociación e implementación se desarrollen procesos de sensibilización por medio de campañas comunicacionales. En estas campañas ha sido importante acercase a todos los actores relevantes para el mantenimiento de los MERESE hidrológicos de una forma sencilla y dinámica, con el objetivo de posicionarlos entre estos actores. Además, en la etapa de implementación ha sido importante difundir las acciones, resultados e impactos de la iniciativa con el fin de generar estrategias de transparencia sobre el uso de los recursos y evaluar el impacto de la conservación, la recuperación y el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas en la regulación hídrica y los otros servicios ecosistémicos.• Propiciar el intercambio de experiencias sobre el diseño y la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos: las pasantías han sido bastante importantes para conocer el estado de avance de otras iniciativas, sus dificultades y procesos para resolverlas. Las principales iniciativas que se han posicionado como lugares modelo, a pesar de haber tenido ciertas dificultades en el proceso de ejecución de sus proyectos, son el MERESE de la microcuenca Piuray -Ccorimarca (SEDA Cusco) en la región Cusco, y el MERESE Rumiyacu, Mishquiyacu y Almendra en la región San Martín.• Asistencia técnica permanente en el diseño e implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos en saneamiento: ha sido clave la asistencia técnica y el acompañamiento de la Sunass (y las ODS) en las iniciativas de los ME-RESE hidrológicos de las EPS. Esto ha permitido fortalecer capacidades en los especialistas de las EPS y contar a la fecha con 40 EPS que han logrado incorporar una reserva para implementar un MERESE hidrológico en su cuenca de aporte.• Las plataformas de buena gobernanza son espacios importantes de articulación y gestión de los MERESE hidrológicos: la plataforma de buena gobernanza es un espacio multiactor donde participan instituciones públicas, privadas y de la sociedad civil (comunidades campesinas, ONG, etc.) con el objetivo de implementar los MERESE. Este espacio ha permitido el control social de los acuerdos y compromisos establecidos en el marco de los MERESE, así como articula brindar soporte técnico para los procesos de estos. Las plataformas de buena gobernanza de las iniciativas de los MERESE hidrológicos tienen la oportunidad de articularse a los Consejos de Recursos Hídricos de Cuenca con el fin de contribuir en la gestión integral de los recursos hídricos.• Reconocer los acuerdos de conservación establecidos entre el contribuyente y retribuyente mediante alguna instancia pública: el reconocimiento de los acuerdos en los gobiernos provinciales o distritales ha significado un paso importante en el afianzamiento de los acuerdos. Este reconocimiento ha dado mayor fortaleza al cumplimiento de dichos acuerdos, además de involucrar directamente a los gobiernos locales dentro de las iniciativas.• Incorporar los MERESE hidrológicos en instrumentos de gestión de los gobiernos regionales y locales: la inclusión de los MERESE en instrumentos de gestión pública asegura que el tema sea priorizado en la agenda del gobierno. Si bien para alcanzar esto requiere de un fuerte trabajo de incidencia política y de conocimiento de la gestión pública, ha resultado beneficioso para brindar mayor sostenibilidad institucional a los MERESE hidrológicos.Por ejemplo, la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos bajo la modalidad de declaración de interés regional.FOTO: Michell León/FOREST TRENDS• Aprovechar las estructuras de organización existentes para el desarrollo de las actividades y estrategias de los MERESE hidrológicos: las organizaciones locales cuentan con estructuras de representación y canales de comunicación establecidos que pueden ser aprovechados por los ME-RESE hidrológicos. Para ello se debe comprender las dinámicas y el proceso de toma de decisiones al interior de estas organizaciones, así como reconocer sus mecanismos de representatividad.• Reconocer que los fondos recaudados son \"fondos semilla\" y contar con una estrategia de diversificación de fuentes de financiamiento: los fondos de recaudación inicial suelen ser reducidos en relación a la demanda de conservación y recuperación de las cuencas priorizadas; una forma efectiva de utilizar estos fondos es para apalancar otros recursos. Asimismo, es importante desarrollar estrategias para diversificar las fuentes de financiamiento e involucrar a diversos actores como retribuyentes de los ME-RESE hidrológicos. La diversificación de las fuentes de financiamiento supone una mayor complejidad en la gestión de estos. Es posible que se pueda requerir diferentes modalidades de acuerdo con la fuente de financiamiento, y por lo tanto mayor exigencia. También significa un mayor número de actores con los que se tiene que alcanzar el consenso, haciendo más complejo el proceso de toma de decisiones. embargo, aún quedan desafíos por resolver. Las negociaciones con los grupos de regantes son más complejas, no obstante, han brindado una serie de aprendizajes. Los casos que cuentan con mayor experiencia son los MERE-SE Cumbaza, en la región San Martín, y el Fondo de Agua Quiroz -Chira, en la región Piura. Se espera que en ambos casos logren articularse con otras fuentes de financiamiento para incrementar el impacto en las fuentes de agua y los ecosistemas asociados. El MERESE Ica -Huancavelica es un avance importante para el desarrollo de compromisos y acuerdos con las juntas de regantes, en particular por el territorio en el que se inscribe. Resulta importante este caso, debido a la complejidad y al tiempo del conflicto por el agua generado entre ambas regiones. Este MERESE hidrológico es una oportunidad para direccionar aportes de las juntas de usuarios de Ica hacia las comunidades de las zonas altoandinas de Huancavelica, por lo pronto, se está trabajando con la comu-nidad campesina de Choclococha. Por otro lado, las negociaciones con empresas privadas como hidroeléctricas, mineras y turismo son aún más complejas. Las iniciativas de AquaFondo y FORASAN son las únicas que involucran empresas privadas en los esquemas MERESE hidrológico.• El contexto actual de pandemia por la COVID-19 ha generado la paralización de algunas de las actividades de las iniciativas de MERESE hidrológicos. Las iniciativas analizadas reportan, en su mayoría, la paralización del desarrollo de estudios de base, la desvinculación parcial o total del proceso de algunos actores y la paralización de los procesos para la suscripción del acuerdo de los MERESE, entre otros. El contexto actual supone un nuevo reto para las instituciones y organizaciones que lideran los MERESE.• El trabajo coordinado entre el MINAM y la Sunass ha permitido el desarrollo de un marco legal favorable y claro respecto a los MERESE hidrológicos, siendo un ejemplo exitoso de colaboración entre instituciones del gobierno.• Aunque varios cuellos de botella de carácter legal han sido clarificados a través de los avances en el marco normativo para los MERESE en Perú, aún hay varios cuellos de botella sobre todo de tipo institucional, económico/financiero y técnico que deben removerse con el fin de seguir avanzando hacia la implementación de los MERESE hidrológicos.• Desde el punto de vista institucional sobresalen los cuellos de botella relacionados con los roles de los gobiernos regionales y locales en la priorización de inversiones para mejorar el impacto de las acciones desarrolladas en el marco de los MERESE hidrológicos. Para el caso específico de las EPS, estas requieren adecuar su estructura organizativa para atender los desafíos presentes en el diseño de los MERESE y la ejecución de los fondos recaudados.• Sobre los cuellos de botella económicos, las principales limitaciones están relacionados con la sostenibilidad financiera de los MERESE hidrológicos pues la mayoría de las iniciativas posee fuentes limitadas de recaudación. Frente a ello será importante un mayor involucramiento de sectores como el energético, agrario, turismo y en general del sector privado; además de desarrollar esquemas costo efectivos para optimizar las inversiones en las cuencas priorizadas.• Los cuellos de botella técnicos están principalmente relacionados con la falta de capacidad técnica para evaluar y hacer seguimiento del impacto de las actividades que realizan los contribuyentes sobre los SEH; la falta de información sobre qué actividades son efectivas para la recuperación, la conservación y el uso sostenible de los ecosistemas fuente de los SEH; y sobre metodologías para evaluar el retorno de inversión para los retribuyentes, por ejemplo, las EPS.• Los cuellos de botella no son estáticos, varían dependiendo de la fase en la se encuentran las iniciativas y están relacionados unos a otros. Es posible que en la medida en que se resuelvan los cuellos de botella existentes surjan otros nuevos. Sin embargo, lo ideal es que cada vez sean menos con el fin de tener implementados los MERESE hidrológicos en un menor tiempo.Los servicios ecosistémicos son aquellos beneficios económicos, sociales y ambientales, que las personas obtienen del buen funcionamiento de los ecosistemas. Entre ellos se cuenta la regulación hídrica en cuencas, el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad, el secuestro de carbono, la belleza paisajística, la formación de suelos y la provisión de recursos genéticos, entre otros (Ministerio del Ambiente, 2016). En el caso de los SEH, estos hacen referencia a los beneficios que proporcionan los ecosistemas de la cuenca hidrográfica a los usuarios de agua. Estos beneficios incluyen la regulación hidrológica en una cuenca (que permite que se garantice el flujo de agua en época seca o que en época de lluvias se suavicen los caudales extremos); la disponibilidad de agua en ríos para diferentes usos; el control de erosión y sedimentos, entre otros. En consecuencia, estos beneficios dependen del funcionamiento de los ecosistemas, por lo cual los MERESE hidrológicos se centran en el servicio que presta el ecosistema y no en el bien, el agua, como tal (Quintero & Pareja, 2015). El cuadro 3 muestra los principales SEH:Servicio de provisión Son los beneficios que se obtienen de los bienes y servicios que las personas reciben directamente de los ecosistemas• Suministro de agua dulce• Suministro de agua para la producción de cultivos Los MERESE hidrológicos son instrumentos que, a través de acuerdos voluntarios entre quienes ayudan en la provisión de los servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos (contribuyentes) y quienes se benefician de los mismos (retribuyentes), generan, canalizan, transfieren e invierten recursos económicos en la conservación, la recuperación y el uso sostenible de las fuentes de los servicios ecosistémicos hidrológicos. Así, el esfuerzo de aquellas personas por conservar, recuperar y usar de forma sostenible los ecosistemas, es reconocido y retribuido por quienes se benefician de los servicios hidrológicos que brinda dicho ecosistema (figura 13).Figura 13: Esquema general de un MERESE hidrológico Personas que implementan acciones de conservación y recuperación para el buen funcionamiento de los ecosistemas.Personas que aportan voluntariamente a los contribuyentes que conservan los ecosistemas. • Caracterización de la estructura y función del ecosistema, del servicio ecosistémico, la fuente, la funcionalidad y la condición actual, promoviendo su articulación, compatibilidad y complementariedad catastral.• Identificación y caracterización de los contribuyentes y retribuyentes por el servicio ecosistémico.• Estimación del valor económico del servicio ecosistémico, los costos necesarios para mantener el flujo del servicio ecosistémico, la voluntad de pago u otros que contribuyan a los acuerdos.• Establecimiento de acuerdos entre los contribuyentes y retribuyentes por el servicio ecosistémico, donde se determinan las actividades de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible, los beneficios económicos, sociales y ambientales esperados, las modalidades de retribución y sus estrategias de financiamiento.• Promoción de una plataforma conformada por diferentes actores públicos y privados vinculados al mecanismo de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos, que monitoreen el cumplimiento de los acuerdos y supervisen la transparencia en la retribución bajo la estrategia de financiamiento que se considere adecuada.• Diseño de un sistema de monitoreo que permita evaluar el progreso de las acciones de conservación, recuperación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas implementados por el mecanismo.La Ley MERESE considera que los contribuyentes y retribuyentes pueden adoptar en común acuerdo cualquiera de las siguientes modalidades de mecanismos de retribución: Debe resaltarse que los MERESE hidrológicos en saneamiento cuentan con una directiva específica, la Resolución n.° 039-2019-SUNASS-CD, en la cual se detallan los elementos y modalidades que las EPS, en específico, pueden seguir para el diseño e implementación de sus respectivos MERESE.Negociación Los retribuyentes y contribuyentes muestran disposición de participar en el MERESE Se ha acordado un potencial monto de aportación por parte de los retribuyentes del MERESE Se ha identificado juntamente con los contribuyentes los tipos de acciones de conservación, recuperación y/o uso sostenible que son viables de realizar en la zona de interés hídricoSe han firmado acuerdos/contratos entre retribuyentes y contribuyentesSe ha recaudado los aportes de los retribuyentes.El aporte de los retribuyentes está siendo transferido a los contribuyentes Se realiza el monitoreo de los acuerdos firmados con los contribuyentes Se realiza el monitoreo del impacto de las intervenciones implementadas a través del MERESE Transversal Existencia de una plataforma de buena gobernanza, conformada por diferentes actores públicos y privados con el objeto de monitorear el cumplimiento de los acuerdos y supervisar la transparencia de la retribución","tokenCount":"15561"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a287168ab217b5fc145fa165decb6696","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/694be5a5-8802-4f34-8e9d-ca0b40eaf3f9/retrieve","id":"383669865"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e2e56f96-84df-4486-94cc-72fe8fb0c31a","pagecount":"20","content":"The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center The SI theme has focussed on outscaling of successful products from the first SIMLEZA phases. The technology focus in eastern Zambia was on conservation agriculture systems and its management components, besides drought tolerant (DT) and bio-fortified maize (for example quality protein maize-QPM). CIMMYT continues to implement these proven technologies with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Zambian Agriculture Research Institute and the regional non-governmental organization (NGO) Total LandCare (TLC), and seed companies and aims to reach at least 5000 farmers in the current project phase.With the advent of the 2015/2016 cropping season, new partnerships have been forged and are starting to generate impact at a much larger scale in the three target districts -Chipata, Sinda and Lundazi.CIMMYT, supported by Africa-RISING, formed a strategic alliance with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to expand the work on green manure cover crops (GMCCs) through on-farm validation trials and demonstrations. Some on-station trials have also been established to validate the performance and impact of green manures on soil quality, productivity and weed control. At present, there is too little knowledge on how GMCCs perform in conservation agriculture (CA) systems under the environmental conditions of eastern Zambia, and Africa RISING will address this knowledge gap.The second new partnerships has been through engagement of the local NGO Grassroots Trust, who provide expertise in green manure cover crops and new and more efficient ways of farm yard manure handling. Finally, CIMMYT engaged with the Community Market for Conservation (COMACO) to analyse their Gliricidiamaize intercropping system more scientifically. This work has further been expanded to cowpea seed production with additional funds availed by the USAID Zambia Mission.New partnerships with development organizations will be key to achieve greater impact at scale through Feed the Future. These organizations will not only be available for co-development of technologies but also help in reaching out to many more farmers to encourage the use of technologies that are more productive, profitable and adapted to the environments of eastern Zambia.New Partnerships in Africa RISING to reach impact at scale By Christian Thierfelder and Peter Setimela Doubling-up legumes gives farmers more from their landIt was a hot day in February 2016 when the Africa RISING project team visited on-farm trials in Chipata District of Eastern Province. The team examined the doubled-up legume trials where groundnuts are planted in association with pigeonpeas -a new system in eastern Zambia that offers farmers the benefits from two cash crops. Both crops seemed to grow well despite the seasonal dry-spell experienced during this seasonal period.The theory behind doubled-up legume systems is that some legumes can be grown together on the same piece of land without major competition for water and light -which often happens when maize is intercropped with a legume. Groundnut, a drought-tolerant crop as well as the deep rooted pigeonpea are ideal partners as the pigeonpea has a very slow initial growth and once groundnuts mature, the pigeonpea will start shooting up and develop a full canopy. Residual nitrogen effects from this system are also much greater compared with growing both crops individually. Africa RISING has been promoting this system on farmers' fields since 2013 and has gained considerable experience in the last years. As opposed to a sister project in Malawi, the systems tested here are both planted side-by-side under conventional ridge-tillage systems as well as under no-tillage with residue retention.The objective is to explore how climate resilience of a double-up legume system increases if planted under the water saving conservation agriculture (CA) technology.Doubled-up legume systems with groundnuts and pigeonpea under CA offers additional benefits for farmers. By avoiding the ridging, farmers save significant labour as has been observed by USAID`s Senior Agriculture Sustainability Adviser, Jerry Glover, and Sieglinde Snapp, Professor at Michigan State University, both of whom visited the site on 18th of March, 2016. \"[It is] nice to see -the trials did really well without the back-breaking ridging work\", Glover said, which gives labour-constrained households great hope and a viable alternative to the current practices.Besides reduced labour on planting, the better spatial arrangement under CA allows to plant groundnuts at half the row spacing of 37.5cm rows instead of planting on ridges at 75cm which exposes the groundnuts to increased run-off, moisture evaporation and rosette disease which occurs much more frequently when the canopy is more open. Finally and most importantly, a higher plant population increases the grain yields of groundnuts.Sustainable intensification (SI) of current farming systems means that farmers produce more from a given piece of land area while being profitable, equitable and socially acceptable. The successful combination of several crops on the same piece of land is a clear SI strategy and offers farmers new options to intensify low-input agriculture systems in a very potential and effective way. The increase in price for a kilogram of pigeonpea grain, fueled by a high demand from the Indian market, to approximately US$1.8-2.0 per kg of grain will make this system financially more attractive than even tobacco, the cash crop which is commonly regarded as the most profitable in southern Africa.The task of the Africa RISING team now is to transfer the encouraging results from the doubled-up legume trials to the local farming community in a user-friendly way. The widespread uptake of the doubled-up legume system in southern Malawi shows that transformation to more profitable ways of farming is possible in a fairly short period of time. Photo: Sieglinde Snapp Conservation agriculture (CA) is a crop management system based on three principles: a) minimum soil movement (i.e. no soil inversion by tillage; b) soil surface cover with crop residues and/or living plants; and c) diversification through crop rotations and intercropping.Besides these three main principles, CA depends on good agricultural practices (e.g. adequate fertilization, weed control, timely planting, improved varieties among others) to show its greatest benefits. Most crops can be grown successfully under CA in Africa and there are large areas of maize, cowpea, soybeans, groundnuts, cotton, sunflower and many other crops grown under this system. Even root crops, including potatoes and cassava, can be successfully produced under CA. Unlike in other parts of the world where CA has been successfully extended, its adoption has been largely focused on smallholder farms in Africa with the exception of South Africa, where it is practiced on largescale commercial farms.Conservation agriculture systems have been successfully tried and tested in eastern Zambia since 2011. More than 20,000 farmers have been exposed to CA by SIMLEZA-Africa RISING, the predecessor project of Africa RISING, which continues to sensitize and train more farmers. Farmers benefitted from increased use of CA technologies by gradually increasing crop yields leading to a solid yield benefit of 117% (1942kg ha-1) in a manually direct seeded maize crop following cowpea as compared with the conventional practice in the 2014/2015 cropping season. Rip-line seeding led to a 109% yield benefit (1993 kg ha-1) as compared to the conventionally tilled practice. It is the years with seasonal dry-spells and erratic rainfalls, such as this last El Niño year, where CA provides its greatest benefits to smallholder farming systems.Large out-scaling of CA and its components is currently happening through mother-and-baby trials in Chipata, Lundazi and Sinda and compliment other out-scaling initiatives implemented by the Catholic Relief Services and the Conservation Farming Unit in the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture.The principles of CA appear to have extremely wide adaptation, and CA systems are currently used by farmers under a wide range of environmental conditions. CA has been tried and tested in areas of sub-Saharan Africa above 500mm of annual rainfall to more than 1500mm of rainfall, from sandy to loamy clay soils and on altitudes from sea level to more than 3000 m.a.s.l. Nevertheless, the techniques to apply these principles depend on climate, soil and farmer circumstances (wealth, land size, traction owned, labour availability etc.). CA does not work well under waterlogged and very arid conditions or on completely degraded soils.Combined with good crop management and improved agronomic practices, CA can deliver a range of short-term and longer-term benefits to farmers, which increase crop productivity and contribute to a sustainable environment and natural resource management in the medium to long term. The aforementioned benefits of rotations help control pests and diseases as well as 'fertilize' the following Conservation agriculture -a system to adapt to climate variability and declining soil fertility By Christian Thierfelder crop, while minimum soil disturbance and crop residue retention reduce soil erosion and runoff, increase water infiltration, and improve some physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. Yield benefits can typically be achieved in 2-5 cropping seasons, especially in drought-prone, rain-fed areas. Studies in Malawi have shown that appreciably high net returns can be attained due to reduced farm labour for planting (approximately 25-31 labour days ha-1) and for weeding (another 12-15 days ha-1). Combined with increased productivity this contributes to an extra net benefit of between 173-658 USD ha-1 in CA cropping systems compared with the conventional ridge and furrow systems. Other studies have shown that the adoption of a combination of CA-based practicesas opposed to single interventions, contributes to greater productivity, food security and resilience in maize-based systems in Eastern and Southern Africa. Successful examples of its widespread adoption already exist from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.However, there is a range of technological challenges to successful CA implementation that require adaptation to the farmer circumstances. These challenges include: a) the need to retain sufficient crop residues, which can be difficult in intensive crop-livestock systems; b) weed control in the initial years of conversion to CAif no herbicides are used; c) the availability of critical inputs and machinery; d) the need for profitable crop rotations; e) knowledge and capacity of farmers and extension agents to apply the principles of CA in the correct way and at a certain standard.Successful adoption of CA systems often hinge on the presence of some key enabling factors. Where labour is a major constraint, farmers easily adopt labour saving planting techniques and weed control practices. Improved planting implements such as planting with a pointed stick or in rip-lines or using herbicides for weed control made the technology move very fast. CA has also been adopted in areas were in-seasonal droughts or dry-spells affect general crop production and watersaving systems can decide if farmers can produce a crop or not. Strong extension support in the initial years through participatory adaptation, farmer-to-farmer exchange, study tours and field days have helped farmers understand the technology and facilitated faster uptake. Finally, markets and the demand for specific crops have made CA and its inter-or rotational crops have led to more rapid spread of CA technologies.Below: Mr Mulundu Mwila, ZARI, standing in front of Gertrude Banda's trial and showing the performance of conservation agriculture and a conventional ridge tillage.It is widely accepted that improved maize germplasm will only express its yield potential under optimum agronomic management such as timely planting, optimal plant/space arrangements, efficient fertilization; productive rotations and timely weed and pest control. Good agriculture practices (GAPs) are the low-hanging fruits for extension of new technologies. They are easily adoptable, give farmers an immediate benefit and help in the gradual shift from traditional plough or hoe-based systems with maize monocropping to more sustainable and adapted ways of agriculture.It is against this background that the Africa RISING project theme on Sustainable Intensification of Lowinput Farming Systems has intensified the outscaling of simple component technologies in a mother-and-baby trial approach in three Districts of Eastern Province, namely Sinda, Chipata and Lundazi.Most smallholder farmers in eastern Zambia are faced with labour and cash constraints. Component technologies that critically address these constraints are therefore likely to be adopted much faster and more efficiently. Based on previous technologies that have been adapted to this environment under Africa RISING, the project has offered farmers to choose from four types of technologies to be tested on their own farm in their own environment. These have been: a) direct seeding with a dibble stick or in riplines; b) improved weed control with herbicides; c) improved rotation; and d) intercropping systems of maize with cowpeas. These have been out-scaled to more than 700 farmers' fields in 2015/2016 and the project intends to reach more than 5000 farmers in this project phase. Forty-year old Thomas Banda is one of the farmers who has benefitted from project activities. Based in Chanje Village in Chipata District, he farms with his wife and seven children. For years he grew only maize, using the conventional ridge and furrow planting method, but produced only low yields, barely enough to feed his Photo: Maambo Mudenda family. This conventional practice, with a strong focus on monocropped maize, limits the country's agricultural productivity and leaves farmers vulnerable to a variety of problems, including pests, market fluctuations, and the effects of global climate change.For Thomas Banda this changed in 2014, when he became a beneficiary from Africa RISING. In a field day conducted by the Africa RISING Project, Banda volunteered to be a \"legume intercropping baby-trial\" host from the 2014/2015 farming season onwards. The baby trials are a scaling tool used by Africa RISING to make farmers aware about the technology and to gain first hand experiences with a technology on a small plot. Banda's motivation to participate was also to start practicing and adopting conservation agriculture technologies using an animal traction ripper.From the 2015/2016 cropping season onwards he decided to grow cowpeas on one acre of his own land. He accessed cowpea seed from a local seed grower and also used recycled cowpea seed from his baby trial. Despite the poor rains experienced and prolonged dry spells during the farming season, growing cowpea on Banda's fields led to considerable increases in both productivity and income at his farm. He managed to harvest 289kg of cowpea, which translates into an overall yield of 723kg ha-1. From his harvest, he sold 250kg of cowpea to local buyers at K5 (US$0.5) per kg and reserved 39kg for home consumption. When asked what he used the money for, he happily replied in Chichewa; \"ninagulamo Nkhumba yaikazi pamtengo wa K600 ($60), komanso zina tinasewenzetsa panyumba monga kugula uniform ya mwana wa sukulu ndi zofunikila zina zakusukulu\", which translates to \"I bought a pig at the cost of K600 ($60) and then used the rest of the money to buy a new school uniform and other school requirements for my child\". Convinced about his initial success, Banda plans to expand the area of planting next year.Planting cowpeas, a drought-resilient crop, will be one of the strategies to adapt to the negative effects of climate variability and change. Studies show that Zambia will face longer and more intense droughts as well as heat stress in future years. Additionally, the legume has a multitude of other advantages such as bringing gradual improvements in soil fertility, providing groundcover, feed for cattle and goats, nutrition through green leaves and, of course, grain that can be either consumed or sold. The varieties developed and promoted by USAID's Feed the Future program are well adapted to the environment and will help farmers to diversify the current cereal-based cropping systems.Planting cowpeas, therefore, provides a new incomegenerating opportunity for smallholder farmers under Africa RISING, a project which aims to achieve longterm, sustainable economic growth and improved food and nutrition security for rural communities in Eastern Province of Zambia.Left: A sow bought from cowpea sells in 2016.In Africa, mineral fertilizer remains a scarce, expensive and risky resource for most smallholder farmers. On average, farmers use less than 10 kg/ha of NPK fertilizer, and many do not apply it at all. The price of fertilizer is 3-5 times higher in Africa than in Europe due to the lack of infrastructure and production facilities, often making it unaffordable and sometimes inaccessible to farmers. Fertilizer is primarily applied to higher value and horticulture crops that, unlike maize, give farmers greater return on their investment. Farmers in southern Africa plant maize extensively on large areas, harvest less than 2 tonnes/ha on average, extracting already depleted nutrients from the soil while trying to become food secure and escape from poverty -an impossible task! In Eastern Province of Zambia, farmers are being offered a range of solutions by Africa RISING that provide a way out of this poverty trap. These technologies, options and approaches include drought and stress tolerant maize germplasm, conservation agriculture (CA), improved rotation and intercropping with grain legumes, agroforestry and green manure cover crops.The use of CA principles (minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification through rotation and intercropping) hinges on the ability of farmers to retain sufficient surface crop residues to protect the soil from erosion, runoff, evaporation and excessive temperatures. However, farmers in mixed crop/livestock systems face competing demands for these residues because they also feed them to their animals. Green manures and selected agroforestry species are therefore grown to improve the soil, generate biomass for ground cover and provide fodder; some also produce high protein grain for food, feed or for sale on the market.For the past six cropping seasons, CIMMYT and its partners have tested a range of species. Crops such as velvet bean, lablab, cowpea, sunnhemp, jack bean, pigeonpea and Gliricidia, have been identified as viable options with great potential for smallholders. In some cases, they can provide 5-50 tonnes/ha of extra biomass for groundcover and/or fodder, leave up to 350 kg/ha of residual nitrogen in the soil and in most cases, do not need extra fertilizer to grow.The Africa RISING project is testing these species, in full rotation or intercropped with maize, on farmers' fields and on-station to identify the best possible options and arrangements. \"We mostly like cowpea, pigeonpea and lablab, because they provide grain and soil improvement at the same time. We are not sure yet about jack bean although we have seen that maize that is grown after jack bean has higher yields,\" Mr Paul Mbau from Chiparamba said. To increase adoption, the project is using an intensive participatory process to adapt the green manures to the needs and conditions of smallholder farmers.On project sites managed and implemented by our project partner CRS, farmers discovered that maize intercropped with green manures has other benefits. Mr Shadreck Sakala from Samuel Camp in Chipata highlighted: \"Both of the plots where maize was intercropped with cowpea and lablab did much better in the dry spell and they only needed one weeding as compared with two or three on other plots\". COMACO, another partner under Africa RISING has gained long-term experience of up to 5 years with a maize-Gliricidia intercropping systems which is now under trial testing to better understand the dynamics and yield effects of this very potential intercropping system on maize.CIMMYT and its partners CRS, TLC, COMACO and Grassroots Trust will further explore new ways of integrating green manures into smallholder farming systems so they become the status quo, not just an option! Right: COMACO Gliricidia/maize intercropping field 10 Africa RISING | bulletin 2016Addressing smallholder farmers' needs with green manure cover crops and agroforestryImproved manure management -getting more from a limited resourceIn cropping season 2015/2016, Africa RISING expanded its work under the Sustainable Intensification theme to trials on improved manure handling. This work is led by Grassroots Trusts in collaboration with CRS. Many small holder farmers across the world rely on livestock manure as a cheap and effective source of the nutrients required for crop growth. The use of manure can also bring other benefits to soil function, such as improved soil biological activity, increased water holding capacity, increased infiltration rates and improved soil structure.It is perceived that the main constraints farmers face in terms of manure use are: a) the availability of manure in sufficient quantity and b) the labour associated with hauling and applying manure in the field. The standard recommendation for manure application in Southern Africa for cereals such as maize and sorghum is somewhere between 10-20 tonnes per hectare, which is equivalent to the manure of 10-20 fully grown cattle. Very few farmers have access to this quantity of manure, even when it is applied on a rotational basis. The basis for current recommendations has its root in the theory of nutrient replacement. Indeed analysis of farm yard manure (FYM) reveals very low nutrient content in comparison to the nutrients found in fresh manure.Over the past two decades, there have been studies that indicate that manure handling methods have a huge impact on the final nutrient content of FYM. Overall increases in nutrient content of FYM is basically due to protection from volatilization and leaching. Other studies also suggest that timing and placement of manure can have a significant influence on crop response and overall crop yield. Grassroots Trust has had good results both on their research farm and with on-farm trials in central Zambia.In line with these recent insights, trials were designed to inform farmers about best practice regarding efficient and effective manure management for cattle, goats and pigs in Eastern Province of Zambia. Mr. Osward Ng›ombe a farmer from Kwenje camp, Chipata district commented: \"We are interested to see if there is any difference between our manure and manure managed this new way -we thought manure was manure\".In the first phase of this project 12 farmers were selected through the CRS-MAWA program to participate in on-farm 'improved manure management' for a two-year period. Training was carried out by Grassroots Trust on manure storage and in field management for the 12 farmers and 8 CRS-MAWA staff. Each farmer built a facility for improved manure storage. These storage facilities were built with local materials and some plastic sheeting and nails.Validation plots were selected by farmers and CRS-MAWA staff. These trial plots will measure the differences in manure management efficiency between manure which has been managed using traditional management methods and those proposed by Grassroots Trust. First results from this work are expected in cropping season 2016/2017.Photo: Sebastian ScottMaize is Zambia's staple food. It is estimated that about 85-140 kg of maize are consumed per person per year. Smallholder farmers in the Eastern Province of Zambia obtain approximately 50% of their daily energy from ordinary maize which contains relatively little protein compared to legumes. Overreliance on maize as the staple food leads to protein malnutrition and other associated diseases. It is therefore critical in areas of high maize consumption to provide smallholder farmers with cheap and alternative sources of protein, as farmers often cannot afford more expensive highprotein food such as milk, eggs, or meat.The development and the dissemination of bio-fortified maize which contains more essential amino acids have been long-term goals of CIMMYT's maize breeding programs. This research has resulted in the development of quality protein maize (QPM) which contains the opaque 2 gene and numerous modifier genes which lead to maize varieties that are rich in two amino acids: Lysine and Tryptophan. Results from animal feeding trials conducted in Ghana and other parts of the world with poultry and pigs confirmed the superiority of QPM in nutritional value over normal maize. Quality protein maize stimulated better growth in pigs and poultry when it was used as the only source of protein.Africa RISING and its predecessor projects supported the testing of QPM varieties in Zambia. In September 2015, the Seed Control and Certified Institute (SCCI) of Zambia approved the release of two QPM hybrids (GV 682P and GV 687P) which contain 0.08% of Tryptophan and about 4% of Lysine per grain weight. These two hybrids were evaluated on-station along with best commercial control varieties. Besides having high lysine and tryptophan they also have other adaptive traits, such as drought tolerance and resistance to major maize diseases (GLS and MSV).The new QPM hybrids were comparable in their performance to the best commercial hybrids in the market. While developing these hybrids, there was strong emphasis in selecting them under drought and low-N stress, and favorable rain-fed environments. In multi-locational trials conducted for two seasons these QPM hybrids showed a yield advantage of 5% to 10% over non-QPM control varieties under drought, and were also comparable to local control varieties under favorable conditions. Laboratory results additionally showed that drought and low soil fertility can dramatically reduce grain protein content but not the quality. However, in terms of yield there was no detectable yield penalty associated with QPM hybrids.To bridge the gap between breeders and farmers and to ensure that new varieties fit farmers' preferences and suit their socioeconomic situations, they were evaluated under farmers' conditions. The on-farm results indicate that most farmers preferred the new QPM varieties based on high-yielding characteristics, early maturity and drought tolerance. Grain yield was considered the most important selection criteria. However, drought-tolerance was viewed by farmers as a way to ensure early provision of food to the households, alleviate hunger and to cope with unreliable rainfall.These results confirm that given the time, attention and resources CIMMYT's QPM research program has received also through Feed the Future funding, smallholder farmers will be able to adopt QPM hybrids in the near future, which will increase their food and nutrition security.Right: Mrs. Mary Sikiriwai shows the performance of her quality protein maize (QPM) plot. QPM varieties are just like ordinary maize but have significantly higher levels of essential amino acids Lysine and Tryptophan.Smallholder farmers in Zambia need improved access to technologies that will enable them to increase farm yields while being more resilient in order to reduce poverty, increase food security as well as economic growth. These technologies range from improved seed varieties and fertilizers to more climate-smart agriculture systems such as conservation agriculture, which have shown to be successful elsewhere. Farmers also need private sector involvement, without which no country will make headway in development.To facilitate farmers' access to improved seeds at affordable prices, CIMMYT provides support to seed companies in seed business development, including capacity building for technical and entrepreneurial skills, varietal release and registration, seed multiplication and commercialization.In Zambia, one of the companies benefitting from CIMMYT's breeding and seed systems work is Afriseed, a brand product under the auspices of Stewards Globe Limited. Working through USAID's Africa RISING and Drought-tolerant Maize Seed Scaling (DTMASS) projects, the company has managed to establish a wide product range from maize hybrids, including open pollinated varieties (OPVs) to legumes such as beans, cowpeas, groundnuts and soy beans.Established in 2007, Stewards Globe has received CIMMYT support to scale out its drought tolerant maize varieties and legumes across drought prone areas and USAID's Feed the Future (FTF) Zones of Influence in Zambia, in addition to legumes. \"We have received much needed training and technical support from CIMMYT to produce products that are on demand by farmers. This is critical to respond to and satisfy farmers' needs,'' Stephanie Angomwile, the chief executive officer of Stewards Globe says.In her view, drought-tolerant maize varieties outperformed traditional maize in the 2015/2016 cropping season. However, \"marrying the deployment of drought-tolerant maize with something like a crop insurance product against catastrophic weather events would reduce the risk of crop failure while increasing grain harvests for farmers.\"Stewards Globe identified consumers who could buy seed in bulk as part of its turn-around strategy, as it had been a loss-making venture before 2014. As a result, the company transformed into the largest supplier of legume seed in the country, although nationally legume production is still low. Until recently the country had to import legumes from Malawi and South Africa to fill the gap. With the increased interest by USAID and many other players in outscaling legume seed in eastern Zambia, the company could find a larger market for their legume seed.Without its own breeding program, Stewards Globe relies on CIMMYT and the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute for training and technical support and initial breeders' seed. They also work with extension agencies to train smallholder farmers on quality standards, field inspection and isolation distances to ensure the seed they produce meets the required standards. \"As an emerging seed company, partnerships are very important for us to grow the seed industry. Support in germplasm through CIMMYT makes our life easier,'' said Angomwile. \"By pulling together the right partners we will be able to achieve a much broader impact.\"To date, Zambia has a 40-60 % hybrid maize adoption, and there is still room for growth in this industry as the country has sufficient farming land. \"What we need is to increase farmers' knowledge on good agricultural practices and make seed available where it is needed most,\" said Angomwile. For Stewards Globe, promoting maize and legume seeds in tandem makes business sense as farmers need to rotate or intercrop their crops as integral part of the climate-smart agriculture practices now heavily promoted in Zambia.Sustainable Intensification Practices -a ray of hope for farmers facing El Niño induced droughtSmallholder farmers in eastern Zambia, whose livelihoods are heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture, have been increasingly exposed to rising intensity and frequency of El-Niño induced droughts. Recurrent droughts have escalated over the past 35 years with serious droughts in 1982/83; 1991/92; 1993/92; 1997/98; 2002/03; 2004/05; 2007/2008 and 2015/16. Erratic rains and prolonged dry spells have adversely affected agricultural production and sustainability of rural livelihoods in those years.The current 2015/16 El Niño-induced drought is predicted to reduce maize yield by more than 40% in eastern Zambia, with the valley areas heavily affected (WFP, 2016). High levels of poverty among smallholder farmers (78%), insufficient resilience, economic diversification and investment initiatives leave farmers vulnerable to these climate shocks. Predicted increases in intensity and frequency of droughts are likely to exacerbate climateinduced economic shock in the next decades, pushing farmers into a vicious cycle of poverty.The socioeconomic team under the Africa RISING Project carried out a study to understand the smallholder farmer's perception of El-Niño-induced droughts, their impacts on their socioeconomic activities and their adaptation strategies at the household level. In this study, adaptive capacity is defined as the ability of a system to adjust to climate shocks (including prolonged in-season droughts and shorter growing seasons <100 days), to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities or to cope with the consequences. The adaptive capacity of communities depends on many factors such as a) household resource endowments; b) strong social network; c) climate-resilient farming technologies; d) access to inputs; e) knowledge of climate risk; d) agricultural extension services; f) rural financial markets; and g) marketing and storage systems. Although Zambia has an early warning system, forecasting institutions are inadequately equipped and communication to extension officers and farmers in user-friendly formats is limited.Using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools such as trend analysis, hazard and vulnerability mapping, the study team profiled the climatic context of farmers for the past 35 years (e.g. rainfall and temperature changes, hazard profiles, and community risk analysis). Key emphasis was on the years when there were poor onset of rains, early termination of the season, poorly distributed and erratic rains and excessive rains. The PRAs captured existing perceptions of climate change and adaptation measures that are Using descriptive analysis the PRA qualitative and quantitative findings were consolidated using protocols and summary matrices.Overall, all the communities perceived that the rainfall pattern had changed considerably compared to 15 years ago. For communities in Chipata district, the growing seasons have become shorter, characterised by late onset and early termination of the season and prolonged dry spell. In the low altitude and low rainfall parts of eastern Zambia (e.g. Lundazi district) the length of the growing season has not changed but the rainfall has become more unevenly distributed in the past five seasons with either more rainfall at the start or end of the season. For Sinda district, communities have observed significant changes in the distribution of the rainfall with more frequent early and mid-season dry spells. The farmers reported an adoption rate of more than 80%. It was however noted that those who did not adopt had limited access to ripping -either they did not have access to animal traction or no money to pay for the services. The income from crop sales were invested in livestock, mainly cattle, further enhancing their resilience in both districts. Crop, variety and spatial diversification were the commonly used drought management strategies used in Chipata district. Growing of more than four maize varieties in three different locations (homestead, dambo, and main field) and at least two cash crops (soybean, tomatoes, tobacco, common bean) have become an integral component of their farming system. ","tokenCount":"5372"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3fc2c35feee351282aa54b69134327e5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3d3bdd57-ffa5-473a-b47f-1ee20598f375/retrieve","id":"1710172721"},"keywords":["cryopreservation","cytokinins","cytology","silver fir"],"sieverID":"e27c6858-ff84-43ed-b99d-200ab37f4176","pagecount":"15","content":"Initiation of somatic embryogenesis from immature zygotic embryos, long-term maintenance of embryogenic tissue in vitro or by cryopreservation, as well as maturation, of somatic embryos of Abies alba Mill. are reported in this study. For the initiation of embryogenic tissues, a DCR medium containing different types of cytokinins (1 mg•L −1 ) were tested. During three consecutive years, 61 cell lines were initiated out of 1308 explants, with initiation frequencies ranging between 0.83 and 13.33%. The type of cytokinin had no profound effect on the initiation frequency within one given year. Microscopic observations revealed presence of bipolar somatic embryos in all initiated embryogenic tissues. Besides the typical bipolar somatic embryos, huge polyembryonal complexes, as well as \"twin\" embryos, were observed. Maturation of somatic embryos occurred on a DCR medium supplemented by abscisic acid (10 mg•L −1 ), polyethylene glycol (PEG-4000, 7.5%) and 3% maltose. The maturation capacity was cell-line dependent. All of the four tested cell lines produced cotyledonary somatic embryos, though at different quantities, of 16 to 252 per g of fresh weight. After germination, seedlings developed, but their further growth soon stopped after the formation of a resting bud. Altogether, seven cell lines were cryopreserved, using the slow-freezing technique. After rewarming, all tested cell lines showed regrowth rates between 81.8 and 100%.Somatic embryogenesis is the process of in vitro formation of embryos from somatic plants cells without fusion of gametes. Somatic embryogenesis from immature zygotic embryos in the conifer Norway spruce was first reported in 1985 [1,2]. Since then, considerable successes have been achieved, and efforts have been focused on the embryogenic tissue initiation, somatic embryo maturation and somatic seedlings regeneration in many conifers [3,4]. This process provides an experimental tool for the study of the early development of conifer trees, and this knowledge can be applied to zygotic embryos, since somatic embryos strongly resemble their zygotic counterparts in seeds [5]. Somatic embryogenesis in conifers also represents an efficient plant regeneration system important for genetic transformation studies and cryopreservation. In addition, production of embryos from somatic cells can be used for mass propagation of conifers, while the process is amenable to automation [6][7][8].The members of the genus Abies represent valuable and economically important trees grown in various parts of the world. The micropropagation of Abies species by adventitious bud/shoot initiation For culture of explants, a DCR medium [30] containing enzymatic caseinhydrolysate (1000 mg•L −1 ), glutamine (500 mg•L −1 ), myoinositol (200 mg•L −1 ), glycine (2 mg•L −1 ) and the vitamins thiamine (1 mg•L −1 ), nicotinic acid (0.5 mg•L −1 ), pyridoxine (0.5 mg•L −1 ) and 2% sucrose was used. The medium was further supplemented with cytokinins N6-benzyladenine (BA), zeatin (ZEA), thidiazuron (TDZ), kinetin (KIN) or 2-isopentenyladenine (2iP) at a concentration of 1 mg•L −1 . The medium was solidified with gelrite 0.3% (Duchefa).The megagametophytes were placed on the surface of a medium in plastic Petri plates (diameter 6 cm). In each dish, 6 explants were cultured, in the dark, at 23 • C. Following initiation, the embryogenic tissue was maintained by transfers to new media at two-to-three-week intervals. For the initiation experiments, a total of 1308 explants were used. During the first 6 months, the cultures were maintained on the same initiation medium. Thereafter, they were transferred to a DCR medium supplemented with 1 mg•L −1 BA. Initiation frequencies (IF) were calculated as the number of explants that produced embryogenic tissues relative to the total number of cultured explants.The structure of early somatic embryos in tissue was followed by using squash preparations. Small pieces of tissues were placed on glass slide, stained with two drops of 2% acetocarmine for two to three min, squashed and covered by a cover glass. The preparations were examined under a light microscope Axioplan 2 (Carl Zeiss Microscopy) equipped with a camera system (Sony DXC-5500).First observations were executed when the initiated tissue was already intensively proliferating and later at two-to-three-month intervals, regularly, during the maintenance. For each observation, at least three samples were used per cell line.At day 8 after the last subculture, 0.5 g of tissue was transferred to a DCR proliferation medium. The fresh and dry mass were evaluated at days 7, 14 and 21 after transfer. The tissues were taken from the proliferation medium, and their fresh mass was recorded. The samples were then dried in an oven, for 3 h, at 80 • C, following 2 h at 105 • C, and the dry mass was recorded. Then, the samples were dried at 105 • C, for 2 h, and dry mass again recorded. The two measurements were compared, and the second measurement was considered in case it did not differ from the first one by more than 1 mg. Nine cell lines were included in the experiments that were repeated twice, with 5 samples for each cell line. The obtained data were analyzed by using a t-test.For the maturation experiments four cell lines were selected (A01, A30, A31 and A32). On day 12 after the last subculture, 1 g of vigorously growing tissue was resuspended in a liquid medium containig half the strength of DCR macro-and microelements, and an aliquot of 100 mg of fresh mass was then pipetted and spread onto the stacked filter paper discs, for the liquid to be absorbed. The upper filter paper disc was placed on the maturation medium that consisted of DCR macro-and microelements, 10 mg•L −1 abscisic acid (ABA) and supplemented with 7.5% polyethylene glycol (PEG-4000) and 3% maltose and solidified with gelrite (0.3%). The maturation of cell lines was also tested on a medium without PEG-4000 of the same composition as indicated above. The cultures were kept in a culture room, in darkness, at 23 • C. After eight weeks of cultivation, the developing somatic embryos were transferred to a medium devoid of ABA and PEG-4000 (post-maturation treatment, two to three weeks). The developing somatic embryos were categorized according to von Arnold and Hakman [31] as Stage 2 (precotyledonary somatic embryos), Stage 3 (cotyledonary somatic embryos) and Stage 4 somatic seedlings. The number of developing somatic embryos (Stages 2 and 3) was calculated on 1 g of fresh mass. The number of precotyledonary embryo was calculated after five weeks of cultivation on a maturation medium. The number of cotyledonary embryos was evaluated after eight weeks, on a maturation medium. The data were analyzed by using a t-test.The maturation experiments were repeated three times, with each four to five Petri dishes. After post-maturation treatment, the somatic embryos on the filter paper discs were transferred to empty Petri dishes that were 6 cm in diameter and placed into Nalgene TM container with sterile distilled water on the bottom, for two weeks, in darkness, at 23 • C. For germination, well-developed cotyledonary embryos that consisted of at least four cotyledons were selected. The germination was evaluated by the t-test. The germination medium contained DCR macro and microelements, 2% maltose and 1% activated charcoal and was solidified with 0.5% gelrite. During the first week of germination, Petri dishes with somatic embryos were kept in darkness; the second week, the somatic embryos were cultured in dimmed light, and, finally, when elongation of hypocotyl and cotyledons occurred, the somatic embryos, which were already small plantlets, were transferred to light. Lastly the small plantlets were transferred into Magenta baby-food jars on the same medium as for germination and cultured in a growth chamber room, at 23 • C, at a 16 h photoperiod, under cool white fluorescent tubes, at a photosynthetic photon flux density of 50 µmol −2 s −1 .For cryopreservation, the two-step slow-freezing technique was applied as described elsewhere in detail [32,33]. Briefly explained, 1.5 g of vigorously growing tissue of the cell lines A01, A02, A07, A11, A13, A16 and A23 was precultured on a solid DCR proliferation medium containing 0.5 M sorbitol, for 24 h. Then, 3 g of tissue collected from two plates was resuspended in a liquid medium of the same composition as the preculture medium. Thereafter, a 10% DMSO (dimethylsulfoxid) solution dissolved in a proliferation medium was added, in three steps, on ice, to reach a final concentration of 5% DMSO. The suspension was pipetted to 1.8 ml cyrovials, and the cryovials were placed to Mr. Frosty (Nalgene TM ) container filled with isopropanol. The container with samples was put into the deep freezer, at −80 • C. The temperature was measured by placing a thermocouple in a representative cryovial, and when −40 • C was reached, the cryovials were plunged into liquid nitrogen (LN) and kept in this condition for one year. Then the vials were rewarmed in a 40 • C water bath, for the cells to be cultured on the proliferation medium. Samples designated as control (C) were preteated but not exposed to liquid nitrogen. Visual observations were executed at 3-5-day intervals, to monitor the tissue regrowth. The experiments were repeated three times; one repetition included five Petri dishes for each cell line, as control, as well as cryopreserved tissue.The embryogenic tissue was initiated from female gametophytes containing immature zygotic embyos. Then, 12-15 days after placing immature zygotic embyos on initiation media, white embryogenic tissues were observed, protruding from explants (Figure 1a). Twenty-five out of the 312 cultured explants, i.e., 8.03%, produced embryogenic tissue. The frequency of embryogenic tissue formation was not profoundly affected by the type of cytokinin used (Table 1). ZEA was the most effective, with 13.33% initiation frequency. Treatments with BAP or KIN gave lower initiation frequencies, but the results with respect to the PGR treatment were statistically not significant (p ≤ 0.05). Once a size of approximately 5 mm was reached, the embryogenic tissue was separated from the explant and subcultured as a cell line, derived from an individual zygotic embryo.All of the established cell lines proliferated intensively over one year. Subsequently, four out of the 25 cell lines started to show signs of necrosis, and, in the second year of cultivation, some cell lines changed the mucilaginous consistency, resembling non-embryogenic callus tissue.   The initiation frequencies were lower than in 2013, giving very low values, ranging from 0.83 to 1.75, averaging 1.36% (Table 1). Altogether, eight cell lines were initiated from a total 588 of explants, five died shortly after initiation and the remaining three cell lines were maintained on a proliferation medium (A30, A31 and A32). The effect of different types of cytokinins was again not apparent.In that year, the megagametophyte explants gave rise to embryogenic tissue at an overall rate of 6.99%. Altogether, 28 cell lines were obtained from 408 cultured explants (Table 1). After more than one year of maintenance, 18 cell lines were well proliferating. The extrusion of embryogenic tissue occurred within the first two to three weeks of explant culture. The ability to produce embryogenic tissue was not dependent on the type of cytokinin used.In the experiments performed over three consecutive years, 1308 explants were plated on a culture medium, and, altogether, 61 embryogenic cell lines were initiated. Our results suggest that the used cytokinins were equally efficient in their induction capacity.The cellular composition of the different cell lines (tissue) was variable. Bipolar somatic embryos, composed of meristematic embryonal part (\"head\") subtended by a long suspensor, were observed in most of proliferating tissues (Figure 1b). Besides these structures, huge polyembryonal complexes (Figure 1c) or \"twin\" embryos (Figure 1d) could be observed. In these structures, two or several meristematic \"heads\" joined sharing a common suspensor. Occasionally the long suspensor branched or coiled (Figure 1e,f). Additionally, meristematic cell clumps interspersed with long vacuolized cells containing an apparent nucleus were frequently observed.Some cell lines lost embryogenic features in time, showing a consistence of non-embryogenic hard callusses. In these cell lines, the typical bipolarity of somatic embryos dissappeared, and round-shaped cells became apparent (Figure 1g). During the first five years of maintenance, cell line A01 was characterized by the presence of bipolar somatic embryos. After this period, structural changes occurred. The meristematic \"heads\" were still present, but the long suspensor was replaced by small round-shaped cells (Figure 1h).The embryogenic tissues were maintained over a long period of time, by serial subcultures, at two-to-three-week intervals, on a fresh DCR proliferation medium supplemented with BA (1 mg•L −1 ). No auxins were needed for tissue proliferation. On a maintenance medium, the embryogenic tissue remained at the proliferation stage. During the followed growth period of 21 days, fresh and dry mass accumulation gradually increased, but the tested cell lines differed (Figure 2). Cell line A01 showed the maximum fresh mass accumulation after three weeks of proliferation, approximately with a nine-fold increase. Some cell lines (A02 and A07) proliferated intensively, with a seven-fold increase in fresh mass accumulation, while others showed only a three-to-four-fold increase (A06, A10, A23, A30 and A31). The dry mass accumulation displayed a similar pattern and was positively correlated with the fresh mass accumulation (Figure 3). was characterized by the presence of bipolar somatic embryos. After this period, structural changes occurred. The meristematic \"heads\" were still present, but the long suspensor was replaced by small round-shaped cells (Figure 1h).The embryogenic tissues were maintained over a long period of time, by serial subcultures, at two-to-three-week intervals, on a fresh DCR proliferation medium supplemented with BA (1 mg.L −1 ). No auxins were needed for tissue proliferation. On a maintenance medium, the embryogenic tissue remained at the proliferation stage. During the followed growth period of 21 days, fresh and dry mass accumulation gradually increased, but the tested cell lines differed (Figure 2). Cell line A01 showed the maximum fresh mass accumulation after three weeks of proliferation, approximately with a nine-fold increase. Some cell lines (A02 and A07) proliferated intensively, with a seven-fold increase in fresh mass accumulation, while others showed only a three-to-four-fold increase (A06, A10, A23, A30 and A31). The dry mass accumulation displayed a similar pattern and was positively correlated with the fresh mass accumulation (Figure 3).Regular subcultures at two-to-three-week intervals were necessary to maintain vigorously growing tissues. Longer subculture intervals caused progressive tissue browning and necrotization. Occasionally white sectors with a proliferating capacity appeared on the surface of browning cultures. Isolation of such sectors from necrotic tissue and subsequent culture on a proliferation medium resulted in their further growth.   During the maturation process, the somatic embryos of different cell lines followed similar patterns of development, despite their quantitative differences in somatic embryo production. After  Regular subcultures at two-to-three-week intervals were necessary to maintain vigorously growing tissues. Longer subculture intervals caused progressive tissue browning and necrotization. Occasionally white sectors with a proliferating capacity appeared on the surface of browning cultures. Isolation of such sectors from necrotic tissue and subsequent culture on a proliferation medium resulted in their further growth.During the maturation process, the somatic embryos of different cell lines followed similar patterns of development, despite their quantitative differences in somatic embryo production. After plating of the resuspended embryogenic tissue to a maturation medium, tissue regeneration started at days 4-5. After four to five weeks, precotyledonary somatic embryos became visible as structures anchored in embryogenic tissue by huge suspensors and distinguisable embryonic regions (Figure 4a). Following this period, gradually somatic embryos with emerging cotyledons developed (Figure 4b).  At the end of the fifth week of maturation, numerous precotyledonary somatic embryos appeared on the surface of the callus. All of the tested cell lines produced precotyledonary somatic embryos (Stage 2), but significant differences were observed among cell lines (Table 2). Similarly, the cell lines differed in their ability to form fully developed cotyledonary somatic embryos. In the tested cell lines, many precotyledonary somatic embryos stopped their development without cotyledon  At the end of the fifth week of maturation, numerous precotyledonary somatic embryos appeared on the surface of the callus. All of the tested cell lines produced precotyledonary somatic embryos (Stage 2), but significant differences were observed among cell lines (Table 2). Similarly, the cell lines differed in their ability to form fully developed cotyledonary somatic embryos. In the tested cell lines, many precotyledonary somatic embryos stopped their development without cotyledon differentiation. In the most productive cell line (A01), the development of precotyledonary somatic embryos to cotyledonary developmental stage reached 42.93%. A very weak development was achieved in cell line A30, with 6.55% conversion only. In this cell line, strong proliferation occurred, and the Stage 2 embryos were overgrown by proliferating tissue.In all the tested cell lines, besides the well-developed somatic embryos, high numbers of abnormally developed structures, characterized by abnormal cotyledons were also present (Figure 4c). The aberrant strucures showed no further development. Moreover, the development of somatic embryos toward the cotyledonary stage (Stage 3) was unsynchronized. Somatic embryo maturation on a medium without PEG-4000 was not satisfactory, showing extreme proliferation of tissue in cell lines A01, A30 and A31, as well as somatic embryos degeneration, at the very early developmental stage, in cell line A32.Table 2. Somatic embryo (se) maturation and germination in selected embryogenic cell lines of Abies alba Mill. (the number of somatic embryos was calculated per 1 g of fresh mass).Precotyledonary Se The standard errors of mean is in parenthesis. 2 Regenerated plantlets. 3 Number of somatic embryos tested for germination. a Statistically not significant.The partially dessicated somatic embryos were placed horizontally on a germination medium and cultured in darkness for approximately 7 to 10 days. During this period, there was a slight elongation of hypocotyl and cotyledons. Further culture under dimmed light for another 7-10 days followed by culture on full light for another 1-2 weeks resulted in small plantlets with a 1.0-1.5 cm hypocotyl and elongated green cotyledons. The small plantlets were subsequently cultured in Magenta jars in light where they developed further. The lenght of root ranged between 3 mm and 1 cm (Figure 1d,e). Thereafter the somatic seedlings ceased to grow. The germination frequencies were similar in all tested cell lines (Table 2)Cryopreservation of embryogenic tissues with the classical slow cooling method was successful and resulted in tissue regeneration of all tested cell lines, with frequencies between 81.1 and 100%. The differences observed among individual cell lines were statistically insignificant (Figure 5). Tissue regeneration started soon after thawing (four to seven days) and starting the third week of post-thaw culture; all regenerated tissues showed intensive proliferation. The successfull initiation of somatic embryogenesis in conifers depends on several factors, including the explant, exogenous plant growth regulators and basal medium composition [4,34]. In our experiments, the embryogenic tissue was initiated from immature zygotic embryos enclosed in the megagametophytes. Megagametophytes containing immature zygotic embryos have been used successfully as explants for the initiation of embryogenic tissues in Abies species or their hybrids [15, 16,21,27,29,35,36], but the specific role of the megagametophyte in embryogenic tissue initiation has not been exactly determined. It is hypothesized that the megagametophyte provides nutrients and/or endogenous plant hormones that may be suboptimal in the culture medium [37], or can act as a mechanical barrier protecting the zygotic embryo during the cultivation [38].In our experiments, the effect of different cytokinins on the initiation of somatic embryogenesis was tested over three consecutive years. Depending on the applied cytokinin and the year, initiation frequencies ranged between 0.83 and 13.33%. For the majority of conifer species, somatic embryogenesis initiation requires the presence of both auxins and cytokinins [4]. For species belonging to the genus Abies, cytokinin as a sole plant-growth regulator was sufficient for both the initiation of embryogenic cultures and the maintenance of initiated tissue [12,14,39,40]. The endogenous auxin production might be sufficient [11]. The role of exogenous auxin has been less extensively studied in Abies. Vondrakova et al. [41] showed a positive effect of exogenously applied 2,4-D on Abies alba somatic embryogenesis. The embryogenic tissues growing on a medium supplemented with 2,4-D yielded a higher number of mature somatic embryos, although, during the maturation period, no 2,4-D was needed. In Abies hybrids, embryogenic tissue initiation occurred also on a medium containing 2,4-D combined with BA, but during proliferation, non-embryogenic callus formation was observed [42]. Zancani et al. [43] evaluated the hormone-like effect of fulvic acid (FA) on somatic embryogenesis in Abies cephalonica. It stimulated the proliferation rate at the early growth stage. The successfull initiation of somatic embryogenesis in conifers depends on several factors, including the explant, exogenous plant growth regulators and basal medium composition [4,34]. In our experiments, the embryogenic tissue was initiated from immature zygotic embryos enclosed in the megagametophytes. Megagametophytes containing immature zygotic embryos have been used successfully as explants for the initiation of embryogenic tissues in Abies species or their hybrids [15,16,21,27,29,35,36], but the specific role of the megagametophyte in embryogenic tissue initiation has not been exactly determined. It is hypothesized that the megagametophyte provides nutrients and/or endogenous plant hormones that may be suboptimal in the culture medium [37], or can act as a mechanical barrier protecting the zygotic embryo during the cultivation [38].In our experiments, the effect of different cytokinins on the initiation of somatic embryogenesis was tested over three consecutive years. Depending on the applied cytokinin and the year, initiation frequencies ranged between 0.83 and 13.33%. For the majority of conifer species, somatic embryogenesis initiation requires the presence of both auxins and cytokinins [4]. For species belonging to the genus Abies, cytokinin as a sole plant-growth regulator was sufficient for both the initiation of embryogenic cultures and the maintenance of initiated tissue [12,14,39,40]. The endogenous auxin production might be sufficient [11]. The role of exogenous auxin has been less extensively studied in Abies. Vondrakova et al. [41] showed a positive effect of exogenously applied 2,4-D on Abies alba somatic embryogenesis. The embryogenic tissues growing on a medium supplemented with 2,4-D yielded a higher number of mature somatic embryos, although, during the maturation period, no 2,4-D was needed. In Abies hybrids, embryogenic tissue initiation occurred also on a medium containing 2,4-D combined with BA, but during proliferation, non-embryogenic callus formation was observed [42]. Zancani et al. [43] evaluated the hormone-like effect of fulvic acid (FA) on somatic embryogenesis in Abies cephalonica. It stimulated the proliferation rate at the early growth stage.In 2013, the initiation frequency reached 8.03% and is comparable to those obtained by Krajnakova et al. [29] for Abies alba: 5.8% in total, and 1.7 to 16.6%, depending on sampling date of Forests 2020, 11,1210 cones, but lower in comparison to the initiation frequencies of 22.5% obtained by Schuller et al. [27]. Such differences may originate from different experimental conditions applied in different laboratories.In our experiments, somatic embryo maturation was achieved on a medium containing ABA (10 mg•L −1 ) combined with PEG-4000 (7.5%) and 3% maltose. This medium was chosen based on our previous experiences with Abies hybrids [24,44]. The yield of cotyledonary embryo with developed cotyledons reached 16 to 252 per g of fresh mass inoculum, depending on the cell lines. Most studies on somatic embryo maturation in conifers reported the combination of the hormone ABA and high-molecular-weight osmoticum (PEG). Frequently observed responses to ABA are stimulation of storage reserves accumulation [31], reduction of tissue proliferation [45] and inhibition of cleavage and polyembryony [46]. Proper timing of exposure, as well as the concentration of ABA, significantly improved somatic embryo yield and their quality in loblolly pine. The mRNAs abundance in response to exogenous ABA could be used as a possible expression marker in somatic embryo maturation [47].The addition of PEG as a non-plasmolysic osmoticum was an important factor in obtaining fully developed cotyledonary somatic embryos in Abies alba. PEG-4000 exerts non-osmotic moisture stress at the cellular level, preventing plasmolysis [48]. In white spruce, the addition of PEG-4000 stimulated storage lipid deposition and increased desiccation tolerance [49]. Storage proteins that were accumulated during maturation of white spruce somatic embryos resembled that of mature zygotic embryos [50]. The timing and concentration of PEG-4000 effect are also important. In Abies nordmanniana, Norgaard [51] reported the optimum PEG-4000 effect in the period of precotyledonary somatic embryo formation. The optimal concentration of PEG-4000 depends on the species, e.g., 7.5% for white spruce [50], 4% for the same species referred by Kong and Young [52] or 3.75% for Picea abies [53]. Tissue overproliferation during somatic embryo maturation in Abies species is a serious problem. In Abies nordmannina, PEG-4000 reduced tissue proliferation [51].Besides well-developed cotyledonary somatic embryos, abnormal structures with fused cotyledons have also been frequently observed in our study. The abnormal somatic embryo development in conifers may be the result of a disturbed polar auxin transport [54]. The insufficiently developed somatic embryos of Norway spruce were eliminated by low doses of an anti-actin drug, latrunculin B, applied at the beginning of somatic embryo maturation [55].In Abies alba, the germination was tested after a slight dessication of somatic embryos, and the germination percentages were lower compared to other Abies species. In Abies nordmanniana, different medium compositions for germination of somatic embryos were used [51], and the maximal percentages, around 60%, were obtained on a 1  2 MS medium, as well as on a medium solidified with agar and supplemented with activated charcoal. The combined effect of sucrose and maltose resulted in 61% germination and also vigorous planlets development in Abies alba [28]. In both species mentioned, the somatic seedlings were transferred to soil. The growth of somatic seedlings obtained in Abies alba came to a halt seven to eight weeks after germination, probably due to dormant bud formation.Zoglauer et al. [56] reported 80-90% conversion of somatic embryos of A. nordmanniana into somatic seedlings, independent of the genotype and with a 90% survival rate of somatic seedlings under appropriate conditions. Somatic seedlings often go into dormancy, but a cold treatment could break this for the somatic seedlings to start growing again [56].Cryopreservation has frequently been applied for the long-term maintenance of conifer embryogenic tissues [57][58][59], including Abies species such as A. nordmanniana [60], A. cephalonica [22,61], A. alba [29] and A. fraseri [21], or Abies hybrids [32,33].Storage in liquid nitrogen provides several advantages over the long-term in vitro culture on solid media or suspension cultures. Cryopreservation avoids the time-consuming frequent transfers to fresh media and may prevent the decline or complete loss of regeneration capacity of cell lines observed in conifers embryogenesis [62]. The conifer somatic embryos can be stored in liquid nitrogen in their very early developental stage, as bipolar structures, regenerated after storage and used for maturation. The slow-freezing technique was mostly used for conifer embryogenic tissue, including Abies species. Based on our previous experience with Abies hybrids [32,33], this method was also chosen for seven cell lines of Abies alba. All tested cell lines recovered at high frequencies: 81.1 to 100% for individual cell lines. In A. alba, Kraj ňáková et al. [29] reported that four out of 12 cell lines recovered after cryostorage for six years. In our cryopreserved cell lines of A. alba, no significant differences in recovery frequencies among cell lines were recorded, although the cryotolerance in some conifer species was genotype dependent [56,58]. In control cell lines that were pretreated but not cryostored, the recovery frequencies reached 100%, indicating the cryoprotectant solutions had no harmful effect on recovery.In the presented work, the successful initiation of the economically important conifer species, Abies alba Mill., is described. The embryogenic tissues were initiatied from immature zygotic embryos, and the effect of five types of cytokinins was evaluated, using a DCR medium, in three consecutive years. Althogether, 61 cell lines were obtained. The initiation frequencies ranged from 0.83 to 13.33%, although no statistically significant differences in the effect of the cytokinins in the given year were obtained. On maturation medium with ABA (10 mg•L −1 ), as well as PEG-4000 (7.5%), cotyledonary somatic embryos developed, and their germination was terminated by somatic seedling regeneration.Storage in liquid nitrogen for one year resulted in successful tissue regeneration in seven tested cell lines, reaching regrowth frequencies of 81.1 to 100%. This successful regeneration system for Abies alba via somatic embryogenesis needs further follow-up with the establishment and growth of somatic seedlings under natural conditions. We hypothize that this step could be improved by using a cold treatment, as demonstrated in other conifer species. Owing to the fact that the differerent embryogenic cell lines apparently differ in maturation capacity, a proteomic approach is forseen to study this phenomenon in more detail. The \"ageing\" effect, as shown in our study on the structural level, needs further physiological and biochemical investigations.","tokenCount":"4696"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"97ea41d191376bd9c3ad8d1d867a61c3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37b819fa-72a8-4fd8-88c7-48789b0e3ebd/retrieve","id":"-339184949"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3557af59-5d0a-453d-9fab-08eaff43bc3b","pagecount":"272","content":"Prototype systems for ecolog1cally sound mtens1f1cat1on of product1on m the H1lls1des E Amézqwta J Ashby R 8est O K Fnesen S Fupsaka A G1¡sman e /gles1as 8 Knapp J Kornegay e Lascano 8 Maass K Muller J 1 Sanz J Sm1th R Thomas e A Qwroz andA Meléndezlnterprogram Pro]ect m H1lls1des TI 01 subproJect Market opportumt1es hnked to eros1on control pract1ces a key to adopt1on? Jo y oteeThe research act1v1t1es of the TLP fall broadly tn two ma¡or categones (a) w1th1n agroecosystem area based research act1v1t1es lead1ng to the 1dent1f1cat1on development and test1ng of prototype susta1nable land use systems for representatiVa s1tes 1n the savannas and forest marg1ns based on an understandtng of the underlytng b1ophys1cal and soc1oeconom1c processes and mechan1sms and {b) across agroecosystem research led by or 1n cooperat1on w1th the Land Use SRG a1med at prov1dtng pohcy opt1ons and deftntng the prof1le of potent1al technolog1cal tnnovat1ons and based on an understandtng of past and present trends 1n land use and the analys1s of past and present pohc1es Area basad research tn the forest marg1ns begun tn the f1rst semester of 1994 wh1le that of the savannas was formally 1ntt1ated tn 1992 Exploratory research across agroecosystems traces back to the stud1es leadtng to the development of CIAT s Strateg1c PlanThe above set of research act1V1t1es are orgamzed around three ma¡or types of pro¡ects ( 1 ) dynam1cs of land use {2) mechamst1c understand1ng of so1l chem1cal phys1cal and b1olog1cal processes tn agropastoral and sequent1al crop systems (3) development of prototype cropp1ng systems plus a smaller set of spec1al fundad more spec1f1c pro¡ects To vanous degrees all of these attempt to quant1fy the tradeoffs tnvolved tn tntervent1ons tn the two tropical lowlands agroecosystems researched namely the neotrop1cal savannas and the tntervened ratnforest margtns Funct1onal aspects of the two agroecosystems are ( 1) the prov1s1on of resources for agncultural product1on both pnmary and secondary (e g so1l water plants etc ) (2) the prov1s1on of vanous env¡ronmental serVIces tncludtng amemt1es and hfe support mechamsms (e g ecosystem stab1hzat1on chmate regulat1on ma1ntenance of genet1c d1vers1ty) and (3) ass1mlfatlon of waste products (e g C0 2 ) W1th1n th1s very large array of researchable 1ssues CIAT places particular but not exclusive emphas1s tn the use and ma1ntenance of the so1l resources 1n v1ew of the prevalence tn both agroecosystems of margtnal and low fert1hty so1ls and to the 1mpact of farmers dec1s1ons regard1ng land use on natural resources In concurrence w1th CIAT s strategy tn resource management the Program pos1t1ons 1tself as one part1c1pant tn the larga array of R&D mst1tut1ons 1nvolved tn RMR tn these agroecosystems Based on 1ts 1nternat1onal nature and neutrahty the Program attempts to play a faci11tattng role tn promottng the tnvolvement of other research mst1tutes tn both agroecosystems The h1ghhghts outhned 1n th1s report tntend to document how the Program 1s attempttng to carry out th1s dual role 1nvolv1ng 1ts own research most frequently developed tn cooperat1on w1th others and research by other lnstttuttons wh1ch have been prompted by our own act1v1t1es In th1s context spec1al ment1on needs to be made of sorne mst1tut1ons whose collaborat1on 1s essent1al for the Program s act1v1t1es In our host country the support and collaborat1on rece1ved from CORPOICA Canmagua 1s cruCial to the success of the Llanos work and the same comment apphes to the contnbut1ons of EMBRAPA CPAC tn the Braz11tan Cerrados and CPAF Acre and CPAF Rondoma tn the Forest Margtns area Notw1thstand1ng numerous other collaborators two tnternat1onal1nst1tutes have s1gmf1cantly contnbuted to the Program s research act1v1t1es These are IFDC USA who has ass1gned a So1l sc1ent1st to work w1th the TLP tn the area of so1l fert1hty management and CIRAD France wh1ch has ass1gned a Savanna ecolog1st to conduct research on plant dynam1cs 1n the Colomb1an Llanos Ma]or Program donors were the Colomb1an Government and the lnter Amencan Development BankUnderstand10g land use dvnam1csUnderstand1ng and pred1ctmg development paths of both agroecosystems and the1r mteract10ns 1mplles the analys1s of past trends m land use the analys1s of past and current pollc1es and modelllng of future alternat1ve scenanos cond1t1oned by potent1al pollc1es and technolog1esSuch an analys1s began 1n 1 994 based on llterature rev1ew and secondary data The root causes of deforestat10n 1n the Amazon are the opportumt1es 1t prov1des for land speculat1on to the nch and for mcreased labor returns to the poor The dnvmg forces behmd these opportun1t1es ong1nate pnmanly m government pollc1es both w1th1n and outs1de the agncultural sector In the savanna product1ve technolog1es have enabled areas Wlth good mfrastructure to make 1mportant contnbut1ons to nat1onal agncultural product10n at the expense of on and off s1te degradat1on Speculat1ve land demand has expanded the agncultural front1er mto marg1nal areas A modelllng exerc1se to dep1ct future land use scenanos up to the year 2020 and the1r 1mpllcat10ns m terms of product1v1ty labor absorpt1on and ecolog1cal sustamabd1ty was 1n1t1ated Jomtly by the TLP the Land Use SRG the lmpact Assessment umt and an NGO Prellm1nary results show that the combmat1on of favorable pollc1es and technolog1es for ecosystem management could make a ma]or contnbut1on towards s1multaneously reducmg deforestat1on wh1le enabhng nat10nal governments to obtam econom1c and soc1al benef1ts from the forest margm S1gmf1cant mcreases m agncultural output and agnbusmess could be sustamably ach1eved m the savanna and th1s could enable 1t to d1vert pressure from the Amazon by contnbut1ng to government s econom1c ob¡ect1ves d1vertmg venture capital and absorbmg labor 1n agnbus1ness Aspects of the favorable scenanos have started to occur 1n recent years Among them are changes m pollc1es emergmg mternat1onal markets 1n ecolog1cal serv1ces wh1ch could prov1de powerful mcent1ves for the adopt1on of sustamable systems and new ecolog1cal parad1gms wh1ch prov1de opportun1t1es for combmmg env1ronmental enhancement w1th econom1c gam Th1s constellat1on of events prov1des a umque opportun1ty for effect1ve ecosystem management Assessment of poss1ble future land use scenanos reqUire cont1nued understandmg of the factors dnvmg farmer s adopt10n of new and emerg1ng technolog1es An adopt1on study of pasture based technolog1es m the Colomb1an savanna showed that 98% of sample farmers had planted 1mproved pastures 17% of the surveyed area cons1sted of planted pastures w1th the are a mcreasmg 1n the last 1 5 years at the rate of 14% p a Only 18% of the 1mproved are a contamed legumes and 1 5% was planted to the nce pasture technology the latter be1ng a new technology at the t1me of the survey The predommant strategy of farmers was to supplement nat1ve savanna w1th a small area of planted grass pasture wh1ch was mcreased over t1me as cap1tal became ava1lable Capital and management reqUirements were 1dent1f1ed as key factors mh1b1t1ng area expans1on of planted grass pastures and adopt1on of grass legume pastures and ley farmmg systems As natural mcrease 1n herd s1ze occurs farmers appear to be acceptmg 1mproved grass pastures as an alternat1ve to over grazmg The study shows that reduct1on of the cap1tal and management mtens1veness of ley farmmg systems even at the expense of product1v1ty could make a ma]or contnbut1on to the prevent10n of VIII over grazmg by speedmg up the rate of adopt1on In terms of the savanna as a whole the study area hes towards the unfavorable extreme m terms of so1l fert1hty In terms of mfrastructure 1t 1s mov1ng rap1dly from the typ1cal towards a more favorable d1rect10n The ley farm1ng technology m 1ts current form should be targeted to the most favorable areas of the savanna Another external factor that may cond1t1on future land use m the forest margms and at least parts of the savannas 1s the emergmg development of mternat1onal markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces Technolog1cal mtervent1ons such as deep rooted germplasm that can effect1vely sequester Cm depth and poss1bly affect the exchange of other gasses as well (see below) may have an 1mportant role 1n the future and const1tutes an area wh1ch the Program w1ll modestly explore to assess 1mphcat1ons for further technolog1cal developments A great deal of effort and very s1gmf1cant resources were deployed m 1994 ter the contmued charactenzat1on and m depth analyses of land use dynam1cs m the two target agroecosystems under the leadersh1p of the Land Use SRG G1ven resource hm1tat1ons the Acre Rondoma area was pnont1zed followed by the Colomb1an Llanos Sorne etforts were made to obta1n add1t1onal and more deta1led secondary mformat1on to 1mprove the charactenzat1on of selected s1tes m the Cerrados of Braz11 wh1le charactenzat1on of the Venezuelan Savannas 1n cooperat1on w1th a number of nat10nalmst1tut1ons has been on hold System charactenzat10n research has been conducted m Acre and Rondoma m the Braz1han Amazon as part of the global 1n1t1at1ve Alternat1ves to Slash and Burn Agnculture (ASB) funded by GEF and coordmated globally by ICRAF and by CIA T m Latm Amenca and m partnersh1p w1th EMBRAPA (m Acre and m Rondoma) PESACRE ICRAF IFPRI CIFOR and TSBF The purpose of the ASB 1s to develop techmcal and pohcy alternatiVas wh1ch would help to decrease rates of tropical deforestat1on wh1le enhancmg the well bemg of forest resource users Trop1cal deforestat10n a contnbutor to global warmmg v1a release of atmosphenc C0 2 1s h1ghest m Latln Amenca comparad to Afnca and As1a Rates m the Amazon Basm of Braz1l mcreased from the early 1 960s through the m1d 1980s due to nat1onal pohc1es support1ng road bu1ldmg tax and cred1t mcent1ves to large corporat1ons and ranches and colon1zat1on proJects for the rural peor Changes m the same pohc1es seem to have contnbuted to observad dechnmg rates of deforestat10n for the Braz1han Amazon as a whole lnterv1ews conducted m the proJect area 1nd1cated that settler colomsts had parcels of a mean 88 ha 1n Pedro Pe1xoto (Acre) and 76 ha m Theobroma (Rondoma) These lands were approx1mately 60% m forest and 40% cleared for pastures and crops at the t1me of the mterv1ews Farmers cleared shghtly more than ene ha per famdy per year to produce f1rst nce for wh1ch y1elds were calculated to be approx1mately 1 5 t/h m the f1rst year but dropped drast1cally such that ma1ze and cassava were grown 1n second and 1n sorne cases a th1rd year of cult1vat1on Lands were then converted to pasture as farmers not only banked the1r savmgs m cattle (sorne 85% of the settlers had cattle w1th herd s1zes of about 25 30 head) but also and perhaps more 1mportantly sought to take advantage of substant1ally h1gher values for 1mproved lands 1 e cleared lands w1th pasture fencmg corrals and ponds Development of alternat1ves to slash and burn agnculture wh1ch would decrease rates of deforestat1on 1ncrease sustamabd1ty of resource use and enhance the well bemg of settlers would have to combme on farm and pohcy research IX A deta1led GIS coverage 1s bemg developed for the study area between Puerto Lopez and Puerto Ga1tán Meta m the Colomb1an Llanos Th1s w1ll help refme ex1stmg (Cochrane s et al ) class1f1cat1ons momtonng of land use changas and allow extrapolat1on of technolog1cal and pohcy opt10ns Maps of so1ls and s01ls charactenst1cs dramage topography vegetat10n etc have been d1g1t1zed Cnt1cal to the effort of the Program m assessmg externaht1es assoc1ated w1th present and potent~al land uses 1s the development of a d1g1tal elevat1on model wh1ch w1ll allow accurate est1mat10n of slopes and runoff for apply1ng watershed management and eros1on control models Th1s 1s an ongo1ng h1ghly t1me consummg act1v1ty Satelhte 1mages for prev1ous years were obtamed and are bemg sub1ected to unsuperv1sed class1f1cat10n we expect to obtam a new satelhte 1mage for 1995 wh1ch wlll be ground truthed to allow superv1sed class1f1cat10n of current land use To complement the above efforts farms located 1n contrastmg land systems (as class1f1ed ongmally by Cochrane et al ) and that d1ffer m the use of savanna resources have been momtored for over 18 months lnputs and outputs for spec1f1c f1elds and/or whole farms are quant1f1ed to the extent poss1ble and s01l vegetat1on and other resources are bemg charactenzed All of the data has been georeferenced but there are hngenng doubts regardmg the prec1s1on of the GPS mstruments used so far The recent acqu1s1t10n of prec1se GPS mstrumentat1on by the Land Use SRG w1ll allow venf1cat10n of the coordmates m 1995 followmg wh1ch the data can be 1ncorporated mto a GIS database and overlayed onto the maps and 1mages referred to above for use m land use s1mulat1on and other purposes S1mllarly extens1ve stud1es were conducted dunng 1 gg4 on the flonst1c compos1t1on of nat1ve savanna wh1ch const1tutes the mam ( > 70%) land use form of the reg10n Spec1es d1vers1ty was quant1f1ed dunng 1994 for a large cross sect1on of the undulatmg savannas or serramas a format10n that const1tute nearly 60% of the Colomb1an and poss1bly also a large percentage of the Venezuelan savannas As befare these data have been georeferenced and extens1ve s01l and plant t1ssue analyses were conducted lnterv1ews w1th ranch managers and md1genous commun1t1es were also undertaken to assess management pract1ces apphed to nat1ve savanna commumt1es that may affect plant dynam1cs On the whole 173 plant spec1es were 1dent1f1ed belongmg to 40 d1fferent fam1hes Only 89 of these spec1es are common to the levelled savanna stud1ed m the past m Can magua and surroundmg areas Large d1fferences 1n plant spec1es compos1t1on assoc1ated w1th topography so1ls and seasonal hydrology ex1st but add1t1onal and longer term research IS st1ll requ1red to understand and quant1fy the contnbut1on of these plant commun1t1es to the savanna ecosystem and the poss1ble tradeoffs mvolved 1f land use 1ntens1f1cat1on s1gmf1cantly affects some or all of these 1mportant commumt1es Th1s 1s an area that requ1res the contnbut1on of other d1sc1phnes part1cularly tropical ecology and for wh1ch the Program 1s attempt1ng to mvolve other research mst1tut10nsAs md1cated prev1ously longer term stud1es of the dynam1cs of savanna vegetat1on m response to current and potent1al uses are reqUired A large ongo1ng expenment set up m Canmagua was des1gned to prov1de mformat1on on the effect of season and frequency of burmng and of grazmg management on vegetat10n dynam1cs above ground and underground b1omass product1on and seasonal changas 1n graz1ng preference Large d1fferences are apparent m terms of spec1es dynam1cs but 1t 1s st1ll too early to draw conclus10ns Complementary observat1ons are made on some of the farms bemg momtored as explamed above Plant dynam1cs and changes m so1l parameters are evaluated and w1ll be related to management pract1ces employed by farmers X Process oneoted b!ophys1ca! research lotenslf!cat•on of land use 10 the savannas may bnng about changes 10 many of 1ts !and resources mc!udmg above and under ground fauna and 10 hmnolog!ca! propert1es of savanna water streams The !atter two are oot areas 10 wh1ch the Program has expert1se An exp!oratory survey of above grouod fauna 1s bemg cooducted at Canmagua by a professor of the Nat1ona! Umvers1ty of Colombia Department of 81ology Bogotá made poss1ble by the fmaoc1al support prov1ded by CORPOICA Canmagua aod the TLP An ID!t!al survey of so1l fauna cooducted earher on by a French student 10 the Colomb1an Llanos led to the des1gn of a much more amb!t!ous oogo1ng project cooducted by a Spamsh student under the superv!S!OD of an ORSTOM (France) spec1ahst anda professor of the Umvers1dad Complutense de Madnd The study takes advantage of a large longterm expenmeot setup 10 Canmagua mvolvmg a w1de raoge of h1ghly contrast1ng prototype cropp1ng and pasture systems that allows quantlf!cat!oo of changes 10 so1l fauna 10 response to temporal changes 10 land use G1ven the low natural fert1hty of savanna ox1so!s the expenmeot •nvest1gates a combmat1on of crop and/or pastura componeots at two !evels of mtens•f•cat1oo based on hme to determme b!ophys1cal measures of system performance aod health Th1s as well as an eqU!va!eot expenmeot set up 10 the Cerrados of Braz1! are jO!ot!y ruo w1th the respect1ve nat10na! IOStltUt!ons CORPOICA and EMBRAPA CPAC respect1ve!y plus the Umvers1t1es of Bayreuth (Germany) and Cornell (USA) 10 the Braz1han case A !arge team of researchers !S 1nvo!ved 10 both cases The Canmagua cultlcore expenmeot was set up part!y 10 1993 aod the rest 10 1994 The expenment essent1ally contrasts three major prototypes that mod1fy so1! and vegetat1on to vanous degrees w1th grazed nat1ve savanna represent1ng the !owest degree of human !oterveot!oo and a ma1ze based set of treatmeots represeotmg the h1ghest degree of resource mod!f!cat1on Th1s !ast year w1tnessed the !rnp!emeotat!OD of the h1gh hme ma1ze based systems usmg cv S1kua01 commerc1ally re!eased by CORPOICA aod CIMMYT for the Colomb1an Llanos 10 1994 Legume green manures 1ncluded as part of the system rap1dly showed at least one of the tradeoffs 1nvolved lo effect gram y1e!ds s•gnlf!cantly mcreased followmg the green maoure but so d1d the concentrat1on of N0 3 N down the s01! prof1!e suggestmg that N leakage 10 these so1!s 1s a real poss1b1hty Ma1ze gra1n y1e!ds 10 the expenmeot were 2 5 t ha 1 or approx1mate!y 1 ton less than 10 adjacent satelhte expenments probab!y due to a combmat1on of poor establishment and problems of machmery at sow1ng Th1s 1s 111ustrat1ve of sorne of the problems 10 settmg up long term expenments w1th cootrastmg componeots when the1r agronomy 1s st!ll oot well developed Nevertheless the expenment 1s extreme!y successful overall and prov1des a common ground for a !arge lotennstltut!ooal and mult!d!sc!phnary team that 1s mvest1gatmg outnent cychog processes mput/output re!at•onsh1ps so1! and crop management 1ssues and so1! fauna dyoam1cs Results of th1s expenment are bemg used to cahbrate ava1!able crop growth models that w1ll allow the s!mulat!on of oumerous other crop and pastura sequences aod hopefully extrapolat1on to other so1!s as well The Braz!l¡ao long term expenment or crop pasture mtegrat1on expenment completad 1ts th1rd cropp1ng year w1th the best treatmeots y1e!dmg 10 excess of 7 t ha 1 of ma1ze Major y1eld effects so far are due to s01! fert1hty maoagement wh1ch 10 turo affects the weed populat1on Although so!l mechamca! 1mpedance has began to detenorate under contmuous croppmg and to a !esser extent under a grass !egume pastura as comparad to the nat1ve Cerrado no detnmeota! effects are appareot as yet Oo the other hand mycorrh1zal popu!at1ons momtored over the last three years have shown temporal vanat1ons 10 re!at1on to treatmeot IO!t!ally there was a 25 fo!d 1ncrease dunog the pasture establishment phase aod a 3 fold 1ocrease 10 soybeans re!at1ve to Cerrado but the d1fferences have decreased XI s1gmf1cantly over t1me Deta1fed stud1es on soli organ1c matter contents and d1stnbut10n and water and nutnent dynam1cs are bemg carned out The same expenment 1s bemg used by an EMBRAPA Cornell Umvers1ty team to momtor changas 1n carbon d1ox1de mtnc ox1des and methane Prehmmary results suggest that these so1fs may constltute a large methane smk w1th methane ox1dat1on bemg largest under corn and smallest under nat1ve Cerrado Nevertheless pare s1ze and so1f water balance as affected by t11fage appear to mod1fy sorne of th1s ab1hty to d1spose of methane Current trends 1n trop1cal so1f fert1hty management stress rehance on b1olog1cal processes 1nclud1ng the use of so1f adapted germplasm enhancement of s01l b1olog1cal act1v1ty and opt1m1zat1on of nutnent cychng to max1m1ze eff1c1ency of use of externa! mputs The above hsted longterm expenments together w1th a large array of short term f1eld and laboratory tnals are bemg used to quant1fy and model nutnent cychng processes Crops res1dues and crop and forages htter appear to play a key role 1n savanna ox1sols and the hgn1n N rat1o 1s the mam regulator of decompos1t1on w1th C N rat1os and the polyphenols contents playmg smaller rolesThe CENTURY model appears to be reasonably well SUited to model sorne of these N cyclmg processes 1f mod1f1ed to accommodate present expenmental results The transfer of N 1n forage legume htter to the assoc1ated grass was very slow whereas unne N was shown to cycle much faster Th1s combmat1on of the effects of orgamc add1t1ons v1a res1dues htter and/or ammal manure and unne were shown to 1mprove nutnent cond1t10ns for s01f flora and fauna and as consequence appear to benef1c1ally mod1fy orgamc P avalfab1hty measured us1ng more elaborate part1t1on1ng techmques than the trad1t1onal laboratory methods An excellent 1nd1cator of these changes 1n the blologlcal propert1es of savanna ox1sols appears to be so1f m1crob1al b1omass to the extent that nutnent cychng 1s very t1ghtly hnked to 1ts turnover rate In fact P flux through m1crob1al b1omass at least under grass legume pastures ( 12 34 kg ha 1 year 1 ) 1nd1cates that th1s could be a ma¡or pathway of P cychng 1n these s01fs These fmdmgs are supported by the detect1on of h1gh phosphatase act1v1ty under pastures wh1ch further 1nd1cates the 1mportance of blolog1cal processes 1n so1f P turnover lntroduced grass and grass legume pasturas were found to make a ma¡or contnbut1on to so1f orgamc matter to a depth of at least 100 cm 1n both on stat1on and on farm expenments As a m1n1mum 1t was est1mated that a three year old 8 d1ctyoneura pasture contnbutes 30 t C ha 1 1n 3 years and that the add1t1on of a legume s1gmf1cantly mcreases the amount of C sequestered These fmdmgs were pubhshed 1n Nature and do not requ1re further elaborat1on he re On farm testmg of prototypes Longterm controlled expenments are absolutely essent1al to develop a deta1fed understandmg of s01l plant ammal processes as shown above Nevertheless they have a certam ng1d1ty regardmg the crop and/or pasture components that can be tested To compensate for these hm1tat1ons and more 1mportantly to mcorporate 1nto the Program s research agenda farmer s perspect1ves and preferences regardmg resources use a hm1ted amount of on farm work 1s conducted 1n all of the area based act1v1t1es carned out by the TLP Th1s set of tnals have the longest trad1t1on 1n the savannas of both Colombia and Braz1f whereas they only begun to be Implementad 1n Acre Rondoma 1n m1d to late 1994 To vanous degrees and dependmg on the spec1f1c locat1on farmer part1c1pat1on 1n the des1gn and conduct of the tnals 1s mcluded Thus farmer s controls are always mcluded and farmers are mvolved 1n the d1scuss1on leadmg to select1on of some of the expenmental treatments select1on of crop or forage components etc whereas st1fl other treatments are purely researcher selected To the extent that farmer XII dec1s1on makmg processes are documentad 1n these on farm act1V1t1es th1s research 1s cons1dered to be as strateg1c as that of purely b1ophys1cal ongm Only a bnef ment1on 1s made here of one of these on farm tests whereas the rest are deferred to the mam body of the report The Matazu/ on farm tnals 1n the Llanos of Colombia were descnbed 1n the Savannas Annual Report 1992 1993 The oldest two tnals 1n th1s farm completad 6 years 1n 1994 One of them mvolved contmuous nce monocropp1ng usmg the best ava1lable knowledge regardmg management of soll phys1cal and chem1cal propert1es Over the penod 1989 1992 there was a linear decrease of 400 k9 ha 1 year 1 lmproved sml management pract1ces apphed subsequently were able to part1ally reverse th1s trend but contmued negat1ve changes 1n so1l compact1on weed bwldup and decreased m1crob1al b1omass contmue to consp1re agamst the longterm success of th1s alternat1ve Stud1es conducted on weed dynam1cs the1r nutnent uptake and overall compet1t1on w1th the sown crop are beg1nmng to 1dent1fy des1rable plant 1deotypes that could potent1ally be undersown to nce and compete Wlth undes1rable weeds In general then the monocrop prototype 1s prov1d1ng very valuable mformat1on on the extent rate and charactenst1cs of degradat1on processes 1n savanna ox1solsAn equally old expenment whose detalls have been extens1vely reportad elsewhere the nce pasturas expenment entered 1nto the second phase of pasturas 1n the nce pasture rotat1on 1n 1994 followmg a renovat1on of the ongmal pasturas w1th nce 1n 1993 Th1s expenment 1s begmmng to 1llustrate sorne of the longterm tradeoffs mvolved w1th these relat1vely mtens1ve systems Pasturas estabhshed under nce support h1gh carrymg capac1ty and h1gher levels of ammal product1on than otherw1se By the sama token sorne aspects of the so1l phys1cal propert1es such as compact1on est1mated usmg trad1t10nal methods (cone penetrometer) begm to detenorate relat1vely early on dunng the pasture phase A crop phase namely nce temporanly reversas th1s trend Trends 1n so11 orgamc matter and m1crob1al b1omass contrast markedly w1th those of the monocrop referred to above In the Acre Rondoma area (Forest Margms) agronom1c work bagan 1n the second tnmester of 1994 1n1t1ally severely constramed by log1st1cal and transportat1on dlff1cult1es later overcome Ex1st1ng agronom1c knowledge on potent1al agros1lvopastoral components 1s scarce and make 1t unadv1sable to set up longterm complex expenments as yet Follow1ng the research agenda agreed upon w1th the other part1c1pants 1n the Alternat1ves to Slash and Burn project the Program bagan 1ts research act1v1t1es w1th the 1ntroduct1on of germplasm of the mam staple foods 1n the reg1on namely beans ma1ze nce and cassava to be followed later on by grass and legume forages mcludmg mult1purpose shrubby and trae legumes Fert1hzer 1nputs although mcluded as expenmental treatments are unfeas1ble under the current econom1c cond1t1ons so that b1olog1cal management of sml resources 1s even more cruc1al than 1n the other mandated reg1ons of the Program lmt1al st1ll h1ghly tentat1ve results suggest that 1t 1s poss1ble to use dead mulches that protect the soll wh1le at the same t1me reducmg the 1nc1dence of web bhght 1n beans based croppmg systems A number of mulches was testad both on stat1on and on farm mcludmg velvet bean Puerana phaseol01des ma1ze and nce Prehmmary results 1nd1cate that mulches such as those prov1ded by P phaseolotdes that decompose at a slower rata prov1de better protect1on agamst web bhght and presumably protect the so11 for a longar t1me Nevertheless 1t was obv1ous that the maJonty of the mtroduced hnes and vanet1es d1d not have an y1eld advantage ovar farmer s checks (mostly Caneca) XIII lnter program pro¡ects Bnef reference was made above to vanous research act1v1t1es mvolvmg collaborat1on of Program se~ent1sts w1th other researchers both ms1de and outs1de CIA T Severa! other ¡01nt pro¡ects w1ll be ment1oned here Severa! Program sc1ent1sts were mstrumental 1n des1gnmg and 1mplementmg a large mterprogram pro¡ect m the Cauca (Colombia) h1lls1des together w1th members of most other CIAT s programs A program spee~ahst 1s also respons1ble for the mamtenance and charactenzat1on of the forage legumes Rh1zob1um collect10n and for screemng and selectmg Rh1zob1um strams m cooperat1on w1th the Trop1cal Forages Program Severa! Program sc1ent1sts were heav1ly 1nvolved m des1gmng and 1mplementmg roa1ze based croppmg systems w1th CIMMYT and CORPOICA m the Colomb1an Llanos S1m1larly Program researchers act1vely contnbuted to evaluat1on of ma1ze nce and forages germplasm for alternat1ve product1on systems 1n the Cerrados of Braz1l and ma1ze nce cassava beans and forages germplasm m the Acre Rondon1a s1tes lnst1tUt1onal strengthemng and relat1onsIn the area of mst1tut1onal bUIIdmg severa! 1mportant events took place dunng 1994 A C sequestrat10n workshop took place w1th the part1c1pat1on of severa! NARs and 1nternat10nalmst1tUtiOns to develop an mtermst1tut1onal pro¡ect on the sub¡ect for subm1sS10n to potent1al donors S1m1larly the Program was heav1ly mvolved 1n a land Use led workshop leadmg to development of a reg1onal pro¡ect for the savannas ent1tled Strateg1es for Sustamable Agncu/tural Land Use m the Low/and Savannas of South Amenca SSALLSSA The Program part1c1pated m the Global Steenng Comm1ttee meetmg of the ASB Pro¡ect and later on m a trammg workshop on charactenzat10n offered m Na1rob1 Kenya m the context of that same pro¡ect The th1rd Workshop on Agropastoral Systems was held 1n Venezuela wh1ch was supported by IOB and Venezuelan funds Jumor staff of the TLP were heav1ly mvolved m the development of an lnternat1onal Course on Agropastoral Systems for Ac1d S01ls offered 1n V1llav1cenc1o Colombia for extens10n agents and pnvate techmcal ass1stants lastly numerous students developed the1r BS and MS thes1s workmg m ex1st1ng research pro¡ects In a d1fferent context vanous Program sc1ent1sts were regularly 1nvolved m techmcal consultat1on meetmgs w1th the MAS consort1um PROCITROPICOS and 1ts savannas consort1um PROCIANDINOS FAO CORPOICA and vanous others S1m1larly through sorne of 1ts members the Program has been mvolved m two system w1de lnlt1at1ves namely CIAT s Ecoreg1onal pro¡ect and the S01l Water and Nutnent Management 1mt1at1ve Lastly 1t also prov1ded hm1ted mput through the Trop1cal Forages Program to the system w1de hvestock 1n1t1Bt1ve The purpose of th1s project 1s to develop technolog1cal opt1ons for arrestmg so1l nutnent deplet1on as well as pohcy opt1ons for promotmg stab1hzat10n of sh1ftmg cult1vat1on 1994 act1v1t1es focused on d1agnos1sThe f1rst study reportad here g1ves a broad overv1ew of land use trends 1n the reg1on and 1mphcat1ons for pohcy and technology development The second study uses pnmary f1eld data for a deta1led mvest1gat1on of land use dynam1cs 1n two government colomzat1on projects 1n the western Amazon of Braz1l GIS work was also camed out 1n these areas and 1s reportad under project UT51The object1ve of th1s study 1s to contnbute the soe~oeconom1c component towards developmg a strategy for the forest margms (FMI and savannas The work reportad here IS the f1rst step towards ach1evmg th1s obJectlve L1terature rev1ew and secondary data 1s used to synthes1ze an understandmg of past land use trends and new emergmg trends Prehmmary results of a land use model wh1ch s1mulates land use changes up to the year 2020 under alternat1ve pohcy and technology development strateg1es are presentad The results show that the con]unct1on of a number of nat1onal and mternat1onal developments makes th1s a h1ghly prop1t1ous t1me for mountmg a concertad effort for 1mprovmg the management of natural resources 1n the FM and savanna The v1s1on developed on the bas1s of th1s broad overv1ew w11i be progress1vely refmed 1n the next few years through 1n depth on farm stud1es 1n s1tes selected through GIS analys1sThe common percept1on about the three ecosystems 1n CIAT s ecoreg10nal mandate are qu1te d1stmct Agncultural expans1on 1n the FM 1s mternat1onally regarded as an env1ronmental catastrophe The H11is1des are cons1dered to be locked 1n a VICIOUS cycle m wh1ch poverty remforces env1ronmental degradat1on By contrast the savanna 1s regarded as the last agncultural front1er 1n the world w1th a very s1gmf1cant potent1al to be econom1cally explo1ted for agncultural and hvestock product1on We therefore broadly d1stmgU1sh between two groups of countnes The savanna countnes wh1ch have the poss1b1hty of developmg the savanna as a means of d1vertmg pressure on the FM and Hdls1des and the Hdls1de countnes wh1ch do not have a savanna ecosystem Macro data show that the savanna countnes have lower populat1on growth rates h1gher per cap1ta mcomes and h1gher rates of econom1c growth mcludmg agncultural output The mc1dence of poverty and food 1mports are also lower m savanna countnes However populat1ons are larger and the absoluta numbers of poor are h1gher Because of these d1fferences land use strateg1es are hkely to d1ffer among the two groups of countnes The work reported here focuses mamly on the savanna countnes Braz1l Colomb1a and Venezuela wh1ch conta1n over 90% of the total savanna area Land use dynam1csH1stoncally the FM was occup1ed by md1genous sh1ft1ng cult1vators although boom and bust penods for extract1ve mdustnes have occurred sporad1cally dunng the last century Extens1ve cattle grazmg has been the trad1t1onal act1v1ty m the savanna smce the colomal penad The except1ons were the center south of the Braz1han savanna (C S) wh1ch was st1mulated by mfrastructure and the construct10n of Bras1ha m the 1950s mto becommg an 1mportant commerc1al center for cattle product1on and processmg and the western savanna m Venezuela where agncultural product1on was st1mulated by mcent1ves fmanced by 011 revenues Rap1d front1er expans1on occurred m both the savanna and FM from the 1970s In the Braz1han savanna (cerrado) the front1er expanded on an average by 2 1 m ha per annum between 1970 and 1985 w1th 70% of the cerrado mcorporated mto farms by 1985 In the Braz1han Amazon the rate of deforestat1on was 1 5 m to 2 m ha /year However there 1s st1ll considerable opportumty for 1nfluencmg the future pattern of land use as only 6% of the Braz1han Amazon has been cleared What 1s less well known 1s that the nsk of spec1es extmct1on 1s h1gher m the fore5ts of the cerrado than m the Amazon as a th1rd of the cerrado forests have already been cleared m many cases for charcoal product1onPasture 15 the dom1nant form of land use m both ecosystems occupymg 60% to 82% of the cleared area m the cerrado and 60% to 70% 1n the Braz1han FM In the cerrado the 1mportance of pastura mcreases as agncultural development advances (Table 1 and 2) Concentrat1on m land ownersh1p 1s charactenst1c of both the savanna5 and FM In the cerrado 87% of the land 1s m farms rang1ng from 200 to > 1 0000 ha What 15 le5s well known 1s that there are substant1al numbers of relat1vely small farms More than 50% of farms are les5 than 50 ha m s1ze These small farms are mamly located lower down the topography often along the nver beds They play a cnt1cal role from the env1ronmental pomt of v1ew both because the nver beds are where the gallery forests are located and also because of the potent1al1mpact of the1r farmmg pract1ces on Slltat1on and pollut1on of nvers Over t1me land concentrat10n has remamed v1rtually stable though there has been a small decline m the proport1on of farm5 less than 50 ha and fragmentat1on of farms larger than 10000 ha In the FM land concentrat10n 1s lower than m the cerrado but st1ll h1gh w1th a Gm1 coeff1c1ent of O 79 m 1985 Small and large farms coex1st but there 1s a h1gh degree of soc1al confhct part1cularly between large scale absentee landlords and small scale squatters Sh1ftmg cult1vat1on by small holders 1s est1mated to account for 32% of trop1cal Amencan deforestat1on takmg place m 1980There have been maror populat1on movements 1nto the FM part1cularly 1n the 1970s and substant1allabor absorpt1on m agnculture Movement of populat1on 1nto the savanna has been much less(Table 3) In advanced agncultural areas substant1al declines m rural populat1on have occurred s1multaneously w1th rap1d urban populat1on growthIn the mumc1pahty of Uberlílnd1a m the C S of the cerrado rural populat1on m 1980 was 4 7% of the populat1on m 1950 However urban populat10n wh1ch compnsed 96% of the total populat1on m 1980 was more than 6 t1mes the 1950 level Presumably urban populat1on mcrease occurred because w1th 1mproved mfrastructure Uberland1a had developed mto a majar center for agnbusmes5 Whether or not the m1grants mto the urban areas carne from rural areas of the savanna IS however not known The d1vers1ty of cond1t1ons w1thm the savanna needs to be emphas1zed W1thm the cerrado for example the advanced agncultural area (C S) wh1le occupymg a th1rd of the are a contams 60% of the populat10n supphes 83% of the cerrado s soybean product10n and contams about a th1rd of 1ts cattleIn the more remate areas extens1ve cattle ranchmg IS the norm (Table 1) W1thm the FM a broad d1stmct1on 1s reqwred at m1mmum between areas such as Para (Eastern Brazll) where the government prov1ded mcent1ves for large scale ranchmg and areas such as Acre and RondOma (Western Braz1l) where government sponsored small sea le settlement too k place Small and large se ale farmers coex1st m both areas but the dynam1cs of land use have been d1fferent as Wlll be shown later In Colombia where most settlement was spontaneous the s1tuat1on 1s closer to areas of small scale settlement m Braz1l Technology development m the past has sought to mcrease land product1v1ty through the replacement of natural vegetat1on and trad1t1onal spec1es w1th new vanet1es chem1cal mputs mechamzat1on and 1rngat1on of dry areas A h1gh level of technology adopt1on has occurred m hm1ted areas of the savanna where h1gh land values good mfrastructure and prox1m1ty to markets made technolog1es of th1s natura worthwhlle In these areas agnculture 1s regarded as h1ghly successful The cerrado for example prov1des 2 5% of Braz1l s soybean output and contams a th1rd of the cattle populatlon The recent free trade pacts bemg negot1ated between latm Amanean countnes should st1mulate development m these areas as econom1c analys1s shows that the savanna has a comparat1ve advantage m hvestock and m soybean up to a d1stance of 2000 km from ports In the more remate areas of the savanna technology adopt1on has been very hm1ted and extens1ve cattle ranchmg 1s the norm l1ttle attent1on has also been g1ven to the development of technolog1es appropnate for small scale savanna farmers whose crops and resource endowments tend to be very d1fferent from those of larga scale farmers In the FM adopt1on of 1mproved pasturas has occurred but extens1ve management pract1ces remam the norm m large scale ranches Among small holders annual crops are grown w1th mm1mal externa! mputs In Braz1l y1elds of nce ma1ze and cassava have decreased sharply ovar the 1984 to 1990 penod m the FM m contrast to s1gmf1cant y1eld mcreases at the nat1onal level The env1ronmental effects of land use systems 1nclude fragmentat1on and reduct10n of natural hab1tats loss of ecosystems and spec1es changas m hydrolog1cal cycles s01l and water pollut1on compact10n and so1l eros1on assoc1ated w1th the 1ntens1f1cat1on of agnculture and s1gmf1cant emiSSions of green house gases due to deforestat10n Braz1l 1s now the fourth largest contnbutor to atmosphenc carbon m the world \" The root cause of front1er expans10n has been 1dent1f1ed as the Latm Amencan style of development A large sect1on of the populat1on has been excluded from the benef1ts of growth and development Also macroeconomiC cond1t1ons have resulted m madequate and uncertam returns to fmanc1al assets (Table 41 Thus the front1er has been an escape valve for the d1scontent of the poor and the cap1tal of the nch lnequahty has 1ts roots m the h1gh levels of mechamzat1on m both agnculture and mdustry wh1ch hm1ted employment opportumt1es and led to large scale rural outm1grat1on from advanced agncultural areas The causes of th1s were h1stoncally h1gh levels of land concentrat10n government pohc1es such as negat1ve real mterest rates and subs1d1es for mechamzat1on and urban b1as m soc1al amemt1es wh1ch led to h1gh rates of urbamzat1on In add1t1on populat10n pressure m the hllls1des of the Andean countnes and Northeast Braz1lled to rural outm1grat1on wh1ch was remforced by government small scale settlement programs m partes of the Braz1han FM In Colombia people sought to flee from the poht1cal v1olence of the 1950s and 1960s These push factors caused the poor to look to the front1er as an escape valve (Figure 11 The cap1tal of the nch was drawn to the front1er because front1er land pnces contamed a speculat1ve component wh1ch pushed pnces well beyond actual product1on values Factors contnbutmg to th1s were the construct1on of penetrat10n roads government pohCies hnkmg land t1thng to product1ve land use access by landowners to cred1t at strongly negat1ve real mterest rates ( 25% to 35% between 1979 and1986 m Braz1l) and opportumt1es for 1lhc1t cult1vat1on and processmg of coca (m Colombia) In add1t1on to th1s negat1ve real 1nterest rates h1gh unstable 1nflat1on (over 80% 1n Braz1l over 20% 1n Colombia and Venezuela m the 1980s) and protect10n of the bankmg sector reduced the return to fmanc1al assets and caused people to look to land as a hedge agamst mflat1on Thus the front1er was an escape valve for the cap1tal of the nch (Figure 2) 77 70 91  The front1er 1s charactenzed by abundance of land relat1ve to people h1gh transport costs wh1ch reduce the prof1tab11ity of econom1c act1v1ty mm1mal soc1al serv1ces and poorly enforced property nghts In v1ew of these charactenst1cs settlers at the extreme front1er are likely to have low levels of phys1cal and human cap1tal and therefore low opportumty costs G1ven the dlff1cult1es of operatmg a farm m the FM 1t 1s likely that these m1grants are from other rural areas as opposed to bemg the urban poor Small scale settlers m the extreme front1er of the FM clear a few hectares of land and grow nutnent demandmg annual crops such as nce and ma1ze for food and cash for a few years As fert11ity declines pasturas wh1ch are less nutnent demandmg are established and new land IS deforestad for annual crops As the front1er matures and transport and government serv1ces 1mprove people w1th h1gher levels of capital fmd 1t poss1ble to cover the1r opportun1ty cost G1ven the poor soc1al amemt1es these settlers are unl1kely to res1de at the front1er Extens1ve cattle ranchmg 1s the1r preferred form of land use as 1t reqUires low levels of mvestment and management Ranchers ach1eve savmgs m deforestat1on and pasture establishment costs are ach1eved by buy1ng out and consolidatmg the pasturas established by small scale holders Selling out to large scale ranchers also prov1des small holders w1th the cap1tal to acqu1re and deforest a new p1ece of land Data show a pos1t1ve relat1onsh1p between farm turnover and econom1c performance Thus m add1t1on to the push factors behmd m1grat1on of the poor to the front1er the pull factors mclude the demand for pastura land from large scale ranchers and the construct10n of penetrat1on roads wh1ch 1mprove access to front1er areas Recent data also show that mcomes of successful settlers are substant1ally above the m1mmum wage Thus land consolidat1on and trans1ence of land use and land users 1s a charactenst1c feature of the front1er m the FM and results m enormous env1ronmental costs both through deforestat1on and through degradat1on of pasturas on large scale ranches where land values are too low to 1ust1fy mtens1ve management The ava1lab11ity of new front1ers through the construct1on of new penetrat1on roads 1s a prereqUISite for th1s phenomena to operate Satelhte 1magery show that deforestat1on has been heav1est along these roads In areas where government mcent1ves for larga scale ranchmg ex1st land acqu1S1t1on and deforestat1on by people w1th h1gher opportun1ty costs occurs at the extreme front1er Absentee ownersh1p and poor enforcement of property nghts at the extreme front1er leads to squattmg by people w1th lower opportumty costs The result 1s mass1ve soc1al conflict and exacerbat1on of land degradat10n because of uncertamty of land tenure and because speculat10n and not product10n 1s the mam mot1ve for holdmg land The descnpt1on of the log1c behmd front1er expans1on shows that although pasture 1s the dommant form of land use m the FM much of the land under pasture was m1t1ally cleared for growmg annual crops lt also 1mplies that beef exports were not the dnvmg force behmd deforestat1on as has been allegad In fact data show that the Amazon barely produced enough beef for 1ts own needs In Central Amenca where exports were substant1al pasture expans1on and deforestat10n contmued after exports declinad m the 1980s The root causes of deforestat1on were opportumt1es at the front1er for land speculat1on and escape from poverty Once deforestat1on occurred pasture was the land use most m accordance w1th the log1c of the front1erThe same front1er log1c leads to very d1fferent patterns of land use m the savanna The nature of the solls make 1t d1ff1cult for early settlers to make a livmg from small holdings Early settlers therefore go to the areas along the nver beds where the so1l 1s relat1vely more fert1le and grow crops such as cassava and beans wh1ch are more tolerant of low fert11ity Later settlers who arnve when the tront1er 1s more mature estabhsh extens1ve ranches on nat1ve savanna They do not b1d earlier settlers off the land as the topography near the nver beds 1s not conduc1ve to mechamzat1on and consolidat1on As the front1er matures m the savanna mtens1vely managed pasturas and f1eld crops replace extens1ve nat1ve pasturas Very large farms are fragmentad to permtt more tntenstve management Small scale farmers wtth sorne capttal and entrepreneurtal abtltty become better tntegrated tnto markets and develop tnto medtum scale famtly farms buytng out margtnaltzed small holders who emtgrate because employment opportuntttes are mtntmal tn rural areas due to htgh levels of mechantzatton Employment opportuntttes tn agnbustness tn urban areas tn the savanna tncrease but whether or not rural mtgrants have the human capttal to take advantage of thts ts unknown Government tnterventton can alter these dynamtcs Substdtes for large scale ranchtng have led to better off mtgrants acqutrtng land at the extreme frontter for speculatton purposes As tn the FM the result ts squatttng soctal confltct and land degradat10n Substdtes such as untform fuel and output pnces have also led to expanston of tntenstve annual cropptng tn the extreme frontter These areas reverted back to extenstve ranchtng when substdtes were removed Thus we see that government poltcy tncludtng poltcy outstde the agncultural sector was a major determtnant of frontter expanston and land use patterns tn both the savanna and FMIn the last decade new trends tndtcate a reversa! of sorne of the most damagtng features of the past thus gtvtng nse toa untque opportuntty for effecttve resource management research Remete senstng data from vanous sources now tndtcate a major reductton tn deforestatton rates tn the Braztltan Amazon stnce the late 1980s A number of factors have reduced tncenttves for land speculatton among whtch are the removal of tncenttves whtch tncreased land pnces eltmtnatton of provtstons ltnktng land tttltng and deforestatton and tmprovement tn the returns to ftnanctal assets (Real tnterest rates tn the 1992 1994 pertod tn Braztl were as htgh as 23% to 43%) The constructton of penetrat10n roads has been reduced and government poltcy has changed from settlement to relattvely ttght control over deforestatton In Colombta acqutsttton of land tn the FM conttnued to provtde opportuntttes for money laundenng and culttvatton of tlltctt crops The push factors leadtng to smallholder mtgratton rematned unchanged However populatton growth rates tn the FM of both Braztl and Colombta decltned Thts occurred because of decltntng nattonal populatton growth rates and because of the development of ctttes whtch provtded an alternattve escape valve for the peor On the other hand there ts evtdence of an tncrease tn mmtng and loggtng acttvtttes whtch lead to penetratton roads whtch provtde access to later mtgrants Recent data on frontter expanston tn the savanna are not avatlable but the common perceptton ts that reduct10n of the speculattve mottve and the removal of untform fuel and output pnces has reduced frontter expanston tn the cerrado In Colombta by contrast otl dtscovertes tn the eastern savanna ts leadtng to major road constructton programs whtch are ltkely to lead to a major tncrease tn agncultural development The recent economtc cnsts tn Venezuela has destroyed conftdence although the currency devaluatton ts reportad to be tncreastng exports In the fteld of technology development new opportuntttes for tntegrated ecos,ystem management between ecologtsts and conventtonal technology developers such as sotl sctenttsts and germplasm spectaltsts are emergtng A ftndtng whtch ts parttcularly relevan! ts that ratn forests whtch ecologtsts had prevtously regarded as htghly fragtle and dtfftcult to rehabtlttate are now seen as restltent Data are now avatlable to tllustrate the tmportance of forest regeneratton after human tnterventton Satelltte tmagery show that tn Altamtra Braztl secondary growth ts the predomtnant form of land cover tn deforestad areas secondary growth ts tncreastng raptdly and 42% of new agncultural land was created by cleanng secondary growth (Table 2 columns 3 and 4) Stud1es show that secondary growth can be managed to enable the regenerated forest to fulflll many of the ecolog1cal funct1ons of pnmary forests Th1s prov1des opportumt1es for combmmg econom1c gam w1th env1ronmental enhancement and may reqUJre majar changes m technology development strateg1es For example a majar focus of convent1onal technology development m the FM has been on preventmg secondary growth for example by stnvmg for pastura pers1stence These new fmdmgs show that secondary growth may have an 1mportant ecolog1cal funct1on and that an 1mportant focus of research m the FM should be the ennchment of secondary growth w1th faster grow1ng more valuable low volume spec1es wh1ch could make settlers mterested m regenerat1on and preservat1on of secondary forest as opposed to deforestat1on for crop and hvestock product1on The regenerat1ve capaCity of land use systems could be enhanced by for example mcreasmg carrymg capaCity w1th 1mproved pasturas wh1le s1multaneously lowenng the extmct1on threshold of spec1es through management pract1ces wh1ch protect seed banks from grazmg These concepts could lead for example to success1onal land use systems m FM w1th say annual croppmg followed by pasturas followed by forestry or sllvopastoral systems wh1ch whlle fulfllhng settlers objectlves would also fulflll ecolog1cal funct1onsComplementmg these new ecolog1cal parad1gms are advances m mformat1on technolog1es and opportumt1es tor knowledge mtens1ve as opposed to energy mtens1ve technolog1es through b1otechnology new matenals and new energy sources Another favorable development 1s that env1ronmental perspect1ves are becommg mcreasmgly 1mportant not only to the world commumty but also to nat1onal governments m latm Amanea as ev1denced by newly estabhshed m1mstnes of env1ronment and the mcreasmg 1mportance bemg g1ven to natural resource management m nat1onal research systems A number of mnovat1ve technolog1es wh1ch could be useful components m an mtegrated strategy for the management of these ecosystems have been developed Among them are ac1d tolerant nce and ma1ze a pers1stent and product1ve legume for grass legume pasturas and an mtegrated crop pastura system wh1ch m add1t1on to mcreasmg prof1tab1hty and 1mprovmg s01l phys1cal and chem1cal propert1es also appears to be actmg as a net smk for carbon and could thus have a majar role to play m m1mm1zmg the greenhouse effect An 1dea that 1s mcreasmgly bemg put torward 1s that developmg countnes may be able to benef1t trom a new comparat1ve advantage the prov1s1on of ecolog1cal serv1ces The 1dea 1s to use mternat1onal trade between countnes based on the1r comparat1ve advantage to ach1eve global ecolog1cal targets Thus a developed country government or pnvate sector company could purchase carbon storage serv1ces m developmg countnes m arder to meet reqUJred carbon em1ss1on standards 1f these serv1ces were cheaper than at home The Amazon ram forest prov1des Latm Amanean countnes w1th an asset capable of prov1dmg substant1al ecolog1cal serv1ces part1cularly the preservat1on of b1od1vers1ty and carbon storage Accordmg to an est1mate by the World Bank the value ot carbon storage m the Amazon ram forest ($976 to $7200/ha) 1s 2 to 30 t1mes the value of forest land even 1f the value of carbon 1n pasture 1s subtracted The ab1hty of crop pastura systems to act as a net carbon smk m the savanna prov1des another potent1al source of a comparat1ve advantage m ecolog1cal serv1ces There are s1gns that an mternat1onal carbon market m ay be developmg In v1ew of the agreement under the chmate changa convent1on to reduce carbon em1ss1ons to 1990 levels US ut1hty compames are mvest1gatmg opportumt1es for reducmg em1ss1ons through trappmg waste heat m lnd1a through reforestat1on m Mex1co and through modermzmg electnc1ty generat1on m Chma The Costa R1can government 1s developmg government guaranteed carbon storage cert1f1cates w1th the objectlve of tradmg them m 1nternat1onal markets Whlle part1C1pat1on 1n mternat1onal markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces could prov1de 1mportant mcent1ves for the adopt1on of ecolog1cally sound land use systems problems ra1sed w1th th1s concept mclude Joss of nat1onal sovere1gnty and the h1gh transact1ons costs of ensurmg that ecolog1cal serv1ces are m fact prov1ded Many of these problems can be overcome by hav1ng markets m short term renta! contracts (as opposed to markets 1n Jand purchases) or by franch1smg contracts between local authont1es and the world commun1ty Such mechamsms enable nat10nal Jand owners to select the1r own Jand use strateg1es as long as they meet spec1f1ed env1ronmental standards As the contracts are short term and renewable they prov1de Jand owners w1th an mcent1ve to ensure that env1ronmental standards are met Research can make an 1mportant contnbut1on towards mcreas1ng comparat1ve advantage m ecolog1cal serv1ces Development of Jand use systems that mcrease mcomes wh1le s1multaneously prov1dmg ecolog1cal serv1ces (an example bemg the crop pasture technology) reduce the cost of prov1dmg ecolog1cal serv1ces and therefore mcrease comparat1ve advantageConversely mcreasmg the prof1tab1hty of competmg Jand use systems wh1ch do not prov1de ecolog1cal serv1ces (say contmuous monocroppmg w1th mtens1ve t11lage) W11l mcrease the mcent1ve reqUired to mduce adopt1on of ecolog1cally sound Jand use systems and thus reduce comparat1ve advantage m the market for ecolog1cal serv1ces Thus research pnont1es need to be carefully coord1nated w1th the development of markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces The new developments descnbed above 1nteract to prov1de a un1que opportun1ty for effect1ve resource management (F1gure 3) Trans1ence of small settlers wh1ch 1s a ma¡or cause of deforestauon occurs because the cost of ga1mng access to a new plot 1s Jess than the mcome Jost because of y1eld dechne on the old plot Research can stab1hze ymld dechne on the old plot lncreasmg the cost of a new plot IS however d1ff1cult to ach1eve through research and 1f the cost of acqumng a new plot rema1ns low deforestatlon 1s hkely to contmue Changes m pohcy are however mcreasmg the cost of a new plot The construct10n of penetrat10n roads 1s bemg reduced New plots were f1nanced by selhng out old pasture plots to Jarge scale ranchers The demand for pasture Jand from Jarge scale ranchers IS however bemg reduced because the speculat1ve mot1ve for Jand acqU1s1t1on IS dechnmg as a result of pohcy changes At the same t1me reduct1on of mflat1on wh1ch benef1ts the poor should reduce the attract10ns of the front1er for small scale settlers The new ecolog1cal parad1gms also prov1de 1deas for technolog1es such as ennched secondary forests wh1ch could prov1de mcent1ves for long term settlement on the same plot Complementmg th1s 1s the emergmg market 1n ecologlcal serv1ces wh1ch 1f complemented w1th the nght technolog1es could prov1de 1mportant 1ncent1ves for the adopt1on of susta1nable land use pract1ces In add1t1on the savanna may be able to make an 1mportant contnbut1on towards reducmg deforestat1onAs md1cated earl1er the savanna appears to have a comparat1ve advantage m certam crops and hvestock wh1ch could be further enhanced by recent technolog1cal advances lf technolog1es for susta1nable development of the savanna are adopted capital mvestment m savanna agnculture could d1vert cap1tal away from the FM and thus reduce the demand for large scale ranches 1n the FM In add1t10n 1mproved mfrastructure and mtens1f1cat1on of agnculture m the savanna could st1mulate the development of urban centers 1n the savanna wh1ch could prov1de employment opportun1t1es m agnbusmess and thus reduce the attract10ns of the front1er for the poor S1multaneously the savanna could contnbute to env~ronmental 1mprovement through carbon sequestrat1on by crop pasture Jand use systems whose adopt1on could be enhanced by the emergmg market m ecolog1cal serv1ces A vosoon for the year 2020 On the basos of our analysos of determmants of land use trends we have specofoed three scenanos for government pohcy and two technology development strategoes We then use a land use model te somulate land use changas up te the year 2020 for the FM and savanna m Brazol for dofferent combmat10ns of government pohcy and technology development strategoesOpemng up of the economy mcreases omports and puts pressure en mcreasmg agncultural exports Agncultural development of the cerrado os seen as a mechanosm for achoevong thos Expans10n of mfrastructure mto the cerrado contmues Ad hoc regulatory mechamsms are used to protect areas of the cerrado from agncultural expans10n but preve te be doffocult te enforce lnflatoon contonues te be unstable and hogh because of fallure to achoeve a sohd foscal posotoon Uncertamty about the return on fmancoal assets results m hogh speculatove demand for land The currency becomes overvalued and reduces the profotabohty of exports Urban boas contonues and leads te oncreased urbamzatoon resultmg m mcreased levels of urban cnme and unemploymentAttempts are made to omprove oncome dostnbutoon by omposmg contractual obhgatoons en employers of agncultural and mdustnal labor But thos makes labor more costly and reduces employment Government becomes aware of the hnk between roads settlement and deforestatoon Constructo en of penetratoon roads onto the FM os slowed down subsodoes for large scale cattle ranchmg are removed Land tothng os no longer hnked te deforestatoon Mmmg and loggmg contmues because of lobboes and these actovotoes leave behmd access roads Government contmues to allow sorne road buoldmg m the Amazon because of mohtary reasons or because of local lobboes based on reasons of economoc development Scenaroo 2 Same as Scenano 1 except for foscal balance stable moderate mflatoon pohtocal and economoc stabohty whoch reduces the speculatove demand for land and benefots the poor through oncreasmg theor purchasmg power and creatong employment opportumt1es A stable real exchange rate reduces pressure on agncultural exports as a tool for balancmg the current account and mcreases the profotab1hty of exports Scenano 3 Same as scenaroo 2 plus soco al programs onented towards omprovmg the welfare of the poor such as greater access to promary and secondary educatoon omprovement of soc1al amemtoes m rural areas d1smanthng of contractual obhgatoons on employers of labor to encourage hogher levels of labor mtensoty These measures are expected to mcrease the opportumty cost te the poor of mogratmg to the extreme frontoer At mature frontoers there os better enforcement of property nghts and better provlsoon of socoal amen1toes to reduce absenteeosm squattlng and socoal confhct Constructoon of penetratoon roads os dommoshed te reduce the openmg up of new front1ers 1n both the FM and the cerrado but mtens1ve farm to market road networks are constructed m mature frontoer areas m both ecosystems wh1ch reduce the cost of 1nputs and the cost of marketing output Government servoces and 1nfrastructure are omproved m urban areas wothon mature frontoers m the FM and savanna Th1s stomulates local processmg and d1stnbut1on of savanna and FM products These measures prov1de the pohcy env1ronment for the development of land use systems wh1ch are prof1table as well as ecolog¡cally sound lnternat1onal markets m ecolog1cal serv1ces develop and th1s makes the government aware of the concrete benef1ts of protectmg the env1ronment m both ecosystems Th1s creates the poht1cal w11l for mtegratmg env1ronmental cons1derat10ns w1th econom1c poht1cal and m1htary ob¡ect1ves for enactmg env1ronmental measures and for res1stmg mmmg and loggmg lobb1es Scenano 1 approx1mates the s1tuat1on that 1s hkely to preva1l 1n Braz¡J 1f the new stab1hzat1on plan fails Current developments however md1cate that the most hkely outcome 1s scenano 2 Scenano 3 dep1cts further pohcy changes wh1ch we would hke to see Colombia too 1s movmg towards scenano 2 The d1scovery of 011 m the eastern savanna 1s leadmg to ma¡or 1mprovements 1n mfrastructure and 1s hkely to lead to ma¡or advances m agncultural development m the savanna Th1s however could be senously ¡eopard1zed by rural secunty problems due to guernlla act1v1ty lf the government 1s unable to control drug traff1ckmg acqu1S1t1on of land for money laundenng and cult1vat1on and processmg of 1lhc1t drugs w1ll contmue and non product1ve mot1ves for land acqulsltlon w11l remam Another obstacle to the ach1evement of scenano 2 could be the appree1at10n of the currency m real terms wh1ch would reduce the compet1t1veness of exports and thus hmder the development of the savanna and 1mpede the creat1on of ¡obs 1n agnbusmess and m the nonagncultural sector Apprec1at1on of the currency m real terms 1s hkely 1f the government 1s unable to reduce mflat1on and repatnat1on of mcome from drug traff1ckmgH1gher mcomes from petroleum exports are hkely to contnbute to the upward pressure on the exchange rate The S1tuat1on m Venezuela 1s the least opt1m1stlc Unless ma¡or changes 1n pohcy are mtroduced the s1tuat1on 1n the short run 1s most hkely to approx1mate scenano 1 although the currency has deprec1ated sharply because of lack of conf1dence m the economy and 1s hkely to remam weak Th1s could ¡eopard1ze free trade agreements w1th other latm Amencan countnes and also adversely affect the exports of these countnes The economy 1s hkely to rema1n h1ghly regulated thus bu1ld1ng up senous structural ad¡ustment problems for the future These pohc1es are however unhkely to be sustamable and m the med1um term there could be s1gns of an emergmg scenano 2A component technology approach w1th research onented towards 1mprovmg the productiVIty of particular commod1t1es such as crops and hvestock Act1v1t1es mclude the development of agroecolog¡cally adapted vanet1es mcludmg vanet1es wh1ch reduce the reqUirement of externa! mputs management of b1ot1c and ab10t1c constra1nts to the mcreased product1v1ty of the mandate commod1t1es ident1f1cat1on of soc1oeconom1c constramts to technology adopt1on such as 1neff1c1ent markets Consequences of new technolog1es are mon1tored to avo1d the development of technolog1es wh1ch 1mpact negat1vely on non product1v1ty aspects such as eqUity and nutnt1onThe mam focus 1s on technolog1cal solut1ons related to mandate commod1t1es w1th other components pohe~es and mst1tut1ons taken as g1ven Scenano B Th1s 1s the ecoreg1onal approach where the mandate 1s an agroecolog1cal zone w1th1n a geograph1cal reg10n The ob¡ect1ve 1s to 1dent1fy an appropnate role for agroecosystems w1thm the ecoreg10n takmg nat1onal and mternat1onal cons1derat1ons mto account and to st1mulate the research requrred to achreve that vrsron The rnteractron between technology pohcres and rnstrtutrons rs exphcrtly recognrzed and recommendatrons for pohcy and rnstrtutronal reform are an rntegral part of the approach The approach therefore requrres close collaboratron between drfferent categones of research bodres rncludrng natronal and rnternatronal rnstrtutes and the pnvate sector as well as rmplementors of research frndrngs such as NGOs and polrcy makers In addrtron to productrvrty and equrty protectron of the envrronment rs an rmportant objectrve rncludrng the rdentrfrcatron of ecosystems where agncultural explortatron rs rnappropnateIn thrs ecosystem the overall strategy rs to reconcrle the rnternatronal communrty s objectrve of haltrng deforestatron wrth the reluctance of natronal governments to sacnfrce the economrc potentral of the FM for the sake of ecologrcal benefrts that accrue to the world communrty as a whole Technology development wrll be based on a land use plan for the FM whrch explorts the drversrty of envrronments wrthrn the FM rncludrng both cleared areas and surroundrng forest areas Thrs wrll be based on a sound understandrng of land use dynamrcs and wrll rnclude pohcy recommendatrons on rssues such as rnfrastructure protected areas reforestatron schemes and partrcrpatron rn global markets for ecologrcal servrces Technology development wrll rnclude a) lntensrfrcatron and stabrhzatron of agnculture on small holder plots partrcularly food crop plots to reduce transrence Research now suggests that contrnuous cropprng rs possrble wrth fertrlrzer use lmproved farm to market roads wrll however be requrre to make thrs economrcally vrable Penetratron road constructron wrll have to be halted to make these technologres adoptableb) The desrrabrhty of rntensrfyrng and stabrhzrng small holder hvestock productron wrll have to be carefully consrdered as aspects of these technologres may also be apphcable to extensrve large scale cattle ranches and m ay therefore encourage land consohdatron and promote deforestatron Technologres whrch rmprove mrlk productron such as genetrc rmprovement of darry cattle specres are less hkely to have thrs effect el Successronalland use systems on small holder plots wrth pasturas managed to encourage ennched secondary growth and the development of agroforestry or agrosrlvopastoral systems Thrs may anchor small holders to therr plots di Study of rndrgenous systems for rnsrghts rnto agncultural systems compatrble wrth forest regeneratron e) lncreased profrtabrlrty of sustarnable forestry systems non trmber forest products rubbertapprng sustarnable selectrve loggrng and the management of these systems to enhance therr capacrty to provrde ecologrcal servrces fl Regeneratron of degradad areas wrth reforestatron agroforestry or agrosrlvopastoral systems g) Management of secondary growth to reduce the cost of recultrvatron versus the cost of movrng to a new plot hl Labor mtens1ve agnbusmess technolog1es 1n urban areas of the FM such as the processmg and d1stnbut1on of FM products such as non t1mber forest products and mllk Th1s 1s expected to mcrease the prof1tab1hty of these commod1t1es wh1le prov1d1ng alternat1ve employment opportumt1es for potent1al deforestersIn th1s ecosystem the overall strategy 1s to prov1de an outlet for the government s econom1c ob]ect1ves thus rehev1ng pressure for explo1t1ng the FM for agnculture and extract1ve act1v1t1es Rural and urban development 1n the savanna 1s al so v1suahzed as d1vert1ng venture cap1tal from the FM wh1le agnbusmess development may absorb m1grants from rural areas who may otherw1se have m1grated to the FM The ob]ect1ve 1s to ach1eve th1s development whlle protectmg the env1ronment Th1s 1s part1cularly 1mportant as the savanna contams sem1dec1duous and gallery forest and 1s part of the watershed of three ma]Or nvers Thus savanna development could have env1ronmental1mpacts both w1th1n and outs1de the savanna As 1n the FM technology development w11t be based on a land use plan denved from a sound understandmg of land use dynam1cs Technology development w111 mclude al lncrease returns to cap1tal mvestment 1n the savanna by developmg a range of technolog1cal opt1ons w1th progress1vely mcreasmg levels of cap1tal and management 1ntens1ty targeted to a range of env1ronments varymg from moderate to h1gh levels of mfrastructure and land values The extens1ve end of th1s contmuum mcludes technolog1es for managmg nat1ve savanna grasses w1th or w1thout small are as of 1m preved pasture At the mtens1ve end 1t mcludes mtegrated ley farmmg systems w1th technolog1calmnovat10ns enhancmg the1r prof1tab1hty and carbon sequestrat1on capac1ty S1multaneously technology development on competmg land use systems wh1ch lead to soll degradat1on and do not prov1de ecolog1cal serv1ces (such as monocroppmg w1th contmuous heavy t1llage) w11t be de emphas1zedbl Development of technolog1es for susta1nable forestry 1n areas of ex1stmg sem1 dec1duous forests Agroforestry planted forest frUit and nut trees agros1lvopastoral systems part1cularly 1n areas where destruct1on of sem1 dec1duous forests has taken place Emphas1s w11t be on both prof1tab1hty and ecolog1cal funct1ons Th1s 1s expected to enhance adopt1on by mcreasmg comparat1ve advantage 1n markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces el Technolog1es for recuperat1on of degraded areas mcludmg ley farmmg systems 1n mtens1f1ed areas di lnvest1gat1on of the off s1te effects of mtens1f1cat1on such as s1ltat1on and pollut1on of nvers technolog1es to reduce the1r 1mpact and lnStltUtiOnal mechamsms for mternahzmg externaht1esel Labor mtens1ve technolog1es for processmg and d1stnbut1on of savanna products 1n urban areas of the savanna fl Technolog1es for commod1t1es 1n wh1ch the relat1ve resource endowments of small scale farmers have a comparat1ve advantage mclude vegetable product1on da1ry1ng and subs1stence product1on of cassava and beans Th1s IS expected to prevent outm1grat1on of small scale farmers Particular emphas1s w11t be placed on the env1ronmental effects of smalt scale farmmg because of the1r locat10n along nvers and gallery forests Technolog1esfor sustamable explo1tat1on of gallery forests and for mcreasmg the role of tree crops 1n systems 1n deforestad areas wlll be developed w1th emphas1s on the1r compat1b1hty w1th the resource endowments of small scale farmers gl Land use planmng w1ll 1dent1fy areas whose mam funct1on w1ll be the preservat1on of plant and an1mal b10d1vers1tY ldeally these wlll comc1de w1th remote areas and areas of low b1ophys1cal potent1al for agncultural expl01tat1on Technology development m these areas Wlll be hm1ted to recuperat1on of the ecolog1cal funct1ons of degradad areas and 1dentlf1cat1on and evaluat1on of the ecolog1cal serv1ces prov1ded by nat1ve grasses sem1 dec1duous and gallery forests Prevent1on of agncultural explo1tat1on of these areas w1ll reqUire the absence of penetrat1on roads Part1c1pat1on of these areas m markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces may contnbute to the1r preservat1on as may ecotounsm Technology development strategy A approx1mates past h1storyThe adopt1on of ecoreg10nal mandates by mternat1onal research centers m the reg1on the new emphas1s on resource management 1ssues m nat1onal research systems and NGOs m the reg1on md1cate however that the reahzat1on of strategy 8 1s h1ghly probable prov1ded sustamed donor comm1tment to act1V1t1es of th1s nature are avallable G1ven the long term nature of most of these act1v1t1es the 1dentlf1cat10n of concrete 1ntermed1ate outputs w11l be essent1al for obtammg sustamed fund1ngA s1mulat10n model d1v1des land m each ecosystem 1nto d1fferent ecolog1cal categones w1th d1fferent product1ve capac1t1es and d1fferent ecolog1cal funct10ns Movement of land between d1fferent categones 1s s1mulated the rate of change bemg defmed by the scenanos ldeally the model should contam a soc1oeconom1c sub model for s1mulatmg the rate of change m land use categones under each scenano Th1s 1s not ava1lable at the present t1me and rates of response to pohcy measures and technology development are denved from the JUdgement of the authors As deta1led f1eld work 1s carned out data w1ll be ava1lable for more accurate est1mates of rates of change The model 1s run up to the year 2020 for each combmat1on of pohcy and technology development scenanos A companson between scenanos 3A and 1 A shows what pohcy 1mprovements can ach1eve w1th a component technology approach The d1fference between 1 A and 1 8 shows what a sh1ft to an ecoreg1onal approach can ach1eve m the absence of pohcy 1mprovements 38 1s the 1deal scenano wh1ch shows what the ecoreg1onal approach can ach1eve 1n the presence of favorable pohcy The d1fference between 3A and 38 shows the Incremental contnbut1on of the ecoreg1onal approach over the contnbut1on of pohcy Prehmmary results are presentad In partiCular 1t should be p01nted out that results on only broad categones of land use change are avallable at th1s t1me Analys1s of the d1saggregat1on of these categones and the env1ronmental and soc1oeconom1c consequences are st1ll underway Thus wh1le results on changes 1n altered land are ava1lable analys1s of 1ts breakdown 1nto categones such as regenerated forest abandonad land and the consequences on the env1ronment employment etc are st1ll under way At th1s stage the model has been run separately for the cerrado and FM w1thout mteract1ons between the two although we hypothes1ze that these are 1mportantThe results ava1lable so far show the followmg Cerrado al Front1er expans1on 1s most rap1d under scenano 1 A because of speculat1ve mot1ves for holdmg land and because the pressure to mcrease exports leads to the construct1on of penetrat1on roads By 2020 only 6% of the land 1s m 1ts natural state Much of the expans1on occurs mto margmal areas unsUitable for agncultural explo1tat1on leadmg to resource degradat1on Front1er expans1on declines m 2A and 2B because the speculat1ve mot1ve declines and further m 3A and 3B (15% to 19% of the land areal when penetrat1on road construct1on declines because governments become aware of the value of env1ronmental serv1ces In 3B there 1s a qualitat1ve 1mprovement m the natural area because the land use plan 1dent1f1es the most appropnate areas from both the conservat1on and econom1c pomts of v1ew di By 2020 wood product1on 1s h1ghest m 3B (81 m ti because of the ex1stence of 18 m ha of agros1lvopastoral systems wh1ch store 85 t C/ha In the A scenanos very little adopt1on occurs because the component technology approach g1ves msuff1c1ent attent1on to understandmg the dynam1cs of land use systems and 1s therefore unable to 1dent1fy appropnate opportumt1es for technolog1cal mtervent1ons In 1 B and 2B although the ecoreg1onal approach leads to the development of appropnate technolog1cal mtervent1ons adopt1on does not occur because of unfavorable polic1es wh1ch lead to land speculat10n and front1er expans1on and therefore promete short term1sm Also 1n the A scenanos the wood product1on comes from deforestat1on whereas m 3B 1t 1s from sustamable systems Forest Marg1n al W1th favorable polic1es and an ecoreg1onal technology development strategy deforestat1on 1s 37% lower 1n 2020 than 1t would be w1th policy scenano 1 and a component technology development approach bl W1thout favorable polie~es the sh1ft to the ecoreg1onal approach ach1eves little change m land use 1n quant1tat1ve terms Under policy scenano 1 the area of natural ecosystem (275 m ha) IS unchanged when the ecoreg10nal approach 1s mtroduced because of the speculat1ve mot1ve and the lack of pohc1es to mcrease the opportumty cost of potent1al m1grants to the front1er e) In scenano 38 19 m ha of altered land are converted to a vanety of tree crop based systems Forest regenerat1on also mcreases sharply a1ded by the new ecolog1cal parad1gms The ecoreg1onal approach Jdent1f1es appropnate systems wh1ch meet ob1ect1ves of settlers wh1le at the same t1me prov1dmg ecolog1cal serv1ces Adopt1on occurs because farm to market roads mcrease profltabihty and because partlclpatlon m markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces prov1des a further mcent1ve for adopt1on Th1s enables nat1onal governments to obtam econom1c benef1ts from the FM wh1le at the same t1me contnbutmg to env1ronmental 1mprovementA thorough understandmg of land use dynam1cs 1s essent1al for developmg a resource management strategy Analys1s of land use change 1n the FM and savanna of Latm Amenca based on secondary data and literatura rev1ew showed that many of the dnv1ng torces ongmate at the nat10nal pohcy level both w1thm and outs1de the agncultural sector as well at the global level An essent1al component of a resource management strategy for these ecosystems therefore should be recommendat1ons for pohcy and mstltutJonal reform The analys1s al so revealed that for effect1ve ecosystem management technology development will have to move away from the convent1onal approach of developmg product1ve components such as crops hvestock and tree spec1es to a broader approach that mcludes aspects such as forest regenerat1on management of secondary growth non t1mber forest products ldent¡f¡catlon of conservat10n areas development of agnbusmess technolog1es and enhancement of comparat1ve advantage m markets for ecolog1cal serv1ces A land use s¡mulat1on model revealed that even th1s broader approach to technology development 1s unhkely to be effect1ve m the absence of favorable econom1c soc1al and env1ronmental pohc1es Fortunately however many unfavorable pohc1es have been d1smantled deforestat1on has sharply decreased and speculat1ve front1er expans1on m the savanna has decreased part1cularly m Braz1l Re1nforcmg th1s 1s the nse of new ecolog1cal parad1gms wh1ch prov1de new opportumt1es for combmmg env1ronmental 1mprovement w1th product1ve land use Other favorable developments are the newly estabhshed resource management programs m nat1onal research systems and Mm1stnes of the Env1ronment m Latm Amenca A development of ma1or s¡gnlflcance 1s the emergmg mternat10nal trade m ecolog1cal serv1ces Both the savanna and FM of Lat1n Amenca appear to have a comparat1ve advantage m th1s f1eld and 1f supported by an appropnate technology development strategy th1s could be a key mechan1sm for mducmg adopt1on of env1ronmentally sound pract1ces While these developments go a long way towards prov1dmg a favorable background for effect1ve ecosystem management further pohcy and ¡nst1tut10nal changas are reqUJred such as 1mproved access to pnmary and secondary educat1on for the poor 1mproved farm to market roads control of drug traff1ckmg 1mprovement of peace and arder and the poht1cal w1ll to Wlthstand the pressures of m1nmg and loggmg lobb1es Our land use model md1cates that these pohcy and mst¡tutJonal changes and a bread based ecoreg1onal technology development strategy may make 1t poss1ble for nat1onal governments to obtam econom1c benef1t from the FM while contnbutmg globally to the protect10n of the env1ronment The strategy for the savanna should be developed m clase conjunctiOn w1th that for the FM The analys1s shows that substant1al mcreases m crop hvestock and tree products are poss1ble from the savanna Thus the savanna could prov1de an outlet for the econom1c ob¡ect1ves of nat1onal governments and for venture cap1tal wh1le rehevmg pressure for explo1tmg the FM A carefulland use plan w11l be essent1al for ach1evmg th1s w1th accelerated rural and urban development m certam areas for attractmg venture capital combmed w1th labor absorpt1on m agnbusmess m urban areas of the savanna and the prevent1on of agncultural expans1on m remote margmal areas The strategy w11l have to be based on a sound understandmg of the ecologlcallmphcatlons of savanna mtens1f1cat1on as the savanna 1s part of the watershed of three ma¡or nvers and 1t 1s part1cularly notable that the pract1ces of small scale farmers may play a ma¡or role m these externaht1es Overall our analys1s md1cates that the present constellat1on of events relatmg to the savanna and FM of Latm Amenca 1s part1cularly favorable for ach1evmg ma¡or 1mprovements m the management of these ecosystems We therefore have a umque opportumty for successful and effect1ve resource management researchTrop1cal deforestat1on due m part to slash and burn agnculture contnbutes to global warmmg v1a burnmg and release of C02 mto the atmosphere and Braz1l1s now the fourth atmosphenc carbon contnbutor after the US ex Sov1et Umon and Chma Deforestat1on 1s also leadmg to losses of genet1c and cultural d1vers1ty Decreasmg transp1rat1on and prec1p1tat1on w1thm and outs1de of areas cleared may also be a consequence of deforestat1on W1th fundmg from the Global Env1ronmental Fund (GEF) a pro¡ect Alternat1ves to Slash and Burn (ASB) was 101t1ated to address such problems and as th1s paper reports farmer settlers m the government colomzat10n pro¡ects of Pedro Pe1xoto m the Amazoman state of Acre and 1n Theobroma Rondoma were mterv1ewed as a part of act1v1t1es to charactenze local systems and system dynam1cs Fundmg for th1s stage of systems charactenzat10n was also prov1ded by the lnter Amencan Development BankThe pro¡ect currently 1ncludes s1tes m Cameroon and Indonesia and 1s a collaborat1ve effort among nat1onal research systems non government orgamzat1ons and at the 1nternat1onal level the lnternat1onal Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF) CIAT the lnternat10nal Food Pohcy Research lnstltute (IFPRI) and the Trop1cal S01l B1ology and Fert1hty Programme (TSBF) The pro¡ect seeks to develop techmcal and pohcy alternat1ves to slash and burn agnculture wh1ch would have effects of decreasmg global rates of deforestat1on whlle enhancmg the well bemg of forest users Settlement m colomzat1on pro¡ects such as Pedro Pe1xoto and Theobroma has been faci11tated by government pohc1es to populate front1er areas m the Amazon road construct1on and d1rect and md1rect subs1d1es Data presentad m compete form under Pro¡ect UT04 addresses the dynam1cs of deforestat1on at the farm level 1 e farmer dec1s1on makmg m hght of constramts and opportumt1es afforded by the local agroecosystem and w1thm the context of relevant local reg10nal nat1onal and mternat10nal pohe~es The conclus10ns of that research were Deforestat10n at the farm level appears to contmue at a relat1vely steady pace averagmg somewhat more than one ha per year per fam1ly m the two colomes Settlers st1ll had more than half of the1r lands 1n forest and for the most part can and probably w1ll contmue to slash burn and cult1vate more pnmary forest as the1r currently most (econom1cally) v1able opt1on Two mam factors dnvmg land cleanng at the farm level were the need to produce food crops and mcent1ves to convert land mto pasture In terms of food product10n farmers consumed and sold nce and to a lesser extent beans ma1ze and cassava (or cassava meall R1ce cult1vat1on may dnve sorne deforestat1on m that although farmers usually planted a cleared f1eld for two or three years they could not for techmcal reasons sow nce other than m the f1rst year after cleanng As such a research pnoflty of the ASB proJect may be to determme 1f and under wh1ch management alternat1ves could nce product1on be made more sustamable (acknowledgmg the caveat that any 1mprovement m productiVIty may lead to greater econom1c attract1veness of the respective enterpnse and thereby mv1te more deforestat1on or other forms of resource over expl01tat10n) Farmers were clearly mot1vated to convert cleared lands mto pasture because of real or at least perce1ved resultmg mcreases m land values Farmers not only mamta1ned cattle as standmg bank accounts and obtamed cash from sales of ammals and m1lk but bUIIt savmgs L by 1nvest1ng t1me and resources m fencmg corrals ponds and other ranch1ng necess1t1es As observad throughout the two s1tes local ranchers and urban based speculators have purchased cont1nuous blocks of colon1sts parcels to form new ranches or to expand the s1ze of adjacent ranches and payments were reportedly much hlgher for cleared vs forestad port1ons of parcels Farmers pasture management pract1ces cons1sted of mtroducmg mamly Brach1ana spp annual pasture burnmg and rotat1on of ammals to d1fferent pasturas In sp1te of generally low stockmg rates there were substant1al areas of poor and degradad pasturas and pasture lands at both s1tes Although construct10n of new cheese processmg plants near Theobroma may result m mtens1f1cat1on at that s1te extens1ve and low mput cattle and pasture management appear to be the current norm for both s1tes Whether or not 1mproved pasture technolog1es are poss1ble and would be appropnate to farmers current cond1t1ons 1s another researchable ISSU8 Convers1on of cleared forest land to pasture has meant that at least m the colon1es stud1ed that there was relatlvely httle land placed m fallow w1th resultmg secondary regrowth and forest regenerat1on An 1mphcat10n 1s that research on 1mproved fallows m ay e1ther result m mak1ng fallows more attract1ve to farmers (as 1s hoped) because of more rap1d regenerat1on and better ma1ntenance of so1l orgamc matter or farmers may be unmterested 1n 1mproved fallows because convers1on to pasture 1s by far the preferred land use after cult1vat10nTheobroma farmers pract1ced agroforestry m the sense that they had s1gmf1cant areas of perenn1al crops mamly coffee and cacao Pedro Pe1xoto settlers have had less favorable expenences regardmg perenn1als c1tmg poor pnces and/or markets as majar constramts Sorne Pedro Pe1xoto farmers had been encouraged (prov1ded w1th cred1t) to plant urucu (81xa orellana u sed to produce red dye) When the trees started to produce pnces for the product fell to the pomt that farmers could not afford to harvest and lost the1r mvestments Currently settlers m Theobroma were be1ng prov1ded cred1t to grow acerola (Malp1gh1a pumc1foha) Although they were prom1sed a future market for all that they produce schemes to mtroduce or encourage perenmal crops or agroforestry remam nsky A resource that was largely not ava1lable m the systems exammed 1s md1genous techmcal knowledge of the type usually assoc1ated w1th sh1ftmg cult1vators Farmers were asked about the1r s01l and land class1f1cat1on and correspondmg use systems Although they d1stmgU1shed so1ls by color and texture and called attent1on to lands e1ther havmg a sub surface compactad layer or low waterlogged areas they d1d not employ such d1stmct1ons m choosmg areas to clear and cult1vate Farmers s1mply cleared land m steady sequence from the areas closest to the roads and houses and towards the rear of the1r parcels Although a few named plant spec1es wh1ch 1nd1cated s01l 1mpovenshment and others wh1ch md1cated fallow regenerat1on most farmers appeared to have httle concept of use of fallows for b1omass (and subsequent soll fert1hty) regenerat10n or of (as ment10ned) the use of f1re to release nutnents for crops use Only a few Theobroma farmers ment1oned that there were med1cmal plants that could be harvested from the forest The heartemng news 1s that rates of deforestat1on m the Amazon Basm appear to be decreas1ng due to fewer mcent1ves to large corporat1ons to mvest m cattle ranchmg a v1rtual end to a penod of road bu1ldmg to open up the Amazon and to protect front1er areas and a decline m government ass1sted colomzat1on programs for the rural poor Secondary forests have shown relat1vely h1gh rates of regenerat10n both after slash and burn agnculture and after abandonment of degraded pastures and a s1gmhcant proport1on of deforestat1on for sh1ftmg cult1vat1on 1s now of secondary rather than pnmary forest On the other hand deforestat1on and/or consohdat10n of colomsts parcels to form or expand ranches has contmued w1th ranches now bemg formed less by front1er nsk takers and more by urban speculators m areas where land pnces have nsen and where government can protect such mvestment The ev1dence presentad suggests that deforestat1on on colomsts parcels contmues at an apparent steady pace dnven by food product10n needs and by mcent1ves s1m1lar to those now push1ng format1on of larger ranches To sorne extent the charactenzat10n data suggest the need for on farm research to develop alternat1ves to slash and burn agnculture Such research already underway or planned needs to examme the poss1bil1ty of makmg nce product10n more sustamable (and thereby hopefully reducmg demand for newly cleared forest) 1mprovmg (1 e 1ntens1fymg to the degree appropnate) pasture and cattle management mtroduc1ng or encouragmg more perenn1al croppmg and agroforestry and 1mprovmg fallows At the same t1me and equally or more 1mportantly th1s analys1s recogmzes the 1mportance to deforestat10n of nat1onal pohc1es regardmg road construct1on cred1t tax mcent1ves front1er settlement land tenure and the rural peor Development of alternat1ves w1ll need to mclude substant1al attent1on to pohc1es and future pohcy opt1ons Troptcal deforestatton due tn part to slash and burn agnculture contnbutes to global warmmg vta burnmg and ralease of C0 2 mto the atmosphere and Braztl 1s now the fourth atmosphenc carbon contnbutor after the US ex Sovtet Unten and Chtna Deforestat10n ts also leadtng to losses of genettc and cultural dtverstty Decreastng transptratton and prectpttatton wtthm and outstde of areas cleared m ay al so be a consequence of deforestatton Wtth fundtng from the Global Envtronmental Fund (GEF) a pro1ect Alternattves to Slash and Burn (ASB) was tntttated to address such problems and as thts paper reports farmer settlers 10 the government colontzatton pro¡ects of Pedro Petxoto In the Amazontan state of Acre and tn Theobroma Rondonta were tntervtewed as a part of acttvtttes to charactenze local systems and system dynamtcs The pro¡ect currently tncludes sttes tn Camaroon and lndonesta and ts a collaborattve effort among nattonal research systems non government organtzattons and at the tnternattonal level the lnternattonal Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF) CIAT the lnternattonal Food Pollcy Research lnstttute (IFPRI) and the Troptcal Sotl Btology and Ferttllty Programme (TSBF) The pro¡ect seeks to develop techntcal and pollcy alternattves to slash and burn agnculture whtch would have effects of decreasmg global rates of deforestatton whtle enhancmg the well betng of forest users Settlement tn colontzatton pro¡ects such as Pedro Petxoto and Theobroma has been factlltated by government pollctes to populate frontter areas 10 the Amazon road constructton and dtrect and tndtrect substdtes Data presented tn thts paper addresses the dynamtcs of deforestatton at the farm level 1 e farmer dectston maktng tn llght of constramts and opportuntttes afforded by the local agroecosystem and Wtthtn the context of relevant local regtonal nat10nal and mternattonal pollctesCompared to As1a and Afnca deforestat1on has been h1ghest m Latm Amenca 1n both absolute area (43 000 km 2 /year) and percent of forest area cleared (0 64%/year) Of Lat1n Amencan forests standing 1n 1850 370 mlihon ha or 28% were converted by 1985 44% to pasture 25% to cropland 20% degraded and 10% to sh1ftmg cult1vat1on Recent analys1s of satelhte data 1nd1cates that some 230 000 km 2 of the Braz1han Amazon 1s deforested and that 588 000 km' are affected 1f edge effects of one km mto ad1acent areas of forest are cons1dered Deforestat1on 1n the Braz1han Amazon has been h1ghest m Rondoma and Mato Grosso followed by western Maranhao Acre and northern Go1as Sh1ftmg cult1vat1on (slash and burn agnculture) was thought to account for 1 8 m1lhon ha or 32% of tropical Amencan deforestat1on takmg place 1n 1980 Causes of Amazon1an deforestat10n 1960 1985 lnterhnked factors contnbutmg to deforestation up to a decade ago mcluded road building land conversion to pasture and cattle ranchmg (and associated pohcies) demand for land by the rural poor cred1t and tenure pohcies which equated land improvements w1th cleanng and land speculat1on (espec1ally 1n a h1ghly lnflationary economy)Roads opened the Amazon to settlement and land to deforestat10n The Bras1ha Belem h1ghway was completed m 1960 The then m1htary government made the Amazon the focus of growth m 1964 BR364 between Porto Velho m Rondoma and Cu1aba m the south was completed 1n 1965 and 1mproved m 1969 The government dec1ded to bUIId the Trans Amazon h1ghway m 1970 and vanous sect1ons were completed between 1972 and 1976 Deforestat1on m the Amazon has been the heav1est along these roads O ver 1 O m1lhon ha of forest were converted to pasture from 1960 to 1990 The Agency for the Development of Amazonia (SUDAM) was estabhshed m 1966 largely to facli1tate pnvate mvestments m the Amazon through tax 1ncent1ves w1th most support granted to large ranches and corporat1ons Ranches now cover 8 4 m1lhon ha average 24 000 ha each but employ only one cowboy per every 300 ha and were prof1table only w1th full tax advantages and at considerable soc1al costs of O 5 ton of ramforest per quarter pound of hamburger Beef produced however was not for export to the US for 1ts fast food mdustry as Hecht proposed and as was the case 1n Central Amen ca Although beef suff1c1ent for the same quarter pound hamburger cost US $0 26 to produce 1n the Amazon w1th $ O 22 commg from subs1d1es the Amazon has barely produced enough beef for 1ts own needs Related pohc1es that contnbuted to deforestat1on were exempt1ons of agncultural mcomes from taxat1on rules determmmg secunty of land cla1ms wh1ch encouraged cleanng progress1ve land taxes encourag1ng convers1on to pasture cred1t schemes subs1d1s1ng corporate hvestock ranches and tax breaks for wood products mdustnesThe rural poor were pushed to the front1er are as m search of land 4 5% of Braz1l s land owners hold 81% of the country s farmland wh1le 70% of rural households are landless In the penad 1963 73 Braz1l sh1fted from mward onented 1mport subst1tut10n pohc1es to modifled outward onented export substitUtiOn charactenzed by area expansion domestlcally produced mputs mechan¡zatlon through cred1t mcreased output and land concentrat1on and coffee eradicatlon The penad 1971 80 then saw a h1gh expans10n of agncultural exports and wealth concentrat1on a1ded by h1gh 1nflat1on combmed w1th low f1xed mterest rates for a few borrowers Mechamzat1on of soybean wheat and sugar cane product1on had the effect of dnvmg the rural poor out of Braz1l s populous and developed center south reg1on In that area soybean became a ma¡or crop and labor 1ntens1ve small scale agnculture was replaced by energy and machme mtens1ve cult1vat1on Braz1l s Nat1onallnst1tute for Colomzat1on and Agranan Reform (INCRA) mst1tuted a Program for Nat1onal lntegrat1on (PIN) m 1970 to ass1st the rural poor H1gh rates of m1grat1on to Rondon1a mcludmg spontaneous m1grat1on and land 1nvas1ons resultad m f1ve m1lhon ha (21% of the state s land area) g1ven to settlers by 1977 Forest cleanng reached 17% of the state by 1987 and farmers Wlth rural cred1t cleared 25% more forest than those w1thout Problems such as lack of all weather access roads unsUitable seed early rams lack of plantmg matenals for perenmal crops and 1nsecure t1tles as well as the 011 cns1s m 1973 however led the government to sh1ft from supportmg small farmers v1a colomzat1on schemes to (aga1n) a1dmg large operators m 1974Other factors contnbut1ng to Amazoman deforestat1on have mcluded d1splacement and resettlement of farmers from earher settled areas m the north as so1ls were depleted or as demands for land by new speculators mcreased loggmg and wood process1ng and mmmg and use of t1mber for fuel for smeltmg Deforestat1on smce 1985 Sorne of the ma1or mcent1ves prov1ded to large corporat1ons and cattle ranches were ellmmated m 1985 as Braz1l suffered from recess1on and hypennflat10n Although cause and effect relat1onsh1ps are d1ff1cult to estabhsh recent analys1s of remote sensmg data shows that rates of Amazoman deforestat1on have been decreasmg from 8 O m1lhon ha m 1987 to 1 8 m1lhon ha m 1989 1 4 m1lhon ha 1n 1990 and to 1 1 m1lhon ha 1n 1991 On the other hand two th1rds of deforestat10n due to ranchmg has occurred Wlthout SUDAM mcent1ves and explanatory factors appear to be a) that new demands for (cleared) front1er lands by urban based land speculators have appeared as front1er government has strengthened to the extent that 1t can protect property nghts (as opposed to ranchers havmg to fmance pnvate arm1es to mamtam the1r land cla1ms) and b) that cattle ranch1ng 1s econom1cally v1able under current land pncesThe vanous factors contnbutmg to or tendmg to d1m1msh deforestat1on m the Amazon Basm over t1me are shown m F1gure 1 Opt1m1st1c v1ewpo1nts m the search for alternat1ves Opt1m1st1C fmd1ngs have emerged along w1th the observad decreasmg rates of deforestat10n F1rst forests may be more res1hant and m ay rebound from d1sturbances more qUickly and completely than prev1ously thought Second secondary forests globaliy are bemg formed at about mne m1lhon ha per year and now account for 40% of total forest area and th1rd much of currently observad deforestat1on 1s of secondary rather than pnmary growth As a result of such res1hance severa! researchers have proposed 1mproved management of secondary forests and encouragement of natural forest regenerat1onOther researchers have descnbed the d1vers1ty of env1ronments Wlthm the Amazon Basm and suggested land class1f1cat1on and zomng as startmg pomts for 1mproved land use and management Although there IS ev1dence that so1l fert11ity under cattle pasturas 1n the Amazon cannot be ma1ntamed research has also suggested that susta1nab11ity 1s poss1ble w1th 1mproved pasture spec1es Contrary to earher v1ews of ecolog1sts research also suggested that cont1nuous croppmg IS poss1ble w1th fert11izer use Agroforestry has al so been suggested as an appropnate land use and even steam sawm1lls and stewardsh1p rather than ownersh1p were suggested as appropnate and needed for the Amazon Reported cattle herd s1ze 1n 1990 was 40 000 m Acre and 1 700 000 1n Rondoma Reported crop product10n m Acre for 1993 was 32 000 t of nce 36 000 t of ma1ze 14 000 t of beans 20 000 t of cassava and 12 000 t of oranges Rondoma produced a reported 275 000 t of nce 390 000 t of ma1ze 93 000 t of beans 650 000 t of cassava 166 000 t of coffee and 26 000 t of banana Forest products for Acre were rubber ( 12 000 t) Braz1l nuts (Bertholletla excelsa locally castanha 18 000 t) and wood (300 000 m 3 ) Pedro Pe1xoto Acre and Theobroma Rondoma The Pedro Pe1xoto colon1zat10n s1te covers 370 000 ha d1v1ded mto 3700 parcels d1stnbuted to 3200 fam1hes Lots are located at d1stances of 50 to 1 00 km from the state cap1tal of R1o Branco Theobroma covers 300 000 ha d1v1ded mto 3000 parcels (reportedly) d1stnbuted to 3000 fam1hes The project area 1s located some 350 km from the state capital of Porto Velho (Marcus VmiCIUS personal commun1cat1on)A goal of the ASB pro]ect 1s to charactenze each s1te m a way that data can be synthes1zed and compared across s1tes Coordmated by ICRAF researchers met m Porto Velho 1n late 1 993 to develop and pre test a survey quest1onna1re that would be apphcable across s1tes Th1s prototype quest1onna1re was rev1sed for use and apphcat1on 1n Acre and Rondoma m m1d 1994 by researchers from CIA T and IFPRI 1n arder to ensure appropnateness to local cond1t1ons to ensure ease of use m the f1eld and to fac1htate data codmg Booklets to code data from each quest10nna1re were developed Open ended quest1ons were mcluded wh1ch were coded after the range of responses were rev1ewed Ouest1onnare and the data codmg booklets were fmahzed after da1ly mod1f1cat10ns and group d!scuss1ons m an m1t1al week of f1eldwork F1eldwork took place m late August and early September 1994 as settlers were burmng the1r f¡elds Partlcipants representad CIAT IFPRI EMBRAPA (CPAF Acre and CPAF Rondoma) w1th mterv1ewers from the Grupo de PesqUisa e Extensao em Sistemas Agrofloresta1s do Acre (PESACRE) a non government organ1zat10n contracted by EMBRAPA A team of some 15 1nterv1ewers was assembled and mterv1ewers worked mdlvldually (nat1ve speakers of Portuguesa) or m pa1rs (where the add1t1onal person was not a Portuguesa nat1ve speaker) Pedro Pe1xoto and Theobroma were d1v1ded mto areas wh1ch are relat1vely access1ble or maccess1ble dunng the ramy season The group selected and worked m d1fferent areas 1n each s1te each day and farmers were selected at random m the f1eld by d1stnbutmg mterv1ewers at considerable d1stances from one another and then 1f appropnate by us1ng an every th1rd parcel approach E1ghty one farmers m Pedro Pe1xoto and 7 4 farmers m Theobroma were 1nterv1ewed w1th e1ther or both male and female heads of household mcluded Completad quest10nna1res were rev1ewed and data passed to codebooks each evemng There were considerable d1ff1cult1es m obtammg complete mterv1ews due to mexpenence of sorne of the contracted 1nterv1ewers The group moved to Theobroma after farmer mterv1ews m Pedro Pe1xoto and lastly worked together m Porto Velho to make sure that data cod1ng was as complete and read1ble as poss1bleCop1es of completad quest1onna1res were left wtth EMBRAPA for the1r data analys1s and pubhcat1on CIAT al so retamed cop1es of the mterv1ews and has rev1ewed and cross checked data rev1sed the codmg system as needed set up data arch1ves and enterad and tabulated data Th1s paper presents and d1scusses descnpt1ve fmdmgs (s1mple frequenc1es and means) from th1s tablulated dataThe CIA T tea m assembled ava1lable maps and secondary data from vanous sources and d1g1t1zed data m arder to present s1mple overlays of for example proJect roads and parcels by access 1n the wet season and roads and parcels by sotl type Satelhte 1mages of the s1te are bemg sought m arder to analyse rates of deforestat1on over t1me and as funct10ns of d1stances from roads (both pnmary and secondary) and t1me of road construct1on An overlay of the parcellary or cadastral maps on the 1mages 1s allowmg for analys1s of deforestat1on by parcel access parcel tenure and other vanables RESUL TS Farmer Survey Heads of household m earher settled Theobroma were born m the Northeast (4 7%) South (38%) and Center West (12%) ra1sed 1n the Southeast (48%) Northeast (22%) and South (20%) and pnor to amval m Theobroma hved m the Southeast (40%) South (31 %) and Northeast (16%) The data mdtcates h1gh geograph1cal mobi11ty a) away from the Northeast b) to and then from the Southeast e) and from the South Few Theobroma settlers were born ra1sed or hved prev1ously m the North Pedro Pe1xoto settlers had a d1fferent pattern of movement and settlement Almost half were born (45%) ra1sed (41 %) and last hved (50%) 1n the North Approx1mately a th1rd were born and ra1sed m Acre 1tself and a th1rd although not born or ra1sed there hved m Rondoma p~ror to settlement m Pedro Pe1xoto Other ma1n pomts of ongm for Pedro Pe1xoto settlers were the South and the Northeast (Table 1) Settlers left prev1ous places of res1dence largely m search of land (52% m Pedro Pe1xoto and 58% 1n Theobroma) and a better hfe (Table 2) Although Theobroma was 1n1t1ated as a colomzat1on pro¡ect earher than Pedro Pe1xoto settlers had hved m the former a mean s1x years and m the latter a mean e1ght years poss1bly 1nd1catmg e1ther arnval of a second generat1on of settlers m Theobroma or mclus1on m Pedro Pe1xoto of early spontaneous settlers who remamed 1n the pro¡ect area For Pedro Pe1xoto almost a th1rd arnved pnor to 1975 and two th1rds arnved m the 1980s For Theobroma arnval was mamly 1n the 1970s (36%) and 1980s (58% Table 3) Mean s1zes of respondents parcels were 88 ha m Pedro Pe1xoto and 76 ha m Theobroma For Pedro Pe1xoto and for 1993 94 a mean 69% was st1ll forested 20% was 1n pasture 6% 1n fallow and 4 A> m annual crops Theobroma was charactenzed by more cleared land (46%) more pasture (26%) and more perenn1al crops (5% Table 4) Because mterv1ews were conducted after f1eld burmng for 1994 95 changes m land use from 1993 94 to 1994 95 could be calculated add1t1onal forest cleanng m late 1994 meant that forested port1ons of the settlers parcels decreased from 69% to 66% m Pedro Pe1xoto and from 54% to 50% m Theobroma Overall sorne 60% of the land 1n the two colon1es remams forested w1th more than half of the cleared area converted to pasture Only 7% of settlers lands were m fallow (Table 4) s1tes Two th1rds of Pedro Pe1xoto farmers cleared pnmary forest every other year wh1le most Theobroma farmers cleared every other year (46%} or every three years (25% Table 51 Farmers m Pedro Pe1xoto needed 23 days/ha to clear pnmary forest and 16 days/ha to clear fallowed land Theobroma farmers spent less t1me cleanng land but needed the same amount of labor to clear forest and fallow (14 days/ha Table 6} Reasons for d1fferences between s1tes were not apparent Farmers used chamsaws axes and machetes to clear pnmary forest and axes and machetes to clear secondary forest Labor was mamly fam1ly followed by h1red labor often for chamsaw operat10n (Table 6} Burmng of slash followed cuttmg and a penod of drymg Most farmers thought that the funct10n of burn1ng was to make space for the crops and only a few at each s1te ment1oned that ash 1mproved so1l fert11ity or that f1re decreased the mc1dence of weeds and other pests (Table 7) Th1s result h1ghhghts d1fferences between such settlers and trad1t1onal slash and burn agnculturahsts who umversally perce1ve burmng m terms of nutnent management and pest control Farmers (92% 1n Pedro Pe1xoto and 70% m Theobroma) planted nce m the f1rst year of cult1vat1on of what was pnmary forest and cult1vated ma1ze cassava (m Pedro Pe1xoto) and pasture 1n the second year R1ce the most 1mportant crop for both consumpt1on and sales of surpluses was not grown m the second or subsequent years of plot use (Table 8) Table 7 Respondents reponed reasons (% of respondents) for burmng slash Pedro Pe1xoto and TheobromaClear land/make space Ash/f1re 1mproves so1l fert1hty Remove weeds/pests Farmers reported the1r 1993 and the1r normal low and h1gh y1elds for nce ma1ze and beans m terms of rat1os of y1eld to seed sown Y1elds m 1993 were somewhat below average w1th normal y1elds at the two s1tes bemg about 70 75 1 for nce 95 1 for ma1ze and 27 1 for beans (Table 9) Mean reported y1elds at both s1tes d1d not d1ffer Farmers reportad sowmg from seven to 60 kg of nce seed per ha at both s1tes w1th a mean of about 21 kg/ha Farmers normal nce y1elds would then be 1n the 1 5 to 1 6 t/ha range wh1ch would appear to be a reasonable est1mate g1ven local cond1t1ons and farmers management pract1cesMost farmers at the two s1tes reported problems (defmed as factors wh1ch led to decreased y1elds) w1th nce and beans Stmk bug stemborer and b1rds 1n Pedro Pe1xoto and b1rds and storage weev1ls m Theobroma were problems of nce (Table 10) Web bhght (Thanathephorus cucumens) and beetles (D~abrottca spp) were the ma¡or problems of beans at both s1tes Few farmers reported problems w1th ma1ze although problems ment1oned mcluded b1rds w1ld ammals and sp1ttle bug (Deots flavoptcta) Farmers cult1vated lands cleared from pnmary forest for a mean penad of two (Pedro Pe1xoto) to 2 5 years (Theobroma) S1xty percent 1n Pedro Pe1xoto cult1vated such plots for two years wh1le Theobroma farmers used the1r newly cleared lands for from ene to more than three years 1n somewhat equal proport1ons (Table 11) Agam reasons for d1fferences between s1tes were not apparent and bear further mvest1gat1on Farmers reportad that d1scont1nuat10n of annual croppmg on lands cleared from forest was dueto the not mutually exclus1ve reasons of lower product1v1ty weeds espec1ally lmperata sp (locally sape) and msects and d1seases (Table 12)After food crops two th1rds of Pedro Pe1xoto farmers and nearly half of Theobroma farmers converted the1r lands to pastura About a th1rd m both areas left sorne land m fallow (although much of such land may also be used as ummproved pastura) Theobroma (20%) but not Pedro Pe1xoto farmers also converted sorne land from annual to perenn1al crop use (Table 13) Farmers at both s1tes normally left any f1elds wh1ch they fallowed for a mean 2 5 years although they thought that 3 O 3 5 years of fallow would be 1deal R1ce followed by ma1ze and beans were the ma1n crops plantad 1n the re opened fallows (Table 14) For perenmal crops 35% of Pedro Pe1xoto farmers reportad problems of low pnces or poor markets 29% reportad no problems and 40% had not grown perenmals In Theobroma only 20% had not grown perenmals 43% reportad product1on problems (1 e msects and d1seasesl and 45% reportad havmg had no problems (Table 15)Most settlers (91 % m Pedro Pe1xoto and 81 % m Theobroma) had cattle Herd s1ze was a mean 18 head (w1th 6 g1vmg mil k) m Pedro Pe1xoto and 26 (4 g1vmg m1lkl m Theobroma (Table 16) M1fk product1on ranged from a mean two to three hters per head m the dry season and tour to f1ve hters 1n the wet season Settlers reportad stockmg 2 2 head per ha m Pedro Pe1xoto and 1 6 head per ha m Theobroma w1th roughly equal numbers of respondents at both s1tes report1ng stockmg al less than one b) one to two and e) more than two head per ha (Table 17) The predommant pasture spec1as usad at both s1tes were 8rachtana bnzanta 8 decumbens and 8 humtdtcola Sorne Pedro Pe1xoto farmers also had Puerarta phaseolotdes or m1xes of P phaseolotdes and brach1ana Theobroma settlers also had pasturas of Pamcum maxtmum (Table 18) In terms of pastura management a mean 70 75% of farmers burned f1elds yearly and 70% of farmers at both s1tes rotated camle to d1fferent pasturas at a mean of every 2 O 2 5 months (Table 19) Settlers expl01ted the1r forest lands for Braz1l nut (although substant1ally more m Pedro Pe1xoto) wood huntmg palm hearts (more m Theobroma) f1sh and rubber (Pedro Pe1xotoTable 20) Although an attempt was made quant1t1es of these products were very d1ff1cult to ellc1t or calculate Farmers cash mcome sources (Tabla 21) m Pedro Pe1xto were from sales of labor or pens1ons (63%) and sales of nce (50% solda mean 2 3 t/year) ma1ze (47% 1 8 tonsl beans (41% 1 3 tons) Braz1l nut (44% 1 O tons) and cattle (26%) More farmers (57%) sold more nce (3 1 tons) 1n Theobroma m add1t10n to havmg mcomes from labor and pens1ons (53%) coffee (36% 3 3 tons) m1lk (30%) cacao (25% 1 6 tons) and cattle (22%1 Fewer respondents prov1ded quant1t1es of each productFarmers may be earmng more from apprec1at1on of land values 93% of Pedro Pe1xoto and 97% of Theobroma settlers perce1ved the1r land values as hav~ng nsen (values were d1scussed 1n terms of eqwvalent numbers of cattle) at annual rates of 74% 1n the former and 1 57% 1n the latter Farmers reportad total 1ncreases s1nce occupy1ng the1r parcels 1n value of about 800% 1n Pedro Pe1xoto and 950% 1n Theobroma w1th reasons for 1ncreases attnbuted to add1t1on of pastura or cleared areas fenc~ng ponds or other water sources corrals houses perenmal crops and 1mproved access (Table 22) Negat1ve factors assoc1ated w1th the colomes were poor roads or access malana and lack of health posts schools and potable water (Table 23) Overlaymg the Theobroma parcel map on a Braz1han so1ls map shows about 1400 parcels (37% of parcels) and 114 thousand ha (45% of area) of more favorable Alf1sols (Podzohco Vermelho Amarelo Eutrof1cos) 2200 parcels (57%) and 124 thousand ha (49%) of med1um quahty Ox1sols and Ult1sols and 250 parcels (6%) and 14 thousand ha (6%) of poor D1stropepts (l1t1cos d1strof1cos Tabla 24 Th1s mapped data w1ll perm1t a follow up study to determme 1f there are d1fferences m land use and m product1v1ty relat1ve to so1l quahty The same mappmg of cadastral data and so1ls m Pedro Pe1xoto showed that solls throughout the s1te are relat1vely s1m1lar m terms of agncultural potent1al (Bell and Fu¡1saka forthcommg) Parcels m Pedro Pe1xoto w1th t1tles and w1th t1tles pendmg were mapped for Pedro Pe1xoto (Table 25) and wlll be overlayed on satelhte 1mages m order to determme the role of tenure on rates of deforestat1on Fmally a satelhte 1mage from 1991 wh1ch mcludes Pedro Pe1xoto f1ve haciendas and other land uses and covers 35 7 thousand ha of wh1ch 19% of the total 1s deforestad 20% of the colomsts 270 thousand ha 29% of the haCiendas 22 thousand ha and 10% of the 64 thousand ha of other were deforestad (Tabla 26) The off1c1ally reportad area of the Pedro Pe1xoto pro¡ect of 370 thousand ha appears to mclude what are now haciendas and other land uses bes1des settlers parcels The currently farmer reportad amounts of forest cleanng appear to agree w1th the 1mage analys1s g1ven the1r reportad rates and the amounts shown m the 1991 1mage and g1ven that analys1s was unable to d1st1ngUish between relat1vely estabhshed secondary growth and pnmary forest As ment10ned add1t1onal analys1s 1s attemptmg to analyse deforestat1on as a funct1on of d1stance from roads and add1t1onal 1mages are bemg obtamed to analyse ratas m Pedro Pe1xoto and Theobroma over t1me Deforestat1on at the farm level appears to contmue at a relat1vely steady pace averagmg somewhat more than one ha per year per fam1ly m the two colomes Settlers st1ll had more than half of the1r lands m forest and for the most part can and probably w1ll contmue to slash burn and cult1vate more pnmary forest as the1r currently most (econom1cally) v1able opt1on Two mam factors dnvmg land cleanng at the farm level were the need to produce food crops and mcent1ves to convert land mto pastura In terms of food product1on farmers consumad and sold nce and to a lesser extent beans ma1ze and cassava (or cassava meal) R1ce cult1vat1on may dnve sorne deforestat10n m that although farmers usually planted a cleared f1eld for two or three years they could not for techmcal reasons sow nce other than m the f1rst year after cleanng As such a research pnonty of the ASB proJect may be to determme 1f and under wh1ch management alternat1ves could nce product1on be made more sustamable (acknowledgmg the caveat that any 1mprovement m product1v1ty may lead to greater econom1c attract1veness of the respective enterpnse and thereby 1nv1te more deforestat1on or other forms of resource over explo1tat1onlFarmers were clearly mot1vated to convert cleared lands mto pastura because of real or at least perce1ved resultmg mcreases m land values Farmers not only mamtamed cattle as standmg bank accounts and obta1ned cash from sales of ammals and m1lk but bUIIt savmgs by mvest1ng t1me and resources m fencmg corrals ponds and other ranchmg necess1t1es As observed throughout the two s1tes local ranchers and urban based specultors have purchased contmuous blocks of colomsts parcels to form new ranches or to expand the s1ze of adjacent ranches and payments were reportely much h1gher for cleared vs forested port10ns of parcels Farmers pasture management pract1ces cons1sted of mtroducmg mamly Brachlana spp annual pasture burmng and rotat1on of anmmals to d1fferent pastures In sp1te of generally low stockmg rates there were substant1al areas of poor and degraded pastures and pasture lands at both s1tes Although construct1on of new cheese process1ng plants near Theobroma may result m mtens1f1cat10n at that s1te extens1ve and low mput cattle and pasture management appear to be the current norm for both s1tes Whether or not 1mproved pasture technolog1es are poss1ble and would be appropnate to farmers current cond1t1ons IS another researchable ISSUe Convers1on of cleared forest land to pasture has meant that at least m the colomes stud1ed that there was relat1vely httle land placed 1n fallow w1th result1ng secondary regrowth and forest regenerat1on An 1mphcat10n 1s that research on 1mproved fallows may e1ther result 1n makmg fallows more attract1ve to farmers (as 1s hoped) because of more rap1d regenerat1on and better ma1natenance of soll orgamc matter or farmers may be unmterested m 1mproved fallows because convers10n to pasture 1s by far the preferred land use alter cult1vat1on lnteractmg factors leadmg to deforestat10n at the on farm level m Pedro Pe1xoto and Theobroma are presentad m a quahtat1ve model (F1gure 2) Theobroma farmers pract1ced agroforestry 1n the sense that they had S1gmf1cant areas of perenmal crops mamly coffee and cacao Pedro Pe1xoto settlers have had less favorable expenences regardmg perenn1als c1t1ng poor pnces and/or markets as major constramts Sorne Pedro Pe1xoto farmers had been encouraged (prov1ded w1th cred1t) to plant urucu (81xa ore/lana used to produce red dye) When the trees started to produce pnces for the product fell to the po1nt that farmers could not afford to harvest and lost the1r mvestements Currently settlers m Theobroma were bemg prov1ded cred1t to grow acerola (Malp1gh1a pumclfofla) Although they were prom1sed a future market for all that they produce schemes to Introduce or encourage perenmal crops or agroforestry remam nsky A resource that was largely not ava1lable m the systems exam1ned 1s md1genous techmcal knowledge of the type usually assoc1ated w1th sh1ftmg cult1vators Farmers were asked about the1r so1l and land class1f1catlon and correspondmg use systems Although they d1stmgU1shed so1ls by color and texture and called attent1on to lands e1ther havmg a sub surface compactad layer or low waterlogged areas they d1d not employ such d1stmct1ons m choosmg areas to clear and cult1vate Farmers s1mply cleared land m steady sequence from the areas closest to the roads and houses and towards the rear of the1r parcels Although a few named plant spec1es wh1ch md1cated so1l 1mpovenshment and others wh1ch md1cated fallow regenerat1on most farmers appeared to have httle concept of use of fallows for b1omass (and subesequent so1l fert1hty) regenerat10n or of (as ment10ned) the use of f1re to release nutnents for crops use Only a few Theobroma farmers ment1oned that there were med1c1nal plants that could be harvested from the forest The heartemng news 1s that rates of deforestat10n m the Amazon Basm appear to be decreasmg dueto fewer mcent1ves to large corportat1ons to mvest m cattle ranchmg a v1rtual end to a penad of road bUIIdmg to open up the Amazon and to protect front1er areas and a decline m government ass1sted colomzat1on programs for the rural poor Secondary forests have shown relat1vely h1gh rates of regenerat1on both after slash and burn agnculture and after abandonment of degradad pasturas and a s1gmf1cant proport1on of deforestat1on for sh1ftmg cult1vat1on 1s now of secondary rather than pnmary forestOn the other hand deforestat1on and/or consohdat1on of colomsts parcels to form or expand ranches has contmued w1th ranches now bemg formed less by front1er nsk takers and more by urban speculators m areas where land pnces have nsen and where govenment can protect such mvestment The ev1dence presentad suggests that deforestat1on on colomsts parcels contmues at an apparent steady pace dnven by food product1on needs and by mcent1ves s1m1lar to those now pushmg format1on of largar ranches To sorne extent the charactenzat10n data suggest the need for on farm research to develop alternat1ves to slash and burn agnculture Such research already underway or planned needs to examme the poss1b1hty of makmg nce product1on more sustamable (and thereby hopefully reducmg demand for newly cleared forestl 1mprovmg (1 e mtens1fymg to the degree appropnatel pasture and cattle management 1ntroducmg or encouragmg more perenmal croppmg and agroforestry and 1mprovmg fallows At the same t1me and equally or more 1mportantly th1s analys1s recogmzes the 1mportance to deforestat1on of nat1onal pohc1es regardmg road construct10n cred1t tax mcent1ves front1er settlement land tenure and the rural poor Development of alternat1ves w11l need to mclude susbstant1al attent1on to pohc1es and future pohcy opt10ns CHAPTER 11Edgar Amézqwta (TLJ Wlfllam Be// (LM SRGJ Peter Jones (LM SRGJ Jose 1 Sanz(TL Pro¡ect Off1cer) Joyotee Sm1th (TLJ Raul Vera (TLJ Phanor Hoyos (TLJ D1ego L Molma (TLJThe purpose of th1s pro]ect 1s to generate technolog1es that allow lastmg mcreases 1n the eff1c1ency of resource use and that control s01l and water degradat10nThe Colomb1an Llanos have trad1t1onally been ded1cated to extens1ve cattle ranchmg but th1s 1s changmg through the mtroduct1on of annual crops and new cattle based systems Remote sensmg and ground truthmg stud1es md1cate mcreasmg s1gns of env1ronmental degradat10n such as eros1on and loss of nat1ve spec1es as a result of the more mtense use of nat1ve vegetat1on by cattle as well as other non su1table forms of land preparat1on and managementTh1s pro]ect a1ms to reconc1le more mtens1ve agncultural product1on w1th conservat1on and enhancement of the natural resources for the d1verse cond1t10ns found throughout the Colomb1an LlanosThe proJect mcludes amongst other aspects long term tnals a1mmg to contrast ex1stmg and new technolog1es generated by the Tropical Lowlands Program (TLPl for the South Amencan savannasThe followmg stud1es are bemg carned out and 1llustrate the proJect s strategy Trad1t1onally nat1ve vegetat1on for grazmg m the savannas 1s burnt morder to have fresh and tender new regrowth to feed cattle W1th the poss1b1hty of growmg crops 1t 1s also necessary to d1spose of e1ther nat1ve vegetat1on and/or crops/weeds res1dues Burmng 1s a cheap way for domg 1t and our work has shown pos1t1ve effects of burmng res1dues on crop y1elds Unfortunately burmng 1s not ecolog1cally sound and for obv1ous reasons the Program has started research smce early 1994 1n order to look for econom1cally feas1ble and env1ronmentally fnendly pract1ces to d1spose of such res1dues w1thout burmng or at least to reduce the frequency of 1ts useIn the last few years several 1mproved pastura spec1es grasses and legumes adaptad to ac1d so1ls have been successful m systems w1th nce e1ther for the1r establishment or the1r recuperat1on New crops have been makmg the1r way mto the ac1d savannas One of the successful crops has been ac1d s01l tolerant ma1ze developed by CIMMYT and CORPOICA Before the ralease of the f1rst vanety for savannas and through collaborat10n between CIMMYT and the TLP 1t was dec1ded to evaluate from early 1994 ma1ze pasturas systems also to have another alternat1ve to the not so much des1rable monocropThe mew ma1ze vanety cv S1kuam 1 1s adaptad to so1ls w1th up to 60% Al saturat1on Th1s means hmmg the ongmal s01l w1th 1 1 5 t/ha to lower Al saturat10n whereas fert1hzat1on reqUirements are s1m1lar to those of ramfed nce Th1s amount of hme represents a majar quahtat1ve change m croppmg systems and for the Llanos at least 1t IS representativa of relat1vely h1gh mput systems m wh1ch the so1l 1s part1ally mod1f1ed to su1t a more demandmg crop lt 1s further hypothes1zed that the residual value of hme and fert1hzers allow the 1ntroduct10n of relat1vely more demand1ng forage germplasm such as Pamcum maxtmum cv Vencedor selected m Braz1l for the better endowed Cerrado sollsIn arder to cope w1th s1te spec1f1C1ty and lookmg for both extrapolat10n of results from tnals and collectlon of data m representat1ve areas the followmg cross sect1onal stud1es are bemg carned outFarms located 1n contrastmg land systems m the Colomb1an Llanos d1ffer slgmf1cantly m the use of resources Sorne of these d1fferences are assoc1ated w1th vanat1on m landscape relat1ve d1stance from markets and resource endowment lt has been hypothes1zed that at least sorne of the d1fferences 1n land use between farms m1m1c changas that w1ll take place over t1me so that a cross sect1onal study can represent also the1r temporal evolut1on lf th1s were 1ndeed the case relat1vely short term stud1es would be an adm1ttedly 1mperfect proxy for much longer term long1tudmal stud1es A set of seven contrastmg farms m terms of s1ze locat1on and product1on systems are bemg momtored m the two mam land systems of the Colomb1an Llanos #201 w1th 424 000 The Augustme Codazz1 1 100 000 scale map of s01ls for the area has been d1g1t1zed A user mterface has been developed for th1s GIS coverage lt mcludes data on s01l charactenst1cs dramage topography etc m 11 d1fferent data coverages The 1 25 000 topograph1c maps are 1n the process of bemg d1g1t1zed The topography has been completad D1g1t1zmg of the dramage lmes 1s at present m process the1r d1rect10n and the start and endpomts of each of the dramage ares bemg noted Th1s w1ll be used 1n con]unct10n w1th a Laplac1an spline algonthm to calculate the d1g1tal elevat1on model for the whole of the study area The model 1s needed to accurately calculate slopes and runoff for applymg catchment management and eros1on control models D1g1t1zmg topography at th1s scale 1s very labor mtens1ve In fact th1s proJect has taken up over 3 man years of work to date Satelhte 1mages for vanous prev1ous years have been obtamed and at present the 1989 Landsat TM 1mage IS bemg analyzed The analys1s bemg conducted 1s kpown as an unsuperv1sed class1f1cat1on Smce ground truth for 1989 1s unava1lable the class1flcat10n algonthms of the satelhte 1mage analys1s software are allowed to produce the best poss1ble resolut1on of class1f1cat1on of the 1mage w1thout the type of ground cover 1t 1s denotmg m 1ts class1f1cat1on actually bemg known Th1s 1s now bemg usad to produce a strat1f1ed samphng wh1ch w1ll allow f1eld work and samphng of actual ground truth (1 e recordmg the actual land use on the ground 1n 1nd1v1dual f1elds regeoreferenced to the satelhte 1magel Th1s w1ll be at the end of January 1995 A Landsat TM 1mage has been comm1sS1oned wh1ch w1ll then be d1rectly relatad to the ground truth of the area Th1s w1ll allow construct1on of a superv1sed class1f1cat1on m wh1ch the actual land use 1s known W1th the superv1sed class1f1cat1on and the topograph1cal 1mages from the d1g1tal elevat10n model that class1f1cat1on can then be transposed back m t1me to the prev1ous 1mages and trends m land use obtamed Senes of a1r photographs datmg from the 1940s at roughly 5 year mtervals are also avallable Havmg obtamed the superv1sed land use class1f1cat1on from the most recent satelhte 1mage certam study areas wlll be selected for mterpretat1on from the a1r photographs and a senes of land use change 1mages runmng back over the last 40 years w!ll be constructed These w1ll be used as base data for producmg models of land use change 1n the area Other sources of data that w1ll be gradually mcorporated mto the respective database refer to descnpt1ons of typ1cal so1l prof1les results of prev1ous farm surveys conducted by CIA T vegetat1on surveys and others Th1s dynam1c database w1ll serve among other purposes to better dehm1t domams of extrapolat1on for technolog1cal components and prototype croppmg and farmmg systems Used together w1th GIS based s1mulat1on models of land use 1t w1ll allow eventually the spat1al and temporal s1mulat1on of alternat1ve land uses and to evaluate the1r 1mpact on the reg1on For an analys1s of land use dynam1cs m the Llanos see report for ProJect T A 02 See also Subprojects T 01 2 Adopt1on of ley farmmg systems m the Colomb1an Llanos and T 03 1/2 Vegetat1on and ecology of the serranfa nat1ve pasturas of the Eastern Plams of Colomb1a Llanos and Nat1ve pasture management For the purpose of th1s report and m arder to 1llustrate the strategy two on gomg long term contrastmg tnals started m 1989 wlll be d1scussed here These two tnals represent contrastmg systems for wh1ch CIA T m collaborat1on w1th other 1nternat1onal and nat1onal mst1tut1ons has been developmg both the germplasm (crop and pasturesl and the technology for the1r management One of them contmuous upland nce monocroppmg was estabhshed s1nce early 1989 w1th the purpose of followmg closely what could be the most obv1ous type of adopt1on of the then prom1smg germplasm now released The fear then was that of further degradat10n of the already very ac1d mfert1le and eros10n/compact1on prone Ox1sols 1f ut1hzed under contmuous monocroppmgThe 1mt1al hypothes1s was that y1eld would declme ovar t1me and the so1l resource would degrade after a few years of contmuous croppmgThe tnal has been closely momtored and attempts were made to opt1m1ze so!l chem1cal phys1cal and mlcrobiologlcal changas as well as weed mc1dence w1th the a1m of mamtam1ng y1elds w1thout decline 1 e trymg to make 1t sustamable 1f at all poss1bleIn contrast an expenment m wh1ch nce and grass legume pasturas are sown together at the same t1me and shanng the same f1eld was also established early 1989 Th1s was one of CIAT s technolog1cal alternativas to the potent1al nsk of monocroppmg and also an alternat1ve to trad1t1onal ranchmgThe hypothes1s was that 1t would be poss1ble to produce nce econom1cally while establishmg 1mproved pasturas wh1ch m turn would benef1t from the res1dual fert11ity left by the nce crop W1th th1s monocroppmg would be av01ded and v1gorous pasturas would cover the soil for a few years unt1l a pastura recuperat1on was needed through another nce crop Ammal product1v1ty was expected to be enhanced as well as preservat1on of the resource base 8oth tnals above have been followed w1th penod1cal nutnent balance sheets These mclude the nutnent part1t1omng to the d1fferent parts of the system 1 e m the so1l (befare and after each croppmg season) added fertilizar nutnents uptake by plants (crops grasses legumes weedsl as well as percentage taken out w1th produce (eg nce gram) nutnents f1xed m roots or lost/not found AdditiOnally soil phys1cal measurements m the second tnal above are also bemg useful to momtor compact10n of grazed vs non grazed pasturas These pasturas also y1eld valuable mformat1on on rates of forage b1omass product1onRecords on the use of machmery are ava1lable Th1s will allow us to draw balances on the use of foss1l energyIn the contmuous nce monocrop expenment there was a contmuous linear y1eld decline for Oryz1ca Sabana 6 at a rate of nearly 400 kg/ha/yr (r 2 =O 96) over the penad 1989 to 1992 Desp1te fert1hzer mputs bemg ad¡usted yearly based on so1l tests to mamtam appropnate nutrrent levels and balances y1elds declinad from 3 8 to 2 6 t/ha In 1993 w1th 1mproved agronom1c pract1ces y1elds p1cked up by about 700 kg/ha Smce weeds mc1dence was one of the most clear obstacles to have a stable product1on the use of herb1c1des was mcluded m 1994 Unfortunately the1r eff1c1ency m the savanna Ox1sols 1s not nearly as good as 1t 1s m other nce growmg areas mcludmg the P1edmont of the Llanos Th1s w11l probably requ1re s1te and crop spec1f1c research on weed management wh1ch should be carned out by local NARS and others See SubproJect T 01 1 Weed populat1on ecology w1thm prototype sustamable croppmg systems for the Colomb1an Llanos Added to th1s and from the so1l phys1cs pomt of v1ew severa! measurements have been carned along w1th the tnal to document changas mduced w1th the pract1ce of contmuous nce croppmg Plant roots elongate and enlarge m d1ameter 1f the pressure ms1de new cells 1s suff1c1ent to overcome externa! res1stance causad by surroundmg so1l matnx Sorne researchers have demonstrated that the max1mum Jong1tudmal root growth pressures of severa! crops range from 9 to 15 bars (1 bar\"' 1 kg/cm 2 ) and that roots (Raphamts sattvus L l cease to enlarge (dlameter) when sub1ected to rad1al constramts of about 8 5 bar Roosell and Goss (1974) showed that O 2 bar pressure apphed to a 9lass bead system reduced the elongat1on of barley root by 50% and that O 5 bar reduced the rate by 80% lf a s01l 1s eas1ly deformable roots penetrate 1t and grow unt1l sorne factor d1fferent from mechamcal1mpedance stops elongat1on rate In most cases roots grow partly through ex1stmg pore spaces and partly by mov1ng as1de so1l part1clesMost of the penetrab1hty values found m Matazul (Figure 1) are h1gher than those generally reportad as hm1tmg values (9 15 bar) speCially at depths larger than 7 5 cm no matter the t1llage (disk harrow mould board ploughmg) treatments lt IS therefore hkely that mechamcal 1mpedance 1s negat1vely 1nfluencmg nce y1eldsF1gure 1 also shows that the savanna average res1stance values are closer together or have a lower range than those obtamed by t1llage treatments They vary from 12 bar (2 5 cm depth) to 22 bar (32 5 cm depth) approx1mately whlle m the d1sk harrowmg treatment they vary from 7 (2 5 cm) to 24 bar (32 5 cm) and m mould board ploughmg treatment from 8 (2 5 cm) to 25 bar (32 5 cm) These results suggest that the control (savanna treatment) exh1b1ts better pore contmUity Another aspect shown m F1gure 1 1s that all treatments mcludmg the control present s1m1lar values at 22 5 cm depth showmg that there 1s presumably a compactad layer or a change from so1l to subso11 wh1ch could affect so1l processes and be determmant to y1elds lt 1s clear from F1gure 1 that t1llage loases the so1l from O to 22 5 cm depth but compacts 1t from 22 5 downwards and that mould board ploughmg mcreases compact1on m depth The stat1st1cal analys1s of the data (Table 1) shows that there are s1gn1f1cant (P< O 05) d1fferences m the values of penetrab1hty when treatments are comparad at 2 5 7 5 cm depth Nat1ve savanna presents the h1ghest values wh1ch means that 1s more compactad In the 7 5 1 5 O cm and 15 O 22 5 cm depth the analys1s shows more Similar values and less d1fference between treatments but st1ll savanna has S1gn1f1cantly h1gher values at 7 5 15 O cm At 22 5 32 5 cm depth mould board ploughmg treatment shows S1gn1f1cantly h1gher values than savanna hence causmg deep soll compact1on  The result of the above descnbed phenomena was drast1cally reduced y1elds m the 1 994season gomg m all treatments Wlthout stat1st1cal d1fferences between 1 6 and 1 9 t/ha the lowest ever 1n the s1x years of the tnal (the lowest was 2 6 t/ha 1n 1992) lt 1s obv10us that weeds can be managed but a contmUing process of so1l phys1cal degradat10n 1s somethmg that poses the quest1on on how sustamable upland nce monocroppmg can be Nevertheless deep ch1sel could break compactad layers below 20 cm and mcrease poros1ty agam A quest1on for the futura IS 1f the yearly use of t1llage breakmg the so1l part1cles cementad by sesqu1ox•des m Ox1sols w1ll push the so1l capac1ty to reaggregate therefore makmg the so1l eventually less structured or permanently packed Promotmg so1l m1crob1al act1v1ty and mcreasmg so1l orgamc matter (SOM) e g v1a green manures cover crops etc could help to balance the effect of t1llage and contmuous nce croppmg but the present tnal1s not des1gned to address these 1ssues (see nevertheless ProJect T 02 eultlcore) M1crob1al b1omass N was cons1derably lower for the nce monocrop wh1le m1crob1al b10mass e d1d not vary very much when comparad to nce pasturas or nat1ve savanna (see ProJects T 02 Te 02) eonsequently the m1crob1al etN ratio was more than 1 5 t1mes as w1de under contmuous nce as under any other treatment and the contnbut1on of m1crob1al N to total orgamc N content was also low Res1dual N fert1hzer d1d not compensate for the h1gh etN rat1o and probably the m1crob1al populat1on actually competed w1th the crop for N M1crob1al b1omass P was also lower for nce than 1t was for nce pasturas and m1crob1al e¡p rat1os were at very h1gh values suggestmg also a poss1ble m1crob1al compet1t1on w1th the crop for P fert1hzer R1ce alone also showed a lower so1l e mmerahzat1on rate than nce pasturas md1catmg lower act1v1ty or lower energy use eff1c1ency of the m1crob1al populat1on m contmuous nce Th1s 1s probably due to a lower orgamc matter mput smce a large part of the nce plant 1s removed from the f1eld ProJects T 02 and re 02 also md1cate that the nutnent cychng pathway m contmuous nce can supply much less nutnents (espec1ally N) than 1n nce pasturas Th1s suggests less and poorer young orgamc matter m nce monocrop In summary contmuous nce y1elds are decreasmg probably due to the follow1ng factors loss of soll phys1cal propert1es and decreased m1crob1al act1v1ty further compounded by other secondary reasons such as weed mc1dence Sustamab1hty of monocroppmg 1n a class1cal way m savanna Ox1sols appears qu1te comprom1sed after 1ts 6th year but there 1s a need to contmue research on the processes underlymg degradat1on m monocropped so1ls b)R1ce pastura systemsIn the same s1te a long term large (9 ha) nce (Lme 3) grass/legume pasturas expenment was successfully estabhshed as a prototype agropastoral system R1ce y1elds m 1989 for e1ther nce alone or nce pastura assoc1at1ons were on average 2 t/ha w1thout stat1st1cal d1fferences and w1th excellent pasturas establishment Ever smce the pasturas were grazed w1th h1gh ammal we1ght gams m the f1rst two years e g 755 g/ammal!day on average at the begmmng of the dry season 1990 1991 anda dechne to lower levels m the ramy season of 1992 e g 540 g/an1mal/day more charactenst1c of trad1t1onally estabhshed but very well managed pasturas on med1um textured Ox1solsBy October 1992 the legumes had almost d1sappeared (2 5 to 3 1% of the total DM/ha) and m 1993 1t was dec1ded to spht m half the 1 ha plots and keep 9razmg one half as long term control whlle recuperatmg the other half by plantmg nce and legumes and lettmg the grass to regrow from soll seed reserves R1ce y1alds were batween 2 5 and almost 4 t/ha (Table 2) and reestabhshed grass lagume pasturas ware obtamed Grazmg 1s agam takmg place m these plots Tabla 2Y1eld of an expanmental hna and a relaased vanety of upland nce (kg/ha) m rotat1on w1th d1fferent types of pasturas and undersown w1th 8r8chJ8TI8 dJctyoneur8 (Bd) In these newly recuperated pasturas fert1hzer was added only to nce m 1989 and 1n 1993 for the recuperated part whereas m the nce monocrop there have been yearly add1t10ns Nutnent mput/output sheets are bemg computad m th1s and 1n the prev1ous expenment By the end of 1992 befare reclamat1on 1n the nce pasturas plots soll nutnent levels were almost down to those of the ongmal nat1va savanna w1thout any furthar deplat1on or 1mbalance Grazmg was contmued m 1993 1994 m the non recuperated pasturas and started m tha recuperated treatments Tabla 3 shows the results for the current year In the recuperated pasturas ammal we1ght gams have m general been supenor to those m the non recuperated pasturas desp1te sorne problems m the reestabhshment of the 8r8chJ8fJ8 d1ctyoneur8 Th1s grass had sorne regrowth due to abnormal rams durmg the dry season after land preparat1on for nce therefore there was need for a sacond pass of machmery to suppress 1ts growth befare estabhshmg the nce and th1s deplemshed so11 seed reserves leadmg to a lower than expected populat1on later on Thus 8 dJctyoneur8 has proved to be less res1hent than ant1c1pated based on prev1ous expenence w1th 8 humJdJco/8 Th1s 1s an area that stlll reqUires apphed research by NARs and probably deserves sorne fundamental research on seed and plant populat1on dynamiCS Table 3 Ammal we1ght gams m 8rachl8fl8 d1ctyoneura pasturas renovated Wlth nce and w1th and w1thout legumes and comparad to non renovated pasturas m Matazul llanos of Colombia 1993 1994IAu/hal (g/an1mal/day) D1fferent letters m the same hne d1ffer s1gmf1cantly (P<O 05) 3/ D1fferent letters 1n the same column d1ffer s1gmf1cantly IP<O 05)As Wlth the nce monocrop tnal so1l phys1cal propert1es have also been momtoredThe penetrablhty values of the so1l tllled for pasturas renovat1on w1th nce are S1gmf1cantly lower (P<O 05) than those of nat1ve savanna and non renovated pasturas m the range 3 5 17 5 cm depth Deeper m the prof1le the renovated pasturas are s1gmf1cantly more compactad than nat1ve savanna but less compactad all the way down m the prof1le to almost 52 5 cm than non renovated pasturas (Table 4) Th1s md1cates that grazmg produces compact10n deep m the s01l but t1llage for renovat1on partly reversas 1t at least m the more superf1c1al s01llayers (Figure 2)  Other measurements d1fferent to penetrab1hty such as mflltrat1on rates and bulk dens1ty not reportad here conf1rm our determmat1ons and mterpretat1on of the data Trends m so1l orgamc matter and m1crob1al b1omass m th1s tnal contrast those reportad for the monocrop prototype (see ProJects T 02 ANO TC 02) M1crob1al b1omass C values for nce pasturas are s1m1lar to those m nce monocrop or m nat1ve savanna whereas m1crob1al b10mass N was cons1derably h1gher (1 5 t1mes) 1n nce pasturas than 1n nce monocrop For m1crob1al b1omass P nce pasturas e1ther renovated or non renovated Wlth nce 1n 1993 presentad h1gher values ( 11 5 13 6 pg P/g) than e1ther nce monocrop or nat1ve savanna (9 6 pg P/g) and therefore m1crob1al C/P rat1os are lower m nce pasturas The 1mphcat1on 1s that there 1s more orgamc matter of better quahty turmng over m nce pastura systems than there 1s m e1ther nce monocroppmg or nat1ve savanna After s1x years of mon1tonng 1t 1s poss1ble to state that the nce pasturas prototype 1s a non dechmng system and from the m1crob1olog1cal pomt of v1ew 1t 1s contnbutmg to enhance the so1l env1ronment w1th all 1ts consequences on plant growth In summary nce pastures/cattle may affect s01l phys1cal propert1es but m a more reversible way than nce monocroppmg Added to th1s pasturas contnbute to m1crob1al N and P m1crob1al act1v1ty and orgamc matter quahty and quantlty bemg enhanced W1th t1me they may not only enhance the m1crob1olog1cal and chem1cal propert1es of the so1l but also the phys1cal propert1es (e g s01l poros1ty through deep rootmg pasturas ) SUBPROJECT TL-01 1 WEED POPULATION ECOLOGY w1th1n Prototype Sustamable Cropp1ng Systems for the Colombian Llanos Pnnc1pal researchers Albert Flscher (Rice) José 1 Sanz (TL) Collaborator Denms Fnesen (TllAs ment1oned above weeds have been recogmzed as an mcreasmgly relevant problem m ex1stmg as well as m CIAT s prototype croppmg systems on ac1d so1l savannas When land m the savannas 1s brought mto cult1vat1on weed populat10ns 1ncrease (Fnesen 1994) Ayarza ( 1994) reports that most product1on systems m the Cerrado had sustamab1hty problems mamly due to weed mfestat10nsLevels of weed mfestat1on are vanable m agncultural systems suggestmg that certam vanables could be ad]usted to favour the crop m detnment to the weed thus mm1m1zmg herb1c1de mput Also weeds appear to be relatad to sustamab1hty dechne and perhaps sorne of them could be useful md1cators of resource base degradat1on w1thm a system Therefore weed ecology as 1t relates to patterns of resource ava1lab1hty croppmg systems and t1llage should prov1de useful clues for enhancmg or preservmg the resource base and the sustamab1hty of a systemThe ob)ect1ves of th1s study are f1rst to study the populat1on dynam1cs of spec1es (nat1ve or mtroduced) assoc1ated w1th crops and pastures w1thm prototype croppmg systems m the Colomb1an Llanos as 1t relates to crop management and patterns of resource base ava1lab1hty Further clues about the des~red ecolog1cal role of mtroduced vegetat1on w1ll be sought and an attempt w1!1 be made to 1dent1fy sustamab1hty md1cator spee~es A second objectlve 1s to estabhsh the econom1c relevance of weeds and the need for externa! weed management mputs by assessmg crop losses and the ab1hty of prototype croppmg systems to suppress unwanted vegetat1onThe study was 1mt1ated m 1994 at the Matazul farm m the Colomb1an Llanos on f1eld expenments bemg conducted there by Ors J 1 San and O Fnesen The prehmmary data d1scussed here were obta1ned at three expenments w1th the follow1ng ma1or featuresThe f1rst expenment followed f1ye consecut1ye years of sole nce three levels of P K Zn and dolom1t1c hme were combmed w1th two croppmg alternativas (nce monoculture and nce mtersown w1th Stylosanthes cap1tata) Herb1c1des were used m nce and to estabhsh the legume The second expenment followed nce after soybean the land was plantad to nce m 1990 and then left as fallow unt1l 1993 when nce was sown followed by soybean 1n the second semester In 1994 nce was sown alone or m assoc1at1on Wlth forage spec1es In the th1rd expenment the land was prev1ously under nat1ve savanna R1ce was sown m 1994 and treatments sought d1fferent ways of mcorooratmg sayanna res1dues Smce th1s 1s a long term study work wlll contmue for three more years on these expenments The m1mmum samphng area determmed accordmg to Bonham ( 1989) and Walter ( 1983) was w1thm 1 O quadrates of O 5m 2 per plot In each expenment three subplots were defmed w1thm each plot 1) weedy check 2) weed free check and 3) standard weed control treatment where weed dens1ty (No /m 2 ) and kQY.!:[ (v1sual assessment) as well as nce y1eld were recordad For the long term study permanent pomts set m each plot where also weed dens1ty and cover are bemg momtored A z1g zaggmg transect placed along the above pomts allows for add1t10nal cover est1mates Evaluat1ons are made at about 45 days after nce emergence and at harvest1me Other data col!ected mclude Sml nutnents sml mo1sture and spec1es b10mass R1ce y1elds were analyzed by ANOVA and data on spec1es Relat1ve Abundance (a synthet1c 1mportance value defmed as the average of the relat1ve dens1ty and the relat1ve frequency of a g1ven spec1es) were sub)ected to canomcal d1scnmmant analys1s (COA) followmg to Oerksen et al ( 1993 and 1994) COA allows to estabhsh the mam factors affectmg the relat1ve spec1es compos1t1on of weed commumt1es (Derksen et al 1993) G1ven a certam class1f1cat1on vanable COA denves linear combmat1ons (canomcal vanables) wh1ch quant1fy the vanab1hty among the levels of the class1f1cat1on vanable The coeff1c1ents of the canomcal vanable md1cate the relat1ve contnbut1on of each spec1es towards the canomcal vanable (Johnson and W1chern 1 992 SAS lnst lnc 1989) The analys1s was performed usmg SAS vers1on 6 09 CThe spec1es found are hsted m Jable 5 R1ce monoculture developed weed populat1ons that severely reduced 1ts y1elds (Figure 3 ) even when herb1c1des were used (Jable 6) In relatmg weed dens1ty to y1eld loss weed cover (as 1t relates to compet1t1on for hght) was a much better express10n of weed pressure than the actual number of weeds per umt area (F1gure 3) Although to a lesser extent weeds also reduced nce y1elds m areas followmg rotat1ons w1th other crops or nat1ve savanna (Jable 6 ) Add1t1ons of P K and dolom1t1c hme to a weedy crop resultad m even h1gher losses from weed compet1t1on (Tabla 7)   Smce COA cannot 1dent1fy mteract1ons two groupmgs were formed w1th d1fferent combmat1ons of the d1fferent expenmental effects stud1ed (P K L1me nce monoculture and nce pasturel w1th data from the f1rst expenment (nce after 5 years of monocroppmgl The fust groupmg appears on Table 8 and the second on F1gure 4 In the f1rst groupmg the actual spec1es compos1t1on of the groups were d1fferent when the squared Mahalanob1s d1stances between the groupmg centro1ds (data not shownl were comparad (Table 8 1 Accordmg to the canomcal coeff1c1ents Axonopus purpusu was the spec1es mostly assoc1ated w1th lower fert1hty wh1le Centrosema pubescens was mostly assoc1ated w1th the h1gh fert1hty group (Table 81 In the case of the second groupmg groups 1 and 3 representad d1fferent weed commumt1es (p<O 051 as 1t happened when groups 2 vs 3 and groups 2 vs 4 were comparad (data not shownl The canomcal funct1ons 1 and 2 explamed 68 and 30% of the vanab1hty among treatments 1n the second group1ng respect1vely (F1gure 4 1 By the t1me data were recordad the newly mtersown pastura had not affected the compos1t1on of weed commumt1es as 1nd1cated by the lack of d1fferences (p >O 051 between groups 1 and 2 and between groups 3 and 4 (data not shownl and by the short projeCtiOn of the vectors of most spec1es (Figure 4 1 Regardmg the fert1hty levels C pubescens and Paspalum mult1caule were 1nd1cators of h1gher fert1hty as shown by the1r vectors wh1le A purpusu and D1g1tana sangumafls (a known ruderall relatad to lower fert1hty (Figure 4 1The relevance of weeds 1n rendenng nce monocroppmg unsustamable 1s clear from the far greater y1eld response to weedmg than to mcreased fert1hty (Tabla 6 1 Sorne of these weeds could have been mtroduced w1th agnculture mto the Llanos By fert1hzmg a weedy nce crop y1elds were reduced by the compet1t10n from weed commumt1es that had sh1fted towards spec1es who stnve 1n such 1mproved cond1t1ons as shown by the COA analys1s lt had already been observad 1n Similar env1ronments that weeds could take up more Ca and K than nce (San 19941W1th the current weed pressure externa! weed controlmputs for nce monocroppmg w1ll be needed Also to deal w1th the present flora combmat10ns of herb1c1des for a broader spectrum of control may be reqwred Th1s w1ll have an 1mpact on the farm1ng economy the env1ronment and on people s health COA can help 1dent1fy the ecolog1cal role of spec1es w1th1n plant commumt1es lf the mam ecolog1cal roles of relevant weeds and pasturas are understood a pastura spec1es could be chosen such that 1t would successfully se1ze the mches opened by the new agncultural mputs and substituta for sorne of the weeds A legume appeared strongly assoc1ated to h1gher levels of P and hme (F1gure 4) th1s would also su1t other forage legumes as well Therefore the COA techmque appears prom1smg as a tool for plant populat1on analys1s and to 1dent1fy spec1es assoc1ated w1th certam patterns of resource ava1lab1hty Further stud1es w1ll relate relat1ve spec1es abundance to other s01l and agronom1c parameters Pest bUIId up 1s also a charactenst1c of these systems Sem1 mtens1ve cattle ranches are also found m these areas where about 54% of the pastura area cons1sts of plantad pastura w1th stockmg rates of about 1 24 heads per hectare of plantad pastura The rest of the savanna 1s mamly charactenzed by extens1ve ranches cons1stmg mamly of nat1ve savanna grasses and w1th low stockmg rates often less than O 2 heads per ha Pastura degradat1on m both these systems 1s common w1th bald patches leadmg to eros1on and weed mfestat1onThe crop pastura technology was developed m response to these problems An annual crop and a grass legume pastura IS sown The annual crop 1s fert11ized The pastura benef1ts from the res1dual fert11ity leadmg to qUicker establishment and better pastura quality Th1s makes 1t poss1ble to graze the pasture 1mmed1ately after the nce harvest After bemg grazed for about three years the pasture 1s renovated by plantmg the fert11ized annual crop and the legume aga1nThe concept of the crop pastura technology was based on a v1s1on of mtens1f1ed and sustamable agncultural development throughout the savanna Savanna mtens1f1cat10n was expected to mcrease the returns to capital mvestment m the savanna and d1vert venture capital from the Amazon ram forest lntens1f1cat1on was also expected to reduce expans10n of the agncultural front1er m the savanna and thus conserve plant and ammal spec1es W1thm th1s v1s1on the ob¡ect1ve of the crop pastura technology was to prov1de a susta1nable alternat1ve to contmuous monocroppmg m mtens1f1ed areas mduce mtens1f1cat1on m extens1ve areas Wlthout the resource degradat1on that charactenzes contmuous monocroppmg and to contnbute to resource preservat1on by renovatmg degradad pasturas and mamtammg pastura quality The ley farmmg system was expected to ach1eve th1s by elimmatmg t1llage dunng the pastura phase of the rotat1on and by mamtammg pastura quality through the res1dual effect of the fert11izer applied to the annual crop The avallab11ity of ac1d tolerant nce and ma1ze meant that remed1al lime could be substant1ally reduced Grass legume pasturas were cons1dered to be more sustamable than pure grass pasturas as farmers were cons1dered to be unw1lling to fert11ize pasturas m v1ew of the long lead t1me mvolved 1n obtammg a return In add1t1on to f1xmg mtrogen legumes also st1mulate so1l b1olog1cal act1v1ty 1mprove nutnent cycling and the nutnt1ve value of forage and the system s carbon sequestrat1on ab11ity The system has also been shown to 1mprove s01l phys1cal and chem1cal propert1es m companson w1th annual crops and nat1ve savanna grasses At the same t1me cash flow versus pasture only systems was expected to be better because an annual crop would be ava1lable for sale a few months after the cost of pasture establishment was mcurred and the pasture would be ready for grazmg 1mmed1ately after the crop harvest Pasture quallty was expected to be mamtamed because the mcent1ve to obtam cash revenue from the annual crop was expected to lead to a crop bemg sown every tour years or so thus prov1d1ng mamtenance fert1llzer for the pasture As charactenzat1on of the savanna and analys1s of land use dynam1cs proceeds sorne of the assumpt1ons on wh1ch th1s strategy 1s based are commg under scrutmy The study reportad here prov1des 1ns1ghts mto one of these assumpt1ons that technology can mduce mtens1f1cat1on 1n extens1ve areas lf th1s assumpt1on 1s correct technology development should be focused on mtens1ve technolog1es lf 1t 1s not correct a very d1fferent portfollo of technolog1es m ay be 1nd1cated wh1ch reconc1le farmer demand for technology w1th strateg1es for ecosystem management Econom1c analys1s of the crop pasture technology w1th nce as the annual crop was carned out 1n 1990 based on tnals under controlled expenmental cond1t1ons The results gave attract1ve mternal rates of return for beef product10n on med1um and large scale farms but not on small scale farms md1catmg the ex1stence of econom1es of scale R1ce y1elds of 2 to 2 5 t/ha were suff1c1ently h1gh to offset nce product1on costs and make a substant1al contnbut1on towards the cost of pastura establishment The nce pasture system also prov1ded net pos1t1ve mcome streams from the th1rd year as opposed to f1ve years for pasturas establlshed w1thout nce Wh1le the technology offers these advantages 1t 1s also considerad more cap1tal and management mtens1ve than e1ther the trad1t1onal system based on nat1ve savanna grasses or planted pasturas Sorne of the requ1rements of movmg from the trad1t1onal system to 1mproved pure grass pasturas 1nclude land preparat10n fencmg and the cost of grass seed Add1t10nal ammals too m ay be reqUired to obtam adequate returns from the 1mproved pasturas A ma¡or add1t1onal 1nvestment m management 1s also reqUired The trad1t1onal system 1s capable of bemg managed by absentee landlords who make occas1onal v1s1ts to the farm and leave the day to day runmng of the farm to a relat1vely untra1ned h1red hand The planted grass pasturas reqUire controlled grazmg and rotat10n of ammals to prevent over grazmg on the one hand and to prevent the grass growmg overly tall on the other Thus proper management by absentee landlords 1s hkely to mvolve the expense of h1nng a res1dent tra1ned admm1strator The move to grass legume pasturas 1s st1ll more management mtens1ve as 1t the correct balance between grasses and legumes have to be mamtamed Th1s reqUires more control over grazmg the establishment of more paddocks for rotat1on of ammals and therefore more fencmg Legume seeds are more expens1ve than grass seeds and more d1ff1cult to produce on farm lnvestment m expandmg the herd 1s also necessary to recuperate the extra cap1tal and management costs A sh1ft to the ley farmmg system reqUires a combme harvester seed dnll fert1llzer and msect1c1de for the annual crop Most 1mportantly though the crop component reqUires constant momtonng and therefore a change m attltude for those accustomed to pasturas wh1ch can often be left unmomtored for several weeks w1thout senous 1mphcat10ns lt appears therefore that nat1ve savanna grasses pure grass pasturas grass legume pasturas and ley farmmg systems he along a contmuum of mcreasmg 1nvestment m capital and management When land values are low mcreases m product10n can be obtamed more cheaply through area expans1on than by 1ntens1fymg mputs of capital and management per ex1stmg land area There 1s httle 1ncent1ve m max1m1zmg returns per land area because land 1s an abundant resource Farmers prefer technolog1es wh1ch reqUire m1mmum mvestment per land area Th1s explams the prevalence of extens1ve grazmg on nat1ve savanna grasses m areas of low land values Product1on 1s mcreased as the herd expands through natural mcrease over t1me As land 1s abundant the expanded herd 1s mamtamed by bnngmg more nat1ve savanna grasses under grazmg by burmng and by ut1hzmg more low lymg areas dunng the dry season As the herd expands beyond the hm1ts of these pract1ces over grazmg occurs Plantmg a small area of 1mproved pastura 1s an alternat1ve to over grazmg and 1s also a means of 1mprovmg ammal nutnt1on and therefore reproduct1ve rates Adopt1on of small areas of 1mproved pasturas may be mduced therefore through naturalmcreases 1n herd s1ze As land values mcrease 1t 1s only worthwh1le holdmg on to land 1f h1gh returns per land area can be obtamed Thus mvestment 1n capital and management becomes more attract1veWhen lncreasmg land values are mduced by 1mproved mfrastructure marketmg margms are reduced and output pnces mcrease relat1ve to 1nput pnces thus further mducmg mcreased levels of mput use Progress1on along the technology contmuum 1s therefore hkely to reqUire mcreased land values and 1mproved mfrastructure In the absence of these precond1t1ons technology 1s unhkely to be able to mduce mtens1f1cat1on Conversely mtens1f1cat1on 1s unhkely 1f the pre cond1t1ons ex1st but technology wh1ch makes prof1table mtens1f1cat1on poss1ble 1s absentThe study reportad here mvest1gates adopt1on of 1mproved pasturas 1n the mumc1paht1es of Puerto López and Puerto Ga1tán 1n the department of Meta 1n the savanna of Colombia wh1ch 1s part of the OnnoqUia reg1on (Figure 51 73 randomly selected farms were surveyed 1n 1989 and 1992 Farms smaller than 40 ha were excluded from the sample The Colomb1an savanna 1s charactenzed by h1ghly aC1d1c s01ls (pH of 3 8 51 w1th h1gh levels of alum1mum ( > 80%1 Annual ramfall 1s 1700 2500 mm w1th a dry season of 3 4 months Extens1ve grazmg 1s the ma1n form of land use w1th the greatest pert of the vegetat1on cons1stmg of nat1ve savanna grasses Woody areas are found w1thm the savanna and gallery forests are located along the nver beds wh1ch are also the areas where small holders tend to be located Nomad1c 1nd1genous populat1ons of hunters and gatherers are al so found Most are undergomg a process of sedentanzat1on and the1r numbers are dechmng fastThe department of Meta has grown faster than the rest of the country w1th GDP growth rates of 6 82% between 1970 and 1990 and 7 05% between 1980 and 1990 comparad 3 5% to 4% for the rest of the country Th1s 1s dueto the recent evolut1on of commerc1al agnculture and petroleum relatad mvestment Meta contnbutes 3% of nat1onal agncultural product and 2 7% of the mmeral output lt should be p01nted out however that the advanced agncultural area P1edmont 1s not part of the savanna ecosystem V1llav1cenc1o the mam urban center 1n Meta has expenenced rap1d growth 1n the recent past as a growmg d1stnbut10n center for consumar goods to 011 mstallat1ons 1n the east Populat1on dens1ty 1n Meta was 5 5 hab1tants per km sq 1n 1985 and 1s projected to mcrease to around 8 mhab1tants by 1 995 60% of the populat1on hves 1n urban areas Thus rural populat1on dens1ty 1s extremely low Transportat1on 1s a majar constramt In the reg1on of OnnoqUia only 1 6% of roads are paved The towns of Puerto López and Puerto Ga1tán 1n the study are a are located 94 and 207 km respect1vely from Vlllav1cenc1o The V1llav1cenc10 Puerto López road was paved m the early 1 980s but road connect1ons to farms away from the mam road or hamlets are frequently nonex1stent or only seasonally usable Recent majar 011 and natural gas d1scovenes m the eastern savanna are expected to lead to majar 1mprovements 1n mam roads but farm to market roads are hkely to remam poor 1n the short run Also s1gmf1cant 1mprovements to the road connectmg V1llav1cenc1o to the cap1tal Bogota sorne 90 km away are now bemg carned out The study area can therefore be charactenzed as a trad1t1onal extens1ve cattle ranchmg area w1th unfert1le s01ls very low rural populat1on dens1ty and 1n the process of movmg from poor to mtermed1ate mfrastructure The area can be cons1dered fa1rly representat1ve of the Lat1n Amencan savanna except that 1t can be cons1dered to be towards the unfavorable extreme 1n terms of so1l fert1hty and 1n terms of mfrastructure movmg from the typ1cal towards a more favorable d1rect1on The rate of change bemg expenenced 1n the area 1s faster than 1n other areas such as the Braz1han savanna where front1er expans1on IS slowmg down Survey data conf1rm that rap1d changes are takmg place 1n the study area Between 1979 and 1992 average farm s1ze dechned S1gmf1cantly from around 5000 hato 1551 ha Th1s 1s apparently the result of new farmers movmg mto the area 52% of sample farms were purchased after 1981 and of these around 22% were acqUJred after 1990 Th1s has changed the character of the farmmg populat1on 1n the area Pnor to th1s t1me the bulk of farmers had owned the1r land for many years Sorne generally those Wlth lower levels of educat1on and therefore w1th lower opportumty cost res1ded on farm w1th subs1stence as the1r mam motive Others were absentee owners who carne from trad1t10nal ranchmg famJ11es and had acqUired the1r land through 1nhentance Both categones regarded land as a cheap abundant resource because 1t had been acqUJred w1thout cap1tal expend1ture on the1r part The1r pnonty therefore was a system reqUJnng httle management or capital mvestment per umt area By contrast 1n 1992 31 % of farmers employed techmcally quallf1ed res1dent adm1mstrators 32% pa1d for techmcal ass1stance 53% had the1r own tractor (Table 9) Educat1onal levels were h1gh w1th 41% havmg umvers1ty educat1on Only 21% llved on the farm 64% llved 1n Bogota The number of land purchases made for non product1on related mot1ves are unknown However the data show that product1ve mvestments 1n land were occurnng Adopt1on of 1mproved pasturas 1n the study are a mcreased at an annual rate of 14% between the 1978 1992 penod In 1992 173 000 ha or 17% of the sample farm area was planted to 1mproved pasturas Only 18% of the 1mproved area cons1sted of grass legume pasturas and 1 5% was planted to the crop pastura technology 82% cons1sted of pure grass pasturas (Tabla 1 0) The 1mproved ac1d tolerant nce vanety was only released 1n 1991 Therefore the low leve! of adopt1on of ley farmmg 1s not surpnsmg The most w1dely grown grass 8 decumbens was never off1c1ally released 1n Colombia though 1t was released 1n a number of other Latm Amencan countnes startmg w1th Cuba 1n 1987 The next most popular grass B hum¡d¡cola was released 1n Colombia 1n 1992 and 1n other countnes startmg m 1985 In the case of both these grasses spontaneous adopt1on occurred w1th farmers obtammg matenals from other countnes and unoff1c1ally from expenment stat1ons m Colombia and plantmg 125 000 ha by 1992 By contrast although the most w1dely grown legume S cap1tata was released 1n Colombia 1n 1983 adopt1on 1n 1992 was llm1ted to 28 000 ha lt 1s also notable that although only 17% of total farm area was plantad to any type of 1mproved pasture over 98% of farmers were adopters Apparently farmers started w1th a small area of 1mproved pastura and expanded gradually as cap1tal became ava1lable More than 90% of farmers mcreased the1r 1mproved pastura area over t1me w1th 1mproved pasture mcreasmg relat1vely slowly (9 6% p a ) between 1978 and 1981 and demonstratmg a steeper mcrease ( 1 5 5% p a ) after that penod Survey data reveal major d1fferences between recommendat1ons and farmers pract1ces 31 % of plots were not fert1hzed at establishment 96% rece1ved no fert1llzer for mamtenance purposes and 75% were nevar renovated 76% of farmers who plantad 8 decumbens cla1med that 1ts product1v1ty had dechned comparad to the f1rst two years after establishment w1th 43% cla1mmg product1v1ty declines of 50% or more Casual observat1on 1nd1cates that overgrazmg of 1mproved pasture plots dunng the dry season may have contnbuted to pasture degradat1on 4--.\"\"' ' z  T1me senes regress1on analys1s over the 1978 1992 penod revealed that the construct1on of the paved road between V11lav1cenc1o and Puerto López had a stat1St1cally s1gmf1cant effect on the net accumulated area plantad to 1mproved pasturas as d1d mcreases m real terms m agncultural GDP and mcreases m the supply of meat (Table 11) The paved road would be expected to st1mulate the use of mput mtens1ve technolog1es by mcreasmg land values and reducmg mput/output pnce rat1os wh1le the other vanables represent generally favorable market cond1t1ons for agnculture Cross sect1onal regress1on analys1s showed that adopters were those who mvested m the1r farms tractor owners those who had farm admm1strators those who pa1d for techmcal ass1stance Other factors md1cated that adopt1on mcreased w1th land values The area w1th 1mproved pasturas was h1gher on farms w1th legalland tltles and close to Puerto López Also there was a negat1ve relat10nsh1p between 1mproved pastura area and forestad farm area Extens1ve forestad area md1cated land abundance wh1ch made the adopt1on of mtens1ve technolog1es unnecessary (Table 12) Contrary to w1dely held v1ews res1dence on farm was negat1vely relatad to adopt1on Th1s m ay be because those who res1ded 1n urban centers had better access to cap1tal and were therefore more hkely to adopt technolog1es wh1ch reqUired considerable cap1tal mvestment These more cap1tahzed farmers were able to adopt a management mtens1ve technology 1n sp1te of hvmg off farm by h1nng tramed res1dent adm1mstrators Unexpectedly years of educat1on were negat1vely relatad to adopt1on When asked about the1r reqUirements farmers sa1d they wanted nutnt1ous pers1stent pasturas adaptad to the1r s01ls and res1stant to pests Most 1mportantly farmers wanted pasturas that met these cond1t1ons under the1r level of management Pers1stence of legumes under farmer management was seen as a particular problem Farmers therefore appear to be unwllhng to change the1r level of 1nvestment and management 1n arder to take advantage of new technolog1es The results of th1s study are cons1stent w1th the theoret1cal pred1ct1on that the pre cond1t1ons of 1ncreas.ng land values and 1mprov.ng .nfrastructure have to be met befare technolog1es of .ncreas.ng cap1tal and management .ntens1ty are adoptad Grass legume pasturas and ley farm.ng systems appear to requ1re a h1gher level of .nvestment 1n capital and management than farmers 1n the study area are wllhng to .ncur at th1s t1me Even the recommendat1ons for pure grass pasturas appear to be too .ntens1ve at current land values and at current levels of mfrastructure In fact the ma.n dnv.ng force beh.nd adopt1on may have been natural .ncreases 1n herd s1ze There are .nd1cat1ons however that ma¡or 1mprovements 1n .ntrastructure are hkely 1n the study area and th1s 1s hkely to lead to the adopt10n of more .ntens1f1ed technolog1es ft woufd be very 1mportant therefore to make a deta1led study of farmers ob]ect1ves resources and pract1ces to gUide the mod1flcat1on of the technology to better meet farmers needs The pay off may be part1cularly h1gh m v1ew of the technology s apparent abi11ty to sequester carbon at a t1me when mternat1onal markets m carbon sequestrat1on serv1ces appear to be emergmg lt should be p01nted out however that th1s prognosis may be undermmed 1f guernlla act1v1ty and the drug trade contmues unchecked A larga part of the savanna m Latm Amanea IS hkely to remam w1th poorer mfrastructure than the study area m the med1um term Charactenzat1on of the heterogene1ty w1thm the savanna IS reqUired to more accurately target ex1stmg technolog1es and develop a prof1le for appropnate technolog1cal alternat1ves An adopt1on study m the most mtens1f1ed areas of the savanna such as the center south of the Braz1han savanna wh1ch on an ex ante bas1s appears to be the most appropnate target area for the technology IS clearly md1cated A land use plan for the savanna based on both b1o phys1cal and soc1oeconomlc cons1derat1ons IS needed to 1dent1fy whether agncultural development 1s des1rable m remete areas of the savanna or whether these areas should be set as1de for conservat1on purposesIn particular the 1mportance of preservmg nat1ve savanna for b1od1vers1ty purposes needs to be emphas1zedThe fact that the most prom1smg legume currently ava1lable A pmtot 1s a nat1ve spec1es from the Braz1han savanna 1s test1mony to the 1mportance of preservmg b10d1vers1ty A pmtot s pers1stence may also 1mply that nat1ve spec1es may be more robust under farmer management For those less 1ntens1f1ed areas where agncultural development 1s part of the strategy technolog1es wh1ch save labor cap1tal and management but use land m abundance may be more appropnateIn particular legumes wh1ch were developed w1th areas of poor mfrastructure m mmd where access to fert1hzer may be d1ff1cult appear to reqUire ma1or decreases m the1r capital and management reqUirements 1f they are to fulflll the role for wh1ch they were ongmally mtended lt may also be worthwh1le mvest1gatmg whether m areas of peor mfrastructure where stockmg ratas are hkely to be low sustamable product1on can be ach1eved through the development of technolog1es wh1ch combme the management of nat1ve grasses w1th pure grass plantad pasturas Th1s would bUIId on farmers current pract1ce thus mcreasmg the chances of acceptab1hty Survey results 1mply that natural mcreases m herd s1ze may be propelhng adopt1on of pure grass pasturas to some extent Adaptat1on of the technology to the reqUirements of these unmtens1f1ed farms 1s reqUired to prevent them from takmg the over grazmg route In th1s context 1t should be notad that the current technology for recuperat1on of degradad lands the crop pastura technology 1s too mtens1ve for these areas An alternativa technology wh1ch bullds on the farmers strategy of ut1hzmg low lymg areas and plantmg small areas of pure grass pasturas may be more adoptable A detallad understandmg of current pract1ces and the objectlves of the d1fferent categones of farmers m the savanna mcludmg small scale farmers 1s clearly md1cated lt should also be p01nted out that analys1s of the econom1cs of the new technolog1es and evaluat1on of the1r ecolog1cal 1mpact has been based so far on data from controlled expenments Vahdat1on of these results under farmers pract1ces 1s reqUired Also very httle attent1on so far has been g1ven to offs1te 1mpacts such as the effect of 1ncreasmg demand for fencmg matenals on the preservat1on of gallery forests L1ve fencmg usmg forage traes may be an opt1on worth mvest1gatmg Subpro¡act TL 03 1 vagatation and acology of tha sarrama nat1va pasturas of tha aastam plams of Colombia (Llanos) G R1ppstem (CIA T/CIRAD EMVTJ J K Broekhw¡sen (UWJ A G E Peters (UW) G Escobar (TL)The Eastern Pla10s savanna of Colombia (Llanos Onantalas) occup1es almost 17% of Colombia 1s surface area (Figure 6 Tables 13 and 141 Naarly 80% of thts area conststs of a grass vegetatton where extenstva cattle ra1s10g 1s betng pract1ced The rest of the area 1s covered by forest or 10 use for agnculture Around 40% of the Llanos of Colombta are covered by Serranfa ( Serranfa and Altlllanura ondulada 1 The people of the Llanos have gtven th1s name to the htlly savanna landscape whtch 1s s1tuated 1n the South of the Llanos Although 1ts surface area 1s very extenstve the Serranfa 1s not mtens1vely usad because of 1ts d1ff1cult accesstbthty and the very poor quahty of the maJonty of 1ts solls The Llanos Onentales 1s sparsely populated The most tmportant acttv1t1es wtthm the area are cattle ranch10g and subs1stence agnculture Through the development of an mfrastructure commerCJal agnculture w11l be more and more practtced 10 the Llanos Onentales Thts development 1s occumng espec1ally m the flat savannas Altlllanura plana whtch are more access1ble and have a h1gher soll fert1hty Cattle ranch10g well be torced to move to areas whtch are less su1table for agnculture such as the Serranfa ----------~~ -; _-:: --9==----~ u~~ \"\"\"\"' ......... ..,..,.,.%..,_),,~~~~~''\"\"\"' ~ Sarr11niB HíDs <-, ;;._,¿~~--~ ---::.:.~ =:r.:..=.,\" L1ttle 1s known about the Serranla nat1ve pasturas Therefore an extens1ve ~nventory research on the Serranla flora and ecology was begun 1n 1993 and 1994 w1th Dutch and French students Th1s research 1s done on farms wh1ch are s1tuated 1n d1fferent parts of the Serranla In th1s way an overall p1cture of the Serranla can be obta~nedThe rehef of the Serranla can be d1v1ded 1nto d1fferent topograph1c umts the top of the h1lls the slopes the dry lowlands the hum1d lowlands and the floodpla~ns Several ecolog1cal sc1ent1sts take the v1ew that d1fferences 1n the natural Serranla vegetat1on co1nc1de w1th these topograph1c d1fferences Th1s op1n10n 1s tested 1n these f1rst stud1esWe present here sorne results of the f1rst survey made 1n 1 993 by Dutch students (J K BroekhUI¡sen and A G E Petersl from the Wagemngen Agncultural Umvers1ty for the1r thesrs 1n grassland sc1ence (Prof Dr 1r L t Mannet¡e) An other survey was made 1n the same areas 1n 1994 by a French student (Céc1le Grolher from ISTOM (lnst1tut Supéneur Techmque d Outre Mer) However the analys1s of these data IS not yet completad 2 METHODS 2 1 Selectron of the plots F1ve farms and two reserves for 1nd1genous people were selected to carry out the research These farms and reserves are all s1tuated 1n the Serranra They were selected on the bas1s of representat1veness and access1b1hty Because of the expense of the Serranla the selected farms and reserves were s1tuated 1n d1fferent parts of the Llanos In th1s way an overall p1cture of the Serranla IS obta~nedW1th1n each farm and reserve area several plots were selected where vegetat1on and so1l samples were taken The plots were s1tuated at srtes wh1ch are cons1dered typ1cal for the Serranra the top of the hills ( los altos ) the slopes ( las pendrentes ) the dry lowlands ( los ba¡os secos ) the hum1d lowlands ( los ba¡os humados ) and the floodplarns 1 los ba¡os ~nundables ) D1fferences In vegetat1onal compos1t1on and/or so1l types among the topograph1c s1tes can be recogmzed 1n th1s manner The s1ze of the plots was 20 x 20 meters Th1s rs the m1mmum area reqUired for a representativa survey of a grassland vegetat1on IMatteucc1 1 982)To get a measurement of the specres frequency and abundance transects were made 1n every plot (28 3 meters and only 1 O meters when the vegetatron IS more homogeneous) A needle was placed at every 1 O cm The spec1es or bare ground touched by the needle were recordad for aenal cover and relatsve aenal cover The (relatsve) aenal cover ss the vert1cal pro¡ectatron of the above ground plant parts and can exceed 100% dueto overlapp1ng of dsfferent specses 2 2 2 Braun Blanquet method Braun Blanquet have developed a hserarchscal classsflcatson system to determine dsfferences 1n vegetatson types or fytocoeneose A vegetatson type or fytocoeneose ss def~ned as a relatwe homogeneous vegetat1on the mternal flonst1c d1fferences are smaller than the d1fferences w1th the surroundmg vegetat1onThe method of Braun Blanquet starts w1th a descnpt1on of the total flonst1c compos1t1on of a vegetat1on type w1thm a m1mmum area The m1mmum area reqwred 1s determmed emp1ncal and depends on the type of vegetat1on (grasslands woodlands etc ) All spec1es are 1dent1f1ed and the1r proport1on 1n the vegetat1on type or fytocoeneose 1s determmed A combmed scale of cover and abundance 1s used m the h1erarch1cal system of Braun Blanquet (from MatteucCI 1982) rone or a few md1V1duals cover less than 5% and occas1onally abundant but w1th a low cover or less abundant and w1th a greater cover but always less than 5% very abundant and less than 5% cover or less abundant and 5% to 25% cover 25% to 50% cover mdependent of the number of md1v1duals 50% to 75% cover mdependent of the number of md1v1duals 75 to 100% cover mdependent of the number of md1v1duals After th1s scale diVISion a syntax tabla 1s made 1n wh1ch vegetat1on types w1th great s1m1lanty m spec1es compos1t10n and abundance are grouped togetherThe Braun Blanquet values used m the research were g1ven on the bas1s of the relat1ve aenal cover determmed w1th the transects The value + was g1ven to spec1es w1th a relat1ve aenal cover of O 1% the value 1 to spec1es w1th a relat1ve aenal cover of 1 5% After the transects were taken the plot area was researched for spec1es wh1ch were not found on the transects These spec1es were g1ven the value r of the Braun Blanquet scale The values of Braun Blanquet are used m the cluster analys1s TWINSPAN and CLUTAB 2 2 3 ldent1f1catlon of spec1esThe spec1es were 1dent1f1ed 1n the f1eld as much as poss1ble Spec1es wh1ch could not be 1dent1f1ed 1n the f1eld were brought to the Research Stat1on of Canmagua There they were 1dent1f1ed w1th the help of a Herbanum of Llanos speCies and severa! determmat1on keys lf 1t was not poss1ble to 1dent1fy the spec1es m Canmagua they were sent to Professor Eugemo Escobar the director of the Herbano Jase Cuatrecasas of the Nat1onal Umvers1ty of Colombia (Palm1ra) who was the pnnc1pal determmer of the spec1es A Herbanum was made of all d1fferent spec1es of the Serranla vegetat1on 2 2 4 Aer1al b1omassTo get a measurement of the aboveground b1omass (phytomass) quadrants of 1 * 1 m were randomly placed 1n the plot area Aenal b1omass was measured for the standing vegetat1on that 1s ava1lable for cattle at a certam t1me lt only deals w1th the quant1ty of the vegetat1on not w1th the quallty The vegetat1on w1thm the quadrant was cut w1th a pa1r of grass sc1ssors at ground leve! Next the matenal was d1v1ded m dead (dry) and llvmg (green) matenal put 1n d1fferent paper bags and we1ghed In th1s way one gets an 1mpress1on of the green matenal that 15 st1ll ava1lable for cattle Afterwards the llvmg matenal was dned m an oven and we1ghed agam Th1s matenal was ground and sent to the CIAT Laboratory 1n Cal! for a chem1ca1 analys1sD1v1d1ng the aenal phytomass by the number of days of regrowth g1ves the product1on 2 2 5 Sod samples So1l samples were randomly taken 1n every plot to get an 1mpress1on of the water content the textura and the chem1cal compos1t1on of the sod All so1l samples were taken to 1 O cm depth The dned so1l samples were sent to the CIAT Laboratory 1n Cah for chem1cal and textura! analys1s In th1s research the cluster analys1s TWINSPAN and CLUT ABare used The vegetat1on data were f1rst analyzed w1th the TWINSPAN method A table was obtamed m wh1ch the samples and spec1es were ordered mto clusters Th1s ordered table was used 1n the CLUT AB program The outputs of th1s program were then used to make a synopt1c table of the TWINSPAN output 2 4 1 TWINSPAN TWINSPAN (TWo way INd1cator SPec1es ANalys1s) 1s a program developed by H1ll (1979) lt arranges mult1vanate data m an ordered two way table by class1f1catJOn of md1v1duals and the1r attnbutes F1rst a class1f1cat1on of the samples 1s made by groupmg hke samples w1th hke Next a spec1es d1V1s1on 1s made accordmg to the1r ecolog1cal preferences These class1f1cat1ons are then put mto an ordered two way table that expresses the spec1es synecolog1c relat1ons Th1s arrangement approx1mates one result of Braun Blanquet table (HIII 1979) The model used 1n TWINSPAN IS based on the phytosoCiology prem1se that each group of s1tes can be charactenzed by a group of d1fferent1al spec1es Accordmg to H1ll 1 1979) a d1fferent1al spec1es can be defmed as a spec1es w1th clear ecolog1cal preferences so that 1ts presence can be used to 1dent1fy particular env1ronmental cond1t1ons However TWINSPAN 1s an md1rect grad1ent analys1s wh1ch means that the env1ronmental factors are not d1rectly put 1n the two way table One has to look for the grad1ent 1n the table and compare d1fferent env1ronmental factors w1th th1s grad1ent lt can thus be poss1ble that the grad1ent calculated m TWINSPAN has no ecolog1cal meamngThe ordered two way table 1s made by repeated d1chotomy TWINSPAN 1s a d1V1s1ve cluster method that starts w1th all samples as a group Th1s group IS d1v1ded mto two smaller groups and th1s 1s repeated untll the ult1mate d1v1s1on can be obta1ned w1th the data used Th1s way of clustenng 1s based on the 1dea that large d1fferences should prevall over less 1mportant smaller d1fferences (Tongeren 1n Jongman et al 1987)A spec1es grad1ent IS calculated by rec1procal averagmg Each spec1es IS g1ven a number After that the scores for the samples 1s calculated by averagmg the scores of the spec1es A d1chotomy 1s obtamed by d1v1dmg the group of samples at the m1ddle of the grad1ent The spec1es are put '\" the group for wh1ch they are the most typ1cal Th1s process 1s repeated unt1l a stable set of scores 1s obtamed on wh1ch the grad1ent can be based The d1chotom1es are 1nd1cated 1n the two way tabla w1th O and 1 at the nght and bottom of the tabla 2 4 2 CLUTAB After the 1dent1f1cat1on of clusters Wlth TWINSPAN 1t 1s useful to summanze the results for each cluster 1nto a synopt1c tabla In th1s way the two way tabla of TWINSPAN becomes smaller and eas1er to mterpret because comparable samples are put together mto one cluster In the CLUT AB program a cluster 1s presentad m one column 1n wh1ch for a spec1es the frequency average abundance (calculated over the whole cluster) or the charactenst1c abundance (calculated over the samples m wh1ch a speCies really appears) are presentad W1th these tables a synopt1c table can be made  The nat1ve savanna of the Llanos 1s nevertheless poor 1n spec1es (relat1ve to Cerrados for example) but nch 1n Paspa/um (12 d1fferent speCies and vanet1es) and 1n PamcumThe vegetat1on 1s also poor m good product1ve legumes but qu1te nch m number of these fam1hes 3 3Frequency abundance and d1str1bution of speciesThe frequency and abundance of speCJes was determmed w1th the transects A complete hst of spec1es d1stnbut1on frequency and Braun Blanquet values for the d1fferent plots was calculated (see Annexes 1 and 2) 3 4 ldent1f1cation of communlty types (Annex 21The output of the TWINSPAN analys1s (not added to th1s papar) shows a great d1fference between the s1tes Therefore 1t 1s d1ff1cult to 1dent1fy certam clusters w1th the same samples The four TWINSPAN clusters were rearranged 1n the CLUT AB outputs 1n the arder 3 2 1 4 Th1s aga1n shows a relat1onsh1p w1th the topography The clusters w1th the top of the hllls and the slopes are put f1rst and they are followed by the lowland clusters W1th1n the d1fferent CLUTAB tables 74 charactenst1c spec1es are 1dent1f1ed 14 common spec1es and 85 rare spec1es No accompamed spec1es were recogmzed w1th1n the d1fferent clusters After the processmg of data 1n CLUTAB a synopt1c table was made Th1s table 1s g1ven 1n Annex 2 Lmes are drawn 1n th1s table The vert1cal hnes are aga1n the boundanes between the d1fferent clusters or commumty types The honzontal hnes are the boundanes between the spec1es wh1ch are typ1cal for one or two clusters Spec1es wh1ch are typ1cal for a cluster or commun1ty type are thus put together 1n a square The d1fferent squares are put on a diagonal hne along the grad1ent F1ve charactenst1c spec1es are present 1n the f1rst commumty type The spee~es frequency for that cluster IS put between brackets The charactenst1c spec1es for the f1rst commumty type are ( The h1ghest average number of spec1es 1s found 1n the fourth commumty (cluster 4 25 4)The lowest 1n the second commumty (cluster 2 18 3) although th1s IS the cluster w1th the most samples One can conclude that the average number of spec1es IS lower at the top of the h11ls and the slopes than 1n the lowlands 3 5 Areas covered by the plant commumties An est1mat1on of the relat1ve areas of these d1fferent topograph1c s1tes or plant commumt1es was made on f1ve farms wh1ch cover of more than 1 O 000 hectares (Tabla 17) the potent1al land use 1s also proposed F1gure 7 shows the average number of spec1es at all topograph1c s1tes The greatest number of d1fferent spec1es was found 1n the hum1d lowlands (almost 30 average 29 81 and the lowest at the top of the h1lls (less than 15 average 14 71 The average number of spec1es mcreases from the top of the h1lls to the hum1d lowlands However the average number of spec1es decreases from the hum1d lowlands to the floodplam (to average 19 71There IS not much d1fference between the topograph1c s1tes 1n the number of grasses found The greatest number of d1fferent grasses was found 1n the hum1d lowlands (average 9 3) the lowest at the top of the h1lls (average 6 6) The most d1fferent Cyperaceae were found at the slopes (average 3) The average number of legumes found 1s h1ghest 1n the dry lowlands (namely 3 9)The number of d1fferent monoctyl spec1es found 1s h1ghest 1n the hum1d lowlands (namely 11 Most d1fferent d1cotyl spec1es are found 1n the hum1d lowlands (namely 14 813 6 Relat1ve aenal coverIn F1gure 8 the relat1ve aenal cover for the f1ve d1fferent topograph1c s1tes are g1ven The relat1ve aenal cover 1s a measure for the cover percentage of all spec1es separately The relat1ve aenal cover of the grasses 1s h1ghest at all s1tes The relat1ve aenal cover of the other spec1es 1s much lower 3 7 Aenal b1omass and product1onF1gure 9 shows the d1fference 1n b10mass that 1s related to the regrowth t1me after burmngThe burmng date was known for 18 plots and for these plots the regrowth days after burmng are calculated The aenal b1omass for the f1rst 90 days 1s very low averagmg 415 kg/ha After these days the b1omass mcreases tremendously even up to 5927 kg/ha although th1s must be seen as an except1on After 30 days of regrowth the part of green matter 1s lowThe aenal product1on 1s g1ven 1n F1gure 1 O but the real companson between s1te 1s d1ff1cult because of the d1fferent grazmg 1ntens1ty  Ftgure ll Protem content m the pasture related to the dtfl'erent topographtc sttes The Ca content 1s lowest at the top of the hllls (0 11 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr s011) and h1ghest at the slopes (0 14 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr soll) The concentrat1on of Mg and K follow the sarne pattern They are lowest at the top of the h1lls (0 04 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr so1l and O 05 rnllheqUJvalent K/1 00 gr s011) and h1ghest m the hurn1d lowlands (0 00 rn1lhequ1valent/1 00 gr so1l and O 1 O rnllheqUJvalent K/1 00 gr soll) (F1gure 16)The Al concentrat10n 1s lowest at the top of the h1lls O 62 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr so1l and IS mcreasmg to 3 42 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr so1l for the hurn1d lowlands Afterwards 1t 1s decreasmg to 2 22 rnllheqUJvalent/1 00 gr so1l for the floodplams (Figure 171 4 CONCLUSIONS lt 1s poss1ble to conclude that there are d1fferences m the cornpos1t1on of the vegetat10n relatad to d1fferences m rehef soll type and hydrology to sorne extent Four d1fferent plant cornrnun1t1es were 1dent1f1ed (at th1s stage of the work) wh1ch show a relat1on w1th the topography Two cornrnumty types are 1dent1f1ed for the top of the h1lls and slopes For the f1rst cornrnumty f1ve charactenst1c spec1es could be 1dent1f1ed of wh1ch the grasses Trachypogon vestltus and Paspalum pectmatum are the rnost typ1cal In the second cornrnumty f1ve charactenst1c spec1es are also 1dent1f1ed of wh1ch the grass Trachypogon p/umosus 1s the rnost typ1cal Two cornrnumty types are 1dent1f1ed for the hurn1d lowlands and floodplams There are s1x charactenst1c spec1es 1dent1f1ed for th1s cornrnumty of wh1ch the grass Andropogon sel/oanus can be class1f1ed as rnost typ1cal For the Jast cornrnumty 1 3 charactenst1c spec1es could be 1dent1f1ed of wh1ch the grasses Andropogon b1corms and Sch1zachyrwm brewfolwm could be class1f1ed as rnost typ1cal D1fferences 1n aenal cover relat1ve aenal cover and average nurnber of spec1es between the topograph1c umts are to sorne extent due to d1fferences 1n so1l propert1es and s01l textura lt 1s shown that the nutnent supphes m the hurn1d lowlands and floodplams are sornewhat better than at the top of the h1lls slopes or m the dry lowlands lt seerns that the nutnent supphes are best 1n the hurn1d lowlands except for Ca and P Th1s last elernent rnay be f1xed by alurnm1urn whose percentage 1s h1ghest m the hurn1d lowlands The great nurnber of d1fferent spec1es m the hurn1d lowlands can to sorne extent be explamed by a h1gh rno1sture percentage a h1gher percentage of orgamc matenal and a h1gher nutnent supplyThe data of th1s research show a great d1fference 1n aenal b1omass among the topograph1c s1tesA very low percentage of green matter after 30 days of regrowth was observad The aenal product1on 1s much h1gher m the lowland for short regrowth penods For longar penods 1t IS d1ff1cult to conclude because of more mtens1ve grazmg 1n the lowlands F1gures 9 and 1 O not only show us a very h1gh product1on for the hum1d lowland but also for the top of sorne hllls The d1fferences 1n forage value among the topograph1c umts are very small The data of the chem1cal plant analyses show a low nutnt1ve value for the Serranla pasturas The average percentage P IS even lower than the cnt1cal value necessary for good ammal performance The f1gures for mtrogen content are not much better When the nutnt1ve value of the d1fferent topograph1c s1tes are comparad 1t 1s shown that the s1tuat1on 1s shghtly better m the floodplams However 1t IS also 1mposs1ble to draw conclus1ons from these data because d1fferences m age and stage of the plant matenal were neglected when the chem1cal analyses were made To come to a further d1fferent1at1on and class1f1cat1on of the Serranla vegetat1on and ecology 1t IS necessary to cont1nue research More samples should be taken and a system has to be made m th1s sample recordmg ..   153 ~rach ves 4 3 4 4 5 54 -3 2 -------4 3 ---4 1 ---1 ----4 3 4 ---6 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 ~ ----4 -4 ------152 rach plu 3 -----6 -3 5 4 5 5 4 5 4 ----4 -4 4 ---1 --- ..--------,-, ---------------------1 02 Andro b1c ---------------------~~ ~~~;~ ~~r :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: :::: ::: ----------------1 ------ ---1 -------------1 1 -----------105 Andro leu 4 6 4 5 4 4 4 5 5 -1 -----3 -4 4 3 4 --4 4 -1 5 --¡ 1351Paspa car 5 3 5 5 5 ----4 2 5 2 4 4 6 5 4 3 -4 4 -4 4 ------291Rhynccon13--31-4--2-5431-4-4---411 ---3 5 101 ¡Andro -sp ---1 o 2 1 5 7 4 o 4 o 2 5 5 3 1 7 9 8 7 9 4 3 6 1 6 8 2 6 3 8 9GEOGRAPHIC SITE p p p p p p p p p S S S p S S p p p p S S p p p p p p p p p p g g g g g g g 1 g 1 1 1 g 1 1 1 g 1 g 1 1 g g 1 1 g g g g g 1 -------------------------64Schul -sp ------1 ------------------------ -----------------------   The Llanos of Colombia cons1sts of an area of 17 mllhon hectaras coverad w1th tropical savanna Extens1ve cattla product1on 1s pract1cad m th1s area because of lack of nutnt1ve forage dunng the dry season of the year The fluctuat1ons m quant1ty of nutnt1ve forage between wet and dry season cause fluctuat1ons m hvewe1ght gam for ammals grazmg here resultmg m very low product1on f1gures of 28 kg/an/yaar at a stockmg rate of O 2 an/ha W1th the lack of mfrastructure 1n th1s area the 1mportance of product1on 1mprovement by low externa! mputs becomes clear A poss1b1hty for th1s hes m ad¡usted management systems Factors Wlthm th1s are burmng and graz1ng A lot of mvest1gat1on has been done on burmng systems and grazmg systems md1catmg degradat1on of the pastura or small mcreases m ammal product1on under these treatments Therefore a management systems of sequent1al burmng resultmg 1n regrowth every month combmed w1th rotat1onal grazmg was proposed Th1s systems was stud1ed for 1ts effect on the vegetat1on dynam1c and the development of we1ght of grazmg ammals at two stockmg rate dunng three months at Canmagua the research Center of CIA T /CORPOICABefare burmng the vegetat1on of the plots was one year old cons1stmg of annuals and perenmals Soll was totally covered by a dry b1omass dommated by the dormant perenmals Trachypogon vestltus and Axonopus purpusu These would start the1r germmat1on at the start of the wet season or after a f1re at the end of the dry season Annuals were present mamly as seeds m the seed bank because of unfavorable env1ronmental cond1t1ons for growth Soma of these would germmate e1ther when growth cond1t1ons 1mprove (e g mcrease m water ava1lab1hty decrease m compet1t1on for growth factors) or by photopenodiCal control after occurrence of the longest days 1n June JulyFor the study of the vegetat10n dynam1cs and evolut1on of ammal we1ght proposed management system there are 8 research quest1ons to mvest1gate concerned w1th the effect of 1Penod of burmng on the botan1cal compos1t10n of the vegetat10n 2Stockmg rata (SR) on the botamcal compos1t1on of the vegetat1on 3 Penod of burmng on the product1on of the vegetat1on 4Stockmg rate on the product1on of the vegetat1on 5Penod of burmng on the development of the we1ght of grazmg ammals 6Stockmg rate on the development of the we1ght of grazmg ammals 7Penod of burmng on the d1et preference of the ammal 8Stockmg rate on the d1et preference of the ammals gam m the These areThe research was performed on nat1ve savanna on clay so1l w1th pH (H20) of 4 9 and orgamc matter content of 3 1 % 1n the upper 20 cm of the soll The amounts of exchangeable cat1ons calc1um magnes1um potass1um and alum1mum of th1s Changes m botamcal composJtJon and the b1omass productJon after d1fferent treatments of burnmg and under d1fferent grazmg mtensJtJes were JnvestJgated lnd1cators for quahty of regrowth and spec1es are the preference of grazmg ammals for certam specJes or for certam ages of regrowth We1ght development was dehm1tated by monthly we1ghmg of the grazmg ammals commg dJrectly from the f1eldThe mvest•gat•on were carned out dunng three consecut1ve months 10 the trans1t1on penad from the dry to the wet season Th1s means that f1rst measurements were made 10 February wh1ch was the end of the dry season because the ramy season started very early th1s year The second measurements were of March and the last enes of Apnl both m the mJtJal penad of the wet seasonThe treatments of burnmg and grazmg were carned out at the same t1me m the 2 plots (HSR and LSR) The plots were dJVJded mto two t1mes 6 subplots (A and B) The treatment cons1sted of burnmg ene sub plot every f1rst day of the month After a regrowth penad of 15 days grazmg started under both h1gh stockmg rate (HSR) and low stockmg rate (LSR) m the part of the plot where the subplot w1th regrowth was sJtuated After four weeks of grazmg the ammals were moved to the other 6 sub plots w1th a new regrowth subplot Th1s 1s shown 10 Table 19 The vanables to measure after the treatments areThe composJtJon and dynam1cs of the yegetatJon In each sub plot permanent transects of 20 meters were made on wh1ch the occurnng spec1es at every 20 cm were recordad Th1s was done after two weeks of regrowth (w1thout grazmg) and after s1x weeks of regrowth (four weeks grazmg) Transects were also performed at every 1 O cm on the d•agonals of f1ve protected squares of 1 x 1 meter 10 every subplot Standmg dry phytomass of the pasture befare byrnmg Th1s was measured by cuttmg the vegetat1on of f1ve squares of 1 x 1 meter befare the burnmg at a 5 cm he1ght The cut phytomass was dned and we1ghted ProdyctJon of regrowth after burmng w1th and w1thpyt grazmg Th1s was measured by regular cuttmgs of regrowth standmg b1omass at 5 cm he1ght of f1ve squares of 1 x 1 meter after two weeks regrowth (w1thout grazmg) and after SIX weeks regrowth (With four weeks graz1ng) Also standmg phytomass after s1x weeks of protected regrowth These protected plots were s1tuated w1thm the sub plots so 10 the past these were e1ther grazed under h1gh stock•ng rate or low stockmg rate The preference of graz1ng ammals for syb plots d¡ffenng m regrowth stage and grazmg ¡ntens¡ty Th1s was measured by observatJon of preference of grazmg ammals for sub plots 10 a certam regrowth stage The ammals were observad from a h1dmg place w1thout d1sturbmg the behav1or of the an1mals These observatJons took place every 14 days for 2 x 12 hours F1rst of these observat1ons were made m March when the ammals started grazmg the plotThe mfluence of the treatments on the vegetat1on are shown 10 the next graphs and tables S1nce 1t was not poss!ble to analyze the data m a stat•st1cal way Jt 1s assumed that a d1fference of 2% has sorne s1gmfJcance Slmllarly changas m frequency percentage greater than 5% are taken as JOdJcatJve of 1mportant changes m the botamcal composJtJon 3 1To g1ve more convemently arranged data these were reduced towards spec1es w1th a frequency percentage h1gher than 1 O% at any regrowth stage The spec1es apart from these are callad others 3 1 1 lnfluence of burnlng The effect of the t1me of burmng on the botamcal compos1t1on was shown by companng the regrowth vegetat1on of plots d1ffenng 1n date of burmng Wlth the1r former vegetat1on Thls was calculated m Tabie 20These data are presentad more clearly to fac1htate companson of the effect of d1fferent dates of burmng m Table 21 and F1gures 18 to 22 Table 20 The  23 The plots are d1fferent m date of burmng and grazmgThe occurrence of spec1es m the s1x weeks old regrowth vegetat1on after burmng w1thout grazmg = decraasa m fraquancy parcantaga 1n one plot X = changa 1n frequancy parcantaga h1ghar than 5% (for namas of spac1es sea Tabla 20)The effect of the t1me of burmng on the stand1ng b1omass has been analyzed by comparong average above ground dry matter m protected areas s1x weeks after burnmg ( cagas ) at d1fferent dates February was a very dry month w1th prec1p1tat1on durong the s1x weeks after burmng of 36 mm Average above ground b1omass of und1sturbed regrowth after burmng was 34 3 g/m' The results of the measurements m the ramy season w1th a prec1p1tat10n durong the s1x weeks regrowth of 304 mm m March and 476 mm m Aprol showed an average above ground stand1ng b1omass of S4 9 g/m' and 118 5 g/m 2 respect1vely The b1omass product1on after s1x weeks of und1sturbed regrowth m the ramy season were three to four t1mes as h1gh as the results of the measurements taken at the end of the dry season 3 2 2 Below phytomass These data show a very h1gh b1omass for a rest of two weeks comparad w1th the other rests to graze after burmng Also s1gn1f1cant d1fference can be observad between stockmg rate w1th med1um stockmg rata we can observe very h1gh root b1omass tour t1me those of low stockmg rata (Tabla 24)The reasons of these d1fferences have to be mvest1gate {botamc compos1t1on compactat1on fore etc ) 3 2 3 Sote preference of grazong (Table 24)The data of the foeld observatoon of ammals grazong the regrowth are shown 10 Table 25 and Table 26 For the analysos of the specoes preference for graz10g ammals preference 10doces (PI) were calculated and reportad 10 Tablas   In March the d1fferences 1n select1on of spec1es between h1gh stock.ng rate and low stock1ng rate were small Spec1es selected at h1gh stock.ng rate were Andropogon b1corms ( 1 l Hypt1s sp (21 l Paspa/um pectmatum (30) Andropogon selloanus (37) Axonopus purpusu (33) Pamcum vers1color (29) and Trachypogon vestltus (43) Here Andropogon /eucostachyus (24) was not selected desp1te 1ts h1gher frequency percentage comparad to the plot at low stockmg rate Also here Andropogon leucostachyus (24) was not selected desp1te 1ts presence Andropogon b1corms (1) and Axonopus purpusu (33) are not ment1oned here because these were not present 1n the regrowth as m the sub plot burnt m Apnl The f1rst one of these ment1oned was not present m the vegetat1on befare burnmg the other one was w1th a frequency percentage of JUStO 4% and a frequency percentage m regrowth of the cage of 08%In Apnl d1vers1ty m select1on of speCies was h1ghest espeCially at h1gh stockmg rate m Apnl Andropogon b1corms ( 1) Andropogon sel/oanus (37) Trachvpogon vestltus (43) and Axonopus purpusu (33) were selected more at h1gh stockmg rate compared w1th low stockmg rate On the other hand Andropogon b1corms ( 1) and Axonopus purpusu (33) were not present at all 1n the vegetat1on of the plot at low stockmg rate and therefore could not be selected at all Andropogon selloanus (37) and Trachvpogon vestltus (43) were not selected m Apnl at low stockmg rate desp1te the1r presence m contrast to the h1gh sto¡¡kmg rate where they were present and selectedIn the group of spec1es w1th frequency percentage less than 1 O% the d1vers1ty m select1on was h1ghest m the plot at low stockmg rate In February d1fferences m botamcal compos1t1on between the plots at h1gh stockmg rata and low stockmg rate did not occur But select1V1ty for spec1es was very clear Trasva petrosa (44) was h1ghly selected 100% and 75% for the plot at h1gh stockmg rate and low stockmg rata respect1vely Select1on of Leptocoryphwm lanatum (23) was 80% at h1gh stockmg rate and 25% at low stockmg rate and D1chromena Cllfata (13) was selected w1th a PI of 14 9% at h1gh stockmg rate and 50% at low stockmg rate The h1gh select1on m March of Axonopus anceps (2) at low stockmg rate (PI= 30 8%) contnbuted to the d1fference (Table 28) But at h1gh stockmg rate m March th1s spec1es could not be selected because 1t was not present m the natural vegetat10n nor m the regrowth Bes1des th1s the F1gures of plots at h1gh stockmg rate and low stockmg rate are almost equal also 1n th1s penod selectlvlty of spec1es less frequently occurnng m the nat1ve savanna was very low 01fferences m select10n of Elvonorus cand1dus ( 14) and Trasva petrosa (44) m Apnl were the mam contnbutors to the d1fference occurnng between h1gh stockmg rata and low stockmg rate The presence of Elvonorus cand1dus ( 14) m the nat1ve vegetat1on befare burnmg was O 4% at h1gh stockmg rate and 2 4% at low stock1ng rate Frequency percentage of th1s spec1es was zero m the regrowth vegetat10n m the plot at h1gh stockmg rate At low stock1ng rate the regrowth of these spec1es (fp = 2 2%) was consumed w1th a PI of 18 2% SelectiVItY of the other spec1es was very low m th1s penod at both h1gh stockmg rate and low stockmg rate 4 DISCUSSION ANO CONCLUSIONS 4 1Vegetat1on dynam1cs41 1 Burmng Spec1e speclflc compet1t1ve ab1hty and t1me of burnmg (water avallabihty) are very 1mportant for regrowth after burmng The botamcal composltlon after burnmg changed towards e1ther spec1es res1stant to burnmg adaptad to water stress or spec1es able to benef1t from the 1mproved growth cond1t1ons by the d1sappearance of spec1esFor sorne annuals growth was lnltlated by the temperatura effect of f1re and for sorne spec1es growth cond1t1ons 1mproved because of reduced compet1t1on for growth factors w1th other plants Regrowth of annuals was poor after burmng m the dry penod though Hvpt1s sp took advantage of the decrease 1n compet1t1on w1th other plants for growth factors hke water hght and nutnents Under Clrcumstances Wlth h1gher water availabihty recovery of Hvptls sp mcreased even more Spec1es w1th a germmat1on wh1ch was 1n1t1ated by the f1rst rams of the wet season were k1lled by the burmng The decrease m number of annual spec1es after burnmg can not be generalizad because sorne annuals start the1r growth cycle another t1me because of the1r strateg1es adapted to the spee1f1c env1ronmental factors Good recovery under wet c1rcumstances was also shown by the spec1es Andropogon leucostachyus and Paspa/um pectmatum The key spee~es for management of th1s type of savanna T vestltus decreased m frequency percentage m the s1x weeks old regrowth after all burmng treatments Th1s was partly replaced by Paspalum pectmatum wh1ch 1s another 1mportant spec1es m the savanna of Canmagua Th1s decrease m the key spec1es m1ght stay so or may recover m t1me but data about further developments are lackmg m th1s expenment Under wet c1rcumstances when so1l was suturated w1th water and prec1pltat1on was h1gh vegetat•onal recovery after burmng was fast and considerable 4 1 2 Grazrng lntroducmg grazmg two weeks after burnmg caused mcreases m the number of spec1es under all grazmg treatments mamly contnbuted by annual spec1es An mcrease under grazmg also occurred for Hypt1s sp Th1s was probably related to the reduced compet1t1on for growth factors w1th other spec1es and 1mproved growth cond1t1ons because of the mterrupt1on of the plant by grazmg Th1s effect of grazmg on the vegetat10n and seemed to be relatad to stockmg rate 4 2 Srte preference of grazrng ammals By companng data m Table 8 the s1te preference for d1fferent stockmg rates were obtamed The b1ggest d1fferences occurred m the f1rst observat1ons m March The ammals m the plot at HSR spent 11 8% more of the1r grazmg trme m the sub plot w1th regrowth of 72 days old than the ammals m the plot at LSR These latter ammals mstead spent more t1me grazmg m the sub plot w1th 135 days old regrowth (d1fference of 1 O 5%) The same occurs m the measurements of Apnl although to a lower extent ammals m the plot at HSR spent 7 1 % more grazmg t1me m the sub plot w1th 72 days old regrowth than ammals 1n the plot at LSR These spent th1s t1me m the followmg sub plot w1th a regrowth of 135 days old Stnkmg 1s the d1fference occurnng m t1me spent grazmg m the sub plots between March and Apnl In March the ammals preferred to graze the sub plot w1th youngest regrowth of 14 days old as expected Th1s 1s contrast to the data of Apnl when the ammals preferred to graze the sub plot w1th 7 2 days old regrowth to the plot most recently burnt for grazmg D1fferences m average temperatura and prec1p1tat•on of these months were small But here one should reahze that 1n March part of the prec1pltat1on was usad to m01sten the dry ground wh1ch reduced ava1lable water for plant growth Th1s resultad m an above ground dry matter ava•labll1ty of 8 8 g/m 2 at HSR and 6 5 g/m 2 at LSR m March In Apnl these f1gures were 1 O 6 g/m 2 at HSR and 29 9 g/m 2 at LSR 4 3 Spec1es preference Spec1es preferred by grazmg ammals at young age were Andropogon b1corms Axonopus purpusu Andropogon se/loanus and Trachypogon vestltus Spec1es decreasmg under the grazmg treatments were Andropogon leucostachyus and Paspalum pectmatum Trachypogon vestltus the key spec1es m th1s savanna type showed decreases m frequency percentage under grazmg at h1gh stockmg rate and mcreases m frequency percentage under grazmg at med1um stockmg rate after burmng 1n February as well as 1n Apnl But the oppos1te effect occurred under grazmg after burmng 1n March Th1s could not be explamed w1th data from th1s tnal but m1ght be caused by env1ronmental factors not mvest1gated here Therefore 1t 1s not poss1ble to make here any conclus1ons about the mfluence of grazmg on the occurrence of Trachypogon vestltusUnder grazmg the occurrence of bare so1l was 1ncreased (Table 20} wh1ch seemed to be related to water avallab1hty (prec1p1tatlonl and to stockmg rate After burmng 1n the dry season the mcrease 1n occurrence of bare so1l was equal for both stockmg rate 1n the regrowth of March the mcrease m the occurrence of bare so1l due to grazmg was h1ghest at low stockmg rate whlle 1n the regrowth of Apnl the occurrence of bare so1l dueto grazmg was very small 4 4Phytomass and product1onGrazmg act1v1t1es also caused decreased m the above ground b1omass wh1ch also seemed to be related to water ava1lab1hty (preclp1tat1on} and to stockmg rate Absoluta reduct1ons 1n above ground regrowth b1omass due to grazmg were equal for both stockmg rate 1n February were h1ghest at med1um stockmg rate 10 March and were h1ghest at h1gh stock1ng rate m Apnl although 1n all of the months relat1ve reduct1ons were h1ghest at h1gh stockmg rate 4 5Ammal performanceThese features are reflectad m tha hfewa1ght changas of an1mals grazmg undar th1s management system Ammals graz1ng s1x weeks old ragrowth after burnmg 1n February severely loose we1ght due to msuff1c1antly ava1lable good forage The same treatments 1n March laad to a h1gher ava1lab1hty of green forage though and unexpected loss 1n hvewe1ght of ammals grazmg th1s vegetat1on occurs Th1s m1ght be axplamad by the changa 1n gutf1ll wh1ch causes temporary reduct10ns m hvewe1ght whan d1ets cons1st of h1gh protem concentrat1ons after a penod of low protem contammg d1ets After the treatment 1n Apnl an1mals show compensatory mtaka and compensatory hvewe1ght gams Th1s leads to the conclus1on that although th1s expenment last for only three of 10 total 1 2 months of one year the a1m of the proposed management system 1s not reached fluctuat1ons 1n we1ght gam of grazmg ammals do st1ll occur Although graen matenal1s avallable 1n the dry month the msuff1c1ency hm1ts product1on Therefora 1t 1s proposed to mcrease the areas for burmng 10 the dry season to mcrease the quant1ty of green forage on offer durmg th1s penod Because the expenment lastad only for three months th1s proposal needs more mvest1gat1on for the effect of annual burmng on the botamcal compos1t1on by monthly measurements of all plots 123 ANNEX 1 In the last three decades the Cerrados of Braz1l covenng about 205 m1lhon hectares have contnbuted 1mportantly to the country s crop and hvestock product1on However the mtens1ve use of th1s area part1cularly for monocroppmg and pasture development has g1ven nse to forms of land use that are ne1ther env1ronmentally nor econom1cally sustamable Alternat1ve land use systems are needed to halt and revert dechnmg product1v1ty and losses of so1l and water Among the technolog1es w1th potent1al to do th1s the combmat1on of crops and pasturas m space and t1me 1s one of the best opt1ons Th1s technology has the potent1al to mcrease overall productiVIty enhance s01l fert1hty and contnbute to 1mprove soc1oeconom1c cond1t1ons of farmers CIAT and EMBRAPA carned out p1oneenng stud1es to charactenze the Cerrados accordmg to ma¡or agroecolog1cal classes (Pro¡ect TC03) After pnont1zmg these classes the Center CPAC/EMBRAPA and the Federal Umvers1ty of Uberland1a 1n1t1ated on stat1on and on farm stud1es to develop land management opt1ons for sustamable development In contrast establishment of the legume was poor when planted w1th corn and Pamcum Vencedor under 1ntens1ve use of 1nputs Dunng the present year we tested other prom1smg grass and legume opt10ns for nce and corn systems A m1xture of Paspalum atratum BRA 961 O and Sty/osanthes mme!fao was plantad s1multaneously w1th nce to recla1m a degradad pastura of 8 ruz¡z¡ensJs m a sandy so1l of Uberland1a S1multaneously we tested the adaptat1on and y1eld potent1al of prom1smg grass legume mixtures to the cond1t1ons of the reg1on Twenty one legumes and nmeteen grasses were plantad m small plots usmg a mod1f1ed reg1onal tnal arrangement Grasses were planted w1th a common legume (Stylosanthes gwanens1s cv mmelfao 1 and legumes w1th a common grass (8rachJafla decumbens cv 8asil1sk l Establishment of the Paspalum and Stylosanthes m1xture plantad s1multaneously w1th nce was excellent Pastura was ready for grazmg after nce harvestmg On the other hand nce y1elds were reduced by 30% due to compet1t1on from the rema1mng pasture of 8 ruz¡z¡ensJs Average y1elds were approx1mately t 1 8 ton/ha Ammal performance measurements started m May 1994The results of the f1rst year of evaluat1on of the small plot expenment showed that Stylosanthes was established well w1th most of the brach1ana grasses Among grasses BrachJarJa decumbens 8RA 4308 was the most product1ve access1on dunng the wet and the dry penods Among legumes Stylosanthes mme!faO and Arach1s pmtoJ 8RA 41143 showed a h1gher leaf retent1on dunng the dry penod comparad to the Centrosema Calopogomum and PuerarJa access1ons mcluded m the tnal The adaptat10n tnal w1ll contmue for another year to select most prom1smg spec1es for crop pasture tnals 1 2The results of our work last year showed that the establishment of legumes was markedly 1nfluenced by the crop and grass compamons Dunng the present year we plantad a small plot expenment m a sandy so1l of Uberland1a to mvest1gate the effect crops (nce and corn) and several grasses on the establishment of Stylosanthes mme!fao and Arach1s pmto1 8RA 41143 Crop and pastura components were planted alone or s1multaneously The expenment mcluded a treatment of delayed sowmg of the grass component to reduce early compet1t1on for the crops and the legumes Dry matter product1on of grasses and legumes was measured at crop harvest1ngThe results of the expenment w1th corn showed that establishment of Stylosanthes was more affected by compet1t1on from the grasses than by compet1t1on from the crop 1tself (Table 1) Compet1t1on from the Pamcum Vencedor was stronger comparad to the Paspa/um spec1es Grasses also reduced corn y1elds by 7% (Table 2) In turn y1eld potent1al of the pastura spec1es were reduced by the crop (Table 3) Delayed plantmg of the grasses suppressed the compet1t1on effects of the grass but retardad 1ts establishment (Table 4) Grass compet1t1on was stronger for the nce crop than for corn crop Gram y1elds were reduced 50 80% dependmg on the spec1es P Vencedor and 8 bflzantha were the most aggress1ve spec1es Stylosantbes and Arachts estabhshed very well w1th most pasture spec1es except P Vencedor Delayed plantmg of grasses had the same effects observad m corn expenment These results md1cate that there are product10n tradeoffs m crop pasture systems and that there 1s a need to reduce grass compet1t1on and select more aggress1ve legumes for corn pasture rotat1ons m h1gh 1nput systems 1 3Mult1phcat1on of prom1smg pasture spec1es (Umv Fed Uberlandta M Ayarza andE A Ptzarro)Lack of enough seed 1s always a ma]Or barner for the testmg of prom1smg forage components 1n large plots at the farm level To overcome th1s problem we made efforts dunng the present year to promote seed mult1phcat1on by farmers and reg1onal lnst1tUt1ons of Uberland1a One ha of Stylosanthes mmeuao was plantad m 1993 m one of the collaboratmg farms Part of the seed collected th1s year was dehvered to the Umvers1ty of Uberland1a and severa! farmers to plant mult1phcat1on plots As a result of th1s tour ha of Stylosanthes one ha of Arach1s pmto1 and 500 m2 of Paspalum atratum BRA 961 O have already been estabhshed dunng the present year Seed produced w1ll be purchased by the Sect1on to expand on farm testmg to other product1on systems and to support research act1v1t1es of CIA T and EMBRAPA m other areas Remamed seed wlll be put m the market by the Un1vers1tySty/osanthes gwanensts cv Mme!fao and Arachts pmto1 have the potent1al to become components of 1mproved nce pastura systems m a short t1me Enough seed w1ll be ava1lable for further testmg by farmers m the reg10n m commg years 1f the collaborat1ve effort we are develop1ng w1th farmers and the umvers1ty proves to be successful In the mean t1me we wlll cont1nue our act1v1t1es to select forage legumes for mtens1ve management systems and expand testmg of 1mproved germplasm for other purposes ( 1mproved feedmg for m1lk product1on cover crop and not tlll systemsl Technology adJustment to reduce grass compet1t1on 1n crop pasture systems 1s expected to be conducted by the collaboratmg lnStltUtiOnS 2Synerg1sm and tradeoffs of crop pasture mtegrat1onManagement pract1ces such as land preparat1on hmmg and fert1hzat1on and ammal management mfluence the potent1al contnbut1on of crops and pasturas m mtegrated crop pastura product1on systems To measure these effects a long term expenment was estabhshed m a red dark Latossol at EMBRAPA CPAC m Planaltma Braz1l 1n 1991 The ob]ect1ve of the expenment 1s to determme the effect of mtegrat1on on crop and ammal product1v1ty and to 1dent1fy s01l key parameters relatad to 1mprovement or degradat10n The expenments 1ncludes contmuous crop and pastura systems and crop pastura and pasture crop rotat1ons cycles of f1ve years Land preparatlon methods evaluate the effect of d1skmg (convent1onalland preparat1onl and deeper land preparat1on methods (flexible land preparat1on method) on crop product1v1ty and soll phys1cal propert1es Fert1hzat1on treatments mcluded the effect of convent1onal fert1hzat10n and a correct1ve fert1hzat1on mcludmg the use of gypsum on crop and pasture product1v1ty and so1l fert11ity Graz10g management treatments evaluate the effect of low and h1gh graz10g ~ntens1t1es on ammal product1on botamcal compos1t1on and lltter product1on 10 grass only and grass legume pastures Measurements are taken by a group of researchers from CIA T CPAC and the Umvers1t1es of Bayreuth (Germany) and Cornell (USA) We are momtonng the short and long term changes 10 crop and ammal product1v1ty and on s01l chem1cal phys1cal and b1olog1cal propert1es 10 the management treatments 1ncluded 10 the expenment The expenment 1s complementad w1th satelllte plots located 1n several farms 10 Uberland1a These plots were establlshed 1n 1992 on sandy and clay soll types and two product1on systems ( cont~nuous pastures and cont10uous cropp1ng systems)to determine the potent1al contnbut1on of forage legumes to 1mprove susta1nab11ity of crop pasture systems We are momtonng changes 10 a m mal product10n and so1l fert11ity 10 the 1mproved and the unrecla1med systems over t1me Below are reported the results of the work The study showed that the occupat1on of the cerrados started spontaneously m the 1 960s However 1mportant changes occurred dunng the economiC expans1on of Braz1l between 1960 and 1980 A combmat1on of federal pohe~es h1gh mflat10n and speculat1on were the factors respons1ble for the very s1gmf1cant mcreases 1n area and agncultural pnces m the cerrados The growth of domest1c and fore1gn markets and the gradual expans1on of transportat1on also played a fundamental role m the agncultural expans1on and modermzat1onThe analys1s of ava1lable 1nformat1on allowed to d1stmgU1sh tour zonas m the reg1on 1) a zone dynam1c usmg modern technology anda dynam1c agncultural system encompassmg most of the south of the cerrados (Mato Groso do Sul M1nas Gera1s G01as and part of Mato Groso) 2) a fa1rly new area w1th low agnculturalmtens1ty but h1gh techmcallevels around Bras11ia and the west of M1nas Gera1s 3) an area of recent agncultural expans1on w1th low agnculture 1ntens1ty and 4) an almost empty area where agnculture 1s st1ll mc1p1ent and have low techmcal levels These are remete areas m wh1ch cond1t1ons for expans1on of commerc1al agnculture 1s st1ll precanous 2 Area class1f1cat1on and mappmg for the Cerrado reg1on of BrazllTh1s study was camed out m 1992 by P Jones and h1s team w1th the collaborat1on of J Macedo and B Pmhe1ro from EMBRAPA The ob¡ect1ve of the work was to subd1v1de the cerrado reg10n mto d1st1nct1ve agroecolog1cal classes So1ls climate and land use data were comb1ned usmg the GIS fac11it1es at CIAT Twelve areas were selected by f EMBRAPA as the most mterest1ng areas to conduct collaborat1ve research on resource management The role of CIA T was to descnbe the agroecolog1cal classes present m each area and 1dent1fy the1r s1ze m other areas w1thm the cerrado reg10nThe work allowed to d1v1de the cerrado reg1on mto eleven agroecolog1cal classes and to rank the 12 areas of mterest accordmg to the number of classes and the and the area covered by each class Gurup1 Campo grande Go1ama Paracatu Uberland1a and R1o Verde were listed as the most representat1ve areas 3Soe~oeconom1cal charactenzat1on of tour reg1ons of the cerrado Th1s act1v1ty cons1sted 1n the analys1s of the soc10econom1c mformat1on of tour reg1ons of the Brazi11an cerrados ( Campo Grande Uberland1a Rondonopolis and R1o Verde) These areas were des1gnated as havmg h1gh pnonty w1th1n the EMBRAPA/CIAT pro¡ect to develop sustamable land use systems The work was conducted by L R1vas from CIAT and G Pere1ra from EMBRAPA They analyzed the s1m11itudes and d1fferences between reg1ons usmg mformat1on about trends on land mventory and use crop and livestock product1on mechamzat1on mfrastructure There were found large d1fferences 1n land use mtens1ty farm s1ze and mfrastructure among the four reg1ons Campo grande has most of the three fourths of 1ts area m extens1ve cattle ra1smg actiVItles R1o verde and Rondonopolis have the largest agncultural areas and Uberland1a the lower average farm s1ze h1gher mtens1f1cat10n levels and better capac1ty of storage of gra1n at the farm levelIn order to charactenze the mam product1on systems detect trends of mtegrat1on and 1dent1fy problems and demands for technology two short term v1s1tS were camed out m 1991 and 1993 by a multldiSCiplinary team composed by sc1ent1sts from EMBRAPA and CIAT The methodology used m the v1s1ts was the Rap1d Rural Appra1sal The VISit mcluded mterv1ews w1th farmers and local mst1tut1ons to account for the problems and research demands from the farmer perspectivaThe tnps across the cerrados allowed to observe a cons1sted relat1onsh1p between landscape and product1on systems Annual croppmg systems w1th h1gh use of mputs and technology are present m the flat areas (chapadoes) of med1um to h1gh clay content wh1le extens1ve hvestock systems are dommant on gently slopmg lands over more frag1le so1lsAlthough average farm s1ze he between 500 1 000 has there are a S1gn1f1cant number of small farms located on h1gher base status so1ls on slopmg landscapes They produce most of the m1lk m the cerrados All product1on systems have problems of b1ophys1c and soe~oeconom1c sustamab1htyThe mformat10n generated so far by the proJect has led to develop an obJeCtlve class1f1cat1on of the cerrado agroecosystem m several classes and the select1on of the Uberland1a reg1on 1 M G) a case study area for detallad stud1es on land use dynam1cs and development of prototype sustamable systems However to ach1eve the mam obJeCtlves and to develop the outputs proposed by the project 1t 1s necessary to 1mprove the current agroecolog1cal class1f1catlon and to strength our understandmg on soc1oeconom1c and ecolog1c 1mpact of land use m the cerrados The followmg are the act1v1t1es planned for the next three years 1 lmprovement of the agroecolog1cal class1flcat1on system P Jones 8 Be// (LMJ J Sm1th and M Ayarza (TLJ Th1s act1v1ty w111 mclude the refmement of the current agroecolog1cal class1f1cat1on systems and a ground truth venf1cat1on of agroecolog1cal classes across the cerrado reg1on Most recent mformat1on w1ll be mcorporated mto the current database to 1mprove the prec1s1on on the agroecolog1cal classes F1eld v1s1ts to selected reg1ons of the cerrados w1ll allow to determme the cons1stency of the class1f1cat10n 2 Evolut1on of farmmg and reg1onal systems and 1mpact of land use on the env1ronment J Sm1th (TLJ W Doppler (U Hohenhetm) and M Ayarza (TLJ The ObJectlve of th1s act1v1ty w111 be to generate bas1c knowledge on the dynam1cs and sustamab1hty of current product1on systems m the cerrados and to prov1de tools for assessmg the poss1ble future 1mpact of 1mproved technology marketmg and pohc1es Through th1s approach 1t w1ll be poss1ble to generate hypothes1s pertammg the development of sustamable systems and 1dent1fy research and pohcy measures for successful 1mplementat1on of sustamable farmmg systems Th1s 1n1t1at1ve has been presentad as a JOint proJeCt between CIAT and the Umvers1ty of Hohenhe1m (Germany) for fundmg by BMZ 3 Vahdat1on of dynam1c modela to asses the econom1c and ecolog1c 1mpact of land use J Smtth (TLJ Th1s act1v1ty cons1der the testmg and vahdat1on of hohst1c models encompassmg econom1c ecolog1c and soc1al mteract1ons for the development of sustamable systems Sorne of these models have already been developed However 1t 1s necessary to test the1r usefulness for the cond1t1ons of the cerrados Ava1lable mformat1on from selected product1on systems w111 be used to test the models and to adJuSt parametersThere ts evtdence that sorne extsttng cropptng systems tn the savannas of Lattn Amenca are not sustatnable etther tn btophystcal or economtc terms Sotl eroston compactton and general low levels of fertthty hmtt agncultural productton on the actd sotl savannas CIA T has prototype technologtes combtmng ustng legume based pasturas and crops whtch can tmprove sotl condtttons tncrease agncultural producttvtty and reversa degradatton Thts pro¡ect wtll determtne the relattonshtp between sotl orgamc matter and sotl phystcal properttes tn sotls under dtfferent land uses PURPOSE Generate baste knowledge on sotl phystcal degradatton and enhancement processes and develop effecttve cropptng systems for savanna agroecosystems OUTPUTS 1 Quanttftcatton of the dynamtcs of sotl organtc matter tn alternattve cropptng systems 2 ldenttftcatton of tndtcators of degradatton and enhancement 3A conceptual model of sotl phystcal changes tn alternattve productton systems 4Esttmatton of sotl losses at the watershed leve!The pro¡ect started wtth the arnval of two PhD students last September to conduct the work One of the students ts worktng on the effect of land use on sotl orgamc matter composttton Sotl samples were taken from severa! selected sttes tn two sotl types (clay and sandy texturas) tn Uberlandta The selected land use systems are Conttnuous annual cropptng systems conttnuous pastura systems nattve cerrado planted forests and crop pasture rotatton systems Severa! techmques tncludtng 13C NMR and GC spectroscopy to wtll be used to tdenttfy the composttton of SOM tn vanous fracttons of the sotl Further studtes wtll be conducted to determtne the dynamtcs of most senstttve fracttons tn relatton to sotl managementThe second acttvtty ts related wtth the water and nutnent dynamtcs m tntegrated and not tntegrated crop pasture systems Measurements wtll be carned out wtthtn our crop pasture tntegratton expenment at CPAC Severa! treatments tncludtng the nattve cerrado and the crop and pasture systems were selected for thts study The ob¡ecttve of the work ts to study the effect of tntegrated and not tntegrated systems on water avatlabthty and dynamtcs of nutnents denved from orgamc matter mtnerahzatton (N P and S) Selected plots wtll be sampled over ttme to asses the short term effect of crop pastura rotatton next year As prevrously agreed wrth partners rn the Alternatrves to Slash and Burn consortrum CIA T agronomrc expenments concentrated rnrtrally rn the rntroductron and testrng of germplasm wrth the arm of rdentrfyrng components for future expenmentatron rn cropprng systems In addrtron the cropprng systems specrahst partrcrpated rn the charactenzatron of the regron reportad elsewhere Desprte delays rn developrng the requrred rnfrastructure a number of expenments were conducted rn the Expenmental Statron of CPAF/Acre and on farmer frelds rn the settlement project P A D Pedro Perxoto dunng the frrst semester of 1994 as follows 1Beans regronal tnal for Carraca and Prnk seeded grarn type 2 lntroductron of leadrng bean cultrvars from southern Brazrl 3 Natronal Web Bhght nursery 4Adaptatron tnal of rnterracral crosses of beans 5Cultural practrces for reducrng the web bhght rncrdence and P fertrhzatron Further expenments estabhshed later rn the year wrth vanous other crops are not rncluded as yet rn the present report All nursenes rn the CPAF/Acre statron except the mulchrng expenments could not be evaluated because of the heavy web bhght rncrdence On farmers freid all nursenes were planted wrthout fertrhzer rnputs Web bhght rncrdence was mrlder than rn the expenmental statron and most of the nursenes could be harvested Unfortunately there were too many mrssrng plots due to web bhght resultrng rn hrgh coeffrcrents of vanatron and no statrstrcal srgnrfrcanceThe result of the mulch expenment usrng Velvet bean (Mucuna sp ) Puerana sp marze resrdues and nce resrdues and 6 levels of P fertrhzatron rangrng from O to 400 kg P/ha can be seen rn Tables 1 4 Puerana gave the best protectron agarnst web bhght because rts leaves drd not decompose as raprdly as those of velvet bean hence grvrng longer protectron agarnst web bhght The longar the bean plants are protected from splashes of sorl partrcles whrch carry the web bhght spores or myceha the hrgher are bean yrelds The hrghest bean yreld was obtarned from plots wrth Puerana as mulch followed by nce velvet bean and the lowest yreld was obtarned usrng marze as mulch Rrce and marze resrdue drd not decompose as raprdly as velvet bean but due to low resrdue quantrtres protectron agarnst web bhght was poor  1 l whereas mcorporated Puerana or ma1ze res1dues were assoc1ated lower w1th y1elds than those usmg mulches (Table 2 and 3) The effects of mulches and of mcorporat1on of the res1dues on s01l parameters were evaluated but analyt1cal results are st1ll pendmg 8ecause of the heavy mc1dence of the web bhght no response of P fert1hzat1on was observed although the soil was very low m P (1 6 ppm P Bray lll (Tables 1 4) Web bhght dec1mated bean plants at random so that the response to P and N fert1hzat1on could not be evaluated (Table 5)The 16 segregatmg populat1ons now m F 8 were y1eld tested under 1rngat10n dunng the dry season (July August) m the expenment stat10n of CPAF/Acre Canoca p1touco (Canoca w1th growth hab1t 1 l was used as local check All the populat1ons tested y1elded h1gher or at least equal to Canoca p1touco (Table 6) The number of days to flowenng was reduced from 45 (1n the Cerrados reg10n) to only 33 days under the cond1t1ons encountered at CPAF/Acre R1o Branco Web bhght 1nc1dence was relat1vely m1ld durmg the dry season (July August) us1ng furrow 1rngat1on Th1s opens the poss1b1hty to produce seed of good quahty m the dry se asan to supply the demands of the farmers m the reg1on Currently bean seeds for the State of Acre come from as far as sao Paulo The reg1onal tnal for Canoca and Pmk gram type on farmers f1eld were planted 1n March 1 994 when the ramy sea son was decllmng All advanced breedmgllnes tested 10 the reg1on showed no adaptat1on problems to the hot and hum1d growmg cond1t1ons The only d1fference observed was the number of days to flowenng wh1ch was about 1 O days shorter than 1n the southern reg1ons The average y1eld of the tested advanced bean breed1ng llnes was h1gher than the average y1eld of the reg1on Th1s may be the results of the small testmg plot s1ze wh1ch vaned between 5 to 1 O m 2 In the Canoca group only ESAL 588 y1elded less that the check (Table 7) In general the pmk advanced breedmg lmes y1elded less than the Canoca gram types Sorne lmes llke P1 and Saf1ra performed well 1n th1s reg1on but the local check Rosmha y1elded st11l h1gher than all the advanced breed1ng lmes tested 1n th1s expenment (Tabla 8) Severa! released hnes from southern Braz1l were testad under hot and hum1d grow1ng cond1t1ons Soma cult1vars produced shghtly h1gher or at least equal to the Canoca local check The Canoca cult1var mult1phed 1n the Go1ílma expenment stat1on was out y1elded by the Canoca local check (Tabla 9) All breed1ng l1nes that composed the Nat1onal web bh9ht nursery were out y1elded by the Canoca local check and had poorer sconng 1n web bhght res1stance (Table 1 0  Th1s f1rst set of beans expenments show the d1ff1cult1es assoc1ated w1th the crop m the hot and hum1d reg10n where web bhght const1tutes the only 1mportant b1ot1c constramt Rondoma has part1c1pated 1n the Nat1onal Bean Evaluat1on Network for many years but up to the present no cult1var recommendat1on has been made because all the y1eld tnals des1gned for the other bean growmg reg1on 1n Braz1l could not produce rehable data A new strategy w1ll be used for y1eld testmg 1n th1s reg10n To start w1th only the best recommended cult1vars from the northern part of the Cerrado wlll be evaluated the plot s1zes wlll be mcreased to 1 00 m 2 and more rephcates w1ll be mcluded sub¡ect to seed ava1lab1hty Only few advanced breedmg lmes w1ll enter the y1eld expenments wh1ch w1ll subst1tute gradually the poorest hnes of the expenment W1th th1s new strategy 1t IS expected that w1thm 2 years Acre and Rondon1a w111 be able to recommended new cult1vars In the meant1me efforts by both government mst1tut1ons and the pnvate w1ll be reqUired to develop local seed mult1phcat10n fac1ht1es The purpose of pro¡ects TL02 and TC02 1s to develop through the use of models a mechamst1c understand10g of s01l chem1cal phys1cal and b10log1cal processes 10 agropastoral and sequent1al cropp10g systems 1n the llanos of Colombia and cerrados of Braz1l The act1v1t1es pursued 10clude the establishment of two long term expenments on stat10n 10 both Colombia (w1th CORPOICA) and 1n Braz1l (w1th EMBRAPA CPAC) NARS partners are actlvely 1nvolved 10 the development planmng and execut1on of these expenments Crop product1on fert1llzer opt1m1zat1on nutnent cycllng soll propert1es and weed 10festat1on form the bas1s of the shared actiVItles w1th10 these expenments Work of a more strateg1c nature 1s conducted w1th10 these expenments and also w1th10 satelllte expenments and 1s a1med at 1mprov10g our understand10g of key processes for susta10able product1on and develop1ng 10d1cators of susta10ab1llty Two approaches are used for susta10ab1llty 10d1cators one 1s a comparat1ve assessment determ1010g and companng the performance of one system w1th alternat1ves and the second approach 1s a dynam1c one 1n wh1ch the dynam1cs of the system are a measure of 1ts susta10ab1llty e g measunng sorne attnbute of so1l quallty over t1me The nat1ve savannas are used as controls or benchmark s1tes for companson Wlth cropp10g and agropastoral systems Here we report program act1v1t1es undertaken w1th10 the long term expenments together w1th sorne key process stud1es 10clud10g nutnent cycllng v1a lltter crop res1dues cattle excreta and m1crob1al b1omass phosphorus transformat1ons s01l phys1cal propert1es the dynam1cs of soll fauna populat1ons and act1v1t1es lntens1f1cat1on of agncultural product1on on the ac1d s01l savannas of Lat10 Amenca 1s constra10ed by the lack of d1vers1ty 1n ac1d (alum10um) tolerant germplasm and poor so1l fert1llty The use of h1gh levels of 10puts espec1ally 10 monocropp10g s1tuat1ons 1s thought to be unsusta10able s10ce 1t results 10 detenorat10n of so1l phys1cal propert1es as well as escalat1on of pest problems lmproved legume based pastures cons1dered by many as least harmful to the soll resource base reqUire 10vestments 1n 10puts for establishment wh1ch are unattract1ve or beyond the means of extens1ve graz1ers Establishment of pastures 1n assoc1at1on w1th nce (to defray the cost of 1nputs) has proven to be a very attract1ve alternat1ve wh1ch IS rap1dly be10g adopted 10 front1er areas of the Colombmn llanos However as farmers see the prof1ts to be made from nce th1s development could easlly detenorate to one of cont10uous monocropp10g w1th potent1al problems of land degradat1on such as those already observed w1th monocropp10g 1n the Braz11ian cerrados Alternat1ve systems mcorporatmg components wh1ch attenuate or reverse the deletenous effects of monocultures are reqUired and b1ophys1cal measures of sustamab11ity need to be developed as pred1ctors of system performance and health Gram legumes green manures mtercrops and leys are poss1ble components wh1ch could mcrease the stab11ity of systems mvolvmg annual crops The long term expenment descnbed here mvest1gates a select1on of alternat1ves usmg these components at two levels of mtens1f1cat10n based on lime and through 1ntens1ve momtonng under controlled cond1t1ons to 1dent1fy md1cators of susta1nab11ity of rotat1onal and agropastoral systems 1n the ac1d savannas Smce many processes contnbute to and mteract m determm1ng the stab11ity of any part1cular system a pnnc1pal ob¡ect1ve of the pro¡ect 1s the development of mtegrated models wh1ch would s1mulate the effects of system components and management on system sustamab11ity as exemplif1ed by the 1dent1f1ed pred1ctors and enable the evaluat1on and extrapolat1on 1n space and t1me of the effect of components and management perturbat1ons on system stab11ityRecogmzmg that the deletenous (or benef1c1al) effects of vanous agncultural pract1ces are often subtle and only mamfest themselves over long penods the proposed expenmentat1on 1s mtended to extend through at least two rotat1onal cyclesThe expenment was established on a loamy clay Ox1sol on the Corp01ca/CIA T Research Stat1on at Canmagua on the eastern plams of Colombia Typ1cal of Ox1sols the so1l 1s charactenzed by a h1gh degree of exchangeable Al saturat1on and low pH and a very low level of ava1lable nutnents (Table 3) The bas1c approach mvolves a companson of product1on systems rangmg from potent1ally resource degradmg cereal monocultures to the hypothet1cally resource 1mprov1ng agropastoral ley systems all at two levels of 1nputs The select10n of systems was based on whether lime 1s applied as a ferti11zer (to supply Ca and Mg to Al tolerant crop and pasture spec1es) or as a so1l ac1d1ty ameliorant (to enable product1on of more Al sens1t1ve spec1es)In the fert11izer lime systems upland nce 1s grown m cont1nuous monoculture or 1n rotat1ons w1th green manures cowpeas or adapted m1xed pastures wh1le the remed1al lime systems mvolve ma1ze 1n contmuous monoculture or 1n rotatlons w1th green manures soybeans or less adapted m1xed pastures A descnpt1on of the treatments 1s g1ven 1n Table 1 The expenment 1s a split plot des1gn m four random1zed blocks 1n wh1ch levels of lime are ass1gned to ma1n plots and systems to subplots Plot s1zes (0 36 ha or for pastures O 72 ha) were based on the total area reqUired to support a mm1mum of three ammals stocked at approx1mately two ammals per hectare when rotated through the replicat1ons after prov1s1on for d1v1d1ng at a later date D1mens1ons were chosen for ease of handling convent1onal machmery and w1th a v1ew to a probable need to d1v1de the plots 1n the futura All systems are managed to opt1m1ze product1on and mm1m1ze s01l degradat1on that 1s crop res1due conservat1on 1s pract1ced so1l fert11ity levels are ma1ntamed weeds and other pests controlled etc The expenment has been Implementad 1n two stages rotat1ons based on nce and low mputs of lime were 1n1t1ated 1n M ay 1 993 wh1le rotat1ons based on ma1ze and h1gher levels of lime were 1n1t1ated 1n Apnl 1994 Sequent1al measurements and observat10ns are bemg made of cr1t1cal so1l phys1cal chem1cal and b1olog1cal propert1es and the 1mpact of changes 1n them on crop/system product1v1ty and prof1tab11ity resource and mput use eff1c1ency and the env~ronment Among the observat1ons and measurements currently bemg recordad are the followmg System and component product1on Gra1n y1eld and above ground b1omass product1on are determinad for crops and green manures Standing biomass feed on offer and botamcal composition of pasturas are assessed at three monthly mtervals while root biomass production and distr~bution are estimated on an annual bas1s Records of ammal stockmg rates and livewe1ght gams (3 month mtervals) are also mamtamed In add1t1on the nutr~ent compos1t1on of crop and pasture components and green manures 1s measured to est1mate nutr~ent exports and recycling through res1dues Soil phys1cal propert1es Parameters wh1ch are likely to reflect soil phys1cal degradat1on as a result of agr~cultural pract1ces are momtored annually These mclude bulk dens1ty poros1ty and water mf1ltrat1on rate hydraulic conduct1v1ty and aggregate stab11ity Soil chem1cal propertles Parameters are measured wh1ch are 1nd1cat1ve of changmg s01l fert11ity loss of SOil orgamc matter and hence so1l structural stabi11ty and wh1ch perm1t compar1sons of the relat1ve rates of nutrlent cycling m the d1fferent systems These include s01l ac1d1ty and exchangeable cat1ons and so1l N P and S pools accordmg to published fractionatlon procedures Soil b1ology Populat1ons and dynam1cs of earthworms are momtored RESUL TS ANO DISCUSSION Crop and pastura production and establishment D Fr1esen (/FDCJ H Carmen H Delgado (CORPOICAJ Dueto logiStlcal d1ff1cult1es the low lime mput r1ce basad systems were 1mplemented m 1993 wh1le the h1gh lime mput ma1ze based systems were 1mt1ated m 1994 Average r1ce gram y1eld m the first year was about 3 t ha 1 and was not s1gmf1cantly affected by undersowmg 1t w1th pastura (Table 21 Nevertheless forage spec1es were well established at harvest and pasturas were put to grazmg approximately 3 ~ months later at the onset of the dry season (December 1 993) Durmg the subsequent 3 months ammals stocked at 3 ha 1 gamed an average of 333 g day 1 livewe1ght Without placmg undue pressure on the pasturas wh1ch emerged for the dry season dommant 1n S cap1tata Consequently the stocking rate was mcreased to 4 ha 1 m June 1994 to try to reduce the amount of standing b1omass and encourage a more balanced grass legume compos1t1on Rice m the low mput rotation systems was followed 1n the second semester of 1993 by an erect cowpea var1ety (ICA Cabec1ta negra) for gram product1on (Treatment 2 Table 11 and a prostrate cowpea var~ety OCA Menegual for green manure (Treatment 3) The green manure was mcorporated at flower~ng 52 days alter plantmg Cowpea gram yield was approx1mately 1 1 t ha 1 wh1le b1omass (res1duesl turnad into the so1l was approx1mately 1 6 t ha 1 for both the gram crop and the green manure (Tabla 2) Both res1dues and green manure hada marked tmpact on mmeral N levels m the so1l profile dur~ng the followmg dry season (see subsequent sect1on)Pr~or croppmg w1th cowpea whether for gram or green manure product1on had a SIQnlflcant impact on the product1on of r1ce m rotat1on treatments m 1994 (Table 2) R1ce gram yields were 300 750 kg ha 1 greater than m r1ce monoculture Part of th1s may be explamed by the improved N economy m the legume rotat1on treatments alluded to above Add1t1onally weed populations were much lower 1n the rotat1ons than m the monocropped r1ce treatments largely because the formar treatments were culttvated and cover cropped dunng the second semester of the prevtous ratny season whtle the nce monocrop treatment was left as a weedy fallowThe matze based systems were tmttated wtth the actd sotl tolerant matenal (Stkuam 3) recently released by CIMMYT Gra1n ytelds (Table 2) were low at approxtmately 2 5 t ha 1 approxtmately 1 t ha 1 less than the best obtatned 1n satelhte expenments adJacent to thts expenment Thts dtsappotntlng performance can probably be attnbuted to the poor and uneven stand obtatned as a result of dtfftculttes expenenced wtth the machtnery at sowtng Moreover unhke the expenence wtth nce establishment 1n the precedtng year where weeds were not a problem weed populattons prohferated 1n the matze plots espectally dunng the later growth stages We speculate that thts was largely the result of the ttllage operattons applied 1n the prevtous year dunng whtch the enttre expenment was ploughed 1n preparatton for an anttctpated complete tmplementatton 1n 1993 Addtttonally the wtde row spac~ng for matze may not have provtded sufftctent competttton to weeds early 1n the season Soll chemtstry/ferttlity The unamended Oxtsol under nattve savanna at the expenment stte 1n charactenzed by a htgh exchangeable Al saturatton low pH and low contents of avatlable nutnents (Table 3) However exchangeable Al decreases and sotl pH tncreases wtth depth 1n the proflle below 40 cm Applicatton of 500 kg ha 1 of dolomtttc lime pnor to tmplementatton of the nce based systems 1n Apnl 1993 dtd not affect exchangeable Al or soll pH (measured 4 months after applicatton after the nce harvest) but dtd reduce Al saturatton by about 8% as a result of tncreased exchangeable Ca and Mg denved from the lime An addtttonal applicatton of 200 kg ha 1 1n March 1994 befare sowtng causad a further 8% reductton 1n exchangeable Al saturatton (measured 3 weeks later) There was no stgmftcant effect of these amendments on soll properttes at depth Phosphorus ferttlizer applicattons (60 kg P ha 1 to nce and 40 kg P ha 1 to cowpea tn 1993) tncreased avatlable P from 1 5 to 6 O ppm as measured by Bray 11 pnor to sowtng 1n 1994 Applicatton of 2 t ha 1 of dolomtte to the matze based systems reduced Al saturatton to approxtmately 45% wtthtn 3 weeks (Table 3) Although exchangeable Al decreased and exchangeable Ca and Mg tncreased s01l pH was only margtnally affected Levels of tnorganic N tn crop pastura and rotattonal cropptng systems D Fnesen (IFDCJ R Thomas (TLJ As part of the efforts to determine nutnent balances and recycling 1n the expenment levels of tnorgamc N have been momtored tn the sotl proftle of selected treatments dunng the year for use 1n crop models and as an assessment of nutnent use efftctency Treatments tncluded cowpea as a gratn crop and as a green manure sown 1n the second semester after nce The green manure was tncorporated tnto the s01l 52 days after sowtng at a rate of 1 5 t DM ha 1For the gratn cowpea around 1 7 t DM ha 1 was returned to the sotl after the harvest dates of Jan 56 1994Sotl N levels were measured 1n the monocrop nce nce cowpea green manure and savanna control 1n January 1994 Levels were low for the savanna treatment and slightly greater for sotl under monocropped nce whtch had a marked tncrease 1n mtrate N only at a depth of 80 100 cm (Ftgure 11 Levels of ammomum N and espectally mtrate N were greatest tn the nce cowpea green manure treatment at all depths wtth a total of about 100 kg mtrate N ha (Ftgure 11 A stmtlar trend 1n sotl N levels was observad 1n early March 1994 wtth a marked tncrease 1n mtrate N 1n the nce cowpea green manure treatment of up to 135 kg mtrate N ha (Ftgure 151 2) In late March levels of s01l N m savanna and nce pasture treatments remamed low but m all other treatments elevated levels of mtrate N were observad espec1ally 1n the nce cowpea green manure treatment where up to 177 kg n1trate N ha was measured 1n the 1 m so1l prof1le (F1gure 3) S1m1larly about 113 kg n1trate N ha was measured m plots where cowpea had been grown for gram and where crop res1dues had been 1ncorporated (Figure 3) S01l wh1ch had been plowed 1n preparat1on for ma1ze sowmg also had elevated levels of both ammon1um N and espec1ally mtrate N (up to 70 kg mtrate N ha) comparad w1th und1sturbed savanna s01l (Figure 3) Th1s result md1cates an 1ncreased rate of N mmerahzat1on and accumulat1on of n1trate followmg s01l d1sturbance wh1ch IS m add1t1on to the mtrate denved from cowpea green manure and cowpea res1dues mcorporated after gram harvest Data from September 1 994 after a second success1ve nce crop md1cate that n1trate was also present m the nce monoculture treatment after the second nce crop but at depths between 60 100 cm (F1gure 4) A s1m1lar pattern was observad for the nce cowpea treatments and treatments where ma1ze had been grown as the f1rst crop m the h1gher mput system (F1gure 4) In companson w1th the March data S1gn1f1cant amounts of n1trate appeared lower down the prof1le at a depth of 60 100 cm 1n September comparad w1th O 40 cm m the monocropped nce treatment The source of th1s N IS not known but could anse e1ther from fert1hzer apphed to the second nce crop or as a result of further m1nerahzat1on of so1l orgamc matter followmg cult1vat1on and land preparat10n procedures Unfortunately no samples were taken from the und1sturbed savanna control wh1ch m ay have g1ven an 1nd1cat10n of the effect of s01l d1sturbance on N accumulat1on 1 alter flrst semester nce (hmed m Apnl 1993 w1th 500 kg/ha dolom1te and fert1hzed)2 before second year sowmg (re hmed w1th 200 kg/ha dolom1te 3 weeks prev1ously)3 before f~rst year sow1ng (hmed w1th 2000 kg/ha dolom1te 3 weeks prev1ously     The data md1cate the accumulat10n and potent1alleakage of large amounts of mtrate N from the croppmg systems Th1s N may be recovered 1f a pasture 1s sown s1multaneously w1th the crop thus md1catmg a more eff1c1ent use of the fert1hzer Further momtonng at more frequent mtervals 1s planned for 1994/95 to ga1n a better understandmg of the N economy of crop and crop pasture rotat1onal systems Decompos1t1on of crop res1dues R Thomas Decompos1t1on of the crop res1dues m the expenment 1s bemg measured w1th ma1ze nce soybean and cowpea The latter two are also bemg used as green manures m some treatments Prev1ous mformat10n 1s ava1lable for the decompos1t1on rates of ma1ze (79 day half hfe) nce (71 day half hfel and cassava (68 day half hfe) and nutnent release patterns (B1annual report Savanna program 1992 93) Rates of nce stubble decompos1t10n were more than tw1ce as great when the plant matenal was mcorporated m htter bags m the so1l at a depth of 5 1 O cm comparad w1th bags left on the s01l surface (Table 4) R1ce stubble left on the s01l surface decomposes at a rata (0 0053 d '1 s1m1lar to that of e1ther roots of the nat1ve savanna grasses (0 0056 d '1 or a mixture of roots and above ground htter (0 0059 d ') The nce stubble m these expenments was placed 1n htter bags of two mesh s1zes 1 and 4 mm but the rates of decompos1t1on were 1dent1cal w1th no effect of mesh s1ze Therefore the data m Table 4 are presentad as means of the mesh s1ze treatments lncorporated cowpea green manure decomposed at rates greater than mcorporated nce stubble (Table 41 and although the hgmn N rat1os were s1m1lar for cowpea (5 2) comparad w1th nce stubble (6 8) other nutnent concentrat1ons such as N and P were much greater 1n cowpea comparad w1th nce (2 8% N O 2% P m cowpe'a comparad w1th O 92% N and O 08% P m nce) Stud1es on the decompos1t1on of the green manure treatments (soybean and cowpea) are contmumg m 1994 but results are not yet ava1lable Further d1scuss1on of these f1ndmgs appears below under recychng of nutnents v1a decompos1t1on of htter and crop res1due Mean of htter bag mesh s1zes 1 and 4 mm Effect of cropp.ng systems on earthworm populat1ons and d1str1but•on J J Jtménez M Ftsher D1stnbut1on of earthworms 1n the nat1ve savanna buffer area 1n the expenment was evaluated dunng November 1993 and found to have the same charactenst1cs as 1n the Brachtana decumbens based pastures(see belowl Further measurements are bemg taken to document the spat1al d1stnbut1on of the earthworm commumty and to follow recolomzat1on followmg cult1vat1on w1th the ob¡ect1ve of determmtng the mechamsms To ach1eve th1s the followmg contrastmg treatments have been chosen and are sampled each 3 4 months monoculture nce R1ce pastura rotat1on and corn pastura rotat1onThe samples on each occas1on are taken at the same pomts on a gnd layout to determme the dynam1cs of the earthworm commumty across the d1fferent systems and the effects of seasonal vanat1ons These data have been not yet processed but observat1ons at the f1eld s1te 1nd1cate a very h1gh reduct1on of earthworm commumt1es wh1ch w11i make demonstrat1on of spat1al changes d1ff1cultLong term expenment 2 Agropastoral systems for the cerrados of Brazll M A yarza (CIA TJThe charactenzat10n work conducted by CIA T and EMBRAPA dunng the last two years h1ghhghted the need to halt or revert so1l degradat1on and dechmng s01l product1v1ty of the current product1on systems 1n the cerrados Among ava1lable technolog1es to mcrease product1v1ty and recla1m so1l fert1hty the combmat1on of crops and pasturas 1n space and t1me IS one of the best opt1ons Th1s technology not only mcraases overall product1v1ty but also contnbutes to 1mproved soc1oeconom1c cond1t1ons of farmars Management practicas such as land preparat1on hmmg and fert1hzat1on and ammal managament mfluance the potant1al contnbut1on of crops and pasturas 1n mtagrated crop pastura product1on systems In order to measure these effects a long term expenment was estabhshed 1n a red dark Latossol at EMBRAPA CPAC 1n Planaltma Braz1l1n 1991 The ob¡ect1ve of the expenment 1s to determine the effect of 1ntegrat1on on crop and ammal product1v1ty and to 1dent1fy so1l key parameters related to 1mprovement or degradat1on The expenment mcludes contmuous crop and pastura systems and crop pastura and pastura crop rotat1ons cycles of f1ve years Land preparat1on methods evaluate the effect of d1skmg (convent1onal land preparat1on) and deeper land preparat1on methods (flexible land preparat1on method) on crop product1v1ty and so1l phys1cal propert1esFert1hzat1on treatmants study the effact of convent1onal fert1hzat10n and a correct1ve fert1hzat1on tncludmg the use of gypsum on crop and pastura product1v1ty and so1l fert1hty Grazmg managament treatments evaluata the effect of low and h1gh grazmg 1ntens1t1es on ammal product1on botamcal compos1t1on and htter product1on 1n grass only and grass legume pasturas A group of researchers from CIAT CPAC and the Umvers1t1es of Bayreuth (Germany) and Cornell (USA) IS measunng the short and long term trends on crop and ammal product1v1ty and so1l fert1hty 1n the expenment The on stat1on work 1s complementad by satelhte plots located m several farms m Uberland1a These plots were estabhshed m 1992 on sandy and clay so1l types to determ1ne the potent1al contnbut10n of forage legumes to 1mproved sustamab1hty of crop pasture systems m hvestock product1on systems and m mtens1ve management systems w1th annual crops Changes m ammal product1on and so1l fert1hty m 1mproved and unrecla1med systems are bemg mon1tored over t1me Below are reported the results of the work On Stat1on research 1Crop performance L VJ/ela and M A yarza A fter three consecut1ve crops results show that so1l fert1hty management rather than land preparat1on methods 1s havmg a greater mfluence on crop y1elds Correct1ve fert1hzat1on 1ncreased corn y1elds by 30% compared to the convent1onal fert1hzat10n treatment dunng the present year Th1s trend was s1m11ar to the observed w1th soybeans last year (Figure 5) Above ground corn b1omass also mcreased Slgmflcatlvely w1th fert1hzat10n (Table 5) The enhanced crop growth obtamed m th1s treatment reduced weed competltlon wh1ch affected gram product1on 1n the convent1onal fert1hty management system Penmsetum ped1cellatum and Acantospermun australe were the dom1nant weed spec1es found 1n th1s system These weeds are common m annual croppmg systems m the cerrados Although there were no d1fferences m gram y1eld between the tradltlonalland management system (d1skmg) and the flexible management system (plowmg) there were sorne d1fferences 1n the d1stnbut1on of corn roots w1th depth and on s01l phys1cal propert1es Measurements camed out down the O 60 cm s01l profile m several p1ts dug m the expenment showed an mcreasmg mechamcal res1stance w1th depth m both land preparat1on methods (Figure 6) However 1t was greater m the O 25 cm depth of the s01l prepared w1th a d1sk (Figure 6) The use of a plough m the flex1ble land preparat10n method enhanced root growth and d1stnbut1on 1n the 7 25 cm (Figure 7) D1fferences 1n management system due to the amehorat1ng effect of gypsum on subso1l ac1d1ty and calc1um def1c1ency Although weed b1omass was lower w1th the use of the plough d1fferences w1th respect to the use of the d1sk were not stat1st1cally s1gmf1cant due to the h1gh vanabll1ty 10 weed populat1on 1n the expenment 2 Ammal peñormance L Vtle/a and M A yarzaThe supenor ammal performance 1n the grass legume assoc1at1on observad dunng the f1rst year of grazmg remamed the same dunng the second year (Figure 8) Stylosanthes mmetrao st1ll contnbuted s1gmf1cantly to the total ava1lable forage b1omass ( > 60%) and to the n1trogen supply to the grass v1a htter decompos1t1on Th1s resultad 1n a h1gher mtrogen content 1n t1ssueof A gayanus 10 the grass legume pastura comparad to the grass only pastura ( 1 59 + O 2 vs 1 13 +0 01) Mamtenance fert1hzat1on and grazmg 1ntens1ty mfluenced more botamcal compos1t1on than ammal performance L1tter product1on data w1ll be reportad next year A marked mortahty of Stylosanthes plants has been observad smce the last dry season (Apnl 1994) The results of the evaluat1on of damage carned out at the end of the dry season 1nd1cated that 50% of the standmg plants showed symptoms of a d1e back d1sease or mechamcal damage produced by ammal tramphng Damage was lesser 1n Sty/osanthes plants growmg 10 1nt1mate assoc1at1on w1th the grass Th1s problem 1s reducmg legume b1omass rap1dly 10 the expenment Therefore we delayed the 1mt1at10n of grazmg 10 the wet season and reduced grazmg pressure as an attempt to mamtam the legume component 1n the expenment Sol! phys1cal propert1es under pasturas followed the same pattern observad last year Mechamcal res1stance values 10 the O 1 O cm topsoll of the grazed pasturas were h1gher comparad to the cropp1ng systems as a result of to ammal tramphng (Figure 9) However absoluta values were below 12 mpascals that have been found to hm1t root growth accordmg to prev1ous work conducted at CPAC (Tropsolls Bulletm No 91 01) Roots of Andropogon were more evenly d1stnbuted 10 the s01l prof1le than the corn roots and the nat1ve cerrado vegetat1on (F1gure 1 0) Changas 10 so1l chem1cal propert1es are not reportad smce laboratory analys1s results are not ava1lable yet 3 MycorrhiZ8 populatlon and actiVIty J e Mtranda The a1m of th1s work IS to evaluate the effect of crops and pasturas over t1me on mycorrh1za populat1on and act1v1ty Propagule dens1ty ( number of spores/ 50 gm so11) and act1v1ty (percentage of roots 1nfected) 1s under evaluat1on smce the begmmng of the expenment So1l samples from the O 20 cm sol! depth conta101ng fresh roots are collected three t1mes each year (at the begmmng at the peak and at the end of the ramy season) Bes1des spore countmg a prehmmary assessment of most dommant mycorrh1zal genus 1s done 1n each management system Nat1ve populat1on 1s low ( 12 spores/ 50 gm s011) and composed of several genera (Gtgaspora Scutellospora Acau/ospora and Glomus)The results of the f~rst year of evaluat1on 1nd1cated that mycorrh1zal populat10ns mcreased by twenty f1ve fold dunng pastura establishment and by threefold under the soybean crop (F1gure 11) Root colomzat1on followed the same patterns Dunng the second year populat1on under pasturas dropped wh1le 1t mcreased under crops Changas are probably relatad to the h1gh mycorrh1zal dependence of pasturas dunng the establishment phase and to d1fferences 1n root morphology between crops and pasturas Considerable attent1on 1s g1ven to the role of orgamc matter m sustamable land use systems m neotrop1cal savannas Bes1des to the benef1c1al effect on so1l structure orgamc matter 1mproves water holdmg capac1ty cat1on exchange capac1ty and soll b1olog1cal act1v1ty A collaborat1ve pro1ect between CIA T EMBRAPA CPAC and the Umvers1ty of Bayreuth was recently 1n1t1ated to study the short and long term effects of several land management systems on soll orgamc compos1t1on and dynam1cs Two PhD students arnved last September at CPAC One 1s study1ng the long term 1mpact of several land management systems on the compos1t1on of organ1c matter and the other the short term effects of land use on water and orgamc matter assoc1ated nutnentsThe effect of land use on so1l organ1c matter compos1t1on started w1th the s01l samphng m several selected s1tes m two so1l types (clay and sandy texturas) m Uberland1a (M Gl The selected land use systems are Contmuous annual croppmg systems contmuous pasture systems nat1ve cerrado plantad forests and crop pasture rotat1on systems Several techmques mcludmg 13C NMR and GC spectroscopy to w1ll be used to 1dent1fy the compos1t1on of SOM m vanous fract1ons of the so1l Further stud1es w1ll be conducted to determme the dynam1cs of most sens1t1ve fract1ons m relat1on to so1l management Water and nutnent dynam1cs stud1es w1ll be carned out w1thm our crop pastura mtegrat1on expenment at CPAC Several treatments mcludmg the nat1ve cerrado and the crop and pastura systems were selected for th1s study The ob]ect1ve of the work 1s to study the effect of mtegrated and not mtegrated systems on water ava•lab1hty and dynam1cs of nutnents denved from organ1c matter mmerallzat1on (N P and SI Selected plots w1ll be sampled over t1me to asses the short term effect of crop pastura rotat1on next year 5Effects of agncultural development on greenhouse gas fluxes 1n the cerrados J Duxbury andA CardosoTrop1cal ecosystems are globally 1mportant sources of a number of atmosphenc gases mcludmg carbon monox1de mtnc ox1des and methane Moreover trop1cal land use change mcludmg both the convers1on of trop1cal forest to pasture and agnculture and more mtens1ve management of ex1stmg agncultural land are takmg place m the trop1cs The 1mpact of these land use changas on b1ogeochem1cal cycllng and trace gas 1s not well understoodThe ob]ect1ve of th1s proJect 1s to determme the mfluence of agnculture development on fluxes of greenhouse from/to so1ls of the cerrado and to learn about the processes controlhng fluxes The focus of the work 1s on the em1ss1on of mtrous ox1de and methane consumpt1on and ox1dat1onSeveral plots from the Crop pasture expenment at CPAC were selected to conduct the study 1) nat1ve cerrado 21 contmuous grass pastura 3) contmuous grass legume pastura and 4) contmuous annual croppmg system Gas flux measurements started m July 1994 and are expected to contmue for two years Prehm1nary expenments usmg mcubated s01l samples from the selected plots to determme the effect of CH 4 concentrat1on and s01l m01sture on methane ox1dat10n showed a clear decrease m CH 4 concentrat1on m the O 60 cm so1l depth 1n all the treatments (Figure 1 2) Methane concentrat1ons were less than 1 ppm at the 1 O cm depth suggestmg a strong smk for methane m the s01l surface Flux measurements dunng a two week penod showed that methane ox1dat1on was h1ghest m the corn plots and lowest m the cerrado plots (F1gure 13) The pasture treatments were m between Th1s results suggest that under the cond1t1on of the expenment there 1s not yet a reduct1on of the capac1ty of the s01l to ox1d1ze methane lncreasmg so1l mo1sture decreased methane ox1dat1on capaCity m both nat1ve cerrado and corn plots However the effect was greater m the corn plots md1catmg that changas m pore s1ze d1stnbut1on brought about by cult1vat1on may leave the sollless buffered m 1ts ab1hty to ox1d1ze methane N1trous ox1de fluxes were very low 1n all management systems dunng the dry season However 1t 1s expected large changes dunng the wet seasonAfter several months of graz1ng results are showmg the benef1c1al 1mpact of Sty/osanthes mme\"ao m 1mprovmg the productiVIty of nce pastura systems m hvestock product1on systems w1th low mputs Ammal gams were cons1stently better m the legume based pasturas than m the Brach1ana pasture recla1med w1th nce and the ongmal sown but degrad1ng grass pastura (Table 6) Legumes planted w1th corn and Pamcum cv Vencedor d1d not estabhsh because of crop and grass compet1t1on In sp1te of the fa1lure to estabhsh the legumes the pure grass pasturas are growmg v1gorously and supportmg h1gh carrymg capac1t1es and adequate ammal gams Th1s must be assoc1ated w1th the residual fert1hty left by several years of annual crops Evaluat10n of legume populat1on m these pasturas 1s showmg a gradual mcrease m the Calopogomum and Neonotoma spec1es over t1me m the Fazenda Sta Terezmha The evaluat1on of changes m so1l fert1hty and so1l phys1cal propert1es under 1mproved and unrecla1med systems started recently Results are not ava1lable yetLong term controlled expenments offer the best opportumty to measure the 1mpact of 1ntegrated crop pastura systems on product10n and s01l fert1hty The expenment at CPAC allows the opportumt1es for the study of changas m so1l chem1cal phys1cal and b1olog1cal parameters under a w1de range of management vanables After three years of cont1nuous croppmg so1l fert1hty management 1s mfluencmg crop growth and y1elds more than land preparat1on methods So1l compact1on and loss of aggregat1on under the convent1onalland preparat10n systems usmg a d1sk 1s not affectmg crop performance yet Weed pressure 1s mfluenced by fert1hty management and land preparat1on methods Satelhte plots 1n Uberland1a are demonstratmg the benef1c1al 1mpact of forage legumes on ammal product1v1ty of crop pasture systems and the feas1b1hty of mcludmg forage legumes m crop pasture rotat1ons More than 200 farmers of the reg1on have v1s1ted the plotsW1th the 1n1t1at1on of the pro¡ect on so1l organ1c matter we expect to strengthen our act1v1t1es on strateg1c research m our long term controlled expenments Contacts have already been made w1th the Center of Nuclear Energy at P1rac1caba to study the contnbut10n of crops and pasturas to s01l orgamc matter usmg stable 1sotopes A s1m1lar 1mt1at1ve 1s m progress w1th the Nat1onal Center of Agrob1ology at R1o de Jane1ro to study the dynam1cs of n1trogen 1n crop pastura systems usmg ' 5 N labelhng Our current act1V1t1es of momtonng of productoon systems m Uberland1a woll be expanded to studoes on pastura degradatoon The prehm1nary phase of the work woll consost of the selectoon of the several pasturas undergomg degradatoon and the complete charactenzat1on of the1r productovoty and s01l fert1hty Thos w1ll be carned out by one master student from the Unoversoty of Gottmgen The study w1ll be complementad woth the economocal evaluatoon of degradad pasturas and omproved agropastoral systems Th1s work woll be done by a second M Se student from the same Umversoty lt 1s expected that the pasturas selected on thos study can be used m the futura stud1es assessmg the 1mpact of pastura degradat1on on SOM accumulat1on s01l losses and gas fluxes The modern v1ew of the management of s01l fert1hty 1n the trop1cs 1s one wh1ch rehes more on b1olog•cal processes adapts germplasm to adverse so1l cond1t1ons enhances so1l biolog1cal act1v1ty and opt1m1zes nutnent cychng to m1mm1ze externa! mputs while max1m1zlng the eff1c1ency of use of any externa! mputs A part of th1s effort w1ll be the ab1hty to pred1ct the rate of release of nutnents from plant htter and crop res1dues by the use of models basad on a sound understandmg of the key processes nutnent pools and fluxes mvolved In grazed trop1cal pasturas recychng of nutnents v1a plant htter •s probably more 1mportant than recychng v1a the ammal when pasturas are moderately grazed erops generally rece1ve fert1hzer and the1r res1dues therefore are an 1mportant source of nutnents 1n low fert1hty so1ls where pools of nutnents are small and/or unava1lable for plant uptake Therefore a ma¡or effort has been made to charactenze the decompos1t1on processes mvolved w1th both herbaceous and shrubby forages and crop htter Decompos1t1on of herbaceous and shrubby forages A htter bag techn1que (Thomas & Asakawa 1993) was used to compare the •mt1al compos1t1on and rates of decompos1t10n of htter from herbaceous and shrubby legumes and one grass spec1es w1th the add1t10nal treatment of htter s1ze The latter cons1sted of cutt1ng leaf htter of all spec1es down to a s1ze Similar to that of Stylosanthes cap1tata about 1 O mm length L1tter bags were placed 3 cm below the so11 surface m large plast1c contamers 150 x 30 x 25 cm) m a glasshouse contammg an ox1sol from eanmagua lclay loam from lntroduct1ons 11) Table 7 shows the spec1es used and the1r Jmt1al compos•t•ons As there was httle or no d1fference between cut or mtact htter the data for the two treatments were pooled (Table 8) Rates of decompos1t1on and half hves 1nd1cated that there was a w1de vanat1on amongst the spec1es w1th A pmto1 S cap1tata e flonbunda and O velutmum decomposmg the fastest and F macrophylla O oval!foi!Um and e acutlfol!um the slowest (Table 8) Spec1es w1th fastest rates of decompos1t10n generally had low hgmn N e N rat1os or low amounts of tanmns conversely spec1es w1th slowest rates had h1gh hgmn N e N or h1gh amounts of tanmns when the compos1t1onal factors were cons1dered together L1gmn content (r 2 = O 87) hgn1n N (r 2 = O 67) and hgmn hem1cellulose rat1os Ir' = O 68) gave the best lmear correlat1ons w1th k (all p<O 05)The f1ndmg that there was httle or no effect of reducmg the htter s1ze on the rates of compos1t1on of each indiVIdual spec1es 1nd1cates that decompos1t1on IS more a funct1on of 1mt•al compos1t10n rather than phys1cal natura Most of the vanat10n 1n decompos1t1on rates could be explamed by a combmat10n of composltlonal factors such as hgmn e N rat1o hem1cellulose and tanmns ~ ..,¡ \"' The lltters used m th1s study was also exammed for m wtro dry matter d1gest1b11ity est1mates (IVDMD) m collaborat1on w1th Dr C lascano of the forages program to determme 1f a relat1onsh1p ex1sted between rumen hquor d1gest1b1ht1es and htter decompos1t1on Such a relat1onsh1p could be used as a common Simple md1cator for both processes even though one 1s anaerob1c (rumen) and the other essent1ally aerob1c (decompos1t10n m s01l) Although there was a pos1t1ve trend between htter decompos1t10n constants and est1mates of IVDMD the correlat1on was not s1gmf1cant (r 2 = O 58) These 1mt1al results suggest that there may be sorne ment m explonng th1s relat1onsh1p m more detall and a ¡omt research pro¡ect has been wntten w1th the forage program The decompos1t1on of the leaf htter of the forage legumes A pmto1 D ovaflfoflum and the tree Leucaena leucocephala was comparad w1th leaf lltter of coffee ( eoffea arab1ca) at two s1tes (Naran¡al and Gran¡a) w1th s1m1lar so1ls but contrastmg env1ronments m the expenmental stat1ons of CENICAFE near Man1zales Caldas Rates of decomposJtJon were shghtly greater at Gran¡a comparad w1th Naran¡al probably dueto a cooler chmate at Naran¡al (Table 9) The large d1fferences m decompos1t1on constants for L leucocephala are d1ff1cult to explam as the m1t1al matenal was 1dent1cal A pmto1 decomposed qu1ckly m th1s env1ronment and stud1es are contmumg on the role of th1s and other forage legumes as supphers of mtrogen for coffee m collaborat1on w1th CENICAFE L1tter bags of d1fferent mesh s1ze m ay exclude certam s01l fauna and therefore could effect the rates of decompos1t1on To determme the extent of th1s effect leaf htter of d1fferent forage grasses and legumes were placed 1n the f1eld at Canmagua 1n bags of 1 2 and 4 mm mesh s1ze and decompos1t1on was followed usmg the methodology prev1ously descnbed (Thomas & Asakawa 1993) A smgle exponent1al decay funct1on was f1tted to the data to calculate decompos1t1on constants (k) and htter half hves 1n days The results 1nd1cated that bag mesh s1ze had httle effect on the decompos1t1on parameters for any of the spec1es stud1ed (Table 1 0) As reportad prev10usly and above the legume Arach1s pmto1 decomposed at the fastest rates whlle Desmodwm ovallfol!um and the grass Brachlaf!a d1ctyoneura decomposed at slowest rates These results md1cate the m the env1ronment of a trop1cal ac1d so1l savanna fauna wh1ch could not enter bags of mesh s1ze 1 mm play a relat1vely mmor role 1n htter decompos1t1on Th1s data taken together w1th that above and prev1ous reports (81annual Report Savanna Program 1992 1993) 1nd1cate that the chem1cal compos1t1on of trop1cal forage htter and crop res1dues 1s a more 1mportant regulatory factor than the decomposer orgamsms or phys1cal structure of the plant matenal of the spec1es stud1ed to date So1l morgamc mtrogen levels were measured below the pos1t1ons of the htter bags 1n these expenments to determme whether or not levels of morgamc N were mcreased as htter decomposed However m no treatment was an elevated level of e1ther mtrate or ammon1um detectad 1nd1catmg that e1ther decompos1t1on was slow or that the ralease of any morgamc N was qUickly 1mmob1hzed by m1crob1al b1omass and/or plants (data not mcludedlThe ava1lable data md1cate that htter/crop res1due compos1t1on plays a key regulatmg role 1n plant decompos1t1on and nutnent ralease m trop1cal savannas and that the most s1gntf1cant regulatmg factor 1s the hgmn N rat1o w1th add1t1onal mmor roles for the C N rat1o and polyphenol or tannm content The latter are generally low 1n htter/crop res1dues comparad w1th green manures where tanmns have been 1mphcated as major regulatory factors Thus 1t may be convement to use the htter decompos1t1on module m the CENTURY ecosystem model to pred1ct rates of decompos1t10n and nutnent ralease patterns for matenal w1th a w1de range of hgnm N ratios Earher work has been reportad which vahdates the usefulness of this model m such prediCtions (Biannual Report Savanna Program 1992 93) even though some problems have been identified m the use of CENTURY for long term soil carbon and other nutnent estimates under moist tropical savanna conditions Plant htter and excreta from large herb1vores are two of the ma¡or routes for N cychng m grazed pastures Legume N may s1m11arly be transferred to grasses v1a these recychng routes In tropical pastures With improved plant spec1es httle or no mformat1on ex1sts on these processes and data on the recovery or loss of th1s mtrogen from the so1l plant system 1s particularly scarce L1tter N Plants of the forage legumes Arach1s pmto1 and Centrosema acutdolwm were grown m washed sand m a glasshouse With a source of '\"N to label the plant N (ammomum sulphate 99 6% atom excess 15 N) Labelled leaf htter was collected from these plants and apphed to four O 1 m 2 subplots at rates equ¡valent to 15 g DM m 2 m a grass only pasture (8 d!ctyoneura) on a clay loam so1l (lntro 11) of the core expenment m Canmagua The rates of N add1t1on were O 31 g N m 2 for A pmto1 andO 32 g N m 2 for C acut¡fohum Four eqUJvalent matchmg subplots were used to determme the standmg b1omass by cutting to 5 cm height and 15 N ennchment of the so1l at t1me zero Both subplots were located m each of tour larger 1 m 2 plots wh1ch were protected from grazmg throughout the expenment by exclus¡on cages So1l (0 5 5 1 O and 1 O 20 cm layers by depth) and grass samples were taken over t1me to determme the tate of the labelled N by measunng water contents dry we1ghts total N and 15 N ennchments The mfluence of so1l fauna was momtored by recordmg the presence or absence of act1V1t1es such as ant nests or earthworm casts m the subplots Rates of grass dry matter regrowth and N accumulat10n were s1m1lar w1th or w1thout e1ther of the two legume lltters after 92 days The recovery of labelled 15 N from the legume litter 92 days after appllcat1on m grass regrowth was less than 1 % w1th C acuttfolium and only 1 7% w1th A pmtoJ desp1te the reportad rap1d rates of decompos1t1on of leaf lltter of the latter spec1es Data on 15 N m the so1l and hence on total recovery of added N are not yet ava1lable There were no v1s1ble effects of s01l or lltter movements resultmg from so1l fauna act1v1ty Conclus1ons lt 1s apparent that the transfer of labelled N from leaf lltter of legumes to grasses 1s extremely slow under cond1t10ns s1m1lar to those under a grazed pastura Cattle unne In the second expenment 15 N labelled urea N was added to cattle urme collected from ammals grazmg the grass only pasturas m the core expenment at Can magua The labelled unne was then added to 1 m 2 m1croplots of 8 dJctyoneura m the same plots from wh1ch urme was collected at a rate eqUivalent to a s1ngle unnat1on 1 e 2 6 1 m 2 The amount of N applled 1ncludmg the labelled urea N was 3 66 g N 1 1 or 95 16 kg N ha 1 The m1croplots were bordered w1th alummum sheets to a depth of 1 5 cm and were protected from further grazmg by cages after a tak1ng standard1zat1on cut to 5 cm he1ght Herbage was cut approx two t1mes per month to a he1ght of 5 cm unt1l there was no v1s1ble d1fference m regrowth 1n the control (water) or unne treated plots and total dry matter N and 15 N ennchments were measured So1l cores were taken at mtervals to a depth of 20 cm separatmg the cores 1nto O 5 5 1 O and 1 O 20 cm layers and measurements were made for so1l pH morgamc mtrogen m KCI extracts and ' 5 N ennchments of total so1l N Twelve days after unne appllcat1on around 4% of the added 15 N label was recovered m plant regrowth and 63% was recovered m so1l organ1c matter Around 33% was not recovered After 92 days about 10% of the labelled N was recovered m new herbage A complete analys1s w1ll be made when data for other dates are ava1lable F1gure 14 shows the response of the grass to unne appllcat1on After 92 days the grass rece1v1ng unne had accumulated 1 2 g N m 2 more than the control ( 12 kg N ha 1 } and after 1 55 days 82 6 g DM m 2 more than the control (826 kg DM ha 1 } The %N m herbage rece1vmg cattle unne was as muchas O 8 %N greater than that m herbage rece1v1ng water (2 89% vs 2 08%N} w1th the d1fferences decreasmg w1th t1me untll 92 days after appllcat1on when N concentrat10ns m herbage were s1m1lar between treatments (1 23% vs 1 16%N} F1gure 14 also 1nd1cates that the d1fferences between the treatments mcreased w1th t1me m terms of DM accumulat1on Further analys1s of th1s data w1ll be done when the 15 N labelllng results are ava1lable Of particular 1mportance Wlll be an analys1s of the tate of the large amounts of labelled N m the so1l organ1c matter There were llttle or no d1fferences m s01l pH at any depth between the unne treatment and the control Th1s IS m contrast w1th the work reported from temperate grasslands wh1ch 1nd1cates pH mcreases of up to O 5 umts m unne treated s01l mamly as a result of rap1d urea degradat10n at the so1l surface 250~-------------------------------  ---------------------- Days after unne aphcatton § 3 § 3F1g 15 lnorgamc N 1n so1l after unne aphcat1onLevels of morgamc N (ammomum and mtrate) were momtored at O 5 5 1 O and 1 O 20 cm depths over t1me Ammon1um mcreased m the so1l 1mmed1ately after apphcat1on (Figure 1 5) and then decreased gradually over 28 days There was httle or no appearance of n1trate o ver the 1 55 days momtored md1catmg httle apparent mtnf1cat1on Most of the mcrease m s01l ammomum N levels occurred 1n the top 5 cm of the so11 prof1le w1th httle apparent movement downward (Figure 14) These results awa1t conf1rmat1on from the ' 5 N labelhng data 1n s01l organ1c matterThe results demonstrate the faster recychng of N v1a ammal unne than v1a plant htter and a greater % recovery w1th unne comparad w1th htter Apparent losses of unne N were relat1vely low comparad w1th data from temperate systems The data md1cate that although the returns of N to the so1l may be greater v1a htter than unne the actual amounts of N ava1lable for plant uptake may be greater from ammal excreta Phosphorus transformat1ons m 1mproved pasturas A Oberson (U Saskatchewan) D K Frtesen (IFDCJ H T1essen J Mo1r (Umv of Saskatchewan) G Barrero (TL) lntroduct1on Phosphorus 1s among the nutnents most hm1tmg plant product10n 1n the ac1d savannas Ac1d tolerant pastura germplasm cannot be estabhshed Wlthout add1t1ons of purchased P and there are msuff1c1ent amounts ava1lable 1n the unamended so1ls to 1mprove recychng lmproved pastures usmg ac1d tolerant grass and legume vanet1es have resultad m a 1 O to 1 5 fold mcrease 1n beef product1on per ha m f1eld expenments 1n Canmagua The fact that th1s dramat1c product1on 1ncrease was obtamed w1th modest P fert1hzer mputs ra1ses quest1ons about the perce1ved meff1c1ency of P fert1hzer 1nputs on h1gh weathered h1gh P sorbmg so1ls and about transformat1ons of s01l and fert1hzer P occurnng when nat1ve savanna 1s replaced by 1mproved grass only or grass legume pasturas The present mvest1gat1on attempts to answer these quest1ons by means of sequent1al chem1cal P fract1onat10n to assess the s1gmf1cance of d1fferent orgamc (P ) and morgamc (P 1 ) P fract1ons and by est1mated P budgets for nat1ve savanna and 1mproved pastura so1ls The fract10nat1on method was augmented w1th the charactenzat10n of the C/N/P rat1os of the orgamc matter extractad dunng d1fferent steps Data are d1scussed m terms of an 1mproved understandmg of P transformat1ons m so1ls under 1mproved pasturas The usefulness of d1fferent P and P fract1ons as susta1nab1hty md1cators IS evaluated Matenal and Methods So1l samples were taken 1n a long term pastura expenment estabhshed m 1978 on an Ox1sol at the ICA CIAT Canmagua research stat1on m the eastern plams of Colombia Treatments mcluded were nat1ve savanna (SA) grass only pastura (GO) (BrachJarJa decumbens cv Bas1hsk) and grass legume pastura (GL) (BrachJarta decumbens cv Bas1hsk w1th Puerarta phaseo/o¡des CIAT 9900 (Kudzu)) D1fferent P and P fract1ons were sequent1ally determmed usmg the followmg extractants H 2 0 w1th amon exchange resm O 5 M NaHC0 3 O 1 M NaOH 1 O M HCI hot conc HCI The so1l remammg at the end was d1gested w1th perchlonc aCid to assess res1dual P lnorgamc P m extracts was determmed by the molybdate ascorb1c ac1d method Total P m the H 2 0 NaHC0 3 NaOH and hot HCI extracts was measured after d1gest1on w1th K 2 S 2 0 8 Orgamc P was calculated as the d1fference between total P and P Fract1ons are abbrev1ated as follows H 2 0 P Resm P B1c P P NaOH P P HCI P HCI. P P Res1d P, Orgamc C m H 2 0 NaHC0 3 NaOH and HCI\" extracts was determmed usmg a mod1f1ed K 2 Cr 2 0 7 H 2 S0 4 method Total N m H 2 0 NaHC0 3 and NaOH extracts was determmed by d1gest1on w1th K 2 S 2 0 8 m an autoclave Total N 1n the HCI\" extracts was determmed after KJeldahl d1gest10n on an autoanalyser RESUL TS ANO DISCUSSION Effects of 1mproved pasturas on orgamc and morgamc soll P fract1onsWh1le both P and P fract1ons were affected by 1mproved pasture treatments (Table 11) the GL pasture mduced more pronounced changes than the GO pastura when comparad to the SA Th1s was a consequence of the overall s1gn1f1cantly h1gher total P (SumPT and PT Table 11) content of the GL pastura The 1mportance of P m the so1l solutlon 1s reflectad m the almost equal amounts of P and P extractad m the res1n H 2 0 step In extracts of temperate so1ls B1c P IS cons1dered to contam mamly lab1le act1vely cychng P compounds wh1le NaOH P was mterpreted as moderately lab1le P compounds wh1ch reflect the slower long term transformat10ns of s01l P occurnng dunng s01l format1on or prolongad cult1vat1on In the present study lablle B1c P was not affected by the convers1on of nat1ve savanna mto 1mproved pasturas wh1le NaOH P was mcreased under the 14 year old GL pasture but not the GO pastura Consequently these results support a rev1sed mterpretat1on of these two fract1ons for trop1cal so1ls B1c P appears to be at a constant level regardless of the croppmg h1story m sorne trop1cal s01ls wh1le the NaOH P fract1on reflects the overall changes m s01l orgamc matter and P levels when the s01l 1s stressed by cult1vat1on and net P export Th1s fract1on m ay therefore represent a relat1vely act1ve reserv01r (source or smk) of P under trop1cal cond1t1onsThe observad mcrease m extractable so1l P m GL was probably not due to mert plant maten al s1nce the legume Puerana phaseo/o1des 1s known to decompose at s1mllar rates as the grass Brach1ana decumbens G1ven the mcrease m lab1le P fract1ons (Resm P, B1c P Table 11) espec1ally m the GL pastura P m plant res1dues and ammal excreta seems to be recycled eff1c1ently Th1s IS supported by the observat1on of h1gher ac1d phosphatase act1v1ty m 1mproved pasturas than m nat1ve savanna ( 181 ± 8 213 ± 14 239 ± 17 mg p mtrophenol kg 1 h 1 for SA GO and GL respect1vely) Phosphatase act1v1ty was at a h1gh level for all treatments thus showmg the s1gn1f1cance of orgamc P m the so1l P dynam1cs of 1mproved pasturas and nat1ve savanna All extractable morgamc fract10ns were mcreased m the GL pasture but not the GO pasture (Table 11) The mod1f1cat1ons observad m the GL pasture m lab1le fract1ons 1nd1cate an 1mprovement m P ava1lab1hty wh1ch 1s also reflectad m the results of the Bray 11 P soll test values (Table 11) Although the1r content 1s st1ll very low the mcrease m lab1le P fract1ons 1s surpnsmg g1ven the low P mputs made by fert1hzers (T able 1 2) and the med1um to strong P sorpt10n capac1ty of the s01l In all treatments d1fferences m P fract1ons were largely m absoluta values rather than relat1ve terms Th1s suggests that the prehmmary part1t1onmg of apphed P among so1l P fract1ons was not greatly mfluenced by 1mproved pasture spec1es e1ther m GO or m GL systems S1gn1f1cantly the observad absoluta mcreases m fract1on s1zes mcludmg fract1ons cons1dered as read1ly ava1lable occurred almost ent1rely m the GL pasture -CD ~  P budgets 10 nat1va savanna and 1mprovad pasturas P budgets were est1mated to determme the relat1on between P mput m 1mproved pasturas and P output v1a beef cattle and to better understand the mod1f1cat1ons m the s1ze of P fract1ons or total P that occurred espec1ally m the GL pastura P budgets were calculated by subtractmg the P removed from the system by ammals from the P apphed m mmeral fert1hzer (Table 12) Pos1t1ve P budgets were obtamed for both 1mproved pasturas whlle a small negat1ve budget was found for the unfert1hzed SA (Table 12) Clearly d1fferences 1n PT as well as ava1lable P fract1ons between the GO and the GL pastura were not due to d1fferences 1n P budgetsThe calculated d1fferences m the P budget are 81 kg P ha 1 between GO and SA and 72 kg P ha 1 between GL and SA (column 4 table 12) Assummg that all (non exportad) apphed P remamed 1n the O 1 O cm surface so1l layer and usmg a bulk dens1ty of 1 3 g cm 3 the measured PT d1fferences (column 5 table 12) are smaller than the values est1mated from the budget for the GO as well as for the GL treatment Espec1ally for GO the d1screpancy (column 6 table 12) clearly exceeds d1fferences that m1ght be explamed by analyt1cal errors One poss1ble explanat1on for the observad d1screpanc1es 1s that the P budgets were much less than est1mated for both 1mproved pastura types However overest1mat1on of the P budget could only occur by underest1mat1on of P exportad m ammal hve we1ght gam (LWGl and 1t 1s unhkely that the error would be so large Moreover P exportad would be expected to be s1m1lar for both systems or perhaps even greater from GL pasturas g1ven the h1gher P content m legumes than grasses The alternat1ve explanat1on 1s that P moved out of the surface so1l 1nto the so1l prof1le and that there was a largar net movement of P out of the top so1l !ayer m the GO pastura comparad to the GL pastura lt 1s very Improbable that any s1gmf1cant movement of 1norgamc P would have occurred through leachmg g1ven the substant1al sorpt1on capac1ty of th1s s01l However losses of soluble orgamc P as well as of part1culate P may occur cons1denng the h1gh ramfall mtens1ty the h1gh P contents 1n the water of the resm extract1on step (Table 11) and the fme textura of the so1l Although pos1t1ve P budgets and mcreases 1n most P fract1ons were observad for both 1mproved pasturas the companson of PT and the est1mated P budget md1cates P losses from the O 1 O cm layer espec1ally m the GO pastura Consequently the mtegrated cons1derat1on of P fract1ons PT and P budget shows that the GO pastura 1s less resource conservmg than GL C/N and C/P rat1os of d1ffarent orgamc P fract1ons D1fferences m the compos1t1on of so1l orgamc matter extractad m the d1fferent steps or remammg m the so1l res1due are lllustrated by the1r e/N and e/P rat1os (Tabla 13) S1nce pasture type d1d not s1gmf1cantly affect these rat1os only mean values for each extract are presentad In general the e/N/P rat1os (Tabla 13) espec1ally e¡p were.h1gh when comparad to values known from the hterature wh1ch are mamly based on stud1es on temperate so1ls e/N rat1os vaned more between extractants than e¡p Tabla 13 e/N e/P and N/P rat1os m d1fferent extracts of the sequent1al fract1onat1on procedure as well as etN/P for N = 10 The e¡p rat1o m so1l and plant res1dues added to so1l has been used to pred1ct net 1mmob1hzat1on and mmerahzat10n m so1l w1th P mmerahzat10n occurnng at rat1os of 200 or less and P 1mmob1hzat1on when rat1os are 300 or more eonsequently fert1hzer P added to any treatment of the present study would be 1mmob1hzed m orgamc matter However the mcrease m avallable morgamc P fract10ns (Table 111 espec1ally m the GL pastura occurnng at the sama t1me as an mcrease m total e and N (data not shown} suggests an mcons1stency m the pnnc1ple basad on e¡p mdex Plant htter of 1mproved grass and legume spec1es has a C/P rat1o rangmg from ca 400 to 2700 eonsequently w1der e¡p rat1os m these so1ls are hkely an md1cator of recent orgamc matenal and therefore an md1cator of P w1th a h1gh ava1lab1hty when P 1s mmerahzed concom1tantly to e and N dnven by the need for energy The h1gh phosphatase act1v1ty m all treatments mcluded md1cates the 1mportance of b1ochem1cal or b1olog1cal processes m P mmerahzat1onBased on the h1gh e¡p rat1os observed m the present study not only m stable fract1ons but also m lablle P fract1ons a re evaluat1on of the cnt1cal e/P concept 1s reqUired espec1ally when used as a parameter for modelhng P turnover eg m the eentury model (see contnbut10n of G1¡sman et al m th1s annual report) Factors enhanc1ng P avallab1hty m GL pasturas For many of the vanables mcluded to mvest1gate P transformat1ons GL shows a more d1stmct separat1on from SA than GO does lncreases m P, fract1ons cons1dered as read1ly plant ava1lable show that P added to the soll v1a fert1hzer plant htter and ammal excreta cycles more eff1c1ently m the GL pasture Explanat1ons for the fact that only small P mputs v1a fert1hzers enhanced P cychng m the GL more than m the GO pasture may be found m the d1fferences m so1l floral and faunal act1v1ty as well as by the mtervent1on of plants m P cychng A recent diploma thes1s wh1ch stud1ed these pasturas showed that macrofaunal b1omass m the GL treatment was tw1ce that of the GO treatment wh1ch was double that of SA w1th earthworms bemg the dommant macrofaunal spec1es P ava1lab1hty IS apparently enhanced m casts of earthworms The greater 1mportance of processes hnked to b10log1cal act1v1ty are also md1cated by the shghtly h1gher phosphatase act1v1ty m GL than GO pasturas Furthermore m1crob1al P wh1ch 1s cons1dered to be the second most act1ve soll P pool after solut1on P was larger m the GL pasture comparad w1th GO wh1ch m turn was shghtly h1gher than SA (data not shownl Root growth and charactenst1cs may also affect P cychng eff1c1ency In th1s respect legumes may be more eff1c1ent cyclers or at least promote more eff1c1ent cychng m m1xed pasturas than grasses Ev1dence of th1s may be seen m the comparat1vely h1gher cat1on concentrat1ons (espec1ally Ca) m the surface so1l of the GL pastura (data not shown)In summary therefore 1n1t1allow P mputs through fert1hzers (Table 12) and N mput by legumes have enhanced nutnent cychng Excreta from grazmg hvestock make a more 1mportant contnbut1on to the nutnent ennchment m the top most so1l layar of 1mproved pasturas than m the SA as a result of mcreased plant product1on stockmg rate and h1gher nutnent contents espec1ally m legumes Together w1th the plant htter excreta lead to 1mproved nutnent cond1t10ns for soll flora and fauna As a result of mteract1ons between chem1cal and b1olog1cal so1l propert1es P ava1lab1hty 1s mcreased Nutnent cychng through the m1crob1al b1omass A G1¡sman A Oberson (U Saskatchewan) D Fnesen (IFDC) J Sanz R Thomas (TL) lntroduct1on So1l m1crob1al b1omass has been shown to be a sens1t1ve 1nd1cator of changas m s01l organ1c matter (SOM) quahty and quant1ty lt responds relat1vely rap1dly 1 e comparad to total SOM to changas m orgamc mputs to tha so1l or m so1l managament and d1fferances m m1crob1al b1omass can be detectad before they can be measured m total SOM Bes1des bemg useful as an md1cator of the orgamc mattar status of a so1l the 1mportance of m1crob1al b1omass 1s found m 1ts central role m nutnent cychng m a s01l Strong correlat10ns have been found batween tha amount of nutnents held m tha m1crob1al b1omass and levels of mmarahzable nutnents m the so1l 1nd1cat1ng that nutnent cychng m a so1l 1s t1ghtly hnked to the turnover of m1crob1al b1omass The ob¡act1ve of the present study was to determme wh1ch changes m m1crob1al b1omass occur when nat1ve savanna whose orgamc matter content m ay be expected to be at aqUihbnum level 1s opened up and brought under cult1vat1on M1crob1al C N and P contents and C and N mmerahzat1on ratas were determ1ned m so1l from 5 year monocrop nca and vanous forms of nce pastura rotat1on Matenala and Methods So1l samples were taken from the O 1 O cm so1l layer of a f1ve year old nce pasture rotat1onal expenment (Table 14) on a clay loam Ox1sol at Matazul farm m the eastern Llanos of Colombia M1crob1al b1omass C N and P content (fum1gat10n extract1on method) and of C and N mmerahzat1on rate ( 1 O da y mcubat1on) were measured M1crob1al b1omass nutnent contenta M1crob1al b1omass C d1d not vary much among treatments all treatment averages bemg w1thm a 1 3% dev1at1on from the overall average (Table 15) No d1fferences were found between pasture or cropped plots M1crob1al b10mass N was cons1derably lower for the CR treatment than for the other treatments Consequently the m1crob1al b1omass C/N rat10 was more than one and a half t1mes as w1de under contmuous nce as under any other rotat1on treatment and the contnbut1on of m1crob1al N to total orgamc N content (Nm /N 9 ) was also low Th1s probably reflects the 1nput of low N nce res1dues at harvest Left over mtrogen from fert1hzat1on obv1ously d1d not compensate for the matenal s h1gh C/N rat1o lt may also be that fung1 havmg a w1der C/N rat1o than bactena made up a larger fract1on of the m1crob1al populat1on poss1bly because the vertical d1stnbut1on of freshly added res1dues m the CR treatment was d1fferent as most crop res1dues at harvest were depos1ted on top of the soil Fung1 are relat1vely more 1mportant for the decompos1t1on of surface htterThe data on m1crob1al b1omass P showed a d1st¡nct1on between the contmuous nce and nat1ve savanna on the one hand and the nce pastura and nce pastura nce plots on the other the former group showmg lower b10mass P values W1th1n each of these two groups d1fferences were non s1gmf1cant B1omass C/P rat1o s showed the same two groups however w1th the except1on of the R G treatment m wh1ch the C/P rat1o was relat1vely h1gh The mlcrob1al C/P rat1os are at the very h1gh end of the range commonly found suggestmg that the m1crob1al populat10n may have adaptad 1tself to the low P cond1t1ons of th1s so1l Desp1te these w1de C/P rat1os the contnbut1on of m¡crobial b1omass P to total SOM P agrees well w1th values commonly found m temperate s01ls w1th a much h1gher P fert1hty The s¡gn¡f¡cance of th1s cons1sts m 1t that P absorbed m mlcrob1al cells becomes part of a pool wh1ch turns over dynam¡cally whereas w1thout th1s m1crob1al uptake 1t m1ght have become unava1lable to the plant due to the strong P sorpt1on capac1ty of these so1ls The m1crobes thus compete successfully for morgamc P and may contnbute s1gmf1cantly to P cychng C and N m•nerallzat1on and microb1al act1vltyThe carbon mmerallzat1on rate dunng the 11 day 1ncubat1on penod was h1ghest m the R GL pasture followed by the R G pastura (Tabla 1 6) The cropped plots espec1ally the contmuous nce and the nat1ve savanna showed a lower e mmerallzat1on rate than the pasture plots The same p1cture was found for the fract1on of orgamc e that was mmerahzed per day 1em /e 0 1 In most samples net mtrogen 1mmob1hzat1on occurred as amounts of extractable N after mcubat1on were lower than befare mcubat1on Only m the savanna treatment net N mmerahzat1on was pos1t1ve on average (Table 16) but th1s value was strongly b1ased by one pos1t1ve outher Re1ectmg th1s one value would bnng the savanna average down to O 27 pg g 1 d 1 wh1ch 1s w1thm the ranga of the other treatments values Obv1ously the mcubat1on penad had not been long enough to result m a net N mmerahzat1on earbon n1trogen rat1os of the decomposed orgamc matter consequently could not be calculated The stat•st•cal s1gmf1cance of the results 1s not md1cated smce th1s part of the analys1s has not been done yetFor treatment codes see Table 14 C~/CNm /N P m /P rg = contnbut1on of m1crob1a1 C N and P to orgamc C N and P The e mmerahzat1on rate per umt b1omass e lmetabohc quot1ent qe0 2 ) was h1ghest m the R GL treatment and lowest m the eR treatment The two treatments mvolvmg a legume m the rotat1on IR GL and R GL RJ had a h1gher qC0 2 than the comparable treatments w1thout a legume IR G and R G R) A h1gher qe0 2 md1cates that e1ther a greater fract1on of the total m1crob1al populat1on was act1ve (due to a greater substrate avallablhty) or the energy use eff1c1ency of these orgamsms was lower The latter 1s not hkely here smce the treatment whose plant res1dues were most N nch and thus could be decomposed w1th a relat1vely h1gh metabohc eff1c1ency IR GU yet had the h1ghest qe0 2 lt 1s therefore assumed that a greater fract1on of the m1crobes was act1ve under pastura than under croppmg probably because of d1fferences m orgamc matter Input Whereas m croppmg systems orgamc matter 1nput to the so1l largely occurs as an annually or sem1 annually repeated pulse m pasturas there IS a cont1nuous mput from dead roots grazmg losses faeces and unne Moreover the amount of plant res1dues returned to the s01l IS usually lower under croppmg smce part of the plant product1on 1s harvested and thus removed from the f1eld Th1s makes 1t probable that the m1crob1al populat1on under pastura stays m a more act1ve form Nutr~ent cychng through m1croblal b1omass turnover Assummg a m1crob1al turnover t1me m the range of O 5 to 1 O year the amount of nutnents cychng through the m1crob1al b1omass was calculated Table 17 shows that the m1crob1al b1omass can contnbute cons1derably to plant nutnent supply part1cularly when takmg 1nto account that the calculat1ons only refer to the O 1 O cm so1llayer Moreover the contnbut1on of m1crob1al metabohtes to nutnent cychng should also be added to these numbers lt 1s also clear however that th1s nutnent cychng pathway can supply much less nutnents (espec1ally Nl 1n the nce monocrop than 1n the other treatments Th1s 1s relatad to the fact that m the monocrop a smaller fract1on of the orgamcally bound nutnents 1s m the m1crob1al b1omass (Table 15) suggestmg there 1s less young orgamc matter The reduced res1due mput to the so1l due to removal of gram and straw from the f1eld and the h1gher orgamc matter decompos1t1on rate due to frequent so1l d1sturbance by t1llage are at the root of th1s The stattsttcal s gmf1cance of the results IS not tndlcated smce thts part of the analys1s has not been done yetFor treatment Godes see Tabla 14 t = mtcrobtal turnover t1me (yr)In strongly P sorbmg solls such as the Ox1sol of the present study very httle morgamc P (P l m ay be read1ly exchangeable and the ava1lab1hty of P may depend more on the turnover of eas1ly decomposable so1l orgamc matter than on the release of adsorbed morgamc P The 1mmob1hzat1on of P by m1crobes and 1ts gradual release by m1crob1al turnover prov1de a mechamsm by wh1ch P 1s protected from phys1c chem1cal adsorpt1on react1ons In the present expenment more P was held 1n m1crob1al b1omass than was res1n exchangeable (except for the CR treatment wh1ch was annually fert1hzed w1th P Oberson et al unpubhshed data) The s1ze of the P flux through the m1crob1al b1omass (between 12 and 34 kg ha 1 yr 'lmd1cates that th1s could be a major pathway of P cychng m these low P so1ls Evaluat1on of sorne Phys1cal Propert1es of an Ox1sol after Convers1on of Nat1ve Savanna mto Legume based or Pure Grass Pastures A J G1Jsman (U Saskatchewan) and R J Thomas (TLJ lntroduct1on L1ttle mformat1on 1s ava1lable on short or long term development of the phys1cal cond1t1ons of so1l under pasturas estabhshed m prev1ously nat1ve savanna lnstead most work m th1s f1eld has been done w1th pasturas estabhshed after cleanng a tropical forest where a considerable changa m so1l phys1cal charactenst1cs may be expected g1ven the drast1c nature of the land convers1on and the methods used for the cleanng Earher 1t was shown that there was no d1fference m so1l aggregate d1stnbut10n between grass only and grass legume pastures estabhshed m prev10usly nat1ve savanna but that the aggregates were somewhat more stable m the presence of a legume Here data are reportad on a number of other so1l phys1cal charactenst1cs of these pasturasS01l samples were taken from two adJacently s1tuated expenments on grass only and grass legume pasturas on a clay loam Ox1solm Canmagua (Table 181 A nat1ve savanna control was also mcluded Plots were 1 ha each but m expenment 2 they were d1v1ded 1nto two halves for alternate grazmg only one of the two halves was used for samphng Expenments 2 and 3 were rephcated but for expenment 1 the rephcate plot was no longer ava1lable However because the plots m th1s expenment were not d1v1ded mto two as 1n the other pasture expenment a pseudo rephcate was created here by d1v1dmg the plots mto two halves for the samphngThe followmg so1l phys1cal parameters were determmed Water retent1on charactenst1cs Unsaturated hydrauhc conduct1v1ty as calculated from the water retent1on charactenst1cs usmg a curve f1ttmg computer program for water retent1on curves Apparent bulk dens1ty Total poros1ty and pore s1ze d1stnbut1on as calculated from the water retent1on curve Penetrometer res1stance Water mf1ltrat1on rate w1th a double nng mf1ltrat1on system The apparent so11 bulk dens1ty vaned from 1 23 to 1 30 g cm 3 (Table 19) w1th no d1fferences between treatmentsThe penetrometer res•stance mcreased steeply w1th depth m all treatments down to a depth of about 40 to 50 cm (F1g 16) The data show a h1gher res1stance 1n the topsoll of the savanna comparad w1th the pasturas the oppos1te bemg found m the subso1l (stat1st1cal analys1s of th1s d1fference was not poss1ble) lnclus1on of a legume 1n the pasture d1d not affect the penetrometer res1stance m the 8 decumbens + 1 P phaseolo1des expenment but 1n the 8 hum1dlco/a + 1 A pmto1 expenment the penetrometer res1stance was slightly h1gher•n the grass legume treatments than 1n the grass only treatments (P <O 00 1J lncreasmg the stockmg rate also resultad m a slightly h1gher penetrometer res1stance (P<O 001) These d1fferences were mdependent of depth Water Retent1on The volumetnc water content at saturat1on was about the same for all treatments m both soil layers (F1g 17) For the O 5 cm s01llayer the decl1ne 1n water content w•th mcreasmg pF occurred more rap1dly m the nat1ve savanna than 1n the pastura treatments w1th a relat1vely low stockmg rate (1 e the 8 decumbens + 1 P phaseolo1des expenment and the low stockmg rate treatments of the 8 humldlcola + 1 A pmto1 expenment) The h1gh stockmg rate treatments of the latter expenment had a s1m1far pF curve as the nat1ve savanna showmg a more rap1d decline 1n volumetnc water content (Q w1th mcreas1ng pF than the low stockmg rate treatments (not Slgmf1cant although P <O 1 0) In the 6 11 cm so1l !ayer the pF curves of the h1gh and low stockmg rata treatments m expenment 2 also stood apart clearly (s1gmf1cant for pF~::2) The pF curves d1d not d1ffer between grass only and grass legume treatments except for the 6 11 cm !ayer of expenment 1 Th1s latter d1fference however could be attnbuted to ene sample w1th a relat1vely h1gh water content m the h1gh pF range and was not s1gmf1cant   18 The plant avallable water content of the soll was calculated as the d1fference between the upper dramed hm1t of the water content { f1eld capac1ty here taken at a pressure of 60 cm) and the water content at wlltmg pomt {generally taken at a pressure of 15 bars) Th1s y1elds a plant ava1lable water content between 13 4 and 17 5% of the s01l volume {data not shown) w1th the lowest values m the treatments w1th a relat1vely low stockmg rate {both expenments) There were no d1fferences between treatments m e1ther of the s01l layers Total Poros1ty and Pare S1ze 01stnbut1onSmce water saturated s01l usually contams entrapped or d1ssolved a1r {unless saturat1on occurred under vacuum) the saturated water content O does not prov1de an exact measure of total poros1ty Th1s d1fference however IS only 1n the order of 5 to 10% so no correct1on 1s made here Table 19 shows that for all treatments and s01l layers total poros1ty ranged from O 46 to O 49 Water mf1ltrat10n m nat1ve savanna so1l was slower than m the grass legume pasturas lt was also slower than the grass only pastura of the 8 decumbens + 1 P phaseo/o1des expenment but faster than or equal to the 1nf1ltrat•on 1n the grass only pasturas of theThe mclus1on of a legume m the pasturas d1d not have much effect on the s01l s bulk dens1ty total poros1ty pore s1ze d1stnbut1on water retent10n charactenst1cs or calculated unsaturated hydrauhc conduct1v1ty (the latter two bemg a result of the poros1ty parametersl Although the legume effect on penetrometer res1stance was s1gmf1cant 1t was not b1g enough to be of much pract1cal 1mportance In stnk1ng contrast 1s the mcrease m the water mf1ltrat1on rate m grass legume comparad w1th grass only pasturas The two grass only treatments 1n the 8 humld!cola + 1 A pmto1 expenment al so showed a reduced water 1nf1ltrat1on rate comparad w1th the nat1ve savanna The apparent lack of correspondence between the data on water mf1ltrat10n rate and poros1ty can be explamed from Po1seu1lle s Law wh1ch relates the rate of flow through a porous med1um to the 4\" power of the cap1llary rad1us Thus small changes m pore d1ameter can have a profound 1mpact on the hydrauhc conductiVItY of a s01l wh1le hardly affectrng total poros1ty Moreover small pares can conduct large volumes of water as long as they are contrnuous but they do not contnbute much to total poros1ty D1fferences of scale m the methods used may conceal sh1fts m poros1ty srnce larger pares or so1l cracks have a low chance of berng sampled m the small samphng cyhnders but are more hkely to be rncluded m the much largar rnf1ltrat1on cyhndersThe legume effect on the so1l phys1cal cond1t1on may be relatad to the strong rncrease m earthworm b1omass m the presence of a legume as earthworms create vertical channels 1n the so1l thus st1mulatrng water rnflltrat1on Another explanat1on may be found m the fact that many legumes espee~ally A pmtot have a relat1vely coarse root system comparad w1th that of grasses The channels left behrnd m the so1l by old legume roots may contnbute to creatrng relat1vely larga pares throughout the prof1le prov1drng condu1ts for by pass flow of waterThe more rap1d water ralease w1th rncreasrng pF m the h1gh stockrng rate treatments of the 8 humtdtcola + 1 A pmtot expenment than m the low stockrng rate treatments rnd1cates a largar fract1on of relat1vely large so1l pares 1n the formar (Tabla 19) Total poros1ty was not affected by stockrng rate Th1s may be relatad to a h1gher root turnover due to the more frequent and thorough defohat1on resultrng m a relat1vely large number of old root channels At h1gher stockrng ratas th1s effect may be counteracted by compact1on effects However desp1te th1s rncrease m large pare fract1on water rnf1ltrat1on rate had decreased m the h1gh stockrng rate treatments wh1ch may reflect the earher ment1oned d1fferences of scale 1n the methods usedAlthough the phys1cal cond1t1on of a s01l after convers1on of nat1ve savanna rnto pasture 1s hkely not to changa as dramat1cally as m case of convers10n of pnmary forest 1nto pasture the results presentad here have 1mphcat1ons for so11 management The so1ls under 1mproved pasture generally had a lower calculated unsaturated hydrauhc conduct1v1ty than under nat1ve savanna at g1ven value of O or formulated d1fferently were wetter at a g1ven value of K Th1s 1mphes that w1th a g1ven amount of rarn thus at a particular K under cond1t1ons of steady rnf1ltrat1on the pastura s01ls are more susceptible to berng damaged by ammal tramphng or t1llage On the other hand addrng a legume to a pasture pos1t1vely affects the s01l phys1cal cond1t1on The h1gher water rnf1ltrat1on rata under grass legume pasturas may add to reducrng the nsk of so1l loss by water eros1onA caut1onary note about the use of the CENTURV soll orgamc matter model for ecosystems on trop1cal low P solls A J Gl}sman A Oberson H Ttessen (U Saskatchewan) and D K Frtesen (IFDCJ lntroduct1on One of the most w1dely used models on orgamc matter dynam1cs m a s01l plant ammal system 1s the CENTURY model Although developed for use m temperate ecosystems the model has now also been adoptad for use m the trop1cs by the Trop1cal S01l B1ology and Fert1hty (TSBF) Programme and the Slash and Burn Pro¡ect However many trop1cal ecosystems are on strongly phosphorus sorbmg solls where P and not N 1s the hm1tmg nutnent Th1s has 1mportant 1mphcat1ons for the apphcat1on of CENTURY Modelhng of nutnent cychng reqUJres a deta1led knowledge about the s1ze and transformat1ons of the vanous orgamc and morgamc nutnent pools and the flows between them For carbon and mtrogen a large body of data IS ava1lable on these top1cs but for phosphorus mformat1on 1s far more scanty and Wlth a few except10ns 1s umquely obtamed from solls of the temperate zone wh1ch are not as strongly P sorbmg as certam trop1cal s01ls Data on mteract1ons between orgamc and 1norgamc P are rare We ran the model for an ac1d low P Ox1sol w1th nat1ve savanna vegetat1on m the eastern plams of Colombia S1mulat1ons of SOM content were maccurate both m quant1ty and quahty desp1te the fact that deta1led so1l P fract10nat1on data were ava1lable to parametenze the model As we beheve that th1s could be related to poor s1mulat1on of soll P dynam1cs by the model we analyze here the P submodel of CENTURY w1th spec1al reference to 1ts use for trop1cal low P sollsThe P cycle and plant avallable P Phosphorus ex1sts m the soll m morgamc (P 1 and orgamc form (P 1 both of wh1ch are mvolved m the cychng of P among so1l plants m1croorgamsms and ammals F1gure 20 shows a conceptual P cycle w1th 1ts components Whereas at least for the temperate zone the contnbut10n of P, from orgamc phosphorus mmerahzat1on to plant ava1lable P, 1s cons1dered of mmor 1mportance w1thm a smgle growth cycle the need to look at P cychng (consequently mcludmg P 1 rather than ava1lable P pool s1ze has been recogmzed for perenmal plants and natural ecosystems Under trop1cal cond1t1ons P was shown to contnbute S1gn1f1cantly to crop P uptake and several stud1es md1cate that orgamc P m1ght play a major role 1n P fert1hty of trop1cal so1ls Assessment of P, and P by sequent1al extract1onThe only approach wh1ch has g1ven moderate success m the evaluat1on of short term ava1lable P and P 1s a sequent1al P fract1onat10n method (F1gure 211 lt a1ms at quant1fymg lab1le (plant ava1lablel P Fe and Al assoc1ated P Ca assoc1ated P, as well as lab1le and more stable forms of P usmg the followmg extracts res1n O 5M NaHC0 3 O 1M NaOH 1M HCI and hot concentrated HCI Due to the react1v1ty of P w1th the soll mmeral phase determmat1on of a potent1ally mmerahzable P pool analogous to the m1nerahzable N or S pools measured by mcubat1on and leach1ng techn1ques 1s not feas1ble The natura of d1fferent extractable P pools 1s even less well defmed than that of the P, pools The1r turnover and ava1lab1hty often depend on the mmerahzat1on of C durmg wh1ch P 1s released as a by product although soluble P w1ll be rap1dly mmerahzed by s01l enzymes Th1s complex s1tuat1on means that there 1s presently no sat1sfactory method for measunng ava1lable P beyond the rather emp1ncal sequent1al extract1on combmed w1th conceptual models and poss1bly separata organ1c matter stud1esThe structure of the P submodel of CENTURY The P submodel of CENTURY shown m F1gure 22 cons1sts of an orgamc P andan 1norgamc P sect1on (respect1vely the left and nght parts of the f1gure) the two bemg hnked when morgamc P enters the orgamc cycle v1a P uptake by roots or m1crobes or P adsorpt1on onto orgamc matter--Bh1Ap+4 /    Ltmttattons to the apphcatton of the P submodel P, pools vs P, fracttons The morgamc P sectton of the CENTURY modal mcludes ftve P, pools labtle sorbed strongly sorbed occluded and parent P the stze of whtch has to be esttmated for a proper parametenzatton of the model lt would be tdeal tf one could stmply asstgn dtfferent P fracttons from a sequenttal fracttonatton to dtfferent P pools However a poolts usually defmed as a homogenous enttty of substance charactenzed by tdenttcal kmettcs of transport and transformat10n whereas an extractable P, fractton ts only charactenzed by tts extractabthty wtth a certam extractan! wtthout thts latter necessanly bemg an mdtcatton of havmg stmllar kmettcs or even structural properttes Phosphorus present m a certam extractton fractton therefore m ay ongmate from vanous P pools and consequently constst of P forms wtth dtfferent plant avatlabthty By companng data from sequenttal P fracttonattons wtth expenmental observattons on P avatlabthty and transformat10ns emptncal relattonshtps can be estabhshed correlatmg fract10ns wtth pools and esttmatmg net transfers between them The P status of a s01l can then be charactenzed relattve to a conceptual model of P pools and thetr transformattons For the dommant sotl types of the temperate zone a substanttal databa se extsts on P fract10natton m relatton to P avatlabthty but for the low P sotls commonly found tn the troptcs such a database ts only begmmng to bUIId Thts makes tt vtrtually tmposstble to parametenze thts part of the model rehably even tf sequenttal P fracttonat10n data are avatlableIn the CENTURY model the flows between the P pools are formulated as ftrst order reacttons of the type Flow = rate constant * pool SIZB * ablot1c reductlon factor [1) Whereas deftntng the P pools already poses constderable problems esttmattng the rate constants for the transfers between these pools ts even more uncertam The dtfftculty ts due to the numerous compettng reacttons morgantc and orgamc whtch are occurnng both concurrently and consecuttvely m sotl systems Reacttons tn whtch P moves from the sohd phase or from organtc pools to morgantc pools may be expected to follow dtfferent kmettc equat10ns Enzyme medtated dephosphorylatton reacttons are hkely to follow htgher arder kmettcs than the ftrst arder processes assumed m the modal Bestdes these hmttattons the greatest dtfftculty remams esttmatmg ktnettc parameters of tndtvtdual processes m the complex mtheu of the sotl The abtottc reductton factor (range O 1) m equatton [ 11 conststs of a temperatura and a motsture related componen! and ts the same factor used as multtpher on the organtc matter decomposttton rate However the effect of temperatura and motsture on the rates of phystc chemtcal processes dnvmg phosphate ton transfer between morgamc pools ts very dtfferent from the effect on btologtcal and btochemtcal processes whtch mvolve the decomposttton or transformatton of orgamc P compounds or the asstmtlatton of morgamc P mto orgamc pools Rates of btologtcal/btochemtcal processes governed by mtcroorgantsms often double for each 1 0°C nse m temperatura but there extsts no venftcatton that stmtlar rules apply for such processes tn sotl systems Rates of P uptake by plants may be expected to exhtbtt a Mtchaehs Menten dependence modtfted by motsture and temperatura although factors controlhng supply of P to the root surface (dtffuston water flow P solutton concentratton etc l may be more tmportant m controlhng uptake than tnflux ktnettcs Sorpt1on equat1on The eqUihbnum relat1onsh1p between lab1le P and sorbed P IS descnbed 1n the model 1n terms of an equat1on mvolvmg coefflc1ents for sorpt1on aff1n1ty (sorpaf) and sorpt1on max1mum (sorpmx) Thus accordmg to the model s source code (vers1on 4 0) the amount of lab1le P 1s calculated asThe theoret1cal bas1s for choosmg th1s formulatlon IS not clear and 1t seems to bear no relat1onsh1p w1th standard 10n adsorpt1on equat10ns such as those of LangmUir or Freundhch Furthermore methodolog1es for charactenzmg the relat1onshlp and defmmg the coeff1c1ents are not documentad 1n the model Fract1on of lablle P 1 ava1lable to the plant In the eENTURY model the fract1on of lab1le P that 1s avallable for plant uptake has been formulated as a hnear funct10n of the mmeral N pool s1ze (h1gher P ava1lab1hty at h1gher mmeral N levels) dehm1ted by a m1mmum and a max1mum ava1lable fract1on No explanat1on 1s g1ven for th1s very unconvent1onal relat10nsh1p In strongly sorb1ng so1ls P ava1lab1hty 1s mamly determ1ned (apart from plant rootmg charactenst1cs) by physlcochemlcal processes and a dependence on mmeral N ava1lab1hty 1s very unhkely Moreover as plant product1on on these s01ls 1s generally P hm1ted mstead of N hm1ted such a relat1onsh1p does not apply Res1due part1t1omng between structural and metabohc pools The part1t10mng of plant and ammal res1dues between the metabohc and structural res1due pools 1s formulated 1n the model as a linear funct1on of the hgnm mtrogen rat1o (l N)Th1s relat1onsh1p 1s based on data from a large number of plant res1due analyses separatmg cellulose and hgmn as structural components from water soluble metabohc components However plants from the mfert1le South Amencan savanna so1ls have developed nutnent conservmg strateg1es by rap1dly hgmfymg and L N rat1os 1n plant res1dues can be so h1gh that the metabohc fract1on as calculated w1th th1s equat1on becomes negat1ve eJearly the relat1onsh1p cannot be used for res1dues w1th such h1gh L N rat1os One m ay also wonder whether 1t should be expected at all that such a relat1onsh1p ex1sts In systems wh1ch are strongly P hm1ted such as natural savanna vegetat1on on trop1cal Ox1sols and Ult1sols a relat1onsh1p wh1ch IS based on the N content of plant or ammal res1dues seems not very log1cal Nutnent contents of structural and metabohc pools When part1t1omng res1dues between the metabohc and structural pools the latter 1s ass1gned a f1xed e P rat1o of 500 leav1ng the remammg res1due P for the metabohc pool However 1n analyzmg leaf and root htter from grasses legumes and nce on an Ox1sol 1n the eolomb1an savannas whole htter e P rat10s up to 2700 were found In the CENTURY model th1s would result 1n negat1ve P concentrat1ons 1n the calculated metabohc fract1on For mtrogen s1m1lar problems ex1st be 1t 1n a less extreme from In pnnc1ple the opt1on ex1sts 1n the modal to mod1fy the C Por C N rat1os of the structural matenal However 1n order to cover the most extreme values reportad above a C P rat1o of around 3000 would be needed No expenmental data are ava1lable to assess how reahst1c such a value 1s and how 1t vanas among spee~es soll cond1t1ons seasons etc lncreas.ng such an 1mportant .nput parameter s1x fold w1thout any support.ng data clearly bnngs 1nto quest1on the rehab1hty of the part1t1onmg of orgamc P mputs m the modal Structure of the orgamc P submodel g The pools and flow structure of the orgamc matter submodels of CENTURY are the sama for orgamc carbon mtrogen and phosphorus the three bemg hnked v1a C N and C P rat1os Such a structure 1mphes that orgamc C N and P are stab1hzed and mmerahzed m the sama way the s1ze of the flows relat1ve to each other dependmg only on the nutnent content of the decomposmg matenal and the potent1al 1mmob1hzat10n of morgamc nutnents However 1t has been suggested that orgamc C and N are stab1hzed together and mmerahzed through b1olog1cal processes whereas P may be stab1hzed mdependently of tha mam orgamc mo1ety and mmarahzed through b1ocham1cal procassas Th1s hypothes1s 1s supportad by data on phosphorus fract1onat1on and m1crob1al b1omass from Ox1sols m Colombia (Tabla 20) P P and P = morgamc orgamc and total phosphorus Tha rat1o averagas were calculated as gaomatnc maans of treatments so values may d1ffer from thosa calculated by d1v1dmg tha md1v1dual alemant meansThe orgamc matter collected m the water fract1on after resm extract1on as f1rst step of the sequent1al P fract1onat1on can be cons1dered as easlly decomposable and should thus be part of the act1ve SOM pool The same may hold for the orgamc matter m the NaHe0 3 fract1onFor the eolomb1an Ox1sol of Tabla 20 these two fract1ons together conta1n ca 2280 pg e and 1 5 pg P per g s01l The act1ve SOM pool1s often est1mated as two to three t1mes the amount of m1crob1al b10mass so as to also account for m1crob1al metabohtes Usmg the m1crob1al b1omass data of Tabla 20 th1s would mean an act1ve SOM pool of 940 141 O pg e and 19 29 pg P per g so1l The two est1mat1on methods for the act1ve SOM pool thus y1eld qu1te d1fferent results espec1ally concermng the e P rat1os of the maten al ( 137 358 when est1mated accord1ng to the sequent1al P fract1onat1on and 50 accordmg to the m1crob1al b1omass est1mate) Th1s makes 1t doubtful whether mdeed the m1crob1al b1omass and the eas1ly extractable orgamc matter from the sequent1al fract1onat1on can be cons1dered to form one pool w1th one common turnover rate In the modal a e P rat1o between 30 and 80 1s suggested for the act1ve SOM Wh1le the m1crob1al e P ratiO falls w1thm th1s ranga 1t IS far too low for the H 2 0 or NaHe0 3 extractable fract1ons The very h1gh e P rat1os of the extractable fract1ons md1cate that the1r decompos1t1on may be largely governed by b1ochem1cal rather than m1crob1al processes lt may thus be too restnct1ve to calculate orgamc P flows m the same way as orgamc e and N flowsWhereas m so1ls from the temperate zone N 1s generally the plant growth hm1t1ng element many tropical so1ls are strongly P hm1ted For modehng SOM dynam1cs th1s 1mphes that accurate representat1on of the P and P pool structures and transfer kmet1cs 1s cruc1al for the modal s apphcat1on to such solls The structure of the organ1c P sect1on of eENTURY 1s basad on the hypothes1s that orgamc P and orgamc e are stab1hzed and mmerahzed together m an kmet1cally Jdent1cal manner Th1s hypothes1s 1s quest10nable The bas1c structure of the modal s morgamc P sect1on 1s largely m agreement w1th expenmental data but the vanous equat1ons used lack theoret1cal JUStlfJcatJon or do not appear to be basad on current knowledge of processes and kmet1cs 8oth sect1ons suffer from the fact that 1t 1s v1rtually 1mpossJble to properly est1mate pool s1zes and rate parameters even 1f detallad s01l P fract10nat1on data are ava1lableSeveral of the equat1ons used m the modal for est1matmg the part1t1omng between P pools are based on data from a hm1ted ranga of so1ls m the temperate zone Applymg these to solls w1th strongly d1fferent charactenst1cs as e g many trop1cal so1ls results m extrapolat1ve calculat1ons beyond the ranga for wh1ch the relat1onsh1ps were testad Th1s can (and does) lead to totally erroneous resultsWe conclude therefore that great care should be exerc1sed 1n usmg the eENTURY model for trop1cal low P solls Th1s 1s of spec1al 1mportance to the part1c1pants of the Trop1cal S01l 810logy and Fert1hty Program and the Slash & Burn Pro]ect both of wh1ch adopted the model for the1r orgamc matter stud1es m the trop1cs We recommend the followmg research 1mperat1ves w1th respect to the P submodel 1 Data are urgently needed to bulld up a database wh1ch would allow us to equate P fract1ons w1th P pools both orgamc and morgamc Bes1des chem1cal P fractJonatJon Jsotop1c dJiut1on kmet1cs should be used to obtam mformat1on on the mtens1ty quant1ty and buffer capac1ty of d1verse so1ls w1th respect to avallable P Blolog1cal parameters related to P dynamJCs such as m1crobJal b1omass P turnover or phosphatase act1v1ty should also be mcluded 1n th1s database 2 Pools are hnked by transfer rates whose present model values were est1mated usmg data from a temperate zone s01l P database There 1s a need to determme transfer rates for a range of so1l types both temperate and tropical to assess whether the use of umversal values 1s appropnate As the present values were partly approx1mated through a tnal and error approach the1r est1mat1ons could be 1mproved cons1derably by usmg tracer stud1es desp1te the fact that measurements w1th 32 P and 33 P are hm1ted to a max1mum penod of about 3 to 6 months Such stud1es would at the same t1me g1ve mformat1on about orgamc P turnover rates 3 The theory that P 1s stab1hzed and mmerahzed mdependently of the mam orgamc mo1ety would have 1mportant 1mphcat1ons for the bas1c structure of the P submodel lncubat1on stud1es assessmg e N and P mmerahzat1on m the same samples are reqUired to test th1s hypotheSIS 4 The well known ab1hty of m1croorgamsms to adapt to changes m env1ronmental cond1t1ons could 1mply that the range of m1crob1al e P rat1os found m low P solls 1s h1gher than that commonly found m non P hm1ted so1ls Results obtamed on eolomb1an Ox1sols md1cate that th1s mdeed m1ght be true More data on th1s subJect are needed 5 The concentrat1on of orgamc P m the so1l solut1on of a trop1cal Ox1sol may be much h1gher than the concentrat1on of 1norgamc P wh1ch w1th the h1gh amount of ramfall m hum1d trop1cal zones 1s hkely to result m P leachmg Although th1s opt1on does ex1st m the model very few expenmental data are ava1lable to quant1fy the 1mportance of such a P flow lt 1s suggested therefore to mclude the measurement of d1ssolved P flows 1n leachmg and runoff stud1es To evaluate the d1vers1ty and ecolog1cal funct1ons of earthworm spec1es present m the area and descnbe the dynam1cs of the1r commumt1es 1n arder to mampulate earthworm commumt1es to 1mprove the product1v1ty and susta1nab1hty of agrosystems denved from the nat1ve savanna A senes of 1ntermed1ate ob¡ect1ves were 1dent1f1ed Evaluate the 1mpact of d1fferent types of land use on the abundance and structure of so1l macrofauna commumt1es Descnbe the spat1al and temporal patterns of earthworm commumty structure 1n the nat1ve savanna and 1n contrast1ng management systems Descnbe the dynam1cs of recolomzat1on of earthworm commumt1es 1n a success1on of annual crops and 1mproved pastures Ouant1fy the effect of earthworms on parameters of so1l funct10n such as select1ve 1ngest1on of orgamc and m1neral part1cles and release of ass1m1lable N and P 1n castsEarthworms are a dom~nant component of so1l macrofauna 1n natural savannas and denved pastures and cultures at Canmagua (Table 21) Earthworm b1omass (EB) however 1s s1gmf1cantly lower 1n these ecosystems than 1n many other comparable ecosystems In the gallery forest EB IS 3 4 g fresh we1ght m 2 wh1ch 1s Similar to that at Lamto lvory Coast but lower than 1n trop1cal ra1nforests of Amenca (8 7 g f w m 2 ) EB 1n nat1ve savannas at Canmagua (30 5 g f w m 2 ) 1s lower than at Lamto whlle 1n most grazed savannas EB 1s less than 1 O g fresh we1ght m 2 lmproved pastures have much h1gher EB w1th a max1mum value 1n Brachtarta decumbens and Puerarta phaseolotdes assoc1at1on (41 2 g fresh we1ght m 2 ) comparable to other trop1cal reg1ons 1 e 1n Mex1co (35 8 to 55 5 g fresh we1ght m 2 ) and 1n lnd1a (30 2 to 56 g f w m 2 ) The 1ncreas1ng amount of pasture and legume product1on and nutnent supply of cattle faeces prov1des the necessary energy to support earthworm populat10ns at h1gher levels In nce crops EB 1s drast1cally reduced (2 3 g f w m 2 ) as 1s commonly observed 1n annual trop1cal crops due to the use of pest1c1des the reduct1on of so1l orgamc matter and the phys1cal effects of soll t1llage lt 1s therefore 1mportant to understand the dynam1cs of these changes and the1r 1mpact on such bas1c processes of s01l fert1hty as well as on so1l orgamc matter dynam1cs and so1l phys1cal structureThe planned research compnses 1 A rap1d samphng of earthworm commumt1es tw1ce a year to draw maps of the spat1al d1stnbut1on 1n the CUL TICORE expenment at the d1fferent stages of success1on lt w1ll be poss1ble to follow the spat1al (w1th1n and across plots) and temporal (across seasons and alternat1ng types of land use) patterns of the dynam1cs of earthworm commumt1es Studaes under laboratory condotoons of severa! aspects of earthworm ecology The dofferent specoes are culturad to measure growth (ate fecundoty mortahty angestoon of soal organoc and manera! partacles Studoes on N and P dynamocs are beang cerned out an collaborataon woth two thesos students of the Unoversodad Nacaonal Palmar a R Thomas and D Fnesen These three deta1led stud1es w1ll defme the 1mpact of earthworms on total ecosystem funct1on They w1ll also explam effect of land management on the dens1ty and vanat1ons 1n d1fferent spec1es of earthwormsThe b1od1vers1ty of the study s1te 1s very 1mportant So far 1 O to 1 5 spec1es have been found the doubt ansmg because not all speCies have been pos1t1vely 1dent1f1ed (Table 211 The taxonom1c study mcludes natural and managed savannas as well as the gallery forestThe nat1ve savanna has e1ght spec1es whlle the legume grass assoc1at1on has seven Although the latter system 1s a d1sturbed one the b10d1vers1ty seems not to be affected much These pasturas are now 15 years old and whlle 1t 1s hkely that there was a drast1c decrease of so1l fauna (espec1ally earthworms) when they were estabhshed the b1omass of earthworms m them 1s now the h1ghest recordad m Canmagua pnnCipally due to a larga populat1on of Marttodnlus sp 1The most 1mportant spec1es under study are Marttodrtlus sp 1 (sp nov 7) A large (up to 30 cm m lengthl dark grey spec1es Approx1mately 1 O to 15 md1v1duals m 2 and max1mum we1ght for an adult 1s 25 g (fresh we1ghtlAndtorrhmus sp 1 (sp nov7) Up to 30 cm 1n length also but thmner than Marttodrtlus L1ght grey 1n color less than 1 O md1v1duals m 2 and max1mum adult we1ght of 15 g Andtodrtlus sp (sp nov?) No more than 14 cm m length Wlthout p1gmentat1on Up to 1 O md1v1duals m 2 no more than 6 g max1mum we1ght for an adult Small polyhum1c (sp nov 7) 5 6 cm m length w1thout p1gmentat1on More than 100 mdiVIduals m 2 max1mum adult we1ght about O 20 g Ep1ge1c 1 (sp nov ?) 5 6 cm m length dark red p1gmentat1on on the dorsal part of the body No more than 20 1nd1v1duals m 2 max1mum adult we1gh of O 1 5 g Ocnerodnhdae (sp nov ?l 2 3 cm 1n length w1thout p1gmentat1on 20 30 md1v1duals m 2 max1mum adult we1ght O 015 g Th1s spec1es hves and feeds on the casts that f1ll the long and large gallenes of anec1c spec1es such as Marttodnlus where there 1s much h1gher quant1ty orgamc matter than m the surroundmg s01l b) Populat1on dynam1cs Smce October 1993 the 1mproved pasture system has been sampled to determme the populat1on dynam1cs of the earthworm commumty (Tabla 221 S1m1lar stud1es were started m the nat1ve savanna m March 1994 The expenmental des1gn cons1sts of excavatmg f1ve 1 m 2 quadrats to 50 cm depth m both systems and handsortmg the macrofauna 1n the f1eld The sample 1s subd1v1ded mto f1ve strata m 1 O cm mcrements All earthworms m the samples are placed m 10% formaldehyde and later separated m the laboratory mto speCies end the adults JUVemles and cocoons counted and we1ghed And1odrtlus and And1orrhmus apparently have no strategy or resostance form so theor populat1ons were greatly reduced and the surviVors imtoated reproduct1on early m the wat season (generally on May)The so1l was very hard dunng January and February and regular samphng was abandonad Nevertheless a hm1ted samphng of one 1 m 2 quadrat to 11 O cm was done 1n the 1ntroduced pastura 1n February after two months w1thout ra1n to determ1ne the d1fferent strateg1es used by the d1fferent spec1es dunng the dry season The mean so1l water content was about 15 % on a dry so1l bas1s Ali of the small polyhum1c Glossoscolec1dae were 1n cocoons wh1ch allow them to res1st the adverse mo1sture cond1t1ons The whole populat1on of Mart1odnlus was m d1apause apparently obhgatory all the adults and JUVemles rolled up m aest1vatmg chambers as much as 90 cm deep 1n the so11 Th1s spec1al charactenst1c of an anec1c (s01l hvmg but surface feedmg) spec1es allows them to reduce otherw1se h1gh mortahty dunng the unfavorable cond1t1ons of the dry season Larga (25 mm lengthl cocoons from wh1ch the young would subsequently emerge compnsed the greater part of the populat10n These were mamly m the 30 40 cm stratum m contrast to the JUvemles and adults at greater depth The number of md1v1duals 1n the early wet season (March May) was not greatly d1fferent between the nat1ve savanna and the mtroduced pastura but there was more than a tenfold mcrease m b1omass 1n the latter comparad w1th the savanna (Tabla 23) Another d1fference between these two systems 1s related to the number of turnculated casts wh•ch are the tower hke sp1ral casts depos1ted over the so1l surface by earthworms At Canmagua these structures are produced by MartJOdfllus and they m ay be up to 1 O cm m he1ght Table 24 shows the number of turnculated casts m the nat1ve savanna and m the 1mproved pasture Fresh casts md1cate a real presence of an md1v1dual of MartJodfllus and may be taken as ev1dence of act1v1ty of th1s spec1es The 1mproved pasture system presents a product1on of fresh casts about 20 t1mes greater than the nat1ve savanna wh1ch appears to be cons1stent w1th the b1omass data el Laboratory stud1esCultures of the maJor spec1es have been done under laboratory cond1t1ons to evaluate the•r so1l mgest1on rates (usmg bas1c methodology) and then extrapolate these data to f1eld cond1t1ons Knowledge of the overall annual earthworm commumty populat•on allow us to est1mate the total so1l mgest1on of th1s commun1ty per year and per hectareThe two spec1es AndJOdfllus and MartJodnlus have the greatest mtake of so1l at a water content of 34 % on a dry so1l bas1s that 1s near pF 2 5 eqUJvalent to f1eld capac1ty The global consumpt1on on a yearly bas•s reqUJres data on the populat1on dynam1cs throughout the year wh1ch 1s not yet available Over the 6 month penod October to Apnl the global consumpt1on of a populat1on of AndJodfllus 1s about 70 t dry so1l ha 1 and for MartJodfllus 1s nearly 400 t dry s01l ha 1 (Table 25) The numbers could be expected to be more than double when the whole wet season 1s mcluded A prehmmary samphng has been done m the Brach1ana decumbens/ P phaseolo1des (Kudzul pasture (September 19931 usmg an expenmental des1gn cons1stmg of 64 40x40x 15 cm samples taken every ten meters on a 70x70 gnd Of the ma1or spec1es dlstmgUished only populat1ons of the small polyhum1c Glossoscolec1dae had a spat1al structure These populat1ons had a d1stnbut1on m patches a few tens of meters m d1ameter w1th d1stmct patterns for adults and JUVemles The expenmental des1gn d1d not allow the def1mt1on of structures m other populat1ons poss1bly due to the¡r low dens1t1es By November 1994 there were substant1al changas m the spat1al d1stnbut1on (F1gs 25 271 Geostat1st1cs have also been apphed observat1ons of d1stnbut1on of turncules at the so1l surface as an md1rect measure of populat1ons These data correspond well w1th those of excavated samples and conf1rm the patchy populat1on d1stnbut1on The next step 1s to determme whether env~ronmental factors regulate the patch1ness or 1f demograph1c factors are respons1bleCarbon storage deep 1n the sod by mtroduced pasturas 1n the South Amer1can savannasThe terrestnal b1osphere appears to take up part of the anthropogen1c carbon d1ox1de em1ss1ons about wh1ch there 1s mcreasmg concern and awareness because of 1ts poss1ble consequences Whlle much of the mcrease of atmosphenc C0 2 caused by agnculture 1n the last few decades 1s w1dely blamed on changas m land use m the trop1cs we report here that mtroduced pasturas based on deep rooted grasses m the South Amencan savannas can accumulate orgamc carbon at depth 1n the s01l These grasses were mtroduced and selected by the Centro Internacional de Agncultura Trop1cal (CIATI emphas1zmg deep rootedness pnnCipally for extract1on of calc1um and other nutnents and for better expl01tat1on of so1l water to mamtam green forage dunng the 3 5 months dry season The amount of carbon sequestered could be as h1gh as 507 m1lhon tons (Mtl carbon a year wh1ch could account for part of the m1ssmg global carbon smk of O 4 4 3 b1lhon tons (Gt) The d1scovery of th1s amount of carbon sequestrat1on 1n tropical savanna so1ls represents an 1mmed1ate and effect1ve alternat1ve m efforts to combat the threat of global warmmg w1th the added advantage of mcreased agncultural product10n on so1ls of low fert1hty The perenmal grasses Andropogon gayanus and 8rach1ara humldlcola are of Afncan ongm A gayanus 1s tall growmg w1th a tussock hab1t wh1le 8 hum¡d¡co/a forms swards The legumes Arach1s pmto1 and Sty/osanthes cap1tata are from South Amenca A pmto1 1s a v1gorous stolomferous perenmal and S cap1tata 1s a free seedmg b1annual Grass legume assoc1at1ons of these forages produce cattle livewe1ght gams up to 500 kg ha 1 yr 1 compared w1th 7 20 kg ha 1 on well managed savanna They produce green forage for several months mto the dry season and regrow v1gorously soon after the opemng rams of the wet season Smce 1980 all four have been released as cult1vars 1n one or more countnes 1n South Amenca There are now 7 M ha planted toA gayanus 1n Braz1l alone (M A Ayarza personal commumcat1on) Although deep rootedness 1s cons1dered a ma¡or factor 1n adaptat1on to low fert11ity so1ls espec1ally 1n A gayanus the role of the roots m the dynam1cs of soll carbon has largely been 1gnored We measured soll carbon 1n an A gayanus pasture and m two 8 hum¡d¡co/a pastures at two s1tes on the eastern plams (llanos) of Colombia sorne 200 km apart (Table 26) In each case we obtamed correspondmg measurements for the nat1ve savannaThe pasturas had d1ffenng h1stones (Table 26) but all had carned grass basad pasturas for three to nme years The pastura at Matazul farm was not fert11ized after the nce that was used as a p1oneer crop to establish 1t whlle at Canmagua fert11izer was applied at pastura establishment and each second yaar thereaftar Thay were all grazed by cattle at normal stockmg rates for 1mprovad pasturas 1n the reg1on All the grass based pasturas made a stnkmg contnbut1on to so1l C comparad w1th tha nat1ve savanna espec1ally when grown w1th a legume (Table 27) Data for other pasturas based on another grass of Afncan ongm 8rachlaf/a d1ctyonaura cv Llanero at Matazul farm show lower but stlll S1gmf1cant f1xat1on of about 30 t C ha 1 1n 3 ~ years (data not presentad) lf thase data are representativa of tha araas sown to pasturas of A gayanus and 8rach1af/a spec1es m South Amenca conservat1valy est1matad at 35 M ha then from 100 to as much as 507 Mt C IS bamg saquasterad each year The contnbut1on of the leguma 1n the s1x years smce 1ts establishment at Canmagua may be est1mated by tak1ng the d1fference between the grass alone and the assoc1at1on The d1fference 1s 44 7 t C ha 1 so that although legumes contnbuta only about 1 5% to root b1omass the assoc1at1on w1th A pmto1 mcreased carbon f1xat1on by 7 8 t ha 1 yr 1 comparad w1th the pure grass Comparad w1th the savanna the grass based pasturas sequester most of the C 1n the deeper part of the so1l proflle well below the plough layer (normally 1 O 15 cm) Th1s C should therefore be less prone to ox1dat1on and hence loss durmg any croppmg phase that m1ght be undertakan 1n mtegratad crop and pastura systams lndaad such systems should be able to accommodata rotat1ons Wlth annual crops and st1ll contnbuta to C saquestrat1on Jones et al drew attention to the role of fire 1n determ1n1ng the b¡¡lance between the vegetat10n of native savannas as either a net s1nk or source of carbon 1n the tropics lntroduced pasturas are rarely burned except by accident 1n contrast to the native savannas which are usually burned as often as each year Methods Each sample compnsed e1ght cores at Matazul and four at Canmagua taken at random by so1l auger to the depths 1nd1cated In the grazed A gayanus/S cap1tata pasturas at Matazul Farm samples were taken from each quarter of each of three 1 ha plots 1n a random1zed complete block expenment covenng 9 ha At the same t1me four samples were taken from the nat1ve savanna 1mmed1ately adJacent to the expenment At Canmagua the grass basad pasturas wera O 5 ha plots 1n a random1zad complete block grazmg expenment F1va samplas were takan from aach of two rephcates of the plots and three from the 1mmed1ately adjacent savannaThe samples were dned and m1lled to pass a 1 mm s1eve Fme roots were not removed befare milhng Sub samples were d1gested 1n sulphunc ac1d potass1um d1chromate heated (150 °C)for 30 mm on a temperatura controlled hotplate Carbon concentrat10n 1n the d1gest was datermmed colonmetncally agamst cahbrated standards made up of carbon free s01l to wh1ch measured amounts of glucosa were added S01l bulk dens1ty used to convert the grav1metnc f1gures of so1l C to volumetnc data was determmed by standard methods 25 The data for each depth of each pastura were treated as mdependent samples and the standard error of each mean and the standard errors of the d1fference between the means were calculated There are few data of so1l C below 15 20 cm m the trop1cs although there are occas1onal f1gures to 40 cm Long et al and the1r collaborators camed out careful stud1es on nat1ve trop1cal grasslands to document total pnmary product1v1ty mcludmg roots 1n the surface 15 cm They showed that product1v1ty of trop1cal grasslands above ground and below ground to 15 cm was up to f1ve t1mes h1gher than prev10usly reportad mamly because losses due to senescence were 1gnored On the bas1s of our data even they may have substant1ally underest1mated root product1on They d1d not present data of soll C Although CIA T s emphas1s on deep rooted grasses was for reasons other than sequestrat1on of C we have shown that soma mtroduced grasses 1n the trop1cal South Amanean savannas do sequester C deep 1n the soll There must be a phys1olog1cal cost 1n growmg such a mass1ve root system but strangely we do not see much ev1dence of 1t 8oth A gayanus and 8 hum¡d¡co/a grow at least as v1gorously as other prom1s1ng mtroduced grasses and much more v1gorously than the savanna speCies We suggest that the sequestrat1on of C 1n South Amanean savanna s01ls 1s of global 1mportance We suggest that deep rootedness can be expl01ted from the p01nt of v1ew of both the Individual farmer and the commumty at larga for the mutual benef1t of both Can the ab11ity of tropical grasses to sequester C at depth espec1ally when grown 1n mixtures w1th legumes be used 1n select1on and breedmg? What are the 1mplicat1ons for the generat1on of technolog1es to recuperate degradad pasturas 1n ele arad areas of the hum1d forests? The latter 1s an emot1onal 1ssue but there 1s considerable capac1ty for these so1ls too to sequester carbon 1f they are managed correctly The combmat10n of a deep rooted grass w1th a mtrogen f1x1ng legume can mcrease nutnent cycling greatly 1mprove ammal product1on and markedly mcrease soll b1olog1cal act1v1ty These effects occur mamly at the so1l surface whlle C storage takes place below the plough layer Thus far from bemg env1ronmentally degradmg 1mproved pasturas can fulflll the restorat1ve role 1n tropical systems that was recogmzed 1n pre Roman t1mes for Med1terranean systems and may play a v1tal part 1n stab11iz1ng the global C cycle and mm1m1Z1ng the greenhouse effect of atmosphenc carbon d1ox1de Crop nutr1t1onal requ1rements and 1nput use eff1ciency on llanos ox1sols under crop rotat1ons D K Fnesen (IFDCJ J 1 Sanz D Molma and M RIVera fTLJThe predommant s01ls of the Colomb1an Llanos are h1ghly ac1dlc Ox1sols and Ult1sols whose mmeralogy 1s dommated by kaolimte and the ox1des and hydrous ox1des of 1ron and alummum These mmerals 1mpart to so1ls propert1es wh1ch are not conduc1ve to crop product1on and the eff1c1ent use of nutnent mputs The cat1on exchange capac1ty 1s very low (typ1cally 2 5 meq/1 00 g) largely pH dependent and h1ghly saturated w1th exchangeable alummum (Al) Levels of exchangeable calc1um (Ca) magnes1um (Mg) and potass1um (K) are consequently also low so that the applicat1on of fertilizar needs to be carefully balanced to avo1d unfavorable mteract1ons wh1ch would lead to nutnent deflc1enc1es 1n the crop meff1C1ent use of mputs and exacerbated losses through leachmg The h1gh ox1de contents of Ox1sols and Ult1sols also result 1n a h1gh clay mmeral surface area wh1ch strongly sorbs phosphate (P) and g1ves nse to what 1s commonly referred to as a h1gh P f1xat1on capac1ty However there are reports of substant1al residual effects of applied P on so callad h1gh P f1x1ng so1ls To max1m1ze P fert11izer use eff1c1ency 1t 1s necessary to quant1fy the res1dual value of prev1ous P fertilizar applicat1ons and to understand the fate of applied P and 1ts rate of movement between 1mportant P pools 1n so1l mcludmg so1l orgamc P pools wh1ch play a p1votal role 1n P cycling Because of the mherent 1nfert1hty of savanna so1ls and the need to rat1onahze fert1hzer mputs and max1m1ze nutnent use eff1c1ency 1n the croppmg systems bemg developed by CIA T for the Llanos expenments were estabhshed 1n 1993 to ( 11 determme opt1mal levels of soluble phosphate fert1hzer and opt1mum ratas of hme potass1um and magnes1um for selected annual crops on contrastmg solls of the eastern savannas (21 est1mate res1dual effect1veness of P hme K and Mg apphcat1ons and requ1s1te mamtenance ratas for opt1mal crop growth (3) charactenze the fate of P apphcat1ons and parametenze a modal of P res1dues 1n h1ghly weathered solls and (41 momtor the dynam1cs of apphed cat1ons and Al and pH 1n the soll and the mteract1on of amendments on nutnent fluxes and fate These expenments have now completad 1 Y:z to 2 annual rotat1on cycles Th1s report summanzes both results on 1n1t1al crop nutnt1onal reqUirements on Llanos Ox1sols and ac1d1c lncept1sols and prehmmary results on the residual effect1veness of fert1hzer mputsDunng 1993 expenments were estabhshed at three s1tes on the eastern plams of Colombia on loamy clay Ox1sols at the Corpo1ca/CIA T Research Stat1on at Canmagua and the Matazul Farm approx1mately 70 km east of Puerto Lopez and on a sandy lncept1sol at La Flonda Farm on the Seranra approx1mately 50 km south of Matazul Due to log1St1cal problems the Seranra s1te was abandonad 1n 1994 So1l charactenst1cs at each s1te are summanzed 1n Tabla 28The expenments are umformly two crops per year rotat1ons of ma1ze and soybeans or nce and cowpea The formar rotat1on reqUires h1gher levels of hme mputs due to the greater sens1t1v1ty of the germplasm to ac1d soll cond1t1ons than the latter rotat1on Two types of expenments were Implementad as descnbed below Tabla 28 Chem1cal charactenst1cs of so1ls at the three expenmental s1tes L1me potasslum magnes1um balance experlment Th1s expenment 1s an mcomplete faetona! of 5 or 6 levels of calcltlc hme (0 150 300 600 1200 kg/ha on nce O 400 800 1600 3200 6400 kg/ha on ma1ze) 4 of potass1um (0 40 80 120 kg K/ha) and 3 of magnes1um (0 30 60 kg Mg/hal g1v1ng a total of 32 treatments set out 1n a spht plot des1gn w1th three random1zed blocks L1me treatments (mam plotsl were apphed once at the 1mt1at1on of the expenments whereas K and Mg treatments are apphed to each crop ( Y:z ratas on the legumes) So1l proflle samples toa depth of 100 cm (0 10 10 20 20 40 40 60 60 80 80 100 cm) are taken from selected treatments annually pnor to sowmg the cereal crop surface soll samples are taken from all plots pnor to each crop All samples are analyzed for pH exchangeable cat1ons (Al H Ca Mg K)Orgamc C total N and avallable P are also momtored 1n the surface so1l Phosphorus res1dual value expenment Th1s expenment compnses a total of 1 6 treatments set out 1n a random1zed block des1gn w1th 4 rephcat1ons The treatments cons1st of 1 O rates of P (as TSP broadcast and mcorporated at plantmg) apphed once only at the begmmng of the expenment and 6 rates apphed annually to the cereal crop 1n the rotat1ons Taken together these treatments fully charactenze the P response funct1on 1n the f1rst year and enable est1mat1on of the res1dual effect1veness of the 1n1t1al apphcat1on 1n subsequent years Crop observat1ons mclude response to P fert1hzer apphcat1ons and res1dual value d1agnost1c t1ssue analys1s and component analys1s to determme P removals and returns v1a crop res1dues Soll samples taken pnor to each crop wlll be used to momtor changas 1n lab1le P pools as mfluenced by P fert1hzer apphcat1ons and t1me Measurements w1ll 1nclude lab1le P by class1cal so1l test methods (Bray and Olsen avallable P) 1sotop1C exchange and determmat1on of orgamc and morgamc fract1ons followmg the Hedley procedure In all expenments nutnents not mcluded as treatments (mcludmg N S and Zn) are apphed at adequate levels All fert1hzers (treatments and basal) are broadcast and mcorporated pnor to plantmg although N and K apphcat1ons are spht whereby a second and th1rd dressmg are apphed at 30 and 60 days after plantmgS01ls at all three expenment s1tes are h1ghly ac1d1c havmg a pH (H 2 0) 1n the ranga of 4 4 5 and an exchangeable Al saturat1on of 70 80% (Table 28) S01l textura ranges from sandy through to loamy clay w1th correspondmg d1fferences 1n so1l orgamc C and total N among s1tes All s1tes are umformly very low 1n ava1lable P as measured w1th the convent1onal Bray 2 extractant L1me potass1um magnes1um balance/1nteractions L1me rates chosen were basad on the relat1ve reqUirements of nce (0 to 1200 kg/ha) and ma1ze (O to 6400 kg/ha) and the des1re to observe the full response curve throughout the ant1c1pated 4 year durat1on of the expenments Measured sorne 5 to 8 months after apphcat1on calc1t1c hme had very httle effect on soll pH at rates of about 1500 kg/ha or less (F1gure 28A and 280) Even the apphcat1on of 6 4 t/ha to the loamy clay Ox1sol at Canmagua d1d not mcrease the so1l pH above 5 5 an 1nd1cat1on of the h1gh ac1d buffenng capac1ty of th1s s01l Nevertheless hme had 1mmed1ate and 1mportant effects on exchangeable Al and Ca on both so1ls (Figure 28) lnterpolated from the relat1onsh1p between Al saturat1on and hme apphed (not shown) the standard 300 kg/ha apphcat1on at Matazul reduced Al saturat1on to about 70% wh1le 500 kg/ha reduced 1t to about 60% At Canmagua Al saturat10n was reduced to about 35% w1th an apphcat1on of 2 t/ha of calc1te Two sequent1al soll samphngs at Canmagua one season and two seasons after hmmg showed no not1ceable temporal changas 1n so1l pH exchangeable Al or Ca (F1gure 28) Clearly a longar t1me mterval 1s necessary to d1scern losses of Ca from the surface so11 and reduced res1dual effect1veness of the apphed hme Two nce cult1vars (the ac1d s01l tolerant Sabanas 6 hne and the susceptible Llanos 5) were sown at Matazul 1n 1994 on plots wh1ch had been hmed one year earher As 1n the precedmg year (see CIAT Savannas Program 81enmal Report 1992 1993) Sabanas 6 d1d not respond to hme (calcita) when adequate levels of K and Mg were also apphed and relat1vely httle K (about 40 kg/ha) was reqUired for max1mum y1eld (F1gure 29) As ev1dent 1n the negat1ve mteract1on Ca (as calc1te) and Mg compensated for each other 1n mcreasmg nce product1on Thus m the absence of calc1te 30 kg Mg/ha resultad m max1mum nce gram y1elds wh1le 600 kg/ha of calc1te (about 150 kg Ca/hal gave max1mum y1elds Wlthout Mg apphcat1on (Figure 2981 Taken together these results suggest that the dommant constra1nt to Sabanas 6 growth m these so1ls 1s Ca def1c1ency (for wh1ch Mg can subst1tutel rather than Al tox1c1ty In contrast to Sabanas 6 nce Llanos 5 had a s1gmf1cant hme reqUirement for wh1ch Mg was unable to compensate (F1gure 2901 Moreover y1elds of the susceptible Llanos 5 were generally much poorer although lt had a h19her apparent K reqUirement than Sabanas 6 (Figure 29CI Cowpeas were sown after nce on the sandy lncept1sol at La Flonda m September 1993 Y1elds were max1mal at about 1 t/ha w1th as httle as 600 kg/ha of hme apphed to the nce (Figure 30AI Cowpea also responded markedly to K apphcat1ons of up to 40 kg/ha wh1le h1gher rates tended to reduce y1elds espec1ally at lower hme rates S1m1lar observat1ons have been made w1th cowpea m N1gena and are attnbuted to Al tox1c1ty 1nduced when mcreasmg concentrat1ons of K 1ons exchange Wlth and displace Al mto soll solut1on As w1th the precedmg nce crop a very s1gmf1cant def1c1ency m Mg was also observad at La Flonda IF1gure 3081The recently released ac1d so1l tolerant ma1ze hne (CIMMYT S1kuam 1 was plantad at Canmagua dunng the second season of 1993 lt produced a max1mum y1eld of about 3 5 t/ha w1th about 1 5 t/ha of caiCitiC hme (F1gure 31 Al Th1s amount of hme reduced the exchangeable Al saturat1on to about 45% More s1gmf1cant however 1s the observat1on that th1s matenal produced 2 6 t/ha or 77% of the max1mum y1eld even w1thout hme Response to K was observad up to 80 kg/ha IF1gure 31 81 but m contrast to observat1ons at the other two s1tes there was no s1gmf1cant response to Mg at Canmagua (data not shownl Phosphorus fertthzer response and restdual effects Response of nce and cowpea at Matazul and ma1ze at Canmagua to P fert1hzer reflect the very low levels of ava1lable P m these Ox1sols m general v1rtually no y1eld was obtamed w1thout apphed P (Figure 32 and 331 Nevertheless apphcat1on of P fert1hzer produced sharp responses w1th max1mum y1elds bemg obta1ned w1th 40 60 kg P/ha on nce and 60 80 kg P/ha on ma1ze Cowpea grown on residual P apphed to the prev1ous nce crop m 1993 also produced max1mum y1elds at 40 60 kg P/ha (Figure 33AI Results from the f~rst semester of 1994 at Canmagua and Matazul prov1de d~rect compansons between res1dual P apphed 8 to 11 months earher to ma1ze or nce and freshly apphed P Although companson of md1v1dual treatments wh1ch rece1ved all P m the prev1ous year w1th those wh1ch rece1ved the same amount spht between two years suggests a d1m1mshmg effect1veness of the older P response to both the res1dual and annual P apphcat1on strateg1es are descnbed by the same response funct1ons These results md1cate f1rstly that P fert1hzer reqUirements of crops on Llanos Ox1sols are not excess1ve and secondly that P apphcat1ons have potent1ally substant1al res1dual valueLlanos smls are def1c1ent m most of the majar nutnents necessary for crop product1on and P 1s clearly among the most hm1tmg nutnents Fortunately germplasm now ex1sts wh1Ch 1s reasonably tolerant of the other majar agncultural constramt of these so1ls sml ac1d1ty and Al tox1c1ty Relat1vely modest rates of hme were found to be suff1C1ent to produce max1mum y1elds of nce cowpeas and ma1ze usmg the advanced germplasm Very prehmmary data also suggest relat1vely small reduct1ons of the effects of hme after a 1 year penod Res1dual effect1veness of P fert1hzer on these h1gh P f1x1ng solls also appears to be apprec1able However for both hme and P 1t w1ll be necessary to momtor these effects over a penod of several years to quant1fy the mput use eff1c1ency and to determme the1r tate For phosphorus mformat1on of th1s type wlll enable the parametenzat1on of models descnbmg fert1hzer P res1dual value and cychng mcludmg the CENTURY model wh1ch s1mulates P cychng 1n agroecosystems lt w1ll also ass1st 1n the development of the P sub model of the CERES crop S1mulat10n models and enable the extrapolat1on of results to other env1ronments -::r::  Rates of mtrogen f1xat10n by forage legumes are normally measured dunng the f1rst or second year of pastura establishment only and there have been few reports of f1xat1on ratas over longer t1me penods as 1t 1s assumed that the legume contmues to f1x mtrogen at s1m1lar rates to those measured durmg establishment Th1s assumpt1on needs exammmg however as so1l fert1llty m ay be decllmng after the 1n1t1al fert1llzer appllcat1on g1ven at establishment and there 1s ev1dence that decreased s01l fert1llty reduces the % of the legume s N denved from f1xat1on (Trop1cal Pasturas 19871991Report 1991) N1trogen f1xat1on 1n the forage legumes Arach1s pmto1 Centrosema acutlfolwm and Stylosanthes cap1tata grown m assoc1at1on w1th the grass Brach1ana d1ctyoneura was subsequently measured for three success1ve years m the satelllte s1tes to the core expenment m Canmagua (sea B1annual Report Savanna Program 1992 93 for deta1ls) The amounts of mtrogen f1xat1on par umt legume b1omass and % of legume N denved from f1xat1on (%Ndfa) are shown 1n Table 29 for sandy loam and clay loam soll types and the two levels of 1n1t1al fert1llzat1on used 1n the core expenment Tabla 30 shows the data 1n terms of absoluta amounts f1xed and % legume m the pastura lmt1al fert1llzat10n had llttle or no effect on %Ndfa at e1ther s1te ovar the three years S1m1larly the %Ndfa was mamtamed over t1me even though so1l fert1llty was supposedly decllmng The %Ndfa m all three legumes remamed at h1gh levels ( > 80% m general) Conclus1ons As reportad prev1ously (B1annual Report Savanna Program 1992 93) the mam effect of fert1llty was on legume populat1on (Tabla 30) and not on f1xat10n per umt b10mass and therefore an est1mate of the amounts of mtrogen f1xed can be made from a measurement of legume b1omass m the pastura Thus such est1mates can be done very s1mply m farmer s f1elds Non f1x1ng controls In the above expenment the grasses 8 dJctyoneura Pamcum max1mum ecotype KK 16 and the nat1ve savanna were used as non f1xmg controls m the 15 N 1sotope d!lut1on techmque To check 1f these were appropnate non f1xmg controls a glasshouse expenment was done w1th soll from lntro 11 (clay loam) to determme the N uptake patterns and N d1stnbut1on m two grasses non f1xmg mutants of Stylosanthes cap1tata and the normal N 2 f1xmg S cap1tata cv Cap1ca The results (Table 31) 1nd1cate that m general the amounts of N taken up and 1ts d1stnbut1on were s1m1lar for the non f1xmg plants but they all d1ffered from N 2 f1x1ng S cap1tataThe results 1mply that caut1on should be exerc1sed m the est1mates of mtrogen f1xed as there 1s no guarantee that f1xmg and non f1xmg plants are takmg N up from the same so1l N pools over t1me and th1s may mvalldate the 1sotope dllut1on techmque However the amount of legume N denved from f1xat1on d1d not d1ffer greatly usmg any of the non f1xmg controls m th1s expenment nor m the f1eld expenments reportad prev1ously and 1n the glasshouse expenment a mean value of 83% ± 2 8% was obtamed In add1t1on 1f the %NDFA 1s as h1gh as 60% or more then d1screpanc1es m patterns of N uptake w1ll not affect est1mates of N 2 f1xat1on greatly The ' 6 N ennchment of the non f1x1ng S cap1tata was s1m1lar to the grasses (Table 31 1 and 1nd1cates that 1t can be used as a vahd non f1x1ng control prov1ded N fert1hzer 1s apphed to obtam s1mllar growth rates and N accumulat1on   In th1s sect1on only the f1rst three outputs w1ll be dealt w1th and the soe~oeconom1c aspects spec1f1cally market opportumt1es and s01l eros1on are dealt Wlth separately m the lnterprogram Pro¡ect m Hllls1des Subpro¡ect market opportumt1es hnked to eros1on control pract1ces a key to adopt1on' Recent surveys carned out by the Program show that 1mportant monocrops 1n the area 1n order of decreasmg area are cassava ( 16 18 months cycle labor mtens1ve) coffee sugar cane beans (becommg more 1mportantl ma1ze tomato s1sal plantam frUits lntercroppmg 1s common m the area eg cassava beans and cassava ma1ze beans m the low altltude cassava ma1ze and plantam coffee s1sal m m1d altltudeThe strategy cons1sts of covenng the range from short cycle shallow rooted monocrops to deep rooted perenmal and more d1verse agros1lvopastoral systems lt Wlllmclude ex1stmg as well as proposed systems 1dent1f1ed e1ther by farmers nat1onal mst1tut1ons and/or CIA T s SCientiStS The s1te select10n for the lnltial phase was at 1500 m 1n order to f1t m the ranga of 1400 m a s 1 to about 1800 m a s 1 to ensure adaptat1on of CIA T s germplasm The s1te select1on m terms of representat1v1ty w1thm the watershed and the extrapolab1hty outs1de the watershed of the encountered prmc1ples of th1s research was d1scussed m p 1 abo veIn the 1mt1al phase the expenments are s1mple and as large as poss1ble mcludmg areas for cattle grazmg m sorne mstances They are planned for long term evaluat1on and m th1s way (larga and s1mple) they w1ll allow for future add1t1ons and mod1f1cat10ns along as progress IS made m the evaluat1ons and contnbut1ons from the collaborators (nat1onal mst1tut1ons farmers and CIAT sc1ent1stsl come mto the processSelected systems and hypothesesThe crops and pasturas are v1ewed w1thm the systems as plant types beans short term shallow rooted ma1ze med1um term med1um rooted cassava long term deep rooted pasturas perenmal deep rooted herbaceous traes perenmal deep rooted woody Uncropped plots subd1v1ded 1n bare and mulch cover for soll phys1cs stud1esSystems 2 and 5 above are 1n two s1tes w1th varymg cond1t1ons and all systems w1th three replicat10ns except systems 3 and 4 wh1ch are respect1vely 1 and O 7 ha for grazmg System 1 1s trad1t10nal monocroppmg Wlthout conservat1on pract1ces and System 4 1s for trad1t10nal grazmg of naturalizad pasturas Systems 2 and 5 are the same as System 1 but they already 1nclude a cover crop (legumes) for soll protect1on/fert11ity enhancement System 6 mcludes the three crops from System 1 but all together 1n the f1eld a1m1ng for contmUity of product1on/mcome System 3 has only one season w1th a crop and 1s contmued Wlthout further t1llage under 1mproved grass/legumes cover for grazmg System 8 on steep slopes a1ms to have perenmal speCies for cut and carry w1thout further tlllage after the 1mt1al one System 7 a1ms so1l protect1on wh1le bemg product1veIn these systems there 1s a grad1ent from shallow rooted short cycle systems to perenmal both herbaceous and woody deep rooted systems System 9 uncropped plots w1th bare and mulch covered plots represent the two extremes of the grad1entThe general hypotheses for the pro1ect are through perenmal deep rooted systems 1t 1S A number of authors have linked the soc1al and resource degradat10n problems of trop1cal Amenca to 1m balances between rural and urban development poliCies .nequality 1n access to resources and the promot1on of cap1tal .ntens1ve modes of product1on both 1n agnculture and mdustry (Gutman 1988 Leonard 19871 Expans1on of agnculture 1n the frag1le ecosystems of the m1dalt1tude h1IIS1des was largely a result of the appropnat1on of the best lands by the conqUistadors dunng the colomal penod and the1r mcorporat1on .nto large farms devoted to cattle ranch.ng or the cult1vat1on of commerc1al crops (Carter 19911 As the 1nd1genous populat10n .ncreased restnct1ons 1n he access to land led to populat1on movements to the h1lls1des wh1ch are where today most of the poor farmers res1de Ma.ntenance of the natural resource base '\"the h111s1des 1s thus of v1tal1mportance not only to ensure the future livelihood of resource poor farmers but also to prevent the1r futura m1grat1on to urban centers thus augmentmg the soc1al problems wh1ch are endem1c among resource poor m1grants 1n urban are asThe goal of the Hllls1des Program 1s to develop knowledge about how to comb1ne conservat1on and product10n technolog1es 1n ways that susta.n and regenerate the natural resource base and are also econom1cally v1able and acceptable to farmers The program has 1dent1f1ed s01l eros10n as one of the most pressmg resource management problemsThe literatura on eros10n control technolog1es 1n tropical countnes 1s however charactenzed by one dom.nant theme d1sappo.nt.ng levels of adopt10n (la.ng and Ashby 1992 Ka1mow1tz 19921 The literature also shows that g1ven the farmer s c1rcumstances so1l deplet1on '\" many cases 1s rat10nal from the farmers po.nt of v1ew (Ashby 1985 Anderson and Thampap1lla1 19901 As so1l degenerates over t1me y1eld and .ncome losses bUIId up At early stages of s01l deplet10n the net returns w1thout soll conservat1on exceed the net returns w1th conservat1on Over t1me as so1l degenerates further the gap declines unt1l eventually net returns w1th conservat1on are h1gher than those w1thout Adopt1on 1s unlikely to occur unt1l th1s po.nt wh1ch one study calculates to be at least 40 to 60 years after degenerat1on beg.ns depend1ng on the d1scount rate used (SeltZ and others 19791 Thus there 1s a conflict between the farmers econom1c log1c and ecolog1cal cons1derat1ons (Gutman 19881 The literatura also po.nts out that wh1le farmers cons1der the monetary benef1ts of eros1on control such as y1eld .ncreases they are unlikely to cons1der non monetary benef1ts such as soll res11ience or downstream benef1ts wh1ch accrue to others Thus the extent to wh1ch s01l conservat10n pract1ces are voluntanly adopted by farmers w1ll be subopt1mal from soc1ety s p01nt of v1ew (lzac 19941The problems w1th adopt1on ra1sed above 1mply that farmers wlll have to be offered .ncent1ves to .nduce the t1mely adopt10n of soll conservat10n pract1ces Incentives have commonly taken the form of subs1d1es or regulat1ons The former however IS costly and 1n many cases .nduces d1stort1ons 1n other sectors of the economy The latter 1s extremely d1ff1cult to 1mplement The research reportad here explores a d1fferent type of mcent1ve The ob¡ect1ve 1s to 1dent1fy mcome earmng opportumt1es hnked to so1l conservat1on pract1ces Adopt1on 1s expected to occur because of the opportumty to mcrease mcome Wlth so1l conservat1on occurnng as a byproduct Th1s approach denves support from the fact that m the few cases of successful adopt10n that have occurred so1l conservat1on pract1ces perm1tted the mtroduct1on of h1gh value crops or supported the mtroduct1on of hvestock or generated mcome by bemg assoc1ated w1th value added processes (T1ffen 1993 N1mlos and Savage 19911 Lmkmg the market opportumty to conservat1on pract1ces 1s however v1tal as the hterature IS replete w1th cases where the mtroduct1on of mcome generatmg opportumt1es w1thout any hnks to conservat1on have exacerbated resource degradat1on (Thrupp 1993)The research reportad here 1s part of a larger pro¡ect wh1ch seeks to develop prototype systems for ecolog1cally sound mtens1f1cat1on of product1on m the H1lls1desFrom the ecolog1cal pomt of v1ew the strategy 1s to ach1eve a trans1t1on from short cycle shallow rooted monocrops to deep rooted perenmal more d1verse agros1lvopastoral systems The pro¡ect mcludes soc1ologlcal stud1es of farmer typolog1es (Helle) bas1c stud1es on the phys1cal aspects of soll eros1on (Jesus Castillo) stud1es of the relat1onsh1p between so1l eros1on and product1v1ty of ma¡or crops m the area (Felicitas) the development of technolog1es for usmg barners for eros1on control (Karl Muller) a consort1um of vanous types of 1nstltUt1ons mcludmg NGOs who wlll be pnnc1pally respons1ble for 1mplementat10n of technolog1cal and mst1tUt1onal fmdmgs The research reportad here complements th1s work by a)lnvest1gatmg the market potent1al of matenals bemg used m the barners currently under development b) ldent1fymg alternat1ve market opportumt1es whose potent1al for eros1on control and compat1b1hty Wlth the strategy of the pro¡ect w1ll be mvest1gated e) ldent1fymg mst1tut10nal arrangements requ1red to enable farmers to explo1t market opportumt1es d) lncorporatmg results of farmer typolog1es m the analys1s of the adoptab1hty of alternat1ve eros1on control technolog1esThe bas1c hypothes1s 1s that technology and mst1tut1onal hnkages are key factors m prov1dmg resource poor farmers w1th market opportumt1es hnked to conservat1on pract1cesSorne of the opt1ons currently be1ng cons1dered by b1ophys1cal sc1ent1sts mclude perenmal and annual forages for the1r potent1al as feed for da1ry cattle cereals such as m1llet to be used as poultry feed for egg product1on perenmal barners such as c1tronella w1th potent1al for mdustnal use and vetiver grass w1th very mm1mal econom1c value The current pro¡ect wlll help b1ophys1cal sc1ent1sts narrow down opt1ons for mclus1on m prototype systems At the sama t1me 1t w1ll prov1de 1deas for new opt1ons by 1dent1fymg new market opportumt1es whose eros1on control potent1al w111 be mvest1gated by b1ophys1cal sc1ent1sts The1r results w1ll m turn feed mto the ex ante econom1c evaluat1on of potent1al technolog1esThe research compnses the followmg steps a) ldentlf1cat1on of market opportumt1es b)Evaluat1on of eros1on control potent1al of 1dent1f1ed market opportumt1eswrth potentral new rnstrtutronal arrangements proposed by target purchasers of farm products The analysrs wrll assume that productron costs rnclude both transformatron costs and transactrons costs such as search costs rnformatron costs and enforcement costs (North 1990) Based on Coa se s ( 1960) proposrtron that the effrcrent competrtrve equrhbrrum of neoclassrcal economrcs obtarns only when transactrons costs are zero and that rnstrtutrons are mechanrsms for reducrng transactrons costs the analysrs wrllrdentrfy the most rmportant transactrons costs rn current rnstrtutronal arrangements and rdentrfy new rnstrtutronal arrangements whrch mrnrmrze these costs The conceptual framework of Kohls and Ulh ( 1992) wrll be u sed to classrfy current hrstorrcal and potentral new arrangements Three types of marketrng functrons wrll be consrdered A study of the extent to whrch conservatron practrces have been adopted(u) the estrmatron of a multrple goal lrnear programmrng model (McGregor and Dent 1993Cockhn et al 1998lgnrzro 1985) Thrs rs a normatrve model whrch can be used to rdentrfy potentral confhcts between multrple goals eg farmer s goals whrch could lead to adoptron vs mrnrmrzatron of sorl erosron The analysrs rndrcates to what extent underachrevement of one goal rs requrred rn order to achreve satrsfactron of another For example vetrver grass barrrers may achreve the sorl conservatron goal but may result rn substantral underachrevement of farmers goals and therefore have httle success of adoptron wrthout subsrdres whrch would help farmers achreve therr goals An alternatrve barrrer such as a perennral forage such as elephant grass may underachreve both the sorl conservatron goal and farmer goals wrthout rnstrtutronal arrangements related to mrlk marketrng Approprrate rnstrtutronal arrangements may however enable rt to meet farmer goals and thus lead to voluntary adoptron Thus tradeoffs between the goals become evrdent Thus the modelrs a tool to ard decrsron makers rnvolved rn rural developmentThe specrfrcatron of farmer goals wrll be basad on Helle s research on farmer typologres Ecologrcal goals and ecologrcal rmpacts of technologrcal alternatrves wrll be provrded by Muller Sanz and Castrllo Only on srte effects wrll be consrdered Carlos Ostertag s work wrll be used to rdentrfy new optrons for rnclusron rn the model and to srmulate the rmpact of rnstrtutronal marketrng arrangements e) lmplementatron of institutronal arrangements on a pilot basrs Thrs wrll be the responsrbrhty of consortrum members partrcularly the NGOs f) Expost evaluatron Thrs wlil consrst of a conventronal adoptron study g) ExtrapolatronG1ven the heterogene1ty of h1lls1des m tropical Amenca the ob¡ect1ve of a study such as th1s m a particular s1te 1s to denve pnnc1ples about how to proceed w1th a s1m1lar problem 1n other s1tes Cntena w1ll be developed to charactenze 1) lnst1tut1onal arrangements Th1s w1ll be done by charactenzmg each mst1tut1on accordmg to the types of transact1ons costs 1t reduces 2) sml conservat1on technolog1es accordmg to resources reqUired for adopt1on and accordmg to effect1veness m controlhng eros1on 3) farmers soc1oeconom1c and b1ophys1cal env1ronment m terms of transact1ons costs resource ava1lab1hty and the extent of soli deplet1onAn expert system w1ll then be developed wh1ch matches charactenst1cs of the farmers env1ronment to charactenst1cs of technolog1es and mst1tUt1onsThe mnovat1veness of the research hes m the followmg 1 lThe focus of the CG system so far has been on developmg b10phys1cal technolog1es w1th soc1oeconom1c constramts taken as g1ven The ob¡ect1ve of th1s research 1s to overcome a soc1oeconom1c constramt lack of market opportumt1es by mtroducmg a soc1al technology v1z mst1tut1onal marketmg arrangements 2) lncent1ves for adopt1on of conservat1on technolog1es have usually been 1n the form of subs1d1es or regulat1ons the d1ff1cult1es assoc1ated w1th wh1ch are w1dely known Th1s study tnes to develop a method for voluntanly mducmg adopt10n for mcome generat1on reasons w1th conservatlon occurrmg as a byproduct 3)The emphasrs on transactrons costs 1s m hne w1th new trends m econom1cs research onented towards relaxmg the restnct1ve assumpt10ns of neoclass1cal econom1cs (sea Pacer 1993) 4)The use of mult1ple goal programmmg to examme tradeoffs between mcome and resource conservat10n 1s rare m tropical agnculture Progress Report a) Ouahtat1ve mterv1ews on 7 h1stoncal mst1tut1onal arrangements have been completadThe results show that mst1tut1ons are unable to reduce the transact1ons costs of selhng output as compared to mtermed1anes lnst1tut1ons have been more successful 1n lowenng mformat1on costs related to quahty reqUirements of target markets and access to 1mproved technolog1es bl Informal mterv1ews w1th a small sample of farmers shows that da1rymg 1s regarded as h1ghly prof1table but very cap1tal mtens1ve One opt1on m ay be mst1tut1onal marketmg arrangements for m1lk or m1lk products w1th better off farmers who would purchase forage from poorer farmers A s1mliar arrangement may be poss1ble 1n the case of panela product1on w1th poorer farmers prov1dmg sugarcane for processmg by better off farmers Technolog1cal ass1stance v1a mst1tUt10nal arrangements w1ll be reqUired as farmers cons1der upland cana product1on unprof1table Current Panela processmg technolog1es are also regarded as only margmally prof1table Much mterest m horticultura was also revealed el Past mst1tut1onal expenences h1ghhghted the cychcal natura of cash crop successes Th1s 1nd1cates the need for a d1vers1f1ed portfoho Under the apertura 1t may also be less nsky to focus on products wh1ch are not tradeable because of bulk or penshab1hty Examples are fresh mllk or forages d) lnterv1ews carned out w1th f1eld staff of the H/S program resultad 1n a prehmmary farmer typology md1genous mhab1tants trad1t1onal Caucanos progress1ve caucanos and nanñenses Ob¡ect1ves att1tude to nsk t1me honzon and att1tude to s01l conservat1on were ascertamed lnformat1on was also obtamed on seasonahty m labor reqwrements cash and toad avallab1hty land tenure and ava1lab1hty of cred1t changas m crop compos1t1on The dommant form of output d1sposal IS to mtermed1anes ","tokenCount":"61480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"454667c7a9213970c4632746a21bbc04","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/09bab353-5c5c-4202-8f45-17e7c91c9b21/retrieve","id":"-1641049685"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f10f72d7-7095-4f51-93b5-caf156cdd415","pagecount":"64","content":"The year 1977 was an important and historie periad for eIAT. During the vear new program directions w ere consolidated and dynamically advanced. Moreover, these changes and accomplishments were assessed and endorsed by comprehensive and authoritative review.Early in the year CIAT was the object 01 an intensive review covering all af its activi• tieso The review, conducted by a panel af top scientists for the Technical Advisory Commlttee of the Consultative Graup for International Agricultural Research (CGIARI. i5 the mechanism far fully evalua• tin9 every five years the programs of each international center under the CGIAR .The objectives of (he review were nOI on~ to look al pas! accomplishments but to determine if these are contributing to él well-designed, overall strategy tar the fuwre. Thus, the exercise caused us to take a searching look at ourselves, at our mandate, and at ou r objectives ter meeting that . manda te. In addition. representatives at a few of our client institutions in countries of the region were interv iewed to determine W'hether our technology transfer linkages were operating effectively. It was very encouraging that the ove rall repart from the review was extremely favorable, ind icating that we have accomplished a great deal and that these results will contribute to even more rapid futur e progress.One ot the early preparations for this intensive review was to closely look at our objectives as an international center. From these discussions, the following Statement of Objectives was developed.To generate and de l ive r , in collaboration wl th national institutions. ImprOlled teehnology w hieh wi ll eonlribute to inereased produetlOn , product!vity and quality 01 ~r>ecifle basie food commodlties in the trap ies -principally in cau ntr ies of Latin America and the Caribbeanthereby enabling producers and consumers, especial1y those with limited resources, to increase thelr purchasing power and impr.::lve the ir nutrition, 7 ....To lo ok at these objectives in more detail, the product of our work is improved technology -improved methods of producing fivE.' commodities-beef caule, beans, cassava, rice, and swine. (Development work in maize is a part 01 CIMMYT's global program, with CIAT serving as a relay center.) These improved methods are nO{ designed to ¡ncrease production at any cost , but rather, to lower unit costs of production so that rhe rural and urban poor will benefir most from any ¡ncreases. Small fa rm ers (Iow resource producers) are special targets; our improved technology must apply to the rea l conój{ions of this gro up.Our intermediate product of trained manpower is implied in the objectives statement. Only with trained personnel can local institutions adapt improved technology to specific local conditions and deliver it to the ultimate users.Clients of our improved techn o logy are nati o nal institutions. We do not have the responsibility nor the right to tres pass on nationa l prerogat ives of transferring tec hno logy wlthin countries. Whi le we do a great dea l o f testing in the region, evalu at io ns are always with the approval or collaboration of inst itutio ns in those countries.Re ~a~a rch is dlfected to tr opical areas (har ~na r e the common advan tages and rel a ted problems of a yea r-round growing 8 season (jf water is available) in Latin America and the Caribbean where aur target commodities are basic foods. However, we have global responsibi¡ities among th e international cen ters fo r work with beans and cassava .One of the very impor tant tenets to wh ich we adhere is our concern (O improve human we lfare by improving consumers' purchasing power and nu tri tion. Depend ing on the commodity , we work to increase availab le foad b oth by bringing new land into p (oduct ion and increasing produc t ivity in exis ting production areas. But vve always attempt to develop technology that w ill achieve optimum production levels of faods that are high in quality and nut ri tlous and at the same tim e. use as few inputs as possible .Three administratlve developments o f 1977 we(e important for ensuring 1hat we will con tinue to progress. First, C1AT's int ernat ional cooperation funcrions we re furthe r consalidated within an overall policy under th e leadersh ip of an associate d irector genera l. Th is offíce is responsible for planning an d coordinating the Ce~ter's outreach ac tiv ities and is th e pr imar y linkage with clie nt institutions of th e region_ Commodity programs also share respo nsíb ihty for ínte rna ti anal coop erat ion . During 1977 several hi gh li ghts disc ussed in the respecti ve sec tion s of 1hls repor t emp hasi ze the strong progress made in areas su eh as international testing and international cooper at ion ne tworks.The Beef Pro gramo after much earlier review and discussion o f its objectives, began 1977 in a state 01 dynamie change. During the year the Program 's reorganizatían was largely comple ted and most of the new 5taft 10 be added were on the jobo The Program will wo rk toward deve lop ing beef producti on technology fo r the in fe rtile, acid so11 areas o f Lat in Am erica. Field work in the Pr ogram was accelerated and th ree scientists were already In place (two al Brasilia. Brazil , and one at Carimagua, Colombial to he lp direct fle ld activities.A new operating un it, th e Genetic Resou rces Unit, began activ e development during th e year. Its objec tive is to store, eval uate and distr ibute various germplasm species in support of other programs of the Ce nter. This w\"l consolidate these stages of ge rmp lasm maintenance and ha ndling and fr ee the commodity programs of these tasks. Most important among the Unit's activi t ies WélS the campletion of renov ations and furn ishing o i a modern cold Slorage facilit y to per mit long-term, safe storage of these valu ab le gene tic re sou rces. CIA T's research programs received assu rance of improved support dur íng 1977 with the signlng of a new, improved ag reemen t for the operation of the Carimagua Research H igh ligh (5 substation with the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (lCA) and the aCQuisition through lease of another substation near eIAT .At Carimagua the new agreement between CIAl and ICA provides for cooperative management of thi s large station in the Eastern Plains of Colombia . Two CIAT principal staff, a farm superinte ndent and a beef team member, are living on the station. lhe new substation, to be called CIAl-Ouilichao, is a 184 -h ectare farm about 40 kilometers South of Cali and 60 kilometers from C IAT. lhe site provides a low stress lacalion to evaluate technology for acid, in fertile soils. Most of the physical development of the farm , includ ing grading, road construction, dra in age , and fencing, was completed in 1977 and a conside rabl e number of experiments were established by commodity programs . The farm was acquir• ed 1er CIAT's use by the Foundation for Superior Education of Colombia and is leased for a nominal rent.In addition to these accomphshments, the overall staffing of Ihe Ce nter increased significantly with the number of principal slaff rising from 68 to 84 with several more appointed and scheduled to arrive in early 1978.Thus. it is clear that 1977 was ayear o f change for CIAl; and, while changes were Introd~JCtlon numerous they we re part af an overall strategy. AII of them will support our every• day activities. msuring t\\').al WP. wi ll make significan t progress in futureyears as we have in 1977 and earlier years.Bean Progra• ...The CIAT Bean Program concentrates its etforts on furnishing improved germplasm 01 Phaseolus beans far production in tropical areas of the world. This not only ¡neludes developing new materials that combine resis tance to major diseases and ¡nseet pestsSean Program with high yielding potential and toleran ce to varyin g environmental conditions, but also involves a leadership role in the selection and distribution of exísting finished materials th at may be adapted over wide locations.A signi fican t part of the Program 's work during 1977 ¡nvolved international activities to make promisíng materials available to as wide a group of client programs as possible .In addition, testing networks were en larged to reinforce the internation al eva luatíon and movement of selected materials.Breeding Ouring 1977 the Bean Program defined additional breeding obj ectives and responsibilitie s. T hese incl uded the 90al5 of im proved plant type, yiel d potential and adaptation. Moreover, speci fi c c haracte rs will al so be sought includ ing lodging resistance and different matu rity types.Crosses were inc reased between parents with multiple disease resistances, especially employing non-black progenitors. Fortyeight percent a( crosses made during the year were between non -blac k materials and another 31 percentwere between black and nonblack paren ts.From the ti r st group af cr05se s 22 red, 64 o ther non-b lack, and 122 black-seeded ad vanced progeni es w ere yiel d tested in rep licated trial s at CI AT duri ng the 1977 second semester. Yiel d s af at leas t a few non-blac k selectlons were as good as those of the best black•seeded checks. T h is I im ited data suggested th at great prog res s is possib le in upgrad in g t he y iel d ing ab ility of no n-black mate rials which are wid ely p referred but have lagged beh ind b lack cu l t ivars.Results from the project on breeding for early maturity were very satisfactory. Th e ch arac ter appeared to be simply inheri ted and se lect ion w as found to be effective starting from the F2 gene ration . Rapid prog-12 Improved germplasm is the primary goal of elAT's Bean Program o Here a bean breeder and h is as• sistant make the visual evaluation of pod number and placement in a group of breeding lines illst befare their harvest when y ields wil l be recorded.ress could be made through a módif ied bulk• pedigree method . Few ¡ndetermínate seg re• gates were as early as or earl ier than the determínate parents (the source of early maturity) . The former gro up seems to have h Ighe r yield-In9 potential and stab il it y.Bu lk seed of 64 6 F2 / F3 early generatio n segregating populations were supplied to various national programs of the region upon their direct requests.In order to understand the freq ue ncy of QCcurre nce of bea n common m osaic virus (BC MV) races and to provide better orientation fo r breeding wo rk , 45 isolates of the viru s c ollec ted in 10 Latin Ame ri can coun• tr ies and the United States were tested on a set of different ial var ieties. Sixty percent of the isolates were race BCMV-' , followed in frequency by BCMV-3, -4, -2, and -5.A severe ou tbrea k of bl ack roo t at CIAT duríng m id-1977 was shown to be a hypersensitive react ion to BCMV, p rimarily the type strain (BC MV-l). The reaction was in • du ced by h igh aphid populat ions and te mo pe ratu res. A second ary value of incorpor a• ting the dominant I ge ne into b reeding mate• ria l was obse rved as pla nts ex hib it ing the hyperse nsiti ve reaction died q uick ly and did not tran sm it signif ican t lev el s of inocu lu m to perpe t ua te the ep idemic.Fi el d screening of the germ p lasm bank for resista(lce or tolerance to bea n golde n mosaic virus (BGMV), transm itted by the white fly, continued in El Salvador and Gua te mal a. A lth ough no resi stan t sources have been id en t ifie d, sorne to lerant acceso sions were observed; these include some nonblack materials, Hybrid progenies were also screened at these locations and exhibited some positive transgressive segregation, indicating that additive effeets were expressed in specitic crosses between tolerant parents.An International Bean Golden Mosaic Nursery with 190 entries was tested in Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic , Guatemala , El Salvador and Nigeria. A l! materials beh aved sim il ari ly in alllocations and six entrie s were tolerant in all tests, Bean rugose mosaie virus (BRMV) pro• duces symptoms similar to those caused by BCMV, and the disease is probably more frequently present in Latin America and the Caribbean than currently realized. CIAT tests confirmed that BRMV is not seed•transmitted by Chrysomel id beetles, and that differe nt races existo Field screenings re • vealed that 25 of 190 pro mising materia ls and 26 of 355 advanced fam ili es were resis TanT to the race utiliz ed fer sc ree ning.Results from the first two ¡ntemational rust nurseries revealed that no material was immun e or resistant al every location in both years, however, sorne entries were at least resistant or intermediate at many locations in both years. CIAT and loeati ens in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Mexico had the highest preportion ef susceptible e ntri es and are optimum locations toOnly by examining each plant of each line in this rust nursery can b,eeders and pathologists be certain that promislng material s are not overlooked.Close observation also providas the opportunity to check other growth characteristiCs of each segregating line.test hybrid materials for resistance to di• verse populations of rust races.Materials tolerant or resistant to common bacterial blight in temperate zones were sus• ceptible at CIAT, primarily due to poor adaptation and photoperiod sensitivity. Experiments demonstrated that field screeníng techniques were more reliable when seedlings were inoculated and plants evaluated at first flowering of the earliest maturing line being tested . Much variatían existed in virulence among isolates, however, there Vlle re no indications of the existence of different races.Field and glasshouse inoculation proce• dures have been developed or improved to test hybrid material s for resistance to bean rust, angular leaf SpOt, root rot pathogens and anthracnose at CIAT and other locations in Colombia,Improved screening techniques for Empoasca kraemeri (Jeafhopper) resistance evaluations in segregating popula tions of bean mate rial s were tested using a si mulated F 2 population composed of a mixture o f 40 varieties having various res istance le ve ls. Scoring according to individual plant damage scores and yie lds gave a more rel iable reSIStance estimate.In studies te determine the optimum economic level fer chemical control of leafhoppers, profits were calculated to be max• imized by allowing about one nymph per leaf. In other words, ít was not profitable to try to el im inate the pese Moreover, st ud• ¡'e s a!so showed that farmers should concentrate protection efforts against the leathopper during bean flowering and pod o setting stages of development. Plants that were pro tected only between 26 and 62 days after planting yielded as well as those protected for longer periods.In other experiments for controlling le a fhoppers , the use of rice straw mulch doubled yields over non-mulched Or black plastic-mulched plots_ The use of aluminum foil mulch tripled the yield over control plots. Light reflection and/or color contrast were the principal factors involved in reducing the inseet populat¡ons, Among the large number of Chrysomelid species usually found in bean fields, Diabrot ica balteata was the mast abundant one. Bean root damage from Chrysomelid larvae is common in the held but D. balteata could not develop on bean roots in the laboratory, However, larvae that had previously been fed on maize roots caused more damage to bean plants.The use af vegetable oils was confirmed as an excellent material far pratecting dry beans during storage against Zab rote s su bfasc iatus. Five milliliters of oil per kilogram of beans controlled the pests by increasing adult mortality and redueing avipasition and larval survival. Di! treatments did not reduce seed germination after six 14 months of storage nor greatly affect water absorption.Resul ts of 12 growth experimen ts over three yea rs with the representative bean var• iety Porrillo Sintetica were used to deter• m ine the mast important physiological factors limiting yields in beans. Factor s that are identified become major goals for im • provement duríng screening and selection of breeding materials.Data supported earlier observation s that craps with larger vegetative structure have h igher yields. The most important parame ~ ters were pods per square meter (pod density), total dry matter at maturity and number of vegetative nades. Leaf area duration, if como bined wi th lodging resistance, also contributed to high yields. A max imum leaf area index of about 3.5•4 appeared to be opti• mal ; a higher leaf area index may not produce an increased crop growth rate unless lodging resistance eould be improved.G rowth analyses of five varieties repre• se nting the four bean growth habits defined at CIAT pravided similar results to thase with Porrillo Sintetico. Increased nade structure and leaf area were strongly related to yield. The comparative earliness of two bush varieties apparently limited their maximum leaf area, and thus, the leaf area duration, resulting in slightly lower y ields. Leaf area effieiency (y ield/ un it of leaf area duratíon) for the tour non-climbing vari eti es was si milar, indicating that canopy type does not greatly ¡nfluence the yie ld ing capacity of the photosynthetic system. In the climbing variety I leaf area efficiency was much I ower, possi bly because excessive !eaf area development caused self-shading of !awer leav es.Carbon dioxide supp!ementation in field plots during the immediate post-flowering periad increased yields 43 pereent. Supplementation apparently increased available photosynthate supply, in turn causing in• creased pad set and more mature beans per podo In praetice , an inereased photosynthate su pply should be possible during this period by either inereasing leaf area or by increasing photosy nthetie effieiency of t he available leaf area. Eithe r of these factors would also be aided by stem erectness and lodg ing resi s tance, Large genetic differences were found among 125 promis ing lines for resistance to excess water, whieh could be a seriaus limiting factor during periods of heavy rainfall on poorly drained soils.Expe riments also showed that Phase olu s germplasm ex ists wh ieh is eomparatively widely adapted te tempera tu res oceurring at al titudes from 880 to 1900 meters.This matel•ial will be useful in breeding strat• egi es ai med at wide adaptation .Du ring 1977 sorne results of th e first International Bean Yie ld and Adaptatíon Nursery (IBYAN) became available. Data from more than half of {he 90 testing locali ons showed {hat the mean yie ld for {he five bes't entríes was 35 percent higher than the mean of the f ive local en tries used at each site, in bo th temperate and tropical zoneS. This shows that the germplasm mater'ial se lected under tropical conditíons has bee n widely adapted. Moreover, result s point out the importance of assembling and distrib• uting a wide array of material s that are already ava ilable as va rieties for testing in a ran ge of conditions. Mean yields were always lower in trop ical locations, usually because of disease epidemics.A second IBYAN consisting of 20 lines each of black and non -b lack mater ials was asse mbl ed and, through October 1977, had been sent te 104 loca tions , about 80 percen( of which were in Latin America and the Cari bbean. Of these, six vari eties will passib ly be released by nationa) p rograms in countries where the var iet ies are not now grown , The aptimum ti:-ne for planting bean s with maize was inves tígated to help develop technology for assoc iated c ro pping systems.Bean P rogr am \\\\ 1/ , \" \\ Th is intimClte associCltion of climbing besns and maize is typical of the croppiog sV't9ms in much of lalin America. for this rea50n the climbing bun receives much attention in technology development for the 5mal! farmer.Sean yields were sharply redu ced by planting at the same time as the m aize , compared to planting 10 da ys befare. On the other hand, planting beans befo re the maize also reduced malze yields. Neverthele ss, at e lA T . optimum production of both crops was achieved from si multaneou s planting , Three hundred access ion s of c limb ing beans were selected from among about 2500 in the germplasm bank fa r furthe r testi ng because of their yield potential and grain color. At CIAT they were p la nted with malze and at Papa yan , Colombia, among old maize stalks. A number o f th e materials out-15 ~ yielded the eight standard controls representing the best varieties identified to that time. Among the high yielders were beans of seve ral colors other than black.Wide variations were faund among bean germplasm being screened for toler~nce to low sol! phosphorus. A number of varieties yielded equally well at levels al 50 kg/ha 01 applied phosphoru s (established as a level to provide maximum stress at Popa yan) as they did al levels 01 300 kg P20S /ha.At Pop ayan, experiments showed that the rate of phosphorus required for optimum (95 percent of maximum) yields was 500 kg/ha of P20S as incorporated triple superphosphale . This corresponded 100,05•0.08 ppm phosphorus in soU solution ar 0.38 pe rce nt in the upper leaves at flower ¡nitíation .In soils with a high phosphorus f ixing capacitv, (he method of application is ohen as important as the amount applied, and the optimum method can vary with d iff eren t sources, For conditions at Popay an, band placem ent of 75 kg P 2 0 5 /ha as triple super• phosphate was as effec tive as broadcasting 300 kg P20S/ ha, while sources with lower solubilities, lí ke rock phosphates, w ere more effective when broadcast . Over time an initíal advantage in yield s from the applicat ion of tr ip le superphosphate decreased 16 campa red with some of the more sol uble rack phosphate s wh ich prol/ided bean yields that were equally high. Due to this re sidual effect, the cheaper rack phosphates could be a good substitute for triple superphosphate on acid soils such as those of the Papa yan locatia n.In cooperation with the Pilot Program in Maize and Seans {PROMYFl. in Honduras, agricultural econamists of the Sean Pragram made a simple economic analysis of bean production tosts and return s for the praject, which is attempting te increase incornes of small and rnedium farmers. The deve lopment of an improved early red variety suited to the second season plantings of the area was bel ieved to be the mest important component of a new technology package far rhis project. Variation in Water availability and d isease and inseet incidence between production seasons made the use ot high lel/els of inputs ve ry risky, In the Res t repo regian of Colombia agronomic research continued in 19 77 to ident if y improved varieti es and prefitable input use for sma!! farmers growing beans. CIAT se lec tí on s of red bush beans did not significand y ¡ncrease y ie!ds over the local Colomb ian imp roved variety, Calima, however, seve ra! red clim bing selections y ielded sign ificantly higher than the local red. The new technologiesincluding climbing seleetians, sorne phosphor us fertilizer , Increased organic fertilizers and spraying far insecr and disease control -increased net incomes by 42 to 55 percent, el/en t hough the new technology substantially increased the costs of purchased inputs.In early 1977 the Sean Program, in cooperarion with the CIAT T raining Section, held the f¡rst intensive co urse in bean production for Latin American researchers.Th irty pro fess ionals from 12 countries par• t¡ cipared in the one-rnonth course. The pro• fessionals represented nine disciplines and this diversity of background s assured a great amount of ínterchang e among the group, both in discussion of specific problems as well as of general investigativ e methodol Ogies.   To obtain a detailed, accu rate picture of the impact area , work began this vear under a specia l project ro cla ssifv the land resources and provide a geographicall v-or iented. economic synthesis to s~rve as the basis of the Prag ram 's transfer af technology strategy . In the first pha se. climatie faeto rs are being analvzed. satell ite imagery with aerial and land reconnaissa nce i50 being used t o define landscape p atterns. and so ¡1 fertility eharacteris t ies are being eoll ected. Following th e geographie delineation of land systems, priority areas fo r the introduetion of improved beef cattle production techniques will be made according to economic consideratio ns .During the vear, prelimi nary interpretation of the satellite imagery of appraximatel y 200 mili ion hecta res was done over the major sava nna regions of the area, representing about ane•quarter of the proj ect area as a wh ole and some 60 percent of the savanna regions to be studi ed _The primary facet of the ove rarr program objective is lO develop year•round , nutritious pastur es. In 1977 th e gene tic base of CIAT's tropical forage germplasm collected from acid soi l ecosystems was broadened considera bl y and the number of accessions doubled from ayear ago. The t ab le shows the present holdings of the forage bank. Major collections during the Vear were in the Ea stern Llanos of Co lombia, the LiarlOS o f Ve nezu ela. and the Ce rrado of Brazil. Materials we re also obtained throu gh exehange with other groups.T o provide for orderly and timel v eval ution of all forages being studied, selection criteria f or legume and grass accessions were defined and a mechanism establi sh ed t o direct the flow of germplasm lines to appropriate evaluation lev els takin g into aceount the attributes of specific acc es sions and their At Ca rimagua sev e ra l accessions o f Slylosanthes cap itata in m ixed stands with grasses ca me through their establish ment seaso n virtuall y untouched by anthra cnose and stem bo rer, the proble m ati cal d is ease and in sec t pests wh ic h cons isten ti y destroye d S. gu idnensis accessi o ns gr own in the same In orde r to m ove promi sing fo rages thr ough testing stages as rapidl y as poss ib le, it is es se ntial that incr easing amounts of ba sic see d be availabl e to plant large r a reas. And, to obtain good seed yie ld s, pasture specíes must be grown in locatio ns whe re cond itio ns are optimu m for seed production. The Ouilichao area has prove n to be an ex cell en t locatlo n far b asie seed produc tion of seve ral species.Ouring 19 77 seed of 70 forage species were being inc reased. S ix ty•five le gume species were in seed productio n plo ts at Ou ili c hao an d five grasses wer e be in g increased bo th at Ou ilic ha o a nd at C IAT•Pa l• m ira.Arnong sorne 01 the best resu!ts were the following. S. quíallel1sis 184 was harvested ResoarCh H ighlights three times and yielded 260 kg/ ha/year. S. ca pila ta accessions yielded an average of 215 kg/ha annually in low density stands during the establishment year. Yie lds of thr ee C\":enlrosema species averaged 750 kg/ ha on an annual basis when the crop was grown on trellis es and harvested by hand . Finally , Desmod iu m he ter ophy ll um also produced abundant seed at an annual ra te of -302 kg/ha. This is the first instance whe re eca nomic seed product io n appears passible far this valuable species. The new CIAT•Quilichao substati on provides en ellCcellent sita for evaluating foragas undar low stress, ac id so;1 conditions. It has also provan to be an ideal loea tion for 10rag8 seed production. traditional concept that Macroptl ll urn does not respond to Rh ízo bium inoculation. Fo rage legumes are frequently ver y slow in esta bli shing themselves. The early grow th advantage demanstrated by inoc ulat ed leg• umes should p rove useful as a st rategy for improving {heir rate of establishment .A detailed soi l survey was conduc ted at the new Glli I ichao station coupled w ith th e th orough physical , chemic al and min era lo gical characterization of the so il s whic h classified as Ultisols. Pr eliminar y greenhouse expe ri • ments showed the soil to be extreme1v deficient in phosphorus, sulphur and boron and deficient in calcium, nitrogen and potassium. Aluminum and manganese toxicity affect certain forage species.Several promising legume .and grass accessions were found to have extreme[y low requirements of available 5011 Qhosphorus, coupled with an excellent toleran ce to levels of aluminum con si dered toxi c for most cultivated plants.Oxisols and Ultisol s are both extremelv deficient in available phosphorus and fix or make unavailable large quantities of phosphorus fertilizers that are applied to them. The application of roe k phosphates to these acid so ils offers a promising, IOW-COSI alter, native for supplVing this element.Results of a 16-me nth field trial at Carimagua preved that after ene vear 8. decum• bens plots fertilized with rack phosphates from six sources appreached ar surpassed vields fram plots fertilized with superphosphate. Total yield from triple superphos• phate plats was 13.1 ton/ha. Over the entire test, high reactivity rocks from Sechura (Peru) were 99 percent as effective as super• phosphate: ~ medium reactivíty rock from Huila (Colombia) was 91 percent as effective and the low reaetivity raek fram Pesca (Colombia) was 88 percent as effective.Lo w ar medium react ivitv rocks are abundant in Latín Amerlea. They nermally provid!:! líttJe pho ~pho rus duríng the first vear. Ho wever, by keeping the soil pH low (4.6•4.8) the so il in effeet becomes an ef• ficient superphosphate factory. By using a species tolerant to high levels of aluminum saturation , the low pH did not affect growth and the total dry maner produced was 13. 1 tons in 16 months. without ¡rrigalion and with the only fertilizer applied being 60 kg N, 100 kg K 2 0, and 20 kg S/ha.This indicates a very exciting potential for the medium and low activi IV rocks so common in Latin America, as an important component of the Program's low input strategv, coupled with the seleetion af germplasm efficient in utilizing low levels of ava i lable phasphorus.Not anlv are capital, labor and fertil izer almost always limited in savanna areas, but in the case of improved pastures, seed are rare1v available in sufficient quantíty and are often verv expensive in early stages af deve[opment.An experiment was in¡tiated this year at Carimagua with 10 grasses that can be ex pected to se lf•seed or spread vía stolans to provide an acce ptable stand in one year or less. Planting densitv was ex tremely low (1000 plants/ha) with phosphorus fertilizer applied on1v in the planting hill.In less than three mon th s 8 rachiaria radicans spread to almost completely cover the surface between the planting site s, which are 3.16 meters aparto 8 . hu midicola also pravided rapid caver although it was slower in establishing and ini tiaring vigoraus stolon growth. 8. decumbens also developed rapidly but ¡nitial develapment was largelv vertical befare appreciable stolon develapment occurred.In another pasture establishment trial, the legume Pueraria phaseolides was seeded in 2.5-meter strips alternating wi th 2.5.•me• ler strips of each af the three grasses -8 . decu mbens, Melinis m inutiflora. or Hyperrhenia rufa. After establishment, grazing began in 1977. The variaus svstems have received rest periods of 28, 42, and 56 days and three maintenance fertil izer rates. Legume/ grass balance has been gaod with B. decu mbens with each species invading the other; the legum e has dominated the other two grasses. B. decumbens has produced two to three times the volume of torage produced by either of the other two grasses. It appears that the Pueraria/ Brachi aria combination should remain compatible far a reasonable period of time wi th th is sys tem.In many savanna areas craps are normally planted as precursors of paslUre. Research was ;nitiated at Quilichao and Carimagua to test several erop/pasture suceessions inelud-in9 intereropping pasture legumes with erops sueh as rice, eassava, beans, peanuts, corn and saybeans.The long-term pasture utilization and herd systems studies and their eeonomic analy sis have provided an objectively deri ved baseline against which new technolo• gy can be ~valuated. The need for impraved nutrition. is emphasized by the very I imited beef production levels attained by grazing native savanna wi thout improved, persistent pastures and the deficiencies in blood pa• rameters of Zebu breeding cows grazing native savanna.Evaluation of the herd systems trial which terminated in May 1977 provided ex• ceOent information on herd be havior on native sava nnas during tou r reproductive years. The most profitable improvement under sueh eonditions is direct mineral supplementation. Salt supplementation, early weaning and the use of M. rnill u ti florCl pastures during the wet seaSon are not prafit• able alternatives. New breeding herd mano agem ent trial s inelude improved pastures for strategic use in combination with grazing native sav anna.Catde that are produced on the acid. infertile s&vannas of Latin America suffer from many problems, mOSt of which are directly relatad to the quantity and quality of forages. For mis reasan, the CIAT Beef PU)Qram's primary objective is to create impraved foraQ\" materials far these conditions.Among other impraved gra sses, H. rufa has failed under grazing because of its rela• tively high phosphorus and potassium re • Simu latíon m odel predíctions als o sug• gested that qu ite small increases in cro p growth rate should provide large increases in yield. Several varieties were screened to measure photosynthetic rate of individual leaves which could provide increased growth rates; large, consistent differences were found between varieties.Work was done at three locations varylng in altitude to assess the effects of different temperatures on cassava genotype adaptation. The same plant type yielded best in all three locations, which had mean temperetures of 20°, 24 0 and 28°C. However, at the coolest site -which represents the lower limit of cassava's range of adaptation -a more vigorous genotype was required to obtain satisfactory yields.Cassava is frequently grown on acid, infertile soils and treme nd ous potential exists for inc reased production in these regions of the tropics. In experiments harvested at Carimagu a, Colombia, in 1977, several varietie s demo nst rated tolerance to high soil acidity. For example, the variety M Col 1684, grown without applied lime, yielded 83 percent of its m aximum obtained with 2 ton/ha of lime. Several other lines or varieties produced about 50 percent of their maximum yields w ithou t added lim e. 26In another trial, with 183 varieties, average produ ction was 81 percent of maximum when grown with only 0.5 ton/ha o f added li me. There app ears to be ample o ppor tunity for selecting lines tha t do well with little or no lime inputs.In similar field screening experiments for tolerance to low phosphorus, lines were identified with the potential for good yields at very low levels of applied phosphorus. AIthough the technology being developed aims to employ the lowest possible fertilize r levels, the use of sorne fertilizer yields a high rate of return on investment. Rock phosphates showed particular promise as sources of cheap fertilizer. With m oderate fertilizer levels yields of 25 to 28 ton/ha of fresh cassava can be obtained on the acid, infertde soils.Cassava is attacked in all areas where it is grown by diseases and pests. Attacks fro m a wide array of organisms begin in the plant• ing material. Poor germination can result, esp ec ially if stakes are not planted immediate ly after cutting. A simple fungicidal and insecticidal dip was found effective in elimi• nating germination problems caused by at• tack fro m many organisms. The treatme n ts cost on ly 3 USS per hecta re and treated plan ting material can be sto red for up to one mon th befare seeding.Cassava is attacked by many diseases. Part of the Cassava Program' s strategy is to devel op varie ties m at incorpora te resistance to the major dis eases.Field scree ning of m any materials permit the id ent ification of clear differences in resistance.The emphasis in diseases and pest control is not, howeve r, on rep eated chemical inputs. Rather, natural co ntrol meth ods are sought. For examp le, the devasta ting disease cassava bacterial bl igh t can be co ntrolled by planting resistant varieties. Many new hybr id li nes developed at CIAT showed acceptable level s of resistan ce, even when infected with the most virulent strains of the disease.The superelongatian disease , eaused by SJ.)haceloma man iho rícola, was firsI reporto eq in 1974 and its presenee has been co n• firmed in several countries of Lat ín America. Although ir can be di sseminated by infected planting material, the fungicidal dip men° tioned aboye el iminates the disease from stakes and prevents early infection from this source. During the year, laboratory and fie ld experiments confirmed that at least three races af the organism exist. A small numbe r of cultivars showed high tolerance to all races.One of the most widespread disease probo lems in cassava is the Cercospora diseases. Exper iments at CIAT showed that yield lasses from these diseases are often as high as 20 to 30 percent. Resistant va ri e• líes and hy brid lines were identified and no losses we re measured whe n these materials were grown in fields where the diseases were present.During the dry seasons severe attacks of thrips and mites can oeeur and these pests can cause yie ld losses of up to 50 percent.CIAT's caS'sava germplasm bank was screened for resistan ce to thrips (Frankliníella willi amsi) during a natural in• festatian in 1977. More than half the acceso sians demanstrated high tolerance.In the case of mites (Te tranychus ur ticae and Mononyche llus tanaJoaL high levels af resistan ce have na{ been found. Neverthe• less, in massive screening, including repli• cated experiments during 1977, 58varieties were selected as mast resistant to M. tanaJ oa and 31 as most resistant to T. urti cae. Twenty varieties were camman ta the twa groups, indicating a degree of cross-resis• tance that was not previously suspected.Varieta) resistance to the cassava harn' worm (Erinnyis ello) has not been faund, however, effective biological control app ea rs passible against this important pesto Pre' datian af hornworm e9gs and larvae by Tr ichogramma and Polistes wasps, respec• tively, occurs naturall y in many cassava field s. Experiments to increase predation and parasitism showed that the re lease of additianal Polistes and Tr ichogramma effec• tively increased predation and eg9 parasitism o A bacterial dise ase, Bacillus thurlnglensi s, is effective against the hornworm larva. First instar larvae numbe rs decreased as much as 88 percent in tr eated fie lds and second instar larvae decreased 46 percent faur days after fields were treated.Testing of these integrated techniques be• gan an a cammerci al scale during the year and eady results suggest the control method is effective.The eassava fruitfly (Anastrepha p ickeli and A. maniho tl) affects planting material by tunneling inta growing stems and provid • ing an entrance for a bacterial pathogen which in turn causes severe rotting of ste m tissue. Planting stakes from damaged plan• tatians showed germlnation reducti on as high as 16 percent and plants from damaged cuttings lhat did graw yielded as much as 17 percent less than lhose f ram undamaged cut• tings. Mere ly by selecting saund planting materia!s, these yield losses were prevented.Althaugh the desirable characters of an efficient plant type, lines tolerant (O acid, infenile soils and res istant to major diseases and pes ts exist, the y have yet ta be como bined into a single line. The breeding section tests more than 20,000 hvbrids from controlled crosses each vear to obtain new varieties with mest af the desirable characters.New hybrids demonstrated good y ie ld porential at three very d iff ere nt locations in Colombia. Under i.he fenil e cond itions at CIAl, yie ld petential is 60 ton / ha; in Caribia, with less fertile soils and a verv pronounced dry season, potemial is 40 ton/ha; and, in the acid, infertile soils of the Eastern Plains, 30 ton/ha. Pragress made in incerparating dis• ea se and pest re sis tance ioto pote ntia1! y high y ie lding materials is summa rized in th e tab le.) Char acteri sti c s of promi sing Ii\"es of cassava compared with selected germpla sm and loca l c ult ivars.  Germp lasm selec ti onsControl or local cul tivar UaneraRatings: 4 ;:. Very good; = Good; 2 = Acceptable; 1 = Poor 28Rosearch HighlighlSThe rapid propagation sysrem for mulupl ying limi ted quantities of planting mate• dais was improved during 1977 so that shoots were rcoted faster with an accompa• nyin g sav ings of time and equipment.Prom isin g ma terials were p lanted In re• gi onal tr íals throughou t Colom bi a. T ria ls re• ceived no f ertil izer, except f or interm edia te levels app lied to trial s on acid. infertile 50ils, an d no post-e mergence insec tic ides or fungíci des were app lied . Go od weed co ntr ol was prac ticed bu! no other special care was provided to fields. Merely by us ing simple and cheap, but effective. cu ltural practices to grow the bes t loca llines, v ields we re dou bl ed . In th e f irst two year s when onlv prel imi narv se lections we f e used advantages 01 sel ec t ed line s ove r the be st local lines were quite small. How• ever, wlth the final selections fr om the germ• plas m resources, a tremendou s advantage wa s achieved in the 1976•77 season frOI11 combining good cultural practices and se lec• ted marerlals.The CIAT Cassava Program has mad e excell ent progress in rai si ng yields si mp1 v b y creat ing technology packages of cultural practlce-s and selected tines from germplasm . Evan better y ie ld s will come fr om the introduction of completely new materials such as thls promis lng hybrid line.Previously, all work at CIAT was w ith cassava as a monoculture crop . Much of th e world's cassava, howev er, is grown In mix ed culture. At CIAT, cassava wa s grown in as• sociation with be?ll1s te test the potential o f cassava/ grain legume associat lons. Very high land equivalent rarios (up to 1.7) we re ob• tained, •1 his meant that t o produce the sa me quantities 01 bea ns and cassava in monocul • ture, 1.7 times as much land was required .In achieving th at ratiO, cassava and bea ns were planted at th e same time , al the lr nor • mal populations. Yield s 01 both craps we re high -34 ton/ ha f or cassava and 2. 9 ton/ ha Mean results of regional tdals in nine sites in Colombia over three growth cycles.for beans. These results confirmed that cassava can yield we ll in association and thar the associated crop can al so give good results .A major problem faced by all cassava producers is the difficulty invol ved in hand• ling lhe crop due to its extreme perishability after harvesting. Perishability is due to physiological deterioration which often occurs within 24 hours of harvest and microbial deterioration which occurs five to ten days after harvesl Work in 1977 confirmed that physiolog' ical deterioration can be prevented by either pruning the plant tops three weeks before harves t or by putting roots into polyethyl • ene• lined paper bags immediatelv after har• vest. Microbia l deterioration was prevented by treating the harvested roots with a broad spectrum fungicide .Internati ona l cooperation activities of the Cassava Program increased markedly after January 1977 with the assignment of two 5taff positions for outreach purposes . One person , based at CIAT, coordinates latin American activities. and the second, posted at SEARCA, in the Philippines, coord in ate s ou treach activities in Asia. The positions are funded by che International Developrne nt Research Ce ntre of Canada.Because international cooperation activ ¡• tíes in As ia represent a new program, major responsibílities for thi s region we re defined tor the prese nt as the fol1owing: T o mu ltipl y and exchange germplasm, including th e establishment of region al t rials; to select candidates for tra ining and to coordinate the'r work after train ing; and , to evaluate the present status of cassava production in Asia.In other activities in support of international cooperation, members of the cassava tea m made extended visits in both Latln Amt' ! rica and Asia to assist in plannin!l new programs being developed in national agencies and to provide technical advice.Regional trials were established in six countries in callaboration with the respec• tive natianal programs. In addition, seeds from promising crosses were distributed throughout Asia and latin America to be tested under local cond itions. In mid • 1977 IRR I assumed financial responsibility for the management and operation of these activities.Selection 01 Line 4440Rice line 4440 was developed in th e cooperative Instituto Co lombiano Agropecuario (ICAI -C IAT breeding program and was tested in regio nal trial s in 1976 and t he First In ter nationa l Vie ld Nur se ry, in all cases performing very well. In seed mullipli• calion plats al C lA T it was observed te be segregating for grain type, plant height and maturation peri odo Sixteen hundred plants were se\\ected far pur ification; from these ten were aga in selected, and, fin a lly, two mOre se lec tlons were made to be multiplied ior basic seed . One of the two se lec tions wi ll be nam ed as a variety in 1978.Rice breeding strategy at CIAT seeks to combine high yieldmQ potential with accept• able gra in qua lity and resistance to majar production constraints, o f which rice blast disease (caused by PVrlcul a rla o rYldl:d is the most Important.Various approaches are being used to pro• duce effective and long• lasting protection to the blast disease. T o impart resistance from severa l sources a nd possibly gaio sta bl e resiso tance (across all races of the disease organism) imp roved lines carrying resistance from five sources were crossed, observed and selected. Through 1977,36,000 F 2 selection, had been reduced to 1,000 progenies lO be evaluated in the F S generation and another 330 lin es to be evaluated in pre lim ina ryy ield tria ls, AII selections have sur vived neck blast infec ti o ns in the fi e ld and a lso carry res iso tance fa the plant hoppe r (Sogat o des.1. have acceptable grai n quality and good o lant type.In a project to produce resistant multiline varieties, the third backcrossing among five sources of resistance to blast and two re• current parents was completed. Ouring the year this pr o jec t was expa nded to ¡ncorpo• rate multiple res istanc e into the multiline va riet ies.A large amount of material or iginally developed in Sri•Lanka was evaluated in various generations in 1977. At the most advanced levels, 44 lines selected fram over 900 in F S and F S generations were tested against the varlerv CICA 9 in twO yield t ri a l ~ T he best I;ne lat 9371 kg/ hal out• yielded CICA 9 by 29 pe rcen t. Also, 90 promising lines from Fs progeny rows were selec ted fer several characte ristics inciuding Resc a rc h High lights  Immunityor high resistance to sheath blight (c aused by Conicium sasakii ) has not been detected , hOv'veve r, th ree t olerant materia ls were observed and selected . T hese were crossed wilh CICA 4, CIC A 9, CIC A 7 and line 4440 to attem pt the in corpora tion of tol erance in to th ese commercial materials.Eleven varieties resistant to bacterial lea1 bl ight in As ia were inoculated w ith an isolate of the ca usative pathogen, Xdnlllorno ni:l s oryLae. fr om Latin Amer ica. AI I mainta ined their resistance, ind ica tin g that the Latín Am er ican ¡sol ates react sim ila rly to Asian strains wit h th ese ge notypes. Accord ingly, more than 800 advanced b ree d ing lines selecled al CIAT from bu lk F2 and F4 populatians were screened for re sistance t o th e disease in th e greenho use. Fift y-nin e percent wer e resi stan t. 20 perc ent tole rant and 21 percent susceptible.In each of the two semes te rs of 1977 the Rice Unit cooperated with the Training Section to offer one production course. A total of 15 professio nals from 10 countries attend ed the courses. Course objectives were to train the participants to plan , develop, and supervise efficient rice production. pass on lO producers new rice production techo 34 no logy , and , pl an, deve lop, and supervise exper ime nts in cu ltura l practices and regional tr ia ls of materials unde r testing. T wo other train ees a150 received training in researcho riented ac tivities dur ing the year.America and the Caribbean indica te that the majority 01 the problems limitin'g the development of this i ndustry are closely related lO the low efflciency and productivlty af the eXlstmg swine populatlon. In most 10calities, the limiting problems relate to the :ack 01 knowledge 01 adequate techniques in S Wl ne N utr illon Un ; , swine management, nutrition and feeding, breeding and health practices.In arder to CQunter the gaps in knowledge that exist, the Swine Unit in recent years has ¡ncreased lts emphasis on training activo ¡l íes, especially through postgraduate courses al CIAl on swine production . The main object ive 15 to fmm p rofess ional teams which will serve to Initiate and develop swine productton programs at rhe regional and national levels.Research activities seek solu lions to {he main problems limit tng the eff ic le nt produc• tion of pigs with specia l emphasis p laced on eva lu allng agro-industria l by-produclS and non-conventional sources of energy and protein far swine feeding programs. In Oc tober 1977, th e Swine Unit sponsored a one-week wor ks hop on swine pro• duction in Latin America_ A major purpose of the conference was to bring together pro• fessionals who had been trained at CIAT up to 1975. Thirty-five persons from 12 eoun• tries participated.The group reviewed the swine production situation in national and regional programs and especially in the cooperative projects that work close ly with CIAT's Swine Unit, and tried to define the m ost important probo lems limiting increased proclu c tion as well as sorne of their possible solutions. In ad• dition, participants studied means of de• veloping a cooperative network fo r inter• national cooperation in different swine im• provement activities.Important recommendations from the conference included the following. Tec hnical. economic and mar keting fea sibili t y studies are needed: swine p rograms for me• dium and small f ar ms shou ld recei ve em pha• sis and ex tensi on programs shoul d be intensified, especia lly in the areas of nut rition anu the u tiliz ati on of non-conven t ional feeds; por k mar k et ing needs t o be improved and producers sh ou ld pl ay a larger ro le in this activi ty; and, c10ser coo per ati on needs to be developed be tween coun tries and re• gi ons to prevent duplication of efforts and to improve transfer of technology.In Bolivia CIAT swine specialists con t in• ued their work with the cooperative projeet of the University Gabriel Rene Moreno, the Heifer Project and the International Develop The basic commodity ef aH international centers dealing with plant materials is im - In 1977 the Unit directed majar efforts to completing its physical facilities. The eere of these facilities i5 the cold storage complex of three rooms, details of which are shown in the table. In addition, the Un¡t also has work areas for threshing, seed sorting and seed lot weighing, plus labarataries for seed cl ea ning, classify ing and viabil ity resti ng, as well as f or seed drying and packaging prior ro srorage and/ or disrribution. Add itional laboratori es are devoted ro meristem tissue culturing of cassava . Orher areas ¡nelude a room tor germplasm record-keeping, offices and a small herbarium to house boranical specimens of forages and beans.Studies confirmed that seed dehumidi• ficatlon in prepararion for long-term storage can be easily and rather quickly accomplished by drying at room temperarure over silica gel. Bean seed initially at 23.5 percent moisture was brough r to 8 pe rce n t in four days with this technique. Drying t o this moisture content did nol affect later germination_ A method of packaging seed fer borh storage and disrribution was tested and adopted. Dried seeds are sealed in laminated packs (plastic/aluminum foil/plastic) to provide a nan-breakable package impervious ro moisrure and oxygen. They can be opened. easily to obtain samples and then resealed with a simple heat sealer. grasses, and probably much less for cassava seed. Under the excellent storage conditions available in the Unir, it should nor be necessa ry to grow out more than 5 percent of the germplasm collection in any given year, that is. IODO 101500 lines.In mid-1977 the Unit took responsibility for the mainrenance of the Phaseolus bean germplasm as well as the increase, preliminary evaluation and distr¡bution activities which were previously done in the Bean Programo Sorne 1500 new accessions of Phaseol us were receiv ed during the year. Eva luatíon of 4000 accessions on the basis of information on 32 morpho-agronomic characteristics was completed. Over 5500 samples were distributed from stock s, inc luding sorne 2000 wh ich were sent in response to req uests from national (non-CIAT) plant breedi ng programs ar0und the wo rld .In 1977, th e ind irect fluorescent antibody test. p reviou sly deve loped in the Uni t as a rapid means to diagno se reactions to ba besio sis (ca used by Babesia argent ina and i::3. biyerni nal was adapted to di agn o se another important d isease an ap lasm osis (caused by Anaplasll1a margina le). Th e new test proved to be significantly more sensitive than other common tests fa r detecting ana pl asm osis.A microtiter technique was d eveloped far use in detecting anaplasmosis with the compl ement fi xa tion test. The sensitive, reliable test red uce s by one*th ¡rd the time to process large numbers of sera and reduces by 20-fold the total volume a f re agents required .A stud y t O determine the prevalence af hemoparasites on 12 farms in an endemic area o f the Cauca Va ll ey o, Co lombi a showed that the occurrence of hemoparasites varied between farms according to the t ype of farm m anagem ent p ractice d . Herds o n d airy far ms had significantly fewe r he mo• parasitic in fe c ti ons tha n m ixed or beef herds, and mixed herd s had fewer th an d id beef herds. Amon g th e impo rtant management practic es red uc ing infections were: early weaning o f ca lves in small p astures, better control o f the tick vec tors thro ugh pasture 44 rotati o n , an d per iod ic con t rol o f ti ck s thro ugh acar icid e treatm e nts.While dairy herds h ad fewer h emoparasitic infe ctions th ey a lso had more clinical cases 01 anap lasmosis tha n did the other he rd s. It was con cl uded that e xcessi ve vect o r c on t rol made the c attle suscep tibl e to the d iseases in an endemic zon e beca use they w e re not carryíng the antibodies resu lting fr om c o• infectious immunity. In these cases , management programs co uld be modifi ed or immunization programs agains t anaplasmosis a nd babesiosis initiated.T o unders tand th e ecology of the pr im ary vector of hemoparasitic diseases -the Boophilus microplus tick -effor ts were di• rected to grasses wh ich appeared to have anti-ti ck p roperties. I t is possible t hat suc h grasses could be u se d as a component 01 an integrated tick control program to eradicate or perhaps maintain tick s at non•dangerous levels.Gamba grass (A nd ropogon gayanus ) and molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora) had the lowest m ea n numbers of tick s amo ng six gr asse5 artificially in fe sted with tic k larv ae. Mol asses grass repels t ic ks so effec tively that c attle c o u ld become fu Uy su scepti b le to ti ck-borne d lsea ses jf they were su bj ected to a n accidental tick infestation. Hence, m o• lasses grass wou ld be mast useful in t ic k contro l sc hemes within a ma rg in al t ick za ne whe re th e ch ance ot future tick c o nt amj• nation wou ld be sligh t .Gamba g rass e xhib ited the abllity te m aintain a defined, but co nstantl y low initial ho st tic k infestation an d le ngthy but low to mod era te fiel d t ick popu lat io n . It would appe ar to be most valuable in a co ntrol package fo r an end emic tic k lone where cattte coul d be challenged but where tic ks wo uld never become so num ero us as to cause dir ec t tic k effects or tick-borne disease morta li ties.The CIAT Special Studies Unít eva lua tes foad production pr actices that are potentia lly useful far traditional farmers working in the re gion af CIA T's broad mandate. Act ivi ti es are only directed•to praelices wh ich do nOl recei ve attention from th e commodity programs af the Center . Objectives a f the agronomic studies are : 10 increase and stabilize production -especially Spec iol SWd,es Unil on secondary lands, to reduce energy requirements and back -breaking toH, and to facilitate developing useful new plant species and erop cultivars.Mínimum tillage systems often reduce the energy required to prepare the land, avoid soil campaction, and reduce soil moisture and erosion losses. Fo r the small farmer , a no-till approach represents a savings in hand labor normally required at planting time w'hich will allow him to plant larger areas and do a more tjmely jab af weed ing his crops once they are grow ing.Two preemergence herbicides (glyphosate and paraquat) were campa red with the use of a machete to prepare land for planting maize and beans either in monocultures. in ratatians or as associated crops . Weed control was generally better when a preemergence treatment was applied but the differences were not as great as those normally observed when traditional t¡llage meth ods are practi ced. Over three seasons, weeds became mor e serious with time, suggesting th at more intensive weed control measures may be required after the first season 01 a no-till system.Severa l potentially useful erop introductians from other international centers were evaluated at CIAT in-1977. Among the material s tested were cowpeas from the International Institute for Tropical Agricu l. ture (1I TA l, mu ng beans and soybeans from the Asian Vege tabl e Research Deve10pment Ce nter (AVR DCl. and sorghum and mill e t from the International Crops Research In• sti tute for th e Semi-Arid Tropics ( IC RI SAT).The perennia l peanut, Arachis glabrata, was established as a living mulch and maize was then planted with the peanut erop. Various methods of cont ro lling th e com o petition from the peanuts indi cated that appliea t ions of 1.5 kg a.i .lha o f glyphosate or 2 kg a.i.lha of atrazine o ver th e who le plot a nd hoeing o f the who le plOl provided the bes t growth and yields of maize . The 46 peanut was very co mpetitive, h owever, it is able te recycle plant nutrients back into the system .The activ it ies of Interna tional Cooperation at C1AT encompass al\\ those aimed at establi shing full . fledged collabo ra tive links w ith national.programs worki ng w ith CIA T te achi eve increased production in bean s, beef, cassava, maize, pork and rice.     The Unit also assembled and distributed 46 regional trials te the national programs nt the tive Andean countries. These trials bility of producing a maize crop during the early growth of sugar cane. Maize was planted in one row between each row of cane or two rows of maize between every other row of caneo The best plant densiry in both p lanting systems was 26,000 plants/ ha. The only fertilization was 69 or 92 kg/ha of actual nitroQen. Although germination was lower than normal because of dry wea th er , maize yie lds were as h igh as 3.2 ton/ ha and there was no response to the h igher rate of nitrogen . Because the sugar cane was not harvested in 1977, no data are available on the interaction between the two crops. ","tokenCount":"10541"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"df356f735acaeb79aceadec0de3b3d9b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/35d26460-cab9-4907-8e58-a1e0e01042dc/retrieve","id":"-737436594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1029ab7-1e25-403f-961c-11493cc3e2be","pagecount":"4","content":"A very warm welcome to the 7th edition of the Urban Zoo Newsletter. Two key objectives of the Urban Zoo project are to explore the genetic diversity of Escherichia coli within Nairobi city and to explore the links between microbial diversity and urban livestock. This is at the core of the \"99 household\" study.Choosing 99 households, within 33 sub-locations in Nairobi, has been challenging. It has also been the subject of heated debate during our Urban Zoo annual meetings. The issues have been around finding a suitable balance between the practicalities of including a diverse range of geographical locations, wealth categories and livestock ownership whilst at the same time avoiding unnecessary biases in the selection of households. The protocol for household selection has now been finalized and sampling will start soon.One of the key variables that we needed to take account of is wealth and to this end we explored many options for data layers that could provide an indicator of socio-economic diversity. The best option appeared to be a study focusing on water availability and distribution in Nairobi. It was funded by UN-HABITAT and the Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA), and implemented by the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique ( I F R A ) .( h t t p : / / a c c e s s -to-w a t e r -innairobi.gwopa.org/). This study categorised all residential areas of Nairobi into 17 neighbourhood typologies, and estimated income levels for each. We purposefully selected 33 sub-locations, ensuring a good geographical spread across the city and covering the range of neighbourhood typologies in the city.In each of the selected sub-locations three house-holds are to be selected based on their proximity to three randomly chosen points within the dominant neighbourhood typology for that sub-location. Taking advantage of local knowledge, each of these points is assigned a category of livestock ownership: no livestock, monogastric production (pigs or poultry), or ruminant production (cattle, sheep or goats). These points are then plotted on a Google maps (Quickbird) image of the sub-location to aid the search on the ground for the closest household falling into the designated livestock husbandry category. A questionnaire will be administered at each of the households to establish wealth level, livestock husbandry activities and sources of animal-source foods and biological samples will be taken from the household members, from the household itself and from its immediate environment. Samples will be sent for genetic analysis of E. coli and will contribute to estimating genetic diversity across the city.Considerable discussion has also been had around the level of detail to capture in the questionnaires. We have opted to collect relatively little information from the 99 households and instead focus on the sampling of E. coli. We will conduct a separate survey, based on the same neighbourhood typologies and sub-locations but covering many more households, to explore the links between wealth, consumption patterns (with a focus on animalsource foods), livestock husbandry and nutritional status.Dr Judy Bettridge who has just joined the project as a University of Liverpool postdoc and will be a visiting scientist at ILRI for the coming year or so will be taking a leading role in ensuring the smooth implementation of these 99HH surveys. Upcoming Events 4The \"URBAN ZOO\"Newsletter Quarterly Newsletter on \"Epidemiology, Ecology and Socio-Economics of Disease Emergence in Nairobi\"Find us on Twitter @ZoonoticDisease All Tweets #UrbanZooIn the summer of 2012 in Saudi Arabia a strange corona virus infection was isolated from a patient with acute pneumonia and renal failure. Subsequently, a series of laboratory diagnostics divulged a novel coronavirus later known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS COV).Following the virus identification, a new case was reported from a Qatar patient in the UK and a cluster of hospital cases were reported among health workers in Zarqa, Jordan. There was ineffable fear that the world was fronting another pandemic after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).As of June 3 rd 2015, there have been 1,179 confirmed cases of MERS and 442 fatalities in 25 nations representing a case fatality rate of 37.49%. South Korea is the latest country to report two deaths and 35 cases in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia. The vast majority of the South Korean cases have been acquired from hospitals with the fast spread attributed to the fact that family members often stay with patients in their hospital rooms.MERS-CoV infection in humans occurs either as outbreaks as witnessed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where 255 confirmed cases were reported in four months or as isolated cases. The infection's clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic to a very severe pneumonia with the acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock and multi-organ failure ensuing in death.Serological studies have confirmed camels have antibodies against the virus. In addition, virus detection by reverse transcription PCR and sequencing has confirmed that these antibodies are likely to be caused by infection with a similar virus strains that infect humans, although a formal confirmation of the role of camels in the epidemiology of the virus is still elusive. Transmission has largely remained human to human with a few isolated primary cases having a history of contact with camels, suggesting that they are a source of human infection.A number of questions regarding the disease have remained difficult to answer:1. What is the reservoir of the virus, and are there multiple animal species that may form a reservoir community? If yes, which ones?2. The infection has predominantly affected older people. Is this related to ability to fight infection, or is it exposure related?3. The evolutionary background of MERS-CoV is unclear; antibodies against the virus were found in Kenyan camels during a period spanning from 1992 to 2013. This implies that the virus existed in camels long before it was identified and before it jumped to the human population. Nevertheless, the appearance of human cases in the last few years might indicate some kind of mutation of virus that allows it be become human infective. If this is the case, could it spread rapidly though the human population? If this mutation has occurred, has it occurred in multiple locations simultaneously?4. What is the risk of human infection from camel populations outside the Middle East (eg in Kenya)In collaboration with a number of partners, including St Louis Zoo, the Mpala Research Center and the Erasmus Medical University, we are investigating elements of the epidemiology of MERS-CoV in camels in Kenya to help answer some of the above questions.These studies are an extension of the Urban Zoo project's activities investigating camel value chains in Kenya and Nairobi.Written by Dishon Muloi (dshnmuloi@gmail.com)Bettridge joins Urban Zoo Project………... Bettridge joins Urban Zoo Project………... Bettridge joins Urban Zoo Project………...Dr. Judy Bettridge is a Veterinarian and currently a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Liverpool, based at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya. She recently joined the Urban Zoo project with role of focusing on the 99 households component of the project; a cross-cutting study which integrates multiple project threads. This will contribute to the understanding of factors influencing public health risk from emerging zoonotic pathogens in an urbanised environment and the role of livestock keeping and contact with value chains in driving disease emergence. More info about her to be found http://www.zoonoticdiseases.org/who-we-are/currentstaffstudents/dr-judy-bettridge/ Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause a range of illnesses in humans, from the common cold to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).Kenya's urban poor federation Muungano wa Wanavijiji is working with food vendors in informal settlements to reveal their challenges and explore how to promote food security. Muungano is a member of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a network that aims to improve shelter, services, and government responsiveness to the urban poor. The ongoing project is complementing other Urban Zoo activities, as well as building upon Muungano's past experience with grassroots data-collection and advocacy. Working alongside Muungano are community residents, pro-poor financial analysts at Akiba Mashinani Trust (Muungano's financial wing), and researchers at University College London and UC Berkeley.This action-research project is utilising participatory methods to understand vendors in Nairobi's informal settlements of Korogocho and Viwandani. Vendors sell a variety of items in these settlements such as fresh produce; meat, fish, and eggs; cooked and uncooked foods; beverages; and snacks. A mobile phone application is capturing vendors' demographic and business profile, while base-maps and balloon-mapping (lowcost aerial photography with balloons and a simple camera) are generating detailed spatial data on their locations. Finally, focus group discussions (FGDs) are delving into traders' constraints, coping strategies, and priorities for change.These vendors are poorly organised and frequently overlooked or stigmatised by policy-makers, yet vending is a vital source of affordable, accessible foods and a key income-generating activity. Customers may appreciate the convenience and their personal relations with traders; food vending is also a widespread livelihood strategy, particularly for female traders seeking to combine work with childcare. As a female vendor explained in a Viwandani FGD, \"I'll be doing my work and also doing the house chores and also look after my kids…But if you are outside [the settlement], sometimes you have to look for someone to take care of your kids and sometimes you don't have that money.\"However, vendors often face multiple challenges in their settlements like overflowing drains, minimal water and sanitation, uncollected rubbish, and elevated insecurity. In turn, widespread hazards and poor infrastructure or services can threaten food security by jeopardising vendors' livelihoods and customers' access to food. But the project's maps and FGDs are uncovering these concerns and, moreover, a Food Vendors' Association (FVA) has been established to increase their collective strength, amplify their voices, and advocate for muchneeded interventions in the future.This action-research project is utilising participatory methods to understand vendors in Nairobi's informal settlements of Korogocho and Viwandani, with support from APHRC and ILRI team members from the Urban Zoonoses project.Community-led balloon mapping of food vendors ","tokenCount":"1637"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3dafbc3311bb9c98fb6494477f1599b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9d918464-5a60-4472-bf39-8477d115da57/retrieve","id":"-162641941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d58592e9-8310-4df5-b113-4c51f6dab6ec","pagecount":"5","content":"here are two broad approaches through which farm animal genetic resources (AnGR) can be conserved: ex situ and in situ. Ex situ approach to conservation includes methods such as cryopreservation and live animal conservation in designated localities (e.g., government farms). In situ conservation encompasses entire agroecosystems, including immediately useful species (e.g., crops, forages, agroforestry species, other animal species) that form part of the system.T 54 54 54 54 54In situ conservation is defined as \"the continuous husbandry of a diverse set of populations by farmers in the agroecosystems where an animal population/breed/strain has evolved.\" It is the management of viable populations (by farmers) in the agroecosystems where they have developed their distinctive properties.! To conserve the processes of evolution and adaptation of animal populations to their environments. ! To conserve diversity at all levels -ecosystem, species and within species (breeds and genes). ! To integrate farmers (mixed farmers, pastoralists) into a national AnGR system. ! To conserve ecosystem services which are critical to the functioning of the earth's life-support system (i.e., maintaining soil-forming processes, reducing chemical pollution, restricting spread of animal and plant diseases, etc). ! To improve the livelihood of resource-poor farmers through economic and social development (i.e., combining in-situ conservation with development of local infrastructure, or increasing access by farmers to locally-relevant animal and plant (forage) germplasm). ! To develop systems to make conserved material (i.e., semen for local use) or conditions easily accessible to farmers.One major advantage of AnGR is that it conserves both the genetic material and the processes that give rise to the diversity. Thus, adapted indigenous breeds can be coconserved with wild species, maximizing system output sustainably. Long-term sustainability of breeding efforts may depend on the continued availability of the genetic variation that can be maintained and further developed by the herders themselves using their own management practices. Moreover, because the technology for cryopreservation of AnGR is only well-developed for a handful of livestock species, conservation of most livestock species will continue to depend on live animals. In almost all cases, interventions supporting continued evolution (in response to changes in the production system) is cheaper and more effective for AnGR in situ conservation.Unfortunately, in situ conservation also has some drawbacks. The first one is that the same factors that allow for dynamic, holistic, agroecosystem conservation, may serve to threaten the security of breeds/strains. For example, genetic erosion can still occur due to unforeseen circumstances such as war and natural disasters. Moreover, social and economic change may either foster or hinder in situ AnGR conservation over time. Indeed, one of the challenges of in situ conservation research is to evaluate how economic development is affecting farmer maintenance of diversity so as to account for this process in the implementation of conservation programs.The role of community-based conservation has received increasing attention from the realization that most creative and productive activities of individuals or groups in society take place in communities. As local communities have vested interests in all the natural resources (including AnGR) on which their livelihoods depend, and have the most to lose in the event of loss of these resources, they are best placed to conserve them. Moreover, they have a better understanding, than any other group, of what it takes to sustainably manage their traditional resources. Community-based management of AnGR refers to a system of AnGR and ecosystem management. AnGR keepers are responsible for the decisions on definition, priority-setting and the implementation of all aspects of its conservation and sustainable use.Conserved animal material in ex situ systems is more likely to be utilized in emergency restoration but is much less likely to find use in longterm animal improvement programs.In situ conservation and community-based management of AnGR are conceptually similar. However, there are subtle but significant differences. Conservation of AnGR has been defined as the sum of all actions involved in the management of AnGR, such that these resources are best used to meet immediate and short term requirements for food and agriculture, and remain available to meet possible longer term needs.","tokenCount":"668"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"de0d3dca52206fcb92032748d8bc4e3a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1957ea64-5484-4279-8476-753bf37c4d2f/retrieve","id":"524039783"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7471d3b7-6be7-45fc-af44-15924a06e1d4","pagecount":"18","content":"Ind.The capacity to analyze gender dynamics in the organization and to develop strategies to deal with these 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0The capacity to implement actions towards a more gender responsive organization, including the adjustment of internal policies, procedures, business plans, etcetera to make them more gender responsive, affirmative actions towards a better gender balance. CA outcomes (assessment 2015) Gendered organization exerciseUse a large sheet of paper, colored pens and pencils, and your imagination.Step 1: start in the center and draw the main idea, subject or focus (the use of an image or picture is preferred);Step 2: while connect main themes from the central image as 'branches'. Use a key word or image/symbol;Step 3: Topics of lesser importance are represented as 'twigs' of the relevant branch. The branches form a connected nodal structure. Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also for encoding or grouping.• The vision or mission and mandate reflect a gender perspective• Gender infrastructure is in place (policies, regulations, procedures)• Gender analysis of the context• Job descriptions include elements of gender expertise• Management and board take responsibility for gender• Gender responsive monitoring and evaluation• Space is provided to women and men to bring their views to the fore• Adequate infrastructure for female staff (e.g. in relation to safe working environment, toilet facilities, transport arrangement, working hours)• There is support for teamwork of women and men, including gender focal persons.• Gender is mainstreamed in all programs and projects.• No stereotyping and stigmatizing attitudes and behaviorOrganizations work by themselves on the following questions:• How gender responsive is my organization?• What are some current strengths and weaknesses?• How should my organization look like to be gender responsive, what are some possible outcomes?• What kind of actions need to be taken?• What opportunities are there that can be leveraged?• What possible challenges need to be addressed? The Gender at work analytical frameworkThe Gender at Work analytical frameworkIndividual consciousness and capabilities:-Some outcomes in this quadrant are:• Staff knowledge and commitment to gender equalityAccess to resources (staff, funds, training opportunities, meeting spaces and networks): -Some outcomes in this quadrant are:• Budget and other resources devoted to projects to advance gender equalityThe Gender at work analytical framework…Formal rules and policies: Outcomes in this quadrant are:• Mission includes gender equality• Policies for anti-harassment, work-family arrangements, fair employment• Accountability mechanisms that hold the organization accountable to its intentions Social norms and deep structure: Outcomes in this quadrant are:• Acceptance of women's leadership• Organizational ownership of gender issues• Acceptance of needed work-family adjustments • Women's issues firmly on the agendaOrganizations work by themselves on the following questions:• What gender mainstreaming actions have been taken so far in/by my organization? In which quadrant are these located (where do we try to change things)?;• Should more attention go to a certain quadrant?;• What kind of obstacles have I encountered and where do these come from?;• What have I learnt from this framework?CGIAR Research Program on Livestock livestock.cgiar.orgThe CGIAR Research Program on Livestock aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world.This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.The program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"554"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8b6cb23b2a364a3022976c134670993","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/54a316ef-847b-4a09-b33d-0995445321c6/retrieve","id":"-1892887482"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"96dbafe0-58b4-4016-abf7-044cf4a34065","pagecount":"2","content":"Over the past several years, promising steps have been made by governments and several agencies, towards harnessing the contribution of agriculture to improve nutrition in Africa. This includes supporting research, technology, policy and program initiatives to develop and promote the adoption and consumption of biofortified crops across the continent. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP), one of such crops promoted in several African countries, is proven to contribute significantly to improved dietary intakes and resolving nutrient deficiencies (especially of vitamin A). OFSP has also contributed to improved household food security and incomes, particularly of women, thereby enhancing women's status and contribution to household decision making. Despite these benefits, the coverage of OFSP interventions remains inadequate, particularly the extent to which these crops reach and are adopted by rural farmers, as well as consumed by nutritionally vulnerable populations, like women and young children. Production and marketing capacities of OFSP are often limited in most communities due to poorly developed and inefficient OFSP value chains including inadequate access to the sweetpotato vines, poor agronomic practices, limited access to land, water and technology, among other factors.HKI is working to scale-up the adoption, production, marketing and consumption of OFSP to improve nutrition in many rural communities. Our goal is to support the integration of OFSP into local food systems, and thereby to improve OFSP availability year-round, raise the quality of local diets, boost family incomes and protect women and children from the serious consequences of vitamin A deficiency.Where and with whom are we working? HKI collaborates with governments, research agencies (like the CGIAR centers and other national research institutions), international and local NGOs, private businesses, and communities to integrate OFSP production and consumption within its nutrition programs in six African countries: Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone.Where appropriate, HKI includes OFSP production and consumption within its integrated nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs, often referred to as \"Enhanced Homestead Food Production\" or EHFP program. HKI promotes the knowledge, acceptance, access to, and increased production and consumption of OFSP in food insecure rural communities through many activities that range from training smallholder farmers in vine cultivation, to marketing and social and behavior change strategies that improve OFSP image and household consumption. HKI also supports identifying opportunities to embark on semi-processed and processed OFSP products in support of better nutrition. We Stella Nordhagen (HKI) snordhagen@hki.org Akoto Osei (HKI) aosei@hki.org performances, videos, cooking demonstrations and dissemination of locally appropriate OFSP recipe books, flyers and radio messages, to boost demand and consumption. To encourage ownership and sustainability of our interventions, we focus on building local capacity through trainings offered to government officers, NGO partners, community groups and farmers on improved agronomic practices, nutrition, hygiene and health practices and gender sensitization.As part of HKI's CHANGE project in Cote d'Ivoire, six high-performing OFSP varieties were introduced in villages in four different regions, grown alongside a local white variety. As the crops developed, local farmers helped test the varieties' performance under real-world conditions. Three of the six varieties were retained based on farmers' assessments of yield, disease resistance, taste, texture, and ease of cooking. Through the rapid multiplication of vines in greenhouses, with an impressive capacity of 75,000 vines produced every two months, the CHANGE project provided women's groups in 42 villages with over 250,000 vines. These women also received training on the role of OFSP in nutrition and best practices for cultivation. National Agency for Support of Rural Development (ANADER) and HKI also supervised farmers who were newly adopting the crop, to provide assistance if needed. Through close collaboration between researchers, extension agents from the ANADER, local NGOs, and farmers, CHANGE was thus able to select and distribute a set of well-adapted and highly appreciated OFSP varieties in a short time. Average yields of OFSP reached 20 tons per hectare in farmers' fields, about twice those of their locally grown white varieties-and tubers grew as big as 5 kg, five times larger than the average for local white varieties. This increased productivity was a major motivating factor for participants: in addition to diversifying their family's meals, they had enough to sell and earn additional income. Women trained through CHANGE started selling both the raw tubers and value added products like cakes and breads made with OFSP flour. Project survey showed average agricultural income per person to be about $155 per season after the introduction of OFSP-double pre-project levels. This increase in revenue for women likely translated into better nutrition and wellbeing for the entire household. While increased revenues were very welcome, the main goal of introducing OFSP was improved nutrition-which would not happen if people did not eat the roots. CHANGE thus worked with local NGOs to create, test, and promote several dishes based on OFSP leaves and roots, such as attiéké, a popular local dish typically made from cassava; these were aimed at improving the nutrition of the whole family, but particularly that of children under age two (Fig. 2). This strategy was just one part of a comprehensive approach to behavior change, which included training parents on best practices for feeding and care of young children, including providing dishes based on OFSP. As part of its AGRANDIS project implemented in Burkina Faso and Mozambique, HKI increased production and consumption of OFSP (and other nutritious fruits and vegetables) to many rural families. The AGRANDIS projects provided OFSP vines to more than 25,000 smallholder farming families using a network of decentralized vine multipliers (DVMs) at the community level, who made extra income by selling vines to local farmers. In Burkina Faso alone, over 150,000 vines were produced during one planting season by 15 farmers who were trained as vine multipliers in their communities. The AGRANDIS project also established six OFSP cooperatives in Burkina Faso to enhance the OFSP value chain.HKI actively seeks to include OFSP within its integrated nutrition and agriculture programs in places where white or cream-fleshed sweetpotatoes are grown and consumed as a secondary staple. Enabling women, who serve as major household food producers as well as decision-makers on children's nutrition and household diets, to sustainably grow OFSP will bolster the fight against malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency in many contexts in Africa. ","tokenCount":"1023"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dcc525579ff266c3c58ab1d8812121ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e07a3f44-6a00-48c5-8789-99aa2571bb3c/retrieve","id":"1911142975"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d79f0c36-f603-46df-94fb-c8173bd10865","pagecount":"52","content":"Atukot naka Bioversity International ka ngin naka International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), opolokite akiro nu akoru aiboisio nu emwanar ekuse lo akolong, nesi itolomunenei acoasinei nu itemonokinere ekadakada lo inyamat, ekuse lo ikwamin lu arokok, aijesun kwap na adoketait na isuban Edeke ka acie da.Eraasi nu atukono nu ireikitos duc adoketait na akoru, edare lo isuban Edeke ka aiboisio nu iboyo oni, nepepe ka ewai lo inyamat. Iswamanara isio ka iriongeta lu okwap, lu apugan ka ngun lu ejaasi akwapin acie ko Africa, Asia, Latin America ka Carribean ka itunga kere, nepepe ka iriongeta lu itegearitos ikulepek ka iriongeta lu ojokotau. Keda ipaupa kosi, epedoritos atukono nu aitolomunun acoasinei nu itetiak tetere ijulakin eipone lo itolomere inyamat ka amisirin, ka alupok tetere epedorete aidar itunga okwap akolong, aitekerar akerianut, ka aitan itunga ejok kapak kana ijulujulatar ikwamin ekusete.Eraasi atukono nu atenun nu ejaasi kwap na CGIAR, atukot na epol noi okwap akolong kotoma aingic akiro nu akoru, ka aitolom acoasinei nu itojokarere akoru, tetere eyuar ingaren na itunga ka inyamat, owai alo aitidisiar ibakor, aiyatakin aitolomun inyamat, ka aitan itunga ejok, oraasi lu eyuwara nepepe ka aikeun adoketait na isuban Edeke katutubena. https://alliancebioversityciat.org/ www.cgiar.org Erionget lo apugan lo epolokinit akiru nu akoru, aijulujuleta nu eyaitene lo alupok ka apol na icaaloi (Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development) (DALRRD), kotoma akwap nako South Africa, nesi erai atenut apugan na epolokit aibikakin ikisila toma oiswamae, oraasi lu ikisila lu itolomunit airabet na apolon nako South Africa. Edumunit atenut na akepedor kane ejai atiakunet na Ekisil na 27(1) (b) ka (2) na Aibunget na Ikisila luko South Africa na erai: \"…aitolom ikisila lu isipedorete itunga kere ajaut keda inyamat lu ilosikina.\" Kotoma atenut nako DALRRD, ka cut atenut na epolokit epone lo itolomere inyamat,akiro nu angaleu, ka ayuara na inyamat, nesi erai na ebeit duc apolokin ka aijaikin akwap na ewai lo ebeitor apolokin akoru ka ayuar isuban edeke kere itosomaete acoasinei nua science nu itolomunere iraan lu itetiak. Imoriarit na akerianut ka aibikakite ikisila toma oisomae, ainyabuka ikisila lu itetiak, iwaitin lu itetiak, nepepe ka adoketa nu epolokitere iboro lu ikeunenere adoketait na iraan, ka nu inyamat ka akoru, apolokite epone lo iraere iraan ka amisirin kanu inyamat, akoru, tetere aigang akoru kane ejaasi akiro nu ikamanara keda ekuse lo ikwamin lo aronon.Aswam na, iyatakit aitanyanyar acoa na aingic na itolosi erionget lo ojokotau lo ejena kwape CGIAR kotoma aingic ke na ikamunit aijulujula na ekuse lo ikwamin, akoru ka ayuara na inyamat kojena kaurianut kwape (CCAFS), na itolosio keda agangat na elomunit k'o CGIAR Trust Fund ka agangat na etukuutos akwapin aarei. Kanu ajenun nu ipu, kipejok ko'olago https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. Aomisio nu itolomunitai kane mam eraasi nuka iriongeta lu elimoritai kokau.Mam epatana noi adolokin ikosi itunga naarai iboete kane elwana noi. Ijari isio keda akoru. Ido ikoriei isio noi ekirididi, nesi erai eraasit lo esalakinit epolok nuke noi kane, kanu akiro nu inonosio, ka aiyuun da. Aingadis kosi na ikinyom nesi obu ogeun erai ekaru 2011. Ikoriei isio ikinyom lu iraan kalu imoriaritos: emaragwe (frijol), emaweli, edania, emarogwe (haba), itwoli, ekirididi, mustards, engaano ka iraan lu itolomete ikee kwape nat spearmint ka chamomile.Ajaut keda aiboisit na ingadaere ikinyom nesi erai ibore yen epol noi kane ijai isio, naarai etapit iso adumunun ejang lo akwap, nepepe ka ewolobos lo ededeng noi, eyangaunenete amunaar ka atwaniar na epol noi adepar. Kotoma okaru pac, ekuse lo ikwamin nesi ejulakin noi. Kwana, idoon lusodit iyapete abongun, elilim noi apaarasia acie, acie apaarasia ileleba abarafu toma oraan kamisirin. Eyanyunitos iraan ican.Idumunenei isio agangat kane ejai erionget lo ojokotau ojena da kwape atukot na imorikikit atukono nu ko Cuchumatanes, arai kaurianut ASOCUCH.Ikoto aimor keda eesi akwes nu akiro nu ikamanara keda eyaitone lo aingadis na ikinyom: epone lo ipugaere, ipudesia ke lu ikamanara keda arucokina ka agangat na ipuda ngesi, epone lo isinyikokitor ngesi ekisil, ka epone lo ebwoya bon. Kangin ngadis na ikinyom, ipuda ajaut keda eyaitone lo ajokan.Aingadisia nu ikinyom, kesi duc epolokitos imemban lu ejaasi toma okomitti, luda eseitos imemban lu aingadis angin.Ekomiti lo nesi epolokit aitekerian akiro kere kotoma kangin paran, kwape nat akapanakin, imemban araut lu eyinakina aswam, akiro nu epiriotene apolokit apiai, eyaitone, ka arucokina.Bobo da, epelu lo ekomiti kalo nes aisiboinikin airiamununeta nu ejainikinos imemban toma kec kotoma kangin ngeset na ekaru.Ikomitin lu ipu kesi ejaasi ikiliok ka amuchalan da nu eraasi akoriok, itijenaritete ikec ipudesia ka ipelueik kotoma ayait ikinyom ka akoru da. Kotoma akwapin acie, eraasi ikomitin lu, lu esubunitos noi noi arai bo angor bon, naarai kesi ejenara keda aidar ikinyom ka ikorion ejok.Ekomiti lo epolokit aingadis na ikinyom, nesi erai lo ebeit duc aimor eyemut edio keda amisiarit. Iwaitin lu kesi imoriaritos: √ Aitemokin eso arai epucit ne epedoritotor akoriok aimor acoa ka amisiarit kec keda lucie ido da koipone kangol kodumakinete aingadis ikinyom.√ Aitegeanar, ka aitala amisirin nu itodiarere epone lo akoru, kwape aanyunet, iswamanara keda isomeron luka akoriok.√ Akoriok aipejoinikin bonik ka bonik kotoma atutubena nu egelegela kosodi akoriok lu aingadisia nu egelegela aipejonokin.Acoasinei acie, kesi epedoro aitegear ojai aiswamanara keda isomeron lu akoriok, ipiriotin, akoriok bonik, keda agangat na epiriotit lo ikamanara keda aingadis na ikinyom.Aswamisinei nu epiriotene kesi imoriaritos iponesio lu esekunere ka aingada ikinyom ejok, koyuara ejautene kec, aiwadika iripotin lu ikamunitos ikinyom lu, aipepe ikinyom lu tetere ipuaros, ameet airere ejautene kec, aisiteteun adoketait arai ejautene kec, ka akoranar aiboisio nu egitigita.Igaraman lu aduko, ka aswam, kesi eraasi lu igangito iriongeta lu okinga, keda agangat na elemunitos itunga, kwape nat iboro lu dukes, alupok ka eswamak da.Apedosi aingadisia acie ageun keda agangat na edit na ejai kiding isirigin 3,600,000 toni 7,300,000 luko Uganda (koriakasi keda apiai nuka Amerika 1000 kitoni 2000). Icie kesi adumununutu agangat na geunet anyoun osirigin 18,500,000 kitoni 50,000,000 luko Uganda (koriakasi keda apiai nu Amerika 5000 kitoni 15000).Keja ngun da, aingadis na ikinyom, nesi mam ipuda iboro lu itosoma bon, konye kitoni agangat na itunga da.Isomeron lu itutuonerere akoriok, kangun lu engicere, ka ayuaritor aidar, ka iriongeta lu engicete, iriongeta lu ojokotau, kesi kere ijaanakinete agangat ne ejaasi aingadisia nu, imoriaritos aicoreta nu:• Angaleu na alupok ka na iraan.• Eyaitene, akoru ka agwelanar na ikinyom.• Aingic aipues na iraan, aseo na abilasia ka aipepeo.• Aiwadika akiro nu ikamunitos ikinyom.• Apol na erionget.Aingadisia acie nu ikinyom kesi ipudasi imemban kec ailem isirigin kotoma kangin karu, lu ebeit aitosoma aidaria aiboisit na, erai lo ewai lo itodie ebe eyinakina itunga kere aijaanakin.Aingadisia adis nu ikinyom nu emisiaritos, kesi ibaajanarete apiai nu etukokitai ne ejaasi imemban lu atukot kangin, opedorete imemban aitac kotoma apak na euriana noi. Ka cut ikalia lu ejaasi erono noi, kesi epedorete aimedaun kotoma apiai kanu.Kotoma amisiarit kosi, ijeni isio ebe kanu aingadisia nu asalakin ejaasi, oraasi nu isomaete, ekoto ogongakina akiro nu:√ Ayait imemban kere lu ogurupu kotoma eirian.√ Aidar apiai arai iboro icie lu etukonokino ejok.√ Acamakinit angor apak ka ipelueik kwape lu emisiaritos kotoma akirot na aidar ikinyom.√ Aisomanara na ejok keda ipiriotin lu eyaitos akiro nu akoru.√ Ameet aisialamikite akoriok.√ Aiyat aikeun imemban.√ Ajaut keda iponesio lu ejooka lu aituk, aidar, ka aisec ikinyom.√ Adukun epaperone keda atukono nu ojokotau ka engarenok lu atutubet.Adukun aisomanara keda itunga, ka iriongeta lu egitigita, aimoriarit aingadisia acie nu ikinyom, nesi epedori aingarakin aitopol aingadis na ikinyom.Arucokina nesi epedori ayangaun aijulakinet na ejok kotoma owai kalo isomata aingadisia nu ikinyom, ka aitolomun arerengesio nu itolomunenere acoasinei nu iticasitos aingadis.Aisomanara na edukunitos aingadisia nu ikinyom, kesi idila araut ngun nu erucokitos isomeron lu akoriok, ipiriotin lu akoru okwap, emanimanak amisirin odistrict, ka iriongeta lu ojokotau.Imemban luka aingadisia nu egitigita aipejonokin erai ibore yen epol ameda noi. Kotoma aisisia kosi, idau isio aanyun ebe akoriok aimor acoa, amisiarit, iponesio lu somaet lu itetiak nepepe ka ikinyom da erai ibore yen imedaikini kesi noi. Epatana aisisiaun ibore yen itetet kane eja ipapero arai itunga lu inaikit ijo.Aingadisia nu ikinyom kesi epedorete aimedaun kotoma aisomanara keda engarenok lu apugan, oipone alo aiwadikaun okisila, kosodete adumun agangat na epiriotene ka apiai. Kapak kana egearor aswam, ekoto aingadis na ikinyom, aitolomun aibunget na ikisila na epolokit arai ipugat aingadis ngin. Kane ibusakitor, epedoro ikisila lu aikopar ne ejaasi engarenok lu okwap tetere idokokino akanin toma ke.Erai lo ejenunet. Kotoma akwapin acie, aingadisia nu ikinyom kesi ecamakino aswam bon arai iwadikauna keda apugan.Iponesio icie lu ejenunere aingadisia nu:√ Arucokina keda aingadis na itolomere abilasia nu ikinyom nu egelegela.√ Engarenok lu okwap, itunga lu okinga, ameet aipejonokin aingadisia nu.√ Adumunun ainanakineta kanu aswam na ejok.√ Anyaranaro na aingadisia kanu alosit ajaanakin toma aurianeta nu isomaere ikisila.√ Ameet adumunun agangat na apiai kane ejaasi iriongeta lu ojokotau, ka icie riongeta da.√ Araut lu emeetai alimite k'otogoi lu iyemuto.Ikisila lu ikamunitos asusaitin, arai akoriok lu ibungeinikina kesi epedorete araut lu ikamunitos aingadisia nu ikinyom.Epedorete aijaikin:• Aingadisia nu araut nu ejenio kotoma okisila, opedorete ayuar.• Agangat na epiriotene ka apiai.• Arerengesio nu agwelanar ikinyom.Kotoma akwapin acie, erionget lo akoru nes epedori aigang aingadisia nu ikinyom kwape ewai lo idaris adoketait na ikiara na ikinyom, ka iraan lu ekorio atutubet kangin.Erai ibore yen ejok angicun ikisila lu igangitos aingadis na ikinyom ka akwap kus.Ipuda oni kere aingadis na ikinyom na esalakini ejai.Kwangin, ekoto oni aanyun epone lo idaris aingadis na kosipo, kobwoyi arai kogogong, ido isinyikokit isio nu kiswamai agear ageunet.Ejaasi iboro iwongon lu itogogongitos arai esipokitos aingadis:Agogong na imemban• Aimoriarit adukena nu ingadaere ikinyom, acoa na adumutu akoriok, opedoritos aitwasam, nesi ingarakini kotoma oidare lo adoketait ikinyom na okuju. Epiriotene, erai ibore yen epol.• Icie bore yen epol nesi erai epone lo ijulujulerere eingarenone, acoa ka amisiarit, na imemban kalu ekusiaritos kitoni ne ejaasi atumunak. Kotamata aitolom atumunak nu ngor ka lu sap da anyoun ka ageunet.Epone lo isomaes• Ajaut keda ipelueik lu erioro lu eyaitene, kesi itodiete iponesio lu aingadisia nu eyaitai ejok.• Iwaitin lu aseutu imemban kanu aswam ka aitutub akiro kotoma aingadis, kesi epedorete aitojokaar epone lo iswama aingadis na koingaren.• Aingadisia acie kesi itolomete ka agwelanar ikinyom lu ipu noi tetere araut lu esiposi kotoma owai kalo apiai. Inyo bobo iwaitin icie ejaasi kanu aitolomia apiai kotoma aingadisia kanu?Ikisila ka akiro nu tupitono• Kotoma akwapin acie, aingadisia nu ikinyom, kesi ipudai oraasi nu iwadikauna kotoma okisila lu akwap kangin eriko edumuna agangat na apiai. Mam iriongeta lu ipu ekapakina aikopakin agangat na apiai ne ejaasi aingadisia nu ikinyom nu mam iwadikauna kotoma okisila.Kaurianut, aso erereosi akiro nu isisia oni kotoma oitaabon 3 luko kau AKOU NA AKIROT NA SODIT (1): AIREIKIN ABILASIA NU EGITIGITA NU IRAAN KA AITIJENAAR• Aireikin abilasia nu iraan nu egitigita.• Aitolot aingic na ikamunit ejautene lo iraan.• Asesen epone lo ejatatar ikinyom.• Aitijenuun toman aiboisit.AKOU NA AKIROT NA 2: AITEGEAR AINGADIS NA IKINYOM• Aitutub aitegear aingadis na ikinyom• Adumun agangat.• Aseun ne dukokina aingadis na ikinyom.• Aisiketikin ka akapanakin akoriok adukun aingadis na ikinyom.• Akapanakin aitutuonorio na akoriok.AKOU NA AKIROT NA 3: AITUTUB ASWAM NA EBUNI AINGADIS KUS NA IKINYOM AITODOLIKIN• Ayuarit inyamat.• Aisipedorit itunga adumunun ka aisec ikinyom.• Araut aibunget na apol.AKOU NA AKIROT NA 4: AMEET AITUTUB AKIRO NU EBEIT ASWAM, KA AANYUN IWAITIN LU AITOPOL AINGADIS NA IKINYOM• Aitutub abilasia nu iraan ka ikinyom, lu ikotosi esi atukokin ka aidar ka aingadis na ikinyom.• Angicun ka atupakin aanyun ebe, esalakini adoketait na ikinyom erai na ikiara noi kuju.• Akapanakin aiwadika abilasia nu ikinyom nu itetiak kotoma aingadis kana.• Aitwasam iboro lu ingadaere ikinyom, ka acoasinei nu edolitos aidaria ikinyom oraasi lu elaete, ongaleete, ojai adumun toma kec.• Ameet aanyanar adoketait na ikinyom duc.• Akapanakin apeteta nu ipepeere ikinyom.• Aitutub ikisila lu etupio arai ekoto itunganan adumun ikinyom. kotoma aingadis.AKOU NA AKIROT NA 5: EPONE LO EYAITERE AINGADIS NA IKINYOM• Adukun ekomiti lo eyait aingadis keda idiopet arai iaarei lu epiriaritos.• Airereor igaraman keda iboro lu itwasama.• Apedor adumun aiwadikauno kotoma okisila keda adumun agangat.AKOU NA AKIROT 6: ADUMUN AGANGAT KA AITOPOL ARUCOKINA KEDA IRIONGETA ICIE• Ajenun amisikin ajokis na arucokina.• Aitemonokin akoriok aipejonokin bonik.• Adumun agangat na ikisila kane ejaasi engarenok luko kwap keda apugan.AKOU NA AKIROT NA 7: IKISILA KA AKIRO NU EPEDORETE AITOLITOL AJAUT NA AINGADIS NA IKINYOM• Angicun sek ejok ikisila lu epolokitos adukunio na aingadisia kanu tetere eraasi lu eyuara.• Apedor adumun agangat na epiriotene ka abolai.• Angicun arerengesio nu epedorere agwelar ikinyom.AKOU NA AKIROT 8: AISIPEDOR AINGADIS NA IKINYOM AIJAR ADAUN AOJAU NA EPOL NOI• Aanyun ebe, ejaasi eswamak, iwaitin lu aswam lu edolitos ejok, ka apiai, ikisila, nepepe ka agangat kotoma okisil lo edolit.• Ekoto alingakin aanyun ebe ebuni aingadis na aijar adaun aojau anyoun kotoma apak kana etegearere aswam. ","tokenCount":"2073"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3ccf7cd75a88ba9404539a9ecef2a60f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/PDF/H032466.pdf","id":"-1152999907"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"17f94c86-3a95-4f20-ac73-d4ca28eca6eb","pagecount":"36","content":"gration of policies, technologies and management systems to achieve workable solutions to real problems-practical, relevant results in the field of irrigation and water and land resources.The publication in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modelling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and other collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI's own staff and Fellows, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwrni.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgement. oods and nature. In serving this mission, IWM1 concantra .The use of treadle pumps for irrigation in developing countries in Africa and Asia has greatly improved the potential for many smallholder farmers. However, it was initially felt that the treadle pump would have a limited market in South Africa. This was due to the vast differences found in South Africa in both the willingness to grow produce and the limited access to water resources, especially ground water. This theory was discarded after more in-depth research showed that treadle pumps could be used to transfer water from both open water sources and water captured from rainwater harvesting. Research also showed that the treadle pumps could greatly assist the rural poor of South Africa in terms of food security and poverty alleviation. This resulted in the development of a project to introduce treadle pumps into South Africa.The first two years of work was aimed at understanding the treadle pumps as much as possible. This involved importing d number of available units from developing countries in Africa and Asia and testing them to determine their suitability in South African conditions. These tests showed the need to redesign the pump according to South African circumstances. Most of the countries where successful introduction has taken place have a much wider availability of water. The water is usually very close to the point of use and the distribution of that water is the limiting factor. Due to the shallow water table, the pumps are merely used to access the ground water, and redistribute it around the fields. South Africa does not have a shallow water table. Open water sources are far more abundant here. However, many sources are incised in deep valleys or are some distance from the desired point of application and are therefore difficult to access. The heads and distances required for pumping are therefore much greater in South Africa.South Africa does, however, have a more convenient access to materials than other developing countries. This makes it possible to manufacture a pump out of standard, ready-made fittings, largely eliminating the problem of quality control that other countries face and allowing for rural based manufacture, Labour costs in South Africa are higher than other developing countries, and many of the steel pumps would be more expensive if manufactured and sold here. South Africa also has a wellestablished hardware trade and better roads, allowing for easier promotion, distribution and after sales service. Initial redesign took place towards the end of the second year of the project. The objective therefore of the third year was to develop this pump into a final prototype stage. This report presents the outcomes of this third year of the study. Results of the initial research can be found in Kedge, 2001. The report contains four sections.Chapter two is the technical work that took place to further develop the pump.Chapter three is an overview of the field evaluations that involved farmers evaluating the pumps in practical conditions. Chapter four presents the results of the rural manufacturing research. Lastly, the Appendix presents the raw data. Each chapter contains a discussion and conclusion section.A prototype treadle pump was designed at the end of 2001. The year 2002 saw this pump undergoing many changes as a result of laboratory and field testing.The process was slow, as it is with any new product. Problems would arise and be solved only to develop into new problems. The difficulty lay in the constant requirement for a low-cost product that still maintained a suitable quality. Anyone could design an ideal treadle pump if the end price is not a consideration. However, this would eliminate the exact end-user target market that the treadle pump technology is attempting to assist, the rural poor. The aim therefore became to settle for a product that was \"good enough\". Factors had to be constantly weighed up against each other and often ideal solutions had to be sacrificed for low-cost solutions. The intention was also to keep the design simple allowing for rural based manufacturing. it was felt that the initial design should centre around similar models that were introduced elsewhere, however, keeping in mind that additional pumps would be required to solve the majority of people's needs in South Africa. A high pressure pump for use in water supply and a high flow suction pump were also considered but were put on standby after it was found that too much time was being spent on those rather than completing the original model. It should also be mentioned here that while suction pumps can also give problems, they are generally a lot more forgiving than pressure pumps due to their operation. Therefore many things that might not provide serious problems with suction pumps require detailed development with a pressure pump. This chapter will present the design work that was carried out on the treadle pump. It will highlight the main challenges that arose and will present the results of laboratory tests carrled out on the pumps.The most challenging aspect of designing the treadte pump was keeping it in an affordable price bracket. Each component had to be carefully considered in otder to keep costs down, but still maintain quality. The intention was to use standard parts so that quality control would be kept to a minimum, in order to allow for local artisans to assemble the pumps, thereby keeping the back up senrice closer to the end user. All the pumps that were imported had been welded and required jigs for manufacture. South Africa could use standard parts due to their availability.The initial pump designed and built in South Africa was based on galvanized fittings. 8rass non-return valves obtainable at most cooperatives and irrigation stores were used. The frame was made of steel. While the pump operated well, it was decided that the valves and galvanized fittings were too expensive, and a cheaper solution was sought.The basic pump then developed has PVC cylinders and contains valves, which are fabricated from standard nylon reducers and rubber balls, T-pieces and elbows. The second pump consisted of the same pump section that is in place today, however, differed in the frame. A wooden frame made out of easily obtainable gum poles was thought to be cheaper, and more accessible for most rural people. However, the frame was large and bulky, and while it could still be an option for some people, it was decided to refine the frame and return to steel.Each component required close development to acquire an effectivefy operating pump. In order to keep costs down it was decided that \"good enough\" would suffice rather than \"perfection\". The following section presents the various components of a treadle pump. Experience gained is divided into: the lessons learnt from testing the imported pumps;the lessons learnt through the development and testing work that has been done on the South African design; problems faced and solved.The most significant result that came from testing the friction through the valves of the imported pumps was the importance of valve design on friction losses through the pump. A pump with small holes produced a friction loss through the vajves of about ten times greater than all the other pumps. This is a result of the smaller diameter holes through which the water must pass. The rubber flap valves of the other pressure pumps did not cause significant friction, however, they did not seal properly resulting in water from the outlet pipe flowing out of the cylinders when pumping stopped. It was therefore highiighted that the water requires sufficient space to pass through the valve, and that the valve must seal properly for a more efficient pump. All the pumps tested had valves that were part of the entire pump frame, and therefore required a fairly complex construction to fit them. This arrangement results in difficulties of accessing and replacing the rubber flaps on some of the pumps, as well as presents complications in manufacture, therefore increasing the need for quality control.In order to decrease the costs of the brass non-return valves used in the initial South African design, an attempt was made to use rubber flaps in conjunction with nylon reducers to make a valve. However, the rubber was difficult to attach and another solution was required. It was then decided to contrive a ball valve. A rubber ball, widely used as kids' play balls, of similar size to the outlet of the nylon reducer was found. It was necessary to prevent the ball from blocking off the outlet side of the valve, and a piece of wire was used. When tested, these valves produced very little friction as a result of the ball being free to move back and forth in the reducer, without needing to be forced open. This differs from the rubber flap valves of the imported pumps in that the flaps' natural position is closed, and they open as a result of the pumping stroke. The balls naturally float, opening the valve, and close as a result of the pumping stroke.This does, however, present a problem when priming the pump. The balls do not move when pumping begins if there is no water in the pump, as air will not cause them to move. It is therefore vital to pour water into the pump before pumping begins. This problem could be solved by mounting the suction side valves vertically. However, this would increase the height that the operator is above the ground. It would also be possible if a spring or a seat was attached inside the fitting, forcing the ball to close naturally. This would, however, complicate manufacture slightly, and add additional friction to open the valve.When the pump was tested against a high pressure tank, in order to see what pressure could be reached, a surprising result was that the ball valves were the first to give way, at 17 metres pressure head. Various tests showed that both pressure and suction side valves were forced into their fittings at this head, due to the direct head of the water on the pressure side, and the combination of the force of the operator pumping and the suction force on the suction side. This was overcome by sourcing slightly larger balls. Various balls, including marbles and squash balls, were tested by exposing them to sudden high heads, thereby simulating the treadling action. Tests showed, however, that the rubber balls sealed the best. Initially it was thought that the smaller balls could be used in a smaller sized fitting, but this did not work as they did not seal properly and vibrated against their seat when pumping began due to the force on the ball being exerted from all directions. As the balls only gave way at 17 m pressure head it was decided that they would be fine to use, with the limiting head of the pump set at 15 m. This proved not to work in practice, as the same result of the balls being pushed into their fittings occurred in the field due to the high friction in the 20 mm delivery pipe that was being used.The cylinder and piston mechanism is the heart of the pump and if not sized and fitted correctly would result in very poor operation of the pump, if any at all. This lesson was learnt from some of the imported pumps, where it was found that the piston cups were incorrectly sized and therefore did not seal against the cylinder walls, preventing a vacuum from being created. In one case, manufacturers imported rubber piston cups, and were totally dependant on the exact sire of the cups in the shipment that arrived. They then had to adjust the sire of the cylinders to accommodate the cups that were obtained, and this resulted again in poor quality pumps. This combination is particularly important for the pressure pump, as the water on top of the cylinders of the suction pumps provides a seal anyway, and the pump can therefore still operate.It appears that the shorter the piston stroke, the easier it is to maintain the seal of the pistons. This is because the treadles move in an arc, and it is therefore necessary to create an additional pivot point in order for the piston rods to still move vertically. Obviously, the shorter the piston stroke the less the treadtes move, the less the arc, and therefore less non-vertical movement occurs. One pump has a simple yet ingenious way of accounting for this arc movement. This involves a chain that rests on a rocker, which is set up so that the chain can only pull the rods vertically. However, this system lends itself to this pump, a completely steel unit, which requires precise welding. The pump also has larger diameter cyiinders than the majority of pumps, allowing for a shorter droke.Other pumps overcome this movement by cutting a slot in the treadles, which allows the piston rod to move in the slot, therefore still rising vertically. It was this simple mechanism that was adopted in the South African design, as it proved the least expensive and again \"good enough\" solution. However, it was still necessary to limit the piston stroke, in order for the rods to have as minimum movement as possible.The cylinders of the majority of the imported pumps are manufactured from rolled steel, which is welded in place. This again presents problems in quality control because if this seam is not smooth, the piston cups could be damaged or would wear quicker. The South African pump's cylinders are made from 110 mm, class 12, PVC pipe. This is readily available in South Africa, and overcomes the problem of rust and the welded seam. 110 mrn was chosen as' this size end cap is the easiest and cheapest to obtain. The end caps are attached to the cylinders using a strong PVC weld glue. They are then screwed into the pump section using a male threaded tank connector, which screws into a female %piece.4\" leather cups were initially used for the pistons because they had the tightest fit inside the cylinders. These leather cups are also a standard part available in South Africa and are used an windmills, Initially, 110 mm, class 9 PVC pipe was used because the piston cups fitted in easily when dry. However, when they were wet they became softer and increased the clearance between the cylinder walls. Class 12 pipe, with a slightly smaller inside diameter was then used and required the cups to be soaked and then formed inside the cylinders before they could be used. The leather cups caused endless problems in the field where operators did not keep them moist. This resulted in the cups drying out and shrinking and therefore not operating correctly. This prompted the change from leather to rubber piston cups. Unfortunately the rubber cups are not 8 standard part, however, no other solution could be found. Dunlop Rubber Company developed a mould based on the Enterprise Works pumps' rubber cups. The initial cups that were obtained had a very tight fit with the cylinders, and therefore resulted in a high friction. Rubber grease was then put on the cups, which improved things greatly. However, it was felt that having to use rubber grease in the field would be a weakness in the pump and Dunlop was again approached to redesign the mould. The second batch of rubber cups was based on cups obtained with the ApproTEC MoneyMaker Plus pump. These included more of a taper with the effect of decreasing the contact surface between the piston cups and cylinder walls. This new design reduced the friction greatly and the rubber grease was no longer required.The piston rods are made from gate hangers, again standard parts, and the piston cups are secured to the rods with steel discs and nuts. This allows for easy replacement once worn.The treadles serve two functions in a treadle pump. They provide a place for the operator to stand, and they link the frame to the pump mechanism. The majority of the imported pumps use wooden treadles, however, due to the lack of availability and the higher cost of suitable wood the South African unit makes use of steel treadles. The positioning of the treadles is very important in order to provide comfort for the operator and to therefore gain a greater ergonomic efficiency. The laboratory tests highlighted this, as well as the need for comfortable foot rests. A stroke length of about 180 mm at the foot rests, the height of an average step, proved the most comfortable. This has to be balanced with the positioning of the pivot point, the length of the treadle and the desired piston stroke length in order to obtain the greatest mechanical advantage. The end positioning of the treadles of one of the tested pumps, was lower than the pivot point, and this angle resulted in pain in the front of the ankles of the operator.The South African pump has a treadle length of 700 mrn. This was chosen in order to keep the pump compact. This length can comfortably reach 12 metres delivery head.The skeleton or frame of the treadle pump has very little influence on the actual operation of the pump. for this reason the frame can virtually be made out of any available materials, as was shown with the initial gum pole frame. However, in order to make the pump more compact, allowing for the possibility of \"kit\" distribution, a smaller steel frame was designed and built. This frame is held together by a combination of welding and bolts, and can be dismantled for easier distribution. The welding required for the frame is not complicated, and does not require the use of jigs.The shape of the frame does, however, affect the stability of the pump. It is thought that two sorts of frames will ultimately be used. The first will consist of the current steel frame, which is small and compact enough to carry home and store after use. However, this frame i s not very stable when placed on uneven ground, especially when the ground becomes wet, which inevitably happens around the pump. Therefore, it would require a level surface, either a concrete slab, concrete blocks placed in the ground or flat wooden planks. The second frame would consist of a more permanent set up for users who do not require the pump to be transported, either home or around the field. This frame could be made from concrete, and would require an actual pump installation. This innovation will likely develop once local people begin manufacturing and using the pumps, and therefore producing the frame as to their needs.The frame underwent many changes throughout the test period due to results from the field evaluations and the durability testing of the pump. The initial frame contained just the necessary parts and was adjusted for strengthenlng as time went by. The following figure shows the changes that were made. The pump initially underwent performance testing in the laboratory in qrder to determine the flow rates at various suction and pressure head combinations. The following table presents the results obtained from these tests. These performance tests were all carried out with the leather piston cups instead of the rubber. It is believed that better values would be obtained with rubber, however this still needs to be done.Table 1. Results from the performance tests.The pump was then also linked up to a pressure tank at zero suction head in order to determine the maximum pressure head that could be reached. The fairly averaged size operator started straining at about 30 m pressure and the frame also staried twisting quite a bit. However, it proved that a pressure head limit of about 12 m could be reached without any problems.The objective of the durability test phase of the pumps was not to determine the absolute life of the pump, as too many factors would influence this in the field, but rather to determine the relative life of the individual components against each other. The \"weak links\" in the design were sought. The test rig, designed and constructed by Anthony Amankrah of Fort Cox College of Agriculture and Forestry, mechanically simulates the manual foot operation of treadling at an optimum cadence of 60 strokes per minute (30 strokes per minute per cylinder).The rig replicates the alternate up and down push on the treadles from the connecting pump rod ends of a crank assembly of two Climax F104 single wheel hand pumps. The shafts from the two crank mechanisms supported in flange bearings are connected to a rigid coupling and each shaft is keyed at 180 degrees out of phase to each other. A 2.2 kW helical gear motor with output speed of 6Orpm drives a chain transmission, which operates the foot-treadling simulator. The pressure head was set at about 5 m throughout the tests and the suction head was zero.This test phase took place after the initial batch of rubber cups was received from Dunlop. As mentioned earlier these cups provided a high friction with the cylinders. They were then greased with motor grease in order to overcome this friction. Four pumps were tested on the test rig and each lasted about 24 hours before two of them broke at the position marked on the below diagram, and the other two's piston cups loosened on the piston rods. The grease appeared to wear away over this period and the pistons were very difficult to remove from the cylinders. Having discussed this later with the Dunlop representative, it was mentioned that motor grease in fact causes rubber to swell, hence the seizing of the pumps. Special rubber grease was then tried. The first pump lasted about 72 hours and then broke in the same place as before. The section that broke was then replaced with a stronger, 32 x 32 x 2 mm square tube. The pump then lasted about 106 hours and again broke in the same place. The next pump tested had the torsion strength adjustment that can be seen in figure 2. It also had the new rubber cups received from Dunlop. It lasted 480 hours. The frame still had not broken after this time, and the test was stupped as a result of a tiny crack that occurred in one of the PVC end caps. It was then decided to rest the end caps on thin rubber strips, rather than directiy on the steel in order to reduce the chance of cracking.  The main aim of the field evaluations that took place during the year 2002 was to evaluate the new treadle pump design whilst being used in practical situations. The pump required testing by farmers in order to view technical problems that might arise while being used in the field. A secondary objective was to view the applications of the pumps, how people would use them and if the design was suited to the requirements of the end user. Eleven sites were used in order to carry out these evaluations. This chapter presents a summary of the results obtained from the field evaluations. A more detailed look at the particular sites can be found in Appendix B in terms of lessons learnt, feed back gained and both successful and unsuccessful experiences. Figure 5 presents a map of South Africa showing the position of the sites.Figure 5. The sites used for the field evaluations of the treadle pumps.The intention behind the site selection for the fietd evaluation phase was to select sites that could be monitored by people working with the farmers and dealing with them daily. A few sites were also chosen as a result of interest showed by people working with communities. In hind site, it would have been better to select all the sites according to the interest shown by those involved, rather than asking extension officers to monitor something that they did ask for in the first place.The pump installation phase took time, as each site required a pre visit in order to determine its suitability and the quantities of piping required. The monitoring phase also took up a lot of time and each site was visited as often as was practically possible.There is a mixed feeling about the success of the field evaluations that took place in 2002. It is believed that the site selection was not done suitably. O f the 11 pumps that went out, five were used often by farmers, five were not and the remaining pump at site 4 is unclear to the extent of its use. 4t is interesting to note here that four of the five pumps that were not used were Department of Agriculture assisted gardens, where the extend involved stated that they did not feel that the gardens wouid still ope their input and assistance. It might therefore not be a reflection on the pumps that they were not used, but rather the people invofved.The most successful site was the garden situated at the homestead near Bureford. This was an ideal situation where water was available new th and the pump assisted the farmers to expand their garden. Ofher 8 sites were lnanda and the other Bureford site, where the farmers !eft the pumps in the gardens and therefore did not have to set it up and prime it everyday. On more than one occasion farmers mentioned that it was an effort to carry the pump and set it up at the garden everyday. This highlights a difference in South Africa where water is not readily available and therefore gardening is carried out in community gardens nearby water sources. Groups of women use these gardens to grow vegetables during the dry season, when they cannot grow them at their homesteads. They do not, however, all irrigate at the same time but rather when it suits each individual. Sharing a pump therefore becomes difficult in this situation. The farmers at the Riverside garden overcame this by taking advantage of their children on a Saturday morning by pumping all the drums full, which were then used throughout the week.Technical problems did arise throughout the evaluations, and suitable adjustments were incorporated into the design. Changing from leather to rubber piston cups was a major adjustment that took place as a resuft of the fieldwork.The farmers were not able to keep the leather permanently wet, and it was therefore decided to make this modification. It is still unclear whether the frame should be small and compact for easier transport, or whether a permanent installation would be better. It is believed that there will be a need for both types, depending on the specific site.None of the sites used the pump for anything else but irrigation. The applications usually involved filling up drums situated in the gardens. A few sites irrigated using a hosepipe and the Hazyview site filled drums for drip irrigation. The field evaluations did focus more on the technical aspects of the product, as that was the main objective. It is felt now that the design is finished, the applications side can be looked at in more depth. This will prompt redesign according of the people. This might include a high-pressure pump for water theory is correct that this is the priority for rural people.In conclusion, it is recommended that the site selection for future introduction work be carefully carried out. This initial phase can determine the failure of the product. Sites where people are motivated and hard are carrying out irrigation should be used. Sites where water is situated nearby a homestead are ideal, as would be the case where people are practicing rainwater harvesting. The initial intention when designing the kit treadle pump was to obtain a simple product that could be manufactured in rural areas. This would create a huge advantage when it came to future dissemination, as it would put the end user in close contact with the manufacturer. It would also cut out a number of roleplayers in-between that would potentially increase the cost of the pumps. It would create a new product for many manufacturers who are currently all manufacturing the same products, namely burglar guards, fences and gates. Rural manufacturing would also give the end users much more direct contact with the manufacturers which could then assist in providing spares and maintenance for the pumps. However, a number of disadvantages also follow this theory of rural manufacture, the most significant being the requirement for quality control. In order to keep this to a minimum it was decided that rural manufacturers would be supplied with kits containing all the required materials to manufacture the pumps. This would eliminate the possibility of incorrectly sized components or poor quality steel being purchased and used.Fannie MashaIn order to test the practicality of rural manufacture, which would be the first of its kind in the treadle pump sector, a small workshop was held with a group of selected manufacturers. This chapter presents the outcome of this workshop and reports on the pumps that were made by these manufacturers. It also contains a copy of the manual that would be rece.ived by future manufacturers along with the kits, if this direction is to be followed. It was initially unclear as to the types of manufacturing skills in the rural areas, as well as the level of machinery that can be found there. The aim of this phase of the research was to hold a workshop in order to train a few selected rural welders to manufacture the treadle pumps, as well as to learn more about their skills and their ability to make a satisfactory, quality product. Five participants were randomly selected by merely observing their signs outside their welding stores and stopping to talk and demonstrate the pump. The following table presents the details on the participants.The training workshop was held at the premises of Norman Mariri's welding shop in Jane Furse on the 21 November, 2002. It was a practical training session in which a pump was manufactured using the step-by-step guide. The participants were then each issued with a box kit containing all the components and materials to manufacture a pump. They also each received a manual, a copy of which can be found at the back of this report. The participants were then given a week to manufacture their own pump. These pumps were colfected the following week and brought back to the Institute for inspection and durability testing. A payment of W O O for labour costs was made to each participant.Figure 6. The welding shop where the workshop was held.The training workshop began with a short discussion on the plan for the day. Details of each participant were obtained and the manuafs were handed out. The PVC end caps were first glued onto the cylinders as the glue needed to dry while the pump was being made. The group then moved into the workshop to begin the training. The first step was to make the frame. All the components required to make the frame were taken out of the box and shown to the participants. The steel had already been cut to size and all the 20 mm holes and fhe slats in the treadles had already been drilled. This was because it was unclear before as to the extent of the machinery that would be available during the workshop.The pieces that required drilling (42.5 mm holes) were then set aside. Marin's welding shop had a drill press. It did not look as though it had been used before.The holes were then drilled, however this took a very long time. Perhaps the drill bits were blunt, or the drill was not strong enough. It showed that they woutd definitely not have been able to drill the 20 mm holes. This drilling and preparation phase took about an hour. The 8 mrn holes were not drilfell as they were not crucial to the pump's frame. The steps were then followed to manufacture the frame, The attendants appeared quite competent in their welding skills. The frame took about an hour to weld together. There was no workbench to work on so it was done on the floor. A sample pump was set up for the participants to view.Figure 9. final touches on the frame. Figure 10. The completed frame.The frame was set aside once it was completed in order to begin with the pump section. Again each component was taken out of the box and shown to the participants. The steps of the manual were followed. Care was taken to explain the importance of placing the balls in the correct place for the valves, and of Pump-Two additional attendants from the next-door welding shop also took part in the training session as they were interested, however, were not given kits to build. The workshop was finished at about 12 pm after which Norman provided lunch for the participants. Discussions were held about the pump and the kits were handed over. It was decided after much debate that the trainee pump would be left at Norman's shop if any of the attendants wanted to use it as an example. It was also decided that a week would be sufficient time for them to complete their pumps.   3.3.12 Weld one of the pieces of the 27 x 2 hollow tube onto the centre of the 250 mrn piece (J) on the same side as the two 20 mrn holes. 3.3.14 Complete the three bushes of clauses 3.3.12 and 3.3.13 by placing the 0 20 mm polyethylene pipe inside the 27 x 2 mrn hollow tube. Lubricate the pipe first with oil to make it easier to slide inside the tube and then hit the pipe inside with a hammer. Cut off the excess pieces of polyethylene pipe that protrude.Weld piece Q to the centre of piece R as shown to make a handle.   Make two pistons by placing the steel discs and the rubber piston cups onto the gate hangers and securing with nuts as shown in the diagram below. The 0 98 mm disc goes between the rubber cups with the 0 87 mm discs inside each rubber., L~ \"---have two options when building the kit treadle pump. They can either purchase their own materials, in which case they would be required to cut them to size and drill all the holes. They can also purchase a kit form of the pump, where by all the materials required to build the pumps are placed in a box. The steel has already been cut to size, and the machine work for the more complicated sections has already been completed. The following table presents the tools required to manufacture the pumps for the two different options. ","tokenCount":"5940"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3a2003596cda59bbbb0176316619e766","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/55bcec45-d627-4231-a295-56e42372c6d1/retrieve","id":"1982943355"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9873aa46-0d25-491a-8185-faa153143050","pagecount":"16","content":"• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is spearheading the Asia and the Pacific's Blue Growth Initiative on sustainable intensification of aquaculture.• The main focus of the initiative is promoting informed policy, good governance and improved management practices in the course of intensification of the aquaculture sector.• The initiative seeks to enhance women's participation and empowerment in aquaculture.• The study objective is to generate greater understanding of if-and the ways in which-women's engagement in aquaculture may contribute to women's social and economic empowerment. • Traditional (extensive), modified-extensive, to semiintensive and intensive systems shrimp farmers in Barru District.• One case each for woman lead semi-/intensive and woman lead extensive systems.•Homestead milkfish processing in Sidoarjo District, East Java; opposed to Bangladeshi case (factory-based).•Sidoarjo District is important for homestead processing industries •High degree of women's participationBarru ( 1)Methodology: Case study (1) Shrimp farming and (2) homestead milkfish processing.In what ways, to what extent, and why, are different women empowered (or disempowered) by their engagement in aquaculture? i) What are the gendered patterns of engagement and roles women played by women in these types and nodes of aquaculture?ii) What enabling and constraining factors shape these patterns and roles?iii) What are the positive and negative outcomes for women in these different aquaculture roles and nodes? iv) What factors shape these outcomes, including what enables or constrains women in successfully meeting their aspirations in or through aquaculture?• Data collection methods: FGDs (5) and interviews (30); and observation• Total respondent for FGDs and interviews: 69 respondents.• Respondents:• Shrimp farming: lead operators and spouses; women involve in shrimp grading; head of community; government officials (Fishery Agency).• Milkfish processing: lead operators and spouses; women and one man involve in milkfish gutting and deboning; government officials (Extension Service Agency); head of community.• Respondent category: disaggregated by social-economic groups (poor-; medium-; and high-wealth groups); and sex (for the lead operators).• Tools used: Demographic and wealth ranking, Gendered roles, Benefits and costs, Enabling and constraining factors, Who decides what, Access to resources and services and Aspiration & Contributions to Empowerment using Ladder of the Ladder of Power and Freedom.• Definition of empowerment:\" empowerment is defined as \"the expansion of people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them\" (Kabeer 2001: p. 19).• Small qualitative inquiry• Only able to identify two cases of women led shrimp farming• Driving force: financial motivation.• Women involve in household financial management.• Homestead milkfish processing industries provides significant opportunity for women; poor, unskilled women and full-time mothers.• Shrimp farming case showed low participation of women, perceptions of the work's physical strength requirements (men's work). • Women involve in shrimp grading, feeding (unpaid-labour).. Finding: Direct engagement of women in milkfish processing and shrimp farmingIncome that can contribute to financial security; development of the households.Expanding human capital (skills; knowledge); social capital, selfesteem, confidence, appreciation and respects from self-, husband, and community members. Finding: Negative outcomes of women's participation ","tokenCount":"491"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0aa43165821acf06d6ceb07cbba6fb22","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6ad169e5-ebce-47f9-b1bf-0c4275a8238d/retrieve","id":"-785862019"},"keywords":["cowpea","genomics","marker-assisted breeding","Vigna unguiculata","blackeye pea"],"sieverID":"5920a58d-be28-4d9b-a98a-6ed8f099f170","pagecount":"13","content":"Cowpea is one of the most important grain legumes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It provides strong support to the livelihood of small-scale farmers through its contributions to their nutritional security, income generation and soil fertility enhancement. Worldwide about 6.5 million metric tons of cowpea are produced annually on about 14.5 million hectares. The low productivity of cowpea is attributable to numerous abiotic and biotic constraints. The abiotic stress factors comprise drought, low soil fertility, and heat while biotic constraints include insects, diseases, parasitic weeds, and nematodes. Cowpea farmers also have limited access to quality seeds of improved varieties for planting. Some progress has been made through conventional breeding at international and national research institutions in the last three decades. Cowpea improvement could also benefit from modern breeding methods based on molecular genetic tools. A number of advances in cowpea genetic linkage maps, and quantitative trait loci associated with some desirable traits such as resistance to Striga, Macrophomina, Fusarium wilt, bacterial blight, root-knot nematodes, aphids, and foliar thrips have been reported. An improved consensus genetic linkage map has been developed and used to identify QTLs of additional traits. In order to take advantage of these developments single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping is being streamlined to establish an efficient workflow supported by genotyping support service (GSS)-client interactions. About 1100 SNPs mapped on the cowpea genome were converted by LGC Genomics to KASP assays. Several cowpea breeding programs have been exploiting these resources to implement molecular breeding, especially for MARS and MABC, to accelerate cowpea variety improvement. The combination of conventional breeding and molecular breeding strategies, with workflow managed through the CGIAR breeding management system (BMS), promises an increase in the number of improved varieties available to farmers, thereby boosting cowpea production and productivity in SSA.Young cowpea leaves are used as spinach in eastern and southern Africa while green immature pods and green mature seeds are also used in Senegal and some other African countries. The most economically important part of the crop remains the dry grain, which is commonly boiled and eaten as beans. The grain can be processed as flour or paste, which is used to make akara (deep-fried) or moin-moin (steamed), eaten as snacks in several western and central African countries. Based on evaluation of 1541 germplasm lines, Boukar et al. (2011) reported that cowpea grains contain on average 25% protein, 53.2 mg/kg iron, 38.1 mg/kg zinc, 826 mg/kg calcium, 1915 mg/kg magnesium, 14,890 mg/kg potassium, and 5055 mg/kg phosphorus. In addition to the grain, the biomass (haulms) from cowpea plants provides important nutritious fodder for ruminants mainly in the Sahel regions of West and Central Africa. Through its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, cowpea, like other legumes, contributes to the fertility of soil. Cowpea fixes between 70 and 350 kg nitrogen per hectare and contributes 40-80 kg nitrogen/ha to the soil (Quin, 1995). The estimated potential impact of cowpea research on fixed nitrogen in SSA, for the period 2011-2020 would be about 77,320 tons (CRP GL, 2012).Although accurate statistics are generally unavailable, cowpea production worldwide is estimated at about 6.5 million metric tons annually on about 14.5 million hectares. About 83% of the global cowpea production is obtained in Africa, with over 80% of African production in West Africa. Nigeria, with an estimated 45% of the world cowpea production and over 55% of the production in Africa, is the world's largest producer and consumer of cowpea, followed by Niger (15%), Brazil (12%), and Burkina Faso (5%). Over the last three decades, global cowpea production grew at an average rate of 5%, with 3.5% annual growth in area and 1.5% growth in yield, and the area expansion accounting for 70% of the total growth during this period (Fatokun et al., 2012b). Globally, the share of cowpea in total area under pulses grew from <10% in 1990 to nearly 20% in 2007. In West Africa, cowpea occupies over 85% of the area under pulses and 10% of the total cultivated land (Fatokun et al., 2012b). If these past trends in cowpea area expansion and yield continue into the future, the global cowpea supply is projected to reach 9.8 million tons in 2020 and 12.3 million tons in 2030, against the projected global demand of nearly 8.5 million tons in 2020 and 11.2 million tons in 2030. Increased investments in research are needed to generate an increase in yield to meet the projected increasing demand for the crop and to forestall any possible deficit. Through the sales of cowpea products, smallholder farmers in SSA generate some income despite the fact that information about cowpea trade is very scanty. Abate et al. (2012) attributed this lack of information to the limited international trade involving cowpea.The production of cowpea is limited by several biotic and abiotic stresses. The biotic stresses include insect pests, diseases, parasitic weeds, and nematodes. At every stage in the life cycle of the crop there is at least one major insect pest that may cause yield losses. Aphid (Aphis craccivora) attacks cause the highest amount of damage to the plants mainly at the seedling stage. Flower bud thrips (Megalurothrips sjostedti) at flowering stage cause the destruction of flower buds and failure of pod formation. Pods and young shoots are destroyed by pod borers (Maruca vitrata) while a complex of pod-sucking bugs (Clavigralla tomentosicollis, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Nezara viridula) penetrate and damage seeds in pods. In storage, bruchid weevils (Callosobruchus maculatus) cause serious damage to the grains.In the case of diseases, cowpea is attacked by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and nematodes. Bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas vignicola and bacterial pustule (Xanthomonas sp.) are the main bacterial diseases of cowpea. ), damage cowpea root systems and cause yield suppression in many cowpea production areas. These diseases may occur singly or in combinations of two or more pathogens, and in some cases are strongly influenced by the growing environment, for example, ashy stem blight caused by Macrophomina is much more prevalent and severe in droughtstressed cowpea plantings.Parasitic weeds, Striga gesnerioides and Alectra vogelii, can cause significant damage to cowpea production. Striga is mainly present in the dry savannah areas of West and Central Africa while Alectra is found predominantly in eastern and southern Africa.Abiotic stresses affecting cowpea production include drought, heat, and low soil fertility. Although the crop is known to be drought tolerant, its yield can be reduced significantly when exposed to seedling, mid-season or terminal drought. Heat may cause serious damage during the off-season cropping. High night temperatures lead to flower abortion thereby preventing pod formation and a consequent reduction in grain yield. Soils that are deficient in phosphorous, an element required for nitrogenfixation in legume root nodules, may lower the productivity of cowpea.Cowpea is a diploid with 2n = 22. Thus, there are 11 linkage groups as revealed by several reports on genetic linkage mapping based on molecular markers. More details about the development and current status of cowpea linkage groups are provided in Section Available Genomic Resources of this review.Cowpea is a highly self-pollinating crop. The extent of outcrossing is therefore low and varies with environment. The development of improved varieties has been mainly through pure line selection, mass selection, pedigree breeding, singleseed descent, and backcross methods. The genetic base of most of the improved varieties that have been released to farmers for planting is narrow. This is no surprise because improved lines are mostly used as parents in developing populations from which new varieties are derived. In the study reported by Li et al. (2001), the level of SSR polymorphism among improved breeding lines was found to be low when compared with those lines generated using newly acquired germplasm lines as parents. The need for varieties with broad genetic base in farmers' fields should be given priority attention in SSA cowpea breeding programs.Cowpea belongs to the genus Vigna, comprised of several sections, species, sub-species, and varieties. Cowpea belongs to section Catiang, species unguiculata, sub-species unguiculata. All cultivated cowpea and its close cross-compatible relatives belong to Vigna unguiculata (Marechal et al., 1978). Three wild subspecies of V. unguiculata, namely subspecies dekindtiana or spontanea, subspecies stenophylla and subspecies tenuis are recognized. Several taxonomists have proposed different subspecies and names for some of the cowpea wild relatives. There appears to be no consensus yet on the proper classification of the cowpea wild relatives and this has complicated efforts to define the primary and secondary gene pools for cowpea. It should be noted that varying levels of success have been achieved in efforts to make crosses between members of subspecies belonging to V. unguiculata. Fatokun and Singh (1987) had to apply embryo rescue in order to successfully cross a cultivated cowpea line with the wild relative V. unguiculata subspecies pubescens. The hybrid that was rescued through in vitro culture was partially fertile. In the several crosses that have been made between cowpea and its wild relatives, the hybrids always showed varying levels of partial fertility. Backcrossing of the hybrids to cultivated cowpea should however improve the level of fertility in subsequent generations. A major drawback to the use of wild cowpea relatives in cowpea breeding is the small seed-size associated with the wild forms. Since small seedsize is dominant to large seed several backcrosses are required in order to recover the desired seed-size of the cultivated type. This is necessary because consumers prefer large seed-size. The application of now available molecular marker tools (Table 1) should facilitate progress in rapid recovery of the genome of the cultivated parental lines.To alleviate the devastations caused by numerous cowpea production constraints, breeding programs in SSA and USA are implementing both molecular and conventional breeding to develop improved lines with high grain yield potential, resistance to biotic stresses, tolerance to abiotic factors, adaptation to major production agro-ecologies, and traits preferred by consumers and producers.Sources of genes for several of these traits have been identified through screening of the germplasm available in different countries. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is maintaining in its genetic resources center about 15,000 accessions of cultivated cowpea and more than 2000 wild relatives. Mining these resources has resulted in the identification of several sources of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Several authors have reported on those germplasm lines that are important sources of resistance for use in breeding programs (Ferry and Singh, 1997;Singh, 2002;Boukar et al., 2015).Sources of new traits continue to be identified in cowpea germplasm, and the traits defined at high genetic resolution with the new genotyping resources available for identifying markertrait associations as described in more detail in Section Marker-Trait Associations. As recent examples, Souleymane et al. (2013) confirmed the tolerance to aphids of the improved line IT97K-556-6, in which two resistance loci were mapped (Huynh et al., 2015) and also identified a new source of aphid resistance from a cowpea wild relative, TVNu 1158. The cowpea accession \"Sanzi\" was identified as a source of genes for resistance to flower bud thrips in Nigeria, Mali and Cameroon. A recent screening of about 200 accessions identified TVu 1272 from Uganda and TVu 16514 from Nigeria as resistant to S. gesnerioides. Out of 1300 accessions screened for drought tolerance, 20 were identified with higher levels of tolerance than others (Fatokun et al., 2012a). Six of these accessions have been used in multiple crosses including Danila, TVu 557, TVu 1438, TVu 4574, TVu 6443, and TVu 11982. A set of 1541 cowpea germplasm lines were evaluated for the content of protein and minerals (Fe, Zn, Mg, Ca, and K) in grains (Boukar et al., 2011). Lines rich in grain protein included TVu 10425 (32.2%), TVu 2822 (31.8%), TVu 16531 (31.3%), TVu 450 (31.1%), and TVu 16616 (31.0%). Lines exhibiting high levels of Fe included TVu 2723 (79.5 mg/kg), TVu 14878 (79.5 mg/kg), TVu 2852 (78.7 mg/kg), TVu 526 (78.1 mg/kg), and TVu 10342 (77.0 mg/kg). Lines with high zinc content were TVu 10342 (58.0 mg/kg), TVu 1732 (56.1 mg/kg), TVu 9576 (55.3 mg/kg), TVu 2651 (54.5 mg/kg), and TVu 1877 (54.0 mg/kg). Interestingly, lines with high iron content were also rich in zinc and protein content, implying that these desirable minerals could be selected for concurrently in breeding programs to develop nutrient dense improved varieties.These genetic sources of desirable traits have been used in hybridization programmes to generate several segregating populations, which were used to select plants with good combinations of target traits (high yield potential, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, and consumer preferences). Different breeding methods applicable to self-pollinated crops are employed in cowpea genetic improvement including mass selection and pure line breeding, pedigree selection, single seed descent, bulk selection, backcrossing, mutation breeding, and farmer-participatory varietal selection. Generally, combinations or modifications of these breeding methods are also adopted as necessary. More than 20 IITA breeding lines were released in about 10 countries from 2005 to 2015 (Table 2). Many of the varieties combine high grain yield with resistance to Striga For molecular breeding (http://breedit.org/) and https://www.integratedbreeding.net/ and Alectra. An example is the breeding line IT97K-499-35, which has been released in Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, and Mali; many farmers have adopted this line because of its superior performance.Cowpea is grown mainly for the protein-rich grains for human consumption. There are now cowpea varieties classified as dual purpose because they produce high grain yield as well as high biomass. The biomass of the haulm, which remains after harvest, is a source of quality fodder for ruminant livestock especially in the Sahelian region of SSA. Cowpea is prone to attack by a myriad of insect pests. These insects cause appreciable grain yield reductions if not controlled using insecticides. It is not uncommon for some farmers in the Sahel to make some income selling fodder from their cowpea fields, which may have suffered serious insect damage to grain yield.M. vitrata is a Lepidopteran insect pest of cowpea. It is the most cosmopolitan of cowpea insect pests and farmers need to apply insecticides to their fields to protect their cowpea crop. Efforts had been made to develop cowpea varieties with resistance to this insect but without success, as there are no resistant lines among accessions of cultivated cowpea. Genetic transformation of cowpea was embarked upon in order to obtain Maruca resistant lines. Popelka et al. (2006) reported successful transformation of cowpea with the Bt gene that is efficacious against Maruca. Currently efforts are ongoing to transfer the Bt gene to cowpea varieties with high grain yield and farmers' and consumers' preferred attributes.The development of genomic resources for cowpea has been more recent than those developed for many other crops. Most early efforts in cowpea were focused on molecular diversity and genetic linkage mapping. Genetic diversity studies have used different marker systems as technologies have advanced, including allozymes (Panella and Gepts, 1992;Pasquet, 1999Pasquet, , 2000)), seed storage proteins (Fotso et al., 1994), chloroplast DNA polymorphism (Vaillancourt and Weeden, 1992), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) (Fatokun et al., 1993), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) (Fatokun et al., 1997;Tosti and Negri, 2002;Fang et al., 2007), DNA amplification fingerprinting (DAF) (Spencer et al., 2000;Simon   (Mignouna et al., 1998;Fall et al., 2003;Nkongolo, 2003;Ba et al., 2004;Diouf and Hilu, 2005;Xavier et al., 2005;Zannou et al., 2008), simple sequence repeats (SSRs) (Ogunkanmi et al., 2008;Uma et al., 2009;Xu et al., 2010), cross species SSRs from Medicago (Sawadogo et al., 2010), inter-simple sequence repeats (Ghalmi et al., 2010), sequence tagged microsatellite sites (STMS) (Choumane et al., 2000;Li et al., 2001;Abe et al., 2003;He et al., 2003), and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers (Huynh et al., 2013). Reports from these studies provide information about origins, taxonomy, domestication, and patterns of genetic variation of cowpea. The development of genome resources in cowpea is now progressing with marker technology advancement.Linkage mapping provides a framework for downstream analyses including quantitative trait loci (QTL) identification, map-based cloning, diversity analysis, association mapping, and molecular breeding (Lucas et al., 2011). The first linkage map for cowpea was developed using a mapping population of 58 F 2 plants derived from a cross between IT84S-2246-4 and TVNu 1963 (Fatokun et al., 1993). The map had 89 loci including 79 RFLP, five RAPD and four cDNA markers as well as one simply inherited morphological trait. These markers were distributed on 10 linkage groups that spanned 680 cM of the cowpea genome. Menendez et al. (1997) developed the second cowpea genetic linkage map using 94 F 8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a cross between two cultivated genotypes IT84S-2049 and 524B. A total of 181 loci, comprising 133 RAPDs, 19 RFLPs, 25 AFLPs and three each of morphological and biochemical markers were assigned to 12 LGs spanning 972 cM with an average distance of 6.4 cM between markers. This second map was improved with the addition of 242 new AFLP markers, which generated 11 LGs spanning a total of 2670 cM, with an average distance of 6.43 cM between markers (Ouédraogo et al., 2002a). A third genetic map was developed using 94 F 8 RILs derived from the cross between an improved cultivated cowpea line, IT84S-2246-4, and a wild relative (V. unguiculata spp. dekindtiana var. pubescens) TVNu 110-3A (Ubi et al., 2000). This map consisted of 80 mapped loci (77 RAPD and 3 morphological loci) spanning 669.8 cM of the genome making 12LGs with an average distance of 9.9 cM between marker loci. With the development of an Illumina GoldenGate Assay, a SNP consensus map with 928 SNP markers on 619 unique map positions distributed over 11 LGs, covering a total genetic distance of 680 cM was established based on the genotyping of 741 members of six bi-parental RIL populations derived from the following crosses: 524B×IT84S-2049, CB27×24-125B-1, CB46×IT93K-503-1, Dan Ila×TVu-7778, TVu-14676×IT84S-2246-4, and Yacine×58-77 (Muchero et al., 2009a). This first consensus map resulted in a resolution of 0.73 cM average distance between two adjacent markers or 1 SNP per 668 kbp considering the cowpea genome to be 620 Mbp. The resolution of this consensus genetic map was improved by genotyping 579 individuals from additional populations consisting of five RILs (from UCR-US, IITA-Nigeria, ISRA-Senegal, ZAAS-China) and two F4 populations (Lucas et al., 2011). This new map contained 33% more bins (856), 19% more markers and had an improved order compared to the first consensus genetic map. Updated versions of cowpea consensus maps are accessible via HarvEST:Cowpea (http://harvest.ucr.edu/). Now that linkage maps for cowpea with this marker density are available, there are increased opportunities for QTL resolution, map-based cloning, assessment of genetic diversity, association mapping, and marker-assisted breeding.The genetic linkage maps that have been published for cowpea are based mainly on molecular markers which are not yet aligned with physical cowpea chromosomes. However, synteny has been reported between cowpea and mung bean (Vigna radiata; Menancio-Hautea et al., 1993) based on RFLP derived separate maps of both crops. These authors also reported that 90% of the RFLP probes they tested hybridized with both cowpea and mung bean. Some RFLP markers that mapped in both crops were found to be co-linear on linkage groups of the two crops. Lucas et al. (2011) also reported that 941 of 1107 total SNP markers i.e., 85% that mapped in cowpea show homologs with soybean (Glycine max). The markers also showed synteny and co-linearity in the soybean genome.Several linkage maps have been used to identify QTLs for desirable traits in cowpea (Table 3). Omo-Ikerodah et al. (2008) used a cowpea linkage map of AFLP and SSR markers to identify QTLs for resistance to flower bud thrips. Gioi et al. (2012) identified and validated a QTL for cowpea yellow mosaic virus (CYMV) resistance using SSR markers. Molecular markers linked  PV % represents ranges of phenotypic variation of the given QTLs. Adapted and updated from (Abhishek et al., 2014).to S. gesnerioides race-specific resistance genes in cowpea were reported in different studies. Ouédraogo et al. (2001Ouédraogo et al. ( , 2002b) ) identified three AFLP markers that are tightly linked to the gene designated Rsg2-1 which confers resistance to Race 1 of S. gesnerioides in Burkina Faso. The AFLP markers were: E-AAC/M-CAA 300 (2.6 cM), E-ACT/M-CAA 524 (0.9 cM), and E-ACA/M-CAT 140/150 (0.9 cM) and they mapped to the lower portion of LG1 published by Menendez et al. (1997). These scientists also reported the identification of six AFLP markers [E-ACA/M-CAG 120 (10.1 cM), E-AGC/M-CAT 80 (4.1 cM), E-ACA/M-CAT 150 (2.7 cM), E-AGC/M-CAT 150 (3.6 cM), E-AAC/M-CAA 300 (3.6 cM), and E-AGC/M-CAT 70 (5.1 cM)] mapped to LG6 and associated with resistance to Striga Race 3 (SG3) from Nigeria. Two of the AFLP markers were associated with resistance to both Striga Races 1 and 3. To facilitate the use of these AFLPs, Ouédraogo et al. (2002a) converted one of these markers to a SCAR (sequence-characterized amplified region) that has been used as an effective and reliable marker in selection for resistance to Striga Races 1 and 3. Boukar et al. (2004) identified two AFLP markers closely linked to resistance to Striga Race 3 from Nigeria, and converted one (E-ACT/M-CAC 115 located 4.8 cM from the resistance locus) to a SCAR marker to facilitate its use in breeding programs.In the genetic map published by Ouédraogo et al. (2002a), some resistance genes and biochemical characteristics were mapped. Blackeye cowpea mosaic potyvirus (B1CMV) and southern bean mosaic virus (SBMV) resistance were mapped to LG8 and LG6, respectively, and resistance to cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) and cowpea severe mosaic virus (CPSMV) were mapped to opposite ends of LG3. The CPSMV resistance mapped near a locus conferring resistance to Fusarium wilt. Ouédraogo et al. (2002a) also mapped resistance to root-knot nematode to one end of LG1 on their genetic map. The biochemical trait dehydrin protein, found in cowpea seed and associated with chilling tolerance at emergence, was mapped to LG2. Agbicodo et al. (2010) identified three QTLs for bacterial blight resistance: CoBB-1, CoBB-2, and CoBB-3 on linkage groups LG3, LG5, and LG9, respectively. The genetic map developed by Ubi et al. (2000) also positioned QTLs for several agronomic and morphological traits, including days to flower, days to maturity, pod length, seeds/pod, leaf length, leaf width, primary leaf length, primary leaf width, and derived traits such as leaf area and primary leaf area.Two unlinked regions of the cowpea genome carry QTLs explaining 52.7% of variation in seed weight while four unlinked regions of mung bean carry QTLs accounting for 49.7% of variation in the same trait (Fatokun et al., 1992). These authors further reported that in both cowpea and mung bean the QTL regions with strong effects on seed weight were spanned by same RFLP markers in the same linkage order. Their study thus suggests that this genomic region of cowpea and mung bean has remained conserved in both crops through evolution. The earlier-developed genetic maps described here require additional reconciliation with the new SNP-based linkage maps for positioning key trait determinants.Recently, SNP-based linkage maps have been used to map several additional traits. From a RIL population developed from a cross between IT93K-503-1 (tolerant) and CB46 (susceptible) differing in their tolerance to seedling-stage drought, 10 QTLs were identified (Muchero et al., 2009b). Some of these QTLs coincided with QTLs for stem greenness (stg) and recovery dry weight (rdw) after drought stress under greenhouse and field conditions. The 10 QTLs were located on LG1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 and accounted for 4.7-24.2% of the phenotypic variance (R 2 ). Using the same RIL population, Muchero et al. (2010) identified nine QTLs, accounting for 6.1-40.0% of the phenotypic variance (R 2 ) for resistance to Macrophomina using plant mortality data from 3 years of field experiments and disease severity scores from two greenhouse experiments. QTL Mac-1 was located on LG2, Mac-2, Mac-3, and Mac-4 on LG3, Mac-5 on LG11, Mac-6 and Mac-7 on LG5, and Mac-8 and Mac-9 on LG6. This number of QTLs and the relatively low contribution of individual loci suggest a quantitative nature of Macrophomina resistance. Pottorff et al. (2012a) identified a major QTL affecting cowpea leaf shape, which may also influence tolerance to drought. More recently, using phenotypic data from 13 experiments conducted across four countries, Muchero et al. (2013) identified SNPtrait associations based on linkage disequilibrium association mapping, with bi-parental QTL mapping as a complementary strategy. Seven QTLs were associated with stay-green and five of these loci exhibited evidence suggesting pleiotropic effects between delayed senescence, biomass, and grain yield. Among the five putative stay-green QTLs, Dro-1, Dro-3, and Dro-7 were identified in both RILs and diverse germplasm, each spanning 3.2 cM or less, suggesting that they may be valuable targets for marker-assisted breeding. Targeting subsets of loci with higher additive effects in marker-assisted breeding would enhance drought tolerance and Macrophomina resistance in economically important cultivars.For heat stress, Pottorff et al. (2014) identified three QTLs, Hbs-1, Hbs-2, and Hbs-3, associated with heat-induced browning of seed coats using the cowpea RIL populations derived from IT93K-503-1 × CB46 and IT84S-2246 × TVu 14676. The identification of SNP markers co-segregating with the heatinduced browning of seed coats phenotype in the Hbs-1 and Hbs-3 loci will help indirect selection in breeding cowpea with better quality grain. In addition, the study revealed ethylene forming enzyme as a cowpea candidate gene for the Hbs-1 locus and an ACC synthase 1 gene as a cowpea candidate gene for the Hbs-3 locus.For cowpea insects, Muchero et al. (2009b) identified three QTLs for resistance to foliar thrips. Thr-1, Thr-2, and Thr-3, were identified on linkage groups 5 and 7 accounting for 9.1-32.1% of the phenotypic variance. In addition, these authors reported that the peaks of these QTLs are respectively co-located with AFLP markers ACC-CAT7, ACG-CTC5, and AGG-CAT1 that could be used in marker-assisted selection for resistance against foliar thrips. These QTLs were subsequently positioned on a SNP consensus map by Lucas et al. (2012). Huynh et al. (2015) identified one major and one minor QTL conferring aphid resistance on LG 7 and LG 1, respectively, with both of the favorable alleles contributed by IT97K-556-6. The major QTL appeared dominant in a related F2 population. SNP markers flanking each QTL are being used to introgress resistance alleles from IT97K-556-6 into susceptible varieties using markerassisted backcrossing.A major QTL conferring resistance to root-knot nematodes has been mapped on linkage group 11 of different mapping populations (Huynh et al., 2016). Root-knot nematodes can be a component of disease complexes with other root pathogens such as Fusarium wilt and root rots. Through their efforts to develop Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. tracheiphilum resistant cowpea lines, Pottorff et al. (2012b) mapped a Fot race 3 resistance locus (Fot3-1) to a 1.2 cM region and identified SNP marker 1_1107 as co-segregating with Fot3-1. Pyramiding QTLs for resistance to root-knot nematodes and fusarium wilt in breeding programs could enable development of cowpea varieties with healthy root systems.The genetic map is being used to anchor an initial wholegenome shotgun (WGS) assembly of cowpea accession IT97K-499-35, which includes sequences for about 97% of all known cowpea genes. Genomic DNA from the reference genotype was shotgun sequenced to ∼65× coverage (one 5-kb library included) using Illumina paired-end technology on GAII, and then assembled together with Sanger BAC-end sequences and \"gene-space\" sequences (Timko et al., 2008) using SOAPdenovo (Luo et al., 2012). The assembly contains 323,048,341 bp of non-N sequences, with an N50 of 6322. These sequences may be searched by BLAST via harvest-blast.org and downloaded via harvest-web.org. A physical map was developed from BAC libraries of IT97K-499-35 by high information content fingerprinting and computational assembly. This physical map is accessible through http://phymap.ucdavis.edu/cowpea/ and is in the process of being linked to the genetic map and genome sequence. Ongoing work to improve the genome assembly using sequenced BACs, long-read shotgun sequencing and optical mapping is in progress, with a goal of 11 pseudomolecules and an average scaffold length of 56 Mb.During the implementation of the Tropical Legumes I (TLI) project, resources for SNP genotyping and QTL-based selection were developed and applied to marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) and marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) populations (Figure 1). Collaboration between the co-authors, others in the Generation Challenge Program team and LGC Genomics led to conversion of SNP assays to the KASP system. This included 1022 mapped SNPs. Other support tools include the improved cowpea consensus genetic maps (version There have also been efforts within the West African Cowpea Consortium (WACC), funded by Kirkhouse Trust, targeting the development by MABC of new cowpea varieties with resistance to the parasitic weed S. gesnerioides in six countries.In Senegal, ISRA at Bambey is applying MAS in breeding new resistant varieties of cowpea to Striga, aphid, and Macrophomina root rot. In Mali, the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) at Bamako is using molecular breeding to develop cowpea lines resistant to the two prevalent strains of Striga present in Mali. In Burkina Faso, INERA at Ouagadougou is using MAS to develop cowpea varieties with resistance to Striga and possessing farmer's preferred traits in different ecological zones. The project has reported the release of four varieties with Striga resistance to farmers in Burkina Faso. Efforts are continuing to apply MAS to develop Striga-, aphid-, and Colletotrichum capsicii-resistant cowpea lines. In Ghana, the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) at Tamale is using MAS to introgress aphid resistance into known Striga resistant varieties. In Nigeria, the University of Agriculture Makurdi (UAM) is using MAS to develop varieties resistant to Striga, Alectra, aphid, and Fusarium wilt. In Cameroon, the Institut de la Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (IRAD) at Maroua is also targeting the development of Striga, aphid, and thrips resistant varieties using MAS.Progress in the development of genomic resources for cowpea was achieved recently through the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme's (GCP) \"Tropical Legumes I\" project. A highthroughput SNP genotyping platform was established through this project (Muchero et al., 2009a). This platform genotypes simultaneously 96 DNA samples at 1536 SNP loci. Using this, a consensus genetic map was established, which provides the opportunity of determining marker positions with some precision across the cowpea genome. This will facilitate markertrait association analyses needed for marker-assisted breeding. Currently, efforts are underway to improve both the robustness of the genotyping and the utility of the consensus genetic map through a Feed the Future project entitled, \"Innovation Lab for Climate Resilient Cowpea.\" Fingerprinting of cowpea breeding programs' preferred accessions are ongoing using nearly 50,000 SNPs. As described above in the genomic resources section, SNP markers and QTLs have been identified for some key biotic and abiotic stresses. Molecular breeding approaches have been initiated in some cowpea breeding programs using LGC Genomics, which converted about 1100 mapped SNPs for use with the KASP platform. Efforts will continue to generate more trait-linked markers, which are intended for breeding applications. The availability of facile genotyping platforms, which may proceed by outsourcing, will accelerate QTL discovery for important traits of cowpea. We anticipate that cowpea breeders will use molecular breeding routinely for the foreseeable future to harness important traits from wild and nonadapted cowpea accessions available in genetic resources centers. Through the implementation of modern breeding, improved lines with higher yield potential may be developed more efficiently.To increase success, cowpea breeding programs need to address additional challenges, the most significant of which is phenotyping. Phenotyping approaches need to be high-throughput, cost-effective, and precise. Data handling and analysis, and decision support tools such as the BMS of the IBP need to be available to and utilized by cowpea breeders. Also, as discussed by others (Varshney et al., 2014), we must integrate training across scientific fields, including genetics, plant breeding, computer science, mathematics, engineering, biometrics and bioinformatics, and evolve new forms of communication and professional organizations so that genomics-assisted breeding can achieve its potential.Cowpea is one of the most important grain legumes in SSA. It provides strong support to the livelihood of small-scale farmers through its contributions to their nutritional security, income generation and soil fertility enhancement. Worldwide about 6.5 million metric tons of cowpea are produced annually on about 14.5 million hectares. The low productivity of cowpea is attributable to numerous abiotic and biotic constraints. The abiotic stress factors comprise drought, low soil fertility, and heat while biotic constraints include insects, diseases, parasitic weeds, and nematodes. Cowpea farmers also have limited access to quality seeds of improved varieties for planting. Some progress has been made through conventional breeding at international and national research institutions in the last three decades. Cowpea improvement could also benefit from modern breeding methods based on molecular genetic tools. A number of advances in cowpea genetic linkage maps, and QTL associated with some desirable traits such as resistance to Striga, Macrophomina, Fusarium wilt, bacterial blight, root-knot nematodes, aphids, and foliar thrips have been reported. An improved consensus genetic linkage map has been developed and used to identify QTLs of additional traits. In order to take advantage of these developments SNP genotyping is being streamlined to establish an efficient workflow supported by genotyping support service (GSS)-client interactions. About 1100 SNPs mapped on the cowpea genome were converted by LGC Genomics to KASP assays. Several cowpea breeding programs have been exploiting these resources to implement molecular breeding, especially for MARS and MABC, to accelerate cowpea variety improvement. The combination of conventional breeding and molecular breeding strategies, with workflow managed through the CGIAR BMS, promises an increase in the number of improved varieties available to farmers, thereby boosting cowpea production and productivity in SSA.","tokenCount":"5521"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"19b35837bbd3f7b6141365fdff494cbc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d2e62dab-32e4-4c37-a50d-ebd63a1ccbf5/retrieve","id":"-732959757"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1aa3c158-df98-4710-8c29-63299a9657a8","pagecount":"23","content":"This working paper has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of AICCRA, donors, or partners.Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non-commercial 4.0 International License.Livestock production and productivity are very low in Ethiopia. Poor quality and inadequate quantity of feeds are major constraints in the Ethiopian highlands. The farming system in Bale zone, where AICCRA project has been operating, is dominated by production of wheat as a major food and cash crop. Most grazing lands changed to cultivated lands due to increasing human population. Wheat straw has been the major livestock feed in the area, which is low in palatability and nutritional value. As a result, livestock production and productivity have been declining from time to time. Therefore, the introduction of climate smart feed and forage innovations into the area becomes crucial. It will have an added value to supplement the available feed and forage and, in the long run, transform livestock production and productivity.To overcome the livestock feed and associated problems, the government seeks active engagements from NGOs, government lead projects, national and international research institutions, higher education institutions, and private sectors. To achieve this objective, capacitating experts, development agents and farmers is crucial. In line with this objective, AICCRA and TAAT projects have been jointly working and providing training on climate smart feed and forage innovations, organizing experience sharing visits and practicing a forage seed supply scheme in a revolving seed system approach. More than 400 households (>36% female), 18 DAs and 8 experts engaged in the recently organized theoretical and practical training program. The training was delivered from 10-22 July 2023 at each kebele level in two districts (Sinana and Goba). Representative farmers from eight kebeles managed to attend the training. This report covers the trainings delivered at kebele level, objectives of the training, mode of training delivery and the number of beneficiaries.• To equip farmers and Kebele DA's • with knowledge and skills in cultivated forage production, management, and utilization.• To train farmers, DAs and experts on how to integrate forage production in soil and water conservation structures, and growing niches.• To train farmers and DAs on post-harvest feed management and utilization.• To provide refresher training to experts and kebele DAs on animal feed seed production and management practices.To better achieve the intended objectives, we set some selection criteria to choose target districts, kebeles and farmers. Based on that, two target districts (Sinana and Goba), six kebeles (Welteyi Berisa, Kebira Shaya, Hawusho, Welteyi Wecho-Sogido, Welteyi Magida, and Welteyi Tosha kebeles) were selected, respectively. A total of 400 HHs were selected for the training. The training was delivered at farmers training centers (FTCs).First, the project organized a refresher training of trainers (ToT) for selected expert from Bale zone and the two target districts (Sinana and Goba) for two consecutive days at ILRI campus, in Addis Ababa. The training was participatory and interactive where participants had a chance to share their practical experiences to their respective sites and also able to learn from each other. The training participants were the former Africa RISING and AICCRA projects contact persons. The training was delivered from 28-29 March 2023.Subsequently, concept note, cost breakdown and training action plans was developed. Following this, the training facilitated by ILRI staff and delivered by the trained trainers from both districts in between 10-22 July 2022.  The female farmer participation rate was high and it was over 36% (see Table 2 below Farmers and DAs were happy with the training and motivated to apply the knowledge and skills they had gained. They were grateful to the AICCRA/TAAT and MFS projects. In total, 413 participants attended the training, including farmers, DAs, and experts (see Table 2).  After this training delivery, experts, DAs and farmers better understood the benefit of improved feed and forage innovations. Farmers were motivated and interested to apply what they grasped through the training on the ground. They promised to allocate land for selected fodder cultivation.• Farmers were also familiarized with feed conservation technologies/postharvest feed mangment-feeding trough and feed storage.• They also informed the different ways of crop residue treatment to improve its quality and palatability. Some of them were silage making, treating CR with effective microorganisms (EM) and molasses. They were happy with the innovation and interested to continue applying the technology.• Pannal discussion was organized after each the training program. The seed supply issues, supply of molasses and EM, AI and related issues were the major points of discussion.• After the training, the number of farmers who applied improved feed and forage innovation increased. AICCRA project supplied Oat 2 tonsand Vetch 0.8 ton for oat + vetch mixture scaling in the woredas where we trained farmers and DAs. The ILRI site coordinator in Bale successfully facilitated the seed preparation and dispatching from 10-21 July 2023. Oat for seed multiplication, oat and vetch mixture for scaling, and alfalfa seeds dispatched to farmers in the target districts.  in the two target woredas, we able to address 634 direct beneficiary farmers in 13 kebeles. Eight Kebeles in Sinana, five Kebeles in Goba woredas. In total, we able to cover above 36 ha of land.The participant satisfaction survey results are very positive. Respondents are highly satisfied with the quality and usefulness of the climaterelevant knowledge products, decision-making tools, and services received under AICCRA, as well as with the effectiveness of the partnerships under AICCRA. A high percentage of respondents have also used or adapted AICCRA-funded climate-relevant knowledge products, decisionmaking tools, and services. The results suggest that AICCRA is having a positive impact on its target audience. The project is providing farmers, DAOs, and experts with the knowledge and tools they need to adapt to climate change and build more resilient food system ","tokenCount":"961"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/4613247651.json b/data/part_2/4613247651.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5993f92f44791985eaef3eac17ac785","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43eeaab6-6ead-40e3-9616-8e9dcda8722b/retrieve","id":"-1856389605"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8cba2946-9d45-487f-aea8-8f66e830ce1a","pagecount":"25","content":"• An effective way to identifying animals permanently and uniquely• Unique numbers should be read visually as well as electronically captured so that the information (or data) is securely transferred to a database to be analysed or simply monitored/traced• Creating reliable information depends on data integrity• Commercialization through more secure and efficient channelsChallenges of animal identification• Unique number identifying individual animals• Database structure is fundamental• Electronic reading of the animal's identity and prompt transfer of information to a database• Lost animal identification compromises all efforts and creates loss of information• High-quality tags and RFID are relatively expensive• Distribution of standard tags across an entire population can be very challengingDatabase(s) of animal health and performance data, supporting farmer decision making and industry integration A sustainable business and service model that includes all stakeholders (mainly farmers)Information to support impact assessment, R&D, and policy makingA central database needs ","tokenCount":"145"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba1ffa4bb0f5a4753ca495b78e5f9fec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92c7e40d-8c74-4ce7-b8eb-aaba5514201a/retrieve","id":"-166021319"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2259bd56-a9bf-428e-83e2-3bf1c874782f","pagecount":"21","content":"To support local extension and other stakeholders to develop a concrete strategy for moving from the visioning processes to actions that result in impact on livelihoods of smallholder farmers, especially through sustainable intensification approaches, including grain legume production.A participatory learning workshop was held in Dedza between 6-10 November 2012, involving 40 participants from Dedza, Ntcheu, Muchinji and Lilongwe districts, all within the INVC target districts. Workshop participants were taken through participatory approaches that are critical in the development of trust with communities, leading to successful implementation of research or development projects. True community participation in initiatives leads to local ownership and higher chances of success and sustainable development. Participants were exposed to principles of facilitation and got to practice in smaller groups and plenary. Principles of agro-ecology and agronomy were presented and discussed with participants, including presentation of case studies by participants from the different districts. The workshop struck a balance between providing information and tools for people to carry out participatory action research and incorporating the participatory process into the workshop framework, thus co-creating with the participants the local meaning of participation and participatory research. Various facilitation tools were used by the core facilitators, while participants had numerous role play facilitation opportunities, including a real life situation interacting with a smallholder farming community in Dedza. The workshop started through welcoming remarks. An innovative participant introduction approach was used -in which participants were paired, got to know each other and then later the groups reconvened, and participants introduced themselves using their pair's particulars. This is done to make sure participants familiarize themselves with each other throughout the workshop. As the workshop was to be centered on participation, facilitation of this to happen is a vital ingredient. Sound facilitation has to be based on the following principles: Informality -a belief that all the people are on the same level when starting the workshop, ownership -so that participants take the workshop as their own,  Openness and transparency, inclusiveness -where the entire participants are encouraged to be part of the workshop,  Honesty, and thinking beyond the box -where participants are encouraged to think about different ways of doing things and not same old ways all the time, and  Open dialogue.The workshop ground rules were spell out: -cell phones off or on silent, one participant at a time, punctuality and contribution by everyone. Participants were allowed to make comments on the ground rules.The expectations were of what should happen during the workshop were: Know more about participatory approaches that will be used by both the Participants were introduced to the objectives of participation through a role play known as the bus code. This was about a bus in which the passengers would not reach a consensus as to where the bus should go as they were all going to different places. A lot of lessons were drawn as outlined below; Every individual in the bus had a different view just like any other person in the group and since everyone wanted their views to be held at the same time, they could not reach a consensus as to where the bus should go.  The driver himself was weak in the sense that he didn't indicate where his bus was going before the passengers boarded the bus.  There was lack of accurate information regarding where the bus was going i.e. the information was insufficient for the passenger to make a decision on whether to board the bus or not.  Passengers in the bus could not effectively communicate due to lack of communication skills.  Progress was never achieved as consensus could not be reached among the passengers who were intending to go to different destinations.A major lesson from the bus code is related to the need for dialogue to find solutions for different challenges, and the importance of good leadership and clarity of objectives and goals.Drawing key lessons from the drama enabled the participants to learn how participatory approaches are important in work places or during project implementation, leading to: Efficiency -use of resources in the most efficient manner  Harmony -in participation, diverse actors can come up with a unique product  Indigenous knowledge -with participatory approaches, we need to listen to farmers to accommodate their previous knowledge and experiences.  Understand constraints -participatory approaches help in the understanding of constraints on each environment and facilitate the precipitation of appropriate entry points that 'best-fit' the local environment.  Smart implementation of projects -This is also one ingredient of participatory approaches hence farmers benefit from our products.  Sustainability of projects is also achieved with the same resources available.After the basic concepts of participation and facilitation had been presented to the workshop participants, assignments were given that were to be deliberated in groups based on district. Below, we state the nature of the assignments and then give a brief narration/views from the respective districts, following 1 hr group discussions for each of the two tasks (only key messages captured here)  Needs assessment is also conducted with farmers  Then the action plan is developed from views of farmers  The activities are then formulated to address farmer problems  Resources required are identified and  The responsible personnel to carry out each activity are also identified.  Finally the participatory monitoring and evaluation exercise is conducted.  In all these activities, an extension agent only acts as a facilitator Group 4 -Dedza district According to Dedza, participation is also a demand driven exercise : The first activity is an area stakeholder panel which is conducted in model villages  Then the action plan is formulated together with development of activities as well as the time frame for each activity. Finally, the participatory monitoring and evaluation exercise is conducted. This was agreed upon by all the participants from Dedza.In addition to the above, further insights on participatory approaches/ concepts and the place for research were deliberated in plenary. Key messages from this included: Involvement of all stakeholders including the community members who are the beneficiaries of interventions  Situational analysis which includes all stakeholders (farmers, extension workers, researchers etc.) to air their views and this brings empowerment to farmers  Problem solving and sharing with farmers  Valuing of every individuals idea  Flexibility to changes in any environment during project implementation  Demonstrations, field days and research trials (on farm trials) which involve participation from all stakeholders  Learning -thus sharing of ideas and this benefits all stakeholders involved in a particular project.  Risk taking -this risk comes where individuals are participating in an activity or they accept an idea even though they are not sure about the final outcome.  Sharing -this means in participation people share many things such as Ideas, Materials, Costs and benefits among other things.  Joint action planning, and implementation of activities  Joint monitoring and evaluation, reporting and reviews. The task called for discussion of projects/case studies in the different districts where participatory concepts were either used appropriately employed or initiatives that later collapsed due to top-down approaches. The outcomes of discussions and case studies are summarized below: Farmers are able to choose suitable technologies based on their preferences.There is team work in implementing the trials. Farmers are adopting the technologies easily because there is full involvement in all the stages. Sustainability is expected because of this farmer participation.Group 3 -Dedza case study -Chitsanzo Dairy Cooperative -Linthipe EPA The whole idea was to develop the dairy industry in the area which was inactive by then.The whole exercise started with Needs assessment -the approaches used were meetings and focus group discussions (FGDs) to identify problems in the area. the initial investigations established that milk producer price was too low, feed unavailability and small land holding sizes for raising fodderAfter prioritizing the problems in the value chain together with farmers, poor availability of feed was ranked. A training program was then formulated with farmers towards:Training and demonstrations on dairy feed formulation Demonstrations on land preparation and pasture establishment Training and demonstrations in feed conservationThe lined up activities were implemented by farmers while the researcher and extension workers were just facilitating the process collaboratively. All stakeholders did monitoring and evaluation and they concluded that milk production can be improved through: Feed conservation Intensifying pasture establishment and usage Homemade feed rations Bulk purchasing at wholesale markets.Since farmers were involved in all stages, they are still continuing with the actions that were developed like pasture establishment, feed formulation and preservations. Farmers in TA Zulu were not involved in the project planning i.e. they were not informed that the irrigation canal will pass through their area. According to initial plan, this was possible however the problem came after the mapping exercise which showed that the canal must pass the other way round (the law of gravity).There was little involvement of other stakeholders apart from TA Mlonyeni and TA Zulu.Wastage of resources e.g. time, fuel and human capacity.No ownership (TA Zulu)Briefing ADC for both TA Mlonyeni and TA Zulu. Formation of main committee to facilitate the project in the area. Replanning of activities. Implementation of the project.Case Studies Summaries For Lilongwe, Government through IRLAADP proposed a fish pond instead of farmers proposing the project. For Dedza, improving dairy production has to involve the farmers at all levels For Mchinji, conflict on irrigation canal development due to poor planning and sensitization strategy regarding the project. For Ncheu, in ASWAp trials farmers are involved in all stages including choice of technology hence high adoption rate.For Mchinji canal development : Development initiatives create conflicts if not properly planned. Hence participation, involvement during onset of the project is key solution to conflicts. For Dedza dairly industry : involvement and ownership brings sustainability.For Lilongwe fish pond project: Imposition/ top down approaches are often not associated with sustained implementation of the project by communities beyond the funding phases For Ntcheu ASWAP trials, if farmers are involved from a very onset, it's not so hard to push for technology adoption.Initially not involved TA Mlonyeni TA ZULUPrinciples of agro-ecology and sustainable developmentThe more formal power point presentation covered the following areas:What Agro ecology is about -type of sustainable intensification. What Agro ecology means? -combination of agriculture and ecology.Ecology -relationship of organisms to one another and to their physical surrounding.Principle idea -Re-establish ecological relationships that can occur naturally on the farm instead of reducing and simplifying them.Manage ecological relationships Principles of sustainable ecology -environmental soundness, social equity and economic viability.Agro ecology and Research -The doubled-up legumes technology is one of the ecologically sound agricultural intensification technologies that can improve farm performance. Two legumes that do not have direct competition for resources due to their different growth habits or architecture are grown in the same field at the same time. The grain legumes improve soil fertility, while also improving protein availability. Some of the popular legume combinations include:Pigeon peas + groundnuts Pigeon peas + Soya Bean Pigeon peas + Cowpea Land equivalent ratios (LER) can be used to analyze where these intercrops are beneficial, but sole interpretation LER without considering other ecological benefits of the system may miss important sustainability indicators. The participants also contributed to the presentations by suggesting the following:Pest management -e.g. cowpeas are prone to pests hence farmers should be taught how to manage these pests.Inoculation is also necessary for some bean varieties. Phosphorus fertilization important for grain legumes when soil phosphorus is too deficientStory-telling and role plays can convey strong messages about problematic situations and how solutions can be produced from within. Below, we describe two of the most powerful tools -the River and the Liberator codes.\"Two men come to a river and look for a place to cross. The current is very strong and they are both afraid to cross it. A third man comes along and sees their difficulty. He leads them up the river to a place where there are some stepping stones and a small island in the middle of the river. He urges the men to step on the stones but both are afraid, so he agrees to take one of them on his back. By the time when he gets to the middle of the river, the man on his back seems very heavy, so he puts him on the little island. He then returns to fetch the second man who wants to climb on his back as well, but as his back was already hurting, he refuses. Instead he takes his hand and encourages him to use the stepping stones himself and he immediately masters the skill to manage on his own. However, the other man who had been carried all the way to the island had not learnt anything and wanted to be dependent all the way. After refusing to attempt the second part of the river on his own, he was left alone at the island while the stranger and the man who had acquired new skills crossed to the other bank and proceeded with their journey.One of the participants was able to accurately decode the story o River -the challenges faced by farmers o Strong man -represents donor community o The two men -farmers themselvesThe whole story to the participant means that the farmers should not rely on donor support alone. They also need to provide their input. From the onset of the project they need to contribute at least 50% as well as learning the tricks so that next time they can solve the problems on their own. This entails sustainability of the project. Further, this was also explained as one of the strategy that can be used to instill confidence in farmers, selfreliance, self-motivation and empowerment so that by the end of the day, they learn tricks and does things on their own (sustainability).\"This story is about a person who was faced with a pressing problem (he was tied). The first person who was passing by saw the man and gave him some money but he just pushed the money aside. The second person who was passing by saw the person with some money beside him. He pitied him and gave him a book which he also pushed it aside. The third person also felt sorry for the man as she was passing by and gave him some food but he also pushed the food aside. Then the fourth person came. She observed the man; she looked at all the things given to him. But still the man seemed not to be satisfied or attracted to anything given to him. Then she looked closely at the man and found that he was tied. The she untied the man and just soon after that the man was very happy.\"This was very obvious and one participant interpreted just the same way the story is.The lesson learnt from this story is that when bringing development project to farmers we need to understand their problems first. In addition, when trying to solve farmer problems, we must first identify root causes and this can be done by using participatory approaches.The situational analysis took place in Golomoti Extension Planning Area (EPA), Golomoti section, in Dedza. In this area, more than 200 farmers attended the meeting. After settling preliminaries, the workshop participants enacted the River Code play. The farmers watched the role play with interest and one of the farmers interpreted the story accordingly. Among the lessons which they learnt from the play were as follows: \"Aid corrupts peoples mind and affects them to do things on their own.\" (woman) \"Some people always want to be pushed to do things. They cannot do it on their own.\" \"Don't rely too much on aid.\"The Liberator code was also demonstrated to farmers and they interpreted it accordingly. Among the lessons leant by the farmers were as follows: \"Some people don't like short term assistance. They want to be taught how to do things not receiving all the time.\" \"When a person is strongly in need of something specific, even if people give him/her several kinds of gifts, if they don't end his / her problem, it doesn't change anything to that person. But when someone assists you with what you need you become very happy.\"Farmers were divided into groups by age and gender to discuss current problems in the area related to agriculture and how they perceived finding relevant solutions. The participants used this opportunity to practice facilitation skills they had acquired during the training over the past 3 days.","tokenCount":"2740"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed4d7e4aae229ca4a84619beb3246c53","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92b396cb-41ad-42ca-a010-b859d27b0125/retrieve","id":"1752616276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78a187cd-6cd6-417a-91b1-a79587b7b0db","pagecount":"125","content":"Potatoes have become one of the most valuable staple food crops for humankind, even in the tropical warm climates under conditions of minimum agricultural inputs.There, late blight (LB), bacterial wilt (BW), root-knot nematodes (RK), and major potato viruses (PVX, PVY, PLV) are the most important diseases.In the fall of 1986, three potato populations were intercrossed at Ithaca, N. Y., to generate one potato population segregating for good horticultural traits and disease resistance. In the summer of 1987, nine thousand five hundred seedlings were screened for resistance to PVX, PVY and LB, and were reduced to 1591 clones. In 1988, these clones were grown in the field, then evaluated again in the greenhouse and laboratory for resistance to LB, BW, RK, PVX, and PVY.Out of the 39 remaining clones which tested negative for PVX, PLRV, and PVY, there were selected six resistant to RK, 26 resistant to BW, and 18 resistant to LB. For multiple disease resistance, only one clone showed a high degree of combined resistance to LB, BW, and RK. Six clones were resistant to both LB and BW. Another five clones which were resistant to RK and BW were also partially resistant to LB. In 1989, those 39 clones were evaluated in the field at two locations nearby Ithaca, New York, and in four highland sites in Rwanda, Central Africa. The Ithaca field evaluation resulted in 12 clones resistant or moderately resistant to LB. All virus diseased clones were discarded. Almost all the test clones proved to be susceptible to blight about 60 days after planting during the heavy rainy season in Rwanda. In terms of LB resistance, the Rwanda field results were positively correlated with the Ithaca greenhouse results but were not statistically significant. Due to severe blight attack immediately after potato emergence, it was not possible to record any reliable observations about bacterial wilt and root-knot nematodes. Martin Bicamumpaka was born in Kidaho, Ruhengeri, Rwanda in 1952. He was the eighth of the nine children born to the late Elias Basebya and Daphrose Nyirabajyahe. After completing the Primary School at Gitare, he attended the Secondary School at the Groupe Scolaire de Shyogwe and the College Officiel de Kigali, from 1965 to 1971. In September 1971, he went to study in Belgium and received the Diploma of Ingenieur Agronome des Regions Tropicales et Subtropicales, in January 1979, from the Universite Catholique de Louvain, after presenting his dissertation entitled: Contribution a l'etude de la Relation entre le Rendement et Certains Parametres Foliaires chez le Tabac (Nicotiana tabacWD L.). From 1979 to 1986, he dealt with potato germplasm management within the National Potato Improvement Program (PNAP) of Rwanda. In March 1986, he was appointed a Board member of Trustees of the Rwanda National Bank before he entered thewere kept only for botanical gardens. Slowly, they became adopted as a food crop. From Spain they were distributed throughout Europe. Later, a few additional introductions were made directly to the British Isles, which ultimately came back across the Atlantic to North America by the end of the 17 th century (Mendoza 1989;Plaisted 1989) .Potatoes have become one of the most valuable staple food crops for humankind. With a total production of 290 million tons from 22 million hectares per year, they rank fourth after rice, wheat and corn. Potatoes are grown in 130 countries where three-fourths of the world population live (Mendoza 1989;Horton 1985). The potato crop encounters a large number of biotic and abiotic yield constraints limiting its yield potential. It is particularly vulnerable to diseases and pests. According to Mendoza (1989), there are 268 potato pests and diseases comprising 128 insects and related pests, 68 nematode species, 38 fungi, 25 viruses, 6 bacteria, 2 mycoplasms and potato seed stocks from Kenya (Focan 1959;Nattrass 1944).Bacterial wilt was thought to be indigenous to the area (Lejeune, 1944). New experiment stations were opened in the highlands of Ndihira-zaire in 1953 and in Rwerere-Rwanda in 1958.Some of the old varieties are still being grown in Central Africa under local names such as Gashara (Industrie), Magayane (Giant Blue) and Purugeli (Krueger). Potato seed degeneration is slow due to low aphid populations at high elevations. The major insect problem in Africa is the potato tuber moth (Phthorimae operculella L.) (Parker and Hunt 1989).  The CIP breeding program has been combining different sources of resistances in response to these problems. Some advanced lines are being evaluated in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico and Peru (Landeo 1988). Good materials are anxiously awaited by those growers in the tropics.In addition to the disease resistances, growers wish to utilize potato varieties out yielding the local ones, maturing in 90 days and having at least the Sangema qualities with good tuber shape, high dry matter content and good cooking quality.The ultimate goal of this thesis research is to utilize the advanced Cornell potato germplasm for identifying genotypes combining resistance to late blight, bacterial wilt, rootknot and cyst nematodes, and major viruses. The selected genotypes should be heat-tolerant for the range of warm growing areas under conditions of minimum agricultural inputs as encountered in the tropical developing countries.TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW.One of the most widespread pests limiting world agricultural productivity is the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne sp. (Mendoza, Martin, and Jatala 1983)  'Brien, and Rich 1976;Hussey 1985;Caveness 1979;Brodie 1984). They are widely distributed throughout all agroecosystems of the world. They cause damage to many important economic crops in the tropical and subtropical climates, and also in warm parts of the temperate zones and in glasshouses using nonsterilized soils (Franklin 1979;Sasser 1979;Fassuliotis 1979;Gundy 1985;Lamberti 1985).The earliest known record of root knot caused by Meloidogyne sp. is that by Berkeley (1855) who observed the galls on cucumber roots in an English glasshouse (Franklin 1979;Mai 1985). Licopoli ( 1875 Muller (1884) described a root-knot nematode on roots of ~rosacea Jacq in Germany and named it Heterodera radicicola (Franklin 1979;Wouts 1979) from damaging effects of these pests, and to assist the developing nations in increasing food crop production (Sasser and Carter 1985). In some developing countries, Root-knot nematode infection is so common and widespread that galled roots have been considered \"normal\". In such cases, poor standards or yields have been attributed to vague agricultural ailments such as \"worn-out lands\" or \"soil exhaustion\" (Sasser and Carter 1985).  (Johnson 1985;Raymundo 1985;Agrios 1978;Mai 1985) .Heat treatment consists of raising the soil temperature to 50 0 C for 30 minutes by steam or to 80 0 C for 30 minutes by hot water to kill present nematodes. This technique is too expensive and impractical to be used in fields, but is used in greenhouses (Agrios 1978) America (Mai 1985;Johnson 1985;Raymundo 1985). The biocontrol methods consist of using organisms parasitic to root-knot nematodes and resistant cultivars. Jatala (1985) reported the use of a fungus, Paecilomyces lilacinus (Thorn) In programs to breed for root-knot resistance, the main efforts have been in the search of sources of resistance to M. incognita; ~jayanica; M. hapla; ãrenaria and ~chitwoodi (Gomez and Plaisted 1982) .Studying the inheritance of the resistance to root-knot nematodes in potatoes and its combination with bacterial wilt, Gomez and Plaisted (1982) found that 3-4 dominant genes should be present in germplasm derived from S.sparsipilum to have resistance to M. incognita; three dominant genes to obtain enough resistance to M. jayanica; and 4-5 dominant genes for resistance to M. arenaria. All of the potato clones resistant to M. arenaria were found to be also resistant to the other two species of root-knot nematode. Therefore, the five genes that control resistance to M. arenaria include three genes responsible for resistance to M. jayanica and four genes for resistance to M. hapla.According to Fassuliotis (1979) r.In the soil, most of the root-knot nematode species live in association with some pathogenic fungi and bacteria. An association of ~. solanacearum and Meloidogyne sp.in a potato field predisposes the plants to the bacterial attack. These two pathogens have similar ecological distributions, particularly favored by warm soil temperatures. The frequency and severity of bacterial wilt of potato can be increased when Meloidogyne sp. are present (Agrios 1978). Feldmessen andGoth (1970) observed that potato plants exposed to this combination showed symptoms 20 days sooner than those exposed to the bacterium alone.\"Pungo\" plants, inoculated with both H. incognita and S.solanacearum. wilted more rapidly than those inoculated singly. Jatala, French and Gutara (1975) have reported similar observations. Both resistant (cultivar BR73-40) and susceptible (Renaciemento) potato plants wilted sooner and died when inoculated with bacteria in combination with H.incognita acrita than when inoculated singly. Weingartner (1990) reported that the incidence of bacterial wilt increased in \"Pungo\", \"Ontario\", and \"Noordeling\" and Solanum sucrense when M. jayanica was present in combination with the bacteria. Thus, the resistance of Ontario, Noordeling and S. sucrense was reduced by M.jayanica. While testing seedlings of eleven potato families, Jatala (1977) found that the seedlings segregating (up to 60 %) for resistance to M.incognita (race 3) population, tested resistant for £. solanacearum (four strains of races 1 and 3). germplasm (French and Sequeira 1987;Schmiediche 1988). The new sources were found in clones selected from 17 families of wild species. High levels of resistance were reported from clones of S. sparsipilum, S. chacoense, and S.raphanifolium among others. Both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at CIP-Lima, programs for screening wild species of Solanum were conducted in the hope of finding general resistance that would not be as vulnerable at high temperature as the S. phureja' sources have proven to be (French and Sequeira 1987). Solanum phureja has been used extensively as the only and so far best source of resistance to bacterial wilt. However, its resistance is pathogen strain-specific and temperature-sensitive. So, it breaks down under tropical hot conditions where various bacterial wilt strains occur. and named it Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Barry (Prillieux 1895, Lejeune 1943). Botanists first began to cross cultivated forms with wild species in the 19th century. Intense potato breeding activities followed and by 1876,some varieties (Champion) had been bred with a useful resistance (Simmonds 1964). According to Hawkes (1958) infestans produced new races faster than breeders could produce cultivars although occasionally a 2-3 year period of freedom from blight was obtained following the introduction of a potato cultivar with specific resistance (Thurston 1971). In the 1960's, thirteen distinct races, classified according to the International Nomenclature of races were now known to exist in Europe and Americas.Apart from these 13 known and another three hypothetical races, more races may rise (Black 1953;Black 1966). Later, Wurster and Kori (1972)  (1) To develop and determine the value of a heattolerant pest-resistant potato population as a source of potential breeding lines for warm climates.(2) To select clones combining resistance to bacterial wilt, late blight, root-knot nematodes and viruses with good horticultural traits.(  and the resistant cultivar (Elba) were added to serve as check plants for late blight. Prior to inoculation, the Fplastic house had been filled with steam and the seedling foliage had been moistened by misting with a \"water fog-it\" hose nozzle for 5 hours (Garcia 1977, Tschanz 1978).Hygrothermographs were used to monitor the relative  plants. The readings of wilting were made every four days from the 5 th to the 25 th day after inoculation. The BW index was read on the 1-5 scale as described in Table 3.2.A genotype is usually rated resistant if the bacterial index is less or equal to 3, five days after the inoculation.TO lUt.For the root-knot nematodes test, the third group of the The root-knot nematode eggs were extracted from galled tomato plants maintained in the greenhouse. The inoculum was 6,100 eggs/3 inch-potted plant. M. arenaria was especially chosen because previous research indicated that every potato clone resistant to M. arenaria is also resistant to both M. incognita and M. jayanica (Gomez 1983). This trial was harvested 8-9 weeks after the rootknot nematode inoculation. At harvest, the haulms were cut and discarded. The soil was washed off the root systems and the roots chopped into small pieces and put into Erlenmeyer bottles. A 20 % chlorox solution was placed in the Erlenmeyer bottles sufficient to cover the root pieces. The mixture was shaken for four minutes. The eggs and larvae were counted with a microscope (objective lOx) using a hemocytometer holding 1 ml of suspension root extract. To get the final population expressed from the potato root system, the observed count was multiplied by the total volume of root suspension extract. The ratio of the final population over the initial population (Pf/ Pi) was used to measure the reproductive efficiency of M. arena ria within each potato genotype. A genotype is judged resistant if the Pf/Pi is less than or equal to 1. were mixed altogether and inoculated on the potato plot by 7:00 pm. The nightly periods of high relative humidity and free moisture on potato foliage were extended by several periodic sprinkler irrigations (0.17 cm water per hour) for approximately 5-6 weeks after inoculation. The late blight indices were read on August 24, 1989, using the 1-9 scale as shown in the Table 3.1.In February 1989, up to 60 tubers from each of the 39 remaining clones, along with six advanced clones or varieties (Elba, Monserrate, Atlantic, A140-11, E74-7, H322-5) as checks for LB, BW, and RK resistance were packaged for shipment to Rwanda. In Rwanda these were grown for two seasons at four locations. These locations are described in Table 3  (Turkensteen 1988).The general rainfall pattern for the 4 Rwandan testing sites is presented in Figure 3.1. During the first evaluation season, the late blight epidemic was so severe that the Ruhengeri field was almost completely killed at 52 days after planting and the Gishwati field was not harvested because the yield was too low to be weighed (less than 50 grams per 5 hills). Thus, data on bacterial wilt incidence and flowering ability could not be recorded. For the second growing season (September 1989 to December 1989), the Ruhengeri and Rwerere sites were replanted with tubers lifted in the Ruhengeri plots. This season, the trial was duplicated so that one portion received fungicide applications. The fungicide utilized was a metalaxyl (Ridomil MZ 63.5 wp, elBA-GEIGY) at a rate of 2.5 kg/ha/1000 ml water. The metalaxyl was applied once a week at Rwerere and every two weeks at Ruhengeri. Thus, the crop protection was higher at Rwerere than at Ruhengeri site.The objective of the fungicide application was not the study of fungicidal effect but the prolongation of the   ----------------------------------------------------- The golden nematode test produced 20 resistant and 16susceptible. The 1990 test for resistance to the golden nematode revealed that 2 of these were susceptible (L501-9and L508-3) .The root-knot test produced 6 resistant clones, with a reproductive ratio (Pf/Pi) less than or equal to 1.The bacterial wilt test resulted in 15 resistant (index less than or equal to 2), 11 partially resistant (index equal to 3), and 12 susceptible or moderately susceptible (index 4-5) clones.The late blight test resulted in 7 resistant (index 1 to 4), 11 partially resistant (index 5) and 20 susceptible (index 6-9) clones.For multiple disease resistance, only one clone (L503-3) showed a high degree of resistance to LB, BW, and RK. Six clones (L502-2, L503-3, L503-4, L503-5, L503-11, L515-3) were resistant to both LB and BW. Another five clones (L501-14, L506-4, L506-6, L519-4, and L522-1) which were resistant to RK and BW were also partially resistant or moderately susceptible to LB. Thus L503-3 appeared to be resistant to all the diseases except the golden nematode; and L502-2, L503-4 and L503-5 were resistant to all the diseases except the two nematodes.  ----------------------------------------------------- L511-1 3 14.1 ---------------------------------------------------- Five clones (LSOl-14, LS06-4, LS09-4 and LS19-4) are resistant to RK, GN, and BW, but moderately susceptible to LB.of the field evaluation, on Mt.Freeville, and in Rwanda.Due to limited number of tubers per clone, only some of the 39 clones were grown on Mt. Pleasant, to assess the potato virus infection, and at Freeville, to test for late blight resistance as reported in Table 4.3.On Mt. Pleasant, eleven clones were rogued due to viruses, primarily PLRV. The best appearing clones were LS01-14 and LS03-4. The Freeville field test resulted in twelve clones having a late blight index ranging from 3 to 5 at 73 days after planting and 30 days following the artificial inoculation with late blight race 1,2,3, and race ~. They were better than Sebago which had an average index of 6 as indicated in Table 4.3.of the field evaluation in Rwanda.In Rwanda, data on bacterial wilt and viral symptoms were taken during the two evaluation seasons.During the first evaluation season, almost no bacterial wilt was seen in any testing site except on LS03-9 which showed 3% of wilt in Ruhengeri. - -----------------------------------------------------------     -------------------------------------------------------------   with a general mean of 6.7 and a least significant ratio of 9.6. The increase in yield is due to increase in tuber weight but not to tuber number.  ----------------------------------------------------------  -------------------------------------------------------------  s. 3 I'ie~d eva~uation for ~ate b~ight resistance at Freevi~~e.The Freeville readings were positively correlated (r = 0.312) with the greenhouse indices but this correlation was not statistically significant. The Freeville test showed that the greenhouse resistance held up for 12 of the 25 clones tested. Those twelve clones had a late blight index ranging from 3 to 5 at 73 days after planting and 30 days following the artificial inoculation with late blight race 1,2,3, and race ~' They were better than Sebago which had an average index of 6. Thus, the greenhouse screening is effective for conditions of late blight epidemic similar to those artificially created in Freeville. This might be so because the Freeville field was inoculated with the same ~.infestans isolates as those used in the greenhouse testing, and that, at both sites, sprinkler irrigation was used to create moist conditions. Under financial limitations, one or two readings (at 45 and 60 days) would be sufficient to detect any genotype with a moderate or high degree of late blight resistance.It would not be necessary to make more than two readings, especially not at an early age (close to 30 days) during the March-July season.Although the data of Ruhengeri and Rwerere are highly significantly correlated during the second growing season, it would be necessary to read the blight indices up to 75 days. Hence, two or three readings may be taken beginning at 45 days for the second season, September-January.For the future breeding program for these conditions, Contrary to Black (1972), Daele (1959), andSimmonds (1971) who suggested that tropical breeders mostly raise promising crosses supplied by foreign breeders and select adapted clones, the crosses too should be made locally with adapted parental genotypes. Indeed, the search for sources of disease resistance and adaptation to warm climates should be emphasized to enhance the local breeding germplasm.","tokenCount":"3111"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f6683234e8b469a13b93c2f6bdea3a91","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cb1d3966-3f9d-43d6-bb80-c51ecea6dc1e/retrieve","id":"-575777604"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"82fb6dd8-d690-4cda-976f-12fc39d136e9","pagecount":"78","content":"La finance rurale consiste à fournir des services financiers, comprenant les services d'épargne, de crédit, d'assurance et de transferts d'argent, à des ménages ou des entrepreneurs ruraux.Tous les ménages ruraux épargnent, même si le montant varie en fonction du ménage et de ses capacités ainsi que de la motivation et de la détermination à épargner de la famille paysanne. ? Lors des récoltes, les paysans pratiquant une agriculture de subsistance vendent une partie de leur production alimentaire mais ils essaient aussi d'en stocker le plus possible de façon à pouvoir faire la soudure jusqu'à la récolte suivante et de constituer des réserves.La finance rurale s'adresse à la population rurale, agricole et non agricole et elle concerne aussi bien la finance agricole que la microfinance rurale.La microfinance peut aider les communautés pauvres et marginales à développer leurs capacités économiques. Ces dernières années, les institutions de microfinance se sont rapidement multipliées et les clients sont plus nombreux. Néanmoins, dans les zones rurales souvent peu peuplées et peu développées en termes d'infrastructures économiques, de communication et autres, les services de microfinance restent relativement rares. Il est donc essentiel de faire des efforts pour identifier des approches de « finance rurale » -des systèmes d'épargne et de crédit -qui répondent aux besoins et capacités des clients les plus pauvres et des entrepreneurs ruraux.Les services de finance rurale varient en termes d'importance et d'objectif. Les groupements communautaires d'épargne et de crédit par exemple procurent à leurs membres des petites sommes d'argent, qui n'en sont pas moins essentielles. La demande de services financiers plus formels est en revanche plus forte dans le secteur des activités agricoles de production, de transformation et de marketing, qui demandent davantage de capitaux.Cet Agrodok décrit les pratiques actuelles en matière d'épargne, de crédit et d'assurance. Il identifie les prestataires de service actifs dans les secteurs informel, semi-formel et formel et aborde les pour et les contre des approches et méthodes adoptées. Cet ouvrage est destiné à tous ceux qui veulent en savoir plus sur la finance rurale ainsi qu'aux acteurs du développement devant trouver les services financiers les plus appropriés à leur projet ou à leur organisation.Une certaine « expertise » est indispensable à la conception et à la mise en oeuvre de programmes de finance rurale. Bien que cet Agrodok s'intéresse également aux bonnes pratiques de finance rurale, ce n'est pas à proprement parler un manuel de formation. Il ne décrit pas la démarche à suivre pour développer et exécuter des programmes de finance rurale. Les lecteurs trouveront cependant en annexe des adresses d'organisations pouvant fournir une assistance en la matière.Les auteurs remercient toutes celles et ceux qui ont contribué à cette publication en apportant des remarques fort utiles à chacune des étapes de la rédaction. Nous remercions tout particulièrement Gabrielle Athmer, Frank Bakx, Harry Clemens et Cor Wattel.L'auteur, Wageningen, 2008 1 Introduction On parle de finance rurale pour désigner les services financiers tels que l'épargne, les crédits, les assurances et le transfert d'argent fournis par toute une variété d'acteurs. Des amis, des proches, des commerçants, des négociants, des prêteurs sur gages, des organisations traditionnelles d'épargne et de crédit, des programmes ou des banques de microfinancement. Le terme de finance rurale couvre tous ces services financiers proposés dans les zones rurales à des fins relatives à l'agriculture ou non.Dans le monde rural, différents groupes et catégories d'individus demandent des services conçus adaptés à leurs besoins particuliers. Alors que les populations pauvres ont besoin de services d'épargne et de microcrédit pour couvrir les coûts de production et les dépenses urgentes, les paysans et organisations de paysans actifs dans la production commerciale ont parfois besoin de crédits plus importants pour financer la production, les intrants, la transformation et le marketing de leurs produits.? Une partie de l'argent obtenu avec la vente des cultures sera économisée pour servir aux futures dépenses du ménage. Cet argent sera réellement mis de côté ou utilisé pour acheter des petits animaux, des bijoux ou d'autres biens qui pourront être vendus si nécessaire (épargne en nature). ? Certains revenus provenant d'activités non agricoles comme le commerce ou le travail journalier ne se répartissent pas également et régulièrement sur l'année. C'est pourquoi les personnes cherchent à épargner pour les périodes où l'argent vient à manquer. ? Les gens font des économies pour anticiper les dépenses récurrentes comme les frais de scolarité, les événements exceptionnels comme les mariages ou les funérailles ou encore d'autres événements imprévisibles comme les maladies ou les mauvaises récoltes. Ils épargnent également pour pouvoir investir plus tard.  Les transferts de fonds constituent une part importante des revenus ruraux : les membres de la famille qui ont émigré à la recherche d'un travail rémunéré envoient de l'argent à leurs familles pour les aider financièrement. Cet argent sert souvent à répondre aux besoins immédiats de la famille, à payer les imprévus ou les frais de scolarité ou à investir dans des bâtiments. L'argent ainsi transféré ne sert généralement pas à financer le développement d'activités économiques.Si les émigrés déposent une partie de leurs versements sur un compte épargne dans une banque ou une institution de microfinancement locale, ces fonds peuvent de nouveau être prêtés. Il y a ainsi plus de capital disponible pour investir dans la production locale et cela renforce le développement local.Pour constituer leur capital de prêts, les banques locales et les institutions de microfinancement dépendent des fonds extérieurs, des prêts octroyés par des bailleurs de fonds ou de grandes banques,. Il n'est pas toujours facile d'obtenir un financement extérieur et cela coûte généralement plus que de constituer des fonds à l'aide des épargnes apportées par les clients. Ces versements permettent aux banques et institutions de microfinancement locales d'être moins dépendantes des emprunts faits auprès de fonds externes.Les ménages et les particuliers peuvent épargner en conservant leur argent chez eux ou en investissant dans des biens, comme des bijoux ou des (petits) animaux. Certaines personnes épargneront par le biais de groupes traditionnels d'épargne et de crédit. Dans certains pays, on trouve des collecteurs qui collectent régulièrement les épargnes des producteurs et entrepreneurs ruraux. Les principaux prêteurs d'argent aux pauvres sont leurs familles et amis, les commerçants, les bureaux de prêteurs sur gages, les négociants, les prêteurs individuels et les propriétaires terriens ainsi que les groupes traditionnels d'épargne et de crédit. N'étant pas réglementé par la législation, ce type d'activité d'épargne et de crédit est considéré comme faisant partie du secteur informel.Le secteur financier formel est placé sous le contrôle de la loi et est constitué de banques soumises à la législation bancaire ainsi que d'institutions de microfinancement, dans les pays où ce secteur est réglementé.Tableau 1 : Finance rurale : les secteurs informe, semi-formel et formel Dans certains pays, le secteur de la microfinance n'est pas réglementé mais les organisations de développement sont autorisées à collecter l'épargne et à prêter sur une petite échelle. Ce type d'organisation relève typiquement du secteur financier « semi-formel ». Ce secteur semi-formel comporte principalement des programmes de microfinancement conduits par des ONG et des activités financières sur une petite échelle d'organisations non-enregistrées.Les ménages ruraux peuvent mener des activités agricoles mais également des activités non agricoles. Parmi ces dernières, la restauration, l'artisanat, la coiffure, la transformation alimentaire et le commerce de produits divers constituent des sources courantes de revenus. La plupart des programmes de microfinancement procurent généralement des crédits sur la base de prêts à court terme. Ce type de crédit est bien adapté aux cycles d'activités économiques courts. Les petits commerçants par exemple peuvent avoir besoin de faire un emprunt pour acheter du stock en espérant le revendre dans les jours ou semaines suivantes. Une fois les produits vendus et l'emprunt remboursé, le commerçant peut recommencer un cycle (court) d'activités. Ces revenus étant générés relativement vite, le remboursement -échelonné-du prêt est réalisable sur une période courte et peut commencer peu après son octroi.En revanche, les activités agricoles demandent un autre type d'aide financière. Les prêts accordés aux paysans pour augmenter leur production agricole doivent prendre en compte la période nécessaire à la maturation des récoltes et l'élevage du bétail. Les paysans peuvent se retrouver en difficulté s'il leur faut rembourser un emprunt trop rapidement ou s'ils n'ont pas d'autres sources de revenus, provenant par exemple d'activités non agricoles ou de cultures récoltées et commercialisées à d'autres périodes de l'année. Les exploitants agricoles ou entrepreneurs ruraux qui installent de nouveaux équipements ne peuvent s'attendre à en retirer des bénéfices immédiats. Ces types d'investissement demandent des prêts à moyen ou long terme.Les risques encourus dans le secteur agricole dépassent bien souvent le seul ménage paysan particulier pour affecter l'ensemble de la région. La sécheresse, les inondations ou les invasions d'insectes peuvent détruire les récoltes et les troupeaux peuvent être décimés par une maladie ou une famine. L'imprévisibilité du marché met également la survie et les revenus des fermes en danger. Affectant toute une population de paysans en même temps, de tels événements constituent un risque élevé pour les programmes et les banques de microfinancement, puisque de nombreux clients auront des problèmes de remboursement. C'est pourquoi les prestataires de services financiers renaclent à étendre leurs services au secteur agricole, à risque. Des programmes de finance rurale spécifiques doivent donc être mis en place pour traiter ce genre de risques.Il existe différentes approches de la finance rurale. L'approche est choisie en fonction des besoins du groupe cible ou des caractéristiques de la région. Les besoins financiers des pauvres ou des populations vivant dans des régions marginales sont différents des besoins des populations ayant plus de ressources. Les ménages pauvres sont grandement dépendants de l'agriculture de subsistance. Ils ne sont pas en situation de pouvoir prendre des risques et leurs activités, agricoles ou non, sont généralement limitées et peu lucratives. L'épargne -conçue en fonction de leurs capacités et besoins -est donc d'une importance capitale pour eux. Souvent, les paysans disposant de plus de moyens produisent et commercialisent des cultures de rente. Ils gagnent plus et sont en mesure -et désireux -de prendre plus de risques. Ils doivent souvent recourir à un crédit pour investir et améliorer leur production.Un grand nombre de régions, tout particulièrement dans l'Afrique rurale, ne participent à l'économie de marché que de façon marginale. Confrontés à des réalités comme le faible taux de pluviosité, des terres peu fertiles ou l'inadéquation des infrastructures, les paysans peuvent difficilement produire pour le marché. Les règles du commerce international et la dépendance croissante des communautés urbaines envers la nourriture importée ont également désavantagé les communautés paysannes et pastorales locales.Les paysans vivant dans les régions marginales préfèrent minimiser la prise de risques. Ils font toutes sortes de cultures et subviennent à leurs besoins de base en pratiquant des cultures nécessitant peu d'apports de capitaux. Ils ne s'engagent pas totalement dans l'économie de marché car ils ne peuvent prendre le risque de voir leurs récoltes, leurs revenus ou leurs provisions alimentaires anéantis par le mauvais temps ou la chute des prix. Cependant, ils ont besoin d'argent en espèce pour acheter des services et des biens. Pour ce faire, ils vendent des produits de la ferme ou, à défaut, ils s'engagent dans des activités non agricoles.  Les paysans peuvent ajouter de la valeur à leurs produits à chaque étape de la chaîne. Ils peuvent améliorer la rentabilité de leur production, négocier le prix des intrants ou essayer d'écouler leurs produits sur de nouveaux marchés. Les fermiers directement impliqués dans les différentes étapes de la chaîne profiteront de la valeur ajoutée réalisée grâce à la transformation des produits et au marketing sélectif. Les revenus monétaires peuvent encore être améliorés si les organisations paysannes recherchent de nouveaux débouchés et commercialisent elles-mêmes la production.La finance rurale a un rôle important à jouer dans ce processus. Elle peut procurer les fonds nécessaires à l'achat d'intrants et au financement des coûts de production, de transformation et de commercialisation.Les régions, secteurs, producteurs et organisations de producteurs ayant un potentiel de développement ont besoin de services de crédits spécialement conçus pour eux. Ces services peuvent être d'une grande aide à ceux qui sont engagés dans la production commerciale. Cependant, la facilité pour les ménages ou producteurs agricoles individuels de bénéficier de crédits dépendra de leur accès à la terre Prêts aux particuliers ou prêts collectifs L'organisation financière exige toujours du demandeur de prêt qu'il désigne des personnes se portant garantes du remboursement en cas de difficultés de sa part ou qu'il hypothèque des terrains ou des bâtiments qui seront alors saisis en cas de non paiement des échéances.Bien souvent, les personnes pauvres ne possèdent pas de biens pouvant être hypothéqués et il leur est difficile de trouver une personne voulant se porter garante. C'est pourquoi de nombreuses organisations de microfinancement ont remplacé les prêts individuels par des prêts collectifs. Dans ce cas, le groupe entier se porte responsable du remboursement des prêts contractés par chacun.Cette démarche est connue sous le nom d'approche collective solidaire ou caution solidaire. Les clients sont organisés en petits groupes de 5 à 20 membres. Au cours de réunions organisées régulièrement, les membres du groupe déposent leurs épargnes, remboursent les traites de leur prêt et discutent de demandes de prêt. L'argent des prêts accordés y est également distribué.Comme ces groupes choisissent leurs propres membres, il règne une grande compréhension et confiance entre pairs. Les particuliers qui demandent un prêt ne sont pas censés fournir eux-mêmes une garantie. En revanche, chaque membre du groupe accepte d'être responsable du fait que les prêts accordés aux autres membres seront remboursés. Cela peut se faire de deux façons. Soit les membres du groupe acceptent de contribuer tous au remboursement de la dette contractée par un membre ne remboursant pas son emprunt. Soit les membres du groupe ne seront plus habilités à faire de nouveaux emprunts tant que la personne n'aura pas remboursé son prêt. Dans ce cas, si le groupe désire accéder à un nouvel emprunt, il lui faudra soit faire pression sur l'emprunteur défaillant, soit aider celui-ci à rembourser, ou encore payer les échéances à sa place.Si les prêts collectifs peuvent résoudre les problèmes de garantie dans les zones marginales et pauvres, le coût des services financiers auprès des producteurs et entrepreneurs ruraux reste élevé.L'emploi d'agents de crédit sur le terrain et de personnel gestionnaire et administratif dans les bureaux centraux revient cher. Les groupes solidaires peuvent limiter ces coûts lorsque leurs membres sont chargés de collecter les épargnes et les remboursements, de discuter avec les mauvais payeurs et d'évaluer les demandes de prêt. Il n'en reste pas moins que les coûts organisationnels resteront substantiels. Il est indispensable que les agents de crédit accompagnent les groupes et remplissent les tâches administratives, même si les coûts de communication et d'administration nécessaires au maintien des services financiers en milieu rural sont relativement élevés. Décentralisées, les organisations détenues par leurs membres répondent souvent mieux aux besoins de leur clientèle et peuvent exercer une pression sociale plus forte sur les membres ne s'acquittant pas de leurs obligations. L'expérience montre que les organisations de membres sont également plus efficaces dans la fourniture de services financiers aux pauvres des zones rurales isolées que les organisations qui ne le sont pas. Pour les populations et communautés extrêmement démunies des régions agricoles marginalisées, les approches communautaires conviennent parfaitement. Le crédit peut s'étendre sur des périodes variées. Les prêts à court terme sont généralement remboursables sur une période d'un mois à un an, les prêts à moyen terme entre un à trois ans. Les crédits à long terme peuvent s'étendre sur des périodes supérieures à trois ans. La plupart des programmes de microfinance proposent des prêts à court terme pour une période de trois à six mois. Cette approche convient bien aux activités économiques ayant une rotation des capitaux rapide mais elle convient moins aux activités agricoles.La plupart des programmes de microfinance exigent que leurs clients remboursent les prêts relativement rapidement -souvent, dans les 3 à 4 mois suivants -sur une base mensuelle et sans période de grâce, c'est-à-dire sans délai pour le premier remboursement. On peut s'interroger sur l'adéquation de ce type de système aux prêts agricoles. Il peut être plus judicieux d'adapter l'échelonnement des remboursements au cycle des activités agricoles, en faisant de sorte que les paysans ne soient tenus de rembourser leur prêt qu'après avoir vendu leurs récoltes ou bétail. Cependant, un tel système ne prend pas en compte l'avantage que représente un contact régulier avec la clientèle. Il est en effet plus facile de prendre les mesures qui s'imposent lorsqu'on peut détecter rapidement les problèmes de remboursement. Les familles paysannes ont souvent d'autres sources de revenus (non agricoles) ou cultivent des cultures différentes permettant un étalement des récoltes et des ventes sur toute l'année. Elles peuvent ainsi étaler le remboursement des emprunts et commencer peu de temps après l'octroi du prêt. Le système de remboursement peut être adapté si nécessaire aux besoins du client. Par exemple, les premières traites peuvent être relativement modestes de sorte à ne couvrir que l'intérêt ou une petite partie de la somme empruntée.Les services d'assurances peuvent aider les paysans et producteurs ruraux à faire face à des événements mettant en danger leurs sources de revenus comme les décès, les maladies, les accidents survenant dans leur famille ou encore les mauvaises récoltes, les maladies du bétail et les vols.  Qu'ils travaillent au sein du secteur formel, informel ou semi-formel, les prestataires de services financiers fournissent une large gamme de produits et ont développé de nombreuses approches différentes ayant chacune leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients. Les coûts, la flexibilité, la portée et les modes d'épargne et de crédit détermineront l'adéquation de ces services aux groupes cibles spécifiques, en particulier aux populations vivant et travaillant dans les zones démunies et marginales.Amis, proches, commerçants, prêteurs, etc. Lorsqu'ils ont besoin d'emprunter de l'argent, les pauvres se tournent tout d'abord vers leurs amis, leurs proches, les commerçants locaux, les négociants, les prêteurs sur gage, les usuriers ou les propriétaires terriens. Nombreuses sont les personnes qui déposent leurs économies auprès de personnes de confiance ou auprès de collecteurs d'épargne.Généralement, les amis et les proches prêtent de l'argent sans demander d'intérêt. En revanche, les prêteurs, collecteurs, commerçants ou propriétaires terriens sont souvent fortement critiqués parce qu'ils exploitent ou prélèvent des taux d'intérêt bien trop élevés.En dépit de ces problèmes, les sources informelles de crédit ont des avantages manifestes. Ils sont : ? Facilement accessibles. Dans certaines régions, il n'y a pas de prestataires de services financiers et les emprunteurs doivent se rendre dans les villes les plus proches pour régler un prêt. Les prêts informels se concluent sans que l'on ait à remplir des formulaires de demande compliqués ou que l'on doive donner une garantie.? Flexibles. Le prêt ne fait l'objet d'aucune restriction. Souvent, les prestataires de microfinance ne prêtent de l'argent que pour des « fins productives » alors que de nombreux emprunteurs désirent emprunter pour payer des biens de consommation ou pour faire face à des situations d'urgence. Le secteur informel en revanche offre généralement une certaine flexibilité en termes de conditions de remboursement. ? En mesure de réagir rapidement. Les prêteurs d'argent et usuriers peuvent fournir de l'argent rapidement et les commerçants et négociants sont en mesure de fournir immédiatement des marchandises à crédit.Tant que les autres établissements de services financiers ne peuvent offrir ce type d'avantages, les prestataires de services informels continueront d'être la principale source de prêt pour les pauvres. Le secteur semi-formel est composé d'ONG et d'organisations de développement offrant des services financiers qui ne sont pas couverts par la législation s'appliquant aux prestataires financiers.  Les fonds de crédits rotatifs sont différents des systèmes communautaires présentés plus haut, non seulement dans leurs sources de financement -généralement extérieures pour une grande part -mais aussi dans le mode de gestion des tâches. Ce sont plutôt les personnels des programmes et non les membres du groupe qui s'occupent de l'administration financière et de la gestion des prêts, de la sélection et de l'acceptation des demandes de prêt ainsi que des remboursements.L'expérience a prouvé que la plupart des programmes de fonds de crédits rotatifs créés par les ONG ne résistent pas dans la durée   Certains programmes ont adopté un système double permettant aussi aux membres du groupement de contracter des prêts individuels lors-que leurs activités économiques prennent de l'ampleur et qu'ils ont un besoin croissant d'argent liquide. Les caisses de crédit appartiennent et sont contrôlées par leurs membres. Quoi que des gestionnaires salariés soient responsables des décisions au quotidien, le contrôle ultime de l'organisation revient à l'Assemblée générale composée de l'ensemble des membres sociétaires.Les sociétaires ont tous des droits égaux, quel que soit le nombre de parts qu'ils possèdent ou la somme d'argent qu'ils ont déposée. Les assemblées générales appliquent le principe « un membre une voix ».Les caisses de crédit sont dirigées par un comité de gestion élu et peut comprendre divers sous-comités, comme un comité du crédit ou un comité de surveillance des prêts.Dans le passé, de nombreuses caisses de crédit s'occupaient surtout de fournir des prêts. Elles s'intéressaient moins à la mobilisation de l'épargne car le capital de prêt était apporté par des bailleurs de fonds externes. Ces dernières années cependant, on s'est mis à encourager l'épargne afin de générer le capital de départ nécessaire au fonctionnement de la caisse. Les caisses de crédit locales sont parfois soutenues par des organisations dites « apex ». Ces organisations de coordination sont par exemple des fédérations nationales ou régionales de mutuelles de crédit capables de fournir des fonds complémentaires aux caisses de crédit désireuses d'élargir leur capital de prêt.Le prêt individuel constitue la stratégie dominante des caisses de crédit mutuel. Les prêts sont généralement proportionnels à l'épargne des candidats et les garanties de prêt sont soit collectives soit personnelles -apportées parfois par un membre pair. Mais un nombre croissant de mutuelles de crédit se tournent vers les prêts de groupement solidaire.Le World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) est l'organisation internationale regroupant les caisses de crédit et autres coopératives financières et leurs fédérations régionales et nationales. Elle a des affiliés dans une centaine de pays et fournit une assistance technique à long terme pour aider au développement, au renforcement et à la modernisation des caisses de crédit mutuel dans toutes les régions du monde.Les institutions de services financiers du secteur formel sont officiellement enregistrées et ont souvent un accès plus facile aux fonds externes fournis par les banques (centrales) et les agences bailleurs de fonds que les organisations du secteur semi-formel. Elles sont également en mesure de répondre aux critères professionnels établis par les bailleurs de fonds pour évaluer les performances et la durabilité des organisations ainsi que la qualité de la gestion des finances et des prêts.Comme ils ont un accès plus facile aux fonds extérieurs, les prestataires de services du secteur formel ont plus de capital à leur disposition, beaucoup plus de clients et leur rayon d'action est bien supérieure. Cependant, dans les zones rurales, en particulier en Afrique, ils interviennent encore de façon marginale. Étant généralement organisées plus efficacement et plus professionnellement, les institutions du secteur formel peuvent garantir des niveaux de durabilité plus élevés que les organisations des secteurs semi-formels ou informels.Cependant, les prestataires financiers formels -les organisations sans membres plus spécialement -présentent un inconvénient majeur, à savoir qu'ils ont des frais de personnel élevés pour gérer, exécuter et superviser les programmes. De ce fait, ils ont du mal à délivrer des services à un prix acceptable et cela crée des problèmes particuliers pour les régions et les populations dont l'engagement dans l'économie monétaire n'est que marginal. Les paysans et les producteurs ruraux de ces régions ne peuvent économiser et emprunter que de petites sommes et ils ont souvent besoin d'espèces rapidement. Dans les zones faiblement peuplées, la livraison de service est très coûteuse et ne peut être assurée par des organisations ayant des frais de personnel élevés.Dans le secteur formel, les produits offerts et l'approche adoptée ne réussissent pas souvent à répondre aux besoins et conditions spécifiques du groupe cible. Peu flexibles, les organisations du secteur formel ne peuvent adapter facilement leurs services et stratégies. Un grand nombre d'entre elles se limitent à la fourniture de crédit alors que les services d'épargne sont plus importants pour les pauvres. Elles insistent pour que les prêts soient destinés à des activités productives mais quoi qu'elles en disent, les clients en ont souvent besoin pour acheter des biens de consommation ou pour payer des imprévus. Les organisations qui exigent des garanties ou une personne garante ont tendance à exclure les pauvres.Certains types de crédit peuvent être fournis par des acteurs non financiers. Les crédits commerçants, l'agriculture contractuelle, les dispositifs de crédit-stockage et le leasing font partie de cette catégorie.Les sociétés de leasing, les négociants, les grossistes et autres acheteurs des récoltes peuvent fournir des services de crédit en puisant dans leur propre capital ou en utilisant les prêts globaux obtenus auprès de banques ou de bailleurs de fonds.Des crédits peuvent aussi être obtenus auprès des organisations agricoles et comités de production. Cela se fait surtout dans les régions produisant des cultures de rente comme le café, le coton ou le thé. Les comités de production et les organisations de paysans/producteurs y offrent souvent des services de conseil technique, fourniture de crédit et d'intrants, assistance à la commercialisation. Des crédits peuvent être accordés par le biais d'arrangements spéciaux, comme les crédits commerçants, l'agriculture contractuelle ou encore le crédit-stockage. On peut aussi accéder à des fonds grâce à des dispositifs de prêts plus conventionnels. Les banques proposent parfois des prêts globaux aux organisations de paysans/producteurs accordant à leur tour des prêts individuels à ceux de leurs membres qui peuvent garantir correctement leurs remboursements.Les ONG de développement cherchent souvent à établir des liens avec des prestataires de services financiers. Les ONG introduisent de nouvelles pratiques agricoles, assurent des formations agricoles et surveillent les progrès faits en matière de nouvelles technologies au niveau des fermes. Lorsque tout se passe bien, la productivité agricole et les revenus des paysans augmentent et ceux-ci deviennent des clients plus solvables auprès des prestataires financiers. Ce type de coopération implique que les prestataires de services financiers s'engagent à fournir des prêts à tous les paysans admissibles participant au programme, tout en conservant le contrôle sur la gestion de tout programme d'épargne et de crédit.La question de la durabilité concerne toutes les organisations de microfinance. Elle est d'une importance cruciale. Pourtant, cette préoccupation ne présente pas que des avantages, surtout lorsqu'on essaie d'élargir la portée des services financiers dans les zones rurales. Des alternatives cherchant à approcher les groupes mal désservis tout en garantissant la durabilité sont actuellement développées. Récemment des institutions de microfinance ont pris des initiatives pour veiller au respect de leur mission initiale -servir les pauvres et les plus démunis -par le biais d'une meilleure gestion des organisations de microfinance et par la surveillance de leur « performance sociale ». Les institutions de la microfinance sont conscientes des critiques selon lesquels les efforts en matière de durabilité financière ont conduit à un recul des services auprès des clients pauvres et très pauvres. On a également dit que la microfinance créait en réalité une dépendance vis-àvis du crédit plutôt qu'elle n'aidait les pauvres à améliorer leur situation économique : par exemple, lorsque les clients sont pris dans la spirale de l'endettement en empruntant de l'argent pour payer d'autres dettes.En réponse, quelque 150 institutions de microfinance et agences de bailleurs de fonds se sont joints à l'initiative Social Performance. Les performances sociales des institutions de microfinance sont évaluées afin de développer de meilleures pratiques de gestion et d'améliorer les performances sociales.Les questions posées dans ces évaluations sont notamment : ? Quelle est la mission de l'institution ? L'institution a-t-elle des objectifs sociaux ? ? Quelles activités l'institution pense-t-elle entreprendre pour mener à bien sa mission sociale ? A-t-on élaboré et mis en oeuvre des dispositifs pour réaliser ces objectifs ? ? L'institution sert-elle les pauvres et extrêmement pauvres ? Les produits conçus répondent-ils à leurs besoins ? ? Les conditions sociales et économiques des clients se sont-elles améliorées ? Épargne ou crédit L'épargne est le point d'entrée le plus important pour les institutions prévoyant de fournir des services financiers aux ménages paysans du type Un. Le lissage des revenus est un aspect bien connu de la gestion des ménages dans les économies rurales. Les programmes d'épargne et de crédit peuvent se fonder sur cette pratique pour aider les produc-teurs ruraux à gérer leurs revenus plus efficacement et à constituer des réserves financières. L'épargne peut être employée pour financer des investissements. Ainsi, les individus et les ménages n'ont pas à faire d'emprunt et à risquer l'endettement au cas où ils ne pourraient rembourser leur prêt à temps.Les paysans, commerçants, négociants et entrepreneurs du type Deux ont généralement des activités génératrices de revenus aux perspectives économiques favorables. Ils ont cependant besoin de crédit car le capital leur manque pour développer leurs activités. La possession de ressources les rend moins vulnérables à l'endettement que les personnes sans ressources.La plupart des programmes de microfinance n'accordent pas de crédit à moyen ou long terme. Les programmes de microfinance octroyant des crédits à court terme et exigeant un remboursement hebdomadaire ou mensuelle rapidement après l'octroi du prêt sont les plus intéressants pour les producteurs et négociants. En effet, ceux-ci travaillent sur des cycles d'activités économiques courts et un grand nombre d'entre eux seront en mesure de rembourser leurs prêts en puisant dans d'autres sources de revenus. Les dispositifs de crédit à court terme sont en revanche moins appropriés à la production et à l'investissement agricoles. Avant de pouvoir être vendus, les plantes doivent croître et les animaux grandir. Cela prend du temps et les investissements en machines et bâtiments ne produisent de retour sur investissement que plusieurs années plus tard.Les services d'assurance peuvent aider les gens ainsi que les prestataires de services financiers à faire face aux risques. On développe ces derniers temps des programmes d'assurance maladie ou d'assurance vie. Des programmes de microfinance essaient d'adopter des systèmes d'assurance couvrant des risques comme les non-remboursements suite à une maladie du bétail, de mauvaises récoltes ou le décès d'un client. La plupart de ces programmes en sont encore au stade expérimental et l'on ne peut dire s'il est possible de créer des programmes de micro-assurance pour les pauvres proposant des primes abordables tout en étant d'un bon rapport coût-efficacité. Dans le secteur agricole, les calamités comme les sécheresses, les inondations ou la chute des prix affectent un nombre très nombreux de clients en même temps. Il est difficile d'assurer de tels risques « covariants » car les indemnités peuvent s'élever à des sommes impressionnantes.La plupart des ménages ruraux pauvres des zones marginales qui ont besoin de faire un prêt dépendent de prestataires du secteur informel comme les amis, les proches, les commerçants ou prêteurs d'argent.Les économies sont gardées sous forme de biens matériels et les groupes traditionnels d'épargne et de crédit sont courants dans ces communautés.Les gens recourent à des sources informelles de prêt parce qu'ils n'ont pas d'autre alternative. Les prestataires de services financiers formels ou semi-formels évitent souvent les zones rurales, en particulier celles qui sont marginalisées ou peu peuplées. Cela s'explique par le coût élevé des services dans ces zones où les infrastructures de communication et autres sont défaillantes et où les clients n'épargnent ou n'empruntent que de très petites sommes d'argent.Les organisations associatives, comme les banques villageoises, les associations d'épargne et de crédit, les groupements d'épargne et de crédit communautaires ainsi que les groupes d'entraide peuvent réduire les coûts de leurs services en remettant les tâches de gestion aux membres locaux. Ces associations sont plus en mesure d'offrir des services à faible coût dans les zones rurales que les autres institutions de microfinance.Dans le système de groupements communautaires d'épargne et de crédit, la gestion du programme est cédée à l'ensemble du groupe. Cela permet de quasiment supprimer les coûts opérationnels et de gestion. Le système des groupes communautaires d'épargne et de crédit vise également l'accumulation d'épargne. Cette démarche est bien adaptée à la capacité des (plus) pauvres et à leurs besoins. Un inconvénient cependant est que les prêts disponibles sont limités au capital d'épargnes mobilisés par le groupe. Le système de partenariat groupes d'entraide -banques comme il est pratiqué en Inde est une bonne alternative. Grâce à leur coopération avec des banques, les associations sont en mesure d'offrir des prêts plus importants à leurs clients individuels dont les besoins en argent dépassent les moyens du groupe.Les banques et les organisations de microfinance ayant des coûts structurels et opérationnels plus élevés peuvent jouer un rôle pour les régions et populations qui sont bien intégrées dans l'économie de marché. Il se peut que les clients opérant dans le secteur commercial aient besoin de produits financiers spécifiques, pas seulement pour la production mais aussi pour la commercialisation, le marketing et l'investissement. La fourniture de tels services nécessitent des savoirfaire spécialisés et une expertise que peuvent s'offrir ces types d'organisation. Les coûts opérationnels sont moindres car les prêts moyens sollicités par ces clients sont suffisamment importants et les communautés relativement accessibles.Mais même de cette façon, les coûts d'accès à ces services de crédit restent dans bien des cas trop élevés car les bénéfices et revenus des paysans sont généralement bas. C'est pourquoi l'on recherche d'autres alternatives, comme le crédit commerçant, l'agriculture contractuelle ou les crédits-stockages. Les innovations technologiques, comme le service bancaire électronique ou la banque mobile peuvent également contribuer à réduire les coûts.Autrefois, les banques agricoles étaient souvent dépendantes des injections d'argent faites par le gouvernement ou les bailleurs de fonds pour compenser les pertes financières encourues dans les secteurs et régions désservis pour des raisons politiques principalement et où les clients avaient peu de moyens économiques. Qui plus est, on ne faisait pas souvent respecter les conditions liées à l'octroi de prêts. Les ONG et programmes de développement assayant leurs programmes de services financiers sur des fonds roulants n'arrivaient généralement pas à assurer des services durables.Ces dernières années, la durabilité est devenue l'un des principaux objectifs des prestataires et organisations de services financiers. En général, la plupart des ONG ne sont pas bien équipées pour gérer les programmes de services financiers et ces services devraient être laissés à des organisations spécialisées. Les ONG ne disposent pas de l'expertise ou de la démarche commerciale pouvant assurer la durabilité des programmes financiers. Elles sont plus qualifiées pour fournir des services d'assistance comme des formations agricoles ou commerciales ou pour aider leurs clients à développer des activités économiques viables tirant profit des opportunités du marché. Les prestations de services financiers peuvent être laissées à des organisations spécialisées.Bien que la question de la durabilité soit importante, si on lui accorde souvent trop d'importance, cela peut devenir problématique pour les organismes s'occupant de développement rural et de moyens de subsistance dans les communautés pauvres. Des initiatives sont actuellement menées pour améliorer la performance sociale des institutions de microfinance. Dans ce cadre, on cherche à développer des alternatives mettant l'accent à la fois sur les besoins des groupes marginaux et sur l'importance d'assurer la durabilité. Prenons comme exemples de cette démarche l'octroi de fonds de démarrage aux clients très vulnérables et la prolongation de la durée de subventionnement d'un programme qui n'est pas encore soutenable. En donnant la priorité à l'épargne, en s'appuyant plus sur les structures communautaires et en fournissant une assistance technique propre à aider les clients à développer des activités économiques, on crée également un contexte favorable à des services financiers durables pour les pauvres. ","tokenCount":"5888"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e95221192946653935dea6265716b493","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://storage.googleapis.com/jnl-up-j-ijc-files/journals/1/articles/1268/64367d2440982.pdf","id":"2135186379"},"keywords":["Africa","Commons","Gender","Climate Change","Gender","forestry co-management"],"sieverID":"ca271e11-c7a0-4a63-a5d3-c4338290990c","pagecount":"4","content":"The idea of a Special Issue focusing on managing the African Commons was ignited as a result of the IASC 2020 Virtual Conference on African Commons held from 13 to 27 July 2020, which generated momentum on the need to better further dialogue on the African Commons. Marco Janssen organized the virtual events. Due to the debates generated and in consultation with the editors of IJC, it was felt that African Scholars should be encouraged to publish through Special Issues focusing on Africa. At that time, it was also envisaged that the Special Issue would strongly link on the governance of the commons to the Covid-19 pandemic.The global Covid-19 pandemic is one of the major defining moments for development. In Africa, the syndemic, which the Global Landscape Forum refers to as a 'synergy of epidemics' impacted the continent. Whilst Covid-19 started as a health crisis, it has cut across all facets of life. The special issue initially aimed on discussing within this multifaceted crisis and drawing the implications for the common natural resources in Africa such as atmospheric commons (climate), land, water, forests, fisheries, pastoralism, urban and knowledge commons whilst also using a gender lens.The thrust on Covid-19 was later muted as the special issue progressed due to authors not having made a strong linkage with Covid-19 implications for the commons governance. More papers were also anticipated but a number of presenters had presented some materials, which were already being considered for publication elsewhere with some even requiring more time to publish. After the review process, three webinar and paper presenters during the Africa Virtual events were available to provide full papers, which form part of this special issue (Akamani, 2023;Murombedzi and Chikozho, 2023;van Koppen, 2023). The special issue papers neatly links the global themes on gender within the water commons, climatic commons and the co-creation of forestry commons through co-management.In the first paper, van Koppen (2023) engages on scholarship centering on restoring the commons through engendering water tenure within Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper starts by articulating how water resources are a commons resource whose trajectory starts at the local level extending to the global hydrological cycle. The author argues that customary tenure based on the everyday practice has received very little attention on research scholarship, legal frameworks and within the policy arenas. The author endeavors to conceptualize the lived experiences of customary water tenure. The author argues that segmentation of water into silos is an invention of external experts, as thelocal communities tend to manage water resources in a holistic manner.Taking the gendered domestic and productive water needs and using it as starting point, the author notes how communities' collective investments in water infrastructure to meet these needs, is often managed as commons. The author alludes to what Coward (1986;1983) calls hydraulic property creation, where such joint investment in water infrastructure will result in creation of water rights. However, the process of hydraulic property rights creation often is based on a hydro-masculinity foundation (Zwarteveen, 2008) which sees this as the arena to be dominated and controlled by men. Hence, investments in water infrastructure for irrigation tend to further marginalize women who, moreover, tend to have less access and control over land. Even in instances where customary rules enable land access for irrigation to women, as was the case in South Africa, such rights can be easily withdrawn where they are deemed to be competing with demand from grazing land by men (Tapela (2015).Customary water tenure also defines the normative frameworks governing the sharing of the surface and groundwater resources that flow into infrastructure. Invariably, as the author argues, in customary tenure these nature-given resources are respected as a commons to be shared with all within a community but also to be shared out with neighboring customary communities. However, in the sharing out of water resources with powerful third parties, colonial legacies and the ongoing insertion of the role of the post-colonial state imply that the legal frameworks prioritize and protect their formal water rights. In cases where the customary water rights are recognized, they are often regarded as inferior where contests between the different rights are adjudicated upon. The more recent land grabs, which increased after the 2008 food crisis, have seen customary water rights losing out to large-scale land investments, which entails large-scale water abstraction to support the large-scale agricultural ventures.This paper articulates customary water tenure and how the interaction of formal and customary water commons has been contested and has resulted in the configuration and re-configuration of the water commons in Africa. This paper further demonstrates the importance of understanding gender as a key pillar in determining agency, access and control over both the domestic and productive water commons.The second paper (Murombedzi and Chikozho, 2023) is on the atmospheric commons and it dovetails well with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Convention of Parties 27 (COP27), which was labeled as the African COP, as it was held in Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022. Through the lens of the Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement, the paper situates the challenges of national sovereignty arguments and how it plays out in managing global climatic commons. The national economic interests, the authors asserts, offer pervasive incentives which act against collective action (Murphree, 1998). Such Westphalian economic interest logic, unfortunately, aligns with the tragedy of the commons as it is most likely to result in increased global climate warming as the IPCC reports have confirmed (IPCC, 2021). The paper reflects on what climate change perspectives imply for the climate change dialogue from an African perspective in the context of hegemonic and neohegemonic power inequalities within the global commons. This speaks well to the mandate of the African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES), which has been actively engaging on amplifying the African voice in climate change negotiations. The authors go on to demonstrate a ray of collective action hope, which has seen collective action emanating from some nationally determined contributions (NDCs) actions despite the presence of vested interests by some of the countries. The authors further reiterate Ostrom (2009) argument that the global efforts to reduce global greenhouse gases calls for collective action at various scales in order to address the challenge of free riding though a shift from open access to global commons (see also Edenhofer et al 2013). Polycentricity seems to be yielding some bright spots of climate action as countries are acting on mitigation and adaptation measures instead of waiting for global consensus on climate change global regime.The authors clearly state that Africa is in a precarious position in the sense that it has contributed less towards global climate greenhouses yet it is being negatively impacted whilst being least capable to adapt to climate change. The authors, however, note that Africa still has agency and can make use of the weapons of the weak (al la Scott, 1985).The final paper by Akamani (2023) focuses on how initiatives to sustainably manage forests through co-management between the state and the local communities have been playing out on the African landscape. The ongoing paradigm shift from an emphasis on government to governance is redefining the statelocal relationships within the forestry sector (Akamani and Hall, 2019;Mapedza andMandondo, 2002: Ribot, 2002). This reconfiguration of the institutional architecture for resource management is envisaged to result in a number of positive outcomes such as equity, efficiency, effectiveness of resource decision making, resource sustainability and community resilience (Akamani and Hall, 2015;Cinner et al, 2012). The author argues that realization of the benefits of co-management of forest resources at the local level requires an understanding of the factors that influence community responses to changing forest policies and other drivers of change.The paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by engaging with the existing community resilience literature that has been used to explain communities' capacity to maintain and enhance their well-being in the event of shocks from various drivers of change (May, 2021;Folke et al., 2010). Using a proposed community resilience model (Akamani 2012) as an analytical lens, the author employed a qualitative research approach to generate data on the responses of two forest-dependent communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana to the implementation of Ghana's collaborative forest management program. The author, building on the previous research, further advances scholarship in this endeavor by attempting to understand how the process of change happens. Consistent with the community resilience model, the results of the study showed that drivers of change, community capital assets (especially human and social capital), institutions (including traditional institutions), and arenas for interaction played critical roles in the responses of the two communities to the implementation of the collaborative forest management program. These roles comprised creating awareness, providing incentives, enhancing access to resources, and providing opportunities for community collective action. Moreover, the results of the study clearly highlights the importance of path dependence in community responses to drivers of change. The findings on path dependence highlights the need to pay attention to community history and context in the implementation of conservation policies. Importantly, the author calls for further research aimed at understanding the complexity of forest-dependent communities in order to inform policies that contribute to sustainable and resilient communities.The research papers offers a glimpse of the scholarship on the African Commons and more articles especially on the continuities and changes on the African landscapes as a result of Covid-19 and other drivers of change. The International Association for the Study of the Commons' Biannual Conference, which will be held in Nairobi, from 19-24 June 2023 (the second time in Africa after Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe in 2000), offers an excellent opportunity from a follow-up Special Issue advancing commons scholarship which should promote especially the young and emerging scholars.I acknowledge Marco Janssen for organizing the Africa Commons Virtual event, which gave birth to the idea of a Special Issue on the African Commons. A special thanks to the IJC Editors who supported the idea of a Special Issue and waived the publication costs. We hope further special issues especially focusing on developing regions will be published. Finally, a very big thank you to all the participants in the African Commons virtual events, which helped build momentum as we head towards the IASC Global Conference, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 19-24 June, 2023.","tokenCount":"1712"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0be0db9502033bd2778445c2b91f32d5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/65fb15ef-3e16-44f0-b43b-6556846cdcc3/content","id":"-1944531541"},"keywords":["maize landraces","maize genetic resources","allelic diversity","rare alleles","phenotypic characterization","foliar diseases of tropical maize","Phyllachora maydis","climate change"],"sieverID":"397fe83f-739b-42ef-aa48-3e9a2ec2aca7","pagecount":"21","content":"The tar spot complex (TSC) is a devastating disease of maize (Zea mays L.), occurring in countries throughout Central, South, and North America and the Caribbean, and can cause grain yield losses of up to %. As yield losses from the disease continue to intensify in Central America, Phyllachora maydis, one of the causal pathogens of TSC, was first detected in the United States in , and in in Ontario, Canada. Both the distribution and yield losses due to TSC are increasing, and there is a critical need to identify the genetic resources for TSC resistance. The Seeds of Discovery Initiative at CIMMYT has sought to combine next-generation sequencing technologies and phenotypic characterization to identify valuable alleles held in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank for use in germplasm improvement programs. Individual landrace accessions of the \"Breeders' Core Collection\" were crossed to CIMMYT hybrids to form unique accessions topcrosses (F families) which were evaluated during and for TSC disease reaction. A total of associated SNP variants were identified for TSC foliar leaf damage resistance and increased grain yield. These variants were confirmed by evaluating the TSC reaction of previously untested selections of the larger F testcross population ( , accessions) based on the presence of identified favorable SNPs. We demonstrated the usefulness of mining for donor alleles in Germplasm Bank accessions for newly emerging diseases using genomic variation in landraces.Monoculture in modern agriculture, as well as the adoption of elite varieties, has resulted in a loss of genetic diversity, diminishing specific genetic resistance sources accumulated from hundreds of years of cultivation of landraces in disease-prone regions (Dawson et al., 2015). Methodologies to identify an expanded portfolio of genetic resources with known resistances will be essential in rapid responses to emerging infectious agricultural diseases exacerbated by climate uncertainty. To this end, various international conferences have begun addressing the topic of genetic erosion and promoting allele mining from exotic germplasm for climate resilience. The Seeds of Discovery Initiative at CIMMYT, as an example, has sought to combine the use of next-generation genotyping technologies and phenotypic characterization to identify valuable alleles held in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank.Identifying important traits in materials stored in Germplasm Banks and the belief that valuable material exists within these collections motivated this study. Using a genome-wide association panel, referred to as F1 Association Mapping (FOAM) by Romero Navarro et al., 2017, we present an allele-mining approach for TSC resistance from a diverse set of landrace accessions. Such diverse germplasm poses logistical challenges, and the methods described in this article demonstrate a novel approach to identifying resistance alleles in very low frequencies.According to Müller and Samuels (1984), tar spot complex (TSC) symptoms are due to initial Phyllachora maydis infection, followed by M. maydis and Coniothyrium phyllachorae. TSC development is favored by cool climate conditions with temperatures of 17-22 • C and relative humidity > 75%, with > 7 h of leaf wetness at night (Hock et al., 1995). Initial infection by P. maydis leads to the \"tar spot\" lesion, where subsequent infections by M. maydis and C. phyllachorae lead to the formation of a necrotic lesion known as the \"fisheye\" symptom, extending out from the initial tar spot lesion with the necrosis associated with the presence of M. maydis. Under conditions favorable to the pathogens, the necrotic areas can coalesce leading to complete necrosis of leaves during the reproductive stages of plant development, reducing the photosynthetic area and thereby lowering the grain yield through inadequate grain fill, and ear rot symptoms (Müller and Samuels, 1984). TSC can be controlled through the use of fungicides (Bajet et al., 1994;Pereyda-Hernández et al., 2009); however, for small farmers, the additional cost of chemical control is prohibitive in regions where the economic returns are low and access to inputs is challenging. Developing genetic resistance is thus the most desirable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly measure for controlling these pathogens.The presence of the single pathogen P. maydis, known as tar spot, was first described in 1904 in Mexico (Maublanc, 1904), followed by reports in other countries throughout the region (Abbot, 1931;Bell and Alandia, 1957;Schieber, 1968;Castaño, 1969;Liu, 1973), but significant yield losses were not noted until the 1970s, when a second fungus, Monographella maydis E. Müller, was found associated with P. maydis in necrotic areas on infected leaves, and the name Tar Spot Complex (TSC) was designated for this more virulent disease complex (Müller and Samuels, 1984). Significant yield loss up to 30% has been documented in Mexico, with disease being detected from the highlands of Central Mexico to the winter plantings in the coastal lowlands (Hock, 1989). ProMED and deGuate.com reported 80% yield losses in Guatemala caused by TSC in 2007 in seed production fields of a susceptible hybrid (Monterroso-Salvatierra, 2014), the same year TSC was first described in Honduras. In 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Honduras called for urgent cooperation to confront the spread of TSC because the disease decimated white maize and was affecting the fields of 30% of the nation's small farmers (source:http://latinamericacurrentevents.com/ honduras-tar-spot-maize-spread/3255/). In April 2013, TSC was first reported in the Zapotitan area of El Salvador (source: La Prensa Grafica: http://www.laprensagrafica.com/mancha-deasfalto--enfermedad-del-maiz). A newly emerging infectious disease impacting international agriculture had arrived.As the importance of TSC of maize continued to intensify in Mexico and Central America, in September 2015, P. maydis was detected in the important corn-producing states of Indiana and Illinois (Ruhl et al., 2016). P. maydis was also confirmed in maize fields in South Florida in June of 2016 (Hansen et al., 2016). As of 2021, P. maydis was already established in the midwestern corn belt (Rocco da Silva et al., 2021) and found to overwinter in the Midwest (Kleczewski et al., 2019) where reduced tillage practices are conducive for providing primary inoculum in the plant debris for subsequent proximal plantings (Kleczewski and Bowman, 2020). US yield loss estimates for 2018 due to tar spot are 4.6 million metric tons (Mueller et al., 2019). A modeling based on climate similarity with known tar spot disease locations predicts that a large area of the North American maize-production area is conducive for tar spot development which has the potential for much larger yield losses as tar spot gets established (Mottaleb et al., 2019). M. maydis and C. phyllachorea, which in association with P. maydis, lead to significant economic damage in Latin America, but have not been detected in temperate North America so far (McCoy et al., 2019).Host resistance has been found in temperate exotic germplasm developed by the US Genetic Enhancement of Maize (GEM) program (Lipps et al., 2022), while in tropical areas of Latin America, good sources of resistance have been identified (Ceballos and Deutsch, 1992;Mahuku et al., 2016;Cao et al., 2017) and utilized in commercial germplasm (Mahuku et al., 2013). Resistance has been found to the primary pathogen, P. maydis, with less leaf area colonized and less subsequent leaf area with potential leaf firing. A single dominant gene was found to be responsible for conferring resistance (Ceballos and Deutsch, 1992). In later studies using both genome-wide association panels and linkage panels, a major QTL on chromosome 8, qRtsc8-1, in bin 8.03 was identified (Mahuku et al., 2016) and minor QTLs were detected on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 10 (Mahuku et al., 2016;Cao et al., 2017). Transferring resistance conferred by qRtsc8-1 to susceptible tropical and temperate hybrids would be the first step for a disease control, while adding additional minor alleles for resistance could add increased stability. A broader evaluation of tropical maize genetic resources from CIMMYT's Germplasm Bank would be valuable to identify new unique alleles for resistance not detected in other studies.The CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank's \"Breeders' Core Collection\" consists of 4,471 landrace accessions from Highland, Subtropical, and Tropical regions from 35 countries in the Americas. The accessions in this collection were selected based on the acceptable agronomic performance in CIMMYT Germplasm Bank trials within racial groups and balanced as a proportional percentage of accessions within each racial group (Taba, 2005). The Seeds of Discovery Initiative used this Core Collection to form accessiontopcross families for GWAS in an approach-termed F-one association mapping or FOAM (Romero Navarro et al., 2017); and a subset of 912 accession topcrosses were evaluated in field trials for reaction to TSC. The majority of the TSC GWAS panel originated from collections in Mexico (272 accessions, 32.3%) and Brazil (164 accessions, 19.5%), with 57 accessions from Venezuela (6.8%) and 54 from Guatemala (6.4%). The composition of TSC landrace panel is shown in Figure 1.The genotypic values for the TSC landrace panel were derived from a single plant of each landrace accession of the core collection. The same single plant sampled for DNA extraction was used as the male parent to produce topcross seed using a CIMMYT single cross hybrid as the female parent. The accession topcrosses produced in this manner were evaluated in multiple field trials to produce phenotypic values (foliar rating for disease data). Genotyping was conducted using two genome complexity reduction methods-GBS, genotyping by sequencing (Elshire et al., 2011); the original, un-imputed SNP data (Hearne et al., 2014a) and DArTseq TM (Cruz et al., 2013).The TSC panel was evaluated in Guadalupe Victoria, Chiapas, in 2011 and2012 (GPS 16  ). In the 2012 trial, a total of 810 plots with 688 unique accession topcrosses and 90 checks plots (11%) were planted. In 2012, four accessions were also evaluated per se; these were the accessions with the best performance as topcrosses in 2011 (lowest TSC foliar rating and highest yield). The four accessions per se were replicated 4 times and the corresponding topcrosses of these 4 accessions were also replicated 5 times within the otherwise un-replicated trial.Considering both experiments, 918 unique accession topcrosses were evaluated in total; among those, 305 accession topcrosses were evaluated in both years. Within the 2011 trial, 512 accessions used in the accession topcrosses were of tropical origin, whereas 23 were subtropical; in 2012, 681 of the accessions were tropical and 7 were of subtropical origin. Within the 305 repeated accession topcrosses, 298 were tropical and 7 were subtropical. The TSC landrace GWAS panel used the following hybrids as female parents to produce the accession topcrosses: CML269/CML264, CML495/CML494, CML373/CML311, and CML451/CML486. The details of the CIMMYT gene bank accession ID of male parents and hybrids used as female parent in topcross, geo-adaptation origin, and year of trials can be found in Supplementary Table 1S.The experiments were un-replicated designs with repeated checks in a semi-randomized arrangement. First, check plots were allocated systematically in the field, including the same number of check plots in every row and range. After allocating the checks, test crosses and per se accessions were randomized in the free plots. Two commercial hybrids (spatial checks) that are widely adapted within tropical and subtropical environments of Mexico were used to adjust for spatial variation in both 2011 and 2012. We used two check plots in every row and 2 to 4 check plots per column (range). The two check plots within a row had both spatial checks, while in the columns, spatial checks were allocated alternatively per column. In 2012, two additional checks with differing responses to TSC were included in the trial, both are adapted to the TSC endemic region, but one is considered more resistant and the other more susceptible among commercial hybrids. We used 5 check plots per row and 2 check plots per range in 2012. Considering the two rows and five columns, we had a rectangle of 2 by 5 in which we allocated the four checks as an incomplete extended Latin Square design. With this process, we reached a balance in the allocation of checks to rows and ranges. Some minor changes to the original designs were made in order to fit the total number of plots with the number of accession topcrosses and checks plots, such as including checks to fill the last range or substituting accessions with low number of seeds. These changes did not change the experimental design.Planting dates for the 2011 and 2012 trials were 14 June 2011 for the first year's experiment and the second on 8 June 2012. Guadalupe Victoria, Chiapas, is in the epicenter of the region being most affected by the TSC. Both trials were machine planted in plots that were 2-m long with 1-m alleys between plots and 80 cm between rows. Twenty seeds were sown per 2 m and then thinned to approximately 12 plants per plot. The amount of fertilizer applied at planting was 41-N, 46-P, 60-K per hectare, with an additional 138 units of nitrogen applied as urea on 20 July 2011 (the first trial) and 15 July 2012 (the second trial). Herbicide and insecticides were applied at planting and during the growth cycle in accordance with standard agronomic practices for hybrid production in the region.The foliar rating for each entry's reaction to TSC was recorded after the symptoms of the disease began to developthe point at which lesions began to coalesce on lower leaves.The first rating was taken on 23 September 2011 using a standard CIMMYT foliar rating scale of 1 to 5, where 1 indicates immunity and 5 is a dead plant, on a plot basis. The second rating was done 2 weeks after the first rating, using the same foliar rating scale of 1 to 5, also on a plot basis.In 2012, the first rating was done on 19 August 2012 and the second rating on 4 September 2012. In the 2012 trial, individual plants were rated in 6 central plants in each row to provide a more continuous value for foliar rating as well as a quantification of variance within each entry. The rating scale used in 2012 was based on that of Ceballos and Deutsch (1992), which is a 0-5 scale with 0 being immune and 5 being a dead plant. The Ceballos Deutsch scale differentiates the amount of TSC damage on leaves below the ear and above the ear, making it a more useful scale for the diversity of height and ear positions in this population. Both the broader scale and the use of an average of six plants per row aimed to accentuate the quantitative differences between entries. The same CIMMYT foliar rating of 1-5 scale on a whole plot basis was also done for the second rating (4 September 2012).Agronomic data were taken during the course of both trials. These data were plant number (number of plants after thinning), male and female flowering dates (number of days from planting to 50% flowering), stalk and root lodging (number of plants affected per row), and plant and ear height (in centimeters from the base of the plant). Mature ears were harvested by hand after the physiologic maturity. The data were taken as to number of ears harvested, number of diseased ears, weight of harvested ears, weight of shelled grain, weight of cob, and percentage grain moisture. From these data, other data are derived: Anthesissilking interval (difference in days between male flowering and female flowering), proportion of plants lodged (number of plants lodged/total number of plants per plot), shelling percentage (percentage of shelled grain per weight of harvested ears), and grain weight per hectare adjusted for 12.5% moisture (Table 1).The raw genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profile for the TSC landrace panel was generated using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology (Elshire et al., 2011). The raw SNP profile for the panel was called and imputed with a global collection of maize germplasms using the Beagle v4 algorithm (Browning and Browning, 2013) (see comparison in Swarts et al., 2014); the total number of SNPs in this global release, namely, GBSv.27, is 954,179. Due to the sample size difference between trials in 2011 and 2012, total numbers of SNPs included for the genome-wide association (GWAS) analysis varied in experiments (Beagle 4 imputed GBSv2.7 see: Hearne et al., 2014b).In addition, due to the diverse genetics of maize landraces, we estimated the relatedness among accessions of the TSC GWAS panel using the filtered, non-B73 referenced, SNP set from DArTseq TM . The SNP filtering was based on SNP minor allele frequency (MAF > 0.25) and missing data ratio (< 20%). The remaining missing values of DArT SNPs were imputed and replaced with the mean of the locus. Finally, a genomic similarity matrix standardized with allele frequency as VanRaden (2007) was estimated; this genomic similarity matrix was used to correct for relationship between accessions when fitting the GWAS mixed model (as the K matrix).All genotypic information used in this study can be accessed via the CIMMYT Research Data and Software Repository Network (https://data.cimmyt.org/) and the CIMMYT Maize Germinate 3 Database (https://germinate.cimmyt.org/maize/).Phenotypic data were analyzed with a linear mixed model in order to obtain the best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) for each of the single plants per accession genotyped. The model for the trial response was a complete nested model with a dummy \"check\" effect as the highest level of nesting factor.To control soil/environment heterogeneity, we included row and column effects as random effects. A spatial adjustment was done by modeling the residual error term with an autoregressive order one model, in both directions row and column. The model waswhere Y mn is the response variable in the plot located in the row m and the column n, µ is the overall mean, T i is i-th dummy check effect, with i=1 (checks) to 2 (testcrosses) (in 2012, there was another level for accessions per se), P(T) ij is the j-th hybrid effect nested in the i-th check effect (fixed), A(PT) ijk is the k-th testcross effect (fixed) nested in the j-th hybrid effect (random), nested in the i-th check effect, R m is the m-th row effect (random), C n is the n-th column effect (random), and ε mn is the experimental error in the m-th row and the n-th column. We assume that the vector of errors ε is multivariate normally distributed with mean at zero and matrix of variance covariance = σ (AR r ⊗ AR C ). R and C follow a normal distribution with mean at zero and variance σ 2 r and σ 2 c , respectively. Broad sense heritability was estimated by dividing the accession variance by the sum of the residual variance and the accession variance. All analyses were done in ASReml (Gilmour et al., 2009). The phenotypic data analysis used a linearmixed model to calculate variance components for genotype and residual together with the heritability; other calculated components are the tester and the spatial parameters. All phenotypic information used in this study can be accessed via the CIMMYT Maize Germinate 3 Database (https://germinate. cimmyt.org/maize/).We examined the genetic structure using a Bayesian population assignment method of the clustering software STRUCTURE (Pritchard et al., 2000). The Bayesian method considers data and parameters as random variables having specific distributions, called a-priori distribution. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation was used to infer these parameters and to estimate the posterior probability that the data fit the hypothesis of K populations. In this study, we tested the values of K ranging from 2 to 8 with 3 independent runs per test, using both no admixture and admixture models with correlated allele frequencies, a 100,000 iteration burn-in followed by 10 6 additional iterations, from which every 100 th observation was recorded.To associate TSC disease symptoms with genome-wide SNP polymorphism, we used linear-mixed models to account for relatedness among samples and to control for population stratification and other confounding factors (Yu et al., 2006;Kang et al., 2010). We conducted genome-wide association using an exact model, GEMMA (Genome-wide Efficient Mix-Model Association), to reduce a systematic underestimation of marker effect (Zhou and Stephens, 2012). As other mixed models, GEMMA also includes a relatedness matrix, as well as fixed covariates, to further account for additional population genetic structure. Significance in association was accessed based on the Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate at 5% (Benjamini and Hochberg, 1995).The global build GBSv2.7 for maize was generated by a global collection of 42,000 maize accessions (Hearne et al., 2014a). After filtering for SNPs that have < 50% of missing data, 537,082 polymorphic SNP loci for 2011's TSC panel and 540,952 SNP loci for the 2012 panel were retained for association analyses. Genotypic values of these SNP profiles were extracted from the GBSv2.7 Beagle 4 imputed dataset (Hearne et al., 2014b). Since there is the possibility that resistant alleles in landraces might be in low frequency, all SNPs were used for model fitting regardless its allele frequency. In addition, we replaced the remaining missing data (< 0.03%) after the Beagle 4 imputation with the mean of the locus due to the requirement of GEMMA algorithm for a full SNP matrix without missing genotypic values.Based on the significant associations from the 2012 data, a trial was constructed to confirm the identified associations in the summer season of 2014. We selected within the larger GWAS panel of the Breeders Core Collection for genotypes that had not been phenotyped for TSC reaction with the five most highly significant SNP variants associated with decreased TSC second foliar ratings. The genotypic data from the single plant used as the male parent of the topcrosses were used to identify the accessions with any of the 5 putative favorable alleles and their corresponding accession topcross were evaluated in the confirmation trial. There were no individuals within the larger GWAS panel that contained more than one of the five positive SNP variants, so all of the regions were tested individually, except for one accession already identified in the 2012 accessiontopcross trial. The accession topcrosses corresponding to the selection described above made up the confirmation trial. In addition, a null set of negative controls was selected within the larger GWAS panel of accession topcrosses, which had none of the five SNP variants that were associated with reduced TSC foliar leaf damage scores. The selection of this null set for this confirmation trial involved the following sequence of steps. Step 1: the group of accessions identified within the TSC panel as having lower tar spot foliar damage scores and the presence of the favorable alleles identified through this association mapping study were designated as Group 1.Step 2: Accessions within the full GWAS panel, which did not have the putative favorable alleles were placed into a second group (Group 2). Step 3: Using genetic distances, those accessions in Group 2 that were genetically closest to the accessions of Group 1 were selected and became Group 3. Step 4: Accessions in Group 3 with phenotypes closest to the phenotypes in Group 1 were selected based on Euclidian distance of characteristics considering days to flowering and plant and ear heights (Group 4). Step 5: the accession topcrosses made from the accessions identified as Group 4 became the null set for the confirmation trial. The GBS genetic profile was most similar to the most resistant families without having any of the 5 identified positive SNP variants; within this group there was a further selection for those materials with similar flowering time, plant height, and ear height, in order to test materials that were the most similar both genotypically and phenotypically to the most resistant accessions but not containing the 5 most significant positive allelic variants. Table 2 displays the allelic states of the accession-topcross families evaluated in this confirmation trial. These materials were hand planted in the same field site in Guadalupe Victoria, Chiapas, as the previously described trials on 17 June 2014 in a Randomized Complete Block design with 2 replications. The plots were 2m long with 20-cm spacing and thinned to 11 plants per plot. Fertilization and management were in accordance with the standard hybrid management for this tropical region. Foliar leaf ratings were taken using the same 0-5 rating scale previously described for the 2012 trial using individual plant ratings of the 6 central plants. The first foliar rating was taken on 18 September and the second on 29 September 2014. The agronomic data was recorded for male and female flowering time, plant and ear height, number of leaves, and stalk and root lodging and the yield data were taken at harvest with number of plants harvested. The data were analyzed using a linear mixed model for a complete block design, including the effect of block and the random effect of accessions top crosses. Tar Spot Foliar Ratings data taken on 6 individual plants per plot included in the model a sampling error to measure the variability between plants. This variability can be related with the segregation of the accession topcrosses. Contrast comparisons were performed for Tar Spot Foliar Ratings for each putative favorable allele to compare the score of the group with the favorable allele against the group without the favorable allele. The same contrast comparisons were carried out for grain yield adjusted to 12.5% humidity. BLUPs were obtained for each of the accession topcrosses and plotted against the state of the five highly significant regions, as to whether the putative favorable allele was present or absent. Standard deviations were calculated for Tar Spot Foliar Ratings for each putative favorable allele.The ranges and variation of the phenotypic evaluations for TSC foliar disease ratings of the 918 F1 families (accession topcrosses) evaluated in 2011 and 2012 trials under natural infection in Chiapas and the associated agronomic traits are listed in Table 1. The complete results of the mixed model analysis is shown in Supplementary Table 3S. Due to the use of an un-replicated experimental design with repeated checks, only the broad-sense heritability was estimated (denoted as H 2 in Table 1). In general, the heritability estimates in the 2012 trial were higher than 2011; the most heritable trait across the panels was days to male flowering (H 2 =79.9% in 2011 and 80.6% in 2012 across trials 58.6%).For each trial, two foliar leaf disease ratings were taken approximately 2 weeks apart. The first, at the initiation of coalescence of necrotic lesions, generally identifies the most susceptible materials, and the same ratings 2 weeks later differentiate materials where the disease has been limited in progression. Different foliar disease rating methods were used: in 2011, TSC foliar disease rating was done with the 1-5 scale visual estimation of the average damage of the plot (1= no damage and 5= dead plants), whereas a 0-5 scale was used on an individual plant basis for 2012 (0 = 0-2% necrotic lesions; 5 = 80% or greater necrotic lesions) and an average of 6 central plants were taken to represent the disease ratings for each plot of accession topcrosses. The visual estimation of foliar disease of the plot as a whole has been used in line and hybrid breeding where the materials are homozygous; however, the F1 families (accession topcrosses) were segregated for all traits due to the heterozygosity of the landraces involved. Therefore, the rating of 6 plants on an individual basis and taking a mean was implemented to achieve a more precise estimation of the family mean. The same 1-5 scale rating used in the 2011 trial was also taken in the second rating of the 2012 trial, allowing a direct comparison of disease pressure between years. As shown in Table 1, the TSC disease development was about 10% higher in 2012; greater disease pressure was also reflected in the lower grain yield of 2012. TSC foliar disease ratings using the average of 6 central plants with a slightly expanded scale (0-5) resulted in a broader range of foliar scores in the same year; similar estimates of heritability, 67.9 vs. 62.9%, were found using the two scales, but the genetic variance of the accession topcrosses was 7% greater and the residual variance was 15% lower using the 0-5 scale with the mean of 6 individual plant ratings, indicating an overall increase in efficiency over a plot rating (1-5 scale). We performed a GWAS association for all TSC 5 foliar ratings from 2011 and 2012 but focused on the phenotypes which were the average of six individual plants using the Ceballos and Deutsch (1992) 0-5 rating scale employed in two ratings in 2012.Figure 2 shows the inverse relationship between increasing foliar leaf damage scores (more TSC) and decreasing yield. H 2 in the 2012 data underlying Figure 2 were 65.5% for yield and 67.9% for second TSC foliar rating using the Ceballos and Deutsch scale, averaging 6 individual plant scores per plot. Most of the accession topcrosses (shown as black dots) had foliar lesion scores between 4 and 5, indicating extensive leaf necrosis, with correspondingly low yields due to lack of photosynthetic area to fill grain These entries were selected from the larger GWAS panel that had not been evaluated for TSC. SNP positions are based on Zm-B73-REFERENCE-NAM 5.0 reference genome.Relationship between the TSC (tar spot complex) foliar disease rating and the grain yield for accession topcrosses, accessions per se, and commercial checks evaluated in . TSC ratings were plotted using second foliar ratings (Ceballos and Deutsch, scale -) as an average of plant scores per entry. Grain yield is adjusted to . % humidity.(Figure 2). However, there is variation for both the foliar disease rating and the yield within the accession topcrosses as demonstrated by a small number of accession topcrosses with low foliar leaf damage and high yield; in particular, two accession-topcross families (CML269/CML264//Oaxa280 and CML495/CML494//Guat153) had foliar leaf damage score below 3 on the 0-5 leaf damage scale and yields above 1,000 g per 2-m plot. Comercial hybrid checks, of tropical and subtropical adaptacion, used as spatial checks are shown as blue dots in Figure 2, their relative susceptibility indicates high TSC disease pressure in this trial and the resistance level of comercial hybrids at the time. The best 4 accession topcrosses from the 2011 trials (highest yielding and least foliar leaf dammage) were also included in 2012. The two best performing accession topcrosses from the 2011 trial were CML269/CML264//Oaxa280 and CML495/CML494//Guat153, which were also the best performers in 2012.The Maize Germplasm Bank accessions from which the male parent of these best 2011 accession topcross were sampled were also included in the 2012 trial as per se entries (bulk landrace seed from CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank) to examine whether the resistance found in the single plant used as the male parent was representative of the resistance found in the accession. The TSC foliar disease score of the accessions per se, shown as red dots in Figure 2, had similar foliar disease resistance for TSC to their related topcrosses, indicating that the resistance is dominant; however, the yield levels of the accessions per se were much lower than the related topcrosses. The yields of Oaxa 280 and Guat 153 per se were 15 and 48% of their topcross yield, probably due to the late flowering for acessions per se (9.2 and 7.6 days later to female flowering for Oaxa 280 and Guat 153 than mean days to male flowering of the accession topcrosses), which would artificially depress the yield levels of the accessions per se because of insufficient pollen for grain fill. The commercial checks, shown as blue dots in Figure 2, clustered in the susceptible range of 4 and 5 for TSC foliar disease rating, indicating the limited range of genetic resistance in maize hybrids comercially available at the time the study was conducted.The correlation analysis of the traits within year and between years showed a similar pattern: grain yield negatively correlated with TSC foliar disease rating and positively correlated with ear and plant height (0.82 and 0.83 for 2011 and 2012, respectively) (Table 3). The second TSC foliar rating, taken 2 weeks after the initial rating, had a greater negative correlation with yield (−0.40 and −0.58 for 2011 and 2012, respectively) than the first TSC foliar rating, taken at the initiation of the spread of lesions on lower leaves (−0.36 for 2011) using CIMMYT's standard visual averaging on 1-5 scale. Using the average of six individual plant scores on a 0-5 scale also demonstrated a greater negative correlation with yield in the second foliar rating (−0.61 in 2012) than the first TSC foliar rating (−0.46 in 2012). Between years, all traits showed a consistent, positive correlation with themselves. Flowering time was negatively correlated with TSC foliar disease rating (−0.07 and −0.07 female and male flower for 2011 with TSC ma2 2011; −0.05 and −0.07 female and male flowering with TSCts2 for 2012), indicating later flowering plants were slightly more resistant to TSC. Taken as a whole, these data indicate correlations between later flowering, taller plants and higher ear placement with lower foliar TSC ratings (−0.05 flowering, −0.23 plant height, −0.18 ear height with TSC ts2 second foliar rating using average of 6 individual plants on a 0-5 scale in 2012).Since plant height, ear height, and days to flowering are traits that are characteristic of differences among maize landraces (Sanchez et al., 2000), and these are also characteristics that could affect TSC-disease reaction of the plant, means for the second TSC foliar ratings were determined by race using the primary racial designation of CIMMYT Germplasm Bank for each accession used as the male parent in the accession topcrosses. In Figure 3, the means and ranges of TSC ratings of the primary racial designation of the accessions evaluated in this trial are demonstrated by a colored ball and a vertical bar, respectively, and only the maize races which had 4 or more accessions represented in our 2011 and 2012 trials were displayed. A green ball at the mean point indicates a race native to Mexico, while red indicates a race from another country. The few races of maize showing significantly lower mean TSC foliar rating are Conico (3.60), Tehua (3.63), and Oloton (4.27); these races also had the greatest range of TSC foliar ratings. Conversely, the races with the narrowest range of TSC foliar ratings such as Guaribero (min 4.62, max 4.91) and Rio Grande Dentado (min 4.54, max 4.85) were among the highest mean TSC ratings, indicating their susceptibility.The most resistant accessions in these trials originate from areas where TSC has been present for as long as the disease has been recorded. Conico is a race with wide distribution throughout higher elevations of Mexico, while Oloton and Tehua are races with a limited distribution (CONABIO, 2020), mainly found in higher elevations of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guatemala, regions affected by TSC over a long enough period that there are indigenous names for the disease. These two races evolved in areas with some of the highest seasonal rainfall in Mexico (Ruiz-Corral et al., 2008), and therefore high relative humidity and extended leaf wetness periods to support the infection and disease development. In our trials, Oloton and Tehua showed a significantly lower mean for TSC rating and displayed a broader range for TSC response. The observed differences in range of disease reaction in affected areas are likely due to survival of a subset of plants that produced ears in years when TSC pressure was severe, and seeds of which were planted out the following year which may not have had disease pressure. This intermittent selection would maintain such a broad range of disease reactions. The races with the lowest range of TSC reaction originated from areas distant from TSC pressure, indicating their uniform susceptibility to TSC; these are mostly from South America, the Caribbean, or are Mexican races such as Tabloncillo and Chapalote from the northern parts of Mexico, where the climate is dry, making it not conducive for TSC.  c TSC disease readings of first rating using 1-5 scale on a plot basis on 23 September 2011.d TSC disease readings of second rating using CIMMYT 1-5 scale on a plot basis on 7 October 2011. e Grain yield.f TSC disease readings of second rating using CIMMYT 1-5 scale on a plot basis on 4 September 2012.g Adjusted grain yield based on 12% humidity. h TSC disease readings of second rating using Ceballos 0-5 scale on per plant basis on 19 August 2012.i TSC disease readings of second rating using Ceballos 0-5 scale on per plant basis on 4 September 2012. *** p < 0.0001; ** p < 0.001.Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems frontiersin.org After filtering the raw, unimputed GBS SNP to have < 5% missing data, 7,601 SNPs were used for the PCA and structure analysis. Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), a model selection criterion, identified four, possibly five genetic clusters as the best model fit for the number of the principal components (Supplementary Figure S1) (Peiffer et al., 2014). The first principal component separated Brazilian accessions from the rest of the TSC panel [Figure 4A generated using R-ArcGIS (R Core Development Team, 2015)], and with four principal components, Figure 4B demonstrates that, first, lowland vs. highland accessions can be separated by a major principal component; second, Caribbean accessions are genetically distinguishable from Mexican accessions; and third, northern South American maize could be a genetic mixture of lowland Mexican and Caribbean maize. These findings support that the spread of Mesoamerican lowland landraces was through Central America to South America (yellow dots of Figure 4B) (Vigouroux et al., 2008). Finally, accessions from Brazil and the Caribbean are in different clusters from the rest of Latin America, and the few red dots in southern Brazil and Paraguay might be the Cuban germplasm brought in by agricultural extension programs prior to World War II (Vigouroux et al., 2008).Using the STRUCTURE analysis, 4 sub-groups were revealed based on within-group allele frequencies (Figure 4C), with potentially the 5 th genomic sub-group distributed evenly across (the green component in Figure 4C). To control population stratification in the genome wide association (GWAS) analysis, the loadings of the first 5 PCs were included as the fixed variables in linear mixed models (see model comparison in Supplementary Figure 1S).To gain genome-wide knowledge of TSC resistance, we performed mixed-linear model genome-wide association using the data from the 2012 Chiapas field evaluation, where the phenotypic information foliar TSC ratings taken 2 weeks apart were taken by averaging the individual ratings of 6 central plants using the Ceballos and Deutsch (1992) scale. The TSC field evaluations used in GWAS were the first foliar rating in August (TSCts1 in 2012), second rating in September (TSCts 2 in 2012), and the adjusted grain weight (GW) in 2012. Days to 50% male and female flowering were also recorded for each plot. All mixed models were tested with inclusion of male and female flowering times as covariates.Using a false discovery rate (FDR) < 5%, only one SNP was found significantly associated with the first TSC foliar rating phenotype (TSCts 1 in 2012) on chromosome 9. After converting the B73 RefGen_v3 to the Zm-B73-REFERENCE-NAM-5.0 position, this associated variant is located in a putative protein coding gene GRMZM2G103247. Nine landrace accessions in our 2012 panel were found carrying this T/G SNP variant (MAF= 1.1%) associated with TSC resistance (lower TSC foliar ratings).With the same FDR threshold, in total, 41 associations were identified using TSCts 2, the second foliar rating with the inclusion of 5 PCs and female flowering time as covariates (Supplementary Table 2S); the largest effect of TSCts 2 resistance of these associations was found with the S3_28617473 SNP variant, contributing to ∼25% of leaf area saved (Figure 5). We also examined the CIMMYT's CML panel of 538 maize elites using the same GBSv2.7 SNPs (Wu et al., 2016) and found this large effect C/G substitution on chromosome 3 was not seen in the CIMMYT's CML panel (Table 4). Associations with larger effect tend to have MAF lower than 2%, with the exception of g Gene model that SNP is located in; gene ID was based on maize confident gene set. For the flanking genes of the associated variants, see details in Supplementary Table 2S.Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems frontiersin.org association variant S8_138133667 on chromosome 8 (MAF = 4.7%, Supplementary Table 2S). Of these 41 associated variants, 15 are located within 13 maize genes (Zm-B73-REFERENCE-NAM 5). For example, the A/C transition of SNP S3_19462129 and C/G transition of SNP on chromosome 10 are located within maize genes GRMZM2G116135 of chromosome 5 (Table 4; Supplementary Table 2S) and GRMZM2G018027 of chromosome 10 (Supplementary Table 2S), respectively. The GRMZM2G116135 of chromosome 3 is an ortholog of Arabidopsis gene AT3G16780, a plant ribosomal protein RPL19 that is considered to play a role in pathogen responses (Ascencio-Ibáñez et al., 2008;Nagaraj et al., 2016). The GRMZM2G018027 gene on chromosome 10 is homologous to Arabidopsis OXS3 (Horn et al., 2014), which is a chromatinassociated factor and also involves in stress tolerance (Blanvillain et al., 2009).When considering the maize genes that locate within close proximity to the significantly associated SNP variants, several genetic responses to pathogens were uncovered. For example, ∼8,000 base pairs downstream to the associated variant S1_215332051 on chromosome 1 found the Zm00001eb041860 gene, a homolog to Arabidopsis gene AT5G1600 that encodes MYB transcription factor (Supplementary Table 2S). Additionally, maize gene Zm00001eb260980 located on chromosome 6 about 2,000 base pairs downstream to the associated variant S6_5163406 is a BIR1 gene homolog, which is related to the regulation of plant innate immunity in Arabidopsis (Liu et al., 2016;Ma et al., 2017).We also conducted an association mapping using grain weight corrected to 12.5% moisture as the yield component for the TSC panel. Seventeen SNP variants responsible for both grain weight and TSCts 2 were identified (FDR < 0.05; Table 4), confirming the correlated impact of TSC to grain yield (Figure 5). For example, SNP variant S3_28617473 located in maize gene GRMZM2G180620 on chromosome 3 contributes almost 2 tons/hectare increased grain yield also showed the largest effect on TSC resistance (Figure 5). Maize gene GRMZM2G180620 is annotated with stress response (GO:0006950) and response to a molecule of fungal origin (GO:0002238); it has four different splice variants and SNP S3_28617473 is found in the protein-coding region of three of them. The top five associations of TSC showed significant effect on both the yield and the lower second TSC foliar ratings, which were further validated with our confirmation trial in 2014.Although all significant association variants have low MAF, the identification of these rare variants responsible for disease resistance and increased yield suggests the usefulness of the genomic diversity in landraces and the potential for mining beneficial alleles that are unseen in elite varieties. Table 4 summarizes the association results of these pleiotropic variants and the comparison of allele frequency with 538 CIMMYT's CMLs (Wu et al., 2016).Using the above findings, an experiment was designed to confirm the effect of the SNP variants associated with lowered TSC foliar ratings. Accession topcrosses, not previously screened for TSC, having any of the identified alleles were included in this trial, along with accessions that had similar phenotypic characteristics but did not have the putative alleles. In Figure 6, the second TSC foliar disease ratings were plotted together with grain yield for each putative allele tested in the confirmation experiment conducted in 2014. Means and SDs were calculated based on the state of the five highly significant regions, as to whether the putative favorable allele was present or absent, as indicated in Table 4. The negative check (null set) consisted of accession topcrosses where the accessions did not have the favorable SNP at any of the 5 positions but had similar genomic profile to the accessions identified as resistant. The means of the TSC foliar ratings are represented as blue dots for each of the 5 putative favorable SNP alleles, with the SDs represented as a line of the same color. The mean grain yields for the same entries with the 5 putative favorable SNP alleles are represented as red balls with their SDs shown as red lines. The final column of the figure shows the TSC foliar leaf damage rating and adjusted yield of the only entry (Oaxa 280) with multiple favorable alleles (4 of 5 identified, missing data for SNP variant on chromosome 10). The other accession which had very low foliar damage scores Guat 153 could not be determined due to missing data at all loci. There were no other accessions found with more than one favorable allele present in the entire GWAS population. The accession Oaxa 280 is listed in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank as Primary Race Conico and Secondary Race Oloton. Guat 153 is listed in the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank as Primary Race Tehua, with no secondary race.Rare variant GWAS as gateway analysis for allele mining in diverse populations Genome-wide association has been proven successful in identifying common variants associated with human disease (Pritchard, 2002). There is, however, a growing body of evidence supporting the role of rare variants in complex trait associations (Asimit and Zeggini, 2010). For example, the allele frequencies for the variants identified as protective for type I diabetes range from 0.46 to 1.1% (Nejentsev et al., 2009). In the Dallas Heart Study, the SNP variants associated with the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were present at extremely low allele frequencies (0.03-0.6%), and most of these associated variants were specific to the population/racial background (Cohen et al., 2006).Allele frequencies, association significance, allelic e ect sizes for resistance, and adjusted grain yield for TSC (tar spot complex resistant SNP variants (mean ± std err). TSC resistance was translated into percentage of leaf area saved; the grain yield was shown in tons/hectare.Similar to our TSC study in the Seeds of Discovery Initiative, the advantage of genetic analyses using large admixed panels is demonstrated, especially when a collection of phenotypes is considered. Such focus, aided by the availability of common SNP profiles across different population ancestries, facilitates the use of shared parameter controls in large studies of multiple traits. Also, the collection of common samples on a suite of traits of interest to the community enables meta-analyses, encouraging discovery of latent meaning from cumulative knowledge (Evangelou and Ioannidis, 2013;Pharoah et al., 2013). The trade-offs accompanied with diverse GWAS panels include the complexity in population genetics properties that complicates rare allele identification and confounds genetic analyses, thereby negatively impacts the portability of tag-SNPs (Rosenberg et al., 2010). The uncertainty in distinguishing rare variants from missing data could be concerning, especially when determining the SNP genotypes from a great deal of sequence diversity (Asimit and Zeggini, 2010). Various imputation algorithms are available for addressing this issue in SNP calling (Li et al., 2009;Marchini and Howie, 2010), in which most algorithms depend on shared LD patterns and accurate haplotype generations that can confidently capture genotypic information of genomic segments in both GWAS population and in reference. As a result, interpreting missing data can be challenging. In Seeds of Discovery, the strength of Beagle 4 in extracting haplotypes from heterogeneous data for imputation provides reasonable accuracy for our GWAS analysis (Swarts et al., 2014), as demonstrated by Romero Navarro et al. (2017).Although the extensive amount of structural variation in maize genome still imposes concerns on missing data interpretation, such imputation challenge should be explicitly examined when multiple reference genomes are available.Apart from the rareness in SNPs, concerns on low portability of tag-SNP in diverse populations might also impede the use of heterogeneous GWAS panels (Rosenberg et al., 2010). The cautions are not only in statistics but also biological validations for such SNP variants must be considered. Examining haplotypes from a highly diverse West Africa population, Helgason et al. (2007) identified variants in a transcription factor 7-like 2 gene that are associated with type 2 diabetes. The same variants were then replicated and refined in an Icelandic population, suggesting that reproducible, rare variants, identified from high levels of haplotype diversity, could be powerful tools for fine mapping causal variants (Teo et al., 2010). Many of these roadblocks for using diverse materials will eventually be removed when new sequencing technologies make it feasible to conduct GWAS by using enriched sub-genome libraries (Rabbani et al., 2013; for example of identification of rare SNPs susceptible to cardiovascular diseases, see Norton et al., 2011). As a result, allele mining with diverse GWAS panels could be the gateway to identifying beneficial alleles that might have been lost due to the bottleneck effect in the process of modern breeding. The use of field validation, as demonstrated in this research, might likely be a desirable route for confirming genomics findings to the field. When consistent, reproducible genomic variations can be realized, and efforts in re-discovering useful diversity from exotic germplasm and wild relatives could very likely be expanded to meet agricultural demand (McCouch et al., 2013).Plant-pathogen interaction is complex in nature (see review in Jones and Dangl, 2006). Studies on the genetics underlying disease resistance have suggested a spectrum of different genetic models, ranging from single genes with large effects (Hao et al., 2011;Liu et al., 2014), polygenic additive model (Poland et al., 2011;Olukolu et al., 2014), to a genetic architecture that highlights the interplay of many minor loci and copy number variation (Cook et al., 2012;Jamann et al., 2014). To genetically dissect the TSC resistance to the obligate pathogen, P. maydis, a single QTL model with strong dominance, was proposed from phenotypic segregation tests of eight parental lines (Ceballos and Deutsch, 1992). Using a mapping population derived from CIMMYT inbred lines (CMLs), a single QTL with large effect for TSC resistance was reported by Mahuku et al. (2016). This major QTL was also identified in CIMMYT's Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa panel (DTMA) (Cao et al., 2017). Using a panel of broader diversity, our study described a greater number of SNP variants associated with lower TSC foliar damage ratings. Although it is a relatively simpler genetic architecture in comparison with other diseases caused by necrotrophic fungal pathogens (Poland et al., 2011), the benefit of mining Germplasm Banks is demonstrated.Tar spot complex (TSC) has been reported in many Latin American regions, where its occurrence is common in moderately cool, humid, tropical, and subtropical mountainous areas, that is, in climates where northern corn leaf blight (NLB) develops readily (Ceballos and Deutsch, 1992). Given that TSC pressure has not been consistent in all sites, hypotheses proposed by the \"arms-race\" metaphor and balancing selection on the same site for different traits (variable selection in heterogeneous temporal disease pressure from NLB and TSC) predict the maintenance of polymorphism in the populations that have had disease pressure. Our findings, where the polymorphism of TSC resistance phenotypes can only be seen in the germplasm collected from the regions with frequent TSC occurrence, support this scenario. Landraces in southern Mexico and Guatemala where TSC occurs regularly have provided a long-term breeding experiment that helps to maintain TSC resistance in low frequency by the coevolution of hostpathogen relationship.This panel of 912 landrace accessions characterized for TSC reaction is notable for its diversity. It is a subset of a larger panel of landrace accessions (4,471 accessions) from the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank described in Romero Navarro et al. (2017). The adaptation of GWAS to landraces had to take into account the diversity between landraces and within landraces in phenotyping and genotyping methods. In spite of the differences in working with maize landrace populations, we were able to identify and confirm the putative SNP variants associated with TSC resistance. GBS technology had the limitation of two alleles segregating per loci, but maize landraces have an average of 20.9 alleles segregating per loci (Vega-Alvarez et al., 2017). In order to work within the GBS system, a single plant represented each landrace accession population. This selection of a single plant gives a snapshot of diversity within these Germplasm Bank collections. Phenotyping of the same single plant was facilitated by using it as the male parent in the formation of an accession topcross, which produced enough seed for multilocation testing, and also decreased lodging, and sensitivity to plant spacing and fertility levels, often seen in landraces, thereby reducing the experimental error in the evaluation of large numbers of diverse materials. The experimental design and analysis then eliminated the effect of the hybrid and provided BLUPs of the single-plant phenotype using a nonreplicated design with checks for spatial corrections. A single plant of a landrace accession is heterozygous at the majority of loci. Therefore, each accession topcross exhibited segregation within the entry (plant row); because of this segregation, we scored foliar leaf damage ratings as individual plants within a row and averaged those scores to arrive at a more accurate evaluation within entry. We used the 0-5 TSC foliar leaf damage scale defined by Ceballos and Deutsch (1992), which better accommodated the diversity in plant heights, ear heights, and number of leaves per plant by defining each rating score based on the amount of damage below the ear and above the ear since the total leaf area and leaf area above and below the ear varied within this panel due to diversity in morphology of the landraces. Most foliar leaf damage scoring methods are based on the percentage of leaf damage but assume little variation in the total leaf area and in relative placement of the ear on the plant. Phenotypic correlations of less leaf damage with taller and later maturity plants lead us to examine the passport information from the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank as to the classification of landraces the accessions in the panel had been identified as belonging to. We found that the accessions that were phenotypically most resistant to TSC foliar damage were classified as Mexican landraces which originate from areas where tar spot (P. maydis) has been endemic at low levels since it was first recognized and perhaps before since there are terms in indigenous languages for this disease. This long-term selection over time in an environment conducive to the development of at least one component of the TSC has selected for a higher frequency of resistant alleles within these populations than is found elsewhere in Mexico. It is not surprising that many of the alleles we found associated with resistance to foliar disease development do not appear in modern hybrids (Cao et al., 2017). Intensifying agriculture by growing two crops a year with irrigation during the dry season has been speculated by Guatemalan researchers to have increased inoculum in areas where the disease had not previously caused damage, particularly as those dry season planting were susceptible hybrids (Monterroso-Salvatierra, 2014). The intensification of agriculture along with less predictable weather patterns necessitates further study of TSC in host plant resistance, pathogen population dynamics and interactions, and crop management practices.From the perspective of utilization of genetic diversity in plant breeding, the results of this study are hopeful. The field evaluation of the topcross from a single plant of an accession identified sources of resistance. This resistance not only held up for the foliar trait but was also demonstrated as higher yield in the topcross of the accession likely due to greater photosynthetic levels when leaf area is not lost due to TSC leaf necrosis. The most resistant material in the field was also identified as the only accession with 4 out of 5 of the favorable alleles. The association of favorable alleles held up even when the resistant accession (Oaxa 280) was removed from the analysis (data not shown). The field phenotyping and the genotyping confirmed the resistance of this accession. There are several examples of use of these maize accessions identified at CIMMYT for TSC resistance in maize germplasm projects. We crossed the accession Oaxa 280 with farmer-held varieties in several villages in higher elevations of Oaxaca to increase the resistance to TSC in those regions as part of a participatory breeding project. We first evaluated the accession in those villages for adaptation and level of resistance to TSC compared to the local landrace and asked farmer's opinions. The accession Oaxa 280 was originally collected in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and farmers were much more interested in crossing their local landraces with another landrace that came from within their own state than in using a source of host plant genetic resistance from another region. In two villages, farmers expressed that there was improvement of TSC resistance from crosses and backcrosses with Oaxa 280 to their local landrace. In a separate effort, the TSC-resistant CML 576, an elite inbred from the CIMMYT Maize Program, was crossed and backcrossed to the resistant accession Guat 153 from Guatemala to evaluate whether there was complementarity of resistance between the two donors and the research is ongoing.Tar spot complex (TSC), together with many other newly emerging diseases such as Cassava Mosaic Virus (Thresh and Otim-Nape, 1994) and Ug 99 (Singh et al., 2011), is like Ebola, a disease known to have previously existed, laying in low frequency, and causing little global awareness until epidemics occur (World Health Organization, 2014). Emerging plant infectious diseases could develop into unexpected, devastating epidemics, causing serious impacts including famine-related death, especially for poorer regions of the world (Vurro et al., 2010). While the spreads of TSC reported between 1970 and 2015 were in tropical and sub-tropical regions, the recent reports of tar spot in the US and Canada show how rapidly an introduced pathogen can become a major disease problem (Ruhl et al., 2016;Rocco da Silva et al., 2021), with tar spot firmly in the North American temperate corn belt and causing significant yield losses. Our results in TSC support the approach taken by CIMMYT's Seeds of Discovery Initiative as efficient for accessing beneficial genotypes/alleles from the variation preserved in Germplasm Banks. Although it is indeed like searching for a needle in a haystack, a systematic effort as such to unlock and make available useful variation in landraces would be of great benefit in the search for a solution to the challenges of rapid population growth and food security. The challenge is to move unique alleles of resistance found in open pollinated varieties conserved in CIMMYT's Germplasm Bank into an elite tropical and temperate commercial hybrid, and local landraces without severely impacting agronomic performance.The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.","tokenCount":"9680"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9805969369aaebe78fc5eb24094d1503","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4f81ee0-3315-4fe9-993e-7b3e1bb628ec/retrieve","id":"349760582"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c052c6dc-80df-4bf5-8ee0-bc06bb4736ab","pagecount":"4","content":"Today's world is a hungry place. Some 870 million are undernourished; the number of those who suffer from \"hidden hunger, \" or micronutrient deficiency, is pushing two billion. Undernutrition has actually increased in poor countries in both Asia and in many African countries, where the number of underweight children has almost doubled since 1980. In developing countries, the effects of hunger and malnutrition on the rural poor can be devastating. Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the most pernicious forms of undernourishment: it can limit growth, weaken immunity, lead to blindness, and increase mortality. Globally, 163 million children younger than 5 years suffer from VAD: 65 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and roughly 49 million in Asia.The vast majority of the world's poor live in rural areas; their nutritional security depends upon productivity of their land, crops, and available agricultural technologies. Agriculture throughout Asia and Africa has not kept pace with the changing needs for more nutritious food. Only recently have national agricultural policies begun to look at nutrition as a primary goal, and agricultural research systems in many countries need to take this concern into account and be better connected to global science and to delivery systems that can reach the rural poor. New challenges are raising the bar further. Climatic changes threaten agricultural productivity, and global food price fluctuations increase the vulnerability of both rural and urban poor. Smallholder farmers urgently need agricultural technologies that can help them produce nutritious and marketable food and take advantage of economic opportunities from growing demand for food among expanding and urbanizing populations. Which crops and technologies will be most effective in achieving this transformation, and what are the best ways to enable millions of smallholder farmers to access and use them?CIP is a recognized global leader in the development and dissemination of biofortified, vitamin A-rich orangeflesh sweetpotato (OFSP). From our early R&D work with the crop we are now responding to increasing global demand for OFSP through a phased scaling-up program in Africa, Asia, and Haiti. Biofortification, which increases micronutrient content in sweetpotato or other crops through conventional breeding, sustainably builds micronutrient supply into the regular, daily food production and consumption patterns. This eliminates the need for continuous investments in the delivery of nutrition supplements. Over the next 10 years the program will focus on locations where malnutrition is prevalent and where sweetpotato has an inherent agronomic advantage as a short-cycle crop that requires few inputs and can produce comparatively high yields even under marginal conditions. This program will coordinate closely with the CGIAR Research Programs (CRP) in which CIP participates, particularly with Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).Better nutrition OFSP, when coupled with nutrition education at the community level, provides vitamin A cost-effectively and at high levels of bioavailability to vulnerable populations, especially women and young children. In many environments, OFSP production from 500 m 2 can provide enough vitamin A for a family of five. It is a good source of energy, a number of B vitamins, and vitamins C and K. These are vital benefits for the majority of people affected by VAD who live in rural areas where conventional VAD interventions such as supplementation and food fortification are less effective. Building on a strong evidence base of the efficacy of OFSP and using tested and effective delivery systems, CIP is developing linkages with other biofortification and diet diversification efforts as well as with wider nutrition and education programs to realize the full nutrition potential of OFSP at large scale. Our global and regional breeding programs, particularly in Africa, will continue to generate improved vitamin A-rich OFSP varieties to support this effort, which will be complemented by interventions oriented to improve the availability of quality planting material and sustainable crop intensification. Our progress on further biofortification of sweetpotato to increase iron and zinc levels will produce varieties with these traits in the coming years.More income to women OFSP's contributions to the livelihoods of the poor go beyond the crop's health and nutritional benefits. In most African countries, sweetpotato is almost exclusively a woman's crop and it can add significantly to women's income where market linkages are established. CIP has been working with women farmers and traders to expand these income opportunities and break into larger and more competitive urban markets with fresh OFSP roots. Demand among food processing companies to include OFSP and other sweetpotato as a major ingredient in a number of products is also increasing, both as a cost-effective wheat substitute and to capture a market premium for more nutritious products. In Africa, CIP works with large private sector food processors as well as with fresh roots traders to develop new value chains for OFSP and link women farmers to these opportunities. In Asia, these markets are well established and rapidly diversifying. We are working with women farmers to strengthen their access to sweetpotato varieties and technologies that make them more competitive in highly dynamic market chains.For sweetpotato to play its full role in the fight against malnutrition and poverty, it needs to become everybody's agenda. Working with diverse stakeholders including communities and donors, CIP is catalyzing action among a broad coalition of partners that is driving investment and implementation in key areas of R&D. Such innovative partnerships are central to our success. In the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa project, for example, we have coordinated and sped up nutrition-focused sweetpotato breeding programs across Africa and pioneered collaboration with health centers and food processing for effective delivery and targeting of vulnerable households. Similar activities and coalitions are underway with the Horticulture Project in Bangladesh. Our partnership with the CIP-China Center for Asia and the Pacific will play a pivotal role in strengthening capacity for sweetpotato-particularly in value chains-by linking pertinent Chinese experiences to demand in Asian and African target countries. All OFSP scaling-up projects will include specific capacity-building and technology exchange components that will fully use CIP's global reach to link up national and regional expertise. Through CGIAR Research Program platforms, synergies with related research in other crops and on agricultural systems allow us to accelerate our progress, further strengthen our partnerships, and achieve wider impacts.Over the next 10 years scaling-up efforts will focus on resilient, nutritious OFSP varieties that are adapted to the local environment, perform well, and meet consumer taste preferences. Our OFSP programs should reach at least 15 million resource-poor households in Africa, Asia, and Haiti by enabling them to improve the quality of their diet by 20% and raise their crop income by 15%. These efforts should increase production and intake of vitamin A-rich OFSP and future biofortified sweetpotato varieties, diversify use of sweetpotato, and expand genderequitable market chains. This target includes at least 2.5 million households as direct beneficiaries in intervention areas and at least 12.5 million as indirect beneficiaries reached through followon dissemination by farmers, extension agents, and other stakeholders. To reach these numbers, we need active, ongoing engagement with our partners, support and buy-in of the full spectrum of our stakeholders and donors.The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas is an essential platform for this strategic objective.To ","tokenCount":"1182"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f4b01eb2e84863b3c9c23e7cd5f40eb0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16d0a585-5ff2-4313-9150-f5a5d9ecea66/retrieve","id":"1445052346"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f15321c-f58d-4348-90f5-f958bb46b702","pagecount":"1","content":"There has been documented increase of emergence and re-emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases in Africa in the past years. The pathogen discovery team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) addresses the problem in Kenya and beyond. The genomics platform at ILRI which is an integration of the bio-repository (Biobank), first and second generation sequencing platforms and high performance computing systems facilitates the pathogen discovery work.The biobank currently has 340,000 samples which include blood, tissues and semen among others from livestock, wildlife, human and insects collected from East, West and Central Africa among other regions. The genomics platform at ILRI has generated outputs ranging from whole/partial genome sequences of Rift Valley Fever, Equine Encephalosis, Blue Tongue, African Swine Fever, Ndumu, Semliki forest, Dugbe, Bunyamwera, Chikungunya, Newcastle disease and Pigeon Paramyxo -viruses among other organisms including, bacteria, plants and protozoan parasites. A number of the genomes are also available to the public on NCBI database. Sampling is a very time-consuming and expensive exercise. We have an ethical and scientific responsibility to make the best use of that effort and money.Source of samples: Field sampling and collaboratorsGenebank, Pubmed (NCBI), MGRAST ","tokenCount":"188"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba2476db9eebe0b0cedb018515f08e24","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/977dc514-a4ac-4916-a258-1641b215f180/retrieve","id":"2008255461"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6e34e92c-f561-4abf-b006-0c4fdb3d38b6","pagecount":"19","content":"• Irrigation has played a major role historically in poverty alleviation by providing food security, protection against famine, and expanded opportunities for employment both on and off the farm. Development of irrigated agriculture has been a major engine for economic growth and poverty reduction.• One of the most recent examples of success in poverty alleviation has been in eastern India and Bangladesh. Here the spread of low-cost tube-well irrigation has stimulated growth in agricultural production and contributed to the reduction of the number of people below the poverty line.• The growing scarcity and competition for water, however, stands as a major threat to future advances in poverty alleviation. Food production is likely to be adversely affected particularly in the semiarid regions, which include two of Asia's major breadbaskets, the Punjab and the North China Plain. An increasing number of the rural poor are coming to see entitlement and access to water for food production and for domestic purposes as a more critical problem than access to primary health care and education.• The development of tube-well irrigation has contributed significantly to the increase in food production and reduction in poverty. However, in many of the more arid regions the overexploitation of groundwater poses a major threat to environment, health, and food security-a threat to the welfare of the poor far more serious than that posed by the widely criticized construction of large dams.• Poverty persists in many of the rain-fed and upland areas, the so-called marginal areas most of which can be described as water scarce. Much of sub-Saharan Africa, with its lack of developed water resources, fits this category. Despite the apparently wide range of potentially useful technologies, efforts to increase productivity and alleviate poverty have thus far met with limited success.• In an environment of growing scarcity and competition for water, a comprehensive strategy is needed to improve the productivity of water in both irrigated and rain fed agriculture, and to ensure access to water by poor men and women.• As water is withdrawn from agriculture, in the management of irrigation systems, more attention must be given to water needs for multiple uses not only for agriculture, but for other domestic uses, and for environmental needs.• Policies and institutions must be developed and cost-effective management practices adopted to halt the environmental degradation caused by overexploitation of groundwater resources.• A basin approach to management and allocation of groundwater and surface water will require new institutional arrangements to assure both efficiency and equity in the use of basin water resources and to protect the interests of the poor.• Special attention must be given to implementing policies and developing technologies suitable for adoption by resource-poor farmers in water-scarce or marginal upland and rain-fed areas, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as those in well-watered areas such as eastern India.Poverty eradication through sustainable development can be regarded today as perhaps the central goal of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), of most agricultural research and development institutions in the developing world, and of the national governments that support their research. Irrigation has played a central role in poverty reduction in the past. But the growing scarcity and competition for water and the overexploitation of groundwater resources are putting the poor in irrigated areas at great risk. In addressing the poverty problem, we must consider the impact of reduced water availability for irrigation not only on crop production, but also on the wide range of other uses that are a part of the livelihood of rural agricultural communities. Meanwhile, poverty persists in many of the rain-fed and upland areas, the so-called marginal or traditionally water-scarce areas. In these areas, the inability to effectively mobilize water resources has prevented farmers from using modern yield increasing inputs and raiSing incomes.There are two regions of the world that stand out in terms of the scope and magnitude of rural poverty-South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. They could not be more contrasting in terms of water resources and irrigation development and hence the challenge posed to International Water Management Institute (IWIVII) scientists and others for poverty alleviation. In South Asia, close to 50 percent of the cereal grain area is irrigated. Two-thirds of cereal grain production and most of the marketed surplus comes from the irrigated areas. On the contrary, in sub-Saharan Africa, the contribution of irrigation to cereal grain production is about 5 percent.In this paper, we discuss the implications for poverty alleviation of growing water scarcity with particular reference to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. First, we briefly summarize the impact of irrigation development on poverty alleviation in South Asia in the recent past. Emphasis is placed on the role that advances in irrigation technologies and private development of groundwater resources have played in providing the poor access to water. Then, in an environment of growing water scarcity, we examine the challenges that lie ahead for the development of water resources leading to sustained poverty alleviation.Between the 1960s and the 1990s, real food grain prices fell by approximately 50 percent. This decline was principally but not entirely due to the impact of the so-called green revolution in the developing countries. The subsidization of food grain production by the developed economies also contributed to the decline. Determining the precise share of the gains in cereal grain production attributable to new seeds, fertilizer, and irrigation is an almost impossible task. However, there is little doubt that without the advances in irrigation technologies and extraordinary investments in irrigation expansion by both the public and private sectors, the impact of the green revolution would have been greatly reduced.The benefits of lower food grain prices to the poor are obvious. Sixty percent of the money spent on food by the people below the poverty line in Asia is apportioned for cereals (which provide as much as 70 percent of their total nutrients).A second major impact of irrigation is in the employment generated both on and off the farm, providing entitlement or purchasing power for the poor. For landless laborers, increased cropping intensity has the greatest impact on employment. Irrigation means more work in more days of the year. The employment impact is felt not only in irrigated areas but also in rain-fed areas. Sometimes, landless workers in rain-fed villages migrate long distances to take advantage of employment opportunities in the irrigated areas. There is also a multiplier effect, with higher incomes in agriculture creating employment opportunities off the farm.Between the mid-1970s and 1990, the number of people below the poverty line in India fell from over 50 percent to approximately 35 percent (Datt 1998) while in Bangladesh it fell significantly (Palmer-Jones 1992). However, the absolute number of people below the poverty line increased slightly. An important contributor to poverty alleviation was the growth in public-sector-funded canal irrigation and in largely private sector-funded tube-well irrigation (Shah 1993). Technological advances in storage dam construction and in tube wells and lift pumps enhanced this expansion and allowed a larger portion of the crops to be grown during the drier periods of the year thus avoiding crop losses due to flooding and typhoons. In addition, the dry season environment of high solar energy and low pest infestation gives the highest crop yield response to fertilizer application.Tube-well technologies in particular were instrumental in poverty reduction in eastern India and Bangladesh, where agricultural development was long seen as an intractable problem. The initial emphasis in the 1960s and1970s was on publicly financed deep tube wells with command areas of around 20 hectares. These systems performed poorly and management committees tended to be dominated by the richer and influential farmers (Boyce 1987). The gradual expansion of private tube wells, often within the deep tube-well command areas, also favored the elite who had access to the required capital (Shah 2000). However, three important developments have allowed small farmers and poorer farm households to gain access to irrigation water: (i) the development of water markets, (ii) the introduction of cheaper and smaller Chinese engines, and (iii) the widespread adoption of treadle pumps (Palmer- Jones 1992, Shah et al. 2000and Shah 2000). For those that purchase water, there is strong pressure to economize on groundwater use, whereas tube-well owners feel no such pressure. The manually operated treadle pump, which requires an investment of less than Rs700 (US$18), is particularly well suited to farmers with less than an acre of land. To facilitate the spread of these technologies among the small farmers, credit schemes were developed by the Grameen Bank and other NGOs with particular emphasis being given to the role of women in obtaining loans and managing the pumps (van Koppen and Mahmud 1996).While eastern India and Bangladesh have achieved a great deal of success in developing water resources to help attack poverty, many problems still remain. Particularly in India, major public policy initiatives have actually impeded groundwater development rather than expediting it (Shah 2000). Pump subsidy schemes need to be reformed. Efforts are also needed to promote a wider variety of diesel and manual pumps, to improve the fuel efficiency of pumps,and to experiment with innovative measures for fee collection for use of electricity. The potential for further development of groundwater in eastern India is great. Less than a quarter of the groundwater resource is in use at present.As we approach the next century, it is widely recognized that many countries (in contrast to eastern India and Bangladesh) are entering an era of severe water shortage. IWMI has undertaken a long-term program to improve the conceptual and empirical basis for the analysis of water in major river basins of the world (Seckler, Molden, and Barker 1998). The initial findings of this study project that in the first quarter of the next century 2.7 billion people or a third of the world's population will experience severe water scarcity. The bulk of this population will reside in the semiarid regions of Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to overexploitation of groundwater, food production will be adversely affected in the semiarid regions, which include two of Asia's major breadbaskets-the Punjab and the North China Plain. In northwestem India, the rise of tube-well irrigation crowded out manual water-lifting devices used by smallholders during the 1960s. In western and peninsular India, besides competitive lowering of groundwater tables, excessive pump irrigation has also resulted in fluoride contamination of groundwater, which has been the mainstay of the poor for their domestic water needs.What are the implications of these findings for the poor? Water is both a commodity and a natural resource and a perceived human entitlement. When Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen (1981) wrote about poverty and famines in Bengal, he spoke of \"entitlements\" in terms of purchasing power for food. The primary people affected by the famines were the landless rural poor. But in today's environment of growing water scarcity the problem is more pervasive. An increasing number of the poor rural and urban consumers, rural producers, and rural laborers-are coming to view access or entitlement to water as a more critical problem than access to food, primary health care, and education.The typical urban household uses water for drinking and sanitation. But rural areas use water for a wide range of purposes. Even in irrigated areas water is used not only for the main field crops but also for domestic use, home gardens, trees and other permanent vegetation, and livestock (Bakker et al. 1999). Other productive uses include fishing, harvesting of aquatic plants and animals, and a variety of other enterprises such as brick making. In addition, irrigation systems can have a positive or negative effect on the environment. Thus, the withdrawal of water affects the rural household, rural economy, and environment in a number of ways. Water scarcity is exemplified by situations such as: the need to carry heavy pots of water several kilometers every day to meet household needs; the destitution of farmers who lose their lands or of the landless who lose their jobs because of lack of irrigation water; the loss of wetlands or estuaries because of upstream water depletion; and increasing health problems due to water pollution and a rise in incidence of water-borne diseases, Experts in the field agree that the quantity of water is even more important than the quality in terms of its impact on human health. However, water scarcity leads to declining water quality and pollution, which has an especially adverse impact on the poor. Many (perhaps most) of the poorest people in developing countries are forced to drink water that is unfit for human consumption.They suffer from a range of skin related and other health problems.As water is withdrawn from agriculture, in the management of irrigation systems, more attention must be given to water needs for domestic and health purposes, and to other consequences such as the impact on the environment. Unfortunately, in the case of water for agriculture, allocation cannot be accomplished solely through pricing mechanisms. Along with farmers other stakeholders, including the poor, should have a voice in how limited water supplies are to be allocated.As noted above, the development and expansion of tube-well irrigation contributed significantly to the increase in food production and reduction in poverty. However, in arid and semiarid regions, the point has now been reached where the overexploitation of groundwater poses a major threat to environment, health, and food security-a threat to the welfare of the poor far more serious than that posed by the widely criticized construction of large dams.The regions of China, India, the Middle East, and north Africa, projected in an IWMI study to face severe water shortage, are the areas where overexploitation of groundwater has been most pervasive. These areas have had a \"free ride\" over the past 2-3 decades. Tube-well yields attributable to irrigation have typically been more than double the yields from canals and tanks. But the penalty for mismanagement of this common-pool resource is now coming due.The groundwater problem has two contradictory aspects. First, there is the rapid drawdown of freshwater aquifers mainly due to the worldwide explosion in the use of wells and pumps for irrigation and for domestic and industrial water supplies. Second, there is the opposite problem of rising water tables of saline and sodic water. Added to these two problems is the pollution of aquifers by toxic elements. Here again the poor often pay the price not only through loss of crop production or cropland but also through a shortage of water for the range of uses noted above and through increased health problems. The recent discovery of extensive arsenic poisoning of the aquifers in Bangladesh and fluoride contamination of well water in western India provides a prime example of the adverse effects of groundwater mismanagement in some of the poorest countries of the world.While the problems of groundwater are clear, the solutions are not. The pricing and regulation of pumping of this common-pool resource are not feasible. Even if technical and management capacities are available, which country would be willing to pay the enormous cost of this policy in terms of reduced food production and domestic and industrial water supplies? The best way to recharge aquifers needs more careful analysis. Much of the seepage and surface runoff from canals recharges groundwater aquifers.Seen in this light, Chambers (1988) suggests that a major and perhaps the main beneficial effect of new canal irrigation is to distribute water through the command allowing it to seep and so provide water for lift irrigation. Dhawan (1993) pOints out that according to his calculations half of the crop output originating from tube-well irrigated lands in the Punjab is from groundwater that is of canal origin. In short, much of South Asian irrigation must be analyzed and should be managed from a basin perspective taking into account the complementary relationship between canal water and groundwater.While there are technical solutions for reducing salinity, the financial costs of various options and the appropriate procedures for implementing management strategies at farm and system levels are not well understood. In short, given the truly alarming threat of fresh groundwater depletion in the world, it is astonishing how little attention, whether in research or action, is given to this problem.Poverty persists in the irrigated areas but especially in many of the rain-fed and upland or the so-called marginal areas. In fact, most of the areas of persistent poverty are areas that can be described as water-scarce. Much of sub-Saharan Africa, with its lack of developed water resources, fits into this category.There is a striking dissimilarity between the physical and socioeconomic environments in the irrigated lowlands of Asia and the rain-fed, water-scarce areas in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Strategies for water management that have been successful in reducing poverty in the former environment have proven to be largely inappropriate for the latter. There appears to be relatively few lessons from the South Asian experience with irrigation and poverty reduction that can be readily transferred to water-scarce rain-fed areas in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. In fact, little progress has been made in raising agricultural productivity even in the water-scarce rain-fed areas of Asia. In these less favorable environments, the road to increased productivity may lie not only with the introduction of new technologies but also with the exploitation of traditional technologies (Agarwal and Narain 1997).To date, efforts to mobilize water resources following conventional canal irrigation system designs have been largely unsuccessful. Carruthers and Clark (1981) cautioned that without careful pre-appraisal \"the farmer's promised banquet may turn out to be simply an engineering picnic.\" And indeed many of the early irrigation projects in Africa all too frequently turned out to be \"engineering picnics.\" Jones (1995) reports that 18 World Bank irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa cost US$31 ,238 per hectare, while 56 South Asian projects cost $1,746 per hectare. This explains why such a large portion of African projects received an \"unsatisfactory\" rating. Furthermore, many of these systems were in locations where either the physical or the socioeconomic environment, or both were ill-suited to irrigated agriculture.Many scientists strongly believe that the rain-fed areas and natural wetlands offer the greatest potential for production gains in the immediate future. Scientists have shown that a number of water harvesting and supplemental irrigation technologies hold greater promise for increasing crop yields. But their adoption by farmers has been extremely limited, as the risk and costs seem to have outweighed the.benefits (Oweis, Hachum, and Kijne 1999). In sub-Saharan Africa, part of the problem may lie in the much higher cost.For example, a major difference between South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is the cost of pumps and irrigation equipment. Because of the rapid and large-scale groundwater development, South Asia developed its own highly competitive pump industry that delivers low-cost pumps to small farmers for which, in Africa, farmers have to pay much more. This may also be an important reason why even smallholder irrigation development in sub-Saharan Africa region has occurred only with massive government and donor support.Developing a more intensive agricultural system will prove more costly in sub Saharan Africa than, in Asia for three reasons. First, as noted above, the equipment will be more expensive. Second, and related to the first, as IWMl's research in Burkina Faso and Niger emphasizes, there has been little time for the development of institutions such as credit, marketing, land and water rights that are essential to the sustainability of intensive agricultural systems (Abernethy et al. 2000). One cannot simply rely on the market to bring about the institutional changes needed. A strong role must be played by public policy and the state in facilitating the institutional changes and adoption of technologies that will increase agricultural productivity (Lele and Stone 1989;Binswanger and Pingali 1988). Finally, the ecological risks associated with intensification, particularly pests and diseases, might be more serious than those in Asia because intensive cropping has had no time to co-evolve with the natural biotic environment.With the onset of the population explosion following World War II, poverty in the developing world has been associated with hunger and food insecurity. The response has been to produce more food by increasing crop yields and expanding irrigation. Despite the advances in global food security, it has become increasingly clear that productivity alone could not win the war against hunger. Poverty alleviation has become associated less with food production per se and more with livelihood (Chambers 1988), with employment, and with Amartya Sen's entitlements to food (Sen 1981). Identifying a poverty line based on daily per capita income and measuring the reduction in the number of people below the poverty line have constituted the popular \"yardstick\" by which progress in poverty alleviation is measured. The growing scarcity of water relative to food in many parts of the world suggests that this may no longer be an appropriate yardstick. Access or entitlement to water is not simply a matter of having more money or purchasing power. Water security is an increasingly important element of any poverty eradication program.Much is known already about policy and program design for food security and even about policy frameworks required for environmental protection. By contrast, little is known about the appropriate mixes of policies, institutions, and technologies that could help achieve water security for both men and women in water-stressed environments (Webb and Iskandarani 1998). Furthermore, because of multiple use of water, there are a large number of stakeholders among government agencies and the private sector who have a keen interest in water allocations. A basin approach to water management and allocation will be required to utilize water more efficiently (Seckler 1999) and to take into account off-site effects of more narrowly focused projects such as reforestation, which can have a negative impact on marginal upland farmers (Finlayson 1998;Starkloff 1998). As water becomes scarcer, the conflict over water allocations, rights and entitlements at farm, system, and basin levels is bound to increase. New water basin institutional arrangements will be required to assure both efficiency and equity in the use of basin water resources and to protect the interests of the poor.Irrigation consumes about 70 percent of the world's available water. SubSidies for infrastructure have been reduced, the most accessible and cheapest water resources have been developed, and in an increasing number of basins all of the water has been committed. Demand for water for higher-valued uses-domestic, industry, and hydropower-is riSing. The agricultural sector must produce more food with less water. Achieving this goal is thought by many to lie largely in improving the efficiency of canal irrigation systems. As suggested above, however, we believe that there must be more attention through research and action programs on the management of groundwater and surface water in a basin context in irrigated areas and on assessing the potential of alternative low-cost micro irrigation technologies in raiSing crop production in water-scarce rain-fed areas.There is an urgent need for new strategies to improve the productivity of water in both irrigated and rain-fed agriculture, and ensure access to water and technologies by the poor. As new policies, institutions, and technologies are devised and tested to achieve this goal, a major task of IWMI will be to design strategies to enhance water security for poor men and women, a critical step in poverty eradication.","tokenCount":"3847"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4b3ed9465afbc5fee97d7c4e5a1d2891","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0ac5668c-b83b-4e01-82e7-53b4ba609677/retrieve","id":"1567335882"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5f21c09c-8955-4401-aa48-774fdfba281a","pagecount":"9","content":"Small RNA sequencing (sRNA-seq) can be used to detect viruses in infected hosts without the necessity to have any prior knowledge or specialized sample preparation. The sRNA-seq method was initially used for viral detection and identification in plants and then in invertebrates and fungi. However, it is still controversial to use sRNA-seq in the detection of mammalian or human viruses. In this study, we used 931 sRNA-seq runs of data from the NCBI SRA database to detect and identify viruses in human cells or tissues, particularly from some clinical samples. Six viruses including HPV-18, HBV, HCV, HIV-1, SMRV, and EBV were detected from 36 runs of data. Four viruses were consistent with the annotations from the previous studies. HIV-1 was found in clinical samples without the HIV-positive reports, and SMRV was found in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma cells for the first time. In conclusion, these results suggest the sRNA-seq can be used to detect viruses in mammals and humans.Infection by pathogens is one of the main risk factors for many diseases [1][2][3][4], particularly for cancers. In 2008, approximately two million new cancer cases (16%) worldwide were caused by pathogen infection. Most cancers inducing infectious agents were viruses [5], including Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV, resp.), Kaposi sarcoma herpes virus (KSHV, also known as human herpes virus type 8, HHV-8), human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16), and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1). Therefore, the rapid and accurate detection and identification of these viruses is essential to human health. Conventional detection methods (e.g., ELISA, PCR, or microarrays) cannot be used in some cases due to failure to satisfy certain requirements (e.g., prior knowledge of the potential pathogen or the ability to cultivate and purify the pathogen [6]). In addition, they are time-consuming and difficult to use in detection of highly divergent or novel viruses.To overcome these limitations, next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have been applied for virus and viroid discovery in plants and animals [7,8]. Compared to other NGS based methods requiring the use of viral enrichment and concentration procedures [7], the small RNA sequencing (sRNA-seq) based method simplifies the virus detection, with the aid of virus fragments enriched by the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism. RNAi is a cytoplasmic cell surveillance system which recognizes double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and specifically destroys single-stranded RNA and dsRNA molecules homologous to the dsRNA inducer, using small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) as a guide [9]. The abundant siRNAs accumulated during the RNAi process facilitate virus detection and the study of RNAi mechanism. RNAi has been proposed as a key antiviral intrinsic immune response in plants, nematodes, and arthropods [10]. Based on such theory, the sRNA-seq method was originally used for viral detection and identification in plants [8,11,12] and in invertebrates [13][14][15], but not in mammals or humans. There was evidence that antiviral RNAi functions in mammalian germ cells and embryonic stem cells (ESCs), as well as some carcinoma cell lines [10]. No evidence had been provided to prove RNAi functions in mammalian somatic cells until Li et al. 's work was published [16]. Although Li et al. discovered low level siRNA duplexes in the baby hamster kidney 21 cells, the role of RNAi in viral defence in mammalians remains controversial. Therefore, using sRNA-seq to detect viruses in mammals and humans is a highly promising but hard topic.In this study, we used 931 sRNA-seq runs of data from the NCBI SRA database [17] to detect and identify viruses in human cells or tissues, particularly from some clinical samples. These tissues came from saliva, tongue, laryngopharynx, oropharynx, prefrontal cortex, liver, cervix, serum, plasma, lymph, and so forth. As a result, six viruses including HPV-18, HBV, HCV, HIV-1, SMRV (squirrel monkey retrovirus), and EBV were detected from 36 runs of data. In brief, the existence of HPV-18, HBV, HCV, and EBV was consistent with the findings from the original studies, whereas HIV-1 and SMRV had not been identified previously in the experimental samples. The nucleotide polymorphism, read-enriched regions (hotspots), and RNAi responses of detected viruses were analyzed, following the detection of these viruses.Using NCBI SRA advanced searching tools (http://www.ncbi .nlm.nih.gov/sra/advanced), we retrieved 2,820 runs of data by the combined keywords including Illumina, small RNA, and Homo sapiens (November 1, 2014). We subsequently filtered these data based on the following criteria: (1) to remove non-small RNA-seq data by reading the annotations;(2) to remove data containing keyword \"cell line\"; (3) to remove data from cDNA library selection during library construction. Ultimately, we used 931 runs of data from 42 previous studies in this study (Table 1).The software Fastq clean [18] was used for sRNA data cleaning and quality control. To detect and identify viruses using sRNA-seq data, we developed an automatic pipeline using Perl scripts. This pipeline had performed well in the detection and identification of plant and insect viruses in our previous studies [12,[19][20][21]. The pipeline integrated three sequence databases: The first one was an rRNA database, which was built based on the SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database [22]. The second one was the human host genome for the subtraction of host genome sequences. The last one contained the Vertebrata viral sequences constructed from the NCBI GenBank database, version 197. The relationship information between the virus genus and the host was from the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). For some virus genera which did not have host information assigned to them, we were able to assign host categories after reading their NCBI annotations.For each detected virus, we assigned a putative reference genome from the NCBI GenBank database to represent the virus (Supplementary File 1 in Supplementary Material available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/2596782). We used the reference genome coverage and the average depth to quantify the detected viruses. The genome coverage represents the proportion of read-covered positions against the genome length. The average depth is equal to the total base pairs of the aligned reads divided by the read-covered positions on the reference genome (Tables 2 and 3).3.1. HPV-18 from HeLa Cell Lines. To test our virus detection pipeline, we used HeLa cell line data from the previous study SRP001381 as positive controls (Table 1). The HeLa cell line, derived from cervical cancer cells of the patient Henrietta Lacks, contains HPV-18, one of the carcinogenic HPV genotypes. In this study, HPV-18 was detected in all of the three runs of data (SRR031635, SRR031636, and SRR031637). The assembled HPV-18 in the data SRR031636 covered 74.1% of the reference genome M20325 with an average depth 8.5. The 19 long viral contigs (≥ 40 bp) covered 62.5% of the reference genome with a uniform distribution (Supplementary File 1).Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the first viruses to be causally linked to a human tumor and is a major global cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and cirrhosis between them contribute to the genesis of almost all global HCCs [23]. Conventional clinical tests use markers at the protein level, including the HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), HBV envelope antigen (HBeAg), and HBV core antigen (HBcAg) and their antibodies from the patients' serum. However, these protein markers are not always present for various reasons [23].In the previous study SRP002272 from the NCBI SRA database (Table 2), 15 clinical samples had been sequenced including three normal liver tissues, one HBV-infected liver tissue, one severe chronic hepatitis B liver tissue, two HBVpositive HCC tissues, one HCV-positive HCC tissue, and one HCC tissue without HBV or HCV [24]. In this study, the detection and identification results in 15 runs of data were consistent with the findings from the previous study SRP002272 with one exception SRR039619 (Table 2). The sRNA data SRR039619 from a HBV-positive HCC patient should have contained HBV but it was not found by our pipeline. SRR039619 contained 9,161,157 reads, which possibly were not deep enough to catch adequate virus derived small RNAs (vsRNAs) for detection.The assembled HBV in the data SRR039620 covered 54.6% of the reference genome JQ688404 with an average depth 6 (Supplementary File 1). In the data SRR039620, seven  \"Run ID\" is uniq for each high-throughput fastq file in the NCBI SRA database. \"Reference\" uses the NCBI GenBank accession number. \"Cov (%)\" and \"Depth\" represent the genome coverage and the average depth, respectively. \"Side Tissue\" is close to the border between the tumor tissues and the normal tissues but 0-2 cm far from the tumor tissues. \"Adjacent Tissue\" is the normal tissues 2-5 cm far from the tumor tissues. \"Distal Tissue\" is the normal tissues at least 10 cm far from the tumor tissues. \"SRR039619 * \" should have contained HBV but it was not found by our pipeline. long viral contigs (≥ 40 bp) covered the HBV x (HBx), HBV core (HBc), and HBV polymerase (HBp) gene regions but did not cover the HBV surface (HBs) gene region. The long viral contigs (≥ 40 bp) in the data SRR039614 and SRR039621 only covered the HBx gene region. The assembled HCV in the data SRR039622 covered 10.8% of the reference genome D85516 with an average depth 1 (Supplementary File 1). HCV was also detected in the data SRR039623 with genome coverage 8.3% and average depth 1.Patients. HIV as a member of the genus Lentivirus causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). As technology evolves, HIV testing assays are being improved on sensitivity and specificity [25]. However, the tests still provide false negative results due to the diagnostic window or other reasons [25]. In the previous study SRP027589 from the NCBI SRA database (Table 1), 42 samples had been sequenced for the discovery and profiling of circulating microRNAs in the serum of 42 stage II-III locally advanced and inflammatory breast cancer (BC) patients [26]. These patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) followed by surgical tumor resection. However, no AIDS or HIV-positive results of these patients had been reported in the previous study SRP027589. In this study, HIV-1 was detected at a very high level in the data SRR941591. The assembled HIV-1 in the data SRR941591 covered 39.3% of the reference genome M19921 with an average depth 210.1 (Supplementary File 1). As far as we know, this was the first time to report the detection of HIV-1 using sRNA data from clinical samples.SMRV, an endogenous virus of squirrel monkeys, had been isolated by cocultivation of squirrel monkey lung cells with canine cells [27]. In previous studies, SMRV had been detected in Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines [28]. Specifically, the insertion of the incomplete SMRV proviral genomes had been detected in Namalwa cell lines [29]. However, we found no reports that SMRV had been detected in the Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). To the best of our knowledge, DLBCL had only been reported to be caused by EBV [30], HCV [31], HIV [32], and SV40 (Simian Virus 40) [33].In this study, SMRV was detected in the data SRR1563015 and SRR1563017 (Table 3). The assembled SMRV in these two runs of data covered 99.2% and 99.4% of the reference genome M23385 at an average depth of 146.1 and 494.5, respectively. In the data SRR1563017, the longest viral contig was assembled to have a length of 6,760 bp and an identity 99% (6,751/6,764) of the reference sequence M23385 (Supplementary File 1). As far as we know, this was the first time to report the detection of SMRV using sRNA data from DLBCL samples.Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been firmly linked to some cancers and proliferative diseases, including Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), nasopharyngeal carcinoma, immunoblastic lymphoma, a subset of gastric carcinomas, rare T-and NKcell lymphomas or leiomyosarcoma, acute infectious mononucleosis, and Hodgkin's disease. Almost 100% of BL cases in Equatorial Africa carry EBV. Children infected early in life with the highest antibody titres to the virus are at the highest risk of developing the tumor [34]. EBV-positive BL predominant in Africa and EBV-negative BL predominant in Europe and/or the United States have different causation and characteristics [34].In the previous study SRP046046 from the NCBI SRA database, 12 samples had been sequenced to distinguish the small RNA composition in six B cells from their exosomes. Six B cells included three EBV-positive lymphoblastoid B cells (LCLs), one EBV-positive Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell, one EBV-negative BL cell, and one Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) cell. As a result, EBV had been detected from two EBV-positive BL samples and six EBV-positive LCL samples (Table 3). In this study, EBV was detected in the data SRR1563018, SRR1563056, SRR1563059, SRR1563060, SRR1563061, SRR1563062, SRR1563063, and SRR1563064. This finding confirmed the results in the previous study SRP046046. However, the reference genome coverage by vsRNAs was uneven in eight runs of data varying from 1.6% to 31.4%. This large variance could result from sample extraction, small RNA library construction, sequencing quality, or sequencing depth. In the data SRR1563063, the assembled EBV contigs covered 20.6% of the reference genome M80517 (Supplementary File 1).The plant sRNA-seq data had been shown to contain adequate information for studying nucleotide polymorphism of the actual virus [35]. Among the six human viruses found in this study, HIV-1 in the data SRR941591 showed the highest nucleotide polymorphism rate covering 2.66% (155/5,831) of the genomic positions (Figure 1), as compared to SMRV in the data SRR1563017, EBV in the data SRR1563063, and HPV-18 in the data SRR031636 covering only 0.41% (36/8,732), 0.29% (110/37,898), and 0.13% (3/2,324) of the genomic positions, respectively (Supplementary File 2). HIV-1 is a single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) reverse-transcribing virus. HIV reverse transcriptase has been shown to be exceptionally inaccurate [36] and may explain the high polymorphism rates observed in this study. HPV-18 and EBV are double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses which have low error rates during their replication. SMRV, as ssRNA retrovirus, was expected to have a high nucleotide polymorphism rate but this was not reflected in these data. HBV and HCV showed no polymorphism whatsoever, probably due to the low sequencing depth.Consistent with our previous results in plant virus detection, the distribution of vsRNA coverage over the human virus genomes was not even, with some read-enriched regions (hotspots) in the vsRNA-covered regions on both of the positive and negative strands (Supplementary File 3). In HPV-18, HBV, HCV, and SMRV, the vsRNA-covered region on the positive strand was more than nine times larger than the vsRNA-covered region on the negative strand, while HIV-1 and EBV had little difference between vsRNA-covered regions over the positive and negative strands. Using the data SRR941591 as an example (Figure 1), the number of bases covered by vsRNA reads on the HIV-1 positive strand against the negative strand was 4,961 bp to 3,945 bp with overlap 52.74% (3,075/5,831). There were three obvious hotspots on the putative HIV-1 reference M19921. The first (779-810 bp) and second (2,017-2,045 bp) hotspot resided on the HIV-1 positive strand. Different from the first and second hotspot, the third hotspot (12,006-12,044 bp) consisted of positiveand negative-strand vsRNAs.To investigate the RNAi responses using 36 viruscontaining runs of data, we analyzed the length distribution of the reads aligned to the virus reference sequences. Viral small RNA read lengths of HIV-1 in the data SRR941591 had the distribution pattern expected from a RNAi response, similar to what had been found in previous studies [16]. This pattern consists of positive-and negative-strand vsRNAs with countable values at the 21, 22, 23, and 24 bp read length (Figure 2). Another characteristic of RNAi responses   is that there must be positive-and negative-strand vsRNAs in some hotspots. In the data SRR941591, the third hotspot satisfied this criterion. The last and key step to identify RNAi responses is to find the siRNA duplexes from hotspots. They are usually only a minute fraction of the total vsRNAs, because the duplexes are short lived, due to one of the two strands being rapidly degraded following their creation. In the third hotspot, we found three canonical 22 bp siRNA duplexes containing a 20 nt perfectly base-paired duplex region with 2 nt 3 \uDBA0\uDC20 overhangs. We also found 21, 23, and 24 bp siRNA-like duplexes, respectively (Figure 1). However, we used the putative HIV-1 reference M19921 for this analysis, This mature miRNA is repeated 12 times in 13 repeated units.without knowledge of the exact HIV-1 sequence. M19921 is recombinant clone pNL4-3, which includes the HIV-1 virus region and vector region. Since the pNL4-3 clone is only constructed for the experiment use, the vsRNAs on the pNL4-3 vector region could be contamination during the library construction or sequencing process. Although the third hotspot existed in the pNL4-3 vector region, rather than the HIV-1 region on the reference M19921, the reliability of these siRNA duplexes in the third hotspot was supported by their uniqueness in the NCBI GenBank database and high sequencing depth. Therefore, this RNAi response could have happened in other samples.In addition to the siRNAs, vsRNAs include other small RNA reads, for example, microRNAs (miRNAs), piwiinteracting RNAs (piRNAs), or degraded mRNA fragments. DNA viruses produce their own miRNAs facilitating the detection of DNA viruses, for example, EBV. In the data SRR1563063, we found seven miRNA-like duplexes from EBV vsRNAs (Supplementary File 3). Then, we blasted these duplexes to the miRBase database (http://www.mirbase.org/) and identified three known mature virus miRNAs. They were rlcv-mir-rL1-1-3p, ebv-mir-BART1-5p, and ebv-mir-BART1-3p located at positions 53,801, 151,640, and 151,676 on the EBV reference M80517. Three mature miRNAs came from two miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) rlcv-mir-rL1-1 and ebvmir-BART1. Compared to two other miRNAs, the ebv-mir-BART1-5p was expressed at a very high level of 17,987 read counts. As for the remaining four duplexes, we confirmed they could not be matched to the human genome. Then, we used RNAfold online server (http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/cgibin/RNAfold.cgi) to predict the second structures of their pre-miRNAs (Supplementary File 4). As a result, we identified a new EBV pre-miRNA, with a length of 90 bp and a very high minimal folding free energy index (MEFI) over 1.0 (Figure 3(a)). Furthermore, this pre-miRNA resided in a repeating region on the reference M80517. This repeating region from 50,578 to 52,077 bp had 13 units (Figure 3(b)). Each unit with a length of 125 bp contained this pre-miRNA sequence. It suggested that this repeating region comprise a primary miRNA (pri-miRNA).In this study, we used 931 sRNA-seq runs of data from the NCBI SRA database to detect and identify human viruses. Six viruses were detected and two of them were not found in previous studies. These results suggest the sRNA-seq can be used to detect viruses in mammals and humans. The sRNA-seq data contains the heterozygosity information that can be used to investigate the pathogen evolution in one person and design therapies to deal with a specific virus population. The sRNA-seq data can also be used to find new virus miRNA or to investigate the RNAi responses in mammals and humans. However, sRNA-seq data used in this study were not from virus-infection experiments with knowledge of the exact virus sequences. In place of the exact virus sequences, the putative virus sequences were used to investigate the RNAi responses. Although using the putative virus sequences brought some uncertainties, the results of this study still shed light on the studies of virus induced RNAi in mammals.","tokenCount":"3165"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bfcd54ffc3e278e4a468baac5b82d094","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/614f8c60-14ef-476d-9c0c-44ec35a6dca9/retrieve","id":"-468406447"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"47fbb5cd-eb48-4756-9e50-2a4de9ba44c3","pagecount":"25","content":"• Cadenas priorizadas: Ganadería bovina (lácteos y carne), cacao, caucho y productos no maderables del bosque• Desarrollo de cadenas de valor cero deforestación usando un enfoque participativo y territorial (plataformas de dialogo multiactorales), con metodologías CIAT/GIZ• Generar alternativas productivas rentables que reduzcan la necesidad de recurrir a la deforestación o cultivos de uso ilicito• Adaptar las politicas publicas del MADR (Cadenas, Alianzas productivas, FINAGRO, extension rural) a los objetivos agroambientales en un escenario de posconflicto• Promover modelos de negocio inclusivos con el sector privado para integrar a los pequeños productores con cadenas de abastecimiento formales• Realizar mediciones de huellas de carbono para conocer el desempeño ambiental de las cadenas.Cacao CauchoPlataformas multiactores ¿Qué es una Estrategia de Competitividad?Una estrategia de competitividad es un conjunto de actividades que se planean y ejecutan con la participación activa de los diversos actores de una cadena para el logro de objetivos comunes, alrededor de las cuales se articulan una o más organizaciones empresariales y grupos de interés, con un enfoque ampliado de cadena productiva. • Presenta los mejores indicadores entre todos los sistemas analizados, teniendo en cuenta que asume la implementación de BPA y una productividad muy superior a la media nacional (Entre 1.100 y 1.600 kg/ha/año).• El cultivo tiene el potencial para mejorar la economía de las familias de la región. Sin embargo, este hallazgo debe manejarse con precaución dado que los resultados obtenidos se basan en la condiciones de mercado y las características agroclimáticas actuales.• El cultivo asociado permite amortiguar el costo en los primeros años, por ello es necesario planificar siembras a nivel regional para evitar choques de precio• Es necesario desarrollar estrategias para el manejo del cadmio antes de promover siembras en zonas con incertidumbre1. Apoyar el desarrollo y la integracion de la pequeña y mediana empresa local en cadenas de valor formales con acuerdos de cero deforestación 2. Armonizar los contenidos y metodologias de asistencia técnica 3. Fomentar con incentivos publicos y de Mercado la intensificación sostenible de la producción primaria y adopción de buenas practicas agricolas 4. Generar valor agregado, ingresos y empleo a traves de la transformación local, enfocandose en apoyar a los jovenes y las mujeres, cuando exista una demanda explicita de los productos 5. Promover responsablemente el acceso a mercados diferenciados, como cacao fino y de aroma, lacteos y carnicos de pasturas, certificacion organica, fairtrade, (descomoditización), teniendo en cuenta las barreras de entrada y los tamaños de mercados. 6. Distribución más justa y equitativa de los ingresos a través de modelos de negocio inclusivos entre asociaciones de productores y el sector privado.","tokenCount":"426"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f8ee8c53a9302da3cb9f3264a51bac5e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ea8ad6d5-f2b8-4648-bcb3-f90e13e4da0b/retrieve","id":"-1214766947"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bbea56a5-c27d-42dd-a292-9a0f13a76c31","pagecount":"47","content":"en Perú para poner en marcha el proyecto:\"Agroecología para la acción climática: Fortaleciendo la evidencia para una agricultura a pequeña escala resiliente al clima y baja en carbono en América Latina\". https://ccafs.cgiar.org/es/research/projects/agroecologia-para-la-accion-climatica-en-americalatina-fortaleciendo-laComo parte de ese proyecto, este informe ha sido elaborado como producto del paquete 5: Políticas habilitantes y vías de escalamiento agroecológico para la resiliencia climática para Colombia Para citar este informe:Valdivia-Díaz, M & Le Coq, JF. ( 2021). Hacia una hoja de ruta para el escalamiento de la Agroecología en Colombia: un análisis de las políticas, programas y factores limitantes actuales. Programa de investigación del CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical -CIAT, ahora parte de la Alianza Bioversity-CIAT Agradecimientos por sus contribuciones en este reporte:La agroecología se define como una disciplina científica, un conjunto de prácticas y un movimiento social. Como ciencia, estudia cómo los diferentes componentes del agroecosistema interactúan. Como un conjunto de prácticas, busca sistemas agrícolas sostenibles que optimizan y estabilizan la producción. Como movimiento social, persigue papeles multifuncionales para la agricultura, promueve la justicia social, nutre la identidad y la cultura, y refuerza la viabilidad económica de las zonas rurales (Wezel et al.,2009).Particularmente en América Latina, la agroecología ha tenido un impacto tangible y positivo en el rendimiento de los cultivos, la conservación de los recursos, la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria (Altieri &Toledo, 2011). Es importante destacar que la agroecología como alternativa a los sistemas agroalimentarios actuales se ha remontado a su origen como expresión de resistencia a la agricultura industrial y a la revolución verde, una herramienta y un enfoque para lograr la soberanía alimentaria (Val & Rosset, 2020) Mier Y Terán Giménez Cacho et al. (2018) reconocen como factor relevante para el escalamiento de la agroecología es la existencia de prácticas agroecológicas. Llevar esto a la práctica implica una acción colectiva para convertir los principios agroecológicos en estrategias para la gestión del suelo, el agua y la biodiversidad con el fin de mejorar la producción y la resiliencia agrícola. En la década de 1980, se promovieron muchas de estas prácticas agroecológicas en Latinoamérica por medio de las ONG's vinculadas a las organizaciones campesinas (Altieri 1999).Las iniciativas agroecológicas realizadas por las redes de los movimientos y ong's vinculadas a la agroecología demostraron ser valiosos para difundir y ampliar la agroecología, tanto en mayor número de agricultores como a escala geográfica. Sin embargo, las estrategias de escalamiento agroecológico deben complementarse, por supuesto, con políticas favorables que incrementen experiencias exitosas y promuevan la implementación de programas favorables para la agroecología.En objetivo de este estudio se enfoca en identificar las barreras y oportunidades que tiene la agroecología para ser promovida desde las políticas públicas. El resultado final pretende proponer una hoja de ruta, donde los diversos actores vinculados al sistema alimentario y en relación con la agroecología brinden su experiencia y percepción respecto a las barreras, pero sobre todo oportunidades para el escalamiento de la agroecología en Colombia.Finalmente, esta propuesta de hoja de ruta pretende demostrar que existen muchos caminos para poder escalar la agroecología, donde si bien es relevante la voluntad política y administrativa para ponerla en marcha; esta hoja de ruta puede ser asumida por los diversos actores involucrados en el sistema alimentario que tienen un interés común en el escalamiento de la agroecología.En base a Parmentier (2014), Nicholls & Altieri (2018), Tittonell (2019), el escalamiento de la agroecología implica no una transición, sino varias transiciones simultáneas, a diferentes escalas, niveles y dimensiones; de índole social, biológica, económica, cultural, institucional, política. Este proceso conduce a ampliar el número de familias involucradas en optimizar sus prácticas de manejo en territorios cada vez más amplio y que esto involucre a más personas a nivel técnico-productivo en el procesamiento, distribución y consumo de alimentos derivados de la agroecología 1 .Además, si consideramos que el escalamiento combina procesos verticales (políticas habilitantes) y horizontales (redes campesino-campesino) (Rosset & Altieri 2017), en nuestro estudio, nos centramos en los procesos verticales, que hacen hincapié en las dimensiones institucionales y políticas como facilitadores de la escalabilidad de la agroecología (Le Coq et al., 2019).Sin embargo, en la dimensión institucional las políticas específicas diseñadas en favor a la agroecología han sido pocas veces reconocidas en Latinoamérica (Sabourin et al.,2017; Le Coq et al, 2020). Por lo tanto, para este estudio, a nivel del marco político evaluamos si algunas de las diversas dimensiones del concepto de la agroecología fueron abordados como objetivo político. Si existieron estos objetivos, cómo fueron implementados. Si, por el contrario, no existieron políticas específicas para la agroecología. Existieron algunos otros instrumentos o programas que tuvieron el potencial de contribuir de forma directa/indirecta a las dimensiones de escalabilidad de la agroecología.El análisis de las políticas públicas tiene como objetivo principal la identificación concreta de los actores que intervienen en un proceso de definición, de decisión y de implementación de una política, y asimismo busca poner a la luz las posiciones, intereses y objetivos de esos actores (Roth, 2006;Fuenmayor, 2017). La visibilidad de una política tiende a crear un compromiso tanto entre los funcionarios y actores de la sociedad civil que tienen que aplicar la política de abajo a arriba, como entre los políticos que tienen que apoyarla de arriba abajo. La apropiación de un programa refleja el compromiso a múltiples niveles, lo que a su vez implica un compromiso tanto administrativo como político (Brynard, 2009).Por lo tanto, comprender las posibilidades de escalamiento de la agroecología implica un análisis profundo de cómo las políticas implementadas tienen un efecto directo o indirecto sobre la misma tanto al nivel macro y micro.Magoro y Brynard (2010) postulan que la política implica teorías; la política se convierte en programas cuando, mediante una acción autorizada, se crean las condiciones iniciales para la implementación. La implementación de políticas abarca las acciones de individuos (o grupos) públicos o privados que se dirigen a la consecución de los objetivos establecidos en las decisiones políticas previas (Van Meter & Van Horn, 1974) citado en (Mukonza R.M. & Mukonza C., 2015).El éxito en la aplicación de las políticas es una acción estratégica adoptada por el gobierno para tomar la decisión política deseada y lograr los resultados previstos. El éxito en términos de aplicación de políticas implica lograr la funcionalidad esperada por una parte interesada identificada (Brynard, 2009).La visibilidad de una política tiende a crear un compromiso tanto entre los funcionarios que tienen que aplicar la política de abajo a arriba, como entre los políticos que tienen que apoyarla de arriba a abajo. Es más probable que la gente se comprometa con un programa de gran visibilidad. La apropiación de un programa refleja el compromiso a múltiples niveles, lo que a su vez implica un compromiso tanto administrativo como político. El compromiso con una política concreta debe llegar al mayor número posible de interesados (Brynard, 2009).El interés por los instrumentos políticos se enmarca en el modelo de análisis que explora los diferentes tipos de políticas que un gobierno selecciona para alcanzar sus fines políticos. Desde esta perspectiva, las políticas públicas son, en sí mismas, instrumentos para el ejercicio efectivo del poder, independientemente de la direccionalidad o intencionalidad con que se ejerza dicho poder. Además de este impulso inicial basado en los diferentes tipos de políticas, el interés por los instrumentos fue alimentado por la relevancia que adquirió en la etapa de implementación de las políticas públicas. Al examinar la etapa de implementación de las políticas, se buscó no sólo entender las razones que llevan a apoyar un instrumento sobre otro, sino también explorar los efectos sobre los factores producidos por esta elección (Sarthou, 2015).  2. Prácticas agroecológicas: Estas prácticas agroecológicas se basan en el mantenimiento de la vida en el suelo, la mejora de la agrobiodiversidad (como la integración de los cultivos, los árboles y el ganado) y el rediseño de las explotaciones y el paisaje (policultivos, conservación del suelo, conservación de los bosques o de las manchas de fauna).-Promover los policultivos y los sistemas agroforestales -Promover prácticas de conservación del suelo y del agua -Fomentar la expansión de la agroindustria y los monocultivos industriales.3. Covid: esta crisis creó oportunidades políticas y contextos propicios para las alternativas al modelo agroindustrial.Políticas que promuevan la agroecología como estrategia contra la inseguridad alimentaria por el COVID y el aumento de los mercados itinerantes agroecológicos.Fomento de la biotecnología y la producción intensiva para hacer frente a la inseguridad alimentaria debida al COVID 4. Acceso a los ecosistemas naturales: La seguridad en la tenencia de la tierra y la reforma agraria, así como el acceso a las semillas y a otros elementos de los ecosistemas naturales han demostrado desde hace tiempo ser de vital importancia para los medios de vida de los pequeños agricultores y para la inversión en agricultura sostenible, incluida la agroecología, aunque estas conexiones son extremadamente contextuales y requieren enfoques específicos de género y de ubicación.El acceso seguro a otros ecosistemas naturales es también un factor clave para la agroecología. El derecho al agua; la tenencia de la tierra, las funciones de los ecosistemas/sinergias entre la biodiversidad silvestre y la cultivada; el suelo y su calidad; los pastizales; la pesca y los bosques. Una gobernanza local empoderada que priorice los derechos consuetudinarios e indígenas -Desigualdad e inseguridad en el acceso y control de la tierra.-Las dinámicas de descalificación en torno al control del agua y otros recursos son bastante similares a las que se dan en torno a la tierra. -Privatización, desplazamiento y despojo de la población local y el control excesivo por parte de intereses privados del agua, las semillas, las razas y otros materiales elementos de diversidad, bloquean las posibilidades de autoorganización comunitaria para la agroecología en estos áreas, disminuyendo la adaptabilidad y la resiliencia. -Políticas públicas que facilitan la concentración y el acaparamiento de tierrasCondiciones habilitantes Condiciones limitantes -Los procesos de conocimiento que respetan y aprovechan el conocimiento de los agricultores, los pueblos indígenas y otros productores de alimentos y especialmente el conocimiento de las mujeres son esenciales para las transformaciones agroecológicas. -Esfuerzos para mantener y regenerar los sistemas de conocimientos tradicionales -Los programas de investigación agrícola sirven en gran medida a la agricultura intensiva en insumos y tecnología 6. Redes y Alianzas: Las redes de múltiples actores son fundamentales para fortalecer la autoorganización comunitaria en favor de la agroecología. El conocimiento, los mercados, el discurso, la inclusión y las prácticas de producción en la agroecología se desarrollan a través de las redes y la organización social. En la práctica se traducen en programas que constituyen la malla programática de acciones. Estos instrumentos pueden ser implementado por funcionarios públicos, así como también por socios privados de la cooperación.Las políticas habilitantes pueden generar las condiciones que faciliten inicialmente la transición hacia la agroecología en múltiples fases (sustitución por prácticas alternativas y rediseño del agroecosistema), a diversas escalas territoriales y factores como i) recursos productivos, ii) política, iii) mercado, iv) alianzas, v) conocimiento y vi) económica, ( En un entorno político-institucional puede que se esté abordando algunas de los factores favorablemente, así como puede necesitar ajustes o quizás no se están considerando en la política pública. Dependiendo de alguna de esas condiciones, se podrá analizar a nivel político-institucional las barreras y oportunidades que tiene la agroecología para escalar en Colombia.Para operacionalizar nuestro marco analítico, realizamos 3 etapas las cuales corresponden a las preguntas de investigación (Ver cuadro 1). La primera consistió en una revisión de documentos de política pública para identificar las políticas, presupuestos y programas que pueden contribuir al escalamiento de la agroecología. La segunda consistió en 20 entrevistas a 8 tipos de actores, representantes de las diversos componentes del sistema alimentario (ver cuadro 2). La tercera consistió en un taller de validación con los actores involucrados en las entrevistas donde se presentaron los resultados del análisis del estudio, y se discutieron de forma transversal las acciones estratégicas identificadas para fomentar el escalamiento de agroecología. En 1995 se inició a discutir en la política pública alrededor de la producción agrícola ecológica. En el 2006, con la resolución 187 y el reglamento para la producción ecológica y el sistema de control de productos agropecuarios ecológicos, se incorporó un sello de alimentos ecológicos. Después de eso vino una propuesta de la Corporación autónoma regional del Valle del Cauca (CVC) que fue el sello verde -promoviendo los negocios verdes, y con una intención de fomentar la producción limpia y agroecológica.En el 2016, un hito muy importante fue el Acuerdo de Paz de la Habana, donde la página 24, es muy clara en la inclusión de la agroecología y producción orgánica. El acuerdo es un acto constitucional. En el punto 1 define seis planes de desarrollo rural. Durante este tiempo se estableció la Mesa técnica de ACFC en ella participaron RENAF, ANUC, junto con otros representantes institucionales (Ministerio  de Trabajo, Ministerio de Educación, Ministerio de Agricultura) contando con el liderazgo de la FAO. En el 2017, se aprobaría la Resolución 464, la primera política diferencial en ACFC en el país.En el 2017, con la aprobación de la ley Nº 1876 se estableció el Sistema Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria -SNIA, que habilitó al AgroSENA, dónde están desarrollando un currículo para la implementación de procesos de formación y capacitación para la transición agroecológica. AgroSena ha certificado alrededor de 200 productores en conversión productiva agroecológica.Ese mismo año se aprobó el Plan Estratégico de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del Sector Agropecuaria (PECTIA) 2017-2027, dónde el objetivo 3, se orienta a promover el desarrollo de sistemas productivos ambientalmente sostenibles; de igual forma que la política de Crecimiento Verde (CONPES) enfocándose en el cambio de formas de producción para la sostenibilidad.Durante el 2020 se aprobaron dos leyes que pueden vincularse con la agroecología como la ley Nº 2046, (participación de pequeños productores en Compras Públicas) y la ley Nº 347 (etiquetado de alimentos). En el 2021, la Resolución 00161-\"Asociatividad Rural Productiva\", el Proyecto de ley Nº 544 para la Agroecología y la Comisión Intersectorial de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (CISAN) incluyeron la agroecología como parte de plan de seguridad alimentaria. Por otro lado, el 2021, el Proyecto \"Sembrando Capacidades\" con apoyo de la FAO Colombia han desarrollado una agenda de investigación y políticas públicas sobre agroecología para Colombia.Un marco político-institucional propicio en Colombia aún requiere instituciones y presupuestos específicos para la implementación de acciones a nivel local en agroecología.En el cuadro 3, se presenta los marcos de políticas existentes en Colombia, que pueden afectar el escalamiento de la Agroecología. Se evidencia cuatro grandes categorías, las políticas post conflicto, las políticas generalistas para agricultura limpia, las políticas de soberanía alimentaria y de apoyo a la agricultura familiar, las políticas ambientales y de cambio climático. • Sector de Agricultura:o Programa de Formalización de la Propiedad Rural: 35% o Programa de apoyo a pequeños productores para la compra de insumos agropecuarios: 5% o Programa de adquisición de maquinaria para pequeños productores: 5% o Construyendo capacidades empresariales rurales: 3% o Agricultura por contrato: 2% En este sector se evidencia que la implementación de programas tuvo una orientación de promover la formalización de propiedad rural, acceso a compra de insumos agropecuarios, maquinarias y capacitación para emprendedores rurales. Además, se ha promovido el programa de agricultura por contrato para asegurar las cosechas de productores que tienen grandes excedentes y conectarlos con el mercado a través de un comprador. Esta lente centra la atención en los factores estructurales difíciles de cambiar, cuya influencia en la configuración de las instituciones formales e informales suele ignorarse.Las instituciones formales incluyen las leyes (como las normas electorales), los reglamentos, los tratados y los acuerdos escritos que a menudo son aplicados por terceros. Las instituciones informales se refieren a creencias, normas y cultura menos visibles Las instituciones formales e informales son un hecho en las economías desarrolladas y en desarrollo. Comprender la forma en que interactúan ofrece una mejor comprensión de los incentivos políticos y de otro tipo que actúan en un entorno concreto.Se centra en las características de un sector específico o de determinados sectores o de determinados bienes públicos regionales y sus vínculos con las relaciones de gobernanza, presupuestos y rendición de cuentas. Cada sector o subsector tiene diferentes características técnicas y de gobernanza, con distintas implicaciones políticas.Esta perspectiva ayuda a pensar más allá de los \"sospechosos habituales\" en los procesos políticos. A menudo, los obstáculos a estos procesos sólo pueden eliminarse mediante coaliciones de partes interesadas, o mediante intervenciones más coordinadas y por múltiples partes interesadas.No hay que subestimar el poder de las ideas, la ideología, la religión, las experiencias y los sentimientos de pertenencia, ya que estos influyen en las lógicas de decisión, las preferencias y los comportamientos A partir de las entrevistas realizadas en Ecuador se identificaron los siguientes factores:Cuadro 6 Factores limitantes a nivel del entorno político-institucional en Colombia. Fuente: Entrevistas 2021• Las políticas priorizan el monocultivo y la ganadería. Estado y los técnicos asocian agroecología con no producción • La agroecológica es solamente un tema ambiental y no se reconoce que también es un tema de salud pública y contribución al desarrollo económico y competitivo del país • No se comprende el enfoque agroecológico como un enfoque transformador de los agroecosistemas y social • Dominancia de comercialización en base a un enfoque empresarial VS comercialización por circuitos cortos • El enfoque de cadenas que prevalece en el sector agropecuario • Marco jurídico muy amplio que hace difícil la articulación amplia de la institucionalización en pro de la agroecología • Los criterios para participar en una mesa técnica son difíciles de cumplir para los actores que representan a la agricultura familiar (personería jurídica, salario mínimo, etc.)• Las políticas agrarias no tienen un enfoque holístico que involucre otros sectores como Ministerio de Educación, Ministerio de Ambiente, Ministerio de Salud, entre otros. • Falta de mayor intersectorialidad y de migrar a una gestión pública de resultados y procesos, más allá de competencias • Falta ampliar el esquema legislativo de comercialización y aterrizarlo a la realidad de la agroecología • Falta elevar la resolución 464 a ley para ser implementada • Falta política pública en agroecología para promover programas y planes que puedan implementarse Factores políticotécnico sectorial• Voluntad económica del gobierno, presupuestos menores al 1%• Pocos técnicos con conocimientos en agroecología trabajando en el gobierno y la implementación de las políticas • La resolución 464 se ha implementado de forma local en base a la voluntad política de gobiernos locales, falta mayor difusión nacional • Falta mayores diálogos en mesas técnicas, con facilidad para tener mayor representatividad y legitimidad • Falta una institucionalidad que permita instrumentalizar el marco normativo • Falta una orientación clara sobre la ejecución de políticas y leyes en favor de la agroecología • Falta incentivos y acompañamientos a los productores ACFC para participar en las compras públicas • Falta una regulación sobre los intermediarios que participan en estos procesos de compras públicas • Se requieren políticas públicas que comprendan la integralidad y complejidad del territorio y también el rol de los diferentes actores en el sistema • Falta mayores acompañamientos para reforzar la relación productor-consumidor • La Reforma Rural Integral (RRI) no es evidente en la práctica. PDET es muy limitada en términos de fomento a la producción • Falta políticas públicas que promuevan la comercialización e incentiven la producción • Falta incentivos para que los mecanismos de implementación sean participativos e integrales Factores de relación de actores• Falta adecuada comunicación para realizar proyectos de Ley tomando en consideración la sociedad civil (RENAF-MAELA) • Los diferentes grupos de actores deben articularse desde la base conceptual hasta la • La confianza y credibilidad hacia el estado está rota y fragmentada • Las diferentes corrientes de pensamiento tienen que dialogar y articular desde la base práctica hasta la conceptual. • Falta incrementar la articulación entre actores en base a los mismos intereses, por ejemplo, RENAF (aporta conocimiento) con Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos -ANUC (personería jurídica) • Falta que las organizaciones de base puedan exigir políticas y programas especiales con el enfoque agroecológico • Falta líderes a nivel comunitario que promuevan incidencia política • Falta dialogo entre diversos modelos productivos, para visibilizar las transformaciones que se pueden hacer en beneficio de otros sectores como el medio ambiente y económicos • Falta mayor presencia de la academia para discutir en las mesas de diálogo y brindar directrices a los actuales sistemas productivos, articulando con los movimientos sociales de base y productores • Los movimientos y ONGs están promoviendo mucho las Escuelas Campesinas de agroecología, se requieren hacer sinergias con los gobiernos locales, regionales y nacionales • Falta sensibilización del consumidor a través de alianzas con otros sectores (salud, gastronómico, etc.) Los entrevistados mencionaron varios factores que limitan el escalamiento de la agroecología. Estos factores se clasificaron y organizaron según el tipo y número de menciones que se hicieron. La priorización que realizó cada grupo de actores consolida sus diversas visiones y experiencias respecto a lo consideran limitante en el escalamiento agroecológico.Los factores relacionados con las siguientes dimensiones fueron priorizados en orden de importancia: i) mercado, ii) conocimiento, iii) político, iv) alianzas, v) eco-nómico y vi) recursos productivos.Los factores limitantes claves identificados por los actores fueron los siguientes: en la dimensión política (la falta acceso a plataformas de diálogo político dónde se tome en cuenta las voces de los productores, la falta de presupuesto público para la implementación de la agroecología) y en la dimensión del conocimiento (falta de acompañamiento en campo, y espacios de co-aprendizaje) Para la categoría mercado se han listado 14 factores los cuales tienen vínculos de causa efecto. Por ejemplo, se ha listado la importancia de promover acceso a los mercados alternativos, sin embargo, un factor limitante se vincularía con la falta de estrategias para la diferenciación a través de un sistema de certificación SGP que sea reconocido nacionalmente por los funcionarios y productores. Además, se ha mencionado que estos sistemas de certificación podrían ser mejorados para poder considerar mejores sistemas de trazabilidad y certificación que les permita acceder a mejores oportunidades de mercado.Por otro lado, una de las barreras esenciales que se observa está en los canales de distribución y cómo realizar una diversificación de canales, dependiendo del nivel de desarrollo de los productores, y no solo enfocarse en circuitos cortos sino expandir otras opciones. Pero para ello se requiere mejorar los sistemas viales y de acceso a servicios de red de internet para brindar mejores oportunidades de acceso a diversos circuitos comerciales a nivel regional. Esto también trae como beneficio que los costos de venta puedan ser accesibles para toda la población y no solo para un grupo que tiene el alcance económico. Para eso se requiere una campaña fuerte de promoción del consumo nacional.Para la promoción de mercados agroecológicos a través de circuitos cortos se mencionaron como barreras la dificultad de requerimientos legales y las tasas impositivas, y la reducida cantidad de espacios físicos a nivel municipal donde se pueden ofrecer los productos. Finalmente, la promoción de esta alternativa de productos viene acompañada de una sensibilización del consumidor; desde el concepto de lo que implica agroecología. Una oportunidad para realizarlo ha sido el contexto de pandemia de COVID que ha generado más oportunidades para visibilizar las consecuencias del consumo de alimentos limpios para mejorar la salud, sin embargo, se tiene como barrera el acceso económico para difusión de comunicación.Para la categoría conocimiento se han listado 8 factores donde se ha dado especial énfasis para la escalabilidad de la agroecología es el acompañamiento para producir y para conectar con el mercado. Para lo cual se requieren espacios de aprendizaje que puede darse por medio de las escuelas de campo. Sin embargo, para ello se debe superar que el currículo universitario o de centros de aprendizaje se orienten solo a la agroexportación.Por otro lado, se enfatizó como un factor limitante el acceso innovación tecnológica sostenible, por ej. la creación de sistemas de frío para mantener post cosecha de forma natural. Este factor también puede ser articulado con la investigación basada en conocimientos tradicionales.Para la categoría político se han listado 7 factores dónde se ha dado especial énfasis a que falta promover la agroecología en Colombia desde un punto de vista que englobe el bienestar y la salud pública. Sin embargo, esto no ha sido posible debido a la visión reducida de la agroecología respecto a su relevancia económica, social y ambiental para el país, por lo tanto, la voluntad política no se ha visto reflejada en planes o programas con presupuestos continuados; así como la ausencia de intersectorialidad.Un factor limitante ha sido la falta una institucionalidad para la implementación de política, pero que antes de eso se requieren plataformas de diálogo político que considere las experiencias y sugerencias de organizaciones de base y otros actores involucrados en la agroecología. A pesar de que existe una buena estructura normativa esto no se ha visto reflejado en presupuestos para la implementación, por lo tanto, una limitante esta en la falta de incentivos a nivel de gobiernos locales para poner en marcha acciones vinculadas a la agroecología.Para la categoría alianzas se han listado 6 factores dónde mayoritariamente diversos actores han percibido que para la escalabilidad de la agroecología se requiere promover organizaciones de consumidores en Colombia y que estos se vinculen fuertemente con los productores, así como, promover actores dinamizadores y alianzas entre productores agroecológicos con un intermediario solidario o emprendimiento que comprende la agroecología y comercialización justa. Este actor puede ayudar a articular al productor que tenga una mayor capacidad de producción a conectarlo con otros espacios de mercado Además, se mencionó que se requiere promover mayores redes entre productores, y que éstas puedan recibir un soporte y conectividad con otras organizaciones de base (ONG, movimientos, consumidores, et), de esa forma puedan participar activamente de diversas plataformas como por ejem. De aprendizaje, de incidencia política, de mercado, de redes con otros productores, etc.Para la categoría económico se han listado 6 factores dónde mayoritariamente diversos actores han percibido que para inicialmente hacer la transición hacia la agroecología se requieren mayores incentivos económicos que permitan sostener a un productor en un proceso de transición que puede tomar hasta 2 años, eso se podría resolver a través de programas de financiamiento que diferencien los requisitos adaptados para la agricultura familiar y comunitaria. Estos recursos económicos pueden también ser percibidos a través de seguros financieros para el clima o con contratos de venta adaptados a sus condiciones. Sin embargo, al mismo tiempo que se considera indispensable acceder a créditos, se cree necesario que los productores puedan acceder a plataformas de conocimiento para saber cómo calcular la rentabilidad de sus producciones, y de esa forma mejorar su productividad, y poder tener un mejor manejo de sus finanzas para acceder a mayores créditos.Para la categoría recursos productivos se han listado 5 factores dónde se ha dado especial énfasis para la escalabilidad de la agroecología al acceso a la tierra. Además, ha sido mencionado la necesidad de acceso a semillas, insumos agrícolas bio, mano de obra e infraestructura.Aunque se pudo priorizar los grandes tipos de factores que afectan el escalamiento de la agroecología en Colombia, se necesita recalcar que los actores tienen diferentes percepciones sobre los factores de importancia 3 (Figura 5).• La mayor cantidad de consenso entre todos los actores la tuvo el tipo de factor de mercado, teniendo especial relevancia por los productores, funcionarios, mercado, movimientos, ONG, y pymes. • Los productores han considerado como sus factores limitantes vinculados a alianzas, conocimiento y mercado. • Los funcionarios han considerado como sus factores limitantes a recursos productivos, conocimiento y mercado. • Los movimientos han considerado como sus factores limitantes a la política y conocimiento.• Las ongs, academia, pyme y mercados han considerado como sus factores limitantes principales a conocimiento, mercado, económico y político.Figura 5 Visiones de los actores respecto a las categorías de los factores en ColombiaSe mencionaron 8 sectores con diversos programas que fueron valorados en base a su percepción sobre que tanto contribuían a algunos factores. La valoración se calificó como que el programa estaba abordando de alguna forma el factor mencionado si el valor promedio es mayor a 1. Si el valor promedio es de 2, significa que el programa está abordándolo de forma satisfactoria (Ver Cuadro 7) En el ministerio de agricultura y desarrollo rural (MinAgricultura), los programas mencionados con mayor potencial para el escalamiento de la agroecología han sido, el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), ya que en el 2017 abrió la posibilidad de que, en los procesos de registro de semillas, se ponga en la etiqueta de que es una semilla permitida en procesos producción ecológica o agroecológica. Es decir, que la semilla fue producida ecológicamente. Esto permitiría a los productores de producir semilla ecológica, sin embargo, son muy pocos productores los que lo están haciendo. Además, desde SiriAgro ha trabajado desde el registro de los insumos permitidos en la producción ecológica que prácticamente también es aplicable para los procesos agroecológicos. Hace falta difundir más esta información y que tenga un mayor alcance a más productores.En este mismo ministerio se ha mencionado el programa Alianzas Productivas, es un programa que vincula a pequeños productores rurales a mercados, por medio de aliados comerciales formales y de propuestas productivas rentables y sostenibles. Estas alianzas se han desarrollado en 99 municipios priorizadas en los PDET dónde históricamente fueron afectados por conflicto. Para que este programa pueda potenciar el escalamiento de la agroecología debería adaptarse a involucrar otros cultivos potenciales de la agrobiodiversidad y no sólo los que han priorizado como cacao y café. Además, requieren un acompañamiento en la parte administrativa una vez involucrados en el proceso.Además, se mencionó el programa El campo emprende es un mecanismo de cofinanciación con recursos no reembolsables dirigido a grupos de jóvenes mujeres que quieran implementar planes de negocio vinculados a una producción sostenible. La barrera para acceder a este tipo de concursos es la capacidad técnica de los participantes para elaborar planes de negocio y que tome en cuenta a un sistema productivo agroecológico.En el ministerio de ambiente y desarrollo sostenible (MinAmbiente), en la CVC, la agroecología se enfoca sobre todo desde el punto de vista ambiental dada su competencia como organización. Se trabajó la caracterización de la parte productiva, el rescate de la tradición oral para proyectar todo esto hacia la defensa del territorio el cual fue muy fracturado por el desarrollo de los cultivos de caña de azúcar. Desde aquí nace Agro Cauca, que abordan temas de producción, comercialización, financiación, entre otros. También se crearon sistemas de crédito comunitario a través de fondos rotatorios, donde los productores podían acceder a recursos hasta por $1,000,000 ($250 USD Aprox.) con recursos aportados por la Corporación Andina de Fomento.Luego los programas Negocios Verdes, Fondo Colombia Sostenible y Ganadería Sostenible tienen el potencial para abordar la agroecología desde el manejo y conservación de paisaje a través de un enfoque de servicios ecosistémicos. Por ej. la iniciativa Cacao Bosques y Paz con más de 40 instituciones y empresas en 6 departamentos del país. Es una iniciativa que busca la producción de cacao premium con cero deforestaciones.En el ministerio de tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (MinTic) se mencionó como un programa con alto potencial Centros Digitales, sin embargo, no ha tenido continuidad. Este programa ha permitido conectar a los productores a nivel digital y esto permite romper las barreras de conexión para acompañamiento en la fase productiva respecto a plagas, estrategias de producción, así como facilidad para conectar con mercados locales vía online.En el ministerio de trabajo (MinTrabajo) se mencionó a Unidad Administrativa Especial de Organizaciones Solidarias apoyan a que los agricultores se organicen, y puedan acceder a esquemas de financiación solidaria para los procesos productivos y accedan a mercados de circuito corto. Y con el SENA que tiene a cargo el Subsistema Nacional de Formación y Capacitación para la Innovación Agropecuaria. Desde AgroSENA se viene trabajando en el diseño de un currículo para la implementación de procesos de transición agroecológica. Además, se han llevado a cabo laboratorios donde se certificaron alrededor de 200 productores que tenían conversión productiva agroecológica Existen experiencias de conservación, pagos por servicios ambiéntales, agroecología como por ejemplo Semillas de Agua, iniciativas como estas requieren ser identificadas y reconocidas por los diversos sectores para formar alianzas y potenciarse en favor del escalamiento de la agroecología en Colombia.3.3 Propuestas de acciones 3.3.1 Priorización del estado de atención por parte de las políticas públicas sobre los factores limitantes Tomando en cuenta la importancia relativa de los factores según los actores entrevistados (sección 3.2.2), y el nivel de atención desde la política (sección 3.2.4), se realizó una priorización de los factores que requieren ser atendidos en la construcción de una hoja de ruta para el escalamiento de la agroecología.Así, se evidenciaron 3 grandes tipos de factores: los factores calificados de \"críticos\" correspondiendo a factores por los cuales no se han identificados programas que los afecten todavía, los factores que requieren \"grandes ajustes\" correspondiendo a factores por los cuales las políticas actuales no contribuyen favorablemente, o no se están implementado, y los factores que requieren pocos \"ajustes\" que corresponden a factores por los cuales ya existen políticas que actúan favorablemente sobre ellos , pero que se podría mejorar (Ver figura 6). • Involucrar a la academia/emprendimientos en los procesos de sistematización de la trazabilidad para diversos cultivos que se acopian para venta de mayor cantidad Productor MADR, SENA, Emprendimientos ,• Promover un sistema de monitoreo en los puntos de venta y distribución a los mercados de todos los productos frescos/procesados de consumo alimenticio, para evaluar su contenido de agroquímicos y desarrollar un plan de fiscalización, sanción y asistencia para la mejora.Academia Superintendencia s• Establecer estándares de trazabilidad adecuados para diferentes procesos productivos en ACFC ,a través de certificaciones de sanidad diferenciadas • Dar continuidad a los programas del MinTic, involucrando a los jóvenes rurales sobre conexión digital y orientarlos a la comercialización entre las zonas urbanas y rurales (Que funcione en más zonas rurales del país, que los jóvenes se puedan integrar en el campo. Los adultos necesitan alfabetización digital porque en su mayoría los jóvenes tienen acceso. Conectividad de ambos Productor MinTIC• Establecer alianzas público-privadas con cadenas productivas que tengan cadenas de frío y puedan prestar el servicio a otros productores, esto promovería: i)custodia de cadena de frío y estandarización de la calidad, ii) logística de cadena de frío y suministro esto a través de una dinámica de logística de precios justos y limitación de compradores • Aprovechar que el programa ReSA está considerado en los planes de desarrollo departamentales y municipales, y realizar un cambio en el enfoque en los siguientes aspectos: i) evitar la dependencia de insumos externos, promoviendo la autosuficiencia y ii) brindar un enfoque de comercialización local Productor, Movimiento DPS• Promover el consumo de alimentos agroecológicos de origen local en programas como: restaurantes escolares, de atención a la infancia, de adultos mayores, de entidades prestadoras de servicios de salud, tanto públicos como privados, apoyados en la preparación de alimentos tradicionales con productos nativos y criollos Alianzas entre productores y la academia (ALL)• Fomentar la integración de los productores con la academia por medio de la agendas de investigación a través del SENA o de las Universidades. Si una organización de productores va de la mano con la academia o el centro de formación del SENA, tiene un buen punto de partida para la aplicación de proyectos de inversión o modelos de negocio a partir de un proceso de investigación. • Subsidios que provengan de la diferenciación en el mercado a los productos que están en transición agroecológica para que los productores resistan el proceso. Entender bien la relación entre subsidio y crédito, para repensarla desde la realidad del pequeño productor y acordar rutas de transición viables apoyadas desde los subsidios y los créditos, bajo lógicas de porcentaje que beneficien a los pequeños productores. Aquí también se debe pensar en los subsidios para acceder a mano de obra.• Abrir i) líneas de crédito operativas para la agroecología a través de programas del gobierno o FINAGRO, ii)cuotas en los proyectos para priorizar el tema de la agroecología y iii)En la calificación de las convocatorias dar un reconocimiento adicional a aspectos de la agroecología y iv) incentivos fiscales y climáticos Funcionario FINAGRO • Promover emprendimiento de pequeña y gran escala de producción de bioinsumos. Esto representaría una oportunidad de generación de empleo y disminución de desperdicio, a través de biofábricas de bioinsumos o de otros elementos para la producción.En la perspectiva de definir una hoja de ruta para escalamiento de la agroecología en Colombia, el estudio presentado en este informe presenta la trayectoria de las políticas afines con el escalamiento, propone un diagnóstico de los programas actuales, identifica los factores claves que limitan el escalamiento, y propone una lista de acciones desde la perspectiva de los actores involucrados para solucionar los problemas identificados.• Colombia pese a no haber tenido una voluntad política vinculada directamente con la agroecología, tiene una estructura y tejido social de larga trayectoria en agroecología como el Instituto Mayor Campesino, La Confederación AgroSolidaria, ECONEXOS, el Movimiento Agroecológico de América Latina y el Caribe (MAELA), RENAF entre otros. Para la construcción colectiva de políticas públicas en favor de la agroecología es recomendable considerar las demandas, aportes y la experiencia de proyectos desarrollados por estas organizaciones; así con las visiones de diversos actores en diversas escalas territoriales. • Una ventana más amplia de apertura para plataformas de desarrollo de políticas públicas podría estar sistemas de producción sostenible. Por lo tanto, para poder promover la agroecología en Colombia se va a requerir encontrar puntos en común y coaliciones entre diversas partes interesadas que puedan considerar los factores claves mencionados por diversos actores en este estudio como i) acceso a plataformas de diálogo político dónde se tomen en cuenta las voces de los productores, ii) acceder a una mayor participación del presupuesto público para implementación y reconocimiento de la agroecología como política pública de bienestar social, económico y salud, iii) transferir conocimiento en forma de acompañamiento en campo, así como generar espacios de aprendizaje del tipo escuelas de campo, iv) promover mayores estrategias de diferenciación a través de mecanismos como SGP, entre otras certificaciones, y diversificar los canales de comercialización. • Los instrumentos como ley Nº 2046, (participación de pequeños productores en compras públicas) y ley Nº 347 (etiquetado de alimentos), la resolución 00161-\"Asociatividad Rural Productiva\", el proyecto de ley Nº 544 para la Agroecología (en proceso), la resolución 464 y la Comisión Intersectorial de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional (CISAN) representan un potencial para poder llevar a cabo implementación de acciones concretas en favor de la escalabilidad de la agroecología. Si bien es necesario desarrollar una institucionalidad a través de un sector en el ministerio de agricultura, este podría llevarse a cabo a través de Agencia de Desarrollo Rural (ADR) articulado con Unidad de Planificación Rural Agropecuaria (UPRA), Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) y Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (AGROSAVIA). • Para abordar varios de los factores limitantes mencionados a través de los programas, se recomendaría escalar algunos programas y brindarles continuidad. Por ejemplo, brindar mayor alcance al trabajo que desarrolla el Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA); adaptar el programa Alianzas Productivas a mayor diversidad de cultivos y un acompañamiento en la parte administrativa. Los programas Negocios Verdes, Fondo Colombia Sostenible y Ganadería Sostenible tienen el potencial para abordar la agroecología desde el manejo y conservación de paisaje a través de un enfoque de servicios ecosistémicos. La Unidad Administrativa Especial de Organizaciones Solidarias apoyan a que los agricultores se organicen, y puedan acceder a esquemas de financiación solidaria para los procesos productivos y accedan a mercados de circuito corto. Y con el SENA que puede abordar los factores limitantes de conocimiento a través de sus diversas acciones a nivel local. • El escalamiento de la agroecología puede llegar de las mismas organizaciones de base y la sociedad civil, en Colombia es importante desarrollar una mayor sensibilización de los consumidores a través de campañas que conecten con la identidad gastronómica y la producción agroecológica. Además, experiencias de emprendimientos como Siembra Viva requieren ser potenciados y expandidos en diversas escalas para abordar el factor limitante de crear acuerdos entre los productores y emprendedores justos en el territorio.5 Bibliografía 6 Anexos 6.1 Anexo 1: Línea del tiempo del desarrollo de los instrumentos políticos relevantes para la escalabilidad de la agroecología en Colombia Conocimiento Proceso de aprendizaje para la agroecología (ECA, Campesino a Campesino, Plataforma) Conocimiento Limitada transferencia de conocimiento a los jóvenes y mujeres Conocimiento La curricula de las universidades se orienta a la agroindustria/agroexportación Conocimiento Proceso de aprendizaje para la agroecología (ECA, Campesino a Campesino, Plataforma) Conocimiento Rentabilidad de la producción agroecológica Económico Acceso a créditos para producción Económico Productividad y competitividad Económico Acceso a seguros financieros Económico Acceso económico de mano de obra y producción Económico Conocimiento económico de la rentabilidad de producción Económico Acceso a insumos agrícolas bio Recursos Productivos Acceso a agua Recursos Productivos Acceso a tierra Recursos Productivos Acceso a semillas Recursos Productivos Acceso a infraestructura Recursos Productivos Acceso a mano de obra Recursos Productivos Alianzas entre productores Alianzas Alianzas entre productores con empresarios y cooperativas Alianzas Alianzas entre productores AG con consumidores Alianzas Alianzas entre productores y la academia Alianzas Alianzas entre productores y otras organizaciones sociales y de base Alianzas Falta promover organizaciones de consumidores Alianzas","tokenCount":"6850"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e5b242730cbcc73a6dc560c938a6633","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b0ed46c-3d1f-4530-ac7d-9287857de54d/retrieve","id":"-2023526600"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a2ce7ba7-ce67-4691-8566-41274fbd40a1","pagecount":"6","content":"Outcome story for communications use: From May to July 2018, IFPRI implemented a rural household survey [1] in four provinces of Papua New Guinea to assess whether households were able to provide the necessary quantity and quality of food for their families.Findings [2] [3] [4]  show that most of the calories consumed in rural households are derived from households' own farm production, with a high reliance on root crops. A large share of individuals are not consuming the recommended daily protein intake and not eating enough of the \"right\" calories. The lack of sufficient quantity and quality of calories puts children's development at risk. 29% of children under 5 years old in the sample were stunted (i.e. too short for their age) and 7% were wasted (i.e. had a low weight for their height). Stunting leads to poor educational performance, lower labor productivity and a greater risk of health problems throughout life, while wasting is an indicator of acute malnutrition. These findings suggest that improving food security and nutrition outcomes requires a multisectoral approach that includes raising incomes, diversifying consumption, improving access to markets, and special attention to the nutritional needs of young children.IFPRI used the survey findings to carry out socio-economic analyses [5]  [6], policy dialogues [7], and institutional capacity strengthening with the overarching goal of informing Papua New Guinea's household livelihood strategies, food security status, and child nutrition indicators.Through a collaboration with the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other partners, these efforts informed the Morobe School Gardens Project [8], which aims to improve agricultural education and nutrition in 29 schools representing 28,000 students in grades 1 to 12 across Lae District [9]. The gardens are producing locally available and familiar fruits and vegetables, beginning with sweet potato, taro, tomato, guava, and orange bananas, and fishponds will be stocked with tilapia,. The gardens will supply nutritious food for the kids enrolled in schools and any surplus will go to local markets, boosting local food production.School gardens have recently received attention around the globe owing to their potential contribution to diversifying diets, promoting healthy eating habits and improving nutrition among schoolchildren as well as other benefits relating to climate change adaptation, job creation and greening school spaces.In November 2020, the Papua New Guinea National Education Board passed a resolution to scale up the Morobe School Gardens project across the country.• https://tinyurl.com/yhru4nqd Findings [2] [3] [4] show that most of the calories consumed in rural households are derived from households' own-farm production, with a high reliance on root crops. Diets of households across all four survey sites are significantly deficient in calories and average protein consumption falls short of recommended amounts for all household groups with the exception of the sites where fish consumption is high. 29% of children under 5 years old in the sample were stunted (i.e. too short for their age) and 7% were wasted (i.e. had a low weight for their height). Stunting leads to poor educational performance, lower labor productivity and an increased risk of health problems throughout life, while wasting is an indicator of acute malnutrition that has led to a failure to gain weight or a loss of weight and in extreme cases can lead to death. These findings suggest that improving food security and nutrition outcomes requires a multisectoral approach that includes raising incomes, diversifying consumption, improving access to markets, and special attention to the nutritional needs of young children.IFPRI used the survey findings to carry out socio-economic analyses [5] [6], policy dialogues [7], and institutional capacity strengthening with the overarching goal of informing Papua New Guinea's household livelihood strategies, food security status, and child nutrition indicators. A key recommendation from the IFPRI research was to provide nutrition guidance to rural households.Through a collaboration with the Government of Papua New Guinea, the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and several other partners, these efforts informed the Morobe School Gardens Project [8], which aims to improve agricultural education and nutrition in 29 schools representing 28,000 students in grades 1 to 12 across Lae District [9]. The gardens will supply nutritious food for the kids enrolled in schools and any surplus will go to local markets, boosting local food production and contributing to food security. The gardens are set up to be financially self-sustaining once initial costs are met and teachers trained.In November 2020, the Papua New Guinea National Education Board passed a resolution to scale up the Morobe School Gardens project across the country.","tokenCount":"750"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7317daa13731d1c412f297661bc13187","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H024890.pdf","id":"380550869"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"38210ac9-0030-488c-a8d3-e43e90f60ab9","pagecount":"8","content":"It is now widely accepted that successful irrigation management requir~s consideration of a number of physical, socio-economic and institutional factors. However, as these factors often interact in complex ways it is not always easy to do this. This paper presents an approach which is able to represent complexity in a simpie, yet rigorous, way and facilitates integrated analysis of data from a wide range of sources. Bayesian Belief Networks are a statistical tool that have been widely used in disciplines such as medical diagnosis but have only recently been applied to environmental science and natural resource management. The general approach is presented, highlighting, in particular, how Belief Networks can be adapted to identify optimal decisions to management problems, and the advantages of taking this approach will be discussed. To illustrate their application, a case study from Sri Lanka is presented where a Belief Network has been constructed to help identify the most appropriate rehabilitation strategy for a tank cascade system. This network models the relative impacts of variable climate and human management skills on crop yield. Currently, the network represents each tank individually. Once fully developed, however, it will be able to recommend the optimal management strategy for the cascade as an integrated physical and socio-economic unit rather than as separate tanks. In conclusion, promising paths for future development of this approach will be outlined.Physical considerations of soil and water alone are not sufficient for effective irrigation management (Carter, 1993). Successful farmer irrigation is dependent on more than technical feasibility and will vary due to factors such as cost, a farmer's skill and the presence (or lack) of any communal arrangements. If there is sufficient water to meet the total demand, it is important that the effects of these, and other, socio-economic and institutional factors can be quantified. Ifthere is not, then it is important to understand how they interact with the physical environment so demand can be managed effectively.To facilitate this, a modelling framework is required which is capable of representing the inherent complexity which arises when the natural environment is considered in an holistic way. Moreover, the framework must enable the integrated analysis of different types of data measured at different scales and with (often large) associated uncertainties. Belief Networks (BNs) can provide such a framework. Based on Bayesian statistics, they were originally developed as a tool to aid decision analysis (Varis, I 997a, Varis and Kuikka, 1997). Subsequently, they have been applied to a number of different problems (Jensen, 1996), although only recently to the field of environmental modelling (Varis, 1997b, Stassopoulou et al., 1998).Their use provides a number of benefits:• They allow simple conceptual representations of the environment to be converted into models which naturally integrate physical and socio-economic dynamics;• The interaction between these dynamics can be defined with great flexibility and can be updated dynamically as the environment changes;• The ul1celiainty in that interaction, and in the data used to specify it, can be explicitly incorporated into the model;• Consequently, they provide an interface for the integrated analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data.Moreover, as the approach is graphically based, people without specific skills can become involved in model construction and outputs are easily understood and communicated. This facilitates stakeholder involvement during the planning of management strategies and can help with subsequent implementation. In many ways, it is similar to other graphical modelling approaches (such as the Stella package), however, its statistical basis offers the ability to quantify uncertainty clearly and supports both predictive and diagnostic inference.A case study is presented here which adapts a hydrological model developed by Sakthivadivel et al. (1997) to help with assessment of rehabilitation strategies for small tank cascades in Sri Lanka. In the original study, hydrological indicators estimated by the model were used in conjunction with non-hydrological criteria to select tanks suitable for rehabilitation. In the present study, by contrast, socio-economic and institutional factors are incorporated directly into tlle model within the framework provided by a BN, and different rehabilitation options are investigated in relation to crop yield for the cascade as a whole.Constructing and using a Belief Network to make decisionsOne of the strengths of using BeliefNetworks lies in their relative simplicity and the underlying functionality can remain opaque to the user. It is not the intention of this paper to explain the underlying theory but to demonstrate how the resulting tool can be applied to the problem of interest. A good introduction to the theory can, however, be found in Neapolitan (1990) and details of the statistical techniques are given by Spiegelhalter et al. (1993). The computational techniques used to calculate the statistical properties are outlined by Jensen (1996).A Belief Network can be constructed in tl1ree stages. Firstly, tlle key variables which characterise the system behaviour are identified and assigned a finite set of states. Secondly, these variables are linked together to indicate cause and effect interactions between them. Thirdly, the function of each link is defined in a probabilistic manner. For example, we may wish to predict what the weather will like in the afternoon given tl1e morning's weather forecast. The key variables in this system are identified as \"Weather\" (indicating the weather in the afternoon) and \"Forecast\" (indicating what the morning forecast predict the weather in the afternoon will be). The forecast is usually made in terms of whether it will be Sunny, Cloudy or Rainy so these are the states assigned to tlle Forecast variable. However, we are only really interested in whether it is going to rain or not in tl1e afternoon so the Weatl1er variable is assigned the states ''No Rain\" and \"Rain\". We assume that the forecast is based on some empirical approach so we draw an arrow linking Weatl1er to Forecast to indicate that the weather, in some way, determines what the forecast is. This is shown in Figure 1 where the numbers to the right of each variable state indicate the probability that the variable is in that state (based on the information entered -see below). Finally, we define the functionality of the link by specifying probability distributions over the states of Forecast for each state of Weather. Table 1 indicates that, from past experience, when there is no rain in the afternoon, 70 % of the time the forecast was sunny, 20 % of the time it was cloudy and 10 % of the time it was rainy. A distribution for rain is specified in a similar way.In this example, both variables have been given qualitative states as this most appropriate given the problem being considered. If it is required, however, variable states can be defined quantitatively. Moreover, the Network could be expanded to model the situation in a more complex manner. For example, variables which influence the weather could be included although it might be assumed that these have already been measured and are inherent in the variable Forecast.  1 The BN can be adapted further so that it is able to make decisions concerning the system being modelled. When this is done it is more properly called a Decision Network (DN) or Influence Diagram. To extend the example above, we may wish to decide whether to take an umbrella or not on the basis of the weather forecast. We would, therefore include a decision variable in the Network called \"Decide Umbrella\" with states of \"Take it\" and \"Leave it\", and draw an arrow to it from Forecast.The DN operates by weighing up the relative benefits of each possible outcome together with the chance that this outcome will be achieved. The relative benefits are measured in terms of dimensionless utility score which is quantified in the Network by a utility variable called \"Satisfaction\". Satisfaction is not just dependent on the decision taken but also on how the weather turns out. For example, if the umbrella is taken and it doesn't rain, satisfaction will be less than if the umbrella is left at home (because there is no need to carry the umbrella around all day). There is, therefore, also a link from the variable Weather to Satisfaction (Figure 2). The utility values for each possible outcome are shown in Table 2.Based on the conditional probabilities shown in Table 1 and the utility scores shown in Table 2 the DN calculates the expected utility for each possible decision (Take it and Leave it). In Figure 2 the decision function for when the forecast is cloudy is shown. The values to the right of the states in the decision variable (Decide Umbrella) are the expected utility values. They are calculated by calculating the product of the utility value of each possible outcome with the probability of it being achieved and adding the relevant outcomes together. For example, the expected utility for Take it is calculated as (20 x 0.651) + (70 x 0.349) = 37.442. It is then assumed that the decision with the maximum expected utility is taken. In this case, it appears that leaving the umbrella is preferable to taking it. The decision itself is made according to a rigorous statistical method and, consequently, there is no subjectivity involved. It is purely based on the values entered into the conditional probability and utility tables and once these are considered to be appropriate, the Network only serves to indicate the most logical choice. It must be stressed that this should not be taken as \"the answer\" to the management decision but only as a guide as to what the best choice lnlght be.While the description above may sound involved, it should be noted that once the user is familiar with the software and the underlying theory, constructing a DN and the interpreting its outputs becomes a relatively rapid procedure. For example, the whole Network development process, from design through data collection to construction, took a little over three weeks.In their original study, Sakthivadivel et ai. (1997) based decisions regarding tank rehabilitation on the hydrology of the cascade, the number of beneficiaries, the rehabilitation history and the financial investment. For this study, their approach was adapted in two ways:I. The hydrological model was set into a BN framework and additional variables representing socio-economic factors were included;2. The BN was extended (to form a DN) to make decisions based on the total crop yield produced and the financial investment.The BNs for each of 12 tanks in the cascade were constructed separately. Variables were assigned to each element of water balance and given quantitative states appropriate to the values they were expected to take. The purely hydrological relationships (e.g. between runoff and the net water in the tank) were specified according to values used in the original study, although the probabilistic nature of the BN enabled any uncertainty in these data to be explicitly incorporated.The additional socio-economic factors represented the management skill of the farmers using water from each tank and the effectiveness of local institutions in ensuring equitable access to the water. These were added as variab<les in the Network. Further biophysical factors were also added, namely the state of the water distribution infrastructure and the effect of pest damage. These factors were chosen both because they were considered to have a strong effect on the yield and because data describing them were available. All these variables were assigned qualitative states reflecting the data available. Given the inexact nature of some of these variables there was uncertainty attached not only to the values assigned to them by measurement but also to how their interactions could be modelled (for example, the relation between overall water management and crop yield is difficult to characterise). To address this, estimates of the uncertainty arising from these considerations were included in the conditional probabilities derived from the measured data. The completed Network is shown in Figure 3.Figure 3 : Decision Network for tank 1Decisions were added to the Network constructed for each tank on the basis of those identified to be most appropriate by the farmers themselves in the case of Tank 1, the option of repairing the bund was highlighted by the farmers). In addition, a decision regarding the provision of management training was included for each tank to evaluate whether extension advice would significantly contribute to increased crop yields.It is intended that the DNs developed for each tank be linked by, for example, joining the variables \"Water flowing out of tank I\" and \"Water flowing out of tank 2\" to the variable \"Net water into tank 3 before irrigation\" (as this is the cascade structure). In addition, the variables at the bottom of Figure 3 will be linked to all tank Networks. Currently, difficulties are being encountered with computing power due to the resultant size of a Network which consists of 12 repeated modules. Experience with other DN applications suggests that this level of complexity is rarely necessary and various optimisation and approximation techniques are currently being investigated to provide a solution when it is. Once a suitable solution has been identified, however, the Network will be able to make decisions which optimise the benefits for the catchment as a whole rather than for each tank individually.Once compiled, the Network immediately provides the expected utilities for each possible decision for each decision node. The results for tank I are shown in Figure 4 for the case where the irrigated area of tank I lies between 5 and 10 hectares and all other variables are uncertain (the figure shows only a portion of the Network). By identifying the maximum expected utility value, it can be seen that tank 1 yield is optimised by choosing to repair the bund and not providing management training. The result from the \"Repair bund\" decision variable is obvious as the yield is modelled as that produced from irrigation. Consequently it is zero of the bund is breached and no irrigation water is available. The result from the \"Provide management training\" variable is less obvious, however, it indicates that the benefits to be gained by providing training are less than the costs of doing so. This would be expected to change when the whole cascade is considered as the cost of training provision would not increase greatly above that for one tank while the benefits gained would be multiplied by the number of tanks in the cascade.It can seen from Figure 4 that the uncertainty in the yield is high, as indicated by the relatively flat probability distribution across the states and the large error given in the expected yield of 3.1 tonnes I ha. This is due to the combination of uncertainties associated with all the Network variables. While this may not provide a conclusive indication ofthe yield, it is useful in that it provides the decision maker with a real evaluation of the risk associated with a particular decision arising from imperfect knowledge. As a decision maker will never have perfect knowledge this is an important feature of the Decision Network. Moreover, further analysis ofthe Network can reveal the most useful variables for which to collect new data in order to reduce the uncertainty in the yield. Any new data acquired can be used to \"teach\" the Network and improve its functional relationships, without wholly rejecting the data previously entered.The Network can also be used to examine different \"what if?\" scenarios. For example, it may be of interest to know how repairing the water distribution infrastructure (a option not originally proposed by the farmers) may effect the yield and the optimal decisions. Figure 5 shows the effect of assuming that the infrastructure is \"Good\" (by selecting that state in the Infrastructure variable) as compared to assuming that it is \"Bad\". It can be seen that the choice of optimal decision is unaffected, although the expected yield increases from 2.8 tonnes / ha to 4 tonnes / ha between the different situations. All the other variables in the Network can be altered in a similar way, either singly or in combination, to investigate a whole range of possibilities. The case study presented here suggests that Bel ief Networks provide an effective means developing integrated models to support irrigation water management. They facilitate the understanding of complex environmental interactions by providing a simple, yet logical, framework within which to work. Moreover, as a common interface for multi-disciplinary data analysis, they enable socio-economic and institutional considerations to be considered on an equal basis with relevant physical factors.They can be adapted to identify optimal management decisions based on explicit incorporation of the uncertainties associated both with data error and the relationship between variables. They hence give the decision maker a realistic assessment of the risks associated with a particular decision for a variety of scenarios. This information provides a valuable foundation on which the best decision can be made.The approach is still relatively new to the environmental sciences and much further work is required. In particular, there is a need to identify rigorous methods for quantifying and combining the uncertainty which arises from different sources. This necessarily involves a consideration ofthe most appropriate scales to work at and how data measured at different scales can be combined. As decisions are taken with reference to some goal, appropriate indicators must be found which define whether that goaL has been achieved. Indeed, if DNs are to be used most effectively, thought must be given not only to what data are collected but how these data are elicited. This is particularly important where data seeks to quantify social dynamics.","tokenCount":"2894"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"691175f154c568043e13b3388f202e6b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bdaa0a4b-2b53-4f53-91e7-76d1c019eb29/retrieve","id":"-1989533823"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1da25524-1c47-4876-bd6a-96ddc7da1f73","pagecount":"3","content":"Renforcer la résilience des éleveurs pastoraux en Afrique de l'Est Racho Godana, Frankline Agolla et John Mwikya L'élevage pastoral est prédominant dans les terres reculées arides et semi-arides du nord du Kenya, des zones constamment menacées par des périodes de sécheresse prolongée. Réduction de cheptel, repeuplement et déplacement des troupeaux sont le quotidien d'éleveurs qui s'adaptent en permanence. En période de crise, ils se trouvent cependant souvent contraints de vendre leur bétail à bas prix. Dans ce contexte, l'accès à l'information devient vital pour les communautés pastorales afin d'anticiper et de prendre les bonnes décisions, tout en contrôlant efficacement les risques. L es sécheresses interminables, provoquées par les changements et la variabilité climatiques, menacent un nombre significatif d'éleveurs d'Afrique de l'Est et de la Grande Corne de l'Afrique. Les retombées peuvent être désastreuses : épuisement et mortalité élevée du bétail, vente des têtes à prix réduit, amenuisement des réserves en eau et en fourrage. De plus, face à la pression démographique et l'évolution des réglementations foncières, la capacité d'adaptation et la résilience traditionnelles des communautés nomades ne suffisent plus. Des conflits persistants entre les éleveurs, liés à la pénurie de ressources vitales comme l'eau ou aux incidences des maladies, affectent les chaînes de valeur de l'élevage. Le bétail demeure l'actif le plus précieux de ces groupes pastoraux. Dès lors, toute menace pesant sur celui-ci peut avoir des conséquences potentiellement catastrophiques.C'est dans ce contexte que le CTA, en partenariat avec Amfratech Ltd (principal fournisseur de services de conseil et de technologie en Afrique de l'Est) et aWhere Inc. ( Le projet CLIMARK s'attaque à plusieurs défis importants en matière de diffusion de l'information tout au long de la chaîne de valeur de l'élevage en Afrique de l'Est. Son action cible notamment le manque de renseignements agrométéorologiques géolocalisés et en temps réel sur l'état des fourrages et des pâturages. Ces insuffisances affectent les communautés pastorales dans les décisions liées à leur activité (où, quand, combien d'animaux ?) et entraînent des répercussions en cascade sur les autres maillons de la chaîne de valeur. Un exemple : les déplacements non planifiés Le projet CLIMARK s'attaque à plusieurs défis importants en matière de diffusion de l'information tout au long de la chaîne de valeur de l'élevage en Afrique de l'Est. Ci-dessous : Des enfants massaï tiennent des chèvres, sous la pluie.Architecture du système d'information météorologique basé sur le cloud CLIMARK des marchés aux bestiaux au Kenya.Article Dans l'optique de la phase pilote, Amfratech a conçu un service d'information météorologique hybride basé sur le cloud, qui comprend un tableau de bord, une application mobile et un service d'abonnement par SMS. De son côté, aWhere Inc. alimente le système avec des données en quasitemps réel grâce à l'intégration d'une interface de programmation d'application (API, Application Programming Interface). Ces informations sont ensuite analysées par des agroclimatologues expérimentés puis codées dans un format granulaire. Les éleveurs peuvent les consulter par l'intermédiaire d'un téléphone mobile ou d'un ordinateur avec le tableau de bord mis en ligne. La mission des agroclimatologues consiste à développer des indicateurs météorologiques permettant d'émettre des alertes précoces en cas de sécheresse, et de s'assurer que ces informations parviennent aux acteurs concernés -éleveurs, gouvernement du comté, agences d'assurance, ONG, etc. -afin qu'ils puissent réagir rapidement. Ce système d'alerte précoce est élaboré sur la base des conditions météorologiques (indicateur principal), de l'état des pâturages, des prix du marché et des indicateurs de santé humaine. Différents types de données doivent donc être récoltées : météorologiques, (température, précipitations, évapotranspiration potentielle [ETP], humidité et vent), agricoles (cultures, pâturages), économiques (marchés) et anthropométriques. Le système permet de transmettre aux éleveurs des conseils pratiques sur la logistique (horaires idéaux pour les livraisons de foin et d'eau), la nécessité de réduire le cheptel, celle d'éviter les conflits liés aux ressources entre les communautés ou encore le meilleur moment pour souscrire une assurance bétail. Ces acteurs peuvent également consulter ces informations agrométéorologiques via l'application mobile MyAnga, disponible sur Google Play pour les appareils Android. MyAnga signifie Ma Météo en swahili, un nom particulièrement évocateur.Enfin, les éleveurs locaux ont la possibilité d'accéder à des données météorologiques par l'intermédiaire du service SMS. Un code abrégé leur permet de recevoir chaque semaine des informations agrométéorologiques granulaires en anglais, en swahili et dans la langue locale de leur choix (Borana/Gabra, Samburu et Rendille).","tokenCount":"714"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eb167c209066e49d47d0445ec6700a53","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/53a5495c-5bfd-46b5-bb86-fb0f26678ea0/retrieve","id":"2131790075"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"61c9eaca-3ea0-4123-aec8-10a15d9ddcaa","pagecount":"19","content":"This paper offers a conceptual model for integrative, participatory research projects that aim to improve the sustainability of agriculture and natural resource management. The purpose of the model is to provide a systematic framework for farmer participatory research that can guide the design of projects, their analysis and the documentation of results. In the model, explicit boundaries are drawn between research and development, development and extension and between extension and implementation. The objectives, activities and actors associated with each of these realms are described; and the role and principles of monitoring and evaluation are clarified. Examples are provided from three case studies of participatory projects with a retrospective analysis and critique based upon the framework.Farmer participatory research has received increased attention and recognition since the \"Farmer First\" (Chambers et al., 1989) and Participatory Technology Development (Jiggins and De Zeeuw, 1992) concepts were first introduced in the late 1980s. Acceptance of the important role that farmers can play, if given a chance, in agricultural research, development and extension has grown considerably. More and more mainstream institutions have realized that new technology alone is not enough to achieve impact in farmers' fields, particularly those in resource-poor and risk-prone areas. This change in perception is widespread and is being internalized by the centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) through a Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis for Technology Development and Institutional Innovation (PRGA, 1997). The CGIAR has altered its mission, from a primary focus on productivity, to include concerns about the environment and poverty, reflecting a growing understanding that securing food, eradicating poverty and protecting natural resources are inseparable goals (PRGA, 2000). Many other organizations are also developing ways to involve farmers in processes for generating economically and environmentally sound technologies, and managing natural resources more sustainably, and more equitably. Awareness of farmers' critical roles as resource managers is increasing. At the same time recognition is mounting that ecologically sound agriculture and natural resource management means going beyond consulting with farmers, to sharing decision making and responsibility for the outcomes resulting from management choices and decisions.Determining who should participate in sustainability initiatives is seen as an increasingly important concern, and greater sensitivity to stakeholder issues has led to important insights. For example, it is now more widely recognized that rural women are a growing proportion of the very poor, a trend that has been called the \"feminization of poverty\" (Kaaria and Ashby, 2000). Women are especially vulnerable to the downward spiral of poverty because of their often limited access to natural resources and other assets, and because of the degraded condition of these resources.Given this evolving understanding of sustainability challenges, research for sustainable development must focus on preserving or increasing the capacity of the systems being managed to produce desired benefits in the future. Actor-oriented, integrative and participatory approaches (Cramb, 2000) are increasingly seen as a way to address the multiple and often conflicting social, environmental and economic sustainability goals of different interest groups.In older agricultural research and development approaches, such as on-farm and farming systems research, farmers were often considered as research subjects or passive components of the system under investigation. In contrast, farmers' involvement as decision makers at all appropriate stages of the process is central to farmer participatory research. Particular emphasis is placed on their participation in the early stages of needs and opportunity assessment, setting of research and development objectives, and establishment of indicators. Benefits of such an approach include early definition of the criteria that farmers use to assess technology (PRGA, 1997), and the development of adaptable technological options that meet user needs and preferences, rather than standard technologies or packages. Hence, the likelihood of location-specific adaptation and implementation of these options becomes much greater, as has been shown in many studies (e.g., Haverkort, et al., 1991;Bentley, 1994;Sperling et al., 1993, Ashby et al., 2000, Ceccarelli et al., 2000).The early involvement of farmers in the research and development (R&D) process usually leads to the formulation of a systems diagram often framed as tree of problems and opportunities, with many ramifications, rather than a single clear-cut issue. This difference in perception between farmer-users and scientists stems from farmers' more integrated, holistic view of farm and resource management as opposed to that of the discipline-oriented scientists, who are taught to break problems up into manageable parts. The participatory approach often leads to the need to address complex interrelated issues that require attention to numerous related elements. Consequently, this requires an integrative, pandisciplinary 1 and cross-sectorial perspective from teams, which may include discipline-oriented specialists. Stakeholder (e.g. farmer) involvement in the R&D phases will also contribute to the identification of appropriate extension mechanisms and methods to share innovative approaches with larger numbers of farmers. The contemporary focus on sustainable agriculture and natural resource management does not imply largescale transfer of finished technologies, as has been the mode for a long time. Rather, it involves location-specific, informed practice, consensual decision making, and adaptive management. This requires collective farmer learning about technological and other innovations, and flexible options that can be adapted; enhancement of capacities for opportunity identification, problem solving, and decision making; platform building for resource use negotiation; and collective decision-making at the larger ecosystem level (Röling andJiggins, 1998, Braun et al., 2000).Despite the growing recognition of the potential of integrative, farmer participatory research, many institutions and individual researchers still choose to apply approaches dominated by narrow technical and economic perspectives, neglecting complementary social and more macro perspectives (Röling, 1997). This may be for the valid reason that basic disciplinary research is needed, as well, or for the less valid reason that researchers have not been trained to deal with, or do not feel comfortable with, holistic and social dimensions. Despite positive prognoses about the future of participatory research given, for instance, by a number of scientists in the CGIAR system (e.g., Ashby et al., 1995), such work is threatened in many CGIAR centers given the current funding and policy climate (Fujisaka, 1994;Thiele et al., in press). Additionally, the scientific value of participatory research is often questioned, especially from the standpoint of precision, research detachment, control, and replicability 2 . A further quality concern is to what degree participatory research generates theories that have predictive capacity.These criticisms seem to miss the point, and it appears more appropriate to ask what kinds of approaches are required in order to tackle the challenges 3 at hand. Cooperrider and Srivastva (1987) suggest that action research approaches [such as farmer participatory research] should be judged on their capacity for generating fresh alternatives for social action, rather than solely on the predictive capacity of their theories. They appeal for a redefinition of the scientific aims of action research that will dynamically reunite theory and practice. In their view, the aim of research is not the detached discovery and verification of laws, allowing for prediction and control, but rather its capacity to challenge guiding assumptions and to raise fundamental questions regarding contemporary social life. Carvalho and White (1997) examined the issue of scientific value, and the unification of theory and practice in the context of approaches for poverty alleviation. They concluded that the measurement of poverty could be addressed more effectively through integration of participatory and conventional approaches. They suggested that integration adds value by improving our understanding of what poverty is, and by offering opportunities for confirming refuting and enriching operational definitions or theories of poverty. In this view, the quality of understanding of what poverty is directly affects capacity to promulgate poverty alleviation policy.Judging the effectiveness of any particular research approach depends on comparing the objectives and expected impact with actual outcomes. In participatory research, this process is particularly challenging because it can be difficult to define objectives and expected impact with sufficient precision, and it may be difficult to isolate the causal pathways involved in a particular outcome (Cramb, 2000). Many participatory research activities are of a pilot nature, and impact is often insufficiently documented beyond the pilot area. The literature abounds with inconsistent, confusing jargon, which may be related to the lack of methodological training for practitioners. The boundaries between research and development, development and extension, and extension and implementation are often vague or absent. Identification of research and development phases and the definition of objectives for each of them are often neglected. Greater consensus on the purpose and principles of farmer participatory research approaches, and a better understanding of methods and the characteristics of each of the process phases can help make participatory research more relevant and efficient, and can contribute to redefining the criteria for judging its scientific merit.This paper provides a conceptual framework for integrative, farmer participatory research and development in the context of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. It addresses the consistent use of participatory approaches in a full cycle from planning to action and change, necessary to achieve qualitative and quantitative impacts. The cycle begins with a portrayal of how the stakeholders understand the system -showing linkages, and pointing to problems, needs, opportunities and finally to priorities. Based on this it moves on to the search for solutions, which may involve the development of technical options, organizational innovations, and dissemination strategies. The learning process that unfolds leads to enhanced capacities, changed behavior, and ultimately to different kinds of impact (technical, economic, human resource capacity, social, environmental). These processes are iterative and require solid monitoring and evaluation mechanisms at all stages. This paper is complemented by insights from three case studies, which were analyzed using the model as a framework 4 . The cases, presented in boxes, assess how successfully each project discerned the different phases in the research and development process, and analyze how confusion about the phases may affect project evolution and outcomes. Finally, the paper gives suggestions on how the model can be applied in the design or analysis of projects.The model for integrative, farmer participatory research for sustainable agriculture aiming at impact described here, was developed as a framework for project design and evaluation in the context of the CIP 5 -and UPWARD 6 -supported \"Sweetpotato integrated crop management (ICM) and ICM field school development\" project in Indonesia 7 . Given that the project was designed according to the model, and that the model was adapted as the project advanced, a high degree of congruence between model and project can be expected. Two other UPWARD projects, i.e. a bacterial wilt project in Nepal and a potato IPM project in the Philippines, provided material for the other two case studies presented in this paper. The design of the Nepal and Philippines projects was not based upon the model, and the corresponding case studies therefore represent a retrospective application of the model to these experiences.It is emphasized here that the model is not intended to be prescriptive, nor should it be considered something fixed and final. The diversity of approaches that have emerged in farmer participatory research is one of its strengths. Through the model we aim to demystify some concepts and terminology often used erroneously or inconsistently, and to provide a systematic map to aid the navigation of integrative, farmer participatory research.Farmer participatory research projects aim at achieving tangible impact by encouraging farmer involvement at all appropriate stages. It is not always clear what is meant by impact; therefore the concept should be clearly defined from the start. This paper defines impact as achievements directly related to overall goals; e.g. the improvement of sustainable livelihoods of rural families in a certain region. Achievement of impact is a very ambitious goal requiring both qualitative change (e.g., farmer capacities, practices, collective action, support systems) and quantitative change (e.g., a considerable number of people reached and income generated). Careful planning at each project stage to achieve (1) appropriate problem and opportunity definition and setting of priorities, (2) successful generation of applicable information or innovations, and (3) appropriate development and use of dissemination mechanisms and their effective implementation, can contribute to the achievement of this kind of impact. Such research and development activities demand a team of collaborators including farmers, technical and social scientists, extensionists and development workers, and other relevant stakeholders. The farmers provide the holistic perspective, share what works and what needs to be improved in the current system, set the evaluation criteria for innovations in accordance with their objectives, and test possible innovations. Typically, the technical scientists share new information that may provide options for improvement, and methodologies for testing the technical options. The social scientists help to identify the constraints and opportunities in the support system, seek ways to reduce the constraints and enhance the opportunities, and translate innovations into farmer learning objectives. The extensionists and development workers can fulfill a role to facilitate communication with rural communities and scale up pilot activities. Certain researchers, however, may have the capacity to handle technical as well as social and/or communication aspects in a project. These are strongly interconnected and activities in the individual realms will partly overlap in time and space. Additionally, the process is not limited to a linear set of sequential activities, but allows back and forth movement between the realms. A predisposition of this model is that joint learning opportunities involving all the actors are needed to achieve the objectives of enhanced capacity in systems analysis, decision-making capacity, and platform building 8 . These objectives have to be considered and anticipated during all phases of the process.In conventional research and transfer of technology systems, research is seen as the exclusive domain of scientists, extension as the delivery of messages by the staff of a formal extension service, and implementation as the straightforward adoption of the recommended technologies by the farmers. In farmer participatory approaches, however, the research and development realm (the left leg in the figure) consists of co-creative processes to identify needs and opportunities, generate new information and innovations, consolidate them with existing farming practice, and then translate them into learning objectives and activities for enhanced farmer performance. These processes are likely to be highly iterative and synergistic. The right leg of the framework (extension and implementation) contains the phases during which efforts are made-either in a formal or a non-formal settingto share innovations with larger groups of farmers, who then test, evaluate and internalize (or reject) them in their farming practices, finally leading to impact. The monitoring and evaluation realm, in addition to providing a reflective mechanism for each stage of the cycle, overlaps and links the components of the other two realms by observing and measuring what happens during learning and implementation, and relating and/or feeding back this information to the research and development realm for further adjustment or impact assessment. A summary of objectives, activities and actors for each realm is presented in the sections below.The major mission of agricultural research institutes has traditionally been to increase food production and to minimize the effects of production-reducing factors. The scientists' task therefore focused on the development of new technologies and troubleshooting problems that arose in the systems developed. Research was often divided into basic and applied modes. These are complementary, both being indispensable in the process of conventional and participatory development of innovations. In participatory research, the topic under investigation is not determined solely by researchers (Biggs, 1989;Pretty, 1994;Mikkelsen, 1995;Ashby, 1996;Probst, 2000;Lilja and Ashby, 1999), as is often the case in conventional research. Whether the development initiative derives from the farming community or from outsiders (researchers, development workers), scientists together with the community should clearly identify problems, needs and opportunities to set the agenda for further activities. Ongoing identification of changing needs and emerging opportunities is required throughout the process to adjust the activities accordingly.Participatory research and development efforts involving researchers and representatives from other stakeholder groups usually begin with detailed problem analysis, which may be complimented by the identification of opportunities. The objective is to gain a broad understanding of the agroecological and socio-economic context. Many methodologies have been developed over the past decades to assist researchers and farmers in participatory problem identification, of which Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) has become the best known and most widely applied (Chambers, 1994)  9 . Problem and opportunity identification can be conceptualized as a form of systems analysis and should lead to the (participatory) formulation of overall project goals and specific research and development objectives. When users are actively involved in systems analysis and setting of objectives, it is likely that identified needs refer to a variety of issues to be addressed, crossing multiple scientific disciplines (Box 1). When research capacities are limited with regard to either funding or expertise, priorities should be carefully set with the participation of all stakeholders, taking into account the interrelatedness of the various problems. The output of the systems analysis phase is a prioritized research and development agenda. The identification and evaluation of already existing, potential solutions to be tested and consolidated with innovations, is an important component of this phase.The sweetpotato ICM development project in Indonesia was a collaborative effort among sweetpotato farmers from East and Central Java, a local NGO (Mitra Tani), an international agricultural research center (CIP-ESEAP Region), the Research Institute for Legumes and Tuber Crops, and Duta Wacana Christian University. Although initially designed as an integrated pest management (IPM) project, results of the needs identification study re-oriented the project towards ICM at an early stage in order to address farmers' major concerns. The project assessed a range of aspects including: •= The impact of cultivation practices, pests and diseases on production •= Farmer knowledge of crop health, pests and natural enemies •= Current crop and pest management practices •= The marketing system •= Farmer decision-making capability with respect to crop and pest management and marketing In a mid-elevation area (1200-1500 m) of the southern Philippines, vegetable and potato cultivation generates the highest net income per ha, about 8-10 times that of maize. Potato cultivation threatens sustainable use of natural resources because of erosion from updown ploughing, downstream water pollution from pesticides, and deforestation by farmers seeking bacterial wilt free areas. During village-level workshops, researchers, extension workers, farmers and local leaders discussed possible solutions. A potato IPM project was designed to address these issues. As an attractive alternative to potato cultivation, the project offered the farmers seeds of highvalue vegetables.Once the research agenda is agreed, innovation development follows. This phase is likely to include both a basic and an applied research component. Farmers' involvement in innovation development is particularly desirable at the level of applied research (Box 2). Their role may vary from \"analysts and evaluators\" (Fano et al., 1996, Snapp, 1999) who validate technologies developed, to \"researchers\" who determine and test treatments in their own fields (Ashby et al., 1995;Van de Fliert and Braun, 1997;Gündel, 1998). Whereas basic research is primarily considered the domain of technical scientists, technical and social scientists and farmers are all expected to play a role as actors in the applied research phase. The degree of involvement of each will depend on the nature of the problem and of the possible solutions to the problem. Continuous feedback among the actors doing basic and applied research, as well as reflection on the findings of the problem identification phase, is desirable to ensure the consistency of components developed.\"Development\", in the Research and Development context, is defined here as the translation and validation of innovation development outputs in relation to the agroecological, socio-economic and cultural conditions in the target areas. Development should not stop after technical research, which is often considered the final step at the boundary of research mandates. Innovation development should be followed up by deliberate attention to the task of training development. Experience has shown that the linear, top-down linkages between research and extension, as practiced in conventional transfer of technology extension models, often failed because of inappropriate technology and/or inadequate \"packaging\" of the extension messages (Röling, 1988;Hagmann and Chuma, 1998).Within the framework for integrative, farmer participatory research, the first phase of the potato bacterial wilt project in Nepal fell mainly in the R&D realms. Problem identification was based on a rapid rural appraisal conducted by a multi-disciplinary team including a plant pathologist, entomologist, agronomist, extension worker and socio-economist. Farmers functioned as interviewees and informants. Once priorities became clear, possible control methods were investigated by team members doing MSc research. After the IDM methodology had been designed, implementation was discussed with farmers, resulting in a project plan and formation of a Cropping Systems Improvement Committee. The R&D process was iterative within the development, extension and implementation realms, feeding back to the researchers so they could adapt their methodology before attempting it in other villages.In the Philippines, the \"Community-Based Pest Management for Sustainable Vegetable Production\" project involved the Northern Mindanao Agricultural Integrated Research Center, the Municipal Agricultural Office and UPWARD as part of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Program (SANREM), funded by USAID. Sixty-three farmers (six groups and four individuals) experimented with alternative seed sources (true potato seed and quality seed tubers); and four groups in different villages participated in establishing IPM pilot sites as a basis for developing a sound technology and training curriculum.Moreover, consistency is needed between the nature of the innovation and that of the extension approach and methods applied to convey the innovation to farmers (Röling and Van de Fliert, 1998). Therefore, to ensure consistency, we should look not only at the innovations per se, but also define the capacities that practitioners need to implement them, as well as the requirements for the support system (input supply, markets, etc.). This leads to an analysis and definitions of what a change in agricultural practice by the developed innovations implies for the farmers. What knowledge, attitudes and skills will they need? This is central to the development phase and needs attention before efforts are focused on the development of a training curriculum or other protocols for farmer learning. The importance of this phase is clear in the contrast between \"simple\" technological innovations (e.g., the introduction of an improved variety) and complex, sustainable agricultural approaches such as integrated pest, nutrient, crop or natural resources management. Adoption of a new variety can be evaluated by quantifying the area planted to it. In contrast, for integrated pest management (IPM) and other complex practices, the overall expected output of \"improved problem solving, opportunity identification, decision making capacity and platform building\" has to be translated into an extended set of clearly defined operational indicators in order to design appropriate training activities enhancing such knowledge, skills and organization. Traditional linear, content-oriented approaches-often pre-packaged in the form of diffusion materials-have not proven effective for the more complex processes inherent to the development of a sustainable agricultural system (Matteson et al., 1994). The characteristics of such an approach are knowledge intensive with both a macro and micro perspective, tend to be location specific, and require analytic problem-solving and decision-making skills in order to be sustainable. Consequently, there is a need to explore the concomitant communication methods required for a successful outcome. Additionally, the process of defining the implications for implementation of the innovations may provide new insights for problem identification and/or raise issues that need to be fed back to the phases of adaptive or basic research.The framework in Figure 1  Extension-understood here as a function of disseminating an innovation to a wider audience-is not normally considered part of the mandate of research institutions (Fano et al., 1996); therefore suitable mechanisms and partners have to be found to facilitate dissemination (Box 4). To ensure that these partners can do their job well, scientists can play an important role as they have both technical and methodological skills. Extension workers of GOs or NGOs, on the other hand, have a comparative advantage as communicators at the village level. They must, however, have obtained appropriate training themselves in a training-offacilitators program before they can be expected to run a training curriculum (Box 5). The involvement of accomplished trainers is critical to the success in the field ( Van de Fliert et al., 1995).In many developing countries, extension services lack the human resource capacity-in terms of both quantity and quality of staff-to reach a critical mass of their target audience effectively (e.g., Röling, 1988). Much of the information reaching farmers is disseminated by other farmers, either directly by conveying experiences or indirectly by showing them an example of practices implemented in the field and the resulting effects. Recent experiences with IPM training in several Asian countries have shown the positive impact of involving farmers as trainers, and of enhancing farmer networks in order to support farmer-to-farmer dissemination deliberately (Eveleens et al., 1996;Braun, 1997). Farmer facilitators must be selected with care and given additional training on facilitation methods. At the same time, a training program needs to address farmer interaction/network requirements at the planning stage (Box 6).Transitions from the R&D to the extension phase are not usually smooth given the traditionally weak linkages between these realms. In the case of a community approach to potato bacterial wilt management in Nepal, a multi-disciplinary team from the Lumle Agricultural Research Center (LARC) promoted a multi-pronged Integrated Disease Management (IDM) approach that included: •= Widespread awareness of the seriousness of bacterial wilt •= Elimination of infected planting material •= A three-year ban on growing potatoes •= Crop rotation with non-host crops •= Disease-free seed •= Roguing of self-sown potatoes •= Farmer education on IDM Pilot-scale activities were initiated in two villages. After three years, the project was extended to two more villages. Positive results in two villages showed that the community approach was effective for managing bacterial wilt. Failure in the other two villages was due to unwillingness of some farmers to respect the ban.Analysis based on the integrative, participatory research framework suggests that the first phase reflected an iterative R&D process within the development, extension and implementation realms, feeding back to the researchers to adapt their methodology before transferring it to other villages. The second phase should have been conceptualized as a scaling-up activity within the extension and implementation realms. Expansion was strongly hampered by the continued involvement of the researchers, who failed to transfer responsibility to existing extension mechanisms. The project had not anticipated impact on a larger scale at the work-plan preparation stage, where researchers would gradually hand over tasks to the extension system and the farmers.In the second phase of the Philippines potato IPM project, the national IPM program \"Kasalikasan\" joined the project, offering a nine-day training-of-trainers event, followed by an FFS (twenty weekly sessions) for farmer groups. Facilitators felt insecure because the training of trainers had been too brief to adapt the technology and curriculum to local conditions and different crop requirements, i.e. from cabbage to potato, since potato crop management technologies for mid-elevation areas were not available. Additionally, considering the actual problems farmers were facing with regard to the overall production and marketing system, the technology and training curriculum should have taken the entire cropping and post-harvest cycle into account. Given their limited experience with the IPM FFS, the trainers fell back into an instructive rather than a facilitative teaching mode.The trainees had difficulties in internalizing not only the major FFS concepts but also those related to potato IPM. Experiments conducted in the FFS testing multiple treatments made it difficult to reach clear conclusions or to enhance farmers' experimentation skills. Given logistic constraints, the trainers were unable to provide full-scale technical and methodological backstopping. Their support was limited to technical presentations during the FFS sessions.Trainees from six major sweetpotato-growing districts in four provinces of Indonesia made work plans for ICM FFS implementation with funds from the National IPM Program and the local government. It was originally intended to scale up from a small core group of farmer master trainers (most had been farmer researchers in an earlier stage of the project). This proved untenable, their potential as field school facilitators having been overestimated. Although they felt confident as researchers, they felt much less so as trainers for lack of experience with the FFS training approach. A new plan for scaling up involved the national IPM program (farmer) trainers.One possible mechanism in this process was under-utilized, i.e., farmer-to-farmer dissemination. This option could have been anticipated by (a) clearly defining the expected output relating to awareness raising on sweetpotato ICM within the farming communities where sweetpotato ICM field schools are conducted, and (b) more specifically developing activities in the field school model addressing farmer-to-farmer dissemination.In projects requiring considerable problem-solving, decision-making and platform-building capacity (e.g. IPM, ICM, NRM), farmers need more process-oriented learning opportunities and support. A literature review of self-reliant and self-managed projects (Brekelbaum, 1990;1994)  In the case of IPM and ICM, farmers need to understand the complex interactions between host plant/pest, plant health/tolerance, population dynamics, soil health and other ecological principles. In addition, training events should provide opportunities to farmers to do adaptive research to test and refine technology guidelines under prevailing conditions, and simultaneously to develop experimental skills in order to continue adaptive research in their own fields. This type of knowledge and skills development not only requires interaction over a period of time, but also facilitators who are themselves capable of handling these processes. The training of facilitators would therefore need to contain the same processes as the learning activities for farmers, to ensure that the facilitators have experienced the process of enhancing their knowledge and skills.The major actors in the implementation realm are, of course, the farmers who decide to implement, adapt or reject an innovation. Enhanced knowledge and skillsobtained in training events, through contact with fellow farmers or any other form of learningare expected to lead to a change in farmers' management practices. At this stage, scientists have no direct role in farmers' implementation, continued learning and adaptive research processes, and have to rely on feedback through monitoring and evaluation efforts as to how farmers respond to the innovation. At most, in pilot sites, scientists can work together with farmers to adjust guidelines according to specific conditions. Many theories have been developed to explain the process of adoption of innovations (Rogers, 1995); but in sustainable agriculture, adaptation to farm-specific conditions is considered a more valuable output than the straightforward adoption of a new technology or methodology. The ability to adapt guidelines is evidence of farmers' enhanced capacity to experiment, analyze, evaluate and, finally, solve many of their own problems without having to depend upon external advice.Feedback mechanisms, however, are critical in this realm because farmers often receive contradictory messages from other sources (e.g., promotional campaigns by commercial companies that sell inputs) that could lead to confusion. Questions arising during implementation need to be addressed by trainers whose role is also to support the adjustment process and help bridge communications between farmers and researchers. When changes occur in farmers' capacities and practices, effects at the farm level can be expected, for instance, yield increase, reduction of expenditures, and more ecologically balanced pest and natural enemy population ratios in the field. Such changes occurring on a larger scale are expected to result in a broader impact, such as improvement of rural people's livelihoods and a healthier environment. Effects and impact achieved, when beneficial to farm families, are expected to trigger further dissemination and learning within the farming community.Systematic monitoring and evaluation of projects assures the capacity to make adjustments before it is too late, learn from experiences and justify the research investment. Monitoring refers to a systematic and continuous assessment of progress and changes caused by the implementation of an activity (Guijt, 1998). Monitoring (represented by the dotted U-turn arrows in Figure 1) of research activities provides feedback on whether the research process is on track and needs adjustment, whereas monitoring of extension activities provides additional information on the appropriateness of the research outcomes and to explain the results of impact evaluation studies. Guijt (1998) distinguishes evaluation (the dotted straight arrow in Figure 1) as the identification of the broader positive and negative outcomes of an activity or process to reach a conclusion about its overall value and achievement of objectives. In many research institutions, process monitoring is limited to the compilation of annual progress reports, and project evaluation is the responsibility of economists. As a result, evaluations often focus on cost-benefit analyses of novel technologies. For integrative, participatory research projects dealing with sustainable agriculture, internal monitoring at all steps is vital to maintain consistency of activities within the interdisciplinary context, while for evaluation economic analysis alone is insufficient because it will not reflect project objectives that are human resource oriented. In participatory projects, monitoring and evaluation should be planned and implemented in conjunction with all partners, particularly the farmers, to encourage further internal learning and assess project progress and output based on indicators defined collectively. Participatory monitoring and evaluation begins when project objectives and activities are defined by developing assessment indicators and methods for keeping track of progress and measuring success or failure. Such a monitoring and evaluation process can strongly enhance the effectiveness of an R&D project through appropriate targeting.In order to be able to justify the R&D investment, the monitoring and evaluation system should be designed to consider the individual outputs in relation to the objectives set for each R&D phase. The expected outputs of the activities and elements in the extension and implementation realm should relate directly to the objectives of the activities in the R&D realm at the same horizontal level (see horizontal links in Figure 1). Is the impact of the activities consistent with the overall goal? Are the farmlevel effects in accordance with the nature of the innovation (for instance, reduction of pesticide load on the farm ecosystem as a result of IPM practices)? Have farmers' capacities and practices after training reached the levels required for implementation of the innovation? Do dissemination mechanisms result in effective farmer-to-farmer communication? Are the processes of farmer education and training-of-trainers compatible with the curriculum design? The indicators for monitoring and evaluation should also derive from these outputs. This implies that to obtain impact, scientists should seek mechanisms for incorporating extension and implementation requirements when setting objectives for R&D. Monitoring and evaluation of clearly defined indicators should generate valuable feedback to the scientists for further R&D, if needed. This information can then be used effectively to adjust the R&D activities further, if needed, or serve as an example to other projects. This is a huge task; and when budgets are restrictive, evaluation efforts tend to be limited to the elements that donors require; i.e., mostly the data traditionally collected by economists, such as yield and economic returns. In the case of sustainable agriculture, however, evaluation indicators should relate consistently to the project objectives, which, if defined well, will focus on people and their environment as much as, or even more than, on technologies and economics (Van de Fliert, 1998) ( Box 7).The Indonesia sweetpotato ICM project deliberately phased over the technology (ICM) and training (FFS) models developed to the existing extension mechanisms-i.e., through training-of-trainers and backstopping of farmer training-in an attempt to anticipate larger scale impact.Indicators of the integrative nature of the project: •= Change of project scope from IPM to ICM •= Multidisciplinary collaborators including eight farmers •= Specialized input for specific research activities for which no expertise existed on project team Indicators of the participatory nature of the project: •= Farmer researchers' intensive participation at all stages except proposal writing •= Level of community involvement (farmers, traders, consumers) at problem identification stage and pretesting of models Consequently, research addressed farmers' needs and contributed highly to validation of guidelines and methods developed. ICM guidelines were therefore readily accepted by farmers attending FFS, as well as by the government institutions in charge of root crops. Nevertheless, the farmer researchers raised the issue of how their research activities would directly benefit their fellow farmers, which had not apparently been the case. The discussion showed clearly that perceptions about \"impact\" differed. Impact, as defined in the model, cannot be expected only from participatory technology development activities and should therefore be avoided as research still carries risk. On the other hand, benefits of research should-to the extent possible-be tangible to motivate farmer interest in participating. At the same time, monitoring and evaluation activities should identify factors leading not only to success but also to failure, including indicators dealing with the human factors.The diversity of ecological zones and farming systems requires a flexible approach to research and development. Additionally, the complexity and interrelatedness of cultivation problems in small farm systems, within the context of existing support systems that may or may not function properly, is poorly served by strictly disciplinary research approaches. An example is the increasing occurrence of aphids and other insects on rustic crops like sweetpotato in Indonesia. Injudicious insecticide use triggering resurgence has partly contributed to this situation, but the main cause is higher-than-necessary levels of nitrogen fertilizer applied by the farmers every season. Over-fertilization leads to faster population growth of aphids. Although storage root yield may be reduced as a consequence of excessive nitrogen application, some farmers believe they can get a higher price if the crop looks green and lush when a trader comes to the field to negotiate purchase of the standing crop ( Van de Fliert, 1996). Pest, fertilization and marketing issues are interwoven so it would be of no use to develop and disseminate aphid control strategies without touching upon the other issues and making sure that farmers understand their interrelatedness.Another example of the need for a change of course in R&D is the evolution that IPM underwent during the past decade, particularly in rice-based cropping systems in Asia. IPM's first principle of \"grow a healthy crop\" implies attention to a wide array of cultivation practices contributing to the prevention of pest attack in an ecologically sustainable way ( Van de Fliert, 1998). In IPM development for sweetpotato in Indonesia, where pest pressure is only low to moderate in most seasons, farmers demanded greater emphasis on cultivation practices other than pest control strategies, and on marketing strategies, resulting in a change in project focus to ICM. This also occurred in sweetpotato IPM programs in Vietnam and Uganda (Braun and Van de Fliert, 1997). ICM in Indonesia goes as far as developing training activities to enhance the marketing skills of farmers who perceive this to be their major problem. The relationship between cultivation problems and market diversification becomes clear here: better crop management contributes to more efficient production, enhancing the prospects for using the crop as a raw material where farmers can get added value through processing and thereby improve their livelihood (Braun et al., 1995).When facing situations as complex as this, scientists with narrow disciplinary training may choose to combine forces with colleagues from other disciplines and with farmers having the necessary holistic perspectives. Integrative and participatory, cocreative approaches to R&D recognize the human factor as the core element to attain synergistic outputs and impact. The importance of determining and then reconciling the different perspectives of each of the stakeholder groups cannot be overly stressed. When the different realms and disciplines are brought together, communication often breaks down. Although it takes time and energy to achieve this, it is critical to project success (Box 8).The model presented here is offered as a tool to facilitate the simultaneous phasing of such R&D activities. The nature and severity of the issue will determine the depth of integration and participation needed to reach the desired impact effectively and efficiently. This can be decided only on a case-by-case basis, by factoring in possible solutions, information needs, lessons from previous experiences, and the level of expertise and funds available. When certain steps cannot be taken due to limited resources (e.g. funds, mandates, connections, adequately trained people), alternatives should be sought to guarantee the desired impact, or objectives should be adjusted in line with a more realistic expected impact.In the potato IPM FFS project in the Philippines, the training-of-trainers FFS was intended as an arena to develop appropriate technology guidelines and concomitant extension exercises. Both trainers and trainees interpreted the project more as an effort to promote potato-vegetable cultivation without taking into account technological limitations. Farmers were active in the FFS experiments, but given the complex nature of the high-value vegetable-potato production system, their participation was difficult at several stages, especially those of planning and problem identification. The structure did not permit sufficient farmer participation in either technology or training development. Moreover, project actors had different perceptions of the realm they were working in, resulting in confusion among research, development and extension objectives. This divergence of perceptions was further aggravated by non-participatory nature of the problem identification process. For lack of carefully defined and prioritized problems, FFS trainers recurred to materials from the cabbage IPM FFS approach. They were less open to developing new extension methods and viewed technology dissemination as more important than technology development. Consequently, the project suffered for lack of clear consensus as to the objectives and systematic planning and implementation of activities in anticipation of farm-level effects and impact. As a result of the problems encountered during the training-of-trainers-FFS cycle, there was inadequate adjustment to local conditions. ","tokenCount":"6821"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bd358625ba3ad290965f7d2cd80cebe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8d09eb0-3740-45a5-a60f-0ff4d1c8723a/retrieve","id":"-525196212"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba630166-5f49-48f0-a370-84257d1df445","pagecount":"9","content":"Understanding the impact of multiple anthropogenic threats on tree species is urgently needed for estimating population decline and enabling coordinated and efficient conservation actions. We applied a spatially explicit framework to assess the vulnerability of three highly valuable Asian rosewood species (Dalbergia cochinchinensis, D. cultrata, D. oliveri) to five key threats across their native ranges in six countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion. All three species face significant threat levels from at least one of the five threats in more than 75% of their native ranges, including within existing protected areas. Overexploitation is the single most important threat (53-60%), followed by habitat conversion (17-41%) and fire (20-28%). About 21% of the distribution range of D. cultrata is under medium to very high threat from climate change, which is predicted to have less impact on D. oliveri and on D. cochinchinensis. Based on our threat assessment we delineated species-specific priority areas for conservation and restoration that we subdivided by ecoregions as a surrogate for adaptive variation within species. Half of the ecoregions were classified as priority for improving the conservation of adaptive variation in one or more of the species. We propose spatially explicit follow-up actions that include in situ conservation, restoration, and ex situ conservation to improve the effectiveness of current conservation measures to capture adaptive variation within species. Transboundary coordination will be important to effectively address conservation threats. The study can act as a model for regional planning for other valuable tree species.Multiple anthropogenic threats drive local extinctions of tropical tree species (Abel-Schaad et al., 2018;Fremout et al., 2020;Gaisberger et al., 2021;Gallagher et al., 2021). In addition to the mounting pressure from global warming, forest habitats in the Greater Mekong are being rapidly destroyed by industrial-scale illegal logging and agricultural expansion (Foley, 2020). The resulting loss of genetic diversity limits the opportunities to restore viable, productive populations and reduces the species' ability to adapt to and survive under a changing environment (Sork et al., 2010). Species-specific conservation and management plans that consider the within-species (intraspecific) variation in traits and responses to threats are needed, but high species diversity coupled with limited resources in lower-income countries constrain the development and application of such planning. For example, even basic information about the current distribution of tropical tree species is often lacking (Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), 2021; Serra-Diaz et al., 2017;Gaisberger et al., 2021). Efficient and practical priority setting is urgently needed to not only prevent further population decline but also to reverse the trend and push back highly threatened species from the brink of extinction.The precarious status of Asian rosewoods (Dalbergia spp.) illustrates how conservation and management of even the most highly valued tropical tree species is fraught with such challenges. Sought for their beautiful reddish timber used for making luxury furniture, wood carvings and instruments, Dalbergia spp. can fetch prices as high as US $50,000 m − 3 (Winfield et al., 2016). High demand for the species has driven illegal logging across the Greater Mekong. Trade initially focused on Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis), but as the species has become increasingly rare, exploitation shifted to other species such as Burmese rosewood (Dalbergia oliveri) and other genera such as Pterocarpus spp. Dalbergia species were recognized as threatened as early as in 1998 on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2021) but their exploitation has only intensified since then (Winfield et al., 2016). In 2017, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) placed the entire genus of Dalbergia on its Appendix II, restricting international trade to reduce pressure on the remaining natural populations.Tree population decline can be driven by intense reduction or fluctuations in the number of mature individuals (IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee, 2019) or other processes that limit reproduction, regeneration, or genetic diversity of offspring. Illegal logging is the most severe threat to many Dalbergia spp. (Winfield et al., 2016), and mature trees that produce the valued heartwood are often completely wiped out in the region's landscapes. While the species are capable of coppicing (So et al., 2010), the common practice of digging out stumps limits regeneration, and even when clonal reproduction occurs, it does not help maintain genetic diversity. Dalbergia ssp. are also affected by land conversion to agriculture (Liu et al., 2019), eliminating both mature trees and regeneration, as well as grazing and fire that limit regeneration potential in the seasonally dry tropical forests (Prasad, 2001). Impacts of climate change on the species remain unknown but may affect seedling establishment and regeneration (Hung et al., 2020) and intensify the impacts of other threats such as more frequent fires. Assessing the vulnerability of species to multiple threats is fundamental for the planning of cost-effective restoration and conservation actions (Butt et al., 2016).Population genetic studies show high levels of intraspecific diversity between populations of Dalbergia oliveri and D. cochinchinensis, indicating limited geneflow and potentially high local adaptation (Hartvig et al., 2018). This differentiation may result partly from the complex relief and biogeographical history in the Greater Mekong Subregion (Woodruff, 2010). The Mekong River and other large water bodies also act as barriers to the species' dispersal (Sander et al., 2018). Population genetic studies have identified several distinct clusters of populations, often extending across national border zones (Hartvig et al., 2018).Therefore, local extinction of the species observed throughout the subregion suggest permanent loss of genetic diversity and adaptive capacity. In the absence of range-wide genetic data, environmental distances are valid surrogates in conservation planning for representing genetic variation (Hanson et al., 2017). Ecoregions, encompassing geographic areas with similar environmental conditions, are useful to delineate areas in which plant species face little disruption of population genetic patterns or loss of local adaptation (Miller et al., 2011).Interest for planting Dalbergia spp. is growing rapidly in the subregion. In Cambodia, D. cochinchinensis is among the most planted tree species (Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development, Cambodia, unpublished report). Planted populations can both relieve the pressure on the natural populations and help conserve their genetic diversity. However, their productivity and conservation value depend on the genetic diversity of the planting material and its suitability to the environmental conditions (Broadhurst, 2013). Seed sourcing for planting these species relies on declining natural populations, illustrating how conservation and restoration are intertwined and need to be considered together.In this study we present a spatially explicit framework based on habitat suitability modelling, threat exposure estimates and a trait-based sensitivity scoring approach (Fremout et al., 2020) to assess the vulnerability of three highly valuable Asian rosewood species (Dalbergia cochinchinensis, D. cultrata, D. oliveri) to current threats (overexploitation, fire, overgrazing, habitat conversion) and climate change across their native ranges in six countries (Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). Based on threat vulnerability levels we delineated species-specific priority areas for conservation and restoration. We refined the results by subdividing the priority areas by ecoregions as surrogate for genetic diversity to capture adaptive variation within species. The objectives of this study were to (i) assess the vulnerability of three economically important Asian rosewood species to key threats, (ii) identify species-specific and ecoregional conservation and restoration priorities to conserve adaptive variation within species, and (iii) explore opportunities for cooperation and synergies between countries in their conservation efforts across the species' ranges.Species occurrence data was collected from scientific and grey literature, national and global databases, and individual research projects (Table A1). The initial dataset with 565 occurrence records underwent a three-step cleaning process to ensure quality control and a spatial filtering process to reduce the negative effects of uneven sampling (Supplementary text). The final occurrence dataset of the three Dalbergia species used for spatial analysis consisted of 355 occurrence points (Table A2).We tested 31 potential predictor variables (Table A3) that included bioclimatic variables from the CHELSA v2.1 database (Karger et al., 2017), edaphic variables from the SoilGrids v1 database (Hengl et al., 2017) and topographic variables (Danielson and Gesch, 2011), for multicollinearity across the study area because correlation among variables may negatively affect model performance (Heikkinen et al., 2006). We calculated the variance inflation factor (VIF) with the R package usdm (Naimi et al., 2014) and retained only variables with VIFs <10 using a stepwise procedure. A subset of 18 remaining predictors (Table A3) at a spatial resolution of 30 arcsec (ca. 0.9 km at the equator) were used to model the habitat suitability of the three Dalbergia species using the maximum entropy algorithm (Maxent) (Phillips et al., 2018).As default settings might lead to overfitting (Radosavljevic and Anderson, 2014), we executed Maxent across a range of different settings using the R package ENMeval (Muscarella et al., 2014), to balance goodness-of-fit with model complexity and to evaluate models with spatially independent partitions. For each species we therefore selected the model with the lowest Akaike information criteria (AICc) value (i.e., ΔAICc = 0) as best performing model for subsequent spatial analysis. We also calculated a widely used performance metric for SDMs, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), in order to facilitate comparison with other studies. The models were evaluated using 4-fold cross-validation using spatially independent checkerboard partitioning of presence and background records (Muscarella et al., 2014). Background points were randomly selected from a geographic extent similar to the one of the occurrence points, which is aimed at improving the discriminatory power of models in the core distribution area (Acevedo et al., 2012), as well as the transferability in place and time (Phillips, 2008). For this purpose, we created for each of the three species a convex hull around the presence locations, extended with a buffer corresponding to 20% of the longest axis between presence points. To avoid omitting large areas where species may be present from our analysis, we converted the suitability maps into presence-absence maps using the 10th percentile training presence omission threshold.The resulting maps were validated through an online consultation with species experts and a review of literature and existing species databases. As part of this process, modeled distribution ranges of the species in states or provinces and in ecoregions not confirmed as part of their natural distribution (e.g., due to barriers to dispersal such as mountain ranges) were identified and excluded from the maps.For each of the five threats (overexploitation, fire overgrazing, habitat conversion, and climate change), threat exposure estimates were constructed using freely accessible spatial datasets (Table A4), according to the methodology described in Gaisberger et al. (2021) and in Table A5. The exposure estimates, aimed to reflect the expected impacts at population level (Table A4), were created as grid layers with values ranging from 0 (no threat exposure) to 1 (maximum threat exposure). They reflect current exposure levels, except for climate change, in which case they reflect expected future levels. To assess the exposure to climate change, we projected the distribution models of the three Dalbergia species to predicted climate conditions for 2055 (2041-2070 period), using the following downscaled General Circulation Model (GCM) predictions, obtained from the CHELSA database (https://chelsa-climate. org/cmip6/; Karger et al., 2017): GFDL-ESM4, IPSL-CM6A-LR, MPI-ESM1-2-HR, MRI-ESM2-0, and UKESM1-0-LL. The climate change exposure maps were created by calculating the number of different GCMs predicting presence of suitable habitat across the validated distribution ranges. All grid layers used to construct the exposure maps had a spatial resolution of 30 arcsec (ca. 0.9 km at the equator). To assess the robustness of the threat mapping methodology, we carried out a sensitivity analysis by creating reference-, best-and worst-case scenario exposure maps (Figs. A1-A2) for each of the considered threats (details in Table A5).To estimate the sensitivity of the three Dalbergia species to the five key threats we applied a sensitivity scoring approach (Fremout et al., 2020) in which explicit relations between tree functional traits and resistance against threats were established based on literature and expert judgement. We focused on a subset of 10 key traits with 'medium' to 'very high' importance, which we compiled through a separate literature study (Table A6). The details of the data used to estimate species sensitivities and the final trait-based sensitivity scores are available in Gaisberger et al. (2021) and Tables A7 and A8.Species-specific vulnerability maps were constructed on a cell-by-cell basis, as the product of the species-specific threat sensitivity score (0-1) and the threat exposure value (0-1), restricted to the expert corrected species distribution area. The grid cells of the vulnerability maps were categorized into five classes (no threat, low, medium, high, and very high) using the thresholds of 0.01, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75. As multiple stressor interactions, ranging from synergistic to antagonistic effects, are complex and difficult to predict for real-world applications (Côte et al., 2016), for simplicity we defined the combined vulnerability of an area, corresponding to an individual pixel, as the highest vulnerability among the individual layers. To identify the overall vulnerability of a species, we calculated the proportion of distribution area under 'medium' to 'very high' vulnerability to current and predicted climate change threats individually and in combination.Based on the vulnerability to current threats (overexploitation, fire, overgrazing and habitat conversion) and to climate change, we present the following conservation and restoration planning strategy (Fremout et al., 2020). We recommend (i) in situ conservation of populations in areas where both current and climate change threat levels are low, (ii) restoration activities such as active planting or assisted regeneration of populations in areas where current threat levels are high but climate change threat levels are low, and (iii) ex situ conservation of populations in areas where climate change threat levels are high, in order to safeguard the genetic resources that might disappear due to climate change by 2055. The remaining combinations of current and climate change threat levels were classified as (iv) 'no single priority action' areas and may benefit from a combination of conservation and restoration approaches (e.g., passive restoration) depending on the site context.We restricted the prioritized area for in situ conservation to areas where the modeled distribution showed highly suitable habitat (values ≥0.7) as predicted by the Maxent models, with the aim to identify populations that are likely to have maximal fitness and adaptive capacity (Nagaraju et al., 2013). In addition, the priority action maps were overlaid with a protected areas map (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, 2018), updated with protected areas for Cambodia (Gaisberger et al., 2021), to assess the proportion of species' native distribution ranges that are currently under some type of protection and with a land cover map (Latham et al., 2014) to identify areas that are 'natural' or converted to agricultural land use. We defined as 'natural' all areas that were not classified as 'cropland'. The distinction between converted and nonconverted areas is important as these land use types may require different conservation and restoration strategies. Large-scale ecological restoration projects are more likely to be implemented in non-converted areas whereas agroforestry might be the more appropriate restoration strategy in areas already converted to agriculture (Fremout et al., 2020).We partitioned the modeled distribution ranges of the three Dalbergia species by ecoregions (Dinerstein et al., 2017), as surrogate for adaptive genetic variation (Miller et al., 2011), and combined it with the priority action maps to obtain subdivisions of species distribution areas likely to represent patterns of intraspecific adaptive variation (Fig. A3). Modeled distribution area not prioritized for restoration or ex situ conservation was classified as 'stable'. Ecoregions were defined as priority for improving the conservation of adaptive variation when less than 10% of the potential distribution area was stable and within protected areas. Three possible follow-up actions were identified for these priority ecoregions: (i) designating additional protected areas or conservation units in areas prioritized for in situ conservation that remain outside the existing protected area network, (ii) restoring the species' populations in areas prioritized for restoration (degraded or converted lands but remaining suitable for the species under climate change), and (iii) conserving the species ex situ through seed collection and field gene banks, especially when conservation targets could not be met through the other means (i.e. >90% of the potential distribution area becoming unsuitable for the species under climate change). A combination of these actions could be applied in each ecoregion to meet the conservation threshold. All area calculations were carried out after transformation into Cylindrical Equal Area's projection.The cross-validated AUC values of the best performing SDM per species (with lowest AICs values) ranged from 0.85 to 0.93, indicating excellent accuracy.We created exposure maps for each of the five threats (overexploitation, fire overgrazing, habitat conversion, and climate change) across the distribution ranges of the target species (Figs. A1-A2).All three Dalbergia species show medium to very high threat levels for at least one of the five threats in more than 75% of their potential distribution area (Table 1 and Figs. A4-A6). Overexploitation is the single most important threat (53-60%) and, together with fire (20-28%) and overgrazing (14-16%), is affecting all three species to a similar extent, whereas the vulnerability to the other three threats varies more strongly between the species. Habitat conversion poses an important risk across the species' ranges to D. cochinchinensis (41%) and D. oliveri (38%) but is less of a risk for D. cultrata (17%). In return, D. cultrata is more threatened by climate change (21%), which is predicted to have less effects on D. oliveri (13%) and on D. cochinchinensis (7%).Based on the threat levels of current threats and climate change we mapped priority areas for conservation and restoration actions for the three Dalbergia species (Fig. 1, Table 2). On average 12% (range 11-12%) of the distribution ranges are prioritized for in situ conservation, 27% (range 15-42%) for restoration activities, and 6% (range 3-9%) for ex situ conservation. The sensitivity analysis indicated that an average of 22% (±2 SD) of the grid cells of the priority area maps within species' distribution ranges changed from one category to another compared with the reference maps for the best-case priority maps and 27% (±3) for the worst-case priority maps.At least 10% of the species' predicted distribution in each of the countries falls within protected areas, except for D. cochinchinensis in Vietnam, and D. cultrata and D. oliveri in China, Myanmar and Vietnam (Table 2). Cambodia has the highest proportion of the species' potential distribution ranges under protection, ranging from 38 to 57%. However, species are in some cases severely threatened also within the protected area network: for example, 42% of the current distribution of D. cultrata within protected areas in Cambodia is prioritized for restoration due to high vulnerability to current threats. Similarly, 28-52% of the species distribution ranges in protected areas in Cambodia are predicted to become unsuitable for the species due to climate change and are prioritized for ex situ conservation.Areas prioritized for in situ conservation account for 11-12% of the total distribution ranges. More than 95% of these areas occur outside of the current protected areas for D. cultrata in China and in Myanmar and for D. oliveri in Myanmar. Restoration priority areas for D. cochinchinensis are mostly located in Thailand (56%) and Cambodia (46%) and those for D. oliveri in Cambodia (38%) and Vietnam (35%). The largest portion of distribution range prioritized for ex situ conservation is located in Vietnam (49%) for D. cultrata.The conservation status of the three Dalbergia species varies largely by ecoregion. For D. cochinchinensis, 6 of the 11 ecoregions (55%) have less than 10% of the species predicted distribution in stable protected areas. For D. cultrata, the proportion is 10 of 20 ecoregions (50%) and for D. oliveri, 9 of 19 ecoregions (47%) (Tables 3 and A10). Three ecoregions with predicted species distribution have less than 1% of stable protected areas: Northern Thailand-Laos moist deciduous forests for D. cochinchinensis, Irrawaddy dry forests for D. cultrata and D. oliveri, and Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests for D. cultrata. The stable protected area is also very small (<100 km 2 ) for individual species in three other ecoregions. Two ecoregions are identified as priority for improving the conservation of adaptive variation for all three species: Northern Indochina subtropical forests and Northern Khorat Plateau moist deciduous forests (Fig. 2). One ecoregion in Myanmar and three ecoregions in Vietnam have no stable protected areas in that country for one or more of the target species.The area prioritized for in situ conservation is sufficient to reach the 10% threshold for stable protected area in three of the 25 total speciesecoregion combinations that are prioritized for additional conservation measures (Table A10). This includes the Northern Indochina subtropical forests (Fig. 2A) for D. cultrata. The remaining 22 ecoregions (or speciesecoregion combinations) would require restoration outside of the current protected area network to meet the conservation target, including the Northern Indochina subtropical forests for D. cochinchinensis and D. oliveri (Fig. 2A) and the Northern Khorat Plateau moist deciduous forests (Fig. 2B) for all three species. This corresponds to an estimated restoration need of about 1.1 million ha across the species' combined ranges. The majority of the priority areas for restoration remain as natural habitat, except for the Chao Phraya lowland moist deciduous forests (for D. cochinchinensis), the Irrawaddy dry forests (for D. cultrata and D. oliveri) and the Peninsular Malaysian rain forests (for D. oliveri), where large portions of potential habitat have been converted to cropland. Fig. 1 shows maps of other areas within the landscapes where the species would benefit from restoration activities, independently of the conservation status within the ecoregion or country. At country level, more than 40% of the species' potential distribution is prioritized for restoration for D. cochinchinenis in Thailand (56%) and in Cambodia (46%) (Table 2).None of the ecoregions are prioritized for ex situ conservation with the set (high) threshold of >90% of the distribution area becoming unsuitable by 2055. The ecoregions most threatened by climate change are the Northern Triangle subtropical forests in Myanmar (53% becoming unsuitable for D. cultrata) and the Southern Annamites montane rain forests in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (49% also for D. cultrata). Four other ecoregions are predicted to lose over 20% of the species' current distribution area: Northern Indochina subtropical forests (Fig. 2A) for D. cochinchinenis, Irrawaddy dry forests for D. cultrata and Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests and Myanmar coastal rainPotential distribution area with 'medium' to 'very high' threat vulnerability. The range between best-case and worst-case scenario is indicated in brackets. The corresponding maps can be found in Figs. A4-A6. This article provides a framework for quantitatively assessing the conservation status of tree species and their intraspecific diversity across species ranges, considering multiple threats. Our method uses freely available spatial datasets, species occurrence and trait data combined with expert knowledge, making it well suited for tropical countries with high tree diversity and limited published information.The results from this study reveal that all three Dalbergia species (D. cochinchinensis, D. cultrata, D. oliveri) are at risk across large parts of their distribution ranges in the Greater Mekong Subregion, with overexploitation being the most important threat followed by habitat conversion and fire. This provides the most comprehensive spatially explicit conservation assessment of the studied species since they were classified as threatened by the IUCN Red List in the late 1990s. Although protected areas cover between 13 and 21% of the species' predicted ranges, Dalbergia spp. are under pressure within these areas from both current threats and future climate change. Moreover, the existing protected areas are highly concentrated, leaving many parts of these species' ranges without protection. Populations outside the existing protected area network are rapidly dwindling, and in the vast majority of the studied ecoregions, areas identified as priority for in situ conservation are insufficient to reach the conservation goal of 10% stable protected area. Both conservation of the remaining populations and species restoration are urgently needed and require the collaboration between countries and stakeholders. The results presented were used to update the IUCN Red List assessments for the three species in collaboration with the Global Tree Assessment project (Barstow et al., 2022a(Barstow et al., , 2022b;;Contu et al., 2022).To fill the current gaps in the existing protected area network, the priority areas for in situ conservation should be surveyed to confirm the presence of viable populations of the species and to delineate genetic conservation units, starting from the currently least protected ecoregions. High modeled habitat suitability has been associated with high genetic diversity (Nagaraju et al., 2013). Populations growing in the most suitable areas for each species can therefore be particularly valuable for in situ conservation. Because of the high genetic differentiation between populations (Hartvig et al., 2018), conservation measures  Table 3 Priority ecoregions with least stable protected areas (≤2%) for one or more Dalbergia species. Data for all three species is included for the two ecoregions (highlighted in grey) identified as priority for conserving all three species: 'Northern Indochina subtropical forests', and 'Northern Khorat Plateau moist deciduous forests' (Fig. 2).  should be expanded also to underrepresented areas to avoid a potential loss of unique adaptative variation. Less diverse populations at the species' range margins can harbor unique, important traits e.g., for climate change adaptation (Angert et al., 2020;Hartvig et al., 2020) and should be studied further.In situ priority areas are usually relatively remote, as accessibility is one of the main factors contributing to overexploitation. Opportunity costs from conservation are therefore more limited than in areas with higher accessibility and land use pressures (Carrasco et al., 2017). On the other hand, remoteness increases the costs of monitoring tree populations and therefore also the risk of illegal logging of valuable species (Xue et al., 2019). Remote and under-resourced protected areas can also be particularly vulnerable to encroachment as they may restrict the informal access rights of local forest-dependent land users (Geldmann et al., 2019). Areas prioritized for in situ conservation are potentially well-suited for community forestry, as threats to the target species are more limited than elsewhere and conservation of genetic diversity does not preclude sustainable use. Field surveys indicate that community forests in Cambodia harbor some of the largest remaining populations of D. cochinchinensis and D. oliveri in the country (Institute of Forest and Wildlife Research and Development, Cambodia, unpublished report). Seed collection and seedling production are potential opportunities for employment and sources of income, given the increasing interest for planting Dalbergia spp. in the region and the high price of seed that can fetch up to US$ 250-300 kg − 1 . Linking communities to seed markets is crucial for sustaining the benefits and the commitment to protecting seed sources (Valette et al., 2020).Restoration of Dalbergia spp. populations outside of the current protected area network is necessary for recovering and maintaining adaptive variation within species across large parts of their ranges. Mainstreaming these and other threatened, socio-economically important tree species in broader land restoration programs would be important to align resources, help meet conservation targets and improve biodiversity benefits of restoration initiatives (Strassburg et al., 2020). Our restoration priority maps can help identify areas where the species distributions overlap with ongoing or planned restoration and tree planting programs. Although Dalbergia spp. can regenerate through coppicing, active planting is likely needed in most areas given the species' highly threatened status and the lack of genetic recombination in clonal reproduction (Hartvig et al., 2020). Capacities of farmers, other land managers and restoration practitioners need to be strengthened to ensure that planted populations are established using genetically diverse and adapted seed to contribute to genetic conservation and result in resilient populations that can subsequently serve as sources of quality seed (Jalonen et al., 2018). The scarcity of viable seed source populations in most priority ecoregions underlines the importance of good seed selection and collection practices. Remaining viable seed sources, including conservation stands in natural forests and ex situ seed sources, need to be mapped and conserved across the species ranges to enable restoration. Establishing seedling or clonal seed orchards using material from multiple natural populations can contribute to conserving genetic diversity while building up seed production (Dudley et al., 2020). Consequently, conservation and restoration are intertwined and need to be planned in coordination.Our results indicate that ex situ conservation is important for the long-term conservation of species' adaptive variation in ecoregions that are predicted to be severely affected by climate change. Responses to heat and drought stress vary between the species despite their relatedness (Hung et al., 2020), illustrating the need for species-specific analyses before synergies for conservation action can be identified. D. cultrata in particular is at risk at the margins of its current distribution because of the combined effects of climate change and current threats. These areas should be targeted by germplasm collection to avoid the potential loss of adaptive variation. Our maps will help to focus collection efforts in areas where climate threat levels are high but current threat levels are low and where it is therefore likely that viable remnant populations can still be found. Ex situ conservation of tree genetic resources does not preclude sustainable use, and, apart from seed banks, conservation units can include plantations, provenance trials, seed orchards, agroforestry and trees on farm. Common garden studies and genomic studies can help to understand species' capacity to adapt to climate change and identify opportunities for selection and breeding to support adaptation. Climate change should also be considered in the management plans for protected areas where the species are predicted to be affected. This would also benefit other species within vulnerable protected areas.Eleven out of the 21 ecoregions (52%) in the studied area extend over country boundaries, with the conservation status sometimes differing drastically across the border. None of the species is sufficiently protected within individual ecoregions in individual countries. Synergies between countries are, therefore, likely to improve the conservation status as well as helpful to share and stretch resources (Wang et al., 2021). Each ecoregion should have several conserved populations to avoid the risk of genetic erosion (Hoban et al., 2020). For severely threatened species, such as Dalbergia spp., identifying such reserves in collaboration between countries within an ecoregion is particularly important as remaining populations are scarce. Regional collaboration would also support efforts to address illegal cross-border trade, the main driver of loss of Dalbergia spp. in the region (EIA, 2016). Within countries, improving the conservation status of Dalbergia species in existing protected areas requires addressing persistent challenges in how these areas are designed (Kukkonen and Tammi, 2019) and managed (Cuong et al., 2017;Graham et al., 2021), including through enforcement of the law and addressing corruption (Milne, 2015). Our results contribute to better targeting conservation efforts within and between protected areas, for example by highlighting protected areas where populations of Dalbergia spp. require better monitoring and restoration.Transboundary collaboration for conservation actions is constrained by a lack of methods for identifying national roles, responsibilities and complementarities (Schmeller et al., 2008). Species distribution modelling contributes to such analyses, but the lack of distribution data in a standardized form limits its potential and constitutes a major bottleneck for many native Asian tree species (Serra-Diaz et al., 2017;Gaisberger et al., 2021). Our experience shows that collaborative projects on species of common interest can facilitate the compilation and standardization of previously unpublished data to enable range-wide conservation assessments. Collaboration among national experts is also crucial for validating the resulting distribution maps and for identifying opportunities and recommendations for concrete collaborative actions. Results from the spatial analysis help target field survey to areas with high predicted potential for conservation and most synergies between species or countries. This saves both resources and time which is important in the race against local extinctions of Dalbergia spp. and other severely threatened species. ","tokenCount":"5227"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2c16e36c2e0cb8c703c7cd3c5e8c2bcd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c323afe0-fc69-4fc4-8f24-75b76765c89f/content","id":"1143692522"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"74bde59f-3648-41ac-adef-86eea5da5e28","pagecount":"18","content":"Examples of how to simulate performance of conservation agriculture (CA) and conventional tillage (CT) practices using cropping systems models are rare in the literature, and from the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP).Here we report a comprehensive evaluation of the capacity of APSIM for simulating the performance of CA and CT cropping practices under a diverse range of tillage (CT vs zero tillage (ZT)), crop establishment options (puddled transplanted rice vs unpuddled transplanted rice), residue, N rates, and irrigation practices from two sites in the EGP that differed in soil type, water table dynamics, and agro-climatic conditions. We followed a robust procedure of model parameterisation, calibration, and validation, then undertook statistical analyses to evaluate model performance. We have demonstrated that when different values for key model input parameters are employed (i.e. change in soil properties (Ks, BD)), crop rooting parameters (xf-root hospitality, kl-root extraction efficiency) and soil microorganism activity (F biom -fraction of soil organic matter present as microbial biomass and F inert -the inert fraction of soil organic matter), the model performed well in simulating the different performances of CA and CT management practices across the environments in the EGP. Model performance was markedly better in the full-N than in zero-N, but both are still considered acceptable. In addition to well-watered and fertilised treatments, the model was able to capture an observed crop failure in rainfed unpuddled transplanted rice accurately, illustrating an ability to capture crop response under a wide range of water stress environments. As demonstrated by robust statistical criteria, APSIM was able to capture the effect of cropping system, irrigation, tillage, residue, and N-application rate within the bounds of experimental uncertainty, hence is now deemed a suitable tool for scenario analyses around the relevant practices.The rice-wheat cropping system plays a major food security role, occupying around 12.4 Mha in four south Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh) (Timsina et al., 2010) and producing staple food for 15% of the world's population (Laik et al., 2014). There is a growing awareness among policymakers and people of the area of the need to increase the productivity of the rice-wheat system, to meet the demand of the ever-growing population of the region while utilizing resources efficiently (Dobermann and Witt, 2000;Ladha et al., 2009;Hochman et al., 2013). Intensification of current rice-wheat rotation (conventional puddled transplanted rice-conventional-till (CT) wheat), through the inclusion of a rainfed summer legume (mungbean) following wheat (Mondal et al., 2012;Islam et al., 2019), along with the implementation of conservation agriculture (CA) based management practices (Hobbs, 2007;Jat et al., 2020), could help overcome these major constraints and sustain productivity (Chaki et al., 2019a). The results of field experiments conducted in this regard, including the findings presented in Chaki (2021); Chaki et al. (2021a); Chaki et al. (2021b), provide insights into system performance over only short periods. Furthermore, given resource constraints, it is not possible to test the many possible variations to cropping practices, or to understand systems behaviour/performance with new imposed practices over a broad range of growing season conditions. Cropping system models that are locally calibrated and validated using short-term experimental data and long-term climatic data, can be useful tools for investigating farming system intervention options including long-term system performance with respect to production, economics, environmental trade-offs, and resource use (Akhter et al., 2014;Amarasingha et al., 2015Amarasingha et al., , 2017;;Khaliq et al., 2019).Simulation models are being increasingly used for analysis and decision making processes in agricultural fields, such as for achieving increased production and food security, understanding soil carbon changes, ecosystem services, limiting greenhouse gas emissions, climate change adaptation and mitigation, pests and disease losses, livestock and pasture production, and understanding climatic risk; all of which are not possible from short-term experiments (Holzworth et al., 2014a(Holzworth et al., , 2014b)). Many modelling efforts have continued over decades because of their potential benefits in agricultural decision support systems (Jones et al., 2003;Whitbread et al., 2010;Holzworth et al., 2014a). The biophysical models integrate soil, climate, crop, and management practices to simulate the growth and yield of a crop in association with below-ground processes (e.g., soil N dynamics, soil water), often on a daily time-step basis. Once properly parameterised, calibrated and validated, the model can be used to analyse the influence of a range of factors on the growth and yield of a crop, and also to interpret experimental findings and extrapolate to wider climatic, soil and management conditions. Furthermore, well-tested models help to understand numerous underlying processes of crop production and to quantify them, which is often difficult and expensive under field conditions. Several dynamic simulation models are being used worldwide such as DSSAT (Jones et al., 2003), APSIM (Keating et al., 2003;Holzworth et al., 2014a), CropSyst (Stöckle et al., 2003), EPIC (Izaurralde et al., 2006), STICS (Brisson et al., 2003), WOFOST (Keulen and Wolf, 1986), RIWER (Jing et al., 2010) and infoCrop (Aggarwal et al., 2006). However, few of them have the capacity to simulate farmer detailed management decisions which change from year to year based on prevailing climatic conditions or soil status (for example, different rice sowing dates each season based on start of monsoon rains), or to simulate the rice-based cropping systems (rice followed by non-rice crops in rotation) which dominate in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP). The Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) is such a model and has been successfully used in modelling diversified cropping systems, crop rotations, intercropping, fallowing, water balance, N stress and balance, and environmental dynamics (Probert et al., 1997(Probert et al., , 1998;;Carberry et al., 2002;Keating et al., 2002;Robertson et al., 2002;Verburg and Bond, 2003;Whitbread et al., 2010;Balwinder-Singh et al., 2011;Akhter et al., 2014;Holzworth et al., 2014a;Chaki et al., 2019b). The model has also been improved to simulate rice-based cropping systems (Gaydon et al., 2012a). The capacity of APSIM to simulate major cropping systems of Asia (12 countries, various climates, soil, and management) has recently been evaluated successfully in terms of crop duration, growth, yield, crop sequences, water productivity, soil carbon changes and crop response to elevated CO 2 levels (Gaydon et al., 2017). No other cropping systems model offers the flexibility in specifying specific farmer decision making logic in simulations (Gaydon et al., 2017), thereby capturing season by season changes in farmer management practices in response to prevailing conditions. Although contrasts between CA vs CT practices are widely reported in the literature, there are very few examples of modelling these differences in cropping systems simulation (examples would be Balwinder-Singh et al. (2015), from the North-Western Indo Gangetic Plains (NW-IGP), and Corbeels et al. (2016), from Monze, Southern Province of Zambia) and there are none from the EGP. For simulating the impact of CA management on crop productivity, simulating soil water is the foremost variable (especially for water-limited environments) which should be simulated quite sensibly for the analysis of trade-offs of water allocation using the cropping systems model. To address this gap, we evaluated the capacity of APSIM to simulate the differences in observed performance between CA and CT cropping practices (which are illustrated in Fig. S1 by non 1:1 correlation relationships) with different N and irrigation managements in the rice-wheat system for two diverse environments (varied in soil types, water table dynamics, and agro-climatic conditions) of the EGP, utilising the data gained from experiments detailed in Chaki (2021); Chaki et al. (2021a); Chaki et al. (2021b).A robust procedure of model parameterisation, calibration, and validation was followed and then statistical analyses were undertaken to evaluate the model performance.The APSIM software provides a dynamic cropping systems modelling framework, which contains interconnected modules of key farming system components to be plugged in to simulate biophysical process in the systems (McCown et al., 1996;Keating et al., 2003;Holzworth et al., 2014a). The model comprises biophysical modules, a flexible management module, and various data input-output modules connected to a central simulation engine that drives the simulation of the systems.The key strength of APSIM is that it focuses on cropping systems rather than individual crops, and simulates management-related contingencies between crops (e.g. planting dates) as well as carry-over effects on dynamic soil properties. Soil state variables are simulated continuously with regards to weather and management and crops \"come to the soil finding it in one state and leave it in another state\" after completing its term (McCown et al., 1995). APSIM places equal emphasis on the demand and supply sides of the simulation as impacted by weather and management, rather than being focussed on demand like many crop models.The generic plant model incorporated into APSIM (Wang et al., 2002) has now been able to simulate 30 different crops (Holzworth et al., 2014a). The plant modules simulate key physiological processes on a daily time-step basis to simulate potential production which is constrained by the availability of resources (soil water, N), daily weather (solar radiation, maximum and minimum temperature, and rainfall) and management factors (sowing date, tillage type, irrigation, and N apply date, residue management, etc.) (Keating et al., 2003). Two model options are available for soil water balance simulation in APSIM -a cascading layer approach (SOILWAT: simple one using \"tipping bucket\" approach) (Probert et al., 1998) and Richards equation method (APS-WIM: using numerical solution) (Verburg et al., 1996;Huth et al., 2012). The surface organic matter (SURFACEOM) module has the function of addition, removal, incorporation, decomposition in situ, and soil cover (Probert et al., 1998;Thorburn et al., 2001). APSIM simulates the effect of crop residues on the efficiency with which soil water is captured and retained in the system. APSIM calculates a surface residue effect (an overall effective cover value of 0-1) on soil evaporation and runoff based on the total residue present on the soil surface. The soil N (SOILN) module simulates the processes of nitrification and denitrification in the soil, stubble/roots left from the previous crop, and thus N supply to the plant (Probert et al., 1998). SOILN also simulates the soil carbon balance. APSIM treats soil organic matter as a three-pool system. The fresh organic matter (FOM) pool comprises the incorporated crop residues and roots. After decomposition of the FOM pool, the labile soil microbial biomass (BIOM) pool, and the more stable humus (HUM) pool are formed. The decomposition process of organic matter pools releases mineral N and the rates of mineralisation depend on soil temperature and water supply during the process (Probert et al., 1998). APSIM pond (POND) module simulates different biological and chemical processes occurring in the flooded rice field (Gaydon et al., 2012b).The field experiments were established on two experimental farms of the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI); (i) in the Rajshahi district (latitude 24 • 22' N, longitude 88 • 39' E and 12 m ASL) and (ii) in the Dinajpur district (latitude 25 • 89' N, longitude 88 • 76' E and 41 m ASL). Each trial was conducted for two years (2016 and 2017 at Rajshahi, and 2017 and 2018 at Dinajpur) (Fig. 1). The Dinajpur site represents lighter soils (higher sand content) with deeper water tables, whereas the Rajshahi site represents heavy soils (high clay content) with shallow water tables. The details of climate, soil, and water table dynamics of the two sites are presented in Chaki et al. (2021a).The experimental field had been under a conventionally-tilled ricewheat system for the previous five years at Rajshahi and the previous twenty years at Dinajpur. However, mungbean was occasionally cultivated at the Rajshahi site between wheat and rice crops, practicing conventional methods.The details of the crop establishment, management, experimental measurements, cropping history, and data used for model calibration and validation has been described in Chaki (2021); Chaki et al. (2021a); Chaki et al. (2021b), and a summary of the experimental treatments are given here.The experiment was laid out in a randomized split-plot design with three replications. The sub-plot size was 5 m × 6 m at Rajshahi and 3 m × 5 m at Dinajpur. The main plots were separated by a 1.2 m wide buffer, and sub-plots by 0.75 m buffer. Six cropping system treatments (CS) were allocated in the main plots as follows:CS1: Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) -Conventional tilled wheat (CT wheat, 3 irrigations).CS2: PTR -CT wheat (3 irrigations) -CT mungbean. CS3: Unpuddled transplanted rice (UPTR) -ZT wheat (3 irrigations) -ZT mungbean.CS4: UPTR -ZT wheat (2 irrigations) -ZT mungbean. CS5: UPTR -ZT wheat (1 irrigation) -ZT mungbean. CS6: Rainfed-unpuddled transplanted rice (RUPTR) -ZT wheat (0 irrigation) -ZT mungbean (Rainfed system).Three N rates (N 0 : zero N, N 45 : 45 kg ha − 1 N and N 90 : 90 kg ha − 1 N for rice, and N 0 : zero N, N 60 : 60 kg ha − 1 N and N 120 : 120 kg ha − 1 N for wheat, representing zero, half, and full recommended application rate) were imposed in the sub-plots to assess model response to N, and its ability to simulate indigenous soil supply. There was no N fertiliser applied to mungbean. Rice was established as PTR (transplanted in puddled soil-a process of wet tillage in ponding water to create a soft soil environment and impermeable sub-soil layer) after CT wheat, and as UPTR (transplanted in no-till soil) after either ZT wheat or mungbean. Wheat was sown using a BARI ZT drill seeder into the conventionally tilled plot (land prepared by 2-W tractor) after PTR crop harvest, and into the no-till plot after UPTR and RUPTR crop harvest. Mungbean was sown after harvesting wheat using a similar method of establishment used in wheat. All above-ground crop residues were removed from the CT (CS1 and CS2), and 25 cm standing residue of rice and wheat and all residue of mungbean was retained in the CA (CS3 to CS6) after harvesting of the respective crops, following accepted CA practice (Islam et al., 2019).The APSIM model (version 7.5) was parameterised by supplying measured data to the model such as climate data, soil properties, crop varieties, crop phenology, crop management practices followed, and inputs supplied.Daily maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall, and solar radiation were recorded daily using an automatic weather station (DWS Decagon Weather Station configured with EM50 data logger at Rajshahi and HOBO RX3000 Weather Station at Dinajpur) installed at the experimental sites. Long-term climate data (1982Long-term climate data ( -2019) ) for Rajshahi and Dinajpur were collected from the weather records of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) (Fig. S2). These data were used as climate inputs to APSIM.APSIM requires measurable soil physical parameters on a layer basis including bulk density, saturated water content, drained upper limit, lower limit (expressed in volumetric moisture content terms), soil water content (SWCON), and saturated hydraulic conductivity, and soil chemical parameters such as organic C, pH, and mineral N (NO 3 and NH 4). Soil samples were collected from the experimental sites in seven layers: 0-15, 15-30, 30-60, 60-90, 90-120, 120-150, 150-180 cm and processed for particle size analysis, bulk density, and chemical composition using standard procedures (details in Chaki et al. (2021a)). Water content at the lower limit (at 1500 kPa) and drained upper limit (at 33 kPa) was measured using a pressure plate apparatus. Details of soil data used in APSIM simulations are provided in Table 1.Groundwater levels were monitored at 15 days' interval in piezometer tubes installed in the experimental field at each site. At Rajshahi, the water table depth fluctuated between 0.5 m and 0.9 m during the rabi season, while it ranged from 0 to 1.6 m during the Kharif season (Fig. S3). The persistence of a shallow perched water table in the experimental field at Rajshahi indicated the presence of an impermeable layer restricting water movement through the soil profile. At Dinajpur, the water table depth was deeper than 2 m (2.5-4.7 m) during the rabi season, while it ranged from 1.5 to 4.8 m during the Kharif season (Fig. S3). The daily groundwater table depth data were provided as additional inputs to the APSIM climate file, and we configured APSIM manager logic to read this groundwater table data daily from the APSIM climate file.APSIM requires some other parameters, such as crop genetic coefficients and some soil parameters that are difficult to measure or have greater uncertainty in measured values, which need iterative adjustment. Through the calibration process, the APSIM model was run with best possible guess values and then model outputs were compared with the first season of observed data (crop developmental stages, grain yield, biomass, soil water, soil NO 3 --N) from the selected treatments (details in subsections below), and the process repeated with re-estimated values until a satisfactory performance in simulating the output variables of interest (for example, yield) was achieved.The crop varieties used in this simulation study were rice (var. BRRI dhan52), wheat (var. BARI Gom-26 for Rajshahi, and BARI Gom-32 for Dinajpur) and mungbean (var. BARI Mung-6). For the rice variety, the simulated dates of sowing, transplanting, panicle initiation, flowering, physiological maturity, and harvest were compared with observed values to adjust the varietal rice phenology parameters for APSIM-Oryza. For the wheat varieties, the simulated (using APSIM-Wheat model) dates of sowing, emergence, flowering, physiological maturity, and harvest were compared with observed phenology dates for the first season, and similarly, model parameters adjusted until a good agreement was achieved. For the mungbean variety, the observed dates of sowing, emergence, flowering, physiological maturity, and harvest were compared with simulated phenology dates using the APSIM-Mungbean model. For each crop variety, the APSIM-crop phenology coefficient values were varied iteratively to produce a close match between the observed and simulated phenology dates.The recommended irrigation and fertiliser treatment CS3N3 was selected for the calibration of phenology development parameters for wheat and mungbean. The APSIM-Oryza version was developed under non-limiting N environments and thus shows no effect of N-stress on rice phenology (Bouman and Van Laar, 2006;Gaydon et al., 2017). In order to capture the phenology dates of rice under different N-stress environments, treatments CS3N1, CS3N2, and CS3N3 were used to create different virtual varieties which exhibit correct phenology for the associated N treatment.The biomass for rice was measured on plants collected from 4 hills (two hills × two hills) in each sub-plot at 35 days after transplanting (DAT), 60 DAT, 85 DAT, and at the maturity stage. The biomass for wheat and mungbean was measured on plants collected from a randomly located one-meter row in each sub-plot at 30 days after sowing (DAS), 50 DAS, 70 DAS, and at maturity stage for wheat, and at 30 DAS, 50 DAS, and at harvest for mungbean. The biomass was then split into leaves, stems, and heads for each treatment. The partitioned biomass was dried in an oven at 70 • C for 3-5 days until the weight was constant. At maturity, grain yield was measured by harvesting an area of 6 m 2 in the centre of each sub-plot. The grain was threshed using a plotSoil physical and chemical properties at the experimental sites. LLvolumetric water content at lower limit, DULvolumetric water content at drained upper limit, SATvolumetric water content at saturation, Kspercolation rate, BDbulk density, TOCtotal organic carbon.thresher and fresh grain weight was measured using a digital balance.Grain moisture content was determined by a grain moisture meter (model: GMK-303RS, Korea) for calculation of dry grain yield. Measured crop biomass partitioning data at different growth stages of rice, wheat, and mungbean growth were used to define assimilate partitioning ratios and their associated input parameters at different phenological stages.--N measurements Volumetric soil water content was determined on a daily basis using digital soil moisture sensors (model: GS1 dielectric soil moisture sensor, Decagon Devices Inc., USA) at 22.5 cm and 67.5 cm depths in 3 replicates of treatments with N 120 sub-plots. This represented water dynamics of all the main treatments. The details of the soil water content data used for model evaluation have been described in detail in Chaki (2021).In addition to this, soil samples were collected from the experimental sites in 3 replicates of treatments CS1N3, CS2N3, and CS3N3 in two layers (0-15 and 15-30 cm soil depth, 3 times during the wheat phase only) and processed for soil NO 3 --N measurements through colorimetric analysis of soil extracts (SEAL AQ2 + colorimetric analyser with cadmium reduction column) (APHA, 2017).The initial soil condition was similar for both CT and CA treatments in these experiments. However, due to subsequent experimental interventions of different tillage, residue, and crop rotations, the soil conditions are expected to vary between CT and CA with time. Modifications to soil properties (particularly BD and Ks), crop rooting parameters (root hospitality factor (kl), and relative rate of root advance (xf)) and soil microorganism activity (the fraction of soil micro-organisms (F biom ) and inert humic material (F inert ) in soil organic matter (Probert et al., 1998)) were performed to better capture the CA environment.Puddling in rice fields reduces the effective Ks and increases BD due to compaction and subsequent formation of a hard plough pan zone in a subsurface layer at around 20-30 cm depth (Sanchez, 1973;Humphreys et al., 1996;Kukal and Aggarwal, 2002). Due to practicing CA in the rice-wheat system, there is an increase of effective Ks and a decrease of BD with time in comparison with the CT system (Sharma et al., 2005;Gathala et al., 2011). Soil physical properties are treated as fixed system attributes in the current version of APSIM. To capture the tillage effect on soil property changes (Ks and BD), an increase of Ks (100%) and decrease of BD (5%) in CA compared with CT was specified in APSIM-SOIL according to the findings of Sharma et al. (2005) and Gathala et al. (2011). For the CT system, the Ks and BD values remained the same as initial measurements. During the rice phase, bund height (APSIM resettable parameter max-pond) was set to 15 cm on the date it was established (prior to rice transplanting) and reset to zero on the date of rice field drainage via APSIM-Manager logic.Conservation agriculture practices encourage increased root length densities as well as deeper rooting (due to better soil structure) thus allowing water and nutrient uptake from deeper layers (Aggarwal et al., 1995;Sadras and Calvino, 2001;Qin et al., 2006). The root hospitality (kl in APSIM) and relative rate of root advance (xf in APSIM) were modified to capture CA performance. These values were adjusted iteratively (up to 20% increase) to produce a close match between the observed and simulated soil water extraction patterns. The temporal progression of the roots (xf) was not modified across CA treatments, nor was the root hospitality factor (kl). The changes to these factors between CA and CT systems were made to all the Rabi (winter) crops.2.5.4.3. Soil microorganism activity. Soil microorganism activity in CA is assumed to be higher than in CT in the upper soil layers due to improved soil structure (Choudhary et al., 2018). This was captured in APSIM by increasing F biom (fraction of soil organic matter present as microbial biomass) and decreasing F inert (the inert fraction of soil organic matter) values in the upper two soil layers. The values of F biom and F inert were calibrated for CT and CA using data from zero-N treatments (CS2N1 to represent CT, and CS3N1 to represent CA). The source of mineral N in the zero-N treatments was assumed to come slightly from rainfall and/or irrigation water, and considerably from mineralisation of soil organic matter (Gaydon et al., 2017). These values (F biom and F inert ) were varied within reasonable bounds (Probert et al., 1998) (around 20% change) to produce a good match between the observed and simulated crop yields in these zero-N treatments.The well parameterised and calibrated (using first year's data from selected treatments) APSIM model was validated against the experimental datasets from the rest of the treatments of the first year and all treatments of the second year to check the veracity of the model's calibration. Simulated model outputs were compared with the observed data set for all the three crops (rice, wheat, and mungbean) for a range of output variables including crop phenology dates, accumulated biomass over time, grain yield, soil NO 3 --N dynamics in top two soil layers (0-15 cm and 15-30 cm), and soil water content in two soil layers (15-30 cm and 60-75 cm).The coefficient of determination (r 2 ), slope (α), and intercept (β) values from the linear regression of observed versus simulated data (1:1 graph) were used for the evaluation of the calibrated model. The model performance was also assessed using the Student's t-test of means assuming unequal variance P(t), and by comparing the absolute root means square error (RMSE, Eq. ( 1)) and normalised root means square error (RMSE n , Eq. ( 2)) between simulated and observed values with the observed experimental variability.Where S i is simulated, O i is observed value, n is the number of pairs. When the RMSE values are smaller or around the same quantum as the average standard deviation of the observed values, P(t) is larger than 0.05, together with high r 2 values, it indicates acceptable agreement between the observed and simulated outputs. Effectively, this demonstrates that the model is simulating system performance within the bounds of experimental uncertainty, and this is all you can expect a model to do (Gaydon et al., 2017).Observed crop performance (as well as the observed dynamics of soil and water, and irrigation requirement) varied between CT and CA practices across the two sites. This was detailed in Chaki et al. (2021aChaki et al. ( , 2021b) ) but is summarised here in Fig. S1 which illustrates this non 1:1 correlation relationship for a range of variables. This clearly indicates a performance difference between the two systems which models like APSIM must be capable of simulating. Results for relevant modelled aspects are detailed below.The model was calibrated for the fully fertilized and irrigated system (CS3N3), and then validated using the remainder of treatments. Fig. 2 illustrates the performance of APSIM in simulating crop phenological development in the rice-wheat-mungbean system (CA and CT cropping systems, each with three N levels are shown as an example). The crop phenology was successfully calibrated and validated under diverse tillage, irrigation, and N management (Figs. 2 and S4 shown as an example).There was a good agreement between observed and simulated phenological stages of rice for the fully fertilised (full N) treatments. However, discrepancies were noted in capturing the rice phenological stages under N-stress treatments. We, therefore, set the phenological parameters independently for each different N-stress treatment to better capture the observed phenological stages of rice under that N-stress treatment (Figs. 2 and S4) as suggested by Gaydon et al. (2017).APSIM-Oryza successfully simulated the phenology of observed crop failure (as the crop was highly water-stressed for a prolonged period, and high percolation rate in absence of puddling) in the second rice season in UPTR rice (CS6, rainfed) at Dinajpur (Fig. S4d-f). The model was able to capture the crop failure by increasing the simulated soilwater tension (water-stress factor WSTRESS in APSIM-Oryza, 1 means no stress, and 0 means maximum water-stress), which ceased the crop growth at the flowering stage and eventually crop death. The model was equally good for simulating rice phenological stages of the rainfed UPTR rice when the crop was moderately water-stressed (first season at Dinajpur) or non-water stressed (both seasons at Rajshahi) (Fig. S4a-f). This indicates APSIM-Oryza can capture the rice phenology in association with biomass accumulation (including crop death, details in Section 3.2.1) under a wide range of water-stress environments.The observed and simulated yields for crops were compared as a time series for all the treatments imposed in the trials. Figs. 3A and S5 illustrate the performance of APSIM in simulating crop production in the rice-wheat-mungbean system (CA and CT cropping systems, each with three N levels are shown as an example). Figs. 3A and S5 demonstrate a good model response in capturing diverse cropping systems with variable N rates, tillage, and residue decomposition without resetting system variables between crops.APSIM-Oryza successfully simulated the observed crop failure to produce grain yield and stunted biomass growth in the second rice season in UPTR rice (rainfed-water-stressed) at Dinajpur (Fig. 3B(d-f)), as it captured the phenology of this water-stressed treatment. The model also performed well in simulating the above-ground biomass and grain yield of the rainfed rice under moderately water-stressed or non-water stressed conditions (Fig. S4B(a-f)).The wheat crop did not suffer from water deficit stress under any irrigation treatments (fully irrigated to rainfed) at the shallow water table site (Rajshahi). Therefore, there was no observed yield (grain and biomass) difference among the imposed irrigation treatments in both wheat seasons (Chaki, 2021). APSIM-Wheat simulated the above-ground biomass and grain yield close to the observed values in each of the irrigation treatments (fully irrigated Fig. 3A and rainfed treatments Fig. 3B(a-c) shown as an example). The simulated crop utilised water from the shallow water table, consistent with observations.The grain and biomass yield of wheat responded significantly under imposed irrigation treatments at the deep-water table site (Dinajpur) (Chaki, 2021). There was a good agreement between the simulated and observed above-ground biomass and grain yield for all imposed irrigation treatments (fully irrigated Fig. S5(a-f) and rainfed treatments Fig. 3B(d-f) shown as an example).The simulated changes in soil NO 3 --N over time for the fully fertilised (full N) and fully irrigated (CS1 to CS3) treatments are illustrated in Fig. 4 (Rajshahi site) and Fig. S6 (Dinajpur site). During the ponded rice phase, the soil NO 3 --N was close to zero, and then the soil NO 3 --N started to build up at the beginning of the upland wheat phase each year. The model was capable of simulating the soil NO 3 --N close to the boundary of experimental uncertainty among the replicates across the sites without resetting any system variables. In general, the model captured the dynamics of soil NO 3 --N better in the 15-30 cm soil layer than the 0-15 cm soil layer across the treatments and sites (Figs. 4 and S6). There was greater variability in the measured soil NO 3 --N data among the replicates at 0-15 cm soil layer (pooled standard deviation was 10.3 kg ha − 1 ) compared to the 15-30 cm soil layer (pooled standard deviation was 6.45 kg ha − 1 ). This might be due to the complex mechanism of distribution of NO 3 --N in topsoil layer (influenced much due to top dressing of N fertiliser) and thus shortcomings in sampling strategy for soil NO 3 --N (Probert et al., 1998).At Rajshahi, the soil water was measured using data-logging equipment in the first season and following the gravimetric method in the second season during the wheat phase only. Due to the presence of a shallow perched water table (Fig. S3), the wheat crop was not waterstressed under any irrigation treatment imposed (Chaki, 2021). The SOILWAT2 module in APSIM captured the soil water dynamics throughout the soil profile (compared at 15-30 cm and 60-75 cm soil depths) (Figs. 5A and S7A) in this shallow water table environment and associated crop production (grain and biomass yields) across the irrigation treatments (Table 2). The RMSE values ranged from 0.010 to 0.015 cm 3 cm − 3 and RMSEn was ≤ 5% at 15-30 cm, the RMSE values ranged from 0.014 to 0.019 cm 3 cm − 3 and RMSEn was ≤ 5% at 60-75 cm soil layer across the irrigation treatments (Table S1).At Dinajpur, the soil water was measured daily using data-logging equipment throughout the experimental period which provides an opportunity to compare a large number of data points (n = 760). The crops (rice and wheat) responded to the irrigation treatments in terms of reduced grain and biomass production with the increment of water stress in wheat, and even a crop failure in the second season in rainfed rice. There was a wide diversity in the observed soil water datasets (across the treatments) including saturated to very dry soil conditions. The SOILWAT2 module in APSIM was capable of simulating these dynamic soil water changes over time adequately, including capturing the rewetting of the soil profile for irrigation and rainfall events and the subsequent drying of the soil (quite visible in the graphs). The crop response (in terms of grain and biomass production) to plant available water content was also captured well in the APSIM simulation, illustrated by high correlation (R 2 ), low bias (α, β), no significant difference between observed and simulated populations (as per student's T-test) and the RMSE being of similar quantum as the observed standard deviation (Tables 2, 4). The model simulated the changes in soil water content reasonably for the fully irrigated to deficit irrigated treatments Fig. 2. Performance of APSIM in simulating crop phenological development in the rice-wheat-mungbean system. Simulated data are shown as continuous lines, measured data as discrete points. The wheat and mungbean crops refer to Y1 axis (APSIM crop stage -0-11), with the rice crop on the Y2 axis (ORYZA crop stage -0-2.5). The Y axis number refers to crop growth stages, with \"0\" being sowing, \"11 ′′ and \"2.5 ′′ being harvest for wheat/mungbean and rice, respectively. Graph (a to c) refer to CS3 system at Rajshahi; and (d to f) CS3 system at Dinajpur with three N rate (0, half and full of recommended N). Fig. 3A. RAJSHAHI: Performance of APSIM in simulating crop production in the rice-wheat-mungbean system. Simulated data are shown as continuous lines (solid line-grain yield; broken line-above-ground biomass), measured data as discrete points (blue -biomass; red -grain yield) with associated error bars (one standard deviation either side of the mean). Graph (a to c) refer to CT system; and (d to f) CA system with three N rate (0, half and full of recommended N).Performance of APSIM in simulating crop production in the rice-wheat-mungbean system in rainfed environment. Simulated data are shown as continuous lines (solid line-grain yield; broken line-above-ground biomass), measured data as discrete points (blue -biomass; red -grain yield) with associated error bars (one standard deviation either side of the mean). Graph (a to c) refer to CS6 system at Rajshahi; and (d to f) CS6 system at Dinajpur with three N rate (0, half and full of recommended N). The stunted crop development in the second season rice crop (c to d) at Dinajpur is an observed crop failure, which APSIM successfully simulated.  (CS1 to CS5), however, slightly underestimated the soil water content in the upper soil layer (15-30 cm depth) and slightly overestimated in the deeper soil layer (60-75 cm depth) (Figs. 5B and S7B). The RMSE values ranged from 0.027 to 0.036 cm 3 cm − 3 and RMSEn was ≤ 15% across the soil depths and deficit irrigation treatments (CS1 to CS5), the RMSE values for the rainfed treatment (CS6) ranged from 0.041 to 0.044 cm 3 cm − 3 and RMSEn was 17-19% across the soil depths (Table S1).The simulated soil water content at 0-15 cm soil depth was influenced by differences in the surface residue retained between the two systems (CT and CA) which was reflected in our analysis (Fig. S8; non 1:1 trendline slope).The model performance was evaluated by plotting observed versus simulated grain and biomass yield. The overall model performance in capturing the systems dynamic of nitrogen, tillage, residue decomposition, and water without resetting system variables indicate good model calibration and validation. Fig. 6 shows the comparison of observed versus simulated grain and biomass yield (Fig. 6a, c) for the calibration and (Fig. 6b, d) for the validation datasets across all the treatments, and Table 2 shows associated statistics. The RMSE of 336 kg ha − 1 at Rajshahi and 554 kg ha − 1 at Dinajpur for the grain yield of the calibration dataset are close to the observed standard deviation among the experimental replicates (419 kg ha − 1 at Rajshahi and 264 kg ha − 1 at  Dinajpur). The overall R 2 value for grain yield of the calibration dataset is 0.98, with low bias (α = 0.95, β = 52) at Rajshahi and R 2 value of 0.90, with low bias (α = 0.98, β = − 65) at Dinajpur indicating acceptable model calibration. The RMSE of 590 kg ha − 1 at Rajshahi and 438 kg ha − 1 at Dinajpur for the grain yield of the calibration dataset are close to the observed standard deviation among the experimental replicates (339 kg ha − 1 at Rajshahi and 276 kg ha − 1 at Dinajpur). The overall R 2 value for grain yield of the validation dataset across the treatments is 0.98, with low bias (α = 0.98, β = 406) at Rajshahi and an R 2 value of 0.95, with low bias (α = 1.02, β = 94) at Dinajpur indicating strong evidence for successful model validation over the variety of datasets (n = 92 at each site) tested. The performance of APSIM calibration and validation for biomass yield over a wide range of datasets (n = 55 for calibration, and n = 323 for validation at each site) also indicate acceptable model performance (Fig. 6 and Table 2). The performance of APSIM in simulating crop production with zero N fertiliser applied (nutrition solely from indigenous soil N sources) and full N rate across the cropping systems with associated statistics are given in Tables 3 and 4. The overall high correlation (R 2 ), low bias (α, β), no significant difference between observed and simulated populations with all values greater than 0.05 according to student's T-test and the RMSE being of similar quantum as the observed standard deviation, indicates acceptable model performance.The APSIM model was evaluated over a range of cropping system management interventions in the rice-wheat system, including CA vs CT, irrigation, N rate, residue allocation for two diverse environments (differing in soil types, water table dynamics, and agro-climate) in the EGP of South Asia. The study was conducted without resetting any APSIM state variables each year, and this is important because it demonstrates that the dynamics of system processes are being well-simulated (Gaydon et al., 2017). The performance of APSIM in simulating both the above-ground (e.g., crop phenology, crop production) and below-ground processes (e.g., soil water dynamics, soil NO 3 --N dynamics) was reasonably good across the cropping system treatments over the sites.The model's ability to correctly simulate the crop phenological development stages largely determine the simulated crop production, and therefore treated as the first aspect of model calibration (Gaydon et al., 2018). The simulated crop phenology dates of wheat and mungbean were close to those observed across the treatments (under varied N rates, and irrigation management), confirming that APSIM crop modules sensibly consider the accumulation of thermal time (cumulative degree days) to move from one crop developmental phase to the next phase. However, due to the inability of APSIM-Oryza to capture the phenology response of rice crops to soil N variation (Bouman and Van Laar, 2006;Gaydon et al., 2017), we created three 'rice varieties' in APSIM for each N rate treatment (zero, half, and full N rate) as it was worked-around with modified crop phenology parameters by Gaydon et al. (2017) to overcome this issue. The N-stress rice phenology issue is not a big deal because normally the crop will have recommended N applied and will be unstressed. It only mattered for our calibration-validation exercise when we purposely N-stressed the crops.Simulation of crop production (grain and biomass) under diverse cropping system interventions (with variable N rates, tillage, residue allocation, irrigation management, soil types, and water table dynamics), and without resetting system variables indicated the strong capability of APSIM in simulating crop response to those factors. TheStatistical analysis of APSIM performance for observed versus simulated yield at full N rate across the cropping system treatments evaluated in the field experiments.  performance of the APSIM model was markedly better in the full-N than in zero-N rate, but both are still considered acceptable. There was a tendency to over simulate biomass production in the zero N, particularly in the first season. This improved in the second season, indicating that the model was overcoming uncertainties in initial mineral soil N and moisture conditions, and reducing model error. This gives confidence in using the model for longer-term simulations.During the rice phase, there was an observed crop failure in rainfed rice in the second year at the sandy loam site (Dinajpur). The rice crop in this treatment (CS6) was highly water-stressed for a prolonged period which caused ceasing of crop growth at the flowering stage leading to no grain production (Chaki et al., 2021b), consistent with the findings of other researchers who reported rice crop failure due to drought stress in Asia (Naklang et al., 1996;Fukai, 1999). The APSIM-Oryza captured the crop failure very accurately which indicates the model's ability to capture crop response under a wide range of water stress environments. Li et al. (2015) also used ORYZA2000 (which plugged in to the APSIM model) successfully in simulating drought stress impacts (including crop failure) of climate change on rainfed rice in South Asia.During the wheat phase, there was no yield response to irrigation treatments at the shallow water table site (Rajshahi), whereas, the wheat grain yield decreased consistently with increasing water stress at the deep-water table site (Dinajpur). The reason was that the wheat crop was not water-stressed as the wheat roots most likely utilised water from the shallow water table at the Rajshahi site, and the observed yield reduction at the Dinajpur site was due to the reduction of spike density and grain number in the lower water regime (Chaki, 2021). The model captured the response of the wheat crop to irrigation treatments by simulating the crop yield consistently as observed under these diverse water table environments. This demonstrated reliable performance of APSIM, and therefore could be used in assessing the impacts of irrigation scheduling options in wheat in a range of environments.Simulating production (grain and biomass) under CA and CT management in the rice-wheat system without annual resetting of soil parameters (soil, water, nutrients) at the diverse sites indicated the strong capacity of APSIM to simulate system processes in the CA and CT practices. Balwinder-Singh et al. (2015) also successfully simulated (using APSIM) the CA and CT practices in the irrigated and fully fertilised rice-wheat system for the first time in the NW-IGP. However, our evaluation of APSIM under CA and CT practices considering a range of irrigation, residue, and N management at diverse sites is the unique attempt of using the cropping system simulation model in the EGP. The evaluation was robust as the model captured the differences between CA and CT management, and its ability to simulate reasonable response for the treatments applied in the two contrasting environments.When a model simulates the below-ground processes (e.g., soil N dynamics, soil water) adequately in association with above-ground processes (e.g., crop production), we can say that the model could be widely applicable for investigating cropping systems options from different aspects. The performance of SOILN module in predicting the changes in soil NO 3 --N was generally good, given that there were large uncertainties in measuring the soil NO 3 --N (Figs. 4 and S6). The ability of SOILN in capturing the N mineralisation, crop N uptake under a range of manure and fertiliser application was also confirmed by laboratory incubation and field studies conducted in India (Mohanty et al., 2011(Mohanty et al., , 2012)). Simulating soil water is the foremost variable (especially for waterlimited environments) which should be simulated quite sensibly for the analysis of trade-offs of water allocation using the cropping systems model. The SOILWAT2 module did an excellent job of simulating the dynamics of soil water under shallow water table environments, and also performed sensibly for the fully irrigated to deficit irrigated treatments under deep-water table environments. The reason for the slight underestimation of soil water in the upper soil layer and slight overestimation in the deeper soil layer in the rainfed treatment (CS6) in deep-water table site (Dinajpur) is not fully understood. One reason might be due to the comparatively greater extraction of soil water from the upper soil layer, and less extraction from the deeper soil layer in the model than the actual crop water extraction from those soil layers. We tried to work out this by iteratively changing the root hospitality factor at different depths which improved the soil extraction pattern but might need more adjustment under high water-stressed conditions. Another possibility might be due to less accuracy in measuring soil water (using GS1 dielectric soil moisture sensor) in dry soil, possibly due to poor contact between soil and the soil moisture sensor from air interference. This possibility was confirmed by the fact that there were negative readings on a soil moisture sensor installed in the water-stressed treatments, therefore we discarded those exceptional values.The majority of the farmers in the EGP followed the traditional method for practicing the rice-wheat system which is resource inefficient, and less productive. Several recent studies conducted in the EGP region indicated that CA-based management interventions could make the rice-wheat system more productive and resource-efficient with less environmental impacts (Islam et al., 2019;Gathala et al., 2020;Chaki et al., 2021a), however, the magnitude of benefits varied across sites (soil types, climates, and landscapes) (Chaki et al., 2021a). Comparatively less attention has been given to the CA research in the EGP, and thus there is a deficiency of long-term data on CA in the literature which could give greater insights into the performance of CA interventions and underlying mechanisms in these environments.Although CA vs CT systems have been simulated for irrigated ricewheat systems in the NW-IGP (rarely), this is the first attempt in the EGP, and it was found to be successful. We have demonstrated that when certain principles about changing soil properties (e.g., Ks, BD) and crop rooting parameters (e.g., xf, kl in APSIM) between CA and CT are followed then APSIM simulates the performance of these crop management practices well. The model's ability to differentiate CA vs CT management at diverse sites (varied soil types, water table dynamics, and agroclimates) under a range of irrigation (fully irrigated to rainfed), N management (fully fertilised to unfertilised), and residue management (partial residue retention to no-retention) by simulating system dynamics (e.g., system production, water, and N dynamics) without annual resets of model parameters (e.g., water, nutrients, soil) demonstrated APSIM's capacity to reliably simulate the rice-wheat system under varied management conditions. Our evaluation of the APSIM model from a wide range of perspectives demonstrates robustness in how we have modified the key soil parameters (Ks, BD, kl, F biom , F inert ) and gives confidence in using the model for future exploration of cropping system options and answering research questions related to CA management including better irrigation, N, residue managements, the suitability of CA in different environments, and impacts on soil and environmental factors.During the calibration and validation process of the APSIM (v7.5) model, we have modified soil variables and crop rooting manually (associated with tillage, to better capture the CA and CT environments), and also used three independent 'rice variety' each for full N, moderate N and zero N rate (to better capture the N-stress effect on rice phenology). For the benefit of wider APSIM users, improvements of the model are needed which could do these modifications on soil properties changes automatically for the respective management practices (CA, and CT). The primary innovation presented in this paper is that crop performance differences between CA and CT practices can be simulated across diverse sites by modification of key APSIM soil parameters by generic factors. This suggests that these cropping system differences can reliably be simulated across soil and climatic gradients through the use of these factors.Simulation models must be well tested before being employed in scenario analyses. The APSIM model was calibrated and validated under varied tillage, residue, N rates, and irrigation practices in diverse environmental conditions. The robustness of APSIM's capacity to simulate rice-wheat cropping system performance with no annual variable resets, offers great confidence that the model can realistically capture diverse management practices followed in rice-wheat systems in the EGP of South Asia. Our validation testing with highly variable datasets (e.g., zero-N to full-N, zero irrigation to full irrigation, zero tillage to full tillage, zero crop yield to potential yield) from diverse environments (soil types, water table dynamics, and agro-climatic conditions) has allowed us to identify where APSIM performs well (e.g., capturing crop failure, response to full-N, crop rotations, water dynamics) and some areas where improvements could be focussed (e.g., N-stress effect on rice phenology, modifications on soil properties changes automatically for CA and CT). These findings are relevant to the wider APSIM and general crop modelling community. But primarily our study has demonstrated that when different values for key model input parameters are employed in simulating the differences between CA and CT practices in rice-wheat cropping systems (i.e. an increase of Ks (100%), a decrease of BD (5%), an increase of the crop rooting parameters (xf, kl-up to 20% increase) and soil microorganism activity (increasing F biom and decreasing F inertaround 20% change) in CA compared with CT), APSIM performance in differentiating the outcomes from CA vs CT management across wet, fine-textured soil environments, and dry coarse-textured soil environments in the EGP is good. This positions APSIM strongly to conduct future scenario analyses comparing CA and CT systems across different soil and climate gradients. Our research is the first examination and clarification of this issue for rice-wheat cropping systems in the EGP. The validated APSIM framework is now deemed suitable for scenario analyses which may include exploring long-term variability in crop yield and soil organic C, better irrigation and N management, greenhouse gas emission implications, and the effects of climatic change.","tokenCount":"8257"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f5b07a9bbf65ed40f7840b7852256666","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H042684.pdf","id":"70013436"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d58bea46-a05a-41d4-929b-2379994cf448","pagecount":"9","content":"Gravity-flow irrigation has dominated irrigated agriculture in Asia for millennia. Until European colonial powers began constructing large centrally managed irrigation systems in the nineteenth century and later, much irrigation in Asia, small-scale and organized irrigation, existed around communities. During the colonial era, European initiatives in building large irrigation projects under centralized management marked a watershed in Asia's irrigation history; and until the 1940s, much new irrigation development took place under colonial governments which viewed irrigation as a way to blend \"interests of charity and the interests of commerce.\" In India, the British levied enhanced taxes from irrigated land; in Taiwan and China, Japanese sought enhanced rice supplies by investing in irrigation. With the end of colonialism, the tradition of centralized irrigation-building and management has been continued by national and subnational governments for food security and poverty reduction with significant support from multilateral international financial agencies. However, poor management and performance of public irrigation systems were concerns throughout the colonial era; and these concerns have multiplied manyfold in the postcolonial Asia.During recent decades, surface irrigation has been in decline in many parts of Asia. Public irrigation systems have tended to be underutilized and overcapitalized, and typically serve only a fraction of the designed command. With aging, irrigation commands have been sinking under the weight of their managerial, economic and environmental problems. In the Indian subcontinent by far the largest areas under surface irrigation in Asia, small surface structures, notably tanks in southern India and Rajasthan, karezes in Pakistan and Iran, kuhls in the Himalayas, and ahar-pyne systems in southern Bihar had been losing irrigated areas since the 1950s. But during the 1990s, even large public irrigation systems have begun shrinking. During the 7-year period between 1994 and 2001, India and Pakistan together lost over 5.5 million ha of canal irrigated areas despite massive investments in rehabilitation and new projects (Shah 2008). In Central and Southeast Asia, figures are not as dismal; but the present performance and future sustainability of irrigation projects have remained a matter of growing concern.In recent years, researchers, NGOs, donors and governments have sought to reverse this declining trend through institutional reforms-in the form of Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) or Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) to farmer associations. This idea itself derives from the variety of farmer-managed irrigation systems (FMIS) that proliferated-and can still be found-in Asia. As with all complex socio-technical systems, to work well, these systems required, generated, and nurtured a 'culture of irrigation.' So central was this culture to shaping the social lives of irrigators that anthropologist Robert Hunt called such groupings 'irrigation communities.' With large gravity-flow systems constructed by the state, system design and centralized operation acquired greater significance. But despite caution from the likes of Hunt and sociologist Walter Coward, it has been widely assumed that catalyzing and nurturing vibrant irrigation communities-water user associations-in command areas can help large irrigation systems function as well as traditional FMIS did. This assumption is now proving far-fetched.For centuries, the feasibility of catalyzing a viable irrigation community determined the size of irrigation systems. Unsurprising, then, most FMIS were small-scale systems that could be sustained over centuries by local irrigation communities-often with cooperation aided by coercion from local authority structures. These survived and thrived as long as they met three ongoing challenges facing all multiuser irrigation systems:Rule enforcement: Rules were enforced to keep in check the anarchy endemic to these systems by punishing deviations such as water thefts, vandalism and violation of distribution norms. Anarchy-control ensured efficient and equitable provision of irrigation service and helped maximize 'member-value' but required deft system-management backed by authority.Regular maintenance: There was regular maintenance to counter the atrophy endemic to irrigation systems due to gradual disfigurement, arrested only by constant investment in their maintenance and upkeep. Atrophy-control ensured physical sustainability of the systemswhich sometimes lasted for centuries-but required ruthless collection of irrigation service fees, often in the form of labor.Upgradation: Systems were upgraded to minimize the noise by adapting the system to changing service-expectations of irrigators as changes in farming systems modified irrigation demands. The control of noise-the gap between the service system is capable of delivering and the service irrigators' demand at a point in time-is minimized by constant upgradation to meet changing irrigation demand patterns. Until some decades ago, noise-control was not much of an issue in Asian irrigation. However, during recent decades, with household farming systems in the throes of massive change, noise-control has become a critical driver of irrigation system performance.Clearly, authority-constituted endogenously within the irrigation community or provided from outside-was always central to sustained control of anarchy and atrophy. Large systems were therefore built and managed effectively only when external authority could enforce rules, and secure resources and labor for maintenance and repair. The colonial state had the necessary authority as well as the incentive to keep anarchy and atrophy in check. In many parts of Asia, the post-colonial state has neither. Moreover, noise was never as important a performancedepressant in Asian irrigation systems as it is today, what with farmers expecting on-demand irrigation year-round to support intensification and diversification of their subsistence farming. In this sense, decline in community and public irrigation systems is a reflection of larger changes underway in the Asian state and society.Table 1 summarizes a broad-brush selection of socio-technical conditions that prevailed during precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras in many Asian countries. The hypothesis is that particular forms of irrigation organizations we find in these eras were in sync with the sociotechnical fundamentals of those times. Irrigation communities thrived during precolonial times when (a) there was no alternative to sustained collective action in developing irrigation, (b) strong local authority structures, such as Zamindars in Mughal India, promoted-even coerced-collective action to enhance land revenue through irrigation and (c) exit from farming was difficult.Similarly, in the colonial times, large-scale irrigation systems kept anarchy, atrophy and noise in check because (a) land revenue was the chief source of government income, and enhancing it was the chief motive behind irrigation investments; (b) the state had a deep agrarian presence and used its authority to extract 'irrigation surplus' and impose discipline in irrigation commands; and (c) farmers had practical alternatives not as subsistence farming livelihoods or as gravity flow irrigation. These socio-technical conditions created an 'institutional lock-in' which ensured that public irrigation systems performed in terms of criteria relevant to their managers in those times.Postcolonial Asian societies are confronted with a wholly new array of socio-technical conditions in which neither irrigation communities nor disciplined command areas are able to thrive. The welfare state's revenue interests in agriculture are minimal; the prime motive for irrigation investments is food security and poverty reduction, and not maximizing government income. Governments have neither the presence and authority nor the will to even collect minimal irrigation fees needed to maintain systems. So, agrarian economies are in the throes of massive change. Farmers can-and do-exit from agriculture with greater ease than ever before. Growing population pressure has made smallholder farming unviable except when they can intensify land use and diversify to high-value crops for growing urban and export markets. Finally, gravity flow irrigation systems are hit by the mass availability of small pumps, pipes and boring technologies that have made the 'irrigation community' redundant; these have also made the irrigators impervious to the anarchy, atrophy and noise in surface systems, and therefore reduced surface systems' stake in their performance. Lifting of water as well as its transport highly laborintensive and costly.Lifting of water as well as its transport highly labor-intensive and costly.Small mechanical pumps, cheap boring rigs, and low-cost rubber/PVC pipes drastically reduce cost and difficulty of lifting and transporting water from surface water and groundwater.Shrinking of surface irrigation does not mean irrigation areas of Asia are declining overall.In fact, they are not. Old community and government-managed systems are rapidly giving way to a new atomistic mode of irrigation in which millions of smallholders are creating their own mini irrigation systems and scavenge water at will using mechanical pumps, wells and rubber/PVC pipes. The rise of this new water-scavenging irrigation economy is most visible in South Asia and North China plains; here pump irrigation has begun dominating not only dryland areas but also irrigated areas where public and community irrigation ruled the roost until around the 1960s. In India, for example, even as governments keep investing in large, centrally managed surface irrigation projects, over 60% of irrigated areas are today under atomistic pump irrigation. Farmers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have created more irrigation under this atomistic mode in the past 30 years than governments and colonial powers had created 200 years earlier. During the 1950s and 60s, Mao's China built massive irrigation systems to water North China plains; but today, the region irrigates mostly with small pumps and boreholes. The same trend is now also evident in rice economies of Southeast Asia home to gravity flow irrigation communities for a long time. In Sri Lanka, known for its centuriesold tank irrigation of rice paddies, farmers were unfamiliar with irrigation pumps until the 1980s but were using some 106,000 by 2000 to scavenge water from whatever source-wells, tanks, streams-to irrigate dry-season rice and vegetables. By 1999, Vietnamese farmers had pressed into service more than 800,000 diesel pumps; and in Thailand, farmers increased their pumps from 500,000 in 1985 to more than 3 million in 1999. And the trend was just picking up; Francois Molle found that between 1995 and 1999 alone, Vietnamese farmers had purchased 300,000 irrigation pumps, and Thai farmers had added a million. Between 1998 and2002, Indonesian farmers increased their pumps from 1.17 million to 2.17 million. In the Philippines, David Dawe noted that \"approximately 23 percent of rice farms now use pumps to access water, either from sub-soil reservoirs, drainage canals, or natural creeks and rivers.\"Observers have been struck by the pace of spread of pump irrigation in Southeast Asia. In the Chao Phraya Delta of Thailand, 80% of farmers were said to have at least one pump, and in Thailand's Mae Klong project, the World Bank has estimated that in the early 1990s, a million pumps were drawing water from canals, drains, ditches and ponds to irrigate dryseason crops. Regarding the Makhamtao-Uthong canal system in Chao Phraya, Facon wrote: \"Use of groundwater for irrigation has exploded during the last five years. It is reported that 28,000 tubewells (sic) are in use in the region … All the farmers interviewed during the field visit reported having individual pumping equipment used to pump from any possible source of water.\" The irrigation scene in Asia resembles a palimpsest, with layers of old systems of irrigation getting removed to make room for the next one of atomistic, water-scavenging irrigation.The boom in water-scavenging irrigation is supported by the rapid rise of the Chinese pump industry, which has pared the cost as well as the weight of their diesel pumps to a fraction of their competitors' products. The Chinese export some 4 million diesel pumps annually, at a pump per hectare, and these are adding around 4 million ha of atomistic irrigation every year, mostly in South and Southeast Asia. What atomistic irrigation is able to do, that the community and public surface irrigation are unable to match, is help farmers control the noise endemic to surface irrigation systems. Hard-pressed by shrinking landholdings and energized by growing markets for high-value farm products, Asia's smallholders are intensifying as well as diversifying their farming systems; this requires on-demand irrigation year-round. Atomistic irrigation is responding to that call. It is making the farmer immune to the anarchy, atrophy and noise in surface systems, and reducing surface systems' stake in countering them.The ascent of atomistic irrigation is at different stages in different parts of Asia just as the socio-technical fundamentals. In South Asia and North China plains, it is peaking, threatening the relevance of irrigation communities and public irrigation itself. In Southeast Asia, it is at the early stages but it is already making the control of anarchy and atrophy in surface irrigation a challenge. In Central Asia, the jury is out; well irrigation is rising, especially for backyard garden irrigation, but from a small base.In the midst of these changing socio-technical fundamentals, Asia's surface irrigation enterprise is up against some hard questions. Everywhere, PIM/IMT is being tried as the panacea. But can PIM/IMT help restore control of anarchy and atrophy in irrigation systems? Can institutional reforms ensure financial and physical sustainability? Can these help improve rehabilitation of Asia's surface irrigation systems? The evidence from some decades of experiments is far from encouraging; by far the most celebrated experiments-catalyzed, sustained and micro-managed by NGOs with the help of unreplicable quality and scale of resources and donor support-report only modest gains in terms of performance and sustainability, leading researchers to demand 'reform of reforms.' Low, uncollected irrigation service fees, growing deferred maintenance, rampant anarchy and inequity in water distribution in Asian surface irrigation systems are symptoms of a larger malaise that PIM/IMT seems unable to address. Unlocking value from Asia's public irrigation capital demands a nuanced exploration of the farmer-system interplay in the context of today's socio-technical fundamentals which differ across Asia. Table 2 presents a first-cut view of the socio-technical environment in which irrigation systems function in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and China. Institutional reforms of the PIM/IMT kind appear to have best prospects in Central Asia especially if integrated in the estate-mode of irrigated agriculture that European colonial powers popularized in Africa. In China, the model of contracting out distributaries to incentivized contractors seems to have produced better results compared to PIM; and this model needs to be improvised and built upon. The authority and backing of the Village Party Leader seems essential for such privatization to work; and for that reason, this model is unlikely to work in South Asia and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, the key may lie in upgrading and modernizing rice irrigation systems to support dry-season rice cultivation as well as diversification of farming systems.The situation in South Asia suggests that instead of institutional reforms, surface irrigation systems here themselves need to morph to fit in to today's socio-technical context. For millennia, irrigation systems were 'supply-driven.' They offered a certain volume of water at certain times with a certain dependability and farmers had no option but to adapt their farming systems to these; they adapted because doing so was better than rain-fed farming. Atomistic irrigation-offering water-on-demand year-round-has turned South Asian irrigation increasingly 'demand-driven,' giving a whole new meaning to the term 'irrigation management.' With the option of 'exit' available, farmers in command areas are now reluctant to exercise 'voice' through PIM/IMT, refusing to give their loyalty to an irrigation regime that cannot provide them irrigation on-demand year-round. If we are to unlock the value hidden in South Asia's surface irrigation systems, they must morph in ways they can support and sustain the rising groundswell of atomistic irrigation; and by doing that secure the resources and cooperation they need from farmers to counter anarchy, atrophy and noise. If they themselves cannot become demand-driven, they should try integrating with a demand-driven atomistic irrigation economy. This is already happening in many systems but by default; but much hidden value can be unlocked if this happens by deliberate design. This requires a paradigm shift in irrigation thinking and planning.","tokenCount":"2543"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b2693518a9be6e4b0d02e9fb0440421f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6c97aaab-4caa-48e2-b9c9-392a2d6f75d8/retrieve","id":"-2049656939"},"keywords":["Ethiopia","East Africa","agriculture","climate change","climate variability","food security","education","higher education","capacity development","climate-smart agriculture","universities","curriculum","Goal 2 Zero Hunger"],"sieverID":"99b53cae-5c7e-45d1-94fe-20b163ca164a","pagecount":"31","content":"From December 6-16, a ten-day training of trainers (ToT) targeting agricultural universities in Ethiopia was implemented in Adama, Ethiopia by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) of the Columbia Climate School, in close collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). The workshop, which was organized as part of the World Bank's Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project, brought together 12 mainly agricultural universities from across Ethiopia, as well as representatives from RUFORUM and the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), to equip teaching staff with the knowledge and skills they need to implement a new fivechapter short course on the topic of Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA). This course aims to equip graduate and postgraduate students to access, understand, and incorporate the bestavailable climate information into their professional activities.Last but certainly not least, a debt of gratitude is owed to the administrative and support staff of ILRI such as Ayalneh Mulatu, alongside Dr. Berhanu Belay of ICARDA, who coordinated and managed logistics for a complex, multi-university training with grace and efficiency.Content to advance the awareness, understanding, and use of practical tools to manage climate risks is not well integrated into universitylevel curricula in Ethiopia. The Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) short course aims to address this grand challenge.From December 6-16, 2022, a ten-day training of trainers (ToT) on the five-chapter Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) curriculum was implemented in Adama, Ethiopia. Final feedback on the course's teaching and learning materials was gathered, and an implementation plan for the pilot of the course at 12 agricultural universities in Ethiopia was developed.A total of 12 agricultural universities from across 4 regions in Ethiopia, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), and the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) were successfully capacitated in the areas of climate basics, climate data and analytics, climate impacts on agriculture, climate-informed agricultural decisions, and climate risk management in agricultural development.The 12 agricultural universities will share the knowledge, skills, and resources gained from ToT with graduate and post-graduate students, alongside junior university staff, when they pilot the short course for the first time in March 2023. A detailed Reference Guide (course textbook) alongside presentations, activities, worksheets, and readings will guide them in this endeavour. The 12 participating universities are key for integrating best-available climate information and climate risk management practices within the agricultural sector by equipping youth with foundational knowledge and skills needed in their future professional roles as agricultural leaders.The Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) curriculum is a three-week short course to enable university graduate and postgraduate students to access, understand, and incorporate the best-available climate information into their professional activities. Follow-up trainings and preparations are needed prior to the short course's implementation, including a one-week remote training on the functions and analysis capabilities of the Climate Data Tool (CDT).Climate change and year-to-year climate variability have resulted in widespread, pervasive impacts to ecosystems and people, including increases in the intensity of weather extremes such as droughts and floods (IPCC, 2021;IPCC, 2022). In Ethiopia in particular, shifting and varying temperature and precipitation patterns have affected the productivity of many climate-sensitive sectors, but especially agriculture, resulting in reduced food availability and increased food prices, ultimately jeopardizing food security, nutrition, and livelihoods of millions of people.Because over 85% of the population representing more than 70 million people are reliant upon the rain-fed agriculture sector for their livelihoods (USAID, 2021), the implications of the climate challenge in Ethiopia are particularly pronounced. It is here that climate extremes such as drought have caused widespread failure of seasonal crops, inadequate forage and massive deaths of livestock in pastoralist communities, and hunger resulting emergency food aid averaging $1.1. billion per year (Mera, 2018). And it is here that even in the absence of extremes, changing seasonal characteristics-such as rainy season onset, cessation, and duration of the rainy season-necessitates the use of climate information to inform routine agricultural policy, planning, and practice.Despite the enormous role that climate information can and has played in supporting resilience of agricultural and food systems and the availability of high-quality climate information in Ethiopia for more than a decade, however, the effective use of climate information in decisionmaking processes to manage risks associated with climate variability and adaptation to climate change has remained limited (Lennard et al., 2018). This reality persists in spite of a robust policy and enabling environment following significant investments in climate information and services through national and sectoral strategies, policies, and programs such as the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP), the second Five-Year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II), the Agricultural Sector Policy and Investment Framework (PIF), and two phases of the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP).Part of the problem stems from a lack of foundational capacity and common understanding of climate basics, including a shared vocabulary and knowledge of basic terminology and dynamics to both articulate and engage in meaningful collaborations and design of climate solutions. Another part stems from the reality that even when available, climate information may not be easily accessible or transformed to decision-relevant formats for those working in the agricultural sector to act upon, or that there is poor awareness of products that do so. Still, another major issue with the exploitation of climate information for agricultural decision-making lies with poor understanding of how climate impacts agriculture and the pragmatic climate-sensitive decisions that farmers and the network of actors that support them must make as a result of these impacts.Because its graduates go on to work with and even lead initiatives with key institutions and actors within the agriculture and food systemsuch as the agricultural extension system, nonprofits, development organizations, and disaster risk management and reduction agencies-the formal education system and especially agricultural universities in Ethiopia have an enormous role to play in addressing these Acknowledging these gaps and the resultant enormous opportunity to capacitate the agricultural sector with the knowledge and skills that can support climate resilience, the Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) short course and its supporting Reference Guide aim to equip students interested in working in climate-sensitive sectors with the key competencies they need to support climateinformed actions and decisions in practice. In doing so, the course emphasizes pragmatic, hands-on skills and approaches needed to manage risk associated with climate variability and change, while also laying the theoretical framework underpinning these skills.A 10-day training of trainers (ToT) workshop held from December 6-16, 2022, in Adama, Ethiopia aimed equip the teaching staff of 12 agriculture-focused universities across 4 regions with the knowledge and skills they need to implement the 3-week, five-chapter CRMA course at their respective universities, ultimately enabling their graduate students to access, understand, and incorporate the best-available climate information into their professional activities. It was a follow-up to the May 2022 CRMA Curriculum Validation workshop with these same universities (Gross et al., 2022) and a November 2021 consultative workshop on the same topic (Belay et al., 2021).With an eye towards scaling and building of sustained local capacity within the country and region, representatives from the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Africa Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) were also trained on the curriculum.The participating institutions are summarized below:Towards the project's aims of advancing gender equity and equality through participation of women, at least one of the nominees per participating country was requested to be female, though this was not possible in all  (Margo, 2014;Melak & Singh, 2021;Molla & Cuthbert, 2014).Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the course and the agreement during the May 2022 CRMA Curriculum Validation workshop to adopt a team teaching approach for the course, each university was requested to bring one nominee from each of three fields of expertise: One (1) nominee from the discipline of climate science, one (1) nominee from the discipline of agricultural sciences or agronomy, and one (1) nominee from the discipline of economic or social sciences.Participants who had previously been involved in curriculum development and validation efforts were also requested to attend where possible.A full list of participants and their affiliate institutions can be found in Box 1, while the list of trainers and support staff can be found in Box 2. The full agenda for the workshop can be found in Section 6 (Agenda).Dr. James Hansen shares a lecture and leads a discussion on how to support gender and social equity when communicating climate information communication, as part of the Chapter 5 content.\"Women and marginalized groups should be supported for the needs that they have related to climate information.Anyone who works with farmers should be sensitized to these issues. If there are groups within their locations because of gender, wealth, language, ethnicity, or even remoteness, who are being neglected, it's really important that professionals working with those farmers are at least aware and thinking of these issues.\" The workshop aimed to train professors from agricultural universities on the Climate Risk Management in Agriculture (CRMA) short course curriculum content, as well as demonstrate good approaches for its implementation such as active and participatory teaching and learning.Each of the five chapters were presented in sequence as they are intended to be implemented because each new topic builds upon concepts and skills presented in prior sections, progressively adding competencies to students' toolkit for managing climate risk.Towards this end, the following five chapters of the course, along with their hands-on practical exercises and components, were covered during the workshop:To get started, Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for all subsequent chapters by introducing foundational concepts and definitions needed to have a common understanding of and communicate basic processes and dynamics associated with climate change and variability.While the Ethiopian climate is a result of a complex system influenced by many factors, including human activities, this chapter aims to succinctly introduce the main features of Ethiopia's climate and its global and local drivers, as well as the different types of climate data and information used to measure and quantify these features.Participants from Bahir Dar University and Haramaya University team up to do a small group activity to practice using an enterprise budget to analyse the profitability of fertilizer use in Chapter 3, as facilitator Dr. James Hansen gives them tips on how to analyse their results. Each lecture topic contained hands-on exercises and components as part of the skills-focused course.Climate Basics aims to develop skills and confidence to: Explain basic climate concepts; Explain how and why climate varies; and Characterize the climates of Ethiopia.This chapter aims to develop skills and confidence to analyse climate data with basic statistical methods: probability distributions, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression, confidence intervals and standard errors. Beyond a comprehension of agricultural decision-making, however, this chapter equips students to perform analyses of climate-sensitive farm management decisions under uncertainty for individual decision-makers such as a farmer with known risk preferences, and to identify sets of management options that could be considered for a population of decision makers with differing risk preferences.Agricultural Decision Making Under Climate Risk aims to develop skills and confidence to: Analyse climate-sensitive agricultural decisions under uncertainty using appropriate methods; and Estimate the potential value of forecast information for farm management and anticipatory action decisions.In Chapter 5, concepts and skills from the previous chapters are tied together to answer the fundamental and pressing question of how climate information and services can be brought into programs and policies to promote resilience. This is because the ability of a farmer or any other decision-maker to choose options for adaptation is influenced by far more than the risk preferences discussed in Chapter 4, but rather also by the enabling environment and risk management options made possible or limited by government policies, risk management product availability such as insurance, the way climate information is communicated and integrated within government planning and extension strategies and humanitarian organizations, and much more. Therefore, in this solutions-oriented chapter, options and methods for managing risk at the farm level are discussed, as well as more systematically through the promotion of climate-informed government planning and humanitarianA participant uses SIMAGRI, a crop management decision support tool, to simulate maize yields for several farm management options. She was also able to simulate and then analyse how fertilizer rate and seasonal rainfall interact to influence crop yields. The CRMA course aims to expose student to current climate information and analytical tools available for agriculture in Ethiopia, especially from the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute (EMI).intervention alongside private sector involvement such as through index insurance.Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Development aims to develop skills and confidence to develop, lead and evaluate programs that support climate risk management for agriculture.All course PowerPoints, as well as hands-on activities and instructions, worksheets (including worked examples), and recommended reading were shared on this Google Drive for participants to access. This includes the course Reference Guide (textbook).Participants present their analyses of best communications channels and strategies for their locations, after a lecture and group exercise on the same topic, as part of Chapter 5.All 36 participants from the agricultural universities, RUFORUM, and ACPC were capacitated during the training of trainers (ToT) to strengthen foundational knowledge and skills of their students in the areas of climate basics, climate data and analytics, climate impacts on agriculture, climate-informed agricultural decisions, and climate risk management in agricultural development.During each of the five chapters and concomitant exercises and hands-on activities covered, detailed feedback and input from participants was gathered such that final adjustments to the curriculum could be made prior to implementation at their universities. This feedback was gathered both during a plenary feedback session as well as through key informant interviews with select trainees from the participating universities.Findings from both of these feedback mechanisms is summarized and synthesized below.\"This curriculum is very important and relevant for Ethiopia. And there's no question about the relevance of this curriculum for our students. I was so surprised to learn that meteorological information is freely available online to be analysed!\"Participants noted that while one of the strengths of the course arises from its multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature, as is necessitated by the complex climate challenge, this also poses some implementation challenges, though these can be addressed creatively.In particular, because the course touches on areas of climate, agriculture, and social sciences and economics, the participants agreed that the course should be implemented using a team teaching approach, whereby climate-focused aspects of the course (for example, chapters 1 and 2) are taught by the climate professors, agriculture-related aspects of the course (chapters 3-5) are taught by agriculture-focused professors, and more economics-or social science-related topics (primarily within chapters 3-4) are taught by professors of this field. This was, of course, the reason that three professors from each of these fields were invited to partake in the ToT, based on feedback from the prior 2021 and 2022 workshops.However, participants made an additional request that the curriculum, which is intentional about providing basic definitions and concepts within the field of climate also do so more clearly and consistently for the fields of agriculture and economics covered in the course. Rather than adding significant content in these areas, it was suggested that basic and frequently used terminology from these two other fields be added to the existing Glossary of the Reference Guide.Given students who will take the course will have an agricultural background, while basic terms were requested for this field, the request for basic terms around economics was stressed more heavily. Examples of terms and concepts to define and elaborate more clearly that were given by participants included: utility, preference curves, equilibrium, premium, exit (as it relates to insurance), constrained optimization, and returns.User In some instances, as is the case with CDT and SIMAGRI, the guides are online/digital or built into the tools themselves. The IRI team will therefore point the professors more clearly to where these already-existing resources can be found, as well as incorporate these resources more clearly into the course materials through the Reference Guide.As brought up in previous workshops, participants noted that the CRMA curriculum focuses heavily on crops but does not include other agricultural systems such as livestock, pastoral, agro-pastoral, and dryland systems, which are very important or in some cases even the dominant livelihood and agricultural systems where some of the universities are located.Given the wealth of experience in the room and the IRI's primary expertise in agricultural systems focusing on crops, it was requested that participants contribute to sourcing this content. Several participants, including Hanna Samuel from Haramaya University, offered to send content relating to climate and livestock for incorporation in the Second Edition (or any future edition) of the Reference Guide, though ideally in its First Edition as well.Following on the spirit of contributing and sourcing additional content from the agricultural universities themselves, some participants noted that they have strong content in the area of climate and economics that could be incorporated and mainstreamed through the CRMA course. Ms. Because the tool has only been developed for some sites in Ethiopia, some participants noted that while it was very valuable as a teaching tool to show the importance and impact of certain agricultural practices (timing of fertilizer application, variety selection, etc.) and even to tie these practices to costs and profitability (through its enterprise budgeting functions), SIMAGRI is limited as a research tool for use by their students. Some participants therefore requested the addition of content on Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) computer programs for simulating agricultural crop growth.For expanding SIMAGRI, a resounding request was made to include teff as one of the crops. This was indicated as being very important, given teff is the main staple and cash crop of Ethiopia covering the largest area and with high nutritive and food security value. While there are no current crop models for teff, the University of Florida recently developed a teff module for DSSAT, and participants were encouraged to While participants appreciated the hands-on, practical, and skills-based nature of the course, many felt that it could still go a step further in its relevance for students by incorporating more robust Ethiopia-specific case studies demonstrating the real-world application of certain concepts, approaches, and tools in the country or even the wider East African region. Some participants also noted that if some of these case studies were comparative (for example, comparing actions or practices in Ethiopia with a neighbouring country), they might increase their awareness of (and the costs and benefits of) adaptive actions in their country and also be able to compare contexts and situations where application of certain climate information tools, approaches, or methods are appropriate.Participants noted that most practical exercises in Chapters 3 and 4 which were heavily Excel based were particularly challenging to follow, especially those relating to economics. It was noted even by three economics professors that while they could understand the lectures, they did not feel confident or fully competent to implement the actual accompanying exercises due to their complexity, even though they were related to their field. While many noted that part of the challenge was related to the limited time allotted for the ToT, some requested that this content and exercises be simplified or more clearly outlined (for example, their purpose, or the purpose of different components of the exercise) to improve the course.\"Our curriculum has always lacked a certain practical aspect and practical tools, and even teachers have not been wellcapacitated to deliver climaterelated courses very well. We've now gained a lot of practical experience but also theoretical experience to explain conceptual issues in a very easy way that students can understand.\"-Dr. Yitea Senshaw,Chapter 1 (Climate Basics)Participants had overwhelmingly positive feedback on the climate basics content of Chapter 1, which raised awareness about certain fundamental definitions and concepts, as well as explained factors that influence the Ethiopian climate, at the global and also local levels. No significant amendments to this content were requested.Chapter 2 (Climate Data and Analytics)Of all of the chapters and topics covered, the participants were most enthusiastic about Chapter 2 covering Climate Data and Analytics, and especially best-available data, tools, and approaches from the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute (EMI) and elsewhere due to its strong practical nature and bearing on the success of research of their students and also their own universities.Both in the plenary feedback session and key stakeholder interviews, most participants expressed great surprise and appreciation that there were so many open-source and freely available products available through the EMI that were also easy to use.Because Chapter 2 was so rich, however, and due to significant interest from the professors in strengthening their knowledge and skills in the Climate Data Tool (CDT), a follow-up one-week virtual training on CDT basics was requested by all participants. This virtual training (2 hours per day) will thus take place and be led by the IRI from January 23-27, 2023, prior to the implementation of the ToT at their respective universities.Chapter 3 (Climate Impacts on Agriculture)Participants appreciated the components of this course relating to crop modelling, as they deemed it particularly relevant to their students and future roles.As aforementioned, however, most participants, who were not economists, found the topics and In some instances, this can be accomplished by adding \"advanced organizers\" to the Reference Guide, PowerPoints, and exercises to ensure these real-world linkages and examples, as well as justifications and goals of the exercises, are clear. As suggested earlier, expanding upon basic economic definitions within the Glossary of the Reference Guide but also within the text and presentations, was also requested and was discussed as being potentially helpful.On the note of real-world examples and data, participants made a request that use of real Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI) data would help in understanding the complex equations and make things more concrete. It was also noted in other areas that the use of real data (from Ethiopia) to demonstrate concepts as a compliment to often complex equations would generally be beneficial, and reinforce important skills in data analysis.Chapter 4 (Climate-Informed Agricultural Decisions)Participants appreciated this chapter and its discussion around uncertainty and its implications. The exercise related to decision trees for understanding farm management options and how climate might influence these choices was also extolled as a very good part of this chapter by several participants.In terms of improvement, there was a request to more explicitly cover and include more content related to interpretation of the seasonal forecast and how it connects to and might influence farm management options, with specific examples. It was suggested that a new section or subsection entitled \"Farm-Level Management and Climate\" could be added to this chapter to clearly connect interpretation of the forecast to specific actions, using specific examples of those actions as might be seen in an agrometeorological advisory.Chapter 5 (Climate Risk Management in Agricultural Development) This chapter was well-received and also generated the most discussion. Participants broadly appreciated the presence of this chapter and agreed that, as a living and evolving curriculum, there should always be space in the CRMA curriculum to discuss current issues an events. The purpose of the curriculum, one of the participants stressed, is not just to get people current on what climate information is available and practical tools to analyse climate risk in agriculture, but also to get people current on the main issues that are affecting the sector as it relates to climate.One of these salient current issues that participants felt was important enough to warrant inclusion in the First Edition of the Reference Guide was \"Data and Information as a Resource,\" where the issue of data sharing and in particular having climate and related data as a public good versus a private good (public vs. private sector) could be addressed and tie together many other concepts covered in the course. For subsequent editions of the Reference Guide, it was noted that this section could be replaced or expanded upon with other current issues affecting the sector, but that there should always essentially be a placeholder in the CRMA Reference Guide for current issues.As relates to other issues and requests that participants would like to see addressed in Chapter 5, there was a request to more explicitly include content on indigenous climate knowledge and examples of how to approach it or combine it with climate information coming from scientific sources such as the EMI, in the section on rural communication strategies. In general, though, people greatly appreciated the hands-on exercise that had them think critically about suitable communication channels and equitable and inclusive communication strategies in their locations. For the subsection on index insurance, which participants also appreciated as a relatively new topic to them, it was noted that in Ethiopia, in addition to crop index insurance, there are also insurance initiatives around pastoralism (indexbased livestock insurance), coffee, and vegetables (green beans) that could be mentioned to raise awareness of in the materials.Lastly, there was a rich discussion around the components of the curriculum outlining policies and enabling environments for climate services for agriculture. Moreover, most universities plan to not only include students in the pilot of the short course but also junior staff at the universities to ensure its impact is widened.Moving forward, participants agreed that the course should be implemented as a short course over the course of three weeks, with a length of 2-3 hours per day (1 hour of lecture and 2 hours of practical per day). While it has not developed a full Facilitators' Guide to accompany the course Reference Guide, the IRI will develop a suggested timetable and timeline for the course implementation to guide the universities in the implementation of the CRMA short course.In the meantime, all resources and materials for implementation of the short course can be found on a Google Drive for the course that was shared with all participants. This Drive contains all lectures (PowerPoints), exercises (and their answer keys i.e. worked examples), worksheets, and recommended readings related to the course, as well as the comprehensive course textbook known as the Reference Guide.The recommended size of the class for implementation is 30-40 students to ensure a good teacher-to-student ratio and individualized attention during this highly practical and handson course. It is also recommended that universities implement the course on an annual cycle, though this is ultimately at the discretion of each university and dependent upon its available resources. Certification for the short course will also be at the discretion of each participating university.A In terms of next steps and follow-up actions, the IRI will reinforce capacities around the Climate Data Tool (CDT) at the request of participants with a one-week remote training during the week of January 23-27 (2 hours per day). It will also incorporate all feedback gathered during the workshop and summarized in the Key Results and Findings section of this report into the First Edition of the Reference Guide. Another short remote training on Theories of Change to complement learnings from Chapter 5 will also be offered at a to-be-determined date.Because participating universities desire sufficient time to raise awareness of the course amongst the vice presidents of academics, deans, and department heads at their respective universities as well as have sufficient time to advertise the course widely amongst the student body, the implementation period for the short course at the universities is planned for early March 2023 after the semester break.Moreover, because this is the first time a course of this nature is being implemented in Ethiopia and because the country is being looked to as a pioneer and case study in the implementation of this skills-based, interdisciplinary course, its implementation-including its successes, best practices, and challenges, will need to be carefully monitored and evaluated for learnings.To do this, participants should expect to participate in a detailed survey following the implementation of the course. Moreover, they should expect to participate in three \"office hours\" Zoom calls-one immediately preceding implementation, one during implementation, and one after implementation to debrief. The purpose of these calls is to raise any concerns or address any issues before, during, and after implementation, as well as share knowledge and experiences on the implementation of the course in 12 very different contexts. It will also serve to foster a community of practice of educators around the topic of climate risk management in agriculture in Ethiopia.A summary of these actions is provided in Table 1 on the following page.","tokenCount":"4713"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9affab90330b779f59e2d29574e078a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c368c7c0-5954-4287-96ba-1ad7e6c45ffc/retrieve","id":"196121851"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f682a85d-29ad-4e95-bc93-d0d07aa1df56","pagecount":"6","content":"Participatory research and development approaches involving all stakeholders along the value chain have recently been hypothesized to produce quicker outcomes than the linear technology transfer model. This paper analyzed the crop yield obtained by farmers and their uptake of improved technologies in a 2009 survey, one year after the completion of project field activities. It was a multi-stakeholder project involving research, extension, farmer groups, marketers and policymakers, that operated for 4 years (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) in Borno state of Nigeria. Survey results indicated that farmers who participated in project activities' have been successful in increasing crop yields. Both yields and per capita production of major crops were statistically significantly higher (ρ≤ 0.05) in project communities compared to non-project ones. It is also estimated that there was a decline in percentage of households in food insecurity situation in project communities. Probit regression revealed that participation in project activities had a positive and significant effect on household food security (ρ≤ 0.05). It is then concluded that development interventions that involve multiple stakeholder partnership, use of participatory research and extension approach can help increase technology uptake among resourcepoor farmers as well as increase food production and food security in a region.. The participatory research and development approach brings together elements of the transfer of technology model (13) and the farmer first model (3) to provide a more holistic approach that is assumed to enhance speedy achievement of desirable research outcomes in the rate of technology adoption and agricultural productivity enhancement. The use of participatory approaches in agricultural development is assumed to offer far-reaching benefits to all stakeholders in agricultural research and development, and some authors have even argued that the approach fosters greater efficiency and effectiveness of research investment and contributes to a process of empowerment of rural farmers (5). Drawing example from a multi-stakeholder project that was implemented in Borno State, Nigeria from 2005 to 2008, this paper contributes to the discussions on the relevance of the use of participatory approaches to promote the development and dissemination of propoor agricultural technologies among resource poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The remaining part of the paper discusses details on the Borno State's participatory research and extension approach, materials and methods for the collection and analysis of the case study data, and a result and discussion section on outcomes from the multi-stakeholder projects.The specific objectives of the project were to contribute to improved and sustainable agricultural production through the transfer of improved agricultural technologies and management practices to both male and female farmers. The project used an approach which was termed 'innovations systems approach'. The innovation systems approach followed the work of Barnett (2). It aims to better integrate the supply 'push' of research and the demand 'pull' of farmers, improving the flow of information between the two by strengthening the capacity of partners in the public sector, private sector and civil society to work together to achieve project objectives. The innovations systems' approach attempted to enhance the capacity of potential adopters to source, evaluate and apply information in adoption decision-making. The fulcrum of the model includes an attempt to do less of farmers' teaching, discourage single ownership of research products by researchers, and eliminates the inflexibility that characterizes the linear and topdown transfer of technology model. Central to this approach was the development of strong partnerships to build \"innovation platforms\" that was comprised of the key partners to address constraints and needs identified by communities in the project area. Partners included the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan; the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa; the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Nigeria; the Borno State Agricultural Development Programme (BOSADP), Nigeria; and Community Research Empowerment for Development (CRED) which is a non-governmental organization. There was also the recognition of the role of farmers, their needs and abilities as being important to any intervention. This involved a facilitation process linking researchers, extension workers and farmer groups allowing farmers to prioritize their own problems; select alternative strategies to overcome these and importantly learn by doing. There was also the strengthening of both existing and newly formed community based organizations. This was undertaken though training of male and female farmer groups in organizational development to improve group cohesion, leadership, communication and importantly technical training associated with new technologies.Project implementation covered 30 communities. Data were collected from 20 randomly selected communities spread across the four LGAs in the project area, 16 of the communities were selected from the 30 communities where the project has been directly promoting improved crop technologies and better crop management practices since 2004. The remaining four communities, although within the four project LGAs, are not among the 30 project communities that were earlier identified and selected for project implementation activities. In each selected community, a random sample of 30 households was selected, which gave a total of 600 sample households (480 households in project communities and 120 households in non-project communities). The main instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire administered on households by trained enumerators. A combination of analytical tools was employed in analysis of data. These included descriptive statistics, Cost of Calorie (CoC) food security status estimation and Probit regression techniques. The study used cost-of-calories (COC) method proposed by Greer and Thorbecke to determine a food insecurity line (7).Introduction of improved crop varieties through participatory approaches was a key project output in the project implementation communities. The project focussed on four major crops, these are maize, soybean, cowpea and rice. Independent adoption studies were carried out to examine the rate of adoption of the various crops. Findings from these studies revealed that the adoption rate for improved maize was 53% (11); soybean, 97% (9) and cowpea, 64% (6). A detailed impact study carried out in 2009 revealed that the adoption of the improved crop varieties by farmers had socioeconomic impacts on other spheres of their livelihoods such as improved crop productivity, food consumption patterns and household food security. Details on these impact areas are discussed below.Concerning per capita crop production and food consumption, signifi cant differences existed between the project and non-project communities. Averagely, the households in the project communities produced more grains per capita for all crops except millet, which was not promoted by project (Figure 1). The major gain was made in groundnuts (a crop that farmers had almost abandoned) and soybeans that is a relatively new crop to the area. Concerning household food consumption, data analysis revealed that the project communities consumed more maize, rice, soybeans and cowpea per capita than non-project communities (Figure 2). This is a direct consequence of the realized higher production levels of these crops by farmers in project communities. In general, per capita home consumption of soybean is quite low in the area as much of the soybeans produced were sold to market agents and industrial processors through the project market linkage. Food insecurity lines of N2160.94 and N1748.99 were estimated for the households in project and non-project communities respectively. These food insecurity lines were expected to meet the minimum recommended daily energy level (2250 kilocalories) of an adult per month in the participating and non- participating communities. The results of the food security measures for the project and non-project communities are compared in Table 1. Based on these food insecurity lines, 49% of households in the project communities and 61% in the non-project communities were classified as food insecure. The aggregate expenditure gap or shortfalls of the food insecure households were 51% in the project communities and 25% in the non-project communities respectively. A comparison of the food insecurity status in the two types of communities revealed that the food insecurity level is higher in non-project communities by 12%. Though the percentage of aggregate expenditure shortfalls is higher in project communities, the number and intensity of food insecure households was higher in the non-project communities. A number of factors determined the food security status of the rural households. These include crop yields/ha, per capita production and consumption of major food crops by households in the project and non-project communities. Yields of major crops such as maize, rice, soybeans, cowpea and groundnuts were higher in the project communities than the nonproject communities (Table 2), and the differences were statistically significant (p≤ 0.01). The differences were not statistically significant for millet and sorghum, which incidentally were crops on which the project did not promote any improved varieties. At the farmer household level, per capita production was also significantly higher in the project communities for maize, rice, soybeans and cowpea. The statistically significant yield levels and per capita household production for maize, rice, soybeans and cowpea in project communities is associated with the adoption of improved varieties of these crops. The per capita consumption of maize was lower in the project communities indicating that households are selling more maize and also consuming more of other crops such as soybeans and rice. The per capita consumption of rice, soybean and cowpea was higher in project communities than in the non-project communities.Determinants of food security in sub-Saharan Africa have been investigated by several authors. Olayemi (12) categorized factors affecting food security at the household level into three; these are the supply-side factors, demand-side factors, and stability of access to food. According to him, the stability of access to food hinges on household food and non-food production variability; household economic assets; household income variability; quality of human capital within the households; degree of producer and consumer price variability and household food storage and inventory practices. In this study, the Probit regression result indicated that household size, cost of hired labour, participation in project and non-agricultural income have significant effects on the food security status of the households (Table 3). Household size had a negative and significant effect (p≤ 0.05). This indicated that households with large sizes had higher probabilities of being food insecure than those with smaller sizes, and vice versa. The hired labour variable measures the amount of extra labour investment made by a given household, as expected it had a positive and significant effect of food security (p≤ 0.05). Amaza (1) reported that farmers that use more hired labour in food crop production tend to have the objective of profit maximization. In his opinion, the users of hired labour are also relatively more efficient in terms of allocative and economic efficiency, therefore, they are likely to be more food secure. However, farmers that rely only on family labour have the primary objective of production for subsistence.Having additional income sources from non- agricultural activities also had a positive and significant effect (p≤ 0.1) on food security of the household. This variable is also a proxy for household ability to purchase inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and improved seeds which are critical for increased agricultural production. Participation in project activity also had a positive and significant effect on household food security (p≤ 0.05). This variable measured household participation in the technology development and training activities of the project and revealed that participating households are more likely to be food secure than others. This suggested that the project activities such as farmers' training on crop management practices, marketing, the adoption of improved crop varieties by farmers and linking them to inputs and output markets made a positive contribution in enhancing their probability of being food secure. Furthermore, it was estimated from the marginal effects equation that participating in project activity increased the probability of being food secure by 18%. However, increase in household size reduced chances of being food secure by about 8%. This indicated that households with large sizes had higher probabilities of being food insecure than those with smaller sizes and vice versa.The multi-stakeholder project was successful in increasing adoption of new technologies and crops yields in the communities where it was implemented. The following empirical observations and policy recommendations are made to reduce food insecurity on a larger and sustainable scale. First, a large household was observed to be more food insecure in both project and non-project communities. Therefore government should give adequate priority and attention to policy measures directed towards the provision of better family planning. In view of this, education encompassing training which brings about behavioural changes is important for households in the study area. Second, having additional income from non-agricultural activities also had a positive impact on food security of the households. This additional income increased households' ability to purchase inputs such as inorganic fertilizers and improved seeds, which are critical to increased agricultural production. Hence, policy should facilitate improved household access to micro-credit to facilitate input purchase. Third, outcomes from the project's training activities revealed that participating households are more likely to be food secure. This suggested that capacity building activities including the use of participatory approaches to support farmers in solving their own problems with improved links to inputs and output markets should be encouraged to promote food security.","tokenCount":"2136"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0891590c973d4091b734a928b424384e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24546089-cb59-47ae-b3e0-e93a977f3637/retrieve","id":"-182495419"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"79c9ee50-517a-4686-81a7-b45b55543469","pagecount":"32","content":"Ma'di buku ni si'di ri a'i konyi enga'di International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) dri eya'di Bioversity International dri si ri 'i. Alua ri ani amanzo ewo ru egbwe dri ta ndre'di lonya loso ru egbwe vua ozo ni ri idri rii ana konyi kwele rii vua buku 'di a 'a ni u'bika si.Ma'di buku ni si'di ri a'i eno engaka drilakwa idele konyi kwejo laki lofo USAID dri ri iga rii (Ewo lonya ru egbwe vua ozo dri ri ndrejo karealuga ewo amvu dri akwa dri ri tro ri dri 2014 si ri 'i), SWICHI dri iga rii (Mori goga dri vu ndutu dri ewo lonya ru egbwe vua ozo ni endre ni 'baciri tro ri itujo vua inzajo ri dri 2016 si ri 'i) vua ewo nza ta ndre'di ru egbwe dri Uganda 'a riti dri ri iga ri tro ri e'duka ni ra.Buku 'di osiru ra kole kokweru ta kole kideru e'i a 'i ri idri. Ta ti ubale kole kideru karega si riti oko le'jo dri a'i isu 'di ti 'i;1. Ta kole kideru lonya ru egbwe ni riti ozo ni ri tro vua akwa ta mbaka vua amvu e'bu ideka tro inzajo ri 'i.2. Lonya rua lele ri e'buka 'i 3. Ta esule riti e'buka lonya ni vua ta ru egbwe ni ozo tro ri a ta mbajo ri 'i.Le'jo dri alualu a itiga ta kole kideru riti lidri 'ba alualu lele riti koka ri koko vu ani rii le'jo rongogongo ite'dele ra riti ta kaki idea wa riti tro 'i. Ma'di 'ba ini'di ri kole konze aini losoloso le'jo rongorongo riti ta idele wa riti tro ri ideka si ri ni aini asi okpo kwejo ta idejo.Buku 'di osiru 'ba ta inika riti ni e'bule; 1. Izuta lemu 'a rit ni 2. Izuta ta anda esujo riti ni 3. Ta izujo 'ba tro alualu TA ERALE RII: Izuta alualu udi ri i'do izuta ali'di pi ria 'a ni unyaka si 'Diti Lu'ba kole 'ba ta inika ri koko vu ani rii:Step 1:Nyi'du ta kole kideru ri le'jo drisidrisi oko anyizuta driaru duwi.Step 2: Nyete ta rongorongo esule ta a'ika si riti ta idele wa ri si rii, vua nyi la aini ta kole kecoru lidri 'a riti.Step 3: Nyizi 'ba lemu ni a riti di ma'dizi ai i'a ka ta kole kideru ri ide na a'a ya.Step 4: Nya'i 'ba ta kole kideki riti Ideka ri konze 'baziti ni di kaki idea igoni ya 'i.Step 5: Nyizi 'ba ta kole kideki ri ideka ra ri ni di ta loso aia esule ta lidri ecojo ri Idereaga ri a'du ya.Step 6: Nyesu ra 'ba ta kole kideki ki idekaa ku ri dri ri ni.Step 7: Nyamu ta rongorongo riti ta idele wa ri tro ri 'ba driso Idekaa ku riti ni, rarii nyete aini loso ta kole Ide riti ideka si riti.Step 8: Nyangwa ta idele ra ria 'a ni leti ali si.Step 9: Nya'i 'ba lemu ni 'a riti kotiki dri aiangasi ta ai kovu kidea mgbi izuta 'di ivu 'i vua nyikonyi ta Idele wa ri sireaga alualu anagasi.Step 10: Nyangwa 'ba nya inile ria tati u'bale ai kidea riti aia la'i ni ndrejo lemu andraga ri iga driso ta udi ri oca i'doaru ku 'i.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 1: : Ago ukunzi tro 'a e'i ri ka ra 'du karealuga ewo amvu dri idri vua ta amvu a kwele ri ebureaga si 'i.'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba kole kesuki riti: Ago ukunzi tro e'i 'a si riti 'i• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo riti:• Ra cidru 'a le'jo ekwi a'a. Ukunzi dri sa ra loso amvu dri vua ta esule amvu rii vua ta ti ubaka familia ni limi esujo rii a'a.• 'Ba cidru familia a rii, ukunzi ago tro kole kizuki ta vua ka'iki ru amvu dri vua ta esule amvu a ri e'bujo ri idri.• 'Ba familia 'a e'bu ideka karealuga ri ka ra loso ri du awu si oza idekaa ku ri ti ra.• Ta Izuka 'ba familia 'a ri ilofo ri ko'ba ago ukunzi tro ka ta ide karealuga loso familia dri ri ni 'i.• Nyolu cece. Ira nvuka nza ka nyigoga ta okpo familia 'a ri izure a ga ci.Ta idele wa riti:• Izi kolu anyu. kizuta vua kokwe ra amvu dri vua ta amvu a kwele ri idri. Woman, be confident. Discuss and contribute ideas on farming and farm inputs.• Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro kole kikonyi ago ukunzi tro ta izujo vua e'bu idejo kare aluga familia ni olujo alu. Local and religious leaders, encourage men and women to discuss and work together for family unity. Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo ago ukunzi tro ka ra amu amvu dri vua ta amvu a kwele ri idri iri, naa kole dubasi leco nza ri kolu olu alu familia dri 'i ga a'a vua ta esule ewo amvu dri iga ri isa ka ri nza ra e'i a 'i.Ta kole kideru ta ru egbwe ni vua ozo ni ri inzajo riti 'i Ta kole ondre kideru rii 2: Familia ka ta aia lele riti ni wa vua kaki ta ruleka lonya ni, ru egbwe ni vua lini ni riti u'ba kate ra ni wa.• Ago uku tro• Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Familia ku'ba ta ruleka e'i 'a ri a ti ni karealuga, ovidru kendre lonya, ru egbwe ta mbaka vua lini tro 'i.• Familia kole ku'baki siti baraga lonya a'ia sale kuru riti ujejo awusin ka lonya 'baru ri a mori ni inza.• Familia kole ko'baki baraga vu ate'di ra rii ori lonya dru rii, tubi ora, kwe o'a nyale riti ta ziti tro usajo nyale baru.• Anye'bu leti ovi mgbwimgbwi udi amvu dri ta drile 'waka loso riti awu.• 'Ba familia 'a riti cidru kole kideki e'bu lonya esujo rii, awusini lonya kate ra familia 'a 'i.• Familia ku'ba ta okpookpo ruleka e'i 'a ri a ti ni karealuga, ovidru kendre lonya, ru egbwe ta mbaka vua lini tro 'i. Vua di anyi vu a'a riti e'bua lonya ate'di ra ri ni igoni ya 'i, ovidru tubi ora, kwe o'a nyale riti ta ziti tro usajo nyale baru (maramgba, osu, fuli).• Anyesu ra goli'ba dri vua 'ba e'bu Ideka laki lofo riti dri leti amvu dri udi ri ti idri 'i.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Familia ta ti u'baka karealuga ta ruleka riti ni rii kolu lidri loso ri si.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 3: Ago, anyi kwe saa nza e'bu 'baru ri idejo vua anya ukunzi ti ikonyijo anya 'baciri ti tro 'i.'Ba lele rii:• Ago uku tro• 'Boronzi izonzi tro• laponyia andriba tro Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Ago loku riti ka ai ka 'ba ta mba wa ni ite'dea aia ukunzi ti ikonyika aia 'baciri ti tro si.• Ago konyi kweka e'bu 'baru riti idere a ga riti a asi ni okpo, kaki 'ba ta mba wa vua a'di ai ru. A'i ovi loso rii dru aia 'baciri ti ni 'i. Kaki a'ia ukunzi ti isa Ikonyi oluka 'baciri ciri ri tro si vua 'baciri ru egbwe ri ti utijo awu.• E'bu 'baru ri kweka 'baciri ni a'ia olure ciri riko'ba kaki engwi 'ba e'bu ideka mori si riti 'i.• Laponyia, anyikonyi 'ba 'baciri e'bu baru riti idere aga saa aia olure mbo ri si 'i.• Ago, anyi konyi ta e'bu 'baru ri iga 'i kendre 'baciri ujeka vua lonya kweka a'i ni si 'i.• Nyiya nya izi tro karealuga ewo ru egbwe dri iga 'i.• Nyi konyi ta familia a ta esule amvu 'a ri jika soko 'a si.• Ukunzi, anyi dru leti anyi ago ni etajo e'bu 'baru ri idejo.• Ukunzi anyi nze anya ago ti a dribaa ni oto dri e'bu baru esu a'ia idele ku ri idere a ga 'i• Ago dri dru riti kole koluki ovidru e'bu e'I 'a ri idere a ga 'i.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo nyi nya izi ni ikonyi ta 'baru riti idere a ga Iri, adi nyi ndrema'di anda letro vua 'ba ta mba'di ri 'i.Lonya ru a lele ra ri ideka 'i Ta kole ondre kideru rii 1: 'Baciri ori imba 0-6 riti kole okwe a'ini te ba lei awu.'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba 'batika riti 'ba 'baciri imba ori 0-6 riti a ta mbaka ri tro • Ukunzi ru anzi rit a'ia ago ti tro Le'jo rongorongo rii:• 'Barangwa jo kenya na oca imba azia kuru iri, ana 'a ni driso oca lonya ziti nyajo kuru. Nyikwe nya 'barangwa ni te ba lei awu.• Endre kole du'basi kidoki a'ia 'baciri ti indruka saa ndindi isu atijoa dru oti dri ri evu ri iga. 'Di ko'ba ru ka ba lei ide.• 'Barrangwa indruka ni ko'ba uda kafu emiadru.• 'Ba lei ka 'barangwa igoga laza ovidru oca riti esure a ga ci.• 'Barangwa ni ba ndru loso ni ole 'oba kitiri ani loso vua endre tro Ire. Kole o'ba ani ba ni ga ewo anda ri iga. 'Ba 'batika riti kole koziki konyi 'ba CHEWs riti dri kusa 'ba ovidru riti dri vua 'ba ru egbwe dri lini ukweka laki ni riti dri ite'dejoa dru leti ce 'barangwa indrujo ri 'i.• Ba lei 'a ta cidru 'barangwa a lele kinta ani 'di si ri a'a. Ba lei a lonya eyi tro 'barangwa a lele imba ndindi azia ana lindri oti vu ri ni rii ate tri.• Kole 'barangwa kondru ba tee endre kitiri anini ba lei ga kusa iyo sa 'i. Jo 'barangwa ka ba ndru iri, ba lei ka ride nza.• Endre 'baciri indruka riti kole konyaki lonya ziti ta epeepe riti tro awusi ni a'ia ru ka ba lei ide nza.• Endre kole kokweki a'ia 'baciri ti ni te ba lei awu saa oti dri ivu 'i, vua ndi kofuki ca imba azia kpe, naivu oriki lonya ziti Ido kwele a'ia ni 'I.Mothers should give their baby only breast-milk immediately at birth and continue until the baby is 6months old after which, other foods can be introduced.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Endre ka konyi esu ma'di CHEW ri dri, ma'di e'bu Ide'di erua jo 'a ri dri kusa ma'di ovi dru baba a'ini leti anda 'baciri indrujo ri ite'dejoa dri a'ini ri dri. Nyi kwe te ba lei awu imba azia atijoadru 'barangwa a lidri dri ri i'a 'i, ka ani ikonyi zojo vua olujo ru egbwe tro 'i.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 2: 'Barangwa imba azia ri ni lonya loso ru a lele ziti ri ka rido wa tee kaci andraga ba nruka tro sa 'i. Lonya ni kole kolu ate'di ra rii, saa anda ri si vua loso ri 'i.'Ba lele rii: Endre, ata vua 'ba 'baciri imba ori 6-24 isu ri a ta mbaka riti 'i.Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Lonya loso ri kweka 'baciri ni ni ko'ba kaki olu ru egbw tro, kaki zo vua kaki ri Inza loso.• 'Baciri imba 6 -9 riti kole kondruki ba kpe naivu ori a'ini ziti ari inza riti kwe a'ini ovi idele lidi ani ri si.Nyi fuli i'di inza lonya 'baciri dri i'a wa vua ta zit ovidru papaya kusa inju rit isa kwe wa.• 'Baciri imba 9 -24 riti ni kole okwe lonya vu Ina kusa isuo'du alu 'a 'i ndrejoadru a'ini lonya ate tri a'ia olure ga ri 'i.• 'Baciri ole kunyaki ta ziti ciriciri riti lonya a'ia nyale vu inakusa Isu diti ilofo 'i.• Oje dri kpe ori lonya Ide vua kwe 'baciri ni 'i ausi nika a'i igoga laza oca dri esure ga ci.• 'Barangwa indruka kole komu andraga bi ana imba kofu ca 24 kpe.• Lonya ari inzaka riti ideka 'barangwa imba azia ri ni ni komu andraga 'barangwa indruka tro 'i.• Kole nye'bu leti loso ru egbwe ta mbajo kendre soroni'bu vua dri jeka tro laza kendre oca ti ani ri igoga jo.• Kole nye'bu leti loso ru egbwe ta mbajo saa nya 'baciri ciri ri ni lonya Idere rii laza kendre oca ti o'bu tro ri igoga jo Ta rongorongo icarale rii: 'Baciri ciri riti ni lonya ru a lele riti kweka ni ka a'i Ikonyi zojo loso. Ausi 'barangwa kido mbaka, acika vua ta 'joka kinya anda ri si.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 3: Lonya 'baru ri Inzaka 'i.'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba kole kesuki riti: Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba familia 'a si riti 'i• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: 'Ba ciri a'i tro rii, CHEWs, 'ba lidri loso tro rii vua ma'di lini ukwe'di laki ni ri 'iLe'jo rongorongo rii:• Nyu'ba kare a'a ri a ti ni ndrejo atetri ori lonya dru riti sajo ori siti esujo ri tro 'i.• Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba familia 'a si ru egbwe vua da riti kole kideki e'bu kare aluga ndrejodru lonya ate 'di ra osaru, okuru vua pa otraru saa lele ri idri 'i.• Ori ovidru gbanda, endre, kaata, osu vua inju ti usaka ni ko'ba kolu amvu 'a para wa si ka konyi kwe lonya ni ceka ni indure ri a ga.• Familia ka ori lonya dru ri a drile mgbimgbi ri sa vu gaadru ri iga wa. 'Ba ziti anyi ilofo riti kite'dea anyi ni wa.• Familia 'a anyizu ta vua anya'i ru vu ate'di ori lonya dru sale riti idri 'i.• Anyisa ori ovidru gbanda, endre, kaata, osu vua inju ti oluka amvu 'a para wa riti lonya ta mbajo awu.• Anye'bu vu a'a riti ori azile riti usajo ori lonya dru ri tro.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo nyu'ba ta ti vua isa ori lonya dru oluka para wa riti awu iri, nyidri familia 'a lonya kate tri kinya 'a 'i vua lonya sa oce ku.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 4: Households have diversity of foods produced in their gardens 'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba familia 'a rii cidru 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Ori lonya dru drile mgbimgbi ri saka ko'ba familia ka lonya drile mgbimgbi ri esu awu.• Familia kole ko'baki baraga vu akwasi ori drile eri azile, lonya dru kenre osu ti ani ri, tubi ora vua kwe o'a tro riti usajo.• Ori drile mgbimgbi ri usaka amvu 'a ko'ba lonya drile mbimgbi riti kolu familia 'a a'a.• A'u ta mbaka akwa tro ko'ba lonya ori zojo vua 'wajo loso ri kolu a'a.• Tubi ora usaka ni ka familia ikonyi lonya ate ra ru a lele ri esujo.• Anyi sa akwasi paipai pa isu, ovakado pa isu, matude pa isu vua inju pa isu awusi ni ka familia ikonyi lonya loso ru a lele riti esujo kwe o'a tro ndrole 'baciri ciri riti ukunzi ru anzi ri tro ri ni 'i.• Anyizuru vua anya'iru nya ewo tro vu 'bajo baraga akwasi ori drile eri azile, lonya dru kenre osu ti ani ri, tubi ora vua kwe o'a tro riti usajo.• Anye'bu ori meri dri 'i, anyisa tubi ora vua ori ziti lonya dru ri tro lonya drile mgbimgbi riti esujo e'i 'a 'i.• Anyumi amvu ta inijo riti awusini anyi ori lonya dru drile mgbimgbi riti usajo ri ini ra.• Anyumi vua nyini ta anya jirani ti ori lonya dru drile mgbimgbi riti usa'di ri dri.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Lonya drile mgbimgbi riti esuka ni ka familia Ikonyi lonya drile mgbimgbi ru a lele riti esure a ga awusi olujo opko vua ru egbwe tro.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 5: Familia kole konyaki lonya akwasi vu ina odu alu 'a 'i 'Ba lele rii: 'Ba familia 'a riti cidru si Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Ta nyaka o'du alu 'a vu ina kusa nza ni ka familia ikonyi olujo opko vua ru egbwe tro vua ka onjuka lonya ako si ni igoga ra.• E'bu 'baru ri amuka 'ba familia 'a riti ilofo ko'ba saa kate ra ma'di lonya 'di'di ri ni lonya loso ri 'dijo.• Lonya 'dika emuka e'bu ziti familia 'a ri tro, ovidru,nyi ta 'di vua nyiji ta so si kusa bongu jeka tro, ra rii nyiji ta acidri ri iceki si awusi ni kogwedru ku.• Ta ti u'baka eze familia 'a di a'du ko'di ni ya ni ka nyi ikonyi kwe lonya idejo saa dri.• Kendre familia ani, anyara anyi anyi ilofo kole ta konyaru vu Ina o'du alu 'a 'i, ndrole 'baciri ciri riti 'i, endre 'baciri indruka riti 'i vua ukunzi ru anzi ri ti sa tro.• Kendre familia ani anyupe di a'di ko'di ta ni vua anyu'ba saa ta 'dijo ri a ti ni ra.• Anyikonyi anyi ilofo e'bu 'baru riti Idere ga awusini ka anyini saa ate'di ra ri kwe lonya idejo wa.• Lonya 'dile ra ri a ta ni kombaru. Anyi mba ta ani ta ti tro ri i'a kusa anyili bugubi 'a.• Anyi'ba lonya 'a kole kpe odri nyaa.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: AFamilia lonya nya'di akwasi vu ina o'du alu 'a riti kole kaki olu opko vua ru egbwe tro vua laza sa oko a'i emiemi ku.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 6: Nyindre li ori lonya dru sale amvu 'a riti a lonya kwele ri atetri.'Ba lele rii:• Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba riti 'i• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo riti:• Lonya azika ni ka lonya weli rule'di familia ri Induindu a'dusi ko'ba lonya oce ku. Jo nyazi lonya 'baru ri ni Iri, too nyi lonya alua ri je laje oru ri si.• Anyi'ba ovi tati u'bajo kare aluga ri kolu anyi ilofo ndrejoadru lonya rule'di familia 'a ri koce bi ori sale amvu a ri pa ni trajo kpe. Tesa anyi'ba lonya rule'di familia 'a riti baraga. Azi a'i kpodru ku.• Anyisa ori azile riti ori lonya dru ri tro.• Anyi mba akwa ciri ovidru a'u, indri, bilo kusa ngurue. Anyi a'i azi wa jo ile siti 'i rarii ori lonya dru ri a karega a'dusi osa a'i nyale e'i 'a.• Anye'bu siti esule ta ziti si rii lonya ziti ru a lele ra kendre nganze, a'uele, ebi tro nyale 'baru. Ta siti ejika riti ka nyi ikonyi siti esure a ga lonya jejo saa rule'd ri si.• Anyu'ba ta ti lonya weli vua ovi rule'di familia bi saa anya pa trajo ri kofu eca.• Anyisi ero lonya ta mbajo ri ci famili'a'i.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo nyidri lonya nya esule nyidri amvu rii ate tri iri, nyidri familia abiri kolu iyo Ta kole ondre kideru rii 1: Lonya ate'di ra rii taa mba e'bule 'baru kinya 'a ru.'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba kole kesuki riti: Familia• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo rii:• Anyitra anya pa emiemi jo eca ra 'i awusini ana rivoloka ni ka rindu ra.• Anya pa trale ra lonya dru ri kole i'wi ca leti pelere ri si ori 'baa ero aa 'i.• Leti ovi u'bi e'bule lonya ta mbajo loso anya laki ti ilofo a'a.A'i di'bati ovidru oko ta pa etrale ri i'wika na capete dri vua ziti umbea oru joga aci drile jokoni 'a.• Anya vua ori ziti tro pa ani traa saa dri vua i'wia andaanda kpe ori 'baa ta ani mbale 'i.• Lonya ziti kendre nganze, fuli vua tubi ora ani riti a ta kombaru nyale familia 'a too saa ta laje a tujo oru ri si 'i.• Anyusi ero esika ca riti lonya ta mbajo. Nyisi nya ero ni nya jo ni laga ire awusini nyi ta lidri ogu tro umia wa.• Nyisa ori lonya dru kolu amvu a para wa riti, ovidru gbanda, endre, kaata vua inju tro driciri lonya ta mbajo ri indujo.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo imba lonya ate'di ra ri a ta ni ero 'a awu iri, nya familia ni lokudru lonya kolu a'a kinya 'a ru. Nya famiia ni a'di laru kwe ra laki 'a 'i.Lonya ta mbaka ruwe vua pelere 'i Ta kole ondre kideru rii 2: 'Ba 'baru riti kole ku'baki ta ti vua ko'baki siti ate'di ra rii lonya ru a lele riti ujejo familia 'a.'Ba lele rii:• Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba familia 'a si riti 'i• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo riti:• Anyu'ba ta ti vua anyi'ba siti ate'di ra ri baraga lonya loso ru a lele ri ujejo awusini ka sale 'baru ri inza. 'Di ka lonya ru a lele familia a ri inza.• Ago lonya ujeka familia 'a riti ndrole kaki 'baciri ta mba vua ovi loso ri ite'de a'ini.• 'Ba familia 'a rii, ago ukunzi tro kole kizuki ta vua ko'duki ra karealuga di lonya ingoni riti uje awusini lonya kate dru familia 'a ra ndrole 'baciri ciri riti ni 'i.• Anyesu lonya ru a lele ra ki anyidri isa kuru riti oko anyu'ba siti ti jejoadru.• Anyumi vua nyini ta anya jirani ti leti ziti e'buka siti esujo ta ruleka a'idri 'baru riti ni ri dri si.• Anyi mba akwa ciri riti a ni awusi azika na adu vua 'disi anyiko anyi siti na e'bu lonya ruleka 'baru riti ni.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Lonya ru a lele ri ujeka ka 'ba familia 'a ri ikonyi olujo opko vua ru egbwe tro.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 3: 'Ba 'baru riti kole kondreki 'balaga ni pelere, adi soroni'bu e'bu 'bu okoronya dri ti tro awu 'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba familia 'a riti cidru si oko 'baciri acika sukuru ga ri 'i vua amba ama ilofo riti tro• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro Le'jo rongorongo riti:• Soroni'bu a oluka 'bu okorinya dri tro a'a e'i 'a ka anya familia ni ovi anda ri ite'de awu laki 'a 'i. Ani lete olujo ma'di anda ta ni'di ote laki a ri 'i.• Anye'bu soroni'bu awu ze ni udrwe tro, anyi'ba soroni'bu a ti ci awusini onyu eya laka ku vua anyu'be ze 'baciri dri ni soroni'bu 'a.• Anyi mba anya e'i a ta ni pelere. E'I nyidri ni ideka pelere ni ko'ba nyolu laki lofo ma'di rule ri 'i.• Amba laki dri rii kole kite'deki e'i soroni'bu vua 'bu okorinya dri tro riti laki andra. Nye'bu ovi 'di ani 'dii ta idejo lemu vua ta Idele laki lofo ri ni.• Anyisi soroni'bu lofo kate akwasi mete 30 jo dro 'i.• Anyi'di 'bu okorinya dri ri lofo kate akwasi mete 10 jo dro 'i.• Kole anyi'ba cara laki ni du'basi e'i alualu dri soroni'bu kolu 'bu okorinya dri tro a'a.• Amba laki dri rii kole anyite'de e'i soroni'bu tro riti lama e'i dri iga vua lemu laki lofo riti iga si ovidru 'bani 'i.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo laki ka soroni'bu usi 'bu okorinya dri ti tro vua e'bua leti anda risi iri, kaki laza amgbu esule 'ba laga a oluka andi si riti igoga ra.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 4: 'Ba 'baru riti konyaki lonya cuwi rii vua konviki eyi pelere ri 'i.'Ba lele rii:• Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba familia 'a si riti 'iLe'jo rongorongo riti:• Lonya aji kusa endre'di ivolo ru ra ri ko'ba anyi laza unzi ri esu wa ovidru inyinya lonya 'a ri 'i.• Lonya aseka ta mbala nyale vule ri a ta ni omba ta pelere ri 'a vua aku ti na ci.• Lonya aseka ta mbala nyale vule riti koe aa ko'di kpe awusini ka o'bu aru ri di pi.• Jo anya amvu ni lolu iri, anyi'di anya lonya ni amvu ni 'a si vua anyi nya driso ana olure aciaci ri 'i. Familia ka ta 'di inini wa vua kaki e'bea ati ni ga awusi ni kolu dru aci bi saa lonya ituaci ri nyajo ri si.• Anyi'di eyi nvule ri kpe kusa anye'bu erua kendre Aqua safe kusa Water guard ti ani ko'ba eyi kengwi pelere laza oca ti ani ri igogajo wa. Eyi nvule riti cidru kole ko'di tulatula kpe awusini ka o'bu eyi ni 'a riti u'di ra.• Anyimba eyi nvule ri a ta ni akajo pelere ri i'a vua e'bu kopo pelere ri i'bejoadru awu. 'Di ko'ba eyi kolu pelere vua o'bu ako.• Anya'bu lonya cidru 'dile ra riti a ti ti ci lonya 'baciri dri tro vua ta nvule kendre lei, lidi, juisi vua kwe o'a tro.• Anyile lonya cidru aseka riti a 'a ni kpe ori nya.• Anyi lonya ide inini vua bi saa lonya itu aci ri dri si.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo anyi lonya loso ri unya vua anyi pelere ru egbwe dri a ta ni mba anyidri 'baru eyi tro iri, anya familia ni kole kolu ruwe laza amgbu 'a si sa 'i.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 5: Pelere ru egbwe dri 'baru riti iduka 'i 'Ba lele rii:• Ago, uku vua 'baciri amba familia 'a si riti 'iLe'jo rongorongo riti:• E'e aru adi ze 'baciri dri akwa dri tro ri u'be kare anda ri iga rii vua difo ta mbaa pelere laza icandi 'ba aru palanda ku.• Anyije dri saboni si eyi era'di ri iga kpe iri lonya ide kusa nyaa, engaka soroni'bu 'a nivu, 'barangwa ni zeledri ubika nivu vua jo anyelo ta andi riti 'i. 'Di ka anyi ikonyi lonya ta mbarega pelere oko ka anyi igoga lonya ni inyareaga vua oca esureaga.• Anyi'ba ta dri jejo ri ti kolu a'a dri jeka Idejo wa vua laza icale dri andi si riti igogajo wa.• Anyide palapala akwajo ajejo rii, anyi'di 'bu okorinya dri rii, vua anyu'di soroni'bu ci anya akwajo ti a ta mbajo anya difo ti tro pelere vua indika na igogajo.• Anyiwe anya difo 'baru riti o'du cidru si vua anyu'be ze akwa dri ti 'bu okorinya dri i'a.• Anyije dri saboni si eyi era'di ri iga kpe iri lonya ide kusa nyaa, engaka soroni'bu nivu vua jo a'i dri ti andi 'i.• Anyide palapala akwajo ajejo ri ci.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo 'ba familia riti ka a'i dri ti uje saboni si eyi era'di ri iga kpe oriki lonya ide kusa nya iri, anya familia ni alusa laza oya icandia emiemi ku.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 6: Nyiji nya 'barangwa ni erua goga dri o'bu dri tro vua Vitamini A dri tro ri iga 'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba kole kesuki riti: 'Bá 'batika rii kusa 'ba 'baciri kinya tou esi vuru riti a ta mbaka riti 'i• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro, CHEWsLe'jo rongorongo riti:• Erua goga dri rii, o'bu dri ri vua Vitamini A dri ri adi kwea ilili erajo gavumete dri iga vua o'du 'baciri dri ru egbwe dri riti si 'i.• Nyiya kare 'baciri ndreaga ri iga cadi 'baciri dri ru egbwe dri ri esure 'i.• 'Ba ta ibika wa riti ovidru, kaki ata endre tro kusa 'ba 'baciri ta mbaka ikonyi 'ba e'bu Ideka eruajo ga riti umi 'ba CHEWs ri tro 'baciri ni ozo umire a ga. Ndrejo dru 'barangwa esu erwa goga dri rii, o'bu dri ri vua Vitamini A dri ruleka riti ra.• Erua goga dri rii ka 'barangwa igoga laza ovidru kendre okolo TB, okolo kilikli rii, lumara vua yeye dri 'baciri 'dika emiadru riti esureaga.• 'Barangwa ajika kare 'baciri undrea ri iga ka nyi ikonyi 'barangwa ni ozo umireaga vua ta unzi 'barangwa icandi'di ri inijo eze vua konyi anda ri kwejo wa.• Nyesu cadi 'barangwa dri ru egbwe dri ta cidru rukoka erua goga dri rii, o'bu dri ri vua Vitamini A dri tro ri ukwejo ri to ri 'i.• Nyaya kare 'baciri ndreaga ri iga konyi 'barangwa a lele ri esure.• Nyizi ma'di e'bu ide'di eruajo 'a ri kusa or CHEW or ma'di ovidru ri kusa ma'di ta onza'di laki ni o'du ru egbwe dri 'baciri ni riti idri ri vua kole nyindre li nyi a'a vua nyesu andra loso kwele riti ra.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo iji 'barangwa erua goga dri rii, o'bu dri ri vua Vitamini A dri riti iga saa lele riti si iri, nya 'barangwa ni ire kole kolu okpo vua ru egbwe rii sukuru a sa ka ta ide cuwi ri 'i. Nyi siti ta mba wa vua nyini saa kolu ta ziti okpookpo riti ni sa a'a.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 7: Ukunzi ru anzi kole kaciki erua/ANC drii iga kate akwasi vu isu i'dojo aia ru anzi a I'dore ri 'i, olobo ziti rukoka aia ru anzi tro ri esure, ozo 'barangwa dri 'aa si ri umire, vua ru ta mbaka 'barangwa loso ru egbwe ri tijo awu.'Ba lele rii:• Uku ru anji riti a'ia ago ti tro, vua 'ba e'bu ideka erwa jo 'a riti 'i.• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro, CHEWs.Le'jo rongorongo riti:• Kole ukunzi ru anzi riti kaciki erua/ ANC drii ga kate akwasi vu isu i'dojo aia ruanzi a i'dore ri 'i, 'di ko'ba kaki ra esu olo'bo ziti tro ovi aini ru ta mbajo ru anzi 'a riidri. 'Di ko'ba 'bara ti endre tro aru kolu cuwi.• Acika erua/ANC dri Iga rii ko'ba 'ba ka ta unzi ekwi'di ruanzi 'a rii ni eze oko igogaa.• Ago aia ukuu ti ikonika e'bu joa risi saa ru anzi dri risi riti kaki ai ini. Ko'ba aia uku ti koolu okpo saa ruanzi dri nai'a ndutu. Uku ru anzi lonya ziti aya aaru a'a riti unyaka ovidru, dodo, osobi, iza, orobi ziti tro, vua bit roots tro riti laza ari ni ekojo 'baru rii oko ai ku.• Uku ru anzi o'du okoka tandarua erua ruaru a'a ri i'a riti kaki aia igoga laza malaria drii si wa. 'Di ka vua laza ari ni ikojo 'ba ru rii igoga wa.• Kole dubasi nyaci erua/ANC drii iga jo mgbe nyasu nya ru anzi 'i, awusini nyi ra esu nyaaru ta mbajo ruanzi 'a i.• Ago 'baciri amba ritro kole kikonyikii uku ruanzi riti e'bu jo'a riti idereaga e'bu amvu'a ritro awusini ko'ba kakii ovu.• Nyinya akwasi lonya kate vu isu o'du alualu si vua lonya ciri ciri riti sa nyinya lonya nza ria vuga ra, awusi ka nyini lonya ru a lele rii kwe nyaa ru ni.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo izi ru anzi ri kaci ANC dri ri iga iri, ka saa esu ovujo,ka lonya loso ri unya awu vua ka ta eyieyi riti unvu okposi, vua ka o'du ko tandaroa erua tro ri i'a. Koko kolu okpo vua ru egbwe tro vua ka 'barangwa ru egbwe ri ti awu.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 8: Mgbesa 'baciri avu riti ni adi erua kwe emiadru.'Ba lele rii:• 'Ba 'batika riti 'ba 'baciri ta mbaka ri tro• 'Ba kole kondreki kideru riti: Amba ama ilofo riti amba dini dri riti tro, CHEWsLe'jo rongorongo riti:• Anyiji 'baciri avu riti eruajoga erua esure konyi tro emiemi mgbesa jo lazaori ni 'i koce ere unzi tro niku. Anye'bu acipa emi anya legaga riti 'i.• Saa cidru si anyi'ba siti baraga erua ni vua ta ru egbwe dri ru leka riti ni. Anyi a'u ta mba akwa tro wa awusini anya zia siti eujo ta ruleka 'baru emiemi laza ti ani ri ti ni.• 'Baciri ba leka ku kusa lonya leka ku riti kole kaki olu avu rere vua kole oji ai eruajo ga konyi esure emiemi.• Erua du'basi kole kovuru cara dakitari a 'jole a vu si vua kokweru ma'dizi familia 'a ani sa avu ri ni ku.• Anyizu ta 'baziti 'baru ri tro ta ziti unzi ka rite'de 'barangwa ru kole oji awusi emiemi eruajo ga riti idri.• Anyimba orali/ORS ni ta joga vua anyini ta ovi osajoadru vua kwejoadru 'barangwa ce'di ri ni ri ote.• Jo 'barangwa ni ru emi aci iri, anyili ru ani bongu sule eyi bolobolo ri si vua anyiji ani emiemi eruajo ga.• A'u ta mbaka akwa tro vua alua ri ani ta ziti Idele dri si riti tro ideka azile siti esujo ta ruleka emiemi riti ni.• Anyimu andraga lonya ta eyieyi 'barangwa avu ri a lele riti kweka tro Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo nya 'barangwa avu ri esu erua emiemi iri, laza ni a si konga emia dru vua nyi ana lidri ni ari ra. Alua ri ani nyisa nyi laza a engwika anzi ni indu ra vua ana siti jika nza isa ka rindu ra.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 1: Familia ka golomore tema ri 'ba vua kaki ewo limi ekwi'di ridrii 'ba lonya inzajo aia e'i ni 'a.'Ba lele rii:• Ago uku tro e'i a si riti 'i.Le'jo rongorongo riti:• 'Ba mgbimgbi vua familia golomore u'baka riti oniki cuwidru aini silingi e'bule ta eya'di gboroo dru rini a'a. Kakii vua aia limii ni inza olu loso tro aia golomore u'bale rii e'buka ta aia lo'de ni inza'di rii uzeka si.• Nyikwi lemu golomore ta mba'di ri iga awusini nyisa nye'bi golomore tambareaga ci. Membaa anya lemu ni 'a riti ka nyi ekonyi golomore ta mbajo ta tema risi nyi 'bajo nya familia tro pa dri.• Ago aia ukuu ti ni mori kweka aisaa aini ta endajo wa riti ai 'ba asi 'baka vuozo ga ra vua lekaa ai kondre aia familia koozo riti 'i. Uku saa ka ta ozo ejika riti ide vua ta mba wa jo okwe aini lini loso riti konyi anga'di familia 'a ritro ra 'i.• E'bu joga riti amuka amvu 'a ritro, ta 'dika ti ani, vua akwajo bongu tro jeka, difo usika, mgbaka vua weka na tro oko 'baciri ta mbaka ka uku ni lofo kwe aini kwijo lemu 'a golomore ta mbare vua ta ziti laki lofo aini mugu'ba ejika aia e'ii ni tro wa.• E'i a'u tambaka akwa tro riti ka silingi esu ai azika si ta siti leka aia e'i ni 'a si riti ni wa.• Kole nyolu ra vua tati u'baka pelere golomore ta mbajo ritro.• Kole nyikwi lemu golomore ta mbajo ri iga, nyiko nyini ta 'ba atiti golomore ta mbaka riti dri.• Nyi'do ta mgbimgbi silingi ejika riti ideka, ovidru, a'u ta mbaka akwa tro.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo ago ti izi tro okwi lemu golomore tambajo ri iga ra, ka ai eritrua rini mori kwe aia familia a ta ni mbajo kare aluga.Jo famia inza aia golomore ta mbaka ni ra, kaki aia olu loso e'iga rii idu ra, vua kai ta aia e'i a lele riti je wa.Limi ekwi'di joga rii anzuka lonya ni lonya ru tambajo ri tro Ta kole ondre kideru rii 3: Families can get credit for buying useful assets and for off-farm businesses.'Ba lele rii:• • Ago, uku, lemu 'ba lofo riti 'i vua SACCOsLe'jo rongorongo riti:• Mori esuka kusa koka ta anda rii idejo ni leti nyini ide e'dojo emi wa ri 'i kusa nyini silingi esujo ri 'i. Kole mori ko'duru te leti silingi esujo familia ni rini.• Ra esuka ta ruleka mori kojo wa, 'ba mori ukweka riti dri ni ko'ba nyi ride baba vua nyi ra anda rii 'du mori kojo awu.• Oluka ra anda ritro silingi nya 'dule mori dru ri e'bujo ni ko'ba nyi nia 'di gba ille mori nai ra ya 'i, vua nyi tiani ingwi Ingoni ya 'i. Kare ziti mori ukwereaga riti ka nyi ikonyi nya ra ni ndrejo di ra, vua kaki nyi ikonyi ra 'durega ra.• Anyamu ra vua anyairu nya wa'dizi tro mori ni dureaga, 'di anyi e'bua ingoni vua anyi tati u'ba ingwijoadru igoni ya 'i.• Nyi kwi lemu laki dri 'ba igenile wa vua nyikonika wa jo ile mori 'duka ritidri iga.• Nyemi lemu 'ba mori ukweka ridrii vua nyesu ra ovi silingi aijo mori dru ri idri.• Nyura ta ovi nyi Ide ingoni ri i'do awu ya nidri, nyiko nyi'do ide angwa nyini siti enda'di wa rini nyini silingi esujo nya familia ni, vua nyi'bi silingi na a ti Ingwie wa.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo familia ozi ra ovi siti kole moridru rii e'bujo cuwi ni ingonia ni dri ra iri, kaki ciri aia ide idejo rii inza ra. Jo ago uku tro inza aia lo'de mori kojo rii ra iri, kaki ide 'bazi ni e'bu kwejo rii e'do ra vua aia ide a mugu'ba karinza ra.Ta kole ondre kideru rii 4: Familia ka o'wa amvu 'a soko na a'a rii sa awu.'Ba lele rii:• Ago, uku, lemu 'ba lofo riti 'i vua amba ama ilofo riti 'iLe'jo rongorongo riti:• Ekwika lemu amvu'ba dri i'a rii ka nyiekonyi,• Lini ta sajo amvu'a nya amvua a mugu'ba ni inzajo vua ori soko na a'a rii kwe nyini ra.• Nyini ra vua ofu ori ce riti upejo rii kwe ra.• Nyi ori vua akwa soko na nza rii 'ba nyidri amvu'a awu.• Nyi vua ori ubile ca oko ovi ta sajo amvua cuwi rii e'bu awu.• Anyi e'bu ide 'baazi tro o'wa nyidri ria mugu'ba ni inza jo.• Nyi ero loso vua okp rii si nya anya a ta ni mbajo awu saa anya a edrejo nza risi 'i, nyiko nyazia saa anya a olujo iyo risi, koko ka nyini laje loso rii kwe awu.• Ta ite'de jo/Eno Ta idele wa riti 'i:• Anyikwi kusa anyu'ba lemu amvu'ba dri riti a ti awusini anyesu dru lini ori sajo loso riti anyiko anyi soko ani ti esu wa.• Anyisa ori ta endaka nzaruleka soko 'a riti awu, awusi anyi azia laje pelere risi.• Anyusi ero esika miga ca vua okpo riti awu anya lonya tia ta mbajo saa lonya a mugu'ba ni e'dejo nza risi 'i.Ta rongorongo icarale rii: Jo goli'ba osa ori ta endaka nza riti awu, kakii soko ani esu emi rere vua kakii azia laje nza si.","tokenCount":"6212"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"27640581f023d7ba3edd0686584e76d9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/df0830fc-d9e5-4dd5-81c4-e700aecf9b10/retrieve","id":"-471738104"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8024681a-7404-4977-a5da-c5ecc15dbbe7","pagecount":"22","content":"Se proponen pautas para manejar las malezas del arroz en América Latina dentro de un marco de sostenibilidad y según los principios del manejo integrado de malezas. En él se resaltan dos puntos: el mejor uso que se debe dar a los herbicidas y la forma de evitar que algunas malezas presenten problemas de resistencia a los compuestos químicos contenidos en los herbicidas. También se describen los principales factores que inciden en el incremento de los costos del control de malezas, y se presenta un listado de los principales herbicidas usados actualmente en el cultivo del arroz, con recomendaciones específicas para la selección de éstos según sus características.Cultivado en pequeñas fincas familiares de menos de 4 ha o en grandes extensiones irrigadas, el arroz constituye una fuente importante de subsistencia y empleo para millones de familias campesinas en América Latina. Solamente en Colombia, la cadena del arroz genera más de 50,000 empleos directos en el sector agrícola y 4,500 en la industria (Agricultura de las Américas, 2007). Su importancia económica y social es innegable.En cualquier sistema de producción de arroz, las malezas son una de las principales restricciones biológicas de esa producción; podría decirse que son las compañeras inseparables de los arrozales. En un estudio que cubrió el 80% del área mundial sembrada con este cultivo, Johnson (1996) encontró que las malezas se consideraban el 'freno' biológico más fuerte de la producción de arroz. Las pérdidas que causan las malezas al arroz son severas: pueden reducir el rendimiento a valores insignificantes o llevar a la pérdida casi total de la cosecha. Estas pérdidas varían entre los países según la composición de la flora de malezas, el sistema de siembra y de labranza, el manejo del agua y la nutrición del cultivo. Ahora bien, los agricultores no son concientes del problema que plantean las malezas porque los daños que éstas hacen son menos espectaculares que los causados por insectos o por agentes patógenos.are emphasized: improved use of herbicides and how to avoid weeds from becoming resistant to the chemical compounds found in herbicides. The main factors affecting the increase in weed control costs are also described, and a list of the main herbicides currently used in rice is presented along with specific recommendations on how to select herbicides based on their characteristics.• El daño directo es la interferencia de las malezas con el crecimiento del cultivo comercial. Ampong-Nyarko y de Datta (1991) calculan que las pérdidas de arroz 'paddy' (en cáscara) por esta razón ascienden al 10% de la producción mundial del grano, es decir, a más de 46 millones de toneladas por año. Estos autores revelan que los costos del control de malezas, en el ámbito mundial, ascienden a un 5% del costo total de producción, lo que equivale a unos U$3500 millones al año. En total, las pérdidas debidas a la interferencia de las malezas y al costo de su control equivalen a un 15% de la producción anual de arroz en el mundo. • El daño indirecto es igualmente importante. La lista siguiente contiene ejemplos de este tipo de daño (Puentes, 1999):-Hospedan insectos fitófagos y agentes patógenos; por ejemplo, Digitaria sp. hospeda insectos de los órdenes Homoptera, Lepidoptera y Diptera, y nematodos de los géneros Meloidogyne y Pratylenchus. -Dificultan la cosecha, tanto la manual como la mecánica; es el caso de las especies trepadoras de los géneros Ipomoea y Vigna. -Reducen la calidad del grano cosechado; por ejemplo, el arroz rojo silvestre de las especies Oryza sativa y O. rufipogon contamina el arroz común. -Deprecian las tierras y aumentan el costo normal del control de malezas; esto ocurre, por ejemplo, en los lotes muy infestados con arroz rojo (Oryza sp.) o con coquito (Cyperus rotundus). -Obstruyen los canales de riego.Además, afectan seriamente al productor arrocero porque el costo del control de malezas es muy alto, por las siguientes razones:• El precio del combustible, de la mano de obra para las labores de campo relacionadas, de los herbicidas y de otros factores de la producción arrocera anexos a ese control es considerable. • El precio de las cosechas fluctúa (en algunos países es relativamente bajo) y un control de malezas costoso reduce considerablemente las utilidades.• No se han difundido soluciones para el manejo de las malezas que sean, simultáneamente, menos costosas (o sea, económicamente viables), más eficaces y ambientalmente sostenibles.En Colombia, la estadística arrocera para el intervalo entre 1992 y 2003 indica que el control de las malezas corresponde al costo más alto (17.7%) de la producción de arroz; lo siguen la siembra (16.4%), la recolección (13.6%), la fertilización (12.6%), la preparación del terreno (9.3%), el control de enfermedades (7.5%), el trasporte (7.2%), el arriendo (6.5%) y el control de insectos dañinos (4.2%) (Quintero et al., 2004.). Los estudios realizados por la Federación Nacional de Arroceros de Colombia (Fedearroz, 2009) demuestran que el costo de la producción de arroz en Colombia se ha incrementado en cerca del 34% entre los años 2000 y 2007; esta situación es crítica, si se consideran las actuales condiciones de apertura económica y de globalización de los mercados, que exigen un aumento de rentabilidad (por disminución de costos) para poder mantenerse en el sector.En resumen, el incremento en los costos del control de malezas en el cultivo del arroz depende de varios factores:• La dependencia excesiva de los herbicidas (aun reconociendo que éstos son una herramienta muy útil). • El carácter altamente específico de los herbicidas modernos, que exige la aplicación de mezclas de varios de estos productos, si se quiere controlar la diversidad de arvenses de un arrozal; en consecuencia, la compra de varios herbicidas aumenta el costo del control. • La baja rentabilidad de la mayoría de los cultivos que se rotan con el arroz. • El poco uso que hacen los arroceros de semilla certificada y de asistencia técnica calificada. • La tenencia de la tierra en las zonas arroceras; en Colombia, por ejemplo, un gran número de cultivadores de arroz son arrendatarios y no consideran prioritario, por tanto, el esfuerzo por evitar una infestación del campo con malezas. • La visión de corto plazo con que se ha enfrentado, generalmente, el manejo de las malezas; falta un enfoque de largo plazo que permita anticiparse al problema.• La deficiente aplicación del conocimiento actual de las malezas; en consecuencia, las decisiones sobre el manejo de malezas carecen del apoyo racional que las haría oportunas y eficaces.Tanto en América Latina como en América del Norte, los herbicidas han sido la herramienta dominante y más popular para el control de las malezas (Labrada, 2003). Sin los herbicidas no hubiera sido posible controlar muchas especies de malezas y no sería siquiera concebible sin ellos la producción de arroz en muchos países de la región. ¿Cuál es entonces el problema que plantean, para algunos investigadores, estos insumos? En pocas palabras, el siguiente: el manejo de las malezas del arroz no debe depender de una sola herramienta.El problema de las malezas se debe enfrentar poniendo en marcha programas sostenibles de manejo, que se apoyen principalmente en el conocimiento de la biología y la ecología de esas especies de malezas. Es éste un requisito importante para lograr los rendimientos esperados de grano y obtener, a la vez, una reducción de las poblaciones de malezas, incluyendo aquí las contenidas en el banco de semillas (Labrada, 2003).Primer paso. Hacer un mapeo y un seguimiento (monitoreo) continuos de las especies adventicias en una propiedad (provenientes de países, zonas, fincas y lotes diferentes) no sólo en los campos destinados a la siembra de arroz sino en los bordes de esos campos; el objetivo es identificar tempranamente tres entidades:• Las especies de malezas que pueden ser muy nocivas. • Contención: Con esta acción se tratan porciones infestadas del campo para que la maleza no se extienda más allá de las zonas tratadas. La principal área de infestación puede permanecer sin tratar.• Reducción: Con esta acción se trata la infestación hasta que la densidad o la tasa de expansión de las malezas (o ambos parámetros) se reduzcan a un nivel aceptable. Ahora bien, el umbral de competencia de varias especies de malezas consideradas como muy difíciles es de cero o de unas pocas plantas por m 2 . Solamente 4 ó 5 plantas/m 2 de una especie muy competidora pueden reducir significativamente el rendimiento de un cultivo de arroz (Weed management:..., 2003).El plan anual de manejo de las malezas en las planicies Joseph, en Idaho, EE.UU., que tienen cerca de 180,000 acres (72,900 ha) es un ejemplo de un programa de manejo en que se aplican las acciones antes descritas a través de las siguientes actividades:• Prevención y educación.• Inventario, con seguimiento o mapeo (o con ambas operaciones). • Acciones de control (medidas químicas, mecánicas y de manejo del cultivo). • Seguimiento ('monitoreo') de especies sometidas a acciones de erradicación. • Programa de biocontrol (aunque no siempre es posible implementar medidas de biocontrol).Este plan regional involucra tanto a las instituciones gubernamentales como a los productores. Las acciones realizadas en un plan de este tipo van precedidas por la prioridad que se les asigna; en el caso considerado (planicie de Idaho), las acciones se caracterizaron como críticas, de alta prioridad, de prioridad moderada, y de baja prioridad (Joseph plains..., 2004).Mucho se ha publicado acerca de los métodos de control de las malezas y del control integrado (o integral) de malezas (MIM). El MIM combina, en un cultivo, dos aspectos importantes:• Los principios básicos del control de malezas. • Las prácticas, materiales y estrategias que mantienen las plantas vigorosas y que minimizan, al mismo tiempo, el daño que les causarían las malezas (Smith, 1994).El MIM combina, en un arrozal, los siguientes elementos:• Un cultivar que tenga características tales como competir bien con las malezas, poseer principios alelopáticos 1 , y estar bien adaptado a las condiciones ambientales de la localidad en que se siembre. Ahora bien, la realidad es que muchos de los elementos que se requieren para lograr un sistema eficaz de MIM están limitados o no están disponibles (Smith, 1994).La tecnología del control moderno de malezas (el MIM) incluye prácticas preventivas, agronómicas, mecánicas, biológicas y químicas; de estas últimas, el empleo de herbicidas es, probablemente, el componente más importante del manejo de las malezas (Smith, 1994;Labrada, 2003). No obstante, si el uso que se da a los herbicidas no es sostenible, habrá consecuencias negativas de diversa índole, como las siguientes:• Aparición de biotipos resistente de malezas. • Cambios en la composición de la flora de malezas, es decir, especies que antes eran secundarias se vuelven dominantes, y pueden crean un problema más grave que el causado 1. Alelopatía es el efecto que causa un planta en otra u otras mediante compuestos químicos que libera (Sampietro, s.f.).por las especies que dominaban anteriormente. • Efectos deletéreos en los diversos compartimentos del ambiente, particularmente en el suelo y en el agua, por la acumulación de residuos químicos.Algunos de los problemas del manejo de las malezas en la región latinoamericana se describen enseguida con más precisión, aunque hayan sido mencionados antes (Labrada, 2003;Johnson, 1996;Barnard y Bell, 1998):1. Ausencia de conocimientos sobre la biología de las malezas, un tema que debe ser prioritario. 2. Tomar medidas de control de malezas para un plazo largo en el que pueda lograrse una reducción sustancial de las poblaciones de malezas; hasta ahora se han tomado medidas para un ciclo de siembra, generalmente, y sólo durante un período de su ciclo. 3. Rotar el arroz con cultivos sembrados en hileras que permitan emplear el control mecánico; gran parte del problema de las malezas del arroz proviene del monocultivo durante muchos años en el mismo sitio. 4. Sembrar cultivares de arroz que tengan actividad alelopática, es decir, segregan en su entorno sustancias que impidan el crecimiento de algunas malezas (Lin et al., 2004;Olofsdotter, 1998) En varios experimentos se ha demostrado la utilidad de tomar medidas de control de las malezas en una época temprana del desarrollo de los cultivos, particularmente del arroz.• Kropff y Lotz (1993) calcularon las pérdidas de rendimiento causadas por la competencia temprana y tardía de Echinochloa crus-galli (mijo de los arrozales, pata de gallo, capín arroz, zacate de corral, arrocillo) en cultivos de arroz trasplantado. Para predecir estas pérdidas usaron dos variables: la densidad de la maleza y un índice denominado área foliar relativa (Figura 1). Se obtuvieron los siguientes resultados:-cuando las malezas emergieron muy pronto (por competencia temprana), es decir, 5 días después del trasplante (DDT), el rendimiento se redujo del 10% (densidades bajas) al 40% (densidades altas);-cuando la cohorte de malezas emergió tardíamente (22 DDT), el rendimiento del arroz se redujo en menos del 10% a densidades bajas (Figura 1,A).El índice de área foliar relativa, que es una función del área foliar de la maleza y del cultivo, resultó ser una mejor variable que la densidad de la maleza para describir o predecir las pérdidas de rendimiento del arroz (Figura 1,B); hay una buena explicación de este índice en la obra aquí comentada.• Kropff et al. (1993) hicieron experimentos de densidad de plantas con arroz de siembra directa y con poblaciones naturales de E. crus-galli y obtuvieron los siguientes resultados:-la cohorte de malezas que emergió tempranamente tenía una densidad de 54 plantas/m 2 (competencia temprana) 2 días después de la emergencia (DDE) del cultivo; -la cohorte de malezas que emergió tardíamente (competencia tardía), a los 22 DDE, tenía una densidad de 13 plantas/m 2 . Esta baja densidad se debió a la competencia que ejerció el arroz, la cual se reflejó en la producción de materia seca de este cultivo (Figura 2).La competencia temprana de E. crus-galli redujo en cerca de 2000 kg/ha (Figura 2,A) la materia seca producida por el arroz, comparando con el arroz que creció solo; en cambio, el efecto negativo en el rendimiento del arroz de la cohorte de malezas que emergió tardíamente fue casi nulo (Figura 2,D).• Se hicieron otros experimentos en Pompeya (Meta), Colombia, durante 1999 (Fuentes y Rodríguez, datos sin publicar), en los que se evaluó el efecto en el rendimiento de los siguientes herbicidas: preemergentes aplicados solos (Cuadro 1), mezclas de preemergentes (Cuadro 2) y mezclas de preemergentes con posemergentes en aplicaciones tempranas (Cuadro 3); los resultados de estos tratamientos pueden resumirse así:-aumentó el rendimiento del arroz en comparación con un testigo en el cual se tomaron medidas de control de las malezas sólo después de 35 DDE del cultivo; el aumento del rendimientos varió entre el 3% y el 18%, según el tratamiento (Cuadros 1, 2 y 3).Días después de la siembra Todos los resultados anteriores ilustran los beneficios de tomar medidas de control de las malezas desde una época muy temprana en el cultivo del arroz. sistema de manejo de las malezas en la producción actual del arroz y de otros cultivos. ¿Cómo hacer entonces un mejor uso de los herbicidas? La respuesta está en los criterios con que debe enfocarse este uso:• Primero, entender las malezas, es decir, el papel que desempeñan en los agroecosistemas. Las malezas han estado presentes desde el inicio de la civilización y es poco probable que desaparezcan. • Segundo, conocer los herbicidas, o sea, su actividad y los efectos que causan (Cardina et al., 1999). • Tercero, seleccionar el compuesto adecuado para el problema particular de malezas que se quiere resolver; de este modo se ajusta el uso agrícola a la percepción ambientalista, que es hoy fundamental para la opinión pública.• Cuarto, diseñar un programa de manejo de malezas basado en la selección racional del herbicida adecuado para el problema particular que se enfrenta. En el cultivo del arroz hay diversos compuestos herbicidas que permiten aplicar el programa en varias etapas:-en presiembra, el glifosato y el paraquat controlan malezas difíciles, como el arroz rojo; -en preemergencia, los que ejercen su actividad principalmente en el suelo; -en posemergencia hay un grupo considerable de compuestos selectivos que no afectan el arroz pero actúan, según el compuesto, como graminicidas, como control de dicotiledóneas o para controlar ciperáceas.Cuadro El Cuadro 4 presenta un listado de herbicidas que actualmente se usan en el cultivo del arroz.Para elegir, aplicando el tercer criterio antes considerado, el herbicida que resolverá un problema de malezas, hay que estudiar los puntos siguientes:El herbicida elegido debe controlar el mayor número posible de especies importantes de malezas que aparezcan en un campo de arroz; asimismo, debe ser selectivo (daña las malezas pero no el cultivo) en la mayoría de las circunstancias. En síntesis, el herbicida debe ser versátil.El comportamiento del herbicida en el suelo debe satisfacer dos condiciones:• No causar problemas ambientales, por ejemplo, contaminación de cuerpos de agua o biomagnificación 2 • Su persistencia debe ser baja, es decir, no causará fitotoxicidad a los cultivos de cobertura que se desarrollen después del cultivo comercial ni a los que se siembren en rotación.Normalmente, los herbicidas, como tales, no dejan residuos en los productos cosechados.Hay una serie de parámetros que miden el perfil toxicológico de un compuesto químico (p. ej., un herbicida de síntesis química):• Uno de ellos es una dosis letal media, DL 50 aguda oral , es decir, la dosis, expresada en mg del compuesto por kg de peso de un animal, que administrada de una sola vez por vía oral a un grupo concreto de animales causa la muerte al 50% de ellos en un período de 14 días después de iniciado el tratamiento. • Otro es la concentración letal media, CL 50 , es decir, la concentración del compuesto en el aire que, al ser inhalado durante un período de 4 horas, causa la muerte al 50% de los animales de prueba, en un período de 14 días después de iniciado el tratamiento (Ministerio del Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales de España e Instituto Nacional de Higiene en el Trabajo, 2009).Valores altos de ambos parámetros indican que los problemas toxicológicos que causaría el compuesto son de menor gravedad.Un herbicida debe ser fácil de manejar por un agricultor en aspectos como los siguientes:• La mezcla de aspersión debe prepararse sin dificultad y debe ser estable, esto es, homogénea. Muchas veces, la acción de un herbicida es irregular y aún no se conoce la causa de este comportamiento. Por ejemplo, la actividad de un herbicida que se aplica al suelo está relacionada, generalmente, con la humedad del suelo; cuanto más soluble es un producto, el suelo debe estar más húmedo.La relación 'costo/uso' de un herbicida debe ser baja. Esta relación indica el costo del tratamiento de una hectárea con un herbicida particular; en ella entran, por tanto, la dosis de uso (litros o kg/ha) y el precio del producto por litro o por kg, así como el costo de la aplicación.El herbicida seleccionado debe ajustarse a parámetros tanto de tipo ambiental como a aquéllos relacionados con su manejo en el campo.Son, principalmente, las constantes físicas y químicas que caracterizan el herbicida como compuesto químico. Por ejemplo:• K d Es el coeficiente denominado 'partición suelo/solución acuosa del suelo', que relaciona la [cantidad de compuesto afín con el suelo] con la [cantidad de compuesto afín con la solución acuosa del suelo]. Mide, por tanto, la adsorción del compuesto en el suelo: valores altos indican que el compuesto es fuertemente adsorbido por el suelo. Según el tipo de suelo, este coeficiente puede variar en un mismo compuesto. • K oc Proveniente de la expresión K oc = K d /f c -donde f c representa la cantidad de carbono orgánico de un suelo en particular y K d es el coeficiente antes descrito-este coeficiente normaliza la adsorción del compuesto herbicida partiendo del contenido de materia orgánica del suelo. Valores altos de K oc indican que el compuesto es fuertemente adsorbido por la materia orgánica. Según el tipo de suelo, este coeficiente puede variar en un mismo compuesto. a. ALS = la enzima aceto-lactato sintasa; EPSPS = la enzima 5-enol-piruvil-shiquimato-3fosfato sintasa; FS = fotosistema.Tomado de HRAC, 2009.• K ow Este coeficiente se denomina de 'partición octanol/agua'. Se expresa también como log K ow . Mide la afinidad del compuesto por los lípidos de los organismos. Valores altos (log K ow > 3.5 a 4.0) indican que el compuesto tiene mayor probabilidad de ligarse con esos lípidos. • Solubilidad en agua. Este coeficiente mide la posibilidad de que el compuesto sea lixiviado en el perfil del suelo. En teoría, a mayor solubilidad en agua, mayor es la posibilidad de lixiviación del compuesto. Ahora bien, la solubilidad en agua no es el único parámetro que controla la movilidad de un herbicida en el perfil del suelo: también la controlan el tipo de molécula del compuesto, el contenido de arcilla del suelo y el contenido de materia orgánica del suelo.• pK a Es la constante de disociación ácida del compuesto, que indica si éste se comporta como un ácido (normalmente, como un ácido débil). En los compuestos neutros (que no se disocian) o en los que son cationes no se considera esta constante. Otros compuestos, como los llamados 'zwitteriones' (término de origen alemán que indica duplicidad), se cargan eléctricamente en diferentes sitios de su molécula (según el pH de la solución en que se encuentren) y tienen, por tanto, varios valores de pK a .• Degradación. Es la facilidad y rapidez con que el compuesto experimenta una degradación biótica o abiótica. Se mide por la vida media (T 1/2 ) del compuesto, que es el tiempo necesario para que se degrade éste en un 50%.Indica el grado de bioacumulación en las cadenas tróficas. Los compuestos lipofílicos (cuyo valor de K ow es alto) tienen mayor probabilidad de acumularse en los tejidos de los organismos. Cuanto más alto el BCF, mayor tendencia tiene el compuesto a bioacumularse.Son tres los que caracterizan un suelo respecto al herbicida:• La cantidad de materia orgánica, de arcilla, de limo y de arena del suelo, es decir, los componentes que definen su textura. • El grado de humedad del suelo.• El pH del suelo.El Cuadro 5 presenta el valor de algunos de estos parámetros en varios herbicidas usados en los cultivos de arroz.La siguiente sección está basada en las recomendaciones dadas por el Comité de Acción sobre la Resistencia a los Herbicidas (HRAC, sus siglas en inglés). Todos los casos en que falla el control de las malezas cuando se usan herbicidas no se deben, necesariamente, a la aparición de biotipos resistentes a los compuestos aplicados. Las recomendaciones que se darán enseguida ayudan a establecer cuatro puntos decisivos:• Primero, la falla en la actividad de un herbicida proviene, a veces, de la resistencia de la especie de maleza tratada y, muchas veces, de otras causas.• Segundo, se confirma que el problema es, efectivamente, un caso de resistencia al herbicida. a. Los valores de vida media en el suelo son promedios de varios tipos de suelos y diferentes condiciones de suelo. b. T½ metabolismo = vida media del metabolismo del compuesto en la planta. c. Los valores de K oc están dados para un suelo con 1.72% de materia orgánica y 1.02% de carbono orgánico. Estrategias para reducir el riesgo de aparición de la resistencia • Identificar rápidamente la población resistente y el grado de resistencia. Como se indicó anteriormente, las acciones pertinentes son:-reconocer sin demora los 'parches' o brotes de una población resistente de malezas; -recolectar semilla de las plantas resistentes y acudir a una institución de investigación o universidad.• Poner en cuarentena los parches o lotes que tengan el biotipo resistente. • Hacer un control manual inmediato de los parches del biotipo resistente, con el fin de evitar que produzca semilla y la disperse y que ésta se incorpore luego al banco de semillas del suelo. • Evitar la polinización o la producción de semilla del biotipo resistente; si la maleza resistente es autógama, no permitir que semille; si es una especie alógama, impedir que libere el polen.• Sembrar variedades de arroz y cultivos de rotación que compitan bien con las malezas. • No volver a aplicar herbicidas a poblaciones de malezas que tengan resistencia múltiple o resistencia cruzada a estos productos. • Mezclar varios herbicidas; esta opción es acertada, en especial si las malezas resistentes son especies autógamas porque en ellas es raro hallar mutaciones múltiples y el flujo de genes es bajo. • Considerar el mecanismo de acción de los herbicidas cuando diseñe la rotación de cultivos y herbicidas, así como las mezclas que haga de estos compuestos.• Quemar los residuos de las cosechas.• Establecer normas estrictas para evitar la contaminación del grano cosechado, de los implementos de labranza y de la maquinaria agrícola. • Aplicar en presiembra herbicidas que no sean selectivos ni residuales (por ejemplo, glifosato, glufosinato de amonio, paraquat), es decir, herbicidas de aplicación temprana y de amplio espectro. • Tener presente que, aunque aparezca un biotipo de maleza resistente en un campo, el agricultor no cambiará de sistema de cultivo (ya sea de secano o con riego). • Considerar, finalmente, en la estrategia de manejo de las malezas la rotación de cultivos y de herbicidas, y los métodos de control mecánicos y físicos.El diagrama de flujo de la Figura 3 contiene los pasos que deben seguirse para afrontar la resistencia de las malezas a los herbicidas.Figura 3. Diagrama de flujo de las acciones que conviene tomar para manejar la resistencia de una población de malezas al herbicida que convencionalmente se aplicaba a esa maleza. ","tokenCount":"4204"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6ea8e157f7bfa7b83d0134fb41d86218","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/36cfe73b-e025-4ca8-83e1-221bd7979118/retrieve","id":"-747944506"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e4db6b14-1464-4a8f-a05c-4d4ac26fd7be","pagecount":"1","content":"Vitamin A deficiency is the most cause of total blindness in developing countries. It is estimated that 25% of preschool age children in the world has vitamin A deficiency (FAO/WHO 2002). Enhancing the nutritional content of cassava through biofortification will have a significant, positive impact on nutrition status and overall health, especially for poorer communities where cassava is mainly consumed. Several initiatives (HarvestPlus, Agrosalud, SASHA) have been set up to increase the vitamin A concentration in staple food crops to help improve human nutrition status in developing countries. Biofortification is complementary to other strategies for reducing malnutrition like supplementation, fortification, and diversification; nutritional benefits come directly from the biofortified crops with no or little additional costs for consumers. To support biofortification programs there is a need for high throughput techniques to screen macro-and micronutrient concentrations of germplasm and breeding populations in tens of thousands of genotypes in short time frames. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is the common method to determine vitamin A concentration in food crop samples. Although HPLC is very accurate, its high costs and the time required for the analysis limit its use to small numbers of samples relative to those required in extensive screening and biofortification programs. Requiring only simple sample preparation methods, NIRS was selected to facilitate the analysis of several traits simultaneously. The potential to estimate vitamin A carotenoid concentrations by NIRS has been demonstrated and applied for example in maize, potato, andThe purpose of this study was to validate NIRS calibrations for analyzing provitamin A carotenoid content of selected, fresh, yellow root cassava genotypes.A total of 50 freshly harvested cassava genotypes were obtained in four replications from the experimental fields of IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria. The HarvestPlus Standard method of sampling (Rodriguez-Amaya and Kimura 2004) was employed. Tubers were scanned twice within the range of 400 to 2498 nm registering the absorbance values log (1/R) at 0.5 nm intervals for each sample using the NIRS monochromator (model FOSS XDS, solid module) and coarse cell cups (Fig. 1).The total carotenoid (TC) was determined by the HarvestPlus method (Rodriguez-Amaya and Kimura 2004). Existing NIRS calibration equations were used to predict the β-cryptoxanthin, 13-cis β-carotene, trans β-carotene, 9-cis β-carotene, total β-carotene, and total carotenoid concentrations of the samples.The developed NIRS calibration equations for 13-cis BC, trans BC, 9-cis BC, Total BC and Total Carotenoids showed high coefficients of determination for the calibration curve for chopped cassava samples (0.95, 0.98, 0.88, 0.96 and 0.74, respectively) and medium to high coefficients of determination in cross-validation (0.76, 0.90, 0.69, 0.88 and 0.67, respectively). The standard errors of calibration (SEC) and the standard errors in cross validation (SECV) were low for all traits. Also, the results of carotenoid content of fresh cassava roots of the trials analyzed are presented in Tables 1 to  3. The predicted values found for total carotenoids (TC-spec reference) ranged from 3.93 to 10.51 μg/g with a mean of 7.07 ± 2.55 μg/g for the ICT cassava trial (Table 1), 7.97 to 11.03 μg/g FW with a mean of 9.40 ± 0.76 μg/g for yellow root cassava trial 8 (Table 2), and 6.38 to 10.44 μg/g with a mean of 8.74 ± 1.07 μg/g for yellow root cassava trial 9 (Table 3). This study shows that the developed NIRS calibration equations can be used to predict total carotenoids and trans β-carotene content of yellow root cassava and can serve as a fast and cost-effective method for screening large sample sizes by cassava breeding programs.The corresponding total carotenoid results using the reference spectrophotometric method (TC-spec) were found to range from 2.57 to 9.97 μg/g with a mean of 5.66 ± 2.99 μg/g for the ICT cassava trial, 6.55 to 8.74 μg/g with a mean of 7.74 ± 0.64 μg/g for yellow root cassava trial 8, and 4.22 to 11.00 μg/g with a mean of 7.57 ± 1.54 μg/g for yellow root cassava trial 9. There is significant (P < 0.001) positive correlation (r = 0.55) between TC-predicted by NIRS and TC-spec. There is also significant (P < 0.001) positive correlation (r = 0.52) between trans β-carotene predicted by NIRS using HPLC reference and TC-spec (Fig. 2     ","tokenCount":"689"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1c3ffc7c91c82cd424beef7198457707","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9eed357b-dadb-455d-b51c-1447277545ce/retrieve","id":"2048112619"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c7cb01d6-0553-489e-abd3-072bc73f6022","pagecount":"45","content":"IDDRA Ltd Analyse de l'impact sur les pays ACP de l'ouverture du marché de l'UE aux importations de conserves de thon 1 SommaireFigure 1 : Évolution de la production ACP de conserves de thon (en milliers de tonnes).2 Analyse de l'impact sur les pays ACP de l'ouverture du marché de l'UE aux importations de conserves de thon 1Les pays ACP producteurs de thon en conserve ont perdu une partie de leur avantage comparatif au profit des grands producteurs asiatiques en mi-2003 lorsque l'UE, en application d'une recommandation faite par un médiateur nommé par l'OMC, a autorisé l'accès à son marché d'un contingent de 25 000 tonnes de conserves de thon importées de Thaïlande, des Philippines et de l'Indonésie à un taux de droit de douane réduit de moitié. En effet, protégés par une franchise totale de droits de douane, les principaux pays producteurs de thon ACP tels que le Sénégal, le Ghana, l'Ile Maurice et les Seychelles avaient réussi à créer des conserveries prospères et florissantes, ciblant essentiellement les marchés européens à croissance rapide.Même si l'UE n'a cessé de répéter que les pertes économiques seraient négligeables pour les États ACP, de nombreuses institutions européennes ont mis en doute cette affirmation. Une étude a ainsi été menée en 2003-2004 au Ghana, au Sénégal, à l'Ile Maurice et aux Seychelles, pour tenter d'évaluer l'impact sur les pays ACP d'un tel changement dans la politique commerciale de l'UE. Selon les conclusions de ces différentes études de cas, ces pays font tous face à des contraintes liées aux coûts de main-d'oeuvre et de transport élevés ainsi qu'aux réglementations de l'UE concernant les règles d'origine, et deux pays (Ile Maurice et les Seychelles) sont particulièrement affectés par les contraintes habituelles qui pèsent sur les petits États insulaires. De même, les entretiens menés révèlent que l'ensemble des conserveries affichent une baisse de leur chiffre d'affaires ou de leur rentabilité ; au niveau sectoriel et notamment en termes de développement socio-économique, les conséquences seront d'une façon ou d'une autre préjudiciables pour tous les pays étudiés (même si l'impact macro-économique devrait être toutefois limité).Le 5 juin 2003, la Commission européenne a publié le règlement 975/2003 qui marque le début de la fin de la protection jadis accordée aux producteurs de thon en conserve des pays ACP. Car en juillet de la même année, un certain nombre de pays asiatiques se sont vu attribuer un quota d'exportation de 25 000 tonnes de conserves à un taux de droits de douane réduit sur le marché européen, quota entièrement utilisé dès la mi-septembre.Dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé, les pays ACP (qui sont en majorité d'anciennes colonies des pays de l'UE) bénéficiaient depuis 1982 d'une franchise de droits de douane pour leurs exportations de thon en conserve vers l'Union européenne. Même si ces exportations étaient soumises à des règles d'origine strictes (voir Encadré 1), l'avantage d'une telle clause commerciale préférentielle avait néanmoins permis à un certain nombre de pays ACP de renforcer leur capacité de production de thon en conserve, face à la rude concurrence de certains pays figurant parmi les plus grands producteurs de conserves au monde (voir Figure 1).Mais la Thaïlande et les Philippines, deux très grands producteurs sur le marché mondial du thon en conserve (voir Encadré 2) dont les échanges avec l'UE étaient soumis à un taux de droits de douane de 24 %, ont jugé cette situation contraire à leurs intérêts légitimes et en contravention avec la clause de la nation la plus favorisée (NPF) applicable aux membres de l'OMC. Ces deux pays ont donc demandé à la CE de reconsidérer le traitement dont ils bénéficient en matière de préférences douanières. Les « règles d'origine » ont été établies par l'UE dans le seul but de protéger contre les abus les importations en franchise de douane (des clauses différentes régissent les importations soumises aux droits de douane). Appliquées aux importations de poisson, ces règles garantissent que (a) les pays ACP (à la différence des pays tiers) bénéficient des dispositions de la Convention de Lomé, et (b) que l'UE est protégée contre d'éventuels abus de la part de pays tiers exportateurs. Les règles d'origine stipulent que le poisson doit être pêché dans les eaux territoriales, c'est-à-dire dans la limite des 12 milles marins (même si la Convention des Nations unies sur le droit de la mer reconnaît une limite de 200 milles marins pour les eaux territoriales). De même, les débarquements doivent provenir de navires appartenant entièrement aux pays concernés ou opérant dans le cadre d'une co-entreprise (« joint venture »). iDes dérogations à ces règles d'origine peuvent être accordées mais uniquement pour l'ensemble des pays ACP en tant que groupe. Ainsi, ils se répartissent aujourd'hui un contingent annuel de 8 000 tonnes de conserves et 2 000 tonnes de longes de thon, quotas dérogeant à la définition de la notion de produits originaires (Gorel, pers. comm, 2003 ;Grynberg, 1997 ;Gakunu, nd). La plupart des conserveries de thon ACP connaîtraient de grandes difficultés de production si elles ne bénéficiaient pas d'une dérogation aux règles d'origine. Par exemple, l'île Maurice a conclu un accord avec l'UE portant sur l'achat (l'importation) de la quasi-totalité de son thon provenant de captures effectuées dans l'Océan Indien par des senneurs français et espagnols principalement.Les coûts élevés de mise en service des senneurs de l'UE dus aux nombreuses réglementations communautaires sur l'environnement, la préservation marine, les normes sanitaires et les conditions de travail des pêcheurs font que le poisson capturé est relativement onéreux.Les multiples consultations menées entre les parties n'ont pas permis de parvenir à une solution acceptable pour tous, d'où la sollicitation d'une médiation de l'OMC. En décembre 2002, le Médiateur a fait savoir qu'un des moyens de résoudre ce problème serait que la Commission européenne ouvre pour 2003 un contingent tarifaire de 25 000 tonnes au titre de la NPF, à un taux de droits de douane de 12 % ad valorem, pour les importations de conserves de thon en provenance des états non-ACP.La CE a admis que l'avis du Médiateur était une proposition raisonnable (voir Encadré 3), même si les principaux producteurs de thon en conserve dans l'UE (notamment l'Espagne) y étaient fortement opposés. Elle a estimé qu'un quota de 25 000 tonnes à un taux de droits de douane de 12 % ne pénalisait ni les importations ACP, ni la production européenne de conserves de thon. L'analyse des dynamiques productives permet de faire apparaître plusieurs tendances et groupes de pays.On observe globalement une progression continue de la production mondiale de conserves de thon même si la production américaine est restée relativement stable. Au sein des pays asiatiques, on note la hausse spectaculaire de la production de la Thaïlande qui s'est substituée au Japon où la production enregistre un recul très sensible.Mais les pays ACP ne seraient peut-être pas les seuls à être affectés. En effet, l'Espagne, devenue le troisième pays producteur mondial de thon en conserve, s'est inquiétée de l'impact de cette décision sur les conserveries -dont la plupart sont situées dans des régions vivant de la pêche. La France, qui a lourdement investi dans un certain nombre de conserveries basées dans les pays ACP, a également craint qu'une telle mesure porte préjudice à ses intérêts commerciaux.Certains observateurs de la politique communautaire ont qualifié cette décision de progrès significatif vers une meilleure harmonisation de la position de l'UE en matière de libre-échange ainsi que des politiques en vigueur sur son propre territoire. D'autres, plus réservés, se sont demandé si le taux de droits de douane à 24 % jusqu'à présent en vigueur sur les conserves de thon asiatiques avait pour but de protéger l'industrie thonière ACP ou celle de l'UE (Brus, 2001) et si, en arrière plan, le véritable dessein de l'Union n'était pas plutôt d'influencer l'orientation des futures négociations sur la question. Pour comprendre où et comment l'impact d'une telle décision pourrait se manifester, il est très important de comprendre d'abord l'organisation du marché communautaire des conserves de thon. Nous commencerons donc par une brève analyse de ce marché, avant de présenter un tableau synoptique de l'industrie thonière pour chacun des pays ayant fait l'objet d'une étude de cas. Ces pays affichent, en effet, des niveaux de production et de dépendance vis-à-vis de la filière extrêmement différents. Nous examinerons ensuite les incidences de cette mesure de l'UE, à la fois sur le secteur en tant que tel et sur l'économie dans son ensemble.L'Europe est le premier marché mondial de conserves de thon : 530 000 tonnes sont consommées chaque année dont 280 000 tonnes importées. La consommation au sein de l'Europe a augmenté de façon spectaculaire, passant d'environ 490 000 tonnes en 1996, à 560 000 tonnes à peine 5 ans plus tard, en 2001 (voir Figure 2).  Les importations de conserves de thon en Europe sont d'origines très diverses. Aujourd'hui, près de 70 % des produits sont importés des pays ACP ou SPG producteurs de drogues ii en franchise de douane, et un tiers d'Asie (voir Figure 3).  Compte tenu du rôle stratégique amoindri attribué au port de Dakar et de la baisse importante de son activité de pêche, à peine 20 % de la production thonière traitée dans les conserveries proviennent de la flottille basée au port. Une grande partie de la production, soit 68 %, est fournie par d'autres cargos, tandis que les 12 % restants sont issus d'affréteurs étrangers. 95,5 % des produits des conserveries sont exportés car le marché local est très limité. Ce secteur est étroitement lié à celui de la farine de poisson : ce dernier absorbe environ 60 % de la production des conserveries (sous-produits) et exporte 32 % environ de sa propre production.Les conserveries ont tendance à s'appuyer sur les grandes et moyennes surfaces (GMS), ainsi que sur les courtiers ou grossistes importateurs. Dans le cas des GMS, les conserveries doivent d'abord être référencées, ce qui suppose une procédure assez lourde avec des visites sur place par les représentants des GMS, car le processus de production doit être certifié. Cela crée une certaine fidélisation. La négociation des prix se fait par appel d'offres informatisé pour les GMS qui mettent systématiquement leurs fournisseurs en concurrence. Les GMS cherchent cependant à diversifier leurs fournisseurs de façon à éviter les situations de monopole ou les ruptures d'approvisionnement.L'Union européenne a signé avec le Sénégal un accord de pêche qui régit une grande partie de la production thonière acheminée vers les conserveries. Cet accord stipule qu'un certain pourcentage des prises doit être débarqué à Dakar, mais la majeure proportion du thon pêché ne provient pas de la ZEE sénégalaise, qui fournit uniquement un tiers des débarquements en moyenne durant les années quatre-vingt-dix. Au cours des dix dernières années, les débarquements ont subi des fluctuations importantes, fragilisant davantage cette industrie déjà précaire (voir Figure 4, qui illustre l'impact des débarquements sur les modèles d'achat des conserveries). Les débarquements dépendent de plusieurs facteurs : les stratégies appliquées par les sociétés de pêche ; les différentiels de prix pouvant rendre plus ou moins attractifs les transbordements, principalement à destination de l'Espagne ; et la demande des conserveries locales. Au sein de la flottille européenne, les canneurs ont assumé une part croissante des débarquements, ce qui constitue à la fois un avantage, en offrant un label « thon pêché à la canne » et une contrainte, car étant plus petites en taille, les prises nécessitent davantage de maind'oeuvre. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les conserveries sénégalaises ont été confrontées à divers problèmes qui conduisent aujourd'hui encore à une situation de crise. Seule une des trois entreprises a fonctionné de façon régulière depuis 1996. La mise aux normes pour se conformer aux directives européennes d'agrément commercial a nécessité de lourds investissements (5 milliards de FCFA en 1995) et des arrêts d'activité plus ou moins longs selon les entreprises. Fortement endettées (en partie à cause des travaux de restructuration mais surtout pour le financement de leurs besoins en trésorerie) et déstabilisées par l'importante chute des prix survenue en 1998, les conserveries dakaroises sont confrontées depuis 1998 à une pression à la baisse des cours des produits finis, alors que le prix moyen de l'ensemble des exportations sénégalaises de produits de la mer tend à croître depuis 1998.Afin de renflouer son industrie en crise, le Sénégal s'est engagé dans une diversification croissante de ses marchés et a orienté ses efforts vers le Royaume-Uni et la Belgique à partir de la fin des années quatre-vingt-dix. La diversification a par ailleurs entraîné un développement des exportations sénégalaises de conserves de thon à destination de quelques pays africains, essentiellement le Maghreb, le Ghana et le Gabon. Cependant, ces exportations restent globalement faibles par rapport au marché européen, essentiellement en raison de l'exiguïté du marché africain.L'Espagne et la Côte d'Ivoire sont les principaux concurrents des producteurs sénégalais. Plus récemment encore, les conserveurs sénégalais faisaient aussi face à la concurrence des produits ghanéens et malgaches qui ciblent le marché français, ainsi que des productions d'Amérique latine dont la compétitivité varie en fonction du cours du dollar.  1 9 5 7  1 9 6 0  1 9 6 3  1 9 6 6  1 9 6 9  1 9 7 2  1 9 7 5  1 9 7 8  1 9 8 1  1 9 8 4  1 9 8 7  1 9 9 0  1 9 9 3 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 2 En effet, depuis la mise en place des mesures en faveur des pays SPG Drogue, ces derniers se révèlent être de sérieux concurrents lorsque le dollar est faible. La concurrence des pays asiatiques est moins ressentie sur les marchés de qualité sur lesquels le Sénégal cherche à se positionner. Néanmoins, il semble qu'en 2003, la concurrence asiatique a commencé à se sentir au niveau des canneurs sénégalais sur les marchés français, italien et belge.Pour pouvoir utiliser pleinement leurs capacités de La courbe de la pêche thonière est une suite de hauts et de bas : les prises des navires basés ont progressé régulièrement jusqu'au début des années quatre-vingt-dix, puis ont chuté considérablement (voir Figure 6). Cette situation résulte du fonctionnement hasardeux de la flottille des thoniers mauriciens, aujourd'hui obsolète. Pour pallier la rareté des stocks de thon dans sa ZEE et le mauvais état de sa flottille, Maurice a commencé à importer du thon des Seychelles, qui se situe dans une zone de pêche thonière particulièrement riche. L'économie thonière mauricienne dépend fortement de sa capacité à importer du thon, mais les règlements européens concernant les règles d'origine créent une contrainte supplémentaire pour ce secteur.  1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 Volume Compte tenu du volume désormais limité de thon capturé et débarqué à Maurice, la principale contrainte que doit surmonter l'île est le coût lié à l'approvisionnement en matière première, qu'elle doit faire venir de l'extérieur, dont la plus grande partie des Seychelles. Ce coût de 115 USD par tonne grève systématiquement les profits de l'activité de conserverie. En corollaire, son activité subit (lourdement) les contraintes imoosées en matière de règles d'origine. Comme pour ses homologues de l'Afrique occidentale, les coûts d'expédition sont comparativement plus élevés que ceux des exportateurs asiatiques car la route empruntée par ses affréteurs est beaucoup moins fréquentée par d'autres navires. Ce qui contribue d'autant au renchérissement de ses produits.Un investissement important récent dans la conserverie Princes Tuna (Mauritius) donne confiance à ce secteur.Princes Tuna dispose au Royaume-Uni de marchés bien établis, qui pourraient lui permettre de résister aux chocs éventuels.Absence de personnel marins suffisamment formés pour servir dans les senneurs et les canneurs.Des procédures contraignantes et longues pour les équipages étrangers travaillant sur des navires battant pavillon mauricien découragent l'entrée des investissements. Coûts de production élevés.La flottille vétuste en activité ne peut pas opérer au large pour suivre la piste migratoire des bancs de thon.Le thon, poisson particulièrement migratoire, traverse la ZEE pendant une courte période, de sorte que les prises sont concentrées à l'extérieur de cette zone.L'industrie de la pêche au thon est l'une des plus importantes sources de devises de la république des Seychelles, un petit archipel d'îles qui se situe dans la partie ouest de l'Océan Indien. Le tourisme est une activité très importante pour le pays, mais l'activité pêche a pris le pas sur le secteur du tourisme en termes de recettes d'exportation. En 2001, les exportations de thon en conserve ont généré à elles seules 771,2 millions de roupies (alors que l'industrie du tourisme a rapporté 770 millions), et représentent 91 % des exportations totales de poissons et 87 % des exportations totales des Seychelles.Les Seychelles sont situées sur des zones de pêche riches en thon et occupent de ce fait une position clé pour tirer parti de ces conditions économiques avantageuses. Diverses nations pêchent le thon dans ces eaux, bien que l'UE soit le seul et le plus grand groupe de pays à en profiter. En 2002 (la dernière année pour laquelle des chiffres sont disponibles), 36 senneurs de l'UE (provenant d'Espagne, de France et d'Italie) et 17 navires provenant d'autres pays opéraient dans la ZEE seychelloises sous licence. Les Seychelles elles-mêmes disposaient de sept senneurs. À ce total, il faut également ajouter 190 thoniers ligneurs, dont 130 provenant de Taiwan et 57 du Japon.L'accord de pêche entre l'UE et les Seychelles prévoit également une compensation financière significative, aux termes duquel l'UE verse aux Seychelles 2,3 millions d'euros par an pour couvrir un droit de pêche de 46 000 tonnes par an (outre les licences payées par les armateurs). Par ailleurs, pendant la période de trois ans de ce protocole d'accord, l'UE contribue à hauteur de 3,48 millions au développement du secteur de la pêche aux Seychelles.L'expansion de l'industrie de la conserverie, qui a démarré pendant les années quatrevingt-dix, s'inscrit dans la dynamique d'expansion du secteur de la pêche. La capacité totale de transformation du poisson est passée de 20 000 tonnes en 1995 à environ 70 000 tonnes en 1999. La production totale a également augmenté régulièrement pendant la même période, progressant d'environ 12 000 tonnes en 1995 à plus de 23 000 en 1998. Grâce aux investissements supplémentaires prévus pendant les quatre à cinq années à venir, la capacité et la production totale de poissons et de produits à base de poisson devraient continuer à augmenter à l'avenir afin de satisfaire la demande. Reste à voir comment le changement des préférences commerciales relatives au thon en conserve agira sur ce développement. La valeur totale des exportations de thon en conserve a également progressé régulièrement pour atteindre approximativement 159 millions USD en 2002, alors qu'elle atteignait à peine les 16 millions en 1995. vi -100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 800,000 900,000 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 1 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 3 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 5 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 7 1 9 9 8 1 9 9 9 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 Le secteur de la pêche représentait 14 % (4 600 employés) de l'effectif total en 2001. Il comptait 1 100 pêcheurs, 1 000 employés dans le secteur de la pêche industrielle (manutention, réparation, fournisseurs de navires, ravitaillement, etc.) et 2 500 employés dans la conserverie. Le personnel de la conserverie représentait 54 % de l'effectif total du secteur de la pêche et 7,6 % de la main-d'oeuvre totale aux Seychelles.Avec une population totale de 80 000 habitants, les Seychelles forment un petit archipel dont les coûts en main-d'oeuvre sont élevés par rapport à ceux de plus grands pays, ce qui l'oblige à recourir à de nombreux travailleurs immigrés. Environ la moitié des effectifs de la conserverie sont des employés locaux et l'autre moitié sont des étrangers provenant essentiellement des Philippines, du Kenya et de Madagascar.Les prix de l'eau, de l'électricité et du carburant sont tous très élevés compte tenu des mauvaises conditions de production locale. Ainsi, la conserverie paie l'eau environ 2,64 USD par m 3 contre 0,40 USD par m 3 au Ghana. Mis à part le thon, tous les principaux inputs intervenant dans la mise en conserve du thon -huile végétale, boîtes de conserve et agents de conditionnement secondaire et tertiaire -sont importés.Comme pour les autres pays ACP, les règles d'origine pèsent sur l'accès aux stocks de thon meilleur marché et avec les restrictions complémentaires appliquées aux thoniers opérant dans le cadre de l'accord de pêche avec l'UE, la liberté de s'approvisionner en matière première constitue également une entrave à la compétitivité des produits.Les études de cas précédentes offrent une grande variété de situations pour l'industrie du thon en conserve dans les pays ACP. Les résultats sont résumés dans le Tableau 9.Le Sénégal semble être sur une phase déclinante depuis un certain temps et l'ensemble du secteur pourrait s'effondrer si la baisse de production résultait de la mise en place du quota additionnel à taux réduit pour les pays Asiatiques. En revanche, avec une base plus étendue (six conserveries en activité), l'industrie ghanéenne connaîtrait une phase positive (ouverture récente d'une nouvelle conserverie) d'autant que l'économie dépend moins de ce secteur. Cette section contient une présentation individuelle de chaque pays, suivie d'une évaluation des conséquences sur le plan européen.Déterminer l'ampleur de ces effets sur le Sénégal se révèle plus compliqué qu'il n'y paraît, compte tenu de la fragilité de ce secteur. En d'autres termes, il est difficile d'établir si la régression du secteur sénégalais est entièrement attribuable à l'érosion des préférences accordées par l'UE ou résulte partiellement de la santé précaire de cette activité.Quelle que soit l'origine de cette régression, au regard de la baisse structurelle de la valeur de leurs exportations sur le marché européen (-15 % depuis 1999, ajoutés à la forte baisse de 1998) et de la crise de rentabilité du secteur, il y a tout lieu de craindre que la concurrence internationale n'oblige à court terme les entreprises à ajuster leurs prix à la baisse pour garantir la compétitivité de leurs produits. La baisse récente du cours du dollar (fin 2003) et la possible compétitivité accrue des produits provenant d'Amérique latine (également bénéficiaires de droits de douane préférentiels à l'entrée de l'Union européenne -SPG Drogue) pourraient chacun à sa façon exercer une forte pression sur le Sénégal.En effet, les spécialistes du secteur indiquent que si des solutions plus structurelles (comme la conquête de marchés de qualité ou la création de nouveaux produits) ne sont pas mises en place à moyen terme afin de réaliser des gains substantiels de productivité, l'avenir du secteur ne pourra pas être assuré. La disparition des conserveries sénégalaises et, indirectement, le départ des canneurs, pourraient en résulter.Par ailleurs, il convient de souligner que si la baisse des droits de douanes est pour l'instant contingentée, elle va tendre à se généraliser. Il est donc réaliste d'envisager la restructuration du secteur thonier sénégalais dans un contexte de libéralisation du marché au niveau international.Il est possible, par exemple, qu'une baisse sensible de la demande des conserveries accélère le mouvement de report des débarquements sur Abidjan (y compris pour les quotas de débarquement prévus par l'accord), accentuant les difficultés d'approvisionnement des entreprises. Par ailleurs, le report des pertes de marché de l'Europe du nord (Allemagne, Royaume-Uni et Belgique) sur les marchés du Maghreb constitue une hypothèse peu réaliste au regard du caractère jusqu'alors limité des exportations vers cette destination. L'évaluation de la situation au Sénégal fait apparaître des effets indirects sur le secteur halieutique (armements basés à Dakar) et celui de la farine de poisson (une seule entreprise en 2003). Elle a également révélé que les effets stratégiques (risques de disparition des activités) sur les autres fournisseurs peuvent être considérés comme négligeables, même pour des secteurs très liés tels que la fabrique des boîtes de conserve, du fait du recours croissant des conserveurs à des produits d'importation. Il est probable que la recherche de gains de productivité renforcera cette stratégie de recours aux importations. De même, la part de l'activité du port liée au thon reste assez faible et ne sera que très marginalement touchée (évaluée à 2 % du chiffre d'affaires par Charneau (1988Charneau ( ) en 1986)). D'après l'évaluation des conséquences sur la production, tous les indices montrent que les marchés bas de gamme seront les plus exposés à la concurrence, notamment l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni et les pays nordiques où les produits thaïlandais sont déjà bien implantés. Malgré la tendance à la baisse de l'importance relative des importations asiatiques dans ces pays, la Thaïlande reste le principal fournisseur pour chacun d'eux.Les parts de marché sénégalaises dans ces pays sont plutôt faibles. Sur la période allant de 1996 à 2000, elles représentent respectivement 1 148 tonnes pour le Royaume-Uni et 272 tonnes pour l'Allemagne. Cependant, les conséquences pour le Sénégal pourraient être indirectes : les producteurs de l'Europe du sud, dont la présence sur ces marchés est récente, pourraient se retrouver refoulés vers leurs propres marchés (France, Espagne, Italie), ce qui représente une proportion importante des exportations sénégalaises.Tableau 10 : Résumé des impacts possibles pour le Sénégal Conserveries (Effet 1) Perte des marchés de l'Europe du nord (Allemagne, Royaume-Uni et Belgique) soit 1 612 tonnes en moyenne sur 2000/2001. À supposer que ces productions se reportent sur les marchés du Maghreb (une hypothèse peu réaliste qui repose sur une forte croissance de ces marchés jusqu'alors limités), il convient de tenir compte de la baisse de valeur ajoutée liée au différentiel de niveau de valorisation entre les marchés des pays du Nord et ceux du Maroc et de la Tunisie (30 % en 2001).(Effet 2) Concurrence accrue sur les marchés d'Europe du sud, qui représentent en moyenne sur 2000/2001 60 % des volumes exportés, entraînant une baisse sensible des prix de vente sur ces marchés. Sur la base des 15 % de baisse déjà enregistrés sur trois ans entre 1999 et 2001, cette tendance pourrait se situer entre 15 et 30 %, où la valeur maximale correspond à la baisse observée entre 1998 et 1999.(Effet 1) Report de la baisse des prix (30 %) sur les armements, occasionnant une diminution de la valeur ajoutée, mais aussi des risques de fragilisation des unités pouvant entraîner la disparition de certaines d'entre elles (aspect non évalué). En cas d'arrêt ou de baisse d'activité importante des conserveries, les flottilles thonières basées à Dakar ne seraient pas menacées à court terme en raison des possibilités de transbordements, tant que les itinéraires des cargos espagnols ne seront pas modifiés du fait des délocalisations.(Effet 2) À moyen terme, en cas de libéralisation globale des marchés et de crise du secteur, une baisse importante de l'activité thonière est à craindre.(Effet 1) Dans l'hypothèse d'un maintien du niveau d'activité des conserveries, seuls les prix pourraient en souffrir (avec une perte de bénéfice pour l'entreprise), mais il n'y aurait aucune conséquence sensible au niveau macroéconomique car ce segment est l'un des seuls de la filière à afficher une rentabilité selon l'évaluation de 1997.(Effet 2) En cas d'arrêt ou de réduction importante de l'activité des conserveries, les effets seraient catastrophiques sur le secteur de la farine de poisson, dans la mesure où son approvisionnement dépend fortement des conserveries, et pourrait entraîner la fermeture de l'unité restante.Impacts réels : lors d'un deuxième entretien mené au début de l'année 2004, le plus grand producteur sénégalais nous a indiqué que sa production avait chuté de 22 % par rapport à la même période de l'année précédente. Ce chiffre doit toutefois être apprécié sur la base de la forte hausse de l'euro par rapport au dollar (près de 24 %).Le marché européen du thon est fortement segmenté. Le Ghana est le seul Etat d'Afrique occidentale qui dépend des marchés d'Europe du nord (également le principal destinataire des produits thaïlandais et philippins). Le Royaume-Uni, le plus grand marché du Ghana dans l'UE, représente plus de la moitié des exportations ghanéennes, mais aussi plus de la moitié des exportations de la Thaïlande et de l'Indonésie et un quart des exportations des Philippines. Autrement dit, en ce qui concerne le marché britannique, le Ghana est en concurrence directe avec les trois grands pays non-ACP, qui ont désormais accès à ce marché avec un contingent tarifaire à taux réduit pour l'importation des conserves de thon.Les derniers chiffres disponibles indiquent un volume total de 25 100 tonnes pour les exportations ghanéennes de conserves de thon (en 2000). Les exportations à destination de l'UE s'élevaient à 22 600 tonnes en 2002 (soit une baisse de 26 064 par rapport à 2000) ou juste 4,79 % des importations totales dans UE. Sur ce volume, 54 % ont été expédiés au Royaume-Uni. D'après le règlement 975/2003, le quota fixé pour 2003/2004 est de 25 000 tonnes, soit un peu plus que le volume d'exportation actuel du Ghana vers l'UE. De fait, le risque existe que le Ghana perde la totalité de sa part de marché vers l'UE au profit des pays asiatiques. La plupart des commentateurs mettent en doute cette hypothèse, mais tous reconnaissent que le Ghana doit s'attendre à perdre au moins une partie de sa position au Royaume-Uni, avec le bouleversement du marché britannique pour ce produit que ne manquera pas de provoquer le changement de politique comerciale de l'UE.Si l'on ajoute le taux de droits de douane de 24 % au coût du thon provenant de pays non-ACP, le thon ghanéen est compétitif. En effet, il est moins cher que le thon thaïlandais et légèrement plus cher que le thon indonésien ou philippin. Cependant, dans une situation en franchise de douane, le thon ghanéen est (légèrement) plus cher à l'unité que le thon thaïlandais et beaucoup plus onéreux que le thon indonésien ou philippin. Il est également plus cher que le thon sénégalais ou ivoirien. Ceci pourrait avoir un impact sur la concurrence entre les pays ACP parce que leur part de marché globale dans l'UE est réduite, car ils visent des marchés différents. La différence de prix ne sera probablement pas un facteur déterminant. Cependant, il est probable que le Ghana cède du terrain au profit de l'Indonésie ou des Philippines.Le fait que le marché européen du thon soit divisé en deux moitiés distinctes signifie qu'une augmentation des exportations thaïlandaises visera probablement le marché d'Europe du nord (destination actuelle de la majeure partie des exportations ghanéennes). Augmenter les exportations vers l'Europe du sud est par conséquent une option réalisable. Cependant, GAFCO soutient que cette option est très difficile à réaliser. Les producteurs ghanéens ont évoqué de nombreuses barrières à l'exportation vers l'Europe du sud, et notamment les délais dans la vérification des documents administratifs et le retard dans les livraisons de conteneurs. Ces barrières occasionnent de réels problèmes, mais sont difficiles à prouver et par conséquent à résoudre.Tableau 11 : Résumé des impacts possibles pour le Ghana Conserveries (Effet 1) Perte des marchés d'Europe du nord (Royaume-Uni), 19 100 tonnes d'après les chiffres de 2002. En partant de l'hypothèse que le thon ne provenant pas de pays ACP vise les marchés d'Europe du nord et que l'exportation ghanéenne actuelle est inférieure au quota de 25 000 tonnes, ceci n'est pas à exclure complètement, même s'il est peu probable que le Ghana perde l'intégralité de son marché sur une année de quota.(Effet 2) Une production réduite entraîne une baisse de l'emploi avec des incidences sur le profil socio-économique du Ghana. Les petites sociétés qui viennent tout juste de commencer à investir dans le marché européen en sont écartées ou doivent se repositionner sur les marchés CEDEAO/Afrique du Nord.(Effet 1) Avec la perte de recettes provenant des exportations de conserves de thon destinées à l'Europe du nord et aucune possibilité d'acquisition de part de marché en Europe du sud (selon toute hypothèse, une destination saturée par les conserveries des pays d'exportation traditionnels comme le Sénégal ou la Côte d'Ivoire), le Ghana doit autoriser l'UE à accéder à sa ZEE dans le cadre d'un accord de pêche afin de garantir l'emploi dans le secteur du thon ghanéen.(Effet 2) La baisse des achats des conserveries ghanéennes incite les sociétés à vendre plus fréquemment à Abidjan, mais il est possible qu'Abidjan soit désormais surapprovisionné en raison du transfert d'activité de la flotte sénégalaise. Les sociétés de pêche reconcentrent leurs activités sur d'autres stocks de poisson (un grand nombre d'entre eux viennent tout juste de commencer à viser les stocks de thon). Ces sociétés étroitement liées aux conserveries (TTV, par exemple) sont plus touchées que celles ayant des débouchés plus diversifiés.Impacts réels : une étude de la situation au Ghana au début de l'année 2004, c'est-à-dire cinq mois après la mise en place du contingent tarifaire, a révélé qu'en réalité, le chiffre d'affaires avait diminué de 30 %. Cependant, sans analyse complémentaire, il n'est pas possible d'affirmer que cette tendance résulte directement et entièrement de l'arrivée de thon meilleur marché provenant d'Asie ou d'autres facteurs.C'est peut-être une chance pour l'île Maurice que l'activité thonière en particulier et la pêche en général, représentent une si petite part du PIB de la nation. Son activité touristique, florissante, lui rapporte bien plus de revenus. Par conséquent, toute baisse de la production aura certes un impact immédiat sur le secteur thonier, mais les effets sur l'économie au niveau macro-économique seront négligeables. Cependant, cette appréciation reste valable uniquement si l'on considère que les autres secteurs de l'économie tournés vers l'exportation (comme le textile et le sucre, par exemple) sont capables d'absorber la main-d'oeuvre supplémentaire et de compenser la perte de revenus. Au vu des tendances observées actuellement, il est peu probable que les marges préférentielles dont bénéficient les marchés mauriciens se maintiennent.Tableau 12 : Résumé des impacts possibles pour l'île Maurice Cannery (Effet 1) Perte des marchés de l'Europe du nord (Royaume-Uni), soit 15 440 tonnes, d'après les derniers chiffres (2000). Ce volume est inférieur au quota de 25 000 tonnes, mais il est peu probable que la totalité de la part de marché mauricienne soit absorbée par ce contingent.(Effet 2) Une réduction de la production entraîne une réduction d'effectifs, répercutée sur le profil socioéconomique de l'île, mais les autres secteurs économiques prospères limitent les effets de cette réduction.Impacts réels : en janvier 2004, des sources mauriciennes ont confirmé que si le nombre de casiers de thon vendus en 2003 avait bien augmenté de 289 000 unités, la marge réalisée sur chaque casier avait diminué. Ceci était la conséquence directe de la baisse des prix qui avait dû être instaurée pour concurrencer l'arrivée de thon meilleur marché en provenance de la Thaïlande. Plus précisément, les marges bénéficiaires perçues à partir de juillet 2003 (c'est-à-dire après l'ouverture du contingent) ont diminué de 8 roupies par casier par rapport aux marges réalisées six mois avant l'application d'un taux de droits de douane réduit au thon thaïlandais.Le secteur du thon aux Seychelles comprend une seule conserverie appartenant à Heinz. Toute indication selon laquelle la production ne serait plus viable économiquement entraînerait immanquablement le retrait de cet investissement étranger, ce qui aurait des conséquences catastrophiques sur le pays. En l'absence d'autre industrie pour relever l'économie, une érosion des préférences commerciales pour le thon seychellois vendu dans l'UE aurait des conséquences économiques catastrophiques. Cependant, les risques pour les Seychelles de voir disparaître leur activité thonière du jour au lendemain sont peu probables. On s'acheminerait plutôt vers une réduction graduelle du taux de droits de douane des pays non-ACP, qui augmenterait lentement le coût relatif du thon seychellois, entraînant un déclin progressif de l'industrie.Tableau 13 : Résumé des impacts possibles pour les Seychelles Conserveries (Effet 1) Perte des marchés de l'Europe du nord (Royaume-Uni), c'est-à-dire 17 711 tonnes d'après les données de 2000. Dans la mesure où il est admis que les pays non-ACP viseront les marchés de l'Europe du nord et que le volume d'exportation actuel des Seychelles est inférieur au contingent de 25 000 tonnes, cette éventualité ne doit pas être totalement écartée, mais il est improbable que le pays perde l'ensemble de son activité en une année.(Effet 2) Une production réduite entraîne une baisse de l'emploi, provoquant des effets connexes sur le profil socio-économique de l'archipel. Dans ce cas de figure, comme une seule conserverie devra supporter la perte totale de la production (pas de concurrents), le risque que la conserverie ne soit plus économiquement viable et arrête son activité est réel.(Effet 1) Il n'y a pas de raison de penser que les accords avec l'UE sur la pêche au thon ne seront plus rentables économiquement. La pays peut, par conséquent, continuer à percevoir des recettes sur son activité de pêche, quand bien même cette éventualité entraînerait une baisse considérable des recettes générées par le thon, par rapport à la situation actuelle.Impacts réels : au début de l'année 2004, la conserverie a confirmé que l'activité de thon en conserve a été affectée, sans que Heinz puisse encore quantifier cet impact.Le contingent tarifaire de 25 000 tonnes à 12% semblait être pratiquement épuisé à la fin du mois de septembre 2003, mais il n'a pas été possible de déterminer clairement lequel des Etats membres avait importé du thon sur ce quota. Des entretiens auprès de plusieurs supermarchés au Royaume-Uni et en France ont néanmoins permis d'établir que le Royaume-Uni avait capté la plus grande part du contingent et accessoirement que celle-ci avait été majoritairement achetée par Princes Tuna, par ailleurs propriétaire de la conserverie à l'île Maurice vii .Le représentant d'une grande surface britannique a signalé que la gestion de leurs approvisionnements de thon en conserve n'avait pas subi de grande modification suite au changement de politique de l'Union européenne : la majorité de leur approvisionnement est toujours assurée par les Seychelles et l'île Maurice. D'après le responsable des achats de cette grande surface, les décisions d'achat reposent sur de nombreux facteurs, le prix n'étant que l'un d'eux, au même titre que les conditions de travail dans les conserveries et la qualité du produit. Par conséquent, la décision de continuer à s'approvisionner en thon aux Seychelles et à Maurice pouvait résulter de la demande des clients exigeant une responsabilité sociale de l'entreprise en matière de conditions de travail dans les conserveries. Ceci a également été admis par le représentant d'une conserverie ghanéenne, qui a confirmé en juillet 2003 que de nombreuses conditions de travail dans la conserverie (service de blanchisserie gratuit, comité d'entreprise, cantine subventionnée, etc.) étaient imposées par les grandes surfaces au titre de leur politique de responsabilité sociale.Un grand producteur et distributeur britannique entretenant des liens financiers étroits avec le secteur de la conserverie dans l'Océan Indien a déclaré qu'ils avaient importé 66 % de produits en plus en provenance de la Thaïlande en 2003 par rapport à 2002, et que le prix moyen par casier avait baissé de cinq livres par rapport à l'année dernière. Compte tenu de la situation concurrentielle du marché au Royaume-Uni, ils ont dû augmenter les importations en provenance de la Thaïlande, alors même qu'ils avaient des intérêts dans le thon provenant de l'Océan Indien.En France, la Société de vente des pêcheurs français a observé que l'année 2003 avait été exceptionnelle. Malgré la hausse des ventes de thon asiatique, les ventes de thon en provenance des Seychelles et de Maurice avaient également augmenté, ce que confirme une conserverie de l'Océan Indien faisant état d'une production accrue (mais aussi d'une marge bénéficiaire plus réduite).Confrontées aux produits asiatiques potentiellement meilleur marché, les grandes surfaces ne semblent pas avoir modifié radicalement leurs stratégies d'achat. Ceci pourrait être dû au fait que les contrats sont établis tellement longtemps à l'avance qu'aucun effet réel ne sera perceptible avant l'entrée en vigueur du prochain quota, en juillet 2004 (Bruxelles, pers. comm., 2004). L'autre raison possible serait, comme nous l'indiquions plus haut, que les décisions d'achat sont d'autant plus complexes que cette complexité n'est pas visible et que le prix n'est pas le seul élément intervenant dans la prise de décision.Il ressort de cette étude que des effets ont bel et bien été perçus, mais également qu'ils n'ont pas joué sur la scène internationale le rôle aussi simple qu'on leur avait initialement attribué. Le Royaume-Uni a absorbé une grande part du contingent, qui a été majoritairement acheté par une société ayant des intérêts directs dans le secteur de l'océan Indien.Tableau 14 : Synthèse des principaux impacts (potentiels et « réels ») Les canneurs indiquent une perte de profits : la production a augmenté dans la région, mais les prix ont baissé afin de soutenir la concurrence des produits thaïlandais.* : Le terme réel est à prendre ici avec précaution. En effet, comme indiqué précédemment, il n'a pas été possible dans le cadre de cette étude de déterminer avec précision si les baisses d'activité constatés dans les pays étaient entièrement dus à la mise en place de ce quota ou s'il s'agissait d'autres facteurs, notamment la baisse sensible du dollar par rapport à l'euro.Les informations collectées pendant les entretiens avec les spécialistes du secteur ont révélé que la production de thon en conserve des pays ACP n'était pas une cause perdue. Plusieurs propositions ont été avancées sur la façon dont les industries de ces pays pourraient évoluer pour surmonter des pertes potentielles excessives.Transférer les exportations de thon vers des pays extérieurs à l'Union européenne est une possibilité pour tous les pays ACP, mais les produits alimentaires africains souffrent souvent d'une image négative sur le plan international et constituent un marché très étroit, caractéristique des petites économies. Une autre possibilité consiste à exploiter le positionnement exceptionnel des produits de l'Afrique occidentale. Contrairement au thon thaïlandais, souvent transbordé d'une vaste région géographique, le thon ghanéen est capturé dans sa quasi-totalité par des cargos ghanéens, et majoritairement dans les eaux territoriales ghanéennes. Par conséquent, il serait relativement aisé d'exploiter la demande des pays d'Europe du nord pour des produits « localement identifiables », préférables à des produits standards non spécifiques. De même que le Kenya est désormais synonyme de café, le thon du Ghana et du Sénégal pourrait devenir synonyme de « thon localement identifiable pêché par des exploitants locaux ». La grande quantité de thon pêchée à la canne (pêche sélective) provenant des pays ACP offre une qualité qui le différencie du thon capturé par les senneurs des grands producteurs asiatiques. C'est un atout supplémentaire que les pays ACP pourraient exploiter pour pénétrer le marché en expansion des produits écologiques en Europe du Nord.La diversification dans des produits de qualité dans le secteur thonier est une autre filière possible. Il existe indéniablement un marché en croissance au Royaume-Uni pour le thon en conserve dans le créneau des garnitures de sandwich et des sauces dites exotiques, prêtes à l'emploi. L'utilisation de poches à la place de conserves dans le conditionnement est également une voie que pourraient exploiter les pays ACP pour se conférer un avantage sur leurs concurrents asiatiques.Enfin, si l'on veut mieux comprendre les interactions entre les producteurs ACP, les complexités du marché de l'UE et la menace potentielle que représentent les grands producteurs asiatiques, il faut une analyse complémentaire pour comprendre « les causes et les effets ». C'est sur cette base que des options de développement plus concrètes pourront être proposées aux producteurs de thon des régions ACP. L'étude préconisée devra s'articuler autour des points suivants : Mener une analyse économique détaillée du secteur afin de déterminer d'une part, les éléments ayant une incidence sur la production dans les pays ACP et, d'autre part, les motivations derrière les décisions des grandes surfaces.En l'absence d'informations concrètes sur les marchés ayant absorbé le contingent tarifaire (et qui vraisemblablement absorberont le contingent suivant), il n'est pas possible d'identifier les pays ACP qui pourraient en souffrir le plus.Un suivi de la situation à venir est donc nécessaire. Comme le quota accordé sur l'exercice 2003 est épuisé, un suivi définitif des modifications ne sera possible qu'à l'ouverture du prochain quota.Les pays ACP ont particulièrement bien réussi à profiter d'un accès préférentiel aux marchés européens de conserves de thon. Ils ont bénéficié d'une franchise de douane, d'un accès non contingenté aux marchés, alors que d'autres fournisseurs comme la Thaïlande et les Philippines ont été soumis à un taux de droits de douane de 24 %. Pendant les années quatre-vingt-dix, les quatre pays étudiés ont chacun augmenté, dans une plus ou moins large mesure, leurs exportations de thon en conserve vers l'UE en termes de quantités absolues et aussi de parts de marché.Pressés par les fournisseurs asiatiques de conserves de thon, l'UE a adopté la proposition du Médiateur de l'OMC, autorisant l'importation d'un contingent de 25 000 tonnes de conserves en provenance de la Thaïlande, des Philippines et de l'Indonésie à un taux de droits de douane de 12 % au lieu des 24 % en vigueur. Lorsque le tarif douanier a pris effet en juillet 2003, les craintes étaient réelles de voir la production ACP péricliter par suite de son impuissance éventuelle à rivaliser avec des niveaux de production plus élevés et des produits moins chers provenant d'Asie. Cette crainte ne s'est pas complètement réalisée, mais il est établi que la production et les profits des pays de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et de l'Océan Indien ont chuté de 30 % dans certains cas. En revanche, en l'absence d'une analyse plus poussée, il est impossible de déterminer si l'effet ressenti sur les marchés européens est entièrement dû au contingent (et non aux taux de change, au taux de capture ou à ces deux facteurs combinés).Les importations de conserves de thon de l'UE ne sont pas uniformément réparties entre les marchés des États-membres. Les exportateurs asiatiques (la Thaïlande, les Philippines et l'Indonésie) approvisionnent essentiellement le Royaume-Uni et, dans une moindre mesure, l'Allemagne. L'Espagne, le plus grand producteur de conserves de thon de l'UE, importe très peu de thon d'origine étrangère, tandis que la quasi-totalité des importations de thon de la France proviennent des pays africains francophones, le Sénégal et la Côte d'Ivoire en particulier. Maurice et les Seychelles vendent la majeure partie de leurs productions au Royaume-Uni, tout comme le Ghana, alors que la production sénégalaise est destinée aux marchés français et de l'Europe du Sud. La région où le changement de politique risque de déclencher la plus vive concurrence est donc le Royaume-Uni. Cependant, l'analyse actuelle de la situation ne permet pas de voir clairement les effets des tarifs douaniers sur les approvisionnements.Dans les quatre pays, l'industrie des conserves de thon joue un rôle très important pour l'emploi dans l'économie locale, mais dans le cas du Ghana et des Seychelles, la participation au PIB se caractérise également par une absence de compétitivité par rapport aux marchés rivaux asiatiques. Protégé et soutenu par la Convention de Lomé, le thon ghanéen, mauricien et seychellois a réussi à se créer une niche sur le marché de l'Europe du Nord mais avec la réduction graduelle des préférences douanières, son positionnement est menacé. De la même façon, l'exemption de droits de douane a permis au Sénégal de maintenir son activité d'exploitation du thon, historiquement importante, même si parallèlement, sa part de marché diminue régulièrement d'année en année. Comme indiqué par quelques auteurs, les quatre pays étudiés ne sont pas les seuls dans cette situation. De nombreux pays africains n'ont pas réussi à atteindre les mêmes niveaux de réussite que leurs homologues asiatiques, en dépit des préférences commerciales dont ils ont bénéficié. Malgré cet état des choses, les propriétaires de conserveries ghanéennes estiment que la production thonière est l'une des quelques réussites de la Convention de Lomé.Le thon représente une part importante des exportations non agricoles traditionnelles du Ghana et une grande partie de ses exportations vers l'UE. Cependant, le pays n'est pas entièrement dépendant du thon. Une réduction des recettes générées par la production thonière aura des conséquences directes sur l'économie de Tema et aussi sur l'économie nationale, mais le Ghana peut toujours se rabattre sur d'autres secteurs. De la même façon, dans le cas du Sénégal, l'importance du secteur thonier sur le plan macroéconomique est limitée par rapport aux autres types de pêche, et encore plus limitée comparée aux autres activités d'exportation. L'impact sur le Sénégal sera probablement réduit aussi, car ce pays ne détient qu'une très petite part du marché des conserves de thon vendues sur le marché de l'UE. Cependant, le secteur du thon en général et celui des conserveries en particulier sont confrontés à une crise économique depuis 1998 et en l'absence d'une restructuration majeure, cette mesure peut avoir des conséquences graves et même remettre en question l'avenir proche de la filière thon au Sénégal.Le secteur thon à l'île Maurice est une activité relativement nouvelle et a bénéficié d'un gros investissement de la part de Princes Tuna en 2000. Cependant, à la différence des trois autres pays, ce secteur ne représente qu'une très petite part de l'économie générale ; les ressources dégagées par le textile, le tourisme et le sucre sont bien plus importantes et de plus longue date. Par conséquent, s'il est indéniable que l'île Maurice ressentira les effets de l'application des quotas, leur impact sera beaucoup moins sévère qu'au Ghana, au Sénégal ou aux Seychelles. En revanche, les Seychelles dépendent étroitement du thon, qui constitue 95 % de ses exportations et 40 % de ses importations. Ayant peu d'autres ressources sur lesquelles s'appuyer, le pays ressentira lourdement toute réduction importante de cette industrie.L'impact de l'instauration d'un contingent tarifaire de 25 000 tonnes risque d'être aggravé par le risque d'une réduction généralisée des droits de douane que pourraient créer les discussions engagées lors des négociations de l'OMC sur l'écrêtement tarifaire des droits de douane pour les produits non agricoles, après la Conférence de Doha. viii . Les pays ACP et SGP Drogue doivent s'organiser pour réagir à la proposition et notamment obtenir une négociation spécifique pour le thon avec un abaissement plus progressif. La position française consiste à demander un traitement particulier pour le thon (l'autre produit pareillement touché est le sucre), avec un échéancier de réduction dont l'objectif final serait un taux de droit de douanes de 15 %, avec deux paliers intermédiaires de 21% et 18 % (note FIAC du 22 juillet 2003). La réduction contingentée des droits de douane ne prévoit pas de clause d'origine des produits. On ne sait pas non plus si la mise en place des mesures d'écrêtement va faire disparaître la règle d'origine des produits pour les pays ACP afin de leur permettre de s'approvisionner sur des marchés spots plus avantageux, mais sur lesquels le Sénégal, le Ghana, les Seychelles et l'île Maurice auront toujours un coût de transport désavantageux, du fait de leur position excentrée par rapport aux principales zones de pêche.Les partisans du libre-échange pourraient avancer que les pays ACP doivent s'ajuster au marché mondial et que cette adaptation est nécessaire pour leur permettre d'affronter le marché sans traitement préférentiel. Cependant, dans la réalité, sans assistance substantielle, un grand nombre de ces pays, et les pays représentés dans cette étude ne font pas exception, rencontreront des difficultés croissantes à affronter la concurrence et seront contraints de réduire leur participation. L'une des conséquences les plus importantes du récent changement de politique n'est pas tant l'impact du contingent de 25 000 tonnes (bien que cela reste un sujet de préoccupation) mais bien l'aspect « tendance à la baisse » qu'il imprime à la nouvelle politique et la menace plus précise d'une érosion supplémentaire des préférences jusqu'alors accordées. Cet aspect aurait des effets beaucoup plus négatifs sur les conserveries de thon des pays ACP et pourrait menacer non seulement leur compétitivité mais leur survie. Des éléments semblent indiquer que les pays ACP ont fait très peu de pressions (lobbying) sur l'UE pour faire pencher la balance dans leur camp, ce que n'ont pas manqué de faire leurs rivaux asiatiques. Une action plus efficace à ce niveau (comme celle orchestrée actuellement par le gouvernement des Seychelles) doit être mise en place afin que les pays ACP puissent anticiper sur les changements de politique commerciale et ne soient pas réduits à réagir, face à un mouvement généralisé en faveur d'une libéralisation totale des marchés internationaux.","tokenCount":"8621"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ace94cc1e5a9dd44314a1ceaafdf3223","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/28b0d7ef-efb6-46bd-b1ad-1086ad01f1b5/content","id":"-1632530587"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0cfdd26e-1871-411f-9816-3e26d730ca15","pagecount":"74","content":"CIMMYT (www.cimmyt.mx or www.cimmyt.cgiar.org) is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR comprises over 55 partner countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Financial support for CIMMYT's research agenda also comes from many other sources, including foundations, development banks, and public and private agencies.CIMMYT supports Future Harvest, a public awareness campaign that builds understanding about the importance of agricultural issues and international agricultural research. Future Harvest links respected research institutions, influential public figures, and leading agricultural scientists to underscore the wider social benefits of improved agriculture-peace, prosperity, environmental renewal, health, and the alleviation of human suffering (www.futureharvest.org).The \"Favorable vs. Marginal\" Debate Most, if not all, of the \"success stories\" produced by agricultural research in developing countries over the past three or four decades have occurred in \"favorable\" areas where irrigation is available or rainfall is good. The most notable success stories were the rapid increases in wheat and rice production occurring during the Green Revolution. The reduction in food prices and increases in real rural wages observed in favorable agricultural areas suggest that yield gains have played an important role in reducing poverty (Singh 1990; David and Otsuka 1994; Datt and Ravallion 1998), although admittedly the links between yield increases and poverty reduction have not been analyzed exhaustively. These successes have also provided a respite for more fragile, \"marginal\" agricultural environments. Farmers in favorable areas could produce more food, which curtailed pressure to farm in more marginal areas.In the wake of such progress one might expect to find a gratified sense of accomplishment. Instead, the contrast between success in favorable agricultural environments and more limited progress in marginal environments has led to considerable debate over how to allocate research resources between the two kinds of environments, raising a number of ancillary questions.♦ Is agricultural production expanding into marginal environments?♦ What costs will agriculture incur on the resource base of fragile lands? Is crop production in those areas sustainable?♦ How much agricultural production is needed from marginal environments to ensure food security at the local and national levels?♦ What is the impact of crop production in marginal areas on poverty?♦ What technological options are available for increasing production on marginal lands? Do research resources need to be reallocated toward agriculture for droughtstressed marginal environments? Some have argued that nations systematically underinvest in agricultural research for marginal environments, to the detriment of the poor people living in those areas. Others contend that diverting research resources away from favorable areas would do more harm than good, because returns to investments in agricultural research in marginal areas are low. Decision makers require a better understanding of these issues, because they have considerable-and poorly understood-implications for future food security. For example,  Borlaug and Dowswell (1997) have stated that \"the only way for agriculture to keep pace with population and alleviate world hunger is to increase the intensity of production in those ecosystems that lend themselves to sustainable intensification while decreasing the intensity of production in more fragile ecologies.\" In contrast, Leonard (1989) has posited that agricultural intensification in more favorable areas leads to labor displacement and often to land consolidation, giving displaced people little recourse but to move onto marginal lands. Although he agrees that production should be maximized in favorable areas, Leonard argues that the goal of agricultural development in marginal areas should be to provide livelihoods and minimize adverse environmental impacts.In this report we use the example of maize production in drought-stressed areas of the developing world to provide some perspective on the \"favored vs. marginal\" debate. 1 Maize is a lightning rod for this debate.Compared to wheat and rice (the other major staples in developing countries), maize is more likely to be grown in areas that are regarded as marginal. Physical as well as economic factors can make an area \"marginal\" for maize production; physical factors include drought stress, low soil fertility, soil acidity, persistent weed problems (such as Striga), and steep slopes. Any single factor or combination of factors usually operates along a continuum, which means that defining an environment as \"marginal\" inevitably implies simplification.Drought stress is one of the two physical factors most responsible for limiting maize production in developing countries; soil infertility is the other. The tendency for maize to be grown in areas subject to the vagaries of rainfall is thought by some to be a major reason why improved varieties and management practices have diffused more slowly for maize than for wheat or rice (see \"Drought Stress and the Spread of Green Revolution Technology in Maize,\" p. 3). There are no technological means, other than the introduction of reliable irrigation, for restoring all maize lost to drought stress. Global estimates of losses from drought are usually based on expert opinion and must be regarded with caution (Loomis 1997; White and Elings 1997). Nonetheless, Edmeades, Bolaños, and Lafitte (1992) estimated that annual drought losses in the early 1990s across nontemperate maize areas totaled about 19 million tons, representing a 15% reduction in production. Losses can be far more extreme: a devastating drought in southern Africa in 1991-92 reduced maize production by about 60% (Rosen and Scott 1992). This report will provide a broader understanding of maize production in marginal, drought-stressed areas and the implications for research resource allocation, by demonstrating that:♦ Drought is a widespread phenomenon that even affects maize in better-watered areas.♦ Areas most likely to be affected by drought stress are spread fairly evenly among the world's major regions, but the relative importance of water constraints appears highest in sub-Saharan Africa. (Better delineation and assessment of the extent and distribution of drought environments by combining data from geographic information systems [GIS], international databases on precipitation, crop modeling, and economic measures is highly desirable.) ♦ Accurate measurement of the economic impacts of drought is difficult. Maize yields are clearly lower and more variable in droughtstressed areas, but often yield growth rates are not observably lower.♦ Recent years have not witnessed a pronounced expansion of maize into drought-stressed environments. Nevertheless, problems related to soil infertility and sustainability of agriculture in these sometimes fragile environments warrant further research.♦ Over the past 25 years, both crop breeding and crop management research have made considerable progress in developing technologies that mitigate the effects of drought stress. The greatest future yield gains in drought-stressed environments may come from changes in crop management, though yield gains from improved varieties may also be significant. A great deal remains to be done, however, to diffuse new varieties and new management techniques to farmers.♦ There are few clear, direct links between drought-stressed maize environments and poverty.♦ Based on efficiency or equity considerations, there does not appear to be a strong case for reallocating maize research resources away from more favorable to more drought-stressed environments. Within drought-stressed regions, an unresolved economic research question is the relative importance to give to crop management research, crop improvement, and extension. At the same time, it is also clear that some research for these environments is still justified.The next section provides more specific background information on droughtstressed, marginal environments by explaining how drought stress is measured in maize and detailing its effects, both within the maize plant and across geographic areas. We then examine the interrelated questions raised earlier about marginal environments, poverty, and food security. Next, we explore the technological options available for mitigating the effects of drought stress in maize and analyze the economic issues bearing on allocating research resources to marginal maize production environments. We conclude by describing research that could help resolve some of the problems posed by the \"favored vs. marginal\" debate.The Green Revolution was marked by a rapid acceleration in the production of wheat and rice. But maize, particularly in the developing world, has yet to undergo an equivalent production transformation. There are a number of possible reasons for this dissimilarity, including drought stress.Improved seed and fertilizer, together with water control, are generally considered the basis of the Green Revolution in cereals production. Use of these inputs in maize has lagged behind wheat and rice, and a much lower proportion of maize area is irrigated (Table 1). Input use is linked, albeit tenuously, with the pattern of yield growth in the major cereals in developing countries. Over the past 35 years, maize yields in developing 2 Variability is measured by the coefficent of variation of maize yields, adjusted for trend in yield. 3 Including China, by far the developing world's largest producer of all three cereals, makes the patterns somewhat more ambiguous. In this instance, maize yields would grow faster than rice yields and somewhat less variably than wheat yields.inputs (e.g., improved seed and fertilizer) might diffuse more slowly, because small-scale farmers may be less inclined to risk the resources required to purchase them.It is unlikely, however, that lack of water control is the only factor responsible for restricting the spread of new maize technology. For example, in Zimbabwe, weather conditions are highly variable, but nearly all maize farmers use hybrids. Drought, it seems, may only be part of a more general problem: Improved maize varieties, and possibly crop management technologies, may not spill over from their target agroecological zones as extensively or as readily as in rice or wheat, because maize is grown in a greater range of environments.countries have grown somewhat more slowly and variably 2 than either wheat or rice yields, if China is excluded. 3 Why have input use and yield growth in maize fallen behind wheat and rice?The fact that most maize is grown under rainfed conditions, coupled with its particular sensitivity to drought stress at flowering, suggests that drought stress is certainly one factor that has discouraged the use of improved inputs in maize. If rainfed maize production is somewhat variable and precarious, complementary Source: Byerlee (1996); CIMMYT (1989aCIMMYT ( , 1991CIMMYT ( , 1994CIMMYT ( , 1996)); IRRI (1995); FAO/IFA/IFDC (1992); Heisey and Mwangi (1996); and authors' calculations. a For wheat and rice, excludes scientifically bred tall varieties. b Excluding China, Brazil, Argentina, and South Africa. c For maize, irrigated area refers only to non-temperate maize. Temperate maize in developing countries is largely unirrigated. Peak levels cause problems in 4 Non-commercial maize farmers often attempt to influence or maintain the genetic content of their seed (Louette and Smale 1996). The point here is that it is much more difficult to maintain a high level of genetic purity in maize than it is in rice or wheat. photosynthesis . . . that strongly limit biomass production and yield\" (Loomis 1997). Furthermore, in temperate areas, hours of sunlight are greater during the summer and temperatures are more conducive to higher yields. Although the issue has not been studied extensively (for wheat, see Maredia and Byerlee, forthcoming) there appears to be less potential for technology spillovers in maize than for other major cereals, mainly because of its lack of broad adaptation and the diversity of environments in which it is grown.Another factor behind the slower diffusion of new technology for maize production is its greater reliance on a viable seed industry for the diffusion of new hybrids and varieties. Since the use of improved seed and other inputs are often linked, the slower adoption of improved maize seed has probably affected the use of these inputs.In rice and wheat, farmer-to-farmer seed diffusion has been the basis of the rapid spread of new varieties. Maize, however, is a naturally cross-pollinating crop. Its yield deteriorates through inbreeding when plants self-fertilize and it demonstrates hybrid vigor when plants cross-fertilize. This means that farmers exercise very limited control over the genetic content of seed in comparison to a plant breeder or seed production operation. 4 Historically, this has meant that breeding programs face a choice of whether to concentrate their efforts on hybrids, improved open pollinated varieties (OPVs), or both. Relative to wheat and rice, maize presents many more questions of institutional design in the development of seed industries.Patterns of farmer-to-farmer seed diffusion are also different in maize (Morris 1998).In some instances, maize breeders may have paid insufficient attention to the consumption characteristics required by farmers (Byerlee et al. 1994).Consumption characteristics, however, have also been important in rice (Unnevehr 1986) and wheat (Khan 1987), so it seems unlikely that this particular constraint has exerted an exceptional influence in the case of maize.The deferred arrival of the Green Revolution in the maize fields of the developing world highlights the point that technology diffusion in maize appears to be a more complicated process than in wheat or rice. Greater diversity of growing environments, narrower adaptation, greater importance of seed industry organization, and, in some cases, the importance of consumption characteristics all interact to foster or restrain the spread of maize technologies.World Maize Facts and Trends 1997/98 5This section reviews how drought stress reduces maize yields and discusses general approaches used to measure drought stress and its effects. Defining drought stress in the maize plant is a relatively straightforward matter.Arriving at a definitive geographic characterization of stressed areas, however, is far more difficult for three reasons. First, drought stress is a global phenomenon, differences being of degree rather than kind. Second, severely drought-stressed areas tend to be distributed in a patchwork fashion around the world, rather than concentrated in a few readily recognized geographic areas. Finally, drought stress varies from year to year, so long periods of observation are needed to characterize the distribution of stress over time. Nevertheless, such geographic characterizations, even with their limitations, are crucial for making decisions about resource allocations for research.Drought stress particularly affects the ability of the maize plant to produce grain at three critical stages of plant growth: early in the growing season (when plant stands are established), at flowering, and during mid-to late grain filling (see \"Drought and Stages of Maize Growth,\" p. 6). Periods of vulnerability must be considered within the context of regional rainfall patterns. Most tropical maize is produced under rainfed conditions during a single rainy season. Some equatorial areas, however, have two rainy seasons per year, and maize is often produced during both of them.By damaging plant stands at the beginning of a season, drought can strongly curtail yield. This is relatively common because the probability of drought is high at this time. A farmer confronted with this situation has several management options; all require replanting later in the season. They include replanting the field(s) with the same cultivar, planting a shorter maturity cultivar, or planting a different species that matures more rapidly or is more tolerant than maize to drought stress.Mid-season drought is less likely to occur than drought at the beginning or end of the season, but it can be devastating because maize is particularly susceptible to drought stress during this period when the plant flowers. Short of irrigation (which is not an option in most tropical maize production systems), the farmer has no management alternatives since it is too late in the season to replant. Grain yield reductions from mid-to late grain filling are not nearly as severe as those produced by a similar stress during flowering. Again though, farmers are left with no management options for responding to the stress.Measuring the degree of drought stress can help guide agricultural research.Measuring its economic impact at the individual farmer or regional level can demonstrate the magnitude of the problem and help guide agricultural policy and research allocations. At least three types of data are required for such measurement: joint probability distributions of an index of the water deficit in the maize crop at different stages of growth; measures of the effects of the water deficits on crop yield; and the geographic distribution of maize planted by farmers.Some of the approaches used to measure the incidence and intensity of water deficits have been summarized by White and Elings (1997) (    Three simpler, rainfall-based definitions of drought-stressed maize environments are presented here. All could be improved by integrating information on soil infiltration and water-holding capacity. In the tropics, a marginal rainfed maize environment in the lowlands may be defined as having seasonal precipitation below 500 mm and in the highlands as having seasonal precipitation below 300-350 mm. Lower temperatures associated with higher elevations account for the reduction in water requirements.In view of the crucial nature of drought at flowering, Chapman and Baretto (1996) suggest an alternative rainfallbased definition-the amount of rain received during the four-week period around flowering, over the long term. Less than 100 mm during this period indicates the region is unsuitable for maize production; more than 200 mm suggests suitability for most maize cultivars. For the purposes of this report, rainfall between 100 and 200 mm around the flowering period could indicate that an area is marginal for maize production. 5   Yet another drought measure based on rainfall is the ratio of precipitation (P) to potential evapotranspiration (PE). For example, favorable maize growing environments could be defined as those with growing seasons that include n or more consecutive months when P/PE > 0.5; marginal environments would be areas with n-1 or fewer months when P/PE > 0.5. 6   As mentioned earlier, identifying drought-stressed production zones and attendant yield losses implies analyzing differences in degree rather than in kind. Maize, which is produced primarily under rainfed conditions, may experience drought stress in diverse production environments, even those classified as \"favorable.\" For example, in the world's largest maize producer, the USA, one-fourth of the maize crop in the more favorable growing areas can be expected to experience at least moderate drought stress in any given season (Reeder 1997). Drought may significantly reduce US maize yields once every four to five years (Edmeades, Bolaños, and Lafitte 1992). These differences of degree help explain why estimates of yield based on expert opinion often vary between environments. They also imply that any classification of maize area into \"more stressed\" and \"less stressed\" areas involves considerable simplification.Our assessment of drought stress in the developing world begins with expert opinion-the simplest, though least quantifiable and reproducible methodology-because this approach provides the broadest global coverage. We restrict our scope to the nontemperate maize areas included in the CIMMYT (1988) mega-environment database. 7 Some 95 million hectares of maize are planted annually in developing countries. Of this, nearly 70 million hectares are non-temperate. Eighty percent of the developing world's temperate maize area is located in China. Table 3 summarizes areas reported to experience drought stress frequently (where a yield loss of 25% or more annually over a long period of time may be expected) 8 by major growing environment-tropical highland/tropical highland transitional, midaltitude/subtropical, and lowland tropical-primarily defined by mean growing season temperature.According to these criteria, drought stress is evenly distributed across the world's major regions and is a particularly severe problem for slightly more than one-fifth of the tropical and subtropical maize planted in developing countries (Table 3). The likelihood of drought stress is greatest in the highland/transitional zone, largely because of the prevalence of drought in the extensive highlands of Latin America. The largest absolute area subject to the severe drought stress is the lowland tropics. In nearly all major region/environment combinations in the developing world, mean yields are reportedly lower in regions often affected by drought stress than elsewhere (Table 4). For sub-Saharan Africa, at least, Edmeades et al. (1997f) demonstrate a positive relationship between national average maize yields and rainfall totals during the growing season in major production areas Note: Data on areas \"frequently\" or \"usually\" stressed are from the CIMMYT maize mega-environment database (CIMMYT 1988). Remaining area is \"rarely\" or \"sometimes\" stressed. Areas and yields have been updated from the mega-environment database to make them consistent with 1995-97 areas and yields. a Excluding West Asia.   Note: Data on areas \"frequently\" or \"usually\" stressed are from the CIMMYT maize mega-environment database (CIMMYT 1988). Remaining area is \"rarely\" or \"sometimes\" stressed. Areas and yields have been updated from the mega-environment database to make them consistent with 1995-97 areas and yields. a Excluding West Asia.(Figure 2), indicating that total rainfall may indeed be a simple, useful predictor of areas or seasons that are subject to drought.In the case of Latin America, new data sources are contributing to more exact measures and characterizations of drought-stressed areas; these include GIS data on large maize production The mega-environment definition must be fine-tuned, particularly at the boundary between subtropical and temperate environments. Next, the crop distribution data need to be reconciled with existing aggregate statistics, particularly in the midaltitude/ subtropical and highland environments, but also at the national level. Finally, a physical measure other than length of growing season is needed to identify drought-stressed environments, particularly in the highlands. The probability of drought at flowering appears to be more crucial than the length of the growing season in shaping experts' opinions of whether an area is often subject to drought stress.From a policy perspective it is particularly important to know the effects of drought stress on yields, not just drought's physical parameters. A complementary approach to defining drought-stressed environments that responds to this need is to measure differential yields, yield variability, and yield growth rates. These measures, more than most, are only indicative, because yield data may be linked only weakly to physical evidence of drought stress. Furthermore, it is very difficult to aggregate production data across different agroclimatic zones, countries, or regions in a meaningful way. Nonetheless, linking reported drought stress to production and yield data is essential to informing efficient research resource allocation. Working hypotheses are that mean maize yields are lower, yields are more variable, and yield growth has been less rapid in areas more subject to drought stress. These relationships are difficult to observe in cross-country correlations because countries have different levels of heterogeneity in maize growing environments, different yield levels, and very diverse maize areas. For example, across approximately 60 countries represented in the CIMMYT maize mega-environment database, there is no significant cross-country correlation between the reported percentage of area often subject to drought stress and aggregate maize yield, although the relationship is, as expected, negative. 9   This negative relationship results solely from the presence of sub-Saharan African countries in the sample.When data are disaggregated, however, the expected relationship between yield and drought stress is often confirmed. In Kenya, for example, agroecological zones were determined using GIS (Hassan 1998). Two major zones, the midaltitude and transitional, were divided into \"dry\" and \"wet\" subzones based on mean rainfall. In the midaltitude zone, both actual and potential yields were about 30% lower in the dry subzone than in the wet subzone. In the transitional zone, dry subzone yields were more than 50% lower than those in the wet subzone (Table 6). 9 Correlations were estimated both in unweighted form and weighted by aggregate country maize areas.   Data for rainfed maize in Mexico show that the expected relationships between drought stress and yield can also hold at an intermediate level of aggregation. We classified each Mexican state by the amount of growing season rainfall and the extent to which it falls in the highland/transitional environment. Excluding irrigated crops, maize yields in low-rainfall states are clearly lower than yields in high-rainfall states (Table 6). Within a broad rainfall category, states with more highland/transitional maize have lower yields than states with more midaltitude/subtropical or lowland tropical maize. This is particularly significant because, all other factors being equal, one would expect yields in the tropics to increase up to an altitude of about 1,800 m as growing seasons become longer and cooler. These data suggest that drought stress may be partially responsible for lower yields in the highland/ transitional zones of Mexico.At the global level, there is a positive correlation between drought stress and yield variability. Once more, however, this is attributable solely to the data from sub-Saharan Africa. Again, more disaggregated data can show the expected relationship. In Mexico, for example, trend-corrected coefficients of variation 10 (CVs) of yield in rainfed maize are higher in the more drought affected zones (Table 7).Aggregate yields (means for 1995-97) and trend-corrected CVs for most developing countries with primarily non-temperate maize are shown in Figure 5. It is striking that most countries with large maize yield variability are in sub-Saharan Africa. Also, at any given level of mean maize yield, African countries tend to have higher yield variability. It appears that physical yield losses caused by drought and yield variability may have relatively more impact in sub-Saharan Africa than in Latin America or Asia because base yields are lower. As a result, yield losses may be of greater relative economic importance in Africa.Evidence on differential yield growth over time is also weak. Countries can be divided into \"more stressed\" (over 20% of all maize area frequently or usually subject to drought stress) and \"less stressed\" categories. During 1961-97, maize yield growth rates for less stressed countries are higher than those Research policymakers at both the national and international levels at times express the opinion that \"maize is being grown where it should not be grown\" or \"policies favor the expansion of maize at the expense of other crops,\" particularly more drought-resistant crops like sorghum and millet.  (Allen 1990). It has been forecast that if current trends continue, the atmosphere's concentration of CO 2 will double in 50-80 years.Accompanying this will be a rise in the earth's mean surface temperature by 2.0-5.4°C; the increase at higher latitudes is projected to be about twice that of the tropics (Allen 1990). The timing of this increase will be influenced by policy changes that affect imprecise in these areas (Smil 1990). ♦ Accelerated rates of crop development, causing crops to mature more rapidly and produce lower yields (Muchow, Sinclair, and Bennett 1990). For maize this will be only partially offset by increased rates of photosynthesis that result directly from higher concentrations of CO 2 . ♦ Reduced respiration rates caused by high CO 2 concentrations (Ziska and Teramura 1992), but increased photosynthetic rates.Crop-specific simulation models predict that doubling the CO 2 concentration from 300 ppm to 600 ppm will produce yield increases of 25-40% for C 3 species (e.g., rice, wheat), to as little as 7% for C 4 species such as maize (Idso 1989;Allen 1990;Rosenzweig et al. 1992). These increases are caused by increased leaf area and increased numbers of grains rather than increased grain weight or changed partitioning. ♦ More heat stress for maize crops in the tropics, in some cases resulting in pollen sterility (Schoper et al. 1987). ♦ Less stable weather (Mearns 1995), a shift that we may have already begun to experience with the severe regional droughts of the last decade (e.g., Rosen and Scott 1992) and the record-breaking El Niño event of 1997-98.Despite these difficulties, in this section we will make some cautious observations on the production environment/poverty relationship based on the available data, using three indicators of marginal maize production 13 and three indicators of poverty. 14 With only one important exception, maize production indicators show no correlation with poverty measures. Neither the proportion of maize area often subject to drought stress or the variability of maize yields is related to any national-level poverty indicators. 13 Percentage area often subject to drought stress, aggregate maize yield, and trendcorrected coefficient of variation of yield.  The exception to these findings can be summed up as follows: Relatively richer countries have higher maize yields. This is true because African countries, which generally are poorer than other developing countries (except for those in South Asia), tend to have lower maize yields. Adding to this effect is the fact that within Asia and Latin America, relatively richer countries have higher maize yields. Within sub-Saharan Africa, however, there are no correlations between poverty indicators and maize production measures.We also correlated the percentage of cereals area that is planted to sorghum and millet in 42 African countries with the poverty indicators cited earlier, but again found that no significant correlation exists, regardless of whether country observations are weighted by total cereals area. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, sorghum and millet are more likely to be grown in lower rainfall areas and on poorer soils than maize.Several more disaggregated examples illustrate that linkages between poverty and marginal maize production areas are complex, sometimes counterintuitive, and often hard to pin down. In Kenya, for instance, Siaya and South Nyanza Districts of western Kenya have higher annual rainfall than Machakos District in the eastern part of the country. Both western Kenya and Machakos have experienced increased population pressures and growth in maize area and production. Land degradation has worsened in the western Kenya districts, which moved from being net food exporters in the 1950s and 1960s to net food importers today (Scherr 1993). In contrast, there is strong evidence that land degradation in Machakos has been arrested and even reversed. Though Machakos remains a net food importer, the area produced a much higher percentage of its consumption requirements in the 1980s than it had 40-50 years earlier (Tiffen, Mortimore, and Gichuki 1994). Rainfall conditions alone are clearly insufficient for predicting the direction of trends in the quality of the resource base or per capita food production.In Zimbabwe, on the other hand, it is well known that farmers in the communal areas, which are concentrated in less favorable agricultural production environments, are much poorer than commercial farmers located on lands with higher rainfall and better soils (Rukuni and Eicher 1994). In Mexico, unirrigated maize production is concentrated in the central and southeastern regions, in states where agricultural incomes are lowest (Hibon et al. 1992). Some of the poorest states, however, have the most reliable rainfall.Clearly, the evidence that the marginality of agricultural land in general, or maize land in particular, is related to poverty is decidedly mixed. Pathways of agricultural development and marginalization may be more complicated than casually assumed. It is difficult to measure the linkages between marginal environments and poverty because it is hard to disentangle the effects of agroclimatic factors from those of many others, ranging from technological considerations to the influences of history, culture, and social institutions (Table 9).The aggregate results strongly suggest that many more careful case studies of individual countries, or studies within individual countries, are necessary to extract general relationships between agricultural environment and poverty incidence. Although aggregate figures do not directly correlate marginal maize growing areas and poverty, this in no way suggests that farmers in such areasTechnological Smallholder farmers are not inevitably displaced by intensification. Some factors aspects of intensification, notably new inputs such as seed and in some cases fertilizer, are scale-neutral.Degradation can occur on lands where intensification is occurring as well as in more marginal areas.Farmer response to Farmers smooth consumption in the face of production variability, both marginal production through managing own-farm assets or reciprocity arrangements conditions (Paxson 1992;Udry 1994;Carter 1997).Empirically, the majority of labor migration is rural-urban or across country boundaries, not simply rural-rural, as would be the case with widespread displacement of poorer farmers to more marginal lands.Non-cropping and non-farm incomes, generated by local activities and longdistance migration, are often more important than crop income in marginal areas (Reardon, Delgado, and Matlon 1992).Rather than being an inevitable cause of labor displacement, mechanization relationships, and can be a response to rising wages caused by labor withdrawal from the infrastructure agricultural sector; much depends on the policy environment (Pingali, Hossain, and Gerpacio 1997).Market opportunities mediate the distribution of benefits from technological change. Infrastructure is a key determinant of these market relationships, although it is not often well understood.History, culture, Numerous social factors. and institutions are not poor-they are just not necessarily poorer than their counterparts in other maize areas.Nearly all maize production, whether in developing or developed countries, will have to come from land that is susceptible to drought to varying degrees. It is instructive to explore the contribution that areas on the margin of maize production make to total maize output. Is it really possible, as some suggest, to meet future maize demand from better lands alone? Our benchmark will be maize areas and yields in locations that are \"often\" subject to drought (listed in Table 3). Projected production, and in some cases projected area, are taken from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Impact model for 2020 (Rosegrant, Agcaoili-Sombilla, and Perez 1995; updated model projections from M. Rosegrant, personal communication, April, 1998). 15 All scenarios allow for maize imports into developing regions at the levels projected by IFPRI; in other words, they do not assume a goal of self-sufficiency. A more thorough analysis would consider soil fertility and vulnerability to erosion, for example, together with drought stress, and would rely on more accurate measurement. Some of the general principles that emerge from the following analysis, however, would hold regardless of changes in scope or measurement.Initially we ask how rapidly yields must rise in favorable environments for supply to keep up with demand, assuming that future maize supplies are to come only from yield increases in favorable environments. We then modify our assumptions to allow some yield increases in drought-stressed environments.In the first scenario, all land currently planted to maize that is often drought stressed is taken out of production by 2020. Only the current area that is \"rarely\" or \"sometimes\" drought stressed is planted to maize in that year.To meet the IFPRI model baseline projection of maize production in nontemperate areas, yields in these more favorable environments would have to rise by 90% to 4.1 t/ha, an annual rate of 2.7%. This projection implicitly assumes that some trade can occur between surplus and deficit non-temperate developing regions, regardless of location. At a more disaggregated level, to attain the forecast level of production for sub-Saharan Africa, maize yields in better environments would have to rise by 129% to 3.1 t/ha, an annual rate of 3.5%. At a still more disaggregated level, Kenya's maize yields from higher rainfall environments would have to increase by 147% to 5.4 t/ha, an annual rate of 3.8%; Zimbabwe's yields in more favorable areas would have to increase by 565% to 19.6 t/ha, an annual rate of 8.2%! In the second scenario, maize area in 2020 is assumed to equal present area. For all non-temperate developing areas, yields on more favorable land would have to increase by 73% to 3.7 t/ha, an annual rate of 2.3%, to meet projected production by 2020. For sub-Saharan Africa, respective figures would be 111%, 2.9 t/ha, and 3.2% annually.Maize yields in favorable areas of Kenya would still have to rise by 3.5% annually; for Zimbabwe, they would have to rise by 6.8% annually.Figure 6 depicts the effects of relaxing the assumption that no yield increases will occur on more frequently droughtstressed areas. An overall yield increase of 25% on marginal lands, considered feasible by many crop scientists, is equivalent to an annual percentage increase of about 1%. At this level of yield increase on marginal lands, the required rate of increase on favorable lands is only slightly lower than with no increase on marginal lands.In the final scenario, non-temperate maize areas increase to the levels forecast by the IFPRI model (about 75 million hectares by 2020). All area expansion is assumed to take place in environments that are often drought stressed, with their correspondingly lower yield levels. In reality, this is an overly restrictive assumption, because there are modest possibilities for area expansion into better-watered lands. If yields do not increase in more droughtstressed areas, yields in more favorable 15 Impact model projections are modified to consider only non-temperate developing country maize production.Annual growth rate, less drought prone 7 areas would rise by 61% to 3.5 t/ha, for an annual growth rate of 2%. Maize area in sub-Saharan Africa would increase by about 6 million hectares. Yields in less stressed areas of Africa would increase by 87% to 2.6 t/ha, implying annual growth of 2.6%. Some of the effects of allowing yield growth on both droughtstressed and better-watered lands are shown in Figure 7. A 25% increase in yields on marginal lands would reduce needed growth rates in favorable areas from about 2% annually to about 1.8% annually for the entire developing world, and from more than 2.6% annually to less than 2.4% annually in sub-Saharan Africa. To put these figures in perspective, we note that very few tropical countries have experienced yield growth of 2% or more over a sustained period.These projections point to an important conclusion: At the global level, increased maize yields on marginal lands will not contribute substantially to greater maize production. At the same time, future demand for maize will not be met without maintaining yields in droughtstressed areas that are currently planted to maize and extending maize area into both wetter and drier regions. If these production demands are not met, the burden placed on more favorable environments appears to be too great.The more disaggregated the analysis, the stronger the case that a significant amount of maize will have to come from marginal environments.As we have seen, drought stress is the most widespread abiotic constraint to maize production in developing countries. What technological options are available to counter the effects of drought stress? Two basic approaches are possible. The first is to change the maize plant; the second is to change the maize plant's environment. We begin by reviewing efforts to breed maize that escapes drought by maturing early and to breed maize that tolerates drought stress. Next, we consider management alternatives: selecting planting dates to reduce the probability that the crop will be subject to drought stress during the course of the season and modifying planting and tillage methods to increase the water available to the plant for transpiration. Other crop management factors such as soil fertility maintenance and the control of weeds and diseases also have important roles in increasing the efficiency with which water is converted to maize grain. These will be considered at the end of this section.Where the length of the growing season is limited by any factor-rainfall, frost, crop rotations-one of the first principles of crop improvement is to fit the variety to the growing season (Ludlow and Muchow 1990). An early maturing cultivar will escape terminal drought stress more often than its later flowering counterpart. This was the basis for some earlier success stories in maize breeding for dry environments, such as the R200 series of hybrids in Zimbabwe (Mashingaidze 1994)  ♦ The use of high density planting together with the process of inbreeding. High density planting and inbreeding, in which male and female flowering must coincide on the same plant, constitute a strategy for maize improvement aimed at \"general\" stress tolerance (Vasal et al. 1997). This practical method of exposing maize to an abiotic stress has been particularly exploited in temperate maize (Troyer 1983;Duvick 1992Duvick , 1997)), as the mechanisms of tolerance to drought and to high plant density appear to be related (Dow et al. 1984).♦   The major goal of crop management practices in semiarid areas is to maximize the amount of water passing through the crop as transpiration. This can be achieved by increasing the amount of water available to the crop, by decreasing water losses (from evaporation, runoff, or weeds), or both. At one extreme would be the development of irrigation systems or the expansion of maize area into already irrigated land. We conclude that this is not likely to be a major source of  (Seckler 1992). 19   In addition, a general comparison of the areas suitable for irrigation development (Seckler 1992) with the areas most suitable for maize production (USDA 1981) indicates a high degree of overlap. 19 Currently, irrigated area accounts for just under 140 million hectares in developing countries in Asia other than West Asia, around 25 million hectares in West Asia and North Africa, and over 17 million hectares in Latin America. In Machakos District, Kenya, excess runoff is diverted to tree crops or channeled to the top of terrace systems.The presently preferred bench terrace is formed by throwing soil uphill from a ditch laid out on the contour. The ability of bench terracing to produce higher maize yields in dry years and dry areas has provided strong incentives for farmer adoption (Tiffen, Mortimore, and Gichuki 1994).In southern Africa, researchers have experimented with a variety of ridgefurrow systems, including tied ridges and potholes, to concentrate runoff and allow it to infiltrate slowly into the soil (Waddington et al. 1995). Ridging systems require draft power and human labor to construct ridges and ties. A small survey, conducted a few years after the initiation of the research, found that about 40% of the farmers near Chiredzi in the southeast region of Zimbabwe (an area where tractors are available for hire) had adopted a tied ridging system (Mazhangara 1993).Mulch. In  the point that some production of staples on irrigated land becomes profitable. Therefore, there is the possibility that in the medium term, a small amount of maize could be produced on irrigated land in sub-Saharan Africa, but its contribution to total maize production in the region would most likely be small. 20   20 For a discussion of some of the principles in evaluating irrigation investment in Africa, see Seckler (1992) and Barghouti and Le Moigne (1990).One important characteristic of drought stress is that it interacts with other types of stresses including disease, competition from weeds and intercrops, soil acidity, and low soil fertility. Generally, dry environments have a lower incidence of foliar and ear fungal diseases. Weeds, on the other hand, compete for water that could be used by the maize plant, so drought symptoms are often more severe and prolonged in their presence. In considering technological options for improving maize production under drought stress, it is important not to lose sight of several key points. First, genetic improvement for tolerance to both drought and low N cannot eliminate the gap between current and potential yields (as determined by radiation and temperature). Conventional wisdom holds that genetic improvement could make up about 15-25% of this gap in severely stressed areas. 21  maize crop. If they do, irrigation development is usually ruled out as too costly (a more expanded evaluation is presented in \"Prospects for Expanding Irrigated Maize Area,\" p. 24). Opinion is sharply divided on the use of inorganic fertilizer. Some believe the price of fertilizer, along with the risks inherent to its use, will make it unattractive to the majority of small-scale farmers in drier areas for the foreseeable future, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Others conclude that productivity in dry areas will never improve significantly and, in fact, is likely to deteriorate if means are not found for dramatically expanding the supply of inorganic fertilizer to the crop. There is a general consensus about the need to improve the supply of organic nutrients, but disagreement remains over how technically and economically feasible this will be.Many observers suggest that in dry areas, crop management interventions, including the use of inorganic fertilizers, could play a more important role than improved varieties in increasing yields (Rohrbach 1995;Waddington and Heisey 1997). Some go so far as to argue that in many instances management is the limiting factor, as opposed to the lack of water per se (Angus 1991). This may be the case where moderate rather than severe dry spells are commonly encountered. On the other hand, the genetic improvement resulting from plant breeding is in the seed itself, and the benefits of improved varieties may be applicable over a much wider area than any single crop management practice. As a result, improved varieties often provide a better alternative for poor farmers \"who cannot afford additional inputs or are simply unable to get access to them\" (Edmeades and Bänziger 1997). In maize, however, the particular technological and institutional complexities associated with the development of viable seed industries imply that relying on maize seed as an agent of technological change also presents difficulties (Morris 1998).Finally Drought stress is the most important abiotic constraint to maize production in developing countries. Its significant interaction with the other major abiotic stress, soil infertility, greatly increases the challenges confronting farmers, researchers, and policymakers. We have reviewed ways of measuring the effects of drought stress in maize production, the possible links between marginal maize environments and poverty, and scenarios of future maize supply and demand in marginal and favorable areas of the developing world. We then outlined many of the technological options for reducing the effects of drought stress in maize.This discourse may seem to have taken us far afield from the \"favored vs. marginal\" debate that was highlighted at the beginning of this report. This section begins with a review of the economic surplus approach to research resource allocation, with a particular focus on marginal and favorable areas. Additional considerations will then be discussed, both within the context of the economic surplus paradigm and in light of other goals such as poverty alleviation and environmental benefits. Although the analysis is general, clearly drought stress will be a very important component of most indices of marginality in maize, as it has been in previous studies of wheat (Byerlee and Morris 1993;Renkow 1993).The concept of economic surplus underlies most of the methods used by economists to estimate both the benefits and costs of agricultural research and to assess agricultural research priorities. This approach, based on areas measured below the demand curve and above the supply curve for a particular commodity, has often proven to be the most defensible method for evaluating returns to research. One advantage of the economic surplus approach is that it can be used to determine how the benefits of agricultural research are divided between consumers and producers, and among different geographical areas. The measures of changes in consumer and producer surplus can be interpreted in terms of cost reductions, yield enhancements, effects on the total quantities produced and consumed, effects on prices, and so on (Alston, Norton, and Pardey 1995).Surprisingly, the economic surplus approach has rarely been used to explore the question of how research benefits are distributed among favorable and marginal areas. Renkow (1994) provides a good summary of the most important issues involved in assessing the welfare effects of regionally differentiated technological change. To understand how agricultural innovations are likely to affect different types of households in different 22  Simultaneous changes in all markets can be analyzed by expanding the \"partial equilibrium\" economic surplus approach into a general equilibrium analysis. 23   In \"Measuring Benefits of Technological Change to Consumers and Producers\" (p. 30) and in the following discussion, maize will serve as the commodity. We implicitly assume that maize is consumed as human food, though the model could be modified to include the explicit consideration of separate food and feed markets. The importance of such a modification for particular maize producing countries may be judged from the data on food and feed consumption in Part 3. We also assume that the favorable area is a surplus region and that the marginal area is a deficit region.In  24   In such situations, producers in both regions would benefit, and consumers' welfare would be unchanged.In the closed economy case, technological change in the favorable agricultural region would lead to a decline in the maize price. Welfare changes in the favorable area would be ambiguous because consumers in that area would benefit, but producers could either gain or lose, depending on whether the advantages of greater yield were outweighed by the negative impact of lower prices. The net benefits to the region as a whole could be positive or negative. In the marginal region, producers would lose because they would receive lower prices for their maize; consumers would gain for the same reason. The net welfare change in the marginal region would be positive. In the urban areas, consumers would clearly gain.If technological change takes place in both marginal and favorable regions, the decline in maize prices would be greater than if the change occurred only in the favorable area. Likewise, gains to consumers in all three regions would also be greater than if the supply curve shifted only in the favorable area. In both producing areas, impacts on producers would be ambiguous. The net overall gains (by consumers and producers) in the favorable area would be less (or net losses greater) than under the status quo. The marginal area as a change might be more difficult to achieve in the marginal region, the supply curve in the marginal region might be assumed to shift out less than the supply curve in the favorable region. In the open economy case, the price of the commodity (say maize) is set exogenously; the increase in supply is too small to create a measurable fall in price in the country being analyzed. This could be because the country produces a small amount relative to the world total and is a net exporter or net importer.Alternatively, in countries where the government has substantial control over producer and consumer prices, impacts of technological change could also be modeled using these assumptions.  Many small-scale farm households in developing countries consume a substantial part of their own agricultural output and cannot be regarded as pure producers. Although the size of welfare changes varies between semisubsistence households, pure producers, and consumers, the direction (positive or negative) of the effects is the same for both net and pure producers, depending, of course, on whether they adopt the innovation. The direction of welfare changes is also the same for both net and pure consumers.Technological change in agriculture can also affect the income of households in areas where the new technologies are adopted. If the labor supply curve slopes upward, a labor-using technology will put upward pressure on wage rates. This affects the income of laborsupplying households, landless or not, and households \"for whom the implicit return to their on-farm labor will have changed\" (Renkow 1994). These conclusions could be modified, however, if the technological change is labor-saving or if reductions in output price accompanying a supply shift lead to a net reduction in the demand for labor.A new labor-using technology may also have impacts in areas outside of the region where it is adopted. If real wages in the adopting area rise enough to cover the cost of moving, people may migrate from the non-adopting area to the adopting area. Furthermore, this labor withdrawal will put upward pressure on wages in the non-adopting This basic framework can be modified in many ways. In all of these modifications, the basic concepts of consumer and producer surplus outlined here are still operative.areas. The empirical record concerning the relationship between technological change in agriculture and wage rates is mixed. Lipton and Longhurst (1989) found that in Green Revolution areas, real wages stagnated or increased very slightly. Singh (1990) found more evidence of rising real wages in parts of South Asia. Simple analysis also understates the long-term impacts and costly nature of interregional migration. Finally, rural-rural migration is probably a much less important phenomenon than rural-urban migration (Renkow 1994).In sum, empirical studies of the impacts of technological change in agriculture on regions and on different types of households may need to take into account a number of factors in both the grain and labor markets. Models that encompass a full range of questions about differential impacts generally come to different conclusions, depending on the empirical context. For example, in Pakistan, it was agriculture's share of household income that appeared to exercise the dominant influence on the welfare effects of technological change (Renkow 1991(Renkow , 1993)). In Southeast Asia, labor mobility and the responsiveness of agricultural workers to wage changes have been key factors (David and Otsuka 1994; Coxhead and Warr 1991).A full determination of whether net economic benefits can be gained from reallocating resources from marginal to favorable areas requires not only measures of the economic surplus to be obtained under each scenario, but also estimates of the costs of research, the length of time over which research occurs, the time lag between research 26 In other words, given a fixed research budget, the \"optimal\" allocation of resources would be determined by considering what would happen if one more dollar became available. If that dollar would earn the same amount regardless of whether it were invested in a marginal or in a favorable area, the allocation would produce the greatest economic surplus for the entire region under consideration.example, the relative emphasis to give to crop breeding and crop management.We began this report by contrasting the argument that production intensity should be reduced in more fragile ecologies with the contention that research is necessary to provide livelihoods and minimize adverse environmental impacts in fragile lands.A better characterization of the essential questions would be: Despite those benefits, however, there are several reasons to believe that such research is unlikely to make a profound impact on poverty. As demonstrated earlier, the linkage between the marginality of an agricultural environment and poverty appears to be and adoption by farmers, the speed of that adoption, the ceiling adoption rate, and something generally referred to as the \"probability of success\" (Alston, Norton, and Pardey 1995). This last parameter is important because research outcomes are uncertain; possible yield increases, for example, are distributed over a range of values.These are the standard parameters for studies of returns to research.Occasionally they have been used in ex ante priority setting exercises. The few studies that focused on the question of research resource allocation to marginal vs. favorable environments (e.g., Coxhead and Warr 1991; Renkow 1993; Byerlee and Morris 1993), however, did not begin with an attempt to allocate research expenditures to the two areas until economic returns to the last dollar invested had been equated for marginal and favorable regions. 26 Researchers tend to take current allocations to research as given and explore changes from the status quo (e.g., Mutangadura and Norton 1997), because policymakers want to start with the status quo when determining where the system should be moving. Still, a comparison of research costs, time lags, diffusion paths, and so on, under alternative scenarios, is as essential to discussions of \"optimal\" resource allocation as the analysis of net benefits and their distribution. Similar analysis can be applied to the question of marginal and favorable areas and to research within marginal areas; for tenuous at best, particularly at disaggregated levels. Poverty in marginal areas has many causes; an inhospitable agricultural environment is only one of them. Moreover, in some cases, the incidence and severity of poverty in more favorable areas are similar to that found in marginal areas. Many students of agricultural research policy conclude that agricultural research is only one of many instruments that might be used to achieve distributional objectives, and a fairly blunt one at that. For example, although agricultural research has often led to reduced food prices, with presumed benefits to the poor, there may be \"more effective and less costly ways to pursue a cheap food policy . . . than a distorted research policy\" (Alston, Norton, and Pardey 1995).The sobering reality is that sweeping pronouncements about poverty and research resource allocation are usually not very helpful. Useful policy information can come only through detailed analyses of specific casesanalyses that can track the impacts of different research strategies on different groups of interest, without necessarily assuming that research will singlehandedly lift many of these groups out of poverty.A good example of such analysis is the work of Mutangadura and Norton (1997). Focusing on Zimbabwe, they applied a combination of economic surplus and mathematical programming methods. Their starting point was the current (1995/96) allocation of resources within the Department of Research and Specialist Services. Among other points, they demonstrated that under current funding levels, maize research generates, by far, the largest share of aggregate economic benefits (just under 40% of the total); research on all other commodities accounted for the remaining benefits. Their findings also suggest that: 1) within a fixed research budget, allocating more resources to maize would be justifiable on economic criteria; 2) given the resource endowments and the importance of maize production in Zimbabwe, an optimal research portfolio would include resource allocations to both marginal and favorable maize production areas, and to both smallscale and large-scale farmers; and 3) at current levels of research expenditure, there is a relatively small loss in research benefits from placing extra weight on smallholders, but this loss would increase if the research budget was cut.In an earlier analysis of this topic in El Salvador, the efficiency-equity trade-off appears to have been steeper (Walker 1980). 27   Providing accurate measures to assess potential environmental benefits of agricultural research for marginal areas is more difficult and problematic than for assessment of distributional impacts. Addressing such concerns will require research directed at halting or reversing land degradation, a difficult objective given that little is known about the longterm consequences of alternative agricultural strategies in droughtstressed environments. Finally, policymakers must be aware that there are interactions between equity, environmental issues, and economic growth, and that large-scale economic change usually affects all three objectives simultaneously (Vosti and 27 Conclusions about efficiency-equity tradeoffs in public sector research might also be revised if alternative sources of research, such as the private sector, were considered.Reardon 1997). Research will find it especially challenging to develop technologies that benefit individual farmers in the short run and also contribute to longer term social objectives.Many commentators on the linkages between production, poverty, and the environment are hopeful of finding \"win-win\" (or \"win-win-win\") technologies that can successfully address more than one objective at the same time (Hazell and Fan 1998). This optimism runs counter to the cautious economist's presupposition that there are usually trade-offs between different objectives. However, examples of potential changes that benefit both production and poverty (or production and the environment) can be found under certain circumstances.♦ In some instances, institutional and informational inefficiencies within a research system may prevent a nation or region from reaching a frontier where trade-offs between societal objectives must be made. Under these circumstances, the system might achieve greater success in meeting diverse societal objectives by changing its mix of research projects.♦ In other situations, more favorable outcomes might be obtained on several fronts by scaling back other objectives; for instance, increased production and less poverty might be obtained by sacrificing environmental objectives.♦ In certain cases, committing more resources to agricultural research could result in obtaining both higher production and societal objectives. Nonetheless, given the larger research budget, trade-offs among these objectives would still be necessary.♦ Finally, employing additional policy instruments (e.g., price and income policy or infrastructure development) might produce a better mix of higher production, lower poverty, and environmental conservation for the same policy cost as relying solely on agricultural research (Alston, Norton, and Pardey 1995). Both analysts and research policymakers must recognize that there are alternative ways to reach complex social objectives and that finding the appropriate role of research will require considerable thought.Before deciding whether to allocate additional resources to maize grown in drought-stressed environments, research managers should carefully look at four key points: the appropriateness of maize; the balance between crop management and plant breeding; the balance between breeding for less favorable and more favorable maize environments; and the roles of different research institutions.The appropriateness of maize in drought-stressed areas. Many observers (e.g., Lipton and Longhurst 1989) consider sorghum and millet to be \"safer\" than maize in drought-stressed environments. The data presented in the first section, however, suggest that down to a certain rainfall threshold, maize is often economically preferable to sorghum or millet. The maize crop may fail with slightly higher frequency, but its superior productivity in good years makes this risk acceptable to most farmers. There is very little evidence that maize is spreading into environments where rainfall drops below those thresholds. Matlon (1990), after reviewing the potential for sorghum and millet in semiarid Africa, concluded that \"both efficiency and equity goals would suggest that larger shares of research and development resources should be allocated to higher potential zones and crops, with relatively declining shares allocated to sorghum and millet in the medium and long run.\"The balance between crop management research and plant breeding. Another widely held belief is that the drier the area, the larger the potential gains from crop management research, compared to gains from crop improvement research. Although this may in fact be true, our discussion about the difficulty of introducing technological change into marginal environments suggests that this would be a good question to study using the basic tools of economic analysis. Even if the benefits from crop management research are potentially higher, they must be balanced against potentially higher research costs, longer time lags between research and adoption by farmers, lower adoption rates and ceiling adoption rates, and lower probabilities of success.Although economic analysis might suggest some reallocation of research resources between breeding and management, it is important to consider that improved cultivars will often complement crop management changes (Sanders, Shapiro, and Ramaswamy 1996). In Zimbabwe, when maize research components aimed at smallholders in low potential areas were ranked, agronomy/chemistry and soils research both placed ahead of plant breeding, but all three were considered \"high priority\" research activities (Mutangadura and Norton 1997).breeding objective. In selection for drought tolerance, the primary objectives were yield under drought and yield per se. Adding drought tolerance to materials being improved for other traits would add to breeding costs, but continued attention to drought tolerance in plant breeding and technology extension efforts seems well justified. It is evident that: 1) continued maize production from severely drought-stressed areas is necessary; 2) drought stress can significantly affect production even in better areas;3) selection methodologies must be extended to production ecologies other than the lowland tropics; and 4) considerable work will be required to move drought-tolerant material into farmers' fields.Economic analysis of individual components of plant breeding programs could conceivably provide insights into whether resources allocated to drought tolerance should be reallocated in relation to total breeding resources. Such analysis, however, is still in its infancy. 28 Future refinement of this type of analysis will require a methodology that ensures that returns aggregated over different components of a breeding program are not significantly different than conventional estimates of returns to the entire program.The roles of different research institutions. Finally, public sector maize research programs are more likely than private sector research entities to concentrate on the problems of marginal areas, because payoffs are perceived as being lower and more uncertain than in other areas (López-Pereira and Filippello 1994). Similarly, the costs of research directed at marginal areas may mean that agricultural research at the international level is necessary to complement public national research programs. Institutional analysis from an economic perspective can help illuminate the relative roles of different research actors and how these roles change over time (Morris 1998).Drought stress is a major and ubiquitous constraint to maize production in developing countries. In non-temperate maize environments, annual losses to drought may be responsible for about a 15% reduction in production. Drought stress clearly results in lower yields, especially when it occurs near maize flowering. Although it is apparent that maize yields in areas particularly subject to stress are lower and more variable than yields in irrigated areas that are or that have more reliable rainfall, much more work is necessary to accurately quantify the economic impacts of drought.During the past 25 years, considerable progress has been made toward partially alleviating the effects of drought stress through technological advances in crop management and the development of germplasm with greater drought tolerance. Unlike other cereals, in maize there seems to be little difference between the genetic advances achieved in better-watered environments and those achieved in drier conditions. Crop management interventions may possess greater potential for significant impact on maizeThe balance between breeding for less favorable and more favorable environments. How should resources within a maize breeding program be divided between research for lessstressed and more-stressed areas? Improvements in drought tolerance in maize have not come at the expense of yield under unstressed conditions (Edmeades et al. 1997a; see also \"Methods for Selecting Maize for Tolerance to Drought Stress,\" p. 20). In absolute terms, gains from selection in drought tolerant germplasm that is grown under better-watered conditions appear to be only slightly less than gains from selection in regular breeding programs (López-Pereira and Morris 1994). There is also little evidence that maize yield gains (in percentage terms) in farmers' fields in drier areas have been generally lower than yield gains in better-watered locations. Thus, there seems to be an empirical difference between maize and wheat. In wheat, both genetic progress and yield gains in farmers' fields appear lower, in percentage terms, in dry areas than in more favorable environments (Morris, Belaid, and Byerlee 1991; Byerlee and Moya 1993). This same trend may eventually become apparent in maize as new technologies are more widely diffused among farmers in nontemperate areas.From the perspective of theoretical genetics, breeding costs increase for each additional trait used in selection.The lower the genetic correlation between traits, the more it costs to incorporate them. One of the reasons gains in drought-tolerant material under better-watered conditions appear similar to historical breeding gains in \"normal\" germplasm may be that in the latter case, yield was not the sole production than genetic solutions; however, they may be costlier to develop and diffuse, and ultimately they may reach fewer farmers than more drought tolerant germplasm. Since germplasm and management interact strongly, the most successful technological interventions in droughtstressed areas will probably involve changes in both crop management and germplasm.One point, however, is quite clear: Agricultural research for marginal environments, and particularly for maize in drought-stressed environments, will continue to be justified. The most promising course for increasing maize production to meet projected demand to 2020 requires a combination of large yield increases in favorable areas, smaller yield increases in marginal areas, and some growth in area planted to maize. Furthermore, given the usual circumstances under which technological progress continues in favorable areas, additional agricultural research directed specifically at marginal environments would probably benefit the majority of households in these locations. Such research, however, may not significantly reduce poverty. The relationships between the marginality of agricultural environment and level of poverty are complex, and agricultural research is a relatively blunt instrument for reducing poverty. Infrastructural investment, in some cases, may be a superior approach.Agricultural research for droughtstressed maize environments probably will have consequences for unpriced natural resources. Unfortunately, little is known about the long-term consequences of alternative agricultural strategies in drought-stressed environments. One of the most pressing resource issues in developing country maize production, in both more and less drought-stressed areas, is soil infertility and land degradation. The need for more technological and economic research on this issue is acute.So far, little analysis appears to have focused on whether additional research resources should be allocated to favorable environments, from marginal ones or vice versa, or on whether current allocations are nearly optimal given the present size of research budgets. These are important and unresolved economic research questions. Apart from the need to meet production objectives, policymakers are likely to continue targeting research resources to marginal environments for political reasons, preferring to focus on visible equity concerns rather than less obvious issues of efficiency. Economic analyses can help clarify the value of production forgone by following such strategies. In some cases, \"win-win\" situations may exist where the same research strategy can address more than one objective. This may involve choosing a better combination of individual research projects, sacrificing other societal objectives, devoting additional resources to research, or combining research with other policies aimed at the same objectives. More attention must also be paid to the special role of public sector agricultural research for less favorable areas, as the private sector increasingly provides research for more favorable regions.The analyses in this report reveal the complexities inherent in attempting to clarify aspects of the favorable vs. marginal debate at the global or regional level. Despite the many broad assertions that have accompanied this debate, the truth of the matter is that there are no easy answers to the questions we posed at the beginning of our report. Although additional research and new research methods should help us make progress in determining the best approach to research resource allocation for favorable and marginal areas, our knowledge will probably have to become deeper before it can become broader. More careful, thorough case studies that analyze the implications of alternative allocations of research resources to marginal and favorable areas are essential before sweeping statements about such allocations on a global basis can be made. Using data from case studies together with more accurate assessments and definitions of marginal areas (provided by the combination and integration of GIS data, crop modeling, and refined economic measures) would enable researchers to provide sound information and options on research resource allocation to policymakers. While the marginal vs. favorable debate may continue, few will argue the value of better understanding agriculture in marginal areas, agriculture's relationship to the people who live there, and its effects on the local and regional ecosystems. South, East, and Southeast Asia Latin AmericaForecasts of high harvests for the 1998/99 cycle and their impact on final inventory levels allow us to make an optimistic calculation of the world cereal supply. The FAO forecasts that world cereal production for 1998 will be 1.911 billion tons. This level of production would bring world cereal stocks back to the FAO's minimum security level of 17-18% of output.Global maize production continues to rise, despite fluctuations over the past five years, totaling more than 580 million tons in 1997. Erratic trends within the industrialized nations, which began in the early 1980s and prevailed throughout the 1990s, continue to affect global production. In industrialized countries, the 1997 maize output of 321 million tons surpassed the 1985 total by less than 5%. In contrast, developing nations' maize output increased by 45% over the same period. Developing countries produced more maize than industrialized countries in 1993 and almost as much in 1988 and 1995. Although maize production in industrialized countries rebounded somewhat in 1996, developing countries produced a record 278 million tons that year (Figure 12).Increases in both yields and cultivated area contributed to maize output growth in developing countries during 1961-70. This contrasts to 1971-80, when production grew primarily because of increased yields. Since then, annual growth in maize area and growth in maize yields in developing countries have remained fairly stable. In the industrialized nations, maize output growth chiefly comes from increased yields. The average annual growth rate in the total area under cultivation was negative during 1961-70 and 1981-90, but the impact was greater in the latter period because increased yields did not compensate as much for the drop in cultivated area. In the current decade, the rate of growth in cultivated area in industrialized countries has once again been positive but relatively low (Figure 13). Maize area fluctuations in industrialized countries are particularly influenced by world market conditions and shifting agricultural policies.Comparing Figures 12 and 13 suggests that for industrialized nations, output growth, and to a certain extent yield growth, were more stable in the 1960s and 1970s than they have been in subsequent decades.Figure 14 shows yield growth rates for different periods in different groups of developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, yields grew at around 1% during the first three decades (1961-90) but grew much more rapidly from 1991-97. Part, but by no means all, of this recent acceleration in yield growth could be accounted for by the recovery in production that followed the devastating drought in southern Africa in 1991-92. In the most recent season, despite the occurrence of El Niñorelated weather phenomena in some countries, the effects were less   29 Trade data may be reported in two ways, even within the same institution(in this case the FAO). The FAO's long-term electronic trade database is maintained on a calendar year basis. More contemporary trade data that focus on the recent past and on near-term projections are sometimes reported on a July-June \"trade cycle\" basis. As a result, when discussing longer-term trade comparisons we will usually employ a calendar year definition, but when presenting comtemporary shifts in trade volumes, more recent trade cycle estimates may be used. Global maize utilization totaled 579 million tons in 1996, with the largest proportion (387 million tons) used for animal feed. Use of maize for direct human consumption has remained stable at around 100 million tons per year since 1988; 97 million tons were used for direct human consumption in 1996.An analysis of how maize is used in the developing countries reveals interesting patterns. The rate of growth in the volume of maize used for animal feed has been rising since 1986, but since 1991, the increase has become more pronounced (see Figure 16), with utilization now totaling 180 million tons. In contrast, the volume of maize used for human consumption has fallen. The highest figure (87 million tons) was recorded in 1990, while 1996 utilization was slightly more than 82 million tons. Demand forecasts for feed maize are linked to the projected expansion of poultry and pig production in some countries; if the projections are correct, maize used for those purposes will soon reach 200 million tons. The recent economic turmoil in Asia, however, may affect the long-term rate of growth in demand for feed maize there. We explore revised forecasts at the end of this section.There has been a clear downward trend in real world maize prices since the mid-1970s. Figure 17  Cereal policy over the past few years has been aimed primarily at marketoriented reforms. The mechanisms used for this have been: 1) the reduction of subsidies for inputs and 2) the privatization of economic activities that were previously part of governments' responsibilities in this sector.Poor harvests during the 1994/95 and 1995/96 cycles forced some countries to maintain their subsidies and to halt their price liberalization measures.Policies encouraging cereal imports were also introduced to guarantee domestic supplies. These measures were implemented primarily to benefit domestic consumers.In the sphere of international trade, progress was made toward compliance with the trade liberalization commitments made under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), although some governments continued to grant subsidies and apply quotas, thereby limiting access to their domestic markets.New farm legislation in the USA has potential long-term effects on international cereal trade and prices. If the USA increases the efficiency of its agricultural sector through a strong degree of market orientation-which is the purpose of the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996-it could become a more competitive cereal exporter. One of the major provisions of the legislation eliminates the connection between income maintenance payments and agricultural prices. During the coming years, many countries are expected to continue designing and implementing policies that liberalize their domestic and international cereal trade. This may have some impact on both the volume and global prices of these commodities.Neither the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or the Congressional Budget Office expect that recently enacted US legislation will have major effects on supply, demand, or prices; rather, farm incomes in the USA are likely to become more variable and require more risk management. This conclusion is likely to apply to other parts of the world as markets liberalize.The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently modified its forecasting model to include a scenario of reduced economic growth in Asia. In this scenario, the growth rate in non-agricultural, gross domestic products is assumed to decline by approximately 50%. For maize, the main impacts are on demand, not supply. The volume of maize used for human consumption is projected to increase faster in the \"reduced growth in Asia\" scenario than in IFPRI's baseline scenario; maize used for animal feed, meanwhile, will grow much less rapidly. Using the \"reduced growth in Asia\" scenario, by 2020, developing countries would consume roughly 30 million tons less feed maize than under the baseline scenario. Asia would account for nearly all of this decrease (Table 12).IFPRI's revised scenario also assumes lower maize production in the developing countries. Maize imports in Asia would decrease more than 30% compared to the baseline scenario.Maize imports for developing countries overall would only decrease 11%, because developing countries outside of Asia would be expected to increase their imports to some extent. Because lower demand rather than lower supply would account for the overall reduction in consumption, the real price of maize in the \"reduced growth in Asia\" scenario is expected to be about 10% lower than the baseline projections (Table 12).The following tables present statistics related to maize production, trade, and utilization, as well as some basic economic indicators. These statistics reflect the latest information available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise indicated, the regional aggregates include data from all of the countries in a particular region, including those countries for which data have not been reported individually. For a list of countries belonging to each region, see Appendix A. Regional means are appropriately weighted; thus they may not exactly equal the mean of the average values presented for each country. The FSU was divided into separate countries, for which statistics were reported individually. Regional aggregates for variables 2 and 3 are based on countries in the region that have data presented in the tables. ","tokenCount":"12910"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1811fdf6fa45f26dd3bda72b4acb75b2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/250a5738-0d67-4973-ab16-7c72207cfa9a/retrieve","id":"826976266"},"keywords":["Gender","social inclusion","food and nutrition security"],"sieverID":"d2666a2f-3e85-4ca1-8b25-c2e3323ecdcb","pagecount":"29","content":"The Zimbabwean economy depends on agriculture, which is at a crossroads with the environment, particularly under conventional agriculture practices. Transitioning to agroecology approaches has been identified as a means to transform food systems and address the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social inequities, and rising demand for food. While policies can support or hinder agroecological transitions, it appears that there is a dearth of knowledge on the extent to which the national policies contribute in Zimbabwe. We carried out an academic review and a desk review of policies in Zimbabwe and report on the outcomes in this report. We found that the literature on agroecology is consistent on the definitions of agroecology, but there is need for translating this into practice, and evaluating the practice which is characterized by transitions. There are many policies along the themes of agriculture, environment, natural resources and climate change that support agroecology, however, they are not well coordinated and thereby miss opportunities for synergies. There is a need to integrate the tools and design institutional arrangements that facilitate the implementation of the policies.Sustainable agriculture practices and land use management must support productivity while preserving and or enhancing the natural landscape and environment, to sustain agricultural and ecological functions into the future. Agriculture has traditionally been the mainstay of the Zimbabwean economy, with the majority of livelihoods directly dependent on it. Therefore, the agriculture policy environment directly affects the fate of the Zimbabwean economy.Globally, agriculture and the environment are at a crossroads. As weather pattern changes and droughts become more frequent, agricultural productivity is on the decline. Household and national food and nutrition security are at risk today and in the future. Conventional practices in agriculture have been oriented towards industrial agriculture, based on heavy turning of soils, and high use of external inputs. Such practices exert negative pressures on the environment and require agroecological modifications to repair the environment, improve resilience to climate change and begin to reverse it. It is imperative to pivot towards agroecology, to maximize productivity while maintaining the integrity of the environment and preserve it for future generations, not least to ensure intergenerational justice and equity.The government in Zimbabwe has taken steps to promote food systems that are more ecologically compatible with Zimbabwe's semi-arid areas by developing appropriate policies and programmes. Agricultural policy is key for the development of favourable and sustainable guidelines for the promotion of efficient agricultural practices that will improve food, promote nutrition security, provide employment for the citizens, raw material for agro-based industries as well as to earn foreign exchange. Policies are instituted to identify priorities and to guide processes in their specific sector. Therefore, policies can predict and/ or explain sector performance and the subsequent effect on livelihoods.Macro and sectoral policies that focus or touch on agriculture, natural resources, climate change and environment themes have a bearing on the agroecological transition as their implementation has direct impacts on productivity, economic, environmental, human and social domains of communities. Primary outcome areas for Zimbabwean policies in agriculture, focusing on food, feed, fibre security, seek the attainment of food and nutrition security and the reduction of poverty, in resonance with international blueprints such as the sustainable development goals. Agroecology can be defined in several different ways, and we elect to define it in this report within an integration of agriculture, climate change, environment, natural resources, to serve productivity, economic, environmental, human and social needs.Agriculture is practiced in the environment, and as such, the two are interdependent. Natural resources, such as land, soils and water, forests, can also be defined as subsets of the environment. Climate change has significant effects on these and is threatening agricultural productivity and hence livelihoods. To be effective and to achieve the intended result, agroecology interventions require integrated, collective action. The role of policies in the spheres of agriculture, environment, natural resources, and climate change in influencing an agroecological transition cannot be understated.Policy can play a significant role in scaling innovations. There are different policy tools that governments can use to influence the behaviour of citizens. Policy tools have been described to take on the alternatives of carrots, sticks and sermons. Carrots are based on incentives that citizens get in return for following policy, such as the inputs farmers access if they prepare planting basins. Sticks depend on penalizing individuals who do not comply with policy while sermons depend on convincing people to follow policy but providing them with a moral or other motivating factor. Communities react in different ways to this, depending on their own environment and context. Government policy must align across different sectors and be congruent with the capacities of citizens to participate. For example, the gap between a government policy that promotes soil testing on one hand and a tax or fiscal regime that makes soil testing laboratories and equipment unaffordable will have the net effect of cancelling each other out. It may also not be enough to have several policies that promote different aspects of agroecology without one dedicated policy to guide an agroecology as this would then effectively guide the process. A combined review of academic literature in agroecology policy with a desk study of actual policies can contribute to characterizing a policy environment with respect to whether it promotes or hinders agroecology transition.Agroecology has gained momentum as a science, a set of field, farm or landscape practices and a social movement that can help transform food systems and address the concomitant challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social inequities and rising demand for food (Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021, Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021). Although defined differently, at minimum, there is consensus that it should encompasses: recycling; input reduction; soil health; animal health; biodiversity; synergy; economic diversification; co-creation of knowledge; social values and diets; fairness; connectivity; land and natural resource governance and participation (Wezel et al. 2020, Barrios et al. 2020). In essence, agroecology as a science is the study of the ecological, economic and social dimensions of food systems (Francis et al. 2003). In the context of field, farm and landscape practices, agroecology is concerned with harnessing natural/ecological processes to improve environmental, social and public health outcomes and build synergies and biological interactions that benefit agroecosystems while minimising social ecological externalities such as erosion, degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and social inequities (Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021).Because agroecology embraces several principles and elements, qualifying a system as agroecological is not trivial. Does a system qualify to be agroecological only when it applies all the 13 principles or half, four, five or 10? This difficulty has led to 'agroecological transitions' where the gist is to understand the extent to which a system is (i) oriented towards agroecology and (ii) the extent to which extant practices are aligned to agroecology principles (Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021). Others have proposed that this transition should be stepwise and start from the adoption of agroecology practices to complete transformation of food systems (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021). Agroecological transition measures the degree to which a system is oriented towards agroecology. This suggests there is no one agroecology but a spectrum of agroecology as suggested by Dumont et al (2021). More benefits are realised the more a system is oriented towards agroecology. For example, (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021) found that implementing several agroecology principles was associated with stronger food security and nutrition outcomes. Several practices used by farmers meet some aspects of agroecology. Part of the needs for future research will be help identify where systems that apply given practices are in the transition to agroecology.Despite several studies documenting the genesis, evolution and partly, impacts of agroecology on the environment, welfare, and livelihoods (Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021, Francis et al. 2003, Wezel et al. 2020, Bezner Kerr et al. 2021), not much has been done on agroecology policy. A search of peer reviewed publications indicates a dearth of work (i) on the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transitions in the global south and (ii) on policy options or instruments to facilitate agroecological transitions. It is neither well understood how best agroecology can be translated or mainstreamed into policy nor how well policy makers understand, appreciate, and prefer agroecology. This review is an attempt to contribute towards improving our understanding of the status of agroecology policy in Zimbabwe and the global south. It also identifies research gaps and proposes important areas for future research.This study was synthesized out of two approaches, viz an academic review based on publicly available peer reviewed and grey literature, as well as a desk study of the policy documents available in Zimbabwe.The academic literature review is based on grey, and peer reviewed publications drawn from searching for key words in common data bases such as Web of science, Scopus, and Google scholar. Search words used include \"agroecology policy in Zimbabwe\", \"agroecology policy in Africa\", \"agroecology policy\", \"agroecology and policy in Zimbabwe\", \"agroecology and policy in Africa\", \"impacts of agroecology\" and \"principles of agroecology\". This yielded several papers that were reduced to 34 based on their focus on some aspects of agroecology in Zimbabwe, Africa or in general. These are grey and peer reviewed publications. The 34 papers were further screened by title; abstract and keywords and 20 papers were deemed suitable and reviewed in detail.The policy literature desk review sought to understand the focus and thrust of the policy environment with respect to transitioning towards agroecology, giving specific actions points. The study was designed to review and summarize key policies relevant to agroecology transition. This report details the overall thrust, agroecological focus as well as specific actions points in the policy instruments. Documents related to agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources were identified in a desk study. Policies, strategies and plans were obtained in the public space, online and from the ministries responsible for agriculture and for environment. Using a snowball approach, relevant additional documents discovered were added. Each document was reviewed with respect to relevance to agroecology. A shortlist of documents with high relevance to agroecology was selected. This report is based on the shortlist, unless stated otherwise.As agroecology gains prominence in academia and development circles, most extant studies on the subject are skewed towards documenting its evolution, describing its 10 or 13 principles and offering perspectives on how agroecology can be implemented in practice (Barrios et al. 2020, Dumont, Wartenberg, and Baret 2021, Francis et al. 2003, Wezel et al. 2020). Others have surveyed the literature and synthesize the impacts of agroecology on food security and nutrition outcomes (Bezner Kerr et al. 2021) and yet others suggest tools and frameworks for analysis (Mottet et al. 2020). Not much work has been done on understanding the policy context of agroecology. Exceptions are Ajates Gonzalez, Thomas, and Chang (2018) who study how agroecology was translated into policy in France and the UK and Valdivia-Díaz and Le Coq (2022) who document a roadmap for scaling agroecology in Peru. Several themes emerge from this literature. Here are four.First, there is consensus on what agroecology encompasses as espoused in the 13 principles of agroecology and there is no debate on the importance of agroecology as a means to transform food systems. The 13 principles of agroecology give a broad framework that can guide any future work on agroecology in any part of the world. There will be differences in the specific practices that fit the agroecology principles depending on the local context. Identifying what fits where and the extent to which such practices align with agroecology principles should be an important part of future research.Second, there is no global agreement on when a system qualifies to be agroecological, but higher benefits seem to accrue in systems that apply several agroecological principles. This highlights the importance of bundling agroecology principles for their multiple synergistic benefits. Given the weight of the available evidence, there is need for more rigorous impact assessments to evaluate the benefits of bundled agroecology across different scales and levels. It is understood that systems will be at various levels on the spectrum to agroecology. Untangling this 'definition' of agroecology is key to facilitate evaluation.Third, evaluation of agroecology will benefit from the application of consistent tools and approaches across scales and levels. Existing tools such as the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) -which can be used to assess the extent of agroecology transition, monitor and evaluate agroecology projects and evaluate drivers of changes in agriculture systems (Mottet et al. 2020) hold promise. These, however, need to be further vetted, validated, and accepted by the global community of practice. Because agroecology encompasses several aspects spanning ecology, social, economic, welfare, governance and environment make developing comprehensive, adaptable, and flexible evaluation tools a daunting task.Fourth, the dearth of evidence on policy aspects of agroecology is glaring. Except for a few countries in Europe and South America, not much is known on (i) the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transitions in the global south and (ii) on policy options or instruments to facilitate agroecological transitions. It is neither well understood how best agroecology can be translated or mainstreamed into policy nor how well policy makers understand, appreciate, and prefer agroecology. If unaddressed, this policy knowledge gap can hinder efforts to scale agroecology and to mainstream it into national policies. It also makes it difficult for policy makers to distinguish agroecology from common alternatives such as conservation agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable intensification. And its use might be conflated in common parlance with other vogue terms and risk diminishing agroecology.A total of 49 documents that fall under the broad banner of policy instruments, including 14 policies, 6 strategies, 12 plans, 5 acts, 5 multilateral environmental agreements and 6 other policy related documents were found on the desk study. A shortlist of 20 documents was prioritized taken for deeper analysis, and classified according to themes, viz agriculture, natural resources, environment, natural resources and social inclusion.In this study, the agriculture sector is supported by a family of instruments consisting of National agriculture policy framework covering a range of themes such as broad policy frames, food systems transformation, traditional grains, gender, etc., see table 1 for more details on the documents covering (among others) the regional agriculture policy framework, the Agriculture and food systems transformation strategy, the draft traditional grains commercialization strategy, the agriculture gender strategy, four plans and one programme. Analysis under the environment theme was informed by two instruments, namely the Zimbabwe national environmental policy and strategies as well as the Zimbabwe wetlands policy. These are closely related to the natural resources theme which was informed by the National water policy and the National biodiversity strategy and action plan. These four documents are related and support those informing the climate change theme, which are the Zimbabwe national climate policy, the National climate change learning strategy, the Zimbabwe national climate change response strategy and the Revised national determined contributions. These are all hosted by the same Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. The National gender policy is a cross cutting policy hosted by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community development while the Food and nutrition security policy is hosted by the Office of the President and Cabinet.The documents were published between the year 2005 and 2022. Fourteen of the documents were developed for a specific lifetime, from 4 to 12 years. Most of the documents were designed for four to five-year lifetimes. However, four of these are past their end date, without a replacement yet. Summary by sector Agriculture This section summarises the findings from reviewing agriculture policies shaping the sector in Zimbabwe. It starts of with a presentation of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy a then looks at the key agriculture policies and programmes in the country. All instruments reviewed as part of this section, except the tobacco value chain transformation plan were concerned with the production of food.This section summarises the findings from reviewing agriculture policies shaping the sector in Zimbabwe. It starts of with a presentation of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy a then looks at the key agriculture policies and programmes in the country.All instruments reviewed as part of this section, except the tobacco value chain transformation plan were concerned with the production of food. The main policy thrust of RAP is to define common agreed objectives and measures to guide, promote and support regional and national activities in the agriculture sector, crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, towards the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) common agenda, that is, sustainable and equitable economic growth and socioeconomic development. This includes the enhancement of agricultural production, productivity, competitiveness, market environment, public private sector engagement, and food and nutrition security with resilience to economic and climate changes.It is guided by 12 principles including subsidiarity, additionality, complementarity, proportionality, regionality and coherence. It promotes the additionality of the regional body without replacing the national policies. Each objective policy statement is supported by a number of strategies and policy implementation mechanisms. The policy describes the establishment of an agricultural investment plan at regional level and additional ones at national level. The policy would be reviewed every five years, and accountability is to the region and member states. The RAP promotes agroecological approaches using agriculture, environment, climate change and natural resources entry points.Some of the actions promoted by the RAP includes enhancing the sustainable utilization of plant and animal genetic resources through ex-situ and in-situ conservation of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture; promoting crop variety and livestock breed development efforts for adaptation to climate change and variability; promoting access and benefit sharing; promoting collection and dissemination of information on genetic resources. Efforts towards both climate change adaptation and mitigation are supported. The policy provides for national interventions in effective soil fertility management systems, taking soil diversity into account, carbon sequestration and biodiversity preservation. Furthermore, the RAP also seeks to harmonize and standardize the proper use and disposal of agrochemicals, and to complement efforts to manage transboundary threats including pests and diseases; and support efforts to improve the management of water resources (including water conservation and efficient irrigation systems), smart (renewable) energy options, and forests. It is indicated that SADC shall support capacity building in carbon stock monitoring (including developing capacity for carbon trading and participating in this), promote sound environmental impact mitigation measures and support member states in achieving their climate policies. This would be part of regional research to develop context specific adaptation strategies for climate change and variability. Across all activities, gender issues that are relevant to food and nutrition security are to be mainstreamed.The NAPF was designed to support recovery and growth of the agriculture sector, two decades after the fast-track land reform program. It is composed of several pillars to guide agriculture sector recovery and growth: (i) food and nutrition security, (ii) agriculture knowledge, technology and innovation system, (iii) production and supply of agriculture inputs, (iv) development of agriculture infrastructure, (v) agricultural marketing and trade development, (vi) agricultural finance and credit, (vii) access, tenure security and land administration, and (viii) sustainable (green agriculture).The supporting strategies and plans of these nine pillars follow nine principles which are (i) evidence based, (ii) productivity and growth oriented, (iii) nutrition sensitive, (iv) market-based, (v) private sector led and public sector facilitated, (vi) collaborative and multisectoral, (vii) participatory and responsive to agroecological potential, (viii) sustainability, and (ix) gender, youth and other vulnerable groups mainstreamed. The NAPF is supported by a broad strategy, the Agriculture Food Systems Transformation Strategy (AFSTS), and five specific anchor plans:1. agriculture recovery plan, 2. accelerated irrigation and rural development plan, 3. horticulture recovery and growth plan, 4. agriculture information management system plan and 5. livestock recovery and growth plan. While this draft has been in circulation, specified for 2018 to 2030, it has never been ratified.The agroecological theme of agriculture, environment, natural resources, and climate change appear throughout the policy framework and most notably in the pillars on food and nutrition security (pillar 1) and sustainable agriculture production (pillar 8). The social dimensions of employment and income generation are also addressed. The principles of the document include sustainability, participatory, responsive to agroecological potential as well as gender, youth and vulnerable groups mainstreamed.There is a clear focus on intensification of production and diversification of the food production basket. The NAPF seeks to build resilience in the agriculture sector using sustainable agriculture intensification and sustainable natural resources management, and specifically calls for the adoption of climate smart agriculture, conservation agriculture with mechanization, water harvesting and irrigation development. Low cost technology investments such as irrigation (supply and services) and post-harvest management are promoted as modern approaches to raising productivity and adapting to climate change under smallholder conditions. Renewable energy is also cited as a strategic resource. The framework promotes grassroots nutrition education and utilization of biofortified seed or vines for improved access to nutrient dense food. There is a desire for development of early warning systems, coupled with rapid response. Concerns for sustainable natural resources management and environmentally friendly approaches in the wake of climate change are noted in the document, including biodiversity conservation and wetland management. Yet conventional input promotion remains a core tactic in these strategies as well.This strategy was developed to operationalize the NAPF. As detailed in the strategy document, its goals are to; raise agricultural productivity and improve contribution of the agriculture sector to the GDP; ensure household and national food security; secure agricultural industrial inputs; generate surplus foreign currency savings and earnings; improve the agriculture market access and competitiveness; and raise per capita income generation. The strategy document states that all the goals should be achieved using the agriculture resource base sustainably. The themes detected in this document are agriculture, climate change and natural resources.Actions highlighted in the AFSTS include the presidential inputs scheme, whose details are not specified in the document. The presidential inputs scheme has evolved since it was introduced from a simple programme that provided inputs to farmers to one based on conservation agriculture, the pfupfudza programme. The pfupfudza program involves a conditional input program implemented through local extension staff and administrators who verify compliance with minimum tillage as a condition for receiving subsidized seed and fertilizer. There are plans to include subsidized machinery services in future rounds. In addition, there is a target is to mechanize 1 million hectares by 2023. Digital and labour-saving technologies are promoted to improve efficiency and reduce costs of production. Government is prioritizing investments in dam construction, borehole drilling and irrigation infrastructure development across the country to conserve and sustainably utilize water for higher productivity and to respond to challenges from climate change and variability. Concerns for the environment are not specifically mentioned.The policy promotes traditional grains, recognizing them as typically underutilized crops with resilience under various biotic and abiotic stresses, including climate change. They are to be promoted as a resilience strategy, against crop failure, for diversification of diets and integration of highly nutritious diet options. The mission of the traditional grains (TG) strategy is \"to prevent and alleviate food and nutrition insecurity in the face of climate change by mobilizing the power of plant genetic resources and reversing non-communicable disease pandemics through increased consumption of TG products\". The strategy aims to stimulate research to support a robust TG seed system; support higher production and productivity while reducing the drudgery currently associated with the production; and tap into strategic partnership and improve the value chain coordination and profitability. The strategy also seeks to stimulate consumption of the TG through differentiation of products.The strategy promotes wider production of traditional grains, and research for the development of high yielding varieties and the reduction of drudgery associated with production and processing. This is promoted in part as a coping mechanism against maize monocropping (diversification) and climate change and variability. Training of farmers is one of the strategies proposed to achieve this. There is also a need to stimulate higher consumption.The agriculture sector gender strategy aims to direct gender mainstreaming in programming in the ministry, its departments, agencies and stakeholder institutions in line with regional and international policies and strategies, such as the Millennium development goals which were the United nations blue print at the time the strategy was formulated. The target is to institutionalize gender responsive systems that serve the strategic gender interests of both women and men farmers to achieve increased agricultural productivity and production. Some of this is done through the gender coordinating unit to facilitate reviews of policies and institutional frameworks with respect to gender mainstreaming, to train senior officials in the ministry and its parastatals, and to integrate gender, through a quota system into succession, promotion, appointment and staff development to improve the contribution of women in decision making at all levels. The document has no mention of technical innovations in agroecological themes, it is however included because of importance of gender dynamics to rural agriculture and associated livelihoods. Gender disparities stand in the way of full participation of some members of society, while agroecology principles of social values and of participation call for social inclusion. The strategy document advocates for the reduction of gender disparities currently experienced in all components of the sector. A key action of the policy was the identification of gender focal persons at all nodes to facilitate mainstreaming in implementation of all agriculture policies and programmes.The agriculture recovery plan (ARP) is the first and main plan of the AFSTS. It provides detailed guidance to implement the AFSTS. It focuses on the major crop value chains, maize, wheat and soybean to improve domestic food and nutrition security and to improve their contribution to GDP. The plan also integrates diverse alternatives of other value chains such as potatoes, cassava and sweet potatoes to facilitate adaptation to climate change and diversification of diets. Furthermore, the ARP provides various financing models, with an emphasis on private sector financing. Capacitation of extension services by improving mobility and access to information is identified as critical to improve productivity. The hub and spoke model is used to support increased productivity and support consolidation of value chains in localities, with specialization of production in respect of the agroecological suitability. The plan mentions a model where institutions of higher learning lead innovation, digitalization and modernization of agriculture.A key action point addressed by the ARP involves increasing access to finance for Agriculture. It details loan support for irrigation of wheat, the development of a green belt in the lowveld to achieve two maize cycles per annum, under irrigation, adoption of sorghum, millets and sunflower instead of dryland maize and soybean. Conservation tillage is encouraged, while irrigation rehabilitation and development are promoted along with mechanization. Relevant to agroecology, the ARP incorporates a presidential input grant scheme, which is based on climate proofed conservation agriculture and good agriculture practice in general. Soil conditioning, soil testing and subsequent liming for soil health and improved production efficiency is encouraged.The livestock growth plan (LGP) provides details to the AFSTS, with respect to livestock value chains 1 , for food and nutrition security and income. The plan seeks to pivot smallholder farmers towards commercial livestock production orientation and to accelerate growth for the re-settled large scale commercial farmers 2 (A2 farmers). It targets improvements in livestock feed, genetics and health of the national herds, and seeks to be responsive to climate change. Like the AFSTS, it has a Presidential input grant scheme component and has private sector involvement. The plan leans significantly on coordinated multi-stakeholder responses, including private sector and the donor community for financial support.LGP actions include the establishment of irrigated pasture belts close to water bodies in public/private/community partnerships to supplement livestock feed in drier areas; adoption of climate smart crops such as cassava and cowpea, forage sorghum and prickle pear for silage; self-generating grasses such as catambora, kikuyu and star grass to contribute to resilience building against climate change; training of farmers in various animal husbandry practices that include feed formulations to contribute to improved nutrition and climate change adaptation; and breed improvement and adoption of appropriate breeds including native breeds; and adoption of small livestock for adaptation to Zimbabwean conditions and to climate change. Furthermore, the LGP promotes climate proofed dairy production and climate proofed animal husbandry. To protect smallholder farmers and promote sustainable agriculture in areas where there is conflict wildlife, erection of electric fences is planned around national parks such as Gonarezhou. This is expected to contribute to the reduction of disease transmission from wildlife to livestock and promote the one health approach. Together with electric fences the LGP will seek to increase the number of veterinary services, including dip tanks and associated boreholes, to contribute to maintenance of animal health. The LGP presents opportunities for additionality with other government policies and programmes. Examples include the mainstreaming of climate resilience and inclusion of women and youth. However, while water is required for drinking, dipping, irrigation, and fish farming, there was no explicit focus on its management in the document. The LGP is also noticeably hush on management of other natural resources.The horticulture recovery and growth plan (HRGP) targets the transformation of the horticulture sector in a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the revival of the conventional horticulture industry and secondly establishing a rural horticulture industry. This is to accelerate domestic and export horticulture production, productivity and profitability, to earn forex and substitute imports, contribute to food and nutrition security, employment creation and raising household incomes. With respect to financing, conventional horticulture is designed to lean on partners and private sector financing while rural horticulture is to be supported under the special the Presidential scheme grant support. The plan aims to use commodity specific strategies, projects and programs. The plan touches on agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources.The HRGP promotes the establishment of orchards, plantations and nutrition gardens by households, schools, villages, and youth groups is promoted and supported for food and nutrition security and income generation through production of exotic and indigenous vegetables and fruits, as well as improved sweet potato varieties. The nutrition density of these additional foods promote improved family nutrition. These interventions are supported by sinking of boreholes for watering crops with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) integrated for the benefit of the communities. Under the HRGP, rural aggregation centres are to be established for value addition and beneficiation of produce. Furthermore, the plan also promotes the improvement and conservation of indigenous vegetables and fruits, along with annual tree planting, research and development, market development and improved coordination. The plan promotes environmentally sustainable practices, however, not much detail is provided. This provides AEI with the opportunity to design interventions that provide clarity. The HRGP details the participation of women and youth.The plan focuses on the tobacco value chain, a major foreign currency earner (12.5% of export earnings) for the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe. However, it is dependent mainly on offshore financing, thereby reducing the net export benefits. The TVCTP aims to enhance tobacco contribution to GDP, forex earnings (raise to 70% of export earnings), employment creation and to raise household incomes by growing the tobacco value chain through localization of tobacco financing, sustainable intensification, increased production and productivity, value addition, beneficiation and export of cigarettes, including exploring new markets. This document focuses on the agricultural sector.The TVCTP intends to promote sustainable environmental management as tobacco production is traditionally notorious for being harmful to the environment because of its reliance of wood or coal for curing and high use of chemicals. The strategy promotes afforestation, to replace and plant trees for future use, and supply of coal, for tobacco curing. This is a lesser evil to simply getting firewood from the forest one did not plant, but still agroecologically insensitive. If this sector is to continue, clean energy options should be explored. Tobacco production is generally not agroecological, with deforestation being one of the main offenses.There is also poor adherence to tobacco production regulations by farmers and poor policing by government departments. Consequently, the TVCTP include farmers awareness and education programmes to mitigate and move away from harmful practices. The plan promotes diversification of the cash crop portfolio, supported by farmer training in good agronomic practices. This will facilitate increased revenues for farmers, and enhance traceability of produce, while responding to climate change and the anti-tobacco campaign. There is a single mention in the document of the use of irrigation for tobacco production as adaptation to climate change.The ZAIP is designed to support the recovery of production, productivity and competitiveness of an agriculture sector that has been significantly reoriented by the 2000s land reform programme 3 with respect to farm size, resulting in a larger number of smaller farms operating well below their potential. It was conceived in support of the draft agriculture policy framework of 2012, called for attainment of food and nutrition security, sustainable use of the natural resource base, income generation, employment creation, and economic growth. It identifies four result areas namely production and productivity through improved management and sustainable use of land, water, forestry and wildlife resources; increased farmer participation in fair trade in local, regional and international markets; food and nutrition security and agricultural innovation and scaling of improved technologies. The programme seeks to promote and facilitate investment in the agriculture sector, stimulated by initial financing from government, benefiting farmers and the agriculture sector, public and private. Some of this would be achieved through capacity building, partnerships, policy alignment and institutional arrangements. The programme promotes good agriculture practices, sustainable utilization of natural resources, environmentally friendly approaches, and responsiveness to climate change. Specific interventions include tax incentives for investors and agriculture sector stakeholders. This program expresses support for agroecological transitions through agriculture, climate change, environment and natural resources.The ZAIP document calls for increasing area under conservation farming, mechanization for labour savings, water harvesting, sustainable irrigation technology 4 and water efficiency in irrigation. This includes rehabilitation of existing irrigation infrastructure that was damaged during and after the land reform programme, dams, and boreholes, and raising the capacity of human resources to carry out the activities. The ZAIP encourages strengthening climate change adaption in the implementation of agriculture practices and allocates a budget to this. There is also a call for increasing the area under sustainable forestry, wildlife and environmental management. The programme promotes wholesome food for all by adoption of the farm to fork approach.The programme expressed a desire to advocate and facilitate the review of the land policy to influence the tenure farm tenure system towards more bankability.The summary findings from environmentally heavy policies are included in this section. Two environment sector policies were reviewed, the Zimbabwe national environmental policy and strategies and the Zimbabwe wetland policy. The policies reviewed in this section were concerned with the natural environment and how they interact with food systems.The goal of the national environment policy and strategies is to preserve and utilize the environment sustainably for improvement of livelihoods for current and future generations, with concerns for environmental integrity, productivity, social and economic issues. The policy recognizes the variable potential land use portfolios and also addresses marginal areas. The need for inclusivity in access to environment benefits and development, as well as responsibility through public participation for preservation and sustainable utilization is highlighted. It promotes conservation agriculture and environmentally friendly agriculture management practices. Under environmental integrity, it singles out air (pollution), water, land and biodiversity. Other natural resources are covered under protected areas and transboundary and natural resources management. Under strategic directions on each entity, it specifies possible actions, but is not very explicit, such as \"provide and improve the research and extension services needed to support optimal land-use by landholders\". It is unclear who is going to do this and under what arrangements as it sounds like a ministry of agriculture mandate. The policy refers to the Environmental Management Act, enforced by the parent ministry, for some guidelines e.g. the identification, measurement and conservation of biological diversity, in line with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Financial and legal implications are considered under a separate section, also supported by guiding principles. the policy calls for the establishment of an effective institutional framework, committed to sustainable development and able to collate and manage environmental information. Research, environmental education and awareness are cited as useful towards attaining the ideal. There is a need to promote national interests by cooperating in drawing up and implementing international environmental agreements, and collaborating with neighbouring countries on transboundary environmental issues.Along with the main sector environment policy, the ZNEPS also addresses natural resources and agriculture albeit to a lesser extent. The policy has no stand-alone section on climate change and it is not mentioned in the vision, objectives or principles.Specified action points, with respect to the agriculture, environment and natural resources, include the safeguards to water quality by setting and enforcing guidelines for water quality and effluent discharge. The ZNEPS supports the expansion of irrigation and water harvesting and provides training and capacity building in irrigation management so as to minimize the risk of both soil and water degradation. The policy promotes public awareness of natural resources issues, promotes conservation and encourages sustainable use of land, in line with the agroecological potential and other natural resources. The policy calls for the identification of endangered species for protection, including by use of protected areas. Degraded natural resources must be rehabilitated. The policy promotes the ecosystem approach to biodiversity utilization and conservation. The policy calls for improved research and extension to support sustainable land utilization.The Zimbabwe wetland policy defines several different types of wetlands, lists eight wetlands of international significance in Zimbabwe, including two lakes, two vleis, two underground pools (Chinhoyi caves and mana pools), a dam and a national park, and emphasizes the vulnerability of wetlands to degradation and the need to arrest further decline, and restore degraded ones.The policy has more than 30 policy statements, broken down by area of concern, including crop and livestock production, habitat services, research and education, tourism and recreation as well as religious and cultural significance. The policy seeks to establish effective frameworks for sustainable, participatory, and integrated management of wetlands; to enhance and maintain the value derived from wetlands for the conservation of biological diversity and improvement of livelihoods as well as to build the capacity of practitioners in wetland management, in line with Ramsar convention.Actions points include the establishment of wetland education centres countrywide and the integration of indigenous knowledge in wetland management. Community participation in wetland management is encouraged through establishment of local management institutions, extraction and sustainable utilization of wetlands products is encouraged, while measures to respond to climate change are encouraged to be put in place. It is also suggested that there should be legislation put in place to protect wetland habitats. Some wetlands would be declared as ecologically sensitive ecosystems, thereby gazetting them for protection and preservation. Agriculture can only be practiced on wetlands under permit from the environmental management agency, and where practiced, must be environmentally friendly, supporting conservation measures for ecosystem health. Some agricultural production, such as rice production, is traditionally only carried out on wetlands. This is due to the perennial availability of water, which is what makes wetlands sensitive. The policy states that discharge of waste into wetlands would be forbidden and would attract a penalty, but it is unclear if this in response to rampant practice of waste disposal into wetlands. It also promotes enforcement of relevant regulations and laws related to environmental pollution. There is need for development of climate change response strategies to safeguard wetlands and their functions. The policy document does not specifically mention gender, youth or other vulnerable groups.The third set of policy documents reviewed related to management of natural resources policy. Two policies, the national water policy and the national biodiversity strategy and action plan II (NBSAP2), were reviewed. Natural resources include water, flora and fauna.The national water policy (NWP) was developed and hosted by the now abolished Ministry of water resources development, whose departments have been integrated into the Ministry of lands, agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development. The policy is a response to challenges in water supply, food insecurity (agricultural production), the underperforming economy and climate change which promotes increased evaporation, evapotranspiration, water shortages, floods and runoff. It shows significant concerns for equitable water distribution, but also a need to integrate principles of integrated water resources management as guided by regional and international agreements and blueprints concerning water resources management.Issues of water services pricing appear consistently. In the section on agriculture, there is concern for reduced revenue due to decline in agriculture water usage. The need for water for irrigation in agriculture and for water in other sectors such as mining is recognized and recycling of water is encouraged. The policy recognizes the need for climate change to be integrated into all water resources planning and design of activities.The NWP interventions are not very specific. The policy states that water allocation between agriculture, industry and domestic among other uses would be reviewed and adjusted accordingly. It also specifies that climate change would be integrated into all water resources planning and designing of activities. There is an indication for investments into hydropower generation. The policy calls for efficient use of water, to reduce wastage, to recycle and reuse water as a principle of sustainability and multi stakeholder catchment management to safeguard water against siltation and other degradation pathways. Whilst the NWP alludes to zero tolerance to pollution of water bodies, enforcement, supposedly the prosecution of offenders, isn't apparent in practice. Polluters are required by the NWP to rehabilitate the affected area if they are found to have polluted. The requirements of water for irrigation and for environmental purposes, specified as riverine and aquatic eco systems, wildlife, wetlands, bird life etc. are noted, but there are no specific guidelines relating to this. Gender mainstreaming is called for, through the representation of women in council positions and boards and representatives as well as in gender sensitive programming.The NBSAP is the domestication of the United Nations convention on biological diversity (CBD), seeking to conserve and sustainably utilize biodiversity and ecosystems for current and future generations. It seeks to curb biodiversity loss, to safeguard ecosystems, species and genetic diversity by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society, and this through enhanced participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building, as well as gender mainstreaming. The strategy and action plan leans on research, innovations, technology as well as indigenous knowledge, and best practices for social, political, and economic development. Zimbabwe developed its first national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP) in 1998, covering the period 2000-2010. The NBSAP2 aligns with the UNCBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020.Agricultural crops and livestock species are considered forms of biodiversity which requires conservation and sustainable use.The NBSAP proposes to mainstream biodiversity into all sectors, and incorporating it into national accounting and reporting systems. The first two targets of the NBSAP 2 to be achieved by 2020 were; having at least 75% of the population of Zimbabwe aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably; and having biodiversity mainstreamed into all seven sectors (mining, agriculture, health, manufacturing, transport, and education) and incorporated into national accounting and reporting systems. It speaks of broad-based research and technological innovations, community empowerment, participation and sharing of benefits. It promotes communication, education, public awareness, research, capacity building and development concerning biodiversity and includes water and wetlands. The document promotes and supports community based natural resources management. It promotes and lobbies for the development of renewable energy and energy saving alternatives. It advocates for pollution prevention in ecosystems, disaster risk reduction, conservation and protection of threatened species and enhancement of ecosystem resilience. The document targets adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of climate change on vulnerable ecosystems and communities.The fourth group of policies and programmes reviewed was classified under climate change. A total of four policies and programmes are reviewed including; Zimbabwe National Climate policy; National climate change learning strategy; Zimbabwe's national climate change response strategy; and Zimbabwe revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). There are a lot of statements in the climate change policy instruments that need to be implemented in agriculture but it is not clear what the coordination mechanisms to achieve this are.The Zimbabwe national climate policy seeks to create a pathway towards a climate resilient and low carbon economy in which people have enough adaptive capacity and continue to develop in harmony with the environment. The policy recognizes that there are several sectors with a stake in climate change. There is a thrust to improve adaptation and mitigation efforts as funds permit -from national/ domestic, bilateral and multilateral funding mechanisms. It also seeks to harmonize national climate responses with regional and international efforts. Policy statements include efforts to develop capacity in weather and climate research and modelling, technology transfer, capacity building and information sharing; strengthen adaptive capacity and accelerate mitigation measures by adopting and developing low carbon development pathways towards attainment of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The national climate policy is the main guide to climate change pathways, and also gives some insights for agriculture, environment and natural resources.The ZNCP raises the need for a periodic review and update of the agroecological map of Zimbabwe in line with the changing climate, and the need for research on possible climate related shifts in viability of farming systems, including positive effects, such as carbon fertilization. It promotes adaptation and mitigation efforts such as irrigation and water use efficiency, the utilization of varieties with tolerance to climate change and variability and in the livestock sector, good grazing and feeding practices are to be encouraged to minimize greenhouse house emissions, and sustainable land-use systems in line with climate smart agriculture. To further reduce greenhouse gas emission, forest burning should be controlled and land use changes managed. It calls for strengthening of early warning systems for crops, rangeland, droughts, floods, diseases, pests and wildlife movement to enhance preparedness. Forestry resources are recognized as sinks and reservoirs of GHGs, which should be maintained and monitored for carbon stocks. Capacity for research to track and report emissions will be built. Afforestation is encouraged. There are also concerns for maintenance and sustainable use of biodiversity. Water is a climate sensitive resource and management is required, including water harvesting for domestic, animal, agriculture and industrial use. The policy shows concern for public awareness and participation concerning climate challenge and calls for the integration of knowledge into primary, secondary, and tertiary education curricula. The need for gender responsive programming is recognized. It is also indicated that indigenous knowledge should be used to complement scientific knowledge. The form of plans used to implement these statements and the coordination mechanisms in place actions stated that fall under other ministries are still under review.The national climate change learning strategy (NCLS) was developed under the United Nations' Climate Change: Learn Southern Africa Initiative, and meant to guide capacity development, that is, learning and skills development for individuals, institutions and systems to improve capacity to cope with and to mitigate climate change. The strategy highlights the need for environmentally friendly approaches, and sustainable use of natural resources. The strategy promotes mainstreaming of climate change learning at all education levels, and across all sectors and support decision-making guided by science, research, education and communication, and the effective implementation of other climate related instruments such as the Nationally determined contributions and the National Adaptation Plans. The strategy promotes innovations for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, taking into consideration gender and the need for partnerships. Continuous learning and the implementation of climate smart agriculture for resilience building are promoted. The contribution of indigenous knowledge to climate change learning is promoted.The policy mentions the need for research into climate smart agriculture, to strengthen the academic and colleges curricula on climate change, to promote proven climate smart agriculture and to improve access of farmers to information by increasing the extension to farmer ratio, assuming that increasing the supply will meet a demand. This would also contribute to increasing community awareness of climate smart practices, including crop choices. The policy calls for the development of communication and documentation protocols for climate change learning, creation of protocols for cataloguing and documentation of best practices for indigenous knowledge practices by communities, NGO's and CSO's. Gender and youth are mainstreamed in activities.This strategy was designed to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies along with disaster risk management in economic and social development at national and sectoral levels through multi-stakeholder engagement. It provides a framework for a comprehensive and strategic approach on aspects of adaptation, mitigation, technology, financing, public education, and awareness, assisting government to strengthen the climate and disaster risk management policies. The revised national NDC for Zimbabwe is the second Zimbabwe's NDC, and first to include targets from more than just the energy sector. This NDC is economy wide, and therefore includes agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors. Among the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it articulates strategies to build resilience to climate change in agriculture and in general, sustainable use of natural resources. Early warning and disaster risk reduction are some of the ambitions. The document enshrines ambitions for climate change mitigation and adaptation balanced with economic development. There is a desire to reduce the amount of GHG emissions from all sectors and to achieve net zero GHG emissions by the second half of the century.The five-yearly updates of countries' NDCs should increase ambition, expand sectoral scope and accelerate implementation of climate actions Some of the strategies include for the environment and natural resources, to increase area of forest land, to increase area of forest plantation. There is also a plan to develop and promote resilient and sustainable water resources management. Under agriculture, the plan is to build resilience. This includes to reduce area burned in agricultural production landscapes, to develop, implement and scale-up climate smart agriculture solutions and strengthen agricultural value chains and markets. There is also a plan to enhance early warning and climate-related disaster risk reduction systems. With respect to climate change, the plan is to ensure climate resilient infrastructure designs and development and to enhance adaptation and mitigation efforts in all sectors.Gender, social inclusion, food and nutrition securityThe last group of instruments reviewed were classified cross cutting and include gender, social inclusion and food and nutrition security. These are included because they impact AEI outcomes. For example, gender inequity is a common challenge in rural communities in the global south. Women and other vulnerable groups have disproportionately less access to productive resources compared to men. At the same time, women are responsible for disproportionately higher responsibilities at the farm and for other duties such as caring nutrition for the family. Bringing women to the drawing board for agroecology transition will reflect on the real issues and contribute to the discourse leading to true transformation. Two instruments were reviewed, the national gender policy and the food and nutrition security policy.This is the country's second national gender policy, replacing that of 2004, which led to the establishment of a standalone Ministry of women affairs, and significant efforts towards institutionalization of gender issues country-wide. The national gender policy seeks to end gender discrimination and achieve equality between men and women in society, and allow their contributions to development as well as their benefiting thereof, in line with national, regional and international policy frameworks. It recognizes women as 86% of people involved in agriculture production, situating them as vulnerable to the pressures of climate change and environmental degradation. The policy includes a situational analysis of the gender dimension in specific areas such as governance, education and training, productive resources and employment, and environment and climate change among others. It lists eight policy statements with detailed strategies.With regards to AEI, the NGP speaks to agroecology elements of social values and participation. Social values are embraced when AEI build food systems based on the culture, identity, tradition, social and gender equity of local communities that provide healthy, diversified, seasonally and culturally appropriate diets (FAO, 2018). Whilst on the other hand, participation is about encouraging social organisation and greater involvement of disadvantaged or vulnerable groups in decision-making to support decentralised governance and local adaptive management of agricultural and food systems (FAO, 2018). Although rural women play a central role in food systems, they are often at the periphery of decision making.The document lists strategies that include policy review and gender considerations audits in current policies in environment and natural resources management to identify gaps, recommend advocate for the incorporation of gender perspectives. It further details plans to conduct research and collect gender disaggregated data to highlight inequalities. It identifies a need to build capacity for gender mainstreaming in environment and climate change policies, programmes and national environmental action plans. Agriculture is mentioned within the environment and climate change section, and there are no additional specific points mentioned.The food and nutrition security policy seeks to promote and ensure food and nutrition security for all people at all times in Zimbabwe, particularly the most vulnerable, and in line with cultural norms and values and the concept of rebuilding and maintaining family dignity, to align with national, regional and international agreements such as the millennium development goals (MDGs), as it was developed before the era of the SDGs. A national task force chaired by the country's vice president (VP) is responsible for oversight, supported by an advisory group comprised of representatives from government, the United Nations (UN), donors, NGOs and academia. The policy lists eight principles for guidance and seven commitments to be implemented.Under commitment one-of the FNSP, focusing on a conducive policy environment, there is a need to direct funds to agriculture and sustainability to \"avoid unplanned negative environmental changes\". While the second commitment is designed to ensure food security for all, including access to adequate, diverse and nutritious food by all people at all times, with strategies that mention the need for sustainable production practices that are responsive to climate change. Conservation agriculture is encouraged, along with other approaches that mitigate the effects of unreliable rainfall. Commitment three includes the need for input programs to be immediately impactful on production (effective). The need for drought tolerant agriculture production options, in particular traditional grains, are recognized as a strategic resource in this policy. However, there is limited mention of production methods. The policy promotes increased agriculture production and diversification responsive to agroecological zone suitability and potential. There is an emphasis on diversity for nutrition security, and advocacy for technologies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and variability. Concern for the vulnerable runs through the document, with concerns for gender, women of child-bearing age, children under 5, and people living with HIV/AIDS specifically mentioned. Women are recognized as significant contributors to agriculture sector and requiring that their participation in agriculture not impact negatively on their other roles, such as that of being care givers. The inclusion of the vulnerable groups and sensitivity to nutrition are tenets of agroecology as it is built on inclusivity.Discussion: Implications for agroecological transitionIn this section, we attempt to weave the whole picture, after reviewing instrument by instrument under each theme. We attempt to discuss the implications for the agroecological transition. This section will also provide the background to questions on what innovations can be put together to start or sustain an agroecology transition in Zimbabwe. AgricultureThe agriculture sector can be argued as the backbone for the Zimbabwean economy and is supported by a large family of instruments to guide stakeholders in their performance and interactions. These documents also serve the interests of a majority of the population, who reside in the rural areas and therefore directly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The documents suggest a variegated focus on agroecology, with many documents having the rhetoric but not all. We detect that in future a more concerted effort to coordinate and revise policies will be needed. Within agriculture, there is some within sector coordination, in pursuit for support from development partners and private sector to carry the financial burden to produce the agricultural raw materials for their businesses and for research and higher learning institutions to support innovation development. The policies spell out concerns for the social integrity of all through food and nutrition security as a primary basic requirement. With respect to agriculture practices, climate smart, sustainable intensification options are promoted. The pfumvudza program is a bold statement from government on the support for climate smart agriculture. More needs to be done to ensure all instruments are implemented and implemented well in a timely manner. The primary conduit for guidance for the grassroots is through a dense network of agriculture extension personnel, whose performance can directly affect outcomes in productivity. However, farmers are not always in a position to implement, due to financial and social constraints. The requisite budgets for implementation of the policies are usually insufficient, putting the performance of farmers who depend on public support in jeopardy.The natural resources (land, soil, water, and biodiversity) theme is supported by policy guidelines from the ministries responsible for agriculture and for environment. The policies recognise the vulnerability of the resources and call for different strategies for their protection. The concern for protection is balanced with the realization of the potential for the natural resources to support human and social needs and therefore there is promotion of sustainable utilization. Support for these messages in the communities is delivered by officers from the departments in the ministry responsible for environment but these are very thin on the ground, compromising performance. They require and receive significant support from the agriculture extension network due to the interdependence of their focus areas. However, it may be taken as a secondary, less mandatory duty. There is poor regulation and policing in this sector.Environmental policies support agroecological transition by calling for humans to live in harmony with nature through environmental conservation and sustainable utilization. Awareness raising and policing in communities is carried out by officers from the ministry of environment. There needs to be a wide range of policy tools used and not to depend on policing or sticks in the environment sector. Effective transitioning will arise out of self-policing and ownership of the process by farmers. Officers from the ministry of environment need to be increased and mobility addressed to improve geographical reach. There is a wide gap in awareness and compliance, calling for new arrangements to address these.The country has taken a stance to mainstream climate change into all sectors across the economy. This is in support of an agroecological transition. There are several documents with strategies for improving learning and for guiding adaptation and mitigation. There is need for awareness raising and for progressively increasing the content of messages to improve adaptation and mitigation results. There is a need for clear plans to implement these policies and monitoring and evaluation plans to verify the capacity development. There is need to implement closely the monitoring of resilience building and performance.The cross-cutting instruments on gender, social inclusion and food and nutrition security impact AEI outcomes. There are relationships, some causal, between the results of AEI and food and nutrition security. As an example, the reduction of the dependency on expensive external inputs, can contribute to reduced food insecurity especially for smallholder farmers when less money is spent on buying inputs and used to buy more nutritious food. A second example, agroecological practices can adversely household nutritional status, especially for children, when more labour is required and it is mainly provided by women and girls who typically have the role of preparing meals. In this scenario, gender instruments can contribute to ensuring AEI can achieve intended outcomes. The relationships are indeed complex and include many trade-offs in practice. Understanding these relationships how instruments in this group can impact AEI and vice versa under specific contexts is critical to achieve intended outcomes. Most documents include the need for inclusivity. However, there remains a gap in acceptance and therefore implementation of these values in the communities. There is need for strategies to change perceptions and improve power dynamics.More research is needed to improve our understanding of how agroecology policy intentions be translated into food system changes delivering food and nutrition within planetary boundaries. . A good place to start is through desk review to understand the extent to which current national policies facilitate or hinder agroecology transition. There is also need for more research to assess awareness and understanding of, and preferences for agroecology among different actors in the food systems. Farmers, unlike processors or policy makers might prefer different elements of agroecology. Finding common ground requires rigorous ex-ante assessments using various tools and methods. One such tool is Best-Worst Scaling (BWS), which is a discrete choice experiment method that gives respondents an opportunity to choose the worst and best among items in a choice set. BWS enables respondents to consider trade-offs among policy options (e.g., money spent on translating agroecology into policy will not be available for other uses). It could also be used to identify the most locally relevant agroecology principles. By choosing the extremes -best and worst -from several short lists of options, BWS is not much of a cognitive burden. And the data from BWS allows computation of cardinal rankings, which indicate by how much a given policy option is preferred. Another important aspect for future research is identification of most policy instruments that can be leveraged to facilitate transition to agroecology.The policy environment in Zimbabwe, taking into consideration policies, strategies, plans and other policy documents generally support an agroecological transition. The problem statements in the different documents illustrate consciousness of the current challenges threatening the planetary boundaries because of unsustainable production practices and interactions with the environment. Most documents have specific actions that can facilitate the agroecological transition. However, translating policies to communities and capacitating the communities to implement often present hurdles.There is a realization that messages are fragmented and there is need to integrate the different sector focuses and provide integrated guidelines, and for this there is an agroecological policy currently being developed. There is scope for The Agroecological Initiative to contribute to the development of the national agroecology policy.There is a need for some cross sectoral coordination so that the messages from the different themes can be coherently translated to the communities. The communities need to be capacitated to engage with the subject matter and contribute to co-creation.. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.To learn more about this initiative, please visit this webpage. ","tokenCount":"10470"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8696941af1e2754421f693be5887ee94","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40631626-383b-4fe6-8a09-40cd16879336/retrieve","id":"934262562"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c23eb440-35c4-4824-93da-5db704912372","pagecount":"2","content":"Innovative technologies, capacities and policies are essential to respond to the challenges facing agriculture, food and nutrition security, climate change, health, biodiversity loss and deforestation. There is an increasing realization that investments in research and innovation need to be accompanied by investments in scaling and impact to ensure contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Innovations must be tailored and deployed faster, at lower costs and at a larger scale with governments and the private sector to address today's complex development challenges.The RTB Innovation Catalog will accelerate access to, adaptation and dissemination of innovations by providing:an overview of innovations and evidence-based data on their scaling readiness; a starting point for matching demand, innovation and scaling partners.The CGIAR is a global leader in agricultural research for development and has a track-record of developing stateof-the-art technical, capacity development and policy innovations. This provides CGIAR with a comparative advantage to work with investors and partners to improve and expand the use of these innovations at scale. For more information, please contact: Enrico Bonaiuti (E.Bonaiuti@cgiar.org)","tokenCount":"170"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"daf15ab5a117e1fc347631abe0324254","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b415c32-268c-4aa3-8233-094da2cc9df5/retrieve","id":"-938472533"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e265d53d-fea9-4ed6-a632-e91110536528","pagecount":"2","content":"Project Title: P581 -2.4.6 Asian Regional Policy Engagement Description of the innovation: The authors developed an alternative approach to conventional one-off food consumption measures, which harnesses the expanding presence of mobile phones to measure food consumption over time with precision and with the potential to capture seasonal shifts in diet and food consumption patterns. The method provides a picture of breaks and booms in access to calories as well as the ability to compare different moments in time, such as those before and after a nutrition intervention. • Improved social protection innovations are adopted in 3 countries by at least 5 partner organizations in total Sub-IDOs:• 15 -Increased access to diverse nutrient-rich foods • 16 -Optimized consumption of diverse nutrient-rich foods 1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:35 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"131"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84a2522e5494fcf3b28e075c91a83a14","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31c07e82-aff0-47c8-8f93-5f9484c522fe/retrieve","id":"918508914"},"keywords":["IITA","ABC","ITC","Rwanda Agricultural and Animal Resources Board","WFP","Action Against Hunger","VIAMO","and MrBot"],"sieverID":"5f19d758-2c54-424f-9e81-93e600587931","pagecount":"15","content":"Package 4, \"Real-time Monitoring,\" digital agriculture and food systems scientists at IITA and ABC engaged with demand partners in Rwanda and Guatemala to support their timely food security and risk management decisions using high-frequency data. Pilots were developed to collate high-frequency data on diet quality, food commodity flows, markets, and infrastructure networks and develop unprecedented insights into the dynamics of food environments. This new approach is expected to empower decision-makers with quality data, serving as a basis for early warning systems and timely interventions to address hunger and malnutrition. This report presents preliminary results achieved in 2022.As a part of CGIAR Research Initiative on Digital Innovation's Work Package 4, \"Realtime Monitoring,\" digital agriculture and food systems scientists at IITA and ABC engaged with demand partners in Rwanda and Guatemala to support their timely food security and risk management decisions. The main objective of this project is to collect high-frequency data on diet quality, commodity flows, markets, and infrastructure networks to develop new insights into the dynamics of food environments. These data will serve as input to early warning systems that can direct rapid, location-specific, and timely interventions to address hunger and malnutrition. In 2022, the first steps toward achieving this objective were made in each focus country. In Rwanda, we have collected weekly diet quality data, mapped the transport network and flows of crops across the network, and received coinvestments from The Rockefeller Foundation and USAID to continue data collection, validate the system, and scale into high-frequency monitoring food item flows. In Guatemala, we have established collaboration agreements with the World Food Programme and Action Against Hunger to replicate a similar suite of data collections, with data collection activities beginning in 2023.CGIAR, in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda and VIAMO, has co-piloted a generic, lean, and scalable data collection system for high-frequency collection of the diet quality questionnaire (DQQ) (Herforth et al., 2020). The system, deployed via an unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) platform, allows users of both smart and basic/feature phones to participate. The system allowed respondents to anonymously respond to the DQQ, at their convenience, with respondents encouraged to participate through a small ($0.30) payment received after submission.In 52 weeks, the system generated 87,569 spatially distributed data records.Responses were found to cost less than $1 and take less than 15 minutes.Preliminary results indicate that younger, female, rural respondents from middleincome groups have the highest quality diets in Rwanda, with the highest Global Dietary Recommendation (GDR)-Scores and lowest GDR-Limit scores. The GDR is a metric derived from the DQQ. Figure 1 demonstrates the benefits of high-frequency data collection, showing that female respondents had higher GDR-Scores than their male counterparts and how diet quality oscillated through the year. These data can provide relevant insights into seasonal trends in diet quality (e.g., pre-harvest or food item price fluctuations), how traditional hunger months (March and August), and (potentially) the Ukraine crisis affect diet quality. The trends of all indicators extractable from the DQQ can be explored in more detail in the interactive dashboard (https://dietqualitymap.org) (Figure 2). This work has been disseminated across multiple channels, including a publication (Manners et al. 2022), providing an overview of the methodology; inclusion within the Global Diet Quality Project annual document (Global Diet Quality Project, 2022); and within a seminar presented to the International Union of Nutrition Scientists in Tokyo.CGIAR has collaborated with the University of Twente (UT-ITC), Netherlands, to better understand the resilience of the Rwandan transport network. This builds upon work already developed as part of a global report (Nelson et al., 2021). The work in Rwanda is the first step in a pathway toward better understanding how food items flow through the national infrastructure network and identifying potential bottlenecks or areas of low resilience that could reinforce disparities in food availability and, ultimately, nutritional outcomes.The University of Twente/ITC (UT-ITC) team has delivered the first deliverable, which contains a number of outputs:1. Detailed transport network dataset for Rwanda. This is an update to the previous work developed by the team in 2021.2. Estimated food flows for 15 commodities (bananas, beans, cassava, fruits, groundnuts, maize, other cereals, potatoes, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sweet potatoes, vegetables, wheat, yams & Taro) across the Rwandan transport network.3. Updated mapping on crop production for the above commodities based on commodity flow data and existing spatial data.This work provides a baseline with which upcoming activities in 2023 can be validated. In particular, bi-weekly data collection in the markets of Rwanda will allow for the mapping of real (i.e., not modeled) flows of commodities across the network to be developed, providing unique insights into the spatial and temporal flows of food items and a novel validation opportunity. More detailed documentation on this work will be developed in 2023 and will be included in the Progress Report for 2023.Following the success of the approach developed in Rwanda, we identified Guatemala as a scaling opportunity to test the protocols, systems, and approaches in a different policy and institutional environment but with similar nutritional issues. The focus in 2022 for Guatemala was exploring partnering opportunities and understanding needs and challenges regarding food system monitoring to develop a clear and concise roadmap for 2023.In September 2022, the project team members from IITA and ABC traveled to Guatemala to discuss the potential of partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) and Action Against Hunger. In these discussions, the team presented current research developed in Guatemala and Rwanda and tried to better understand the needs, if any, for high-frequency digital data collection for these organizations. This visit flagged an important distinction between the two countries that USSD is not a recognized digital platform. We investigated the opportunity of engaging a third-party organization to build the system. As such, we identified MrBot, a local digital platform developer, to develop our own in-house platform.The digital infrastructure behind the data collection in Guatemala will be founded upon MeMo, a standardized system facilitating seamless data collection across different media (e.g., USSD, IVR, SMS, WhatsApp) and geographies. The MeMo is a co-invested innovation by the Digital Innovation Initiative and the 1000 Farms Project, designed to move away from costly service providers and provide low-cost in-house services that can provide flexibility and efficient means of high-frequency mass data collection for Guatemala and beyond. MeMo operationalizes data collection and visualization whilst providing basic analytics. Built upon the principles and learning of human-centered design, MeMo will ensure to monitor and collect information in the most efficient and intuitive means possible, ensuring data quality and reliability.Following the visit, partner agreements were signed with WFP to implement a pilot of high-frequency diet quality data collection with a sub-sample of the recipients of their interventions. A similar agreement was signed with Action Against Hunger to design a real-time food monitoring system in Chiquimula, which is focused on knowing the level of food consumption of families at the community level, with the potential for scaling up from the primary information collected.In November 2022, a stakeholder meeting was held in Chiquimula to understand their needs and present the data collection tool. In this meeting, there was considerable push-back on the potential of the tool, with questions raised regarding the reliability of the data generated and the actual need for the tool.Participants cited previous tools that had been brought to Guatemala but questioned their sustainability with the tools no longer being used following the end of the project. These valuable insights allowed the team to pinpoint the need for improved materials that stress the novelty, ease of use, and cost efficiencies of the system. The meeting also highlighted the need for a better understanding of users' needs, preferences, and pain points with food system monitoring tools and data. A deeper understanding can improve the design and the sustainability of the tool and system. As a result, we have integrated a human-centered design and user research expert into the project team in Guatemala. The local expert from our partner FUTOP has been leading the engagement with the stakeholders and has developed a user research plan to be implemented over the next months.Despite the highly receptive donor and research community, who embrace the vision of what could be generated from high-frequency food environment data, we have encountered considerable institutional apathy, despite malnutrition being a core focus of the Rwandan Government. We hope to address this with concerted information-sharing sessions in 2023 and training sessions with relevant governmental entities to ensure the institutional buy-in that this work deserves.The greatest challenge we faced was the lack of USSD penetration in the Guatemalan digital ecosystem. This requires a change in approach, which ultimately will be a positive change, encouraging the project to focus on engaging with a designer to develop our own system that can be deployed across a new digital platform. Once fully developed in 2023, MeMo will be deployed across IVR and WhatsApp services with WFP.Further challenges have been institutional, particularly the push-back we received from government employees in the stakeholder engagement workshop. The lack of clarity regarding the sustainability of the system and the reliability of the data forced a new approach. This new approach will be built upon a human-centered design focus, better understanding different user groups to ensure that we are developing a platform that is reliable, relevant, and cost-efficient to all potential users (e.g., government agencies, international organizations, or research groups).In Rwanda, we expect our impact to come through continued engagements with the government and governmental agencies. The Rwandan government has repeatedly demonstrated its desire for data-driven decision-making and addressing malnutrition being a core pillar of its policy agenda. If we can gain sufficient traction with the government, these high-frequency datasets could have transformative implications for policy development and directed interventions. We are also engaging with organizations like WFP and One Acre Fund, who have a considerable footprint in the country and how shown interest in the data collection platform and want to understand potential outputs.In Guatemala, the initial impact will be pursued through collaborations with the WFP and Action Against Hunger. Collaborating with these organizations will allow the project to generate data and address unforeseen issues before approaching the Government of Guatemala with a consistent data stream and results to demonstrate the value of the platform. of mobile phone-based deployment of the DQQ for generating high-frequency, reliable, and cost-effective diet quality data.Continuation and expansion of high-frequency diet quality data USAID will finance (currently $350,000) a continuation of weekly data collection. The system will be deployed in two simultaneous tracks for 12 months. We propose to continue the current data collection stream, where responses are gathered from ~1,800 respondents on a weekly basis. The continuation of this data flow will facilitate a comparative analysis of future trends in diet quality with those of precrisis equivalents. We also propose to onboard a smaller cohort of respondents (1,000), who will be contacted weekly and provided with a more extensive questionnaire. Questions on prices and changes in consumption patterns will complement the diet quality questionnaire. This cohort will be tracked to measure if diet quality is changing, but also if there are discernible patterns in food choice selection in the face of the crisis.USAID will co-invest, with the Digital Innovation Initiative, in piloting a data collection system for monitoring the flow of food items within Rwanda's food system. Specifically, we will look to develop a baseline understanding of the market conditions and the flows of food commodities across Rwanda. The baseline data will allow us to understand what items are available, where they are sourced, and their seasonality and the seasonality of the vendors. Using the collected data, we expect to map the bi-weekly flows and distribution of food items in the Rwandan market system. This will then facilitate in evaluating the implications of these flows for diet quality, diet cost, and nutrition security at distinct temporal and spatial scales. This work will be developed with One Acre Fund, the largest extension organization in Rwanda, servicing more than 1 million farmers. The outputs from this work will serve as a validation of the work generated by UT-ITC.Crowdsourcing diet quality data Using MeMo, deployed through WhatsApp and IVR, the project will begin collecting data in Chiquimula, initially, for WFP, while we continue discussing with Action Against Hunger about collecting data from individuals and families with whom they work. These data will be pushed directly through to the project dashboard to ensure all data are accessible and information can be reviewed.The user research phase will focus on understanding users' needs, preferences, and their pain points with regard to diet quality and other food systems data, digital tools, and the DQQ tool in particular. The results will help the project team to identify different user groups (or personas) and draft different user journeys with our tools. This will inform the user-centered design and scaling of the tool in Guatemala. We will also conduct a usability test with the tool for the different user groups (e.g., users submitting and sharing information and users interacting with the dashboard and data). We will conduct the tests in person in order to get direct insights through observation. Usability testing methods to apply can either be A/B testing, think-aloud, or tree testing.We will set up a stakeholder roundtable that will initially integrate our partners, including WFP, ACH, and MrBot. The idea of the roundtable is to motivate stakeholder engagement and interaction and make them part of the scaling and codesign process of the food system monitoring tool. A stakeholder roundtable has","tokenCount":"2239"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ebeb7f6c4491a745bc0519ebd9d0bd2f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/48b0f804-ba9c-43ee-916c-948c64dd059b/retrieve","id":"-558771276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f0cbc22d-b01a-4e44-916e-394dbdaf1625","pagecount":"124","content":"Cuadro 7. Recuperación de áreas degradadas puestas en valor a partir de plantaciones comerciales y servicios ambientales en Ucayali .También agradecemos la disposición de los actores que brindaron las facilidades para visitar sus experiencias en campo y/o realizar entrevistas en sus sedes. Entre ellos: Eber Herrera (Universidad Nacional de Tumbes), Hipólito Castillo (Consultor), Ramón Casana y Hugo Marcos (A Rocha Perú), Miguel Puescas (Universidad Nacional de Tumbes), Manuel Llanos (AIDER), Ruperto Orellano (C.C. Tongorrape ASPROBOS), Raphael Paúcar (PROGRESO), Gregorio Ferro (Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos ECOAN), Tulia García (CEDAP), Magdalena Machaca (ABA), Porfirio Zegarra (ACCA), Juliet Mormontoy (Asociación Civil Pachamama Raymi), Zelma Silva (CEDES), Juan Ludeña (Agrónomo), Pedro Rivera (GORE Ayacucho), Raúl Hinostroza (Centro de Cultura Indígena del Perú CHIRAPAQ), Arturo Quispe (PRIDER Ayacucho), Gualberto Villar (AGRORURAL Ayacucho), Martín Retamoso (Agroforesterías Sostenibles S.A.C.), Enrique Toledo (Reforesta Perú S.A.C.) y Edgar Díaz (Universidad Nacional de Ucayali); quienes además gestionaron la participación de diferentes actores involucrados en sus experiencias a fin de obtener la mayor información posible durante las visitas.Este estudio forma parte de la Iniciativa Internacional sobre el Clima (IKI) y ha sido financiada por \"The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB)\", por decisión del Parlamento Federal de Alemania. Para más información sobre IKI, puede acceder al siguiente enlace: www.international-climate-initiative.com.Más de dos mil millones de hectáreas de paisajes deforestados y degradados del mundo tienen potencial para ser restauradas, una oportunidad enorme para reducir la pobreza, aumentar la seguridad alimentaria, contener los efectos del cambio climático y proteger el ambiente (Laestadius et al. 2011). En consecuencia, nacen diversos compromisos internacionales, entre los cuales se encuentra la Iniciativa 20x20, un esfuerzo dirigido por países de América Latina y el Caribe bajo el cual el Perú se comprometió a iniciar procesos de restauración en 3,2 millones de hectáreas para el 2020; y para cuyo cumplimiento, el Servicio Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (SERFOR) viene liderando la elaboración del Programa Nacional de Recuperación de Áreas Degradadas (PNRAD), en colaboración con diversas instituciones nacionales e internacionales.Vinculado a este gran desafío de restauración destacan dos enfoques: el primero, la restauración ecológica, desarrollado por SER (2004), que la define como el proceso de asistir la recuperación de un ecosistema que ha sido degradado, dañado o destruido, buscando el retorno a la trayectoria histórica; y el segundo, la restauración de bosques y paisajes, definido como un proceso activo que busca equilibrar la reposición de los servicios del ecosistema en los hábitats silvestres con la biodiversidad, la regulación de los recursos hídricos, el almacenamiento de carbono y otros factores, y mantener las funciones productivas en beneficio de la agricultura y demás usos afines de la tierra (McGuire 2014). Ambos enfoques son usados en Latinoamérica y el Caribe, aunque en la práctica se presenta cierta ambigüedad en el uso de los conceptos asociados a estos enfoques. El Perú no es ajeno a la aplicación de ambos, habiéndose desarrollado un amplio conjunto de prácticas y experiencias, varias de las cuales aún no han sido recopiladas y analizadas de manera integral. En ese contexto, el presente documento tiene por objetivo proporcionar un análisis del estado actual, los retos y las oportunidades de las experiencias de restauración en el país, y brindar recomendaciones a tomadores de decisión y a las partes interesadas para el diseño, ejecución y evaluación de futuras iniciativas de restauración en el Perú, como por ejemplo, el PNRAD.El análisis se desarrolló a nivel de país y por ecorregiones, utilizando como base el mapa de ecorregiones terrestres de la WWF (Olson et al. 2001), a partir del cual se identificaron 11 ecorregiones en el ámbito de las experiencias reportadas, las que fueron agrupadas en siete en función de las especies y la estrategia de restauración empleadas, además de la cercanía geográfica. El estudio se basó en la recopilación de experiencias utilizando un formulario con 40 preguntas que abarcó la descripción del área y de la experiencia, aspectos técnicos, resultados y lecciones aprendidas. La información se obtuvo a través de una encuesta en línea, vía telefónica y mediante un documento en formato Excel, y se asumió como verídica, no habiéndose realizado una verificación en campo en todos los casos. No obstante, se realizó visitas a determinadas experiencias a fin de profundizar en algunos aspectos claves de sus iniciativas. En total, se lograron recopilar 94 experiencias abarcando un período de 50 años, con predominancia de aquellas realizadas desde el año 2000.Entre los resultados principales, los actores que lideraron la mayor cantidad de experiencias fueron las ONG y el sector estatal, y en menor proporción las empresas privadas, universidades y actores locales.Cabe resaltar que, aunque se contó con la participación de la población local en las etapas de implementación y monitoreo en algunos casos, se evidencia la necesidad de fortalecer su participación durante la planificación. Por otro lado, las principales causas de degradación reportadas fueron la deforestación, el sobrepastoreo y la erosión, lo que se vio parcialmente reflejado en los objetivos, donde predominaron la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal, la promoción de la concientización ambiental, la recuperación de la biodiversidad y, en menor proporción, la reducción de la erosión del suelo, la generación de empleo local, el aumento en la disponibilidad y calidad del agua, entre otros.En relación a las especies utilizadas, predominó el uso de especies nativas, considerado a su vez como el principal criterio de selección de especies, seguido por la disponibilidad de material de siembra, especies útiles para corregir la degradación y especies de interés comercial. Asimismo, las principales fuentes del material de siembra fueron los viveros y los bosques naturales; además, más de la mitad de las experiencias no contempló ningún criterio para verificar la calidad de éstas. A fin de mejorar las condiciones físicas del suelo y de controlar la degradación del área, las principales medidas fueron la estabilización del terreno, el control de la erosión, la aplicación de enmiendas orgánicas, la exclusión del pastoreo, y el control de incendios y quemas. La estrategia de restauración más utilizada fue la plantación, seguida por la agroforestería (que incluye a los sistemas silvopastoriles) y, en menor proporción el manejo de pastos, las plantaciones combinadas con la regeneración natural, y la regeneración natural asistida.Por otro lado, más del 50% de las experiencias implementaron un sistema de monitoreo, predominando el nivel intermedio seguido del básico, en los cuales solo se evaluaron variables del estado de la plantación; mientras que un 9% desarrolló un nivel avanzado, que contempló además el estado de algunas funciones ecosistémicas y el registro de corrección o mejora con base en el monitoreo.En cuanto a los resultados alcanzados en el aspecto ecológico, la generación de microclima fue la más reportada, seguida del aumento de la disponibilidad del agua, la reducción de la erosión y, en porcentajes menores al 20%, la generación de hábitat, la recuperación de conectividad ecológica con bosques remanentes, la regulación hídrica, entre otras. Sin embargo, estos resultados no fueron soportados por mediciones, excepto en algunos casos. Con respecto a los resultados en el aspecto económico, predominó la venta de productos no maderables, seguido de maderables y en menor proporción de servicios ecosistémicos (bonos de carbono y ecoturismo). Además, se reportó la preocupación por la falta de articulación con el mercado, que afectaría la venta de dichos productos.El documento finaliza con un conjunto de recomendaciones claves para cada etapa del proceso de restauración. A nivel de las condiciones facilitadoras para la restauración se tratan las políticas, los aspectos legales, las oportunidades de restauración, los incentivos y el financiamiento. En una segunda etapa referida a la planificación e implementación se abordan el diagnóstico, la gobernanza y participación, los objetivos, las especies a emplear, las intervenciones y el monitoreo. En una tercera y última etapa se tratan los aspectos de fortalecimiento de capacidades y gestión de información. En complemento a este resumen también se puede consultar el capítulo de síntesis para un mayor detalle de información cuantitativa.A nivel mundial existen más de dos mil millones de hectáreas de tierras degradadas y deforestadas con potencial de restauración, de las cuales mil quinientos millones de hectáreas son apropiadas para la restauración en mosaico y hasta quinientos millones de hectáreas para la restauración a gran escala (Minnemeyer et al. 2011). Asimismo, según este análisis global existen seiscientos cincuenta millones de hectáreas de tierras deforestadas y degradadas en América Latina y el Caribe, las cuales representan oportunidades para la restauración (Potapov et al. 2011).En ese contexto, nacen diversos compromisos y metas globales cuyo objetivo en común es devolver la integridad ecológica a los ecosistemas dañados o destruidos. Entre ellos se encuentra el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB), cuyas partes han acordado la Meta 15 de Aichi, de restaurar por los menos 15 por ciento de las tierras degradadas para el 2020, y el Desafío de Bonn, iniciativa global propuesta por Alemania y la UICN en el 2011 que establece restaurar 150 millones de hectáreas de tierras deforestadas y degradadas antes del 2020, la cual fue respaldada y ampliada a 350 millones de hectáreas para el 2030 por la Declaración de Nueva York sobre los Bosques en la Cumbre del Clima de las Naciones Unidas en el 2014. En consecuencia, han surgido plataformas regionales como la Iniciativa 20x20, lanzada formalmente en la COP 20 en Lima en el 2014 que contribuirá al Desafío de Bonn.La Iniciativa 20x20 es un esfuerzo dirigido por países de América Latina y el Caribe con el objetivo de restaurar más de 27 millones de hectáreas de tierras degradadas para el 2020, bajo el cual el Perú se ha comprometido a iniciar procesos de restauración en 3,2 millones de hectáreas. A fin de cumplir dicho compromiso, se conformó a fines del 2015 el Comité Núcleo de RAD, liderado por SERFOR y constituido por representantes del MINAM, MINAGRI, UNALM, INIA, AGRORURAL, FAO, ICRAF, CONDESAN, entre otras instituciones para elaborar el Programa Nacional de Recuperación de Áreas Degradadas (PNRAD).Este Comité Núcleo creó en el 2016 la Mesa Multisectorial e Interinstitucional para la RAD, con participación de diversas entidades del Estado y privadas, la academia, ONG, sociedad civil, entre otras, que aprobó la hoja de ruta para la formulación del PNRAD. Además, se conformaron cuatro grupos temáticos encargados de generar insumos para la elaboración del PNRAD. Actualmente este documento se encuentra en revisión y se espera que armonice diversos instrumentos normativos y de gestión, y contribuya decisivamente a alcanzar la meta que el gobierno peruano se ha trazado.En este contexto, Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Investigación Agroforestal (ICRAF) realizaron el estudio titulado: \"Recopilación de experiencias de restauración en paisajes de costa y sierra en el Perú\" el cual se encuentra enmarcado en el apoyo solicitado por el SERFOR al Instituto de Recursos Mundiales (WRI) en el marco de la Iniciativa 20x20. En paralelo y de forma coordinada, el Programa de Desarrollo Forestal Sostenible, Inclusivo y Competitivo en la Amazonía Peruana (PRODEFAP) y el SERFOR realizaron una recopilación de experiencias de recuperación de áreas degradadas en Amazonía (Guzmán-Barrón 2017).Por lo tanto, con el fin de unir esfuerzos y estandarizar la información a recopilar de las experiencias a nivel de país, los dos estudios se desarrollaron con un único formulario de recopilación, y cuyos resultados se presentan en este documento.El presente estudio tiene como objetivo proporcionar un análisis y lecciones aprendidas de las experiencias de restauración en el Perú a partir de un enfoque conceptual amplio de restauración, brindando recomendaciones a tomadores de decisión y a las partes interesadas para el diseño, ejecución y evaluación de futuras iniciativas de restauración en el Perú.El surgimiento del concepto \"restauración\" aplicado a ecosistemas se remonta a los inicios del siglo XX cuando se le describía como la representación fiel de ecosistemas y paisajes naturales a través de la recreación de asociaciones históricas (Jordan III y Lubick 2011). Este enfoque adquiere mayor precisión bajo el concepto de restauración ecológica establecido por la Sociedad de Restauración Ecológica (SER 2004), entendida como \"el proceso de asistir la recuperación de un ecosistema que ha sido degradado, dañado o destruido\". Este proceso busca recuperar el ecosistema natural en función de un ecosistema de referencia antes que imponer nuevas direcciones, recreando así su estructura y función (McDonald et al. 2016). Este marco establece otros dos términos vinculados: la rehabilitación, que comparte el empleo de un ecosistema de referencia pero se enfoca en la recuperación de procesos y la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos antes que en la composición de especies y la estructura de comunidades; y la reclamación, enfocada en el retorno de la tierra a un propósito productivo, pudiendo considerar la revegetación de pocas especies (SER 2004).En contraste a este primer enfoque surgido desde la ecología y el movimiento de conservación, el concepto de restauración de bosques y paisajes surge hacia el 2000 en el marco de un debate promovido por la WWF y la UICN sobre la necesidad de incluir el enfoque de paisaje en las acciones de gestión del territorio (Laestadius et al. 2015) y es definido como \"el proceso planificado por medio del cual se busca recuperar la integridad ecológica y aumentar el bienestar humano en los paisajes deforestados o degradados\" (Hanson et al. 2015). De este modo, convergen en un mosaico de intervenciones la regeneración pasiva, la regeneración asistida, la agroforestería, la agricultura, entre otras prácticas que contemplan dos dimensiones: la ecológica y la socioeconómica.Este segundo enfoque contempla los siguientes elementos: (1) se desarrolla a escala de paisaje en vez de en lugares individuales, (2) implica abordar las causas originales que provocaron la degradación de los bosques, (3) opta por un paquete de soluciones adaptado a las condiciones locales, (4) incluye a una serie de partes interesadas en la planificación y en la toma de decisiones para que la solución sea legítima y viable, promoviendo la identificación con el proceso y la negociación de compromisos, (5) enfatiza la cantidad y calidad del bosque, y (6) su objetivo es la restauración de una serie de productos forestales, servicios y procesos más que la cobertura del bosque por sí mismo (Mansourian et al. 2005).En ese contexto, la legislación peruana vigente emplea términos vinculados a dichos enfoques con algunas ambigüedades a continuación descritas. La Ley General del Ambiente (Ley Nº 28611) menciona a la restauración como una medida ante la degradación ambiental cuando ésta no se logra subsanar mediante la mitigación o la recuperación. Por otro lado, se emplea el término recuperación como medida de conservación dirigida a poblaciones de especies. Con referencia a la Política Nacional del Ambiente (D.S. Nº 012-2009-MINAM), no se menciona la restauración como tal pero sí el término recuperación vinculado a áreas degradadas y a los componentes agua, aire y suelo. Además, en la Estrategia Nacional de Diversidad Biológica al 2021 (D.S. N° 009-2014-MINAM), la restauración y recuperación se aplican a ecosistemas degradados, aunque sin determinar una meta cuantitativa, tal como lo especifican las Metas de Aichi. En contraste, la Ley del Sistema Nacional de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Ley Nº 27446) menciona que la restauración, como medida de compensación ambiental, tiene por objetivo \"restituir la biodiversidad y la funcionalidad de los ecosistemas que se encuentran en proceso de degradación o degradadas\" a partir de la restauración de hábitats, biodiversidad, funcionalidad creación de corredores ecológicos, y la recuperación de servicios ecosistémicos y el régimen hídrico. Por último, la Estrategia Nacional sobre Bosques y Cambio Climático (D.S. N° 007-2016-MINAM), que tiene un enfoque de gestión de paisajes forestales sostenibles, menciona a la restauración, en conjunto a la conservación y al manejo de bosques, como acciones para mejorar los medios de vida, beneficiando a las generaciones presentes y futuras.En un segundo bloque de legislación, la Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (Ley N° 29763) y sus cuatro reglamentos (D.S. N° 018-2015, 019-2015, 020-2015 y 021-2015) optan por la definición de restauración ecológica del SER. Este término se menciona como objetivo de las plantaciones forestales, de las zonas de recuperación de cobertura forestal y de las concesiones para conservación. Mientras tanto, el término \"restauración\", que no es definido propiamente o indicado como sinónimo del anterior, es considerado una actividad forestal y mencionado como parte de proyectos o programas de conservación y recuperación de bosques andinos y secos, como finalidad de algunos proyectos agroforestales, y como sinónimo de recuperación en el contexto de las plantaciones forestales que se orientan a restaurar el ecosistema natural empleando especies nativas del lugar. Por otro lado, el término \"recuperación\" no presenta una definición en los reglamentos y es empleada bajo otras acepciones como: recuperación de una especie o ecosistema, de bienes y servicios ambientales, del patrimonio natural, de áreas degradadas, entre otras. En el caso de la Política Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (D.S. N° 009-2013-MINAGRI), se mencionan a la restauración y la recuperación como prácticas para la conservación y aprovechamiento sostenible en ecosistemas forestales degradados, prioritariamente con especies nativas y especialmente en las cabeceras de cuenca. No obstante, en otra sección se diferencian estos términos, vinculando la restauración con la protección como acciones de conservación de determinados bosques y ecosistemas; mientras que la recuperación como acción a desarrollarse en áreas deforestadas y degradadas, y dirigida a especies amenazadas de fauna silvestre.Considerando este panorama del marco legal peruano para la restauración y la amplitud de prácticas realizadas en el Perú, los cuales asumen objetivos ecológicos, sociales y/o económicos, hemos optado por utilizar el término \"restauración\" bajo los dos enfoques inicialmente descritos (Restauración ecológica y Restauración de bosques y paisajes). De este modo, pretendemos incorporar en el análisis la mayor cantidad de insumos posibles a fin de establecer recomendaciones que respondan a las complejas realidades socioeconómicas del país (Ceccon y Pérez 2016), sin dejar de atender el marco normativo vigente.El estudio se realizó entre setiembre de 2016 y marzo de 2017 en seis etapas: (1) preparación del formulario de recopilación, (2) recopilación de experiencias, (3) visitas de campo a experiencias, (4) análisis general, (5) análisis por ecorregiones y (6) recomendaciones.Para recopilar la información de manera estandarizada se preparó un formulario con 40 preguntas divididas en cinco capítulos que cubrían diferentes aspectos de las experiencias de restauración (Anexo 1): (1) información de la persona que reporta la experiencia, (2) descripción del área, (3) descripción de la experiencia, (4) aspectos técnicos, (5) resultados y (6) lecciones aprendidas. Las preguntas del formulario se desarrollaron con base en documentos que brindan orientación en el ámbito de la recopilación de experiencias, tales como la \"Plantilla de Buenas Prácticas\" (FAO 2015a), \"Herramientas de Monitoreo de Restauración Forestal\" (FAO 2012) y estudios anteriores como: \"Rehabilitación de áreas degradadas en la Amazonía Peruana\" (Meza et al. 2006) y \"La Restauración Ecológica en Colombia: Tendencias, necesidades y oportunidades\" (Murcia y Guariguata 2014). Asimismo, el formulario fue revisado y consensuado por los supervisores de Bioversity International, ICRAF, SERFOR y WRI. Los reportes se realizaron en línea a través de la aplicación SurveyMonkey, vía telefónica y mediante un documento en formato Excel.Se realizó la búsqueda de experiencias que mencionaban los términos de restauración y/o recuperación de paisajes de bosque seco, andino y amazónico en el Perú, mediante los siguientes mecanismos complementarios:-Búsqueda digital, utilizando el motor de búsqueda de Google y palabras claves tales como recuperación, restauración, rehabilitación, bosque seco, bosque andino y bosque amazónico. -Revisión de recopilaciones de experiencias realizadas con anterioridad en Perú, tales como: Revisión y lecciones aprendidas de experiencias de rehabilitación de áreas degradadas en la Amazonía Peruana (Meza et al. 2006), Concurso Nacional de Buenas Prácticas de Recuperación de Áreas Degradadas (FAO 2015b), Recopilación de buenas experiencias de recuperación de áreas degradadas en el Perú (SERFOR 2016) y Sistematización de buenas prácticas de recuperación de áreas degradadas en el Perú (Alegre 2016). -Consultas directas a personas e instituciones involucradas en restauración, recuperación y conservación, a quienes se les solicitó información sobre sus proyectos y sobre otros de los que tuvieran conocimiento o referencia. -Consultas por teléfono, video llamadas y correo electrónico a personas e instituciones con sede en otras ciudades del país. -Entrevistas y reuniones de trabajo durante los viajes de campo con las personas e instituciones responsables o actores principales de los proyectos de restauración.A pesar que se buscó identificar y recopilar en lo posible la totalidad de las experiencias de restauración en el país, se reconoce que varios proyectos no pudieron ser incluidos en el estudio por una o varias de las siguientes razones:-No se logró identificar a las instituciones ejecutoras de las experiencias. -Las instituciones no contaban con la información que se solicitaba en el formulario. -Los responsables de los proyectos no mostraron interés en compartir sus experiencias. -Las solicitudes de información fueron sometidas a largos procesos burocráticos y por lo tanto no fueron atendidas oportunamente.La información obtenida a través de la encuesta en línea fue reportada en su mayoría por quien formuló e implementó la experiencia (Anexo 2), o en su defecto, por un miembro de la misma organización. Sin embargo, esta información no fue verificada en campo, y si bien se realizó un gran esfuerzo por completar todas las preguntas, algunos aspectos del formulario no fueron completados a detalle. En general, el mayor vacío de información se encontró en las preguntas sobre aspectos financieros y en el sistema de monitoreo, así como en algunas preguntas abiertas.Se realizaron visitas de campo entre el 10 y el 17 de diciembre de 2016 a 14 experiencias para profundizar la información en aspectos claves como los técnicos, las lecciones aprendidas y las recomendaciones de los implementadores para futuras experiencias de restauración. Estas experiencias fueron seleccionadas en función a su desempeño en determinadas variables de sus reportes, como el uso de técnicas adecuadas y efectivas para el contexto ecológico y social de la localidad, el empoderamiento de la población local, la generación de bienes y servicios que beneficien económica y socialmente a la población local, la recuperación de flora y fauna nativa, entre otras. Además se tomó en cuenta la disposición de los actores a brindar las facilidades para la visita a su experiencia. De las 14 experiencias, siete fueron visitadas directamente y otras siete detalladas en entrevistas desarrolladas en las sedes de las organizaciones implementadoras, complementadas con informes, reportes y fotografías. La lista de experiencias visitadas y personas entrevistadas se puede revisar en el Anexo 3, cuyos resúmenes son presentados en cuadros y fichas a lo largo del estudio.La información de las experiencias recopiladas fue previamente revisada y corregida a fin de subsanar errores de redacción, ubicación de respuestas u otros que pudiesen dificultar su sistematización. Asimismo, se realizaron categorizaciones en algunas variables con respuestas abiertas:-Actores involucrados: Se utilizaron las categorías \"organismo no gubernamental\", \"sector estatal\"(agrupando a los gobiernos nacional, regional y local), \"empresa privada\", \"universidades\" y \"experiencia local\" (para aquellas promovidas por comunidades campesinas o familias). -Presupuesto: Con referencia al componente financiero, los datos se estandarizaron a dólares americanos por hectárea y por año a una tasa de cambio de 3,3 Soles/USD a enero del 2017.-Sistema de especies: Se determinaron tres categorías para las experiencias, \"nativo\" cuando todas las especies utilizadas eran nativas, \"exótico\" cuando todas eran exóticas, y \"mixto\" cuando se empleaban combinaciones de especies nativas y exóticas. -Material de siembra: Se disgregó la información en tres variables, la fuente, el tipo, y los medios de verificación de calidad del material de siembra. En el primer caso se empleó las categorías \"bosque natural\" (con colecta de semillas directamente de relictos de bosque, sin identificar individuos específicos), \"árbol semillero\" (cuando sí se seleccionaron individuos), \"vivero\" (cuando se emplearon viveros locales, comunales o regionales), \"entidad certificada\" (cuando la fuente provenía del INIA, el Banco Nacional de Semillas, AGRORURAL, o similares), \"múltiple\" (cuando las fuentes eran varias). En el caso del tipo se utilizaron cuatro categorías, \"semilla\", \"plantones\", \"propagación vegetativa\" (esquejes, estacas, yemas o raíces) y \"mixto\" (combinación de las anteriores). En el tercer caso se empleó \"semilla certificada\", \"pruebas de germinación\", \"sanidad de la semilla\" y \"estado del plantón\". -Estrategia: Determinada según las especies utilizadas, el método de intervención para recuperar la cobertura vegetal y su contraste con los objetivos planteados y los resultados reportados. Las categorías fueron \"plantación\", \"regeneración natural asistida\", \"plantación y regeneración natural\", \"agroforestería\" (cuando se asoció especies forestales, agrícolas, y prácticas silvopastoriles) y \"manejo de pastos\". -Variables de monitoreo: Se establecieron dos categorías en función al tipo de objetivo que evaluaban: estado de la plantación (supervivencia, crecimiento y sanidad de los plantones, y productividad de cultivos), y funciones ecosistémicas (composición, estructura y diversidad de vegetación o fauna, captura de carbono, regulación hídrica, calidad del suelo, entre otras). -Nivel de participación: Se utilizaron las categorías \"concientización ambiental\" (talleres, charlas y otros medios de concientización), \"implementación de la experiencia\" (ejecución de actividades del proyecto previa capacitación), \"organización local\" (ejecución a través de comités locales, rondas campesinas u otras instancias locales), y \"toma de decisiones\" (involucramiento local en la toma de decisiones durante la formulación, ejecución y/o monitoreo de la experiencia). -Monitoreo: Se categorizaron las experiencias de forma ordinal según el tipo de variable evaluada y el detalle de la información brindada acerca de la mejora o corrección de actividades a partir del plan de monitoreo implementado en cada experiencia, según los siguientes criterios:o Avanzado: Con variables de estado de plantación y funciones ecosistémicas, con registro de corrección o mejora de actividades como consecuencia del monitoreo.o Intermedio: Solo variables del estado de plantación, con registro de corrección o mejora de actividades como consecuencia del monitoreo.o Básico: Solo variables de estado de plantación, sin registro de corrección o mejora de actividades como consecuencia del monitoreo.o Inexistente: No presenta un plan de monitoreo.Con base en todas las categorías, se emplearon gráficos descriptivos dependiendo del tipo de variable analizada. En el caso de cruzar variables cualitativas (nominales u ordinarias) se emplearon columnas y diagramas circulares; cuando se cruzaron variables cualitativas con cuantitativas se emplearon diagramas de cajas y, cuando fue necesario, la prueba no paramétrica de Kruskal Wallis con post-hoc de Mann-Whitney para determinar diferencias entre categorías (nominales u ordinarias); y cuando se evaluaron variables cuantitativas se emplearon diagramas de dispersión, evaluando la correlación mediante los coeficientes de Pearson o Spearman, dependiendo de los estadísticos de Anderson-Darling y Shapiro-Wilk sobre normalidad de variables. Finalmente, la cantidad de experiencias analizadas en cada variable disminuyó según la disponibilidad de información reportada.Se empleó el mapa de ecorregiones terrestres de la WWF (Olson et al. 2001) para identificar preliminarmente a qué ecorregión pertenecía cada experiencia reportada, lo cual fue confirmado o corregido con fuentes complementarias (reportes, mapas). Luego, en función de las especies, la estrategia de restauración, y la cercanía geográfica, se agruparon algunas ecorregiones, obteniéndose siete ecorregiones agrupadas a partir de las 11 inicialmente identificadas, las que aquí se denominan simplemente \"ecorregiones\". El análisis se realizó según se indica a continuación:-En el caso de las variables vinculadas a la descripción del área y de la experiencia, y a los aspectos técnicos, se realizaron gráficos descriptivos similares a los empleados en el análisis general, comparando las ecorregiones agrupadas con cada variable en función de la información disponible. -Las preguntas relacionadas con resultados descriptivos en el aspecto ambiental, social y económico se presentaron en una tabla de doble entrada que muestra la síntesis de los resultados y el número de experiencias que las reportaron. -Con respecto a las lecciones aprendidas, se realizó la síntesis de los factores de éxito y factores de riesgo de fracaso (en adelante, factores de riesgo) en las siguientes dimensiones: gobernanza, legal, social, capacidades, ecológica y económica para cada ecorregión. Asimismo, se complementó el análisis de la información reportada con la información de las visitas de campo realizadas a algunas experiencias y contrastando con bibliografía existente sobre cada ecorregión.Con base en los resultados obtenidos en los formularios de recopilación, a las observaciones realizadas en las visitas de campo a las experiencias seleccionadas y a los insumos brindados por diferentes actores en reuniones durante varias etapas del estudio, se elaboraron recomendaciones que abordan las etapas en los procesos de restauración, las cuales fueron contrastadas con literatura nacional e internacional.Se identificaron 181 experiencias en total, de las cuales 94 fueron reportadas. Sobre dicha cantidad se encuentra la caracterización a nivel de país; y en el caso de algunas variables, el número de experiencias disminuye de acuerdo a la disponibilidad de información reportada.En la Figura 1 se observa que del total de experiencias, el 43% (40 de 94) fue liderado por organismos no gubernamentales, desarrollándose 25 de éstas en terrenos de comunidades campesinas, 10 en terrenos del Estado y cinco de privados. El segundo actor más recurrente en liderar fue el sector estatal con el 34 % (32 de 94), que involucró tanto al gobierno nacional (principalmente al MINAGRI a través de AGRORURAL, DEVIDA e INIA), como a gobiernos regionales y locales, los cuales desarrollaron 14, 10 y ocho experiencias, respectivamente.La empresa privada, por otro lado, desarrolló el 11% de las experiencias (10 de 94), cinco de ellas en terrenos privados y principalmente enfocadas en la producción maderable, cuatro en comunidades campesinas (siendo tres de éstas de compensación y monitoreo ambiental por empresas extractivas, y una en terrenos del Estado). En el caso de las universidades, estas lideraron el 6% de las experiencias (6 de 94), involucrando todas a actividades de investigación, y solo tres de estas promoviendo la producción maderable y no maderable, además de la participación activa de la población. Finalmente, la categoría \"local\" representó el 6% (6 de 94), que incluyeron iniciativas lideradas por comunidades campesinas (2 experiencias) que contaron con el apoyo técnico de consultores y entidades de cooperación; e iniciativas lideradas por familias particulares que, además de contar con apoyo técnico, desarrollaron actividades de capacitación e involucraron en la implementación a la población cercana a sus predios, en algunos casos con la proyección de que sus experiencias sean replicadas o escaladas gracias a su participación.La ONG A Rocha Perú inició en el 2014 una experiencia de restauración en el bosque seco de Talara (Piura) en una superficie de 12 ha. Mediante la articulación con la empresa concesionaria eólica financista, la municipalidad distrital, varios colegios de secundaria y las asociaciones vecinales, han establecido un sistema colaborativo con muy buenos resultados. En el parque eólico se han establecido plantones de algarrobo (Prosopis pallida) y sapote (Capparis scabrida), que han permitido el retorno de fauna como la cortarrama peruana (Phytotoma raimondii), y la formación de brigadas vecinales.Área restaurada (izquierda) y biohuerto manejado por escolares (derecha). Fotografías: Bioversity International.Figura 1. Número de experiencias por el tipo de actor principal y el propietario del terreno (N=94)En la Figura 2 se aprecian las causas de degradación y los objetivos predominantes de las experiencias reportadas. Con respecto a las causas de degradación, la deforestación con 65% (61 de 94), el sobrepastoreo y la erosión hídrica o eólica, cada una con 56% (53 de 94), presentaron los mayores porcentajes. La deforestación se vinculó a actividades como la tala indiscriminada (30 de 61), el cambio de uso de suelo (19 de 61) y la agricultura migratoria (12 de 61); en el caso del sobrepastoreo, surge como consecuencia de la actividad ganadera, común en las zonas andinas y áridas. Por último, la erosión hídrica o eólica se relaciona con la gran incidencia de lluvias en zonas altas, vientos y pendientes fuertes propias de las zonas intervenidas. Asimismo, otras causas reportadas fueron los eventos climáticos extremos y la reducción de disponibilidad de agua con 26% cada una (24 de 94) e incendios con 22% (21 de 94) que se relacionan con los periodos de sequía propios de la época seca. Por otro lado, con un porcentaje menor a 15%, se reportaron las siguientes causas: presencia de especies invasoras, minería, uso de fertilizantes, entre otras.  Por otro lado, se observa que los objetivos predominantes de las experiencias fueron los ecológicos y productivos tales como la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal/forestal con un 80% de las experiencias (75 de 94), recuperación de la biodiversidad con 59% (55 de 94), mejora de la calidad del suelo con 48% (45 de 94), reducción de la erosión con 47%(44 de 94), aumento de disponibilidad y calidad de agua con 38% (36 de 94) y promoción de la conectividad ecológica con 23% (22 de 94). También se reportaron objetivos socioeconómicos tales como la sensibilización ambiental a la población con un 68% (64 de 94), generación de empleo local con 38% (36 de 94), establecimiento de sistemas agroforestales con 36% (34 de 94), instalación de plantaciones forestales maderables con 24% (23 de 94) y promoción de actividades de recreación y ecoturismo con 23% (22 de 94). Asimismo, con porcentajes menores a 20% se reportaron los siguientes objetivos: recuperación de usos tradicionales, instalación de plantaciones frutales, descontaminación del suelo, captura de carbono y cumplimiento de un mandato legal, entre otros.En la Figura 3 se presenta la distribución del tipo de actor principal en cada uno de los objetivos más reportados por las experiencias, observándose que no existe para un objetivo en particular un actor que resalte significativamente y que todos los actores se encuentran representados en los objetivos más frecuentes, excepto en la promoción de la conectividad ecológica, que no fue desarrollado por ningún actor local. En la Figura 4 se aprecia la distribución de 67 experiencias según la superficie intervenida (ha) y el costo (USD/ha/año). Se observa que la cantidad de experiencias disminuye conforme aumenta el área intervenida, siendo la primera categoría (1-100 ha) la que concentró el 51% de las experiencias (34 de 67). En esta primera categoría el rango de costo entre 101-500 USD/ha/año fue la más reportada con 12 de las 20 experiencias. En las demás categorías el rango de menor costo (0-100 USD/ha/año) fue la más reportada, con una tendencia a reducir el número de experiencias conforme aumenta el costo, hasta llegar a la categoría de más de 10 000 ha que, con solo cuatro experiencias, abarcó solo los rangos de costo de 0-100 y 101-500 USD/ha/año. Asimismo, en la Figura 5 se graficó la totalidad de datos (67), transformando los datos de superficie mediante un logaritmo en base 10 a fin de poder observar todos los puntos y detectar tendencias. Se observa que, según el índice de correlación de Pearson, la correlación es significativa (p<0,001), siguiendo una relación inversamente proporcional (R= -0,44), es decir, a mayor superficie (en logaritmo), menor costo por hectárea y año, lo que podría explicarse por los gastos fijos que se realizan tanto en reducidas como grandes extensiones de terreno. Cabe mencionar que el presupuesto brindado no fue especificado en términos de qué tipo de costos y/o gastos incluyeron, por ello sería pertinente realizar un estudio más detallado del costo/beneficio.  La estrategia de restauración más reportada fue la plantación (Figura 6), empleada por el 72% de las experiencias (67 de 93), seguida por la agroforestería en un 13% (12 de 93), que para este estudio comprendió también a los sistemas silvopastoriles. Además, un 6% de experiencias (6 de 93) emplearon la regeneración natural asistida como estrategia de restauración, seguida por el manejo de pastos y por la combinación de plantaciones con regeneración natural, con un total de 4% cada una (4 de 93).Por otra parte, un 77% de experiencias (72 de 93) tuvo una duración entre uno y seis años, mientras que el 17% (16 de 93) se prolongó por un período de entre seis y 20 años. Un 6% agrupó a experiencias con más de 20 años de duración, con un máximo de 50 años.Comparando la duración entre estrategias empleadas, los proyectos que incluyeron plantaciones (incluida la agroforestería) tuvieron una duración más larga que aquellas que emplearon la regeneración natural asistida (las diferencias significativas se representan con letras minúsculas en la Figura 6); mientras que aquellas con manejo de pastos solo fueron diferentes con los que usaron la plantación. No obstante, cabe indicar que 31 experiencias siguen en curso, por lo que este análisis brinda solo una referencia de su duración. Entre el 2011 y 2013, AIDER desarrolló una experiencia de restauración en la comunidad campesina José Ignacio Távara Pasapera, en 3,815 ha de bosques secos de llanura. Con reducida precipitación, esta zona dificulta la plantación, por lo que se optó por una estrategia de regeneración natural asistida mediante el uso de cercos de overo (Cordia lutea) para proteger brinzales de algarrobo, sapote, palo santo, vichayo, hualtaco, entre otras especies. Además, la adaptación a las necesidades locales permitió incrementar el impacto y el interés de la comunidad campesina en replicar esta experiencia.Zona de intervención (izquierda) y plantón de algarrobo protegido (derecha). Fotografías: Bioversity International.En la Figura 7 se aprecia el sistema de especies utilizado (nativo, mixto o exótico) en cada estrategia de restauración, en la cual se observa la predominancia del uso de sistemas nativos con el 54% (48 de 90), seguido de sistemas mixtos (especies nativas y exóticas) con un 33% (30 de 90) y, por último, el 13% (12 de 90) que utilizó solo especies exóticas, de las cuales 11 experiencias emplearon las plantaciones forestales, ocho con predominancia o uso exclusivo del pino (Pinus radiata y P. patula) y dos con uso exclusivo de especies de eucalipto (Eucalyptus grandis, E. urograndis y E. grancam). En el caso de las estrategias que emplearon la regeneración natural y la regeneración natural asistida, todas las experiencias protegieron solo especies nativas, mientras que en la estrategia de agroforestería se presentaron además sistemas mixtos. Solo en las estrategias de plantación y manejo de pastos se presentaron sistemas exóticos, pero fueron menos frecuentes. Actor principal por estrategia de restauración (N=94) y sistema de especies utilizado (N=90)En la Figura 8 se observa que la estrategia a partir de la plantación fue aplicada por todos los tipos de actores, resaltando las ONG; en la agroforestería, predominó el sector estatal, seguido de las ONG, y en menor proporción, de actores locales. La regeneración natural asistida fue aplicada en su mayoría por las ONG y solo en un caso por el sector estatal. La estrategia de manejo de pastos fue aplicada por el sector estatal y la universidad. Las plantaciones y la regeneración natural combinadas fueron implementadas por el sector estatal, las ONG y los actores locales. Cabe resaltar que, en nuestra base de datos, la empresa privada solo reportó experiencias con plantaciones. En los sistemas de especies utilizados, se aprecia que no existe una predominancia por tipo de actor. Sin embargo, en el sector estatal resaltó el uso de sistemas mixtos, en las ONG los sistemas nativos, así como en los actores locales sistemas nativos y mixtos en similar proporción. En el caso del sistema de especies utilizado, en la Figura 9 se aprecian las diferencias significativas (representadas con letras minúsculas) entre el sistema mixto y los sistemas nativo y exótico (p <0,001). Con respecto al sistema mixto, se observa que predominó el uso de tres a siete especies, habiéndose registrado una experiencia que utilizó 15 especies. En comparación, en el sistema nativo predominó el uso de una a tres especies, con un máximo de siete especies, mientras que en el sistema exótico predominó el uso de una a dos especies, con un máximo de tres. Cabe resaltar que del total de experiencias que utilizaron especies nativas, 33 de ellas no superaron el uso de tres especies. Fuente y tipo de material de siembra (N=70)En la Figura 10 se observa que la principal fuente del material de siembra fueron los viveros (a nivel regional, local o comunal), utilizado por el 41% de experiencias (29 de 70), de donde se obtuvieron principalmente plantones, seguido por los bosques naturales cercanos a las experiencias con el 24% (17 de 70) de donde se obtuvieron plantones, semillas y materiales vegetativos (estacas, esquejes entre otros). En tercer lugar, se emplearon árboles semilleros preseleccionados que representaron el 14% de las experiencias (10 de 70), seguidos de la obtención de semillas y plantones a partir de entidades certificadas tales como el Banco Nacional de Semillas Forestales, INIA, ADEFOR, SERFOR y AGRORURAL, con un 9% de experiencias (6 de 70). El 11% restante (8 de 70) agrupa diferentes fuentes en la categoría \"múltiple\" donde predominó la mezcla de diferentes tipos de material de siembra (semillas, plantones y propagación vegetativa). El material de siembra debería seguir un proceso de verificación de su calidad no solo en función a sus propiedades (como pureza, sanidad, viabilidad y vigor) sino también realizando un seguimiento de su procedencia con el fin de conocer las fuentes semilleras a partir de la identificación y caracterización de los árboles que proveen las semillas. Sin embargo, en la Figura 11 se aprecia que el 58% de las experiencias (55 de 94) no contempló ningún criterio para verificar la calidad del material de siembra y, en el caso de aquellos que sí reportaron algún criterio, se observa que el 13% (12 de 94) se basó en la confiabilidad de semillas certificadas, seguido del estado de los plantones con un 11% (10 de 94) que involucró la evaluación del tamaño, la madurez y la sanidad. Las pruebas de germinación representaron el 10% (9 de 94) y la sanidad de la semilla el 9% (8 de 94) basada únicamente en su aspecto fitosanitario.Figura 11. Porcentaje de experiencias por criterio de verificación de la calidad del material de siembra (N=94)En la Figura 12 se aprecian los criterios de selección de las especies utilizadas, siendo la más frecuente la preferencia por especies nativas, con el 73% de experiencias (69 de 94). Esto se relaciona con la Figura 9 donde la mayor proporción de experiencias reportadas utilizó sistemas basados en especies nativas. En segundo lugar se encuentra la disponibilidad de semillas o plantones con el 48% (45 de 94), que se vincula con la principal fuente de material de siembra que son los viveros. En similar porcentaje se reportaron experiencias que seleccionaron especies para corregir la degradación, destacando especies de la familia Fabaceae tales como la tara (Caesalpinia spinosa), la guaba (Inga spp.), el pajuro (Erythrina edulis) y el tornillo (Cedrelinga catenaeformis) para la recuperación de suelos degradados. Por otro lado, se observa el criterio de especies de interés comercial con 46% (43 de 94) enfocadas principalmente en plantaciones de pino (Pinus patula y P. radiata), y en menor proporción, especies del género Eucalyptus (eucalipto). Además, en porcentajes menores al 45% se reportaron los siguientes criterios: disponibilidad de conocimientos técnicos, facilidad de propagación o reproducción y especies de interés tradicional. Intervenciones para mejorar las condiciones físicas del suelo y controlar las causas de degradación del área (N=94)En la Figura 13 se aprecia el porcentaje de las experiencias que realizaron diferentes tipos de intervenciones. Con respecto a las actividades para mejorar las condiciones físicas se observa que predominó el control de erosión con 53% (50 de 94) a partir de diferentes prácticas de disminución de erosión como zanjas de infiltración y formación de terrazas, seguido de estabilización de terreno con 35% (33 de 94) que involucra el mejoramiento de la estructura y el restablecimiento de perfiles del suelo. En tercer lugar se reportaron experiencias que realizaron enmienda orgánica para la mejora de la fertilidad del suelo con 29% (27 de 94) y menos del 10% de las experiencias reportaron el uso de maquinaria para descompactar el suelo, el tratamiento de suelos salinizados, entre otros. Cabe resaltar que el 27% experiencias (25 de 94) no contemplaron ninguna intervención de mejora de las condiciones físicas del suelo.Por otro lado, para controlar las causas de la degradación del área, la intervención que predominó fue la exclusión de pastoreo con el 64% de experiencias (60 de 94), empleándose cercos perimétricos y para cada plantón. En segundo lugar se reportó el control de incendios o quema controlada con 33% (31 de 94), seguida del control de la aplicación de herbicidas con 14% (13 de 94), y en porcentajes menores al 10%, se reportó el control de inundación y otros (incluye buenas prácticas agrícolas e incorporación de cobertura). Finalmente, el 19% (18 de 94) experiencias no reportaron ninguna intervención para el control de las causas de degradación del área. Las variables reportadas como parte del plan de monitoreo de las experiencias se categorizaron en función al tipo de objetivo que evaluaban tal como se aprecia en la Tabla 1. A partir de la categorización se aprecia que la variable más predominante fue la supervivencia y el crecimiento de plantones con 87% (54 de 62), seguida del estado fitosanitario de plantones con 24% (15 de 62). Estas variables brindan un enfoque basado solo en el cumplimiento de objetivos inmediatos y la medición de acciones implementadas para evaluar el estado de la plantación; en lugar de objetivos de largo plazo como las funciones ecosistémicas. Dentro de la categoría de funciones ecosistémicas se observa que la variable que agrupa la composición, estructura y diversidad de la vegetación presentó el mayor porcentaje con 16% (10 de 62), seguida de calidad de suelo con 10% (6 de 62), y cantidad y calidad de agua con 8%(5 de 62) entre otras. Funciones como hábitat de fauna, regulación climática, y captura de carbono o asimilación de CO2 fueron reportadas, cada una con 5% o menos de las experiencias reportadas. La Asociación Bartolomé Aripaylla (ABA) y la Comunidad Quispillacta perteneciente a la Cuenca Cachi en Ayacucho observaron que la degradación incrementó debido al sobrepastoreo y a las malas prácticas agrícolas. Por ello nació la iniciativa de recuperar dichas áreas a partir de la exclusión del pastoreo, las prácticas ancestrales en siembra y cosecha de agua, y la protección de especies nativas. Como parte de su sistema de monitoreo se evaluaron variables que permitieron registrar el agua disponible en el suelo, estimar anualmente la recarga acuífera potencial y evaluar el aumento de la cobertura de suelos.Siembra y cosecha de agua. Fotografía: ABA Aunque se conoce que el monitoreo es fundamental en los proyectos de restauración, se observa que varias experiencias no incluyeron un plan de monitoreo desde la etapa de planificación; y cuando ocurrió, no se midieron las condiciones iniciales ni se contempló la evaluación de variables claves, adicionales a las características de la plantación. Además, se observó que no todas las variables reportadas guardaron relación con los objetivos planteados, y que hubo deficiencias en la definición de metas claras y cuantificables que permitieran determinar si era necesario tomar acciones o ajustar métodos de manejo del sistema para aumentar las probabilidades de éxito en las experiencias.En 62 experiencias se realizó o se viene realizando algún tipo de monitoreo. La Figura 15 muestra que el monitoreo en 34% de las experiencias (21 de 62) estuvo a cargo del sector estatal que involucra diferentes instituciones como AGRORURAL, SERFOR, municipalidades distritales, provinciales y gobiernos regionales, seguido de la categoría \"múltiple\" con el 31% (19 de 62), la cual hace referencia a la participación de dos a tres actores responsables del monitoreo.Figura 15. Porcentaje de experiencias por tipo de actor responsable del monitoreo (N=62)Asimismo, las ONG representaron el 18% (11 de 62), seguido de actores locales que involucraron a comunidades y familias con 10% (6 de 62), universidades y empresa privada con 3% cada una (2 de 62) y por último, una experiencia donde el monitoreo estuvo a cargo de una entidad de cooperación internacional, referida a una institución que brinda financiamiento para el desarrollo de este tipo de proyectos. Estos resultados evidencian una baja participación de las comunidades locales y familias dentro de las actividades del monitoreo. Solo 13 experiencias estuvieron a cargo de comunidades o familias; seis de éstas se encuentran en la categoría local y las siete restantes en la categoría \"múltiple\" (donde seis contaron con la participación de la comunidad, y una de la familia participante). La participación activa de las comunidades en el diseño e implementación del monitoreo debería tomarse en cuenta durante la planificación de los proyectos de restauración ya que el monitoreo participativo contribuye a que los actores locales desarrollen un sentido de pertenencia con el proyecto, observando y cuantificando los cambios generados por las acciones de restauración en sus propias condiciones de vida. Según la Figura 16, el 96% de las experiencias (88 de 92) reportaron haber desarrollado actividades de concientización ambiental vinculadas a la restauración incluyendo talleres, charlas, pasantías, concursos y otras modalidades, tanto para la población en general como para públicos específicos como niños y niñas en colegios, o usuarios directos de los recursos naturales (extractores, ganaderos, agricultores, entre otros). Por otro lado, en un 80% (74 de 92) se involucró a la población local en actividades de implementación de la experiencia como producción de plantones en viveros, instalación y mantenimiento en campo, cercado de plantones (cuando la estrategia aplicada fue la regeneración natural asistida), entre otras actividades complementarias como la producción pecuaria o de productos derivados de los recursos naturales recuperados en la experiencia.Asimismo, el 28% de las experiencias (26 de 92) trabajó en coordinación con las instancias locales de organización, llámese la junta directiva de la comunidad campesina, de las rondas campesinas, los representantes de los caseríos, entre otras formas de organización local. Este nivel de participación implicó un compromiso personal y comunal, el cual fue voluntario en algunos casos, mientras que en otros se dieron incentivos en bienes o mediante una remuneración por parte de los actores implementadores.Finalmente, el 11% (10 de 92) delegó un determinado poder de decisión en las organizaciones locales en una o varias etapas de la experiencia, como la formulación, ejecución o monitoreo.En el 2010 la Asociación Civil Pachamama Raymi, en coordinación con las 13 comunidades de Ccarhuayo, provincia de Quispicanchis (Cusco) apostaron por generar un cambio en el manejo de sus recursos naturales e instalar plantaciones de Pinus radiata y P. patula en las zonas que presentaron degradación por efecto del sobrepastoreo y erosión por escorrentía bajo un enfoque participativo con cuatro elementos fundamentales: (1) definición clara de metas a alcanzar, (2) interaprendizaje o capacitación horizontal, (3) motivación e incentivos y (4) fortalecimiento de los actores locales. Este enfoque permite que las comunidades se involucren en el proceso y logren un mayor dinamismo en el desarrollo territorial, en interacción con el gobierno local y el sector privado.Capacitación de comunidad de Ccarhuayo para la instalación (izquierda) y mantenimiento (derecha) de plantaciones de pino. Fotografías: Asociación Pachamama Raymi Figura 16. Porcentaje de experiencias por nivel de participación de la población local (N=92)En la Tabla 2 se aprecian los resultados sobre aspectos ecológicos reportados por las experiencias, donde la generación de microclima fue la más predominante con 45% (42 de 94), vinculada a la sensación de mejora del clima en el área intervenida por efecto de la cobertura vegetal, seguida del aumento de disponibilidad de agua con 37% (35 de 94), la recuperación de la biodiversidad con 28% (26 de 94), la reducción de la erosión con 21% (20 de 94), y la mejora de la calidad del suelo con 23% (22 de 94), que involucra tanto el incremento de la fertilidad como la mejora de la estructura del suelo. Asimismo, en porcentajes menores al 20% se reportó la generación de hábitat (15 de 94) de la cual cinco de éstas son específicamente para aves, la conectividad ecológica (11 de 94) principalmente con bosques nativos y asociaciones vegetales cercanas a las áreas intervenidas y la regulación hídrica (5 de 94), entre otras. En la Figura 17 se presenta la información reportada sobre la producción de bienes (maderables y no maderables) y servicios, siendo estos últimos limitados a aquellos servicios ecosistémicos que generan o podrían generar ingresos bajo los esquemas hoy existentes, es decir, la captura de carbono, la mejora del paisaje y el ecoturismo. Además se indica si esta producción generó o se esperaba que generará beneficios económicos. En 32% de las experiencias (30 de 94) se reportó la venta de productos actualmente, siendo más frecuentes los productos no maderables (24 experiencias) donde predominaron los hongos comestibles (10), los frutos de especies como la guaba (Inga spp.), la tara (Caesalpinia spinosa) o el aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa) (9 experiencias), las conchas y cangrejos de los manglares (2), y la miel de la apicultura en los bosques secos (2).Figura 17. Número de experiencias por tipo de resultado sobre aspectos económicos (N=94)Seguido, se encuentran los productos maderables (12 experiencias) donde se destaca Pinus radiata y P. patula \"pino\" (9), y los servicios ecosistémicos, con dos experiencias que realizaban venta de bonos de carbono, y otras dos el ecoturismo. Juan Ludeña y su familia observaron en el 2006 que la degradación de las zonas altas en el Sector Ccoya-Abancay por efecto del sobrepastoreo de vacuno, ovinos e incendios provocados, afectaban en la parte baja a las flores de las que viven las 46 colmenas de abejas que producen miel para el negocio familiar. En consecuencia y a partir de la recuperación de sus áreas degradadas lograron desarrollar y mejorar el negocio con base en productos de la miel, la venta de hongos comestibles, productos agrícolas y frutales (papa, aguaymanto, sauco entre otros) para autoconsumo y venta a nivel local que les permite obtener ingresos económicos.Colecta de hongos comestibles (izquierda) y producción de miel en la zona baja (derecha). Fotografías: Juan Ludeña En el caso de las experiencias que planeaban vender productos a futuro (32 de 94), 28 optaron por productos maderables, 18 de las cuales emplearon las dos especies de pino mencionadas, cuatro diferentes especies de eucalipto, otras cuatro optaron por sistemas mixtos de especies maderables en los Bosques Húmedos, y dos por el algarrobo (Prosopis pallida) y el palo santo (Bursera graveolens).Se esperó generar productos no maderables en siete experiencias (entre hongos comestibles, vainas de tara y algarrobo, entre otros) y generar ingresos a partir de servicios ecosistémicos en seis experiencias (dos con ecoturismo, uno con venta de bonos de carbono, entre otros). Además 21 experiencias no generaron ningún producto para la venta ya que algunas buscaban fortalecer la producción para autoconsumo, y otras apuntaban a la recuperación de servicios ecosistémicos como la retención de carbono, la conservación de la biodiversidad, la regulación hídrica, entre otros. Un grupo reducido de experiencias (11 de 94) no reportó ningún tipo de producto; sin embargo, dadas las labores de restauración, es probable que algunos servicios ecosistémicos sí se hayan visto restablecidos o recuperados.Según la Figura 18, todos los departamentos del Perú se encontraron representados, con excepción de Puno y Callao, destacando Piura con 13 experiencias, Ayacucho y Cusco con 10, Apurímac con siete y Ucayali con seis. De las 19 ecorregiones terrestres identificadas en el Perú (Olson et al. 2001), las 94 experiencias recopiladas abarcaron 11 de ellas. Algunas de éstas, fueron agrupadas con base en las especies, métodos y estrategias utilizadas y, la cercanía geográfica, obteniéndose siete ecorregiones agrupadas (Tabla 3), llamadas simplemente \"ecorregiones\" de aquí en adelante. Además, en el Anexo 4 se observa la correspondencia entre las ecorregiones consideradas y los departamentos y tipos de cobertura vegetal que abarcan (MINAM 2015). Cabe mencionar que, tres experiencias de amplia extensión presentaron un traslape entre tres ecorregiones, siendo excluidas del análisis a este nivel. Por lo tanto, el siguiente análisis se presenta en función a un total de 91 experiencias, cantidad que se reduce según la disponibilidad de información en cada variable.Según se observa en la Tabla 3, la ecorregión Yungas Peruanas predominó con un 34% de las experiencias (31 de 91), seguida de los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura con un 18% (16 de 91), de la Puna de los Andes Centrales con un 16% (15 de 91, 11 de la Puna Húmeda de los Andes Centrales y 4 de la Puna de los Andes Centrales) y de los Bosques Húmedos con un 15% (14 de 91, 9 de los Bosques Húmedos de Ucayali, 3 de los Bosques Húmedos del Amazonas Suroeste y 2 de los Bosques Húmedos del Napo).  Entendiendo por actor principal a aquel que formuló, ejecutó y monitoreó la experiencia, se presentan los resultados en la Figura 19. En cuatro de las siete ecorregiones, ubicadas en la costa y en la sierra norte, las ONG fueron los actores principales en al menos la mitad de los casos, mientras que en la Puna de los Andes Centrales y en las Yungas Peruanas fue el sector estatal el que tuvo mayor presencia, destacando el programa AGRORURAL del MINAGRI con 7 de 17 experiencias en las Yungas y cuatro de siete en la Puna de los Andes Centrales. En el caso de los Bosques Húmedos predominó la presencia de empresas privadas en cinco de las 14 experiencias, y similar la cantidad de experiencias lideradas por las ONG y vinculadas principalmente a plantaciones con fines maderables. En la Figura 20 se aprecia que las principales causas de degradación de las experiencias reportadas fueron la deforestación, el sobrepastoreo, la erosión hídrica o eólica y, en menor proporción las especies invasoras y el uso de productos químicos (fertilizantes, herbicidas y plaguicidas). Asimismo, cabe resaltar que cada ecorregión presentó una distribución variada de causas de degradación vinculada mayormente a sus principales actividades económicas.En la ecorregión Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano, la deforestación fue la única causa reportada, vinculada a la actividad langostinera que deforesta el manglar para crear las pozas de crianza. Sin embargo, fuentes externas a las encuestas reportan que esta industria viene contaminando el agua y modificando los flujos de agua (Takahashi y Martínez 2015).Por otro lado, en los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura la principal causa de degradación fue la deforestación (14 de 16), debido a la extracción selectiva de especies forestales nativas como el algarrobo (Prosopis spp.), sapote (Capparis scabrida) y palo santo (Bursera graveolens) para la leña, el carbón y la fabricación de cajonería para fruta, la ampliación de la frontera agrícola (agricultura migratoria), los incendios forestales y las invasiones de áreas boscosas. La segunda causa de Asimismo, en el Desierto de Sechura la deforestación y el sobrepastoreo fueron también las principales causas de degradación y afectaron a sus comunidades vegetales (lomas, relictos de bosque seco, entre otras) debido al aprovechamiento de las pocas especies arbóreas para leña, pastoreo y minería que están sujetas al avance de la urbanización (WWF 2001). Además, se reportó la erosión eólica, que está vinculada con la incidencia de fuertes vientos propios de la zona.En el caso de los Bosques Montanos y Páramos la deforestación, el sobrepastoreo y la erosión fueron las causas más comunes, las cuales se relacionan con la extracción de recursos maderables y no maderables, la expansión de la frontera agrícola y ganadera, los fenómenos naturales vinculados al cambio climático, la débil capacidad de gestión pública y las políticas púbicas insuficientes, o incluso, inexistentes (Gálmez y Kómetter 2009).Por otro lado, en la Puna de los Andes Centrales la erosión hídrica o eólica (13 de 15) que se encuentra vinculada a la fuerte incidencia de lluvias entre los meses de noviembre y abril y, que propicia el desplazamiento tanto de las partículas del suelo como de sus nutrientes fue la principal causa reportada. La deforestación (7 de 15) también fue otra de las causas de degradación identificada y está relacionada directamente con la afectación de los bosques nativos de queñua (Polylepis spp.) que se encuentran amenazados por la ampliación de la agricultura y la recolección de leña para calefacción y cocina; asimismo, el sobrepastoreo (7 de 15), actividad que viene afectando la Puna, compactando el suelo y eliminando la posibilidad de regeneración natural (Jameson y Ramsay 2007). Cabe resaltar que, esta ecorregión se enfrenta a una creciente actividad minera que está llevando a la destrucción de su escasa cubierta vegetal y la contaminación de algunos cuerpos de agua y el suelo (Young et al. 1997). La minería también debe ser considerada en el ámbito de Puna de los Andes Centrales; sin Desierto de Sechura ( 7)Bosques secos de Tumbes-Piura ( 16)Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano (2)Deforestación Sobrepastoreo Erosión hídrica o eólica Uso de fertilizantes, plaguicidas, herbicidas Especies invasoras Reducción de la disponibilidad de agua Eventos climáticos extremos Incendios Minería, petróleo u otra actividad extractiva Otros embargo, en nuestra base de datos solo se reportó una experiencia desarrollada en un área intervenida por esta actividad. Se reconoce que varias empresas privadas que vienen desarrollando actividades mineras en la zona alta de esta ecorregión, por lo cual es necesaria mayor investigación sobre la degradación resultante.Para el caso de las Yungas Peruanas la erosión hídrica o eólica (25 de 31), el sobrepastoreo (22 de 31) predominaron como causantes de la degradación. En ese contexto, según Roca et al. (1996), la ecorregión se encuentra en estado crítico debido a la agricultura migratoria, el cultivo de coca, la deforestación, la tala selectiva, el desarrollo urbano gradual, las fuertes lluvias que pueden superar los 6000 mm por año, y la topografía escarpada y altamente diseccionada (WWF 2001).Por último, para los Bosques Húmedos la deforestación por efecto de la agricultura migratoria, el sobrepastoreo, y la minería fueron las principales causas de degradación en esta ecorregión. Con respecto a la deforestación, están vinculadas varias actividades, entre ellas la agricultura migratoria de baja tecnología mediante la roza, tumba y quema, en segundo lugar el establecimiento de pasturas naturales (torourco) y pasturas mejoradas (Bachiaria, Penissetum, etc) las cuales también se inician con la eliminación de la cobertura boscosa (Meza et al. 2006), y finalmente la minería aurífera que genera diversos impactos ambientales tales como: la destrucción de bosques y de tierras agrícolas aluviales, la alteración del paisaje y de la calidad de agua, y la acumulación de tóxicos en el tejido de las plantas, animales y humanos, que se traduce en la afectación del ecosistema y serias consecuencias en la salud de la población (Álvarez et al. 2011).En cuanto a los objetivos planteados por las experiencias (Tabla 4), la recuperación de la cobertura fue la más mencionada en cinco de las siete ecorregiones, y la más reportada en general (79%), seguida por la sensibilización ambiental a la población local (67%), con mayor predominancia en las ecorregiones de Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano y de los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura.Asimismo, en los Manglares, aunque los objetivos estuvieron principalmente relacionados a aspectos ecológicos, también se presentó una experiencia con un objetivo vinculado al empleo local (ingresos económicos que perciben los extractores locales de conchas y cangrejos). Similar fue el caso de los Bosques Secos, donde la mayoría de experiencias se enfocaron en aspectos ecológicos pero vinculados a especies socioeconómicamente importantes como el algarrobo, el sapote o el faique, base de la economía local en muchas comunidades. En el caso del Desierto de Sechura predonimó la promoción del ecoturismo y la recreación, la recuperación de la cobertura y la sensibilización ambiental, probablemente motivados por el potencial en turismo dada su cercanía a núcleos urbanos importantes (p. ej. Trujillo, Lima y Arequipa); por otro lado, destacó la generación de empleo local, vinculada a las plantaciones no maderables. En relación a los Bosques Montanos y Páramos, fue la disponibilidad y calidad de agua el objetivo más frecuente, seguido por la producción maderable y agroforestal, la recuperación de cobertura y la sensibilización ambiental, lo que se vincularía al uso de sistemas nativos y mixtos (que incluyen al pino como especie exótica principalmente), también predominó la búsqueda por reducir la erosión del suelo, una causa de degradación frecuente en esta ecorregión. Finalmente, se encuentran los objetivos económicos que apoyarían la generación de empleo local, como son la instalación de plantaciones maderables y el establecimiento de sistemas silvopastoriles y agroforestales. En la Puna de los Andes Centrales, además de la recuperación de la cobertura y la sensibilización, destacó la reducción o mitigación de la erosión, que se encuentra entre las causas de degradación más frecuentes acorde a la Figura 20; además de la mejora en la calidad del suelo, y la generación de empleo local y la regulación hídrica con menor porcentaje (40%). Por otro lado, en las Yungas Peruanas, además de los tres objetivos más frecuentes, se buscó la reducción o mitigación de la erosión, vinculado a que 25 de las 31 experiencias indicaron que el área de intervención se encontraba degradada debido a la erosión hídrica o eólica, además el aumento en la cantidad y calidad del agua fue un objetivo predominante en más de la mitad de experiencias (52%). Finalmente, en los Bosques Húmedos la recuperación de cobertura fue el único objetivo presente en más del 50% de experiencias, mientras que otros como la sensibilización, la recuperación de la biodiversidad y la mejora del suelo se reportaron solo en un 43%. Como se observa, existe cierta relación entre las causas de la degradación y los objetivos de las experiencias, observándose que en pocas ecorregiones destacaron los objetivos de generar productos (plantaciones y sistemas de producción) y servicios (turismo).A nivel de país se emplearon 76 especies nativas y 28 especies exóticas (Anexo 5). Entre las especies nativas más utilizadas se encuentra la queñua (Polylepis spp.), empleada en 20 experiencias, la tara (Caesalpinia spinosa) en 13 experiencias, el algarrobo (Prosopis pallida) en 10 experiencias y el pino chuncho (Schizolobium amazonicum) en nueve experiencias. En el caso de las especies exóticas, destacan Pinus radiata, utilizada en 17 experiencias, P. patula en 12 y Eucalyptus globulus en cinco. La cantidad de especies nativas y exóticas empleada por ecorregión se observa en la Figura 21, destacando el caso de los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano, donde solo se emplearon especies de mangles nativos. Asimismo, en los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura la proporción de especies nativas también fue alta con el 85% (17 de 20 especies), seguido por los Bosques Húmedos con un 81% (26 de 32 especies), Bosques Montanos y Páramos con el 69% (9 de 13), Desierto de Sechura con el 67% (10 de 15), Puna de los Andes Centrales con el 64% (14 de 22), y Yungas Peruanas con un 58% (21 de 36).Figura 21. Número de especies utilizadas por ecorregión (N=87)A fin de comparar con mayor detalle, se observa en la Tabla 5 las especies más utilizadas por ecorregión, destacando las especies de mangle rojo (Rhizophora mangle) y blanco (Laguncularia racemosa) en los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano. Entre los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura y el Desierto de Sechura se presentaron similitudes en el uso de especies, destacando el algarrobo, el sapote (Capparis scabrida), la tara y el faique (Acacia macracantha). Por otro lado, en los Bosques Montanos y Páramos predominó el empleo del pino (Pinus patula y P. radiata), de dos especies de aliso (Alnus jorullensis y A. acuminata), de la tara y de la queñua (Polylepis racemosa).En el caso de la Puna de los Andes Centrales y las Yungas Peruanas predominaron la queñua y el pino, similar a los Bosques Montanos y Páramos. En el caso de la Puna también se empleó tara y especies de ichu y chillihua (Festuca spp.), propias de las zonas alto andinas. En las Yungas también destacó el empleo del pino chuncho y del nogal (Juglans neotropica). Por otro lado, en los Bosques Húmedos se emplearon diversas especies, siendo la guaba (Inga edulis) y la amasisa (Erythrina ulei) las únicas especies compartidas por tres experiencias. Las demás especies reportadas estuvieron presentes en una o dos experiencias, pero no predominó ninguna.  Con respecto al número de especies empleadas por experiencia, las experiencias desarrolladas en la ecorregión Yungas Peruanas emplearon, en promedio, la mayor cantidad de especies (4,1), llegando en un caso al máximo de 15 especies (Figura 22), en un sistema mixto de extensión media de 225 ha.En el caso de los Bosques Montanos y Páramos, el promedio de 3,3 especies presentó su máximo en dos experiencias que emplearon entre cuatro y siete especies en sistemas mixtos, destacando el uso de la queñua y del aliso como especies nativas, y del pino como especie exótica.Asimismo, las experiencias en el Desierto de Sechura, que abarca los ecosistemas de lomas (dos experiencias), matorrales y el desierto propiamente dicho, contaron con un promedio de 2,9 especies, con una experiencia en la cual se emplearon nueve especies en un sistema mixto donde predominó el algarrobo, el faique y el sapote. Por otro lado, cuatro experiencias emplearon solo una especie, resaltando las especies nativas tara y algarrobo. En el caso de los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura el promedio fue de 3,3 especies, con mayor frecuencia de experiencias que emplearon una o dos especies, destacando el algarrobo, el sapote, el palo santo y el overo.Por otro lado, las experiencias desarrolladas en los Bosques Húmedos utilizaron en promedio 2,8 especies, y a diferencia de las ecorregiones anteriores, no se presentaron especies predominantes a pesar de la gran cantidad de especies empleadas en total (33), 21 de las cuales solo lo fueron en una experiencia, destacando la guaba y la amasisa, presentes en tres de las 14 experiencias. En la Puna de los Andes Centrales se emplearon 2,6 especies en promedio, con un máximo de seis especies, donde destacaron la queñua y el pino, presentes en cinco de las 15 experiencias, así como la chilligua (Festuca dolicophylla), el colle (Buddleja coriacea) y la tara. Finalmente, en los Manglares se emplearon los mangles rojo (Rhizophora mangle), negro (Avicennia germinans) y blanco (Laguncularia racemosa) en ambas experiencias, y los mangles colorado (Rhizophora harrisonii) y piña (Conocarpus erectus) en una.Se desconoce si estas experiencias presentaron ecosistemas de referencia que aportasen en la decisión sobre cuántas y qué especies utilizar, en especial de especies nativas. No obstante, el promedio general de 3,3 especies utilizadas por experiencia, de las cuales 1,1 fueron exóticas en promedio, indican la necesidad de replantear los criterios por los cuales se seleccionan las especies, intentando conciliar la riqueza de la ecorregión y de la localidad, con los objetivos y la información técnica disponible sobre las especies a utilizar. En relación a los Bosques Montanos y Páramos (6 de 91) destacó el interés comercial, expresado en el uso del pino, lo que es complementado en sistemas mixtos por el uso de especies nativas como la queñua y el aliso. Asimismo, en las Punas de los Andes Centrales (15 de 91), el patrón fue similar, mezclando especies nativas con las exóticas pino y eucalipto, aunque es mayor el porcentaje de sistemas nativos. Por otro lado, en las Yungas Peruanas se observó una preferencia por especies nativas, y de interés comercial, donde destacó la queñua y el aliso en las zonas de mayor altitud, y el pino chuncho, el nogal (Juglans neotropica) y el cedro virgen (Cedrela lilloi) en zonas de transición a los bosques húmedos. Y en el caso de los Bosques Húmedos (14 de 91) se reportó una diversidad de especies, entre nativas y exóticas, y con un marcado interés comercial, expresado no solo en las ocho experiencias reportadas, sino en otras de similar objetivo.En cuanto a las intervenciones para mejorar de condiciones físicas del suelo y controlar las causas de degradación del área (Figura 24 y 25), en los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano una experiencia restituyó el hidroperiodo (flujo y reflujo de mareas altas y bajas en períodos de seis horas) mediante el retiro de la infraestructura instalada por la industria langostinera, que modificaba la dinámica de nutrientes y especies (Flores et al. 2013). En el caso de los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura la mayor parte de experiencias no desarrolló intervención alguna; sin embargo, tres de las experiencias que si las reportaron se vincularon con el control de la erosión mediante incorporación de cobertura y manejo de pastos, mientras que en otras dos se utilizó la enmienda orgánica como complemento de la plantación de especies arbóreas útiles en la industria local de miel y derivados. Por otro lado, en el Desierto de Sechura se establecieron medidas de control de erosión en tres de las siete experiencias, dada la afectación eólica en un caso, y al sobrepastoreo en los otros dos. Asimismo, en conjunto con las plantaciones se aplicaron enmiendas orgánicas y tratamiento de suelos salinizados, además de exclusión de pastoreo en cuatro casos (Figura 25) y, en una de las experiencias, dada la desertificación por efecto de la tala de especies para leña, se usó maquinaria para descompactar el suelo. En el caso de los Bosques Montanos y Páramos se realizaron prácticas de control de erosión, exclusión de pastoreo y control de incendios y quemas y, en una experiencia se estabilizó el terreno previo a la instalación de plantaciones de pino en un área de pendientes fuertes. En la Puna de los Andes Centrales se realizaron más acciones de estabilización del terreno y control de la erosión a través de la construcción de zanjas de infiltración y de terrazas de formación lenta, en respuesta a los fuertes proceso de erosión hídrica y eólica reportadas. Además, para controlar la degradación del área intervenida y la compactación del suelo, se realizó la exclusión del pastoreo en 10 de las 15 experiencias.En las Yungas Peruanas la proporción fue similar a la Puna, con 22 experiencias que reportaron actividades de control de la erosión, construyéndose terrazas de formación lenta en cinco de ellas, controlándose los incendios y quemas en nueve y el pastoreo en la mayoría (18). Otra práctica frecuentemente reportada fue la estabilización del terreno ( 14), vinculada en dos casos al restablecimiento de los perfiles del suelo, a las terrazas de formación lenta y a la aplicación de enmiendas orgánicas; además de haber un control de los incendios y quemas, y la exclusión del pastoreo. El caso de los Bosques Húmedos se reportó con mayor frecuencia trabajos de descompactación del suelo con maquinaria pesada y aplicación de enmiendas orgánicas, como prácticas previas a la plantación. Nuevamente, se reportó que estas prácticas fueron complementadas con el control de incendios y quemas, y del pastoreo. Asimismo, con respecto a las intervenciones para controlar las causas degradación del área, se reportó en siete experiencias el control de herbicidas.Según la Figura 26, la estrategia que predominó en todas las ecorregiones fue la plantación, seguida de agroforestería. Asimismo, en las Yungas Peruanas y la Puna de los Andes Centrales se reportaron las únicas experiencias con manejo de pastos. En el caso de los Bosques Secos se presentó regeneración natural asistida y plantaciones con regeneración natural. Cabe resaltar que los Bosques Montanos y Páramos, Manglares y Desierto de Sechura presentaron como única estrategia la plantación. En la Figura 27 se observa que en los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura predominó la estrategia a partir de la plantación (8 de 16) de especies nativas y mixtas, seguida de plantación y regeneración natural (4 de 16), regeneración natural asistida (3 de 16) y solo una experiencia con agroforestería en la cual se asoció especies nativas tales como el algarrobo, la tara, el sapote, el vichayo (Capparis avicennifolia) con el árbol frutal tamarindo (Tamarindus indica) asociado a actividades ganaderas. Asimismo, en las ecorregiones Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano, Desierto de Sechura y Bosques Montanos-Páramos solo se presentó la estrategia plantación con predominancia de especies nativas (dos, cuatro y dos experiencias respectivamente). Cabe resaltar que en el caso de los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano la estrategia utilizada se vincula al objetivo principal en esta ecorregión que es la recuperación de la cobertura forestal a causa de la tala indiscriminada de mangle provocada por la industria langostinera. Por otro lado, en la ecorregión Puna de los Andes Centrales predominó la estrategia de plantaciones que asocian especies nativas y exóticas (4 de 14) donde las principales especies nativas utilizadas fueron la queñua, el colle (Buddleja incana), la chilligua, el ichu (Festuca humilior) y entre las especies exóticas se encontraron dos especies de pino (Pinus patula y P.radiata).Asimismo, se presentaron experiencias con cantidad similar en las estrategias de agroforestería y manejo de pastos, donde resaltó una de las experiencias de agroforestería que asocia diferentes cultivos agrícolas tales como: Oxalis tuberosa (oca), Lupinus mutabilis (tarwi), Solanum tuberosum (papa) con especies arbóreas nativas como la queñua, el aliso, la tara y frutales como el aguaymanto (Physalis peruviana), el tumbo (Passiflora mollissima) y el tin-tin (P. pinnatistipula).En el caso de la estrategia de manejo de pastos que utilizaron especies nativas se mencionaron a la chilligua y al ichu. En las Yungas Peruanas, también predominó la estrategia de plantaciones bajo sistemas mixtos (11 de 29), seguida de nativas (5 de 29) donde las especies más utilizadas fueron la queñua, el pino chuncho, el nogal, la tara, el chachacomo (Escallonia resinosa), entre otras. La segunda estrategia más utilizada fue la agroforestería que asoció cultivos agrícolas como papa y frijol con especias nativas y exóticas.Finalmente, en la ecorregión de Bosques Húmedos se utilizó la estrategia de plantaciones con especies nativas (8 de 13), donde predominaron especies de la familia Fabaceae tales como la guaba, la amasisa, y especies nativas maderables como el shihuahuaco (Dipterix odorata), el tahuarí (Tabebuia serratifolia), la marupá (Simarouba amara), la bolaina (Guazuma crinita), entre otros; seguida de plantaciones con especies exóticas (2 de 13) de eucalipto (Eucalyptus sp.) y teca (Tectona grandis); y en menor proporción, plantaciones mixtas (2 de 13) y agroforestería (1 de 13), donde el sistema agroforestal resultó de la asociación de la especie Theobroma cacao (cacao) con otras especies arbóreas propias de la ecorregión.Figura 27. Número de experiencias por sistema de especies y estrategia de restauración en cada ecorregión (N=87)En la Figura 28 se aprecia la distribución del nivel de monitoreo implementado por las experiencias reportadas en cada ecorregión, donde se observa que las Yungas Peruanas fue la ecorregión que presentó la mayor cantidad de experiencias con diferentes niveles de monitoreo: nivel avanzado (3 de 7), intermedio (19 de 38), básico (4 de 15) e inexistente (5 de 27). Asimismo, en las ecorregiones de los Bosques Húmedos, los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura y la Puna de los Andes Centrales se presentaron los niveles de monitoreo básico con mayor número de experiencias (3, 3 y 2 respectivamente). Esto se vincula con el predominio de plantaciones forestales con fines maderables y no maderables (Figura 27), donde las principales variables evaluadas fueron supervivencia, crecimiento y sanidad de los plantones que solo se registraron al inicio y se corrigieron de inmediato con actividades de mantenimiento y manejo de las plantaciones. Sin embargo, no contemplaron, variables de funciones ecosistémicas como la mejora de procesos ecológicos y, hábitat de fauna, entre otras.En los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura se presentó la mayor cantidad de experiencias con monitoreo inexistente (7 de 27), lo cual podría deberse a que se reportaron estrategias de regeneración natural asistida y de plantaciones con regeneración natural (Figura 27) que involucran la recuperación por sí sola del área al eliminar el causante de la degradación. Sin embargo, se aprecia también niveles de monitoreo intermedio en cinco experiencias que involucraron estrategias de agroforestería, plantación, plantación y regeneración natural, en las cuales el monitoreo fue utilizado para evaluar el estado de los plantones y en algunos casos la composición, estructura y diversidad de la vegetación.Con respecto al Desierto de Sechura y a los Bosques Montanos-Páramos se presentaron porcentajes similares de niveles de monitoreo, resaltando el nivel de monitoreo inexistente. Por último, en los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano se presentaron dos categorías; la primera de un nivel intermedio con respecto a la experiencia que reportó la restitución del hidroperiodo y la segunda experiencia se categorizó como nivel básico ya que las variables reportadas se refirieron a la revegetación de especies de mangle y al estado de éstas. Estas ecorregiones se presentan en la confluencia de varios ríos que descargan en el Océano Pacífico, y se encuentran adaptadas a las condiciones de inundación permanente (WWF 2001). El clima varía entre semi tropical, tropical seco y semiárido, con precipitaciones anuales entre 100 y 300 mm, con excepciones durante un ENSO cuando llegan a ser hasta 60 veces más alto (Spalding et al. 1997). La temperatura media anual es 25 °C, variando entre 18 °C y 32 °C. Los suelos consisten en arenas, arcillas, grava y piedras mal consolidadas tales como lodos y sedimentos finos.Las especies predominantes son el mangle rojo (Rhizophora mangle), el mangle colorado (R. harrisonii), el mangle blanco (Laguncularia racemosa), el mangle salado (Avicennia germinans) y el mangle piña (Conocarpus erectus). Además, en las zonas de transición con el Bosque Seco y el Desierto de Sechura, se encuentran especies herbáceas y arbustivas como Eragostris amabilis, Salicornia fruticosa, Parkinsonia aculeata L. y Alternanthera peruviana. En áreas con una mayor elevación media del suelo, se presentan especies arbóreas como Acacia macracantha y Prosopis chilensis (Ferreyra 1979). Entre las especies de fauna se encuentran el mono aullador (Alouatta palliata), la paca (Agouti paca) y la tamandúa (Tamandua mexicana), así como una gran variedad de aves marinas tropicales, habitantes de los manglares y de algunas Áreas de Aves Endémicas (EBA, por sus siglas en inglés), colindantes a esta ecorregión (Stattersfield et al. 1998).La principal causa de degradación de los manglares es la industria langostinera, que desde los años ochenta ha reducido drásticamente la extensión del manglar y afectado la vegetación restante por las descargas de aguas servidas y el cambio en el hidroperiodo (dinámica diaria de flujos y reflujos con mareas altas y bajas). Además, la contaminación por metales pesados y residuos sólidos desde las ciudades; y en los últimos años, el aumento del cultivo de arroz (Arnillas et al. 2011, Takahashi y Martínez 2015).Las dos experiencias reportadas se desarrollaron en los manglares de Tumbes, abarcando áreas principalmente fuera del Santuario Nacional Los Manglares de Tumbes, y cuyos resultados son resumidos en la Tabla 6. En el aspecto ecológico, una experiencia obtuvo buenos resultados en el control de la expansión de la industria langostinera a través de una estrategia legal que permitió detener la tala y el otorgamiento de concesiones, así como recuperar manglares, proceso en el cual se involucró a algunos empresarios langostineros para evitar nuevas talas.Por otro lado, en el caso de la restauración llevada a cabo por el Gobierno Regional de Tumbes (Cuadro 1) se reportó la recuperación de las poblaciones de concha negra (Anadara tuberculosa) y cangrejo del manglar (Ucides occidentalis) en las áreas intervenidas. Sin embargo, no se contó con mediciones de respaldo que permitiesen validar esta recuperación, que es importante para la ecorregión considerando que su extracción es el sustento del 10% de la población de la región, y que entre 1996 y 2010 la captura se redujo en casi un 80% (Flores et al. 2013, Takahashi y Martínez 2015). En el aspecto social destacó el trabajo en conjunto con las asociaciones de extractores locales que dependen de los manglares; no obstante, aunque participaron desde la planificación hasta el desarrollo de las actividades y se incrementó su interés en la conservación y en los conocimientos del manglar, no se reportó un empoderamiento que permitiese a las comunidades locales dar continuidad y proponer nuevos proyectos de restauración. En el aspecto económico solo una experiencia reportó beneficios por actividades de turismo y la venta de recursos hidrobiológicos.Tabla 6. Resultados por aspecto en los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano (n=2)-Regulación hídrica a partir de la restitución del hidroperiodo (1experiencia) -Conectividad ecológica en función a la reducción de la fragmentación de los manglares a partir del control de la tala (1)-Concientización y participación en la formulación y ejecución (1).-Concientización para la conservación de los manglares y el uso sostenible de los recursos hidrobiológicos, traducidos en vedas de la concha negra y del cangrejo del manglar (1)-Venta de recursos hidrobiológicos como la concha y el cangrejo (1) -Ingresos por actividades de turismo en función a la belleza paisajística (1)Entre los aspectos reportados como fundamentales para alcanzar el éxito de las experiencias (Tabla 7), predominó el liderazgo y la promoción de alianzas por la institución promotora, sobreponiéndose a los vacíos que generaban la falta de ordenamiento territorial y planificación adecuada en la región y, que ocasionaron el aumento descontrolado en la industria langostinera en detrimento de los manglares.En la dimensión social, aunque es clave la participación de todas las asociaciones de extractores locales, aún se requiere capacitación y seguimiento constante para asegurar que las actividades de implementación se desarrollen adecuadamente y que la coordinación sea efectiva, tal como se refiere en el Cuadro 1.En la dimensión de capacidades resaltó que en ambas experiencias hubo organizaciones y especialistas con experiencia y conocimiento de los aspectos ecológicos de los manglares. Esto resulto, particularmente relevante en una experiencia, ya que la articulación con diversos actores se basó en el reconocimiento y legitimidad de una ONG. Por otro lado, aunque se reportaron actividades de monitoreo, éste se limitó a la supervivencia de los propágulos y plantones instalados, más no de los recursos hidrobiológicos o el hidroperiodo, lo que hubiera permitido cuantificar la recuperación de determinados servicios ecosistémicos. En la dimensión ecológica, resultó clave conocer cómo las especies ocupan el territorio a nivel local, a fin de maximizar la supervivencia y el crecimiento del manglar, lo cual fue coherente con la ubicación de especies descrita para el Santuario Nacional Los Manglares de Tumbes (Flores et al. 2013), evitándose reforestar en las franjas hipersalinas y en zonas de dificultoso acceso.Finalmente, en la dimensión económica no se reportaron productos o servicios además de la recuperación de recursos hidrobiológicos. Existe beneficios asociados a la restauración cuyo análisis se debe fortalecer, como el turismo tanto dentro como fuera del Santuario Nacional Los Manglares de Tumbes, servicios ecosistémicos como la regulación morfosedimentaria y de salinidad y, la biodiversidad (Flores et al. 2013). -Alianzas con el sector público.-Decisión política para apostar por la recuperación de los manglares.-Deficiente control y fiscalización del Estado sobre las empresas langostineras.-Falta de participación de las empresas langostineras en las iniciativas de recuperación por falta de interés y de coordinación.-Estrategia legal adecuada para evitar el otorgamiento de concesiones a las langostineras en áreas de manglares.-Las concesiones ya otorgadas a las empresas langostineras dificultaron escalar actividades de restauración de los manglares.-Participación de todas las asociaciones de extractores de conchas negras y cangrejos del manglar, así como de entidades públicas y privadas.-Dificultad en la integración de las organizaciones locales.-Personal capacitado y con experiencia.-Sistema de monitoreo básico que permitió realizar recalces oportunamente.-Falta de información sobre el flujo de mareas.-Inexistencia de sistemas de monitoreo continuo y de planes para la respuesta ante fenómenos naturales, como el ENSO.-Dificultad para asegurar la calidad del trabajo en todo el proceso (colecta de propágulos, selección de lugares e instalación).-Condiciones edáficas favorables para realizar la revegetación.-Zonificación en función a la degradación, la franja hipersalina, y la accesibilidad.-Dificultad para la restitución del hidroperiodo por infraestructura de las langostineras (p. ej. muros y drenes).-Dinámica de mareas redujo la cantidad de horas de trabajo, extendiendo el cronograma laboral.-Canalización de financiamiento de la cooperación internacional.-Insuficiente financiamiento para actividades de monitoreo y sostenibilidad de los proyectos.Cuadro 1. Restauración de los manglares de Tumbes.Entre marzo y agosto del 2010, se desarrolló a lo largo de 300 hectáreas de los manglares de Tumbes el proyecto \"Reforestación de mangle en el ecosistema manglar\" liderado por el Gobierno Regional de Tumbes, cuyo objetivo fue la recuperación de la cobertura del mangle (áreas degradadas debido principalmente a la industria langostinera) y la generación de fuentes de trabajo para los extractores locales. La planificación del proyecto incluyó el aporte de las asociaciones de extractores locales de conchas y cangrejos de los manglares en la identificación de las áreas más degradadas y aptas para la reforestación, además permitió fortalecer la legitimidad del proyecto. En las áreas identificadas se emplearon dos métodos de reforestación: la selección e instalación directa de propágulos sanos, utilizada en el caso del mangle rojo y colorado; y la selección de semillas, producción de plantones en viveros y su posterior instalación en el caso del mangle blanco, salado y piña. Esta selección se realizó en constante coordinación entre la parte técnica del proyecto y los extractores locales, a fin de conseguir el material de siembra de mejor calidad.Como resultado de los métodos de reforestación utilizados se alcanzó una supervivencia de aproximadamente el 80% de propágulos en el caso del mangle rojo y mangle colorado, y solo de un 30% para el mangle salado, el mangle blanco y el mangle piña. Además, acorde a los extractores locales esta reforestación se ha traducido en una recuperación de las poblaciones de conchas negras, cangrejos de manglar y de otros recursos hidrobiológicos importantes para su economía. En el aspecto social, el proyecto contribuyó a promover un mayor interés de las asociaciones de extractores locales en la restauración del manglar, además fortaleció su coordinación interna y con otros actores como la Universidad Nacional de Tumbes.En la experiencia se destaca el trabajo en conjunto con las poblaciones locales; aunque esto requiere aún mayor fortalecimiento de capacidades que permita un efectivo empoderamiento. Además, la diferencia en la supervivencia de mangles instalados evidencia oportunidades de mejora en las técnicas de propagación y la necesidad de fortalecer los sistemas de monitoreo, que deberían considerar también la recuperación de los recursos hidrobiológicos. Cabe mencionar que aún hace falta desarrollar medidas de control sobre la industria extractiva local, así como un adecuado ordenamiento territorial y fiscalización estatal que permitan el aprovechamiento sostenible en equilibrio con otros usos del territorio como el turismo o la misma industria langostinera. Asimismo, se han detectado oportunidades para promover la investigación y el fortalecimiento de capacidades en la prevención de eventos climáticos como el ENSO.Revegetación con propágulos de mangle rojo el 2010 (arriba) y resultados al 2016 en primer plano (abajo). Fotografías: Eber Herrera y Bioversity International.La ecorregión global de los bosques secos de los valles andinos y de Tumbes abarcan seis ecorregiones, dos de las cuales se encuentra en el Perú: los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura y los Bosques Secos del Marañón; y dado que ésta última no cuenta con experiencias reportadas, la presente descripción se refiere a la primera. Esta ecorregión alberga el mayor remanente de bosques secos en el oeste de América del Sur y tiene un alto nivel de endemismo de especies (Rodríguez 1996), y está constituido por la vegetación que controla el avance hacia el norte del desierto de Sechura.Según Díaz et al. (2012), abarca los sistemas ecológicos del Bosque Seco tipo sabana y tipo matorral espinoso seco a semidesértico, los Bosques Tumbesinos tipo xerofítico, deciduos de tierras bajas, y deciduo premontano, los Bosques Montanos bajo xérico y estacional de Yungas, y el Bosque Subandino xerofítico de los Andes del Norte y de las Yungas, llegando hasta el Arbustal montano xerofítico de la Puna Húmeda. Así, se reconoce una zona de bosques secos de llanuras y una zona de bosque seco de montaña, compuestas por los primeros cinco y los últimos cuatro sistemas ecológicos, respectivamente.Los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura abarcan una pequeña sección en el sur de Ecuador y los departamentos de Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque y Cajamarca en el norte de Perú. El clima es cálido y seco, aunque más húmedo hacia el norte. Presenta una estación lluviosa durante los meses de enero a marzo, con precipitaciones que varían en años normales entre 100 y 500 mm y una estación seca bien definida (Pulgar 1967). La temperatura media anual varía entre 24 y 27ºC.Existe una amplia variedad de asociaciones vegetales como el ceibal que consiste principalmente en ceiba (Ceiba trichistandra), una de las especies endémicas de la región, el Chaparral con especies de arbustos como el papelillo (Bouganvillea sp.), el overo (Cordia lutea) y algunos cactus y, los algarrobales dominados por especies de algarrobo (Prosopis spp.) (WWF 2001). Otras especies dominantes en la zona de bosque seco son el hualtaco (Loxopterigium huasango), el guayacán (Tabebuia billbergii), el palo santo (Bursera graveolens), el charán (Caesalpinia corymbosa) y el sapote (Capparis scabrida) (Ferreyra 1988, Rodríguez 1996). Cabe mencionar que tiene un grado significativo de endemismo, principalmente entre especies de flora y aves, siendo este último grupo el más rico en especies (14 órdenes de aves).A pesar de su gran importancia, esta ecorregión ha sido fuertemente afectada debido a la agricultura migratoria, la tala indiscriminada con fines de construcción y para leña, y el sobrepastoreo (Vásquez et al. 1992, Castillo 2015), que han conducido a estados serios de amenaza de algunas especies como el guayacán, el hualtaco y el palo santo, además de aves en peligro de extinción como Forpus coelestis, Aratinga erythrogenis y Cyanocorax mystacalis (Rodríguez 1996) y (Bibby et al. 1992).Los resultados obtenidos en las 16 experiencias son resumidas en la Tabla 8. En el aspecto ecológico, se observa que cinco experiencias indicaron la recuperación de la biodiversidad local gracias a la cobertura vegetal establecida que permitió generar el hábitat adecuado para el refugio y anidación de especies de fauna (principalmente aves), asimismo en estos mismos casos se reportó conectividad ecológica con sectores remanentes de bosques secos, lo cual indica el interés de algunos actores involucrados en promover intervenciones que trascienden las áreas específicas restauradas. Con respecto a las condiciones ambientales, se mencionó en algunos casos la mejora en la calidad del suelo, la generación de microclimas, el aumento en la disponibilidad del agua y la regulación hídrica.No obstante, estos resultados reportados no necesariamente fueron respaldados por mediciones o registro de ellas en el sistema de monitoreo.En el aspecto social, referido al nivel de participación de las organizaciones locales, el 19% de los casos (3 de 16) presentó capacidad en la toma de decisiones, tanto en la formulación, como en la implementación y el monitoreo de las experiencias, lo cual permitió que las organizaciones locales continúen desarrollando actividades de restauración luego de concluidos los proyectos, esto se observa en la experiencia de ASPROBOS en Lambayeque (Cuadro 2). Asimismo, en otras tres experiencias, si bien las organizaciones locales no tomaron parte en las decisiones, sí fueron claves en la implementación del proyecto, mientras que en otras siete se apeló a la participación de la población local sin llegar a considerar a sus organizaciones ya existentes y solo en tres experiencias se limitó la participación a recibir información del proyecto. Estos resultados evidencian la base para promover un mayor empoderamiento de las organizaciones locales, considerando que el 51% de la superficie total de los bosques del país se encuentran en comunidades campesinas, las cuales presentan en su mayoría deficiencias en sus capacidades de organización y gestión, careciendo de planes de manejo forestal y de conocimientos técnicos para la mejora de sus prácticas agropecuarias (Sánchez et al. 2013).En el aspecto económico, dos experiencias reportaron la venta de productos no maderables (miel y mermelada) a partir del aprovechamiento de colmenares y frutos de especies de importancia como el algarrobo, el sapote, hualtaco, palo santo entre otras. Dicha venta se realizó en mercados locales y regionales, con propuestas para escalar a nivel nacional e internacional. Asimismo, se espera obtener similares productos a mediano y largo plazo en otras tres experiencias. Se reportó también la venta de productos maderables a partir del overo, utilizada en construcciones rurales (cercos, techos, corrales) y subproductos de palo santo. Cabe indicar que existe un grupo de experiencias que, aunque han contribuido a la mejora en la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos como la captura de carbono y la mejora del paisaje, no todas han contemplado valorizaciones o la generación de esquemas de pago o negocios como el ecoturismo, lo cual fortalecería la posibilidad de sostenibilidad de sus proyectos en restauración. -Venta de productos maderables a partir del overo, utilizada en construcciones rurales (cercos, techos, corrales) (1) y subproductos de palo santo (1) -Venta de productos no maderables, las dos procesan y producen miel y mermelada (2); mientras hay otras tres que planean hacerlo a mediano y largo plazo (3) -Captura de carbono (6) y mejora del paisaje con opciones de turismo (3).Entre las lecciones aprendidas de las experiencias reportadas en los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura (Tabla 9), destacó la articulación entre la organización líder de la experiencia, la población local (principalmente comunidades campesinas) y las autoridades públicas, entre las cuales estuvieron presentes algunas municipalidades distritales, gobiernos regionales y autoridades nacionales. No obstante, la falta de planificación a mediano y largo plazo, así como la falta de continuidad de acciones a raíz de los cambios en los consejos directivos de las organizaciones locales dificultaron el desarrollo de algunas experiencias. Asimismo, aunque resaltó la existencia de condiciones de seguridad jurídica en las algunas áreas intervenidas, se reconoce también como una limitante para el desarrollo a mayor escala.En la dimensión social se reconocen los avances y la relativa efectividad del trabajo articulado con las organizaciones locales y autoridades respectivas; pero también se evidencia la falta de empoderamiento y capacidad para afrontar eventos externos como factores que dificultan la sostenibilidad de algunas experiencias. Por otro lado, si bien se cuenta con equipo técnico experimentado, se reconocen deficiencias en el nivel de información científica referida al material de siembra (propagación, instalación y seguimiento) e inexistencia de planes de prevención ante eventos extremos. En la dimensión ecológica, los principales factores de riesgo estuvieron asociados a eventos como las sequias, incendios e inundaciones. Además se detectó la presencia de una plaga que afecta mecánicamente el algarrobo (Prosopis spp.), y que acorde con la población local, viene afectando también la producción de flores y frutos, por lo que se está optando por aprovechar otras especies arbóreas y arbustivas.En la dimensión económica, aunque se identificaron en algunos casos oportunidades en el turismo vivencial y en la producción de miel con determinadas características de interés (como aroma y sabor), el análisis evidenció la necesidad de fortalecer las cadenas de valor, así como de desarrollar investigaciones que permitan aprovechar de manera sostenible los recursos del bosque.Cabe señalar que durante las visitas de campo se identificó la ausencia de fiscalización estatal sobre la tala indiscriminada con fines de producción de carbón. Esto se suma al problema de sobrepastoreo previamente identificado como una de las causas principales de degradación entre las experiencias de los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura, convirtiéndose esta ecorregión en una de las más amenazadas debido al disturbio antropogénico (Samaniego 2015) y más necesitadas de una estrategia de restauración.Tabla 9. Factores de éxito y riesgo en los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura (n=16)-Generación de alianzas interinstitucionales, con énfasis en las comunidades locales.-Sostenibilidad de los compromisos públicos políticos, que trascienden los gobiernos.-Visión y planificación a largo plazo desde el inicio de las experiencias.-Falta de continuidad debido a cambios en los consejos directivos, en especial de la población local.-Ausente o deficiente planificación a nivel comunal y local debilitó la articulación y el desarrollo de una visión compartida de manejo de los recursos.-Seguridad jurídica debido a que las áreas intervenidas eran propiedad comunal o estaban en concesión.-Carencia de saneamiento legal en otros terrenos cuando se desea escalar.-Participación activa y vinculación con todos los actores locales.-Adaptarse la organización local (rondas campesinas, comités locales) ayudó en facilitar la adopción de la experiencia por las comunidades locales.-Falta de empoderamiento de las organizaciones locales dificultó la sostenibilidad.-Retraso de actividades debido a la desmotivación de la población ante algunos eventos (p. ej. incendios e invasiones).-Equipo técnico capacitado y experimentado.-Empleo de metodologías adecuadas para las zonas, previamente probadas y aceptadas por las comunidades.-Monitoreo de los plantones permitió corregir actividades de manejo y sanidad.-Falta de información científica para la toma de decisiones retrasó y pudo haber reducido la efectividad de las intervenciones.-Inexistencia de planes de prevención y respuesta ante eventos como incendios, sequías e inundaciones.-Disponibilidad de agua para el riego de plantones en solo un caso.-Selección de especies nativas para recuperar áreas fragmentadas de bosques naturales.-Sequías y altas temperaturas afectaron el prendimiento y crecimiento de los plantones.-Presencia de la plaga del algarrobo podría afectar drásticamente sus poblaciones y productos derivados de su fruto.-Financiamiento adecuado a lo esperado y de diferentes fuentes según el objetivo.-Deficiente desarrollo de cadenas productivas, y en las que sí se logró, falta fortalecer el acceso a mercados.Esta experiencia abarca un extenso período de tiempo, desde los años ochenta hasta la actualidad. Se desarrolla en los caseríos El Choloque, El Cardo, Yocape, Higuerón y Morropón de la comunidad campesina de Tongorrape, en Lambayeque, en un área de 650 ha categorizadas como Bosque Seco tipo sabana, bosque deciduo de tierras bajas y matorral espinoso seco a semidesértico (Arnillas et al. 2011) A partir de estas acciones, se han desarrollado procesos de aprovechamiento forestal, principalmente la producción de miel de palo santo, hualtaco, sapote, sune, overo, pasayo (Eriotheca ruizii), entre otras; así como mermelada de mamey (Mammea americana), cuyo mercado aún es limitado; y se proyecta iniciar el turismo vivencial, la observación de aves, entre otras formas de turismo. Esta experiencia ha sido replicada por ASPROBOS en otras comunidades campesinas como Cañaris, y otras más que han solicitado su apoyo.Entre los factores de éxito se encuentra la zonificación de sus terrenos, así como la promoción de la identidad con el territorio y la auto organización local. Asimismo, el gran conocimiento local sobre los ecosistemas de bosques secos les ha permitido aprovechar de forma sostenible los recursos. No obstante, y similar a otras experiencias, las sequías prolongadas, la plaga del algarrobo, y la tala ilegal están afectando la cobertura vegetal, y podría poner en peligro esta fuente importante de recursos para la comunidad.Vistas del terreno de la comunidad campesina de Tongorrape, bajo un Plan de Manejo Forestal liderado por ASPROBOS, el cual ha permitido zonificar el territorio en áreas dedicadas a la producción de miel (izquierda), recuperación de plantones, cultivos (derecha), pastos para ganadería, entre otros usos. Fotografías: Bioversity International.Según WWF ( 2001), esta ecorregión se encuentra en la zona más ancha del desierto costero del norte del país, abarcando todo el flanco occidental de los andes peruanos donde se presenta un clima de árido a semiárido, se encuentra ubicado en mayor extensión en los departamentos de Piura y Lambayeque. De norte a sur, presenta una longitud máxima de unos 150 km y de este a oeste, tiene un ancho máximo de unos 100 km, comprendidos entre las estribaciones de la Cordillera Occidental de los Andes y el litoral del Pacífico. Véliz et al. (2008) identificaron para esta ecorregión los siguientes sistemas ecológicos terrestres: las lomas, los arbustales ribereños, montanos y altimontanos, los matorrales desérticos, costeros y altimontanos, y los cardonales desérticos dominados por cactáceas, a veces en asociación con arbustales y otras.Entre las especies más comunes en las lomas se encuentran el amancae (Ismene amancae), la tara (Caesalpinia spinosa), el mito (Carica candicans) y el tabaco silvestre (Nicotiana paniculata). En los arbustales y matorrales desérticos se encuentran especies en común con el bosque seco como el algarrobo, palo santo, overo, faique y tara, además de cactáceas como Armatocereus sp., Haageocereus sp., Corryocactus sp. e incluso tillandsiales (Tillandsia sp.), más comunes en los cardonales. Hacia las montañas se encuentran Lycianthes lycioides, Lantana sp., Baccharis sp., Salvia sp., Schinus molle, Furcraea andina, e incluso a Polylepis rugulosa en áreas altimontanas.Tratar la restauración de la ecorregión Desierto de Sechura implica abordar ecosistemas con escasa cobertura y caracterizados por la cantidad de endemismos que presenta y por su disposición en forma de parches alternando regularmente con el desierto propiamente dicho, que ocupa aproximadamente el 40% de la superficie (Véliz et al. 2008). Entre las causas de degradación se encuentran el avance de la urbanización, la minería no metálica, procesos de erosión eólica, la expansión agrícola, entre otros (WWF 2001).En la Tabla 10 se presenta la síntesis de los resultados obtenidos en las siete experiencias reportadas. En el aspecto ecológico destacó la recuperación de la biodiversidad y la recuperación de corredores ecológicos para el caso de las dos experiencias desarrolladas en lomas. Esto es notable dado el proceso de fragmentación que viene sufriendo este ecosistema a lo largo de la costa peruana como producto de la urbanización descontrolada, la tala indiscriminada y el pastoreo (Lleellish et al. 2015, MINAM 2015). Los impactos positivos se ven reflejados en el retorno de especies típicas del ecosistema, como el zorro andino y, el zorro de costa, y aves como la perdiz y la paloma cuculí, entre otras. En el caso de una experiencia ubicada en el matorral espinoso seco a semidesértico, se reportó la recuperación de biodiversidad aunque sin indicarse las especies, pero pudo referirse a las especies utilizadas, como el algarrobo, la tara, el faique, entre otras nativas del lugar. En el aspecto ambiental, se reportó la recuperación de la calidad del suelo y la reducción de la erosión hídrica y eólica por la cobertura instalada; mientras que con respecto al agua, dos experiencias indicaron el aumento de infiltraciones, y por tanto, del agua subterránea, destacando las experiencias de lomas que emplearon sistemas de atrapanieblas para aprovechar el agua de neblina, y de una experiencia ubicada en un cardonal-matorral, donde se colectó el agua de lluvias de zonas de mayor altitud en pozos recubiertos con geomembranas. Este sistema podría ser aprovechado en otros lugares a fin de reducir el impacto de las sequías y asegurar el prendimiento de especies que recién hayan sido instaladas.En el aspecto social, destacó el aumento de interés de la población local en todas las experiencias reportadas a partir de la concientización. Este interés ha llevado en algunos casos, a generar grupos auto-gestionados que promueven actividades como el ecoturismo. En ese contexto, cabe resaltar la experiencia de la comunidad campesina Lomas de Asia (Cuadro 3), que se gestionó bajo un sistema de participación local muy activo. En el aspecto económico, dos experiencias ubicadas en las lomas realizaron la venta de productos no maderables (frutos) y de servicios ecosistémicos derivados de la restauración (ecoturismo), lo que contribuyó en la sostenibilidad de las experiencias. No obstante, se identifica una falta de acompañamiento técnico y mecanismos que permitan armonizar el crecimiento urbano con las condiciones ambientales y ecológicas del ecosistema original (baja precipitación, alto endemismo) y la dinámica social mayoritariamente urbana, que se traduce en presiones fuertes sobre el territorio y en oportunidades para generar ingresos a partir de la restauración.Tabla 10. Resultados por aspecto en el Desierto de Sechura (n=7)-Recuperación de biodiversidad (1) y conservación de la biodiversidad (1 experiencia) -Generación de hábitat para la fauna (2) -Conectividad ecológica con ecosistema lomas (2) -Mejora de la calidad del suelo (2) y reducción de erosión eólica (1) -Generación de microclimas por efecto de la cobertura vegetal (5) -Aumento de la disponibilidad de agua (2) y mejora de calidad de agua subterránea (1)-Concientización, implementación, organización y toma de decisiones (1) -Concientización e implementación (2) -Solo concientización (4)-Venta de productos no maderables vinculadas al algarrobo, tara, miel y frutos (1) -Servicio ecosistémico de captura de carbono (2) -Ingresos por turismo (3) y en otras experiencias se están generando las condiciones para realizarlo a largo plazo.En la Tabla 11, que presenta la síntesis de factores de éxito y riesgo, se observa que el trabajo con la población también se realizó a nivel educacional con adultos, jóvenes y niños. Además se han promovido actividades económicas aparentemente compatibles con las condiciones ambientales y ecológicas, como son el aprovechamiento no maderable y el ecoturismo. No obstante, entre los factores que dificultaron el éxito se encuentran la poca o deficiente disposición de las autoridades estatales, la carencia de conocimientos técnicos por parte de la población local para escalar las experiencias una vez que estas culminen, y la deficiente preparación ante riesgos de desastres como las sequías o las lluvias intensas, factores que podrían poner en riesgo la sostenibilidad de las experiencias. Nuevamente resalta como un factor de éxito el saneamiento legal de los terrenos, y los acuerdos para desarrollar las experiencias (cesiones de uso, entre otras).Tabla 11. Factores de éxito y riesgo en el Desierto de Sechura (n=7) Dimensión Factores de éxito Factores de riesgo-Coordinación efectiva entre los actores claves (municipalidad, universidad, Gobierno Regional, empresas privadas).-Algunas experiencias formaron parte de políticas nacionales de conservación, de programas regionales o acuerdos comunales.-Falta de interés e involucramiento de las instituciones estatales, y demoras burocráticas cuando estas fueron parte de las experiencias.-Cambios de directiva de instituciones estatales dificultó la continuidad de algunas experiencias.-Los terrenos comunales delimitados.-Cesiones de uso a favor del proyecto.-La falta de titulación en los terrenos de posesionarios demora la realización de las actividades.-Participación activa de comunidades desde el inicio del proyecto.-Falta de compromiso de algunos pobladores en algunas etapas del proyecto.-Equipos de trabajo multidisciplinario, con acciones de investigación.-Capacitaciones, talleres y pasantías a experiencias similares modelo.-Conformación de comités y asociaciones a nivel local.-Mano de obra local disponible.-Monitoreo básico permite corregir prácticas silviculturales (recalce, poda, riego).-Desconocimiento local acerca del aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos naturales.-Ausencia de temas como conservación de bosques en el currículo de las escuelas.-Deficiente gestión de riesgos de desastres.-Actividades en función a la disponibilidad de agua, disminuyendo la mortandad de plantones.-Generación de paisajes.-La creciente fluctuación en duración e intensidad de las épocas húmeda y seca, sumado a la falta de prevención.-En algunos casos la baja disponibilidad de agua para riego dificulta el establecimiento de los plantones.-Generación de beneficios económicos a través de productos no maderables y de otras actividades (p. ej. turismo, huertos familiares).-Presupuesto reducido para implementar monitoreo efectivo, y en algunos casos, para completar las actividades requeridas.-Falta de infraestructura y de una población capacitada para la actividad turística.A 100 km de la capital del Perú se ubica la Comunidad Campesina de Asia, parte del distrito del mismo nombre. En esta comunidad se encuentran las denominadas \"Lomas de Asia\" en una extensión de 20 ha, donde entre el 2011 y 2014 se desarrolló una experiencia de restauración que tenía por objetivos la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal y de la biodiversidad, sensibilizar a la población local sobre la importancia de su conservación, promover un aprovechamiento sostenible a partir del ecoturismo y la cosecha del fruto de la tara.Con base en la auto organización local y con el apoyo de especialistas, se reforestó el área con plantones de tara, especie arbórea-arbustiva nativa de las lomas y de la cual se aprovecha el fruto para su venta y posterior transformación. Para asegurar el prendimiento y crecimiento de los plantones, se instaló un sistema de atrapanieblas en las zonas altas donde se genera la mayor concentración de neblinas, así como un sistema de reservorios y canales que aseguró la provisión de agua durante el verano, cuando las precipitaciones son casi nulas. Además, se desarrolló un trabajo de concientización ambiental con la población local a través de charlas, talleres, visitas, ferias, entre otras; y se inició un fuerte proceso de difusión en medios de comunicación para promover el ecoturismo. Esto permitió cierta recuperación de la biodiversidad nativa del lugar como consecuencia de la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal y el ingreso de humedad al ecosistema.Estos avances en los aspectos ecológicos y sociales han permitido dar legitimidad y visibilidad a la experiencia, y se espera que en los próximos años se inicie el aprovechamiento de las vainas de la tara, así como el fortalecimiento del ecoturismo. No obstante, se requiere asegurar la continuidad del proyecto cuando suceda cambios en la junta directiva de la comunidad, controlar las invasiones de terrenos, prever la ocurrencia de sequías, promover un mayor fortalecimiento de capacidades de la población local y la instalación de la infraestructura necesaria para que puedan desarrollar sosteniblemente el aprovechamiento de este espacio.Sistema de atrapanieblas en la línea superior de lomas, que irrigan los plantones de Caesalpinia spinosa \"tara\" en las Lomas de Asia. Fotografía: Bioversity International.La presente descripción agrupa las siguientes ecorregiones: Bosque Montano de la Cordillera Real Oriental y Páramo de la Cordillera Central. El Bosque Montano de la Cordillera Real Oriental, presenta bosques montanos tropicales que se distribuyen en la vertiente oriental de los Andes, desde el macizo colombiano hasta Ecuador y hasta la vertiente norte del río Marañón en Perú, entre los 500 y 3 500 msnm. Estos bosques reciben entre 1 500 y 4 500 mm de precipitación anual. La vegetación dominante varía drásticamente con la altitud, encontrándose bosques con fuerte influencia amazónica, bosques nubosos y bosques achaparrados en las partes más altas. Éstos tienen una gran riqueza y biodiversidad debido a su gran variación altitudinal e historia geológica. Asimismo, la ecorregión presenta especies que se originaron en la cuenca del Amazonas, los valles interandinos secos y los bosques tropicales del Pacífico (WWF 2001).La Entre las principales causas de degradación y deforestación de la ecorregión se encuentran la extracción de recursos maderables y no maderables, la expansión de la frontera agrícola y ganadera, los fenómenos naturales vinculados al cambio climático, la débil capacidad de gestión pública y las políticas púbicas insuficientes, o incluso, inexistentes (Gálmez y Kómetter 2009).En la Tabla 12 se presenta la síntesis de los resultados obtenidos. En el aspecto ecológico, resaltó la mejora de la calidad del suelo y reducción de la erosión, mientras que otras indicaron la generación de microclimas por efecto de las plantaciones. No obstante, solo tres experiencias cuentan con programas de monitoreo, que se limitan al estado de las plantaciones instaladas, por lo que estos reportes deberían ser corroborados por estudios posteriores que cuantifiquen el aporte a los aspectos ecológicos, entre otros.Asimismo, cabe resaltar que un caso (Cuadro 4) realizó un ordenamiento forestal a nivel local a fin de ubicar los macizos forestales de pino (Pinus patula y P. radiata) en zonas donde su impacto en la regulación y disponibilidad hídrica fueran mínimos (cabecera de cuenca y quebradas). Esta intervención es importante ya que, de acuerdo al testimonio de comuneros de la zona, se presentan años de sequías intensas, donde el pino tiene mayor impacto en el balance hídrico local (Huber et al. 2008, Ochoa-Tocachi et al. 2016). En el caso de la granja Porcón, una de las dos experiencias en Páramos de la Cordillera Central, el estado de degradación del área al inicio de la experiencia era intensa: los suelos contaban con poca materia orgánica y poca cobertura de pastos, con un suelo mineral erosionado, degradado y compactado y con una capacidad de infiltración casi nula (Carton 1997). Además del pino, se emplearon especies nativas como la queñua, tara y aliso (Alnus acuminata), que aminoraron el impacto sobre el balance hídrico, considerando además que en esta área el agua no es una limitante (Llerena et al. 2007). Similar punto de partida tuvo la segunda experiencia desarrollada en Páramos; aunque, en este caso solo se instalaron plantaciones de pino. En ambos casos se reportó el aumento en la disponibilidad y mejora de la calidad del agua, aunque considerando el impacto que el pino puede generar, se requiere un mayor análisis sobre el balance hídrico. Por lo tanto, para otros casos es recomendable realizar un análisis similar, además de evaluar la biodiversidad nativa, a fin de determinar la pertinencia del uso del pino, así como los sitios y los métodos más propicios.En el aspecto social resaltó el incremento de interés de la población, la ejecución y organización para replicar la experiencia en dos casos, lo que es probable que se vincule a las actividades económicas derivadas de la restauración, tangible en los productos maderables y no maderables que se generaron, y en cuya repartición de beneficios participaron las comunidades locales.Aspecto Descripción-Recuperación de la biodiversidad (1 experiencia) -Generación de hábitat para aves silvestres (1) -Mejora de la calidad del suelo (4) y reducción de la erosión (1) -Generación de microclima en las plantaciones instaladas (2) -Aumento en la disponibilidad de agua (1) y mejora de la calidad de agua (1)-Concientización, implementación y organización (2) -Concientización e implementación (3) -Solo concientización (1)-Venta de productos maderables: madera, leña, puntales y tableros aglomerados (3) y varillas de bambú (1) -Venta de productos no maderables como los hongos comestibles (3) -Ingresos por bonos de carbono (1) y en otra por actividades de turismo a largo plazo (1)En la Tabla 13 se presenta la síntesis de los factores de éxito y riesgo, entre los cuales nuevamente resultó clave la participación de diversos actores de interés, especialmente de las comunidades locales; sin embargo, también se reportó la ausencia o deficiente actuación del Estado en tres experiencias. Aunque se presentaron dificultades para alcanzar acuerdos con la comunidad, la seguridad en la tenencia legal de la tierra fue un factor exitoso para el desarrollo de las experiencias. Se requirió de un proceso de construcción de confianza y legitimidad en el actor principal, ya fuera la ONG o el gobierno local. En la dimensión ecológica, solo una experiencia realizó medidas preventivas contra incendios que podrían ser difundidas a otras experiencias, incorporándolas como un aspecto mandatorio de las actividades, dada la creciente vulnerabilidad de los bosques montanos a incendios forestales. También deberían implementarse planes de prevención en riesgo de desastres como inundaciones, heladas y friajes. Otro aspecto que afectó a dos experiencias fue la falta de información técnica sobre la propagación de especies nativas como la queñua, el aliso y el sauco (Sambucus peruviana). Finalmente, una opción para futuras intervenciones es el acceso a mercados de bonos de carbono, que permitiría obtener ingresos alternativos y cubrir el déficit de financiamiento externo por el Estado o por cooperaciones internacionales, la cual podría desarrollarse en equilibrio con otros usos en función a un ordenamiento territorial adecuado y participativo, como el turismo o la colecta de hongos comestibles.Tabla 13. Factores de éxito y riesgo en los Bosques Montanos y Páramos (n=6)-La experiencia y legitimidad de las instituciones líderes.-La generación de alianzas y pactos entre actores locales e implementadores.-Planificación adecuada a largo plazo.-Dificultad para generar confianza y compromisos iniciales con las organizaciones locales e instituciones públicas.-Falta de involucramiento del Estado.-Seguridad legal sobre los terrenos, en varios casos de propiedad comunal.-Dificultad en alcanzar acuerdos para comprometer áreas a ser recuperadas.-Adecuado trabajo en alianza con la comunidad local, capacitándola y motivándola.-Adecuación a las organizaciones locales existentes (p. ej. rondas campesinas, comités conservacionistas, entre otras).-Oposición de los propietarios por desconocimiento de los beneficios de la reforestación.-Dificultad en conciliar a todas las partes interesadas, así como de la información que se difunde dentro de la comunidad.-Equipo profesional competente.-Medidas preventivas ante incendios y zonificación por especies.-Escasa información sobre técnicas silviculturales y de propagación.-Las condiciones edáficas y de agua no fueron limitantes para desarrollar las experiencias.-Dificultades para elaborar planes ante fenómenos climáticos como heladas y friajes -Incidencia de incendios forestales.-Incremento en el volumen de madera producida, y respaldo económico a través de inversiones para las etapas planificadas.-En algunos casos hubo escasa inversión y dificultades para que empresas puedan financiar actividades de monitoreo.En los bosques montanos correspondientes a la comunidad campesina de Yamango, en la sierra del departamento de Piura, consideradas por Díaz et al (2012) como matorrales húmedos y subhúmedos, puna natural de montaña y páramos, se desarrolla una experiencia sobre un área de 285 ha que, a lo largo de una primera etapa (2010-2016), busca implementar un modelo de reforestación atractivo ecológica y económicamente, como respuesta al fuerte proceso de degradación por ampliación de la frontera agrícola y por el consumo de leña y madera. Para ello, la ONG PROGRESO en conjunto con los caseríos de la comunidad campesina y los centros poblados de Choco y Confesionarios desarrolló primero un proceso de zonificación del área a intervenir, ubicando a las especies nativas queñua (Polylepis incana) y aliso (Alnus acuminata) en las cabeceras de cuenca y quebradas (20% del área), y a las dos especies exóticas de pino (Pinus patula y P.radiata) en laderas y zonas adecuadas para reducir el impacto sobre el recurso hídrico (80% del área). Luego se instalaron viveros con participación activa de los comités de reforestación local, y se instalaron los plantones en los meses previos a la época de lluvias.Esta experiencia tiene una base fundamental en la venta de bonos de carbono, esperándose capturar 53 163 t CO₂ en la primera etapa (285 ha) y 112 500 t CO₂ en la segunda de 500 ha. Los ingresos se dirigirán principalmente a las comunidades campesinas (60%). En paralelo, se espera obtener ingresos por los hongos comestibles, los puntales, la leña, y por actividades complementarias como biohuertos y piscigranjas. Según los especialistas del proyecto, estas acciones han aportado en el mantenimiento de la disponibilidad hídrica (existen registros de caudal) y el retorno de especies de aves silvestres, algunas de ellas endémicas de la región, así como de reptiles y mamíferos. Entre los factores de éxito destacan el haber lidiado exitosamente con la desconfianza inicial y con la cultura asistencialista instalada en la zona cuando la experiencia inició, haber involucrado a la organización local en todas las fases de la experiencia, y el tener un modelo atractivo tanto para los inversionistas como para la comunidad (Amrein et al. 2015).Los comités de reforestación de los caseríos seleccionados participaron en todo el proceso, desde la zonificación hasta el mantenimiento de los macizos (izquierda). Luego de seis años, se observa la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal, un 80% por pino y un 20% por queñua y aliso (derecha). Fotografías: ONG PROGRESO y Bioversity International.La presente descripción agrupa las ecorregiones de Puna Húmeda de los Andes Centrales y Puna de los Andes Centrales; las cuales presentan un prado montano de alta elevación y húmedo, en los altos Andes del sur, que se extienden desde el norte de Perú hasta el norte de Bolivia. Asimismo, según Josse et al. (2009), abarcan los sistemas ecológicos de la Puna altimontana y altoandina húmeda y xerofítica, Pajonales, Matorrales y Arbustales xerofíticos altimontanos de la Puna húmeda, Pajonales arbustivo altimontano y altoandino húmedo y estacional de Yungas, el Humedal altoandino y altimontano de la Puna húmeda y la Vegetación subnival de la Puna húmeda y xerofítica.La Puna Húmeda limita al oeste con el Desierto de Sechura y al este con las Yungas Peruanas, lo que hace que las zonas de transición sean extremas. Por otro lado, la Puna Central es continua y transicional entre la puna húmeda al norte y al oeste, y la puna seca al sur (WWF 2001). Además, la Puna Húmeda incluye tres subregiones: la puna andina alta (4 200-5 000 msnm y precipitación media anual menor a 700 mm), la puna húmeda (3 700-4 200 msnm, precipitación media anual de 500-700 mm y temperatura media anual entre 5 y 7 °C) y por último los prados montanos húmedos (3 800-4200 msnm). En la Puna Central el clima varía de templado a frío, es seco con una temperatura media entre 0 y 15ºC y presenta una precipitación media anual entre 250 y 500 mm (Pulgar 1967).La Puna Húmeda incluye especies como Festuca dolichopylla, Stipa ichu, Calamagrostis spp., Distichia muscoides, Oxychloe andina y Plantago rigida entre otras (Young et al. 1997), relictos de bosques montanos de especies nativas de Polylepis spp., Buddleja sp. y Escallonia sp. que se pueden encontrar a altitudes más bajas (Ferreyra 1988). Asimismo, la vegetación de la Puna Central se compone principalmente de praderas formadas por diferentes tipos de pastos de los géneros Calamagrostis, Agrostis y Festuca entre otras formaciones como tolares y cangllares. En especies de fauna, los más representativos son los camélidos andinos como Vicugna vicugna, Lama glama, L guanacoe y L.pacos, mamíferos grandes como Felis concolor, Pseudalopex culpaeus, algunos murciélagos Histiotus montanus y Lasiurus cinereus, y otras especies como la Chinchilla brevicaudata y Lagidium sp. entre otras (WWF 2001).Las principales presiones que conllevan a la deforestación y degradación de los bosques en esta ecorregión son la conversión de tierras forestales a pastizales y tierras agrícolas, la extracción de madera para leña y la fabricación de carbón. Destaca la tala de los bosques de Polylepis para construcciones y como material combustible, y ocasionalmente para la fabricación de herramientas y carbón (Jameson y Ramsay 2007). Las actividades de pastoreo extensivo de ganado y las quemas también son una amenaza para los bosques de Polylepis y la vegetación asociada ya que elimina la posibilidad de regeneración natural e incrementa la degradación del suelo. Por otra parte, las actividades mineras generan la contaminación del suelo y de los cuerpos de agua (Young et al. 1997).Además, el aumento de las temperaturas y los cambios en los patrones de precipitación generan un impacto negativo en el balance hídrico afectando al ciclo y disponibilidad de agua en esta ecorregión (Bruijnzeel et al. 2010).En la Tabla 14 se presenta la síntesis de los resultados obtenidos de las 15 experiencias reportadas en la ecorregión de la Puna de los Andes Centrales. Se aprecia que, en el aspecto ecológico, se reportaron tres casos de recuperación de biodiversidad en las zonas intervenidas a partir del retorno de especies de fauna y flora silvestre. Dos de estas experiencias reportaron variables de monitoreo de composición y estructura de la vegetación y una de fauna silvestre. Asimismo, se reportó la generación o conservación de hábitats para fauna silvestre, como en el caso de la Asociación ECOAN (Cuadro 5) donde a partir de la recuperación de bosques de queñua se vienen conservando diversas especies endémicas de aves como el tijeral de ceja blanca (Lepthastenura xenothorax), el torito de pecho cenizo o alcalde (Anairetes alpinus) y el churrete real (Cinclodes aricomae), especies que tienen una distribución restringida de 3 800 a 4 600 m de altura (Servat et al. 2002). Por otra parte, los bosques de queñua son hábitat de mamíferos como el puma (Puma concolor), la vizcacha (Lagidium viscacia) el ratón chuncho andino (Lestoros inca), entre otros.También se reportó solo una experiencia que contempló la conectividad ecológica con ecosistemas aledaños, en este caso con bosques relictos de queñuales en la Coordillera del Vilcanota en Cusco las cuales presentan una naturaleza fragmentada atribuida a su especificidad en condiciones fisiológicas y microclimáticas (Weberbauer 1945) o a factores antropogénicos como la tala, quema y el sobrepastoreo (Fjeldsa y Kessler 1996).La reducción y control de erosión de los suelos se atribuyen principalmente a la implementación de terrazas de formación lenta, zanjas de infiltración, exclusión del pastoreo e instalación de especies nativas como la queñua, a la cual se le atribuye la conservación de suelos (Reynel y Felipe-Morales 1987). Por otro lado, se reportaron cuatro casos con generación de microclimas a partir de la instalación de cobertura forestal y el aumento de la disponibilidad del agua en nueve experiencias; sin embargo, no se precisaron cantidades ni métodos de medición que permitiesen verificar dichas premisas a excepción de solo una experiencia que registró el aumento progresivo del volumen del recurso hídrico a partir de la siembra y cosecha de agua.En relación al aspecto social, si bien se realizaron charlas de sensibilización y capacitaciones en todas las experiencias, no en todos los casos se tradujeron en un nivel de participación enfocado a la toma de decisiones y la organización interna, ya que aún se necesita de asesoría técnica para actividades de mantenimiento de plantaciones forestales y de mercado. Asimismo, las comunidades participaron más que nada durante la etapa de ejecución, y no en la formulación del proyecto, a excepción de tres casos donde fueron consideradas desde la planificación. Finalmente, en el aspecto económico las experiencias que instalaron la especie exótica pino, contemplaron a mediano plazo la venta de hongos comestibles, así como la venta de madera y leña de pino a largo plazo. Por otra parte, las experiencias que presentaron sistemas nativos o mixtos reportaron su deseo de obtener a mediano plazo beneficios económicos a partir de los servicios ecosistémicos (recursos hídricos, captura de carbono entre otros) y actividades sostenibles como el turismo comunitario, diversificación de productos en función a huertos familiares, y buenas prácticas agrícolas y ganaderas. -Venta de madera y leña a largo plazo (6) -Venta de productos no maderables como hongos comestibles que crecen en simbiosis con las plantaciones de Pino (2) y productos agrícolas (1) -Ingresos por actividades de turismo, bonos de carbono a mediano plazo (2)En la Tabla 15 se presenta el resumen de los factores de éxito y riesgo reportados. En la dimensión gobernanza resaltó la buena coordinación interinstitucional y el compromiso asumido por los actores involucrados; sin embargo, se reportaron experiencias con problemas internos dentro de la comunidad, falta de apoyo del gobierno local y falta de planificación de metas a largo plazo. En la dimensión legal no se reportó ningún problema de tenencia de tierras, ya que las áreas intervenidas son de posesión comunal, propiedad del Estado o privada que se encuentran claramente definidas y limitadas.En la dimensión social, se reportó en algunos casos el interés de las comunidades. Sin embargo, en otros casos se mencionó una participación limitada debido a la ocupación de los comuneros en otras actividades que se desarrollan en su entorno (proyectos de carretera, agricultura, ganadería y, minería, entre otras). Además, en la dimensión de capacidades predominó el conocimiento de prácticas ancestrales, que es complementado y reforzado por el fortalecimiento de habilidades en función a capacitaciones, talleres y pasantías. A pesar de ello, se reconoce un limitado conocimiento científico para restaurar ecosistemas altoandinos como pastizales y bofedales entre otros. En la dimensión ecológica algunas experiencias reportaron inconvenientes durante la instalación de los plantones debido a las heladas y sequías, las cuales fueron resueltas oportunamente. Por último, en la dimensión económica se reportó un desconocimiento de mercado para la venta de los productos maderables y servicios ecosistémicos a obtener a largo plazo de las plantaciones forestales. Sin embargo, resalto la satisfacción de necesidades de autoconsumo a partir de la diversificación de alimentos, producto de las variadas intervenciones en una misma área la que se tradujeron en una mejora de las condiciones de vida para la población. -Coordinación efectiva con comunidades y otros actores involucrados (municipalidad, gobierno regional, ONG, entidad financiera, universidad y centros de investigación).-Cumplimiento de los compromisos asumidos por las instituciones involucradas.-Enmarcada en políticas ambientales a nivel nacional, regional y local, y programas de responsabilidad social de empresas.-Desinterés del gobierno local por proyectos de restauración.-Discrepancias internas dentro de la comunidad.-Cumplimiento de metas sujeta a horizontes cortos y en algunos casos sin metas anuales.-Falta de planificación de reuniones con dirigentes de las comunidades.-Terreno de posesión comunal, cesión de uso de terrenos para plantaciones forestales. Propiedades privadas y del Estado definidas y limitadas.-No se presentaron problemas legales con los terrenos intervenidos.-Población organizada y comprometida con el cuidado de la naturaleza.-Interés y participación colectiva (p. ej. escuelas, madres y niños).-Participación limitada debido a ocupación en otras actividades (p. ej. carretera, agricultura), sobre todo de padres de familia.-Las comunidades contaron con conocimiento del territorio, cosmovisión y prácticas ancestrales.-Equipo técnico multidisciplinario.-Consolidación y fortalecimiento del Comité Conservacionista.-Generación y fortalecimiento de capacidades técnicas.-A partir del monitoreo se corrigieron y planificaron actividades silviculturales y de manejo fitosanitario.-Conocimiento escaso en mantenimiento adecuado de una plantación (p. ej. podas, raleos, etc.) -Falta de información de especies nativas y sobre revegetación de ecosistemas altoandinos con pastizales naturales.-Limitado conocimiento científico y ecológico relacionado con bofedales.-Mano de obra limitada.-Demoras administrativas en atención de requerimientos.-Falta de implementación de instrumentos de gestión de riesgos y desastres.-La selección de especies se dio de acuerdo a la altitud de las zonas intervenidas.-Especies instaladas sufrieron estrés hídrico por lo que fue necesario realizar faenas comunales para el riego de los plantones.-Las heladas y granizadas dificultaron el desarrollo de las labores de campo.-Disponibilidad presupuestal para instalación de plantaciones.-Venta de madera de especies de pino y eucalipto a largo plazo.-Planificación de rutas ecoturísticas a partir de la recuperación del paisaje.-Desconocimiento de mercado para los productos maderables y servicios ecosistémicos a obtener de las plantaciones.-Falta de financiamiento para actividades de monitoreo.En el año 2000, la Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN) observó que los bosques de Polylepis se encontraban en un estado crítico debido principalmente a la deforestación y sobrepastoreo. Por ello en coordinación con las 21 comunidades de las provincias de Urubamba y Calca en Cusco decidió plantar queñuas en la parte central de la sierra del Vilcanota. En ese contexto, es necesario reconocer los múltiples beneficios de la queñua tales como: almacenar agua, evitar la erosión, generar microclimas para las especies silvestres, producir áreas cultivables, contribuir a reducir la huella de carbono y aportar oxígeno. En otras palabras, podríamos decir que un bosque de Polylepis, es un bosque de vida que le hace frente al cambio climático.En la actualidad se tiene más de 400 hectáreas de frondosos bosques restaurados con aproximadamente un millón de queñuas sembradas que albergan diversas especies de fauna silvestre en especial aves en peligro de extinción como el tijeral de ceja blanca (Lepthastenura xenothorax), el torito de pecho cenizo o alcalde (Anairetes alpinus), y el churrete real (Cinclodes aricomae). Además, se tiene como objetivo plantar medio millón más de queñua para el 2020. Por otro lado, a partir de las asesorías técnicas a los comuneros se protegen los pequeños brinzales que crecen en los bosques naturales y propagan las semillas en los viveros comunales.A pesar de ello, se ha reconocido la necesidad de trabajar más en otras áreas potenciales. Por ello, desde hace tres años realizan el Queñua Raymi, una reforestación donde participan hombres, mujeres, ancianos, niños de las comunidades y algunos voluntarios.Esta experiencia se enfoca en la conservación y los servicios ecosistémicos que brinda, pero no contempla la venta de productos a partir de la queñua. Por ello, se vienen gestionando actividades sostenibles como el turismo y venta de productos artesanales, a partir de los cuales la población generará beneficios económicos en concordancia con las actividades de conservación. Cabe resaltar que uno de los principales factores de éxito de esta experiencia fue la sensibilización estructurada a diferentes niveles realizada desde el inicio, la cual ha permitido asegurar el compromiso de los comuneros y la sinergia entre las diferentes comunidades que participan activamente de las faenas comunales, conduciendo así a la sostenibilidad de la experiencia.Las comunidades participaron de las actividades, tanto en la producción de plantones en el vivero comunal (izquierda) y durante la reforestación con queñua (centro y derecha). Fotografías: Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN). La precipitación media anual fluctúa entre 1 500 y 3 000 mm, pudiendo llegar hasta el doble en algunas zonas si se considera el agua de neblinas interceptada por la vegetación en los bosques nublados y achaparrados (CDC-UNALM y TNC 2006). Asimismo, la temperatura promedio anual en los pisos altitudinales superiores varía entre 7 a 15°C y entre 15 y 19 °C en los pisos inferiores (Young y León 1999). La mayor parte de la ecorregión se encuentra en la franja subandina, una región montañosa que discurre paralela y en la base de la Coordillera oriental. La mayoría de los suelos son ácidos, poco desarrollados y poco profundos, con una litología variada basada en rocas sedimentarias (Roca et al. 1996). Presenta una orografía sumamente compleja cuyos determinantes incluyen una superficie montañosa llena de acantilados, crestas, laderas y valles, con una topografía escarpada y altamente diseccionada (WWF 2001).La vegetación es extremadamente diversa, y en muchos lugares forma un mosaico de tipos de hábitat.Existen al menos 200 especies de orquídeas, como los géneros Epidendrum y Maxilaria (WWF 2001).Asimismo, se reconocen más de 3 000 especies de 160 familias botánicas, aproximadamente el 18% de la flora vascular del país. Las familias de flora vascular más diversas son Asteraceae, Melastomataceae, Orchidaceae, Poaceae, Solanaceae y Rubiaceae (Young y León 2001). Según Ferreyra (1988), por debajo de 3 500 m se encuentran los bosques nubosos con presencia de bambú (Chusquea spp.) y helechos arbóreos (Cyathea spp.) y por encima de 3500 m, hay matorrales rocosos con algunos arbustos y orquídeas terrestres, así como bosques de romerillo (Podocarpus spp.) (Yacovleff y Herrera 1934). La fauna silvestre en las Yungas Peruanas se encuentra representada por una gran variedad de especies de vertebrados (sobre todo aves y anfibios) y de invertebrados (especialmente mariposas diurnas); muchas de ellas con estrechos rangos de distribución altitudinal y latitudinal, tal como el caso emblemático del tocón andino (Callicebus oenanthe), que solo existe en la cuenca del río Mayo, San Martín entre los 750 y 950 msnm (Mark 2003).La ecorregión se encuentra en estado de peligro crítico (Roca et al. 1996) debido a la agricultura migratoria, el cultivo de coca, la deforestación, la tala selectiva y el crecimiento poblacional. Con respecto a la expansión agropecuaria, ésta se da tanto para cultivos agrícolas como para el cultivo de coca. La baja productividad de los suelos contribuye a que la demanda por estos cultivos aumente e inmediatamente se busquen otras áreas dejando éstas degradadas. Asimismo, la extracción de recursos maderables ha llevado a la disminución e incluso a la extinción local de varias especies, entre ellas el cedro y la caoba. Además, a pesar de la fisiografía escarpada, la extracción de madera valiosa continúa incluyendo especies como el tornillo (Cedrelinga catenaeformis) y la cumala (Virola sp.). Por otro lado, incluso cuando las concesiones mineras al norte de la ecorregión quedan en su mayoría fuera del perímetro de la misma, la sola presencia de la actividad ha generado un patrón creciente de asentamiento humano muy cerca al límite de la ecorregión, lo que podría generar impactos adversos a futuro sobre los ecosistemas y especies de la ecorregión ya que, sin el debido ordenamiento, se puede dar una utilización de suelos y aprovechamiento de recursos de flora y fauna desmedidos (CDC-UNALM y TNC 2006).En la Tabla 16 se presenta la síntesis de los resultados obtenidos de las 31 experiencias reportadas en la ecorregión de las Yungas Peruanas. Se aprecia en el aspecto ecológico, la recuperación de flora nativa referida en algunos casos a bosques de Polylepis spp. (queñua) asociado a arbustos y herbáceas de amplia distribución en las zonas altimontanas pluviales de las Yungas (CDC-UNALM y TNC 2006), especies arbóreas como el huairuro (Ormosia coccinea), el pati (Eriotheca vargasii), el aliso (Alnus acuminata), el chachacomo (Escallonia resinosa), el podocarpus (Podocarpus spp.), el cedro virgen (Cedrela lilloi), entre otras, así como arbustos y herbáceas propias de la zona. Asimismo, se reportó el retorno de especies de fauna silvestre especialmente aves, mamíferos, réptiles y anfibios. Dentro del último grupo una experiencia mencionó el ccampato o sapo verde andino, considerado controlador biológico de las plagas e indicador de que el ecosistema se está regenerando entorno al área de intervención. Sin embargo, con respecto a la conectividad ecológica ninguna de las experiencias mencionó algún resultado, a pesar de que en esta ecorregión la fragmentación de sistemas ecológicos por actividad antrópica principalmente ha ocasionado aislamientos de poblaciones, deterioro genético y en casos extremos posterior extinción de poblaciones y especies (CDC-UNALM y TNC 2006).Por otro lado, se reportaron resultados de reducción de la erosión mediante terrazas de formación lenta y mejora de la calidad de suelos degradados a partir de buenas prácticas agronómicas (rotación de cultivos, abonamiento orgánico y control integrado de plagas) y otras intervenciones de mejora física, tal como se aprecia en el Cuadro 6 con la experiencia de la Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA). Asimismo, se reportó la generación de microclimas, vinculado con la sensación de temperaturas más cálidas en el ámbito de intervención, el aumento de disponibilidad de agua y regulación hídrica en función a observaciones subjetivas, y no necesariamente registrada a partir del monitoreo de variables o indicadores que permitan validar dicha información. Monitorear estas variables es de suma importancia ya que, esta ecorregión se encuentra particularmente en riesgo por los efectos del cambio climático sobre el ciclo y la disponibilidad del agua y, en consecuencia, sobre las comunidades vegetales y animales que se caracterizan, en muchos casos, por tener una adaptación limitada a la variación del clima (Keenan et al. 2011).Tabla 16. Resultados por aspecto en las Yungas Peruanas (n=31)-Recuperación de biodiversidad (11 experiencias) -Generación de hábitat para fauna (4) -Mejora de la calidad del suelo (5), reducción de la erosión (10) y recuperación de suelos (1) -Generación de microclimas ( 16) -Aumento de disponibilidad de agua ( 9)-Concientización, implementación, organización y toma de decisiones (2) -Concientización, implementación y organización (8) -Concientización e implementación ( 16) -Solo concientización (4)-Venta de leña producto del raleo y podas (3), madera de pino (6) y artesanías de ramas de pino (1) -Venta de productos no maderables como hongos comestibles (8), vainas de tara (2), resina de pino (1), miel y derivados (1), productos agrícolas (2) -Ingresos por turismo (4) y servicios hídricos a largo plazo (4)En la Tabla 17 se presenta la síntesis de los factores de éxito y riesgo reportados. En la dimensión gobernanza resaltó la buena coordinación con las instituciones estatales tales como: AGRORURAL, SERFOR y municipalidades distritales a partir de programas regionales y locales, así como con empresas privadas como Reforestadora Amazónica (RAMSA), Río Tinto y Perú LNG. Estas dos últimas contemplaron el desarrollo de las experiencias de restauración o recuperación como parte de sus planes de responsabilidad social o políticas internas. Por otro lado, en la dimensión legal, a pesar de que la mayor parte de las experiencias fueron desarrolladas en terrenos de propiedad comunal o con título de propiedad, algunos casos solo presentaron certificado de posesión. -Enmarcada en Planes de Responsabilidad Social de las empresas privadas, normativas y planes comunales, programas regionales.-Falta de involucramiento de las instituciones públicas.-Débil coordinación con gobiernos locales.-Terrenos de propiedad comunal.-Terrenos con título de propiedad.-Los beneficiarios solo contaban con certificado de posesión.-Al ser de propiedad comunal, no todos los pobladores están interesados.-Participación activa de la comunidad a diferentes niveles (autoridades locales, líderes comunales, pobladores, escuelas entre otras).-Deficiente o nulo involucramiento de la población joven.-Falta involucrar la participación de la comunidad en todas las etapas del proyecto, ya que son tomadas mayormente como mano de obra.-Desarrollo de talleres de capacitación y pasantías para las comunidades.-La comunidad contaba con saberes locales que fueron tomados en consideración durante el desarrollo de la experiencia.-Equipo de profesionales multidisciplinario.-Implementación de medidas de prevención para incendios forestales.-Formación de brigadas comunales para el manejo de riesgos, comités de conservación, ambiental y/o monitoreo.-Mano de obra local limitada, debido a actividades propias o de mayor pago.-Falta de conocimiento de buenas prácticas, manejo de plantaciones forestales, especies y ecosistemas a intervenir.-Falta de gestión para el manejo de incendios y desastres naturales a nivel local, regional y comunal.-Baja disponibilidad de plantones de especies nativas.-El factor climático no fue un limitante durante la instalación de las plantaciones, si se considera la época de lluvias.-El uso de especies nativas de la zona, facilitaron la adaptación a las condiciones climáticas.-Modelos de intervención con un enfoque de manejo de pisos altitudinales.-Generación de paisajes que permiten el desarrollo de actividades de turismo comunitario.-Durante la época seca la falta de lluvias produce niveles de mortandad de plantones y retrasos en las actividades de implementación.-Periodos de sequía prolongada.-Condiciones del suelo no son adecuadas para algunas especies.-Falta de gestión para articular iniciativas del entorno a mayor escala y bajo un enfoque de paisaje.-Disponibilidad económica de las empresas privadas para cumplir con actividades planificadas.-Generación de ingresos a partir de la diversificación de cultivos en una misma área.-Planificación a largo plazo de beneficios económicos a partir de los servicios ecosistémicos.-Falta de recursos económicos para actividades posterior a la implementación.-Articulación con mercados deficiente debido a la falta de infraestructura y transporte de productos a otras zonas.-Recorte presupuestal en casos de inversión pública.Cuadro 6. Restauración en el Área de Conservación Privada \"Bosque de Pumataki\" y su zona de amortiguamiento en CuscoDel 2010 al 2015, la Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA) desarrolló esta experiencia en 225 ha del distrito de Challabamba, debido a la presencia frecuente de incendios forestales, malas prácticas en agricultura y ganadería, y la fragmentación de los bosques primarios por ampliación de la frontera agrícola. El principal objetivo fue recuperar dichas áreas degradadas, diversificar productos y garantizar los servicios ecosistémicos.El modelo de intervención se basó en un enfoque de manejo de pisos altitudinales con cinco zonas: (1) Zona de centros poblados (hasta 2300 msnm) con proyectos productivos (artesanías con textil y madera, transformación de productos agrícolas y acceso al mercado), (2) Zona de uso agrícola (2300 a 3000 msnm) con agroforestería (seguridad alimentaria y optimización del uso del agua y área agrícola), (3) Zona deforestada por incendios forestales (3000 a 3300 msnm) con reforestación (producción forestal \"leña y madera\" y recuperación de áreas degradadas) y con revegetación en la zona buffer del bosque natural (3300 a 3350 msnm) , (4) Bosques naturales (3350 a 3500 msnm) con la conservación de bosques naturales (servicios hidrológicos y secuestro de carbono), y (5) Zona de pastos naturales (3500 a 3800 msnm) con el manejo de pastos naturales (servicios hidrológicos). Asimismo, utilizó especies arbóreas nativas y exóticas, cultivos agrícolas anuales y plantaciones frutales. Sus principales resultados fueron la provisión de servicios hidrológicos e incremento de la vegetación en la zona de amortiguamiento del Parque Nacional Manú, la disminución de la frecuencia de incendios forestales y la generación de productos para venta y autoconsumo. Además, la población se encuentra capacitada para asumir actividades similares y sensibilizadas en temas ambientales.La clave del éxito de esta experiencia fue la atención a las demandas de la población, la definición de metas de producción en función a la disponibilidad de mano de obra local y los incentivos a los participantes más activos, que a largo plazo buscaba el mayor involucramiento y participación de la población. Sin embargo, cabe resaltar que al inicio la comunidad desconocía los beneficios de los servicios ambientales de la experiencia. Por ello es necesaria la mayor difusión de información referente a biodiversidad, beneficios sociales y económicos que pueden proveer estas zonas en términos de servicios ambientales y el uso sostenible de recursos naturales.s radiata Producción de plantones en vivero comunal (derecha), participación de la comunidad en las faenas de plantación (centro) y plantaciones con especies nativas en la parte alta (izquierda). Fotografías: Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica (ACCA).La presente descripción agrupa las siguientes ecorregiones: Bosques Húmedos del Suroeste Amazónico, Bosques Húmedos de Ucayali y Bosques Húmedos del Napo. Según Josse et al. (2009) dentro de los sistemas ecológicos de mayor extensión se encuentran hacia la zona andina a los Bosques Montano y Subandino húmedo de Yungas, el Bosque siempreverde subandino y el Bosque de piedemonte del suroeste de Amazonía; hacia el llano norte hay predominancia del Bosque siempreverde de la penillanura, del Bosque siempreverde subandino, del Bosque y palmar basimontano pluvial de Yungas, con presencia del Palmar pantanoso subandino de Yungas, del Bosque pantanoso de palmas de la llanura aluvial, del Bosque de serranías aisladas y del Bosque azonal semideciduo de colinas; hacia el llano centro y sur se encuentra de forma amplia el Bosque siempreverde estacional de la penillanura y el Bosque con Bambú, y con menor superficie el Bosque de tierra firme depresionada y los Bosques Inundables y Pantanosos de la llanura aluvial.Los Bosques Húmedos del Suroeste Amazónico se extienden a través de cuatro subcuencas de la cuenca alta del Amazonas. El paisaje es relativamente plano, excepto donde las montañas de la Sierra del Divisor suben como una costura elevada a través de parte de la región. En el norte, la precipitación anual promedio de 3 048 mm creando bosques exuberantes y húmedos, mientras que en el sur oscila de 1 524 a 2 032 mm. Los suelos también varían mucho de un extremo a otro de la región, ya que las áreas de tierras altas de tierra firme, tienen suelos pobres en nutrientes, mientras que las antiguas llanuras aluviales a lo largo de los ríos albergan suelos ricos en nutrientes (WWF 2001). Con respecto a los Bosques Húmedos de Ucayali y del Napo, la precipitación anual oscila entre 1 600 a 3 000 mm, y a veces incluso hasta 4 000 mm en años con lluvias especialmente fuertes. La compleja topografía, suelos y vastos sistemas fluviales crean un mosaico dinámico de hábitats y complejas historias biogeográficas, lo cual conduce a un crecimiento asombroso de flora.En los Bosques Húmedos del Suroeste Amazónico, el 94% del área forestal original está intacta, con bosques húmedos tropicales de tierras bajas y sabanas inundadas únicas salpicadas de palmeras. Las altas precipitaciones, la topografía relativamente compleja y los suelos variados ayudan a estos bosques a apoyar la más alta diversidad de peces de agua dulce, aves y mariposas, y muchos otros tipos de organismos. Entre las especies de mamíferos figuran el perro de monte (Atelocynus microtis), el perezoso (Choloepus didactylus), el leoncito (Cebuella pygmaea), el pichico (Saguinus fuscicollis) y el mono Goeldi (Callimico goeldii).Por otro lado, los Bosques Húmedos de Ucayali y del Napo contienen algunas de las comunidades de plantas y animales más ricas del mundo. Se han observado más de 16 especies de primates en una sola área y se han registrado excepcionalmente altas diversidades para muchos otros grupos de organismos. Por ejemplo, existen más de 310 especies de árboles en una hectárea en los Bosques Húmedos del Napo, y existe entre 600 a 640 especies de aves y entre 180 a 210 especies de mamíferos. Entre las especies que se encuentran ahí están los pequeños y tímidos primates llamados mingotes emperadores (Sanguinus imperator), los pecaríes de labios blancos (Tayasu pecari), cacique ecuatoriano (Cacicus sclateri), el falso vampiro de Linnaeus (Vampyrum spectrum) y la boa (Corallus caninus) y otras especies como ocelotes (Felis pardalis) y jaguares (Panthera onca) se mezclan bien con la maleza moteada (WWF 2001).La agricultura migratoria es la principal causa directa de la degradación de tierras en la Amazonía Peruana, considerada de baja tecnología y caracterizada por el aprovechamiento de un área determinada con cobertura boscosa mediante la tumba y quema para el establecimiento de cultivos anuales, semi-perennes y perennes. Asimismo, una variante del sistema de producción tradicional es el establecimiento de pasturas naturales (torourco) y pasturas mejoradas (Brachiaria, Penissetum, etc) las cuales también se inician con la eliminación de la cobertura boscosa. Por otro lado, el incremento de las áreas de siembra para el cultivo de coca es otra de las causas más recurrentes de degradación ya que exige la eliminación de la cobertura original en áreas que luego son abandonadas debido a las condiciones de infertilidad natural de los suelos llevando a que el cultivo se traslade a otro lugar en pocos años (Meza et al. 2006).Por otra parte, según Álvarez et al. (2011) la minería aurífera es una actividad predominante en la Amazonía Peruana y viene generando diversos impactos ambientales tales como: la destrucción de bosques y de tierras agrícolas aluviales, la alteración del paisaje y de la calidad de agua, acumulación de tóxicos en tejido de las plantas, animales y humanos. Estos impactos, se traducen en la afectación de la capacidad de regeneración de la flora y alteración del hábitat de la fauna silvestre, dificultando la recuperación del ecosistema, alterando los corredores biológicos naturales y produciendo la pérdida de tierras productivas de uso local; además de serias consecuencias en la salud de la población.En la Tabla 18 se presenta la síntesis de los resultados obtenidos de las 14 experiencias reportadas en la ecorregión de los Bosques Húmedos. Se aprecia que, en el aspecto ecológico, cuatro de las experiencias reportaron la recuperación de biodiversidad de flora y fauna silvestre, en especial a partir del retorno de aves propias de la zona. Sin embargo, solo dos experiencias registraron variables de composición de flora y fauna como parte de su plan de monitoreo; la primera con respecto a la recuperación de áreas degradadas por minería aurífera en Madre de Dios a cargo del CMDD (Consorcio Madre de Dios) y, la segunda, a partir de la recuperación de suelos degradados a cargo de Alianza Cacao Perú. Por otra parte, la conectividad ecológica con fragmentos de bosques primarios solo fue reportada por la experiencia desarrollada por Bosques Amazónicos S.A.C. (Cuadro 7). En ese contexto, es importante resaltar que en la Amazonía se está presentando mayor fragmentación y un aumento en el aislamiento de los fragmentos de los ecosistemas remanentes, debido a la deforestación y las actividades extractivas como la minería aurífera, lo cual afecta los procesos ecológicos, la estructura y la dinámica tanto a nivel de ecosistemas como de especies (Armenteras et al. 2014). Por ello, es necesario realizar proyectos de restauración que permitan el mantenimiento y mejora de la conectividad para la conservación de los ecosistemas en un medio ya perturbado.En relación a la mejora de la calidad de los suelos, se reportaron siete casos que involucraron la mejora de propiedades físicas del suelo e incremento de la fertilidad. Asimismo, se reportó la generación de microclima atribuida a la sensación de mejora por efecto de la instalación de cobertura vegetal. Por último, con respecto al aumento de la disponibilidad de agua tanto AIDER como Bosques Amazónicos S.A.C. reportaron el incremento del flujo de agua para la experiencia desarrollada en Campo Verde-Ucayali.Tabla 18. Resultados por aspecto en los Bosques Húmedos (n=14)Ecológico -Recuperación de biodiversidad (4 experiencias) -Generación de hábitat para fauna (1) -Conectividad ecológica entre los bosques primarios y las plantaciones instaladas (1) -Reducción de la erosión (1), mejora de calidad de suelo ( 7) y recuperación del suelo (1) -Generación de microclima por efecto de la cobertura forestal (1) -Aumento de la disponibilidad de agua (4)-Concientización e implementación (8) -Solo implementación (2) -Solo concientización (2)-Venta de madera a largo plazo a partir de las plantaciones instaladas (3) -Venta de productos no maderables: aguaje, castaña (1) y cacao (1) y otros (3) -Venta por captura de carbono actual (1)En el aspecto social, diez de las experiencias mencionaron el interés de las comunidades por seguir participando de este tipo de proyectos debido a los beneficios que se generaron (madera, frutas y, turismo, entre otros) y la concientización sobre los mismos. Sin embargo, consideran que aún no están suficientemente capacitados y que requieren asistencia técnica para llegar a un nivel de participación alto. Además, en dos casos se reportó la participación local solo para la fase de implementación vinculada principalmente al desarrollo de actividades como mano de obra, tanto en el vivero como en la instalación de plantones.Por otra parte, en el aspecto económico, tres experiencias consideraron la venta de madera a largo plazo producto de las plantaciones instaladas e incluso carbón y elaboración de parihuelas, debido a que gran porcentaje de las especies empleadas son maderables. Asimismo, cinco experiencias reportaron la venta de productos no maderables tales como: frutos de aguaje, castaña y, cacao, entre otros. Y con respecto a ingresos por servicios ecosistémicos, solo la experiencia de Bosques Amazónicos S.A.C. reportó venta de bonos de carbono, iniciativa reconocida como el primer proyecto de reforestación con especies nativas en recibir la certificación VCS (Verified Carbon Standard).En la Tabla 19 se presenta el resumen de los factores de éxito y riesgo reportados. En la dimensión gobernanza resaltó la articulación con entidades estatales y privadas presentes en la Amazonía y el desarrollo de sus iniciativas bajo un plan de manejo forestal. Sin embargo, otras experiencias, reportaron retraso en las actividades por el cambio de directiva comunal, dificultad para coordinar con actores involucrados en la minería y la falta de involucramiento con asociaciones pequeñas de silvicultores. Además, en el aspecto legal, solo algunas experiencias contaron con títulos de propiedad, lo cual puede estar vinculado a las innumerables superposiciones de derechos originales con otros adquiridos legalmente (por ejemplo, a través de títulos en los proyectos de colonización) e ilegalmente (invasiones de tierras) y con todo tipo de modalidad de ocupación y de derechos efectivos o aparentes, como las concesiones mineras. Además, de los problemas para definir los límites de la propiedad; esta superposición de derechos sobre la tierra trae consigo conflictos sociales asociados al uso del suelo, que deberían ser priorizados para brindar garantía a los inversionistas y facilitar los procesos de restauración. En la dimensión social gran parte de las experiencias no contemplaron la participación de las comunidades en la etapa de diseño y planificación, ya que éstas intervinieron sobre todo en la etapa de implementación como mano de obra. Esta intervención se vincula, en la dimensión de capacidades con el fortalecimiento de las habilidades y la formación de capacidades para la instalación y manejo de plantaciones forestales. Asimismo, resaltó la falta de investigación en especies nativas con potencial para restauración de áreas degradadas por minería y, deforestación, entre otros y en planes de monitoreo a mediano y largo plazo. Con respecto a la dimensión ecológica, se reportó el establecimiento de corredores biológicos como potencial intervención para el desarrollo de turismo y, como desafío en las zonas de bosques amazónicos degradados por minería, la necesidad de estudios previos que permitan intervenciones a mayor escala con especies nativas adecuadas para los niveles de degradación.Por último, en la dimensión económica, se reportaron diversas dificultades tales como: la falta de financiamiento para actividades de monitoreo, la débil articulación con el mercado para la venta de productos maderables y no maderables de especies nativas y la falta de oportunidades de los pobladores o asociaciones locales para acceder a financiamientos de la cooperación internacional. Sin embargo, en otros casos destacó la disponibilidad financiera de las empresas privadas, que debe ser tomada en cuenta para el desarrollo de futuras iniciativas de restauración en esta ecorregión. -Algunas experiencias cuentan con un Plan de Manejo Forestal.-Cambios de directiva comunal generó atrasos de actividades.-Coordinación con actores involucrados en minería resulto complicado.-Faltó articular la participación de asociaciones pequeñas de silvicultores.-Algunas experiencias contaban con el título de propiedad inscrito en SUNARP.-La legalidad de la tenencia de tierras debe ser una prioridad ya que en su mayoría sólo contaban con certificados de posesión, lo que reduce la seguridad de las experiencias.-Participación activa de comunidades en las actividades de implementación.-Falta de voluntad de algunos pobladores al inicio de las experiencias e involucramiento de arrendatarios por intereses propios.-Gran parte de las experiencias no contemplaron la participación de la población local en la etapa de planificación.-Profesionales especializados.-Disponibilidad de mano de obra local y herramientas.-Fortalecimiento de las habilidades, formación de capacidades en instalación y manejo de plantaciones forestales.-Desarrollo de programas de manejo integrado de plagas.-Falta de programas de prevención y control de incendios.-Falta de investigación en especies nativas con potencial para restauración a causa de minería, deforestación entre otras.-Falta de planes de monitoreo a mediano y largo plazo.-Establecimiento de corredores biológicos con potencial para el desarrollo de actividades de turismo.-Las condiciones actuales del suelo en zonas de minería son un referente de la necesidad de estudios previos para la planificación de intervenciones.-Disponibilidad financiera de empresas privadas.-Beneficios económicos a largo plazo a partir del aprovechamiento sostenible de las plantaciones forestales.-Canalización de fondos de cooperación internacional y del estado no llega a involucrar a los productores locales.-Falta de financiamiento para realizar actividades de monitoreo.-Débil articulación con el mercado para la comercialización de productos maderables y no maderables de especies nativas.La Empresa Bosques Amazónicos S.A.C. en alianzas estratégicas con la Asociación para la Investigación y Desarrollo Integral (AIDER), el Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) y el Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria (SENASA), desarrolló esta experiencia desde el 2004 en un área piloto de 100 ha que presentaba un alto nivel de degradación, producto de la presencia de pastos exóticos, instalados en la segunda mitad de los 80 como parte de las políticas de promoción de la ganadería en la Amazonía.La plantación piloto contó con el apoyo financiero del Gobierno Regional de Ucayali y del Fondo de las Américas y tuvo como objetivo la validación de un modelo de recuperación y plantación comercial en áreas degradadas, el cual permitió determinar la distribución espacial y temporal más idónea de especies maderables y no maderables. Posteriormente se modificaron e incluyeron otras especies para las zonas inundables o bajiales. En el 2005, a partir de la inyección adicional de capital se logró reforestar 1000 ha en total. En consecuencia, actualmente se tienen más de dos millones de árboles sembrados y se ha logrado recuperar 1 000 ha con especies nativas tales como: shihuahuaco (Dipterix odorata), tahuarí (Tabebuia serratifolia), marupá (Simarouba amara), caoba (Swietenia macrophylla) y guaba (Inga spp.), y es considerada como un modelo de buenas prácticas de reforestación en la Amazonía. Este es considerado un modelo de buenas prácticas de reforestación en la Amazonía y la primera experiencia de reforestación con especies nativas en recibir la certificación VCS (Verified Carbon Standard).Cabe resaltar que se presentaron algunos inconvenientes durante el desarrollo de la experiencia tales como: dificultad para el establecimiento ordenado y secuencial de las plantaciones debido a la ocupación por terceros en parte de los terrenos, baja oferta de recursos humanos, baja disponibilidad de plantones y material de siembra con trazabilidad (árboles semilleros identificados), escasa disponibilidad de maquinarias para preparación del terreno, y altos costos para el control de especies de malezas invasoras.A pesar de los diferentes obstáculos, estos fueron superados y actualmente se cuenta con un vivero de tecnología intermedia con capacidad de producción de un millón de plantas anuales, y se realiza un trabajo continuo de mantenimiento de las plantaciones a partir de un control integrado de plagas, abonamiento y monitoreo de las especies instaladas. Además, la experiencia brinda empleo a más de 400 pobladores de la zona, así como capacitaciones a las comunidades aledañas en procesos de reforestación, control de incendios, recuperación de suelos, y trabajos de concientización en las escuelas como parte del compromiso con el desarrollo de la región Ucayali.La producción de plantones de especies nativas en el Vivero BAM (izquierda), y la instalación de especies comerciales como el shihuahuaco y tahuarí (centro) se reflejan actualmente en plantaciones de 13 años de edad que cuentan con la certificación VCS (derecha). Fotografías: Campo Verde -Empresa Bosques Amazónicos S.A.C.1. Se recopilaron 94 experiencias distribuidas en 11 de las 19 ecorregiones terrestres identificadas para el Perú, algunas de las cuales fueron agrupadas con base en criterios ecológicos (cercanía biogeográfica, similitud en las técnicas y especies empleadas). De este modo se obtuvieron siete ecorregiones, siendo las Yungas Peruanas la que contó con la mayor cantidad de experiencias (34%), seguida por los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura (18%), la Puna de los Andes Centrales (16%), los Bosques Húmedos (15%), el Desierto de Sechura (8%), los Bosques Montanos y Páramos (7%) y los Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano (2%).2. Entre los actores que lideraron las experiencias compiladas, los organismos no gubernamentales (ONG) abarcaron la mayor cantidad de experiencias reportadas con el 43% (40 de 94), seguidos del sector estatal con el 34% (32 de 94), las empresas privadas con el 11% (10 de 94), y de las universidades y actores locales con el 6% cada una (6 de 94). Analizando las ecorregiones, se observa que las de costa, en los Bosques Montanos y en los Páramos el actor principal fueron las ONG, en la Puna de los Andes Centrales y en las Yungas Peruanas fueron las entidades estatales (principalmente AGRORURAL) seguidas de las ONG y en los Bosques Húmedos las empresas privadas y las ONG representaron el primer lugar. Aunque esta distribución no tuvo relación con los objetivos de las experiencias, sí brinda una referencia sobre los principales actores en restauración en los diferentes ecosistemas.3. A nivel de país, la deforestación (65%), el sobrepastoreo (56%) y la erosión hídrica o eólica (56%) fueron las principales causas de degradación reportadas por las experiencias. En los Bosques Secos y en el Desierto de Sechura también fueron una causa recurrente las prolongadas sequías que afectaron el establecimiento y el crecimiento de las especies. En las ecorregiones de montaña, la principal causa fue la erosión hídrica y eólica, mientras que en los Bosques Húmedos, además de las causas ya mencionadas, se reportó la minería, los incendios y las especies invasoras.4. Entre los objetivos planteados por las experiencias, los más frecuentes fueron la recuperación de la cobertura vegetal con el 80% de experiencias (75 de 94), la promoción de la concientización ambiental en la población con el 68% (64 de 94), la recuperación de la biodiversidad con el 59% (55 de 94), la recuperación y reducción de la erosión del suelo con el 48% (44 de 94), la generación de empleo local y, el aumento en la disponibilidad y la calidad del agua con el 38% cada una (36 de 94), entre otros. Estos objetivos respondieron parcialmente a las causas de degradación, siendo abordadas mediante diferentes acciones en los ámbitos ecológico, social y económico. Además, no hubo relación entre los objetivos planteados y los actores principales.5. En total fueron reportadas 76 especies nativas y 28 exóticas, destacando la queñua (Polylepis spp., utilizada en 20 experiencias), la tara (Caesalpinia spinosa, en 13), el algarrobo (Prosopis pallida, en 10) y el pino chuncho (Schizolobium amazonicum, en 9) como especies nativas; y en el caso de las exóticas, dos especies de pino (Pinus radiata y P. patula) en 17 y 12 experiencias, respectivamente, y una especie de eucalipto (Eucalyptus globulus, en 5). En todas las ecorregiones se emplearon más especies nativas que especies exóticas. En el caso de los Bosques Húmedos, 21 de las 33 especies (64%) solo se emplearon en una experiencia y no se reportaron especies predominantes como en las demás ecorregiones. Además, predominó el uso de especies nativas siendo éste el 54% de las experiencias, seguido de combinaciones de especies nativas y exóticas con 33%, y el uso exclusivo de exóticas con el 13%.6. Se emplearon en promedio 3,3 especies por experiencia, de las cuales 1,1 fueron exóticas, siendo las ecorregiones con mayor promedio las Yungas Peruanas (4,1), los Bosques Montanos y Páramos, y los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura (3,3). Si bien fueron promedios bajos, se reconocen algunas experiencias que emplearon números de especies más elevados, como una en Yungas Peruanas que empleó 15 especies, 12 de las cuales fueron nativas. Los proyectos que usaron combinaciones de especies nativas y exóticas presentaron la tendencia a usar mayor número de especies que el resto. Por otro lado, se desconoce si las experiencias contemplaron ecosistemas de referencia para seleccionar las especies a usar.7. Entre los criterios para la selección de especies, los principales fueron la preferencia por especies nativas (73%), seguido de la disponibilidad del material de siembra (48%), especies útiles para corregir la degradación (48%), de interés comercial (46%), contar con conocimientos técnicos para su propagación y reproducción (44%) y de interés tradicional (34%). Por otro lado, los viveros fueron la principal fuente de material de siembra con un 41% de experiencias (29 de 70), seguido de bosques naturales con un 24 % (17 de 70) y en porcentajes menores a 15% árboles semilleros y las entidades certificadas. Sin embargo, es preocupante que el 58% de las experiencias (55 de 94) no contempló ningún criterio para verificar la calidad del material de siembra.8. En complemento al establecimiento de las especies, las principales intervenciones para mejorar las condiciones físicas del suelo y controlar la degradación del área fueron: la estabilización del terreno y el control de la erosión (más frecuente en las Punas de los Andes Centrales y en las Yungas Peruanas a través de la construcción de terrazas y zanjas de infiltración), el uso de enmiendas orgánicas para enriquecer el suelo (más frecuente en la Puna, las Yungas, los Bosques Húmedos y el Desierto de Sechura), el control de pastoreo (aplicado en seis ecorregiones, excepto en los Manglares) y el control de incendios y quemas (tanto en los Bosques Secos como en las ecorregiones de montaña y en los Bosques Húmedos). Estas acciones respondieron a las causas de la degradación. Sin embargo, aproximadamente un quinto de las experiencias no aplicó ninguna intervención de mejora física o de control de degradación, lo cual evidencia la necesidad de dar mayor atención a la identificación de respuesta a los principales agentes de la degradación, así como el de compartir aprendizajes entre experiencias que permitan difundir las acciones y estrategias más efectivas. 9. Las estrategias de restauración más utilizadas fueron las plantaciones con el 72% de las experiencias (67 de 93), seguida por la agroforestería con el 13% (12 de 93) y, en menor proporción el manejo de pastos, las plantaciones con regeneración natural, y la regeneración natural asistida. En los Bosques Secos se concentraron 7 de las 8 experiencias que usaron las dos últimas estrategias, utilizando principalmente un cerco de protección para los plantones ante la presencia de ganado (caprino y ovino). En las demás ecorregiones, la plantación destacó como estrategia, siendo en la mayoría de casos realizada solo con especies nativas, o en asociación con exóticas.Las experiencias de agroforestería se realizaron en las Yungas Peruanas (7 de 11), la Puna de los Andes Centrales (3 de 11) y en los Bosques Húmedos (1 de 11). En algunos casos es manifiesta la relación entre las estrategias utilizadas y las características de la ecorregión.10. Un 51% de las experiencias que reportaron sus áreas de intervención y presupuesto (34 de 67), se desarrollaron en un área de hasta 100 ha, mientras que un 26% (18 de 67) lo realizó en un rango de 100 y 1 000 ha, un 16% (11 de 67) entre 1 000 y 10 000 ha, y apenas un 6% (4 de 67) en más de 10 000 ha. Asimismo, conforme el área aumenta, el costo por hectárea y por año tiende a disminuir en promedio y en amplitud, pasando de gastos de más de mil dólares por hectárea y por año en las experiencias de menor superficie, hasta menos de 100 USD/ha/año en las de mayor extensión. Sin embargo, es necesario analizar con mayor detalle qué factores influyen en la reducción del costo por hectárea, además de la evidente influencia del tamaño del área de intervención.11. En cuanto a los sistemas de monitoreo, un 31% del total de proyectos (28 de 90) no contó con ninguno, siendo casi la mitad de las experiencias reportadas en los Bosques Secos, el Desierto de Sechura, los Bosques Montanos y Páramos, y la Puna de los Andes Centrales. Asimismo, un 18% (16 de 90) de las experiencias desarrolló un monitoreo básico, presente en todas las ecorregiones, limitándose a la evaluación de los plantones instalados (supervivencia, crecimiento y estado fitosanitario) sin implementar actividades de correcciones registradas como consecuencia del monitoreo. Los sistemas intermedios (que sí incluyeron correcciones) se dieron en el 42% de los casos (38 de 90), concentrándose más en las Yungas Peruanas (19), los Bosques Húmedos (6), los Bosques Secos y la Puna de los Andes Centrales (5 cada uno). Por otro lado, siete experiencias presentaron sistemas avanzados de monitoreo (que incluyen variables de diversidad y estructura de la vegetación, composición de fauna, calidad y cantidad de agua, temperatura a nivel local, entre otras), los cuales se distribuyeron en las ecorregiones de Yungas Peruanas (3), Bosques Húmedos (2), Bosques Montanos y Páramos (1) y el Desierto de Sechura (1). Se evidencia la necesidad urgente de generar mejoras de los sistemas de monitoreo, basándose en un diagnóstico de las condiciones iniciales, un planteamiento de metas claras y cuantificables, una selección de indicadores de acuerdo a dichas metas y un presupuesto adecuado que realice un seguimiento de los avances no solo de las variables ecológicas, sino también socioeconómicas y culturales. Si bien las experiencias estudiadas plantearon objetivos de este tipo, no hubo reportes de su nivel de cumplimiento ni de su inclusión en los sistemas de monitoreo.12. La participación de la población local se manifestó de diferentes formas. En el 11% de las experiencias (10 de 92) se llegó a delegar cierto poder de decisión en las organizaciones locales (rondas campesinas, comités de reforestación, entre otras), destacando la Puna de los Andes Centrales y los Bosques Secos de Tumbes-Piura, con tres experiencias cada una; mientras que en un 17% (16 de 92) no se delegó poder de decisión pero sí se trabajó en articulación con las organizacionales locales existentes, que se realizó en todas las ecorregiones. En un 52% (48 de 92) la población formó parte de la implementación de las experiencias, principalmente en la producción e instalación de plantones. Finalmente, en un 15% de las experiencias, la participación se limitó a actividades de concientización ambiental, por lo tanto se manifiesta la urgencia de fortalecer la participación local para conducir al empoderamiento y, así, contribuir a la sostenibilidad y eficacia de las experiencias de restauración.13. Los resultados en el aspecto ecológico más mencionados fueron la generación de microclimas, vinculado a la sensación de regulación por efecto de la cobertura vegetal instalada (45%), siendo muy frecuente en las experiencias desarrolladas en las Yungas Peruanas (16 de 31) y en el Desierto de Sechura (5 de 7). El aumento de la disponibilidad del agua, reportada por el 37% de experiencias (35 de 94) fue muy común en la Puna de los Andes Centrales (9 de 15), lo cual indica el interés por vincular la restauración con el manejo del recurso hídrico. Otros resultados reportados fueron la recuperación de la biodiversidad con 28% (26 de 94), reducción de la erosión con 21% (20 de 94), y la mejora de la calidad del suelo con 23% (22 de 94). No obstante, cabe indicar que la mayoría de estos resultados no fueron sustentados con mediciones, sino que estuvieron basados en observaciones cualitativas.14. Los resultados en el aspecto económico generados por las experiencias se distribuyen en aquellas que lograron vender los bienes y servicios que producían con un 32% (30 de 94), siendo más frecuente los productos no maderables (24 experiencias) como los hongos comestibles y los frutos de especies como la inga, el aguaje y la tara, seguido por los productos maderables (10) donde destacan las dos especies de pino (Pinus patula y P. radiata), y por la venta de servicios ecosistémicos, conformado por la venta de bonos de carbono (2) y por la actividad ecoturística (2). Además, 32 experiencias reportaron la expectativa de generar productos a futuro, 28 de las cuales se refieren a productos maderables (principalmente pino, eucalipto, algarrobo y palo santo), mientras que otras siete a productos no maderables y seis a servicios ecosistémicos, por ecoturismo en dos experiencias y venta de bonos de carbono en una. -Alianzas estratégicas de las comunidades con instituciones públicas y privadas.-Enmarcada en políticas nacionales de conservación, programas regionales, acuerdos comunales y programas de responsabilidad social de empresas privadas entre otras.-Adecuada coordinación con organizaciones locales (p. ej. rondas campesinas, comités conservacionistas, entre otras).-Credibilidad y experiencia del actor líder.-Visión y planificación a largo plazo.-Cumplimiento de los compromisos asumidos por los actores involucrados.-Algunas experiencias contaban con Plan de manejo forestal.-Falta de interés e involucramiento de las instituciones públicas nacionales y locales.-Falta de continuidad de proyectos debido a cambios en el consejo directivo de las asociaciones locales e instituciones regionales y nacionales.-Deficiente planificación a nivel local y comunal.-Deficiente control y fiscalización del estado a las empresas langostineras.-Demoras administrativas de las instituciones públicas y privadas en algunos casos.-Dificultad para generar confianza y compromisos iniciales con organizaciones locales e instituciones públicas.-Cumplimiento de metas sujeto a horizontes cortos y en algunos casos sin planificación de metas anuales.-Deficiente coordinación con algunos actores específicos o asociaciones locales (p. ej. minería, silvicultores, agricultores entre otras).-Terrenos de propiedad comunal con título -Terrenos de propiedad privada y del estado adecuadamente definidos y limitados.-Cesión de uso de terrenos a favor de las experiencias a desarrollar.-Estrategia legal para evitar el otorgamiento de concesiones a langostineras en zona de manglar.-Falta de saneamiento físico legal de terrenos.-Algunas comunidades solo contaban con certificado de posesión.-Dificultad en alcanzar acuerdos para comprometer áreas a ser recuperadas.-Concesiones para otras actividades específicas limitaron procesos de restauración.-Participación activa de comunidades, organismos locales y centros educativos en actividades de implementación.-Comunidades organizadas y comprometidas con el cuidado de la naturaleza y las experiencias a desarrollar.-Dificultad para conciliar los intereses individuales dentro de la comunidad u organizaciones.-Algunos comuneros o propietarios prefirieron actividades de mayor beneficio económico.-Deficiente o nula participación de la comunidad en la planificación de los proyectos.-Falta de empoderamiento de las organizaciones locales dificultó la sostenibilidad.-Comunidad desmotivada ante la ocurrencia de eventos de incendios e invasiones.-Deficiente involucramiento de población joven. -Equipo técnico multidisciplinario con experiencia y en algunos casos para realizar investigación en las áreas intervenidas.-Monitoreo básico en función a variables que evaluaban estado de los plantones permitieron planificar actividades silviculturales (p. ej. recalce, desmalezado, poda, raleo entre otras).-Mano de obra local disponible y con conocimientos del territorio, cosmovisión y prácticas ancestrales.-Consolidación de comités comunales, brigadas en manejo de riesgos (p. ej. incendios, sequías e inundaciones), monitoreo participativo.-Generación y fortalecimiento de habilidades a partir de talleres, capacitaciones y pasantías.-Metodologías previamente aprobadas y aceptadas por las comunidades.-Deficiente gestión en planes de prevención y respuesta ante eventos climáticos extremos y desastres naturales.-Falta de información científica de especies nativas con potencial para restaurar y dinámica de ecosistemas a intervenir.-Desconocimiento local de buenas prácticas de manejo forestal y aprovechamiento sostenible de los recursos naturales.-Inexistencia de sistemas de monitoreo a largo plazo y solo basados en objetivos inmediatos.-Mano de obra local limitada.-Ausencia de temas de conservación de bosques en la malla curricular de las escuelas.-Retraso en la entrega de requerimientos de materiales y herramientas.-Baja disponibilidad de material de siembra de especies nativas.-La selección de especies fue en función a condiciones edáficas y climáticas de las zonas a intervenir.-Disponibilidad de agua para el riego de plantones en algunos casos.-Intervención a nivel de paisajes.-Zonificación en función a la degradación, la franja hipersalina y la accesibilidad.-Selección de especies nativas para recuperar áreas fragmentadas de bosque natural.-Modelos de intervención con un enfoque de manejo de pisos altitudinales.-Generación de corredores biológicos.-Sequías y heladas en algunos casos afectaron el prendimiento y crecimiento de plantones.-Condiciones del suelo no fueron adecuadas para algunas especies, requiere evaluación previa.-La dinámica de mareas afecto el desarrollo de la experiencia.-Dificultad para la restitución del hidroperiodo por infraestructura de langostineras.-Presencia de plaga que afecta al algarrobo podría perjudicarla drásticamente.-Incidencia de incendios forestales naturales y en otros casos provocados.-Falta de gestión para articular iniciativas a mayor escala con un enfoque de paisaje.-Beneficios económicos a partir de productos maderables, no maderables y actividades sostenibles (p. ej. turismo, huertos).-Financiamiento adecuado de diferentes fuentes según el objetivo.-Disponibilidad presupuestal de empresas privadas.-Canalización de financiamiento de la cooperación internacional por parte de instituciones públicas y ONG.-Venta de bonos de carbono de plantaciones.-Insuficiente financiamiento para actividades de monitoreo a mediano y largo plazo.-Débil articulación con el mercado para la comercialización de productos maderables y no maderables.-Falta de infraestructura y población capacitada para el desarrollo de actividades turísticas.-Recorte presupuestal en casos de experiencias con inversión pública.-Canalización de fondos de cooperación internacional y del estado no involucraron a productores o asociaciones locales.*MPS: Manglares del Pacífico Sudamericano, BS: Bosque Seco de Tumbes-Piura, DS: Desierto de Sechura, BMP: Bosques Montanos y Páramos, PAC: Puna de los Andes Centrales, YP: Yungas Peruanas, BH: Bosques Húmedos.A continuación se presentan las recomendaciones basadas en los hallazgos del presente estudio. Se organizan según las etapas claves del proceso de restauración, y son contrastadas con literatura nacional e internacional.Políticas y aspectos legales  Algunas experiencias indicaron que el éxito de los proyectos de restauración se incrementa si están enmarcados en políticas existentes relevantes. Esto confirma la importancia de desarrollar políticas públicas de restauración en sinergia con otras políticas como las de gestión de recursos hídricos, agricultura familiar, evaluación del impacto ambiental, áreas naturales protegidas, educación ambiental, entre otras. Ello permitiría evitar la superposición de acciones y maximizar su eficiencia (Aguirre et al. 2015). Para ello, es fundamental desarrollar un entendimiento común a nivel nacional sobre el significado de la restauración, ya que en la actualidad existe cierta ambigüedad conceptual, incluso en la legislación actual (Murcia et al. 2017); en dicho contexto, el SERFOR en coordinación con el MINAM vienen elaborando los Lineamientos para la Restauración de Ecosistemas Forestales y Ecosistemas de Vegetación Silvestre como parte de las disposiciones previstas en el Reglamento para la Gestión Forestal (D.S. N° 018-2015-MINAGRI). Las experiencias mostraron que en algunos casos se presenta un desfase entre los usos de tierra actuales y los usos planificados (p. ej. zonificación ecológica y económica o zonificación forestal).Por ende, se deberían integrar los procesos de restauración a planes de zonificación u ordenamiento territorial consensuados a nivel nacional y regional. Según Tolvanen y Aronson (2016), esto facilitaría un uso de la tierra más eficiente económicamente y generaría un potencial a gran escala de mitigación del cambio climático. Además, este proceso debería promoverse a nivel comunitario y local, lo que permitiría que las iniciativas de restauración sean socialmente aceptadas. De esta forma, la zonificación en ambos niveles de gestión potenciaría el éxito de las experiencias de restauración (Skutsch y McCall 2012). Gran parte de los encuestados mencionaron que un desafío para escalar las experiencias pilotos fue la falta total o parcial (p. ej. certificados de posesión) de títulos de propiedad de la tierra. Esta situación muestra la urgencia de fortalecer el proceso de saneamiento legal y de tenencia de la tierra a fin de superar problemas de superposición de tenencia y derechos de uso, que generan incertidumbre y riesgo sobre las iniciativas de restauración (Che Piu y Menton 2013). Esto requiere un énfasis en las comunidades indígenas y locales, que cuentan con grandes extensiones de bosques en sus territorios (p. ej. el 51% de bosques secos de Tumbes, Piura y Lambayeque se encuentran en territorios comunales), y hace falta seguridad jurídica sobre las tierras que ocupan, lo cual los pone en situación de vulnerabilidad (Chase Smith y Salazar 2014, Sánchez et al. 2013). Muchos casos reportaron que la causa de degradación fue la existencia de actividades informales a pesar de contar con normativas que las prohíben (p. ej. tala ilegal, minería, agricultura migratoria).A fin de reducir o eliminar dichas fuentes de degradación, es necesario fortalecer los mecanismos de control y fiscalización que permitan el cumplimiento de las normativas vigentes por parte del Estado. Estudios y propuestas ya existentes (Castro et al. 2010, Martínez 2012, Urrunaga et al. 2012, Pautrat 2013) pueden ayudar al fortalecimiento de las instituciones encargadas. A nivel de Latinoamérica se ha determinado que los procesos de restauración pueden generar beneficios económicos netos sustanciales, lo que generaría un mayor interés de los diversos actores involucrados en la gestión del territorio (Vergara et al. 2016). Sin embargo, no todas las áreas son de igual prioridad para ser restauradas, ni son iguales en cuanto al tipo de intervención de restauración más idóneo según sus características socioeconómicas y ecológicas. En este contexto, es preciso desarrollar estudios a nivel de país y departamental para identificar áreas potenciales de restauración analizando, además, sus potenciales beneficios económicos en diferentes aspectos como la venta de productos maderables, no maderables, agroforestería, bonos de carbono, ingresos por ecoturismo, etc. Una herramienta valiosa para la identificación de oportunidades de restauración es la Guía sobre la Metodología de Evaluación de Oportunidades de Restauración \"ROAM\" desarrollada por la UICN y WRI, que permite determinar acciones y actores claves en la planificación de la restauración. Actualmente se está aplicando ROAM en diferentes áreas piloto del país y sería oportuno replicar esta metodología en otras áreas degradadas. Los resultados del análisis indicaron que hubo mayor participación, compromiso y en algunos casos liderazgo de los proyectos de restauración que tuvieron una clara estrategia de generación de beneficios para los participantes. Se evidencia así la importancia de promover actividades de restauración que generen retornos económicos con productos de alto valor agregado, integrados a procesos de inclusión social y uso sostenible de los recursos. Esto se puede lograr a través del fomento de la organización productiva local (p. ej. la asociatividad), el apoyo en la transferencia y adopción de nuevas tecnologías (insumos estratégicos, capacitación y asistencia técnica), y la creación y el fortalecimiento de cadenas de valor para productos maderables y no maderables y servicios ecosistémicos con alto valor agregado, que coincide con lo hallado por Alegre (2016). De esta forma se incrementarán las posibilidades de competir con otras actividades más rentables que degradan los diferentes ecosistemas (Climate Investment Funds 2013). Varios de los encuestados mencionaron la falta de acceso a oportunidades de financiamiento para proyectos de restauración. Para mejorar esta situación es imprescindible facilitar un clima favorable y atractivo para la inversión en iniciativas de restauración mediante diversos mecanismos como préstamos y líneas de créditos con bajas tasas de interés, garantías parciales de riesgo, facilitar fondos concursables a iniciativas con determinado avance, la generación de obstáculos para prácticas que degradan bosques y paisajes, facilitar información para el análisis costo beneficio así como herramientas tecnológicas que permitan atraer a los inversionistas privados (Brancalion et al. 2012, OSINFOR 2016). Además, se deben evaluar otros mecanismos que faciliten la generación de valor y convoquen a actores privados, estatales y de la sociedad civil y en la medida de lo posible adaptarlos a las condiciones de cada localidad y ecorregión. Buenos ejemplos son las asociaciones de reposición forestal o las sinergias empresario/campesino vinculadas a la restauración productiva en Brasil (Ceccon 2013), o la experiencia de retribución por servicios ecosistémicos en la cuenca del río Quiroz en Piura (Albán 2017). Además, el desarrollo de modelos de negocios en restauración viables será fundamental para atraer el financiamiento privado que ofrece varias ventajas como la mayor rapidez en la toma de decisiones y la capacidad de ampliar el financiamiento conforme aumenta la necesidad de trabajo (Faruqi y Landsberg 2017). Mecanismos como los mencionados permitirían superar la barrera económica que afecta a muchas iniciativas, varias de ellas presentadas en este estudio. Los patrocinadores de la restauración podrían exigir a los implementadores que apliquen buenas prácticas en las diferentes etapas de restauración como requisito para acceder al financiamiento.Diagnóstico del estado inicial  Varias experiencias indicaron que un buen entendimiento de las causas raíz y una caracterización rigurosa del estado de la degradación son fundamentales para permitir una planificación costoefectiva de las intervenciones necesarias. Sin embargo, muchas veces no se toma el esfuerzo necesario para integrar dichos aspectos en la planificación. Por ende es importante promover la identificación y análisis de las causas directas e indirectas de la degradación como una de las primeras etapas en la planificación de las iniciativas. Una herramienta desarrollada por ICRAF que puede ser aplicada para una evaluación cuantitativa de la salud de la tierra y de los ecosistemas es el \"Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF)\" (Vågen et al. 2015) tanto en la etapa del diagnóstico como en el monitoreo de las intervenciones de restauración. Una deficiencia resaltada por algunos actores fue la falta de consideración de las condiciones ecológicas y socioeconómicas del contexto a intervenir en la etapa de planificación, lo cual podía manifestarse en resultados deficientes en esos aspectos. Por eso, es clave promover y facilitar el diagnóstico de aspectos ecológicos (biodiversidad, fuentes de material de siembra, suelo, agua, clima), sociales (empoderamiento, capacidades, actitudes hacia la restauración, caracterización socioeconómica y sociocultural, mapeo de actores) y económicos (cadenas de valor existentes para los productos del bosque) en cada proyecto de restauración (Hanson et al. 2015). Un elemento de éxito mencionado por algunos casos fue la participación desde la planificación de diversos actores involucrados en el uso del territorio a restaurar, y donde fuera posible promover la toma de decisiones de manera inclusiva y participativa. Esto requiere una comunicación constante y honesta que favorezca un clima de confianza entre todos los actores. Además es clave buscar apoyo en aquellas personas e instituciones con experiencia, entre ellas ONG y sabios locales, promoviendo un diálogo de saberes (Ceccon y Pérez 2016). Asimismo es importante incluir la participación activa de mujeres, jóvenes y grupos socialmente marginados, lo cual ha demostrado profundizar los impactos de experiencias de restauración y gestión de bosques (Berrahmouni et al. 2015b), haciendo frente a procesos de emigración y pérdida de saberes locales (Mansourian et al. 2005, Chabay et al. 2016) y, reduciendo la posibilidad de retrasos y problemas frente al cambio de autoridades en las organizaciones sociales, una de las deficiencias expresadas por varios implementadores de iniciativas recopiladas en el presente estudio. Como ejemplo de herramienta inclusiva e integrada para el diseño de estrategias de restauración, se puede mencionar la metodología aplicada por (Mathez-Stiefel et al. 2016) para la identificación de opciones agroforestales en Apurímac. Varios de los encuestados enfatizaron que el éxito de sus experiencias se basó en la articulación con las organizaciones locales existentes (p. ej. rondas campesinas, comités de conservación) y en la consideración de las diversas idiosincrasias de los actores participantes. Esto permite generar modelos de gobernanza local para la gestión del territorio a través de comités, redes y alianzas que dan legitimidad a formas tradicionales de organización y de toma de decisiones (van Oosten 2013, Ceccon y Pérez 2016). Las iniciativas de restauración y sus objetivos deberían planificarse a nivel del paisaje, con el fin de balancear un mosaico de usos del suelo interdependientes con la recuperación de bienes y servicios ambientales y el fomento del bienestar humano (Maginnis y Jackson 2003, van Oosten 2013). Apenas una minoría de los casos aplicaron este enfoque, lo que evidencia la necesidad de promover su integración como elemento clave en los procesos de restauración. Esto incluye identificar las estrategias, objetivos e intervenciones más idóneas de acuerdo al contexto de degradación del área a intervenir, las condiciones biofísicas, los usos actuales del suelo y las necesidades de los actores locales (Coe et al. 2014). Objetivos y metas claras y realistas deben ser la base para establecer los indicadores para el monitoreo. También implica aplicar herramientas de planificación que permitan evaluar los trade-offs entre objetivos de conservación y objetivos de desarrollo, considerando el paisaje de forma holística (por ej. \"Land-Use Planning for Multiple Environmental Services (LUMENS)\": Dewi et al. 2014). La agroforestería es una estrategia de restauración que concilia la recuperación y la provisión de servicios ecosistémicos con la generación de beneficios socio-económicos a corto y largo plazo producto de la asociatividad de las especies (Miccolis et al. 2016). Es posible que ésta sea una estrategia subutilizada en el país, debido a que en el estudio apenas el diez por ciento de las experiencias reportaron su uso. Cabe indicar que, el ICRAF ha desarrollado una guía técnica que pretende orientar la adopción de sistemas agroforestales en la restauración y recuperación de áreas degradadas (Miccolis et al. 2016). La mayoría de casos que utilizaron como estrategia la regeneración natural se ubicaron en bosques secos, lo cual puede estar relacionado a la baja disponibilidad de agua que dificulta la aplicación de riego en plantaciones. A pesar de ser una estrategia costo-eficiente y efectiva (Berrahmouni et al. 2015a), es posible que esté siendo subutilizada en los demás ecosistemas del país. Dependiendo del contexto, la regeneración natural o la regeneración natural asistida puede ser usada como estrategia para complementar o sustituir a la plantación activa. Para fomentar su aplicación se requieren herramientas de diagnóstico que faciliten la toma de decisiones sobre dónde y cuándo la regeneración puede fortalecer o reemplazar el establecimiento activo de plántulas. Sin embargo, es necesario considerar en ello la incidencia de los efectos que tiene El Niño (ENSO), particularmente en los bosques secos (Holmgren et al. 2001). Asimismo, se requieren de estudios sobre la capacidad de regeneración natural de bosques degradados con diferentes estrategias de restauración (Mathez-Stiefel et al. 2017). . La selección de las intervenciones de restauración deben tener en cuenta las condiciones particulares de cada ecorregión y las causas de degradación. Por ejemplo, las intervenciones para la restauración de manglares deben tomar en cuenta el estudio y posible modificación de la microtopografía y su consecuencia inmediata, el hidroperíodo, tal como fue efectuado por una de las experiencias recopiladas. Según Flores-Verdugo et al. (2007), el conocimiento de la microtopografía y el hidroperíodo permiten determinar la distribución de las áreas potenciales de restauración, así como la ampliación o creación de nuevas áreas para determinadas especies. Por otro lado, en la mayoría de experiencias desarrolladas en las ecorregiones de montaña (Yungas Peruanas, Puna, Bosques Montanos y Páramos) una de las causas principales de la degradación fue la erosión del suelo como consecuencia del sobrepastoreo, las pendientes pronunciadas y las lluvias. En estas condiciones, es importante articular las intervenciones de establecimiento de vegetación con la práctica ganadera (por ej. mediante prácticas silvopastoriles) y con labores de estabilización de suelo, por ejemplo a través de zanjas de infiltración y formación de terrazas, entre otras adaptadas a la variación altitudinal propia de estas zonas y a los niveles de degradación (Alegre 2016). Los resultados del estudio muestran el empleo de una cantidad considerable de especies nativas en los procesos de restauración activa en el Perú. Sin embargo, en la costa y sierra, los proyectos tendieron a usar un número reducido y del mismo tipo de especies, mientras que en la selva utilizaron un mayor número de especies en ciertas experiencias. Esto enfatiza la necesidad de ampliar la gama de especies nativas en el primer caso, y fomentar el intercambio y aprendizaje horizontal en el segundo. Ampliar el número de especies nativas requiere un esfuerzo tanto en sistematizar información ya existente sobre propagación, uso y manejo, así como en generar conocimiento con énfasis en los vacíos de información. Por otro lado, el uso de especies exóticas puede estar justificado bajo ciertas condiciones ecológicas y socioeconómicas considerando las precisiones y salvaguardas para el establecimiento de éstas indicadas en la Ley Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (Ley N° 29763 y su reglamento). Los resultados del estudio demostraron que su empleo se debería realizar en asociación con especies nativas (sistemas de especies mixtos), lo que lleva a usar mayor número de especies y a responder mejor a las necesidades económicas de los beneficiarios. En relación a los sistemas que emplean únicamente especies nativas, no se recomiendan los monocultivos ya que son más susceptibles a plagas y enfermedades, generan baja biodiversidad y no producen tantos bienes y servicios como los bosques naturales (Piotto et al. 2004, Montagnini 2005). A pesar de que ninguna experiencia reportó el uso de criterios genéticos para garantizar la calidad del material de siembra, se conoce que puede ser un elemento clave para la supervivencia y el buen crecimiento de los árboles en los proyectos de restauración. Para promover el uso de material de siembra de buena calidad genética se debe hacer lo posible para que (1) sea suficientemente diverso y (2) esté bien adaptado a las condiciones actuales y proyectadas del sitio de plantación. La diversidad genética es importante para evitar los efectos adversos de la endogamia, facilitar los procesos de selección natural y reforzar la resistencia a los factores de estrés agudo y crónico, tales como plagas y enfermedades, además de las sequías y otros efectos del cambio climático (Thomas et al. 2014). Aunque existen directrices que garantizan el nivel mínimo de calidad genética al recolectar semillas de árboles seleccionados, hasta la fecha la mayoría de los actores que se encargan de suministrar el germoplasma tienden a desconocerlas o a pasarlas por alto (Bozzano et al. 2014). Esto se debe, probablemente, a que exige tiempo y recursos, y a que los efectos negativos del uso de germoplasma de mala calidad se evidencian a largo plazo (Rogers y Montalvo 2004). Para promover el uso de germoplasma adaptado al sitio, los ensayos de procedencia son especialmente útiles ya que informan sobre la escala y amplitud de la adaptabilidad local de las diferentes fuentes de semilla a través de la distribución de las especies de árboles, además que brindan información continua sobre la adaptabilidad de diferentes procedencias bajo condiciones de cambio climático. Actualmente, existen muy pocos ensayos de procedencias en el Perú, y es urgente aplicarlos a más especies nativas y en mayor cobertura ecogeográfica. En ausencia de datos de procedencia, los modelos de idoneidad y el análisis ecogeográfico de las condiciones ambientales que predominan en el sitio de plantación y en los eventuales sitios de donde se podría obtener el germoplasma son técnicas alternativas para la selección de fuentes de semillas bien adaptadas (Thomas et al. 2015). Varias experiencias reportaron la disponibilidad del material de siembra como un criterio predominante para la selección de especies, y no necesariamente que éstas fueran las más idóneas para cada contexto. Esto podría deberse a la deficiente información de métodos de propagación y manejo, así como a la falta de un sistema integrado de oferta y demanda de material de siembra, tal como lo cita Cuéllar y Manta (2014). Por ende, es urgente desarrollar y fortalecer un sistema de producción y suministro de semillas de calidad con fines de restauración.Respondiendo a esta necesidad, Bioversity International con apoyo de WRI, viene realizando un estudio de línea base y escenarios potenciales de sistemas de producción y suministro de semillas forestales como apoyo a los objetivos de restauración de los países de América Latina asociados a la Iniciativa 20x20. En complemento, se deben implementar instrumentos de trazabilidad a fin de identificar, seleccionar y caracterizar la procedencia de las fuentes semilleras. Para ayudar a los restauradores en la selección de especies y fuentes de semilla apropiadas se debe promover el desarrollo y uso de herramientas fáciles de usar. Un ejemplo es la herramienta interactiva RESTOOL desarrollada en el marco del proyecto de \"Restauración Arbórea del Bosque Seco Tropical en Colombia\" liderado por Bioversity International (www.restool.org; Thomas et al. 2017). Esta herramienta orienta la selección de especies arbóreas y fuentes de semillas considerando aspectos como la idoneidad de hábitat de las especies arbóreas en condiciones actuales y futuras, la diversidad de rasgos funcionales de las especies de árboles asociados a los objetivos de restauración, las condiciones de estrés de cada sitio y aspectos sobre la calidad genética del material reproductivo de los árboles. Los sistemas de monitoreo deben estar compuestos por un conjunto de indicadores que permiten medir el progreso hacia uno o más objetivos que la restauración busca alcanzar y un mecanismo de rastreo y evaluación de información necesario para lograr medir los avances de los indicadores elegidos. Es importante que los indicadores respondan a metas con un claro horizonte temporal, basados en los objetivos establecidos. Un sistema de monitoreo holístico debe incluir indicadores basados en aspectos biofísicos y ambientales, socioeconómicos, políticoslegales y de gestión (Melo et al. 2013). Para permitir la síntesis y estandarización de los avances en los múltiples proyectos de restauración sería muy útil acordar a nivel de país una lista de posibles indicadores, al igual que requerimientos mínimos a medir a nivel de proyecto. Bajo el esfuerzo analítico de la Iniciativa 20x20, se está iniciando un estudio de monitoreo que busca revisar los métodos actualmente disponibles y emergentes para monitorear la restauración del paisaje en los países que participan en la Iniciativa. El estudio identificará los métodos más apropiados disponibles y los mejores desarrollos a corto plazo para sistemas de monitoreo rentables, simples y precisos que puedan operar a múltiples niveles (nacional, subnacional y a nivel de proyecto) y medir las intervenciones y sus impactos (Franco 2017). Para la captura de información relevante para la medición de los indicadores se pueden utilizar métodos como las herramientas de teledetección, la medición en campo o el monitoreo participativo, cada uno con sus ventajas y desventajas. Según Boissière et al. (2014) si bien la teledetección es un elemento clave de cualquier estrategia de monitoreo, cuantificar el número de hectáreas con cobertura forestal restaurada solo da una visión parcial de la situación y proporciona información poco precisa a escala temporal. Por esta razón, se requiere complementar con el monitoreo en campo, de manera participativa o no, proporcionando información crucial acerca de los factores que impulsan el cambio, los elementos funcionales que aportan resiliencia al ecosistema y si las medidas de restauración están avanzando (Laake et al. 2013). De la misma manera que para los indicadores sería necesario identificar a nivel nacional que métodos de rastreo de información son recomendados y bajo qué condiciones. Asimismo, para orientar futuras políticas e intervenciones de restauración, sería importante comparar de manera sistemática los impactos de diferentes prácticas de restauración sobre los servicios ecosistémicos y los modos de vida locales, sobre la base de criterios de evaluación comunes y en un proceso de aprendizaje colectivo incluyendo a los diferentes actores involucrados (Mathez-Stiefel et al. 2017).Fortalecimiento de capacidades y divulgación  En el estudio se evidenció el éxito alcanzado en algunas experiencias debido al fortalecimiento de capacidades y la participación activa de los actores locales. Por ello, es necesario fomentar los programas de fortalecimiento de capacidades, con énfasis en la población local, para el aprovechamiento sostenible, la recuperación de la biodiversidad y los servicios ecosistémicos, y la comercialización de los productos generados. Esto puede potenciarse a través de redes de aprendizaje, conectando actores involucrados tanto a nivel local mediante talleres, intercambios y ferias, como a nivel internacional mediante redes y organismos expertos (Climate Investment Funds 2013, van Oosten 2013). De esta manera se puede promover un aprendizaje colaborativo y adaptativo entre los conocimientos locales y científicos. Sin embargo, es necesario la evaluación previa de las capacidades existentes. Para ello la FAO cuenta con instrumentos que pueden adaptarse y ser utilizados para realizar estas evaluaciones de capacidades (Berrahmouni et al. 2015a). Según los resultados expuestos en este estudio, los vacíos de concientización y capacitación más urgentes son: (1) concientización sobre las diferencias entre restauración y plantaciones tradicionales;(2) currículos de restauración en diferentes niveles educativos; (3) programas de capacitación sobre estrategias para hacer frente a condiciones climáticas extremas (sequías, inundaciones, entre o tras) mediante enfoques adaptativos, que permitan reducir la vulnerabilidad social y ecológica frente a estos eventos (FAO n.d.); (4) articulación de productos de la restauración con el mercado; (5) colecta, manejo y producción de material de siembra de buena calidad; y (6) manejo sostenible de plantaciones a largo plazo. Solo algunas experiencias desarrollaron estrategias de divulgación mediante diversos medios (publicaciones científicas, vídeos, exposiciones, etc.). Sabogal et al. (2015) indican que los resultados positivos logrados por las iniciativas de restauración siguen estando insuficientemente documentados y han sido escasamente divulgados. La documentación y divulgación permite aprender de experiencias anteriores, motivar la participación de más actores y garantizar un mayor número de resultados exitosos y el uso más eficiente de los recursos en futuros proyectos. Por ello, es clave promover no solo la sistematización y divulgación de iniciativas de restauración, sino también el registro e intercambio entre las mismas.Gestión de información, oferta y demanda en restauración  Para apoyar el rastreo, monitoreo y la buena implementación de los proyectos de restauración a escala nacional se propone desarrollar una plataforma virtual centralizada para acomodar el registro de proyectos, el monitoreo, el intercambio de información, el acceso a financiamiento y que sirva, además, como medio para vincular a ofertantes y demandantes en diferentes aspectos de la restauración (p. ej. capital humano, financiero, tecnológico, etc.).  o Otros (especifique) 5.8 Si hubo venta de productos, ¿esta se realizó a nivel local, regional, nacional o internacional? Explique 5.9 ¿Cómo fueron repartidos los beneficios económicos obtenidos? (de ser posible, indicar porcentajes o montos). 5.10 ¿Cuál fue la Tasa Interna de Retorno (TIR)? 5.11 A partir de la experiencia, ¿se generaron publicaciones u otras formas de divulgación o sistematización?Por favor, especificar donde se encuentra (librería, página web, u otro) o Mejora del paisaje (belleza escénica, recreativo, ecoturismo) o Otro (especifique) 6.3 ¿Se realizó algún tipo de corrección o mejora en las actividades como consecuencia del monitoreo? Explique. 6.4 ¿Qué actividades realizaron para promover la sostenibilidad de la experiencia? 6.5 ¿Es posible replicar su experiencia a mayor escala? De ser así, ¿cuáles son los requerimientos para lograrlo? 6.6 En base a su experiencia, ¿cuáles son sus recomendaciones para facilitar el éxito de futuras iniciativas de rehabilitación/recuperación/restauración en el país? ","tokenCount":"33484"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a06cb446d31950b1bad13ea24ee9f163","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aed30359-4fd6-448f-926d-748c5f63a3e6/retrieve","id":"-558420407"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"859f981c-f3c2-4878-b250-25b082a786a3","pagecount":"30","content":"The purpose of this report is to document and track progress on the implementation of recommendations from EGS studies that were carried out on selected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA). The recommendations were designed to ensure a sustainable supply of EGS based on market-specific archetypes involving private, public and public-private partnerships. For the subsequent years following the conclusion and adoption of the study reports, there have been some significant achievements registered based on the country-specific recommendations from the studies. This report provides a review of the extent of implementation of the recommendations in each of the mentioned countries.The study involved a review of literature which included the country-specific EGS studies and the available literature that comprised of projects reports, recent policy documents and any other relevant available literature. Despite the list of countries in which the studies were conducted, this study only focused on the implementation of recommendations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria.Most countries have to a large extent implemented most of the recommendations from the EGS studies. A lot of emphasis was placed on addressing the creation of enabling environment aspects such as the enactment of seed acts, the plant variety protection bill and policies in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana as well as harmonization between the national and regional seed laws. There was also emphasis towards capacity building for seed regulation and certification services through training of human resources and enabling private sector participation in seed inspection in addition to accreditation by the international bodies ISTA and OECD. PPPs were established for the root and tuber crops cassava and potatoes; and mainly hybrid and OPV maize for the cereal crops.Fingerprinting of parental lines is the most notably unimplemented for all the countries that it was recommended, but also the national establishements such as Variety Testing Center, demand forecasting frameworks and National Seed Steering committee for the case of Malawi and Tanzania respectively. It is therefore recommended that further investigation of gaps in implementation be carried to understand reasons for non-implementation.The purpose of this report is to document and track progress on the implementation of recommendations from EGS studies that were carried out on selected countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and West and Central Africa (WCA). The EGS delivery systems of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana and Nigeria resulted in a recommendation of interventions for improvement of EGS delivery systems given their status and the factors affecting its performance in the respective countries. The recommendations were designed to ensure a sustainable supply of EGS based on market-specific archetypes involving, private, public and public-private partnerships. For the subsequent years following the conclusion and adoption of the study reports, there have been some significant achievements registered based on the country-specific recommendations from the studies. This report, therefore, provides a review of the extent of implementation of the recommendations in each of the mentioned countries.The study involved a desk review of literatures from country-specific EGS studies and other literature that comprised of projects' reports, recent policy documents and any available relevant literature. Despite the list of countries in which the studies were conducted, this study only focuses on the implementation of recommendations in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and NigeriaThe Uganda EGS study analyzed mechanisms to promote the commercial and self-sustaining production and supply of breeder and foundation seeds of selected food crops in Uganda. It focused on five crops selected based on strategic reasons, they include hybrid maize, rice, finger millet, common beans, and sesame. They identified some institutional bottlenecks affecting the seed value chains of the selected crops. The significant challenges identified during the study included: lack of a coordinated EGS production programme at NARS institutes but only focus on only a few crops with external funding; Seed companies have limited capacity, human and financial resources to generate own varieties and to produce EGS; the nationally based seed companies have limited access to affordable credit services for their operations and investment in infrastructure for seed processing and generate sufficient cash flow for contracts with outgrowers; low adoption and use of improved varieties by farmers and the farmers are also not in the habit of buying certified seed; unpredictable and inconsistent demand for seed due to lack of forward and transparent planning and fragmented markets; limited capacity of the quality control agency , i.e., National Seed Certification Services (NSCS) in terms of personnel and logistics for inspection and monitoring of seed produced by many scattered out-growers and seed dealers; a weak enabling environment that is challenged by inadequacies in the implementation of the seed policy, and strategy and enforcement of available regulations that are essential to provide guidance and playing ground for seed sector stakeholders; and the high prevalence of counterfeit seed on the market.The following crop and system wide recommendations were proposed for Uganda;-Increase the price of EGS to represent the real cost of production and remove hidden subsidies.-Train research scientists and seed companies on intellectual property rights systems to ensure equitable use of publicly developed varieties.-Strengthen seed certification with the private sector to ensure seed quality -Strengthen the technical and managerial capacities of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control.-Fingerprint all maize parental lines.-Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization.-Strengthen the linkages and complementarity between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers.-Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to secure and avail good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing due to low on no profit margins.-Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment that is critical to enhance the delivery of the seed sector.The proposed actions for the government of Uganda were:-Review Non Tax revenue policy Uganda has made tremendous progress in implementing the recommendations from the EGS study that was conducted in 2016. Table 1 provides a summary of status of achievements made.A lot has been done to create an enabling environment for seed systems development with emphasis on EGS delivery.-There have been four seed sector policy and regulatory frameworks put in place thanks to the concerted efforts between government agencies MAAIF, NARO, with financial and technical support from USAID Feed the Future \"Uganda Enabling Environment for Agricultural development Activity\" (EEA) Program, and the development partner ISSD Uganda -The policy and regulatory frameworks put in place include; -The National Seed Policy and strategy (Figure 1). This was enacted and approved in October 2018. An abridged version of the policy was further developed to enable and broaden stakeholder understanding of the policy -Draft of Plant Variety Protection Regulation in place -NARO has streamlined the EGS institutional framework to enhance quality seed production and marketing (Figure 2).  -In line with the other recommendations, NARO and its partners (mainly ISSD Uganda) have made effort to install the required infrastructure such as; 200 acres of land provided by NARO, NHL with co-funding from ISSD Uganda installed the irrigation system on 30 acres land, established 60MT cold storage facility as well as seed processing and conditioning equipment (Figure 3). -NARO also entered a PPP arrangement with the processor Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL), a partnership that seeks to commercialize agricultural technologies as a means foster development of value chains for industrial growth (NARO, 2021). The partnership involves promotion and dissemination of information and research technologies that increase agricultural production and productivity. This is to be attained through joint development of effective sorghum, barley, and cassava seed production and distribution systems to enhance sustainable access to quality planting materials of the target commodities by of smallholder farmers (https://observer.ug). This arrangement is an example of the Niche Market archetype pathway for the supply of EGS in which seed production is organized around a processor that assures grain off-take at downstream of the crop value chain. This partnership was attained with the support through the USAID Feed the Future Agricultural Research Activity.-Establishment of a digitalized seed quality assurance system by putting in place a Seed Tracker Tracing System (STTS) to support coordination along the seed value chains (figure 4). The system enables digital coordination of EGS pre-ordering (pre-booking), registration of seed growers, field inspection services, tracking and tracing seed batches (ISSD Uganda, 2021). This system also supports seed demand planning. Not done -Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization Done, but yet to be operationalized -Strengthen linkages between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers. Done -Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to ensure the availability of good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing Done -Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment Done -Explore licensing options for commercial varieties and publicize arrangements Done -Fingerprinting of parental materials Note done -Attaching an agribusiness staff at ZARDI's that produce EGS Partly done -Develop an efficient methodology to determine annual seed requirements Done -Support establishment of a national seed forum Not done -Strengthen extension and advisory services at the sub-county level to educate farmers in the use of agricultural inputs to increase crop yields Done -Support quality assurance mechanisms, including accreditation of private inspectors and delegated authority towards local government Done -Support development of a strong supportive environments such as quality physical infrastructure like roads, irrigation and markets; access to capital and financing; build capacity and legal framework for participation of farmers' organizations in seed systems.The study identified crop-specific constraints affecting EGS delivery in the country. It came up with constraints affecting the delivery of maize, potatoes and common bean. In general, EGS supply bottlenecks for all the three crop commodities are mainly attributed to the certification system, production-related issues as well as seed demand-related constraints. An overall recommendation for the establishment of public-private partnerships (PPP) for each of the crops studied was made. There were also crop-specific recommendations for the success of these PPPs.For hybrid maize, the priority objectives include increasing private sector access to public sector varieties and supporting the development of a sustainable supply of high quality EGS to support demand for hybrid seed. Achieving these objectives would result in the creation of more choices for farmers and a broadening of the potential royalty base for the public sector. The study, therefore, recommended Public-private collaboration for basic seed across KALRO, private seed companies and public universities was for the achievement of these objectives. It also recommended the improvement of inspection and certification services and overall reduction of the cost of producing basic seed. This was to be achieved by ensuring broad private-sector representation within the PPP, revision of inspection and certification system and allocating required resources to the national extension service.The overarching recommendation of expanding and enhancing potato EGS production was a PPP that is anchored at the breeder seed production level between KALRO and private seed companies. The specific recommendations were to involve international companies in the creation and operations of the PPP, allign EGS production locations with demand centers and realize the potential marginal economic value of potato.The establishment of an EGS system for common beans that is built around a PPP to increase the supply of improved seed in order to meet the current market demand was recommended. Additionally, the study recommended the need to build on-farm demand for improved varieties and quality seed as well as create sustainable demand by increasing the marginal economic value of common bean for farmers.Kenya has been able to implement most of the recommendations made through a number projects embedded in partnerships ( -Ensuring broad private-sector representation within the PPPs. As discussed in the section above, a number of private sector actors are involved in the various partnerships with clearly defined roles in the production of maize, potato and common bean EGS.-Revise the seed inspection and certification system. The seed inspection and regulatory services in Kenya were revised during the year 2017. The revised regulations allows the private sector to actively support and participate in seed inspection services in the country (AgriExperience, 2017).-Reduction of the overall cost of hybrid maize seed production. This was achieved through the SPTA project. The project promoted the \"Ms44\" technology to improve yields and reduce the cost of producing hybrid maize seed. The \"Ms44\" technology specifically eliminates the manual labour-intensive de-tasselling of maize using a naturally occurring genetic mutation (Ms44) in maize; a gene aborts the development of microspores into pollen to create female parent plants which become male-sterile. The initial phase of this initiative was from 2016-2020 with the second phase underway from the start of 2021. The Malawi study identified some supply and demand-related constraints. The constraints included a weak capacity forf breeder seed production, inadequate private sector involvement in basic and commercial seed production, absence of an EGS market information system, limited capacity of the Seed Services Unit to enforce seed certification services, lack of smallholders' awareness of benefits of improved varieties, limited awareness of the business case to invest in improved varieties of the non-traditional seed business crops, inadequate financing services for seed production and access, and inadequate capacity to identify counterfeit seed by farmers.The following recommendations were made to address these constraints; -Establish a public-private collaboration at the basic seed stage across the major players in the maize seed system; -Encourage more private sector participation in the production of basic seed; -Revitalize and improve the SSU human resource and infrastructure capacity; -Enact the new Seed Act to enable the implementation of the breeder's rights and farmers rights; -Build the capacity of seed producers and all relevant stakeholders; -Careful domestication of the SADC Seed Harmonization Programme; -Establish a national Variety Testing Centre; -Enhance the capacity of the national extension system, and -Put in place a national framework to project the potential demand for seed for each year.The extent of implementation of recommendation in Malawi is more or less that 40% with just a few (Table 3) of the recommendations fully implemented. The following actions were undertaken  The Rwanda study came up with key recommendations that mainly targeted the maize, potato, common bean, soybean and wheat EGS systems.The following recommendations were made.-Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop. -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties -Enhance the economic value of potato -Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval -Develop purpose-built agricultural lending products tailored for smallholder farmers -Harmonize Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law -Focus RAB's hybrid maize program on conducting trials to provide farmers with unbiased data.Rwanda registered enormous progress in attaining most of the above recommendations (Table4). Most of the achievements are attributed to AGRA interventions in seed systems development in the country. The following has been implemented to date.-Harmonization of Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures. The national seed laws were aligned with the COMESA and EAC procedures (COMESA, 2018). -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies. The Rwandan government partly removed subsidies on imported seeds which includes maize seed as a strategy to reduce seed imports and promote uptake and use of locally produced improved seeds. The locally-produced seeds are currently subsidized by 79% while the imported seeds are subsidized by 40% (Nkurunzinza, 2021). -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties. New potato varieties (eleven) have been released by RAB during the years 2020 and 2021 under AGRA -PIATA grants (MINAGRI, 2019; RAB, 2020 ) -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval.AGRA also works with partners and the Government of Rwanda to increase incentives for private sector participation and investment into the seed sector and at the same time working to enhance access to finance and markets, the adoption of climate-smart technologies and the use of agro-inputs. For instance, the organization has supported the Bank of Kigali to develop an online application system tailored to increase access to improved seeds by smallholder farmers through MOPA and IKOFI (E-wallet) platforms. The MOPA platform facilitates the purchase of seeds from accredited suppliers by agro-dealers while IKOFI (E-wallet) permits the smallholder farmers to purchase seeds with fertilizers from agro-dealers (AGRA, 2021).AGRA supported 15 seed companies by providing grants to RAB who capacitated weak start-up seed enterprises with seed production technologies through on-site practical skills transfer and in-class training as a means for boosting seed business capacities by the private sector (AGRA, 2021).AGRA, by supporting the implementation of the country's Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA 4, 2018(PSTA 4, -2024) ) gave grant to MINAGRI for reforming and operationalizing policies and regulations related to agricultural inputs and markets for conducive business environments of agriculture (MINAGRI,2020). A summary of the implemented actions is presented in Table 4. -Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop.not fully attained -Increase the availability of new improved potato varieties Done -Enhance the economic value of potato Done -Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector -Develop and communicate a strategy to eliminate maize subsidies Done -Allow private maize seed companies to make seed production decisions, including what to produce and where to produce it, without government approval Done -Develop purpose-built agricultural lending products tailored for smallholder farmers Done -Harmonize Rwanda's registration and seed import process with EAC and COMESA procedures Done -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law On going -Focus RAB's hybrid maize program on conducting trials to provide farmers with unbiased data. DoneFor Ghana, nearly all of the seven crops EGS systems that were evaluated were classified under PPP market archetype with the exception of imported maize hybrids and sorghum which fall under the private sector and public sector dominant archetypes respectively (AGRA-SSTP, 2016). The OPV maize, local hybrid maize, rice, cowpea, soybean and groundnut were recommended for development through PPP arrangement. Unlike other country cases, PPP arrangements already exist in the Ghana seed sector which is attributed to the positive changes in the industry that has had increased private sector participation in the seed system. The existing arrangements are however weak, unbalanced and fragmented. Therefore unlike other studies where the establishment of new PPPs' was recommended, modifications to strengthen and formalize the existing PPP frameworks were recommended for improvement of EGS delivery in Ghana.Overall, several recommendations were made and included the following; -Creating an enabling environment by completing the guidelines allowing the private sector to legitimately undertake foundation seeds production and marketing; the guidelines for liberalization of varietal release process to make it independent, transparent and fair; ratification of the ECOWAS seed regulation to allow free movement of varieties and seeds within the region to create markets of sufficient size; the passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill into law to reward and incentivize breeders towards developing reliable and high quality breeder seeds; liberalization of seed imports and import licensing procedures to make them transparent, independent and open for competition.-Promote information flow for awareness creation through digitization and electronic sharing of a database of released varieties, along with descriptors and pictorial representations will greatly promote awareness. -Formulate and operationalize sound and legally binding PPP frameworks that fairly represent the interests of key stakeholders through broad consultations processes. -Liberalizing seed importation and strengthening the public regulatory agencies to effectively monitor imports and manage risks. -Institutional Transformation by ensuring seed regulatory and supervisory agencies are resourced and empowered to adequately supervise the operations of actors and provide the needed technical guidance and oversight for instance; PPRSD be given autonomy to effectively supervise actors; The GSID should be resourced to provide needed technical support services; GLDB should morph into a competency training and technical service provider on a demand-driven and fee-based basis and its assets divested under a PPP arrangement. -NARIs to play a central role within the enhanced PPP through breeding and facilitating access to high quality breeder seeds by building their technical and operational competencies.-The enhanced PPP model should resolve the severe constraints experienced in accessing good quality foundation seed for all locally produced EGS. -Institute a competency-based training and mentorship programme to help the private sector upgrade its technical and business management capacities in the production, quality control and assurance and Business Development Skills. -Design a suitable funding mechanism to enable the private sector make the requisite investment in infrastructure, equipment, production and processing to achieve large economies of scale. -Strengthen NASTAG, to become the lead advocate and to position itself to effectively link into and benefit from regional platforms like ASIWA to advance the cause of the private sector. -Nurturing and strengthening linkages with output markets -NASTAG to spearhead development and promotion of market information systems -Develop effective promotion and awareness creation strategies with seed companies -Co-funding awareness creation programs that include field demonstrations, radio educational campaigns and the use of ICT such as those piloted by ATTP. -GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricing.-Seed companies must develop and be guided by effective marketing plans that will set goals and strategies to realize these outcomes including investment in personnel and marketing systems. -NASTAG to adopt and spearhead stakeholder platforms like those facilitated by ATT in Northern Ghana to serve as a starting point for establishing a credible demand forecasting system to support proper production planning and seed marketing.With support from development actors as well as the private sector, Ghana has been able to implement moooost of the recommended points of action (Table 5). ✓ Completing the guidelines allowing the private sector to legitimately undertake foundation seeds production and marketing; ✓ Completing the guidelines for liberalization of varietal release process to make it independent, transparent and fair; ✓ Completing ratification of the ECOWAS seed regulation to allow free movement of varieties and seeds within the region to create markets of sufficient size; ✓ Completing the passage of the Plant Breeders' Bill into law to reward and incentivize breeders towards developing reliable and high quality breeder seeds; ✓ Complete liberalization of seed imports and import licensing procedures to make them transparent, independent and open for competition. -GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability, and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricing Partly done -Seed companies must develop and be guided by effective marketing plans that will set goals and strategies to realize these outcomes including investment in personnel and marketing systems Done -NASTAG to adopt and spearhead stakeholder platforms like those facilitated by ATT in Northern Ghana to serve as a starting point for establishing a credible demand forecasting system to support proper production planning and seed marketingAccording to Mabaya et al., 2020, the following achievements have been recorded towards the creation of an enabling environment as alo; -The variety catalogue was updated as of 2019 with the variety release procedures harmonized with ECOWAS requirements. -Seeds Regulations Certification and Standards was harmonized with the ECOWAS regulations, gazetted in November 2018 and came into force in December 2018. -The Plant Breeders Bill, Plant Variety Protection Act, 2020 was passed into law in November 2020 but is not yet operational. The law provides a legal framework to protect plant breeders' rights. -Seed imports and import licensing procedures have been liberalized. Ghana today has the lowest requirements in ECOWAS because the documentation process for importing seed was simplified. -The GISD received technical support services in form of seed inspectors whose number rose from 32 extension workers to 45 workers. These extension staffs are however hindered by a lack of adequate resources to perform their role.Through the USAID Feed the Future project, Agriculture Policy Support Project (November 2016-May 2018), NASTAG made the following achievements; -Recognition of the role of the private sector in seed systems -Multinational private companies like Dupont Pioneer and Seedco have received approval to release high yielding varieties of maize in Ghana. -The private sector companies have obtained the approval to produce foundation seeds once they meet the specified requirements -Organized the National Seed Value Chain Business Networking Forum comprising an estimated 200 seed value chain actors and stakeholders. -Spearheaded the Northern Ghana Seed Platform The EGS consortium for Sustainable Production of Quality Seeds was launched in 2020 under the leadership of the WACCI in partnership with CSIR-Crop Research Institute, CSIR-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute LCIC, and the Integrated Water Management and Agricultural Development Ghana Limited and working closely with NASTAG, and supported by AGRA and USAID (NASTAG, 2021). The consortium aims to produce both breeder and foundation seeds for major crop value chains including maize, groundnut, soybean, and cowpea; undertake promotion activities for improved crop varieties, and build capacity of the seed producers.Capacity building and Mentorship of NASTAG through the USAID-GIAT project. This involved building capacity to establish monitoring and evaluation systems with an emphasis on data collection and management. The purpose was to enable and support efficient and accurate analysis of data received from seed producers but also provide detailed information for informed decision-making (NASTAG, 2021). the electronic seed demand forecasting tool was launched in the year 2020 to facilitate seed demand planning and production. This initiative was led by CORAF through the USAID-PAIRED project (USAID, 2021). The project also undertook the development of up-to-date regional catalogues of plant species along with released crop varieties.The Nigeria EGS study came up with ta number of recommendations some of which were cross cutting. They included;-Establishement of maize-soybean EGS public-private partnership (PPP) for both maize and soybean -Establishing a National Seed Fund -Implementing and enforcing clear Intellectual Property (IP) policies -Improving the quality assurance system -The FMARD pushing for the early enactment of the New Seed Law to suppress the counterfeit seed trade.The crop-specific recommendations from the EGS study included; -Establish a private processor oriented rice seed system and promoting policies to increase local paddy production through support integrated rice processors that process locally produced paddy at a competitive quality and price -Establishing a strong National Yam Value Chain Association -Demonstrating the benefits of adopting improved yam varieties at farm level -Supporting the distribution of improved seed yam -Establishing an EGS PPP for both maize and soybean -Accelerating the production and distribution of maize hybrids in the Humid Rain Forest agro-ecological zone -Increasing the capacity of the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) substations to increase soybean breeder seed production and improving the knowledge of the benefits of improved soybean varieties among agro-dealers.Nigeria has made good strides to improve the performance of its seed sector based on the recommendations from the EGS study (Table 6). -AGRA through two large consortia supported two seed companies in Kaduna State to increase production and commercialization of maize, rice and soybean breeder seed (KIT, 2020).-Improving Quality Assurance System.The states were also supported to increase certified seed production. There is increased seed quality control and seed sector governance today in Nigeria through the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) and regulatory progress through legislative advocacy. AGRA in collaboration with the NASC facilitated seed quality control through a turnkey electronic seed certification system with scratch card authentication (KIT, 2020).The recommended actions and their respective level of implementationsare summarized in Table 7. -Increase the price of EGS to represent the real cost of production and remove hidden subsidies. √-Train research scientists and seed companies on intellectual property rights systems to ensure equitable use of publicly developed varieties.-Strengthen seed certification with the private sector to ensure seed quality √ -Strengthen capacity of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control X -Develop a searchable database to share information on varieties, seed availability and levels of commercialization √/X -Strengthen linkages between research with farmers through a well-coordinated extension and advisory service programme to enhance the adoption of quality seed by all farmers.-Establish a foundation seed enterprise at NARO to ensure the availability of good quality foundation seed of crops that seed companies are not keen on producing √ -Ensure an effective policy and regulatory environment √ -Explore licensing options for commercial varieties and publicize arrangements √ -Fingerprinting of parental materials X -Attaching an agribusiness staff at ZARDI's that produce EGS √/X -Develop an efficient methodology to determine annual seed requirements √ -Support establishment of a national seed forum X -Strengthen extension and advisory services at the sub-county level to educate farmers in the use of agricultural inputs to increase crop yields From a general perspective, most countries endeavored to address the recommendations given during the EGS studies. The achievements registered demonstrate that most countries have to a large extent (more than 75%) implemented most of the recommendations from the studies (Table 7) .A lot has been achieved in the creation of the enabling environment for all the countries with most countries enacting the respective seed acts and signing them into law as well as the aspects of the plant breeders bills or the plant variety protection bill and policies in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana. Most of the studied countries made effort to harmonize and domesticate the national seed laws with regional markets laws and requirements A few countries for which accreditation by international seed bodies ISTA and OECD was recommended also made effort to implement.The need to build capacity in seed quality and regulatory services was also seriously considered in most countries where it was recommended. Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, and Ghana had their human resources trained in order to build efficiency in seed inspection and regulation. This is strengthened further with the building of capacities of seed companies to participate in seed inspection and regulatory service provision.The establishment of PPPs as a means to address the EGS needs was successfully implemented in most countries courtesy of specific ongoing project initiatives. PPPs for delivery of EGS for cereal crops such as hybrid maize, sorghum, common beans, soybeans, and the root and tuber crops cassava and potatoes were established especially in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana.Despite the efforts to implement most of the recommendations a few cases exist where some have not been done yet (Table 8). The recommendations that have notably not been implemented are mainly those that were directed to respective governements such as the establishment of National Variety Testing Center, putting in place a national framework for future demand forecasting as well as fingerprinting of breeding products. It is therefore, recommended that respective governments and lead development agencies followup on areas that have not been implemented so as to ensure efficiently functional seed sectors. Uganda -Strengthen capacity of seed companies to manage EGS and internal quality control X -Fingerprinting of parental materials X -Support establishment of a national seed forum X Malawi -Establish public-private collaboration at the basic seed stage across the major players in the maize seed system X -Enact the new Seed Act to enable the implementation of the breeder's rights and farmers' rights X -Establish a national Variety Testing Centre X -Put in place a national framework to project annual potential demand for seed X Rwanda -Establish a PPP for potato and common bean with the specifications related to partners and position within the seed system developed according to the needs of the given crop.-Include soybean and wheat in the common bean PPP model to make it attractive to the private sector X -Operationalize plant variety protection policies that have been embodied in the recently passed seed law √/X Ghana -Institute a competency-based training and mentorship programme to help the private sector upgrade its technical and business management capacities in the production, quality control and assurance, and Business Development Skills-GSID should fully allow individual branding and packaging by seed companies to promote brand recognition, greater accountability, and quality assurance and also facilitate premium pricingNigeria -Establishing a National Seed Fund XGenerally, most implementation of the recommendations has been attained where there are specifically funded programmes or projects that focused on seed system development by addressing some specific challenges in a given country. This is for instance the case in Kenya where more PPPs were realized as a result of programmes such as SPTA, One Acre Fund Initiative, PABRA among others. It is also the case for the big achievements observed in Uganda as a result of the presence of the ISSD programme with deliberate core interests in addressing EGS challenges. The same applies in RWANDA with the AGRA Rwanda programme facilitating the attainment of most recommendations especially with creating the enabling environment. To understand the reasons behind the non-implementation of some of the recommendations, we recommend further investigation to unravel the underlining causes.","tokenCount":"5517"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4893163980dd953cad6bb5bf9519ef57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d4cebcc-cee7-4352-8457-b8ebd932795d/retrieve","id":"1577635523"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9441a687-7e62-4183-82f8-54fe89052691","pagecount":"18","content":"Country snapshots are a description of the baseline situation of the core market system for coffee or cacao in MOCCA countries at the national level based on rapid appraisals carried out in each country. 1 The level of detail presented is to some degree a reflection of the complexity and maturity of the sector in each country. We would not expect the market system for a new crop, in a small sector, in a small country, to necessarily be as developed as that for a historical crop, in a large sector, in a large country. Country Snapshots are available for coffee and cacao market systems in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru, and also for the cacao market system in Ecuador. The tables and figures are described below in the order in which they appear in the country snapshots.Map -The country map at the beginning of each snapshot uses shading to show the major cacao or coffee producing areas of the country by department/province.Cacao or Coffee in Country -provides general statistics on the country and on the sector to provide the reader with a basic contextualization of the different cases, for example the size of the sector and relative economic importance for the country. Data sources are described in the Appendix. We used sources for which similar data was available across countries. In some cases, particularly for Guatemala cacao data, we were unable to find consistent data across official sources. The center shows the market chain and its principal competing channels. The market chain is the chain of economic actors (players) who own a product as it moves from primary producers to consumers. The arrows represent the flow of money, from left to right, as the product is purchased from one actor by another. Where possible, we have mapped this for different qualities of coffee/cacao and added numbers of actors or market share where available. This section helps to understand chain structure and to think about systemic efficiency. The top shows the rules and business environment including policies and institutions (influencers) that shape the market system. These are organized from left to right based on the year in which they became an influence on the market system, with the most recent on the left and the oldest on the right. This section helps identify policies or institutions that are influencing how the chain works. The bottom shows the services, for example business and extension services, that support the market chains operation at any point along the chain. These are organized as much as possible based on actors or part of the chain for which they provide a service, with services on the far right most relating to production and those on the far left most relating to exports. This section helps identify key services or missing services and link services with users within the chain.Figures: Key Supporting Market Systems -These market system doughnut diagrams unpack some of the supporting functions for the coffee and cocoa market systems identified as areas for intervention in MOCCAs Theory of Change, including technical assistance, research, genetic material and financial services. The doughnut is a simplified Market Map where the center shows a generic supply and demand function for the support service of interest. The top of the doughnut shows the services that support the provision of the core service and the bottom of the doughnut shows the rules that shape the provision of the core service. Where this service or regulating function is predominantly associated with a single or few actors, and space permits, they are named. Using technical assistance as an example: Technical assistance provided to farmers is at the center of the diagram, and described briefly in the text underneath the diagram in terms of who provides the service, who pays for the service, the nature of the service, and the key supporting functions and regulations. In the top of the diagram we have listed supporting functions identified that enable technical assistance to be provided to farmers including training of extension agents, funding of technical assistance, production of content, research, etc. In the bottom of the diagram we have listed all of the rules, regulations, institutions that influence how technical assistance is provided to farmers, for example an entity that certifies technical assistance providers or dictates content or the methodology used to provide technical assistance to farmers.Peru is an important coffee origin for commercial grade Arabica coffee and one of the lead producers of organic and fair-trade organic coffee globally. Buyers also see Peru as a source for sustainable coffee from small farmers. The majority of coffee farmers in Peru are small and medium, many in remote areas. Twenty-five to thirty percent of farmers are associated with a few relatively large second tier cooperatives which serve as their primary marketing channel, much of this Fair Trade certified. As a strategy, Peru is trying to differentiate their coffee as sustainable and there is increasing use of cupping scores to determine buying and price all the way down to farmers. Honduras and Colombia can be seen as competitors and references in terms of how the sector could evolve.The government has given increasing importance to the sector since the coffee rust crisis in 2012/2013, first with the national renovation plan and financial assistance through Agrobanco (2014-2018), and now under the national plan for the sector, developed with support from UNDP, and a new law to strengthen Agrobanco. DEVIDA, the Peruvian program to eradicate illicit crops, continues to channel large investments in specific regions into coffee (30% of total) as an alternative to coca.2 See Appendix for data sources. Current trends and concerns in the sector include governance, the lack of work on resistant genetic material in country, current low prices, certifications, the financial issues of some representative cooperatives, and the public financial sector once again being bailed out of trouble. Given Peru's importance as a source for organic and fair-trade coffee, particularly for Europe, there are important recent concerns surrounding compliance with these certifications. The recent detection of glyphosate in shipments of organic coffee from Perú has raised alarms and has put in question the reputation of Perú as an origin for organic coffee. As a result, organic coffee from Peru will be under scrutiny and compliance will need to be much stricter, particularly for Europe which has much lower tolerance on agrochemicals.Buyers and producers will need to adapt. For Fair Trade certifications, there are concerns about intermediaries and other buyers organizing groups of farmers to access fair trade certifications, seen as unfair competition with cooperatives and a questionable way to comply with the certification standards.Buying combos -the practice of buying lots that combine purchase of certified FT, Organic and other -is another practice of concern for cooperatives in particular. As supply of certified coffee exceeds demand, buyers are able to negotiate with cooperatives to purchase a lot of certified coffee where they pay certification premiums on a part of the lot based on their needs, but the cooperative must sell them an additional quantity of certified coffee as conventional coffee to complete the sale. While buyers are unable to resell as certified the coffee they buy as commercial (even though it is certified), they are able to obtain a high-quality product at a lower price. Cooperatives feel they have no choice but to negotiate on these terms, but many have concerns about the effect of this practice on transparency along the chain, and the capture of benefits by farmers from these certifications.R&R remain a persistent need, particularly renovation with rust resistant varieties (currently 70% is Typica). According to (1) over 50% of land requires renovation or rehabilitation, with renovation being a particular need given predominantly old trees, and the impact of the rust outbreak in 2012 to 2014. Government figures (2) report 69% of land affected, with 19% severely affected. The government responded with a national renovation plan and reports having renovated almost half of the severely affected areas at a cost of $3,273/Ha. Yet sixty-two percent of this was in Junín alone. Credit was provided at concessional rates but repayment and access to new capital continues to be a challenge, as well as access for small farmers. Sixty five percent of the new areas were Catimor. USAID (1) suggest that R&R could double yields for smallholder farmers, so the potential returns are large.Clear technical orientation is missing in terms of how R&R should be carried out. Different technical assistance providers recommend different pruning techniques as well as varieties. Focus group participants cited farmers who had introduced resistant varieties who now wanted to change back to traditional varieties in a double investment. This creates confusion in the sector, particularly in the absence of a reference technical organization. Honduras is a reference example for many. Some of the larger cooperatives and exporters are supporting introduction and dissemination of resistant varieties from Central America, such as Marsellesa or Parainema, or other genetic material of interest to a specific buyer.Over 80% of Peruvian coffee is commercial grade coffee, produced largely by small and medium farmers who are unassociated. These farmers sell their coffee to national and multinational traders through intermediaries to the international market. Coffee may change hands several times before reaching an exporter. Certified coffee (10%) is predominantly organic and fair trade, produced mainly by farmers organized in associations who are in turn organized in cooperatives. Most of this coffee is through a few large cooperatives. Often cooperatives collaborate to share services such as processing, transport, or export, with Norandino being an important service provider. CENFROCAFE has just invested in their own facility in Jaen. Traders and some cooperatives also buy and sell gourmet coffee, but the volumes are small (2%) (3). Only 5% of Peruvian coffee is consumed domestically and 75% of that consumption is low quality instant coffee.Major regulations that have had impact on the sector recently include the National Plan for Renovation on distribution of seedlings, adapted varieties and credit; the recent law to strengthen Agrobanco in support of the sector; and certifications, especially the two main ones, fair trade and organic. The National Coffee Plan was a process with broad participation and MINAGRI has launched a National Coffee Program aligned to it. There are several regulations in place regarding genetic material but at the level of smaller nurseries they do not seem to have much impact on what or how coffee seedlings are produced. These smaller nurseries operate on reputation, selling to clients who trust the quality of their plants and are not concerned about certified materials.Support services for coffee, particularly in the traditional production zones are well developed including inputs, credit for cooperatives, and promotion of Peruvian coffee in the global market. Cupping labs, belonging to farmer organizations, exporters, and a growing number of intermediaries, are an important support function for quality and price differentiation in coffee transactions as well as to build capacity and transparency around quality as a means for accessing better prices. Major gaps include long term credit, a more coordinated technical assistance, and research. There is also an opportunity to improve organic inputs supply. Many cooperatives have moved into this space out of necessity but solid technical support and research could support these efforts. Technical assistance for farmers is provided by public, NGO and private extension networks, including traders, cooperatives, financial institutions and inputs providers. TA is largely funded by government and donors to improve incomes in rural areas and promote alternative crops to coca. Traders invest in technical assistance, often building TA into their procurement strategy integrated with certifications. Farmer organizations have important TA networks, also linked to certification verifications, and access government funding for TA and investments (Agroideas, PNIA, CITEs). Inputs providers also include TA in their services. There is a recognized need to harmonize messages to farmers, particularly for R&R and varietals. Focus group participants recognized a lack of reference technical content/manuals for training farmers. SENASA through its IPM farmer field schools disseminates content that could be built on.Support functions include content generated and disseminated by SENASA and certifiers; training of TA providers through formal academic training (mostly in regional agricultural universities) and on the job training; and financing of TA for farmers. Exchange visits are an important source of information. Research support function is missing, especially for organic management practices. TA providers feel isolated in terms of access to reference information with even limited access to internet on the job.TA is not regulated directly, but regulations related to coffee norms such as quality, certifications, and sustainability standards form the basis for TA content. A recent effort supported by Solidaridad, the Cámara Peruana de Café y Cacao, and Sustainable Commodity Assistance Network (SCAN) produced three documents on climate smart coffee.Figure 4 Market system for research for coffee in PeruResearch is carried out by national and regional universities, INIA, and international research centers. There is no specialized coffee research institute, with few researchers specialized in coffee. For INIA, coffee is not a specific research area but a crop under their agricultural export crops program; their expertise is in other crops. WCR, in partnership with the Junta Nacional del Café, has established varietal and agronomic trials in Peru as part of global trials. National and regional universities have carried out research on genetic resistance to and biological control of leaf rust, and post-harvest. International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), CIAT and others have done work on climate change and mitigation strategies for the sector. Funding for research in coffee comes from government, donors, universities, and some private sector. Some funding for international centers is obtained from international donor and private sector funds. CITEs and CONCYTEC (government) fund research but the funds are small, short term, and not coffee specific. Several cooperatives are engaged in validation of varieties and organic production technologies and could benefit from collaboration with research institutions.Support functions include grants for research from CONCYTEC, laboratory infrastructure at universities and INIA; and international research collaborations. Training for researchers, dedicated human resources, long term research funding, broader international collaboration and field research infrastructure all need strengthening.Regulations related to CITEs and CONCYTEC establish how funds for research and innovation can be accessed for coffee. The inclusion of coffee under INIAs research agenda for agricultural export crops establishes INIAs mandate.Figure 5 Market system for genetic material for coffee in PeruGenetic material for planting is largely produced on farm by farmers with their own seeds or seeds obtained informally from others. Locally, there are farmers recognized as seed producers based on reputation, though they are not necessarily certified. SENASA has a list of certified nurseries, with some of the largest in the Selva Central region. The National Renovation Plan, DEVIDA, and other government and donor initiatives have supported small commercial nurseries, or cooperatives to produce seedlings including funding from PNIA and Agroideas. Cooperatives visited distribute seedlings with two cotyledon leaves to facilitate transport (no soil), and mostly provide service for new varieties that farmers do not already have, including imported materials. Ecom has imported seed and mass-produced resistant varieties from Central America and also facilitated purchases by cooperatives and others.Support functions include SENASA nursery monitoring and registration to promote best practices and identification of quality seedlings; demonstration plots established by projects, cooperatives and private sector to showcase varieties in different regions; and development projects that facilitate access to quality seedlings and incentivize commercial nurseries. National research on varieties is a gap that WCR is beginning to fill, including availability of diverse genetic material in country.The regulatory framework exists for certification of nurseries (SENASA) and nursery operators (INIA).Regulations were revised in 2013 to facilitate the production and commercialization of high-quality, noncertified, coffee seed and seedlings. In the absence of a demand for certified genetic material, these regulations are not the basis for most genetic material transactions in the country.  Agrobanco is in the process of restructuring which limits services currently. Social lenders (Oiko, Rabobank, Root, Alterfin) are very present in Peru but lend to cooperatives, mostly commercial credit and some infrastructure yet there may be potential to expand their contributions to R&R financing. Finally, traders and intermediaries provide credit to farmers for harvest activities, sometimes inputs, in exchange for coffee sales. Funding for credit to farmers comes from public funds, social lenders/second tier lenders, credit union savings and working capital of traders and intermediaries. The sector baseline carried out by UNDP identified financial services as deficient and access limited (2).Supporting functions include second tier lenders from government, social lenders and commercial banks; purchase contracts that help cooperatives leverage credit; member savings at credit unions; technical assistance; and credit bureaus.Regulations include laws that regulate financial institutions including rural credit unions, insurance systems and Agrobanco. The low relative country risk and laws related to movement of resources also facilitate lending, in addition to the strong long-term presence of social lenders with foreign capital. Government commitments to renovation in the coffee sector also influence the provision of credit. and strategies for strengthening governance and representation in the sector at the regional and national level. This can be a starting point for MOCCA for Activity 6, national capacity building. • Research -The Peruvian coffee sector is too large to not have an institution that is somewhat specialized in coffee. WCR presence in the country and with MOCCA should help strengthen market actors who can perform this function moving forward, especially around varietal trials and crop management. Universities like La Molina or INIA are potential national institutions with research capacity and mandates that could be explored, in the absence of a specialized institute. • Organic inputs -As an important origin for organic coffee, there is an opportunity to collaborate with the private sector and government around organic inputs to improve productivity of coffee, for both organic and potentially conventional systems. The leaf rust outbreak has heightened awareness of the importance of plant nutrition. In the absence of a strong research sector providing orientation around organic fertilization, many of the cooperatives who specialize in organic production have engaged in their own research and the production of organic inputs for their members. This network could be capitalized on to provide better technical justification for organic management practices including cost benefit analyses. Possible partners: Cooperatives i.e. CENFROCAFE, Keurig, organic inputs suppliers, certifiers, INIA. • Specialty coffees -There seems to be increasing interest among actors all along the value chain in accessing markets based on cupping scores as a way to differentiate and capture new value. Currently, price is based on parchment to green bean yield and many intermediaries evaluate a sample to determine price. Some are beginning to use cupping scores. Traders are also interested in coffees with a higher margin but currently source much of their specialty coffee from cooperatives given the challenges of sourcing through intermediaries. Moving to cupping scores as a determinant of price may open new market opportunities, and drive better post-harvest management, but will also require building capacity and traceability systems. Possible partners: Helvetas/SECompetitivo, Ecom and specialty traders. ","tokenCount":"3157"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a2ebee48b9c1036a92a81648e949595","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H003478.pdf","id":"-1347235398"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"06013819-f061-469a-a679-05ffee51c7dc","pagecount":"19","content":"The opinions represented are Ih ose of tlte all/hal' and do nol necessarily reflect th e policies of the o{),. 1I,'.fT or allY organi.vation with which the authors is connt'<:ted.Bdward Martin, Robert Yoder, and David Groenfeldt This is a revised version of a paper which was sent to the participants of a conference on PUblic Interventian in Fan.er-Nanaged Irrigation SysteJ4S.The conference, sponsored by the International Irrigation Management Inatitute with the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat of the Ministry of Water Resources, His Majesty's Government of Nepal, and held in Kathmandu in August 1986, had as its objective to identify and discuss research issues related to farmer-managed irrigation systems.The purpose of the paper was to..provide participants with some background material about research on farmer-managed systems and public intervention in these systems. The authors hope now to establish a research network on these issues. Interested researchers and practitioners will find details at the end of the paper. Most farmer-managed syatems are relatively small in scale, often irrigating lesa than 100 ha, but farmer-managed systems as large as 10,000 ha can be found in Nepal (Water and Energy Commission, 1981).There are several other examples of systems over 1,000 ha in Asia, and in the USA they may be over 100,000 ha. 3 Study of large farmer-managed irrigation systems may indicate that farmers' management responsibilities need not be limited to small-scale systems or the tertiary level of large--scale systems and may suggest how farmer organizations could take over the management of major portions of large-scale systems or possibly even manage the whole system.Even though most farmer-managed systems are small, their large number results in a total area irrigated which rivals that of large-scale agency-managed systems in many countries.In the case of Nepal it is estimated that 400,000 ha, or nearly 80 percent of the irrigated area, is under the command of farmer-managed irrigation systems, while in the Philippines farmer-managed systems account for approximately 60 percent (850,000 hal of the irrigated area (Bagadion, 1986).In Sri I,anka vi.llage tank and diversion systems managed by farmers account for an estimated 243,000 ha of irrigated area (Gunadasa et al., 1981), while in Bangladesh farmers manage most of the groundwater irrigation systems.IThe term \"farmer-mlmaged\" is used to refer to irrigation systems where groups of farmers collectively manage the system from the water source to the fields. Irrigation systems of this type sre often referred to as \"colIIDunals\" or \"community-managed\" systems. The term \"farmer managed\" avoids the ambiguities of the term \"community.\" 2While this is often one of the arguments for investing in assistance to farmer-managed systems, the approach taken by some agencies results in higher costs per hectare in these projects than for largescale projects.While irrigation in Africa is not nearly as extensive as in Asia, much of the irrigation is small-scale and, in many cases, farmer-.anaged. An estimated 2.6 million of a total of 5.3 million hectares of irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa are classified as small-scale or traditional, indicating individual or small group management (FAO, 1986).1.2 The trend towards intervention in farmer-managed systems For a variety of reasons government irrigation agencies, international donors, and private voluntary organizations are becoming more interested in farmer-managed and small-scale irrigation systems. In many countries the best locations for large-scale irrigation have already been utilized.In other cases donor agencies, disappointed with the results of investing in large-scale irrigation systems, view small-scale irrigation systems as an opportunity for rapid project implementation with the potential to realize benefits more quickly than large-scale projects. Because of the traditional technologies used in farmer-managed systems, the assumption is often made that with minimal physical improvements to structures, significant gains in production and high economic returns on investment can be achieved. At the same time, farmers and local politicians are making more requests of irrigation agencies to improve their irrigation system and, in some cases, asking the government to take over the management of the system. However, we know little about the results.Except in the Philippines there has been little documentation of significant production gains through outside agency intervention.The ease with which improvements can be made by developing new small systems or improving old ones can be over-estimated. In some areas, like the hill regions of Nepal, most locations with high irrigation potential have been developed already to some extent by farmers. This has three implications for government irrigation development efforts. First, investment in desirable sites will nearly always involve intervention in farmer-managed irrigation systems or impinge on the water rights of neighboring systems. Second, if improvement were technically easy, farmers might carry it out themselves. They are most likely to request help in technically difficult situations (Gowing, 1986). Third, the remaining areas without any irrigation development are often those in which irrigation construction is technically more difficult and more expensive. Social and cultural differences may also account for the fact that farmers have Dot developed irrigation systems and make the intervention by an outside agency more difficult.The nature of agency involvement in farmer-managed irrigation systems varies considerably. Two opposing trends can be observed, one toward increasing agency involvement in the management of systems and the other toward reduction in agency responsibilities.In Himachal Pradesh, the Public Works Department provides assistance to farmer-.aoaged irrigation systems only after the existing farmer organization turns over management of the system to the agency.A contrasting situation exists in the Philippines where, after construction or rehabilitation by the National Irrigation Administration, the whole system including the dam is turned over to a legally registered water user organization. \"Signed documents clearly establish the organization's legal ownership of the facilitiesand leave no question regarding its full responsibility and authority for operation and maintenance\" (Korten, 1986).4The results of intervention are mixed.In the Philippines farmer organizations have been strengthened and the technical inputs have resulted in more productive irrigation systems (de los Reyes and Jopillo, 1986).There have been other cases, in Nepal for example, where the farmers have ceased to consider the system their own and have balked at mobilizing the resourcea needed to operate and maintain it themselves following intervention. s A dependency relationship has developed between farmers and the intervening agency, and this is undesirable for aeveral reasons.(1) It is costly for an irrigation agency to post staff to manage a large nuaber of geographically dispersed systems, each of which may irrigate less than 100 ha.(2) Staff assigned to a small, isolated system may consider it 4This applies primarily to small-scale systems (under 1,000 ha), but NIA is beginning a phased program of turning over larger systems to the farmers.SLouis Rijk, Project Manager, 110 Labor-Intensive Public Works Program, Kathmandu, Nepal. Personal communication.technically unchallenging as well as a hardship post and not be motivated to perform well.(3) The takeover of management responsibility by a government agency will nearly always result in a lower level of internal resource mobili~ation, even if the agency charges the farmers an irrigation service fee.Since many developing countries find it difficult to mobili~e resources internally, especially from the rural areas, replacement of the resources mobilized by farmers to operate and maintain their irrigation systems by an allocation from the central treasury will rarely be deairable.Before specific interventions can be considered intelligently in a particular country or region, certain basic information must be to hand. ~des~ri.l?tive fr~g!'kTwo ways of looking ot farmer-managed systems have been found helpful.The first focusses on activities. The second focusses on property rights and associated duties.Farmer-managed systems are found in diverse environments using a wide range of technologies to exploit different types of water sources.  1985). There is interaction among the activities of the three sets; for example, the organization must decide how to operate the structures to distribute water.Not all activities are of equal importance in every environment, and farmers' irrigation management organizations will reflect the relative importance of activities in a particular location. For instance, in the hills of Nepal where irrigation systems often have long canals which must traverse steep, landslide-prone slopes, the most critical activity of the organization is mobilizing labor to maintain the intake and canals. The farmer organizations for managing systems in such an environment are structured to ensure that this function can be carried out effectively (Martin, 1986).Precise attendance records and cash accounts are maintained, and sanctions for being absent from maintenance work are strictly enforced.Depending on environmental conditions and on the technology used, however, the management focus varies.In the farmer-managed tank systems of Sri Lanka, group decision-making on the timing of water releases is the most critical management task; mobilizing labor and cash to renovate th~ phYSical structures is relatively less important. For farmers in Bangladesh who collectively own irrigation pumps, it is the pump--its operation, repair, and financing--which is the key focus of management activity.Wherever irrigation systems have been developed, property rights regarding the physical structures and water also exist (Coward, 1983).6Allocation means the assignment of rights of access to the water among users, while distribution refers to the physical distribution of water among the users.These property rights, which may be explicit or implicit, define who has access to the water and to how much, 88 well 88 the farmers' responsibilities for maintaining the physical works.The nature of property relationships and the way that water is allocated in farmer managed irrigation systema affect both the efficiency and equity of irrigation resource use.An understanding of property rights in regard to water 1s important when an agency is undertaking an intervention aimed at improved productivity of the system. If water is scarce, a system for rationing the water is required so that each farmer can receive his prescribed allocation. In some farmer-managed systems, locally produced proportioning weirs divide the flow proportionally among different secondary and tertiary canals.In other systema, strictly timed rotational distribution is practised with the length of each person's turn computed to supply him the proportion of the supply represented by his allocation. The technology for distributing water involves both physical mechanis.. to handle the water distribution and social institutions to manage the mechanisms and to resolve conflicts when they arise. Disturbance of the distribution system without understanding the link between the physical and institutional components and their interactions can lead to disappointing results including the refusal of farmers to maintain the new system, as noted above.Farmer-managed irrigation systems exist in many different environments.Those which have survived and prospered have been able to adapt to changes in the environment. Systems are now being exposed to more rapid change. What were once relatively isolated, self-sustained communities are becoming more integrated into regional and national economic systems, bringing different forces to bear on the irrigation organization. Can farmer-managed systema be sustained in the face of increased state intervention in all areas? What happens to farmer-managed systems when labor has a much higher opportunity cost as a result of industrial Most studies of farmer-managed systems have concerned successful, relatively well-functioning systems. This has, perhaps, resulted in a rather idealized perception of farmer-managed irrigation systems.It is time to study systems which have failed entirely, or which continue to operate only through heavy goveroment subsidies, in order to understand the underlying causes. In addition, studies of why systems have not been developed in areas where there is a potential irrigation resource should also be conducted 2. Some prinCiples of water allocation provide incentives for efficient water management and a mechanism for expanding the area irrigated, while others do not.For exsmple, allocation of water in proportion to land area irrigated does not provide incentives for expanding the irrigated area, while allocation by purchased shares does (Martin and Yoder, 1983).In the first case, if a system is improved 80 that it supplies more water, the farmers with the water rights have no incentive to allow other farmers access to the water, but can irrigate the same area with less intensive management.If water is allocated by purchased shares, however, when the supply is increased, farmers with more water than needed can sell some water shares, allowing for expansion of the area that is irrigated.Evaluating the performance of farmer-managed irrigation systems should include agricultural productivity and the extent of area irrigated by a given source. An analysis of the efficiency of performance of farmer managed irrigation systems and an understanding of the reasons for a given level of efficiency are important when considering how and if to intervene to improve the systems' performance.For example, it is necessary to determine whether water is a limiting constraint to increased production: if it is not, efficiency of water use should not be considered an important objective in system management.If the topography is such that no additional area could be irrigated with water from the source, for example, water application rates may be high without \"wastage\" of water.In other cases, the irrigated area may be constrained by institutional factors, such as water rights. In a system in Nepal, farmers reported that it would be possible to double the area irrigated hy changing from continuous-flow to rotational distribution, but the farmers with land adjacent to that which was irrigated had no water rights (Yoder, 1986).Tn soae cases there are technical inefficiencies in water acquisition, conveyance, or distribution that could be overcome through the assistance of an irrigation agency.The equity of distribution of the benefits and costs is another measure of performance of farmer-managed irrigation systems. An irrigation system is often said to be equitable if there is proportionality between the costs borne and benefits received by individual farmers. A crucial test of the equity of distribution is presented when the supply is reduced below the amount required to irrigate the entire command. Are all farmers equally affected by the shortage, or do some suffer disproportionately? Again, before intervening it is necessary to see how and if farmers cope with seasonal shortage. Systems have been studied in the Philippines (Siy, 1982) and Sri Lanka (Leach, 1961) where the landholdings are intentionally distributed such that each household has some land at the head end of the system and some at the tail end. If the water supply is insufficient to cultivate the entire area, the tail section can be cut off, and all farmers still have some land that receives irrigation. Farmer-managed systems in Nepal substitute maize for rice over the entire command when water is scarce (Martin and Yoder, 1983). In North Yemen contributions to the replacement of temporary dams to catch spate floods fall into three classes according to the degree of likelihood that a farmer's land will benefit.7In addition to the equity of distribution of costs and benefits among the members of an irrigation organization, the equity issue regarding access to benefits of the system is also important.If the water rights are attached to the land, then people owning more land also benefit more from the irrigation. Also, when water rights are attached to the land, the only way that persons who did not initially receive water rights can gain access to irrigation is by purchasing high-priced, already irrigated land.In some irrigation systems ownership of land and property rights in water are separated, and water is allocated through the sale of shares in the system. A farmer owning land within the hydraulic command area, but outside the original irrigated area, can gain access to water through the purchase of shares from another farmer or from the organization (Martin and Yoder, 1983). In rare cases (e.g., Sukhomajri in Haryana, India) water rights are distributed equally to all households in the area or in proportion to the family size instead of the size of landholding.Within the context of a project to increase the water supply in a system, it might be possible to bring about a change in the principle of water allocation to allow for greater access to water. This would have to be approached with a great deal of care or the institutions that function on the basis of existing property rights will be undermined. It might be necessary to find ways of assuring current members of the irrigation organization that they would not lose security of their water supply.7Mary Tiffen, ODJ, personal communication.It is often the case that several agencies, both governmental and private, are involved in assisting farmer-managed irrigation systems within a single country.The approaches taken by these agencies typically include (1) completely ignoring existing irrigation organizations and systems, (2) taking over the management of existing syste.s, and (3) i~lementing projects entirely through the existing farmer organizations. Coward (1984) distinguishes between direct and indirect investment approaches.Under d}rec~_~v~~~~t, the agency takes full control of implesentation activities including design and construction. In these cases, the agency often takes over the management of the systes, though it may aim to turn it back to the farmers for operation and maintenance after construction is complete. Under the I i~~cJ_!n~~~~!ent a~proach, the agency provides resources (financial, technical assistance, materials) to existing irrigation organiZations in the form of grants, subsidized loans, and technical assistance which support that organization in improving its irrigation system. Management control of the systes re.ains with the farmers.Historical and bureaucratic factors underlie some of the different approaches taken by different agencies. For instance, departments of irrigation and public works, whose main activities are the design, construction, and operation and aaintenance of aajor irrigation schemes, tend to use the same direct invest.ent approach when dealing with small scale, farmer-.anaged systems (Wensley and Walter, 1985). Departments of local and rural development, by contrast, tend to follow an approach of indirect invest.ent by providing assistance to existing irrigation organizations which are responsible for implementing the project and for ongoing operation and aaintenance. Systematic study of different intervention progr... are needed to identify the key aspects of the particular approaches which sees most effective.A comprehensive understanding of different agencies' approaches to assisting farmer-aanaged systems requires analysis of the internal organization of the agencies.The flow of information into the agency and the deaand for information within it needs to be understood. Kquallyi~rtant is an analysis of the incentive structure for different groups within the agency. If, for exa.ple, field officers lesrn that fsrmers do not want s diversion weir built at a certain location, what are the incentives for going ahead with the project anyway, or for making modifications?The kinds of inforaation which the agency recognizes as important before a project is launched, and the incentives for seeking or not seeking particular kinds of information, can be important aspects of understanding agency behavior in assisting farmer-managed systems.Research in this area would aim to identify the organizational constraints to improved agency operation.The relevance of this type of research is seen in the exa.ple of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in the Philippines which wanted to adopt a new approach to assisting farmer-managed systems.It soon beca.e apparent that it would be necessary to aake internal changes in the functioning of the agency (Korten, 1982).Socio-technical profiles of the existing irrigation system were compiled and a cadre of community organizers hired to strengthen farmers' organizations' capacity prior to the project. NIA engineers were required to work with farmers in the process of system layout through a series of meetings and a \"walk through\" of the proposed canal locations. Farmers' association construction committees were formed to observe the opening of bids from contractors, check the quantity and quality of materials, recruit and place laborers, and record association members' contributions to the project and the project costs. Construction contracts given to farmers' associations were broken down into smaller units that could be completed, inspected and paid for in two-week cycles. NIA reconciled its project accounts with the association every month instead of only at the completion of the project with the result that the association had s clear understanding of project costs. Special training courses in water manage.ent and financial manage.ent were designed for the associations.Of particular importance to the viability of farmer-managed irrigation systems is the impact of agency intervention on the mobilization of resources by farmers.When the agency assumes full responsibility for the intervention and does not involve the existing organization in planning and implementation in a meaningful way, farmers may lose their sense of ownership of the system. They will se. no reason to contribute their own resources to the maintenance of an irrigation system now owned","tokenCount":"3344"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"883f4f3a390925333dba6551cd92d209","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c861b1c-57f9-478a-9012-373ce41e004e/retrieve","id":"-1106721943"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cfecdadc-70da-4392-8d39-6594d01ccdbf","pagecount":"69","content":"Poverty and vulnerability are among the major problems in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). To design appropriate poverty reduction initiatives for the region, it is not only important to understand the distribution of poverty but also the determinants. Various reports have documented information on the status, distribution and determinants of poverty in each of the countries. Nonetheless, not much information has been documented in a form that is easily accessible to decision makers and planners involved in designing and implementing programmes for addressing poverty reduction and food insecurity at the regional level. This paper reviews the existing knowledge on the status, distribution and determinants of poverty in the ESA region to fill that knowledge gap. It emerges from the literature that poverty in the region differs across socio-economic groups and across space. The existing poverty maps suggests that most districts and provinces whose poverty rates are lower than the national averages are located in rain fed mixed crop-livestock systems and that the highest proportion of them are in the humid and sub humid systems. High poverty rates also occur in the livestock only systems. About half of the poor provinces and districts fall in areas with short growing periods; this affects their agricultural potential. The areas are also constrained by market access. Investment in irrigation, improved water management and improved market access would play a vital role in these regions. The review suggests that household level determinants of poverty in the region include, but are not limited to: household characteristics-family composition, size and structure, age and marital status of head, gender of the head, education and other human capital capabilities; access to basic services such as social amenities, water and sanitation, credit and infrastructure; employment, occupation and incomes; asset ownership; access to remittances; burden of disease; variations in agricultural production; and declining food stocks and high food prices. Community/regional/country level determinants include: geography and related factors such as market access, agro-ecological zones, climate and ethnicity; the environment; population density; area of residence (rural vs. urban); income, growth and inequality; conflict, insecurity and political instability; and governance and corruption. However, it is difficult to separate the determinants of community level poverty from the determinants at the household level. The review further suggests that the determinants of poverty are fairly robust across many COMESA countries. This suggests the need for a consultative approach to poverty reduction in the region.The Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) is an Africa-wide network of regional nodes supporting implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). ReSAKSS offers high-quality analyses and knowledge products to improve policymaking, track progress, document success, and derive lessons for the implementation of the CAADP agenda and other agricultural and rural development policies and programs in Africa. ReSAKSS is facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in partnership with the Africa-based centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The Africa-based CGIAR centers and the RECs include: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for ReSAKSS-WA; the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) for ReSAKSS-ECA; and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for ReSAKSS-SA.The goal of the ReSAKSS Working Paper series is to provide timely access to preliminary research and data analysis results that relate directly to strengthening ongoing discussions and critical commentaries on the future direction of African agriculture and rural development. The series undergoes a standard peer review process involving at least one reviewer from within the ReSAKSS network of partners and at least one external reviewer. It is expected that most of the working papers eventually will be published in some other form and that their content may be revised further. Table 1.          This report covers Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). We define the ESA region as the countries that are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA): Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The report also covers Tanzania. The Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System, East and Central Africa (ReSAKSS-ECA) is mandated to provide analytical and knowledge support to these countries. Below is a brief profile of the region.It is globally accepted that poverty is a serious development challenge. This is the reason why during the 1995 World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen, 117 countries adopted a declaration and programme of action which included commitments to eradicate \"absolute\" and reduce \"overall\" poverty. This summit defined absolute poverty as a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. This depends not only on income but also on access to social services (UN, 1995). Overall poverty was defined as lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods as well as other characteristics such as hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments; and social discrimination and exclusion. Poverty is also characterized by a lack of participation in decision making and in civil, social and cultural life (UN, 1995).ESA is among the regions with the highest number of poor and food insecure people in the world. The region contributes significantly to the high poverty rates and numbers of poor people observed in sub-Saharan Africa. In most of the countries in ESA, more than a third of the national population lives below the national poverty line (Table 1). Estimates based on international poverty lines also indicate that poverty is persistent in the region (Figure 1). More than half the population lives below the international poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day in Burundi, DRC, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. There are various manifestations of poverty in the ESA region including: child malnutrition, high infant and under-five mortality rates, poor school attendance, higher prevalence of human diseases among others (Table 2). Estimates in     1 and 5 available at UNICEF child info statistics http://www.childinfo.org and UNICEF 2010 c Data refer to the most recent year available during the period specified in the column heading, : http://www.childinfo.org/education_primary.php?q=printmeIt is widely accepted that poverty is multidimensional and encompasses all the problems that prevent people from developing their full potential and achieving a minimal level of well-being. This is what constitutes the human dimension of poverty (IMF, 2004). Human development indicator (HDI) is commonly used in the assessment of human welfare. This is a composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development-a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living (UNDP, 2007).Based on the human development report for year 2010 (see UNDP, 2010), Libya and Mauritius are the only countries in the ESA region classified within the category of high human development. Egypt and Swaziland are in the category of medium human development. The majority of countries in the region, thirteen, fall in the category of low human development, clearly indicating that poor household welfare remain a major development challenge in the region. These countries include Kenya, Madagascar, Comoros, Uganda, Djibouti, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Sudan, Ethiopia, Burundi, DRC and Zimbabwe. Figure 2 illustrates geographical distribution of HDI values in the ESA region.A large number of the countries in the region are close to the bottom of the global welfare ranking. Most countries in the region have a rank of more than 100 out of the 169 countries. UNDP, 2010 indicates that HDI ranks for the low human development countries in the COMESA region are as follows: Kenya (128), Comoros (140), Uganda (143), Djibouti (147), Tanzania (148), Zambia (150), Rwanda (152),Malawi (153), Sudan (154), Ethiopia (157), Burundi (166) and Zimbabwe (169). Poverty in the ESA region is not uniform within countries or across the population. Differences exist across socio-economic groups and across space. Understanding these differences is crucial to informing proper design of targeted solutions to reach the needy. Due to such socioeconomic and biophysical factors, certain members of the population are more vulnerable to poverty than others. For example, within the ESA countries, the most vulnerable segments of the population include: i) poor women (and specifically households headed by poor females); ii) rural population and especially the rural landless and smallholders with a limited size of land; iii) people living in arid and semi-arid lands, e.g. the pastoralists and other victims of climatic calamities; iv) the urban poor such as casual labourers, unemployed, and street families; and v) people with ill-health due to chronic diseases (such as those affected/infected with HIV AIDS and other long-term diseases and disability, among others). To illustrate variations in poverty and vulnerability status across different members of the population, we discuss poverty in relation to factors such as national income distribution and gender. More information on subnational variations in poverty level due to various factors is presented in subsequent sections of the report.Poverty is related to income inequality. Those with low income within the population tend to be poor and they cannot afford expenditures enjoyed by the affluent members of the population. Inequality in the distribution of income is reflected in the percentage shares of income or consumption accruing to portions of the population ranked by income or consumption levels (UNDP, 2007). Like for most poor countries globally, ESA countries exhibit a high level of inequality. For example, more than 40% of the total national income in Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe is held by the richest 20% of the population while the poorest 20% hold less than 10% of total income (UNDP, 2007). Such high levels of inequality in income distribution suggest that poverty distribution will also be skewed towards those with low incomes. This illustrates the need for measures to address inequality in income distribution in the region to ensure that economic growth gains are also enjoyed by the poor and vulnerable population in the region.Gender is a critical concept in the analysis and eradication of poverty (UNDP, 1998;World Bank, 2001;UNDP, 2007). This is crucial because constraints, opportunities, incentives and needs differ by gender. It is also clear that poor women are worse off than their male counterparts in all dimensions of poverty. Available evidence shows that women have lower levels of education and literacy (UNDP, 2007), limited access to formal employment and they generally tend to have lower incomes than men. This is also the case in the ESA region. The ratio of estimated female to male earned income is less than 1 in the region indicating that females' income are lower than that of male (Figure 3). This indicator measures the degree of comparability between the incomes of females and males. It is derived by dividing the estimated earned income (PPP US$) for females over that of males (UNDP, 2007;World Bank, 2007). Generally, there is increased recognition of the relevance of gender for development work in Africa (Gelb, 2001;World Bank, 2001).Since 2000, some countries in ESA have experienced impressive gains in poverty reduction and economic growth (Table 3). The estimates suggest that Malawi, Uganda and Zambia have witnessed the largest reductions in poverty over the last decade. At the same time, remarkable increases in per capita income have occurred. Trends in gross national income (GNI) per capita (measured at purchasing power parity-PPP) show that per capita income has grown by more than 50% in Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Mauritius and Uganda. The rest of the countries have also had impressive improvements, with increases in GNI per capita PPP ranging between 20% and 46%. Eritrea is the only country that had an increase of less than 10% (Table 4). While poverty is widespread in ESA, it is not uniformly distributed geographically. There is spatial variation in poverty distribution and whether one is located in rural or in urban areas, in certain administrative provinces or even particular natural regions is important in determining the poverty rate they face. Poverty rates in rural areas tend to be higher than in urban areas within the region. However, this situation is changing, with urban poverty increasing fast. This growth in urban poverty has been associated with rapid rates of urbanization in ESA, with the urban population growing faster than the rate of growth of the total population (Figure 4). Rural-urban migration is one of the key factors for increased urbanization. A number of push factors are making people move from the rural areas including wars and insecurity; drought and famine; land pressure (due to rising population) leading to declining farm size; landlessness; poor performance of agriculture (due to various factors such as declining agricultural productivity, low prices of agricultural products etc.); low standards of living in the rural areas among others. Several factors pull people to the urban areas, e.g. amenities available in the urban centres (such as good schools, hospitals, better employment opportunities, recreational facilities, transportation facilities etc.), and perceptions that many jobs are available in the urban areas. Clearly disparities exist in the distribution of poverty within the ESA countries. Certain districts/provinces are poorer than others due to various factors. Annex 1 Table A1 presents a list of provinces and districts whose poverty rates are higher than national averages in ESA. To provide visual presentation of the distribution of poverty in ESA, information in Table A1 is summarized in form of a poverty map (Figure 5). Poverty maps are useful tools to provide decision makers with information to support targeting of poverty alleviation efforts. Poverty maps provide easy visual comparisons between regions or districts within a country. Information on maps provides a non-specialist audience with data on the level and distribution of poverty within a country. They are especially useful when disaggregated at sub-national levels because national level aggregate data mask differences within a country and may give the impression of uniformity (Woldemariam and Mohamed, 2003). Presentation of information through means such as graphs and maps has been proven to be very effective in supporting decision making by various actors in agriculture and rural development. This is because decision makers are more likely to visualize figures and their distribution across space when presented graphically rather than numerically. As a policy tool poverty mapping can assist in pinpointing various factors that determine that particular spatial distribution (UNECA, 2005b). Figure 5 illustrates the gravity of the poverty problem in ESA. The map, however, masks large differentials in poverty across regions. To see these disparities, detailed poverty maps for specific ESA countries are presented in Annex 2.Addressing poverty in the poor districts and provinces requires a good understanding of the development constraints in these areas and of the available opportunities. Through the use of geographical information systems (GIS) analysis tools, prominent farming systems of the poor districts and provinces were established to provide a basis for discussions on constraints and opportunities. Annex 1 Table A1 illustrates that most of the districts and provinces whose poverty rates are lower than the national averages are located in the rain fed mixed croplivestock systems. From the table, it is apparent that most poor districts are located either in arid, sub-arid or sub-humid farming systems. A summary of the estimates in the table shows that 36.1% of these districts are located in arid and sub-arid farming systems (in MRA and LGA), while 30.1% are in the humid and sub-humid systems (MRH and LGH) (Table 5). Several poor districts are also found in the highlands/temperate farming systems (MRT and LGH) and in other systems that mostly represent forest, mangroves areas (Annex 1 Table A1; Table 5). Table 6 summarizes the constraints and opportunities by farming systems.To further identify the kind of development constraints and opportunities facing the poor in ESA, the poor districts were overlaid on the continental development domain map to provide an overview of the most prominent domains in the district or province (Annex 1 Table A1; Table 5). A development domain is defined as a geographical region that has similar comparative advantages, based upon similar agro-climatic conditions, access to markets and population density. Recent empirical studies in Burundi, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda (see Pender et al., 1999;Ehui and Pender, 2005;Omamo et al., 2006;Pender et al., 2006) suggest that these three factors can be used to predict the type of agricultural enterprises and development pathways encountered in different rural communities and across the region. The different geographic areas delineated through mapping the combination of these three factors are termed 'development domains'.In our analysis we found that about a quarter (24%) of the poor provinces and districts fall in areas with short growing periods which affects their agricultural potential (Table 5). Investment in irrigation and improved water management would be beneficial to these regions. Table 5 also illustrates that close to a third of the poor districts and provinces (29%) were located in the areas with high agricultural potential, poor market access and low population density (HLL). Approximately 13% were located in high agricultural potential areas with poor market access and high population density. Access to market is a serious development constraint in both high and low potential areas (Table 5). Substantial scope exists for poverty reduction by addressing development constraints in high potential areas with poor market access. Such areas represent the greatest potential for agricultural development and high scope for broad-based benefits from regionally conceived initiatives in agricultural development (Pender at al., 1999;Omamo et al., 2006). More specifically, Omamo et al. (2006) pointed out that the HLL domain emerges as the clear priority for efficient, equitable, and sustainable growth in the ESA region. This is the domain where most poor areas in ESA are located suggesting that roads and transport infrastructure must be improved alongside addressing other constraints (such as poor access to extension, education, rural energy among others) so as to harness the potential benefits of high potential areas in poverty reduction. Similarly, addressing the market access constraint in the low potential areas will promote livestock trade and alternative income generating opportunities that could play a part in poverty reduction.    Sources: Seré and Steinfeld (1996); Thornton et al. (2006); Seré (2008); Thornton et al. (2008); Karugia and Massawe (2010).  Need for measures to insure food security to allow farmers exploit the opportunities available.  Substantial off-farm income may make farmers willing and able to specialize in cash crop production.  Need for increases in food productivity to enable greater cash crop production. Increased cash crop production may also help promote increased food crop production (by enabling purchase of inputs), so that both food and cash crop production may increase for some time before greater specialization occurs. Research and extension programmes should recognize and exploit such complementarities  Facilitate land registration and avoiding restrictions on long-term land leasing to reduce problems of tenure insecurity and land fragmentation.Drier areas, supplemental irrigation in higher rainfall areas can also be very valuable. Adequate attention must be given to institutional issues, such as how water will be allocated and how losers will be compensated, before physical construction  Contingent upon improved grazing land management, some intensification of livestock production is possible. Increased production of small ruminants may be a particularly profitable strategy. Private allocation of wastelands and sloping lands for tree planting has potential to substantially reduce the biomass shortage in some areas, as well as increasing household wealth and incomes, though the potential for income generation is greater closer to markets. In the near term, food aid may be needed in such areas, though priority should be given to developing alternative sources of income as well as increasing land productivity This chapter presents a review of the determinants of poverty in the COMESA region. The review focuses on factors that influence poverty at the household level, community level and by area of residence (rural and urban). Most determinants of poverty are cross-cutting and it is difficult to disentangle determinants at each level.The literature concurs that household characteristics, namely education, family composition and structure, household size, marital status of the head among other factors, are key determinants of poverty. Households headed by illiterate persons are more vulnerable to poverty than those headed by more educated persons (Mukherjee and Benson, 1998;Mwabu et al., 2000;Kimalu et al., 2002;Kasirye, 2007). Education opens up opportunities for wage employment and other economic activities outside farming, therefore providing extra income which is used to purchase food to fill the production shortfall for subsistence farmers. Quality of education further enhances labour productivity (Okurut et al., 2002;Bashaasha, 2006;Abuka et al., 2007;Adahl, 2007). Education also affects reproductive behaviour, use of contraceptives and the health of the children, which are important factors in addressing the problem of poverty (Oluoko-Odingo, 2006). Across the ESA countries, the role of education in poverty reduction has been well documented (Government of Kenya, 2001;Okurut et al., 2002;CSA, 2003;Gebre-Medhin, 2006;Adahl, 2007).Household size has significant negative effects on the welfare status of a household (Andeberg and Pederson, 2001;Government of Kenya, 2001;Paternostro, 2001;Okurut et al., 2002;Gebre-Medhin, 2006;Rena, 2007;Kasirye, 2007). However, the magnitude of the effect of household size on poverty is not the same across the ESA countries. While smaller economies like Eritrea and Burundi are adversely affected, the effect is most pronounced among the vulnerable groups (slum dwellers and the marginalized) across the region (Rena, 2006). Large household size has consistently been shown to keep per capita income growth rates below population growth rates, thus creating difficulties for government poverty reduction efforts (Government of Kenya, 2001;Bashaasha, 2004;Gebre-Medhin, 2006).Gender disparities in sharing economic power have been documented as a major determinant of poverty in the region. There is high inequality in income and asset ownership among men and women in ESA (Blackden, 2003). Evidence from Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar and Uganda concurs that women are more vulnerable to poverty than men. Female headed households in Malawi are poorer than the male headed households (Mukherjee and Benson, 1998). Other studies have also shown the risk of poverty to be on average lower in households with male and young heads of households in Madagascar, Eritrea and Ethiopia (IMF, 2004;Rena, 2007;Paternostro, 2001). Evidence from Eritrea also shows that the incidence of poverty is slightly higher among women than men (Fissuh and Harris, 2007). Evidence from Rwanda shows that female headed households are more likely to be poor than male headed households; and when poor, they are less likely to move out of poverty (Justino and Verwimp, 2008). Poverty in women is linked to unequal access to and distribution of resources, a lack of control over productive resources and limited participation in political and economic institutions (Gelb, 2001;Kimalu et al., 2002). The relatively low entitlements of poor women, such as their restricted access to land ownership, credit and other productive resources, and their limited capabilities resulting from illiteracy and low education levels, are well-documented determinants of feminization of poverty (Mwabu et al., 2000). Most women also lack access to regional markets. Social and cultural expectations and norms confine women to unpaid household work and restrict their participation in paid production (Kimalu et al., 2002). Evidence from Uganda further shows that welfare inequality among female headed households has continued to widen over time, and that it is inequality within each gender sub-group that contributes most significantly to total inequality (Ssewanyana et al., 2004). Migration and consequent changes in family structures have placed additional burdens on women, especially those with many dependants.It is difficult if not impossible to reduce poverty without addressing the gender imbalances reflected in the different dimensions of poverty (World Bank, 2007). An effective gender approach in designing and implementing poverty reduction interventions should take these differences into consideration, focusing on equality and equity of the outcomes.Poverty can also be determined by access to basic service by households (Government of Kenya, 2001). Degree of access to services like formal credit, food transfers, off-farm employment and a host of village infrastructure such as distance to market, distance to the health centre by rural households is one of the indications of poverty levels. Paternostro (2001), for example, documents that the longer the distance to the nearest basic services (schools and health clinics), the poorer the household in Madagascar. Similar sentiments are documented by Grosh and Munoz (1996) in Malawi and by Bashaasha (2006) and UBOS (2006) in Uganda. The most noted factors associated with socio-economic inequality between households and groups in the ESA countries relates to access to public infrastructure and access to productive resources (Rena, 2006).In the literature, both unemployment and informal sector employment have been identified as important links between poverty and labour markets. Some analysts define poverty as the ratio of the combined number of unemployed and those working in the informal sector to the total labour force (Agenor, 1998). Available evidence from the region shows that earnings in the informal sector are typically low and not enough to push people out of poverty. In addition, poverty and vulnerability are high among persons unable to find jobs due to lack of skills, physical disabilities and age (Kimalu et al., 2002).It is evident from the literature that the probability of being poor decreases with an increase in number of employed persons within the household (Mwabu et al., 2000;Government of Kenya, 2001;Kimalu et al., 2002;CSA, 2003;Gebre-Medhin, 2006). An inverse relationship has been depicted between the probability of a household being non-poor and number of employed persons per household in Eritrea (Fissuh and Harris, 2007). Access to off-farm employment at the household level has been found to significantly reduce poverty levels in the region. The incidence, depth and severity of poverty are lower in households with an adult in formal employment either in the public or the private sector (CSA, 2003; UNDP/UNEP, 2006). The literature establishes that households whose heads are casual workers are very likely to be poor (GOM, 2002). Households headed by women engaged in household business activities also suffer from severe poverty (Hamdok, 1999).Poverty has been documented to be closely related to low asset holding (Enquobahrie, 2004;IMF, 2004). Land and livestock holdings are considered important economic assets by a majority of rural households (Freeman et al., 2008). Several studies have also established that household asset holdings coupled with at least primary education leads to significantly lower poverty levels (Paternostro, 2001;UNDP/UNEP, 2006;Rena, 2007;AfDB, 2009).Land size determines the type(s) of enterprises that can be established as well as the amounts that can be produced by households. The poor tend to have small pieces of land and in many cases large household sizes, as a result they are normally not able to produce enough to feed their families or sell (Okurut, 2002;Nicita, 2004; UNDP/UNEP, 2006).Remittances (from within and abroad) are an important determinant of poverty in the ESA region. However, their impact has received little mention in the poverty literature. Available literature suggests that remittances significantly reduce poverty rates in Eritrea and Sudan (Mkenda et al., 2004;Gebre-Medhin, 2006). Households receiving remittances from relatives working or living abroad have significantly higher welfare than their counterparts without remittances (Mkenda et al., 2004).The risk of poverty is on average higher in households with members suffering from ill health (Paternostro, 2001;Rena, 2007). Poverty also perpetuates ill health because the poor, compared with the non-poor, are less likely to report health problems and are less likely to seek treatment in the event of illness (Kimalu et al., 2002). The burden of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and water-borne illnesses weighs heavily on both the country and households, affecting income, food security and development potential. Women are particularly vulnerable because they do not have equal access to social and economic assets (Mkenda et al., 2004;Adahl, 2007). HIV/AIDS is most prevalent among the youth and the middle-aged in the ESA region, the most productive segment of the population (Mkenda et al., 2004;Christiaensen, 2005;Tladi, 2006;Adahl 2007). Empirical studies have indicated a dual relationship between poverty and high rates of HIV in the region. Several studies have found that there is an increased risk of HIV infection among the poor, due to poverty-related characteristics such as low education and lack of income, among others (Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager, 2005;Tobey et al., 2005;EAC, 2006;Tladi, 2006). Thus, there is evidence to suggest that poverty makes the poor engage in high-risk behaviour making them more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. These causal relationships could be exemplified by the high rates of HIV/AIDS among slum dwellers and some fishing communities of ESA (Tobey et al., 2005;EAC, 2006;Mbirimtengerenji, 2007;Kambewa et al., 2009). However, studies have also documented evidence of AIDS being a contributing factor for making people and families fall into poverty. HIV/AIDS exacerbates poverty through morbidity and mortality of productive adults and the associated consequences such as poor health and related health expenses, funeral expenses, costs of raising orphans among others (Government of Uganda, 2002;Booysen, 2003;Wiegers et al., 2006).Agriculture is the major source of income and employment for the majority (70 to 80 percent) of rural people in the ESA region. It plays an important role in the economies of ESA countries in terms of its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) (UNDP/UNEP, 2006). Poor agricultural productivity as well as declining production of staple foods in the ESA region has contributed to food poverty in the region. For example, maize productivity in most countries in the region is much lower than the world average or what is achieved in other parts of the world such as North America and Asia (Figure 6). While agricultural productivity in the region is among the lowest in the world, yields of most crops in the COMESA region are below African and global levels (Omamo et al., 2006). Several studies have documented dependence on agriculture as one of poverty determinants of poverty in some of the ESA countries (Okurut et al., 2002;UNDP/UNEP, 2006). The poor performance of this sector in the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan) has left many rural people dependent on agriculture poorer than ever (Hamdok, 1999;Enquobahrie, 2004;Gebre-Medhin, 2006). The declining production can be attributed to several factors. Climatic conditions (drought and other vagaries of the weather) constitute one of the factors. Drought episodes interfere with food availability and incomes of households in both poor and non-poor households. Excessive dry and wet weather leads to crop and livestock losses, human deaths and loss of property. The impact is most severe in arid and semi-arid areas where many households are forced to migrate in search of pasture and water (Oluoko-Odingo, 2006). Other factors include lack of farming incentives including access to credit that could facilitate adoption of improved technologies, high and rising costs of inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides and fragmentation of land. In addition, input and output markets are important drivers of poverty. Poor market access is evident in poorly connected regional markets with poor market information flows. With poor markets access, farmers lack means and incentives not only to deliver agricultural services and inputs to the farm, but also to sell farm produce.Related to declining agricultural production is the decline in food stocks. Stocks of wheat, coarse grains and vegetable oil have fallen to low levels relative to use, reducing the buffer against shocks in supply and demand (Karugia et al., 2009;Nzuma et al., 2010). Declining food supply coupled with rising prices has adverse effects on availability of food for the poor and is likely to push them further into poverty.An increase in food prices resulting from the global financial crisis has had adverse effect on poverty reduction efforts in the COMESA region. Minde et al. (2008) show that price increases of staple foods in Southern Africa resulted in 2% and 4.4% increases in poverty in Malawi and Zambia respectively. The crisis has had an impact on poverty through other channels as well: impacts on women and children who are more vulnerable to food shortages; impact on trade particularly as a consequence policy responses that focused on trade restrictions e.g. export bans these resulted to increase price volatility in the region; and making local products uncompetitive in the global market (Karugia et al., 2009). The food crisis has also increased competition for land and water resources for agriculture, and resulted in declining capital for long-term investment due to the credit crunch, which has resulted in a revaluation of natural resources (von Braun, 2008). Evidence from Kenya also suggests that increased food prices are likely to hurt the poor, more so the urban poor (Levin, 2010). Levin shows that a 100% increase in maize prices would increase the headcount ratio in urban areas by 3-4%, depending on the size of windfall gains to the producers. This would, however, reduce food poverty in rural areas by close to 14%, assuming that the price shock passes through completely to farmers; otherwise rural food poverty would increase significantly in some provinces. Levin (2010) further found that in both urban and rural areas, the poorest of the poor are most negatively affected by increasing food prices.The discussion above indicates that there are several household drivers of poverty in the ESA regions. The drivers span from household socio-economic characteristics to factors that are external to the household. Though different COMESA countries have different experiences with poverty and inequality, the review above suggests that the drivers of poverty in the region are closely related. Table 8 presents a summary of the key determinants of poverty at the household level in ESA. The summary delineates the factors per country. Employment status of the household head; HIV/AIDS; gender, age and education level of the household head; reliance on agriculture; export dependence of outputs; household size/dependency ratio; disabilities; refugee status; assets ownership; employment and income structure; average health and education of household members 2. Ethiopia (Enquobahrie, 2004;Gebre-Medhin, 2006;Rena, 2007;Bigsten and Shimeles, 2008) Size of agricultural production (lower production more poverty); amount of non-farm income; education level of the household head; household health status; household size and dependency ratio; education attainment of the household head; employment (type of employment) 3. Malawi (Grosh and Munoz, 1996;Mukherjee and Benson, 1998;NSO-Malawi and IFPRI, 2001;Benson et al., 2004;Benson et al., 2005;NSO, 2005) Age and education level of the household head; average education level of adults in the household; type of employment; size of land holding/area cultivated; diversity of agricultural production; access to services at household level (health centre, bank, bus station or postoffice); poverty 4. Madagascar (Paternostro, 2001;Nicita, 2004) Age, gender of the household head; distances to basic services (schools and health clinics); access to land; income of the householdFactors documented 5. Kenya (Christiaensen, 2005;Okwi et al., 2007;Christiaensen and Kalanidhi, 2004) Education level of the household head; employment status of the household head; gender of household head; reliance on agriculture and agricultural productivity (access to productive inputs); HIV/AIDS; household size (large household, high poverty); wages/earnings; income source/type of enterprise; health status of the household; access to household amenities (e.g. water and sanitation, and type of cooking fuel) 6. Uganda (Okurut et al., 2002;Abuka et al., 2007) Household income; household size; age, literacy level of household head; asset (land and livestock) ownership; access to non-agricultural income; migration status and gender of the household head; occupation (participation in agriculture) 7. Tanzania (Mkenda et al., 2004;Ehrhart and Twena, 2006;Adahl 2007) Employment status of the household head; reliance of agriculture (more poverty if on agric); HIV/AIDS; household size; gender, education level of household head 8. Zambia (UNECA, 2005a) Gender of the household head; income status of a household; employment (formal and informal); education level of adults within the household; health status of the household; access to necessities (water and sanitation, housing, health, transport, bank, credit and market); lowscale/small-scale production; access to information and communication technology; geographic location 9. Rwanda (Government of Rwanda and United Nations, 2003; UNDP/UNEP, 2006; Justino and Verwimp, 2008) Household income levels; landlessness; miniaturization of farming plots; security of land tenure; soil deterioration/erosion; gender of the household head; civil conflict 10. Eritrea (Fissuh and Harris, 2007;Rena, 2007) Unemployment at household level; remittances (from within and abroad); access to infrastructure and other key facilities; household size; gender of the household head; health condition of the household members 11. Zimbabwe (Masika et al., 1997;Hamdok, 1999;Rena, 2007) Gender of household head; scale of agricultural production; employment status of the household head; asset ownership (land);Housing conditions; Access to basic services (health, transport); 12. Djibouti (PRSP-Djibouti, 2002;Rena, 2007) Access to education at household level; access to water, sanitation, infrastructure; access to land; income level of the household head; household size/dependency ratio 13. Sudan (Hassan and Suresh, 1991;Rena, 2007;AfDB, 2009) Access to education; unemployment; access to basic services; remittances; household size; average education level of the household 3.3 Determinants at the community/regional/country level The literature identifies a few community/regional/national level determinants of poverty, which in most cases overlap with household and regional determinants. However, it is difficult to separate the determinants of community level poverty from the determinants at the household level. A household located in any community, region or area of residence will suffer as an independent unit when there are issues that confront the society as a whole. For example, the determinants of poverty in Kenya presented in Box 2 are cross-cutting and will cause poverty at the household, community and regional levels, and nationwide. In this section, we discuss some of the key determinants of poverty at the community level. A summary of the factors is presented in Table 9.Distance from the basic services (remoteness) together with poor infrastructure limits access by rural folk to these services. Kasirye (2007) found poverty and vulnerability in Uganda to be strongly influenced by infrastructure and spatial factors. The incidence, depth and severity of poverty have been found to be significantly higher in villages farther from major market (Masika et al., 1997;IMF, 2006;Rena, 2006). Market access has also been shown to be an important determinant of poverty in Ethiopia (Rena, 2007;Bigsten and Shimeles, 2008) and Kenya (Kabubo-Mariara et al., 2009). Another factor related to geography is ethnicity, especially in rural areas. Ethnicity has been shown to play a significant role in Eritrea and Ethiopia (Mkenda et al., 2004;Gebre-Medhin, 2006). Other studies concur that agro-ecological zones and climatic factors, especially rainfall, which are also correlated with geography affect poverty at the community level (Enquobahrie, 2004(Enquobahrie, ). 2007). The proximate determinants of rural poverty relate to access to productive resources and opportunities for gainful employment (Government of Kenya, 2001;Gebre-Medhin, 2006;Okwi, 2007). Low and declining incomes, especially from the agricultural sector, have been shown to have a negative impact on food production and thus on poverty. In rural Kenya, the non-poor derive a large share of their income from cash crops. In contrast, subsistence farmers are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups (Kimalu et al., 2002). In Tanzania, people whose main source of income is farm produce are five times more likely to be poor than are wage earners (World Bank, 1997). Other determinants of rural poverty include: sector of employment; sources of income; low agricultural productivity, exacerbated by land degradation and insecure land tenure; land fragmentation; vagaries of the weather and adverse climate conditions; difficulty in accessing financing for self-employment; bad infrastructure; high costs of health and education; and HIV/AIDS (Government of Kenya, 2001;KNBS, 2007). Justino and Verwimp (2008) use evidence from Rwanda to show that for a rural economy struck by extreme land scarcity, absence of technological innovation in agriculture and lack of capital, civil conflict is likely to have severe consequences on the welfare of households. Improving agricultural productivity and providing additional employment opportunities in rural areas have been found to reduce vulnerability to poverty (UNDP/UNEP, 2006; Abuka et al., 2007). However, on its own this evidence is not sufficient to conclude that living in a rural area has an independent influence on the probability of being poor (Rena, 2006). Some studies have shown that some of the factors strongly associated with poverty such as the level of education, household size, access to basic services, poor governance, unemployment and low wages are at play in both rural and urban areas (Mukherjee and Benson, 1998;IMF, 2004;UNDP/UNEP, 2006;AfDB, 2009).Though poverty is predominantly a rural problem in many countries, the rapid rate of urbanization is increasing leading to high rates of urban poverty. Urbanization attracts migrants from the rural areas with little or no formal education or skills. These people are not able to secure good positions in the formal employment sector and are compelled to work as casual labourers in industries, factories or in the residences of the well-to-do members of the population. Others work in the informal sector where incomes are low. Most low income earners and unemployed people in the urban areas reside in informal settlements in urban slums which have poor living standards. The slums are characterized by poor housing conditions, overcrowding, lack of good access roads, and lack of basic services such as clean water and sanitation (drainage and waste disposal).Some researchers in the ESA region have identified population density to be positively correlated to poverty. Population pressure may operate through social relationships to cause poverty, particularly when it leads to land fragmentation or landlessness (AfDB, 2009). A popular view exists that large households have greater risks of suffering from food insecurity than smaller households, especially in densely populated areas where expansion of cultivated land is no longer feasible (Ehrhart and Twena, 2003;Bigsten and Shimeles, 2008). This was witnessed in the increased incidence, depth and severity of poverty in northern Rwanda where land has been highly fragmented and soils depleted (Government of Rwanda and United Nations, 2003).Evidence from the region suggests that a narrow growth base creates deepening inequality which eventually offsets the positive impacts of growth on poverty. The level of inequality at the beginning of any growth episode contributes significantly to the degree of responsiveness of poverty to growth (Okidi et al., 2005). In addition, rising inequality and income distribution disparities, especially at the regional level undermines national growth and poverty reduction efforts (Kimalu et al., 2002;Ssewanyana et al., 2004;Rena, 2006). Most of the COMESA countries have high levels of inequality in income distribution and these inequalities perpetuate poverty. Higher income groups, possessing more income generating assets were found to be in a better position to benefit from increased national income in Uganda, while the crop-farm sector was found to lag behind national average welfare levels (Ssewanyana, et al., 2004). In the COMESA countries economic growth rates are far below the desired threshold for pro-poor growth.Wars, violence and genocide kill and injure people; destroy infrastructure, services, assets and livelihoods; displace populations; break social cohesion, institutions and norms; and create fear and distrust. Violence often leads to the simultaneous destruction of assets and serious reductions in individual and household nutritional status. This may push households into poverty and destitution, and possibly create poverty traps since under those circumstances the household would have little chance of recovering its economic status by resorting to productive means (Justino and Verwimp, 2008). Insecurity of both life and property is an important disincentive for any productive investment (Bozzoli and Bruck, 2008;AfDB, 2009). Countries that have a long history of conflicts, wars, political and social instability in the ESA region (such as Burundi, DRC, Eritrea, Rwanda, Somali and Southern Sudan) have been characterized by severe underdevelopment. Conflicts and political instability scare away investments. In the long run conflicts prevent economic growth and improvement of people's welfare (Okurut et al., 2002;Ssewanyana and Muwonge, 2004;Rena, 2006;Rena, 2007). Justino and Verwimp (2008), show the long-term impact on household welfare of civil war and genocide in Rwanda. They argue that the conflict affected households differently depending on the death toll, the location of battles, the waves of migration and the local resurgence of war. As a result, the labour/land and labour/capital ratios at the provincial level changed considerably during that period. Households whose houses were destroyed or who lost land ran a higher risk of falling into poverty, especially for households that were land-rich before the genocide. Genocide affected the economic well-being of the surviving household members in various ways. For example, the destruction of a house and the loss of land had a negative impact on their welfare, measured by income per adult equivalent. Female headed households were also trapped in poverty. Other literature shows the importance of community level factors such as social and political instability. Abuka et al. (2007) further find that regions that have experienced much insecurity in Uganda have a high incidence of poverty. They argue that guaranteeing security in all regions of the country would provide incentives for productive investment. Kimalu et al. (2002) argues that poor people are often the most insecure in the society because they are the most exposed to a wide array of risks that makes them vulnerable to income shocks and losses of social welfare benefits. Insecurity among the poor manifests itself in forms such as illness and injury, crime and domestic violence, the problems associated with old age, harvest failure, fluctuations in food prices and low demand for labour.Good governance is one of the critical building blocks necessary for fighting poverty in the COMESA region. Strengthening the capacity of countries for effective governance is a prerequisite for reducing poverty. Good governance eradicates poverty through promoting, supporting and sustaining human development. Good governance also ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in making decisions over the allocation of national resources (UNDP, 2000).Like bad governance, corruption has widened the already yawning gap between the rich and the poor in many COMESA countries. Corruption in government increases poverty both directly and indirectly. It diverts resources to rich people who can afford to pay bribes and away from the poor people who cannot afford to do so. It weakens the government and reduces its ability to fight poverty. It reduces tax revenues and thus resources available for public services. Corruption eats away at the fabric of public life, leading to increased lawlessness and undermining social and political stability (UNDP, 1997; Kimalu et al., 2002).The environment and natural resources have a significant role to play in the lives of the poor in developing countries. When resources are degraded, contested or inaccessible, the poor tend to be negatively affected, often being driven even deeper into poverty. This is supported by evidence from Kenya, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and other COMESA countries (Cavendish, 2000;UNDP/UNEP, 2006;Kabubo-Mariara, 2010;Kabubo-Mariara et al., 2010a).Using evidence from the literature and from Rwanda, UNDP/UNEP (2006) demonstrates that the environment is important for poverty reduction and human development. The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target number 10 shows clearly that environment is important to health. Environmental protection and conservation have important implications for poverty reduction not only restricted to rural areas but also in towns, more so in slums. UNDP/UNEP (2006) also show that environmental concerns are related to most of the other MDGs and that for the war against poverty to be won, environmental issues must be mainstreamed in each of the goals (Box 3).The literature also suggests that the most pressing environmental health problems worldwide today in terms of their role in causing death and illness, are those associated with poor households and communities. In rural areas and in the peri-urban slums of the developing world, inadequate shelter, overcrowding, inadequate safe water and sanitation, contaminated food, type of cooking fuel and indoor pollution are by far the greatest environmental threats to human health. Poor people suffer most from deterioration in the environment, because of the threat to their livelihoods and the aggravation of health risks by pollution (Mwabu et al., 2000;Kimalu et al., 2002). Related to the environment, vulnerability of poor households is also increased by weather calamities (floods or droughts), which occasionally end up in total crop failures and eventually incidents of famine, disease and increased depth and severity of poverty (Okwi et al., 2007).Examples of links to the environmentLivelihood strategies and food security of the poor often depend directly on healthy ecosystems and the diversity of goods and ecological services they provide. 2. Achieve universal primary education Time spent collecting water and fuel-wood by children, especially girls, can reduce time at school.Poor women are especially exposed to indoor air pollution and the burden of collecting water and fuel-wood, and have unequal access to land and other natural resources.Water-related diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera kill an estimated 3 million people a year in developing countries, the majority of whom are children under the age of five.Indoor air pollution and carrying heavy loads of water and fuel-wood adversely affect women's health and can make women less fit for childbirth and at greater risk of complications during pregnancy.Up to one-fifth of the total burden of diseases in developing may be associated with environmental risk factors-and preventive environmental health measures are as important and at times more cost-effective than health treatments.Current trends in environmental degradation must be reversed in order to sustain the health and productivity of the world's ecosystem. Source: UNDP/UNEP (2006:20).This report has presented the status of poverty based on various data sources within the COMESA region. In addition to poverty statistics, the report has gone further to present poverty maps to illustrate the spatial distribution of poverty in the region. The ESA region is among the regions with the highest number of poor and food insecure people in the world. The ESA countries also make a significant contribution to the high proportion of the poor and food deprived in sub-Saharan Africa. Though there has been some achievement in poverty reduction, poverty rates are still high in the majority of countries in the region. Trends in estimated poverty rates show that there has been good progress in poverty reduction in Malawi and Uganda, and to a lesser extent and in Rwanda, Zambia and Tanzania. Other countries have shown very little consistent progress in poverty reduction. This situation calls for the design of targeting programmes that are likely to not only have the highest impact on poverty reduction but also that are sustainable. This requires an understanding of the location of the poor in each country and also the determinants of poverty. There is no comprehensive documentation of such information for the region. This report has attempted to fill this knowledge gap through a review of literature and a synthesis of available evidence.The report has shown that the incidence of poverty in the ESA region differs across socioeconomic groups and across space. The poorest socio-economic groups include: women and children; rural landless and smallholder farmers; urban slum dwellers; and people with illhealth due to chronic diseases such as those affected/infected with HIV/AIDS and other longterm diseases and disability. In terms of geographical distribution, poverty rates are highest in the rainfed mixed crop-livestock systems, mostly located in the humid and sub-humid systems and also in livestock only systems in the more arid and semi-arid zones. Most of the poor districts are located in development domains characterized by short growing seasons, bad market access and low population density; and short growing seasons, good market access and low population density.Opportunities for poverty reduction in unfavourable development domains and livestock only systems are identified as: value addition and marketing in livestock production; diversification of economic activities; improved rangeland management; participatory natural resources management; and water harvesting and other water conservation techniques to ensure availability of water for irrigation. For more favourable development domains such as rainfed mixed crop/ livestock systems, opportunities for poverty reduction include: integrated crop/livestock production; production of dual purpose crops such as maize, wheat, sorghum and millet, which serve as food and the residues are useful for livestock production; intensive agricultural production; diversification of farming; adaptation to local crops and animal breeds; and improved land management practices.The report has categorized the determinants of poverty into two groups: household and community (including regional and country) level factors. The household level determinants of poverty in the region are identified as: household characteristics (family composition, size and structure, age and marital status of head, gender of the head, education and other human capital capabilities); access to basic services (water and sanitation, credit and infrastructure); employment, occupation and incomes; asset ownership; access to remittances; burden of disease; variations in agricultural production; declining food stocks and high food prices. Community level determinants include: geography and related factors (such as market access, agro-ecological zones, climate and ethnicity); the environment; population density; area of residence; income, growth and inequality; conflict, insecurity and political instability; and governance and corruption. This shows that multiple factors are responsible for poverty in the region. The impacts of various factors tend to reinforce one another leading to multidimensional poverty. Poor households located in poor communities/regions find it much more difficult to escape poverty than poor households in more favourable communities/regions. These factors have, however, had differential impacts on poverty across time, space and socio-economic groups. Evidence further suggests that these factors are at play in all countries, suggesting that interventions against poverty that work in one country are likely to work in another.A companion paper (Kabubo-Mariara et al., 2011) shows that in cognizance of multiple determinants of poverty, countries have implemented multidimensional interventions against poverty. The paper, however, argues that poverty reduction targets have not always been achieved even though some initiatives have been in place for a long while. ","tokenCount":"8881"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d8bdc4aa4ffe7e2da47b86da3105c5c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9496dbdf-4ef7-41b0-9f0f-c1e488c415ba/retrieve","id":"-672400400"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f072f33-1aa6-4d39-af84-96152f9c5ca4","pagecount":"33","content":"Beans play a critical role in food systems of the developing world. They are nutritionally dense and thus occupy an important place in human nutrition, are a source of income, and employment to farmers and traders. Due to their high protein content, they are a major source of dietary protein and micronutrients for urban and rural people, especially in developing countries. Bean production is constrained by several abiotic and biotic factors. Limited supply, availability, and access to bean seed is probably one of the most containing factors in achieving the crops productivity and thus its role in the food system. Bean breeders have produced several climate smart bean varieties, but the rate of adoption and variety turnover remains low yet crop breeding is perceived as an important pathway for increasing yield potential and adapt small scale farmers to climate change (Marcho et al., 2020). The private sector has been shy to supply bean seed because of high rates of seed recycling by farmers given the self-pollinating and limited genetic deterioration of the crop (Rubyogo et al., 2019). The challenge of the private sector is creating stable bean seed demand given low profit margins (FAO, 2010).Within the private sector, different categories of seed producers support the bean seed sector. These among other include individual seed producers, community-based seed producers, seed companies, and farmer cooperatives. The type of seed producer varies by country because of variations in policies that govern seed trade. In Zimbabwe for example, the formal seed system dominates seed production so mostly certified seed is supplied by seed companies or out growers sourced by seed companies. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Quality declared seed is allowed so there is a mix of quality declared seed and certified seed on the market. Production of Early Generation Seed (EGS): breeder, basic and prebasic seed, is mostly a preserve of seed national research stations or seed companies that have breeding programmes. Sustaining bean seed supply thus requires a vibrant private sector.Seed producers are strategic actors in the commodities value chain since seed is a strategic production resource. Thus, understanding their nature, the roles they play, their varietal preferences, information needs, and seed marketing behavior is important. This study evaluated the general characteristics of bean seed producers and bean seed trade and offers insights of how seed producers can be supported to create sustainable bean businesses.The study was carried out in four countries. Two countries in east Africa (Burundi and the Democratic republic of Congo) and two countries in southern Africa (Zambia and Zimbabwe). The study did not limit itself to any geographical location within each country but tracked different seed producers that existed and or operated within the country.To obtain the sample of seed producers' information on existing bean seed producers was obtained from nation seed certifying authorities. Additional information was obtained from National Agricultural research systems (NARS) partners on the seed producers that source EGS seed from them or those that are within their networks. These were then categorized as individual seed producers, contracted out growers, community-based seed producers/local seed businesses, farmer cooperatives, seed companies, and NARS and data elicited from them.Data was collected on the seed producer's demographic information, seed production arrangements, linkages with business Multi-stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) and grain off-takers, variety production information, and preferred traits in varieties by men, women, and youth. Data was also collected on strategies used to sustain the seed production business including the existence of seed road maps, bean seed marketing and capacity building activities.A study to profile bean seed producers was conducted in four countries: Burundi, The democratic republic of Congo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In total 15 seed producers were interviewed in Burundi, 37 in DRC, 14 in Zambia, and 49 in Zimbabwe. The seed producers were of different categories including community based seed producers/farmer groups, formally registered farmer cooperatives, individual seed producers contracted as out growers, Non-governmental organizations, and seed companies. There were variations of the types of seed producers depending on the country's context. The sampling of seed producers was purposive and depended on the availability of a given type of seed in the country.A majority of individual seed producers were formally registered: 91.7%, 83.3%, and 78.1% in Burundi, DRC, and Zimbabwe respectively. In Burundi, 83.3% of the individual seed producers were registered with the national seed certifying body; in DRC the individual seed producers were registered at the village level (66.7%), national level (16.7%) and with a seed company (16.7%). For Zimbabwe, all the individual seed producers were registered with seed companies.In terms of sex of the individual seed producers, 58.3% sampled in Burundi were male, while the proportion of male producers was 66.7% and 48.8% in DRC and Zimbabwe respectively. The average age of individual seed producers was 50.1, 60.3, and 49 years in Burundi, DRC, and Zimbabwe respectively.Apart from DRC were male seed producers were significantly older (65 years) compared to women (51 years), male seed producers Burundi had an average of 50.9 years and females 49 and in Zimbabwe males were 49.8 years compared to females that were 48 years. Individual seed producers have been in seed production of an average of 5.8, 19.2, and 2.3 years in Burundi, DRC, and Zimbabwe respectively. Females have been longer in seed production in Burundi (6.4 years) and men (5.3 years). In DRC, Women and men have been in seed production for 19 and 19.3 years respectively. While for Zimbabwe, Women and men have been in seed production for an average of 1.9 and 2.7 years respectively.All community seed producers in Burundi were registered with the national seed certifying body to produce bean seed. In DRC, 89.3% of the community seed producers were registered mostly at village and a few at national level to produce seed. For Zambia, only 30% of community seed producers were registered to produce seed. The single seed producer sampled in Zimbabwe was also register with a seed company to produce bean seed. Table 1 gives a summary of other characteristics of the sampled community seed producers/farmer cooperatives in the study countries. Given the nature of seed systems in different countries, the study only sampled seed companies producing beans in, DRC, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. All seed companies in DRC were male owned, 2 out 3 sampled in Zambia were female owned while 4 out of 7 and 2 out of 7 of the companies in Zimbabwe were male and co-owned respectively. Zambia had the oldest seed companies though Zimbabwe had seed companies with the highest number of employees Table 2. Seed companies in Zimbabwe employed more women than men. A majority of seed producers in Burundi and DRC were linked to bean business platforms as a pathway for seed marketing (Table 3). The high connectedness could have been because of past interventions by the Pan African bean research alliance (PABRA) to develop multi stakeholder platforms in the two countries.The MSPs have proven efficient in delivering and fostering demand for seeds of leguminous crops (Iorlamen et al., 2021;Ojiewo et al., 2020;Rubyogo et al., 2019). Therefore, strengthening seed producer participation in MSPs increases bean seed business and could create sustainable bean demand.Similarly, several seed producers in Burundi, DRC, and Zambia reported being linked to bean off takers (Table 3). The growing domestic and export market for common beans requires high quality seed with better yields. The use of poor seed not only increases the cost of sorting due to low grain quality but also lead to low yields thus supply deficits. There is a high payoff if, for both seed producers and grain offtakers if they are linked. Seed producers get market for their seed and thus good business and income while traders get quality grain and are thus able to attain their profit maximization objective. Farmers who supply grain also gain from employment, better prices offered, and higher yields. Such linkages are thus a win-win scenario. On average a seed company produced seed of two varieties in Burundi and DRC, three varieties in Zambia and one variety in Zimbabwe. The varieties for which seed is produced for each country is summarized in in Table 4. The most popular variety among seed producers in Burundi was Rufutamadeni, followed by Musore, Kinure and Musengo (Table 4). NUA 45 and Gloria were by far the most popular varieties in Zimbabwe and HM21-7 and Muke Mwema in DRC. While Zambia had several varities, they were grown by difference seed producer s.Preferences for bean varieties is expected to variety between men, women, and youth. To explore if these differences existed, seed producers were asked, based on experience marketing seed about these preferences. The most important traits among men were: High yield, early maturity in DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; and marketability in Burundi, DRC, and Zambia. Pest and disease tolerance, and seed color were also important in DRC and Zambia. Not shattering before harvest, ease of shelling, and taste when good where also important for Zambia. Preferences for other attributes are summarized in Table 5. Similar patterns were observed in preferences in women as in men. The key traits were high yield, early maturity, marketability, and fast cooking for women. Table 6 gives a summary of these preference for women seed consumers. The study assessed traits sought by male and female youth when buying seed (Table 7 and 8). The traits preferred by adult males were not much different from those preferred by youthful males. Just like adult males, youth also preferred beans with high yield, disease tolerant, marketable, and specific seed color and size for DRC and Zambia. Female youth shared similar preferences with adult females, preferring the traits of high yield, early maturity, seed color, fast cooking, marketability and traits like ease of shelling, none shattering while in field, and taste in Zambia. The major source of information on bean varieties for seed producers is research/NARS. Other sources of information are summarized in figure 1. Zambian seed producers had the least diverse ways of accessing variety information while Zimbabwe and Burundi producers had the most diverse sources for accessing variety information. Since Research/NARs is the most important source of information, it is important to support their information delivery avenues. When asked whether they replant their seed from the previous batch, the study found that recycling of seed was common among seed producers in DRC. For example, 88.5% of community seed producers reported that they recycled bean seed when multiplying seed. In Zambia, 2 of the 3 seed companies sampled also reported recycling bean seed. Similarly, 71.4% of seed companies in Zimbabwe recycled bean seed. The major reasons advanced for recycling bean seed are shown in Figure 2. On average, seed is recycled once in Burundi, twice in DRC and Zimbabwe and thrice in Zambia. Dashes mean the type of seed producer was not sampled.The main reason for recycling bean seed in Burundi was limited availability of early generation seed while in DRC, the main reasons were the high cost of early generation seed and trust in own multiplied seed.Similarly, trust in own multiplied seed was the key reason for recycling seed in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Seed producers often contract other entities to produce for them seed. In doing so, they supply them with the seed to plant. These seed supply arrangements take various forms including seed credit paid in kind at harvest, seed credit paid in cash at harvest, outright purchase/payment for seed or a mix of methods.Table 10 shows the dominant methods of supply seed. In Burundi and Zimbabwe, seed credit paid in cash at harvest is the dominant seed supply arrangement while in DRC and Zambia seed credit paid in kind at harvest is the most dominant arrangement (Table 10).   3).The use of seed labels or tags is important for verifying seed quality. Sometimes, labels are required for seed quality assurance. Figure 4 shows seed producers that use tags to ensure seed quality. Receive feed back on seed quality after inspection (% Yes)Seed producers have a wide range of beans varieties to choose from and supply in the market. They thus use different criteria to choose the varieties that would allow them to maximize benefits. The choice made could depend on supply or demand side factors. Table 14 shows the main criteria used by seed companies to choose the varieties they produce. Similarly, the choice of how much to produce could also depend on supply and demand side factors. The most common method used chose varieties and infer supply volumes is market research though farms also consult experts that are acquainted with seed market issues. Other in Zimbabwe includes obtained the variety as a trial variety. Volumes in Burundi also depended on availability of land and in Zimbabwe availability of water to support seed production. These are mostly supply and not demand side constraints.  Other than beans, seed producers sampled also reported supply seed of Maize in all countries, Soybean, ground nuts, millet, sweet potato and cassava in Zambia. Zambia had seed producers supplying seed of diverse crop types. For DRC, the other dominant crop was sweet potato and cassava seed. In Zimbabwe, see producers also produced wheat seed (40.8%). Other crops in Burundi included Carrots, in DRC included agro forestry seedlings, and in Zimbabwe included Butter nut, cotton, Onions, Garlic, Kinoa, and Tobacco. Have seed road maps (% Yes) On average a seed company produced and sold seed of two varieties in Burundi and DRC, three varieties in Zambia and one variety in Zimbabwe. The month with the highest seed sales were January, February, March, August, and September in Burundi and DRC while in Zambia July and December dominated seed sales and August and September dominated seed sales in Zimbabwe.Figure 5: Month with the highest seed salesOnce seed is produced, the major get way to the market to reach farmers is important. In the study countries and sampled seed producers, direct seed sales from seed producers were the main outlet. Only seed producers in DRC reported having own seed distribution outlets (65%). Seed is Burundi also was sold through other agro dealer agents (Table 15). Limiting seed supplies through direct sells from seed producers makes it hard for seed to reach farmers. This is because most seed producer stores are located in major town centers and are limited in number. Other innovative strategies are therefore required to make seed reach marginalized farmers in rural areas and reduce the transaction costs of acquiring seed.Having limited seed supply also makes use of recycled seed a preferred avenue for seed especially after farmers have had the first seed purchase.  16. The number of outlets is important in delivering seed to farmers and reducing the transaction costs of search. However, having multiple outlets also comes at a cost for seed producers as they seek to maximize their profits from bean production. Given the complexities of obtaining seed by small holder farmers, seed producers often use diverse payment arrangements for seed. In the study sample, at least 40%, 65%, 21%, and 8% of the seed producers reported providing seed credit or alternative payment arrangement for seed. Figure 6 shows the various selling arrangements used for bean seed.Seed producers sold seed to different types of buyers (Figure 7). The dominant seed buyers in Burundi were individual farmer or farmers in groups 1 . In DRC, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were the main bean seed buyers probably to for seed relief purposes while in Zambia and Zimbabwe, seed companies were the main bean buyers since they often outsource seed production to out growers which they then buy back. In DRC seed from seed companies was mostly bought by NGOs. Similarly in Zambia, seed from seed companies was mostly bought by NGOs and government and in some cases was sold between seed companies. In Zimbabwe, seed from seed companies was mostly bought by other seed companies (57.2%), NGOS (42.9%), and community/group buyers (supplied by 14.3% of seed companies).1 Buying in groups is used by farmers as a cost cutting measure since seed can be acquired in bulk and then split at farm level. This reduces transportation and search costs. Also, farmers can buy seed in a group if they need smaller quantities that may not be directly available from seed producers. As such they buy collectively and split seed into suitable portions. Asked whether they can meet the demand (supply all required volumes) of bean seed, only 26.7%, 48.7%, 21.4%, and 71.4% of seed producers in Burundi, DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, respectively reported that they met seed demand requirements. For those that were able to meet seed requirements, the average estimated total demand by country is shown in Table 17. Seed supply deficits as per seed producer estimate were highest in Zambia and lowest in DRC. Also, the distances traveled to access seed were highest in Zambia and Zimbabwe (Table 17). There period seed is stored before it is sold varies by country. In Burundi, seed is stored for an average of 4.7 month, in DRC for about 3.3 month, in Zambia for about 6.6 month and in Zimbabwe for about 1.6month. The period of storage has a significant effect on post-harvest losses of bean seed. Seed producers reported experiencing post-harvest losses (Figure 7).For the seed producers that experienced post-harvest losses, the amount of sees lost was 133, 116.1, 2550, 63.4 Kilograms for Burundi, DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the quantity of seed lost and the length of seed storage in Zambia. Post-harvest losses in seed were mainly from pest damage, molding, spillage, and discoloration (Table 21).For Burundi, the main cause of postharvest losses was molding (80%) during poor storage and moisture.For DRC, it was seed discoloration (79%) and pest damage (58%) while for Zimbabwe and Zambia was mostly due to spillage at 57 and 75%, respectively. The pack sizes used to sell seed varied by country. In Burundi, the most dominant pack size was the 100 KG, 50KG and 25 KG pack in order of use. However, in terms of actual volumes of beans sold, most beans were sold using the 25Kg pack (an average of about 6.9 tons) and 100 kg packs (about 2.25 tons), and 15 kg packs (about 2.25 tons). In DRC, the most popular seed packs by use were 50KG, 20KG, and 25KG; however, the largest bean volumes were sold through 20KG packs. In Zambia, though 35 producers reported using 50KG size packs, the largest volumes (an average of 44.1 tons) of bean seed were sold through 10KG size packs. In Zimbabwe, the 50KG pack sizes were the most popular and were used to sell an average of 92.3 tons of seed. These were followed by 10KG pack sizes which were used to sell an average of 19.4 tons of bean seed. The most popular bean variety in Burundi among seed producers was Rufutamadeni which accounted for 27% by volume of bean sells (Table 23). Other popular bean varieties in Burundi were Musengo, Mukungugu, Kaneza, and Musore which accounted for between 9 and 16% of bean sales. In DRC, the most popular bean varieties produced and sold by seed producers were HM21-7 and NABE 4 counting for 46 and 19% of sales by volumes. Other popular varieties that accounted for more than 5% by volume of bean seed sales were Muke Mwema, RWR2154, and Kablankenti (Table 24). where the most produced and sold by share. The average age of these varieties is 13.5 years with Lyambai a red mottled variety being the oldest (released in 1999) and Mbereshi being the newest (released in 2014). There are newer varieties under production but are still accounting for lower shares in production and sales.  Seed producers sampled used different strategies to determine the prices that they charged for bean seed. The commonest method was to base on buyers demand and the second most used strategy was to base on the cost of seed production. The study finds that there are multiple types of seed producers that support seed production within countries, and these are highly interconnected. For examples, seed companies benefit from the services of contracted seed growers who may be individual, groups or cooperatives. This is true even where the formal seed systems dominated. Contracting helps seed companies produce larger volumes and spread the risks associated with own production.There are also established linkages between seed actors and other players within the bean seed value chain. For example, several producers in Burundi (60%) and DRC (83%) reported being part of bean business platforms. They were also connected to grain off-takers who often are the signal of the type of variety and the volumes of seed required.Varieties produced varied but most are of recently released climate smart varieties with the average variety age ranging between 8 and 12 years. Preference in these varieties were not highly varied between men, women and youth from the seed producer's perspective. The implication here being that most varieties can be marketed broadly to benefit different gender groups. The most preferred variety traits were: High yield, early maturity, marketability, disease tolerance, and pest tolerance. Access to EGS seed remains a challenge (costly, limited, low quality) and thus seed producers especially in DRC and seed companies in Zambia and Zimbabwe reported using the same batch of seed purchased for 1-3 rounds.As a quality check both internal and external quality control mechanisms were used by seed producers.Internally, they (1) plant quality seed, (2) conduct proper field scouting to rogue off types, (3) ensure good field hygiene, (4) maintain proper agronomic management, (5) ensure proper seed drying and proper seed storage, and (6) seed treatment. Externally, services of certifying agencies are sought, and inspection routines are followed.Seed sales are seasonal creating specificity in business timing. The major selling outlet was the seed producer's premises which limited reach for marginalized farmers. Limiting seed supplies through direct sells from seed producers makes it hard for seed to reach farmer and makes seed expensive because of increases transaction costs. While it could be a cost saving strategy by seed producers, there is need for seed companies to devise innovative strategies for reaching last mile farmers while still making profit.Having limited seed supply also makes use of recycled seed a preferred avenue for seed especially after farmers have had the first seed purchase.Pack sizes still matter in delivering bean seed though smaller packs of 2 and 5 kilo grams were less In Burundi most seed were sold in 25KG packs while in DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, most seed was sold in 20KG, 10KG, and 50KG packs respectively.","tokenCount":"3748"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"122de8cecf5f79267d86e838cf23f3b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ffe91dfa-fee7-4db7-ada5-cc5e3d1c7657/retrieve","id":"770856428"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2fb83184-0420-4ea6-8e6b-48a6bfb0e67e","pagecount":"6","content":"The service tree is a close relative of rowan (S. aucuparia L.), the wild service tree (S. torminalis Crantz.) and whitebeam (S. aria (L.) Crantz). Young trees are easily mistaken for rowan, having very similar leaves and overall morphology. Once it is mature, it is very distinct, mainly due to the coarse and pear-like bark, green and \"gluey\" buds and the 2-3 cm large apple or pear shaped fruits. In its natural niche of poor, dry sites, the service tree grows to a medium size of 15-20 m in height. On rich, fresh soils, however, it can outgrow oak and surpass 30 m in height and 60 cm in diameter within 130 years. S. domestica has a dense and tough wood of high value used for special purposes. It flowers regularly and produces large amounts of fruits which are dispersed effectively by birds and mammals. In spite of this, naturalThese Technical Guidelines are intended to assist those who cherish the valuable service tree genepool and its inheritance, through conserving valuable seed sources or use in practical forestry. The focus is on conserving the genetic diversity of the species at the European scale. The recommendations provided in this module should be regarded as a commonly agreed basis to be complemented and further developed in local, national or regional conditions. The Guidelines are based on the available knowledge of the species and on widely accepted methods for the conservation of forest genetic resources. regeneration from seed is scarce throughout Europe, and it is still not understood why. Vegetative propagation by root suckers however, is common, especially on warm and favourable sites.Although S. domestica is winter hardy, able to withstand -30°C and is less susceptible to late frost than sessile oak, it prefers warm and mild climates with extended vegetation periods. In central Europe it occurs on warm, South facing slopes below 650 m in altitude, whereas in the Mediterranean it is found at higher elevations. It is tolerant to soil conditions, and occurs on a wide variety of sites. The service tree is a light demanding species and only tolerates shade in the first few years. Despite its rather good growth capacity, it is a very weak competitor. It does not withstand or tolerate lateral crown closure and consequently, the service tree never dominates and is usually present as a few individuals in a mix of less competitive species. Due to its high drought tolerance, which compares to that of downy oak (Q. pubescens L.), it finds its niche on warm, dry to extremely dry, poor, shallow sites. As the result of human activity, it may also be found in coppice and former coppice with standard type forests or in other favourable situations such as forest fringes or extreme slopes.The natural range of the service tree is restricted to southern and central Europe, centred in the Balkan peninsula, Italy and southern France. The complete, potential distribution is currently unknown, as inventories are still required in many areas. It is also unclear how much of this is natural distribution, since S. domestica has spread through cultivation since Roman times.The service tree has been highly valued since Roman times. The fruit has been used as produce, to cure intestinal problems, and as an additive for conserving apple cider. The wood was used for mechanical parts, yardsticks, inlays or instruments. Today, the fruits are still used to conserve apple cider, to produce high quality liquors, and for specialist products such as marmalades. There is now little wood production due to its low abundance. Nevertheless, S. domestica has a high economic potential if planting material of excellent genetic quality is used. In most countries in central Europe, the service tree is very rare and threatened, and is considered a valuable biological resource worthy of conservation.Very little is known about the genetics of the service tree. However, due to its scarce numbers, low density and high degree of fragmentation and isolation, reduced genetic diversity and high differentiation would be expected according to population genetics theory. However, a study of Swiss and German populations has not confirmed these expectations, and genetic diversity was found to be similar to that of widespread species. Even small, isolated demes of less than 20 trees had remarkably high levels of diversity. Sub-populations were found to be more genetically differentiated than in widespread species, but less than expected for fragmented and isolated populations. Pollen gene flow was found to be surprisingly high. Supported by similar findings in other dispersed species, results suggest that the genetic system of naturally rare species seem to be well adapted to low densities. Long-distance gene flow, dynamic meta-population structures with local extinction and recolonisation, long-distance migration events through effective seed dispersal and a mixed reproductive system may be key elements for maintaining genetic diversity in rare species like S. domestica. While vegetative reproduction conserves genetic diversity even in the smallest populations, longdistance pollen and seed dispersal guarantee recolonisation.Genetic knowledgeervice treeSorbus domesticaService treeSorbus domesticaService treeSorbus domestic S. domestica is very rare and threatened in many European countries. The species and its genetic diversity are threatened by: 1) an overall reduction in the number of individuals; and 2) disturbance of the natural metapopulation structure due to human impact. Intensive forestry, overstocked and dense stands, silvicultural practices, loss of suitable habitats, neglect, and insufficient knowledge and perception, all contribute to a reduction in population size.Insufficient or missing recolonisation events and opportunities lead to a change in population and age structures, a reduction in population size and a higher degree of fragmentation and isolation of fragments. Reduced levels of gene flow and migration and higher levels of inbreeding will eventually result in a loss of genetic diversity and higher genetic differentiation among the fragments.Conservation priorities and measures depend on the current population size, population structure and existing or potential threats. Thus, in situ conservation efforts must begin with inventories, assessing population size and structure, core populations, fragmentation, threats and threatening processes, as well as conservation needs and priorities.No rule can be given regarding the minimum number and size of populations to be conserved since it depends on the specific situation of the species (demography, threat, habitat availability etc) and the available financial means. At the very least, the most viable core population should be designated as a conservation unit in which S. domestica is favoured above all other species in regeneration and tending operations. Focusing efforts on these core populations, which are the largest and most viable, should ensure maximum success with minimum costs. As a rule of thumb, at least 50 interbreeding individuals should be selected for such a conservation unit. Management should guarantee individual survival, favour vitality and fertility, and attempt to create a sustainable age structure for the future. All objectives and necessary measures need to be clearly defined, documented and integrated into local management plans.Where additional measures are feasible, other core populations should be added to create a network of conservation units. If possible, core populations should be linked with neighbouring cores or should be enlarged in order to guarantee their long term survival. In addition, smaller demes and even single trees, which serve as stepping stones for gene exchange, should be integrated into the network. Until further information on gene flow is available, demes and individuals may be considered linked if they are closer than 3 km. In most cases, conservation and promotion of S. domestica requires plantations, since natural regeneration is sparse or inexistent. These should be restricted to favourable sites where the service tree is able to withstand natural competition with little intervention.tica Sorbus dom aService treeSorbus domesticaService treeSorbus domesticaService treeSorbus domeIt is highly recommended that in situ conservation measures are accompanied by ex situ collections even if sufficiently large core populations still exist. Seed orchards can produce genetically diverse planting material which is difficult or impossible to collect from wild populations. In addition, ex situ collections may serve as genebanks or for breeding activities. High quality planting material is important since regeneration is usually achieved artificially.Conservation efforts are most successful if they are integrated into common forestry practice. Information, training, and the perception of the species in the forest service are thus decisive for successful conservation and it is hoped that these guidelines serve as a starting point for this purpose. ","tokenCount":"1377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a0a2d3f797799bd03d5186eb398c6cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/48502a15-9ef4-449b-b567-1fc466ab91d8/retrieve","id":"-482455361"},"keywords":["sustainability","tropical","dairy farm","greenhouse gas","grazing","environment","animal production"],"sieverID":"e5e2e8e6-b875-429f-b08b-fb03aa8c21c1","pagecount":"11","content":"The CLEANED tool, developed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, allows for a better understanding of the productive status and the environmental and economic impacts of different dairy systems. This work compares the following two dairy systems in the Peruvian Amazon: extensive (grazing) and semi-intensive (grazing plus supplementation). Results showed that farmers may likely need a smaller area than what they use at present (grazing area). Milk yield was 382 and 1254 L/ha/year, water use was 0.59 and 0.29 m 3 /kg of fat-and protein-corrected milk (FPCM), methane (CH 4 ) emissions were 1.7 and 1.0 kg CO 2 eq/kg FPCM and N 2 O emissions were 0.22 and 0.17 kg CO 2 eq/kg FPCM, for the extensive and semi-intensive systems, respectively. The assessment of the status of dairy farms under tropical conditions allows the development of strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing revenue by increasing the milk yield or decreasing the feeding costs.Global trends indicate that between 2030 and 2050, consumer demand for animal products (meat, milk, eggs, fish) will increase by up to eight times compared to its current value [1]. This means that there is a need to increase the production of food of animal origin, especially in developing countries. However, livestock production has an important environmental impact, especially with regard to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, water pollution, among others [2].In the Peruvian Amazon, agriculture is a strategic activity, because it allows access to capital and the products it generates [3,4], but with a direct environmental impact. MINAM [5] estimates that from 2001 to 2019 the Peruvian Amazon lost an average of 130,500 hectares per year, with agriculture responsible for between 49 and 54% of total deforestation.On the other hand, livestock farming in the Peruvian Amazon plays an important function in economic, social, and environmental cohesion [6]. In addition, dairy farms are recognized for their contribution to the food security of rural families and for generating work [7,8]. The Peruvian Amazon produces 8.5% of the national milk production [9].In the Peruvian Amazon there are no specialized dairy farms; all are dual-purpose, used for both milk production and the sale of calves or fattening. In the region there are two main feeding strategies, extensive (grazing) and semi-intensive (grazing plus supplement), with Gyr × Holstein or Gyr × Brown Swiss dairy cows. Moreover, there are factors that limit dairy production in the region, such as the low quantity and quality of feed, mainly in the dry season [10,11], and animal health and other problems that are exacerbated due to climate change [12]. In addition, at present, there is no information available on the environmental and economic impact of dairy production systems in the Peruvian Amazon.To assess the environmental and economic impact of the different dairy systems in the tropics, the Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessment for Improved Nutrition, a Secured Environmental and Sustainable Development along Livestock Value Chain (CLEANED) tool was developed by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in partnership with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Biodiversity International in 2013 and 2014, as an easily adaptable and transferable indicator framework that takes into account the entire value chain. The tool has been updated, generating the new versions CLEANED (R); CLEANED X-Version 2.0.1; and CLEANED X-Version 3.0.1 [13]. The tool was used in different countries in Africa and Central America, carrying out assessments in groups of small farmers, providing them with information on their productive and environmental status and suggesting possible alternatives for improving animal production [14,15].The CLEANED tool calculates the economic, productive, and environmental impact of animal production. The above are calculated using land requirements, productivity (milk and meat yield), economics (costs, milk and meat price), soil impacts (e.g., erosion, N balance), greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe), and water impacts.The objective of this study was to evaluate the productive, environmental, and economic impacts of extensive and semi-intensive dairy farming systems in the tropical region of Peru, using the CLEANED tool.The study was conducted in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the Institutional Committee for the Care and Use of Animals (IACUC) of the National Agrarian University La Molina (TR.N • 0185-2016-CU-UNALM).Data from 12 dairy farms from the Ucayali region in Peru (9 • 58 ′ S and 73 • 11 ′ W) were used (Figure 1). The Ucayali region has an altitude between 154 and 287 m.a.s.l. The average temperature in the region is 28 • C and annual precipitation is 1566 mm.Data from 12 dairy farms from the Ucayali region in Peru (9°58′ S and 73°11′ W) were used (Figure 1). The Ucayali region has an altitude between 154 and 287 m.a.s.l. The average temperature in the region is 28 °C and annual precipitation is 1566 mm. Dairy farms in the Peruvian Amazon were characterized by having dairy cows of two main genotypes as follows: Gyr × Holstein and Gyr × Brown Swiss. The distribution of the dairy cows' genotypes is heterogenous in the region. The main management of the farms follows a dual-purpose system, by which the offspring is maintained with the cow until it is weaning. The weaning period in these farms is 6 months. Animals are hand-milked once daily. Farmers generally consider the calf growth rate more important than the milk yield. Consequently, suckling is commonly allowed without restriction.The most frequently used feeding strategy is grazing. The types of grass used for grazing are the following: Brachiaria decumbens, B. dictioneura, B. brizantha, Hyparrhenia rufa, and Andropogon gayanus, while Pennisetum purpureum × Pennisetum typhoides is used for cut-and-carry.The 12 farms sampled were selected from a list of 45 preselected milk producers through field surveys, which met the following predetermined characteristics: grazing without supplementation, and grazing with supplementation. Dairy farms were grouped into the following two groups (six farms each): (1) extensive or pastoral production system, which is based on grazing without supplementation, and (2) semi-intensive system, in which the feeding strategy is based on grazing or cut-and-carry or both, with supplementation (balanced feed and/or brewery waste). Nutritional values are presented in Table 1. Dairy farms in the Peruvian Amazon were characterized by having dairy cows of two main genotypes as follows: Gyr × Holstein and Gyr × Brown Swiss. The distribution of the dairy cows' genotypes is heterogenous in the region. The main management of the farms follows a dual-purpose system, by which the offspring is maintained with the cow until it is weaning. The weaning period in these farms is 6 months. Animals are hand-milked once daily. Farmers generally consider the calf growth rate more important than the milk yield. Consequently, suckling is commonly allowed without restriction.The most frequently used feeding strategy is grazing. The types of grass used for grazing are the following: Brachiaria decumbens, B. dictioneura, B. brizantha, Hyparrhenia rufa, and Andropogon gayanus, while Pennisetum purpureum × Pennisetum typhoides is used for cut-and-carry.The 12 farms sampled were selected from a list of 45 preselected milk producers through field surveys, which met the following predetermined characteristics: grazing without supplementation, and grazing with supplementation. Dairy farms were grouped into the following two groups (six farms each): (1) extensive or pastoral production system, which is based on grazing without supplementation, and (2) semi-intensive system, in which the feeding strategy is based on grazing or cut-and-carry or both, with supplementation (balanced feed and/or brewery waste). Nutritional values are presented in Table 1.In each system, information was collected during the rainy season and the dry season of the year 2022. The interviews were conducted by personnel trained in the structure of the questionnaire and in the operation of the CLEANED tool. The interviews were answered by the manager of each farm. Surveys were carried out based on the main characteristics of the farms, including total area, number of hectares of pasture, number of animals on the farm, herd categories, quantity of kg of milk/cow/day, sale price of products generated on the farm, farm expenses and income, pasture management, and infrastructure. Data of the surveys were entered into the CLEANED tool. In addition, forage, supplement, and milk samples were collected. The milk, grass, and supplement samples were analyzed in the Food Nutritional Evaluation Laboratory of the National Agrarian University La Molina. Milk was analyzed for milk grass and milk protein content. Meanwhile, the feed samples were analyzed for dry matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, ash, and ether extract. For this work, the CLEANED X Version 3.0.1 was used. CLEANED modeled the response variables, such as the surface area required to carry out the livestock activity (pasture area ha/year); production kg FPCM/ha/year and kg meat/ha/year; environmental impacts, through the use of water (m 3 /kg product), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, expressed in t of CO 2 eq/ha/year and kg CO 2 eq/kg FPCM; and changes in carbon storage (t CO 2 eq/ha/year) by mineralization in the soil and carbon sequestration by above-ground biomass (trees). The information is processed on the desktop interface using the Run program icon or by proceeding to R software calculations.The information obtained on the characteristics of the evaluated systems (Table 1), the productive data, and nutritional value of the pasture and milk of the systems, both in the dry and rainy seasons, was entered into the spreadsheets of the CLEANED X Version 3.0.1 tool. Likewise, for the estimation of GHG emissions, enteric fermentation, the use of manure, and soil management were considered as emission sources, as per the principles established by Tier 1 (IPCC, [16]). Land requirement is calculated using the data of the number of animals, dry matter intake, and forage yield.The nutritional value of the feed was taken from the analyses carried out and used in the calculations of the CLEANED tool. The total feeds were calculated for a dairy cow and presented using the live weight (LW). The total feed supply was compared with the needs of the cattle. The requirements were as follows: a daily intake of 2.5% per kg of live weight of dry matter (DM) (LW); for crude protein (CP), 6.27 g/kg per metabolic weight for maintenance (507 g/LW), and 92.6 g of CP/L of the milk produced. For metabolizable energy, 0.598 MJ/kg metabolic weight was used for maintenance and 5.65 MJ/L for milk production.The economic analysis was determined from the annual income and expenses, to finally obtain the profit. Total income was obtained from the sum of milk sales/farm/year and animal sales by category. Expenses were obtained from fixed costs (land, machinery and equipment, vehicles, facilities and civil works, pastures, and animals) and operational costs (labor, supplementary feeding, materials and supplies, third-party services, maintenance and repair of equipment, and depreciation). The profit per year was divided by the total number of animals in the herd, obtaining the profitability (%) of the extensive and semiintensive systems.Statistical analysis was performed using SAS software (version 9.4., SAS Inst., Cary, NC, USA). Normal distribution was tested using Shapiro-Wilk tests. Means of quantitative data that followed a normal distribution were compared using Student's t test (parametric tests), using both the confidence interval estimation analysis and t-score probability hypothesis testing method for the two independent sample groups.Semi-intensive systems had 86% more animals, 111% more cows in production, and 32% higher milk production/cow/day compared to extensive systems (Table 1). The categories of the evaluated herds were distributed as follows: cows in production, 27.8 and 28.4%; dry cow land, 34.8 and 14.0%; young bulls, 19.6 and 21.4%; bulls, 2.1 and 6.0%; and rearing, 15.7 and 30.3%, in the extensive and semi-intensive systems, respectively. The total area and grazing area (ha) did not show any difference (p > 0.05). Likewise, the nutritional values of milk in the evaluated systems do not show any difference (p > 0.05).The tool showed that the optimal area of pasture (Figure 2), under the conditions mentioned above for feeding animals, does not show any difference (p = 0.559). Semiintensive systems require only 44% of the area currently used for pasture, while the same pattern is observed in extensive systems, where only 46% of the surface area in use is required. This reveals an under-exploitation of resources in both systems (semi-intensive and extensive).The economic analysis was determined from the annual income and expenses, to finally obtain the profit. Total income was obtained from the sum of milk sales/farm/year and animal sales by category. Expenses were obtained from fixed costs (land, machinery and equipment, vehicles, facilities and civil works, pastures, and animals) and operational costs (labor, supplementary feeding, materials and supplies, third-party services, maintenance and repair of equipment, and depreciation). The profit per year was divided by the total number of animals in the herd, obtaining the profitability (%) of the extensive and semi-intensive systems.Statistical analysis was performed using SAS software (version 9.4., SAS Inst., Cary, NC, USA). Normal distribution was tested using Shapiro-Wilk tests. Means of quantitative data that followed a normal distribution were compared using Student's t test (parametric tests), using both the confidence interval estimation analysis and t-score probability hypothesis testing method for the two independent sample groups.Semi-intensive systems had 86% more animals, 111% more cows in production, and 32% higher milk production/cow/day compared to extensive systems (Table 1). The categories of the evaluated herds were distributed as follows: cows in production, 27.8 and 28.4%; dry cow land, 34.8 and 14.0%; young bulls, 19.6 and 21.4%; bulls, 2.1 and 6.0%; and rearing, 15.7 and 30.3%, in the extensive and semi-intensive systems, respectively. The total area and grazing area (ha) did not show any difference (p > 0.05). Likewise, the nutritional values of milk in the evaluated systems do not show any difference (p > 0.05).The tool showed that the optimal area of pasture (Figure 2), under the conditions mentioned above for feeding animals, does not show any difference (p = 0.559). Semi-intensive systems require only 44% of the area currently used for pasture, while the same pattern is observed in extensive systems, where only 46% of the surface area in use is required. This reveals an under-exploitation of resources in both systems (semi-intensive and extensive). Figure 2. Required area in comparison with grassland area in dairy farms under extensive and semi-intensive systems in the Peruvian Amazon. Despite farm management, total area for grazing and required area presented no differences (p = 0.559) between systems of production.Table 2 shows milk production by system, with a significant difference (p < 0.01), with the semi-intensive system being considerably higher (3.3 times in kg FPCM/ha/year) than the extensive system. As for meat production, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05), though the semi-intensive system showed an increase of 1.6 times more meat/ha compared to the extensive system. Table 3 shows the significant differences (p < 0.01) in the water use, with the semiintensive system reducing the use of water per kg FPCM and meat and protein by 50.8, 12.5, and 45.7%, respectively, compared to the extensive system. Soil erosion did not show any significant differences (p > 0.05). Regarding carbon storage, a similar behavior is observed (p > 0.05), with greater carbon storage in semi-intensive (0.18 Mg C./ha/year) than in extensive systems (0.14 Mg C./ha/year). Methane emissions were 379 and 309 g/cow/day in the extensive and semi-intensive systems, respectively. The intensity of methane emissions in the semi-intensive system was reduced by 41% compared to the extensive systems (Table 3). In the same line, N 2 O emissions decreased by 23% in the semi-intensive system.GHG emissions per area showed significant differences (p < 0.01; Table 4). Semiintensive systems emitted 98% more GHG per ha/yr. Carbon sequestration converted into Mg CO 2 eq/ha/year was used to calculate net GHG emissions, showing no difference (p = 0.2025). The income and total annual expenses showed significant differences (p < 0.05; Table 5), with the semi-intensive system being 5.3 and 5.1 times higher, respectively. The income in the semi-intensive system is distributed as follows: milk sales, 92.6%; animals, 4.5%; and crops, 2.9%. As for the extensive system, 89.1% came from milk sales, 8.4% from animals, and 2.5% from crops. The difference in annual profitability was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The sale price per liter of milk was $0.41 dollars. In dairy farming, pasture availability plays a crucial role in efficiency and sustainability. Previous research reports that extensive systems require a larger surface area than semiintensive systems to produce the same amount of product [17]. In this work, results showed an animal load of 0.36 and 0.74 AU/ha for extensive and semi-intensive systems, respectively. In the same line, Murgueitio et al. [18] report an animal load of 0.59 animals/ha under similar conditions in the tropics. According to Lopes et al. [19], the carrying capacity of Brachiaria brizantha cv. ranges between 1.5 and 2.4 AU/ha. The above shows that there is undergrazing of the grassland, which reveals an opportunity for its optimization.In general, the semi-intensive system is more efficient in the production of milk and meat than the extensive system [20]. The above is in line with the observations in this work, in which the highest milk and meat production was found in the semi-intensive system, mainly due to the greater number of lactating cows, greater amount of milk/cow/day, as well as greater number of calves for meat production. Bashir and El Zubeir [21] and Rojo-Rubio et al. [4] reported a similar productive behavior in milk in extensive and semi-intensive systems in Baggara cattle and dual-purpose cattle in the Mexican tropics. Murgueitio et al. [18] reported values like those found in this study (89.7 and 19.9 kg of milk/ha/yr and kg of meat/ha/yr, respectively). However, it is important to highlight that the extensive system presents certain advantages, such as greater diversity and less use of external resources [22,23]. Supplementation strategies for cattle grazing in tropical pastures usually aim to guarantee the supply of fermentable nitrogen (N-NH 3 ) for the rumen microbial population as well as the minerals (phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium) necessary for microbial growth, altogether leading to a greater synthesis of microbial protein in the rumen [24] and, eventually, to a higher productive performance.The semi-intensive system presented greater efficiency in the use of water per product due to the use of external inputs added to management practices. Mekonnen and Hoekstra [25] reported that beef production requires an average of 15,415 L of water per kg of meat, while milk production requires an average of 6878 L of water per kg of milk. These values are significantly higher than those found in this study. Efficient water use is directly related to the type of forage crop used in the Amazon. In this regard, studies carried out on livestock systems in the tropics of Nicaragua [26] and Tanzania [27] showed similar results.Soil erosion observed in this study was influenced by certain environmental factors [10] such as grazing, animal load, and the topography of the pastures, especially in areas with a steep slope and without vegetation cover. Areas with steep slopes are more prone to erosion [28] and may cause greater loss of soil, and therefore loss of soil organic carbon too [29].Regarding soil carbon storage, a greater carbon sequestration was observed in the semiintensive system compared to the extensive system. The factors that could have influenced this are the vegetation cover and grazing management, since the semi-intensive systems were better managed, mainly due to a greater presence of trees in their pastures [30,31]. Dondini et al. [32] estimated that the carbon sequestration potential in pastoral systems ranges between 0.18 and 0.41 tons of C/ha/yr in all the different regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, values similar to those found in this study. In general, tropical regions have low carbon reserves [32], which have great potential for carbon storage in the soil.The results of this study showed higher GHG emissions in the semi-intensive systems since this system has a higher animal load and higher productivity [33,34]. Regarding the intensity of GHG emissions, the semi-intensive system presented lower CH 4 and N 2 O emissions per kg of FPCM. Several investigations show that enteric fermentation is the main source of methane emissions in livestock systems [35,36]. Likewise, the intensity is correlated with the quality of feed supplied to the animal [37,38]. In the case of the semi-intensive systems of the surveyed farms, lower GHG emissions were reported per kg CO 2 eq/kg FPCM, probably due to better diet quality. These values are similar to the values reported by Ruiz-Llontop et al. [39] for silvopastoral dairy systems in the northern Amazon of Peru. Berton et al. [40] reported emissions of 1.0 ± 0.3 kg CO 2 eq per kg of FPCM in livestock systems. Furthermore, it has been widely documented that extensive livestock farming in the tropics, based only on naturalized grasses, has negative implications in terms of the intensity of enteric methane emissions, while animals with a better energy-protein balance in their diet (supplementation) produce less of this gas [41,42]. Kliem et al. [43] reported a reduction in GHG emissions due to supplementation with agro-industrial byproducts, which has occurred in this study in semi-intensive systems, which received supplementation with brewery waste.Average net GHG emissions on livestock farms associated with the dairy production system were positive. The estimated net GHG emissions ranged from −1.15 to 1.24 Mg CO 2 eq/ha/yr in the extensive system, while the semi-intensive system ranged from −0.52 to 2.72. Our average estimate of net GHG emissions per ha is within the range of some of the values reported for grasslands in temperate climates. However, studies of net GHG under these conditions are limited. For example, in Spain [44] and Ireland, Fornara et al. [45] estimated net GHG emissions per ha for dairy production to be between 4.8 and 6.8 Mg CO 2 eq/ha/yr, using previous IPCC [16] reports.The results obtained in this study are consistent with the existing literature, which suggests that production systems under a semi-intensive system generally require a higher initial investment [46,47]. However, in the long term, they can generate higher income and benefits [48]. In this case, the semi-intensive system presents an annual profitability of 19.14%, while the extensive system reaches 14.01%. Murgueitio et al. [49] mentioned that semi-intensive livestock systems in Latin America tend to be more profitable than silvopastoral and pastoral (extensive) systems. The increase in the utility of the semiintensive system is due to its high ratio of number of animals in production, liter of milk produced (8.6 L/cow/day), and sale of animals, among other benefits. It is important to highlight that, in addition to the economic aspects, the choice of the appropriate production system must consider other factors such as climatic conditions, the availability of natural resources, accessibility, and the preferences of producers.The semi-intensive system presented significant positive differences in production, environmental, and economic impacts, due to increased productivity and greater efficiency in the use of water and outputs (production of milk, meat, and proteins), reducing the intensity of CH 4 and N 2 O emissions and presenting a higher annual profitability.","tokenCount":"3823"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73be33ce8ba83f422bac4ea2b4ded6ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc67d49f-fd56-4e0f-8030-18115844e9a1/retrieve","id":"-1459390845"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f1f7662-980a-4ad7-a05c-8a15f645bee6","pagecount":"4","content":"Some 2.5 billion consumers in 89 countries depend on wheat as a staple food.A key source of starch and energy, wheat also provides protein, vitamins, dietary fiber, and other nutrients.Demand for wheat will rise 50% by 2050, with a world population of 9 billion or more and as many as 6.3 billion city dwellers buying convenience foods.An unprecedented global alliance for productive, climate-resilient and profitable wheat agri-food systems in lower and middle-income countries.Wheat grain markets are easily destabilized by extreme weather and defensive trading, causing price spikes that especially harm the poor.Higher temperatures will pose a rising constraint to wheat harvests in major breadbaskets like South Asia.Currently-sown wheat varieties are increasing susceptible to new and rapidly-evolving pests and diseasesWheat varieties derived from Wheat CRP breeding research cover more than 100 million hectares worldwide, based on a study of global wheat research impacts for 1994-2014. The yearly value of the added grain produced from farmers' use of those varieties is as much as $3.1 billion --a return of 103:1 on WHEAT's annual budget of approximately $30 million.To improve South Asia's rice-wheat cropping systems, which cover more than 13 million hectares and provide food and livelihoods for over 300 million people, WHEAT researchers and partners have actively promoted use of zero tillage to sow wheat directly into unplowed soils and rice residues following rice harvest. Besides significant savings to farmers through reduced plowing, the practice conserves soil and water, raises yields, and helps to combat New Delhi's noxious seasonal smog, partly a by-product of the widespread burning of rice stubble in India's northern states. In response to the smog alarm, state and local policymakers have joined promotion efforts. The practice is now used by farmers on at least 1.8 million hectares.100 million more farm households will have adopted improved wheat varieties and crop management. Wheat yields will be increasing by an average 1.5 percent each year. 30 million people (half of them women) will have been helped to escape poverty. 30 million more people (half of them women) will be meeting minimum daily requirements for carbohydrates. There will be a 10 percent improvement in water and nutrient use efficiency in wheat cropping systems and a 0.2 billion ton per year reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from wheat farming. ","tokenCount":"376"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"60cbe8d5cb993d0d79950dc0201893c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a48ea9cd-5318-4a39-be32-39735bf414d9/retrieve","id":"1831449733"},"keywords":["Land Use and land Cover Change","Land degradation","satellite imagery","implication for management","watershed management","Ethiopia","East Africa"],"sieverID":"bc8bc861-81fa-4fa5-8860-6a8a6dafcb08","pagecount":"139","content":"Land use and land cover change is driven by human actions and also drives changes that limit availability of products and services for human and livestock, and it can undermine environmental health as well. Therefore, this study was aimed at understanding land use and land cover change in Lenche Dima and Kuhar Michael of Amhara region, Ethiopia. Time-series satellite images that included Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and ASTER, which covered the time frame between 1972/3 to 2005, were used. Socio-economic Survey and review of documents was carried out to understand historical trends, collect ground truth and other secondary information required. Analysis of data and other data was accomplished through integrated use of ERDAS imagine (version 9.1), ENVI (version 4.3) and ArcGIS (version 9.2) software packages along with Microsoft office analytical tools.Remote sensing analysis revealed landscape level change of cultivated land to have a net increase in Kuhar Michael, while a decline is found for Lenche Dima. However, socio-economic surveys showed that household level cultivated land has decreased from 1.2ha to 1ha and from 2.2ha to 1.8ha in Kuhar Michael and Lenche Dima respectively, over the last 30years. Major contributing factors included population increase, occurrence of drought, land redistribution, and land degradation. Similarly, average land holding per household has decreased from 1.6ha to 1.5ha and from 2.9ha to 2.2ha in Kuhar Michael and Lenche Dima, respectively. This has jeopardized the capacity of individuals to provide land for their siblings further leading to landlessness, which is becoming a common phenomenon among rural youths.In Kuhar Michael, dense shrub/bush land decreased at an annual rate of -0.1%, while open shrub/bush land increased at a rate of 0.3%. As opposed to this, dense shrub/bush land increased at a rate of 0.2% and open shrub/bush land declined at annual rate of -0.2% in Lenche Dima. Grassland showed a net decrease at a rate of -0.3% in Kuhar Michael due to conversion into cultivated lands, while an increase with annual rate of 0.1% is found in Lenche Dima as a result of implementation of watershed management practices.Along with the observed decrease in vegetation cover, Limited availability and extinction of some tree/shrub species is also reported and research is required to quantify changes and understand the real impacts brought about.Land use and land cover dynamics are widespread, accelerating, and significant processes driven by human actions but also producing changes that impact humans (Agarwal et al., 2002). These dynamics alter the availability of different biophysical resources including soil, vegetation, water, animal feed and others. Consequently, land use and cover changes could lead to a decreased availability of different products and services for human, livestock, agricultural production and damage to the environment as well.In Ethiopia, the availability of natural resources as well as their dynamics and management vary considerably from area to area. For instance, different parts of the Ethiopian highlands receive between 600 and 2700 mm of rainfall annually (Zeleke and Steenhuis, 2005). Besides high rainfall variability, also water shortages are prevalent in the Ethiopian highlands. For the coming decades, it is generally estimated that water withdrawal and consumption will increase as a result of increasing food needs by a growing population (CA, 2007). Attributed to large runoff coefficients, more than 90% of the annual discharge of rivers in the Lake Tana basin is lost during the rainy months, creating serious shortages of water in the dry season for irrigation agriculture and domestic use (Yitaferu, 2007). In Lenche Dima, a relatively small catchment, runoff coefficients were found to be around 5% (McHugh et al., 2007). This watershed is characterized by a rain-fed subsistence mixed farming system with prevailing problems like soil erosion, poor soil fertility, shortage of rainfall, livestock water shortage, poor grazing/dry season feed shortage and shortage of wood for house construction (Gizaw et al., 1999).The traditional management of land-based resources, coupled with a growing interest and reliance on various products and services from those resources poses a challenge for managing the natural resources. Changes in land use and land cover conditions and agricultural water management practices in irrigation could be responsible for the problems associated with hydrological resources of the Lake Tana Basin (Yitaferu, 2007). Inappropriate allocation and utilization, lack of capacity to develop and use poorly accessible water resources, loss of water due to its seasonality and run off are some of the problems associated with the water resources in the basin .Therefore, producing more food under conditions of increasing water scarcity and without creating further environmental degradation is a challenge being faced (CA, 2007).Mixed crop-livestock farming is the main economic activity in Amhara region with cattle kept as the most important livestock for traction and milk production (Mwendera et al., 1997). Livestock provide essential commodities and services to much of the world's population and serve as a strategic reserve that reduces risk and adds stability to farming system. Livestock provide hides and skins, draught power and manure to enhance soil fertility. They form an integral part of the social fabric for many people in Ethiopia, while they serve as a capital reserve available for bad times (Hugo et al., 1997in Mwendera et al., 1997). In Ethiopia, livestock contribute about 30 to 35 percent of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 85 percent of farm cash income (Benin and Pender, 2006). In particular, the Ethiopian highlands support over 90% of the human population, 75% of livestock, and 95% of annual cropland in the country (FAO, 2006). Furthermore, a livestock study in Ethiopia indicated that animal production is a key enterprise supporting and sustaining the livelihoods of the rural dwellers (80% of Ethiopia's total population) (Amsalu et al. 2006). However, it is likely that variation in the degree of integration and balance between the crop and livestock components in various districts and localities depend on resource availability and biophysical setting. Cattle distribution and average livestock holding per household in Amhara region vary from one district to another depending on human population, resource availability, prevalence of animal diseases, and size of the land holding (BoARD 2003) and total livestock population consists of 49 percent of cattle, which is 80 percent in tropical livestock unit (TLU).Hence, cattle are considered the most important livestock species due to their significant contribution to traction power for cultivation, and threshing, and they produce the largest proportion of milk and meat for human consumption as well. However, the livestock population is growing asymptotically and thus failed to keep pace with the rapid human population growth (Ashine 2002in McCornick et al., 2003). Livestock mortality rates are also very high, with maximum rates up to 40-50% in bad years for sheep and goats, and 10-20% for cattle. Bad years are characterized by severe water and feed shortages and disease outbreaks (Descheemaeker, 2008).The available livestock feed resources, including grazing, natural pastures and crop residues are inadequate with uneven distribution throughout the year.Because of its seasonality in quality and amount, the natural pasture cannot support the livestock's natural feed requirements, and animals often lose their live weight, especially during the dry season.A survey conducted in Amhara region indicated that livestock productivity is low due to water shortages, weed infestation, dry season feed shortages, shortage of grazing lands, poor marketing conditions, and diseases (Gizaw et al., 1999). Grazing systems offer only limited potential for intensification, and livestock production is becoming increasingly crop-based. Therefore, among other issues, understanding the availability and seasonal variation of animal feed resources is very important. This in turn will assist efforts to improve livestock productivity, and its contribution to the household food economy and income of smallholder farmers.In response to climate change and land degradation, people develop various strategies to adapt to changing conditions. For instance, farmers in the Nile Basin in Ethiopia have developed adaptation strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change (Harrington et al., 2007). These include using more irrigation, changing crop varieties or crops, shifting planting dates, and shifting from crop cultivation to livestock production. The influence of climate change on agricultural production, natural resource management, and subsequent response mechanisms vary greatly from one area to another. Different projects, basin priorities and research agendas for increasing wateruse efficiency for food production through better livestock management in the Nile River Basin have been identified (Harrington et al., 2004). These include integrated basin management systems, crop water productivity improvement and building the capacity of the people in the catchments. This needs knowledge on how natural resources evolve over time so as to devise alternative and appropriate strategies for exploiting the resources available.Therefore, this study is intended to understand land use and land cover changes, their drivers and impact on vegetation dynamics and animal feed availability in Kuhar Michael and Lenche Dima watersheds, which are both comprised of mixed crop-livestock production systems with some differences in agro-ecological conditions.For instance, the geology, topography and vegetation found in Lenche Dima, along with low and unreliable rainfall and dry spell, have dictated its hydrological condition creating soil moisture stress and limited availability of fresh river water. The basalts of the mountainous terrain in the area are highly fractured and filled by secondary carbonate minerals, while the valley bottom is filled with silty clay sediments. The very steep topography further contributes to the absence of springs and streams in the area (Gizaw et al., 1999). As a result, there is no practice of irrigation and even very limited potential for irrigation agriculture exists except for those individuals who own land in Alewuha, an adjacent locality with small irrigation schemes and practices near Alewuha River. Hence, crop production is highly dictated by the occurrence of rainfall resulting in rain-fed agriculture that allows producing only one crop per year in most cases. However, Kuhar Michael, forming part of the Fogera plain, has better agricultural potential and irrigation is possible due to the presence of Gumera and other small rivers. As a result, the spread and diversification of cash crops through expansion of irrigation agriculture and the production of up to three crops per year is made possible. Besides the aforementioned differences, other variations in biophysical conditions, socio-economic and cultural practices and land use and land cover conditions are expected, which will be dealt with in brief in this study. This will further help to generate better understanding about local knowledge and coping strategies, which will form the basis to assist and formulate projects geared toward improving inhabitants' livelihoods by counteracting undesirable changes in land use and land cover and subsequent climate change. Some research has been conducted in Amhara Region, but there is significant variation in the level of analysis performed and purpose and output of the studies. Furthermore, some of the contributing factors and processes are likely to be area specific and evolve over time as well. Hence, some of the outputs and resulting influences may not be applicable in other areas. On top of all these, continuous iterations of such studies by incorporating new approaches and taking advantage of advancements in science are needed to better understand continuously evolving processes. Backing up on-going and directing intended development projects will further help in securing a well informed resource use and management system, minimizing undesirable outcomes from traditional resources management.It is hoped that this study will provide information for decision makers and development practitioners about the magnitude and dimensions of long term land use and land cover changes, their drivers, impacts and community mitigating strategies in the study areas and surrounding. Understanding such changes is critical for formulating effective environmental policies and management strategies (Agarwal et al., 2002). Therefore, based on the information generated, issues that need immediate action will be identified and prioritized. In addition, the study will give an overview of the various ranges of local knowledge and practices within the study areas from which we can plan and formulate future projects.The study aims to identify and compare changes in land use and land cover, their drivers and impact on vegetation and animal feed dynamics in water abundant (Kuhar Michael) and drought prone (Lenche Dima) areas from the Nile and Awash basins of Ethiopia.This study encompasses several specific research objectives. Among these, the following may be considered to be the primary objectives: 1. To understand changes in land use and land cover occurring in Kuhar Michael and Lenche Dima catchments based on analysis of remotely sensed data 2. To identify and compare drivers of land use and land cover change in the study areas 3. To investigate the impact on vegetation, crop production and animal feed dynamics in the study areas.Complete presentation of the thesis includes five separate but connected chapters including this introductory chapter. Chapter one gives background information about the study. Chapter two introduces the study in the context of existing literature on land use and cover change and its drivers and impact. It explains how the objectives can be achieved using remote sensing as a tool along with the major procedures and software required. It also includes a review of several studies done in the areas along with important findings and gaps of knowledge that need further research, which further guides us to formulate the purpose of the study and central questions to be answered.Chapter three describes the biophysical characteristics of the study areas, sources and methods in collection of primary and secondary data, major approaches followed during analysis of both spatial and socio-economic data and how biophysical results have been related with socio-economic issues and human behavior. Chapter four presents the core findings of the study derived upon analysis of all available data and discusses the major findings of the study with reference to existing knowledge, and relates them to the objectives, central questions and overall framework of the study. Finally, chapter five presents concluding remarks and implications of the major findings in addressing prevailing challenges in the target areas and also presents issues for further research.Land cover is defined by the attributes of the earth's land surface captured in the distribution of vegetation, water, desert and ice and the immediate subsurface, including biota, soil, topography, surface and groundwater, and it also includes those structures created solely by human activities such as mine exposures and settlement (Lambin et al., 2003;Chrysoulakis et al., 2004;Baulies and Szejwach, 1998). On the other hand, land use is the intended employment of and management strategy placed on the land cover by human agents, or land managers to exploit the land cover and reflects human activities such as industrial zones, residential zones, agricultural fields, grazing, logging, and mining among many others (Zubair, 2006;Chrysoulakis et al., 2004). Land use change is defined to be any physical, biological or chemical change attributable to management, which may include conversion of grazing to cropping, change in fertilizer use, drainage improvements, installation and use of irrigation, plantations, building farm dams, pollution and land degradation, vegetation removal, changed fire regime, spread of weeds and exotic species, and conversion to non-agricultural uses (Quentin et al., 2006).Land use and land cover changes may be grouped into two broad categories as conversion and modification. Conversion refers to changes from one cover or use type to another, while modification involves maintenance of the broad cover or use type in the face of changes in its attributes (Baulies and Szejwach, 1998).According to Lambin (2005) sustainable resource use refers to the use of environmental resources to produce goods and services in such a way that, over the long term, the natural resource base is not damaged so that future human needs can be met. One of the most significant global challenges in this century relates to management of the transformation of the earth's surface occurring through changes in land use and land cover (Mustard et al., 2004, cited in Daniels et al., 2008).It is estimated that undisturbed (or wilderness) areas represent 46% of the earth's land surface. Forests covered about 50% of the earth's land area 8000 years ago, as opposed to 30% today. Agriculture has expanded into forests, savannas, and steppes in all parts of the world to meet the demand for food and fiber (Lambin et al., 2003). Based on data from diverse sources, the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 estimated that the world's natural forests decreased by 16.1 million hectares per year on average during the 1990s, which is a loss of 4.2% of the natural forest that existed in 1990 (Lambin et al., 2003). Land use in East Africa has changed swiftly over the last half-century: expansion of mixed crop-livestock systems into former grazing land and other natural areas and intensification of agriculture are the two largest changes that have been detected (Olson and Maitima, 2006).Accordingly, land cover classification has recently been a hot research topic for a variety of applications (Liang et al., 2002). A great deal of research has been conducted throughout the world in an attempt to understand major shifts in land use and land cover and to relate them to changing environmental conditions. According to Baulies and Szejwach (1998), during the next decades, land-use dynamics will play a major role in driving the changes of the global environment. Hence, global mapping of irrigated and dry land agriculture, semi-natural areas and forest cover, reflecting their dynamics, can contribute to the assessment of the biophysical implications of land use and land cover change within the Earth's system. Generally, agriculture is found to be the major driver of land cover change in tropical regions (Lambin et al., 2001cited in Daniels et al., 2008). Over the past 50 years in East Africa, there has been expansion of agriculture at the expense of grazing land (Olson and Maitima, 2006). Before 1950, semi-arid and sub-humid areas were predominantly pastoral with scattered settlement and cultivation but from then onwards, there has been significant transformation of grazing land to mixed crop-livestock agriculture. Understanding the mechanisms leading to land use and land cover changes in the past is crucial to understand the current changes and predict future ones. These changes occurred at different time periods, paces, and degrees of magnitude and with diverse biophysical implications (Baulies and Szejwach, 1998).Therefore, Land use and land cover change (LUCC) research needs to deal with the identification, qualitative description and parameterization of factors which drive changes in land use and land cover, as well as the integration of their consequences and feedbacks (Baulies and Szejwach, 1998). However, one of the major challenges in LUCC analysis is to link behavior of people to biophysical information in the appropriate spatial and temporal scales (Codjoe, 2007). But, it is argued that land use and land cover change trends can be easily assessed and linked to population data, if the unit of analysis is the national, regional, district or municipal level.Land use and land cover changes result from various natural and human factors within social, economic and political contexts. Hence, the local human activities expressing the drivers can be determined by measuring the rates and types of changes and analyzing other relevant sources of data like demographic profiles, household characteristics and policies related to land resources administration.To achieve this, it is crucially important to consider multiple sources of information and to acquire temporal, spatial and other non-spatial forms of data. This is due to the fact that land use attributes are complex and the boundaries between different types of data are quite diffuse (Baulies and Szejwach, 1998). LUCC studies have been designed to improve understanding of the human and biophysical forces that shape land use and land cover change. Thus, linking human behavior and social structures to biophysical attributes of the land is a fundamental aspect of LUCC research (Baulies and Szejwach, 1998). Land use and land cover plays an important role in global environmental change and sustainability, including response to climate change, effects on ecosystem structure and function, species and genetic diversity, water and energy balance, and agro-ecological potential (Codjoe, 2007).Land use and land cover mapping is one of the most important and typical applications of remote sensing data (Chrysoulakis et al., 2004). Remotely sensed data are a useful tool and have scientific value for the study of humanenvironment interactions, especially land use and land cover changes (Dale et al., 1993cited in Codjoe, 2007).Few studies have been conducted to understand land use and land cover change and other related issues in the proposed study areas. Yitaferu (2007) has done satellite image analysis of the Lake Tana basin between 1985/86 and 2001/03. He found that croplands increased by about 4.2%, which largely occurred at the expense of grasslands and shrub lands. Furthermore, forest cover in the basin was found to have increased by about 0.23% in the same time frame. Analysis of satellite images and aerial photos of 40 years provide evidence of changing land cover and flood levels for Hara Swamp (Mc Hugh et al., 2006). It was found that the vegetation of the wetland catchment was almost gone by 2000, although it was covered by dense woody vegetation in the time between 1964 and 1986. The wetland showed continuous increment and was completely flooded around 2000, whereas it was almost dry around 1964. Furthermore, the numbers of houses in Hara town, near the wetland have greatly increased in this period of analysis.There is significant variation between various sensor instruments' capability and wealth of information captured and also the applicability depends on the objective of the intended study. There is also clear variation in the spatial and spectral properties of satellite images acquired by different versions of a particular sensor instrument. Landsat instruments can be taken as a good example of showing continuous improvement in radiometric and spectral property of images enabling better understanding of land resources.Since 1972, the Landsat satellites have provided repetitive, synoptic, global coverage of high-resolution multispectral imagery. Their long history and reliability have made them a popular source for documenting changes in land cover and use over time (Turner et al., 2003) and their evolution is further marked by the launch of Landsat 7 by the US government in 1999.Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) EROS Data Center (EDC) has provided a historical record of the Earth's land surface from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. The MSS and TM sensors primarily detected reflected radiation from the Earth's surface in the visible and IR wavelengths, but the TM sensor provides more radiometric information than the MSS sensor (http://edc.usgs.gov/guides/landsat_mss.html#mss4).The wavelength range for the TM sensor is from the visible (blue), through the mid-IR, into the thermal-IR portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and it has a spatial resolution of 30 meters for the visible, near-IR, and mid-IR wavelengths and a spatial resolution of 120 meters for the thermal-IR band.Each pixel of Landsat TM images contains a wealth of information about the surface materials that reflect light from that pixel to the satellite sensors. Each band in a TM image represents a separate piece of data whose value ranges from 0 to 255 enabling the whole image to contain 256 5 (approximately 1.1 billion) different possible spectral combinations. However, it does not mean that each one of these combinations represents a different type of land cover and most of these variations represent very small and, to us, \"unseeable\" differences in surface reflectance. ETM+ instrument measures upwelling radiance in the same seven bands as the TM, and has an additional 15 m resolution panchromatic band (Mather, 2004). The spatial resolution of the thermal infrared channel is 60 m rather than the 120 m of the TM thermal band and this instrument has substantially the same operational characteristics as Landsat-4 and Landsat-5. All the Landsat image archives used for this study were acquired from ILIR's information database.The characteristics of the MSS and TM bands (Table 1) were selected to maximize each band's capabilities for detecting and monitoring different types of land surface cover characteristics. For example, MSS band 1 can be used to detect green reflectance from healthy vegetation, while MSS band 2 is designed for detecting chlorophyll absorption in vegetation. MSS bands 3 and 4 are ideal for recording near-IR reflectance peaks in healthy green vegetation and for detecting water land interfaces. MSS Bands 4, 2, and 1 can be combined to make false-color composite images, where band 4 controls the amount of red, band 2 the amount of green, and band 1 the amount of blue in the composite. This band combination makes vegetation appear as shades of red with brighter reds indicating more vigorously growing vegetation. Soils with sparse or no vegetation will range from white (sand) to green or brown, depending on moisture and organic matter content. Water appears dark blue to black in color, while sediment-laden or shallow waters appear lighter in color. Urban areas appear blue-gray in color.Radiometer) images were purchased from the USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) through the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC) and the data were provided in hierarchical data format (HDF) -Earth Observing System (EOS) (HDF-EOS).The data format for both study sites was ASTER L1B.003, which indicates the level of processing, granule type and algorithm followed in processing the data. The ASTER image purchased for Lenche Dima areas has a cloud cover of about 4 percent but fortunately, cloud was 0% in the watershed boundary of the study area. ASTER consists of three separate instrument subsystems that comprises of 14 bands of different wavelengths and spatial resolution, each operating in a different spectral region (Figure 1, below) that are the visiblenear infrared (VNIR), the shortwave infrared (SWIR) and the thermal infrared (TIR). It has three spectral bands in the VNIR, six bands in the SWIR, and five bands in the TIR regions, with 15, 30, and 90 meter ground resolution, respectively (Yamaguchi et al., 1998). The VNIR imagery is used for land cover/use classification and mapping (Chrysoulakis et al., 2004) by creating a pseudo-color composition of VNIR bands that have a spatial resolution of 14m(RGB: 3Nadir-2-1) with a spectral range of 0.52-0.6 µm, 0.63-0.69 µm and 0.78-0.86 µm respectively. High spatial resolution sensors like ASTER are capable of providing accurate land cover maps with precise land use classification results, and it also aids to discriminate a variety of surface materials and reduce problems in some lower resolution data resulting from mixed pixels (Chrysoulakis et al, 2004, Yamaguchi et al., 1998). Spectral resolution is the size and number of wavelengths, intervals, or divisions of the spectrum that a system is able to detect. Fine spectral resolution generally means that it is possible to resolve a large number of similarly sized wavelengths, as well as to detect radiation from a variety of regions of the spectrum (Engineering manual, 2003). Digital sensors record the intensity of electromagnetic radiation (ER) from each spot viewed on the Earth's surface as a digital number (DN) for each spectral band. The exact range of DN that a sensor utilizes depends on its radiometric resolution. For example, a sensor such as Landsat MSS measures radiation on a 0-63 DN scale whilst Landsat TM measures it on a 0-255 scale. Although the DN values recorded by a sensor are proportional to upwelling ER (radiance), the true units are W m -2 ster -1 mm -1 (Anonymous, 2000).According to the Modified UNESCO Classifications scheme, there are only about 157 different land cover types and no study site will have all of those different land cover types (GLOBE toolkit, 2003). Hence, it will be necessary to group pixels together into a smaller number of closely related \"classes\", based on spectral similarity. This is done in a process known as \"Classification\".Similar to gray scale, bright regions of color composite images have high reflectance, and dark areas have low reflectance. However, interpretation may get difficult when we combine different bands of data to produce what is known as false-color composites (Engineering manual, 2003). But this can be addressed by using field knowledge of the areas and historical information.The majority of image processing exercises are done based on raw DN values in which actual spectral radiances are not of interest (e.g. when classifying a single satellite image). However, there are problems with this approach as the spectral signature of a habitat is not transferable, if measured in digital numbers. These values are image specific as they are dependent on the viewing geometry of the satellite at the moment the image was taken, like the location of the sun, specific weather conditions, and so on. Accordingly, it is generally far more useful to convert the DN values to a spectral signature with meaningful units as they can be compared from one image to another. This process is called image calibration and is required where the area of study is larger than a single scene or if scenes taken over a period of years are being compared. The relative calibration of satellite imagery will correct for differences in atmospheric path radiance, detector calibration, sun angle, earth-Sun distance, atmospheric attenuation, and phase angle conditions.Radiometric control sets representing temporally invariant features are used to derive gains and offsets for a linear transformation (EPA, 1999). Calibration is band specific and is undertaken on each band of all images with reference to a common radiometric reference, which involves the transformation of digital numbers to physical values of radiance or reflectance.There are numerous approaches to characterizing land cover change. Each one of it has a set of strengths and weaknesses and as a result no single approach is optimal for all types of landscapes and land cover features (EPA, 1999). There are two major approaches of classification of remotely sensed images for various applications. In a supervised classification, the software is \"trained\" to recognize that certain types of pixels represent specific land cover types. Knowledge of the area and information collected during field work are important inputs, which are used by the software to classify the pixels into similar groups based on sample signatures specified.In an unsupervised classification, or \"clustering\", the desired number of groups, or \"clusters\", will be inputs to the software (GLOBE toolkit, 2003). The software then groups the pixels according to similar spectral characteristics in order of decreasing brightness. These groupings are not made on the basis of land cover, but on the similarity in spectral characteristics of the pixels. It is also common to come across a third approach known to be hybrid classification that combines both supervised and unsupervised classification techniques.Remote sensing change detection techniques can be broadly classified as either pre-or post-classification change methods. A pre-classification process refers to operations carried out to bring satellite images to the desirable geometric and spectral standard by correcting errors, and it is performed prior to image classification. Whereas, post-classification methods refers to activities done after classification of images like computation of class statistics, accuracy assessment, and map preparation. Pre-classification methods can further be characterized as being spectral or phenology based. Originally, the post-classification approach was considered to be the most reliable approach and was used to evaluate emerging methods (Weismiller et al., 1977in EPA, 1999). Factors that limit the application of post-classification change detection techniques include cost, consistency, and error propagation (Singh, 1989in EPA, 1999). Numerous pre-classification change detection approaches have been developed and refined to provide optimal performance over the greatest possible range of ecosystem conditions (Lunetta et al., 2006).The satellite instruments employed some decades ago provided images with coarse resolution. With advancement in remote sensing science, various sensor instruments with improved radiometric, temporal and spatial resolution were being developed. Hence, this allowed the integration of satellite images acquired by various sensor types in order to better understand land resources dynamics. The use of data from different sensors poses a serious challenge to many change analyses, which can be addressed through use of postclassification comparisons (EPA, 1999).Research evaluating the comparative performance of various land cover change detection methods has indicated that no uniform combination of data types and methods can be applied with equal success across different ecosystems (Lu et al., 2004cited in Lunetta et al., 2006).Despite this, the two general approaches to change detection are comparative analysis of independently produced classifications, and simultaneous analysis of multitemporal data. Examples of the simultaneous analysis techniques include image differencing, ratioing, principal component analysis (PCA), and change vector analysis (Singh, 1989in EPA, 1999). The first approach is straightforward and employs independently classified images being converted to same projections and it has the advantage that it allows compensating for variations in atmospheric and phenological conditions. The method has been criticized as it tends to compound errors that may have occurred in the two initial classifications (Gordon, 1980;Stow et al., 1980;Singh, 1989in EPA, 1999).On the other hand, simple image differencing is a widely used technique that involves taking the mathematical difference between geo-registered images from two dates (EPA, 1999). Even if the method has often been reported to produce excellent results, it has been suggested that image differencing alone may be too simple a procedure to adequately describe many surface changes (Weismiller et al., 1977;Jensen and Toll, 1982;Sohl, 1999in EPA, 1999).A major attribute of the landscape is its spatial pattern and structure. It is shown that the detection of land-cover change processes by remote sensing is improved when both spectral and spatial indicators of surface condition like slope and topography are used (Lambin andStrahler 1994 in EPA, 1999). It is further suggested by this author that spectral indicators are more sensitive to fluctuations in primary productivity associated with the inter-annual variability in climatic conditions. Temporal aspects of natural phenomena are important for image interpretation because such factors as vegetation growth and soil moisture vary during the year ,and hence, more positive results can be achieved by obtaining images at several times during the annual growing cycle (Lillesand and Kieffer, 2004). Furthermore, changes in landscape spatial pattern are more likely to reveal long term and long lasting land cover changes.Following image classification as part of the change detection process, accuracy needs to be assessed to evaluate the degree of acceptability of the classification process. A standard accuracy assessment procedure for baseline land cover products involves the use of the error matrix (EPA, 1999) and the standard procedure for one-point-in-time land cover products can be extremely difficult to apply to multi-temporal change analysis products (EPA, 1999). The methods are well established for small areas and single time periods. However, the assessment of accuracies for large areas, past time periods, and change databases can become problematic (Dobson andBright, 1994 cited in EPA, 1999) as it will be difficult to acquire an adequate database of historical reference materials. Accordingly, accuracy assessments are usually limited to the very recent image that serves as a reference using ground control points (GCPs) collected as part of the data required for the change analysis.The study focused on two areas in Amhara region characterized by different biophysical composition (Figure 2). Kuhar Michael is one of the 25 rural peasant associations 1 (PA) found in Fogera, while Lenche Dima is a catchment forming part of Laste Gerado PA of Gubalafto district. Based on classification of highlands of Amhara region (Desta et al., 2000), Fogera falls in the category of high agriculture potential and high population density, whileGubalafto is classified as an area with low agricultural potential and lower population density. On the other hand, both areas were found to share a common feature, as they both have high access to market (Desta et al., 2000).Furthermore, both areas have similarity in that the prevailing farming systems belong to the mixed crop-livestock farming systems. Kuhar Michael is characterized to be moisture sufficient, even with flooding events in some parts of the Fogera plain; while Lenche Dima is a drought prone area with very little potential for irrigation. There is an on-going joint project by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), which focuses on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through improving water productivity of mixed croplivestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa. This particular study focuses on the target areas of this project and is geared towards generating information on the dynamics of land use and land cover change, its impacts and drivers so as1 refers to local level administrative organ established during the Derg regime with the mandate to handle land related matters in a specified geographic area to support the on-going research project dealing with crop-livestock water productivity improvement. River, which flows to Awash River (Gizaw et al., 1999). The watershed is classified as tepid to cool sub-moist mountains and plateaus (Gizaw et al., 1999), and has a dry tropical climate with a temperature range of 20 to 29ºC (McHugh et al., 2007) and a bimodal rainfall distribution. The short rainy season includes March, April and May, while the second and long rainy season includes July, August and September with an average annual rainfall of 667 mm. The mean daily maximum temperature is 33 °C (June) and the mean daily minimum is 12°C (November) (Gizaw et al., 1999). The major soil types of the watershed are Regosol, Leptosol, Vertisols and Fluvisol (Gizaw et al., 1999).The ultimate purpose of the field survey conducted was to collect qualitative and quantitative information to help to better understand, explain, and interpret the land use and land cover change, which is the core issue of this study.Hence, understanding trends in resource dynamics required historical information, which can be achieved using qualitiative and quantitative data collected through interview and group discussion with selected informants believed to have a good understanding of the issues of interest. Accordingly, detailed individual interviews and group discussions were conducted with 50selected key informants from both study areas to collect the data required. A purposive sampling technique, involving the targeting of individuals who suited the subject and nature of study using predetermined selection criterion, was used to select the participants through consulation with Develeopment Agents (DA) of the respective study areas. A questionnaire (see Appendex I) covering a wide range of topics relevant to the central issue of interest was developed.It was also pre-tested so as to evaluate the understandability of the questions and modifications were made accordingly.Ground Control Points (GCPs) were collected to aid different steps of image processing and classification for change detection. Besides this, field observation was made to have better information about the nature of the various land use and land cover classes prevailing in the area.Based on field observation and general historical information gained from participants during the survey, it was decided to focus on the following major land use and land cover classes summarized below and in Table 2.Cultivated land includes most flat areas and also some steep slopes where various food crops are grown, either on a rain-fed basis or using irrigation.Irrigation is commonly practiced in some parts of Kuhar and very few localities of Alewuha, which is located out of Lenche Dima catchment.The category of wetlands encompasses those areas located down in the Fogera plain which experience frequent flooding and immersion in water and are covered by wetland vegetation including grasses. The ultimate use of such land was as a grazing and holding place for livestock. Currently, such areas have been converted to cultivated land for growing rice and other cash crops.Grazing land refers to those land units allocated as a source of animal feed, including privately and communally owned grazing areas and also those owned by various institutions (church and school). There is variation in their management schemes, from those which are open to access year round, those accessed only during selected months of the year, and those completely closed year round. In the latter feed is made available through the cut and carry system, whereby grazers are expected to cut and haul away the fodder to the animals.The category includes areas covered with different species of shrubs and bushes with widely varying density from one locality to another, and often found in hilly areas. In Lenche Dima, those areas that are not closed as part of the watershed management program serve as a communal grazing and free access resource with very few above ground biomasses. In Kuhar Michael, area closure is not practiced, even though the district announces it to be one of the activities they are currently working at. Hence, vegetated areas upslope are not well protected and are being accessed freely to serve as grazing land.In this study, vegetated areas are classified in two general classes, as either open or dense, and comparison of their relative greenness values using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) value was employed to make a distinction between them.The category of bare land denotes areas that are without any vegetation cover at the time of satellite image acquisition but could be categorized in one of the land use and land cover types mentioned above. They are not covered by any type of crops, grass or any other shrub or tree species. According to a classification scheme developed for woody biomass Inventory and strategic planning project (WBISPP), bare land meant to include those areas with exposed sand/soil, salt flats, and exposed rock as well (WBISPP, 2002).In addition to the land use and land cover classes described above, it is also apparent that there are areas that serve as settlements, most of which are made of up of traditional huts and very few with corrugated metal roofs, scattered around. There was a complete absence of urban built up areas in both study areas. Hence, because it was not possible to easily identify such features in the satellite images and due to the relative small size of the study areas, the decision was made not to consider settlements among the land use classes. Accordingly, in such areas, growing various tree and shrub species as live fences, boundary plants, or woodlots has been observed to be a common practice. It is also apparent that various agricultural crops like cereals, fruit trees, and sometimes vegetables are grown in the homesteads, depending on the availability of water supply. respectively along with ASTER image of 2005 were used for a time series of images for the land use/cover change study (Table 3).The ultimate purpose of calibration is to convert Landsat (MSS, TM or ETM+)and ASTER digital numbers to radiance or exo-atmospheric reflectance (reflectance above the atmosphere) using published post-launch gains and offsets. Calibration is band specific and carried out for each separate band of all land sat sensors and ASTER images independently.The following formulas are the basis of the calibration:Where λ is the ETM+/TM band number, L=at-satellite radiance, Gain=band specific, provided in the header file sceneid.h1, Bias=band specific, provided in the header file sceneid.h1, ρ= at-satellite reflectance, unit less, d=Earth-sun distance in astronomical unit, ESUN =solar exo-atmospheric spectral irradiance (see Annex IIc), θ= sun elevation angle, provided in the header file sceneid.h1.Calibration of MSS was completed by specifying the satellite type to be landsat-1, the time of acquisition (Date, Month and Year) and the sun elevation angle obtained from the header file of the respective images. Then the calibration process was undertaken through an automatic built-in operator within the ENVI interface.For TM, landsat-5 was selected to be the satellite type and the specific time of acquisition and sun elevation angle were also used. To complete the calibration process of TM images, the presence of minimum and maximum scales of radiance for each of the 6 bands was pertinent. However, review of literature revealed that there are two different sets of band specific values depending on the acquisition time of the image. Therefore, by observing the acquisition times of the two images from their header files, the corresponding values were selected and provided in the dialogue box to accomplish the calibration process. Based on these additional input values, the software automatically assigned gain and bias values to complete the calibration process.Regarding the ETM+ image, the path and row numbers, date of acquisition were used as inputs to generate calibration parameters including sun elevations, minimum and maximum radiance values. This was retrieved from an online database www.ittvis.com/envi_landsat/landsat_gain.asp . All of this information, along with the satellite type, was fed into the calibration interface and the process was completed successfully for each of the six bands except the thermal band, as it is not considered in this study.For ASTER, a different approach was followed, as an automated built-in calibration procedure has not yet been developed for this type of image and does not exist in ENVI version 4.3. Hence, all the required inputs to complete the calibration process were collected from different sources (Smith, 2008 andMather, 2004) and data from the header file provided along with ASTER image (see Annex II band c). Finally, correcting the values from the working images was accomplished by making use of the Band Math operator in ENVI.Below is the formula used to convert DN to ASTER spectral radiance:First the DN value of each band was converted to spectral radiance ((the amount of electromagnetic radiation leaving a point on the surface expressed in W/m2)) value using equation 3, above. Then, the output of this step was used in order to calculate the top of atmosphere reflectance (RTOA) of each band in ASTER images, except the thermal infrared reflectance (TIR) bands.Where, Pi=3.14159, RTOA is planetary reflectance, Lrad is the spectral radiance at the sensor's aperture; ESUNi is the mean solar exoatmospheric irradiance of each band, i;z is the solar zenith angle(Zenith angle=90-solar elevation angle), which is within the ASTER header file; and d is the earth-sun distance,in astronomical units, which is calculated using the following equation (Achard and D'souza 1994;Eva andLambin, 1998 in Smith 2008):Major inputs required to compute the earth-sun distance (d) were radiance, and Julian date of the image acquisition.Different approaches of computing the band specific ESUNi value are available. From the alternatives available, the one computed by Smith (2008), interpolating the ASTER spectral response functions to 1nm and convolving 2 it with the 1nm step with world resource center (WRC) data (Smith, 2008), was used.The input values for the various versions of Landsat and ASTER images were retrieved from various secondary sources of data. Detail numerical value of the different parameters considered as inputs during the calibration process are provided at the end of this report as a series of Annexes (IIa, IIb and IIc).After calibration is performed in each band of the different images, color composite images were made whose reflectance value ranges from 0 to 1.During layer stacking, the Universal Traverse Mercator (UTM) system with WGS84 as a datum was assigned as a preference as far as projection is  1985). False color composites of MSS images (Lenche Dima1973 and Kuhar Michael 1972) were created using a combination of band 4 in the Green, band 2 in the Red, and band 1 in the Blue. After layer stacking, all the scenes were re-projected to UTM Zone 37 North using WGS 84 as a datum. The default pixel size of the stacked image was 73.4 m for MSS, 36.7 meters for TM and 34 meters for ETM+. However, to standardize pixel size and to minimize possible error that could arise due to variation from pixel resolution, output cell size for all landsat composite images was set to be 14m, which was the default size of ASTER image.When the ground control points (GCPs) were overlaid on the color composite of the ASTER images, it was observed that the points did not fit exactly with the corresponding ground features represented on the image. This triggered the need to undertake geo-referencing of ASTER, which was accomplished through the image-to-image geo-referencing operation of ENVI that requires use of GCPs. Image-to-image geo-referencing allows interactive selection of GCPs. Orthorectified Landsat ETM+ images whose geographical accuracy is checked with the GCPs served as a base image and ASTER as a warp image.Warp image refers to the one to be corrected using a geometrically corrected image, which will serve as a base image. At least four points are required for defining a warp polynomial so as to predict the corresponding locations of the selected GCPs in the warp image. However, twenty points were selected to improve the accuracy of registration. These included easily identifiable features that exist in both the base and warp images.Both the base and warp images were displayed side to side and effort has been made to minimize the overall registration error by relocating the position of each of the GCPs with in the particular ground feature selected as ENVI provides the flexibility to do so.The first order polynomial was selected as a warping method as it enables to achieve more accurate results. Furthermore, a cubic Convolution was selected for image resampling as it was the method being used by the data providers.Hence, Georeferencing of ASTER image for Kuhar Michael was accomplished with a total mean square error (RMSE) value of 2.05 (See Appendix IIIA).The same procedure was applied to correct the ASTER image representing Lenche Dima. However, prevalence of cloud cover in ASTER image of Lenche Dima made the identification of GCPs a bit difficult. Despite this, effort was made to improve registration accuracy by relocating position of GCPs and the geo-referencing process was completed with an over all RMSE value of 1.86Finally, positional accuracy of both corrected ASTER (warped) images was checked visually by linking it to the corresponding Landsat ETM+ scenes that served as base image and using Google earth as well.Imagery of the study areas were clipped out using the extract by mask operator of the ArcGIS spatial analyst tool box (Figure 3). To achieve this, predefined shape files of the two study areas were used. Triangulation with nearest neighborhood method that employs the value of the closest pixel to assign a value to the output pixel was preferred as a method for re-sampling during the calibration and layer stacking operations as well. The nearest neighbor method takes the value of the pixel in the raw (untransformed) image that is closest to the computed (c, r) coordinates (Mather, 2004). It has two advantages; it is fast and its use ensures that the pixel values in the output image are 'real' in that they are copied directly from the raw image, while bilinear and cubic convolution resampling methods use interpolation algorithms to 'fabricate' out put coordinates.Histogram equalization is a non-linear stretch that redistributes pixel values to make sure that there are approximately the same numbers of pixels within each value within a range. Hence, it was carried out so as to increase the visual interpretability of the images. Image interpretation process is like the work of a detective trying to put all the pieces of evidence together to solve a mystery (Lillesand and Kieffer, 2004).Success in solving the mystery is a function of the level of detail contained in images, experience and knowledge about situations and history of the study area, and expertise of the interpreter as well.Despite general variations in the specific field application of remote sensing studies, most image analysts are recommended to pay attention to characters of ground features like shape, size, pattern, tone (or hue); texture, shadows, site, association, and resolution of an image (Olson, 1960 cited in Lillesand andKieffer, 2004), and some of them are applied in this particular study.Furthermore, an interpreter is advised to consider wealth of information available from maps and other sources at different levels of systematically examining image. For instance, from imagery alone, it is not possible to make a distinction between cropland and grassland generally with a high degree of accuracy and uniformity (Hardy et al., 1971in Anderson et al., 1976). Hence, field observation, measurements, and survey results can provide important information to aid the process. Accordingly, some of the communal grasslands and shrub/bush lands observed during fieldwork and interview has been serving for same purpose since 1970's, except for the reported shrink and deterioration in quality. Hence, such historical information was also used during unsupervised classification of images as location of these features is marked with GPS. Integration of such historical information in the decision process makes the classification approach hybrid rather than purely unsupervised. Furthermore, an interpreter has to take into account the probability of certain ground cover types occurring on certain dates at certain places and knowledge of the crop development stages or calendars (Lillesand and Kieffer, 2004).In the true color composite (R-3, G-2 and B-1); bare land appears white color due to its high reflectance value (Tucker et al., 2004). But this might not be enough information to make decision about information classes as cloud/snows may exhibit same character, which might lead to errors. Hence, the interpreter needs to be aware of this and other similar tricks and needs to employ additional techniques and information to make a distinction through an informed decision. Accordingly, knowledge about pattern (spatial arrangement of objects) and associations (occurrence of certain features in relation to others) will be important evidences. For instance, wetlands frequently are associated with topographic lows, even in mountainous regions (Anderson et al., 1976) and one might expect flooding experiences to occur in relatively plain areas but not in steep areas. Furthermore, tone, known appearance of certain ground features in a different composite image, and level of details expected from an image with particular resolution, along with knowledge on historical trends of an area provide important clues to aid classification process. Figure 4 at the end of this section summarizes the processes used during the image analysis and classification of this study.The first image of Gubalafto was acquired in November 1972. According to evidence from respondents; bare land was expected during the reign of Hailesilassie due to relatively low human population and less shortage of land.However, it was not possible to identify it from the images, which might be due to the coarse resolution of the image that did not allow depicting such details and due to possible coverage of such areas with grasses and herbs in November. The second image was taken in January 1986, when crops were harvested and significant areas in the landscape lack cover. This made it difficult to identify bare land precisely as most cultivated lands appear bare.It was possible to identify bare lands in Kuhar Michael during the first two year of analysis (February 1973 andNovember 1985). On the other hand, despite use of a relatively finer resolution image for the reference year 2005, a general decrease of fallowing practice in recent years is reported due to the growing need and shortage of cultivated. Hence, due to this and specific acquisition dates of the images, bare land was not recognized in this particular year as well. Hence, due to their particular nature of association, most bare lands are assumed to be included with cultivated lands. Furthermore, as suggested by Anderson et al. (1976), land may appear barren because of man's activities and when it may reasonably be inferred from the data source that the land will be returned to its former use, it is not included in the Barren category but classified on the basis of its site and situation.Generally, the relative small size of the study areas, very course resolution of the images and the lack of series of images to discriminate the inter-seasonal differences within the same year and crop calendar made it difficult to identify The maximum iteration was set to be ten. In each iteration, means of clusters were shifted and the new cluster means were used for the next iteration.Output natural clusters files were set to be displayed as an approximate true color composite.Finally, historical information, knowledge 3 of the area acquired from field work and knowledge about color representation of important features in different band combinations (see Table 4) were employed to associate those arbitrarily formed clusters/classes with their corresponding meanings among the ground features.Ground features covered with vegetation (trees and shrubs) appeared to be red in the 4, 3, 2-RGB false color composite (FCC) of Landsat images (Tucker et al., 2004). Furthermore, cultivated lands are displayed as pink to red and wetland vegetation appears dark red; whereas in the true color composite (3, 2, 1-RGB), wetlands look dark green to black, and bare soil appears to be white to light due to its high reflectance value.On the other hand, another band combination, including short wave infrared (7, 4, 2-RGB) is also utilized to aid in the categorizing process of arbitrarily formed natural clusters to their ground meaning (Tucker et al., 2004).Particularly, this was of importance for the TM and ETM+ Landsat images. In this color composite, bare soil is displayed as magenta or pale pink while water bodies appear black or dark blue. Once geo-referencing is accomplished and the positional accuracies of features on images from different time are checked, supervised image classification of the ASTER image was done. Hence, selected ground control points that include the major land use and land cover classes were sampled to create a signature file to help train the software to classify the entire study areas. Care was taken to minimize error by avoiding mixed pixels, and an effort was made to include areas relatively uniform in spectral pattern.Moreover, attention was also paid during collection of GCPs in the field by taking GPS measures at the center of relatively large and uniform sampling unit representing each land cover class type.As opposed to unsupervised classification, decision as to the number of classes expected in that particular area is the first important step to be made.Following that, as part of the interpretation process, information was provided by taking sample signature points so as to supervise and help the computer accomplish the classification process in the whole study area based on samples provided. Particularly, parametric decision rule with maximum likelihood classifier was selected as it allows classification of all the pixels in scenes, and avoids the probability of assigning a single pixel in more than one class. Moreover the maximum likelihood decision rule is based on the probability that a pixel belongs to a particular class and its basic equation assumes that these probabilities are equal for all classes, and that the input bands have normal distributions.Based on comparison of the different algorithms of supervised classification to monitor landscape changes in Abuja, findings revealed that the maximum likelihood algorithm performed better than the others (Ojigi, 2006 cited in Omo-Irabora andObuyemib, 2007).Finally, class statistics of each classified image were computed in ENVI.Following this, a majority/minority filter with an operating window size of 3 by 3 was run in ENVI. A majority filter is a logical filter applied on a classified image that consists of labels rather than quantised counts and its simplest form involves the use of a filter window, usually measuring 3 rows by 3 columns, centered on the pixel of interest (Mather, 2004). Then, the number of pixels allocated to each of the k classes is counted and, if the centre pixel is not a member of the majority class (containing five or more pixels within the window)it is given the label of the majority class. The effect of this algorithm is to smooth the classified image by weeding-out isolated pixels, which were initially given labels that were dissimilar to the labels assigned to the surrounding pixels (Mather 2004).Accuracy of classification and Kappa coefficient error matrix were also determined based on classification result of ASTER images. Finally; the classified images were exported to ArcGIS for map preparation.  Based on information from local inhabitants, cultivated, fallow, communal and private grazing, and shrub/bush land were the major land use and land cover classes during the study periods. In Ethiopia, before 1974, the relationship between land users and owners was based on a feudal system (Desta et al., 2000) under which the ownership of land was limited to a few individuals. Most inhabitants were only eligible to get access to farmland through share cropping. During this period, it was highly likely that a portion of the land was left abandoned. The human population was relatively low with low pressure on the land and associated resources in general and with prevalence of fallow lands.An image of February 1973 was acquired, when crop harvesting had already started, and farmlands appear bare. Regarding vegetation, there were also relatively undisturbed areas that had been serving as a home for some wild animals with varying levels of density, ground cover and disturbance, according to respondents. Some of these areas were accessed and served as a source of wood and other products used for house construction, fuel wood, farm implements and fencing. Hence, for this particular study, such areas were broadly categorized as open and closed shrub/bush lands, depending on their level of ground cover. Analysis of the 1973 Image revealed that cropland constituted the largest proportion of land in Kuhar Michael with a value of 31%, followed by grassland which accounts for 22 % (Figure 5). Dense shrub/bush land and wetland constituted 15% and 12% respectively, while both bare and open shrub lands showed similar coverage values of 10% each. As can be seen in Figure 6 for the 1985 image of Kuhar Michael, the proportion of land allocated for cultivation increased to 54%. Furthermore, dense shrub land expanded and covered 20% of the landscape. However, the proportions of grassland, open shrub/bush and bare land have decreased to 14%, 7% and 4 % respectively. The wetland land cover that appeared in the Due to the ever increasing shortage of and need for more cultivated land, as well as the high likelihood of not getting barren areas in October when the ground is often covered with grasses, herbs and crops; bare land is not observed as an important land cover class and was excluded accordingly. The 2005 image analysis of Kuhar Michael showed that cultivated land accounts for 57%, while the closed shrub/bush, open shrub/bush and grasslands covered 13%, 19% and 11% respectively (Figure 8).For the 1972 image (Figure 9), cultivated land accounts for 43 % of the landscape followed by open shrub/bush land with a value of 25 %. Dense shrub/bush land and grasslands had an almost equal coverage of 16% each.   12).This improvement in vegetation cover could be attributed to the implementation of a watershed management program through coordinated efforts of AMAREW project along with the Bureau of Agriculture and other partner institutes and the involvement of the community at large. accompanying statistics derived from remote sensing analysis, the errors must be quantitatively explained (Sherefa, 2006). The most common and typical method used by researchers to assess classification accuracy is the use of an error matrix (Congalton et al. 1999in Sherefa 2006). Therefore, Table 5 shows details of the accuracy assessment done for the two study areas. Users accuracy=number correct/classified total Producers accuracy=number correct/reference total Based on assessment made, producer's accuracy is found to be 68% for Kuhar Michael and 72% for Lenche Dima (Table 5). Likewise, user's accuracy is found to be 69% for Lenche Dima and 65% for Kuhar Michael. The overall classification accuracy is revealed to be 59% for Kuhar Michael and 60% for Lenche Dima.Cultivated land area doubled in Kuhar Michael during the period of observation from 1973 to 1999 (Figure 13). In particular, it was 31% in 1973 and increased to 54 % in 1985, and then to 62% in 1999. This is an annual increase in cropland of approximately 1.7% (Table 6). of cultivated to be 0.8% (Table 6), considering the whole study period .Historically, most of the plains in Fogera, which include the lower part of Kuhar Michael, served as a grazing land and as a place for maintaining animals for longer time as there was no tradition to maintain animals at home during the reign of Hailesilaasie. Hence, in the 1973 image, 12% of the landscape in Kuhar Michael constituted wetlands, serving as both grazing spots and homes for livestock. However, following the Derg's efforts to improve upon the agricultural systems, through the establishment of cooperatives, the introduction of rice production in the marshy plains, and the cultivation of cash crops, these areas have been converted into cultivated lands. Just after the introduction of rice around 1995 (Descheemaeker, 2008), there were some challenges to convincing farmers to take to the track of growing rice. As a result of extension efforts, and due to attractive returns gained by innovative farmers, rice cultivation has grown to be an attractive business nowadays. It was found to be 12% in 1973, and 9% in 1999, while it was not recognized in 1985 and 2005. However, as described earlier, this percentage cover of wetlands is not merely allocated as a site for grazing and included those land parcels growing rice, the private and communal grazing areas in the plain.According classification scheme developed by Anderson et al., 1976, cultivated wetlands such as the flooded fields associated with rice production are classified as agricultural land.Expansion of cultivated land was observed in Lenche Dima only during the first period (1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986), when it increased from 43% to 52% at an average rate of increase of 0.6% per annum. However, the cover decreased continuously to 48% and 36% during the second (1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000) and third (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) periods of analysis with an estimated rate of decline of 0.3 and 2.4% per year, respectively (Table 8). On the average the cultivated land has decreased by 0.2% in the period from 1972 to 2005. Soil erosion, which has been occurring in Lenche Dima watershed since the first rainy season after the 1973 drought, is the major problem in the watershed damaging the low lying cropland and hilly areas (Gizaw et al., 1999).Dense shrub/bush land in Lenche Dima occupied 16% of the landscape in Other studies corroborate our findings for Kuhar Michael. Yitaferu (2007) showed that in the Lake   [1] Computed per annum basis by dividing % difference in LULC between selected periods by the time difference.[2] Kuhar Michael Peasant association of Fogera District of South Gonder in Amhara Region, Ethiopia.[3] Lenche Dima watershed from Gubalafto district of North Wollo Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. started due to the conversion of communal grazing areas in the flood plain to crop production. It was also remarked by respondents that, in addition to this land's role as a feed source, such areas also served as a holding place for animals during the reign of Hailesilassie, even during periods when most feed resources were depleted. However, the increased risk of disease transfer between animals as they were densely maintained, sometimes beyond the carrying capacity of the areas, was a major disadvantage of such grazing systems. The presence of the tse-tse fly was also another source of threat for animals.Current feeding strategies in the area consist of maintaining the animals around farm boundaries from July to September and allowing animals to graze freely following crop harvest from October to January. Crop byproducts including millet and rice straws, have become major feed sources (Table 7)and complement grazing, particularly during the period between January and July when other feed resources are scarce. Despite variation in locality, seasonal factors and variation in crop type, a generalized comparison was made of the major feed sources available in the study area. Hence, as survey results revealed, rice straw, millet straw, communal grazing, private grazing and maize stover ranked as the top five livestock feed sources in Kuhar Michael (Table 7). More particularly, rice is a primary source for those who have a rice field in the plains. On the other hand, millet grows in the upper parts of Kuhar Michael so that it is the primary source of animal feed for farmers who have farmland in those areas.As can be seen in Table 7, about 63 % of the respondents ranked rice as a primary feed source, while 27% and 14 % of respondents gave it second and third rankings, respectively. This could be attributed to differences between individuals in terms of preference, access, and ownership of the various feed sources, and individual's preference ranking did show a variation. Kuaya is a type of grass harvested from private grazing reserves and serves in house construction. But, it is now becoming extinct and is found only in the schools' premises due to prevalence of free grazing, the substitution of corrugated roofing and sesame stalk (yenug geleba) for hut roof construction, along with conversion to cultivated land.Some respondents pointed out that, among rural households, it was traditionally preferred to have greater number of children and animals for various reasons. To accommodate the latter, they tend to allocate private grazing land from areas of cultivated land, despite the prevalence of a serious shortage of cultivated land. By so doing, they have been managing to strike a balance between crop and livestock production so as to sustain a mixed system that gives relatively better food security than either one of them singly.It is also found that economic returns to land in mixed crop-livestock systems are often higher than for pastoral livestock systems alone (Olson and Maitima, 2006).According to respondents, recent shifts in animal feeding strategies have included efforts to avoid free gazing and the promotion of controlled feeding systems that employ the collection of hay and straws. Furthermore, after 1995, a rule has been enforced to limit grazing by locality, disallowing free grazing away from one's locality. This has created an increased shortage of grazing area and feed in some areas.Those grazing lands in the plain get flooded and majority of feed in the areas is lost, and individuals in some localities have started using cut and carry system so as to maximize feed production. In these areas, grazing is not between January and May, and also from the start of July to September.However, the area will be open for grazing from September to January, and during the month of May. But, the actual dates in September and May could be changed depending on the beginning and end of the rainfall season. Cut and carry system is generally applied during the rainy seasons, and during the crop growing periods. On the other hand, communal grazing is also managed in a shifting manner that allows animals to graze in some parts, while the remaining is protected for growth. However, this is only possible in localities that have alternative sources of grazing land.According to an elder man in Kuhar Michael, the availability of surplus animal feed in earlier times enhanced frequent breeding of animals. Up to Village establishment, seasonal mobility and free grazing was possible. Later, it was claimed by the then officials that such practices had to be abandoned, in order to minimize degradation. Nowadays, in addition to the serious shortage of animal feed, seasonal mobility from one locality to another in search of grazing land is not possible as feed shortages prevail everywhere, impacting most individuals. Accordingly, seasonal mobility to areas like Dera 5 , served to provide good feed resources like grass to support the livestock. Nowadays, such areas are cultivated by the inhabitants due to a shortage of available cultivable land as a result of population increment.Prevalence of invasive weeds is one of the problems in Kuhar Michael, and farmers are involved in campaigns to destroy thorny weeds, locally termed Amekela, which invade communal grazing lands creating obstacles for the cattle to graze freely. This problem is more pronounced in the lower plain areas, following continuous grazing of cattle in the wetlands. The problem is minimal in upslope areas that have better drainage.Village establishment (Mender Misreta) was made around 1987 during the Derg administration. After that, fertilizer was introduced and provided on loan basis as one of the strategies to improve agricultural productivity. Regardless of farmer's interest, officials pressured farmers in using fertilizers through established cooperatives. People around Kuhar Michael became dependent on the use of fertilizers. The cost of fertilizer has been steadily rising to a market price of about 640 ETB per 100 kg at the time of the interview (September 2008). According to respondents, coupled with shortage of supply, the increase in price has made it difficult to acquire fertilizer despite most farmers' high dependency on them. Some farmers remarked that it is becoming almost impossible to produce crops without the use of fertilizer.However, the government is promoting organic based farming and advising individuals to switch to compost, manure and other organic sources of soil fertilization. But, despite the government's directives and push to get farmers to switch to organic sources of fertilizer, technical shortcomings and subsequent unsatisfactory results upon application of compost, farmers still prefer inorganic fertilizers. However, local administrators' continued warnings about the limited supply of artificial fertilizers, and even their intention to stop the supply, has created frustration and tension among farmers.According to the respondents, the productivity of cropland has deteriorated over time due to continuous cultivation, requiring the use of fertilizers. In the past, traditional practices were undertaken to improve the fertility of farm land, known locally as Tiget Mewgat and Chikcheka.Tiget Mewgat is a periodic process of plowing land every two months starting from July or August for a period of one year to provide rest and is usually practiced by individuals who own more than one parcel of land. Likewise, individuals who own a relatively small tract of land practice crop rotation as a strategy to regain land fertility.Chikcheka is a traditional practice of improving land fertility that involves maintaining livestock in the farmland to accumulate manure and incorporating it into the soil through the movement of the animals. In addition, Chikcheka is also practiced on grazing land to accelerate the growth of grass. It involves the formation of groups of people living in the same locality and the process will be carried out in a shifting basis and will cover the land of all members. It was practiced during Hailesilassie's time from October to January. The availability of relatively large land holdings and large numbers of livestock had favored these traditional fertility maintenance practices. Tiget Mewgat was usually followed by Chikcheka. Decline in land holdings and livestock population, along with the growing use of animal dung as energy source, are major factors responsible for the decline of these traditional practices.Teff, Guizotia abyssinica (noug), and Millet were some of the major crops during Hailesilassie regime. A trend towards replacing them with rice and maize is reported by respondents. In addition, tomato has become an important cash crop and is widely cultivated in recent years but tomato fields are susceptible to erosion due to low biomass covering the ground. Some respondents pointed out that they started growing tomatoes from 2003 onwards and found an attractive income to fill various income gaps. One farmer noted that he produced tomatoes are worth about 9000 ETB from 0.1ha land. Due to the allure of cash, more cash crops are grown in the area.In an effort to increase household level food and income security, fruit growing and selling are also becoming common following extension services. Garlic was produced during the Kremt rainy season but it now substituted by red onion and tomatoes. However, onion is easily susceptible to disease and its market price has fluctuated due to overproduction in some years.Before rice was introduced in the area, finger millet, noug, and different teff varieties like Netch Laba, Mure, Bukri, and Bohri, were major crops grown.The introduction of rice into the area during the Derg regime was welcomed by the farmers because the land was depleted from continuously growing similar crops like teff, chickpeas and finger millet only. In the uplands rice varieties are grown adapted to the well drained areas but they produce generally less than the lowland varieties. According to the respondents, rice is considered the most productive crop followed by millet and maize. Some rice producers are able to generate substantial savings, with some of them being able to buy residence areas in the town of Woreta.During the Derg regime, mofer zemet 6 was not allowed. This practice was reinstalled following overthrow of the Derg and farmers were able to cultivate land far away from their residence locality. Farmers have been exchanging land among themselves through various arrangements to be able to grow food in proximity to their residence.In Kuhar Michael two or even three crops can be grown per year where irrigation is available. In the upper part of Kuhar Michael only one crop of, maize, millet or teff can be grown. As a result of the increasing population pressure marginal lands are being increasingly used for growing crops, which is revealed by several stony features. Soil erosion is becoming much pronounced.The expansion of cultivated land as shown on the satellite images in KuharMichael was confirmed by interviews with inhabitants that indicated that the land conversion was caused by the high numbers of the youths, who were looking for land because no employment opportunities outside agriculture were available. Currently triggered by the serious shortage of land, KuharMichael church is renting out about 8 ha land to landless youngsters from the15ha that was delineated for grass production. Selling grass for hay was the major source of income for the priests and other servants. The land is rented for 300 ETB per kedema (0.25ha) for a year. Further land redistribution to address landlessness is difficult due to very small size of farm land holdings and enforcement of land certification. According to a survey made in Amhara region, 12.8% of the rural households have no access to land (Adenew and Abdi, 2005). Hence, it will be imperative to look for other options of addressing the growing shortage of land and landlessness. For instance, as suggested by one author, access to farmlands can be improved through development of land rental markets (Benin et al., 2002). Consequently, the district land management office is considering whether other areas owned by churches and schools can be rented out to the landless youngsters. Recently it was decided that the 30 kedema (7.5ha) of grassland owned by Nora Elementary school, will be rented out as cultivated land to landless people in the locality.This land was one of the major sources of hay to the community.Temporal analysis of feed resources dating 30 years back revealed that the major sources of feed were communal and private grazing. During this period, farmers were not interested to collect crop straws/stover and used to leave it on their farmland as they had enough feed resources. As a result, other than occasional consumption of crop byproducts in crop fields, most of it had no other use than being decomposed and incorporated into soil.Up to 1974, two years after Derg came to power, there was no restriction of grazing by locality and most communal grazing lands were open for every resident in the peasant association. From the beginning of July to September, hillside grazing areas were closed. From October to December, the areas were open for free grazing. During harvesting time (November to January), animals were taken to the farmlands to feed on the leftovers as there was no practice of collecting straw. After Derg came to power, the community was taught to decrease the number of animals they owned and to minimize free grazing. Following this, hillsides were closed and rehabilitated and, consequently a shortage of grazing land led to a decline in the number of livestock. As a result, farmers started collecting straw and other byproducts to complement animal feeding and to overcome feed shortages (Table 8).Likewise, nowadays, free grazing is prohibited and people are forced to practice controlled feeding. Animals are maintained at home from July to November and are fed grass collected from closed areas, weeds from crops, and green leaves from crops. From November to the next rainy season, animals are allowed to graze freely, and the few individuals who have Belg 7 crops look after their crops. In accordance with remote sensing analysis, the socio-economic survey showed that availability of communal and private grazing areas have been continuously declining over the last three decades. Only 5% of the interviewed households said that they owned private grazing land three decades ago.Presently, none of the respondents owned private grazing land. To make up for the decline in grazing lands, crop residues and hay from exclosures are being used as feed. Crop residues are being either carried to the house or grazed on the cultivated lands after the harvest. Farmers rank teff straw as most important feed followed by sorghum stover, maize straw, green sorghum, and maize green leaves based on their availability (Table 8). Other coping strategies to shortages in animal feed include purchasing hay from nearby towns like Kobo, migrating to adjacent shrub lands like Hora, found in the Habru district, and use of tree/shrub species that have a forage quality as well.Generally, contrasting views are reflected by respondents from Lenche Dima regarding the state of cultivated land over time. Some of them argued that the net change in cultivated land is negative as the amount of additional land allocated for cultivation is less than the amount of land abandoned due to land degradation and expansion of settlements. On the other hand, respondents agreed that cultivated land has shown an increase due to the encroachment into communally owned lands like grassland, shrub/bush lands, and the close down of fallowing practice triggered by land shortage problem. Furthermore, the analysis of satellite images revealed that cultivated land increased only during the first period followed by a continuous decline in the preceding two periods, making the net change negative.Following conversion of grazing lands to cultivated land, maize and different fruit trees are grown around homesteads depending on water availability, as a strategy to feed a growing family size. To mitigate the serious moisture stress, attempts were made by AMAREW project to introduce technologies like domeshaped harvesting structures and drip irrigation, which could help in addressing such problems. However, most of the water harvesting structures are not working well, and those structures with water are not properly used to meet the intended objectives. It is also noted that various weeds could affect crop productivity; these include a Janjur invasion in 1974, Kinche or Chebchabe in 1985 and Kinjit occurred recently in the closed areas. According to Gizaw et al. (1999), crop yield was high before 1973. In 1973and 1984/85 /85 there was no crop production due to drought and after that it has been declining from year to year, and the total type of crops grown has decreased from nine to four. In an effort to increase crop productivity, the use of fertilizer was tried but it was not promising, as the crops burned due to the hot temperature condition and lack of water. In the valley bottom, a significant proportion of land is lost due to gully formation and deposition of sand is another problem hampering potential of land for production.Hence, soil moisture stress from unreliable rain fall, land degradation, limited use of organic fertilizers and little success from use of synthetic fertilizers, low crop diversity, decline in size of household level land holding and landlessness appear to be major challenges facing the crop production.A respondent in Lenche Dima pointed out that an area which was owned by one individual in the time between 1982 and 1991 is now divided between 7 households. The average size of non-irrigable land holdings has shown a decline from 2 to 1.3ha per households (Table 10) in Lenche Dima over 30 years. Furthermore, the average homestead size in Lenche Dima was about 0.73ha almost thirty years back and this has fallen down currently to 0.23 ha per household (Table 10). Describing how a settlement has been expanding, a respondent pointed out that an area which hosted about 10 to 15 household heads during the 1970s now accommodates about 50 households. Among the various factors responsible for land fragmentation at the household level, inheritance from parents to sons, individuals equally sharing resources including land when divorcing, and land redistribution play significant roles.However, attributed to the shortage of land and other economical factors, newlyweds are often forced to stay with their parents up to 10 years until they can find a way or an enabling environment to start their own family life.Prior to the introduction of the land certification process, individuals were allowed to report to the concerned body whenever their land was degraded or lost due to several natural factors. But, it has been found not as easy to do so, following the land certification process, which entitles farmers with the right to use the land and the obligation to protect it as well. As a means to stop the expansion of land degradation, strict enforcement of rules that obligate land owners to put forth maximum effort in conserving their land is imposed.Therefore, complaints and letters provided are not any more eligible with very few exceptions to claim compensation provided that the owner went through all the measure he can achieve by his own up on occurrence of natural hazards. Furthermore, as part of an effort to control problems that affect land quality, agreement was reached in 1998 to penalize individuals who do not or cannot eradicate Kinche (an aggressive weed affecting crop production) from land units they own.In Land is a very important asset in the rural economy and has been the cause of several forms of conflicts and claims among community members. The Environmental Protection, Land Administration and Use Authority (EPLAUA) is primarily responsible for issues associated with land resources management at the district level, and there is also a team of individuals responsible for local land administration unit at the peasant association level. However, the works of this latter team is not subjected to evaluation by the community, and this has created opportunities for these leaders to get involved in various activities processes that lead to biomass and species losses and substitutions, affecting abundance of biodiversity (Blake and Nicholson, 2004).Achievements brought about as a result of AMAREW's intervention in Lenche Dima include the safeguarding of cultivated lands as a result of upstream treatment, treatment of gullies, rehabilitation of degraded hills, and improved technical skills in Gabion production. As can be seen in Apart from efforts made to rehabilitate and reforest degraded areas, challenges due to moisture stress are reported to have negatively affected the anticipated success. For instance, two of the respondents explained that they planted 300 and 1500 eucalyptus and Gravilea seedlings respectively in the gullies being divided; however, most of them failed due to the serious soil moisture stress prevalent in the area.As noted by AMAREW project, exclosures have become social exclosures with no armed guards or fences, but only by an agreement reached among the community members to exclude animals from the protected exclosures and to avoid cutting of vegetation (Gebrekidan et al., 2007). All the member individuals have been involved in protecting the closed areas from illegal intrusions 9 and penalizing wrong doers. The penalty ranges from 3 to 100 ETB depending on frequency and type of illegal activity, and this is enforced through cooperation between local police and administrators. An agreement is already made to direct individuals to the next level (social justice system) uponshowing resistance to accept the penalty imposed on them. Most people involved in those prohibited activities are from adjacent localities. Key informants argued that the major reason for this is that some residents from the nearby areas feel jealous when they see the area rehabilitated. However, realizing the various forms of benefits drawn from the rehabilitated area like protection of cultivated land from erosion, grass and wood products for fuel, construction and farm implements, members continue to safeguard the area.Despite such organized efforts to maintain and benefit from area exclosures, there are some challenges being faced. For instance, various hillslopes in Oromo including Debiso, Gudguad Kebele and Dishike were distributed for 65 individuals (Table 9). However, only Dishike is well protected while the others have been destroyed. According to respondents, there is still pressure to eliminate the rehabilitated catchment in Dishike, which put sustainability of some of the exclosure under question.Despite some resistance to maintain closed areas, tendency of expanding the rehabilitation and closure of degraded areas was reported by realizing their importance to adjacent localities. As a result, Gerado and Oromo (Kille Gora)have been protected starting from 2006. Fifty seven percent of respondents in Lenche Dima reported that they are involved in area closure management with an average holding of 0.12ha, which is acquired over the last five years. As a strategy to solve the land shortage problems and promote afforestation in Amhara, a land directive was issued in 1998 to distribute degraded communal lands to landless individuals and groups for private development of forest, fruit and fodder production (Desta et al., 2000). Hence, land holding of households has slightly increased in Lenche Dima due to the involvement of the community in area closure. Some individuals argued that livestock resources are their banks offering better economic returns as compared to what they get from crop cultivation due to higher uncertainty. However, the expansion of the exclosures practice on various hillslopes in Lenche Dima has negatively affected the livestock component due to the exclusion of animals from such areas. This is especially true for goats, which highly depend on browsing and are the major source of cash. In fact, one has to note that exclosures also complement animal feed through the cut and carry of hay for cattle. Furthermore, the provision of communal grazing areas locally termed yekorma sar to investors negatively affected benefits expected from livestock resources by limiting the availability of feed. According to a survey in Amhara, communal resources have encouraged farmers to keep a large stock of animals (Desta et al., 2000).This author speculated that, if grazing areas were managed privately, farmers would be forced to reduce their herds as they cannot afford to pay for grazing.There are cases where land is not allocated for its best alternative use. For According to respondents, following transformation in land use and land cover over the study areas, the climatic condition has changed significantly. They reported a trend towards a shorter rainy season that starts later and finishes earlier with a relatively less predictable pattern as compared to the old times.Particularly, respondents from Lenche Dima remarked that there was a more regular and predictable rainfall pattern three decades back with a positive influence on the various farming activities.It is of interest to note that the community has evolved towards other mechanisms to predict possible outcomes of their farming practices using various components of climate variables as a proxy. For instance, in Lenche Dima, the communities have acquired a traditional experience that if there is sufficient rainfall in the period from Pagume 5 th (end of 13 th month in Ethiopian calendar, 10 th of September) to 15 th of September, a period locally termed The remote sensing analysis had shown (Table 6) contrasting trends regarding landscape level change of cultivated land with net expansion in Kuhar Michael, and net decline in Lenche Dima. However, socio-economic surveys revealed a net decrease in the average size of household level cultivated land, which changed from 2.2ha to 1.2ha and from 1.24ha to 1ha per household in Lenche Dima and Kuhar Michael, respectively (Table 10).Major contributing factors include population increase, land redistribution, and land degradation.Unlike expansion of small scale irrigation scheme and landscape level increase in cultivated land, size of household level Irrigated and non-irrigated lands in Kuhar Michael has declined from 0.45ha to 0.37 ha and from 0.79ha to 0.63ha respectively during the last thirty years (Table 10). This could be attributed to population increase and subsequent land redistribution, transfer through inheritance, and due to land degradation.In Lenche Dima, total cultivated land decreased during the last 30 years. As opposed to this, size of irrigated land has increased from 0.22ha to 0.49ha (Table 10). This is attributed to a medium scale irrigation scheme established in 1991 by CoSAERAR (Commission for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Rehabilitation for Amhara Region) through diversion of Alewuha River (Bekele, 2008). However, discussions with Gubalafto district officials revealed that farmers have not yet fully exploited the potential of the irrigation scheme despite serious moisture stress in the area. This is due to the long distance between farmers' residence and irrigable fields that requires frequent travel and loss of human labor and draft power, less follow up efforts and attack of matured crops by wild animal. Hence, efforts are underway to address this problem by establishing a village in the nearby area to facilitate The total average land holding per household in both study areas has shown a decline from 2.92ha to 2.15ha for Lenche Dima and from 1.59ha to 1.48ha in Kuhar Michael over the past 30 years (Table 10 and Figure 15). Particularly, a greater magnitude of change was found in Lenche Dima than in Kuhar Michael (Figure 15), which could be due to lower land productivity requiring cultivating more land and establishment of exclosures as a response to serious land degradation in Lenche Dima. In Kuhar Michael, the land size remained around 1.5 ha which is likely the minimum amount to make a living.In this location, Bahir Dar town is relatively close and seasonal migration toMetema area is also another potential source of job for those to seek employment that have not sufficient land. From that time onwards, population of cattle in Kuhar Michael remained unchanged starting from the point of convergence up to 5 years ago and showed only a slight decrease up to recent years (Figure 16a). Despite periodic variations, the over all trend of cattle holding decreased more in Lenche Dima than in Kuhar Michael. This result corresponds well with the reported shrink and complete conversion of most grassland in Lenche Dima.Despite varations in number of pack animal,in the study area over the last 30 years (Figure 16b), a net increase was found for both study areas (table 11), but with higher magnitude in Kuhar Michael than in Lenche Dima. This increase in both study areas is a consequence of the growing need for transportation means. According to respondents, there was no camel in ten years ago and following its introduction, it kept growing and 32% of the respondents said to have camels now. This is largely due to the comparative advantage of camels due to its diversified feeding ability , capablity to withstand drought (water and feed shortages), capability to carry heavy loads, enabling owners to offer rental service during distribution of food aid, crop harvest, and they also facilitate the selling of charcoal and fuel wood to markets. Hence, owners are able to generate significant income, which form part of the mechanisms employed to assures household income and foodsecurity. An adverse impact on the local environment is also being reported due to introduction and growing population of camels in Lenche Dima. Over the past thirty years, the number of small ruminants was greater in  additional was distributed to selected households by the project as a strategy to create income and improving the livelihood of the community. After watershed management (area closure and gully rehablitation) was implemented and some areas were closed from human and animal contact.Besides its protection, members were also granted accesss of grass through cut and carry system, which became a highly accepted activity by the majority of the watershed communities as income producing activity (Gebrekidan et al., 2006). However, unlike speculations made during earlier stages of the project, farmers are now complaining about the difficulty of rearing goats as their sole feed sources are being protected and mobility is restricted. According to Descheemaeker (2006), apart from its positive and fast effect on vegetation recovery, exclosures can also cause increased pressure on the remaining grazing lands and natural forests and they do not yield many tangible and material benefits. Hence, the author further remarked that the practice may not always get support by the local farmers due to the opportunity cost from economic loss of other activities that disappear upon establishment of exclosures, which should not be ignored. This requires creating arrangements to allow farmers get access to woody biomass and helping them to benefit from non-wood forest products.According to survey made in Gojam area of Amhara region, goat represented 10% of farm capital invested in livestock yet accounted for about 40% of cash income from livestock (CEDEP, 1999in Desta et al., 2000) reflecting the critical role of goats as source of cash compared to other animal types.Therefore, the observed decline of goat population in recent years could affect of fertilizer. Furthermore, along with the expansion of cultivated land, introduction of new crops like rice, onion, tomatoe took place in Kuhar Michael as availability of water made it possible to develop small scale irrigation schemes. This has contributed significantly towards improved household income in Kuhar Michael from production and sell of cash crops. On the other hand, crop production in Lenche Dima has been constrained by land degradation, unreliable rainfall and soil moisture stress, abandonment of traditional soil fertility improvement practices, and limited success upon use of inorganic fertilizers. Added to this, the number of crop types grown is reported to have decreased from 9 to 4 (Gizaw et al., 1999) leading to limited production possibility.Generally, communal grazing used to be the major source of animal feed in the study areas during the reign of Hailesilassie. However, later during the Derg administration, part of the communal grazing lands was distributed for cultivation and this created shortage in feed. Hence, crop byproducts and leftovers were introduced as alternative sources of animal feed. Preference ranking revealed that rice, millet, and maize straw/stover in Kuhar Michael and teff, sorghum, and maize green/stover to be important feed sources currently, besides to grasslands. As far as private grassland is concerned, all respondents in Lenche Dima replied that they do not have any due to serious shortage of cultivated land, while 64% of the respondents in Kuhar Michael claimed to own it.As revealed from the socio-economic survey and confirmed by RS/GIS analysis of satellite images, grasslands have shown changes that extend from a decline in cover to complete extinction in some localities of the study areas.In particular, the shrinkage was found to be more pronounced in Lenche Dima than in Kuhar Michael. However, ASTER image analysis had shown a recent However, recent surveys showed that shortcomings are emerging in the long run after phase out of the project as it is not so easy to immediately evaluate the overall acceptance and success of an intervention. Hence, a detailed evaluation of the impacts brought about as a result of AMAREW's intervention is highly required.In Kuhar Michael, grasslands owned communally and those that belong to institutions are under continuous conversion to cultivated lands. Grasslands declined in the first two periods at a rate of -0.6% each, followed by a slight improvement at annual rate of 0.8% in the third period, which makes the annual rate of net change to be -0.3%. Unlike this, there are some individuals who still allocate part of their land for private grazing unlike the case in Lenche Dima, as crop production is supported with irrigation and orientation towards cash crops enabled farmers to get a better production per unit area, which, as a result, allowed farmers to allocate part of their land as grassland. Despite landscape level decline in grassland as revealed by remote sensing image analysis, respondents in Kuhar Michael confirmed that farmers are still able to allocate small parcels for private grassland to complement animal feed. The grassland presented by the remote sensing analysis meant to represent most of the communal holdings as those owned privately may not be captured by the remote sensor instruments due to disparity between the relative small size of privately owned grasslands and spatial representation (scale) of the remote sensor instruments.Based on temporal analysis of livestock population in the study areas, the net population is found to grow slightly in Kuhar Michael, while much decline is revealed in Lenche Dima over the last thirty years. Particularly in Kuhar Michael, pack animals and small ruminants increased while cattle holding stayed same. On the other hand, in Lenche Dima, pack animals showed an increase and the household holding of cattle and small ruminants declined. open shrub/bush land expanded with annual average of 0.3% over the study period. This could be due to lack of protection of communally owned shrub/bush lands and access by animals and damage from grazing, collection of fuel wood that facilitated conversion of dense to open shrub/bush land.Apart from the decline in both open and dense shrub/bush lands as revealed by the remote sensing analysis, respondents testified the limited availability of some tree/shrub species and some are also reported to be under extinction.For instance, introduction and population increase of camels is reported to have brought about adverse impacts on the local environments of Lenche Dima as camels browse agressively with a very wide range of feed preferences including most shrub, bush and tree species in the landscape.This has disrupted some ecological functions through the pressure created on regeneration and dynamics of scattered shrubs and trees in farmlands, near homesteads and in unprotected communal areas. One farmer even remarked that \"all the shrub, bush and tree species currently found scattered in the farmlands are those that finished their seedling/sapling stage and grew up to be a tree prior to the arrival of camels in the area\". This means that succession is seriously undermined and the regeneration ability of some species like Ziziphus spina-christi that are well adapted in Lenche Dima is being affected.Similarly, due to the fact that most shrub/bush lands in Kuhar Michael are open access for human and animals and consequent pressure created due to fuel wood collection and grazing,regenerative capacity, distribution and status of some tree/shrub species is hampered.1. In the face of the growing household level land shortage and growing number of landless youths, it will be imperative to create and strengthen non-farm/off-farm income generating activities due to limited capacity of agriculture to accommodate additional population.2. Forest resources development, protection and use strategies need to be devised to counteract the deteriorating shrub/bushes and avoid further extinction of important shrub/tree species and migration of associated wild animals.3. Further study is required to quantify reported species extinction and underlying factors responsible for that. Impacts brought about on the local environment of Lenche Dima due to introduction of camel need further research.4. AMAREW project, encompassing watershed management, microfinance, research and extension activities, has brought several positive benefits. However, negative impacts are also reported few years after termination of the project due to some of the interventions.Hence, further study is required to better understand current challenges and evaluate overall impacts so as to make immediate corrections and draw important lessons to further scale up the experience to other areas.5. As revealed by the socio-economic survey, land provided for investors in Lenche Dima is done without consent of the community and this led to tension and lack of trust. According to Gubalafto District expert, effort is underway to provide additional area to provide for new investors. The new land rental service opened up for landless youths by converting institutionally owned grasslands to cultivated land is an appreciable effort, which came out of the collaborative effort of Fogera District experts, the local level land administration committee, and community members. Therefore, participation of the community and getting their approval is highly required prior to providing land for investors and making similar decisions in order to avoid conflicts. ","tokenCount":"17130"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5f9709f934f6aa2022279f444fd24ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b737279f-aba7-4c46-bb97-c89a08131005/retrieve","id":"-385168339"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a97e75fa-a2c6-43ee-bb81-3103294e9d9b","pagecount":"1","content":"Read more Learn more Learn more Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Click here for DOI Hello @CGIAR! Welcome to Issue #3 of Climate Insights, the Climate Impact Platform's fortnightly roundup of the latest publications on climate change impacts and adaptation, mitigation measures, and the physical science from the literature. We're tracking trending topics in the climate space and linking them to our work for a food secure future with a brief comment on the implications of this new research on our own portfolio of climate research for development. . Here's your roundup from the last two weeks: CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AND ADAPTATION Climate information access and use in East and Southern Africa: identifying linkages between smallholder household characteristics and climate change adaptation Fanny Minjauw et al. (2024), Climate information access and use in East and Southern Africa: identifying linkages between smallholder household characteristics and climate change adaptation, Climate and Development.Climate-related information is assumed to support smallholder farmer decision-making and use of adaptive practices as a means to improve livelihoods, resiliency and levels of food security. However, the value of climate information provision and its role in promoting adaptive practices remains poorly understood. This paper examines access to, and use of, climate information by 5,322 smallholder households across Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania and Zimbabwe using the Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool. The majority of households regularly accessed at least one source of climate information, primarily via radio (64.9%).Households with relatively better access to credit and land tenure were more likely to receive climate information, and of those, households who reported observing past climate-related changes were more likely to actually use climate information. Findings from this study offer guidance for improving the targeting and delivery of climate information programmes and policies and indicate that the assumed benefits of climate information provision should be more rigorously evaluated. Building on 50 years of CGIAR innovation, AICCRA works to scale climate-smart agriculture and climate information services to reach millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. Cyclones and skinny dolphins: adaptation pathways for Pacific communities under rapid global change Matthew J. Colloff et al. (2024) Cyclones and skinny dolphins: adaptation pathways for Pacific communities under rapid global change, Climate and Development.The Pacific region is experiencing accelerating global change, yet the onus for urgent adaptation falls largely on communities. Communities must therefore be empowered and enabled to design and implement their own adaptation plans, and this capacity should be scaled beyond the original focus. To this aim, this paper tested a new approach in the Solomon Islands for the iterative development, implementation and evaluation of community-led adaptation. The theory of change adopted was that by co-designing a decision-making process with a network of community facilitators, livelihood adaptation planning could be mainstreamed and scaled out across rural communities. Results from a monitoring, evaluation and learning assessment showed the process had generated shifts in thinking among communities towards anticipatory adaptation and the development and implementation of livelihood adaptation pathways. The process had also empowered people to have ownership, responsibility and agency for their futures without major ongoing support from outside agencies.CGIAR engages with a locally-led, data-driven approach toward transformative adaptation through its Climate Resilience Initiative (ClimBeR).Navroz K. Dubash (2024), Design national framework climate laws to enable low-carbon resilient transformation, Science.Transformative change at the scale needed to address climate change requires updated and new national legal frameworks. This is not an easy task and there are risks of inappropriate applications of one-size-fits-all approaches. This commentary explores these trade-offs and investigates what recent experience and literature teaches about designing climate laws for the future. It proposes that in some cases, it may be necessary to loosen the focus on mitigation targets. Although this may seem counterintuitive -concrete emission targets followed by tangible implementation approaches are surely the most direct route to reductions -there are conceptual and political reasons why indirect approaches might have advantages. For example, in many developing countries where emissions are still growing but starting from a low base, structural features of the economy around urbanization and industrialization are important in shaping emissions futures. In this context, the immediate mitigation-related challenge is better understood as avoiding lock-in to high-emitting economic patterns (e.g. cities built around private transport) than as an environmental regulatory challenge of reducing emissions.The CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems, also known as Mitigate+, works closely with key actors in the target countries so that they are equipped with the knowledge, information, and tools they need to make robust evidence-based decisions as they confront challenges in food system discourse, policy development, and implementation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Brent Brower-Toland et al. (2024), A crucial role for technology in sustainable agriculture, ACS Agricultural Science & Technology.The impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events, will increase the likelihood of crop failure in the future. Conservation agriculture, including practices such as reduced tillage, continuous cover, and crop rotation, provides a foundation for safeguarding agricultural support the widespread adoption of these practices, it will be necessary to make technological advancements through machinery breakthroughs, automation, advanced genetics, and biotechnology. This paper reviews approaches that integrate biotechnology and new breeding techniques to protect the yield into a conservation framework to accelerate sustainable intensification. By designing crops to function in the optimal planting configurations, improved crop rotational systems, and smart soil nutrient management, it is possible to grow more with less.Technological Areas Report explores solutions to pressing global challenges in agriculture -challenges that must be overcome in order for climate-resilient, sustainable farming to be possible for millions of farmers in low-and middle-income countries by 2030.Sahed Khan et al. ( 2024), Data-driven review on gender and rice varietal trait preferences in Bangladesh, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Vol. 8.In Bangladesh, farmers adapt to changing conditions through the adoption of improved varieties containing new or combined traits -and men and women farmers have different trait preferences. This review synthesizes existing knowledge (using primary and secondary data) to assess the nature, extent, and causes of gendered disparities in rice varietal trait preferences among farmers and consumers in Bangladesh. The analysis revealed substantial variations in women and men farmers' varietal trait preferences, influenced by factors like income, access to farming information, household size, land size, and decision-making.Consequently, addressing gender-differentiated trait preferences in the development of improved rice varieties is crucial to curtail farmers' varietal adoption lag in Bangladesh. The findings underscore the necessity of systematic identification and integration of gender-differentiated varietal trait preferences into rice breeding programs. Failure to account for such preferences may disadvantage the genderresponsiveness of developed varieties and limit the anticipated impact.Women have key roles on the front line in food systems, including in times of crisis, and their engagement is vital to overcoming global threats and achieving shared global goals. This was the key message in the plenary by CGIAR scientist Dr. Ranjitha Puskur delivered on the final day of the 6th International Rice Congress (IRC 2023).Adelle Thomas (2024), Research needs for loss and damage, Science. Peter Läderach et al. ( 2024), Using climate financing wisely to address multiple crises, PLOS Climate.This paper explores the challenges posed by a convergence of risk drivers, including climate change, chronic poverty, insecurities, and displacement. The authors emphasize the need for evaluating existing financing mechanisms to create synergies between social protection, peace, inclusion objectives, and climate resilience outcomes. The international architecture for climate change mitigation and adaptation policy holds the potential to address not only its primary purpose but also contribute to development outcomes and address multiple risk drivers.This paper was authored by CGIAR scientists based at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Bioversity International, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Although there is acknowledgment that forest landscape restoration (FLR) promoting tree planting should not cause the loss or conversion of open, non-forested ecosystems (i.e., they should not be afforested), concerns have been raised that the focus on tree-based restoration combined with misclassification of grassy ecosystems could lead to misplaced restoration and destruction of intact, ancient ecosystems. To understand the potential scale of tree planting in savannas and grasslands -which is unknown -this paper examined restoration pledges under the African Forest Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and on-the-ground projects, finding that tree planting is widespread across non-forest systems.CIFOR-ICRAF is providing evidence and analysis of how nature-based solutions -such as sustainable forest and wetland management, agroforestry and landscape restoration -can help mitigate climate change and help local people adapt to its effects, while working to help countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement.Simon Roques et al. ( 2024), Recent Advances in Enteric Methane Mitigation and the Long Road to Sustainable Ruminant Production, Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Vol. 12, pages 321-343.Mitigation of methane emission, a potent greenhouse gas, is a worldwide priority to limit global warming. A substantial part of anthropogenic methane is emitted by the livestock sector. This paper presents the latest developments and challenges ahead of the main efficient mitigation strategies of enteric methane production in ruminants. Numerous mitigation strategies have been developed in the last decades, from dietary manipulation and breeding to targeting of methanogens, the microbes that produce methane. The most recent advances focus on specific inhibition of key enzymes involved in methanogenesis. But these inhibitors, although efficient, are not affordable and not adapted to the extensive farming systems prevalent in low-and middle-income countries. Effective global mitigation of methane emissions from livestock should be based not only on scientific progress but also on the feasibility and accessibility of mitigation strategies. James Weber et al. ( 2024), Chemistry-albedo feedbacks offset up to a third of forestation's CO2 removal benefits, Science.Forestation is considered a good way to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide and cool climate, but its impact on climate is more complex than just its effects through carbon capture. This study explores the impacts of forestation on climate by quantifying its influence on surface albedo and atmospheric composition. It finds that the combination of decreased reflection and increased aerosol scattering of incident sunlight offsets about one-third of the cooling by carbon dioxide removal that forestation produces. Bernardo M. Flores et al. ( 2024) Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system, Nature.The possibility that the Amazon Forest system could soon reach a tipping point, inducing large-scale collapse, has raised global concern. The region is increasingly exposed to unprecedented stress from warming temperatures, extreme droughts, deforestation and fires, even in central and remote parts of the system. This paper analyses existing evidence for five major drivers of water stress on Amazonian forests, as well as potential critical thresholds of those drivers that, if crossed, could trigger local, regional or even biome-wide forest collapse. Its findings estimate that by 2050, 10-47% of Amazonian forests will be exposed to compounding disturbances that may trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions and potentially exacerbate regional climate change. Keeping the Amazon Forest resilient in the Anthropocene will depend on a combination of local efforts to end deforestation and degradation and to expand restoration, with global efforts to stop greenhouse gas emissions.In the framework of the initiative \"Low-Emission Food Systems\" (Mitigate+), CGIAR scientists conducted a literature review on lowemission sociotechnical innovations carried out in the Amazon. CGIAR works with and supports national and regional partners to achieve sustainable and resilient food, land, and water systems in the Southeast Asia and Pacific regions -which will be affected by these changing warming patterns.","tokenCount":"1912"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"400cff76f67fb2815c4bcc89fff5b5b5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dcf1a418-531a-4c16-8866-371a6a3d959f/content","id":"43851364"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4d32ca65-2d4b-41bc-8ceb-3259b7eec542","pagecount":"12","content":"Determining the stability and consistency of grain yield performance requires accurate evaluation of genotypes in different environments. In Mexico, annual national spring wheat irrigated trials (ENTRI) are conducted to assess elite bread (Triticum aestivum L.) and durum (Triticum durum L.) wheat performance in different testing environments (TEs) in the main wheat-growing areas. These trials provide data supporting release of new cultivars and aim to also address Mexican wheat value chain grain needs. This study analyzed grain yield performance of 30 bread and durum wheat cultivars grown in trials in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 growing cycles conducted across TEs in northwest, north, and central Mexico. Environmental variability (location, sowing timing, and irrigation schemes) across the ENTRI enabled genotype by environment interaction to be effectively evaluated. Bread and durum wheat genotypes with high and stable grain yield were also identified and compared across TEs of the wheat-growing areas of Mexico. The bread wheat cultivars Bacorehuis F2015 and Borlaug100 F2014, and the durum cultivars Barobampo C2015, CONASIST C2015, and Anatoly C2011 were high yielding and gave stable performance in most of the TEs. This analysis demonstrates the utility of multi-year, Abbreviations: AEC, average environment coordination; ANOVA, analysis of variance; ASED, average standard error of the differences in means; BLUP,Wheat is one of the most important staple crops in Mexico, providing 10% of the calories for household diet in the country (USDA, 2022). During 2020, 52% of the national durum wheat production was exported to different world markets while 54% of the bread wheat for domestic consumption was imported (FIRA, 2021). Northwest Mexico is the most important wheat-growing area with 70% of the total production in 2021 followed by central and northern regions that account for 25% and 4%, respectively (SIAP, 2023). In Mexico, genetic gains for wheat productivity have been steady (Figure 1) and the long-term collaboration in varietal development between International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the National Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) continues to support this (Villaseñor-Mir et al., 2021). Wheat breeding in Mexico aims to develop material with high and stable yield potential, resilience to biotic and abiotic stress, and superior end use quality (Crespo-Herrera et al., 2017). Selection of cultivars with these attributes requires multi-environment testing under near optimum conditions in order to select for yield potential as well as specific screening for abiotic and biotic stresses in each environment (Braun et al., 1996). The resulting cultivars should possess yield potential along with favorable gene accumulation for broad-spectrum resistance to diseases and tolerance to abiotic stresses. Selection for target population of environments (TPEs) is key to designing strategies for crop improvement (Atlin et al., 2000). A recent analysis of spring wheat performance in India defined TPEs, showing that there is an opportunity to further refine breeding targets based on current and future environmental parameters (Crespo-Herrera et al., 2021).Identifying outstanding genotypes is complicated by the genotype by environment interaction (GEI) because ranking of the best genotypes can vary between environments (Asfaw et al., 2009). Strategies such as stratification of environments into mega-environments with specific biotic and abiotic stress profiles can be applied to reduce this difficulty (Yan et al., 2000). Several statistical methodologies have also been developed to identify superior high-yielding and stable cultivars, termed \"reliable genotypes\" (Annicchiarico, 2002).Static stability (type 1 or biological) refers to a constant expression of a character in relation to the environmental variation (phenotypic variation across environments = 0). Dynamic stability (type 2 or agronomical) refers to a character expression pattern which is parallel to the environmental variation, indicating the absence of GEI (Annicchiarico, 2002;Becker & Léon, 1988). Static stability is useful with characters (quality, disease resistance, etc.) that have to be permanently fixed across environments (Becker & Léon, 1988). However, it is also commonly associated with poor response capacity to environmental changes and targeting static stability alone can lead to low yield potential. Therefore, dynamic stability is more appropriate to assess grain yield stability (Lin et al., 1986) as it allows for selection of environmental responsiveness.One of the most commonly used methodologies for evaluating dynamic stability is the linear regression coefficient (\uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 ) from the environmental mean for a given trait (Eberhart & Russell, 1966). Based on this methodology, a stable genotype would have a \uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 = 1, whereas genotypes that have \uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 ≠ 1 are sensitive to environmental changes. A genotype with \uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 > 1 tends to respond better to high-yielding environments, whereas \uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 < 1 usually performs better in low-yielding environments (Eberhart & Russell, 1966). Multivariate methods, namely genotype and genotype by environment interaction (GGE) biplots, have arisen as an alternative to evaluate the GEI in multi-environmental trials (Kroonenberg, 1995;Tinker et al., 2006). This analysis uses the genotype (G) and genotype by environment (GE) effects to create graphical representations of genotype performance across multiple environments (Yan et al., 2000). GGE biplots are constructed using the first two principal components (PC 1 and PC 2) obtained from a single value decomposition of environmentcentered yield data (Yan et al., 2000). The primary use of GGE biplots is to identify cultivars that have the best performance across a set of environments (Yan et al., 2000).In wheat, most previous studies have aimed to identify similarities and correlations between yield and yield components when bread (Triticum aestivum L.) and durum (Triticum durum L.) wheat species were compared (Cossani et al., 2011;Marti & Slafer, 2014). In this study, our primary aim was to assess the overall yield performance and stability of performance of both elite bread and durum wheat under irrigated conditions in Mexico. Although overall durum and bread wheat performance could be inferred, this was not the core focus of the study. The work reported builds on previous work to assess yield stability under rainfed conditions in central Mexico (Rodríguez-Pérez et al., 2002). The currentstudy is novel as it considers the major testing regions and environments used across Mexico for targeting broad as well as local performance potential. The specific objectives were to (a) analyze the effect of environmental variation on the performance of genotypes from national spring bread and durum wheat in different testing environments (TEs); (b) compare phenotypic stability of genotypes; and (c) identify high-yielding stable cultivars.Genotypes evaluated in the national spring wheat irrigated trials (ENTRI) of the INIFAP were grown in the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 winter growing seasons in eight locations with different testing envrionments (TEs) in northwest, north, and central Mexico (temperature and precipitation for this locations are provided in Figures S1 and S2). The genotypes tested included eight bread and eight durum wheat cultivars (Table 1; with low variation in phenology and plant height), which were planted in eight representative locations from the three major wheat-growing regions in Mexico (Table 2). Four TEs were defined using a combination of sowing dates (optimum and late) and irrigation management (full and reduced), resulting in a total of 30 trials (Table 2) in eight locations across Mexico (Figure 2). The trials were characterized by the following factors: growing season, location, irrigation management, and in some cases sowing date. All experiments were sown using a randomized complete block design with two replicates. Experimental units consisted of plots of 3 m length and 1.2 m width with four plant rows. Agronomic, pest, and disease control management followed standard INIFAP procedures for each wheat-growing region. Grain yield (reported at 12% moisture content) was obtained by harvesting the entire experimental plot after maturity.The restricted maximum likelihood procedure was implemented using the multienvironment trial analysis in R (META-R) program to calculate variance components and broad-sense heritability estimates for combined analysis and individual environments (trials) considering all factors as random effects (Alvarado et al., 2020) (Equation 1) as follows:where y ijk is the trait of interest; μ is the mean effect; G i is the genetic effect of the ith genotype; E j is the effects of the jth environment; G × E ij is the genotype × environment• We identified cultivars with high and stable grain yield in Mexico. • Environmental variability enabled G × E interaction to be effectively evaluated. • Multi-year, multi-environment testing and analysis is useful to identify improved wheat cultivars.interaction effect; R k is the effect of the kth replicate nested within the jth environment; and ε ijk is the residual. Least significant difference (LSD 0.05 ) was used to compare the best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) in the genotype combined analysis (Equation 2) as follows:where the t is the cumulative studentsťs distribution with a level of significance of 5%, dfError is the degrees of freedom of the error, and ASED is the average standard error of the differences in means (Alvarado et al., 2020).Heritability estimates for individual environment and combined analysis were calculated as in Equations ( 3) and ( 4), respectively.where \uD835\uDC3B 2 is broad-sense heritability, σ 2 \uD835\uDC54 , σ 2 \uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC52 , and σ 2 ε are genotype, genotype × environment, and error variances,  respectively, nReps is the number of replications, and \uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC38\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC63\uD835\uDC60 is the number of environments. Environments with H 2 below 0.05 were eliminated from the analysis (resulting in the removal of trial E30 [ Table 2]).The (Eberhart & Russell, 1966) stability parameter b i and the GGE biplot analysis were used to determine stability and GEI. The GGE biplots were generated using the first two principal components, which explained most of the G and GE variability based on the model (Equation 5) (Yan & Tinker, 2005) as follows:where \uD835\uDC66 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 is the mean of the i genotype in the j environment; β \uD835\uDC57 is the mean yield in environment j; \uD835\uDC60 \uD835\uDC57 is the standard deviation in the environment j; λ 1 and λ 2 are the singular values of PC1 and PC2, respectively; ξ \uD835\uDC561 and ξ \uD835\uDC562 are the eigenvectors of the genotype i for PC1 and PC2, respectively; and η 1\uD835\uDC57 and η 2\uD835\uDC57 are the eigenvectors of environment j for PC1 and PC2, respectively; and ε ij is the residual of the genotype i and environment j. Equation ( 5) is reorganized to obtain the PC scores of ith genotype and jth environment as follows:where \uD835\uDC59 = 1, 2; \uD835\uDC54 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC59 is the PC scores for genotype ith (ξ \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC59 ), and \uD835\uDC52 \uD835\uDC59\uD835\uDC57 PC scores for the jth environment ( η \uD835\uDC59\uD835\uDC57 ).The (Eberhart & Russell, 1966) analysis of variance (ANOVA) and stability parameters were obtained using the \"plantbreeding\" package (Umesh, 2014) implemented in R (R Core Team, 2020). The GGE biplots \"which-won-where\" and \"means versus stability\" were created using the \"gge\" and \"GGEBiplots\" packages in R (Dumble et al., 2017;R Core Team, 2020;Wright & Laffont, 2018). The genetic correlation among environments using the dendrogram and biplot were performed using META-R (Alvarado et al., 2020). The biplots were generated using the 16 genotypes in all 29 trials to determine major TEs based on the grain yield genotypic performance and to identify genotypes with high and stable yield.A large portion of grain yield variation was explained by the environment (trials), followed by GEI and genotype. The combined ANOVA showed statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) for all sources of variation (Table S1). The per environment grain yield varied significantly, ranging from 8.3 ton ha −1 in E5 (TE 1: Mexicali full irrigation with optimum sowing date in 2012-2013) to 1.52 ton ha −1 in E11 (TE 4: Roque reduced irrigation and late planting in 2012-2013) (Table 3). Significant differences were also found in the variance of individual environments for nine out of the 29 environments (ranging from p < 0.01 and < 0.001). Heritability estimates for each experiment ranged from 0.09 to 0.93 but 20 environments had estimates >0.5; the coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 3.10% to 23.2% with 22 environments having a CV < 15%. Most of the high yielding environments were located in the northwestern region of Mexico with lower yielding environments in the central region (Table 3). The genetic correlations between trials were also determined (Figure 3a,b) showing that trials that belong to the northern region clustered together (Figure 3a in blue) and central region trials located mostly in one of the two megaclusters (except for E27) (Figure 3a in red). Interestingly, for the northwestern region no consistent pattern was observed (Figure 3a in yellow).Genotype rankings differed across environments, justifying the evaluation of cross-environment yield stability. The BLUPs per genotype (Table 4) demonstrate overall variation in grain yield differences. The bread wheat cultivars Bacorehuis F2015 and Borlaug100 F2014 and the durum wheat cultivars Barobampo C2015, Conasist C2015, and Anatoly C2011 had an overall grain yield of >5.1 ton ha −1 .The stability analysis ANOVA (Eberhart & Russell, 1966) indicated that genotypes and GE (linear) were statistically different, meaning that there were differences among the cultivars regression from the environmental index (Table S2). For the bread wheat cultivars, only Villa Juarez F2009 (perform better in favorable environments) and Urbina S2007 showed regression coefficients different from 1 (Table 4; Table S2 for significant differences) and can be considered good cultivars for favorable and unfavorable environments, respectively. The latest released genotypes, Bacorehuis F2015, Barobampo C2015, CONASIST C2015, Borlaug100 F2014, along with Anatoly C2011 (Table 4) met the previously defined requirements of a reliable (stable) genotype (Annicchiarico, 2002). All the durum cultivars showed regression coefficients from the environmental index statistically similar to \uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 = 1 (Table 4) which means they were stable.The GGE analyses allowed visualization of the best genotype for each environment (Yang et al., 2009) (Figure 4) as well as for identification of the most stable genotype (Yan, 2001) (Figure 4). The percentage of the total sum of squares explained by PC 1 and PC 2 of the GGE model was 54% and the biplot was divided into six sectors delimited by gray dotted lines in Figure 4 (S1-S6). The 29 environments were grouped in sectors S1, S4, S5, and S6, vectors for northwest and central regions were located in sector S5 and north region vector was located in sector S6. TE 1 (full irrigation with optimum sowing date) was distributed in sectors S1, S4, S5, and S6, TE 2 (reduced irrigation with optimum sowing date) in sectors S5 and S6, TE 3 (optimum irrigation with late sowing date) in sectors S4 and S5, and TE 4 (reduced  irrigation with late sowing date) in sectors S4, S5, and S6.The GGE biplot in Figure 4 indicated highest yielding genotypes located at the polygon vertices for each sector. Bacorehuis F2015 was the highest yielding cultivar for the northwest and central regions (sector S5), whereas Barobampo C2015 was the highest yielding cultivar in the northern region (sector S6). Villa Juarez F2009 was the highest yielding cultivar in the sector S4 and Cevy Oro C2008 was the highest yielding in sector S1. Cultivars in vertices of sectors S2 and S3 had poor performances in most environments.Another feature of the GGE analysis is the comparison of means versus stability (Figure 5) in which the red arrowed line indicates the average environment coordination (AEC) abscissa that points to the higher mean genotype. The dashed blue lines are the projection from the AEC coordinate, for which shorter lines mean higher grain yield stability (Yan et al., 2007). The results obtained corroborate the findings of the Eberhart and Russell (1966) stability analysis (Table 4) indicating that Conatrigo F2015, Roelfs F2007, and Gema C2004 are among the most stable cultivars given the short projection from the AEC ordinate. Barobampo C2015, CONASIST C2015, Anatoly C2011, Borlaug100 F2014, CIRNO C2008, Sawali Oro C2008, and Kronstad F2004 also had relatively short projection and therefore classified as stable. In Figure 5, Bacorehuis F2015 was also identified as the high yielding cultivar but was unstable. When comparing  2 for trial code. GGE, genotype and genotype by environment interaction; TSS, total sum of squares.the number of stable genotypes, a greater number of durum wheat cultivars were stable compared to bread wheat with a frequency of six and four, respectively.Previous work has reported that bread wheat yields more in high-yielding potential conditions while durum wheat is more productive in marginal conditions (Marti & Slafer, 2014). However, further reports have shown that durum cultivars have superior performance in high-yielding conditions (full irrigation and/or optimal sowing date) and are similar to bread cultivars under marginal conditions (reduced irrigation and/or late sowing date) (Valenzuela-Antelo et al., 2018). In this section, our aim was to describe grain yield performance and stability of bread and durum wheat under different TEs in irrigated regions of Mexico.When evaluating yield performance and stability, a differential expression of yield in different TEs in Mexico was found. In addition, the phenotypic plasticity, or magnitude of response was different depending on the genotype. Studies have shown that higher yield stability is due to greater responsiveness or plasticity, attributed to the ability of some genotypes to modulate yield components (Cossani et al., 2011;Sadras & Slafer, 2011). In both bread and durum wheat, the two major yield components that affect yield stability are the number of grain per m 2 and grain size (Marti & Slafer, 2014). These authors showed that bread wheat tends to have higher grain per meter square, whereas durum tends to has bigger grain. Interestingly, Lopes et al. (2012), found that the genetic gain in bread wheat elite lines from the CIM-MYT was linearly associated with increments in grain size. This linear association between high grain yield and grain size could be one of the reasons explaining similar stability for grain yield reported in the present study, as the testedT A B L E 4 Grain yield overall best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) and stability parameters (\uD835\uDC4F \uD835\uDC56 ) (Eberhart & Russell, 1966)  cultivars are the product of a INIFAP-CIMMYT breeding network (Villaseñor-Mir, 2015) that uses grain size as a primary trait for selection. Given the similar yield responsiveness seen in this study, differences in yield components between bread and durum wheat in Mexico are lower than previously reported in other regions (Pfeiffer et al., 2001). In addition, similar grain yield stability could be the result of substantial breeding efforts made to improve spike fertility, which is a determinant factor that affects yield when genotypes are subject to different photoperiod and temperature regimes (Reynolds et al., 2012). Further work using defined genetic stocks and/or material developed for enhanced physiological parameters is required to dissect the drivers of the yield stability identified in this study.Yield stability was determined using two methods: Eberhart and Russell (1966) stability parameters and GGE biplots. Both identified a similar set of stable cultivars, as has been previously reported (Alwala et al., 2010;Blanche et al., 2007). Concordance was found between sector groups in the \"whichwon-where biplot\" and the dendrogram genetic correlations between trials. This highlights three points: first, the trials simulating TEs with a combination of irrigation level and sowing date (E1-E7 and E16-E22) in the three northwest region locations (Obregon, Mexicali, and Los Mochis) were highly diverse according to the GEI of the genotypes and correlated with other trials in other regions. Second, the TEs from the north and central regions tended to cluster together. Third, the which-won-where biplot showed a clear trend in the adaptation by wheat type with the durum cultivars tending to perform better in the northern environments, whereas the bread wheat cultivars performed well in the central region environments. Durum cultivars have dominated northwest wheat growing areas due to their great yield potential, resistance to Karnal bunt and rapid adoption of superior varieties by farmers (Fischer et al., 2022). These findings indicate that a relative low number of trials targeting the TEs used in this study in the northwestern region of Mexico are sufficient for the identification of high-yielding and stable cultivars. In contrast, TEs trials in the northern and central regions may maximize the identification of superior cultivars with local rather than broad adaptation.The cultivars tested and analyzed in this study had outstanding performance across TEs and were the best performers in the ENTRI prior to their release (Villaseñor-Mir, 2015). This indicates that in most cases they have accumulated favorable alleles that permit them to respond consistently across environments. The analysis methods used in this study were useful to identify outstanding genotypes with high yield potential and stability to provide consistent productivity in Mexican wheat production environments. Moreover, regular studies should be conducted with updated germplasm relevant to producers over time.Overall, the bread cultivars Bacorehuis F2015 and Bor-laug100 F2014, and the durum cultivars Barobampo C2015, CONASIST C2015, and Anatoly C2011 showed outstanding high-yielding in most environments and were stable depending on at least one methodology. These commercial cultivars were developed and released over different time periods, but all have been adopted and remain important for production in Mexico. ","tokenCount":"3429"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f100cabe7091500904097d4778b6f1b2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/691463ff-4f7a-4d19-9969-671b3fbf19dc/retrieve","id":"-1103230061"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3737765a-2e3d-4d8c-94f2-d845259e4da8","pagecount":"11","content":"Brachiaria (Urochloa spp.) and Panicum grasses (Megathyrsus spp.) are two important tropical forage species indigenous to Africa that are widely cultivated in Africa, South America, Australia and East Asia and have demonstrated success in transforming beef and dairy industries. They are perennial, fast growing with high biomass production potential, palatable and nutritious to livestock. They possess large root systems, fix carbon in soils, and are adapted to drought and a wide variety of soils, tolerant to shade, waterlogging and to pests and diseases. Brachiaria and Panicum grasses are extensively used for grazing, cut-and-carry, and silage and hay production. Improved cultivars are high yielding, responsive to fertilizer applications, persistent and can remain green long into the dry season.Multi-locational agronomic and farmer participatory evaluation of the performance of resilient and drought adapted forage cultivars and hybrids will identify best options for the different regions and livestock systems in the country. Validation at farmers' fields (e.g., as part of Farmer Field Schools) will increase awareness and provide information of the impact on animal productivity and environmental indicators. Seed availability will be increased by seed multiplication by government institutions (such as IER), private sector and farmers. This will lead to an increased adoption of these materials and improve productivity and income of households keeping small ruminants. This report presents the preliminary results of the forage trials in Mali implemented by l'Instititut d'Economie Rurale (IER) as part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING).• Resilient and drought adapted forage cultivars and hybrids (Urochloa, Megathyrsus, Crotalaria, etc) for their scaling up. • Evidence of improved forages and food-feed varieties and 'food rations generated\".• Training for forage seed producers• Sowing: At onset of rains (direct seeding), July 2023 • Basal Fertilizer: Fertilizer was applied at the rate of 100:60:30 kg N: P2O5: K2O / ha. • Top dressing fertilizer: After 12 weeks after the establishment, nitrogenous fertilizer was applied at a rate of 100 kg N/ha in two equal split doses. • The weeds were removed manually from the plots.• No control of pests and diseases takes place.The following data are collected:• Rainfall, temperature (mean maximum and minimum) and relative humidity data in monthly basis from the nearest meteorological station for entire experimental period. The following tables show pictures of the three different research sites taken in the same week of 18 December 2023 and five months after planting. Differences between the different sites are considerable, especially but not surprisingly between the Barouéli site on the one hand and the Farakala en Sotuba sites on the other.Andropogon gayanus Performing well in both Farakala (ranked 6 th by farmers) and Sotuba, regular in BarouéliNot performing well at any of the sites, ranked last in Farakala. We saw the same at the Ghana sites whereas at the Senegal sites the C. juncea performed very well. At the Sotuba site a local Crotalaria showed good performance. According to literature, soil type and Ph should not be a constraint, but low soil fertility (P) might be a main cause for the poor performance in Mali and Ghana, Senegal site probably having higher soil fertility because of residual nutrients from former crops.Megathyrsus maximus cv \"Maasai\" Performing quite well at all sites, ranked highest by farmers in Farakala, and ranked 4th in Barouéli Megathyrsus maximus cv \"Mombasa\" Poor performance in Barouéli, good performance in Farakala (ranked 8 th by farmers)Megathyrsus maximus cv \"Mun River\" Poor performance in Barouéli, good performance in Farakala (ranked 3 rd ) and Sotuba. Well appreciated by farmers.Regular performance in Barouéli, good performance in Farakala (although only ranked 10 th ) and SotubaUrochloa decumbens cv \"Basilisk\" Regular performance in Barouéli, good performance in Farakala (ranked 5 th ) and Sotuba Urochloa hybrid GP3025 \"Camello\" Regular performance in Barouéli, good performance in Farakala (ranked 2 nd ) and Sotuba Urochloa hybrid GP1794 \"Cobra\" Good performance at all three sites. In Barouéli ranked highest by farmers because of high biomass production, density, erect growth habit and adapted to dry season, dry season availability of green forage. In Farakala ranked 9 th . Proposed use: dairy cattle, fattening (cattle, small ruminants) Urochloa brizantha cv \"Marandu\" Good performance at all three sites. In Barouéli ranked 3 rd by farmers, because of biomass production and adaptation to drought, in Farakala ranked 7 th .• This report is entirely based on visual observations and farmers evaluations. A second report with the analysis of the agronomic data will be made available early 2024. • The observations and farmer evaluations were conducted at five months after planting and approximately two months into the dry season. They will be repeated in approx. three (mid dry season) and six months (end dry season). • In the drier region (Barouéli) the Bracharia/Urochloa grasses are preferred over the Panicum / Megathyrsus materials, whereas the more humid region (Farakala) shows the opposite. This might change as the dry season progresses and the Panicum grasses are likely to also suffer more in the more humid zone. • There seem to be good perspectives for some of the hybrids (especially Cobra, Talisman, Camello). Farmers like their adaptation to drought and, in particular for Cobra, their suitability for use as a cut-and-carry feed.The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) is working in seven countries focusing on livestock value chains to package and scale out tried-andtested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems. SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Its seven focus countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam.It forms part of CGIAR's new Research Portfolio, delivering science and innovation to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.","tokenCount":"976"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"996cdbfe717d62094f050b5793ab1400","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/45db3a45-eb6d-41e2-bc39-f09bf73d9d5c/retrieve","id":"1938248139"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b2e12fb-4ec6-41d8-8b93-7a704db2d392","pagecount":"2","content":"More than two billion people worldwide are not getting all the nutrients they need. This is particularly felt in low-and middleincome countries where many poor people subsist on insufficient and monotonous diets. Micronutrient deficiency can lead to illness, physical stunting and impaired cognitive development. The quality and quantity of nutrients in milk, meat and eggs make livestock derived foods an important component of a healthy diet, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children in low-and middle-income countries.In Ethiopia, the agriculture sector has undergone a major transformation and is widely regarded as an African success story: annual grain production more than trebled between 2000/1 and 2017/18. Yet more than 8 million people still do not have adequate access to appropriate food.In 2015, the international community adopted the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which is to have \"zero hunger\" by 2030. Livestock are critical to meeting this goal (SDG 2) to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. But with more than eight billion people to feed by 2030, and the need to do so with diminishing natural resources and a changing climate, sustainably increasing livestock productivity will require highly innovative and inclusive approaches.The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) works with partners towards sustainable production of livestock. Its work also focuses on ensuring that livestock enhances food security, food safety and better public health outcomes.What ILRI and its livestock partners are doing to help achieve healthy diets ILRI and its partners are working together to build a world where the communities of developing and emerging economies are empowered with the most reliable livestock-related knowledge, where sustainable livestock productivity is fully and equitably supported, where women and men both are livestock decision-makers and where no one goes hungry and thereby fails to achieve their full potential.ILRI works with partners to undertake research that leads to development outcomes that:Combat food insecurity and malnutrition through research to raise livestock productivity levels.Support safety net programs such as the productive safety net programme (PSNP) to bring about better targeting and mainstreaming of nutrition.Develop a food systems research agenda to create innovative approaches in the development of food based dietary guidelines.Strengthen scientific and technological capacity to make livestock systems more sustainable.Mitigate the health and food safety risk associated with increased use of antibiotics that lead to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a significant threat to public health.Ensure livestock development is compatible with adaption to, and mitigation of, climate change.Strengthen partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise and technology in sustainable livestock development for a better dietary system.Ensure women have equal access to, control over and ownership of economic, land and other resources.Healthy diets: healthy for the environment, animals and people Healthy diets for a #Zero hunger world Greater investments in sustainable livestock research for development can sustainably nourish the world's rapidly growing population and promote healthy diets. Working together and using livestock as powerful instruments of poverty reduction, we can build a world free of hunger. ","tokenCount":"495"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1c5c8e7c164d05c400b9f7fad60206e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f84239fc-33e3-4458-b5c6-d6b4033dd885/retrieve","id":"-944557900"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6db50370-f760-4fad-928e-4a700c3c473f","pagecount":"72","content":"Introduction 2 KARI-ILRI collaborative research and development support to smallholder dairy in coastal Kenya Coast Province, Kenya, and the environment for smallholder dairying KARI-ILRI collaborative research and development support for smallholder dairy. ... 3 Adoption and impact surveys of smallholder dairying in coastal Kenya 4 Results of the adoption surveys Overview of sample household characteristics Experiences of dairy adopters Sources of information used by adopters before adoption Reasons for adoption Perceptions of risks before and after adoption Reasons for not adopting G/C cattle Econometric analyses of factors affecting adoption 5 Results of the impact surveys Impacts reported by adopting households Impact on household income Impacts on the number of hired labourers Impacts on household nutritional status Econometric analyses of impacts with adoption data 6 Summary and conclusions References Appendix 1. Summary of selected previous adoption and impact studies of smallholder dairying in KenyaTable 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6. Table 7.Table 8. Table 9. Table 10. Table 11. Table 12.List of Tables Households, adopters and number of survey respondents by division Characteristics of Adoption Survey households by district and adoption status Sources of information about the benefits of grade/crossbred (G/C) cattle ownership and their management before the first animal was acquired Importance of reasons for adoption decision Perceptions of risk before and after adoption of the first grade or crossbred animal Variables in econometric models of adoption and impact 20 Results of probit models for adoption of grade or crossbred (G/C) cattle, Napier grass, and East Coast fever (ECF) immunisation (marginal effects) Impacts of dairy adoption as reported by adopting households Reported cash income by type of income and adoption status Hired labourers by adoption status Nutritional status of pre-school children and adoption status Results of Tobit models to assess the impact of grade or crossbred (G/C) animals on household income and hired labourers (marginal effects for adopting households) Previous studies of adoption and impact of smallholder dairying in Kenya 50IV List of Figures In many parts of Africa, smallholder farmers are being compelled by policy and markets to diversify their traditional export crops, whose potential for growth remains uncertain. Alternative agricultural activities are needed which offer higher returns to land and labour, offer the expectation of future growth, and which are suitable for adoption by the resourcepoor smallholder farmers who continue to dominate African production. Market-oriented dairy production may fill this need for some smallholder producers.The reasons for promoting dairy research have fundamentally to do with improving the opportunities and welfare of smallholder farmers and the consequent effects on agricultural development. The avenues of this impact are several:1. There is good potential for increased demand and higher real prices for dairy products. 2. Dairying can lead to increased levels and stability of income generation for producers. 3. Dairying can increase employment in rural areas both directly and indirectly through supply of inputs and locally produced household items, and through increases in rural capital accumulation. Other impacts may be either positive or negative, including the impact on women in the household in terms of income generation and access, and labour demands and allocation. Similarly, the impacts of intensive dairy development on the poorest households may be indeterminate. Finally, dairying can have positive impacts on soil fertility maintenance in intensive mixed cropping systems, a role that may grow with intensification.Various previous studies have examined the adoption of dairy technologies and their impacts on smallholders in Kenya (some of these are summarised in Appendix 1). The objectives and focal points of these studies are diverse. Previous adoption-oriented research has examined the use and diffusion of dairy-related technologies (Metz 1993;Metz et al 1995) and the factors affecting adoption of Napier grass on smallholder farms (Irungu et al 1998). Impact-oriented studies have examined changes in the roles of women in livestock production and marketing (Price Waterhouse 1990;Mugo 1994;Mullins et al 1996), and how dairying affects the nutritional status of households (Launonon et al 1985;Leegwater et al 1991;Huss-Ashmore 1992). Many of these studies were motivated, at least in part, by the efforts of the National Dairy Development Project (NDDP), which was active in 24 districts in Kenya at the time of its completion in 1995.Previous technology adoption and diffusion studies emphasise the high variation in adoption rates and factors apparently influencing the adoption of dairy-related technologies and practices. The impacts of dairy adoption, like the prevalence of adoption itself, vary by location in Kenya. These studies provide useful if inconclusive evidence that households benefit in certain ways from the adoption of smallholder dairy production and marketing. A number of important issues remain unresolved, however. These include:• Is off-farm income a prerequisite for adoption of dairying, and by how much does dairy increase total household incomes? • How much, if any, paid (secondary) employment does the adoption of dairy generate? estimated that own-production accounts for less than half of the amount of these staples consumed by the majority of households (Leegwater et al 1991). The region is thus a food deficit area that imports staple foods from other parts of the country. Coconut palms and cashew trees provide important sources of cash income for many rural households; oranges and mangoes are widely produced and sold, and bixa is a common cash crop in Kwale District. In the CL zones, cattle are owned by about 20% of rural households (Thorpe et al 1993), whereas ownership of goats and sheep is more common. Most households also raise poultry for home consumption.Employment off farm has become an important source of income for rural households, in part because of the development of the tourism industry in coastal Kenya. Most studies report that about two-thirds of rural households have income from non-farm activities. Leegwater et al (1991) reported that one-quarter of all adults in rural households worked off farm; women were less likely to work off farm than men were. In Kilifi and Kwale districts, income from off-farm employment represented 60% of household income in the late 1980s (Foeken et al 1989;Hoorweg et al 1990). In addition to wages and salaries, some rural households operate small businesses such as water and tea kiosks. This importance of nonfarm activities results from the low-to-moderate potential of the region for intensification of agriculture, and the need to diversify household activities to reduce risk. Waaijenberg (1994) asserts that the adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies is low due to the lack of emphasis placed by many households on agricultural activities. Peeler and Omore (1997) estimated that Coast Province produced about 3% of Kenya's total milk supply in 1993. The coast is a milk deficit area; as much as 45% of the region's dairy consumption is supplied by other parts of Kenya. In the early 1990s many of these 'imports' were in the form of milk powder reconstituted in local processing facilities. In recent years shipments of pasteurised milk to the region have increased as the number of private dairy processors in Kenya has grown. The amount of milk brought to the province from elsewhere in Kenya during a year is equivalent to the production of about 20,000 smallholder dairy farms. Since reform of the country's dairy policy in 1992, milk prices at the coast have increased relative to those in other parts of Kenya; farm-level milk prices in the area are twice those paid in Kenya's highlands (Thorpe et al 1993). Milk and milk products enjoy a strong demand. Consumer surveys indicate that fresh ('raw') milk is preferred over packaged pasteurised and UHT (long-life) milk (Staal and Mullins 1996). The strong demand for milk and higher farm-level prices have been taken as indicators of the potential for dairy development in the region.Although a few large and successful dairy farms have been established in the area, most of the milk production occurs on smallholder farms. The majority of milk is produced by local zebu-type cattle; based on data from this study, only about 1% of households with cattle in the area own grade or crossbred (G/C) animals. Peeler and Omore (1997) estimated that G/C animals owned by smallholders accounted for less than 4% of all cattle in Coast Province. Growth in milk production by smallholders has lagged behind demand mostly due to technical constraints. Grade and crossbred animals are more susceptible to diseases common at the coast, such as the tick-borne East Coast fever (theileriosis), anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Theileriosis is responsible for about 60% of all clinical cases, and an annual mortality rate of about 30% (Maloo et al 1994). Trypanosomosis, carried by the tsetse fly, is another important health problem for smallholders, particularly in Kwale District. In addition, seasonal shortages of feed for higher-producing dairy cows have been identified as a major constraint to milk production. The development of formal (commercial) milk marketing is limited in some areas, despite the strong local demand for milk.(Thorpeetall993).The contribution of grade and crossbred cattle to production of milk by smallholders is somewhat difficult to assess based on available information. The number of adopters in the three coast districts where the KARI-ILRI work was conducted (Kwale, Kilifi and Malindi districts) is small; about 750 households of an estimated 127,000 total households own grade or crossbred animals. Some of the owners of these animals reside in urban areas and maintain rural farms with 5-10 dairy cattle as small-scale commercial operations (KARI-ILRI Impact Survey preliminary results 1998). These dairy operators are thus not typical rural smallholders. The total number of grade and crossbred cattle on smallholder farms in these three districts is estimated to be between 5000 (KARI-ILRI Adoption Survey results 1997) and 21,000 (Peeler and Omore 1997). Although small in numbers, grade and crossbred cattle are estimated to provide between 20% and 40% of smallholder milk production in the three districts. Smallholders with G/C cattle may provide up to 30% of total milk production in Kwale, Kilifi and Malindi (Peeler and Omore 1997).In response to a need identified by the then Ministry of Livestock Development (MoLD) in 1988, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA, now the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)) established a programme to identify and resolve biological, social and economic constraints to the development, adoption and productivity of smallholder dairy systems in the coastal lowlands. The programme was based at KARI's Regional Research Centre (RRC), Mtwapa in Kilifi District.The programme, which took a production-to-consumption systems approach (Rey et al 1993), was planned and carried out in close collaboration with MoLD's extension service through its National Dairy Development Project (NDDP) (Maarse et al 1990), and with the participation of other research institutions. The integrated programme of on-farm and onstation research covered farming systems description and constraint identification and technology development and testing. The major research areas were studies of dairy consumption and marketing, smallholder resource management, disease risk to dairy cattle, feeding systems development and dairy cattle breeding.The results of this work confirmed the following: • the large milk deficit (Mullins 1995) • there were seasonal feed shortages and inadequate nutrient concentrations in diets for milk production (Reynolds et al 1993), constraints which were addressed through the development of improved feeding systems based on intercropping fodder grasses and shrub and herbaceous legumes and the use of maize by-products (Muinga et al 1995;Mureithi et al 1995b) • East Coast fever (ECF) was shown to cause major losses in smallholder dairy cattle (Maloo et al 1994), losses that could be substantially reduced by immunisation through infection and treatment (Nyangito et al 1994;Mukhebi et al 1995) • rotational cross-breeding was identified as an efficient breeding system for smallholder milk production (Mackinnon et al 1996).Collaboration with the NDDP ensured strong research-extension-farmer linkages resulting in, for example, farmer-managed forage trials. Proven on-station technologies (improved germplasm and agronomic practices) for the legumes Leucaena leucocephala and CUtoria tematea (Mureithi et al 1995b), were tested systematically with smallholder farmers through a sequence of steps:• farmer/extension staff visits to the long-term on-station experiments • research-extension-managed demonstration plots on selected farms • field days held on these farms and on those of early adopters • farmer-managed trials on some 300 farms in four districts of Coast Province.The studies of smallholder farming systems and resource levels (Thorpe et al 1993;Mureithi et al 1995a) indicated that for the majority of households, agricultural change will be a sequential intensification through the adoption of individual technological components rather than through the adoption of a multi-component package, such as the NDDP's zero-grazing package. Current research and extension therefore aims to provide a range of technological options adaptable to individual circumstances (Thorpe 1996).Underpinning the technical achievements was the effective interaction established between researchers, extension staff and farmers from the beginning of the project. The orientation of the research towards field-based problems and studies and the continuous contact with farmers built up confidence between the three groups and ensured effective and productive working relationships. Contributing to this process were monthly seminars and regular workshops for presenting research proposals and reviewing results from the field studies and the experimental programme.Subsequently these planning and review processes were institutionalised. In 1991, it was agreed that KARI's Regional Research Centre would host quarterly 'cluster' meetings of research and senior extension staff and other invited participants to review programme activities and to consider new proposals. Initially these meetings were held at the RRC but after 1992 they rotated between Kilifi, Taita/Taveta and Lamu districts. In turn, these quarterly planning and review meetings nominated research-extension working groups to organise specific interventions. For example, a working group developed the protocol for and supervised the implementation of the farmer-managed forage trials referred to above. The success of this 'cluster' mechanism for strengthening research-extension-user linkages was such that KARI and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Marketing (with funding from the Netherlands) replicated it nationally through KARI's regionally mandated Research Centres (Thorpe 1996).In terms of impact, the development and transfer of appropriate technologies to address the productivity losses resulting from inadequate year-round feed resources and ECF have had a significant effect, particularly in the smallholder sector: • over 95% of participating farmers subsequently surveyed had recommended the legumes to their neighbours • approximately 60% of participating farmers adopted the recommended agronomic and feeding practices (Njunie et al 1994) • application of ECF immunisation in the Kaloleni study area was estimated to have reduced mortality and increased calving rates resulting in an 8.6% annual internal growth of the dairy herd (Mukhebi et al 1995). These results were expected to stimulate a demand from smallholders for technologies such as immunisation of dairy cattle (the infection and treatment immunisation process is a major output from KARl's National Agricultural Research Laboratories). In this case private veterinarians in the region have been trained as a step towards the sustainable delivery of the immunisation technology. Extension of the technology to smallholder dairy cattle in the high rainfall coastal lowlands may ultimately have a significant impact on the current milk deficit, if institutional problems in service delivery can be overcome.The KARI-ILRI inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional programme contributed considerably to the development of strong linkages between the research institutions, the extension services and their clients, current and potential smallholder dairy farmers in coastal Kenya. It ensured a more effective development, testing and transfer of appropriate technologies such as improved feeding systems and ECF immunisation. The programme increased the awareness of research and development officials of the importance of effective input and output markets for smallholder dairy development. It has served as a model for the strengthening of research-extension-farmer linkages for smallholder dairy development and related agricultural development in the high potential regions of Kenya. Various important lessons were learnt from the coast programme, including the need for:• active participation of all major stakeholders and key players in the identification and resolution of the technical, socio-economic and policy constraints along the dairy production-to-consumption chain • effective linkages with MoALDM and related ministries at policy as well as operational level • effective linkages with the private sector for the provision of output and input services • effective means to implement proposals by feeding directly into the design of pilot initiatives. dairying in coastal Kenya Numerous dairy-related technologies and practices could be considered in a study of adoption. Previous studies have examined the use of 20 technologies and practices associated with smallholder dairying in six districts of Kenya (Metz et al 1995), but not the factors associated with their adoption. This study focuses on a smaller number of related adoption decisions faced by smallholder farmers in coastal Kenya. The ownership of grade or crossbred animals is a key element in the development of intensive dairy production. Grade and crossbred (G/C) dairy cows have higher potential for milk production when adequately fed, and yet are more susceptible to diseases (e.g. ECF and trypanosomosis) common in many areas of Coast Province (Maloo et al 1994). Grade and crossbred cows require more feed than local cows to produce milk up to their potential. Because seasonal feed shortages have been identified as constraining milk production, the development of improved feeding systems has been a focal point for previous research (Reynolds et al 1993).Work started in early 1997 on planning the adoption and impact study. The objective of the study was to determine the factors that influence partial or complete adoption of dairy technology. The technology was defined as ownership of a crossbred or grade dairy animal, the planting of the forage Napier grass, and the use of the infection and treatment method of immunisation against ECF. Questions as to whether adopters of this technology later 'deadopted' or substantially modified their practices after the initial adoption decision was made, were felt to be particularly important in Coast Province. In addition, the adoption survey was to deal with three complementary technologies: crossbred dairy cows, Napier grass and ECF vaccination. There are clear interdependences between the decisions to adopt the three technologies. This is complicated somewhat by the possibility of lags (and sequencing) of adoption. For example, in some cases the decision to adopt Napier grass may be conditional on the decision to adopt cows, but the decision to adopt cows may not be conditional on the decision to adopt Napier grass, if the forage was planted a number of years after the crossbred cows arrived. Alternatively, to the extent that a package of technologies was required by the NDDP, the interdependence of adoption decisions may be mostly due to programme requirements. A series of surveys was designed to address these and other issues.Studies of the factors influencing adoption of agricultural technologies often focus on household resource endowments, characteristics of the household head, location of the household, the nature and extent of information provided before adoption, and the characteristics of the technology (Feder et al 1985). In coastal Kenya non-farm jobs and businesses are key alternatives to intensification of agriculture for farm households (Waaijenberg 1994), but may also provide income needed for investment in more intensive dairying. Accordingly, the surveys were required to collect information on location, characteristics of the household head and sources of information used by the household head to make decisions about the choice of agricultural technologies. The surveys also included information about the characteristics of the household, perceptions about the availability of the G/C animals, availability of seeds and planting materials for Napier grass, and access to ECF immunisation. Households were also asked about their perceptions of the accessibility of the inputs and services associated with the three technologies. This information was then to be used to develop econometric models of adoption and impact (Nicholson et al 1999).The first task was to compile a complete inventory of all households with small-or medium-scale farmers with dairy cows for the project area. The project area (Figure 1) encompassed agro-ecologies CL3 and CL4 in Kilifi District (Bahari, Kaloleni and southern Malindi divisions) and Kwale District (Kubo, Matuga and Msambweni divisions). In 1998, the boundaries of Kilifi District were adjusted to accommodate a new district, Malindi, and Malindi Division of the old Kilifi District became part of this new district. The areas south and north of Mombasa afford a substantial contrast in conditions, notably differences in trypanosomosis challenge and infrastructural development. Ministry of Agriculture staff completed the inventory, essentially a census of dairy households, early in 1997. Three separate surveys of farm households were conducted during 1997 and 1998, based on the inventory of 750 households with dairy cows in the three districts.For the 'Adoption Survey' in June and July 1997, 75 dairy adopters and 125 non-adopters were surveyed in the three districts. The adopters, defined as households owning at least one grade or crossbred (G/C) dairy animal, were randomly selected from the inventory of all adopting households. The sample of adopters was stratified by division, the administrative unit below the district level. The total number of farmers interviewed from each division was proportional to the number of households in that location (Table 1). Non-adopting house holds were selected randomly from lists of 20 neighbours of adopting households. The 'Impact Survey' administered during February to April 1998 followed the same sampling procedure; some 200 households not contacted during the adoption survey were interviewed. Indicators of nutritional status for pre-school children were collected for 1 12 children in these households.The 'Detailed Survey of Dairy Adoption History' consisted of semi-structured interviews with 29 farm households randomly selected from the households participating in the impact survey. Of the 29 households, 15 had previous experience with G/C dairy cattle and 14 had no experience with more intensive dairying.Overview of sample household characteristicsThe characteristics of the households in the sample for the Adoption Survey vary by district and adoption status (Table 2). The mean number of household members exceeds seven in all districts, but is twice that number in Malindi District. (Household size is often difficult to assess in Coast Province due to difference in the definition of 'household member' and the tendency for some household members to work away from the farmstead during parts of the year.) Kilifi District households appear to be more integrated into the non-agricultural economy of the region, in part due to proximity to Mombasa and coastal hotels. Sample households in Kilifi District were located closer to a market or trading centre, earned higher incomes from off-farm employment, and household heads had higher mean years of education. The proportion of female-headed households is also lower among the house holds sampled in Kilifi District, perhaps reflecting better economic opportunities for male heads of households in the local area. The characteristics of the sample households illustrate the importance of non-farm activities in the region. Between 33% and 57% of household heads were engaged in an offfarm activity. Income from wages, salaries and other non-farm activities is important for sample households in all three districts, ranging from 35% of total cash income for adopters in Kwale to more than 60% of total cash income for non-adopters in Kilifi and Malindi. Cash income from crop sales accounted for only 5% to 21% of total cash income, and was highest in Malindi District. The lower proportion of cash income from crop sales in Kilifi may reflect the trade-offs between allocation of household resources to agricultural and nonagricultural activities. Dairying accounted for 25% to 40% of cash income for adopting households. The proportion of income from dairying was highest in Kwale District, but households in Kilifi had the highest mean cash income from dairying. Peeler and Omore (1997) reported that a large majority of the G/C animals in the three districts studied was in Kilifi. However, sample households in Kilifi District owned a smaller number of G/C cattle on average than households sampled from Kwale District. The amount of Napier grass planted per farm for adopters also was highest in Kwale. Some non-adopters also planted Napier grass, perhaps for sale or in the expectation of purchasing a G/C animal in the near future. The mean area of total land farmed by sample households ranged from 9 to 21 acres; 12-acre plots promoted under settlement schemes at the coast have meant that average farm sizes are often many times larger than farms in Kenya's highlands. In part, this reflects the lower productivity of land and lower population density in the CL zones. Many sample households hired permanent and casual labourers for farm and non-farm work. The average number of permanent labourers hired per household was highest in Kilifi, which again may reflect the importance of non-farm activities for house hold members in that district.Fifteen of the 29 households interviewed for the Detailed Survey had adopted G/C cattle at some time. However, these households acquired their first G/C animal at very different times. The year of adoption varied from 1974 to 1996. Half of the adopters acquired a single cow, purchasing it from another individual with cash saved by the household. In fewer cases, households acquired more than one animal, sometimes with the assistance of a development project or through collective effort. Only 4 of the 15 G/C adopting house holds interviewed had previous experience with cattle. Most often, the household head and spouse jointly made the decision to acquire a G/C animal. The cost of the animal varied from KSh 5000 to KSh 20,000 (about US$ 80 to US$ 300), the difference being in part because of inflation over time. The KSh 20,000 represents about two times the average monthly cash income reported by households in the Adoption Survey, and three times the average monthly cash income from dairying reported by G/C adopters.Of the 15 households who had adopted dairying, four no longer owned a G/C animal. One household was awaiting a cow to replace an unproductive animal provided through a development project. For the other three households, the most important reason for getting out of dairying was that their previous animal died and they could not afford to replace it. The households also stated that they found the management of grade and crossbred animals difficult, and that they sometimes had difficulties selling milk produced. Since 1993, the number of these 15 households with G/C animals or planted Napier grass has declined somewhat (Figure 2), although the number of G/C animals owned has increased in recent years. The total number of acres of Napier grass planted on these 15 farms has also declined somewhat. Further research into the extent and causes of this de-adoption process would benefit dairy development efforts in the region.No. of adopters (animals, acres) 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 Year The Detailed Survey gathered data on sources of information used by respondents before the adoption of G/C animals, and the significance of the source to the adoption decision.The structure of the questions assumed that information of two distinct kinds would be useful to potential adopters. First, potential adopters probably want to know what benefits derive from owning a G/C animal. Second, they may also want information about what practices, inputs and pitfalls are involved in managing grade and crossbred animals-this is particularly true given the limited previous experience of the households with cattle production. Thus, managing a G/C animal may represent a significantly higher degree of management complexity than households are accustomed to.Households were asked to indicate whether they used an information source 'not at all', 'somewhat' or 'extensively' before obtaining a grade or crossbred animal, and whether the information was 'not at all important', 'somewhat important' or 'very important' to the adoption decision. The most often used, and most important sources of information about the benefits of G/C cattle ownership were extension agents, courses or demonstrations and other households owning G/C cattle (Table 3). These results are consistent with the nature of information flows under NDDP, where extension workers made frequent visits to participating (and presumably non-participating but interested) households. Despite the importance of others with G/C cattle as an information source, only seven of the households reported that another household adopted dairying within a year of the time that they did.Table 3. Sources of information about the benefits of grade/crossbred (G/C) cattle ownership and their management be/ore the first animal was acquired. For 'Use of source': 1 -not at all, 2 -some, 3 -extensively.For 'Importance of source': 1 -not at all, 2 -some, 3 -extremely.Information about the management of G/C animals came primarily from the same sources, although the importance of management information from others with G/C cattle surpassed that of information from courses or demonstrations. These results indicate that information used by farmers to make the adoption decision was sought primarily from two distinct sources: government (or project) sources and neighbours already owning grade or crossbred cattle. Other sources, such as farmers' groups, publications or salesmen were less important to the adoption decision.The Detailed Survey also sought to understand the motivations for the adoption decision, recognising that these may differ depending on whether a female or male G/C animal is acquired first. Households were asked to indicate reasons for their adoption decision, and then whether the reason was 'not at all important', 'somewhat important' or 'very impor-rant' to their adoption decision. The most important reason indicated by households that acquired cows or heifers was their desire for some or more milk for sale (Table 4). Households wanted to sell more milk to have a higher and more regular income. More milk for family consumption was also an important reason for acquiring a female G/C animal. The prestige of owning a G/C cow and suggestions from others that G/C ownership was a good idea were relatively unimportant. Reasons not suggested by all households included manure production, money for school fees (income related) and personal preferences.Only one household had first acquired a G/C bull, so the responses must be interpreted cautiously. The major reasons for acquiring a bull were for cross-breeding with the house hold's local cows (to upgrade the herds milk production potential) and to offer breeding services to other farmers. Saving money previously used for artificial insemination was also a strong motivation for acquiring a G/C bull.Risk of losing an animal due to disease has been identified as constraining the adoption of smallholder dairy production in coastal Kenya (Maloo et al 1994). Thus, the Detailed Survey asked households to subjectively assess the risks associated with ownership of G/C animals, including the risk of death due to disease. Because perceptions of risk may change as more experience with G/C animals is gained, households were asked to assess risks before adoption and based on their experiences after adoption. Risks important before adoption indicate opportunities to increase adoption by providing information to potential adopters, and risks important after adoption indicate areas to improve the contribution of G/C animals to household welfare. Households were asked to indicate sources of risk in dairying with G/C cattle, and then indicate whether this risk was 'not at all likely to occur', 'somewhat likely to occur' or 'very likely to occur'.Loss of an animal due to disease was the most important of the risks mentioned by all adopting households, both before and after adoption (Table 5). The assessment of the risk of losing an animal to disease increased somewhat after adoption. Of the other risks mentioned by all households, 'much more work for the household' and 'changes to household routine' were close to disease risk in prevalence. The perceived likelihood of these risks decreased somewhat after adoption, however. The perceived risk of providing the G/C animal with enough feed increased after adoption, but the perceived risk of not being able to sell milk decreased with experience. Other reasons not mentioned by all households included the risk of theft, the possibility of the G/C animal being killed by wildlife and reduced ability of the household to move around. Killed by wildlife (N-l) 2.00 1.00 -1.00Can no longer move about easily (N-l) 2.00 2.00 0.00 1. Values above are the means of 15 responses based on the following scale: 'How likely to occur?': 1 -not at all likely, 2 -somewhat likely, 3 -very likely.Fourteen of the households interviewed for the Detailed Survey had never owned G/C animals. Eleven of those said they had wanted to acquire a G/C animal at some time, but had not done so. Thus, many non-adopting households consider ownership of G/C cattle beneficial but were prevented from adopting dairying for some reason. The principal reason for non-adoption was lack of money to purchase the animal, mentioned by eight households. These eight households indicated that lack of credit and inability to participate in a development project (such as NDDP) were 'somewhat important' in their decision not to adopt, given that they had insufficient cash to buy a G/C animal. Other reasons offered by three of the eight households included 'children need schooling', 'insufficient land' and 'disease risk', which indicate that income, access to resources and risk factors also influenced their decision not to adopt. Of the three households who said they had sufficient money, the lack of animals available for purchase was 'somewhat important' as a reason for not owning a G/C animal. No money for cattle housing, and disagreement in the household about the wisdom of owning a G/C animal also played a role in non-adoption by households with sufficient money. Other reasons, such as a lack of information on how to manage animals, insufficient land and shortage of labour were mentioned as less important reasons for not purchasing G/C cattle. Three households said that they had never wanted to acquire a G/C animal. The three households indicated that they had considered G/C cattle ownership, and thought it profitable and not overly risky. They did not believe that selling the milk would be problematic. The most important reasons for not wanting to acquire G/C cattle were the perception that ownership results in additional work and management complexity. For these households, the need to devote time to other agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises was 'somewhat important' in their lack of interest in G/C cattle ownership.Econometric models are often used to relate the adoption decision to household and technological characteristics. When the outcome to be modelled is a binary choice (e.g. adopt versus do not adopt a technology) standard linear regression models have short comings that are typically overcome by using probit or logit models. These models relate household and technological characteristics to the probability that a household will adopt a technology. Typically, factors included in the model are exogenous (i.e. currently taken as given by the household) rather than factors that the household can influence through its current choices. The models provide empirical estimates of how changes in these exogenous variables influence the probability of adoption, and have been widely used to assess the effectiveness of projects to promote technology adoption (Rahm and Huffman 1984;Nkonya et al 1997). A brief technical discussion of the probit model is given in Appendix 2.In general, a broad range of factors is hypothesised to influence the adoption of agri cultural technologies (Feder et al 1985). The Adoption Survey collected detailed infor mation from 202 households on location, characteristics of the household head and sources of information used by the household farm manager to make decisions about the choice of agricultural technologies (Table 6). The survey also included information about the charac teristics of the household, perceptions about the availability of the G/C animals, availability of seeds and planting materials for Napier grass, and access to ECF immunisation. Households were also asked their perceptions about the accessibility of the inputs and services, such as concentrate feeds, artificial insemination and extension and veterinary services associated with the three technologies.   These variables were used to estimate probit models for the adoption of G/C cattle, Napier grass and ECF immunisation. The results of the probit model estimations (Table 7) are reported as the marginal effects of a change in the exogenous variable, that is, the change in the probability of adoption due to a one unit change in the exogenous variable. In the case of dummy (i.e. 0 or 1) variables such as sex of the household head, the marginal effect is the difference in probability due to belonging to one group rather than another (e.g. female household heads versus male household heads). For continuous variables such as the amount of land farmed, the marginal effect is the change in probability due to an increase of one acre in area farmed. The impact of other discrete and continuous exogenous variables can be interpreted analogously. The magnitude, statistical significance and the signs (i.e. positive or negative influence on probability of adoption) of the marginal effects are typically of most interest in evaluating the factors influencing the probability of adoption. The adequacy of the probit model to explain adoption is evaluated by the Log Ratio Index (LRI), an indicator of how much of the variance in adoption decisions is explained by the model. In addition, the percentage of correct predictions by the model about which households adopt the technology indicates explanatory power (typically, a household is assumed to adopt if the probability predicted by the model is greater than 0.5).  The factors with a statistically significant influence on the adoption of G/C cattle are location (district and agro-ecozone), ethnic group, age of the household head, number of household members, land area farmed, participation in NDDP, perceived availability of veterinary services in the household's area and perceived availability of G/C cows for purchase (Table 7). Households in Malindi and Kilifi districts were more likely to adopt G/C animals than their counterparts in Kwale District. Households in the higher-rainfall climate zone (Coastal Lowland 3; see Figure 1) are less likely to adopt G/C animals, perhaps .because the higher agricultural potential of this zone allows greater flexibility in the choice of agricultural enterprises, of which dairying is but one. Migrants to the coastal region from other areas of Kenya had a higher probability of adopting G/C cattle, probably due to greater exposure to the technology in Kenya's highlands, from where many of the migrants originated. As the age of the household head increased, the probability of adoption decreased. Although the effect is small for one year (about a 1% decrease in probability), a difference of 20 years would imply a decrease in the probability of adoption by more than 28%. The reasons for this decrease with age (which is also a proxy for years of farming experience) are not clear, although some previous studies have reported that older farmers may be more reluctant to adopt new technologies or practices (Feder et al 1985). The total number of household members was used as a proxy for labour availability in the model (this may overstate labour availability if many household members are very young children or elderly people). Labour availability should be positively associated with G/C adoption because G/C animals require more time for care and feeding than local cattle. The total number of household members is significantly and positively associated with G/C adoption. The probability of adoption increased as land farmed increased, although the effect of an additional acre of land was relatively small (1.2%). This seems to indicate that the amount of land does not markedly constrain farmers wishing to adopt G/C animals.Participation in NDDP considerably increased the probability of adoption, as might be expected. (This is the case although only 51% of G/C adopters in the sample had participated in NDDP.) The strong relationship between adoption and participation in NDDP indicates that the project was effective in involving at least a subset of coastal households in dairying. The availability of veterinary services and perceived availability of G/C animals for purchase should be expected to increase the probability of adoption. However, the signs of these coefficients indicate that increasing availability is associated with a decrease in the probability of adoption. This counter-intuitive result is probably due to the fact that adopters were surveyed after the adoption decision, and thus may be more aware of the difficulties of obtaining veterinary services and G/C animals than non-adopters are.The probit model results also provide information about factors that do not appear strongly associated with adoption of G/C cattle. Among these factors are the household head's years of education, sex of the household head, ownership of the farm, and whether the owner manages the farm. The relatively small and statistically insignificant effects of these variables support the hypothesis that diverse types of households (not just highly educated male-headed households, for example) can adopt G/C cattle. None of the variables representing frequency of use or sources of information significantly affected the adoption of G/C animals, although the reported coefficients for listening to or watching agricultural programmes and seeking advice from other farmers have a positive effect on the probability of adoption greater than 20%. This implies that the design of educational programmes to support adoption of G/C animals could benefit from further study of what types of information are most used and positively regarded by farmers. The lack of a statistically significant relationship between distance to roads and markets and adoption likely indicates the strong demand for milk in local communities in the coast region. As a result, access to more formal marketing channels may not constrain the ability of households to sell milk produced by G/C animals, at least at current levels of production per household.The results of the probit model for adoption of Napier grass are similar to those for G/C cattle. District of residence, age of the household head, number of household members, participation in NDDP and perceived availability of veterinary services significantly affect both G/C cattle and Napier grass adoption. The magnitudes of the marginal effects tend to be smaller for the adoption of Napier grass than for G/C, and for the number of household members the sign of the coefficient is different. The negative effect of household members on the planting of Napier grass may be related to the labour required for herding cattle. Households in the coastal area often use tethering and grazing as an alternative source of feed for cattle (Swallow 1998). Because grazing and tethering tend to require labour, their use may be more appropriate (and therefore more common) for households with more labour available. Irungu et al (1998) also reported a negative (but statistically insignificant) relationship between family labour and the decision to adopt Napier grass in Kiambu District in the Kenyan highlands.In contrast to the G/C adoption decision, information from agricultural programmes on radio or TV and learning about new practices from other family members was positively associated with adoption of Napier grass. In addition, the agro-ecozone and land area farmed by the household had no statistically significant influence on planting of Napier grass. For 365 farm households in the Kenyan highlands, Irungu et al (1998) also reported no significant relationship between the probability of Napier grass adoption and land area. The lack of a strong relationship between adoption and location or land area farmed provides evidence that Napier grass is appropriate for various locations or farm types in coastal Kenya. However, because this analysis considers only whether farms planted Napier grass, and not how much was planted or produced; further information would be necessary for a more thorough examination of the appropriate locations and situations for Napier grass use.The adoption of G/C dairy animals and the planting of Napier grass are likely to be related, in part because of the role that NDDP played in promoting them as complementary technologies. To examine the hypothesis that the adoption of G/C animals and Napier grass are not independent decisions, a bivariate probit model was estimated. The bivariate probit model estimates the correlation between error terms in two probit equations, in this case the equations for adoption of G/C cattle and Napier grass. The two equations use the same variables as those in probit models for the individual technologies (Tables 6 and 7). The magnitude and significance of the correlation term indicate the strength of the association between the adoption for the two technologies. The correlation coefficient between G/C and Napier grass adoption was 0.95, and was statistically significant at the p<0.001 level (full model results not shown). Thus, the decision to adopt G/C is strongly related to the decision to adopt Napier grass. Although this result is not surprising, it does indicate the role that NDDP played in dairy development in the region. It also suggests that future efforts to promote dairy adoption should pay attention to the provision of fodder for the higher-producing G/C cows.The results of the probit models for the use of ECF immunisation indicate that none of the exogenous variables hypothesised to influence adoption behaviour is statistically significant. In contrast to the models of G/C adoption and Napier grass use, the explanatory power of the ECF immunisation model is limited. The LRI is lower, and model predictions of whether a household will adopt are little improvement over the naive prediction that no households will use the ECF immunisation. This lower predictive power of the model in part reflects the nature of the data: there are relatively few adopters of ECF immunisation, and so there is less information available to the statistical procedure for determination of the factors influencing adoption (Greene 1993). More importantly, the results support the observation that use of the infection and treatment method is limited by institutional factors. The manufacture and distribution of the components of the immu nisation has been constrained by uncertainties over the responsibilities of the government institutions involved. The lower predictive ability of the model indicates that factors other than those typically associated with adoption appear to play a major role in determining which producers have access to the immunisation. Further research into current and potential distribution systems to provide smallholders with ECF immunisation is currently underway at ILRI in collaboration with KARLIn addition to assessing the factors that influence the probability of adoption of a particular technology, an understanding of the factors influencing the extent of adoption (sometimes referred to as 'adoption intensity') is also useful. As in the case of the adoption decision, economists often use econometric models to relate the extent of adoption to various exogenous factors. In the case of G/C cattle, the extent of adoption refers to the number of G/C animals owned. For Napier grass, the number of acres planted is an indicator of the extent of adoption. Future analyses with the data from the Impact Survey will be used to assess the influence of various factors on the extent of adoption.The study explored both the impacts perceived by adopting households and more measurable impacts based on comparison of adopting and non-adopting households. The Detailed Survey asked households to discuss the impacts of owning G/C cattle and to state which impacts they viewed as most important. The Adoption Survey provides indicators of the impacts of G/C adoption on the income of smallholder households, the number of hired labourers employed and the nutritional status of pre-school aged chil dren. Although these three impacts are but a small subset of the potential impacts that could be examined, they are among the impacts of adoption cited most frequently by households. The impacts are also of interest to organisations involved in dairy develop ment efforts.The Detailed Survey asked households who had owned a G/C animal at some time to describe the impacts they perceived as a result of adoption. This approach is similar to that taken by most previous studies of the impacts of adoption of dairying in Kenya, such as Price Waterhouse (1990), Ratula (1994) and Mullins et al (1996). The responses provide indications of how households perceive the impacts of dairy adoption, and can complement studies where indicators of impacts are defined by researchers and measured more objectively. The 15 adopting households were asked to specify the impacts of adopting G/C cattle, to discuss them in some detail, and then to rank the impacts according to their importance to the household. Fourteen of the adopting households responded, and 13 of them indicated that the increased milk consumption by some members of the household was an impact of G/C cattle ownership (Table 8). Twelve of the households reported that they sold more milk, that they had higher incomes as a result and that household income was more regular than before adoption. Thus, the most commonly reported impacts relate to the consumption and sale of milk, as might be expected.Other impacts reported by the households included hiring of more permanent labourers (11 households), substantial changes to routine household activities (10 households) and better health due to increased milk consumption by household members, especially children (10 households). Less than half of the households indicated that adoption of G/C animals resulted in changes in their cropping patterns, in the hiring of more casual labourers or in increased workloads for household members. The households' rankings of impacts by their importance mirror the number of households reporting the impacts: increased milk consumption is most important, followed by increased milk sales and higher incomes.The data from 202 households responding to the Adoption Survey allow the impacts of income and hired labour indicated by the households in the Detailed Survey to be examined. One way of comparing outcomes is to examine means and distributions of income and number of hired labourers for adopters and non-adopters. Although this provides a starting point for assessing impacts, a limitation of this approach is controlling for factors other than ownership of G/C cattle that may influence observed outcomes. If factors other than G/C cattle ownership influence the outcomes, attributing differences in variables such as income to adoption alone may prove misleading. If, for example, adopters tend to have more and better land, more off-farm employment and higher incomes than non-adopters do, some of the difference in incomes is undoubtedly due to ownership of more land resources and more income from activities other than agriculture. The impacts of G/C adoption are related to, and confounded with, these other factors. Thus, comparisons of adopting and non-adopting households that do not control for these factors should be viewed as indicative rather than definitive measures of impact. Multivariate econometric analyses (to be discussed subsequently) can help to control for the confounding factors, and thus provide additional insights about the impacts of adoption.With these caveats in mind, the percentage of households with income from various activities differed for adopters and non-adopters (Table 9). Not surprisingly, 87% of adopting households reported cash income from dairying during the past month. (The remaining adopters did not report cash income from milk sales either because their G/C cows were not lactating during the past month or because all milk produced was consumed at home.) Fourteen per cent of households with local cattle reported cash income from dairying, reflecting shorter lactation lengths and less milk available for sale after household consumption needs are met. About three-quarters of both adopting and non-adopting households received income from crop sales, despite the lack of food selfsufficiency previously reported for households in coastal Kenya (Leegwater et al 1991). Two-thirds of all three groups of households received cash income from non-farm activities (wages, salaries or non-farm enterprises), consistent with the assertions of Waaijenberg (1994) that diversification into non-farm activities is a rational survival strategy for smallholder households in the region. Other sources of cash income, such as poultry production, remittances or 'other' were received by less than half of all households.Average cash income per month received from dairying was much higher for adopting households than non-adopting households (Table 9), although some nonadopting households have some income from sales of milk produced by local cows. Differences in cash income from dairying accounted for more than 40% of the difference in total mean cash income between adopters and non-adopters. The largest number of adopting households earned between KSh 1000 and KSh 5000 per month from dairying, and nearly one-quarter of adopters had cash income from dairying 1. In early 1998, KSh 62 -US$ 1.00. 2. Percentage of the difference in mean total income between adopters (households with at least one G/C animal) and non-adopters (households owning no G/C animals) due to a difference in a particular income source. The use of 'a', V, and V indicates that the means for the two adoption categories with the same letter are statistically significandy different at the 95% confidence level.greater than KSh 10,000 per month (Figure 3). Adopting households' perceptions of increases in income due to adoption of G/C animals are thus supported by the large differences in cash incomes from dairying reported by adopters and non-adopters. For adopting households, dairy income constitutes more than one-third of total cash income, whereas for non-adopting households dairy income is less than 3% of total cash income. Adopting households had higher mean cash incomes from all other sources except remittances, although the differences were statistically significant only for wages, salaries and other non-farm activities. Total incomes were four times as high for adopters than for non-adopters, and the differences between adoption categories were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (Table 9). Non-farm income was important for all three groups: wages, salaries and non-farm businesses accounted for 44% of total cash income for adopting households, and about 56% of total cash income for households with no cattle or only local cattle. Differences in cash income from wages and salaries accounted for about 40% of the difference in total mean cash income between adopters and non-adopters. The magnitude of wage and salary income indicates the reliance of households in coastal Kenya on non-farm activities. The importance of activities other than farming may make the adoption of agricultural technologies less attractive to the region's households (Waaijenberg 1994). However, additional sources of income may also allow investments in agricultural technologies (such as G/C cows) when these provide sufficient demonstrable benefits to the household or complement the household's current choices of farm and non-farm activities.The observation that adopting households have higher incomes than non-adopters, and higher income from non-farm employment in particular, has been used to argue that adoption of G/C dairy cattle is accessible only to the relatively wealthy or those with nonfarm income sources (Leegwater et al 1991). In contrast, the results from the Adoption Survey indicate that the percentage of adopters is fairly evenly spread across income categories, although a larger proportion of adopting households have incomes that fall into the higher income categories (Figure 4). To examine the importance of income from non-farm sources for the adoption decision, a bivariate probit model for G/C cattle ownership and involvement of the household head in non-farm activities was estimated (results not shown). The correlation coefficient between G/C ownership and non-farm activities was negative and statistically insignificant. This provides evidence that non-farm activities-although undoubtedly important for some households-are not systematically associated with (or are a necessity for) adoption of G/C cattle.Households (%) 0-999 1,000-4,999 5,000-9,999 10,000-19,999 20,000-39,999 40,000+Income category (KSh/month) Employment generation is another potential impact of adoption, in part because the care and feeding of G/C animals requires more labour. It is common for G/C owners to hire labourers to help with the increased workload; more than three-quarters of households responding to the Detailed Survey indicated that they hired more permanent labour as a result of adopting G/C animals. Hired labourers generally come from the areas surrounding the adopters' farms, and the financial benefits of dairying are thus shared among both owners of G/C animals and others in the local community. Sixty per cent of the adopting households reported employing at least one permanent labourer compared with 15% of non-adopting households (Table 10). Thus, although only slightly more than half the adopters employed a permanent labourer, they did so much more often than households with no cattle or only local cattle. In contrast, roughly equal numbers of adopting and non-adopting households employed casual labourers. Households with G/C cattle employed between one and two permanent labourers on average, compared with one permanent labourer hired for every five households without G/C cattle. In addition to the number of labourers employed, permanent labourers working for adopting households were paid more per month than permanent labourers employed by households with only local cattle. This may be due in part to more hours worked, but the end result is higher income received by hired labourers employed by adopters. Not all of the employment on adopting household's farms can be attributed to the presence of G/C animals. As noted with income, other factors will influence the number of hired labourers employed; sub sequent econometric analyses will examine the influence of the number of G/C animals owned by the household on the number of permanent labourers employed.  Dairy development efforts are often justified using the assumption that higher milk production will increase household milk consumption. Milk is a significant source of both energy and protein, including many essential amino acids lacking in carbohydrate-based diets (Huss-Ashmore 1992). Milk also contains many essential micronutrients, such as vitamins A and D. Increased milk consumption is therefore assumed to improve nutritional outcomes for households. In addition, to the extent that dairy production increases incomes, households with dairy cattle can afford to purchase more food and a wider variety of foods. This 'income effect' is also expected to contribute to improving the nutritional status in households with G/C cattle. Most studies have long recognised the complexity of the relationship among agricultural production systems, alternative means of generating household income, household food consumption patterns and nutritional status (Low 1991). Because the mechanisms and pathways between production, income and nutritional status are complicated, studies of nutritional outcomes by social scientists have come to rely upon summary indicators of nutritional status rather than direct measures of nutritional status itself (Randolph 1992). These summary measures do not, in and of themselves, eluci date the ways in which nutritional outcomes are determined-this requires additional information on the households' production, consumption, time allocation and morbiditybut they provide a reliable proxy for assessing nutritional status. Anthropometric measures for children 0 to 59 months of age often are used as indicators of nutritional status for households in societies with significant levels of protein-energy malnutrition (Low 1991;Quinn 1992). Children are measured because they are presumed to be the most vulnerable members of the household, and thus provide a sensitive indicator for the household as a whole. The interpretation of anthropometric measurements is also easier for children than for older members of the household because there are fewer genetic differences among children in different ethnic groups and reproductive status of females can be ignored. The measures typically used include 'weight-for-height' and 'height-for-age'. A low value of weight-for-height indicates that the child is very thin for his or her stature, and thus provides a measure of acute malnutrition (often referred to as 'wasting'). A low value of heightfor-age indicates that the child is shorter than one would typically expect for a child of the same age because of the accumulated effect of periods of morbidity and inadequate food intake (often referred to as 'stunting'). The measures are typically converted to z-scores (the number of standard deviations from the mean of a reference population) using the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) growth percentiles as a reference (WHO 1983). Because they are standardised measures, the z-scores can be compared for different age groups and for the two indicators of nutritional status (Quinn 1992).As a part of the Impact Survey, height and weight measurements for 112 children under the age of five years were collected from the 202 households surveyed. Comparison of the weight-for-height and height-for-age z-scores provides an indicator of the impacts of adoption on the nutritional status of households. As with the income and employment impacts, differences in nutritional status cannot be entirely attributed to the adoption of G/C animals; subsequent econometric analyses (to be reported in a separate document) will assess nutritional outcomes controlling for other variables in addition to G/C cattle ownership.The mean weight-for-height z-scores do not differ significantly for children in households with no cattle, only local cattle or G/C cattle (Table 1 1). This indicates that the prevalence of acute malnutrition appears to be little affected by adoption status, consistent with previous studies of the adoption of G/C animals in Ethiopia (Shapiro et al 1998). Consistent with previous studies of nutritional status in coastal Kenya (Leegwater et al 1991) over one-quarter of children measured were at least somewhat acutely malnourished. The percentages of children suffering from different degrees of wasting differed only in that somewhat fewer children were severely malnourished in adopting households (^2 test for differences between the distributions for adopters and non-adopters was not significant at the p -0.10 level). 2. Categories of wasting and stunting are based on ^scores, where z>-1.00 is normal, -1.00>z>-2.00 is mild malnutrition, -2.00>z>-3.00 is moderate malnutrition, and z<-3.00 is severe malnutrition (WHO/ Brazzaville, n.d., as cited in Quinn (1992)). The use of 'a', 'b', and 'c' indicates that the means for the two adoption categories with the same letter are statistically significandy different at the 95% confidence level.The mean z-score for height-for-age was statistically significantly higher for children in households with cattle than for households with no cattle (Table 1 1). The mean height-forage z-score for children in households with only local cattle was higher than for children in households with G/C cattle, but the difference was not statistically significant. The difference between children in households with cattle and those in households without indicates that ownership of cattle-or other factors associated with cattle ownership-may have some impact on chronic malnutrition. Despite the potential nutritional benefits of cattle ownership, more than two-thirds of children in adopting and non-adopting house holds showed some degree of stunting. Leegwater et al (1991) also observed that stunting was much more common than wasting among households in coastal Kenya. Moderate and severe stunting was more common for children in households without G/C cattle, but y? test for differences between the distributions for adoption categories was not significant at the p -0. 10 level. The foregoing descriptive evidence suggests that the ownership of G/C cattle per se has limited impact on average household nutritional status.The adoption data can also be used in econometric models to assess selected impacts of the adoption of G/C cattle. As noted previously, households with G/C cattle have higher cash incomes and hire labourers more frequently. Although this descriptive analysis provides an indication of the impacts of adoption, it does not control for other factors that influence the observed outcomes. Econometric models can control for these other factors and thus provide a better indication of the changes in household income and number of hired labourers that can be directly attributed to the number of G/C animals owned. The econometric models used to explore the determinants of household income and the number of hired labourers include the factors that can be considered 'exogenous' by the household (i.e. given for the current time period). Because a substantial proportion of the households report neither cash income nor hired labourers, a censored regression, or Tobit model is appropriate.1In addition to the exogenous variables affecting household income or hired labourers, we wish to examine the effect of an 'endogenous' variable (a variable that the household makes current decisions about), the number of G/C cattle owned. Because the number of G/C cattle owned is endogenous, it is assumed to be determined simultaneously with household income and the number of hired labourers. Thus, to examine the impacts of number of G/C cattle owned on income and labourers in the econometric models, a twostep procedure is used. First, a Tobit model is used to estimate the impact of exogenous' variables on the number of G/C cattle owned.2 This model assumes that: G/C cattle owned -f(Household characteristics, Characteristics of the household head, and Information sources used)Given the exogenous variables for each household and the estimated parameters from the model, the number of G/C animals a household is predicted to own given its charac teristics can be calculated. In the second step, this predicted value of the number of G/C cattle owned by the household from this model is used as an independent variable in the Tobit models for household income and hired labourers, which assume that: Household cash income f(Household characteristics, Characteristics of the household head, Information sources used, and Predicted number of G/C cattle owned) and Hired labourers f(Household characteristics, Characteristics of the household head, Information sources used, and Predicted number of G/C cattle owned)The use of the predicted values of G/C cattle owned addresses simultaneity bias, and allows the models to examine questions such as 'What is the effect of an additional G/C cow on household cash income?' or 'How many permanent labourers are hired for each additional G/C cow owned?' Three econometric models were estimated to examine the impacts of G/C cows on household cash income and hired labourers (Table 12). The number of G/C cows owned by the households was chosen rather than the number of cattle, because cow ownership should be more closely related to income (via increased milk production and sales) and increased demand for labour for cattle care and feeding. In contrast to the models of adop tion, the emphasis in these models is on the coefficients for the predicted number of G/C cattle. These coefficients indicate the effect of an additional G/C cow on household income or hired labourers controlling for the other factors exogenous to the household.     The addition of a G/C cow for the average adopting household in the sample results in an increase in household cash income of over KSh 4000 per month (Table 12). This effect is statistically significant at the 1% level, and its magnitude is nearly equal to the total mean monthly income for households that currently own no G/C cattle (Table 9). Thus, the adoption data provide evidence that adoption increases household incomes by a statistically and practically significant amount in coastal Kenya.Two models were estimated to examine the impact of the number of G/C cattle owned on the number of total labourers and the number of full-time labourers hired by the house hold. In both cases, the coefficient for the predicted value of G/C cows owned was small and statistically insignificant. Thus, the number of G/C cows owned by the household appears to have relatively little consistent impact on either total labourers hired or per manent labourers hired. An alternative question is whether ownership of any G/C cows affects the hiring of any labourers. To examine the probability of this, bivariate probit models relating ownership to hired labourers or permanent labourers were estimated (results not shown). These models indicated that the correlation coefficients between own ership and hiring labourers, although positive, were not statistically significant at the 10% level. The limited impact of G/C animals on the number of hired labourers is consistent with the observation that only 60% of adopting households have hired permanent labourers (Table 10). Leegwater et al (1991) found that only half of the households participating in NDDP (and therefore owning G/C cows) had hired labour. Thus, there may be subsets of adopters for whom hired labour is essential, whereas other adopters are able to handle the increased workload without hired assistance. The larger mean number of hired labourers observed for adopting households (Table 10) is due in part to factors other than G/C cow ownership.This study examined the factors associated with adoption of three dairy-related technologies and practices in Coast Province, Kenya: grade or crossbred (G/C) dairy cows, Napier grass production and the infection and treatment method for protection of cattle against East Coast fever. As G/C dairy cattle have higher feed requirements and lower disease resistance than local cattle, these three technologies should be highly complementary. The principal conclusions of the analyses to date are summarised as follows:• Adoption of a G/C animal is not a simple one-off binary decision. Households adopt and deadopt G/C dairy cattle primarily because of the expense of replacing an old or diseased animal. Grade and crossbred dairy cattle are adopted in the first place primarily because the sale of milk increases and stabilises household income, while allowing household milk consumption to increase. This is in spite of perceived disease, feed supply and milk marketing risks.• The probability that a Household will adopt a G/C animal depends on location, characteristics of the household head, sources of information and characteristics of the farm. The probability increases if the household is located in Malindi and Kilifi rather than in Kwale. Migrants to the coast from other areas of Kenya are also more likely to adopt G/C cattle, probably because of previous experience with smallholder dairying in the highland regions of the country. Probability of adoption decreases with increasing age of the household head, but increases with increasing number of household members, presumably related to the increased size of the labour for dairy-related activities. The amount of land available to the household does not apparently constrain adoption of G/C animals. Participation in the National Dairy Development Project (NDDP) increased the probability of adoption, indicating that the project was effective in involving coastal households in dairying. This was at least partially because smallholders in coastal Kenya may experience difficulty in gaining access to money with which to purchase a G/C animal. This problem was reduced at least partially in the past through participation in dairy development projects such as NDDP. Such involvement is clearly reflected in survey analyses, where it is shown that the decision to adopt a G/C animal is strongly associated with the decision to adopt Napier grass, a technology strongly supported by NDDP.• Survey results support the notion of the basic substitutability of dairying and other economic activities. This is consistent with the continuous nature of the adoption decision, the diversity of households that have adopted G/C animals and the fact that households adopt despite perceived disease risks. This substitutability means that keeping a G/C animal is just one activity of many that the household might engage in, as and when conditions within the household are conducive to it. For some households, purchase of a G/C animal does not necessarily involve a long-term commitment to dairy production. If the household has sufficient cash, then dairying clearly can be profitable, even on the Kenyan coast, but it takes management input.Adoption of dairy increases household incomes. Adopting households' perceptions of in creases in income due to adoption of G/C cattle are supported by the large differences in cash incomes from dairying reported by adopters and non-adopters (one-third of total cash income for adopters versus less than 3% for non-adopting households). Dairy income comprised the largest part of the difference in total cash incomes between adopting and non-adopting households. The observed differences in total incomes between adopting and non-adopting households are supported by econometric evidence that each G/C animal owned by an adopting household increases income by KSh 4000 per month-an amount nearly equal to mean total incomes reported by non-adopting households. Thus, the adoption of G/C cattle has the potential to markedly increase total household incomes for smallholder households in coastal Kenya. This finding focuses attention on the reasons why more households in coastal Kenya have not adopted G/C cattle. Adoption of G/C cattle is not limited to wealthy farmers. Both the descriptive and econo metric evidence support the idea that non-agricultural activities are not a key deter minant of dairy adoption. The descriptive results indicate that the percentage of adopters is fairly evenly spread across all income categories, implying that adoption of G/C dairy cattle is accessible to many households, not just the wealthier ones. The econometric evidence suggests that involvement of the household head in non-farm activities does not have a systematic effect on the probability that a household will adopt G/C cattle. Adoption of dairy can generate paid (secondary) employment. Although only slightly more than half of the adopters employed a permanent labourer, they did so much more often than their non-adopting counterparts. Households with G/C cattle employed between one and two permanent labourers on average, compared with one permanent labourer hired for every five households without G/C cattle. The econometric evidence suggests that the linkage between the number of total or permanent hired labourers and the number of G/C cattle is not particularly strong. Further, ownership of G/C cattle appears to have little impact on the probability that a household has hired labourers. However, these results may have occurred because our survey did not distinguish between labour hired for cattle care and labour hired for other agricultural and non-agricultural tasks. Adoption of dairy may have a positive impact on the nutritional status of preschool children. The incidence of chronic malnutrition (stunting) was statistically lower for children in house holds with cattle (G/C or local) than for those in households with no cattle. Although not all this observed difference can be attributed to milk consumption or dairy income, this result provides a starting point for future multivariate analyses that will control for other factors influencing nutritional status. Despite the potential benefits of G/C adop tion, more than two-thirds of children in adopting and non-adopting households showed some degree of stunting. The prevalence of acute malnutrition seems to be little affected by adoption status: over one-quarter of children measured were at least somewhat acutely malnourished.The milieu for smallholder dairy production at the coast is highly complex. Dairying in coastal Kenya provides benefits for adopters. For some households, adoption of a G/C dairy animal can lead to substantial increases in household income, can generate employment and can improve the nutritional status of pre-school-age children in the household. Households have various non-farm options for generating income that may serve the same purposes, however, and dairying seems to be treated as one of these options-to be engaged in from time to time as the opportunity arises. Previous dairy-related research has identified management options and practices that are viable and can be profitable for smallholders wanting to adopt or increase dairy production. Taken in the context of a risky production environment and competing opportunities for investment, the results of this study would suggest that neither the adoption nor productivity of dairying are constrained by poor avail ability of technology options. In terms of dairy development activities on the coast, there would seem to be two areas in particular that merit attention: mechanisms for easing access to grade and crossbred dairy cattle, either through credit schemes or through self-help smallholder co-operatives, and reducing the disease risks associated with G/C animals. Developments in both these areas would increase the propensity of smallholders to go into dairying. Whether or not such activities are viewed as worthwhile by development agencies is a question that requires a full appreciation of the opportunity costs involved and the policy goals of government.In conclusion, the medium rainfall coastal lowlands of East Africa represent a difficult and risky environment for smallholder dairy production, yet one with access to two prin cipal and rapidly growing urban markets, Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam. These markets offer smallholder dairy producers, actual or potential, large margins for their milk. However, these markets and their environs also offer many other opportunities for the investment of smallholders' scarce capital. Many of these investment opportunities require smaller initial investment than dairy cattle, are less constantly demanding of family labour, require fewer specialist skills and are less risky. Of particular importance to increasing the adoption of dairy amongst smallholders will be ensuring the effective delivery of the infection and treat ment method of immunisation against East Coast fever, or the delivery of the next-gene ration technology. Notwithstanding these reservations, dairy production and marketing has large potential for direct financial returns and indirect benefits for crop production. It is therefore likely that as smallholder agriculture in the coastal lowlands intensifies in response to human population pressure, dairying will become an important enterprise for a significant number of resource-poor families. In turn, the success of these families will depend in no small part on the products arising from the publicly funded research and development investments made during the 1980s and 1990s.Appendix 1 . Summary of selected previous adoption and impact studies of smallholder dairying in Kenya Various previous studies have examined the adoption of dairy technologies and their impacts on smallholders in Kenya. These studies are summarised in Table Al. Although the objectives of the studies differ, many of them share common approaches to assessment of impacts. Most of the studies relied on single-visit surveys with random (or semi-random) samples of households involved in dairy production. That is, only households with dairy cattle were included in the sample, and thus there typically was no 'control' group of households with similar characteristics but not involved in dairy production. The survey methods often relied on comparisons of the situation 'before and after' adoption of the dairying, based on recall of past events by households. Such studies provide indicators of how households perceive the impacts of dairying, but are probably less insightful than studies that use longitudinal monitoring techniques or include a control group in the study design.The technology adoption and diffusion studies emphasise the high variation in adoption rates and factors apparently influencing the adoption of dairy-related technologies and practices. Whereas Irungu et al (1998) reported that 70% of farmers surveyed in Kiambu District planted Napier grass, adoption of Napier grass ranged from 22% to 76% of house holds in six other districts (Metz et al 1995). The technologies were most often adopted individually, even though the National Dairy Development Project (NDDP) promoted the related technologies as an integrated package (Metz et al 1995). Even when the technologies promoted by NDDP were adopted, some farmers abandoned them after a few years. Maarse (1997) asserted that in Coast Province, the number of farms with pure stands of Napier grass and the amount of Napier grass planted per cow declined by nearly 50% from 1988 to 1993. The number of 'dormant' NDDP farmers (i.e. farmers who did not own a cow, have milking or feeding facilities, produce fodder on farm or practice zero grazing at least 25% of the time, despite previously being registered in NDDP) also varied by district. This indicated that the accessibility and appropriateness of the NDDP 'zero grazing' recommendations vary depending on local conditions. Dormancy was highest in Coast Province compared with other regions of Kenya. Nearly 9% of registered farmers at the coast were dormant in 1993, mostly due to loss of animals due to disease or the 'lack of management input' (Metz 1993).A potentially large number of impacts could be examined after households decide to undertake dairy production. Impacts assessed in the different studies cited above focus on who performs the tasks associated with more intensive dairying and the perceived benefits to the household. The studies confirm the importance of female household members in dairy production and marketing. Mullins et al (1996) found that in Kilifi District women are frequently responsible for dairy-related tasks other than herding and spraying for ticks. Women in the same district were 'involved' in 30% of the dairy-related tasks performed, more than children (26%) or hired labour (19%) (Price Waterhouse 1990). The MoALDM/NDDP studies (Mugo 1994) found that women contributed between 25% and 41% of the 'relative labour contribution' in the 'main dairy management areas'.The impacts of dairy adoption, like the prevalence of adoption itself, varied by location in Kenya. The impact of dairying on household labour requirements, perceived responsi bilities and the health of household members were outcomes that differed most by district. The percentage of households reporting that the adoption of dairy increased the amount of time devoted to farm work varied from 25% to 75%. (In Kilifi District, however, time devoted to 'other family activities' was not affected by the adoption of dairy, although the amount of work increased; Price Waterhouse 1990.) Households reporting 'more responsibilities' varied from 0% to 72% of respondents in the six districts where the MoALDM/NDDP study was carried out. Between 10% and 78% of households reported that adoption of dairying had improved the health status of the family (Mugo 1994;Mullins et al 1996). Thus, some key effects of adopting dairying appear to be highly variable; this suggests that additional analyses may help to elucidate the underlying reasons for this variability.The promotion of dairy production is often justified by the assumption that adopting households will consume more milk, but the results of the studies suggest this outcome is not universal. Less than 10% of the households in the MoALDM/NDDP studies for Migori and Nandi districts indicated that more milk was available for consumption. None of the female respondents in those studies indicated that 'more milk for home consumption* was an 'effect of zero grazing', whereas 8% and 17% of male respondents in those districts indicated that milk consumption by the household had increased after adoption. In con trast, Price Waterhouse (1990) and Mullins et al (1996) both found that more than 90% of households reported greater milk consumption after adoption. Launonon et al (1985) reported that over 70% of households in a Meru District survey reported increased milk consumption after the adoption of dairying.Household perceptions of the impacts of dairying on income and financial status varied less than other impacts assessed by the studies. Fifty-five to ninety per cent of the house holds reported more income after adoption, and 78% to 100% of households reported improved 'financial status' as a result of dairying (Mugo 1994). Mullins et al (1996) reported that 97% of households said that income had increased after adoption of grade and crossbred animals.Another hypothesis concerning adoption of more intensive dairying is that it generates employment, because more labour is required to care for Napier grass and grade or cross bred animals. In the MoALDM/NDDP studies, respondents reported that hired labour provided between 28% and 39% of the 'relative labour contribution' for tasks related to zero grazing. Often, hired labourers performed much of the work of weeding Napier grass plots and cutting grass for confined cattle. The results for Kilifi District suggest lower levels of employment generation, but vary depending on the study. Price Waterhouse (1990) found that only 12% of households hired more labour after adoption of dairy productionyet hired labour accounted for nearly one-fifth of dairy-related tasks. This suggests that the households adopting dairying may have already employed hired labour, and some of the additional work was taken up by existing labourers rather than new hires. The study did not examine the total payments to labourers or the amount of time they worked, so the impact on total payments to hired labour is unknown. In contrast, Leegwater et al (1991) found that about half of the NDDP farmers in Kilifi District employed labourers, particularly when the farm owner had off-farm employment. The extent to which dairy cattle per se are responsible for the increase in hired labour was not examined in detail in either of the two studies. Leegwater et al (1991) was one of the only studies to explore impacts of dairy adoption through examination of adopters and non-adopters. The study examined five groups: NDDP dairy producers, 'independent' dairy producers, extensive livestock producers, households that purchased dairy products from NDDP farmers, and the general rural population in Kilifi District. This study also examined factors in greater detail and more quantitative measurement than most of the other studies. Leegwater et al (1991) found that NDDP farms produced more milk than their 'independent' dairy counterparts, consumed more milk than the other four groups, and purchased a smaller percentage of calories consumed by the household. NDDP households also engaged more frequently in off-farm employment, earned higher total incomes, and enjoyed better nutritional status for pre school age children.A limitation of the Leegwater et al (1991) study is that the results rely on tabular summaries for the five groups, and thus do not control for factors other than dairy pro duction, such as land availability or other income, that will influence the reported out comes. The authors assert, for example, that off-farm income allowed the farmers in NDDP to afford the investments required by the project, yet only one-quarter of the sampled NDDP farmers are reported to have off-farm income. Similarly, the study concludes that the nutritional outcomes, while better for dairy producing and consuming households, are due to 'better child care in general' and thus cannot be attributed specifically to dairy production.         probit models. In practical terms, this implies that the decisions to adopt one technology are related to the decision to adopt another. The statistical test for p = 0 provides an indication of the interdependence of the two adoption decisions.A basic assumption of the linear regression model is that a random variable (such as the number of grade or dairy (G/C) cattle owned) can be modelled as a linear function of independent variables with a normally distributed error term with a mean value of zero. However, it is common in economic studies to encounter situations in which a significant proportion of the observations have the value 0; this is the case for the number of G/C owned by households who responded to the Adoption Survey. When the observed value is zero, this implies that the error term no longer has the assumed properties, and so a linear regression will provide misleading estimates of the statistical relationship between the independent variables and the outcome(s) of interest. (For this study, these outcomes are the number of G/C animals, the amount of Napier grass planted etc.) To adjust for the problems with the error term, a censored regression, or Tobit model, is appropriate. The development of the Tobit model hypothesises the existence of a latent variable, y* (sometimes called an 'index function'), which is not actually observed, y* is assumed to be a linear function of the independent variables in the model, such as the X above, so that: yh*=P'Xh+eh What is observed is an 'actual' variable, y (the actual extent of adoption, such as the number of G/C cattle), and the relationship between y* and y is given by: yh = yh'tfyi^0 o, ifyh<0This relationship is used to develop a regression model relating the observed variable to the variables assumed to influence the extent of adoption, X. In the standard linear regression model, the expected value of the observed variable yh is given as: E[yh]=P'xh because the error term eh has an expected value of zero. When the latent variable y* is of interest, the error term in a regression of y on X no longer has zero mean because the values of yh must all be greater than or equal to zero (i.e. no negative values are allowed for the number of G/C cattle owned). In this case, it was shown that the expected value of the observed value yh is given by:","tokenCount":"14374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c3de2c1e29189098986c53e44b579b1a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/894a22a2-97d4-434d-bca5-a787c71e93ef/retrieve","id":"-1095700996"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"75893748-29b1-40a5-bcdd-fdb2b79b4c03","pagecount":"78","content":"also provided useful comments on the present paper. This paper complements the series of monographs by Tesfaye Gebremeskel and D.B. Oyewole on production, consumption and trade statistics for cassava, yams, sweet potato and .. cocoyams in Africa and the rest of the world by analyzing major constraints 10 production and utilization of these crops in various regions of Africa.The Intemational Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is an autonomous non-profit corporation with headquarters on a 1,000 hectare experimental farm at Ibadan, Nigeria. It  1. African and world production of root and tuber crops 2. Estimates ot number of consumers of root crops in tropical Africa 3. Production of cassava in Africa 4. Area of cassava harvested in Africa 10 I).Yield ~f cassava in Africa 6. Cassava production in various agro•ecological zones 12 7. Labor utilization in Nigeria 14 8. Variation in role of root crops according to population density 16 9. Average annual cassava utilization 1980/84 1 0 . Per capita production of cassava in Africa 22 11 . Production of yams in Africa 32 1 2 . Relative growth rates of yams and cassava production 33 1 3 . Area of yams in Africa 34 1 4. Yield of yams in Africa 35 1 5 . Costs of production for yams in the forest and derived savanna zones 37 1 6 . Production costs of yams and cassava based mixtures • in Abakaliki (Eastern Nigeria) 38 1 7. Costs of production for yams In the southern guinea savanna, 1978 1 6 . Per capita production of yams in Africa 4 1 9 . Production of sweet potato in Africa 4 20. Area of sweet potato in Africa 5 21. Yield of sweet potato in Africa 5 22. Per capita production of sweet potato in Africa 23. Production of cocoyams in Africa 5 24. Area of cocoyams in Africa 5 25. Yield of cocoyams in Africa 6 26. Per capita production of cocoyams In Africa 6vii CHAPTER 1The root and tuber crops collectively are the largest single source of calories for the population of . 1he humid and subhumid regions of West and Central Africa. Cassava (Manihot escu/6nta Cran.ts) is the most important of these crops in terms of total production in Africa, but yams (Djoscorea spp.), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), and cocoyams (Colocasia spp, and Xanthosoma spp.) are each the dominant root crop in some regions.Cassava is a major staple in much of tropical Africa, Almost all cassava is grown in the hotter lowland tropics, although some cassava varieties are grown in cooler, higher altitude tropical areas (up to 2300 meters), The plant is a perennial woody shrub,usually propagated by planting a cutting taken from the woody part of the stem, and the roots are typically harvested nine to fifteen months after planting, although some cultivars may be left unharvested for two to three years. The plant cannot withstand flooding or waterlogged soils, but is very tolerant of drought, once established. This resistance to drought and also to many pests enables cassava to plcW an important role in household food security, even in areas where it is not a major staple (Cock, 1985).Cassav~ is often grown on degraded soils and is in many places a major staple of poor, malnourished people, Because of this the crop has often been falsely maligned as causing soil degradation and malnutrition. In truth, cassava is grown on degraded soils because other, less hardy crops will not produce adequate yields there, and it is often eaten by the poor because it is a cheap source of energy. Fresh cassava also contains some cyanide which in extreme situations has led to outbreaks of paraparesis and even death, but these cases are extremely rare. Cyanide content is normally reduced to acceptable levels through processing. Finally, high levels of cassava consumption are correlated to some extent with goiter, because cyanide in cassava inhibits the body's use of iodine. However, in areas where dietary intake of iodine is high, goiter is not widespread in spite of very high levels of cassava consumption. 1 Ya-ms are a major staple only in the so-called \"yams zone\" of West Afric, a, but they play a central role in the farming systems there. For centuries before the introduction of cassava, yams were the most important staple in this region, and they dre an important part of traditional culture and religion. Thus for many people there is a strong emotional attachment to the crop.To almost any West African who was born Within the area where yams are grown. the very word •yams•, the sight of the growing yams crop, of yams tubers in storage in the market, or in the home, or of food prepared from yams are • all emotive evocative experiences. For throughout this great part of Africa, which has been called the ~civilisation de I'igname\" or the •yams. zone: that stretched from the central COte d'ivoire through Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria to Western Cameroon and straddles both the forest and the southern parts of the savanna, the yam is far more than an important food crop : it is a vital, integral part of our cultural heritage. 2 Cultivation of yams in the tropics often resembles cultivation of vegetables in the temperate zone in its intensity. Yams are grown in areas of fairly high rainfall with a distinct dry season of riot more than five months and a rainy season of nt less than five months. Unlike cassava, yams are usually the first crop planted in a rotation because they require high soil fertility to produce a good crop. Small yams or pieces of yams called \"setts\" are planted as \"seed\" yams, often In mounds or ridges of soli, and most yams are harvested seven to nine months after planting.There are many species of yams in West Africa (including wild species), but only four are of major economic importance. White yam (Dlolleores rotundata) is the most common, accounting for 60 to 70 percent of the yams grown In Africa. It is also the most commonly marketed species of yams, in part because of its relatively good storage capability and consumer preference. Waler yam (D •• 'ats) Is the second most widely grown yam in West Africa. Water yam Is not indigenous to Africa. but originated in Southeast Asis and was probably brought to West Africa by Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century. It is generally regarded less highly than white yam because it yields an inferior lufu (pounded yam). Yellow yam (D. eayenenll's) Is similar to white yam in many respects (and some authors regard it s the same species), but usually has a yellow colored tuber flesh. The period of tuber dormancy Is shorter than the white yam and the growing season is longer, so that yellow yam can only be grown in areas where the rainy season is slightly longer (forest areas). Yellow yam stores much less well than white yam. Trifoliate yam (D. dumetorum) has coarse. bitter tubers. High concentration of diosscorine or its derivatives causes the bitterness in the tuber, and some cultivars are in fact poisonous. Tubers of trifoliate yam must be fermented and boiled before eating. 3 Trifoliate yam is especially common In the mountainous regions of Cameroon and may account for about 30 percent of n•ational yams production. Little of it Is marketed however because It hardens in storage. 4Unlike most yams, the sweet potato Is not indigenous to Africa but is native to Central America. Sweet potatoes are cultivated in many parts of the world, over a wide range of latitudes (4005 to 400N) and altitudes (sea level to 2300). In Africa, sweet potato production is concentrated in the Great Lakes highlands of Eastern and Central Africa.The sweet potato is a perennial plant but is usually grown as an annual crop, and Is vegetatively propagated from stem cuttings taken from growing plants (in the tropics) or sprouts from tuberous roots grown in nursery beds (in temperate areas) . The growing period is normally three to seven months depending-on the environment and cultivar. The sweet potato is adapted to a wide range of soils and has good drought tolerance, but cannot tolerate waterlogging (Hahn and Hozyo, 1984).What is commonly known as cocoyams actually includes plants of two different genera: CoJocasia and Xanthosoma. Colocas;a, sometimes called taro or \"old coooyam,\" originated in Southeast Asia, and probably accounts for about three fourths of world cocoyams production (Coursey, 1984). Xanthosoma (tannia or \"new cocoyam-) was introduced to West Africa more recently, in the middle of the 19th century (Johnson. 1958), but has spread rapidly. Xanthosoma is probably the most important cocoyams in West Africa. The majority of cocoyams in Western Nigeria is Xanthosoma (Knipscheer and Wilson, 1981) and probably more than three fourths of the cocoyams in Ghana as well. In Eastern Nigeria, both genera are commonly grown, and only In Cameroon does C%casia predominate (probably accounting for slightly more than half of cocoyams production there).Cocoyams require a large amount of moisture; for both CoJocasia and Xanthosoma rainfall greater than 2000 mm per year is required for best yields. Thus in West Africa, cocoyams are grown almost exclusively In the humid forest and derived savanna zones. They are also tolerant to shade, and Xanthosoma spreads rapidly in West Africa as an intercrop with cocoa in a system where Xanthosoma initially provides shade for cocoa seedlings and is In turn laler shaded by mature trees. Xanthosoma cannot tolerate waterlogging but Colocasia, especially dasheen, performs well under flooded conditions . Time of harvesting for Colocssis varies from 5 to 15 months depending on cultlvar and method of cultivation, though 6 to 8 months is common In Nigeria. Xanthosoma is ready for harvest 9 to 12 months after planting (Onwueme, 1978).Statistics on agricultural production in West Africa must be viewed with caution. Production estimates from different data sources can vary by a factor of two or even tenl In almost all countries production figures are based on extremely small samples. Few systematic surveys have been done. in part because of the lack of government trained personnel and funds. When surveys are attempted, poor roads often make access to rural areas both time-consuming and costly. Moreover, complex Intercropplng systems make crop production estimates difficult for most crops. Cassava production 1s especially dlfficuh to estimate because It Is usually not harvested all at once and In many areas it remains in the field for more than one year. But the problem of uncertain data is especially serious for yams since considerably more than half of yams production Is concentrated In Nigeria, where production estimates of yarns differ by a factor of three among various published sources.The standard source on national production data Is the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO production figures in many cases are taken directly from data provided Jtom national governmen~s. but FAO does use Its own estimates when national production figures are unavailable or ale likely to be grossly inaccurate. In the absence of plausible data from Clop surveys, a \"demand side\" approach is often used, estimating total produdlon on the basis of assumed per capita consumption and total population. For the analysis in this paper, FAO data are generally used, although problems with the data or large discrepancies with national production estirqates will be noted.Despite the. appropriate nature of the FAO data (probably accurate in most cases to ± 20 percent unless otherwise noted), It is clear that in terms of gross production cassava is by far the most Important root crop inAfrica. As 'shown In Table 1, on an energy basis, cassava production in Africa Is three times that of yams, about ten times that of sweet potato and nearly twenty times that of cocoyams. 5 In terms of world production cassava is still the leading tropical root crop, although production 0' sweet potato, grown extensively in the People's Republic of China, is only about twenty perCent lower. Cassava's dominance In Africa as a whole Is less pronounced In the primary focus countries 6 of coastal West and Central Africa beCause 0' the high concentration of yams production in coastal West Africa.More than 95 percent of world yams production Is from Africa and 90 percent of world production is from coastal West Africa. In the countries of humid and subhumid lowland tropical Africa, available energy produced from yams Is about seven and six times larger than that of sweet potato and cocoyams. respectively. Sweet potato is a relatively minor crop in Africa as a whole, but . in contrast to yams, 95 percent• of the world's sweet potato is produced outside of Africa. •In terms of available energy, sweet potato production is about 70 percent greater than cocoyams, the other major root crop in tropical Africa.Like yams, cocoyams production is concentrated in the countries of coastal West Africa . This region accounted ,for nearly 90 percent of production in Africa in 1980/84 and three countries, Nigeria (44 percent), Cameroon (19 percent) and Ghana (t6' percent),; produced nearly 80 percent of the, crop in Africa.Another measurement of the relative importance of the root crops and plantains is the number of people who rely on ,these crops for a large share of their daily energy intake as presented in Table 2 . These rough estimates are • based on food balance sheet consump. lion estimates, population figures and some basic information on which parts of a 'country consumption of thesa crops is concentrated in. 7Again cassa'V'a ranks as the most important of the crops considered. About 40 million people (living in Central Africa and Mozambique) cOnsume more than 2500J of cassava per day on average, and there are another 120 million people (throughout Africa) whose average daily cassava cOnsumption exceeds 850Jpe( day. Yam' s are a staple food :101' \" about 60 miltioh people. Sweet ,potato is • a staple food for about' 15 mUlton people 'in the Great Lake highlands region and coeoyams 'are • a staple for perhaps 10 miHiOnpeopie' .in coastal West Africa.Chapters two through five of this paper explore economic aspects of production and utilization of cassava, yams, sweet potato and cocoyams in order to begin to assess the future role of these crops in Africa and to aid in setting research priorities. For each crop, production in major agro-ecological zones or regions of Africa is described and factors influenoing production trends are discussed. Consumption and utilization aspects a' J:e treated in' a simil~t manner, including data on nat'iOl'tal consumption; descriptions of major forms of consu' mption,and • an analysis of the marketing and demand • factors. In' ~ach 'of the chapters ' on individual crops, implications for IITA's research • are .summariz, ed. , Chapter six concludes by comparing the. root crops' in terms of, their potential for'increasing food production in various regions of Africa.A word of' caution is appropriate at the outset of this paper. Relatively little is known about the economics-of any of these crops, at least in the African context,because few detailed studies of the economics of production, processing, marketjng or consumption have been done. Thus the reader should be aware that many of the ideas presented , here •should be ta~en as, tentat, ive hypotheses to be tested by further research. 7. For example, for Nigeria it was. assumed that :about one half of the populatioo lives in the southern, high cassava production . area of the oountryand • that • relatively little cassava is consumed ,In the north. Thus average per capita consumption in the south is of the order of 1700J calories p. capita per day, arid a large majority of these people would average at least 850J calories per capita per day from cassava  b Countries are listed in order oC number of people consuming the specified level of the commodity.CHAPTER 2A. C!>SSAVA PRODUCTIONZaire and Nigeria are Africa's leading cassava producers accounting for 29 and 23 percent of production respectively for the period 1980. 84. 1 The next four largest producing countries are all located in East and Southern Africa: Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and Angola. The actual magnitude of cassava production in these countries is uncertain though. Overall, coastal West Africa and Central Africa each account for about one third of production; East and Southern Africa accounts for most of the remainder. (Less than 5 percent of cassava In Africa is produced in the semi-arid regions of West Africa.) Cassava production has most likely been increasing In Africa as a whole, but at a rate slower than population. As shown In Table 3, cassava production increased at a rate of 1.7 and 1.8 pe rcent pe r year in Africa in the 1964/66 -1970/74 and the 1970/74 -1980/84 periods respectively. In the latter period, production increased fastest in East and Southern Africa (2.8 per0ent) and Central Africa (2.6 percent), but increased by only 1.3 percent in coastal West Africa. 2 Data on growth rates of production of cassava are of course dependent on the underlying FAa estimates of production, which are for several major countries, including Zaire and Nigeria, apparently based on assumed growth rates derived from population growth estimates and other factors.Increases In area harvested account for almost all of increased production. For Central Africa, the rate of Increase in area harvested has remained approximately constant. Area harvested increased by 1.9 percent per year from 1964/66 to 1970/74 and by 2.1 percent per year from 1970/74 to 1980/84 (Table 4). In both West Africa and East and Southern Africa growth In area harvested accelerated, from 1.1 to 2.0 percent per year for the two periods in West Africa, and from 1.8 to 2.9 percent per year for the two periods in East and Southern Africa.Average cassava yields in Africa are 6.8 tons per hectare. but yields vary widely, ranging from 3 to 15 tons per hectare. 3 One of the most Important factors explaining the large variation In average yields between countries is planting density, which can vary greatly because cassava is most often intercropped. I ncidence of pests and diseases, soil type and other agro-ecological factors, length of growing season before harvest (which  can range from nine months to several years), and cassava variety are also major contributing factors.Many of liT A's improved varieties yield 15-25 tons per hectare on experimental test plots (without fertilizer) in the forest and derived savanna zones in Nigeria (IITA, 1985. p. 120). Local varieties are not routinely used as a comparison. On farmers' fields, a limited sample of farmers in the derived savanna near Ibadan had an average yield of 20.3 tons per hectare using an IITA variety (TMS 30572) and 16.0 tons per hectare for a common local variety.4 All the reported yields greatly exceed average yields in Nigeria. Cultural management (especially weeding and plant density) may be one of the major factors explaining the discrepancy in yields between the above measured yields and estimates of average yields in Nigeria.FAO data indicate that average cassava yields in Africa increased by 0.3 percent per year from 1964/66 to 1970/74 and by 0.5 percent per year from 1970/74 to 1980/84 (Table 5). The 1.2 percent annual average increase in yield In West Africa during the 1964/66 to 1970/74 period. if it actually occurred. must be explained by improved cultural practices or increased planting density since no improved cassava varieties were available to farmers during this period. At present the impact of improved varieties is yet small, e)(cept in localized areas located for the most part in southern Nigeria. An optimistic estimate of 200 000 hectares of IITA improved varieties (Hahn. 1984) represents roughly 20 percent of cassava area in Nigeria and less than 4 percent of cassava area in Africa. Drought and damage by cassava mealybug in West Africa and by cassava green spider mite in East and Southern Africa may have contributed to the reported small decline in cassava yields in these areas. The reported 0.5 percent annual increase in yields in Central Africa is largely due to increases in yields in the Congo and Rwanda. The questionable quality of the yield data, however, prohibits confident statements about trends ovsr time. The meager evidence does indicate that cassava yields have shown neither a sharp upward nor downward trend over time.As shown in the preceding section. cassava is widely grown throughout much of tropical Africa. The factors which have accounted for its spread and which will determine its future growth vary according to ecology and region. In this paper. seven broad production zones, based largely on agro-ecological zones, are defined. Each production zone is described and hypotheses are advanced which attempt to identify underlying causal factors which determined past growth and will determine the future potential for cassava in the system.In West Africa, broad agro-ecologlcal zones -forest, transition zone and guinea savanna •• are used while in Central Africa 1wo lowland systems are defined -forest and savanna. These vegetation zones correspond closely with rainfall patterns. The sixth production zone, highland cassava, is defined in terms of elevation (> 1400 meters). The final \"zone\", East and Southern Africa, is a residual category comprising environments where cassava is produced outside IITA's farming systems program's ecological mandate of humid and subhumid lowland tropical Africa. These areas are generally at elevations of greater than 800 meters. and are often drier than the mandated ecologies.West Africa: forest. transition zone and guinea savanna Cassava production in West Africa is concentrated in the humid and subhumid southem areas. About 75 percent of cassava in West Africa is grown in the forest and transition zones (Table 6). Cassava production in the guinea savanna accounts for about   15 percent of production and the areas north of and drier than the guinea savanna contribute less than 5 percent.Historically, yam was the major food crop in southern Nigeria and throughout coastal West Africa east of the Bandundu River in COte d'lvoire. 5 Cassava was introduced to West Africain the late 17th century by Portuguese traders and spread rapidly, especially following the introduction of gari production techniques b)' returning slaves early in the 19th century (Jones, 1959). While yam production still exceeds cassava production in Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Cote d'ivoire (according to FAO estimates), cassava production has overtaken yam production (in terms of gross output) in the humid forest zone.Several major factors account for cassava's rapid spread throughout West Africa. Cassava is a low input crop -It can still produce a crop on marginal soils and it requires lower labor input than most other crops. especially yam (Table 7). Labor inputs are also fle¥.ible since planting time can be varied (cassava can tolerate periods of drought once it is established) (Onwueme. 1978), and the crop can be stored in the ground for months or even years depending on the variety. Although harvested fresh roots cannot be stored more than a few days, cassava processed into gari can be stored for several months if dried properly and It is easily transported.In coastal West Africa cassava is typically grown as the last crop before fallow. Other crops have a higher gross value per unit land area when grown on fertile soil as compared to cassava, hence cassava is usually relegated to more depleted soils. In Nigeria it is rarely grown as a monoculture, but because it matures after nine or more months it is often the last crop remaining in the field after the harvest of other crops.In the forest zone, cassava and other root crops generally have a competitive advantage compared with grains. High rainfall and humidity make drying and storage of grain difficult, inhibiting the use of grain as a major year-round source of food. Root crops, especially cassava, are also better adapted to acid soils associated with high rainfall areas.In the densely populated forest zone of southeastern Nigeria, cassava is typically found on poorer soils in outer fields. More fertile soils and sons near the compound are usually reserved for yams, maize. vegetables. and plantains -higher value crops which do n01 perform as well as cassava on poor soils. Fields nearer the compound are cultivated more intensively than those further away. Cassava on the outer fields may be interplanted with other crops such as maize at the start of the rainy season (around MarCh), and may not be weeded again after the other crops are removed. Cassava in outer fields is usually harvested as needed (Lagemann, 1977).Cassava production has increased rapidly in southeastern Nigeria since the late 19th century. The decline in soil fertility that has accompanied increasing population density and shorter fallows may have been one factor that. encouraged expansion of cassava, but the relationship between increasing popu lation density and cassava production is complex. Data from Lagemann (19n) suggest that in areas of high population density, average farm size decreases and the role of the compound farm becomes more important both in terms of share of total farm area and value of farm production (Table 8). Two major factors, with opposite effects on cassava, seem to be at work. As population pressure on the land increases, fallow periods become shorter and the soil becomes progressively less fertile, favoring production of crops more tolerant of 5. Several theories have been advanced for the dominance of yam east of the Bandundu River and of rice west of the river. Agro-eoologlcal factors do not appear to be of primary Importance; rather, cultural differences between the peoples living in the two braod areas may be \",nit important. See Coursey (1978). (2' 00)Gari processingSources: Knipscber (1980) aild (lkpi et a1. (1986).a Without shelling.b Derived from Ikpi et aI. (1986). 738 houn (chUdren .. 1J2) required to p~ 6.89 tooa .17.84 daya'tol1 (5 houn = 1 day). Assumes yield of 9 tona/hectare.poor soils SUCh as cassava. This seems to be the dominant factor in southeastern Nigeria. However, increasing population density also provides more labor for intensive cultivation of the small amount of land available. To the extent that additional labor input can minimize the effects of reduced soil fertility, (for instance by mulching, use of manure, additional weeding), higher value crops (those giving the highest returns per unit of land) not .otherwise tolerant of poor sons. will be grown. This helps explain the continued importance of yams even in the highest population density areas. 6In southwestern Nigeria the predominance of cassava over yams in the forest and transition zones was evident in the 1963 agricultural census of Nigeria. In this region of the country in the fifties and sixties the allocation of the best land to cocoa and shoi1ages of farm labor for food crop production favored the production of cassava over yams because cassava can stili produce a crop on marginal soils and its labor requirements are both lower and more flexible than those for yams (Agboola, 1979). Migration of labor to urban areas and high labor costs in the seventies and eighties also favored production of a low labor intensity crop like cassava.Near major cities such as Lagos, some commercial farmers are beginning to grow cassava as a monoculture for gari production and sale. The development of better roads provides access to these markets, while infertile soils limit production of higher-valued vegetables and yams. As urban centers grow in West Africa, sole crop cassava in the forest zone is likely to become more common; access to markets also provides these farmers with a variety of foods for purchase.In the forest zone in countries of West Africa where rice is the• major crop, cassava is often intercropped with rice at low densities ' on upland fields or grown separately on plots formerly planted with rice. Cassava complements rice well in these systems because of its low demand for nitrogen, its resistance to drought and its flexible harvest which allows it to be harvested during the period just prior to the new rice harvest, when rice supply is low (Frankenberger et al.. 1985).In the transition zone, there is less rainfall with shorter -duration than in the forest, and rainfall patterns are typicaUy bimodal. In southwestern Nigeria cassava is often intercropped with maize (Palada et al. 1985). Maize is planted first, •at the start of the rains (around March) and followed by cassava after the maize is established. The bimodal rainfall pattern and a ' short second rainy season make two maize crops pet year risky, and intercropping maize with cassava allows the farmer to use the land in the second season in a less risky enterprise. Because traditional cassava varieties mature at about 14 months and because fallow periods are needed to restore soil fertUity, typical cropping rotations are two-to-three-year~long cy. cles of maize and cassava,. followed by fallow. (The cassava is often harvested over a period of time, so that the field revElrts to fallow while some cassava remains.) Some farmers with access to fettilizer are able to grow an annual rotation of maize with cassava. For this rotation an early ~aturing cassava (10-12 months) is required, making it possible for cassava to be completely harvested before the start of the next year's rains.Cassava production has increased rapidly in Ghana in the transition zone and coastal savanna in recent years, replacing plantain and cocoyam, largely because of cassava's tolerance to drought and possibly because of cassava's tolerance to depleted soils. Shortage of labor (reflected in high labor costs) may also inhibit further land clearing and growth of other crops more demanding of high soil fertility.6. See also Bachman (1981). The major yam growing areas are, however, the derived savanna and southem guinea savanna zones.Thble 8. Varlation in role ofl'OOt crops ~to population density Southeastern N'!pl'i.Umokile 00• OwerTe•Eberri (11).Total farm size (ha) a L • low, M. medium. and H '\"' high population den,ity.Farther north in the guinea savanna, less cassava is grown. Yams are the dominant root crop where enough water is available,1 and cereals (maize, sorghum and millet) occupy most of the land area. Here again, cassava is grown mostly as a last crop before fallow on outer fields. Lower rainfall, increased difficulties of harvesting cassava in dry soils, and more labor competition from other activities during prime cassava harvest periods (when soils are less dry) help explain why cassava/maize systems are less common. Cassava does have a role in these areas though, as a hedge against drought, and as a result has expanded northward in recent years . Part of the reason tor the northward expansion may also be found in the migration of cassava-eating people from the southern areas. Sweet cassava varieties tend to dominate in drier regions.Relatively less is known about cassava production in Central Africa where it was introduced early in the 17th century by Portuguese traders. In large areas it is the dominant staple crop, accounting for over 4200J per capita in Zaire and the Congo. In Zaire, by far the largest country in the region with almost 30 million inhabitants, cassava is of major importance throughout most of the country, and probably accounts for more than 50 percent of the calories in the diet throughout most of the Zaire River basin. Cassava's importance in much of this area may be due in part to the highly acidic, easily leached solis which severely limit production of other crops. High humidity and rainfall also make grain storage difficult. An important feature of cassava culture in Central Africa is that the leaves are widely consumed and may be equally as important to the farmer as the tubers themselves.Perhaps one third of the cassava grown in Zaire and in Central Africa is located in the forest zone. These areas are generally characterized by poor access to markets, very high rainfall. \"\"ow soil fertility, and low population density. Cassava is commonly associated with plantains in some parts of the forest zone, for example in the forest zone of the Haut-Zaire region. The large majority of the cassava is harvested more than one year after planting. Yields of cassava are low (2.5-5.4 tons per hectare). but cassava output per household is still 2.5 to 5 times that of plantain (Perreault. 1979).In the southern savanna region of Zaire at least three major cassava cropping systems are found: cassava + groundnuts. monoculture cassava, and cassava + maize. Intercropping with maize is more common in southeastern Zaire, while the groundnut + cassava mixtures are predominant in the Bas 1-1 zaire region near Kinshasa. According to a rapid on-farm survey (which covered only 6.5 percent of national cassava production in Zaire in 1977), perhaps 60 percent of cassava in the region is interplanted with groundnuts at the start of the rainy season (usually in October or November). while about 30 percent may be planted as monoculture, especially on eroded slopes.There is some evidence that increased population pressure on the land has contributed to increasing cultivation of cassava in parts of southwestern Zaire (the Kwango-Kwilu region of Bandundu) where there is a mixture of savanna and forest land. New fields are being opened on more marginal soils and fallow lengths are decreasing. while cassava is increasingly found on all the major types of fields. Yields of cassava may be decreasing, however, due to declining soil fertility and increasing weed problems related to the shorter fallow periods (Fresco. 1986).The spread of cassava in Rwanda and Burundi was enqouraged by the Belgian colonial government during the twenties and early thirties, primarily as a means of preventing the reoccurrence of drought-related famine (Jones,-1959). The crop has spread rapidly and after roughly 50 years accounts for 17 and 15 percent of total energy consumption in Rwanda and Burundi, respectively (FAO, 1984). Production of cassava in Rwanda has more than doubled since the early sixties, although cassava production in Burundi has apparently increased only at a slow rate during this period (Table 3). Cassava is the dominant root crop in the \"Great Lake Highlands\" of Rwanda, Burundi, and eastern Zaire at elevations below 1400 meters and is also widely grown at elevations up to 1800 meters. although sweet potatoes are more widely grown in the higher elevation areas (Jones and Egli, 1984).In the 1400-1800 meter elevation areas, the landscape is quite hilly and increased population pressure on the land has resulted in shorter fallows and greater use of marginal lands. Cassava has become increasingly important, especially on the poorer soils, owing to its ability to produce a crop even on poor soils. It is most often intercropped with maize or beans in these areas, but is also frequently found growing as a monoculture on eroded hillsides. In the lower elevation areas of eastern Rwanda and Burundi (below 1400 meters), cassava is often grown in association with sorghum where its resistance to drought is particularly important. In areas above 1800 meters, little cassava is grown.Cassava was probably introduced inlo East Africa some time after 1800 from the Portuguese and Arab communities on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Five countries, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Madagascar and Uganda, account for about 90 percent of cassava production in East and Southern Africa. In Tanzania, the region's largest producer, cassava production is concentrated in the dry southeastern corner of the country bordering Mozambique (an area characterized by poor soils and low rainfall), the area just south of Lake Victoria (where the best land is devoted to cotton and there are serious erosion problems), the area bordering Lake Tanganyika near Burundi (where cassava and sorghum are the major staples), and the coastal areas near Dar es Salaam. Cassava is also increasingly being planted as an intercrop with maize or sorghum in the dry central plateau where rainfall is uncertain and cassava provides a hedge against drought.Cassava production in Mozambique is concentrated in the northern part of the country (the northernmost three provinces account for 90 percent of production) (Anon., 1984), where historically cassava was forcibly introduced as an alternative food staple to sorghum in order to free both labor and the best land for cotton cultivation. Cassava has also spread rapidly in recent years in the areas around Maputo in the southern part of the country despite the drought. which has badly damaged other crops, and because cassava is not easily destroyed or stolen by bands of soldiers.Cassava is grown mainly in the northern half of Angola, and is generally not intercropped. Typically, only one crop of cassava is grown before a fallow of two to six years. As in Zaire and many parts of East and Southern Africa, the leaves of cassava are eaten as a vegetable.Four major pests and diseases, cassava mosaic virus, cassava bacterial blight, cassava mealybug, and cassava green spider mite, are the most important biological constraints on cassava production in Africa, and cause the greatest reduction in yields. Other constraints include anthracnose disease and nematodes, but these are much less serious in Africa as a whole.Cassava mosaic virus causes yield reductions throughout Africa and in some areas is so common that farmers do not consider cassava leaves exhibiting mosaic symptoms to be diseased, but rather consider them to be normal. The disease has been shown to be due to a geminivirus transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci Genn. (IITA 1985, p.120: Theberge, 1985). In less humid areas such as northern Nigeria, there are lower populations of whiteflies and thus less problems with the virus. IITA has bred a number of improved, mosaic-resistant varieties, and routinely incorporates resistance in all new material. Cassava bacterial blight is also common across humid and subhumid Africa, and can be more damaging to the plant than cassava mosaic disease. The extent of the damage to the plant depends on the timing of the infection, environmental conditions, bacterial strain and cassava variety.There is reportedly a high correlation between incidence/severity of the disease and the amount of rainfall (Theberge 1985). Resistance to bacterial blight is also routinely incorporated into all IITA improved varieties.Estimating actual yield losses from these two diseases is difficult because little is known for certain about the extent of adoption of resistant varieties or yield losses ~ farmers' fields. Moreover, cassava in the field is often attacked by more than one disease or pest. so that low yield cannot be attributed to just one agent. The following estimate of yield losses in Nigeria serves as an example of the difficulties in making these ca Iculations.Typical yield losses caused by cassava mosaic disease in susceptible cassava varieties in Nigeria are estimated at 25 to 60 percent. With perhaps 45 percent of cassava in Nigeria planted to resistant varieties (10 percent to liT A material and 35 percent to other improved clones) and another 15 percent of cassava under no stress in the drier northern regions where there is little problem with cassava mosaic disease, the remaining 40 percent of cassava is susceptible. If yield is decreased to about 40 percent in susceptible varieties. then mosaic disease accounts for a 16 percent annual loss in cassava production in Nigeria. Similarly, bacterial blight causes average yield losses of 60 percent in the 60 percent of cassava susceptible to the disease (total production less the 25 percent of cassava with resistance to the disease in southern Nigeria less the 15 percent of cassava in the drier northern regions). Under these assumptions the loss of cassava production due to bacterial blight is about 36 percent. But since the two diseases often infect the same plants, the yield losses are not additive, and total average yield loss from the two diseases combined may be about 40 percent. not 51 (=36+15) percent. S Clearly, in spite of the rough nature of the calculations. these two diseases cause major reductions in yields in Nigeria and most likely throughout Africa. The magnitude of the yield losses suggested by these estimates implies that the widespread adoption of cassava varieties resistant to these two diseases could result in substantial gains in production.Cassava mealybug was first reported in Africa (Zaire) in the early seventies, and spread rapidly to other parts of Central Africa (Hahn et aI., 1979). and is now found in all major cassava growing areas in Africa except Kenya, the Seychelles, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mozambique (Theberge. 1985). The species (Phenacoccus manihotJ) is indigenous to South America and may have been introduced to Africa with vegetative planting material.Mealybug can cause extensive damage (yield losses up to 75 percent) when the attack is very severe. The severity of the attack and the resulting damage, however, may depend on a number of factors including weather and climate (pest damage is always worse in the dry season). and the coexistence of other forms of plant stress (incidence of mosaic disease and bacterial blight, poor soils). Thus while there are reports of mealybug devastating cassava in some areas in recent years (e.g., the Shaba region in Zaire, parts of Guinea-Bissau, and the Texagri farm in southwestern Nigeria). other areas (e.g. the Kasai provinces in Zaire) have little or no mealybug infestation. In general, in Nigeria the worst infestation of mealybug occurs in the transition zone and guinea savanna, and there is less damage to the cassava crop in the forest zone where rainfall is greater. North of the guinea savanna mealybug is more sporadic. But there are several exceptions to these general patterns of severity of mealybug attack by agroclimatic zones in other countries of Africa. 9Estimates of actual yield and production losses due to mealybug damage range from almost zero (Le. damage is highly localized and not significant on a national scale) to 30 to 60 percent. In theory, the damage due 10 mealybug (and spider mite) should be easier to estimate than damage due to mosaic disease and bacterial blight, since these pests were unknown to Africa before the early seventies, so that any reductions in yield observed might be largely due to the presence of the new pests. However, accurate yield data on a district or country level are in almost all cases not available, making comparisons with previous years' figures unreliable. The severity of pest damage also varies from year to year, depending partly on weather and other natural factors, but in some areas release of natural enemies through the IITA Biological Control Program is thought to have been largely responsible for reduced levels of pest damage. A study of the damage caused by mealybug in Ghana found that yields of cassava were very low but was unable to determine the separate contributions of drought, mosaic disease and mealybug to the low yields (Walker et aI., 1985).Cassava green spider mite, like cassava mealybug, is indigenous to South America, and was probably introduced into Africa on vegetative planting material. It was first reported in 1972 in Uganda and has spread throughout the cassava belt of Africa. Green spider mite is in general less damaging than severe cassava mealybug attack, but it is more widespread. Green spider mite may cause average yield losses of about 30 percent.As discussed in the previous section, farmers often choose to relegate cassava to inferior lands because of their own preference for food crops grown on more fertile land or because of market demand which makes returns from producing other crops on the fertile land higher than the return from cassava. A large increase in producer prices would likely bring about a substantial increase in cassava production since labor and especially land could be bid away from other activities. In this sense, inadequate demand is a primary constraint on cassava production.In this section trends in cassava demand and factors influencing these trends are analyzed. The first section presents the statistical data on per capita consumption and an overview of the end uses of cassava in Africa. In the second section the major forms in which cassava is consumed as food in Africa are described and in the third the major factors influencing future consumption are discussed. Finally, in the last section the potential for non-food uses of cassava is explored.In Africa, the bulk of cassava is consumed as human food. Although world-wide more than 10 percent of cassava is used as animal feed, in Africa less than 2 percent is used in this way (Table 9). Most of the cassava undergoes some form of processing (in addition to cooking) before consumption. In Africa, cassava exports account for less than 0.1 percent of total production. 9. The following discussions of the extent of mealybug and green spider mite damage is based on interviews with H. Herren, W.   The role of cassava in the diet varies across major regions in Africa. Per capita consumption of cassava in Central Africa is the highest in all of Africa. Cassava accounts for about 5000J per capita per day (about half of total energy) in Zaire and the Congo, and more than 4000J energy per capita per day in Central African Republic. 10 Per capita production and consumption is much lower in coastal West Africa, ranging from 980J per capita per day in Cameroon to 1970J in Benin. Cassava is generally a major staple only in the forest and southern moist savanna regions in West Africa, areas in which only about half of the populations of Nigeria, Ghana and C6te d'ivoire live. Also the diet is more diverse even in the southern regions of these countries than in Central Africa (yam and maize are also major staples in these regions,) Further west in coastal Liberia and Guinea, cassava is the second most important staple food after rice. National per capita consumption of cassava is also high in East and Southern Africa in Angola, Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania. Since cassava is mainly consumed in only certain regions of these countries (e.g. in northern Mozambique and Angola) the national average consumption is somewhat misleading. In the highlands of eastern Zaire. Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda sweet potatoes and bananas are also major staples. so that cassava consumption in these areas accounts for about 15 percent of total energy intake.As shown in Table 10, per capita production 11 of cassava fell sharply (by an average of 2.1 percent per year) in West Africa from 1970/74 to 1980/84. Per capita production of almost all major staples also declined in this period. Despite large declines in per capita production in Central African Republic and Gabon,12 per capita production in Central Africa declined only slightly overall. largely because of the very small decline in Zaire. Per capita production actually increased in only four major cassava producing countries: Madagascar. Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. Thus the FAO data suggest a sharp decline in per capita consumption of cassav,a in West Africa and most of Central Africa {except Zaire} and increases in p'er capita consumption in parts of East Africa and highland Africa. Because of the data limitations discussed under IntrodUction. and in Chapter 1, the trends in per capita production are at best rough indicators and must be viewed with caution.Cassava in Africa is consumed in a wide variety of forms. In many areas, the roots are consumed as a major staple. although in some places boiled fresh cassava roots are eaten as a vegetable. In large parts of Africa (particularly Central Africa) the leaves are also consumed as a vegetable. Because cassava contains a cyanogenic glucoside. linamarin, the roots must be processed to hydrolyze the cyanide and to improve palatability. For low cyanide varieties (usually having a less bitter taste), processing may consist of simply peeling and boiling the root. Some low cyanide varieties are reportedly occasionally eaten raw.High cyanide varieties (usually having a more bitter taste), require more processing to remove the cyanide. Several steps are involved, which vary according to the product made, but usually include some of the following: peeling, soaking the root in water for several days, grating, pounding, drying or roasting. Likewise. cassava leaves have a high cyanide content and must be processed (commonly pounded and boiled) before eating.Although the main etiological factor in endemic goiter is iodine deficiency, the ratio of iodine to thiocyanate (lISeN) in the diet has been shown to be related to the development of goiter. As noted, processing of cassava removes most of the cyanide but 10. TheFAO food balance sheet for 1979-B1 shows 4780J calories per capita per day for the Congo but assumes only 3 percent losses. More realistic loss figures of about 10 percent give an estimate of 4450J calories per capita per day. 11 .Per capita production trends are in general good proxies for per capita consumption trends since most countries neither export nOr import cassava. other end uses are small. and there is likely to be little change over this relatively short time span in percentage of production lost as waste. 12 . The per capita production decline in Gabon probably exceeds the deadline in per capita consumption because of increased imports of cassava ~not recorded In the food balance sheet) from Cameroon.the amounts remaining in food (especially food processed from high-cyanide varieties) can contribute to endemic goiter in areas where dietary intake of iodine is relatively low.Goiter is a serious public health problem in parts of Zaire where cassava intake is high but iodine intake is low. In other parts of the same country, where both cassava and iodine intake are high, there is little or no problem with goiter (Delange et aI., 1983).The most common consumption form in West Africa is gari, a dry granular food made from fermented cassava. There are many local variations in the processing of cassava into gari, but in general the cassava roots are first peeled and grated before being dehydrated (by preSSing out the water) and left in sacks for several days to ferment. The fermented mash is then sieved and fried. Consumption of cassava in the form of gari may account for more than 70 percent of cassava consumption in Nigeria,13 40-50 percent of consumption in Cameroon, 40 percent of consumption in Ghana,14 and 30 percent in Cote d'lvoire. 15 Gari consumption may thus account for about 60 percent of cassava consumption in West Africa. Attiek~. (consumed widely in the Ivory Coast) is fermented, pulverized cassava, but unlike gari it is steamed, not fried, in its final processing stage and therefore has a very short shelf life.Other common forms of consumption in Nigeria are a sun-dried cassava flour (called fatun in southwestern Nigeria), and a sticky dough or porridge made from fermented cassava (Nigerian fufu).16 Boiled sweet cassava is the predominant form in which cassava is consumed in northern Nigeria and may account for about 10 percent of Nigeria's cassava consumption (Oben and Menz, 1980). Pounded boiled cassava (Ghanaian tutu). also made from sweet varieties, is widely consumed in some rural areas, and may account for about 20 percent of cassava consumption in Ghana. Consumption of fresh roots accounts for about 60 percent of cassava consumption in Cote d'ivoire according to the national consumption survey.In Central Africa, most of the cassava is fermented before being consumed. One of the most common products is a fermented and sun-dried flour, processed in the same way as latun in Nigeria and called futu in Zaire. Another major product, chickwangue, is made from fermented cassava that is then pounded into a paste and wrapped in large leaves, bound firmly, and then steamed or boiled. Chickwangue can be stored up to about a week and is a common traveler'S food. (Ashraf, 1982). Young cassava leaves (pondu) are an important vegetable and source of protein in Zaire and other parts of Central Africa. The leaves are usually crushed and boiled before eating, a process which effectively removes most of the cyanide.In East Africa, cassava is commonly made into a flour from dried roots or chunks of roots. In Tanzania. the roots are peeled, sliced, dried and then ground into a flour. Bitter varieties are fermented before being dried. Most of the cassava in Tanzania is sweet cassava, which can also be eaten as fresh roots after boiling, frying or roasting. In urban areas flour made from bitter varieties is preferred less than that from sweet varieties. In Mozambique, both the roots and leaves are eaten. Harvested roots are usually cut into long pieces and sun-dried. and later pounded into flour and mixed with 13 . Ngoddy estimate quoted in Hahn et al., (1979) Assuming the farina de manioc category is garl and that the reported numbers for farlne de manioc and attiekll are dry weight, gari consumption is 31.3 kg/person/year fresh root equivalent out at a total of 101.2 kg/personlyear of cassava consumed (using a conversion of 1 kg fresh weight ~ .25 kg dry weight for processed products). The survey results indicate rather low consumption of attleke and surprisingly high consumption of fresh roots. 16. In Oyo Local Government Area near Ibadan, lalun is made from fermented roots which are pulverized and then sun dried and Nigerian lutu is made from pulverized, fermented cassava roots that are sieved and packed in plastic bags to drain (Ikpi et aI., 1986, p.59). In other parts of Nigeria, the methods tor producing these products differ slightly. Also many other minor products exist. See Etejere and Bhatboiling water. Both bitter and sweet cassava varieties are eaten but biHer roots are sundried for a longer period: two to three weeks. During the severe drought of 1981 an epidemic of spastic paraparesis (paralysis) caused by ingestion of high-cyanide cassava broke out in northern Mozambique. At that time, roots of bitter varieties (which were more tolerant to the drought and therefore more abundant), were being cut in small pieces and dried for only one or two days, and may have been eaten without boiling. (Rosling, 1986).Obviously as the population of sub-Saharan Africa increases total food consumption will have to increase to prevent worsening malnutrition. But, except in situations of extreme poverty or distress, consumers wi\" choose what they consume based on a number of factors including taste, income, prices of food commodities, ease of preparation, and the form of the product.Apart from growth in population, probably the most important factor influencing the level and form of cassava consumption in Africa is urbanization. The World Bank estimates that the percentage of urban population in Nigeria increased from 15 to 22 percent from 1965 to 1983. The increases in other countries was even more pronounced. Urban population increased from 19 to 38 percent in Zaire, 23 to 44 percent in Cote d'ivoire, and 26 to 38 percent in Ghana in the same period (Oavidson, 1986). For urban populations storability of food products is essential to enable food to be transported from producing areas. Goods which are not easily stored have high losses in storage and transport and marketing, substantially adding to their cost. Also ease of processing the purchased food into its final consumption form is particularly important in urban areas since in many households a\" adult members work outside the home for much of the day and children are likely to be in school and unavailable for household labor.Storability and ease of processing are two factors which have made gari an important form of cassava consumption in urban areas in West Africa. Jones and Akinsele (1976) argues that wet, fermented forms of cassava that cannot be easily stored or transported are likely to gradually disappear as major consumption forms as urbanization continues in Nigeria. The same argument applies to the rest of Africa: as urbanization continues cassava will increasingly be consumed in forms which are easily transported, stored, and processed by the final consumer.Income level is another primary determinant of cassava demand. It seems likely that in much of Africa most traditional cassava products (espeCially cassava processed into dry forms) have a slightly negative income elasticity of demand -that is, as per capita income increases, per capita consumption decreases. 17 Traditional forms of cassava consumption such as gari in West Africa and cassava flour in East Africa, are not preferred staples. Rice and/or yam are generally preferred over gari in West Africa and maize is preferred over cassava flour in much of East Africa. In Central Africa where cassava accounts for more than 40 percent of total energy intake for much of the population, per capita consumption of cassava is likely to decrease as incomes rise, ceteris paribus, not because of the dislike for cassava products, but rather because of a desire of consumers to diversify their diets.The price of cassava also helps determine cassava demand, although it is usually argued that the own price elasticity of demand for cassava is small. This implies that a decline in cassava consumer prices, holding other prices constant, will not induce much additional consumption. The sharp fluctuations in the real price of gari in the past ten years in Nigeria provide evidence consistent with an inelastic price elasticity of demand.Relatively small increases in production may have caused large drops in market prices in order to induce consumers to consume more cassava. However. since the actual size of the production fluctuations is not known, it is not possible to estimate the price elasticity of demand with econometric techniques.Prices of alternative foods also affect cassava demand. In much of Africa in the early eighties prices of imported food goods were made artificially low relative to domestically produced goods either by an explicit food subsidy (or food aid) or because of an overvalued exchange rate which made the prices of all imported goods cheap relative to domestically produced goods. Imported rice and wheat in many countries were considerably cheaper than domestically produced food, thus discouraging consumption of the latter. The price of wheat in a number of countries was less than the price of dried cassava (e.g. gari), whereas on the world market the price of wheat was generally two to three times higher than that of dried cassava. Devaluations in a number of African countries (e .g. Ghana, Sierra leone, Tanzania and Zaire) may help restore the competitiveness of domestically produced food crops like cassava relative to imports. In most countries in coastal West Africa, grain imports represent a rather large fraction of total food supply compared to that supplied by cassava. Total energy supplied by grain imports was greater than total energy supplied by cassava in Nigeria in 1979-81. In Central Africa the importance of imported grain relative to cassava is smaller: energy from imported grain was about 25 and 8 percent of energy supplied by cassava in the Congo and Zaire, respectively, in the 1979-81 period.New forms of cassava consumption could provide a large increase in per capita cassava consumption. Cassava flour is already used to a limited extent as a substitute for wheat flour In baking bread and other foods. Substitution of up to about 25 percent cassava flour for wheat flour is possible without a significant reduction in bread quality. Since demand for bread increases both with increasing income and urbanization (partly due to bread's ease of use and storability), the demand for cassava flour could rise substantially. The potential for substitution for wheat flour in baking depends crucially on trade and exchange rate policies, however, which will determine the relative prices and availability of cassava and wheat flours. Apart from use in baking, there is also a sizeable potential for snack foods made from cassava for urban consumers.In general then, it seems likely that consumption of traditional forms of cassava which require extensive processing by the consumer and are difficult to store Is likely to become less important as urbanization increases. Per capita consumption of storable products such as gari and cassava flour is also likely to decline slightly as per capita incomes rise, but the large expected increases in total population in Africa imply significant increases in total consumption of these products. Changes in the prices of other major food staples, maize In East Africa, yams and rice in West Africa, would also have a major impact on cassava consumption. The scope for signifICant increases in per capita demand for cassava as food depends on the growth in consumption of new productsespecially cassava flour used in baking.One potentially large use of cassava is as an energy source for animals. As shown in Table 9, the use of cassava as animal feed acounts for only about 2 percent of cassava utilization in Africa. In Europe, however, about 6 million tons of dried cassava pellets are used each year as animal feed (mainly pigs and poultry). Cassava enters least-cost feed rations in Europe because of the EEC's common agricultural policy which Imposes a high variable levy on imported corn but very low or no levies on imported cassava, soybean cake or corn gluten (the latter two commodities being protein supplements). Approximately four parts of dry cassava and one part of soybean meal substitute for five parts of corn in feed rations (Nelson, 1984a). Without a levy on maize imports, imported maize is a cheaper source of energy and protein than the cassava/soybean mixture, so in most countries where agricultural pricing policy does not result in artificially high maize prices, cassava is rarely used by the feed industry. A major exception is Brazil where fresh, domestically produced cassava is fed directly to pigs.Cassava could potentially be used tor animal feed, especially for cattle and pigs, in Africa where appropriate low-cost protein supplements are available. Use of cassava in the large poultry feed industry is less promising. In Nigeria, for example, poultry feed accounts for about 95 percent of the commercial feed industry, and about 90 percent of poultry feed goes for layers. Cassava is not used for commercial poultry feed in Nigeria for several reasons. Most important, low cost maize imports are available to large feed mills. Second, there are difficulties in obtaining low-cost protein supplements for cassava. Palm kernel cake is not a suitable protein supplement to cassava in feed rations for young chicks or layers because of its high fiber content and other nutritional qualities. It is suitable for grower mash and for ruminants, however. Other protein supplements such as soybean cake and cottonseed cake are not available in large amounts at sufficiently low prices. Third, in the short run, use of cassava as poultry feed is also constrained by the lack of a pelletizing industry -flour is unsuitable for poultry feed. But this problem could probably be easily overcome should relative prices make cassava appropriate for poultry feed on a large scale. Thus while it is technically possible for cassava to be used as a major ingredient in animal feed, maize or other grains are likely to be lower-cost substitutes unless government trade and exchange rate policy makes imported maize prohibitively expensive (or bans it outright). Some governments may choose such a policy to save on the direct foreign exchange costs of grain imports and to spur domestic production of cassava. The feeding of fresh (low cyanide) varieties directly to pigs, as in Brazil, is done on a small scale in Nigeria as well (Okeke, 1986). A lack of sufficient effective demand for pig meat may be a constraint in the short run given the generally higher price of pig meat relative to poultry (pigs are less efficient converters of energy and protein than are chickens), low per capita incomes in Africa, substantial Moslem populations in many countries, and diseases affecting pigs in the humid tropiCS.The export potential of cassava from Africa as animal feed is less promising. The major market for dried cassava chips and pellets, Europe is almost saturated and the EEC has placed quotas on imports of cassava from Thailand. (Quotas on other cassava exporters such as Indonesia also exist, but these are non-binding since Indonesia's exportable surplus is less than their alloted quota.) Competing with Thailand for exports to the limited EEC market would be difficult given the low costs of cassava production in Thailand and the economies of scale in shipping from Thailand on large ships. Overvalued exchange rates in most African countries have ensured that domestic cassava prices are far above world export prices. Tanzania has exported dried cassava at a loss in recent years to dispose of government stocks that were deteriorating in storage.Another potential use for cassava is the production of high fructose syrup (a sugar substitute) from cassava starch. Refined sugar imports by Nigeria were 645 thousand tons in 1984, equivalent to fructose produced from 3.2 million tons of cassava (about 30 percent of Nigeria's production.) Fructose can be produced from cassava starch using an enzyme process. Unlike the production of high fructose corn syrup which requires large plants (e.g. about 900 tons cornl day) to achieve scale economies (because the corn must be wet-milled first), fructose from cassava starch can be made in smaller plants (about 100 tons of starch or 500 tons of fresh root per day). Production of fructose from either cassava or corn is more expensive than sugar at world prices, though. A small scale cassava fructose plaot in Indonesia could produce fructose at about 20 cents per pound, compared with a projected long-run world sugar price of 12 cents per pound (Pearson, 1987). Fructose from cassava is thus more expensive than imported sugar, but may be tried in some countries in an attempt to save on direct foreign exchange costs, One large Nigerian firm reportedly already has plans for a high fructose corn syrup factory and there has been considerable pressure by the government for import substitution.Cassava is used to make industrial starch in a number of countries. The process requires little technology and can be done on a village level if clean water (necessary to produce white starCh) is available. Starch was produced for export in Togo in the fifties and early sixties. but the world market for cassava starch has declined markedly due to lower cost alternatives in major consuming countries -corn and potato starch in the United States, Europe and Japan. 18 Ethanol can also be produced from cassava, but as in the case of high fructose syrup. this process is more expensive than the cost of imports. A number of countries including Brazil and the United States have produced small amounts of ethanol from sugar cane or maize with the help of government subsidies, but world oil prices would have to rise substantially above their current levels to make ethanol production from cassava, sugar cane or maize competitive with imported oil. 19Several factors which have encouraged the expansion of cassava production in the past are likely to continue to be major influences on production trends in the future. These factors include cassava's low labor input reqUirements, ability to produce a crop on degraded soils, and drought tolerance.Low labor requirements for production have been an important factor determining cassava's role in farming systems. Cassava's low labor requirements and flexible harvest date free scarce farm labor for other activities. Thus in areas where export crop production limited labor for food production (e.g. cotton cultivation areas in northern Mozambique and the Lake Victoria area in Tanzania, and cocoa areas in southwestern Nigeria), cassava increased in importance. Low labor requirements relative to yam have also contributed to increased cassava production in the forested part of the yam zone in West Africa.Declining soil fertility, caused by increasing population pressure on the land and shorter fallows, favors cassava production over other crops that require more fertile soils for profitable production. Scarce fertile soils can then be reserved for less hardy crops. Cassava's ability to produce a crop on even poor soils is another factor accounting for its growth in export crop areas where the best sons are reserved for the cash crops.Drought tolerance allows the crop to be left in the ground throughout the dry season and has made cassava an important food security crop in areas of uncertain rainfall. In recent years cassava has become increasingly important in the drier areas of both West and East Africa.Thus even without technical change in cassava production, it is likely that cassava production would continue to increase by e)(panding into new areas of low soil fertility (espeCially in areas with access to major urban markets) and drought risk. There is, however, much potential to increase average yields of cassava in Africa.As suggested by the rough estimates of losses due to cassava mosaic disease and cassava bacterial blight, a considerable increase in production and yield is theoretically possible with disease resistant varieties already developed at IITA. Currently, improved cassava varieties account for considerably less than 1 percent of cassava production in almost all major cassava prodUCing countries in Africa. including Zaire, Tanzania, Mozambique, Cameroon and Ghana. Only in Nigeria is there a significant rate of adoption of improved varieties. Estimates of the spread of IITA varieties range from views that they are found only in pockets near Ibadan and along major roads to an estimate of 200 18. Government trade policies in the importing countries are one factor making domestic starch cheaper than imported cassava starch. 19.See Nelson (1984b) for further details on the world starch market and alcohol production.000 hectares (liT A, 1985). Even this latter figure represents only about 20 percent of the total harvested area of cassava in Nigeria. 20Lack of adequate extension services is currently one constraint on the spread of this new technology. In most African countries, extension services are seriously underfunded and understaffed. Most extension agents are men, who may thus have problems communicating with the majority of cassava farmers, who are women. \"Seed\" multiplication facilities are usually not available to multiply cuttings of new varieties. In several countries projects funded by IFAD and UNICEF may help overcome these constraints, especially the multiplication problem.Another constraint may exist as well. It is still uncertain whether improved disease-resistant varieties will be accepted by a majority of farmers outside Nigeria. Because national research programs on roots and tubers in most countries have only been started recently, there has been very little selection of material for local conditions or on-farm testing to date. Moreover, since relatively little is known about the farming systems into which the new varieties must fit, there may be other important characteristics besides resistance to major diseases and pests which the new varieties do not have that may greatly limit their adoption by farmers. For example, in the Bas-Zaire region of Zaire, the adoption of a new variety (Kinuani) released by PRONAM (Program National Manioc) has been limited because it does not perform as well as the local variety when intercropped with groundnuts, a common intercrop in that region.Much more work may need to be done in understanding how cassava currently fits into the major farming systems in an area and selecting and testing improved cassava varieties that are compatible with these systems. A good part of this work may be the responsibility of national research programs, but this work is an essential link that must be forged before the benefits of IITA's breakthroughs in incorporating resistance to major cassava diseases in new varieties are realized by the majority of African cassava farmers.In the forest and derived savanna of West Africa, the technology for increasing cassava production appears to be available in the form of disease resistant varieties. Gari is likely to become an increasingly important food staple as urbanization continues and there is much potential for cassava flour to substitute for wheat flour in the fa5tgrowing demand for bread. Cassava seems likely to continue to displace yam in production in these areas as soil fertility declines, barring significant technical change in yam production including increased use of fertilizers. Monoculture cassava integrated with processing into gari or flour is likely to become increasingly important.Further north in the guinea savanna the prospects for increased cassava production seem less certain. In these areas maize may have considerably more potential and yam production remains highly profitable. Cassava is likely to be increasingly important as a food security crop, acting as a hedge against drought, but unless improved technology for maize and other grains is unavailable at the farm level and soils become poorer, cassava is unlikely to become a major crop in these areas.In the forest and savanna of Central Africa, there is substantial scope for yieldimproving new technologies (and basic breakthroughs in resistance to major diseases have been achieved), it is likely that percapita consumption of cassava will decline in the 20. 11 should be noted that most farmers prefer to grow several varieties of cassava in the same field, so that the percentage of farmers who grow a given variety of cassava is likely to be considerably higher than the percentage of total area planted to cassava that is planted to a given variety. Also, distinguishing between different cassava varieties in the field can be very difficult, so that estimates of adoption of new varieties, if based solely on field observations, are likely to be quite inadequate.future as consumers diversify away from their cassava-dominated diets. Demand is likely to continue to increase somewhat owing to population growth, and in any case cassava will almost certainly continue to be a major staple in the diets of most of the population for at least several decades. Research to ensure that cassava production does not decline in the face of potential reductions in rural labor force, declining soil fertility and pest problems will remain very important.In the highlands of Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire and Uganda, cassava production and consumption has increased rapidly in the past twenty years (especially in Rwanda) and the factors responsible for this trend --increased population, shorter fallows , lower soil fertility, and greater use of marginal lands -are likely to continue. Here increased cassava production can play a crucial role in providing food for these growing populations .In East and Southern Africa cassava has expanded rapidly in recent years and is likely to become increaSingly important in drought affected areas and areas of declining soil fertility. New forms of cassava for consumption may be especially important in East Africa where there has been a strong preference for maize.Pests are a major constraint on cassava yields. Biological control has apparently been successful in controlling mealybug in many parts of Africa. The problem of green spider mite, which causes extensive damage in much of East and Southern Africa and may become more important in West Africa, remains unsolved. Some progress in breeding for resistance to this pest has been made, but more work is necessary to incorporate this resistance into susceptible but high-yielding varieties. Biological control efforts may also prove successful.Breakthroughs in breeding for mosaic and bacterial blight resistance already achieved at liT A could potentially increase yields substantially throughout Africa once this resistance is incorporated into varieties acceptable to farmers. A large measure of success has already been achieved with varieties such as TMS 30572 in southern Nigeria. It is unclear whether this same variety or others already bred at IITA will be adopted by farmers in other parts of Africa, however. Other characteristics of cassava required by farmers, such as suitability of plant type for intercrop patterns and \"poundability,\" have been identified as important characteristics for some areas. The ability of the tuber to remain in the ground for long periods without rotting or hardening is also essential in many areas where farmers harvest their cassava over several months. This work will need to continue, although much of the work is ideally the responsibility of national programs.Tolerance to drought is one reason why cassava is spreading in Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and the northern guinea savanna of West Africa. Little work has been done on improving the natural drought tolerance of the cassava plant. While cassava is unlikely to become a major staple in the northern guinea savanna of West Africa, it could play an important role as a food security crop. Perhaps more significantly, drought tolerance is an important factor in cassava's growth in large parts of East Africa.Although traditional processing techniques remove most of the cyanide in cassava, low cyanide varieties of cassava could reduce processing time and help avoid public health problems associated with goiter and cyanide poisoning that have occurred in some areas of Africa. \"Sweet\" cassava can also be boiled and consumed as a vegetable, opening up another market for cassava if storage problems can be overcome.Cassava production has increased rapidly in mid-to high-altitude areas (elevations above 1000 meters), although local varieties are not well adapted to these conditions. Breeding work for shorter-maturing cassava with disease and pest resistance could have sizeable impact on some of the most densely populated and poorest regions of Africa.According to estimates from FAO data (Table 11), the six countries of the yams zone stretching from Cote d'ivoire to Cameroon accounted for 97 percent of yams production in Africa. Nigeria alone counted for 77 percent of the total and the COte d'ivoire accounted for 10 percent (See Figure 1). Yams production increased by an average of 2 .2 percent per year in West Africa in the 1970/74 to 1980/84 period.The magnitude of the reported increase in yams production in the countries of the yams zone is especially surprising in comparison with FAO data on cassava production for these countries (Table 12). In five of the six countries of the yams zone, the rate of increase of yams production exceeded that of cassava production, and the rate of increase for the whole zone is twice that of cassava I The ratio of yams production to cassava production thus rose from 1.30 to 1 .45. Similar growth rates for yams and cassava were reported for the other countries of coastal West Africa. In the rest of Africa, however, the statistics indicate that cassava is increasing almost three times as fast as yams, so that the ratio of yams production to cassava production in these countries dropped from .018 to .015.The FAO production trends run counter to conventional wisdom on the relative growth rates of the production of these crops in West Africa. If the data are indeed correct, one possible explanation is that an increase in the Guinea savanna areas, spurred on by improved transport infrastructure, outweighed the faster growth of cassava relative to yams in the forest zones.Tables 13 and 14 present the area and yield data for yams, respectively. In West Africa as a whole area increased by 1.3 percent per year from 1970/74 to 1980/84 while yields increased by 0.9 percent per year. Reported yields in Nigeria are the highest in West Africa, averaging 11.6 tons per hectare, compared with 7.7 tons per hectare in Cote d'ivoire and 6.3 tons per hectare in Ghana.In general, the cultivation of yams is very labor intensive. Land preparation usually entails making mounds or ridges. These enable better soil drainage, loosen the soil so the tuber can grow freely, and increase the amount of fertile topsoil near the tuber. Yams by nature twine and climb. Staking is required for high yields for most varieties especially in the forest zone, in order to increase leaf area exposed to the sun and perhaps limit disease. Because yams do not completely shade the ground, it is susceptible to weed competition. Finally, harvesting of yams requires special care in order not to damage the tubers, which would shorten their storage period. Farmers are willing to invest large amounts of labor in yams production however, because of the high value of the crop.   Agronomic practices for yams production vary widely in the yams zone of West Africa, however, and several different major species are cultivated. Thus the study of yams production systems is very complex even though the geographical spread of yams is considerably smaller than that of other crops such as cassava or maize. In this section, two major subdivisions of yams production are defined: forest and savanna. and common cropping practices and relative profitability are discussed.Yams production in the forest zone accounts for about 40 percent of yams production both in Nigeria and in all of Africa. (Yams production in the forest zone probably constitutes less than 15 percent of total production in Ghana and less than 5 percent in Benin, but may account for about half of yams production in Cote d'ivoire.) Production in the derived savanna accounts for perhaps 20 percent of the total production in Nigeria, and thus at least 15 percent of production in Africa. 1 Historically, yams were the major staple in the forest of West Africa'S \"yam zone\". However, cassava has spread rapidly since its introduction late in the 17th century. and many have predicted that cassava will gradually replace yams as the major staple in the forest zone of West Africa. While cassava production has in fact grown rapidly in the forest zone, yams production has probably not declined in absolute terms, (southwestern Nigeria may be an exception). Yams remain a highly profitable crop in areas of fertile soils. In some areas seasonally flooded by the Niger River in southern Nigeria (Anambra state). soil fertility is maintained and despite extremely high labor inputs (500 man-days per hectare). gross margin per man-hour for ware yams production was 1.6 Naira in 1978 (Table 15).2 In other areas where high population density has led to shorter fallow periods and less available fertile land, yams are grown intensively near 1he compound. where the soil fertility is maintained through the use of household wastes and mulching.In the less densely populated eastern plains of Bendel State in southwestern Nigeria, however, cassava-based production systems are as profitable as yams-based systems as measured by gross returns per man-day per hectare. The value of yamsbased system output was considerably higher (3122 Naira per hectare as compared with 1334 Naira per hectare for the cassava-based mixture in 1978) but the labor inputs were proportionately higher as well. The calculated gross margin per hectare per manday were thus somewhat higher for the cassava-based system (Table 15).There is also evidence that in Abakaliki. an area of forest/derived savanna of eastern Nigeria. yams may be less prOfitable than cassava on a per hectare basis. As shown in Table 16. net returns per hectare were higher for the cassava-based system than for the yams-based system. Yams continue to be grown in this area in part because of the central role yams play in the culture of the people there. being a part of the requlrements for marriage and for title-taking for men. The Abakaliki area is not representative of eastern Nigeria as a whole, however. because of the heavy soils and high water table which make large mounds necessary. and because of the importance of ceremonial yams production there. (See Okorji, 1983.) 1. Estimates of yam production by agro-ecological zone in Nigeria are derived from production estimates by state by the Federal Agricultural Co-ordinating Unit (FACU) and a map of agro-ecologica1 zones by Agboola (1919). 2 . Gross returns per man-day includes returns to land as well as labor since the opportunity cost of land (rent) is not included as a cost. The high figure thus in part measures the high value of the fertile land. Nevertheless. for the owner of the land. yam is a highly profitable crop.   Gross returns (naira/ha) 853.2 711 .9Total cost (nairalha)838.8 390.5Net return (naira/ha) 14 .4 321.4Source: E. Chukwuemeka (1983) , M.Sc Thesis, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.a Yams-based cropping system -average 0.39 hectares per Held. 1260 yams stands, 01 cassava, 115 cocoyam, 265 maize (also groundnuts, legumes, and vegetables). b Cassava-based cropping system• average 0 .31 hectares per field, 9460 cassava stands, 466 coooyams, 430 maize (also legumes and vegetables).C Man-days per hectare.d Naira/hectare.e Percentage labor hired.Yams production in the Guinea savanna (mostly the southern Guinea savanna) accounts for about 40 percent of yams production in Africa. The southern Guinea savanna has apparently long been an area with a marketable surplus of yams. Travelers to the mouth of the Niger river in the 15th century reported that canoes large enough to hold eighty men were filled with yams that had come from \"a hundred leagues or more up the river\" (Coursey 1967).Yams yields in the southern Guinea savanna are generally higher than those in the forest zone. Average yields for three sites in Kwara state in Nigeria in 1977178 ranged from 9.0 to 14.4 tons per hectare, while yields in Anambra and Bendel state were 7.6 to 8.8 tons. 3 The major factor for this is likely to be the increased levels of solar radiation in the savanna areas which increase the photosynthetic activity of the plant. Higher soil fertility may be another important factor in comparison with densely populated areas in the forest zone.Two major cropping patterns were discussed by Diehl (1982). The first, in the drier savanna (Tawari village, just north of the Niger-Benue confluence). is a strict two-year rotation. Yams are planted on mounds in January before the rains begin in about March. and are the sole crop until July when millet and yam bean are added as intercrops. The yams are harvested from late October to February. The following year an intercrop of cowpea, maize and sorghum is planted. The field then usually returns to fallow.In the moister savanna, further south, no standardized rotations are followed. One very common variation is to intercrop yams with vegetables, cowpeas, early maize and cassava in the lowlands in the first year, with the cassava remaining in the field in the second year as the field reverts to fallow, before beginning the rotation again. In other cases yams may be grown in combination with other crops for two consecutive years. tn the upland fields sorghum and melons replace rice and vegetables in the system. If yams yields are not satisfactory yams may be replaced by cassava in subsequent years. The number of crops and the plant densities decrease as soil fertility declines until the field reverts to fallow.In spite of high labor inputs averaging about 235 man-days per hectare in upland systems and 400 man-days per hectare in lowland (hydromorphic soils) systems, yams production is highly profitable. As shown in Table 17, the gross margin per man-day for yams fields in the northern village (Tawari) was 1.04 Naira in 1977/78, almost double the gross margin per man-day for non-yams fields and nearly four times the market wage rate. Ukewise, in boto the upland and lowland systems of the southern villages, the gross marg in per man-day was more than twice the market wage. However, Diehl found that even though the productivity of the land under yams cultiVation was higher, more land was devoted to non-yams crops than to yams mixtures. Yams mixtures used more labor but the productivity of both labor and land was higher in the yams mixtures. Moreover, Diehl argued that additional labor for yams production was apparently available since at peak labor times more labor was being used on nonyams fields than on yams fields. It would thus seem that farmers would choose to reduce the Size of non-yams fields to increase yams production, unless other factors besides labor and land availability were constraining the system .  Several factors could explain why farmers did nol expand yams production in spite of its profitability. Diehl argues that a shortage of planting material (yams setts) was the binding constraint based on the evidence that some farmers had made heaps for yams but did not have enough planting material to plant yams there.Lack of suitable land for increased production of yams may be another facto r explaining why more yams are not grown. Gross margins for yams production were 36 to 39 percent higher in fields near roads than in fields far from roads, largely due to the 28 percent higher producer price for yams from fields with access to roads. Lowland yams production was also more profitable than upland production because of 32 to 55 percent higher yields.Third, expansion of yams per farm household may be limited by the farmer's risk averseness. In order to insure adequate food supply and cash income for the household a wider range of crops and income sources is desired. The risk aSSOCiated with yams is well illustrated by the fact that many farmers surveyed had sold significantly less yams in the su rvey year than in normal years because of poor weather and yields of crops.The high cost of yams production is in large measure due to the high cost of seed yams and the low multiplication ratio of the weight of seed yams to that of ware yams. On average about 20 percent of the annual yams harvest (by weight) is used as seed, and seed usually accounts for over 90 percent of the non•labor costs of production. Farmers obtain their seed yams from various sources. Pieces of ware yams (called setts) are often cut off and used as planting material. In some areas (e.g. Nteje Site, Bachman (1985». small yams produced on uplands where soil fertility is too low to produce a good ware yams crop are used as seed yams. A third practice, \"milking the yams\" t consists of carefully removing most of the ware yams a few months early so that smaller seed yams can grow before the end of the growing season. This method requires considerable labor Input but does not result in a large decline In the weight of the ware yams produced. Finally, some farmers purchase seed yams grown commercially in fertile. moist soils in the dry season.The economics of seed yams is complicated by several factors. First. the market price of ware yams depends on the size of the yams: large yams bring a higher market price than an equal weight of small yams. Second, in order to produce large yams, larger setts are required for planting. Third, the multiplication ratio of large setts is small. Thus the farmer faces a tradeoff between using large setts which are expensive and have a low muhiplication ratio but produce highly valued large tubers, and small setts which are cheaper and have a higher multiplication ratio, but produce smaller tubers. If the farmer were interested only in the net weight of yams produced (net yield) rather than in the size of the yams also, relatively small yams setts and ware yams would be optimal.New technology has been developed tor producing seed yams from small pieces of yams tubers, (\"minisetts\"). Using the minisett technique and plastic mulch, seed yams for 3.7 hectares of ware yams (white yam) can be produced from 1 hectare. 4 Under traditional practices in Anambra state 2.7 tons of seed yams per hectare are produced on upland farms, enough for 1.3 hectares of wetland yams cultivation. Thus the capital-Intensive minisett technique could possibly save about two-thirds of the land area for seed yams in this system. Land area required for ware yams production would not be reduced, though. In order for the minisett technology to result in large increases in yams production, more fertile land must be available for expanded production. On the banks of the Niger river. 13.1 tons of seed yams per hectare are produced by traditional methods, 4. Assumes 13.2 tons per hectare producted. 82 percent of seed yams of marketable quality (= approximately 10.8 tons of seed yam). and 2.9 tons of seed yam per hectare (from Eganyi lowland site, Diehl. ( 984).Table 18.Per capita production of yams in Africa approximately equal to the gross yield using the minisett technique above.T. Gebremeskel and J.A. Otoo present data showing that the average net returnS to seed yams production of 17 farmers in Nigeria using the minisett technique with plastic mulch in 1985 was N5,115 per hectare. However, this includes an implicit subsidy by IITA of at least N1,OOO per hectare for the minisetts themselves (whiCh were made at IITA)6 and N1,125 for plastic mulch (using a shadow foreign exchange rate of N4 per US dollar). Using this adjustment, costs per hectare are N7, 171 and the net returns per hectare are only N2,990. Three farmers who planted seed yams without plasilc mulch averaged net returns of only N696 even with the implicit subsidy on seed yams. Thus, the minisett technology appears promising for prodl'ction of seed yams but is highly capital intensive, especially when plastic mulch is used. The most important benefits of the technology, however, may not be in terms of providing yam. planting material of the same quality at lower costs, but in multiplying clean (disease-free) planting material and the best cultivars.In terms of total production costs, staking is relatively small, but is often considered to be a major constraint to yams production. In the foresC zone labor input for staking is 10-12 percent of total labor input. Staking is done at peak labor demand times, however, (Bachman 1985). Moreover, the provision of stakes may become more difficult in the forest zone in the future as the forest is cleared, so that the cost of stakes may become more importani. Less labor is required for staking in the upland systems in the Guinea savanna, where staking is less necessary and the stakes are often shorter (bent sorghum stalks are often used), accounting for only 4-6 percent of labor inputs (Table 17).Because yams are a demanding crop in terms of soil nutrients, their production requires fertil8 soils or the application of additional nutrients. At present little fertilizer is used on yams in Nigeria or Cameroon. If fertilizer responsive improved varieties were available, yams production could conceivably be expanded to areas of lower natural fertility or could be continued on the same land for several years as is done on compound gardens. Some farmers report that fertilizer applied to yams will produce bigger yams but the yams will be more watery and store poorly. This may be due simply to the fact that bigger tubers naturally have a higher water content. Given the relatively high value of yams per kilogram and the importance of fertile soils for good tuber growth, application of fertilizer is likely to be economical if storage problems can be overcome. Another major difficulty in research, however, is the large number of cultivars grown by farmers, which may make it difficult to determine appropriate fertilizer recommendations.Harvesting of yams is also very time-consuming because care must be taken not to bruise them. The large size of tubers contributes to the problem, and if smaller tubers were grown, harvesting costs could be reduced. Mechanization of harvesting might then be technically possible, but it seems doubtful whether mechanized harvesting of yams will be economical.N8matod8s may be the most serious pest affecting production of yams. Root-knot nematodes in particular can severely stunt yams seedlings and reduce tuber yields. Postharvest losses from nematodes, yam bacterial rot, yams storage rot, and stored yams beetles can be considerable, but actual losses in storage are unquantified (Theberge, 1985). In general, less is known about diseases and pests affecting yams than those of cassava S. Net return bere does not include land or management costs and can thus be interpreted as return to these factors . 6. Assumes 5000 mother seed yams <at 0.7 naira each) required for 40,000 miniseus per hectare, plus labor and other costs of preparation of the minisetts of 300 naira.Table 3.8 presents data on per capita production of yams based on FAa production data. Because losses are generally the order of 15 to 20 percent (Coursey, 1967), and seed accounts for approximately 20 to 25 percent of gross production (see tables 15 and 17), the per capita consumption is approximately equal to 60 percent of per capita production. Per capita yams production declined by an average of 1.1 percent per year in coastal West Africa from 1970/74 to 1980/84. Among the major producers, only in Benin, Togo and Cameroon did per capita production of yams increase during this period. The estimates of per capita production/consumption do not accurately reflect the importance of yams in the diets of people in the yams zone because of regional differences within the countries. In Nigeria, yams are consumed less in the northern third of the country, where little yams is grown.Likewise, in the Cote 'Ivoire per capita consumption of yams in the rural areas of the eastern forest zone is 8 times higher than in rural areas of the western forest zone.7The most popular consumption form for yams is pounded yam or lufu. Pounded yam is made by peeling the yams, removing inedible parts (damaged or rotten portions and the \"head\" end which is usually hard), cutting the yams into small pieces, boiling, and then pounding the boiled pieces with a mortar and pestle until the yams becomes a stiff, somewhat glutinous dough. Pounding usually takes about fifteen to thirty minutes.Yams are also eaten after boiling, frying or roasting. Boiled yams is the most common consumption form in Cameroon. Another product, yams flour, is made from fresh tubers which are peeled, sliced into thin pieces, dried in the sun for several days and then pulverized using a mortar or ground with a mill. Flour can be stored for several months if kept dry and insect free. It is prepared by mixing it with boiling water, so that a viscous doughy mass similar to pounded yam, but less viscous, is formed. Often very small irregularly shaped and damaged tubers are processed into yams flour.Yams are used almost exclusively as food. Their high prices makes them inappropriate for use in making industrial starch or for animal feed, since these products can be made more cheaply from cassava or maize. Waste products such as yams peels are often fed to goats and sheep in rural areas. There is also a very small export trade in yams targeted at West Africans living in Europe.Yams are an important cash crop as well as a food crop for home consumption, especially in the savanna areas. The bulk of the yams that are marketed, especially to urban centers, are white yams, which store better than yellow yams or trifoliate yams and make a better fufu than water yams. In the southern guinea savanna of Nigeria, farmers typically sell 20 to 30 percent of their crop by weight (Diehl, 1982). although in years of poor harvest the amount marketed can be substantially lower.Yams are almost always sold as fresh tubers which wholesalers transport to urban centers by truck. There is a pronounced seasonal price fluctuation. Highest prices occur in July or August just before the main harvest, and the lowest prices are in October or November. Jones (1972) found little correlation between prices in major centers of yam marketing in Nigeria, perhaps due in part to regional preferences for different types of yam.Yams are definitely a preferred food among many West Africans in the yams zone, but are relatively expensive. On an energy basis, the price of yams was 5 to 7 times the price of gari in Lagos retail markets in 1984 and 1985. 8 For most of the population in the yams zone, it is almost certain that the income_elasticity of demand is positive, that is as per capita incomes of these people rise, they tend to consume more yams. In the eighties, declining per capita income in these countries may have contributed to a reduction in per capita demand for yams.Urbanization has also contributed to declining per capita consumption of yams. Transport costs are more than twice those for gari, adding to the cost of yams for the urban consumer (Jones, 1972). Also the processing time required for making pounded yam makes it especially onerous for urban women who are more educated, have greater employment opportunities, and whose children are more likely to go to school. In Cote d'ivoire per capita consumption of yams in urban areas is only one fourth that of rural areas (Enqu~te Budget Consommation, 1979). High quality yams flour which the consumer could process easily could help limit the direct impact of urbanization on yams demand.The high price of yams relative to other food substitutes, in particular rice, bread, maize and cassava, also limits demand. Government pOlicies of Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d'ivoire have acted to subsidize the prices of rice and bread to consumers. Cassava and maize products are also cheaper than yams on an energy basis because of lower production costs. Given the general consumer preference for yams, it is likely that the own price elasticity of demand for yams is relatively large compared to gari, for example. In other words, a decline in yams price would result in a significant increase in demand for yams.Shortage of fertile land is likely to become a more serious constraint in the future, especially in the forest zone. As population pressure on the land increases, yam's relative intolerance to poor soils will favor increasing production of cassava. On the remaining fertile soils, however, intensive yams cultivation is likely to remain highly profitable.High labor requirements are a major cost of production; typical labor requirements for yams are nearly twice those of cassava, another factor which has favored cassava over yams in the forest zone.Shortages of yams setts for planting may be one factor slowing the expansion of production, especially in the southern Guinea savanna where gross returns per hectare for yams are very high. Provision of cheaper setts for planting is not likely to result in an increase in area planted in regions where fertile land is the limiting factor and only seed yams are grown on less fertile soils.Consumer preference for large tubers leads to increased production costs because producing large tubers requires bigger setts which have a lower multiplication ratio and harvesting is made more difficult. If marketing outlets were available for small tubers, some version of the minisett technique could conceivably be used for the production of ware yams.8. Calculated using average annual retail prices for gari and yams from USDA, Lagos.There are significant problems affecting the future of yams production in the forest zone. Increasing population density is likely to lead to lower soil fertility, favoring the production of cassava over yams. Staking requirements in this zone made necessary by less intense solar radiation add to costs of yams production and staking material is likely to become scarce. Despite staking, yields in the forest zone are often less than those in the Guinea savanna.There is however a strong cultural attachment to yams by many of the people in the forest zone, especially in southeastern Nigeria, which is likely to help yams remain an important food crop, at least for home consumption.In the southern Guinea savanna, the future of yams production appears to be brighter. Here yields are higher and labor inputs are lower. Shortage of fertile land per se may not be a limiting factor, but shortage of fertile land with easy access to good roads may be a constraint, at least in the short run. Shortage of planting material may also restrict production growth.Although four major species of yams are grown in West Africa, white yam (0. rotundata) is the dominant species both overall, and in what appears to be the most dynamic area of yams production, the southern Guinea savanna --strong reasons for placing the major emphasis of a yams research program on this species.Because yams are a high value crop and production in many areas is probably limited by shortage of fertile land, efforts at increasing yields per hectare through the use of fertilizers should be explored.The southern guinea savanna seems to be the most promising ecology in which yams production could be increased, and as such may deserve special emphasis.Without successful yams research the production costs of yams are almost certain to rise relative to other crops, and over time reduce the role of yams to that of a lUXUry food or vegetable, rather than that of a major staple. A more hopeful scenario for the crop most likely requires not only research breakthroughs, but a change in consumer preferences away from large tubers to smaller ones.   Rainfall dIstribution in the mid-altitude regions is bimodal, with a short dry season usually occurlng in December or January and a longer dry season from June to August. Sweet potato are generally planted on the hillsides between October and March (planting of both sweet potato and cassava is often staggered) after other more drought sensitive crops (maize and beans) are planted. During the longer dry season. sweet potato is the dominant crop on the valley bottoms. 1Although the FAO estimates of 9 percent annual growth may be somewhat overestimated, sweet potato production has undoubtedly increased rapidly in Rwanda in the last two decades. Several factors are probably responsible for this. Sweet potato requires little labor input -it is generally not weeded (only 26 percent of farmers surveyed did so) ,2 unlike sorghum or beans. It is a relatively sure crop, being less susceptible to drought than maize or beans, and it performs relatively well on poor soils. Also it matures earlier than cassava, making it a suitable crop for use on valley bottoms which are flooded for part of the year. Increased production is due mainly to an increase in area planted. This expansion of area planted to sweet potato may have come about largely as a result of shorter fallows, increased use of valley bottom land in the dry season and new Jand being cleared in the southeastem. lower altitude regions of the country.In Tanzania, sweet potato is a relatively minor crop. probably playing a role similar to that jn the drier, eastern parts of Rwanda. They are generally planted towards the end of the rainy season as a monoculture in small family plots. often after all major cash and food crops have been planted. Because of sweet potato's relative tolerance to locust attack and drought it is an important famine reserve In some areas (Msabaha. 1979).In Cameroon, sweet potato is grown throughout the country except in the far north. Production of sweet potato has increased in recent years, partly because of its low labor requirements and its role as a hungry season crop (often planted just before the onset of the dry season). In the last few years, an IITA sweet potato variety. Tlb1, has spread rapidly and m~now account for 30 to 40 percent of sweet potato production In Cameroon. This variety has several advantages over the commonly grown local variety . It has oval. regular clustered tubers which are easily harvested; it is very resistant to sweet potato virus; it has some tolerance to sweet potato weevil; and it has high yields.There are several important biological constraints on sweet potato production which of course differ across the various environments in which the crop is grown in Africa. In Rwanda. diseased planting material is a major cause of reduced yields. Sweet potato virus complex and althanaria are important disease problems in Rwanda. but apparently not major problems in Tanzania. Sweet potato weevil is the most important pest in Tanzania, particularly in the Mwanza region bordering Lake Victoria. and is a problem particularly in the dry season in Rwanda. In Cameroon, however. the variety Tlb1 is resistant to the sweet potato virus complex and also suffers little from weevils. probably because the tubers are deep in the ground where the weevilS cannot reach them. Farmers in Rwanda express a strong desire for earlier maturing varieties. Average time before first harvest of sweet potatoes is 5 1/2 months. 3 ISAR (Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda). has now developed some early-maturing (4 1/2 months) varieties which have low levels of resistance to virus.In Africa, sweet potato is a major staple only in the Great Lake highlands area. Per capita production averaged only 4 kilograms per person per year in coastal West Africa in 1980/84, compared with 179 kilograms per person per year in Rwanda. Among the major consumers, per capita production increased from 1970/74 to 1980/84 only, in Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Madagascar, and fell sharply in Uganda (Table 22). In Rwanda the role of roots and tUbers has increased dramatically since the 'mid-sixties: sweet potato production . more than tripled over the period, cassava production increased by 250 percent and potato by 230 percent. Thus, the share of total food crop calories derived from root crops rose from 22 to 36 percent over the period. 4Sweet potato is , processed little before consumption, unlike cassava or yams. Soiled fresh tubers are most commonly eaten in Rwanda, and are also popular in Tanzania and Cameroon. Sliced and fried sweet potato are eaten as a breakfast food in Tanzania and Cameroon, and also as a snack in Tanzania. Sweet potato is alSo chipped. dried' and stored as a famine reserve in parts of Tanzania. The leaves of sweet potato are eaten as a vegetable in some parts of Tanzania and Cameroon.Probably the most important factor affectif)9 the spread of sweet potato in West Africa as a major staple is its sweet taste. In East Africa, sweet-tasting varieties are eaten and the sweetness is apparently a desired trait, The improved variety. Tlb1 which has spread rapidly in Cameroon is also a sweet variety, and\" farmers commenting on its very good taste, mentioned that it was sweeter than the local variety (Pfeiffer and Lyonga, 1985). However sweetness is not a desired quality in a staple food in the yam zone of West Africa.In a recent consumer accept~bility study in Ghana, consumers disliked sweet potato with orange skin or flesh color, preferring roots with a cream, pale yellow or reddishpurple skin color and a pale yellow flesh color. Sweet varieties were not considered acceptable as a staple; sweet things in Ghana are considered to be for children. In general, the consumers ' wanted a \"yams-like'\" sweet potato (Osei~Opare. 1986).Sweet potato is unlikely to have a positive income elasticity of demand In most areas. although the evidence is very sparse. In Rwanda it is a major staple but beans and maize are preferred foods. In Tanzania and several other countries of East Africa. the consumer preference for maize is even more pronounced. while in West Africa there is a strong preference for yams and rice. The prices of these competing staples are likely to have a strong influence on sweet potato consumption.National researchers estimate that about half of sweet potato production in Tanzania and 70 to 80 percent in Cameroon are SOld. almost always as fresh tubers. In Rwanda. where less than 10 percent of the population lives in urban areas, probably less than one quarter of the crop is sold.Non-food uses of sweet potato are rare in Africa. In Ghana, however, sweet potato are looked upon as a potential source of animal feed in the Volta Region.Low labor input requirement is one major advantage of sweet potato over other root crops, particularly• yams. Because the vtnes provide good ground cover, little weeding is r.equired. However, withoulsome weeding in the initial growth stages, .yields can be seriously reduced, suggesting that at least in some environments there are critical periods of labor input even for this low input crop.A dearth of clean (disease•free) planting material is one of the major constraints on sweet potato production in Rwanda. Problems of maintaining planting material in the dry season may be a factor limiting production in less densely populated areas of East Africa as well.Sweet potato is tolerant of drought and their short growing 8e880n (3•6 months) makes them important as food security crops. It can be planted when it becomes apparent that the size of the grain crop will be adversely affected by lack of rain (Jones, 1959), Sweet potato Is also tolerant of a wide range of 80118 and can thus be grown in marginal areas. This trait together with short maturity has enabled sweet potato production to expand in seasonally flooded valley bottoms in Rwanda.Sweetness is apparently a desired trait of sweet potato only in Central and East Africa. In West Africa, sweet taste may be a major factor limiting their acceptance by consumers.In the highlands of East and Central Africa (1,400•1,800), sweet potato is already a major crop and is likely to become more important in the future. as population pressure reduces arable land per household and farming becomes more intensive. Rwanda has managed to increase food production slightly above the rate of population growth by increasing the area cultivated and by shifting production towards sweet potato and other root crops. The amount of additional land available for cultivation in Rwanda is limited, and it seems likely that future production increases must come largely from yield increases. Sweet potato production has apparently not increased as fast in other countries of the region, however, and reasons for this need to be explored further.In East Africa, sweet potato is Important as a food security crop. Demand for them as a staple is suppressed by the strong local preference for cereal grains, especially maize. Moreover, production of cassava is approximately 2 • 10 times greater than that of sweet potato in Tanzania, Kenya, and Madagascar (and more than 60 times greater in Mozambique) suggesting that cassava has a strong comparative advantage relative to sweet potato in these ~untries.In coastal West Africa, sweet potato is not a staple and Its potenllal lies In replacing current staples, especially yams and to a lesser extent cassava. Consumer preference for non•sweet staples makes a non•sweet variety of sweet potato necessary for these countries. But it is also crucial that sweet potatoes fit into exislting farming systems. Land is not as scarce as it is in Rwanda and most parts of the Great Lake highlands, so sweet potato shorter maturity relative to cassava would seem less Important, and their less flexible harvest a greater problem. Production costs of sweet potato are far less than those of yams though. The major constraint appears 10 be inadequate consumer demand.T.ble 23.Production of cocoy.m. In Alrle.  '@h~: ; l ~~~~~tfon (sq em = 10 000 metric tons)Tabl. 26.P.r capita production of co coy am. In Africa ,.,...  Source: FAO unpublished data.• Root and tuber crcpa. not • ..where apecffled.one-ninth of that in the eastern forest zone. Yams are clearly preferred to cocoyams throughout the \"yam zone\". Cocoyams are thus neither the preferred crop nor the cheapest.One factor which encouraged the expansion of cocoyams (especially Xsnthosoma)in the past was the crop's suitability as a -nurse\" crop tor cocoa and some other tree crops. The decline in production of tree crops In some parts of West Africa may have contributed to stagnation in cocoyams production in these areas. But demand for cocoyams Is limited as well. since cocoyams are neither the cheapest root crop nor the most preferred In terms of taste. Research to breed resistance to major diseases of cocoyams would thus be likely have only a minor impact on the tood supply and farmer incomes.CHAPTER 6ThiS paper has explored ' the major constraints to increased production and consumption of root crops 'in sub-Saharan Africa . The pOtential of each of these crops to meet increasing food corisumptionneeds in sub-Saharan Africa is 'influenced by a number of common agro-ecologicaland 'soCio-economic factors sLich as soil, rainfall, labor availability, income growth and urbanization. The effects of these factors on each crop diffE:w largely because 'of the bioloQical characteris' tics of tha crops. In this last sectibn,the effeCts' of the above factors arid the potential for increased production and consumption of these crops in various regions of Africa are compared .Cassava is currently the most important root crop in terms of gross production in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Cassava's ability to produce a crop on poor soils, its low labor requirements and flexible harvesting periods have contributed to its spread in the forest and transition zones of coastal West Africa and throughout the forest zone of Central Africa.These factors, together with available new technology in the form of disease resistant varieties, are likely to continue to give cassava a comparative advantage in production relative to other food crops in these environments.While significant increases in cassava production are feasible, effective demand for cassava products may limit actual production increases. In general most cassava products are not preferred goods and thus consumption per capita is not expected to increase as a result of increases in per capita income. This negative income effect may be strongest in Central Africa, where in a number of countries cassava already accounts for nearly fifty percent of energy intake. Increases in population are likely to contribute to increased consumption, however, and increased urbanization will favor products that can be easily stored and processed by the final consumer. The importance of generating market demand for cassava products and the high contribution of postharvest labor to total labor requirements argue for increased research on processing and utilization.The prospects for increased production of the other rool crops in the forest zone of West and Central Africa are less sanguine . In particular the production of yams, which require fertile soils and are very labor-intensive, seems likely to continue to decline relative to cassava in the forest zone of West Africa. Sweet potato is currently only a minor crop in the forest zone but may be increasingly grown if demand constraints (many consumers in West Africa dislike the sweetness of sweet potato) can be overcome through the breeding and release of non-sweet varieties . Demand constraints are also the major factor limiting increased production of cocoyams (Xanthosoma and Colocasia). which are generally less preferred than yams in West Africa; yet the crop's ability to grow under shade and in poorly drained soils makes it likely that cocoyams will continue to playa role in the farming systems of the forest zone.In the savanna zones of West and Central Africa, cassava competes with food grains such as maize and sorghum as well as with yams (in West Africa). The prospects for increased cassava production here are less hopeful given the opporlun ities for expansion of grain production through use of improved varieties. fertilizers, and in some cases mechanization, unless soils in the savanna become less fertile through poor management. Cassava may play an increasing role in household food security in drier areas as a hedge against drought. particularly if drought-resistant varieties are selected and made available to farmers.Production of yams may have expanded in the savanna zone of West Africa in recent years and the availability of fertile soils and intense solar radiation (which reduces or eliminates the need for providing stakes for the yam vines) lowers","tokenCount":"19602"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c528f154f474e93f03808e0f74576419","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd625d99-4ca9-4da4-9cba-bf1dda3edf26/retrieve","id":"-1330511469"},"keywords":["Haricot bean","numerical taxonomy","rhizobia","Southern Ethiopia"],"sieverID":"01ae24a7-33e9-4444-bce5-6935cd24f15d","pagecount":"21","content":"Phenotypic characteristics of one hundred thirteen rhizobia nodulating haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) growing on soils of nine different locations from southern Ethiopia were studied. Their tolerance to varying temperature, salinity, soil pH, heavy metals, antibiotics, their symbiotic effectiveness and cultural characteristics were determined. Eight reference species belonging to four different genera were also included in the analyses. The analyses allowed the description of a wide physiological diversity among tested isolates. Numerical analysis, based on numerical taxonomic approach, of the phenotypic characteristics, using Unweighted Pair Group Method with Average algorithm as implemented in NTSYspc21 software package, showed that, the tested isolates fell into five major diversity groups (designated as group I-V), when 82% level of relative similarity were used as cut-off point. Four strains were found to occupy a separate branch, thus designated as U (unclustered) group. While strains belonging to groups 1-IV were found to associate with recognized species belonging to Rhizobium, Ensifer and Mesorhizobium genus, the remaining test strains in cluster V and U were found to occupy distinct branches of their own on the dendrogram. Under laboratory condition, they were able to grow at pH ranging from 4 to 10.5; majority tolerated salt concentration (0.5-1%) and grew at a maximum temperature between 35 and 40 °C. The isolates were able to utilize a wide range of carbon and amino acid source and tolerated range of antibiotics and heavy metals. Based on the symbiotic effectiveness test, a number of potential isolates have been identified for inoculation trials.Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a leguminous plant of worldwide with social and economic values, and is one of Africa's most essential pulses, cultivated on greater than 4 million ha (Broughton et al., 2003). It provides protein ( 20-25% ) and carbohydrate in Ethiopia, common bean is one of the major pulse crops widely cultivated by smallholders, either as a sole crop or intercropped with sorghum, maize and other cereals (Ohlander, 1977), where in all cases soil fertility is depleted. Despite its high economic importance, the average yield of bean obtained by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia is low (1.5 tons/ha) (CSA, 2014), which is far below the potential yield from research managed experimental plots (4.6 tons/ha) (Assefa and Teshale, 2007), a reflection of, among other things, low soil fertility (Beyene and Tsigie, 1986). The yield gap and soil N fertility issues could partly be alleviated by using soil bacteria generally known as rhizobia involved in biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) process with legumes including common bean. BNF is a key process for the conversion of nitrogen gas (N 2 ) into ammonia (NH 3 ) performed by bacteria belonging to the different genera within the family rhizobiaceae. Common bean, in most cases, substantially make use of the BNF process, thus able to fix up to 50 kg N ha−1 (Bliss, 1993). With the respect to its symbiotic adaptability, haricot bean is generally regarded as promiscuous, non-selective host that is nodulated by several groups of root nodule bacteria (Hardarson et al., 1993) belonging to different genera including Rhizobium (Amarger et al., 1997;Martínez-Romero et al., 1991;Ramírez-Bahena et al., 2008;Segovia et al., 1993), Ensifer (Andrade et al., 2002) and Mesorhizobium (Grange and Hungria, 2004). As a reflection of its promiscuous nature, common bean is considered as a poor nitrogen fixing plant in comparison to other grain legumes. Furthermore, because of its inherent behavior as being nodulated with inefficient population of native common bean nodulating rhizobia in soil (Brockwell and Bottomley, 1995;Rodriguez-Navarro et al., 2000), it generally respond poorly to rhizobial inoculation in the field condition (Buttery et al., 1987;Graham, 1981;Hardarson et al., 1993). There are several reports, however, that indicated nitrogen fixation and the yield in common bean can be increased through inoculation of the crop with highly efficient rhizobial strains (Giller and Cadisch, 1995). For example, elite Rhizobium isolates were shown to improve the productivity of common bean (Hungria et al., 2003;Mostasso et al., 2002). In inoculation trials in Ethiopia, using Rhizobium species (strain HB 429, currently recognized as being national commercial inoculant) and eight P. vulgaris [121] cultivars, it was clearly demonstrated that rhizobial inoculation increased the total yield of the crop pod by 18% (Beshir et al., 2015). On the other hand, it was shown that effectiveness of the indigenous rhizobia that nodulate common bean vary depending upon location and host genotypes. This necessitates isolation and evaluation of more common bean nodulating rhizobia with regard to their diversity and effectiveness to fully realize the benefit of biological nitrogen fixation in this crop. Accordingly, many isolating works have been performed using soil from different sites in Ethiopia (Aserse et al., 2012;Ashenafi, 2017;Beyene et al., 2004;Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007). Therefore, this study was conducted with the objectives to isolate and characterize rhizobia from root nodules of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) plants grown at different locations in Southern Ethiopia, thus to determine their diversity on the basis of morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics in reference to known species. Furthermore, preliminary screening of their symbiotic effectiveness on haricot bean was also assessed with the objective to identify the most efficient nitrogen fixing isolates for further field trials.The nodules were collected from nine different locations in Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) in Ethiopia (Table 1), where common bean has been grown with no previous history of inoculation with rhizobia.Characterization and symbiotic effectiveness of the test strains were conducted at Hawassa University, College of Agriculture in the soil microbiology laboratory. Nodules stored on silica gel were rehydrated in water and surface sterilized following the procedures as described elsewhere (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994b). To verify whether the nodules were surfacesterilized or not, the last rinse of the nodules were streaked on a Yeast Extract Mannitol Agar (YMA) plates, incubated and observed for the growth of any microorganisms. The sterilized root nodules were then crushed aseptically in sterile petridish placed in laminar air flow hood by sterile crushing glass rods using a drop of sterilized normal saline (0.85% NaCl) solution. Loop-full of the suspensions of the crushed root nodules were streaked with sterile inoculating loop on Yeast Extract Mannitol Agar (YMA, pH=7)) plates containing 0.025% (w/v) Congo Red and incubated at 28 0 C for 4 days (Vincent, 1970)  (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994b). Gram staining and the growth of colonies on Peptone Glucose Agar (PGA) medium were also determined following procedures described elsewhere (Lupwayi and Haque, 1994).Authentication and symbiotic effectiveness of the test isolates All test isolates were evaluated for their ability to produce nodules on the homologous host species (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Seedlings were grown in modified Leonard jars filled with washed and sterilized river sand. Four surface-sterilized and pre-germinated seedlings were planted aseptically into each of three replicate pots. The seedlings were later thinned to one by snipping on the top, as described previously (Chen et al., 2008). A single colony of each isolate was picked from yeast extract-mannitol agar (YMA) plates and multiplied in yeast extractmannitol broth (YMB). Each seedling was inoculated with 1 ml bacterial culture at exponential growth phase (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994a). Non-inoculated seedlings of the plant species, either supplied with mineral nitrogen (as 0.1% KNO3 in nutrient solution) or grown without nitrogen, served respectively as positive and negative controls. Seedlings were grown under natural sunlight and temperature and were fertilized with one-quarter-strength modified Jensen's N-free medium (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994a). Nodule assessment and harvesting [123] took place 5 weeks after inoculation (Maâtallah et al., 2002;Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994a). At harvest, plants were scored for nodulation as effective, moderately effective and ineffective.Individual colonies were characterized based on their colony color, size, shape, capacity to produce extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) gum and colony texture following procedures described elsewhere (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994a).The isolates were grown in YEMB and loop full of suspension 10 8 /ml were streaked on to YEMA contain 0.5% BTB. The color change (yellow) was observed after 3 days for fast growing and blue remains for slow grower (Jordan, 1984).Carbon source use (CSU), tolerance to salinity and temperature (TST) and pH assays Assays for CSU, TST and pH were performed for all the test isolates and the reference strains. For CSU, the following carbon sources including L-arabinose, D-fructose, D-galactose, D-glucose, sucrose, maltose, Dmannose, raffinose, L-rhamnose, Dsorbitol, xylitol, trehalose, xylose, dulcitol, arabinose, myoinositol, inulin, ribose, starch, citric acid, and malonic acid were tested following methods described before (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994a). Similarly the test isolates were assessed for TST and pH on YMA culture medium with NaCl concentration of (0, 0. 5, 1, 1.5, 2,  2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  9.5, 10, 10.5% (W /V), temperature of 35, 40, and 45 0 C following methods detailed earlier (Maâtallah et al., 2002), andpH of 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9.5, 10 and10.5 (Hungria et al., 2000).Sixteen different amino acids utilization namely: D-serine, Lhistidine, L-pyroglutamic acid, uredine, thymidine, inosine, Larginine, L-alanine, L-aspargine, Lasparatic acid, L-glutamic acid, Lproline, L-theronine, L-leucine, Lphenylalanine, and Glycine, were investigated following methods as described before (Amarger et al., 1997).The intrinsic antibiotic resistance test was performed by using YMA (Rodriguez-Navarro et al., 2000), to which filter sterilized (0.2µm) antibiotics (µg/ml) was added; streptomycin 10; kanamycin sulphate salt 5, 15; novobiocin 0.5, 1.5; spectinomycin dihydrochloride pentahydrate 2.5, 5; neomycin trisulphate salt 5, 20; chloramphenicol 5, 15; erthromycin [124] 10, 20; lincomycin hydrochloride 100; and trimethoprim 200.The resistances of strains to heavy metals were determined on solid Tryptone Yeast Extract Agar following methods detailed elsewhere (Zhang et al., 1991).This was determined by inoculating and incubating the isolates on Pikovskaya Agar medium. This ability was detected based on growth and presence of clear zone around the colonies (Nautiyal, 1999).Traits were coded 1 for positive and 0 for negative. A cluster analysis of 92 phenotypic variables for a total of 121 strains (113 new isolates and eight reference strains including Azorhizobium caulinodans, Ensifer meliloti, Mesorhizobium meditteranum, Rhizobium etli, R. gallicum, R. giardinii, R. leguminosarum and R. tropici) were carried out using similarity coefficient and dendrogram was constructed by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering method using NTSYS-pc version 2.1.In this study, a total of 113 isolates were obtained from the root nodules of haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) that were grown in soils from nine localities in southern Ethiopia including Jinka (12 isolates), Bodity (19 isolates), Gofa (19 isolates), Hawassa (11 isolates), Badiwacho (4 isolates), Durame (24 isolates), Kachabira (10 isolates), Humbo (3 isolates) and Areka (11 isolates) were isolated and characterized. All isolates were Gram negative and rod shaped bacteria with no ability to absorb Congo red, when grown on YEMA-CR medium. Furthermore, none of them grew on peptone glucose medium supplemented with bromocresol purple, indicating that all isolates were presumed to be rhizobia. Up on authentication, (i.e when re-inoculated into the seedlings of variety, Red Wolaita), all the isolates were shown to induce nodulation on the host (data not shown), confirming that they were root nodule bacteria.The result for cultural and morphological characteristics is presented on Table 2. Accordingly, the isolates showed different cultural characteristics indicating the existence of diversity among rhizobia nodulating haricot bean in the region. In this study 91% of the isolates showed colony diameter of > 2mm, when incubated for three days. Likewise the isolates displayed various colony textures of white translucent (42%), watery translucent [125] (36%), milky (19%) and dull glistering color (3%). Seventy seven percent of the isolates also showed convex shape; whereas 21% of the isolates were found to be flat. Fifty four percent of the isolates have produced copious amount EPS (Extracellular polysaccharide) while 19% produced medium and 27% were low in EPS production. The production of exopolysaccharides (EPS) by the isolates could be an adaptive feature in providing protection to bacteria against environmental stresses including temperature, salinity, and pH fluctuations in the soil. Rhizobia with wider elasticity of withstanding environmental stresses could be suitable for the development of commercial inoculants. All of the test isolates changed the YEMA-BTB media in to yellow. Turning of YEMA-BTB media into moderately yellow to deep yellow color is a characteristic feature of acid producing and fast growing rhizobia (Somasegaran and Hoben, 1994b). Biochemical and physiological characterization of isolates revealed the existence of versatile and tolerant haricot bean nodulating rhizobial isolates in our collection. The test isolates exhibited a wide range of variation in their NaCl tolerance (data not shown). More than 42% of the isolates grew at 1% NaCl while only 3% of the isolates continued to grow at up to 9% NaCl. The result indicated that most isolates were very sensitive to salt concentrations. However, strains from Gofa, Jinka and Hawassa were comparatively salt tolerant than other sites. Isolates HB19a and HB19b, both from Gofa were found to be the most salt tolerant that grew on the medium containing up to 10% NaCl. On the contrary, isolates from Durame (pH of the soils 5.9), Humbo and Badiwacho (pH of the soils 7.1) were highly salt sensitive, thus they were unable to grow at 1% NaCl.With the respect to their pH profile, all the test isolates were able to grow on a wide pH values ranging between 6 and 9 while only 53% of the isolates were able to grow acidic pH (pH=4). On the other hand, 91% of the isolates were able to grow at pH value of 10. All isolates from Jinka and Kachabira were able to grow at pH value of 5. In addition, Kachabira isolates were able to grow in a wide range of pH values (5-10.5). With the respect to temperature requirement, fifty four of the isolates were able to grow at 40 0 C, whereas only 12% of the isolates were able to grow at 45 o C (Table 3). At higher temperature extremes, the proportion of tolerant isolates decreased. Yet there is no critical boundary line to be drawn that discriminated between tolerance and intolerance, be it for thermal or pH regime. It might also be important weather the area of adaptation has role on tolerance level association mapping.  113) isolates, whereas Dfructose, mannose, D-xylose, dextrin, inulin were assimilated by 96%-99% of the isolates. Dulcitol, galactose and starch were utilized by 86-89% of the isolates. Taken together, our results clearly revealed that monosaccharide and disaccharide supported maximum growth, followed by polysaccharides and none of strains were able to assimilate organic acids. On the other hand, of the total of 16 nitrogen sources tested, all isolates were able to metabolize 13 of them (data not shown). D-serine and L-proline were utilized by 84% and 99% of the isolates, respectively.The result of intrinsic antibiotic resistance of the isolates is summarized in Table 4. The data showed that most of the isolates were tolerant to novobiocin and lincomycin and sensitive to Streptomycin. The result showed that the strains exhibited a wide range of differences in their antibiotic resistance. The results in this experiment showed that at least 86% of the isolates resist heavy metals. In total 92 traits were examined, based on which the isolates and reference strains were characterized for cluster analysis. Using 82% similarity level as a cut point, a total of 113 isolates and eight reference strains of recognized species, were grouped into five major clusters (designated as I, II, III, IV, and V) and four un-clustered positions on the dendrogram (Figure 1). Out of the five clusters, four of them (I-IV) contained reference strains while one cluster (V) comprised only the test isolates. Of the five clusters, cluster I and II contained 87% of the studies isolates.Cluster I included 55% of the isolates and clustered with the reference strain Rhizobium leguminosarum at 82% relative similarity. At 87% level of similarity this major cluster I further subdivided into four subclusters (designated IA, IB, IC and ID). Sub-cluster 1D contained R. leguminosarum, the other subclusters were loosely linked to this reference strain. Sub-cluster ID comprised the isolates from four specific locations; Kachabira (4), Durame (1), Humbo (2), and Bodity (1) while sub-cluster IC included isolates only from Areka and Durame. However, sub-cluster IA and IB contained the isolates from nine different locations.Cluster II comprised 36 new isolates and reference strain, Ensifer meliloti at 84% similarity cut point, which [129] further divided into three distinct sub-clusters, designated IIA, IIB and IIC. Sub-cluster IIB closely related to reference strain Ensifer meliloti. Subcluster IIC contained strains from Bodity, Durame and Hawassa. None of the isolates from Humbo and Badiwacho were clustered with subcluster IIA and IIB.Cluster III consisted two strains from Durame (HB 109, HB 108), one strain from Kachabira (HB 110) and one from Bodity (HB 92b). These isolates formed cluster with Mesorhizobium mediterraneum at 85% similarity cut point in the dendrogram. Cluster IV contains four isolates: HB 114 from Areka, HB 113 from Kachabira, HB 39b and HB 20c from Gofa which were clustered along with Rhizobium tropici and Rhizobium etli at about 84% and 89% relative similarity, respectively. The main distinguishing characteristics of these isolates were that all of them could not tolerated Zn concentration and grew on glycine. Cluster V consists of only three isolates (HB 19a, HB19b from Gofa and HB 62 from Hawassa), for which the dendrogram suggested distant relatedness to the rest of the isolates found in other clusters and reference strains. Generally, these isolates showed the lowest relatedness (64% similarity) with the rest of the test strains and to the reference strains used in this study. However, the strains should be tested in field conditions and their phylogenetic positions should be further explored. The test isolates which occupied unclustered positions include HB 20b from Gofa, HB 2a from Jinka, HB 57b from Hawassa, and HB 119 from Durame and were more divergent from the isolates that were grouped in each of the main cluster (I-V). None of these isolates were related to each other and other isolates including the reference strains included in this study.Isolates of haricot bean nodulating rhizobia indigenous to Southern Ethiopia were evaluated for their symbiotic potential in the greenhouse, and the results of which are presented in Table 5. In this study haricot bean rhizobia exhibited a high degree of heterogeneity concerning their symbiotic performance on sand culture. Of the isolates tested 69.9% formed deep green leaf, pink/red nodule and strong stem and, therefore they were effective. All isolates from Bodity and Hawassa were effective indicating that these soils harbour effective strains as compared to other sites. About 16% of the tested isolate were found to be moderately effective. All isolates from Humbo were moderately effective. Only 2.65% isolates formed white nodules, thus were ineffective (from Jinka), however, the rest isolates from different locations formed pink and green nodules. It is to be noted that the pattern of nodulation also varied widely between isolates. Ineffective isolates (for example HB27) formed many small white nodules, while most of the effective isolates (for example HB 1a, HB 1b and HB 139) formed nodules which were mainly pink/dark pink in color. In earlier studies on rhizobia from common bean in Ethiopia, it was clearly demonstrated that indigenous rhizobia nodulating common bean were diverse (Abebe, 1987;Beyene et al., 2004;Mitiku;Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007). Similarly, this study showed that rhizobia capable of eliciting nodules on haricot bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) were present at all the locations investigated in Southern Ethiopia. The colony diameter (> 2mm ) determined in 91% of the test isolates within 3 days of incubation clearly signifies the fast growing nature of common bean rhizobia, which is also the case in other studies of similar nature (Aguilar et al., 2004;Amarger et al., 1997;Andrade et al., 2002;Beyene et al., 2004;Küçük et al., 2006;Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007). In addition, the acid production behavior of the test isolates corroborates earlier findings on common bean rhizobia (Aguilar et al., 2004).Rhizobium phaseoli is one of the most halotolerant rhizobia and several isolates have been reported to grow at high salt concentrations (4-5%) (Hungria et al., 2000). Similarly, two isolates of common bean from Southern Ethiopia tolerated 2% [131] concentration of salt (Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007). Isolates that were tolerant of up to 9% NaCl were also found to be highly resistant to alkaline pH of 10 except HB 19a. This result agreed with the results of other works from Egypt (Shamseldin and Werner, 2005). The isolates which were tolerant to high salt concentration and alkaline pH could be a candidate for field trials where salinity and alkalinity domain is increasingly a constraint, in lowland valies and western hemisphere. The presence of isolates that could resist higher NaCl concentration offers a possibility for choosing inoculant for production sites where salinity is a problem (Mensah et al., 2006). The same author concluded that the population count of rhizobia was inversely proportional to the salt concentration; with most growing at lower concentrations while only a few are able to grow at higher concentrations.In earlier investigations rhizobia of common bean tolerant to varying NaCl concentration levels have been reported, including 2% (Jordan, 1984), 3% (Odee et al., 1997), 5% (Maâtallah et al., 2002), 10% (Zahran, 1999) and 14% (Abdelmoumen et al., 1999).With the respect to their pH profile, all isolates were able to grow on a pH range from 6 -9 while 53% of the isolates were able to grow at pH 4. The results indicated that 100% of the isolates were tolerant to pH 9 which is similar to the study conducted in Ethiopia (Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007). On the contrary the same authors reported that almost all their haricot bean isolates from Southern Ethiopia were unable to tolerate pH lower than 5. It can be suggested that isolates, which were able to grow at acidic pH in the lab, could be taken further to the field condition (with acidic soil pH) for field trials to develop them into inoculant. Currently, it is estimated that about 40% of the total arable land of Ethiopia is affected by soil acidity (Taye, 2007). In earlier studies, it was found and reported that all strains of R. tropici were able to grow at pH 4, with few representatives of R. giardinii and R. leguminosarum bv. phaseoli (Amarger et al., 1997). Similarly, R. tropici affiliated rhizobia from common bean, and that tolerated pH of 4.2 were identified (Graham et al., 1994). On the other hand, 91% of the isolates were able to grow at pH value of 10 and in agreement with other findings on common bean isolates identified elsewhere (Küçük et al., 2006). All isolates from Jinka and Kachabira were able to grow at pH value 5. In addition, Kachabira isolates were able to grow in a wide range of pH value; from pH value 5-10.5. Strains grew in wide pH range can be taken as a promising alternatives for inoculant production in areas where acidity and alkalinity are problem for haricot bean production.With the respect to the temperature profile, and in agreement to our findings, several research identified that rhizobia from common bean were found to resist an incubation temperature of 40 0 C (Hungria et al., 2000), 42 0 C (Küçük et al., 2006) and 44 0 C (Diouf et al., 2000). Similar response of R. tropici to incubation of high temperature was recorded, tolerating 40 0 C on different growing media (Martínez-Romero et al., 1991). Furthermore, rhizobia capable of growing at temperature values ranging between 32 and 47 0 C (Hungria and Vargas, 2000) were identified, although tolerance varies among species. In our study, thus, it can generally be concluded that, most of the isolates can overcome high temperatures (35 0 C and 40 0 C) which are one of the major problems for biological nitrogen fixation and might be used as haricot bean inoculants in areas where high temperature is a problem for bean production especially in rift valley areas in Ethiopia. However, further work is needed to verify their performance in the field condition.Regarding the carbon source utilization, most bean nodulating bacteria could utilize dulcitol except R. tropici. Similar finding was also shown by (Andrade et al., 2002) that the R. tropici strains were unable to grow on dulcitol. Fast growing rhizobia were reported to utilize a large variety of carbon sources than slow growing counterparts (Gao et al., 1994;Kalita and Małek, 2004). Our results also revealed that monosaccharide and disaccharide, support maximum growth, followed by polysaccharides and none of strains were able to assimilate organic acids. Similar findings have been reported (Kumari et al., 2009;Küçük et al., 2006). Nitrogen source utilization by the test isolates revealed similar pattern as that pattern generated from carbon source utilization, and this is supported by other studies. For example, (Amarger et al., 1997) and (Andrade et al., 2002) found that most of the bean isolates could utilize wide range of amino acids. The most resistant amino acid was glycine; where only 61% of the tested isolates were unable to utilize it. This is similar to glycine utilization of Brazilian isolates (Amarger et al., 1997), Ethiopian isolates (Workalemahu and Assefa, 2007) and fast growing rhizobia (Jordan, 1984). The ability to utilize a wide range of carbon and amino acid sources have significance for rhizobia strain classification and provide an ecological advantage to the rhizobia in colonizing the soil and competing with other microorganisms around the rhizosphere, where carbon and nitrogen sources are the limiting factors.The combined results (from cultural, physiological and symbiotic ","tokenCount":"4210"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6e7287792308058a754685758c7e6fb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b84fb569-3edf-4058-ba4b-73d4804d7412/retrieve","id":"-1257260367"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"319ab73a-68de-4fe2-9ba8-f8e95f6282a3","pagecount":"6","content":"Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is a management practice in irrigated lowland rice that saves water and reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while maintaining yields. The practice of AWD is defined by the periodic drying and re-flooding of the rice field.While AWD requires a specific water regime (see The practice of AWD on the farm, below), the practice of allowing the water table to drop below the soil surface at one or multiple points during cultivation is not new. AWD and other single-or multiple-drying practices have been used for several decades as water-saving practices. About 40% of rice farmers in China practice some form of water management and short intervals of non-flooded conditions are common among rice farmers in northwestern India and in Japan (more than 80%). AWD-like practices have continued to spread.A large potential exists for GHG reductions from rice paddies through the use of systematically introduced AWD, optimized for GHG mitigation. At present, AWD is widely accepted as the most promising practice for reducing GHG emissions from irrigated rice for its large methane reductions and multiple benefits.Reduced water use. By reducing the number of irrigation events required, AWD can reduce water use by up to 30%. It can help farmers cope with water scarcity and increase reliability of downstream irrigation water supply.Greenhouse gas mitigation potential. In the 2006 IPCC methodology, AWD is assumed to reduce methane (CH 4 ) emissions by an average of 48% compared to continuous flooding. Combining AWD with nitrogen-use efficiency and management of organic inputs can further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This suite of practices can be referred to as AWD+.Increased net return for farmers. \"Safe\" AWD (see The practice of AWD on the farm) does not reduce yields compared to continuous flooding, and may in fact increase yields by promoting more effective tillering and stronger root growth of rice plants. Farmers who use pump irrigation can save money on irrigation costs and see a higher net return from using AWD. AWD may reduce labor costs by improving field conditions (soil stability) at harvest, allowing for mechanical harvesting.In general, lowland rice-growing areas where soils can be drained in 5-day intervals are suitable for AWD. High rainfall may impede AWD. If rainfall exceeds water lost to evapotranspiration and seepage, the field will be unable to dry during the rice-growing period.Farmers must have control over irrigation of their fields and know that they will have access to water once fields have drained. AWD in rainfed rice is not recommended due to uncertain water availability when fields have to be re-flooded.Flooded rice systems (comprising irrigated, rainfed, and deepwater rice) emit significant amounts of CH 4 . Although estimates vary and have high uncertainty, recent work suggests that flooded rice contributes about 10-12% of anthropogenic emissions from the agriculture sector globally.CH 4 emissions from rice fields have been intensively studied, with more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles since the 1990s documenting the factors that affect CH 4 and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions. The vast majority of this work has taken place in China, Japan, and the US and, to a lesser extent, in India and Southeast Asia. Water regime and organic inputs are the primary determinants of CH 4 emissions in rice systems but soil type, weather/ climate, tillage management, residue, fertilizers, and rice cultivars also play a role.Field water tube used for observation of water levels by farmers. The ability to observe the level of the water table below the soil helps build confidence in AWD. (Photo: IRRI)Research in Asia has found a reduction in Global Warming Potential of 43% associated with AWD.(Data from a meta-analysis by Sanchis et al. 2012.) Flooded rice produces approximately 20-40 Mt of CH4 per year, or about 10-12% of anthropogenic emissions the agriculture sector globally.In a review of on-station experiments in Asia, the CH 4 emission reduction associated with multiple drying ranged from 14 to 80%, with a mean of 43%. Research has consistently found that noncontinuous water regimes such as AWD produce significantly lower CH 4 emissions than continuous flooding. According to empirical models, 15-20% of the benefit gained by decreasing CH 4 emission is offset by the increase in N 2 O emissions. However, net GWP is still significantly lower under AWD than in continuously flooded fields (Figure 2).The mitigation potential of AWD depends strongly on its proper execution. Incomplete drainage (not allowing the water table to drop to 15 cm below soil surface) can result in negligible reductions in GHG emissions.CH 4 in wet or \"paddy\" rice soil is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of organic material after the flooding of rice fields. Allowing the field to drain removes the anaerobic condition for a time and halts the production of CH 4 , thus reducing the total quantity of CH 4 released during the growing season.The production of N 2 O is also regulated by the presence of oxygen. In contrast to CH 4 however, the recurring shift between aerobic and anaerobic conditions favors bacterial conversion of other nitrogen compounds to N 2 O and its release from the soil. The production of N 2 O is also strongly influenced by the availability of nitrogen in the soil. Thus, N 2 O emissions increase with the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to rice paddies.Proper design of irrigation schemes and coordination among farmers, irrigation authorities, and local governments can enable largescale benefits from AWD. In the Philippines, water for irrigation is a limited and dwindling resource due to competition with residential and industrial uses, increasing frequency of drought, and pollution of surface waters. Since the early 2000s, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has collaborated with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) of the Philippines to disseminate AWD as a water-saving technology. These efforts became more urgent in 2009, when decreasing irrigation water supply during the dry season led the Department of Agriculture to issue an administrative order for the adoption of water-saving technologies in irrigated rice production. This created an opportunity for large-scale implementation of AWD, with benefits not only for water savings but for coping with climate change as well.Among the lessons learned in the Philippines' experience with AWD is that the incentive for farmers to adopt AWD varies greatly with the irrigation scheme. In areas served by gravity-driven canal irrigation, there is little private incentive for AWD adoption, as farmers pay a flat irrigation fee (per ha and season) regardless of the volume of water used. In rice areas outside of irrigation schemes, or at the 'tail end' area of gravity irrigation systems where canal water may become scarce, farmers often use pumps. Some of these are operated by cooperative irrigators' associations, under which farmers must individually buy the fuel to operate the pump. Application of AWD by these farmers allows them to save money by irrigating less frequently or for a shorter period.On-farm experiments with AWD in the Central Luzon region of the Philippines underpinned the differing incentives for AWD adoption. Canal-irrigated farms had little reduction in CH 4 emissions. Because they paid a flat fee for their water, there was little incentive to reduce irrigation, and the farmers rarely allowed their fields to drain completely. In contrast, CH 4 emissions on pump-irrigated farms decreased by nearly 70% under AWD.Once farmers were confident that the practice would not reduce yields, they used it as an opportunity to reduce money spent on fuel for pumping.In places with flat-fee gravity irrigation, the irrigation authorities play a key role in tailoring the water supply of a given rice area to the actual demand following the AWD scheme. This 'imposed' AWD is practiced on Bohol Island in central Philippines.To optimize the use of irrigation water from one of Bohol's dams, NIA introduced an imposed AWD irrigation schedule in 2006.Each farmer has irrigation water for 3 days, then none for the next 10-12 days. The rotation of water is divided between upstream and downstream users. Downstream irrigators' associations have benefited from a more reliable water supply, which is critical to the practice of AWD and allows a larger area to be cultivated. Optimum use of irrigation water has allowed a shift from a single rice crop to a double rice crop in some areas of the island. Imposed AWD requires good control of water flow as found in newly built or rehabilitated irrigation infrastructure.Implementation of AWD requires not only well-functioning irrigation systems, but also funds for proper technology transfer and education. Co-ownership is critical; in the Bohol case, contributions from NIA, local governments, and irrigators' associations ensured wide buy-in for the project. Additional support for largescale implementation could come from funding mechanisms such as Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). IRRI's feasibility study for an AWD CDM in Central Luzon (see Further Reading) can provide guidance for policymakers interested in such mechanisms. IRRI is also collaborating with the government of Japan and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to develop guidelines for monitoring, reporting, and verifying (MRV) emissions reductions in rice.Proper management of rice straw and fertilizers can further reduce CH 4 . Efficient nitrogen use can help mitigate the increase in N 2 O emissions with AWD while increasing yields and saving farmers money.A decade of research at IRRI has developed the approach of site-specific nutrient management. This approach allows farmers to tailor nutrient management to the specific conditions of their field. IRRI has developed a computer-and mobile phone-based application called Rice Crop Manager that provides farmers with site-and season-specific recommendations for fertilization. The tool allows farmers to adjust nutrient application to crop needs in a given location and season.Research in Asia has found a reduction in Global Warming Potential of 43% associated with AWD. (Data from a meta-analysis by Sanchis et al. 2012.) See the Rice Crop Manager site for more information: http:// webapps.irri.org/ph/rcm. A version that calculates greenhouse gas emissions from various practices is under development.Soil amendments such as phosphogypsum, silicate fertilizer, ammonium sulfate, and calcium carbide can further mitigate GHG emissions in intermittently irrigated rice. In combination with nitrogen fertilizer, silicate fertilization and phosphogypsum have been shown to improve rice yields and can also decrease CH 4 emissions under intermittent irrigation by more than 30%. Calcium carbide acts as a nitrification inhibitor, decreasing N 2 O emissions by approximately one-third under AWD. Where they are available, these amendments could increase the mitigation benefits of AWD.Organic inputs such as rice straw, manure, and compost are best applied to dry soil in the off-season to avoid increased CH 4 emissions. The feasibility of this practice depends on the cropping calendar, as in some areas fields are also irrigated during the dry season, leaving little time for aerobic decomposition of organic inputs. Straw and manure, which can also be composted, emit less CH 4 than fresh organic material once applied to rice soils. Ideally, management of organic residue includes biogas technology. Biogas (CH 4 ) produced from rice straw reduces fossil fuel consumption. The remaining biogas slurry represents a good form of fertilizer with low CH4 emission potential, compared with soil application of fresh organic material. At about two weeks after transplanting, the field is left to dry out until the water level is at 15 cm below the soil surface. Then, the field is flooded again to a water depth of approximately 3-5 cm before draining again. This irrigation scheme is repeated except during flowering time, when the field is maintained at a flooded water depth of 3-5 cm. The number of drainages and the number of days that the field is non-flooded will vary.• A drainage level of 15 cm is called \"safe AWD\" because this level will not cause a yield decline (see Further Reading). Farmers monitor the water level in the field using a field water tube-a 30-cm length of 15-cm diameter plastic pipe or bamboo, with drilled holes, which is sunk into the rice field until 10 cm of it protrudes above soil level. This has been effective in assuring farmers that the rice plant is accessing water even when there is no standing water in the field. Once AWD has become established, the tube is often dispensed with and farmers base the decision to irrigate on soil monitoring.• Proper leveling of rice fields is necessary to ensure that no areas are excessively dry or wet, which could adversely affect yields. Laser land-leveling may be appropriate in some farming systems.• Weed management is important, as periods of drying can encourage weed growth. Maintaining flooded conditions until around 2 weeks after transplanting discourages the growth of weeds while the rice plant becomes established.• Farmers in the Philippines noted an increase in rats under AWD due to decreased flooding time. Some studies, however, have found reduced susceptibility to other pests under AWD. Periodic soil drying may also reduce incidence of fungal diseases.• AWD leads to firmer soil conditions at harvest, which is beneficial to operating machines in the field (such as a combine harvester).• In many contexts, women do not control irrigation water and thus do not have direct roles in AWD implementation. Influences on gender relations should be considered.• AWD should not be seen as isolated management practice but as an integral part of crop management. For example, PhilRice has integrated AWD into their PalayCheck System, a package of recommended rice management practices (see Further Reading) that also includes guidelines for land preparation and nutrient and pest management.The Practice Briefs intend to provide practical operational information on climate-smart agricultural practices.Please visit www.climatesmartagriculture.org for more information. ","tokenCount":"2256"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"541ce6a6429eb4567a583ab96775ce76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f1acb660-280b-470f-8699-19b273cc110c/content","id":"1546959142"},"keywords":["Trigo","cebada","enfermedades de plantas","enfermedades fungosas","epidemiologia","identificaci6n","metodos C6digos de categorias AGRIS: H2O Clasificacion decimal Dewey: 633.11941"],"sieverID":"85fa083b-17e6-445c-8307-0f1877c8285e","pagecount":"72","content":"CIMMYT) es una organizaci6n intemacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigaci6n cientifica ya la capacitaci6n. liene su sede en Mexico y lleva a cabo programas de investigaci6n a nivel mundial sobre el maiz, el trigo, y el triticale, orientados a mejorar la productividad de los recursos agricolas en los paises en desarrollo. El CIMMYT es uno de los 16 centros intemacionales sin fines de lucro que realizan investigaciones agricolas y capacitaci6n con el apoyo del Grupo Consultivo sobre la Investigaci6n Agricola Intemacional (CGlAR, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), que a su vez cuenta con el patrocinio de la Organizaci6n de las Naciones Unidas para la Agriculhtra y la Alimentaci6n (FAa), el Banco Intemacional de Reconstrucci6n y Fomento (Banco Mundial) y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). El CGlAR esta compuesto por un grupo de 40 donadores, entre los que figuran paises, organismos tanto intemacionales como regionales y fundaciones privadas.A traves del CGIAR, el CIMMYT recibe fondos para su presupuesto basico de varias fuentes, entre ell as, losLEsta guia pr<ictica tiene por objeto servir de herramienta para la identificacion de algunas enfermedades de trigo y cebada, y de sus agentes causales. Puede servir tambien para aprender a manipular esos patogenos tanto en ellaboratorio como en el campo y el invernadero. Los autores no pretendieron elaborar una obra exhaustiva, sino que trataron de abarcar los patogenos mas importantes que afectan los cereales menores en los paises en vias de desarrollo, puesto que alli provocan perdidas economic as mas significativas que en otras zonas productoras de cere ales del mundo.Esta guia esta orientada hacia investigadores que trabajan en el area de la fitopatologia en apoyo a programas de mejoramiento genetico de cereales menores que buscan generar germoplasma con resistencia a enfermedades. Sin embargo, sera tambien de gran utilidad para tecnicos y extensionistas agricolas quienes con frecuencia no cuentan con el apoyo de un fitopatologo que identifique los problemas de enfermedades que enfrentan. Las colecciones de muestras de material enfermo son bastante utiles en el conocimiento y estudio de la sintomatologia de enfermedades, asi como en la formaci6n de poblaciones representativas del pat6geno. Estos aislamientos se usaran posteriormente para inocular poblaciones del hospedero y seleccionar germoplasma resistente.Al recolectar el material en el campo, deben tomarse en consideraci6n varios aspectos importantes, como son el estado feno16gico de la planta al momento de la recolecci6n, la parte de la planta que se va a tomar, desarrollo de la lesi6n y las condiciones ambientales en ese momento. Para cada muestra deben anotarse los datos de recolecci6n, como localidad, fecha, cultivo y variedad, junto con una descripci6n de los sintomas.Al recolectar muestras en el campo, estas se pueden colocar en bolsas de papel, 0 de plastico, a menDs que el ambiente este muy caliente y humedo, ya que esto estimula el desarrollo de hongos sapr6fitos. Tan pronto como se tenga oporhmidad, las muestras deben ponerse a secar. En general, el uso de bolsas de plastico se recomienda 5610 en caso de emergencia 0 si no se cuenta con otro tipo de material.Para el secado puede utilizarse (si se tiene) una prensa (veanse las instrucciones para su elaboraci6n) en donde la hoja se acomoda de tal forma que los sintomas sean facilmente visibles. Cuando se trata de hojas y hay diferencia entre haz y enves, se recomienda poner dos hojas, una con el haz hacia arriba y la otra con el enves. Si no se cuenta con una prensa, se puede utilizar papel peri6dico 0 sec ante, acomodando de igual forma las muestras y colocando un peso sobre ellas.Una vez seca la muestra, se transfiere y se adhiere a una hoja de diagn6stico en donde se anotan todos los datos correspondientes. Si se cuenta con las condiciones adecuadas, se procede a realizar observaciones al microscopio 0 aislamientos con el fin de identificar el agente causal de la enfermedad. Todo 10 observado durante el proceso de identificaci6n (sintomas, signos, morfologia) debe afiadirse a la hoja de diagn6stico (Figura 1; Zillinsky, 1983). De esta manera se forma un muestrario de las enfermedades mas importantes de la regi6n, con datos que ayudaran a realizar identificaciones posteriores ya entender la problematica fitosanitaria del area de trabajo.Construcci6n de una prensa; La prensa consta esencialmente de dos bases de un material fuerte y durable (por ejemplo, madera) (Figura 2 a, b). Se acomodan y se clavan tiras de madera de 1.5 pulgadas de ancho para formar un rectangulo de 30.5 cm (12\") x 46 cm (18\"), como se muestra en la Figura 2 b (las medidas pueden ajustarse a las necesidades). Entre estas dos bases se coloca papel peri6dico que servira para el secado de las muestras. Para hacer presi6n y mantenerla durante el tiempo requerido, se necesita un par de correas de aproximadamente 2.54 cm (1\") de ancho, que se apretaran como se muestra enla Figura 2 b.Muestra Organismo causal Fotograffa Si las muestras se van a utilizar como base para iniciar una coleccion de la poblacion del patogeno, es necesario secar cad a muestra durante 48 horas cuidando de que este bien identificada. Oespues se guardan las muestras en los sobres de papel correspondientes. Se aconseja introducir estos sobres en una bolsa de plastico que luego se sella para que no penetre humedad del medio ambiente. Conservar en refrigeracion a 4°C.Una de las actividades mas importantes de la fitopatologia es el trabajo en ellaboratorio; ahf se realiza investigacion basica, se afslan e identifican patogenos y se produce inoculo para inducir epifitias en forma artificial en campo e invemadero.Entre los aparatos indispensables y / 0 convenientes en un laboratorio figuran esterilizadores, autoclaves (electricos 0 de gas) y estufas, camaras de aislamiento, incubadoras, microscopios, estereoscopios y un banD maria.Autoclave. Consiste primordialmente en una camara de esterilizacion por medio de calor humedo . EI vapor en su interior alcanza una temperatura de 120°C y una presi6n de 181b/ pulgada 2 (1.4 kg / crr~2). EI calor puede proverur de una fuente electrica 0 de un mechero de gas, como es el caso de la oUa de presion. Esta puede funcionar como un autoclave grande y tiene la ventaja de ser de bajo cos to. Ambos aparatos se usan preferentemente para esterilizar medios de cultivo, pero tambien se pueden utilizar para esterilizar tierra, arena, verrniculita 0 cualquier sustrato usado para el crecirniento de plan.tas 0 microorgarusmos.Figura 2 a. Partes de una prensa. b. Prensa construida.-Estufa. Con ella se pueden obtener, por medio de calor seco, diferentes temperaturas que se utilizan para distintos prop6sitos, como por ejemplo, secar material vegetal 0 tierra a una temperatura constante 0 esterilizar materiales de vidrio a altas temperaturas.Cci maras de aislamiento . Entre estas figuran las camaras de flujo laminar con un mecanismo que permite que el aire fluya hacia afuera a traves de filtros, a fin de crear condiciones de esterilidad y prevenir la contaminaci6n. Si no se cuenta con este tipo de camara, existen otras pequenas (microvoids) que funcionan con un mecanismo similar, 0 bien, puede acondicionarse un cuarto pequeno sin corrientes de aire y, con la ayuda de un mechero, evitar la contaminaci6n.Inc ubadoras. Estas pueden ser calibradas a diferentes rangos y combinaciones de luz y temperatura, a fin de lograr las condiciones 6ptimas para el crecimiento de los diferentes organismos con que se este trabajando. Si no existen los medios para adquirir una incubadora, se puede construir una de madera, agregando tubos fluorescentes que generen luz con longitud de onda cercana al UV y controlando las horas luz/obscuridad con un reloj control (Figura 3 a y b) . Estas incubadoras tienen el inconveniente de no tener control de temperatura. Por tanto, es aconsejable ubicarlas en lugares donde la temperatura flucrue entre los 15 y 22°C, rango en que se desarrolla una gran proporci6n de los pat6genos de plantas.  Refrigeradores. Estos son esenciales principalmente para el almacenamiento de muestras vegetales, cultivos, reactivos, etc.Bano maria. Este aparato consta de un recipiente en el que el agua se puede mantener a temperaturas constantes. El bane maria tiene varios usos. Por ejemplo, se pueden colocar en el (a una temperatura de 46°C) rna traces con medios de cultivos recien esterilizados antes de vaciarlos en las cajas Petri. El bane marfa es indispensable en experimentos para medir el crecimiento de algunos organismos en medios lfquidos en condiciones de temperaturas exactas, estudios en virologia y bacteriologia, etc. Microscopios y estereoscopios. Son indispensables para la identificaci6n y clasificaci6n de pat6genos, la observaci6n de sintomas y diferentes tipos de dano, asi como la evaluaci6n de experimentos.En un laboratorio de fitopatologia la asepsia es primordial, ya que en la mayona de los casos se debe trabajar en ambientes 10 mas esteriles posible. Por esta raz6n es importante con tar con cuartos de aislamiento y / 0 camaras de flujo laminar (0 similares) en las que se pueda trabajar con el pat6geno sin riesgos de contaminaci6n. Los riesgos de contaminaci6n pueden provenir de diversos facto res, como los utensilios de trabajo y las mismas manos dellaboratorista. Los utensilios de trabajo (pinzas, navajas, asas, etc.) deben ser esterilizados cada vez que se usan, pasandolos por alcohol y subsecuentemente flameandolos. En cuanto a las manos, es recomendable lavarlas y limpiarlas con alcohol cada vez que se vaya a trabajar en condiciones esteriles.Algunos hongos que se encuentran como sapr6fitos en la mayona de las muestras vegetales y en el ambiente dellaboratorio 0 donde se trabaje la muestra, tienen gran capacidad de crecimiento y reproducci6n, por 10 que es muy importante tener cuidado al trabajar. AI laboratorio debe introducirse la menor cantidad de material vegetal posible (las muestras deben limitarse al minimo) y, sobre todo, no manejarlo como in6culo dentro dellaboratorio. En esta fonna se evita la contaminaci6n del area de trabajo dellaboratorio, que es muy dificil de controlar una vez que ha ocurrido. La contaminaci6n por acaros tambien es comUn, sobre todo en cajas Petri de vidrio que se han deformado como consecuencia de la esterilizaci6n con calor seco. Los acaros pueden invadir cajas 0 tubos mal sellados y contaminar los cultivos; esta contaminaci6n es muy diffcil de erradicar. Por 10 tanto, es necesario desinfectar el material vegetal proveniente del campo, tomar precauciones con cultivos. procedentes de otros lab oratorios, sellar bien los tubos y cajas, fumigar las incubadoras, etc. Si se tiene contaminaci6n con acaros, se recomienda sacar todo el contenido de las incubadoras y estufas, elevar la temperatura por sobre los 50°C durante un par de horas y repetir el procedimiento dos dfas despues.Para evitar estos problemas, no se debe introducir material vegetal sin control. Se recomienda, ademas, limpiar regularmente los mesones de trabajo con alcohol 0 con hipoclorito de sodio.Dado que las h~cnicas de aislamiento, identificacion y multiplicacion de inoculo, as! como los estudios biologicos y fisiologicos de patogenos, requieren de cultivos puros, las condiciones esh~riles son esenciales. Para esterilizar materiales, aparatos y zonas de trabajo se debe eliminar o inactivar toda celula viviente (microorganismos). La esterilizacion se logra exponiendo los materiales a agentes fisicos letales que destruyan irreversiblemente la estructura protoplasmatica de los microorganismos y los eliminen. Se elige el metodo de esterilizacion segtin la eficiencia y seguridad que se requiera, tomando en cuenta la toxicidad, la disponibilidad y el costo, as! como tambien el efecto del agente esterilizante sobre las propiedades del objeto que sera esterilizado.Los metodos fisicos mas comunes para la esterilizacion son el calor y las radiaciones ionicas y, en el caso de algunos liquidos, la ultrafiltracion. La esterilizacion por calor es utilizada cuando el material a esterilizar no es danado por las temperaturas altas, que pueden obtenerse en condiciones secas 0 htimedas.Calor seco. Es utilizado para la esterilizacion de instrumentos de vidrio, metal y algunos plasticos. Este tipo de esterilizacion requiere de una mayor temperatura y un periodo mas largo de exposicion que aquella con calor htimedo; se necesitan ademas estufas y homos de aire caliente que suministren calor en forma uniforrne. Comtinmente el tiempo requerido para la esterilizacion es inversamente proporcional a la temperatura utilizada: 1 h a 180°C, 2 h a 170°C, 4 h a 1S0oC y 12 0 16 h a 120°C. El tiempo de esterilizacion debe tomarse a partir del momento en que los objetos hayan alcanzado la maxima temperatura establecida. Para esterilizar materiales de vidrio, es necesario que estos esten completamente secos, de 10 contrario pueden quebrarse; no deben esterilizarse materiales graduados con este metodo, ya que el calor puede alterar sus dimensiones. Una vez alcanzado el tiempo de esterilizacion, es conveniente dejar el material en el homo 0 estufa y esperar a que adquiera la temperatura ambiente para evitar que se quiebre.Calor humedo. Este se logra por medio de presion de vapor de agua en un autoclave. Es el metodo de esterilizacion mas conveniente para la mayoria de los rnateriales, por ser mas rapido y tener mayor poder de penetracion en un tiempo y temperatura menores que cuando se usa calor seco. Para la rnayoria de los propositos de esterilizacion, el tiempo y la temperatura son 20 min a 121°C 030 min a 115°C. Es irnportante desalojar todo el aire contenido dentro de la camara antes de cerrar la valvula; de 10 contrario, la temperatura no subira. El tiempo de esterilizacion debe comenzar a considerarse una vez que se ha alcanzado la temperatura y presion deseadas (181b/pulgada 2 01.4 kg/cm2). Se recomienda usar calor htimedo para materiales liquidos, plasticos (precaucion: no todos 10 soportan), tierra, arena y verrniculita.Luz ultravioleta. Se utiliza en la esterilizacion porque resulta letal para los microorganismos. Es recomendable para esterilizar material de plastico, pero no de vidrio, dado que los rayos son demasiado debiles para penetrarlo. Este sistema debe utilizarse en camaras cerradas, teniendo cuidado de no entrar cuando este prendido, ya que causa dano a los ojos.Ultrafiltraci6n. Se utiliza especialmente cuando se desea preservar intactas las proteinas que sufren desnaturalizaci6n 0 descomposici6n de algunos azucares por las temperaturas de esterilizaci6n. Los filtros que se usan en estos casos son de diferente consistencia, con dimensiones especificas para evitar el paso de microorganismos contaminantes.Cuando se desea eliminar microorganismos contaminantes de objetos que no se pueden someter a esterilizaci6n, 10 mas conveniente es la desinfecci6n mediante sustancias como cloruro de mercurio, hipoclorito de sodio, alcohol y bromuro de etileno. Las sustancias de uso mas comun son el hipoclorito de sodio y el alcohol a diferentes concentraciones, dependiendo del objeto que se desee desinfectar. En el aislamiento de organismos pat6genos, estos compuestos son utiles para eliminar los contaminantes presentes en las muestras, como por ejemplo el hipoclorito se usa al 1% para material vegetal (hojas, raices) y del 3 a15% para semillas. El alcohol al 70% es muy utilizado, principalmente para desinfectar superficies e incluso material vegetal.Al identificar enfermedades de plantas, es recomendable aislar los microorganismos que son posibles agentes pat6genos. Para lograr este objetivo, los microorganismos (principalmente hongos y bacterias) se aislan en medios de cultivo artificiales, con el fin de poder purificarlos y estimular su esporulaci6n para la producci6n de in6culo. Este se utiliza en la inoculaci6n de plantas y la reproducci6n de sintomas, pasos necesarios para la identificaci6n (postulados de Koch) . En el Apendice se resume toda la informaci6n acerca de medios de cultivo que se utilizan para el crecimiento y conservaci6n de los pat6genos que atacan los cereales.Los medios de cultivo son substancias 0 soluciones que permiten el crecimiento de uno 0 mas organismos. Pueden ser s6lidos 0 liquid os; la tinica diferencia es que los s6lidos contienen agar, se preparan en frascos, cajas Petri 0 tubos de cultivo, y se utilizan para aislar y mantener hongos y bacterias. Los medios liquid os se usan principalmente para incrementar las poblaciones de hongos y bacterias, y determinar sus propiedades fisio16gicas, ya sea en condiciones estaticas 0 en agitaci6n. Esta permite una mayor aereaci6n, que ayuda a lograr un crecimiento uniforme y mantener la patogenicidad. Los medios se pueden agrupar, segtin su composici6n, en: Carentes de nutrientes, 0 de nutrici6n muy pobre. Estos son utilizados para obtener cultivos monosp6ricos, aislar pat6genos que se encuentran en el tejido vegetal del cual tomaran los nutrientes, y tambien para forzar la esporulaci6n de algunos hongos. El mas comu.n de estos medios es eillamado agar-agua.Nutritivos. Entre estos figuran los naturales, los semi-sinteticos y los sinteticos. Los naturales contienen u.nicamente tejidos vegetales (como hojas, raices, vainas y granos), en trozo 0 macerados, que han side esterilizados. Los semi-sinteticos contienen substancias naturales (extractos de animales y extractos 0 preparados vegetales, como harina de maiz y hojuelas de avena) y elementos sintE~ticos. Todo el contenido de los sinteticos esta quimicamente definido, y pueden ser reproducidos en forma especifica cuando son requeridos.Algunos medios sinh~ticos y semi-sinteticos vienen en forma deshidratada y 5610 se les agrega agua. Todo medio de cultivo debe elaborarse con agua destilada.La determinaci6n del medio de cultivo que debe utilizarse depende de 10 que se desea obtener, ya sea aislamientos, estudios bio16gicos y fisio16gicos del hongo (para los que se requiere la producci6n de estructuras sexuales 0 asexuales) 0 bien producci6n de in6culo. El tipo de medio es de suma importancia, ya que de el depende que el organismo mantenga su patogenicidad y capacidad de producir propagulos de reproducci6n. Otro factor importante en los medios de cultivo es el pH que, en el caso de los hongos, debe ser de 5.8 a 6.5, segtin las necesidades del organismo en cuesti6n.Algunos factores ffsicos (como la aereaci6n, luz, humedad y temperatura) afectan el crecimiento y la esporulaci6n de los pat6genos. El nivel maximo y el minima de estes factores, asi como el punto 6ptimo para la esporulaci6n y el crecimiento, varian segtin el organismo en estudio. La esporulaci6n generalmente requiere de condiciones que son adversas para el crecimiento vegetativo.Al preparar medios de cultivo, vale la pena tomar en cuenta algunos detalles que facilitan el trabajo. Conviene, por ejemplo, to mar la precauci6n de ocupar 5610 la mitad de la capacidad del matraz, para evitar que el contenido, al sal tar en el interior durante la esterilizaci6n, ensucie el tap6n. La boca del matraz se cubre con un tap6n de algod6n 0 papel aluminio, 0 bien con ambos. Una vez esterilizado, el medio no debe ser destapado si no se tienen condiciones esteriles 0 un mechero cerca; se recomienda ponerlo en bane maria a 46°C durante 30 min. Si no se cuenta con el bano, es conveniente esperar a que el medio se enfrie un poco antes de vaciarlo en las cajas Petri. (Una forma practica de saber en que momenta se debe vaciar es tocar con el dorso de la mana el matraz que contiene el medio; cuando la piel detecta un calor agradable es el momenta de vaciar.) Con esto se evita que se forme condensaci6n en las cajas, pues esta puede fomentar la contaminaci6n. El medio debe vaciarse dentro de una camara esteril 0 cuarto sin corrientes de aire, utilizando un mechero como auxiliar para prevenir la contaminaci6n. Se recomienda flamear la boca del matraz, no abrir demasiado la caja Petri y tratar de reducir al minima la distancia entre el matraz y la caja (Figura 4 ).Es conveniente vaciar el medio 24 a 48 horas antes de utilizarlo a fin de permitir que seque la condensaci6n producida durante el proceso de vaciado. Para evitar que se forme parte de esta condensaci6n, se recomienda apilar las cajas al irlas llenando (Figura 4).Cuando el medio se va a utilizar en tub os, rna traces u otros recipientes, es posible homogeneizarlo mediante calor. Se coloca el medio en los recipientes (Figura 5 a); estos se tapan, se esterilizan y se dejan enfriar en la posici6n deseada. Los tubos de cultivo generalmente se ponen en posici6n inclinada a fin de obtener una mayor area de crecimiento para el organismo (Figura 5 b).Medios de cultivo que se utilizan para el aislamiento y crecimiento de hongos. A fin de identificar y estudiar los pat6genos, es necesario aislar y cultivarlos. Por tanto, se recomienda practicar la preparaci6n de algunos de los medios de cultivo mas utilizados, como los que se describen a contin uaci6n. Figura 4. Forma de vaciar un medio de cultivo y evitar la condensacion.Figura 5 a. Proceso de llenado de tubos de ensayo con medio de cultivo. b. Posicion de enfriado de los tubos con medio de cultivo, que permite obtener una mayor area de crecimiento.1. Agar-Agua: a menudo utilizado para aislar y hacer germinar esporas, obtener cultivos monosporicos y verificar la viabilidad del inoculo.Componentes: Agar 15-20 g Agua destilada 1000 mlPreparacion: en el matraz, diluir el agar en agua destilada (ocupar solo la mitad de la capacidad del matraz) yesterilizar.2. Papa-Dextrosa-Agar (PDA): es el mas utilizado para el aislamiento, crecimiento y almacenamiento de hongos, pues es apropiado para una gran cantidad de especies.Papas partidas 250 g Dextrosa 109 Agar 20 g Agua destilada 1000 ml Preparacion: se hierven las papas en 500 a 750 ml de agua des til ada durante 15 a 20 minutos. La suspension se filtra y se pasa por una gasa. Este filtrado se coloca en un matraz, se Ie agrega la dextrosa yel agar, y luego se afora con agua destilada hasta 1000 ml.Sellar el matraz con un tapon de algodon 0 papel de aluminio y esterilizarlo. Se deja enfriar un poco y se vacia la suspension en cajas de Petri (llenando a la mitad). Conforme se van llenando, las cajas se apilan para evitar la condensacion.En muchos paises, se vende en el mercado PDA deshidratado que se prepara agregando agua destilada en la proporcion senalada por el fabricante y esterilizando, como sigue.Pesar 9.75 g de PDA preparado y deshidratado en un matraz de 500 rnI; agregar 250 rnl de agua destilada. La suspension se calienta hasta homogeneizarla; luego se colocan 4 a 5 rnl de medio en cada tube de ensa yo utilizando una jeringa. Los tubos se cierran y esterilizan, y se ponen a enfriar en posicion inclinada hasta que el medio se solidifica (Figura 5 b). Si no se tiene una jeringa dosificadora para llenarlos, se usa un embudo sostenido en una plataforma de metal. Ajustar un pedazo de manguera flexible en la parte terminal del embudo, controlando la salida con una pinza Mohr. La cantidad deseada de medio se mide en un tubo que se usa en forma constante como patron de medida durante el proceso de llenado (Figura 5 a).3. Agar V-8: este medio es muy util para estimular la esporulacion de muchos hongos. El V 8 es un juga elaborado por la Campbell Soup Co. y la empresa Herdez (en Mexico), entre otras. Contiene extractos de tomate, apio, betabel 0 beterraga, perejil, lechuga, espinaca y berro. Existen diferencias entre las distintas marcas y, por tanto, conviene hacer pruebas comparativas para cada especie. En aquellos lugares donde no se cuenta con juga V-8 enlatado, este medio se puede reemplazar con uno que contenga extracto de hojas (ver el que sigue), espedalmente si se trata de espedes como Helminthosporium tritici repentis y H. teres. Preparaci6n: se mezclan los componentes y se esterilizan durante 20 minutos en rna traces de 250 ml. El medio se inocula una vez que se ha enfriado, y se agita en forma constante durante el periodo de incubaci6n. Usar el in6culo al quinto dia.10. Medio con trozos de hojas: propicio para estimular la formaci6n de la fase sexual de algunos hongos.Componentes: Agar 15-20 g Agua destilada 1000 ml Trocitos de hojas de plantulas (Probar diferentes especies) Preparaci6n: se disuelve el agar en el agua. Se colocan por separado los trocitos de hojas en una caja Petri y se esterilizan. Una vez esterilizados el medio y las hojas, se procede a vaciar el agar; cuando el agar esta cerca del punto de solidificaci6n, se colocan de 5 a 10 trocitos de hojas en cada caja, de tal forma que queden incluidos en la parte superior del agar. El hongo en estudio se inocula sobre los trocitos de tejido vegetal y se observa peri6dicamenteoMedias que se utilizan para la canseruaci6n de hangas. En la preservaci6n y manejo de cultivos de hongos, conviene reducir la cantidad y frecuencia de las transferencias de aislamientos a una vez cada seis meses. Los aislamientos deben ser mantenidos en un substrato tan natural como sea posible (por ejemplo, hojas de trigo para Pythium, semilla de trigo para Fusarium y otros) para evitar cambios en la patogenicidad. Los procedimientos de preservaci6n varian segtin el organismo.1. Granos: Se utiliza una gran variedad de granos para la conservaci6n de algunos hongos, pues de esta forma se mantienen estables y no pierden virulencia ni la capacidad de esporulaci6n, como ocurre en algunos medios sinh~ticos. El tipo de grano que se usa depende del microorganismo con el que se este trabajando.El grano se pone a remojar en agua destilada durante 24 horas; despues se escurre el exceso de agua y se Henan con el grano tubos de ensayo, rna traces 0 frascos. Estos se cierran sin apretar completamente y se esterilizan en autoclave durante dos horas. Enseguida se incuban de 48 a 72 horas a temperatura ambiente (220C) para asegurar que no crezca ningtin hongo 0 bacteria contaminante. AI termino de este periodo, los rna traces y tubos se inoculan con el cultivo puro y se incuban durante 7 a 10 dias, 0 los que sean necesarios para obtener una buena esporulaci6n. Durante este periodo, se recomienda moverlos cada dos dias, golpeandolos fuertemente contra la palma de la mane para que no se forme una masa compacta y se facilite el crecimiento del hongo.Cuando se trata de mantener aislamientos, los tub os y matraces se almacenan en bolsas de plastico y se refrigeran. Si el objetivo es multiplicar el inoculo, este se extrae en forma de una suspension en agua destilada esteril. Una vez que han alcanzado el desarrollo deseado, los cultivos se almacenan en el refrigerador a 4-S°C.Entre los granos que se pueden utilizar estan el trigo, la cebada, el triticale y el sorgo, segtin sea la afinidad del grano como sustrato del hongo en estudio. Los medios a base de grano se usan comtinmente en especies del genero Fusarium y algunas de Helminthosporium. Gaeumannomyces graminis se conserva y se multiplica bien en semillas de avena esterilizadas de la misma forma que se ha seftalado anteriormente.3. Agua esteril con trozos de hojas: la preservacion de cultivos en agua esteril es particularmente util en el caso de Pythium spp. Este patogeno es almacenado en un medio de hojas de trigo y agua. Las hojas de plantulas de trigo (5 0 6 con 2 cm de largo) se secan al aire y se suspenden en 9 ml de agua destilada en tubos de ensayo. Los tubos se tapan con algodon y se esterilizan en el autoclave. Los aislamientos se transfieren asepticamente por medio de una porcion de agar y se les deja crecer varios dias a temperatura ambiente; luego los tubos se sellan con parafina y se almacenan a 405°C. Los aislamientos se pueden mantener un ano 0 mas sin necesidad de ser transferidos.Un segmento pequeno de hoja de estos cultivos colocado en medio de harina de maiz (Com Meal Agar, CMA) es suficiente para reiniciar el crecimiento. Se ha encontrado que no todas las especies sobreviven periodos largos de almacenamiento de esta manera; por 10 tanto, si se esta trabajando con Pythium, los aislamientos deberan transferirse cad a seis meses hasta que se detennine la capacidad de viabilidad de las especies que esten en estudio.4. Medio con extracto de hojas: especifico para mantener aislamientos de Septoria tritici durante periodos largos, sin que se modifique su virulencia.Componentes: Hoja de trigo 30g Bactoagar 20g Estreptornicina 0.1 g Agua destilada 1000 mlPreparaci6n: las hojas se maceran en una licuadora 0 mortero y se filtran a traves de una gas a para separar el material grueso; se agrega el agar y se esteriliza la mezcla durante 20 minutos. Cuando este tibia, se agrega la estreptomicina, agitando suavemente con movimientos rotatorios para homogeneizar, cuidando de no ensuciar las paredes ni los tapones. Se vacia en cajas Petri, poniendo una cantidad minima que s610 cubra la base de la caja. Para conservar el pat6geno a largo plazo, se inocula el medio con conidios de Septaria en el centro de la caja. Se aconseja hacer paquetes con varias cajas cubriendolas con papel aluminio; estos se mantienen entre 20 y 25°C, hasta que el agua del medio se haya evaporado (aproximadamente tres meses). A1 cabo de este tiempo se deberan haber formado picnidios maduros.De esta forma se pueden conservar aislamientos durante periodos largos (hasta tres anos) a una temperatura de 4 a 6°C. Si se desea obtener nuevamente un cultivo activo, los picnidios disecados se sacan y se colocan en un medio de cultivo apto para el incremento de Septaria. Se debe considerar que no todos los aislamientos tienen la capacidad de formar picnidios en este medio.5. Conservaci6n en hojas infectadas y disecadas: Helminthasparium tritici-repentis, H. teres y Rynchosporium secalis son diffciles de conservar en medios de cultivo, ya que su capacidad de esporulaci6n y su patogenicidad disminuyen drasticamente y desaparecen sin posibilidad de recuperaci6n. Para evitar este problema, se recomienda inocular los aislamientos en variedades susceptibles bajo condiciones controladas. Las hojas que presentan la infecci6n se cortan cuando las lesiones muestranun desarrollo medio, se secan 48 horas al medio ambiente y se conservan a 4°C. Helminthosporium tritici-repentis puede permanecer viable durante seis meses en estas condiciones. En el caso de R. secalis, los aislamientos se guardan en un recipiente hermetico de plcistico a -15°C en el congelador. Se recomienda probar estas condiciones en otras especies que provocan manchas foliares.  Zillinsky, F.J. 1984. Guia para la identificaci6n de enfermedades en cereales de grano pequeno.Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT. 141 pp.Las camaras humedas son un medio rapido y directo para obtener esporulacion y ayudar a identificar los agentes causales de algunas enfermedades. Son de especialutilidad con microorganismos que crecen rapidamente sobre el hospedero y compiten bien con los saprofitos dentro de la camara humeda.Preparacion: Cortar las hojas, tallos, etc., en pedazos pequenos y, con la ayuda de cinta scotch, acomodarlos sobre un portaobjeto esteril. Esterilizar los pedazos con hipoclorito al 5% durante 30 a 60 segundos; pasar las muestras por agua esteril para eliminar el exceso de hipoclorito y secar el material vegetal sobre toalla de papel. Algunos pat6genos son muy sensibles a la esterilizacion y, por esta razon, se dejan trozos sin tratar. Se recomienda escoger tejido que no este demasiado danado 0 con lesiones muy avanzadas para evitar la presencia de saprofitos. En una caja Petri, colocar papel filtro humedeciendolo con agua esteril (Figura 6 a), poner el portaobjeto sobre el papel (Figura 6 b) Y sellar la caja con cinta 0 parafilm para mantener la humedad (Figura 6 c). Incubar la caja a IS-22°C y exponerla a luz y obscuridad en forma alterna (10 h de luz/14 h de oscuridad) (sin esta alternancia muchos hongos no desarrollan la fase reproductiva).AI completar 24, 48 Y72 horas de incubacion, abrir la caja y observar en el estereoscopio las estructuras formadas en la lesion; de ser necesario, utilizar una aguja de diseccion para tomar un poco del crecimiento saliente de la lesion y colocarlo en un portaobjeto con una gota de agua. Cubrir con un cubreobjetos, dejandolo caer de manera que no se formen burbujas de aire (ayudarse con la aguja de diseccion). Observar bajo el microscopio micelio, conidioforos y conidios 0 cualquier otra estructura desarrollada por el hongo. Si no hay desarrollo visible, cuidar que la caja no pierda humedad y continuar observando. Dibujar toda estructura que se observe.Figura 6 a, h, c. Secuencia de la preparacion de una camara humeda.Para el diagnostico y estudio de enfermedades, en la mayoria de los casos es necesario aislar y cultivar el patogeno a fin de identificarlo. Una practica muy util es la observaci6n del agente causal en preparaciones microsc6picas tomadas directamente del material enfermo 0 del aislamiento del patogeno.Montaje de preparaciones. Coloque la muestra en un portaobjetos limpio, sobre una gota de solucion de montaje que debe ser, de preferencia, agua destilada esteril 0 un colorante para la tinci6n de las estructuras fungosas que se desean observar con mayor contraste. Entre los colorantes mas comunes se encuentran ellactofenol, la safranina yel algod6n azul.La obtenci6n de una preparaci6n puede realizarse de diferentes formas dependiendo del material de que se trate: Si el material vegetal presenta un aspecto algodonoso 0 indicios de estructuras del patogeno (signos), tomar la muestra con una aguja de disecci6n 0 con la punta de una navaja, raspando ligeramente el tejido enfermo (Figura 7 a). Colocar cuidadosamente este raspado sobre el portaobjetos dentro de la gota de agua 0 colorante segtin sea el caso (Figura 7 b). Cubrir suavemente con uncubreobjetos con la ayuda de una aguja para que no queden burbujas de aire (Figura 7 c).Se utiliza cinta scotch transparente para hacer preparaciones rapidas no permanentes a partir de crecimientos en medio de cultivo. Este metodo se recomienda para observar las estructuras en su estado y posici6n normales (cadenas de esporas 0 conidios pegados al conidioforo), 10 cual generalmente es muy difkil de lograr con las preparaciones antes descritas, ya que las estructuras se separan al ser tomadas con la aguja.Figura 7 a, b, c. Como hacer una preparacion para observar al microscopio.Tomar un pedazo de cinta scotch y, con ellado que tiene el pegamento, tocar \"1igeramente\" la muestra 0 el cultivo de la caja Petri 0 del tejido enfermo (Figura 8 a); enseguida colocarlo sobre una gota de agua esteril en un portaobjetos (Figura 8 b, c).Cuando se desea hacer observaciones mas amplias, incluyendo estructuras inmersas en el tejido enfermo, tomar la muestra y hacer cortes finos con la ayuda de una navaja de afeitar (\"gilette\") o un bisturi. En el caso de hojas, tallos, tuberculos, raices, etc., la estructura puede ser colocada entre los dedos con la punta sobresaliendo un poco (Figura 9 a). Los cortes obtenidos de esta forma son tanto 0 mas daros que los efectuados con un microtomo, instrumento disenado para este objetivo pero que, por su alto costo, no siempre esta disponible. Colocar los cortes obtenidos en la gota de la solucion de montaje. Cuando se trata de tejido mas suave y flexible, se puede utilizar como sosten un trozo de madera 0 una zanahoria partida longitudinalmente y de igual forma con la punta de la muestra saliendo hacia arriba se realizan los cortes 10 mas fino posible (Figura 9 b). Con esta tecnica se pueden obtener cortes de estructuras fungosas (picnidios, peritecios, etc.) claras y completas, asi como tambien una imagen mas dara en tejidos obscur~s por naturaleza. Una vez colocada la muestra en la gota de la soluci6n de montaje, utilizar una aguja de diseccion para acomodar el especimen como se desee. Enseguida se coloca el cubreobjetos con la ayuda de la aguja, comenzando por un extremo, dejandolo caer cuidadosamente y asegurandose que el corte este completamente cubierto y que no queden burbujas de aire porque distorsionan la imagen. Si fuera necesario, presionar suavemente para eliminar el exceso de solucion y luego absorberlo con papel filtro 0 papel secante.Para realizar preparaciones semipermanentes, se fija la muestra pasando el portaobjetos por encima de una flama por algunos segundos, hasta ver hervir la gota (para eliminar las burbujas de aire); con papel filtro, eliminar el exceso fuera del area del cubreobjetos.Para sellar la muestra, se pone esmalte de ufias transparente en las cuatro orillas del cubreobjetos y se deja secar.Cuando se trata de evaluar la resistencia de las plantas a enferrnedades 0 efectuar estudios especificos del patogeno (epidemio16gicos), muchas veces es necesario recurrir ala inoculaci6n artificial, ya sea en invemadero 0 en campo. Para esto se utiliza inOculo a una concentraci6n especifica, segu.n el pat6geno y hospedero en estudio (es decir, un numero determinado de esporas por mililitro), con la finalidad de obtener una buena infeccion que permita observar las diferencias entre los materiales evaluados.Para determinar la concentraci6n se usa un hemacit6metro, con el cual se hacen conteos de esporas en campos de dimensiones conocidas, que daran el numero de esporas por ml de la suspensi6n inicial. De esta forma, por medio de diluciones se obtiene el in6culo en la concentraci6n deseada.Procedimiento: Raspar los cultivos del hongo en las cajas y mezclar este raspado con un volumen conocido de agua destilada. Una vez homogeneizada, la suspensi6n se filtra a traves de una malla 0 gasa para eliminar el agar 0 restos de micelio que podrian obstruir el paso de la suspensi6n a traves del aspersor durante la inoculaci6n, y se lleva a un volumen conocido.Tomar una gota con una pipeta Pasteur y colocarla en el centro del hemacit6metro, 0 bien colocar una gota en cada extremo, segtin el tipo de hemacit6metro con el que se este trabajando; enseguida colocar el cubreobjetos cuidando que no queden burbujas y que la gota no se derrame ni se salga de los campos de conteo. Esto daria un dato err6neo, ya que el excedente arrastrarfa las esporas.El hemacit6metro consta de dos campos de conteo; en cada campo se tienen nueve cuadros, que a su vez estan divididos en cuadros mas pequenos (Figura 10). Tanto los cuadros grandes como los pequenos tienen dimensiones conocidas, de tal modo que por medio de f6rmulas se puede obtener el numero de esporas por ml.E1 campo de conteo que se debe utilizar depende del tamano de los conidios del hongo con el que se este trabajando. Si estos son grandes, 10 mas conveniente es contar en los cuatro cuadros de las esquinas (A, B, C, D) mas el cuadro del centro (E) (Figura 10). E1 conteo se repite por 10 menos seis veces y se saca un promedio.~ :-::::::.......En caso de hongos de esporasEn caso de hongos de esporas 0,05 MM..T \\.chicas, hacer 91 conteo del \"-/...::::. === contenido de 1, 2, 3, 4 Y 5. Si el volumen inicial era de 100 ml Y se desea una concentraci6n de 30,000 conidios/ml, entonces concentraci6n calculada x 100 ml V 2 = ---------------------------= volumen final (ml) 30,000Con los datos que se obtengan: a) Calcular la concentraci6n del in6culo inicial. b) Calcular la cantidad de llquido que se debe agregar a la suspensi6n de esporas preparada, para obtener una concentraci6n de 30,000 esporas por ml.La inoculaci6n en invernadero se lleva a cabo con diferentes prop6sitos, como son: demostraci6n de los postulados de Koch, incrementos de inOculo, caracterizaci6n de sintomatologia, pruebas de selecci6n para resistencia genetic a y estudios de epiderruologia. Inocular bajo estas condiciones tiene muchas ventajas, entre ellas: mejor control en el manejo del organismo, seguridad en la evaluaci6n de los sintomas, certeza de que no hay interferencia de otros organismos (como sucede en el campo) y rapidez en evaluar el material. Generalmente la inoculaci6n en invemadero se realiza en plantulas, pero tambien puede llevarse a cabo en otros estados feno16gicos (dependiendo del pat6geno de que se trate).El siguiente ejercicio de inoculaci6n es muy util para seleccionar material genetico bajo condiciones de invemadero y, en un programa de mejoramiento, puede ayudar a acelerar el proceso de selecci6n. En el ejercicio se utilizan plantas susceptibles y resistentes, y se inoculan varias especies pat6genas del genero Helminthosporium. En el caso de Helminthosporium sativum, H. teres f. sp. teres, H. teres f. sp. maculata y H. tritici-repentis, las plantulas al ser inoculadas deben de tener un crecimiento de 10 a 12 dias. Se podran determinar las diferencias y respuestas de resistencia en el germoplasma evaluado de 5 a 7 dias despues de la inoculaci6n.Los materiales que se inocula ran se pueden preparar de diferentes formas. Los dos metodos que se describen en este ejercicio son iguales, salvo que comienzan de distintas maneras.En el primer metodo se utilizan sobres de glasine con toalla de papel absorbente en su interior (Figura 11 a); engrapar juntos en la parte superior y dejar espacio suficiente para poner las semillas que se desee germinar. Los sobres con las semillas se colocan en charolas (bandejas), acomodandolos entre soportes de hilaza para sostenerlos (Figura 11 b). El agua que se agregue a las charolas sera absorbida por el papel en el interior de los sobres de glasine y llegara a las semillas. Esto permite la germinaci6n de las semillas y su abastecimiento posterior. Siempre se debe incluir un testigo resistente y uno susceptible.En el segundo metodo se siembran juegos similares de semillas en vases de cart6n con tierra. AI igual que en el primer metodo, se debe incluir un testigo resistente y uno susceptible.A partir de este punto, los dos metodos continuan como sigue. Cuando las plantulas tengan un crecimiento de 10 a 12 dias, raspar el organismo cultivado en las cajas Petri. Oisolver el raspado en agua destilada (si se tiene cultivo en grano se pone a agitar con agua); filtrar a traves de una gasa para eliminar los pedazos de agar y obtener una suspensi6n de conidios 10 mas pura posible. Con la ayuda del hemacit6metro se hacen los conteos correspondientes y se obtiene una suspension con una concentracion de 30,000 conidios por ml; si se dispone de Tween 20, se agrega una gotita a la suspension para evitar conglomerados de conidios y obtener una concentracion mas homogenea. Las plantulas se inoculan con un atomizador que permita un rociado uniforme (Figura 11 c). Separar las plantulas inoculadas con H. sativum, H. teres y H. tritici-repentis. Identificar los testigos sin inocular, los susceptibles y los resistentes.Oespues de inoculadas, las plantulas se incuban en una camara htimeda durante dos horas; a continuaci6n, altemar 15 min de humedad por 45 min de luz durante 48 horas en el caso de H.teres y H. tritici-repentis, y entre 18 y 24 horas para H. sativum. Si no se cuenta con una camara humeda, se pueden obtener resultados similares cubriendo las plantulas con bolsas de plastico y vigilando que siempre tengan humedad. Se riegan las plantas, las bolsas se asperjan por dentro y se sellan. El tiempo que las plantas deben mantenerse en las camaras de humedad se estudia previamente para ajustarlo a las condiciones especificas. Un humificador accionado por electricidad es de gran utilidad, sobre todo si se puede conectar a un reloj control para dar humedad en tiempos intermitentes prefijados de acuerdo con el patogeno.A las 48 horas (0 24 horas, segun el patogeno inoculado), sacar las plantulas y colocarlas en el invernadero durante 8 a 10 dias . Observar los sintomas y tratar de diferenciar el tipo de lesi6n causada por H. sativum, H. teres f. sp. mawlata y H. teres f. sp. teres del causado por H. tritici repentis. Evaluar la diferencia en susceptibilidad de las variedades utilizando las escalas que Ie seran proporcionadas, tomando como base los testigos susceptible y resistente (Figura 11 d).Se sugiere realizar el siguiente proyecto como practica. Indicar como llevar a cabo, con los medios existentes en el pais donde usted trabaja, la seleccion de germoplasma en un invernadero 0 una estructura similar. Para desarrollar este proyecto se debe escoger una enfermedad fungosa de importancia economica en la region donde se trabaja; el proceso se ajusta a las condiciones que ese pat6geno requiere.bFigura 11 a, h, c, d. Bandejas adaptadas para el crecimiento, inoculacion y seleccion rapida de plantulas con resistencia a algunos patogenos causantes de manchas foliares.Muchas especies pertenecientes a la clase Basidiomycetes son pat6genos importantes de plantas cultivadas, especies forestales y especies omamentales. Algunas especies de Basidiomvcetes (por ejemplo, los champinones) se cultivan como alimento humano; otras son fuente importante de nutrientes para las plantas (micorrizas) y muchas son sapr6fitas.Las esporas (basidiosporas) de estes hongos son producidas en la parte extema de una estructura especializada denominada basidio, que puede ser septado (heterobasidio) 0 sin septas (holobasidio). Las basidiosporas son producto de la plasmogamia (fusi6n de dos protoplastos), la cariogamia (fusi6n de dos nucleos) y la meiosis.Las royas constituyen un grupo extenso de fitopat6genos econ6micamente importantes. La mayoria de las especies vegetales son afectadas por las royas; sin embargo, en los cere ales han causado mayor interes a traves de la historia del hombre debido a la gran frecuencia con que se presentan y los fuertes danos que provocan. Las royas de los cereales tipicamente tienen un ciclo de vida con fases sexuales y asexuales, y hasta cinco estadios diferentes de esporas.EI trigo es atacado por la roya del tallo causada por Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, roya lineal (amarilla 0 estriada) (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) y roya de la hoja (Puccinia recondita f. sp. tritici). La roya del tallo es mas frecuente en climas calidos y la roya lineal 10 es en areas mas frias. Un clima intermedio favorece la roy a de la hoja, y esta es la mas difundida y destructiva de las tres enfermedades hoy en dia.La roya del tallo produce pustulas alargadas de color cafe rojizo en tallos, vainas y pedUnculos. Las lesiones de roya de la hoja son mas pequenas y ovaladas, de color un poco mas claro (anaranjado-cafe) y mas evidentes en el haz de las hojas. La roya lineal es aun mas clara (entre amarillo y anaranjado-amarillo) y se presenta en forma linear en el follaje y las glumas.EI desarrollo de metodos eficientes de control de las royas comenz6 a principios del siglo, cuando se descubri6 que existia una resistencia a ell as que con frecuencia se hereda mediante un solo gene. La capacidad de un biotipo del pat6geno para vencer un gene especifico de resistencia en el hospedero suele estar condicionado por un solo gene tambien, y esta relaci6n hospedero-parasito se denomina concepto de \"gene-por-gene\".Como consecuencia inmediata del cultivo, ana tras ano, de variedades resistentes en areas extensas durante largos perfodos, aparecieron biotipos del pat6geno contra los que esta resistencia no fue eficaz. Los biotipos, que difieren en su habilidad (virulencia) para atacar una variedad 0 grupo de variedades, se denominan razas (fisio16gicas). Una raza se define como un patr6n de avirulencia diferente en un grupo de cultivos 0 aislamientos del pat6geno, que se observa cuando se prueba en un grupo de variedades 0 lineas seleccionadas.Por ejemplo, en el trigo se han encontrado cerca de 40 genes mayores de resistencia a roya de la hoja; sin embargo, tambien se han encontrado aislamientos del hongo que poseen virulencia para muchos de esos genes. Dado que existen dos clases descriptivas del patogeno (avirulencia y virulencia) para cad a uno de los 40 genes de resistencia conocidos, el numero posible de razas (ej . combinaciones diferentes de genes de virulencia/ avirulencia) es de 2 4 °,0 sea, mas de 34 mil millones. Esto da una idea de la enorme variabilidad que poseen estos patogenos. Tambien se han encontrado genes unicos de resistencia y de razas en otros grupos de hongos (por ejemplo, mildius y tizon tardio de la papa).Por las razones antes mencionadas, cuando se esta mejorando para obtener resistencia a las royas, es importante monitorear las razas del patogeno, conocer su composici6n y probar las nuevas variedades con esas razas. De esta manera se obtendra infonnacion acerca del posible incremento de una raza 0 combinaci6n de virulencias, que se podra utilizar para desarrollar estrategias en el uso de la resistencia (por ejemplo, la liberacion de variedades).A continuaci6n se indica la fonna de realizar el monitoreo de una poblacion de roya de la hoja y establecer la composicion de sus razas. Los objetivos de esta actividad son: 1) familiarizarse con roya de la hoja del trigo, y evaluar reacciones de susceptibilidad y resistencia; 2) ilustrar la interacci6n de los aislamientos del hongo con diferentes lfneas de trigo y demostrar la presencia de distintas razas; y 3) mostrar tecnicas para realizar un monitoreo practico de las virulencias en una poblacion de roya de la hoja.En esta practica, 10 ideal es utilizar lfneas isogenicas (0 diferenciales) de trigo de primavera Thatcher. Cada una posee un gene de resistencia diferente que Ie ha side transferido mediante un proceso de mejoramiento conocido como retrocruza. Hasta donde se sabe, las \"isolfneas\" son similares en toda su constitucion genetica, salvo en su gene especifico de resistencia. El estudiante puede trabajar con semilla de isolfneas para todos los genes conocidos 0 solamente para los que seleccione. A fin de demostrar una respuesta diferencial, se necesitan esporas de por 10 menDs dos aislamientos 0 cultivos del hongo de roya de la hoja. Cada cultivo es la progenie de una sola pustula.3. Las esporas requieren de agua libre en la superficie de la hoja para poder germinar y penetrarla. En la naturaleza, esto 10 proporciona el rodo de la noche. Para dar humedad a las hojas, asperjar las plantas con particulas finas de agua e incubarlas toda la noche en una camara humeda cerrada. Al siguiente dia, la camara se abre parcialmente para permitir que las plantas se sequen lentamente. Oespues de una hora, estas se trasladan a una mesa en el invemadero y se mantienen a 16-24°C. EI periodo de colonizacion del tejido del hospedero, comprendido entre la penetracion y la esporulacion, se denomina periodo latente. Es posible calcular la duracion de este periodo anotando el momento en que la primera pustula rompe la epidermis y libera las uredosporas. EI desarrollo de las pustulas requiere de 10 a 14 dias.4. Dos semanas despues, los uredios se observan con un microscopio de diseccion. Las royas son biotrofos, ya que son parasitos obligados (necesitan un hospedero vivo). La infeccion conduce a una asociacion fisica en la que los haustorios (estructuras que permiten al hongo captar alimento) invaden celulas vivas para obtener nutrientes, pero sin destruirlas inmediatamente. Las infecciones generalmente son locales y el dano al hospedero se refleja en la presencia de muchas infecciones. Las plantas se debilitan debido a que los nutrientes y el agua se desvian hacia el crecimiento y reproduccion del hongo. Las celulas invadidas permanecen vivas y activas hasta que el parasito se reproduce desarrollando esporas.5. Anotar la reaccion producida por cad a combinacion de isolinea/patogeno en el cuadro (p. 28). Las reacciones pueden variar desde altamente susceptible (pustulas grandes con esporulacion) hasta altamente resistente (pequenas manchas cloroticas), con niveles intermedios (Figura 12 a, b, c). Se pueden realizar evaluaciones mas precisas utilizando una escala visual de 0 a 4 0 de 0 a 9, en la que 0 es la reaccion mas resistente. Para la identificacion de razas, las reacciones se dividen en dos clases: alta (hospedero susceptible/ patogeno virulento) y baja (hospedero resistente/patogeno avirulento). Las reacciones intermedias pueden ser dificiles de clasificar, pero se consideran resistentes (bajas), ya que cualquier disminucion en la produccion de esporas, 0 clorosis 0 necrosis representa un menor desarrollo de la enfermedad J 10 cual reduce la velocidad de incremento de esta.Las razas de roya se designan en secuencia por medio de codigos numericos utilizando una clave dicotoma, 0 mediante una formula de avirulencia/virulencia. EI numero de raza 0 codigo se relaciona Unicamente con el juego 0 grupo del hospedero utilizado. Anteriormente, se utilizaba un grupo de lineas de trigo para la identificacion de razas; sin embargo, esto ya ha sido descartado debido al desarrollo de isolineas. Hasta ahora, no se ha desarrollado un estandar que sea ampliamente utilizado, mas bien se estan usando formulas de avirulencia/virulencia para caracterizar cada aislamiento del hongo. Un ejemplo podria ser Lr 1,9, 16,24,26 /2a, 2c y 3, el cual indica que las isolineas Lr 1, 9, 16, 24 Y26 son resistentes, mientras que Lr 2a, 2c y 3 son susceptibles a ese cultivo de la roya. Inversamente, el cultivo es avirulento para las isolineas Lr 1,9, 16,24 Y26 Y virulento para Lr 2a, 2c y 3. Esto nos permite representar una raza diferente del cultivo que corresponde a Lr 2a, 2c, 9, 24, 26/1, 3, 16. x Roya de la hoja (PlIcClnia rL'condita f. sp. tritici) c. Roya lineal 0 estriada (PlIccil1la striilonnis f. sp. tritici)Figura 12. Escalas de evaluacion de royas en plantulas bajo condiciones de invernadero.Reacci6n de ocho isolineas de trigo ados aislamientos de roya de la h~ja.Aislamiento A Aislamiento B Preguntas 1. lC6mo se diferenciaron los dos cultivos del hongo en cada una delas lineas isogenicas de trigo? 2. lC6mo se diferenciaron las lineas isogenicas en esta prueba? 3. Si usted tuviera que recomendar fuentes de resistencia a un mejorador, lcual de estos genes recomendarfa? lNecesitaria mayor infonnaci6n para poder hacer una recomendaci6n util? Explique. 4. lSena cualquiera de estos genes, por si solo, util para un mejorador? 5. lPodna ser utilla recombinaci6n genetica de estas resistencias? 6. lPor que es util para un mejorador un monitoreo regional 0 nacional de razas cuando se trata de desarrollar variedades con resistencia? 7. Ademas de ser Util para los mejoradores, lque otros usos se podna dar a la infonnaci6n recolectada, despues de llevar a cabo un muestreo extenso de las razas de la royal Bajo el titulo general de carbones se incluyen varios generos de la clase Basidiomycetes. Los carbones son hongos pat6genos obligados que pueden mantenerse latentes en el suelo durante periodos prolongados. Este grupo de hongos es conocido ampliamente por los sintomas que produce, pues son fadles de reconocer; esporulan (producen esporas de color cafe 0 negro) principalmente en el grano, inflorescencia, hojas y tallos. Atacan a los cereales (trigo, cebada, avena, maiz, arroz, etc.) y otros cultivos de importancia econ6mica para el hombre (papa, cana de azucar, cebolla, etc.).• Entre sus caracterfsticas taxonomicas importantes se incluye que las teliosporas son producidas en forma individual, en pares 0 en agregados (bolas). TambiE~n son importantes el tamano, el color, la ornamentacion y la morfologia; la presencia de celulas esteriles y su localizacion; el sitio de esporulacion y el hospedero.A diferencia de 10 que ocurre en los uredinales (royas), la fertilizaci6n se lleva a cabo por medio de la union (plamogamia) de propagulos compatibles del hongo. Los carbones que afectan el trigo son: Tilletia caries y T. joetida, causantes del carbon comun; Tilletia controversa, causante de carbon del enanismo; Tilletia indica, causante del carbon parcial; Ustilago tritici, causante del carbon volador, y Urocystis agropyri, causante del carbon de bandera.A continuacion se describe como realizar la prueba de germinacion de teliosporas (esporas) que permite identificar estos carbones.Carb6n volador. Tomar muestras de espigas infectadas y agitarlas dentro de un recipiente que contenga una solucion de agua con Tween 0 algu.n otro surfactante. Agregar una gota de Tween por litro de agua y agitar suavemente hasta disolver. Pasar la suspension de esporas por una malla de 60 11m 0 menor para retener las particulas 0 basuras de mayor tamano (las teliosporas miden 5 a 9 11m de diametro). Centrifugar a 3000 rpm para que las teliosporas se concentren en la base del tube; desechar el sobrenadante.Preparar una solucion de hipoclorito de sodio y agua (1:9, v:v). Agregar esta solucion al tube t con teliosporas para esterilizar la superficie, agitar un poco, centrifugar y desechar el sobrenadante. Agregar al tube con teliosporas agua esterilizada para remover el hipoclorito, agitar y centrifugar; desechar el sobrenadante y repetir la operacion con agua esterilizada.Las teliosporas se transfieren con pipeta 0 jeringa esterilizada a cajas de Petri con agar al 1.5-2% (15 0 20 g de agar por litro de agua). Incubar las cajas con teliosporas a temperatura de laboratorio (18-22°C) . Siete dfas despues, comenzar a observar y tomar notas de la forma en que germinan.Carbon parcial. Eri~l caso de Tilletia indica se toman granos infectados y se slgue el metodo descrito para Ustilago tritici. Para obtener una mejor germinacion, las teliosporas se pueden dejar en la solucion de agua y Tween durante 24 horas antes de iniciar el tratamiento con hipoclorito de sodio. Es necesario utilizar una malla de 60 11m porque las teliosporas miden de 22 a 49 11m.Existen varios metodos de inoculacion; sin embargo, aqul se describen solamente uno para el carbon volador y uno para el carbon parcial.Carbon volador: Espolvoreo de espigas (met;do go-go). Se escogen espigas en estado de floracion antesis y se preparan como para emascular (cortando las aristas 0 barbas con parte de las glumas, lemas y paleas). Se cubren con bolsas de glasine que se abren con tijeras por la parte superior para poder espolvorear las espigas con teliosporas.Carbon parcial: Inaculacion par inyeccion. Las colonias derivadas de teliosporas que gerrninaron, se transfieren a un medio rico en nutrientes (como papa-dextrosa-agar) para su multiplicacion. El proceso es el siguiente: revisar que no exista contarninacion en las cajas de agar donde las teliosporas se encuentran gerrninando. Con una espatula esterilizada (mediante el flameado), cortar pequenos pedazos de agar que contengan teliosporas en gerrninacion, transferirlos a cajas de Petri con PDA invirtiendolos en la tapa (de manera que el hongo esporule hacia abajo) y esperar 4 a 6 dias hasta que las colonias empiecen a desarrollarse (Figura 13 a, b, c). Agregar agua esterilizada y raspar las colonias con una espatula flameada; despues, inocular cajas con PDA por medio de una jeringa 0 pipeta esterilizada y esperar de 5 a 7 dfas para que las cajas se cubran con las colonias del hongo.Pasado ese tiempo, se vuelve a agregar agua, se raspa la superficie y se criba utilizando una gasa (para elirninar los pedazos de agar 0 agregados de hifas del hongo que podrfan tapar las jeringas). Cuando se hayan raspado unas 15 cajas, se calcula la concentracion inicial de propagulos por rnililitro con un hemacitometro y se agrega el agua necesaria para obtener la concentracion deseada (lO,OOO/ml). Con una jeringa hipoderrnica, se deposita un rnililitro de inoculo en cada espiga de plantas que se encuentren en estado de embuche (cuando se empiezan a ver las aristas). ;Los Ascomycetes comprenden varios miles de especies que pueden ser desde estrictamente saprofiticas, hasta parasitos obligados de las plantas superiores. Entre estos t11timos, existen algunos que pueden atacar y danar severamente a los cereales de grano pequeno.El cielo de los Ascomycetes comprende dos fases: la asexual y la sexual. Durante la primera, el hongo produce conidioforos, es decir, las estructuras generadoras de esporas asexuales 0 conidios. Los conidioforos pueden nacer individualmente 0 en grupos, y libres, 0 en cuerpos fructiferos denominados picnidios 0 acervulos. Desde el punto de vista fitopatologico, esta fase es muy importante porque se repite durante todo el cielo del cultivo, y los conidios pueden infectar hojas, tallos, espigas e, ineluso, granos.La fusion de dos mieleos compatibles se produce en la segunda fase y, como consecuencia, la formacion de cuerpos fructiferos (peritecios, eleistotecios 0 apotecios) capaces de resistir condiciones desfavorables de humedad y temperatura durante la ausencia del cultivo. En estos cuerpos fructiferos se producen las ascas que se activan al inicio de un nuevo cielo del cultivo. Esta es la etapa invemante, aunque en la mayo ria de los casos, las ascas y ascosporas no se forman ni maduran sino hasta el final del inviemo 0 comienzo de la primavera. Por 10 tanto, el hongo puede invemar tambien en forma de micelio y, en ocasiones, de conidio.El micelio de los Ascomycetes esta compuesto de hifas bien desarrolladas, delgadas 0 gruesas, profusamente ramificadas e interrumpidas por septas simples. En este grupo de hongos existen patogenos que provocan en los cereales enfermedades importantes, como los tizones foliares causados por especies de los generos Helminthosporium y Septoria.Entre los tizones foliares 0 manchas de la hoja, el causado por H. sativum se presenta a partir del comienzo del desarrollo foliar y se incrementa principalmente en las hojas despues del espigamiento. Este hongo tambien puede presentarse en corona, raices, nudos, vain as, espigas y granos, por 10 que se Ie considera una enfermedad importante, sobre todo en lugares subtropicales, donde se encuentran las condiciones 6ptimas para su desarrollo: altas temperaturas acompanadas de alta humedad.AI desarrollarse, H. sativum forma, en el tejido foliar y otras partes de la planta, estructuras asexuales llamadas conidioforos a partir de los cuales se producen los conidios. El aislarniento de H. sativum no presenta complicaciones, pues generalmente crece con facilidad en PDA 0, ineluso, en una camara htimeda. La fase sexual no se encuentra con frecuencia en la naturaleza y solo ha side descrita bajo las condiciones agroecologicas de Zambia.Pegar la muestra en la hoja de diagnostico y describir los sintomas observados. Preparar hipoclorito de sodio all% (1 ml de hipoclorito de sodio en 99 ml de agua destilada esteril 0, si se cuenta con Tween 20, agregar una gotita para eliminar la tension superficial). Colocar en cajas de Petri, por separado, el hipoclorito y el agua destilada esteril. Hacer pequenos cortes en las hojas en areas donde la lesion este iniciandose y colocarlas en el hipoclorito durante 1 minuto. Sumergir la punta de las pinzas en alcohol y flamear. Tomar los pedacitos y enjuagar eliminando el exceso de hipoclorito. Enseguida, secarlos en toalla 0 papel filtro esteril. Bajo condiciones 10 mas esteriles posible (microvoid y / 0 area limpia con alcohol 0 hipoclorito), sembrarlos en forma ordenada en cajas con PO A, colocando de 5 a 7 pedazos por caja.En forma simultanea, preparar una camara humeda de la muestra. Incubar las cajas durante 3 a 7 dias. Pasado este periodo, debe haber suficiente crecimiento del hongo. Para la camara humeda, asegurarse que el papel filtro siempre este humedo y agregar agua si fuera nec;esario. Oescribir las caracteristicas de la colonia. Hacer una preparaci6n temporal, tomando una muestra directamente del cultivo del hongo; observar al microscopio primero con el objetivo de menor aumento y, si fuera necesario, con el mayor para ver detalles. Oibujar y describir las estructuras visualizadas en el ocular: micelio, conidioforos, conidios, etc. Investigar bajo que condiciones ambientales puede presentarse el ataque del hongo en rakes y bajo que condiciones en las partes aereas.El tiz6n foliar (tambien conocido como mancha amarilla, mancha bronceada, atizonamiento de la hoja del trigo 0 mancha ocular) causado por H. tritici-repentis es una enfermedad que ataca al trigo, triticale y algunos pastos. Los sintomas aparecen como manchas necroticas, generalmente rodeadas por un halo clorotico, que varian en tamano segtin la severidad del dano, llegando a coalescer hasta secar toda la hoja. Una caracterfstica importante es que la lesion presenta un punto mas obscuro en el centro. Sin embargo, esta caracterfstica no es exclusiva de este hongo ya que H. sativum y Septaria nadarum tambien la presentan. Por esta razon, un diagnostico final solo se logra observando las estructuras al microscopio.Resulta diffcil aislar y hacer esporular este hongo en medio de cultivo, pues en la mayoria de los casos tiende a fonnar rapidamente la fase sexual (pseudotecios), aunque no logra madurar. Sin embargo, se ha observado que si las colonias con 5 a 7 dfas de crecimiento en medio de cultivo se cubren con una pelicula de agua esteril y se raspan, esto estimula la esporulaci6n asexual dentro de las 48 horas siguientes.La fase sexual ha side reportada en muchos lugares del mundo y su fonnaci6n parece depender, en particular, de las condiciones ambientales durante el inviemo y comienzos de primavera. Se Ie encuentra normalmente en el rastrojo que pennanece despues de la cosecha. Sintomatologfa y aislamiento del patogeno Seleccionar hojas con lesiones tfpicas para la hoja de diagnostico; pegar la muestra y describir los sintomas. Cortar pequenos pedazos de hojas con lesiones incipientes; desinfectarlas durante 102 minutos en hipoclorito all%. Enjuagarlos en agua esteril y ponerlos a secar en papel filtro. Sembrar cinco pedacitos en una caja de Petri con medio V-8 a130% (este medio es muy eficaz para el aislamiento y produccion de esporas de este hongo).Poner a incubar las cajas a una temperatura de 20-22°C con luz fluorescente con longitud de onda cercana a la luz ultravioleta durante 5 a 7 dfas, altemando un cido de luz de 10 horas y 14 de obscuridad (condiciones indispensables para su esporulacion). Para estimular la produccion de conidios, cuando el cultivo tenga 5 a 6 dias, agregar una capa de agua esteril y raspar con una espatula esterilizada. Remover el inoculo; volver a incubar la caja durante 48 horas mas. Al termino de este tiempo, volver a hacer preparaciones y observar al microscopio. Describir las caracterfsticas de la colonia. Describir y dibujar las estructuras que se observen.La mancha reticulada de la cebada causada por Helminthosporium teres f. sp. teres es muy comtin en regiones frias y humedas donde se produce este cultivo; es una mancha obscura que al desarrollarse forma un patron en forma de red, con bandas transversales y longi tudinales. Comtinmente se presenta en la hoja, aunque en las variedades muy susceptibles puede atacar a la espiga, logrando infectar el grano.Existe ademas otro tipo de mancha foliar, causada por Helminthosporium teres f. sp. maculata y / 0 H. sativum, que provoca sintomas muy\" similares a la causada por H. sativum, y s6lo pueden diferenciarse mediante la observacion de los conidios al microscopio.Las especies H. teres f. sp. teres y H. teres f. sp. maculata presentan el mismo desarrollo morfo16gico en cultivo artificial; sin embargo, son capaces de inducir sintomas total mente diferentes. La fase sexual se encuentra con bastante frecuencia en el rastrojo durante el cido invemante.Pegar una muestra de cada una de las enfermedades en hojas de diagnostico y describir los diferentes sintomas. Cortar pedacitos de tejido enfermo de cada muestra. Esterilizarlos en hipodorito all % durante un minuto y enjuagarlos en agua esteril. Poner a secar en papel filtro y sembrar 5 de cada muestra por caja con medio V-8 (aI15%). Incubar las cajas a 20-22°C durante 5 a 7 dias altemando periodos de luz-obscuridad; H. teres no esporula si no existen estas condiciones. Hacer preparaciones y observar al microscopio. Describir la forma de crecimiento y color de las colonias en el medio. Dibujar las diferentes estructuras que se observen, diferenciando el tamano y la forma de los conidios de cada especie aislada.Mycosphaerella graminicola (Septoria tritici) y tizon de las glumas causado por Lepthosphaeria nodorum (Septoria nodorum)El trigo es atacado por varias especies del genero Septoria. Entre las mas importantes estan S. tritici y S. nodorum. La primera, el agente causal del tiz6n foliar, se presenta en regiones con pluviometria y humedad relativa altas, y temperaturas 6ptimas entre 18 y 22°C. Esta mancha se identifica por la presencia de cuerpos asexuales (picnidios) de color negro formados por el hongo, que pueden sobresalir de la epidermis en ambos lados de la hoja, distribuidos en lineas paralelas. Dentro de los picnidios se encuentran las picnidiosporas, delgadas, de forma alargada, que, ya maduras, salen del picnidio a traves del ostiolo (abertura del picnidio) cuando existen condiciones de humedad favorables.Septoria nodorum requiere de condiciones de humedad y temperatura similares a S. tritici, aunque un poco mas templadas. Puede atacar todas las partes aereas de la planta de trigo y, en particular, las glumas, nudos, entrenudos y hojas. A diferencia de S. tritici, los picnidios de S. nodorum son de color negro a rosado, producidos inmersos en la epidermis del tejido y distribuidos al azar. Las picnidiosporas son mas pequenas, cilindricas, transparentes, con 0 a 3 septas.En ambos casos, es frecuente encontrar la fase sexual al final del cielo vegetativo del cultivo, pero su identificaci6n es dificil, ya que la apariencia de los picnidios es muy similar a la de los peritecios. Solamente usando tecnicas especiales en ellaboratorio se logra su confirmaci6n. Ambas especies se pueden aislar y cultivar en medios de cultivo especificos.Colectar muestras con sintomas de cada una de las dos enfermedades para la hoja de diagn6stico y describir los sintomas. En un portaobjetos, pegar un pedazo de hoja con sintomas, con ellado donde se observan los picnidios hacia arriba. Colocar en una caja de Petri con papel filtro que se satura con agua esteril para formar una camara humeda; sellar y poner bajo la luz a unos 15620 cm de distancia. Una 0 dos horas despues, observar la caja (tap ada) al estereoscopio; debe de haber exudados saliendo de los ostiolos de los picnidios. El exudado de S. tritici es blanco grisaceo, a diferencia del de S. nodorum, que es color rosado. Con una aguja esteril y un mechero cerea, tomar el exudado y sembrarlo en una caja que contenga el medio de cultivo especifico. Incubar la caja durante 6 a 8 dias. Describir las caracteristicas de las colonias.Realizar cortes finos de los picnidios y hacer preparaciones en portaobjetos; observar al microscopio, describir y dibujar el tipo de picnidiosporas producido por cada especie.La fusariosis o roña de la espiga de trigo ataca la planta a partir de la emisión de la espiga, aunque la floración es el estado más susceptible. En México, la especie causal que predomina es Fusarium graminearum, pero también están presentes f culmorum, f nivale, f equiseti y f avenaceum.La identificación de las especies de Fusarium no es fácil, dado que las diferencias entre ellas no son muy evidentes. El medio de cultivo PDA se utiliza con buenos resultados en el aislamiento de estos hongos. Existen otros medios específicos para aislar este género, como agar harina de maíz, que se encuentra en el mercado ya preparado y listo para hidratarse, y el peNB. Estos medios ayudan en la esporulación y aislamiento, y evitan problemas con saprófitos. Los criterios básicos para la identificación de las especies de Fusarium son la presencia y la forma de los microconidios, macroconidios y claITÚdosporas (consultar la sección \"Identificación de especies del género Fusarium\" para mayores detalles). Las claves más utilizadas son las de Booth y Toussoun y Nelson (citas en la sección mencionada).Al atacar el patógeno a las espigas, éstas muestran diferentes coloraciones que van desde blanco-rosado hasta naranja. La fase sexual se desarrolla en las glumas en algunas localidades al final de ciclo vegetativo y permanece en el rastrojo durante el invierno.?egar una espiga en la hoja de diagnóstico; observar y describir los síntomas de la enfermedad. Desinfectar las pinzas. Separar cuidadosamente las estructuras florales y tomar con las pinzas granos de espiguillas infectadas, preferentemente de donde se observe ITÚcelio. Depositar en forma directa en cajas de Petri con medio Papa Dextrosa Agar. Incubar las cajas durante 5 a 7 días bajo luz cercana al ultravioleta (ésta estimula el desarrollo de la fase asexual). Al término de este período, observar al ITÚcroscopio y tratar de identificar la especie o especies presentes. Si existen contaminantes, es necesario purificar el cultivo transplantando una pequeña parte de las orillas de la colonia del hongo deseado a otra caja con PDA. Incubar durante 5 a 7 días.Si se desea obtener cultivos 100% puros, sembrar diluciones de una suspensión de conidios en agar agua y sacar con una aguja de disección conidios individuales que estén germinando, dentro de un plazo no mayor de 12 horas. Describir las características de la colonia. Dibujar y describir las estructuras vistas al ITÚcroscopio.Para evaluar material genético con resistencia a fusariosis, generalmente se utilizan dos métodos: inoculación de espiga individual e inoculación en masa.Preparar el inóculo a partir del raspado de varias cajas de cultivo del hongo puro, como sigue: agregar agua destilada y raspar con una espátula o bisturí; filtrar la suspensión a través de una malla o gasa y, con el hemacitómetro, calcular una suspensión de 50,000 esporas por mI. De ser posible, preparar el inóculo inmediatamente antes de la inoculación; sin embargo, el inóculo permanece infectivo hasta 36 horas si se le mantiene en refrigeración a 4-5°C.Inoculación de espiga individual (método del algodón). Seleccionar 10 espigas por línea e identificarlas con etiquetas. Las anteras deben estar comenzando a emerger de las florecillas.Cortar las barbas para facilitar el embolsado. Saturar un pedacito de algodón con la suspensión de esporas; abrir las glumas e inocular en el punto medio de la espiga, colocando una mota del algodón saturado en cada lado. Cubrir la espiga con una bolsa de papel glasine.Inoculación en masa. Para evaluar un gran número de líneas avanzadas o poblaciones segregantes, se aplica el inóculo con un aspersor a una distancia aproximada de 10 a 15 cm, hasta que se observe un empapado uniforme de las espigas. Deben realizarse inoculaciones semanales por lo menos tres veces consecutivas si las condiciones ambientales no son óptimas. La inoculación debe hacerse cuando un 5-10% de las anteras en la parcela hayan emergido.La evaluación se realiza 30 a 40 días después de haber inoculado, al final de la formación del grano, cuando las espigas están todavía verdes y hay un contraste fuerte entre el color de las espiguillas sanas (verdes) y las enfermas (amarillas). La evaluación se puede realizar calculando porcentajes con base en el número de espiguillas enfermas respecto al número total de espiguillas.Existe en la naturaleza un gran número de hongos que, pese a ser de micelio septado, raras veces o nunca se reproducen sexualmente; por esto se les ha denominado Hongos Imperfectos o Deuteromycetes. La mayoría son saprófitos o parásitos débiles de plantas, animales y el hombre. AlglUlos son patógenos de otros hongos y nematodos.Los Deuteromycetes sobreviven perfectamente en la naturaleza sin necesidad de reproducirse sexualmente. Llevan a cabo la reproducción asexual a partir de un estroma que genera conidios, o conidios que se desarrollan sin hifas especiales (conidióforos), o cuerpos fructíferos como picnidios, acérvulos, esporodoquios y sinemas.La punta negra es causada principalmente por tres especies diferentes, Alternaria alternata, A. triticina y / o Helminthosporium sativum, que ennegrecen lUlO de los extremos del grano. Para saber cuál o cuáles de las tres especies está causando el daño, es necesario aislar una muestra en medio de cultivo y realizar la identificación al microscopio.Colectar lUla muestra para la hoja de diagnóstico y describir los síntomas. Colocar en cajas de Petri, por separado, hipoclorito de sodio al 3% yagua estéril; esterilizar los granos en el hipoclorito durante 1 min y con pinzas esterilizadas transferirlos al agua estéril para eliminar el exceso de hipoclorito. Secar el exceso de agua sobre papel toalla para reducir el crecimiento de bacterias contaminantes. Enseguida se siembran cinco granos procedentes de Cd. Obregón en una caja de Pe tri con PDA y cinco de Poza Rica en otra.Incubar las cajas durante 5 a 7 días; realizar preparaciones y observar al microscopio. Describir el color y la forma de la colonia en cada caso. Dibujar las estructuras que observe de cada aislamiento. Describir la forma, el número de septas y otras características que se observen en los conidios de cada aislamiento. Investigar bajo qué condiciones ambientales podrían ocurrir los daños provocados por cada patógeno.La escaldadura (agente causal, Rhynchosporium secalis) es una de las enfermedades más importan~es de la cebada en áreas frías y húmedas, yen tierras altas del trópico donde hay mucha precipitación y las temperaturas se mantienen bajas por la altura. Afecta principalmente las hojas, alUlque puede dañar también las glumas, aristas y granos. Los síntomas en campo son fácilmente reconocibles, pues se presentan al principio como lesiones ovaladas, alargadas o elípticas, con bordes café obscuro o rojizo y centros de color gris o café paja.El aislamiento y cultivo de este hongo presenta algunas dificultades. Dado que su desarrollo es muy lento, los primeros indicios de crecimiento aparecen sólo después de 14 días de incubación.Por tanto, se recomienda eliminar todo crecimiento que aparezca antes de ese plazo porque probablemente sea contaminación. Para una identificación rápida, basta hacer preparaciones directas para el microscopio de tejido enfermo en el que se hayan observado conidios. Sin embargo, si se desea aislar para hacer colección de virulencias y, posteriormente, incremento de inóculo para pruebas de resistencia, se recomienda el método descrito a continuación.Colectar muestras de hojas de cebada con síntomas de escaldadura para la hoja de diagnóstico y describir los síntomas observados.ldentificacíón directa de tejido enfermo. Con una navaja de rasurar (una \"gilette\") o un bisturí, raspar la superficie de una hoja con lesiones claras y hacer la preparación. Observar al microscopio, dibujar y describir las estructuras del hongo.Aislamiento en medio Agar Frijol Lima (Lima Bean Agar o LBA) e incremento posterior. Cortar pedacitos de tejido con lesiones jóvenes, de preferencia de color verde grisáceo sin bordes necróticos marcados. Remojar los pedacitos de tejido en alcohol etílico al 70% durante 15 a 20 segundos. Transferir los pedacitos a hipoclorito de sodio (grado comercial, 5.25% en peso) diluido en agua a 1:9. Remojar el tejido en el hipoclorito durante 90 segundos (asegurarse que los pedacitos estén bien sumergidos en el hipoclorito). El tiempo de remojo es importante; por ejemplo, si las muestras se dejan sólo 60 segundos, presentan mucha contaminación en los cultivos, pero si se remojan 2 minutos o más, se elimina el hongo. Después del remojo, transferir los trocitos de tejido a cajas con medio de cultivo.Composición del medio de cultivo Agar Frijol Lima:Componentes: Preparación comercial LBA 23g (8 g de infusión de frijol lima, 15 g de agar) Agarpuro 5g Agua destilada 1000 mI Al preparado comercial LBA, se añaden 5 g de agar puro; esto se mezcla con el agua destilada.Incubar las cajas a 18-200C. Schein y Kerelo (1956) indican que se requieren de 5 a 7 días para observar crecimiento, pero, en nuestra experiencia, este plazo se prolonga de 10 a 14 días. El crecimiento del hongo en este medio no es muy rápido, pero las pequeñas colonias que resultan son totalmente puras. Para obtener un gran número de esporas por cultivo, se recomienda sembrar en zigzag en tubo o caja de Petri, como se indica a continuación.Tomar con una aguja estéril el crecimiento incipiente y diluirlo en 1 mi de agua estéril; agitarlo con fuerza para que la suspensión se homogenice. Con una pipeta Pasteur previamente flameada y enfriada, tomar una pequeña cantidad y depositarla sobre el medio de cultivo. Con la flama se dobla la punta de la pipeta Pasteur, que luego se enfría y se desliza suavemente sobre la superficie del medio de cultivo a fin de distribuir el inóculo en la forma más homogénea posible. El cultivo que se obtiene después de 8 días tiene la apariencia de levadura y una concentración de 30 millones o más de esporas. Todos los aislamientos que crecen en este medio tienen un tono rosado que contrasta con el color negro o café que adquieren en otros medios de cultivo.Schein, R.O. y J.W. Kerelo. 1956. Culturing Rhynchosporium secalis. Plant Oisease Reporter 4(9):814-815. los patógenos del suelo producen enfermedades asociadas con la inhibición o la destrucción, o ambas, del sistema radical de las plantas. Resulta difícil identificar todos los problemas que los fitopatógenos del suelo pueden provocar; sin embargo, es factible agrupar estos hongos en forma general, según las zonas climáticas donde predominan. Por ejemplo, Helmínthosporíum, Fusaríum y Pythíum son importantes en climas templados, Sclerotium rolfsii lo es en el subtrópico y Gaeumannomyces graminis prevalece en áreas frías y lluviosas.En general, los efectos de estos patógenos en la planta son un desarrollo menor, menor número de macollos y madurez prematura (espigas blancas). Asimismo, se observa una distribución irregular de grupos de plantas enfermas en el campo.Fusarium y Helminthosporium se presentan en muchas regiones debido a su variada gama de hospederos y amplia adaptación a temperaturas. Ambos patógenos interfieren con la etapa de establecimiento, así como la pre y postemergencia de la raíz, especialmente si se presentan cuando la temperatura del suelo es alta (25-30°C) en el momento de la siembra. Los suelos húmedos tienden a favorecer los daños causados por Helmínthosporium, mientras que los suelos secos tienden a favorecer el desarrollo de Fusarium, especialmente cuando las plantas se acercan a la madurez y ésta se encuentra asociada con períodos de sequía.Cuando el trigo se acerca a la madurez, se pueden observar espigas blancas esparcidas por el cultivo, ya sea en uno o muchos tallos o en grandes grupos irregulares. Si la infección es provocada por Fusarium, los entrenudos de la base de las plantas que presentan espigas blancas son de color obscuro a café claro. En climas templados, el desarrollo de espigas blancas está estrechamente relacionado con la sequía, pues cuanto más intensa sea ésta cerca de la madurez, mayor es la probabilidad de que se observe el síntoma de espigas blancas.En cuanto a Helmínthosporium, la sintomatología característica son lesiones de color café a negro en el entrenudo debajo de la corona, que tienden a intensificarse a medida que crece la planta. Durante la época de crecimiento, los cambios en la severidad de las lesiones pueden ser observados mientras las subcoronas mantengan su integridad. Helminthosporium, al igual que Fusarium y Gaeumannomyces graminís (mal del pie), puede causar el síntoma de espigas blancas cuando las plantas se acercan a la madurez.Generalmente se usa POA, aunque algunos estudios especiales requieren de medios selectivos. A continuación se señalan los componentes y el modo de preparar medio selectivo para Fusarium, en cantidad suficiente para 40 a 50 cajas de Petri (15 x 100 mm). El sulfato de estreptomicina se suspende en 3 a 5 ml de alcohol al 95%; los demás ingredientes se agregan secos. El medio se agita suavemente durante 2 ó 3 minutos, teniendo cuidado de no formar burbujas en el medio.Procedimiento: De las plantas recolectadas en el campo, escoger el material del cual se hará el aislamiento. Observar el tejido descolorido al estereoscopio. Algunas veces se observa en el primer entrenudo que el micelio de Fusarium crece tanto en el exterior como el interior del tejido; en ese caso, la superficie del tejido no se esteriliza.Utilizar pinzas para remover las vainas de las hojas tan asépticamente como sea posible (no tocar el tejido con los dedos). Con tijeras previamente flameadas, cortar el tejido del entrenudo en segmentos pequeños (0.5 cm o menos) y colocarlos en una caja de Petri. Se requieren 5 a 10 pedacitos de cada entrenudo para sembrarlos en una caja con medio selectivo o con POA.Incubar las cajas y, 3 a 5 días después, observar el desarrollo de Fusarium. Este debe presentar un crecimiento micelial aéreo velloso que varía de blanco puro a rojizo con una ligera sombra amarilla. Los subcultivos se deben purificar en este momento y colocarse en el mismo medio.Examinar los subcultivos al microscopio y determinar si están puros, para identificarlos y, posteriormente, almacenarlos.Para identificar las especies de este género, es preciso trabajar con cultivos producidos por un solo conidio; sin embargo, los trabajos de resistencia deben hacerse con una mezcla de aislamientos con el fin de mantener una diversidad genética tan grande como sea posible. El trabajo de identificación se hace principalmente en laboratorio usando aislamientos purificados que no provienen de una sola espora (es decir, que no son monospóricos). No debe hacerse ningún tipo de evaluación de resistencia del hospedero usando sólo aislamientos procedentes de conidios individuales.La mayor parte del trabajo de crecimiento y purificación de Fusarium se hace en CMA o PO A, medios apropiados para iniciar cultivos que han estado almacenados. Se pueden usar porciones de estos cultivos para infectar medio de semilla de trigo utilizado en ensayos de patogenicidad e incrementar inóculo para pruebas de campo.Para identificar las especies de Fusarium, se recomienda hacer esporular los aislamientos bajo condiciones estandarizadas y usar un solo medio de cultivo. Tousson y Nelson recomiendan usar pedazos de hoja de clavel inmersos en agar agua. Se ponen de 4 a 5 pedazos de hoja en la superficie de agar-agua al 2%, equidistantes del centro, donde se coloca una porción del aislamiento en crecimiento activo. Se repite el procedimiento en varias cajas que luego se sellan y se incuban a temperatura ambiente (25°C) bajo luz fluorescente (con ciclo alternado de 12 h luz-l2 h obscuridad).Después de 6 a 7 días, se examinan las cajas. Cuando un aislamiento ha comenzado a esporular, se toma un caja para hacer observaciones y tomar notas de la presencia de microconidios, macroconidios, clamidosporas, etc. Con base en la morfología de las estructuras observadas y utilizando las claves que se indican en las referencias, se empieza a reducir el número de especies que podrían estar presentes. Las siguientes son características importantes para utilizar correctamente cualquiera de esas claves: a) Micelio septado.b) Macroconidios: Son grandes, con más de 2 septas. Se debe observar la célula apical, célula basal (célula con pie) y el número de septas. Es muy importante la forma que tienen las células apicales y basales. La fijación del esporóforo o conidióforo puede ser una característica importante a considerar. c) Microconidios: Son pequeños, con 1 a 2 células; no todas las especies los producen. Es importante determinar si se producen o no.d) Clamidosporas: Esporas latentes, de paredes gruesas, producidas por hifas y conidios. Su presencia o ausencia es un factor importante. Generalmente se forman en cultivos de más de una semana de edad.Durante este proceso se debe tener paciencia. Seleccionar de 1 a 4 aislamientos que representen tipos diferentes (por ejemplo, colonias blancas o colonias de muchos colores). Estos se trabajan en detalle, observando los macroconidios, presencia o ausencia de microconidios, etc., de preferencia a lo largo de varios días, empleando un par de aislamientos. Una vez que se esté familiarizado con la variaCión y las especies con las que se trabaja, será mucho más fácil categorizar la mayoría de los aislamientos que se tengan.El crecimiento de H. sativum es usualmente visible como un frente de micelio blanco que avanza y que se toma obscuro detrás de ésta área. Los cultivos tienen que ser examinados microscópicamente para verificarlos, porque en el medio, las especies de Alternaria muestran características de crecimiento similares, aunque los conidios son diferentes y producidos en cadena.Helminthosporium spiciferum también se puede aislar mediante este método, aunque su crecimiento es muy diferente, pues es de tipo velloso y color oscuro descolorido. Esta especie produce sus conidios en verticilos en la punta de los conidióforos. Los conidios son también mucho más pequeños que los de H. sativum, producidos individualmente. Con algo de experiencia, estas diferencias son fáciles de distinguir al estereoscopio.Procedimiento: Para hacer un aislamiento a partir de tejido vegetal o de los entrenudos abajo de la corona, se recomienda seguir la siguiente metodología:Traer al laboratorio el material vegetal ya lavado. Cortar los entrenudos abajo de la corona, al igual que el sistema radical seminal. Desinfectar superficialmente la muestra 1 minuto y colocarla en una solución 1:1 (alcohol-hipoclorito de sodio al 5%). Lavar dos veces con agua estéril y poner a secar en papel absorbente. Los pedacitos desinfectados se siembran acomodando cinco por caja de medio y se ponen a incubar a 22°C durante cinco días. Pueden presentarse muchas especies de Pythium que dañan a los cereales. El daño que causa en el campo es un achaparramiento y amarillamiento de las plantas, que puede ser muy obvio, aunque casi indistinguible de los síntomas causados por deficiencia de nitrógeno. Al realizar un exámen directo de las raíces, éstas se observan atrofiadas y acuosas, con lesiones de color café rojizo. Se pueden buscar directamente las oosporas en el tejido radical coloreando el tejido con lacto fuscina (0.1 g ácido fuscínico/100 ml de ácido láctico).Los síntomas de mal del pie se inhiben cuando la temperatura del suelo sobrepasa los 27°C. Por eso, este patógeno puede no ser importante en zonas tropicales donde las temperaturas son altas, pero predomina en áreas donde la temperatura del suelo es relativamente baja (lO-15°C).El daño en las regiones templadas se manifiesta primordialmente en la aparición en el campo de pequeñas áreas irregulares de plantas muertas prematuramente (espigas blancas), similares a las causadas por Fusarium. Sin embargo, muy distinto a los síntomas de ese mal es el color negro brillante que se observa al examinar las raíces y entrenudos más bajos de la planta. Se forma además una red de micelio en la superficie de las raíces, que presenta una apariencia oscura al observarse al microscopio.Rhizoctonia puede causar marchitez o amarillamiento de las plántulas y/o daños a las plantas adultas similares a los provocados por Helminthosporium y Fusarium. En planta adulta, ocasiona una lesión llamada mancha ocular (quiebra de paja) en la base de los tallos, que puede debilitarlos y llevar subsecuentemente al acame.La técnica que se describe a continuación da buenos resultados en el aislamiento de Pythium y Gaeumannomyces del sistema radical de trigo. También ha probado ser útil para aislar Rhizoctonia de tejido de trigo.La técnica básica consiste en usar como trampa tejido de las raíces u otras partes de la planta infectada. Cuando se intenta aislar Pythium, se usan raíces de trigo recolectadas en el campo en las que se sospecha un problema relacionado con Pythium, aunque quizá no haya síntomas bien definidos. Una de las razones por las que no se definen es que otros organismos patógenos o saprófitos pueden estar presentes en la misma lesión, especialmente confonne las plantas se aproximan a la madurez. Por eso se tiene poco éxito cuando se intenta aislar Pythium y Gaeumannomyces directamente del tejido radical infectado.Para aislamientos de Pythium y Gaeumannomyces se usa agar harina de maíz. Este medio se puede preparar con 40 g de harina de maíz en un litro de agua, mantenida a SooC por una hora, filtrar, agregar lS g de agar y esterilizarlo. Rhizoctonia crece fácilmente en POA.Trampas. Recolectar en el campo sistemas radicales, llevarlos al laboratorio y lavarlos cuidadosamente sobre tamices con agua corriente para remover la mayor parte del suelo y otros desechos. Colocar este material en macetas parcialmente llenas con arena estéril; sembrar de 4 a 6 semillas de trigo sobre el material radical (Figura 14 a). Cubrir las raíces y las semillas con 2 cm de arena estéril. Regar las macetas y ponerlas a incubar en una mesa de laboratorio con iluminación complementaria (12 horas de luz). En el caso de Rhizoctonia, la temperatura debe ser de 20 a 2SoC, para Gaeumannomyces de 14 a 16°C y para Pythium de 18 a 20°C. Las macetas deben tener un drenaje adecuado; durante el desarrollo de la prueba se agrega agua según sea necesario.Las plántulas se extraen cuando tienen S a 6 días de emergidas, como sigue (Figura 14 b). Las raíces se sacan cuidadosamente del suelo y se lavan sumergiéndolas con cuidado en agua, de tal manera de recuperarlas intactas. Si Pythium está presente, las raíces infectadas están poco desarrolladas y usualmente tienen una coloración café claro. En el caso de Rhizoctonia, se observan lesiones de color café y en el de Gaeumannomyces, de color negro (Figura 14 c).Para los aislamientos pueden seguirse dos métodos:1. Todo el sistema radical puede ser suavemente extendido sobre la superficie de una caja con medio de cultivo. Este método generalmente se usa cuando hay pocos o ningún síntoma visible.2. Cuando se observan síntomas severos, se cortan segmentos individuales de tejido radical infectado y se siembran en cajas con un medio indicado para las especies que se sospecha están presentes. Con este método normalmente no se esteriliza el material vegetal. Secar bien las raíces antes de pasarlas al medio de cultivo, así se evitará el exceso de contaminación por bacterias.El usar plántulas de trigo o trampas como medio selectivo para el organismo más agresivo y patogénico que pudiera estar presente en el tejido vegetal enfermo permite evitar la interferencia de otros saprófitos y patógenos débiles. En ambos casos, las cajas sembradas se incuban en posición invertida (la tapa hacia abajo). En el caso de Pythium, la revisión debe comenzar a partir de las 24 horas para no tener interferencia por contaminación. Normalmente los aislamientos de Pythium producirán una colonia de unos SO a 60 Ilm de diámetro en las primeras 24 ó 48 horas. Nótese que el crecimiento de Pythium en este medio es mucho menos obvio que el de Fusarium. El crecimiento de Pythium será usualmente bastante comprimido, con poco desarrollo aéreo. El crecimiento es más evidente cuando se observa por el fondo de la caja Petri con luz refractada. Si el crecimiento de la colonia es como se describió anteriormente (24 a 48 horas posteriores a la siembra), casi invariablemente será Pythium. En este momento deben e Figura 14 a, b, c. Secuencia para construir una trampa para aislar hongos causantes de pudriciones de raíces.hacerse reaislamientos tomando micelio de los bordes de las colonias en desarrollo para obtener aislamientos puros; los aislamientos que aparecen después de tres días o más, usualmente corresponden a Fusarium, Gaeumannomyces, Helminthosporium y/o Rhizoctonia.El crecimiento inicial de Gaeumannomyces, en comparación con Pythium, será mucho más lento, pues a esta temperatura su desarrollo tomará varios días. Deberán hacerse cultivos y examinarlos para eliminar contaminantes.La taxonomía de las especies de Pythium en general se basa en unas cuantas estructuras morfológicas distintivas, relacionadas con la formación de esporangios y oosporas o conidios. La presencia o ausencia, tamaño, forma o número de estas estructuras depende grandemente del medio que se use, los regímenes de temperatura, la edad del cultivo y otras condiciones ambientales usadas para inducir su formación. Enseguida se definen y describen las estructuras en que se basa la identificación de este género.Esporangio. Estructura en forma de saco cuyo contenido protoplásmico total se convierte en un número indefinido de esporas asexuales móviles denominadas zoosporas. El tiempo requerido para la formación de esporangios en cultivo, así como la morfología y abundancia de éstos, varía ampliamente según la especie. Algunos se forman rápidamente después de pocos días en medio de agar, mientras que otros sólo se forman cuando el micelio es sumergido en agua. Hay básicamente tres tipos de esporangios producidos por Pythium: globosos, lobulados y filamentosos. Aquellas especies que generan esporangios filamentosos generalmente producen zoosporas solamente cuando se les sumerge en agua. Las zoosporas varían en tamaño, forma y la posición de los flagelos; sin embargo, debido a su tamaño tan pequeño, solamente la variación extrema de estas características se considera útil en la taxonomía.Conidios . Estas estructuras son desde esféricas o globosas hasta elipsoidales, y asemejan esporangios en la mayoría de los casos. La única diferencia es que los conidios no producen zoosporas.Oogonio. Corresponde al gametangio femenino y contiene uno o más gametos. Los oogonios son esféricos, subesféricos o elipsoidales y pueden tener espinas u otras protuberancias. Pueden ser terminales o intercalares, y la gran mayoría de las especies producen ambos tipos. La temperatura, el medio y el tiempo que los aislamientos hayan permanecido en cultivo, son factores que afectan el tamaño y la forma, así como el número de oogonios producidos.Anteridio. Es el gametangio masculino. Los anteridios son probablemente el carácter taxonómico más difícil de observar. Su número puede variar desde uno hasta más de 25 por oogonio. Según su posición, pueden ser hipóginos (abajo del oogonio) o paráginos (aliado del oogonio) y en origen pueden ser monoc1inos (los anteridios brotan de cualquier hifa que no sea el tallo oogónico).Oospora. Es una espora sexual producida por la unión de dos gametangios morfológicamente diferentes (oogonio y anteridio). Bajo condiciones normales, las oosporas suelen presentarse en forma individual. La oospora puede llenar por completo la cavidad oogónica o la oosfera dentro de la cual se forma, en cuyo caso se dice que es plerótica. Si casi llena la cavidad o está libre dentro de la cavidad oogónica, se dice que es aplerótica. Desafortunadamente, existen pocas especies en las cuales se da uno de estos casos con exclusión del otro. Algunas veces las dos condiciones pueden ser observadas en la misma caja de PetrLEl hongo se cultiva en agar harina de maíz durante 5 días a 15°C. Porciones pequeñas de cultivo (3 a 5 mm) se transfieren a tubos de ensayo que contienen agua estéril y láminas foliares frescas (2 cm) que han sido hervidas 10 minutos en agua esterilizada y destilada. Después de la infección de las hojas (24 h), éstas son transferidas a cajas de Petri frescas e incubadas a 18 ó 20°C. Los esporangios se producen generalmente después de 24 a 36 horas. En algunos casos, los cambios periódicos de agua estimulan la producción de zoosporas.Frezzi, M.J. 1956. Especies de Pythium fitopatógenas identificadas en la República Argentina. Revista de Investigaciones Agrícolas. T.X., No. 2,. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Esta especie forma micelio grueso de color negro; al comienzo, las raícillas tornan una coloración café pero, después de 10 días, se vuelven de color negro. Al mismo tiempo que el hongo invade la planta, se inicia la formación de peritecios en las raíces, corona y hojas envainantes inferiores.El micelio producido por esta especie forma ángulos rectos, muy cerca de los cuales se generan septas. Después de una semana, el medio de cultivo se cubre de esclerocios irregulares.Este organismo tiene un amplio rango de hospederos y se ha encontrado que afecta gravemente la producción de algunos cultivos, en especial en zonas tropicales. Típicamente produce un crecimiento micelial blanco sobre la superficie de las plantas y del suelo. A partir del micelio se producen esclerocios de color café obscuro a blanco, similares a semillas de mostaza, que son fácilmente visibles en las plantas que están muriendo. Para aislar este organismo, basta tornar micelio o esclerocios con una agtfja estéril y transferirlos a papa dextrosa agar.Los nematodos, conocidos también como anguílulas, tienen forma alargada y son demasiado pequeños (suelen medir de 0.3 a S ~m) para observarlos a simple vista. En el pasado, los daños que éstos provocaban a los cultivos a menudo se ignoraban o se atribuían a otras causas, como la infertilidad del suelo o deficiencia de agua. Además, no se disponía de información clara sobre su patogenia.Los nematodos fitoparasíticos están ampliamente distribuidos, y casi todas las plantas son infestadas por una o más especies. Más de 5,000 especies pertenecientes a 200 géneros son reconocidas como parásitos de plantas capaces de causar daño económico a los cultivos.Aunque los géneros tienen características morfológicas que los distinguen, todas las especies patógenas poseen una estructura del aparato bucal, conocida como estilete, que permite al nematodo penetrar las plantas para obtener los nutrientes que requiere. El estilete está ausente en los nematodos saprófitos.Los nematodos ectoparásitos como Tylenchorhynchus, Helicotylenchus y Xiphinema permanecen fuera del hospedero mientras se alimentan de sus células internas. Con el estilete penetran las células de las plantas; después de un período de alimentación breve, retraen el estilete y repiten el proceso. En contraste, los nematodos endoparásitos -incluyendo Meloidogyne y Pratylenchus-penetran la planta y migran hacia el tejido de la raíz donde se alimentan y completan su ciclo de vida. Los nematodos endoparásitos son considerados más insidiosos porque destruyen el tejido interno durante su migración y durante su alimentación están en contacto con el sistema vascular. Otra consecuencia importante del ataque de nematodos es que provocan heridas que permiten la entrada de bacterias y hongos patógenos del suelo, lo cual crea infecciones secundarias.Una característica importante que distingue a los nematodos fitoparásitos, es la presencia del estilete. Estas y otras características se observan en la Figura 15.El diagnóstico de un problema de nematodos requiere la identificación de la plaga en asociación con la planta enferma. En los esquemas que se señalan en la Figura 16, se presentan diferentes formas de muestrear suelo y tejido de plantas en áreas que padecen estos problemas.   Instalar dos embudos Baermann y comparar la eficiencia de extracción utilizando una muestra que se pasó a través de malla de alambre y otra en la que no se usó esta técnica. Cuando se detecta un problema de nematodos en un área determinada y se desea muestrear una superficie, se pueden usar los esquemas señalados en la Figura 17.La identificación de especies dentro del género Meloidogyne requiere de la ayuda de cortes perineales. En la Figura 18 a, b, c y d, se pueden observar los pasos más importantes de esta técnica.Los cortes perineales son necesarios en la identificación de especies de algunos géneros como Meloidogyne. Enseguida se describe el procedimiento para realizar esos cortes.Se seleccionan nódulos con hembras maduras y se colocan en una caja de Petri con un poco de agua. De preferencia, se escogen nódulos simples. Con la ayuda de pinzas y una navaja de media hoja, desprender el tejido de la raíz para sacar las hembras adultas (Figura 18 a). Romper la cutícula de la hembra cerca del cuello, apretar ligeramente y sacar los tejidos del cuerpo (Figura 18 b).En una caja de Petri de plástico, poner la cutícula en una gota de ácido láctico al 45%. El ácido láctico facilita la remoción de los tejidos del cuerpo que hayan quedado adheridos a la cutícula después de haberla apretado. Reunir 10 ó 20 cutículas en una gota y dejarlas remojando en el ácido desde 30 minutos hasta varias horas. Todos los cortes se realizan en cajas de Petri de plástico para minimizar el gasto del filo de la navaja (es recomendable siempre trabajar con una navaja bien afilada).Cortar la cutícula por la mitad (ecuatorial mente), sacarla del ácido con el corte perineal y colocarla junto a la gota recortando el modelo perineal en forma de cuadro (Figura 18 c). Volver a colocar el corte perineal en el ácido. Cortar de 5 a 10 modelos por muestra. Con una aguja limpiar los modelos perineales, tratando de remover los restos.Transferir los modelos perineales a una gota de glicerina en un portaobjetos, alineados de manera que todos queden con el ano orientado hacia abajo. La superficie inferior de la cutícula debe colocarse contra la superficie del portaobjetos. Con la ayuda de una aguja de disección, presionar ligeramente el modelo perineal contra el portaobjetos. Colocar cuidadosamente el cubreobjetos sobre la gota de glicerina. El exceso de glicerina puede absorberse con papel filtro. Si la glicerina no es suficiente, poner una pequeña gota en la orilla del cubreobjetos. Sellar la muestra y etiquetarla (Figura 18 d). Las especies bacterianas patógenas del trigo pueden agruparse en cuatro géneros: Xanthomonas, Pseudo monas, Clavibacter y Erwinia. Los dos primeros incluyen especies de importancia que ocasionan enfermedades de consecuencias económicas considerables. Ambos géneros corresponden a bacilos aeróbicos gram negativos. Las Xanthomonas no reducen el nitrato a nitrito y la mayoría de ellas producen una sustancia mucosa, polisacárida, extracelular, amarilla en medios que contienen glucosa o sucrosa. Las Pseudomonas son fluorescentes (producen fluorescín, pigmento verde amarilloso) en medio B de King. El género Clavibacter es el único que se caracteriza por bacilos gram positivos; el género Erwinia se caracteriza por bacilos gram negativos y facultativamente anaeróbicos.Casi todas las bacterias fitopatógenas son baciliformes y miden de 0.6 a 3.5 11m de largo con 0.5 ó 1.0 11m de diámetro. Las paredes celulares de la mayoría de estas bacterias están rodeadas por un material viscoso y pegajoso. Casi todas las especies poseen flagelos delicados; algunas tienen un solo flagelo, otras tienen un flagelo en forma de mechón en un extremo de la célula, y otras más tienen flagelos distribuidos en toda la superficie celular.Cuando una bacteria se multiplica en la superficie de un medio con agar sólido, su progenie pronto produce una masa visible denominada colonia. Las bacterias se reproducen a una velocidad sorprendente; en condiciones favorables se dividen cada 20 minutos. A esa velocidad se puede generar un millón de bacterias en 10 horas.Las enfermedades bacterianas a menudo se consideran difíciles de manejar. En algunos casos, no son fáciles de identificar, pues a simple vista pueden ser confundidas con daños fisiológicos o daños provocados por condiciones ambientales adversas. La metodología para aislar e identificar las enfermedades bacterianas es muy distinta de la utilizada para los hongos, ya que por su tamaño, las bacterias no pueden ser identificadas por medio de observaciones al microscopio.A continuación se describe el procedimiento para la identificación de una enfermedad bacteriana, tomando como ejemplos especies de los géneros Xanthomonas y Pseudomonas. En el primer ejemplo, se utiliza Xanthomonas campestris pv. undulosa.Pegar la muestra en la hoja de diagnóstico y describir los síntomas observados. Para confirmar que la muestra ha sido infectada por una bacteria, proceder de la siguiente manera:Observación al microscopio con fondo obscuro. Cortar un pedazo de hoja (aproximadamente de 3 x 3 mm) de la zona entre tejido sano y tejido necrótico. Preparar un portaobjetos con una gota de agua estéril, colocar en él el trozo de hoja y cubrir con un cubreobjetos. Usar un campo obscuro en el microscopio; con el objetivo de baja magnificación, observar el exudado bacteriano proveniente del tejido enfermo (el exudado se observa como un flujo continuo de puntitos blancos, sobre el fondo obscuro, que sale del tejido afectado) (Figura 19).Aislamiento. Para el aislamiento de Xanthomonas y Pseudomonas, los dos géneros más importantes, se usan el medio de Wilbrink y el medio B de King, cuyos componentes y forma de preparación se señalan a continuación: Usar una caja de Petri con medio de cultivo de Wilbrink. Tomar del borde de la lesión un pedazo de tejido foliar enfermo, similar en tamaño al que se utiliza para observación bajo el microscopio. Desgarrar el tejido en agua estéril usando una navaja y pinzas estériles. Macerar y dejar reposar 10 minutos. Esterilizar un asa de níquel o cromo (si no cuenta con un asa, ver cómo elaborarla en la Figura 20 a); tomar con ella un poco del líquido y sembrar sobre el agar en cuatro campos de dilución. Quemar y enfriar el asa después de cada campo, como se indica en la Figura 20 b Y c.Incubar a 27-30 o C durante tres días. Después, observar la colonia (amarilla y mucoide) que debe corresponder a X. campestris pv. undulosa. Hacer subcultivos para obtener un cultivo puro por medio de estriados de dilución (Figura 20 b). Una colonia pura se obtiene multiplicando una célula que fue separada de las otras por medio del estriado de dilución.Esta es la prueba más importante para definir si el cultivo puro obtenido corresponde a una especie de bacteria patogénica. Usar plantas jóvenes del cultivo en el que se haya observado la lesión, en este caso, trigo. Inyectar una suspensión concentrada de bacterias, derivada de un cultivo puro, en el tallo de la planta. Observar en la Figura 21 a y b cómo colocar la aguja. Se trata de infiltrar la suspensión bacteriana en la hoja.Incubar las plantas una semana en cámara húmeda (Figura 22). Si se reproducen lesiones extendidas, similares a los síntomas observados en el campo, es casi seguro que el aislamiento sea patogénico. Sin embargo, es necesario volver a aislar la bacteria que se inoculó para verificar los postulados de Koch. Usar el mismo medio de cultivo; el aspecto de la colonia re-aislada debe ser el mismo que el de la colonia inicialmente aislada y de la obtenida en cultivo puro de la muestra del campo. a f1F f Y Flamear el asa después de cada estriado de Detenerse ala mrtad de la caja, voltea~a y dilución (1 , 2 Y 3) Yluego recoger el inóculo continuar sin flamear el asa pasando varias veces por el inóculo ya sembrado Figura 20. Indicaciones para hacer un cultivo bacteriano. a. Preparación de un asa para inocular utilizando alambre de platino o nicromio de 24 swg y una varilla de vidrio de 4 mm de diámetro. b. Preparación de inóculo concentrado. c. Preparación de suspensiones en dilución.  Figura 22. Plántula hospedera incubada cubierta con una bolsa de polietileno sostenida con un marco de alambre para evitar que la planta toque el polietileno.Después de la prueba de patogenicidad, se deben realizar diferentes pruebas bioquíIIÚcas y fisiológicas que perIIÚten definir el género o las especies a las que pertenece el patógeno aislado. Dentro de las actividades, sólo se realizan tres pruebas básicas.Fluorescencia en medio Bde King. Tomar una colonia individual de los dos tipos de bacteria que se le proporcionó durante la práctica y sembrarlas, en la forma ya descrita, en dos platos diferentes con medio B de King. Después de cuatro días de incubación a 27°C, observar la fluorescencia presente en uno de ellos; esto perIIÚte identificar bacterias del género Pseudomonas (Figura 23).Prueba de reducción de nitratos. Esta prueba perIIÚte distinguir grupos importantes de bacterias, por ejemplo, Xanthomonas, que no son capaces de reducir nitratos. Se utiliza el medio que se señala a continuación: Medio para la prueba de reducción de nitratos Para esta prueba se requieren tubos de ensayo con 5 ml de medio que hayan sido esterilizados. Con un asa, inocular el medio con un cultivo puro y fresco, colocándolo hasta el fondo del tubo. Incubar los tubos durante dos días o más, hasta obtener un desarrollo adecuado. Después, agregar lo siguiente:Lugol Una gota Reactivo 1 (Greiss 1) 0.5 ml Reactivo 11 (Greiss 11) 0.5 ml Reactivo 1(Greiss I): Solución de ácido sulfanílico al 0.8% en ácido acético 5N (este último se prepara mezclando 57 ml de ácido acético glacial y 143 ml de agua destilada).Reactivo II (Greiss Il): N-(l-naftil) biclorhidrato de etilendiamina acuoso al 0.1%.Si hay nitrito, una mancha roja aparecerá en la superficie en unos momentos, y la prueba es positiva. Si no se detecta nitrito, se agrega una pequeña cantidad de polvo de zinc con la punta de una espátula. Si después de unos minutos aparece una mancha roja, esto indica la presencia de nitrato en el medio y confirma que la prueba de reducción de nitrato a nitrito es negativa (Figura 24).Prueba de KOH. Utilizar las mismas cajas que para la primera prueba. Poner unas gotas de la solución de KOH a13% sobre un portaobjetos. Con una aguja, tomar un poco del cultivo y revolver rápidamente en forma circular. Si las cepas son Gram negativas, la suspensión se vuelve viscosa y se forma un hilillo mucoso al levantar la aguja. Las bacterias Gram positivo se dispersan en la gota y no presentan esta reacción (Figura 25).Indicar si la bacteria es Gram positiva o negativa. Con la excepción del género Corynebacterium, la mayoría de las bacterias fitopatógenas muestran una reacción negativa. Figura 24. Prueba de reducción de nitrato a nitrito.Observar bajo el estereoscopio las especies de áfidos, distinguiéndolas por sus características particulares, como forma y dimensión de los sifúnculos, longitud de las antenas, localización de las venas de las alas y coloración.La transmisión por medio de los áfidos vectores puede realizarse siguiendo dos métodos, uno en el campo y otro en invernadero:1.En el campo, recolectar áfidos de plantas que presenten síntomas del VEAC y colocarlos en cajas de Petri (sellar las cajas para evitar que escapen). En el laboratorio, identificar la especie o especies que se obtuvieron; si pertenecen a los áfidos de los cereales, ponerlos en plantas sanas que hayan estado cubiertas o protegidas desde su germinación (con botes, cilindros, cajas, etc.) para tener la seguridad de que no han sido infestadas por ningún otro insecto. Procurar que el áfido quede sostenido en las hojas o tallo de la planta, y volver a cubrirla (Figura 26 a, b, c). Se recomienda inocular en variedades susceptibles como Bow \"S\", Black Hull-less y Atlas 66. Los síntomas se examinan al mes de haber realizado la inoculacion.Mantener las plantas en condiciones de invernadero (20-25°C). A las 72 horas, sacar el áfido y fumigar la planta para asegurar que no llegue otro insecto. Si se dispone de la té01ica de ELISA, a los ocho días de la inoculación se analizan las hojas para determinar si el virus ha sido transmitido y de qué variante se trata. Si no se dispone de esta técnica, en un periodo de 10 a 12 días, las plantas mostrarán síntomas de la enfermedad. En este último caso, sólo se podrá tener una idea aproximada de la variante que está presente, con base en la especificidad de la transmisión especie de vector-variante del virus .. ' :\" : \"\",' .. . ... . . ... . . , , ' . ' .Figura 26 a, b y c. Secuencia de la inoculación de plantas utilizando áfidos vectores.El segundo método se utiliza cuando se dispone de invernaderos donde se pueden mantener colonias de áfidos sanos, libres de virus. Los áfidos se ponen en una caja de Petri con pedazos de hojas infectadas con el virus, sobre un papel filtro húmedo, o los pedazos de hojas se entierran en arena húmeda para mantener un ambiente favorable. Se sella la caja con parafilm y se coloca en obscuridad durante 36 a 48 horas. Se supone que durante ese período los áfidos se han alimentado de las hojas y adquirido el virus. A continuación se saca cada áfido y se le pone en una planta sana para que le transmita el virus. En ambos casos se recomienda usar plantas provenientes de variedades muy susceptibles, como la variedad de avena Black Hull-less. Las plantas deben estar a una temperatura de 20°C con mucha luminosidad; de lo contrario, los síntomas no se expresan como es debido.Este virus es uno de los pocos que son transmitidos por semilla del grupo de las gramíneas.Cuando ataca la cebada, puede ser confundido con la enfermedad causada por Pyrenophora graminea, dado que los síntomas en los primeros estados de desarrollo son muy similares.El virus del MEC ha sido observado en la cebada en la mayoría de los países del mundo; su distribución tan amplia quizás se deba al movimiento internacional de semilla. También se le ha encontrado en trigo y avena.Esta enfermedad es transmitida mediante la semilla y mecánicamente por medio de la savia. La transmisión mecánica es una de las pruebas de diagnóstico más usadas por eficiente, sensible y económica, y porque provee información esencial para la caracterización del virus.Los virus pueden ser transmitidos entre plantas que pertenecen a la misma especie o género, e incluso a distintos géneros. Las plantas de otras especies, denominadas l/indicadoras\", manifiestan los síntomas característicos de cada virus y son muy útiles en el diagnóstico de las enfermedades virales. Entre las dicotiledóneas que han sido infectadas artificialmente para usarse como plantas indicadoras se cuentan Chenopodium amaranticolor, Ch. album, Ch. quinoa, Beta vulgaris, Spinacea oleracea y Nicotiana tabacum varo Samsum.Este tipo de transmisión tiene la desventaja de que se requieren varias semanas para que la reacción se manifieste y esto no se logra a menos que se realice una exitosa extracción del virus. Además, al inocular hay que estar seguro de hacer las heridas necesarias para que el virus penetre.'Procedimiento: Lavar las manos con agua y jabón. Seleccionar las plantas indicadoras y las hojas que se van a inocular. Colocar el material infectado en un mortero estéril; agregar 0.5-1 ml de agua destilada y macerarlo. Agregar carborundum (cantidad: la mitad del volumen de una semilla de chícharo o arveja), un abrasivo que se utiliza para provocar las heridas.Sostener la hoja en una mano y, con un dedo humedecido de la otra mano o con un aplicador de algodón, frotar la suspensión de la savia desde el pecíolo hasta la punta de la hoja. No pasar dos veces por la misma área. Repetir con cada hoja marcada. Inmediatamente después de inocular, lavar el inóculo de la planta en prueba usando agua destilada y un pulverizador. La infección es instantánea; las hojas se lavan para eliminar los compuestos que la planta genera para inhibir la infección. Poner las plantas en el invernadero y revisarlas cada día, ya que es importante saber cuándo aparecen los síntomas.Para detectar el virus en semillas, éstas se siembran y se colocan en el invernadero. Deben mantenerse bajo buenas condiciones de luminosidad y temperatura (alrededor de 25°C), de tal forma que los síntomas puedan expresarse sin ninguna restricción ambiental. Los síntomas comienzan a manifestarse cuando las plantas han desarrollado 2-3 hojas o más, dependiendo de la concentración original del virus en la semilla. Si la concentración era baja, tomará más tiempo para que las plantas expresen los síntomas.  ","tokenCount":"19077"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a239f113fb35136971483636ff8aca6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a2146536-90da-4446-a76f-b15697f5be0f/retrieve","id":"1444873099"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f6c764c7-596f-4222-826b-310f6f23d21f","pagecount":"5","content":"Planning for climate change is complex, and major uncertainty about future developments can hold countries back from setting ambitious goals.Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) enhancement processes need to include collective moments to imagine how the transformations needed for ambitious emission reduction might take place and set in motion climate action among stakeholders that participate.Anticipating future scenarios based on contextual drivers of change can increase the achievement of climate goals by identifying future challenges and opportunities and thereby robust climate plans and policies.Countries vulnerable to climate change need capacities to anticipate futures under different socioeconomic and climate scenarios.Countries need to enhance the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in order to prevent catastrophic effects of temperature increase over 2 degrees Celsius. More frequent and severe weather events across the globe have shown us the urgency of this matter. To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, economies will need to go through deep transformations. However, planning for societal changes of this magnitude is complex, and major uncertainty about future developments can hold countries back from setting ambitious goals. NDC enhancement processes, which should take place at least every five years, need to include segments where stakeholders of different backgrounds and sectors collectively imagine how those transformations could take place, and what could make or break the transcendental emission reduction and climate change resilience that is needed.In this Info Note we exemplify how this can be done by mapping out how Costa Rica used a highly participatory approach to anticipate possible futures, increase ambitions and robust climate action, resulting in an NDC with enhanced climate ambitions.Current guidelines for NDC enhancement are focused on technological solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while we should also look at the societal changes that are needed. In order to reduce emissions drastically and increase resilience to climate change, we need to imagine the pathways to transform our economies. We also need to anticipate what might happen that can complicate the road ahead, and what interactions in society might enhance the possibilities of radically changing the way we do things. When this process takes place in a collective way, stakeholders, playing a leading role in increasing or reducing emissions in key sectors such as agriculture and transport come into play. They imagine how to make these changes possible, as well as how to avoid or tackle major challenges. This reinforces their collective process of social learning and change in a desired direction towards emission reduction and climate change resilience.The NDC enhancement process combined quantitative elements of climate action models and qualitative elements developed through a planning process based on exploratory future scenarios. This Info Note focuses on the latter. In this process, multiple sets of scenarios based on multiple drivers of change developed together with key stakeholders from all NDC sectors were used to test and improve climate action measures.Considering the health restrictions during the pandemic, all workshops took place online, allowing more than 350 stakeholders to participate. Virtual sessions were organized in clusters to enable working in smaller groups, and by uniting sectors with a systemic relationship to be explored together, such as agriculture, livestock and forests as well as transport and urban development. Figure 1 shows the clusters in which the NDC consultation took place. The scenario workshops to support the NDC enhancement took place in 2 phases. In the first phase, stakeholders developed scenarios that explored contextual uncertainties that might change the future of Costa Rica. In the second phase, participants imagined what consequences each scenario would have for the climate sectors included in the NDC, and used the scenarios to test the effectiveness of planned climate actions and give recommendations of improvement to make them more robust. Figure 2    The following scenarios were developed to explore future uncertainties and systemic complexities that might enhance or inhibit the achievement of Costa Rica´s climate goals. Water resource management based on demandIn this scenario, the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty. In the past, no mechanisms were established to benefit from knowledge and innovation, and social investments were put to an end. Political decisions are made for the benefit of specific groups. These groups have access to water, and it is now privatized. The high cost of water causes food insecurity and health issues.Economic model based on public sector use of natural resourcesThe State makes efficient use of natural resources and has integrated natural spaces into human spaces and activities. Agriculture is more harmonious with nature, although it expanded into protected areas to produce enough food.Communities that depended on these areas for their local economy have found other types of income. Society and its institutions have evolved and loss of forest biodiversity is compensated with other land uses centered on nature-based solutions.As a result of the scenarios exercise, different series of recommendations were given for the NDC enhancement process:1. Recommendations of improvement for each sector's specific climate measures 2. General recommendations for each sector, based on challenges and opportunities identified across a majority of scenarios.3. General recommendations for the NDC as a whole with policy recommendations relevant for all sectors, presented in the following paragraph.The following recommendations stood out in most sectors and therefore applied to the general conditions necessary for the achievement of NDC goals.A transcendental issue in this process, from the very beginning when it comes to identifying context factors that will generate change in the future, is the concern of actors for an increase in social gaps and economics of the country. A fundamental element of the country's climate action agenda must be to strengthen the entities that promote an improvement in the wellbeing and social and economic conditions of the inhabitants. This will be key to ensuring a just transition to decarbonization.Public and private entities from different sectors and geographic levels must develop a shared vision of the future. All efforts for decarbonized economic development must go in the same direction. Being able to imagine different ways to achieve this will be key.The emphasis of territorial planning and urban planning should be in the municipalities. It is there that capacities must be created and according to expert actors, there is still a long way to go. The 82 municipalities of the country must be aligned in the effort to use the instruments of territorial planning (regulatory plans) to promote a vision of territorial development that enables the fulfillment of the goals.The methods and technologies proposed for climate action must not only be accessible, but must also be adequate and adapted for each territory and the people who use them.Citizens are a great ally of the state. Their participation in decision-making is key. Spaces in which citizens can support decision-making in urban area planning, among others, should be fostered. Citizens can also pressure the private sector to demand sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystems. In addition, they have great potential to change the customs of other citizens with their good practices.6. The private sector as an ally of the state -climate action must make economic sense: One of the challenges encountered in the scenarios is that the private sector does not make environmentally responsible decisions, and does not consider the welfare of society. To avoid this, the state must give clear guidelines and monitor compliance with them. More importantly, climate action must have an economic sense that permeates development for the country. Finally, a concern about the future financial sustainability of the state is expressed on several occasions. Taking this into consideration, the active participation of private companies is crucial to achieve climate goals. Alliances based on the concepts of sustainability should be fostered.It is important to create a culture of decarbonization through the generation of awareness in consumers, and formal, non-formal and informal education. This formation must also permeate the legislative assembly of the country.Coordination between public entities should be improved. There is a reasonable criticism about the inter-institutional disarticulation. Institutional capacities must be strengthened to be more efficient in the use of limited resources.Legal mechanisms to ensure rational use of water are key to ensuring future food production.We must promote dialogue between different types of knowledge that exist in the country, for example, the cosmovision and more western forms of knowledge.The country has an advantage in research, which includes processes focused on decarbonization. We have to make sure we don't lose that advantage in the public sector, and research in the private sector should be encouraged. The knowledge acquired in the research sector must be directly linked to an application in specific cases to support the decarbonized development of the country.Scenario development allows citizens and sectors to learn from the future and discuss the present.Countries should take enough time to conduct this process in a participatory way.Developing scenarios can be seen as a safe space for stakeholders with different worldviews to talk about complex or controversial issues in the present and future.This NDC process took place entirely online. This made it possible to involve a wide range of participants. Some stakeholder groups however have less access to virtual platforms. In these cases, face to face discussion meetings can complement online workshops.Scenario development in a virtual context requires significant preparation and knowledge of online collaboration tools. Working sessions should be shorter and since there is little space to improvise it is useful to have a detailed script and plan backup meetings.The exploratory scenarios approach presented in this brief can be complemented with a quantitative modeling approach that allows the calculation of social, economic and environmental benefits of climate measures included in the NDC. Costa Rica conducted a cost-benefit study of decarbonization, which was part of the NDC development process.Pereira L, Sitas N, Ravera Marieke Veeger (mveeger@uci.ac.cr) is a scenarios and policy researcher and the Latin America Regional Coordinator for the CCAFS Future Scenarios project.","tokenCount":"1627"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed61ce916b38a67a6516a4c36dc2a7bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3566096-6b45-49b2-86ff-a512df976c4b/retrieve","id":"-92603362"},"keywords":["OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report Contributing CRPs/Platforms:","RTB -Roots, Tubers and Bananas","CCAFS -Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Contributing Flagships:","FP2: Climate-Smart Technologies and Practices Contributing Regional programs:","EA: East Africa","SAs: South Asia"],"sieverID":"beeadf0b-516d-4ff1-a3a5-f367a44d9689","pagecount":"3","content":"The novel digital citizen science platform ClimMob allows for scaled farmer-participatory validation/diffusion of climatically adapted, stress tolerant varieties of several crops, including wheat, rice, sorghum, groundnut, beans, and barley. The platform has been actively used by over 25 agricultural research/extension organizations to organize adaptive trials, leading to (1) more cost-effective, scalable trials (2) unique climate adaptation insights that could not have been generated otherwise and (3) direct diffusion of a diverse range of varieties to more than 18,000 farmers directly.The ClimMob platform facilitates a new type of crop trials, with farmer participation at scale. This integrates research more tightly with agricultural extension, doing variety validation and diffusion in one go. Another benefit of the approach is that it provides information about climate adaptation of crop varieties under farm conditions, which is only possible with large-N trials. Reviewers not familiar with the approach are referred to https://www.bioversityinternational.org/news/detail/climmob-a-software-for-crowdsourcing-climate-s mart-agriculture/.Bioversity has actively promoted the ClimMob platform (see Innovation report) across its own bilateral projects in Central America, East Africa, and South Asia, organizing a large number of trainings. The platform was also promoted by two large projects led by Asocuch (Central America) and the Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (ISSD Ethiopia). Promotion was often done in face-to-face encounters. So far, promotion of the approach has been kept limited to benefit the use of limited resources for the further development of the digital platform. Even so, adoption has been steadily growing through spontaneous adoption.Bioversity has actively trained technical personnel of the different organizations in the use of the platform. Use of the platform was documented in its database and show evidence for use by 25 organizations (1). More evidence is being generated in ongoing studies during 2018: (a) Direct benefits to farmers are being documented through two ongoing impact evaluation studies (one of which is funded by CCAFS). (b) The capacity of the approach to identify climatic adaptation of crop varieties and variety recommendations at scale is being documented (draft paper available on request).A more specific outcome case study is presented for Ethiopia, but this broader outcome story is intended to show that the adoption of the tricot approach is taking place across several continents and is leading to potential impact across a range of areas and crops.","tokenCount":"374"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bc055bd4f4eac8b030b69e2ac50bd15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f3814b0f-ab92-4bc9-9fd2-84da5c592916/retrieve","id":"21820847"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cba71272-2eed-4fdc-9c18-2b40d24bc747","pagecount":"23","content":"Agricultural Research and theSmall Farmer Concern fer the tncreastng ,\",orld food/population crisis has led to the allocation C'f resources by mi?ny o-rgar:1sRtions, private and public, to research ioto agricultur~, with th~ go&l o! increaein~ the worlds supplies af foad. At the primar)' levEl of research are the International Agricultural Research C\"ntreE' (rARC' s). of lhe CGlAL eacr: \",ith research responsihility in specifie erops, erop .systems 0r livestock systems. Their research i5 aimed primariIy at foad productíon on small farros.Researeh into small-farm crop production can be justified on ~Jral grouuds, \",ith the aim of increasíng social equity amongst societies eharacterised by large proportions of the popula ticn having very 1m,levels of living, and on economic grcunds,. \\\\\"1 th the airo of increasinr produetiou of basie food crops among:st the sector .'hich ia most effieient in producing those eropa and whieh eurrently provides t~e majority of t:hem in developing countries (see for exampIe Crouch anc de Janvry 1980).In decidiug to undertake research ~hich \",ill be of benefit te the sroall farner ~ él research body has to be aware of the great range ,1f factors t:.at affeet small seaIe agrieulture, usualIy negative factors beyond tl'\" control of the farmer.Tt,is state of affairE ultimat~h' eontrols che approach researehers can take in at tempting to alleviate his probl,.,ms and inerease his wel1-being. \\fuether au overall succeC.B 0,.-taHure, the inapplicability of the technology developed in the \"GreenRevolution\" to smaII farmers was a result of a failure to consider the conditionF under'which small farmere had to grow their crops. (Griffin 1979. Dahlberg 1979).Nowadays the limitations on the resources of the small farmer are more ful1y understood, and acknowledg\"d in the scientific research undertaken in agriculture (eg CIAT 1981).Technology development specifically for the small farmer i5 a reaIity. Furthermore, successes.and failures, are being analysed so that a deeper understandíng of the requirements of the farmer vis new technology at a specific loeation is emerging. There are now a number of methodologies for dealing with the problem of incorporating farmer requirements into agricultural research programme~.Both Farming Systems Research, as described by Shaner et al. (1982) and more recently the so called Adaptive Agriculture Research of CENDA/Pageningen (CENDA 1983) present sensible approaches. 1 believe that it 15 no\", true to say that one cculd take any specific and small scaIe are a of small farmers and, by applying a farming-systems, agrometen~ological, and rural-sociological analysis to the area, define the precise requirements for agricultural technology aimed at improving their produetivity and welfare util1sing researeh undertaken at , ,Regional, National and International levels.The problem which arises at this point is that of invaIvement of Agricultural Researen bodies in the ptocess outlined above. From the point of view of the IARC's, the writer's particular eoncern, it is not possible for Researen at the International scale to be organised in aecordance witn localised anaIysis of the small farmer's situation, for the obviaua reasons of limited resoucces over t:he enormaus area,  Dusseldorp (1977) when he suggested a relational framework for cooperation between social and agricultural scientists ovar the comn.O:1 ground between disciplines, ie productíon practices and inputs.This framework aimed at tailoring potential improvement of the s)'stem through technological developmen~ to the need to avaid increasing inequa1it)' in rural areas. De Janvry and Croueh (1980) echoed these sent1ments, in suggesting technology diffusion through a framework of FSR within its socio-economic contextoThe need for this sort of approach at the level of the farmer i5 undoubted if one wishes to assess the requirements of new technolog) to comply with the aim of promoting welfare and equalit)' in rural area$, ICRISAT' s village level studies present One approach to integratil'g socio-economic factors with crop imprcvement, by assessing the reasons why the larmer adopts certaín production strategies, and tailorín¡; rcsearch to fit these. (ICRlSAT 1980).Research at all levels 15 adequately summed up by Gilbert et al (op.cit) \"At issue is not only the relationship of national progralTlmes to FSR. but also the appropriate division of responsibilities among national, regional aud international centres aerOss the entire range of is not sole1y limited to these areas, however, as \"dll be descríh\"d below.Delimitation of hornogeneous areas as a method witr< \",hic11 to provide informatíon on agriculture, specifically for purposes of research, 18 a relativel:; new technique. Specific regional descriptions of agricu1ture are certa~nly not SO; as earl)' as th,~ eighteenth centery with the development of geography as an academic discipline, accounts of regional simílarit ies between areas were being .nade. Regional Geography, as i t 1s understood today, and Geography as a discipline were synonymous, the French being perhaps the greatest advo~ates of this approach.The idea of delimiting areas oÍ símil ar geographi cal and agricultural characteristics as an aid to planning and research polie)', and the coining of the phrase \"micro-regions,\" acems to have firsr been presented in the Brazilian Geographical and Sratist ieal Inst! tute I s \"Divisao do Brasil em Micro-Regioes H01\"ogeneas\" (Fundacao lBGE. 1968).This divid~d the country's federal states into geographically similar units, based on the roun:icjpios, the smallest administrative units, ~;ac:h micro-region consisting of one 0F more: of these units, supp0sedly aJikc:Despite the fact th2t using the houndaríes of administrf\\tive units to define such a zoning, v.1hich undoubtedJy introduces some artificiality given their political ratber than ecological boundaries, these micro-regions have formcd the basis for th\" collection of data on Brazilian agriculture, íncluding th\" census, and for planning and policy making stndies.Later. i.n che \"Are as de Concentracao da Agricultura Brasileira\" (Vol' sI-IV, Ministerio de\" Agricultura.Undated -Post 1972), an attempt was made, using theü of the impact of new tcchnology, in particular withirc the sro\"ll lar\", sector, so that the research process can be further focussed on real needs\" (CIAT 1981, p 145).The concept oí homogeneous zones has also been t2ken to a more detailed level within the fieId of Farming Systems Researeh, as a framework within which to conduct a FSR Programme, and as \" mean s of deli,miting crop-specific '''Recommendation Dom,üns\" (Collinson 1981)  (unpublished) .(H) Agro-climatic relations for the erop and for important p¡,st and disease complexe.s should be detetmíned fram previous research, so that significant climaric cut-off points with~n tbe range of grawing aTeaS can be defined. Using knowledge of plant-soil relationships, the range of soil types within these arcas can be ordeTed, either according to a erap-speeific suitability classificatiau sueh as thae suggested by Sys and Riquier (FAO 1980b), ar iuherent fertílity classificatio:l (Garrity 1984, Sanchez andRuol 1984).(iií) Usíng the inforY.lation from this, growing areas should be divided up into homogeneous units, using available c1imatíc and sCl1s data.In doing chis, we are not attempting an agroclimatic classification or agro-ecozoning along traditional lines, but merely indiea\"ting likely areas with a simi lal growing environment for th\" erop to assist in breeding and research strategies. (v) This is followed by the addition of \"auxi-li.ary\" informaríon for each micro-region, tvhich Can be diviced ínto: information on oÜler agricultural activtties ane land tena!lcy structure; socio-economic structure and infrastructure descríption; ano deBcription of couS:trair:tE to the farming systern.Comp1etion of stages (iv) and (v) i8 dependent in their eompletion on eolleetion and analysis of secondary data sources, liason wíth National Programme researeh, and a (\",tain amount of primary data co11ect1.on. The final stage, (v), represents the beginnings of analysis, in that precise informatíon content 15 dependent on prob12ffi identificatíon :\"temrning from F.S. R. and socio-eeonomíc researeh at the farm-level. Whilst National progralPlne.; should be concernad with the \"pe\"ific <letails of the whole farming system, and the1r improveme¡:t witbin the socio-eeonomic context, information of both types speeific to the crops of interest to the IARC should flow from the FSR work directl)'to the res<oarehers at this level, henee completing the information ¡:nk. The second problem is that of the collection of primary information.For the purposes of the lARC, the characterisation of homogeneous units wold be reliant on acquisition of data from secondary Bourees, sueh as meteorological dató, soíl maps, agricul tural and population census, and other environrnental and soc:io-econornic studies.Tbeoretically, data from farming-systerns studies, studies of farrner-constraints, use of inputs, incorne levels, land tenancy and so o~ should be acquired from the work of National Programmes. Wnere they are not actively engaged in the compilatíon of these types of informarío,\"\" the IARe is faeed with eollection of primary data, at the mínimum in relation to the famíng system in the area oi interest. Sinee l\"eSOtlr¡:e$ for this type of work w111 undoubtedly be limited, the most effective way of doing this is undoubtedly ro use the types of ruethods braCKete¿ under \"Rapid Rural Appraisal. ti For the collection of .:tnfon::wtion on farming systerus, the types of methods describecl by Collínson (op.Lit) Carruthers (1981) or Hildebrand (1981)  introduction of technologies in a ~iven set of circumstances.","tokenCount":"1446"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b9ac0b4b158a05f18d66a9915e61378","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a3563b12-e047-4769-9558-03fb26c7c080/retrieve","id":"1236762887"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cf92bcc0-833d-4c45-9027-cf4866d30c12","pagecount":"34","content":"Instrumental in establishment of \"Academy of Climate Change Education and Research (ACCER)\" in Kerala Agricultural University and launched unique and innovate dual degree program in Climate Change Adaptation (B.Sc.-M.Sc. dual degree program of five year duration) after plus two. It is the first of its kind in India. It is a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional program. Instrumental in establishment of \"Centre for Animal Adaptation to Environment and Climate Change Studies (CAADECCS)\" in Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and launched unique and innovative Ph.D. program in \"Climate Change and Animal Agriculture\" during the Academic year 2015-16 in addition to Two P.G. Diploma Courses (one year duration) in Climate Services for Veterinary Students and for general science stream students. He possesses 38 years of experience in teaching, research and extension in Agricultural Meteorology, Climate Change and Climate Change Risk Management in Agriculture. Many publications are to his credit. He is currently involved in farming and editing/writing books.Global warming is real and happening now, and India is not an exception, though there might be some spatial differences in warming across the country. An increasing body of scientific evidence, as brought out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports and special reports, conclusively establishes that the major cause of global warming is the unabated increase in greenhouse gas (e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) concentrations in the atmosphere way beyond their natural levels. It is also abundantly clear that global warming and the consequent climate change are almost entirely due to the uncontrolled human activities such as burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, land use and land cover changes, intensive exploitation of natural resources, unsustainable agricultural practices, etc. The rapid scientific and technological advances over the past couple of centuries fed the industrial revolution and allround development, but at an enormous cost to the entire human society and ecosystem. Rise in surface air temperature is widespread over the globe and is greater at higher northern latitudes. Land regions have warmed faster than the oceans. The latest Annual Statement of the Status of the Climate issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that the long-term warming trend has continued in 2018, with the average global temperature set to be the fourth highest on record. As many as 20 of the warmest ever-recorded years happened to be in the past 22 years, with the top four in the past four years, according to the statement. Other tell-tale signs of climate change, including sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification and sea-ice and glacier melt continue, whilst extreme weather left a trail of devastation on all continents, according to the WMO Statement. The HudHud cyclone over Visakhapatnam Coast in October 2014, Chennai floods in 2015, Kerala floods in August 2018 and the Titli cyclone over Orissa and North Andhra Pradesh Coast in October 2018, theChief World Climate Applications and Services Division World Meteorological Organization Geneva, Switzerland viii Climate Change and Agriculture Gaja Cyclone over Tamil Nadu Coast in mid November and the Phethai Cyclone in mid December 2018 devastated the crops and infrastructure to a large extent in respective regions. In contrast, the Indian foodgrains production was adversely affected due to consecutive droughts during monsoon season in 2014 and 2015 since agricultural production is mainly dependent on monsoonal rains in India. Similarly, the occurrence of cold and heat waves in northern states of the country causes recurring damage to crops. Untimely snowfall over western Himalayan region in early November 2018 severely damaged apple production. The ill effects of climate change in the form of frequent occurrence of floods, droughts, cold and heat waves are clearly evident on various agricultural production systems, thereby posing a serious threat to food security.Climate change is considered to be the biggest challenge confronting the global society, both to prevent future changes and to adapt to changes that are already happening and are imminent. To mitigate the climate change effects on agricultural production and productivity a range of adaptive strategies need to be considered. Changing cropping calendars and pattern will be the immediate best available option with available crop varieties to mitigate the climate change impact. The options like introducing new cropping sequences, late or early maturing crop varieties depending on the available growing season, conserving soil moisture through appropriate tillage practices and efficient water harvesting techniques are also important. Developing heat and drought tolerant crop varieties by utilizing genetic resources that may be better adapted to new climatic and atmospheric conditions should be the long-term strategy. Genetic manipulation may also help to exploit the beneficial effects of increased carbon dioxide on crop growth and water use. One of the promising approaches would be gene pyramiding to enhance the adaptation capacity of plants to climatic change inputs. There is thus an urgent need to address the climate change and variability issues holistically through improving the natural resource base, diversifying cropping systems, adapting farming systems approach, strengthening of extension system and institutional support. Latest improvements in biotechnology and information technologies need to be used for better agricultural planning and weather/climate based management to enhance the agricultural productivity of the country.Successful adaptation to climate change requires long-term investments in strategic research and new policy initiatives that mainstream climate change adaptation into development planning. As a first step, we need to document all the indigenous practices adopted by rainfed farmers over time, for coping with climate change. Secondly, we need to quantify the adaptation and mitigation potential of the existing best bet practices for different crop and livestock production systems in different agro-ecological regions of the country. Thirdly, a long-term strategic research planning is required to evolve new tools and techniques including crop varieties and management practices that help in adaptation. In 2010, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) as a comprehensive project covering strategic research, technology demonstration and capacity building. Targeted research on adaptation and mitigation is at nascent stage in India but based on knowledge already generated, some options for adaptation to climate variability induced effects like droughts, high temperatures, floods and sea water inundation can be suggested. These strategies fall into two broad categories viz., (i) crop based and (ii) resource management based.Several experts have identified research areas that would reduce uncertainty and improve knowledge to face the consequences of climate change and provide improved planning. These include, but not limited to: Precision weather-forewarning at farm level  Quantitative assessment of specific crop responses at different crop stages to enhanced levels of greenhouse gases, precipitation and UV-B radiation  Breeding agricultural crops for tolerance to extreme temperatures, floods, salinity and droughts  Innovative agroclimatic resource mapping to avoid potentially inappropriate land-use choices  The impacts of elevated carbon dioxide levels on plant and soil-water balances  Improved crop simulation models as tools for both research and crop management. This publication revolves around interventions to minimize crop losses due to global warming and climate change, organized in 32 chapters collectively spanning more than 560 pages. The contributions emerged from research findings in different parts of the country in the ICAR and the State Agricultural Universities, which I consider to be a commendable compilation. I am sure this publication will be of immense use to researchers, teachers, students as well as farmers.World Meteorological Organization Geneva, Switzerland Foreword ixGlobal warming is real. Rise in temperature is likely to be around 2°C by the end of this century with regional uncertainties in rainfall. It is a threat to the society linked sectors viz., agriculture, water resources, forestry, biodiversity (both land and ocean), infrastructure and health. The adverse impact of climate change is already noticed across the world in the above society linked sectors due to weather related disasters in the form of cyclones, floods, droughts, cold and heat waves and sea level rise   1965, 1966, 1972, 1984, 1987, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015  Climate risk management in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) is one of the major challenges to achieving food security and development in India and large parts of sub-Saharan Africa and also in the case of Australia. Climate-induced production risk associated with the current season-to-season variability of rainfall is a major barrier in making rainfed agriculture sustainable and viable farm business. Since season outcomes are uncertain, even with the best climate information, farmers have limited flexibility in applying management with confidence. In fact in risky environments, farmers most often respond by adapting a risk averse strategy and are reluctant to invest in even risk reducing measures (Leathers and Quiggin 1991). In the SAT agro-ecologies, there are a limited range of enterprise or crop options to consider which may be further restricted by cultural traditions, food preferences or market opportunities.While there are fundamental differences between large scale commercial farms in Australia compared to the predominantly smallholder resource poor farms found in India, when it comes to climate risk management in the SAT, there are many commonalities. The purpose of this paper is therefore to (i) establish a framework for managing climate variability and transforming farming systems to be more resilient and sustainable for future climates; and (ii) provide some case study examples from climate risk management in low rainfall cropping system in Australia and consider how they may be applied in smallholder systems of the SAT.In the smallholder farming systems of the semi-arid, the majority of rural livelihoods are based on the production of cereals under rainfed mixed crop-5 livestock systems. Under these systems, yield gap between potential and achieved productivity is large, water and nutrient use efficiencies are generally low and land degradation is widespread and severe. There are many commentaries as to why the productivity gains achieved in other more favourable agro-ecologies have not positively impacted on agricultural production in the drylands. While most conclude that lack of government support, infrastructure, poor management and governance of natural resources, i.e. the enabling environment, are the major barriers, we argue that the effects of climate variation which act as a powerful disincentive to investment across all scales should not be overlooked as a major contributing factor. This paper argues that research, development and extension efforts in the drylands pay inadequate attention to climate risk encompassing both present variability and future climate changes. The effect of extreme climatic events such as severe and long term droughts, high intensity rainfall events and heat waves leading to crop loss and land degradation are significant disincentives to investment by small holders. Non availability of customized climate information, a lack of the 'enabling environment'and the lack of knowledge on how to respond to climate information with confidence are the real constraints to the further sustainable development of semiarid smallholder farmers. While there are a number of possible solutions to manage climate risk in small holder farming systems, we explore if some successful examples of climate risk management from low rainfall commercial cereal systems in Australia can provide insights that are applicable to smallholder farms in India to manage climate risk.Climate in the SAT in India is driven primarily by the summer southwest monsoons (June to Sept) and the winter northeast monsoons (Nov-Feb) which contribute to the vast majority of rainfall. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon influences inter-annual variability in climate with strong correlations found with rainfall in these monsoon periods (Krishna Kumar et al. 1999, Geethalakshmi et al., 2009).In SAT regions, in addition to inherent climate variability, climate change is likely tobe harsher with frequent extreme events (droughts, floods), increasing temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns.Analysis by Singh et al. (2014) suggests increasing variability inrainfall in the sub-continent with significant increases in the frequency of dry spells and intensity of wet spells.To remain profitable and food secure, farmers must cope effectively with current variability in climate as a first step to adjust their farming systems to cope better with future climate. For near term and current decision making, this can be termed 'tactical' where a flexible risk management strategy is adopted that uses multiple information sources to make decisions(Table 1). This may include pre-season enterprise planning guided by seasonal climate forecasts, a set of criteria or 'triggers' for sowing and variety selection and a range of in-season responses to the prevailing weather, market signals or other factors. The longer term perspective, where a farming system is redesigned or adjusted to be more resilient to the current and future climate patterns, can be termed 'strategic' planning (Table 5.1). Farm design should consider what mix of enterprises, crop types, and farming systems are most resilient to current and future climate also considering market and cultural factors. This requires significant analytical efforts to understand historical and projected climate, model based scenario analysis, co-design of farming systems that are more resilient to extreme events and reduce the damage of such events on the natural resource base. In some landscapes and environments, this may suggest transformational changes in landscape design. In both strategic and tactical planning, climate information that is based on both historical observations and current forecasts or projectionsare used as an underpinning tool. Such approaches are not deterministic and must be interpreted and communicated as probabilistic. In-season responses to prevailing weather adaptive capacity (irrigation, NRM, markets, enhanced logistics). a Note: Short-term refers to a lead time 2-3 day forecast which is useful for tactical or operational purposes, medium range forecasts are 7-10 days, potentially for tactical and long term may mean extended range (10-30 days) /seasonal climate forecasts for 1-3 months in advanceRainfed agriculture plays a crucial role in India's food security by contributing about 45% of the total food grain production and around 90% of coarse cereals and pulses production (Sharma, 2011). However, rainfed agriculture faces multiple challenges like low cropping intensity, low productivity, uncertainty in output, high cost of cultivation, poor adoption of modern technology, lack of institutional credit and inadequate public investment with significant social impacts such as high incidence of rural poverty (Singh et al., 2010). Policy and infrastructure development: To increase the productivity of rainfed crops and improve the profitability of rainfed farmers, the Indian government initiated a number of targetedprogrammes such as the Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil Palm and Maize (ISOPAM), and increased minimum support price (MSP) for pulses to incentivize the farmers to increase the area under pulses to attain self-sufficiency in pulses. It also constituted a National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) as an advisory body for policy and programme formulation withrainfed crops of pulses and coarse cereals as major components of its agenda. These initiatives have been underpinned by the National Food Security Mission (NSFM). To realize the full potential of rainfed agriculture, higher strategic research investments to develop biotic (pests and diseases) and abiotic (weather and soil fatigue) stress-tolerant cultivars, short-duration varieties, incremental increases and arrangements to get MSP forrainfed crops (coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds) on par with wheat and rice, sustainable seed systems to increase seed replacement rate (SRR), warehouse facilities and scientific storage methods that reduce post-harvest losses and information and communications technology (ICT) innovations to provide real time information to improve farmers decision will be required.There is growing evidence on the importance of water management and investments in rainfed agriculture to reduce the risk and to face the impacts of changing climate (Reddy and Chiranjeevi 2016;Kerr et al 2002, Kumar et al 2016). To increase water use efficiency and to realize \"per drop more crop\", water conservation technologies and water saving irrigation methods should be promoted in the rainfed regions by providing customized information, low cost institutional credit and investment subsides to increase the adoption of these technologies. To realize the potential of R&D investment in rainfed agriculture, there is need of enabling policy environments that promote sustainable seed systems to increase seed replacement rate (SSR);sustains infrastructure initiatives such as modern weather and pest proof.The incentives to promote ICT innovations to provide information for real time farm decision are critical where traditional extension services are being over stretched. To enable farmers and agricultural industries to adapt to current and future climates, investment by government and the private sector will be required. In general, in the SAT regions adequate investment in infrastructure (roads, storage and marketing facilities,) and human capacity have not been made compared with more favorable agro-ecologies. Such investments are fundamental to creating agribusiness opportunitiesthrough adoption of next generation and emerging technologies.The use of digital technologies is an exciting opportunity for enabling the communication of real time and context specific information to stakeholders. In Australia, for example, precision agriculture has been enabled by technology and has led to transformational change incrop management. Technology is being applied by actors in various ways. For example, in the delivery of information from various sources (downscaled market, weather, farming system, and soil) as locally specific advisories direct to farmers on smart phones or tablets; in the application of risk management intelligence on markets or weather in the banking, or insurance sectors; in business intelligence through harnessing information to a dashboard to monitor project outputs. Case study #2 provides a model for how this was successfully achieved in a commercial setting in Australia.In Australian low rainfall cropping regions (growing season rainfall < 300 mm) face major challenges associated with high yield variability and its effect on profitability, with production risk historically much more important than price risk. To combat variability in cropping yields, farm businesses adopt a range of practices such as diversification (mainly involving livestock) to provide more reliable cash flow during difficult seasons. The use of responsive farming systems allows flexibility in crop area and in crop type between years, and is an important component of risk management. In the absence of reliable seasonal climate outlooks, other indicators are sought to provide robust trigger points to adjust decisions about crop type and area. It is widely accepted that seasons which allow earlier seeding times with higher initial plant available water (PAW) usually results in enhanced yield outcomes. Scenario analyses using crop models (APSIM) and historical weather data compute the probability of favorable outcomes under different starting conditions of plant available water and seeding opportunity. This approach offered a means to make more informed decision making around cropping intentions and to determine appropriate trigger points at the individual farmer level.For example, even a site with a mean rainfall of about 220mm / year (Port Germein, South Australia) is responsive to the storage of out of season soil water with relatively high simulated fallow efficiencies (average of 24%).The effects of different ranges of PAW and seeding opportunity on the probability of different yield outcomes (divided into terciles) show that the interaction of plant available water at seeding and seeding opportunity is a strong indicator of final crop yield (Fig. 5.1). The combination of low PAW and late seeding rarely produces a favourable outcome with most yields in the lower tercile. At the other extreme, poor crop yields (in the lowertercile, (bottom 33% of the yields) are rare when PAW at seeding is categorised as high.Decisions around modifying sowing intentions to limit exposure in poor seasons and capitalize on better years rely on reliable indicators to \"trigger\" appropriate changes to the farm programs. While farmers have lamented the lack of more reliable seasonal outlooks(1-3 monthly rainfall forecasts)to provide such information, usingmultipleand integrated information sources will enable more robust decision making. Case study 2 Yield potential has long been used in Australian cropping systems to benchmark crop performance at a field level against a water limited potential yield target. Onewidely used method in the southern Australian wheat belt was devised by French and Schultz (1984) based on a boundary function derived from a large field data set. Predicted wheat grain yield is the result of in-season rainfall minus a fixed evaporation of 110 mm, which is multiplied by a transpiration efficiency factor of 20 kg/mm/ha. While this empirically based method was simple, a linear rainfall-yield relationship cannot address yield differences caused by soil variability, in season rainfall deficit at critical times. Since about 2005, the prediction of crop performance with crop models which simulate important process and interactions have been widely applied by researchers to analyse the seasonal-spatial dynamic nature of crop productivity (Hoffmann et al., 2015;Whitbread et al., 2015;Sadras and Angus 2006;Sadras and Rodriguez 2010).According to McCown et al. (2006) however, the effectiveness of decision support systems in influencing farmer behaviour has been disappointing. A program led by CSIRO in Australia explored whether researchers and advisors could benefit from simulation and decision support aid to risk management (Hochman et al. 2009). This led to the development of a highly successful commercial on-line (http://www.yieldprophet.com.au/) system where farmers and their consultants could enter site specific details about their soil, crop and location and generate reports which predicted crop growth and possible season finishes using local weather information and driven by the APSIM model (Fig. 5.2.) A range of other 'system' information (frost and heat risk, crop stage dates, soil water and mineral N status) is also reported to further inform decision making.  Hayman (2007), while 30-50% of farmers use seasonal climate forecasts when making farm management decisions, most farmers and advisers are quick to point out that they place less weight on the information than they would like to if the forecast was more reliable. Increasing the skill of forecasting using dynamic climate modelling is the focus of much current research (Franzke et al., 2015).Following Meinke and Stone (2005)  4. Bulk handling and marketing agencies, which require accurate regional commodity forecasts to assist them in storage and transport logistics and export sales well before harvest; 5. Government agencies, which require objective assessments of the effect and severity of climate variability on production;The case studies highlight the potential benefits from informed decision making that is built on the scientific rationality and local knowledge and needs. Pilot studies in many developing countries have clearly established that similar or even greater benefits are also possible under smallholder faming systems (Hansen et al., 2011). However, several obstacles prevent smallholder farmers from benefiting from such information. Important among them are poor access to information especially in a user friendly format, location specificity, timeliness and reliability or credibility of the information. Recent developments in ICT have opened up new opportunities to develop and deliver data and information that is location specific in real time to decision makers. However, access to information alone is not sufficient. The capacity of end users (smallholder farmers and their support agents) to understand and utilize the information is equally important. We believe that by developing appropriate information systems and by strengthening the capacity of the farmers, significant benefits can be harnessed from the experiences and successes of large scale commercial farmers in the developed world.This paper has presented a short review of current climate risk management strategies and enabling environments in commercial dryland cereal systems in Australia and explored how these may provide insights for managing climate risk on to smallholders farming systems in semi-arid India. Three case studies have shown (i) how the analysis of historical weather records combined with systems information and a well validated crop-soil model provides powerful indication of a season outcome at the start of the season; (ii) a commercially available web based system based on the APSIM model providing farmers and their consultants with in-season predictive reports; and (iii) examples of the use of climate forecasts by agricultural industries in decision making and a range of scales. In India, enhancing climate risk assessment and management will occur through a combination of approaches, many of which are already underway to varying degrees. Of highest priority will include enhancing the use of public seasonal climate services which are location and system specific and which may be increasingly delivered through private sector led ICT delivery with support from public and other actors. An important aspect in the context of resource poor farmers, will be equity i.e. making sure access to information and inputs are socially inclusive particularly in poorer SAT regions. The building of capacity in multiple stakeholders as a pre-requisite for effective climate risk management in semiarid regions, especially around information translation to action i.e. access to inputs (seeds, fertiliser, labour etc) to apply to take advantage of the climate information. Meinke et al. (2006) concluded that climate risk management requires holistic solutions derived from cross-disciplinary and participatory, user-oriented research -this implies that the multiple institutions/ agencies present in India are required to better integrate their efforts for the benefit of smallholder farmers.","tokenCount":"4055"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fe2df66f58f5d109c635d1763b03debf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/32a508fc-4abd-4dde-a0cf-2446fdfb2a6f/retrieve","id":"1518026746"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d759e79-b616-4893-9094-f900344cd231","pagecount":"4","content":"The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) is pursuing a market-oriented agricultural development strategy to increase agricultural production and improve the livelihoods of smallholders. This strategy is reflected in its Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Growth Program (AGP).Fueled by these new strategic directions, there is significant demand by value chain actors for technical assistance, improved production technologies, business development services and linkages to commercial agents along value chains. However, limited access to input and output markets constrain smallholder agricultural development in Ethiopia. Lack of knowledge and limited capacities of public and private agents to undertake market-led agriculture development also hamper growth. Increased economic wellbeing for male and female smallholder producers in the regions of Oromia, Amhara, LIVES aims to contribute to enhanced income and gender equitable wealth creation for smallholders and other value chain actors through increased and sustained market offtake of high value livestock and irrigated crop commodities.The project uses a value chain framework to develop targeted commodities. Such a framework recognizes that value chain actors add value at different stages of the value chain and that individuals and organizations provide inputs/services to the value chain actors. Key value chain actors are producers of agricultural inputs and outputs as well as traders and processors at village, district, regional and national levels. Important service providers include the public research and extension sector which does technology development, capacity building, and knowledge generation and dissemination. Offices of Agriculture are also involved in input supply and services e.g. supply of seeds, artificial insemination, veterinary services and other agricultural crop and livestock inputs. The involvement of communities, cooperatives, farmers and the private sector in producing inputs and providing services is also emerging.LIVES aims to improve the effectiveness of the research and extension system to support market-oriented commodity development by:• Promoting the use of participatory, market driven, gender sensitive and sustainable development approaches;• Promoting the involvement of value chain actors and suppliers of inputs and services in the development process;• Promoting improved knowledge management approaches for capturing, storing and sharing knowledge;• Supporting village and district level development of community, cooperative, farmer and private sector production and supply of inputs and provision of services;• Promoting linkages/dealership networks with value chain actors and service providers at regional and federal level;• Promoting diagnostic, action, impact studies on value chain interventions. Documentation of results and lessons learned will be used for learning within the project areas and to scale out beyond the project areas.LIVES will work with public and private sector partners to develop livestock (dairy, small and large ruminants, poultry, and apiculture) and irrigation (fruits, vegetables and fodder) value chains in clusters of districts in 10 zones of the 4 regions, i.e. Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and SNNP. Entrepreneurial smallholders (estimated at 10 to 15% of the households) and value chain actors in 31 districts (767 peasant associations) engaged in production and processing of selected commodities will be targeted. Staff in the selected districts, zones and regions will be assisted to increase their skills and knowledge to support marketoriented agriculture development. The project will carry out activities in five focus areas: capacity development, knowledge management, promotion, commodity value chain development and documentation. For all activities the project aims to be gender-balanced and environmentally sustainable.potential of animals, in particular through communitybased breeding system of sheep and goats, hormone assisted mass insemination, and village-based hatchery and pullet production. Interventions will also be targeted to improved fodder production and feeding systems, animal health delivery including the involvement of paravets, use of diagnostic toolkits and animal diseases decision support systems for veterinarians, and the distribution and use of thermostable vaccines for Newcastle disease, and Peste des Petit Ruminants (PPR)Key crop interventions include input and service supply systems for irrigated agriculture, including vegetable, fruit and fodder seed production systems and the establishment of private nurseries operated by individuals and or groups, irrigation pump repair services and irrigation scheme management. Attention will also be paid to post-harvest handling and storage on farm and grading, packaging and value addition.To 'feed' the other project components, project lessons and results will be documented through strategic diagnostic, action and impact studies by project staff, in partnership with regional, national and international research institutes. The results of these studies will be published and disseminated widely.To develop skills of trainers and supervisors in participatory market-oriented agricultural development for livestock and irrigated agriculture, the project staff and partner institutions will provide training of trainers (TOT) and specialist training to staff of bureaus and offices of agriculture at regional, zonal and district levels. The trained staff and specialists will in turn train field staff, farmers and other value chain actors. Project staff will support this capacity development through regular coaching and mentoring sessions at field and supervisory levels. The project will also fund about 100 public sector staff to obtain MSc and BSc education to fill capacity gaps in targeted district, zonal and regional institutions.Capturing To reach value chain actors and service providers outside the project's target areas, promotional activities will be delivered in nearby zones and districts with similar development potentials. Priority will be given to AGP and Household Asset Building Program (HABP) districts and zones. Furthermore, promotional activities will be targeted at strategic partners in Ethiopia and beyond. Key promotional interventions include the upgrading and populating of the Ethiopian Agricultural Portal (www. eap.gov.et), distribution of project findings through audio, video, print and other digital tools. ","tokenCount":"898"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fe91059270c6b2631ec9e6782d446309","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/114aa3c6-05c9-4058-a817-a4ea7685a095/retrieve","id":"-1022409200"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6ee27977-9f98-47d8-a471-4a617ca6b156","pagecount":"23","content":"Picture 2: Flamed chicken-Plucked dry; local breeds traditionally targeted; perceived by consumers as less safe (higher risk) than others Picture 3: Roasted chicken-'Poulet télévisé'-more of mixed or exotic breeds; uses gas for cooking and electric power for displaying and perceived as safer (less handling) Picture 4: Fried chicken-Perceived as less nutritious (oil associated with disease) but perceived as safer (high temperature during cooking)The Pull-Push project 'Urban food markets in Africa: Incentivizing food safety using a pull-push approach' aims to improve food safety in urban informal markets in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. While previous efforts have focused on training producers or regulators with little attention to incentives for behaviour change, the project investigates if consumer demand can provide the same incentive ('pull') for food safety in low and middle income countries as it is in high income countries. It also builds the capacity of market level value chain actors to respond to demand (for example, by improving practices or adapting technologies) and of regulators to provide an enabling environment ('push'). The training of chicken street vendors which is reported here is a component of Work Package 5 which aims to empower value chain actors, supported by local regulators, to manage food safety representing the push approach. The need for training markets actors was also a strong recommendation from the value chain assessment (VCA) carried out at the start of the project (Dione et al. 2021). This document details the process adopted by the project to codevelop with local stakeholders a context specific training of trainers (ToT) manual and delivery approaches to build capacity of street chicken processors in urban Ouagadougou. This manual was developed between 25 April and 30 May 2022.Primary outcomes: Change in knowledge, attitude and skills of Value Chain (VC) actors; improved hygienic practices; less contaminated food.This manual target market actors including the manager of a food outlet, as well as the employee of a given outlet processing chicken. Each food processing outlet has an owner (referred here as the manager) who is most of the time is the daily manager and their workers (referred here as the employee) who are usually boys or girls paid at a daily or monthly basis for doing the entire processing including slaughtering, scalding, plucking, washing and cooking under the supervision of the manager. The chicken is cooked in different ways as shown in the following pictures. The level of hygiene and the nutritional value of the chicken is perceived differently by processors (Pictures 1 to 4) (Dione et al. 2021). The training approach is participatory, context specific and target capacity building of local market actors.A participatory training approach is used to deliver the training to beneficiaries. It is an interactive learning process enabling individuals and communities to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes and to share lessons learnt, so that they actively contribute to food security and poverty alleviation. Participatory training is 'participatory' because learning occurs through active involvement of the trainees and it is them who develop the answers. It is 'training' because learning opportunities are created by presenting new information together with analytical methodologies for the trainees to discuss and considering their own work experiences. Participatory training is completely different from traditional 'teaching'. It must be centred on the actor (for our case the food seller) and developed according to their needs. Beneficiaries should understand the importance of the problem in relation to their activity and to what extent it can affect their livelihood if not addressed. They must feel ownership of the whole process, in this way; they are participating in solving their own problems (Wilde and Vainio-Mattila 1995). The training delivery method will include group discussions, demonstrations, case stories, peer to peer visits, sensitizations, among others. The training aids could be poster, picture, leaflet, audio, video, depending on the context.Beneficiaries are grouped into 20 to 30 people per training session which lasts about four hours. A coffee break and lunch breaks are organized for all participants. Each group is led by a facilitator and a notetaker who recorded key issues that were discussed during the sessions.We used a championed model to deliver the training to beneficiaries. A local team of experts on food safety referred here as Food Safety Champions (FSC) was set up to develop the training tool and administer it to the beneficiaries. As part of their mandate, the FSCs are supposed to mentor food handlers in urban sites using dedicated tools. However, they face challenges in terms of lack of appropriate tools, human, technical and financial capacity to implement these as their work. The FSCs are closer to the beneficiaries and may be more trusted. We did not want to administer a top-down approach but improve understanding of the regulators and interaction with beneficiaries, to help them better administer their mandate. The FSCs included 3 women and 3 men were chosen from the pool of food safety regulators who took part of the chicken value chain regulator previously organized by the project (Dione et al. 2022).• Safety, Hygiene and Environment Service (SHE)-Food hygiene The team of FSCs experts was made multidisciplinary including experts from the ministries of health, livestock, agriculture, trade and the department in charge of food hygiene ('service d 'hygiene') of the municipality of Ouagadougou. The team worked under the supervision of the project scientists and food microbiology experts of University of Joseph Kizerbo of Ouagadougou. Finally, the food safety taskforce members comprised of the FSCs, project experts and technical partners.The supervision of the training was carried out by subject experts of International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and project partner from the University of Joseph Kizerbo of Ouagadougou (UJKO).The development of the ToT was implemented through several steps.Review of material from the formative research (e.g. chicken value chain assessment reports).The content of the ToT manual was built on recommendations to improve food safety that have been documented during the VCA (Dione et al. 2021), the Knowledge Attitude and Practices (KAP) surveys (Assefa et al. 2022) as well as during several stakeholder engagements including training workshop of food safety regulators (Dione et al. 2022).The messages which were developed and used during the consumer campaigns implemented in Ouagadougou by the project were also considered (Box 1).Cleanliness of the seller and his environment: Cleanliness of the hands, appearance, outfit, service surface (cutting), the environment, service space, wasteGood preservation of chicken: Healthy live chicken, chicken kept in a fridge/freezer Service: Cleanliness of the place of consumption (flies, waste, food scraps …) Good quality of service from chicken to consumer (clean and well cooked): Clean container, clean place, well cooked, served hot, handwashing device for customersDeveloping the training package lasted three months, including eight one day workshops and three days of field visits to gather field information and test the training material.After multiple iterations between the taskforce a total of 10 modules were developed.Section I Module 1: General: Importance of good hygiene practices-Impact of poor hygiene in food handling What are the key messages? Message 1.1: 'Koassa' is important in maintaining public health through the nature of its work. 'Koassa' is a local jargon referred to as the chicken griller.Message 1.2: Contaminated chicken carcasses and/or vegetables cause illness to consumers (diarrhoea/nausea/ vomiting).What will participants learn from this module? 1 . Understand the importance of good hygiene practices in their work for protecting consumer health.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Lack of knowledge of the dangers associated with noncompliance with good hygiene practices during their work.How to convey the messages to participants? Message 2.1: Micro-organisms on external surfaces (droplets of saliva or nasal secretions when speaking or coughing without masks, hair, clothes, apron, hands, money, cutting table, utensils etc.) contaminate grilled chickens and seasonings.Message 2.2: There are multiple sources of contamination of chickens during processing. They can be related to the person, the environment, the work equipment or the chicken itself when it is undercooked.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Knowledge of microbes (invisible to the naked eye).2 . Becoming aware that micro-organisms are everywhere in the environment and some of them can be a source of disease to humans.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Chicken grillers lack knowledge about micro-organisms.2 . Chicken grillers are unaware that some micro-organisms can cause disease.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Brainstorming (2.1; 2.2) Q1: Where do you think the microbes are?Method 2: Detecting micro-organisms on external surfaces (2.1; 2.2): Use of Petri dishes to grow bacteria. Inoculating Petri dish is done using the inner side of the hand, the coins and a cough. The Petri dish is incubated overnight and growth bacteria could be shown to the beneficiaries.Module 3: Managing live chickens at the point of preparation (Onsite slaughter)What are the key messages?Message 3.1: Separate sick chickens from healthy chickens.Message 3.2: Provide suitable cages that are well positioned in relation to the direction of the wind (reasonable distance from the place of sale-as far as possible and so that the wind does not bring waste from the chicken coop to the cutting table ).What will participants learn from this module?1 . Understand why marketing healthy chicken is important.2 . Understand that live and healthy chicken can be a source of contamination during processing through feathers, droppings, blood and water from washed carcasses.3 . Understand that wind can promote transporting micro-organisms from live chickens to carcasses or grilled chickens.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Some grillers are unaware that marketing a sick chicken is dangerous to health.2 . Some grillers are unaware that live chickens can be a source of contamination for grilled chickens in the case of separating spaces.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Field photos/videos as examples of broiler poultry cages that are well made and positioned relative to the direction of wind to the normal poultry density (3.1; 3.2).Method 2: Plenary discussion-pointing to the photos and referring to the videos, engage participants in a discussion of options for improving cages to prevent waste from entering the food preparation areas.Module 4: Slaughter (Bleeding-Scalding-Feathering-Evisceration)What are the key messages?Message 4.1: Provide a slaughter area that is easy to clean and disinfect.Message 4.2: Change the scalding water regularly as much as possible.Message 4.3: Pluck and eviscerate on an easy-to-clean raised surface (Bench covered with white or sanded tiles/ Stainless steel table ).Message 4.4: Separate plucking chickens from eviscerated chickens.Message 4.5: Separate organ meats (gizzards and liver) from viscera and feathers.Message 4.6: Evacuate viscera and feathers every day.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Poorly conducted bleeding, plumage and evisceration can contaminate the food.2 . The scalding water should be replenished between batches of chickens. Poor waste management (blood, viscera, feathers, wastewater etc.) at the slaughter site is a source of contamination.3 . Waste and sewage should be disposed of properly.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Chicken processors are not aware of the importance of separating clean and dirty spaces.2 . Chicken processors are not aware of the importance of disposing of waste properly.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Field photos/videos of the slaughter line showing the lack of hygiene at a market slaughter site, at a griller and at a model site (4.1; 4.2; 4.3; 4.4).Method 2: Plenary discussion-referring to photos and videos, discussion is engaged on the breaches of biosecurity and hygiene and how to reduce the risk to processors and consumers.What are the key messages?Message 5.1: Wash carcasses immediately with clean water (after plumage and evisceration) and change as frequently as possible (ideally after each carcass).Message 5.2: Clean/wash knives and other cutting equipment as much as possible.Message 5.3: Store and transport carcasses in a covered container containing ice.Message 5.4: Wash hands before handling carcasses on arrival at the site and use clean containers for packaging.Message 5.5: Do not mix carcasses and grilled chickens in the same freezer or other types of products (beverages, fruits).Message 5.6: Do not overload the freezer with carcasses (filled to the brim) and clean it regularly (at least once a month).What will participants learn from this module?1 . All utensils used in handling chicken carcasses should be washed regularly.2 . Chicken carcass must be washed with clean water immediately after slaughter.3 . The washed chicken carcass must be stored as quickly as possible in a clean, ice-containing container for transport.4 . Chicken carcasses must be clean before preparation.5 . The absence of an adequate cold chain increases the risk of contamination.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Chicken processors ignore the risk of cross-contamination.2 . Chicken processors ignore the importance of a cold chain.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Comparative field photos/videos between good practices (what is well done and recommended) and current (bad) practices (5.1; 5.2; 5.3; 5.4; 5.5) on carcass management-refrigerator overloaded and not overloaded.Method 2: Demonstration: Have one participant wash a carcass in good practices and let the others observe (5.1).What are the key messages? Message 6.1: Clean and disinfect the cutting table before and after cutting.Message 6.2: Clean and disinfect used utensils (knives, trays, forks) before and after cutting.Message 6.3: Do not handle grilled chicken with your bare hands (use a fork and knife).Message 6.4: Avoid talking or sneezing while cutting if not wearing a mask or sneezing into the crease of the elbow while turning over.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Cutting surface and dirty utensils can contaminate cooked chicken.2 . Handling chicken with bare hands can be a source of contamination.3 . Saliva or nasal secretions can contaminate cooked chicken.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Cutting surfaces and utensils are not regularly cleaned and disinfected.2 . Chicken processors often handle grilled chickens with their bare hands.3 . Chicken processors do not usually wear masks when cutting grilled chicken, but they often chat and may sneeze.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Field photos/videos on preparation and cutting (6.1; 6.2; 6.3; 6.4).Method 2: Plenary discussion-referring to photos and videos, discussion is engaged on the breaches of biosecurity and hygiene and how to reduce the risk to processors and consumers.Module 7: Chicken seasoning and serving to consumers What are the key messages?Message 7.1: Use unperforated, intact and firm vegetables (tomatoes especially).Message 7.2: Wash, disinfect and keep vegetables free from contamination (flies, cockroaches, mice, rats and dust).Message 7.3: Keep seasoning products (chili, salt, mustard etc.) well covered.Message 7.4: Use clean and disinfected cutlery (trays, plates, spoon and fork) for service.Message 7.5: Provide customers with clean water and liquid handwashing.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Unclean and disinfected vegetables and seasoning products are a source of contamination of grilled chicken.2 . Unclean and disinfected cutlery used for serving is a source of contamination of grilled chicken.3 . Dirty consumer hands are a source of contamination of grilled chicken.4 . Saliva or nasal secretions can contaminate grilled chicken.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Vegetables are not always washed and disinfected.2 . Seasoning products are not always well preserved.3 . Chicken processors do not always make liquid soap available to customers for hand washing.4 . Chicken processors do not usually wear masks when cutting grilled chicken, but they often chat and may sneeze.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Field photos/videos on seasoning and serving submitted for their assessment (7.1; 7.2; 7.3; 7.4; 7.5).Method 2: Demonstration-Handwashing (7.5).Module 8: Personal and clothing cleanness and processor's health statusWhat are the key messages?Message 8.1: All workers must work only when they feel healthy. They should regularly do medical checks and keep their health professional cards up to date as required by the law.Message 8.2: Have a handwashing device and wash hands regularly with soap and clean water before and after each step of the chicken processing.Message 8.3: Wear clean clothes dedicated to work only.Message 8.4: Workers should cut or cover their hair and trim their nails.Message 8.5: Ensure that all employees take a bath at the beginning and end of the day.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Anyone who handles food for public consumption must have their health professional card.2 . A sick person is a source of contamination to processed food, hence a risk to consumers and coworkers.3 . Dirty hands are a source of contamination of processed food.4 . Personal hygiene and clothing must be a constant concern to the worker.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Not all chicken processors have an up to date professional card.2 . Some chicken processors are unaware of the importance of holding the card.3 . Hands are not systematically washed before and after each step of the chicken processing.4 . Some chicken processors do not have work clothes dedicated to the activity.5 . Some employees do not wash regularly and wear dirty clothes.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Group work Q1: Do you know why health professional cards are important? Why do they need to be up to date? (8.1).Q2: What problems do you encounter in the process of obtaining the Health Professional Card? What solutions do you recommend in improving the situation?Q3: What type of illness do you think requires staff not to come to work and why? (8.4).Method 2: Photos/videos of model and non-model workers and types of context adapted handwashing devices (8.2; 8.3; 8.5).Method 3: Plenary discussion-referring to photos and videos, discussion is engaged on the breaches of biosecurity and hygiene and how to reduce the risk to processors and consumers.Module 9: Environmental health and sanitationWhat are the key messages?Message 9.1: Choose a safe site for the processing (avoid garbage, hair salons, carpentry shops or any other potential source of contamination).Message 9.2: Arrange the workplace with easy-to-maintain materials and colours that tell if it is clean or not.Message 9.3: Keep the work environment clean (sweep, clean and disinfect).Message 9.4: Have a good and clean drinking water supply and storage system.Message 9.5: Have an adequate dip raised and renewed at least three times a day (have four containers for the dip: Soapy water-rinse water-bleach-rinse water).Message 9.6: Have an adequate garbage can (large, covered and washable) and empty every day.Message 9.7: Have a functional sewage disposal system.Message 9.8: Maintain washrooms (ensure cleanliness and disinfection of toilets).Message 9.9: Put a handwashing device at the entrance to the washroom.What will participants learn from this module?1 . Processing site location can promote contamination of processed food.2 . The importance of maintaining a clean work environment and avoiding material of dark colours that prevent dirt from being seen.3 . The importance of having a good sanitation system (garbage cans, sewage drainage, toilet maintenance).4 . The importance of having an adequate utensil washing system.5 . The importance of having a good water storage system.6 . The importance of having a handwashing facility at the entrance to toilets.Why do participants need to have this information?1 . Some processors set up without prior authorization from the competent services.2 . Inadequate placement of processing sites promotes contamination of processed chickens (e.g. above or near open gutters, next to garbage dumps).3 . There is often a lack of a running water supply system at grilling sites.4 . There is absence and lack of maintenance of toilets in some processing sites.How to convey the messages to participants?Method 1: Group work Q1: What are the criteria for choosing a chicken processing site? (9.1; 9.2) Q2: How to set up a chicken processing site to avoid contamination risks? (9.1; 9.2; 9.3; 9.4; 9.5; 9.6; 9.7; 9.8; 9.9) Q3: How do you manage waste from your outlet (difficulties encountered and solutions)? (9.6; 9.7)?Q4: What challenges do you have in implementing good hygiene practices? (9.3; 9.4; 9.5; 9.6; 9.7; 9.8) Method 2: Photos/videos of a well-appointed grill site (9.1; 9.2; 9.3; 9.4; 9.5; 9.6; 9.7; 9.8).Method 3: Plenary discussion-referring to photos and videos, discussion is engaged on the breaches of biosecurity and hygiene and how to reduce the risk to processors and consumers Module 10: General plenary discussions on food safety regulation (Hygiene services) ","tokenCount":"3311"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"378dc8dcfb09741e78170a5c9c7000cb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/40c19191-bf4c-4dd6-b4be-4629e29ede53/content","id":"-1580850378"},"keywords":["AM, association mapping","ARS, Agricultural Research Service","CDL, Cereal Disease Laboratory","GWAS, genome-wide association study","IT, infection type","LD, linkage disequilibrium","MAF, minor allele frequency","MR, moderately resistant","MS, moderately susceptible","MSD, mean squared difference","NSGC, National Small Grain Collection","PC, principal component","PCA, principal component analysis","pFDR, positive false discovery rate","Pt, Puccinia triticina Erikss.","QTL, quantitative trait loci","R, resistant","S, susceptible","SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism","SSR, simple-sequence repeat"],"sieverID":"7871f86d-d00d-4ff7-948c-98060ce85a73","pagecount":"24","content":"Leaf rust (caused by Puccinia triticina Erikss. [Pt]) is increasingly impacting durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var. durum) production with the recent appearance of races with virulence to widely grown cultivars in many durum producing areas worldwide. A highly virulent P. triticina race on durum wheat was recently detected in Kansas. This race may spread to the northern Great Plains, where most of the US durum wheat is produced. The objective of this study was to identify sources of resistance to several races from the United States and Mexico at seedling stage in the greenhouse and at adult stage in field experiments. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to identify single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with leaf rust response in a worldwide durum wheat collection of 496 accessions. Thirteen accessions were resistant across all experiments. Association mapping revealed 88 significant SNPs associated with leaf rust response. Of these, 33 SNPs were located on chromosomes 2A and 2B, and 55 SNPs were distributed across all other chromosomes except for 1B and 7B. Twenty markers were associated with leaf rust response at seedling stage, while 68 markers were associated with leaf rust response at adult plant stage. The current study identified a total of 14 previously uncharacterized loci associated with leaf rust response in durum wheat. The discovery of these loci through association mapping (AM) is a significant step in identifying useful sources of resistance that can be used to broaden the relatively narrow leaf rust resistance spectrum in durum wheat germplasm.D urum wheat (2n = 4x = 28) is an important cereal crop grown in many parts of the world, especially in the Mediterranean basin where ~50% of global production and 75% of the growing area are located (Elias and Manthey, 2005). The world durum wheat production was estimated at 33.5 million metric tons in 2014.Durum wheat is an important crop that is concentrated in localized areas, often in developing countries, where it represents a large portion of total wheat planted as well as a major staple food used for pasta, couscous, and flat bread. Moreover, because of its adaptability to arid climate conditions, marginal soils, and relatively low water requirements, improvement of durum wheat production should be an agricultural and economic priority to ensure food security in these regions. Despite the broad adaptability of durum wheat, its production is often limited by different fungal diseases including rusts, septoria leaf blotch, fusarium head blight, and root rot (Nachit 2000;Nsarellah et al., 2000;Singh et al., 2005).Leaf rust is a significant disease affecting wheat production worldwide. Durum wheat has been traditionally considered more resistant to Pt than bread wheat (T. aestivum L.; 2n = 6x = 42) in many regions worldwide. However, races of the leaf rust pathogen, virulent to widely grown durum cultivars in several production areas, are increasingly impacting durum production (Singh et al., 2004;Goyeau et al., 2006;Huerta-Espino et al., 2009). A Pt race, BBG/BN, in northwestern Mexico that appeared in 2001, with virulence to Lr72, overcame the resistance of widely adapted durum wheat cultivars from the CIMMYT breeding program that had been effective in Mexico for >25 yr (Singh et al., 2004;Herrera-Foessel et al., 2014). Increased susceptibility of durum wheat to leaf rust has also been observed in the Mediterranean basin (Martinez et al., 2005;Goyeau et al., 2012), the Middle East (Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007a), and Chile (Singh et al., 2004). In the United States, a Pt race, designated BBBQD using the North American Pt nomenclature system (Long and Kolmer, 1989) and possessing a similar virulence pattern to previously identified Mexican races, was collected from California durum fields in 2009. In 2013, an isolate of the same race was found in Kansas. The occurrence of this race in these regions increases the likelihood of its spread to the northern Great Plains (Kolmer, 2015a) and most importantly, to North Dakota where 58% of the total US durum wheat is produced (USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2015).A number of studies have determined that the Pt populations predominant on bread wheat differ from those found on durum wheat. The Pt isolates from bread wheat are often avirulent on durum wheat (Singh, 1991;Huerta-Espino and Roelfs, 1992;Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007a). In contrast, Pt isolates collected from durum wheat are avirulent to all but the most susceptible bread wheat cultivars (J.A. Kolmer, unpublished data, 2013). Huerta-Espino and Roelfs (1992) determined that the majority of the Pt collections from durum wheat were race BBB, indicating that they were avirulent to all resistance genes carried by the first three sets of international leaf rust differentials (Long and Kolmer, 1989). Isolates collected from durum wheat in several countries share highly similar virulence patterns on 'Thatcher' near-isogenic lines, suggesting a common origin (Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007a;Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007b). However, some Pt isolates collected from durum wheat in Ethiopia have a distinct virulence phenotype with avirulence to commonly susceptible bread wheat hosts including Thatcher. These isolates also grouped separately for simple-sequence repeat (SSR) genotypes (Kolmer and Acevedo, 2016) and DNA sequence compared with other isolates collected on durum and bread wheat in Europe, South America, and Mexico (Liu et al., 2014).Although a limited amount of information is available about the genetic basis of resistance to Pt in durum wheat, a few leaf rust resistance (Lr) genes have been reported. After the leaf rust epidemics in Mexico in 2001, extensive screening of the CIMMYT durum germplasm, resulted in the identification of effective leaf rust resistance genes including: the complementary gene pair Lr27+31 located on chromosome arms 3BS and 4BS, respectively (Singh and McIntosh, 1984a,b;Singh et al., 1993); Lr14a on 7BL (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2008b); and Lr3a on 6BL (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2005). These genes are also present in common wheat but are highly ineffective against Pt races usually found on common wheat. Other effective resistance genes that seem to be present only in durum wheat cultivars are LrCamayo, which presumably links to Lr3, (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2007), and Lr61 on 6BS (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2008a). Other major Lr genes in durum wheat include Lr10 (Aguilar-Rincon et al., 2001), Lr23 (Watson and Luig, 1961;McIntosh and Dyck 1975;Nelson et al., 1997), Lr33 (Dyck et al., 1987;Dyck, 1994), Lr47 (Dubcovsky et al., 1998), Lr52 (Singh et al., 2010), and Lr64 (Dyck, 1994;McIntosh et al., 2009). However, virulence in durum specific races is common on Lr10, Lr23, and Lr33 (Huerta-Espino and Roelfs, 1992;Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007a;Singh et al., 2005).In addition, the adult plant resistance slow rusting gene Lr46 has been reported in CIMMYT durum wheat (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2011). However, the extensive use of single-race-specific resistance genes caused rapid selection of new virulent Pt races only a few years after their deployment in commercial cultivars. For instance, in 2008, a Pt race was detected in Mexico that carried virulence on Lr27+Lr31 (Huerta-Espino et al., 2009). Similarly, a variant of the old Mexican race BBG/BN, designated as BBB/ BN_Lr61Vir (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2014), has virulence to Lr61. Both Lr14a and LrCamayo are still effective against the current Mexican races, however virulence on Lr14a has been reported in France (Goyeau et al., 2006), Spain (M. Acevedo, unpublished data, 2015), Tunisia (Gharbi et al., 2013), andMorocco (M. Acevedo, unpublished data, 2015).The mapping of plant disease resistance genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) has been traditionally performed through biparental mapping populations. Recently, as a result of the progress in high-throughput genotyping technologies and the improvement of statistical programs, GWAS or AM has been used as an alternative approach to biparental mapping (Yu et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2008). Association mapping is based on revealing correlations between phenotype and genotype in a germplasm collection (Zondervan and Lon 2004). The GWAS takes advantage of the linkage disequilibrium (LD) between alleles to identify molecular markers significantly associated with a trait response. The GWAS uses the recombination events that occur throughout the evolutionary history of a germplasm. This allows the breakup of the LD blocks within the genome and results in a faster decay of the LD in the AM panels than in recombinant inbred lines and doublehaploid populations, in which only the allelic diversity that segregates between the parents can be assessed. Therefore, GWAS can identify associated loci with the trait response at a much higher mapping resolution than biparental mapping (Rafalski, 2002;Nordborg and Weigel, 2008;Zhu et al., 2008;Neumann et al., 2011).In durum wheat, AM has been used to dissect the genetic basis of important agronomic traits including grain yield, yellow pigment, root architecture, plant height, and drought and salinity tolerance (Reimer et al.,  2008; Canè et al., 2014, Hu et al., 2015; Maccaferri et al.,  2010a; Turki et al., 2015). Moreover, GWAS has been used to identify markers associated with disease resistance to Fusarium head blight, leaf rust, and stem rust (Ghavami et al., 2011;Maccaferri et al., 2010b;Letta et al., 2014). However, the previous AM analysis for leaf rust response only included elite germplasm (cultivars and advanced lines) that was genotyped using only 225 SSR markers. Wheat landrace germplasm collections may carry new genes for resistance to diseases, including leaf rust, stem rust, and stripe rust, since the use of landraces in the modern breeding programs has been relatively rare (Reif et al., 2005;Bonman et al., 2007;Newton et al., 2010;Bux et al., 2012;Gurung et al., 2014). Recently, a high-density, SNP-based consensus map of tetraploid wheat was developed by Maccaferri et al. (2015), which will increase the effectiveness of GWAS and QTL meta-analyses.The current study describes the first durum wheat leaf rust GWAS using a highly diverse germplasm panel comprised of a worldwide collection of landraces, cultivars, and breeding lines genotyped using the Illumina iSelect 9K wheat array. This study provides relevant insight into the genetic basis underlying resistance in durum wheat to North American Pt races.A durum wheat collection of 496 accessions from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-National Small Grain Collection (NSGC) was evaluated for leaf rust resistance in this study. These accessions were originally sourced from 67 countries including accessions from Africa (96), Asia (172), Australia (7), North America (42), South America (34), Europe (140), and unknown origin (5). The collection includes 234 landraces, 55 cultivars, 128 cultivated lines, 77 breeding lines, and 2 of unknown accession type. Seeds used in this project were obtained from single plant selections increased in a nursery at the USDA-ARS-NSGC and Potato Germplasm Research Unit, Aberdeen, ID (Supplemental Table S1).The disease screenings at the seedling stage of plant development were conducted at three locations: (i) North Dakota (ND) Agricultural Experiment Station Greenhouse Complex, Fargo, ND, USA; (ii) the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory (CDL) in Saint Paul, MN, USA; and (iii) the CIMMYT, Mexico (El Batán, State of Mexico).The durum wheat collection was evaluated for response to Pt races BBBQD (California isolate), BBBQJ (Mexican isolate, BBG/BP), BBBDB (USA, Race 1), MBDSD (North Dakota isolate), MCDSS (North Dakota isolate), and a mixture of bread-wheat-type races predominant in the United States (MHDSB, MFPSB, MLDSB, TBBGG, TFBJQ, and TFBGQ). The virulence-avirulence profile of the rust races was based on infection types on seedlings of Thatcher wheat differentials that are near isogenic for single-resistance genes following the race nomenclature of Long and Kolmer (1989) (Table 1). The isolates BBBQD, BBBQJ, MBDSD, and MCDSS were collected from durum wheat. Races MBDSD and MCDSS are known to be virulent on bread wheat as well. All other isolates were collected from bread wheat germplasm.The North Dakota experiment was performed in a randomized complete block design with two replications for race BBBQD and three replicates for races MBDSD and MCDSS. A second experiment was conducted for race  Lr10,39,B Lr1,2a,2c,3,3ka,9,11,14a,16,17,18,21,24,26,28,30,42 BBBDB ‡ § Lr14a Lr1,2a,2c,3,3ka,9,11,16,17,18,21,24,26,28,30,39,42,B BBBQD. The seedlings were grown in the greenhouse as previously described by Kertho et al. (2015). The susceptible bread wheat cultivar Little Club and susceptible durum wheat RL6089 were included in each tray as susceptible checks. Two replicates of Thatcher near-isogenic line differentials were planted alongside each experiment to confirm the purity of the races. Urediniospores of each race were increased by inoculating them onto the seedlings of susceptible wheat host (RL6089 or 'Morocco') treated with 30 mL of water solution of maleic hydrazide (3 g L −1 ) per small pot at coleoptile emergence. After sporulation, the urediniospores were collected and kept at 4C until needed.Seedlings at the two-leaf stage, usually 12 d after planting, were sprayed with fresh urediniospores suspended in Soltrol-170 mineral oil (Phillips Petroleum) at a concentration of 10 6 spores mL −1 using an inoculator pressurized by an air pump. The inoculated seedlings were left to air-dry and later placed in a dark dew chamber at 20C overnight. The humidifiers were set for 20 s every 4 min to maintain 100% leaf wetness. Thereafter, the plants were transferred to the greenhouse maintained at 22 and 18°C (day vs. night) with 16-hour photoperiod until evaluation of infection types.The experiment performed at the CDL with races BBBDB, BBBQD, and the race mixture (MHDSB, MFPSB, MLDSB, TBBGJ, TFBJQ, and TFBGQ) were conducted in augmented design with one replicate. Five to seven seeds of each durum wheat accession were planted in 50-cell trays containing vermiculite. The susceptible checks Little Club and RL6089 were included in the experiment several times. Urediniospore increase, inoculation, incubation, and greenhouse conditions were as previously described by Kolmer and Hughes (2013). The screening using race BBBQJ was conducted at CIM-MYT in augmented design and the experiment was repeated twice. The seedlings were grown as previously described by Loladze et al. (2014). Seven to 10 seedlings from each accession were grown at 22C in the greenhouse in pots with four accessions planted per pot with a soil mix consisting of one part peat moss, one part sand, and one part black soil. Pots were fertilized twice with a urea fertilizer (5 g per 10 L of water) 4 to 5 d after planting and 2 to 3 d after inoculation. Seedlings were inoculated with a suspension of urediniospores and light mineral oil (Soltrol 170; 1 mg of urediniospores per 1 mL of oil) using a hydrocarbon propellant pressure pack. The oil was allowed to evaporate from the leaves for at least 30 min before incubating in dark at 20C for 18 h. Following incubation, plants were transferred to the greenhouse at 23°C with 16 h photoperiod.Leaf rust infection types (ITs) were assessed 12 d postinoculation on the second leaves of seedlings using a 0-to-4 scale (Long andKolmer, 1989, McIntosh et al., 1995) where IT 0 = no visible symptom, ; = hypersensitive flecks, 1 = small uredinia with necrosis, 2 = small-to medium-size uredinia surrounded by chlorosis, 3 = medium-size uredinia with no chlorosis or necrosis, and 4 = large uredinia with no necrosis or chlorosis. Larger and smaller uredinia than expected for each IT were designated with + and −, respectively. Symbols C and N are used to indicate more than usual degrees of chlorosis and necrosis, respectively. Heterogeneous infection type evenly distributed over the leaf surface was designated as X (mesothetic reaction). Accessions with ITs of 0 to 2+ and X were considered resistant, while 3 and 4 scores were considered susceptible (McIntosh et al., 1995;Long and Kolmer, 1989).To account for multiple ITs in a single plant at seedling stage, the 0-to-4 scale for leaf rust was converted to a linearized 0-to-9 scale using the weighted mean of the most and the least predominant IT on the same leaf surface (Zhang et al., 2014). Ratings of 0 to 6 were classified as resistant IT and 7 to 9 were considered as susceptible IT.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the linearized 0-to-9 ratings was performed using SAS software 9. 3 (SAS Institute, 2011) to test for the homogeneity of variances for experiments and replicates. The homogeneity of variance test resulted in combining IT data from the two North Dakota experiments on race BBBQD and the mean was used for the GWAS, while the CDL experiment for the same race was analyzed as a separate experiment. For all other experiments with two or three replicates on the rest of the races, the mean across replicates for each accession was used.The accessions were field tested in 2012 at St. Paul (MN_ StP_F) and Crookston (MN_Cr_F) in Minnesota and at CIMMYT Centro Experimental de Norman E. Borlaug station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora (MX_Ob_F) and at CIMMYT Headquarters, El Batán experimental station (MX_EB_F) in 2013.In MN_StP_F and MN_Cr_F, 50 to 60 seeds of each accession were planted in a 3-m row and 30 cm apart. Rows of the susceptible wheat cultivars, Thatcher, Little Club, and Morocco were planted perpendicular to the durum wheat entries. The spreader rows were inoculated with a mixture of six Pt races (MHDSB, MFPSB, MLDSB, TBBGJ, TFGJQ, and TFBGQ) from bread wheat that were present in the Great Plains region. The common spring wheat cultivars Thatcher, Tom, Verde, and Knudson were planted every 100 entries as checks. Field inoculation was conducted as described by Kolmer (2015b).In both Mexican field locations, the accessions were planted in single 1.2-m-long rows with a leaf rust-susceptible cultivar Banamichi C2004 planted as a rust spreader. Susceptible durum wheat lines (Atil*2/Local Red; Sooty_9/ Rascon_37; Jupare C 2001, Bergand/Amic//Playero/ Piquero and ATIL/3/Bergand/Amic//Playero/Piquero), resistant durum wheat lines (Cirno C 2008, Sooty_9/ Rascon_37//Llareta INIA and Sooty_9/Rascon_37//Guayacan INIA), and the bread wheat Thatcher were included as checks in the experiment every 50 entries. All accessions and the susceptible spreader rows were inoculated with leaf rust race BBBQJ, the predominant durum-specific race in Mexico carrying virulence for Lr10, Lr11, Lr23, Lr27+31, and Lr72 as described by Loladze et al. (2014). The suspension of the urediniospores in light mineral oil (Soltrol 170; 2 mg of urediniospores per 1 mL of oil) was applied using a hand sprayer at least three times at tillering stage of plant development.The germplasm at all locations was evaluated when at least 70 to 80% of the flag leaf area of the susceptible checks was covered by uredinia. The accessions were evaluated using the modified Cobb scale (Peterson et al., 1948) ~2 mo after planting. The scoring was based on both the disease severity (the percentage of tissue infected) and the plant response to infection. Plant response was recorded as resistant (R), moderately resistant (MR), moderately susceptible (MS), and susceptible (S) reactions (McIntosh et al., 1995). In some cases, infection responses were a combination between any two categories on the same leaf with most predominant infection response first followed by the least predominant one. For instance, MSMR referred to overlapping of MS and MR categories, where MS was observed more frequently than MR response. All accessions with R, RMR, MR, and MRMS infection responses were considered resistant. In addition, accessions with MSMR and MS infection response but severity lower than 20% were also considered resistant.For AM analysis, disease severity and infection response data were combined in a single value as the coefficient of infection, which was calculated by multiplying the severity and a constant for host response where immune = 0.0, R = 0.2, MR = 0.4, MS = 0.8, S = 1.0, RMR = 0.3, MRMS = 0.5, MSMR = 0.6, and MSS = 0.9 (modified Yu et al., 2011).The durum wheat collection were genotyped through the Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural Project using the Illumina iSelect 9K wheat array (Cavanagh et al., 2013) at the USDA-ARS genotyping laboratory in Fargo, ND. A total of 5490 high-quality polymorphic SNPs were originally selected. Marker data are available through the USDA-NIFA-funded T-CAP project (http://www. triticeaecap.org) and only 0.7% of SNP data was missing. However, only 3569 SNP markers (i.e., 1.37 marker cM −1 ), which were in common with those included in the tetraploid wheat consensus map of ~2600 cM (Maccaferri et al., 2015), were used in the GWAS (Supplemental Table S2). Markers with minor allele frequency (MAF) of <5.0% were eliminated to reduce the chance of detecting false positives. In addition, markers that had >10% missing data were discarded from further analysis. The genetic position of the SNP markers was estimated based on the tetraploid wheat consensus map developed from Illumina iSelect 90K wheat array (Maccaferri et al., 2015). Redundant accessions sharing exactly the same SNP genotypes were subsequently excluded, which resulted in eliminating 64 accessions from the analysis.Linkage disequilibrium for all pairwise comparisons between intrachromosomal SNPs was computed and the genome-wide LD decay was estimated using JMP Genomics 6.1 software (SAS Institute, 2012). The LD was computed as the squared correlation coefficient (R 2 ) for each of the marker pairs. The genome-wide LD decay was estimated by plotting LD estimate (R 2 ) from all 14 chromosomes against the corresponding pairwise genetic distances (cM). Smoothing spline Fit (lambda = 114,551.3) was applied to LD decay.The population structure (Q matrix) (Price et al., 2006) was assessed through principal component (PC) analysis. The familial relatedness was estimated using an identityby-state matrix (K matrix) (Zhao et al., 2007). Both K and Q matrices were generated using JMP Genomics 6.1. Four regression models were used to analyze marker-trait association using JMP Genomics 6.1. They included (i) naïve model that did not account for kinship and population structure, (ii) kinship, (iii) kinship plus population structure (first two PCs that collectively explained 21.8%), and (iv) kinship plus population structure (first three PCs that collectively explained 26.6%). The K and the Q matrices were included in the regression equation to ensure that only genetically significant associations were detected from the GWAS and were not spurious associations resulting from population structure or familial relatedness. The general formula of the mixed linear model used for the GWAS follows the regression equation y = Xb + Qu + Iµ + e, where y is a vector of phenotypic values, X is a vector of SNP marker genotypes, b is a vector of fixed effects as a result of the genotype, Q is matrix of principle component vectors estimating population structure, u = vector of fixed effects resulting from population structure, I is an identity matrix, µ is a vector of random effects that estimates the probability of coancestry between genotypes, and e is a vector of residuals. The variances of µ and e effects are based on these assumptions; Var(u) = 2KV g and Var(e) = V R , where K is the kinship matrix deduced from genotypes based on the proportion of shared allele values, V g is the genetic variance, and V R is the residual variance (Yu et al., 2006;Zegeye et al., 2014). Each SNP marker was then fitted into the regression equation to generate a P-value. Marker-trait associations were considered significant at a P ≤ 0.001.For each regression model, the SNP markers were ranked from smallest to largest P-values. The best model for each leaf rust race-field location was chosen based on the mean squared difference (MSD) between observed and expected P-values (Mamidi et al., 2011) because of the uniform distribution of random marker P-values (Yu et al., 2006). The MSD was calculated using the following formula:where n is the number of markers, i is the rank number that is from 1 to n, and pi is the probability of the ith-ranked P-value. Significant markers associated with response to leaf rust were selected only from the model with the lowest MSD value. The P-values of the selected model were later adjusted by calculating the corresponding positive false discovery rate (pFDR) (Benjamini and Yekutieli, 2001) using JMP genomics 6.1. Marker-trait associations were finally considered significant at a pFDR ≤0.1. Furthermore, we performed a stepwise regression using JMP genomics 6.1 on the significant SNPs of each trait. This allowed determining the minimum number of SNPs independently associated with leaf rust response (Gurung et al., 2014). The selected SNPs from the stepwise regression explain similar phenotypic variation as that described by all the significant SNPs considered together for each trait (Mamidi et al., 2014).A total of 496 durum wheat accessions were evaluated for response to different Pt races at seedling stage in the greenhouse and at adult plant stage in the field. Most of the accessions were phenotyped in the experiments conducted in the United States. In Mexico, 364 were evaluated with race BBBQJ at the seedline stage in the greenhouse, while 371 and 383 accessions were screened at adult-plant stage in MX_EB_F and MX_Ob_F, respectively (Table 2; Supplemental Table S1).Phenotypic data for seedling stage were homogeneous based on Levene's test (Levene, 1960) on ITs for each Pt race except for BBBQD. Therefore, phenotypic data of replicates and experiments were pooled for each race and arithmetic means were calculated and used for AM. The North Dakota and CDL experiments for race BBBQD (BBBQD (ND) and BBBQD (CDL), respectively) were analyzed separately in the GWAS because of the nonhomogeneity of variance (Supplemental Table S1). The discrepancies between experiments with race BBBQD could be due to different experimental conditions at the CDL and North Dakota sites and differing interpretation of ITs.The percentage of accessions with resistance to durum-specific races was low. For instance, resistance within the 496 accessions to BBBQD (ND), BBBQD (CDL), BBBQJ, MBDSD, and MCDSS was 4.91% (24 accessions), 12.27% (60 accessions), 20.98% (77 accessions), 30.44% (151 accessions), and 37.98% (188 accessions), respectively. As expected, the percentage of accessions resistant to most Pt races collected from bread wheat was high. For instance, resistance to BBBDB was 71.46% (353 accessions) and 60.56% (281 accessions) for the race mixture (Table 2).A high percentage of resistance was observed among the 496 accessions when evaluated at adult plant stage in both Minnesota trials that were inoculated with bread wheat specific races. At MN_Cr_F, 85.90% (371 accessions) of the durum germplasm was resistant, while 89.60% (406 accessions) of the collection screened at MN_StP_F was classified as resistant. On the contrary, there was much lower proportion of resistant accessions at both Mexico locations, where races virulent to durum wheat were used for inoculation and present as natural inoculum in the field. The percentage of resistant germplasm was estimated at 53.79% (206 accessions) and 39.89% (148 accessions) in MX_Ob_F and MX_EB_F, respectively (Table 2).Across most experiments, resistant accessions were mainly landraces (Table 2). The only exception was the experiment in MN_Cr_F where 41.78 and 38.81% of resistant accessions were cultivars and landraces, respectively. Thirteen accessions comprised of eight landraces, two breeding lines, two cultivated lines, and one cultivar were resistant across all experiments. These accessions were collected from Australia (PI 209274), Portugal (PI 192051 and PI 193920), Ethiopia (PI 534304, PI 387263, CItr 14623, and PI 195693), Lebanon (PI 342647 and PI 519832), Malta (PI 278379), Yemen (PI 244061), Jordon (PI 223155), and Argentina (PI 324928) (Table 3).Markers with MAF of <5.0% and missing data points >10.0% were discarded. Therefore, 3067 SNP markers were kept for further analysis and were ordered according to the scaled map positions of the SNP marker-based tetraploid wheat consensus map (Maccaferri et al., 2015). These SNPs were distributed across all chromosomes in the A and B genomes, 1549 markers (50.5%) and 1518 markers (49.5%), respectively. The LD decayed to 0.2 within 2.63 cM, on average (Fig. 1). Significant associated SNPs between which the pairwise LD (r 2 ) ≥ 0.7 were considered a single association or locus.Population structure was inferred using principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA shows that two, three, and 10 PCs explain a cumulative 21.2, 26.1, and 41.5% of the genotype variation, respectively. The first three PCs clustered the collection into three subpopulations (Fig. 2). Subpopulation 1 (in red color) contains the largest number of accessions (376), which are mainly from Europe (121 accessions), Asia (123 accessions), North America (45 accessions), and South America (27 accessions). Subpopulation 2 (blue color) was the smallest with only 27 accessions mainly from Africa (7 accessions), Asia (7 accessions), and Europe (8 accessions). Subpopulation 3 (green color) includes 29 accessions mostly from Africa (21 accessions, 18 from Ethiopia and three from Eritrea). Thus, clustering of these accessions was not based on the geographic location except for Subpopulation 3. In Subpopulation 1, 59% were cultivars and breeding lines, while in Subpopulations 2 and 3, 63.0 and 76.0% were landraces, respectively.The familial relatedness was estimated using an identity-by-state matrix (K matrix). Kinship between accessions was calculated and a heat map of the markerbased K matrix is illustrated in Supplemental Fig. S1. The durum collection had intermediate familial relationships as some hotspots with related lines were observed on the heat map. Accounting for the population structure and familial relationship between individuals in the AM analysis reduces the number of false-positive associated markers. Based on MSD values of the four regression models tested, no single model fits best for all traits. For instance, the kinship model was used for MX_ Ob_F, MX_EB_F, MN_Cr_F, and MN_StP_F, while 2PCs+kinship was the model used for BBBQD (ND) and BBBQD (CDL). Model 3PCs+Kinship fits best for MBDSD, MCDSS, BBBDB, and race mixture (Table 4).Association mapping based on the infection type to different Pt isolates at seedling stage in the greenhouse and at adult stage in the field revealed 88 significant SNP markers. The leaf rust response-SNP associations were distributed across all chromosomes except for 1B and 7B. Twenty markers were associated with leaf rust response at seedling stage, while 68 markers were associated with leaf rust response at adult plant stage. Of these 88 markers, 33 were located on chromosomes 2A and 2B. Based on the pairwise LD, the 88 SNPs represented 37 different loci (Supplemental Table S3, S4). Evaluation of the 88 SNPs in all resistant accessions allowed verification of the association of the SNP markers with disease response and identification of alleles associated with the resistance to Pt (Supplemental Table S4).At seedling stage, 14 SNPs on chromosomes 2A, 2B, 3B, 4A, and 5A were associated with response to BBBQD (ND). These markers represent six different loci. Three of the 14 markers fit into a stepwise regression, accounting for 11.9% of the phenotypic variation. The experiment at the CDL with the same race (BBBQD) revealed a total of nine associated SNPs located on 2A, 2B, 5A, and 6A, representing six loci. Four of the nine markers fit into a stepwise regression and accounted for 11.9% of the phenotypic variation (Table 5; Fig. 3, 4). The experiments with BBBQD at the North Dakota and CDL sites shared five associated SNPs corresponding to three loci located on 2A, 2B, and 5A (Table 6).Two markers, IWA7547 and IWA757, on chromosomes 2A and 5B, respectively, were associated with response to Pt races MCDSS and MBDSD and to the Pt race mixture at seedling stage. The marker IWA7547 was the only one generated from the stepwise regression model in races MCDSS, MBDSD, and Pt race mixture.Only one significant marker, IWA757 (located on chromosome 5B), was found associated with response to race BBBDB. This marker was considered significantly associated despite a pFDR of 0.2 (pFDR  0.1 cutoff used for significant associated markers across all experiments) because it was also associated with response at seedling stage to races MBDSD, MCDSS, BBBQD (ND), BBBQD (CDL), and the race mixture.Three markers on chromosomes 4B and 6A were associated with response to BBBQJ representing two loci on chromosomes 4B and 6A. Two markers fit into a stepwise regression and accounted for 7.8% of the phenotypic variation (Table 5; Fig. 3, 4).At the adult plant stage in the field experiments, 12 markers on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, and 6A were significantly associated with response to Pt races in MN_StP_F, representing six loci. Furthermore, six of the 12 markers fit into a stepwise regression and accounted for 52.7% of the phenotypic variation.Fourteen markers on chromosomes 2A, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 5A were significantly associated with response to Pt races in MN_Cr_F. These SNPs represent six loci. Five of the 14 significant markers fit into a stepwise regression and accounted for 27.1% of the phenotypic variation. Six markers, representing two loci, on chromosomes 2A (Lr.locus-2A4) and 3A (Lr.locus-3A2), respectively, were associated with response to Pt races at both locations in Minnesota. Similarly, 25 markers were significantly associated with response to Pt races in the MX_EB_F trial and were located on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 3A, 3B, 5A, 6B, and 7A. Twelve out of these 25 SNPs represent different loci. Eight of the 25 significant markers fit into a regression model and together accounted for 48.0% of the phenotypic variation.At the MX_Ob_F trial, 29 markers were associated with leaf rust response. These markers, located on chromosomes 1A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4B, 6B, and 7A, represented 11 loci. Three of the 29 markers fit into a stepwise regression and explained 19.0% of the phenotypic variation (Table 5; Fig. 3, 4).Two markers, IWA1387 and IWA7151, on chromosome 1A and a marker, IWA757, on chromosome 6B were detected in response to Pt races across the Mexican locations. Moreover, markers IWA3512 on 3A and IWA4618 on 4B were associated with resistance or susceptibility to the races in field trials in Minnesota and Mexico (Table 6). A total of 19 SNPs, representing 11 loci, were significantly associated with leaf rust response in two or more tests (Table 6). Marker IWA7547 located on chromosome 2AL at 137.1-cM position based on the consensus map       In this study, we identified durum wheat accessions carrying race-specific and broad-spectrum resistance to leaf rust. The GWAS showed 88 significant SNPs associated with leaf rust response. These markers represent 37 loci distributed across all chromosomes except 1B and 7B. Interestingly, chromosomes 1B and 7B are known to carry adult-plant leaf rust resistance genes in bread wheat including Lr46 (1BL) and Lr68 (7BL) (Singh et al., 1998;Herrera-Foessel et al., 2012). Some of the identified loci in this study appeared to be located in genomic regions of previously characterized Lr genes and QTL in earlier AM studies and biparental populations in durum and bread wheat. However, several other loci are previously unknown to be associated with leaf rust response. These findings will be valuable to both durum and bread wheat breeding programs.Difference in frequency of resistance to races collected from common and durum wheat were evident in the germplasm collection. The majority of accessions were resistant to races collected from bread wheat, while most were susceptible to races from durum wheat, which agrees with previous studies (Singh, 1991;Huerta-Espino and Roelfs, 1992;Ordoñez and Kolmer, 2007a). Unexpectedly, low levels of resistance to the isolates collected from durum wheat fields in North Dakota in 2012 (race MBDSD and MCDSS) were observed. Isolates of these races are also commonly found on bread wheat in North Dakota and other regions in the United States (Kolmer and Hughes, 2014). Screening of 60 cultivars and breeding lines from the North Dakota durum wheat breeding program with the MCDSS revealed that 51.7% of accessions were susceptible at seedling stage (data not shown). This suggests that Pt races currently present in North Dakota with a combined virulence on both common and durum wheat may become a threat to durum wheat production in the United States, especially since race MBDSD has been common in recent US surveys (Kolmer and Hughes, 2014).Of all evaluated genotypes, 13 accessions were resistant across all experiments. The SNP genotype showed that none of these accessions were duplicates. However,  (2015). The association mapping results are reported for Puccinia triticina races used at seedling stage in the greenhouse and at artificially inoculated field trials performed in the United States and Mexico. Markers in red are the significant SNP-leaf rust association observed in this study. † Simple-sequence repeat (SSR) marker associated with leaf rust response in durum wheat in Maccaferri et al. study (2010b). The genetic locations of Lr genes are indicated with arrows. The Lr genes assigned to chromosomes but not yet mapped are in a box at the bottom of each chromosome. Centromere position is indicated with a black circle on the chromosome bar. Not all SSR in the tetraploid consensus map (Maccaferri et al. 2015) are presented in this figure, a more saturated genetic map is presented in Supplemental Table S3.genetic mapping and allelism tests are required to verify whether these accessions have different or the same resistance genes. Accession data in the NSGC records indicates that seven of these resistant accessions were originally collected from Mediterranean countries and the Fertile Crescent, while four accessions were from Ethiopia. This is not surprising, as these countries belongs to the center of origin and diversity of durum wheat (Demissie and Habtemariam, 1991;Tesemma and Belay, 1991;Salamini et al., 2002). The coevolution of the leaf rust pathogen and wheat in these areas is believed to exert selection pressure, resulting in fitness advantages and maintenance of disease resistance diversity in wheat (Newton et al., 2010).Further screening at seedling stage with races collected from durum wheat from Argentina (Arg. 9.3: BBBQD), France (FRA4.3: BBBQD), Ethiopia (E11D2-1: MCDSB, E114-1: BBBQD, and E125-1: EEEEE, avirulent on Thatcher), Arizona (09AZ103A:BBBQB), Mexico (LCJ/ BN and BBB/BN_Lr61vir), and Italy (PSB7: FGBQ) and at adult stage in Ethiopian and Moroccan fields in 2014 showed that eight out of the 13 previously mentioned accessions were resistant across all experiments (unpublished data). The remaining five accessions were resistant to most races. PI 278379 was susceptible only to Ethiopian isolates (E125-1 and E114-1), PI 519832 was susceptible to a French isolate (FRA 4.3) and an Ethiopian isolate (E114-1), PI 387263 was susceptible to only one Ethiopian isolate (E125-1), PI 324928 was susceptible to only Mexican races (LCJ/BN and BBB/BN_Lr61vir), and CItr 14623 was susceptible to only an Ethiopian isolate (E125-1) (Supplemental Table S5). Thus, these accessions In this study, the identified loci were not associated with response across all experiments and Pt races tested in North America. For instance, 26 of the discovered loci in this project were race or assay specific, while other loci appear to be more stable. This suggests that breeders may need to pyramid multiple loci to achieve broad-spectrum and stable leaf rust resistance.Chromosomes 3A, 5A, and 6A have not been previously shown to carry known Lr genes in either bread or durum wheat (McIntosh et al., 2014). However, some Lr genes from the ancestors of wheat were reported on chromosomes 3A and 6A. This includes Lr63 (from T. monococcum L.) and Lr66 (Aegilops speltoides Tausch), both on 3A, and Lr64 [from T. dicoccoides (Korn. ex Asch. & Graebn.) Schweinf.] on 6A (Kolmer et al., 2010;Marais et al., 2010, Kolmer, 2008). The Lr genes introgressed from alien species were not considered in this comparison because of the low chance of their presence in the current can be used to diversify leaf rust resistance in different breeding programs globally.Out of the 37 loci associated with leaf rust resistance or susceptibility in durum wheat germplasm in this study, 11 were associated with response to at least two Pt races and experiments. Loci associated with both seedling and adult-plant response were not observed at the cutoff used, P ≤ 0.001 and pFDR ≤ 0.1. This probably is due to the difference in the races used for screening of the durum accessions at seedling stage in the greenhouse and at adult stage in the field in addition to the presence of natural inoculum in field trials. However, increasing the pFDR to 0.22 to 0.29 showed SNPs (136.9-137.1 cM) on Lr.Locus-2A.4 associated with response to races in MN_Cr_F, MN_StP_F, and MX_EB_F. The same locus was also significantly associated with response to US races (BBBQD, MBDSD, MCDSS, and race mixture) tested at seedling stage. Similarly, marker IWA4187 (176.2 cM) on 7A was associated (at pFDR = 0.3) with response to MBDSD and races in MN_StP_F. durum wheat collection used. In addition, distantly located known Lr genes from the associated loci in this study were regarded as different.Two loci on chromosome 2BL, Lr.locus-2B2 (95.2 cM) and Lr.locus-2B3 (100.9 cM), associated with response to leaf rust in MX_Ob_F were in close proximity to the adult plant resistance gene Lr35. However, this gene has been introgressed from A. speltoides (Seyfarth et al., 1999). On chromosome 4AS, the gene Lr30 was located close to the identified Lr.locus-4A1 (59.9 cM); however, the mapping information of Lr30 was not sufficient to make inferences.On chromosome 4BL, Lr.locus-4B1 (70.9 cM) was mapped in the vicinity of Lr12, Lr31, and Lr49. The Lr.locus-4B1 was associated with response to race BBBQJ tested as seedling stage, which distinguishes them from the adult-plant resistance genes Lr12 and Lr49 (Dyck, 1991;Bansal et al., 2008). Likewise, Lr.locus-5B1 (2.7 cM) on 5BS was in close proximity to Lr52, which is closely linked to gwm443 and gwm234 and is also thought to confer leaf rust resistance in the Australian durum cultivar Wollaroi (Singh et al., 2010) and in accessions of the Watkins wheat collection (Dyck and Jedel, 1989). In addition, the locus Lr.locus-6A2 (88.2 cM) on chromosome 6A was located within the genomic region close to Lr64 (Kolmer et al., 2010;Marais et al., 2010, Kolmer, 2008). On chromosome 7AL, Lr.locus-7A3 (206.4 cM) appeared near the genomic region where the gene Lr20 (Watson and Luig 1966;Sears and Briggle 1969;Neu et al., 2002) was mapped.Associated SNPs within the genomic region of Lr14a (7BL), which has been widely used, especially in the CIMMYT breeding programs, were not detected in the present study. This most probably is due to the rare frequency of Lr14a in the current germplasm collection as estimated based on the screening with the Lr14a diagnostic markers (gwm344 and gwm146) (data not shown). This agrees with the statement that GWAS has limited power to detect alleles that occur at low frequency in the germplasm (Myles et al., 2009;Brachi et al., 2011).In summary, from this comparison, four of the currently identified loci are probably Lr31, Lr52, Lr64, and Lr20. However, allelism tests are necessary to determine the relationship between these loci and the above-mentioned Lr genes.The recently published tetraploid wheat consensus map (Maccaferri et al., 2015) containing different types of markers provided an opportunity to compare our GWAS results based on SNP markers with the only available AM of leaf rust response in durum wheat that was based on SSR markers (Maccaferri et al., 2010b) (Fig. 4).The loci Lr.locus-1A1 (27.9 cM) and Lr.locus-1A2 (31.9 cM) were located close to wmc24 (28.1 cM). The latter was strongly associated with response to a durumspecific race from Italy and a bread wheat isolate from Poland. Two more loci, Lr.locus-1A3 (44.3 cM) and Lr.locus-1A4 (44.6 cM), were mapped close to wmc469 (46.1 cM). Marker wmc469 was previously reported to be associated with response to European and Mexican isolates tested at both adult plant and seedling stages.Lr.locus-2A3 (107.6-107.7 cM) was located close to SSR marker gwm1045 (108.9 cM), which was shown to be associated with response to durum-wheat-type races from Italy both at adult plant and seedling stages.Lr.locus-2B4 (137.9 cM) was located close to gwm47 (138.2 cM). Two more loci, Lr.locus-2B5 (148 cM) and Lr.locus-2B6 (151 cM), were proximal to gwm1300 (149 cM). Both SSR markers (gwm47 and gwm1300) were associated with leaf rust response at seedling stage to both bread wheat-and triticale-specific isolates from Poland.Lr.locus-3B2 (61.6 cM) was in the same genomic location as the SSR marker gwm779 (61.4 cM), which was associated with response at seedling stage to isolates collected from Poland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Two other loci, Lr.locus-3B3 (100.2 cM) and Lr.locus-3B4 (100.7-101.6 cM), on the same chromosome, were close to barc164 (100.7 cM). The latter was associated with response at seedling stage to the durum-specific race BBBGJ collected from Italy.Lr.locus-4A2 (71.2 cM) was closely mapped to barc155 (77.4 cM), which was previously associated mainly with response at seedling stage to BBBGJ from Italy.Lr.locus-4B2 (70.9 cM) was in the vicinity of gwm1084 (78.5 cM). This SSR was associated with reaction at seedling stage to a triticale isolate (Poland) and two isolates from bread wheat that were collected from Poland and the United Kingdom. Lr.locus-6A1 (5.9 cM) was in close proximity to SSR marker gwm459 (3.0 cM), which was associated with response at seedling stage to some bread-wheat-type isolates that originated from Poland and the United Kingdom. One more locus, Lr.locus-6A2 (88.2 cM), was proximal to wmc553 (90.3 cM) and gwm570 (90.5 cM).The wmc553 was associated with response at seedling stage to two bread-wheat-type races from the United Kingdom, while gwm570 was related to response at seedling stage to a bread-wheat-type isolate from the United Kingdom and a triticale isolate from Poland.Lr.locus-7A3 (206.4 cM) was proximal to gwm344 (205.7 cM) and cfa2257 (204.2 cM). The SSR marker gwm344 was associated with response at seedling stage to some tested bread wheat isolates from the United Kingdom, a triticale isolate from Poland, and at adult-plant stage in field trials in Italy. The marker cfa2257 was related to response at seedling stage to bread wheat isolates from Poland and the United Kingdom and a triticale isolate from Poland.Based on this comparison between the results of the current GWAS and the previous one performed by Maccaferri et al. (2010b), 17 associations were found in common between the two studies. Of these, 12 loci were associated with adult-plant response, while five loci were associated with seedling-stage response to leaf rust in the current study.To investigate possible cross-relationship between associated loci with leaf rust response found in durum and bread wheat, a comparison with GWAS on bread wheat germplasm was performed. Based on the genomic position of the SNPs in the tetraploid consensus map, eight identified loci in this study were previously reported in two AM analyses in bread wheat (Kertho et al., 2015;Gao et al., 2016).For instance, the GWAS by Kertho et al. (2015) on winter wheat germplasm reported IWA3160 (50.1 cM) on 1A to be associated with response to the bread-wheat-type race TBDJ. This locus was proximal to the significant loci Lr.locus-1A3 (44.3 cM) and Lr.locus-1A4 (44.6 cM) for bread-wheat-type races in MN_StP_F. Similarly, IWA7429 (107.7 cM) on 2A and IWA5526 (135.1 cM) on 7A that were found to be in association with response to the breadwheat-type race TDBG in winter wheat were mapped close to Lr.locus-2A3 (107.6-107.7 cM) and Lr.locus-7A2 (133.7 cM), respectively. The marker IWA6244 (66.1 cM) on 3B that was significant for bread-wheat-type race MCDL was closely mapped to Lr.locus-3B2 (61.6 cM). Surprisingly, Lr.locus-2A3, Lr.locus-7A2, and Lr.locus-3B2 in the current work were associated with durum-type races in field experiments (MX_EB_F and MX_Ob_F).In addition, a comparison with the GWAS on spring wheat germplasm by Gao et al. (2016) was conducted. This revealed that IWB74350/IWB73424 (2.4 cM) on 3B, IWB25253/IWB57347 (72.1-73 cM) on 4A, and IWB43173/IWB45939 (5.9 cM) on 6A, which were significant for North American bread-wheat-type races in spring wheat, were in close proximity to the Lr.locus-3B1 (4.2 cM), Lr.locus-4A2 (71.2 cM), and Lr.locus-6A1 (5.9 cM), respectively. The latter loci were also associated with response to bread-wheat-type races in field trials (MN_ Cr_F and MN_StP_F) in the present study. The results of this comparison suggest that some similarities between durum and bread wheat leaf rust resistance do exist.Even though, some bread-wheat-type races (BBBDB, race mixture, and races in MN_StP_F and MN_Cr_F) used by Gao et al. (2016) were the same as those in the current work, there were very few similarities between loci reported. In addition, the race BBBQD (isolate collected from California) was also used by Gao et al. (2016); however, no common associations were observed with the present study. This suggests that leaf rust resistance in durum and bread wheat are under the control of different genetic loci.The identified SNPs in this work were also compared with the recent QTL meta-analysis study that was performed using 20 biparental mapping populations and 33 different parental lines of durum and bread wheat (Soriano and Royo, 2015). The comparison showed that nine identified loci in this study were previously reported in the QTL meta-analysis. For instance, two loci on 1A, Lr.locus-1A1 (27.9 cM) and Lr.locus-1A2 (31.9 cM), were in the genomic region of wmc95 (22.3 cM), which is a marker linked to resistant QTL in the bread wheat cultivars Apache and Sujata (Azzimonti et al., 2014;Lan et al., 2015). Another locus on 2A, Lr.locus-2A3 (107.6 cM), was positioned close to gwm339 (99.0 cM), which is one of the flaking marker of a QTL identified in the durum cultivar Creso (Marone et al., 2009). Likewise, Lr.locus-2B1 (94.2 cM) and Lr.locus-2B2 (95.2 cM) on 2B were closely mapped to gwm55 (94.0 cM) that is linked to QTL in bread wheat cultivars W-7984, Kariega, Avocet, and Carberry (Faris et al., 1999;Prins et al., 2011;Singh et al., 2014). The comparison also revealed that Lr.locus-3B2 (61.6 cM) on 3B was located close to gwm566 (59.0 cM), which is in the genomic region of QTL in the bread wheat cultivars TA4152-6 and Francolin#1 (Chu et al., 2009;Lan et al., 2014). Three loci, Lr.locus-2B4, Lr.locus-4B1, Lr.locus-5A1, that were associated with response to leaf rust at seedling stage in this study, were in the genomic regions of QTL in Apache and Cresso on 2B; Avocet, Creso, and Forno on 4B; and Oberkulmer on 5A; respectively (Messmer et al., 2000;Schnurbusch et al., 2004;William et al., 2006;Marone et al., 2009;Azzimonti et al., 2014). However, these previously identified QTL were associated with adult plant resistance.In summary, the comparison between the 37 loci identified in the current study, characterized Lr genes, loci identified in previous GWAS, and QTL meta-analysis in biparental mapping populations in both durum and bread wheat revealed that 22 of the generated loci in the present work were previously reported. Consequently, 14 loci  may not be known to be previously associated with leaf rust response in durum and bread wheat. Five of those  are of special importance, as they are associated with leaf rust resistance to two or more Pt races. The identification of these loci through GWAS is a significant step in characterization of genes that may be used to broaden the genetic basis of leaf rust resistance in durum wheat germplasm.This study identified durum wheat accessions with both race-specific and broad-spectrum resistance. The majority of durum accessions were resistant to races collected from bread wheat, while most were susceptible to races collected from durum wheat. Thirteen accessions showed resistance to races tested at seedling stage and to a race mixture in field experiments in both the United States and Mexico. Of these, eight accessions (PI 209274, PI 192051, PI 244061, PI 223155, PI 534304, PI 193920, PI 342647, and PI 195693) were also resistant at seedling stage to additional nine isolates, collected from Mexico, Argentina, France, Ethiopia, and Italy, and at adult stage in field trials in Ethiopia and Morocco. These broadspectrum resistant accessions could be a good leaf rust resistance source to introgress into locally adapted germplasm in breeding programs globally.The GWAS revealed 88 SNPs representing 37 loci associated with leaf rust response across all durum wheat chromosomes except 1B and 7B. The comparison of their genomic regions with the known Lr genes, previous AM studies, QTL mapping in biparental populations in durum and bread wheat revealed 14 previously uncharacterized loci, of which, five were associated with leaf rust response to two or more Pt races tested at seedling stage or race mixture in field trials. The marker IWA754 (137.1 cM) on Lr.locus-2A4 was associated with response to all Pt races tested at seedling stage with the exception of BBBQJ. To validate the loci revealed by the GWAS study, biparental populations have been developed from selected accessions showing wide-spectrum leaf rust resistance. Furthermore, this study will facilitate the development of tightly linked markers for marker assisted selection in breeding programs.","tokenCount":"8500"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e10d2182158b1fbfc19d54cea2f7a568","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/60a981a0-a320-4e39-8c3a-261aa27f2295/retrieve","id":"-765641849"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"330b347c-f8ae-4036-85d5-32123d31a53f","pagecount":"21","content":"The eleven regional meteorological services centers under EMI, has been generating and disseminating consensus based user relevant seasonal climate outlook products in real time to reduce climate related risks and support sustainable development for the coming season in sectors of critical socioeconomic significances for their region. The RMSCs typically has been held tri-annual seasonal climate outlook forums where regional representatives from sectors like agriculture, health, water and disaster risk reduction gather to review the previous seasons climate performance and the likelihood of the upcoming seasons climate outlook and its implication on the most pertinent socioeconomic sectors in the given region.EMI in collaboration with AICCRA was held a workshop entitled \"Regional states assessment of Belg 2022 climate and climate outlook of the upcoming Kiremt 2022\". The overall objective of the workshop was to provide the overview of Belg 2022 performance and consensus seasonal climate outlook for Kiremt 2022 and its potential impacts on water, health, agriculture over each of the regional states. The workshop was attended by heads and experts from regional states representing agriculture, health and water offices, EMI director general, directors and experts, scientists from AICCRA and the media. Three important sessions were enjoyed at the workshop. Welcoming remark by Dawit Solomon from AICCRA, opening speech by Asaminew Teshome were parts of the first session. During session two, presentations on overview of AICCRA project focusing on EMI were made by Teferi Dejene, national assessment of Belg 2022 climate performance by Tamiru Kebede, EMI and consensus national Kiremt 2022 climate outlook by Chali Debele, EMI.The workshop gave participants an opportunity to know more about EMI and interact with director general of EMI.This report presents summary of the workshop.The objectives of the workshop were to present and discuss regional states:• The February-May 2022 climate performance assessment.• June-September 2022 climate outlook of each of regional states.• Impact assessments of Belg 2022 on key socioeconomic sectors (health, water, energy, and agriculture).• Potential impact of the upcoming Kiremt on key socioeconomic sectors (health, water, energy, and agriculture).Dawit Solomon welcomed the participants and provided them with some background information on AICCRA project.Climate information is vital to all socioeconomic sectors. Besides generating climate information, how it reaches to end users and help to reduce impacts and maximize the opportunities is a big issue which requires integrated effort among EMI, its stakeholders and partners. NFCS-E is a big success for our country as well as EMI. AICCRA has been assisted EMI on different areas including NFCS-E endorsement NCOF, RCOF. We will continue to support and work together with EMI.Finally, he welcomed and wished everyone a successful workshop.Asaminew Teshome welcomed all on this important and timely workshop on behalf of EMI. EMI has been building its capacity to provide weather and climate services that can be used to reduce risks and maximize opportunity. He said we will be committed to serve our stakeholders both at headquarters and RMSCs. The institute is working with key sectors under the umbrella of NFCS-E. EMI have been codesigning, coproducing and coevaluating the climate services with key stakeholders. Such collaborative work helped us a lot and will continue up to the lower government structure.As you all know Ethiopia has three seasons and these seasons have unique features on different areas of our country. EMI uses different types of modern stations data and models to provide timely weather and climate information. The institute has issued Belg 2022 climate outlook and its implications on the critical sectors a couple of months ago and there is a good agreement between the forecasted and the observed one.This workshop was organized with the aim to assess the Belg 2022 climate performance and to the present the Kiremt 2022 climate outlooks along with its potential impacts on key sectors over each of the regional states.Finally, he urged everyone to use the forecast as well as the updates that will be given on dekedal and monthly basis and wished all a successful workshop.Teferi Dejene provided the participants with an overview of the AICCRA project. He explained the proposed activities under one of the projects components which is improving climate services. The activities are designed mainly to improve the capacity of the research activities and services of EMI as well as supporting the implementation of NFCS-E. The progress made so far and the remaining activities which are going to be done before the end of 2022 were his next point of talk. According to him, capacity building on Py-CPT for EMI experts awn from both the headquarters and the regional meteorological centers, support for ENFCS-E endorsement, NCOF and RCOF meetings were the activities performed. While the following activities will be supposed to be accomplished on the remaining months of 2022. Tamiru provided some background information on common characteristics observed and global systems affecting the season. He presented the Belg 2022 season climate performance which included the rainfall onset, amounts, distribution and impacts during each dekade, months and the season. The summarized climate outlook assessment of Belg 2022:• The strengthening of La Niña and the frequent occurrence of tropical cyclones in the southwestern Indian Ocean particularly in February has contributed to a shortage of moisture incursion.• The mid latitude trough which usually interact with easterly moist air has been severely weakened this season.• The onset was too late, the amount and distribution were erratic.• Dominantly below normal rain was recorded across most of the Belg rain benefiting areas of the country.• Prolonged y spells were noticeably observed.• In general, poor performance of rainfall was observed from February-10 May 2022.Climate outlook for Kiremt (June-September) 2022 season, Chali Debele, EMI Chali Debele, director of meteorological forecast and early warning directorate presented the upcoming Kiremt 2022 climate outlook. According to her presentation:• Most of the recent and prognostic products are indicting the likelihood of the continuing of weak La Niña episodes in the coming performance of Kiremt 2022.• Hence, it has positive contribution for the wet performance during the Kiremt season.• Besides, negative IOD is expected through JJAS 2022.• Dominantly, normal to above normal rainfall is expected to prevail across the northern regions.• An increased chance of the domination of close to normal rainfall is anticipated across west, southwest, central and eastern Ethiopia.• Southern parts, normal to below normal rain are anticipated in the season.FEB 01 -MAY 10, 2022 PERCENT OF NORMAL• Normal onset will occur over much of the JJAS rain benefiting areas.• Late cessation for few days of the Kiremt season; occasional heavy rains during July and August, may cause flood across flood prone areas, in line with these, landslide will occur over isolated places.• Erratic temporal distribution, with few prolonged y spells during June and September.• In general, with the anticipation of negative episodic event during the upcoming NH summer monsoon, it will have positive contribution for the wet performance in the Kiremt 2022 across most of the Kiremt benefiting areas.• La Niña episode and negative IOD expected in Autumn, hence below normal Bega 2022/23 rainfall is expected across southern and southeastern lowland of Ethiopia. The third session started by introducing the Ethiopian meteorological institute regional climate service by Asaminew Teshome, following the introduction by Asalefew who is director of the central and eastern Oromia moderating on Oromia regional Kiremt 2022 seasonal forecast introducing Tizazu Geremew to give the assessment of Belg 2022 over Oromia region as follows: \"during Belg 2022 there was late onset and the rainfall distribution was erratic and also dominating below normal rainfall over the region. Tizazu also noted that there is prolonged y spell.\" After the assessments he explained the upcoming Kiremt 2022 weather outlook for Oromia like this: \"there will be La Niña and negative IOD expecting in global circulation this implication will be normal rainfall expected over most parts of Oromia and normal onset and cessation will happen\".Letter on the seasonal climate assessment and forecast by Mohamed Amini explained the impact of the Belg 2022 over agriculture as follows:• The distribution of moisture during March shows increment from dekade to dekade and the month was passed through y to moderate y over most zones of the region except some pocket parts of the zones.• The moisture performance during April month was better over most parts of the region except some parts of East Shewa, North Shewa, Horo Guduru, Arsi, West Harerghe and East Harerghe zones.• During May first, humid moisture performance dominate western zones of the region were as central zone was under very y moisture condition and south to southeastern region was passed through y to moist moisture performance.After the assessment Mohamed clearly explained the impact of expected seasonal rainfall and moisture status probabilities for Kiremt (JJAS) 2022 on agriculture enough moisture to sustain agricultural production, including the long cycle crops which are planted during April and May positive for seedling and tree planting (National Green Legacy Program) positive for fodder (margaaf) production and water storage.After the two presentations Andamalk Kifle explained the Belg 2022 impact to water and health sectors, he stated that the past season during March 2022 mostly in arid to semi-humid conditions over most parts of the basins in Oromia region and in April favorable weather for malaria outbreak was observed in Ilubabor, Bale, Guji and Borena.Sisay Kelemu facilitated the Amhara regional meteorological centers and Tilahun Sewagegn started to ad ess the Belg 2022 impact over Amhara region during February to May. In his presentation he showed that during February and March, the rainfall distribution was erratic and y spells dominantly observed. In addition to this below normal rainfall was recorded during February and March. Generally, below normal rainfall was dominantly recorded over the region. On the second presentation he will show during Kiremt 2022 there will be high chance for normal to above normal rainfall over West Amhara zones. Similarly, Waghemera, North and South Wollo, Oromia Special zone and North Shewa will receive normal to above normal rainfall.Sisay also introduced the second presenter form Amhara region as Begezaw Getu. Begezaw gave a presentation of the assessment of Belg 2022 and the impact outlook for Kiremt 2022 for agrometeorological, hy ometeorology and biometeorological points of view. In his presentation he shows the moisture status has no significant improvement of NDVI during February to April. On the other hand, the aridity index situation further improved towards the eastern part of the major rivers during the month of March and April 2nd and 3rd dekade.Begezaw also presented a tercile probability for Kiremt 2022 based on a given 1985, 1989 and 2000 analog year most of Amhara region expected normal to above normal rainfall to get good moisture which is conducive for Meher agricultural activities, for early planted long cycle Meher crops as well as to plant medium term Meher crops and perennial plants.Tesfahun Alemu from the director of Gambela regional meteorology service introduced Shimelis Shiferaw to present Belg 2022 seasonal climate assessment over Gambela region. Shimelis Shiferaw explained on the positive side of Belg 2022 season rainfall over the regions.Then he described the main points of Belg 2022 season, as summary points as follows:• During February unexpected rainfall was observed in north, east and southeastern area, which is good for late fruiting crops and grazing grass to pastoral's and it is wetter than normal climate.• During March central and southern parts received better than other parts and is mostly y than other month and below normal rainfall observed except in some pocket areas.• The onset of the Kiremt season already started early at April 1st dekade and rainfall frequently observed, and it was also wetter than normal climate.• ENSO condition also observed below average temperature at sea surface and La Niña condition extended.• In general, this season climate was wet and above normal rainfall and below average temperature climate observed in most parts of the region.Shimelis Shiferaw briefly made a presentation on the \"the upcoming Kiremt 2022 outlook\", and gave a deep explanation about how important Kiremt rainfall to their region with different economic sectors.He concluded his presentation by stating that-the following summary points-the Kiremt 2022 outlook was normal to above normal condition was expected throughout the region. It needs to take measurable action to heavy rains, it may be expected during July and August, may be the cause of flood occurrence, and landslide across some places of flood prone areas. So, it will have better attention on it. Although, we will give seasonal update forecast of each month.Latter from Gambela climate assessment and outlook presentation by Tesfahun Alemu introduced Tadesse who presented the Belg 2022 seasonal rainfall assessment and the upcoming Kiremt 2022 seasonal forecast over biometeorology and agrometeorology points of view. Tadesse started his presentation by a Belg and Kiremt climatology which favors for comfortable and malaria outbreak in the region. He summarized his presentation as follows:• In 2022 Belg season April month was most of the month will have uncomfortable heat conditions over all the selected stations.• Belg season 2022 April month the station Abobo, Gambela and Fugnidow favorable climate condition for the outbreak of malaria over all parts of selected stations.• During the Belg season THI in the month of March most of the selected stations were uncomfortable for 31 days.Tadesse also gave a short presentation about the upcoming Kiremt season. He noticed that during Kiremt 2022 expected dominating normal rainfall in Gambela region and enable to get good moisture in which is conducive for Meher agricultural activities, perennial plants and availability of pasture and inking water. Solomon introduced Dereja Baye to present the impact of Belg 2022 and the upcoming Kiremt 2022 season for agrometeorology and biometeorology sectors. He started his presentation of the Belg season over Afar he clearly shows the moisture status and comfortability index over spatially and selected stations, respectively. From his summary he made some points as follows:• The observed moisture status of the region was dominated by y and very y except in the 3rd dekade of March and April in this Belg season of 2022.• Total crops water requirement (WRSI) in most parts of the region showed poor performance and the observed poor NDVI and rangeland WRSI dominated most parts of the region. This leads to negative contribution for Belg and long cycle crops in terms of water requirement and availability of pasture and inking water for pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of the region.• Uncomfortable weather condition is increased month to month in this season. Spatially April month all people practised uncomfortable (discomfort) weather condition all day in the selected stations.• During February, March and April the condition is not favorable for the outbreak of malaria in the selected stations.Dereja Baye gave an introduction about the Kiremt 2022 in the region. Based on analog years 1985, 1989 and 2000 he shows a spatial analysis for WRSI and aridity index. He concluded his presentation by stating that:• The analyzed moisture status of selected analog years show good performance for Kiremt agricultural activities. Spatially zones 5, 4, 3 and from zone 1, Chifra and Mille, from zone 2, Aba'ala and Megale will be expected to have good moisture status. Other parts of the region were expected to get less saturated to y soil moisture.• Total crops water requirement (WRSI) in most analog years showed good to very good performance over most parts of Kiremt growing areas. This was positive contribution for pasture and inking water over pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of the region.• The expected anticipated to receive dominantly normal to above normal rainfall over much of the region enable get good moisture which would have advantage of general agricultural activities and planting of long cycle crops in this season.• During July to August in a given analog year Awash basin dominated by sub-humid to wet aridity index, which should have positive impact for surface and ground water. But more of the Afar Danakil is dominated by semi-arid to arid.Tizazu Musa from the director of SNNPR regional meteorological service introduced Kefiyalew Ayele to present the Belg 2022 climate performance and the Kiremt 2022 climate outlook. Kefiyalew Ayele give an introduction about the Belg 2022 climatology and assessment over the regions. He explained that during this season there was late onset and warmer temperature form climatology was observed from the region. He finally concludes unevenly spatial and temporal distributed, late with frequent y spell, normal to below normal rainfall was observed over most of Belg beneficiary parts of SNNPR and Sidama.Kefiyalew Ayele explained about the Kiremt 2022 climate outlooks, and clearly show the Kiremt season (June to September) over SNNPR and show the atmospheric systems that are governing the climate of Kiremt season.He concludes his presentation by showing tercile probability for Kiremt 2022 over SNNPR and gave detail explanation as follows:• Normal to above normal rainfall is expected across most of the Southwestern Ethiopia region, central and northern parts of SNNPR and western parts of Sidama region. Below normal rainfall is anticipated over southeastern parts of SNNPR and Sidama regions.• Normal onset will be expected over Kiremt rain benefiting areas of regions and normal cessation of the rainy season are expected. In general, the seasonal rain anticipated to be normal to above normal over most parts of Kiremt rain beneficiary areas of the regions.Tizazu Musa introduced Deginet Gichamo to present the Belg assessment of 2022 and the impacts outlook for Kiremt 2022. He started to introduce Belg climatology and performance moisture status and vegetation greenness (NDVI) from dekadal to monthly with map. He finally concludes the past Belg seasonal with agrometeorology, biometeorology and hy ometeorology as follows:• Both in February and March most places of SNNPR and Sidama regions experienced y to moderately y soil moisture were observed but in the Southwestern region of Ethiopia moist to humid soil moisture were observed. It was favorable condition for general agricultural activities for Meher land preparation activities in northern SNNP, Sidama and Southwestern regions. But negative impacts for Belg agricultural activity in the southern parts (Gamo, Gofa, South Omo), Konso, Gedio zones and some parts of Sidama region get satisfying of inking water over pastoral and agro-pastoral areas.• Whereas February 1st, March 1st and April 1st dekade was very y in most parts of SNNPR and Sidama regions.• In April most parts of Southwestern region and South Omo zone in SNNPR face high malaria outbreak.• Aridity index in March and April months in western parts of the regions humid to wet and northern central, southern, eastern parts of SNNPR and Sidama regions semi-arid to humid.Deginet Gichamo introduced the impact of Kiremt climatology over SNNPR in applied meteorology points of view. He concluded his presentation by stating the following summary points, as having both negative and positive impacts.Based on the given analogy year as follow: Normal rainfall is anticipated across the northern, western, eastern, central and Southwestern areas of the SNNPR, Sidama and South. And normal to below normal rainfall is expected across the south, Southeastern parts of SNNPR and eastern parts of Sidama region.Positive impacts-• Good conditions for land preparations for Meher agricultural activities.• Enough moisture to sustain agricultural production, including the long cycle crops in Southwest and most parts of SNNPR.• Positive for seedling and tree planting.• The late cessation may favor toward satisfying the water need at the end of the season.Negative impacts-• Negatively affecting water and pasture availability and crop performance of agro-pastoral areas.• Early depletion of water and pasture resources may lead to scarcity of milk and other livestock products, negatively impacting food security and nutrition.• Flood occurrence, landslide, water logging and soil erosion in line with heavy rainfall will be expected.• Possibility of weed infestation, crop pest and disease.Zerihun Hailemariam from the director of Somali and adjacent regional meteorological service introduced Gedamu Getnet to present the Belg 2022 climate performance and Kiremt 2022 climate outlook. Gedamu started to explain the Belg climatology season with map. During the Belg 2022 there were three stations that had heavy fall. He finally summarized as follows:• Most parts of northern Somali region (Sity, Fafen, eastern Harerghe zones), Hareri region, and Dire Dawa area have gotten below rainfall performance.• Southern and central parts of Somali region (northern part of Shebelle, southwestern Jarer, central Afder and Nogob zones) have gotten normal rainfall performance.• Northwestern Shebelle, northern and central part of Afder and southeastern part of Liben zones have gotten above normal rainfall performance.• Late onset of Belg season over Somali region, Dire Dawa and Hareri regions.• Day time maximum temperature above the mean.• Heavy rainfall recorded on April at Dire Dawa and Hareri.In his presentation, Gedamu Getnet discussed about Kiremt 2022 seasonal forecast for Somali and neighboring regions by showing a tercile probability map. In general, he explained the upcoming Kiremt 2022 will be near normal condition was expected throughout the Kiremt rainfall benefiting areas. He also gave a recommendation for heavy fall during August and September may cause of flood and landslide across some places of flood prone areas.Zerihun Hailemariam introduced Asmerom Birhane to present the impact of Belg 2022 assessments and Kiremt 2022 forecast. Asmerom explains seasonal classification for the region in two-way one form EMI seasonal classification and the local seasonal classification. In the presentation during Belg 2022 he shows the moisture status water requirement index in map and graphs in detail. Asmerom summarized a Belg season 2022 as follows:• The moisture status for the month of October got adequate moisture was observed over eastern Harerghe, Dire Dawa and northern parts of Somali regions.• In the southern parts of Somali region, the second rainy season got below normal rainfall performance that affect the availability of pasture and inking water.Fetene Teshome reiterated the nationally issued climate outlook for Kiremt 2022. He stated that the likelihood of normal to above normal rainfall will be expected over much of the Kiremt benefiting areas. The upcoming season rainfall will have a positive impact on critical socioeconomic sectors. He also informed the participants that the NCOF coincides with GHACOF June-September climate forecast.He talked about the Kiremt climate outlook presented by each RMSCs. It was prepared by downscaling the country level issued forecast. And as it showed in the presentations normal to above normal rainfall conditions will likely prevail over most Kiremt rainfall benefiting areas of the regional states. He urges all the participants that precaution measures need to be considered over flood prone areas.Finally, he stressfully told the attendees that they should have to consider the issued forecast and use as an input to their upcoming Kiremt activities.Question 1: Do EMI has a plan to open offices at the Southwest of Ethiopia and Sidama regional states?Can you provide us with Kiremt 2022 forecast for Sidama?Can you establish a case team at SNNPR RMSC which will oversee providing climate information for Sidama regional state?Answer: Regarding the issue of structure, as weather and climate has no boundary; any country can't stand alone and ad ess the issue of climate. WMO member countries share data and information and working collaboratively both at a global and regional level. So, EMI has been following the same principle and currently we don't have any plan to open offices at Sidama and Southwest regions but we can consider if it deems necessary. Our office at Hawassa is responsible enough to serve the three regions. The recently endorsed NFCS-E has capacity building component for both federal and regional key socioeconomic sectors. Soon there will be NFCS-E awareness creation at regional level.Question 3: The likelihood of prolonged y spell occurrence is not common during normal to above normal rainfall conditions but s Chali presentation indicate there will be y spell on the coming season?Answer: y spell will likely occur for only few days during the onset and cessation as the systems are not established well and weakness, respectively.Question 4: I am not clear with decision support tool stated on AICCRA presentation?Answer: The decision support tool was designed for agriculture and it is at pilot stage.Supplementary: EMI already developed a mobile based app that use for data exchange and will plan to have a mobile base weather forecasting app soon.Question 5: There has been a public request on updating the current three season classification. Can the research component of AICCRA include this issue?Answer: We will incorporate the issue and will try to study season classification.","tokenCount":"4016"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6d2567e620a2cdffac356cf2bbf68294","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ef18cbb5-644c-4ced-bafa-4027efe33035/retrieve","id":"-1976957489"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6848fcee-73ad-4176-a98b-7fc536dfb854","pagecount":"1","content":"• Addressing underinvestment in the livestock sector, despite its significant contribution to agricultural gross domestic product, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.• Aiming to prioritize livestock development within national agricultural strategies and attract public and private investments.• Developing national LMPs with partners to align priorities, provide analysis and foster capacity building in the sector, benefiting sub-Saharan African countries. Enhancing CAADP: The role of LMPsFig. 2 Guiding livestock investment and policy for sustainable development.Insert images or graphs in different locations in the margins• Strengthen the CAADP scorecard's effectiveness in agricultural development.• Focus on improving the crucial livestock sector in African economies.• Address data gaps in the CAADP scorecard for accurate representation.• Aid in showcasing the sector's contributions for better resource allocation.• Introduce a structured framework for ongoing performance assessment.• Support measurement of progress against set targets and facilitate adjustments.• Enhance existing CAADP indicators, including the process completion index.• Explore wider applicability and relevance of integrating LMPs into other agricultural development frameworks.• Identify potential applications of this integration beyond the African context. • LMPs are demand-driven, five-year sector investment plans aimed at guiding the sustainable development of a country's livestock sector.• They include investment analysis and budgeting to positively impact the economy and enhance food security.• LMPs provide roadmaps for targeted investments and build analytical capacity among government analysts.  ","tokenCount":"215"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd8ba257ed14adc57ab084ddbe77b25c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d4a29b35-55e2-450d-9329-ee71e6421241/retrieve","id":"514392293"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ab5ea96-f348-4896-be3e-62b8a92563ce","pagecount":"42","content":"or from IPGRI's Web site (www.ipgri.cgiar.org).or this year's Annual Report of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), we are experimenting with a different format. In previous reports, we tried to provide a broad overview of INIBAP's activities in the year and those of INIBAP-coordinated networks and programmes, leavened with 'focus papers' of broader scientific interest. However, with the launch of initiatives like the genomics consortia, it has become increasingly difficult to report adequately on the extensive work of the partners while distinguishing it from INIBAP's own efforts.Partly for this reason we decided to use a more selective approach, looking in greater depth at a few collaborative projects, analysing the lessons learned in a manner which we hope will be interesting to a broad range of readers in the agricultural research and development community, and then providing only a brief summary of the rest of our programme, in a form which will be mainly useful to our donors and other immediate partners. And in an attempt to make the publication accessible to the widest possible community of readers, we have decided to publish separate versions of the report in INIBAP's three official languages -English, French and Spanish. Please let us know what you think. This year's Annual Report is divided into two sections. In the first section, we include four in-depth stories that illustrate different aspects of INIBAP's work to conserve and disseminate Musa genetic resources and to help people use Musa diversity to improve livelihoods. One story explains how farmers in the Bolivian hinterland are learning how to meet international standards for organic banana production -and in the meantime are gaining access to more profitable markets in the Bolivian capital, La Paz. The second story explains how INIBAP and its partners are learning from farmers in Africa which kinds of new variety they prefer and how they put them to use, either to substitute for traditional cultivars or to provide new economic opportunities. The third story recounts how Ugandan scientists are being empowered to use the latest tools of biotechnology to confer disease resistance on the traditional matooke varieties that provide the main staple food in their country. And the fourth story describes how Musa germplasm, originally collected in Asia and subsequently used in breeding programmes on the other side of the world, is now being brought back to countries like the Philippines in the form of improved varieties, reevaluated and put to use by smallholder farmers. The second half of the report provides a concise review, projectby-project, of INIBAP's collaborative research-and-development activities, including a summary of progress achieved by the PROMUSA breeders' network and the Global Musa Genomics Consortium, both coordinated by INIBAP.It is no accident that the stories highlighted in this year's report focus on the development impacts of our work, rather than on the technical details of the research involved. For the past several years, INIBAP has sought to assess the impact of its work in terms of improvements in the livelihoods of the smallholder banana and plantain farmers who are our primary clients, rather than focusing only on the productivity of their banana and plantain farms as mentioned in our existing mission statement. INIBAP is a programme of IPGRI, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, and during 2003 INIBAP's staff and other stakeholders have been involved in a far-reaching process to review the strategy of the Institute as a whole. This process will continue during 2004 and you will have to wait for the next Annual Report to see the new strategy formally reflected in a new mission statement for INIBAP. In the meantime, it is clear that our new mission, while including the pursuit of scientific excellence as a means to an end, will focus explicitly on improving the well-being of people, and that building knowledge and learning from experience -at both a personal and institutional level -will play a key role in our search for greater impact. We look forward to working with you as we travel this road ahead.Director General, IPGRIThe mission of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) is to increase the productivity and stability of banana and plantain grown on smallholdings for domestic consumption and for local and export markets.INIBAP has four specific objectives:• to organize and coordinate a global research effort on banana and plantain, aimed at the development, evaluation and dissemination of improved cultivars and at the conservation and use of Musa diversity; • to promote and strengthen regional efforts to address region-specific problems and to assist national programmes within the regions to contribute towards, and benefit from, the global research effort; • to strengthen the ability of NARS to conduct research on bananas and plantains; • to coordinate, facilitate and support the production, collection and exchange of information and documentation related to banana and plantain.INIBAP is a programme of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is an independent international scientific organization that seeks to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic diversity for the well being of present and future generations. It is one of 15 Future Harvest Centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an association of public and private members who support efforts to mobilize cutting-edge science to reduce hunger and poverty, improve human nutrition and health, and protect the environment. IPGRI has its headquarters in Maccarese, near Rome, Italy, with offices in more than 20 other countries worldwide. The Institute operates through three programmes: (1) the Plant Genetic Resources Programme, (2) the CGIAR Genetic Resources Support Programme and (3) the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP).The European and North American organic banana markets seem tailor-made for smallholder farmers but entering these markets is not without its own sets of difficulties, as INIBAP and its partners learned when they went down that road in South America.Bolivian farmers are pushing up the quality of their bananas, using improved infrastructure such as packing stations and cableways (A. Vezina, INIBAP).The road to La Paz (A. Vezina, INIBAP).The highs and lows of organic bananas in South America\"T he road is killing us\", sighs Fernando Bohorguez, the manager of the Alto Beni organic banana project in Sapecho, Bolivia. Figuratively, that is. Although the road to La Paz does contain a narrow stretch overlooking a 1000-metre drop, Fernando is alluding to its impact on the bananas. Even with a twolane gravel road set to replace the hair-raising section, the nine-hour trip to cover the 235 km to the high-altitude capital takes its toll on the delicate fruit and eats into the profitability of the entreprise.The road is one of the reasons the project has yet to deliver on its original promise of exporting organic bananas from this mountainous landlocked country to the more lucrative, but finicky, markets of North America and Europe. The goal of improving the lives of Alto Beni farmers, however, has been attained, thanks to a good dose of realism. \"The project is having a positive impact because it has adapted to the situation on the ground\", says Fernando. Instead of immediately competing with established organic exporters in international trade, the project has concentrated on fine-tuning the commodity chain in the domestic market and grooming the 10 producer associations, one for each participating community, to take over after the project is finished. By improving the quality of the bananas and reducing the costs of packing, transporting and conserving them, the farmers' income increased by as much as 73% in some cases.Before the project, Alto Beni farmers had no choice but to accept the low prices offered by intermediaries -called chiperos because they buy the bananas in chipas, 1000 fingers -coming down from La Paz with trucks to relieve them of their bananas.The farmers had no incentive to invest time and effort to nurture their plants and fight off diseases. \"Before the project\", confirms Mario Choque Chamba, the executive secretary of the Alto Beni agro-ecological federation, \"the farmers did not look after their banana plants. They would plant them and harvest the fruits, nothing more.\" There was more to this attitude than strict economics. The majority of Alto Beni farmers migrated to the semitropical humid forests flanking the Beni river over the last 40 years. Most of them came from the altiplano, where land was becoming scarce because of population growth and where bananas 5do not grow. Unlike their African and Asian counterparts who inherit a wealth of knowledge on the cultivation of bananas, the Alto Beni farmers were not born in a 'banana culture'.They did, however, react very sensibly to finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings and disadvantaged by the rough terrain lying between them and their markets: they spread the risks by growing a variety of crops, many in mixed cropping systems.The banana is one of them because it provides a steady income until the fruit trees with which it is cultivated, mainly cacao and citruses, can be harvested. The farmers own on average 12 hectares, of which around 1.5 ha are for bananas. Ninety percent of the bananas are of the cultivar 'Grande naine'.Lately, however, the banana plants started to sport the grey drooping leaves characteristic of black leaf streak disease, which entered the area in the late 1990s.Luckily for the 466 farmers participating in the project, not being able to afford chemical fungicides played in their favour when it was proposed that they should prime their bananas to compete in the organic market (see 'The organic banana and the smallholder').The funds to support the conversion comes from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD-OAS), which is part of a US-funded strategy to fight the illegal production of coca based on projects that help farmers grow legal crops instead. Since Alto Beni isThe organic banana and the smallholderSelling organic bananas to health-conscious consumers in developed countries is at the forefront of efforts to help small-scale banana producers improve their livelihoods. For one thing, the market is still open to newcomers. The organic banana trade is a drop in the ocean compared to the 11 million tonnes of conventional bananas exported each year, but in contrast to the latter it keeps on increasing. It shot up from an estimated 29 000 tonnes in 1998 to 136 000 tonnes in 2002 and the forecast is for more growth.Nearly half of the production comes from the Dominican Republic, while Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and Colombia produce most of the remaining half.Smallholders are also considered ideally suited to supply this niche market since they can rarely afford the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that are banned in organic agriculture. Other constraints, however, hinder conversion. Black leaf streak disease is seen as an important one. Areas that do not have the disease are currently at an advantage, but novel approaches being tested in areas of high disease incidence, such as Ecuador, are producing plants with healthy-looking leaves. The plants are fed a diet of liquid and solid organic fertilizers that incorporate a large variety of microorganisms, which are believed to induce the plant to deploy its defences.The recurring cost of certification, which is beyond the reach of the average smallholder, is another hurdle. Producers overcome it by forming associations that spread the cost among their members or by signing an exclusivity contract with a marketing company that, in return for paying for the certification, buys their production at a fixed price.Smallholders also need help during the transition period in which production costs have risen because of the extra work but the sale price of bananas has not changed because the fruits are not certified. It can take up to 3 years to obtain an organic certification.When they are certified, the bananas fetch a better price, in part because consumers are willing to pay more but also because the demand exceeds the supply. The fear is that the price for organic bananas will be brought down as supply exceeds demand and supermarkets and multinationals capture a bigger share of the organic banana trade.not an important coca producer, this project is different in that its objective is to discourage farmers from drifting to the illegal cultivation of coca, not to wean them off. The participating farmers sign a pledge not to grow coca in return for help with their crops and schools, roads, water and electricity -all of which are sorely needed.The project was initiated in farmers to put in the extra efforts needed to produce organic bananas that will also be competitive. Another change brought about by the project is the need to pack the bananas in boxes to protect them during transport. Farmers have been taught how to wash them to leach the latex, how to protect them against crown rot and how to pack them. Not all the farmers participating in the projectBeni organic banana producer (right) (A. Vezina, INIBAP).is used as ground cover to prevent erosion and conserve soil moisture.Growing bananas in association with fruit trees has also been retained even if it means lower banana yields and farmers with divided loyalties. \"For us it is a problem to the extent that the farmers do not dedicate themselves 100% to bananas. Bananas are grown in association with fruit trees even if it means lower banana yields and farmers with divided loyalties are washing and packing their bananas; some prefer to avoid the extra expense. But for those who do, packing is generally a family affair conducted by the side of the road under a thatched shelter and using a rudimentary pool.These makeshift packing stations have raised the quality of the bananas but not to the level that can be attained in modern packing stations. So 12 km of cableways linked to four industrial-scale packing stations have been built and will be operational in 2004. Farmers from nearby plots will bring the bananas to the cableway, hook them on and watch them roll away to be washed, graded and packed by people from their community.The local population is impatient to see the packing stations in action, not least because they will provide jobs. The fact, however, that the packing stations can process far more fruits than the quantities currently grown in the nearby plots worries Salomon Soldevilla, the national co-director of the project. He hopes they will not encourage a conversion to the banana monocultures common in other parts of Latin America.A Peruvian, Salomon worked on a successful organic banana project in northern Peru (see 'An organic banana paradise') before landing a job with the Alto Beni project, first as a consultant and then as co-director of the project. He has been instrumental in turning around Bana Beni SRL, the La Paz-based marketing company created by the project and owned by the ten producer associations. It is run by the producers' sons and daughters, whose inexperience, however, made for a rocky start.An audit of Bana Beni in 2003 revealed that the production cost was 50% higher than the price at which the bananas were sold. The company had only one client, losses were increasing and the staff were not trained in handling a highly perishable fruit. Without changes, the company was heading straight for bankruptcy.In 1997, banana production in northern Peru was struggling when El Niño hit, leaving devastated fields in its tracks. Damage was heaviest on the coast but the Chira valley, some 50 km inland, was also affected. The following year, the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) solicited INIBAP's help to rehabilitate the banana production in the Chira valley with the aim of exporting the bananas. But rather than export conventional bananas into a saturated market dominated by multinationals, Salomon Soldevilla, at the time an agronomist for MINAG and currently INIBAP's co-director of the Alto Beni organic banana project in Bolivia, suggested that Chira valley farmers, who own on average 0.7 hectares, produce organic bananas instead.Already blessed with class I soils and plenty of irrigation water, the region is also exempt from black leaf streak disease because of its dry climate. To top it off, the production zone is strategically situated 60 km from a port easily accessible by a good road -the perfect spot to grow organic bananas. The only thing missing was money. INIBAP paid for the first certification, four mobile packing stations, soil analyses to design the fertilization programme and advisors but the bulk of the money came from the Peruvian government. \"We were given only 10 gallons of gas a month\", remembers Salomon. \"Sometimes, I was using my own money to visit the producers\".Despite the shoestring budget, the project helped over 1600 farmers, who represent 38% of the Chira valley banana producers, and propelled Peru into the leading pack of organic banana producers. Peru is now the third most important producer of organic bananas, which in 2002 represented an export value of US$ 6.1 million and the real net income of organic banana producers increased by 187% between 1998 and 2002.Since there were no funds to help the organic producers market their bananas, in 2000, Dole took up an invitation to visit the region with a view to buying part of the production and exporting it on the organic market. It accepted and national companies have since joined the fray. The companies cover the cost of the organic certification for the organic producers who sign an exclusivity contract with them. In addition to the certification, the producers are guaranteed a fixed price for their fruits. Moreover, the reduced supply of bananas on the domestic market has led to an increase in the prices paid to conventional producers. Exporting organic bananas not only benefited the organic producers, it also helped small-scale producers get a better price for their noncertified bananas.Six months later, losses were cut to 6%. Eighty-three percent of the small but lucrative school breakfast market in La Paz and neighbouring El Alto has been captured by Bana Beni and the latter has signed contracts worth US$ 284 000 for 2004. Salomon pulls out a graph showing that, if the trend continues, the company will break even before the end of 2004.Although the school breakfast market represents only 5% of the local demand for bananas, it is an important one for the young company because it pays more for a better quality product. Moreover, not only are children in public schools given a nutritious banana as part of their breakfast, they also get exposed to the concept of organic farming.On the other hand, the La Paz street vendors, who represent 93% of the market, and the supermarkets, which represent a negligible share of the La Paz market (0.5%), do not pay as well and are insensitive to quality. of farmers, or in terms of poor soils, harsh climates and favourable economic policies. However, in reality, this is a failure that defies a simple explanation.Higher-yielding, disease resistant varieties -in our case of banana and plantain -provides a starting point for INIBAP's contribution to development efforts, as they have done for most programmes of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Resistant varieties are often regarded as the most readily 'adoptable' of improved agricultural technologies because they can reduce farmers' needs for inputs, whether of labour or agrochemicals, and simultaneously reduce the risk of catastrophic losses from pest and disease outbreaks. However, establishing a viable 'seed system' for disseminating new varieties of vegetatively propagated crops like Musa, where multiplication rates can be slow and planting material is prone to pest and disease infection, presents even more of a challenge than for cereals or grain legumes.Two major projects launched by INIBAP and its partners D espite more than thirty years of effort invested by the international agricultural research centres and their partners, there are still disappointingly few examples of green revolution technologies transforming the lives of rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa and providing the hoped-for platform for national economic growth.Over that period, commentators have variously tried to explain this lack of impact in terms of the 'remoteness' of agricultural scientists, the 'conservatism'What does it take to turn a good idea -a diseaseresistant variety or novel approach to pest control, for instance -into a practical technology that farmers can use on their own farms to improve their lives and livelihoods? Nowhere is it more pressing to find an answer to this question than in Africa.The In the TARGET project some 16 000 plantlets were shipped to each of the participating countries in the first year and distributed to 500 farmers in each country. Each country chose four improved hybrids in keeping with local preferences and market potential and each farmer received eight plants of each hybrid. Local nurseries were established to harden off the tender tissue culture plantlets before they were distributed to farmers for planting in their fields.In Ghana and Cameroon, the plantlets arrived five to six months after the start of the project, which is a significant portion of time in the life of a two-year project. \"Delivery delays discouraged some farmers. At the beginning they were very enthusiastic but after they were obliged to clear their plots several times, they began to lose heart\" a member of the project team in Cameroon acknowledged ruefully. Moreover, the farmers were not easily convinced that they should try new banana varieties lacking the familiar characteristics of plantain.Delivery delays also occurred in Tanzania and Mozambique, but these were intentional to make the arrival of the plantlets coincide with the beginning of the rainy season. Tissue culture plants have several advantages, but they are relatively demanding of water and nutrients in their first months in the field and need to be transplanted under the best conditions possible to ensure their survival. In the absence of irrigation, the plants could only be delivered to farmers once the rain had arrived.In Tanzania, project staff put the delay in the supply of tissue culture plants to good use. Drawing on the experience (and planting materials) from an earlier improved varieties project, they established demonstration plots in many villages so that farmers and consumers could get used to the appearance and taste of new varieties before they were offered plants to grow for themselves. Over all, the reaction of farmers has been cautiously positive, with most prepared to give some of the new materials the benefit of the doubt and at least try them out.In each country, farmers have been trained on how to prepare clean suckers for multiplication -so that the planting material does not carry pests to new fields and so undermine the gains offered by the new varieties. In the second year of the TARGET project, each participating farmer will be giving away suckers of the new varieties to at least one other farmer. Evidently, just a few plants distributed to farmers will not change a production system overnight, but the numbers can mount up surprisingly quickly. More than 50 000 plants have so far been established in 40 TARGET villages. And over the course of five years, each of these plants could potentially give rise to at least 100 more.Meanwhile two years into the CFC project, 14 demonstration plots have been set up to introduce farmers to the hybrids and cultivars offered for evaluation in their fields. However, the farmers will not all be evaluating the same material, partly because the multiplication techniques are different. In DRC and Guinea, rapid corm multiplication techniques are used. As this is, despite its name, a relatively slow process, the multiplication had to be started before the farmers had viewed the plants in the demonstration plots. In this case, farmers will be evaluating the same assortment of improved hybrids (between 10 and 14) as are planted in the demonstration plots.In Uganda, on the other hand, tissue culture is used to multiply the planting material and only the varieties selected by farmers and technicians -FHIA-17, FHIA-18, FHIA-23, FHIA-25 and the local cultivars 'Nakitembe'and 'Mpologoma' -will be multiplied.\"Comparing the logistics and costs of these methods will be a central component of the second half of the project\", says Charles Staver, the INIBAP project coordinator based in Montpellier, France. \"The challenge is to find the right supply approach for largescale planting of the appropriate hybrids and cultivars, while ensuring that the planting material is affordable for smallholders and guaranteed free of diseases and pests. It is important because we should apply the lessons we learn to other projects undertaking the dissemination of new Musa germplasm.\"Establishing a reliable, costeffective supply of planting materials of new varieties, though challenging enough in itself, is only an initial step in the adoption process. For many farmers, the prohibitive cost of credit and the problem of raising collateral for a loan is a major constraint to investing in new technology.The CFC project includes a loan component, intended to provide credit to farmers wishing to purchase extra planting material and other inputs to increase production.   Scaling up production to meet the needs of the nascent food processing industry is certainly an option for enterprising farmers. Indeed a number of individual experiences point in this direction. Mrs Olomi for instance, a former school teacher from Arusha in Tanzania, produces a banana wine that competes with the cereal-based beers produced by industrial breweries (see 'Mrs Olomi's banana wine').At the beginning she relied on 'back kitchen' methods, but she has since developed a sizeable brewing and bottling plant. \"We can use bananas of any variety\", she explained to a meeting of the Banana Research Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (BARNESA), \"Our main constraint is to secure a reliable supply of banana\". This is surely where the new high yielding varieties really come into their own. Although the regional research organization, ASARECA, under whose umbrella BARNESA operates, has for some time had an explicitly market-oriented perspective, many of its networks have tended to  The National Agricultural Biotechnology Centre near Matooke, as well as being the term used for a number of cooking bananas, literally means 'food' in Uganda. 'If you haven't eaten matooke you haven't eaten'. This may resound more clearly to those who have visited Uganda and gained weight from eating the appetite-beating matooke dishes. Together with another set of bananas that are used for brewing a high-nutrient beer, matooke form the 100 or so cultivars known as East African highland bananas (EAHB). All this variety, no less than 10% of total cultivated banana diversity, is confined to East African countries. You will not be able to find a decent matooke once you cross the Congo Basin or fly over the Indian Ocean.In 1961, yields of matooke were 6 tons/ha. Although yields have since risen and fallen, Ugandans in 2003 were still harvesting only 6 tons of matooke per hectare (see figure). In contrast, the country's population has more than tripled -from seven million in 1961 to 25 million in 2002. If matooke is to continue providing a solid basis for food security, improvements have to be made.Matooke escaped the green revolution -just like many other regionally important crops. The improved banana varieties that are becoming available are useful for many purposes but they do not taste or cook like matooke. Working with modern biological techniques provides Ugandans with the chance to increase yields and keep their matooke.  1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 researchers estimate that they can create new bananas in 10 years or less this way. Most cultivated bananas, including matooke, are stubbornly sterile and to breed them conventionally takes years of dedicated persuasion and typically involves crossing them with distant fertile relatives having very poor fruit qualities. Faced with low crop yields and rising population figures, Ugandans have little choice but to react quickly or to change their national diet. The Ugandan biotech project focuses on three main aims: 1) identifying genes that confer resistance to nematodes, black leaf streak disease (also known as black Sigatoka) and weevils; 2) developing the starting materials from matooke that are transformable, and 3) perfecting the technique for transferring target genes into the matooke. A small team of Ugandan scientists runs the laboratories. Much of the project's first two years was dedicated to exchange visits between partner institutes and Uganda to provide the NABC team with the training they needed to run a top class molecular lab. It is here that Priver Namanya, a tissue culture specialist, and her assistants are developing the starting materials, namely Part of the appeal of biotechnology is that it offers the possibility of injecting one or several useful genes into a crop variety without changing its existing characteristics. This should allow Ugandans to target the specific problems that they encounter and develop a genetic solution in any one of the diversity of bananas that they value. Most persuasivelyPresident Museveni's public acceptance of biotechnology was not without precedent in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and other nations in the region are pursuing biotechbased solutions to agricultural problems. However, the counter-current in Africa against genetically modified (GM) food is potentially as large as it is in Europe.As far as biosafety goes, the Ugandan Government has set up a national committee to formulate the legislation that will help to ensure the safety of GM products and biotechnology research. No GM plants will be accepted or developed in the country until the legislation is in place. The confinement facilities at the NABC will conform to international standards.In Uganda, transformed bananas would evade some of the problems posed by other GM crops elsewhere by being sterile and unable to cross with related species or varieties in the vicinity. The risk that transgenes disperse into the native banana population is minimal. Ugandans have little choice but to react quickly or to change their national diet.Promotor The making of the supermatooke will depend on piecing together the work of Andrew, Geofrey, the team atneighbours and nursing the same banana groves down the generations has allowed the weevil population to spread and accumulate. The weevil, being one of the few afflictions of the banana to be visible to the human eye, has exaggerated powers to many African farmers. \"A farmer sees a plant infected with black Sigatoka and will say that the problem is caused by the insect that eats the plant from underground\", says Andrew who was brought up in a banana-producing area.Naturally occurring proteins, known as cystatins, in other terms a cysteine proteinase inhibitor, can debilitate digestive enzymes in the weevil's gut and effectively starve the insect to death. Genes coding for cystatins exist in various crops but the resulting protein is not always effective at attacking the proteinase enzymes and killing the weevil. The challenge, in this case, is to boost the performance of the gene so that it works effectively against banana weevils.Andrew intends to tweak cystatin-encoding genes from rice and papaya (OC-I and PC-I). First he needs to find out which cystatins will work on the weevils specific to the banana, and then which part of the genetic sequence coding for these cystatins should be changed in order to improve the weevilbeating performance of the protein.Of the proteinases that are detectable in the weevil gut, five appear to be inhibited by the rice cystatin and an artificial cystatin called E-64. Furthermore weevil larvae fed on cystatin-laced banana stem disks show severely reduced development. Next, to get ideas of how to boost its performance, Andrew has been studying the genetic sequences of cystatins from 30 plant species. This has given him an idea of where changes have occurred during the evolution of the gene and which parts of the sequence he might target in order to enhance the or transformed plants in the farmers' fields may not be able to generate the same effect. This kind of research can take years to resolve. Andrew hopes that biotechnology will become routine business.NABC and the other partners in the project. As an example of the latter, laboratories at KULeuven, JIC and the University of Leeds are investigating different proteins and genes to convey resistance to nematodes.And there are more questions to answer. Inhibitors and proteins may work against pests and diseases outside the plant but the equivalent genes inserted in the genomeLong-term resistance to pests and diseases cannot be achieved through a single strategy alone. Hand in hand with improved banana varieties go better management techniques, post-harvest technologies, supportive policy and many other elements, not least effective communication between farmers, extension agents and researchers. This project is being carried out in a context of diverse initiatives, which focus on on-farm conservation of indigenous banana diversity, farmerparticipatory development of integrated pest management (IPM) technologies, exploration of mechanisms to encourage enterprise and better marketing, as well as conventional breeding programmes, including one focusing on matooke led by IITA.Equally, the findings of the biotech project will help to bring new ideas to bear on other problems. Andrew Kiggundu's research on cystatins for use against the banana weevil could equally target other insects and nematodes. The anti-fungal genes Geofrey Arinaitwe is using are broad spectrum and may be effective against Fusarium wilt as well as black leaf streak disease. The tissue culture laboratory is a facility that can multiply up millions of banana plants to supply clean planting material to large numbers of smallholder farmers. Leading the way is the Philippines, where INIBAP's Asia-Pacific regional office is located. \"It is normal that we should start in our own backyard\", jokes Agustín \"Gus\" Molina, the regional coordinator, himself a Filipino. \"But the main reason we are the first ones in Asia promoting improved hybrids is that the local banana industry is hit particularly hard by diseases and is looking for alternatives.\" The case is made for the importance of conserving, documenting and evaluating genetic diversityThe long history behind the development of every new variety is often little appreciated and sometimes poorly recorded. In classical breeding, genetic diversity is drawn from multiple sources to bring together characteristics for good agronomic performance and tolerance to different stresses in a single variety. The pedigrees behind some of the high-impact wheat and rice varieties are complex, involving hundreds of crosses and germplasm from many sources going back over decades. The history of banana breeding is simpler and thanks to the publication of some obscure notes by the collector, Paul Allen, relating to expeditions in 1959 and 1961, we are able to trace the lineage of a number of improved banana varieties.Jonathan Robinson, an IPGRI consultant, traced the genetic resource history that led to the making of FHIA-03 as part of an exercise to examine the impact of genetic resources. FHIA-03 was produced by the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA) in 1987 as a cooking banana resistant to black leaf streak disease. The variety has been taken up on a large scale in Cuba, Nicaragua and Tanzania and is rapidly appearing in farmers' plots further afield.FHIA-03 is a tetraploid (AABB), having four sets of chromosomes each donated from different parents. Breeders started by crossing a triploid (ABB) 'Gaddatu', a cooking banana from the Philippines, and the wild diploid Musa balbisiana (BB), probably from either the Philippines or Papua New Guinea.In total, some 14 crosses involving 11 wild banana types and 2 triploid landraces took place to bring about FHIA-03. Many of the characteristics for pest and disease resistance as well as valuable agronomic traits came from wild bananas. The subspecies, Musa acuminata ssp. burmanica provided some of the resistance to black leaf steak disease and a wild diploid, 'Pisang jari buaya', provided resistance to nematodes. Crosses between four wild types from Papua New Guinea, Java, Malaysia and the Philippines gave birth to a vigorous diploid (SH-2095), which produces large bunches weighing up to 30 kg, and long fruit that do not fall to the ground when ripe. SH-2095 is a parent of many FHIA varieties.Asian farmers, then, should find something familiar in the improved hybrids making their way to their fields. Many of the genetic traits of the new bananas originally came from Asia. Although the road has been long and the transactions numerous, the case is made for the importance of conserving, documenting and evaluating genetic diversity, and for the value of sharing resources across regions. the farm provides fresh produce to the other 11 orphanages. FHIA-18, FHIA-23 and FHIA-25, as well as local varieties 'Lakatan' and 'Bungulan', will soon be on the menu when the newly planted banana varieties come to fruit.As in previous trials, the FHIA varieties are proving to be high yielding and resistant to the main banana diseases. It is too early to say whether they will be accepted by farmers and consumers, but Gus is confident that the improved hybrids will find a niche in Asia. \"Asians are used to bananas of all tastes, shapes, sizes and colours. After all, bananas prepared in many ways provide an important source of food for local people. The improved hybrids just add to this diversity, whereas in Latin America, where people are used to just a few varieties -the Cavendish dessert bananas and one or two plantain cultivars -there is much less interest in improved hybrids, even if they were bred in Central America.\" According to this theory, the diversitydeprived consumers of Europe and North America should rate low on the uptake scale and there is some evidence to support this argument. Before the 1950s, consumers in the United States were slow to warm up to the Cavendish banana that is so ubiquitous nowadays. They thought it was too different from 'Gros Michel', the only banana they had ever eaten but that could no longer be grown on commercial plantations because of Fusarium wilt. Even if diversity breeds diversity, Gus does not think acceptance will happen overnight. For one thing, the improved hybrids do not taste as good as the local cultivars, he says, all chauvinism aside. \"Improved hybrids are an acquired taste. But once you introduce them they will become part of the available diversity and people will get used to them and eat them.\"For the moment, the new varieties are most likely to win the hearts of farmers through their high yields and disease resistance. Farmers who have difficulties with banana diseases should be the first to adopt them, but one can never predict how events will turn out. For example, as a result of its short shelf-life, FHIA-03 brought out the best in human nature when it was introduced to subsistence farmers in Calamba near Los Baños. A bunch being too big for a single family to eat, farmers started sharing their bounty with their neighbours and soon everybody on the block knew about the new variety.The tissue culture plantlets for the project were supplied by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture, which has been designated,\" What Gus likes best about these centres is that they will be distributing clean planting materials, i.e. free of nematodes, bacteria, fungi and viruses. He wants to enlist these tissue culture plants in the fight against banana diseases, especially viruses, against which the improved hybrids tend to be as powerless as any cultivar. His main target is the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV).Transmitted by an aphid, BBTV is by far the most serious viral The INIBAP Transit Centre (ITC) in the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven), Belgium, provides a maximum of five samples of any one accession upon request. With a remit for long-term conservation and research, the ITC was never designed to respond to large scale demands for germplasm from farmers. Some smaller genebanks exist to help supply planting material at the regional level, but their reach is limited and quarantine measures can impede the movement of plant materials across borders. National Repository, Multiplication and Dissemination Centres (NRMDCs) represent the best way of getting large amounts of planting material to the farmers who need it.Seventeen NRMDCs have been set up in 14 countries. Bangladesh, China-mainland, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam received their in vitro plantlets in or before 2003. Cambodia, Myanmar and China-Hainan are expected to receive theirs in 2004. Each country, having received a small grant from the European Union as seed money, is now responsible for keeping the centres going. \"They only received about US$ 2000. In a way it is a good thing that we did not have more money because by investing their own resources, the countries put more value on their centre\", says Gus Molina, INIBAP's regional coordinator for the Asia-Pacific region.The inter-regional movement of germplasm dates back to the origins of agriculture and underpins the present day crop varieties that are grown throughout the world. Before 1993, breeders could easily go to the area of origin and diversity of a crop and collect the specimens they needed.The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) affirmed the sovereign rights of nations over their genetic resources. The new policy put a damper on collecting and the movement of plant material and indeed slowed the acquisition of new materials by public in-trust genebanks, such as the International Musa Germplasm Collection. Now it is expected that the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, with its provisions on access and benefit sharing, will facilitate the exchange of genetic resources that play a key role in food security and revitalise breeding.In the meantime, it is hoped that the NRMDCs will promote exchange of germplasm and provide countries with a focus for conserving their landraces and wild relatives of Musa, many of which are threatened with extinction.banana growers in Asia. (David Mowbray, Baobab Productions).disease affecting bananas. In the Philippines, where it infects the popular cultivars 'Lakatan', 'Bungulan' and 'Latundan', it constitutes one of the major constraints to production and is also present in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Infected plants show stunted growth and rarely produce fruit. Once present, the virus is very aggressive and hard to contain at the farm level, demanding a concerted effort from the entire community.The disease situation has reached the point where, on the island of Luzon, the demand for 'Lakatan' is being met by large commercial plantations producing for the export market, rather than by the small-scale farmers who traditionally supplied the local market. The big companies have succeeded where smallholders failed by using clean tissue culture planting material. In Taiwan, the spread of Fusarium wilt race 4 on Cavendish cultivars has been similarly brought under control by a massive use of tissue culture plants, coupled with wide-scale planting of resistant somaclonal variants.To reach the smallholders, the plan is for some farmers to establish nurseries as a viable business. The nursery owners will buy in vitro plants that they will grow and harden off in plastic bags in the nurseries until they are ready to plant and sell to other smallholders. Because of the large quantities required, the NRMDCs will first send the small in vitro plantlets to private tissue culture laboratories, such as Lapanday Fruits Co., for multiplying on a large scale.Because of the economies of scale that can be achieved by producers like Lapanday, the plantlets will be affordable for the smallholders. Each in vitro plant will cost less than 10 US cents and another 10 to 15 cents will go towards the cost of growing and hardening off. Even with the nursery owner's take, the planting materials will be less expensive than if they had been supplied directly as ready-to-plant materials by private laboratories.Trials are also under way to try and devise the most appropriate production strategy for farmers. Plots in which the plants are uprooted every year and replaced with clean planting materials are compared with plots in which tissue culture plants are used the first year only and suckers are allowed to take over. Plots have been set up in areas of varying disease intensity to determine which strategy works best under a given disease pressure. In heavily infested areas, it may be necessary to replant every year, but in less disease ridden ones, it may not be essential.Previous studies on the benefits of biotechnology to small-scale banana farmers conducted in East Africa have shown that farmers were very impressed by the monetary advantages of using tissue culture plants. They welcomed the higher yields and shorter production cycles. Small-scale farmers in Asia who might have been tempted to give up on bananas altogether should similarly welcome this chance to boost productivity and defend their livelihoods against spreading epidemics of disease. • Research into the cryopreservation protocol for proliferating meristems indicates that a preculture of 0.3-0.4 M sucrose is optimal for several banana genome groups ('Lady finger' (AAB), 'Williams' (AAA), 'Orishele' (AAB) and 'Cachaco' (ABB)).Experiments on the protocol using meristems from rooted in vitro plantlets of three cultivars ('Williams' (AAA), 'Figue famille' (AAB) and 'Mbwazirume' (AAA-h)) conclude that the PVS2 treatment should be extended from 20 to 30 minutes.• Work on rejuvenation of the collection continued; 22% of the collection has been replaced in medium term storage. By the end of 2003, 180 accessions had reached the stage where they could be sent into the field for verification. A further 321 accessions are planted in the greenhouse.Agreements are being drawn up with five field genebanks (NARO, BPI, CARBAP, CIRAD and FHIA) to verify trueness-to-type.• A seed conservation protocol for wild species is being developed in collaboration with UPM Malaysia.• The installation of the data management system for the banana collection will be completed and fully functional in 2004. Information from paper Progress in each area is summarised together with the activities of the thematic and regional networks for which INIBAP provides the secretariat.records is currently being entered into the database.• Leaf samples of 135 accessions were frozen and stored at -80 °C for the pilot DNA collection. The minimal number of replicates was set at 12. The next steps will consist of the lyophilization and long-term storage of leaf tissue at -20 °C.• The ploidy screening of accessions at the ITC entered its final phase in 2003. During the year, work was focused on the verification of ploidy in accessions that had been classified as mixoploid in previous analyses. In total, 61 accessions were analysed in 2003, taking the grand total to 1170 accessions analysed.• The activities of the Global Musa Genomics Consortium and the initiation of the Generation Challenge programme for \"Unlocking genetic diversity in crops for the resource-poor\" have provided new impetus and resources for the molecular characterization of the ITC collection.• Musa balbisiana is being characterized in a joint project between 9 partners (Australia: DPI; Austria: IAEA; Czech Republic: IEB; France: CIRAD; India: IIHR, NRCB; Mexico: CICY; Philippines: PBI; Thailand: CAB).• Morphological characterizations are taking place as part of the rejuvenation effort at the ITC funded by USAID, the government of the Philippines, World Bank and Gatsby Foundation (see under \"Conservation\").• A total of 551 accessions were distributed in 2003.• The wording for the material transfer agreement (MTA) used in the distribution of FAO-designated germplasm was revised in line with the International Treaty on PGRFA. The new MTAs can be found on the INIBAP website.• Virus indexing tests were completed for 70 accessions, of which 18 were found to be virus infected. Only 30 accessions remain in the collection that have not been virus-tested at least once.• PPRI is working on the production of antisera to the range of BSV isolates obtained from germplasm at the ITC.• CIRAD is making an assessment of the risks of spreading BSV through disseminating Musa germplasm.• Funds from the World Bank have allowed the resumption of virus therapy work, concentrating on cryotherapy and heat therapy. KULeuven and the University of Gembloux are collaborating on the project. Phase III varieties and hybrids have been distributed to more than 50 institutions around the world and are being evaluated in research stations and also in farmers' fields. The participating institutions come from Australia, Bangladesh,• All the trials are now planted and all partners have started evaluating performance. The first data have been received at INIBAP in Montpellier to be analysed and integrated into a centralized database.• The Phase III evaluations are also contributing new knowledge on plant-pathogen interactions.This activity currently focuses on strengthening FHIA's banana breeding programme as a source of improved varieties for use in international development efforts and has been supported by USAID. FHIA continues to develop elite, high-yielding hybrids with improved pest and disease resistance. New capacities in molecular biology are also being developed to help in the selection of parents or new hybrids.• Ten of the 20 planned crosses have been concluded. In 2003 field evaluation of more than 600 hybrid segregant plants (see table 1) was initiated.• FHIA's banana breeder received additional training in the use of molecular tools.• The FHIA field collection is being replanted.• Two segregating populations, supplied by CIRAD, have been planted in the field at CORBANA, Costa Rica with the aim of isolating genetic traits for fruit quality.(For more information see the article \"Gene power fuels an African agricultural revolution\" on page 14.)East African highland bananas (EAHB) provide the staple food and main source of income in many upland areas in East and Central Africa but have received comparatively little attention from the international research community. This work, supported by the Ugandan Government, USAID, the Belgian Government, and the Rockefeller Foundation, aims to build Uganda's national capacity to use the current tools of biotechnology to develop high-yielding, pest-and disease-resistant varieties of this crop.Partners, by country: Belgium: KULeuven; France: CIRAD; South Africa: FABI-University; Uganda: IITA, Makerere University, NARO; UK: JIC.• Cell suspensions are now available for the cultivar 'Ndizi' (AAB).• Embryogenic cultures have also been obtained by using the male flowers from 6 EAHB cultivars.• Two gene transfer systems have been shown to be effective in a wide range of banana cultivars. PCR analysis confirmed that the two rice chitinase genes (rcc2 and rcg3) were integrated in the banana genome.• Among the suitable genes to control nematodes, lectin-, lectin-related-or RIP-genes have been selected and transfered into one transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana line. Both the lectins themselves and the lectin-transformed bacteria are being tested for their toxicity to nematodes.• Two synthetic proteinase inhibitors (E-64 and PMSF) were used to evaluate the proteolytic activity of weevil midgut extracts. Both inhibitors had an effect, confirming that cysteine and serine proteinases are present in the banana weevil gut. The cysteine proteinase inhibitor E-64 had the stronger inhibitory effect.• Weevil larvae that were fed on banana disks infiltrated with purified cystatins showed reduced development. This experiment demonstrated the potential of cystatins to block weevil development.Using diversity for genetic improvement • Bt toxins are being tested on banana corms for their potential to control the banana weevil. One of the toxins, CryIIICa1, was effective according to larval weight loss and mortality figures. Future plans include testing Bt strains isolated from Ugandan soils.• The molecular biology and genetic engineering laboratories at the NARO research station in Kawanda were officially opened by the President of Uganda.• At KULeuven, new promoters are being developed to enhance the efficiency of the gene constructs transferred.With funds from DGDC, INIBAP pursues studies to refine the protocols for developing and storing starting materials for genetic transformation and for optimizing the process of transformation. The research takes place in the Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement at KULeuven.• Nineteen high quality embryogenic cell suspensions were established.• Ten cell lines were recovered from cryopreservation for transformation experiments.• The cryopreserved collection consists of 1 347 tubes, of which 407 were confirmed to be \"safely stored\" after thawing of representative samples.• The influence of a broad spectrum of plant growth regulators on the development of banana shoot tips was explored.• A novel tagging vector was developed with the aim of identifying promoters with specific expression patterns in the banana genome. More than 19 000 transgenic colonies were evaluated and several promoter tags have been cloned.• SAGE was performed on cDNA obtained from infected and non-infected leaves of Sigatokaresistant banana varieties. 10 196 tags were sequenced.• Xylose was shown to be unsuitable as an agent for selecting transformed banana plants because of its negative affect on regeneration frequency.• Efforts are being focused on increasing transformation frequency in meristematic cultures. Antiblackening agents and meristem age were examined systematically.The Global Programme for Musa Improvement, PROMUSA, brings together more than 100 researchers to focus on the smallholder crop.Working groups are devoted to Sigatoka, Fusarium wilt, Nematology, Weevils, Virology and Genetic Improvement. INIBAP provides the secretariat.• During the 2 nd meeting of the PROMUSA breeders group held in Coimbatore, India, in June, an initiative to develop closer collaboration between breeders was launched (see below). The study of the 'balbisiana' genome was designated a priority for immediate research. A plan for the genetic improvement of banana and plantain in Asia and Pacific was drafted.• The 2 nd International symposium on Fusarium wilt took place in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in September, followed by a meeting of the PROMUSA Fusarium working group.An initiative to develop closer collaboration between banana breeders has resulted in the launching of a breeders' consortium. The aims of the group include the development of resources, knowledge and tools for sharing among Musa breeders, joint exploration for new breeding materials and support for the wider utilization and conservation of Musa biodiversity for the purposes of improving the smallholder crop. The members of the new Consortium intend to maximize the use of cytogentic and molecular tools becoming available and hope to work closely with the Global Musa Genomics Consortium. INIBAP will perform a secretariat function. A management committee will be set up and membership formalized in 2004.This Consortium brings together expertise from 28 public-funded institutions in 15 countries. As well as providing close collaboration, the Consortium enables research resources to be shared, including sequence data and enabling technologies. The sequence produced by the Consortium will be placed in the public domain and any new varieties will be made freely available to smallholder farmers. • An agreement has been made with Syngenta to obtain a set of ESTs. Sequences were analysed by MIPS/GSF and made available to other members through an established letter of agreement.• Segregating populations, mutants and transgenic plants are being developed and will be made available to member institutions.• The Consortium has also started developing a bio-informatics component.The • Plants were established in demonstration plots and farmers are in the process of selecting varieties for growing.• 778 farmers established small multiplication plots with over 30 000 plants.• Farmers were trained in rapid multiplication techniques and improved production and postharvest technologies.• 800 participants took part in 21 evaluation events and data on growth, yield and palatability are being gathered from the demonstration plots.(For more information see the article \"Improved hybrids up for adoption\" on page 10.)  • Partners in Mozambique and Tanzania hardened off 16 000 in vitro plantlets in preparation for distribution to farmers.• Preliminary studies on marketing have been undertaken in three of the four countries.Organic banana production in Bolivia (For more information see the article \"The highs and lows of organic bananas in South America\" on page 4.)Donor: CICAD-OASAim: To rehabilitate banana production in the Alto Beni region of Bolivia through the use of strengthened farmer associations and organic production for urban and international markets• Organic certification by Skal International has been procured for ten farmer associations.• Improved production technologies continue to be adopted.• A commercialization centre equipped with four ripening chambers has been established. • Information has been collected on the current status of black Sigatoka in nine countries in South America.• A total of 23 MSc and 9 BSc theses have been completed.• A final project meeting took place in July. Results of the research by the different partners were presented and will be published.Donor: FONTAGRO Partners, by country: Colombia: CIB-UNALMED; Costa Rica: CORBANA, CATIE, UTolima-CATIE Agreement; and Mexico: CINVESTAV Aims: To improve plantain production in Latin America by using genetic transformation methods to develop new resistant cultivars and a fast evaluation system for detecting black Sigatoka resistance under controlled conditions• A refined and reliable protocol has been developed to obtain embryogenic cell suspensions.• Banana cell suspensions have been established and constructs for transformation are being developed.• Vectors have been obtained to conduct genetic transformation.• The protocols for the evaluation of the transgenic plants are being standardized.The Plantain and Banana Research and Development Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (MUSALAC) operates under the auspices of the Foro Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico Agropecuario para America Latina y el Caribe and is coordinated by INIBAP in Costa Rica.• The MUSALAC Steering Committee meeting was attended by 34 participants from 14 countries.• An international workshop, sponsored by the private sector, on \"Banana root systems: towards a better understanding for productive management\" was co-organized with CORBANA in November. A total of 120 participants attended.• Six plantain production courses were organized in Aruba, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Ecuador.• 100 participants from throughout the region were trained in the management of black Sigatoka, nematodes and other pests and diseases in Ecuador.The event was organized in collaboration with FUNDAGRO, ESPOL from Ecuador and MUSALAC.• A workshop, co-organized with IDIAF, on the application of statistical techniques in Musa research allowed 35 participants to be trained in the Dominican Republic. • Plants of improved varieties, supplied by ITC, have been established in insect-proof nurseries in all countries to serve as foundation stocks for mass tissue culture production.• Performance trials have taken place on-station and in farmers' fields.• In the Philippines a number of institutes have received planting materials from the NRMDCs for further multiplication and distribution to farmers.• Philippine farmers have been trained in improved production techniques through support from DA-BAR.• An IPM training seminar on virus-free planting materials was carried out in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam for the personnel of NRMDCs. The training was co-organized and co-funded by the FFTC in Taiwan. • Four PhD students have been registered; two at KULeuven and two at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Work programmes are developed.• A regional training course on \"Enhancing capacity for nematode management in small-scale banana cropping systems\" took place in the Philippines in December.The Banana Asia and Pacific Network (BAPNET) operates under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes and is coordinated by INIBAP in the Philippines.• The Steering Committee meeting was held in Indonesia in October.• An MGIS training course took place in Malaysia in December.• A number of training events on nursery and field management of in vitro propagated plants took place in the Philippines. • A planning workshop was held in Kampala in July. Three main guiding principles were identified as poverty alleviation, conservation of the natural resource base and stakeholders participation.• Consultation meetings at the benchmark sites were held to streamline the management structures of the Farmer Associations and to come up with a sustainable development plan in relation to the objectives of the project.• Farmers' support for the project is high, with particular interest being shown in banana-based biodiversity and the development of new products with an identified market.Donor: DFID Partners, by country: Kenya: KARI; Tanzania: ARDI; Uganda: NARO Aims: To test IPM options in various combinations in a range of agro-ecological and socio-economic settings, and to train farmers so that they can use IPM approaches independently in their farming systems• Data gathering and analysis were completed.• Extension materials were developed, translated into local languages and distributed to farmers.• A total of 255 farmers took part in the project and a farmer association was formed in each country. Ugandan farmers also visited NARO research station and Kenyan farmers visited Ugandan sites.• A final reporting workshop was held in December and the papers will be published in a special edition of the African Crop Science Journal.Donor: IFAD, Rockefeller Foundation, USAID Partners, by country: Tanzania: ARDI, Sokoine University; Uganda: IITA, Makerere University, NARO; USA: IFPRI Aims: To examine the sociological and economic impacts of improved varieties of banana on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and to build capacity in NARS and universities to carry out multi-disciplinary impact studies using the sustainable livelihoods approach• A sociological research team has been formed, including three MA students and one PhD student and a senior advisor.• The household survey being carried out by the economics team is well advanced.• A Sustainable Livelihoods training course for all African-based researchers in the project, led by a facilitator supported by the IPGRI Innovation Fund took place in Kampala in July.• A research planning meeting took place in October in Bukoba, Tanzania, and a project management meeting for the steering group, researchers and coordinators took place the same month in Kampala, Uganda.• An agreement to ensure that the data are shared between partners has been drafted and signed by the directors of all the participating institutions. • Enset publications are being compiled and entered into a database that is similar to MUSALIT. • MUSALIT now includes 8393 bibliographic abstracts in 3 languages.• 34% of the references in the MUSALIT database are linked to their full text documents and more than 800 INIBAP publications are now electronically available though INIBAP's website and on MusaDoc 2003.• 800 new records were added to MUSALIT. BRIS contains almost 900 records (including 37 new records) on researchers.• 850 information requests were processed in 2003.• The trilingual Musa thesaurus is now linked to the bibliographic database.• The MUSADOC 2003 CD-Rom was published in October and distributed to 1500 users.• The research and general information pages on the INIBAP web site are being redesigned.• The home for the Global Musa Genomics Consortium is being updated and a link to the Musa Genomic Resource Centre created so that members can access information on available genomics resources.• Average daily number of visits has increased nearly 50% to 564.• 42200 Mb of publications were downloaded in 27 400 transactions.• INFOMUSA and the PROMUSA newsletter (now called PROMUS@) were redesigned. PROMUS@ is distributed in electronic form and upon request in hard copy.• Two trilingual technical guidelines (No. 7 and 8), entitled \"Global evaluation of Musa germplasm for resistance to Fusarium wilt, Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases and nematodes\" and \"Banana and plantain embryogenic cell suspensions\", were produced.• The proceedings of the 2002 international workshop on Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases, entitled \"Mycosphaerella leaf spot diseases of bananas: present status and outlook\", was published.• A booklet including the programme and abstracts of the 2 nd International symposium on Fusarium wilt on banana was produced.• INIBAP contributed, together with IDRC and Oxfam Canada, to a booklet, targeted at Canadian high schools and general public, to explain where the banana comes from.• A feature article on the threats to the banana was published in the British science magazine New Scientist, with inputs from INIBAP. Its impact worldwide was resounding, with articles published in national and local papers in more than 50 countries.• INIBAP has helped develop the banana exhibit at the Eden project, which now features a genuine banana beer boat crafted in Uganda.• A survey of 90 Musa information centres in Africa was initiated to find out about their information resources and needs.• A documentation centre has been set up in CARBAP, Cameroon. A regional bibliographic database is established and a question and answer service is now available.• Information partnerships are being developed with various African networks, including WECARD, ASARECA, SACCAR and FARA.• The first issue of the African newsletter, MUSAfrica, jointly produced by IITA, CARBAP and INIBAP, was published in August in French and English.• Two issues of the RISBAP Newsletter were published.•  Belalcázar Carvajal S. Presentations made at the Curso regional sobre siembra y explotación del cultivo del plátano, Quevedo, Ecuador, 17-18 June 2003: -Cultivares, ecofisiología, morfología y ciclo vegetativo de la planta de plátano.-Semilla: producción, selección por tamaño y tratamiento.-Sistemas de siembra y uso y manejo de altas densidades de siembra.-Siembra: profundidad y época.-Manejo agronómico: deshije, deshoje, desmane y destronque.-Nutrición y fertilización del cultivo del plátano.-Plagas y enfermedades: importancia económica y manejo.-Cosecha y manejo de poscosecha.Belalcázar Carvajal S. Presentations made at the Seminario sobre nutrición y fertilización del cultivo del plátano, Caicedonia, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, 23 July 2003: -Cultivares, ecofisiología y morfología y ciclo vegetativo de la planta de plátano.-Nutrición y fertilización de la planta de plátano: dosis, épocas y formar de fertilización.-Fertilización en el sistema de altas densidades de siembra.Belalcázar Carvajal S. and F.E. Rosales. Presentations made at the Taller sobre manejo convencional y alternativo de la Sigatoka negra, nemátodos y otras plagas asociadas al cultivo de Musáceas, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 11-13 August 2003:-Producción de plátano en altas densidades de siembra y su efecto en el manejo de la Sigatoka negra.-Hospedantes del \"moko\" y su rol en la epidemiología de la enfermedad.Belalcázar Carvajal S., F.E. -Morfología y ciclo vegetativo de la planta de plátano.-Nutrición y fertilización del cultivo del plátano: acumulación de biomasa, extracción de elementos nutritivos, calibración de los análisis de suelos, respuesta de la planta de plátano a la fertilización, forma y época de aplicación de los fertilizantes.Blomme G., K. Teugels, I. Blanckaert, G. Sebuwufu, R.L. Swennen, and A. ","tokenCount":"10799"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"10429b88fce21b258992733fe5eea620","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/427c10ec-6a84-4401-b72e-605955d4ed61/retrieve","id":"1024230238"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31a4a3b6-f427-42f6-b032-4c1ac2be8555","pagecount":"18","content":"Background Objectives Questions to be addressed Source material Data management Exploration & description Findings, implications and lessons learned Reporting Study questions Related reading AcknowledgementsIn this case study we use Instat to focus on the exploratory and descriptive analysis of daily rainfall data for evidence of climate change in southern Zambia, where agriculture productivity has been decreasing over recent years. We look at some of the problems that occur in managing and editing climatic data and the types of analysis that are appropriate.The case study also briefly demonstrates the interactions that are needed between biometrician and his/her client in helping to define the questions that need to be posed to meet study objectives.Finally the case study illustrates how the results can be reported and disseminated to the different categories of end users, in this case in the form of radio broadcasts to farmers.Agriculture is essential to the Zambian economy. The southern part of Zambia has, until recently, been considered the ´bread-basket´ of the country. The farmers grow mainly maize with some cultivation of cassava, sweet potatoes and millet as supplementary crops.But the farmers are faced with a dilemma: agriculture productivity has been on the decline over the past few years, and while some, in line with current trends, would like to blame climate change for these problems, the Lusaka based Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) believes that the problem lies mainly with the farming practices in the region. This problem, according to CFU, is not confined to all farmers. Jessie Nchimunya (82 years of age) from Choongo village in the Chimpati, Monze region is a farmer who had left for ´greener pastures´ but has now returned to southern Zambia and has been applying conservation-farming recommendations with great success. CFU are convinced there are more like her! Source: Parin Kurji So what can be done to the declining productivity levels in the region over recent years? The CFU has been attempting to tackle the problem by advocating good farming practices. This includes minimum tillage, timely preparation of land, harvesting of rainwater and early planting. The CFU believes that low production levels have arisen through poor farming practices rather than as a result of climate change.Whilst conceding that there has been global climate change the CFU nevertheless questions its significance for farming in southern Zambia. In an attempt to answer this question an initial study was commissioned to investigate evidence for climate change using summarised monthly rainfall data recorded at a single meteorological station. However, the monthly dataset was found to be inadequate to answer the questions posed.Therefore, a larger investigation was initiated in 2003/2004 incorporating eight meteorological stations in Southern Province that had maintained comparatively long records of daily rainfall data. The FAO Emergency Committee provides the majority of the funding for the study. The aim was to examine the role of rainfall data in the definition of suitable cropping strategies for small-scale farmers in the drought prone areas. The project also undertook to explore ways that farmers could be helped to make informed decisions about effective planting dates.The eight stations are shown in the table below. However, the case study will focus on just one of the eight stations, namely Moorings. Moorings is a private farm in Monze, Southern Province and participates as a voluntary observation point for Zambia Meteorological Service. Moorings is run by the family of Mr. Tom Savoury, who has conscientiously maintained rainfall records since 1922.In this case study we discuss simple methods of analysis of rainfall data and illustrate some of the problems that need to be addressed when handling climatic data.There are two primary objectives for the study:Is there evidence for climate change in Southern Zambia, vis-à-vis rainfall patterns, and, if there is, could it affect agricultural productivity? How can the results of the study be disseminated effectively to the farmers and other stakeholders?Source: Jean HansonEvidence for climatic change, as identified through changing rainfall patterns, will be explored using the following ´events´ Before attempting to address these issues, it will be necessary to organise, verify and format the daily rainfall data so that they can be analysed. Climatic data are an example of routinely collected data that are often used as secondary data. Secondary data do not usually receive the same rigorous treatment as primary data. Thus preparing climatic data for processing can require considerable resources. This had been budgeted for. Often it is not. It is the responsibility of a researcher or biometrician to ensure that there is adequate data processing funding within any project funding proposal.A subsidiary objective of this case study is, therefore,To thoroughly screen and check the data for errors.We also address:The issue of dissemination of the results, especially to the farmer.Daily rainfall data for Moorings were supplied by the Zambia Meteorological Service. The original data had been completed and verified in Microsoft Access at the source station.  1921+ and 1969+. Monthly summary rainfall totals had also been calculated at Moorings from the daily rainfall values and these were provided by the station. These are stored in the 'Monthly' worksheet in CS7Data. The contents of the different worksheets are described in CS7Doc.In Zambia, climatic data are collected by district meteorological stations that are run and maintained by the Provincial Meteorological Office in each province. Each province also has some registered volunteer observation stations (collaborating stations) that collect daily rainfall. Usually a hard copy of all the collected data is regularly sent to the central headquarters of the Meteorological Service in Lusaka. The data are then supposed to be computerised, verified and archived. This is not always done for all stations and so, in practice, accessing climatic data in Zambia, and probably in other countries too, is not that simple.For this study, permission was first obtained from the Zambia Meteorological Service to use the rainfall data from the eight stations and from Moorings to use data collected by the station itself. The Moorings data were then scrutinised to check for missing data as well as for data errors. A sample of daily rainfall data (in inches) included in the 1921+ sheet of CS7Data is shown as it was received from the Zambian Meteorological Service.Another section of the spread sheet demonstrates a glaring error in the data that was found by us by filtering by eye and had not previously been spotted during original data entry by the Zambia Meteorological Service. The rainfall figure of 70 inches is obviously a mistake and should probably be 0.7 inches. The appropriateness of this correction was confirmed when the data were cross-checked with the monthly totals available from the station (verify with 'Monthly' worksheet in CS7Data).Other data problems are illustrated in another section of the spreadsheet. Although not anywhere documented, it was deduced that units of recording of rainfall must have changed from inches to millimetres in 1981/82. The marks the last value in that year which was presumably entered in the old units. The column signifies a gap in the records in 1991/92.The table below gives a summary of rainfall in 1987. As explained earlier the daily rainfall had originally been entered in a Microsoft Access table that listed the amount of rainfall and the date when rain occurred. Dry days had not been included. This Access table was transferred to Excel in order to give a consolidated worksheet and with the existing records merged into a common format.The process of preparing and cleaning data for Moorings was documented in a detailed log that was kept of changes made to the raw data. Some of the changes are listed below. They are some of the entries We first need to look at tables of daily rainfall by day and month as explained in Chapter 4 of the INSTAT Climatic Guide (Stern et al. 2006). An example is shown alongside from July 1994 to June 1995.One of the things we shall be looking for is an indication of the start of rains, which typically occurs in the middle of November.The first major rainfall from July onwards fell on 15th October and again on 31st October. The first major rain in November occurred on the 29th and no further large rainfall occurred until 26th December. The long period from 15th October to 26th December suggests that the October readings were either premature indications of the start of rains or due to faulty recording. We conclude that the start of rains in this year occurred on 29th November.The next step is to look at monthly totals of rainfall They can be summarised in various ways (Stern et al. 2006). one example is given below. We notice that, although the highest average monthly rainfall of 211.1 mm occurred in January, there is high variability over the years (range 30 -520 mm). The first column gives the number of years in which total monthly rainfall was at least 10mm.The months between June and August are not included in the table as total rainfalls in each of these months were <10 mm in every year. The next step is to investigate possible trends in seasonal rainfall. The main rainy months in Zambia are from October to March, with occasional rain in April and sometimes May. The period between October and March is defined as the rainy season. The northern areas experience very heavy rainfall during these months but the southern areas, including Moorings, often have rainfall below that needed by farmers to grow their crops.The plots show the variability in rainfall from year to year. Total rainfall during the rainy season varies from about 300 to 1200mm. A slight downward trend is perhaps indicated over the last 30 years, but still with the high year to year variability.A possible reduced rainfall could be due to changes in the number of rainy days or the average rainfalls per rainy day rather than the total rainfall itself. We therefore explore annual patterns in the numbers of rainy days and the average rainfalls per rainy day. There appears to be a slight downward trend in the numbers of rainy days over the period but not in the average rainfall per rainy day.If there is a change in annual seasonal rainfall it is important to know whether there has been any change in the time when the rainy season starts. Thus, we use trellis plots to look at the patterns in average daily rainfall totals and numbers of rainy days for each month. Any signs of curvature are investigated by regression analysis. (GenStat was used as trellis plots and spline smoothing were not yet available in INSTAT).Only the curve in December (the 3rd graph in the 2nd row) achieved statistical significance (P<0.05) by explaining just 8% of the year-to-year variability in total rainfall. The fitted curve rises from 180 mm in 1922 to a peak of 224mm in 1959, and then falls to 152mm in 2003. Curves in January and February (first two graphs in 3rd row) have similar shapes to December but were not significant.The numbers of rainy days in December also appear to follow the same trend with a rise followed by a fall in average numbers. These trends in total monthly rainfall and the numbers of rainy days in December indicate a possible climate change.Climatic data analysis has traditionally relied on monthly rainfall to understand annual or seasonal rainfall patterns. More recently, however, it has been shown that, with appropriate software, additional information can be obtained from analyses of daily records. The next part of the exploration therefore concentrates on using daily rainfall records for the preliminary analysis of the specified events.First we explore whether there has been any shift in the start of the rainy season.The CFU defined ´Start of Rains´ as the first day after 15th November when more than 20mm of rain fell within the day. By ticking the graph option in the Start of the Rains dialog box in the Climatic Menu (see dialog box) and entering the necessary details, a time series plot of the start of the rains can be displayed. , Rains started between the 138 th and the 188 th day after 1st July. The variation appeared to be randomly scattered. This implies that there is no evidence of any increase in risk to crops from any change in the timing of the start of rains over recent years.Since a long dry spell occurring after rains have started could also result in crop failure, we decided to investigate ´Start of Rains´ in conjunction with ensuing dry spells. Years were distinguished by those that had a dry spell exceeding a period of 10 days within the first 30 days following the ´Start of Rains´ with those that did not. Rainfalls < 0.85mm were included within the definition of a dry day. This seemingly arbitrary value was chosen to avoid any complications that may subsequently occur when the analysis was extended to cover all meteorological stations because of possible station-to-station inconsistencies in the recording of very small rainfalls.The blue lines in the graph show the years with dry spell exceeding 10 days within the first 30 days after the ´Start of Rains´. These years correspond to those years when the farmer may have had to replant.The analysis went further (not shown here) by defining different lengths of dry spells at different times during the growing season, particularly round the period of flowering. No evidence of any significant change in recent years was found.From our analysis of rainfall patterns summarised for the one meteorological station used in this case study there is no evidence of any recent climate change in southern Zambia. Thus, we reject the null hypothesis that poor crop production in recent years has been due to changes in rainfall patterns Source: ILRICourses in biometrics and research methods rarely deal with climatic data. Such data are useful in their own right and can be an important component in research. Climatic data are an example of routinely collected data that need to be carefully handled and require special methods of data management.Courses in applied biometrics tend to emphasise formal methods of analysis and go straight to the fitting statistical models without any preliminary exploration of the data. A simple descriptive analysis is sometimes all that is needed to answer a question, as is shown in this case study. Case Study 11 makes the same point.It is necessary for a biometrician to have a continual dialogue with a researcher during any consultation if he/she is to have a full understanding of the background of a study and the questions that are required of the data. In this way suitable approaches proposed for analysing the data in a way that best answers these questions can be discussed and agreed. This was important in this case study for agreeing on a definition for the ´Start of Rains´ and a suitable length for a dry period following the ´Start of Rains´.Here we focus on methods for disseminating results from the present study. The use of radio and role-play, together with more traditional bulletins and brochures, reports and presentations to targeted groups, were used. Their aim was not only to disseminate the conclusions from the study but also make policy makers and farmers aware of the importance of using climatic data for informed decision making.In particular we describe the structure of the radio broadcasts. These were a series of 24 weekly programmes from August 2004 to March 2005 presented in the local language.The programmes comprised half-hourly slots starting with a 15-minute discussion on a particular topic such as planting date. This was followed by a short 'commercial' break on the same topic and then ended with a 15-minute play emphasising the key points dealt with in the discussion.The following examples describes part of the text that discussed planting dates.It is a period in which a farmer plants his or her crop in order to achieve maximum productivity. Let me turn to a live example. For Monze district our statistical analysis used data from 1921 to 2003 collected from the meteorological station at Moorings. The average date of the start of rains throughout these years was found to be 26th November. A planting window was therefore defined as 15th November to 15th December. This means that you should plant your crops within this window but make sure that 20 mm of rains fall within the next three days. If not, you may have to replant.It does not mean that you cannot plant before 15th November. You may do so but you will have a greater risk that it does not rain sufficiently in the days that follow to ensure a good germination rate for your crop. Thus, it will only be advisable for you to do so if there has been a lot of rain, perhaps more than 40m, or if you know that a particular crop variety is able to withstand long dry spell. Indeed, there is nothing wrong in you taking a chance, as long as you understand that you may have to bear the consequences of a long dry spell.Planting within the planting window does not mean that nothing will ever go wrong. Sometimes it may, because the seasonal patterns in rainfall are never the same from year to year. But you will be minimising the risk of something going wrong. Again it does not mean that you cannot plant after the 15th December. But you must be sure that the particular crop variety that you are planting will reach maturity by the end of the growing season.As regards to deciding on which crop variety you should choose, may I refer you to last week's lesson on the selection of crop varieties? Just planting in the planting window is not all that you have to do to ensure that you achieve maximum production. There are other agricultural practices such as crop management that you will need to address too. We shall discuss these another time, but for now let us understand that the chances of achieving a good harvest are better for crops planted within the planting window than for those planted outside.Next week we shall discuss the end of the growing season. Do not miss this programme as we shall discuss further the benefits of using the planting window.Remember the planting window is from 15th November to 15th December -this is the period when planting a crop gives it the best chance to reach maturity and provide you with a good harvest This was followed by a short 'commercial' break, which emphasised the same topic. In this break: Nkwambila Bwe (a man who does not co-operate) complains: \"People are jealous of my good maize crops. They have stopped the rains.\" Kanchele retorts: \"No! You are just paying for the sin of untimely planting.\" Nkwambila Bwe and Kanchele also played the main parts together with their wives in a play entitled \"Planting window\" that followed the 'commercial break. This play reinforced the main ideas discussed earlier in the broadcast.The plays used in the various broadcasts were all designed to make the audience laugh, and the same characters returned each week. A small payment had to be made to the radio station that broadcasted the programmes. However, the programmes became so popular that the station agreed for the programmes to be retransmitted at no further cost.Listeners were encouraged to tape the broadcasts and use them as a basis for further discussion at group meetings. This helps to strengthen interactions among farmers and reduces the possibilities of any individual farmer misunderstanding what he has heard on the broadcast.1. Go through the 'Log' worksheet in CS7Data and see whether you agree with the recommended changes to the data file. Indicate any occasion where you think that an alternative modification to the data may have been considered.2. The case study gives a summary table of means, minima and maxima of monthly rainfall together with the numbers of years in which monthly rainfall was at least 10mm. Use Instat to produce other summaries that might be useful in highlighting differences among months and years. 3. Use Instat to reproduce the graphs of annual and seasonal rainfall. 4. Use Instat to reproduce the graphs showing patterns in the numbers of rainy days and the average rainfalls per rainy day. 5. It is widely accepted that climate change not only affects changes in mean temperature or rainfall but also in their variability from year to year. Describe how you would assess whether there has been any change over time in the variability among years in the numbers of rainy days or average rainfall per rainy day.6. Rainfall is just one type of routinely collected data. List other types of routinely collected data that might be available to a researcher and describe the circumstances in which they might be used. 7. Write a text suitable for a radio broadcast which follows the example given in the case study explaining to farmers why there is no evidence that global warming has changed the window for planting. 8. Together with another student write a short play that displays a researcher trying to explain to a farmer why the results of the analysis from this Case Study suggest that the reasons why he is getting poor maize yield is not due to climate change. Act your play in class. ","tokenCount":"3537"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1a45a08dc59f926944eba985bc9d94ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bfe8058a-8ba6-4f68-b4c6-64e9b03d2047/retrieve","id":"213604856"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"77e24d9e-d9bb-4c7d-86db-8101d10b3698","pagecount":"1","content":"Sweetpotato weevil (Cylas puncticollis and C. brunneus) causes yield loss of over 28% between wet and dry seasons in Uganda. The improvement of weevil resistance in sweetpotato using classical breeding has been limited because no sources of resistance have been identified in the crop germplasm. In 2007, CIP and its collaborators identified three Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry proteins (Cry7Aa1, Cry3Ca1, ET33-34) active against the two African weevil species with an LC 50 below 1ppm. However sweetpotato, especially African cultivars, is still considered recalcitrant to both regeneration and transformation. We report progress made towards optimising regeneration and transformation protocols and the identification of suitable Ugandan sweetpotato cultivars.PCR for cry7Aa1 gene gave an early indication of transformation for 10 randomly selected plants among the regenerated 18 plants. Six of these plants showed that they were transformed with cry7Aa1 gene representing a 2% transformation efficiency Regeneration through somatic embryogenesis Seven de novo shoots were recently regenerated from 2 embryogenic calli proliferating from meristsm explants. ","tokenCount":"161"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"122c60cd5be5f7703141a2a31b46bc2b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0f70a541-c204-4144-9bf0-b54865cf6bd0/retrieve","id":"-2084541385"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28aa41b8-f8b0-4a41-8c28-6de67c6a5204","pagecount":"19","content":" The partner workshop gathered various over 22 participants of local partners with the objectives of updating partners on the projects past activities, share planned and ongoing activities in 2014-2015, (re)  introduce the project to new partners, discuss how strengthen partnership of the project to better build capacity needed to enhance the competitiveness of smallholder livestock production in Botswana. There is an overall appreciation that this project by partners. Most partners note that the project presents a great initiative by focus on competitiveness presents in smallholder setting in scientific way.  Most of the project activities are up-to date. While there were delays in finalizing the animal health serological tests results and the participatory epidemiology reports, Dr. Kawonga noted that the lab tests results finalized soon. Breed related work is coming together. A committee of breed experts was identified and planned activities were share with the partners. Policy related activities were shared by BIDPA key contact.  Partners identified and discussed key ingredients to strengthen the partnership. Discussion centered on improving communication, clearly defining roles and having a shared goal. Partners identified their role and contributions that they will bring to the projects.  The completion of detailed survey of over 600 household was highlighted a major activity in 2013. DAR shared field level experiences related to the data collection exercise including challenges faced by enumerators. Partners expressed excitement over the planned policy conference toward the end of the year.Project summaryThe smallholder livestock sector produces most of Botswana's meat and over 70% of the country's agricultural gross domestic product. Although past policy and research have focused on the beef export sector, rather little information has been generated on the circumstances and potential of the 80,000 smallholders who own most of the country's cattle, and the 100,000 households that earn livelihoods from sheep and goats. This leaves strategies and investments for rural development and livelihood generation without a basis in data and analysis.For both cattle and small ruminants, more competitive smallholder systems can improve livelihoods.Several factors constrain the production and marketing of surpluses by smallholders: poor animal health is one example that is often made worse by the complexities of communal grazing and by limited access to services.This 3-year research project (Enhancing the Competitiveness of Smallholder Livestock in Botswana)engages partners in research, industry and government to address the following three questions:(1) What are the characteristics of smallholder livestock producers in Botswana?(2) What factors constrain their livelihoods?(3) How can livestock-related marketing systems in Botswana be improved for the benefit of smallholders and the rural population?The project objectives are to:1. Better define smallholder livestock production systems and to identify the factors affecting the productivity of smallholder livestock producers and assess their competitiveness 2. Understand and improve conditions for market participation and value addition in markets for livestock, livestock products and inputs 3. Strengthen the capacity of agricultural education and b extensionThe main partners of the project are:1. Australian Centre for International Agricultural ResearchSeptember 2012 to 31 August 2015The objectives of the workshop were centered on:1. (Re) introducing the project to (new) partners and Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) in their contribution in implementing the project. After noting the main objectives of the meeting, she reminded the stakeholders that the forum presents stakeholders with an opportunity to be updated with project progress since 2012 to date, discuss and develop strategies to produce and better communicate information generated from the project.In his opening remarks, Mr. Boweditswe Masilo, Director of Department of Agricultural Business Promotion, commended the project team for organizing the project partner meeting. He emphasized his department and MOA commitment to the project and any initiatives that raise competitiveness of smallholder farmers for that matter.He mentioned that he was involved when the project started in 2011, but due to ministerial engagements became less engaged as activities of the project kick-started in 2012. He indicated that he is aware that the project has broad aspect to undertake, but aimed at smallholder being competitive.Despite that, Mr. Masilo noted that he regularly gets updates from the ILRI staff and the project coordinator, Dr. Bahta. He further reiterated the importance for all the partners to give their best and the importance of record keeping in our communication so that the project can succeed to increase the quality and quantity of smallholder market participation.Dr. Sirak Bahta: After mentioning the main objectives of the meeting and (re) introducing the project, Dr.Bahta, ACIAR/ILRI/MOA project coordinator briefly explained the past and upcoming project activities.In his presentation, Dr. Bahta, said the main focus of the project in 2014 will be on marketing, feed and breeding activities. He further noted the following activities: Completion of a detailed household survey in three districts in 2013 and data base over 600 households is ready for analysis. The database has been used for profit efficiency analysis and results will be presented in international conference (IFAMA) and Dr. Bahta presented the preliminary results at DAR. Feed Availability Assessment Tool (FEAST) training has been conducted and the project has trained 30 extension officers from animal production department and some researchers from DAR. Discussions and planning on feed experiment with BMC are ongoing.Dr. Siboniso Moyo Dr. Moyo highlighted the planned activities for the breeding component and underlined that a core team responsible for breeding (DAR, ILRI, and BCA) will meet and develop a detailed work plan of the activities.The main activities in the plan include the following: 1. literature review on breed performance; 2. and its impacts on private sector development, (3) assessing the regional trade opportunities for Botswana livestock sector, and (4) leading a policy conference to be held in Gaborone toward the end of the year subject to funding.Dr. Katjiuongua (Epi) and Dr. Siboniso Moyo gave a short briefing on how the project and its partners can enhance their partnership and communicate project outputs effectively. Dr. Siboniso explained on how ILRI and its partners in other projects in Southern Africa work in partnership and communicates within and outside of the project countries.Most of the participants reiterated the importance of effective communication means to increasing awareness of the project activities among livestock farm communities.The section below summarizes some discussions around various topics during the workshop program:a. General: There was a general appreciation of the project and its objectives. Dr. Sam Madibela of BCA noted his appreciations that it is the first time that these issues are being examined in a scientific way at this scale in a smallholder setting in Botswana. All the partners committed to 2-3 roles that their organization can bring to the partnership (see appendix 1) The importance for the private sector to take up the role of service delivery was discussed. Mr. Masilo noted that it is equally important to find ways to prevent collusion and assure quality when promoting private sector to provide service delivery. Mr. Masilo further noted the importance to harmonize and develop standards to foster regional trade together with the private sector. Some participants asked whether policy is helping or undermining the growth of the private sector in the provision of services in the livestock sector. Dr. Ferran, Representative of CIRAD, stressed the importance of using new technologies to inform and build capacity of farmers. He gave example of using cellular phones and messaging on information related to animal disease and prices.For example, Orange and a partner in Zimbabwe and with collaboration through CICE are proposing such a service for Botswana. -BCA noted the importance of to improve awareness about breeds and their performance through good messaging.  Endo-parasites were noted as potential problem in the livestock sector of Botswana and participants agreed the need for further detailed study as the current sampling system is based only on animals that show the sign of the disease. Mr. Masilo noted that the Ministry of agriculture is concerned about breed and productivity of cattle in Botswana. Dr. Ferran questioned the comparison basis when discussing calving rate and growth rates with respect to animal performance in Botswana. He further reiterated the importance of using an appropriate and globally acceptable method of comparison. A discussion on the need for a support system for breeding services arose. F or example, conducting proper recording, especially for breeders (stud) was raised. But some participants questioned whether stud breeders are part of smallholders. Participants recommended that there is need to find ways to get (1) farmers to work together and (2) to develop standards for breeders. BCA noted the importance of improving awareness about breeds and their performance through good messaging.f. The role of collective action: On the discussion of collective action presented by Dr. Malope, Dr. Lepetu of CICE noted that is importance of integrating cultural and customary aspects of the society with the study of collective action. Dr. Mogome-Maseko recommended if BIDPA shares its proposal with other partners so that BCA and others can provide input. Dr. Ferran of CIRAD noted the importance of market segmentation and production differentiation (to give incentive) in striking a balance between the livestock production and environment. Ideas related to labeling of products made from animals procured from livestock communities who are engaged in protecting the environment and wildlife should be looked into. There was a discussion on the definition of smallholder in Botswana. Questions arose in the different criteria for defining a smallholder in Botswana and how this fit with existing definition of different sizes of farmers in Botswana. In general, it was concluded that through the data and information collected, the project will enrich and broaden the definition of smallholder farmers in Botswana beyond location and herd size, with various household factors including asset base, other household characteristics, income sources, farm management practices and efficiency indicators.Finally workshop participants were divided into four groups to discuss ideas on (1) key ingredients needed to strengthen partnership and (2) What each partner can bring to the project (see table 1). Among the key ingredients discussed include:1. Effective communication. In addition, it was noted that we need to find better ways and different media options to communicate about the project, findings from the research and to build capacity among stakeholders.Having a shared common goal 3. Openness, transparency and honesty 4. Sharing of information and acknowledgement of contributions.Early consultation about the project (activities)6.Flexibility to adapt 7.Bringing on board new partners to meet project objectives1. The project team needs to share ideas and ways on how to bring on board new stakeholders who were not on board from the beginning of the project. We need to involve and inform some stakeholders who were not at project inception. a.Even though the project does not have an environmental component, we need to think through on the environment aspects (esp. for feed). Engage with extension on issues related to overgrazing and grazing, explore possible collaboration with ILRI's Dryland Systems CRP, and the FAO's Agenda for Action.We need to ask the extension officers trained on FEAST to investigate the grazing lands/over grazing/range land management issues. Overall, the project and its partners need to show consciousness on the issues related to the environment.Small ruminant proposal:-Epi and Sirak to follow up with Dr. Tobitso on existing data and work done by CICE on goat value chain, and for their input. Assure implementation of project activities to reach objectives.Communicate and consult with partners.Identify key capacity development areas and actions. ","tokenCount":"1875"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"08964e2fc4be19d6d965a7497039eaa4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/89cd0e10-eac3-4910-9bf7-3fbadac9c4da/retrieve","id":"1168007064"},"keywords":["genomic selection (GS)","plant breeding","selection gain","breeding schemes","genotype-by-environment interaction"],"sieverID":"2d7c857c-5504-484d-8033-64d016ae0edb","pagecount":"3","content":"Genomic selection (GS) has been one of the most prominent Research Topics in breeding science in the last two decades after the milestone paper by Meuwissen et al. (2001). Its huge potential for increasing the efficiency of breeding programs attracted scientific curiosity and research funding. Many different statistical prediction methods have been tested, and different use cases have been explored.We organized this Research Topic to look both back and forward. The objectives were to review the developments of the last 20 years, to provide a snapshot of current hot topics, and potentially also to define areas on which more (or less) focus should be put in the future, thereby supporting readers with formulating and prioritizing their ideas for future research.Several questions were brought up when organizing this Research Topic including: How did GS change breeding schemes? Which impact did GS have on realized selection gain? What, considering the context of particularities of different crops, may be optimal breeding schemes to leverage the full potential of GS? What has been the impact of and what is the potential of hybrid prediction, statistical epistasis models, deep learning and other methods? What are the long-term effects of GS? Can predictive breeding approaches also be used to harness genetic resources from germplasm banks in a more efficient way?Having closed our Research Topic, we are happy to present a solid collection of 21 contributions from 149 authors which reviews the past work around GS, presents new insights, and points at topics with potential for future research. The 21 contributions consist of 12 original research articles, a method paper, two review contributions, five opinion articles and a perspective.Concerning original research, the main topics that have been addressed were \"genetic architecture\" and \"genetic architecture enhanced prediction methods, \" \"shortening the breeding cycle, \" \"genotype x environment interaction, \" \"sparse-testing, \" and \"genomic selection in polyploids.\"Additionally to considerations around GS for major staple crops, Ferrão et al. \"propose a strategy for using genomic selection in blueberry, with the potential to be applied to other polyploid species of a similar background.\" In particular, the authors highlight that \"the use of additive effects under a linear mixed model framework (GBLUP) showed the best balance between efficiency and accuracy.\" The topic of GS in tetraploids has also been considered by Wilson et al. for the case of potato. Moreover, Liu et al. investigated prediction methods based on genes known to be relevant for fiber length in cotton. Pégard et al. considered GS for poplar in the context of forest tree breeding and highlight \"that genomic evaluation performance could be comparable to the already well-optimized pedigreebased evaluation under certain conditions [. . . ] Genome-based methods showed advantages over pedigree counterparts when ranking candidates at the within-family levels, for most of the families.\"The other eight original research contributions were related to wheat, maize and rice.Bonnett et al. addressed the application of GS in a wheat breeding pipeline. In particular, the authors considered the performance of selected material when applying genomic selection with different prediction methods in an early generation.The topic of modeling environmental effects and genotypeby-environment interactions (GEI) was addressed by several authors. Westhues et al. included environmental predictors in GS using gradient boosting. Based on \"data collected by the Maize Genomes to Fields\" initiative, the authors found that \"Accuracy in forecasting grain yield performance of new genotypes in a new year was improved by up to 20% over the baseline model by including environmental predictors with gradient boosting methods.\" Genotype-by-environment interactions were also considered Ma and Cao addressed the dissection of grain yield of maize and compared the predictive ability of different approaches, in particular when incorporating markers associated with the traits of interest as a fixed effect in the statistical model. Finally, Cao et al. addressed genomic prediction of resistance to Tar Spot.As a contribution of a method article, Schrauf et al. discussed how to compare different genomic prediction models by cross validations. The authors \"emphasize the importance of paired comparisons to achieve high power in the comparison between candidate models, as well as the need to define notions of relevance in the difference between their performances. Regarding the latter, \" the authors \"borrow the idea of equivalence margins from clinical research and introduce new statistical tests.\"As review contributions, Fritsche-Neto et al. reviewed GS in small scale maize hybrid programs and Simeão et al. described the current status and future application of GS in tropical forage grasses.Concerning opinion articles, Crossa et al. presented their view on the \"Modern Plant Breeding Triangle, \" comprising genomics, phenomics, and environomics. Martini et al. highlighted the challenges that prediction approaches face when aiming at harnessing genetic resources, that is predicting diverse material which may not be sufficiently represented in the training set. Covarrubias-Pazaran et al. outlined how public breeding programs could be strengthened by focusing on quantitative genetics principles, and by sharing data resources including genomic data and breeding values predicted from experimental evaluations from different organizations. Another opinion contribution was provided by Gholami et al. who compared the adoption of GS across different breeding institutions, in more detail dairy cattle breeding and public and private plant breeding programs. The authors highlight that differences in the organizational structure of plant and animal breeding institutions, as well as differences in the cost-benefit structures of the use of GS in private and public plant breeding may have been the cause for differences in the adoption of GS. Gianola contributed with his reflections on trends and developments in statistical genetics addressing for instance the \"deconstruction of genetic architecture\" and highlighting that \"quantitative genetics provides just a linear (local) approximation to complexity with little (if any) mechanistic value.\" Moreover, the author emphasized the principal of parsimony in genetic models and that a bias of a statistical method does not need to be a problem but that \"practically all machine learning methods (e.g., random forests) provide biased predictions that, on average, will be better than unbiased machines.\"In the direction of what Gianola called the \"linear (local) approximation, \" Powell et al. argue that \"The implicit capture of non-stationary effects of alleles requires the G2P map to be re-estimated across different contexts\" and discuss the \"development and application of hierarchical G2P maps that explicitly capture non-stationary effects of alleles.\"The rough outline of the content of our Research Topic emphasizes that GS is now well-established across many plant species. Moreover, five out of 12 research articles were related to GEI indicating the relevance of this topic in current research. Plant breeding programs may have more need to estimate GEI because a program's purpose is to develop improved varieties which is inherently tied to the target environments. Was our Research Topic able to answer all the questions originally formulated? We do not think so. For instance, additional contributions on the optimal use of GS for different crops, but also a more detailed retrospective analysis of realized selection gain after the introduction of GS, or the relevance of epistasis models, hybrid prediction and new machine learning models would have been desirable.We hope that our Research Topic supports readers with the priorization of their own ideas for future investigation, and we look forward to a potential second volume, maybe 25 years after the milestone paper by Meuwissen et al. (2001).","tokenCount":"1206"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d1c4eace41e5db0c90acdbaaf6db3b65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe4f93f0-473b-454d-8937-a3bff0aeb54f/retrieve","id":"341132359"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"777ff0b9-88cb-4ada-9fbd-275e5e40d35d","pagecount":"2","content":"Rapid and cost-effective sequencing of pathogen genomes has become a fundamental aspect of plant health management in well-resourced settings. This technique needs to be extended to developing countries in order to limit crop losses and improve food security. The combination of pathogen diagnostics and epidemiology with advanced digital disease detection systems has the potential to greatly enhance continuous monitoring, prompt diagnosis, and real-time tracking of crop diseases in regions of the South that have limited access to well-equipped laboratories. AfricaRice and JIC are developing TIDIS, a portable and scalable point-of-care management system for disease identification, under PHI. TIDIS began with sequencing and analysis of blast infected leaf samples from farmers' fields, followed by virulence genomic profiling and polymorphism gene definition using bioinformatics and Wet-lab PCR pooling techniques. Analysis of transcriptome libraries has generated ML trees using reference-based SNPs. The present results show that Ugandan isolates are more diverse than Cote d'Ivoire isolates. The ML tree for Cote d'Ivoire isolates exhibited phylogenetically less informative differences. Analysis of new collections that have just been sequenced will likely refine the clustering of isolates in both countries.Challenge: Rice blast is one of the most widespread and economically important disease of rice worldwide. Early detection, particularly of emerging aggressive strains, and timely practical guidance are crucial to protect the rice crop. Currently, there is no functioning early warning system for rice blast management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). There is need to establish a comprehensive framework that combines up-to-date field and mobile phone surveillance data, mobile nanopore sequencing diagnostics, and a platform for prompt communication with policy-makers, extension agents, and small-holder farmers. Developing a portable and adaptable disease identification pointof-care management system (TIDIS) will enhance both disease detection and its long-term surveillance for effective management. TIDIS is a genomic surveillance system that can differentiate between different races within a population of pathogens. The importance of this system lies in its role in fulfilling the needs of both researchers and farmers by ensuring timely identification of pathogen virulence profiles, hence protecting rice from rice blast through efficient early infection prevention. TIDIS also includes a capacity building aspect that is essential for addressing the lack of human resources necessary to handle the growing disease challenges resulting from climate change.Methodology: TIDIS is a tool for rapidly assigning strains to genetic lineages and virulence profiles for effective management. The steps involved in TIDIS development include, 1. Sequencing of blast isolates directly picked from the fields: To maximise the geographical distribution of rice blast isolates we collected blast samples from rice blast infected fields in all the regions of both Uganda and Cote d'Ivoire, the PHI pilot countries. Samples were processed and submitted for next generation sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq platform. Whole genome and transcriptome sequences were analyzed, and virulence factor analysis to reveal a comprehensive virulence spectrum of prevalent pathotypes in Uganda and Ivory Coast is ongoing. This analysis will provide input data for determining the environmental basis of pathogen adaptation and localization of areas at risk of pathogen outbreak. 2. Development of a diagnostic tool: Genomic regions showing high variability between pathogen strains (from 1) will be selected, and the most polymorphic genes will be picked out for PCR enrichment, and subsequent sequencing on the MinION platform from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. The MARPLE system will provide a basis for developing a blast diagnostic tool. The system has proved efficient in identifying individual strains of wheat yellow rust pathogens.The accuracy and cost effectiveness of TIDIS will be validated by comparing it with data generated from the illumina platform, which is frequently used for pathogenomics. We will also validate and standardize the diagnostic assays using wellcharacterized in-house strains belonging to known lineages before testing against field isolates from rice growing areas. Deployment success of TIDIS will be anchored in educating the NARs scientists, Universities and field practitioners on its importance in controlling rice blast. We will also actively look to integrate with other research efforts for a broader and more effective impact Key Findings: The sequencing of diseased leaf samples collected between 2021 and 2023 has been completed. The ongoing analysis of these transcriptome libraries aims to unravel the phylogenetic grouping of pathogens, predict their phenotypic characteristics (such as identifying putative virulence factors and signs of adaptation), and assign genotypes. Thus far, the ML trees derived from the reference-based SNPs did not show clearly defined monophyletic groupings for isolates from Uganda. However, isolates from the eastern region of Uganda tended to form a separate cluster (Figure 1). The phylogenetic tree of Cote d'Ivoire isolates has little clustering diversity, with only a few phylogenetically informative clusters observed among the isolates (Figure 1B). The transcriptome data we have generated will be used to determine the genomic profiles associated with virulence through bioinformatics analysis, and refine polymorphic genes for Wet-lab PCR pooling. The projected timeline for the completion of these studies is 2024. ","tokenCount":"810"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2ffcc7dedee8f7c59b0f20519da8284","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ed0412e2-3324-4d2b-a6a4-1830310d84c9/retrieve","id":"-7510736"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0eef545e-edf7-4825-b3a3-cb8755fb64d6","pagecount":"27","content":"Agriculture and natural resources contribute the largest share of the economy of the democratic republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. Agriculture contributes 42%, 40% and 24% of the GDP in DRC, Rwanda and Uganda respectively (World Bank, 2009). The three countries are home to the largest tropical forests in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). DRC alone accounts for 34% of the carbon stock in Africa, the largest contribution in Africa (Baccini, et al., 2008). Additionally, in each country, a large share of the population depends on agriculture and other natural resources. Despite the importance of the agricultural and natural resource sector, public investments in agriculture in all countries is low. Uganda spent the largest share (4%) of its budget on agriculture while the DRC and Rwanda spent 1% and 3% respectively of their budget on agriculture (Table 1). Hence limited expenditure on agriculture among the three countries denies them the opportunity to achieve their goals of poverty reduction. All three countries have resolved to implement the Maputo Declaration which set a goal of increasing the share of agricultural expenditure to 10% of the government budget.Total factor productivity (TFP) in all three countries is comparable (around 1) and shows the poor improvement in productivity and low production efficiency. This implies, returns to investment in capital and labor are low due to the low production technologies, low labor skills and poor services and amenities that enhance productivity. The low TFP also implies low economic growth since TFP is highly correlated with economic growth (Solow, 1956). The agricultural productivity per worker in the three countries is also low compared to the rates in developing countries. While the average agricultural annual productivity per worker in developing (low and middle income) countries was US$557 in 2001-03 (World Bank, 2007), the corresponding productivity in the three countries ranged from US$154 to US$230 (Table 1), which is lower than the equivalent productivity of US$325 in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Ibid). Research and development, skilled labor and improved access to markets will all increase TFP and consequently agricultural productivity.IAR4DResearch and development (R&D) are key to enhancing TFP. Unfortunately, R&D services are weak due to poor funding and approaches that have not been effective in developing and disseminating technologies. In the DRC, agricultural research services are mainly provided by the Institut National pour l'Etude et la Recherche Agronomiques (INERA), universities and international Research institutes and by NGOs providing development and relief services. INERA and other research programs in the DRC are currently undergoing review to improve and tap their potential in the country's policy to reduce poverty. Consistent with the Maputo declaration, the DRC government has pledged to increase allocation to the agricultural expenditure 10 times such that it is 10% of the total budget. In Rwanda, agricultural research is dominated by the ISAR (Institut des Agronomique du Rwanda), which in 1991 accounted for 86% of agricultural research staff in Rwanda (Roseboom and Pardey, 1993). The Rwandese agricultural research system also follows the pattern of other African countries, i.e., research funding is contributed mainly by international donors and focus is on crops (41% of research staff time) and limited focus on natural resources (17% of research staff) (Ibid).In Uganda, the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) is the dominant player in agricultural research. In 2000, NARO accounted for 75% of the funding and staff of agricultural research in Uganda (Beintema and Tizikara, 2002). Sources of funding show a pattern consistent with other African countries. Approximately two thirds of the total agricultural research budget was contributed by international donors in 1995-2000.  3 Baccini, et al., 2008   As is common in other countries, the research focus is on crops, which accounts for 55% of NARO staff time and 42% of Makerere University research staff time. Natural resource management accounted for only 16.5% of the NARO staff time and 18% of the Makerere University research time. Research on livestock also does not receive much support, despite its importance in the three countries. The same limited research investment in livestock and natural resources is also observed in DRC and Rwanda as well. Limited research on natural resources and livestock poses a danger of land degradation and limits the potential the two sectors could provide to the economy and livelihoods.Research approach in all three countries has been improving in the past two decades from the traditional approach with weak participation of farmers and other rural service providers to the participatory approach that involves other key players in the rural development. Research has been involving farmers in on-farm experimentation and evaluation of new technologies. However, involvement of agricultural traders, rural credit and other rural service providers has been limited. There has been an increasing orientation towards participatory action research, in which farmers, development organizations and research collaborate in implementing a research project addressing a key question of what works where and why? (German and Stroud, 2007;Martin and Sherington, 1997;Farrington, 1988). However, participatory action research is still evolving to address the inherent question of increasing the participation of the stakeholders in the learning process and problem-solving orientation of action research. In response to these challenges, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in partnership with the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research CGIAR) established the Integrated Agricultural Research 4 Development (IAR4D). The key tenet of IAR4D is an integrated approach that addresses the complex interaction between natural resources, production, agricultural markets and policies (Acosta, et al., 2005;Hawkins, et al., 2008). The approach also fosters partnership involving all key stakeholders and institutions involved in food security and sustainable natural resource management and rural development in general (Ibid). It is expected that this holistic approach will generate interaction, collaboration and information flows among stakeholders in response to the natural resource and productivity and market chain related challenges common to these countries.In line with this, the Lake Kivu Learning Site (LKPLS) was established as a pilot site for test-driving the new approach. The LKPLS spans over three countries: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. The name Lake Kivu reflects the selected study area, which surrounds Lake Kivu (Figure 1). The LKPLS is one of the three sites established in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for the same objective. The other sites are located in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique Pilot learning sites (ZMM PLS) representing southern Africa and in Kano, Katsina (Nigeria) and Maradi (Niger) Pilot learning site (KKM PLS) repsenting west Africa. The LKPLS has been set to test the following hypotheses (Bekunda, et al., 2005):(i) Strong producer organizations have increased bargaining power and ability to collectively market produce and thus increase returns (income) to land and labor. (ii) Investments to sustain and maintain the natural resource base are more sustainable when they are linked to market-oriented production or when there are financial incentives for conserving natural resources and biodiversity. (iii) Increased livelihood options linked to markets including joint management for buffer zone inhabitants will decrease pressure on conservation areas and biodiversity and increase returns to land and labor. (iv) Investment in partnership arrangements that integrate research and development expertise and perspectives will achieve greater impact through scaling out islands of success. (v) Innovative information organization and sharing systems will enhance uptake of technologies and improve decision making. (vi) Strengthened local governance through improved community facilitation improves ability to influence development policy and advocate for support to local marketing and natural resource management initiatives.This study was conducted with the objective of establishing the baseline conditions of the socioeconomic characteristics of the selected study sites. The baseline conditions will be used to test the stated hypotheses. This report is part of a larger study establishing the baseline conditions in the LKPLS.Other studies in the LKPLS are addressing the following issues:1. Formation of innovation platform 2. Situation analysis of the natural resources 3. Market situation 4. Social capital -network analysis 5. Access to rural servicesThe rest of this report is organized as follows: The following section discusses the empirical model. This is followed by the methodological approaches used to collect data. We then discuss the results and conclusions and research implications.In order to IAR4Dset the stage for an analysis of the impact of IAR4D, the major objective of the baseline was to compare the baseline conditions of the major outcomes of LKPLS interventions. The key outcomes of the IAR4D are increasing agricultural productivity using sustainable land management practices and enhancement of market participation of smallholder farmers. Hence the focus of our analysis will be on agricultural technologies used by farmers and the determinants of agricultural productivity.Determinants of adoption of land management practices and agricultural productivity are welldocumented. According to Feder, et al., (1985); Reardon and Vosti, (1995);Franzel, (1999) Land tenure. This is the property right to exclusively occupy and use a specified area of land. (iii)Access to rural services. This includes access to roads, urban areas, transport services, market information, telephone services, input and output marketing services (excluding the infrastructure services mentioned above), agricultural extension services, etc. (iv)Population density. This affects the availability of labor, land and other resources. (v)Government policies and regulations. Government policies and regulations can influence adoption of technologies and agricultural productivity directly and indirectly. Example of government policies and regulations that influence adoption of technologies are fertilizer subsidies, extension programs, land tenure, and regulations to control importation of inputs from overseas. Examples of government policies and regulations that influence adoption indirectly include exchange rate regulations, macro-economic stability, and market policies. Our focus will be on policies and regulations that affect adoption directly and this will be represented by a dummy for each country.Based on the discussion above, we use a simple probit model to analyze the determinants of adoption of production technologies (Long, 1997):………………..(1) Where Y* is the latent variable, Y* >= 0, y = 1 and if y* < 0, y = 0. ε i ~N(0,1). The rest of the variables are defined in Table 2. We do not include population density since the family labor in the household captures the effect of labor on technology adoption and agricultural productivity. We also do not include land tenure in the model since customary land tenure is the most common in all three countries.We include all the variables in the probit model above since the determinants of adoption of such technologies also directly and indirectly determine agricultural productivity. We also include the land management practices in the model as they directly affect agricultural productivity. In addition to the direct effects of the covariates, we examined the interaction of some variables. Particularly, we examined the interaction between network density and country and treatment and network density. We suspect these interactions could have a significant impact on agricultural productivity. However, a common problem with including interaction terms is that they can cause multicollinearity problems. We examined multicollinearity of the interaction terms with other covariates using variance inflation factors (VIF). We dropped covariates with VIF>10 (Mukherjee, et al. 1998).Land management practices, financial capital (access to credit) and network density are potentially endogenous variables affecting crop productivity. Hence, to assess the robustness of the estimates in the absence of the potentially endogenous variables, we also estimate the reduced model of the agricultural productivity model.Where lm = land management practices. This includes soil and water management structures; soil fertility management practices (excluding chemical fertilizer & SWC structures but including organic soil fertility management practices); crop management practices (spacing, row planting, weeding, plant protection, and land preparation); improved crop varieties, and livestock breeds. Other variables are as defined above.We tested the exogeneity of the potentially endogenous variables using the Durbin-Wu-Hausman .When the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test does not reject exogeneity of the potentially endogenous variables, the preferred model is ordinary least square method (OLS). However, if endogeneity is significant, the model of choice is instrumental variables (IV) (Davidson and MacKinnon 2004) or other models that address endogeneity. In this study, we use IV model. We used covariates that were significantly correlated with adoption of production technologies but not with agricultural productivity as IV's. However, as is the case with many studies, identification of IV's is a challenge. The relevancy test showed that the IV's used were not good predictors of soil and water conservation technologies. However they passed the over-identification test suggesting that were validly excluded from the second stage regression. The exogeneity test, failed to reject the null hypothesis that the variables are exogenous. Hence OLS is our preferred model to the IV model. However, we include IV results to determine the robustness of the results. As it will be shown in the results, the IV model does not have any significant variable because of the weak instruments.Other estimation and data issues considered included heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, and outliers. The distribution of each variable was examined and an appropriate monotonic transformation towards normality was determined using the ladder of power test, because this improves the model specification (i.e., reduces problems of nonlinearity, outliers and heteroskedasticity) (Mukherjee, et al. 1998;Stata 2003). Most continuous variables were skewed. Hence we log-transformed all continuous variables to normalize their skewed distribution and to simplify interpretation of the regression results. Despite these transformations, we still found heteroskedasticity in the regressions. We used the Huber-White robust standard errors in all cases to address heteroskedasticity.We use descriptive statistics to compare the socio-economic characteristics of the selected households across the sites selected as treatment villages (innovation platforms) 1 with the control villages. 2 We also compare the adoption rates and determinants of adoption of land management practices, which IAR4D intends to change. Our study also examines the market orientation of farmers and their interaction with the existing development organizations in the area. The key variables analyzed using descriptive methods include: (i) Agricultural productivity, which in this case is the value of crop production per acre. This is used instead of crop yield since farmers in the study area intercrop many crops which makes it hard to estimate yield of an individual crop. (ii) Adoption of key agricultural production practices, which include (a) soil fertility management practices. These include animal manure, crop cover, crop rotation, intercropping, rhizobial inoculation, and chemical fertilizer; (b) soil and water management practices, which include mulching, water harvesting, irrigation, and conservation agriculture; (c) crop management, which include row planting, and spacing; (d) improved crop varieties and (e) improved livestock breeds. (iii) Social networking and social capital. Since one of the IAR4D objective is to increase the farmers access to market through collective marketing and since empirical evidence has shown that collective action enhances both production and marketing skills (e.g. see Baland and Platteau 1996;Agrawal 2001;Barhan and Chitemi, 2009;Barret, 2005;Foster and Rosenzweig, 1995; 1 Please see Tenywa, et al.,( 2009) for detailed discussion on innovation platforms. 2 The IAR4D treatment sites are the sites where IAR4D is introduced using innovation platforms; conventional sites are the sites where conventional approaches are in operation while the clean sites are the sites where there has been no agricultural research and Conley andUdry, 2001, 2002), we investigate the baseline social network density, which in this research we define as the number of economic interest group that a household is member of.To capture the direct impact of the social networks on productivity, we exclude membership in social support networks, which have indirect effect on productivity. (iv) Socio-economic and biophysical characteristics: We also compare the socio-economic and biophysical characteristics of the household across the treatment group to determine the differences. These include household human capital endowment (family labor, formal education and age of household head); physical capital, which include value of key assets; access to rural services, including access to credit, market information, extension services, and participation in technology demonstration programs.A baseline survey was conducted in the study countries in 2008. The survey covering a total of 1706 households was conducted in the second half of 2008. Table 3 shows the number of households for each treatment type and the share of female headed households for each country and type of treatment. Each treatment group accounted for approximately a third of the total sample. The share of female headed households in each country is 10% or more, with DRC reporting the largest share and DRC the smallest share of female headed households sampled.  Households from the clean villages reported the largest share of female-headed households and this share was significantly greater than the corresponding share in the IP households. Such high share of female headed households in Rwanda could be due to the civil war that took place in in 1994, leading to a higher share of female and child-headed households. Other human capital characteristics are comparable across the three treatment groups suggesting that selection of villages and the households does not introduce significant bias based on the observable characteristics included in this study. Farm area across the three treatment groups in all three countries are comparable and they are not statistically different at p=0.05. Hence overall, the physical capital shows that the treatment villages have physical capital that is comparable to the control villages.Adoption rates of all land management practices were comparable among the treatment groups in each country. However, the adoption rate of improved livestock breeds in IP villages in Rwanda was significantly higher than in the clean villages. This presents a bias that need to be taken into account when analyzing impact of IAR4D. if the determinants of adoption of improved breeds are time invariant, then the average effect of the treatment on the treated (ATT) will net out the initial high adoption rate in the IP villages (Ravallion, 2005).Of particular importance is the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies, which include soil erosion control structures required on plots on the steep slopes of the volcanic mountains.Uganda reported the highest share of farmers (over 80%) using SWC structures. However, adoption of inorganic fertilizer in Uganda and DRC were much lower than the case in Rwanda (Figure 2). As it will be seen later, this is one the major reasons for the highest crop productivity in Rwanda.These results are supported by the trend of fertilizer use in the three countries, where, Rwanda has shown higher nitrogen and phosphorus use per unit area than all three countries (Figure 3). The country has also has shown a consistent growth in fertilizer use. Overall, the adoption rates of other land management practices are higher in Rwanda and Uganda than in DRC.Adoption of improved varieties in all countries is low. It is only in Rwanda where adoption rate of improved crop varieties was about a third -the highest among the three countries. Adoption rate of improved livestock breeds in Rwanda is also the highest (12% to 24%). In DRC, adoption rate of improved varieties and livestock breeds was less than 1%, underscoring the poor agricultural extension and other rural services in the country. The high adoption rates in Rwanda are reflected in the higher productivity in the country than in DRC and Uganda.In all countries, crops contribute the largest source of rural household income. The value of crops produced per acre was not statistically different across the three treatment groups when compared in each country. What is interesting is the comparison of value of crop production across countries. In all three treatment groups, the value of crop production per acre for Uganda was the lowest (Figure 4). This could be due to the location of the study area in Uganda -Kabale and Kisoro. Both districts are in remote areas and farther away from the largest domestic urban market -Kampala. This distance increases the transactions costs. Farmers in Rwanda also reported the highest value of crop production in the clean and IP villages. Value of crop produced in the IP villages in Rwanda is much higher than the corresponding villages in DRC and Uganda. Such high value of crop produced per acre in Rwanda is a combination of both better land management practices, which leads to higher yields. 3 We examined the contribution of different enterprises to household income. Overall, there is no significant difference across the treatment groups on the contribution of each source of income to household income in each country. This further shows that selection of villages and household did not introduce a bias on the sources of income. However, contribution of enterprises to household income across countries differs significantly. In DRC and Uganda, crops account for the largest share of household income for all treatment groups (Table 5). The contribution of crops to household income is largest in Uganda (64%) and smallest in Rwanda (35%). This is a reflection of the small plot area in Rwanda (Table 4), which force farmers to look for alternative livelihood strategies. Excluding island nations, Rwanda has the highest population density in Africa (Goldewijk 2005). Contribution of the livestock to household income is quite low in all countries 910% -17%). Contribution of the livestock sector is highest (17%) in Rwanda and this shows additional evidence of farmers' strategy to diversify livelihoods in the country due to limited cropland. Household income across the treatment groups in DRC and Uganda show no significant difference (Table 6). Households in the IP villages in DRC and Uganda also show higher incomes than the control groups though the differences across the treatment groups are not significant. In Rwanda however, income of households in the IP villages was significantly lower than the case in conventional villages. This bias will be addressed using ATT methods discussed earlier. However, bias due to unobserved time-variant factors that affect income will not be eliminated by the principle score matching and ATT approaches.Covariate matching methods is robust to such bias (Imbens and Wooldridge, 2008) and will be used in this study. We compared the income inequality using the Gini coefficient. The higher the Gini coefficient, the higher the income inequality. Results show no significant difference in the Gini coefficient across the treatment in each country (Table 6). However, comparison across countries shows that there is more inequality in DRC and Rwanda than in Uganda. a= significantly different between conventional and IP at 5% level of significance. The paired test with blanks space means the associated comparisons are not significant at p = 0.05. For income inequality, all paired comparisons were not significant at p = 0.05. Note: Income is net of costs of production, i.e., it excludes the costs of production.As part of the strategy to test the hypothesis that group production and marketing and access to rural services increases productivity, we examined the baseline collective action in production and marketing and participation in group marketing. We also examined the share of farmers with binding contracts with traders. Binding contracts between farmers and traders reduces marketing risks and improves vertical integration in the market chain (Delgado, 1999;Minten, et al., 2009). Collective marketing has also been shown to reduce transactions costs and to increase the bargaining power of poor farmers (Baland and Platteau 1996;Agrawal 2001;Barhan and Chitemi, 2009;Barrett, 2005;Foster and Rosenzweig, 1995;Conley andUdry, 2001, 2002).Membership to farmer groups does not differ across the treatment groups in each country. As the case in other statistics discussed above however, there is a large difference in membership to farmer organizations across the three countries (Table 7). Ugandan farmers reported the highest membership to farmer organizations (over 40%) while DRC and Rwanda equally reported the lowest membership to farmer organizations. However, the share of farmers who participated in the market was highest in Rwanda for all treatment groups even though the difference with the corresponding shares in Uganda was comparable (over 68% in all cases). Level of commercialization in DRC was above 55% for all treatment groups.One of the interventions of IIAR4D is promotion of group marketing. Group marketing was not common however. Table 7 shows that less than 10% of farmers participated in group marketing in DRC and Rwanda. The low participation in group marketing despite the high share of farmers belonging to farmer groups suggest that the respondents belong to groups for other reasons than collective marketing. The reasons include the fact that in order to implement agricultural rural development work, NGO's, CBO's and governmental programs work with farmers who are organized into groups and associations. In Rwanda, the reason could be to gain access to resources, an income generation activity or to fulfill other social needs (Bingen and Munyankusi 2002)In DRC, the largest share of group that participated in group marketing was 5% from the IP villages while in Rwanda, households from the IP villages reported the lowest share of those who did marketing through groups. However, in both countries, the share of the households who participated in group marketing was not significantly different across the treatment groups in both countries. Surprisingly, no farmer in Uganda reported to have participated in group marketing. The results underscore the challenge that majority farmers face when doing marketing individually. -Numbers in parenthesis are standard deviationsIn all treatment groups in DRC and Rwanda, less than 1% of farmers had a binding contract with traders (Table 7). No farmer in Uganda reported to have binding contract with traders. However, this does not mean that there is completely no such contracts in the study region but rather the small number of farmers or farmer groups with binding contracts. Nyabyumba United Farmers Group (NUFG) of Kabale has a binding contract with a fast food chain based in Kampala -Nando's to supply potato (Hawkins, et al., 2009). The weak vertical integration of farmers with traders underscores the potential impact of the IAR4D approach in the region if it succeeds to build strong group marketing.The difference in the share of households with access to market information was not statistically different across the three treatment groups in all three countries (Table 4). However, there is a large difference in the share of households with access to market information across the three countries. The share of farmers with access to market information was highest in Rwanda and Uganda, where about two thirds of the respondents from all types of treatment groups had access to market information (Table 4). In DRC however, the share of households with access to market information was only one third. This is expected given the weak market infrastructure and limited rural services in DRC.Network densities in DRC and Rwanda are quite sparse (Table 4). In DRC, the average number of economic organizations that the households belong range from 0.01 in the clean villages to 0.06 in the conventional villages. In Rwanda, network density is also only 0.04 to 0.05. This means for every 100 households, there is only one to six households which participate in an organization that supports economic activities. two countries receive. In Uganda, the network density is almost 10 times greater than is the case in DRC and Rwanda. This is not surprising given that Kabale is among the districts with the largest number of NGOs in Uganda. This could have contributed to the large network density reported. Interestingly, the network density in the IP villages was significantly lower than the case in the clean and conventional villages. This suggests the uphill battle that the IIAR4D program has in building up the network density in the IP villages. It will be interesting to see how this will change after the IIAR4D intervention in Uganda.Access to agricultural extension services and participation in technology demonstration activities follow the same pattern as the network density, i.e., it is highest in Uganda and lowest in DRC and Rwanda (Table 4). However, the difference across the treatment groups in each country is not statistically different suggesting no significant bias in the village and household selection.Access to informal credit is significantly greater in the three countries than access to formal credit. For example in Uganda, over three quarters of households had access to informal credit while less than 10% had access to formal credit. Likewise, access to informal credit in DRC and Rwanda ranges from 32% to 56% while access to formal credit in both countries ranges from 2% to 7% only. In all countries and all types of access to credit, there was no significant difference in access across the treatment groups in each country.The number of female household members increases the likelihood of adopting improved livestock breeds, suggesting the importance of promoting this technology which is likely to greatly reduce poverty in the region (Table 8). One of the reasons behind this is the targeting of women in the NGOs that promote improved livestock breeds. For example, Send a Cow, Heifer International and other NGOs have been promoting acquisition of improved livestock breeds, targeting women in Africa (Ayele and Peacock, 2003;Peacock, 2005). However, controlling for number of female household members and other covariates, female-headed households are less likely to adopt improved livestock breeds. This is likely due to the poverty level of female headed households, which limits adoption of improved livestock breeds. Likewise, number of female household members increases the probability to adopt improved crop varieties. Contrary to expectations, the number of male household members reduces the probability to adopt soil fertility management practices. The reasons behind these results are not clear but they imply that higher number of men in the household could lead to land degrading practices probably due to adoption of land-degrading practices that could lead to quick short-term gains. Consistent with other studies (e.g. Doss and Morris, 2001), age of the household head is negatively related to adoption of soil fertility and chemical fertilizer technologies. Age is also negatively associated with adoption of improved seeds. The results are generally expected given that old farmers are set in their way and tend to be slow in taking on new technologies. The results suggest that promoting new approaches will be more successful in the short-term if they are targeted to young farmers. However, older farmers wield a large influence in the community and therefore need to buy in new approaches. For example given that IIAR4D will operate in a short time, younger farmers are likely to be part of the quick win approaches that are being promoted. Older farmers are also likely to take in new technologies as late adopters.Access to market information is the most significant and most consistent covariate. Access to market information increases significantly (at p = 0.01) adoption of all technologies. The results prove the hypothesis put forward by IIAR4D that innovative information organization and sharing systems enhances uptake of technologies. The results also support the hypothesis that market-oriented production will lead to enhanced adoption of technologies that conserve natural resources. The results underscore the importance of the IIAR4D approach that integrating markets with research will enhance uptake of technologies. However, these results need to be verified by comparing the soil nutrients and other soil quality measures among farmers with more orientation to marketing. Other studies have shown that market oriented farmers degrade their soils more than subsistence farmers (e.g. Woelcke, 2003).Market access is quite high in Rwanda and Uganda, where about two thirds of the respondents reported to have access to market information (Table 4). In DRC, about a third of the farmers had access to market information. Access to informal credit also increases the likelihood to adopt soil fertility, crop management and improved livestock breeds. These results further support the IIAR4D approach that access to integrated rural services will enhance technology adoption and improve livelihoods. However, formal credit did not have a significant impact on adoption of production technologies. This is consistent with Nkonya, et al., (2008) who found similar results in Uganda and underscore the weak impact of formal credit sources on the agricultural sector. This could be due to the high interest rates of formal credit which forces farmers to use for non-farm activities with higher returns and less risk than agriculture.As expected, participation in research or technology demonstration activities increases the probability to adopt crop varieties and chemical fertilizer. This further demonstrates the importance of the IAR4D approach of participatory research that involves farmer input and direct interaction of research with farmers. The lack of impact of participation in the demonstration activities for technologies other than improved crop varieties and chemical fertilizer could be due to the fact that such technologies were not promoted in the selected villages. As shown in Table 4, less than 10% of the farmers have participated in technology demonstration activities. Participation in technology demonstration activities is especially low in DRC and Rwanda. This underscores the need to enhance participatory research activities in the rural areas.As expected and consistent with past studies (e.g. Adesina, et al., 2000;Nkonya, et al., 2008), contact with extension agents increases the probability to adopt soil fertility, crop management and improved livestock breeds. The results further underscore the importance of the different rural services that enhance adoption of technologies that increase productivity. Network density did not have a significant impact on adoption. This could be due to the limited network densities observed in the selected villages. This is especially the case in Rwanda and DRC, where the network density was quite low. On average, households in DRC had a network density of 0.06 or less.This implies only 6 or less of every 100 households are members of at least one economic group or organization. It is also possible that the influence of the network density is captured by the other covariates included in this model. For example, access to credit, market information, extension services and participation in technology demonstration activities capture the effect of the network density, which is meant to provide the same services accounted for by these covariates.As expected, physical capital increases the probability to adopt production technologies. Farm area increases probability to adopt all production technologies considered. Likewise, number of rooms in the household increases adoption of soil fertility and crop management technologies. Such results are driven by the investment for each production technology, a factor that limits adoption by resource poor farmers.As expected, ownership of bicycle increases the probability to adopt chemical fertilizer. However, ownership of bicycle and ox-cart did not have impact on adoption of production technologies.Transportation equipment has some an indirect effect on production technologies such as improved seeds. But ox-cart and bicycles could have a direct effect on adoption of manure and other bulky inputs that need transportation. For example, the wooden bicycles in DRC (Chikudu) are used for transportation of agricultural inputs and outputs and could have a direct impact on adoption of production technologies.As expected, the three countries differ significantly in their adoption pattern. Setting Uganda as a benchmark, results show that farmers in Uganda are more likely to adopt crop production technologies than farmers in DRC. Likewise, farmers in Uganda are more likely to adopt SWC structures than those in Rwanda.Farmers in DRC and Rwanda are more likely to adopt improved livestock breeds than those in Uganda. Consistent with the descriptive statistics discussed earlier farmers in Rwanda are more likely to adopt chemical fertilizer, improved crop varieties and crop management technologies than farmers in Uganda. This could be due to the crop intensification program implemented by the Government of Rwanda and by civil societies. The descriptive results reported in Table 4 where less than 1% of farmers in Uganda reported to have adopted improved livestock breeds, while in Rwanda, the adoption rate of improved livestock breeds was greater than 10%. This could be attributed to the one cow one household policy promoted by the government of Rwanda and civil societies (Send a Cow Rwanda, Action nord sud etc). The results underscore the big role played by government and technical support by NGOs and other civil society organizations. Most of the interaction terms of country and treatment with network density were not significant. This is perhaps due to the weak impact of the social network and also the small difference among the treatment groups discussed in the descriptive statistics.Primary and secondary education of household head is negatively associated with agricultural productivity (Table 9). This is consistent with studies that have shown that education increases the opportunity cost of labor, hence reducing adoption of labor intensive technologies and provides alternative to exit from agriculture -leading to reduction in investment in agricultural productivity enhancing technologies (e.g. Scherr and Hazell, 1994). Agricultural productivity in Uganda is also significantly lower than the case in both DRC and Rwanda. These results are consistent with figure 4 where the value of crop productivity for Uganda was lower than the case in DRC and Rwanda. Uganda also reported lower adoption rate of improved crop varieties than Rwanda (Table 4). However, the results do not reflect the overall better performance of Uganda in the rural per capita income and the better rural services (e.g. contact with extension services, higher network density, etc). The results could be due to the remoteness of the southwestern area included in the study. As observed earlier, both Kabale and Kisoro, from where the households were sampled are farther away from the main domestic urban market -Kampala.As expected, SWC structures increase agricultural productivity significantly. Use of SWC increases value of agricultural productivity by US$165. This means use of SWC structures will increase the household income (reported in Table 6) from about 30% in Rwanda to 57% in Uganda (Figure 5). Surprisingly, application of chemical fertilizer did not have a significant impact on agricultural productivity. The results suggesting that conservation of the fertile alluvial soils in the hilly topography in the three countries is more important than addition of fertilizer. Soil fertility and crop management practices also increased crop productivity but their effect was not significant at p = 0.10. This could be due to the fact that the effect of SWC structures takes the effects of the other management practices.For example, SWC structures also enhance soil fertility.Contrary to expectations, the network density did not have a significant impact on crop productivity. This could be due to the low network density which could not have reached a critical level required to have a positive impact. For example, if households belong to only production organizations, they could produce more but they sell their produce at lower prices. Such results were observed in Ethiopia, where the Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG2000) program helped farmers increase crop productivity but this led to lower prices, which in turn discouraged farmers to use the technologies promoted by SG2000 (Howard, et al., 2003;Cabral, et a., 2006). The results imply the need to enhance networks that provide both production and marketing support in the research and rural development, issues that are key in the IIAR4D research approach.The treatment groups and their interaction terms with network density did not have a significant impact on crop productivity. The results further imply that IAR4D project placement and farmer sampling was random and will not introduce a placement or selection bias when evaluating the impact of the project.Our study showed that most of the human, physical capital endowment in the selected villages was not significantly different across treatment sites, suggesting that there was no significant bias in the site and household selection. This suggests that the approach used in the site selection process minimized placement and selection biases, which are common in impact assessment programs. Adoption of improved livestock breeds was positively associated with the number of female household members. However, female-headed households are less likely to adopt improved livestock breeds. The results suggest the need to target female-headed households in the livestock technologies since livestock has been shown to improve significantly livelihoods and also improve soil fertility.Access to market information was the most significant factor that determined adoption of all production technologies. This underscores the importance of the integration of the production and marketing programs -the key feature of IIAR4D. The results suggest the need to explore how farmers get information and the type of channels that should be used in passing market information to different types of farmers.Our results also show that membership to farmer groups in DRC and Rwanda was less than 20% while there was limited network density in all countries. This is especially true in DRC and Rwanda, where fewer than 7 households out of 100 participated in organization supporting economic activities. Consequently the network density showed no significant impact on crop productivity. The poor impact of network density could be due to the lack of critical level required to enhance productivity, where households belong to organizations that support both production and marketing activities.Access to informal credit increased the probability to adopt soil fertility management practices underscoring the importance of informal credit in the agricultural sector. The results further show the importance of the IIAR4D strategy to include rural credit providers in the action research programs. Likewise, participation in research and technology demonstration activities and contacts with agricultural extension services increased adoption of fertilizer, improved crop varieties and other technologies. The results further underscore the importance of integrated provision of rural services. Soil and water conservation structures were the most important determinants of agricultural productivity, suggesting that conservation of the fertile alluvial soils in the hilly topography in the three countries is more important than application of fertilizer or other management practices included in this study. The results underscore the severe soil erosion in the region and the importance of soil erosion control in the study area.","tokenCount":"6829"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f41b8da439a8313e9d450c9849c10a8d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://akademiya2063.org/publications/Ukraine%20Crisis%20and%20African%20Countries/Brief-17-AKADEMIYA2063%20Ukraine%20Crisis%20Brief%20Series.pdf","id":"10272275"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"61036f8b-b939-44f3-b62a-af678e6fb6de","pagecount":"10","content":"With the many challenges related to agricultural trade that countries currently face, it is important for policymakers who are tasked with the duty of protecting the vulnerable to be aware of potential food production disruptions that their countries may experience due to these challenges. For example, both Russia and Ukraine are key exporters of many agricultural products including sunflower oil and seed, wheat, barley, rapeseed and maize. The two countries jointly account for 27% of global wheat trade, 23% of global barley trade, as well as 16% and 14% of global trade in colza and maize respectively. Further, Russia and Ukraine account for over 28% of the world's nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous fertilizer a production. Consequently, the Russia-Ukraine war has destabilized global food and agricultural input value chains, a condition that will only worsen the longer and harder the war is fought. As net importers of both fertilizers and wheat, African countries are already experiencing rises in wheat and fertilizer prices as well as in the prices of their substitutes. The dynamic effects of the fertilizer and wheat price increases mean that production in coming seasons will be negatively impacted, and many more households may need support from various sources to survive the food and fertilizer price hikes.. 2 Better and timely statistics on domestic food supplies, especially on production, are critical in any attempt to protect livelihoods under these conditions. Unfortunately, while Mozambique is relatively advanced in terms of the capacity to generate agricultural statistics relative to other African countries, data on wheat production forecasts that is disaggregated per location remains scanty, is often of low quality and is usually made available months after harvesting. In this brief, an attempt is undertaken to use remote sensing data together with machine learning techniques to predict future wheat production in Mozambique. The model used for predictions is selected partly because of its ability to correctly predict already existing wheat production data. The importance of using these methods is that, although they are skill intensive, their use limits the amount of time and the costs needed for calculating production levels from surveys and field visits, whereas the inherent precision in these techniques contributes to better availability of quality data for Mozambique.In times of crisis such as the current one, the earlier food production patterns can be predicted, the sooner policymakers can take corrective measures to avert a full-blown food and nutritional security crisis. More accurate and timely information on food crop production, therefore, makes it possible for countries to design targeted interventions to protect access to food among many including the most vulnerable communities b .Once equipped with these predictions, policymakers can start developing interventions that target various areas depending on their levels of production.The data scientists at AKADEMIYA2063 used the in-house developed Africa Crop Production (AfCP) model to predict upcoming wheat production levels in Mozambique. The model uses satellite remote sensing data as explanatory variables and machine learning techniques as a predictive modelling framework to provide production quantities at the pixel level, before the harvesting period. Remote sensing data makes it possible to uniquely characterize features on the earth's surface on several wavelengths without requiring someone's physical presence on the ground in addition to producing more extensive and better-quality data within a short time period. On the other hand, machine learning makes it possible to extract many hidden features in vast amounts of data to unlock the mechanisms behind the inner workings of very complex systems. In this brief, the two techniques mentioned above have been combined to forecast the quantity and spatial distribution of wheat production in Mozambique in 2022 amidst the Ukraine-Russia crisis.b Dia Khadim and Ly Racine. 2020. Predicting Food Crop Production in Times of Crisis: The Case of Sorghum in Burkina Faso. AKADEMIYA2063.Wheat is one of the foods consumed in Mozambique, although not in the same quantities as cassava, maize, groundnuts and rice. However, with rapid urbanization, the demand for bread and hence wheat is rising. Mozambique's annual wheat production was 20,000 tonnes in 2019 compared to the domestic wheat demand which was 634,000 tonnes. In 2020, Mozambique's wheat production decreased significantly to approximately 18,000 tonnes and in 2021 production decreased further to 15,000 tonnes. The area under wheat cultivation in Mozambique is small (ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 hectares) compared to other countries (Tanzania's wheat area is 104,000 hectares, Rwanda's is 45,000 hectares and Uganda's is 12,000 hectares). Though Mozambique's production of wheat cultivated has fluctuated substantially in recent years, it increased overall from 2010 to 2019. Wheat is one of the crops that comprise the bulk of primary agricultural imports in Mozambique. The country sources 21% of its total wheat imports from Russia, 18.7% from Canada, 8.2% from Ukraine and 7.55% from Poland and other countries to supplement the local wheat production.Wheat production forecasts for Mozambique are generated using the AfCP model. The model uses satellite-based, bio-geophysical time-series data such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land surface temperatures (LST), rainfall and evapotranspiration rates as explanatory variables. An artificial neural network was built to learn the relationships between the same biophysical data and historical staple food crop production data available at the pixel level. The crisis started several months before the beginning of Mozambique's wheat-growing season which starts in October and ends in April. Therefore, full information about in-season bio-geophysical data was not available when the predictions were implemented. Consequently, a random forest predictor was used to forecast in-season, bio-geophysical data profiles using data from the last 20 years, and the outputs were used as inputs for the AfCP model to predict Mozambique's wheat production in 2022.Using the methodology described above, the AfCP model provided Mozambique's 2022 wheat production forecast, as illustrated in Figure 1 below. The pixels considered for this map are those where wheat is believed to be grown and have a size of ten-by-ten kilometers on the ground. Figure 1 presents Mozambique's predicted wheat production for 2022. The model predicts the production of about 15,198 metric tons of wheat in the upcoming 2022 harvest, which is an increase when compared with 2021 production (15,000 metric tons). Tete is by far the largest producer of wheat in Mozambique. In the 2022 harvesting season, it is expected that the highest level of wheat production in Mozambique will be in Tete province (where production is concentrated in Angónia, Tsangano and Macanga District), with a production of over 10,660 metric tons. This will be followed by Manica (where the top three producing areas are Gondola, Manica and Barue districts) with a production of over 3,900 metric tons and Niassa (where the top three producing areas are Mecanheals, Lichinga and Cuamba). When compared to the 2021 actual production levels, it is clear that there are important deviations over time which emphasizes the need for advanced predictions to enhance preparedness (Figure 2). In Mozambique's four wheat-producing provinces (Manica, Sofala, Tete and Niassa provinces), the predicted 2022 production is expected to be higher than the 2021 actual production as depicted in Figure 2. Currently, rates of growth in wheat production appear to be the highest in Niassa (76%), Sofala (50%), Manica (42%) and Tete (27%). Despite the increase in wheat production predicted for 2022, it is still not sufficient to meet the local demand for wheat in Mozambique. The country's current wheat consumption is 437,000 metric tons annually, meaning that Mozambique produces approximately 4% of the wheat required for its annual domestic consumption.In Tete province, Chibabava, Zumbu and Chiuta were predicted to be the districts with the largest increases in wheat production in 2022, recording 50%, 42% and 40% increases, respectively. On the other hand, in Manica province, the three districts that were predicted to have the largest increases in wheat production in 2022 were Macossa (77%), Tambara (59%) and Guro (56%). In Niassa province, Mecanheals (86%), Cuamba (83%) and Lago (82%) were predicted to be the districts that would see the largest increases. Lastly, Sofala, the only district (Sanga) producing wheat was also predicted to improve in 2022 by 69%. As depicted in Table 1 in the Appendix, all 37 wheat-producing districts located in the four provinces were expected to experience an increase in wheat production in 2022. This shows that Mozambique has the potential to raise production and reduce the deficit in wheat.. 5 As annual wheat consumption in Mozambique is over 437,000 metric tons per annum, and since the demand for wheat is price inelastic (quantities of wheat demanded do not change much with changing prices), the rise in wheat prices as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war will have negative consequences on consumers unless domestic production is increased. This increase would have to occur despite the input price hikes exacerbated by the war. It should also be noted that both Russia and Ukraine are among the top three countries that Mozambique imports wheat, meaning that the net effects of the war on Mozambique will be negative. The economic sanctions imposed on Russia will interrupt the supply of wheat to Mozambique, which will result in rising wheat prices. On the other hand, the supply of wheat from Ukraine will also be interrupted as a result of Russia's invasion, and Ukraine will not be able to deliver its grain harvest to the rest of the world. Hence, it is important to ensure that steps are taken to increase consumer access to local production within Mozambique to limit the exposure of the low-producing areas to the negative, price-related impacts of the war on international trade flows.This brief further examined crop growing conditions by computing anomalies of the same biogeophysical parameters during the ongoing growing season c . The parameters were aggregated from January to June over the last 20 years. The data for 2022 were then compared with the aggregated trends recorded over the past 20 years.Figure 3 shows the spatial correlation between rainfall anomalies and wheat production forecasts in Mozambique. To a large extent, areas with moderate rainfall anomalies appear to be associated with high wheat production forecasts.  Figure 4 shows that at locations with the highest (above 4 degrees Centigrade) and lowest (below 4 degrees Centigrade) land surface temperature anomalies, predicted wheat production is at its lowest level. In contrast, wheat production is predicted to reach its highest levels at locations with moderate land surface temperature anomalies (between -4.0 and +4.0 degrees Centigrade). Similarly, the areas with the largest negative rainfall anomalies are associated with little to no wheat production compared to areas with moderate to high positive anomalies.c Except for the evapotranspiration data due to data availability issues.In Mozambique, irrigated wheat cultivars are planted from early June to mid-August. Spring wheat is planted from August to September d , depending on soil moisture and warmer day and night temperatures during growth and reproduction. Paying attention to these temperature anomalies during planting can make production more resilient.  Similarly, areas with very high positive deviations in NDVI as well as those with very low anomalies in NDVI did not appear to be correlated with high production of wheat, although modest changes in NDVI appear to favor greater wheat production. D The yield predictions covered all wheat that was harvested within the year specified..7The Russia-Ukraine war presents a challenge to global food security and household resilience, especially in those countries that depend on international trade for agricultural inputs as well as food in general. Predicting future agricultural production is critical to being able to anticipate and craft timely interventions that will limit the negative effects emanating from the war. This brief applied state-of-the-art innovations that combine remote sensing and artificial intelligence techniques to predict Mozambique's wheat production for the 2022 period, with the aid of information on biogeophysical characteristics (rainfall, evapotranspiration, NDVI and land surface temperatures).The predictions obtained are consistent with actual production ranges observed recently in Mozambique, indicating an increase in wheat production in the upcoming harvest. It is therefore important for authorities to start putting in place mechanisms to increase consumer access to local production and limit the exposure of households in areas with declining production levels to greater threats than those already emanating from the disruption of global wheat supply chains.Going into the next growing season, farmers should be encouraged to plant more wheat by expanding cropped areas where possible to limit the effects of further hikes to already high global prices. Furthermore, the government should embark on revitalizing previously operated wheat farms and milling companies to revive their activities to produce more wheat and tackle food insecurity and unemployment. It is also important that there is a good share of irrigated wheat production in total production, and to make sure that good water management practices are employed in periods of peak demand to ensure increased yields. This would address some of the water-related challenges in wheat production (see Dube et al., 2020) as well as the observed negative correlations between rainfall anomalies and future wheat production. Since Mozambique has expansive land areas relative to its population, allocating more land to wheat production can also increase production and limit domestic price increases in future.Inputs such as water and fertilizers will continue to be limiting factors for wheat production in the medium-to long-term due to the frequent and disruptive global crises and climate change. To strengthen food system resilience, Mozambique's Institute of Agricultural Research (IIAM), should consider embarking on wheat yield improvement breeding programs which would look to produce wheat varieties with low input requirements (i.e., that require less water, fertilizer and pesticides per unit of wheat produced). Targeting low fertilizer and water requirements in breeding will reduce the importance of input costs in wheat production while also increasing production, productivity and profitability. Currently, fertilizer and water abstraction costs are a huge constraint to wheat production in Mozambique, similar to its neighbouring countries.","tokenCount":"2288"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"06cc2b1efbe5dcdb86548a7983ce0bd9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d3ece8ba-3d80-4574-8fe1-0afdb9338446/content","id":"-1623262049"},"keywords":["0","4 -0","1 -01 -0","3 -0","2 -0","2 -0","2"],"sieverID":"fff2e34c-2ea8-4d66-9ade-3c81d646febe","pagecount":"120","content":"Population Improvement Population improvement continues to be a high priority in the tropical lowland subprogram. In 2002 we tested 30 experimental varieties originated from the population improvement project and 30 new synthetics, open pollinated varieties derived from the pedigree selection breeding project. Progress from selection was measured in 2000 and 2001 in white and yellow germplasm in the process of population improvement. This information assisted us to enhance our breeding activities and further move to produce new and better products for all clients. In Cotaxtla 2002A, we practiced intra-family selections in 5 1 lines and generated 400 5 2 lines in populations; 21, 25, 32, and 28, 36 improved by HSRRS, and populations 30 and 31 improved 52 x tester selection. The 5 2 testcrosses were formed in Agua Fria 20028, and delivered to ITU to prepare IPTT • s. In the white late populations we are in the fifth cycle and in the yellow late population we are in the middle of the third cycle in the early populations we will complete the second cycle.Hybrid Development and Testing and synthetic formation.1745 normal and QPM hybrid combinations: early and advanced generation testcrosses from pedigree selection, stage 3 single crosses, three-way crosses early and late maturing, white and yellow endosperm hybrids were tested in 28 different trials. In Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Honduras, Paraguay. Size varies according to type of trials, one or two row plots separated 75 centimetres between rows, 5.4 meter long rows, fertilization and other agronomic traits varies according to the recommendation at each location to provide a proper management to the trials. Every single trial will provide information to identify lines and form open pollinated varieties, therefore the need to test larger number of hybrids.Early generation testcrosses (made at 5 2 or 5 3 ) provide us with the necessary information to select the best performing 10 to 20% lines and eliminate the remnant load of bad performing lines. Early generation testcrosses are made with 5 2 or 5 3 lines from pedigree selection scheme and crossed to opposite HG testers, only in some cases where the HG from the F 2 populations is unknown, the use of both testers for a group of lines is obligatory. With the objective of performing crosses among early and advanced generation lines four isolation blocks including the four testers, two white and two yellows, were planted and advanced and early generation testcrosses were formed at harvest time, crosses were separated according to generation tester and color.In 2002 we conducted three different trials: TSCLW02-15; TSCLW02-16 and TSCLW02-17. All trials were conducted in the same five tropical sites: Agua Fria, Puebla and Cotaxtla, Veracruz, Mexico, Las Vegas and Cuyuta, Guatemala and Turipana, Colombia. Elevation of the testing sites varies from 0 MASL in Cotaxtla, Veracruz to 900 MASL in Zacapa, Guatemala. Plot size consisted of one five meters long row at 66,666 plants/hectare. Agronomic practice varied according to site recommendation.55 tropical late white inbred lines originally identified in early generation testcrosses (5 3 ) as heterotic group \"A&B\" were crossed to two tester lines originally identified as good response to heat conditions. (T39 and T43) and testers CML448 and CML 449 formed 97 hybrids and 8 checks for a total of 105. The 97 advanced testcrosses, six single crosses among tropical white testers and two checks were included in an alpha lattice 15x7 design with two replications and they were evaluated at two locations: Agua Fria, Puebla and Cotaxtla, Veracruz, Mexico. The objectives of this work were to estimate the combining ability of the new lines, identify new single cross hybrids and potential females for TWC hybrid combinations and lines with good CGA to form synthetic varieties. Highly significant statistic differences were detected at individual and across locations.The ANOVA showed significant differences for yield and agronomic traits at individual locations and across locations, mean yield varies from 6. 7 ton/ha at Agua Fria 8.1 t/ha at Cotaxtla, and 7 .2 t/ha across locations (Tables Al to A3)The interaction locations x hybrids for yield was statistically non-significant. Six hybrids yielded from 3 to 4.6 t/ha more than H-31 and showed resistance to root lodging FSR (Table 1). Root lodging across locations 17% reflects the importance of selection for this trait, at Obregon H-31 outyielded all hybrids and showed resistance to heat. General combining ability (GCA) plays an important role in hybrid and synthetic formation lines, showing positive and significant GCA are lines: L7, L14, L1s1 Li1, Lii, Li 3 , and Li4 showing from 1.5 to 6 times the standard deviation for lines. These lines will be used to form synthetics.SCA large estimates are shown in Table 2, the hybrids Ti x L14, Ti x L15, T2 x L7, Ti x Li1, Ti x L16, T3 x Li1, and T3 x Li 6 , has estimated value from two to four times the SD. Lines with best GCA will form synthetic varieties \"that will be included in the synthetic formation.Material selected here has a tremendous yield potential for Eastern and Southern Africa and Latin America. Superior lines and single crosses can be crossed with lines resistant to MSV and for TWC and tested across locations. ---+ ------------1 -----------------------------------:3=-6 -t(:.,-C_L-_G2_40_7_:•c' --M_L_26__:4)_-B_-8_-l_::-2_::-B_x ---:T::---3::-c9 _ _ +-1c::-0.-:64:____:10_:.6_5_1_:00:___1:=_25::_____:0._:1 _5=2=---:.:.o•:.:51:___0::_::.9:_:4__::_27:_:_.4:.__::3:::.5____::3:.:.0_._7:_::.3___-0 ..... 8:___5_.6_0.5 __  x CL-SPLW04 10.59 10.61 100 125 0.2 51 0.58 1.03 20.2 3.3 2.5 28.8 2.0 7.9 0.0--3.0 103 H-431 --------=;;:;;;-::;;----t---;5:-;;.o:::-o --::5.-::25;;---;;4:::-7 ----::5:-::9----:4:--:.8::---:4-::-9 ----,0,-.,.5-cc5_o_.8_9 _2.,...,2_.5,_4._:0 _3_:.3:___3::..o=.8--=-2•:.:_0 __::_2:_:_.4_ :5.7 --3.  ---;;8,.-0 ~10;;;;;0c--c2;;-c.1;---;;5c:-1 ----:Occ:.5~1----=:0~.9~0 -2~3~.7_;3 . ..;..6 _2:.:..3:_:::::8.3:.:___::5.~---7 __ .:2:0 •1i Group \"A\" crossed to tester HGB {CML449) {TSCW02-15).106 5 3 lines were crossed to CML449. The 105 plus four checks were included in an oc 11 x 10 lattice design and evaluated in the five sites mentioned above. ANOVA showed significant statistical differences for yield and agronomic traits at each individual location and across locations GxE interaction was not significant and we proceeded to perform the across analysis.In the model the genotypes were considered fixed and sites random effects, location mean yields 6. 71 t/ha at Agua Fria, 10.2 t/ha at Zacapa, 6.96 t/ha at Turipana, 5.8 t/ha at Las Vegas, and 8.0 t/ha at Cotaxtla. At this location a storm-hurricane caused severe damage and most of the trial was lodged with root lodging mean of 74% that affected the value of this trial across locations. Nevertheless the yield was not affected by the lodging. The mean yield across locations was 7. 7 t/ha. Table 3 shows the mean performance across locations of the 8 superior crosses. Note that the yield of the superior testcrosses outyielded best seed industry check from 24 to 32% (8.7 t/ha to 9.4 t/ha) while the check yielded 6.9 t/ha. The maximum yield of (CL02134* CL021101)-B-53-1 x CML449 was showed in Zacapa, Guatemala (Table AS) with 12.6 t/ha yielded 59% more than seed industry check HR-101.The main yield of the selected lines for further advance in inbreeding for pedigree selection was 7.8 t/ha and the mean of the crosses 7.6 t/ha. 39 lines heterotic group \"A\" were selected, with good yield potential and superior agronomic traits such as standability, ear rot, stalk lodging, F. stalk rot and resistance to CSD, rust and B.Maydis and are being advanced to 5 6 • Tables A4 to A9 show the performance of testcrosses at individual and across locations. Yield of best hybrids at individual locations is shown in Fig. 1.  ---~-----------------------pcF>Ti~-----o.93 ________ o:3-1.o--1-:ci--1.ocff-o~o o.o 1.0 •10 -1.0 1.0 -----------------•--t.fiimber of location~ --•-----5------•--5------5-----5 ----5 -5 ~-5 --4-5 2Combining ability of early generation tropical late white lines crossed to testers CML448 {A) and CML449 {B) {TSCW02-16).47 tropical white late 5 3 & 5 4 lines developed from F 2 pedigree selection Heterotic Groups (AxB) were testcrossed to tester CML448 HG \"A\" and CML449 HG\"B\" TL2002A. The 94 crosses and six checks were included in a 10x10 oc lattice design and were tested in the same five locations mentioned above. The objectives of this study were to estimate the GCA ability of the lines and classify them in heterotic groups, select the outstanding lines to advance and identify lines for synthetic formation.Mean yield at individual locations was 6.4 t/ha at Agua Fria; 8.6 t/ha at Zacapa, Guatemala, 6.2 t/ha at Turipana, Colombia; 6.5 at Cuyuta, Guatemala, 7.1 t/ha at Cotaxtla, Mexico and 6.95 t/ha across locations. As in trial 15 a severe root lodging ( 40% mean) was registered at Cotaxtla correlation between yield and ear rot was -0.44* across locations (Tables AlO to A15). 25 hybrids outyielded the local check with one ton per hectare and 8 hybrids showed resistance to root lodging and Fusarium stalk rot.New hybrid (CML247*5P49E+F2-5s-)B-22-3xCML449 topped the trial across five locations with 9.22 t/ha (Table 4) 47% more yield than the local check and 3.8 t/ha more than CML442 x CML444. This hybrid also outyielded the best check CML448 x CML449 with 23% more yield. Yield potential maximum expression was present at Zacapa, Guatemala 11. 9 t/ha 900 MA5L and 12.8 t/ha at Cotaxtla, Veracruz 20 MASL (Tables All and A14 respectively).The best 8 performing hybrids across locations are presented in Table 4 CL04368 x CL-5PLW04 continues topping the trial with 10.0 t/ha and resistance to ear rot, root lodging and Fusarium stalk rot while local checks showed susceptibility to those traits Fig. 2.Testers CML448 HG\"A\" and CML449 HG\"B\" effectively classified the new lines in heterotic groups. 13 lines were classified as heterotic group A and 11 lines as belonging to heterotic group \"B\". PSGC 1 -1-1-1-3 and (CML247*SP4E+Fz-S 5 )-B-11-1 showed the highest value of GCA (Table 5) . Selected lines will be used to form advanced crosses and synthetics.  • ---~------------_ Grand Mean 6.65 6.95 '--_ _ _ _ _ 4 .;.; •.o.. 3 _ 51 0.50 0 .95 18.8 2.!_2.8 9 .9 2 .1 9.6 1.9 _ _ ----_ _ LSD 5% 0.95 0.99 3.7 0 .7 0 .0 0 .1 1.4 0 .4 0.3 10.7 3 .7 7 .8 0 .4----~---Cl/%\"--'-\"-''----'-14\"'\". 34-10.3 1.1 7.4 11 .4 7 .4 16.8 15.4 11 .8 9 .2 12.9 10.5_ _ _ _ F value Loc•Entry ~ 1..,.2:::.. & _ _ _ _ _ .=. 0•.=. 8_ 1 . ::.. 0 ::__....: 0:::. 7 c._....::; 0•:::.. 6 _.:.: 1•:::.. 3 0 .7 0 .8 1.6 P(F>f) 1 ' --_ _ _ _ ....:0:;; .0 ,_, 1c._ _ _ _ _ ....:5:.:.:.0,_ 0 .5 1.0 1.0 0 .0 1.0 1.0 0 .0 rmm er oflocat1ons  Pedigree PStayGreenC 1-1-1-3(CM L247'S94P49ET-F2-106-6-3-l-8)-8-t t-1 (CM L247\" S94P49ET-F2-94-l-1-I -8 )-8-22-3(CM L2l4'DEERC2-t l :3--1-#2-# lt-#)-B-8-2 l-2 (CM L247' S94P49ET-F2-t 06-6-3-t -B)-8-43-2(CM L24 7' S94P49ET-F2-27-t-I -I -8)-8-36-1 (CL-032to•DEERCl-ll-3:1.#i:#1:1 -#)-0-0:1 t ---•---------l (CML24 7' S94P49ET-F2-t 0~:6-3:1 -8)-8-32-I (CM L24 7' S94P49ET-f 2-27-t -1-1-8 )-8-27-1 I --------------------(CM L247'S94P49ET-F2-27-1-1-l-8)-8-J 1-2 (CM L24 7' S94P49ET-F2-27-l-t -I -B)-B-20-1 (CM L247'S94P49ET-F2-27-l -1-l-8)-8-44-1 (CM L24 7' S94P49ET-F2-27-l-1-1-B)-B-3 8-2(CM L247' S94P49ET-F2-94-1-1-l -B)-B-28-I (CM L24 7' S94P49ET-F2-27-l-1 ---------•--    5.712            •------------------------0.0 53 53 -0. 0.9 0.6 0.6 0.9 0.6 0.9 1.2 0.7 ---------------0.6 1.0 1.0 0.7 1.0 0.6 0.1 1.0Evaluations of early generation tropical white late lines Heterotic Group \"B\" crossed with tester CML448 HG\"A\" (TSCW02-17).Eighteen tropical white S 3 and S 4 lines derived from F 2 population heterotic group \"B\" were testcrossed to tester CML448 (HG\"A\") and 11 remaining testcrosses with CML449 as tester were formed in TL2002A. The 29 early generation testcrosses and six checks were included in a oc lattice design 5 x 7 and tested in the same five locations mentioned above. The objective of these trials was to identify superior early generation lines to select in advanced generation superior hybrids to form with the advanced lines and progenitors for synthetic formation at S 5 level of inbreeding.The ANOVA detected significant statistical differences for yield and main agronomic traits for hybrids at individual and across locations. G*E was significant at 0.10 probability.Mean yield: 6.43, 10.0, 6.1, 6. 7, 7 .8 and 7.4 tons per hectare at Agua Fria, Zacapa, Turipana, Cuyuta, Cotaxtla and across locations. The most important constraints to maize yields in these locations were root lodging and F. stalk rot (Tables 16A to  21A). Five hybrids outyielded the reference entry check CML448 x CML449 new early generation testcross (CLG2407*CML247)-B-25-1-2-2 x CML449 topped the trial across locations (Table 6) showing yield stability ranking fourth at Agua Fria (8 t/ha), first at Zacapa (14.4 t/ha), fourth at Turipana (7.2 t/ha), first at Cuyuta (8.4 t/ha) and first at Cotaxtla (11.4 t/ha) and 10 t/ha across locations with 35% more yield than the check and 50% more than CML 442 x CML444. 10 lines with yields above the mean were identified to continue pedigree selection and the best five hybrids line testers at •s 6 generation will be formed in the winter-summer 20038. Ten lines heterotic group B will be used to form a new synthetic for each location.Development of yellow elite maize germplasm is becoming more and more important because developing countries are striving for competition with the use of low quality, highly subsidized maize imported from the USA. Several countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela are providing support to farmers to encourage the production of yellow maize locally and reduce the large imports for animal feeding. Development of hybrids with high yield potential will increase priority in the tropical lowland program, tropical subprogram. In recent years the breeding activities in yellow endosperm tropical maize have oriented to close the differences in yield potential between white and yellow elite germplasm. In the year 2001 new yellow hybrids yielded up to 12 ton/ha at Cotaxtla, Veracruz, Mexico.The objective of this activity was to identify new single cross combination for testing internationally, use as females and identify superior lines to use as males in TWC hybrid combinations and select superior lines for advanced testcrosses. 107 yellow lines heterotic groups A & B were crossed to the opposite testers, 107 single crosses, two tropical single crosses RE and one seed industry check were evaluated under a oc lattice design 10x11, 1 row plots 66,000 plants per hectare, two replications per site at six tropical locations: Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, Mexico; La Maquina and Zacapa, Guatemala; Turipana Colombia and Rampur, India.The ANOVA showed highly significant differences for yield and other agronomic traits such as ear rot and plant height, across and at individual locations. Locations x hybrids interaction for yield, was not significant.Mean yield trial at individual locations varies: 7 .2 t/ha at Agua Fria, 7 .3 at Zacapa, 5. 7 at Turipana, 2.4 at La Maquina, (this location yield was reduced by severe CS damage) 56% negatively correlated (r = -0.40) with yield 6.2 at Rampur, 7.9 at Cotaxtla and 6.2 t/ha across locations, the maximum yield 10.5 t/ha was detected at Cotaxtla, and Zacapa.Entries 85, 97, and 84 topped the trial across six locations and showed good stability in the tropical lowland locations ranking first at Agua Fria 10.3 t/ha and in the first 10% in all locations; At Turipana this hybrid Entry 97 yielded 8.5 t/ha and outyielded Pioneer 3041 with 28% more yield (Tables A22 to A28).Table 7 shows the yield performance of the best 8 hybrids that outyielded the best local checks across six locations.Eight hybrids were superior in yield from 1.40 to 1.9 t/ha or up to 2 LSD's to the local check and the trial mean yield. Best performing hybrids also showed resistance to ear rot, root lodging damage and foliar diseases. Best hybrids in Table 7 will be tested internationally in 2003-2004. -----• ----• ------------52 0.49 1.00 22.5 2.3 2.5 1.3 1.5 6.9 0.0 2.0 2.0 28 PSta)'GreenCl- ---------102 107 5.1 53 0.47 0.95 21.0 2.2 2.1 2.0 0.0 20.3 0.0 1.9 -3.2 101 106 4.2 52 0.48 1.00 20.3 2.6 2.5 3.9 1.9 14-:-30:0 2~5 4.1x CML449x CML444x CMI269 ----------10.7 1.8 5.3 9.6 6.5 18.9 16.5 12.4 8.8 13.2 108 12.9 64.8__ ~---------F_v_a_lu_e_Loc*~P~.;..,=F_>~try-'-f):r-_-_-_-_-_-~~::61 _ 0 -:_ ____________ -:_-~~:::~~:::::_~-:~::_~-:_:-_-_-~_--~-~:: ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~-___ ~~--~~------~N~um-ber~~of~loca-• tion! 5         The ANOVA showed highly significant differences for yield and other agronomic traits such as ear rot and plant height, across and at individual locations. Locations x hybrids interaction was highly significant, statistical difference reflecting GxE interaction.The mean yield trial at individual locations was 7.0 ton/ha at Agua Fria, 7.3 t/ha at Cotaxtla, 1.0 t/ha (low yield due to a heavy drought and strong corn stunt damage) at La Maquina, 6.1 t/ha at Turipana, Colombia, 7.1 t/ha at Zacapa, 6.3 at Rampur, India and 6. 7 across five locations excluding La Maquina.13Best yielding hybrid at individual locations: (RCYA99-20)-BB-56-1 x CL-02450 = 9.6 t/ha and RCYA99-21)-B-B-47-2 XCML451 = 9.5 t/ha at Agua Fria.(RCYA99-20)-B-B-47-2xCL02450 = 8.9 t/ha at Zacapa, Entries 114 and 113 topped the trial with 8.2 and 7.7 t/ha at Turipana, Colombia, Entries 68 and 56 showed the highest yields at Bihar, Entries 35 and 116 topped the trial at Cotaxtla. All these hybrids outyielded the local checks at individual and across sites. They also showed resistance to ear rot and lower lodging than the checks (Tables A29 to A35).(RCYA99-20)B-B-26-3xCL-02450) and (RCYA90-20)-B-B-42-1xCML451 topped the trial across five locations with 8.0 t/ha, yield 23% superior to the checks and showed resistance to ear rot. 8 hybrids outyielded the checks and showed resistance to ear rot (Table 8). 12 yellow lines were classified as Heterotic Group \"A\" and 17 as Heterotic Group \"B\". 9 lines were classified as \"A&B\" and showed positive GCA (Table 9).  F value Loc*Entry 1.17 0.6 2.3 0.9 0.7 4.9 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.6 0.7 1.1 1.4 ---------P{F>f) 0.03 1.0 0.0 0.8 1.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.1 0.0 Number of locations        •-s.02 --s.r1--:cJ:ij9 81 :o.78 ~3.6---rre--e-s-o:s-:121---124-o:se -6.88 1n u2---2.9 2e--11T-To -32--17 20-2:e--3.0-25 e--2.9 -32  Combining ability estimates were performed on the bases of NC design II using 10 females x 5 males mating design and 13 x 3 under a line by tester model analysis.Superior lines with good GCA are L 2 =0.57, L 3 =0.354, L 7 =0.254 and L 14 =0.54. These lines will form a new synthetic adding CML448 and CML449.Same lines can be used as in TWC combination using female single crosses heterotic group \"B\".Best SCA: L 11 x Ls and L 6 x Li4, L 3 x L 14 , Ls x L 1 4 and L2 x L 1 s can be used as females in TWC hybrid combination (Tables 11 and 12).Tables A36 to A42 show the performance of all hybrids at individual and across locations.     --------' ------------------f . --------------------------------   ---------------------   F value Loc*Ent~ 0.96 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.8 1.2 0.7 0.9 2.6 0.9 1.0.67 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.8 0.1 0.0 Number of location' 6 __ 5 ___ 6 _ _ 6 ___ 5 ___ 6 ___ 6 • -s---4--5--4 2   Lines Ll -L13  ----------------• ---------~ 2.8 Combining ability and hybrid yield performance of tropical late maturing yellow endosperm advanced lines heterotic groups \"A\" and \"B\"(TSLCY02-11).The objective of this activity was to estimate the combining ability of new advanced yellow lines, heterotic groups \"A\" and \"B\" and select the best for different uses, identify new single cross combination for testing internationally and identify superior lines to use as males in TWC hybrid combinations and synthetic formation.14 tropical yellow late lines heterotic group \"A\" and 12 lines heterotic group \"B\" were intercrossed in Design II Mating Design in Tlaltizapan 2002A. Only 147 crosses out of the 168 were completed and the 147 plus 3 hybrid checks were included under a 15x10 alpha lattice design with two replication and evaluated at six locations: Cotaxtla and Agua Fria, Mexico; Zacapa and Las Vegas, Guatemala; Turipana, Colombia and Bihar, India winter planting, representing the tropical lowland from O to 700 MASL. The combining ability estimates for yield were made under the NC design II_ model, 12 female lines heterotic group A and 7 male lines heterotic group B.Hybrid yield performance at individual and across locations was good presenting high mean yield trials 7 .1 t/ha, 8,0 t/ha, 6.0 t/ha, 4.6 t/ha, 8.1 t/ha and 6.5 t/ha at Agua Fria, Zacapa, Turipana, Las Vegas, Bihar and Cotaxtla respectively and 6. 7 t/ha across locations. The most important limiting constraint to maize production in the location with lower mean yield (4.6 t/ha) at Las Vegas Guatemala was ear rot with a mean of 17% reducing the clean yield to 3.8 t/ha with r=-0.5 negatively correlated with yield at this location, several hybrids showed resistance to this important disease. The most important constrain that affected yield across locations, was root lodging (22%) severely affecting Cotaxtla's location, nevertheless, they were hybrids that showed resistance to those limiting constraints. Yield potential at individual location of the new hybrid vs. the local checks was impressive from 37% to 127% more yield than the local check. 24 hybrids outyielded the seed industry checks and trial mean yield with up to 29%, more yield or 2.0 t/ha. They also showed resistance to ear rot while the check showed 6% rotten ears. Tables A43 to A49 show the performance of all hybrids at individual and across locations.Table 13 presents the 8 best yellow endosperm hybrids that outyielded the seed industry checks up to 30% or 2.5 more LSD's up to 1.9 t/ha. Some hybrids also showed resistance to ear rot, tolerance to root lodging. CL-RCY17 x CML452 which yielded 7.9 t/ha and ranked second across locations, CL-RCYX014 x CL02836: ranked first across locations (8.4 t/ha), first at Zacapa, Guatemala (10.6 t/ha), 9.8t/ha at Bihar, India and 8.6 t/ha at Cotaxtla, Mexico.The estimates of the additives (GCA) and non-additives genetic effects (SCA) play an important role in hybrid breeding. Among the lines HG \"A\" six lines showed positive and significant estimates L 2 = 0.52, 4= 0. 751, L 6 = 0.122, L 9 = 0.21 L 10 = 0.41 and L 12 =0.58 t/ha, 1 to 7 times the SE for GCA, while in the group \"B\" 2 lines showed positive and significant values for GCA: L 14 = 0.58, L 16 = 0.1, L 17 = 0.23, these values are equivalent 2 to 6 times the SE for GCA.SCA estimates positive and significant include crosses: L 2 x Li4, 4XL14, L 3 xL14, L 12 xL 15 , L 2 xL16, 4xL 1 6, L6XL16=, L2XL17, L 12 xL1 9 • These values are equivalent to 1.5 to 3.5 times the SE to SCA effects (Table 14).The single crosses mentioned above can be used effectively for TWC formation with lines with good GCA considering the participation in SC combinations.Synthetic formation should be made among the lines with good GCA within and between heterotic groups. Superior hybrids in Table 13 and superior ones at individual locations should be tested internationally and particularly in Asia and Latin America.The lines with good GCA should participate in new F 2 pedigree populations after executing head to head analysis.The yield potential of this yellow hybrid combination should be exploited extensively since it is the third year in a row that we achieve those yields, similar to yields of white hybrid combinations at individual locations.  --29 CL-R.cv017x cL-02836 7.5o 7.95   o.99 1.00 o.oo 1.00 1.00 o.oo 1.00 1.000:690:991.oo -o.o3 -  -------------• 7.49 Lines Ll3 -Ll92.9 Hybrid yield performance of tropical late white lines crossed to opposite heterotic group testers {TSCW02-12)45 tropical late white inbred lines, heterotic groups \"A&B\" were crossed to the opposite A&B testers.The 45 advanced testcrosses, four single crosses and one check were included in an alpha lattice 5x10 design with two replications and were evaluated at six locations: Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, Mexico; Zacapa and Las Vegas, Guatemala; Turipana, Colombia and Dholi, India. The objectives of this work were to identify new single cross hybrids and potential females for TWC hybrid combinations and lines to be used as males in TWC hybrids and form synthetic varieties. Highly significant statistic differences were detected at individual and across locations.The interaction hybrid x location was significant reflecting the importance of the GxE interaction.Trial mean yields varies from Agua Fria 6.6, Cotaxtla 7.2, Zacapa 10, Las Vegas 5.8, Turipana, 5.7 and Dholi, 13.0 t/ha. and across locations 8.0 t/ha.Table 15 shows the performance of the ten top single cross hybrids yielding from 10 t/ha to 8-.7 t/ha, 13 to 32% more yield than the seed industry checks. All 10 hybrids showed resistance to ear rot while CML442xCML444 presented 13% ear rot damage.The best performing hybrid CL-RCW53 x CML449 yielded 9.5 t/ha, 24 % more yield than checks and CML247xCML254. The RE CL-04368xCL-SPLW04 yielded 10.1 t/ha across locations and demonstrated good stability ranking first across location and first Agua Fria, Zacapa and Cotaxtla, fifth at Turipana; eighth at Las Vegas, Guatemala and the maximum yield was at Cotaxtla and Dholi (13 t/ha), at the last location hybrid CL-RCW63xCML448 yielded 18.1 t/ha, 74 % more yield than the best check. Other stable hybrids were: Entries 8, 2, 28 with yield of 15.5 t/ha at Dholi and 8 t/ha at Turipana, Colombia, 10.5 t/ha at Zacapa, 10.8 t/ha at Cotaxtla, and yielded 9.5 t/h across locations. All hybrids showed also resistance to ear rot. The 10 hybrids with superior performance plus the best 3 at individual locations, which are not in the top across locations, will be tested in the third stage trial and internationally in CHTTW in 2003 and 2004 respectively.Superior lines will form a new synthetic adding CML448 and CML449. Same lines can be used as in TWC combination using female single crosses heterotic group A and \"B\" from trial 10.Tables A50 to A57 show the performance of all hybrid.s at individual and across locations.The 10 hybrids with superior performance plus the best 3 at individual locations, which are not in the top across locations, will be tested in the third stage trial and internationally CHTTW in Africa in 2003 and 2004 respectively.  ----------------------------  ------------  ------------~ ---  The objective of this activity was to identify new single cross combinations for testing internationally, use as females and identify superior lines to use as males in TWC hybrid combinations.41 yellow lines were crossed to the opposite testers, 41 single crosses, two tropical single crosses RE and two seed industry testers were evaluated under a oc lattice design 5x9. Two row plots 66,000 plants per hectare, two replications per site at six tropical locations: Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, Mexico; Las Vegas, and Zacapa, Guatemala; Palmira, Colombia and Ludhiana, India.The ANOVA showed highly significant differences for yield and other agronomic traits such as ear rot and plant height, across and at individual locations. Locations x hybrids interaction for yield, was not significant.Mean yield trial at individual locations varies: 7.2 at Agua Fria, 7.6 at Zacapa, 5.5 at Turipana, 4.6 at Las Vegas, 8.8 at Ludhiana, 7.0 at Cotaxtla and 6.8 t/ha across locations. The maximum yield 11.7 t/ha was detected at Ludhiana, India (Tables A58 to A64).CL-RCY 007xCL-02450 topped the trial across six locations and showed good stability in the tropical lowland locations ranking first at Ludhiana (11.7 t/ha), and in the first 10% in all locations. At Turipana this hybrid yielded 6.8 t/ha and outyielded Pioneer 3041 with 46% more yield.Table 16 shows the yield performance of the best 7 hybrids that outyielded the best local checks across six locations. Seven hybrids were superior in yield from 0.84 to 1.5 t/ha or up to 2 LSD's. Best performing hybrids also showed resistance to ear rot and root lodging damage while the check showed 7% and 15% ear rot and root lodging respectively. Best performing hybrids should be tested in Asia and Latin America. Female lines in Entries: 2, 31 and 27 will form single crosses to be used as females in TWC hybrids using CL-02450 as male. Best parent lines will form synthetic varieties.   -e -----------• -------  -------••-------------------!---------------------•----------------••-----------  F value Loc*Entry 1.10 0.9 1.3 0.9 0.6 1.5 0.7 0.9 2.3 0.9 0.5 P(F>f) 0.25 0.8 0.1 0.9 1.0 0.0 1.0 0.8 0.0 0.7 1.0Number of locations 6 5 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 450 new tropical single cross hybrids formed with the combination of lines selected from advanced testcrosses trial evaluation were tested at six locations in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and India.The ANOVA showed significant differences for yield and agronomic traits at individual locations and across locations, mean yield varies from 5.3 t/ha at Las Vegas, Guatemala and Turipana to 8.9 t/ha at Bihar, India, at Cotaxtla, and Agua Fria, Mexico, mean yield was 7 .3 t/ha. Zacapa also presented high mean yield 8. 7 t/ha. The interaction locations x hybrids for yield was statistically significant showing nevertheless, the importance of GxE interaction of hybrids.CL-021103xCML449 yielded 8.8 t/ha across six locations and performed first across locations at Zacapa, Las Vegas and Turipana; fourth at Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, and sixth at Bihar (Tables A65 to A71), showing adaptation to the tropical environment. This hybrid outyielded seed industry local checks with 30% more yield and resistance to ear rot and some hybrids also showed tolerance to root lodging and yielded 23% more than the RE CML247 x CML254. Eight more hybrids outyielded checks (Table 17), Fig. 3. Table 17 shows the performance of the best 8 hybrids. Single cross hybrid CL-021103 x CML449 yielded 8.8 t/ha, 52% more than CML442xCML444 Low N check. Eight hybrids outyielded the Low N check hybrid and should be tested in Africa in AMS project. Best 10 hybrids will be tested internationally in 200~ and 2004 in CHTIW they also offer potential for African lowlands and mid-altitude under stresses. Hybrids  TSCLY-2 is the trial that includes yellow hybrids in the third stage of testing, the superior top performing hybrids are promoted to international testing in CHTrY. 25 tropical late yellow endosperm single cross hybrids were included in a 5x5 alpha lattice design with two replications evaluated at eight environments in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, India and Vietnam.Mean yield trial at individual locations varies from 7.4 t/ha in Cotaxtla, 7.10 t/ha at Agua Fria, 1.9 t/ha at Colombia, 4.8 t/ha at Maracay, Venezuela, 2.9 t/ha at Villa de Cura, Venezuela, 4.6 t/ha at Guatemala, 9.1 t/ha at India and 6.6 t/ha at Vietnam and 5.5 t/ha across locations (Table 19).The ANOVA showed statistically significant differences among hybrids for yield and some important agronomic traits at individual and across locations, the highly significant difference location x hybrids reflects the importance of GxE interaction.The maximum yield was reached at Jalna, India with the hybrid CML287 x CML451 = 10.9 t/ha, 3.2 t/ha more than the seed industry check. This new hybrid also showed resistance to ear rot and root lodging. Same hybrid yielded 7.4 t/ha at Agua Fria, Mexico and topped the trial across eight locations with 6.6 t/ha (Table 19).Table 18 shows the performance of all hybrids across 8 locations. The best four hybrids CML287 x CML451, RCYOOll x CML451, CML451 x CL-SW002 and CL-RCY008 x CML451 outyielded the seed industry check with 12 to 20% more yield and resistance to ear rot.The superior 8 hybrids across locations plus the best two at individual locations will be tested in international trials and should be tested in farmers' fields in Colombia, Peru, Indonesia, Nepal and Philippines or included in the regional trials in Asia. Fig. 4 shows the performance of the best hybrids across locations.  ------------  3.2 1.5 0.0 1.1  124.0 13.0 3 1.9 2.6 2.3 12:r--1:0--n--2.25 61 1.7 0.0 0.0 3.0 2.9--19.7--0.89LSD 5% 0.94 1.1 1.2 16.9 8.9 0.7 9.8 0.9. _ _: =:.--::-.:..Ffi=_>f) o.oo   Six single crosses among lines heterotic groups A&B were selected as females and crossed to 10 parents heterotic groups A&B, tropical and subtropical with good GCA. 17 three way-crosses, 6 single crosses used as females and two seed industry checks were tested under an oc alpha lattice design 5x5, with two replications and evaluated at 7 locations: Cotaxtla, Ver., and Agua Fria in Mexico, La Maquina and Nueva Concepcion in Guatemala, Turipana, Colombia, Mtuapa, Kenya and New Delhi, India. The mean yield trial across locations was 4.9 t/ha. Root lodging affected the trial severely at Cotaxtla with a mean of 25% damage.The five best performing hybrids yielded 5.5 t/ha and outyielded the local checks with 30% and lower ear rot damage (Table 20). The best performing hybrid (CML449xCML448)CL-PWSD05 yielded 5.7 t/ha across seven locations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.Best performing hybrids at individual locations are shown in Table 21, Fig. 5.  Tropical yellow TWC hybrids with high yield potential are still difficult to form. The genetic characteristic related with plant and ear placement is difficult to manipulate, as a consequence most of the TWC hybrid appearance looks tall and ear placement inadequate.Most developing countries in Latin America plant hybrid seed use TWC or double cross hybrids. Therefore, it is very important to develop the proper germplasm adapted to maize growing conditions. A three-way cross hybrid should meet three •important conditions: 1) Good yield potential and standability in farmers' fields.2) Good yield and standability of the single cross female in seed production fields.3) Good plant height, pollen shedding and standability of the male parent and ability to compete with single cross female.The selection of the parents in each progenitor should be planned well in advance apart from good GCA. The parents must be carefully selected according to heterotic response, yield per se, good standability, ear rot resistance, lower ear placement and general foliar disease and husk cover.Particularly important is ear placement located in the lower half of the plant, height and good roots, a male or female parent susceptible to lodging is the most undesirable The criteria mentioned above was strictly applied in the selection of parents involved in the TWC hybrid formation of the present work.In this study we selected five yellow single crosses that we used as females and twelve yellow lines with good GCA. 47 yellow TWC five single crosses used as females and 3 checks were evaluated under oc lattice 5xll design and tested in five tropical locations in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and India.Highly significant statistical differences for yield and agronomic traits were found at individual and across locations. Hybrid x location interaction revealed the importance of GxE. Best 7 TWC hybrids yielded from 6.3 to 7.0 t/ha, 1.2 to 2.3 t/ha more than the local checks (1 to -2 LSD). Table 22 shows the performance of superior hybrids at individual locations. TWC yellow hybrids (CML451 x CML287)xCL-RCYX18 and (CML451xCML287)xCL-RCY005 topped the trial and outyielded the best single cross hybrid female CML451 x CML287 (Tables A72 to A73).  Six tropical late white single crosses among lines heterotic groups A&B were selected as females and crossed to 10 parents heterotic groups A&B, tropical and subtropical with good GCA. 55 three way-crosses, 5 single crosses used as females and five seed industry checks were tested under an oc alpha lattice design 13x5, with two replications and evaluated at 2 locations: Cotaxtla, Ver., and Agua Fria, Mexico. The mean yield trial• across locations was 7.3 t/ha, 7.4 and 7.1 at Cotaxtla and Agua Fria, respectively. Root lodging affected the trial severely at Cotaxtla with a mean of 25% damage.The 9 best performing hybrids yielded from 8.0 to 9 t/ha and outyielded the local checks with up to 34% and lower ear rot damage, and showed good standability {Table 23). The best performing TWC hybrid {CL-RCW18 x CML254)CL02119 yielded 8.6 t/ha _across locations, 8. 9 t/ha {Table A74) at Cotaxtla and 8.2 t/ha {Table A75) at Agua Fria and 8.6 t/ha across locations {Table A76).The top performing hybrids at individual locations are: (CLRCW18xCML254) CL-PWSDOS = 9.7 t/ha, (CL-04262 x CML254) = 9.7 t/ha at Cotaxtla, Mexico and (CL04368xCl-SPLW04) x (CML265xCL-00303-S7 = 8.0 t/ha, at Agua Fria. 9 hybrids selected in this study will be tested in Latin America and Africa in the CHTTW 03. It is recommended to initiate on-station testing in Central America and South America with the flint, white endosperm hybrids which can be effectively tested in on-farm trials in Colombia and Venezuela.  x CL..Q4377 7.99 8.73 120 125 8.5 51 a.52 a.99 24.9 4.2 3.0 18.5 4.7 17.8 ---------------50  ---------•--------  --------------  --------• ---------------Grand Mean 6.84 7.26 5.7 52 a.55 0.96 23.9 3.9 3.0 20.2 4.9 4.6 --1------------• ----------------------LSD5% 1.18 1.24 4.7 1.1 a.o a.1 2.7 0.6 a.4 18.9 7.6 7.1 - 1-----------------  -----------P(F>f) 0.03 0.4 1.0 1.0 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.6 a.2 0.4 0.5 ------------- Combining ability of single cross females and male lines and hybrid yield performance (TTWCW02-6).A three-way cross hybrid should meet three important conditions: 1) Good yield potential and standability in farmers' fields. 2) Good yield and standability of the single cross female in seed production fields. 3) Good plant height, pollen shedding and standability of the male parent and ability to compete with single cross female.The selection of the parents in each progenitor should be planned well in advance apart from good GCA. The parents must be carefully selected according to heterotic response, yield per se, good standability, ear rot resistance, lower ear placement and general foliar disease and husk cover.Particularly important is ear placement located in the lower half of the plant, height and good roots, a male or female parent susceptiQle to lodging is the most undesirable. The criteria mentioned above was strictly applied in the selection of parents involved in the TWC hybrid formation of the present work. 10 single crosses among lines heterotic groups A&B were selected as females and crossed to 9 parents with good GCA. 48 three way-crosses, 10 single crosses used as females, two single crosses reference entry and five seed industry checks were tested under an oc alpha lattice design 5x13, with two replications and evaluated at 7 locations: Cotaxtla, Ver., Agua Fria and Tampico, in Mexico; Turipana, Colombia; Cuyuta, Guatemala; Comayagua, Honduras and Bihar, India.A design II NC analysis was applied to estimate combining ability in crosses among five single crosses, female parents and five lines male parents, in the model the genotypes were considered fixed and sites at random. The mean yield trial across locations was 7.7, 6.8 and 7.6 t/ha at Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, respectively. Root lodging affected the trial severely at Cotaxtla with a mean of 52% damage. Mean yield at Turipana was 6.1, with 6.9 at Cuyuta, 6.7 at Tampico where ear rot showed the highest mean (16.4) with negative correlation with yield (r=-0.47), at Bihar, India, 8.4 t/ha and the highest mean yield (10.7 t/ha) and an ear rot mean of 16 % was obtained at Comayagua, Honduras, that is reflected in reduction of the mean clean yield to 9.3 t/ha, nevertheless, some hybrids such as (CML269 x CL-02181)CLRCW42 and (CML264 x CML269)xCML449 showed resistance to ear rot and the reduction in yield was only 4.8 and 6.7% respectively. The complete information on the performance of hybrids at individual and across locations is showed in Tables A77 to A84. Seven new TWC hybrids outyielded the local checks from 2.5 to 1 t/ha or up 35% more yield, some of the new hybrids were resistant to ear rot, root lodging, and FSR while the checks showed susceptibility to these important economic traits (Table 24). (CML398xCML269)CL-RCW42 topped the trial across location and ranked first to sixth at individual locations demonstrating good yield stability, (CML 269xCL-02181)CL-RCW42 also showed stability with 9.0 t/ha across locations (Table 24).GCA is a statistic frequently used by plant breeders to identify new lines as parents in hybrid combinations, but GCA for single crosses is very seldom used with the same objectives. The GCA estimates for single crosses and lines is presented in Table 25. CML448xCML449 showed the highest positive and significant GCA =0.317 three times the SE of GCA, ~, La and L 9 showed the best GCA estimates among lines.CML448xCML449 will be now used extensively in TWC hybrid formation.The superior TWC yielded 40% more than CML442xCML444 and CML247xCML254 with 20 % showing good yield stability across seven locations, therefore they should be tested in Africa, and Latin America provide farmers the opportunity of increase productivity in their maize growing systems. CML247xCML254 has been used extensively as female in TWC hybrid combinations by the seed industry in Latin America with good success, therefore, it is expected that the new TWC will play an important role in increasing maize productivity after they are accepted by farmers because they fulfill the characteristics of good TWC mentioned above. x CL-RCW42x CL-RCW42x CML449x CL-RCW49x CL-RCW43x CL-RCW37    --------------• --• -----   -------------1.0 1.0 0.0 0.9 0.5 0.0 - --------•----------------------------   • Tropical yellow TWC hybrids with high yield potential are still difficult to form. The genetic characteristic related with plant and ear placement is difficult to manipulate, as a consequence most of the TWC hybrid appearance look tall and ear placement inadequate.Most developing countries in Latin America plant hybrid seed use TWC or double cross hybrids. Therefore, it is very important to develop the proper germplasm adapted to maize growing conditions. A three-way cross hybrid should meet three important conditions: 1) Good yield potential and standability in farmers' fields. 2) Good yield and standability of the single cross female in seed production fields. 3) Good plant height, pollen shedding and standability of the male parent and ability to compete with single cross female.The selection of the parents in each progenitor should be planned well in advance apart from good GCA. The parents must be carefully selected according to heterotic response, yield per se, good standability, ear rot resistance, lower ear placement and general foliar disease and husk cover.Particularly important is ear placement located in the lower half of the plant, height and good roots, a male or female parent susceptible to lodging is the most undesirable. The criteria mentioned above was strictly applied in the selection of parents involved in the TWC hybrid formation of the present work.•In this study we selected 4 yellow tropical late single crosses among lines selected within and between heterotic groups to be used as females and ten lines with good GCA that combine well with both parents, selected to make up the single cross females, to be used as male parents. The 39 TWC's, the 4 single crosses used as females, plus 2 checks were tested under a oc lattice design 5x9 with two replications and were shipped to twelve locations in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Panama and India. The estimates GCA and SCA effects were based in a 4x8 NC design II using single crosses as female parents and lines as male parents. The objectives of this work are to estimate GCA and SCA effects for yield as a mean of selecting the best SC for female in future TWC formation and the best parents lines for males, identify superior yellow TWC hybrids for testing internationally and lines to form synthetics.Highly significant statistical differences were detected at variables studied in the ANOVA at individual and across locations. Mean yields: 8, 7, •9.6, 6.2 t/ha at Agua Fria, Zacapa, Guatemala, Turipana, Colombia, respectively and 3.4 t/ha at La Maquina, the lowest mean yield at La Maquina, Guatemala was due to severe CS damage (43% with a correlation with yield r= -0.30) affecting the yield. The tallest plant height mean, 254 cm with the highest root lodging mean 22 % was obtained at Cotaxtla, Veracruz, Mexico and mean yield 7.5 t/ha. The superior mean yield was record at Comayagua , Honduras 10.2 t/ha followed by Bihar winter planting at India with 8.5 t/ha. Mean yields at El Ejide, Panama 5.6 t/ha was the second lower and 6.7 t/ha at Tampico, Mexico. In Paraguay we planted 3 locations and the mean yields were 5.04, 8.1 and 5.8 t/ha at Capitan Miranda, Paraguay and San Juan Bautista respectively and 7 t/ha across twelve locations in Latin America and Asia. The most important disease affecting yield at individual locations was ear rot that showed 16% ears damaged reducing the mean yield from 6.7 to 5.6 t/ha at Tampico, Mexico, nevertheless, the best new TWC hybrid yielded 8 t/ha and showed resistance to ear rot (5.7 % damage) the most susceptible material was the seed industry check . A7573 that showed 29 % ear rot damage the correlation with yield of this disease was r= o-.55*. Similar response was noted at Capitan Miranda where the best performing hybrid yielded 7 t/ha and only 5% ear damage, while the seed industry check DK350 showed 21 % ear rot damage and yielded only 2.6 t/ha (poor stand also).Table 26 shows the best performing 11 entries across 12 locations. Nine hybrids were one LSD above the trial mean and 11 hybrids outperformed the local check across locations. Plant height and ear placement in the new yellow TWC hybrids and SC female parents is very acceptable coinciding with the description of good TWC hybrid discussed above, confirming that the selection of the parents performed initially worked effectively (Picture 1). The yield of the single cross parents is also very good and guarantee attractive seed yield for seed growers.Eleven hybrids are three-way crosses, and two are the single crosses used as females, all 10 hybrids outyielded the seed industry check with 20 up to 30% more grain yield than the local checks. The best TWC hybrids yielded 7.5 t/ha while its female parent also yielded good (CML451 x CL-SW002) CL-RCY017 7.5 t/ha while CML451x CL-SW002 single cross parent yielded 6.7 t/ha, (CML451xCL-02450)CL-RCY015 =7.4 t/ha and CML451xCL-02450, 7.1 t/ha. This performance will permit to provide new TWC attractive for both the seed producers and the commercial farmers. The selected hybrids also showed good yield stability.Tables ASS to A98 show the performance of all TWC and single cross hybrids at individual and across locations (Fig. 7).GCA and SCA estimates for single crosses will assist us in selecting the best SC parents for future use in TWC formation CML451xCL-02450 and CML451xCL-SW002 presented the best GCA effects for SC parents, up to four time SE for GCA for single crosses, they will be used as female parents in TWC hybrids formation while lines: La, Lio and Lu, showed the best GCA estimates for lines they will be used as males in TWC combinations {Table 27).•For three consecutive years the tropical lowland subprogram has been searching for appropriate germplasm to develop yellow TWC hybrids with good yield potential and stability and attractive to farmers and seed producers. We believe that today we have accomplished this task and developed such type of hybrids that will definitively assist the public and private seed industry to provide farmers with high quality germplasm to improve maize productivity in the developing world. The selected hybrids also showed good yield stability and should be tested extensively in Latin America and Asia. x CL-RCYOl6x CL-RCYOl6x CL-RCYOJ4x CL-RCY005   ---------------------  10 tropical late white inbred lines, were crossed to 5 subtropical lines .in a partial design II. 51 advanced testcrosses, three single crosses and one check were included in an alpha lattice Sxll design, with two replications and were evaluated at six locations: Agua Fria and Cotaxtla, Mexico; Zacapa and La Maquina, Guatemala; Turipana, Colombia and Bihar, India. The objectives of this work were to estimate the combining ability of the new lines, identify new single cross hybrids and potential females for lWC hybrid combinations and lines with good CGA to be used as males in TWC hybrids and to form synthetic varieties. Highly significant statistic differences were detected at individual and across locations. The interaction hybrid x location for yield, was significant reflecting the importance of GxE interaction.Trial mean yields varies from 8.3 t/ha at Zacapa and Bihar to 1.3 t/ha at La Maquina, location affected severely by CS, because germplasm lacked adaptation to tropical environment, therefore this location was not included in combined analysis.Table 28 shows the performance of the eight top single cross hybrids across five locations yielding from 7.6 t/ha to 9.2 t/ha, 17 to 40% more yield than the seed industry checks and 32% more yield than CML442xCML444. All hybrids showed resistance to ear rot and the checks 20% root lodging. The best performing hybrid Entry 18 yielded 9.2 t/ha, 53% more yield than CML247xCML254. Hybrid {Entry 18) demonstrated good stability ranking first across location {9.2 t/ha) and first at Bihar (15 t/ha), third at Agua Fria, and in the top 10% at: Zacapa and Cotaxtla, at Turipana, La Maquina, Guatemala. Other stable hybrids were: Entries, 20, 16, 4, with a highest yield of 11.3 t/ha at Bihar and 8.0 t/ha at Turipana, Colombia, 12 t/ha at Zacapa. Best hybrids showed also resistance to ear rot (Tables A99 to A105 and Fig. 8). Combining ability estimates were performed on the bases of NC design II using 8 females x 4 males mating design under a line by tester model analysis.Among the subtropical lines L 2 and Li showed the highest GCA estimates. The tropical lines presented L 5 , L 6 , L 8 , and L 12 with the best GCA estimates L 2 xL 5 and L 2 xL 8 showed the best SCA estimates (Table 29). The yield potential demonstrated in the new tropical x subtropical hybrids show the exploitation of heterosis in tropical x subtropical germplasm. The 8 hybrids in Table 28 should be tested in the subtropical areas especially in the winter planting in India, Mexico, Vietnam and mid-altitude elevation in Southern Africa. Lines with best GCA will be used to form synthetic varieties. Best SCA crosses will be used as females in TWC hybrids, with best GCA lines as males.The 10 hybrids with superior performance plus the best 3 at individual locations, which are not in the top across locations, will be tested in the third stage trial and internationally in CHTSW in 2003 and 2qo4 respectively.    The 17 crosses, among tropical x subtropical yellow lines two RE checks and one seed industry check were included in an alpha lattice 4x5 design with two replications and they were evaluated at three locations: Turipana, Colombia, Zacapa, Guatemala and Bihar, India. The objectives of this work were to identify new single cross hybrids and potential females for TWC hybrid combinations and lines with good potential to form synthetic varieties. Highly significant statistic differences were detected at individual and across locations. The interaction hybrid x location was not highly significant reflecting the importance of yield stability.Mean yield across three locations 7.3 t/ha and 8.7 t/ha at Zacapa, 5.4 at Turipana and 7.6 t/ha at Bihar. This new hybrid also showed resistance to root lodging and ear rot. CML451xCML 287 yielded 9.1 t/ha across location and showed yield stability.Best hybrids should be tested in winter planting maize areas in Asia.    --------------------------------------------4 90[SPMATC4/P500(SELY)]#-Bx CL-02450=P24STECIFl6-l-3-7.50 7.88 83 130 4.8 75 0.55 1.02 17.3 2.5 1.8 Yield performance of CIMMYT tropical white late single cross hybrids across 12 locations in the tropical megaenvironment.CHTTWOZ includes the evaluation of 18ropical late maturing white endosperm single cross hybrids and two seed industry checks under a ex: lattice design 4x5with three replications. 45 trials were shipped by the ITU to 20 countries planting maize in the tropical environment.At the closing of this report, international testing has collected information from 12 locations in 9 countries. Table 31 includes the yield performance of all hybrids at each individual location: CMS003001 = CL04368xCL-SPLW04 showed excellent yield stability and ranked first in 8 locations and in the best 10% at other 4 locations (Fig. 9). This hybrid also topped the trial across 12 locations with 7 .1 t/ha outperforming all seed industry checks across locations and at 10 individual locations. The mean of the best seed industry local checks across 12 sites was 5.9 t/ha and the trial mean yield 6.0 t/ha. Hybrids CL-04377xCML264, and CL-0436xCML254 outyielded our best last year hybrid CMS993037 one t/ha yield and CML247xCML254 with 20% more yield. The best 3 new hybrids were superior in yield to the seed industry checks and the trial mean with 1.5 LSD, 20 % more yield. Resistance to ear rot, B. maydis corn stunt and rust (Table 32). This increase in yield represents 3.25 % per year or 200 kg/ha per year.The superior hybrids should be extensively tested in Africa and Latin America to help farmers planting maize in developing countries. Venezuela and Colombia should extensively test the 3 new hybrids since flint endosperm is essential for adoption.    --------------------------••••---------~----------~----------------------------------  2.9--5~2-5.4 4.2 2.8 2.0 1.8 1.2 --1i)\" ___ Tg___ 0.9 1.0 8 CL-021119xGYL-254 5.8 --oo---58--5!f -0.7 235 1:D a>.9 6.9 --18~9-2.4-5.811.8 5.6-3.8-2.0 -1.6-1:31.0---.,-:-5----9.4 1.0 CM.r342xCJ\\IL-254 -s.1--------00--ffl---5? 0.0 228 128 al.4 9.9 -1~9--~2-a---6.8ti135.6-a5-2cl1:828_1.2 ___ 1.5___ 0.9 1.0 17 CMA48xCMA49 ---s.s-00--53-54---0.7 a>9 100 21.1 5.4 2.8 3.1 2.6 5.7 15.1 6.1 3.5 2.0 1.8 1.7 1:6 ______ 1:6_____ 8.71.0 14 CM.r339x<L-02143 s.s------00----54----55 -0.1 223 111 11.9 -116-1.9 3.o 3.o--a2--15.1 1.o-5.72320-25---1.1-----f5_____ to 1.0 CM.r~25495 --51-------s?--0.5 aE 114 a>.6 4.2 ts 2.5 2.5 as 6.6 8.5 t7 zo ts z 1 0:9-----~-3.8 1.0 a..-IHY\\\\ffixCM.r254 ---s.s_!:6_ffi--s:s--12 219 11s ai.9 5-1 -17--z5--25--5.s---7.0-20 5.s z3--:rg-i1 to--1.9--z5 3) 1cx:al GJxk 0.9 0.9 6.0 6.2 0.9 OJ Ofc 11.91.9 1.9 3.6 7.6 7.7  -----------------  -\"O 6.0 CH1TY02 includes the evaluation of 18 tropical late maturing yellow endosperm single cross hybrids and two seed industry checks under a cc lattice design 4x5 with three replications. 40 trials were shipped by the ITU to 19 countries planting maize in the tropical environment.At the closing of this report, international testing has collected information from 15 locations in 10 countries in Asia and Latin America. This hybrid also showed resistance to root lodging, foliar diseases and root lodging and better ear placement than the checks. CML451xCML287, CL-SCBY06xCML287 and CML287xCL-02841 respectively, outyielded the seed industry checks across locations with 0.5 to 1.5 t/ha, more yield and superior agronomic traits (Table 34). These hybrids also showed good yield stability in Asia, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay they should be tested extensively and promoted to help farmers to increase maize productivity and reduce maize imports.       Although the majority of the checks used by national programs as seed are OPV's or hybrids developed using CIMMYT germplasm. All locations with low or high mean yield trial, in all locations a new synthetic variety resistant to stresses outyielded the best check (Fig. 11). Synthetic S99TLW BNSEQ(l) outyielded the local checks and mean trial by 1 t/ha (one LSD) resistant to foliar diseases ranked first across locations 5.6 t/ha, (Table 36).At individual locations, it also showed more resistance to CSS and root lodging than the local checks. Synthetic S98 TLW-2B topped the trial at Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, India and Indonesia. Synthetic S99 TLW BN-SEQ(l) tolerant to low N and drought, performed at the top 10% yield at each location. The best QPM synthetic 599 TLWQ-AB yielded well at Mexico, India and Indonesia (Table 35).Best synthetics should be tested on-farm.     ------------------ -2.56 2.79 21 3.3 9.1 1.92 42 0.0 1.8 1.4 1.2 1.2 2.5 1.9 8 ---2.31-2.a1•-9--5. 4 ---4 67~--:;y•-s.1-3.62:58\"43--1 i-----2:2-1-.51':6---12--23--1:6 13 2.44 3.19 18 8.1 5.4 2.17 42 0.0 2.3 1.3 2.5 1.0 2.3 1.7 18 --2.44 -3.19 ---9-2. 7 --i-5.32.42--42•• o.o 2:i-iA -3. 4 -----1.o•----2_2--1•:e-14 --2~--2.95---fs -s.6 --s:o 2.42 ----43 o.o 2. 1 --1_-s--3:2•---1 ::z--22------.,-y-12 ----2.69 --2.90 19-s.1--Ts-2.os--43 -., .1 2_5--1 .3 --3:J----1~3------2:s1.a-1-3--2~so_3_0222 ----9_•7-s:s-211• 43--0.0--20•--:,-_5--z.9----1:323-------:;-:s i6--Z:-~3.2\"41T--6.9 -11.92.5044--oJi--2.7 1.3-T1 •---•1:a ___ i3~ --20-----2.423.19 ___ 16 _ 4:s-1-1:02•50-42-o~o --2:-s-13--3.4 --1_0---23-------.,:-g -12 ---2.33 3:10-14---6.2--3:92.2542 ___ 0.0 -2_5--1:4--•4.4 1.2 2.7 2.0 -14---~-~-14 -8:2---4-:-5•2.50---43--0.0 2.0 1.  ----------•----••----••--------------•-•----1.8 1.3 2.0-1.3 2.83.1 18.3 6.0 4.5 2.13 38 0.0 1.9 1.3 2.63.1 21.0 -6.5-6.52.3343 ___ 0.1---22-1.4  18 yellow tropical synthetic varieties including QPM and normal were included in a 4x5 alpha lattice design with 3 replications. ITU shipped 42 sets to 20 countries at closing of this report. We have received results from 6 locations in five countries.As in the case of the white varieties in several locations the local check was a hybrid, nevertheless, in 6 out of 6 locations one or two yellow synthetics outyielded the best checks.Yellow synthetic PR 59627 topped the trial across locations with 5.6 t/ha, 1000 kg more than the best checks (Table 37). This synthetic also showed similar maturity, lower plant height, excellent ear placement, resistance to root lodging, lower ear rot, resistance to corn stunt, B. maydis and showed good yield stability, ranking first at Mexico, Nicaragua and Indonesia (Table 38) Fig. 12.Some synthetics with specific adaptation outyielded the best checks at individual locations: 50128, 50124, TAKFA-59624, in Asia and Mexico. 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9   Evaluation of 14 synthetics resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses in 30 locations in Central America.New tropical white QPM synthetics. We have developed a range of new QPM synthetics for tropical environments. These possess good yield potential, intermediate plant height, low ear placement and uniformity, tolerance to root lodging and foliar diseases, resistance to ear rot, semi-flint kernel texture, high milling percentage, and twice the lysine and tryptophan of normal maize. Since they are open pollinated varieties, the cost of seed is lower and farmers can save seed from progeny for planting in subsequent seasons. Some of the synthetics were developed with an eye to heterotic response, and can thus be used as parents in non-conventional hybrids.Evaluation of synthetics resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. On-farm test and promotion of the new synthetic varieties in marginal areas such as the project carried out by PRM where near 30 trials were conducted in 2001 in farmer's fields is strongly recommended.In 2001 fourteen OPV synthetics resistant to different stresses were tested in 29 locations in Central America, Synthetic CTS-1 (resistant to insects), and S97 TLW HG\"A&B\" outyielded the best local check with up to 30%. The best synthetic yielded 5.8 ton/ha and the local checks 4.4 ton/ha. In 2002 more than 200 strip test validation trials were planted on poor resource farmer fields growing corn in Central America. Community based seed production systems is associated to on-farm validation tests.With the information collected from the strip tests: Synthetic S97TLW-AB was released in• Guatemala and two more synthetics will be released in Nicaragua and El Salvador.Lowland tropics is well known as very stressful environment, with many biotic and abiotic constrains. Knowing those stresses and incorporation of resistance for the most imp-ortant constrains could greatly improve yield and dependability of QPM materials for certain areas. As the NIPPON-foundation is focused in Africa, we oriented our strategy in HQ to include in the process of selection all the limiting constrains prevailing in this part of the world. We crossed tropical germplasm with material resistant to maize streak virus (MSV) and gray leaf spot (GLS) to form F2 pedigree breeding populations, we are also creating new heterotic populations with resistance to both stresses.In 2002 season 87 white and 120 yellow 52 lines developed from QPM line cross with some donors for resistance were grown and selected at Agua Fria location extremely favorable for different biotic stresses. One hundred and seventeen white and 85 yellow ears were selected for advancement. Total 20 F2 populations (QPM x source of stress resistance) were grown at Agua Fria, and 409 (293 white and 116 yellow) the best ears were selected based on tolerance to diseases, insects, and other important agronomic characteristics to be advanced in next season. In addition 185 white new Fl's and 65 yellow Fl crosses between elite QPM germplasm and stress resistant source material were planted at Agua Fria in 20028 season.Another important way to incorporate stress resistance in QPM material is to create opposite heterotic populations. These populations should have as many as possible donors for resistance while maintaining significant % of elite germplasm. Crosses for making these populations were selected and will be planted at Agua Fria in 2003A season. The next possible steps are to start some type of reciprocal recurrent selection from these populations, or half-sib selection using opposite inbred line as tester.QPM pedigree breeding program is the most important breeding method for development of new lines at tropical lowland subprogram. The objective of this part of tropical program is to develop the new QPM inbred lines that produce high grain yields and superior agronomic performance in hybrid combination.Based on carefully selected parents and with the idea to develop stress tolerant QPM material 492 rows of white and 191 rows of yellow Fl's were grown in 2002 for pedigree selection (Table 39). All Fl's were screened for major diseases (maydis, rust, ear rot) and lodging. The susceptible ones were discarded from further use in pedigree breeding, because of low probability that new good lines can be developed from weak hybrids. Total 380 rows of F2 plants were grown at Agua Fria in 20028. Selection in the former was performed at flowering and based on plants free of diseases, with no lodging, with favorable ear placement, and with no silk delay. The best 30-40% of the plants were selfed and selected again at harvest time for ear rot and good presents of QPM modifiers genes.At QPM early generation nurseries 5 2 to 5 4 442 tropical, intermediate-to-late maturing, white QPM lines and 178 tropical, intermediate-to-late, yellow QPM lines were planted at Agua Frfa in 20028 (Table 39). The selection we performed is based on rows performance, and then we selected the best plants within rows. The most resistant rows (plants) were selfed and at the harvest time selection was done based on low incidence of root lodging and resistance to ear rot. The best lines will be advanced to next generation. These lines will be forwarded to regional CIMMYT offices in Africa, where they could be selected under local environment, and crossed with local testers. After evaluation, the best lines can be used for hybrid formation as well as for formation of new high yielding synthetics for resource poor farmers.Based on yield trials data from 2001B the most promising lines 5 5 to 5 8 white (142 rows) and yellow (61 rows) were planted at Agua Fria in 2002B (Table 39). They were planted ear-to-row in five-meter plots at a density of 66,666 plants per hectare. All healthy plants were selfed. The best lines will be designated as \"elite\" and sent to Africa, Latin America and Asia.As mentioned in 2001 annual report conversion process of two CIMMYT elite lines CML264 and CML273 is completed. Preliminary results of these two lines in crosses with other QPM elite germplasm are very encouraging. Converted line CML264Q in single-cross and three-way cross combinations made hybrids with excellent performance and topped many yield trials. Also protein quality data confirmed that conversion process was successfully completed.Table 40 shows head-to-head analysis of CML264 x CML273 (normal hybrid) versus CML264Q x CML273Q (QPM hybrid from converted lines) and the best local checks from 2001 and 2002 yield trials. It is very clear that there is no differences in any of studied traits between normal and converted version, while new QPM hybrid outyielded the best local check for more than 800 kg/ha across 28 locations and had much better standability (stalk and root lodging) and plant scores. Prob. QPM vs. Check 0.00 0.02 0.94 0.00 0.02 0.78 0.80 0.00 0.00 0.14 0.12 0.88 0.00 Yield=Grain Yield t/ha; End Hard.= Score for endosperm hardness (1-5); ER=% of Ear Rot; RL=% of Root Lodging; SL=% of Stalk Lodging; Mo=% of Grain Moisture; Silk= Days to Silk; Poll.= Days to flowering; Pit= Plant height; EH=Ear Height; EA asp.=Ear Aspect (1-5); Pit. Asp.= Plant Aspect (1-5); Try=Tryptophan in the whole kernel (average of the Earents)In 2002B cycle we planted 56 rows for conversion of another seven elite normal lines (Rl, CML247, CML254, CL-RCWOl, CML451, CL-02450, and CML287). Based on the data from DNA analyses homozygous recessive (o2o2) plants were used for making backcrosses with recurrent parents. The selected ears (BClFl) will be planted in next cycle and two different conversion-breeding schemes will be used for this purpose (see chapter \"additional work on tropical lowland subprogram\" for the new scheme).Development of quality protein maize synthetics with excellent yields, uniformity, tolerance to pests and diseases, and high values of essential amino-acids is very important task at tropical lowland subprogram. Developed synthetics can be used directly by resource poor farmers for stable yields, as female parents in creation of non-conventional hybrids, as opposite synthetics in reciprocal -recurrent breeding scheme, and as source population for inbred lines development.Based on 20018 yield trials the best-inbred lines were selected for formation of five white and two yellow QPM synthetics. Lines were planted in 20026 cycle and all possible crosses between selected lines were made. Series of single cross hybrids will be planted in next cycle to complete formation of synthetics (i.e. syn.1 to syn.2). In 2002B season tropical lowland subprogram increased seeds of S99TLWQ-1, one of the best QPM synthetics. This synthetic was planted on 1110 rows and more than 1.500 kg of seeds were harvested.Close to 300 new white and around 140 yellow crosses between advanced and elite QPM lines were made in year 2002. Crosses made in season 2002A were grown in yield trials in 2002B. Total 16 new white and 14 yellow superior hybrids were grown in international (CHTTWQ and CHTTYQ) yield trials in 2002B. In addition others 280 hybrids, and 12 new QPM synthetics were evaluated in yield trials managed by tropical lowland subprogram on 4-5 locations. Trials from these locations are analyzed, data stored in database, and based on results we planed our new crosses and breeding nursery plantings for 2003A cycle. Total eight yield trials were grown on seven different locations. Three locations were in Mexico and one in Colombia, Guatemala, India and El Salvador. Grand mean, coefficient of variations (CV), and least significant difference (LSD) for grain yield for each experiment-locations are shown in table 41. The smallest values of CV, and LSD were observed at location Cuyuta -Guatemala (8.50 % and 1.08t/ha) and Agua Fria -Mexico (10.60% and 1.40t/ha) confirming the best management of yield trials in these two locations. At location Cotaxtla -Mexico probably high lodging caused by several storms decreased preciseness of the evaluated experiments, but this location again confirmed high yielding potential (average yield for all experiment 6. 72 t/ha) in 20028 season. Highest values of CV and LSD were estimated at location New Delhi -India due to severe drought conditions during growing season.The results of all trials are discussed below. In further discussion mean grain yield is expressed as clean yield i.e. yield decreased for % of ear rot (in Tables Yield 1), unless it is pointed out different. The trypthopan data for QPM hybrids were calculated using average values for tryptophan from inbred lines, parents of the observed hybrid. Due to expensive chemical analyses and high correlation coefficient between tryptophan and lysine (0.954 in our case based on more than 300 samples) only tryptophan content for QPM lines was requested and obtained from the laboratory.Crosses between released white late QPM CIMMYT lines and with advanced QPM lines were evaluated at six locations with two replications in 4x8 a-lattice design with goal to identify the best hybrids for CHTT's. The 27 crosses between QPM lines, two QPM reference hybrids, one normal hybrid, and two commercial checks made total 32 entries. Plots consisted of one row plot 0.75m apart and Sm long. Scores and counts were taken for several important traits and results are presented in tables 42 and Al 13 to All 9.Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there is no significant interaction between genotypes and environment, while at each individual location significant differences were observed between entries for grain yield (Tables A113 to A119).The highest mean grain yield for this experiment was achieved at Agua Fria (7.09 t/ha), following by Cotaxtla (6.99 t/ha), while the lowest yield had New Delhi-India (3.08 t/ha), respectively. The highest yielding hybrids were CLQ-RCWQSO x CML144 with 5.99 t/ha and CLQ-RCWQOl x CLQ-6316 (5.98 t/ha). These hybrids outyielded the best local checks for 24% percent and were better than QPM reference hybrid (CML144 x CML159) for more than 40% (Table 42). Also endosperm hardness scores, ear rot and standability of these hybrids were at high level confirming their high agronomic performance. Almost all advanced hybrids had higher yield performance than QPM reference hybrid, and 2/3 of them higher yield than the best normal endosperm local checks (Table A119). Besides statistically significant yield performance of several top hybrids, all QPM hybrids had almost double content of tryptophan in comparisons with the best local checks (Table 42 ). These values were from 0.089% up to 0.108%. The advantages of new generation of QPM hybrids over local check can be easily seen at Figure 13 .The data clearly showed that QPM hybrids could compete with the best normal hybrids for grain yield and most other quality traits. Based on this study the biggest concern in QPM material is root and stalk lodgings, which in aggregate were higher than 25% for whole experiment. The fewer incidences in lodging had normal CML264 x CML273 hybrid ( Fig. 13) and QPM version of the same hybrid. This means that in the future more attention should be put on improvement of this trait and some favorable alleles from normal endosperm germplasm should be identified and introduced into QPM. - ----------7.00 . , ------------• ----! 6.50 ii 6.00 Some of the best hybrids from individual locations are already requested from national programs and seed will be increased. Seeds of the best hybrids across locations will be also increased and sent to CIMMYT hybrid tropical trials (CHTT) . The best lines will be used together with other very good (advanced and early generations) QPM lines to form synthetics as one of the best solutions for resource poor farmers.3.5.2 TSCYQ02-22. Evaluation of advanced tropical QPM yellow single crosses Advanced generation of tropical yellow QPM hybrids were evaluated at five locations during 2002B season. Total 13 QPM hybrids, reference entry, and two local checks were grown in 4x4 a-lattice design with two replications per location and in 5 m long rows. The goals of this experiment were to identify the best hybrids for CHTT's as well as females for the lWC hybrids. Also the best lines will be used for formation of new sources for pedigree breeding selection. The results of the experiment are presented in tables 43 and A120 to A125 .Analysis of variance {ANOVA) across five locations showed significant interaction between genotypes and environment for grain yield, ear and plant aspects, lodgings, helminthosporium maydis, and bad husk coverage (Table A125) . These findings will make general conclusions, across locations, less dependable.Six out of thirteen studied hybrids outyielded reference QPM hybrid CML161 x CML165 (Table 43) and will be sent to CHTTQ04. The highest yielding QPM hybrid CML161 x CLQG2404 with 5.93 t/ha (11% higher than reference entry), showed excellent endosperm hardness scores, low incidence of ear rot, good resistance to observed diseases with lodgings at the same level as reference entry. Hybrids CML161 x CLQ-S89YQ06 and CML161 x CLQ-RCYQ22 besides high yield, had the highest standability in experiment, and showed more resistance to fusarium moniliforme, corn stunt, and general diseases than reference entry. Although across performance of the best QPM hybrids did not outyielded the best local check, it was possible to identify at individual locations (except Cuyuta -Guatemala) at least one QPM hybrid with higher yield performance than the best local check (Tables A120 -A124). These findings are getting more importance especially in the case when G x E interaction is significant (Fig. 14). Additional advantages of QPM hybrids are higher content of tryptophan and lysine, two essentially important amino-acids. Top QPM hybrids showed from 0.083 to 0.101 % of tryptophan, while estimation for normal endosperm hybrid is around 0.050%.  The same conclusion about resistance to root and stalk lodgings from white QPM program can be applied for yellow program. Generally QPM hybrids showed more lodgings and new sources of favorable alleles from normal endosperm germplasm should be identified and introduced into programs.Stud~ed yellow QPM hybrids in this experiment did not show higher yield across locations than selected the best local check hybrids. This means that further work is necessary to improve yield of yellow QPM hybrids. Maybe one of the main reasons is absence of the yellow normal lines converted to QPM (in white QPM programs CML264Q is one of the most useful line) . Conversion of three the most important yellow normal lines to QPM are underway, and yellow QPM program should benefit from these conversions. x CLQ-RCYQ12x CLQ-S89YQ06x CLQ-RCYQ31x CLQ-RCYQ07   0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.6 0.0 0.0 Analysis of variance across locations revealed significant genotype x environment interaction for grain yield, ear rot, plant aspect, stalk lodging, bad husk coverage, and endosperm hardness (Table 44). At all individual locations significant differences were observed between entries for grain yield. The highest yield for this experiment was achieved at Cuyuta -Guatemala (6.73 t/ha), while location New Delhi -India had the lowest average grain yield (1.97 t/ha) due to severe drought conditions (Table 44).Two reference entry hybrids were used as standards to compare new developed TWC hybrids. QPM reference entry was (CML144 x CML159) x CML176 hybrid, which was released in several developing countries and normal single cross hybrid CML448 x CML449 regular check in normal trials. Results obtained from this experiment are very encouraging. More than half of the studied new TWC hybrids outyielded QPM reference entry. The best ones had more than 20% yield advantage. Also many other important agronomic characteristics were on the side of new TWC hybrids (Fig. 15). x CLQ-RCWQ01x CLQ-RCWQ01x CML273Qx CLQ-RCWQ01x CML159 (RE)x CML176x CML449x Even comparing TWC hybrids with normal single cross tester was possible to find several of them who showed higher yield performance and higher standability {Table 44). The highest yielding TWC hybrids across six locations were (CLQ-6203 x CML150) .x CML264Q with 6.12 t/ha, (CML264Q x CML273Q) x CLQ-RCWQOl with 6.09 t/ha, and (CLQ-6203 x CML150) x CLQ-RCWQOl with 5. 77 t/ha. It was 10, 9, and 4 % better than normal single cross hybrid (CML448 x CML449). All three hybrids also had above average performance in drought conditions at location in India. The female parents of these hybrids also had high yield performance ( 4.38 t/ha and 5.13 t/ha) and should secure cheap seed production. All lines in these three hybrids are by performance data unrelated and our guess is that hybrids mentioned above can play important role in developing countries and should replace old (CML144 x CML159) x CML176 hybrid. Estimated tryptophan values for top TWC hybrids were from 0.092 to 0.097 %, what is much higher than in normal endosperm hybrids {Table 44). All five new three-way cross hybrids, include new QPM lines in the make up, and outyielded (CML144 x CML159) x CML176, normal seed industry checks and reference entry checks. This confirms the potential of new QPM hybrids to increase maize productivity and alleviate malnutrition in Africa and Latin America, where maize is staple food. These hybrids should be tested extensively, while the new synthetics from promising lines will provide new alternatives for small farmers.Thirteen yellow TWC hybrids together with their female parents and the best local checks were grown at nine locations in 4x6 a-lattice design with two replications per location. Results from this study are presented in tables 45 and A133 to A142.ANOVA revealed significant interaction between genotypes and environment for grain yield, flowering dates, plant aspect, and endosperm hardness {Table A142). At individual locations significant differences were observed between entries for grain yield.The best hybrid in this experiment was (CML161 x CML165) x CLQ-S89YQ07 with 5.17 t/ha (3% higher than the best check). Also, this hybrid showed the fewer incidences in ear rot and bad husk coverage, with also good other agronomic characteristics (Table 45). As female parent for this TWC hybrid is widely accepted high yielding single cross hybrid, we believe that mentioned TWC hybrid could play an important role in developing world. Farmers could benefit by buying cheaper seed of TWC hybrid, but with no yield penalty in field. Another promising TWC hybrids in this experiment were (CML165 x CML172) x CML161 with 5.09 t/ha and (CML161 x CML165) x CLQ-S89YQ01 with 4.96 t/ha and good other agronomic characteristics. The QPM single cross hybrid CML172 x CLQ-6601 (new CML493) outyielded the best local checks as well as reference QPM hybrid and showed the least incidence of ear rot and lodgings in the experiment. Also, this hybrid had other good agronomic characteristics and the highest values of Tryptophan.Mentioned QPM-TWC hybrids had more then 0.080 % of tryptophan content, what makes them much more nutritionally suitable for animal consumption than normal endosperm hybrids {Table 45). As results for this experiment came from.very diverse nine locations across Latin America, all hybrids that performed well should •be sent to Africa for their evaluations on farmers field.• Design II mating scheme was applied to estimate general combining abilities (GCA) for five white QPM lines HG \"A\" and nine white QPM lines HG \"B\". Forty five design II crosses, 14 additional QPM crosses, QPM reference entry, one normal hybrid and two local checks were grown at six locations in 7x9 a-lattice design with two replications per location. Results from this study are presented in tables 46, 47 and Al43 to A149.The best 5 4 QPM lines based on testcross performance from 20018 season yield trials (tested as 5 3 lines) were used for formation of this design II experiment. The main objective in this study was to identify new high yielding hybrids and overcome deficit in QPM hybrids caused by termination of CIMMYT QPM programs in 1991. Later in 1996, CIMMYT reinitiated QPM programs but it could not result in fast development of QPM hybrids with involvement of second cycle lines. Most of the advanced hybrids reported in previous parts of QPM annual reports were based on lines developed before 1991.Except for root lodging, ANOVA did not show for any other trait significant genotype x environment interaction (Table A149), while at each individual location significant differences were observed between entries for grain yield (Tables A143 -A149).Only six new QPM hybrids outyielded the best QPM reference entry hybrid CML144 x CML159, while no one had better performance than normal hybrid CML448 x CML449 (Table 46). Entries 2 and 37, which had better performance than reference entry showed also better endosperm hardness scores, lower ear position, and the best standability in experiment. The majority of the studied new QPM hybrids had ear height. over plant height less than 0.50, indicating that previous selection for inbred lines ear position was successful. The main idea for this type of selection was to decrease lodgings. Indeed if we look at root and stalk lodging data for this experiment there is 14.1 % less incidence than in experiment 21. Parents of the hybrids, which showed the smallest root and stalk lodging could be used as sources of favorable alleles for these traits.The general combining ability studies revealed that the best combiner from heterotic group \"A\" was (CML147xCL-RCW01)-B-4-1-2 inbred line. This line had positive GCA at each individual location and estimated 0.448 t/ha across locations (Table 47). The highest breeding values from HG \"B\" showed (CLQ-6203xCL-04321)-B-21-1-2 inbred line. Also this line had positive GCA at each location and 0.590 t/ha across locations. Both lines were used for formation of white QPM synthetics, for formation of new QPM crosses, and as parents in pedigree breeding program.All studied lines in this experiment came from pedigree selection of QPM x normal parent. Laboratory data for tryptophan. content for these lines showed high values making new QPM hybrids more valuable than normal endosperm hybrids for developing world (Table 46). Disappointing grain yield results from design II experiment suggest that one testing of early generation inbred lines is not enough for estimation of their breeding values, and their widely use in hybrid combinations. Second testing of •good performing lines should follow with two -three testers and after that the !;>est lihes should be used for making promising hybrid combinations. 3.5.6 TSCWQ02-26. Evaluation of tropical QPM white single crosses.Total 35 hybrids were evaluated in this experiment using 5x7 a-lattice design at six locations with two replications per location. Several new crosses with advanced and released lines were evaluated while 16 entries were part of small design II crosses (2x8) with S 4 lines. The objective of this experiment was to identify the best hybrids for advancement in CHTT's or advance tropical trials. Results from this study are presented in tables 48, 49 and AlSO to A156.Analysis of variance across locations revealed no significant interaction between genotype and environment for studied traits (Table A156), while differences between entries at individual locations for grain yield were higher than one LSD values. This experiment showed the highest average grain yield at location Cotaxtla (7.49 t/ha). The smallest yield (4.22 t/ha) was observed at New Delhi -India, however for that location 4.22 t/ha was the highest yield of all studied QPM experiments (Table A154 ).The highest yielding hybrid in experiment was CLQ-RCWQOl x CML264Q with 6.70 t/ha across six locations (Table 48 ). This hybrid outyielded the best local check and QPM reference entry for 23 and 36 % and had better standability, corn stunt resistance, and much more attractive plant and ears. The hybrid topped the trial in Cotaxtla with maximum grain yield of 11.73 t/ha and 0.0% ear rot. Seven other QPM hybrids outyielded local check, while fourteen had better performance than QPM reference entry. Advantages for top five hybrids in this experiment over QPM reference entry and local check are shown in figure 16. Besides higher yield, new QPM hybrids showed better standability than reference entries.   One part of this experiment was design II (2x8) study of new 5 4 lines. Two lines from heterotic group \"A\" were crossed with eight lines from HG\"B\". Inbred lines HG \"A\" did not show any differences for grain yield in crosses with opposite lines (Table 49). The best combiner from HG \"B\" was line (CLQ-6203xCL-RCW01)-B-34-l-1 (GCA = 0.570 t/ha) and will be extensively used in QPM breeding program.  ------~-----------_  Two design II type of crosses (three lines HG\"B\" x seven lines HG \"A\" and two lines HG \"A\" x three lines HG 'B\") with QPM reference entry and two local checks were grown in 5x6 a-lattice design at two locations with two replications per location. Results from this study are presented in tables 50, 51 and A157 to A159.The best 5 4 QPM lines based on testcross performance from 2001B season yield trials (tested as 5 3 lines) were used for formation of these two design II. The same reasons for making design II crosses mentioned for experiment TSCWQ02-25 can be applied here. The main objective in this study was to identify new high yielding yellow QPM hybrids for CHTT's.Analysis of variance showed significant genotype x environment interaction for grain yield only (Table A159). At individual locations differences between entries were higher than one LSD. The highest yielding entry had 9.68 t/ha at Cotaxtla (10% higher than the best local check).The best hybrid in experiment was (CML150xCL-03618)-B-16-1-2 x (CML165xCLQ-6203)-B-9-1 with 9.02 t/ha across two locations. This hybrid showed 0.0% ear rot, only 2.1 % total lodgings, and very good scores for other agronomic characteristics (Table 51). Unfortunately other studied hybrids did not had yield advantages over the QPM reference entry CML161 x CML165, while only four of them had slightly higher yield than the best local check. As the data of design II crosses from previous experiment (TSCWQ02-25) were also discouraging, it means that design II crosses should be eliminated from the regular breeding procedure. The breeding procedure for new developing lines should be organized on the most economic way. First testing with 1-2 testers on 3-5 locations and second testing with 2-4 testers on 4-8 locations. Design II crosses can be used only for special studies due to high expenses for making this type of crosses (hand pollination).     Estimation of GCA from design II crosses revealed that the best combiner from HG \"A\" are lines (CML165xCLQ-6203)-B-9-1, (CML165xCLQ-6203)-B-11-2, and (CML165xCLQ-6203)-B-54-1-l, while the highest values of GCA from HG \"B\" had (CML150xCL-03618)-B-16-1-2 and (CML176xCL-G2501)-B-55-1-2 (Table 50). These lines will be used more extensively in QPM breeding program. Estimation of GCA values from design II crosses and their use for CIMMYT inbred line releases can be replaced in breeding scheme with head-to-head analysis of lines. Head-to-head analysis can provide breeding values of compared inbred lines as well as show strengths or disadvantages of new lines over the best tester line.Twelve new white QPM synthetics, two reference QPM synthetics, and two local checks were grown in 4x4 a-lattice design at five locations with two replications per location. Lines, which formed new QPM synthetics, were selected based on the good GCA values (and other good characteristics) from 1999 and 2000-year yield trials. Results from this study are presented in table 52 and A160 to A165.Analysis of variance showed that except for corn stunt there was no genotype x environment interaction for other traits (Table A165). At each individual location significant differences were observed between entries. The highest mean grain yield (5.65 t/ha) for experiment was achieved at location Cotaxtla (Table A161).Seven out of 12 new QPM synthetics had equal or better yield performance than the best reference entry POZA RICA 8763 (Table 52). The highest yielding synthetics were S2000TLWQ-B with 4.77 t/ha and S99TLWQ-HG-AB with 4.70 t/ha across five locations with less incidence of ear rot (figure 17) and other agronomic characteristics not significantly different than reference entry. As addition these synthetics had even same or slightly better performance than the best normal local check hybrids (figure 17). Three QPM hybrids (CML144 x CML147, CML142 x CML147, CML150 x CLQ-RCWQ31) had total lodgings less than 10% (average for the experiment 17.3%) confirming that some progress has been made in this direction. As CML147 was parent in two out of these three stable hybrids, the line probably posses favorable alleles for stability and should be used as donor in QPM breeding programs.Eight newly developed tropical late yellow QPM hybrids, four well-known• QPM hybrids, and two reference entries were grown in 2x7 alpha lattice design with three replications and two rows per plot. Trial was sent to more than 30 locations, but up to the data of writing this report information's from 15 locations were returned.Two newly developed QPM hybrids (CML 161 x CLQ-6603 with 5.96 t/ha, arid CML 161 x CLQ-589YQ06 with 5.79 t/ha) and two well-know hybrids (CML 161 x CML 172 with 5.91 t/ha, and CML 161 x CML 163 with 5.56 t/ha) outyielded the best QPM reference entry CML161 x CML165 and two local checks (Table 54). The first three hybrids also had low incidence of ear rot, while CML 161 x CLQ-589YQ06 showed high standability in the experiment with other good agronomic characteristics.All top yielding hybrids had CML161 as one of the parent, indicating that new lines have been. identified to replace CML165 from QPM reference hybrid. Additional efforts are necessarily at the tropical lowland program in order to develop new inbred lines, which will successfully replace CML161 in new hybrid combinations. Use of stability analysis to select lines for pedigree breeding would allow breeders to develop lines suitable for specific or wider adaptation. For example grain yield of the line crosses can be regressed on environments sorted by average growing _degree units (GDU); i.e., maturity group. This can provide information of line performance in short-season vs. full-season environments. In the case when compared lines come from the same pedigree, significant differences between regression lines could indicate presents of different alleles for grain yield in the two lines, and justify initiation of pedigree projects with crosses between them. An advantage of this type of analysis is that breeders do not need to grow special experiments at a large number of locations to perform stability analysis.Application of these tools can be extended to comparisons between testers from the same heterotic group. That analysis would help with decisions of which tester to use for the first screening of breeding materials, and which for the second screening. In the case of comparing testers, number of data points can be very high enhancing confidence in results. Public institutions can also benefit from these analyses, using them as main criteria (tools) for releasing superior lines.The head-to-head and stability analysis of inbred lines could be easily applied in any breeding program and used for determination of the breeding value of inbred lines in a more cost-and time-efficient manner than using diallel or design II methods.The manuscript, which explains the head-to-head analysis of inbred lines will be published in Maydica in 2004. Finally, this analysis will be incorporated into the new version of MaizeFinder.The 2002 year marked the first year since we started to use the new conversion breeding scheme to convert elite normal line to QPM. The main idea came from Hans Gevers (South Africa), who participated as the trainees at the CIMMYT first advanced training course with emphasis on QPM, held at CIMMYT headquarters, Mexico, from 26 August to 20 September. This is just one more confirmation that not CIMMYT is only one who is giving knowledge to the others, but training courses are equally useful for trainees and CIMMYT researchers, for the exchange of information, knowledge, and experience.1.The short outline of the new conversion scheme The advantages on the new conversion breeding scheme are: i) it will speed up the process and we should be able to save two cycles (one year), ii) by selfing segregating plants (for o2o2 genes) and looking into their modifications we will have during all stages of conversion full control for presence of good modifiers, iii) the self (selected) seeds could be used for planting as the new developed S 1 line, making whole process more useful. As main disadvantage of the new conversion scheme is that all segregating plants need to be tagged (numbered) and during pollination these numbers should be written on pollinating bas (either self or crosses).One of our ideas on the tropical lowland subprogram was to develop and implement a new pedigree breeding scheme, which will take into account the new developed tools for estimation of inbred lines breeding values (head-to-head analysis of inbred lines) and implement our past experience in work with QPM germplasm. This new scheme should help us to organize our QPM research activities on more efficient, cost effective, and product oriented manner. In the same time this scheme can bring benefits to the other QPM programs as well as be used as new training material.The first version of QPM pedigree breeding scheme (presented below) has the list of basic steps (in the appropriate order), timing, and instructions for successful development of the new QPM inbred lines. In the second version, each step written in the scheme will be elaborated with scientific references (where are possible) or practical data from QPM breeding programs.   x x xx x x x xThe results from the conducted experiments will be reported by traits and then by experiments.The grain yield results reported here should be taken with respect due •to competition, which had existed between entries with different plant height. Limited amount of seed withhold us from using border rows for each plot. As a result grain yield of the evaluated lines in most cases was positively correlated with plant height.These correlation coefficients were from -0.03 up to 0.63, depending on experiment (Tables A166-A201).The average grain yields across 12 locations were: for GLET-L 1.52 t/ha (Table A179), GLET-E 1.47 t/ha (Table A192), and GLET-H02 2.03 t/ha (Table A201). The• highest yielding locations were Tlaltizapan (Mexico) with 2.77 t/ha for GLET-L (Table A168), Harare (Zimbabwe) with 3.23 t/ha for GLET-E (Table A186), and Ambo (Ethiopia) with 3.79 t/ha for GLET-H (Table A200).In the experiment GLET-L the highest yielding lines across 12 sites were: P502c2-185-3-4-1-3-B-1-B-B-B, (CML-265*CL-00303)-BBB-6-1-3-B* 5-B-B, and MBR-ET(W) Cl F139-2-1-B-2-B*9 with more than 2.2 t/ha (Table Al 79). Only these three lines were better than the best check lines CML451 and CML384. Other 18 lines had grain yield higher than average yield of the checks. Surprisingly, 17 tested lines had average grain yield less than 1.0 t/ha. More than twenty best performing early lines (GLET-E) had grain yield higher than the best check line CML423 (Table A192). The grain yields for these lines were in range from 1.20 to 2.06 t/ha, respectively. In this experiment 12 lines yielded less than 1.0 t/ha. No highland lines had better performance than check line CML463 across seven locations (Table A201), but ten (71 %) of them performed better than the average values of the checks. All highland lines had grain yield above 1.1 t/ha, and if we take into account that the highest yielding experiment across and at individual locations was highland (GLET-H) it is possible to conclude that these lines posses good potential as female parents in seed industry.For rust no satisfactory inoculation techniques are yet available. Therefore, the inbreds were evaluated under natural conditions. Two different species of rust has been monitored: polysora rust (Puccinia polysora) and common rust (Puccinia sorghi), each was scored on two different locations. Despite natural infestation evaluated inbred lines have showed good variability in their resistance (tolerance) to rust. In GLET-L only inbred line CL-PWSD04 could be considered as resistant source (Table A202) for polysora rust, but many other lines showed good tolerance (scores 2.0 and less). Two white and four yellow lines showed higher tolerance to polysora rust in GLET-E (Table A203), while as expected only one highland line had good tolerance to polysora rust (which is not common type of rust for highlands; Table A204). Seven late lines showed tolerance to common rust (Table A202), while majority of the lines in GLET-L were rather susceptible. As expected, only four early lines could be considered as tolerant (Table A203), while more than half of the new highland lines had good tolerance to common rust (Table A204). Based on these results it is clear that some progress has been done in development of resistant breeding material in each ecology where specific type of rust is predominant.The inbred line evaluation for resistance to MSV has been carried out in Harare (Zimbabwe) and for GLET-L in Alupe (Kenya), under natural infestation. Correlation. coefficient between scores from Alupe and Harrare was 0.27 (data not shown). Again as expected the most promising lines with resistance to MSV came from the program were natural infestation is present in breeding nursery. The most resistant late lines are Zimbabwe lines, but two lowland-tropical lines also showed good resistance toPlants with root and stalk lodgings were counted and results were expressed in % of total plants almost at each location where inbred line trials were grown. Analysis across locations showed that excellent variability were present between inbred lines, and that ration were from 0.7 % up to 37.9 %, respectively. Some stable lines were identified in each inbred line trial. In GLET-L average root lodgings were 8.9 % (Table A179), and more than 20 lines showed good root strengths (less than 5.0 % lodging). Consequently only seven lines could be considered as susceptible with more than 20 % of lodgings. In GLET-E, three lines had very good root strengths and less than 5 % of lodgings, while thirteen of them showed poor roots (Table A192). Average lodging in this experiment was 15.2 %, what is almost two times higher than in late inbred line trial. Four highland lines showed good roots, while three lines expressed poor roots strengths, with 11.5 % as average lodgings for the experiment (Table A201).Much smaller variability was observed between lines for stalk lodgings (data not shown). The maximal values were not higher than 10 % of lodgings. Consequently, many lines in each experiment could be considered as tolerant i.e. with less than 5 % of lodgings. Since this trait is highly correlated with stalk diseases or insects pressure (i.e low repeatability across locations), probably the best option would be to look at individual locations and identify for each ecology the resistant inbred lines.The same as for lodgings, the number of plants with poor husk cover was counted and expressed as % of total number of plants almost at each location were trials were grown. Good variability was present between lines. Most of the lines in each experiment showed good husk coverage, however in each experiment it was possible to identify several susceptible inbred lines. Anyway, low to intermediate repeatability of this trait for GLET-L and GLET-E suggests that data from individual locations should be also considered.Total 33 (thirteen late, twelve early, and eight highland) inbred line trials were evaluated in six different countries, and more than 25 different traits were observed. In each experiment it was possible to identify lines with good yield potential at individual and across locations. these lines could be successfully used as female components in hybrid seed production. We identified lines, which could be considered as resistant and used as donors of favorable alleles in pedigree selection procedures, except for maydis leaf blight and sugarcane borer (identified lines only with tolerance). Since majority of the lines has been selected for these trials based on good general combining abilities (GCA), synthetic formation among. superior lines is recommended as well as hybrid formation between tropical and subtropical i.e. subtropical and highland lines to better exploit heterosis. These new synthetics and hybrids should be tested in subtropical and mild altitude, and transition zone ecologies.   SO TWC early yellow hybrids were tested at six locations in Mexico and Guatemala. 10 three-way cross hybrids yielded around S.7 ton/ha and flowered at 47 days, similar to the single cross check that yielded 3. 7 ton/ha.With the support of the Pathology, Entomology and Physiology Units GLET early and late were planted under inoculation with Fusarium moniliforme, infested with fall armyworm and SWB and under low-N respectively. Six tropical white early and two early yellow lines were identified as resistant to F. moni/iforme ear rot. No early lines showed resistance to FAW, nevertheless 8 lines showed tolerance to produce under low-N conditions.Population improvement continues to be a high priority in the tropical lowland subprogram. In 2002 we formed the 5 2 and 5 2 x tester families for C 5 in P21 and P32 C3 in P28 and P36 and C2 in P30 and P31. 30 new synthetics, open pollinated varieties derived from the pedigree selection breeding project.EVT12 and EVT13 include the evaluation of 18 new synthetics, tropical yellow late and two checks. Trials were evaluated in several locations. Information from 8 locations in Mexico, Central America and Asia shows one t/ha more yield in the new synthetics.26 hybrid trials including the evaluation of 1700 tropical late white and yellow normal and QPM hybrids were conducted in 2002 in addition, 74 advanced hybrids normal and QPM were tested internationally in SO locations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.SO testcrosses amongst advanced tropical late white inbred lines were tested at six locations in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and India. Hybrid CL-RCW063 x CML448 yielded 18.1 t/ha at Dholi, India.SO tropical late white single cross hybrids (stage 3 of evaluation) formed with lines tolerant to different stresses were tested at seven locations in Mexico, Guatemala, . Colombia and India. Two additional sites are being tested under Low N and drought. Hybrid CL-021103 x CML449 topped the trial at Zacapa, Guatemala with 11.S ton/ha, 26% more than the check and 8.6 ton/ha across locations and showed resistance to ear rot and foliar diseases. 10 hybrids yielded from 17 to 27% more than the checks. The hybrid check showed poor roots and susceptibility to ear rot and foliar diseases. The resistance to ear rot and foliar diseases will help to increase maize productivity in developing countries in Asia and Latin America where superior hybrids will be tested. 2002 marked the initiation of the second phase of the QPM project funded by Nippon Foundation and six years of continuous progress in QPM germplasm development, variety testing and promotion in the developing world. CIMMYT's international maize testing unit shipped 80 QPM trials-including 25 white and yellow hybrids-that were grown at tropical, midaltitude, and subtropical sites in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Preliminary, special selection trials were grown at 18 locations in the tropics; 700 new hybrids were tested in the tropics. The evaluation of 736 new QPM cultivars in the developing world will provide excellent information for promoting new cultivars in countries where QPM hybrids have been released. The impact of this project is remarkable because in the past five years 18 countries have released QPM hybrids. The \"quality protein maize\" (QPM)-has recently captured attention in the developing world for its potential to improve the nutrition and livelihoods of the poor who grow and consume maize, and for the outstanding yields of newer QPM hybrids.Cross elite QPM lines or elite QPM with elite normal lines that complement each other for different traits, selecting donors carefully. The pedigree breeding is the main method used for development of new QPM lines currently in lowland tropical subprogram. More than 8,000 rows with QPM material were grown in year 2002.Lowland tropics is well known as very stressful environment, with many biotic and abiotic constrains. Knowing those stresses and incorporation of resistance for the most important constrains could greatly improved yield and dependability of QPM materials for certain areas. In tropical lowland program we started incorporation of stress resistance materials into QPM germplasm. Opposite heterotic group synthetics were formed in 2002 and in 2003 we will start development of inbred lines from these synthetics.In 2002 we continued conversion of seven elite normal lines. Once converted lines will be used as parents for hybrid formation, in synthetic formation, and for the special study to see differences between QPM hybrids and analogues normal hybrids.Several new synthetics were formed in 2002. Also, we increased seed once, which had good yield in previous evaluations. Special study has been started with idea to compare synthetics developed using the new way (intermating the best hybrids) with the currently used method for synthetic formation (intermating the best lines).More than 700 new hybrids and synthetics had been tested in QPM yield trials in 2002. Results are described in this report. Generally, we can say that very good results were obtained. The new QPM hybrids with outstanding yield and good other agronomic characteristics were identified. The new synthetics outyielded reference entries and had better agronomic characteristics. These hybrids and synthetics will be sent to the CIMMYT international trials and will be available to the NARS. Also, the protein quality of new developed inbred lines was very good going up to 0.140 % of tryptophan on the dry matter basis in whole kernel.The elite hybrids grown in international trials performed better than the best local checks and should be utilized in national program as such or as donors of favorable alleles for local breeding programs.In 2002 tropical lowland program developed database, the new method for estimation of inbred line breeding value, applied the new conversion breeding scheme, and proposed new QPM pedigree breeding scheme.All these achievements suggest that 2002-year was very good for lowland tropical QPM breeding subprogram, besides some financial problems that we faced at the second part of the year.","tokenCount":"17096"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2e9df81f2e5afca0a286203495f1f1d9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5f31b6d4-9f03-4bce-829a-30e2ee9ac4d8/retrieve","id":"-23937513"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"04526404-a178-4330-8c1f-81cf2ad03053","pagecount":"24","content":"The Maziwa Zaidi research for development (R4D) program in Tanzania has been implemented since 2012. The program is implemented under the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Livestock (formerly Livestock and Fish CRP) with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) being the CGIAR centers involved.The previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi (2012-2017) experimented with multi-stakeholder processes involving precommercial dairy market hubs (DMHs) and innovation platforms (IPs) as mechanisms to upgrade the smallholder dairy value chain towards more commercial dairying. The project engaged farmer groups as entry points before linking them to other value chain actors for service provision. This process was, however, found to be slow and required substantial investment in capacity development for collective action by milk producers. On the other hand, building DMHs around enterprising value chain actors was found to be a more promising entry point to create and grow linkages among value chain actors to improve access to markets, bundled inputs and services for producers.In 2019, the CGIAR's Livestock research program provided additional resources to extend the work of the first phase of Maziwa Zaidi to a second phase (i.e. Maziwa Zaidi II). This second phase focuses on agribusinesses as an entry point into the dairy value chain to test and promote proven dairy technologies and innovations. It entails agribusiness skills development and embeds proven dairy technologies in the portfolio of products and services that agribusinesses and agripreneurs deliver hence enhancing uptake of dairy technologies and innovations. Women-and youth-led dairy agribusinesses are targeted with business development services (BDS) and other support services to overcome barriers to entry into lucrative nodes of the dairy value chain, especially provision of inputs and services.The project promotes intervention packages that bundle and combine proven genetics, health and feeds technologies within institutional arrangements that allow farmers to utilize and benefit from these bundles. During an agribusiness forum held in October 2019 by the project involving agripreneurs, researchers, innovators, service providers and delivery organizations; a shortlist of technical products for the delivery packages to be profitably leveraged by agribusiness targeting producers were identified. These include Brachiaria grass (or other forage options), manure management, East Coast fever vaccine and artificial insemination. The project also capacitates agribusinesses to adopt a market systems approach to scale-out agripreneurs' business operations. This approach, which is also referred to as 'markets for the poor' (M4P), helps address critical weaknesses in dairy market development by going beyond the traditional value chain model to address the wider context in which value chains operate by emphasizing inclusive and equitable value chain upgrading options for economic growth.The intervention packages are delivered through capacitated agripreneurs and agribusinesses, using digital platforms for farmer profiling and e-extension; and capacity development supporting market access, safer products, and effective collective action. Agripreneurs are encouraged to pick combination(s) of their choice intervention packages to be piloted. In-line with this, the project assumes that scaling promising technologies and innovations has been inhibited by the lack of bankable business cases for more public and/or private investments. Thus, the project is also evaluating the scale-readiness of the technologies in parallel to the piloting, particularly of those related to institutional and policy barriers.The project works in four districts within the Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions, joining forces with various government, private sector, development, and research partners and seeking synergies with their existing programs/projects. The change agents and partners involved in Maziwa Zaidi provide a custom set of associated enabling packages to the agripreneurs and agribusinesses. These enable them to provide the services based on the producers' needs -combining technical know-how, clean, green and gendered expertise, as well as business skills and soft skills necessary to be profitable.The purpose of this scoping study was to complement the previous scoping study (Mutagwaba and Omore 2015) to capture new partnerships in the current project at both national and local levels. In doing so, the current study provides an updated inventory and assessment of the various institutions and organizations involved or having an interest in commercialization as a key development mechanism for the Tanzania dairy value chain. The partnerships identified in this report also serve the needs of the ILRI-led Africa Dairy Genetics Gain (ADGG) project that previously focused on generating appropriate dairy genetics solutions.The current report mostly dwells on identifying partners for achieving the aims of Maziwa Zaidi, bearing in mind the strong agribusiness research for development (R4D) focus of the current phase. This focus also serves the needs of the ongoing ILRI-led Africa Dairy Genetics Gain (ADGG) project that previously focused on generating appropriate dairy genetics solutions. The report describes current engagements with the partners (both new and old), explores current relationship status, and examines areas where their objectives complement Maziwa Zaidi phase II's objectives. The report goes a step further to describe an engagement strategy for key stakeholders. Partnerships that continue from the previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi are also highlighted in this strategy.2 National-level partnersThe current phase of Maziwa Zaidi emphasizes the need for continuous engagement and partnership with key public/ government institutions. This involves partnering with an array of government institutions including; the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF), the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the President's Office, Regional Administrative and Local Government (PO-RALG), the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), the Tanzania Dairy Board (TDB), the National Artificial Insemination Centre (NAIC), the e-Government Agency (eGA), the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI). Among these, the new partnerships are eGA, TOSCI, PO-RALG and SAGCOT. Besides these, we have included information (of other key government institutions that offered valuable collaboration in the implementation of the previous phase of Maziwa Zaidi.The e-Government Agency (eGA): This agency was established under the Executive Agencies Act No.30, 1997, Cap. 245 as a semi-autonomous institution under the President's Office Public Service Management. The eGA is charged with providing coordination, oversight and provision of e-government initiatives and enforcement of e-government standards to public institutions. The agency implements and maintains coordinated government operations for information and communication technology (ICT) that include the formulation of standards and guidelines to effectuate the purposes of the agency. As far as the dairy sector is concerned, the eGA is working with the ILRI-led African Dairy Genetic Gains (ADGG) project through TALIRI in disseminating dairy-based information using digital and mobile phone platforms such as SMS. Maziwa Zaidi will leverage this platform for farmer profiling and e-extension, and capacity development supporting market access. Currently, the eGA platform is accessed through public institutions and the private sector can only access this platform through partnerships with government agencies/institutions such as TALIRI. This may change given calls for greater public-private partnerships to enable the private sector to directly access the eGA platform.Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI): This is a government institute under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) established under the Seeds Act No. 18, 2003. TOSCI is responsible for certification and promotion of quality agricultural seeds produced or imported into the country for sale. Its mandate is to safeguard farming communities from poor (counterfeit) seeds from vendors of farm inputs. TOSCI has five main branches including its head office in Morogoro town. Four other branches are located at Tengeru (Arusha), Maheve (Njombe), Ukiriguru (Mwanza) and Naliendele (Mtwara) (TOSCI 2020).According to Mtengeti et al. (2008)respectively. The crude protein (CP despite Tanzania having significant available farmland to support livestock production, there has been insufficient efforts by relevant authorities in the country towards increasing the quality and quantity of available forages/forage seeds. There also has been scarce data on the number of available forage varieties and current strategies for developing forage seed systems in the country. Maziwa Zaidi's partnerships with TOSCI will seek to promote sustainable forage seed systems, especially the production and commercialization of Brachiaria grass, which is one of the prioritized technologies for promotion as part of integrated packages.This public-private partnership was initiated at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa Summit in Dar es Salaam in 2010. Its implementation period runs for 20 years up to 2030. The objective of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative is to boost agricultural productivity, improve food security, reduce poverty and ensure environmental sustainability through the commercialization of smallholder agriculture. The partnership aims to catalyse responsible private sector-led agriculture development within an ever-improving business environment (SAGCOT 2017b). One of the key roles of SAGCOT, which would also be key to creating synergies with Maziwa Zaidi, is to promote private sector investment through partnerships and increase synergies within and across priority value chains.President's Office, Regional Administrative and Local Government (PO-RALG): The establishment of PO-RALG, which is responsible for good governance; investment promotion and extension services provided through district councils, is mentioned in the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania Article 8 (1) 145 and 146 of 1977 and many other amendments thereafter. PO-RALG's work evolved from the Ministry of Local Government, Social Development, Cooperation and Marketing in the late 1990s which was, in December 2015, relocated to the Presidential Office of the Regional Administration and Local Government. The current phase of Maziwa Zaidi will engage PO-RALG closely in the implementation of field activities with PO-RALG offering a platform for linkages between beneficiaries and the project through their field extension staff.The current phase of Maziwa Zaidi will work closely with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on issues related to research and/or data compliance.COSTECH was established by the Act of Parliament No. 7 of 1986 as the successor to the Tanzania National Scientific Research Council (UTAFITI) as a parastatal with the responsibility of coordinating and promoting research and technology development activities in the country. It is the chief advisor to the government on all matters pertaining to science and technology and their application to the socio-economic development of the country, and it is under the ministry responsible for science and technology. COSTECH is also entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating and promoting science and technology development activities in the country. NBS is an autonomous public office that provides official statistics to the government, business community and the public. Established under the Statistics Act of 2015 NBS is a cocoordinating agency within the National Statistical System (NSS) that ensures that quality official statistics are produced. Amendments to the Statistics Act in 2018 criminalize the publications of official data without approval of the NBS. It is not yet clear how this new law affects publications of research data under the mandate of COSTECH. Collaboration with Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) may also continue in relation to issues concerning food and feed safety.Farmer organizations: In addition to the farmer organizations such as the Tanzania Milk Producers Association (TAMPRODA) and the Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT) whose detailed information were highlighted in the previous partnership scoping report, Maziwa Zaidi II will also engage other farmers organizations namely, the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF), the Dairy Development Forum (DDF) and farmer cooperatives in the specific project sites.Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum (ANSAF) is a member-led national advocacy platform of national and international non-governmental organizations, farmers' umbrella groups and commercial companies with interest in the development of the agricultural sector in Tanzania. Established in 2006, the forum brings together non-state actors and government, and coordinates critical debates on local, national, and continental issues. In this phase, Maziwa Zaidi will collaborate with ANSAF by providing new evidence in support of their advocacy efforts for higher budgetary allocation to development of livestock value chains, especially the agribusiness elements.The Tanzania DDF was created in 2013 with support from Maziwa Zaidi phase I to bring together national dairy actors in a bid to explore a coordinated approach to collaborative development of the dairy industry. Nested under the authority of the Tanzania Dairy Board, whose role is to strategically plan and coordinate sector development 'in an orderly manner', the DDF acts as a platform where initiatives can be conceived and acted on, where evidence of what works and what does not can be shared and discussed and where action-based alliances between like-minded actors can be formed. It aims to fill gaps in (1) dairy technology and agribusiness skills, craft strategies for (2) expanding the national dairy herd and (3) seek business solutions for year-round availability of quality feeds. The secretariat for the DDF is performed by the TDB. Steps being taken to register DDF as a private sector driven organization would support Maziwa Zaidi objectives of promoting agri-entrepreneurship in the current phase.Private sector (inputs and services): Maziwa Zaidi will engage private sector actors of all kinds, especially those involved with inputs and services in the project sites. These include Animal Breeding East Africa (ABEA), iCow/Green Dream Technology (iCow project), Private Agriculture Sector Support (PASS), Sokoine University Graduate Entrepreneurs Cooperative (SUGECO), Tanzania Career Development Consultants (TACADECO), microfinance institutions and milk processors (such as Tanga Fresh). Details of roles and expected interactions with these private sector actors are in Annex 1.The partnership mapping exercise conducted for this report identified a list of priority NGOs to partner with (Annexes I -III). Most were partners who were involved in various ways in the first phase, including: the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), Land O'Lakes Inc., Heifer International Tanzania (HIT) and Solidaridad.SNV is currently implementing Integrated Dairy Farming for Income and Employment for Women and Youth (IEWY) in two districts of Siha and Hai in the Kilimanjaro region. The IEWY project aims at (i) improving production and productivity of women smallholder dairy farmers, (ii) increasing the amount of income from dairy activities that is earned by women and their control over this income, (iii) enterprise and employment creation for young people, as well as (iv) developing viable producer organizations with improved service delivery to their members and increasing knowledge sharing, stakeholder dialogue and learning to influence an enabling environment for equitable and inclusive smallholder dairy development. Solidaridad, on the other hand, is implementing the 'Dairy 2025' project in all districts of the Tanga region with the aim of capacitating dairy farmers to do farming as a business. ILRI has MoUs in place with both organizations to facilitate the partnerships. International organizations: As documented by Mutagwaba and Omore (2015), an array of international organizations exist in Tanzania. Those that Maziwa Zaidi may collaborate with in this phase include:UN-based organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) whose activities are related to livestock sector initiatives support and business training. FAO, for instance, has work targeting antimicrobial resistance and livestock traceability under a National Action Plan. Initiatives supported by UNCTAD like EMPRETEC and the associated mobile agriculture and rural development applications for supporting farming as a business (FAAB) also offer opportunities for collaboration.Donor organizations supporting initiatives complementary to Maziwa Zaidi in the livestock sector include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which supported the development of Tanzania livestock master plan (TLMP) and may continue to support its implementation; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funds projects on food security and safety, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which funds ILRI-Led research projects on environment and animal health, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) that has funded a project that is agribusiness related to seed systems development; and, the EU, which supports public private partnerships in Tanzania through SAGCOT. Maziwa Zaidi will seek collaboration with these organizations to ensure sustainability of its work and to seek more investments for livestock R4D.Media organizations: Maziwa Zaidi will work with the media as a channel to pass key messages from research or to promote uptake of results. These include TV stations, radio (national and local) and newspapers.As illustrated in Annex II, key institutions that Maziwa Zaidi will collaborate with at the local level in Tanga and Kilimanjaro include local government authorities, zonal TALIRI centres (Tanga and West Kilimanjaro), farmers organizations including Tanga Fresh, Nronga Women's Dairy Cooperative, Kilimanjaro Dairy Cooperative Joint Enterprise (KDCJE), Kondiki Dairy in Kilimanjaro, Tanga Dairy Cooperative Union (TDCU) and the Dairy Development Forum. As already stated, SNV, Solidaridad (and service providers linked to them) will be key partners in implementation at the local level. Private sector actors who are active in Tanga and Kilimanjaro including the Agricare Ltd, Match Maker Associates (MMA), Mberesero Dairy Farm and SeedCo/Kibo Seed Company will also be involved in the implementation of the second phase of Maziwa Zaidi.4 Partnerships to raise the profile of livestock in Tanzania Significant activities involving a wide array of stakeholders in the livestock sector occurred between 2015 and 2020 that raised the profile of the livestock sector in Tanzania. Maziwa Zaidi will seek to build on these initiatives to further raise the profile of the livestock sector and the need for more investments in livestock development in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. Some notable activities and key players during this period included:1. Livestock master plan (TLMP). The official launch of a TZS1.4 trillion (USD596 million) five-year Tanzania livestock master plan (TLMP) in 2019 set the stage for addressing major challenges facing the livestock sector and transforming it.The TLMP is a vision-driven, evidence-based road map with investment plans that seeks to improve animal productivity and production, as well as increase the value addition of key livestock value chains. Maziwa Zaidi will collaborate on steps towards its implementation especially on dairy.2. The launching of the private sector desk (PSD) at MoLF. The creation of PSD (SAGCOT 2017a) followed recommendations to strengthen the private sector in the TLMP that was developed with ILRI's facilitation and technical assistance to MoLF (ILRI 2019). There is indication that PSD will play a significant role as MoLF embarks on implementing TLMP starting in year 2020.3. Advocacy to raise budget allocation to the livestock sector. Over the past few years, there has been a decline in externally sourced resources, which has significantly affected the level of investment and disbursement to support the livestock subsector through public financing. Advocacy led by the ANSAF (2017) contributed to a doubling of the budget allocation from TZS15,192 billion in the financial year 2012/13 to TZS 31,712 billion in the financial year 2017/18. While this is a significant achievement, more allocations to the livestock subsector are needed given that this allocation is only about 0.4% of the national budget while the sector's contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP) is much more. The amount is also not a fair share within the agriculture sector budget given the relative contribution of livestock to AgGDP, which itself is also still below the amount that is recommended under the African Union Maputo and Malabo commitments.4. National livestock stakeholders hosted a national Livestock Expo in 2018 where ILRI gave a keynote address. Maziwa Zaidi will engage in similar promotional activities to raise the profile of livestock and encourage more investments. ","tokenCount":"3134"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b751775faa55547da75eec45b8d0329e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3bdab14f-9da4-408a-97bf-81c0414c4c34/retrieve","id":"-1519783125"},"keywords":["agroecosystem processes","systems research","ecosystem services","crop protection","interdisciplinary research","multistakeholder processes"],"sieverID":"d0772a7d-de57-424c-9e25-71853ec5de44","pagecount":"14","content":"Transdisciplinary weed research (TWR) is a promising path to more effective management of challenging weed problems. We define TWR as an integrated process of inquiry and action that addresses complex weed problems in the context of broader efforts to improve economic, environmental and social aspects of ecosystem sustainability. TWR seeks to integrate scholarly and practical knowledge across many stakeholder groups (e.g. scientists, private sector, farmers and extension officers) and levels (e.g. local, regional and landscape). Furthermore, TWR features democratic and iterative processes of decision-making and collective action that aims to align the interests, viewpoints and agendas of a wide range of stakeholders. The fundamental rationale for TWR is that many challenging weed problems (e.g. herbicide resistance or extensiveplant invasions in natural areas) are better addressed systemically, as a part of broad-based efforts to advance ecosystem sustainability, rather than as isolated problems. Addressing challenging weed problems systemically can offer important new leverage on such problems, by creating new opportunities to manage their root causes and by improving complementarity between weed management and other activities. While promising, this approach is complicated by the multidimensional, multilevel, diversely defined and unpredictable nature of ecosystem sustainability. In practice, TWR can be undertaken as a cyclic process of (i) initial problem formulation, (ii) 'broadening' of the problem formulation and recruitment of stakeholder participants, (iii) deliberation, negotiation and design of an action agenda for systemic change, (iv) implementation action, (v) monitoring and assessment of outcomes and (vi) reformulation of the problemWeeds have strong effects on a wide range of biophysical, economic and social dimensions of managed ecosystems. For this reason, improvements in weed management are essential to the sustainable development of these ecosystems (Radosevich et al., 2007). Sustainable development implies improving the performance of managed ecosystems in economic, biophysical and social terms. To support such holistic improvement, weed management must meet a high standard; it must become more effective in limiting losses of food and other material yields, more supportive of other ecosystem services (Jordan & Vatovec, 2004;Bommarco et al., 2013) and more socially just (Loos et al., 2014).At present, weed research is largely organised and conducted in a mono-disciplinary fashion, with emphasis on biophysical aspects of weed problems such as yield loss (Fig. 1; Ward et al., 2014). It is important to recognise that such disciplinary research is essential to understanding and managing weed problems, particularly in situations where questions are clear cut and timely information is needed. Moreover, there are notable examples of weed research programmes that address social factors and take widely interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. Graham, 2013;Ervin & Jussaume, 2014;Matzek et al., 2014;Zwickle et al., 2014;Seastedt, 2015;Ervin & Frisvold, 2016).Numerous observers have called for more weed research that is informed by its broader environmental and social context, so that it can successfully address highly challenging weed problems. Such problems include (but are not restricted to) herbicide resistance (Jussaume & Ervin, 2016), invasive crops or perennial weeds in tropical smallholder agriculture (e.g. Davis et al., 2009;Allen et al., 2014;Schut et al., 2014a;Ward et al., 2014;Jordan & Davis, 2015). All of these observers call for weed research to continue to expand by engagement with a wide range of scholarly disciplines and societal stakeholders.Despite repeated calls for expansion of weed research by wide engagement with scholarly disciplines and societal stakeholders, there is need for a practical model that provides specific recommendations for the initiation and conduct of expanded and engaged weed research. In this article, we outline such a model and its conceptual basis, drawing on a range of conceptual developments and practical experience. The genesis of this article was an international workshop (June 2014) that convened 35 weed researchers from a range of different disciplines and global regions. Attendees worked to articulate a model for expansion of weed research, building on outcomes from a similar workshop held in 2012 (Ward et al., 2014). Importantly the model outlined below is intended to leverage and complement, Fig. 1 The current scope of weed research, which presently focuses on traits of weedy plants and on their management, while social aspects receive less emphasis. Elements highly relevant to transdisciplinary weed research but presently of marginal importance are illustrated in grey. not to replace, ongoing disciplinary weed research. Before presenting the model, we state several important premises.Premise 1: Challenging weed problems can be addressed via broad-based efforts to advance ecosystem sustainability Ecosystem sustainability projects (e.g. Olsson et al., 2007;Mapfumo et al., 2015) seek holistic improvement in the performance of managed ecosystems, that is by making improvements in economic, biophysical and social aspects of these ecosystems. Addressing challenging weed problems in the context of such projects creates new opportunities to deal with the root causes of such problems and improves complementarity between weed management and other activities. How can these new opportunities arise? In general, addressing root causes and improving complementarity of weed management requires systemic changes in biophysical, technological, sociocultural, economic, institutional and political factors affecting a managed ecosystem (Liebman et al., 2016). Many barriers stand in the way of such changes. To surmount these barriers and achieve systemic change that improves weed management, we posit that collective action is generally required.Collective action on ecosystem sustainability can achieve systemic change by drawing on the resources and power of multiple groups and organisations concerned with the sustainability of a managed ecosystem (Sayer et al., 2013;Opdam et al., 2015). To mobilise such collective action, 'win-win' or 'both/and' management strategies are generally needed (Sayer et al., 2013). These are strategies that address both weed problems and other ecosystem sustainability problems. Our premise is that identification of such strategies, and mobilisation of collective action to implement them, is a promising pathway to achieving systemic change needed for durable improvement in management of challenging weed problems. Obviously, to explore this pathway, weed researchers must address such weed problems as part of broader projects on ecosystem sustainability.To illustrate this point, we offer the example of herbicide resistance management. Arguably, herbicide resistance is often unmanageable in low-diversity agroecosystems in which herbicides are the primary means for weed control (Mortensen et al., 2012). In these situations, diversification of weed management methods is needed to avoid herbicide resistance. Broad diversification of methods often requires broader agroecosystem diversification (Liebman et al., 2016), in which diversity of crops enables diversification of weed management (e.g. Davis et al., 2012). Therefore, weed researchers concerned with herbicide resistance might gain new leverage by participating in efforts to promote agroecosystem diversification. Of course, agroecosystem diversification (Kremen & Miles, 2012) is not only undertaken to improve weed management. Generally, diversification projects (e.g. Steingr€ over et al., 2010) are undertaken to improve multiple aspects of the performance of managed ecosystems in biophysical, economic and social terms. Moreover, such projects typically strive to engage stakeholders in sectors beyond science and agricultural production, as the agendas, resources and engagement of these stakeholders are vital to successful ecosystem management (Opdam et al., 2015).By participating in projects to advance agroecosystem diversification, weed researchers can expand both the scope and societal engagement of their work, as recommended by many observers (Davis et al., 2009;Allen et al., 2014;Schut et al., 2014a;Ward et al., 2014). By collaborating in diversification projects that span multiple objectives and societal sectors, weed researchers can gain new leverage on herbicide resistance, using approaches to manage or prevent resistance that are possible only in diversified agroecosystems (Davis et al., 2012). New leverage is also gained by improving the complementarity of weed management with other management efforts associated with diversification. We conclude that the strategy outlined above, that is undertaking research on complex weed problems as part of projects that address multiple aspects of ecosystem sustainability and multiple social and biophysical factors, has high potential to improve the impact of weed research on difficult weed problems.Premise 2: Ecosystem sustainability challenges are complex problemsMost ecosystem sustainability challenges have characteristic features of so-called complex problems. Following a stream of scholarship that has elucidated the nature and significance of such problems (Rittel & Webber, 1973;Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1994;Schut et al., 2014a), we define complex problems as the following: (i) multidimensional, (ii) characterised by feedback and multiscale dynamics that create uncertainty and unpredictability and (iii) involving multiple stakeholder groups that do not have a common understanding of the problem and potential solutions.First, complex ecosystem sustainability challenges are affected by a wide range of biophysical, technological, sociocultural, economic, institutional and political factors, and thus have many causes. As well, many different aspects of managed ecosystems are of potential concern to stakeholders interested in economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability. Because of this multiplicity of both causal factors and outcome variables (i.e. aspects of concern), ecosystem sustainability challenges are highly multidimensional and even 'simple' weed management practices (e.g. herbicide-based management) reflect the operation of many different factors and constraints.Second, complex ecosystem sustainability challenges are characterised by high unpredictability, due to incomplete understanding of relevant factors and their interactions. Moreover, even if understanding was relatively complete, unpredictability arises also from complicated dynamics rooted in feedbacks among biophysical, social-cultural and other factors (Chapin et al., 2010). These dynamics are rendered more complex still by interactions that occur among different scales (Cash et al., 2006), that is across spatial scales (fields, landscapes, regions, etc.) or scales of governance (local, regional, national, etc.).Third, complex ecosystem sustainability challenges are characterised by the involvement of multiple parties, each with particular interests, values and perspectives, each of which can become an aspect of a complex problem. On the one hand, a wide range of interested parties can provide a wide range of knowledge and resources to collective efforts to address a complex problem. On the other hand, divergence of interests and views among stakeholders impedes mutual understanding (Morriss et al., 2006), may involve irreconcilable differences in worldviews and knowledge systems (e.g. Duncan, 2016), and may give rise to considerable social conflict (Leeuwis, 2000). Because of this range of interests, values and perspectives, any particular ecosystem sustainability challenge is best viewed as comprising a set of diversely defined problems (among which weeds may or may not be salient) that together constitute a multifaceted 'bundle' of problems, rather than any single problem.What are the implications of such complexity for weed researchers who wish to address challenging weed problems in the context of broad-based efforts to improve ecosystem sustainability? The most important implication is that the multidimensional, unpredictable and diversely defined nature of complex sustainability challenges must be taken into account in any effort to meet these challenges (Jussaume & Ervin, 2016). For example, if the many causes of complex challenges are not taken into account, problem-solving efforts may overlook important factors. If feedback dynamics are not addressed, processes that insufficiently address long-term impacts may undermine problem-solving. If divergent stakeholder interests and perspectives are not considered, stakeholders may defect from collective action. For these reasons, we argue that researchers that participate in ecosystem sustainability projects must address the inherent complexity of ecosystem sustainability challenges.What research methods could weed researchers adopt if they wish to participate in ecosystem sustainability projects? We propose that such projects will benefit from an approach, outlined below, that we term 'Transdisciplinary Weed Research' (TWR). TWR is defined as an integrated process of enquiry and action that strives to address challenging weed problems in the context of broad-based efforts to improve economic, environmental and social aspects of ecosystem sustainability. TWR goes beyond current (and laudable) weed research projects that are addressing social factors and pursuing interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. Graham, 2013;Ervin & Jussaume, 2014;Matzek et al., 2014;Zwickle et al., 2014;Seastedt, 2015). These projects are important advances. However, they have tended to be closely framed around weed management, rather than linking to an overarching project of sustainable ecosystem development and a broad complement of stakeholder groups.To support the continued expansion of weed research towards TWR, we outline a conceptual and practical model for TWR. In articulating this model, we suggest how weed research could engage in transdisciplinary projects on ecosystem sustainability. For example, so-called transdisciplinary synthesis centres for ecosystem science, policy and management (Lynch et al., 2015) are emerging globally. Below, we contribute to the development of TWR by (i) outlining a model for TWR, integrating a range of sources and experiences, (ii) presenting lessons learned from an extensive TWR programme and (iii) exploring opportunities and challenges for weed researchers who want to explore TWR.Conceptions of transdisciplinarity range widely (Jahn et al., 2012). We recommend a particular form that was originally articulated by Jantsch (1972). It is highly suitable to addressing challenging weed management problems in the context of work on complex sustainability problems, because it directly addresses the multidimensionality, unpredictability and diversely defined nature of ecosystem sustainability (see also, Hadorn et al., 2008;Lang et al., 2012). First, such transdisciplinarity engages a wide variety of societal stakeholders in collective efforts to characterise diversely defined ecosystem sustainability problems, seeking to clarify their nature and to identify opportunities for collective efforts to address them. Second, the multidimensionality of complex ecosystem sustainability problems is addressed by drawing on a wide range of sources for knowledge relevant to this wide range of dimensions. Finally, this form of transdisciplinary research addresses unpredictability by engaging multiple stakeholders in ongoing, collective efforts to design and implement innovative actions, assess outcomes of these actions and take further action in response to shifts in the situation. Below, we outline the elements of this form of transdisciplinary research.Determining a course of enquiry and action on complex ecosystem sustainability problems Jantsch's (1972) conception of transdisciplinary research emphasises the essential role of 'purposive disciplines', which play a crucial role in TWR. Purposive disciplines include ethics, design and other humanistic disciplines. These disciplines identify fundamental moral and ethical issues related to potential courses of enquiry and action, focusing on the critical question of 'what should be done' to address complex problems. Purposive disciplines have emerged as critical to engaging a wide variety of stakeholders in collective efforts on ecosystem sustainability challenges. The purposive disciplines aim to support deliberation and negotiation about such challenges, that is a careful assessment of options, in which stakeholders exchange views about ethical viewpoints and matters of fact, from their points of view. Such interchange creates an opportunity for stakeholders to collectively characterise diversely defined ecosystem sustainability challenges. As well, such interchanges are increasingly valued in innovation processes that can address complex problems (Leeuwis & Aarts, 2011).For example, the purposive discipline of design has been applied to a project (Opdam et al., 2015) in which a wide range of stakeholders worked to develop non-crop vegetation in an agricultural region of the Netherlands into 'green infrastructure' that would provide a range of desirable ecosystem services to the region, including enhanced pest management. In such roles, the purposive disciplines serve to meet one of the two main challenges of transdisciplinary research on ecosystem sustainability: deliberation and negotiation among divergent stakeholder interests, viewpoints and agendas, in search of some basis for collective action on a scale that can lead to lasting improvements (Opdam et al., 2015).Needless to say, meeting these challenges of transdisciplinarity is no easy task. Informed by analyses spanning multiple dimensions and levels, deliberation and negotiation about complex problems must address contentious, value-laden issues related to ecosystem sustainability, for example democratic governance of food systems or the distribution of benefits from agricultural research and development (Loos et al., 2014). Given the unpredictable and dynamic nature of complex ecosystem sustainability problems, such deliberation and negotiation are likely to be needed on a recurrent basis. Obviously, engagement of multiple stakeholders around such issues is difficult and may often be unsuccessful due to strong political or valuesbased conflicts among stakeholders.However, methods to support effective engagement are emerging from a range of purposive disciplines, such as philosophical dialogue (Eigenbrode et al., 2007), foresight exercises (Quay, 2010), 'public narrative' techniques (Ganz, 2011;Paschen & Ison, 2014) and use of various artistic disciplines to develop provocative scenarios of ecosystem development (Selin, 2014). These approaches use techniques from arts, humanities and design to help participants reframe problems and build mutual understanding across lines of difference. For example, multistakeholder framing efforts improved shared understanding of management of a crop that had potential to escape from cultivation (Friedel et al., 2011). We emphasise that progress in such situations requires adequately resourced efforts to support and advance stakeholder engagement, deliberation and negotiation and to manage attendant conflict. Without such resources and efforts, effective collective action on complex ecosystem sustainability problems is likely to be impossible (Sayer et al., 2013), and therefore, TWR projects are likely to fail.Successful multistakeholder deliberation and negotiation can lead to agreement on a course of inquiry and action in addressing a complex ecosystem sustainability problem. Such agreement, in turn, can motivate stakeholders to engage in collaborative learning on the problem (Franks, 2010). In Jantsch's conception of transdisciplinary research, collaborative learning, subsequent collective action and critical assessment of the consequences of that action all serve to identify knowledge gaps that are then addressed by relevant applied sciences (e.g. cropping systems research) and more Transdisciplinary research on complex problems relies upon a wide range of knowledge sources, certainly including professional, local, practical and traditional knowledge in addition to scholarly knowledge (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1994;Staver, 2001). Funtowicz and Ravetz (1994) argued that complex problems must be addressed by expanding the range of knowledge sources deemed valid and relevant including, for example traditional ecological knowledge (Turner et al., 2011). This range of sources is necessary because complex problems have biophysical, technological, sociocultural, economic, institutional and political dimensions (Schut et al., 2014b). For example, labour limitations in cropping systems related to labour emigration from Guatemalan farming communities enable perennial weeds (e.g. the invasive fern Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn) to emerge as highly intractable problems in tropical agroecosystems (Schneider, 2004). Consequently, exploring and designing sustainable solutions to such problems cannot be successful without analysis of labour supply issues (Spielman et al., 2009).In general, challenging weed problems can be strongly affected by constraints that are outside the direct control of engaging directly in weed management actions. To address these constraints, integrated and multilevel analyses and intervention strategies are needed. These strategies enable holistic analysis of complex and unpredictable ecosystem dynamics, using approaches that consciously draw on a wide range of knowledge sources so as to transcend disciplinary or dimensional modes of knowledge production (Weingart, 2000). Such expansive synthesis is critically needed to guide action on complex ecosystem sustainability challenges, but requires well-facilitated, wellresourced and ongoing efforts, involving multiple cycles of deliberation, research, action and evaluation (Staver, 2001). Recurrent effort is required because complex problems, including their weed-related dimensions, cannot be definitively 'solved', but rather require ongoing management and adaptation. All relevant disciplines and knowledge sources, including the purposive disciplines, are needed as the process goes forward. Successful efforts to build capacity for such efforts are occurring in transdisciplinary synthesis centres for ecosystem science, policy and management (Jahn et al., 2012;Lynch et al., 2015). Despite its potential value for addressing weed problems, fully developed transdisciplinary research as outlined in this section is largely absent in weed research (Ward et al., 2014). To more concretely illustrate how weed researchers might engage in TWR, we now outline a model that describes the conduct of TWR as a recursive process that proceeds through a series of stages.  2) envisions a cyclic process that spans phases of (i) initial problem formulation, (ii) 'broadening' of the problem formulation and recruitment of stakeholder participants, (iii) deliberation, negotiation and design of an action agenda for systemic change, (iv) implementation action, (v) monitoring and assessment of outcomes and (vi) reformulation of the problem situation and renegotiation of further actions. In broad outlines, the model is similar to systems for adaptive comanagement that engage a range of stakeholders in collection action to improve ecosystem sustainability. However, the model accounts for certain challenges that result from the multidimensional, unpredictable and diversely defined nature of ecosystem sustainability problems that are often not recognised in adaptive comanagement models. Purposive disciplines have central, critical and recurrent roles (Opdam et al., 2015) in problem formulation, broadening and deliberation/negotiation.The TWR process begins with initial problem formulation, that is the recognition of an ecosystem sustainability problem by a group of stakeholders. This problem may concern weed management, as would be expected if the TWR process is initiated by weed researchers. Alternately, the problem may concern some other aspect of ecosystem sustainability; in this case, weed researchers will join the process in the broadening phase, below. The initiating group articulates a statement of the problem and begins collaboration. The group then enters a stage of broadening and recruitment, in which it works to recruit other stakeholders into a TWR project by broadening the problem formulation to include aspects that are salient for other stakeholders, creating a 'shared entry point' (Sayer et al., 2013) to TWR work on ecosystem sustainability. Often, this phase will be slow and prolonged (Westley et al., 2013); complex ecosystem sustainability problems often have no evident solutions when first engaged by a multistakeholder group. During this phase, emphasis is placed on building broadbased understanding of the sustainability problem, using the group's knowledge resources.Gradually, effort shifts to a phase of designing systemic change, using purposive disciplines such as design and scenario planning to collect and integrate knowledge, identify and, if possible, reduce critical knowledge gaps, and to develop options for transformational solutions, while continuing the broadening and recruitment process. Finally, opportunities for implementation by collective action of resulting designs are actively sought and taken, after defining roles, rights and responsibilities of participants in implementation (Sayer et al., 2013). When action occurs, outcomes are monitored, key knowledge gaps are again identified and closed, and purposive disciplines again come into play in deliberation/negotiation of further action. Examples of similar approaches to transdisciplinary projects on ecosystem sustainability problems are reviewed in Opdam et al. (2015) and Sayer et al. (2013).To exemplify operation of this model, we describe its application to challenging weed management issues associated with non-crop vegetation in agricultural landscapes.Management of such non-crop vegetation is a complex ecosystem sustainability problem. Such vegetation is the source of many ecosystem services, such as habitat for beneficial biodiversity (e.g. pollinators), improvements in water supply and amenity and aesthetic value (Lovell & Sullivan, 2006). However, it is also the source of ecosystem disservices to agriculture, including loss of crop production and habitat for other non-beneficial biodiversity, including weedy and invasive plants. Complex weed management challenges involving such non-crop vegetation include balancing management of undesirable species with conservation of desirable species, avoiding unintended damage from herbicide weed control in field crops (Mortensen et al., 2012) and managing stakeholder conflict related to these issues.We propose that weed researchers can gain new leverage on weed management issues associated with such non-crop vegetation by 'broadening', that is engaging their work on these issues in broader ecosystem sustainability projects. For example, weed researchers could engage in projects pursuing spatial intensification of agricultural landscapes (Heaton et al., 2013). Spatial intensification aims to enhance economic, environmental and social sustainability of landscapes by identifying sites in landscapes where locally dominant field crops are poorly adapted and converting such sites to better-adapted crops or non-crop vegetation, thereby increasing crop production and other ecosystem services (Lovell & Sullivan, 2006Meehan et al., 2013;Pywell et al., 2015).Spatial intensification of agricultural landscapes may give weed researchers new leverage on the challenging weed management issues in 'non-crop' areas noted above. Specifically, natural-science weed researchers can help assess and improve approaches to managing the floras of non-field crop elements of these landscapes to support a flora that provides multiple ecosystem services, while limiting ecosystem disservices. Social scientists can investigate a range of social processes relevant to management of such floras. Crucially, the joint enhancement of crop productivity and ecosystem services in spatially intensified landscapes supports 'broadening' by increasing the range of stakeholders that have incentive to join collective action to develop these landscapes. Thus, by participating in spatial intensification projects, weed researchers engage in TWR that creates a wide range of new weed management options, highlights important knowledge gaps and enables weed researchers to target their research to support intensification.Spatial intensification projects, employing methods that parallel our model for TWR, are not hypothetical. A well-documented example is the case of Hoeksche Waard in the Netherlands (Steingr€ over et al., 2010;Opdam et al., 2015) in which a multisector project formed around the goal of reducing pesticide use in a 300 km 2 agricultural district located near several large cities. The plan was to enhance habitat for biocontrol species by expansion and management of lands not used for field crops, which were reconceived in the broadening phase as 'green infrastructure' that provide a wide range of benefits in addition to enhanced biocontrol of crop pests. The project proceeded through stages similar to those outlined in the model above through extensive and recurrent use of a purposive discipline (landscape design, Opdam et al., 2015), and heavily engaged pest-management scientists in initial problem formulation and in all subsequent stages. These scientists were motivated to engage in the project because the involvement of other stakeholders enabled the expansion of green infrastructure, in turn creating new possibilities for supporting biocontrol organisms via green infrastructure. The Hoeksche Waard project did not engage weed researchers, but the extensive involvement of other pest-management scientists shows how such engagement can proceed. Below, we further illustrate possibilities for TWR via retrospective and prospective cases.In this retrospective account, we describe collaboration among many scholarly disciplines and societal stakeholder groups that have collaborated in transdisciplinary research on parasitic weeds in the broader context of sustainable development of African smallholder agroecosystems.Parasitic weeds threaten food and income security in different parts of the world (Parker, 2009). In Africa, the economically most important parasitic weeds in rice production systems are the obligate hemiparasitic witchweeds, Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. and S. asiatica (L.) Kuntze and the facultative hemiparasitic rice vampireweed, Rhamphicarpa fistulosa (Hochst.) Benth (Scholes & Press, 2008;Rodenburg et al., 2010Rodenburg et al., , 2011)). Parasitic weeds in developing countries are a highly challenging problem, deeply embedded in complex sustainability problems of smallholder rice production (Schut et al., 2015c).PARASITE [Preparing African Rice Farmers Against Parasitic Weeds in a Changing Environment (www.parasite-project.org)] was intentionally designed as a TWR programme on parasitic weeds in rainfed rice systems in sub-Saharan Africa and was implemented in Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania between 2011 and 2015. The project was initiated based on a growing concern by weed researchers, extension officers and farmers about the increasing emergence of parasitic weeds in rainfed rice systems. PARASITE comprised four interlinked projects that integrated different disciplines (biology/ecology, agronomy, economy and sociology), which operated at different integration levels (plant, field, farm, region and nation) and involved a variety of societal stakeholders (farmers, private sector, policymakers and development partners) throughout the different phases of the programme (problem formulation and analysis, priority setting and implementation and evaluation of interventions).Broadening activities sought the active involvement of a wide range of social sectors, which provided professional, local, practical and traditional knowledge, and deliberated the merits of potential actions. This engagement was facilitated through a series of multistakeholder workshops in which constraints and opportunities for innovation to address parasitic weeds were identified (Schut et al., 2015a). The majority of stakeholder constraints related to broader challenges in the crop protection and agricultural system than to parasitic weeds specifically (e.g. performance of agricultural extension services and poor collaboration between stakeholders (Schut et al., 2015b)). According to stakeholders, efforts to address these constraints were promising strategies, with potential to improve parasitic weed management while also addressing other sustainability problems in these production systems.These engagement activities facilitated data analysis and interpretation by scientists from a range of disciplines (including weed scientists) in collaboration with different societal actors. The result was a multidimensional and multilevel view of problems related to parasitic weeds in rainfed rice systems. This view then enabled design of integrative solutions. For example, the approach created a systemic understanding of multiple factors that affected a potentially effective parasitic weed control strategy, namely use of organic and inorganic fertilisers on improved rice varieties by farmers (Rodenburg et al., 2011). It demonstrated that the use of fertilisers was strongly affected by the following factors:• Technological: some farmers were afraid of undesired side effects of fertilisers on the crop, for example increased weed abundance;• Sociocultural: farmers were concerned that use of improved crop varieties would contaminate aromatic qualities of local rice varieties;• Economic: purchasing power of farmers was low;• Institutional: lack of quality control of agricultural inputs lead to adulteration of crop protection chemicals, fertiliser and seeds, which discouraged farmers from investing in such products (Rodenburg et al., 2015). In the PARASITE programme, the transdisciplinary approach ensured that parasitic weed management strategies were (1) developed and evaluated through researcher-farmer collaborations (agronomy), (2) based on biological and ecological insights (biology/ecology), (3) locally available and affordable (economy) and ( 4) acceptable for different stakeholder groups across different levels (sociology). This increased the likelihood that robust, applicable and widely supported solutions could be developed and implemented. For example, participatory research projects on novel systemic approaches to parasitic weed management have emerged from PARASITE. These projects, which were not envisioned at the outset, arose from observations that parasitic weeds are associated with poor soils and that affected farmers are among the poorest and cannot afford expensive fertilisers. These observations inspired discussions regarding alternative management strategies that could increase soil fertility for such farmers. Based on such discussions between researchers, extension officers and farmers, farmer participatory trials using rice husks or animal manure as soil fertility amendments were established (Rodenburg et al., 2015). Farmer surveys in Tanzania demonstrated that awareness of parasitic weeds is much higher in study sites where the participatory trials were implemented, as compared with study sites where no participatory trials were established (Schut et al., 2015c).Reflective evaluation of the PARASITE programme emphasised the importance of an institutional environment for TWR that can support the significant costs associated with efforts to understand and integrate concepts, methods, needs and interests (Rodenburg et al., 2015). In PARASITE, researchers represented both fundamental and applied international agricultural research institutes, which enhanced engagement of the programme and its results, while also increasing costs related to travelling, telecommunication and interaction and collaboration between those involved. Moreover, aligning research strategies with the needs and interests of societal stakeholders and changing research contexts requires ongoing adaptation. Yet, funding requirements and incentive structures often require research to be undertaken as prescribed 'projects' rather than 'processes' of inquiry, inhibiting development of unanticipated unifying visions and other emergent outcomes. Rather, activities and outcomes are typically planned and proscribed in advance of research, leaving little room for unexpected outcomes. Restructuring research programmes to account for these emergent dynamics will enable weed researchers to explore the potential of TWR. Options for restructuring include flexible budgets, planning and monitoring, participatory R&D planning and budgeting, and active facilitation of multistakeholder processes (Schut et al., 2015d). Additionally, scientists need to be incentivised to actively engage with societal stakeholders to identify relevant research and development questions and develop joint outputs with colleagues from different disciplines (Schut et al., 2014b).We now describe plans for TWR in a newly formed project, drawing upon insights into the retrospective case concerning flexibility in budgeting, planning and monitoring, with an eye to proactive 'broadening' and emergent outcomes. A newly formed (2015) USDA-Agricultural Research Service Area-Wide project is addressing multiple herbicide-resistant (MHR) weeds across three distinct grain-producing regions of the USA (north central, south central and mid-Atlantic). These weeds are challenging sustainable crop production, particularly in reduced-and no-tillage production systems, which have important soilconservation benefits. Such weeds have become widespread, rapidly rendering herbicide weed control less effective, while the pace of herbicide discovery has greatly slowed. The project is titled An Integrated Weed Management Approach to Addressing the Multiple Herbicide-resistant Weed Epidemic in Three Major U.S. Field Crop Production Regions and currently involves 25 researchers from 18 research institutions (including co-authors Davis, Ervin, Mirsky and Jordan). The project aims to identify, evaluate and promote integrated weed management systems that can help producers regain control of MHR weeds in highly affected U.S. grain production regions, while avoiding reversion to intensive mechanical weed control, which will threaten decades of progress in soil conservation via reduced tillage.At present, the project is working to expand towards transdisciplinarity. Many members are primarily focused on natural-science weed research, but the project has been designed from the beginning as an interdisciplinary project, enrolling several social scientists in addition to natural scientists addressing plant physiology, molecular biology, agronomy and soil science. Economists are participating to analyse the economic cost and benefit of numerous integrated weed management tactics, determine the socio-economic challenges and opportunities to adoption of such tactics and provide economic perspectives on spatially co-ordinated management strategies (farm vs. community-based approach). Preliminary project findings show (Evans et al. unpublished) that co-ordination of weed management decisions among farmers at landscape scales can substantially hinder the evolution and spread of herbicide resistance. Currently, the project is actively undertaking 'broadening' of the MHR problems, seeking to couple the project with other work that share similar goals for agroecosystem sustainability. These activities are central to the broadening phase of the process model we propose for TWR (Fig. 2).This phase is guided by an important premise of the project: diversification of weed management and crop rotation is necessary to enable durable management of herbicide resistance in weeds. Therefore, the project is establishing contacts with other groups and organisations concerned with economic, environmental and social diversification of maize/soya bean production systems and the agricultural landscapes in which these systems function. These groups include efforts focused on soil health, climate resilience, stewardship of water resources and conservation of biodiversity (e.g. pollinators). All of these groups share a fundamental interest in diversification of cropping systems and agricultural landscapes. Another avenue of broadening is engagement with firms involved in agricultural equipment (e.g. harvesting machinery) and agrichemical production and application.A particular emphasis of broadening work is exploring shared interests in spatially co-ordinated management of diversified agricultural landscapes. Much evidence shows the value of such approaches for soil, water and biodiversity conservation (Sayer et al., 2013), but a range of conditions is needed for implementation (Ervin & Frisvold, 2016). Therefore, a collective research and education effort to meet such conditions is a highly promising opportunity for broadening towards transdisciplinarity. In particular, the project is considering collaborative experiments with co-ordinated management that can help manage MHR weeds and enhance water, soil and biodiversity. These projects can draw on successful applications of the purposive discipline of landscape design to motivate multistakeholder participation in such approaches (Opdam et al., 2015;Slotterback et al. 2016), as well as emerging social innovations for co-ordinated management, such as farmer-led 'working lands conservation partnerships' (Duncanson et al., 2014) and watershed protection utilities (US Water Alliance, 2014).TWR may have considerable potential to enable new progress on challenging weed problems and to extend or complement current weed research. To explore this potential, weed researchers can build on the successes of current interdisciplinary weed research initiatives that link natural and social science (e.g. Riemens et al., 2010;Friedel et al., 2011;Ervin & Jussaume, 2014). As noted above, these laudable projects generally do not yet support the full range of processes outlined in the TWR model that we have described (Fig. 2).We observe that society is providing increasing incentives for researchers to make use of the processes inherent in the TWR model. For example, systemic and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly required by public funding agencies that are relevant to weed research; the main US federal funding agency for agricultural research has explicitly called for 'systems-based, trans-disciplinary projects' in a range of relevant recent funding opportunities (USDA NIFA, 2015; http:// nifa.usda.gov/resource/planning-and-managing-systemsbased-trans-disciplinary-projects-usdanifa-programs). Generally, funding agencies and universities are increasingly focusing on complex 'grand challenge' problems (e.g. climate change adaptation) 1 ; we believe that by exploring and refining TWR, weed researchers can highlight the relevance of weed research to such 'grand challenge' problems.To support continued exploration of TWR, we recommend formation of an informal 'community of practice' (Wenger, 2000), comprised of weed researchers, to address the relationship between weed research and transdisciplinarity. Communities of practice are groups of persons who share some goal and interact on an ongoing basis to accelerate mutual progress towards that goal via learning (Wenger, 2000). Given the strong interest in expanding the scope of weed and pest-management research (Davis et al., 2009;Allen et al., 2014;Schut et al., 2014a;Ward et al., 2014), we expect that a community of practice could readily be formed under the auspices of one of the weed research professional organisations, similar to the interest-based 'communities' that are supported by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA, 2016). We envision that TWR could proceed by convening participants in a range of TWR projects. The community would support a reflective process (Sch€ on, 1983), in which weed researchers critique and refine approaches for TWR and consider how best 1 UNSW currently has a list of 'grand challenges' that it is seeking to address, climate change being one of them (http://grandchallenges.unsw.edu.au/). The University of Melbourne also has 'grand challenges' including 'supporting sustainability and resilience' (http://research-vision.unimelb.edu.au/content/grand-challenges).© 2016 The Authors. Weed Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Weed Research Society to respond to barriers and incentives relevant to TWR. The goal would be to advance research on challenging weed problems by strong feedback between conceptual development and the actual practice of TWR. Communities of practice require resources for their organisation and for active facilitation of activities.To carry out this programme of exploration, crucial limiting factors must be overcome. As is commonly observed, and highlighted in the PARASITE case, current institutional and incentive structures often discourage, rather than encourage, transdisciplinary research (Lang et al., 2012;Schut et al., 2014a;Campbell et al., 2015). A major challenge arises from the opportunity and transaction costs of organising transdisciplinarity. As is well documented (e.g. by Stokols, 2006), relatively long periods are often needed to integrate work in scientific disciplines with other academic disciplines, and, more broadly, to engage in social processes relevant to transdisciplinary research. Such processes include integration of knowledge from a wide range of scholarly and practice-based sources (Bammer, 2012;Rodenburg et al., 2015), and the building of trusting relationships for multistakeholder collaboration in innovation activities (Leeuwis & Aarts, 2011), collective action and participatory democratic governance (Gaventa, 2006). At present, these processes cannot be expected to self-organise. It would seem that their organisation and leadership is the collective responsibility of transdisciplinary researchers, including but not limited to weed researchers (Schut et al., 2014a;Campbell et al., 2015). Given current impediments to transdisciplinarity, we suggest that sustained collective action by a community of practice is the most likely way forward. We believe that universities, research organisations and professional societies are best positioned to initiate or catalyse such efforts; these institutions have strong incentives to advance their research methods to ensure outcomes that will be recognised and supported by society.We also call for consideration of transdisciplinary research in graduate education. In most cases, graduate training in sciences relevant to weed research largely focus on a few scientific disciplines, with little curriculum devoted to complex problems. In response, Wiek et al. (2011) called for development of capacities including strategic and systemic thinking, competence in purposive deliberation (i.e. discourse in which ethics, values and norms are in question), capacity in effective and purposeful engagement of stakeholders, and development of relevant interpersonal skills.We argue for systemic approaches to challenging complex weed problems (e.g. herbicide resistance or extensive plant invasions in natural areas). These approaches can create new opportunities to manage root causes of such problems and improve complementarity between weed management and other activities. However, systemic approaches are difficult and costly, because of the inherent complexity of the ecosystem sustainability problems that underlie most challenging weed problems. TWR, as outlined and exemplified above, is designed to engage such complexity. TWR requires the integration of a range of scholarly disciplines and the active and ongoing engagement of societal stakeholders.A conducive institutional environment is essential, as are resources to facilitate collaboration between and joint action by scientists and societal stakeholders. Flexibility and adaptive management is required to respond to changing stakeholder priorities and context. To advance conceptual and practical development in TWR, we call for a community of practice that experiments with TWR and reflects critically on methodology and outcomes.We conclude with several suggestions for weed researchers who may wish to apply the TWR model we have outlined to address challenging weed problems. First, it is vital to recognise that the TWR model requires extensive organising and facilitation before outcomes can be attained. Such efforts are critical to managing the inherent complexity of sustainability in managed ecosystems. Therefore, TWR requires patience, investments in broadening and recruitment so as to form relationships with like-minded collaborators, ongoing critical reflection on project progress and a willingness to engage with social aspects of sustainability, including issues such as democratic governance of managed ecosystems. Patience and persistence are likely to be tested by competing interests and conflict that is often present in multistakeholder processes (Giller et al., 2008). Furthermore, efforts to 'do things differently' may challenge established institutions and understandings of the nature of weed research, which may generate misunderstandings, tension and resistance (Schut et al., 2016). In some situations, integration of knowledge and agendas across stakeholders and sectors may be difficult or impossible (Duncan, 2016).Weed researchers are not, in our view, solely responsible for developing projects in which TWR can be practiced, but should be willing to take some part in initiation and organisation of such projects. At a minimum, we recommend that weed researchers interested in challenging weed problems should gain some awareness of TWR methods, so as to be able to recognise opportunities to engage their work in broad-based ecosystem sustainability projects. Finally, if inclined by interest and personality, weed researchers could consider playing active organising roles in such projects. We emphasise that TWR cannot replace disciplinary weed research; rather, it is a strategy for leveraging and complementing such research, in situations where inherent complexity may limit its impact. ","tokenCount":"6969"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0412046d176e742f85aca4a3db5957d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3a1b770-c032-4783-b585-1442b7c8cb2a/retrieve","id":"1405651669"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1f5ee097-c442-4254-8422-ff135b64f838","pagecount":"4","content":"improved varieties vine multiplication is increasingly a specialized activity, with changes in the gender division of labour. Women can negotiate and manage these changes to their own benefit and that of the household, if they have access to training and resources.• In the Lake Zone, Tanzania, between 2009-2012, 88 decentralized vine multipliers (DVMs) were established by the Marando Bora project. Five years later, the follow up study traced 81 of the DVMs.• 40% of the DVMs had sold planting material of Marando Bora varieties in the last year; a further 16% had maintained the improved varieties for own use.• The percentages of DVMs retaining different improved varieties were: Polista: 48%; Kabode: 34% Ukerewe: 23%; Ejumula: 12%; and Jewel: 11%. Depending on variety, between 9-21% of DVMs had obtained replacement materials. We wanted to explore the motivations of individuals and groups to engage and disengage in specialized seed multiplication to inform future interventions. The study aimed to understand the drivers contributing to the continuity of sweetpotato vine multiplication enterprises producing and disseminating improved white and orangefleshed varieties in the Lake Zone of Tanzania.The follow-up study was carried out in the 13 implementation districts in Mwanza, Geita, Kagera, and Mara regions, Tanzania. The area has a bimodal rainfall pattern, with conservation and multiplication practices determined by proximity and access to water sources and lowlands.Between October 2017 and December 2018, 81 DVMs were traced and interviewed by telephone to establish the current status of their vine multiplication activities. Sex-disaggregated Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) (Fig. 1), field interviews and plot visits were conducted with 46 continuing and non-continuing DVMs taking into consideration agro-ecology, market access, sex and individual or group organization management of the vine multiplication enterprise. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS.The follow-up study found that 40% of the 81 traced DVMs had sold planting material of Marando Bora varieties in the year prior to the study, five years after the end of the project. This contrasts to 18% that had sold any variety of vines before the intervention. A further 16% had continued to maintain the improved varieties for own use. During the intervention 72% and 28% of the DVMs were operating as groups or individuals, respectively; five years later the proportion of DVMs operating as groups had reduced to 44% (of which 28% were continuing to sell).Were there any key challenges or lessons learned?During the Marando Bora project, five improved sweetpotato varieties were promoted and distributed through the DVMs: three were orange-fleshed (Jewel, Ejumula and Kabode) and the other two were cleaned up local cream/white-fleshed varieties (Polista and Ukerewe). The DVMs received 2-5 varieties for multiplication and distribution. Of the multipliers reporting receiving each variety 48% had retained Polista; 34% retained Kabode; 23% had retained Ukerewe; 12% Ejumula and 11% Jewel.Reasons for losing or retaining varieties related to susceptibility of the variety to drought and diseases, and market preferences. Individual DVMs were more likely to retain the varieties compared to groups. Male individuals had higher retention of Polista, Ejumula and Ukerewe than females. DVMs stated that Polista and Ukerewe were tolerant to diseases and drought, with Polista being marketable (both vines and roots), with large roots and high dry matter. Reasons for retaining Ejumula related to nutrition for their families and sale of vines when there is the opportunity. Kabode appears to be widely adaptable;(Fig. 3) but Jewel was considered more susceptible to drought and diseases 1 .If they lost a variety, some DVMs would find replacement material from within their network of other multipliers, neighbours and kin; or by contacting research stations. Depending on variety between 9% (for Ejumula, Ukerewe) and 21% (for Kabode) of DVMs who had received a variety, had replaced it. Of the 45 multipliers who were continuing for sale or own use 78% were also multiplying other varieties, with male DVMs having the highest number of other varieties. These included local land races and improved varieties distributed through subsequent projects (e.g. Mataya and NASPOT 1, 8, 12, 13).There is increasing differentiation among varieties in terms of use; i.e. home consumption, marketing and to some extent processing (both traditional sweetpotato processed products such as \"mchembe\" and processing of OFSP types for chapati, mandazi). The persistence of varieties depends on how varietal characteristics fit into different agro-ecologies and degree of preference in the market. For the upland system -(with showers in August) -the variety needs to be longer maturity (5 months -e.g. Polista). Shifting between lowlands and uplands -suits the shorter maturity OFSP varieties.Observations were taken on 17 plots to capture the use of specialized seed practices. 94% were conserving vines during the dry season; 88% were weeding (Fig. 2); 47% used seed beds; 59% used short cuttings; 41% close spacing; 41% rouging; 71% rotation and 35% practiced isolation. 24% labelled their multiplication plot, with only 18% labelling planting materials. Access to a water 1 During the project, both Ejumula and Jewel were known to be virus susceptible, but the taste of Ejumula is highly preferred in East Africa, and Jewel, an important OFSP variety, met needs of a niche processing market. source ranged from 5 to 20 meters. Groups rented or used land belonging to a group member; the individual multipliers used their own land. FGDs on the changing division of labour, highlighted that men were joining their wives in their vine multiplication activities, ensuring that measurements for seed beds and spacing were done correctly, and supporting the irrigation effort during dry spells.We found different scenarios as to why farmer groups who had been DVMs continued vine multiplication or not. 36 (57%) of the original group DVMs were traced of which 53% (19) had abandoned sweetpotato vine multiplication as an activity. Reasons for dropping including the start of another project with a different crop or activity focus; the lack of markets for vines in their area, or loss of varieties due to drought or disease. 19% (7) of the group DVMs had completely disbanded due to a variety of reasons relating to: group dynamics; technical challenges related to irrigation, pests and diseases; or the close of the project. 28% of the group DVMs were continuing to sell vines.However, in some cases although the group may have discontinued vine multiplication, members within the group started their own multiplication activities. This explains the increase in number of individual multipliers compared to the project period (from 28% to 56%) of which 69% were male and 31% were female. The number of female individual DVMs had doubled from seven during the intervention to 14 at the time of the follow-up. Among the individual DVMs, 49% were continuing to sell; with 39% of individual male DVMs continuing to sell; compared to 71% of female DVMs.The main types of customers mentioned for all categories of DVMs (groups, individuals, male, female) were farmers from the surrounding community (up to 10 km distance) (Fig. 4). The second category were institutional customers. Individual male DVMs were the only ones to mention traders as customers; and group DVMs were the only ones to mention \"events\" (e.g. agricultural shows) as a source of customers. There was a mixture of one-off and repeat customers. The maximum number of customers reported was between 80-98; but the majority of DVMs reported between 5-10 customers over the last year, of which they could recall some details of the transactions. For groups: the predominant unit of sale was \"bundle\" (head-load/ bicycle load) which was not standardized but ranged in the equivalent of 100-300 30cm cuttings, with a price range per cutting of 7-20 TSH (US$0.003 -0.009). For individual DVMs, bags were more commonly used as the unit of sale, with each bag having 1,200 30 cm cuttings on average. Unit price per 30 cm cutting ranged from 4-40 TSH (US$0.002-0.018). Varieties requested, depended on what was available, but Kabode was most frequently mentioned and Polista. Key promotion strategies were: word of mouth through friends and neighbours; roadside signboards; village meetings and contacts through extension officers. Radio and use of demonstration plots were only mentioned by a few.In the past, sweetpotato was the responsibility of women because of its role in assuring food security in the home; and women's role in crop production, sourcing varieties and planting material. Attitudes and practices have changed towards sweetpotato as a crop and vine exchange. Sweetpotato is now considered as a cash crop by men, because production of other crops (e.g. maize, rice, coffee) is being affected by climatic variability, disease outbreaks, and marketing uncertainty. This is reflected in national and regional sweetpotato production figures and the increase in road side markets in Bukombe and Butiama on the major transportation routes to Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Shinyanga and border towns with Kenya.As economic benefit is apparent, gender roles become more fluid, and ridicule overcome. In FGDs women noted how engagement in specialized vine multiplication, and the associated income -has led to increased respect in the household and community, leading to different social norms and practices emerging around sweetpotato.Managing access to appropriate land and water resources both within and outside the household are jointly negotiated by wife and husband for mutual benefit.Specialized seed production practices require additional investment and resources, so multipliers want to see some recognition/monetary compensation. Extra labour, manure and irrigation inputs are needed. Parallel pricing systems are emerging \"people know seed for sale is better quality than what they get for free. People are already accepting that\". \"There can be a price differentiation between local vines (TSH 1,000) and improved (TSH 5,000) (ID42)\". So, there is growing acceptance that vines can be sold.  However, commercialization and a business approach are still mediated by strong sentiments related to community obligations \"justness\". The DVMs balanced their social obligations with the development of their business. Some set the number of families they will assist or the quantity they will gift -planning to meet their social obligations; some only gift vines from their root production field, not their vine multiplication plot. Some will gift but only provide very small quantities. There are other motivations around gifting such as spreading risk if they lose a variety, and pragmatism when vines are plentiful or to avoid theft.While there are social norms and values that underpin transactions of sweetpotato vines, it appears that DVMs can navigate these to continue in their vine business. These social norms also contribute to the persistence of the orange-fleshed varieties as FGDs explained when people know the nutritional benefits, they want these to be shared widely in the community.The findings have increased our understanding of the motivations of different types of multipliers to continue to sell and maintain improved varieties, and the types of social norms underpinning vine transactions in cash or through gifting practices. This information can be used to ensure stronger linkages with the sources of improved varieties, clean seed and information about quality assurance practices. Using social media and identifying regular events where multipliers can access new varieties and clean seed is critical. In the context of commercialization of the root crop and availability of","tokenCount":"1835"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"459b05024ad5b8f0f994a4a5e78e5828","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3bbfc94f-8e4f-42cf-a4fb-cc642c0e9957/retrieve","id":"-1271000629"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3532b331-2c2e-44c9-8df5-a19dc0351abe","pagecount":"28","content":"* More detailed data have also been collected, including the sales prices, live weight, name of buyers and producers. These data have not been included here, but will be part of project M&E. ** Without the use of weighing scale as the paravet did not have a weighing scale yet and the CARE team did not go there.The goal of the \"Small ruminant value chains as platforms for reducing poverty and increasing food security in dryland areas of India and Mozambique (imGoats)\" project is to increase incomes and food security in a sustainable manner by enhancing pro-poor small ruminant value chains in India and Mozambique. The project proposes to transform goat production and marketing from the current ad hoc, risky, informal activity to a sound and profitable enterprise and model that taps into a growing market, largely controlled by and benefiting women and other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups; while preserving the natural resource base.The specific objectives of the project are to: (a) pilot sustainable and replicable organizational and technical models to strengthen goat value chains in India and Mozambique that increase incomes, reduce vulnerability and enhance welfare amongst marginalized groups, including women; and (b) document, communicate and promote appropriate evidence-based model(s) for sustainable, propoor goat value chains.In addition to goat keepers, beneficiaries will include other goat value chain actors, including smallscale traders, input and service providers. The project is following innovation systems approaches within a value chain framework. The value chain models will be implemented through the two mechanisms of innovation platforms and producer hubs, which will be comprised of multiple and diverse stakeholders. Innovation platforms (IPs) provide spaces for value chain actors to interact, communicate and act to improve performance of the value chain and with the resulting benefits to the actors. They will also be the mechanism to stimulate joint action to test feasible technical, organizational and institutional interventions for improving the productivity of goats, their marketing and associated service delivery.Using an appropriate and focused Monitoring and Evaluation framework, the project will document the participatory approaches used, processes followed, outcomes generated and lessons learned to generate research evidence towards the development of goat value chain models that benefit the poor. Lessons learned and opportunities for scaling up and out will be communicated to policymakers and development practitioners.The project is being implemented by CARE in Mozambique, while the overall leadership and coordination of the project is done by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).This report provides an account of the fourth meeting of the imGoats Innovation Platform (IP) held on 15 th of March in Manusse, Inhassoro district of Mozambique, facilitated by CARE.To monitor innovation processes, it is important to capture the IP meetings as well as the process between the meetings. This report therefore also included the activities in between the 3 rd and 4 th IP meeting (section 2). Due to unexpected circumstances, there have been almost 5 months (18 October 2011-15 March 2012) between the two meetings (see section 3 Preparations for 4 th IP meeting). The report continues with the meeting process (section 4) and is concluded with a few lessons learned for designing and facilitating future meetings (section 5).At the fair in Manusse on December 8, two buyers from Vilanculos were interested in buying a large male goat, which weighed 36 kg. The total price was 1440 Meticais (40 meticais/kg). This was considered too high by the two buyers as in Vilanculos they could buy this goat for 1500 meticais and now they also had to arrange transport (they arrived with a CARE car). Transport costs were estimated at 35 Meticais (using a 'chapa'). In the end, the buyers did not agree with the price and left the community without buying.As result of the 3 rd IP meeting goat four fairs were organised in November and December 2011. During the IP meeting it was agreed that CARE would take the lead in organising the fairs with support from the IP secretariat. It was planned to organise multiple, small fairs simultaneously in different communities on one day. Hence, when we refer to 'fair' this refers to all sales activities on one day, i.e. in multiple communities. Table 1 shows an overview of the project communities and the number of goats sold at each fair.At the first fair (30 November) 4 producers (2 men, 2 women) and 5 buyers participated. At the second fair (8 December), 24 producers (16 men, 8 women) and 4 buyers participated (figure 1). The third fair (21 December) consisted of 18 producers (9 men, 9 women) and 4 buyers.At the fourth fair (14 January) 10 producers (8 men, 2 women) and 2 buyers participated. There were no female buyers. This fair only occurred in Vuca Litoral as it was requested by the community members. Due to limited interest of buyers there were no fairs at other locations. The reasons might be related to the lack of information supplied to the buyers, but buyers also said they were short of money, as December was an expensive month and as such they were unable buy goats in January. It might also be that buyers did not participate because few people are buying goat meat in January as December was an expensive month and in January school fees needed to be paid, leaving little money available to buy goat meat (i.e. low demand). Also the island lodges were not buying in January due to staff vacations and impending cyclones, increasing risk of transport from the mainland. During the 3 rd IP meeting a weighing scale exercise was conducted and the price per kilogram live weight was defined with the IP participants at 40 -45 Meticais/kg live weight (about 1.50 -1.70 USD/ kg live weight). Weighing scales were used at the fairs and prices were between the agreed 40 and 45 Meticias per kilogram live weight. However, several buyers did not buy goats in the end, because the price was too high according to them, as they said the price was similar to the price they pay for a goat in Vilanculos, whereas the goats in the communities still needed to be transported which would increase their costs (see Box 1). Hence, it would be more interesting for them to buy directly in Vilanculos unless the price in the communities would be lower.Summarizing, the following positive aspects of the fairs can be identified (largely based on observations of CARE Project Officer, Amosse): In general, producers were satisfied with the price they received. This observation was confirmed by the request of producers when the next fairs would be. Buyers, who did not want to use the weighing scale to determine the sales price, had a hard time finding animals. Buyers from Vilanculos managed to come to the third fair on their own despite the distance, i.e. CARE did not provide transport to them (as was done at the second fair). However, there are also several challenges with fairs such as:-One of the biggest challenges is the aggregation of animals from different communities to one place. This may be related to the fact that producers are not used to selling their animals at a distance. Especially if the sale is not for an urgent household need (e.g. illness) they tend to sell only in their community. Consequently, when fairs include different sales points these may take more time for buyers due to longer distances between and transport of the animals between the sales points compared to one sales location. -Paravets were asked to make an inventory of the number of available goats in their community in preparation for the fair and because buyers asked for an estimation. However, most paravets were not able to give an accurate estimation of the number of animals for sale in their community. At this stage it is unclear why it was not possible to give an accurate estimation. It might be related the fact that this was the first time(s) to organize fairs and producers wanted to see first what was happening before committing in advance to sell their animals. -The buyers who have been participating in the fairs are small buyers (from Inhassoro and Vilanculos) who can only buy a few animals at the time as they provide a relatively small goat meat market. However, one large buyer (outside the district) wants to only buy 100-200 goats at once. The number of goats for sale seems to be between 20 and 30 goats per fair, which seems to be too many for the small buyer and too few for a larger buyer. The value chain report 1 mentioned larger scale buyers from Manhiça56 who are prepared to start purchasing quantities of 40-50 animals initially but have the capacity to purchase up to 100 (200) goats per month. -Some buyers are known in the field as 'rescuers' in times of emergency. Some of these buyers do not want (or are not able to) use the weighing scale. Producers still prefer to sell animals to them in the 'usual way' (without a weighing scale) as these buyers have helped them in times of emergency, even though producers would have received a higher price when selling to another buyer using the weighing scale.Figure 1. Using the weighing scale at the goat fair in Manusse (left) and money transaction between buyer and female imGoats beneficiaries In Vulanjane (right)During the 3 rd IP meeting activities for communal pasture areas were discussed. One of the main challenges identified was the lack of support from community leaders in identifying areas.Consequently it was decided to talk to community leaders about the importance and functioning of the IP and emphasis the need of their involvement and support in terms of communal pastures, and other IP initiated future activities.CARE therefore initiated a meeting with community leaders where the project works on the 10 th of February in Vulanjane from 10:00 to 14:30 hrs. In total, 46 people participated (figure 2) representing 14 communities: 11 community leaders  12 presidents of producer groupsThe meeting covered the following four topics and suggested solutions: 1. Weak project participation: Community leaders need to be more involved in the activities of imGoats to mobilise community and groups to participate. The community leaders had little knowledge about the objectives and advantages of the project. After this meeting, they committed to communicating with other influential community members,such as traditional and religious leaders and women representatives to request their support in raising awareness amongst goat keepers. In each community, the community leader, president of the producer group and paravet will identify an area for communal pasture. They will provide this information to the imGoats extension officer and SDAE officer to map which area would be suitable in each community. The identified area will be legalised as official communal pasture area (excluding documentation costs involved, but including transport of staff of local government). Simultaneously, there will be a discussion at community level about the future management of the pasture areas (e.g. about water and security). Community leaders became familiar with the project objectives.  Community leaders will be more involved in raising awareness among goat keepers.  At community level there will be more collaboration between the community leader and paravet. Community leaders committed to support imGoats interventions. 4. Short term expected results:  Less conflicts over goats entering the 'machambas' (agricultural plots for crops and vegetables), as well as an area identified solely for pasture. Determining physical condition of the goats (health status) and increasing the number of goats available at a fair. Increased participation of goat keepers (in the project).  The meeting was held on December 13 in Nhapele. President Fatima was not present, which was unfortunate as her function was also to be discussed. The other members (João, Ernesto, Daniel) continued the meeting, which was facilitated by Amosse. Annex 1 provides detailed minutes of the meeting. The main conclusion of the meeting was that the secretariat is a bit weak and not functioning very well. The reasons for this may vary; it may be related to the expectations of a few secretariat members that they would receive material incentives (e.g. cell phone credit, transport costs or a bike). It may also be related to the absence of the president as she is much occupied with arts and crafts sector of the SEED project as she is District Promoter. It was therefore proposed that new elections for the IP secretariat at the 4 th IP meeting be held to elect a stronger secretariat with members who have sufficient time available. João, Ernesto and Daniel were all interested in being re-elected. The imGoats project team however was not in favour of Daniel being re-elected as he has not shown much interest in the project and he frequently has not shown up at secretariat and IP meetings. In January 2012 Amosse had discussed the situation with Fatima. She also proposed stepping down, as she did not have sufficient time available to be president of the IP secretariat.The 4 th IP meeting was initially planned on Wednesday the 25 th of January at Nhapele. However, the meeting was postponed due to upcoming cyclone Funso and the associated heavy rainfall in the days before. In accordance with the IP secretariat and CARE and ILRI staff, it was decided to reschedule the meeting to Thursday the 23 rd of February. Amosse discussed suggestions for the agenda with the IP secretariat. The day before the IP meeting (February 22), the agenda was made final in a meeting with CARE and ILRI staff (Roberto Cassiano, Michaela Cosijn, Amosse Maheme, Arcanjo Nharucue, Camila Rivero, Saskia Hendrickx and Birgit Boogaard). During this meeting the following decisions were taken: CARE would provide transport for the participants to the IP meetings. This has been a discussion since the first IP meeting, but distances are considered too long and transport possibilities too irregular to arrive in time (9:00 hrs) at an IP meeting. The IP meeting would start with a reflection on the fairs, asking the participants for feedback.  Participants would be informed about the meeting on communal pasture areas with the community leaders on February 10 (section 2.2). Participants would be asked about possibilities in their communities as there are large differences between communities in terms of pasture availability (quality and area) and security. There would be new elections for the IP secretariat. President Fatima would be asked to explain that she does not have sufficient time to fully engage in her function and was withdrawing.Consequently, there would be elections for all functions. New IP secretariat members should fulfil the following criteria: 1) have sufficient time, 2) preferably be able to read and write Portuguese, 3) agree with performing the activities of the specific function to which they would be elected. It was proposed by the project team that the new president be someone who already has experience in the secretariat to ensure continuity and a rather quick follow-up given the short duration of the project. Finally, participants would be informed about improved kraals, using pictures of improved kraals in Tete from another ILRI supported project. In addition, communities would be selected where 'model farmers' could construct an improved kraal as an example.The meeting was planned for three and a half hours (9:00-12:30), followed by lunch around 12:30. The project covered the costs of the lunch.When arriving in Nhapele on the 23 rd of February at 8:30 hrs, it became clear that the participants were not the same people who participated in former IP meetings. Although there has been some variation in participation (e.g. depending on the location), these participants seemed to be almost a completely different group. It appeared that most of these participants were participants at the meeting on the 10 th of February (section 2.2), (i.e. community leaders and paravets). However, other value chain actors were absent, as well as the President, Secretary and Councillor of the IP secretariat. The meeting was held in the community of Vice-President, João, who was present. Key members of the livestock keepers from Nhampele, who had previously participated in all previous IP's were also not present (i.e. Joana and Sarafina)After a short team discussion between the imGoats team, it was decided to continue the meeting with the same topics. It was decided to give information and explanation about the defined topics, but not to take any decisions, as it was considered important that the IP members be involved in the decisions taken and follow-up actions. The participants of this 'IP-meeting-that-wasn't-an-IPmeeting' have also been included in the participant list (Annex 3, Feb 23). The most important points of the meeting were:1. Introduction: Amosse explained the importance of the IP and its activities to the community leaders, including the three identified key issues at the first IP meeting. Vice President, João, explained the organisation of the four goat fairs in November and December to the community leaders. He emphasised the importance of the use of a weighing scale. He also requested that more animals be brought to the next fairs, because that would attract larger buyers e.g. from Maputo or Beira. Each leader explained what activities had been undertaken in his community with regard to communal pasture areas on basis of the meeting on February 10. There was a group discussion how to provide water to the goats in the pasture areas and how to prevent goats from being stolen from the pasture areas (security). It was also discussed how to get support from the government in constructing watering places near the pasture areas. 4. Improved Kraals: Saskia Hendrickx (ILRI) explained the advantages of improved kraals: 1) fewer lame animals, 2) less skin infection (in the wet season), 3) protection against predators (dogs and snakes), 4) kids are protected against rain and cold, 5) manure is easily collected, 6) protection against theft. She used pictures of improved kraals in Tete province to show participants how improved kraals look. Amosse and Saskia also emphasised that the community members should be cutting the wood and constructing the kraal. The project will assist with knowledge and provide nails. The community leaders responded very positively 2 and stated that they would raise awareness among goat keepers in their community about this. As there were very few IP participants, it was decided to postpone the election of the secretariat members to the actual IP meeting. Instead, Amosse explained about the secretariat and its functions. The meeting was ended by the female president of the women group of Nhapele. She emphasised that everybody should communicate to their community members what they had learnt during the meeting.The following day (Friday February 24), CARE and ILRI staff reflected on the meeting. It was discussed how it could have happened that such a different group of participants showed up. Normally, the IP President and Secretary should be inviting participants (they receive cell phone credit to do so). However, as mentioned above, President Fatima did not participate actively and as such did not invite people.. The Secretary (Ernesto) did not succeed in reaching everybody due to bad cell phone connection in several communities. In these communities, members normally would have been informed through the local school. However, due to rescheduling of the meeting (as result of the upcoming cyclone in January), there was too little time to inform people in this way. It was therefore decided that Extension Officer Majesso would invite the participants. However, Majesso misunderstood the difference between an IP meeting and the meeting on February 10 (community leaders). As such, Majesso mainly invited people who participated in the latter meeting (February 10), resulting in many community leaders and paravets and very few other value chain actors. It was agreed that Amosse would sit together with Majesso to explain the purpose of IP meetings and who should participate . Saskia emphasised that there is no reason for alarm; the meeting was also very useful for the community leaders and within a few weeks the actual IP meeting could still take place. The actual 4 th IP meeting would take place on March 13, 14, or 15 depending on the availability of the secretariat members, as they needed be present when new elections will take place. Amosse would check and confirm.On Monday (11 March) there was short meeting to prepare the 4 th IP meeting. It was decided to maintain the agenda as prepared before, but one topic was added; information flow and feedback and its importance. A few weeks before the meeting, M&E officer Arcanjo went into the field to ask how information from the IP meeting flows back into the community, which was part of the Outcome Mapping Monitoring. He therefore talked with community members in four communities: Vulanjane, Chimanjane, Mabime and Chitostso. It appeared that only in Vulanjane information of the IP meeting arrived, the other communities experienced challenges (see Outcome Mapping data for details on the results). It was therefore decided to start the IP meeting with a short introduction on the importance of information flow and Arcanjo's findings. The final agenda for the meeting is provided in Annex 2.In addition, there was a discussion on how to facilitate the elections. A few names of active participants were mentioned as potential candidates (preferences of the imGoats team). It was discussed that it would be good to have a current secretariat member as President to ensure continuity and maintain the experience gained. Vice-president and active paravet, João, was considered the most suitable as President. However, it was also decided that it was up to the IP participants to address candidates and vote. As each position entails specific capacities (e.g. President has different tasks than the Secretary), it was decided to request specific candidates for each position and vote per position. Voting would occur on anonymously using stones, which people could put on a coloured paper (each candidate would have a specific colour).The IP Vice-President, João, and Secretary, Ernesto, extended invitations based on the participant list. Each therefore received 200 Meticais (about 8 USD) cell phone credit to invite the participants.Due to transport problems (CARE car broke down), there was a delay of almost two hours in collecting participants. Given the importance of the meeting, it was decided to wait for the majority of participants to arrive before starting the meeting. Hence, the meeting started around 11 hrs (instead of 9 hrs). Fatima (President) opened the meeting and welcomed everybody to the 4 th IP meeting. The meeting was facilitated by Amosse (PO) and João (Vice president IP secretariat) in Xitswa and translated into Portuguese by Faustino (extension officer) for Arcanjo (M&E officer), Camila (Peace Corps volunteer), Michaela (Technical Advisor) and Birgit (ILRI).Fatima started by introducing herself briefly; thereafter the other participants presented themselves. In total, 40 people were present (see list of participants, Annex 3), in the following stakeholder groups 3 :  12 producers (7 women, 5 men)  10 community leaders / other community position (e.g. 'chefe da terra') (10 men)  1 retailer (man)  8 paravets (8 men)  2 buyers (2 men)  1 government representative (SDAE) (woman)  6 CARE/ILRI staff (3 men, 3 women) Fatima explained the objective of the meeting; to reflect on activities of the last months, i.e. goat fairs and communal pasture areas, and discuss activities for the coming months. Amosse added that there would also be new elections for the IP secretariat on four positions; president, vice-president, secretary and councillor.Arcanjo explained that he visited four communities and asked how people -who did not participate in the IP meeting -received information about the meeting. Only in Vulanjane information was transferred without problems, the other communities experienced difficulties. He also explained that he asked people about the use of the weighing scale. Most community members mentioned that they had heard about, but had not used it yet. Amosse asked the participants if they thought Arcanjo's information was important. The answer was 'yes', because the information needs to be transferred to the community. On the basis of a drawing, Amosse explained the importance of information flow (Figure 3a) as follows: At the IP meeting, the CARE team gives information to the IP participants, but then each participant should take the information to his/her community (producer groups). But is that enough? How do the IP members then know what the community members think and do? And how does CARE know? Therefore, information needs to go from the community members to the IP participants and then, at the IP meeting, the IP participants give feedback to the CARE team.Subsequently, Amosse explained what feedback is and why it is important. He explained that the IP started with identifying a problem; weak organisation of producers. To deal with the problem, goat fairs have been organised. After these fairs it is important to hear from the participants what went well and what went less well, as these lessons will be used to improve following actions (see figure 3b). Amosse asked the participants if it was clear and if someone had questions or comments. The community leader of Vuca Litoral responded that is was important that people in the community are in favour of the project. There will always be people with doubts (e.g. when using the weighing Box 2. When do we receive improved breeds?The community leader of Mabime said that they were told at the beginning of the project that they would receive improved breeds, but now he hasn't heard anything about it anymore. What happened? Amosse responded that this indeed has been mentioned at the beginning and asked what the other participants think. The community leader of Vulanjane responded that they are still at the beginning of the process and organizing producer groups. There are many things which are not good yet -as also shown by Arcanjo's findings in the communities. His community works for many years with CARE and his experience is that CARE first looks at how the people are organized. ''We don't even have a kraal yet. We should do that first and maybe thereafter ask for improved breeds''. Paravet João (Vice president of the secretariat) from Nhapele stood up and said: ''We have to be very careful with improved breeds. We have very few goats. We are not capable yet to receive improved breeds. For example, they need water and some of us don't have the capacity to give water to their goats. Hence, we are not able to have improved breeds yet.'' Amosse added that the producers in Mabime are not the only producers who expected to receive improved breeds. CARE aims to improve production with the local breeds. CARE will not distribute improved breeds. In fact, CARE will not distribute anything. Instead, CARE will educate and train people and help them to organize. In this way they can increase production and sales. scale), but it is important that the IP participants explain the importance of the project and activities to the others. Thereafter the discussion diverted to the distribution of improved breeds by the project. Though this was not part of discussion on feedback, this issue has come up before at other moments and it was considered a good opportunity to clarify this (see Box 2). João (Vice President of IP secretariat) explained activities since the previous IP relating to goat fairs. Four fairs have been organised and about 100 goats have been sold. There were some challenges in the beginning as it was a new experience. For example, not all producers participated and sometimes there were not enough animals. CARE contacted (large) buyers (e.g. from Maputo and Tete), but these buyers will not come for a few animals. Hence, more animals are needed. He requested the participants to raise awareness among producers to participate at the fairs. He also explained that it costs time and transport for the buyers to come here. He asked participant what challenges they encountered.Joana (female producer from Nhapele) said that the fairs should be used as demonstrations, so more people could participate. A producer from another community mentioned that at the 2nd fair in the community, the buyers did not arrive. But with the 1 st fair people were very satisfied; they had never before sold a goat in the village for 1200 Meticais! João concluded that the producers were satisfied with the sales and the prices. He asked what about the buyers?Ernesto (buyer and IP secretary) mentioned that the prices are okay for buyers who buy goats and slaughter themselves to sell the meat. However, with this price it is not possible to sell the goats to the next buyer. He also asked the participants to raise awareness among their producers to bring more animals, so that larger buyers can participate (e.g. as happens with cattle in Mabote). His main concern was the fact that several producers gave the animals a lot of water before the sales. By doing so, the animals weigh more, which increases the sale price. At the last fair he bought a goat that had been drinking a lot of water, though the producers said they didn't give water. When Ernesto slaughtered the goat, there appeared to be a lot of water. Rafaelo (Vilanculos buyer) said that the price of 45 Meticais per kg live weight is fine, but it should be 'an exchange of favours'; it is not good to give water to the goats before sales. He requested the producers to support the buyers here also in their own interest: there are many (Vilanculos) buyers waiting for his (Rafaelo's) experience. If he is satisfied, other buyers will also come to buy. In addition he said not to sell pregnant goats, as this is be a big loss in weight when the goat is slaughtered and a loss of future animals. Ernesto emphasised that people should not sell small animals; they should increase their production to have sustainable fairs. Rafaelo proposed that producers and buyers should be friends and support each other.João agreed that this is why we are here; to find a common solution. It is not good to sell pregnant animals and it is not good to give water before selling. ''We should not do that. We should inform all our producers not to do this. If they keep on doing this, then they will not buy our animals anymore and go elsewhere'' he said. Amosse agreed that CARE also supports fair business and that all people in the chain (producers, buyers, government, etc) have to work together. People need to think about the consequences of their actions.Amosse summarized that sometimes there were not enough animals at the fairs and at other times there were not enough buyers. How can this be solved in the future? It was suggested that mobile phones be used to make arrangements: On day X, a buyer will come to the community buy X goats. The paravet will aggregate X goats in the community. Amosse suggested that because distances are so long, maybe communities close to each other could help each other. For example, by marking 2-3 zones and have fairs for 2-3 days. What do they think? It was suggested that there should be one day per community and that if a there was a neighbouring community who wanted to participate they could do it together. Amosse asked who should do this? It was suggested that the paravet inform the producers. Amosse asked if the number of animals available in one community would be enough. For example, in Mabote they organise 3 fairs every 3 months and producers as well as buyers know this. Would that be something to do here? 'Yes' (responded by many). Armando (paravet Manusse) said it can be possible, but new ideas always have challenges. Amosse agreed, but the question is: should we mark fixed dates for fairs or should we define a date only when there are sufficient goats?It was suggested that it was best to mark two fairs per year: one in June (Independence day) and one in December (Christmas and end of year). Ernesto (buyer) responded that these are festivity dates, but that people in town eat goat meat every day. The community leader of Vulanjane suggested combining both: have two fairs per year and contact buyers when communities have goats available in between the two fairs (e.g. in February, March). This was agreed. Amosse asked who would contact the buyer. It was suggested that the (recently trained) paravets should do this with support from CARE. It was suggested that nuclei of commercialisation of 2 to 4 paravets be created so that if one leaves or is sick the others can help with the organisation of fairs. When discussing who would take responsibility, the discussion diverted to how this would be without CARE at the end of this year. There was a discussion on the involvement of the government and the role of the secretariat. It was decided (by the imGoats team) to postpone this discussion to a next meeting due to time limitations and other important agenda points.Amosse asked how it could be ensured that people use the weighing scale. It was suggested by a producer that all goat sales in the community should be done with a weighing scale. Another producer stated that when a goat was sold within a community to another community member there was no need to use the weighing scale as this was negotiation between them but all external sales should be done with a weighing scale. Ernesto (buyer) added that the fairs were good, because it prevented thefts; the only way for goats to leave the community would be through fairs. He said that producers would experience difficulties in selling goats elsewhere (than a fair). After a short discussion it was decided that: 1) The weighing scale would only be used at aggregation and commercialization of goats (fair); when selling a goat to a community or family member, this may be done without weighing scale. 2) Producers will only sell goats (to buyers outside the community) at fairs. Except for emergencies, then goats may be sold outside fairs.With regards to the sale of pregnant animals, one producer suggested that if there was an emergency to sell the animal that it would be swopped with someone else in the community for an animal which was not pregnant. Then the kids could be born and everyone would gain in terms of production.Summarizing, the reflection on goat fairs resulted in the following decisions: 1) Participants will raise awareness among their community members (producers) to: participate in fairs  not give water to the goats  not sell pregnant goats  only sell at fairs for 45 Meticais/kg live weight (except for emergencies)  using the weighing scale when selling (except when selling to a community or family member) 2) There was agreement between buyers and producers on the following:  Fairs will be organised as a minimum twice a year; in June and December  In other months producers (through their paravets) will contact buyers when they have animals available. Producers with paravets will more actively engage with buyers and organise fairs.João facilitated the session on communal pasture areas. Nine communities have identified communal pasture areas: Nhapele, Mabime, Vuca Interior, Malanguete, Vulanjane, Bavana, Machambine, Manusse and Cachane. João asked what challenges they encountered when identifying the areas. In Vuca Interior, people are afraid of theft, as all animals will be in one place, which makes it easier to steal them. In addition, they are afraid that snakes will eat the kids. The community leader in Vulanjane mentioned that is important that the majority of the producers are in favour of communal pasture areas. He suggested it is a matter of rules that no one will keep goats in the village (close to the house) anymore. In Vulanjane they encountered the challenge that there are machambas along the path from the community to the pasture areas. These machambas need to be cleared. He emphasised that it is important to first raise awareness among the community and then negotiate which location will be defined. Force should not be used. In Nhampele they identified a location and a few producers constructed small kraals nearby the area. The area seems to be cleared to create a machamba, so they need to discuss with the community members and government about the area to allow it to become a pasture area. There were also machambas along the access path to the pasture area, which they want to move. The main challenge is the lack of water in the area. In Mabime, water shortage is no problem, as the pasture areas are located close to a lake and river.In two communities (Chitsotso and Manguguemete) areas have not been identified. In Chitsotso they have identified a potential area, but when they went to meet with the community leaders the Chef de Terras (Chief of lands) was not available and so they need to return. In Manguguemete there is no support and collaboration from community leaders for producers and the project.It was mentioned that it is important to formalize the areas with a document to prevent conflicts in the future. Amosse therefore explained that people should: identify the area.  contact SDAE (local government) about the existing land use plan and compare the identified area with the land use plan of the government. contact the CARE extension officer and government (geografico cadastre -land registry office) to prepare the legal documentation. need to involve CARE, leaders and geografico cadastre in more education of communities if necessary.Amosse explained that the secretariat consists of 4 positions and that the President (Fatima) doesn't have sufficient time to participate as she is also district promoter of the 'arts and crafts' sector in Inhassoro, which takes a lot of time. The secretariat therefore suggested that they need someone with more time available. Fatima therefore withdrew. Fatima was acknowledged for her effort and input in the last months.Amosse explained that vacancies for all four positions were open, but that it would be good to maintain a few people of the secretariat to ensure continuity. Amosse asked the participants about the responsibilities and tasks of each function. Subsequently there was a discussion on the election process. Armando (paravet in Manusse) suggested that a list should go round on which everybody could write a name. Afterwards the names would be counted; the name that appeared most frequently would become president, the second most frequently would become vice-president, etc. Amosse said they should vote for each position separately, because each position entails specific tasks which may suit some people's skills better than others.Rafaelo (Vilanculos buyer) asked: ''Why can the Vice-president not succeed to President?''. Most of the participants were in favour of his suggestion, leading to applause. Amosse asked if there were other people who wanted to be president. They answered that their proposal is João. João responded that the community leader of Vulanjane would be a good candidate. The community leader of Vulanjane responded that he has many tasks currently and has not enough time to be actively engaged in the secretariat. Thereafter it was decided that João be the new President of the IP secretariat.Subsequently it was asked who wanted to be the candidate for Vice-president. The community leader of Vulanjane mentioned that this should be a woman as a woman has left the secretariat and all the others are men. The women in the group were asked to introduce themselves. One of the criteria was that she should be able to read and write, which none of the women did, except for one: Ivone. Ivone joined the IP meeting for the first time as livestock representative of SDAE. There was a short discussion among the imGoats team if someone from the local government could participate in the secretariat. As the government is also part of the value chain, this was considered acceptable. Moreover, the IP participants proposed Ivone as Vice president and did not want another candidate.Camila (Peace Corps Volunteer imGoats) explained that the idea of elections was to have a choice between different options. So it would be good to have more candidates. The community leader of Vulanjane responded that he understood her explanation but that they are satisfied with the others (Ernesto and Daniel) and that these could stay in the secretariat. They didn't need elections. The only thing they needed was a new President, because she does not have enough time. Hence, when the president is replaced with the Vice-president, then they only need a new vice-president, who should be a woman as a woman left. Amosse and João explained that during the project they (the secretariat) encountered some problems and it would be better to renovate the whole secretariat. Moises (paravet) stated that the elections started because the president did not have enough time, however now other issues were being raised. The CARE team explained one more time that it would be better practice to have election for all four positions, but people did not want it. Hence, the new secretariat consists of the following people, representing various stakeholders in the value chain: President: João (paravet and producer in Nhapele, man)  Vice-President: Ivone (livestock representative from SDAE (local government) in Inhassoro, woman) Secretary: Ernesto (buyer from Inhassoro, man)  Councillor: Daniel (community leader Chimanjane, man)It was mentioned that this secretariat will stay for a year. Hence, new elections will be in March 2013. Amosse proposed that at the next elections all positions would need to be opened up for vote to ensure that there were new ideas and energy on the IP secretariat and that it was democratic.Given the time the meeting took up to that point (3.5 hours including break), Amosse gave a relatively short introduction and explanation on improved kraals, including their benefits for animal health and reproduction. He asked people about the advantages of improved kraals and showed some photos (see figure 4). He said that at the meeting in Nhapele (see section 3.3) improved kraals had been explained. The following five communities have been identified with one 'model farmer' per community: Chimanjane, Manusse, Vulanjane, Cachane and Naphele. He emphasised that the kraals need to be built by the community members; CARE will provide nails and knowledge. Amosse wrapped up the meeting by summarizing the main take home messages: Only sell goats at fairs (except for emergencies)  Use the weighing scale when selling (except when selling to a community or family member)  Sell for a price of 45 Meticais per kilogram live weight  Fairs will be organised as a minimum twice a year; in June and December  In other months producers (through their paravets) will contact buyers when they have animals available When a location for communal pasture area is defined, contact the CARE extension officer and government (geografico cadastre -land registry office) to prepare the legal document. The outcome of the elections in terms of who is on the IP secretariat  There will be new secretariat elections after one year (March 2013)Michaela asked how often the participants wanted an IP meeting; every month, every two months or every three months. It was responded that once every two months was fine. It was felt that every three months was too long and every month too short. The next IP meeting will therefore be at the end of May. The secretariat will mark a date and inform the participants.The meeting was closed by the following people: The newly selected Vice president Ivone said that it was her first time to participate at an IP meeting and she would participate in the secretariat. President João thanked everybody for their participation. The meeting was closed by the community leader of Manusse; the community where the IP meeting took place.To conclude, a few reflections are given on the basis of the 4 th IP meeting. These are CARE and ILRI reflections.Positive aspects of the IP meeting to maintain: It was a very fruitful meeting with interesting and relevant discussions among various value chain actors, and some innovative comments and ideas. There was a large, active participant group.  All stakeholder groups were represented (including buyers and government).  Many activities have been conducted in between the 3 rd and 4 th IP meeting.  It was valuable to reflect together with buyers and producers on the fairs and future activities as it resulted in several concrete agreements and actions. Progress on the communal pasture is also positive.  Though the agenda was full and the meeting took almost 4 hours (including break), people participated actively until the end.Reflection on the IP secretariat: João (new President) is very motivated and a good facilitator. He is very promising as IP President and has a vision of how the IP and the project are working. He has integrated the project philosophy of working well. Ernesto (Secretary) participated actively as well, but he did not take any notes (as mentioned in 3 rd IP report). This may be too challenging for him, as the meeting was in Xitswa, he would write in Portuguese, and he was also actively involved in the discussions. It requires additional time and guidance and maybe a different set-up (e.g. filling in the form after the meeting or together with other secretariat members). Ivone (new Vice president) showed active involvement during the discussions. As it was her first time to participate in an IP meeting and the project, it remains to be seen how she functions within the secretariat. Daniel (Councillor) was present, but quiet during the entire meeting. He was not involved in any discussions. However, the imGoats team and secretariat did not explain clearly to the participants that he is not actively participating in the (secretariat and IP) meetings. Hence, they said they were satisfied with his performance and he could stay in the secretariat. It remains to be seen if Daniel will be participating more actively. Recommendation: The imGoats team should also consider suggesting to the secretariat that secretariat members who are absent at 2-3 meetings should be replaced. In terms of the elections, CARE maybe should have been more forthright in terms of some of the dysfunctionality in the IP in terms of the Councillor to ensure a new person was elected. Overall regular elections are an issue in all groups, even for other SEED groups. In an evaluation of groups being undertaken at present as part of the project exit strategy, it is clear that elections generally do not occur. How this could be facilitated should be reflected on. Amosse is an excellent facilitator but he is still taking the lead role, even though João has assumed many responsibilities. The team need to look at how João can take on further responsibilities during the meeting Other suggestions: Transport of participants remains a persistent issue. Though it has been decided by the management that CARE will provide transport (collect people); due to the long (off road) distances the logistics are even challenging for CARE. This might be something to think about if -and how-the IP would exist without CARE. CARE needs to examine carefully how to involve paravets, producers and government in the organization of the fairs, as at this stage the project is largely still taking the lead. The project should attempt to experiment with at least one additional fair before the next IP. The period associated with Easter may be appropriate, if demand is higher.In order to capture outcomes as behavioural change, the imGoats project makes use of Outcome Mapping. Outcomes are then defined as changes in the behaviour, relationships, activities, or actions of the people, groups, and organizations with whom a program works directly 4 . Boundary partners are defined as individuals, groups or organisations with whom the programme interacts directly and with whom the programme can anticipate some opportunities for influence. Within imGoats, four types of boundary partners have been identified: Production actors, Post-production actors, Input and service providers and, Enabling agencies. For imGoats Mozambique these include the following: Production actors: goat producers and producer groups  Post-production actors: buyers, slaughterers  Input and service providers: paravets and retailers  Enabling agencies: government, community leaders, donors, research institutes, universitiesFor each boundary partner, progress markers have been defined. Progress markers are a set of graduated indicators of changed behaviours for a direct partner that focus on the depth or quality of change. On the basis of these indicators, specific outcome journals have been developed for each boundary partner. However, for several progress markers it was not necessary to develop outcome journals, as these behavioural changes can be captured during the IP meeting. To keep track of these progress markers, it was decided to explicitly include the relevant progress in the IP reports. Table 2 shows an overview of these progress markers and the observations during the 4 th IP meeting.   Amosse explained that during the fair on the 30 th of November about 10 goats were sold and animals were not transported by CARE (this was initially planned). The price of 45 Meticais per kg of live weight was considered okay. One buyer came to have a look at the fair and promised to buy goats on the following fair (8 th of December). On the 8 th of December, fairs were organised at multiple places (Vuca, Vulanjane, Chichange, Manusse, Malanguete, Nhapele) and about 40 goats were sold. Ernesto (secretary and buyer) responded that the price of 45 Meticais/kg is too high and not sufficient for buyers to sell the meat afterwards, particularly when buyers -unlike him -do not slaughter the animals themselves. Roberto mentioned the problem of transporting of the animals; that it is difficult to aggregate animals and that there were not many animals for sale. João said he cannot speak on behalf of all producers, but he knows that goat keepers want to know in advance how much money a goat will be. In his community (Nhapele) 6 goats (of different producers) were available, but the imGoats team/extension officers did not assist in Nhapele at the 1 st (30 Nov) and 2 nd (8 Dec) fair. Hence, they should be there on the 3 rd fair (21 Dec). Amosse said that they indeed should be there on the 3 rd fair. He also said it is important for the buyers to know the number of animals available and that they should know the number of animals at least 2 days in advance. Amosse asked if the secretariat knows about any actions undertaken with regard to communal pasture. João explained that in Nhapele (his community) they are constructing a kraal, and he wondered if this could be an improved kraal as part of the project. In Mabime they are trying to identify an area for communal pasture around a lake, where goats are already grazing. They are motivated to do so, to protect their animals from dogs. Amosse emphasised that this project has little time and we need to work more on the grazing areas.3. Reflection and future 3a. Reflection on the project and possible improvements for next year  Amosse asked the members to look back and what could be improved in the next year.  João responded that the secretariat is not very strong. Amosse asked him to give an example. João responded that for example not everybody is present at meetings of the secretariat. Amosse asked responses of other members.  Daniel responded that the project is making progress and that he sees improvement of goat keeping in his community (Chimajane); two (treatment) kraals have been built and the goats are treated. He says the secretariat has problems; it doesn't have power. Ernesto responded the most important thing is that the secretariat should meet; how can they work together if there is no transport to meet each other? Transport costs money and what will they gain/earn with these meetings? He says there is no communication between the members of the IP secretariat. Roberto asked what type of transport normally would be used.  Ernesto said that they would use bicycles and that the project should for example provide them with bicycles.3b. Reflection on the functions of the IP secretariat members  Amosse asked if members feel comfortable with their function to continue in 2012 and if they have time available. The secretariat should be the engine of the activities. The list of functions and responsibilities (as composed in August, see report of 2 nd IP meeting) was used as basis to reflect on each function. João started with his function, which is fine for him. However, according him there is a lack of moral among the secretariat members. He thinks it is because they don't receive anything. Ernesto confirms by saying 'o carro não anda sem combustivel' (The car doesn't run without fuel). For comparison, he said that there is a lady here in community (Nhapele) who already has two new bikes and is not even participating actively in a project. Whereas they haven't received anything. He added that there is a lack of (cell phone) credit as only the president received credit to invite people for the IP meeting. About his function, Ernesto said that he doesn't have problems with his function, but that the president received the money to organise the lunch, whereas he should have received the money as it was part of his function. Amosse emphasised that in this project there are no material incentives.  When Daniel was asked to reflect on his function, Amosse carefully addressed his absence at many meetings. Daniel responded that there is no problem and that they can continue. Fatima was not present and could not reflect on her function. Ernesto responded that she is much occupied and frequently absent. They expect it to be even more next year, as she is actively involved in the Arts and Crafts project. What shall they do? João proposed that there will be new elections for the position of president. But what about the councillor? Then all functions should be re-elected. It is agreed to do this in the next IP meeting (25 th of January). ","tokenCount":"9005"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0a6ee152ac4fc34f233bda78b71ce62d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a176aec5-7c94-4811-9adb-7acd3b33aacf/retrieve","id":"1464780646"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d061d2c9-d787-497b-9f11-18d2c00d92f0","pagecount":"3","content":"Dispersed smallholder farmers in Sub-Sahara Africa are at risk of social and economic exclusion. Digital innovation and an enabling policy environment can help smallholders to transition out of poverty. The Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) considers farmers' organisations to be the key to drive this change. F armers' organisations can act as representative bodies to leverage services and mobilise resources to support farmers. However, verifiable membership data is necessary to enhance their credibility and legitimacy, to mobilise negotiating power and to work on evidence-based advocacy to give a voice to small-scale farmers.Concerned about the paucity of farmers' organisations' membership data, SACAU supported by AgriCord and CTA, has been working on a project to register farmers for its member organisations in the kingdoms of Lesotho and eSwatini. Launched in 2016, this project has led to the development of an Electronic Membership Data Management System for the Swaziland National Agricultural Union (SNAU) and Lesotho National Farmers Union (LENAFU).Through the creation of this data infrastructure, SACAU aims to improve service delivery by farmers' organisations, such as improved access to extension services, markets or financing, to improve farmers' incomes. Furthermore, the collected farmer data can be monetised through trade with other economic players such as seed, fertiliser, agricultural input and processing firms. Data can therefore serve as an additional revenue source for farmers' organisations and their members. By demonstrating these benefits, increasing numbers of farmers are encouraged to register. As the farmers' organisations accumulate more members and farmers' data, they strengthen their position as advocates for farmers in their respective regions.A no mean feat, this project was made possible by over 50 field facilitators who took to the field to register the farmers in their localities. Armed with smart phones, the facilitators registered over 52,000 farmers for LENAFU and 23,000 for SNAU. Data such as the age, location, gender and farming activities were compiled in the digital platform. With the project nearly complete, this data can be translated into information and narratives for a multiplicity of purposes.Both LENAFU and SNAU were set-up with the objective to promote an enabling (policy) environment throughThe accumulation of membership data by farmers' organisations can improve delivery of services to farmers.Fhumulani Mashau is Projects Officer at the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) based in South Africa. She has 16 years' experience in the agriculture sector and has held positions in the public, private and development sectors. fmashau@sacau.org Article advocacy and to represent the interests of their members. Their databases allow they to work with their governments on subsidy programmes for the benefit of their members. The Government of the Kingdom of eSwatini has, for example, requested SNAU to assist in the registration of farmers under a government input subsidy programme.Data collection is, however, not an end in itself; it does not automatically improve the work of farmers' organisations or farmers' standard of living. What is important is sensitivity to the socio-political nature of data. To give power to farmer data, farmers' organisations need to meet governance.There are two areas where farmers' organisations and governments can mutually benefit from profiling.Firstly, since few African countries possess reliable public sector institutional statistical capacity, farmers' organisations and governments should explore joint ventures for data collection. This is hardly contentious as African governments committed themselves to allocating at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture and rural development within five years after the 2003 African Union Heads of State and Government Summit. This commitment, which many governments are yet to meet, can neither be fulfilled, nor can the interventions make the necessary impact without reliable statistical data. Farmers' data could be used either as a source of information or as a verification mechanism complementing official data collection processes.Secondly, since advocacy is ultimately a political vocation, data collection by farmers' organisations should inform advocacy campaigns for the implementation or review of existing government policy commitments and policy change. Whereas farmers' organisations and governments may not always agree, their interests are best served by forging co-operative relations.\"This project and the publicity it generated has positioned SNAU as a partner organisation of choice for various stakeholders including government for initiatives involving farmers in the country. It has also improved the standing of SNAU as a repository of farmers' data in the country\" -Mr Nqobizwe Dlamini, SNAU Project Coordinator.An enabling policy environment for rural development should also translate into physical services. In developing countries, data collection is time consuming and costly. In Lesotho and eSwatini, project facilitators had to contend with intermittent mobile network coverage, inadequate energy sources, and poor road accessibility.The construction of physical and digital infrastructures that link urban areas -which are often the locus of trade -to rural communities is key to ensure inclusion of peripheral farmers.The accumulation of membership data by farmers' organisations can improve delivery of services to farmers to enhance their income, and provides these organisations with the evidence and legitimacy to advocate farmers' needs. As such, farmers' organisations become trust centres that bridge between farmers, policy-makers and value chain actors.To upscale data collection through farmers' organisations, an integrated approach is needed whereby public, private and development partners collaborate. The development sector should continue to strengthen the strategic capacities of farmers' organisations, including in digital and business development and support farmer registration to enhance the provision of services to farmers. Farmers' organisations should continue to mobilise farmers and aggregate needs and supply to strengthen the position of smallholder farmers. At the same time, investments are needed by the public sector in ICTs, (digital) infrastructure, institutions and public services, and agricultural policies.In Lesotho and eSwatini, the two national farmers unions are now poised to improve their policy-making and membership service processes, and to better engage in targeted advocacy programmes that should contribute to improved standards of living for their members. Yet work remains to be done. With the continuation of their registration efforts, additional information will be collected and added to the platform to enhance reliability, gain greater clarity on the sector and region and support planning and policy intervention measures. •","tokenCount":"1004"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ea85192f8bdbe5bdc021fcf85e9b85b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a86767eb-82bf-490b-b9ac-94a335bf20f7/retrieve","id":"-496515353"},"keywords":["EPPO storage, genome-wide association study (GWAS), Oryza sativa L. (rice), proanthocyanidins, Rc gene, seed aging, seed germination, seed longevity, seed storage AA, accelerated aging test","AE, allelic affect","ANOVA, analysis of variance","AUC(250), area under the germination curve until 250 h","aw, water activity","bHLH, basic helix-loophelix transcription factors","BIC, Bayesian information criterion","bp, base pairs","CD, controlled deterioration","CMLM, compressed mixed linear model","DAI, days after imbibition","DOS, days of storage","EPPN, elevated partial pressure of nitrogen","EPPO, elevated partial pressure of oxygen","ERH, equilibrium relative humidity","g, grams","GAPIT, Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool","G MAX , maximum germination","GWAS, genome-wide association study","h, hour","IRGC, International Rice Genebank Collection","IRIS, International Rice Information System","IRRI, International Rice Research Institute","kb, kilo bases","Ki, initial viability in normal equivalent deviates","L, litre","LD, linkage disequilibrium","LEA, late embryogenesis abundant proteins","M, million","MAF, minor allele frequency","Mb, mega bases","MGT, mean germination time","ml, millilitre","mm, millimetres","NED, normal equivalent deviates","P50, length of time for viability to fall to 50%","PA, proanthocyanidin","PCA, principal component analysis","P O2 , partial pressure of oxygen","QTL, quantitative trait loci","RFO, Raffinose family oligosaccharides","RNS, reactive nitrogen species","ROS,"],"sieverID":"08fdde53-d36f-4002-a7ce-9c57c0e7416b","pagecount":"19","content":"Seed deterioration during storage results in poor germination, reduced vigour, and non-uniform seedling emergence. The aging rate depends on storage conditions and genetic factors. This study aims to identify these genetic factors determining the longevity of rice (Oryza sativa L.) seeds stored under experimental aging conditions mimicking long-term dry storage. Genetic variation for tolerance to aging was studied in 300 Indica rice accessions by storing dry seeds under an elevated partial pressure of oxygen (EPPO) condition. A genome-wide association analysis identified 11 unique genomic regions for all measured germination parameters after aging, differing from those previously identified in rice under humid experimental aging conditions. The significant single nucleotide polymorphism in the most prominent region was located within the Rc gene, encoding a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor. Storage experiments using near-isogenic rice lines (SD7-1D (Rc) and SD7-1d (rc) with the same allelic variation confirmed the role of the wildtype Rc gene, providing stronger tolerance to dry EPPO aging. In the seed pericarp, a functional Rc gene results in accumulation of proanthocyanidins, an important sub-class of flavonoids having strong antioxidant activity, which may explain the variation in tolerance to dry EPPO aging.The use of good-quality seeds is the foundation of global food security. Seed longevity, a vital component of seed quality, is of paramount importance for the seed industry, farmers, genebanks, and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems. Seed longevity (or shelf-life) refers to the length of time that a seed can remain viable and able to germinate under a given set of conditions (Barton, 1961;Justice & Bass, 1978). During storage, deterioration progresses with time. Seed survival after storage is a result of a complex interplay between initial seed quality, storage conditions (relative humidity [RH]) or seed moisture content, temperature, and oxygen), and genetic makeup (McDonald, 1999). A major cause of seed deterioration is free-radical (reactive oxygen species [ROS]) mediated damage to macromolecules and bio-membranes (Bailly, 2004;Fleming et al., 2018;Halliwell & Gutteridge, 2015;Waterworth et al., 2019). To resist damage, seeds accumulate protective substances such as LEA proteins, enzymes, non-reducing sugars, and antioxidants during their development (Bentsink et al., 2000;de Souza Vidigal et al., 2016;Kalemba & Pukacka, 2007;Lee et al., 2017;Leprince et al., 2016;Petla et al., 2016;Sattler et al., 2004). The protective mechanisms that operate depend on the moisture status of the seed; for example, scavenging of ROS in the dry seed is largely due to antioxidant molecules such as tocopherols and glutathione, while enzymatic antioxidants such as catalases become active upon moistening of the seeds (Gerna et al., 2022).Storing seeds under proper conditions is essential for preserving high seed quality, vigour, and viability (Bewley & Black, 1994;Hong et al., 1996;Priestley, 1986). Commercial seed lots of many vegetables (low-volume and high-value seeds) are often stored under controlled environments (30% RH and 15°C or 20°C) to maintain high seed quality. Unlike vegetable seeds, many cereal crop seeds (high-volume and low-value seeds), including rice seeds, are often dried to 12% moisture content followed by storage in warehouses under uncontrolled conditions. Further, packing seeds in moisturepermeable bags allows moisture exchange. Consequently, uncontrolled conditions under humid tropical climates result in a rapid loss in seed quality in most rice seed storage facilities and hence germination may drop below 70% within 6 months. The seeds that survive will germinate with low vigour and give rise to relatively weaker seedlings with slower root growth and poor seedling establishment than those obtained from fresh (non-stored) seeds.Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the second most important cereal crop, and the main staple food for more than half of the world's population (Chauhan et al., 2017). Sustainable rice production is challenged by the need for dry cultivation and mechanical transplanting or direct seeding to reduce water use and cope with labour shortages (Mahender et al., 2015). The use of high-quality, better germinating seeds will be an essential part of the answer. The area for hybrid rice is expanding, and, since hybrid seeds are more expensive to produce, efforts to prolong their shelf-life are needed (Li et al., 2017).Considering the high seed volume and costs involved, rice seeds cannot be stored in the tropics under cooled conditions like vegetable seeds. Thus, dry storage could be an option for commercial rice seed storage. This can be rather simple, although less efficient, by wrapping the pile of bags containing dried seeds in plastic film, as frequently done for maize seeds. More efficient, but also more expensive, is packaging in cocoons or big-bags made from plastics with a low moisture and oxygen transmission rate (Williams et al., 2017). Further, breeding for cultivars with higher seed longevity has also the potential to maintain seed quality longer during storage.Understanding seed longevity traits and their underlying genetic determinants remains a scientific challenge (Liu et al., 2022;Righetti et al., 2015;Sano et al., 2016). Genetic analyses for seed longevity in rice have identified several quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in mapping populations derived from crosses between Japonica and Indica variety groups (Dong et al., 2017;Hang et al., 2015;Jiang et al., 2011;Li et al., 2017;Lin et al., 2015;Miura et al., 2002;Sasaki et al., 2005;Xue et al., 2008;Yuan et al., 2019;Zeng et al., 2006). These QTL studies revealed that alleles from Indica varieties promoted seed longevity in each population. A major QTL on chromosome 9 is considered the most reliable and stable QTL related to seed longevity (Li et al., 2012;Shigemune et al., 2008). Fine mapping of QTL qLG-9 using advanced backcross progeny identified a potential candidate gene (TPP7 encoding a trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase) for seed longevity (Sasaki et al., 2015). Since longevity experiments under natural dry conditions take a long time, longevity parameters are often derived from experimental aging tests like controlled deterioration (CD; Powell (1995) or Artificial Aging (AA; TeKrony (1993), where seeds are placed under relatively high humidity and temperature conditions to speed up deterioration (Hay et al. 2018). However, the results of humid aging tests often show a poor correlation with long-term seed storage under dry conditions (Agacka-Mołdoch et al., 2016;Schwember & Bradford, 2010), including rice seeds (Hay et al. 2018). One apparent reason is that in moist seeds, enzymes such as catalases can be active, which is not the case at low water activity levels (Barbosa-Cánovas et al., 2020).Seed aging under dry ambient conditions can be accelerated by storing at higher oxygen concentrations (Gerna et al., 2022;Groot et al., 2015;Roberts, 1961;Schwember & Bradford, 2011) and elevated air pressures (Groot et al., 2012;Hourston et al., 2020;Nagel et al., 2016;Renard et al., 2020). Oxygen and ROS are detrimental to seeds during storage, e.g., by inducing damage to genetic material (Moutschen-Dahmen et al., 1959;Ohlrogge & Kernan, 1982), reducing tocopherol levels and impairing mitochondrial functioning (Groot et al., 2012). Genetic studies with barley and Arabidopsis have identified several QTLs for longevity under dry experimental aging conditions using elevated partial pressure of oxygen (EPPO), which differ at least partly from those identified under more moist storage conditions (Buijs et al., 2020;Nagel et al., 2016;Renard et al., 2020). At the genetic level, EPPO storage also mimics dry after-ripening to release dormancy in Arabidopsis seeds, which identified DOG loci also previously described for dormancy release by after-ripening during long-term laboratory bench storage (Buijs et al., 2018). Recently, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using a diverse Indica rice panel has identified eight major genomic regions for seed longevity parameters measured from seeds stored relatively dry (60% RH) at 45°C (Lee et al., 2019). In that study, the candidate genes responsible for increased longevity are involved in mechanisms related to DNA repair, transcription regulation, ROS scavenging, and embryo/root development.Here we report on a GWAS in rice using diverse Indica rice accessions aiming to study the genetic variation in seed survival under dry (50% RH) EPPO experimental aging conditions compared with ambient control conditions. Our experiments aimed to: (1) assess natural genetic variation for seed germination and associated parameters following dry-EPPO storage, (2) identify potential candidate genes associated with seed longevity through GWAS, and (3) validate the functional role of a significant candidate gene conferring tolerance to dry-EPPO storage conditions.A total of 300 rice accessions selected from the 3K panel (Rellosa et al., 2014)   S1). In contrast to normal practice for dispatching seed samples from the IRGC, the seed samples used in our study had not received a hot water treatment for the elimination of potential contamination with nematodes since the hot water treatment may interfere with the seed longevity assay.Near-isogenic lines with a functional Rc gene (SD7-1D) or a mutated rc gene (SD7-1d), both in the EM93-1 background, were provided by Prof. Gu, South Dakota State University, Brookings, USA.The introgression rice line containing genomic segment qSD7-1 with the SD7-1D allele exhibits an enhanced seed dormancy (Gu et al., 2011). Seeds from these near-isogenic lines were produced in the greenhouse facilities at Wageningen University and Research under short-day conditions from April to September 2018. Germinating seeds were transplanted to plug trays filled with hydrated coco-peat mixture (Jongkind-Grond BV, https://www.jongkindsubstrates.com). The trays were placed in a climate chamber maintained at 28/20°C with 10 h light/14 h dark during a day/night cycle. The growing medium was kept moist by intermittently adding demineralised water or Hyponex nutrient solution (https://www. hyponex.co.jp/). Three healthy 25-day-old seedlings were transplanted into each of 15 plastic pots filled with coco-peat: soil mixture.Three pots (nine plants) for both near-isogenic lines formed one block, and five blocks were established. A spacing of 300 mm between the pots and 600 mm between blocks was maintained. Each plant was tagged on the day of first panicle emergence, and seeds were harvested 40 days later. Tagged panicles from each plant were harvested separately, air-dried in the greenhouse for 3 days, and cleaned to select fully mature seeds. Cleaned fresh seeds were dried at 30% RH, sealed in polyethylene-lined aluminum pouches, and stored at −28°C until they were used in experiments.Experimental aging of rice seeds under EPPO was carried out according to the protocol described by Groot et al. (2012)  were equilibrated to 40% RH at 20°C in a controlled humidity cabinet for 18 days. Equilibrated seeds and silica gel were placed inside steel tanks (12 L for GWAS and 1.5 L for other experiments), and the tanks were closed immediately. Care was taken to ensure that the seed material and silica gel were not left on the laboratory bench for more than 2 min. The purpose of including the RH-equilibrated silica gel was to buffer the RH inside the tank upon filling it with dry compressed air.The steel tanks with seed samples were filled slowly (approximately 0.6 MPa per minute) with either compressed air or pure nitrogen gas until the pressure reached 20 MPa (200 bars). Filling the tank with compressed air to 20 MPa resulted in a 4.2 MPa partial pressure of oxygen (P O2 ), called EPPO treatment. Filling a tank already containing air at ambient pressure with pure nitrogen gas (Grade, Nitrogen 5.0; Purity, ≥99.999%; Linde Gas) to 20 MPa resulted in 0.021 MPa P O2 (as in ambient air) and 19.978 MPa P N2 , this is called elevated partial pressure of nitrogen (EPPN) treatment.The EPPN tank was intended as a control treatment for potential high-pressure effects. For the ambient pressure control treatment, the seed packets and silica gel in stockings were placed in 1.5 L airtight Kilner glass jars. The P O2 inside the glass jars will be 0.021 MPa since, at sea level, air with a total pressure of 0.1 MPa is a mixture of gases containing 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases. EPPO and EPPN tanks were placed inside a tub filled with chilled water to reduce heat build-up during filling. After completing the filling process, the tanks were left on the laboratory bench (20°C) overnight. For the pre-test and GWAS, two replications of the treatments were executed; for other experiments, single treatments with four biological replicates were performed. Due to the relatively small genebank sample size, 40-45 seeds were used per replicate.The filled EPPO, EPPN tanks, and ambient pressure glass jars were placed in an incubator set at 35°C, a temperature slightly higher than average in tropical countries. The temperature increase (20°C-35°C) results in a measured increase of the air RH from 40% to 43.5% (Prasad et al., 2022), while the 20 MPa pressure results in a further theoretical increase of equilibrium RH from 43.5% to 50% (Okos et al., 2019). At this humidity the cytoplasm is expected to be in the glassy state with extremely low molecular mobility and minimal metabolic activity (Buitink & Leprince, 2004) with sensitivity to variation in the oxygen pressure (Gerna et al., 2022). At the end of each time point, the tank(s) and jars were taken from the incubator and the tank pressure was checked for any leakage during storage, which had not occurred. The tanks and jars were left on the laboratory bench to bring the temperature of the tank to room temperature (RT). The pressure in the tank(s) was slowly released with an average relative pressure decline at a maximum of 0.5% per minute by connecting them to a computerised flow control device.After the pressure release process and retrieval of the samples, the water activity of the silica gel was checked in the laboratory (i.e., at 20°C) to confirm that the RH inside the tank (at ambient temperature and pressure) was 40%. Water activity was measured using HC2-AW probe connected to a HygroLab 3 display unit (Rotronic Measurement Solutions, https://www.rotronic.com). The treated seed samples were stored in hermetically sealed aluminum pouches at −20°C until used for the germination test. Sealed aluminum packets from the freezer were warmed to RT before opening, and the seed packets were placed in the seed drying cabinet (at 30% RH and 20°C), for at least overnight, before the germination test was conducted.Since, for a significant number of lines, we observed differences between 21 days ambient control and 21 days EPPN pressure control treatment, we corrected for all germination trait values in 21 days EPPO aging treatment by compensating for the difference observed between ambient control and pressure control, replication wise in each accession. The corrected EPPO values were depicted as 'ΔEPPO' (Prasad et al., 2022).To determine the optimum duration for the EPPO aging treatment to screen the GWAS population, a pre-test was performed with a subset of 20 diverse rice accession randomly selected from among the 300 accessions. In the pre-test, the EPPO treatment had eight storage durations (7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56 days). EPPN pressure and ambient pressure control had four storage durations (3, 28, 42 and 56 days) apart from the initial control (0 days). The main experiment was established with seeds of all 300 rice accessions receiving EPPO treatment and control treatments for 21 days, including the initial control (0 days). To test the tolerance of seeds from the near-isogenic lines (SD7-1D and SD7-1d) to dry-EPPO aging, a separate aging experiment was performed. That EPPO treatment had thirteen storage durations (3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77 and 84 days). Here the EPPN pressure and ambient pressure controls had four storage durations each (3, 28, 56 and 84 days) along with initial control (0 days). Germination was initiated by dispensing 50 mL of demineralised water to each tray. Watered trays were stacked along with a watered tray without seeds, one at the bottom and one at the top.The stack of watered germination trays (maximum of 18) was wrapped in transparent plastic bags to prevent moisture loss due to evaporation. The prepared stacks were incubated in a climate chamber maintained at 25°C and continuous dark conditions.Germination was followed daily for up to 14 days by making images at frequent intervals using a digital camera (Nikon D80, https:// www.nikon.com). Seeds were considered germinated if the radicle protruded by at least 2 mm. Germination parameters, namely, total seed germination on the 14th day (G MAX , in percentage), time for 50% germination (t 50 , in h), uniformity of germination (U 9010 ; time interval between 10% and 90% seed germination), area under the germination curve until 250 h (AUC (250) ) and mean germination time (MGT, in h) were calculated by automatically scoring germination over time with GERMINATOR software (Joosen et al., 2010). The total of normal seedlings (in percentage) was determined on the 7th and 14th day of the germination test.Normal seedlings were evaluated according to the ISTA Handbook on Seedling Evaluation (Don, 2006). Seedlings with an intact, healthy shoot, and root system were evaluated as normal. The data for total seed germination for GWAS were transformed to a probit scale, where 50% germination is equivalent to 0 probits and lower germination values are negative.To analyze the speed of after-ripening after harvesting, freshly harvested air-dried seeds from the two near-isogenic lines were stored in an incubator maintained at 30% RH and 20°C. Seed samples were taken at weekly intervals to assess the release of dormancy. For the control treatment, dormancy was broken using a dry heat treatment (7 days at 50°C) as described in International Rules for Seed Testing (ISTA, 2018).Plant architecture and yield components for the near-isogenic SD7-1D (Rc) and SD7-1d (rc) lines were measured from nine plants in each block at harvest maturity. Plant height (in mm) was measured from the soil level to the tip of the tallest spikelet on the panicle. The number of tillers and reproductive tillers (tillers with panicles) per plant was counted manually. Panicle length was measured from the base of the spikelet to the tip of the latest spikelet on the panicle. Days to flower initiation were recorded when the first panicle on the plant became visible. Yield components like the number of spikelets and fertile spikelets per panicle from tagged panicles were counted using an automatic seed counter. Hundred seed weight (in g) was measured on pooled seeds as per the procedure described in the International Rules for Seed Testing (ISTA, 2018). For weight determination, eight replicates of 100 seeds equilibrated at 30% RH for 14 days were used. Other seed morphological traits like seed length and width (in mm) on four replicates of 96 seeds from pooled seed samples from each near-isogenic line were measured using VideometerLab Instrument (Videometer A/S, https://videometer.com/).An ethanol assay for mitochondrial integrity was performed following the procedure described in Kodde et al. (2012) with slight modifications. After aging treatment, dehulled seeds were equilibrated at 30% RH at 20°C for 4 days. Five hundred milligrams of seeds were placed in 20 mL clean glass vials, and a calculated amount of Milli-Q water was added to the vials to achieve 25% seed moisture content on fresh weight basis. The vials were immediately sealed with aluminum crimp caps lined with rubber to prevent leakage and central septa to draw headspace air sample. The vials containing moistened seeds were placed in a pre-heated incubator at 50°C. Ethanol concentration was measured 24 h after incubation by sampling 0.3 mL from the headspace with a modified breath analyzer (Alcotest 6810, Drägerwerk AG&Co.KGaA, https://www.draeger.com). Sample measurement outside the incubator was performed within 5 s.The population structure of the 300 rice accessions used in the study was analyzed using ADMIXTURE software (Alexander et al., 2009) with 3K-RG 1 million (M) GWAS single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Dataset (release 1.0, https://snp-seek.irri.org/_download.zul). ADMIX-TURE was run on the filtered SNP dataset with K ranging from 2 to 10.The optimum K value was selected based on ADMIXTURE's crossvalidation (CV) procedure. The Q-matrices from the ADMIXTURE analysis were visualised in R package 'pophelper' (Francis, 2017).Principal component analysis (PCA) to summarise the major patterns of SNP variation in filtered SNP dataset was performed in 'TASSEL v5.2.51' (Bradbury et al., 2007). The LD decay measured based on the allele frequency correlation coefficients (r 2 ) for all pairs of SNPs within 1000 kb distance was computed using 'PopLDdecay' v3.40 programme (Zhang et al., 2018) with the following parameters: -MaxDist 1000 -MAF 0.05 -Het 0.4 -Miss 0.99. The median value of r 2 in each bin for all chromosomes was then averaged to produce a final r 2 estimate for a bin. LD decay rate was measured as the chromosomal distance at which the average r 2 dropped to half its maximum value. The results of PCA were visualised in R Package 'ggpubr' and LD statistics were visualised in R Package 'ggplot2'.The GWAS was run using 3K-RG 1M GWAS SNP dataset available at the Rice SNP-seek database (Mansueto et al., 2017). The selection and sequencing of rice accessions in the 3K-Rice Genome Project have been described previously (Rellosa et al., 2014). First, the downloaded SNP data was handled in PLINK (Chang et al., 2015;Purcell et al., 2007) to prepare input files for subsequent analysis. TASSEL v5.2.51 (Bradbury et al., 2007) was used to filter SNP data for the rice population used in this study. Finally, the 1M SNP dataset was filtered to retain SNP markers with MAF ≥ 5% resulting in 128 667 biallelic markers. The density of these filtered SNPs across the chromosomes is illustrated in Figure S2. Association analysis was run using a compressed mixed-linear model (Zhang et al. 2010), which accounts for population structure and family kinship (relatedness) implemented in the R Package 'GAPIT version 2' (Tang et al., 2016).The underlying regression model for association mapping analysis is:Where Y is the vector for phenotypic values, X represents the vector of genotypes at the candidate marker, α is the fixed effect for the candidate marker, Q is a matrix of principal components (PCs), β is the fixed effect for population structure, K is the relative kinship matrix, μ is a vector of random effects related to family identity, and e represents residual effects. Including Q and K matrices in the model helps to reduce the spurious false positives. The degree of correlation with population structure varies between traits. Therefore, GAPIT includes the optimal number of PCs to be included in the model based on the forward model selection method using the Bayesian Information Criterion. The genome-wide significant thresholds in this GWAS used a suggestive upper threshold determined using Bonferroni correction at α = 0.05 of −log 10 (0.05/128667) = 6.41 for extremely significant associations and lower suggestive threshold p value of −log 10 (p) = suggestive upper threshold −2 = 4.41 for significant associations.The upper limit of the LD decay rate is approximately 500 kb in rice (Mather et al., 2007). Since the average LD decay rate estimated in this population is approximately 200 kb, we applied a 200 kb window on either side of the significant SNP (total ~0.4 Mb) to investigate the local LD pattern and search for putative candidate genes (Huang et al., 2010). LD analysis was performed in Haploview 4.2 programme (Barrett et al., 2005) to calculate LD structure and visualise the discrete haplotype block in the approximately 0.4 Mb region harbouring significant SNP. Gene models in the candidate regions and their known annotations were obtained from the MSU Rice Genome Database (Release 7; https://rice.plantbiology.msu.edu/cgibin/gbrowse/rice/). Promising candidate genes classified based on gene ontology and only those sufficiently described with relevant information from the closest Arabidopsis orthologs were selected.Genes described as transposons and retrotransposons were not considered.The full-length coding sequence for the Rc gene (LOC_Os07g11020) for Oryza rufipogon (IRGC 105491) was obtained from NCBI (Sweeney et al., 2006) and for Oryza sativa cv. MUTTU SAMBA::IRGC 36333-1 (IRGC 121441) & CT 9737-6-1-1-2-2P-M::IRGC 117330-1 (IRGC 120922) were downloaded from the Rice SNP-Seek Database (https://snp-seek.irri.org/_download.zul). Nucleotide sequences were translated into amino acids using the 'transeq' programme implemented in EMBOSS package (Rice et al., 2000). The DNA and protein sequences were aligned using the 'CLUSTALX 2.1' programme (Larkin et al., 2007).Germination parameters calculated as the mean of two separate germination tests were used for pre-test and association analysis.Germination parameters for other experiments are expressed as the mean value of four biological replicates. Tolerance for variation in germination percentages between two replicates was applied as per the tolerance tables given in the International Rules for Seed Testing (ISTA, 2018). Descriptive statistics, statistical analysis, and graphing were conducted in OriginPro 2022 (https://www.originlab.com/). Phenotypic data with percentage values were probit-transformed to improve normality. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to observe genotype-treatment and its interaction effects on different traits. Paired t test was used to compare the means of different traits for contrasting genotypes and treatments. Pairwise Pearson's correlation coefficient was estimated to compare different traits. The effect of storage on dormancy breaking (after-ripening) followed by loss of viability of the two near-isogenic lines was modelled by probit analysis (Whitehouse et al., 2015). For all experiments, significance was determined by p < 0.05 (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). Box plots represents standard box setting with first and third quartile split by the median and the whiskers extend to a maximum of 1.5x interquartile range beyond the box.PCA on phenotypic data, Genome-Wide Association Analysis, and data visualisation were performed in R statistical programme v3.5.0 (R Core Team, 2021). Manhattan plots and QQ plots to visualise GWAS results were executed using the R package 'CMplot' (Yin et al., 2021). PCA on germination parameters and visualisation was performed using R packages 'FactoMineR' and 'factoextra' (Lê et al., 2008). VideometerLab software v1.8 (Videometer A/S, https://videometer.com/) was used to extract seed morphological data of near-isogenic lines from the images.A pre-test with seed samples from 20 accessions showed an apparent decline in average seed germination after the EPPO treatments, whereas there was a small but significant decline as a result of the EPPN (pressure control) treatments and no significant decline in the ambient control during storage up to 56 days (Figure 1). The limited number of samples used in this pre-test does not allow for verification of whether the observed germination response is only a genotype effect or also because of seed production conditions. However, for simplicity, we consider here the germination response as an accession effect. The descriptive statistics and ANOVA results, showing variation in accessions (A), storage durations (S), and their interactions (A × S) under different aging treatments (T), are detailed in Table S2. Among all three aging treatments, a significant difference in total seed germination was observed among seed samples from different accessions (Table S2). Accession samples stored for 21 days in the EPPO aging treatment recorded average total seed germination of 47% with a range between 9% and 91%. After 42 days EPPO storage, the average total seed germination was below 10%, and at 56 days, seeds of all accessions showed a complete loss in viability.Under this treatment, variation in total seed germination differed significantly between accession samples (A; p < 0.001), storage duration (S; p < 0.001), and their interaction (A × S; p < 0.001). Based on the observed variation, 21 days of storage was chosen to screen the GWAS population for different seed germination parameters.In the main test, 21 days storage of seed samples from the 300 accessions under EPPO aging treatment showed considerable variation for all the germination parameters measured (Figure 2 and Table S3), with significance for accessions (A; p < 0.001), aging treatments (T; p < 0.001) and their interactions (A × T; p < 0.001) (Tables S3 and S4). Total seed germination ranged from 5% to 97% after 21 days EPPO aging treatment, from 43% to 100% after 21 days EPPN pressure control, and from 84% to 100% for ambient control (0 and 21 days) treatments (Figure 2a and Figure S3). The average total seed germination was 50% after 21 days EPPO aging treatment, which was significantly lower than the EPPN pressure control (89%) and ambient controls (97%) (Figure 2a). The slower and less total germination resulted in a lower average value for area under the germination curve (AUC (250) ) after EPPO aging was 52 compared with 161 for the 21 days EPPN pressure control treatment, and 191for the ambient 0 and 21 days control treatments (Figure S4A). The average number of normal seedlings was 23% after EPPO 21 days of storage (DOS) aging treatment (Figures S4B and S5). The ΔEPPO trait values, corrected for the pressure control (EPPN), also showed large variation for all the germination parameters and were significantly different from the 21 days EPPO and control aging treatments. After this correction (ΔEPPO), average total seed germination, area under the germination curve (AUC ( 250) ), and total normal seedlings were respectively 58%, 81.3 h, and 32% after 21 DOS, which were significantly lower than those for the 0 and 21 days ambient pressure control treatments (Table S3). The Shapiro-Wilk normality test showed an improved normality of transformed trait values for G MAX when compared to the original trait values (Figure S6). The observed large variation for G MAX under each aging treatment was mainly attributed to the accession effect, with only a minimal effect of different production years (2009-2016) (Figure S7).The PCA revealed variations among the germination parameters under different aging treatments (Figure 2b and Table S5). The first two PCs (PC1 and PC2) cumulatively explained 95.5% of total phenotypic variation across aging treatments (Figure 2c). Correlation coefficient analysis showed the existence of a significant positive correlation (r = 0.94) between the total seed germination data recorded in the pre-test and the main test (Figure S8). Here, we focus on the genetic association for total seed germination (G MAX ).The population structure or genetic relatedness should be accounted for in GWAS to avoid the identification of spurious associations (Sul et al., 2018). Increasing K from 4 to 5 in the ADMIXTURE analysis still decreased the CV error substantially (Figure S9A), whereas at K > 5 there is no substantial decrease in the CV error estimate, suggesting approximately 180 kb (Figure S10D). Therefore, we choose to consider the 200 kb distance on either side of the most significant SNP as a single genomic region harbouring potential candidate genes.Following phenotypic characterisation of 300 accessions, genomewide association analysis was performed with probit-transformed trait values to identify sets of SNPs statistically associated with total seed germination across aging treatments (Table S6). In total, 14 significant genomic regions were identified across the aging treatments (Figure 3); the details of each region are presented in Table S7. Two regions were identified in relation to the ambient control pre-storage treatment (0 DOS), one to ambient control storage for 3 weeks (21 DOS), three to pressure control treatment (EPPN), and four each to elevated oxygen pressure treatment (EPPO)and corrected EPPO treatment (ΔEPPO) (Figure 3 and Table S7).Using the 200 kb borders around the most significant SNPs, there were no common regions between controls and EPPO aging treatments, indicating that in our experiment, sensitivity to the storage under ambient or pressure control (EPPN) treatments are genetically independent of storage under an EPPO. We observed a common genomic region on chromosome 7 (R7 and R9) between EPPO and ΔEPPO treatments (Figure 3d,e). In pressure control treatment (EPPN 21 DOS), the less frequent allele of region R4 had a negative effect, whereas less frequent alleles in the other regions showed a positive effect (Table S7). In general, the strongest allelic effects were observed in the EPPO treatment (Table S7). The most significant and prominent genomic region identified in EPPO 21 DOS and ΔEPPO 21 DOS was 'R7', with a lowest −log 10 (p) value and a strong allele effect of >33% (Table S7). Thus, the potential role of one or more candidate genes present in this region are of prime importance in identifying their role in seed longevity under dry storage.The LD decay rate of the population used in our study was around 200 kb (Figure S10D). However, the resolution of significant associations at each genomic region varied due to the local LD patterns. For each region, we determined LD blocks harbouring an identified significant SNP in a region containing candidate genes. A detailed description of these regions, including gene annotations and functions, are presented in Table S8. In most cases, the identified significant SNPs of the genomic regions were either within or close to a gene. Since our experiments mainly aimed to unravel the genetics behind the observed phenotypic variation in sensitivity or tolerance of seeds to aging during dry storage, we focus here on the putative candidate genes in the genomic regions significantly associated with ΔEPPO.A total of 10 candidate genes from 4 different genomic regions was identified for the trait values recorded under ΔEPPO 21 DOS.The prominent genomic region, 'R7', was also identified with original or non-corrected values of EPPO aging treatment (Table S7).Candidate genes in region R7 on chromosome 7 explained the variation observed for total seed germination. The most significant SNP at region R7 was positioned within the OsRc gene.For total seed germination, the significant SNP on region R1 in Since the major effect genomic region, 'R7' (OsRc) was common and consistently found in non-corrected and corrected EPPO aging treatment for total seed germination trait values, we further focused on the role of this candidate gene in seed longevity.3.6 | Rc gene in genomic region 'R7' has a strong effect on tolerance to oxygen aging Our search for putative candidate genes in the genomic region 'R7' pointed to three candidate genes (Table S8, see R7 and Figure 4a) within the LD block spanning 58 kb, while the most significant SNP (position = 218399762 corresponding to Chr7:6067855) was located within the Rc gene (LOC_Os07g11020.1). This gene encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family transcription factor, regulating proanthocyanidin (PA) synthesis in the seed pericarp (Sweeney et al., 2006). Indeed, seeds from accessions with an A allele (n = 37) at this SNP had a red-coloured pericarp, while accessions with G allele (n = 259) showed a light-coloured pericarp. Rice accessions with the A allele recorded, on average, a significantly higher germination of 79% compared to accessions with G allele with 54% average germination after 21 days EPPO storage (Figure 4b).In addition, the full-length coding sequence and protein sequence of the Rc gene with an allelic difference were compared along with those of Oryza rufipogon (IRGC 105491), showing seeds with a red pericarp colour. All accessions with the G allele had a 14 bp deletion in the exon-7 of the Rc gene, causing a pre-mature stop codon resulting in knocking out its gene function (Figure 4c and Figure S10). This functional nucleotide polymorphism explains the change in seed pericarp colour between the allele variants.To confirm the role of the Rc gene in seed longevity, we analyzed seeds from near-isogenic rice lines SD7-1D and SD7-1d. SD7-1D was previously identified as an allele influencing rice seed dormancy and is presently known to be identical with the Rc gene responsible for a red pericarp (Gu et al., 2011). Here we use OsRc, Rc or rc when referring to the gene and SD7-1D or SD7-1d when referring to the isogenic lines having dormancy promoting or decreasing alleles, respectively. The near-isogenic line SD7-1D has a functional Rc gene introduced from the weedy red rice line, SS18-2, into the EM93-1 genetic background through single-plant marker-assisted selection and recurrent backcrossing (Gu et al., 2011). The coding sequence of the near-isogenic lines also differs in the 14 bp deletion in the exon 7 at position 5177-5190, similar to the difference between the A and G alleles in our GWAS (Figure S12), resulting in an early stop codon, which accounts for the lack of a red pericarp colour (Figure 5a). When grown for seed production, near-isogenic lines were similar in plant architecture and other seed morphology traits (Figure S13). The mature seeds of near-isogenic lines clearly showed variation in both dormancy and longevity phenotypes. Under ambient storage conditions (30% RH and 20°C), dormancy release (afterripening) was slower in seeds with a functional Rc allele (red pericarp)when compared to seeds with the rc allele (Figure 5b). Dormancy of fresh seeds of both the near-isogenic lines was lost in about 5 weeks under ambient storage conditions (Figure 5b) and within 7 days with a dormancy-breaking treatment (Figure S14). Interestingly, dormancy was lost more rapidly for seeds from both lines when stored in the EPPO aging treatment compared with ambient storage conditions (Figure 5c). Furthermore, Rc seeds from the near-isogenic line with a red pericarp (SD7-1D) showed higher tolerance under EPPO aging treatment compared to rc seeds from line SD7-1d. Under ambient control and pressure control (EPPN) aging treatments, seeds of both near-isogenic lines recorded >98% germination at the end of the test (Figures S15 and S16). The time to reach 50% germination (t 50 , in h) after storage in the EPPN pressure control treatment indicates that 3 days of storage already gives a significant delay in germination for the light-coloured pericarp seeds, with an increase in t 50 values but with no significant change over storage time. This EPPO effect was less present in the near-isogenic line with a red pericarp. High total seed germination was retained up to 7 weeks of EPPO storage with red pericarp seeds, whereas total seed germination started to decline after 3 weeks with the light-coloured pericarp seeds (Figure 5c).Once viability started to decline, the subsequent decline in total seed germination was faster (the slope of the curve is steep) with Rc seeds (red pericarp) when compared with rc seeds (light-coloured pericarp) that had a more gradual decline over time.Rice seed samples subjected to different aging treatments were analyzed for ethanol production during the first day after the start of imbibition, a marker for anaerobic respiration related to mitochondrial damage (Figure S17). Seeds that had been stored under ambient and pressure control treatments until 21 days produced only a small amount of ethanol. EPPO-aged seeds, in contrast, produced relatively high ethanol levels. In this, 7 days EPPO stored seeds with a light-coloured pericarpF I G U R E 5 Functional analysis of Rc gene (LOC_Os07g11020) identified in GWAS for role in protection of seed during storage under EPPO aging conditions. (a) Difference for pericarp colour of mature seeds between near-isogenic line SD7-1D with functional Rc alleles and a red pericarp and line SD7-1d with mutated rc alleles and a light coloured pericarp. Seeds in the outer two rows show seeds with palea and lemma, and the inner rows show dehulled seed or caryopsis with the pericarp visible. (b) Comparison of dormancy release (after-ripening) from freshly harvested seeds during ambient storage (30% RH and 20°C) between the near-isogenic lines. Each dot in the plot indicate average values of germination test evaluated on four biological replicates of 45 seeds each at 14 days after imbibition (DAI). (c) Comparison of germination of the near-isogenic lines under EPPO aging conditions. Freshly harvested seeds equilibrated to 40% seed RH at 20°C for 22 days were used. EPPO aging was performed at 50% RH and 35°C for different storage periods. Each dot in the plot indicates average values of germination test evaluated on four biological replicates of 45 seeds each at 14 DAI. GWAS, genome-wide association study.(from line SD7-1d) produced more ethanol when compared with the red pericarp seeds (from line SD7-1D) (Figure S17A). Not much difference was observed between headspace ethanol production from seeds of both near-isogenic lines stored for 14 days or 21 days under EPPO aging treatment (Figure S17B,C).Seed lots with higher longevity characteristics will provide better crop establishment after storage. Hence, cultivars with improved longevity have the potential to realise higher yields. Genetic markers conferring improvement in seed longevity would be valuable for breeders, seed companies, and genebank managers. Research on seed longevity is hindered because aging under conventional storage conditions takes too long for selection and due to the lack of convenient aging assays to determine storage potential under dry storage conditions. Deterioration mechanisms involved in moist experimental aging, as in a Controlled Deterioration (CD) test, differ at least partly from those during commercial dry storage (McDonald, 1999;Walters, 1998). As an alternative to moist aging, we used here dry-EPPO aging, where seed deterioration is accelerated using elevated oxygen pressure while the seed moisture levels resemble traditional dry seed storage conditions (60% RH and 28°C) (Prasad et al., 2022). Our experiments were aimed to link phenotypic variation observed after storage under dry EPPO conditions with genetic markers to gain insights into potential candidate genes influencing seed longevity in rice.Individual seeds within a seed lot lose viability at different times in the form of a cumulative normal distribution of negative slope, i.e., the survival curve (Ellis & Roberts, 1980). The rate of viability loss over time, when transformed on a probit scale, exhibits a linear relationship, and forms the basis of the viability equations (Ellis & Roberts, 1980). The pre-test with 20 accessions confirmed previous results (Prasad et al., 2022) that loss in viability under EPPO conditions was relatively fast compared with the ambient control and pressure control (EPPN) treatments at equivalent RH and temperature (Figure 1). This also confirmed the detrimental effect of oxygen on seeds during dry storage, which has been described for several crops (Abdalla & Roberts, 1968;Ellis & Hong, 2007;Gerna et al., 2022;Justice & Bass, 1978;Roberts, 1961;Schwember & Bradford, 2011). Based on the variation for survival in this pre-test (Figure 1), a 21-day EPPO aging period was selected as appropriate for phenotyping the larger GWAS population for germination parameters after aging.We recorded a small negative response by certain accessions for the percentage of total seed germination in the pressure control treatment (EPPN), which increased with the duration of the treatment (Figure 1). Although the sensitivity is far less compared with the EPPO treatment, it is significant, and some genomic regions influence the sensitivity to EPPN 21 DOS (Table S7). Further, the two near-isogenic lines used in the study of the Rc gene differed in their response to EPPN (Figure S15B). Only the seeds from the line with a light-coloured pericarp showed a delay in the rate of germination (increased t 50 ), although this effect did not increase upon prolonged EPPN treatment.Yet, we do not know the mechanism of EPPN effects, to which the functional Rc gene seems to provide some tolerance. The durationindependent effect can be physical deterioration during pressure buildup or pressure decline. For accessions where the sensitivity also has a duration component, it seems more of a direct or indirect physiological or biochemical effect. A small deteriorating effect with EPPN aging was previously reported for seeds from some accessions in a diverse barley panel (Nagel et al., 2016).Although the 300 rice accessions used in the extended storage experiment were not selected based on prior knowledge of potential differences for seed longevity, they showed large variations for all the measured germination parameters after EPPO aging when compared with the control aging treatments (Figure 2). As expected, we also the frequencies of germinating seeds were high (Figure S7). This indicates that the germination potential of most accessions was well maintained during genebank storage and transport, followed by the 18 days equilibration. Moreover, the percentage of total seed germination under EPPO conditions of 20 rice accessions from the pre-test and the main-test was highly correlated (r = 0.94; Figure S8), indicating similar performance under two independent aging tests. Since the effect of production year on the germination performance was small, we assumed that most variation is caused by genetic polymorphism, which allows for a GWAS approach.Previous genetic analyses for seed longevity in rice, using bi-parental mapping populations, have identified genomic regions on different linkage groups, namely qRGR-1, qRGR-3, qLG-7, qLG-9 and qSS11 (Dong et al., 2017;Hang et al., 2015;Jiang et al., 2011;Li et al., 2017;Lin et al., 2015;Miura et al., 2002;Sasaki et al., 2005;Xue et al., 2008;Yuan et al., 2019;Zeng et al., 2006). Aging conditions in these studies included either moist Accelerated Aging (AA) or CD experimental aging or 'natural' laboratory bench conditions with variable levels of RH and temperature during storage (reviewed in Hay et al. 2018).Some studies with other crops have identified differences in QTLs when seeds of the same mapping populations were aged either under dry or moist conditions (Nagel et al., 2016;Nagel et al., 2011;Schwember & Bradford, 2010). Moreover, a weakness of identifying QTLs using a bi-parental mapping population, such as limited allelic diversity and lower mapping resolution as a result of the limited number of recombination events during the construction of a mapping population, can be overcome through GWAS (Korte & Farlow, 2013). Our GWAS identified a total of 12 unique regions (R1 to R12) on chromosomes 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8, and across different aging treatments (Figure 3 and Table S7). Genomic regions 'R7' and 'R9' on chromosome 7 were common for non-corrected (EPPO 21 DOS) and corrected (ΔEPPO 21 DOS) aging treatments, which confirms the strong correlation between original and corrected trait values.Genetic analysis using the barley population found few overlaps between QTLs for tolerance to EPPN or EPPO aging treatments (Nagel et al., 2016), but common regions between the EPPN and EPPO treatments were not observed in our study with rice seeds.GWAS for seed longevity parameters (Ki, −σ −1 and p 50 ) in a large Indica rice panel identified major genomic regions on chromosomes 3, 4, 9 and 11 by storing seeds relatively dry (60% equilibrium RH and 45°C) (Lee et al., 2019). Our study did not return genomic regions previously identified in rice, possibly due to differences in the aging conditions, which can have a profound influence on the deterioration rate. Putative candidate genes identified in the genomic regions for control treatments relate more to having a role in the maintenance of seed quality during ambient dry storage, while those identified in EPPO treatment relate to tolerance against oxidation stimulated by elevated oxygen levels (Table S8).Our GWAS identified one QTL on chromosome 7 that was responsible for around 34% of phenotypic variation in the germination capacity of EPPO-aged seeds (ΔEPPO 21 DOS). The most significant SNP (Chr7: 6067855) is located within the Rc gene (Figure 4a), encoding a bHLH transcription factor regulating production of proanthocyanidins (oligomeric flavonoids) in the seed pericarp (Sweeney et al., 2006), resulting in a red pericarp. The functional role of the Rc gene was confirmed in a separate storage experiment using seeds produced under the same environmental conditions from a pair of near-isogenic lines. Nearisogenic line SD7-1D with a functional Rc gene produces red pericarp seeds with a higher accumulation of proanthocyanidins (Figure 5a) and shows an enhanced longevity phenotype when compared to seeds from the SD7-1d line with light-coloured pericarp due to the lack of a functional Rc gene (Figure 5c, and Figures S15 and S16). A functional Rc gene is essential for the expression of the Rd gene coding for the dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (DFR) which catalyzes the conversion of dihydroflavonols to leucoanthocyanidins (Furukawa et al., 2007). The Rc gene promotes also biosynthesis and accumulation of abscisic acid in early developing rice seeds (Gu et al., 2011), whereas abscisic acid can also stimulate the anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway (An et al., 2018).Proanthocyanidins are major flavonoids and are known to be involved in a multitude of functions because of their strong antioxidant capacity (Dixon et al., 2005;Lepiniec et al., 2006;Rauf et al., 2019;Wu et al., 2021). Previous studies have reported a strong association between the accumulation of antioxidants in seeds and longevity (Lee et al., 2017(Lee et al., , 2019;;Nagel et al., 2015;Yuan et al., 2019). Therefore, it would be worth investigating whether in rice, proanthocyanidins in the pericarp act as a physical barrier for oxygen diffusion and thereby aid in the protection of the embryo against oxidative damage.Our headspace ethanol analyses (Figure S17) showed that the higher sensitivity of rice seeds with a light-coloured pericarp (from line SD7-1d) is accompanied by relatively more anaerobic respiration during imbibition after 7 days of EPPO storage than the seeds with a red pericarp (from line SD7-1D). An increase in ethanol production during storage has also been observed during prolonged storage of cabbage seeds on the laboratory bench (Buckley et al., 2013;Kodde et al., 2012). The ethanol production is likely related to accumulating oxidative damage to the mitochondria, pushing at least part of the seed tissues towards anaerobic respiration.Fresh harvested seeds from the isogenic line SD7-1D with the functional Rc gene also exhibited more dormancy (Figure 5b and Figure S14), confirming the results of a previous study (Gu et al., 2011).The reported difference in the rate of dormancy release during laboratory bench storage was also observed during EPPO aging, albeit at a faster rate. The latter agrees with genetic studies on Arabidopsis seeds, where the EPPO method has been used to accelerate seed dormancy release and mimic dormancy release by dry after-ripening (Buijs et al., 2018), indicating a role of oxygen in the release of this type of dormancy and anti-oxidants in the retardation or dormancy. Also, in Arabidopsis, mutants with reduced levels of pigments in the seed coat show reduced dormancy and storability under natural aging at RT (Debeaujon et al. 2000). Pipatpongpinyo et al. (2020) have demonstrated that genes controlling seed dormancy in rice are also involved in the regulation of survival under (moist) soil seed bank conditions. It would be interesting to study the storage behaviour of seeds from the two near-isogenic lines under moist aging assays.In addition to the link between the Rc gene and dormancy (Gu et al., 2011), our study provides evidence for a novel role of Rc in seed survival after dry storage and hence can provide an advantage if included in breeding programmes to improve seed vigour and longevity. Incorporation of the functional Rc gene in popular rice varieties will not affect consumers' preference for white rice since the pericarp is removed during polishing. However, it would be an added value for consumers preferring unpolished rice because proanthocyanidin antioxidants in the pericarp offer additional health benefits (Lee et al., 2019;Ravichanthiran et al., 2018;Saleh et al., 2019). A functional Rc gene had no effect on the other agronomic and yield traits (Figure S13).Several candidate genes related to enzymatic antioxidant activity have been reported to influence seed longevity in rice (Galland et al., 2017;Gayen et al., 2014;Huang et al., 2014;Long et al., 2013;Nisarga et al., 2017;Petla et al., 2016;Sasaki et al., 2015;Yuan et al., 2019). Such genes did not appear in our study, but this was not unexpected since antioxidant enzymes cannot function under the dry experimental storage conditions used in our seed aging study (Gerna et al., 2022). Next to the OsRc gene, our study identified other candidate genes with a potential role in seed longevity (Tables S7   and S8). Candidate genes identified here can have a role in promoting seed germination, like cytochrome P450 (LOC_OS06g30500.1) with oxidoreductase activity (Kim & Tsukaya, 2002) and expansins (Chen & Bradford, 2000;Yan et al., 2014). Other candidate genes revealed under dry EPPO storage suggest that heat response proteins, protease inhibitor proteins, and proteins with DNA/RNA binding properties may play an important role in seed longevity. A previous GWAS of an Indica rice panel identified candidate genes related to seed longevity that are involved in DNA dependent transcription and repair of damaged DNA (Lee et al., 2019). HIT4 (LOC_Os02g31960) a novel regulator involved in the heat-triggered reorganisation of chromatin, exhibits properties like heat shock proteins (HSPs) (Wang et al., 2015). Small HSPs are known to offer a protective role in desiccation tolerance, membrane stabilisation, and oxidative stress tolerance (Wehmeyer & Vierling, 2000). Chromatin reorganisation during seed maturation is an important developmental aspect of seeds preparing for ex-planta survival (van Zanten et al., 2011). The protease inhibitor domain identified in our study (LTPL-163/4) occurs in proteins like lipid transfer proteins, alpha-amylase inhibitors, and seed storage proteins. Seed storage proteins buffer the seed from oxidative stress and thus protect the other proteins required for seed germination and seedling growth (Nguyen et al., 2015). Our study suggests that proteins involved in DNA/RNA binding activity (zinc finger proteins, OsCT2FP8); Rc (bHLH transcription factor) targeting gene transcription and Pentatricopeptide Repeat proteins involved in multiple aspects of RNA metabolism) may also be related to seed longevity. The Arabidopsis thaliana Homeobox 25 (ATHB25) gene encoding a homeobox transcription factor targeting GA during seed development suggests a potential novel mechanism of seed longevity (Bueso et al., 2014). Pentatricopeptide Repeat proteins play an important role in RNA metabolism in organelles, particularly in mitochondria helping to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses (Xing et al., 2018). Further research is needed to confirm if these genes indeed influence rice seed longevity under dry storage conditions.In this study, we explored the natural variation for seed survival by storing dry seeds of diverse rice germplasm under a relative fast experimental aging method involving elevated oxygen conditions (EPPO). Our study demonstrates the power of GWAS, as it enabled the identification of the Rc gene as having a major role in conferring tolerance of rice seeds against elevated oxygen levels during dry storage. Our validation experiment clearly established that seeds with a functional Rc gene, responsible for PA synthesis and accumulation in the pericarp, offered greater resistance to oxidative damage.Favourable haplotypes of the Rc gene could be exploited in markerassisted breeding, genomic selection, and genetic engineering to improve seed vigour and longevity in rice and other crop species.Future work will be required to validate the potential role of other candidate genes identified in this study and their targets in rice seed longevity. Considering the confirmed negative effect of oxygen on seed survival during storage, we strongly advocate storing dry seeds under anoxic conditions to extend shelf-life and maintain seed quality, particularly in hot humid climates. This approach will have far-reaching positive implications on seed conservation and food and nutritional security.","tokenCount":"8861"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c9a2689f96b49b351fa39a8b820af8fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0917b47f-f796-4544-ad77-65ab149ed393/retrieve","id":"-668593113"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0954afb3-0c38-4da2-b92d-4251af99701c","pagecount":"1","content":"Joint efforts by government agencies, NGO's and private business enterprises and N2Africa public-private partnerships to improve productivity and quality of pulses produced by the farmers through cooperative unions and primary farmers' associations..  The year 2016 is the Year of Pulses which will give it the driving force for the achievement of its goal.  The Realization of crop insurance scheme has developed confidence for both producers and exporters to make contract farming a win-win business relationships.  Agricultural Commodity Supply (ACOS-Ethiopia) established in October 2006, is engaged in the purchase, processing and export of legume grains, mainly common beans and large seeded chickpeas.  ACOS-Ethiopia has its Head Office in Addis Ababa and a Processing Plant in Adama. The plant is equipped with the latest state of the art, including high tech-optical selector and X-ray machines. This ultra-modern plant meets the European standards for processing all beans.  ACOS-Ethiopia has created reliable export markets for its products and can handle more export provided reliable raw materials in terms of quantity and quality are made available. Its service philosophy, among others, includes involvement in research and development, and meeting corporate social responsibility. ACOS Keyo and ACOS Dube are results of its involvement in research and development. High incidence of under sized grains  High percentage of insect damaged grains both in the fields and warehouses  Unacceptable level of cracked seed coat  High level of moldiness.  High level of contrasting and blending seeds.  Lack of promotion scheme on value addition of agroprocessing plants on canning and packaging for consumers or end users.  Lack of reliable information on prevailing international market price.  Weak marketing system.  Wrong attitude by some countries that buying Ethiopian beans is like snatching food from starving people. Supply foundation seed for ACOS Dubie chickpea and ACOS Keyo common bean varieties as per farmers demand  Buy the grain product from smallholder farmers through partners  Train farmers on product quality requirements for its export market and potential risks of failure in meeting the product quality attributes  Pay a premium price for the grain product if yield discrepancy is reasonably below average local yield due to the peculiar genetic characteristics of ACOS variety.Mekonnen Kebede, Pest Control Manager, mekonen.kebede@pedongroup.com","tokenCount":"377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2880e54931a0776ce741ae5b41e0d202","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1958065-c7d4-44b2-ace9-4e7c77f7a87a/retrieve","id":"-1605286788"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f7caaa9-ecbf-489c-96cf-252184242c3e","pagecount":"38","content":"Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a primary food crop in developing countries, can be severely affected by the attack of several Neotropical pests. To contribute to their management, this study sought to identify genetic resources for resistance breeding within the world's largest cassava genebank, held at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Colombia.We compiled data from 89 field trials between 1980 and 2004 evaluating natural mite, thrips, and whitefly herbivory in hundreds of cassava genotypes. Highly susceptible genotypes were excluded from subsequent evaluations within one or two trials. Statistical analyses estimating resistance were therefore performed only for genotypes evaluated for a given pest in at least three trials. These analyses revealed potentially-useful genotype variation in resistance to Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar), Aleurotrachelus socialis Bondar, and Frankliniella williamsi Hood. Based on this variation, we identified 129 potential sources of resistance to F. williamsi, 33 to M. tanajoa, and 19 to A. socialis. Leaf pubescence was positively associated with resistance to the three pests, and root cyanide was negatively associated with resistance to A. socialis. Our results support the potential for developing improved cassava cultivars with high pest resistance.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food for about 800 million people in the tropics (Lebot 2009). It is a hardy root crop that demands little management and tolerates harsh soil and climate conditions where most other crops would fail (El-Sharkawy 2004). Partly because of these attributes, the crop plays a central role in food security and carries unique potential for climate change adaptation in developing countries (Burns et al. 2010;Jarvis et al. 2012).Several arthropod pests can disrupt cassava's contributions to food security (Bellotti and Schoonhoven1978;Bellotti et al. 1999;Herrera Campo et al. 2011). The two most notoriousthe cassava mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti Matile-Ferrero) and the cassava green mite (Mononychellus tanajoa (Bondar))threatened many African countries with the risk of famine when they invaded the continent during the 1970s (Herren and Neuenschwander 1991). Less known, but thought to be similarly destructive, is a complex of monophagous cassava whiteflies largely dominated in the Americas by Aleurotrachelus socialis Bondar (Bellotti et al. 1999). In Africa, the polyphagous species Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is the most important whitefly pest (Omongo et al. 2012). Several thrips species, notably Corynothrips stenopterus Williams and Frankliniella williamsi Hood, are also considered major cassava pests (Bellotti and Schoonhoven 1978;Bellotti et al. 1987), but their impact is less serious than that of the other arthropods mentioned above (Schoonhoven and Pena 1976;Bellotti et al. 1999). Nearly all are native to tropical South America, the center of origin and diversity of cassava.A valuable, but still underexploited, opportunity exists to breed cassava for resistance to pests. Researchers at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) have evaluated thousands of cassava accessions for field resistance to some of the crop's most serious pests (Bellotti et al. 1987). Considerable variability was observed to exist for resistance to green mites, whiteflies, and thrips, the three most extensively evaluated pest groups. These evaluations, however, have been only partially reported to date (e.g., Schoonhoven 1974; Bellotti and Byrne 1979;Bellotti and Arias 2001).Our study therefore aims to integrate and statistically-synthesize the outcomes of these previously unreported evaluations. Thus, we hope to shed light on promising sources of green mite, whitefly and thrips resistance for cassava breeding programs.The cassava genebank held at CIAT is the largest in the world for this crop. It preserves 6,739Mahihot accessions, most of them collected in Colombia and Brazil (Jaramillo 2012). About 72% of these accessions are traditional cultivars or landraces of M. esculenta. The remaining accessions are improved cultivars, wild species, or hybrids. The collection was established in 1969, and maintained as a field genebank for more than two decades while it was gradually replaced by a tissue culture genebank (Roca et al. 1989).Many landraces in the genebank have been evaluated under one or more of the sequential selection trials carried out by CIAT's cassava breeding program (Ceballos et al. 2004). The first in the sequence is a single-row trial, where 5 to 10 plants per genotype are planted in single-row plots, without replication, at a distance of 1  1 m within and between rows. The second is a preliminary yield trial, where plants are arranged in a randomized complete block design, with three replicates and 10 plants per replicate, at a planting distance of 80  80 cm within and between rows. The third is an advanced yield trial, where the previous design is maintained but with 20 plants per replicate. The three types of trials are typically planted at the beginning of the rainy season, around April. We compiled data from 89 selection trials between 1980 and 2004.They included 31 single-row trials, 27 preliminary yield trials, and 31 advanced yield trials.More than half of them were conducted at CIAT headquarters in Palmira, Colombia (Table 1).Accessions were evaluated for resistance only in sites to which they were well adapted and grew vigorously in the absence of pests. Field sites, and their ecological characteristics, are listed in Table 1. The evaluations were facilitated by natural infestations of M. tanajoa, A. socialis, and F. williamsi, which peak during the dry seasons around August and February. Ratings were based on the damage scales described in Table 2. Although the scales are categorical, the evaluators treated them as continuous, often assigning scores with decimal points. Every plant in the trial was evaluated and scored for damage only upon the trial's first natural pest outbreak, typically around August, four months after planting. Subsequent outbreaks (if any) were not evaluated. To reduce the impact of escapes (i.e. when insect pests were not present), which could be falsely interpreted as resistance, the cassava breeding program only retained and recorded the highest damage score per accession per trial.In addition to pest resistance, the genebank was also separately evaluated for leaf pubescence based on a 1-4 or 1-7 scale, where 1 signifies less pubescent, and for root hydrogen cyanide (HCN) content (Sánchez et al. 2009). Leaf pubescence is a useful cultivar descriptor, and it is often associated with pest resistance. HCN has also been implicated in pest resistance (Riis et al. 2003a), but high root HCN can render cassava toxic for human consumption. We obtained data for these traits from the CIAT cassava program to test for their association with pest resistance.Statistical analyses were performed only for cassava landraces evaluated for a given pest in at least three trials (Fig. 1). For these accessions, we estimated pest resistance based on multiple regression analyses of damage score as a dependent variable with accession and trial as fixed effect independent variables. This last variable served as a statistical control for the joint influences of management and environment, therefore controlling for variable pest pressures across sites and years. We then applied K-means cluster analyses to the predicted damage scores for each pest (i.e., estimated resistance) to separate the accessions into three resistance groups (i.e. high, medium, low). Finally, we treated accessions as replicates and used one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) to test if resistance estimates for each pest were statistically associated with leaf pubescence ratings, and single regression analyses to test if they were statistically associated with root HCN content (log-transformed). Analyses were performed in R version 2.15.1.Most landraces in the study were evaluated only once for a given pest or pest combination (Fig. 1). Among them, 89.5% scored three or higher for damage from whiteflies, which meant that they were excluded from subsequent trials because of their susceptibility. However, 53.9% of once-evaluated landraces scored three or higher for damage from green mites, and 51.1% scored three or higher for damage from thrips. Thus, landraces evaluated once may also include good sources of resistance to green mites and thrips.A subset of landraces was considered for further evaluations, being assessed three or more times for resistance to our focal pests (Fig. 1). They included 98 landraces evaluated for green mites, 153 landraces evaluated for whiteflies and 280 landraces evaluated for thrips. Only The regression models associating damage scores with accession and trial for green mites (F = 5.3, df = 371, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.64), whiteflies (F = 7.1, df = 326, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.79), and thrips (F = 14.7, df = 1,338, P < 0.0001; R 2 = 0.78) suggest significant genetic variability exists for resistance to these pests (Appendix A; Tables 1-3). This variability is characterized in Figure 2, which presents the frequency distribution of pest damage predicted for the trial with the highest observed herbivory. Based on these predictions, Table 3 presents the 10 most resistant landraces against each pest. Cluster analyses classified these landraces into the high resistance groups; which included a total of 129 landraces for F. williamsi, 33 for M. tanajoa, and 19 for A.socialis. The number of landraces within each resistance group and their estimated damage ranges are presented in Figures 3 and 4, respectively.Leaf pubescence was strongly associated with estimated resistance to green mites (F = 9.1, df = 94, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.23), whiteflies (F = 3.2, df =144, P = 0.004; R 2 = 0.13), and thrips (F = 186.3, df = 276, P < 0.001; R 2 = 0.66). Their means are presented in Figure 5. In contrast, root HCN showed a statistical association only with estimated resistance to whiteflies (resistance = 4.00 + 0.33*Log 10 HCN; F = 5.28, df = 146, P = 0.023; R 2 = 0.04; Fig. 5).Our study's goal was to indicate promising sources of host-plant resistance for cassava breeding programs. We estimated resistance based on plant damage during natural pest infestations. Therefore, our methods cannot elucidate specific resistance mechanisms, but likely capture a combination of antibiosis and antixenosis (see Parsa et al. 2011).Less than 5% of the cassava genebank holdings at CIAT entered our analyses. Even so, we identified significant variability in resistance to the three targeted pests. These findings mirror those from previous resistance evaluations in cultivated cassava (Schoonhoven 1974;Bellotti and Byrne 1979;Bellotti et al. 1987;Bellotti and Arias 2001) and its wild relatives (Burbano et al. 2007;Carabalí et al. 2010a, b). Clearly, a valuable opportunity exists for breeding cassava varieties that are highly resistant to pests.Genetic sources of whitefly resistance in cassava should be of particular interest to breeders and plant molecular biologists. Whiteflies, most notably Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), rank among the most serious agricultural pests globally, and resistance to them is rare in cultivated crops (Bellotti and Arias 2001). Our study identified 19 cassava landraces with high levels of resistance to A. socialis. Of these, landrace M Ecu 72 has received the most attention from research (e.g., Bellotti and Arias 2001;Carabalí et al. 2010a, b), being used in crosses with M Bra 12, which resulted in the resistant hybrid Nataima-31 (Arias et al. 2004). In a recent study, M Ecu 72 also showed promising levels of resistance to African populations of B. tabaci, which are becoming increasingly serious cassava pests on that continent (Omongo et al. 2012).However, the extent to which resistance to A. socialis is associated with resistance to B. tabaci is not known, and should be examined.Accessions with moderate to high levels of green mite resistance are also available in the cassava genebank (Burbano et al. 2007;Bellotti 2008). Resistance to M. tanajoa appears to be highest in some accessions of M. flabellifolia and M. peruviana (Burbano et al. 2007). Previous studies also point to cassava landraces M Bra 12, M Col 1434, and M Ven 125 as promising sources of resistance to M. tanajoa (Bellotti and Guerrero 1977;Byrne et al. 1982a, b;Bellotti et al. 1985). Of these three, only M Bra 12 entered our analyses; it classified as having high resistance, along with 32 additional landraces. The extent to which resistance to M. tanajoa could also protect cassava from M. mcgregori Flechtmann & Baker, recently detected as an invasive pest in Asia (Bellotti et al. 2012), is another key research imperative.Thrips can be serious dry-season pests of cassava (Schoonhoven and Pena 1976), but farmers seldom report them as such (Bellotti 2008). This may be explained by the high frequency of thrips resistance in cassava cultivars (Bellotti 2008). About half of the cassava genebank holdings at CIAT are resistant to F. williamsi (Bellotti 2008). Consistent with this estimate, 46% of landraces that entered our analyses were classified as having high resistance to this pest, supporting the hypothesis that many cassava farmers may be managing thrips, perhaps inadvertently, by growing locally available resistant landraces.Considerable efforts have been made to identify sources of resistance to several other pest groups. The search for mealybug resistance has been the most thorough. Evaluations of more than 3,000 Manihot accessions, both cultivated and wild, discovered only low levels of resistance to P. herreni, a key cassava pest in South America (Porter 1988;Burbano et al. 2007).Resistance to sister species P. manihoti appears to be similarly rare (Calatayud and Le Rü 2006).However, preliminary studies have reported potential resistance to burrowing bugs, fruit flies, gall midges, grasshoppers, lace bugs, scales, and stemborers (Bellotti and Schoonhoven 1978;Bellotti et al. 1987;Riis et al. 2003b). To our knowledge, these efforts are not part of continuing research programs.Cassava leaf pubescence and HCN content have been implicated in pest resistance (Schoonhoven 1974;Kasu et al. 1989;Munthau 1992;Bellotti and Riis 1994;Nukenine et al. 2002;Riis et al. 2003a;Mutisya et al. 2013). Consistent with previous studies in cassava, our results support a positive association between pubescence and resistance to thrips, mites, and whiteflies. However, our results failed to support a positive association between a landrace's typical root HCN content and its resistance to our three targeted pests. This finding is consistent with previous studies suggesting HCN may be a resistance factor only for generalist but not for specialist cassava pests (Mutisya et al., 2013;Bellotti and Riis, L., 1994). The implications are promising, as they suggests cassava breeders may safely select against these toxic metabolites in the roots, rendering the crop safer for human consumption, without incurring major tradeoffs on host-plant resistance.Our research demonstrates useful variation in cassava genotypes for resistance to pest feeding, thus suggesting potential for resistance breeding. Future work should examine covariation patterns in cassava pest resistance to shed light on potential synergies and tradeoffs in defense traits. The ultimate objective of these evaluations would be to provide the knowledge base needed to develop improved cassava cultivars with high resistance to one or more pests. Sánchez, T., Salcedo, E., Ceballos, H., Dufour, D., Mafla, G., Morante, N., Calle, F., Pérez, J.C., Debouck, D., Jaramillo, G., 2009. Screening of starch quality traits in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Starch -Stärke 61, 12-19. Schoonhoven, A., 1974. Resistance to thrips damage in cassava. J. Econ. Entomol. 67, 728-730. Schoonhoven, A., Peña, J., 1976. Estimation of yield losses in cassava following attack from thrips. J. Econ. Entomol. 69, 514-516.  Mites on bud leaves, some yellow to white speckling on leaves 2:Many mites on leaves, moderate speckling of bud leaves and adjacent leaves 3:Heavy speckling of terminal leaves, slight deformation of bud leaves 4:Severe deformation of bud leaves, reduction of buds, mites on nearly all leaves, leaves have whitish appearance, some defoliation 5:Buds greatly reduced or dead, defoliation of upper leaves Thrips a 0:No symptoms 1:Yellow irregular leaf spots only 2:Leaf spots, light leaf deformation, parts of leaf lobes missing, brown wound tissue in spots on stems and petioles 3:Severe leaf deformation and distortion, poorly expanded leaves, internodes stunted and covered with brown wound tissue 4:As above, but with growing points dead, sprouting of lateral buds 5:Lateral buds also killed, plants greatly stunted, showing \"witches'-broom\" appearanceYoung leaves still green but slightly flaccid 3: Some twisting of young leaves, slight leaf curling 4:Apical leaves curled and twisted, yellow-green mottled appearance 5:Same as 4, but with sooty mold and yellowing of leaves 6:Considerable      ","tokenCount":"2618"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3bfca286bc7e5cc42a2fef619e62bf2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0e3760a3-cf1a-4738-899c-9699523b0e81/retrieve","id":"-2079684391"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"065a9e24-cf9e-47f4-bb18-9ce9c5002eb8","pagecount":"4","content":"Engagement platforms are variously known as multi-stakeholder platforms or innovation platforms. In general terms, an engagement platform is an opportunity for individuals and people representing organizations with different backgrounds and interests to come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities and implement solutions. They may engage in design and implementation as a platform, in smaller groups, or individually.The challenges facing water management in Africa are complex and require multiple perspectives and skills. Platforms allow this joint approach and tend to work better than top down approaches to engage stakeholders and ensure that research addresses real needs.Over the past ten years, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) has used engagement platforms across a wide range of scales to address an equally wide range of challenges. Based on this experience, we offer the following lessons as well as case studies.Lesson 1: The most successful engagement platforms are self-reliant, demand driven, evolve over time, and embrace multiple perspectives. An engagement platform is not a committee. Engagement platforms are dynamic. While there tends to be a core team that actively facilitates interactions among its members, those members interact more or less closely as the problem definition changes and different skill sets are required. Different stakeholders can be involved at different times, depending upon the issues to be discussed. While no one should be excluded, not everyone need be involved at the same time.Lesson 2: Engagement platforms are useful for dealing with complex problems that require people to work together Engagement platforms can address a single issue or complex problems involving a wide range of actors. Engagement is used to bring people together to solve complex problems related to natural resource management where institutional innovations can help catalyze uptake of new technologies or approaches. For instance, in Zimbabwe as farmers gain more income from goats, technologies developed years ago are now in demand, such as inter-cropping systems and vaccinations.Seven lessons from the fieldLesson 3: Build on what is already there rather than set up new platforms and systems. Build on existing relationships and networks rather than set up new platforms and systems. It takes time to set up platforms, to get members to understand what they are and how they function, to build trust and develop a collective vision and agenda. Inviting multiple perspectives also means there is a need to understand different agendas and sometimes conflicting mandates. For all these reasons, engagement platforms are best developed around existing relationships, networks and structures. In the Limpopo, CPWF has not set up national platforms but rather linked to SADC and LIMCOM to channel its research results to ensure that results relate to development priorities and that policy makers will request information from the research.Lesson 4: Engagement platforms are not neutral mechanisms. They aim to promote change so they are disruptive by nature. Changing existing dynamics may result in winners and losers and may have unknown consequences that could shift dynamics among the actors. Engagement platforms may challenge vested interests in policy-making processes. Unless power dynamics are recognized and addressed, engagement platforms can reinforce existing inequalities. Addressing power and representation during the setting up stage helps make engagement platforms more equitable and effective.Engagement platforms are based on assumptions that members adequately represent actor groups and are able to work together as peers; that better communication and knowledge sharing will help people understand each others' perspectives and develop a common language; and that people can identify and agree on a common problem and work together to solve it. These assumptions need to be challenged in each case.Lesson 5: Establishing a set of connected engagement platforms horizontally and vertically stimulates better integration and chances for scaling up processes and impact. Horizontal links refer to cooperation between platforms situated at the same level (e.g. at district level). Vertical links refer to cooperation from local levels (e.g. a village, a community) to district, regional, national and sometimes international level. Cooperation does not necessarily mean establishing multiple platforms. Sometimes it may be better to link a single engagement platform to other organizations, networks or individuals that evolve at other scales. Engagement at the national level tends to focus on policy engagement and ensuring evidence based research is feeding into policy processes.Lesson 6: Platforms can empower local actors to hold higher levels of government to account. Giving stakeholders a voice is one of the prime functions of an engagement platform. Local platforms connect local actors with actors who perform another function. Research findings at those local levels may influence the role of actors performing above them and may help source evidence that points to responsibilities of these higher level actors. In the Nile, participatory video was used to allow farmers to document their own problems and share these with platforms at district and national level. Titled 'A Rope to Tie a Lion' , it presents community views on land and water management and focuses on three issues: unrestricted grazing, water stress and governmentled soil and water conservation work.Lesson 7: Markets provide clear incentives for investments in production. Engagement platforms help reduce the cost of searching for and reaching markets and allows actors who understand the challenges and opportunities in the local system to devise and test solutions. Engagement platforms are tools for pooling knowledge across the agricultural business, education, research and extension systems to generate, disseminate and use engagement to reduce transaction costs. Engagement platforms have been able to target markets in school feeding programs, military institutions, hospitals, supermarkets, processors and commodity exchanges.In Limpopo Basin: Goat auctions drive change ICRISAT set up innovation platforms in Insiza, Matobo, and Gwanda Districts in Zimbabwe. Each platform is a gathering of stakeholders including farmers, traders, rural development agencies and extension officers who meet at regular intervals to discuss production and marketing challenges. The group then identifies possible solutions and evaluates them under real life conditions to determine whether they are feasible.The platform group in Gwanda decided to tackle its livestock marketing issues by organizing monthly auctions. As these auctions became a regular fixture they grew in importance as a marketing channel for farmers. Farmers who used to sell one or two animals at their farm gate now plan ahead and sell their animals at the auctions, because they trust the system and are able to expect a certain price for their product.A regular marketing channel with a reliable pricing structure has inspired the recent push in livestock related technology adoption rates. Farmers know what their animals are worth and are willing to invest in technologies that will protect them and see them through the dry season.While these technologies have been in existence for a long time, it is only now that farmers are using them on a regular basis, mainly as a result of the context created by the recent livestock market development. These platforms are also becoming self-sustaining. Many rural district councils have taken over the management of the innovation platforms started under a project.In Ethiopia, a growing population is putting pressure on natural resources and the livelihoods of local people. Land degradation is making it difficult for farmers to grow crops and feed their livestock, leading to lack of both food and income. CPWF established three local engagement platforms, in addition to a national level engagement platform as a way to include communities and farmers in the development and implementation of improved rainwater management practices.The purpose of the local engagement platforms is to strengthen coordination among different stakeholders and initiate learning around rainwater management, with the ultimate goal of improving farmers' livelihoods. Unlike traditional rainwater management planning, which is often rigid and top down, the platforms allow for integrated and tailor-made solutions.At the national level, a platform was established in parallel to existing national platforms. This allowed the platform members to showcase their own experiences, but made it more difficult to insert lessons and experiences into official processes, particularly the Sustainable Land Management Program of the Government of Ethiopia. The farmers in the Volta River Basin are some of the poorest in the world. They rely heavily on rainfall, which can be unpredictable and limited. Even when rainfall is adequate for growing crops, its uneven distribution means high risk of crop loss. It is critical for these farmers to have a reliable water supply.CPWF has established engagement platforms to explore how local existing water committees can be made operational. Functioning water committees would allow for institutional links between people in communities and higher levels of government. In Burkina Faso, strengthening institutions so that coordination, knowledge exchange, and planning can take place is a prerequisite to improved rainwater management.After one platform meeting in 2012, a local water committee was spurred to begin meeting independently of the program to develop work plans, thus taking a big step in the direction of institutionalizing its mandate.CPWF seized the opportunity to collaborate with existing engagement platforms. One such is the Groupe d'Apprentissage sur la Gestion de Resources en Eau Burkina, a group of government agencies and nongovernment organizations engaged in action and reflection on integrated water resources management (IWRM) in Burkina Faso. As a result of dialogue initiated through this platform, CPWF is helping set up an online database containing documentation on water management practices in the country and making it readily available to all interested parties.The CPWF project on sub-basin management and governance of rainwater and small reservoirs examines the multi-level processes and hypothesis that underpin the formulation and implementation of public policies in the water sector through an engagement platform approach in Burkina Faso and Ghana. The project team is developing strong partnerships between researchers and other actors in the sector to shed new light on decision-making processes and making evidencebased recommendations. This approach highlights interdependency, one of the central tenets of IWRM.","tokenCount":"1618"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bb2a4a85477a9c2cab93ca4e72a998d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7b86425e-6f6b-48f4-be8d-566747083928/retrieve","id":"-2136223896"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ab1df268-29bd-4c50-910e-b7b9784a6fbc","pagecount":"5","content":"Based on previous success stories from collaboration with CGIAR Program on climate change, agriculture & Food Security, Esoko, a private Information & Communication Technology (ICT) company, has taken up a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) business model proposed by CCAFS to allow sustainable and equitable dissemination of Climate Information Services. The PPP pilot which commenced in April 2018 now has 274,321 beneficiaries who have agreed to pay US$0.20 a month to receive timely market alerts and climate information on their mobile phones.To foster high subscription, Esoko in collaboration with Vodafone has developed a network of farmers called the \"Vodafone Farmers Club\" (VFC) benefiting from its services in market information and climate information delivery. In the current VFC, farmers have agreed to pay US$0.20 per month to receive timely market alerts and climate information on their mobile phones. These payments are made as direct debits as farmers recharge their phones with Vodafone scratch cards. Multiple benefits from VFC membership such as free airtime to call members of the group is increasing interest in subscription. Impact assessment carried out indicates that, 274, 321 farmers are now being served through the PPP from an initial 1000 farmers paying US$0.20 to receive CIS and market alerts.• To foster high subscription, Esoko in collaboration with Vodafone has developed a network of farmers called the \"Vodafone Farmers Club\" (VFC) benefiting from its services in market information and climate information delivery. In the current VFC, farmers have agreed to pay US$0.20 per month to receive timely market alerts and climate information on their mobile phones. These payments are made as direct debits as farmers recharge their phones with Vodafone scratch cards. Multiple benefits from VFC membership such as free airtime to call members of the group is increasing interest in subscription. Impact assessment carried out indicates that, 274, 321 farmers are now being served through the PPP from an initial 1000 farmers paying US$0.20 to receive CIS and market alerts.","tokenCount":"321"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5380745950.json b/data/part_2/5380745950.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1198f3ee1d8aff69ee1e238dac44654e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b407d1e2-6e4c-4416-b93e-b51ddc3ce391/retrieve","id":"-1087577453"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"faff7e9a-d521-47f5-b39f-7a75ec4cf01a","pagecount":"28","content":"The initiative launch aimed to:1. Provide a venue for open discussion between the research team and stakeholders on the initiative's plans and programs; 2. Build closer relationships with implementation and scaling partners, both national agencies and international organizations; and 3. Officially launch the initiative and promote it to a wider audience through various channels.More than 80 participants, both in-person and online, attended the event representing the government agencies of Bangladesh, CGIAR and its centers working for AMD, international organizations working in the region, particularly in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, academic institutions, and other relevant stakeholders groups.Home to 177 million people, 36% of them poor, the Asian Mega-Deltas are biodiverse, fertile, and productive food baskets dominated by rice, fisheries, and aquaculture that support millions within and beyond the deltas. However, deltaic food systems are hit by serious impacts of climate change, including more frequent and more intense floods, salinization, water shortages, and climate extremes that will slow down economic growth, further erode food and nutrition security, exacerbate urbanization and migration challenges, and trigger new poverty traps and emerging hotspots of hunger.To address these urgent concerns, the CGIAR, together with its centers and development partners, is officially launching the Securing the Food Systems of Asian Mega-Deltas for Climate and Livelihood Resilience (AMD). This Initiative aims to create resilient, inclusive, and productive deltas -which maintain socio-ecological integrity, adapt to climatic and other stressors, and support human prosperity and wellbeing -by removing systemic barriers to the scaling of transformative technologies and practices at community, national, and regional levels.This objective will be achieved through:• Managing director of Genetic Innovation, CGIAR Some of the highlights of her welcome message are:• Bangladesh and CGIAR have more than 50 years long and strong partnership in agricultural research and development. This partnership has significantly contributed to the country's agricultural growth, food security, poverty reduction, and overall economic development. • Through AMD, Bangladesh can continue its harmonious working relationship with the CGIAR and carry on the learnings from the previous collaborations. • The AMD Initiative will provide all the actors working for the deltas a platform for collaborative research for development and knowledge sharing that will empower not only the research partners but most especially the smallholders and vulnerable sectors that depend their livelihoods on the deltas.• The meeting will develop action plans for improving climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience in the coastal region of Bangladesh through strong partnership between CGIAR and other stakeholders in Bangladesh. The integrated and impact-oriented action plan will play vital role to improve the adaptation, mitigation, and resilience of agriculture and livelihoods against climate crisis in the coastal region of Bangladesh. • Gratitude to CGIAR for being an important partner of the government of Bangladesh in ensuring sustainable food security, developing and scaling appropriate technologies, and helping to achieve SDGs. It is expected that the collaboration will be continued and bring tangible change in the transformation of rural communities in Bangladesh.• AMD is one of the 12 of the One CGIAR Initiatives to be implemented in Bangladesh, it's the most significant one as it deals with the core of the country -the delta. • The contribution of the delta is important for the continued development of Bangladesh and its people. • AMD supports the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, with a long-term vision of achieving a safe, climate-resilient, and prosperous delta. • AMB builds on the long-term and strong partnerships that Bangladesh has with the CGIAR centers, especially the two lead centers of AMD -IRRI and Worldfish.• Since independence, Bangladesh has consistently showing the world that it is capable of making very good use of its resources in the delta for the betterment of its people, even with an ever increasing population. • Now, with the challenges of climate change, Bangladesh must embank on new and innovative approaches to ensure that the delta continues to play all its important role in the development of the nation, as a vital source of food and nourishment, livelihood, and prosperity for all its people, especially the poor and the vulnerable. • AMD's holistic food system and peoplecentred approach will help build resilience to climate change in the delta. • Crucial issues, such as equity, diverse and nutritious diet, migration of people, and youth in the delta food systems will be included in the AMD. • AMD will provide science based evidence and data that will support the policies and investments outlined in BDP 2100. • Bangladesh is a deltaic country that has low and flat alluvial lands. 80% of its land area are floodplains. The country has 30 agroecological zone with a total cultivable land of 8.59 million ha. • In 2021, the rate of agriculture growth is 3.51% and labor employment in agriculture is 37.75%. 70% of the agricultural areas are planted with rice. • Some recent success in agriculture include increased in crop production (from 2009 to 2020), particularly rice (23%), wheat (45%), and maize (675%). The country's agricultural export in the period of 2020 to 2021 amounted to 1,028,140,000 USD. • Bangladesh's global ranking in agricultural production are as follows: jackfruit (2nd), rice (3rd), vegetables (3rd), inland fish (3rd), cereal (10th), mutton (4th), aquaculture (5th), potato (7th), mango (7th), and guava (8th). floodplain; vast river network and floodplains; about 68% area is vulnerable to flood; about 25-30% area is inundated during the flash flood; 3 major rivers of the globe drain their water through Bangladesh; about 50% of the country is within 6-7 meters of MSL; coastal area is about 32% of the total land area; 30-year trend analysis shows per year SLR is 3-6 mm; and 39 million people (approx. • The following technical support is expected from the CGIAR for achieving mitigation targets of updated NDC as well as prioritized adaptation interventions identified in the NAP: improving small-scale producers' resilience and GHG emissions reduction from the agriculture sector ; improving livelihoods of the climate vulnerable communities, especially coastal and flash flood areas in Bangladesh; scientific evidence and climatesmart solutions; and increasing food productivity as well as ensuring nutrition, health, and food security ensuring water security and efficiency of water usages; ensuring sustainable and integrated river systems and estuaries management; and conserving and preserving wetlands and ecosystems and promote their wise use; developing effective institutions and equitable governance in country and transboundary water resources management; and achieving optimal use of land and water resources.• The country's recent climatic calamities include: flooding and low rainfall. Open discussion (developing partnership to achieve common goals of building climate and livelihood resilience in coastal Bangladesh) Some of the highlights of the open forum are:• Machines for measuring greenhouse gas emission from rice in the country are working properly. In situ measurements (like this) are necessary and there is a need for investments for these kinds of equipment.Development projects/funding agencies should also focus not only on equipment transfer but also on the strategic business plan and staffing and technical support. • Adaptative delta management is said to be the best approach; but in the proposal, plans have been already identified. How will these activities address uncertainties? • Private sector investments will be very vital most specially in the scaling of technologies.• Nutrition-sensitive agriculture is important, but the good mixed and bundles of technologies should be identified. Work on food fortification, both bio-fortification and industrial fortification, should be prioritized. • System transitions and power dynamics are areas that AMD will look into, including accountability mechanism, migration, and capacity of all the sectors, most especially the smallholders. • Together with various AMD stakeholders, nutrition-sensitive interventions will be identified and will be evaluated (in terms of their economic, nutritional and social benefits) for scaling. • AMD is one of the 12 One CGIAR Initiatives to be implemented in Bangladesh, focusing on the coastal areas. AMD will try to address only the relevant research problems while the other Initiatives will work on other topics and geographic regions of the country.For the breakout session, the focus area groups tackled the following:• Reflections on the focus area (e.g., importance/relevance to Bangladesh) • Objectives of the focus area (alignment with national priorities, research and development gaps, need for change) • Mechanisms for partnership between national stakeholders and AMD (e.g., proposed partners, partnership arrangements, and potential sites)In the plenary presentations, the five breakout groups presented the highlights of the discussions:• Easier technologies, both varieties and agronomic practices, will help farmers adapt new cropping system. The less-water requirement and saline-smart technologies and varieties will help address the climaterelated issues in the research area. • Seeds (of good quality) are main drivers of productivity; seed multiplication and distribution system should be established at the village-level. • Farmers are the major actors. Thus, everything should be centred to the farmer.There is a need to strengthen the connection between farmers and research institutes. • Capacity building is a major issue. Training DAE staff, as they are the ones directly engaging with farmers, will be very crucial for the Initiative. • Make technologies palatable to stakeholders, most especially to the farmers.• The focus area is the most relevant to the national priorities and targets -aligned to government and international organization focus (e.g., integrated farming) • Some issues related to inclusive governance, such as policy integration, power dynamics and making policies apolitical. How to build the capacity of local institutions? • Most of the policies are top-down. Emerging issues are not clearly being addressed by these policies, such as: climate uncertainty, gender inclusion, communication, etc. • The socio-ecological/interconnectivity perspective is usually missing in addressing the various issues • When we talk about the deltas, are we talking national or transnational/transboundary?• Capacity strengthening is important, but at which level? • No available spaces to raise voice the concern of stakeholders. • Make priorities inclusive.• Partnership is necessary, not only at the local level but also at the national and regional levels, such as government agencies, academic institutions, society organizations/ NGOs, and local organizations (women, youth, and farmers' federation). Capitalize on existing partnership at the policy levels.Identify them to create proper partnerships. • Change in mind set -should be \"beyond the policy\" thinking. 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"44bd5f989eb3cba4ecaa219bd950468d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Factsheet/MSP-Infosheet03.pdf","id":"-27182648"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bfa6f59e-88fd-4583-ab35-c89d5920b92b","pagecount":"6","content":"Designing meaningful, inclusive spaces for transformative change How to: design for inclusion MSPs have the potential to either challenge or reinforce existing power inequalities and experiences of exclusion. To enable inclusive dialogue and create more equitable patterns of stakeholder interaction, they need to be structured carefully, reflectively, and with an openness to adapt as goals/contexts/priorities change across time. For meaningful and effective participation, there are elements to consider that are internal to the MSP (getting people to the table) and elements that are external (engaging with the broader context of power relations you have just mapped).Below are some key elements to consider:Identify barriers to participation. It's not enough to simply invite more under-represented actors to the table (Larson et al., 2022;Sarmiento Barletti et al., 2021). It's also critical to look at whether it's feasible and worthwhile for them to show up -and when they do, at the quality of participation and representation that's available to them (Sarmiento Barletti et al., 2020).Women and groups such as Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs) are frequently underrepresented, excluded, or lack influence on the important processes and outcomes of MSPs (Evans et al., 2021). This is not only due to overt prejudice and discrimination, but also to practical and procedural issues. For instance, can women (who often have restrictions on their mobility) and IPs (who often live in more isolated places) access the venue? Do they need financial support to get there? Do they have the time to participate amongst their other commitments and responsibilities? Is it safe for them to do so? (CIFOR and ONAMIAP, 2020).In an MSP, participation is meaningful and effective when its participants are given the tools to be heard, with an equal voice and ability to have a real influence over the platform's outcomes. For this, participants must feel safe, listened to, in a process where their inputs are valued and that are worth their time (remember that not all participants hold jobs that pay them to participate in platforms). Spaces of meaningful and effective participation are organized and facilitated with reflexive and adaptive methods that address power asymmetries, gender-based inequalities and different forms of exclusion. Meaningful and effective participation is an incentive itself for continued participation in an MSP.Differences in socioeconomic and educational status can also present challenges: in particular, different levels of technical knowledge held by different participantsand the ability of more powerful participants to decide what kind of knowledge is most important and valuable -is a key cause of power imbalances within MSPs (Ratner et al., 2022).To get clear on the barriers to inclusion in your MSP, the tool 'Mobilize the structures' (Evans et al., 2021) may be helpful. It assesses the enabling environment and context conditions that motivate or hinder inclusion, identifies strategies for change and presents a starting point to monitor progress. It provides a framework for collective goal-setting and identifying strategies, as well as guidance on monitoring. It can also serve to help prepare a roadmap for change.Designing meaningful, inclusive spaces for transformative change How to: design for inclusion Identify strategies to address these barriers (Larson et al., 2022;Evans et al., 2021), together with the groups you are targeting for inclusion. These strategies will make it possible to link the internal development of the MSP to the external context.For instance: • Identify and invite leaders of marginalized groups who represent a constituency and are considered legitimate by other group members in the landscape, with the caveat that -in many landscapes -most of those leaders may be men and so you must pay special attention to mapping organizations that represent women and youth • Invite a critical mass of representatives of such a group to form a constituency in the MSP • Meet with these representatives to strategize about how the MSP can better serve their interests and needs, using the context mapping exercise as a basis for discussion• Provide separate spaces for that constituency to meet, discuss and identify collective needs, including capacity building needs to participate more effectively in the forum • Facilitate networking between the constituencies and other participants in the forum who can serve as strategic allies • Provide resources for representatives of these groups to report back to their constituencies • Consider holding meetings closer to the residences of these actors, such as rotating the location to facilitate participation • Take care of practical/logistical challenges to participation like childcare, travel funding, and translators for those participants that may need them • Ensure that gaps in technology resources, capacity, and access are not limiting participation for underrepresented groups (e.g., social messaging platforms like WhatsApp and radio broadcasts may be more accessible than email and Zoom).Case study in Acre, Brazil: designing for inclusionAcre is a small state in north-western Brazil that is largely covered in Amazonian forest, which supports a high number of nontimber forest product (NTFP) dependent communities. Resource governance challenges include deforestation, Indigenous displacement, and elite capture of agricultural land due to expansion. In 1999, Acre's state government established an MSP as part of efforts to reduce deforestation and secure Indigenous land rights; its task was to collectively create a map of the state with zones set out for different types of land use.The MSP implementers made clear efforts to mitigate power differentials between stakeholders.The state environment agency (SEMA) and private sector had a high level of technical knowledge compared to that of representatives from Indigenous organizations, traditional populations, and smallholder farmers. But SEMA worked hard to make the technical knowledge neutral and accessible, and ensure traditional knowledge was also valued. They held many meetings in areas closer to Indigenous communities, rather than solely in the capital. Thematic groups also ran smaller meetings to enable focused discussions and negotiations. Also, in response to demands for self-determination, the MSP organizers set up a parallel \"ethno-zoning process\", run by and for Indigenous peoples to discuss their own priorities within the MSP -and then advocate coherently for these in the wider forums.This MSP was designed by the state government, which was also responsible for approving the final zoning plan: a situation that could easily imply excessive governmental control. But most participants said the process and its outcome was equitable and effective: a testament both to the government's commitment to the inclusive, deliberative process, and to the state's political environment, which was amenable to civil society participation, multisector collaboration, and sustainable development in territorial planning (Gonzales Tovar et al., 2021a and2021b). Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies alight on a 56,259 hectare reserve about 100 kilometres northwest of Mexico City, following migration from locations across North America. In 2004, Mexico's Federal Government created an MSP called the Monarch Butterfly Regional Forum, through which governmental, non-governmental, private sector and local community stakeholders were involved in managing the landscape, which is called the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The MSP aimed to integrate conservation and development by building the capacities of communities and providing them with opportunities for wage labour -as ecotour guides, and in reforestation activities. In return, community members were expected to cease certain forms of resource use such as logging.The initiative had three main challenges. First, there were uneven power relationships among actors who did not agree on the nature, causes and severity of the environmental problems affecting the Reserve. Second, only members of ejidos [land owned communally by the original inhabitants of Mexican villages] participated in the MSP, excluding many of the reserve's inhabitants. This exclusion created legitimacy challenges from excluded community members. Third, there was deforestation by non-local actors who did not live in the area and thus were less affected by threats to local ecosystems.Those who were willing to support the changes towards more sustainable land use and expanding ecotourism could not effectively influence other actors that continued to use land unsustainably (Brenner and Job, 2012).Designing meaningful, inclusive spaces for transformative changeHow to: design for inclusionListen and (continue to) learn. It's critical for MSP partners, facilitators, and implementers to maintain an attitude of openness to learning from and listening to each other, and especially to those traditionally in weaker positions of power (e.g. women, indigenous peoples, peasant farmers) (Gonzales Tovar et al., 2021a and2021b;). You can review your progress using the 'How are we doing?' tool (Sarmiento Barletti et al., 2020a), and adjust goals and strategies as needed.Build capacity, strengthen collective action. Training, preparation and capacity development are crucial to develop skills and knowledge, enhance empowerment and give confidence to women, Indigenous Peoples and other under-represented groups (Larson et al., 2022). But this should not be about designing trainings on the skills the project organizers identify as important: the emphasis should be on the skills these groups identify as key for overcoming inclusion barriers, and directly related to the context in which they live.In the longer term, look to build capacity amongst both underrepresented groups and other actors on leadership, technical skills, and rights awareness, as well as in presentation, speaking, communication, and organizing skills. Such skills development creates a positive feedback loop: as participants gain skills, they gain confidence, and they participate more, thus building more confidence in their own abilities (Tamara et al., 2021;Liswanti et al., 2023).Likewise, supporting the development of social networks, organizations, coalitions, and public trust builds the capacity, experience and social capital that promote the inclusion of marginalized groups in decision making. Investing in the strengthening of these networks and groups promotes empowerment and inclusion in decision making and helps to build alliances, and networks that improve the ability to negotiate (Evans et al., 2021). The 'Unpack the Capacities' tool (see Evans et al., 2021) can help with this process, by assisting users to analyze capacity opportunities and gaps, create an action plan based on these findings, and -critically -to monitor progress participatively with stakeholders and adapt the approach accordingly along the way.Orient towards action. Underrepresented groups are often over-consulted with little tangible impact. Creating a clear impact pathway motivates participation and provides a reason for stakeholders to participate in the MSP (Evans et al., 2021). ","tokenCount":"1662"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9bb47b91d71aba277fcbf4bb550be3b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4fd0a540-4d11-4b58-951a-afacbd87a845/retrieve","id":"129628860"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fc7e8e55-3e8f-4068-9d81-33574769cc1d","pagecount":"116","content":"The geographical designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these participating organizations.A Consultative Meeting to identify priority species of bamboo and rattan was held from 6-9 December 1993 at the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehra Dun, by kind invitation of Dr D N Tewari, Director General.The Meeting was held under the auspices of INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) and IBPGR (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources). Two other international organizations participated : FORTIP (UNDP/FAO Regional Projects on Improved Productivity of Man-Made Forests through Application of Technological Advances in Tree Breeding and Propagation) and ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development). A list of participants is given in Appendix 1.Participants included experts in the field of bamboo and rattan taxonomy, sylviculture and variation. Additionally, advice on priority species had been solicited by INBAR from a number of national programmes and their data were made available to the meeting.Current knowledge lists about 75 genera and 1250 species of bamboo. About 75% of these species are used locally for one or many purposes, and about 50 species are used extensively. There are about 600 rattan species, in 13 genera, of which virtually all are used locally but only about 50 are used regularly and commercially.In order to enhance production, especially against a background of over exploitation, INBAR's research networking requires a much sharper focus on a limited number of high priority species. Past research has focused on better understanding of the resource base and better processing and utilisation of products. Current opinion is that the most urgent tasks are to increase production in cultivation and to sustainably manage natural stands so that resources are adequately available.In view of the very large number of species and their diverse geographical ranges and ecologies, focus also has to be given to the conservation of genepools of more useful species. There is no one easy applicable method for conservation, and appropriate technology has to be developed which can be effectively used in a complementary conservation strategy for bamboo and rattan genetic resources. IPGRI recognizes that to conduct strategic research in this area requires clear focus on a limited number of high priority taxa.Experts at the meeting agreed upon criteria for selection of species and their prioritization, categorized levels of priority for identified priority species and made recommendations on urgent tasks to be undertaken upon these species.The publication of \"Priority Species of Bamboo and Rattan\" aroused much interest among bamboo and rattan researchers and conservationists. Many suggested that rating, evaluation and domestication need to be changed for certain species listed in Tables 1  and 2. Some of them felt that too few species had been included in the lists omitting a number of others that are yet traditionally used in many countries. Many suggested that bamboos growing in the colder climates like Arundinaria spp. should be included since many of them provide fodder, building and biomass materials for people living at very high altitudes. Still others thought there was not enough emphasis accorded to the real woody genera like Gigantochloa, Guadua, Phyllostachys sp., since they are the primary sources for building construction, wood and paper industries. Additions and amendments are made to cover many of the above points and to accommodate a wider coverage of greater number of economically important species and to provide more technical details on them. More species are included in the revised text, at the same time the priority needs in terms of conservation and use are revised. Also additional technical details and recent research on many of the priority species have been added.In the last 4-5 years, since the publication of the priority species, much progress has been made on socio-economics, selection, exchange of materials in an informal way and information generation and technology transfer. Many of the recent publications listed under references provide details (see the list of references). Because of economic implications and the greater need to use bamboos for low cost housing or construction of bamboo houses in earthquake prone areas the interest is increasing. Much technical information has also been generated, since the publication of the first edition. More researchers of different institutions in various countries have been encouraged to conduct research on bamboo and rattan. Many of these have participated in international meetings and training courses arranged in the last 3-4 years to pave the way to greater collaboration and exchange of information.Problems are many in the conservation and perpetuation of bamboo and rattan, especially the selection of superior clones or materials. Lack of well trained staff in many countries is a serious handicap. Many of the deficiencies identified or highlighted earlier are yet to be well covered to fill up gaps. Progress made is slow for this reason but many projects in various countries are well supported. Some of the recent researches include: a) Distribution of bamboo and rattan species in China, India, Nepal and Thailand; b) Guidelines for bamboo seed collection, germination and conservation; c) Genetic assessment and analysis of rattan species in Malaysia and Thailand using biochemical methods; d) Reproductive, phenological and macroproliferation methods for certain bamboos; e) Slow growth invitro studies on certain bamboo species; f) Ex situ and in situ conservation of bamboo and rattan germplasm in certain Asian countries; g) Bamboo and rattan diversity in N E India and others. Some of the data on these topics is already published and others are in press (see the list of references). The recent information is also abstracted in this revised edition.The background papers of the first edition have been retained since much of the discussion there is still relevant. As noted earlier, despite limited human resources available, research on bamboo and rattan has continued to progress, though much needs to be done. The coordination and collaboration among scientists have greatly improved. Significant progress has also been made in resource assessment and identifying conservation areas. The 1993 consultation was the first serious attempt to address issues of conservation in a collaborative mode. The second paper focussed on identification of criteria to determine priority species. Since the criteria followed are sound, the relevance of this paper remains the same. The importance of complementary conservation strategies mentioned there has assumed greater significance today and our aim should be to develop holistic complementary conservation strategies for bamboo and rattan genetic resources and for their sustainable utilization.Bamboo and rattan researchIt would be trite for me to open this consultation with facts and figures which emphasize the important role of bamboo and rattan in the lives of people, especially in the tropics. But it could be helpful to summarize what has happened in research on these nontimber forest resources since there has been rapid change in relation to the availability of materials and also major advances in the development of technologies.Research and development of bamboo and rattan has accelerated since the early 1980s and many national programmes have strengthened their capability in this area. This was timely because the gradual diminution of supply sources from natural forests had received little or no attention until about the middle of the decade. At that time, shortages of raw bamboo were noted in numerous Asian countries and for rattan a number of bans on export were enforced. Concessional rates for supplies of materials were also introduced. Whatever the outcomes of such events and interventions, governments began to recognize the needs for increased production.Scientists responded in a somewhat uncoordinated manner. Their research interests ranged from enhanced domestication to develop plantations to increasing attention on lesser-known local species. The latter effort was expected to reduce pressure on the natural stands of more desired and valuable ones. And a whole range of activities was pursued whilst unchecked cutting, logging, clear felling and habitat destruction continues at an accelerated pace.By the end of the decade donors and several national programmes became concerned to see how the somewhat diffuse research efforts could be better focused. This entailed an assessment of all previous efforts and the identification of research gaps and the strategic research needed to fill them. An international review team carried out this assessment and the report was made to both donors and to national programmes in 1991.Guiding principles during the review were sustainability and better protection of the resource base as well as the need to enhance technology required to improve the incomes of rural people. Four broad areas of research emerged: • Socio-economics • Production research • Post-harvest technology • Information generation and technology transfer including training.Additionally, a fifth area was also clearly identified: resource assessment and conservation. However, in discussions which led up to the mobilization of funding, it was felt that core research on bamboo and rattan should focus on the first four areas. Due to the magnitude of the task for resource assessment and conservation it was agreed that this should be phased in, as and when special project funding became available.By early 1993, funding from two major donors, IDRC and IFAD became available to strengthen the research networking , and I am delighted to say that IBPGR responded to the challenge to promote conservation. By September 1993, IBPGR had mobilized funding for research in Asia on this topic.The research network became organized as INBAR with funding for a two-year period and it currently faces a list of onerous tasks. First of all, INBAR is charged with re-organizing the way scientists do business, so that inter-country research collaboration develops rapidly, rather than continuing solely the national efforts. In this way, critical mass of researchers in the region can better address urgent research problems. If I were to paraphrase the objectives of INBAR they would be \"to expand sustainable use and cultivation of bamboo and rattan to more rapidly improve the lives and incomes of people\". Clearly, the highest priority has to be to increase production and this means a shift of emphasis from naturally-gathered resources to one of harvested crops, and of course, to the sustainable management of natural habitats.As the focus is changing in this way, it becomes a high priority to target a limited number of species -out of the hundreds available and the scores previously worked on. This is because enhanced production will surely demand genetic improvement, initially through the selection of superior strains and also improved silvicultural methods to increase economic production. I suspect in the early phases, we shall have to look more closely at adaptation of a number of selected species and to look for and exploit wider adaptability than hitherto. This background will help IBPGR in developing appropriate genetic conservation strategies, and for that reason it is fully appropriate for INBAR and IBPGR to join together in this consultation to develop priorities among species and areas. Participants will be the first to stress that we still lack a great deal of taxonomic information; that studies on genetic diversity patterns within species and gene pools are virtually nonexistent; indigenous knowledge on good cultivars; and as a result some of the priorities agreed may be somewhat arbitrary. However, they should be based on assessment of our current knowledge. We cannot afford to wait for extensive new research, and priorities, as determined by this consultation, can always be revised and changed as new light is thrown on the biodiversity of the resource.I say that we cannot wait for two reasons. First, the need for priorities has been stressed numerous times: for instance, in the review of past research, by the fourth international bamboo congress in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 1991, by the orientation meeting of national programmes participating in INBAR earlier this year, and by a meeting of INBAR subject working groups in June 1993.Second, as research moves into its new mode with joint research programmes involving more than one country, it is essential that the materials used in the research are indeed those which are known to be productive and which can be standardised with common provenances and attendant documentation. Now I turn to the expectations of this consultation. First of all we need a broad consensus on highest priority taxa, but we also need to take note of other important species so that we are sensitive to the needs of national programmes. We need to consider priority species in relation to agro-ecologies and may be categorize them in this way rather than the traditional way of looking at them as they are distributed within political boundaries. For instance, it would be helpful to highlight particular species for use in soil stabilization and production in semi-arid zones, or on reclaimed degraded acid soils or sloping lands. Such areas merit urgent action , and these types of agro-ecologies are only a few of the many, but they do illustrate the way we would like you to consider species. Such an approach is essential in the post-UNCED climate.Decisions on species need to be amplified by pooling knowledge on putative centres of diversity, wide and narrow adaptability, the degree to which primitive cultivars have been selected and identification of where selection has proceeded much further. Much of this information is known to many but it is not available in the literature.Finally we should crystallize the information we collate into tasks which need to be done in the short to medium-term to implement the priorities. Even if these tasks do not relate directly to those which INBAR and IBPGR can fund, these organizations can draw them to the attention of development assistance donors if the research proposed is applied, to national programmes if it is adaptive research and to other donors if it is more basic research. Such research will need to be well defined; for instance, research on domestication of a minor species which is long-term and risky is unlikely to attract major support.We all have high expectations that bamboo and rattan research will become a model for other minor forest products and achieving the objectives of this consultation will set the scene for action on other commodities. Surely, the major follow-up will be the need for carefully established provenance trials with common methodologies across regions and the input to these of the right priority species. The results of this consultation could be an important step in this direction.In general, the methods of conservation of genetic diversity can be divided into ex situ and in situ approaches. However, conserving the genetic diversity of bamboo and rattan presents many challenges because the methods of conservation and techniques required for use of conserved material later on differ markedly from crops and similar plant groups. There is, therefore, a need to develop an appropriate integrated conservation strategy and new techniques for use of conserved material of this group of species.While considering an appropriate balance of ex situ and in situ approaches, we should remember that the approaches required for the conservation of bamboo and rattan genetic material can be markedly different from approaches to ecosystem conservation. This may especially be true for bamboo which generally occurs outside of the primary forests and in disturbed forest sites.Whereas much of the effort on crops and their wild relatives has been made so that ranges of genetic variability are stored for long periods in genebanks, any similar approach -if it were feasible -would present major problems when it came to regeneration of stored stocks, especially in the context of use. Even field genebanks of bamboo and rattan accessions, where vegetative materials are maintained over the short -to medium-term periods, may not be very appropriate since very little material can be maintained and large areas of land and fairly intensive management are required. These problems may be common for most perennial tree species, and it is accentuated as bamboos tend to be weedy and colonizing species as well. As these conventional methods of conservation cannot be easily applied to bamboo and rattan, in vitro methods whereby tissues are maintained in culture are thought to be viable alternative. However, although methods have been developed for in vitro propagation, they have not been applied to conservation under conditions of slow growth, nor has genetic stability in culture been adequately researched. Furthermore, rattans are grown from heterogeneous seed lots and not from clones, and bamboos represent a range from seed lots to clonal materials.The constraints outlined above provide compelling reasons to consider appropriate and integrated conservation methodologies specific to these resources. No single method could be used to conserve bamboo and rattan genetic resources.Given the very large number of species of both commodities, it would also be difficult to think of conserving all of them when there are limited financial resources available. For this reason, IBPGR fully supports efforts to prioritize either species or gene pools for urgent conservation action.For genetic conservation, criteria would include: • Degree and extent of perceived/projected genetic erosion.• Known and potential values in terms of both commercialization and local uses.• Value applicable to large numbers of people, not just local value.• Degree of domestication and potential for domestication.The criteria for enhancing utilization germane to the interests of INBAR will differ somewhat from those of IBPGR. This Meeting needs to consider the diverse criteria and balance them in reaching consensus conclusion. Against this background, we can ask \"is it possible to develop a list of priority species?\" Should the list be limited to a few globally-important gene pools, supplemented by some regionally important ones associated with climatic zones, and by some nationally important ones? If this is so, where do we fit species of commercial value?In many ways, genetic resources conservation is action mobilized on the basis of crisis, and in many cases we may not have all the information required to initiate the most appropriate action. However, action is required urgently with some ground rules for the present and these could be improved when more and better information becomes available. For instance, for bamboo and rattan we need good descriptive categories, especially at the infra-specific and genetic level. Descriptors need to be, as far as possible, highly heritable. The current state of knowledge needs to be assessed to see whether we can move in this direction.One of the pressing research needs is to initiate studies on patterns of genetic diversity within gene pools. This will require conduct of ecogeographical surveys. Another area of research must surely be related to seed production in bamboos, which, in many species, is often rare or non-existent. Storability of seeds of both bamboos and rattans need to be investigated. This is because, despite the difficulties encountered with flowering cycles, some species may flower but not produce seeds, others may produce seeds in very small quantities or seeds produced may have high inviability. This would facilitate ex situ conservation of seed material of those species for which such storage and increased viability are possible. It would be necessary to conduct work on how to induce flowering in young bamboo and rattan plants, as it will greatly influence the use of genetic resources at a later stage.It can be seen that there is an extensive research agenda necessary before genetic conservation of these resources is in hand. However, the highest priority is the identification of those species on which the efforts should be targeted. Prioritization of species will be of inordinate value to both INBAR and IBPGR, but will also be of value to research institutions, universities and others, on the understanding that any list developed by this meeting will not be definitive for all time, but will represent a starting point that can be modified as more information becomes available. Collaborating institutes should be stimulated to work in this area so that the research networking is strengthened.Criteria agreed to be used during discussion on individual species included the following:1. Utilization These criteria agreed in 1993 and used still remain valid. In addition to the five criteria listed above, the actual situation in each individual country has been reviewed and additional taxa have been added in this revision.From the beginning it was recognized that a consensus on the major priorities for regional and international action would, of necessity, not include many of the other species which are used locally and many of which are the subject of research by national programmes. It is stressed that research on these should continue to receive attention from national programmes. However, one or more locally and some what regionally or sub-regionally important species can be added.The following 20 taxa of bamboos are accorded high priority for international action based on the criteria discussed earlier:  1)Table 1 illustrates the value of these species for utilization and for environmental rehabilitation, their degree of domestication, climatic ranges and needs for genetic conservation and further survey.A further 18 taxa were noted to be important and the information available on them have been updated ( Table 2 illustrates the value of these species for utilization, their degree of domestication, climatic ranges and needs for genetic conservation and further survey.Further, it was agreed that the following two taxa require more study or are probably of lower value for expanded production. These are: Calamus deeratus G. Mann and H. Wendl C. hollrungii Becc., and relatives These taxa are also included in Table 2.The priority taxa mentioned above are listed using the currently correct nomenclature.It should be noted that there are many synonyms widely used and in a number of cases research results cannot always be applied to the correct taxonomy. The value of keeping a voucher specimen cannot be over-stressed. It will also be important to refer to wherever possible, to the collectors' number while presenting results to avoid any ambiguity.In general, some level of ex situ conservation through developing ex situ stands or collections in field genebanks or in botanical gardens is suggested for most of the priority species of bamboo and rattan. Promoting research on in vitro conservation can help in developing an additional method for ex situ conservation. However, the major component of a complementary conservation strategy should include in situ conservation of most of the species with ex situ stands and in vitro methods to promote studies on different species and propagations as well as to promote use and exchange in the case of in situ conservation of bamboo and rattan. There is the need to link conservation with extract protected area systems in different countries.A general outline map showing South, Southeast and Far east Asian countries (Fig.   Common Name: Spiny bamboo, thorny bamboo, lesser thorny bamboo. This is a thorny bamboo with culms 15-25 m tall. The internodes are 25-60 cm long, with 6-10 cm diameter and wall thickness of 0.5-3 cm, but mostly solid at the base especially in dry areas or poor soils, leaf lanceolate, 15-20 x 1.5-2 cm, leaves very fine, Inflorescence on leafy branches, fruits not known. Vegetative propagation methods: Culm cuttings, rhizome planting, layering and marcotting.DISTRIBUTION: Exact origin of this species is unknown, but said to be native of Indonesian islands, cultivated in PNG, Northern part of Peninsula Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines (Fig. 4). CLIMATE AND SOILS: Bambusa blumeana grows in humid tropical or dry tropical areas and on rich to poor soils, heavy saline soils not suitable, tolerates -7°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: Studies on physical and mechanical properties, have only used materials from limited areas. Some research on vegetative and tissue culture propagation has been carried out. Some work on its use in rehabilitation of denuded forest lands has been carried out. Harvesting techniques have been worked out. Cytology 2n=78 UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: This species has great potential for rehabilitation of marginal lands and can be used as borders to agricultural areas.CONSERVATION STATUS: No work has been done, one variety luzonensis has been found in the Philippines. USES: General purpose, in furniture industries medium to poor quality, chopsticks industries, local handicrafts, baskets and occasionally as a vegetable after processing of edible shoots, good quality, planted as windbreaker.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Exploration for primitive and superior cultivars. 2. Selection for quality improvement 3. Propagation management, tissue culture work needed. 4. Sustainable management of natural stands, tissue culture for propagation. 5. Rarely flowers, seed production, seed storage studies. 6. Limited germplasm collection in Sumatra, need to be improved. 7. Testing for degraded areas. 8. Study on genetic diversity of the species.This is a medium to large size bamboo with culms up to 25 m tall, diameter of culms up to 15 cm, wall thickness 1-2 cm, relatively thick walls, occasionally solid, leaf 10-20 x 8-2 cm, inflorencence long with pseudospikelets arranged in bunches, flowering cycle 50-60 years, flowering gregarious and sporadic, ovary obovate, fruit ovoid, 5 mm long. Vegetative propagation methods: Culm cuttings, rhizome planting, branch cutting, layering and marcotting. DISTRIBUTION: Native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Thailand, cultivated elsewhere (Fig. 5), grows along with Teak in Myanmar CLIMATE AND SOILS: Bambusa polymorpha grows naturally in semi-humid areas on medium to rich soils, well-developed soils.CURRENT RESEARCH: Very little, tissue culture work done. Cytology 2n=64, 72 anueploid.CONSERVATION STATUS: Needs investigation, germplasm collections in India and Myanmar. USES: Primarily used as building material, structural timber, medium quality, decorative timber; shoots are edible; it is also used locally for making baskets, paper pulp, land scaping, furniture average quality.RESEARCH NEEDS: All aspects, including cultivation.Common Name: Weavers bamboo This is a medium-sized sympodial bamboo with culms up to 15 m tall, straight and smooth, diameter 3-5 cm, internode 35-60 cm, leaves lanceolate 9-25 x 1-2.5 cm; Little information on flowering and fruiting. Several cultivars and varieties recognized cv. Albostriata, var, glabra, var, gracilis.DISTRIBUTION: South China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian provinces introduced to other provinces (Fig. 6).CLIMATE AND SOILS: Bambusa textilis is native and cultivated in China in subtropical areas on moderately rich soils, usually growing on hills.CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH: Need attention, some hybrids produced crossing with Bambusa pervariabilis and Dendrocalamus latiflorus. Three botanical varieties identified, cv, 'Albo striata', var glabra, var. gracilis.USES: Structural bamboo, light quality, largely used for making handicrafts and kitchen utensils, weaving splits, and land scaping, edible shoots of average quality, cultivar albostriata, general purpose furniture, edible shoots average quality, var glabrastructural timber, light quality, furniture medium quality, edible shoots average quality, var gracilis, structural timber, light quality, small diameter bamboo for furniture, edible shoots, average quality.RESEARCH NEEDS: Flowering and fruiting, propagation methods, cultivar development.Common name: Bengal bamboo, Spineless Indian bamboo, Calcutta cane.This is a medium-sized tufted bamboo, clump forming, evergreen, rarely deciduous, growing up to 30 m, but often less; fast growing culms, 0.4-0.7 cm thick walls with diameter ca 5-10 cm, internodes 40-70 cm long, leaf 15-25 x 2-4 cm, leaf size variable on the same culm. Inflorescence on leafless branches and pseudo spikelets, fruit 7-5 mm long. Flowering spordic, isolated and gregarious, flowering cycle 25-40 years, fruit oblong 7.5 mm long. Vegetative propagation methods -culm cuttings, marcotting, offset rhizomes, macroproliferation of seedlings, tissue culture method known.DISTRIBUTION: Native of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. Introduced to other parts, cultivated in N. India, Terai, Nepal, introduced to Java, Vietnam, and the Philippines (Fig. 7).CLIMATE AND SOIL: Frequently found to grow as an undergrowth sporadically or in patches in the mixed semi-deciduous forests. Sometimes form patches of a pure to semi-pure vegetation. Grows well in moist and moderately high rainfall (4000-6500 CONSERVATION STATUS: Conservation programme not yet planned. The local people have been conserving the species to some extent in their homestead and settled forest areas. The species is domesticated in the villages as well as grows wild in the forest, varieties found at low and high altitudes, need to be properly identified and conserved.USES: Structural timber of medium quality, varied uses of the material from this species include for building materials, thick walled material for furniture, edible shoots (also for pickles) average quality, pulp for paper and a very wide range of handicrafts and implements, wind breakers, flute making, fishing rods.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Germplasm characterization for in situ and ex situ Conservation. 2. Propagation methods, selection and multiplication.3. Exploration and identification of diversities in the region. 4. Identification of out of phase flowering types.Common Name: Common bamboo, Golden bamboo, Buddha's belly bamboo This is a medium-sized bamboo, not densely tufted with culms 8-20 m tall. Culms with yellow or green stripes, flowering not common. Internodes 25-35 cm long, 5-10 cm diameter and thickness of wall ranges 7-15 mm. Inflorescence panicle, with many spikelets, no seeds. Vegetative propagation methods -culm cuttings, rhizome planting, branch cutting, layering, marcotting.DISTRIBUTION: Bambusa vulgaris is a pantropical species. Origin of the species is unknown but most commonly cultivated everywhere, especially the horticultural varieties with yellow culms (Fig. 8), green culm varieties common in naturalized populations. Common name: Tinwa bamboo This is a medium-sized densely growing bamboo up to 7-30 m tall; culms have thin walls, leaf linear lanceolate, 10-35 x 1.5-6.0 cm; flowering gregarious or sporadic, few or no seeds in sporadic flowering plants; inflorescence long, drooping, fruits ovoid 1 cm long. Vegetative propagation by culm cutting. Tissue culture work done. DISTRIBUTION: N E India, Nepal, Myanmar, Northern Thailand and Yunan Province, China, cultivated elsewhere (Fig. 9). CLIMATE AND SOILS: C. pergracile occurs in semi-humid to semi-arid regions on a range of soils, it is most common in well-drained loamy soils in Myanmar.CURRENT RESEARCH: Some work on the identification of varieties using isoenzymes has been carried out. Cytology,2n=72,48,54,60,Hexaploid. CONSERVATION: Need attention. USES: Structural timber, light quality, used largely for buildings, thatching and walling, general purpose furniture, handicrafts, but also for matting, basket making and temporary construction, horticultural value, culms used for cooking.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Population survey; 2. Genetic analysis; 3. Selection of superior plants; 4. Germplasm collection; 5. Genetic erosion is very high in certain countries. 6. Improved methods for seed storage.Common name: Giant bamboo, Bamboo Betung This is a large bamboo with culms 20-30 m tall; lower nodes covered with a circle of rootlets; internodes 20-45 cm long with a diameter of 8-20 cm and with relatively thick walls (11-20 mm), but thinner towards the top of the plant; leaf 30 x 2.5 cm; inflorescence long, clustered pseudo spikelets, flowers sterile, fruits collected from hybrids. Vegetative propagation -culm and branch cutting.Cephalostachyum pergracile DISTRIBUTION: Commonly planted in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia (Peninsular and East), Indonesia and the Philippines; commercially important in eastern parts of India; widely introduced elsewhere in tropical and subtropical botanic gardens, origin somewhere in S E Asia (Fig. 10).CLIMATE AND SOILS: This species grows best in rich and heavy soils of the humid regions from the lowlands to 1500 m altitude, but it also grows well in semi-dry areas in Thailand, grows best with good drainage or sandy soil, tolerates -3°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: Propagation methods and management for shoot production have been studied. Use in rehabilitation of degraded forest lands has been studied. Preservation of culms has also been researched, propagation using rhizome, culm and branch cuttings, some in vitro work done.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: There is clear potential for use of this species in agroforestry systems and also for use in manufacturing bamboo boards.CONSERVATION STATUS: Poor and needs priority attention, limited germplasm collection in Sumatra.USES: Structural timber, strong, large, very good quality. General purpose, one of the most useful bamboos for heavy construction in rural communities. However, it is mainly used for building due to the strength of the culms which are relatively durable. It is also used in making good quality furniture, musical instruments, containers, chopsticks, household utensils and handicrafts. The young shoot is sweet and considered delicious; plantations for shoot production have been established in Thailand and other countries. Six cultivars recognized, D.asper, cv betung wulung, large black bamboo of Indonesia; cv Thai green, suitable for plantations as used in Thailand, cv Phai Tong Dam, less popular than Thai green, slightly black in colour.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Primitive cultivars need to be sampled and characterized. 2. Genetic improvement for shoot production and culms; initial efforts could be based on selection of primitive cultivars. 3. Production management research on diverse soils and for continuous production of shoots. 4. Studies on floral biology to improve seed production. 5. More plantings because of the wide variety of uses by rural communities. 6. Studies on physical, mechanical and chemical properties in relation to bamboo board production. 7. Provenance trials should be established for selecting the elite strains.Common name: Giant bamboo This is a gigantic large bamboo 24-60 m tall, green to dark bluish green, internodes are 40-50 cm long, with diameter 10-20 cm and thick walls 2.5 cm, but can vary according to height; leaf 20-40 x 3-7 cm. Inflorescence 4-5 cm long with crowded spikelets; fruit oblong, 7-8 mm long, hairy. Vegetative propagation methods: culm cutting, rhizome planting, branch cutting, layering, marcotting and macroproliferation of seedlings. Propagation possible by tissue culture. DISTRIBUTION: Native of Southern Myanmar and N W Thailand, introduced and cultivated in various countries including: India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, South China, Indonesia, Malay Peninsula and the Philippines (Fig. 11). CLIMATE AND SOILS: D. giganteus grows in humid tropical to subtropical regions, usually on richer soils, up to 1200 m, tolerates -2°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: A range of basic information including physico-chemical and mechanical properties available; tissue culture work done, germplasm collection in India and Bangladesh, superior plants identified. Cytology 2n=72, Hexaploid.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Shoot production could be enhanced and use in the bamboo board industry can be expanded.CONSERVATION NEEDS: Need to be investigated in different countries, especially in Myanmar and North West Thailand. USES: Structural timber, strong superior quality, mostly used for building and for making bamboo board. It is also useful for making pulp and household implements, furniture very good quality, shoots can be eaten, canned, very good quality. Common name: Taiwan giant bamboo, Mabamboo This is a medium-sized bamboo; 14-25 m tall, internodes 20-70 cm, 8-20 cm diameter. thick walls, leaf 15-40 x 2.5-7.5 cm, Internodes 20-70 cm long, wall thickness 0.5-3.0 cm, inflorescence 80 cm long with many spikelets, caryopsis 0.6 -1.2 cm cylindrical to avoid. Vegetative propagation -culm cutting, layering, marcotting. DISTRIBUTION: Distributed wild in Myanmar and parts of neighbouring countries, Cultivated in South and South West China, Taiwan; it has been introduced to the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Vietnam and Japan (Fig. 12 Common Name: Male bamboo, solid bamboo This is a medium-sized bamboo with culms about 8-20 m tall, internodes 30-45 cm long, 2.5-8 cm diameter, with thick walls, although slightly 'zig-zag', culms are strong; leaf lanceolate 25 x 3 cm; gregarious (20-40 years cycle) and sporadic flowering, inflorescence dense with globular heads, distinctly apart, hairy; fruit ovoid 7.5 mm long. Vegetative propagation -culm cutting, rhizome planting, layering, marcotting, macroproliferation of seedlings, in vitro propagation well known. DISTRIBUTION: D. strictus is native to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. Cultivated in many other countries of S E Asia (Fig. 13).CLIMATE AND SOILS: This species is found naturally in pure or mixed forests in semiarid or dry zones of the plains or hilly areas very productive up to 150-180 culms/ clump; drought resistant, however, it adapts well when planted in humid tropical zones and subtropical regions, extends up to 1200 m, grows well on different soils with good water source and drainage, frost resistant, tolerates -5°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: Work has been carried out on propagation (seed, vegetative, micro-propagation and mini-clump division); planting techniques, physical and chemical properties, forest management, use in reinforced concrete, suitability for reclamation of degraded lands, grows on variety of soils. Three varieties recognised -D. strictus var. argentea, var proimiana, var sericeus. Some information is available on floral biology and breeding behaviour of this species in India. Cytology 2n = 56, 70, 72, Hexaploid. UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: More use is justified in agroforestry and in land reclamation, use of marginal, infertile soils.CONSERVATION STATUS: Requires urgent attention. Germplasm collection in India. Tissue culture work done, varieties in each country to be identified and conserved. USES: Structural timber, medium to light quality, edible shoots of poor quality. An important source for paper pulp, average quality furniture, but solid and thick walled, used also for making boards, agricultural implements and household utensils. Leaves are good as forage, edible shoots of poor quality. Common Name: String bamboo, Pring tali This is a good-sized bamboo, 8-30 m tall, 4-13 cm diameter, strongly tufted with internodes 36-45 cm, medium wall thickness 1.5 cm and very flexible. It is a multipurpose bamboo. Leaf lanceolate, 13-49 x 2-9 cm; inflorescence long, spikelets arranged like stars, closely arranged, fruit 12 x 2 mm, glabrous with a furrow on one side. Vegetative propagation -culm cuttings.DISTRIBUTION: It has been reported to be wild in Myanmar and Southern Thailand but is cultivated in Indonesia and in Malaysia (Peninsular and East); introduced to Meghalaya (Garo Hills) in India (Fig. 14). CLIMATE AND SOILS: This is a species of rich soils of the humid tropics up to 1500 m above sea level, tolerates -2°C CURRENT RESEARCH: Micropropagation through tissue culture done, and uses in bamboo board industry have been investigated, propagated by seed, rhizome and branch cutting. Cytology 2n=72 UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: It could be useful in agroforestry. It is also known to survive in drier areas (although growth is less) but needs more testing for specific adaptations and to various soils.CONSERVATION STATUS: Genetic diversity is said to be low; most of the ex situ material in cultivation. The wild material has not been investigated, small germplasm collection in Sumatra.USES: This species is used for building materials, structural timber of medium quality and for making furniture of both good and average quality, handicrafts, musical instruments, kitchen utensils and baskets. Shoots are edible, poor quality, bitter, buried in mud for 4-5 days before use to reduce the bitter taste.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Studies on physical and chemical properties. 2. Improved management of stands. 3. Seed technology. 4. Provenance trails. 5. Genetic analysis.This is a large bamboo, culms are up to 30 m tall with diameter 5-16 cm and relatively thick walls 1-1.2 cm, internodes 45 cm long, leaf 8-35 x 7 cm; inflorescence long with many spikelets at each node, fruit set unknown. Vegetative propagation -culm cutting. DISTRIBUTION: Origin unknown, cultivated in the Philippines, Eastern Indonesia, Northern and Western Kalimantan, East Malaysia, China and Vietnam (Fig. 15). CLIMATE AND SOIL: G. levis is naturalized in humid tropical areas with rich soils, common in homesteads and village gardens in the Philippines. CURRENT RESEARCH: Very little is known about growth requirements and need attention. Reproductive biology needs to be studied. Some information is available on the use of this species in rehabilitating denuded forest lands in the Philippines, tissue culture work in progress.CONSERVATION STATUS: Very little information. USES: Structural timber, strong superior quality, edible shoots of good quality, also used for making kitchen utensils of good quality, furniture, craft paper, water pipes, fencing and other uses.RESEARCH NEEDS: Information required on all aspects especially propagation in tissue culture.This is a medium-sized bamboo 7-30 m tall, aerial roots on lower nodes, with internodes 35-45 cm, diameter 5-13 cm, medium to thick wall, 2cm thick and is very strong; leaf blade 25 x 5 cm; inflorescence 75 cm long, spikelets on nodes, seeds not known. Vegetative propagation -culm cuttings, branch cuttings. DISTRIBUTION: Origin not known, said to be native of Java, found in cultivation in Sumatra and Java, introduced to India, and Peninsula Malaya, China and Vietnam (Fig. 16). CLIMATE: Mainly grows in humid tropics but it can also grow in dry areas and up to 1200 m above sea level, sandy loam and alluvial soils, tolerates -2°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: Work is underway to evaluate its suitability for bamboo board, manufacturing. Cytology 2n = 72 UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Its value as processed building material can be exploited.CONSERVATION STATUS: Requires attention. There are some germplasm collections in Bogor, Java and Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia. Natural hybrids in Sumatra have been observed to produce seeds. Tissue culture work not done. USES: Structural timber, building materials, medium quality, used as water pipes, for making handicrafts, furniture of very good quality, household articles, chopsticks, toothpicks, edible shoots of very good quality.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Suitability in agroforestry 2. Floral biology and induction of seeding 3. Basic properties (physical, chemical, mechanical) 4. Provenance trials 5. Tissue culture Gigantochloa sp. Var: Malay dwarf, var. malay dwarf variegated, both varieties from Malaysia, both perhaps closely related to Bambusa heterostachya, culms green to cream coloured, cultivated as ornamentals, good economic value. (Wong, 1995). This is a large spectacular, sympodial bamboo with culms reaching 30 m, dark green colour, white bands at nodes, diameter up to 20 cm; leaves medium size. It is considered outstanding in stature, with superior mechanical properties and durability of culms.Plays an important role in rural economics and house or building construction.DISTRIBUTION: Origin South America, well distributed and cultivated in Central and South America (Fig. 17). Introduced to many other countries.CLIMATE AND SOILS: Grows on rich to medium soils, especially along rivers and on hilly ground, tolerates -2°C.CURRENT Common name: Muli, berry bamboo This is a medium-sized ever green bamboo, 10-20 m tall, clump open and diffuse and culms have relatively thin walls 0.5-1.2 cm, internode 20-50 cm long, diameter 5-7 cm, culm tips pendulous. Leaf blade lanceolate, 14-28 x 3-5 cm; inflorescence 15-45 cm long, compound panicle drooping, spikelets 1-1.5 cm long, stamens three, anthers yellow, elongated style with 2-4 lobes; fruits large 7.5 -12.5 cm long, 5-7.5 cm broad, beak curved with thick fleshy pericarp; flowering interval 30-35, 45-48 and 60-65 years, both sporadic and gregarious flowering. Fruits fleshy viviparous, germinate easily producing seedlings, vegatative propagation: Culm cutting. DISTRIBUTION: The species naturally growing throughout the hill forests of Bangladesh, Myanmar and North East (Assam, Arunachal, Meghalaya and eastern part of Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram) of India. The natural home of this bamboo is believed to be Chittagong Hill Tracts where this species grows gregariously covering large tracts of land. Also cultivated in south-eastern Terai part of Nepal and southern border of Bhutan, probably introduced from Bangladesh; occasionally cultivated or introduced and planted in many botanical and private gardens all over the world, including, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan and South America (Fig. 18).  The species can grow on highly weathered deep clay soil to shallow, to very deep loamy soils with pH4.5-6.0 and rainfall 3000-5000 mm, with temperature range of 5-37°C, Melocanna occurs as an undergrowth to many tree species and also forms a pure stand by aggressive nature of its underground rhizome in areas after burning. The plant thrives satisfactorily on moist sandy, clay loam alluvial soils, on well drained residual soils, sandy rough slopes and the top of the hills. It indicates the wide adaptability and hardy nature of the species, good coloniser on lands cleared of forests. USES: Plants naturally durable, much used for roofing, thatching, matting and in house construction. Thus great demand in cottage industries, pulp and paper and rayon mills. Young shoots are edible. All the ethnic people of Chittagong Hill Tracts use it as a tasty vegetable and also sell in the market, fruits fleshy and edible, leaves used for preparing liquor.It is reported that in M. baccifera two types of clumps exist in nature, judged on the basis of emerging shoot characters. In one type, shoots possess a yellowish culmsheath and are usually preferred as edible shoots. In the other, the sheaths are comparatively deep brown and not usually favoured as food due to their bitter and astringency taste. Selection of cultivars is needed. This genus includes about nine species and eight are endemic to Western Ghats of S India, shrubby, gregarious, reed-like bamboos, usually 5-10 m high and culms with 2-5 cm diameter and thin walls, leaves small to medium, oblong lanceolate, flowering gregarious and sporadic. Inflorescence long spicate panicle, stamens many, free filaments, ovary with long style, stigma 4-6, fruit large, ovoid, with long beak, pericarp thick fleshy.  (Seethalakshmi and Kumar 1998). Vegetative propagation: Culm cutting. DISTRIBUTION: Western Ghats of South India and in the south west region of Sri Lanka, up to 1000 m, grows well with heavy rain fall (Fig. 19).Ochlandra spp.CLIMATE AND SOILS: Species belonging to Ochlandra mostly occur in rich loamy soils especially along perennial or semi perennial streams, on sloping lands of India. Occurrence in the Western Ghats is also in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests up to 1500 m and in wet lowlands in Sri Lanka.CURRENT RESEARCH: Some work is in progress on seed storage and sylvicultural aspects of a few species of this genus. Intensity of flowering, seed charecteristics, moisture content, seed longevity have been worked out, smallest fruits in O. scriptoria 640/Kg, largest in O. travancorica 40/kg, seed germination upto 75%, longevity up to 120 days Och. travancorica (Seethalakshmi, 1998). Cytology 2n = 72.UPTAPPED POTENTIAL: There are excellent species in this group for binding soil which can be used to reclaim degraded land and for soil conservation.CONSERVATION STATUS: Conservation programmes not yet organized whilst overextraction continues.USES: Mainly for pulp in the paper industry but used locally for house construction, most important for thatching and walling and handicrafts, most useful for local people for various household uses.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Genetic improvement, superior plants. 2. Physical and mechanical properties. 3. Matching the species and varieties to specific soil conditions. 4. Tissue culture for propagation and plant improvement.Phyllostachys is a large temperate, monopodial genus with about 70 recognized species, various species are extensively cultivated in China because of their many uses and economic importance; there are many taxonomic uncertainties in the limitation of various species. P. pubescens is changed to P. heterocycla with distinct variety pubescens (P. heterocycla var. pubescens).Culm green, smooth, culm sheath brownish yellow, shoots edible, culms used as timber, cultivated including following varieties: var castillonis, var. lacrima, var. mixta, var shoujhu yi. This is a medium to large monopodial bamboo with culms 10-20 m tall and a diameter of ca 18 cm. Culms are straight, strong and suitable for heavy construction. Vegetative propagation: Culm cutting, layering, marcotting. DISTRIBUTION: Native to China (Fig. 20). Extensively cultivated, in different provinces of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Introduced to many Botanical gardens. CLIMATE AND SOILS: This is a temperate species complex, planted on rich soil, also found as natural pure stands, suitable for many soil types.CURRENT RESEARCH: A wide range of research is in progress, especially in China. Topics include distribution, site characteristics, sylviculture, agronomic pratices, in vitro culture, physico-mehanical properties of wood, industrial uses etc. UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Wider use in agroforestry and for use on degraded lands. USES: This species and different varieties are used as building material, for shoot production (especially in China), and for making agricultural and household implements, wood industry. Widely cultivated for shoots and timber in China, Japan and Korea.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Selection of elite strains for use in industry, building material and for shoot production. 2. Exploration and determining conservation needs, matching the varieties with soil types.Thyrsostachys siamensis (= Thyrsostachys regia, Bambusa regia)Common name : Monastery bamboo, umbrella handle bamboo Very graceful, tufted, sympodial bamboo, popular for cultivation, culms densely packed in clumps, culms 8-16 m tall, internodes 15-30 cm long, culm sheaths persistent, white ring below the nodes, leaf blade narrow, elegant 8-16 x 0.8-1 cm, pleasant light green, flowering sporadic, inflorescence long with many branchlets, fruits cylindrical, small, 5-2.5 mm, with long beak, sulcate on one side, gregarious, flowering interval up to 40 years. Seeds germinate well and seed viability extends up to 2-2 1 /2 years. Vegetative propagation: Culm cutting, macroproliferation of seedlings, off-set rhizome, tissue culture for propagation known.DISTRIBUTION: From Myanmar through IndoChina (Fig. 21); introduced elsewhere, extensively cultivated in many countries in Asia.CLIMATE AND SOILS: T. siamensis is found naturally in pure or mixed forests in dry areas with pronounced monsoonal climate. It adapts fairly well to humid areas of the tropics with rich soils, well adapted to poor soils also grows up to 400 m, tolerates -4°C.CURRENT RESEARCH: Research on propagation, forest management, some work on seed storage are in progress.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: It is thought that selection of varieties for particular uses would not be difficult.CONSERVATION STATUS: Needs investigation.USES: Provides raw material for house construction, structural timber of light quality, pulp for paper, shoots for food, good quality, materials for handicrafts; thick walled bamboo for furniture, also used for fences and windbreaks and as an ornamental, planted as small clumps in gardens, look very elegant and graceful.RESEARCH NEEDS: 1. Properties and preservation of culms, large scale cultivation 2. Sustainable management of forest stands. 3. Population genetics and conservation of superior germplasm.Thyrsostachys siamensis Arundinaria spp.The diversity and utilization of bamboo in the Himalayan region are very great. Substantial effort is needed to conserve them. Five species of Arundinaria namely A. gracilis, A hirsuta, A. microphylla, A. racemosa and A. rolloana are described from N E India; Nepal and Bhutan, A. racemosa, in Eastern Himalayas extends to 2200-3050 m, A. falcata, Western Himalayas to 1300 -2200 m. They are all shrubby, gregarious, spreading bamboos, ± 3-5 m high, ± 1cm diameter, internodes 20-25 cm long, leaves ± 15 x 3 cm. Inflorescence is a panicle and some of them produce fruits that are ovoid oblong, 3-5 mm long. The plants provide biomass, used for many purposes; making household articles, mats, baskets, thatching materials, fencing, fodder for animals and others. They protect the soil on mountain slopes. Many of them grow on high mountains reaching 3000 m.Native to eastern islands of Indonesia, up to New Guinea, including North Sulawesi, Moluccas, culms 8-10 m tall, 2-4 cm in diameter, thin wall, internodes 35-70 cm long; leaf blade lanceolate 50 x 8 cm; inflorescence terminal with many spikelets, fruits unknown. It is a lowland species growing well on hill slopes on wet soils and water margins. Used mostly for basketry and handicrafts, thatching, very well-suited to develop village industries, worth introduction to other countries for cultivation. The name of this taxa has been recently changed Neololeba atra (Widjaja 1997). This species was introduced to India a long time ago.Origin of this species unknown, only found in cultivation in Sabah, Peninsula Malaysia and Sumatera, Indonesia. Culms straight 8-16 m tall, 3-5 cm in diameter, with light green or white green stripes; wall 8-10 mm thick, internodes 30-80 cm long, nodes prominent; leaf blade lanceolate, 30 x 4 cm on average, inflorescence indeterminate with many spikelets, fruit cylindrical 5-6 mm long, hairy at apex. This species is recorded to flower regularly, well-adapted to lowland forest conditions, very useful for many purposes, such as poles for picking or collecting oil palm fruit bunches.Needs to be researched on cultivation and for adoption to different soil conditions and water regimes. Cultivation by seed and culm cutting.Commonly growing in the lower Himalayan region extending southwards to Bangladesh and Thailand. Important commercial species locally. Culms 5-15 m high, 5-10 cm diameter, straight, smooth and green, internodes 25-45 cm long; leaves linear lanceolate, 20 x 3 cm; inflorescence a panicle with many spikelets, fruit oblong and hairy. Flowering cycle 15-30 years both sporadic and gregarious, graceful bamboo with ornamental value, culms used in construction work and for paper pulp; furniture making, merits good exchange of materials and for wide cultivation.Origin S China, largely cultivated, fast growing species with erect culms, culm 8-12 m tall, young culms covered with white powdery substance, shoots edible of very good quality, introduced to Australia and New Zealand, grown in orchards and as wind breakers, well used to the cold climate, Structural bamboo of medium quality, furniture making, extensively cultivated in China for shoot production.Common Name: Punting pole bambooOrigin S China, Guangdong province; culms straight 10-15 m tall, diameter 5-6 cm, internodes 20-45 cm long; thick walled, leaves ± 12 x 2 cm, lower surface covered with many bristles, flowers and fruits unknown or not described. It has many uses -farm tools, fishing rods, furniture, large poles, thatching and weaving.Culms straight, upto 10 m tall, diameter 5 cm, internode pale yellowish, green, nodes swollen; leaves 7-21 x 1-2.8 cm, linear lanecolate. Mostly from S China, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, medium sized bamboo, culms are extensively used for handicrafts, pulp for paper making.Mostly in South and N E India and Myanmar, introduced to S E Asia, cultivated, found in Yunnan, China on good soils, most localities, culms tall 20-34 m, 13-20 cm in diameter, internodes 30-40 cm long, thick walled, nodes swollen, lower nodes with many rootlets; leaves 25 x 5 cm, oblong lanceolate, hairy beneath; inflorescence huge panicle, with many spikelets on nodes, flowering gregariously, or sporadically, fruits ovoid 2-4 mm long, with many hairs at the tip. Superior bamboo for construction, baskets, furniture, handicrafts, shoots edible of very good quality; natural populations are rare, needs conservation efforts for germplasm collection. This is one of the largest bamboos like Dendrocalamus giganteus.N E India, Central and E Himalayas up to 1000 m, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Yunnan often cultivated, rich loams, moist places, culms tall and large, 15-20 m, 12-18 cm in diameter, internodes, 40-50 cm long, wall 1-2 cm thick; leaves variable in size 36 x 3.5 cm, rounded leaf base; inflorescence dense panicle especially at the tip, with purple spikelets, fruits ovoid, broad. Used for construction, baskets, handicrafts, household utensils, fuel, fodder, rafts and edible shoots. Easy to propagate and has great potential for cultivation. Some work on its introduction and establishment in East Africa has been carried out. Severe erosion of naturally distributed D. hamiltonii has been reported in Bangladesh.Distributed in N E India, Myanmar and Nepal, large bamboo 15-20 m high, 10-15 cm diameter, dark green, internodes 40-50 cm long; leaves large, oblong lanceolate; inflorescence large compound panicle, spikelets, compactly arranged at nodes, flowers variable in structure, fruits not known. Used in construction and for making baskets and household articles.Native of Myanmar, distributed in N E India, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and China, culms straight, 20-25 m high, 6-10 cm diameter, covered with white powdery material, nodes prominent with rings, basal nodes with rootlets, internodes up to 40 cm long, leaves 25 x 2.5 cm, hairy on midrib and beneath; inflorescence compound panicle, with distinct globular heads on nodal points, spikelets closely grouped, flower structure variable, fruit ovate, flat, 5-8 mm long, Flowering habit gregarious. Used for construction, medium quality, good quality furniture, paper pulp, chopsticks and handicrafts; the species has great potential for cultivation in plantations, edible shoots of very good quality.Supposedly introduced to N E India, Myanmar, Thailand, and other countries, especially W China. Densely tufted, evergreen or semi deciduous bamboo, culms 8-10 m high, 2-2.5 cm diameter, culms with grey or white stripes, internodes up to 40 cm long, walls 1-2 cm thick; leaves linear lanceolate, base rounded, 20 x 2.5 cm; inflorescence panicle, spreading, spikelets sparsely arranged, flower structure variable, fruit oblong, cylindrical, flowering habit sporadic. It has ornamental value, shoots edible, good quality, commercially cultivated, has great commercial potential, structural bamboo, medium quality, good for furniture making and edible shoots of good quality.Common Name: Black BambooOnly known in cultivation, said to be a Javanese species, commonly cultivated, introduced to India more than 100 years ago. Culms 10-15 m high, 6-8 cm diameter internodes 40-50 cm long, wall thickness 8 mm, mature culms, dark brown, purplish, hence the common name black bamboo; leaf lanceolate, ± 25 x 4 cm, pubescent, white hairs when young; inflorenscence long with clustered spikelets, fruits unknown. Very popular to make musical instruments in Java, used to make handicrafts, furniture, also used in building construction and yields edible shoots.Place of origin unknown, most probably Indo-China, but grows wild in Thailand, East Malaysia, Kalimantan and other places. Culms 10-12 m tall, diameter 5 cm, internodes 30-40 cm long, culms green with white and yellow stripes; leaves lanceolate ± 30 x 3 cm, inflorenscence on leafless branches, long with few spikelets in nodal regions, fruits unknown. Used in handicraft industry, basketery, culms for cooking, young shoots edible but not of very good quality. Germplasm collection needed, cultivation methods to be well established.Native and originates from Western Indonesia; introduced to botanic gardens in other countries, Malaysia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea. Culms 8-10 m tall, 3-6 cm in diameter wall thickness ± 1.2 cm, internodes 40-50 cm long; leaf lanceolate ± 30 x 4 cm, hairy on lower surface, inflorescence long with 4-6 clustered spikelets on each node, caryopsis, narrow cylindrical. Fast growing bamboo of humid tropics, grows up to 1500 m altitude, tolerates -2°C, easy to propagate by seeds and vegetative methods. Very suitable to grow in lowland forest areas, very suitbale for furniture making, useful for soil erosion control.Woody or climbing bamboos, mostly from the subtropical region of Asia and Africa. One species reported from tropical Africa (Oxytenanthera abyssinica), few from India (O. abyssinica, O. stocksii, (Karnataka, Maharashtra), O. monostigma (W.Ghtas), (O. parvifolia (N.E. India) and O. alba, O. parvifolia (Myanmar). (Liese 1998, Seethalakshami andKumar 1998).Culms 10-12 m long, 6-10 cm diameter, internodes 20 cm long; leaves ± 15 x 3 cm; long inflorenscences with many spikelets, caryopsis linear oblong 0.5-0.8 cm. Very useful bamboos, well used in handicrafts, cultivated to produce paper pulp, liquor extracted from young shoots. Flowering cycle 7-8 years, seeds unknown. Used in handicraft, basket making, poles. Research needs -rapid multiplication methods, development of a spineless variety.Mostly in South China, Japan, naturalized in Indonesia, culms 12-14 m, diameter 8-10 cm, culms dark green with black stains or patches, internodes 30-40 cm long; leaves pointed 12 x 3 cm; flowers and fruits details wanted. Edible shoots, used in handicrafts, farm tools, weaving, basketery and others. Like other monopodial bamboos of China, it is extensively cultivated in many places.Schizostachyum is a large genus with about 30 species that are distributed in tropical and subtropical countries of Asia. Many of them are very useful, many cultivated to obtain the culms and foliage used for various purposes, ornamental bamboo.Species reported in various countries are: China -9 species, S. diffusum is the tallest, culm height up to 40m, internode length 60 cm, others are of medium height 5-12 m; most of them are of ornamental value, others used in weaving, handicrafts, paper making. (Zhu Shi Linn 1993). The taxonomic identity of S. diffusum is uncertain (Dransfield 1998).Indonesia and S E Asian countries -9 species, S. lumampao (native of Philippines) S. trachycladum, S. grande and S. zollingeri are the tallest up to 20 m, other species range between 8-12 m in height. Most of them are used for construction, making household wares, umbrellas, small boxes, musical instruments, fishing rods, thatching, water containers, mats and baskets, handicrafts, props for banana plants, screens, containers to cook glutinuous rice, edible shoots (S. grande), planted for soil stabilisation, to control erosion and more commonly as ornamentals. The dark green or yellow culms with green stripes, persistent culm sheaths make them attractive as ornamental bamboos.India -14 species; some cultivated and plant materials used for various purposes as mentioned above Bangladesh -S. dullooa, used for cottage industries. S. brachycladum -S E Asia, culms 15 m x 5 cm, tolerates 3°C, gold yellow green striped, structural timber of medium quality, general purpose furniture, handicrafts, cooking, musical instruments, ornamental value; one cultivar 'green' recognized.S. glaucifolium -20 m x 5 cm, New Guinea, Pacific Is, Ivory green, striped, tolerates 4°C, ornamental Bamboo, most popular on seasides.S. dumetorum -S E Asia, 8 m x 1 cm, tolerates 4°C, S E Asia, bushy bamboo, small diameter culms used to make ropes.S. jaculans -S E Asia, 8 m x 3 m, tolerates 4°C, attractive garden bamboo, musical instruments and blow pipes.S. zollingeri -S E Asia, 15 m x 6 cm, tolerates 3°C, densely clumping, shoots edible, average quality, beautiful bamboo with ornamental value.C. manan is a robust single-stemmed rattan that produces the very best, most sought after cane for the furniture industry. It produces a strong durable cane of ca 20-80 mm diameter, of even texture, with good surface appearance; internode length can be as long as 40 cm. The mature plant can reach lengths long in excess of 100 m with leaves over 7 m long (including the whip-like cirrus). Altogether it is a massive plant. It is closely related to C. tumidus Furtado (smaller diameter, but traded usually mixed with C. manan). As currently understood, C. giganteus Becc. is synonymous with C. manan. However, recently C. giganteus var. robustus S.J. Pei & S.Y. Chen has been desrcibed from Yunnan. Whether this also is synonymous with C. manan (in which case this represents a major extension of its range) or represents a distinct species, has yet to be ascertained. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: In the strict sense, C. manan is found naturally in Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Thailand and South Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) (Fig. 22). C. tumidus is also distributed in Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia.CULTIVATION: There is a history of cultivation of this species for its fruits in South Kalimantan. Since 1975 it has been introduced into trials and commercial plantations in Sumatra, Java, Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. It has also been tried in natural, logged over and man-made forests, and rubber plantations.The species is found in the wild in perhumid tropical areas between altitudes of 200-1000 m above sea level, usually on slopes on well-drained soils. However, in plantation, it has proved to be less demanding in its requirements and can be planted in the lowlands. However, it does not perform well on waterlogged soils.CURRENT RESEARCH: C. manan has been the subject of intensive research on many aspects of its performance in trials and commercial sized plantations. Many aspects have been studied, ranging from taxonomy to growth rates, sex ratios, in vitro techniques, seed storage and ecophysiology. Some of the research results obtained recently from various workers that participated in EEC project are briefly summarised (Bacilieri 1998).A large ex situ collection of Calamus manan, C. Caesius, C. subinermis, C. ornatus and C. optimus has been established in Luasong, Sabah spread over 69 ha. The project started in 1988 and more than 15,000 seedlings were used. In the observations made during 1992-1996 sex ratio of male and female plants was determined for C. manan. On an average about 875 plants were observed with 14% flowering in 1992 and 41% in 1996. Female to male plant ratio varied from 1:3.2 in 1992 to 1: 1.3 in 1996 indicating that ratio between the male and female plants was almost equal (Aloysius 1998).In another study conducted, Calamus manan and C. subinermis showed considerable genetic diversity both at species and population levels. A geographic pattern of genetic diversity could be established in the two species. The plant populations of C. manan in Sabah were established from seeds collected and brought from Peninsular Malaysia and those in Kalimantan from Sumatra. C. subinermis is endemic to Sabah and the two populations in N.W. Sabah were genetically distinct from those in the east coast. The differences between the sub populations of C. subernimis were minimal (Bacilieri, 1998).Abscision of flower buds was high reaching up to 95% in C. manan and C. subinermis. There was no gradient in pollen maturity among flowers on the same rachis. Pollen from unopened buds gave better percentage germination than at anthesis. Pollen viability could be well maintained by desiccating the unopened mature flower buds for 24 hours under vacuum and storing them at -18°C in vacuum sealed glass vials. Storing with this treatment, pollen remained viable for more than one year covering two flowering seasons. The results obtained would help the process of artificial pollination (Bacilieri 1998).Pollen morphology of Calamus caesius, C. manan, C. optimus, C. ornatus, C.palustris, C. scipiomum, C. subinermis, C. trachycoleus, and C. tumidus was studied using voucher specimens deposited in Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Forest Research Centre, Sabah. Pollen in all the species are disulcate but the wall thickness and features of exine pattern vary (Harley 1998).In vitro propagation methods to obtain plantlets have been well established for Calamus manan, C. merrillii and C. subinermis. Ms medium was used supplemented with growth regulators. Explants were obtained from seedlings obtained under in vitro or from seedlings raised in the nursery. Root explants of C. manan and C. subinermis, zygotic embryos and young leaves of C. merrilii responded well giving rise to callus that differentiated into somatic embryos. Tissues of C. merrillii were more responsive than of the other two species (Goh, 1998).Genetic Assessment of Rattan Species -Calamus manan, C. caesius and C. palustris: Work on the genetic assessment of rattan species was completed, a research project undertaken in Forest Research Insttitute (FRIM), Kepong Malaysia and supported by IPGRI-APO. Seeds of eleven mother plants from each species were collected based on the availability of fruits. Leaf samples of mother plants and male plants were also collected; 11 and 17 for C. manan, 11 and 30 for C. caesius, 21 and 58 for C. palustris. About 30 seeds from each mother tree of C. manan (Bukit Lagong, FRIM and Sg. Yu, Pahang), C. caesius (Bukit Soga and Sg. Buluh) and C. palustris (Gopeng , Bukit Larik and Merapoh) were transferred to polybags. Isozyme analysis were carried out for C. manan mature plants (12 loci representing 9 enzyme systems) and seedlings (14 loci representing 10 enzyme systems), for C. palustris mature plants (8 loci representing 8 enzyme systems). The genetic variability measures (A, P, Ho and He) for C. palustris were generally very much higher than that for C. manan mature plants and seedlings, The final report is under preparation (Salwana, et al. 1996).CONSERVATION STATUS: The species has been severely overexploited to the extent that is now in very short supply and other large diameter species of poorer quality are collected and traded as substitutes.USES: This is the preferred large diameter cane for all furniture frame manufacturing.RESEARCH NEEDS: a) Further studies on the establishment of provenance trials for the selection of elite strains. b) Breeding with related species, to introduce novel traits such as regular clustering behaviour. c) Establishment and management of ex situ stands.C. caesius is a densely clump forming, small diameter rattan that produces one of the very best canes of 7-12 mm diameter. The canes are resilient and durable and have a glossy siliceous surface that is sometimes intentionally removed during processing to make the cane more flexible. Stems may reach 100 m or more in length and growth rates of 4-5 m/ year, exceptionally to 7 m or more, have been recorded. Clump establishment is rapid and after five or six years, there may be over 20-50 or more aerial stems depending on growing conditions and provenance. It is closely related to C. trachycoleus with similar diameter and the larger C. optimus Becc. (endemic to Borneo).GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: This is a widely dispersed species occurring in the wild in Southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Palawan (Philippines) (Fig. 23).CULTIVATION: There is a long history of sporadic small-scale cultivation of this species in Borneo. In one system, it is planted in the fallow period of the shifting cultivation cycle, and harvested when the forest is felled again for rice-planting. Since the late 1970s, commercial rattan plantations have been established using this species.The natural distribution suggests that C. caesius is adapted to perhumid tropical climates. Attempts to cultivate it outside such climates have been disappointing. In Borneo, the species occurs from lowlands up to an elevation of 900 m; elsewhere it is confined to low elevations. Although found on a variety of soils, it performs best on rich alluvial soil.CURRENT RESEARCH: Calamus caesius has been the subject of much research on growth, yields, pests and diseases. Cultivation of this species is better understood than any other, though much needs to be done. High heritability of characters was recorded in C. caesius including growth rate of the cane and number of stems formed per clump. (Bacilieri 1998).Two types of suckers were produced in C. caesius, one with lanceolate leaflets and the other with vestigial leaflets. There was no correlation between canopy opening and the number or kind of suckers produced (Lee 1998).Experiments were conducted using agar-water medium, to germinate rattan seeds under light and dark conditions. Seeds of Calamus caesius, C. densiflorus, C. manan, C. nanodendron, Daemonorops longipes, D. periacantha germinated in less than 10 days at 26°C with 12 hours light (12 hour photo period). Seeds of C. palustris, C. paspalanthus, C. subinermis and C. tumidus germinated after more than 30 days under same conditions (Pritchard and Davis 1998).UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: The major untapped potential of this species is as a smallholder crop. It has been grown on this scale but there is great potential for expansion of smallholder cultivation, especially in village orchards, marginal lands and buffer zones.CONSERVATION STATUS: Wherever the species occurs in the wild, it is harvested, often before flowering and fruiting can take place. This presents a great danger for its conservation. USES: Wherever it occurs, C. caesius is regarded as the very finest small diameter cane for both commercial purposes (matting, chair cane, binding for furniture and furniture construction) and local handicrafts (especially high quality traditional basket making).RESEARCH NEEDS: The major research need is the collection of provenances to sample the known wide variation in size, quality and apparent ecological requirements. In particular, there is great variation in Borneo, some provenances appearing to be especially vigorous in plantations. Calamus optimus Becc., closely related but larger in diameter, should be included in such sampling of provenances. Although much has been achieved in understanding cultivation requirements, much remains unknown, especially at the level of basic biology and maximum growth requirements, further survey and establishment and management of ex situ stands need urgent attention.C. trachycoleus is a vigorous rapidly-growing, small diameter rattan that produces one of the best canes of 7-12 mm diameter. The canes are resilient and durable, of a quality only slightly poorer than very best species, C. caesius. The outer surface of the cane is glossy and siliceous; this surface silica layer is often removed before the cane is utilized. The species is unusual in its clumping behaviour; clumps develop by the production of long (to 3 m or more) stolons that metamorphose into aerial stems, while at the same time producing more stolons. Growth rates of aerial stems can be very rapid (up to 7 m a year). This growth form and rapid growth rate allow this species to colonize areas rapidly where it is cultivated, but also makes it rather difficult to control in plantations.GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: The species is confined to the Barito Selatan area of central Kalimantan, Indonesia (Fig. 24). However, it has now been introduced into several parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. CULTIVATION: C. trachycoleus has been cultivated for over 100 years on a large scale by villagers in Barito Selatan, as their main source of income. This clearly successful cultivation system has been used as a model for the setting up of smallholder and commercial plantations elsewhere and there are now new commercial estates of this species in Indonesia and Malaysia.The species has performed best in perhumid tropical areas at low elevations. A remarkable feature is its ability to withstand severe and prolonged seasonal flooding (1-1.5 m for up to 2 months) with little damage. In its original area of cultivation it occurs on seasonally flooded alluvial flats on soil overlying highly acidic clay, soils that are not suitable for permanent agriculture. C. trachycoleus cannot, however, grow well in waterlogged soils.CURRENT RESEARCH: Very little research is being conducted at present on this species. Growth studies in plantation in Sabah and trials on different soil types in Malaysia are being performed. The species gives the impression of being remarkably invariable but this needs to be explored further.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: At present, expanded cultivation of this species is on a commercial scale. There is great potential for the promotion of cultivation of this species on a smallholder basis, outside the present area of smallholder cultivation.CONSERVATION STATUS: At present, there appears to be no serious conservation problem. USES: The primary use of this species is as split cane for weaving into matting, chair cane and handicrafts. For some weaving purposes it may even be preferred over C. caesius because the stem is softer and more supple.Calamus trachycoleus RESEARCH NEEDS: Because of the very invasive behaviour of the species, cultivation in neat rows is impossible to maintain and this presents problems for harvesting and commercial estate management. Research is required to develop efficient management and harvesting methods. In view of the close relationship with C. caesius, there may be prospects for interbreeding to allow selection of forms combining the growth form and flood tolerance of C. trachycoleus with the larger internode length and higher quality of C. caesius. Further assessment is needed to understand the variations in populations. Both survey and genetic diversity studies are required to establish provenances.This is a well defined group of very closely related species of medium to large rattans that occurs from the Indian subcontinent to New Guinea (Fig. 25). The group includes about 11 named species and several that have been recognized as being undescribed and have been assigned manuscript names by Fernando who is preparing a monograph on this group.Calamus Sect.Solitary or clustered rattan, stem 24 m long or more, stem diameter with sheath 8 cm, without 5 cm, pale yellow colour; leaf cirrate, 4 m long, leaflets ± 40 x 3 cm, male inflorescence 1.3 m long, female 1.0 m long, with many flowers on each, mostly present in Andaman, Nicobar islands, flowering in November -December, fruiting in April-May. Fruits ovoid 1.4 x 0.9 cm with 17 rows of scales vertically arranged. Well-used in furniture industry, leaves used for thatching (Renuka 1995). (Table 4).Clustering rattan, stem upto 25 m tall, diameter 4 cm without leaf sheath, collected from Java and Bali, lowland forests and on hill slopes upto 600 m (Dransfield and Manokaran 1993).Clustering rattan near mangrove swamps and coastal margins, stems upto 20m, diameter without sheath ± 3 cm, internodes 25-30 cm, leaf cirrate 4-5 m long; inflorescence 1-1.5 m long, male more compact than female, fruits 1 cm diameter, covered with 12 rows of scales, light yellow in colour; considered as medium to low quality coarse cane; recorded in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Dransfield 1992).Endemic to Palawan Island, Philippines, not one of the economically important species (Lapis 1998).Present in different provinces of the Philippines including Palawan Island; cultivated species, also introduced to Sabah, East Malaysia for growing in plantations; commercially important species (Lapis 1998). Some work also has been done on chemical control of black leaf spot disease.Endemic species in Western Ghats of Karnataka state, India; clustering or solitary rattan, stems 25-40 m, upper leaves with long cirrus 3-4 m long, leaflets 40 x 2.5 cm; male and female inflorescences distinct, 30 and 70 cm long respectively; fruits ovoid oblong 2 x 1 cm with 17-18 rows of scales with white margins, flowering Dec-Jan, fruiting from May-June; very useful species for making furniture and other articles, limited cultivation, the species has cultural and religious significance (Lakshmana 1993). (Table 4).Endemic to Sri Lanka, clustering rattan, up to 100 m in length, diameter 3-4 cm without sheath; leaf up to 4m long with cirrus 2 m long, leaflets 50 x 2 cm; male and female inflorescences 2.5 m and 1 m long, male flowers bigger than female; fruit ovoid 1.2 x 0.8 cm, scales orange brown, flowering in April, fruiting in October; canes of excellent quality used in furniture industry and handicrafts (Zoysa and Vivekanandan 1994).  Renuka 1992, 1995, 1998, Basu, 1992and Zoysa and Vivekanandan 1994, Dransfield and Manokaran, 1993). KEY Clustering rattan, common in lowland swampy forests, Indonesia and Peninsula Malaysia, stem 1-2 cm without sheath, internodes 15-20 cm, leaves 2.5 m long with cirrus, leaflets 35 x 1 cm; male and female inflorescence about 50 cm long, fruits ovulate about 8 mm diameter, covered with 18 rows of ivory coloured scales, leaf sheath ant infested, under exploited cane, mostly used by the local people (Dransfield 1979;Dransfield and Manokaran 1993).Solitary rattan, stem 15 m tall, diameter 3.8 cm without sheath, leaves 4.3 m long, has strong resemblences to C. zollingeri; distribution in low land forest of Irian Jaya, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; used by the local people for making baskets and other articles. (Dransfield and Manokaran 1993;Maturbongs 1997).Endemic to Sri Lanka, occurs along with C. ovoideus, mostly in wet lowland forests; clustering rattan, up to 50 m high, diameter 3 cm, internodes 35 cm long, leaf 3 m long with cirrus, leaflets 50 x 3 cm; male and female inflorescences 1.5 and 0.5 m long respectively, fruits almost round 2 cm long, 1.5 cm broad, fruit covered with copper coloured scales with white margin; excellent cane used in furniture industry and handicraft industries, natural resources overexploited and species endangered (Zoysa and Vivekanandan 1994)Distribution Sulawesi and Moluccas of Indonesia, clustering; stem 40 m long, diameter about 4 cm without leaf sheath, internodes 35-40 cm long, leaf 6-7 m long, cirrate, leaflets 40 x 3 cm; male and female inflorencences similar 1.1 m long; fruits small 5 mm diameter; good cane for furniture industry, used by the local people for various purposes, earlier exported to Hongkong, grown in plantations on a limited scale. (Dransfield and Manokaran 1993).The group includes medium diameter species such as C. erinaceus to very large diameter species (C. andamanicus). Cane quality ranges from mediocre (C. erinaceus) to excellent and highly prized (C. merrillii). All species appear to be multi-stemmed and can grow to great lengths. C. merrillii, C. zollingeri and C. ovoideus are among the most highly prized commercial rattans, that produce canes of even, large diameter, good internal structure and appearance, used widely in the furniture industry. Both C. merrillii and C.zollingeri are grossly over-exploited at present. Although of a quality not as fine as that of C. manan, aspects of the growth form of all members of the group suggest they may be more amenable to sustainable cultivation than C. manan. Furthermore, the very close relatedness of the recognized species and their very wide geographical and ecological range suggest that there may be considerable scope for selection and breeding for precise cultivation conditions. CLIMATE AND SOILS: The climate range of the group covers monsoonal to perhumid climates, from the lowlands to ca 1800 m in the mountains, but individual species tend to have a rather narrow range. Soils range from mangrove soils, freshwater swamps (but not peat-swamp), coral limestone and occasionally ultramafic soils.CURRENT RESEARCH: Current research is focused on C. merrillii and a few other species of this group. This species has been the subject of silvicultural trials since about 1979, with promising results. It has been introduced into Malaysia from the Philippines on a trial basis. C. zollingeri has also been introduced recently. Other large species in the group are prime targets for silvicultural research. Some in vitro research has been carried out on C. merrillii.UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: This group of rattans has very great potential for agroforestry, especially in view of the multi-stemmed habit and wide climatic and ecological range of the group.CONSERVATION STATUS: Species in the group are subjected to different degrees of threat, ranging from the severe threats from over-exploitation to C. merrillii and C. andamanicus, and habitat destruction to C. ovoideus and C. zeylanicus to much less threat to C. erinaceus.USES: Primary use of this group is as a source of large diameter canes for furniture manufacture. Small diameter canes may be used for making rough furniture, coarse baskets and household utensils.RESEARCH NEEDS: Taxonomic research required to provide a basic framework for further work within this complex of species has yet to be completed, and must be regarded as a high priority. There is a great need to assemble provenances both within the individual species and within the whole group. This complex group offers exciting possibilities for the selection and breeding of high quality, medium to large diameter canes, for permanent rattan plantation in a wide range of climates and soil types. Very little is known of the basic biology of these rattans.Calamus subinermis is a medium to large diameter rattan of excellent quality, that is the preferred source of cane for furniture frames in Sabah, Palawan and, possibly, parts of Sulawesi. Although the species is clump-forming and thus potentially can produce a sustained harvest, generally the clumps often consist of no more than two or three aerial stems. There is considerable variability in clumping behaviour and armature of the leaf sheaths that suggest considerable genetic variability and the possibility of genetic improvement.GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: In the narrow sense, C. subinermis is confined to Sabah and closely adjacent parts of Sarawak and Kalimantan, and Palawan and offshore islands in the Philippines. A closely related or conspecific rattan occurs in North Sulawesi where it is one of the sources of \"tohiti\" canes, the preferred large cane for furniture frames in Sulawesi. A similar species also occurs in West Java (Fig. 26).CULTIVATION: This species has been introduced into cultivation trials in Sabah.CLIMATE AND SOILS: In the wild, this species is confined to well drained soils on rather dry coastal hills. Although usually found on mildly acidic rocks, the species has been observed on soils derived from coral limestone and on soils overlying ultramafic rock. The geographical distribution of the species and its putative relatives suggests that it may be adapted to survival outside the perhumid areas of southeast Asia.CURRENT RESEARCH: The species is actively being investigated by Lee Ying Fah and his coworkers at the Forest Research Centre, Sipilok, Sabah, Malaysia, who are examining basic aspects of its biology, growth and performance under trials. Some small scale provenance trials have been initiated. Details on flower, pollen longevity and pollination in C. subinermis and C. caesius have been published (Lee et al. 1995 a,b).The species of Calamus are dioecious with regular male and female inflorescence. The male flowers arranged with female flowers are usually sterile. In Calamus subinermis both male and hermaphodite flowers were found together for the first time and pollen tested was viable and germinated. Andromonoecy may have a genetical bearing that needs to be analysed (Lee 1998).UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Preliminary growth trials suggest that this species has great potential as a plantation crop for drier areas adjacent to perhumid areas. The apparent wide range of soil tolerance in the wild suggests that the species may have potential for cultivation on an equally wide variety of substrates.CONSERVATION STATUS: Since the revitalization of the rattan industry in Sabah in the late 1970s, Calamus subinermis has been subjected to severe overexploitation. Nowhere is it legally protected, except in the Tungku Abdul Rahman National Park near Kota Kinabalu.USES: Primary use is for furniture frames. RESEARCH NEEDS: A major requirement is to investigate clumping behaviour, whether it is genetically or environmentally controlled. Seed germination in this species seems often to be staggered and would require further study.This is a complex of closely related, taxonomically poorly understood rattans that include named species that are known to show great silvicultural potential. These rattans produce canes of medium to large diameter (15-20 mm or more), of an excellent glossy yellowish appearance and with good strength properties. Larger forms from Peninsular Malaysia have been traded as \"manau\", the trade name of the best large diameter cane, C. manan. The taxonomy of the group is confused and is in urgent need of reassessment.GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: The geographical distribution of this species complex is given in Fig. 27 and the following taxa are tentatively included in this complex:Calamus palustris Griff and varieties -China, India (Andaman, Nicobar), Myanmar, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Vietnam.  CLIMATE AND SOILS: In the broad sense, the complex is found over a wide geographical and climatic range from northern Peninsular Malaysia to northern India and southern China, from the edge of the perhumid zone to strongly seasonal climates, and from near sea level to about 700 m or more altitudes in southern Yunnan. It appers to perform best on relatively fertile soils but very little is known of its soil requirements.CURRENT RESEARCH: Research on growth and yields of C. palustris is progressing at Forest Research Institute, Malaysia. Research on C. nambariensis in the shifting cultivation cycle in southern Yunnan has been carried out by Pei Shengji and associates. Some work on genetic diversity and its distribution has been done in Malaysia and Thailand (Changtragoon et al. 1998).Ms modified basal medium was used to germinate the embryos of C. tumidus and C. palustris which responded well under in vitro. Detailed reports are prepared on \"The role of embryo culture in the seed conservation of palms and other species\" and \"Biodiversity and Conservation of Rattan Seeds\" (Pritchard 1998).Evaluating the status of genetic resources of rattan (Calamus palustris) by isoenzyme gene markers: In collaboration with the Royal Forest Department (RFD) Bangkok, Thailand, the status of genetic resources of Calamus palustris in Thailand was evaluated using isoenzyme gene markers. The distribution of Calamus palustris which is one of the important rattan species in Thailand was surveyed in disturbed and undisturbed areas. A total of 13 populations from 7 provinces in the South Thailand were studied. C. palustris could not be found in four areas where it was known to be distributed from earlier explorations indicating some genetic erosion. Eighteen isoenzyme gene loci were identified and about 80% of the isoenzyme loci studied were found to be polymorphic. The genetic structure, differentiation and diversity of C. palustris were studied/measured. The results showed that approximately 18% of the total diversity was due to differences among populations. The conservation of genetic resources of this species is discussed. This work was presented at the last IUFRO Congress (Changtrogoon et al. 1998), evaluating the stauts of genetic resources of rattan (Calamus palustris) in Thailand by isoenzyme gene markers. (IUFRO Conference on Forest Genetics and Tree Improvement. Contribution of genetics to the sustained management of global forest resources, Beijing, China 22-28 August, 1998).UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: Growth of C. palustris in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia suggests that this is a very promising species for the drier and more monsoonal areas of the region. The observation that it tolerates rather open conditions suggests that it may be relatively easy to grow. Within the range of variability of C. palustris and its relatives, there is potential for the selection of strains for growing in different climatic regions and soil types. CONSERVATION STATUS: Little known. The genetic diversity study in Thailand indicates significant genetic erosion is occurring. USES: Primary use is for framework for furniture.RESEARCH NEEDS: The most important gaps in our knowledge of this complex group are the relationships within the complex. There is a need for an extensive survey to provide the material for a proper classification of the group, a taxonomic study that is required as a framework for future development. Still very little is understood about the basic biology and growth in plantation of different members of this complex. There is clearly a need to establish a major provenance trial.More details are summarised about the various species.Clustering, 25-30 m tall, diameter without leaf sheath 2 cm, internodes 25-30 cm; leaf cirrate, 1m long, leaflets 35 x 4 cm; inflorescences female shorter than male, 1-1.5 m long, fruit globular, 0.9 cm diameter with 12 rows of light yellow scales. Very useful cane used for furniture, internationally traded (Dransfield and Manokaran 1993).Yunnan province of China on hill slopes upto 900 m, some cultivated, clustering robust rattan, stem without sheath 20 mm in diameter, internode 50cm or more, leaves 2-6 m long, leaflets 55 x 7 cm, no regular arrangement, rachis ends up with cirrus upto 3 m long, male and female inflorescences similar, fruits ovoid 17 x 11 mm covered with 20 rows of light yellow scales, seed slightly flat, extensively used in weaving, for furniture, and house construction (Dransfield and Manokaran 1993).Endemic species in N E India, Sikkim, up to 800 m, clustering rattan, 20-25 m tall, diameter 2-3 cm without leaf sheath; inflorescence 1 m long, fruits ellipsoid 3 x 1.5 cm, with 18 rows of scales, groove in the middle; used in furniture industry. More details required on all other aspects (Basu 1992).Distribution N E India, Yunnan, China and most likely in Myanmar -China border areas; clustering, robust cane, 20-30 m tall, 2 cm diameter, leaves 3 m long, leaflets 40 x 3 cm, 5 nerved; fruits globose 2.5 cm diameter, covered with 21 rows of scales; mostly used in furniture; more details are required on all aspects (Basu 1992).Calamus tetradactylus is a densely clustering small diameter rattan, with good quality canes of 5-8 mm diameter. It can also grow to lengths of up to 30 m. It is closely related to C. tetradactyloides, C. cambojensis and to some species in Calamus Sect. Calamus (Sect. Coleospathus Furtado).GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: C. tetradactylus occurs in China on Hainan Island, in southern Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Morinees, Hong Kong and in Viernam (Fig. 28). CULTIVATION: C. tetradactylus has been cultivated on a trial and small commercial scale in southern China.CLIMATE AND SOILS: Ecophysiological requirements are cited as being air temperature 20-30°C (-2°C may kill seedlings), more than 1300 mm rainfall annually and relative humidity over 78%. This species is the most northerly of all cultivated rattans, occurring in areas where rare frosts can occur.CURRENT RESEARCH: The species has been the subject of intense research in south China over the last 15 years. Successful trials have been established.The major untapped potential of this species is for wider cultivation in areas with climate similar to that of southern China, as a small holder crop for handicrafts. USES: The primary use is as a first class small diameter cane in handicrafts, binding in furniture and cordage.RESEARCH NEEDS: Studies are needed to understand intraspecific variability and its relationships with other taxa occurring outside China.C. deeratus is a highly polymorphic small to medium diameter clustering rattan, that produces a cane of moderate quality, up to ca 18 mm diameter. In the past several other species have been described that are now considered to be synonymous. RESEARCH NEEDS: Since very little is known about this species, research work in all fields will be needed.Calamus hollrungii is a medium to large diameter rattan that produces a high quality cane ca 9-20 mm or more in diameter. It is usually single-stemmed. Very closely related are several other recognized species that share the same excellent cane quality and size.GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: The following species are tentatively included under the genepool of Calamus hollrungii and distribution of this group is presented in Fig. 30. Sri Lanka -19 species of Calamus, 7 are endemic, three species common with India in rattan growing region. (See Table 4).Indigenous quite feasible. Despite the difficulties encountered with flowering cycles, some species (e.g. Dendrocalamus asper) may flower but not produce seeds, others may produce seeds in very small quantities (e.g. D. asper or Gigantochloa apus), or seeds produced may have high inviability. So research on testing seed, viability and storability of seed for long-term conservation is recommended. Innovative research on physiology to induce flowering could be most valuable. Present status: Tissue culture methods for mass propagation of most of the bamboo priority species are well outlined and further support was given by IPGRI for more studies. Various methods are followed for producing plantlets and by using young plants, bamboo plantations have been established.In vitro induction of flowering and fruiting offered much hope in the beginning but the degree of success was relative only in certain cases or clones. The methods are not successful in many other cases (INBAR technical report,5).Some good work has been recently conducted on bamboo seed harvest, handling, storability and seed viability, with IPGRI's support, and these data are being put together to develop some giudelines towards conservation strategy.One of the commercial companies in Belgium has gained much experience in invitro culture of bamboos and they solicit orders from clients offering to produce and supply bamboo plantlets of the desired varieties. The presentation made by this company at the recent International Bamboo congress in Costa Rica received many responses.4. With reference to in situ conservation it is pointed out that the agreed priority species do not occur in primary forests but are associated with anthropogenic forest vegetation. Such areas lend themselves to buffer zone areas but conservation areas in ecotones and other anthropogenic forests should be considered in developing in situ conservation systems. The conservation community INTERESTED IN CONSERVATION has given inadequate attention to these areas despite repeated mention in relation to crop relatives and a substantial number of other economic plants.Present status: The relative status of in situ and ex situ conservation work has been summarized for five countries, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Plans for further work are also outlined (Vivekanandan 1998). Similar work to produce reports for other countries will be pursued and supported by IPGRI.4A. It is noted that the IBPGR research is targeted solely to Asia. The attention of INBAR and IBPGR is drawn to the need to survey Guadua in Latin America.Present status: Natural distribution and plantation establishment of Guadua in Central and South American countries are discussed in a recently held International Bamboo Conference. This priority species i.e. Guadua angustifolia is well conserved, and sustainably used in various Central and South American countries, especially for low cost housing. Many books and research papers on this species are recently published. Building of bamboo houses has a long tradition in these countries.5. An urgent task necessary to enhance bamboo production is genetic enhancement.INBAR and FORTIP are asked to consider how this can be promoted. Present status: An expert consultation meeting was held in Los Baños, Philippines and many important recommendations are made for the genetic enhancement of bamboos and rattans (Banik et al 1995;Fu 1995;Gurumurthi 1995;Lawrence 1995;Rao and Ramanatha Rao 1995;Williams 1995).Participants of the 1994 workshop made the following recommendations in relation to rattans.1. Recognizing that current exchange of planting materials is slow and that this needs to be accelerated and further, that widespread testing has not been carried out, the establishment of regional provenance trials on the priority species is urgently required. FORTIP has also accorded priority to rattan and their collaboration should be sought in this regard. As in the case of bamboos, two urgent interventions are needed:Present status: Considerable amount of work has been done on plantation and nursery techniques for rattan including some priority species like C. manan, C. caesius, and C. trachycoleus. Large scale ex situ collections and plantations have been established in Sabah using the logged over forest areas (Bacilieri 1998). Work on regional provenance trials are awaited but this is not easy to achieve because of particular growth conditions that rattans require like rainfall, soil moisture, light shade conditions and others. More basic research on ecophysiology needed.a. INBAR and FORTIP are asked to develop standard methodology as for bamboos (see above).b. IBPGR and FAO are asked to develop guidelines for the safe movement of materials when INBAR has databased all current information on pests and diseases.Present status: The data collection on pests and diseases is in progress. The papers published on this topic have to be consolidated. More information is available on bamboos than rattans. Preliminary discussions have started on the safe movement of seed materials. CABI Bioscience of CAB International have joined INBAR-IPGRI working group to establish guidelines for the safe movement of Bamboo and Rattan materials.2. Micropropagation techniques have been developed for a limited number of the high priority species. However, further research in this area can await the commercialization of selected clones (which has not been done yet).Present status: Considerable success has been gained in producing rattan plantlets under invitro, part of the CIRAD-FORET/ICSB efforts in Plant Biotech laboratory, Tawau, Sabah. Using root or young leaf segments of Calamus manan, C. subinermis and C. merrillii somatic embryos have been produced in large numbers which later on differentiated into plantlets. The plants have been transferred to the field already. This is a major breakthrough in conserving and propagating superior rattan plants.The performances of in vitro produced plants will be uniform in terms of growth and yield since the plantlets are developed from vegetative tissues of mother plants. All the three species are important commercially and the canes of these species are very well-used in furniture industry. (Goh, 1997). Earlier research on in vitro Culture studies on rattan was summarised. (Rao I.V. et al 1990).3. For genetic conservation, rattan seeds are short-lived and hence research is needed on storability. Tissue culture is not a high priority for genetic conservation because current plantings are from heterogeneous seed collections which vary every time.(Almost all rattans are dioecious and a genetic marker for the sex ratio has not been identified). In situ conservation in primary forests is clearly of the highest priority and this must be coupled with survey and identification of patterns of genetic variation.Present status: Broad based data on in situ conservation of rattan have been obtained for few countries like Philippines, Sri Lanka, China, India, Nepal and others. More intensive work is required to identify the pattern of genetic variation in rattans.Large scale ex situ rattan collections have been established in Luasang Sabah, involving five commercially important species (Aloysius , 1998). Similar exercises can be practiced in other countries also. As said before it is feasible to obtain large number of (genetically uniform) plants by using invitro methods. Since vegetative tissues are used as explants, uniform performance of plants produced in the laboratory is expected with few modifications. The invitro methods can also be tried for genetic conservation of species. Identifying genetic markers and sex ratio studies should progress since they help to firmly establish the scientific methods, needed to carry out conservation programmes.a. Development of extractive reserves and models for sustainable management of natural stands should be vigorously pursued, but development of clear scientific standards is essential.Present status: Some efforts are under way, supported by IPGRI, to understand the impact of extraction. More socio-economic, ethnobotanical research needs to be done.b. A great deal of data exist on rattan distribution in protected areas and these should be collated. However, these should be checked by reference to herbarium materials and by on-ground surveys.Present status: Some valuable data are collected on the distribution of rattan in protected areas and natural forests of certain countries including Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The accuracy of data varies since very little work is done in certain countries due to shortage of manpower and lack of expertise. Available data has been brought upto date (Vivekanandan et al 1997).1. Participants discussed the need for relevant information systems and noted that a number of databases either exist or are planned by international organizations.It was felt that it would be precipitous to discuss these further until descriptor systems were available and widely used.2. Attention was drawn to the need to use the existing bamboo and rattan information centres in China, India & Malaysia.Present status: The information sent by the various centres is well-used. The future of these centres need to be reassessed.3. The value of the palm database at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, UK was noted and that this covers not only taxonomy but distribution, ecology, uses and other topics. INBAR is asked to explore the possiblity of the subset dealing with rattans being made available to cross reference with bibliographic data in the Rattan Information Centre.Present status: Alice Nomenclature database and collection database on rattan are available at Kew, Richmond, England.4. A similar database for bamboos is not yet available and this would be the first task to be explored.Present status: Plans are being made to establish bamboo database.1. Participants wished to state that of the numerous species not listed as the priority in this report there are many which need to be protected in reserve areas and inventories maintained. This is due to the over-riding importance of the use of these species by local peoples. This would require appropriate sustainable management of these species within the forests.Present status: Attention has been drawn of the concerned people to the above problems at various meetings recently conducted. The country reports presented at the training courses and workshops throw some light on the subject illustrating the progress made. (See the list of references). Additional number of species have been added and discussed in the present volume also.2. It is recognized that there are major gaps in our knowledge on the biodiversity of many species of priority bamboos and rattans. As research proceeds it will become clear that the priorities identified in this report will require revision.Present status: Very little work has been done on the biodiversity of rattan and bamboo so far. Some varieties are identified for certain species. The deficiency is largely due to the lack of well trained manpower and intensive field survey in the region.Epilogue (1994 edition): Agreement on priority species of bamboo and rattan represents a landmark achievement. Obviously the next question posed is what should be next in the areas of biodiversity and understanding and exploiting genetic diversity.Recommendations made in the report relate to immediate follow-up action so that research networking applies the priorities and develops a degree of standardization in methodology. However, in relation to diversity scientists will be pondering over many unknowns for bamboo and rattan. Conservation is of particular interest in this respect, and advances in conservation will rely on understanding patterns of diversity in relation to ecology, physiology, genetics, reproductive biology and molecular biology. Since the knowledge base is extremely small in relation to these subjects, by necessity we need to follow a multidisciplinary approach. Advances will be made when groups of researchers working in the various disciplines can be brought together to work on common problems. Such groups will include universities as well as research institutes and silviculturists in various countries.The stimulation of this type of research presents a great challenge to organizations such as IBPGR and other international and regional efforts on conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources. In any event, it needs careful preparation: topics need to be well defined and programming implemented against a background of continual assessment and rolling priorities. With some dedicated work, good results can be achieved in about 2-3 years time. Lastly, this approach for bamboo and rattan will be needed for many other non-timber forest products.The meetings at Dehradun and the subsequent ones organized by INBAR, FORTIP and IPGRI-APO provided excellent opportunities for many researchers to discuss the various issues raised above during the last four years. Although all the problems have not been fully solved or the various questions answered, a good beginning has been made in several countries and directions outlined to promote research on Bamboo and Rattan. The series of publications that have come out in the last 3 years bear evidence to such facts giving out various details on several important points including conservation and sustainable utilization. (See list of references 1996(See list of references -1998)). Methodologies outlined whether they are for field trials, nursery techniques, plantation development, vegetative propagation, biochemical methods including tissue culture work are very closely followed in many laboratories and institutions. Much progress has been made. Population analysis studies are in progress in certain countries paving the way for genetic analysis and conservation of various species.The publication of final scientific report on the EEC project is an important document showing the valuable research carried out on conservation, genetic improvement and silviculture of various rattan species. In many ways the document outlines the new methods followed to solve the various problems on rattan and sets up models for further research. The results obtained during the four year period by the joint work of researchers from five institutions in France, UK and Malaysia have helped to open many frontiers, unexplored before. Limited or complete answers are made available to many questions raised earlier at various meetings and conferences. (Bacilieri 1998). The joint efforts of these organizations along with IPGRI-APO, INBAR and FORTIP also helped to improve the manpower development in the region.The relative status of ex situ and in situ conservation of Bamboo and Rattan has been evaluated for more than six Asian countries. Details on Guadua angustifolia are being published by various researchers in Central and South America. Attempts are made to understand and analyse the patterns of diversity in certain priority species.Identification and selection of Bamboo Rattan species for plantation establishment and to increase production have been discussed in earlier pages. As explained the nativity or indigenous nature of certain species is well known or easily identifiable, for others the indigenous status is unknown but certain species are widely distributed in large areas either as camp followers or due to their inherent success and ecological adaptability to various edaphic and climatic conditions. Few of them are endemic representing either the primitive or the advanced stages of evolution. Altogether the distribution of about 30-40 species are included in this revised text with distribution maps.Analysis and understanding the range of species distribution is basic to plan and promote conservation measures. Selection and promotion of superior clones or varieties of the various species would enhance their economic value. The rarity or scarcity of species prompted the various International organizations to prepare the lists of plants -generic names proposed for conservation in 1948. Since then many directories or Red books have been published for various countries indicating the endangered or threatened status of various plant species. Present day conditions endangering the vegetation in tropical and subtropical forests are such that we need to prepare a list of Bamboo Rattan species that need to be conserved in various countries either immediately or over a period of time in the near future. To carry out such an exercise in different countries distribution maps given for various species in this publication will be helpful.Plant species distribution is the major topic or the core subject of Phytogeography or Plantgeography, the main principles of which are discussed in various publications over the last 140 years  under different headings including: zonation of plants, geography of plants, botanical geography and localities, life zones, floristic provinces, age and area and others. The basic principles were enumerated in a concise form about 50 years ago by Cain including principles concerning environment, plant responses, migration of flora and climaxes, plant evolution etc. Most of these details are yet to be covered or analysed in case of Bamboo and Rattan by conducting further research. Fossil evidence for both the groups is absent since they are monocots. Bamboos are present both in old and new worlds whereas rattans are mostly South East Asian in distribution.Majority of the woody bamboos investigated so far are polyploids and polyploid species often show a wider range of distribution. Almost all the priority species considered in the present text are polyploid species and the limited distribution of majority of priority species confirm the above statement. The chromosome numbers in the related woody genera of bamboos, including the priority species considered presently, are not variable, making it difficult to establish genetic relationship between economically important genera and the species. Nevertheless genetic enhancement and hybridization research has progressed (Tewari 1994, Williams, et al 1995).Very few rattans, not more than 4-5 species have been investigated cytologically to determine the chromosome numbers, diploid numbers vary between 22-24. Most of the rattans when 2-3 years old are very slow growers, and majority of them are dioecious. The nature and role of X and Y chromosome analysis in rattans, if any, causing diocy are yet to be determined analysing the segregation of sexuality in rattan populations. Most probably the pattern of sexuality in dioecious rattan follows the same archetype as species of Borassus and Phoenix where male plants have XY pair of chromosomes, X larger than Y, and female plants with XX pair, with no size difference between the two chromosomes. Andromonoecious condition has been reported in Calamus subinermis, an endemic species from Sabah (Lee 1998), suggesting an important advice to researchers to re-examine the flower arrangements and structure of many other species more closely.Population analysis of rattans is very important not only to understand the phenology and ecology of plants but also to maintain the proper balance between male and female plants in a population so that good seed production is ensured to propogate and conserve the genetic resources which form the baseline for sustainable utilization. Except for suckers there is no vegetative propagation method in rattans. Not all rattans would produce suckers. Methods outlined to obtain somatic embryos through tissue culture work of 2-3 species may prove very helpful in the near future for other species.Dioecious condition is said to be a very advanced evolutionary tendency in reproduction of flowering plants (Renner and Ricklefs 1995). Correlations between dioecious rattan plants, their ecophysiological, morphological and genetical characteristics are yet to be well correlated. Physiological and morphological amplitudes of a species are governed by the genetical characters of a species. Therefore proper understanding and analysis of rattan reproduction for conservation should involve a good measure of both ecophysiological and genetical studies.Researchers in developing countries are pursuing a multidisciplinary approach using the manpower that are available. Experts are brought from various countries to improve or augment the situation wherever needed. More efforts will be made to solve the problems in different Asian countries that grow Bamboo and Rattan. With the continued support provided by INBAR and IPGRI-APO many of the researchers in developing countries are forging ahead to solve the various national and regional problems. The networks already established are functioning well in Asian countries and more coordinated efforts will help to conserve and sustainably use Bamboo and Rattan resources in the near future, using various biotechnological methods (Ratnam et al, 1994, Salwana et al, 1996). ","tokenCount":"18194"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c71fb5be2182c502f42fddb428c5911","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d478a90c-b590-477b-ad40-491c36cce834/content","id":"128305648"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8282ba5d-a69f-41f0-abd1-c7715b9f9b47","pagecount":"16","content":"Agriculture in Zimbabwe provides employment and income for 60-70 percent of the population, supplies 60 percent of the raw materials required by the industrial sector and contributes 40 percent of total export earnings. Despite the high level of employment in the sector, it directly contributes only 15-19 percent to annual GDP, depending on the rainfall pattern (Government of Zimbabwe, 1995).Loans to the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe take up 19% of the total $3.8 billion availed by the banking sector since dollarization. 60% of the funds availed to the agriculture sector in the 2014/2015 season were channeled to finance tobacco farming as this is a safe haven for bankers because of the high repayment rate. (Herald, 2014;Financial Gazette, 2015). Local banks have set aside nearly $1 billion to support the 2015-16 agricultural season as Government with the bulk of the money was earmarked for strategic crops and livestock production (Zimbabwe Daily, 2015).The local banks in Zimbabwe are offering short term loans which are not sufficient for the myriad financial requirements in Agriculture (The Herald, 2015). Bankers Association of Zimbabwe President highlighted that in order to solve the limited credit to agriculture in Zimbabwe value chain finance offers an opportunity to expand financing for agriculture, improve efficiency and repayment in financing, and strengthen or consolidate linkages among participants in value chains. For financial institutions, value chain finance creates the impetus to look beyond the direct recipient of finance to better understand the competitiveness and risks in the sector as a whole and to craft products that best fit the needs of the businesses in the chain. Through financing the agriculture value chain by considering the different actors from small farmers to corporate agribusinesses, it is possible to overcome the challenges of agriculture in the country (Financial Gazette, 2015) After lifting a decade long sanctions that had been imposed on Zimbabwe, under the 11th EDF, 88 million euros has been earmarked for agriculture as the engine of economic growth. EU last year launched four projects worth 20 million dollars aimed at supporting communal irrigation schemes, development of productive small holder livestock sector as well as sustainable forest management in order to build small holder farmers' resilience to external shocks and enhance their productivity and efficiency in service delivery. However Zimbabwe's agricultural sector continues to experience severe challenges within its entire value chain, including insecure land tenure, unreliable public services, lack of access to affordable inputs and difficulties in finding appropriate agricultural financing (Africa News, 2015)Zimbabwe's financial sector consists of a Reserve Bank, discount houses, commercial banks, merchant banks, finance houses, building societies, the Post Office Savings Bank, numerous insurance companies and pension funds and a stock exchange(Banking sector analysis: 2013). A total of 19 banks are operating in Zimbabwe and their operations are controlled by the Banking Act The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Bankers association of Zimbabwe) directly supervises these banks. The financial sector also comprises of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) which are supposed to service the economically active poor and other marginalized groups who cannot meet the stringent requirements of the banks. Zimbabwe currently has 172 MFIs registered as of February 2014 (Banking sector analysis: 2013).Commercial banks carry out their business through a network of branches, agencies and mobile facilities. In Domboshawa they use Harare as their town so all banks are there and in Makonde the available banks are Cabs, CBZ, Barclays, Agribank, POSB, CBZ, Allied Bank, FBC and ZB. The banks offer current and deposit account facilities, and provide loans and overdrafts to needy business organizations and individuals.The aim of FACASI is to mechanise agriculture through small machinery. FACASI Zimbabwe is encouraging service providers and private sector companies to buy business kits of the 2WT and or equipment in Table 2. So the study is looking at the financial products available and their possibility to finance players in the 2wt mechanisation value chain. The objective of this study is to highlight the financial products offered by banks to individuals and companies in Zimbabwe with special focus on players in the mechanisation value chain. In doing so, the study focuses on the minimum requirements of banks in order for one to access loans and their implications on access to credit. In addition, the paper looks at the affordability of these financial products and discussing the implications of the lending rates on beneficiaries. To understand these financial products three main approaches were used in this study. First, purposive sampling was done on the existing banks using their websites to check on the network of their branches across the country.Secondly a desktop study was carried out through reviewing literature on the financial products offered by the banks. The approach mainly involved visiting the bank's websites and accessing relevant documents on the products as well as the costs of accessing the products. To verify some of the findings from desktop studies and to have current information on the financial products consultations were made with the bankers. These consultations did not only provide an opportunity for verification of findings from desktop study but also provided an opportunity for seeking clarification on some aspects of the banks' products that were not well explained on the websites and other ancillary material.Thirdly, random sampling was done on the existing MFIs selecting from the list of MFIs in Zimbabwe and calls were made to understand the products they are offering. Again consultations were made with a key informant who works for Zimbabwe Microfinance Fund, a board that finances some MFIs, and names of microfinance institutions that normally fund agricultural activities or deals with agro based clients were given.The next sections provide an overview of the financial products offered to by the Zimbabwe financial sector.The financial products to be discussed cover the available products from the banks available to the players in the mechanization value chain: -these are the farmer, supplier, manufacturer, importer and the mechanics.(Table 2) Most of the available financial products are available to the salaried, business persons and established companies or enterprises, as they do not support start up businesses. Banks have got stringent requirements that the ordinary Zimbabweans do not meet. The stringent requirements by banks to leave out most small scale commercial farmers who do not have formal employment and are thus likely not to have documents such as payslips required to process the loans. This finding is supported by a study done in Zimbabwe which showed that the formal financial system services about 30% of the economically active population whilst the remaining 70% are excluded from access to formal financial services (Banking sector analysis, 2013). This therefore means that the formal banking sector is not accessible to most people.The banks which were visited are those which have visibility in most towns around the country. It is also important to note in this report that a visit to the banks was made after the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe ruling of Friday 17 th July 2015 which states that an employer has a right to terminate an employment contract on three months' notice in terms of an employment contract or in terms of the Labour Relations Act. This ruling has seen to a number of workers loosing employment and this has impacted on the financial products that some banks normally offer, as they fear to give a loan to someone who might be unemployed in the following month. A challenge was faced with some banks as they did not want to disclose information about their loans to someone who does not have an account with them.Results from the microfinance study reinforce the study of SAPRIN, 2002, where they found evidence that indicates that financial reforms have failed to work for the poor and other economically disadvantaged groups and that, these groups have been further marginalized from the credit and financial system through market forces of exclusion. Instead of MFIs being the ones serving the unbankable in Zimbabwe, the MFIs have followed in the footsteps of the banks; the only difference is that the MFIs reach out to many clients than banks which might not have branches in some towns. Interest rates for microfinance institutions range from 4.5%-18% per month which is higher than that of banks. Some microfinance institutions have got stringent measures which are just like the banks .The bizarre economic situation in the country has seen to some MFIs reducing their loan repayment period from 6months to 3month to curb for uncertainties. Salary based loans are one of the common financial products being offered by banks. As a basic requirement to accessing loans, an individual or a group must have banked with a particular bank for a minimum period of between 3 and 6 months. In addition, for one to access this loan, their salary should be coming through a particular bank or have a regular inflow of money into the given account. These loans can be offered up to ten times one's net salary and the interest rates range from 17% to a maximum of 25% and is payable across varying time scales up to a maximum of two years. With regards to requirements, it can be observed that most financial products can only be accessed by an individual who is formally employed and has an account with the bank. Majority of the banks offer this product but some have since suspended salary based loans to clients who bank with them. Salary based loans have been suspended because of Friday 17 th July 2015's Supreme Court ruling which states that an employer has a right to terminate an employment contract on notice in terms of an employment contract or in terms of the Labour Relations Act. Some banks such as FBC Holdings and Agribank have got a microfinance section which handles the loan issues. Most banks like FBC and Stanbic which are offering salary based loans are only targeting civil servants and particular companies on condition of a written undertaking from the employer for permanent employment for a given time.Zimnat an MFI is offering consumer loans and they are only targeting civil servants, bankers and private sector companies that they have a memorandum of understanding with, this is so because they garnish the repayments at source, as salary based loans. The economic situation in the country has affected the financial products on offer; some MFIs like Mtilikwe Financial Services said they have stopped giving loans as they are waiting for repayments from previous transactions. MFIs have high lending rates compared to banks as they normally charge a rate per month whilst bank charge annually.The least paid civil servant in Zimbabwe is earning $360, which means looking at the bank offering the best deal of 10times net salary, the civil servant can access any business kit (small sheller $315double row planter and 2WT $2,800) they wish to procure. With this kind of deal the business model of the Individual entrepreneur, Group entrepreneur and the farmer led business models could be supported by these. Given the number of civil servants in the country which is 550 000, targeting them gives us a huge base of potential SPs who can contract some people to offer service provision.Loan experience. A group of 26 farmers got input loans worth $6,708 from Quest a microfinance institution to produce maize. The MFI deposits money into the accounts of the input suppliers of interest to the farmers to avoid misuse of the money. 100% loan repayment was achieved; there were constant visits to the farmers by Quest officers through the whole cropping season following up with the farmers.The above section has shown that salary based loan is a common product across banks. However, these are not readily accessible to farmers particularly small scale farmers. In this regard, some banks have established an agribusiness section that is meant to cater for the agricultural sector. Typical banks offering this service include CBZ, MBCA, Agribank and ZB Bank. Unfortunately, agribusiness products are mainly targeted at commercial farmers who have title deeds or lease agreements for the land they use. This is a major bottleneck to smallholder farmers who have got user rights with no title deeds. This therefore eliminates the smallholder farmers from receiving these agribusiness loans. Furthermore, the majority of small scale farmers do not have financial records of their business operations and thus cannot prove the viability of their farming activities. In this regard, there is need to train small scale farmers on record keeping and business development as a first step towards building their requirements to accessing these loans (NBmost banks do not support startup businesses but at least those which have been in business for a year and with proof of existence like records of cash flows). The few banks that are offering these agribusiness products are only confined to certain localities. For instance, BancABC's agribusiness division is only found in Chiredzi where they are targeting large scale sugarcane farmers. Banks such as CBZ have suspended poultry and machinery funding due to failure by farmers to service their loans.Several banks offer overdraft facility but these are mainly targeted at executive clients, those that bank huge sums of money with the bank. The overdraft facility is normally given for a 30 day period, and these are given to selected corporate clients such as companies. Agribank for example offers interest free overdrafts to executive clients. CABS is one of the banks that offer overdrafts to clients who get their salary through the bank. The guarantee is that the bank will recover its money at the end of each month an overdraft is incurred.FBC Holdings through Microplan their microfinance department offer group loans to groups with each member co-guarantying each other. The money is given to every individual in a group but the group is there to help encourage each other on payback. The arrangement is such that if a member of a group fails to pay back, the other members will pay and they will find means within their group to recover the money from the individual. This normally works since failure of one member to pay tarnishes the image of the whole group. As a result, members thrive to service their loans in order to maintain a good credit history. The requirements for accessing such loans are that the group should be a registered group with a constitution and a business account with the bank. Some banks can offer group loans to a group of farmers who are doing the same business and have got a constitution, but have been in business for at least a year with proof of existence.CABS offer equity release as a financial product. As summarised in Table 2, an individual offers their paid up property as collateral to CABS to get a loan of an amount which is less than or equal to the value of the property. CABS evaluate the value of property to be used as collateral. This product may work with our farmers who own properties with title deeds, that is for example some retired farmers who have got houses and other properties in town.This facility allows customers to apply for Loans through their mobile phones. It targets Econet (Mobile network) subscribers only. A customer should be a registered EcoCash user with an EcoCash Save Basic Account. Vetting criteria will be applied by the bank on all applicants and an application will only be considered successful if the customer meets the vetting criterion which is based on the customer activity on EcoCash Save, EcoCash Usage and Airtime Usage. The more you save on EcoCash Save from your EcoCash wallet the higher the chances of qualifying for higher amounts. However the maximum amount one can access here is $300.For those without a salary, Kingcash Finance an MFI is taking vehicles only as collateral. This MFI offers instant loans with same day processing. Kamlish Investments another MFI is only taking movable electrical gadgets as collateral, these they would value first and give an equivalent loan amount depending on their terms.Micro-king finance an MFI which has previously funded smallholder irrigators in irrigation schemes said they are currently funding repeat Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) loans only, and they would consider engaging new clients at the end of the year but for SMEs only. These loans are only targeted at operational businesses which have been in existence for at least a year, with a proven track record of such. This form of finance is suited for our service providers who have already been in business, manufacturers, importers and mechanics. ZB bank is offering SME loans that go up to $300,000 depending on the type of client.These are loans which are extended to an applicant as the asset that they wish to procure not as cash. Credfin microfinance is offering this facility which is one possible product we can tap for buying our machinery for salaried service providers. MBCA also offers vehicle asset finance where the asset bought acts as collateral but there is a variance in that the individual pays 20% value of the asset.Microleasing Micro-leasing is a contractual agreement between two parties, which allows one party (the lessee) to use an asset owned by the other (the lessor) in exchange for specified periodic payments. Untu is one institution which is offering this facility. However the stringent requirements are almost as those of banks where you should have some form of collateral and have some constant source of income proven by the bank statement. This facility is also one facility that our salaried SPs can tap into.In this study, we have highlighted the financial products that are offered by banks to individuals, groups as well as to farmers. It can be observed that while several products are available, they do not serve the interest of an ordinary small scale farmer. This is mainly a result of the basic requirements for accessing loans. These requirements include the need for one to have a proven regular source of income, collateral to guarantee the loan, and the need for financial and physical records, and these should reflect existence of at least a year in business if it is a group since they do not finance start-up businesses.The most promising product which can be accessed by most farmers and SPs are salary based loans, these do not require owning a business but only require one to be banking with the bank. The other best bet is negotiating with the suppliers like ATA, and asking them to register with Salaries Services Bureau(SSB -which is responsible for paying civil servant salaries) so that they can sell equipment to civil servants and their money will be paid in instalments straight from the employer. These two products will support the individual entrepreneur model and group model. The Rent to own model is being supported by Farmshop, who is buying equipment, the tractors and planters and rent it to a service provider who will eventually take full ownership after completion of payment. This model is helping SPs around paying cash first in getting into the SP business. FACASI came up with a leasing model to get SPs around the liquidity crunch, where the SP pays a commitment fee and uses FACASI equipment to offer services for a season whilst raising money to buy own kit. We are still investigating other funding models that can be used for SPs and farmers.In Zimbabwe it is unfortunate that there is not much we can do about the manufacturers and exporters and manufacturers in terms of business trainings or trying to link them to financial products. These are normally established businesses and in some case a member of a large group of companies whom you cannot advice on how they do their business, where they can get funding or on a business model to take. This we can take an example of Farmshop, we will simply follow the route that they want to do business and advice when they consult, and we cannot really tell them to go by our business models. Mechanics are everywhere and there would not be a case where one would want to get a loan to start such a business, there are various informal and formal mechanics.Contract farming model is one funding model that we will be working with, with some of our partners in the project. Alliance and Beta Agriculture are companies that contract farmers to produce cotton and chillies respectively; they therefore want to offer 2 wheel tractor services into their input package. The companies have realised that 2wt and implements reduce the costs of production and hence increase the ability of their contracted farmers to repay their loans since they will be realising bigger margins. Find in the text box below the advantages and disadvantages of contract farming. The contract farming model can support the independent SPs or a Corporate SP model.Another possible source of finance is Internal Savings and Lending Schemes (ISALS). An ISAL is a small group of people having a mutual agreement to contribute a certain amount of money regularly into a group fund, with the hopes of seeing the fund grow. Members within the group can request to take out a loan to invest into some sort of income generating activity. S/he is then required to pay back the loan at an agreed time, with a low interest rate. This allows the members to not only develop and strengthen their entrepreneurial skills, but also serves as a way to pay for any difficult situations they may face, with additional money to pay back the loan and interest. This would have been an ideal source of income for a Group Entrepreneurs model or an individual entrepreneurs' business model but unfortunately there are no ISALS in our project area.• Farmers work towards a planned quality and quantity hence easier planning• Guaranteed market for the farmer • Farmers can benefit from contract packages with all inputs without financial hustles.• Payments according to grades offer incentives for quality.• For most contracts normally contractual obligations are clearly outlined which makes it easier to solve conflicts.• Contract performance offers a credit history to a farmer for future engagements.• Farmers can split produce with first grade honouring contracts (for export) and second grade going to Mbare and other residual markets. Total earnings are eventually maximised with such types of arrangements.• Both farmers and contracting companies are vulnerable to price fluctuations due to the volatile nature of agricultural produce.• Sometimes parallel markets offer higher prices than those agreed in contracts leading to side marketing• Smallholder farmers do not fully understand and appreciate the significance of contracts (verbal, written or implied). This leads to high defaulting rates.• Companies also default knowing that farmers may not afford legal costs needed or may not even consider going this far.• Grading at companies' premises (sometimes unavoidable) delays payments to farmers and brings in an element of mistrust.• Defaulting attracts relatively high penalties (discontinued input support; mistrust; cancelled contract which may be followed by black-mailing etc).We recommend that it is of critical importance to give farmers business training so they know how to maximise their profits. Notably, there is also need to deliberately work with SPs on record keeping in order making them eligible for loans. As they embark in their business it is important to grow the culture of record keeping as this can be used to access loans when they plan to expand their business and these can also be used for management.In addition, the project needs to engage banks in order to negotiate preferential terms for SPs for example we will be engaging the bank manager where the SPs have an account to monitor performance of the account so they can consider supporting the SP business in future. It can be concluded that the banking sector has a wide scope for engaging small scale farmers but needs to come up with flexible terms and affordable lending rates.","tokenCount":"3968"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ecef6ea4862dafc6d60ca5d7d80254fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e0c61903-432b-455a-a2bb-93028296ce23/retrieve","id":"1525364179"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"55e9c9aa-2872-4898-975f-acdfd39df777","pagecount":"2","content":"CIP's scientists are focusing their efforts on increasing the nutritional value of crops through genetic improvement or biofortification, as an option for improving health in poor communities where people cannot access commercially fortified foods or vitamin supplements. It is thought that the bioavailability of iron in potato may be higher than that in cereals and legumes due to the presence of high levels of vitamin C -which facilitates iron absorption in the human bodyand low levels of phytic acid, an inhibitor of iron absorption. CIP and its partners have recently shown that the bioaccessibility of iron in potato is high compared to that in other basic crops such as wheat and beans. From 63 to 79% of the potato iron is released from the food matrix after gastrointestinal digestion in vitro, and therefore must be available for absorption at the intestinal level. Efforts are focused on the identification and development of varieties rich in iron and zinc concentration and bioavailability. The potato is recognized as a staple food, but its potential to combat malnutrition is not well known. In the Andean highlands, where there is little access to meat, potatoes are animportant source of iron in the diet. For example, in Huancavelica, in the Peruvian highlands, women and children consume on average 800 and 200 grams, respectively, of potato per day. Similarly, in parts of Rwanda and other African countries, women consume an average of 400 grams of potatoes per day. Therefore, increasing the iron and zinc concentrations in potatoes consumed by people in these areas.For more than 10 years, the International Potato Center (CIP) has been working on potato biofortification to increase the concentration and bioavailability of iron and zinc in this crop. This work is being done with a view to helping reduce the levels of malnutrition in poor communities with high potato consumption.CIP's potato biofortification program started from a baseline with iron levels of 19 mg/kg and zinc levels of 14 mg/kg expressed as dry weight (DW) basis. After three cycles of breeding and selection, concentrations were increased to 25-35 mg/kg DW iron and 18-32 mg/kg DW. Considering the high consumption of potatoes by our target populations, the consumption of biofortified potatoes could cover between 20 and 45% of the estimated daily average requirement of iron and zinc for children and for women of childbearing age. At present, CIP is combining the first products of its biofortification program with advanced breeding lines to develop new hybrids that will be able to withstand major potato pests and diseases, global warming and drought, high yields, and acceptance by farmers and consumers. The first generation of biofortified potatoes with high yields and resistance to potato diseases comprises more than 50 genotypes with iron concentrations higher than 30 mg/kg DW and zinc higher than 35 mg/kg, DW. Participatory selection among new biofortified potatoes in Peru, Nepal, Bhutan, Rwanda and Ethiopia will identify the varieties most preferred by farmers and consumers, increasing prospects for adoption and impact on the nutritional status of women and children at risk of malnutrition.This publication is copyrighted by the International Potato Center (CIP). It is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CIP thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. https://www.cgiar.org/funders/ Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. Similarly, zinc deficiency affects a large part of the population in developing countries. A deficiency in these minerals has serious effects on human health, including problems of physical and cognitive development, and an increased risk of contracting diseases in children and in women of childbearing age, as well as a reduction in work capacity.","tokenCount":"614"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"025ffda362a87272dd17dd4eacc5cf38","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/e6cfbf26-b4bf-4c17-98d9-853c8bd02bce/content","id":"2064036605"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d6a9d4c5-7087-4600-99ef-55d296f05bf4","pagecount":"22","content":"rop landraces, also known as farmers' traditional, heritage, folk or heirloom varieties, are cultivated plant populations developed and managed by Indigenous or traditional agrarian cultures through cultivation, selection and diffusion 1 . Having recognizable characteristics and geographic origins, landraces continue to be cultivated by these communities in many regions for their unique agroecological and societal functions and services 1,2 . These typically genetically heterogeneous populations are commonly planted in a mosaic of different crop species and varieties, in combinations sustaining local agricultural resilience and adaptive capacity, human nutrition and cultural needs 1,2 . Farmer-based exchange 3 and gene flow among landrace populations, occasionallyalso involving modern cultivars 4 or wild progenitors 5 , encourage the development of new variation, while longstanding cultivation and selection lead to adaptation to local environmental and societal conditions 6 .Landrace diversity is an essential genetic resource for modern crop breeding 7 and is key to understanding agricultural origins and domestication processes 8 . Landraces are typically accessed via ex situ repositories, called genebanks, for these research purposes. Efforts to collect landraces for genebank conservation have often prioritized sampling from geographic regions and cultures wherein crops were domesticated and/or have been cultivated for a very long time, in recognition of the extraordinary genetic variation in landraces found in these environments 1,7,9 . These activities have gained urgency since the 1960s as economic, agricultural, demographic, environmental and climatic changes increasingly impact in situ populations 1,7 . The result of these collection efforts has been the assemblage of approximately three million landrace samples in international, regional, national and subnational genebanks 10 .Despite these extensive efforts, landrace diversity is not commonly considered to be comprehensively represented ex situ, and major international agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Aichi Target 13 (ref. 11 ) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Target 2.5 (ref. 12 ), urgently prioritize the resolution of this conservation gap. To reach these targets, information about the current distributions of landraces and their degree of representation in genebanks is needed. To respond to this need, in this Article we employ a conservation gap analysis methodology 13 to predict the distributions and quantify the current ex situ conservation status of 71 eco-geographically distinguishable groups of landraces within 25 cereal, pulse and starchy root/tuber/ fruit crops whose genetic resources are researched and conserved by CGIAR international agricultural research centres or by the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) of the Pacific Community (SPC). We identify gaps in existing ex situ collections to inform further collecting efforts.Geographic distributions of crop landrace groups. On the basis of correlations among 93,269 landrace occurrences of 25 crops (61.9% of occurrences having pre-assigned landrace group assignments and the rest inferred) and 50 environmental and socioeconomic predictor variables, landraces as a whole were predicted to be distributed on all inhabited continents, including throughout most of the world's tropical and subtropical lands (Fig. 1 and Extended Data Fig. 1). Regions with particularly high levels of richness across crops were projected in East and Southern Africa, South and Central Asia, the Mediterranean and West Asia, West Africa and the Andean mountains of South America and Mesoamerica, with landraces of up to 12 of the 25 crops potentially cultivated within single 2.5-arc-minute grid cells in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and Pakistan. These geographic concentrations of landrace group diversity align well with the historically recognized centres of origin and primary regions of diversity of the world's major crops 14,15 . Notably less landrace diversity across crops was predicted to be cultivated in most temperate regions, in some very arid zones such as the Saharan Desert and in a few highly mesic areas such as the Amazon Basin.The predicted distributions of the five major races of sorghum are provided in Fig. 2a as an example of landrace-group-level results (the Supplementary Information presents the occurrences and predicted distributions of landrace groups for all assessed crops). Sorghum landrace group ranges were modelled throughout the crop's main regions of diversity in Africa, South Asia, the Mediterranean and West Asia. Its races inhabit distinct eco-geographic ranges but also overlap in specific areas, particularly in Southern and West Africa and in South Asia. Regarding different types of assessed crops, cereal and pulse landrace group diversity was predicted to be particularly rich in South and Central Asia; West, East and Southern Africa; the Mediterranean and West Asia; Europe; the Andean mountains; and Mesoamerica. Meanwhile, starchy root/tuber/fruit crop landrace group richness was concentrated in Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, South America, West Africa and South Asia (Extended Data Figs. 2-4). Ex situ conservation status and gaps for crop landrace groups.On average, ex situ conservation of crop landrace groups-measured in terms of the extent of current cultivated geographic range and ecological variation in the range that has previously been collected from and is now conserved in genebanks-was estimated to be moderately comprehensive at present, with substantial variation among crops; an average of 63% ± 12.6% of distributions was represented ex situ (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 1). Measured as the mean of the estimated minimum and maximum extent of representation in genebanks, geographic and ecological variation in landrace groups of the following crops was among the most comprehensively represented: breadfruit at 81.6% conserved, bananas and plantains at 81.5%, lentils at 78.3%, common beans at 77.4%, chickpeas at 75.8%, barley at 75.5% and bread wheat at 71.3%. Conversely, the largest conservation gaps persist for pearl millet at 32.7%, yams at 43.0%, finger millet at 45.4%, groundnut at 46.5%, potatoes at 50.3% and peas at 52.4%. The maximum potential representation metrics indicate that breadfruit, lentil, banana and plantain, grasspea and chickpea landrace group variation may already be very well conserved, since all have maximum current ex situ conservation scores above 90%, while the minimum coverage metrics warn that some crops may still face extensive conservation gaps, such as pearl millet at 15.2%, groundnut at 22.6%, finger millet at 25.3%, peas at 28.1% and yams at 29.0%. Regarding types of assessed crops, the average degree of ex situ conservation of cereal, pulse and starchy root/tuber/fruit landrace groups did not differ significantly (P = 0.69), measuring 59.9%, 64.6% and 64.9%, respectively. At 45.0%, 45.6% and 50.4%, their mean minimum potential representation values were also similar, as were their maximum potential representation values of 74.8%, 83.6% and 79.3%. For the final crop-type category, this finding is remarkable because these plants are represented by lower overall numbers of genebank samples (an average of 1,052.7 accessions versus 2,827.4 of pulses and 5,796.4 of cereals); these typically clonally propagated crops often require higher ex situ conservation expenditures per sample and present more substantial challenges from pests and diseases 16 . Nonetheless, cereal, pulse and starchy root/tuber/ fruit crop types all included members with some of the least and most comprehensive conservation scores (Fig. 3). Moreover, these scores were not correlated with importance of the crop to global food supplies, production and trade (r = 0.064)At the landrace group level, considerable differences in current conservation status were identified among groups within many crops (Supplementary Table 2). For example, geographic and ecological variation in barley landraces with covered (with hull) grains was estimated to be 89.1% conserved, while diversity in landraces with naked or hull-less grains was only 31.3% represented ex situ. Asian rice, finger millet, potato, sorghum and yam landrace groups also varied rather widely regarding current conservation in genebanks, while cassava, chickpea, common bean, cowpea, groundnut, lentil, maize, pea, pearl millet, African rice, sweetpotato and bread wheat landrace groups had more similar within-crop ex situ representation estimates.Taking sorghum landrace groups as an example, high-confidence gaps in current ex situ conservation in terms of geographic and ecological variation were identified for all five major races in sub-Saharan Africa, with overlapping gaps concentrated in Central, West and Southern Africa, including in Madagascar (Fig. 2b). The Supplementary Information provides conservation gap maps for all assessed crops.Across the landrace groups of all 25 crops, geographic areas identified as hotspots requiring further collecting for ex situ conservation were concentrated in South Asia; the Mediterranean and West Asia; Mesoamerica; West, East and Southern Africa; the Andean  mountains; and Central and East Asia (Fig. 4 and Extended Data Fig. 5; online results at https://ciat.shinyapps.io/LGA_dashboard/). Currently, uncollected landrace groups of up to nine crops are potentially cultivated within single 2.5-arc-minute grid cells in India and Morocco and of up to eight crops in Algeria, Greece, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Turkey. Regarding types of assessed crops, cereal and pulse landrace group diversity was predicted to be particularly in need of further collecting in the Mediterranean and West Asia; South Asia; West, East and Southern Africa; Europe; the Andean mountains; and Mesoamerica. Conversely, starchy root/tuber/fruit crop landrace group ex situ conservation gaps were concentrated in East and Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Africa, South America and Mesoamerica (Extended Data Figs. 6-8).Our analysis of the ex situ conservation status of landrace groups within 25 staple crops suggests that their representation in genebanks is most often substantial, a finding that highlights the impact of extensive international, national and subnational efforts worldwide over more than a half-century, both individually and via collaborative networks and initiatives 1,7,17,18 . Conservation of landraces of these crops-or at least their eco-geographically distinguishable groups-appears to be considerably further advanced than equivalent protection for crop wild relatives (Extended Data Fig. 9) 19,20 .However, the findings also reveal that ex situ conservation gaps in terms of uncollected geographic and environmental variation across the distributions of landrace groups of these crops persist. Our quantitative and spatial results can aid in priority setting across these crops, their landrace groups and geographic regions, contributing to conservation targeting, planning and action. Further prioritization may be applied based on known or perceived threats related to economic, agricultural, technological, demographic, climatic and political change 1 . Recent decades of progress in clarifying and, in some cases, expediting the terms and conditions of genetic resources sampling and exchange 21,22 bolster anticipation that such gaps can be filled through international collaboration. With further concerted efforts to collect crop landraces of these and other crops, a high degree of representation of their diversity in genebanks appears to be feasible, and, thus, the fulfilment of the international targets of the CBD 11 and SDGs 12 regarding their ex situ conservation also seems achievable. Conducted periodically over time, the gap analysis offers a more holistic approach to assess the state of landrace conservation than simply reporting changes in counts of accessions held in genebanks 23 and, thus, may also represent a useful complement to the current indicators for these targets.The landrace group classification and modelling processes described here demonstrate the potential to associate genetic, morphological, physiological, chemical, nomenclatural and other characteristics of cultivated plant populations with environmental and socioeconomic predictors within the regions of origin and diversity of crop taxa. These processes can be performed across a spectrum of infraspecific groups and geographic scales, depending on available knowledge and occurrence and characterization information. While our processes are based on openly available data and tools that undergo continual updating, they involve several limitations.First, our methods are vulnerable to deficiencies in the quality, completeness and availability of occurrence and infraspecific grouping information. Many cultivated plants are insufficiently sampled, potentially due to a historical emphasis on wild rather than farming landscapes within biodiversity initiatives and persisting disconnects between biodiversity conservation and agricultural research communities 24 . Robust landrace classifications based on genetic structure, geography and other attributes also require further resolution for many crops.The major biodiversity and conservation repository databases that we utilize here do not yet represent all pertinent national and subnational institutions worldwide; those institutions that do participate may not report all holdings and locality and characterization information is incomplete for many existing records 13,20 . Some additional information is probably present in other, smaller online databases or in offline or undigitized datasets. These gaps increase the uncertainty in our results, possibly leading to underestimations of the true degree of ex situ landrace conservation. On the other hand, the accessibility and long-term security of many such low-visibility collections are often equally uncertain 13,19 . Several processes would strengthen the conservation and potential usefulness of these genetic resources and the accuracy of analyses such as ours: the generation of characterization information and knowledge about infraspecific groups, improvements in the quality and completeness of existing occurrence information and better availability of landrace samples and their associated data, including safety duplication to better ensure long-term persistence.Second, because our modelling method is based on statistical relationships between occurrences and environmental and socioeconomic predictor variables, it is also sensitive to the quality and comprehensiveness of these predictor datasets. Factors lacking predictor information or acting at finer scales than currently available data reflect will not be well incorporated into modelling processes. These may include environmental factors-both abiotic, such as soil characteristics or supplemental irrigation in small plots, and biotic, such as pathogen pressures or pollinator distributions-and socioeconomic drivers such as farm sizes, agronomic practices and seed system dynamics. Further, the models are unlikely to account for relatively recent disappearances of landraces unless such losses are associated with available predictors. The increasing generation of land-use-change information 25 may partially resolve this challenge. In all cases, further development of high-resolution predictor datasets with global scope will improve modelling. Deeper understanding of the wide range of factors affecting farmer choices regarding landrace cultivation, including apparent stochasticity 26 , may also be important to improved modelling, while the limits to predicting distributions of populations whose ranges are driven by human preferences as much as environmental factors must be acknowledged.Third, while geographic and ecological variation within predicted native ranges of plants has been shown to be an effective surrogate for direct measures of genetic diversity 27,28 , the modelling and conservation metrics used here may not fully reflect the distributions of and gaps in genetic variation within crop landraces. Further, our standardized method may not take into account the differences between crop species in genetic diversity within and among their populations, which may be influenced by reproductive biology, such as by outcrossing versus inbreeding species and by the mode of pollination; by mode of propagation, such as by seed versus clonally; and by other ecological and cultural factors 3 . Moreover, our conservation gap analysis methodology is based on the assumption that the existence of an ex situ accession from a site indicates that the targeted landrace group has been adequately sampled there. In reality, landrace distinctions at finer resolution than their modelled groupings may be ignored and, thus, not fully conserved. Previous field collecting may also not have comprehensively sampled populations at the resolution needed for all conservation, plant breeding or other research aims. This drawback may be particularly applicable to landraces that are typically genetically heterogeneous and, thus, may require large sample sizes to represent their diversity and, in particular, rare alleles. Finally, because in situ crop diversity constantly changes, developing novel variation from gene flow, recombination and mutation 6 , valuable new forms may have arisen in previously collected areas. Further sampling for ex situ conservation may, therefore, be warranted within or near previously collected sites.The combination of these vulnerabilities reinforces the importance of field reconnaissance and of partnering with Indigenous and traditional agrarian communities and associated organizations to inform further collecting activities. In this sense, our results are best considered as support tools, useful for guiding rather than prescribing taxonomic and geographic priorities 13 . Additional essential steps include ensuring adherence to international, national and local sampling and exchange policies 21,22 ; assessing field work risks, particularly in regions affected by war and civil strife 29 ; and determining the most appropriate timing to maximize the harvest of viable seeds and other propagules. The capacity of pertinent genebanks to receive, adequately maintain and distribute landrace diversity must be preconfirmed 1,7 , and the logistics of getting collected material into relevant genebanks in a timely fashion must be established.Further development and mobilization of landrace modelling and conservation gap analysis would ideally assess a wider range of crops, including fruits and vegetables, nuts and other groups of importance to human nutrition and agricultural livelihoods 30 . It is probable that many other crops, especially those that have not received primary focus in international or national genetic resources conservation and crop improvement efforts over the past half-century, are less well represented in ex situ conservation repositories 1,10 ; thankfully, erosion of the in situ genetic diversity of these crops may be less severe thus far than in major staples 1 .Geographic expansion of the analyses beyond historical regions of diversity 9,14,15 may also aid in identifying novel variation, although further assessment of the correlation between landrace groups and spatial predictors in such regions will be necessary. To more fully address the scope of international conservation targets for landraces, these analyses must also assess the state of their in situ (on-farm) conservation; this task presents substantial challenges because emphasis in this context falls on the conditions and processes that foster landrace diversity rather than on the persistence of particular populations 1,2,31 . Given further development and expansion of the methods and scope, and the combination of the results with parallel analyses of crop wild relatives 19,20 and other socioeconomically and culturally valuable plants 32 , a significantly improved understanding of distributions, protection status and conservation gaps across the major forms of crop diversity prioritized by the CBD and the SDGs should be achievable.Crops and their landrace study areas. Food crops whose genetic resources are researched and conserved by CGIAR international agricultural research centres or by the CePaCT of the SPC were included in this study. Crop landrace distributions were modelled and conservation analyses conducted within recognized primary and, for some crops, secondary regions of diversity, where these crops were domesticated and/or have been cultivated for very long periods, and where they are, thus, expected to feature high genetic diversity and adaptation to local environmental and cultural factors (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2) 9,13 . These regions were identified through literature review (Supplementary Information) and confirmed by crop experts.Occurrence data. Our crop landrace group distribution modelling and conservation gap analysis rely on occurrence data, including coordinates of locations where landraces were previously collected for ex situ conservation and reference sightings. For ex situ conservation records, occurrences marked as landraces were retrieved from two major online databases: the Genesys Plant Genetic Resources portal 33 and the World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (WIEWS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 34 . Occurrences were also obtained directly from individual international genebank information systems: AfricaRice, the International Transit Centre and Musa Germplasm Information System of Bioversity International 35   36 and the Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO) 37 . Occurrences were compiled from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), with 'living specimen' records classified as ex situ conservation records and the remaining serving as reference sightings for use in distribution modelling. Reference occurrences were also drawn from published literature (Supplementary Information). Duplicated observations within or between data sources were eliminated, with a preference to utilize the most original data. Coordinates were corrected or removed when latitude and longitude were equal to zero or inverted, located in water bodies or in the wrong country or had poor resolution (<2 decimal places). Occurrences were clipped to study areas per crop. The complete occurrence dataset is available in Supplementary Dataset 2. Spatial predictors. We compiled and calculated spatially explicit gridded information for 50 potential environmental and cultural predictors of landrace distributions, including climatic, topographic, evolutionary history and socioeconomic variables (Supplementary Table 3) 13 . For climate data, we gathered or derived 39 variables from WorldClim version 2 (ref. 38 ) and Environmental Rasters for Ecological Modeling (ENVIREM) 39 . We included elevation from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) dataset of the CGIAR-Consortium on Geospatial Information portal 40,41 . Two crop evolutionary history proxies were included: distance to human settlements before the year ad 1500 (ref. 42 ) and distance to known wild progenitor populations 13 . The eight socioeconomic variables included population density 43 , distance to navigable rivers 44 , percentage of the area under irrigation 45 , population accessibility 46,47 , geographic distributions of ethnic or cultural groups 48 and crop harvested area, production quantity and yield 49 . All predictor data were scaled to 2.5-arc-minute resolution with World Geodetic System (WGS) 84 as a datum. Extended descriptions of the sources and their justification for inclusion are provided in Ramirez-Villegas et al. 13 . The complete spatial predictor dataset is available in Supplementary Dataset 3.Crop landrace group classifications. Crop landraces are cultivated plant populations managed by Indigenous or traditional farmers through cultivation, selection and diffusion 1 . They are typically genetically heterogeneous, although some types, such as clonally propagated populations, may be relatively homogeneous. They have recognizable characteristics, identities and geographic origins are in an ongoing process of adaptation to their local environments and societal conditions 1,2,31 . For most crops, landraces number in the thousands, with major global staple cereals such as rice and wheat potentially represented by hundreds of thousands of landraces 50,51 , although precise numbers and consensus regarding differentiations among landraces within crops have not been established. Given the diversity of landraces and the complexity of environmental and cultural drivers differentiating them, our method seeks a compromise between, on the one hand, acknowledgement of this diversity and, on the other, the feasibility and performance of distribution modelling and conservation gap analysis.For each crop, we, therefore, conducted an extensive literature review to identify recognized infraspecific groups with distinct morphological, physiological, chemical, genetic, nomenclatural or other characteristics that could be tested for environmental and cultural associations (Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Information). The nature of these groups varied by crop and included genepools, races, genetic clusters and geographic or environmental groupings. Crops often had more than one proposed grouping or classification.We then built and tested classification models to determine how well the proposed groups could be predicted and distinguished based on spatial predictors, drawing from the occurrence database and training datasets compiled from the literature review. A random forest 52 , a support vector machine 53 , the K-nearest neighbour (KNN) algorithm 54 and artificial neural networks 55 were used to determine classification performance. The response variable was the group to which a given occurrence was assigned, whereas the explanatory variables were the spatial predictors. Models were combined into an ensemble using the mode-that is, the most frequent predicted value among the models-and tested using 15-fold cross-validation with 80% training and 20% testing. We accepted a given classification if each of its components was predicted with an average cross-validated accuracy of at least 80%. In the case of multiple classification proposals per crop, we selected the one with the best overall performance. Finally, we used the trained models to predict the corresponding group for occurrences missing such information. All landrace groups for all crops are provided in Supplementary Table 2, with the best-performing groups identified.To predict the probability of geographic occurrence for each landrace group within each crop, we generated MaxEnt models 56,57 using the 'maxnet' R package 58 . Group-specific spatial Articles Nature PlaNts predictors were selected using a combination of the variance inflation factor (VIF) and a principal component analysis (PCA) to control for excessive model complexity and variable collinearity 59 . We removed variables that did not contribute significantly to the variance in the PCA, defined as contributing less than 15% to the first component, and we further discarded variables with a VIF > 10 (ref. 60 ). The predictors and whether they were selected for the modelling of each landrace group are presented in Supplementary Table 4.We generated a random sample of pseudo-absences as background points in areas that (1) were within the same ecological land units 61 as the occurrence points, (2) were deemed potentially suitable according to a support vector machine classifier that uses all occurrences and predictor variables and (3) were farther than 5 km from any occurrence 62 . The number of pseudo-absences generated per crop group was ten times its number of unique occurrences.MaxEnt models were fitted through five-fold (K = 5) cross-validation with 80% training and 20% testing. For each fold, we calculated the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity and Cohen's kappa as measures of model performance. To create a single prediction that represents the probability of occurrence for the landrace group, we computed the median across K models. Geographic areas in the form of pixels with probability values above the maximum sum of sensitivity and specificity were treated as the final area of predicted presence 13 .Ex situ conservation status and gaps. Three separate but complementary metrics were developed to compare the geographic and environmental diversity in current ex situ conservation collections to the total geographic and environmental variation across the crop landrace group distribution model and, thus, to identify and quantify ex situ conservation gaps 13 .A connectivity gap score (S CON ) was calculated for each 2.5-arc-minute pixel within the distribution model by drawing a triangle 63,64 around each pixel using the three closest genebank accession occurrence locations as vertices and then deriving normalized values for the pixel based on distance to the triangle centroid and vertices 13 . The S CON of a pixel is high-closer to 1 on a scale of 0-1-when its corresponding triangle is large, when the pixel is close to the centroid of the triangle or when the distance to the vertices is large. A high S CON represents a greater probability of the pixel location being a gap in existing ex situ collections.An accessibility gap score (S ACC ) was calculated for each 2.5-arc-minute pixel in the distribution model by computing travel time from each pixel to its nearest genebank accession occurrence location based both on distance and the speed of travel, defined by a friction surface 13,45 . Travel time scores were normalized by dividing pixel values by the longest travel time within the distribution model, with the final score ranging from 0 to 1. A high S ACC value for a pixel reflects long travel times from existing genebank collection occurrences and, thus, represents a higher probability of the pixel location being a gap in existing ex situ collections.An environmental gap score (S ENV ) was calculated for each 2.5-arc-minute pixel in the distribution model by conducting a hierarchical clustering analysis using Ward's method with all the predictor variables from the distribution modelling. The Mahalanobis distance between each pixel and the environmentally closest genebank accession occurrence location was then computed 13 . Environmental distance scores were normalized between 0 and 1. A high S ENV value for a pixel reflects a large distance to areas with similar environments where landraces have previously been collected for genebank conservation and, thus, represents a higher probability of the pixel location being a gap in existing ex situ collections.Spatial ex situ conservation gaps were determined from the conservation gap scores using a cross-validation procedure to derive a threshold for each score. We created synthetic gaps by removing existing genebank occurrences in five randomly chosen circular areas with a 100 km radius within the distribution model. We then tested whether these artificial gaps could be predicted by our gap analysis, identifying the threshold value of each score that would maximize the prediction of these synthetic gaps. Performance for each of the five gap areas was assessed using AUC, sensitivity and specificity. The average cross-area threshold value was calculated for each score to discern pixels with a high likelihood of finding ex situ conservation gaps and that, thus, were higher priority for further field sampling. These were pixels with combined gap scores above the threshold, assigned a value of 1, as opposed to the relatively well-conserved areas below the threshold, which were assigned a value of 0.The three binary conservation gap scores were then mapped in combination, resulting in pixels across the distribution model with gap values ranging from 0 to 3. Pixels with a value of 0 display no connectivity, accessibility or environmental gaps and are considered well represented ex situ. Pixels with a value of 1 indicate a conservation gap in connectivity, accessibility or the environment; we consider these 'low-confidence' gaps. Pixels with a value of 2 indicate gaps in two metrics or 'medium-confidence' gaps, and values of 3 indicate gaps across all metrics or 'high-confidence' gaps. High-confidence gap areas are displayed on crop-conservation-gap maps (Fig. 2b and Supplementary Information) and conservation hotspot maps across crops (Fig. 4 and Extended Data Figs. 5-8).The representation of crop landrace groups in current ex situ conservation collections was calculated based on the final 1-3 value conservation-gap maps. The complement of the proportion of the modelled distribution considered as a potential conservation gap by any single gap score represents the minimum estimate of current representation; the complement of the proportion considered by all three scores as a gap, which is to say high-confidence gap areas, represents the maximum estimate (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2).While distribution modelling and conservation gap analyses were conducted at the crop landrace group level and results are presented in full in the Supplementary Information, for ease of comparison of results across crops, and to avoid bias towards crops with many landrace groups, we also calculated summary results at the crop level. Crops that had been assessed with geographic differentiations, including maize in Africa and Latin America and yams in the New World and the Old World, were also combined. For spatial results, the pixels in crop landrace group models were summed-that is, constituent landrace group models were combined. The minimum and maximum current conservation representation estimations at the crop level were then calculated based on combined spatial models.  ","tokenCount":"4961"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3bd13eef4904bf2ce49f1765cd88b5b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b9228383-7cff-493f-a6e6-47a7b43213a8/retrieve","id":"555252777"},"keywords":["Food consumption","task allocation","and future aspirations"],"sieverID":"10e6374e-a115-4a00-a5e9-f759bfbba14b","pagecount":"20","content":"Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) district agrifood systems assessment aims to provide a reliable, accessible, and integrated evidence base that links farm production, market access, dietary patterns, climate risk responses, and natural resource management with gender as a cross-cutting issue in rural areas of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. It is designed to be a multi-year assessment. The survey was conducted only in households with adolescents (10-19 years of age). Adolescents and their behaviors are important when studying food systems because current practices and experiences can have long-term, intergenerational consequences. Using data collected in March-April 2023, this data note describes adolescents' diets and future aspirations. This is one of a set of data notes that, together, provide a holistic picture of the agrifood system in the district.Girls & boys exposed to packaged foods/drinks advertisementsGirls & boys involved in working in the fieldGirls & boys who wanted to primarily do farming in the future Data Note 10TAFSSA's district agrifood systems assessment aimed to interview three respondents per household: a female adult (aged 20+ years), a male adult (aged 20+ years), and an adolescent (aged 10-19 years). Information on the household and respondent sampling strategy is provided at the end of this data note.In this data note, you will first find information on background characteristics of the households and adolescents (by sex). This is followed by information on what adolescents eat, which was captured using the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) and a food frequency questionnaire. You will also learn about adolescents' perceptions on food choice.In addition, you will find information on adolescents' exposure to food advertisements as well as nutrition messages, and the sources of such information. The data note then delves into adolescents' involvement in various tasks, and their perceptions of those tasks.Finally, you will get an insight into adolescents' aspirations, beginning with their preferences regarding working in agriculture in the future, followed by their preferences for future occupations and their parents' expectations.More details about the measurement methods are found in the following pages.   GLOBAL DIET QUALITY SCORE | The Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) application was used to conduct a 24-hour dietary recall, which also captured when (at what eating occasion -prebreakfast, breakfast, a snack between breakfast and lunch, dinner, etc.) people ate each food item. The survey participants were asked about everything they ate or drank on the previous day, from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed and did not eat or drink anymore. This includes all snacks and foods or drinks consumed at home and outside the home. The foods consumed were classified into 25 food groups -16 healthy food groups, 2 food groups that are unhealthy when consumed in excess (red meat and high-fat dairy), and 7 unhealthy food groups.On the following pages, the figures show how many times per day adolescent girls and boys eat (Figure 4), the percentage of adolescents eating at various eating occasions (Figure 5), the percentage of adolescents who consume various food groups (Figure 6), and the quantity consumed by food group (Figure 7).✓ Boys and girls shared similar patterns related to eating occasions, with nearly all consuming at breakfast and dinner.   Note: \"Low\", \"medium\", and \"high\" describe consumption levels based on quantity consumed that predict noncommunicable disease risk in studies from Africa, Asia, and the Americas (Bromage S, Batis C, Bhupathiraju SN, et al. 2021). Disease risk is minimized when healthy foods are consumed in \"high\" quantities and unhealthy foods are consumed in \"low\" quantities.Unhealthy✓ Few adolescents consumed \"high\" quantities of healthy foods except whole grains and legumes. ✓ Most adolescents consumed \"high\" quantities of white roots & tubers.Sentinel food list For the food frequency questionnaire, a set of 25 \"sentinel foods\" were selected to better understand both how frequently these foods are consumed and adolescents' perceptions about these foods.Sentinel food items were derived from the food groups outlined in the Diet Quality Questionnaire (Uyar BTM, Talsma EF, Herforth AW, et al. 2023). The most commonly consumed food items within each food group were identified by consulting with local people in the district locations during scoping visits.Survey respondents were asked how frequently they consumed these foods in the past 7 days (Figure 8).Understanding these patterns provides insights into adolescents' consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods.Adolescents were asked whether they received a free lunch in school and, if yes, which sentinel foods were received, during their last school day.  FigureNote: This is calculated among the subsample of adolescents who saw or heard advertisements for any food or packaged drinks in the past 30 days. Mass media includes television, radio, newspapers, posters, and social media.Adolescents' exposure to food advertisements and nutrition messages was measured by asking adolescents whether, in the past 30 days, they had heard or seen:1. Advertisements for any food or packaged drinks (Figure 9)2. Information about avoiding certain foods such as soft drinks, energy drinks or sweets, biscuits, chips, namkeen, or bhujiya (Figure 11)3. Information about eating five different food groups or eating a diverse diet (Figure 13)Additionally, adolescents were asked where they had heard or seen such food advertisements or nutrition messages (Figures 10, 12, 14). Understanding the sources of such information can provide insights into the mediums for influencing adolescents' food choices.✓ 50% of girls and 54% of boys had seen or heard advertisements for food/packaged drinks in the last 30 days. ✓ Most adolescents reported seeing or hearing advertisements via mass media such as television, radio, newspapers, posters, and social media. Adolescents' exposure to advertisements 40% of girls and 48% of boys had heard or seen advertisements about soft drinks TASK ALLOCATION | To understand the role of adolescents in various agricultural and nonagricultural tasks, they were asked questions about their involvement in specific tasks. They were asked which agriculture-related activities they are involved in (Figure 15) and how often they carry out these activities (Figure 16).A parent of each adolescent was asked which household members do different types of tasks. The proportion of households where an adolescent was involved in each task was identified. Further, the involvement of adolescent girls and boys in tasks related to agriculture, food, and other domestic work (Figure 17) was examined.✓ A higher percentage of adolescent boys than girls were involved in working in the field and collecting fodder/taking care of animals. ✓ Girls are less frequently involved in taking agriculture products to the market than boys.  ✓ Few adolescents were involved in agricultural tasks (less than 19% girls and boys). ✓ A higher percentage of girls were involved in all food-related and domestic tasks than boys. 18% of girls and 16% of boys were involved in agriculture tasks, 59% and 20% in food related tasks, 58% and 14% in domestic tasksAdolescents' perceptions about different agricultural tasks were measured by asking whether they liked, disliked, or felt neutral about these tasks (Figure 18).Adolescents' aspirations were measured by asking them about what kind of work they would prefer to engage in for earning money in the future. This provides an insight into whether adolescents want to be involved in agriculture in the future (Figure 19). This is important to understand as adolescents constitute the next generation of producers.Finally, adolescents were asked about what occupation they aspire to and would prefer to engage in, in the future. Adolescents' aspirations were compared with parents' expectations for their children (Figure 20). ✓ Less than 11% of adolescents wanted to take up agriculture as their future primary occupation.Note: This is calculated among the subsample of adolescents who are involved in each agriculture related task.  39% of parents expected their adolescent daughters to be married and unemployed in the future, while most parents expected their sons to be salary employed","tokenCount":"1281"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6afa5cfcacd92e2ccedd1a7a41ce4880","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/91a626a8-677d-46ef-b804-d1cd334d7690/content","id":"1339508856"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7e6fd47d-0d0f-4fc7-aca1-8b4dc66e06a1","pagecount":"10","content":"Wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet, and sorghum provide over half of the world's food calories. To maintain global food security, with the added challenge of climate change, there is an increasing need to exploit existing genetic variability and develop cultivars with superior genetic yield potential and stress adaptation. The opportunity to share knowledge between crops and identify priority traits for future research can be exploited to increase breeding impacts and assist in identifying the genetic loci that control adaptation. A more internationally coordinated approach to crop phenotyping and modeling, combined with effective sharing of knowledge, facilities, and data, will boost the cost effectiveness and facilitate genetic gains of all staple crops, with likely spill over to more neglected crops.Climate change impacts cereal production mainly through heat and water stress but is also associated with waterlogging, frost, and disease and pest dynamics (Porter et al., 2014). Under climate change scenarios, and without adaptation, yields of wheat, maize and rice are predicted to decrease in both tropical and temperate regions (Challinor et al., 2014). For example, wheat yields are already slowing in most locations, and model ensembles show that for each 1 °C increase in global mean temperature, grain yields may decline by 6% (Asseng et al., 2014;Porter et al., 2014) Not only are temperatures predicted to increase generally (Battisti and Naylor, 2009), short periods of extreme heat are expected to become more frequent. Some models estimate that by the end of the 21st Century, a current 1-in-20 year hottest day will become a 1-in-10 year event, or even occur annually or bi-annually in many regions (Stocker et al., 2013). Frequent short episodes of high temperature stress could have adverse effects on seed number, seed weight, and thus cereal yields (Jagadish et al., 2010(Jagadish et al., , 2007; P. V. V. Prasad et al., 2008aPrasad et al., , 2008b)). This can have devastating effects on crop production, as seen in Russia during 2010 when the hottest summer experienced in 130 years contributed to a 30% reduction in the predicted grain harvest (Wegren, 2011).Rainfall patterns are less confidently predicted than temperature, although it is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation (i.e. the proportion of total rainfall from heavy falls) will increase in many regions (Stocker et al., 2013), leading to run-off and therefore reducing water availability to crops while increasing the risk of soil erosion. At the same time, the frequency of drought stress is likely to increase in many regions, thus diminishing the ability to plan for any given crop season (Hochman et al., 2009). Combined heat and drought stress is generally more detrimental than either stress alone (Pradhan et al., 2012) and is much harder to control in field trials.Even without accounting for climate change, diminishing water supplies, increasing populations, urbanization, shifting diets, and the additional demand on cereals like maize for fodder and fuel pose significant challenges for cereal production over the coming decades (Hubert et al., 2010). Global demand for cereals is expected to reach 3 billion tons in 2050an increase of 940 million tons from 2005/07with almost all the increased demand coming from developing countries, especially Asia and Africa (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012). The area under cereal cultivation is increasing worldwide, but the current rates of yield growth and overall production are not sufficient to satisfy future demand (Grassini et al., 2013). These patterns are predicted to result in significant price rises by 2050: more than 50% for maize and 25-50% for other crops, without accounting for climate change (Rosegrant et al., 2013), or 60-97% if climate change is considered (Hubert et al., 2010). With agricultural systems already affected by climate variabilityparticularly in semi-arid regions (Keating et al., 2010) climate change is acting as a threat multiplier for the issues normally faced by crop production. Accounting for the negative effects of climate change, yield growth rates of 1.2-1.7% will be required for cereal crops if future demand is to be satisfied and malnutrition reduced (Nelson et al., 2010;Rosegrant pers comms).Traditionally, breeding efforts have rightly focused on crop yield rather than survival under stresses (Barnabás et al., 2008), but there is an increasing need to identify, develop, and deploy germplasm that can withstand extreme weather events with yield stability in both \"good\" and \"bad\" years (Chapman et al., 2012;Fischer and Edmeades, 2010;Keating et al., 2010), despite the fact that variability in crop yields may increase due to climate change (Porter et al., 2014). Researchers are therefore working intensively to exploit and extend existing genetic variability to develop high-yielding, stress-tolerant cultivars (Djanaguiraman andPrasad, 2014a, 2014b;Reynolds et al., 2015;Valluru et al., 2014).Together, the five major cereal crops (wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet, and sorghum) make up approximately 44% of the calories consumed per capita worldwide, with this figure rising to approximately 55% in least developed countries (FAOSTAT, 2011). Strategic research collaborations across these crops and across disciplines have the potential to accelerate genetic, physiological, and molecular understanding of important traits. Such collaborations would increase the opportunities to enhance genetic gains, since many of the problems faced by cereal crops have a common physiological basis. Furthermore, new tools in genomics, transgenics, and phenomics are playing an increasingly important role in improving cereal crop yields (Tester and Langridge, 2010). Sharing these research outputs and achieving synergies across crops would help accelerate their development, deployment, and adoption, as well as push back frontiers of the physiological and genetic bases of crop adaptation (Valluru et al., 2014). The CGIAR centers have a distinct advantage in undertaking research-fordevelopment on climate resilience in cereals due to their substantial collections of crop genetic resources, extensive stress phenotyping networks around the globe, and well established research collaborations that link public and private entities across continents (Braun et al., 2010). National programs in target regions, on the other hand, have the advantage of access to different ecologies, providing ideal opportunities for screening and phenotyping in target environments, as well as in-depth knowledge of local adaptive needs. Advanced research institutions provide advances in basic understanding of plant adaptation and new technologies especially in the area of genomics. International collaboration between these different types of organization, as well as the private sector, will therefore be vital in developing and evaluating germplasm for improved adaptation to biotic and abiotic stresses.This paper describes the outcomes and recommendations of a meeting held in New Delhi, India, during November 2013, in which experts from the five major cereal crops metat the invitation of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationto discuss how research effort and resources that are currently expended largely in a crop-specific context might be combined in more synergistic ways.While many aspects of climate change affect crop production, the two primary threats are heat and drought stress, neither of which has been unanimously defined in the literature, largely because crops vary in terms of absolute stress thresholds. Therefore, at the New Delhi meeting experts from different cereals agreed on the following definitions for heat and drought stress, based on plant response:Heat stress: Supra-optimal temperatures occurring at any plant growth stage that can result in Z10% yield loss. This is typically characterized by accelerated plant development resulting in reduced photosynthetic area, plant biomass, and seed set. It may also result in reduced harvest index (HI) where heat stress inhibits reproductive success by affecting gametogenesis, pollination-related processes, and grain set. Where heat stress occurs during grain-filling, reduced grain weight (and therefore HI) will result from inhibition of starch synthesis, increased starch breakdown, and/or premature and rapid increase in senescence.Drought stress: Water deficit at any plant growth stagethough with more impact during reproductive and grain filling stagesthat results in Z 10% yield loss compared to an adequately-watered control. Symptoms are similar to those described above under heat stress, namely accelerated plant development resulting in reduced biomass, decreased seed set probably associated with plant signaling in response to a dry soil profile, and reduced grain size and HI due to early grain filling and premature senescence, triggered by the lack of water.Temperature thresholds for heat stress vary according to the crop itself, its developmental stage, and the timing, duration, and intensity of the stress (Porter and Semenov, 2005). Various qualitative indicators of heat stress are shown in Table 1, based on experimentation in a limited number of environments (often not in the field) and compiled by experts at the meeting in New Delhi. For most crops there are two critical stages during reproductive growth that are the most sensitive to temperature: the first at micro-or mega-sporogenesis (in the week prior to anthesis), leading to loss of fertility; and the second at pollination/fertilization, leading to decreased levels of pollen shed, pollen reception on stigma, pollen tube growth, and fertilization, as well as early embryo abortion (Djanaguiraman andPrasad, 2014a, 2014b;Prasad and Djanaguiraman, 2014;Prasad et al., 2008aPrasad et al., , 2008b)).Heat stress at other crop stages may also have devastating impacts. During crop establishment, drought may result in poor stands and heat will accelerate development and reduce leaf area, which reduces the capacity to intercept light. The greatest challenges may come from an increased frequency of extreme high temperatures of short duration, which can have a major impact on yield without much difference in the average temperature (Gourdji et al., 2013) since they may damage the crop at key sensitive stages such as flowering or trigger premature senescence during grain-filling (Porter and Semenov, 2005;Prasad and Djanaguiraman, 2014) (Fig. 1). In the case of rice, diurnal temperature variation can impact yields (Welch et al., 2010) and the effect should be studied in other cereals in the context of climate change.Common strategies for heat adaptation include: (i) stress avoidance by ensuring flowering during a relatively cooler period, either agronomically through changing planting dates (Gourdji et al., 2013) or genetically by modifying phenological patterns; (ii) reduce exacerbation of heat stress effects by avoiding nutrient or water deficiency (for example through good agronomic management); and (iii) via genetic adaptation. Strategies for adapting crops to heat stress have been reviewed recently e.g. Jha et al. (2014), including for wheat (Cossani and Reynolds, 2012), rice (Jagadish et al., 2015), maize (Cairns et al., 2013), pearl millet and sorghum (Rattunde et al., 2012).In most crops (excepting some that mature into autumn/winter), both drought and heat stress tend to intensify as the crop cycle progresses. This is especially the case for drought because: i) in most rainfed environments, precipitation tends to decrease as the cycle progresses; ii) stored soil moisture becomes increasingly depleted over time; and iii) rising temperatures increase vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and therefore crop evaporative demand for water (Table 2). Cereal crops are increasingly being subjected to a combination of stresses. It is important to remember that tolerance to heat þdrought stress may be genetically distinct (Barnabás et al., 2008;Cairns et al., 2013), placing a premium on traits that help adapt to both heat and drought stress, e.g. prolific root growth (Pinto and Reynolds, 2015). The development and deployment of climate change resilient cereal cultivars requires: i. A better understanding of the physiological and genetic bases of tolerance to key abiotic stresses;  (Jagadish et al., 2007;Prasad et al., 2006) Z 33 Approx. 7-10 days prior to anthesis pollination/ fertilization Inviable pollen; poor anther dehiscence; reduced pollen deposition on stigma; poor pollen growth; asynchrony between pollen deposition and stigma receptivity; early embryo abortion Maize (Herrero and Johnson, 1980;Ordóñez et al., 2015) Z 35 Approx. 7 days prior to anthesis and silking; flowering/reproductive stage Leaf firing; tassel blast; pollen sterility; accelerated senescence; barren plants; reduced seed set Pearl millet (Gupta et al., 2015) Z 40 Approx. 7-10 days prior to anthesis and pollination/fertilization Reduced seed set; pollen sterility; stigma drying Sorghum (Djanaguiraman et al., 2014;Prasad et al., 2015) Z 38 Approx. 7-15 days prior to anthesis and pollination/ fertilization and up to one week afterReduced seed-set, pollen sterility, and ovule sterility ii. High-quality phenotyping at sites representative of target production environments, where stresses can be well managed at scales that fit breeding efforts; iii. Identification of hot spots of climate vulnerability for research, and germplasm screening at future climate analog sites; iv. Incorporation of modern/efficient breeding tools; v. Public-private partnerships that accelerate impacts in climatevulnerable farming communitiesThe team of experts attempted to determine the priority traits across all cereals (Table 3), based on an extensive body of literature, some of which is cited herein (e.g. (Barnabás et al., 2008;Cairns et al., 2013;Cossani and Reynolds, 2012;Dreccer et al., 2014;Jha et al., 2014;Pradhan et al., 2012;Valluru et al., 2014;Zaman-Allah et al., 2011). They also evaluated the current protocols to measure these traits, and suggested areas for further investigation.Traits of importance across crops can generally be classified as relating to:1. Photosynthesis, biomass, and metabolism: Recent genetic progress in yield may be linked to greater radiation use efficiency (RUE) at the canopy level and/or an increase in maximum photosynthesis (Fischer and Edmeades, 2010). For wheat and rice, current RUE is well below the theoretical limit  (Reynolds et al., 2012a(Reynolds et al., , 2012b)), indicating an opportunity to increase yields even under climate change. 2. Water related traits: A plant's capacity to extract soil moisture is a key factor determining drought adaptation (Pinto and Reynolds, 2015). Periods of drought vary in timing and intensity and water is not used equally efficiently during all crop stages, availability during grain filling being especially critical (Vadez et al., 2013). Research into generic drought tolerance using single-gene transformations has typically concentrated on survival of plants suffering from severe water stress, rarely an important trait in crops (Richards et al., 2010). The authors agree that understanding efficient use of water is key to improving crop performance, which is likely to be achieved through improved exploration of soil water combined with good water budgeting over the crop cycle, more than increasing water use efficiency per se (Blum, 2009). 3. Flowering/partitioning: Flowering is usually timed to occur during stress-free periods in order to prevent reduced floret fertility that can lead to decreased seed set (e.g. (Barnabás et al., 2008;Prasad and Djanaguiraman, 2014) These commonalities in key traits across the five cereal crops provide further opportunities for sharing knowledge and technologies across disciplines. Nonetheless, there is a general lack of comparative biology studies on the major cereal crops. Wheat and rice have been compared recently for their physiological and genetic architecture (Valluru et al., 2014), though less so at a metabolic level (Kadam et al., 2015). Some of their loci and genes linked to environmental adaptation appear to share high sequence similarity (Valluru et al., 2014), and there are many similarities between RUE-related yield in the two crops (Fischer and Edmeades, 2010). Traits for both wheat and rice have been explored through breeding, physiological, and molecular approaches (Table 4), though sharing research hotspots would improve the yield potential of the two crops (Valluru et al., 2014).Developing a comprehensive dynamic mechanistic model of C3 photosynthesis is a priority for both wheat and rice for the genetic and molecular exploration of photosynthesis and its associated traits (Gu et al., 2014). Researchers predict that exploring rubisco nucleotide diversity and identifying key residues of carboxylation rate could result in improvements in rubisco activity of the two crops (Valluru et al., 2014), and that these genes could be transferred to next generations via marker-assisted selection, similar to incorporating the maize ZmC4Ppc gene into rice (Xiang et al., 2007). While the genetic and molecular regulation of grain development is generally less well studied, genes controlling grain architectural traits such as grain number (GN1), weight (GW2), and size (GS3) were used in marker-assisted selection in rice (Song et al., 2007), and could be applied to wheat, though generally seed appearance is less important for milled grains. Furthermore, identifying the novel genetic loci controlling harvest index and utilizing metabolomics-assisted crop breeding will also need to be a key part of future breeding programs (Valluru et al., 2014). These examples also illustrate the potential value of comparative crop biology especially using model species like rice, as an alternative to non-crop models such as Arabidopsis.While breeders are often skeptical about using exotic germplasm (except for introducing disease resistance), interspecific hybridization has achieved impressive yield gains in wheat for example (Ortiz et al., 2008). Landraces also represent alternative pools of allelic diversity that have been used successfully in breeding for abiotic stress (Reynolds et al., 2015), and techniques such as Focused Germplasm Identification Strategy (FIGS) help identify accessions originating in conditions of relevance to breeding targets.Models allow crop researchers to see the 'big picture' by looking at the pattern and frequency of drought or heat events, predicting crop adaptation, and evaluating hypothetical trait values and trade-offs (Kholová et al., 2014(Kholová et al., , 2013;;Porter and Semenov, 2005). Using models to predict crop adaptation under various environmental and climate change scenarios is therefore an essential part of assessing future food security (Challinor et al., 2014;Chapman et al., 2012;Grassini et al., 2013;Porter et al., 2014) and they have been successfully used to advance germplasm within the commercial sector (Cooper et al., 2014). Process-based crop simulation models offer the benefit of decades of data on the response of crop phenology and yield to environment and are thus an important validation tool to understand the potential effects of increased heat or drought stress on crops (Asseng et al., 2014), enabling both researchers and farmers to plan responses to environmental changes, and more importantly to set the most critical breeding and agronomic management targets.Efficient and reliable models for predicting crop adaptation under climate change are being developed, but need to be further refined. The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) allows for modeling of the entire cropping system (for about 40-50 crops), and can provide a key role in connecting for example genomic data to functional processes (Holzworth et al., 2014). APSIM is used routinely in sorghum (Kholová et al., 2014(Kholová et al., , 2013)), and an upgraded APSIM version of pearl millet using the model architecture of the sorghum APSIM is under development (Kholová, van Oosterom, pers comms), but use of the model in the other crops has been scant, although Pioneer routinely uses APSIM for maize (Messina et al., 2011). However, the precision of models needs significant improvement, especially when it comes to simulating genetic effects and guiding targets for the five crops highlighted here (Chenu et al., 2008). The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) is currently evaluating the ability of models to quantify crop responses to high temperatures by testing them against field experiments conducted over a wide temperature range (Asseng et al., 2014(Asseng et al., , 2013)).Table 5 illustrates the current status of models with respect to the key traits identified for the five major cereal crops. Many challenges remain, in particular modeling canopy and panicle temperature dynamics (Julia and Dingkuhn, 2013). A recent rice model has attempted to take into account effects such as transpirational cooling and early morning flowering to reduce heat sterility (van Oort et al., 2015).Models vary widely in how they simulate dynamic processes (e.g. crop development), which processes they model (for example  (Asseng et al., 2013). Therefore, results from climate impact studies are contingent on the choice of climate data and the impact model used (Asseng et al., 2014), while several important physiological processes still need to be brought into simulation models, as mentioned above (Eyshi Rezaei et al., 2015). Another example related to environmental cues that elicit plant growth regulator responses, and their sometimes drastic effects on growth and development (Wilkinson et al., 2012) should also be considered, and may well help to explain crop response to extreme weather events, for example. The issue of standardization will be addressed later.There is a pressing need to establish a global phenotyping network for comprehensive characterization of genetic resources and breeding materials, using harmonized protocols. This will require institutional cooperation (national institutions, CGIAR, and private sector) with a clear focus and deliverables, and standardization of platforms and measurements (Reynolds et al., 2012a(Reynolds et al., , 2012b)).All field platforms should have managed stress environments and precision treatmentsincluding contrasting genotypes to identify tolerance responseswith adequate irrigation options for the range of target environments to be adequately simulated. Access to proximal and/or remote sensing equipment for high throughput phenotyping is necessary for breeding scale field operations, as well as drying ovens and sample processing laboratories for precision phenotyping needs and marker work. For soil characterization, useful protocols have been developed to gather water and nitrogen characterizations (Dalgliesh and Foale, 1998) that are also sufficiently detailed for simulation modeling. For data to be meaningful, testing locations and their environmental dynamics must be well characterized and representative of the most important aspects of the range of target sites. Defining the target environment requires a minimum dataset consisting of the following (including long term weather variables): Most crop research institutes already use managed experimental phenotyping sites, but there is a general need for further investment to meet all of the requirements outlined above, and to ensure greater standardization of trait measurement. In the last decade or so, major investments have been made to develop controlled environment (CE) phenotyping facilities (e.g. (Cooper et al., 2014) with the assumption that work in model species would readily translate to crop plantsand there has consequently been less emphasis on field facilities in international research (though there are exceptions). Limited association between the CE results in model species with crop performance in the field has led to renewed awareness of the imperative for high-quality field experimentation to support crop improvement for heat and drought stress, and the need to re-balance investment in field vs. CE facilities. The trend against field phenotyping in international research has started to be reversed through initiatives such as Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), and use of field phenotyping tools being provided by various organizations and developed for ground and aerial sensing (e.g. Chapman et al., 2014). While new field phenotyping platforms are often built with a particular crop in mind, many can be adapted to multiple crops and could be shared across projects and institutes, arguing for investment in better-equipped, centralized platforms. Progress in phenotyping can be hastened through adoption of standardized phenotyping protocols. Recent efforts have been made in wheat (Pask et al., 2014) and it is hoped that through the various phenotyping initiatives that have emerged recently (e.g. International Plant Phenotyping Network, European Plant Phenotyping Network, Wheat Initiative), some standards can be agreed upon, at least within crops. High-throughput phenotyping methods exist for several of the traits identified as high priority across the five major cereal crops and are outlined below. (A review of the many low-throughput phenotyping approaches is beyond the scope of this article but see Pask et al., 2014 and references therein for some of the more common low-throughput field measurements)Given the lack of information on what determines genotype level differences in growth rate, it is prudent to workinitially at leastat the integrative plant level using growth analysis and measuring proxies for photosynthesis. Growth rate is the best integrator of net photosynthesis and in relatively closed canopies is an accurate measure of RUE. Although direct measurement through growth analysis is not high-throughput, a number of spectral indices as well as digital imagery can estimate cultivar level differences in biomass when all treatments are at the same growth stage and have similar growth habits (Babar et al., 2006). To estimate short-term and diurnal fluxes in photosynthesis the trait would need to be measured more constantly. Again proxies need to be employed, at least when screening large panels, where the following approaches can be adopted. Thermal imaging of canopies can pinpoint genotypes that contrast in gas exchange rate (of both leaves and spikes), at least in environments where VPD permits evaporative cooling to be associated with gas exchange with adequate resolution. Tactical use (in the sense of well-timed experimental treatments) of applied soil water can permit the distinction between gas exchange limitations associated with vascular capacity, signaling effects on stomatal conductance, or feedback inhibition associated with metabolism and sink limitation. Chlorophyll fluorescence offers a potentially mediumthroughput alternative to measure leaf level photosynthetic rate and imaging approaches are in development.The fastest and most integrative indicator of crop transpiration is to measure the resultant evaporative cooling, at least in high VPD environments. Again measuring canopy temperature directly using infrared thermometry or through thermal imaging is the best proxy for estimating differences in transpiration rate, which is closely associated with stomatal conductance (Amani et al., 1996). As the soil moisture profile is depleted under drought, cool canopies indicate root access to subsoil water, while under hot-irrigated conditions cool canopies indicate proliferation of roots in the well-watered root zone (Pinto and Reynolds, 2015), or the capacity to transpire under high VPD conditions (Zaman-Allah et al., 2011). Water status of canopies can be estimated remotely with the spectral water index (Gutierrez et al., 2010). There are a few visually assessed traits that can influence water relations, including glaucousness and leaf rolling.Remote sensing approaches for phenology are not well established, but a recent study has demonstrated that it is possible to use highquality image analysis to estimate flowering time (Guo et al., 2015) and that this should be applicable to other crops. Estimation of physiological maturity, and possibly other morphologically distinct growth stages, may be more challenging, but also achievable through regular monitoring. Remote sensing of stem water-soluble carbohydrates has been shown recently using hyper spectroscopy (Dreccer et al., 2014).By linking the outputs of phenotyping experiments in a range of environments with molecular markers, genetic bases are revealed including their seemingly complex interaction with environment. The main genotyping systems currently in use are (Lateef, 2015):Wheat: 90 K SNP chip/KASP/SSR/GBS/DArT Rice: 700 K SNP chip/Multiplex KASP Maize: GBS-based SNP genotyping Pearl millet: SSR/Cyt/SNP (though no SNP is globally available) Sorghum: GBS/SNP There are several limitations currently facing genotyping systems and services can be expensive and time consuming. Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) can take six weeks, and three months is usually required for genotyping-by sequencing (GBS), though this can be reduced to a month for a premium fee. There is currently no regionally centralized genotyping facility, though the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT) is establishing a genotyping facility for South Asia, with 60-80% of its capacity reserved for organizations other than ICRI-SAT. There is also perhaps a need for locally developed seed-DNA extraction facilities at a reasonable price, along with automated tissue collection from leaves and seeds (seed chipper, for example). There is currently a lack of trained manpower to analyze and interpret genotyping data, and national agricultural research system researchers often face many administrative restrictions. These are the same limitations that were identified when the Global Challenge Program/Integrated Breeding Platform was first set up, but efforts are being made to improve the system.Details on how DNA sequence information can be used to develop molecular markers for screening a range of agronomic traits is provided elsewhere (e.g. http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu/).If the information described above is captured and curated using standardized approaches, and organized using widely available software, it can prove valuable to a wide range of users. Some institutionssuch as the CGIAR and any project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USAID, or Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Councilare now obliged to share their data in a timely way. Data sharing can help in avoiding redundancy, or by adding robustness among data sets, but there are not yet comprehensive policies for sharing data (especially between the public and private sectors). Shared data can be difficult to source, creating challenges for accurate interpretation, and it may be difficult or impossible to use if badly formatted.There is some consensus on what constitutes core data, around which data sharing standards should initially be prioritized. In order to simulate plant growth in models, minimum required information includes daily weather data, soil characterization, basic agronomic inputs, and at least two measures of biomass; while more detailed and time-consuming measurements, such as phenology or leaf appearance rate, vary from model to model. Historical weather and crop performance data are also valuable, but these can be the most difficult (and expensive) datasets to acquire. Better environmental data is required if the effects of climate change are to be properly monitored, though this needs to represent all countries, not just developed countries that can afford to do it (Cramer et al., 2014). Researchers should avoid assumptions about what data is useful based simply on the priorities in their own field.All data (phenotypic, functional, genomic) should be properly documented and searchable, ideally with metadata for context. Australian national trial data for the last 10 years is available online (http:// www.nvtonline.com.au), along with metadata. Raw data is not published due to a high level of variability, so some statistical analyses are conducted first and the data is then published at the trial-trait-treatment level. In the USA, all variety testing data is available and categorized by region (http://www.nass.usda.gov). These datasets (with some exceptions for weather data) can be freely accessed and analyzed. Information from other national programs is not always so easily available, or may be in difficult to use formats (e.g. PDF). CGIAR centers handle data across multiple locations and crops and are therefore a mine of useful information, much of which is collated within the AgTrials database.It is clear that an accessible, searchable, needs-based database is an urgent priority, yet there is currently no work being done to create one. It would be challenging and non-productive to attempt to fit all the required data into a one-size-fits-all format, especially with regard to genotyping markers, but inter-crop and inter-organization data sharing relies on information being in a transferable format. Metadata should also be included for context, but an abundance of raw data is only useful if the technology exists for evaluating it quickly and thoroughly. There are some web tools that can be programmed to extract relevant data from different kinds of databases, but ease of harvesting information is a key issue that will need to be addressed.Research institutions and funding bodies could facilitate timely sharing of data by further prioritizing publications as research outputs, with the condition that they be accompanied by public access to all relevant data (in supplemental tables and/or public databases). This would require more explicit emphasis on resourcing the necessary steps; namely data curation, collation, statistical analysis, interpretation, literature searches, and writing itself. These activities are not always emphasized in proposals in comparison to data acquisition. Such an intervention would foster a win-win scenario, in the sense that more data would be published, including that associated with the less attractive but fundamentally important 'null hypothesis' outcomes, while allowing data and meta-data to be available that has been interpreted and peer-reviewed. Such an intervention could also lead to greater standardization in the way 'Materials and Methods' sections of publications are presented, leading to more thorough reporting of experimental treatments and conditions by researchers, as well enabling 'data sharing search engines' to more easily identify relevant studies.There is a significant opportunity to improve the global coordination of agricultural research, which will greatly improve our ability to develop crops and cropping systems that will be more resilient in the face of climate change. Such an effort can help identify and address crop level technology gaps that may otherwise slow the adoption or reduce impacts of recent investments in biotechnology. Common examples of technology gaps include incomplete knowledge of target breeding environments, inadequate understanding of key adaptive processes, lack of uniform methodology/protocols, insufficient investment in state-of-the-art phenotyping platforms in the public domain, and duplication of efforts partly due to inadequate access to databases. A better-coordinated and more standardized approach to crop research is proposed, in the following complementary areas:Characterization of target agro-ecosystems in terms of the physical, biotic, agronomic and socio-economic constraints, now and in future climate scenarios;Standardized experimental environments, including definitions of crop response and phenotyping protocols, such that data is directly comparable across a wide range of experimental variables including germplasm, environments, and other research interventions;Phenotyping platforms representative of key ecologies, enabling results to be extrapolated to a wide range of realistic farming systems encompassing multiple crop species;Comparative biology whereby what is learnt in one crop can be more readily applied to others, especially in terms of adaptive traits and their genetic bases. This could lead to agreement on, among other things: a. generic traits that underpin adaptation across a range of crops (e.g. within cereals) and would, for example, represent a first priority in pioneering research such as exploring novel genetic resources or ecologies; b. minimum data sets that also lend themselves to crop simulation modeling; c. standardized protocols for measuring generic traits so that results are directly comparable across crop species; d. Data sharing in a way that encourages a public goods approach to agricultural research to underpin food security, especially for the most vulnerable sector of the global community.In summary, better, science-driven coordination of global level crop research efforts would lead to multiple benefits associated with timely identification of constraints, research conducted in environments that best represent target sites, better sharing of expertize, resources, and data, and in the longer term a more efficient use of research funds.","tokenCount":"5517"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a82febb7681295a89a0f56a2a743806a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/62483bae-859a-4d3e-b101-7e9641d641a0/retrieve","id":"-258211463"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6d403133-228f-4622-ab1f-8ed0270001ef","pagecount":"28","content":"Switzerland joined the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in 1971. As a founding member, Switzerland is a strong supporter of the CGIAR enjoying a long-standing, fruitful and growing partnership. As a leading investor in the CGIAR, Switzerland contributes financial, scientific, and technical resources while influencing CGIAR policies.The focus of Swiss official development assistance is primarily on poverty alleviation and sustainable development. To achieve these goals, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) concentrates on various thematic priorities including food security and environmental quality. Both priorities are closely aligned with those of the CGIAR. CGIAR works with SDC, a part of the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (DFA). In addition, the CGIAR Centers collaborate with leading Swiss universities, advanced research institutes and development organizations including the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Swiss Centre for International Agriculture, the Center for Development and Environment (University of Bern), the Swiss Tropical Institute and others. Switzerland is an active member of the European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) that brings together the 25 Member States of the European Union, plus the European Commission (EC) and Norway. EIARD works to improve the coordination of European policies to support agricultural research for development including during the CGIAR Executive Council meetings.Switzerland's support for agricultural research goes hand in hand with building capacity in human resources and strengthening institutions. Swiss scientists and development specialists have played key supporting roles in CGIAR affairs, including the reform program designed to increase development impact, strengthen partnerships, and streamline governance. In February 1995, the Government of Switzerland hosted the CGIAR Ministerial-Level Meeting in Lucerne, a major milestone in early reform efforts. n Eleven CGIAR genebanks together hold the world's largest collection of crop diversity, with over 600,000 samples. This vital resource makes it possible to breed improved crop varieties and restore agricultural systems, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters or war, when genebanks have been destroyed. Of the one million seed samples distributed over the past 10 years, over 80% went to organizations in developing countries, the vast majority to universities and national agricultural systems where scientists are developing new crop varieties that give higher yields, use less water, and have improved nutritional value. Switzerland is a strong supporter of the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Program (SGRP) and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which was established by IPGRI and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (www.ipgri.cgiar.org/programmes/sgrp/homesgrp.htm) n In Asia, the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium provides rice farmers with new and simple research-based technologies to improve their livelihood. The Site-specific Nutrient Management approach develops and disseminates ecologically and socially-acceptable rice production techniques in Asia through improved nutrient, pest, and crop management practices to increase the profitability of intensive irrigated rice systems while ensuring affordable rice for the urban poor. For example, in northern Vietnam, improving timing and rates of application of fertilizer result in larger increases in yield compared with traditional farmers' practices. Yields increased by 15% during the high yielding season, and by 8% in the low-yielding season, and farmers received a net benefit of US$150 per hectare per year for two crops. (www.irri.org) n With strong support of the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance, national research programs in Eastern and Southern Africa have released 150 new varieties of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris) through CIAT's bean improvement program. The new varieties are high yielding and disease resistant and are grown widely. The improved varieties are grown in 72% of all rural household in western Kenya, 79% in northern Tanzania and 53% in Uganda. Rural households adopting the new varieties have benefited primarily through increased bean consumption, which translates into improved nutrition, and through markedly increased income from the sale of beans. In Rwanda rural households adopting new varieties have increased their bean consumption by 17% and in Tanzania by 31%. Moreover, poor farmers have boosted their income from beans by 73% in Rwanda and 190% in Tanzania. (www.ciat.cgiar.org) n Working with a range of partners, CIFOR has developed methods for assessing 'biodiversity that really matters' to communities living in tropical forest landscapes. Known as 'MLA' (Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment), and 'FS' (Future Scenarios), these approaches increase understanding between development practitioners, policy makers and forest communities. The results are better informed decisions on policy, land use, and payments for biodiversity services. The approaches have been designed in order to reconcile conservation and management of tropical forests with the needs of local people. In Bolivia and Vietnam, initiatives are underway to institutionalize MLA and FS. (www.cifor.cgiar.org) n The \"Programa Regional de Maiz (PRM),\" a network of national and international agricultural research institutions, has worked for many years to increase the productivity of maize cropping systems while improving the natural resource base. Important impacts of the PRM research in Central America and the Caribbean include higher yielding maize varieties, new technologies such as intercropping, relay cropping, rotation of leguminous green manure cover crops with maize, and residue management and conservation tillage for improving the livelihood of impoverished hillside farmers. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a strategic alliance of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations supporting 15 international agricultural research Centers that work with national agricultural research systems, civil society organizations and the private sector. The alliance mobilizes agricultural science to reduce poverty, foster human well-being, promote agricultural growth, and protect the environment. The CGIAR generates global public goods that are available to all.In a world where 75 percent of poor people depend on agriculture to survive, poverty cannot be reduced without investment in agriculture. Many countries with strong agricultural sectors have a record of sustained investments in agricultural science and technology. The evidence is clear-investment in agricultural research for development generates growth, reduces poverty and protects the environment.Agricultural research for development has a record of delivering results. The science that made possible the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was largely the work of CGIAR Centers and their national agricultural research partners. The scientists' work not only increased incomes for small farmers, it enabled the preservation of millions of hectares of forest and grasslands, conserving biodiversity and reducing carbon releases into the atmosphere. CGIAR's research agenda is dynamic, flexible, and responsive to emerging development challenges. The research portfolio has evolved from the original focus on increasing productivity in individual critical food crops. Today's approach recognizes that biodiversity and environment research are also key components in the drive to enhance sustainable agricultural productivity. Our belief in the fundamentals remains as strong as ever: agricultural growth and increased farm productivity in developing countries create wealth, reduce poverty and hunger and protect the environment (see graphic, Evolution of CGIAR's research agenda, page 6). These successes notwithstanding, future challenges are daunting. World population is expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. Food demand is expected to more than double in a similar time frame. Some 30 percent of irrigated lands are already degraded, and water use is expected to increase by 50 percent over the next 30 years. Science-based solutions for sustaining productivity increases while protecting ecosystems are key to addressing these challenges.The CGIAR was created in 1971. Today more than 8,500 CGIAR scientists and staff are working in over 100 countries. CGIAR research addresses every critical component of the agricultural sector including-agroforestry, biodiversity, food, forage and tree crops, proenvironment farming techniques, fisheries, forestry, livestock, food policies and agricultural research services. Thirteen of the Centers are located in developing countries. Africa continues to be a priority for CGIAR research. CGIAR research partnerships help achieve the Millennium Development Goals and support major international conventions (Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Desertification).n Sustainable production (of crops, livestock, fisheries, forests and natural resources) n Enhancing National Agricultural Research Systems NARS (through joint research, policy support, training and knowledge-sharing) n Germplasm Improvement (for priority crops, livestock, trees and fish) n Germplasm Collection (collecting, characterizing and conserving genetic resources -the CGIAR holds in public trust one of the world's largest seed collections available to all) n Policy (fostering research on policies that have a major impact on agriculture, food, health, spread of new technologies and the management and conservation of natural resources) Forging New Partnerships: CGIAR Challenge Programs in action Challenge Programs are new high-impact, research for development programs that tackle major global development challenges through expanded partnerships. Four Challenge Programs are being implemented since 2004:n \"Generation\" is unlocking crop genetic diversity through the application of comparative biological knowledge in 11 crops. There are 14 partner institutions involved. Program updates for the first year include genotyping, a composite germplasm set representing global genetic resources for a first tier of eleven crops; development of a common phenotyping framework of techniques, plant development stages and parameters to enable cross-species comparison; validation and development of pre-existing markers for drought tolerance and the establishment of molecular breeding communities of practice; design of a Generation CP information platform system for genetic resources, genomic and crop information systems and internal project workshops. (www.generationcp.org)n \"HarvestPlus\" is an international alliance of over 40 institutions breeding crops with improved micronutrient content. Progress during the first phase of the project focused on: exploring the genetic variation for iron, zinc and B-carotene in rice, wheat, maize, cassava, beans and sweetpotato germplasm; applied breeding; testing the stability of micro-nutrient expression; and dissemination of seed of basic breeding materials and advanced lines to collaborators. New initiatives include the feasibility of a HarvestPlus China program, similar to HarvestPlus and to be funded by the Chinese government and other donors. (www.harvestplus.org) n \"Water and Food\" is improving water productivity in agriculture in nine river basins (Andean system, Indo-Gangetic, Kharheh, Limpopo river, Mekong river, Nile river, Sao Francisco, Volta, Yellow river). In its first year, 33 research projects led by 18 different institutions, involving over 150 partners have been launched with a total investment of $60 million. A diverse set of activities are underway, including research programs on coastal management in Bangladesh and Vietnam; exploring and evaluating supplemental irrigation techniques in Syria, and improvements in rain water and nutrient use efficiency in Niger. (www.waterandfood.org) n The Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) developed by a CGIAR partner, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), is focusing on jumpstarting agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fully supported by the CGIAR, this is the first Challenge Program with responsibility for implementation assigned to a partner institution in Africa. The SSA CP is promoting research that will provide options for smallholders to improve input and output markets for smallholder and pastoral produce, to intensify use of limited resources while maintaining food security and the use of natural resources in a sustainable way. The research will be conducted by Pilot Learning Teams with the communities at different Pilot Learning Sites, which have been already selected through a participatory process. (www.fara-africa.org)The CGIAR alliance is open to all countries and organizations sharing a commitment to a common research agenda and willing to invest financial support, and human and technical resources. From twelve members in 1971, today's membership of sixty-four includes a majority of developing countries. Membership is poised to grow further.CGIAR members contributed US$437 million in 2004, the single-largest public goods investment in mobilizing science for the benefit of poor farming communities worldwide. L'appui de la Suisse en faveur de la recherche agricole va de pair avec un renforcement des capacités en ressources humaines et des institutions. Les scientifiques et les spécialistes du développement suisses ont joué des rôles secondaires clés dans les décisions prises par le CGIAR, notamment le programme de réformes conçu pour accroître l'impact sur le développement, le renforcement des partenariats et la rationalisation de la gouvernance. En février 1995, le Gouvernement suisse a accueilli, à Lucerne, la réunion du CGIAR organisée au niveau ministériel, ce qui représente une étape importante dans les efforts préliminaires de réformes. n En Asie, le Consortium de recherches sur l'irrigation du riz fournit aux cultivateurs de riz des technologies nouvelles et simples dérivées de la recherche qui leur permettent d'améliorer leurs moyens de subsistance. L'approche de gestion des nutriments adaptée au site (SSNM) développe et propage des techniques de production de riz écologiquement et socialement acceptables en Asie grâce à des pratiques de gestion des nutriments, des parasites et des cultures qui accroissent le rendement des mécanismes intensifs de culture de riz par irrigation tout en conservant un prix abordable pour la population urbaine pauvre. Par exemple, au nord du Vietnam, l'amélioration du rythme et du dosage des engrais utilisés a permis un important accroissement du rendement par rapport aux pratiques traditionnelles des cultivateurs. Les rendements ont augmenté de 15% durant la haute saison de récolte et de 8% durant la basse saison, ce qui représente un bénéfice net pour les cultivateurs de 150 dollars par hectare, par an, sur deux récoltes. (www.irri.org) n Grâce à l'appui efficace de l'Alliance panafricaine pour la recherche sur le haricot, les programmes de recherches nationaux en Afrique de l'Est et en Afrique australe ont mis au point 150 nouvelles variétés de haricot commun (phaseolus vulgaris) grâce au programme du CIAT pour l'amé-lioration du haricot. Les nouvelles variétés ont un haut rendement, sont résistantes aux parasites et sont faciles à cultiver. Les variétés améliorées sont cultivées par 72% des ménages ruraux dans la partie ouest du Kenya, 79% des ménages au nord de la Tanzanie et 53% en Ouganda. Les avantages des nouvelles variétés de haricot adoptées par les ménages ruraux sont une consommation accrue de haricots qui se traduit par une amélioration de la nutrition, et un accroissement considérable de revenus grâce à la vente de haricots. Au Rwanda, les ménages ruraux qui ont adopté les nouvelles variétés de haricots ont augmenté leur consommation de 17%, et en Tanzanie de 31%. De plus, les cultivateurs pauvres ont augmenté leurs revenus provenant de la vente de haricots de 73% au Rwanda et de 190% en Tanzanie. n Le \"Programa Regional de Maiz (PRM)\" est un réseau d'instituts de recherches agricoles nationaux et internationaux qui a oeuvré pendant plusieurs années à l'accroissement de la productivité des systèmes de culture de maïs tout en améliorant la base des ressources naturelles. Les résultats principaux de la recherche PRM en Amérique centrale et dans les Caraïbes sont des variétés de maïs donnant un meilleur rendement, de nouvelles technolgies telles que la culture intercalaire, les cultures successives, la rotation de cultures de légumineuses à couvert d'engrais vert avec des cultures de maïs, la gestion des résidus de culture et la conservation des méthodes de préparation du sol pour améliorer les moyens de subsistance des cultivateurs pauvres des zones en Le Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale Le Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale (CGIAR) est une alliance stratégique qui rassemble des pays, des organisations internationales et régionales, ainsi que des fondations privées. Il appuie 15 Centres internationaux de recherche agricole qui collaborent avec des organismes nationaux de recherche agricole, le secteur privé et la société civile. L'alliance tire parti de l'agronomie pour réduire la pauvreté, promouvoir le bien-être des populations, stimuler la croissance agricole, et protéger l'environnement. Le CGIAR produit des biens publics mondiaux accessibles à tous.Dans un monde où 75 % des pauvres dépendent de l'agriculture pour survivre, il est impossible de faire reculer la pauvreté sans investir dans ce secteur. Beaucoup des pays à vocation agricole sont connus pour investir régulièrement dans la recherche et les technologies agronomiques. Un constat s'impose : la recherche agronomique pour le développement est source de croissance agricole, fait reculer la pauvreté et protège l'environnement.La recherche agronomique a des effets positifs sur les individus et sur la planète La recherche agricole pour le développement est bien connue pour ses résultats concrets. Les centres de recherche du CGIAR et leurs partenaires nationaux dans le domaine de la recherche agricole ont très largement contribué aux recherches à l'origine de la révolution verte dans les années 60 et 70. Ces travaux ont permis non seulement d'accroître les revenus des petits paysans, mais aussi de protéger des millions d'hectares de forêts, d'herbages et de pâturages, de préserver la biodiversité et de réduire les émissions de carbone dans l'atmosphère. Le programme de recherche du CGIAR est dynamique, souple, et adapté aux nouveaux défis du développement. Son orientation a évolué. Alors qu'à l'origine le CGIAR faisait porter ses recherches sur l'accroissement de la productivité de certaines cultures vivrières jugées d'une importance vitale, aujourd'hui, il accorde toute sa place à la recherche portant sur la biodiversité et sur l'environnement, et considère ces composantes comme des éléments essentiels pour l'amélioration durable de la productivité agricole. principes de base, nos convictions demeurent : la croissance agricole et l'accroissement de la productivité agricole dans les pays en développement sont source de richesse, permettent de lutter contre la pauvreté et contre la faim, et protègent l'environnement (voir le graphique, Évolution du programme de recherche du CGIAR).Au cours des dernières années, le CGIAR a obtenu des résultats remarquables, notamment:n La mise au point d'une variété de maïs à forte teneur en protéines, dite « QPM » (Quality Protein Maize). Cette variété est plantée sur plus de 650 000 hectares dans 25 pays. n Les « nouveaux riz pour l'Afrique » (NERICA) sont en train de transformer l'agriculture en Afrique de l'Est et de l'Ouest. On estime que les NERICA couvrent 130 000 hectares en Afrique, dont environ 60 000 hectares en Guinée et quelque 10 000 hectares en Ouganda. n L'obtention d'une nouvelle souche GIFT de tilapia, dont le rendement est supérieur de 70% environ. n La formation de plus de 75 000 scientifiques et chercheurs dans les pays en développement. n La moindre utilisation des pesticides dans les pays en développement par la promotion de la lutte intégrée contre les ennemis des cultures et des moyens de lutte biologique. n L'adoption de systèmes de culture ne faisant pratiquement pas intervenir le labourage sur 1,2 million d'hectares dans la plaine indo-gangétique, ce qui dope les revenus et la productivité agricoles. n L'accès des producteurs africains au marché international du pois d'Angole. n L'introduction en Amérique latine de plus de 45 variétés de haricots développées à partir du matériel génétique du CGIAR.  n Assurer une production durable (des cultures, de l'élevage, de la pêche, des forêts et des ressources naturelles) n Renforcer les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole (en associant les chercheurs locaux à ces recherches, en accompagnant les politiques publiques, en contribuant aux actions de formation et en facilitant l'échange d'informations) n Améliorer le patrimoine génétique (pour les cultures prioritaires, l'élevage, l'arboriculture et la pisciculture) n Sauvegarder la biodiversité (en recueillant, répertoriant et préservant des ressources génétiques) -le CGIAR détient en bien commun, accessible à tous, l'une des plus grandes collections mondiales de semences n Encourager la recherche sur les politiques ayant un impact majeur sur l'agriculture, l'alimentation, la santé, la diffusion des nouvelles technologies et la gestion et la conservation des ressources naturelles). n Le Programme Challenge pour l'Afrique subsaharienne (SSA CP) élaboré par un partenaire du CGIAR, le Forum pour la recherche agricole en Afrique (FARA) a pour objectif de stimuler le développement agricole en Afrique subsaharienne. Fort de l'appui plein et entier du CGIAR, ce programme pionnier est le premier dont l'exécution est confiée à une institution partenaire en Afrique. Le SSA CP encourage les recherches qui donneront aux petits exploitants les moyens d'améliorer leur accès et celui des produits pastoraux aux marchés d'intrants et d'extrants, d'intensifier l'utilisation de ressources limitées tout en préservant la sécurité alimentaire et en assurant une exploitation viable des ressources naturelles. Les études seront conduites par des équipes pilotes qui travailleront en collaboration avec les collectivités sur différents sites pilotes, déjà sélectionnés dans le cadre d'une procédure participative (www.fara-africa.org).Le CGIAR est une association ouverte à tous les pays et organismes acquis à une politique de recherche pour le développement et désireux d'investir des ressources financières, humaines et techniques à cette fin. Créée avec douze membres en 1971, elle en compte aujourd'hui soixante-quatre, dont la majorité est constituée de pays en développement. La liste des adhérents devrait encore s'allonger.En 2004, les contributions des membres du CGIAR se sont élevées à 437 millions de dollars, le plus gros investissement dans des biens publics jamais réalisé pour que la science puisse profiter aux communautés agricoles pauvres du monde entier.","tokenCount":"3358"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"596f928d795cfe36681520d12171ae97","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cdfe8b49-0da2-4540-ae3c-18b73b085c53/retrieve","id":"-460444275"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a7518626-064a-4937-87ab-24cadb52df8b","pagecount":"11","content":"Within the framework of the IITA-led project \"Improvement of banana for smallholder farmers in the Great Lakes region of Africa\" (also known as the \"Breeding Better Bananas\" project, http://breedingbetterbananas.org), Bioversity International and partners conducted baseline research in the target regions of Luweero and Mbarara in Uganda, and Bukoba, Meru, Moshi and Rungwe in Tanzania during 2015-2016, prior to conducting on-station and on-farm evaluations of new NARITA banana cultivars (http://www.promusa.org/NARITA+hybrids).Five tools were used to characterise the banana and agricultural production systems, and the socioeconomic context of these systems, in the target regions. The research used a mixed-methods, participatory and sex-disaggregated approach to ensure that the knowledge, experiences and opinions of as many people as possible were obtained.The understanding gained from the baseline research will:  be fed into the banana breeding pipeline at multiple entry points to assist with breeding banana cultivars that better meet the requirements of the users. Some of these entry points are: setting of breeding targets; selection of parent material; evaluation in regional on-station and on-farm trials; participatory varietal selection taking into account the criteria (or 'trait preferences') that are important to multiple and different users; facilitating access to and adoption of the new cultivars by farmers and other end-users through scaling up the supply of clean planting materials and ensuring equitable distribution of these through the 'seed' systems; inform the ongoing adaptive management of the project activities to ensure fair participation and decision-making by people in the affected communities; provide the baseline to evaluate, in conjunction with the endline, the impact of adoption of the new cultivars on households, and individuals within, in the target regions.The five tools developed and/or adapted from existing tools for the baseline research were:  \"Thank you for coming today to participate in the trait preferences for banana products & varieties exercise where we will discuss all about bananas. We are ____________, ____________ and ____________, and we work on behalf of Bioversity International on a project where new matooke/ndizi (banana) hybrids, produced by NARO and IITA, will be tested for their performance in different regions of Uganda and Tanzania. If any of the varieties perform well, they will be recommended for official release and made available to farmers. Before we start this project, however, we would like to ask farmers in different regions about their banana production systems, banana varieties, banana products, households and communities -and that is why we are in your village at the moment to conduct household surveys and a number of different focus group discussions.In the trait preferences for banana products & varieties exercise that we will do today, we will discuss the various products that you make from all the bananas that you grow, and then for the most important products we will discuss what makes a good product and what attributes the banana varieties need to have to make the products. We expect that this activity will take around 90 minutes. The information that we gather during the exercise will help us to understand what traits are important in the banana products you make and in the banana varieties that you grow. This will help us to understand what traits you might look for in a new variety and why you may, or may not, adopt new varieties.We would like to record what is said today so that we can make notes later, and we may take some photographs. Also, as some sensitive information might be shared within the group that could cause disharmony in the wider community, we ask you not share any information discussed here outside of this group.Your participation today is entirely voluntary and you are free to leave now before we start, or at any time during the discussion.\" ~**~ Facilitator notes down the different steps, in the order that they need to happen.~**~ For each of the steps identified in question D8, the group reflects on any specific quality characteristics that are considered important, e.g. when peeling matooke to make beer -is there a preference for the fingers to be long and spread apart, or short and compact, or something else?  Off to one side, hang another sheet of flip chart paper. This sheet will be used for generating lists that group members will need to refer to or keeping other relevant information that remains to be discussed (as a 'parking space' for issues to return to). Remember to start with the 'types' of bananas grown in the village -by types we mean 'cooking ', 'roasting', 'dessert' and 'beverage' types -this might take some explaining to the group. Remember to use the prompts to guide the participants through the exercise. The goal is to record as much information as possible.During the exercise During the exercise, the facilitator and note taker have distinct roles and responsibilities:Facilitator: In addition to facilitating the discussion, which includes drawing information out participants, making sure that everyone has a chance to speak, and moving a constructive discussion forward, the facilitator also will write down the key information given by the participants, and in particular the banana types, products and varieties, and their preferred quality characteristics.Note taker: The note taker makes sure that each and every participant is read the Section B: Introduction and Individual informed consent, and that the roster is completed with their details. The note taker will also take notes during the discussion.  These notes are extremely important to analyzing the information at a later date. Therefore, please try to be as complete and clear as possible!","tokenCount":"914"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00a916f32a92c663089a0eefb0ef87ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/095e6119-9afa-4bd6-bd15-6c857a1d80a4/retrieve","id":"1930349466"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78c8fc85-cf36-429a-a9e0-0159de19b24d","pagecount":"9","content":"While the USA remains the world's largest cotton exporter, in 2012-13 Chinese cotton sector policies have come increasingly to overhang global cotton markets, with Chinese reserves accounting for 63% of global stocks. Chinese support policies, by making duty-paid cotton imports attractive to Chinese textile manufacturers, have supported the global cotton price in 2012-13.While the ACP accounts for only 5% of global cotton production, cotton remains of considerable social and economic importance in the main ACP cotton producers -Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, known as the C4 group. Cotton production in West Africa is projected to show strong growth in marketing year 2012/13 (+41%), and these gains should continue in 2013-14, but at a slower rate.In Eastern and Southern Africa, a 21% decline in cotton production in 2012/13 is forecast, and this decline is due to continue into 2013/14, following reduced production across the region.While China now provides the highest overall level of cotton sector support, the EU continues to provide the highest level of support per tonne of production. The expansion of scope for the provision of coupled support, as part of the June 2013 political agreement on CAP reform, could see coupled payments in the cotton sector increased in the next 7 years. This does not bode well for early progress on cotton issues in the WTO, which remained stalled over 2012-13. The US, however, remains central to any substantive movement on cotton issues in the WTO.Given the influence of Chinese policies on the functioning of global cotton markets, drawing China more substantially into cotton reform discussions in the WTO can be seen potentially as an important priority for the ACP Group's efforts to move cotton issues forward in the WTO.In a continuation of the trend evident since 2010/11, global cotton production will again exceed consumption in 2012/13, ending\"Cotton production has exceeded consumption for the last 3   The stalemate over cotton is one aspect of the deadlocked negotiations over the wider Doha Round.Cotton sector subsidies in western countries are also under scrutiny, withWhat will the cotton market look like in 10 years' time? In their 'Agricultural Outlook 2013-2022', the FAO and the OECD have for the first time included projections for cotton. While China and the United States are expected to maintain their status as leading consumer and producer respectively, the decade is likely to see significant changes. Consumption is projected to increase at an annual rate of 1.7%, below the longterm average, with a rate of 7% expected in India. It is not expected to reach the 2004 record of 26.7 million tonnes until 2022. Production is forecast to grow more slowly than demand, with a significant fall in China and growth in India and Pakistan. Trade is expected to fall. However the LDCs of sub-Saharan Africa are projected to increase their share of the global export market, overtaking India to become the world's second largest exporter behind the United States. Meanwhile China's share of the global import market will fall by half, with countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam taking up the slack. Finally, prices are projected to increase by 47% relative to the period 2000/09, reaching an average of some US$1395/t. However, they will not be as attractive as those offered by wheat and maize.discussions currently in progress over CAP reform and the new US Farm Bill (see section 'Developments in the European cotton sector, 2012-13' below).In the United States, the two houses of Congress failed to agree a new Farm Bill for 2013/18. In response, the 2008/12 Farm Bill, with a budget in excess of US$288 billion, was extended until 30 September 2013, the deadline for the approval of its successor. Some elements of the new Farm Bill appear to be settled: the budget, at around US$939 billion over 10 years, substantial cuts to subsidies and an increase in crop insurance. However, as of early July, the Senate and the House were still divided, especially over the issue of food stamps. The Republicans in the House of Representatives suggested splitting the Farm Bill as a way forward, and on 11 July the House passed the Bill, shorn of its food stamp clauses. Will this be sufficient to gain a yes vote in the Senate and ultimately White House approval?As far as cotton is concerned, the reform marks a change from direct payments to crop insurance programmes. Crop insurance will be complemented by the Stacked Income Protection Plan for Producers of Upland Cotton (STAX), proposed by the National Cotton Council (NCC) to cover smaller losses, and uncontested on 11 July. The NCC argues that STAX will benefit cotton growers while also providing a basis \"for a definitive resolution of the dispute with Brazil and the WTO\". In an interim agreement until the new Farm Bill comes into force, the US is making annual compensation payments of US$147.3 million to Brazil, which is still contemplating retaliatory measures if the new bill fails to meet its expectations. Studies conducted by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) show that in certain circumstances a crop insurance system combined with STAX could increase American spending on cotton when prices are low.While the steady increase in Chinese support for the domestic cotton sector has worked to keep the market stable and prices relatively high, especially during 2012/13, the past decade has also seen a negative correlation between levels of subsidy and the Cotlook A Index, particularly for the US and Europe.\"By including cotton in its duty-free, quota-free access for LDCs, China could increase the competitiveness of African cotton\"However, an ICAC/ICTSD Information Note suggests that by including cotton in its duty-free, quota-free access to markets programme for LDCs, China could increase the competitiveness of African cotton relative to other regions by making it duty free. Apart from the annual quota of 894,000 tonnes set as part of its WTO obligations, China's duties on imported cotton currently range from 5 to 40%.Despite the continuing stalemate at the WTO over the cotton issue, there has been an increase in the amount of aid received by African countries. A Cotton and Cashew Industry Management Council has been set up to reform the sector. Following the model adopted for the cocoa sector in Janu-ary 2012, it will focus its attention on growers. It aims to offer them higher returns on the sale of their crop and growers will thus receive 60% of the international price. The project will be accompanied by a special development fund designed to increase production to 600,000 tonnes in 2016, and a buffer fund, on the Burkina Faso model, is also envisaged. In Central Africa, Chad enjoyed marked growth in cotton production, driven by its cotton sector improvement programme for 2012-2016. Chad's cotton processing company, CotonTchad, took a number of measures at the beginning of 2012/13, collecting and paying for the previous year's seed cotton, ordering inputs, etc., and the result was a 50% increase in production to 120,000 tonnes. In Cameroon, production was affected by floods in 2012/13. However, it still grew by 19% to 220,000 tonnes and Sodecoton's target for 2013/14 is 260,000 tonnes.The company conducted its first trials of GM cotton in 2012 and a joint trade association for cotton is being planned. The association is in theory to start work in 2013, bringing together Sodecoton and the National Confederation of Cotton Producers of Cameroon (CNPCC).In contrast to West Africa and Central Africa, cotton production in East Africa and Southern Africa fell sharply in 2012/13, with no sign of an upturn for 2013/14. Between 2011/12 and 2012/13, production dropped by 22% and the planted area by 17% -the consequence of a 2011/12 season marked in several countries by tensions between growers and millers, as well as falling prices that turned growers away from cotton.In Tanzania, the system of contract farming central to its cotton sector reform seems mired in disputes. Problems were already apparent in 2012 (see Agritrade article 'Contract farming strengthens functioning of Tanzanian cotton supply chain', 4 June 2012), but during 2013 these became political. The Tanzania Cotton Association (TCA) accused some politicians and cotton buyers of conducting an anti-contract farming campaign that, by encouraging farmers not to sell their cotton below a certain price, has contributed to a potential 40% drop in this year's cotton harvest. With lower yields and a 26% reduction in the planted area from 2012, production is unlikely to exceed 240,000 tonnes in 2013, down from 354,000 tonnes in 2012.Unfavourable weather and a move to alternative crops, soybeans in particular, mean that Zambia is also expecting a fall in production -by some 30% to approx. 175,000 tonnes (275,000 tonnes in 2011/12) -as well a 27% reduction in the planted area. However, in 2012/13, the government for the first time included cotton in its Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), a scheme which has already helped to increase maize production.The same trend is evident in Zimbabwe, with a fall of 25% to approx. 260,000 tonnes.Mozambique has experienced a sharper reduction, with a fall of approx. 46% to 110,000 tonnes, down from the 184,000 tonnes achieved in 2011/12, a year when annual production almost tripled, according to the Cotton Institute. However, the industry is continuing to attract investment. Any change in China's current policy of supporting domestic cotton producers and building up its national reserve stocks could have a damaging effect on the ACP countries.Chinese policy has undeniably worked to support international prices at an artificially high level and any rethink could provoke price falls. The first signs of such a change are now appearing, with the experimental payment in April of targeted subsidies direct to cotton growers in Xinjiang in an effort to halt falling production.This would have an immediate impact on the ACP countries, which are unprotected and export the majority of their production as raw cotton. However, China has maintained its policy of buying domestic cotton at a price of 20,400 yuan/tonne (€2,504/t), and although farm-gate prices in franc-zone Africa have fallen slightly, they are still relatively high. Chinese production, and global production in general, is projected to fall in 2013/14. With consumption rising, supply and demand are expected to be in equilibrium. However, stocks remain high and will grow further still.Renewal of the third-country fabric provisions of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which expired on 30 September 2012, was only secured after a fierce struggle.The Act was eventually passed in August 2012 for a period of 3 years, although only after an intense lobbying campaign and more than a year of delays. The AGOA will remain in force until 2015, but any renegotiation of its terms would badly affect the African textile industry, especially in Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho and Tanzania. LDCs which benefit from the AGOA can buy thread and fabric on the global market and export finished garments manufactured from these raw materials to the American market duty free: 86% of African garment exports to the United States depend on these provisions, and the problematic renewal process has already had a negative impact on the Africa-US garment trade.The struggle will begin again when negotiations resume over the renewal of the AGOA and its third-country fabric provisions in 2015. President Obama confirmed his support for the AGOA when he visited Africa in June 2013 and indicated that he is interested in finding ways of ensuring that it is renewed and improved.Organic cotton first took off in the 1990s. However, the mid 2000s brought new initiatives, such as Fairtrade International (FLO), Cotton Made in Africa (CMIA) and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which seemed to resonate with consumers and the big textile manufacturers, although certified cotton still represents only a fraction of the market (2.2% of global production in 2011/12). These certification initiatives vary by approach and geographical area, but all of them aim to make cotton more sustainable and socially responsible, and to increase the return to growers.The past 2 years have seen a fall in the global production of organic cotton, although India still dominates, with 75% of the market. Several countries are expressing their reservations about organic cotton, particularly Tanzania, the leading African producer (c.75% of Africa's organic crop), which experienced a fall in production (including conventional cotton) in 2012/13. Organic yields are smaller, and the price premium when paid (and this is not always the case) is not enough to compensate.Some growers are also finding it difficult to secure a market for their cotton. African countries, unlike India and Turkey, do not benefit from an integrated textile industry. They are price takers for organic cotton and conventional cotton alike. Without medium-term contracts to guarantee sales, growers will not stay in the market. Only Fairtrade cotton offers a minimum price and a price premium to the grower, but the brand seems to be marking time, since most of its cotton is also organic. Both certifications impose costs not applicable to the alternative CMIA and BCI marks, which consequently enjoyed considerable growth in 2010/11 and 2011/12. However, none of these initiatives guarantee a market to the producer. All imply additional costs, and they remain subject to supply and demand.Compliance with these sustainability criteria can offer African producers price premiums and attractive opportunities, but it seems these are by no means guaranteed. Any ACP producer wishing to go down this route must ensure that the price premiums offered for organic cotton provide effective compensation for lower yields and the costs of certification. The development of textile industries in cotton growing countries would also leave growers less vulnerable to external market trends.","tokenCount":"2243"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"166c16c22678657ebcd6a4d2d5998bf6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6b726b75-e712-4f78-bd7b-31125113cf5f/retrieve","id":"-1136113462"},"keywords":["Savary","S.","Willocquet","L.","Elazegui","F. A.","Teng","P. S.","Du","P. V.","Zhu","D.","Tang","Q.","Huang","S.","Lin","X.","Singh","H. M.","and Srivastava","R. K. 2000. Rice pest constraints in tropical Asia: Characterization of injury profiles in relation toproduction situations. Plant Disease 84:341-356. Savary","S.","Nelson","A.","Willocquet","L.","Pangga","I.","and Aunario","J. 2012. Modeling and mapping potential epidemics of rice diseases globally. Crop Protection 34:6-17"],"sieverID":"3d43c843-b587-4690-be2b-d24902b80df9","pagecount":"1","content":"These results indicate the need to improve the understanding of risk factors and spatio-temporal variation of disease epidemics.• In the WS of 2030 and 2050 under both RCPs, leaf blast severity will be moderate to high in areas which will continue to have high amount of rainfall. These areas include provinces in Regions 2 and 3 and Mindoro island.Despite the overall decline in projected leaf blast epidemics in the Philippines, the development and implementation of management strategies should continue to be a priority because some rice-growing areas remain at risk from the disease under climate change. • Simulation results showed that leaf blast severity in most ricegrowing areas of the Philippines will decrease with climate change (Figure 2).• The effect will be more significant in the dry season (DS) than in the wet season (WS) and will be most pronounced in 2050 under RCP 8.5. Temperature and rainfall would be the main factors in driving leaf blast epidemics in the DS and WS, respectively.• Climate change will increase or have weak effect on leaf blast epidemics in some rice-growing areas. In cool areas of northern and southeastern Philippines, where the current temperature is below the optimum level, leaf blast severity will increase in the DS of 2030 and 2050 under RCP 4.5 and 8.5.","tokenCount":"214"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2373f7beec991f281b13f2ea237d5119","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3d229d27-bec1-40eb-994c-29c85fe446e0/retrieve","id":"1200779868"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d133b346-0268-437c-8007-f1929c5987e4","pagecount":"16","content":"El presente documento da cuenta de las directrices que deben tenerse en cuenta en el marco del Programa Rutas PDET en torno a la prevención y manejo de casos de Violencia Basada en Género (VBG).Se trata de una guía de las acciones que deben ser tenidas en cuenta por parte de las y los colaboradores del Programa en tanto agentes que pueden aportar a la prevención de las violencias de género en los territorios, e incluye acciones de respuesta ante posibles situaciones relacionadas con VBG que se presenten durante el desarrollo del programa.La primera sección, de tipo conceptual, pretende orientar a colaboradores y colaboradoras a identificar los diferentes tipos de VBG que puedan presentarse. En la segunda sección, se presentan las acciones que se esperan de las y los colaboradores como agentes para la prevención de VBG en los territorios de incidencia del proyecto. En la tercera sección, se presentan las acciones a seguir teniendo en cuenta los contextos en los que puedan presentarse los casos de VBG en el marco del Programa. Finalmente, en la cuarta sección, se presenta información pertinente sobre las actuaciones que, como Programa, se desarrollarán a futuro.El feminicidio es el asesinato de mujeres por razón de su género o identidad de género. Por sus características es la VBG más visible.La violencia física se refiere a todas las agresiones que atentan contra el cuerpo de las mujeres y niña y personas con orientación de género diversa ya sea a través de golpes, lanzamiento de objetos, encierro, sacudidas o estrujones, entre otras conductas que puedan ocasionar daños físicos.La violencia psicológica o emocional es toda acción u omisión destinada a degradar o controlar las acciones, comportamientos, creencias y decisiones de las mujeres y las niñas por medio de intimidación, manipulación, amenaza, humillación, aislamiento, o cualquier conducta que implique un perjuicio en la salud psicológica. Este tipo de violencia es de las más comunes y naturalizadas de la sociedad, por lo que es necesario aprender a reconocerla y a identificarla como una violación a los derechos humanos.La violencia sexual incluye todas las relaciones o actos sexuales, físicos o verbales, no deseados ni aceptados por la otra persona. La violencia sexual se presenta utilizando la fuerza o la coacción física, psicológica o cualquier otro mecanismo que anule o limite la voluntad de las mujeres o las niñas. Es importante aclarar que todo acto sexual con menores de 14 años es delito SIEMPRE y en el caso de actos sexuales con mayores de 14 años, sigue siendo violencia sexual, aunque no necesariamente es un delito en los casos en los que hay consentimiento.La violencia económica ocurre cuando se utiliza el dinero como un factor para dominar o establecer relaciones de poder perjudiciales. Este tipo de violencia se puede manifestar cuando a las mujeres se les quita el dinero que gana, se le impide gastarlo en beneficio suyo o de su familia, o se le niega el dinero para controlar su independencia.Cuando hablamos de VBG nos referimos a las acciones u omisiones que producen daño o sufrimiento a la víctima, debido a su género. Estas violencias se basan en las diferencias de poder entre hombres y mujeres y se fundamentan en los roles e imaginarios que desvalorizan a lo femenino y que profundizan las desigualdades entre los géneros. Estas acciones u omisiones pueden ejercerse contra mujeres, niñas y personas con orientación o identidades de género diversas.Existen diferentes manifestaciones de las VBG, algunas de ellas son más visibles y fáciles de identificar por el impacto físico que conllevan, mientras que, otras son más difíciles de reconocer, incluso para aquellas personas que las sufren, por ocurrir en un ámbito privado o tener afectaciones psicológicas o económicas. A continuación, se definen algunas de las características de las VBG:1. SOBRE LAS VBG • La VBG no es un asunto privado, es una violación a los derechos humanos de las víctimas.• La VBG es frecuente: De acuerdo con la OMS el 35 % de las mujeres del mundo han sufrido violencia sexual o física por parte de su pareja o agresiones sexuales no conyugales a lo largo de sus vidas.• La VBG puede tener consecuencias graves y duraderas en la vida y la salud de las mujeres y las niñas.• Las mujeres que han sufrido abusos físicos o sexuales por parte de sus parejas presentan índices más elevados de diversos problemas de salud y ven afectadas sus posibilidades de educarse y acceder o permanecer en actividades económicas que les permitan lograr un sustento para ellas, sus hijos e hijas.• El miedo a la violencia provoca que muchas mujeres limiten sus actividades, lo cual tiene consecuencias en su participación en la vida social, civil y económica.• La ocurrencia de la VBG tiene consecuencias en el entorno familiar: El impacto directo que supone presenciar la violencia contra la mujer en la infancia, junto con el impacto sobre la estabilidad económica y social, así como sobre el bienestar de los niños y las familias, hace que dicha violencia pueda contribuir a ciclos de abuso y privaciones intergeneracionales.• La VBG tiene consecuencias a nivel comunitario, local y nacional: La violencia contra la mujer es costosa para las sociedades e implica tanto costes directos (p. ej. un aumento del gasto social para responder a las consecuencias de la violencia) como costes indirectos en forma de pérdida de productividad.Las VBG que puedan ocurrir en el contexto del programa tienen un impacto directo en los objetivos que perseguimos:• No puede haber empoderamiento de las mujeres y las niñas si se ejerce violencia contra ellas ya que, un contexto de violación de derechos humanos no es propicio para el empoderamiento y la autonomía económica.• La VBG va en contravía del fortalecimiento de la toma de decisiones al interior de las empresas familiares.• La VBG implica una profundización de la subordinación en un escenario en el que buscamos diálogo y participación.• La VBG tiene un impacto negativo en las economías familiares y locales.Hace parte de nuestra responsabilidad como equipo de trabajo identificar y actuar frente a los casos de VBG.En general hay tres situaciones en las que, como equipo de trabajo, podemos encontrarnos con un caso de VBG. A continuación, se indican las acciones a seguir para cada uno de ellos:Ten en cuenta que la violencia no sólo es física y que cualquier forma de violencia psicológica o emocional va en contravía de lo que perseguimos como programa. En caso de presentarse un caso de VBG durante alguna de las actividades que el Programa promueva deberás:• Detener la actividad y explicar que el Programa Rutas PDET tiene una política de CERO TOLERANCIA frente a las VBG y que este comportamiento no será permitido.• Informar a la Coordinadora Territorial y/o a las personas puntos focales de género de cada socio (ver datos al final del documento) sobre la situación y diligenciar el formato de VBG. Ver Anexo 1• Programar, en articulación con la territorial y la capacitadora de género del territorio, una actividad de refuerzo para seguir la sensibilización sobre la VBG.• Hacer seguimiento al caso informando sobre nuevos incidentes que puedan presentarse.Para esta situación es importante tener en cuenta que es posible que la situación de conflicto y, en particular, la posible presencia de actores armados en el marco de las actividades pueda representar un riesgo para él o la colaboradora del Programa. En este caso puede procederse directamente a informar sobre lo sucedido de acuerdo con lo establecido en el presente protocolo.Es posible que en el marco de las actividades una persona te comente que ha conocido de un caso de VBG. En tal caso deberás:• Escuchar atenta y empáticamente sobre el caso e intentar obtener información básica para luego registrarla en el formato de VBG.• Mostrar una actitud respetuosa y no dar ninguna opinión sobre el caso. Dar a entender que como Programa nos interesa conocer sobre estas situaciones• Programar, en articulación con la territorial y la capacitadora de género del territorio, una actividad de refuerzo para seguir la sensibilización sobre la VBG.• Informar a la Coordinadora Territorial y/o a las personas puntos focales de género de cada socio (Ver datos al final del documento) sobre la situación.• Participar en las actividades de seguimiento al caso informando sobre nuevos incidentes que puedan presentarse.Primera situación: el caso de VBG ocurre durante una actividad promovida por el programaSegunda situación: una persona de la comunidad te informa sobre un caso de VBG que esta ocurriendo en la organización o la comunidad Si la persona que informa sobre el caso es la víctima directa o esta ocurriendo en su contexto familiar deberás:• Practicar la escucha empática: Buscar un lugar adecuado en el que pueda escuchar a la persona y mostrar interés en el caso.• Mostrar una actitud respetuosa y no dar ninguna opinión sobre el caso. Es suficiente con que des a entender que como Programa nos interesa conocer sobre estas situaciones y que podemos informarle la ruta para recibir el acompañamiento de las instituciones expertas y así tenga la asesoría y el acompañamiento adecuados.• Informar a la persona que le asiste el derecho de vivir una vida libre de violencias y que existe una ruta de atención. En general, las rutas de atención son:◊ Si se trata de un caso de VBG en el contexto familia --> Comisaría de Familia.◊ Si se trata de un caso de Violencia Sexual --> Centro de Salud, Hospital, Fiscalía (Centro de Atención Integral a Víctimas de Agresión Sexual (CAI-VAS) o Unidad de Reacción Inmediata) URI.◊ Si se trata de un caso contra una o un menor de edad --> Centro Zonal ICBF.En todos los casos podrá acudir a la Policía Nacional para solicitar protección inmediata a la víctima y o sus hijas e hijos.• Informar a la Coordinadora Territorial y/o a las personas puntos focales de género de cada socio (Ver datos al final del documento) sobre la situación y diligenciar el formato de VBG.C) Tercera situación: una persona de la comunidad te informa que está siendo víctima de VBGUna vez el caso sea informado a lo puntos focales de género y junto con los coordinadores de cada socio, así como con el acompañamiento de sus organizaciones según las hojas de ruta internas definidas por cada uno, se iniciará un proceso de análisis sobre cómo proceder. Para ello contamos, en cada territorio, con entidades aliadas conocedoras de las rutas institucionales más idóneas para atender los casos. En Putumayo• Durante el análisis del caso estarás involucrado para aportar información y conocer sobre los pasos a seguir.• Cada equipo territorial será provisto de información sobre las rutas de atención de las VBG en cada municipio y, de ser posible, con material escrito.• A partir del segundo semestre de 2022 el equipo contará con material sobre prevención de la VBG para su uso y la difusión de los mensajes estará en cabeza de todas y todos.A continuación, encontrarás los datos de contacto de las capacitadoras de género por territorio con quienes podrás coordinar actividades de en materia de VBG de acuerdo con lo dispuesto en este protocolo ","tokenCount":"1833"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4ce04d75cd71174b22add71a8c576e1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4d65bb03-b157-4f84-9cc7-447316e39385/content","id":"833319704"},"keywords":["Wheat","Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS)","SNP","Genetic diversity","Population structure","Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA)"],"sieverID":"54807e0e-8519-445e-b679-d539d71f4e4d","pagecount":"21","content":"Genetic diversity and population structure information are crucial for enhancing traits of interest and the development of superlative varieties for commercialization. The present study elucidated the population structure and genetic diversity of 141 advanced wheat breeding lines using single nucleotide polymorphism markers. A total of 14,563 high-quality identified genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) markers were distributed covering 13.9 GB wheat genome, with a minimum of 1,026 SNPs on the homoeologous group four and a maximum of 2,838 SNPs on group seven. The average minor allele frequency was found 0.233, although the average polymorphism information content (PIC) and heterozygosity were 0.201 and 0.015, respectively. Principal component analyses (PCA) and population structure identified two major groups (sub-populations) based on SNPs information. The results indicated a substantial gene flow/exchange with many migrants (Nm = 86.428) and a considerable genetic diversity (number of different alleles, Na = 1.977; the number of effective alleles, Ne = 1.519; and Shannon's information index, I = 0.477) within the population, illustrating a good source for wheat improvement. The average PIC of 0.201 demonstrates moderate genetic diversity of the present evaluated advanced breeding panel. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) detected 1% and 99% variance between and within subgroups. It is indicative of excessive gene traffic (less genetic differentiation) among the populations. These conclusions deliver important information with the potential to contribute new beneficial alleles using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and marker-assisted selection to enhance genetic gain in South Asian wheat breeding programs.Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an allohexaploid species originating from successive rounds of hybridization in the Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic time, ∼8,000 to 10,000 years ago (Sansaloni et al., 2020). Wheat is the largest contributor to world grain production, with nearly 30% of total grain production and 50% of the world grain trade (Akter & Rafiqul Islam, 2017). Wheat grain is among the most consumed grains worldwide, providing 15% of calories every day, covering more than 220 million hectares with almost 750 metric megatons production every year (Balfourier et al., 2019). The global demand for wheat has increased due to population growth, changing food consumption habits, and socio-economic environments, specifically in African and Asian countries (Mondal et al., 2016).During the domestication process, a substantial loss of diversity resulted in genetic bottlenecks. Researchers have been interested in using the genetic diversity of Triticeae species. Some of the vital gene pools include Agropyron, Aegilops, Elymus, Leymus, Hordeum, Secale, Triticum, and Thinopyrum. Above mentioned rich gene pools could improve various traits such as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and micronutrient availability. Novel alleles from around fifty-two species have been introgressed, pointing out the significance of exotic introgressions in the breeding (Wulft & Moscou, 2014).Population structure, genetic diversity, and relationships among genotypes are vital in scheming appropriate breeding plans (Peterson et al., 2014;Singh, Agarwal & Yadav, 2019). The population structure information aids in estimating the accurate association between phenotypic and genotypic variation (Knowler et al., 1988). The population structure information allows researchers to utilize natural diversity to detect vital genes/QTLs using current genetic technologies (Zhu et al., 2008). Genetic diversity studies have advanced from mere detection of distinct morphological to molecular traits investigations of DNA variation (Zhang, Maroof & Kleinhofs, 1993). Determining the current genetic diversity of crops has paramount importance for the selection and conservation of parents with the various genetic framework, thus providing well-organized crop enhancement (Mengistu, Kiros & Pè, 2015).The first generation of morphological markers could not present the actual picture of diversity because of their limited number, lack of information about environmental and epistatic interaction. Slowly the paradigm shifted to investigate genetic diversity and population structure using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) based markers, which gave a better view of underlying diversity markers due to their abundance and environmentally neutral nature (Farahani et al., 2019). Among various molecular markers, the SNP marker is the preferred molecular marker in several crops due to extensive genome coverage, chromosome-specific location, low cost, co-dominant inheritance, and fast-tracking compared to other PCR-based markers. SNP are evolutionarily stable due to lower rates of recurrent mutation. SNPs are considered first-rate to understand genomic evolution and to study complex traits. SNPs have been extensively used in genetic resource characterization, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genomic selection (GS), and marker-assisted selection (MAS) (Ganal, Altmann & Röder, 2009).Microarrays have been used as a pre-eminent answer to develop SNPs in polyploid wheat genomes (Wang et al., 2014). Once an all-inclusive SNP data is accessible for species, a cost-effective microarray may be formed, and the process is relatively convenient. Microarray evades the miscalling risk of diversity on homoeologous genomes and lately with amplified 100 fold in wheat moving from 9 K (Cavanagh et al., 2013) to 820 K (Winfield et al., 2016). The 90 K wheat SNP array (Wang et al., 2014) has been effectively utilized for genetic diversity investigation, the building of high-density maps, and GWAS (Maccaferri et al., 2015;Chen et al., 2016;Mengistu et al., 2016;Wen et al., 2017). The low cost of genotyping by sequencing (GBS) makes it a robust approach for discovering and genotyping SNPs in various crops. GBS has been efficiently applied in genomic diversity, genetic linkage studies, and genomic selection in largescale plant breeding programs. GBS is found to be a perfect platform from single-gene to whole-genome sequencing and suited to genetic analysis and marker development (Heffner, Sorrells & Jannink, 2009;Heffner et al., 2010;Jannink, Lorenz & Iwata, 2010;Fu & Peterson, 2011;Poland & Rife, 2012;Poland et al., 2012;Thomson et al., 2012;Lu et al., 2013;Fu, Cheng & Peterson, 2014). The GBS has been established with maize and barley inbred populations with roughly 200,000 and 25,000 sequence tags, respectively (Elshire et al., 2011).In the current study, GBS was used for genotyping 141 elite advanced breeding lines of spring wheat from CIMMYT (Mexico). The objectives were to illustrate the population structure and genetic diversity within and among subgroups. The present study not only defines the population structure and genetic diversity in these elite advanced wheat breeding lines also places a groundwork for genome-wide association study in this panel.One hundred forty-one advanced breeding lines (ABLs) developed at CIMMYT, Mexico using adapted cultivars from various worldwide breeding programs were used in studying genetic diversity. These lines have been selected from a more extensive set of advanced breeding lines sent to South Asia as part of the CIMMYT wheat breeding program to develop high-yielding varieties suitable for the region. The lines were introduced in 2016 as the 4th cohort of the South Asia Bread Wheat Genomic Prediction Yield Trial (SABWGPYT). The lines were developed by making crosses with diverse and high yielding parental lines as part of the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program (GWP). A set of approx. thirty-eight thousand lines were planted in small plots in Obregon during the 2015-16 crop season. The selection was made based on yield and agronomic traits. Then lines from different genetic backgrounds were carefully selected as candidate varieties suitable for further testing in South Asia. The pedigree details data of those 141 advanced breeding lines are given in Table S1.Genomic DNA was extracted using the modified CTAB method from the fresh leaves of wheat seedlings (Dreisigacker et al., 2016). Genotyping-by-sequencing was performed in Illumina HiSeq 2500 using protocol from Poland et al. (2012). SNP calling was performed using TASSEL v5.2.6 (Bradbury et al., 2007) using the TASSEL-GBSv2 pipeline and aligned to the reference Chinese Spring Wheat Assembly (RefSeq v1.0). Beagle v4.1 with default settings was used to impute missing data. After filter criteria quality control (sample call rate >0.8, MAF ≥ 0.05, SNP call rate >0.7), 14,563 polymorphic SNPs and 141 genotypes were selected for further analysis.The genotypic summary of the 14,563 SNPs was obtained using the ''geno summary'' function of TASSEL v5.2.6 (Bradbury et al., 2007). Chromosome-wise genomic SNP distribution, minor allele frequency (MAF), observed heterozygosity, and the polymorphism information content (PIC) were performed using GBS-based SNP markers. The PIC value of each biallelic SNP marker was computed using the following method derived from (Botstein et al., 1980):The population structure of the advanced bread wheat breeding lines was inferred using the Bayesian method implemented in STRUCTURE 2.3.4 (Pritchard, Stephens & Donnelly, 2000). Ten individualistic evaluations of every k were used. The STRUCTURE was placed on 100,000 burn-in, subsequently 100,000 Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) replications.The best k for the present population was determined using the evanno algorithm (Evanno, Regnaut & Goudet, 2005) implemented in Pophelper v2.3.1 (Francis, 2017). Optimal K/subpopulation was identified by the delta k-value peaks across various k values. Principal component analysis (PCA) based on covariates was performed of the SNP data in Tassel 5.2.6 (Bradbury et al., 2007) and plotted using Plotly v4.9.3 (Sievert, 2020). The PCAs were used to construct dendrograms using r package ape v5.4-1 (Paradis & Schliep, 2019) using the complete linkage method for hierarchical clustering.The selected K value from structure output was used to subdivide the advanced wheat lines into sub-populations and was utilized for AMOVA. AMOVA and genetic diversity indices were performed for individual sub-population using GeneAlEx v6.41 (Peakall & Smouse, 2006). The percentage of molecular variance among and within subgroups was calculated from AMOVA. The haploid number of migrants (Nm) was calculated using the among-population variance (Va) and within-population variance (Vw) using the formulaThe calculation of Shannon's Information Index (I ), effective alleles (Ne), different alleles (Na), number of loci with private alleles, unbiased diversity (uh), and the haploid genetic diversity index (h) were also performed.Na was calculated by direct count of alleles across subpopulations per loci and averaged by the arithmetic mean across loci per sub-population. Ne was calculated using expected heterozygosity by formulaHere p is the frequency of the allele. I was calculated (per locus and averaged across the number of loci) using the formula.Where ln is the natural logarithm of p i, i.e., frequency of ith allele, private alleles are the alleles unique to the subpopulation. The haploid genetic diversity index (h) provides the probability that the two individuals would be different and was calculated using the formula.The unbiased diversity (uh) was calculated using the allele frequency and sample size (n) with a formula.A total of 14,563 bi-allelic SNPs were equitably distributed across the three genomes.  The heterozygosity among all SNPs ranged from 0.00 to 0.149. Twenty-one SNPs showed high heterozygosity (>0.10), and 3,095 SNPs showed zero heterozygosity (Fig. 1B, Table S2).The heterozygosity was less than 0.05 for around 97% of the SNPs. SNPs in chr7A showed the highest heterozygosity, with SNP S7A_717968190 having heterozygosity of 0.149. The three ABLs, namely GID7396143, GID7399653, and GID7400318, were highly heterologous with heterozygosity equal to 0.16, 0.15, and 0.12, respectively (Table S3). The MAF ranged from 0.05 to 0.50 in the present study. Fifty-five SNPs were found with MAF =0.50 (where both the alleles of these SNPs were equally distributed across the panel). The average observed MAF was 0.23, while most ranged from 0.05 to 0.10, i.e., 2923 SNPs (Fig. 1C).The PIC values ranged from 0.085 to 0.250, with 54 SNPs having a PIC value equal to 0.250 (Fig. 1D). 5353 SNPs (36%) showed a range of 0.24−0.25 for PIC and were the highest among the SNPs. The STRUCTURE results for the 141 ABLs showed that K was highest at K = 2, indicating the presence of two major subgroups (Fig. 2A). The output of the STRUCTURE for K = 2 is given in Fig. 2B. The structure out showed very high K for K = 2, compared to other K values, only a few genotypes represented complete distinction between the subgroups. Some genotypes across the subgroups showed near equal distribution of alternative alleles. Similar results were revealed by the PCA analysis where the genotypes of the subgroups could be seen clustered near each other when the first three principal components were observed (Fig. 2C). The dendrogram based on PCA also showed similar results (Fig. 3).The analysis was performed considering K = 2. The variance among groups for K = 2 explained only 1% of the total variance and 99% variance within the subgroups. It indicates that the genetic differentiation within subgroups was high. Simultaneously, it was low among the subgroups (Table 2, Fig. 4), which may be due to the low genetic differentiation or excessive gene traffic between the population set. The high gene traffic is supported by the variation trends of both percentages of variance explained and haploid Nm values. The Nm values (haploid number of migrants) was very high, with Nm = 86.428. The mean Shannon's information index (I), the diversity index (h), and the unbiased diversity index (uh) were high (0.477, 0.313, and 0.320), which indicated its high diversity (Table 3, Fig. 4). The mean of different alleles (Na) and the effective alleles (Ne) of the K = 2 population set were 1.977 and 1.519. The different alleles (Na) in the subgroup 1 (G1) and subgroup 2 (G2) were 1.954 and 2.0, respectively, indicating comparatively better diversity in G2 than G1 (Table 3).Similarly, the numbers of effective alleles (Ne) was relatively higher in G2 (1.525) than in G1 (1.512). However, only G2 showed a significant percentage of private alleles, i.e., 4.6%. G1 contained 22 members with private allele ranging from 7 in GID7399640 to 149 in GID7400491, while G2 contained 90 members with private alleles ranging from 3 in GID7396143 to 188 in GID7400293 (Table 3 & Table S4). The diversity indexes I, h and uh for G1 & G2 were 0.468 and 0.487, 0.307 and 0.318, 0.320 and 0.321, respectively, indicating relatively higher diversity within G2 than G1.    A panel of 141 genotypes from an extensive collection of elite advanced bread wheat breeding lines from CIMMYT, Mexico, was used to study the genetic diversity (Table S1).The high-throughput SNP genotypic data obtained through GBS was used to explore population genetics and genetic diversity, supporting future breeding efforts (e.g., GWAS) in the bread wheat breeding program in South Asia.The majority of the 14,563 SNPs were distributed on A and B genome, and only 8.67% SNPs were on D genome, which is at par with earlier findings (Chao et al., 2009;Akhunov et al., 2010;Berkman et al., 2013;Würschum et al., 2013;Marcussen et al., 2014;Shavrukov et al., 2014;Edae, Bowden & Poland, 2015;Alipour et al., 2017;Eltaher et al., 2018;Rufo et al., 2019). The lower SNPs across the D genome indicates its young wheat evolutionary past and less genetic diversity (Caldwell et al., 2004;Alipour et al., 2017;Eltaher et al., 2018), which could be explained by lower recombination rates and frequency in the D genome (Chao et al., 2009). This could further be defined as a wild emmer diversity which contributed to hexaploid formation than Ae. tauschii (D-genome donor) (Dubcovsky & Dvorak, 2007). Significant initial gene movement must have occurred amongst T. aestivum and T. turgidum (AABB); however, not amongst Ae. tauschii (DD) and hexaploid (Caldwell et al., 2004;Dvorak et al., 2006). It leads to less genetic diversity in the D genome compared to the A and B genomes (Talbert, Smith & Blake, 1998;Caldwell et al., 2004;Dvorak et al., 2006;Berkman et al., 2013). The role of A, B, and D genomes to genetic diversity of hexaploid wheat were reported prior via diverse markers systems, i.e., RFLPs, AFLP, SSRs, DArT (Liu & Tsunewaki, 1991;Röder et al., 1998;Peng et al., 2000;Nielsen et al., 2014). The smallest number of SNP were on 4D, while the maximum markers were positioned on chromosome 2B, which agrees with Allen et al. (2017) and Bhatta et al. (2017). Previous studies also reported the lowest number of SNPs at the 4D (Saintenac et al., 2013;Sukumaran et al., 2014;Allen et al., 2017;Alipour et al., 2017;Bhatta et al., 2017). While the highest SNP have been on a different chromosome in some of these studies, i.e., 3B (Saintenac et al., 2013;Alipour et al., 2017) and 1B (Sukumaran et al., 2014).The low levels of observed heterozygosity (0.00−0.149), with approximately 97% of SNPs having heterozygosity <0.05 and only 21 SNPs having heterozygosity above 0.10, showed the panel had high genetic stability (Kristensen et al., 2018;Rimbert et al., 2018;Chu et al., 2020;Sun et al., 2020). Since these lines would/may not segregate further across generation leading to stable phenotypic evaluations. The lines with the low heterozygosity are highly desirables for selection as parental genotypes in any breeding program. Furthermore, the least heterozygous lines (GID7395694, GID7399636, GID7399643, GID7399645, and GID7400337) and highly heterozygous lines (GID7396143, GID7399653, and GID7400318) were observed among ABLs (Table S3). High heterozygosity among these three ABLs indicates either genomic instability or the higher outcrossing ability of these lines. MAF could easily arbitrate the allelic distribution of the SNPs. In this study, 55 SNPs were identified with MAF equal to 0.50. Traits showing distribution patterns similar to these SNPs could be easily associated with such SNPs.PIC values are signals of informative markers in the crops and reflect through the spreading of informative markers in the genome, which can be used for studying genetic diversity (Nielsen et al., 2014;Salem & Sallam, 2016). The moderately informative PIC values indicate the SNPs' bi-allelic nature, which is limited to PIC 0.5, where both the alleles have similar occurrences (Eltaher et al., 2018). Another reason is the slow nucleotide mutation rate in GBS-SNPs compared to the mutation rate of SSRs (Thuillet et al., 2002;Chesnokov & Artemyeva, 2015). Most of the SNPs were moderately informative, with PIC values ranged from 0.085 to 0.250. The average PIC value among all sites was 0.201 (Fig. 1D). Lopes et al. (2015) used the 9K SNP for the WAMI population, detected a PIC value of 0.27 and disclosed that spring wheat confined moderate polymorphism. In another study, Novoselović et al. (2016) obtained an average moderate polymorphism of 0.30 PIC amongst the Croatian population by 1,229 Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) markers. Furthermore, El-Esawi et al. (2018) also found moderate PIC (0.33 and 0.29) in Australian and Belgian wheat, respectively. Intrestingly, Eltaher et al. (2018) also detected a moderate PIC value of 0.25 in 270 F3V6 Nebraska winter wheat. The present study outcome is following the above-mentioned previous studies.In the present study, the STRUCTURE analysis was identified K with the highest peak at K = 2, which is vital for the elucidation of genetic diversity. Winfield et al. (2016) used 32,443 SNP markers and 804 wheat genotypes collected from over 30 countries. They detected that most European wheat accessions were grouped together, divided from the Asian and Middle Eastern accessions. Cavanagh et al. (2013) also reported that the winter wheat from the European population displayed robust genetic differentiation in their study. Chen et al. (2019) described that West Asian, European, numerous Central and South Asian landraces, and most East Asian cultivars grouped in the same cluster, whiles most of the East Asian landraces were grouped with South, Central and West Asian landraces. Lee et al. (2018) described that most Japanese, Korean and genotypes from Afghanistan were grouped in a cluster, while the Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Caucasus germplasm were in a separate group. The genetic diversity and population structure in the current ABLs were not surprising since the genetic composition, despite being variable, is restricted due to common ancestry (Table S1), leading to closely linked clusters. PCA and dendrogram results were in agreement with STRUCTURE results. They exhibited closely related groups, which might be because the selection of lines was based on traits in wheat, e.g., yield, biotic, and abiotic resistance arising from the parental pedigree of genotypes. Besides genetic diversity analysis, genetic structure analysis for subgroups composition is also an essential part of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to counter false positives arising due to common ancestry among the panel of genotypes (Yao et al., 2019). Hence, population interchange and exploitation of global germplasm have become an essential preliminary step to increase the genetic source for wheat breeding (Zhao et al., 2019).Private alleles provide important information identifying distinctive genetic variability at loci and diversified genotypes, which could be employed in crop breeding to enhance the allele affluence in a population (Borba et al., 2009;Salem & Sallam, 2016). For K = 2, G1 and G2 contained 22 and 90 members with private alleles, respectively, illustrating a clear difference in the lines containing private alleles (Table S4). These results indicate G2 being genetically diverse compared with subgroup G1, further supported by slightly higher values of diversity indexes in G2 (0.318) than G1(0.307). Similar results have been previously observed in studies on wheat genotypes using SNP markers where higher values of I, u and uh in a subgroup are indicative of a higher diversity of the group (Alipour et al., 2017;Eltaher et al., 2018;Kumar et al., 2020;Mourad, Belamkar & Baenziger, 2020). A system should be designed to identify private alleles equipped for receiving and harnessing the essential adaptive genes.The AMOVA results showed high genetic diversity within-subgroups; however, the diversity between subgroups was very low (1%). The result may be due to the common parental backgrounds and selection based on designated agronomic traits resulted in high gene flow levels. This low level of variation among the stratified groups occurs due to increased gene exchange described by Arora et al. (2014). The allelic outlines elucidated valuable evidence on genetic diversity in each subgroup. Wright (1965) also described restricted Nm (haploid) gene flow between populations. In the current study, a very high Nm value (86.428), suggesting a high level of genetic exchange/flow among the subgroups, caused small genetic variation (Eltaher et al., 2018). Hence, the high interchange amid subgroups directed to a small genetic variation amongst subgroups. The variation amongst subgroups was noteworthy (P <0.001) regardless of being low (1%). The present study results will aid breeders to understand the genetic diversity and perform marker-assisted selection on this panel.In the present study, we applied GBS-based SNP to learn GBS-SNP markers' usefulness for diversity analysis in 141 elite wheat breeding lines. Despite very designated, our advanced breeding lines panel was found to be genetically diverse, which could be instrumental for future South Asian breeding programs to develop new elite wheat varieties of alluring traits, i.e., high yield, biotic and abiotic resistance. Besides, the present study dappled two subgroups that were enlightened by their parentage and selection history. The low heterozygosity detected among elite advanced wheat breeding lines within subgroups and the moderate divergence among subgroups suggested that the elite advanced wheat breeding lines could be used further for GWAS studies.• Guriqbal Singh Dhillon analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft.• Daljit Singh analyzed the data, or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft.• Ravi Prakash Singh, Arun Kumar Joshi, Budhi Sagar Tiwari and Uttam Kumar conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, and approved the final draft.• Jesse Poland conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, performed the GBS, and approved the final draft.","tokenCount":"3779"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2bd26afc1e5a720c1ad1cfbe80e9529","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5be1a0b5-a7b2-45db-a45b-d7a8f603652f/retrieve","id":"-907254373"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0a56149e-8c4a-457e-b76e-a51fda4aea4e","pagecount":"16","content":"Rwanda is a small, landlocked, hilly country challenged by land degradation, soil erosion, and land use distribution issues. Poor farming techniques, inefficient production practices, and high dependence on rainfall contribute to persistently low productivity.Agriculture is at the crux of the Rwandan economy. It accounts for 29% of the total GDP, 3 and 66.5% of the working population is engaged in agriculture and related sectors. 4 This makes agriculture the largest employment sector in Rwanda, and the second largest sectoral contributor to the GDP behind Services, a broad sector that includes government. quantity and/or quality, reducing losses, and ensuring effective and sustainable use of resources. Ultimately, the transition to digital agriculture presents a unique opportunity to spur sustainable economic growth and development by addressing agriculture's biggest challenges.The Digital Agriculture Profiles are knowledge and policy advisory products of the African Development Bank's Digital Agriculture Flagship. The profiles for Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa and Rwanda join a series of similar inter-organizational guides, first conceived by the World Bank which also include countries such as Argentina, Grenada, Turkey, Kenya and Vietnam. This Digital Agriculture Profile for Rwanda leverages the expertise of stakeholders to evaluate the current landscape of digital agriculture in Rwanda, including its key players across value chains, the main barriers they face, and the potential to overcome these barriers through the adoption of innovative technologies. In identifying and prioritizing these technologies, we aim to support investors and implementers in maximizing their impact by focusing on the opportunities of highest potential. Once enabling factors are identified and understood, the mainstreaming of digital agriculture in Rwanda can begin in earnest.Agriculture has played a crucial role in Rwanda's growth and poverty reduction. It is the mainstay of the economy, 7 7 FAO. Wheat flour, coffee and tea are major export commodities, 10 along with avocado, tomato, cabbage, leek, pyrethrum, animal skins, and value-added products such as canned tomatoes, honey, French beans, passion fruit, macadamia, and mushrooms. Rwanda exports live animals, unprocessed meat, and dairy products across the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Rwanda is also increasingly connected to Europe and Asia via domestic and international air carriers, and Rwanda's overall high altitude and temperature allows year-round cultivation. The western areas have relatively lower altitudes, warmer temperatures, and less precipitation. Approximately 47% of the total land area, or 1,151,700 hectares, is arable. 12 The first production season runs from September to January, and the second from February to June. In the marshlands, where water is abundant, there is also a third agricultural season for the cultivation of rice and vegetables. Plantains, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and beans are the most widely produced crops. 13 Value addition, which may include cleaning, preservation, sorting, packaging, canning, and labelling, is carried out on some produce in rural areas.At nearly 499 people/km  Rwanda ranked 158/189 on the Human Development Index with a score of 0.524 as of 2017; this represents a substantial increase from 0.250 in 1990. 18 The country also ranked 158/189 on the Gender Development Index as of 2017. 19 Since 1990, Rwanda's average life expectancy at birth has increased nearly 200%, from 34.2 to 67.5 years. The mean years of schooling has increased by 2.3 years, and expected years of schooling by 5.5 years. During the same time period, Rwanda's GNI 20 per capita increased by 108.4%. Skilled workers form about 6.8% of the total population. 21 Approximately 18% of rural and 72% of urban dwellers have electricityan average of about 34% across the country. 22The Rwandan agricultural sector has seen significant achievements and growth. Nevertheless, a multitude of poverty-related challenges remain in terms of smallholder farmers. Nearly 80% of the rural population is engaged in subsistence farming, and the average landholding is less than 0.6 hectares. 23 This persistent land shortage calls for diversification of rural income opportunities as well significant agricultural intensification. The digital technologies base, including its application for creating solutions to agriculture challenges in Rwanda, is nascent and quite promising.Rwanda ranked 80/139 on the Network Readiness Index of 2016, moving up three places from the year prior, primarily due to the increasing government focus on a digital agenda. 25 It is ranked behind only South Africa and Seychelles in the Africa region. The Telecommunication Infrastructure Index scored Rwanda 0.4590, putting it behind eight other African countries; the regional leader, Mauritius, scored 0.6678. The e-Government Development Index ranked Rwanda 120/193 in 2018, 18 places higher than its 2016 ranking. The country also moved up 32 places on the e-Participation Index in the same time period to 57/193. 26 The country's Information Communication Technology Development Index score also improved marginally-from 2.10 in 2016 to 2.18 in 2017, although it lost two places in the ranking, down to 153/176, as a result of other countries' relatively larger strides. 27 This suggests untapped potential in Rwanda's moves toward digital readiness. For example, 92% of the country is covered by 3G fiberoptic cable, 95% of the country has 4G LTE coverage, 28 and plans have been laid to begin developing a 5G network by the end of 2019. 29 Even so, as of 2018, only 52% of the population used the Internet. 30 There are also significant gender disparities in technology usage: 60% of men own a mobile phone versus 38% of women. There are over 9 million active mobile phone subscriptions, with many people owning more than one subscription. Approximately 27% of the population has a mobile broadband subscription, while just 0.17% has a fixed broadband subscription. 31 The low percentage of fixed broadband connections can be attributed to high costs: Rwanda ranked 136/139 countries in terms of affordability of fixed broadband Internet. 32 The biggest telecommunications network providers in the country as of June 2019 were MTN Digital agriculture end users may be generally grouped into four hubs. Each hub has unique resources and needs in terms of digital agriculture, and each hub faces unique challenges for which digital agriculture could offer solutions. The hubs are not mutually exclusive; any given individual may function simultaneously within more than one.The Input Hub includes all actors providing agricultural inputs such as seeds, feeds, agrochemicals, machinery, and finance. The key challenges confronting stakeholders in this hub are limited access to finance services and lack of risk mitigation strategies that can improve credit access. There is also a general lack of an entrepreneurial mindset and low digital literacy among actors within the hub. The Production Hub fundamentally consists of farmers and livestock keepers. Producers in Rwanda contend with a general lack of or inadequate access to decision support tools that can help them to better manage their farms and improve their productivity. Additionally, producers struggle with limited access to farm mechanization that could raise their production, improve their resource use efficiency, and drastically reduce labor time and drudgery. Limited market access, low traceability within market channels, and low capacity for accessing finance are also key challenges.The Distribution Hub consists of all actors in the value chain between farmers and consumers, including traders, transporters, and processors. The main challenge of this hub is poor feeder roads connecting rural communities to urban centers. Actors also face limited access to finance services and postharvest facilities, which reduce postharvest losses, improve the shelf life of agricultural products, and improve seasonal product profitability.The Consumer Hub comprises the consumers of both raw and processed agricultural-in effect, the entire population. One of the key challenges facing all stakeholders in the consumer hub is a limited access to nutritional and dietary advisory information. Purchasing power -a factor of income level -is a limiting factor. Rural consumers, some of whom are producers themselves, typically have lower income levels and purchasing power compared to their urban counterparts. Other challenges to this hub include seasonality and the social dimensions of food consumption, which are influenced by traditions, culture, and mindset.A group of in-country experts convened in a workshop as part of the development of this Digital Agriculture Profile. The workshop participants estimated that 75% of actors across all hubs have access to at least basic mobile phone services. Over the course of the next 5 years, they expect that to increase to 90% for the Producer Hub, 95% for the Input and Distribution Hubs, 85% for rural Consumer Hub actors, and 100% for urban constituents of the Consumer Hub. The group estimated that 20% of producers have access to weather, pest, and disease forecasts, and they expect that this will rise to 50% over the next 5 years.There is very limited access to financial services and risk mitigation mechanisms to support innovation because agriculture is perceived as a high-risk sector. Actors across all hubs lack sufficient access to timely knowledge and advisory information to support decision-making. Lastly, while traceability of food and agricultural products is become increasingly important in terms of public health, nutrition, and consumer preferences, traceability mechanisms remain largely undeveloped. The government, development organizations, and the private sector are all quite active and coordinated in creating and supporting digital agricultural innovations in Rwanda. Eight digital agriculture solutions providers are headquartered in Rwanda, and a total of 44 have a presence in the country. 42 Their services include advisory services, market linkages, supply chain management, financial service access, and macro-agriculture intelligence, among others.The government of Rwanda is an active promoter and enabler in the digital agriculture space. E-Soko, perhaps the best-known digital agriculture service in Rwanda, is a government-supported market linkage platform that collates and provides timely market information to agriculture value chain actors. E-Soko focuses on helping farmers get a fair price for their harvest and earn a living wage from agriculture. An important first step in leveraging digital agriculture to solve real-world problems is identifying the most promising technologies across multiple end user barriers. This enables investors and implementers to focus their efforts on areas of highest impact. Once enabling factors are identified and understood, the mainstreaming of digital agriculture in Rwanda can begin in earnest.In this analysis, we focus on identifying, for each of the end user hubs, the main challenges confronting the agriculture sector. We then identify, using participatory methods, a set of technologies and associated functions and outcomes. Table 1 shows the results of the technology prioritization across hubs. The prioritized technologies address 13 hub-specific and 3 cross-cutting challenges. Next, each technology was assessed across six dimensions: progress (i.e. current level of use/ adoption); current enabling policy; potential (i.e. level of use/adoption and impact); efficiency (in the operation of the food system); equity; and environment. Each of these was assessed using several indicators. The results of the technology identification and assessment are described below, followed by a discussion of the policies, the role of the public and private sector, and the financing options available to support the promotion of the most promising technologies.The main challenges identified for the Input Hub were lack of risk mitigation strategies and low awareness and uptake of available solutions. Technologies such as USSD , SMS-IVR systems, and smartphone applications are those with the greatest potential for impact. These technologies will facilitate the provision of timely advisory information, access to finance and insurance, and overall decision support to hub actors. Some of these technologies are already being deployed as pilot projects. Low digital literacy within the hub is the primary limiting factor in terms of these technologies achieving their full potential impact.Digitized farm records, remote sensing, GPS , drones, satellites, e-wallets, mobile money, e-commerce, digital market platforms, and IoT are some of the key technologies that offer great promise for the Producer Hub in Rwanda. These technologies are expected to improve pest and disease control, connect producers to consumers, improve financial services access, increase mechanization, and support producers in the adoption of smart farming practices. Further research on the impact of these technologies by value chain will enable prioritization of interventions to maximize food system enhancement. Given the excellent enabling policy environment, strong support from the government, and pending nationwide 5G network, these technologies can be expected to proliferate. However, challenges associated with the cost of last-mile connectivity, digital literacy, and technical capacity need to be addressed via coordinated public-private efforts.Database technologies, smartphones, SMS , satellite, GIS , and digital weighing are the most promising technologies for the Distribution Hub. Weather and seasonal forecasts based on satellites and GIS technologies will improve market transport timing and thus reduce costs and losses associated with harvesting and transporting produce in extreme weather. Smartphone apps and SMS can create direct connections between producers and distributors or e-markets. Database and digital weighing technologies will support the effective functioning of warehousing facilities, reducing postharvest losses and increasing product shelf life by standardizing produce weighing and packaging and digitizing records for transparency and easy retrieval. Improved access to financing will be necessary in order for these capital-intensive innovations to enter the mainstream. Policies, laws, and campaigns that foster acceptance of warehouse receipts as shortterm credit in the banking system and establish trust and transparency between stakeholders will also be important.Digital information platforms, SMS/IVR , mobile apps, and barcoding have the greatest potential to provide solutions to some of the key challenges in the Consumer Hub. Consumers face limited access to information on pricing, seasonality, nutrition, sourcing, and processing of the products they consume, as well as a dearth of opportunities to provide feedback regarding their needs and preferences. Digital information platforms and SMS/IVR can be used to provide knowledge and feedback. Barcoding technology enables traceability and verification of source and distribution channels.Policies and partnerships with mobile networks can help speed the mainstreaming of some of these technologies. Nevertheless, generating and disseminating a steady flow of digital content will require considerable time, technical expertise, and funding.The Rwanda National ICT4RAg Strategy 2016-2020, the NICI-2020 , and the Rwanda Vision 2020 will all expire this year, and the ICT Sector Strategy Plan 2013-2018 has recently expired. This represents a new opportunity for Rwanda to review the policies and plans guiding the development of its digital technologies, and to transition to a broader array of emerging digital technologies that may not necessarily fall within the ICTs spectrum. New policies should consolidate past gains, particularly in terms of infrastructure and policy leadership, while integrating short-and long-term solutions to the key remaining challenges: high cost, low last-mile connectivity, low technical development capacity, and digital literacy issues. In addition, new policies may address and provide explicit guidance for the issues that often face emerging digital technologies, including cyber threats, data rights, data ownership, and data privacy. This entails clarifying the rights and responsibilities of data owners, data users, third-party analytics companies, and other key players in order to foster an environment of responsive laws, systemic trust, and strong political leadership. Lastly, reducing risk for the agriculture sector-and for the providers and users of digital agriculture solutions-will also require policy intervention. While government input subsidies already exist for farmers, the agricultural sector is not yet attractive to banks and lenders. Additional risk mitigation in the form of productivity and profitability will help establish an agricultural sector that is prepared to take on risk and invest in innovative digital solutions.Across all the hubs, limited access to decision support tools and systems was identified as a key challenge.Decision support tools such as early warning systems, weather forecasting, seasonal predictions, and forecasts for pests and disease are crucial for informed agricultural decision-making. Given the cost of such resources, human resource requirements, and limited ability of end users to pay, at this point in time, these services can most effectively be provided by the public sector, entirely or in cooperation with the private sector and international science organizations. The establishment of such services implies a significant financial investment. Rwanda has built an effective extension system. There is now opportunity to further bolster, diversify, and expand this system through digital innovations. Data analytics, information services, and decision support tools can aid extension agents in rapidly synthesizing data to detect trends and provide the most current information to farmers. Digital solutions vastly improve the speed and efficiency with which agents can communicate with farmers. Building digital literacy at the institutional and individual levels will be crucial to the success of such endeavors.There is great need for agricultural intensification in Rwanda. The private sector's agility, streamlined resources allocation, and responsiveness to market demand positions it well to pursue digital solutions in concert with government institutions, which can provide funding and capacity building. Rwanda is highly rated in terms of ease of doing business, and it has an environment open for international companies to import new ideas and technologies. Private institutions like the Bank of Kigali, Klab, and N-Frnds are already working in this space via public-private partnerships. The primary bottleneck to building such additional alliances is the unsustainability of current business models. Overcoming this issue will attract local and international business expansion at all scales in Rwanda.The success of Rwanda's digital agriculture transformation will depend heavily on the financing available from public, private, and international donor sources. Meeting the national commitment to the 10% CAADP Malabo Declaration would be a clear step in the right direction. Guided by an enabling policy environment, such governmental investment may unlock vital private investments. Ongoing, coordinated engagement with NGOs and the private sector will also be necessary to remain aligned on priorities, allocations of funds, and sustainability practices.Outlook / synthesis of recommendationsRwanda has made extraordinary digital technology progress over the last decade. Connectivity is improving, subscriptions rates have tripled, and costs are falling even as the country extends coverage to nearly all of its land area. Digital agriculture solutions are being developed, piloted, and accepted by stakeholders across all four hubs. This indicates significant potential for digital solutions that address some of the key remaining gaps in the Rwandan agricultural sector, including decision support and agro-advisory services, access to financial services, mechanization, risk management mechanisms, supply chain traceability, and postharvest facilities. Digital agriculture has robust support from the government of Rwanda. However, potential barriers to the mainstreaming of digital agricultural solutions still exist across all hubs, including the high cost of equipment and technologies, a domestic skills gap, and low digital literacy.Our research suggests that a combination of low-tech and high-tech digital solutions offers the greatest promise for tackling challenges and facilitating adoption.Stakeholders who focus their solutions using SMS/IVR systems, database technologies, remote sensing, GPS, market information systems, GIS technologies for forecasting, and USSD platforms are most likely to bring scalable and high-impact solutions to the agriculture sector in Rwanda.The continued support of national policies, an expanded agricultural research and extension system, and partnerships that leverage the complementary strengths of public, private, and international development will also be crucial to the success of digital agricultural innovations in Rwanda.","tokenCount":"3105"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d2e906321fb086aa8827b7e24526129c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a7cbf56a-b704-49dd-8628-2a58fd83ae39/retrieve","id":"-1901100237"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"be5efa5e-c644-428e-a856-0ff410d19b4e","pagecount":"22","content":"We believe eco-efficient agriculture-developing sustainable methods of food production-is the best way to eradicate hunger and improve livelihoods in the region.• Headquarters in Cali, Colombia, regional offices in Africa and Asia.• 650 staff worldwide.• Today's agricultural research systems are complex, multi-actor containing sub-systems. Linear approaches are obsolete.• In today's systems, research is not the only source of innovation.• The green revolution was centered on the research offer. Today's agricultural research systems are increasingly demand driven and grounded in the application of knowledge, hence innovation focused.\"Rather than assuming that knowledge is the property of management and the workers are the implementers of this knowledge [my approach to KM] assumes that knowledge is the property of the practitioners, and the role of management is to make it possible for practitioners to act as managers of their knowledge\" Etienne Wenger• Face-to-face meetings are essential for enabling partner organizations and peers to plan and review their work.• In fact, highly interactive meetings are important for establishing the trust base that is needed for virtual collaboration and communication.• Special attention should be given to the design of meetings and the crucial role of group facilitation.• Working in multi-disciplinary global partnerships allows tackling a research question from multiple perspectives and with the input from stakeholders working in many disciplines.• To make this happen effectively it requires a change in individual work habits.Online collaborative practices and tools, such as Google applications and wikis, can be used to share work in progress, encourage regular feedback and improve the use and reuse of information as well as to create and facilitate online communities.• The adoption of collaborative online tools requires patience and careful facilitation. A major obstacle is the reluctance of participants to give up control over content and to trust the capacity of colleagues to make a positive contribution to their work.• Additional benefits of research collaboration include staff empowerment, increased transparency and stronger internal capacity, all of which contribute to organizational development and change.• Open access to research outputs is critical and requires supportive institutional policies and incentives to assure consistency.• Collecting and preserving , under Creative Commons licensing when possible, research products, such as articles, presentations, discussion papers, manuals (e.g., through digitization of older outputs and the use of digital repositories);• Ensuring accessibility on the Internet (e.g., through 'self-archiving,' which allows for publishing a preprint or postprint of scientific papers submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals or conference and workshop proceedings);• The effectiveness of the technical infrastructure and broadband Internet access.• Virtually limitless potential: Market information and financial services, land administration and risk management, advisory services. Other ICT tools: Laser/GPS based land leveling, satellite information to predict crop growth, cheap sensors from soil moisture to weather.• The approach must be based on knowledge exchange rather than one-way information diffusion or collection. Strategies must be developed to include different users groups e.g. gender and generational issues must be addressed.• Projects must focus more on the context and relevance of content than on IT infrastructure and access to hardware. This requires a shift in the orientation of IT personnel away from technology control and towards technology stewardship aimed at helping users choose the best solutions.• Monitoring and evaluation help to improve decisions about policies, programs and organizations. They also provide crucial support for the learning that can enhance adaptive capacity.• Participatory approaches to monitoring and evaluation allow stakeholders to share control over content, processes and results with the goal of identifying remedial actions. Such approaches measure the effectiveness of a project, build ownership and promote accountability at various levels.• Monitoring and evaluation provide key tools and methods for knowledge management because they set indicators for measuring the evolution of knowledge, attitudes and skills among the users of research.• The emphasis on evaluation for learning can be accomplished by encouraging people to share best practices and lessons learned, by showing appreciation for attempts at reflection, by drawing from multiple sources and perspectives and by constructively assessing past mistakes or lost opportunities.1. Clear organizational statements, policies and commitments to deliver results in terms of development; 2. An increased emphasis on organizational arrangements and incentives that support networking structures for effective multidisciplinary collaboration; 3. Strengthening the feedback loop from the experience in the field to the researchers, through the expansion of monitoring and evaluation to encompass both accountability and learning; 4. A shift in the orientation of IT personnel towards helping users choose the best technologies, including those needed to foster knowledge sharing; 5. Build capacity so that the communications and research staff will have the necessary skills to incorporate knowledge sharing tools and methods described above into their work.","tokenCount":"769"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed0398bf86ef4e2c6af8898ab1e148dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3d27f82d-590b-4e00-a804-7734ce74ec63/retrieve","id":"-1528408566"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e1a2158-5e8c-4bd8-a47e-3dd723bd834a","pagecount":"29","content":"forthe scientists to bring about the improved variety ofseeds now.ln facl. Ihey would nol be able to see the presenl species of paddy Ihat we have now carefully conserved among uso Sesides. if we had nol broughl seeds from our relatives. neighbors, and olher people. all Ihe different species found now would nol be available. It is because we have conlinued to cullivale with Ihe old, lradilional methods, selected Ihe seeds, dried them, and stored Ihem locally Ihal these local species are still found now. Therefore, lhe extensive practical knowledge Ihat we have of Ihe local species of paddy. now, is also nol wilh Ihe researeh scientisls.We are eontinuing lo apply Ihe same old lechnology in seed selection. When we keep the seeds for planting, we eilher select Ihe seeds after we bring Ihe paddy into Ihe huge circular space (khalihan), or after the paddy has been de-husked, or from lhe slorage room itself we select lhe seeds for Ihe next planling. Since Ihe different speeies of paddy are repeatedly Ihreshed in lhe same spot (khalihan), Ihere is Ihe possibility Ihat every year Ihere is some degree of mixing up of seeds. Then there is again the possibility of mixing up seeds in slorage. or by planting seedlings logelher in Ihe same nursery. 50metimes lhe flow of water carries away the seeds and mixes up the seedlings. or Ihey are mixed up in Ihe process of keeping henga, or due to birds and animals. So Ihere are many chances of mixing Ihe different breeds and species of Ihe paddy. Some farmers deliberalely mix the differenl species of paddy in order lo secure a good profit in lhe market. For this reason. these farmers mix togelher varieties of lhe same type of color and síze so lhat nobody can see the discrepancy and find out lhe farmers' profit-oriented molives. For example. il is found Ihal farmers mix Mansara in Basmati. Mansara looks ralher like 8asmati bul is Ihicker in texture.After Ihe paddy has been separated from Ihe stalks by threshing. il are kepl in Ihe kha/ihan (Ihe huge circular floorfor threshing Ihe paddy) for a day or two lo dry, and aftar Ihal , it is weighed and stored in bhakari (huge cane baskets painled wilh a pasle of mud and cow dung). If Ihis storage is . full. Ihen Ihe paddy is kept in sacks. and Ihe nexl year. Ihe seeds are laken from lhis stored container for paddy plantalion. If il is necessary lo bring seeds from neighbors, Ihen lhe seeds are exchanged at lhe ratio of one saek of paddy seed lo one and a half of de-husked rice. If Ihe seeds are brought directly from the khalihan, Ihen Ihe exchange rate is Ihe same in ratio. Likewise, sometimes the seeds are borrowed from relatives, somelimes boughl from the markel or at times exchanged or even boughl from olher farmers.I have taken two training courses. aboul one or two days in polato cultivation. In lerms of lours, this year I have visited lhe PaddylRice Harvesl Research Center in Hardinath, organized by NAARC, U-SIRO, and IPGRI, where I gol lo see Ihe excellent species of paddy cultivation as well as our local varieties of paddy, which were grown there for study and observation. So now, I feel lhe necessity for us to be given training and skills in proper melhods of keeping seedlings lo maximize production from our local paddy species as well as technology in irrigating and fertilizing.I am a small-scale farmer, eultivaling a small plol of land and sustaining my small family, trusling the maxim lhal 'contenlmen! is bliss,\" and I have continued wi!h the tradilional lechnology of local paddy cultivation practiced by my aneestors sinee Ihe remole past. I know lha! !he local variety of seeds have many good qualitíes which are no! available in the improvedlBikashe seeds. The local varie!ies have less chance of being altacked by diseases or pests, they are able lo withstand climalie condítions, and give good produclion with les s fertilizer and less care Ihan Ihe improved varieties. Besides Ihese, Ihe local varieties are delicious for eating, are acceplable in religious ritual s, and have medicinal properties, Some varieties al so have a higher market value than the improved variety of rice. II is nol only difficult and labor consuming to cultivate the improved variety of seeds, bul in lerms of rice production, there is not much difference if the method of cultivating both types of rice is carried the same way, I believe that farmers who are commitled lo developing improved varieties of paddy seeds must give equal importance to protect and promote the local varieties of seeds because these seeds are the basis for future improved varieties of species that can give beller produclion al harvesl. So if the government ilself took the iniliative to give the required training and make arrangements for educational tours, then Ihe farmers could contribule beller in farming and cultivation. We farmers are much behind in farming skills. We do nol have the knowledge of!he latest technology in farming, So we follow the same old technology that our ancestors have followed from past times. About selecting and keeping the seeds, storing Ihem. we have the same traditional techniques, When we don'! have seeds of our own, then we borrow from our relatives and friends as we don't trust the seeds that we buy out in the market. Neither have there been any effective measures taken by Ihe government to ensure good storage syslems for seeds lo have beller produclion.I request our farming community brolhers and sislers lo continue lo cultivate our local paddy. Though less in quantity, the local species have less of a chance of pesl and disease infestation, require less fertilizer. and grow equally well, Even in insufficiently irrigated fields, the production is good, and Ihese local varielies are acceptable in our sacred and social rituals. As cooked rice also, il is delicious and it is good tor our health, In poor soil also, il gives good production. If we lel !he local varieties and species disappear, than there is less chance for developing improved seeds for the future use, Today !he need Is for an initiative tha! must be started from !he govemment level lo protect the local paddy seeds, which are fast dísappearing and unaccounted tor: lo conserve, lo protect, and to highlight them through local development clubs, district-Ievel agriculture development offices, the Agriculture Ministry, departments, etc. The scientists must not only work towards making !he rice grains trom long to short or bringing grealer production, but they must also make provísions for Ihe availability of proper irrigalion syslems. In a similar manner, the government musí also make provision lo supply fertllizer in time, good seeds and Ihe means lo control and destroy the diseases and pesls that attack the improved varieties.The majority of the people in the Durbar Devisthan VOC in the district of Gulmi, which falls under Ihe Western Development Region, are dependen! upon agriculture. In this area, the prominent crop is maize. Olher species of maize are also planted, but in this hilly region, the most common species is the large-sized yellow-colored variety. This type of maize is remarkable tor grealer production and the higher amount of fodder for animals, and Ihe corn Is delicious to eal. So the majn crop here is maize, bul farmers are facing a great problem as Ihe malze plants have the tendency lo fall. Olher problems are relaled lo Ihe lack of irrigation facilities, the problem of pests and diseases, and also Ihe scarcity of better technology lo improve our crops..We are making our own efforts to solve the problem of maize plants falling down easily. What we do is when the plant is about 20-30 days old, we dig and weed out the grass around the saplings.Then when the plant is about 45-55 days, then there is a special type of digging done just to loosen the roots, and we cut one side of Ihe root, loosen il, and lay the plants on the soi!. This stops Ihe growlh of Ihe height of the maize plants for so me days and the rool is strengthened. Some farmers also plan! maize in straighl line.Sometimes, aflerweeding out the grass around the maize saplings, Ihe soil is pressed around il. In Ihis way the farmers make great efforts lo prevent Ihe maize plants from falling down easily. Initially, when the Locallnitiatives for Siodiversity Research and Development (U-SIRO) came visiting our village, we were most happy. AII of us villagers gathered together. At that time they were in the procesa of choosing the appropriate place to carry out their research. We requested them to carry out Ihe program in our village only, so Ihal we too could participate in the programo Afler that, il was settled tha! the program would be conducted in our village. Under Ihis program, they told us their plan-that they would give us new improved species of maize seeds, and we could choose those species that would be most suitable under our soil and climatic conditions. About this, we were not in agreement as we knew Ihat the species of maize tha! we locally grew, the big yellow variety called Pi ya/o, was good for uso We were not willing lo change from the local variety because this species gave a good harvest, the quantity of com-liour after grinding was more, il was delicious eilher dry roasled or grilled over the lire, and the maize plants also provided excellent fodder for our animals. The U-SIRO teachers had asked us whether we would grow a species of maize Ihat was very similar lo the Piyato variety in taste, production, and as fOdder, bu! the maize planta would be shorter in height.We suggested tha! we didn't want any of Ihe new variety bul we would be happy to be taught Ihe techniques to prevenl the Pi ya/o maize planls from falling down easily. Then we asked if there could be improvemenls in this variety. So as we wanled, LI-SIRO is helping us lo improve the big variety of Piyato. We have started a cross-pollina!ing program in which we have crossed the big variety of Piyalo with improved varieties. Another program is mass selection. In this, the main worl< is lo improve the big-grained Piyalo itself, by separating and selecting seeds from tal!, weak maize stalks, identifying and marking poor seeds by removing the straws from such ears. We have done other programs too, and ourfarmer brothers have experimented by growing other improved varieties. Some of the species have also been appreciated by our folk. Likewise, we have also considered Ihe 36 varieties of maize species brought by CIMMYT, and from among them we have selected some species for cultivation.In this way, U-BIRO has helped us to solve our problem and to bring improvement to the cultivatíon of malze. We have been given training in how to do cross-fertílizatlon and mass selection. We farmers are also commltted lo improving the species of big Piyalo and we are very optímistic about this improvement. It is true that we have leamed about crossing the maize species and plucking out Ihe straws from weak and tal! maize stalks in order lo selee! good seeds, but sliII, we feel thal if we are Irained in other melhods of improving our crop production, we would be capable and successful farmers. Therefore, Ihrough mutual efforts, underslanding, and cooperation among our farming community and NGOs, we would surely be able to bring out improved maize specíes líke Ihe yellow Piyalo variety according lo the suitabilíty of our soll and weather conditions.There In my field, we crossed belween Ganesh-1 males and big yellow variety females. We planled three lines of male seeds and six lines of female seeds. Likewise, we advised some five olher farmers lo cross-fertilize Ihe big yellow variety of maize with olher species. While cross-fertilizing, we planted Ihe male and female seeds separately, with a difference offive days. But all the time we were worried Ihal Ihe seeds mighl nol grow. The seeds grew, bul maybe due lo Ihe growth of Ihe grass or something else., the saplings became yellow and Ihey didn't grow well. Then I was very much frightened. I was worried Ihat if we didn't have a goOO maize harvest, how are we going to survive? Then I visited the fields of Ihose farmers who were asked lo cross-fertilize maize seeds Jike me. At thal time my husband came home. He was also surprised atwhat I had in the fields and asked whal we were going lo eat if we didn'! have a good maize harvest. I assured him Iha! !here was no! mueh to worry about as we had in our village the experts working in maize cultivation, so we would be happy if we could find out the means lo stop the plants falling and preven! Ihe yeariy losses. So even if we didn'l have a good maize harvest this year, there was still hope for a better return in Ihe next year.In the hope that the teachers would come and Instruct us, we had not prepared Ihe field for cross-fertlllzlng. Bu! they carne late. Here the seeds we had planted could not grow properly due to weeds. Then I took the rlsk, whatever the consequences, and we began lo dlg and lo loosen the 5011 around !he malze saplíngs. Then we pul In a líttle urea and the malze plants showed good results. Then we put one teaspoon of urea Into each planl and the resul! was excellent.Then !he teachers came and gave us tralnlng. In tha! !ralnlng, ¡ ha ve lo know thal even malze has male and female f1owers. I unders!ood tha! even maize has a cross-fertilization process. When we cross the malze plants, we have lo take out the straws from the ears of corn, and we were asked to take out the straws from Ihe female maize plants. I was amazed Iha! taking out the straws from !he maize could result in !he better growth of malze kernels. Even my father used to say If we remove the straws from the malze, there wouldn't be good corncobs.Then it was time lo take out Ihe straws from Ihe malze. I was slill uncertain abou! the outcome of Ihis bul I reassured myself Ihat since we were belng told by people who are experts in maize cultivalíon, I shouldn't doubt. AII the maize didn't grow the straws al Ihe same time, so every day I went and pulled out the straws. After this work was completed, !hen it became my habit lo go inlo !he field at least !WO times to sae the result. I was all the time worried about whether the maize cullivated in one ropani of land would yield as much crop as we expected.Every day I saw corn cobs growing on the maize plants. Then I wanted lo find out if the cobs had kernels inslde. I was nol without worrles. Then one day I pulled out the eorn eob, took out the outside layers and looked inside. There were beautiful kernel s and now I was at peaee. Now I was confident and happy that we eould bnng out a new species of maize.Now !hal we have learned !he teehnology to cross species, we want to learn how and when the new species will come lo be, how lo grow many species, and if the maize is nol well filled wlth kerneis, what is to be done? If the seeds are of mixed variety, what ís to be done? What measures can be taken lo ensure the qualíty of one particular variety only? Ifwe can get answers to such quenes in our minds, 1 am sure our village called Simichaurwould be changed lo Makaichaur.Chhomrong ís a 5mall village situated at the foot of the Machhapuchhare and Annapurna Range of mountaíns. It lies al Ihe heighl of 1800-2000 meters aboye sea level, on the Pokhara-Baglung Highway, six to eighl hours' trek lo !he north from Nayapul. This village has a majority of Gurung residents.II is believed that in the year 1962/1963 pakhe red rice paddy species was introduced. This species was originally brought and cultivaled as a specimen by aman who lived in Lumle VDC and had worked in Shillong, India. Gradually, this paddy was found to be planted in other villages too, and in Ihis way il gained enlry into Chhomrung village. Here people began lo cullivate Ihis variety of paddy loo. To improve upon this species, the Lumle Agriculture Center took the initiative and this variety was recammended as the Chhomrong local.From the yaar 1993, this villaga was selected for research under !he Lumle Agricultura Centar for the Participatory Plant Breeding Programo The main objective of this program was lo improve !he species oflhe local red paddy.11 is rather hard textured and took long time in husking, and as there was no alternative species Ihat could tolerate the cold of the local place, so research was begun to improve upon the local variety so Iha! il could wilhstand Ihe cold and make!he grain white ín color.In the initial stage of the program, 250 specíes of paddy variety brought from !he national and international paddy research program were planted in the nursery on an experimental basis. These different species were carefully selected and kepl under the joínt care of the technicíans of the Lumle Agriculture Center and the Chhomrong VDC participant farmers.The selection was as follows:• Chhomrong Local ripened in its usual time periodo• The straws were !he same as that of Chhomrong.• Good grains of rice.• Capable of tolerating diseases and pests.• Capable of tolerating the cald.These species were carefully selected and those that gave white grains of rice were particularly taken care of. Along with !he experimental nursery planting, the participant farmers had also planted lines of paddy species tor the experiment. The species used for the experiment were as follows:After planting the selected species, the technicians, the scientists, and the participant farmers visited !he fields and carefully selected the species on the spot. The process of selecting the species started from Ihe year 1993 to 1995. Then those thal was selected were carefully studied by using different methods.• paddy abundantlnot abundant The paddy species called Bhathi was bought from the Uchidiha VDC from Ihe village called ltawal at the price of RS.15 per kilo. I have been planting this species of paddy for the las! 10 years. Every year, I have planted this variety of paddy in abou! one bigha of land. The return has been 18 maunds (720 kilos of rice l.These species of paddy can be cultivated in areas where Ihe water is deep. Therefore, this variety needs a place where there is always water available. This type offarming can be done up to nine months only. The reason is that at the time when we sow the seeds, the land has to be dry and in the month of Chitra ( March/Aprill, the sowing of seeds is done. The harvesting season is always in the month of Mangsir (NovemberIDecember) regardless of Ihe time paddy may have been planted. The roots extend from the rice stalks on Ihe water's surface so plants seem to balance on lhe surface of the water. Therefore, there is no possibility of the paddy plants falling, however deep lhe water level may be. The other good point about Ihis paddy species is no malter how much the water level may in crease during the night, Ihe rice plants seem lo grow in equal propor!ion.The length of the rice stalk is almost Ihree meters high. Since the stalk is pretty thick, there is less possibility of the rice plants falling over. The leaves are broad and light green in color. The roots are quite strong so Ihat Ihe normal sor! of f100d can't drag them out and sweep away lhe plants. The rice grains are shapely and big. The rice grain is red in color and there isn't any tunda.In the month of Chaítra ( March/April), the tractor is used to plough the land and Ihe seeds are sown. At this time of the year, the land is dry. A few days after lhe sowing of the seeds. the rain star!s and the land starts getting filled with water. As the water level rises, the length of the rice stalks grow. As the species grow in water, there is less possibility of the plants being atlacked by pests and diseases, Bul Ihe rice plants are infested wilh ínsects called gawaro. This varíety of paddy neither requires weeding out grasses nor Ihe need offertilízers. The harvesting time for Ihis species ís the month of Mangsir (November/December). In this monlh, the level of Ihe water comes up to Ihe knee and the paddy can easily be cut down wilh Ihe help of a curved knife called hasiya or kachiya. After the paddy is cut down and carried home, il is dried, beaten, threshed, and sto red wel/, ready for use.The rice is softand delícious to eal. It is readily digested. From this rice beaten rice (chíura) can be made, and varielies of local delicades líke bread, thakuwa, fried bread, etc., are prepared The paddy of Ihis species is accepted in our sacred rituals and practices. This variety of rice is general/y used in feasts and parties.Possibi/ity of improvíng the qua/mes of this specíes of paddy This endangered variety ot paddy, having such odd qualities, is in Ihe process of being losl. If we do nol direct our attention in time, its extinction is certain. Now there is an increasing tendency to fil/ up the water-Iogged land and convert il into residential areas. This is a really dangerous situation because il ¡ncreases Ihe possibility Ihat Ihis species will be completely wiped oul. For Ihis reason, both the govemment and Ihe NGO must take the iniliative lo conserve this varíety of paddy and work towards helping Ihe farmers wilh Ihe technology lo improve their living conditions.Both Ihe stalks and Ihe ríce grains of these two varieties look Ihe same. The two species are cultivated in fields that require less depth of waler than for Bhafhí, bullhe Sakhar paddy is shorter than Ihe Amadhouj species.Both are cultivaled in a similar manner. They are sown by spreading the seeds on the prepared fields. They require less fertilizer but need to be weeded. If Ihe fertilizer is loo much, Ihen there is the possibility of the paddy plants falling. If the cultivation is done wel/, the return harvest can be as much as four to six maunds (160-240 kilos) per each ka/ha of land, The rice crop is long and the grains are fal and heavy.This year I boughl bolh Ihese species of paddy trom the village cal/ed Sonarniya in the Raulahal distríct. I cullivated Amadhouj variety on Ihree katha of land and Sakhar on one bígha of land. But in the field there was too much watercol/ected, and Ihe paddy was good only in two ka/has of land.These two varíeties of paddy are acceptable in our sacred rituals. From Ihe rice straws, we can make floor mats. The cooked rice is good and any person who is sick can ea! this rice without any problem.In the Amadhouj stalks, three or four grains of paddy grow together, so Iha! at a glance, Ihe paddy crop looks almosl like wheat. But there is a superstilion attached lo the cullivalion of Ihis paddy. II is believed thal iflhe paddy grows In equal measures in thefourcorners ofthe field and the produc-líon is equal in all the fourcorners, then the farmerwho has such a harvest will suffer so me evil, like some one wiU be sick or some one in the famíly may die.In the month of Jestha (May/June), the seeds are sown, and in the month of Asadh ( June/July). the rice saplings are planted, and in lhe month of Mangsír (November/December), the paddy is harvested. As the level ofwater is less. the paddy needs to be weeded. It can also be given fertilizers. I had personally used three kilos of urea and 2.5 of DAP in Ihe paddy fields. As the paddy grains have tunda there is less possibility of disease and pest problems. But !his year, the paddy was infested wilh bolh disease and pests. and I had lo use the pesticides called che/amín and metacid. After taking all these measures, the harvest was three maund (120 kilos) per each katha of land.This variety of rice is importan! from a religious point of view. In the worship of our family God, Gobín Maharaj. this variety of rice is absolutely needed and no other variety will do. The cooked rice from this species is equally delicious. From the rice straws, the f100r mats are made and even the cattle have a special preference for lhis type of rice straw. This variety needs less fertilizer.We have been following the traditional method of cultivating crops according to the methods used by our ancestors. In those early days it was not possible to know the kinds of soil, the type of crop that was suitable to the kind of soil, the types of pests and diseases, the methods of controlling them and how much fertilizer is required for a particular type of crop, and hence, the harvest was not satisfactory. I feel the govemment is not much interested in the agricultural sector, but without improvement in fhe agricultural sector, there can't be improvement in industries and commerce. In every country the role of agriculture is prominent. Because of the three basic human needs-food, shelter, and clothing-food occupies the prominent place in man's life. The basic need of all sorts of living beings, from the wealthy to the poor beggars and birds and animals, is food. Without food, nobody can live; it is a universal fact. This point is most significant for us to understand.Nepal is an agricultural country, so the people here would be most happy if they were given knowledge about the formation of land, the types of soil, means of irrigation, and given the priority to develop improved seeds for local use. In 1929 we migrated from Lamjung to Geetanagar VDC, Ward no.8. At that time there was no irrigation system in the village. The field had mixed cultivation of different species of paddy in the same plot, like Dudharaj, Aap jhuthe, Battisara, Gola, Mansara, Thapachini, Jetho bure, Ghaiya, etc.In terms of harvest, there used to be 25 to 35 muri of paddy per bigha of land. At Tandi, we grew maize and mustard. There was no system of cultivation by rotation. Later on there carne new species of paddy called Achhami masino, Mansuli radha-4, and Radha-17. Among them, the Mansuli was the best, so there was extensive cultivation of this species of paddy everywhere. Vegetable cultivation was limited to small kitchen gardens for vegeta bies like green vegetables and radishes, but later, from the year 1937, with the assistance of the Agricultural Development Branch Office, we began to grow vegetables on a larger, commercial scale: improved species like cauliflower snowball, Kathmandu local, snowcom cabbages, radishes, carrots, mustard, etc. Now, these improved varieties require good irrigation systems, so we took a loan from the Agriculture Development Bank, dug out deep wells, kept motor engines, drew out water, and kept sprinklers to irrigate the vegetable fields.Now we have at our rescue the LI-BIRD Organization, who, by keeping in contact with the different research centers, have made available for us new and beller improved seeds, like Rajma, Panta-11, BC 1442, PNR 381, and Sarvati. These crop species are suitable for the soil at Tandi, but in water-Iogged fields where the paddy plants tend to fall easily, the Sawarna species of paddy seems to be appropriate.This variety of paddy is excellent in churned fields. The plant stalk is strong and does not fall easily. The rice is tasty, good in texture, has weight, has salid grains, is easy at milling and at threshing prior to milling. Seventy-six percent of the rice grains remain during the processing period and do not break easily into pieces in the de-husking process, and unlike the Mansuli species, even when the plants are shorn of green leaves, there is no difference in the usual production of rice kernels.Last year for the research study, the U-BIRD Organization and the Agricultural Development Branch office at Bharatpur made improved seeds available, and so we were able to cultivate the sawarna variety of paddy in 10 ka/ha of land.In terms of production, it gives us four muri of harvest per each ka/ha of land. This year we harvested 80 muri of paddy. In the village of Indrapuri, for Tandi there are varieties of paddy species that can be cultivated, like BG 1442 and Panta-10, IR13155.We farmers are very happy now because a mini-kit has been prepared for the farmers with the different species of paddy, exhibition of research results, trial checks, specimens, etc. From such programs, we have highly benefitted and learned that now we can choose by ourselves which of the species would be most suitable for our land, soil, and climatic conditions so we can be selective in cultivating crops ourselves.Maramche  The qualities that we farmers would want in our paddyThe paddy musí have long slraws, full and so Id rice grains. II musí be delicious lo lasle, fragranl, able lo lolerale heavy rains, able lo lolerale Ihe cold, able lo lolerale Ihe fertilizer. II will nol f1ower, nol easily fa 11 , give heavy paddy crops, lake less lime lo ripen, and increase in volume in cooking.As these qualities were no! available in the paddy, we continued to cultivate the local variety. But in the year 1996, LI-SIRO not only brought the M-3 and M-9 varielies but also 144 other varieties of paddy. In the land that belonged to Indra Prasad Poudel, the nursery was made and all the differenl varieties of seed were planted in that plot of land. At that time, due to hailstones, the experiment suffered setbacks, but even then, among them, 30 species were saved and selected for our purposes. In this experiment, three groups were actively involved: U-BIRO, the Mothers' Group, and the Progressive Youth Club.In this way, in the year 1998, the 30 species-selected on the basis of discussions among the local organizations-were distributed among the 30 households of the village, so that each household got to cultivate one particular variety. On the other hand, in the year 1996, U-SIRO had sent us 25 species of paddy and we had also cultivated them. Among the 25 species, our farming community had selected one particular variety on the basis of the harves! produclion, the height of the straw, the taste of the rice, the shape of the rice grain, etc.Among the 144 varieties from 1996, only 30 species were selected, and from the 30, three (the process of selection is continuing).In 1999, from among the 25, one variety was selected. This species was cultivated by Maheswor Poudel in 1999 in two separate fields, and in 2000, he is planning lo cultivate il in Ihree fields. Moreover, al the instigation of the local club, we are planning lo cullrvate that single variety at the rale of 5.5 and 9 by buying the seeds ourselves. We do no! know the name of this paddy. Now In the year 2000, under the joint auspices of U-BIRO. the Mothers' Group, and the Youth Club, we are golng to give it a name.1. The height of the straws and the productivity of the paddy crop 2. Falling/not falling 3. Less chance of disease and size of the rice grain 4. CapabJe of tolerating the cold and wet conditions and quick ripening periodThe above-mentioned basis tor selection was made after the field inspection and discussions in the group meelings among our participant farmers and club members. In this. the local organization relays the information and also tea ches us how to do Ihe work. In the end, we review the whole matter and wilh the participation of the entire farming community, we selec! the paddy species.We appreciate this program highly, for it respects our experiences and the traditional technology that we have been following in farming. When looking into the statistics available. we found that without the participation of the farming communily at the nationallevel. there had been recommendations made for more than 42 species of crops, allhough this sort of selection had nol much affecled Ihe people living in Ihe hlgh hilly areas. Therefore, il is most necessary that we have a participalory planl-breeding program among uso For example, we can take Ihe case of paddy species M-3 and M-9 thal we have been cullivating in our own village.1. A partlclpalory program means the collective presence of the farming communily: they can selee! tor themselves the paddy species that suit their soll and cllmatic conditions.2. The farmers themselves are more aware oftheir own needs and requlremants.3, In the seleetlon of the paddy species, the farmers themselves are participants.The farmers leam the technology about how to breed between two speeies to ereate several varieties, Reasons 1. Climatie conditions differ according to altitude and have different affects on farming.2. Land and climatle conditions differ in the hilly region.3. When improved species are selected according lo the suitability ofthe particular place and climate, they have a high degree of tolerance and survivability.The disappearanee of the local species. For example, after the introduction of M-3 and M-9, Ihe local species called Kalo patla and Reksali have gradually disappeared.In the process of developing a plant-breeding program, we must remember to include the local species so that the genes of Ihe local wilt not disappear completely. • to develop and distribute the improved Machhapuchhare-3 and -9 paddy species• to conserve, develop, and distribute the selected species• to distribute to Ihe farmers the newly developed improved seeds sent by olher research centers• to increase the village's agricultural production under the leadership of local organizations• to develop systematic and sustainable methods of paddy conservation from the nursery to storage• to inerease our own leaming skilts and technology among ourselves• to develop new improved paddy speciesPriority is given lo persons who have been successful in order to encourage and bring maximum participa tia n of farmers. Or Ihe farmers have themselves selected one among them or have won the confidence of Iheir farming community.Among the 25 species, one variety was selected and it is cultivated in the field of Maheswor Poudel. This species of paddy was cultivaled al his inltiation. He has said that he took this iniliative because this species has all the good qualities to be found in paddy. As he says, this variety has good tasle lo ea!, long slraws, salid grains of rice kernel and Ihe grains are nol Ilkely lo fall off easily from the plants. Therefore, Ihis species of paddy without name as ye!, has the grea! possibility of becoming popular in this village.The official and scientific research trom LI-BIRO was carried out under !he leadership of Indra Bahadur Poudel.cullivation, although in some places, improved specles of paddy are also being used by some farmers. The common varletíes of paddy belng cultivated are Mansuli, Taichung, and'Radha-7, while some years back, we (one-third of the farmers) culllvaled the varielies called Mansule, Madhise, Chhote, and Radha-7 in order lo make a beller profit. ----------------------------1 to resistdisease We farmers want improvement in the quality and quanlily of the paddy according lo our interests and needs. Bu! we lack the knowledge and technology lo do Iha!. Therefore, the farmers must select the species through their own presence and participation in the process so that by crossing differen! species, a grea! variety of species can be obtained, ye! also keeping the original breed, so that the improved species can be strong and withstand local conditions. Hence, we feel confident that with the help of the in situ Program we will surely succeed in Improving the local species.Our conclusions and recommendations are that !he in situ Program will surely assist Ihe farmers of this small Begnas Village in conservíng the diversity of the local species of paddy and inspiring Ihe local farmers lo participate in collective activities, so we not only conserve !he local species bu! also bring together maximum participalion of the farmers so that the standard of life of the local farmers will also improve ..Q.1. Everybody stressed crossing bul who is aclually doing it? Farrrers? Scientists? Or is il done jointly?Ans: The farmers in the village initiated Ihe crossing program with lechnical support from U-SIRO as and when needed.Q. 2. Where do the male and female plants come from in maize crossing?Ans: The male is an improved variety-ganesh-1-from NARC, and!he female is a locallandrace-Thulo pahelo. Ans: Farmer 1. Seed from crossing is community property, so it's up lo !he community to decide whether or not to share il.Ans: Farmer 2. We are willing lo share and, in fact, have already done so by supplying 250 kg.If our new varieties help improve the production of olher farmers, we will share il.Q.4. Today, large companíes have Ihe polential to spread biolechnology as a form of imperialism. Gandhi used the spinníng wheel as a symbol of freedom. What should be the symbol of the farmers to fight against such domination?Ans: One way lo be self-reliant ís lo improve our seeds/varieties so Ihat Ihey are more productive or competitive, before Ihe large companies grab away our genetic materials. The farmers should have control over the genetic resources.Q.5. How will the new Unes coming out of crossing s8thi be developed and studied?Ans: The decision lo select or rejee! the outcome of !he cross rests in community. No individual holds absolute rights over developing !he lines.Bidakanne Sammamma DDS woman tarmer from Andhra Pradesh, Soulh India Abstract A farmer from Bangladesh describes crop diversity in her fields and gives the reasons tor encouraging diversity versus mono-cropping.I am trying here to explain the soU type, the problems associated wilh the soil in my area. You will find a 101 of stones there. so farming is very difficul!. The soil is black and you can see the amount of stones. In the areas where lhere ís red soil, lhe depth is very shallow-not more Ihan five lo six inches-and below II there Is a complete sheet of rock. So keeplng in mind Ihe soil types and Ihe problems associated wlth ralnfed agriculture in my area, the women try to grow a lot of crops in a given area so ¡hat they can be sure of getting at leas! one crop in the crop season.We slore different types of seeds of differen! crops and mix all these crops. Women, especially, playa vital in this mixing. Keeping In view lhe soil fertility, we observe the soil-which type of crop can be grown in a certain patch of land the woman owns. So women playa vital role and they mix al! the different types of crops that can give foed. fadder, and add to lhe fertility of Ihe soll.We grow a range of crops-al leasl eighl lo 10 crops in a year in a given area: you can see crops like jowar (sorghum), red gramo field beans, and cow peas. We grow Ihis many crops lo gel so me of Ihe crops al one time and others at anolher time. So me crops will mature first. so they are harvested first. so we get toad when we are hungry.The maln reason behind growing so many crops in a glven period is lhat even if. due lo any reason, some crops fail, we are sure of getting something. So we will be harvesting differenl crops over a periad of a season of six months. Every time we go to Ihe field, we will gel something to lake back to our homes to cook. At the same time, there won't be much work because during the periad of six months, one crop will be coming al one time and anolher Ihe nexl lime and anolherlhe nex!o So the load is spread evenly on the women and not all at one time.The second reason is lhat lhere are different varieties of jowar-compact-headed and loose ones.In our area, we sometimes gel rain at lhe harvesting stage. When we gel rain al lhis time, Ihe compact-headed seeds germinate in the head itself. So we also grow lhe loose-headed variety. Even if there is drizzle for two or lhree days, lhis variety can overcome that problem. Unless there is a big drizzle tor one week, I am sure of getting at least some jowarfor consumplion.Keeping in mind lhe soil fertility, I also mix legume crops like field beans and jowar. We grow jowar also because of the fodder requirements of the animals we own.Cow peas and field beans may nol be importan! to you, and although we sow lhese crops in jusi a few rows, they are very importan! to us because they take care of the soU fertility and we also gel very good nutrilious food out from them. So lhey are importanl lo us even though they are grown in small quantitíes. Now I will explain about lhe multiple uses of crops like red gramo We use lhe pulse for dhal, a curry Iha! we eat wilh our bread and rice. We use the stalks of red gram for fuel wood and for thatching. This crop is very important lo us; il is useful to us in a number of ways.In Ihe rabí (winter) season, we also grow a range of crops. We grow mus!ard wi!h whea! for pest control because some insects thal a!tack wheal will be atlracted to mustard, and in this way pesls will be conlrolled.Foxtaíl millet is the firsl crop of the season in our area. When we don't have anything to eat in our homes, Ihis is the firs! crop thal will meel our hunger needs because most of the !hings stored from the earlier season will have been used up.When we grow crops, we also keep in mind the fodder requirements of the animal s we own. Thal is the reason we grow some varieties that will give more fodder for our animals.One agricultural practice in our area is this: after harvesting red gram, the farmers plow back lhe land, so lhal whatever leaf-fal! Ihere is from Ihe red gram will immedialely go back lo the 50il. We are consciou5 of whatever we exlracl from Ihe soíl and we Iry lo give back Ihe same amounl of Ihings Ihat we are extracting from Ihe soil. This is very important lo usoThe more crops we grow, Ihe more the load will be evenly spread on us for harvesting them. More lhan that, we will al so get more employment. The greater lhe diversíty of crops, lhe more harvesting lhere is for differenl crops at different times; people in lhe víllage will gel more employment when there is more diversity.Women in our area do not prefer mono-cropping. The grealer lhe diversity, lhe fewer the grains of each crop, so lhe women won't want lo seU lhís smaU quantity of grain in Ihe market. Neilher will the men bother because of the small quantity; they will lhink Ihal \"even if I take this lo Ihe market, wha! is it lha! I am getting?\" When you see each crop individually, il will be very small, bu! when we compare the grain produetion for all of lhem, lhere will be more grain in total. If we have a range of different crops in our homes, lhen whenever we feel hungry, we can consume them. Wilh a single crop, we may or may nol get a good yield. If the crop fails, we will slarve for most of the year. You may Ihink Ihal if you gel good crop, you may purehase some of Ihe grains of different crops lo eat, but even if you can gel it in Ihe market, poor women will defini!ely no! buy so many different crops. They would ralher spend Ihe money on olher !hings Ihan food. If we have grains in our own homes, Ihe satisfaelion is different than when we buy il from Ihe market. Even if you want lo eat, you may nol have the money, and even buying from the market, we will eal less and lhe satisfaction will not be Ihere. If we grow a range of erops and have the different grains in our homes, then whenever children ask, we can cook different recipes from lhe differenl grains and provide them with nutritious food al Ihe sama time. whieh is no! possible when we grow a single crop. Whatever inputs we are using for farming. Ihe resources should be avaílable loeally and the farmer should not depend on any external resources. We want lo use our own products; we want to use some of the green-Ieaf manuring crops. We give a 101 of importance to soil fertility management. Whatever variety you may grow, unless lhe soU is fertile, we cannot achieve anythíng; we eannot achieve the potential yield even though Ihe genelie potential may be lhere. So soil fertility is one of Ihe mos! important lhings we are trying lo address.Our way of looking at lhe productivity of a farm is different. We generally don't look al yield only or yield per unil of land only or only general yield. There are many things we getfrom lhe farm, like uncultivaled greens, medicinal planls, vegetables, fodder. So ifyou monitor all these things, Ihey will be more lhan wha! you would get from a single crop. Everything is equally important in this whole farming system, so we look at different things in farming and nol at a single lhing.","tokenCount":"7631"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8ea509d3b9104ee1fb4f8c4de0615f88","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d3c52248-45dc-4a60-a9cb-aa40a489c282/retrieve","id":"2053887857"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"771ba3d7-d429-47cf-b172-1348144b846d","pagecount":"1","content":"h En estado adulto, Aeneolamia varia se alimentan del xilema de las hojas de pasturas del género Urochloa P. Beauv e inyecta toxinas, provocando clorosis y disminución en el aprovechamiento de recursos por parte de la planta. h La resistencia se expresa como antibiosis y/o antixenosis. La tolerancia como la capacidad de reducir o compensar el estrés producido por la plaga. h El programa de fitomejoramiento de Forrajes Tropicales en el CIAT ha empleado la selección de germoplasma y el mejoramiento genético para identificar genotipos tolerantes o antibióticos. h Los genotipos de U. humidicola expresan diferentes niveles de tolerancia al ataque de A. varia (Hernández et al., 2019). h Tradicionalmente, se ha cuantificado el daño foliar mediante una escala visual desarrollada por Cardona et al. (1999). No obstante, la evaluación visual requiere un experto y presenta menor precisión y exactitud en la cuantificación.Evaluar e implementar una nueva metodología de fenotipado de alto rendimiento para cuantificar el daño por adultos de A. varia sobre Urochloa humidicola (Rendle) Morrone & Zuloaga (syn.h La metodología por mosaicos en Pliman resulta más versátil y permite cuantificar de forma más exacta el síntoma causado por adultos de A. varia. h Las metodologías por índice y umbrales pueden resultar útiles en sintomatologías más definidas y regulares sobre la lámina, como el daño causado por los instares de ninfa en A. varia. h La cuantificación del daño por imágenes permite obtener variables continuas, facilitando el análisis estadístico de los ensayos y la selección de genotipos tolerantes de U. humidicola a adultos de A. varia.h Se infestaron 43 unidades experimentales de U. humidicola con dos adultos de A. varia en un experimento no-choice. h Se tomaron fotografías de cada unidad experimental en condiciones de luz controladas con una cámara réflex. h El preprocesamiento de las imágenes consistió en la calibración del color (PlantCV) y segmentación del fondo (pliman).Las 43 imágenes preprocesadas fueron evaluadas por dos evaluadores utilizando la escala de severidad propuesta por Cardona et al. (1999) (Fig. 1).Método índice SAVI en Pliman (M.I.S): Segmentación del daño por el índice SAVI (Fig. 2c).Método mosaico en Pliman (M.M): Tres mosaicos con valores RGB de las categorías fondo, tejido sano y tejido dañado (Fig. 2d). El método que obtuvo una mayor concordancia y correlación (R² = 0.89) con las evaluaciones visuales fue el de los mosaicos con Pliman. La metodología de los mosaicos permitió determinar los niveles de resistencia de los genotipos y los testigos de Urochloa humidicola a adultos de A. varia.Método por umbrales RGB (M.U): Creación de umbrales que identifican píxeles de las categorías de tejido verde, clorótico y necrótico (Fig. 2b). ","tokenCount":"434"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e6b7df97ee4eea9130ab6e8a6c0c8b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/17348567-0cf4-4cdb-8c84-2a76945709e1/retrieve","id":"-1552796779"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"745126f7-c5c7-4a67-abbb-71c9dbcb3cb9","pagecount":"46","content":"The farmer business school (FBS) is a participatory action learning process that involves farmer groups participating in agricultural value chains. As part of capacity strengthening, FBS comprises a series of group-based experiential learning activities over a production-marketing cycle while interacting with other chain actors and stakeholders. As a tangible outcome of FBS, the farmer-participants are expected to initiate or strengthen a business upon completing the FBS learning process. FBS aspires to more profitable pro-poor farm business through market-oriented innovations that enhance trust, coordination, and collaboration between farmers and other chain actors while empowering men and women farmers, thus ultimately contributing to sustainable livelihoods of targeted farming households.The FBS approach was developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) and first introduced in Indonesia in late 2000s. Following its successful application, FBS was then introduced in the Philippines by CIP -Food Security Through Asian Roots and Tubers (FoodSTART), one of the grant projects supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). More recently, the approach has been scaled out and adapted by several IFAD investments projects in Asia, including the Fisheries, Coastal Resources and Livelihood Project (FishCORAL)  The FBS learning and monitoring guide (FBS-LMG) is primarily meant to guide the FBS facilitators in their weekly sessions, and remind them of the expected output for each session. It is not a replacement of the farmer business school (FBS) manual that remains a 'must-read' for adequate FBS preparation; providing the details of the concepts, principles, and directions to the facilitators. The manual should be read during and after the training of facilitators (TOF), before the FBS implementation, and as preparation for the refresher course. Furthermore, the FBS-LMG guides FBS facilitators and the FBS Core Team of the implementing organizations in identifying and addressing challenges (mentoring) and tracking progress (monitoring) in implementation.The FBS-LMG is an operational, easy-to-use checklist of activities and outputs that the facilitators can easily refer to during the FBS session. It consists of the following sections:1. Implementation and facilitation of FBS: discusses the basic relationship and importance of intertwined processes: FBS facilitation, monitoring, and mentoring, and describes the different responsibilities of facilitators relative to their respective monitoring and mentoring functions.2. Summary of modules: presents in brief the modules and sessions of the FBS curriculum and the suggested number of hours or days of engagement with the enterprise group. The module, activities, duration of engagement, and any changes should always be agreed between the facilitators and the enterprise group.3. The modules in brief: summarizes the learning objectives, suggested activities (with brief description), and expected outputs of each session.4. The FBS monitoring-mentoring toolkit: a key tool to track and enhance FBS implementation. FBS monitoring is done at three levels: the local enterprise facilitators, i.e. the community facilitators, the implementing organization's mentor facilitators, and the FBS Core Team to be established by the implementing organization. Local and mentor facilitators as well as the Core Team have different oversight and monitoring roles and should all have this guide to harmonize status and needs information of the group, and the nature and timing of their responses.While the FBS-LMG is handy during the FBS sessions, the facilitators should always refer to the FBS Manual for the concepts and principles, and to prepare for the exercises. The facilitators, however, can be creative and add relevant exercises related to the session. The add-on(s) should be listed in the exercises column of the monitoring checklist indicating in the remarks column that this is an add-on. Evidence of activities and relevant outputs should be part of the materials in the documentation portfolio.The farmer business school with climate change and gender perspective is a community-based business cycle-long entrepreneurial learning activity that engages farmer groups in the development or upgrading of their businesses through participatory processes, and by interacting with other value chain actors as they get exposed to the dynamics in supply and market chains.The FBS implementation framework is crucial and should be discussed and clearly defined during the overall planning of FBS. The FBS Core Team will be in charge to coordinate, supervise, monitor, and mentor the implementation of the FBS. The day-to-day implementation of FBS will be led by different facilitators who also provide oversight. A crucial role will be played by the mentor facilitator (MF). They will have a good understanding of marketing, value chain and product development as well as outstanding capacity to work closely with farmers and be committed to communities.The community facilitator (CF) will be a progressive member of the farmers' group enrolled in FBS and is expected to have skills in facilitating the group process, or high potential to acquire such skills.A CF will be identified for each FBS and will facilitate the FBS sessions of the group, ideally the one to which they belong.It is recommended that at least two MF are identified for facilitating all sessions implemented in one or two FBS groups.Therefore, for successful implementation of FBS, all three facilitators (one CF and two MF) are expected to jointly and collaboratively facilitate all sessions. The MF will also be responsible for regularly submitting monitoring reports (e.g. checklist) to the FBS Core Team who establishes and maintains an FBS status database, access to which will be granted to CIP staff in charge of capacity building and technical backstopping. Selection and/or hiring of staff by the implementing organization will be informed by the recommendations provided by CIP in the draft terms of reference.The FBS Core Team and FBS Facilitators will undergo about a week's TOF on FBS organized by CIP. Upon completion of the training, the monitoring-mentoring framework can be adjusted and terms of reference for the different facilitators refined, accordingly.FBS Core Team and FBS Facilitators will all perform facilitating, monitoring and mentoring functions. However, they will have well-defined and different responsibilities in the process. Facilitators should clearly understand the monitoring-mentoring function as part of the facilitation process. Accordingly, the FBS training has specific sessions on facilitation, and FBS monitoring. The connection should be made clear during the TOF-FBS to ensure that facilitators perform the monitoring-mentoring function well enough to achieve objectives and comply with the requirements of the implementing organization.It has been said that: \"Facilitation is the practice of providing leadership without taking the reins. A facilitator for community engagement gets others to take responsibility and to take the lead on different tasks that will result in collaborative efforts to address the issue around which the engagement is taking place\" 1 . Therefore, the different facilitators are trained so that they can learn how to use methods and tools that enable the FBS group to understand the vision and purpose of its engagement, the means to achieve its objectives and targets, and ways of tracking whether the group and its members are progressing well towards the final goal of initiating or strengthening a business. Facilitators need to balance time, the degree of uncertainty around key issues, and the maturity and strength of the FBS group, and help the members to find the best possible option or action to address the challenge or opportunity. Facilitation for entrepreneurship and value chain development requires a set of skills that teases out the participants' existing and potential skills to listen, motivate, and develop the different capabilities to teach, mentor, and manage learning processes.If facilitation is the means of getting the processes done without imposition, then monitoring allows tracking and assessing the accomplishment. If outputs in terms of process and/or concrete compliance indicators are not, or only partly met, or there are other needs/gaps to be addressed to achieve outputs, facilitators should mentor the FBS group themselves, or facilitate access to external specialists, technicians, business service providers, and others to provide the required mentoring to the FBS group. This module involves:1. an immersion process in order to: a) clarify with the participating organization and farmer group(s) the FBS process b) identify the members who will commit to FBS sessions through until the business launch.2. the conduct of the FBS refresher course by the implementing organization's Core Team for the Community and mentor facilitators, especially to include the use of the FBS Learning Guide and the FBS Monitoring Guide.Expected outputs:1. capability of local facilitators to conduct FBS enhanced.2. the use of FBS manual, learning guide, and monitoring guide clarified and understood.3. supplies and materials, logistics, and templates for documented outputs understood and prepared.4. refresher course conducted by implementing organization's facilitators.Before module 1, the meeting with the selected participants of FBS enterprise group, the implementing organization should have oriented and consulted the local units and farmer group on the FBS process, the participant selection process, and their involvement/needed commitment in the FBS. This may be through consultation meetings, or through consultative visits to the relevant local offices and farmers. These activities can be done in the 'village immersion' by the implementing organization's facilitators.There is need to assess which farmer groups are eligible or potential FBS participants using the following criteria: (1) organized and with high enough potentials to engage in business enterprise; (2) strong interest; (3) good potential of improving the supply chain (i.e. needed raw materials and other inputs).The FBS refresher course, if necessary, should be conducted at this stage.The facilitators should start developing the FBS documentation portfolio which is where the FBS documents are kept (e.g. adapted curriculum, profile sheets, pre-test results, module session outputs, etc.). This FBS portfolio is useful in the FBS monitoring-mentoring process.Module 1This module involves:1. orientation of selected and committed FBS participants and getting to know the members 2. profiling of the FBS members 3. prioritization or validation of the targeted enterprise 4. validation of the adapted FBS curriculum, scheduling, and logistics agreements.At the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. discuss the concept and process of the FBS 2. confirm their interest and commitment to participate in the FBS 3. validate the FBS enterprise from the implementing organization's enterprise prioritization process 4. refine the FBS curriculum according to their needs and backgrounds.Learning content and methods: The profile sheets of participants, and their participation in this module, should give the facilitators some ideas/insights as to the resources and capabilities of members. Facilitators should take note in their documentation.Activities 4, 7, and 8 may not take much time as these are partly discussed in module 0.Expected outputs:1. participants and facilitators reach common understanding of the FBS approach 2. FBS enterprise group formed, and members profiled 3. FBS curriculum validated; develop the FBS sessions plan and schedules for implementation 4. logistical needs clarified and agreed (e.g. venue, funds, supplies/materials)Module 2This module aims to assess, form and strengthen the farmers groups for enterprise development or chain improvement. It has three sessions: (1) livelihood and business visioning, (2) individual and group capacity assessment, and (3) learning and working together.Objective:1. To validate the potential enterprise for chain development or upgrading 2. To form the FBS group based on the validated enterprise/value chain.This is a brief session where the trainer-facilitator will present the identified/validated enterprise/value chain based on the preliminary assessments. The facilitator describes the possible organization/formation of the group members according to the different activities (e.g. production, processing, marketing, business recording) that will be involved for the enterprise to operate. The organizational structure of the business enterprise will then be identified.Objectives:At the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. discuss key livelihood and business concepts 2. develop and share their livelihood and business vision 3. prioritize related market chain(s) of the validated/prioritized commodity(ies).Understanding livelihoods and business Group exercise on livelihoods; meta cards Enterprise/business visioning of the farmer groups Group discussion and livelihood visioning (i.e. household livelihoods; farmer groups livelihood)Prioritizing commodity and value chains Brainstorming; group discussion for consensus building exercise on focused value chainsThe outputs will be synthesized and documented by the facilitator for review by the participants.Session 3: Learning and working togetherAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1 The outputs will be synthesized and documented by the facilitator for review by the participants.The purposes of this session are to:1. stress the importance and principles of the facilitation function in the FBS process 2. help build/improve facilitation skills.This session will be conducted by an invited implementing organization's resource person or the FBS Facilitator.Method: Lecture; games; role-playing; videoThis module aims to introduce key concepts on business, enterprise, market supply and value chains. It consists of two sessions: (1) market-supply and value chain perspectives, and (2) entrepreneurship for small-scale producers.Module 3 starts with a practical discussion of the concepts and principles of market supply and value chains, especially the differences between the three in terms of forward and backward linkages: value chain concept's main difference involving the importance of facilitation and collaboration of all chain actors for mutual benefits. This is session 1, which includes a market visit for experiential learning of the concepts and principles, as well as serving as a primer for module 4 on the value chain assessment.Session 1: Supply-market and value chain perspectiveAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. understand the concepts of business and enterprise, supply-market chains, and adding value 2. identify the value chain actors, potential service providers and other stakeholders, and their roles in the value chain. During the interviews with a limited number of chain actors, participants should gather and record information about other chain actors as well. Also, implementing organization's facilitators should have made prior arrangements with appropriate organizations or chain actors for the market visit.After the interviews and direct observation, participants go back to the venue for the discussion, analyzes of fieldwork outputs, organization and sharing of outputs. It is suggested that the market visit be scheduled at a time when most chain actors can be found.Synthesis by facilitator. In addition to summarizing the outputs of the market visit exercise noting the initial supply and market chain maps, the synthesis should emphasize the importance of the exercise in identifying additional supply and market chain actors, understanding how to contact and better engage them in preparation for the conduct of value chain assessment in module 4.Session 2: Entrepreneurship for small-scale producersAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. discuss the concept of entrepreneurship and the role of local entrepreneurs 2. identify different types of business organizations, and describe their relative advantages and means of growth.Learning content and methods This module aims to assess and prioritize challenges and opportunities across the supply and market chains using appropriate tools. The chain mapping exercise in module 3 can provide the lead to the different chain actors who will be interviewed during this module's value chain assessment.The chain assessment results can help analyze how improvements can be made at the different points or nodes in the chain: from inputs to production, processing, marketing, and consumption, including the logistics in the different parts.The module consists of five sessions: (1) planning for value chain assessment, (2) conducting the chain assessment, (3) discussion and analysis of the chain assessment results, (4) sharing and validation with chain actors, potential support services providers, and stakeholders; and (5) analyzing and prioritizing chain upgrading opportunities and interventions.Session 1: Planning for supply-market-value chain assessmentAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. understand the importance and purpose of value chain assessments 2. plan and organize chain assessments 3. present the potential interventions in the chain functions/actors based on the chain assessment results.Duration: 3 hours Session1, on planning and organizing for the value chain assessment, can already be done following session 2 of module 3, as the latter is a short session. The assessment should focus on the relevant chain of the target commodity enterprise while also enabling a good understanding of the other related chains.Before the conduct of the value chain assessment, the facilitator should have prepared for the module 4 field work by contacting the chain actors to be interviewed or who are involved in the group discussions. This is critical as engaging with some chain actors, like traders and businessmen, could be challenging. It is also important to legitimize this process by sending communication to the relevant officials.The use of checklist of data/information needs for each chain actor is very useful. The checklist in module 3 can be refined and tailored to the specific enterprise value chain.Target commodity/supply-market chain/ service providers and stakeholders to visit/interview Group discussion; brainstorming, meta cards Follow through of chain map in module 3 Key information to be collected, methodology to use, and questions for each actor/service providerGroup exercise; role-playing (practice interview)Tasks and roles for assessment team members Group discussions Allocation of tasks within the people's organization (PO)Preparing logistics and schedule for fieldwork Group discussions; post session contacts Session 2: Conducting the value chain assessmentAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. apply methods and tools in supply-market chain assessment 2. collect relevant information for assessing the target commodity chains 3. determine operational challenges in conducting the assessment.Duration: 2-4 hours (may vary according to the chain actor interview or group discussion). Fieldwork is conducted in sub-groups and can last 2-5 days depending on the availability of producers, traders, processors, and other chain actors. At the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. build consensus on an updated list of priority market opportunities, using outputs from the sharing-validation exercise with other chain actors and stakeholders 2. prepare an action plan to address the prioritized market opportunities.TOPICS METHODSRanking of supply-market chain opportunities by farmerprocessors, partners, and chain representativesBuilding consensus on priority market opportunities Group discussionThe final output of the SVM will be an action plan that addresses the identified challenges and opportunities to develop or upgrade the value chain. The SVM can be done by cluster of enterprise groups and held in a strategic venue where relevant stakeholders and potential BDS providers converge. Participants at the SVM include representatives and facilitators of the enterprise groups: the action plan will still have to be presented to, and validated by, all members of the enterprise group back in the community.Testing potential innovations The business launch should be planned about two months before the target date. This is the responsibility of the implementing organization's management with the different levels of facilitators. Planning should begin immediately after completion of module 5.After the SVW, at which the revised action plan has been developed, a suitable date should be identified for the business launch. Preparations can then be adequately undertaken, including the refinements of the product quality with improved packaging, etc.At the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. plan for the business launch 2. prepare and organize the business launch event. A panel discussion of BDS providers can be organized as a cluster activity involving all the FBS enterprises.A panel discussion consists of invited representatives of potential BDS providers relevant to the FBS group enterprises. Each panelist (e.g. experts in the relevant technologies, marketing, packaging, food safety, financing, entrepreneurship skills training) presents the support service that they provide, the process and how they can be accessed, each during a 10-15 minute session. Open forum follows for clarification and more information.The following sessions may be adjusted in the actual implementation, as needed.Session 1: Business development servicesAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. identify sources of BDS to help develop the enterprise and the corresponding business plan 2. prepare proposals for accessing financial resources.Learning content and methods: Session 2: Financial management services (this can also be part of the special topics, and done simultaneously in module 5)At the end of the session, participants should be able to: apply practical knowledge and skills in financial management  identify and access services for financial management support.This module aims to help the enterprise groups develop business plans to make use of market opportunities. The business plan is prepared by building on realistic data/information covered during the process of applying and testing of innovations, as well as data/information gathered from modules 3 and 4. It consists of two sessions: (1) review of the value chain assessment outputs, and feedback to innovations; and (2) assistance to developing the business plan of the enterprise group.Session 1: Review of value chain assessment outputs, and feedback to innovationsAt the end of the session, participants should be able to:1. review the chain assessment results2. analyze the financial information related to innovations for incorporation into the business plan.TOPICS METHODSResource person; group discussion Technical assistance; mentoring Review feedback from consumers, other chain actors, and stakeholders to refine innovations Shortlisting of commercially viable innovations for business planning SWOC analysis, group exercise, financials Session 2: Preparing the business plan of the enterprise groupAt the end of the session, participants would be able to:1. know the parts and process of preparing the business plans 2. identify further needs to prepare the business plan.TOPICS METHODS Procedure and guidelines in business planning Presentation, group discussion, sample business plans from FBS Preparing the business plan (according to implementing organization's agreed template)Group exercise; technical assistance/resource person, mentoringThis event marks FBS completion with the launching of new business/es by the farmer-processor group. This is usually a three-day activity of (1) preparations;(2) the business launch (BL) proper; and (3) evaluation and preparation for post-FBS supportAt the end of this event, participants should be able to:1. showcase the businesses and innovations resulting from the FBS 2. share experiences and outcomes of their FBS participation 3. establish and strengthen contacts with other market chain actors and stakeholders.Learning content and methods: In order to achieve the objectives of the FBS, timely and adequate monitoring of FBS implementation is vital. The purpose of FBS monitoring is to check whether the planned activities and related exercise(s) are conducted and expected outputs are achieved in terms of both quality and quantity. Since the FBS is a complex process entailing both the strengthening of business capabilities and the upgrading of value chains or enterprises, it should be expected that needs, challenges, and opportunities arise in the process. Facilitators should be adequately equipped to have the technical knowledge and skills to address them through mentoring. Facilitators are themselves mentors but,, whenever needed, they should also facilitate identifying and accessing external resource persons with specific knowledge and skills. Mentoring needs are often identified in the monitoring process.In order to guide the process, an FBS monitoring-mentoring toolkit is provided. It consists of the FBS monitoringmentoring guide, and the FBS monitoring checklist.The FBS monitoring-mentoring guide (FBS-MMG) is directly used by the FBS CF and MF. It is suggested that the MMG is reviewed before the start of the session as easy reminder. The FBS-MMG serves as the summary of activities, exercises, and expected outputs of each session. This should take into account any revisions or modifications that have been agreed by the FBS group during the FBS curriculum validation in module 1.The MF and the implementing organization's FBS Core Team should also have a copy of the FBS-MMG as reference document for their monitoring and mentoring. Despite having different oversight and monitoring roles, they should refer to this document to harmonize status, technical and service assistance needs of the group, and the nature and timing of their responses. The FBS-MMG should help identify areas or special topics for mentoring like marketing, financial literacy, food safety and quality, packaging, certification, and others. There may be a need to cluster nearby FBS groups with similar needs to be more efficient in accessing required services and resource persons. Other events to be harmonized and clustered are the stakeholders' validation meeting/Workshops after module 4 (i.e. to share value chain assessment outputs for action planning), and module 5 (i.e. presentation of improved products and feedback from BDS providers).The FBS monitoring checklist (FBS-MC) is a handy-to-carry tool that helps with checking the progress of FBS implementation by session; whether the session has accomplished the target activity(ies) and achieved expected output(s). It also helps identify specific needs and problems to be addressed. The Core Team and FBS facilitators have diverse and complementing roles in using the checklist. The FBS facilitators should complete the checklist immediately after the completion of the relevant session to ensure compliance and, if required, instigate immediate corrective measures, including timely identification of needed technical assistance, information and business services.A key difference between FBS-MMG and FBS-MC is that in the former the expected outputs are indicated in terms of activity process; in the latter, they are indicated in terms of concrete documentation to be produced and kept in the document portfolio that each FBS group is expected to have (kept either by the CF or MF).  ","tokenCount":"4062"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"27b891639c58f2025b5b58755a5ef5af","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23861be0-9365-4b8b-bf12-7cc1c69c57f2/retrieve","id":"2041770789"},"keywords":[".> L","(","' I -'\"-","'-\\"],"sieverID":"0ba965eb-7e6c-49ab-8d12-efc957790a60","pagecount":"57","content":"A) Monto de las inversiones y las deprec i aeí ones para las plantas de secado • . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . Al Evaluación a nivel de finca de tres cultivares de yuca en cultivos asod ados y en monocuApreciación económica de los ensayos a nivel de finca yecto. Las experiencias de estas dos primeras fases y sU difusión por medio de las actividades de inducción a los productores de yuca de cinco departamentos (Atlántico, Bolfvar, Córdoba, Magdalena y Sucre) de la Costa Atlántica han culminado con la construcción de seis plantas de secado adicionales en la región.La decisión de la expansión de las plantas de secado en la Costa Atlántica fue tomada a nivel de un estudio de una Comisión de Trabajo Interinstitucional luego de auscultar la opinión de los agricultores productores de yuca de la región, de apreciar el potencial de producción del cultivo y de la información preliminar obtenida en las fases experimental y semi-comercial de la Planta Piloto de Betulia. La asignación de fondos por un monto total de seis millones de pesos, por parte del Programa DRI I para financiar las nuevas plantas permitió incentivar a los productores de yuca para formar sus respectivas Asociaciones, requisito previo para la solicitud de los fondos de inversión y de capital de trabajo. Para lograr estos objetivos fue necesario formar equipos de trabajo a nivel departamental constituidos por representantes del ICA, SENA, CECORA, Caja Agraria y en algunos lugares de FINANCIACOOP.Por la limitación del tiempo entre la implementación de la decisión de la Comisión de Trabajo (Noviembre 1982) y la finalización de las obras de construcción de las seis plantas adicionales de secado (Marzo~Abri1 1983), no fue posible que todas ellas estuvier~n funcionando durante la época seca (Diciembre-Abril). La Planta Piloto de Betulia fue ampliada de 300 alaDO m 2 de área de piso de secado y la casi totalidad (90 de un total de 98 toneladas) de la yuca Seca producida en 1983 fue obtenida en ella. La cap~cidad máxima de procesamieClto en las siete plantas, incluyendo la Planta Pi loto, para 1984 se estima en 2,500 toneladas de yuca fresca para producir alrededor de 1,000 toneladas de yuca seca.Las experiencias obtenidas en la Planta Piloto durante dos años consecutivos sugieren que ~p .. lanificación por parte de los agricultores de la integración de las actividades de producción y procesamiento de yuca es un proceso evolutivo el cual llega a ser logrado una vez gue ellos mismos hayan operado las plantas de secado, se cercioren de la simplicidad del proceso, visualicen el potencial del mercado de la yuca para la alimentación animal yestudi\",\" las vent1ljas y desventaias de este mercado alternativo. Desafortunadamente, al no haber sido posible poner en funcionamiento las otras seis plantas y de acuerdo a la información preliminar sobre área sembrada con yuca en cada Asociación, es probable que para 1984 los excedentes de producción de yuca en cada una de ellas no serán suficientes para asegurar un auto-suministro de la materia prima para las plantas de secado.Uno de los problemas más serios en la actualidad es la insuficiente disponibilidad del material vegetativo requerido para expandir el área cultivada con yuca en cada una de las Asociaciones de agricultores que poseen su planta de secado. La elaboración de programas de multipl icación rápida o de producción de semilla certificada eS una necesidad urgente para el futuro del Proyecto. Aunque eventualmente la producción de semi Ila de yuca puede estar a cargo de cada Asociación de agricultores, dadas las actuales condiciones de la región se sugiere que las oficinas de ICA y del DRI a nivel de Costa Atlántica elaboren un estudio orientado a plantear soluciones a este problema. LasEstaciones Experimentales del ICA en Caribia, Carmen de Bolívar y Turipaná podrían coordinar y elaborar una propuesta para la producción de semilla certificada de yuca y su suministro a las Asociaciones de productores de yuca de la región.Las actividades de capacitación realizadas como parte del Proyecto y en especial los dos ultimes cursillos para profesionales y técnicos de las en-tidades departamentales,efectuados en Sincelejo y Barranquilla,han permitido formar equipos interinstitucionales a nivel departamental que pueden acelerar los procesos de transferencia de tecnología a los productores de yuca involucrados en el Proyecto. Estos equipos pueden, por tanto, complementar las actividades del ICA en lo referente al problema de producción y suministro de semilla certificada, así como en otros aspectos agronómicos.La actualización de las evaluaciones económicas del proceso de secado natural de la yuca, especialmente a nivel de la fase comercial de la Planta Piloto, así como las apreciaciones económicas de las pruebas agronómicas a nivel de finca sugieren claramente que el éxito futuro del Proyecto dependerá en gran parte de la posibilidad de producir excedentes de yuca a precios relativamente bajos. Es indispensable, por 10 tanto, lograr un incremento de la productividad del cultivo como uno de 105 factores más importantes para obtener una materia prima barata. Aunque los resultados de las pruebas agronómicas permiten vislumbrar un buen potencial para las variedades mejoradas, la productividad de la variedad local puede posiblemente ser igualmente aumentada mediante la aplicación de la tecnología mejorada de producción existente.Los datos revisado, y la experiencia ganada en el Proyecto sugieren que ~ rentabilidad de las plantas de secado podría ser lograda atacando varios frentes, tales como: incrementar la productividad del cultivo, mantener los costos de procesamiento al mínimo posible, lograr mejores precios de venta del producto seco y mejorar la eficiencia de operación del secado.Las actividades en vía de ejecución especialmente en lo referente a los estudios de oferta y demanda de las raíces de yuca para los mercados tradicionales de la región, las encuestas sobre potencial y costos de producción del cultivo, la validación de tecnología mejorada del cultivo a nivel de finca y el desarrollo de la tecnología apropiada para mejorar la eficiencia del secado de la yuca y aumentar la capacidad de operación de las plantas Entre las limitantes de mayor importancia para lograr la replicación del proceso de secado a otros lugares se encontraba la relacionada con los aspectos de financiación y especialmente del capital de inversión para la construcción de 105 pisos de secado. Las gestiones de la Oficina DRI/Bogotá (Drs. Carlos Junca y Alva~Abisambra) culminaron con la asignación de fondos procedentes del Programa Mundial de Al imentación por un monto total de seis millones de pesos, los cuales servirían para incentivar a los agricultores productores de yuca que estarían en condiciones de producir suficiente cantidad de yuca para tener excedentes que serían procesados y secados y de esta forma replicar varias plantas de secado en la región.El esquema general de la ayuda económica propuesta fue de financiar el costo total de las plantas de secado (piso, bodega, n~quína picadora e implementos)sobre la base de que el 50% de la inversión provendría del fondo antes mencionado en forma de una donación y que el 50% restante sería considerado como un préstamo, sin intereses, a cinco años de plazo con dos años de gracia, o sea, que debería de ser devuelto en los años 3 2 , 4~ y 52.En vista de la posibilidad futura de expandir las áreas de los pisos de secado o de construir un mayor número de plantas de secado en cada zona, se propuso que el 50% reembolsable se constituyera en un fondo para los propios agricultores, con el compromiso de que el 50% de las utilidades netas , I , t , f ¡ fueran depositadas en este mismo fondo. Básicamente, se propuso la donación de dinero para la construcción e implementación de las plantas de'secado y la disponibilidad de fondos adicionales como capital de trabajo, con carácter devolutivo pero sin intereses. La Comisión de Trabajo preparó un esquema de las actividades a desarrollarse, las cuales incluían un extenso viaje por las zonas productoras de yuca de la región y entrevistas con los grupos o asociaciones de agricultoreso En cada lugar, el personal técnico de las Oficinas DRI se encargó de reunir a los agricultores quienes expusieron por intermedio de sus líderes, y eventualmente con la participación de todos los agricultores, sus problemas de producción y comercialización de yuca así como sus impresiones sobre el proceso de secado, En los lugares visitados y como parte de las actividades de inducción del plan de trabajo del Proyecto, algunos agricultores habían visitado la Planta Piloto de Betulia y se les había explicado el proceso de secado natural de la yuca.El itinerario de visitas y entrevistas con agricultores (21-25 de Noviembre de 1982) incluyó las siguientes areas productoras de yuca de la Costa Atlántica: Carranzó (Chinú, Córdoba) y Betulia (APROBE, Zacatecas y Albania, en Sucre); La Peña (Sabanalarga, Atlántico); Pivijay y Media Luna (La Colorada, Magdalena). El programa de actividades incluyó además una visita al Gerente General (Dr. Luis Carlos Pareja) y encargados de compras de insumos (Ing, Alvaro Lambis y Carlos Javier Zota) de la Planta de alimentos ba lanceados de PUR 1 tIA en Cartagena.Al final del programa de estas actividades, la Comisión de Trabajo I'nterinstitucional sesionó en pleno (25 Nov.82) en la Oficina ORI del Atlántico en Barranquilla y procedió a evaluar cada una de las agrupaciones de agricultores y lugares visitados para determinar un orden de prioridad en la ayuda financiera del DRI y formular una serie de recomendaciones para 105 planes futuros inmediatos.La Comisión de Trabajo evaluó las visitas y entrevistas real izadas a cada asociación de agricultores en base a tres criterios principales: 1) organización de los agricultores, 2) asistencia técnica de las entidades DRI y 3) potencial de producción de yuca. Estos tres criterios fueron juzgados en base a un puntaje de 10, 20 Y 20 puntos, respectivamente, para un total máximo de 50 puntos.En el caso de la organización de los agricultores se consideró: la presencia de líderes en el grupo, el grado de educación o de preparación de los asociados, el número de socios de la organización, su experiencia organizativa y su conocimiento o desarrollo empresarial. En 10 referente a la asistencia técnica que se brinda a los agricultores por parte de las instituciones DRI a ni ve 1 loca 1 se cons i deró: 1 a as i stenci 11 técn i ca agronómi ca actua 1, la situación de las entidades de crédito, el enfoque y participación de las entidades encargadas de los aspectos de comercialización y la asistencia en la capacitación y la organización para los grupos de agricultores. La potencialidad del cultivo se juzgó en base a las declaraciones de agricultores y técnicos en relación al área sembrada de yuca, a la historia del cultivo en cada lugar, al área posible de expansión y a los aspectos relacionados con los sistemas de tenencia de tierra. Para cada organización de agricultores entrevistada y util izando los criterios antes mencionados, se procedió a evaluar cada una de ellas, exponiéndose y discutiéndose las razones para los puntajes asignados y obteniéndose los resultados que se presentan en el Cuadro 1. Con base a los resultados obtenidos en estas evaluaciones, la Comisión de Trabajo aprobó las siguientes decisiones: 1) ampliar el área de acción del Proyecto Cooperativo DRI/ACDI-CIAT mediante la construcción de seis plantas de secado adicionales con las áreas de piso que se muestran en el cuadro y aumentar el area de la Planta Piloto de Betulia de 300 a 1000 m 2 ; 2) solicitar la asignación de los fondos como sigue: $1'400,000 para la ampliación de la Planta Piloto, $800,000 para cada planta de 500 rn2 y $600,000 para Carranzó;y 3) elaborar una serie de recomendaciones para determinar las prioridades de acción inmediatas con miras a corregir las deficiencias observadas en cada uno de los criterios usados para estas evaluaciones.La División de Comercialización (Drs. Carlos Junca y Alvaro Abisambra) de la Oficina ORI/Bogotá preparó un plan detallado de los procedimientos para la elaboración de los proyectos de inversión para las plantas de secado, la mecánica de manejo de los fondos asignados y la elaboración de los contratos entre DRI y cada una de las asociaciones que construirfan plantas de secado natural de yuca.Las recomendaciones emanadas por la Comisión de Trabajo y elevadas por intermedio de la División de Comercial ización al Director DRI (Dr. Martín Echavarría) fueron las siguientes: 1) organizar e implementar oficialmente los grupos de trabajo interinstitucionales a nivel departamental para la ejecución de las actividades del Proyecto Cooperativo DRI/ACDI-CIAT;2) formar un Comité a nivel nacional para revisar y evaluar periódIcamente los progresos del Proyecto Cooperativo; y 3) sol icitar el apoyo di r.ecto del Programa DRI a nivel departamental y regional para la ejecución de las encuestas del potencial de producción del cultivo y los estudios de demanda y mercadeo de la yuca.En el transcurso del primer semestre de 1983 se na llevado a cabo la implementación de las decisiones de la Comisión de Trabajo y el Proyecto Cooperativo DRI/ACDI-CIAT cuenta actualmente con un red de siete plantas de secado en la Costa Atlántica de Colombia. Los detalles técnicos de la construcción y puesta en marcha de estas plantas se describen en la siguiente Sección. Con base en la experiencia adquirida en la Planta Piloto de secado natucal de yuca en Betul ia y a las observaciones que se venían realizando en la región, la decisión de la Comisión de Trabajo Interinstitucional en lo relacionado a la replicación de las Plantas de secado fue puesta en marcha inmediatamente, iniciándose Jas gestiones y trámites legales para la formación de las asociaciones de agricultores que tendrían a su cargo la construcción, el funcionamiento y la administración de las nuevas plantas de secado (Figura 1).Una amplia programación de inducción a los agricultores de dichas asociaciones fue llevada a cabo a través de visitas de representantes de cada una de ellas a la Planta Piloto de Betulia y complementada con exposiciones sobre el proceso de secado al resto de los agricultores en cada sede.A continuación Se describen los detalles técnicos de las inversiones realizadas en las nuevas plantas de secado, así como en la ampliación del piso de secado de la Planta Piloto y se resumen los datos obtenidos en el funcionamiento de algunas. Las plantas de secado de los departamentos de Atlántico (APROPERA) y de Magdalena (APROAPIVIJAY y APROAMEDIAlUNA) fueron terminadas a principios de Abril de 1983 y no se pudieron poner en funcionamiento debido en parte al inicio de las lluvias Y. principalmente, a causa de los altos precios alcanzados por el mercado de yuca fresca en estas zonas ($10-15/kg).El Cuadro 2 presenta el resumen de las inversiones realizadas para la ampliación de la Planta Piloto de Betulia de 300 a 1,000 m 2 de piso de secado y para la construcción de las seis plantas adicionales (dos en $ucre, una en Córdoba, una en Atlántico y dos en Magdalena).En cada planta además del piso de secado se construyó: un área techada de 16 m Z para la instalación y funcionamiento de la máquina picadora. una bodega con una capacidad de 140 m 3 para almacenamiento de los trozos secos y una cerca de alambre en el perímetro de la planta. En la Planta Piloto de Betu-  rrf. En cada planta de secado se instaló una máquina picadora con disco trazador tipo Tailandia accionada con un motor a gasolina de 5hp (con un disco de repuesto) y una báscula de 500 kg de capacidad. las herramientas e implementos consistieron de carretillas, palas, rastrillos, recogedores, empaques y una carpa plástica de 250 m 2 para las plantas de 500 m 2 de piso y de 500 rol para la planta de secado de APROBE (1,000 m 2 de piso).Las siete plantas de secado natural de yuca construidas en la Costa Atlántica totalizan un área de 4,000 rnZ de piso de los cuales 300 rnZ fueron construidos para la fase experimental en 1981 en la Planta Piloto. la inversión total (piso de secado, área de picado, bodega, cercado del lote, equipos y herramientas) ascendió a 3'303,609 pesos. El costo por unidad de superficie (m l ) de los 3,700 m2 de piso construidos en este año varió considerablemente para cada sitio mostrando un rango desde 267 hasta 474 pesos por metro cuadrado, con un promedio de 377 pesos (Cuadro 2). Las diferencias en costo por metro cuadrado de piso se deben principalmente a los precios de compra del lote y de los materiales (cemento, arena, grava, etc.) los cuales son específicos para cada sitio.Del monto total de $6'000,000 asignados para cubrir el costo de las inversiones y el capital de trabajo para las siete plantas de secado de yuca del Proyecto se han utilizado $3'303,609 para obras de infraestructura y $684,000 para capital de trabajo, o sea que se ha empleado un 66% (3'987,609) quedando un saldo de $2'012,391 a ser destinados como capital de trabajo para el funcionamiento de las plantas para el período Oiciembre 1983-Abril 1984.Bl Producción de yuca seca en las plantas de secado y estimativos para 1984El Cuadro 3 presenta el resumen de la operación de las plantas de secado en el presente año. En 1981 la Planta Piloto de Betul ia procesó 19 toneladas de yuca fresca para producir 7 toneladas de yuca seca; en 1982 la Planta procesó 100.9 toneladas de yuca fresca para lograr 38.3 toneladas de yuca seca, mientras que en 1983 la Planta Piloto, ampliada a 1,000 rnZ, llegó a Cuadro 3. El Cuadro 4 presenta 105 estimados de capacidad de las plantas de secado usando una carga de 12 kg/m 2 , la capacidad de procesamiento semanal asumiendo tres secados por semana y los estimativos máximos en términos de cantidades de yuca f~esca que se procesarían y de yuca seca que se obtendrían en un período de 18 semanas, desde Inicios de Diciembre de 1983 hasta mediados de Abril de 1984. De ocurrir estas predicciones se procesarían algo más de 2,500 toneladas de yuca fresca para producir casi 1,000 toneladas de yuca seca~ Para poder lograr la cantidad de yuca fresca necesaria para utilizar al máximo la capacidad de secado de las siete plantas de la Costa Atlántica se requeriría una producción de por 10 menos 250 ha de yuca, asumiendo un rendimiento promedio de 10 toneladas por hectárea. La información recolectada hasta la fecha del area cultivada con yuca por cada Asociación para la cam-paRa 1983/84 (Cuadro 5) indica que ésta será insuficiente para cubrir o satisfacer la demanda de las plantas de secado, debiendo por tanto recurrirse ala compra de raíces de yuca de los agricultores que no pertenecen a las Asociaciones pero que cultivan yuca en áreas aledañas a las plantas. De noIOg~arse esta solución, las plantas de secado operarían con una capacidad menor a su capacidad máxima. La evolución del Proyecto permite visualizar una expansión progresiva del área del cultivo de la yuca para satisfacer la demanda de las plantas de secado. La información sobre los costos del procesamiento se limita al uso de los datos obtenidos en los primeros meses de 1983 en la Planta Piloto de Betulia.debiendo lograrse una información más extensa en 1984, cuando todas las siete plantas de secado estarán funciondndo. A continuación se presenta la compdración de los presupuestos proyectados con los realizados para las plantas de 2 secado con areas de piso de 500 m , el cual es el tamaño de planta más generalizado en la actualidad. Sin embargo. para las estimaciones de los costos de operación y la apreciación económica del proceso de secado natural de la yuca se utilizan datos para plantas de 500 y 1,000 m 2 de área de piso.A) Monto de las inversiones y las depreciaciones para las plantas de secado El Cuadro 6 muestra la comparación de los presupuestos proyectados y realizados para las inversiones en instalaciones, equipos, herramientas e implementos para las plantas de secado con 500 m 2 de área de piso. En general, el monto total de las inversiones realizadas para estos rubros fue similar al proyectado; las pequeñas diferencias observadas se debieron principalmente a un ligero mayor costo de la bodega y del cobertizo para la maquina picadora aunque por otro lado el costo del piso de concreto fue inferior al presupuestado. En el caso de los equipos se proyectó inicialmente la adquisición de dos motores a gasolina de 3 caballos de fuerza cada uno, pero se decidió comprar un solo motor de 5 caballos el cual permite un mejor funcionamiento de la maquina picadora, Uno de los problemas encontrados. sin embargo, ha sido la paralización de la operación de la planta de secado cuando el motor sufre algún desperfecto y debe ser reparado; la posibilidad de formar dos almace-rComparación de las inversiones y las depreciaciones proyectadas y real izadas para plantas de secado de 500 m 2 de piso Para calcular los estimados de los costos de operación de las plantas de secado can 500 y 1,000 m 2 de área de piso se había asumido que las plantas operarían durante 20 semanas consecutivas; aunque es posible lograr este objetivo, la experiencia ha demostrado que es más realista calcular un período de secado de 17 ó 18 semanas. Este cambio implica que la producción de yuca seca estimada originalmente en 135 y 270 toneladas para las plantas de secado de 500 y 1,000 m 2 , respectivamente, se reduciría a totales del orden de 115 y 230 toneladas, Introduciendo este cambio y haciendo los reajustes estimados para una planta de secado de 1,000 m 2 , a partir de los datos de la de 500 roZ, se han estimado los totales de los costos fijos y variables y se les ha comparado con los teóricamente estimados (Cuadro 7).En general, Se puede apreciar que los costos totales de operación reajustados para las plantas de 500 y 1,000 m 2 de piso son similares a los proyectados para dichas plantas (Cuadro 7 Los costos fijos incluyen mantenimiento, administración y arrendamiento.b Los costos variables incluyen: mano de obra, combustible, transporte, materia prima y gastos varios\" El costo de mano de obra para la planta de 1,000 m 2 se estima en un 50% más del monto por este concepto en la planta de 500 m 2 • proces~micnto se aumentaría de 2,700 a 3,690 (+ 37%) y de 2,456 a ,919 (+ 19%) para las plantas de 500 y 1,000 m 2 , respectivamente. Cabe anotar .además que el costo de la materia prima subió de $3,700 a $4,070 por tonelada, 10 cual significa un mejor precio de las raíces de yuca para beneficio de los mismos agricultores.Con base a los costos de producción reajustados y a las inversiones y depreciaciones revisadas, se han realizado las estimaciones de rentabilidad de las plantas de secado de 500 y 1,000 m 2 de área de pisoo En estos cálculos se continúa asumiendo una tasa de interés sobre el capital prestade del 21%anual, a pesar de que las plantas de la Costa Atlántica se han construido con condiciones financieras excepcionales; la reducción de la tasa de interés real ayudaría a mejorar la rentabi 1 idad del proceso, El Cuadro B indica que al reducir la producción de yuca seca por cada planta corno consecuencia de un período más corto de operación, el flujo de caja se reduce considerablemente al compararlo con el originalmente proyectado. Luego, al substraer los intereses y las depreciaciones los saldos netos serían negativos y las pérdidas aparentes serían del orden de 1,527 y 218 pesos por tonelada de yuca seca para las plantas de 500 y 1,000 m 2 . Los precios requeridos para evitar pérdidas en la operación de las plantas son bastante diferentes según el tamaño de las mismas y serían más factibles de ser logrados con las plantas de 1,000 m 2 que con las de 500 mZo Teniendo en cuenta el precio pagado por tonelada de yuca fresca en la Planta Piloto en 1983 ($4,070), una planta de 500 m 2 sería rentable cuando el precio de venta de la yuca seca fuera de $16,527 pesos mientras que el precio de venta requerido para la planta de 1,000 m 2 sería de $15,218/tonelada, Estos datos revisados sugieren que la rentabilidad de las plantas de secado podría ser lograda atacando varios frentes tales como: incrementar la productividad del cultivo, mantener los costos de procesamiento al mínimo posible, lograr mejores precios de venta del producto seco, mejorar la eficiencia de operación de secado.Las conclusiones derivadas de estos cálculos con los datos reajustados se reflejan gráficamente en la Figura 2, en la cual se muestra las combinacio-  -.-.,,~'.,\"\"\"\"\"~.~\"'.\"', ... ,\"'_\"\"\"'_\"\"~~_\"\"\"\"~.,....,...,~_~_',\"\" __ ~~\"\"\"\"'''''.~,,_\", _ _ ... M',r'I\"_~ _ _ \"\"\"\"'.\"'''''''_~'-'~_''_''~'''''''''''''~'''''''''''''''•_'''''_' _ _ '' _ _ ~_'''''_ ........... ~..........,.,--..\"\"\"\"\"\"\"i\"\"\"',.,.,,,~,,.._''l'\" neS de 105 precios de yuca seca y de yuca fresca utilizando la información estimada o proyectada y las condiciones observadas en 19830 La Figura '2 indica que en las condiciones revisadas en las plantas de 500 m 2 , para poder pagar la yuca fresca a $4,070 por tonelada se necesitaría lograr un' precio de venta de la yuca seca de $16,527; para el precio de venta de $15,OOO/tonelada de yuca seca, actualmente vigente, se debería de pagar $3,504 la tonelada de yuca fresca. En cambio, las plantas de 1,000 m 2 podrían operar pagando $4,070 por tonelada de yuca fresca y obteniendo $15,218/tonelada de yuca seca. las diferencias entre los datos estimados y revisados para la planta de 1,000 m 2 son menores que los observados para la planta de 500 m 2 • la operación de todas las siete plantas de secado de la Costa Atlántica en 1984 permitirá acumular información necesaria para mejorar los estimados de rentabilidad en condiciones practicas reales.Durante el segundo semestre de 1982 y el primer semestre de 1983 se han llevado a cabo una serie de trabajos relacionados con la recolección de datos de la producción y del mercadeo de la yuca en la Costa Atlántica de Colombia.En el período Noviembre-Diciembre 1982 se efectuó una encuesta a nivel de municipios en los departamentos de Atlántico, Bolívar, Córdoba y Sucre con el fin de obtener información general sobre las características de la producción de yuca en la región; esta encuesta está siendo ampliada, desde Abril de 1983.a un total de 430 agricultores en las zonas de influencia DRI. Simultáneamente, se ha iniciado la recolección de lá información sobre aspectos de crédito para la producción de yuca del área, potencial de producción con énfasis en la tenencia de tierras y del mercadeo (demanda, utilización, precios) de las raíces de yuca. Para la ejecución de estos trabajos se ha contado con la activa participación y colaboración del personal de las oficinas DRI e ICA a nivel departamental,El presente informe describe un breve resumen de algunos resultados parciales de la encuesta a nivel municipal. Mayores datos sobre el particular, así como los resultados de la encuesta a nivel de finca y la recolección de la información de otros aspectos relacionados con la producción y el mercadeo de la yuca serán presentados posteriormente.A) Encuesta a nivel municipal En Noviembre y Diciembre de 1982 se realizó una gira por las diferentes oficinas del Programa DRI en los Departamentos de Atlántico, Bolívar, Córdoba y Sucre y se efectuó una encuesta en un total de 29 municipios en los cuatro departamentos. Debido a que el cultivo de la yuca es tradicionalmente producido en fincas pequeñas y que el programa ORI orienta sus actividades a este nivel de producción agropecuaria, la mayor parte de la información se obtuvo de fincas con áreas menores de 20 ha.El Cuadro 9 presenta el resumen de los datos sobre los sistemas de producción de yuca de la región, así como la importancia relativa del cultivo en términos del área nedicada al mismo, Estos datos prel iminares confirman las observaciones de que el cultivo de la yuca es un componente generalizado en los sistemas de cultivos asociados en la Costa Atlántica y el monocultivo se encuentra bastante limitado. Las asociaciones yuca/maíz y yuca/maíz/ñame son las más difundidas a través de los cuatro departamentos. La ejecución de investigaciones agronómicas en cultivos asociados permitirá estudiar los factores que pueden incrementar los rendimientos del cultivo de la yuca como parte de los sistemas de producción predominantes en la región.La encuesta a nivel municipal permitió recopilar algunos datos preliminares sobre las apreciaciones del autoconsumo de las raíces a nivel de finca;el Cuadro 10 presenta esta información.Cuadro b No fue posible obtener información sobre el área de monocultivo.c Información de cuatro municipios fue obtenida en base a datos de solicitudes de crédito.\",~\",,,,_,\",,_,,,,\",,,,,,•~,_~\",,_\"\"\",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,~~_,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,_,,,_,_,,,,~ __ w_,,~_,,,,,,,,,-....,......,,,\" ___ \" .. '~,..-.-.. . . . . . _~\"_~\"_~~_\".,.._\"\"\"'~ ... _, __ ~~\"\"''''\"''''.,,'_'''''~ ____ ''''''_~~_.,....... ______ • .,.\"''''''-'---\\,\"~-~\"\",,_ .. la mejor infraestructura de la cual goza el departamento del Atlántico. Además, existe una demanda continua para la elaboración de bollos de yuca, es-• pecialmente en las cercanías de Barranquilla y por 10 menos parte de este tipo de procesamiento se realiza a nivel casero, a menudo fuera de las fincas productoras. Los datos recopilados confirman, además, que la mayor parte de la producción, alrededor de un 80% para el departamento del Atlántico y de un 60% para los otros tres departamentos se destina a los mercados de la región, principalmente para consumo humano y en cantidades reducidas para la extracción de almidón industrial. las encuestas que se están llevando a cabo actualmente permitirán una mejor identificación de la demanda de los diferentes mercados y de su potencial futuro.Con base a la información obtenida en la encuesta a nivel municipal, se han diseñado otros formatos para ser ejecutados a nivel de finca. Estos formatos incluyen una serie de aspectos entre los cuales cabe destacar los siguientes: sistema de utilización de la tierra, cambios en los sistemas de producción a través del tiempo, disponibilidad y necesidad de mano de obra, magnitud de la demanda de las raíces de yuca y destinos finales de uso, limitantes de la comercialización de las raíces, po!eflciaJ de expansión de la producción de yuca, rentabil ¡dad del cultivo, reacción del agricultor a los mercados alternativos al del consumo humano y a los posibles cambios en los sistemas de producción y estructura de precios.Se espera que para finales del segundo semestre de 1983 se haya procesado y analizado toda la información que está siendo recolectada en la encuesta a nivel de finca. Las observaciones preliminares sugieren que la rentabilidad de los sistemas de producción existentes son relativamente bajos y en el caso de la yuca será necesaria la introducción de tecnología mejorada para aumentar la productividad del cultivo y hacer más atractiva la expansión del área cultivada. En general, el éxito de un mercado alternativo como el de la alimentación animal dependerá en gran parte de un aumento considerable de la producción de la yuca en la región para lograr un suministro adecuado de la demanda de 105 mercados tradicionales (consumo fresco, procesamiento de bollos de yuca, almidón industrial) y poder disponer de un excedente apreciable para satisfacer la demanda de las plantas de secado.El logro de la estabi I idad de los precios de las raíces de yuca tanto para e I me rcado de consumo humano as í como para e I de yuca seca y el potencial para aumentar los ingresos del agricultor dependerán de la expansión del ~rea del cultivo así como del incremento en su productividad. Más aún, en el desarrollo del mercado para la alimentación animal se requerirán cambios en los sistemas de producción del cultivo con el fin de asegurar un suministro adecuado a las plantas de secado • . Para poder anal izar el potencial de la tecnología mejorada del cultivo así como los efectos sobre su rentabilidad al cambiar 105 sistemas de producción, se realizaron unos ensayos en el area,con la colaboración y participación del personal del ICAI Sucre y de los agricultores.A) Evaluación a nivel de finca de tres cultivares de ~~ca en cultivos asociados y en monocultivo Seis ensayos en diferentes fincas del área alrededor de Betul ia (Sucre), cada uno con dos repeticiones, fueron real izados para evaluar la variedad local (Venezolana) y dos cultivares mejorados (M Col 1684 y el híbrido CM 342-170) producidos en el sistema tradicional de cultivos múltiples o asociados (con maíz y fiame) y comparados con el sistema de monocultivo de yuca.En el sistema de cultivos asociados, la yuca fue plantada a 1.5 x 1.5 m, el ñame en el centro del cuadrado de la yuca, a 1.5 x 1.5 m y el maíz a un distanciamiento de 3 x 3 m. los resultados de los analisis de los suelos 1) Los rendimientos de yuca fueron substancialmente más bajos en el sistema de cultivos asociados que en el sistema de monocultivo.2) Los rendimientos del ñame fueron poco consistentes en los diferentes lugares, debido en parte a las diferencias en la fertilidad de los suelos, especialmente en fósforo. Los rendimientos del maíz fueron adversamente afectados en varios ensayos por las condiciones del el ¡ma.3) En el sistema de cultivos asociados se observó una interacción entre la variedad o cultivar de yuca y el ñame\" Con la variedad de yuca local (Venezolana) que es muy vigorosa, los rendimientos de yuca fueron siempre más altos y los de ñame fueron más bajos que cuando se empleó la va- Los rendimientos del maíz representan el promedio de todas las parcelas; en las parcelas con cero rendimiento hubo volcamiento de las plantas.b El agricultor cosech6 antes de la fecha programada. 5) los rendimientos de la M Col 1684 en monocultivo fueron siempre por lo menos el doble o más de los obtenidos con este cultivar en cultivos psociados. El rendimiento promedio de M Col 1684 en monocultivo fue de 21.9 tlha, relativamente estable a través de las seis fincas y supe~ior al rendimiento promedio de la zona (-8.0 t/ha). 6) los rendimientos del híbrido CM 342-170 fueron bastante inestables tanto en monocultivo como en cultivos asociados y además el contenido de materia seca de las raíces fue más bajo que el de las otras dos variedades.Los resultados obtenidos en estas pruebas a nivel de finca en el departamento de Sucre permiten las siguientes conclusiones: La variedad local Venezolana es un cultivar ampliamente adaptado a la zona, cuyas características le permiten producir bien, tanto en cultivos asociados como en monocultivo; la calidad de sus raíces es excelente y pueden ser destinadas para diferentes usos. Esta variedad exhibe sin embargo una tendencia a disminuir sus rendimientos en suelos de baja fertilidad. La variedad mejorada M Col 1684 podría ser recomendada para sistemas de monocultivo y sus raíces seriJn destinadas solo para las plantas de secado, ya que es Una variedad amarga, no apta para consumo fresco. El híbrido CM 3q2-170, que ha producido excelentes resultados a nivel experimental, no está adaptado a las condiciones del área de estudio y produjo raíces con muy bajo contenido de materia seca.Evaluaciones de un mayor número de variedades pueden conducir a la selección de algunas que en el sistema de producción de monocultivo produzcan más que la Venezolana o la M Col 168Q. Los rendimientos económicos obtenidos con la M Col 1684 la sugieren como una variedad promisoria para el sistema de monocultivo y para su uso en la alimentación animal. El híbrido CM 342-170 debe ser descartado para la región de Betulia, El potencial de producción de yuca en la zona es consistentemente alto y los rendimientos pueden estar en el orden de las 25 t/ha. Sin embargo, para continuar con el sistema de cultivos asociados y asegurar altos rendimientos de ñame, la fertil idad del suelo deberá ser tomada en consideración.Es posible que se puedan identificar areas o suelos recomendables para los cultivos asociados, especialmente con ñame, y que las áreas restantes puedan expandir el área cultivada de yuca en monocultivo o tal vez en asod.ación de yuca y maíz.Bl Apreciación económica de los ensayos a nivel de finca La decisión de los agricultores para cultivar la yuca en sistemas de cultivos asociados o en monocultivo depende de varios factores entre los cuales se pueden citar la rentabi 1 idad del cultivo, los riesgos del mismo, la demanda, precio y fluctuaciones de los mercados y las necesidades de autoconsumo. Estos y otros factores son parte de los estudios que se están realizando en el Proyecto Colaborativo DRr/ACDJ-CIAT para la región de la Costa Atlántica de Colombia. Para los efectos del presente Informe se evalúan las pruebas a nivel de finca tomando en consideración solamente el aspecto de rentabilidad del cultivo en los sistemas de asociación con ñame y maíz y de monocultivo.Los cálculos para obtener el ingreso neto derivado de las pruebas descritas en la Sección anterior han sido realizados teniendo en cuenta la siguiente información. La necesidad de mano de obra para el sistema de cultivos asociados fue estimada en 105 hombre-días/ha mientras que para el monocultivo fue de 67 hombre-días/ha. El costo de preparación del suelo fue de $3,500/ha para ambos sistemas, El costo de las semillas de ñame y de maíz fue de $16,BOO/ha mientras que el material de propagación para la yuca, en ambos sistemas, se consideró gratis pues la mayoría de agricultores utilizan estacas de yuca de sus propios lotes; por 10 tanto, el costo de semilla o estacas de yuca para el sistema de monocultivo fue cero. los precios de venta del maíz y ñame fueron de $15/kg y $10/kg, respectivamente, mientras que para las raíces de yuca se consideraron dos precios: uno a $4/kg que representa el precio pagado a nivel de plantas de secado y el otro a $6/kg que fue el precio de venta de las raíces de yuca a nivel de finca para los mercados para consumo humano. Debido a que las raíces de la variedad M Col 1684 no son aptas para el consumo humano por su alto contenido de cianuro, los datos de rentabilidad de esta variedad a $6/kg no son presentados.Los resultados de los análisis de rentabilidad son sumarizados en el Cuadro 13 y demuestran nuevamente la variabilidad existente entre fincas. Cuando se fijó el precio de las raíces a $4/kg, en tres fincas el sistema de cultivos asociados fue más rentable que el monocultivo y en las otras tres se obtuvo resultados opuestos; estas diferencias dependieron principalmente del rendimiento del ñame. A $6/kg de raíces de yuca, el monocultivo de la variedad Venezolana fue más rentable en tres fincas y el de asocio en las otras tres, Aún a $4/kg de raíces, el sistema de monocultivo es más rentable que el de cultivos asociados siempre y cuando el rendimiento del ñame en este último sistema no sea más de 6 t/ha. La variedad M Col 1684 fue el cultivar más rentable en cuatro de las seis fincas, cuando la producción se destinó únicamente a las plantas de secado ($4/kg), Por la excelente calidad de sus raíces, la variedad Venezolana se mostró más rentable que la M Col 1684 en cuatro de las seis fincas cuando Se vendieron al mercado de consumo fresco ($6/kg). Debido a la versatilidad de la variedad Venezolana se continuará cultivando para obtener los mejores precios de mercado para el consumo humano y los excedentes pueden Ser destinados a las plantas de secado.Los resultados de estos primeros análisis de rentabilidad sugieren que el sistema de monocultivo de la yuca es más estable que el de cultivos asociados, pues éste depende mucho del riesgo en los rendimientos del ñame. Posiblemente el sistema de cultivos asociados prevalezca en los suelos de mayor fertilidad y será especialmente importante para los agricultores con limitada disponibilidad de tierras. Sin embargo, si el mercado del ñame continúa siendo inestable, la expansión de la producción de yuca para el abastecimiento de las plantas de secado favorecerá el cambio hacia el sistema de producción en monocultivo.Más aún, teniendo en consideración la demanda creciente y la estabilidad del mercado para la alimentación animal, los agricultores tienen la posibilidad de expandir el área de cultivo y de obtener una ganancia apreciable por hectárea de yuca aún a precios menores de $4,000 por tonelada de yuca fresca. El Cuadro 14 resume los estimados promedios de rendimiento de yuca Cuadro 13. y de rentabil idad de la producción de dos variedades de yuca (Venezolana y M Col 1684) en sistema de cultivos asociados o de monocultivo y con prucios de venta de las raíces frescas del orden de 3, 4 y 6 pesos por kilogramo.Puede apreciarse que aún a un precio de las raíces frescas de $3/kg los, ingresos netos especialmente de la variedad mejorada son superiores a los obtenidos con la variedad local. Información más detallada sobre estos aspectos será obtenida en el futuro inmediato. La presentación y discusión de los temas tratados en ambos cursillos han permitido elaborar las siguientes recomendaciones:1, Un aspecto fundamental para la expansión de la producción de YU(8 lu constituye la producción del material de siembra, la cual es una seria 1 imitante en los momentos presentes. Se sugiere por tanto elaborar proyectos para la producción de semilla certificada de yuca por parte de las oficinas leA a nivel departamental.  , 0' lO , :t:~idmW¡¡immm¡¡ Caractefíst fca\\'¡. (le los sue los-y Control Intesrado de plagas de Costos de produce iÓI1 y !\"Iefca<Íeo I ,,1 ima de 1,1.s lonas yuqueras de , \"\" _ _ ,...,....,..... , ¡ \"', \"\"'._\"\"\", _ _ _ _ _ ,~'.,'\".,'''''' ...... ,''',.,...,.,...,,~f\"\"\"\"\"\"'\"',..'_~~\"\".\"\"\"\"\"\"'''''''''''''''''''''-germoplasma mejorado debe estar orientado al mercado de la yuca para la alimentación animal, manteniendo los cultivares locales para satisf 8 cer la demanda para consumo humano.3. Ensayos orientados a extender el período de secado de la yuca aún en las épocas de lluvia mediante sistemas con tecnología adecuada para la región deben ser ampl iados en el futuro.4. Las actividades de capacitación desarrolladas en estos cursillos demanda un gran esfuerzo técnico, científico y económico que debe reflejarse en mejoras en la producción, mercadeo y procesamiento del cultivo a nivel El secado natural está supeditado a las condiciones climáticas, lo que hace que este tipo de secado esté restringido a las épocas del aRo con baja humedad relativa. En la Costa Atlántica, el secado natural puede lograrse durante la época seca que comprende el período desde Diciembre hasta inicios de Abril y posiblemente pueda ampliarse durante el veranillo de Agosto y Septiembre. Estas limitaciones ,afectan la rentabilidad del proceso pues el lucro cesante de las plantas es bastante prolongado y ademas el suministro de la yuca seca a las plantas de alimentos balanceados para animales es estacional. Para poder solucionar estos problemas el CIAT está desarrollando programas de investigación de tecnología apropiada para acelerar el proceso de secado y para aumentar la capacidad de uso de las plantas de secado.A) Secado artificial por circulación de aire Este método consiste en la circulación de aire a través de una cama estática de trozos de yuca, pudiéndose utilizar fuentes artificiales de energra (carbón, leña o residuos agrícolas) o colectores de energía solar para calentar el aire.La planta experimental construida en el CIAT comprende dos sistemas en paralela: un sistema está compuesto de la cámara de secado de 2 rol acoplada a un ventilador centrífugo que succiona el aire ambiente a través de un colector/almacenador de energía solar de 10 m 2 de superficie; el otro sistema consta de una cámara de secado de 2 m 2 acoplada a un ventilador centrífugo que succiona aire ambienteo Este segundo sistema se está acondicionando para incluir un quemador de carbón con su intercambiador de calor respectivo, los ensayos que se han realizado hasta la fecha se han centrado alrededor de la evaluación del secado sin y COn el colector/almacenador de energía solar. Los resultados de esta evaluación que se resumen en el Cuadro Bl Combinación de secado natural y secado artificial Otra posibilidad para aumentar la capacidad de las plantas de secado natural es mediante el secado parcial de los trozos sobre el piso por un día, para luego finalizar el secado en los secadores de cama estatica. los resultados preliminares de los ensayos realizados en el CIAT sugieren que es necesario asegurar que el contenido de humedad de los trozos al final izar el secado parcial sobre el piso sea menos del 50%. Bajo las condiciones climáticas prevalentes en Betulia durante el verano se ha obtenido este nivel de humedad empleando cargas de 10 a 12 kg/m 2 sobre el piso. En períodos invernales, cuando la humedad relativa del aire es mayor, será necesario reducir las cargas a 6 -8 kg/m 2 , De lograrse un contenido de humedad menor de 50% en el primer día de secado (8 am -6 pm) los trozos colocados en el secador de cama estática requerirían 24 horas (6 pm primer día a 6 pm segundo día) adicionales para completar su secado con un nivel de humedad final menor del 14%. De esta forma se duplicaría la capacidad de la planta de secado natural.Mayor información experimental está siendo obtenida en el CIAl de forma de poder ensayar estos sistemas en la Planta Piloto de Betulia en el segundo semestre de 1983.El empleo de colectores solares y métodos de secado combinado no resuelve, sin embargo, el problema del secado en las épocas de lluvia, cuando existe una baja radiación solar y una alta humedad ambiental\" Por esta razón se han iniciado los trabajos de diseño y desarrollo del sistema de secado en cama estática incorporando un quemador o intercambiador de calor para usarlo con el carbón mineral, fuente de energía abundante y de bajo costo en Colombia.Simultáneamente se está recolectando la información necesaria para evaluar los costos y la rentabil idad de estos procesos\" A) 11ezclas suelo-cerrento Entre las actividades propuestas en el Primer Informe, para Ser realizadas en 1983, estaba el estudio de las mezclas suelo-cemento para la construcción de los pisos de secado. El objetivo era ensayar la viabilidad técnica y económica del método de mezclas suelo-cemento como una alternativa al método convencional de pisos de concreto y con miras a reducir los costos de la inversión de los pisos de secado.Con la financiación del CIAT y con la colaboración de la Sección de Infraestructura del ICA/Tibaitata (Ing. Carlos Alvarado Bastidas) se planeó un proyecto que incluyó la toma de muestras del suelo de la Planta Piloto, el análisis de granulometría de dichas muestras y la formulación de la mezcla a usarse ~ El resultado del análisis de granulometrfa del suelo de la Planta Piloto fue el siguiente: arena, 50.96%, arcilla 20.0% y limos 29.04%. Con base a estos resultados se aconsejó reemplazar el porcentaje de 1 imos por arena y Se sugirió ensayar una mezcla suelo-cemento 1:8 para un total de 9 partes a ser mezcladas en las siguientes proporciones: una parte de cemento, 6 de suelo y 2 de arena.La puesta en práctica de esta recomendación no fue posible implementarla ya que el método de construcción de pisos con suelo-cemento requiere de maquinaria especial (pulverizador de suelo, vibrocompactador, motoniveladora), de precisión en la mezcla suelo-cemento y en la determinación de la cantidad de agua a emplearse. Estas condiciones no pudieron ser logradas a nivel de la Planta Piloto por 10 que el ensayo fue suspendido.Estos estudios preliminares y los inconvenientes encontrados para su ejecución a nivel práctico sugieren que el método de mezclas de suelo-cemepto para los pisos de secado de áreas relativamente pequeñas (500-1000 m 2 ) puede resultar demasiado costoso ya que la maquinaria requerida es dífíci 1 de conseguir y por tanto la alternativa quizá sería rentable para la construcción de áreas de piso muy superiores a las actuales. Por las razones expu~stas, el Programa de Yuca del CIAT decidió hacer construir un camelloneador o surcador para yuca (con un costo total de $100,000.00 l, el cual ha sido enviado en c~lidad de préstamo a la Oficina ICA de Sucre para ser utilizado a nivel práctico en la preparación de came- Las primeras dos áreas de trabajo estaran a cargo de la Sección de Economía del Programa de Yuca y de la oficina ICA/Sucre, mientras que la tercera área de trabajo será supervisada por la Sección de Util ización.Al Producción y mercadeo de las raíces de yuca en la Costa Atlántica Las actividades de esta área de trabajo se están llevando a cabo actualmente y se continuarán en el transcurso del presente año. La encuesta detallada de la producción y del mercadeo de yuca se está realizando a través de un muestreo de dos municipios en cada departamento.Además, las siguientes actividades serán desarrolladas en el futuro inmediato:Evaluación económica de los sistemas de producción de yuca de la regióno 2) Estudio del mercado de raíces frescas para consumo humano, orientadas a determinar los canales regulares de este mercado y la demanda de los mercados terminales, especialmente de Barranquilla.3) Evaluación del mercado de almidón industrial y de yuca procesada para el consumo humano. Se estudiará la demanda de las raíces de yuca para la fábrica de alnidón industrial de Malambo (Barranquillal así como la requerida para la producción de los bollos de yuca.Parte de la información requerida para evaluar el mercado de los alimentos balanceados para animales ha sido cedida gentilmente por la Federación de La primera estimación de factibilidad económica del procesamiento de las raíces de yuca para la alimentación animal indicó que el proceso es rentable bajo las condiciones actuales de producciÓn del cultivo en la Costa Atlántica. Sin embargo, el estudio mostró igualmente que el precio de las raíces de yuca es uno de los factores más importantes, el cual puede alterar la rentabilidad del proceso\" Por otro lado, la experiencia adquirida en el CIAT en los últimos años, ratificada a nivel de pruebas regionales y de validación de fincas, indica claramente que se puede aumentar la productividad del cultivo con la selección adecuada de variedades promisorias y con la aplicación de prácticas culturales sencillas. Es necesario por tanto, dew •• lrar la viabilidad económica de esta tecnología mejorada en las condiciones de producción de yuca de la Costa Atlántica.Ademas, la necesidad de asegurar Un suministro continuo de materia prima a las plantas de secado y la posibilidad de ampliar el secado de la yuca a un período más prolongado que el de la época seca sugieren la necesidad de realizar ensayos de épocas de siembra y de cosecha para dicha región, Para obtener información sobre estos tópicos, ICA y CIAT han plantado un total de seis pruebas regionales (3 en Betul la, Sucre; 1 en La Peña, Atlántico; 1 en La Colorada, Magdalena y 1 en Carranzó, Córdoba) y cuatro ensayos de épocas de siembra y de cosecha (todos en Betulia) en el período Abril/Mayo 1983. Se espera repetír el ensayo de época de siembra en Agosto del presente año. Todas estas pruebas se están realizando a nivel de finca y con la colaboración de los agricultores. el Mejoras tecnológicas del proceso de secado Los resultados preliminares de las investigaciones que se vienen adelantando en el C1AT en relación al secado de trozos de raíces de yuca con aire forzado, empleando un secador de construcción senci lla, sugieren que es posible mejorar la eficiencia del secado natural, Mas aún, se espera que con el empleo de fuentes de energía baratas, como el carbón en Colombia, permita acelerar el proceso de secado, Estas mejoras tienen por finalidad aumentar la capacidad de operación de las plantas de secado mediante una tecnología adecuada para los agricultores productores de yuca de la Costa Atlántica.Para val idar estas tecnologías Se propone que durante el segundo semestre de 1983 se construya un secador rural experimental en la Planta Piloto de Betulia para realizar ensayos de secado con aire forzado; parte del equipo requerido para estos ensayos será prestado por el CIAT hasta que se finalicen las pruebas. Posteriormente, uti 1 izando la nisma infraestructura del secador rural pero con ligeras modificaciones, se realizaran las pruebas de secado artificial empleando el carbón como fuente de energía.Además de mejorar la tecnología existente de secado natural, estos ensayos permitirán estudiar la factibilidad de expandir el período de secado de yuca a otros períodos del año además de la época seca, inclusive durante la época de lluvias, De lograrse la factibilidad económica de estas pruebas, las plantas de secado podrían funcionar la mayor parte del año y asegurar así un suministro continuo de yuca seca; evidentemente, es necesario asegurar asimismo un suministro continuo de raíces frescas para Jo cual se estudiará el efecto de diferentes épocas de secado y cosecha del cultivo.","tokenCount":"8714"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14557c71c2a9a1d29e5d1b0c1865bb15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/090689ef-9848-4d09-bc03-e50ce2f19c9c/content","id":"996791827"},"keywords":["GWAS","cellulose","wheat","cereals","grasses","SNPs","bioenergy","cell wall"],"sieverID":"25418501-22eb-4a71-a4a0-52dd336e0e0c","pagecount":"7","content":"Plant cell wall formation is a complex, coordinated and developmentally regulated process. Cellulose is the most dominant constituent of plant cell walls. Because of its paracrystalline structure, cellulose is the main determinant of mechanical strength of plant tissues. As the most abundant polysaccharide on earth, it is also the focus of cellulosic biofuel industry. To reduce culm lodging in wheat and for improved ethanol production, delineation of the variation for stem cellulose content could prove useful. We present results on the analysis of the stem cellulose content of 288 diverse wheat accessions and its genome-wide association study (GWAS). Cellulose concentration ranged from 35 to 52% (w/w). Cellulose content was normally distributed in the accessions around a mean and median of 45% (w/w). Genome-wide marker-trait association study using 21,073 SNPs helped identify nine SNPs that were associated (p < 1E-05) with cellulose content. Four strongly associated (p < 8.17E-05) SNP markers were linked to wheat unigenes, which included β-tubulin, Auxin-induced protein 5NG4, and a putative transmembrane protein of unknown function. These genes may be directly or indirectly involved in the formation of cellulose in wheat culms. GWAS results from this study have the potential for genetic manipulation of cellulose content in bread wheat and other small grain cereals to enhance culm strength and improve biofuel production.Increasing world population demands a sustainable increase in the production of food, feed and fuel crops (Scholey et al., 2016). Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) occupies more agricultural area than any other food crop worldwide (http://www.wheatinitiative.org/). In addition to grain production, the annual worldwide production of wheat straw is around 3.5 × 10 8 tons, which is used as cattle fodder in developing countries and is a potential feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production (Singhania et al., 2014). Wheat straw, which is comprised of cellulose (∼40%), hemicelluloses (∼35%), and lignin (∼25%), is one of the most abundant lignocellulosic raw materials in the world (Ruiz et al., 2013). Cellulose, a paracrystalline polysaccharide, is the main determinant of mechanical strength, which has implications in crop lodging, biotic and abiotic stresses. Cellulose amount in a unit length of the stem explains most of the variation in mechanical strength (Appenzeller et al., 2004;Dhugga, 2007). The proportion of cellulose in the cell wall also affects the total sugar release during the process of enzymatic hydrolysis (Fan et al., 2012;Lindedam et al., 2012). An understanding of the natural variability of cellulose in plants and its association with chromosomal regions could provide markers for enhancing grain and biomass yield (Ciesielski et al., 2014).Cellulose consists of linear chains of β (1→4) linked glucan (polyglucose) known to be synthesized by the members of superfamily Glycosyltransferase 2 (GT2) called Cellulose synthase A (CesA; Fujii et al., 2010;Kumar et al., 2016). Twenty-two CesA genes have been reported in hexaploid wheat (Kaur et al., 2016). In addition to the CesA genes, the Glycosylhydrolase 9 (GH9) family genes are known to have an impact on the synthesis of cellulose in plants (Kotake et al., 2011). Based on the mutant analysis in Arabidopsis, a member of GH9 family called KORRIGAN1 (KOR1) has been reported to be involved in cellulose synthesis, cell expansion and intracellular trafficking of cellulose synthase complex (CSC; Szyjanowicz et al., 2004;Lei et al., 2014;Vain et al., 2014). Investigation of brittle culm 1 mutants in rice and brittle stalk 2 mutant in maize revealed the involvement of COBRA-like proteins in cellulose formation in secondary walls (Ching et al., 2006). Involvement of Sucrose synthase (SuSy) in channeling substrate to cellulose synthase has also been reported (Fujii et al., 2010). Similarly, several other proteins affect cellulose synthesis, including chitinaselike 1 (CSI1; Sánchez-Rodríguez et al., 2012), companion of cellulose synthase (CC; Endler et al., 2015), and tracheary element differentiation-related (TED) 6 and 7 (Rejab et al., 2015).Variation for the proportion of cellulose in cell wall among wheat varieties is not yet known. This study was planned to identify the genomic regions affecting the variability of cellulose content among diverse spring wheat genotypes through GWAS.Genes associated with cell wall have been previously explored through GWAS in miscanthus (Slavov et al., 2014), poplar (Porth et al., 2013), maize (Li et al., 2016), and barley (Houston et al., 2015). In barley, genes of Glycosyltransferase 2 and Glycosylhydrolase families were associated with culm cellulose variation. However, none of the genes found in maize through GWAS of stalk cellulose content was specifically involved in the cellulose biosynthetic pathway. In the present study, the stem internodes of 288 spring wheat varieties were analyzed for variation in cellulose content. Utilizing the 21,073 SNPs generated by DArT-seq GBS and cellulosic content, GWAS was performed using fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU) method (Liu et al., 2016). Genes, which were not reported previously for their role in cellulose formation, were identified as associated with the culm cellulose content. Gene-trait associations identified in this study might be useful in altering the lignocellulose composition of wheat and other grasses.A worldwide collection of 288 diverse spring wheat germplasm was used for the phenotypic and genotypic analysis. The collection included cultivars from different regions of United States, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Mexico, and historical lines dating back to 1871 (Mohan et al., 2013). The wide span of our collection was intended to capture the maximum variation possible while maintaining a manageable population size. This worldwide collection also represents the various market classes of wheat based on the kernel color, hardiness, and shape. The following types of genotypes were represented based on kernel type: soft white spring (SWS), soft red spring (SRS), hard red spring (HRS), hard white spring (HWS), and club wheat (Mohan et al., 2013). The plants were grown in the greenhouse of the Plant Growth Facilities, Washington State University, Pullman at 22 • C/18 • C temperature and 16/8 h day/night in 2014-15. Seeds were planted in a randomized design to accommodate the effect of light.The analysis on percent cellulose was performed for 288 diverse spring wheat genotypes, with three replicates per genotype. The first internode (from the base) of the main tiller of each of three mature plants was dried at 80 • C. Measured amount of dried sample (45-55 mg) was placed into a pre-weighed 2 ml Eppendorf tubes with a screw cap. A mixture of acetic acid: water: nitric acid (8:2:1) was added to each tube (1.5 ml) and vortexed (Updegraff, 1969). All the tubes were transferred to a steel rack and placed in a boiling water bath for 4 h. The tubes were allowed to cool at room temperature and centrifuged in a swing-out rotor at 10,000 rpm for 10 min. The supernatant was aspirated off, the pellet washed with distilled water four times and finally washed with 90% ethanol. After each wash, the tubes were vortexed and centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 10 min. The tubes were dried at 80 • C followed by determination of percent cellulose on dry matter basis.Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to infer population structure through Genomic Association and Prediction Integrated Tool (GAPIT; Lipka et al., 2012;Ahmad et al., 2015;Tang et al., 2016). Twenty-one thousand and seventy-three SNP markers were obtained by analyzing the genomic DNA with a Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) approach (Mohan et al. unpublished). In brief, genotyping was carried out at DArT Pyt Ltd in Canberra-Australia, using a combination of HiSeq 2000 (Illumina) next-generation sequencing with DArT-seq GBS technology (called DArTseq TM ). This method follows two-step complexity reductions by using two enzymes, PstI/HpaII and PstI/HhaI, along-with TaqI restriction enzyme to eliminate subsets of PstI -HpaII and PstI-HhaI fragments, respectively. The pooled barcoaded samples were run in a single lane on an Illumina Hiseq 2000 instrument for sequencing. A proprietary analytical pipeline developed by DArT Pyt Ltd was used to obtain the DArT score and SNP tables (http://www. diversityarrays.com/). Fixed and Random Model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU; Liu et al., 2016) in R version 2.15.3 was used to calculate P-values for Manhattan Plot and Q-Q plots. A Manhattan plot was generated using the −log10(p) values for each SNP with 1% Bonferroni test threshold (Team, 2014). The significance of the genome-wide association between SNP marker and cellulose content was tested at FDR p < 0.001.The sequences containing the SNPs were mapped against wheat unigenes downloaded from the NCBI database. Significant SNPs with associated unigenes were annotated using BLASTN with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC; Mayer et al., 2014) reference Sequence v1.0 (https:// www.wheatgenome.org) posted on May 30, 2017. The functions of associated unigenes were also searched with BLASTN through identification of orthologs from other plant species.The culm cellulose content differed significantly in a set of 228 wheat lines with a range of 0.32-0.52 mg and an average of 0.45 mg cellulose/mg of dry weight (Table S2). The cellulose concentration was normally distributed around the mean in the set as depicted in the density plot (Figure 1). As expected from this plot, the calculated median was also similar to the overall mean across the population.PCA was performed to investigate population structure. The first two PCs explained 8.13 and 4.90% variation in the population of lines. Plotting PC2 against PC1 revealed two distinct, a major and a minor, clusters. The minor cluster containing 20 genotypes was removed from the final analysis to account for population structure and the first PC was used as a covariate for GWAS analyses (Figure 2).A total of 21,073 single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) markers with a minor allele frequency (MAF) above 5% (Figure 3) and the cellulose content data from 268 lines were subjected to GWAS analysis, which revealed nine significant marker-trait associations with p-values of less than 1E-05 (Figure 4). The most significant SNP marker in our analysis corresponded to wheat chromosome 5AL with a p-value of 1.86E-07. The second most significant SNP was located on chromosome 1AL with a p-value of 2.24E-07. In addition, we found significant SNPs corresponding to chromosome 1AL, 6BS, 1DL, 2DS, 4DL, 5BL, and 3B with p-values of less than 1E-05 (Table 1). The quantile-quantile (QQ) plot drawn for calculated p-values was used to check spurious associations. The deviation of relatively a few markers from null expectations in the QQ plot supports the significant associations we have identified (Figure 5).Significant SNP markers resulting from GWAS were mapped to the wheat unigene database. The identified unigenes were annotated based on the sequence comparisons using NCBI BLAST and EnsemblPlant databases. The first and second most significant SNP markers were associated with the unigenes TRIAE_CS42_5AL_TGACv1_376159_AA1232950 and gnl|UG|Ta#S52545076, respectively. The third and fourth SNPs respectively were associated with the genes TRIAE_C S42_2DS_TGACv1_179544_AA0607850 and TRIAE_CS42_3B _TGACv1_224721_AA0800650.1. The gene TRIAE_CS42_5A L_TGACv1_376159_AA1232950 is uncharacterized as judged from a lack of its functional annotation in wheat and other plant species. The unigene gnl|UG|Ta#S52545076 was 60% identical at the amino acid level with a gene in the Tubulin superfamily, Tubulin β-1 chain, of Triticum urartu. TRIAE_CS42_2DS_TGACv1_179544_AA0607850 showed 82% identity over 97% amino acid coverage with the Auxininduced protein 5NG4 of Aegilops tauschii, whereas TRIAE_ CS42_3B_TGACv1_224721_AA0800650.1 was annotated based on 51% amino acid identity and 97% coverage with a putative transmembrane protein of Medicago truncatula (Table 1).From a larger set of 288 diverse bread wheat lines, we used 268 well-structured accessions to study the genetic association of cellulose content in wheat. The most appropriate model was selected to obtain a higher level of confidence in the association results. GWAS was conducted using Fixed and Random Model  Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU); a new and more efficient recently developed method, which accounts for fixed and random effects to control false positives (Liu et al., 2016). Most of the GWAS mapping studies in wheat thus far have been conducted to identify genes or QTLs related to agronomic performance (Lopes et al., 2015;Jaiswal et al., 2016), grain yield (Sukumaran et al., 2015), or disease resistance (Kollers et al., 2013;Gurung et al., 2014). Cellulose is a major component of cell walls and a key determinant of mechanical strength of plant tissues (Appenzeller et al., 2004;Ching et al., 2006). The involvement of the CesA genes in cellulose synthesis is well-documented, and recently 22 CesA genes were reported in wheat (Kaur et al., 2016). These genes are differentially expressed in primary and secondary cell wall forming cells. Although, we identified 9 SNP markers in this study to be associated [−log10(p) = 7 to −log10(p) = 5] with cellulose content (Table S1), we were able to map only four of these to the wheat unigene database. A high marker density and population size in our study increased the confidence about these SNP associations (Wang et al., 2012). The genes associated with the cellulose content may contribute to its natural variation in wheat lines. The involvement of many genes other than CesAs in controlling cellulose synthesis supports our suggestion (Kotake et al., 2011).Only a few studies have explored the genes other than CesA involved in the cellulose biosynthetic pathway (Porth et al., 2013;Slavov et al., 2014;Houston et al., 2015;Li et al., 2016). Recently in a GWA study in barley, a species syntenic to wheat, the association of several genes from the Glycosyltransferases and Glycosylhydrolases families was shown with the culm cellulose content (Houston et al., 2015). Similar to barley GWAS associations, our results also pointed to the involvement of the GT gene family in cellulose formation. We also identified some unique associations not reported in the barley study.Our results pointed to the involvement of β-tubulin in the regulation of cellulose content. β-tubulins proteins form heterodimers with α-tubulins to form microtubules, which have long been known to guide the deposition of cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall in a helical pattern (Rao et al., 2016). Functional association of cortical microtubules with cellulose synthase complexes is well-documented (Paredez et al., 2006;Chan et al., 2007Chan et al., , 2010;;Wightman and Turner, 2008;Crowell et al., 2009;Gutierrez et al., 2009).Another important association in our study is for the Auxininduced protein, 5NG4. This gene is a member of the plant drug/metabolite exporter (P-DME; TC 2.A.7.4) family, also called WALLS ARE THIN1 (WAT1)-related proteins. Mutant studies in Arabidopsis helped demonstrate its involvement in secondary cell wall formation. Comparative transcriptomics and metabolomics demonstrated synchronized downregulation of the secondary cell wall CesAs (CesA8, CesA7, and CesA4) and auxin metabolism genes (auxin-responsive genes and auxin influx transporter genes) in wat1 mutants (Ranocha et al., 2010). Higher expression of PIN-like auxin efflux carrier and auxininduced protein 5NG4 genes in relation to both cell division and cell expansion was found in an expression profiling study of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata; Qiu et al., 2013). With regard to the association of a putative transmembrane protein of unknown function with cellulose content in our study, several membrane proteins other than CesA are known to be involved in cellulose formation. We could not, however, assign a putative function to this protein. The additional genes we have reported in this study to be associated with cellulose content in the wheat culm are potential candidates for improving culm strength and the potential of wheat stover for biofuels by increasing the cellulose content.Cellulose content in wheat culms of 288 diverse cultivars varied widely. Genome-wide association analysis helped identify four genetic associations for cellulose content, which have the potential as molecular markers to manipulate cellulose content in wheat with the goal of improving culm strength and cellulosic biofuel production.SK performed all the experiments in the greenhouse and laboratory set up and conducted genetic, genomic, bioinformatics analyses, and wrote the manuscript. AM helped in writing and editing the manuscript. JS helped in troubleshooting, provided constructive comments, suggestions and financial support to conduct the experiments. KD provided the protocols for cellulose content analysis and thoroughly edited the manuscript. PV and SS provided the genotyping data, XZ, AM, and HD helped in the creating the SNP data and GWAS analysis. ZZ and KG provided their expert advice and suggestions to interpret the results.","tokenCount":"2625"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eaf645ff50d8524a72353ba0c183fff2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb330719-ef16-4cc6-b55e-b839d6732d7b/retrieve","id":"1416027316"},"keywords":["Jain","H.","Puskur","R.","Dwivedi","A.","Shivhare","R.","Mukhopadhyay","P.","Chadha","D.","Goel","K.","and Gartaula","H.N. (2024). Narrative Report: Theory of Change -West Bengal -Livestock Learning Lab. CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality (HER+)"],"sieverID":"c1f98be7-d97b-4756-9879-9dba53c330b5","pagecount":"22","content":"A special acknowledgment goes to the farmers of Balarampur (South 24 Parganas), KharerMath, and Makaltala (North 24 Parganas) for generously sharing their experiences and knowledge during field visits and workshops. Their inputs played a crucial role in ensuring that the Theory of Change is firmly rooted in the local context.An appreciation to Mr. Devi Prasad Mahapatra for his contributions in crafting the layout and formatting of this narrative report.We would like to thank all the funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders Gender Equality NARRATIVE REPORT Dr. Ranjitha Puskur, Researcher -Gender and Livelihoods and Module Leader-Evidence, CGIAR GENDER Platform,A Theory of Change is a method that explains how a given intervention, or set of interventions, is expected to lead to specific development change, drawing on a causal analysis based on available evidence. It explains how activities undertaken by an intervention contribute to a chain of results that lead to the intended or observed impacts. 1 A sound ToC is driven by analyzing current program implementation, consultation with key stakeholders, and learning what works and what does not on the ground with the target groups.A ToC helps identify solutions to effectively address the causes of problems that hinder progress/impact and guide decisions on which approach to take during implementation. A good ToC can help:▪ Develop better key evaluation questions ▪ Identify key indicators for monitoring ▪ Identify gaps in available data and processes ▪ Prioritize data collection, and ▪ Provide a structure for data analysis and reporting.A ToC also helps identify underlying assumptions and risks that are vital to understand and revisit throughout the process to ensure that the approach contributes to the desired change.2. Purpose: Why Should We Use a Theory of Change?Implementing a complex project could be difficult due to the subjectivity that various factors, such as stakeholders, geographies, climatic conditions, and socio-cultural norms bring with them. For example, conducting capacity building training for farmers might not lead to them adopting the suggested cropping pattern, unless aspects such as their interests and actions change, the seeds are available and are market oriented, and various other constraints are addressed. A ToC can help a project implementing agency think through the many underlying root causes systematically, and how they influence each other when determining what the team should address as a priority to maximize the outcomes of the intervention.Additionally, a ToC provides a framework for learning within and between implementation cycles. It helps internal and external stakeholders get a better context and understanding of how the intervention will bring about change. It aids in course correction if the selected approach is not working, the anticipated 1 Theory of Change: UNDAF companion guidance. June 2017. https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/UNDG-UNDAF-Companion-Pieces-7-Theory-of-Change.pdf.risks materialise, or the assumptions don't hold. New learnings and lessons from monitoring and evaluation help refine assumptions and inform decisions on how an approach should be adapted to deliver planned results. Adjustments to the ToC should also be made considering changing circumstances, especially in response to crises and shocks, as well as part of regular monitoring.Climate change is exacerbating uncertainty and risks for farmers and other food systems actors in unprecedented ways. They are grappling with more frequent and severe events such as floods and prolonged droughts, demanding greater resilience. Women and marginalized farmers are highly vulnerable as they usually encounter additional barriers in the form of social and gender norms.The adoption of adaptive technologies is vital as a response to climate change but also complex due to farmers' diverse needs and preferences, while farmers themselves are not a homogenous category.Additionally, technical innovations addressing climate change have low uptake by women, and evidence of their impact on women's empowerment and resilience has also been inconclusive. The persistent gender and social inequalities in global agrifood systems are additional barriers to women's ability to build and enhance their resilience to climate change.The CGIAR's Initiative on Gender Equality (HER+ Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agrifood systems) aims to strengthen climate resilience of vulnerable women in food systems in the Global South. Together with partners, the initiative envisages to support women to increase their agency, and acquire and gain control over resources, which would facilitate their path towards empowerment, help them adapt to climate change, and be resilient to shocks and stresses through higher adaptive capacity. Additionally, the initiative aims to position women as partners and drivers of climate change solutions.The goals of the HER+ initiative are achieved through four dimensions (addressed in 4 Work Packages -WP). Work Package 2 titled EMPOWER is aimed at developing and testing context-specific bundles of social and technical innovations (STIBs 2 ). The STIBs are designed with the objectives of achieving women's empowerment, climate resilience, and their engagement as partners and drivers of climate change solutions.To achieve the objectives of HER+ EMPOWER, the WP is setting up pilot Learning Labs (LLs) Following thorough fieldwork and stakeholder consultations, an extensive list of activities have been identified and their pathways to the intended impact are illustrated using the Theory of Change (ToC) framework (available here). This Narrative Report lays out the key stakeholders of the LL (Section 4) and the key risks (Section 5). In addition, it explains the pathways charted in the ToC (Section 6) and goes on to outline how the LL is aligned with CGIAR HER+ Impact Areas and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Section 7).This section highlights the four broad categories of key stakeholders in the LL: (i) Value chain actors, (ii) enablers/collaborators, (iii) implementation agencies, and (iv) funders and their roles.• Women farmers belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe involved in livestock rearing are the target group. They are active users of the STIBs promoted through this LL.• Traders are expected to participate in buyer-seller interactions and interact with the women livestock farmers.• Consumers are the end users of livestock (poultry and goats).• Government of West Bengal• ICAR, universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)• Household members of women farmers are expected to participate in the training and reflection sessions designed for them and support women farmers in participating in the LL's activities.• Field staff and officers are expected to participate in gender sensitization and other technical workshops.• International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)• Indian Council of Agricultural Research -Indian Veterinary Research Institute (ICAR-IVRI) is the on the ground implementation lead. It will provide technical and technological innovation support such as livestock (poultry, goat) germplasm, technical training on feeding, processing, forage, and shed management to the women farmers.• Society for Equitable Voluntary Action (SEVA) and Change Initiatives are the LL partners who will provide social innovation support such as gender sensitization training, identify 'lead farmers', set up platforms to create awareness on climate adaptation practices, and provide handholding support to women farmers in Makaltala and Balarampur, respectively.• PRADAN will be responsible for designing capacity building and training sessions for farmers and in upskilling and supporting SEVA and Change Initiatives in implementing the LL activities.• CGIAR Trust funders through the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality.Risks outline the component of uncertainty within the ToC. These may or may not happen during the intervention but if they do, they risk blocking the pathways of change and will create roadblocks in achieving the desired outcomes and impact.This section highlights some of the key risks identified, categorized into (i) those that can be mitigated by the LL partners, and (ii) those due to external factors, difficult to manage/mitigate.The risks under the project purview that can be mitigated by the LL are:▪ Farmers' inability to use recommended livestock management techniques due to inexperience and the nonavailability of certain resources.▪ The risk of a backlash within the household/lack of support from households in allowing women to be involved in the LL's activities and the formation of groups.▪ Coordination between various stakeholders could be difficult since each agency has a different mandate and perspective.▪ Procedural delays may affect the provision of goats and poultry and the procurement of equipment like feed processing units and chaff cutters.Risks external to the project that are difficult to manage/mitigate:▪ Unpredictability of weather due to climate change• West Bengal is highly vulnerable to extreme climate events including cyclones, floods, droughts, and heat waves, 6,7,8 with severe impacts on farming households.▪ Nonavailability of suitable inputs (breed of livestock).▪ Women being overworked due to male out-migration, leading to shortage of labor.▪ Lack of public infrastructure (such as access to roads, water, electricity, etc).• The project envisions increasing the income of women farmers engaged in poultry/goat production. To achieve this outcome, there is a heavy dependence on markets, which is a result of various external variables outside the purview of the project.▪ Risk of diseases such as Avian Flu or PPR in goats in the district/nearby districts will lead to the government culling the entire flock.The ToC for the HER+ West Bengal Learning Lab comprises six causal pathways, each of which outlines the intricate processes by which intended outcomes are achieved through activities conducted by IVRI and other LL partners. The pathways are as follows:1. Gender sensitization training for field staff and officers 2. Organizing women into groups and identifying lead farmers This section describes these causal pathways.The Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan (SCSP) program of IVRI currently employs field staff/extension officers in every district who are responsible for the distribution of germplasm, technical training sessions, etc. While trainings are held regularly, the participation of women farmers remains low due to reasons such as their need to travel to the training centers, household chores and childcare responsibilities, hesitation in actively participating in sessions, and the lack of support from household members. The gender composition of the field staff is another deterrent. Since most of them are male, women farmers do not feel comfortable interacting with them independently.The Learning Lab (local NGO partners) aims to tackle this by providing gender sensitization training to the field staff and officers. This will enhance their soft skills, enabling them to better mobilize and engage with women farmers during training/reflection sessions. The selection of training participants is an important intervention to ensure that the project's engagement with women farmers enables field staff to engage with other household members too, including the spouse and in-laws. So the LL will apply a household approach to engage men, boys, and other household members to understand household dynamics and the barriers faced by women farmers in actively participating and making decisions in households and farms. This knowledge of household dynamics is expected to aid them in understanding the challenges women farmers might face while attending training sessions and enable them to counsel household members accordingly. Engaging with household members will also enable the Research Technicians (RTs) to involve men along with women in sessions where they discuss women's roles and participation in the LL. To make the training gender-responsive, the LL will take into account women's time, work schedule, availability, affordability during the design process.Regular engagement of household members with the field staff is expected to lead to behavior change and an increased understanding of the significance of women's participation in livestock activities. It is also expected to encourage household members to be more supportive of women farmers attending training sessions and discussion groups, leading to an increase in women's participation in such events and activities, and their access to (i) gender and climate-responsive technical and institutional knowledge;(ii) climate knowledge; and (iii) markets. The resulting long-term outcomes and impact are explained in Section 6.2.The following underlying assumptions for this pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Relevant stakeholders actively participate in the gender sensitization trainings.The following assumption for this pathway is influenced by numerous variables external to the Learning Lab that are difficult to be mitigated and that directly feed into the risks of the project:▪ The social norms are conducive for research technicians, KVK staff, and AHOs to access and counsel household membersIn the selected villages for this Learning Lab, women are members of self-help groups (SHGs) or other forms of collectives like Farmer Producer Organizations (PFOs). However, it was observed during field visits and stakeholder consultation workshops that these groups are either not fully operational or primarily focus on lending and borrowing activities. Leveraging women's groups effectively holds the potential to empower their members significantly. 9,10,11 These groups can contribute to enhanced confidence and negotiation skills by fostering a supportive community and providing mentorship opportunities. Furthermore, they play a vital role in developing leadership skills through workshops and by assigning leadership roles within the group. There is also the potential to improve access to information and resources through networking, educational programs, and advocacy initiatives.Additionally, these groups can be instrumental in promoting economic empowerment as delivery partners by supporting entrepreneurship and implementing financial literacy programs as post-training support activities. Overall, women's groups can create a positive and empowering environment that positively influences the personal and professional lives of their members. So, this pilot will start with the women's groups in close consultation with their household members so that the impact will be positive and will not create intra-household problems. They have been identified as crucial channels through which other activities within this LL can be effectively disseminated.The second pathway in the ToC focuses on organizing women into groups with a focus on improving livestock management (including shed management) by sharing technical and institutional knowledge (that help with livestock management, including feeding practices, vaccination, shed management, etc.) in a gender and climate-responsive manner, and supporting their access to markets as a group. Additionally, it involves identifying and training a select group of lead farmers (terms yet to be finalized) to promote gender and climate-responsive practices in livestock management. This encompasses information on accessing improved feed sources.The formation of such groups and identification of lead women farmers (who also act as influencers/change agents/first-movers in the project villages) is expected to enhance (i) gender, and climate-responsive technical and institutional knowledge; (ii) climate knowledge; and (iii) market accessibility in the villages. Furthermore, it aims to bolster their bargaining power when selling livestock, including poultry and goats (refer to pathway 4 for further insights into the outcomes on this aspect). This improved knowledge is anticipated to result in overall enhancement of livestock management (including shed management) aligned with local climatic conditions, thereby contributing to climate change resilience among women in the target villages.Participation in these groups is expected to increase access to knowledge and information, foster a sense of belonging, and provide a valuable safety net for women farmers, leading to significant positive changes in their attitudes, perspectives, and confidence. Moreover, improved livestock management is also expected to create similar positive transformation.Similar favorable outcomes are projected for individuals who are identified and trained to effectively oversee these women's groups. These anticipated changes are expected to empower both women farmers and lead women farmers, enabling them to exercise greater agency in their personal lives, household dynamics, and farm-related activities.Greater participation in personal, household, and farm-related activities is expected to lead to the economic, social, and psychological empowerment of women farmers. However, restrictive cultural norms can counteract the gains achieved from enabling groups and pose a risk to achieving improved agency of women and their empowerment.Enhancement of livestock management (including shed management) is also expected to improve women's incomes. Assuming that this additional income is invested by women on improving their food consumption patterns and dietary choices, it is expected to have a positive impact on food security and nutrition.The following underlying assumptions for this pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Women farmers are willing and motivated to form and/or reinstate groups.▪ The social norms in the village are conducive for women to participate in such activities.▪ Newly formed groups do not adversely affect existing women's groups.▪ Women farmers have continued access to climate information.▪ Lead farmers are motivated to act as leaders and actively participate in trainings.▪ Household members of local advisors are accepting and supportive of them performing this role.Following are other assumptions for this pathway which are influenced by numerous variables, external to the LL, making it difficult to be mitigated and that directly feed into the risks of the project:▪ Women farmers are able to use knowledge and skills without facing any barriers such as shortage/quality of inputs.▪ Lead farmers have adequate human resources (or support) in the family so as to dedicate their time to groups.▪ The community accepts and supports women taking up these roles and leading such initiatives.The adverse effects of climate change are felt worldwide, and the state of West Bengal is no exception.Bengal is highly vulnerable to extreme climate events including cyclones, floods, droughts, and heat waves. 12,13,14 This has a detrimental impact on the livestock sector.Poultry flocks are particularly vulnerable to large temperature fluctuations and are highly susceptible to heat stress 15 , making poultry farming challenging unless adaptive practices are implemented. The situation for goat farming mirrors these challenges. Goats are also vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change due to their heavy reliance on climate-sensitive resources (such as pasture and water) 16 . Additionally, their immobility during floods 17 and the inability to adapt to situations such as feed and fodder shortages 18 , often caused by climate change, further compound the challenges faced by goat farmers.During early stakeholder interactions with women farmers in the two project villages, it became evident that while there is some awareness about climate change and indigenous adaptive practices among them, there's a need to provide additional information on climate adaptation and resilient livestock management practices.As part of this LL, Change Initiatives (with support from IVRI, SEVA, and PRADAN) is planning to establish an information hub for both Makaltala and Balarampur, to raise awareness on climate adaptation and resilient practices for women poultry farmers. The platform will host information on aspects such as climate change adaptation, veterinary centers, government schemes and policies, etc., and specific information related to goat and poultry rearing. Through these platforms, it is hoped that women will gain access to valuable information and knowledge (associated outcomes explained in Section 6.2), in turn empowering them to adopt rearing practices that enhance their ability to adapt to climate change and build resilience.This is expected to lead to an overall improvement in livestock management, aligned with local climatic conditions, thereby contributing to climate change resilience among women in the target villages.Furthermore, lead women farmers are expected to play a crucial role in promoting awareness about climate adaptation and resilient practices among women poultry farmers. Therefore, this pathway is closely linked to certain aspects of pathway 1 explained in Section 6.1.The following underlying assumptions for this pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Women farmers use/attend the platforms set up to create awareness on climate change adaptation and resilience.▪ Women farmers are willing and motivated to adopt practices that will aid them in climate change adaptation and resilience.The following assumption for this pathway is influenced by numerous variables external to the LL, difficult to be mitigated and that directly feeds into the risks of the project:▪ Women farmers are facing no barriers (such as shortage of resources, lack of support from the household/community) in adopting practices that could support them with climate adaptation and resilience.In pursuit of improving and diversifying income streams for women poultry farmers in Balarampur and Makaltala, the LL aims to offer comprehensive capacity building training. The topics covered will include business management, financial literacy, credit and establishing market linkages, existing schemes and policies for women farmers to foster enterprise/business development [potentially to create value-added products from goats in North 24 Parganas and from turkey/poultry in South 24 Parganas (possible ideas include tapping into niche turkey markets, value addition like technical aspects of cold cuts, value addition within the poultry value chain, like chicken sausages and nuggets)]. PRADAN will take the lead in training the local NGO partners (SEVA and Change Initiatives), who in turn will train the women farmers and provide them handholding support.As a result of the capacity building training and handholding support, it is expected that women farmers will have access to knowledge and thereby required resources (such as access to credit and market) that would enable them to improve their overall livestock (including shed) management. The improvement in livestock management will contribute to their climate resilience and improved income, as explained in Section 6.2.These training initiatives are also expected to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset among women, inspiring them to develop business plans and identify the necessary resources. Assuming they gain access to all the required resources to set up their enterprise, it is envisioned that some of them will establish individual or collective enterprises. Over time, these enterprises are expected to thrive and be managed efficiently. Ultimately, this endeavor is designed to serve as an additional or alternative source of income for women, thereby diversifying their income streams.Assuming that this additional income is invested by women for improving their food consumption patterns and dietary choices, it is expected to have a positive impact on food and nutrition security.The diversification (and/or addition) of income sources is also expected to lead to positive shifts in attitudes, perspectives, and confidence of women farmers, leading to outcomes as outlined in Section 6.2.The following underlying assumptions for the pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Women actively participate in the capacity building training and are motivated to learn about enterprise/business development.▪ Women farmers receive handholding support from local NGOs.▪ The household environment is supportive and there are social allies to support women starting enterprises.▪ Women are willing to set up enterprises.The following assumptions for this pathway are influenced by numerous variables external to the Learning Lab, making it difficult to be mitigated and that directly feed into the risks of the project:▪ Women have the required resources to set up their enterprise.▪ Women have working capital, infrastructure, and other required resources to run their enterprise.▪ The women enterprises are able to promote and market their products.▪ There is demand for the products/services provided by the women enterprises.▪ The products/services provided by them are sold at a profit.▪ The increase in income is being used by women farmers to improve their food consumption pattern and diet.During field visits and stakeholder consultation workshops, it became evident that women in the two project villages are significantly involved in poultry and goat farming activities but have limited participation in market-related aspects. Typically, these responsibilities are shouldered by men within the household. To empower women to engage in market activities, this LL aims to disseminate essential knowledge and training.As an initial step, PRADAN will conduct gender and climate-responsive capacity building sessions for women lead farmers on business skills and record keeping of poultry/goats. It will also make efforts to connect lead farmers to livestock traders in the region. The expectation is that the lead women farmers will compile the inventory database for goats/poultry reared by women farmers in their groups, thereby contributing to the mechanisms (WhatsApp groups) aimed at sharing market information, pricing data, weather updates, and other pertinent details to facilitate the sale of poultry and goats by women farmers. Through these trainings, lead farmers are also expected to have access to a list of livestock traders in the region and share the information with the women farmers in their groups, thereby helping them to mitigate the possible scenario of monopoly in the livestock market and to realise a better price for their livestock.PRADAN aims to conduct gender-responsive capacity building sessions on pre-sales good practices (such as weighing poultry/goat before sale) for women farmers. This increased knowledge and awareness could lead to women farmers adopting the practices and realizing better prices for their livestock.Local NGOs will set up WhatsApp groups with local mandis to get updates on market prices and relevant information for the sale of poultry and goats. Additionally, IVRI will make the technology developed by ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) accessible to women information such as for local weather updates. The larger aim of this initiative is to ensure that women farmers possess accurate market information, pricing data, weather updates, and other pertinent information to facilitate the sale of poultry and goats that helps them realise better prices for their livestock.PRADAN, with the support of local NGO partners, plans to encourage women to collectivize for activities such as the sales of livestock. Assuming that the women's groups formed (as referred to in Section 6.2.) are functional, and selling collectively proves more profitable than individual sales, it is anticipated that women farmers will unite to sell their livestock as a group. With lead farmers supervising and managing group selling activities, selling collectively is projected to reduce transportation costs and travel time for women, allowing them more time to focus on other activities, including income-generating pursuits.Adoption of vital pre-sales and sales practices by women farmers is expected to improve and/or diversify their income. Assuming that this additional income is invested in improving their food consumption patterns and dietary choices, it is expected to have a positive impact on food security and nutrition, and lead to enhanced climate resilience. It is further expected to lead to positive shifts in attitudes, perspectives and confidence of women farmers, leading to the outcomes outlined in Section 6.2.The following underlying assumptions for the pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Women lead farmers actively participate in the trainings.▪ Women farmers are able to follow the suggested practices without any barriers.▪ Women have access to and use the information channels.▪ Women farmers are able to use the market information shared with them.▪ The women groups are functional.▪ Women farmers want to sell as a group.▪ Group sales are supervised and managed by lead farmers.The following assumptions for this pathway are influenced by numerous variables external to the LL, making it difficult to be mitigated and that directly feed into the risks of the project:▪ Markets have the ability to differentiate between different livestock breeds and compensate women farmers accordingly.▪ Selling as a group is profitable compared to selling as an individual.▪ Selling as a group is more effective (less time consuming).▪ The increase in income is being used by women farmers to improve their food consumption pattern and diet.Following extensive fieldwork, it was evident that women in Balarampur and Makaltala are encountering challenges in sourcing suitable and affordable poultry and goat feed. Therefore, as part of the LL, IVRI will set up mechanisms to increase/improve the availability of local feed options in the project villages. For poultry in South 24 Parganas, this involves setting up a feed processing unit, while for goats in North 24 Parganas, it includes a combination of measures such as the supply of improved forage by introducing fodder trees and providing feed blocks for the lean/flooding season. In tandem with these efforts, lead women farmers will raise awareness about these alternative feed sources. To complement these efforts, the local NGO partners and lead farmers aim to create awareness among women farmers by ensuring that they are skilled to use the newly introduced feed mechanisms.Consequently, it is expected that women farmers in the project villages will gain access to and use mechanisms that increase availability and improve the quality of poultry and goat feed locally, along with knowledge on its utilization. This is expected to result in a diversified range of nutritious and cost-effective feed sources, an increase in the number of women farmers engaged in poultry and goat rearing, as well as an expansion in the size of herds/flocks per woman farmer.These developments are expected to boost overall productivity, ultimately contributing to the broader impact of enhancing the nutrition of women, children, and households in an environmentally sustainable manner. The improvement in productivity is also expected to lead to positive shifts in attitudes, perspectives, and confidence of women farmers, and its associated outcomes as explained in Section 6.2.By offering alternative feed sources such as fodder trees (which are less susceptible to flooding), as well as silage and rice straw, it is anticipated that there will be less reliance on grazing lands for goats. The reduced dependence on grazing areas which are often inundated due to untimely rains is expected to play a crucial role in enhancing climate change resilience among women farmers in Makaltala.The following underlying assumptions for the pathway can be partially monitored and mitigated by the LL and its partners:▪ Women farmers actively participate in the trainings.▪ Women farmers are motivated to use the locally available feed mechanisms.▪ The feed alternatives are comparable or superior to existing feed in terms of efficacy, affordability, and accessibility.There are assumptions for this pathway that are influenced by numerous variables external to the LL, making them difficult to be mitigated, and that directly feed into the risks of the project:▪ Farmers are open to planting or increasing plantation of fodder trees on bunds around rice paddies and near homesteads.▪ Goat/poultry rearing is profitable.▪ Women farmers are interested in increasing their herd/flock size and are facing no barriers such as the shortage of space.The activities within this LL are strategically designed to make significant contributions to the five key impact areas envisioned for the CGIAR. This section succinctly outlines how these activities align with the impact areas.1. Nutrition, health, and food security (SDG Target 2.1) 19 The West Bengal LL strives to enhance and broaden women's income through a range of strategic interventions including capacity building on livestock management, market linkages, business acumen, and financial literacy. With the underlying assumption that the supplementary income generated is directed by women towards enhancing their dietary preferences and consumption habits, the increased income is anticipated to yield positive outcomes in terms of bolstering food security and nutrition. Consequently, the LL aligns with the impact area Nutrition, health, and food security under the HER+ initiative.The activities within this LL are designed to result in an increase and/or diversification of women's income, offering potential relief to their financial standing. Moreover, the LL is actively engaged in fortifying women's resilience to climate change-related challenges, equipping them to confront 19 SDG Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round. 20 SDG Target 1.5: By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.SDG Target 5.5: Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.climatic shocks more effectively. By doing so, the LL seeks to mitigate the risk of financial crises that could otherwise lead to impoverishment. This multifaceted approach aligns with the overarching impact areas of Poverty reduction, livelihoods, and jobs, as part of the broader HER+ initiative.3. Gender equality, youth, and social inclusion (SDG: Targets 5.1; 5.4; 5.a; 10.2) 21 All the activities in the LL are carefully crafted to be gender responsive. Additionally, the LL strives to build a conducive environment for women within both households and communities. Each activity is purposefully designed to actively promote gender equality and empowerment, thereby contributing to the impact area of Gender equality, youth, and social inclusion of the HER+ initiative.4. Climate adaptation and mitigation (SDG: Targets 1.5; 13.1; 13.3) 22 Through activities such as disseminating climate-responsive technical and institutional knowledge on livestock management, shed management, and introducing alternative/improved feed sources, the LL seeks to enhance climate resilience of women. Improved climate resilience is expected to lead to improved climate adaptation and mitigation. These activities are strategically aligned with the impact area Climate adaptation and mitigation of the HER+ initiative.5. Environmental health and biodiversity (SDG: Target 12.4) 23 Enhancements in livestock and shed management, and feed management practices such as improved feeding and fodder practices are anticipated to play a pivotal role in fostering improved environmental health. These are integral to the success of the impact area focusing on Environmental health and biodiversity in the HER+ initiative.21 SDG Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere; SDG Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.SDG Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws. ","tokenCount":"5424"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc5f0599d61fa603442ea4ce572f4ff8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24fab367-7fc7-4a55-9022-4451a58babb5/retrieve","id":"421787695"},"keywords":["genetic diversity","gut microbiome","Hermetia illucens","mitochondrial COI gene","16S-metagenomics"],"sieverID":"2b50befa-c16e-4f21-bf90-36aaf32ffc9e","pagecount":"15","content":"Genetics and Gut Microbiome of BSF genetic diversity revealed slight phylogeographic variation between BSF populations across the globe. The 16S data depicted larval gut bacterial families with economically important genera that might pose health risks to both animals and humans. This study recommends pre-treatment of feedstocks and postharvest measures of the harvested BSF larvae to minimize risk of pathogen contamination along the insect-based feed value chain.The utilization of the black soldier fly (BSF) Hermetia illucens L. for recycling organic waste into high-quality protein and fat biomass for animal feeds has gained momentum worldwide. However, information on the genetic diversity and environmental implications on safety of the larvae is limited. This study delineates genetic variability and unravels gut microbiome complex of wild-collected and domesticated BSF populations from six continents using mitochondrial COI gene and 16S metagenomics. All sequences generated from the study linked to H. illucens accessions KM967419.1, FJ794355.1, FJ794361.1, FJ794367.1, KC192965.1, and KY817115.1 from GenBank. Phylogenetic analyses of the sequences generated from the study and rooted by GenBank accessions of Hermetia albitarsis Fabricius and Hermetia sexmaculata Macquart separated all samples into three branches, with H. illucens and H. sexmaculata being closely related. Genetic distances between H. illucens samples from the study and GenBank accessions of H. illucens ranged between 0.0091 and 0.0407 while H. sexmaculata and H. albitarsis samples clearly separated from all H. illucens by distances of 0.1745 and 0.1903, respectively. Genetic distance matrix was used to generate a principal coordinate plot that further confirmed the phylogenetic clustering. Haplotype network map demonstrated that Australia, United States 1 (Rhode Island), United States 2 (Colorado), Kenya, and China shared a haplotype, while Uganda shared a haplotype with GenBank accession KC192965 BSF from United States. All other samples analyzed had individual haplotypes. Out of 481,695 reads analyzed from 16S metagenomics, four bacterial families (Enterobactereaceae, Dysgonomonadaceae, Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae, and Enterococcaceae) were most abundant in the BSF samples. Alpha-diversity, as assessed by Shannon index, showed that the Kenyan and Thailand populations had the highest and lowest microbe diversity, respectively; while microbial diversity assessed through Bray Curtis distance showed United States 3 (Maysville) and Netherlands populations to be the most dissimilar. Our findings onThe black soldier fly (BSF) Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758; Diptera: Stratiomiydae) is a highly adaptable saprophagous cosmopolitan insect species (Carles-Tolra and Andersen, 2002). Its distribution has widely expanded over time to the warmer parts of the world (Marshall et al., 2015). Global records of H. illucens indicate an increased frequency of encounters in Europe from 1950-1960, although this is not a true indication of their abundance. It was first recorded in southern Europe in 1926. Preceding these recordings, the first record of BSF in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana were in 1915, 2015, and 2018, respectively (Picker et al., 2004;Marshall et al., 2015;Stamer, 2015;Chia et al., 2018). The exact original distribution of H. illucens is not well known. H. illucens was recorded in the Southeastern United States as far back as the 1800s (Marshall et al., 2015), reflecting a northward spread from a native range in Central America and the northern parts of South America in historical times. Several questions remain unanswered about the origin, invasion history and current distribution status of H. illucens because available data are scant. However, there is consensus that the spread of H. illucens was dependent on maritime transport that likely played a role in repeated, accidental introductions through trade of fruits and vegetables along coastlines and islands (Picker et al., 2004). Currently, molecular evidence supporting the biogeography of H. illucens and its colonization of Africa and the world at large is lacking.Black soldier fly larvae are among the most efficient waste decomposers, recycling a wide range of organic waste into high-quality edible biomass of 38.5-62.7% crude protein and 14.0-39.2% fat content that is rich in energy (5282 kcal/kg gross energy; Sheppard et al., 1994;Tomberlin et al., 2005Tomberlin et al., , 2009;;Caruso et al., 2013;Banks, 2014;Myers et al., 2014;Lalander et al., 2015). The larvae are also a rich source of micronutrients (iron and zinc) and all essential amino acids including relatively high amounts of cereal-limiting amino acids such as lysine, threonine, and methionine. Processed larvae are therefore used as a high-quality protein valuable for feed ingredient for various monogastric animal species, including poultry, pigs and fish (Bondari and Sheppard, 1987;St-Hilaire et al., 2007). In addition, BSF is neither a pest nor a disease vector, and does not constitute a nuisance like other flies (Diener, 2010). Frass produced by BSF larvae is an excellent fertilizer able to increase crop yields. Finally, insect-based feed protein technologies, which can be implemented at lowcost, have the potential to provide employment opportunities and livelihood improvement for both farmers and urban entrepreneurs (Diener et al., 2015).Despite the economic importance of H. illucens, currently no data is available on worldwide population genetics, including genetic variability within and between geographic populations. Knowledge of the genetic structure of BSF populations would provide a sound framework for gaining insight into their dispersion and mating compatibilities, and for identifying their actual and potential routes of gene flow. Also, lack of knowledge of the genetic structure of BSF populations have prevented identification of its areas of origin in newly colonized parts of the world, including Africa, tracing the route of its colonization process both within and outside North America, and assessment of colonization effects on population differentiation. The introduction or invasion of H. illucens has been reported in many countries with chances of the species undergoing rapid evolutionary events.Bacteria are an essential component of decomposing organic waste (Burkepile et al., 2006;Barnes et al., 2010;Miki et al., 2010) and are always associated with insects such as BSF that use these resources. Many insect species including BSF largely depend on obligate bacterial mutualism for their survival, viability and reproduction (Werren et al., 1995). Recent efforts have demonstrated that BSF larvae reduce pathogenic bacteria within animal wastes (Erickson et al., 2004;Liu et al., 2008). Bacteria isolated from BSF larvae have been extensively used as probiotic to enhance manure reduction and subsequent larval development (Yu et al., 2011). Many of these beneficial bacteria could be natural constituents of the larval environment or potentially vertically transmitted. Although BSF might suppress potential pathogens, it is not clear if other opportunistic pathogens might proliferate in their presence and present potential health and environmental risks. In this study, genetic variability and microbial diversity among BSF populations from different geographic locations in the world were investigated using the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene and microbiome through 16 S metagenomics.Larvae of BSF were collected from different indoor rearing facilities in various countries across the globe namely: Australia, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Netherlands, Uganda, and United States. The samples from each location were preserved in 95% ethanol and brought to the Arthropod Pathology Unit at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe, Nairobi, Kenya) for further processing.Each individual insect larva was surface sterilized using 3% NaOCl and rinsed with distilled water. Genomic DNA was extracted using the Isolate II Genomic DNA Kit (Bioline, London, and United Kingdom) following the manufacturer's instructions. The purity and concentration of the resultant DNA was determined using a Nanodrop 2,000/2,000 c spectrophotometer (Thermo Fischer Scientific, Wilmington, United States). PCR was performed to amplify the COI barcode region of the mitochondrial DNA region in a total reaction volume of 20 µL containing 5X My Taq reaction buffer (5 mM dNTPs, 15 mM MgCl 2 , stabilizers, and enhancers; Bioline), 10 pmol/µl of primers [LepF1 5 ATTCAACCAATCATAAAGATATTGG 3 , LepR1 5 TAAACTTCTGGATGTCCAAAAAATCA 3 (Hajibabaei et al., 2006)], 0.5 mM MgCl 2 , 0.0625 U µl −1 My Taq DNA polymerase (Bioline), and 15 ng/µl of DNA template in a Nexus Mastercycler gradient machine (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany). The following cycling conditions were used: initial denaturation for 2 min at 95 • C, followed by 40 cycles of 30 s at 95 • C, 45 s annealing at 52 • C, extension for 1 min at 72 • C, and a final elongation step of 10 min at 72 • C. The amplified PCR products were resolved through a 1.2% agarose gel. DNA bands on the gel were analyzed and documented using KETA GL Imaging System Trans-Illuminator (Wealtec Corp, Meadowvale Way Sparks, United States). Successfully amplified products were excised and purified using Isolate II PCR and Gel Kit (Bioline) following the manufacturer's instructions. Purified samples were shipped to Macrogen Europe BV (Meibergdreef, Amsterdam, Netherlands) for bi-directional sequencing.Insect samples from each locality were surface sterilized in 3% NaOCl then washed thrice in sterile water. The cuticle was excised using a sterile scalpel and then the whole gut contents were transferred into 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes from which genomic DNA was extracted as described above. The resultant DNA were lyophilized into 1.5 ml DNAstable tubes (Biomatrica, San Diego, United States) then sent to Macrogen Europe BV for 16 S metagenomics [Illumina 16 S amplicon (V3-V4 region) library preparation + Illumina MiSeq 2 × 300 bp sequencing, 100,000 reads per sample].The sequences obtained were assembled and edited using Chromas Lite Version 2.1.1 1 and Geneious Version 8 2 (Kearse 1 https://technelysium.com.au/wp/chromas/ 2 http://www.geneious.com et al., 2012). The primer sequences were identified and removed from the consensus sequences generated from both the forward and reverse reads. Pairwise and multiple alignments were performed in Clustal X software (version 2.1; Thompson et al., 1997). The evolutionary history was inferred by using the maximum likelihood method based on the Kimura 2-parameter model (Kimura, 1980) using MEGA X (Kumar et al., 2018). The tree with the highest log-likelihood (-1906.90) is shown. Initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applying Neighbor-Join and BioNJ algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the maximum composite likelihood (MCL) approach, and then selecting the topology with superior log-likelihood value. The reliability of the clustering pattern in the tree was evaluated using a bootstrap analysis with 1,000 replicates and involving 76 nucleotide sequences. Evolutionary divergence over sequence pairs between groups were calculated using the Kimura 2-parameter distance model (Kimura, 1980) in MEGA X and principal coordinate plots constructed from the genetic distances using GenAlEx 6.41 (Peakall and Smouse, 2006).Bayesian analysis was carried out with MrBayes V.3.2 (Ronquist et al., 2012). The GTR + I + G model (general time reversible model incorporating variant sites and a gamma distribution) model was selected for Bayesian analysis as determined by MrModelTest V.2.3 (Nylander, 2008). In Bayesian analysis, the Markov chain Monte Carlo process was generated at four chains and 4,000,000 generations resulting in 40,000 trees. The sampling frequency was 100 generations. Analyses ran until the average standard deviation of split frequencies were below 0.01. The trees were checked for convergence of parameters (standard deviation of split frequencies and potential scale reduction factor) in MrBayes V.3.2. Effective sample size (ESS) was also checked using Tracer V1.5 (Rambaut and Drummond, 2007). The first 1,000,000 generations (10,000 trees) were excluded as the burn-in step, corresponding to the standard deviation of split frequencies below 0.01, potential scale reduction factor equal to 1.0 and ESS value above 200, indicating a good posterior probability distribution sample. The remaining trees (30,000 trees) were used to evaluate the posterior probabilities. The Bayesian topology was visualized using the FigTree V.1.4 program (Rambaut, 2012).For conclusive identification of the species, similarity searches, phylogenetic analyses and genetic divergence of the COI barcoding gene were conducted. Similarity searches were carried out by querying the consensus sequences via the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST). The BLAST algorithm finds regions of local similarity between sequences, in which consensus sequences were compared to reference sequences in the GenBank database. All the sequences generated in the study were submitted to GenBank and assigned accession numbers (Table 1).Sample data consisted of pooled samples per location, comprising of 5 individuals from each of the 13 different geographical regions and 2,819 taxa. Illumina-sequenced paired-end fastq sequences were checked for quality using FastQC v 0.11.28 (Andrews, 2010) and pre-processed to remove adapters and sequencing primers using Cutadapt v1.18 (Martin, 2011). Illumina-sequenced pairedend fastq sequences were imported and assembled in QIIME2-2018.11 (Bolyen et al., 2019). The DADA2 pipeline (Callahan et al., 2016) was used to denoise the reads based on per base quality scores and merge the paired-end-reads the sequences into amplicon sequence variants (ASVs). Subsequently, the denoised representative sequences was checked for chimeric sequences using Qiime-Vsearch and the chimeric sequences filtered using Uchime and these were excluded from the downstream analyses. The resulting representative sequence set was aligned and given a taxonomic classification using SILVA 32 database 3 . Additional analyses, such as rarefaction curves and Good's coverage, were carried out with QIIME2. During data filtering, a total of 77 low abundance features were removed based on prevalence. Data were normalized as described by Weiss et al. (2017). The bacterial reads were binned into OTUs using an open OTUpicking strategy with 97% similarity and taxonomic assignment against the SILVA 32 database, which uses a bacterial and archaeal classification based on Bergey's Taxonomic Outlines (Boone and Mah, 2001;Garrity et al., 2005;De Vos et al., 2009;Krieg et al., 2012). Taxonomic composition was performed using stacked bar/area plot and a pie charts, a minimum abundance cut-off of 0.1% was used to select the most abundant taxa in each sample. Taxa with cumulative read counts below the 0.1% cut-off were collapsed into the \"Others\" category. Both alpha and beta 3 https://www.arb-silva.de/ diversity analyses were performed using the phyloseq package (McMurdie and Holmes, 2013) while Hierarchical Ward's linkage clustering based on the Pearson's correlation coefficient of the microbial taxa abundance was performed with the hclust function in the package stat generated with R version 3.4.3 (RStudio Team, 2015). In our study, the haplotype networks of the closely related species were constructed in R version 3.5.1 (RStudio Team, 2015).Both similarity and phylogenetic analyses were conducted for identification of species (  China, clustered together (Figure 1). These results were further substantiated with the Bayesian analysis (Supplementary Figure 1). Estimates of evolutionary divergence over sequence pairs between groups were successfully generated from all sequenced samples and GenBank accessions of H. illucens, H. sexmaculata and Hermetia albitarsis. Numbers of base substitutions are presented as a genetic distance matrix (Table 2). The intraspecific genetic distance between H. illucens samples from the study and the GenBank accessions of H. illucens ranged between 0.91% and 4.07% which falls within the acceptable range of species limit. The H. sexmaculata and H. albitarsis samples clearly separated from all H. illucens by distances of 17.45% and 19.03%, respectively, confirming the phylogenetic analyses. The distance matrix was used to generate a Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) where the first two axes in the PCoA  plot explained 66.88% of the variation (the first axis 42.56% and the second axis 24.32%) between all the Hermetia samples analyzed from the study and GenBank accessions (Figure 2).The PCA clustered all H. illucens samples in the study with the GenBank accession of H. illucens in one axis though in specific clusters. However, that of two other species, H. albitarsis and H. sexmaculata occurred in the other axis, which further confirmed the phylogenetic analyses. The haplotype network map demonstrated that samples from Australia, United States 1, United States 2, Kenya, and China had a shared haplotype, while samples from Uganda shared a haplotype with a GenBank accession (KC192965) of H. illucens (Figure 3). The other samples each occupied an individual haplotype (Figure 3).The bacterial microbiota analysis was based on a total of 188,863 sequences. The final dataset per sample was; Australia (16,840), China (14,766),Costa Rica (27,383),Ghana (10,376),Kenya (11,444),Netherlands (6,915), Nigeria (15,278),South Africa (12,658),Thailand (18,589), Uganda (8,973), United States 1 (12,199), United States 2 (19,263),and United States 3 (14,179). The direct quantitative comparison of the abundance of the microbiota showed the most abundant families were Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae (18.22%), Enterobacteriaceae (16.85%), Enterococcaceae (16.05%), and Dysgonomonadaceae (10.03%; Figure 4A).The comparison at genus level showed Ignatzschineria (22%), Enterococcus (20%), and Dysgonomonas (11%) to be the most abundant genera (Figure 4B). The cumulative abundance of the bacterial genera in the BSF populations showed that Enterobacteriaceae was the most abundant family in samples from Australia, China, Nigeria, Thailand and United States 3 while Dysgonomonadaceae was the most abundant in samples from Kenya, United States 1, and United States 2. Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae was the most abundant family in Ghana, South Africa and Uganda samples while Enterococcaceae was the most abundant in Costa Rica and Netherlands samples (Figure 5A). The most abundant genus in the samples from Australia, Costa Rica, and Netherlands was Enterococcus. Ghana, South Africa and Uganda had Ignatzschineria as the most abundant genus, Nigeria, and Thailand had Providencia, United States 1, and United States 2 had Dysgonomonas, China had Morganella, Kenya had Moheibacter, and United States 3 had Lactobacillus as the most abundant genus (Figure 5B). The intra population diversity (alpha diversity), as assessed by Shannon index, showed that the Kenyan population was the most diverse with a Shannon index of 3.5 while the Thailand population with a Shannon index of 2.1 had the least microbiome diversity (Figure 6). The microbial diversity between the populations as assessed through Bray Curtis distance showed the populations from United States 3 and Netherlands were the most dissimilar populations. Principal component analysis showed two main clusters: Australia, China, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, United States 1, and United States 2 in one cluster and Netherlands, South Africa, and Costa Rica in a second cluster (Figure 7). The hierarchical clustering as seen in the heatmap, showed the relative abundance of bacterial taxa within the populations of BSF analyzed in the study. The hierarchical linkage clustering based on Pearson's correlation coefficient of the microbial taxa abundance showed three main clusters with Ghana, Uganda and South Africa similarly clustered, Australia, China, Costa Rica, Kenya, Nigeria, and Thailand similarly clustered while Netherlands, United States 1, United States 2, and United States 3 were similarly clustered. The correlation between the bacterial abundance and the source countries as shown in the quantitative comparison of the microbiota, indicated that the most abundant genus in each country was positively correlated to the source country in all the samples analyzed (Figure 8). All the 16S metagenomic data generated in this study has been submitted to GenBank and available through BioProject PRJNA625868.It is believed that BSF has a common ancestry, and the phylogenetic analysis has shown very limited variation between the different populations based on mitochondrial COI barcode region. Common trade routes and similar feedstocks in these regions could be one of the reasons for this phenomenon. Furthermore, several studies have shown that other gene regions like Cytochrome b (CytB) gene (Chen et al., 2019) and NADH dehydrogenase 4 (ND4) gene (Tang et al., 1995) may be more polymorphic and thus give better resolution of intraspecific divergence of certain arthropod species. Therefore, an evaluation of the complete mitochondrial genome as well as other regions such as the nuclear microsatellites can be employed to resolve the population genetic structure of these closely related populations.The maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis trees resulted in two branches of the BSF samples with clear separation of the two outgroups that were included in the analyses, H. sexmaculata South America countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Ecuador is crucial to establish the dispersal pattern from its native range to other parts of the world.Based on the 16S rRNA sequencing and from the 481,695 reads analyzed, Enterobacteriaceae, Dysgonomonadaceae, Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae and Enterococcaceae were the most abundant families across the different countries. In addition, through taxonomic profiling, alpha-diversity (within-sample diversity) showed that the Kenyan and Thailand populations had the highest and the lowest microbiome diversity, respectively. Enterobacteriaceae, the most abundant family in Australia, China, Thailand, and United States 3, consists of bacterial genera that are ubiquitous in nature with many species free-living in diverse ecological niches, while some being associated with animals, plants or insects. Some of the species belonging to Enterobacteriaceae are significant human, animal, and plant pathogens causing a range of infections, hence the emphasis on sterile conditions for the rearing of the BSF. However, most of the species are not pathogenic and are utilized in several processes such as production of various recombinant proteins and non-protein products, control of infection diseases, anticancer agents, and biowaste recycling and bioremediation (Octavia and Lan, 2014). The family Dysgonomonadaceae was predominant in samples from Kenya, United States 1, and   United States 2. Bacteria belonging to this family are capable of degrading various polysaccharides derived from host-ingested food, such as algae (Murakami et al., 2018) and could be an integral part in the role of BSF larvae as bioremediation organisms. Wohlfahrtiimonadaceae was the most abundant family in samples from Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. This family consists of the genus Wohlfahrtiimonas which was described by Tóth et al. (2008) and consist of only one species, Wohlfahrtiimonas chitiniclastica S5 T . This species has been associated with myiasis (Campisi et al., 2015) and so far, two cases of sepsis have been reported (Rebaudet et al., 2009;Almuzara et al., 2011). The most abundant family detected in the samples collected from Costa Rica was Enterococcaceae. This family is comprised of Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, anaerobic, or microaerophilic bacteria with some species being carboxyphilic or halophilic. They are associated with a wide range of ecological sources including; plants, humans, animals, the gastrointestinal tract of insects, fermented foods, drinking water, surface water, and seawater (Ludwig et al., 2009). The diverse bacterial genera identified from the different countries in this study could be indicative of the different diets in addition to the key BSF microbiota in the sampled countries with varying implications on the biology of the BSF as well as the industrial applications of BSF. For example, Providencia, which is vertically transmitted through the insect life cycle (De Smet et al., 2018) but can also be a pathogen in humans (Galac and Lazzaro, 2011) was most abundant in Nigeria and Thailand. Furthermore, BSF fed on fish diet has been shown to be exposed to gut dysbiosis because of a microbiota severely dominated by Providencia species (Bruno et al., 2019). Ignatzschineria which was the most abundant genus, in Ghana, South Africa and Uganda, has been shown to trigger repellency in H. illucens and thus reduce egg deposition (De Smet et al., 2018). Dysgonomonas which has been reported to degrade complex polysaccharides, was most abundant in two populations from United States (Bruno et al., 2019), and the high abundance of Lactobacillus in one population from United States has been shown to enhance biodegradation of food waste by H. illucens (Jiang et al., 2019).Although the 16S data provides poor resolution at the species level, it has been able to unravel the families with genera that might pose risks to both animals and human health. As such the introduction of insects such as BSF as a high-quality protein ingredient in animal feed should be accompanied by proper safety measures. This postharvest treatment measures such as processing of the BSF larvae into dried products, defatting and proper storage in hermetic bags (Moreno-Martinez et al., 2000;Murdock et al., 2012) would be essential to minimize microbial spoilage and reduce the risk of pathogen contaminations along the insect-based feed value chain. Also, the choice of rearing substrate is crucial because of the putative transmission of microbiota to BSF larva with possible clinical implications. Although pre-treatment or sterilization of organic waste substrates before usage in all rearing systems across the world is a possible option, it is usually time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, we strongly recommend that harvested larvae of BSF from various waste substrates should be carefully sterilized during processing to eliminate potential microbial contaminants. Unfortunately, there are no published reports which provide evidence for the role of hygienic design, cooling facilities, sanitation programs and personal hygiene as measures to prevent microbial feed safety hazards for insect-based feed value chain. Therefore, potential preventive measures and intervention strategies as described above become crucial at all stages of the supply chain with thorough investigations in the insect-based protein feed enterprises globally.","tokenCount":"3983"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5a427b24be423a543b8082b47d7ed57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c7602b6-b0f2-4cb8-832d-849259f09631/retrieve","id":"1175938530"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ce08a55-ad7e-42e1-81c6-5c6350a1799c","pagecount":"8","content":"Sub-Saharan Africa is faced with many challenges. Economic growth over the last decade has been slow, limited in part by slow agricultural growth, a rapidly increasing population, and a degrading natural resource base. It is now projected that to support future generations agricultural production in Africa must register a 6% annual growth rate in production through 2020, while improving the natural resource base.Agricultural research is important in identifying ways of eliminating constraints to agricultural development and in providing a steady flow of technologies adapted to local conditions. Such technologies are necessary to transform and raise agricultural productivity and improve food security for the poor in Africa.In the last 25 years, the CGIAR has contributed to the needs of the region through agricultural research. Its contributions have led to significant improvements in key areas. However, in order for the CGIAR to contribute significantly to the goal of 6% annual growth, a strategy for the CGIAR in sub-Saharan Africa is being developed with focus on partnerships. This equally applies to IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa.IPGRI's new strategy outlines 8 strategict choices, all relevant to sub-Saharan Africa. (See page 2 for details). In order to achieve impact on these choices, we must develop a clear vision for the future -a vision that embraces initiatives. Openmindedness, creative and strategic ways of thinking, and a desire to do things well must be actively cultivated.It is true that sub-Saharan Africa is faced with a myriad of challenges, but it is also true that for every adversity there is an equal or even greater opportunity. With a positive and proactive attitude, and together with our partners, we can seize these opportunities and turn them to the advantage of the region. The great diversity that exists in sub-Saharan Africa -in culture, language, political systems and levels of economic growth -can be harnessed to provide a rich and unparalleled fount of creative approaches towards solving the problems we face.IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa works through partnerships, as it does anywhere else in the world. Many of these partnerships already exist and more will be formed. We value and appreciate our collaboration with sub-regional organizations such as SACCAR/SPGRC, ASARECA/EAPGREN and CORAF/GRENEWECA, as well as CILSS/INSAH. IPGRI must continue to nurture its partnerships, provide leadership, and at all times offer professional products and services of quality. IPGRI must be responsive to the varied and evolving needs of its partners and collaborators. IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa is committed to working in close collaboration with our partners and to effectively drawing on the synergy that stems from such collaboration.Towards the end of 1998, the genebank of Mozambique, with support and technical assistance from IPGRI, conducted a survey to assess the loss of germplasm caused by civil strife in Inhambane Province. Interviews were conducted with 120 families at two levels: the individual household and groups of households. Group household results indicate that 26 out of 209 species have been lost. Individual household interviews reveal a loss of 122 varieties out of 392.The most commonly cited cause of loss was drought; next were civil war, hunger and migration. Often the losses were due to a combination of these factors.Varieties lost in one village were often found in other villages. Others may be found in genebanks around the world. The survey identified a number of the lost varieties that farmers were particularly keen on getting back. Special effort will be made to locate these varieties and provide for their return to farmers of the region.for sub-Saharan Africa for sub-Saharan Africa Picture by: Meissa Diouf Geographical information systems (GIS) are tools used to capture, manipulate, process and display georeferenced data. The basic concept in GIS is of location, spatial distribution and relationships. Plant genetic resources (PGR) involve diversity: the number of species, the different combinations of species within an ecosystem, and the different combinations of genes within a species-and all necessarily have a spatial component. The link between GIS technology and plant genetic resources is, therefore, powerful and offers potential for new and exciting work.Research scientists and their partners in PGR programmes collect germplasm, but often they must also take multiple other measurements and make related observations. Depending on the complexity of the phenomena being studied, the investigator may be required to collect data on many different variables. The need to understand the relationship among these variables makes multivariate analysis extremely interesting-but at the same time, inherently difficult. One reason for the difficulty is that the human mind is often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data to be analysed. Geographical information systems provide elegant capability to handle and visualize relationships involving such variables. This technology is now helping to address complex and multidisciplinary environmental and resource management and can monitor issues at global, regional, national and subnational scales. Plant genetic resources work, by its nature, involves planning, decision-making, inventorying, research and monitoring. These functions are purposeful because they relate to results and how to achieve them. The work synthesizes data from many factors to yield information for good management of the resources.In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the use of GIS in environmental and resource management. The 1997 Environmental Information and Assessment Technical Report of UNEP recognizes the role of GIS within CGIAR centres. The report uses case studies to create awareness of the various application domains, many relevant to plant genetic resources, that can be enhanced using GIS. More information can be found at www.grida.no/ IPGRI in SSA is collecting and assembling a comprehensive geographically referenced database that our partners in the region will be able to have easy access to. This is in respect of climate data, vegetation types, soil types, socio-economic and demographic data, topography and other environmental parameters that are of relevance to plant genetic resources.Increasingly, general modelling capabilities are being included in GIS. Most of these systems allow for inclusion of user-specified models. Ultimately, a model is judged by a single, quite pragmatic criterion: its usefulness. Criteria such as realism, elegance, validity and reproducibility are important in evaluating a model insofar as they bear on its usefulness. By including modelling capabilities, domain experts can readily include their knowledge in GIS in the form of useful models.There are many developers and vendors in the GIS world. However, not all hold specific relevance to plant genetic resources work. For useful information about GIS, pay a Under SPGRC coordination and with the technical support of NGB and funding from SIDA, the national PGR programmes from the 12 member countries have in the past few years upped the level of scientific standards in the PGR activities that they carry out.To illustrate their commitment, scientists from the national PGR programmes have been meeting once a year to present results of their individual country activities and exchange ideas on areas that need improvement. They also present proposed activities for the coming year and invite comments from the other members. In the last meeting held in Lusaka Zambia between 18th and 20th October 34 scientists from 12 countries met for five days and presented their countries' accomplishments in germplasm IPGRI has begun collaborating with Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)-a consortium of UN and non-governmental agencies working with the people of southern Sudan -to restore the genetic diversity in the region.War and famine have displaced many people, and seed reserves have been lost or eaten when people lacked other food.Restoring the genetic diversity that stabilized agricultural production is a major focus of the efforts of the OLS Household Food Security Programme to re-establish and enhance production in farming systems.IPGRI will facilitate the search for plant genetic resources suitable for cultivation in the region and help acquire it. National and international institutions had earlier collected germplasm from the region. Some of this material may no longer be available in the region, but it could be reintroduced from institutions where it is now being held. ","tokenCount":"1304"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ecf16b3922917b37173a4f2dc449589e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0cd36114-4f7e-4711-b1e2-c2187b38c57e/retrieve","id":"1967373618"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"961e6d1e-dcbb-4795-906d-201d73a958eb","pagecount":"61","content":"TABLE DES MATIERES PREFACE DEFINITIONS ET EMPLOI DES DESCRIPTEURS PASSEPORT 1. Descripteurs de l'accession 2. Descripteurs de la collecte GESTION 3. Descripteurs pour la gestion ENVIRONNEMENT ET SITE 4. Descripteurs du site de caracterisation et/au evaluation 5. Descripteurs de l'environnement du site de collecte et/au de caracterisation CARACTERISATION 6. Descripteurs de la plante EVALUATION 7. Descripteurs de la plante 8. Sensibilite aux stress abiotiques 9. Sensibilite aux stress biotiques 10. Marqueurs biochimiques 11. Marqueurs moleculaires 12. Caracteres cytologiquesL'Institut international des ressources phytogenetiques (IPGRI) est un organisme scientifique autonome a caractere international fonctionnant sous l'egide du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale (GCRAI). Le statut international a 6th confer& a 1'IPGRI au titre d'un accord d'etablissement sign6 en decembre 1995 par les gouvernements des pays suivants: Australie, Belgique, Benin, Bolivie, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Chili, Chine, Congo, Costa Rica, CBte d'Ivoire, Chypre, Danemark, Egypte, Equateur, G&e, Guinee, Hongrie, Inde, Iran, IsraPl,,Italie, Jordanie, Kenya, Maroc, Mauritanie, Ouganda, Pakistan, Panama, Perou, Pologne, Portugal, Republique tcheque, Republique slovaque, Roumanie, Russie, Senegal, Soudan, Suisse, Syrie, Tunisie, Turquie et Ukraine. Le mandat de l'IPGR1 consiste a promouvoir la conservation et l'utilisation des ressources phytogenetiques au profit des generations actuelles et futures. L'IPGRI travaille en partenariat avec d'autres organisations, entreprenant des activites de recherche et de formation, fournissant des avis et des informations scientifiques et techniques et entretient des liens particulierement etroits avec 1'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l/agriculture. Pour mener a bien son programme de recherche, 1'IPGRI reqoit une aide financiere des gouvernements des pays suivants: Allemagne,Australie,Autriche, Belgique, Canada, Chine, Danemark, Espagne, Etats-Unis, France, Inde, Italie, Japon, Mexique, Norvege, Pays-Bas, Republique de Coree, Royaume-Uni, Suede, Suisse, et de la Banque asiatique de developpement, du'CRD1, du PNUD et de la Banque mondiale.La mission du Rkseau international pour 1'amClioration de la banane et la banane plantain est d'accroitre la production et la stabilite de la banane et de la banane plantain de consommation locale au profit des petits producteurs.L'INIBAP a quatre objectifs principaux : l organiser et coordonner l'effort global de recherche sur la banane et la banane plantain pour le developpement, l'evaluation et la dissemination de materiel genetique de Muss ameliore et la conservation et l/utilisation de la diversite genetique des Muss; l promouvoir et renforcer les efforts regionaux pour resoudre les problemes specifiques a chaque region et aider les programmes nationaux a participer et beneficier de l'effort global de recherche; a renforcer la capacite des SNRA a conduire des recherches sur les bananes et les bananes plantain; 0 coordonner, faciliter et appuyer la production, la collecte et l'echange d'information et de documentation sur la banane et la banane plantain. Depuis mai 1994, 1'INIBAP est sous la tutelle administrative de,l'Institut international pour les ressources phytogenetiques (IPGRI). afin d'ameliorer sa capacite a servir les interets des petits producteurs de bananes et de bananes plantain.Le CIRAD, Centre de cooperation internationale en recherche agronomique pour le developpem?nt, est un organisme scientifique specialise en agriculture des regions tropicales et subtropicales. Sous la forme d'un etablissement public, il est ne en 1984 de la fusion d'instituts de recherche en sciences agronomiques, vetermaires, forest&-es et agro-alimentaires des regions chaudes.Sa mission : contribuer au developpement de ces regions par des recherches, des realisations experimentales, la formation, l'information scientifique et technique. Le CIRAD comprend sept departements de recherche: cultures annuelles (CIRAD-CA); cultures perennes (CIRAD-Cl'), production fruitieres et horticoles (CIRAD-FLHOR); elevage et medecine veterinaire (CIRAD-EMVT); forets (CIRAD-For&t); systemes agro-alimentaires et ruraux (CIRAD-SAR), gestion, recherche, documentation et appui technique (CIRAD-GERDAT). Le CIRAD travaille dans ses propres centres de recherche, au sein de structures nationales de recherche agronomique des pays partenaires, ou en appui h des operations de developpement. Son personnel intervient dans une cinquantaine de pays. Plus de la moitie de son budget provient de fonds publics.Citation IPGRI-INIBAP/CIRAD.1996. Descripteurs pour le bananier (Musa spp.). Institut international des ressources phytogenetiques, Rome, Italie; Reseau international pour l'amelioration de la banane et la banane plantain, Montpellier, France; Centre de cooperation internationale en recherche agronomique pour le developpement, Montpellier, France.  . L'IPGRI encourage la collecte de don&es pour des descripteurs concernant les quatre premieres categories de cette liste -Passeport, Gestion, Environnement et site, Caracte'uisation -et considere que les don&es figurant dans ces categories sont celles qui devraient @tre disponibles pour chaque accession. Toutefois, le nombre de chacun des types de descripteurs du site et de l'environnement utilises sera fonction de la plante et de leur importance pour la description de cette plante. Les descripteurs enumeres sous Evahation permettent de faire une description plus detaillee des caracteres de l'accession, mais exigent generalement des essais avec repetition de lieu et de temps.Bien que le systeme de codage suggere ne doive pas etre consider6 comme definitif, il represente un outil important pour un systeme de caracterisation normalise et 1'IPGRI encourage son utilisation au niveau mondial. Ce format est compatible avec la base de donnees du systeme d'information sur les ressources genetiques des bananiers (MGIS) incluant le logiciel MUSAID et qui est developpe a l'IPGRI-INIBAP avec l'appui financier du CRDI. Cette liste de descripteurs entend @tre complete pour les descripteurs qu'elle contient. Cette approche aide a la normalisation des definitions des descripteurs. Toutefois, I'IPGRI ne pretend pas que chaque conservateur effectue la caracterisation des accessions de sa collection en utilisant tous les descripteurs donnes. Ceux-ci doivent @tre utilises quand ils sont utiles au le conservateur pour la gestion et l'entretien de la collection et/au aux utilisateurs des ressources phytogenetiques. Les descripteurs essentiels hautement discriminants sont marques d'une Ctoile (*).L'originalite de cette publication tient dans la presence d'une charte de couleurs detachable specialement concue pour repondre aux definitions de couleurs specifiques aux bananiers ainsi que l'addition de formulaires pour faciliter la collecte des don&es.La liste ci-apres a un:aractere international et constitue un langage universellement utilise pour toutes les don&es concernant les ressources phytogenetiques. L'adoption de ce systeme pour le codage de toutes les dorm&s, ou tout au moins l'utilisation de methodes permettant d'adapter d'auttes systemes au format IPGRI, fournira un moyen rapide, fiable et efficace de stockage, de recherche et, de diffusion de l'information. Cela facilitera beaucoup l'utilisation du materiel dans tout le reseau international des ressources phytogen&iques. 11 est done recommande de suivre fidelement cette liste en ce qui conceme l'ordre et la numerotation des descripteurs, ainsi que les regles de codage.Toute suggestion de modification sera bien accueillie par l'IPGRI-INIBAP et le CIRAD.  (1.1) Ce numéro, utilisé comme identifiant unique pour les accessions, est attribué quand une accession est introduite dans sa collection. Une fois affecté, ce nombre ne doit plus jamais être affecté de nouveau à une autre accession dans la collection. Si une accession est perdue, son numéro n'est plus disponible pour une nouvelle utilisation. Un code alphabetique doit apparaître devant le numéro pour identifier la banque de gènes ou le système national (par exemple, MG indique une accession provenant de la banque de gènes de Bari, Italie; CGN indique une accession provenant de la banque de gènes de Wageningen, Pays-Bas; PI indique une accession dans le système des Etats-Unis).Nom du donateur (1.2) Nom de l'institution ou de la personne ayant donné le germoplasme considéréNuméro du donateur (1.3) Numéro affecté à une accession par le donateurAutres numéros liés à l'accession (1.4) Autre numéro d'identification connu dans les autres collections pour cette accession, par exemple: le numéro d'USDA Plant Inventory (il ne s'agit pas du Numéro de collecte, voir le descripteur 2.3). Des numéros supplémentaires peuvent être ajoutés en 1.4.3, etc.Autre numéro 1 (1.4.1)1.5 Nom scientifique (1.5)Les noms latins sont utilisés pour les espèces sauvages, par exemple Musa acuminata et les lettres pour les cultivars, ex. AA, AAA, AAB, etc.Sous-espèce/Sous-groupe (1.5.4) 1.5.5Type/Forme de référence (1.5.5)Soit une désignation standard de l'accession ou tout autre désignation formelle donnée à l'accession (exemple : 'Pisang Mas' est la forme de référence à utiliser pour les cultivars 'Figue sucrée', 'Amas', 'Kluai Khai', etc.) Passeport « « Autres (préciser dans descripteur 1.12 Notes)(1.9) Nombre approximatif de plants de l'accession dans la collectionLocalisations antérieures Indiquer les autres localisations antérieures connues de l'accession, de la plus récente à la plus ancienne. Date de collecte de l'échantillon original [JJMMAAAA] (2.3)(2.4) Nom du pays où l'échantillon a été collecté ou amélioré. Utiliser les abréviations de trois lettres de la Liste internationale standard ISO des codes pour la représentation des noms des pays, No. 3166, 4th Edition. Des copies sont disponibles auprès de : DIN: Deutsche Institut für Normung e.V., 10772 Berlin, Germany; Tel. 30-2601-2860; Fax 30-2601-1231, Tlx. 184 273din-d.Province/Etat (2.5) Nom de la sous-division administrative primaire du pays dans laquelle l'échantillon a été collectéDépartement/district Nom de la sous-division administrative secondaire (à l'intérieur d'une province/d'un Etat) du pays dans laquelle l'échantillon a été collectéLocalisation du site de collecte (2.6) Distance en kilomètres et direction depuis la ville/village le plus proche, ou la référence de grille de la carte (par exemple CURITIBA 7S signifie 7 km au sud de Curitiba)Latitude du site de collecte (2.7) Degrés et minutes suivis par N (Nord) ou S (Sud) (par exemple, 1030S) Utiliser les descripteurs 3.8.1 et 3.8.2 de la section 3Les collecteurs noteront ici toute information complémentaire ou n'importe quelle autre information relative aux descripteurs de cette section. Noter toute information pertinente sur la façon dont l'échantillon a été traité entre le moment de sa collecte et son arrivée à destination.Noter le lieu où l'échantillon a été envoyé après avoir été collecté. Indiquer l'institution, le nom de la collection ou de la station, l'adresse et le pays.  Pente estimée du site  Mesurer de la base du pseudo-tronc au point d'émergence de l'inflorescence 1 ≤2 2 2.1 à 2.9 3 ≥3 Compter le nombre de rejets successeurs d'une hauteur supérieure à 30 cm, du sol au point d'émergence de la dernière feuille. Uniquement sur plants non oeilletonnésPar rapport au pied mère. Observer le plus grand des rejets au moment de la récolte 1 Plus grand que le pied mère 2 Dépasse les 3/4 de la taille du pied mère 3 Entre 1/4 et 3/4 de la taille du pied-mère 4 Inférieur au 1/4 de la taille du pied mère Mesurée entre la couronne foliaire et la première main de fruits 1 < 30 cm 2 31 -60 cm 3 > 61 cmCompter le nombre de coussinets vides entre la dernière feuille bractéale et la première main de fruitsMesuré à mi-longueur 1 < 6 cm 2 7 -12 cm 3 > 13 cm  Additionner la longueur et le diamètre maximum du bourgeon. 1 < 20 cm 2 21 à 30 cm 3 > 31 cm 6.5 Bractées Les caractères 6.5.1 à 6.5.14 se réfèrent à la première bractée non ouverte, encore adhérente au bourgeon mâle lors de l'observation  (Voir Fig. 12) 1 x/y < 0,28 (lancéolé) 2 0,28 < x/y <0,30 3 x/y > 0,30 (ovale)    ","tokenCount":"1777"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8495fb24a9e33978e42f0a414efd200","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b54b0080-641b-44f0-939a-005245852b4c/retrieve","id":"-1060105677"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4815eafd-80e8-4095-8c07-ddb5447f2282","pagecount":"315","content":"Le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) a été créé en 1983 dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé entre les États du Groupe ACP (Afrique, Caraïbes, Pacifique) et les pays membres de l'Union européenne. Depuis 2000, le CTA exerce ses activités dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-CE.Le CTA a pour mission de développer et de fournir des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural, et de renforcer les capacités de ces pays à produire, acquérir, échanger et exploiter l'information dans ce domaine. Les programmes du CTA sont conçus pour : fournir un large éventail de produits et services d'information et mieux faire connaître les sources d'information pertinentes ; encourager l'utilisation combinée de canaux de communication adéquats et intensifier les contacts et les échanges d'information, entre les acteurs ACP en particulier ; renforcer la capacité ACP à produire et à gérer l'information agricole et à mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de GIC, notamment en rapport avec la science et la technologie. Le travail du CTA tient compte de l'évolution des méthodologies et des questions transversales telles que le genre et le capital social.Après le premier volume consacré aux notions fondamentales de pathologie animale, paru récemment, ce second volume sur la santé animale traite en détail des principales maladies du bétail et des moyens de lutte. Il s'agit aussi du deuxième volume paru de la nouvelle collection « Agricultures tropicales en poche », qui vient d'être lancée par un consortium réunissant le Cirad, le CTA, Karthala et Macmillan. Elle constitue la version française de la collection anglaise « The Tropical Agriculturalist ».A l'occasion de la traduction en français de l'ouvrage Animal Health (volume 2) d 'Archie Hunter (1994), un collectif de spécialistes, en majorité du Cirad, coordonnés par Christian Meyer, a révisé et actualisé le texte, pour tenir compte des expériences complémentaires des relecteurs et des avancées scientifiques et techniques récentes dans ce domaine. Gerrit Uilenberg, qui était déjà associé en tant que collaborateur à la version originale anglaise, a également relu intégralement l'ouvrage en français et validé l'ensemble des nouveaux apports. Enfin, Archie Hunter et Antony J. Smith ont été consultés pour donner leur accord sur cette version.Ce second volume complète harmonieusement le premier, en apportant des informations précises sur les principales maladies animales et sur les moyens de lutte : maladies infectieuses et parasitaires, maladies à transmission vectorielle et maladies liées au milieu et aux conditions d'élevage. Ces pathologies animales sont traitées par groupe d'espèces : ruminants (bovins, buffles, ovins et caprins), camélidés, chevaux et porcs.Nous tenons à remercier vivement tous les collaborateurs qui ont permis d'actualiser les informations et de réaliser une synthèse complète des connaissances sur les maladies du bétail en régions tropicales et les moyens d'intervention. Santé animale constitue un outil pratique et complet pour ceux qui travaillent sur le terrain pour l'élevage en régions chaudes, mais aussi une synthèse des connaissances de qualité pour tous ceux qui s'intéressent aux productions animales dans le monde.Chez les équidés -Le tableau clinique est semblable mais généralement moins grave. Chez les caprins -Une besnoitiose a été identifiée chez des caprins au Kenya, avec infécondité, avortements et morts néonatales. Les animaux atteints présentent des kystes au niveau des yeux, des oreilles et des organes génitaux. D'autres espèces de Besnoitia ont été trouvées chez des animaux sauvages.Les carnivores constituent l'hôte final de Besnoitia qu'ils contractent en consommant des tissus contenant des kystes. Ils rejettent des oocystes de Besnoitia dans leurs excréments, contaminant ainsi les zones de pâturage et transmettant par là l'agent pathogène aux animaux sauvages et aux bovins.Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique, mais un traitement symptomatique sous surveillance vétérinaire s'avère parfois bénéfique.Il faut empêcher que des carnivores aient accès aux cadavres d'animaux atteints de besnoitiose.Cette maladie tend à apparaître de manière sporadique. Aux premiers stades, la besnoitiose bovine peut être confondue avec la fièvre catarrhale maligne des bovins, tandis que la forme chronique rappelle d'autres problèmes de peau, notamment la dermatose nodulaire contagieuse, la gale et la dermatophilose. Le diagnostic est facilement 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses vérifié en recherchant au microscope, dans des prélèvements cutanés des lésions, les kystes d'aspect caractéristique renfermant en grand nombre les protozoaires responsables, en forme de croissant. La brucellose (brucellosis) se déclare lorsqu'une espèce de Brucella infecte un de ses hôtes principaux (voir le tableau 1.1), mais d'autres espèces domestiques peuvent également héberger la bactérie par contact avec ces animaux infectés. Ces infections « occasionnelles » sont généralement résolutives et dépourvues de tout symptôme. Chez l'homme, toutefois, B. abortus, B. melitensis et B. suis peuvent entraîner une maladie grave. L'infection intéresse au premier chef les organes reproducteurs ; les principaux signes cliniques sont de fait des avortements, ainsi que des inflammations des testicules (orchites), de l'utérus (métrite) ou des glandes mammaires (mammites), accompagnées d'infertilité. La durée de l'incubation est de 6 à 8 semaines.Bovins -Les animaux de tout âge et des deux sexes peuvent être infectés par B. abortus. L'infection ne se traduit cependant par aucun symptôme particulier, hormis chez la femelle en gestation, chez laquelle les bactéries, envahissant l'utérus, provoquent l'avortement à partir du 7 e mois de gestation. L'avortement est souvent suivi de non-délivrance puis de métrite, enfin d'infertilité. Des arthrites et des gonflements des bourses séreuses au niveau des articulations (genou), suite à l'accumulation d'un liquide infecté (hygroma), sont fréquemment observés chez les bovins en Afrique. Le placenta s'épaissit et prend une consistance rappelant celle du cuir, avec une nécrose des cotylédons. L'infection par B. suis et B. melitensis, parfois contractée par contact avec des porcs et des petits ruminants respectivement, ne produit généralement aucun symptôme chez les bovins. B. abortus peut entraîner des orchites ou des épididymites chez les taureaux.Ovins et caprins -L'infection due à B. melitensis chez ces animaux (mélitococcie) produit un tableau identique à celui de B. abortus chez les bovins. Les avortements éventuels se produisent au cours du 4 e ou 5 e mois de la gestation. Mammites et chétivité des jeunes sont souvent constatées. Au nombre d'autres symptômes régulièrement observés, on peut citer une hausse de la température corporelle, des boiteries et une bronchite entraînant une toux chronique. Les ovins sont en outre sensibles à B. ovis, qui entraîne, chez les béliers, des orchites ou des épididymites suppuratives (c'est-à-dire avec production de pus) se manifestant par un gonflement des testicules, un relâchement de l'ardeur sexuelle et une diminution de la fertilité (épididymite contagieuse du bélier). Chez les brebis, les avortements sont exceptionnels, l'infection à l'origine de la contamination des béliers, demeurant inapparente.Porcins -L'infection par B. suis se traduit chez les porcins par une maladie chronique qui entraîne, chez les femelles, des avortements, de la mortinatalité ou la production de nouveau-nés chétifs et, chez les mâles, des orchites. Des boiteries dues à une arthrite, des paralysies et des irrégularités du cycle oestrien sont également constatées de temps à autre.Le placenta, le foetus et les écoulements vaginaux des bovins qui avortent contiennent l'agent pathogène en grande quantité. Dans le milieu extérieur, la bactérie peut survivre plusieurs semaines, et les autres animaux s'infectent en ingérant ou en reniflant les matières contaminées, les foetus avortés et les membranes foetales, ou en léchant les écoulements vaginaux. Les femelles restent infectées après l'avortement et continuent de produire l'agent pathogène lors des mises bas suivantes, à l'issue de gestations qui peuvent se dérouler normalement. Les veaux de mères infectées sont susceptibles de contracter l'infection in utero (avant leur naissance) ou en consommant le lait maternel, fréquemment contaminé (une source d'infection courante pour l'homme). Les infections contractées au cours des premiers mois de vie disparaissent généralement avant la maturité sexuelle.La principale source d'infection étant les femelles au moment des avortements et des mises bas, la brucellose est une maladie très grave dans les élevages où les femelles adultes sont conduites de manières intensives, comme dans les unités modernes de production laitière. Dans les systèmes pastoraux extensifs, les probabilités d'entrer en contact B. suis se répand dans l'ensemble de l'organisme du porc et cet agent pathogène se retrouve dans les urines, les excréments, le lait, les écoulements vaginaux, les foetus avortés et les membranes associées à ces derniers. Ce type de brucellose peut également se transmettre par voie sexuelle, notamment des verrats aux truies. Les porcins s'infectent donc par contact direct avec des animaux infectés, par le coït ou par ingestion de nourriture ou d'eau contaminées.Les infections brucelliques sont le plus souvent persistantes, et un traitement antibiotique, même prolongé et intensif, risque de ne pas éliminer totalement l'agent pathogène des tissus infectés. Dans la plupart des cas, aucun traitement n'est donc tenté dans la mesure où il n'est ni facile à mettre en oeuvre ni économiquement rentable.Les brucelloses peuvent être combattues en s'appuyant sur de bonnes pratiques d'élevage, une hygiène rigoureuse et le recours à des vaccins adaptés. Les femelles qui avortent doivent être tenues à l'écart du troupeau jusqu'à l'arrêt des écoulements vaginaux ; les matières et matériaux contaminés, les foetus avortés et les membranes foetales doivent être incinérés ou enterrés, et les locaux nettoyés et désinfectés. Dans les troupeaux ayant des antécédents de brucellose, tout animal sur le point de mettre bas doit être séparé des autres. Les mesures à appliquer sont les mêmes pour ce qui est de B. melitensis chez les ovins et les caprins. B. ovis peut être enrayé en séparant les jeunes béliers de leurs comparses plus âgés ayant déjà été utilisés en reproduction, afin de veiller à ce qu'ils ne couvrent pas les mêmes brebis.L'infection peut en outre être prévenue par des vaccins. Les veaux jusqu'à 8 mois peuvent être vaccinés par voie sous-cutanée à l'aide d'un vaccin atténué (vivant) élaboré à partir d'une souche vivante atténuée de B. abortus qui leur confère une immunité à vie (la souche B19). Chez les animaux plus âgés, cependant, ce vaccin peut provoquer des avortements chez les femelles adultes et des orchites chez les mâles ; son administration exige donc plus d'attention. En outre, le vaccin B19 peut entraîner chez ces animaux plus âgés la persistance, dans le sérum, d'une teneur détectable en anticorps, ce qui risque de susciter des confusions lors de l'interprétation des analyses de sang. Un vaccin mis au point à partir de B. abortus morts (vaccin inactivé 45/20) existe également ; il est sans danger pour les adultes mais requiert des rappels annuels. Cependant, le recours à ce vaccin inactivé est actuellement en recul depuis que l'on sait que le vaccin B19 peut être utilisé chez les adultes à condition d'en administrer des doses réduites par voie conjonctivale. Un vaccin atténué de B. melitensis (souche Rev.1) est également fréquemment employé chez les ovins et les caprins. Comme dans le cas du B19 chez les bovins, il est important de réduire les doses administrées aux animaux adultes. Un vaccin existe aussi contre la brucellose à B. ovis, mais aucun vaccin efficace n'a encore été mis au point contre B. suis.La meilleure manière de lutter contre les brucelloses reste donc de se débarrasser des animaux infectés ; ceux-ci peuvent être identifiés grâce à divers tests de diagnostic de laboratoire. Cette approche, bien que coûteuse et nécessitant un bon niveau d'organisation et d'administration, a permis d'éradiquer de certaines régions B. abortus chez les bovins et B. suis chez les porcins. Les programmes d'éradication peuvent s'appuyer dans un premier temps sur des campagnes de vaccination destinées à réduire le niveau de prévalence de la maladie, puis, dans un second temps, sur un dépistage systématique suivi de l'abattage des animaux infectés.Dès lors que la brucellose est suspectée, les individus concernés doivent être séparés du troupeau. Les foetus avortés et les membranes foetales associées seront emballés dans des sacs en matière plastique et expédiés au laboratoire pour y être analysés. Tout matériel contaminé sera incinéré ou enterré, et les lieux où les avortements ont eu lieu devront être soigneusement nettoyés et désinfectés (voir le chapitre 7 du volume 1). S'il est inutile et déconseillé de tenter de traiter les animaux atteints, ces derniers doivent cependant être signalés au vétérinaire afin que des mesures appropriées soient mises en place.Du fait du risque de transmission de la maladie à l'homme, il est important de s'entourer de toutes les précautions nécessaires lors de la manipulation des produits d'avortements. De même, la consommation de lait ou de produits laitiers provenant de troupeaux à antécédents connus de brucellose devrait être évitée. Le lait provenant d'élevages au statut inconnu devrait être pasteurisé ou bouilli. En outre, l'administration de vaccins atténués exige un minimum de précautions dans la mesure où ils peuvent entraîner la maladie chez l'homme.De quoi s'agit-il ? Maladie bactérienne des animaux et de l'homme dont l'agent responsable est un bacille qui forme des spores, Bacillus anthracis.Le charbon bactéridien (anthrax) existe partout dans le monde tout en étant plus commun dans les pays tropicaux et subtropicaux.A la suite de l'infection, le bacille se multiplie activement dans divers tissus (noeuds lymphatiques, rate, sang…), produisant des toxines potentiellement mortelles. Après une période d'incubation de 1 à 2 semaines, la maladie peut prendre l'une des trois formes, suraiguë, aiguë ou subaiguë. Dans la forme suraiguë, la plus fréquente chez les ruminants, une phase très brève de fièvre et de difficultés respiratoires est rapidement suivie d'un collapsus, de convulsions puis de la mort de l'animal atteint. L'évolution de la maladie dure de quelques minutes à quelques heures, et les animaux sont habituellement retrouvés morts. Après la mort, il est courant d'observer une putréfaction rapide et des écoulements de sang épais de teinte foncée au niveau des orifices naturels tels que la bouche, les naseaux, l'anus ou la vulve (voir la figure 1.2). La répartition des différentes formes de la maladie en fonction des espèces domestiques atteintes est précisée dans le tableau ci-dessous.Dans les formes aiguë et subaiguë, on peut relever des avortements, une chute de la production laitière ou un lait teinté de sang ou qui prend une teinte jaune. Il arrive que des coliques se manifestent chez les chevaux et des dysenteries chez les bovins, les ovins et les porcs lorsque l'infection s'étend à l'appareil digestif.Un grand nombre de bactéries infectieuses sont rejetées dans l'environnement avec le sang, les excréments et autres excrétions des animaux infectés. Les cadavres abandonnés à la surface du sol peuvent constituer aussi une source considérable de bacilles. Une fois exposés à l'air libre, les bacilles sporulent (produisent des spores, très résistantes). Les spores peuvent contaminer les parcours (« champs maudits »), les aliments et les points d'eau pendant plusieurs décennies, et constituent la principale source d'infection pour les animaux réceptifs. La sporulation intervenant plus facilement dans des conditions chaudes, le charbon bactéridien est une maladie particulièrement grave en santé animale et santé publique dans beaucoup de pays tropicaux.L'infection est influencée par divers facteurs prédisposants. Le risque d'infection tend à s'accroître pendant les périodes de sécheresse lorsque les animaux, poussés à pâturer un herbage court et dur, ingèrent des particules de terre contaminées et s'abrasent la bouche ce qui favorise encore le processus. En outre, certains points d'eau utilisés par un grand nombre d'animaux d'espèces différentes peuvent accumuler l'agent infectieux. Certains aliments du bétail contenant des produits d'origine animale sont parfois contaminés (c'est d'ailleurs la source d'infection la plus fréquente dans les pays tempérés). Les rats et autres charognards (mammifères et oiseaux) propagent la maladie en prélevant des fragments de carcasses d'animaux infectés.Les mouches piqueuses peuvent également la transmettre, notamment aux chevaux, par voie « mécanique ». Enfin, les animaux malades qui rejettent la bactérie responsable peuvent infecter d'autres animaux par contact juste avant leur mort.L'homme est relativement résistant au charbon bactéridien et l'infection, lorsqu'elle se produit, est généralement associée à la manipulation de cadavres, de carcasses infectées, au travail en tanneries ; l'infection des abrasions entraîne des lésions cutanées localisées (pustule maligne) pouvant diffuser (oedème malin) et conduire secondairement à une forme septicémique grave. Par ailleurs, les personnes travaillant dans la filière de la laine sont susceptibles d'inhaler des spores et de contracter ainsi une forme pneumonique aiguë et mortelle de la maladie (charbon pulmonaire). Le charbon bactéridien cutané est couramment observé chez les personnes portant des carcasses d'animaux infectés sur leur dos. La consommation de sang, de viandes ou d'abats provenant d'animaux infectés peut provoquer des formes digestives (charbon digestif hémorragique) mortelles.Etant donné la rapidité d'évolution de cette maladie, les animaux sont souvent retrouvés morts ou dans un état trop avancé pour que le traitement puisse être efficace. Toutefois, dans sa phase initiale, lorsque la fièvre constitue encore le seul signe clinique, le charbon bactéridien peut être traité avec succès à l'aide d'antibiotiques. L'oxytétracycline et la pénicilline, administrées aux doses maximales recommandées pendant au moins 5 à 6 jours, se révèlent efficaces.Du fait de la gravité de cette zoonose mortelle à courte échéance, de nombreux pays ont instauré des réglementations strictes afin de prévenir et de limiter sa propagation. Les agents infectieux pouvant être détruits par la putréfaction et l'exposition à l'air libre stimulant au contraire leur sporulation, les cadavres ne devront pas être ouverts et seront éliminés par incinération ou mise en terre afin d'éviter la contamination de l'environnement et la dissémination par les charognards.Les litières, les locaux, les aliments, etc. sont détruits ou désinfectés. Dans les pays intertropicaux où les conditions sont favorables à la sporulation des bactéries et où le charbon bactéridien est répandu, le bétail exposé doit être vacciné chaque année, quelques semaines avant la période à risque (variable d'un pays à l'autre) -une opération obligatoire dans beaucoup de pays. Le vaccin vivant atténué (suspension de spores de la souche Sterne) est désormais très utilisé. Il est sans danger pour toutes les espèces et facile à préparer en laboratoire (beaucoup de pays tropicaux produisent leur propre stock), résiste bien aux conditions d'administration sur le terrain et confère une protection valable environ un an. Comme il s'agit d'un vaccin atténué, donc vivant, aucun antibiotique ne doit être administré à moins de 7 jours de la date de vaccination.Lorsque le charbon bactéridien est avéré, ou même suspecté, les animaux ayant été en contact avec les individus malades doivent être suivis attentivement pendant 2 semaines, leur température prise à intervalles réguliers. Tout cas de fièvre doit immédiatement déclencher 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses un traitement par l'un ou l'autre des deux antibiotiques efficaces. Une solution alternative est de vacciner les animaux à risque afin de prévenir toute flambée épidémique, mais ces animaux doivent néanmoins être gardés en observation au cas où certains auraient été en train d'incuber la maladie au moment de leur vaccination.Confronté à un cas suspect, il est primordial d'agir très rapidement pour obtenir la confirmation ou l'infirmation du diagnostic. L'agent responsable étant détruit par le processus de putréfaction, les échantillons destinés au laboratoire doivent être prélevés sur des animaux morts récemment ou, le cas échéant, sur des cas suspects encore vivants. Des frottis sanguins sont à réaliser avec du sang prélevé dans une veine superficielle de l'oreille, en prenant bien soin de désinfecter tous les instruments par la suite. Des frottis du liquide contenu dans les gonflements oedémateux de la gorge des chevaux et des porcs sont également conseillés. De même, des écouvillonnages de sang et de liquide provenant des oedèmes doivent être envoyés au laboratoire dans des flacons stériles et hermétiques. Tous les échantillons doivent être étiquetés en indiquant clairement que le charbon bactéridien est suspecté.Maladie surtout des intestins des animaux domestiques causée par certaines espèces de protozoaires parasites, coccidies des genres Eimeria et Isospora. Chacune de ces espèces pathogènes est liée à un type d'hôte particulier si bien qu'il n'y a pas de transmission de la maladie entre les différentes catégories d'animaux domestiques.Les coccidioses (coccidiosis) sont répandues dans le monde entier.Ces protozoaires sont extrêmement communs et la plupart des animaux s'infectent très tôt. Cette maladie est donc généralement observée chez les jeunes animaux âgés de quelques mois.Veaux -Le degré de gravité de la maladie dépend du niveau d'infestation. Les signes cliniques vont d'une diarrhée légère associée à une perte d'appétit modérée (anorexie légère) à des diarrhées graves, nauséabondes et mêlées de sang et de mucus accompagnées d'anorexie et de déshydratation. Dans les cas graves, des efforts constants à la défécation sont fréquemment observés, aboutissant quelquefois au prolapsus du rectum. Les symptômes durent entre 5 et 6 jours, mais la convalescence peut prendre beaucoup plus de temps dans les cas graves, à cause des dégâts occasionnés aux intestins. Certains individus ne retrouvent leur appétit et leur rythme de croissance habituel qu'au bout de plusieurs semaines.Agneaux et chevreaux -Les principaux signes cliniques sont une dégradation progressive de l'état général, une perte de l'appétit et une faiblesse générale, suivis de la mort après quelques semaines. La dysenterie est moins marquée que chez les veaux.Porcelets -La maladie survient au cours des 2 semaines suivant la naissance. Les signes cliniques sont principalement une diarrhée très abondante, un état apathique et parfois des vomissements. Jusqu'à 20 % des porcelets affectés peuvent mourir.Ces protozoaires parasites ont un cycle de vie complexe au cours duquel ils se développent dans les cellules de l'intestin, où ils occasionnent des dégâts. En fin de cycle, ils adoptent une forme de reproduction et de résistance sphérique et prennent le nom d'oocystes ; ils sont alors évacués avec les excréments dans le milieu extérieur, où, en quelques jours, ils se métamorphosent en une forme infectieuse, susceptible de survivre de longs mois dans l'environnement.Ces protozoaires sont très communs et la plupart des animaux domestiques ingèrent de petites quantités d'oocystes dès leur plus jeune âge, s'infectent à un niveau infraclinique et produisent à leur tour de petites quantités d'oocystes dans leurs excréments. La maladie se déclare lorsque de jeunes animaux qui n'ont jamais été exposés à ces parasites en ingèrent brutalement une grande quantité, à la suite de leur accumulation dans l'environnement. Il en résulte une invasion des cellules de l'intestin provoquant les dégâts décrits plus haut.Plusieurs substances sont efficaces contre les coccidioses, notamment la sulfadimidine (sulfadimérazine), la nitrofurazone et l'amprolium. Il est primordial de traiter les cas cliniques très tôt, avant que les parasites n'aient atteint les derniers stades de leur développement et que les dégâts aux intestins ne deviennent trop importants. Les animaux seront traités individuellement ou par groupes, en fonction du contexte, 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses la préparation médicamenteuse étant mélangée aux aliments ou à l'eau de boisson.L'infection des animaux par les parasites responsables des coccidioses est inévitable et aucune prévention n'est envisageable à ce niveau. Il reste toutefois possible de limiter les niveaux d'infestation afin de prévenir le déclenchement de la forme clinique de la maladie. Aussi est-il conseillé d'éviter de trop grandes densités d'animaux dans les enclos et les locaux où les jeunes sont élevés et de veiller à ce que ces lieux soient régulièrement nettoyés afin de limiter l'accumulation des oocystes.Les abreuvoirs et les mangeoires doivent être surélevés pour limiter les risques de contamination par des excréments. Les cas cliniques doivent être séparés des autres dans la mesure où ils rejettent des millions d'oocystes dans leurs excréments. Les mêmes substances que celles utilisées pour le traitement curatif peuvent être administrées préventivement dans les aliments ou dans l'eau des animaux à risque.Les diarrhées et les dégradations de l'état général chez les jeunes animaux domestiques peuvent avoir de nombreuses origines, et la coccidiose ne peut être diagnostiquée sur la base des seuls signes cliniques. Des échantillons fécaux frais provenant de cas suspects doivent être envoyés au laboratoire pour analyse et recherche d'oocystes. En cas de résultat négatif, d'autres échantillons prélevés ultérieurement doivent être soumis à une autre analyse, car les stades précoces ne produisent pas d'oocystes. Une fois la coccidiose confirmée, les pratiques d'élevage doivent être réexaminées afin d'éliminer les facteurs prédisposants qui ont pu entrer en jeu, tels qu'une trop grande densité d'animaux ou une accumulation de contamination fécale dans l'environnement. Le traitement et le contrôle de la coccidiose peuvent se révéler complexes et il est conseillé de rechercher l'avis d'un vétérinaire, surtout en ce qui concerne l'utilisation des préparations médicamenteuses.Les coccidioses sont généralement liées à des conditions d'élevage intensives dans lesquelles les veaux, les agneaux, les chevreaux ou les porcelets sont maintenus dans les parcs surpeuplés et mal entretenus, fortement contaminés par les excréments des animaux qui les y ont précédés. Les coccidioses peuvent également se déclarer en tout lieu où les animaux se concentrent et entraînent une forte contamination de l'environnement en excréments et donc en oocystes, par exemple autour des points d'eau pendant la saison sèche dans les systèmes extensifs.Synonyme : streptothrichose (dermatophilosis, streptotrichosis, lumpy wool disease, mycotic dermatitis, Senkebo disease).Maladie de peau (dermatose exsudative) des ruminants, des camélidés et des chevaux causée par la bactérie filamenteuse Dermatophilus congolensis. Les pertes de production liées à cette maladie et à ses conséquences peuvent être importantes.La dermatophilose existe dans le monde entier, mais elle est particulièrement grave dans les régions tropicales humides d'Afrique centrale et d'Afrique de l'Ouest ainsi qu'à Madagascar et dans certaines îles des Caraïbes (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Cette affection se manifeste par une inflammation de la peau accompagnée d'un suintement de sérum (exsudat séreux). Les signes cliniques visibles dépendent du site de l'infection et de la présence de poils ou de laine.Bovins -Les lésions prennent l'aspect de petites croûtes isolées initialement et difficiles à enlever ; ces croûtes, qui atteignent 2 cm de diamètre, augmentent en nombre et en volume puis deviennent coalescentes formant des plaques plus ou moins larges. Elles se détachent ensuite de la peau sous-jacente mais sont maintenues en place par les poils pris dans la masse. A ce stade, elles se soulèvent facilement et révèlent une zone de peau neuve en cours de cicatrisation. Dans les cas graves, les lésions peuvent se multiplier et finir par se rejoindre, formant une masse croûteuse généralisée (voir la figure 1.3). Les lésions apparaissent le plus souvent au niveau de la région axillaire, le long du dos, sous la queue, sur les côtés de la cage thoracique, derrière le pis, sur la face inférieure du corps et le long des membres (voir les figures 1.4, 1.5 et 1.6).Les veaux atteints de dermatophilose perdent du poil et présentent une desquamation sèche de la peau (« pellicules »). Les lésions apparaissent d'abord autour du bout du nez puis s'étendent à la tête et au cou. La maladie peut prendre une forme aiguë, avec des lésions très étendues se développant en quelques semaines, ou chronique, d'une durée de plusieurs mois.Ovins -Les zones couvertes de poils ou de laine sont indifféremment affectées. Dans les zones couvertes de laine, les exsudats coagulés encroûtent la toison, parfois jusqu'à former plusieurs couches de croûtes successives en cas d'infections répétées. Ces lésions ne sont souvent détectées qu'au moment de la tonte. Dans les zones couvertes de poils, les lésions ressemblent à celles observées chez les bovins. Chez les adultes,    les lésions intéressent généralement le dos, les flancs et le cou, parfois le bout du nez, le devant de la tête et les oreilles. Les agneaux sont habituellement atteints sur les zones couvertes de poils sur la tête et sur la partie inférieure des membres. Les ovins sont rarement autant affectés que les bovins, bien qu'une mortalité importante puisse être constatée chez les agneaux.Caprins -Les lésions tendent à apparaître autour des lèvres et du bout du nez, puis autour des pieds et du scrotum.Chevaux -La maladie ressemble à celle affectant les bovins. Les lésions intéressent la tête et la partie inférieure des membres ou, dans les cas graves, s'étendent largement sur la tête et le corps.La principale source d'infection est constituée par les animaux déjà infectés, mais un certain nombre de facteurs de risque doivent agir en parallèle pour que la maladie se transmette. Les barrières défensives naturelles de la peau doivent être fragilisées d'une manière ou d'une autre ; chez les bovins, la salive des tiques adultes Amblyomma variegatum (voir le chapitre 3) favorise l'apparition de formes sévères. Parmi les autres facteurs prédisposants, mentionnons un pelage qui reste mouillé pour des périodes prolongées. La maladie est donc fréquemment corrélée à un climat humide ou à la saison des pluies, lorsque les tiques sont les plus actives. L'infection se transmet par contact direct entre animaux, mais il est possible que les mouches constituent un facteur de propagation. Certains individus chez lesquels les lésions persistent constituent des sources d'infection permanente entre les périodes à risque. L'état sanitaire général du cheptel est un autre élément déterminant. En effet, les animaux en mauvais état souffrant d'autres maladies sont plus réceptifs et plus à même de développer une forme grave de dermatophilose.Pour que le traitement en application locale soit efficace, il est nécessaire d'enlever les croûtes, ce qui rend cette méthode de traitement peu commode. Cependant, Dermatophilus congolensis est sensible à divers antibiotiques et les animaux atteints peuvent être traités individuellement par une injection d'oxytétracycline « longue action » LA ou une association de pénicilline et de streptomycine, à haute dose sur plusieurs jours. Des doses élevées sont nécessaires pour qu'une concentration suffisante de la substance active parvienne aux sites infectés. Ce traitement 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses est habituellement efficace, quoique des rechutes soient parfois constatées. En outre, les réinfections sont toujours possibles.Il n'existe pas de vaccin efficace contre la dermatophilose et la lutte contre cette maladie s'appuie essentiellement sur une bonne appréciation des facteurs prédisposants soulignés plus haut. Les mesures sanitaires habituelles sont recommandées : isoler et traiter les malades, éliminer les porteurs chroniques et les récidivistes, etc. Les tiques doivent faire l'objet de traitements réguliers avec un acaricide (voir le chapitre 3), une attention toute particulière étant prêtée à la tique dure Amblyomma variegatum, présente en Afrique subsaharienne et dans certaines îles de l'océan Indien et des Caraïbes. Les animaux devraient si possible avoir accès à un abri en cas de pluie, surtout la nuit si les animaux sont parqués et n'ont pas la possibilité de rechercher un abri par eux-mêmes. La sélection de lignées résistantes peut être entreprise. La tonte des ovins peut propager l'infection et devrait être évitée par temps humide. Chez les ovins, la dermatophilose peut être combattue par des bains ou des poudrages (dans le cas de petits troupeaux) de sulfate d'aluminium.La dermatophilose pouvant être confondue avec d'autres maladies de peau, ou dermatoses, en particulier la dermatose nodulaire cutanée, il est conseillé de faire confirmer le diagnostic afin de pouvoir appliquer les mesures de lutte appropriées. Des croûtes récentes provenant d'un cas suspect devraient alors être envoyées au laboratoire dans un récipient propre et sec pour être soumises à des tests simples de diagnostic. La lutte contre cette maladie s'avérant parfois compliquée, il est judicieux de rechercher l'avis d'un vétérinaire en la matière.La diarrhée peut avoir des causes multiples et ne constitue pas en ellemême une maladie spécifique. Toutefois, chez les jeunes animaux âgés de moins de quelques semaines, la diarrhée néonatale, souvent grave, est provoquée par un nombre limité de micro-organismes pathogènes agissant isolément ou ensemble. Les principaux agents responsables de la diarrhée néonatale sont présentés dans le tableau 1.2.Les diarrhées néonatales (neonatal diarrhoea) sont présentes dans le monde entier.Il n'est pas possible de donner la description précise des signes cliniques, qui dépendent d'un grand nombre de facteurs tels que le microorganisme impliqué, l'état général des animaux ou la quantité de colostrum ingérée à la naissance. De manière générale, tous les agents pathogènes concernés sont en mesure d'endommager la paroi intestinale. Si les dégâts occasionnés sont importants, les intestins s'avèrent incapables d'absorber les liquides produits au cours de la digestion pour qu'ils soient acheminés vers les autres organes. Il en résulte que les liquides qui subsistent dans les intestins sont évacués avec les excréments ; ceux-ci prennent en conséquence une consistance liquide et les défécations surviennent à un rythme plus élevé, donnant ce que l'on appelle une diarrhée. Si les micro-organismes provoquent en outre des hémorragies au niveau des intestins, les diarrhées peuvent se mêler de Tableau 1.2. Causes courantes de diarrhées néonatales chez les animaux domestiques.1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses sang, ce qui est connu sous le nom de dysenterie. Lorsque le liquide perdu excède le liquide ingéré en buvant, les reins des animaux atteints de diarrhée tentent de compenser le déséquilibre en concentrant les urines émises, qui deviennent moins abondantes. En cas d'échec, l'organisme voit la part liquide de sa composition diminuer, et le sang s'épaissit : on obtient ce que l'on appelle une déshydratation. Elle se manifeste par un état de faiblesse, une perte d'appétit, une baisse de la température corporelle (hypothermie) et, éventuellement, une défaillance cardiaque. Les yeux s'enfoncent dans les orbites, le regard se vide, la peau devient sèche et, lorsqu'elle est pincée, ne revient que lentement à sa position initiale.Un déséquilibre entre les divers électrolytes présents en solution dans les liquides corporels -en particulier les ions bicarbonate, sodium, potassium et chlore -constitue une complication grave qui peut survenir à l'occasion d'une déshydratation et entraîner un choc et d'autres problèmes. La déshydratation est un état grave qui peut être mortel si rien n'est fait pour la corriger. Les jeunes animaux, dont les réserves en liquides corporels sont relativement peu importantes, y sont particulièrement sensibles. Les principaux agents infectieux responsables de diarrhées néonatales sont brièvement passés en revue.Colibacille (Escherichia coli) -Cette bactérie, très commune, est présente en grand nombre dans les intestins de tous les animaux. Il en existe de multiples souches, mais seules sont pathogènes celles, peu nombreuses, qui se fixent sur la paroi intestinale et produisent des toxines. Les diarrhées provoquées par ces souches, dites entérotoxinogènes, de E. coli peuvent concerner tous les animaux, mais sont particulièrement fréquentes chez les veaux et les porcelets. Certaines souches peuvent envahir le tissu sanguin et les autres tissus de l'organisme, entraînant une forme d'infection appelée colibacillose septicémique. Il s'agit d'une maladie aiguë qui dure de 1 à 4 jours. Les animaux atteints sont apathiques, faibles et sans appétit ; il peut y avoir une fièvre dans les premiers temps, mais la température chute ensuite au-dessous de la normale, puis l'animal devient moribond et peut éventuellement mourir. Tous les jeunes animaux peuvent souffrir de colibacillose septicémique, mais elle est surtout fréquente chez les agneaux et les poulains. Cette affection peut s'accompagner de diarrhée, mais pas systématiquement.Salmonella -Beaucoup d'espèces de salmonelles peuvent infecter les animaux et l'homme de tous âges en entraînant des maladies. Les signes cliniques sont variables mais, chez les jeunes animaux, l'infection provoque généralement des entérites et des diarrhées, souvent mêlées de sang, ou une septicémie, les agents pathogènes envahissant alors la circulation sanguine avec des symptômes rappelant ceux de la colibacillose septicémique. La plupart des espèces de salmonelles sont « exotiques » et ne sont que rarement mises en cause, mais il en existe deux qui sont fréquemment associées aux cas de salmonelloses : Salmonella typhimurium (pathogène pour toutes les espèces) et S. dublin (toutes les espèces mais surtout les veaux de bovins et de buffles). Les épidémies de salmonellose peuvent avoir de lourdes conséquences : une proportion importante des animaux infectés est susceptible de mourir et les survivants peuvent mettre plusieurs semaines à récupérer. Pour plus d'informations, se reporter à la section consacrée aux salmonelloses, dans ce chapitre.Clostridium perfringens -Il existe différents types de C. perfringens susceptibles d'infecter les animaux domestiques et de provoquer des maladies. Les types B et C sont plus particulièrement associés aux infections de jeunes animaux. Ils produisent des toxines et l'infection entraîne une forme grave d'entérite appelée entérotoxémie. Les signes cliniques sont une diarrhée mêlée de sang (dysenterie) accompagnée de douleurs abdominales, suivies du décès dans les 24 heures. L'infection à C. perfringens est plus grave dans les régions tempérées que dans les régions à climat tropical. Le type B entraîne chez l'agneau une maladie souvent appelée dysenterie des agneaux. Pour plus d'informations, se reporter à la section consacrée aux entérotoxémies, au chapitre 6.Rotavirus et coronavirus -L'infection des nouveau-nés par ces virus endommage la paroi intestinale et entraîne une diarrhée très abondante.Ces virus sont plus particulièrement associés aux diarrhées du veau, mais peuvent aussi déclencher des diarrhées chez d'autres espèces.Cryptosporidium -La cryptosporidiose a été reconnue comme une cause de diarrhée chez les jeunes animaux, surtout chez les veaux et les agneaux mais également chez les chevreaux, les porcelets et les poulains. Ce protozoaire parasite, après ingestion, poursuit son développement sur la paroi des intestins. Lorsque l'infestation est suffisamment importante, les parasites provoquent l'atrophie et la fusion des villosités de la paroi intestinale. Les diarrhées causées par le Cryptosporidium tendent à se prolonger sur plusieurs jours et leur gravité dépend du niveau d'infestation. Le plus souvent, toutefois, la maladie est relativement bénigne et les animaux guérissent spontanément de manière satisfaisante.Coccidies -Ces parasites, qui ressemblent au Cryptosporidium, sont une cause importante de diarrhées, le plus souvent chez des animaux âgés de plusieurs mois. Chez les porcelets, toutefois, la coccidiose peut survenir au cours des 2 premières semaines de vie, entraînant une perte d'appétit et une diarrhée très abondante, jaune et très liquide. En l'absence de traitement, une proportion élevée des porcelets atteints se déshydratent et meurent. Pour plus d'informations, se reporter à la section consacrée à la coccidiose, dans ce chapitre.Peste bovine -La peste bovine est une cause de diarrhées graves chez les ruminants de tous âges. Pour plus d'informations, se reporter à la section consacrée à cette maladie, dans ce chapitre.Virus herpès bovin de type 1 -Une infection prénatale par ce virus peut se traduire par la naissance de veaux atteints de diarrhée. Pour plus d'informations, se reporter à la section traitant de la rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine, au chapitre 2.Il est important de souligner ici que les jeunes animaux domestiques âgés de quelques semaines et atteints de diarrhées peuvent être affectés par plusieurs micro-organismes pathogènes. Escherichia coli, les rotavirus, les coronavirus, les Cryptosporidium et les coccidies sont couramment présents dans le tractus intestinal des animaux et sont produits avec leurs excréments. L'environnement d'un élevage est donc toujours contaminé par ces micro-organismes et les jeunes y sont inévitablement exposés dès leur plus jeune âge. Ces infections n'atteignent toutefois un degré suffisant pour déclencher des diarrhées que lorsque la contamination environnementale devient importante. Par conséquent, les diarrhées néonatales surviennent principalement dans les élevages intensifs dans lesquels les parcs ou les bâtiments sont surpeuplés.Les salmonelles ne font pas partie des micro-organismes normalement présents dans les intestins des animaux. Il est de ce fait possible d'éviter que les animaux les contractent. Les animaux (et l'homme) infectés rejettent ces agents infectieux avec leurs excréments dans le milieu extérieur, où ils sont capables de survivre pour des périodes prolongées (dans le sol, la litière, les abreuvoirs, etc.).Beaucoup de salmonelles peuvent s'attaquer à la fois au bétail et à l'homme, ce qui augmente les possibilités d'infection pour les jeunes animaux. Ces derniers peuvent contracter la salmonellose en ingérant les agents infectieux, le plus souvent par contact avec d'autres animaux infectés et souffrant de diarrhée, mais parfois indirectement, par l'intermédiaire de litière, de nourriture ou d'eau de boisson contaminées.Les animaux cliniquement normaux ayant néanmoins souffert de la salmonellose dans le passé continuent à rejeter de temps à autre des salmonelles dans leurs excréments ; ils constituent de ce fait une source d'infection importante. Comme c'est le cas pour les autres causes de diarrhées, le risque de contracter la salmonellose est plus élevé dans les systèmes intensifs, où les animaux sont en contact étroit les uns avec les autres.Les types de Clostridium perfringens responsables d'entérotoxémies peuvent se trouver dans les intestins et les excréments d'animaux sains et sont capables de survivre longtemps sous la forme de spores dans le sol. Les jeunes animaux s'infectent par ingestion de ces agents infectieux ; l'entérotoxémie survient généralement chez des individus bien nourris et en croissance rapide. Cette maladie n'est heureusement pas très répandue dans les régions tropicales.En cas de diarrhée chez de jeunes animaux, quelle qu'en soit la cause, il convient d'agir comme s'il s'agissait d'une maladie infectieuse et de séparer les individus atteints du reste du troupeau, notamment dans les systèmes intensifs où les animaux sont gardés à l'intérieur. En ce qui concerne le traitement, il est en général plus important de prévenir la déshydratation que de viser spécifiquement les micro-organismes responsables. Des solutions d'électrolytes sont disponibles qui peuvent être administrées aux jeunes animaux diarrhéiques par voie orale, à l'aide d'une bouteille ou d'une sonde gastrique, afin de compenser les pertes hydriques. Il est essentiel d'administrer ces breuvages dès les premiers signes de diarrhée. Cette thérapie de réhydratation et d'équilibration électrolytique doit être poursuivie au moins 24 heures après l'arrêt des diarrhées. Les éleveurs peu expérimentés en la matière devraient demander conseil à leur vétérinaire.Du moment que les animaux sont préservés de la déshydratation, la plupart guérissent rapidement de leur épisode diarrhéique, exception faite des salmonelloses et des entérotoxémies. Il est toutefois habituel d'administrer un traitement spécifique parallèlement à la réhydratation.Il n'existe pas de traitement contre les Cryptosporidium, les rotavirus et les coronavirus, mais plusieurs antibiotiques sont performants contre Escherichia coli et les salmonelles, par voie orale ou par injection. Les porcelets atteints de coccidiose peuvent être traités par une solution d'amprolium administrée par voie orale pendant 5 jours.Les entérotoxémies se développent rapidement et répondent rarement aux traitements. Une thérapie de réhydratation combinée à de la pénicilline ou tétracycline par voie orale peut apporter quelque soulagement 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses dans un premier temps, avant l'administration, une fois le diagnostic bien établi, d'un sérum hyperimmun adapté.Les diarrhées persistantes chez les jeunes animaux domestiques sont presque toujours liées à un problème dans la conduite de l'élevage. La solution s'appuie sur deux volets fondamentaux : le diagnostic et la conduite de l'élevage.La démarche pragmatique qui consiste à administrer un traitement de compensation hydrique et électrolytique combiné à une antibiothérapie à large spectre peut donner des résultats satisfaisants à court terme, mais à long terme il est primordial d'identifier le micro-organisme responsable si l'on veut mettre en place une stratégie de lutte efficace. Pour ce faire, des écouvillonnages fécaux ou rectaux de cas cliniques doivent être analysés en laboratoire. Si aucune assistance vétérinaire n'est disponible, il convient de s'entourer de précautions lors de ces prélèvements dans la mesure où certains micro-organismes susceptibles d'être présents (notamment les salmonelles et les Cryptosporidium) peuvent infecter l'homme. Dans le cas de salmonelloses, il pourra s'avérer nécessaire de faire analyser l'ensemble du troupeau afin d'y détecter les porteurs sains.Comme certains des micro-organismes impliqués sont naturellement présents chez les animaux, les mères sont susceptibles d'y avoir été exposées et de posséder des anticorps contre eux dans leur sang. Ces anticorps sont normalement transmis au nouveau-né dans le colostrum, le premier lait sécrété après la mise bas. Etant donné que les nouveaunés n'ont que très peu de temps pour consommer le colostrum et mettre en circulation ces anticorps dans leur propre système sanguin, il est vital qu'ils tètent leur mère aussi vite que possible après leur naissance et plusieurs fois, en quantité suffisante, au cours de la première journée. Dans le cas contraire, ils ne disposeraient pas des anticorps protecteurs maternels et seraient vulnérables aux agents infectieux responsables des diarrhées, notamment à E. coli et aux virus. S'il n'est pas possible de faire téter les nouveau-nés, pour quelque raison que ce soit, le colostrum des mères doit être prélevé pour leur être donné, bien que ce procédé ne soit pas applicable en ce qui concerne les porcelets. Les enclos, les parcs, les stalles ou tout autre local doivent être nettoyés régulièrement afin de prévenir toute contamination fécale de la litière, des matériels d'élevage, etc. Mieux vaut éviter les trop grandes densités et le mélange de jeunes animaux d'âges différents. Si les animaux sont nourris au seau, celui-ci doit être lavé soigneusement après chaque utilisation. Il est conseillé de s'organiser pour que les individus atteints de diarrhées puissent, le cas échéant, être tenus à l'écart des autres.L'entérotoxémie à Clostridium perfringens se développe rapidement et un sérum hyperimmun doit être administré à tout animal ayant été en contact avec un individu malade pour qu'il bénéficie d'une protection immédiate, quoique temporaire. Si l'entérotoxémie constitue un problème récurrent, il peut s'avérer nécessaire de vacciner les femelles en gestation et de veiller ensuite à ce qu'elles allaitent leur progéniture à la naissance. Un tel programme d'action demande néanmoins qu'un vétérinaire soit consulté.La lutte contre les salmonelles est complexe à mettre en oeuvre et nécessite également l'avis d'un vétérinaire. Les mêmes mesures sanitaires générales s'appliquent ici aussi, mais il peut être nécessaire de prélever plusieurs fois des échantillons sur tout le cheptel, y compris sur les animaux apparemment sains, afin d'identifier les individus responsables de la contamination. Ces individus seront alors maintenus à l'écart du troupeau jusqu'à ce qu'ils ne présentent plus un danger ou éliminés.La coccidiose des porcelets peut être prévenue en nettoyant et en désinfectant régulièrement les stalles de mise bas afin d'éliminer tout excès de contamination fécale et les stades infectieux des parasites.Une approche récente consiste à vacciner les vaches, brebis et truies en gestation contre certaines souches entérotoxinogènes de Escherichia coli, en veillant à ce que la progéniture tète la mère immédiatement après la mise bas. Cette pratique a donné des résultats prometteurs, mais ne dispense pas pour autant de suivre les procédures élémentaires en matière d'hygiène et de conduite d'élevage.La diarrhée néonatale peut devenir une cause importante de maladie et de mortalité. Bien qu'elle soit le plus souvent associée aux élevages intensifs, elle peut également survenir à l'occasion de tout regroupement de bétail. Elle découle généralement de pratiques inadéquates en matière d'hygiène et d'élevage ; si les jeunes animaux sont maintenus dans un environnement propre, à des densités raisonnables, les éleveurs ne devraient pas avoir trop de difficultés avec ce type de pathologie complexe.Même dans les troupeaux les mieux conduits, il est inévitable que des cas isolés de diarrhée néonatale se déclarent de temps à autre. Bovins et buffles -la maladie évolue de la même manière, bien que les données soient contradictoires en ce qui concerne l'espèce qui serait la plus sensible. La durée de la période d'incubation est généralement de 3 à 8 jours (elle varie de 2 à 14 jours) ; les premiers signes sont une élévation de la température (jusqu'à 42 °C), une chute brutale de la production laitière chez les animaux en lactation, un état apathique et un refus de s'alimenter. Après 1 à 2 jours, de petites   Dans les zones où elle est endémique, la maladie prend parfois, chez les races locales, une forme bénigne déterminant une guérison spontanée en quelques jours. Toutefois, les animaux importés peuvent être gravement affectés et, en dépit d'une cicatrisation relativement rapide des lésions, demander une longue convalescence entraînant des pertes significatives de production de lait et de viande ainsi qu'une infécondité. Les animaux de trait peuvent être empêchés de travailler.Ovins et caprins -Bien qu'elle puisse prendre une forme grave, la fièvre aphteuse est habituellement beaucoup moins marquée chez les petits ruminants : les lésions, relativement petites, guérissent rapidement et sont même quelquefois difficiles à remarquer.Porcins -Les vésicules apparaissent principalement au niveau des pieds et moins dans la bouche, bien qu'il puisse y en avoir sur le groin. Pour le reste, la maladie est semblable à celle observée chez les ruminants.Toutes les espèces -Bien qu'extrêmement contagieuse, moins de 5 % des animaux atteints meurent. Le taux de mortalité peut cependant être beaucoup plus important chez les jeunes animaux beaucoup plus sensibles (formes malignes respiratoires et digestives liées à la généralisation aux muqueuse internes du processus aphteux), et, en particulier chez les veaux, suite à des lésions du muscle cardiaque amenant une mort subite sans manifestation des symptômes habituels. Chez les adultes, les conséquences économiques directes peuvent être néanmoins considérables en raison de la fréquence et de la gravité possibles des complications constatées surtout en zone tempérées sur le bétail de production intensive.Pendant environ une semaine après la rupture des vésicules, les animaux malades rejettent des particules virales dans la salive, le lait, le sperme, les excréments, les urines et l'air expiré. Le virus est capable de survivre plusieurs mois dans le milieu extérieur s'il n'est pas soumis à l'action de la chaleur ou de variations de pH (par exemple, 15 semaines sur la paille ou le foin). Le virus peut survivre longtemps dans les ganglions lymphatiques, les viscères et la moelle osseuse des carcasses congelées.Le virus est hautement infectieux et les animaux réceptifs peuvent s'infecter de plusieurs manières, par inhalation ou par ingestion de particules virales provenant, par exemple, d'un individu malade du voisinage, de l'environnement ou de la nourriture, notamment lorsqu'il s'agit d'eaux grasses non chauffées contenant des tissus animaux tels que des ganglions lymphatiques, de la moelle osseuse ou des viscères. Le virus peut également voyager sur les véhicules, les vêtements, etc., et être transporté par des espèces animales naturellement résistantes (carnivores, oiseaux, insectes). Bien plus, il est susceptible de se déplacer sur de longues distances par voie aérienne (diffusion éolienne), lorsque les conditions météorologiques sont froides et humides, ce qui rend ce type de propagation sans doute plus commun sous climat tempéré que sous climat tropical.Dans les régions où la fièvre aphteuse est commune, la maladie peut prendre un caractère bénin, les animaux se remettant rapidement. Si nécessaire, un traitement antiseptique local sur les lésions accompagné d'une antibiothérapie peuvent être administrés afin de limiter les risque de surinfection bactérienne. Les animaux seront, si possible, abrités et bien nourris.Etant donné le caractère très contagieux de la fièvre aphteuse et ses effets invalidants notamment sur les animaux de production intensive et de trait, il est souvent vital de prévenir l'infection. Dans les pays où la vaccination est autorisée, les animaux à risque doivent être vaccinés au moins une fois par an à l'aide de vaccins contre les sérotypes et soustypes locaux. Lorsqu'un foyer se déclare, la propagation de la maladie peut être ralentie par la mise en place de mesures sanitaires telles que l'isolement du troupeau, la limitation des rassemblements d'animaux domestiques, la destruction des aliments et de la litière des animaux infectés, la restriction des mouvements des animaux et du personnel associés aux élevages atteints, et la désinfection des locaux abritant ceuxci ainsi que du matériel.Dans certaines régions du monde où l'incidence de la fièvre aphteuse est peu élevée, comme en Europe, cette maladie est combattue par une stratégie d'abattage systématique des individus infectés et des animaux ayant été en contact avec eux, combinée aux mesures sanitaires évoquées ci-dessus. Pour être efficace, cependant, les politiques d'abattage doivent pouvoir s'appuyer sur une infrastructure administrative solide et bénéficier de fonds destinés à compenser les pertes subies par les éleveurs. La vaccination régulière des animaux (âgés de plus de 6 mois pour les bovins) reste donc bien souvent la seule stratégie réaliste.Du fait de l'importance considérable de la fièvre aphteuse et de la rapidité de sa diffusion, les autorités vétérinaires doivent toujours être informées de l'existence de cas suspects afin de pouvoir prendre au plus tôt les mesures qui s'imposent. Dans beaucoup de pays, cette déclaration aux autorités est obligatoire.||◗ La paratuberculose (maladie de Johne) Synonyme : entérite paratuberculeuse (Johne's disease).Maladie bactérienne infectieuse des ruminants et des camélidés causée par Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Les animaux les plus souvent affectés sont les bovins, les ovins et les caprins.Cette maladie existe dans le monde entier mais est plus fréquente dans les régions à climat tempéré humide que sous les climats chauds et secs.La bactérie se répand dans la muqueuse intestinale et, après une longue période d'incubation, entraîne progressivement une entérite chronique à évolution lente. Les premiers symptômes sont très discrets, à savoir, un léger fléchissement de la productivité. Au fur et à mesure de l'évolution de la maladie, les animaux atteints voient leur état général se dégrader régulièrement bien que leur appétit ne soit pas affecté. Ils s'affaiblissent, maigrissent, puis finissent par rester couchés avant de mourir. Aux stades avancés de la maladie, les ovins perdent leur toison lorsqu'ils sont manipulés. Les bovins présentent typiquement des diarrhées, tout d'abord intermittentes, puis progressivement plus persistantes et nauséabondes. L'évolution de la maladie couvre au plus 6 mois. Les animaux présentant des signes cliniques guérissent rarement.L'agent responsable, rejeté dans les excréments des animaux infectés, est capable de survivre jusqu'à 1 an dans le milieu extérieur ; toutefois, les rayons du soleil et le dessèchement le détruisent rapidement s'il y est exposé. L'infection survient généralement à la suite de l'ingestion d'aliments, d'eau ou de lait contaminés par des excréments. Les jeunes sont très réceptifs, et la plupart des animaux malades se sont infectés au cours du premier mois de leur existence. Les jeunes nés de mères infectées sont tout particulièrement exposés du fait du risque de contamination des tétons par les excréments. Les animaux exposés après le premier mois peuvent également être infectés et produisent alors de petites quantités de l'agent pathogène dans leurs excréments sans toutefois manifester de signes cliniques.La période d'incubation est très longue avant que les symptômes ne fassent leur première apparition. Les bovins présentent rarement des signes de maladie avant d'avoir atteint 2 ans, et parviennent parfois à l'âge de 6 ans sans aucun trouble révélateur. Chez les ovins et les caprins, la période d'incubation peut atteindre une année, voire plus. Durant cette période, les animaux infectés rejettent la bactérie responsable dans leurs excréments bien qu'aucun symptôme ne se manifeste et concourent ainsi à sa dispersion.La maladie de Johne est incurable. Un traitement antibiotique, théoriquement possible mais économiquement peu rentable, pourrait viser à obtenir une rémission (pour engraisser l'animal pour la boucherie, par exemple).En cas de paratuberculose reconnue, des mesures sanitaires doivent être appliquées afin de limiter la contamination de l'environnement et la propagation de la maladie. Tout cas suspect doit être mis à l'écart du troupeau et des échantillons de ses excréments doivent être prélevés et envoyés pour analyse en laboratoire. Etant donné que les excréments d'un animal infecté ne contiennent pas toujours la bactérie responsable, il est nécessaire de réaliser plusieurs prélèvements à des dates différentes. Tout résultat positif doit donner lieu à l'abattage de l'animal concerné.Comme les jeunes animaux sont les plus réceptifs à l'infection, une attention particulière doit leur être portée. Tout animal né d'une mère infectée a toutes les chances d'être lui-même infecté et ne doit pas être intégré au reste du troupeau en vue de la reproduction, mais maintenu à l'écart, engraissé et vendu pour la boucherie aussi rapidement que possible. Dans les troupeaux infectés, il peut être envisagé de séparer les nouveau-nés des mères dès la naissance et de les élever au lait pasteurisé. Les enclos, les stalles de mise bas et autres lieux ou bâtiments d'élevage doivent être nettoyés et désinfectés régulièrement afin de prévenir l'accumulation de la contamination ; les aliments et l'eau distribués doivent être propres et ne pas avoir été en contact avec des excréments. Dans les situations très problématiques, les parcours peuvent être débarrassés de la bactérie en les laissant inutilisés pendant une année afin de laisser le temps à la contamination de disparaître. Les sols peuvent être drainés et traités aux superphosphates.Dans les troupeaux sans antécédents de paratuberculose, il convient d'éviter toute introduction malencontreuse de la maladie avec l'apport d'animaux de renouvellement. L'absence de test de diagnostic fiable et la durée de la période d'incubation rendent le procédé de la quarantaine impossible à appliquer dans la plupart des cas. Aussi les animaux de renouvellement ne doivent-ils provenir que d'élevages reconnus indemnes de la maladie.Des vaccins peuvent être utilisés chez les bovins et les ovins ; ils donnent de bons résultats en permettant de réduire le nombre de cas cliniques et le degré de contamination de l'environnement. Chez les bovins, ils ne sont efficaces que s'ils sont administrés aux veaux âgés de moins d'un mois. Il peut s'avérer nécessaire de demander une autorisation préalable aux autorités vétérinaires dans la mesure où les animaux vaccinés sont ensuite susceptibles de réagir positivement aux tests de diagnostic de la tuberculose.La paratuberculose, bien qu'insidieuse, n'est pas pour autant une maladie dramatique : même lorsqu'un pourcentage important d'un troupeau est infecté, il est peu probable que le taux de mortalité annuel dépasse les 5 %. Beaucoup d'éleveurs choisissent ainsi de vivre avec cette maladie en se résignant aux pertes qu'elle entraîne. Il est cependant possible de limiter ces dernières en appliquant les mesures décrites plus haut. Heureusement, dans la plus grande partie des régions tropicales arides et semi-arides, les conditions ne sont pas favorables à la survie de la bactérie dans le milieu extérieur et la maladie de Johne y est soit absente, soit d'incidence très mineure.De quoi s'agit-il ? Maladie virale des ruminants domestiques et sauvages et des porcins. La peste bovine est l'une des quelques maladies mortelles du bétail de tout premier plan.La peste bovine (rinderpest, cattle plague) persiste encore en Afrique de l'Est (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La maladie de Jembrana ressemble à la peste bovine. Elle affecte les bovins (taurins et zébus) dans l'île de Bali (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Le premier symptôme est une augmentation brutale de la température corporelle. Un ou deux jours plus tard, les animaux malades sont très abattus, leur respiration est accélérée et leurs yeux larmoient abondamment. Quelques jours après le premier accès fébrile, de petites protubérances apparaissent dans la bouche et les naseaux. Elles augmentent de taille et finissent par confluer en formant de douloureuses lésions ulcératives entraînant une salivation intense (voir la figure 1.9). Les écoulements issus des naseaux et des yeux deviennent purulents et l'haleine se charge d'une forte odeur nauséabonde. Des érosions semblables se développent le long de tout le tractus digestif, se traduisant par une diarrhée profuse « fusante » et fétide contenant des fragments de paroi intestinale. Les animaux sont très affectés, font des efforts en voûtant le dos lors de la défécation et éprouvent visiblement une grande souffrance. Au fur et à mesure de l'évolution de la maladie, les animaux se déshydratent, voient leur état général se dégrader rapidement et deviennent incapables de se tenir debout. La plupart meurent une dizaine de jours après les premiers symptômes. Quelques individus peuvent survivre mais prennent plusieurs semaines pour se rétablir entièrement, période pendant laquelle la plupart des femelles en gestation avortent.Certains individus exhibent une forme suraiguë de la maladie et meurent en l'espace de 3 jours, sans avoir présenté de diarrhée ou de lésions érosives. A l'inverse, dans les zones où la peste bovine est endémique, des animaux bénéficiant d'une certaine résistance présentent parfois une forme subaiguë -caractérisée par des symptômes beaucoup moins marqués -de laquelle la plupart guérissent spontanément.Le virus de la peste bovine est contagieux mais relativement fragile dans le milieu extérieur ; aussi, la propagation de la maladie nécessite un contact direct entre animaux sains et individus malades, qui exhalent des particules virales dans l'air expiré, dans les écoulements émis par les nasaux, la bouche et les yeux ainsi que dans les excréments et les urines. La contamination est suivie d'une période d'incubation qui dure en moyenne une semaine mais qui peut varier de quelques jours à 2 semaines. La transmission indirecte est très rare, et l'apparition de la peste bovine dans une région jusque là indemne du virus indique qu'un animal infecté y a été introduit. Des porcs domestiques ont toutefois été infectés par consommation d'abats contaminés à l'occasion d'une épidémie en Asie du Sud-Est et en Extrême-Orient.Les cas cliniques peuvent être accompagnés tout au long de leur maladie par une thérapie de réhydratation (voir la section consacrée aux diarrhées néonatales, dans ce chapitre) associée à un traitement par des antibiotiques à large spectre destinés à limiter les surinfections. Dans bien des cas, cependant, ce type de soin est impossible à mettre en oeuvre et l'accent doit être mis sur les moyens de prévention et de lutte.De très bons vaccins vivants atténués existent qui confèrent une immunité à vie. Il est possible, en combinant une politique de vaccination à certaines mesures complémentaires, de combattre puis d'éradiquer cette maladie mortelle très sérieuse. L'éradication a en effet été menée à bien dans plusieurs grandes régions du globe, à savoir, en Europe, dans la majeure partie du continent africain et en Asie du Sud-Est, mais seulement grâce au soutien d'un contexte législatif et administratif favorable.Dans les régions indemnes de peste bovine, l'importation de ruminants et de porcs domestiques originaires de régions où cette maladie est endémique ne devrait pas être autorisée. En cas de flambée épidémique, tout devrait être mis en oeuvre pour la juguler et éviter que le virus ne s'installe à demeure. La méthode la plus éprouvée pour y parvenir est d'abattre les animaux des troupeaux affectés et de mettre les élevages du voisinage en quarantaine jusqu'à éradication de la maladie.Les pays indemnes de peste bovine mais qui sont en contact avec des pays où cette maladie est endémique -que ce soit par contiguïté géographique ou par échanges commerciaux -devraient s'entourer de précautions particulières. Tous les ruminants domestiques situés à moins de 20 km de la frontière devraient être vaccinés chaque année afin de créer de la sorte une zone d'immunité agissant comme barrière. Les animaux importés doivent être mis en quarantaine dès leur arrivée pour au moins 2 semaines, si possible 3, puis vaccinés.Dans les zones où la peste bovine est endémique, tout épisode épidémique doit être endigué par la mise à l'écart des animaux atteints et la vaccination de tous les animaux des troupeaux adjacents. Bien que cela soit rarement applicable pour des raisons économiques, les animaux malades devraient normalement être rapidement abattus, l'issue fatale étant très probable de toute façon.Dans ces régions, l'objectif ultime reste toutefois l'éradication. Au cours d'une campagne d'éradication, la première phase consiste à diminuer le nombre de foyers par une politique de vaccinations. Au moins 90 % des animaux à risque doivent être vaccinés, auxquels s'ajoutent, chaque année, les veaux nés entre-temps (suivi d'un rappel 6 mois plus tard). Les animaux vaccinés pourront être marqués d'une façon ou d'une autre, par exemple par une indentation dans l'oreille. Si la campagne de vaccination se déroule dans les règles, les épisodes de peste bovine deviendront plus rares puis disparaîtront complètement. Un suivi assidu 1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieuses par la suite, effectué par des personnes compétentes, est néanmoins nécessaire avant que l'éradication de la maladie puisse être confirmée.Le nom de peste bovine sied parfaitement à cette maladie qui a décimé les troupeaux bovins siècle après siècle. Il n'en existe heureusement qu'un seul type viral, ce qui a simplifié la mise au point du vaccin. Cette caractéristique, jointe au fait qu'un contact direct soit nécessaire pour sa transmission, fait que cette maladie, en dépit des dégâts qu'elle occasionne chez les animaux réceptifs, peut effectivement être combattue et éradiquée. L'éradication devrait être l'objectif de tous les pays où la peste bovine est endémique, mais ne peut être réussie que si les infrastructures présentent tous les éléments nécessaires à une bonne campagne de vaccination : notamment, des stocks de vaccins, des possibilités de stockage au froid et de chaîne du froid afin de garder les doses de vaccin à la bonne température jusqu'au moment de l'injection (virus vaccinal fragile), un personnel bien formé et un laboratoire pour tester l'immunité des animaux.Une première tentative d'éradication de la peste bovine sur le continent africain a dû être interrompue lors des ultimes étapes de la campagne internationale du fait de conflits armés. De grandes campagnes de lutte ont été organisées en Afrique depuis les années 1970 : PC15 (projet conjoint à 15), Parc (Campagne panafricaine de lutte contre la peste bovine), Pace (Programme panafricain de contrôle des épizooties), qui s'est terminé en 2004 mais avec une phase d'extension prévue en [2005][2006]. Les artiodactyles sauvages sont également réceptifs à la peste bovine, mais ils sont généralement des hôtes accidentels chez lesquels le cycle de l'agent pathogène s'interrompt. Ils ne semblent pas jouer de rôle dans le maintien à long terme de la maladie dans une région.Bien qu'il n'existe qu'un seul type viral, la virulence des différentes souches peut varier. Ainsi les souches présentes en Afrique et au Moyen-Orient affectent-elles les bovins de manière prépondérante, si bien que les programmes de lutte tendent à délaisser les autres types de bétail. Sur le sous-continent indien, en revanche, l'infection de petits ruminants par la peste bovine est un problème reconnu.Maladie virale de tous les animaux à sang chaud, frappant surtout les carnivores, due à un lyssavirus.La rage (rabies, hydrophobia) est présente dans le monde entier à l'exception de l'Océanie et de plusieurs pays insulaires ou péninsulaires.Après une incubation en général lente (plusieurs semaines à plusieurs mois) la maladie évolue habituellement sur environ une semaine, mais peut ne durer que 2 jours. Le premier symptôme est une modification, parfois très discrète et difficile à remarquer, du comportement. Cette première phase dure quelques heures chez les bovins et de 2 à 3 jours chez les chiens. Vient ensuite une phase d'excitation anormale au cours de laquelle les animaux présentent les signes de rage connus de tous : ils deviennent nerveux, agressifs, et les sons qu'ils émettent prennent un ton inhabituel. Les chiens, les bovins, les ovins et les chevaux hurlent, mugissent, bêlent ou hennissent de manière continue. Les chiens attaquent des animaux ou des objets sans provocation. Cette phase, appelée rage furieuse, peut durer jusqu'à 4 jours.Les animaux sont alors progressivement atteints de paralysies, la progression commençant par l'arrière train. Ils deviennent incapables de manger ou de boire et salivent abondamment. La mort survient rapidement par paralysie des muscles respiratoires. Dans certains cas, la paralysie survient d'emblée, domine le tableau clinique, donnant une forme de rage nommée rage muette. La maladie déclarée est toujours mortelle chez toutes les espèces (à l'exception des chauves-souris), y compris l'homme.Le virus est présent dans la salive des animaux infectés 8 à 10 jours avant l'apparition des signes cliniques et ensuite tout au long de la maladie. La voie de transmission habituelle est la contamination de blessures récentes par cette salive infectée, le plus souvent lorsqu'un individu infecté inflige une morsure. Depuis le site de la morsure, le virus migre alors vers le cerveau, le système nerveux et les glandes salivaires, entraînant l'apparition des signes cliniques plusieurs semaines ou plusieurs mois plus tard.Il est essentiel de bien connaître dans quelles circonstances les animaux domestiques sont susceptibles d'être mordus. Dans les zones rurales où la rage est endémique, une espèce sauvage particulière peut jouer le rôle d'hôte principal et contribuer au maintien du virus au sein d'un cycle d'infection dit « sylvatique ». Les principaux hôtes sauvages du virus sont précisés ci-dessous.Les animaux domestiques meurent s'ils sont infectés de manière accidentelle (morsures) par un hôte sauvage porteur de la rage. Heureusement, ce mode d'infection est relativement sporadique, sauf en Amérique du Sud et en Amérique centrale, où les bovins sont souvent mordus par des chauves-souris vampires. Ces dernières s'infectent essentiellement entre elles, par contact direct avec des congénères infectées ; beaucoup guérissent spontanément mais continuent à porter et à émettre le virus dans leur salive pendant plusieurs mois. En Europe (y compris la France et la Grande-Bretagne), certaines chauvessouris insectivores, surtout la sérotine commune (Eptesicus serotinus), peuvent transmettre la rage. Plusieurs espèces de lyssavirus sont spécifiques des chauve-souris tout en étant capables de causer la rage chez les animaux d'élevage et chez les humains. Mais en Europe et en Amérique du Nord, l'hôte principal est le renard (rage vulpine), alors qu'en Afrique et en Asie, c'est le chacal.La situation est très différente dans les zones urbaines, où les hôtes sont principalement des chiens et chats errants, qui déterminent ainsi la mise en place d'un cycle urbain. Dans ce cas, les carnivores errants enragés peuvent mordre tout autre animal ainsi que l'homme, ce qui est couramment constaté.La rage déclarée est incurable, et les cas suspects doivent rapidement être capturés et isolés dans des locaux sécurisés (fourrière) jusqu'à ce qu'ils meurent, généralement en l'espace d'une quinzaine de jours. Le cerveau peut alors être prélevé pour être analysé en laboratoire.Les pays indemnes de rage ont le plus souvent une réglementation très stricte en ce qui concerne l'importation d'animaux vivants en provenance  Maladies bactériennes des animaux domestiques et de l'homme causées par des bacilles non sporulés du genre Salmonella, qui comprend près de deux mille espèces.Les salmonelloses (salmonellosis) sont connues dans le monde entier.Les salmonelloses peuvent induire des maladies très graves, mortelles pour une forte proportion des animaux infectés s'ils ne sont pas traités. L'éventail très large des signes cliniques possibles dépasse le cadre de cet ouvrage mais, de manière générale, les salmonelloses induisent une entérite, qui se traduit par de la fièvre, une perte de l'appétit, un état apathique et une dysenterie. Une septicémie survient si les salmonelles et leurs toxines se répandent dans le flux sanguin. La salmonellose septicémique se manifeste également par une augmentation de la température corporelle, une perte de l'appétit et un état d'apathie mais peut, en outre, mener à diverses complications telles que des pneumonies ou des avortements. Les conséquences cliniques des salmonelloses peuvent être très graves et entraîner la mort. Les animaux de tous les âges sont concernés, y compris les jeunes, chez lesquels ces maladies peuvent constituer une importante cause de diarrhée (se reporter à la section consacrée aux diarrhées néonatales, dans ce chapitre).  Synonyme : dartres (ringworm).Maladies de la peau très contagieuses de tous les animaux domestiques et de l'homme causées par des champignons des genres Trichophyton et Microsporum surtout, d'où leur nom de dermatomycoses.Les teignes sont présentes dans le monde entier. Elles sont favorisées par la chaleur et l'humidité.La teigne ne pose problème que chez les animaux maintenus à l'intérieur ou dans des conditions de surpopulation. Les lésions de teigne sèche apparaissent tout d'abord comme de petites plages dépourvues de poils qui s'étendent pour atteindre 3 à 4 cm de diamètre. Elles sont le plus souvent de forme arrondie, surélevées, gris blanchâtre et croûteuses, mais sans démangeaison (prurit) au début. Tous les animaux peuvent être atteints mais cette mycose est le plus souvent observée chez de jeunes bovins maintenus à l'étable et, dans ce cas, les lésions apparaissent essentiellement au niveau de la tête et du cou. Les jeunes camélidés de moins de 3 ans sont également affectés par des lésions qui se forment au niveau de la tête, du cou, des épaules, des flancs et des membres. La teigne peut devenir suppurée. La lésion est alors prurigineuse, rouge, épaissie et suintante.L'infection se transmet par contact direct. Les spores du champignon peuvent toutefois survivre pendant longtemps sans contact avec un hôte, et il arrive que la transmission s'opère par l'intermédiaire des locaux ou de matériel contaminé. En outre, les spores peuvent être présentes sur des animaux sans occasionner de lésions, et ces animaux porteurs constituent une autre source possible d'infection.La plupart des animaux atteints guérissent spontanément lorsqu'ils sont mis au pâturage. Divers traitements existent qui peuvent être appliqués localement sur les lésions après tonte ou décapage de la peau lésée, dont certains sont d'une utilité douteuse. La méthode la plus efficace est l'administration de griséofulvine par voie orale à tout le troupeau en respectant le temps d'attente de 3 semaines.Des cas isolés de teigne peuvent être tolérés dans la mesure où ils guérissent généralement d'eux-mêmes. Dans certains cas, toutefois, la teigne peut prendre des proportions épidémiques exigeant la mise à l'écart des animaux atteints pendant leur traitement et le nettoyage et la désinfection des locaux et du matériel pour limiter la contamination environnementale. Un vaccin existe en Europe pour les bovins.Les teignes sont généralement diagnostiquées à partir des signes cliniques, mais comme ces derniers peuvent être confondus avec ceux d'autres dermatoses (par exemple les gales), des analyses sont quelquefois nécessaires. Les lésions seront alors grattées soigneusement à l'aide d'un scalpel ou d'une lame de rasoir propre et les particules décollées récoltées dans un flacon propre et sec qui sera ensuite expédié au laboratoire.Bien que les teignes puissent se manifester partout, elles tendent à devenir source de problèmes sous climat tempéré, lorsque les animaux sont rentrés pour la durée de l'hiver. En cas de doute, il convient de manipuler les individus atteints avec précaution dans la mesure où les teignes humaines sont bien souvent contractées auprès d'animaux. De simples règles d'hygiène de bon sens devraient suffire pour que ce risque soit minimisé.Synonyme : phtisie (tuberculosis, TB).Maladie bactérienne des animaux domestiques et sauvages, essentiellement des bovins, transmissible à l'homme, provoquée par Mycobacterium bovis. Les infections de bovins par d'autres espèces de Mycobacterium revêtent une importance moindre, bien qu'elles puissent entraîner des problèmes d'interprétation dans le cadre de l'utilisation des tests de diagnostic.La tuberculose existe dans le monde entier. Elle est souvent liée à la surpopulation et aux logements insalubres.Bovins -L'infection commence par un petit abcès (chancre d'inoculation) situé au point d'entrée, le plus souvent dans les poumons (infection par inhalation). La maladie peut s'arrêter là si l'organisme est suffisamment résistant, mais elle s'étend généralement à d'autres organes, aux ganglions lymphatiques et à d'autres parties du poumon (voir la figure 1.10). Il arrive que l'infection survienne par ingestion, auquel cas la lésion initiale intéresse les ganglions lymphatiques de la gorge ou des intestins, voire la paroi intestinale elle-même.Au début, les animaux ne sont pas affectés, mais les signes cliniques apparaissent peu à peu, au fur et à mesure que les lésions se développent. L'atteinte pulmonaire, dans la forme la plus courante de la maladie, entraîne une toux occasionnelle mais persistante, qui peut facilement être mise en évidence après l'effort ou par pression sur la gorge. Avec la progression de la maladie, les ganglions lymphatiques de la tête, du cou et de l'avant-train grossissent, la respiration devient plus difficile et un écoulement jaunâtre s'échappe parfois des naseaux. Une fièvre fluctuante mais peu élevée persiste quelquefois tout au long de la maladie. Il arrive également que les glandes mammaires soient atteintes, ce qui entraîne une mammite dure et nodulaire. Les lésions situées dans le reste du corps tendent à entraîner une dégradation progressive de l'état général.La progression de la maladie peut varier, mais elle est toujours chronique et s'étend généralement sur une période de plusieurs mois, au cours desquels les animaux malades dépérissent petit à petit (« phtisie ») et finissent par mourir. Certains individus restent apparemment en bonne santé en dépit de lésions internes de plus en plus graves, et ne deviennent cliniquement malades que relativement tard dans l'évolution de la maladie. Les zébus semblent plus résistants à la tuberculose que les races bovines européennes.Buffles -Dans les régions où la maladie existe, les signes cliniques semblent similaires à ceux relevés chez les bovins.Ovins et caprins -Les ovins sont relativement résistants à l'infection, mais les caprins sont parfois gravement atteints. Les manifestations de la maladie sont semblables à celles observées chez les bovins, mais sa progression peut être beaucoup plus rapide.Camélidés -La tuberculose caméline, bien que relativement rare, intéresse généralement les poumons, la cavité et les organes abdominaux. Porcins -L'infection est rarement suivie de signes cliniques, les lésions étant confinées aux ganglions lymphatiques du cou. Il arrive toutefois que la maladie se généralise et entraîne des symptômes similaires à ceux observés chez les bovins.Les animaux infectés, qui rejettent l'agent responsable dans l'air expiré (toux) ainsi que dans la salive, les écoulements nasaux (expectorations pulmonaires), les excréments, les urines et le lait, constituent la principale source d'infection. La bactérie pathogène peut survivre plusieurs semaines dans le milieu extérieur tant qu'elle n'est pas exposée aux rayons du soleil ou soumise au dessèchement.La maladie survient le plus souvent chez des animaux maintenus à l'intérieur (confinement), chez lesquels la transmission s'effectue généralement par inhalation. L'infection par ingestion est sans doute plus commune chez les animaux au pâturage, suite à une contamination des abreuvoirs ou des mangeoires par des écoulements infectés. Les veaux peuvent contracter la maladie en buvant du lait infecté.Chez les autres animaux domestiques, l'infection reflète habituellement le degré de contact avec des bovins tuberculeux. Les ovins se révèlent relativement résistants et ne sont que rarement infectés, tandis que les chèvres peuvent présenter des taux d'infection importants. Les porcs peuvent s'infecter par contact direct avec des bovins malades ou par ingestion d'aliments contenant des produits laitiers contaminés. La tuberculose est relativement rare chez les buffles domestiques, sauf dans les systèmes intensifs tels que les unités de production laitière. La tuberculose est également décrite en Afrique chez des buffles sauvages ; la maladie suit alors le même schéma que chez les bovins. Elle est également peu fréquente chez les chameaux, les lamas et les alpagas, probablement à cause du système d'élevage généralement utilisé pour ces animaux. Des cas de tuberculose sont toutefois signalés lorsque les chameaux sont gardés à l'intérieur, comme dans les unités de production en Russie, ou lorsqu'ils sont élevés en contact étroit avec des bovins.Le traitement est contre-indiqué et l'accent doit être mis sur les mesures de prévention et de lutte. Une certaine évolution de cette approche est toutefois possible, car des progrès significatifs ont été enregistrés dans le traitement de la tuberculose humaine et ont été appliqués à des animaux domestiques à titre expérimental. Mais il doit suivre un protocole très strict, qui est long, onéreux et ne peut être retenu en pratique chez les animaux. Le traitement peut être à l'origine de résistances aux antibiotiques et créer ainsi un risque supplémentaire pour l'homme.Du fait des risques sanitaires liés à la consommation humaine de lait contaminé et des coûts économiques pour les industries de la filière bovine, beaucoup de pays se sont fixé pour objectif d'éradiquer cette maladie infectieuse chronique. Il n'est habituellement pas nécessaire de combattre la tuberculose chez les autres espèces animales dans la mesure où ces dernières contractent le plus souvent la maladie auprès de bovins ; certains animaux sauvages peuvent toutefois jouer un rôle de réservoir.Les risques sanitaires pour la population humaine sont tout à fait réels car l'homme est aussi réceptif à M. bovis, l'agent de la tuberculose bovine, qu'à M. tuberculosis, le principal responsable de la tuberculose humaine.Les êtres humains peuvent s'infecter de la même manière que les animaux, mais le danger que représente le lait non traité est à souligner, le lait de vache au premier chef mais également le lait de buffle et de camélidé -le lait pasteurisé ou bouilli suffisamment ne comportant en revanche aucun danger. L'inspection des viandes constitue un autre maillon important pour réduire les risques de transmission à l'homme.Les taurins, les zébus et les buffles Synonymes : lymphangite du bétail, nocardiose bovine, actinomycose lymphatique (bovine farcy).Maladie des tissus sous-cutanés des bovins causée par Nocardia farcinica et Mycobacterium farcinogenes, des bactéries apparentées à celles responsables de la tuberculose bovine.Le farcin des bovins est connu dans l'ensemble des régions tropicales (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).  Si le farcin des bovins constitue plus souvent un problème esthétique qu'une maladie importante, il est cependant susceptible de compliquer la lutte contre la tuberculose : en effet, les animaux atteints de farcin présentent parfois un test cutané positif à la tuberculose. Les lésions internes, lorsqu'elles existent, sont semblables à celles de la tuberculose.||◗ La fièvre catarrhale maligne des bovins Synonymes : coryza gangreneux, typhus sporadique, mal de tête contagieux (malignant catarrhal fever, bovine malignant catarrh).Maladie des taurins, buffles domestiques et cerfs d'élevage causée par l'un ou l'autre de deux virus, dont les hôtes habituels sont le gnou pour l'un et le mouton pour l'autre.La maladie associée au gnou est limitée à une partie de l'Afrique, tandis que celle associée au mouton est présente dans le monde entier (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1). Plusieurs vaccins ont été mis au point, mais seuls ceux établis à partir de mycoplasmes vivants se sont avérés efficaces. Ce vaccin pose problème dans la mesure où les souches du mycoplasme suffisamment affaiblies pour être sans danger stimulent peu l'immunité (peu immunogènes), tandis que les souches fortement immunogènes sont également  susceptibles d'entraîner des réactions graves et doivent être administrées dans des zones peu réactives (mufle ou bout de la queue). Aucun ne confère d'immunité à long terme et les vaccinations doivent être répétées chaque année.Les campagnes de vaccination gagneraient à être combinées à des mesures complémentaires. Dans l'idéal, les cas cliniques et les porteurs, déterminés par tests sanguins, devraient être abattus. Toutefois, cette option n'étant que rarement applicable, des mesures devraient être prises pour limiter la propagation de l'infection. Le bétail importé de l'extérieur devrait être mis en quarantaine et soumis à des tests de dépistage afin de repérer les bêtes infectées, y compris les porteurs sains, qui peuvent alors être mis de côté.Si la péripneumonie contagieuse bovine progresse et atteint une autre région (ou un autre pays), il faut essayer par tous les moyens de la faire reculer par abattage de tous les animaux infectés et de ceux qui ont été en contact avec eux.Du fait de son caractère insidieux et de son taux de mortalité élevé, la péripneumonie contagieuse bovine est l'une des maladies les plus graves chez les bovins dans les régions tropicales ; elle peut entraîner des pertes économiques importantes si on lui permet de progresser librement. Les cas suspects doivent toujours être signalés aux autorités vétérinaires. Dans beaucoup de pays, la vaccination est gratuite pour les éleveurs, qui devraient être encouragés à coopérer à l'occasion de toutes les campagnes de vaccination nationales.Synonyme : pasteurellose bovine (haemorragic septicaemia, HS).Maladie bactérienne aiguë des buffles et des bovins causée par le bacille Pasteurella multocida.La septicémie hémorragique est largement répandue dans l'est et le sud de l'Asie, et se manifeste également de manière sporadique au Moyen-Orient, en Afrique et en Europe méridionale (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1). L'adénomatose pulmonaire ovine est une maladie contagieuse qui se transmet à l'occasion de contacts étroits entre animaux infectés et sains.Il n'existe pas de traitement.En l'absence de vaccin et de test de diagnostic permettant de la détecter à un stade précoce, l'adénomatose pulmonaire ovine est difficile à combattre. Dans les troupeaux où elle est bien établie, les moutons atteints devraient être abattus dès les premiers signes. Les troupeaux indemnes devraient dans l'idéal être maintenus en système fermé. Une solution alternative est de faire venir systématiquement les animaux de renouvellement d'autres troupeaux reconnus indemnes.Le nom jaagsiekte fait référence au fait que les animaux traînent derrière le troupeau lorsque celui-ci se déplace. Bien que cette maladie ne soit pas de toute première importance, elle peut s'avérer un facteur de mortalité insidieux et significatif dans les élevages affectés. Les éleveurs qui ont la chance de ne pas l'héberger dans leur troupeau devraient prendre toutes les précautions possibles pour éviter qu'elle ne s'y introduise.L'adénomatose pulmonaire des ovins est plus accusée lorsque les animaux sont confinés pour un certain temps, par exemple rentrés dans une bergerie pour l'hiver, ce qui constitue une pratique courante dans les régions à climat tempéré. Cela expliquerait pourquoi cette maladie demeure relativement rare dans les troupeaux conduits en systèmes pastoraux extensifs, bien que les animaux au pâturage puissent aussi contracter l'infection.||◗ Le maedi-visna (bouhite)  La lymphadénite caséeuse est présente partout.Des abcès apparaissent dans les ganglions lymphatiques et les organes internes. Les ganglions lymphatiques superficiels situés sous la peau sont particulièrement touchés, par exemple sur la tête, le devant de l'épaule (voir la figure 1.16) et les membres postérieurs. Les ganglions affectés sont volumineux et peuvent être palpés ; ils s'ouvrent fréquemment spontanément en produisant un pus épais et verdâtre. Les abcès qui atteignent les organes internes entraînent d'autres symptômes variables selon leur localisation, notamment une dégradation de l'état général pouvant être associée à une pneumonie, des paralysies et une chute de la production lactée.Les écoulements purulents provenant des ganglions lymphatiques rompus contaminent l'environnement avec l'agent pathogène, qui est capable de survivre pendant longtemps dans le milieu extérieur. L'infection se produit alors par contamination d'abrasions et d'autres plaies cutanées d'origines diverses (coupures lors de la tonte des moutons, castrations, blessures de combat entre chèvres, etc.). Les instruments chirurgicaux contaminés peuvent également propager la maladie d'un animal à l'autre. L'agent pathogène peut survivre environ une journée dans les bains insecticides du commerce, et ce type de traitement est susceptible de contribuer à la transmission de cette maladie, surtout chez les ovins après la tonte.La présence d'abcès dus à la lymphadénite caséeuse peut entraîner la confiscation d'une partie ou de la totalité des carcasses lors de l'inspection sanitaire à l'abattoir, ce qui est parfois économiquement lourd lorsque les ovins sont conduits en élevage intensif. Dans les systèmes extensifs, en revanche, les animaux ne sont affectés que sporadiquement et la maladie peut ne revêtir qu'une importance économique mineure. Bien que l'agent responsable soit sensible à un large éventail d'antibiotiques, le traitement a peu d'effet sur les abcès une fois formés. Les abcès peuvent être incisés, le pus évacué et un traitement antiseptique appliqué localement, mais ce type de traitement est rarement considéré comme nécessaire du fait de la nature peu évolutive de la maladie. Le virus de la peste des petits ruminants est apparenté à celui responsable de la peste bovine, et les deux maladies présentent de nombreux points communs. Toutefois, la peste des petits ruminants n'a malheureusement pas bénéficié de la même attention, loin s'en faut, que son équivalent bovin ; son impact, pourtant, peut être tout aussi catastrophique lorsqu'elle se déploie dans une région jusque là indemne. C'est une maladie actuellement en expansion et considérée comme majeure en terme économique.Synonymes : fourchet, dermatite interdigitée contagieuse (footrot).Maladie des pieds des ovins et parfois des caprins causée par deux bactéries, Fusobacterium necrophorum et Bacteroides nodosus (également appelée Dichelobacter nodosus).Le piétin est présent dans le monde entier.Le piétin entraîne des boiteries plus ou moins marquées selon la gravité des lésions et le nombre de pieds infectés. Dans les cas les plus graves, et tout particulièrement si l'infection intéresse plusieurs pieds, les animaux hésitent à se déplacer et préfèrent se coucher ou brouter à genoux. Les cas moins sévères peuvent ne laisser paraître qu'un léger hochement anormal de la tête lors de la marche, les animaux plus atteints présentant des boiteries plus évidentes, s'arrêtant fréquemment pour tenir le ou les pieds affectés levés au-dessus du sol.Le premier stade de la maladie correspond à l'apparition d'une zone de peau rougie et humide entre les deux onglons (dans l'espace interdigité). Le stade suivant conduit à la nécrose des tissus épidermiques du pied et au décollement de la sole de l'onglon au niveau du talon ; dans les cas graves, ce processus peut concerner l'ensemble des deux onglons. La guérison se traduit par la production de nouvelle corne, mais il arrive que le pied soit déformé définitivement. Les pieds malades, une fois correctement parés, doivent ensuite être traités. Une méthode consiste à laisser les animaux debout dans un pédiluve contenant une substance bactéricide pendant une durée suffisante pour que la solution imprègne le plus complètement possible les tissus infectés. Trois types de bain de pied peuvent être utilisés à cette fin : un bain de sulfate de zinc à 10 % associé ou non à un détergent permettant une meilleure pénétration de la solution dans les tissus, un bain de formol à 5 % ou un bain de sulfate de cuivre (sauf pour les ovins) à 5 %. L'efficacité du formol n'est pas affectée par le degré de pollution du bain, et, sous les climats chauds, l'évaporation -aggravée par la pratique courante de rajouter du mélange dans le pédiluve pour en compenser les effets -peut aboutir à des concentrations de formol dangereusement élevées. Les bains de pied au formol à 5 % doivent donc être entièrement renouvelés à chaque utilisation. En outre, ces bains ne peuvent être utilisés qu'à l'extérieur à cause des émanations gazeuses toxiques qu'ils dégagent. Le sulfate de cuivre, quant à lui, est dégradé par la saleté du bain et doit être entièrement renouvelé à chaque fois.Le risque existe toutefois de contaminer l'environnement avec le cuivre, qui est potentiellement toxique pour les ovins. Les bains de pied peuvent être remplacés par des pulvérisations avec un aérosol antibiotique.Les meilleurs résultats sont obtenus lorsque le traitement (bain ou pulvérisation) est appliqué après que le parage des pieds infectés ait exposé les tissus malades. Des bains ou pulvérisations (antibiotique en bombe ou en poudre) peuvent être associés à l'injection d'antibiotique ou la remplacer.La méthode la plus facile, mais également la plus coûteuse, consiste à injecter un antibiotique approprié. La pénicilline combinée à la streptomycine est probablement ici le traitement le plus efficace. Les injections d'antibiotiques doivent être administrées à des doses élevées afin de veiller à ce que suffisamment de substance active parvienne aux tissus affectés. Associé ou non à des bains ou à des pulvérisations, ce traitement ne nécessite pas l'opération laborieuse du parage des onglons. Synonyme : PPCC (contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, CCPP).Maladie respiratoire des caprins, provoquée par un mycoplasme, Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae.Cette maladie prévaut dans presque toute l'Afrique, à l'exception de la partie sud du continent, et au Moyen-Orient (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La pleuropneumonie contagieuse caprine est caractérisée par une pneumonie et une inflammation de la membrane (plèvre) qui tapisse les poumons et la paroi thoracique (pleurésie). Dans les cas suraigus, les animaux meurent dans les 3 jours suivant l'apparition, discrète, des tout premiers signes cliniques et l'on constate souvent des décès apparemment subits. Les symptômes de pneumonie et de pleurésie sont évidents dans les cas aigus, et comprennent en particulier une élévation de la température corporelle, des écoulements nasaux, une respiration difficile (dyspnée), une toux et une dégradation de l'état général. Environ 60 % des animaux atteints meurent, ce taux pouvant atteindre 90 %. Les quelques survivants voient leur maladie prendre une forme chronique caractérisée par des écoulements nasaux permanents, une toux persistante et un état général en détérioration.Cette maladie se transmet par contact direct entre cas cliniques et animaux sains.La pleuropneumonie contagieuse caprine peut être traitée en tout début d'évolution, par la tylosine, en injection ou par voie orale (pilules) ou par la spiramycine et les tétracyclines.Des vaccins tués et adjuvés, élaborés à partir de la souche F38, ont été utilisés avec un succès variable, mais des essais plus poussés sont nécessaires. Les cas cliniques devraient rapidement être séparés du reste du troupeau et traités ou abattus. Les chèvres ne devraient pas être maintenues dans des conditions trop surpeuplées : mieux vaut éviter de confiner les animaux dans des locaux trop exigus pendant la nuit.La pleuropneumonie contagieuse caprine est une maladie grave, et les cas suspects doivent -en raison des risques de confusion avec d'autres causes de pneumonie (la pasteurellose, par exemple) -faire rechercher l'avis d'un vétérinaire pour la mise en place de mesures appropriées. Si aucun vétérinaire n'est disponible, un échantillon frais de poumon d'un individu atteint, mort récemment, doit être expédié au laboratoire pour analyse. Les parties atteintes du poumon se solidifient (hépatisation) et prennent une teinte grise ; un petit échantillon de poumon infecté pourra être prélevé dans un secteur bordant une partie saine à l'aide d'un couteau propre et bien affûté et envoyé immédiatement au laboratoire dans un bocal en verre propre entouré de glace. En attendant les résultats du laboratoire, les animaux malades seront maintenus à l'écart du troupeau et traités à la tylosine et à l'oxytétracycline.||◗ La tremblante du mouton (scrapie)Synonyme : encéphalopathie spongiforme ovine (scrapie).Maladie infectieuse des ovins et occasionnellement des caprins. Les causes et les conditions de son apparition sont encore peu connues, mais l'agent responsable en serait une particule protéique reproductible (prion). (Voir encéphalite spongiforme bovine).La tremblante du mouton est endémique en Europe, mais des ovins exportés ont été à l'origine de cas observés en Amérique du Nord, en Afrique, et au Japon (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La tremblante est une maladie à incubation très longue et à évolution lente. L'infection intervient généralement avant ou peu après la naissance, mais les symptômes n'apparaissent pas avant que l'animal n'ait de 2 à 5 ans. L'infection s'attaque au cerveau (dégénérescence des cellules nerveuses) et les premiers signes de la tremblante sont de légères altérations du comportement. A ce stade, il est possible de détecter la maladie en frottant les animaux suspects le long de l'épine dorsale : les animaux infectés réagissent par des mouvements de « grignotage » des lèvres. Les symptômes comportementaux évoluent alors au cours des 1 à 2 mois suivants : les mouvements perdent en coordination, l'expression devient hagarde et toute manipulation provoque des tremblements et des convulsions. La peau est le siège de démangeaisons intenses (prurit) et les animaux malades se mordillent et se frottent constamment pour se soulager, ce qui abîme le pelage et la peau.Par ailleurs, les animaux continuent à s'alimenter normalement et leur état général se dégrade peu. Mais les problèmes nerveux s'aggravent et les animaux, paralysés des membres postérieurs, finissent par ne plus pouvoir se tenir debout ; on observe alors un dépérissement rapide, juste avant la mort. Chez certains individus, la maladie déclarée peut durer jusqu'à 6 mois, mais la plupart des animaux atteints meurent dans les 2 mois après l'apparition des signes cliniques, quelques-uns de manière subite.La transmission de la tremblante du mouton au sein d'un troupeau n'est pas encore bien comprise, mais il semblerait que la principale source d'infection soit les placentas des brebis infectées. Ce sont en général les nouveau-nés qui sont le plus fréquemment infectés, bien que d'autres animaux puissent l'être par la même voie. Certaines indications laissent penser que les parcours peuvent être fortement contaminés par l'agent responsable de la tremblante et que les animaux sont susceptibles de contracter l'infection lorsqu'ils sont au pâturage.Il n'existe pas de traitement et tous les animaux atteints finissent invariablement par mourir.Il n'existe pas de vaccin contre cette maladie et les mesures de lutte à prendre dépendent de l'ampleur du problème. La réceptivité à la tremblante est un caractère hérité des parents et le taux de prévalence (nombre total de cas / nombre d'animaux) varie entre les lignées au sein d'un même troupeau, de près de zéro à presque 20 %. Lorsque la prévalence est très faible, les placentas des brebis ayant agnelé sont éliminés et détruits dans la mesure du possible et tout animal atteint est abattu dès l'apparition des symptômes.Lorsque la maladie est à l'origine de pertes significatives dans un élevage, seul un abattage méthodique pourra se révéler efficace, visant les lignées à antécédents de tremblante et si nécessaire l'ensemble du troupeau. Les locaux sont alors désinfectés et le renouvellement du cheptel différé d'au moins 2 mois afin de laisser le temps à l'agent infectieux de disparaître de l'environnement.Dans les secteurs indemnes de tremblante, il convient de s'assurer que les animaux importés proviennent de troupeaux ne présentant aucun antécédent de cette maladie.Les autorités des pays importateurs d'ovins sont susceptibles d'exiger que les bêtes soient indemnes de tremblante. La difficulté est qu'il n'existe par de test de diagnostic permettant de repérer les individus infectés pendant la longue période d'incubation qui précède l'apparition des signes cliniques.Les importateurs doivent donc se fier aux certificats attestant que les animaux proviennent de régions ou de troupeaux sans antécédents.Synonymes : pox de la chèvre, picotte (sheep pox, goat pox).Maladies virales des ovins et des caprins caractérisées par des lésions de la peau et des organes internes dues à des poxvirus, le poxvirus du mouton (sheep poxvirus) et le poxvirus de la chèvre (capripoxvirus).Les varioles du mouton et de la chèvre sont présentes dans le sud de l'Europe, en Afrique (au nord de l'équateur), au Moyen-Orient, en Une forme suraiguë atteint parfois les agneaux ou les ovins adultes de races exotiques, particulièrement réceptives. Les lésions cutanées peuvent commencer à évoluer en ulcères, mais les animaux meurent avant l'apparition des lésions caractéristiques de cette maladie. Des cas subaigus existent également, au cours desquels la fièvre et les lésions sont peu marquées (demeurent au stade nodulaire, ou stone pox) et peuvent passer inaperçues.Le virus peut survivre plusieurs mois sur les poils et la laine contaminés et dans l'environnement. Les modalités exactes de transmission ne sont pas connues, mais l'infection survient probablement par contact direct avec des animaux malades ou convalescents ou avec des objets contaminés dans les enclos, les marchés, les sites d'abreuvement, etc. L'inhalation constitue sans doute une autre voie de transmission, ce qui expliquerait la prévalence élevée des lésions dans l'appareil respiratoire. Il est également considéré que des mouches piqueuses pourraient intervenir dans la propagation du virus. En outre, des animaux chez lesquels le virus serait présent à l'état latent constitueraient une autre source d'infection.Dans les régions où les varioles du mouton et de la chèvre sont endémiques, l'immunité naturelle est importante, et les flambées épidémiques restent sporadiques et ne concernent que les jeunes animaux. Cependant, lorsque la maladie est apportée par des troupeaux transhumants dans une zone jusque là indemne, les épidémies qui en résultent peuvent se révéler sévères, accompagnées d'une mortalité élevée des jeunes.Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique.    Maladie virale des dromadaires et des chameaux de Bactriane due à un poxvirus spécifique. C'est une des principales maladies des chameaux.La variole caméline (camel pox) existe dans toutes les régions d'élevage de dromadaires et de chameaux de Bactriane en Afrique et en Asie (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La variole caméline, bénigne chez les animaux adultes, est toutefois plus grave chez les jeunes individus de moins de 3 ans. L'incubation dure de 5 à 15 jours. L'infection se traduit tout d'abord par une augmentation de la température corporelle, suivie quelques jours plus tard d'une éruption cutanée qui évolue en petites bulles remplies de pus. Celles-ci cèdent plus tard la place à des croûtes, qui guérissent en formant une cicatrice 4 à 6 semaines environ après l'apparition des premières lésions. Les lésions cutanées intéressent notamment la région des lèvres, mais s'étendent à l'occasion à toute la tête (voir la figure 1.21), aux parties génitales externes et à la face interne des membres postérieurs. La plupart des animaux atteints guérissent spontanément, bien qu'une faible proportion des jeunes puissent présenter une forme grave, éventuellement mortelle, avec des lésions intéressant toute la tête. Les animaux contractent généralement cette maladie par contact direct. Le virus est toutefois capable de survivre quelque temps dans le milieu extérieur, ce qui permet sa propagation par l'intermédiaire d'objets contaminés tels que des pièces de harnachement ou du matériel d'entretien.La plupart des cas guérissant spontanément, le traitement est rarement nécessaire. Les lésions qui accueillent une surinfection bactérienne peuvent être traitées localement à l'aide de pulvérisations ou de crèmes antibiotiques.1. Les maladies infectieuses et contagieusesCette maladie est très bien connue des éleveurs et conducteurs de chameaux et il est rarement demandé de confirmation de diagnostic.Synonymes : histoplasmose équine, maladie de Rivolta, farcin de rivière (epizootic lymphangitis).Infection cutanée des équidés, principalement des chevaux, par le champignon Histoplasma farciminosum.Cette maladie est présente autour de la Méditerranée, en Afrique du Nord, au Soudan, en Ethiopie, au Moyen-Orient, en Asie dont le sous-continent indien, mais est susceptible de se manifester partout où il y a des concentrations de chevaux dans des conditions sanitaires qui laissent à désirer (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).L'incubation dure 4 à 12 semaines. Des nodules et des abcès apparaissent dans la peau de la tête, de l'encolure, des épaules et des membres.Les lésions débutent comme de petits gonflements, qui grossissent et finissent par s'ouvrir (ulcère en « cul de poule ») en produisant un pus jaunâtre, épais plus ou moins sanguinolent. L'infection se propage le long des vaisseaux lymphatiques, qui augmentent de volume et dessinent une « corde » parsemée d'abcès secondaires « en collier de perles » gagnant les ganglions eux-mêmes hypertrophiés. Ces abcès secondaires s'ouvrent à leur tour, les ganglions se fistulisent, en laissant échapper du pus (voir la figure 1.22). Sur une période d'une dizaine de jours, les lésions évoluent en croûtes, qui tombent en découvrant un autre abcès sousjacent de plus grande taille, suintant toujours du pus. Le processus se poursuit pendant plusieurs semaines ou plusieurs mois, et, en l'absence de traitement efficace, la maladie se généralise et l'animal meurt d'épuisement.L'infection peut se propager aux yeux et aux naseaux, voire aux poumons, entraînant une pneumonie. Cette maladie est toujours chronique, persistant plusieurs mois. Les animaux gravement atteints voient leur état général se détériorer et peuvent ne plus être en mesure de travailler. La guérison spontanée est rarissime. La lymphangite épizootique est contractée par la contamination de plaies, soit par contact direct avec des animaux infectés, soit par le biais du sol ou de pièces d'équipement (harnachement, brosses, etc.) contaminées, soit encore par l'intermédiaire de mouches s'étant nourries sur les lésions d'animaux infectés. Si le taux de transmission est important lorsque les animaux sont regroupés et souffrent de conditions sanitaires défectueuses, en d'autres circonstances la maladie se propage de manière sporadique.Le traitement est rarement suivi d'effet. Lorsque la maladie est prise à ses débuts, les lésions encore peu étendues peuvent être traitées en extrayant les parties atteintes et en appliquant un fongicide sur les lésions sousjacentes (nitrate d'argent ou teinture d'iode, par exemple). Mais, même si ce traitement peut paraître efficace, une récurrence est probable.La séparation et l'abattage systématique des animaux atteints peut permettre d'éradiquer la maladie, mais de telles mesures sont rarement envisageables dans les régions où celle-ci est endémique. Des mesures sanitaires strictes sont alors requises : les animaux infectés doivent être isolés des autres pendant leur traitement, les écuries, les harnachements et autres pièces d'équipement doivent être nettoyés et désinfectés régulièrement, les plaies doivent être rapidement soignées et protégées des mouches, des précautions doivent être prises pour limiter les morsures de tiques et les blessures de harnachement.Etant donné que cette maladie peut facilement être confondue avec d'autres problèmes cutanés propres aux équidés (la forme cutanée de la morve et la lymphangite ulcéreuse, par exemple), des écouvillonnages d'abcès récemment formés devraient être expédiés au laboratoire pour analyse. De manière générale, la lymphangite épizootique ne constitue pas un problème important dans les élevages bien conduits.Maladie bactérienne grave du système respiratoire et de la peau des équidés, notamment des chevaux, et rarement de l'homme, causée par le bacille de la morve, Burkholderia mallei. Les ulcères nasaux et cutanés peuvent finir par se résorber en laissant de grandes cicatrices en forme d'étoile. Les animaux souffrant de la forme chronique restent malades pendant plusieurs mois ; certains manifestent parfois des signes de rémission, mais l'issue est fatale dans la plupart des cas. Certains individus semblent se rétablir, mais les lésions qui subsistent dans les poumons entraînent occasionnellement une gêne respiratoire et un jetage nasal.La bactérie responsable de la morve peut survivre jusqu'à 6 semaines dans le milieu extérieur. L'infection survient généralement par ingestion d'aliments ou d'eau contaminés directement ou indirectement par les écoulements nasaux des animaux malades. L'agent pathogène est également présent dans le pus qui s'écoule des lésions cutanées, et la contamination de plaies par contact direct ou par l'intermédiaire de pièces de harnachement souillées est susceptible d'entraîner le développement de la forme cutanée de la maladie.La morve étant une maladie infectieuse potentiellement fatale pour l'être humain, beaucoup de pays ont rendu obligatoire son signalement aux autorités concernées et ont interdit son traitement à cause du risque que les animaux traités restent porteurs. Toutefois, la sulfadiazine (ou sulfapyrimidine), la sulfadimidine et certains antibiotiques sont considérés comme efficaces contre cette maladie. Néanmoins il est préférable de réserver le traitement à l'homme.Aucun vaccin n'est disponible contre la morve. Les campagnes de lutte s'appuient sur des mesures sanitaires adaptées. Dans l'idéal, lors d'un épisode épidémique, tous les cas cliniques devraient être abattus, la litière et les aliments contaminés détruits, l'outillage, les pièces de harnachement, les écuries, les mangeoires, etc. nettoyés à fond et désinfectés. Tous les équidés ayant été en contact avec des animaux malades devraient être placés en quarantaine et soumis à un test de diagnostic toutes les 3 semaines (malléination) et abattus dès lors que les résultats sont positifs. La malléination se fait par injection intradermique de « malléine » à la paupière inférieure ou par voie sous-cutanée à l'encolure selon un protocole comparable à celui de la tuberculination (voir tuberculose). La manipulation et la consommation de viande d'animaux atteints est fortement déconseillée. Ces mesures, lorsqu'elles sont appliquées consciencieusement, peuvent permettre, le cas échéant, d'éradiquer la morve d'un pays.La morve peut être confondue avec d'autres maladies tout aussi importantes des équidés, aussi les propriétaires devraient-ils toujours signaler tout cas suspect aux autorités vétérinaires afin que les mesures adéquates soient prises, et ce, quelle que soit la politique nationale au sujet de cette maladie.Synonymes : maladie de Teschen, maladie de Talfan, peste de Bohème, paralysie infectieuse (porcine encephalomyelitis, Teschen disease, Talfan disease).Maladies des porcins analogues à la poliomyélite chez l'homme, causée par des entérovirus.Les entéroviroses porcines sont fréquentes et répandues partout, mais la plupart des souches ne sont pas pathogènes. La forme la plus grave (maladie de Teschen) est rare et essentiellement confinée à Madagascar (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Deux formes de la maladie sont reconnues : une forme grave, la maladie de Teschen, et une forme plus bénigne, la maladie de Talfan. La maladie de Teschen se manifeste par un accroissement de la température corporelle et une perte de la coordination dans un premier temps, suivies de convulsions, d'une paralysie puis le plus souvent de la mort, cela en l'espace de quelques jours. Dans le cas de la maladie de Talfan, on observe une perte de coordination parfois suivie d'une paralysie, mais la plupart des animaux atteints guérissent ensuite spontanément. La maladie de Teschen concerne les animaux de tous âges, tandis que la maladie de Talfan n'atteint que les jeunes individus.Les encéphalomyélites porcines se transmettent par contact direct ou indirect avec des porcs infectés ; les virus peuvent survivre plusieurs mois dans le milieu extérieur.Il n'existe pas de traitement.Des vaccins vivants atténués sont utilisés dans les régions où la forme grave de la maladie est endémique. Pour ce qui est de la forme plus bénigne, aucune mesure particulière n'est généralement nécessaire.Autrefois considérée comme sérieuse, la maladie de Teschen est aujourd'hui devenue rare, bien qu'elle demeure d'importance majeure à Madagascar. La forme bénigne, sporadique, passe probablement sans être reconnue dans un certain nombre de cas.Synonymes : peste du Kenya, maladie de Montgomery (African swine fever, ASF).Maladie virale des porcins sauvages et domestiques due à un asfarvirus (anciennement iridovirus). Les hôtes naturels du virus sont les suidés sauvages africains, en particulier les phacochères et potamochères. Chez le porc domestique, l'infection entraîne des manifestations de gravité variable.La peste porcine africaine est endémique en Afrique, entre le Sahara et le tropique du Capricorne avec des poussées épidémiques dans certaines régions. Des épidémies de courte durée ont été enregistrées ailleurs, dans des zones habituellement non concernées, en Europe, au Brésil et dans les Caraïbes. Néanmoins la maladie a pu se maintenir pendant plus de 30 ans en Espagne et au Portugal, où le virus a su utiliser la tique Ornithodorus erraticus pour survivre (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La période d'incubation, chez le porc domestique, oscille entre quelques jours et environ 2 semaines. La maladie peut prendre une forme suraiguë, aiguë, subaiguë ou chronique. Dans sa forme suraiguë, les porcs présentent une forte fièvre puis sont retrouvés morts sans manifestation d'autres signes cliniques. La forme aiguë débute par une fièvre pouvant atteindre 42 °C avant l'apparition, 1 à 2 jours plus tard, d'autres symptômes qui persistent jusqu'à environ une semaine avant la mort : les porcs cessent de s'alimenter, se blottissent les uns contre les autres, ont des mouvements mal coordonnés, finissent par rester couchés et présentent des taches rouges (congestives ou hémorragiques) sur la peau, notamment aux extrémités. Les truies en gestation avortent. D'autres signes cliniques sont parfois observés : écoulements au niveau des yeux et des narines, difficultés respiratoires, vomissements et diarrhées mêlées de sang.La forme subaiguë peut évoluer sur un mois avant la mort ou la guérison. Les porcs atteints présentent une fièvre fluctuante et la plupart des truies en gestation avortent. D'autres signes cliniques peuvent apparaître, rappelant ceux de la forme aiguë mais en moins marqués. La forme chronique, enfin, peut durer jusqu'à une année ; elle est peu commune et les signes cliniques en sont très variables, souvent limités à une émaciation, à des troubles digestifs et à une mauvaise croissance. La mort intervient souvent à la suite de complications telles qu'une pneumonie. Les animaux qui guérissent demeurent porteurs du virus pendant toute leur vie.Le virus est transmis entre suidés sauvages par des tiques molles du genre Ornithodoros. Ces tiques se tiennent dans les cavités où leurs hôtes viennent se reposer, et s'en nourrissent la nuit. Les porcs domestiques peuvent s'infecter lorsqu'ils entrent en contact avec des tiques porteuses du virus. Une fois établie au sein de la population domestique, l'infection se propage alors directement d'un porc à l'autre sans intervention du vecteur, comme il a été relevé au Mozambique, en Angola et dans certaines autres régions du continent africain, puis en Europe, en Amérique latine et à Madagascar. Les animaux atteints de la forme aiguë rejettent de grandes quantités de virus dans les écoulements nasaux, l'urine et les excréments, infectant ainsi les autres porcs -soit directement, soit en contaminant les locaux, la nourriture, etc. Le virus est en effet très résistant et peut survivre de longs mois dans le milieu extérieur, plusieurs années dans les carcasses congelées et plusieurs mois dans les salaisons ; il en découle que les déchets non cuits de viande de porc et les eaux grasses constituent une importante source d'infection. Les tiques molles du genre Ornithodoros devenues infectées en Espagne et au Portugal, pays accidentellement atteints, se sont montrées capables de demeurer un facteur persistant d'infection.Il n'existe pas de traitement efficace contre la peste porcine africaine.Aucun vaccin efficace n'est disponible contre cette maladie. Aussi la lutte exige-t-elle des mesures strictes pour éviter l'infection des porcs réceptifs. Au cours de ces dernières années, des épidémies se sont déclarées à plusieurs reprises en Espagne et au Portugal, auxquelles beaucoup de pays ont répondu en mettant en place des mesures de protection destinées à empêcher que la maladie se propage sur leur territoire, par exemple en interdisant toute importation de porcs ou de produits à base de porc. En cas de flambée épidémique, la seule manière efficace de contenir la maladie consiste à abattre tous les animaux infectés ainsi que ceux qui ont été en contact avec eux, à désinfecter les locaux et à détruire les carcasses, les litières et la nourriture contaminées. Ce sont des mesures extrêmes de ce type qui ont permis d'éradiquer la maladie en France, en Italie, à Cuba et en Haïti. Dans les régions d'Afrique où la peste porcine africaine est endémique, et depuis quelques années en expansion, il est possible de préserver les porcs domestiques en les élevant dans des exploitations bien protégées de tout contact avec d'autres porcins, en particulier sauvages, et en s'abstenant d'utiliser des eaux grasses et des déchets à base de viande de porc dans leur alimentation.Dès lors que cette maladie infectieuse grave est suspectée, les autorités vétérinaires doivent immédiatement en être averties, en particulier à cause de la ressemblance des symptômes avec ceux d'une autre maladie de première importance, la peste porcine classique. Il ne faut en aucun cas tenter de traiter les cas cliniques. Tous les efforts doivent être faits pour enrayer la propagation de la maladie en s'appuyant sur les mesures décrites plus haut.Synonymes : PPC, choléra du porc (classical swine fever, hog cholera).Maladie virale des porcins sauvages et domestiques due à un pestivirus. Deux formes existent selon que l'infection intervient avant ou après la naissance.La peste porcine classique est présente dans le monde entier, partout où il existe des élevages porcins, à l'exception de l'Amérique du Nord, de l'Australie, de la Nouvelle-Zélande et de certains pays européens, où elle est absente ou a été éradiquée. Elle est particulièrement répandue en Asie, en Amérique centrale et en Amérique du Sud. La situation en Afrique reste mal connue. La présence de la peste porcine classique a été confirmée depuis plusieurs décennies à Madagascar et plus récemment en Afrique du Sud (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Il existe plusieurs souches du virus, qui diffèrent quant à leur degré de virulence. La forme postnatale de la maladie survient lorsque les porcs sont infectés après leur naissance, quel que soit leur âge. Après une période d'incubation de 3 à 10 jours, les premiers signes cliniques font leur apparition, très variables mais fondamentalement les mêmes que ceux des formes aiguë, subaiguë et chronique de la peste porcine africaine. La forme aiguë est souvent associée à des problèmes nerveux tels qu'une mauvaise coordination des mouvements, des déplacements en cercles, des tremblements musculaires et, en fin d'évolution, des convulsions et une paralysie des membres postérieurs. L'infection d'une truie en gestation entraîne une forme particulière, prénatale, de la maladie. Beaucoup de ces truies avortent, mais quelquesunes sont susceptibles de donner naissance à des porcelets infectés, qui peuvent être cliniquement normaux ou bien faibles, mal formés et agités de tremblements. Ces derniers rejettent continuellement le virus dans le milieu extérieur pendant plusieurs mois avant de développer la maladie telle qu'elle apparaît dans sa forme postnatale. Les autres porcelets, bien qu'apparemment en bonne santé, sont eux aussi infectés et produisent des particules virales.Le virus est extrêmement contagieux et peut survivre dans le milieu extérieur pour des durées qui varient en fonction des conditions. Les animaux infectés rejettent le virus dans leur urine, leurs excréments, leur salive, leurs écoulements oculaires, et la maladie peut se propager rapidement par contact entre animaux sains et animaux atteints ou par une nourriture ou une litière récemment contaminée. Le virus peut survivre longtemps dans la viande et dans la moelle osseuse de porc (par exemple jusqu'à 4 ans dans la viande congelée), et les déchets de viande de porcs infectés qui sont donnés à manger aux animaux constituent une importante source d'infection lors des flambées épidémiques.Les animaux qui ont contracté la maladie avant leur naissance sont infectieux et les plus dangereux sont ceux qui donnent tous les signes de bonne santé et qui sont donc susceptibles de ne pas éveiller de soupçons.Un sérum hyperimmun administré dans les tout premiers stades de la maladie peut se révéler efficace. Il n'existe pas d'autre traitement.L'approche à privilégier dépend de la situation épidémiologique. Dans les régions où la maladie est fréquente, les pertes peuvent être limitées par des vaccinations régulières. Il existe des vaccins atténués et des vaccins inactivés, et il convient de rechercher l'avis d'un vétérinaire pour choisir la formule la mieux adaptée. Les mesures sanitaires habituelles doivent par ailleurs être appliquées : séparation des animaux malades du reste du troupeau, destruction de la nourriture et des autres matières contaminées, nettoyage et désinfection du site. Un sérum hyperimmun, s'il est disponible, peut être administré aux porcs sains ayant été en contact avec les individus malades.Dans les régions où la peste porcine classique est rare ou absente, la marche à suivre en cas de flambée épidémique consiste à éliminer le foyer afin d'empêcher la propagation de la maladie. Les troupeaux infectés et les animaux ayant été en contact sont alors abattus et leurs carcasses brûlées. La nourriture et la litière contaminées sont détruites, les locaux, les véhicules, le matériel, etc. sont nettoyés et désinfectés. Les pays indemnes de cette maladie et ceux où son incidence est faible interdisent généralement toute importation de porcs vivants ou de produits à base de viande de porc. Dans tous les cas, les déchets (incluant les eaux grasses) de viande de porc ne seront pas donnés à manger à d'autres porcs.La peste porcine classique est l'une des maladies les plus graves des porcins et tout cas suspect doit immédiatement être signalé aux autorités vétérinaires. Une difficulté supplémentaire existe dans les pays où prévaut à la fois la peste porcine classique et la peste porcine africaine, car ces deux maladies, bien que provoquées par des virus complètement différents et non apparentés, sont impossibles à différencier sur le plan clinique. Lorsque aucun vétérinaire n'est disponible, les mesures sanitaires décrites plus haut doivent être mises en oeuvre. Des prélèvements de sang entier d'animaux malades peuvent être envoyés au laboratoire entourés de glace pour y être soumis aux tests de diagnostic qui s'imposent.Au cours de ces dernières années, la propagation du virus de la maladie des muqueuses (diarrhée virale des bovins), étroitement apparenté à celui de la peste porcine classique, a compliqué la lutte contre cette dernière à cause de réactions croisées au cours des tests de dépistage.Maladie bactérienne des porcins, parfois des agneaux et des veaux et occasionnellement de l'homme, causée par le bacille Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae.Le rouget (erysipelas) existe dans le monde entier.L'incubation dure 1 à 14 jours. Les porcs de tous âges peuvent être infectés. Deux formes de la maladie existent, l'une aiguë et l'autre chronique. La forme aiguë correspond à une septicémie au cours de laquelle les bactéries et leurs toxines se répandent dans le système sanguin. Les premiers symptômes en sont une fièvre élevée, suivie d'un état de prostration intense, d'une perte de l'appétit, d'une sensation de soif et d'écoulements oculaires. Des plages rouges, enflées, souvent en forme de losanges, d'environ 5 cm apparaissent sur la peau des oreilles, du cou, du bas de l'abdomen et de l'intérieur des cuisses. Ces manifestations durent environ 3 jours, à l'issue desquels beaucoup d'animaux atteints meurent, les autres finissant par se rétablir. Certains individus présentent une forme plus bénigne de la maladie, dans laquelle les lésions cutanées prennent le pas sur les autres symptômes ; la plupart guérissent spontanément en une dizaine de jours.Les signes cliniques de la forme chronique sont moins nets. Les lésions cutanées peuvent se borner à une chute des poils, à un épaississement de la peau le long du dos et des membres et à une desquamation de l'extrémité des oreilles et de la queue. La bactérie est susceptible de s'attaquer aux articulations (notamment chez l'agneau) et aux structures internes du coeur. Les articulations atteintes, habituellement sur les membres mais parfois au niveau de la colonne vertébrale, deviennent chaudes, douloureuses et enflées pendant quelques semaines, à l'issue desquelles elles demeurent quelquefois déformées et non fonctionnelles.Lorsque l'infection atteint l'intérieur du coeur, elle y entraîne une inflammation (endocardite) et à terme la formation de lésions fibrineuses végétatives friables. Les animaux concernés peuvent sembler normaux sur le plan clinique, mais ils sont susceptibles de mourir subitement par défaillance cardiaque, notamment après un effort soudain. D'autres individus manifestent des signes d'insuffisance cardiovasculaire tels qu'un état général dégradé, des difficultés respiratoires et une coloration bleutée de la peau après l'effort.La bactérie responsable, Erysipelothrix rusiopathiae, est présente partout. Beaucoup d'animaux cliniquement normaux -y compris des porcs et des oiseaux -sont susceptibles de la porter et de la rejeter dans leurs excréments. Les animaux réceptifs peuvent contracter la maladie auprès d'animaux porteurs sains ou d'animaux malades, ou encore par l'intermédiaire de terre, de litière, etc., contaminées par des excréments, dans la mesure où la bactérie est capable de survivre plusieurs mois dans le milieu extérieur. La maladie peut également être transmise par des mouches.La pénicilline est très efficace au début dans les cas aigus à septicémie, mais très peu contre la forme chronique, du fait des dégâts déjà infligés aux tissus affectés masquant la bactérie à l'antibiotique.Les mesures sanitaires habituelles permettent de réduire les risques d'infection et doivent être appliquées dans tout élevage porcin. Les enclos doivent être bien entretenus et propres, les cas cliniques séparés des autres pendant la durée du traitement et les carcasses d'animaux morts éliminées. Les parcours contaminés ne doivent plus être utilisés, ou doivent être mis en culture, pendant plusieurs mois afin de laisser le temps à l'agent pathogène de disparaître.Face à une épidémie, il est possible d'administrer un sérum hyperimmun aux porcs ayant été en contact avec des individus atteints afin de leur conférer une protection immédiate quoique limitée à 2 à 3 semaines. Des vaccins existent, mais l'immunité qu'ils confèrent est partielle et courte. Elle nécessite des rappels réguliers.Le rouget constitue une maladie importante partout où des porcs sont élevés. Les éleveurs savent le reconnaître et devraient normalement être en mesure d'administrer eux-mêmes de la pénicilline si aucune assistance vétérinaire n'est disponible. Si le problème prend des proportions gênantes, mieux vaut toutefois rechercher l'avis d'un vétérinaire pour mettre au point un programme de vaccination et étudier les mesures sanitaires à appliquer.Les ovins sont généralement résistants à Erysipelothrix rusiopathiae mais, chez les agneaux privés de colostrum à la naissance, l'infection est susceptible d'entraîner une arthrite et parfois des lésions cardiaques.Maladie vénérienne bactérienne des bovins entraînant une infertilité temporaire et des avortements occasionnels. L'agent responsable est le bacille (ou vibrion) Campylobacter fetus. Il est transmis aux femelles non immunisées par les taureaux infectés lors des saillies.La campylobactériose bovine est répandue dans le monde entier.Bien que les animaux reproducteurs puissent être infectés quel que soit leur sexe, les troubles de la reproduction ne sont observés que chez les femelles. Ces signes cliniques sont liés à une inflammation de la muqueuse vaginale (vaginite) et utérine (cervicite, endométrite) des femelles en gestation, qui entraîne la mort précoce de l'embryon et, parfois, un retard dans la réapparition des chaleurs ou la survenue de cycles ovariens irréguliers. Le taux de réussite de l'insémination baisse. Quelques animaux en gestation peuvent cependant n'avorter que vers le 5 e ou 6 e mois, parfois même plus tôt. La maladie est ainsi susceptible de passer inaperçue à moins que les informations concernant la reproduction de l'élevage ne soient soigneusement enregistrées.Les femelles reproductrices éliminent l'infection généralement dans les 6 mois suivant l'accouplement infectant. Guéries et immunisées contre l'agent pathogène, elles peuvent alors se reproduire normalement.Chez les mâles, l'infection est localisée à la muqueuse interne du fourreau et à la surface du pénis ; l'immunité acquise reste limitée, et les signes cliniques sont généralement absents. Ils restent infectés en permanence, à moins qu'ils aient été traités avec un antibiotique efficace, et peuvent transmettre l'infection aux femelles.La campylobactériose bovine se transmet lors de l'accouplement, ou éventuellement lors de l'insémination artificielle si la semence provient de taureaux infectés. Les mâles se contaminent au cours des saillies avec des femelles infectées et constituent la source principale de l'infection. En général, le germe est introduit dans un troupeau sain lors de l'achat d'un mâle reproducteur infecté. Une fois introduite dans le troupeau, l'infection des femelles non immunisées (jeunes femelles de remplacement) se généralise rapidement. L'incidence de la maladie décroît ensuite avec l'installation de l'immunité.Chez les femelles reproductrices, le traitement est peu efficace et généralement inutile dans la mesure où l'agent pathogène est éliminé sans intervention extérieure. Toutefois, les mâles restent infectés définitivement si rien n'est fait, et un traitement peut s'avérer nécessaire pour faire disparaître la bactérie. Plusieurs antibiotiques sont efficaces, dont la streptomycine ; celle-ci doit être administrée par voie générale et par voie locale, en appliquant une solution à 50 % sur la muqueuse du pénis et du fourreau. Les taureaux, une fois guéris restent néanmoins réceptifs et peuvent s'infecter à nouveau.Dans le cas de troupeaux infectés conduits en élevage extensif où la reproduction s'opère librement, l'infertilité et les avortements occasionnels passent fréquemment inaperçus. En effet, ces symptômes n'apparaissent que chez les jeunes femelles, les femelles plus âgées ayant été infectées à une date antérieure et ayant ensuite retrouvé une reproduction normale.Dans les élevages laitiers intensifs, toutefois, les pertes dues à la campylobactériose peuvent devenir importantes et justifier des mesures particulières. Le recours systématique à l'insémination artificielle en utilisant de la semence provenant de taureaux certifiés indemnes permet d'éliminer cette maladie d'un troupeau laitier, les vaches infectées guérissant d'elles-mêmes en quelque temps, après deux gestations tout au plus. Si l'insémination artificielle n'est pas envisageable, l'ensemble du troupeau sera soumis à un test de dépistage à l'issue duquel les individus infectés et non infectés seront conduits en deux groupes séparés. Les animaux de renouvellement introduits dans le troupeau seront également testés et incorporés au groupe des animaux non infectés si le résultat du test est négatif. Un troupeau peut ainsi recouvrer son statut indemne de campylobactériose en quelque temps. Une telle démarche demande cependant une très bonne organisation et une assistance vétérinaire afin de veiller à la stricte séparation des animaux et au dépistage régulier des infectés.Des vaccins inactivés existent mais ils sont difficiles à obtenir et sont de qualité variable. Les plus efficaces confèrent une immunité d'environ 2 ans.L'infertilité transitoire et les avortements observés chez les primipares sont tout à fait susceptibles de passer inaperçus dans les systèmes extensifs où la reproduction est conduite en monte libre. L'impact de la campylobactériose peut cependant se révéler important si la synchronisation des mises bas est nécessaire. Dans les troupeaux laitiers où les informations concernant la reproduction des animaux sont correctement enregistrées, les cas d'infécondité ou d'avortement devraient être rapidement détectés par l'éleveur, qui décidera alors des mesures de surveillance et de lutte à appliquer avec l'aide des services vétérinaires. Avec le développement de l'insémination artificielle, cette maladie n'est désormais plus aussi grave qu'elle l'a été dans le passé, dans de nombreux pays du monde.La campylobactériose touche également les ovins chez qui elle provoque des avortements. Récemment, la campylobactériose a également été mise en évidence chez des chameaux présentant des antécédents d'infécondité.Synonymes : syphilis du cheval, mal de coït (dourine).Maladie vénérienne des équidés dont l'agent responsable est le protozoaire Trypanosoma equiperdum.La dourine a été éradiquée en Amérique du Nord et dans la plus grande partie de l'Europe mais subsiste dans certaines régions d'Afrique, d'Asie et probablement d'Amérique latine (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Les deux sexes peuvent être affectés, bien que les étalons tendent à développer une forme plus grave. La dourine est habituellement une maladie chronique qui débute lentement et insidieusement. Le premier symptôme est un écoulement provenant du vagin chez la femelle ou du méat urogénital chez le mâle, souvent associé à une fièvre peu élevée. Les organes génitaux externes présentent un gonflement oedémateux qui se propage parfois dans la partie ventrale de l'abdomen et qui est souvent accompagné d'ulcères des organes génitaux.L'agent pathogène infecte en priorité les organes génitaux, mais il peut également se répandre dans la circulation sanguine et induire l'apparition de signes cliniques dans d'autres parties de l'organisme. Des plaques d'oedème circulaires de 10 cm de diamètre peuvent apparaître sous la peau, et plus particulièrement sur les flancs. Les parasites peuvent également se propager au système nerveux central et entraîner des problèmes d'incoordination motrice et des paralysies.La dourine est généralement une maladie chronique débilitante au cours de laquelle l'état général des animaux se dégrade progressivement sur une durée relativement longue pouvant atteindre 1 à 3 années, avant d'aboutir à la mort. Certains animaux atteints d'une forme plus aiguë, meurent en l'espace de quelques semaines seulement. Il existe aussi une forme frustre avec des oedèmes et des plaques cutanées très discrets. Il arrive parfois que l'infection ne se traduise par aucun symptôme particulier : les individus concernés sont alors porteurs à vie.La dourine se transmet au moment de la saillie. Son impact est particulièrement dramatique lorsqu'un animal infecté est introduit dans un lot d'animaux reproducteurs indemnes. Du fait de la nature lente et insidieuse de la maladie, un étalon porteur est capable d'infecter un grand nombre de juments avant d'extérioriser des symptômes.Le traitement est généralement peu suivi d'effets. Le sulfate de quinapyramine administré par injection est le traitement généralement préconisé. Des résultats satisfaisants ont également été observés avec l'acéturate de diminazène (par exemple le Bérénil ND) et avec la mélarsomine.Il est possible de combattre la dourine en excluant les animaux infectés de la reproduction. Un test sérologique (comme la fixation du complément) permet de détecter les animaux infectés, en particulier ceux destinés à la reproduction. Toutefois, ces tests ne permettent pas de différencier la dourine des autres maladies à trypanosomes (voir le chapitre 4).La dourine peut être éradiquée en testant tous les animaux et en éliminant, par abattage ou castration selon les cas, les individus positifs. Cette approche nécessite une bonne organisation et des ressources financières, mais elle peut effectivement aboutir à l'éradication, comme le montrent les exemples de l'Amérique du Nord et de bien des pays d'Europe de l'Ouest.Dans la plupart des régions où les équidés se reproduisent librement entre eux, la dourine est endémique et se manifeste sous une forme frustre, difficilement détectable. En cas de suspicion, la confirmation du diagnostic reste difficile et les essais d'isolement du trypanosome chez les animaux malades se soldent souvent par des échecs. Le seul test sérologique approuvé officiellement est la fixation du complément, mais il peut donner de fausses réactions positives dans les parties du monde où les chevaux peuvent être infestés par Trypanosoma evansi (voir le chapitre 4). D'autres tests sont à l'état expérimental et la situation pourrait changer dans le futur.Synonyme : cervicovaginite (epivag, infectious epididymitis, cervicovaginitis).Maladie vénérienne chronique des bovins, peu répandue, probablement d'origine virale.L'épididymite infectieuse est présente en Afrique de l'Est et en Afrique australe (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Chez les taureaux, cette maladie entraîne tout d'abord une diminution de la quantité et de la qualité du sperme. En l'espace de plusieurs mois, les testicules s'hypertrophient et se déforment, entraînant une stérilité définitive.Chez les femelles, les signes cliniques vont d'un léger rougissement du vagin à une inflammation sévère de la muqueuse du vagin, du col de l'utérus et de l'utérus, accompagnée d'un écoulement abondant épais et jaunâtre. La plupart des vaches atteintes guérissent spontanément après quelques mois, mais certaines deviennent définitivement stériles.Cette maladie est transmise lors de la saillie ou par le biais d'instruments obstétricaux contaminés, etc. Traitement L'agent responsable de l'épididymite infectieuse est probablement un herpès virus. Le traitement des taureaux est inutile, mais les vaches peuvent recevoir un traitement symptomatique sous surveillance vétérinaire.Le bétail autochtone d'Afrique de l'Est et d'Afrique australe présente un niveau de résistance élevé et manifeste rarement de signes cliniques lorsqu'il est infecté. Les animaux importés d'autres pays sont, en revanche, très réceptifs et sensibles ; chez ces animaux, la maladie peut être contrôlée en ayant recours à l'insémination artificielle et en utilisant la semence provenant de taureaux certifiés indemnes. Les taureaux infectés doivent être abattus.L'épididymite infectieuse constituait autrefois un problème majeur pour les animaux améliorés ou exotiques, mais l'utilisation largement répandue de l'insémination artificielle a entraîné sa quasi-disparition.Il ne faut pas la confondre avec l'épididymite infectieuse ou contagieuse du bélier, due à Brucella ovis, qui a une grande importance économique, mais une tout autre étiologie (voir le chapitre 1, Les brucelloses).Maladie vénérienne des bovins causée par le protozoaire flagellé Tritrichomonas foetus (anciennement Trichomonas foetus).La trichomonose (trichomonosis) est présente dans le monde entier.Chez les bovins, T. foetus n'infecte que l'appareil génital. Les mâles ne présentent qu'une légère inflammation des muqueuses du pénis et du fourreau, mais demeurent infectés pour le restant de leur vie.Les conséquences sont plus graves chez les femelles. Un rougissement modéré du vagin (vaginite) peut être observé après une saillie contaminante, mais les principaux effets de la maladie n'apparaissent que 2 mois plus tard. L'agent pathogène infecte la plus grande partie de l'appareil reproducteur et provoque une inflammation sévère à l'origine d'avortements précoces (foetus de 2 à 4 mois) et parfois une accumulation de pus dans l'utérus (pyomètre). Les avortements passent souvent inaperçus. L'éleveur est généralement alerté par l'infertilité et les retours en chaleurs tardifs survenant 4 à 5 mois après l'infection. Les Tritrichomonas sont éliminés en l'espace de 6 mois et l'utérus retrouve son état normal. Les cas de pyomètre peuvent néanmoins persister beaucoup plus longtemps sans que l'animal n'extériorise des chaleurs. Les femelles ayant été infectées restent réceptives aux réinfections.L'infection survient généralement à l'occasion de la saillie, mais peut également se produire lors d'une insémination artificielle à partir de semence issue d'un taureau infecté, ou lors de manipulations effectuées avec des instruments obstétricaux contaminés, des mains souillées, etc.La guérison des femelles est généralement spontanée. Le traitement n'est donc pas indispensable. En ce qui concerne les taureaux, divers traitements ont été mis à l'essai avec des résultats variés. Les traitements locaux par lavage du fourreau et du pénis ont été abandonnés en faveur de médicaments antiprotozoaires administrés par voie orale ou par injection. Certaines de ces préparations ont cependant des effets secondaires et nécessitent impérativement une surveillance vétérinaire.Dans les troupeaux indemnes, la trichomonose peut être contrôlée en n'utilisant pour la reproduction que des animaux non infectés ou en ayant recours à l'insémination artificielle avec de la semence provenant de taureaux certifiés indemnes.Dans les troupeaux à reproduction naturelle, où sévit la maladie, la lutte s'appuie essentiellement sur le dépistage des animaux infectés à l'aide de tests de diagnostic réalisés à partir de lavages vaginaux et de prélèvements de muqueuse du fourreau. Les femelles infectées doivent absolument être écartées de la reproduction pendant quelques mois, le temps qu'elles guérissent, tandis que les mâles peuvent être soit traités, soit exclus de l'élevage. De telles mesures ne sont applicables que dans des troupeaux correctement gérés ou isolés de l'extérieur. Dans les systèmes d'élevage extensifs sur parcours, un compromis consiste à n'utiliser que des taureaux non infectés, âgés de moins de 4 ans. En effet, les taureaux plus âgés ont plus de chances d'être infectés et de constituer un facteur de persistance de la maladie dans le troupeau.Les mesures de lutte décrites ci-dessus ont permis la quasi-disparition de la trichomonose chez les bovins conduits en systèmes intensifs. Cette maladie doit néanmoins être suspectée lorsque l'on observe dans un troupeau des cas d'infécondité et d'avortements occasionnels. L'analyse du problème et la conception du programme de lutte sont alors du ressort du seul vétérinaire.Synonymes : exanthème coïtal, balanoposthite pustulaire infectieuse (infectious pustular vulvo-vaginitis, IPV, IPV-IBR, coital exanthema).Maladie vénérienne des bovins et des buffles domestiques dont l'agent responsable est un herpès virus étroitement apparenté à celui de la rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine (voir plus loin, dans ce chapitre).L'exanthème coïtal existe dans le monde entier.Chez les femelles, le vagin devient douloureux, enflammé et se couvre de petites pustules qui peuvent fusionner, s'ulcérer et exsuder un écoulement jaunâtre. Des lésions semblables apparaissent dans le fourreau et sur l'extrémité du pénis des taureaux, qui refuse alors la monte (balanoposthite).Ces symptômes durent quelques jours et s'accompagnent d'une augmentation de la température corporelle et d'une perte d'appétit. La guérison complète intervient en l'espace d'environ 2 semaines, mais les animaux restent infectés et peuvent rechuter ultérieurement à la faveur d'un stress. Chez certains taureaux, des adhérences au niveau de l'appareil génital externe peuvent entraîner une incapacité définitive à la monte.Cette maladie se transmet habituellement lors de la saillie, mais parfois à l'occasion d'une insémination artificielle, lorsque la semence utilisée est infectée. L'exsudat vulvovaginal, l'exsudat prépucial, le sperme et l'urine peuvent être infectieux.Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique, mais les animaux peuvent bénéficier d'un traitement symptomatique.Les animaux atteints doivent être écartés de la reproduction jusqu'à ce qu'ils soient guéris. Les taureaux utilisés en insémination artificielle doivent être indemnes et provenir d'élevages indemnes.Les cas d'infection par ce virus semblent répandus mais la maladie en elle-même est rarement signalée, sans doute du fait que les animaux malades se rétablissent rapidement et complètement par eux-mêmes.||◗ La maladie de la frontière Synonymes : hypomyélogenèse du mouton, myoclonie congénitale, tremblement congénital (border disease, BD, hairy shaker disease, congenital trembles, fuzzy lambs).Maladie congénitale des agneaux surtout due à l'infection des brebis en gestation par un pestivirus, le BVD (border disease virus).La maladie de la frontière est officiellement signalée en Océanie, en Amérique du Nord et en Europe ; sa répartition est probablement mondiale (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Chez les brebis, l'infection entraîne une placentite (inflammation du placenta et des membranes foetales) dont l'impact sur la gestation dépend de sa sévérité et du stade de développement de l'embryon ou du foetus. Lorsque l'infection survient en début de gestation, elle détermine la mort puis la résorption de l'embryon, ce qui se traduit dans la pratique par une infécondité de la mère. Une infection à un stade plus tardif débouche généralement sur un avortement, sauf si la placentite est moins étendue, auquel cas le foetus peut survivre en dépit d'atteintes virales au niveau de sa peau et son système nerveux central. Dans ce cas, la naissance est prématurée et le nouveau-né présente un pelage pigmenté et piqué, des mouvements saccadés et de forts tremblements musculaires, dus à des anomalies du système nerveux (hypomyélogenèse congénitale). En outre, ces agneaux sont généralement de taille inférieure à la normale et souffrent parfois de malformations du squelette.Les agneaux atteints éprouvent des difficultés à téter, sont chétifs, et la plupart meurent rapidement ; il arrive toutefois que certains, bien soignés, survivent. Certains agneaux infectés in utero ne présentent aucun symptôme particulier à la naissance et sont porteurs sains du virus.Le plus souvent, le virus se propage au sein d'une population ovine sans provoquer ces signes cliniques. Ce n'est que lorsqu'une brebis en gestation depuis moins de 3 mois est infectée pour la première fois que les symptômes se manifestent chez l'agneau. Les agneaux qui survivent demeurent infectés et peuvent transmettre l'infection à leur tour à d'autres ovins placés à leur contact. Les femelles infectées atteignant l'âge de se reproduire avortent ou produisent des agneaux malades (poils piqués, tremblements caractéristiques). Les mâles transmettent le virus par leur sperme.Lorsque la brebis est infectée pour la première fois alors qu'il lui reste moins de 2 mois de gestation, le système immunitaire du foetus est alors suffisamment développé pour produire des anticorps contre le virus et l'agneau naît normalement constitué et non infecté.Il n'existe pas de traitement.Il n'existe aucun vaccin contre la maladie de la frontière. En outre, elle devient très difficile à combattre une fois installée dans un troupeau.Les futurs reproducteurs encore immatures doivent être mis au contact d'agneaux ayant survécu à la maladie afin qu'ils contractent le virus avant leur mise à la reproduction, à un moment où l'infection n'a pas de conséquences. L'éradication ne peut être obtenue que par une politique d'abattage systématique. Lorsque le troupeau est indemne, tout animal de renouvellement doit subir un test sanguin pour s'assurer qu'il ne porte pas le virus.Le nom usuel de cette maladie fait référence à la frontière entre l'Angleterre et le Pays de Galles, où cette maladie a été décrite pour la première fois. Elle est maintenant reconnue présente dans la plupart des grands pays d'élevage ovin et peut infliger de lourdes pertes économiques. Elle est probablement présente mais n'est pratiquement jamais signalée dans les pays en voie de développement, probablement faute de pouvoir être diagnostiquée. Cette maladie devrait toujours être évoquée lorsque l'on observe une succession d'infécondités, d'avortements et d'agneaux présentant un poil piqué et des tremblements.Synonyme : entérite à virus bovine (mucosal disease, bovine virus diarrhoea/mucosal disease, BVD-MD).Maladie à pestivirus (BVDV, bovine virus diarrhoea virus) des jeunes bovins transmise par la mère pendant la gestation.La maladie des muqueuses peut survenir dans le monde entier.La maladie des muqueuses est sporadique mais souvent mortelle alors que la diarrhée virale bovine est peu mortelle mais a une forte morbidité. La maladie se manifeste chez les jeunes bovins, généralement âgés de 6 mois à 2 ans. Le virus est à l'origine d'érosions des muqueuses sur toute la longueur du tractus digestif et produit des symptômes identiques à ceux de la peste bovine : fièvre, apathie, respiration accélérée, lésions dans la bouche et sur le bout du nez et diarrhée nauséabonde contenant des fragments d'intestin, du mucus et du sang. On observe généralement des érosions peu profondes des lèvres, des gencives, du palais, de la langue et du bout du nez, pouvant s'étendre, fusionner et se recouvrir de croûtes et de débris nécrotiques. D'autres symptômes peuvent également apparaître, tels que des écoulements nasaux, un larmoiement excessif et des boiteries dues à l'érosion et à l'inflammation de la peau de l'espace interdigité et du bord supérieur des sabots. Les animaux sont très abattus et déshydratés, et meurent le plus souvent en l'espace d'une semaine environ. Certains individus voient leur état se dégrader pendant plusieurs semaines, voire plusieurs mois, avant l'issue fatale.L'épidémiologie de cette maladie est complexe et encore incomplètement comprise, mais il est évident que le virus responsable est répandu chez les bovins. Lorsque l'infection survient en dehors de la période de gestation, elle détermine une maladie aiguë mais bénigne et souvent peu apparente avec comme seuls symptômes une diarrhée accompagnée d'une fièvre modérée (la diarrhée virale des bovins). Les animaux atteints guérissent en quelques jours, développent des anticorps contre le virus et se débarrassent spontanément de l'infection.Toutefois, lorsqu'une femelle est infectée pour la première fois pendant la gestation, le virus franchit la barrière placentaire et gagne l'embryon ou le foetus. Les conséquences dépendent du stade de développement de ce dernier au moment de l'infection.Avant le 125 e jour de gestation, la vache donne naissance à un veau qui restera infecté toute sa vie. Le système immunitaire du veau ne reconnaît pas le virus comme élément étranger et ne produit pas d'anticorps à son encontre. La moitié environ de ces veaux développent la maladie des muqueuses avant l'âge de 2 ans à la suite d'une surinfection par une souche virulente, étroitement apparentée à celle responsable de la primo-infection in utero. Cette surinfection n'est pas combattue par le système immunitaire et entraîne la symptomatologie classiquement décrite dans maladie des muqueuses. Toutefois, ces veaux dépourvus d'anticorps ne manifestent pas tous la maladie : certains restent simplement chétifs tandis que d'autres n'extériorisent aucun signe clinique et donnent à leur tour naissance à une progéniture portant l'infection de manière permanente.Entre le 125 e et le 180 e jour, l'infection de la mère se traduit chez le foetus par des malformations du cerveau et des yeux : le veau qui naît est incapable de marcher ou de se tenir sur ses membres et souffre d'une cécité plus ou moins prononcée. Il n'existe pas de traitement.Dans un troupeau où sévit la maladie des muqueuses, trois catégories d'animaux peuvent coexister : -des animaux possédant des anticorps contre le virus mais qui ne sont plus infectés ; -des animaux non infectés, qui ne l'ont jamais été, et qui ne produisent donc pas d'anticorps contre le virus ; -des animaux infectés à vie (infecté permanent immunotolérant, infecté in utero) et sans anticorps contre le virus.Cette dernière catégorie constitue la principale source d'infection ; dans le cadre d'un programme de lutte contre la maladie des muqueuses, il peut être indiqué de les éliminer s'ils ne sont pas trop nombreux. Ils peuvent être identifiés à l'aide de tests permettant de mettre en évidence la présence d'antigène viral.Les autres mesures de lutte seront axées sur les femelles reproductrices, qui sont de fait les seuls animaux à risque. Des vaccins atténués et inactivés existent et les femelles reproductrices devraient être vaccinées au moins 3 semaines avant leur présentation au mâle pour veiller à ce qu'elles soient immunisées avant le début de la gestation. Les vaccins atténués, vivants, sont plus efficaces mais peuvent éventuellement franchir la barrière placentaire et entraîner la maladie chez le foetus s'ils sont utilisés chez des femelles en gestation. Si les vaccins inactivés sont plus sûrs de ce point de vue, ils nécessitent toutefois deux injections espacées d'environ quinze jours.La maladie des muqueuses n'est qu'une manifestation parmi d'autres associées à une maladie complexe. Heureusement, malgré le caractère ubiquiste de ce virus, seule une faible proportion des animaux est infectée pour la première fois pendant la première moitié d'une gestation, et seuls la moitié des veaux infectés de la sorte développe la maladie. Cette dernière se manifeste donc sous la forme d'une maladie sporadique mais fatale dont beaucoup d'éleveurs préfèrent tolérer les pertes plutôt que s'engager dans un programme de lutte coûteux et complexe nécessitant une surveillance vétérinaire.Bien que sa répartition mondiale soit connue, il est possible qu'elle soit présente dans certains pays sans y avoir été détectée. Aussi doit-on toujours penser à la maladie des muqueuses lorsque l'on se trouve face à une succession de cas d'avortements occasionnels, de malformations congénitales, de veaux chétifs et de cas cliniques aux symptômes identiques à ceux décrits dans cette section. Le pestivirus à l'origine de cette maladie est étroitement apparenté à celui responsable de la maladie de la frontière chez les ovins.Il est important de souligner le risque de confusion entre la peste bovine et la maladie des muqueuses, du fait de la grande ressemblance dans leur expression symptomatique, avec des conséquences graves en terme d'extension de l'épidémie.Maladie respiratoire et génitale des bovins et des buffles dont l'agent est un herpès virus (voir aussi la vulvovaginite infectieuse pustuleuse).La rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, IBR, red nose, bovid herpesvirus-1 infection) existe dans le monde entier, mais elle est surtout reconnue en Amérique du Nord, en Europe, en Océanie et en Afrique australe.Si les animaux de tous âges sont réceptifs, la maladie est surtout observée chez les bovins à partir de l'âge de 6 mois. L'incubation dure 2 à 4 jours. Le virus entraîne une inflammation des voies respiratoires supérieures, depuis les muqueuses nasales jusqu'à la trachée.Les formes bénignes se traduisent par une fièvre peu élevée accompagnée d'une inflammation des muqueuses nasales (rhinite) et de la surface de l'oeil (conjonctivite avec larmoiement). Les animaux guérissent spontanément en quelques jours. Chez les animaux plus gravement atteints, l'inflammation s'étend jusqu'à la trachée (toux), la fièvre est plus marquée et des écoulements épais sont produits au niveau des yeux et des naseaux. Ces animaux contractent souvent des surinfections bactériennes susceptibles d'entraîner des pneumonies.Chez les femelles en gestation, l'infection peut se traduire par des avortements, généralement vers le 6 e mois. Lors de l'expulsion, l'avorton est souvent mort depuis plusieurs jours et montre des signes de décomposition. Lorsque l'infection survient pendant la dernière phase de la gestation, le veau peut naître vivant mais développe généralement une forme grave et généralisée de la maladie, qui touche le cerveau, les systèmes digestif et respiratoire, le foie et les reins. La plupart de ces veaux meurent peu après leur naissance.Les seules sources d'infection sont les matières issues des avortements et les écoulements que produisent les animaux infectés. Les particules virales émises dans les écoulements oculaires et nasaux sont transmises sous forme d'aérosols aux animaux réceptifs présents dans le voisinage immédiat. Le sperme des taureaux infectés contient également le virus et peut infecter les femelles reproductrices au moment des accouplements.Il est important de souligner que les animaux ayant souffert de la rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine portent le virus à vie et peuvent manifester des rechutes à l'occasion d'un stress. Aussi, tous les animaux rétablis après une première infection doivent être considérés comme des sources d'infection potentielles.Du fait du risque de surinfection bactérienne, les cas cliniques doivent recevoir un traitement à base d'antibiotiques à large spectre.Les animaux atteints seront isolés des autres. La plupart des animaux guérissent spontanément, et l'antibiothérapie devrait permettre de limiter les pertes dues à cette maladie respiratoire. L'essentiel de ces pertes provient des avortements et des veaux malades. La vaccination des animaux reproducteurs peut être envisagée : des vaccins atténués existent, à injecter par voie intramusculaire ou à administrer par voie intranasale, cette dernière pouvant être utilisée sans danger chez les femelles en gestation. Les taureaux utilisés en insémination artificielle doivent être indemnes et provenir d'élevages indemnes.Il existe aujourd'hui des vaccins marqués qui permettent de distinguer les animaux infectés (par des souches sauvages) des animaux vaccinés ; l'évolution de la propagation de la maladie dans les troupeaux peut ainsi être suivie.La rhinotrachéite infectieuse bovine est rarement problématique dans le cadre d'élevages extensifs, mais il peut en être autrement lorsque les animaux sont confinés dans un espace restreint. La forme respiratoire est commune dans les ateliers d'engraissement de bovins de boucherie (feedlots) tandis que les pertes dues aux avortements et aux nouveaunés malades tendent à être plus importantes dans les unités laitières. Dans le cas où un programme de lutte contre cette maladie serait à envisager, il convient de rechercher en tout premier lieu l'assistance d'un vétérinaire concernant les types de vaccin à utiliser, les traitements, la gestion des cas cliniques et celle des animaux de renouvellement provenant de l'extérieur.Le virus est répandu chez les ruminants domestiques et sauvages du monde entier, et la maladie qu'il provoque est susceptible de se manifester partout où des bovins sont conduits dans des conditions d'élevage intensif. La maladie peut également survenir chez les buffles domestiques.Les arthropodes (Arthropoda) comprennent les mouches, les moustiques, les poux, les puces, les tiques et les acariens des gales ; beaucoup sont des parasites de la peau des animaux domestiques (parasites externes ou ectoparasites). Bon nombre n'occasionnent guère plus qu'une simple gêne, mais certains sont à l'origine de démangeaisons intenses et occasionnent des lésions importantes tandis que d'autres sont vecteurs de maladies. Les arthropodes d'importance vétérinaire se divisent en deux grandes catégories.Les insectes ou Insecta (mouches, moucherons, moustiques, poux et puces) -Ces invertébrés possèdent une tête, un thorax, un abdomen et trois paires de pattes insérées sur le thorax ; beaucoup ont également des ailes et peuvent voler. Leur développement comporte plusieurs étapes appelées stades, stases ou intermues. Après l'accouplement, les femelles adultes pondent des oeufs qui éclosent en donnant naissance à des larves. Ainsi les asticots sont-ils les larves des mouches qui peuvent passer par plusieurs stades larvaires avant de finalement se métamorphoser en nymphes (on parle de pupes) d'où émergent les mouches adultes. Certaines espèces donnent directement naissance à des larves au lieu de pondre des oeufs (espèces vivipares).Les acariens ou Acarina (tiques et acariens des gales) -Contrairement aux insectes, les adultes possèdent quatre paires de pattes. Leur corps est divisé en une partie antérieure comportant les pièces buccales (le gnathosoma) et une partie postérieure (l'idiosoma) englobant tout le reste du corps et portant les pattes. Comme les insectes, les femelles adultes pondent des oeufs d'où sortent des larves semblables à des adultes en miniature, à ceci près qu'elles ne possèdent que trois paires de pattes. Les larves se métamorphosent en nymphes, à quatre paires de pattes, qui se transforment à leur tour en adultes. Les acariens ne possèdent jamais d'ailes et aucun ne peut voler.Les régions intertropicales sont souvent favorables aux arthropodes et ces derniers (ainsi que les maladies qu'ils transmettent) y prennent généralement plus d'importance que dans les régions tempérées. Les principales maladies transmises par des arthropodes sont traitées au chapitre 4. Les mouches, moucherons et moustiques piqueurs et harceleurs attaquent l'homme et les animaux domestiques pour se nourrir de leur sang, ce qui constitue une source d'irritation et de gêne. En outre, un certain nombre de ces espèces sont susceptibles de transmettre des agents pathogènes responsables de maladies importantes. A l'exception des mouches tsé-tsé (ou glossines), qui sont confinées à l'Afrique subsaharienne, les insectes piqueurs sont répandus dans le monde entier. Quelques espèces parmi les plus courantes sont présentées dans le tableau 3.1 et les figures 3.1 et 3.2. D'autres espèces sont particulièrement nuisibles par l'importance des démangeaisons qu'elles occasionnent. Les moustiques transmettent des maladies importantes : le paludisme, des filarioses, la dengue, la fièvre jaune chez l'homme, la myxomatose des lapins, la fièvre de la vallée du Rift, le virus West Nile, des encéphalites à virus, etc. Les femelles sont hématophages. Leur activité est surtout nocturne.Les mouches à myiases pondent leurs oeufs sur les animaux domestiques, et les asticots qui éclosent s'enfoncent dans la peau ou s'introduisent dans des plaies ou dans les orifices naturels. L'invasion des tissus par ces larves de mouches entraîne des lésions appelées myiases qui peuvent devenir importantes. Quelques-unes des principales espèces de mouches à myiases figurent dans le tableau 3.     Les larves se nourrissent à l'intérieur de la plaie pendant une durée allant jusqu'à 10 jours, muent deux fois avant de parvenir au dernier stade larvaire. Elles se laissent alors tomber au sol, où elles entrent en nymphose sous forme de pupes pendant quelques jours, à l'issue desquels émergent les mouches adultes. Des vagues successives de pontes de calliphoridés et d'autres espèces de mouches peuvent toutefois étendre la durée de la myiase sur bien plus d'une dizaine de jours. L'oestre du mouton (Oestrus ovis) -Les femelles adultes projettent dans les narines des ovins, ou plus rarement des caprins, un liquide contenant leurs larves. Celles-ci migrent dans les sinus de l'hôte où elles achèvent leur développement. Dans bien des régions du monde ces mouches sont l'une des premières causes d'éternuements et de jetage nasal ; les infestations importantes peuvent même être à l'origine de chétivité. Les femelles adultes constituent en outre une source de stress intense pour les animaux qu'elles harcèlent afin de déposer leurs larves.La mouche des naseaux des chameaux -Les stades larvaires de cette espèce (Cephalopina titillator) occupent les naseaux et les cavités nasales de leurs hôtes, provoquant ainsi des éternuements.Lorsque les myiases deviennent trop débilitantes, le premier objectif devrait être de lutter contre les mouches (voir la prochaine section).Les cas cliniques graves pourront toutefois exiger un traitement dont les grandes lignes sont précisées ci-dessous.Dans le cas de myiases à calliphoridés, y compris celles à Chrysomyia/Cochliomya, le pelage du pourtour des lésions sera tout d'abord tondu et lavé, les larves si possible retirées et détruites et les lésions traitées avec une poudre ou une crème insecticide. Les larves profondément enfoncées dans les tissus, parfois difficiles à extraire, seront éliminées alors qu'elles tenteront de s'échapper de la lésion après que celle-ci aura été généreusement imbibée de produit insecticide. En fonction de leur gravité, les éventuelles surinfections bactériennes de la plaie pourront nécessiter un traitement antibiotique.Les bovins atteints de myiases à ver macaque et à hypodermes seront soignés à l'aide d'un insecticide à action générale (tel que l'ivermectine) afin de tuer les larves avant leur émergence. Le traitement pourra être administré à n'importe quel moment de préférence au printemps ou en automne en Europe mais pas entre décembre et mars pour ce qui est des hypodermes : en effet, tuer les larves à ce stade, alors qu'elles peuvent être en train de migrer à travers l'oesophage ou le canal rachidien, peut induire des complications graves. Des mesures préventives à l'encontre des insectes transporteurs du ver macaque pourront également s'avérer utiles.Les larves des oestres du mouton ne constituent le plus souvent qu'une gêne mineure qu'il n'y pas toujours lieu de traiter. Toutefois, les infestations importantes sont susceptibles de provoquer des éternuements incessants, des écoulements nasaux, voire même une dégradation de l'état général : dans ce cas, un traitement à base de rafoxanide, closantel, nitroxynide ou ivermectine se révèlera efficace. Bien qu'aucune information ne soit disponible sur le sujet, il est vraisemblable qu'une démarche similaire puisse être employée contre la mouche des naseaux des chameaux.Plusieurs méthodes existent qui peuvent être classées en trois grandes catégories en fonction de l'objet de leur action : la prévention de la reproduction, la prévention des attaques sur les animaux et la destruction des insectes dans les milieux où ils se trouvent.Lutte contre la reproduction des mouches -Certaines espèces, telles que la mouche domestique, les stomoxes, les taons et les mouches des cornes, pondent leurs oeufs dans de la matière organique (excréments, litière, aliments en putréfaction, etc.). Une hygiène scrupuleuse dans et autour des installations d'élevage permet de réduire considérablement leurs possibilités de reproduction. Le compostage de ces matières organiques est recommandé dans la mesure où la température à laquelle s'effectue la fermentation détruit bon nombre des larves de mouches.Il est également possible de construire des fosses à lisier ou de recouvrir les tas de fumier, exposés au soleil, d'une bâche noire. Il est également possible de pulvériser un insecticide sur ces tas de compost, mais c'est polluant ! Les cadavres, qui constituent un lieu de ponte privilégié pour les calliphoridés, doivent être incinérés ou enterrés.Les simulies, les moucherons culicoïdes, les moustiques et les taons pondent leurs oeufs dans les milieux humides ou aquatiques, qui peuvent parfois être traités par pulvérisation d'une solution insecticide, par un drainage du site ou par la lutte biologique. Ce type de démarche nécessite toutefois des connaissances entomologiques approfondies et peut ne pas être justifié pour des raisons de coût, de possibilités de mise en oeuvre, etc.Les calliphoridés sont attirés par les zones de pelage souillées et les plaies cutanées. Aussi une prévention des helminthoses, une cause fréquente de diarrhées, peut-elle contribuer à réduire ce risque.De même, les blessures et autres lésions cutanées devront-elles être soignées sans délai.Prévention des attaques -De nombreux moyens existent ; quelquesuns sont brièvement décrits ci-dessous.Bains et pulvérisations : des insecticides peuvent être appliqués sur le pelage et la peau des animaux, soit par des bains insecticides, soit par divers moyens de pulvérisation.Plaquettes auriculaires, colliers, bandes, applications sur le dos (pour-ons) ou transcutanés (spot-ons) : des insecticides, habituellement des pyréthrinoïdes de synthèse, peuvent être incorporés dans des plaquettes ou des colliers en plastique à partir desquels ils diffusent lentement et se répandent sur la peau, agissant sur les insectes piqueurs pour une durée pouvant aller jusqu'à plusieurs mois. Un effet similaire est obtenu à l'aide de préparations destinées à être déversées sur une large surface (les pour-ons) ou appliquées sur une zone particulière (les spot-ons).Moustiquaires : si nécessaire, les animaux peuvent être maintenus à l'intérieur de bâtiments dont les ouvertures seront protégées par des moustiquaires afin d'empêcher le passage des insectes. Comme les moustiquaires très fines utilisées contre les moucherons sont susceptibles de freiner le passage de l'air, elles peuvent être remplacées par des moustiquaires à mailles plus larges imprégnées d'insecticide.Grattes-dos et autres « autoapplicateurs » : des objets divers recouverts d'un insecticide, sous forme de poudre ou de préparation grasse, sont placés dans des endroits stratégiques afin que les animaux s'y frottent en passant et s'en imprègnent le pelage, se protégeant ainsi des attaques des insectes. Une récapitulation détaillée des moyens de lutte contre les diptères piqueurs, harceleurs, responsables de myiases ou vecteurs de maladies dépasserait le champ de cet ouvrage. Les principaux produits chimiques (insecticides) employés contre ces insectes sont présentés dans le tableau 3.3.Les poux, ou phtiraptères (Phtiraptera), sont des insectes aptères (dépourvus d'ailes), aplatis dorsoventralement, qui vivent sur la peau de leurs hôtes. Mesurant entre 1,5 et 5 mm de longueur, ils sont beaucoup plus petits que des mouches mais restent cependant visibles à l'oeil nu ; il suffit d'écarter les poils ou la laine pour les voir se déplacer à la surface de la peau. Leurs oeufs, appelés lentes, ressemblent à des grains de poussière granuleuse adhérant aux poils. Les poux se divisent en espèces piqueuses (anoploures) et espèces broyeuses (mallophages). Les premières se nourrissent de sang, qu'elles prélèvent en perçant la peau au moyen de leurs pièces buccales, tandis que les secondes consomment diverses particules issues de la desquamation de la peau et des croûtes, ainsi que les couches externes des poils, de la laine et des plumes. Les poux piqueurs ne parasitent que les mammifères, tandis que les poux broyeurs se trouvent sur les mammifères et les oiseaux.133Premier acaricide ; utilisé dans les bains sous forme d'anhydride arsénieux (ou arsenic blanc), soluble dans l'eau ; n'est plus employé pour des raisons de toxicité et de résistance.Substances généralement stables avec un bon effet résiduel bien que beaucoup de populations de tiques aient développé une résistance à leur encontre ; emploi interrompu dans de nombreux pays du fait de leur persistance dans l'environnement et de résidus dans la viande et le lait.Employé dans diverses préparations contre tous les parasites cutanés (ancien).Employé dans des bains contre les tiques et les acariens des gales (ancien).Employée pour la pulvérisation au sol des habitats de mouches tsé-tsé, mais extrêmement polluant à cause de sa persistance importante dans l'environnement et l'organisme animal.DDT (dichlorodiphényltrichloréthane)Auparavant largement utilisé mais maintenant abandonné du fait de sa persistance dans les graisses des animaux et dans l'environnement ; était employé pour les pulvérisations des habitats de mouches tsé-tsé et contre les moustiques.Pulvérisation aérienne des habitats de mouches tsé-tsé ; pas de persistance dans l'environnement.Leur mise au point fut stimulée par les résistances aux organochlorés ; beaucoup sont toujours disponibles mais les résistances sont un problème grave chez les tiques ; employés en bains, pulvérisations, pour-ons, poudrages, etc. contre tous types d'arthropodes ; persistance peu importante dans l'environnement ; degré de toxicité variable.Les pyréthrines naturelles de plante ont été utilisées depuis longtemps comme insecticide, mais bien que sans danger pour les animaux et très effi caces, elles sont instables à la lumière ; des pyréthrinoïdes de synthèse photostables sont désormais disponibles et très employés ; leur toxicité pour les mammifères est faible, leur persistance dans l'environnement limitée, mais leur effet résiduel est suffi sant pour une bonne performance en application contre les arthropodes de la peau. Malheureusement, de nombreuses souches de tiques sont déjà résistantes.  d'autant plus que certaines espèces sont susceptibles de transmettre des maladies telles que le ténia chez les chiens et la peste bubonique chez l'homme. Ces insectes parasites peuvent également infester les ruminants en stabulation -ce qui peut se traduire par de sévères anémies chez les caprins -mais ils évitent généralement les bovins et les équidés adultes.Dans beaucoup de pays tropicaux, les porcs et les pieds des humains sont souvent infestés de puces-chiques ou puces pénétrantes (Tunga penetrans), qui s'introduisent sous la peau et se dilatent comme un pois. Par ailleurs, les femelles d'une espèce de puce des volailles (Echidnophaga gallinacea) se fixent pendant plusieurs semaines sur la tête de l'hôte.Les tiques, ou Ixodoidea, constituent un groupe de parasites externes de toute première importance. Elles sont vectrices de plusieurs maladies graves et peuvent provoquer d'importantes pertes directes chez les animaux domestiques : diminution de la croissance et de la production laitière, blessures pouvant être secondairement infectées par des bactéries, pertes de quartiers, dépréciation des peaux. Une tique est divisée en une partie antérieure portant les pièces buccales (le gnathostome) et le reste du corps, l'idiosome, qui porte les pattes (trois paires chez les larves et quatre paires chez les nymphes et les adultes). Ses pièces buccales lui permettent de s'ancrer dans la peau et de sucer le sang de l'hôte. Il y a deux catégories de tiques, les tiques dures et les tiques molles.Les tiques dures, ou Ixodidae, sont de forme générale ovale, les pièces buccales dépassant à l'avant. Elles sont aplaties dorsoventralement à jeun, la face dorsale portant une carapace dure appelée scutum ou écusson dorsal. Celui-ci recouvre la totalité de la face dorsale des mâles, mais (avant de se gorger) seulement environ un tiers chez les femelles, les nymphes et les larves, permettant à l'idiosome de se distendre avec le sang absorbé lors des repas.Le diagramme de la figure 3.5 récapitule le cycle évolutif des tiques dures. Chaque stade du développement ne prend qu'un seul repas sur son hôte, repas qui dure environ une semaine. En fonction des espèces, ces repas peuvent être pris sur 1, 2 ou 3 hôtes différents. Il est évident que les risques de ne pas trouver un hôte sont 3 fois plus grands pour les espèces qui se nourrissent sur 3 hôtes, que pour celles qui n'infestent qu'un seul hôte, les risques pour les tiques à 2 hôtes étant intermédiaires.         La gale peut se manifester partout où des animaux domestiques sont présents. Elle doit être suspectée en cas de problème de peau, surtout si les lésions donnent lieu à des démangeaisons, des grattages, des frottements, des morsures, etc.Ces petits acariens ne sont pas visibles à l'oeil nu et le diagnostic ne peut être confirmé qu'en soumettant à un laboratoire des fragments de lésions prélevés par grattage. De manière générale, les fragments à analyser doivent provenir du pourtour des lésions et doivent être expédiés dans des récipients hermétiques propres et secs.Il n'y a pas de procédés pratiques pour lutter contre les oribates présents dans les zones de pâturage. Le labour pourrait contribuer à en réduire le nombre, tandis que les infestations de ténias pourraient être diminuées en empêchant pendant toute une année les ruminants d'aller paître dans les secteurs reconnus infestés. La kératoconjonctivite infectieuse (infectious keratoconjunctivitis, pink eye) sévit dans le monde entier.La maladie peut concerner un seul oeil ou les deux yeux. A l'issue d'une période d'incubation de quelques jours, l'oeil devient larmoyant, rouge et enflammé. L'animal cligne des yeux sans cesse et les détourne de la lumière vive. Chez les ovins et les caprins, la maladie ne progresse en général pas plus et les animaux guérissent spontanément en l'espace d'environ une semaine. Chez les bovins, en revanche, l'infection se poursuit avec l'apparition d'une tache opaque au centre de la cornée, qui évolue en quelques jours jusqu'à intéresser l'ensemble de l'organe (kératite). Celui-ci prend alors une couleur jaunâtre opaque et perd temporairement sa fonction visuelle. A ce stade, un ulcère déprimé s'est habituellement développé au centre de l'oeil. L'évolution s'oriente alors vers la guérison pour la plupart des animaux, l'oeil se rétablissant complètement en l'espace d'un mois environ. Une petite cicatrice subsiste parfois à l'emplacement du centre de la lésion. Dans quelques rares cas, l'ulcère progresse au point de rompre la cornée et d'entraîner une cécité permanente.La maladie observée chez les ovins et les caprins, d'une part, et chez les bovins, d'autre part, n'est pas provoquée par les mêmes agents pathogènes.Il en résulte qu'elle ne se transmet pas entre petits ruminants et bovins. La transmission s'effectue par contact direct et la propagation se révèle particulièrement rapide lorsque les animaux sont en densité telle qu'ils se frottent les uns contre les autres. Chez les bovins, la maladie est également transmise par des mouches, une proportion plus élevée d'animaux étant affectée lorsque ces insectes sont nombreux, surtout lorsque l'atmosphère est chargée de poussière. Aussi l'été et l'automne correspondent-ils au pic d'infection chez les bovins dans certaines régions du monde.Bien que la plupart des animaux atteints guérissent spontanément, mieux vaut les soigner dans la mesure du possible afin de les soulager de cette maladie douloureuse et éprouvante, qui répond d'ailleurs bien à un traitement précoce. Un antibiotique sous forme de pommade ou de poudre sera alors administré dans l'oeil, si possible 2 à 3 fois par jour. Les pommades sont préférables mais sont plus difficiles à utiliser, car elles doivent être appliquées sous la paupière. Les poudres, bien que plus irritantes, sont facilement pulvérisées dans l'oeil. Les injections sousconjonctivales d'antibiotiques sont également efficaces, mais doivent impérativement être réalisées par un vétérinaire.Les densités trop importantes d'animaux doivent être évitées et les individus affectés doivent si possible être écartés du reste du troupeau pendant le traitement. Les parcs et autres locaux d'élevage doivent être tenus propres afin de limiter au maximum les mouches et la poussière.Bien que d'importance mineure, cette maladie ne doit pas être négligée. La moitié des animaux d'un troupeau sont susceptibles d'être affectés au cours d'une flambée épidémique, ce qui leur impose un stress supplémentaire et induit une dégradation temporaire de leur état général. Certains animaux peuvent devenir aveugles.Synonyme : onchocercoses (worm nodule disease, onchorcercosis).Maladies cutanées des bovins, des équidés et des camélidés causées par des filaires, petits vers du genre Onchocerca.Les nodules vermineux peuvent se manifester dans le monde entier.Les symptômes sont très discrets : des nodules ne dépassant pas 3 cm de diamètre apparaissent sous la peau ainsi qu'au niveau interne. Chez les bovins, ces nodules se situent surtout au niveau de la poitrine, de la partie inférieure des membres et des ligaments de l'encolure, tandis qu'ils se rencontrent principalement sur les ligaments du cou et sur la partie inférieure des membres chez les chevaux.Les lésions contiennent des parasites adultes qui libèrent des larves, les microfilaires, dans le sang. Ces microfilaires sont ingérées par les simulies, de petites mouches hématophages noires, et d'autres moucherons, poursuivent leur développement dans ces insectes, puis y deviennent des larves infectieuses qui sont alors transmises à un autre hôte à la faveur d'un repas de sang. Les larves infectieuses migrent ensuite vers les sites de prédilection où elles forment des nodules.Les animaux atteints peuvent être soignés à l'ivermectine.Il est possible d'agir sur les vecteurs en luttant contre les stades larvaires par largage d'insecticide dans les cours d'eau ou pulvérisation aérienne. Cependant les doses utilisées doivent être parfaitement ajustées au débit et un tel programme de lutte est très coûteux. En Afrique de l'Ouest, un programme de lutte de l'OMS pendant plus de 14 ans a permis de lutter efficacement contre le parasite responsable de la cécité des rivières chez l'homme par rupture du cycle parasitaire (traitement des cas et abaissement des densités vectorielles) mais on assiste à une résilience des vecteurs, dont l'absence d'infection fait l'objet de contrôle permanent.L'onchocercose existe dans le monde entier mais elle est surtout commune dans les régions intertropicales. L'infection d'animaux domestiques constitue rarement un véritable problème mais il convient de bien savoir distinguer les nodules vermineux d'autres maladies plus graves, telles que la gale ou la tuberculose cutanée. Les filaires sont facilement reconnaissables dans les biopsies de nodules examinées au microscope et les microfilaires dans des frottis sanguin. Chez l'homme, Onchocerca volvulus est l'agent responsable d'une onchocercose aux conséquences beaucoup plus graves, également connue sous le nom de cécité des rivières. Il est transmis par des simulies.De quoi s'agit-il ? Maladies de l'homme et des animaux dues à des protozoaires parasites du genre Trypanosoma. Se reporter au tableau 4.1 pour les espèces infectant les animaux domestiques.Les trypanosomoses (trypanosomoses) se rencontrent dans l'ensemble des pays tropicaux et subtropicaux de la planète (voir le tableau 4.1 pour plus de détails, et les cartes dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Les trypanosomes se répandent et se multiplient dans le système sanguin. Certaines espèces (notamment T. evansi et T. brucei) envahissent également d'autres tissus de l'organisme, tels que le cerveau, les yeux et la région sous-cutanée.Les trypanosomes sanguins sont la cause d'anémies et d'une dégradation de l'état général. Les premiers signes se manifestent environ 1 ou 2 semaines après l'infection, à savoir, des fièvres récurrentes pouvant durer 3 mois espacées de périodes d'environ 12 jours. Les animaux deviennent de plus en plus anémiques et voient leur état général se dégrader.Dans les races sensibles, chez les survivants de cette première série de fièvres, le nombre de parasites décroît alors progressivement dans la circulation sanguine, mais les animaux restent anémiques et leur état continue de se dégrader. Certains peuvent péricliter ainsi sur de longs mois avant de mourir. Un petit nombre guérissent spontanément.Ces symptômes sont communs à toutes les espèces de Trypanosoma des animaux domestiques, mais des complications se manifestent lorsque T. evansi et T. brucei se répandent dans le cerveau, les yeux et la peau, entraînant respectivement des troubles nerveux, des écoulements oculaires (voir la figure 4.1) et des gonflements oedémateux sous-cutanés.T. simiae est à l'origine d'une maladie très aiguë chez les porcins, qui peuvent mourir moins de 24 heures après l'apparition des premiers signes cliniques. Trypanosomoses des animaux domestiques.+++ Cause une maladie sévère. ++ Cause une maladie modérée. + Cause peu ou pas de maladie.Résistant.-Pas d'information. Trypanosomoses transmises par d'autres vecteurs -T. vivax en Amérique du Sud et en Amérique centrale, en Afrique subsaharienne en l'absence de glossines, ainsi que T. evansi sont transmises par des mouches hématophages telles que les taons et les stomoxes.Les flambées épidémiques sont de ce fait fréquemment saisonnières et prennent place lorsque ces insectes sont particulièrement abondants, notamment pendant la saison des pluies. En Amérique du Sud, la chauve-souris vampire commune (Desmodus rotundus) est également susceptible de transmettre T. evansi aux animaux domestiques. Les carnivores, y compris les chiens, peuvent contracter le parasite en consommant la chair d'animaux infectés.prophylactiques injectées pouvant durer quelques mois, ces traitements sont à même de protéger les animaux pendant les périodes à risque.Les trypanosomoses transmises par les mouches tsé-tsé peuvent être prévenues en se bornant à éviter le contact avec ces insectes : démarcation des zones de pâturage indemnes de mouches tsé-tsé, planification des itinéraires afin d'éviter les zones infestées, abreuvement au puits ou au forage pour éviter les galeries forestières où se réfugient les glossines en saison sèche, transport des animaux dans des camions, etc. Les éleveurs et les gardiens de troupeaux acquièrent souvent des connaissances fines et un savoir-faire considérable pour ce qui est de cette approche pragmatique du problème à l'échelle locale. En dehors de l'Afrique subsaharienne, il y a peu de possibilités de lutter contre les mouches piqueuses vectrices de T. evansi et T. vivax, la maladie est donc combattue en s'appuyant essentiellement sur le recours aux trypanocides à titre préventif et curatif.La trypanosomose à T. evansi est particulièrement grave chez les chameaux ; il est conseillé de séparer les animaux malades des autres afin de limiter les risques de propagation.Les trypanosomoses transmises par les mouches tsé-tsé constituent un ensemble de maladies de tout premier plan des animaux domestiques, et tout particulièrement des bovins, en Afrique subsaharienne. Sur ce continent, les régions de savane sont les principales zones de pâturage du bétail, mais la moitié environ de la superficie couverte par ce type de milieu est infestée de mouches tsé-tsé.  Synonyme : thélazioses (eye worm, thelaziosis).Maladie des yeux des animaux domestiques due à des infestations par des vers ronds (nématodes) du genre Thelazia. La maladie a déjà été observée chez les bovins, les ovins, les chiens, les équidés, les camélidés et les buffles domestiques.La thélaziose est présente dans le monde entier.La thélaziose peut concerner un seul oeil ou les deux yeux. Les vers en cause sont très fins, blancs, d'une taille pouvant atteindre 2 cm et n'entraînent bien souvent aucun signe clinique. Les symptômes, lorsqu'ils se manifestent, se limitent à un larmoiement accompagné, dans les cas graves, d'une inflammation (conjonctivite) et d'une ulcération purulente de la surface de l'oeil (voir la figure 4.2).Les vers sont propagés d'un animal hôte à un autre par les mouches domestiques et d'autres espèces proches, qui avalent leurs larves en se nourrissant sur les écoulements que produisent les yeux infectés. Une fois dans l'organisme de l'insecte, les larves poursuivent leur développement jusqu'au stade infectieux. Elles sont transmises par la bouche de l'insecte au moment d'un repas.La thélaziose peut être traitée à l'aide de lévamisole, par voie orale ou en application locale (sous forme d'un collyre à 1 %). L'ivermectine est également efficace.La présence de thélazias dans les yeux pose rarement problème et par ailleurs la lutte contre les vecteurs n'est guère possible. En cas de doute devant un cas suspect, un vétérinaire pourra être appelé afin d'extraire sous anesthésie locale les vers de l'oeil infesté.Les maladies transmises par les insectes aux ruminants Dans les cas les plus graves, les lésions sont nombreuses au point de fusionner : les plages de peau affectées se desquament alors pour laisser la place à une large plaie ouverte et purulente qui finit par se résorber en laissant une grande cicatrice. Des nodules peuvent en  outre apparaître dans la bouche et au niveau d'un certain nombre d'organes internes, entraînant d'autres symptômes tels qu'une hypersalivation, une détresse respiratoire ou des avortements.Seule une faible proportion des animaux atteints de dermatose nodulaire contagieuse en meurent, mais les individus gravement affectés s'affaiblissent, voient leur état général s'altérer et mettent de longs mois à se rétablir. Il arrive de temps à autre que la maladie acquiert une forme suraiguë au cours de laquelle des nodules se forment dans les voies respiratoires supérieures, entraînant une détresse respiratoire puis la mort en l'espace d'une dizaine de jours. En revanche, dans les cas les moins marqués, les signes cliniques se limitent à quelques nodules cutanés çà et là.La pseudo-dermatose nodulaire est une maladie totalement distincte, sans gravité, qui se manifeste par une fièvre modérée et le développement de nodules cutanés durs et arrondis, d'une taille pouvant atteindre 5 cm de diamètre. La peau qui recouvre ces lésions sèche et pèle facilement, laissant apparaître des petites plages dépilées, qui guérissent complètement et se recouvrent de poils en l'espace de 2 mois. Les lésions peuvent être peu nombreuses ou au contraire recouvrir toute la surface du corps ; les zones les plus fréquemment affectées sont la tête, le cou, le dos et le dessous de la queue.Ces deux maladies sont essentiellement transmises par des insectes piqueurs, et les flambées épidémiques tendent à survenir aux périodes pendant lesquelles ces insectes sont les plus actifs (mois d'été, début de la saison des pluies, etc.).Il n'existe aucun traitement, mais des antibiotiques devraient être utilisés contre les surinfections bactériennes.Dans le cas de la pseudo-dermatose nodulaire, aucune mesure n'est véritablement nécessaire. En revanche, des produits répulsifs pour les insectes seront appliqués sur les animaux souffrant de thélite ulcérative herpétique, les trayons atteints étant par ailleurs abondamment recouverts d'une crème émolliente calmante.Pour ce qui est de la dermatose nodulaire contagieuse, si les insectes vecteurs sont difficiles à combattre, les animaux peuvent être vaccinés à l'aide d'un vaccin atténué. En cas d'épidémie, les individus atteints seront enfermés dans des locaux inaccessibles aux mouches tandis que l'on vaccinera ceux ayant été à leur contact.Ce n'est que parce qu'elle peut être confondue avec la dermatose nodulaire contagieuse, beaucoup plus grave, que la pseudo-dermatose nodulaire mérite d'être décrite ici. La dermatose nodulaire contagieuse est due à un virus étroitement apparenté à celui de la variole du mouton et de la chèvre, avec laquelle elle partage de nombreux points communs. Autrefois confinée à l'Afrique australe, elle a à l'heure actuelle une répartition bien plus vaste, et les épidémies qui surviennent dans des régions auparavant indemnes peuvent se révéler particulièrement graves. Une fois qu'elle est devenue endémique dans une région, elle peut perdre en gravité et devenir relativement bénigne ; toutefois, les pertes économiques liées à la dégradation du cuir justifient parfois un programme de vaccination systématique. Si cette maladie est suspectée ou s'il y a un risque de confusion entre les deux dermatoses, des lésions pourront être excisées -impérativement par un vétérinaire -et envoyées dans des récipients stériles et réfrigérés pour analyse en laboratoire.||◗ La fièvre catarrhale du mouton (bluetongue)Maladie virale des ovins, des caprins et parfois des bovins. Les autorités vétérinaires doivent impérativement être alertées en cas de suspicion de fièvre catarrhale du mouton, à cause du danger que représenterait cette maladie dans une région jusque-là indemne ou du risque encouru par les animaux particulièrement sensibles, tels que ceux de races ovines, caprines et bovines d'origine étrangère.Synonyme : fièvre des 3 jours (ephemeral fever, three-day sickness, stiff sickness).Maladie des bovins et des buffles domestiques due à un rhabdovirus et transmise par des insectes.La fièvre éphémère bovine sévit dans les régions tropicales d'Afrique, d'Asie et d'Australie. Des insectes porteurs du virus, poussés par le vent sur des centaines de kilomètres, ont introduit le virus dans des zones jusque-là indemnes (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Dans la plupart des cas, la maladie est bénigne et dure rarement plus de 3 à 5 jours. Les animaux atteints présentent une fièvre modérée accompagnée de boiteries et de raideurs, puis se rétablissent rapidement.La maladie peut toutefois être plus marquée chez quelques individus, avec forte fièvre, perte d'appétit, écoulements nasaux et oculaires, raideurs, boiteries, tremblements musculaires et tendance à rester couchés. La guérison est néanmoins spontanée et rapide. Il arrive également, mais rarement, que des animaux développent une paralysie et meurent en l'espace de quelques jours. Les femelles en gestation sont susceptibles d'avorter.La fièvre éphémère est propagée par plusieurs espèces de moucherons et de moustiques et les flambées épidémiques surviennent principalement pendant les mois d'été chauds et humides. On considère que des hôtes réservoirs, qui en Afrique seraient des ruminants sauvages par exemple, pourraient héberger le virus entre ces épisodes épidémiques.Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique, mais les animaux qui restent couchés nécessitent des soins jusqu'à leur guérison.Des vaccins ont été mis au point à titre expérimental mais ne sont pas encore disponibles sur le marché. La lutte contre les insectes vecteurs n'est pas envisageable.La fièvre éphémère est bien connue des gardiens de troupeaux mais ne constitue heureusement que très rarement un sujet d'inquiétude. A l'exception des quelques cas de mortalité, peu fréquents, les principales pertes associées à cette maladie concernent les vaches laitières, chez lesquelles la production est susceptible de diminuer et de rester inférieure à la normale pendant toute la durée de la lactation en cours.Synonyme : hépatite enzootique (Rift Valley fever, infectious enzootic hepatitis, zinga virus disease).Maladie des ruminants domestiques, des chameaux et de l'homme due à un phlebovirus et transmise par des moustiques.La fièvre de la vallée du Rift se manifeste généralement en Afrique subsaharienne. Elle s'est néanmoins étendue récemment vers le nordest, en Egypte, et vers le nord-ouest, en Mauritanie (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1). Cette maladie virale est transmise par la piqûre de moustiques infectés.Des épisodes épidémiques surviennent périodiquement, selon des cycles de 5 à 20 ans, en corrélation avec des pullulations de moustiques, généralement à la suite de pluies exceptionnellement importantes. Entre ces épidémies, il est possible que le virus survive dans des oeufs de moustiques du genre Aedes pondus dans des creux du terrain qui ne sont immergés qu'en cas de précipitations très abondantes. L'éclosion de moustiques infectés peut alors engendrer un nouveau foyer, ce qui déclenche une épidémie si ce phénomène coïncide avec la pullulation d'autres moustiques du genre Culex, qui entraînent une amplification du cycle et sa propagation à l'homme. Une fois celle-ci établie, les animaux en contact avec les individus malades peuvent contracter le virus par l'intermédiaire des matières contaminées produites lors des avortements.Des épidémies gravissimes ont été observées en Egypte pour la première fois vers la fin de la décennie 1970-1980, se soldant par la mort d'environ 600 personnes. Chez l'homme, l'infection survient par piqûre de moustiques infectés, notamment du genre Culex et par manipulation d'animaux porteurs du virus notamment lors de l'abattage ou de prélèvements de tissus infectés destinés au laboratoire.Il n'existe jusqu'à présent aucun traitement.Des vaccins atténués et inactivés existent, mais les vaccinations sont rarement effectuées de manière systématique et annuelle étant donné le caractère sporadique des épidémies. Dans certains cas, il est possible de s'appuyer sur les organismes météorologiques, qui sont à même de prévenir les autorités vétérinaires en cas de probabilités de fortes pluies susceptibles de déclencher des éclosions massives de moustiques infectés.Les animaux et le personnel à risque peuvent alors être vaccinés avant le début de l'épidémie. Toutefois, les vaccins vivants (atténués) sont à proscrire chez les femelles en gestation.En outre, il est parfois envisageable de limiter les risques d'infection en luttant contre les populations de moustiques dans certaines zones où la maladie est endémique.Bien que cette maladie soit d'origine africaine, le risque est très réel de voir la fièvre de la vallée du Rift se répandre dans d'autres régions du globe. Beaucoup d'espèces de moustiques sont capables de transmettre le virus. Les régions ou les pays encore indemnes mais accueillant d'importantes populations de moustiques devraient prendre des mesures afin d'interdire l'importation d'animaux provenant de régions d'endémisme ou d'empêcher l'importation accidentelle de moustiques infectés dans les avions, etc. Le problème est encore compliqué par l'éventualité que le virus soit introduit par des personnes infectées.Face à un cas suspect, des échantillons de sang non coagulé prélevés sur des animaux fébriles doivent être expédiés sur de la glace pour analyse au laboratoire. Des spécimens peuvent également être envoyés pour autopsie, mais ce type d'opération ne doit être réalisé que par un personnel expérimenté étant donné le risque de contracter l'infection.De quoi s'agit-il ? Maladie de peau des bovins et des buffles causée par de petits vers, des filaires du genre Stephanofilaria.La stéphanofilariose (stephanofilariosis, hump sore, cascado, krian sore) sévit en Asie du Sud-Est et sur le sous-continent indien (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).De petits nodules apparaissent sur la peau en certains endroits du corps. En l'espace de plusieurs mois, ces nodules se rompent et deviennent hémorragiques, entraînant un épaississement et un dessèchement de la peau. Les lésions apparaissent sur la tête et le cou, les membres et les oreilles, la bosse (voir la figure 4.5) et le long du ventre.Des mouches hématophages et harceleuses viennent se nourrir au niveau des lésions et ingèrent les larves des vers, appelées microfilaires. Celles-ci poursuivent leur développement dans l'organisme des insectes jusqu'à un stade infectieux, puis profitent d'un repas de sang de leur hôte pour contaminer un autre bovin ou buffle.Les lésions peuvent être traitées par application locale de composés organophosphorés (par exemple, une crème à base de coumaphos à 2 %). Des injections de substances anthelminthiques (lévamisole ou ivermectine) sont également efficaces.Il est rarement possible de lutter contre les mouches vectrices.Cette maladie étant transmise par des mouches, elle est souvent saisonnière. Le diagnostic est facile à vérifier au microscope, en recherchant les vers dans des biopsies ou des prélèvements de lésions par grattage.Synonymes : fièvre des marais, maladie de Vallée (equine infectious anaemia, EIA, swamp fever).Maladie virale des équidés due à un lentivirus transmise par des mouches hématophages.L'anémie infectieuse équine se rencontre dans le monde entier mais elle est particulièrement grave en Amérique centrale et dans le nord de l'Amérique du Sud (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La maladie se déclare à l'issue d'une période d'incubation de 1 à 3 semaines après l'infection. Les premiers symptômes peuvent être très discrets et passer inaperçus. Chez certains individus, ils peuvent même ne se manifester qu'après plusieurs semaines ou plusieurs mois, à l'occasion d'une rechute.Le tout premier signe est une fièvre fluctuante soudaine qui dure généralement quelques jours. Cette fièvre s'accompagne d'écoulements oculaires et d'un jetage nasal parfois mêlé de sang. Les muqueuses des yeux se congestionnent, de petites hémorragies apparaissent sous la langue et des gonflements oedémateux se développent sur l'abdomen, les membres et le fourreau (chez les mâles). La phase fébrile peut durer jusqu'à 3 semaines chez certains individus, qui peuvent alors présenter une anémie.Quelques animaux meurent lors de cette première attaque, mais la plupart se rétablissent temporairement avant de rechuter quelques semaines plus tard. Ces rechutes s'accompagnent de symptômes similaires bien que moins marqués, mais les animaux s'affaiblissent néanmoins de rechute en rechute, devenant de plus en plus anémiés et leurs mouvements perdant progressivement en coordination. Jusqu'à 70 % des animaux atteints peuvent mourir dans l'année, le plus souvent au cours d'une rechute. Certains cependant se rétablissent, mais restent infectés en permanence ; leur capacité de travail est en outre susceptible d'être diminuée. Ces individus peuvent rechuter plusieurs années plus tard, notamment à la faveur d'un stress. Les juments en gestation peuvent avorter pendant les phases de manifestation clinique de la maladie.L'anémie infectieuse équine est transmise par des mouches hématophages telles que les taons et les stomoxes. Cette maladie est de ce fait plus commune dans les zones où ces insectes sont nombreux, par exemple près des zones marécageuses ou pendant la saison des pluies. Le virus peut également être transmis par le biais de seringues ou de lames de scalpel souillées de sang.Le virus est présent dans tous les tissus des animaux infectés et est rejeté dans le milieu extérieur avec l'urine, le lait et le sperme. Il contamine également les foetus portés par les femelles en gestation. Ce mode de transmission peut d'ailleurs être à l'origine d'une propagation lente de la maladie lorsque les mouches sont peu abondantes.Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique. Les chevaux de valeur peuvent recevoir des transfusions sanguines à titre de thérapie de soutien.Il n'existe pas de vaccin contre l'anémie infectieuse équine. Les programmes de lutte contre cette maladie reposent donc sur les mesures sanitaires de bon sens qui s'imposent en cas de maladie infectieuse. Maladies virales accidentelles des équidés, des porcs et de l'homme.Se reporter au tableau 4.3 pour les répartitions géographiques des différentes encéphalomyélites virales équines (equine viral encephalomyelitises) (voir aussi les cartes dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Les encéphalomyélites américaines sont dues à des alphavirus étroitement apparentés tandis que les encéphalomyélites de l'Ancien Monde sont causées par des flavivirus.Les encéphalomyélites équines américaines -Les animaux atteints présentent une fièvre biphasique. Les symptômes propres aux encéphalomyélites apparaissant uniquement à l'occasion de la seconde Maladie des équidés (chevaux, mulets et ânes) due à un orbivirus et transmise par des moucherons nocturnes.La peste équine africaine (African horse sickness, AHS) ne sévit normalement qu'en Afrique, au sud du Sahara, mais des moucherons infectés transportés par le vent sur des distances considérables sont responsables d'épidémies périodiques au Moyen-Orient, au Pakistan, en Inde, en Turquie, à Chypre et en Espagne (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1). La forme mixte -Dans le cas de cette forme aiguë de la maladie, les oedèmes se développent dans les poumons et sous la peau. La mort survient généralement en l'espace de quelques jours.La forme bénigne -Elle se manifeste par une fièvre modérée sur quelques jours, habituellement suivie par la guérison complète.Les animaux qui survivent à la peste équine africaine finissent par se débarrasser du virus, mais peuvent rester infectés pendant un mois ou plus.La peste équine africaine est propagée par de petits moucherons hématophages nocturnes du genre Culicoides. Aussi dans certaines régions, cette maladie survient-elle de manière saisonnière, à l'époque où ces moucherons sont actifs, après le début des pluies. En revanche, elle peut sévir toute l'année si les conditions sont favorables à une activité permanente des moucherons, par exemple dans des zones marécageuses, près de secteurs dormants des cours d'eau, etc. Dans les régions où elle adopte un rythme saisonnier, il est probable que le virus se maintienne chez un hôte naturel entre les périodes d'activité des vecteurs. L'hôte naturel le plus vraisemblable serait le zèbre, mais l'âne, l'éléphant ou le chien sont d'autres candidats possibles.Les épidémies de peste équine africaine qui sont survenues hors d'Afrique se sont avérées dramatiques, provoquant la mort de milliers de chevaux, d'ânes et de mulets. De tels épisodes épidémiques semblent toutefois se faire plus rares de nos jours, peut-être du fait de l'absence de vecteurs efficaces. D'autres insectes piqueurs, tels que les moustiques et les mouches piqueuses, sont également capables de transmettre le virus, mais seulement de manière marginale. Les chiens peuvent en outre s'infecter en consommant la chair d'équidés infectés.Il n'existe pas de traitement contre la peste équine africaine, mais un traitement symptomatique associé à des soins attentifs est susceptible d'accroître les chances de survie et de guérison.A l'intérieur de la zone d'endémisme, en Afrique subsaharienne, les ânes indigènes ne nécessitent que rarement de mesures particulières étant donné qu'ils ne souffrent généralement que de la forme bénigne. Les animaux importés sont en revanche très sensibles, avec une probabilité élevée de développer une des formes graves de la maladie. Ces animaux devraient être vaccinés au moins 2 semaines avant leur arrivée et tous les ans par la suite. Il existe 9 types de virus de la peste équine africaine, et des vaccins polyvalents devraient être employés contre tous ces types viraux. En général, les épidémies survenant hors de la zone d'endémisme ne mettent en jeu qu'un seul type viral, contre lequel les animaux à risque doivent être vaccinés.Par ailleurs, des mesures spécifiquement axées contre les vecteurs peuvent être prises : stabulation de nuit dans des locaux préservés contre ces insectes, emploi de produits répulsifs, entretien de feux la nuit pour produire de la fumée, drainage à proximité des lieux d'élevage, etc.Les moucherons infectés sont susceptibles d'être transportés vers d'autres régions, véhiculés par le vent ou à l'intérieur des avions. Si rien n'est possible contre le facteur éolien, en revanche l'intérieur des avions provenant de la zone d'endémisme peut être traité avec un insecticide.La peste équine africaine constitue une menace perpétuelle pour les nombreuses régions du monde qui hébergent des populations de moucherons capables de transmettre le virus. Pour les pays proches de l'Afrique subsaharienne, le risque principal réside dans l'arrivée de moucherons infectés emportés par le vent : ces pays doivent donc toujours rester vigilants, prêts à devoir affronter une épidémie. Ailleurs, les équidés importés d'Afrique ou des régions avoisinantes -et qui peuvent donc être porteurs du virus -doivent dès leur arrivée être placés en quarantaine dans des locaux inaccessibles aux insectes. Dans le cas des Etats-Unis, les équidés en provenance d'Afrique, d'Asie et des pays méditerranéens restent en quarantaine pendant trente jours.Tout cas suspect doit être immédiatement signalé aux services vétérinaires afin que les mesures appropriées puissent être mises en place.Synonyme : habronémose cutanée équine (summer sores, habronemosis, swamp cancer).Maladie des chevaux causée par des vers des genres Habronema et Draschia.Les plaies d'été sont répandues dans le monde entier et tout particulièrement en Extrême-Orient et en Amérique latine, là où le climat favorise des populations nombreuses de mouches domestiques et de stomoxes.De petites lésions surélevées apparaissent dans la peau, le plus souvent au niveau de la tête, des membres et du garrot. Elles grandissent et se recouvrent de croûtes, formant des lésions de grande taille susceptibles de s'ulcérer. Des lésions semblables mais plus petites se développent sur les conjonctives (derrière les paupières et sur le globe oculaire), entraînant un larmoiement abondant.Les vers adultes se trouvent normalement dans l'estomac, où ils sont habituellement inoffensifs. Les larves de ces vers sont rejetées dans les excréments, puis avalées par des larves (asticots) de mouches domestiques et de stomoxes. Elles y poursuivent leur développement et atteignent leur stade infectieux lorsque les mouches adultes émergent des pupes. Ces mouches abandonnent ensuite les larves infectieuses autour des yeux, de la bouche, du nez ou de diverses plaies, y compris celles dues aux vers eux-mêmes, décrites ci-dessus. Les larves déposées près de la bouche sont avalées et achèvent leur développement dans l'estomac de l'hôte.L'habronémose cutanée se traite à l'ivermectine (voir le tableau 5.2, au chapitre suivant).Les excréments des animaux infestés seront éliminés et les plaies cutanées soignées dès leur formation et protégées des mouches.Maladies des animaux domestiques transmises par des tiques et dues à des protozoaires du genre Babesia, qui infestent les globules rouges  Les babésioses (babesiosis, redwater, cattle tick fever) sévissent dans le monde entier, mais seules sont considérées ici celles qui sont présentes dans les régions intertropicales (voir les cartes dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).A la suite de la piqûre d'une tique infectée, les parasites gagnent des globules rouges (ou érythrocytes) à l'intérieur desquels ils se multiplient avant d'émerger pour envahir d'autres globules rouges, en nombre croissant. La maladie se déclare tout d'abord par une fièvre élevée qui débute 1 à 3 semaines après la piqûre infectante. La destruction des globules rouges, qui va en s'accélérant, se traduit par une anémie, un état de choc et la libération dans le sang de grandes quantités du pigment rouge propre aux globules rouges, l'hémoglobine.Les animaux sont apathiques et se détournent de leur nourriture ; les muqueuses de leurs yeux et de leurs gencives pâlissent à cause de l'anémie et se teintent de jaune (ictère), couleur des pigments biliaires issus de la dégradation de l'hémoglobine. L'hémoglobine non dégradée est excrétée dans les urines (hémoglobinurie), qui prennent en conséquence une teinte rouge ou brune comme du marc de café. Dans les cas sévères dus à B. bovis chez les bovins, les globules rouges infestés de parasites obturent les capillaires du cerveau et déclenchent ainsi une forme cérébrale de la maladie, avec troubles nerveux, perte de coordination des mouvements, paralysie, coma et mort.Chez toutes les espèces domestiques, les babésioses peuvent prendre des formes allant du degré infraclinique à la maladie suraiguë, mortelle dans les 1 à 2 jours suivant l'apparition des premiers signes cliniques. Dans les cas moins graves, les animaux présentent une phase fébrile durant environ une semaine, restent malades environ 3 semaines puis se rétablissent, parfois lentement. Il est fréquent que les femelles en gestation avortent. Les individus ayant guéri demeurent des porteurs infectés de manière durable, parfois permanente. doivent être scrupuleusement suivies. Quelle que soit l'espèce atteinte, le traitement doit être administré aussitôt que possible pour être efficace. L'imidocarbe laisse des résidus dans l'organisme et son emploi est en conséquence interdit dans de nombreux pays sur les animaux destinés à la consommation humaine ou qui fournissent des produits pour la consommation humaine (lait, etc.). ||◗ Les ehrlichioses (dont maladie de Jembrana)Maladies communes, bien que rarement signalées, des animaux domestiques dues à des rickettsies (voir le tableau 4.5). Les cytoétoses dues à l'ancien genre Cytoetes qui a été rattaché au genre Ehrlichia en faisaient partie. Actuellement, certaines espèces d'Ehrlichia ont été rebaptisées Anaplasma.Les ehrlichioses (ehrlichioses) sont répandues dans l'ensemble des pays tropicaux et subtropicaux (voir le tableau 4.5). Ces maladies s'accompagnent toutes de fièvre ; les autres signes cliniques sont détaillés dans le tableau 4.5.La transmission d'un animal à l'autre s'effectue par l'intermédiaire de tiques dures. Les espèces précises impliquées ne sont cependant pas encore toutes identifiées.Les tétracyclines sont efficaces, mais la plupart des animaux guéris demeurent infectés et sont susceptibles de rechuter ultérieurement en cas de stress. La paralysie à tiques peut être provoquée par la salive de diverses espèces de tiques, surtout chez les jeunes animaux et les enfants. Les cas surviennent sans doute partout dans le monde.   Les tiques sécrètent des toxines dans leur salive et les inoculent dans l'organisme des animaux sur lesquels elles se nourrissent.Les tiques responsables seront extraites au plus tôt et, si possible, un sérum hyperimmun sera administré. Les cas de dyshidrose tropicale nécessitent parfois une antibiothérapie pour traiter les éventuelles surinfections bactériennes cutanées.Si la paralysie à tiques ou la dyshidrose tropicale deviennent sérieuses, un programme de lutte contre les tiques peut être mis en place à titre préventif.Ces maladies sont inquiétantes lorsque l'on y est confronté. Cependant, les animaux développant une immunité avec l'âge, seuls les jeunes individus sont généralement concernés.Maladie des ruminants sauvages et domestiques due à l'infestation des globules rouges du sang par des rickettsies du genre Anaplasma. La maladie clinique s'observe surtout chez les bovins, et rarement chez les buffles, le plus souvent avec l'espèce Anaplasma marginale. Anaplasma centrale est peu pathogène.Régions tropicales et subtropicales du monde entier (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1). Maladie des ruminants transmise par des tiques et due à la rickettsie Cowdria ruminantium, récemment rebaptisée Ehrlichia ruminantium.La cowdriose (heartwater, cowdriosis) sévit en Afrique subsaharienne, à São Tomé, à Madagascar, dans certaines îles de l'océan Indien (Comores, île Maurice, Réunion) et dans quelques îles des Caraïbes (Petites Antilles), dans toutes les zones où les tiques vectrices sont présentes (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).La période d'incubation, à la suite de la piqûre de la tique infectante, dure de 2 à 4 semaines. La maladie peut ensuite prendre des formes diverses, de bénigne à suraiguë, avec une forte fièvre suivie de la mort en l'espace de 1 ou 2 jours. La forme aiguë reste la plus répandue. ||◗ La maladie du mouton de NairobiMaladie virale des ovins et des caprins transmise par des tiques.La maladie de Nairobi (Nairobi sheep disease, Kisenyi goat disease) se rencontre en Afrique de l'Est, centrale et australe (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Dans les zones où la maladie de Nairobi est endémique, les signes cliniques qu'elle entraîne sont très atténués ou absents chez les animaux autochtones. Les petits ruminants provenant de régions indemnes y sont toutefois très réceptifs et sensibles, l'infection se traduisant alors par une forme aiguë de la maladie, qui se signale par une forte fièvre fluctuante, une perte de l'appétit, des écoulements oculaires et nasaux et une dysenterie. Les animaux sont très abattus, entrent en état de choc au bout de quelques jours et meurent pour la plupart. Les femelles en gestation qui survivent avortent. Ces signes cliniques sont plus marqués chez les adultes que chez les jeunes.Les tiques dures des genres Rhipicephalus et Amblyomma s'infectent en se nourrissant sur des animaux porteurs du virus et transmettent ce dernier à leur hôte suivant. Les premiers signes cliniques se manifestent 1 à 2 semaines après la piqûre infectante. L'homme peut également contracter le virus, qui entraîne chez lui une forme fébrile moins grave de la maladie.Il n'y a aucun traitement contre la maladie de Nairobi. La maladie peut se manifester sous diverses formes, d'asymptomatique à grave. A la suite de la piqûre infectante, les protozoaires parasites pénètrent et se multiplient dans les ganglions lymphatiques, qui augmentent alors de volume. Les ganglions lymphatiques situés à proximité du site de fixation de la tique infectante sont les premiers à réagir, mais l'effet se propage à tous les autres au fur et à mesure de l'évolution de l'infestation, provoquant un accroissement de la température corporelle de l'animal infecté. Les parasites gagnent alors les globules rouges du sang, rendant dès ce moment l'animal apte à infecter les tiques qui viendraient s'y nourrir. Les maladies diffèrent en fonction de l'espèce de Theileria en cause.Theilériose bovine à T. parva parva ou fièvre de la côte est (East Coast fever) -La tique infectante, de l'espèce Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, se fixe généralement sur l'oreille. Une à deux semaines après l'infection, le ganglion lymphatique parotidien, situé juste au-dessous de l'oreille, augmente de volume (voir la figure 4.9) ; la fièvre survient 1 à 2 jours plus tard, alors que les autres ganglions lymphatiques superficiels grossissent à leur tour. Au cours de la semaine qui suit, d'autres symptômes peuvent venir s'ajouter à ce tableau : difficultés respiratoires, toux discrète provoquée par la présence de liquide dans les poumons, diarrhée parfois teintée de sang, perte de masse musculaire et décoloration blanchâtre des muqueuses des yeux et des gencives. Le système nerveux central est parfois affecté, déterminant une forme nerveuse de la maladie aboutissant à la paralysie. Le collapsus et la mort surviennent généralement dans les 3 ou 4 semaines qui suivent la piqûre infectante.Theilérioses à T. parva bovis et à T. parva lawrencei -Ces deux sous-espèces, très étroitement apparentées à T. parva parva, sont responsables de deux maladies qui rappellent la fièvre de la côte est. Si la theilériose à T. parva bovis (January disease) tend à être moins grave que la fièvre de la côte est, la theilériose à T. parva lawrencei (Corridor disease) provoque parfois de graves épidémies marquées par des taux de mortalité élevés.Theilériose à T. mutans -Il s'agit ici d'une theilériose bovine bénigne.Les signes cliniques comprennent une fièvre, une anémie plus ou moins  Theilériose à T. annulata ou theilériose tropicale des bovins -Les symptômes sont similaires à ceux de la fièvre de la côte est, mais les animaux peuvent en outre présenter une anémie et une jaunisse (ictère), avec coloration jaunâtre des muqueuses des yeux et des gencives. En outre, ce type de theilériose ne s'accompagne pas de la toux discrète caractéristique de la fièvre de la côte est.Theilériose ovine à T. lestoquardi (anciennement T. hirci) -Cette maladie entraîne chez les ovins des troubles comparables à ceux causés par la theilériose tropicale chez les bovins. Les autres theilérioses ne sont pas assez significatives sur le plan économique pour justifier des mesures de lutte coûteuses, autres que le traitement des cas cliniques qui se présentent. La theilériose à T. orientalis peut être combattue en traitant les bovins à risque avec des acaricides (en bains ou en pulvérisations) du printemps à l'automne.La fièvre de la côte est et la theilériose tropicale, deux contraintes lourdes pour le développement de l'élevage bovin, sont bien connues des éleveurs, des gardiens de troupeaux et des vétérinaires locaux. La lutte contre ces maladies est possible mais exige une planification rigoureuse. Chaque intervention doit prendre en considération les autres maladies liées aux tiques dans la région : un programme destiné à combattre les tiques transmettant la theilériose pourrait, s'il est conçu à la légère, compromettre la prémunition des animaux contre des maladies telles que les babésioses, la cowdriose ou l'anaplasmose.Lorsque des éleveurs soupçonnent la theilériose, ils doivent faire faire des frottis de sang et des frottis de biopsies de ganglions lymphatiques à envoyer au laboratoire avant de traiter les animaux, si le délai entre la suspicion de theilériose et le traitement n'en devient pas trop long, car la theilériose revêt souvent une forme aiguë.Les buffles domestiques sont également réceptifs à la fièvre de la côte est, ce qui (avec la cowdriose) a fait obstacle aux tentatives d'introduction de ces animaux en Afrique de l'Est et en Afrique centrale. Ils sont en outre réceptifs à la theilériose tropicale, mais à un degré moindre que les bovins, et cette maladie est rarement signalée chez cette espèce.||◗ Les ténias de ruminants, chameaux et équidésLes ténias sont des vers plats au corps divisé en segments. Ils sont assez étroitement liés à un type d'hôte particulier et les différentes espèces d'animaux et l'homme sont parasités par des espèces de ténias distinctes.Les espèces qui parasitent les herbivores accomplissent une partie de leur développement dans l'organisme d'acariens oribates non parasites (voir le chapitre 3 consacré aux arthropodes).Ces ténias sont présents partout dans le monde. Quelques-unes des espèces sont présentées dans le tableau 4.8.Ce sujet est assez controversé, mais il est convenu dans l'ensemble que ces vers sont généralement non pathogènes et qu'ils n'entraînent, dans les cas extrêmes, qu'une légère dégradation de l'état général chez des animaux souffrant par ailleurs de sous-alimentation ou de malnutrition.Les cycles de vie de ces ténias se ressemblent, bien qu'ils soient encore peu connus pour certaines espèces. Les oeufs ou des segments isolés de ténias sont expulsés avec les excréments de l'animal parasité et tombent au sol. Dans les parcours, les oeufs sont avalés par des acariens oribates, dans lesquels ils éclosent et poursuivent leur développement pour atteindre le stade infectieux. Le développement reprend son cours lorsque l'acarien infesté est avalé à son tour par un herbivore réceptif.Le cas échéant, un certain nombre de substances sont efficaces contre les infestations de ténias, y compris celles utilisées contre des vers plus pathogènes (voir le tableau 5.2 au chapitre suivant).Les vecteurs se trouvent partout et aucune mesure de lutte n'est possible. Un autre ténia, Stilesia hepatica, bien qu'également non pathogène, constitue néanmoins une cause fréquente de rejet des foies pour la consommation humaine uniquement à cause de leur aspect.Voir aussi les ténias, au chapitre 4.Les gastro-entérites parasitaires ou vermineuses et les strongyloses digestives des ruminants (gastro-intestinal worms, parasitic gastroenteritis) sont dues à la présence de diverses espèces de vers ronds (nématodes) dans l'estomac (caillette) et les intestins des ruminants.Les helminthes gastro-intestinaux des ruminants existent dans le monde entier.Les manifestations cliniques observées dépendent d'un certain nombre de facteurs, tels que l'état nutritionnel de l'animal, le niveau d'infestation et les espèces de vers présentes. De manière générale, les animaux domestiques fortement infestés ont un état général médiocre et souffrent souvent de diarrhées. Certains parasites, hématophages, induisent en outre des anémies. Les symptômes des gastro-entérites parasitaires sont détaillés dans le tableau 5.1.  Helminthes   La densité des animaux sur une parcelle ou un parcours (ou charge animale) est un autre facteur influant sur l'épidémiologie des helminthoses. La probabilité de contamination par des larves L3 -et la probabilité de contracter un parasite -est plus importante dans l'herbe rase des parcours intensément pâturés que dans les secteurs moins chargés.L'ensemble de ces facteurs -l'hypobiose, l'augmentation transitoire des valeurs coproscopiques au moment de la mise bas, les conditions climatiques et la pression de pâturage -jouent sur la date d'apparition des larves L3 dans les parcours et sur leur densité.Comme les animaux qui se nourrissent d'herbes, au sol, sont plus exposés que ceux qui broutent les feuilles des ligneux, les helminthoses sont plus marquées chez les ovins et les bovins que chez les caprins.Il existe un grand choix de substances très efficaces contre les vers (médicaments anthelminthiques) ; quelques-unes des plus utilisées figurent dans le tableau 5. Dans les systèmes d'élevage intensif, une gestion attentive des parcours peut limiter les niveaux d'infestation de larves L3 dans l'herbe. Cette approche est toutefois rarement applicable dans les élevages extensifs de type pastoral, pour lesquels le recours aux anthelminthiques reste la seule solution. Bien que de nombreux éleveurs traitent eux-mêmes leur cheptel -ce à quoi rien ne s'oppose -il est toujours prudent de demander conseil en la matière à un vétérinaire. Celui-ci, en appréciant les divers facteurs en présence, peut recommander à quelle époque de l'année effectuer ces traitements et quelles substances utiliser. Une démarche raisonnée permettra d'utiliser de façon optimale les produits anthelminthiques et de faire des économies substantielles en évitant les pertes de productivité et le gaspillage de médicaments.L'importance vétérinaire des vers pour le bétail herbivore des pays tropicaux ne saurait être surestimée. En outre, le diagnostic est relativement simple : il suffit généralement de rechercher les oeufs dans les matières fécales (coproscopie et coproculture), en complétant le cas échéant l'étude par des autopsies visant à identifier avec précision les helminthes responsables. Les éleveurs confrontés à des helminthoses Du fait de la fréquence des résistances de certains vers gastro-intestinaux à plusieurs anthelminthiques, dans certains pays, les recherches sont actuellement axées sur le renforcement de la résistance naturelle des animaux domestiques aux helminthoses et sur la mise au point de vaccins contre ces parasites.Les bronchites parasitaires ou bronchites vermineuses (lungworms, parasitic bronchitis) sont des infestations de vers ronds du genre Dictyocaulus dans les poumons, D. viviparus chez les bovins et D. filaria chez les ovins et les caprins.Les strongles respiratoires sont essentiellement observés dans les régions à climat tempéré, mais l'espèce propre aux bovins peut se manifester dans les zones d'altitude des régions intertropicales, tandis que celle infectant les ovins est en outre fréquente dans les régions subtropicales à précipitations hivernales.Les symptômes, qui ne s'observent le plus souvent que chez les individus jeunes, comprennent des difficultés respiratoires, de la toux et une pneumonie. Le degré de gravité de ces manifestations dépend du nombre de vers présents.Les vers adultes occupent la trachée et les bronches. Ils sont très fins et mesurent quelques centimètres de longueur. Ils sont faciles à observer lorsque l'on ouvre les voies respiratoires lors de l'autopsie. Les femelles adultes pondent des oeufs contenant des larves qui éclosent rapidement, sont remontées par la toux puis avalées et expulsées dans le milieu extérieur avec les excréments. Une fois dans les parcours, elles poursuivent leur développement et se transforment en larves L3 infectantes. Lorsque ces dernières sont avalées par un hôte, elles migrent des intestins vers les poumons via les ganglions mésentériques (d'où une immunité) en muant par 2 fois avant d'arriver à maturité. Le cycle couvre plusieurs semaines.Plusieurs anthelminthiques sont efficaces contre les strongles respiratoires (voir le tableau 5.2).Les bovins peuvent être vaccinés contre les strongles respiratoires à l'aide d'un vaccin vivant (atténué) administré par voie orale, qui constitue le seul vaccin efficace existant contre des vers. Bien qu'il soit utilisé de manière systématique en Europe du Nord, son emploi est encore rare ailleurs.Les observations consignées plus haut au sujet de la lutte contre les vers gastro-intestinaux sont également valables en ce qui concerne les strongles.La strongylose respiratoire des petits ruminants, ou bronchite vermineuse des petits ruminants, est rare dans les zones tropicales. L'infestation des alvéoles pulmonaires ou des bronchioles, du mouton surtout ou de la chèvre, par des strongles respiratoires (Dictyocaulus filaria, Protostrongylus rufescens, Cystocaulus ocreatus, Muellerius capillaris) entraîne de la toux, de la dyspnée, du jetage, de la suffocation et la mort dans le marasme en l'absence de traitement.Maladie parasitaire des jeunes veaux de bovins et de buffles due à Toxocara vitulorum (ou Neoascaris vitulorum).Cette espèce est présente dans toutes les régions tropicales et subtropicales du monde.L'ascaridose (ascariosis) à Toxocara vitulorum se manifeste chez le veau, surtout le veau de buffle, par une dépression, une dégradation de l'état général et parfois par une diarrhée mortelle. Les symptômes n'apparaissent que chez les animaux âgés de moins de 6 mois.Les oeufs sont expulsés dans le milieu extérieur avec les excréments des veaux infestés et deviennent infectants environ une semaine plus tard.Protégés par une coque épaisse, ces oeufs sont en mesure de survivre plusieurs années dans la plupart des milieux, excepté lorsque les conditions sont chaudes et arides. Lorsque les oeufs sont avalés par des femelles âgées de 6 mois ou plus, les larves éclosent et migrent vers divers tissus, où elles entrent en diapause. Vers la fin de la gestation, les larves en diapause reprennent leur développement et parviennent au stade infectant L3. Celles-ci sont excrétées dans le lait sur une durée pouvant atteindre un mois et sont avalées par le nouveau-né. Ce mode de transmission, qui est le plus courant chez les veaux, peut être à l'origine de l'accumulation d'un grand nombre de parasites adultes (dont la longueur atteint 30 cm) dans l'intestin grêle.Le traitement pour lutter contre les stades adultes de T. vitulorum ne pose aucune difficulté (voir le tableau 5.2).Les veaux sont particulièrement exposés pendant les premières semaines de leur vie et doivent être traités à 3 semaines puis à 6 semaines, ce qui permet, d'une part, de juguler l'infestation chez les veaux eux-mêmes et, d'autre part, d'empêcher la maturation des vers et leur reproduction, limitant par là la contamination de l'environnement par les oeufs. Les parcs, stalles et autres locaux abritant des veaux doivent être régulièrement nettoyés afin d'éviter que les oeufs ne s'y accumulent.Les veaux contractent ces parasites au cours des premières semaines de leur existence, en consommant le lait de leur mère. Ils s'en débarrassent généralement après quelques mois et les infestations ultérieures passent normalement inaperçues, notamment chez les bovins. Les veaux de buffles sont toutefois plus sensibles, et les probabilités sont plus élevées de voir survenir chez cette espèce des problèmes graves, voire des mortalités, en cas d'infestations lourdes. Il en résulte que le traitement décrit ci-dessus est tout particulièrement pertinent pour ces animaux.Otite parasitaire (ear worm, parasitic otitis) due à la présence du ver rond Rhabditis bovis dans les oreilles des bovins.Le ver de l'oreille se rencontre surtout en Afrique centrale, en Afrique de l'Est et à Madagascar (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1).Les surinfections bactériennes entraînent un écoulement nauséabond. L'animal, très affecté, voit son état général se dégrader et peut même mourir.Rhabditis bovis est un ver habituellement non parasite, vivant dans le sol, qui peut s'introduire et survivre dans les bains insecticides et acaricides.Les bovins s'infectent lors de leur passage dans ces bains contaminés.Le ver de l'oreille peut être traité par l'ivermectine.Si ce parasite pose problème, les bassins utilisés pour les bains du bétail peuvent être régulièrement vidés afin d'empêcher que les vers ne s'y accumulent.Fasciolose et distomatose (liver fluke, fasciolosis, distomiasis, distomatosis) sont dues à la présence de douves (classe des trématodes, vers plats en forme de feuille) des espèces Fasciola hepatica ou Fasciola gigantica (la grande douve tropicale) dans le foie d'animaux herbivores, surtout ruminants (bovins, buffles, ovins, caprins), et occasionnellement de l'homme (zoonose). La maladie est très importante économiquement : les productions sont diminuées, les traitements et saisies aux abattoirs coûtent cher.La fasciolose est une affection cosmopolite en régions humides. Les parasites présentent un cycle de vie complexe faisant intervenir plusieurs espèces de mollusques aquatiques et amphibies du genre Lymnaea comme hôtes intermédiaires. Le bétail contracte le parasite en paissant au sol dans des zones fréquentées par ces escargots, telles que des fossés, des zones humides, des bords de cours d'eau, des plaines inondables, etc.Des hôtes intermédiaires capables de transmettre la grande douve du foie Fasciola hepatica existent dans le monde entier mais, dans les régions tropicales, elles tendent à préférer les zones plus fraîches situées en altitude. La grande douve tropicale F. gigantica, quant à elle, n'est présente que sous les climats chauds, comme celui d'Afrique, où elle est plus commune que F. hepatica, et de l'Asie. Cette espèce existe également sur quelques îles de l'océan Pacifique. Dans certaines régions, la coexistence des deux espèces produit des infestations mixtes.Une fois avalées, les jeunes douves éclosent et migrent vers le foie pour gagner les voies biliaires et la vésicule biliaire. La sévérité des symptômes dépend de la durée de la période au cours de laquelle les parasites ont été ingérés et du nombre de ceux-ci.La fasciolose aiguë survient chez le mouton à la suite d'une ingestion massive de douves sur une période brève. Le nombre élevé de douves immatures migrant simultanément peut entraîner, au niveau du foie, de lésions graves et des hémorragies. Les animaux sont apathiques, faibles, les muqueuses oculaire et buccale pâlissent et la mort intervient rapidement, en l'espace de 1 ou 2 jours. Cette forme de la maladie est rare chez les bovins.La forme chronique est la plus commune, chez les ovins comme chez les bovins. Elle s'installe à la suite d'une ingestion de parasites en quantité modérée sur une longue période, les douves adultes s'accumulant peu à peu dans les voies biliaires et la vésicule biliaire. Il en découle des lésions du foie et une inflammation des canaux biliaires (cholangite), un déficit de protéines sériques et une anémie. Les animaux maigrissent, les muqueuses oculaire et buccale pâlissent et un oedème caractéristique apparaît dans l'auge, sous la mâchoire inférieure. En l'absence de traitement, les animaux peuvent mourir dans les 2 à 3 mois qui suivent en fonction de la gravité de la maladie ; beaucoup cependant résistent plus longtemps et certains finissent même par se rétablir s'ils ne sont plus exposés aux parasites. Les bovins souffrant de fasciolose chronique présentent parfois des diarrhées, mais tendent à se débarrasser par eux-mêmes de la plus grande partie des douves après environ 6 mois.A l'autopsie, le foie est volumineux. Les canaux biliaires et la vésicule biliaire sont dilatés, ont des parois épaisses et peuvent contenir des douves en nombre plus ou moins élevé.Le cycle de vie des douves du genre Fasciola est résumé sur le diagramme de la figure 5.2. Les oeufs, assez caractéristiques (grands, elliptiques, à coque mince, jaunâtres), sont rejetés avec les excréments dans le milieu extérieur, où ils éclosent après environ 1 mois, à la température optimale de 22 à 26 °C. Les larves mobiles qui en sont issues doivent rencontrer un mollusque de la famille des lymnéidés dans les heures qui suivent et s'y introduire. Le développement complexe qui se déroule alors dans l'organisme du mollusque aboutit à la libération d'un grand nombre de larves mobiles qui se fixent sur des supports tels que des herbes puis s'enkystent en donnant les formes larvaires infectantes nommées métacercaires. Si ces dernières sont avalées par un herbivore réceptif, elles libèrent dans son intestin grêle des douves immatures, qui migrent vers les voies biliaire, ou parfois la vésicule biliaire, en passant à travers le foie. Une fois parvenues à maturité, les douves pondent des oeufs qui sont évacués dans les excréments de l'hôte, amorçant un autre cycle. Les animaux non traités demeurent infestés pendant plusieurs mois (quelquefois beaucoup plus longtemps), au cours desquels ils rejettent des oeufs dans leurs excréments.Les facteurs climatiques ont une influence directe sur le cycle de vie. En dessous de 10 °C, les oeufs entrent en diapause pour n'éclore que lorsque le temps se réchauffe, tandis que la reproduction des limnées et le développement des larves qui les parasitent sont suspendus. D'autre part, les conditions chaudes et sèches sont peu favorables à la survie des métacercaires dans les pâturages.Le triclabendazole présente l'avantage d'être actif à la fois contre les adultes et contre les stades larvaires âgés de plus de 2 semaines -il s'agit donc du médicament à privilégier dans les cas de fasciolose aiguë.Les autres produits sont actifs uniquement sur les douves adultes ou sur les larves âgées de plus de 8 semaines et sur les adultes (voir le tableau 5.3).La fasciolose doit être combattue en empêchant tout contact avec les mollusques hôtes intermédiaires (en évitant les zones qu'ils fréquentent), en détruisant ces derniers ou en traitant le cheptel de manière stratégique. La première option n'est souvent envisageable que lorsque les milieux concernés sont bien circonscrits et qu'ils peuvent être clôturés. Alternativement, les populations d'escargots peuvent être réduites ou éliminées par drainage de leur habitat. Lorsque les escargots se trouvent dans des canaux d'irrigation, la parade est de remplacer ceux-ci par des conduites ou des tuyaux. Les points d'eau peuvent être  aménagés pour éviter les escargots. La dernière solution consiste à traiter le bétail de manière systématique avec des fasciolicides aux périodes de l'année où les risques sont les plus importants.Face à des cas suspects de fasciolose, il s'agit en premier lieu de soumettre des échantillons de matières fécales provenant des animaux malades à un laboratoire pour que les oeufs de douves y soient recherchés et à faire des tests sérologiques. Si la fasciolose est confirmée, il est ensuite essentiel de se rapprocher d'un vétérinaire au sujet des mesures à prendre. La clôture et le drainage des secteurs à risque sont des travaux onéreux qui peuvent être réalisés par l'éleveur lui-même.||◗ Les douves des vaisseaux sanguins des ruminants (schistosomoses)Les schistosomoses (blood vessel flukes, schistosomoses, snoring disease) sont dues à la présence de vers trématodes parasites du genre Schistosoma chez les animaux domestiques et l'homme.Les schistosomoses existent dans les régions tropicales et subtropicales du monde entier, dans les secteurs où le bétail fréquente des milieux humides abritant les escargots qui jouent le rôle d'hôtes intermédiaires (voir la carte dans le chapitre 6 du volume 1 pour Schistosoma nasalis).Les schistosomes sont des parasites des vaisseaux sanguins ; la plupart des espèces importantes sur le plan vétérinaire s'installent dans les veines des intestins, appelées veines mésentériques. Très rapidement, les parasites induisent une réaction des tissus affectés et des hémorragies au niveau des veines mésentériques et des intestins. Les schistosomoses se signalent par une diarrhée, souvent mêlée de sang et de mucus, une anémie et une dégradation de l'état général.Sur le sous-continent indien, une espèce particulière, Schistosoma nasalis, colonise les veines nasales des ruminants et des équidés en entraînant des écoulements nasaux et des difficultés respiratoires (snoring disease en anglais).Les schistosomes présentent un cycle de vie complexe rappelant celui des douves du genre Fasciola. Les larves infestent un hôte intermédiaireici aussi des escargots aquatiques (bulins, planorbes, etc.) -puis s'en échappent sous forme de larves aquatiques mobiles qui s'introduisent dans leur hôte définitif en passant à travers sa peau. Les animaux contractent ainsi le parasite en buvant ou en se tenant dans des points d'eau infestés. Les larves circulent alors dans le sang jusqu'à leur destination finale. Les oeufs des schistosomes adultes occupant les veines mésentériques sont évacués dans le milieu extérieur avec les excréments. Dans le cas de S. nasalis, les oeufs sont libérés dans les écoulements nasaux.Le trichlorfon, administré sur une période de plusieurs jours, se révèle efficace, tout comme le praziquantel. Ce dernier, surtout utilisé contre les ténias des chiens et des chats, peut cependant s'avérer trop coûteux pour traiter le bétail.Le traitement nécessite une surveillance vétérinaire : en effet, les schistosomes délogés de leur emplacement habituel sont susceptibles de provoquer la formation de caillots de sang pouvant obturer des vaisseaux sanguins importants.De manière générale, les mesures conseillées dans le cadre de la fasciolose valent également en cas de schistosomose. Il est parfois possible d'identifier les points d'eau les plus dangereux et de les éviter aux périodes de l'année auxquelles les escargots sont les plus nombreux et les plus actifs.Le poids économique réel de la schistosomose est encore difficile à estimer, mais cette parasitose doit toujours être considérée comme un risque à prendre en compte, en région tropicale, pour le bétail qui fréquente un point d'eau contenant des escargots aquatiques. La maladie tend à être plus grave chez les ovins que chez les grands ruminants, qui sont souvent infestés sans effets pathogènes.Chez l'homme, la schistosomose, plus connue sous le nom de bilharziose, constitue un problème grave, causé par plusieurs espèces de Schistosoma. Schistosoma japonicum, une cause commune de bilharziose humaine en Extrême-Orient, parasite quelquefois les animaux domestiques.||◗ Les douves diverses des ruminants (dont petite douve)Outre les grandes douves du foie et les schistosomes, il existe d'autres espèces de trématodes dont le cycle de vie est semblable et fait également intervenir des escargots. Ce sont en particulier les espèces des genres Dicrocoelium (petite douve du foie) et Paramphistomum, respectivement responsables de la dicrocoeliose et de la paramphistomose.Ces parasitoses ont une répartition mondiale. La dicrocoeliose sévit en zones sèches.Les Dicrocoelium sont de petites douves qui parasitent le foie les ruminants et d'autres animaux domestiques. Ils sont rarement pathogènes, mais des infestations importantes se traduisant par des symptômes rappelant ceux de la fasciolose ont déjà été signalées. Les paramphistomes sont des trématodes de forme conique qui parasitent la panse et le réseau des ruminants ; leur présence en grand nombre peut être la cause d'entérites, de diarrhées et d'amaigrissement chez les veaux et les petits ruminants. A la coproscopie, les oeufs de paramphistomes peuvent être confondus avec ceux de la grande douve du foie, qui cause une maladie beaucoup plus dangereuse : même forme et dimensions, opercule, couleur verdâtre.Les substances utilisées contre ces vers sont spécifiées dans le tableau 5.3.La paramphistomose peut être combattue de la même manière que la fasciolose. En revanche, cette approche n'est pas applicable à la dicrocoeliose dans la mesure où les hôtes intermédiaires de celle-ci sont des escargots terrestres et des fourmis.Cénurose, ou tournis (coenurosis, gid, sturdy), due à la présence, dans le système nerveux central des ovins et parfois des bovins, d'un stade larvaire de type cénure du ver Taenia multiceps, un ténia dont l'hôte définitif est le chien.La cénurose, ou tournis, sévit dans le monde entier.La maladie est causée par la présence de cénures (ou coenures), des kystes à parois minces contenant des scolex de ténia baignant dans un liquide. Ces kystes se localisent dans le cerveau ou dans la moelle épinière et, pouvant atteindre 5 cm de diamètre, compriment les tissus adjacents. Les symptômes qui en résultent dépendent de la localisation des cénures, mais on observe notamment des cécités progressives d'un oeil, des pertes de coordination des mouvements, des déplacements en cercles, jusqu'à l'incapacité à se tenir debout puis la mort.Les chiens porteurs du Taenia multiceps libèrent dans l'environnement, avec leurs excréments, des segments de ce ténia contenant des oeufs. Si ces oeufs sont avalés par des ovins ou d'autres ruminants, des larves en éclosent qui migrent vers le cerveau et la moelle épinière, où elles forment les cénures. Les chiens contractent le parasite en consommant des tissus de ruminants contenant ces kystes.Il n'existe pas de traitement, mais un drainage chirurgical ou l'excision du ou des kystes en cause par un vétérinaire est quelquefois possible.Le cycle de vie de ce ténia peut être interrompu en empêchant les chiens de consommer des cadavres ou des sous-produits d'abattage d'ovins.Cette maladie inquiétante est heureusement plutôt rare. Lorsqu'elle devient problématique, il y a lieu de faire en sorte que les chiens ne puissent plus avoir accès à des matières carnées provenant d'ovins.Vers parasitant les chameaux (similaires à ceux des autres ruminants).Haemonchus longistipes est une espèce presque exclusive des chameaux. L'affection peut être grave.Ces vers sont présents dans toutes les régions d'élevage de chameaux. Avec l'intensification laitière dans certains pays (Mauritanie, Emirats arabes unis) le problème du parasitisme devient important. Les cycles de vie des vers du genre Haemonchus et des autres vers gastrointestinaux des chameaux sont semblables à ceux des vers des autres ruminants (voir la figure 5.1). La phase d'hypobiose des parasites pourrait être plus marquée. Un certain nombre de facteurs contribuent toutefois à ce que les helminthoses posent rarement problème chez ces animaux.L'environnement -Les chameaux sont élevés dans des conditions arides ou semi-arides qui sont, pendant le plus clair de l'année, impropres à la survie des oeufs et des larves de vers dans les zones de pâturage. Mais en revanche, les chameaux se concentrent autour des points d'eau, ce qui facilite les infestations.Le comportement alimentaire -Les chameaux ont un comportement ambulatoire ; ils se déplacent beaucoup en broutant, ce qui diminue le risque d'infestation importante ; en saison sèche, ils consomment surtout des feuilles de plantes ligneuses, indemnes de larves infectieuses de vers.Il reste cependant que des helminthoses sont très fréquentes chez les chameaux. Il est donc conseillé de prendre en considération d'éventuels facteurs prédisposants qui pourraient favoriser la présence de parasites en grand nombre, tels que des maladies altérant la résistance aux vers (une trypanosomose, par exemple) ou une tendance à consommer plus d'herbacées lorsque les pluies sont abondantes et que la végétation au sol est bien développée. Les oasis qui accueillent régulièrement des chameaux finissent souvent par accumuler de grandes quantités de larves infectieuses.Peu de choses ont été publiées sur l'utilisation de substances anthelminthiques chez les chameaux, mais il semble que les préparations destinées aux autres ruminants et autres animaux domestiques pourraient convenir : albendazole, fenbendazole, nitoxynil, ivermectine, etc. Il faut noter que le tétramisole est contre-indiqué.Il convient d'effectuer des traitements préventifs et de traiter les cas cliniques au fur et à mesure de leur apparition. Il convient de traiter en priorité les femelles en période de mise bas, les jeunes de 6 mois à 2 ans au moment de leur première saison des pluies et tout animal maigre et atteint de diarrhée.La trypanosomose à T. evansi constitue selon toute évidence la plus courante et, avec l'hémonchose, la plus importante des maladies des chameaux. Bien souvent, c'est la seule à laquelle pensent les vétérinaires et les éleveurs confrontés à des animaux atteints d'un dépérissement chronique. Les signes cliniques de la trypanosomose et des helminthoses se ressemblent cependant à plus d'un titre, et certains rapports montrent bien que les chameaux peuvent souffrir des deux simultanément. Aussi doit-on, confronté à un individu anémique dont l'état général se dégrade, penser aussi bien aux helminthoses qu'à la trypanosomose et envoyer au laboratoire à la fois des prélèvements fécaux pour numération des oeufs de vers et des frottis sanguins pour recherche de trypanosomes.Vers des genres Parascaris, Strongylus, Triodontophorus, Trichonema et Strongyloides parasitant les chevaux et les ânes (voir le tableau 5.4).Les helminthoses des équidés existent dans le monde entier.Dans la plupart des cas, les infestations ne produisent de signes cliniques que lorsque les parasites sont particulièrement nombreux -souvent lorsque les animaux ont été longtemps maintenus sur une même parcelle.L'ascaris du cheval Parascaris equorum entraîne chez les jeunes une maladie semblable à celle provoquée par Ascaris suum chez les jeunes porcins. L'anguillule du cheval, Strongyloides westeri, de même, est l'équivalent chez les équidés de Strongyloides ransomi chez les porcins, à ceci près qu'il est bien toléré, même lorsqu'il est présent en grand nombre. Tous ces vers peuvent être traités à l'aide des substances anthelminthiques appropriées (voir le tableau 5.2). Les chances de rétablissement à la suite d'une infestation de Strongylus vulgaris dépendent de l'étendue des dégâts infligés par la restriction de l'apport sanguin aux intestins et aux autres parties du corps.Une bonne hygiène associée à l'élimination des crottins devrait permettre de limiter les risques d'infestations de Parascaris equorum. Les équidés au pâturage sont pratiquement tous infestés par des strongles et le moyen le plus simple de s'y opposer consiste à administrer un anthelminthique adapté à intervalles réguliers. Un traitement toutes les 6 semaines pourra s'avérer nécessaire ; il sera néanmoins possible de le suspendre momentanément aux périodes de l'année pendant lesquelles la charge parasitaire en larves L3 des parcours tend à se réduire fortement, par exemple en saison sèche.Les jeunes animaux sont les plus réceptifs et sensibles, et mieux vaut leur réserver un pâturage indemne d'helminthes. Les vers des équidés ne parasitant pas les ruminants et inversement, la pratique qui consiste à faire paître alternativement les uns et les autres sur les parcours permet de réduire la contamination de ceux-ci par les larves de vers spécifiques de chaque groupe.Si la maladie spectaculaire qui survient parfois à la suite de fortes infestations de Strongylus vulgaris est bien connue des vétérinaires et des propriétaires de chevaux, le principal effet des helminthoses chez les équidés est une dégradation de l'état général souvent liée à des infestations mixtes, à l'instar de ce que l'on observe chez les ruminants.Diverses espèces de vers parasitant les porcins (voir le tableau 5.5).Les helminthes des porcins existent partout dans le monde.En fonction du nombre de vers présents, les signes cliniques peuvent être absents (helminthoses asymptomatiques ou infracliniques) ou plus ou moins marqués, voire très graves. Les fortes infestations entraînent une dégradation de l'état général ainsi que des diarrhées dans le cas d'helminthes intestinaux. On peut également observer d'autres manifestations, telles que de la toux, des vomissements, une anémie et des paralysies, éventuellement la mort. Se reporter au tableau 5.5 pour plus de détails.Les porcins peuvent contracter ces vers de diverses manières. Beaucoup de ces parasites sont liés à des conditions d'élevage peu hygiéniques, favorisant l'accumulation d'oeufs et de larves infectantes ou la présence des hôtes intermédiaires (larves de coléoptères pour Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus et lombrics pour Stephanurus dentatus). Les problèmes pathologiques surviennent surtout chez des porcs maintenus sur un même terrain pendant longtemps.Des anthelminthiques efficaces sont proposées dans le tableau 5.2.Une bonne hygiène, l'élimination des excréments et des conditions d'élevage propres et sèches permettent d'empêcher l'accumulation d'oeufs de vers des genres Ascaris, Macracanthorhynchus et Trichuris et de réduire les risques de contracter les autres espèces.Le ver du rein du porc, Stephanurus dentatus, pose des problèmes particuliers. Dans l'idéal, les porcs devraient être maintenus dans des stalles propres et sèches, au sol bétonné et bien drainé où les lombrics ne peuvent avoir accès. Les mangeoires et les abreuvoirs devraient être placés de manière à ne pas pouvoir être contaminés par les urines. Dans le cas fréquent où ces dispositions ne peuvent pas être mises en oeuvre, les jeunes animaux devraient être maintenus à l'écart des adultes : en effet, ce n'est généralement qu'à partir de l'âge de 2 ans que les porcs commencent à rejeter des oeufs de Stephanurus dans leurs urines.Afin de maintenir les infestations helminthiques à un niveau aussi bas que possible, les mesures d'hygiène devraient être complétées par l'administration régulière d'anthelminthiques. A l'instar des autres animaux domestiques, il est conseillé de prendre l'avis d'un vétérinaire en cas de problème de vers. Toutefois, de manière générale, une préparation adaptée sera administrée aux truies quelques jours avant la mise bas et aux porcelets à l'âge de 1 et 2 mois (voir le tableau 5.2). Un tel programme, s'il est correctement exécuté, devrait permettre de maintenir la plupart des helminthoses à un niveau raisonnable.Stephanurus dentatus, l'ensemble des porcs de l'élevage devrait être traité tous les 4 mois pendant au moins une année. Cette stratégie permet normalement d'éliminer les vers parasitant les porcs tout en donnant le temps à la population de lombrics infestés de s'estomper naturellement.Les helminthes des porcins, bien que moins étudiés que ceux des ruminants domestiques, peuvent malheureusement entraîner des pathologies Tableau 5.5. Les helminthes des porcins (voir aussi le tableau 5.6).Strongle stomacal du porc, Hyostrongylus rubidusLe cycle de vie est de type classique (voir la fi gure 5.1) ; peut induire des gastrites sans gravité, mais semble ne pas entraîner de pathologies signifi catives ; répartition mondiale de dépérissement, de distension de l'abdomen, gênantes. Si l'on soupçonne la présence de vers parasites chez ces animaux, mieux vaut faire appel à un vétérinaire qui saura faire prélever et envoyer les échantillons appropriés pour analyses en laboratoire, et prendre les dispositions qui s'imposent à la vue des résultats.Helminthes parasitant à la fois l'homme et les animaux domestiques. Les étapes du cycle qui se déroulent dans l'organisme des animaux domestiques sont importantes, car elles déterminent la manière avec laquelle l'homme contracte à son tour les parasites. Les principales espèces d'intérêt vétérinaire et médical figurent dans le tableau 5.6.Ver nodulaire, Oesophagostomum spp.Le cycle de vie est de type classique (voir la fi gure 5.1) ; cause de colite nodulaire, caractéristique de l'oesophagostomose ; l'infestation chronique entraîne un dépérissement et des diarrhées ; répartition mondiale, surtout sous climats chauds et humidesTrichure du porc,Les porcs contractent le parasite en ingérant les oeufs rejetés avec les excréments ; les oeufs peuvent survivre plusieurs années dans le milieu extérieur ; l'infestation peut être à l'origine de diarrhées chroniques ; répartition mondiale ; lié à un manque d'hygièneLes larves infectantes éclosent d'oeufs rejetés dans les urines ; les porcs contractent le parasite par ingestion, par pénétration à travers la peau ou par consommation de l'hôte intermédiaire (lombrics) ; les larves migrent à travers divers tissus pour arriver aux reins, occasionnant des lésions au niveau du foie, des poumons, des vaisseaux sanguins et de la moelle épinière, entraînant un dépérissement, une dégradation de l'état général et parfois même une paralysie et la mort dans les cas de forte infestation ; sévit dans les régions tropicales et subtropicales Tableau 5.5. suite.Tableau 5.6.Vers des animaux domestiques pathogènes pour l'homme (à répartition mondiale). Les zoonoses helminthiques (zoonotic helminth infections) sont présentes dans le monde entier, partout où des contacts existent entre l'homme et des animaux.De manière générale, la présence de ces helminthes se traduit rarement par la manifestation de signes particuliers chez les animaux domestiques.Les symptômes relevés chez les différents types d'hôtes sont les suivants.Kystes hydatiques ou échinococcose larvaire (hydatid cysts, hydatidosis) -Ces kystes peuvent apparaître chez les animaux domestiques comme chez l'homme. Ils contiennent les larves infectieuses d'un petit ténia, Echinococcus granulosus, dont l'hôte définitif est le chien. En dépit de leur taille, qui peut atteindre 20 cm de diamètre dans les poumons et même plus dans la cavité abdominale, ils sont bien tolérés par les animaux, chez lesquels ils induisent rarement d'effets pathogènes (voir la figure 5.3). Chez les ovins et les chameaux, la plupart des kystes hydatiques se rencontrent dans les poumons, tandis qu'ils se concentrent principalement dans le foie chez les bovins et les équidés. Chez l'homme, en revanche, ces kystes peuvent se révéler pathogènes et même mortels en cas de rupture d'un kyste de grande taille. L'homme et les animaux domestiques contractent le parasite en avalant des oeufs de E. granulosus, qui sont rejetés dans le milieu extérieur dans les excréments des chiens infestés. L'échinococcose est de ce fait une maladie qui survient lorsque les chiens ont accès aux abats d'animaux domestiques tout en vivant à proximité immédiate de l'homme, des conditions que l'on trouve par exemple dans certains habitats humains surpeuplés où le niveau d'hygiène est insuffisant. Téniasis et cysticercoses (ladrerie bovine et ladrerie porcine) à Taenia saginata ou Taenia solium (taeniosis, cysticercosis) -Les petites formes larvaires de ces ténias parasites de l'homme s'enkystent dans les muscles des bovins et des porcins, qui sont alors dits ladres. Ces petits cysticerques, d'environ 1 cm de diamètre, n'ont aucun effet pathogène sur les animaux qui les hébergent. Ils sont détectés à l'abattoir par les inspecteurs des viandes, qui peuvent alors faire saisir la totalité ou une partie de la carcasse ladre. L'homme contracte le parasite en consommant de la viande crue ou mal cuite contenant des cysticerques, qui achèvent alors dans l'intestin leur développement en ténias adultes pouvant atteindre 15 m de longueur, susceptibles d'être à l'origine de gênes abdominales et de diarrhées. T. solium, contrairement à T. saginata, est également en mesure de parasiter l'homme au stade de cysticerque, ce qui se traduit, lorsque les kystes se forment dans le cerveau, par une forme épileptique grave, voire mortelle, de la maladie.Trichinose (trichinosis, trichinellosis) -Trichinella spiralis est un nématode parasite qui peut infester une grande diversité d'espèces animales, dont fréquemment des espèces sauvages par le biais des prédateurs et des charognards. L'homme contracte le parasite en consommant du gibier, mais surtout de la viande de porc domestique infesté du fait d'une alimentation comportant des déchets de viande crus ou insuffisamment cuits. Le parasite adulte est un petit ver d'environ 3 mm de longueur occupant l'intestin grêle. Les femelles y produisent des larves, qui migrent ensuite vers les tissus musculaires où elles s'enkystent et peuvent subsister pendant plusieurs années. Un nouvel animal est infesté lorsqu'il consomme ces tissus contenant des kystes. Les larves poursuivent alors leur développement dans les intestins jusqu'au stade adulte reproducteur, complétant ainsi le cycle. Chez les porcins, la présence de ces vers est presque invariablement sans conséquences, mais lorsque l'homme contracte le parasite en grand nombre en consommant de la viande crue, il en résulte une entérite et une myosite (inflammation des muscles) susceptible de gagner le muscle cardiaque et donc potentiellement mortelle.Les animaux domestiques n'étant pas affectés par la présence de ces parasites, aucun traitement n'est pratiqué, hormis chez les chiens.Les dispositions suivantes devraient permettre de juguler ce type de parasitoses.Inspection des viandes -Faire appliquer des mesures strictes dans les abattoirs pour qu'y soient recherchés les cysticerques dans les viandes de boeuf et de porc et les kystes de Trichinella dans le porc, et veiller le cas échéant à ce que les mesures qui s'imposent soient appliquées. Les organes infestés sont saisis et détruits (incinération, immersion dans de l'eau crésylée). En cas d'atteinte importante, toute la carcasse est saisie.Les viandes peu parasitées par la ladrerie peuvent être assainies (salaison, cuisson ou congélation).Transformation de la viande -Bien faire cuire la viande destinée à la consommation humaine comme les déchets carnés destinés au nourrissage des porcs (cette utilisation est maintenant interdite dans certains pays comme la France et la Grande-Bretagne).Surveillance des allées et venues des chiens -Eviter la divagation des chiens. Interdire les chiens dans les abattoirs. Empêcher les chiens de consommer les abats et autres déchets issus du dépeçage des animaux abattus.Traitement des chiens -Traiter les chiens à intervalles réguliers avec une préparation adaptée (du praziquantel par exemple) afin de veiller à ce qu'ils restent indemnes d'Echinococcus granulosus.Au moment des repas, éviter le voisinage des chiens. Se laver souvent les mains. Eviter que les animaux puissent avoir accès aux selles de l'homme.Dans beaucoup de sociétés modernes, l'impact de ces zoonoses helminthiques a été considérablement réduit par l'amélioration des conditions sanitaires, la réglementation sévère en matière de viande de boucherie et l'éducation du grand public en ce qui concerne la cuisson de la viande et la manipulation des aliments frais.6. Les maladies liées à l'environnement et à la conduite de l'élevageMaladies dues à certaines espèces de bactéries anaérobies sporulées du genre Clostridium, qui sont très communes et présentes de manière normale dans la terre, la matière organique et le tube digestif des animaux. La présence de ces micro-organismes est habituellement sans conséquences, mais un certain nombre de facteurs prédisposants peuvent déclencher leur multiplication rapide et la production de toxines en quantités significatives, entraînant des pathologies très diverses et parfois très graves (tétanos, charbon symptomatique, etc.) affectant la majorité des espèces d'élevage ; ces maladies, classées en deux types, sont décrites dans les tableaux 6.1 (Les entérotoxémies dues à C. perfringens) et 6.2 (Les toxémies dues aux autres clostridies).Les toxémies à clostridies (clostridial toxaemia) peuvent survenir dans le monde entier.Les clostridies étant particulièrement abondantes dans la terre contaminée par de la matière organique ou des excréments (fumier), ces pathologies sont généralement liées aux sites très fréquentés par des animaux, tels que les parcs, les enclos, les zones pâturées en continu ou les abords de points d'eau. Les troupeaux itinérants ou répartis sur de vastes territoires sont moins exposés.Les facteurs prédisposants suscitant la pullulation de ces micro-organismes et la production de toxines en quantités suffisantes pour entraîner les signes cliniques sont de deux types.Modification de l'alimentation -Bien que les modalités n'en soient pas encore connues avec exactitude, l'amélioration de l'alimentation constitue  L'hépatite infectieuse nécrosante et l'hémoglobinurie bacillaire conduisent également à une issue fatale après une maladie de courte durée. La coloration rouge des urines caractéristique de la seconde apparaît parfois avant la mort.Observations à l'autopsie -Les clostridies responsables de ces maladies font partie de la faune microbienne normalement impliquée dans la décomposition des tissus après la mort. Sous les climats chauds, le processus de décomposition est rapide chez les animaux morts d'une toxémie à clostridies ; il est donc particulièrement difficile, voire impossible, de distinguer les altérations dues à la pathologie de celles causées par la progression normale de la putréfaction. Les examens des tissus en laboratoire ne sont donc utiles que lorsqu'ils sont réalisés très rapidement après la mort de l'animal.Les muscles affectés par le charbon symptomatique sont de couleur très foncée (brune), de texture spongieuse (due à la présence de bulles de gaz) et dégagent une forte odeur rance. Les lésions dues à la septicémie gangreneuse sont similaires, à ceci près qu'elles sont plus oedémateuses et qu'elles dégagent une odeur plus puissante (figure 6.2).Les animaux qui meurent de tétanos ne présentent pas d'altérations pathologiques visibles à l'autopsie. A l'inverse, les cas mortels de syndrome de la grosse tête présentent un oedème très apparent au niveau de la tête, bien que l'odeur puisse être tout à fait discrète. Les lésions causées par la métrite gangreneuse rappellent celles du charbon symptomatique et de la septicémie gangreneuse, à ceci près qu'elles sont confinées à l'appareil génital et aux tissus adjacents.  Les animaux morts d'entérotoxémie, d'hépatite infectieuse nécrosante ou d'hémoglobinurie bacillaire peuvent avoir des quantités excessives de liquide dans les cavités corporelles, notamment dans la cavité péricardique (cavité entourant le coeur). Dans le cas de l'hépatite infectieuse nécrosante, les vaisseaux sanguins sous-cutanés prennent une teinte foncée, tandis qu'en cas d'hémoglobinurie bacillaire, la coloration rouge de l'urine contenue dans la vessie est facile à observer. Dans l'une comme dans l'autre de ces toxémies, des signes de lésions hépatiques dues à des douves sont normalement visibles.Les jeunes moutons morts de gastrotoxémie ou entérotoxémie à vibrion septique (braxy) présentent un oedème et des hémorragies de la caillette et des lésions de septicémie.Il n'existe aucun traitement efficace contre les entérotoxémies figurant dans le tableau 6. Le charbon symptomatique est une importante cause de mortalité chez les bovins en région tropicale ; bien que les facteurs prédisposants soient encore mal connus, cette maladie se déclare généralement de manière répétée dans des secteurs géographiques ou des élevages bien déterminés. Dans ces zones à risque, il est de ce fait fréquent de vacciner systématiquement les bovins de moins de 3 ans.Les entérotoxémies sont rarement signalées dans les pays tropicaux, peutêtre du fait de l'alimentation des animaux, généralement moins abondante ou moins riche, ou des difficultés à confirmer le diagnostic sous des climats induisant une décomposition accélérée des cadavres.Les mammites ou mastites sont des inflammations de la glande mammaire. Elles peuvent être causées par divers micro-organismes et surviennent chez toutes les espèces domestiques. Les mammites peuvent être dangereuses pour l'homme qui consomme du lait contaminé ou contenant des antibiotiques.Cette maladie a une incidence économique très forte chez les vaches laitières traites à la machine bien que la traite mécanique ne soit pas très répandue sous les tropiques.Les mammites existent dans le monde entier. La mammite est le résultat de la colonisation du quartier de la mamelle, principalement via le canal du trayon, par divers micro-organismes en provenance des mamelles d'autres animaux infectés ou de l'environnement. L'infection débute par l'intrusion des micro-organismes dans le canal du trayon par l'orifice du trayon, puis se poursuit par leur progression jusqu'au tissu de la glande mammaire, induisant la mammite.Il existe plusieurs facteurs prédisposants, dont le principal est le manque d'hygiène. Lorsque les conditions sont déficientes sur le plan sanitaire, la contamination des manchons trayeurs de la machine à traire par des micro-organismes issus de l'environnement ou du lait d'autres individus peut propager l'infection au sein du troupeau. La présence de plaies sur le trayon, par exemple dues à des manchons trayeurs mal ajustés ou fendus, prédispose également à l'infection du canal du trayon.Une fois l'infection installée dans le canal du trayon, la gravité de la mammite dépend de l'espèce microbienne en cause, du stade de la lactation et de l'état de la glande mammaire. Réforme -Les vaches atteintes de mammites qui ne guérissent pas, de mammites qui récidivent ou de quartiers fibrosés sont éliminées.Pour la traite manuelle, des précautions similaires peuvent être recommandées.Les mammites constituent les maladies des bovins laitiers les plus importantes sur le plan économique, et certainement la première cause de baisse de productivité laitière. Même les cas subcliniques, qui ne sont détectés qu'à l'aide du bol de traite ou par CMT, présentent une baisse de production. Lorsque la mammite devient sérieuse ou que le nombre de cas subcliniques se multiplie, il y a lieu de demander l'aide d'un vétérinaire, qui saura mettre au point une stratégie pour juguler cette maladie complexe.Les mammites peuvent également survenir dans les systèmes d'élevage traditionnels avec traite manuelle et maintien des veaux sous la mère, mais elles prennent alors rarement des proportions importantes. Une mammite peut en outre se déclarer à l'occasion d'une tuberculose bovine (se reporter au chapitre 1).Les bufflesses sont généralement traites à la main, ce qui limite fortement les problèmes de mammite. Certaines sont toutefois traites mécaniquement, ce qui les expose plus à la maladie, au même titre que les bovins laitiers, avec des effets semblables. Il est recommandé d'utiliser pour les buffles une pression de succion différente -du fait de la lenteur relative de l'écoulement du lait chez ces animaux -et des gobelettrayeurs plus lourds, pour éviter que les gobelets ne remontent trop sur les trayons. Pour le reste, les procédures de traitement et de surveillance sont les mêmes que dans le cas des bovins.Lésions, le plus souvent localisées sur le dos, l'encolure ou le garrot des animaux de travail causées par des pièces de harnachement défectueuses ou mal ajustées (selle, cordes, harnais, collier, joug, etc.).Les plaies de harnachement (saddle sore) s'observent partout où des animaux sont utilisés pour le travail (montés, bâtés ou attelés), c'est-àdire dans la majorité des pays du monde.Des plages de peau à vif apparaissent au niveau de zones déjà dépilées par les frottements d'une selle, d'un harnais ou de cordes mal ajustées (voir la figure 6.3). Ces lésions évoluent ensuite en ulcères susceptibles de s'infecter. Parfois, au lieu de s'ulcérer, la peau à vif durcit et s'épaissit au-dessus d'une zone infectée adhérant aux tissus sains sous-jacents.Les animaux ainsi blessés doivent être mis au repos, les lésions étant traitées à l'aide d'une crème ou d'une poudre antiseptique jusqu'à la guérison. Les cas particulièrement sévères doivent être examinés par un vétérinaire dans la mesure où un traitement antibiotique ou une intervention chirurgicale peut s'avérer nécessaire.Les pièces de harnachement utilisées pour faire travailler un animal doivent être bien adaptées à sa morphologie et bien entretenues. Les selles et harnais doivent être correctement rembourrés pour qu'ils n'entrent pas en contact direct avec le corps de l'animal et occasionnent des frottements. Si c'est possible, changer l'endroit de passage du harnais.Le travail des animaux de trait est trop souvent rendu très pénible du fait de l'utilisation prolongée de selles, colliers et autres pièces de harnachement mal ajustés et mal entretenus. C'est notamment trop souvent le cas des ânes, animaux de trait modestes, souvent mal traités. Un peu d'attention pour prévenir ce type de blessures permettra d'améliorer considérablement les conditions de vie de ces animaux et d'en obtenir de bien meilleures performances.Synonyme : fièvre des transports (stress-induced pasteurellosis, pasteurellosis, shipping fever, transit fever).Maladie bactérienne des bovins, des ovins et sans doute des caprins due à Pasteurella haemolytica ou, rarement, chez les bovins à P. multocida. La pathologie se déclare à la suite d'un stress ou d'un autre facteur prédisposant tel un voyage de longue durée. La pasteurellose par stress existe dans le monde entier.Il existe deux types de Pasteurella haemolytica, à savoir, le type A et le type T, qui induisent des signes cliniques différents bien que les facteurs prédisposants puissent être similaires. Le traitement antibiotique est efficace mais doit être administré à un stade précoce de la maladie, ce qui peut s'avérer difficile dans les élevages extensifs sur parcours, dans lesquels les animaux malades ne sont souvent pas détectés avant leur mort. Comme le traitement doit se poursuivre sur plusieurs jours, il est conseillé d'éviter les injections quotidiennes, qui peuvent constituer un stress en elles-mêmes, en optant pour de l'oxytétracycline ou de la pénicilline à effet prolongé. Le facteur prédisposant, s'il est identifié, doit par ailleurs être neutralisé. Les animaux atteints de pneumonie grave exigent en outre beaucoup de soins généraux attentifs, et comme ils ne seront vraisemblablement jamais très productifs même une fois rétablis, il est souvent plus économique pour les propriétaires de limiter les pertes en les faisant abattre.Ces maladies complexes peuvent, dans une très large mesure, être prévenues par de bonnes pratiques d'élevage veillant à éviter tout stress aux animaux, en particulier en s'interdisant les densités excessives et les surcharges de travail.Des vaccins sont utilisés chez les bovins et les ovins dans une bonne partie du monde, mais ils sont d'efficacité limitée et doivent, pour un effet optimal, être administrés sous étroite surveillance vétérinaire. Le risque existe en effet d'utiliser un vaccin inadapté au type de pasteurellose en cause, voire même de l'administrer à contretemps. Dans la mesure où le problème des pasteurelloses est encore mal cerné dans la plupart des pays tropicaux, l'accent devrait être mis sur une conduite saine de l'élevage plutôt que sur le recours aux vaccins.Dans toutes les formes de pasteurelloses, la maladie causée par les Pasteurella ne constitue que le dernier maillon d'un processus pathologique complexe. En dépit de leur importance économique, ces maladies sont encore mal comprises. Des pneumonies sont souvent diagnostiquées chez les ovins et les caprins des régions semi-arides d'Afrique et d'Asie et souvent attribuées à des pasteurelloses, mais des recherches approfondies sont nécessaires pour en déterminer la ou les causes exactes. Aussi, dans l'avenir immédiat, il y a-t-il lieu de mettre l'accent sur les pratiques d'élevage et si possible sur le traitement rapide des cas cliniques.Pasteurella multocida est également responsable de la septicémie hémorragique (voir le chapitre 1), une maladie importante des buffles et des bovins en Asie et occasionnellement ailleurs.Maladies des animaux résultant de pratiques souvent liées à l'intensification de l'élevage et introduisant un déséquilibre dans un ou plusieurs métabolismes.Ces maladies prennent des proportions gênantes dans les élevages où les animaux sont contraints à des niveaux élevés de productivité.Fièvre de lait, fièvre vitulaire ou hypocalcémie (milk fever, hypocalcaemia) -Cette maladie atteint les vaches laitières hautement productives 1 à 2 jours de part et d'autre du vêlage. Elle se signale tout d'abord par une perte d'appétit et une légère hypothermie (température corporelle inférieure à la normale, en dépit du nom vernaculaire de cette maladie). La maladie évolue ensuite rapidement, avec une perte de coordination des mouvements : les animaux tombent au sol et, après plusieurs tentatives pour se relever, restent couchés avec, souvent, la tête reposant sur l'épaule. En l'absence de traitement, les vaches sombrent dans le coma et meurent dans les 24 heures suivant l'apparition des premiers symptômes. La panse cesse de fonctionner, entraînant parfois la complication d'une météorisation qui peut elle-même devenir la cause immédiate de la mort. La probabilité de développer une fièvre de lait augmente avec l'âge ; elle est très faible chez les génisses primipares et encore peu importante chez les vaches produisant leur deuxième veau.Hypomagnésiémie, tétanie d'herbage ou tétanie de lactation (hypomagnesaemia, grass staggers, grass tetany, milk tetany) -Ce problème survient souvent chez les vaches laitières hautement productives au cours de la période de production laitière maximale (pic de lactation) lorsqu'elles pâturent dans un herbage luxuriant, ainsi que chez les veaux élevés sur un régime principalement lacté. Dans sa forme suraiguë, la maladie se manifeste brutalement par une démarche titubante, des chutes et des convulsions accompagnées de mouvements frénétiques des membres et d'une production de bave écumeuse. Le rythme cardiaque s'accélère de manière marquée et la mort survient peu de temps après.Les cas aigus suivent une évolution semblable mais étalée sur plusieurs heures, pendant lesquelles les animaux jouissent de petites périodes de rémission entre les crises de convulsions. Dans la forme subaiguë, la phase de démarche chancelante peut se prolonger sur plusieurs heures, voire sur 1 à 2 jours, avant l'apparition des autres symptômes. Les animaux sont inquiets et affectés de tremblements au niveau de la tête, des épaules et des flancs.Acétonémie ou cétose (acetonaemia, ketosis) -Ce trouble se manifeste chez les vaches laitières hautement productives quelques semaines après le vêlage, généralement chez les animaux en stabulation nourris à l'ensilage ou au foin. On observe tout d'abord une dégradation de l'état général sur quelques jours ainsi qu'une diminution légère de la productivité laitière, qui se poursuit en entamant une chute brutale tandis que l'appétit diminue brusquement. L'état général s'altère de plus en plus rapidement, les animaux deviennent apathiques et l'odeur douceâtre de l'acétone peut souvent être perçue dans leur haleine, leur urine ou dans leur lait. Les excréments tendent à être fermes et enrobés de mucus, et certains individus souffrent de troubles nerveux (hypersalivation, mastication, perte de coordination des mouvements, cécité ou comportement agressif, par exemple). La cause sous-jacente de l'acétonémie étant la production de lait en quantité excessive, la chute de la productivité se traduit généralement par la disparition progressive des signes cliniques. Il n'est pas dans le propos de cet ouvrage d'expliquer en détail ces maladies complexes. Toutes se manifestent à des moments où les besoins métaboliques en calcium, en magnésium ou en énergie dépassent les possibilités de l'organisme, produisant un état de carence aiguë, temporaire mais potentiellement mortel.Carence en calcium -Chez les bovins, le début de la lactation au moment de la mise bas est à l'origine d'un accroissement brutal de la demande en calcium, ce qui provoque une chute passagère de la calcémie (taux de calcium dans le sang) au-dessous des valeurs normales -un état appelé hypocalcémie. Ce déséquilibre est normalement corrigé par l'activation de voies métaboliques complexes au cours desquelles le calcium des os est mobilisé, absorbé dans l'intestin et mis en circulation dans le sang. Toutefois, chez les animaux produisant de très grandes quantités de lait, l'hypocalcémie peut s'avérer impossible à compenser de cette manière et induire une fièvre de lait. Dans le cas de la fièvre de lait, l'alimentation des bovins pendant la période précédant le vêlage, lorsqu'il n'y a aucune production de lait, est capitale. Un régime alimentaire pauvre en matière sèche (herbe luxuriante gorgée d'eau, par exemple) ou, paradoxalement, riche en calcium constitue un facteur prédisposant. Il en est de même d'un régime pauvre en magnésium, dans la mesure où l'absorption du calcium au niveau des intestins en est altérée ; il arrive en effet fréquemment que la fièvre de lait se complique d'une hypomagnésiémie. L'hypocalcémie de la brebis est l'équivalent presque exact de la fièvre de lait chez la vache. La demande en calcium, qui augmente fortement du fait de la croissance rapide du foetus en fin de gestation, de la production de colostrum dans les quelques jours précédant l'agnelage puis de la production de lait proprement dit, est telle que les hypocalcémies peuvent survenir à tout moment entre la dernière partie de la gestation et quelques semaines après la mise bas.Carence en magnésium -L'organisme perd du magnésium dans le lait, les urines et les excréments. Malheureusement, contrairement au calcium, aucune réserve n'est disponible à court terme pour compenser un accroissement brusque des demandes. Il s'ensuit donc que les besoins métaboliques doivent immédiatement être couverts par l'alimentation, qui doit à tout moment comporter des quantités suffisantes de ce minéral. Dans le cas contraire, la teneur sanguine en magnésium peut baisser jusqu'à atteindre des niveaux inférieurs à la normale (hypomagnésiémie). Les parcours permanents portant une végétation pérenne de graminées, trèfle et autres herbacées à fleurs (prairies naturelles) contiennent normalement suffisamment de magnésium. En revanche, les jeunes herbages en pleine croissance sont susceptibles d'être pauvres en magnésium. D'autres facteurs peuvent jouer sur la teneur en magnésium des pâturages, comme le recours aux engrais à base de nitrates ou de potasse ou une concentration élevée du sol en potassium. La période clé, pour les ovins comme pour les bovins, pendant laquelle les demandes physiologiques culminent se situe au début de la lactation, lorsque la production laitière a atteint son maximum ou s'en approche. Ainsi l'hypomagnésiémie est-elle surtout observée chez les animaux produisant beaucoup de lait tout en étant maintenus sur un herbage jeune et luxuriant. Un problème identique affecte les veaux de 2 à 4 mois qui ne reçoivent que du lait et dont les besoins en magnésium ne sont pas complètement couverts. Les animaux carencés en magnésium sont toujours aussi carencés en calcium, dans la mesure où des teneurs trop faibles en magnésium sanguin inhibent l'absorption du calcium dans les intestins.Carence énergétique -Chez les ruminants, le glucose nécessaire aux divers besoins physiologiques en énergie est essentiellement produit par le foie. La principale source de glucose est l'acide propionique, un acide gras volatil qui se forme dans la panse à la faveur de la fermentation des glucides de l'alimentation.Les vaches qui produisent de grandes quantités de lait ont, en début de lactation, des besoins en glucose plus élevés, normalement couverts par la voie de l'acide propionique et par les réserves de l'organisme. Lorsque la production d'acide propionique est faible, du fait d'une alimentation pauvre en glucides, la teneur en glucose du sang (ou glycémie) chute, ce qui déclenche la mobilisation et la dégradation des réserves de graisses de l'organisme afin de pallier la carence énergétique. Au nombre des sous-produits de la dégradation des graisses, on trouve les cétones -notamment l'acide acétylacétique, l'acide bétahydroxybutyrique et l'acétone -dont la présence en excès détermine la manifestation des symptômes de l'acétonémie (ou acétose).Les mêmes facteurs sont à l'origine de la toxémie de gestation ou acétose des ovins, observée chez les brebis en fin de gestation, notamment chez celles qui sont en bon état général et portent deux foetus. L'acétonémie de la vache et la toxémie de gestation de la brebis résultent donc d'une déficience alimentaire à un moment critique, caractérisé par une demande accrue en glucose : le début de la lactation chez les vaches laitières à haut rendement et la fin de la gestation chez les brebis.Le syndrome de la vache grasse rappelle l'acétonémie à plusieurs titres.Les animaux excessivement gras tendent à avoir moins d'appétit, et lorsque les demandes en glucose explosent au début de la lactation, l'insuffisance de l'apport alimentaire entraîne une mobilisation palliatrice excessive des graisses de l'organisme, une accumulation anormale de lipides dans le foie et la manifestation des symptômes caractéristiques de cette maladie.Dans la plupart des carences exposées ci-dessus, le traitement est efficace s'il est administré à temps. Les différentes procédures à appliquer sont récapitulées dans le tableau 6.4. Il n'existe toutefois aucun traitement contre le syndrome de la vache grasse, et dans le cas de tétanie du veau, les animaux sont généralement retrouvés morts.A l'exception de l'acétonémie des bovins, ces maladies ont un taux de mortalité très élevé. Le traitement doit donc être administré de toute urgence et nécessite en outre beaucoup de doigté -dans l'idéal, il devrait être confié à un vétérinaire.Ces pathologies découlent de carences alimentaires pendant la période critique qui est comprise entre la fin de la gestation et le pic de lactation, lorsque les demandes physiologiques en calcium, magnésium et glucose culminent. La mesure de prévention évidente consiste à compléter les apports du régime alimentaire pendant cette période.Il est important de bien comprendre la relation qui existe entre le magnésium et l'absorption du calcium. Des cas répétés de fièvre de lait dans un troupeau peuvent être dus à une carence sous-jacente en magnésium dans l'alimentation qui limiterait l'absorption du calcium, même s'il est présent dans l'alimentation. Pour la même raison, les animaux atteints d'hypomagnésiémie (tétanie des herbages) souffrent toujours également d'hypocalcémie.Lorsque les troubles métaboliques de ce type se multiplient, il est primordial de rechercher l'assistance d'un vétérinaire pour mettre au point les corrections du régime alimentaire qui s'imposent dans le cadre d'une stratégie de prévention.Ces maladies ne sont généralement pas abordées dans les ouvrages consacrés aux maladies des animaux domestiques en zone tropicale. Pourtant, des systèmes d'élevage intensif mettant en jeu des races hautement productives d'origine étrangère se développent dans bien des pays tropicaux, rendant ainsi possible l'apparition de ces troubles bien particuliers. Bien que les carences et les déséquilibres alimentaires soient de toute évidence la première cause de problèmes de santé chez les animaux domestiques des pays tropicaux, ils tendent à n'occuper qu'une place secondaire dans les ouvrages, l'accent étant souvent mis sur les maladies infectieuses et parasitaires. Ces troubles peuvent être divisés en plusieurs groupes selon qu'ils se rapportent à l'énergie, aux protéines, aux minéraux, aux oligoéléments ou aux vitamines et selon que ce sont des carences d'apport ou des carences d'utilisation. Il est très important de bien comprendre que ces problèmes se manifestent rarement de manière isolée : en effet, un animal souffrant de malnutrition présente généralement des carences ou des déséquilibres alimentaires multiples. En outre, ces animaux présentent une résistance amoindrie vis-à-vis d'autres agressions, telles que des parasitoses ou des maladies infectieuses.De quoi s'agit-il ? L'énergie nécessaire à tous les animaux pour couvrir les besoins liés aux fonctions essentielles de l'organisme telles que la respiration ou la digestion (besoins d'entretien) provient en majorité des glucides contenus dans les aliments. Un apport énergétique supplémentaire est exigé si les animaux doivent produire d'une manière ou d'une autre, que ce soit pour mener à bien une gestation, croître et se développer ou fournir un travail (besoins de production).Les protéines sont des molécules complexes contenant de l'azote : elles sont essentielles pour la formation des tissus de l'organisme et diverses fonction de l'organisme.Il est évident que la bonne santé de tout animal requiert que ses besoins en énergie et en protéines soient couverts de manière adéquate.Les besoins exacts dépendent du niveau de production attendu. Des carences prolongées en l'un ou l'autre de ces éléments se traduisent par une dégradation de l'état général et une impossibilité de production ; si elles ne sont pas corrigées, les malnutritions de ce type finissent par mener à la mort.La malnutrition correspond à un apport insuffisant en énergie ou en protéines, et peut survenir partout dans le monde. Les aliments varient quant à leur teneur en ces différents éléments : ainsi, si la paille est très pauvre en glucides comme en protéines, les aliments concentrés peuvent être riches en l'un et l'autre. De manière générale, un pâturage de bonne qualité est en mesure de couvrir les besoins d'entretien en glucides et en protéines ainsi qu'une part importante de la production attendue des animaux en zone tropicale. Toutefois, en cas de sécheresse ou de surpâturage, le bétail peut être incapable de tirer du pâturage tous les glucides et les protéines qu'il requiert.La malnutrition se traduit par une dégradation de l'état général menant à l'émaciation puis à la mort.Le traitement et la prévention de la malnutrition sont évidents, mais souvent hors de portée des éleveurs. Ils consistent à apporter une certaine quantité de compléments énergétique et azoté, tels des sons et des tourteaux, aux animaux. Les maladies qui se surajoutent à la malnutrition contribuent souvent à en aggraver les effets, ce à quoi il est possible de répondre en partie, par exemple par des traitements antihelminthiques contre les vers. Les animaux souffrant de malnutrition ne devraient pas être contraints d'être productifs, par exemple en étant mis au travail.Ainsi qu'il a été brièvement expliqué plus haut, les carences en énergie proviennent d'une alimentation insuffisante. Les besoins et leur couverture se raisonnent sur un cycle complet. Ainsi, les ruminants très productifs conduits en systèmes intensifs peuvent également souffrir d'une forme de carence énergétique due à un accroissement momentané de leurs besoins physiologiques. La vache laitière forte productrice doit faire des réserves en fin de gestation pour pouvoir assurer le pic de lactation après le vêlage, à un moment où les quantités d'aliments qu'elle peut ingérer ne sont pas suffisantes pour couvrir tous les besoins (voir les acétonémies et la toxémie de gestation, plus haut dans ce chapitre). La démarche la plus courante est de laisser à la disposition des animaux des mélanges de minéraux qui sont consommés volontairement. Ces mélanges doivent contenir de 30 à 40 % de sel pour les rendre appétants et veiller à ce que les quantités ingérées soient suffisantes. Beaucoup de mélanges de minéraux existent actuellement sur le marché ; le choix se fera en fonction de leur composition, de leur coût et de leur disponibilité, mais il y a lieu de tenir compte en priorité de l'avis du vétérinaire ou du technicien nutritionniste en la matière.Dans les régions tropicales, aux niveaux de production qui y sont exigés, la conduite des élevages en systèmes extensifs produit rarement des carences pathologiques, même si les pâturages sont effectivement carencés en l'un ou l'autre des minéraux. Toutefois, dès lors que des animaux doivent devenir plus productifs, sont maintenus en stabulation ou sont nourris artificiellement, des carences minérales peuvent se manifester dans les régions tropicales aussi bien qu'ailleurs dans le monde.Vitamine A -L'avitaminose A, ou boiterie de nutrition (vitamine A deficiency), sévit dans les pays du Sahel en fin de saison sèche. Elle touche aussi les ruminants nourris surtout avec des concentrés et manquant de fourrages frais, comme ceux qui sont élevés en ville. Des lésions de l'oeil -conjonctivite, sécheresse ou ulcère de la cornée -et une cécité, souvent limitée au crépuscule, peuvent apparaître, ainsi que des troubles de la croissance ou de la reproduction. Une ration de foin ou un apport de vitamine A de synthèse peuvent supprimer les problèmes.Vitamine C -L'avitaminose C, ou scorbut, bien décrite chez l'homme, se rencontre chez les monogastriques mais plus rarement chez les herbivores qui ont accès naturellement à des sources de vitamines. Cela se traduit principalement par des gingivites douloureuses. La cause exacte du cancer de la corne n'est pas encore établie, mais pourrait être en partie de nature hormonale. Beaucoup des animaux atteints ont souffert de blessures mécaniques aux cornes ou de frottements continuels dus à des cordes autour de la base des cornes.Lorsque le cancer est détecté à un stade précoce, la partie atteinte peut être excisée dans le cadre d'une intervention chirurgicale.Les jeunes bovins de troupeaux où les cas de cancer de la corne sont fréquents devraient être écornés.Cette pathologie est facile à diagnostiquer à partir des signes cliniques, mais son traitement est du ressort du vétérinaire.Synonymes : météorisme, tympanisme (bloat).Distension de la panse (ou rumen) des ruminants par des gaz ou de l'écume.La météorisation peut survenir dans le monde entier.La partie gauche de l'abdomen des ruminants, derrière les côtes, devient ballonnée. Dans les cas graves, la peau qui recouvre l'abdomen se tend comme celle d'un tambour. Les animaux sont visiblement affectés, respirent difficilement et peuvent mourir d'étouffement s'ils ne reçoivent pas de traitement. Synonyme : coup de chaleur (heat stress, heat stroke).Trouble avec augmentation de la température centrale du corps résultant d'un déséquilibre entre la quantité de chaleur subie (chaleur produite par l'animal lui-même ou absorbée de l'environnement) et la quantité de chaleur évacuée. L'insolation est un trouble plus bénin dû à une exposition trop longue au soleil ardent.Le stress thermique survient dès que l'organisme ne parvient plus à éliminer le surplus de chaleur, par exemple après exposition à des températures élevées, à un taux d'humidité relative important ou à des conditions de ventilation insuffisantes, notamment chez des animaux de travail ou de forte production.Les animaux domestiques, comme tous les mammifères, maintiennent en toutes circonstances une température corporelle pratiquement constante, quelle que soit la température ambiante (propriété d'homéothermie). Cet équilibre permanent entre la quantité de chaleur reçue et la quantité de chaleur perdue est nécessaire au fonctionnement optimal de leur métabolisme. Une température corporelle normale chez un animal sain dénote que les mécanismes de l'homéothermie fonctionnent correctement. Toutefois, les chameaux et certains ruminants sauvages présentent des températures corporelles relativement variables.Chaleur reçue -Les apports de chaleur proviennent de l'environnement et de l'activité métabolique de l'organisme. Celui-ci absorbe de la chaleur provenant de l'environnement lorsque la température ambiante dépasse la sienne propre. La chaleur due au métabolisme provient des processus métaboliques et de l'activité musculaire (par exemple lorsque l'animal travaille ou tremble sous l'effet du froid).Chaleur perdue -Les animaux perdent de la chaleur de la même manière que tout objet inanimé, c'est-à-dire par conduction, convection et rayonnement, qui ensemble constituent les pertes de chaleur sensible. Il existe en outre des pertes de chaleur non sensible qui sont dues à l'évaporation d'eau, ou plus précisément par l'évaporation de la sueur excrétée par les glandes sudoripares de la peau et par l'évaporation de l'eau contenue dans les voies respiratoires. Aussi un animal qui doit évacuer plus de chaleur y parvient-il en accroissant sa transpiration et le rythme de sa respiration, ces mécanismes étant toutefois plus ou moins développés selon les espèces et les races.Les ânes, les chevaux, les chameaux et les bovins évacuent l'excès de chaleur principalement par la transpiration, tandis que les ovins et les caprins ont recours à une combinaison de transpiration et de halètement. La laine du mouton favorise le stress thermique. Les porcins ont très peu de glandes sudoripares et évacuent la chaleur en haletant et en adoptant des comportements de recherche d'ombre et de bains de boue. Ils sont très sensibles au stress thermique. Les buffles ont plus de glandes sudoripares que les porcs mais leur transpiration reste insuffisante, d'où leur besoin impératif de se baigner, notamment lorsqu'ils ont travaillé. Ce comportement leur permet de perdre de la chaleur dans l'eau par conduction, et par évaporation de l'eau à la surface du corps lorsqu'ils sortent du bain. Quel que soit le mode de régulation de la température, une certaine quantité d'eau est perdue qui doit être remplacée en buvant, sous peine de déshydratation.Ainsi, exposés à des températures ambiantes élevées, les animaux s'adaptent par leur comportement (recherche d'ombre, bains dans l'eau ou la boue, réduction des efforts musculaires), la transpiration, le halètement et un ralentissement des activités de production (telles que la lactation chez les mammifères ou la ponte chez les oiseaux). Si toutefois la quantité de chaleur dissipée par tous ces moyens combinés reste inférieure à la quantité de chaleur absorbée par l'organisme, les animaux sont confrontés à un stress thermique.Les animaux souffrant d'un coup de chaleur deviennent léthargiques, leur température corporelle s'élève au-dessus de la normale (hyperthermie) et ils finissent par sombrer dans le coma. La mort intervient rapidement par la suite.Les animaux subissant un stress thermique doivent être placés dans un endroit frais et ombragé et aspergés d'eau froide, en veillant si possible à ce que l'air circule bien autour d'eux, ou mis à tremper en eau froide. La guérison est normalement complète, mais peut prendre plusieurs semaines.Les animaux ne doivent pas être exposés à des températures ambiantes élevées trop longtemps. Le coup de chaleur devrait pouvoir être prévenu en respectant les points suivants.  Heures des repas -Les animaux devraient recevoir la plus grande partie de leur apport alimentaire en fin d'après-midi ou dans la soirée. Cet aspect est particulièrement important dans le cas d'animaux de forte production.Le stress thermique peut être mortel, y compris pour les races tropicales locales. Ce type de problème est principalement dû à des conduites d'élevage peu adaptées. Le pH de la panse doit être corrigé sans délai par l'administration d'une solution alcaline (hydroxyde de magnésium ou hydroxyde d'aluminium) par sonde gastrique. Dans les cas graves, on pourra administrer une solution de bicarbonate de soude à 5 % par voie intraveineuse, en complétant par une thérapie de réhydratation (voir la section consacrée aux diarrhées néonatales, au chapitre 1), le tout préférablement confié à un vétérinaire.Une alimentation contenant plus de 10 % de tourteaux de graines de coton non traités est toxique pour les porcins, les volailles, les chevaux et les jeunes ruminants si elle se prolonge sur une durée de 1 à 3 mois. Les ruminants adultes sont moins sensibles à l'intoxication par le gossypol et ils limitent souvent d'eux-mêmes leur consommation de graines de coton. La graine de la majorité des variétés de coton contient un polyphénol cardiotoxique, le gossypol, qui provoque des lésions cardiaques induisant une défaillance cardiaque mortelle après une maladie de quelques jours. Il n'existe aucun traitement, mais la toxine est en partie ou totalement détruite par le traitement à la chaleur des tourteaux, par certains procédés industriels utilisant l'ammoniac. Une supplémentation en fer peut limiter les effets du gossypol.Le ricin commun, Ricinus communis (castor bean), est une plante présente dans beaucoup de régions tropicales dont les graines sont pressées pour en tirer l'huile de ricin. Le tourteau de ricin est ce qui reste après cette extraction. Il contient une protéine très toxique, une toxalbumine appelée ricine, mais il est parfois incorporé par mégarde dans des aliments pour bétail. Tous les animaux domestiques sont sensibles à cette toxine, notamment les chevaux. L'intoxication, qui peut être mortelle, se manifeste par des diarrhées très abondantes, liquides, voire hémorragiques, un état d'abattement, des douleurs abdominales, des sueurs et des troubles de la coordination (chez les chevaux), des convulsions (chez les bovins) et des vomissements (chez les porcins). Les signes cliniques apparaissent dans les quelques heures à quelques jours qui suivent l'ingestion du tourteau. Il n'existe pas de traitement spécifique.Le faux mimosa Leucaena leucocephala sert souvent de fourrage. L'excès de consommation de acacias, mimosas et leucaenas par les ruminants peut se traduire par des dépilations dues à la mimosine, un alcaloïde.Les mycotoxines sont des substances toxiques produites par des champignons ou des moisissures qui se sont développés sur des aliments ou dans les fourrages des parcours. Bien que les mycotoxines soient très nombreuses, les intoxications qui les impliquent, appelées mycotoxicoses, sont relativement rares. Ne seront ici abordées que les mycotoxicoses les plus importantes pouvant se rencontrer dans les régions intertropicales. Ces intoxications résultent le plus souvent de la consommation d'aliments sur lesquels se sont développées des moisissures souvent lors d'un épisode humide autour de la récolte ou lors du stockage : les mycotoxicoses sont de ce fait principalement associées à des conditions de conservation qui laissent à désirer.Il n'existe pas de traitement contre les mycotoxicoses, outre le retrait de l'aliment incriminé. En cas de doute, mieux vaut faire appel à un vétérinaire, qui saura faire faire les tests de laboratoire qui s'imposent.Les aflatoxines sont des substances produites par des moisissures du genre Aspergillus, qui se développent sur les céréales, les arachides et d'autres produits agricoles stockés dans des conditions chaudes et humides. Ces toxines sont cause de lésions hépatiques et favorisent la venue de cancers du foie ; en plus de l'homme, tous les animaux y sont sensibles, mais l'aflatoxicose (aflatoxicosis) concerne surtout les volailles, les jeunes porcs et les veaux. Les signes cliniques sont peu spécifiques : les animaux, faibles et chétifs, peuvent mourir après une maladie brève.L'ergot est produit par les champignons Claviceps purpurea ou Claviceps paspali qui se développent sur les grains de seigle, d'autres céréales et de ray-grass, notamment dans des conditions chaudes et humides. L'ergot produit des alcaloïdes, surtout l'ergotamine. Cette toxine entraîne la constriction des vaisseaux sanguins et, si l'exposition se prolonge, la nécrose des extrémités (mort des tissus constitutifs des pieds et de la partie inférieure des membres, de l'extrémité des oreilles et de la queue, ainsi que des lèvres). Le signe clinique le plus parlant est sans doute la boiterie. La plupart des espèces domestiques sont sensibles, ainsi que l'homme, mais les cas groupés d'ergotisme (ergotism) se rencontrent surtout chez les bovins et les ovins. Pour l'éviter, les céréales doivent être criblées et les ergots éliminés avant de moudre pour faire de la farine.L'eczéma facial ||◗ Les substances chimiques de synthèse utilisées en exploitationUne description exhaustive et détaillée des produits potentiellement dangereux rencontrés dans les exploitations agricoles mériterait en elle-même qu'on lui consacre un ouvrage particulier et n'a pas sa place ici. Les instructions des fabricants concernant les doses à utiliser et les précautions à prendre lors des manipulations doivent toujours être scrupuleusement suivies. Il arrive toutefois que des accidents se produisent, d'où quelques remarques concernant les insecticides et acaricides mentionnés au chapitre 3, employés pour lutter contre divers arthropodes.Les empoisonnements à l'arsenic ont généralement pour origine une contamination alimentaire. Ils se traduisent par des douleurs abdominales intenses associées à une hypersalivation, suivies par le collapsus et la mort. Dans les cas moins aigus, l'issue fatale est parfois précédée de diarrhées. L'intoxication chronique est aussi possible (arsenicisme) : troubles cutanés, polynévrite, etc.Le traitement, une administration par voie orale de dimercaprol (dimercaptopropanol) ou de thiosulfate de sodium, est rarement suivi d'effet.Les empoisonnements sont habituellement liés à des bains ou à des pulvérisations accidentellement surdosés ou à une ingestion accidentelle. Les hydrocarbures chlorés, ou organochlorés, sont des stimulants du système nerveux central : leur absorption déclenche divers troubles nerveux, allant de tremblements ou de secousses musculaires jusqu'à des convulsions et la mort.Lorsque l'empoisonnement provient d'un bain, d'une pulvérisation ou d'un poudrage surdosé, les animaux doivent être lavés avec de grandes quantités d'eau savonneuse. Il n'existe pas d'antidote spécifique, mais un vétérinaire pourra administrer un traitement symptomatique à base de sédatifs et de purgatifs.Ces substances sont actuellement très utilisées pour les bains, les pulvérisations, les poudrages, etc. et constituent une cause fréquente d'empoisonnement des animaux domestiques. Elles tuent les insectes et les tiques en empêchant la dégradation naturelle d'une molécule qui assure la transmission des influx nerveux, l'acétylcholine. Cette dernière s'accumule donc aux jonctions entre les cellules nerveuses ou entre cellesci et les cellules musculaires, provoquant une stimulation nerveuse permanente et incontrôlée.Des empoisonnements aux composés organophosphorés peuvent se produire chez des animaux domestiques lorsque les concentrations utilisées sont excessives ou lorsqu'il y a ingestion. L'effet est semblable à celui observé chez les arthropodes, l'acétylcholine s'accumulant, de même, près des terminaisons nerveuses : l'empoisonnement se manifeste par toutes sortes de troubles nerveux involontaires, dont des productions excessives de salive ou de larmes, un resserrement de la pupille (myose), des mictions (émissions d'urine) rapprochées, des vomissements, des difficultés respiratoires, des secousses musculaires évoluant vers une perte de la coordination, des paralysies, le collapsus et la mort.Le bétail empoisonné par des quantités excessives reçues lors de bains, de pulvérisations, etc. doit être lavé avec de grands volumes d'eau savonneuse. L'antidote spécifique est le sulfate d'atropine, administré, si possible par un vétérinaire, par injection intraveineuse lente, à raison de 0,1 mg par kilo, et par injection sous-cutanée, à raison de 0,4 mg par kilo. L'administration par voie orale d'un adsorbant intestinal tel que le charbon actif peut avoir un effet bénéfique si l'empoisonnement résulte d'une ingestion accidentelle.N.B. : L'atropine est en elle-même une substance toxique à ne pas surdoser. Il est préférable de confier son administration à un vétérinaire.Ces molécules sont difficilement absorbées par la peau et sont donc plutôt sûres, bien que des empoisonnements accidentels surviennent de temps à autre. Les signes cliniques rappellent alors, en moins marqué, ceux dus aux composés organophosphorés.Le traitement consiste à administrer des sédatifs et des adsorbants intestinaux, si possible en faisant appel à un vétérinaire. Les animaux empoisonnés par voie transcutanée doivent être lavés avec de grandes quantités d'eau savonneuse.Cette substance ne doit pas être utilisée sur les équidés, pour lesquels elle est toxique. Si elle est accidentellement employée sur un cheval, elle entraîne somnolence, perte de coordination des mouvements et constipation.En cas d'empoisonnement d'un cheval à l'amitraz, il convient de laver l'animal à l'eau froide et de lui administrer par sonde gastrique de grandes quantités d'un lubrifiant tel que la vaseline liquide. Les cas graves doivent en outre bénéficier d'une thérapie de réhydratation administrée par un vétérinaire.Intoxication alimentaire par la bactérie Clostridium botulinum et sa toxine (toxi-infection).Le botulisme (botulism, forage poisonning) peut survenir dans le monde entier.Il existe sept types de C. botulinum, dont les toxines varient quant à leur pouvoir pathogène pour l'homme et les animaux. Ces toxines agissent sur le système nerveux avec des effets suraigus à subaigus. Dans le cas de la forme suraiguë, les animaux s'écroulent et meurent dans les quelques heures qui suivent l'ingestion de la toxine. L'intoxication subaiguë est toutefois plus courante. L'évolution des symptômes peut alors couvrir jusqu'à 2 semaines, avec une paralysie progressive menant à l'immobilisation au sol et à la mort en l'espace d'une semaine ou plus. La paralysie et la protrusion de la langue sont fréquemment relevées.Les ruminants et les équidés sont particulièrement sensibles.Clostridium botulinum se développe dans les tissus animaux et dans la végétation en voie de putréfaction. L'intoxication du bétail se produit généralement à l'occasion de l'ingestion d'aliments ou d'eau contaminés par des matériaux de ce type. Les flambées de botulisme, bien que sporadiques, peuvent prendre des proportions sérieuses et entraîner la mort de nombreux animaux. Les bovins carencés en phosphore sont tout particulièrement exposés, dans la mesure où ils sont poussés à consommer ou à tenter de consommer des matières ou des objets susceptibles d'être contaminés. Des aliments ou une eau de boisson contenant des cadavres de petits mammifères ou de reptiles constituent une autre cause fréquente de botulisme.        Vaccin vivant dont la virulence a été affaiblie par exemple par une dilution ou un enrobage.Vaccin élaboré à partir d'un microorganisme qui a été tué (par la chaleur, le formol, etc.) mais qui peut néanmoins provoquer une réponse immunologique en stimulant la production d'anticorps protecteurs ou l'immunité cellulaire lorsqu'il est inoculé chez un animal.Vaccin vivant dont la virulence du virus est modifiée par exemple par passage successifs dans plusieurs cultures de cellules. ","tokenCount":"47025"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"41795645803bbd31492c3c9f027bea4d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3f979a26-bb8c-4374-97a5-5bc0afa696a9/content","id":"1818298918"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd35d29b-02e5-4a85-8c85-25ace6ab4196","pagecount":"47","content":"• Population: Africa's rural population expected to rise by 53% by 2050-By 2100, Africa may overtake Asia, only continent with popn growth• Urbanization: stretched value chains and mega cities and more polarized population distribution (Barrett, 2020)• Income growth: low incomes means highest income elasticity for food• SSA also has the world's lowest agricultural TFP (Fuglie et al. 2019) -Between 2001-15 TFP grew by 0.4% in SSA and 2% in South Asia The impact framework for DLC CropsScience-based innovation co-development of sets of knowledge products, technologies, services, and other solutions along a scaling pathway.Targeted capacity development working with individuals, firms, and organizationsdesigned to improve the utility and use of technological and institutional solutions.Advice on policy including business strategies, institutional arrangements, and investment programs, together with more formal public policy sector instruments.  • Market-oriented crops: high value crops• Agro-industrial crops: valueadded, processing chains• Non-food uses: fodder, feed, industrial products• Market and processor traits: uniformity, low perishability, ease of processing Those with economic opportunities in low-skilled informal labor markets.These farmers are likely to have the resources to be able to engage in income generation from food farming and linked to trade and industry ","tokenCount":"190"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5649358802.json b/data/part_2/5649358802.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..feab066e105210f1bc57b67f2994756c0cdcdfaf
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"352149d998766c828c2a35062b30317f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7d720124-528b-4456-8ba2-08f6b332dfdd/retrieve","id":"-1005569173"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bf58fc1b-97bc-410b-8adc-fd27a7fcecb9","pagecount":"18","content":"This working paper has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of AICCRA, donors, or partners.Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non-commercial 4.0 International License.As part of the AICCRA project, the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted land Use (WASCAL) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are tasked to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) into University's curricula in Africa. This report describes the activities of a training of trainers' (ToT) workshop on Soil Carbon Sequestration and Crop Production course module led by WASCAL as part of AICCRA curricula development activities. The training programmed was held at the Amonoo-Niezer Conference Centre, KNUST, KUMASI between 13th and 15th September, 2023.  university lecturers, including nine women from three West African countries benefited from the training programme. The curricula consisted of four sessions on (i) Soils for Sustainable Crop Production, (ii) Climate Change and Crop Production, (iii) Soil Carbon Sequestration and (v) Spatial Estimation and Modelling of Soil Carbon. Four facilitators from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi took participants through each of the sessions. For each session, there was theoretical as well as practical training, where participants went to the field and laboratory for data collection and analysis respectively. Participants suggested to contextualize the module contents of the course with practical case studies peculiar to/ practiced by the AICCRA Project Thematic Countries, i.e., Ghana, Mali, and Senegal, and to liaise with the Ministries of Education to help incorporate CSA and CIS in the curricula of basic and secondary level of education.The   A key presentation was given by Dr.  A recap of the activities of the previous day was given by the moderator (Dr. William Amponsah). The third session of the training programme titled \"Soil Carbon Sequestration\" begun following the recap of previous activities and was led by Dr. Enoch Bessah (Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, KNUST). The content of this session included; soil organic carbon and green-house gases, soil carbon measurement and monitoring, as well as carbon sequestration and global warming. The fourth training session titled \"Spatial Modelling and Estimation of Soil Carbon\" was led by Mr. Da-Costa M. Asare (Department of Geomatic Engineering, KNUST). The content of the session included remote sensing and GIS for soil carbon measurement and soil carbon modelling approaches. There were Q&A sessions after each of the training session.Following the training lectures, all participants undertook practical sessions on soil profile, soil sampling, determination of soil texture, laboratory analysis of bulk density and soil organic carbon, soil mapping and georeferencing using a drone. The practical sessions took place at the KNUST Soil Science experimental fields and laboratory.The field practical under this session was led by Dr. Andrews Opoku (Department of Soil Science, KNUST), who took all participants through the description of soil profile (Figure 4), the techniques of soil sampling for the determination of physical, chemical and biological properties, determination of soil texture using the FAO soil classification hand book, laboratory analysis of bulk density. The practical training under this section was led by Dr. Enoch Bessah (Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, KNUST) with the help of a laboratory technician from the Department of Soil Science, KNUST. Participants discussed the equipment and procedures for soil sampling (Figure 5) as well as the titration methods that are required in determining the soil organic matter and carbon content using the standard equations (Figure 6). Dr. Enoch Bessah (Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering, KNUST), the lead facilitator for the Session 3 also took the participants through the method for estimating carbon stocks using the laboratory results of bulk density and soil carbon concentration obtained from the fieldwork. He further explained the techniques for carbon sequestration emphasizing on the production of biochar.  Mr. Da-Costa M. Asare (Department of Geomatic Engineering, KNUST) explained the spatial prediction and assessment of soil organic carbon using Geospatial technology to the participants. He took participants through how to fly a drone (Figure 7), and capture images for processing and developing soil maps (Figure 8). With the laboratory results of soil organic carbon concentration, soil profile data obtained from the fieldwork, Mr. Asare demonstrated a step-by-step tutorial to participants how to map soil organic carbon stock for an area using Arc Map and R software.  Participants were enthused and expressed their immense gratitude to the opportunity to partake in the training programme through their contributions and queries to the presentations and also providing capacity building for lecturers regarding Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Climate Information Services (CIS).A range of suggestions emerged from the discussions, which can be summarized into:1. Encourage the involvement and participation of women in discussions and also bring them on-board to partake in high-level dialogue processes.2. Participants were urged to be more proactive and extend information/education received at the workshops to their colleagues for an all-inclusive knowledge sharing and support movement groups interested in incorporating CSA and CIS into University Curricula3. Develop a detailed manual for all practical sessions of the Soil Carbon Sequestration and Crop Productions for all participants to acquire first-hand knowledge on how field practical sessions will be carried out especially with the Remote Sensing and GIS module. ","tokenCount":"888"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5656180234.json b/data/part_2/5656180234.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..514d8ad1a02c11dcfe88a97d2d7cc907b6d5796a
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"edcee0e3465f92ca6cd0187d49ae2dbd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02a5c904-c4c8-47c4-aedf-26ce58e0c782/retrieve","id":"1703014629"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7681a892-8895-4eed-b629-75cb09cb56f2","pagecount":"2","content":"This intervention builds upon International Potato Center (CIP) research and development in Africa and Asia demonstrating the efficacy of biofortified orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) as a flagship technology to improve the diets of at least 15 million households with children under 5 in countries with high vitamin A deficiency. The UK Department for International Development has supported this work since 2013 resulting in more than two million households accessing nutritious sweetpotato varieties.During phase I of the project, CIP and partners helped improve diets through integrated agriculture-nutritionmarketing approaches that combine demand creation activities with supply chain development, while strengthening the capacity of vulnerable communities and partner agriculture and health agencies. The geographical focus was on Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda with additional activities in Bangladesh and Tanzania. In many parts of these countries, OFSP varieties have become rooted in the local farming systems and local diets.Phase II seeks to scale up the benefits of biofortified sweetpotato more widely and target vulnerable households and communities more explicitly to ensure the benefits of biofortification reach those most in need. This will be achieved through engagement in food systems already of importance to the rural and urban poor-moving beyond smallholder farming to markets for fresh and processed foods and building links with broader commercial and humanitarian initiatives that reach millions of vulnerable families. For additional scale, efficiency and accelerated impacts, CIP partners with the CGIAR HarvestPlus initiative to promote sweetpotato as one of many biofortified staple crops, including cassava, maize, rice and wheat.Geographically, the work focuses on countries that present opportunities for new commercial partnerships, and reach vulnerable people affected by protracted crisis, such as in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. At the same time, it will provide technical programming and knowledge support to additional countries where sweetpotato can make a difference.The work seeks to develop and deliver biofortified sweetpotato on a large scale, enabling a further 10 million individuals by 2022 to produce and/or consume OFSP or related products in Africa and Asia. Implemented with HarvestPlus, the work forms part of the CGIAR biofortification strategy for reducing micronutrient deficiencies through enriched staple crops.The CIP-led intervention is based on the assumption that scalable delivery systems will help to bring the benefits of biofortified sweetpotato to more people, and do so sustainably and cost-effectively. It also recognizes the continued need for developing new varieties to meet changing demands. The multi-country intervention will pursue three outputs to encompass continued sweetpotato development, improved delivery, private-sector engagement and rigorous monitoring:a. developing new biofortified sweetpotato varieties through existing breeding programs;b. supporting the development of sustainable-delivery models for scaling up, including public-private partnerships, and cost-effective delivery models in protracted crisis environments; and c. strengthening the evidence base on the impact of biofortified sweetpotato, ensuring biofortification is included in relevant policies, plans and programs.The approach combines activities in breeding, production systems, market development for fresh and processed foods, and rigorous assessments of cost-effectiveness of delivery mechanisms to maximize the value added from biofortification. Activities will focus on:a. facilitating widespread use by national agricultural research systems of improved breeding strategies and tools to accelerate genetic gains in terms of nutrition, marketability and key agronomic traits;b. developing sustainable and scalable delivery systems to reach vulnerable populations at a large scale, through commercial pathways and by strengthening resilience in protracted crisis environments; and c. strengthening the evidence base for the cost-effectiveness of OFSP technologies and communicating this evidence for policy and investment support.At least 12 new biofortified OFSP clones will be evaluated and recommended for national registration in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. These will be climateresilient (heat, drought and salinity tolerant), diseaseresistant, and high yielding. At least 25 varieties will be exchanged regionally or internationally, and at least six will be recommended for registration in additional countries. Finally, a novel sweetpotato breeding platform will be established in Bangladesh building on experiences in Africa.To support the development of sustainable delivery models for scaling up biofortified sweetpotato, at least three business models will be developed and tested; and at least one commercially traded, nutritious sweetpotatobased product will be launched targeting low-income consumers in each priority country. Sweetpotato will be integrated and promoted through national resilience and agricultural diversification programs in at least two countries. Partnerships will be built and business models validated for delivering sweetpotato efficiently and sustainably in protracted crisis environments, including through sustainably supplying healthy and affordable processed foods based on sweetpotato puree and other nutritious ingredients.The evidence base on the impact of biofortified sweetpotato, and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of delivery models will be strengthened through independent assessments as part of a broad learning agenda with HarvestPlus. Scientists will also co-convene strategic events to drive learning among key stakeholders and contribute to policy, industry and technical fora. At least 8 peer-reviewed publications Dissemination through at least 12 regional and international science, industry and policy fora","tokenCount":"804"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5675819956.json b/data/part_2/5675819956.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..edaa621fc9eb6d9d842eabbbccd0c63c91d25719
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"effdfc8e0a100816a275fc4c1bca9e13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d32ce393-3398-4471-b79f-5a3891654087/retrieve","id":"149854715"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e462ef8-4f04-4bb8-a4c8-4f52d23a0221","pagecount":"16","content":"Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) calculation is more effective in identifying the drought condition irrespective of the ecological region. The range of VCI values varies between 0-100 and the value 0 reveals extreme stress while 100 expresses healthy vegetation. The VCI index indicates that stress on agricultural crops has significantly increased in India as well as in many parts of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in August 2023 compared to 2022 August.• Although the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a normal 2023 southwest monsoon, the onset of the monsoon with a delay of about a week has resulted in a 10 per cent rainfall deficit for the month of June. However, as per the latest long-term forecast for August 2023, the monthly rainfall in August over India as a whole fell below 94% of the long-term average (LPA) for the month.• The sub-seasonal forecast for the end of November 2023 has predicted below-normal rainfall over a significant area of southern central and western Indian states. Also, above-normal rainfall is expected in Afghanistan and normal rainfall is expected for all other areas in South Asia.• Comparing August 2022 with August 2023 shows a significant rainfall deficit over a large area of South Asia. This is further confirmed by the fact that more than 80% of South Asia's total land area is represented by negative values od SPI.• There is a high probability that the existing vegetation will not improve further in the coming months as many parts of the South Asia region will record significantly below-normal rainfall according to the probable rainfall forecast.• Drought conditions in Sri Lanka more likely to continue as probable rainfall forecasts provide bellow-normal rainfall and all meteorological and agricultural drought indices represent severe drought conditions.• In Bangladesh, an increase in dryness in August is indicated in the SPI index, but the agricultural drought indices do not indicate a drought condition. However according to the forecasts, as the rainfall is less than the season, there is a higher possibility of affecting the crop health in the coming months. Together, the current SPI status and sub-seasonal precipitation forecasts provide a better understanding of future drought events.In contrast to the SPI index recorded in August 2022, there is a significant reduction in the SPI index throughout South Asia for August 2023. This confirms the occurrence of meteorological drought in the region.The dry spell is a good indicator of the likelihood of a drought as well as the presence of a prolonged period of drought. Similarly, this indicator reflects the tendency of rainfall over a period of time (short-term, medium-term or long-term).A dry spell is defined as the number of consecutive days with a daily precipitation amount below a certain threshold, such as 2.5, 5, or 10 mm, preceded and followed by at least one day with rainfall exceeding the threshold. The maps use rainfall product from GPM to calculate the dry spell for July at 2.5 and 10 mmThe sub-seasonal forecast and the dry spells can help users develop an agriculture contingency plan depending on the crop type and its condition.• IDSI explains areas of drought severity by considering precipitation (input to the system), soil moisture (storage of the system), actual ET (loss to the system) and VCI (vegetative response of the system). IDSI being a composite indicator would help determine the drought condition more reliably. The IDSI developed by IWMI incorporates multisource satellite data from MODIS to define Vegetation and evapotranspiration, precipitation data from CHIRPS, and soil moisture conditions derived from FLDAS and SMAP.• The IDSI of the zoomed areas Maharashtra and Gujarat clearly indicate an increase in drought in August.• IDSI can be used impact indicators to alert relevant agencies to develop timely early warning to early action to promote drought response strategies e.g. agriculture contingency plans at the district level to mitigate drought risks; • IDSI explains areas of drought severity by considering precipitation (input to the system), soil moisture (storage of the system), actual ET (loss to the system) and VCI (vegetative response of the system).• The drought severity map (IDSI for August 2023) in reference to last year shows wider spread agricultural drought impact leading to food prices inflation and disturb crop exports.• The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) the measure of the number of standard deviations of observed cumulative precipitation deviates from the climatological average.• SPI for August 2023 shows severe dry conditions across Gujarat due to deficit rainfall and it also reflects soil moisture leading to decreased sown area for a particular location.• IDSI explains areas of drought severity by considering precipitation (input to the system), soil moisture (storage of the system), actual ET (loss to the system) and VCI (vegetative response of the system).• The drought severity map (IDSI for August 2023) in reference to last year shows wider spread agricultural drought impact leading to food prices inflation and disturb crop exports.• The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) the measure of the number of standard deviations of observed cumulative precipitation deviates from the climatological average.• SPI for August 2023 shows severe dry conditions across Gujarat due to deficit rainfall and it also reflects soil moisture leading to decreased sown area for a particular location.Meteorological Drought using SPI (August 2023 vs 2022) Drought Severity Map using IDSI (August 2023 vs 2022)","tokenCount":"876"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5686598875.json b/data/part_2/5686598875.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..006b490977d197ed967fe0549fc316ec6daf304b
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"39490aec96226eee9253ccbafeb429cd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7fb126c7-b3e2-4002-89ab-ad9324717ae8/retrieve","id":"-467882731"},"keywords":["Genomic prediction","multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross (MAGIC) population","recurrent selection","simulation","Triticum aestivum"],"sieverID":"bb3bc3a9-4a20-49ff-88bd-0396b717d92d","pagecount":"20","content":"Cereal crop breeders have achieved considerable genetic gain in genetically complex traits, such as grain yield, while maintaining genetic diversity. However, focus on selection for yield has negatively impacted other important traits. To better understand multi-trait selection within a breeding context, and how it might be optimized, we analysed genotypic and phenotypic data from a genetically diverse, 16-founder wheat multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross population. Compared to single-trait models, multi-trait ensemble genomic prediction models increased prediction accuracy for almost 90 % of traits, improving grain yield prediction accuracy by 3-52 %. For complex traits, non-parametric models (Random Forest) also outperformed simplified, additive models (LASSO), increasing grain yield prediction accuracy by 10-36 %. Simulations of recurrent genomic selection then showed that sustained greater forward prediction accuracy optimized long-term genetic gains. Simulations of selection on grain yield found indirect responses in related traits, involving optimized antagonistic trait relationships. We found multi-trait selection indices could effectively optimize undesirable relationships, such as the trade-off between grain yield and protein content, or combine traits of interest, such as yield and weed competitive ability. Simulations of phenotypic selection found that including Random Forest rather than LASSO genetic models, and multi-trait rather than single-trait models as the true genetic model accelerated and extended long-term genetic gain whilst maintaining genetic diversity. These results (i) suggest important roles of pleiotropy and epistasis in the wider context of wheat breeding programmes, and (ii) provide insights into mechanisms for continued genetic gain in a limited genepool and optimization of multiple traits for crop improvement.Classical plant breeding aims to achieve continuous genetic gain by recurrent selection of important traits over many generations. However, the biological and genetic processes that allow continued genetic gain within a finite genepool are still unclear. For example, the Illinois maize long-term selection experiment achieved continuous increases in seed oil and protein concentration in a closed population for more than 100 generations without apparent loss of genetic variation (Dudley 2007). Longterm trends in wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding also reflect this, where significant genetic gain in traits such as yield has been achieved in the last century (e.g. McCraig et al. 1995;Mackay et al. 2011;Tadesse et al. 2019), whilst molecular studies have not found the expected reductions in genetic diversity over the same period of modern plant breeding (e.g. White et al. 2008;van de Wouw et al. 2010;Fu 2015).Selection on one trait can have positive or negative pleiotropic effects on other traits. For example, the Illinois long-term selection experiment found correlated responses to selection for seed oil and protein content and indirect effects on other traits, such as starch content. Wheat breeding requires selection for multiple traits of economic importance, including grain yield and grain quality traits, as well as other agronomically important or physiologically adaptive traits such as developmental stage, plant architecture and disease resistance. In many cases, positive correlated responses in combinations of desirable traits can be achieved, but there are often complex trade-offs between antagonistically related traits. Considerable work has succeeded in identifying underlying quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling individual yield components, such as grain size (e.g. Brinton et al. 2017) and spikelet number (e.g. Kuzay et al. 2019;Muqaddasi et al. 2019). However, the effects of such yield component loci rarely have consistent positive effects on yield in broader genetic backgrounds due to compensatory effects which trade-off against other yield components. For example, increased grain number per inflorescence in wheat is commonly associated with reductions in other yield components such as thousand grain weight (TGW), or tiller number (Quintero et al. 2018;Corsi et al. 2021;Xie and Sparkes 2021). Similarly, trade-offs in 'source' traits can result in trade-offs, such as the genetic control of wheat leaf size versus stomata size and density traits (Zanella et al. 2022).In general, long-term increases in wheat yields have been achieved phenotypically by optimization of harvest index (the ratio of grain to total shoot dry matter) to reduce intra-crop competition (Fischer and Kertesz 1976), as well as through increased grain filling with starch carbohydrates (Lovegrove et al. 2020;Shewry et al. 2020). However, these have led to negative trade-offs in other valuable traits. Decreased competitive ability of modern wheat varieties with weeds (Vandeleur and Gill 2004;Murphy et al. 2008) necessitates increased reliance on herbicides as well as potentially poorer uptake of soil nutrients (Ruisi et al. 2015). Yield loss from weed competition has become even more problematic in intensified cropping systems (Storkey et al. 2021). Additionally, increased yield and starch grain filling has been subject to the long-standing trade-off between yield and grain protein content (GPC; Simmonds 1995; White et al. 2021), and has led to dilution of wheat GPC (Austin et al. 1980;Fufa et al. 2005) and mineral nutrient density (Davis 2009;Shrewry et al. 2016). This has also led to higher optimum nitrogen fertilizer application rates to meet milling wheat grain protein requirements with diminishing increases in yield, and thus poorer nitrogen use efficiency (Hawkesford 2014). Tradeoffs between grain yield and both protein content and weed competitive ability seem not to have been generally addressed by commercial breeding due to yield being considered the highest economically important trait. Recent analysis by Raherison et al. (2020) suggested that negative pleiotropic genetic effects in wheat have rarely been compensated for and optimized by breeding, and Yang et al. (2022) showed that breeders' selections have almost always been in favour of yield at the expense of protein. Changing economic, legislational, environmental and societal factors mean that breeding focus will increasingly need to consider how to deliver sustainable intensification of food supply, ensuring yield stability of our future crops in the face of such pressures. Plant breeding will play a role in delivering these goals, and will likely require the application of new breeding approaches and methodologies.Genomic selection models aim to predict as large a proportion of heritable phenotypic variation as possible using genome-wide marker data to allocate estimated breeding values to untested individuals (Meuwissen et al. 2001;Jannink et al. 2010), and are likely to be a major source of improvement in plant breeding in the coming decades (Mackay et al. 2021). Genomic prediction models include genetic effects that do not necessarily reach genome-wide significance in QTL mapping, which only detects large additive genetic effects and often fails to account for a large proportion of heritable trait variation in traits with complex genetic architectures, despite extensive genomic and phenotypic characterization (Goddard et al. 2016). However, the role of non-additive epistatic effects in complex trait genetic architectures (i.e. the interactions between genes) remains understudied, and is often overlooked (Carlborg and Haley 2004)-likely due to the high computational and sample size requirements to model high order interactions ( Jiang and Reif 2015). Genomic prediction models that take epistatic effects into account have recently been developed, including the extension of the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) ( Jiang and Reif 2015) and machine/ensemble learning methods such as Random Forest (RF; Wright et al. 2016;Schmalohr et al. 2018), which are often able to improve prediction accuracies in real data sets (Charmet et al. 2020).The NIAB Diverse MAGIC (multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross) wheat population (NDM) was recently developed to investigate the genetic architecture of a range of traits in wheat (Scott et al. 2021). It consists of 16 founders genotyped via exon and promotor capture sequencing and 504 recombinant inbred lines genotyped via whole-genome sequencing and imputation, resulting in ~1.1 M single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between genotypes, or 55 000 SNPs after filtering for linkage disequilibrium (LD) (Scott et al. 2021). The 16 founders are wheat varieties that span 70 years of breeding and capture a large proportion of the north-west European genetic diversity. The genetic diversity present in the NDM is efficiently recombined through multiple generations of inter-crossing, eroding LD accumulated in the founders over long-term selective breeding. For this reason, traditional genomic prediction models, such as GBLUP, that make use of kinship relationships (Clark et al. 2011) may perform poorly in MAGIC where causal variants can be considered more independently (Scott et al. 2021). The NDM is ideal for investigating trait relationships, due to intensive phenotyping and the lack of the confounding effects of age and origin that are present in panels of selectively bred varieties (Scott et al. 2020). Furthermore, this population provides a good test for multi-trait (MT) selection indices, such as grain yield protein deviation (GYPD; Michel et al. 2019), that have been proposed to help minimize trade-offs between traits.Here we use NDM resources as a microcosm of long-term selection in wider wheat breeding programmes to test differing genetic models and selection approaches. Within the overall context of understanding the phenotypic and genetic mechanisms that may enable enhanced genetic gain in the future, we (i) investigate complex trait relationships relating to yield in the observed population of lines. We then (ii) develop MT genomic prediction models that increase prediction accuracy by exploiting pleiotropic effects among traits, and (iii) investigate how increased prediction accuracy translates to greater genetic gain in simulation of long-term recurrent genomic selection within the NDM. We also (iv) simulated both phenotypic and genotypic effects of recurrent phenotypic selection within the population comparing different true genetic models based on genomic prediction models trained on the observed population. Our results reveal correlated responses in a wide range of traits when selection is purely on yield, as well as the potential to achieve genetic gain in several traits of interest that trade-off by using use MT selection indices. Comparison of response to selection under differing genomic prediction models (simplified models with a minimal number of additive effects versus more complex polygenic models that take higher order epistatic interaction effects into account) also highlights the important role of considering both pleiotropy and epistasis in achieving continued genetic gain in crop breeding.Genotypic and phenotypic data for the NDM wheat population was sourced from Scott et al. (2021). Briefly, the population of 504 NDM recombinant inbred lines derived from the 16 founders was phenotyped for a wide range of traits over the 2016-17 (lat: 52.23548; lon: 0.09181) and 2017-18 (lat: 52.09865; lon: 0.13300) growing seasons (hereafter termed 'year 1' and 'year 2' trials) in the UK. All but 1 of the 73 traits described by Scott et al. (2021) were used (Table 1), the exception being seed germination rate due to a large proportion of missing data. Traits measured in each year were considered separately. Missing data for all remaining traits (at <1.2 %) were imputed with the median trait value. Line genotypes were previously characterized by skim sequencing and imputed using the founder haplotypes (Scott et al. 2021). Of 1.1 million SNPs identified from founder exome and promoter sequencing, we use the subset of ~55 000 SNPs after pruning for LD for our analyses. Missing marker data (~1 %) were imputed using the 'missForest' package (Buhlman 2011) in R (R Core Team 2020), which uses non-parametric RF prediction models to iteratively predict and impute missing data on a marker-by-marker basis.All analyses were conducted using R statistical analysis software. Pearson's correlation coefficients among all investigated traits were calculated. Hierarchical clustering of traits was performed using the 'hclust' R function and 'complete' method, where the distance matrix (d) was derived from the equation:where c represents the trait correlation matrix. Traits were then assigned to eight groups using the 'cutree' R function. The trait correlation network was visualized using the 'qgraph' package in R (Epskamp et al. 2012).Two contrasting genomic prediction models were cross-validated for both single-trait (ST) and MT models. (i) Generalized linear models including the Lasso penalty (LASSO) implemented in Table 1. Abbreviations of traits phenotyped in the NDM, as described by Scott et al. (2021). All data are from field trials, except where noted. Nursery = data collected from 1 × 1m unreplicated plots. Field = data collected from 2 × 6m replicated plots. Trait groups indicate groups of strongly positively or negatively correlated traits that grouped together through hierarchical clustering as shown in Fig. 1. Some traits were phenotyped at multiple time points (GLA) and in both trail years so that a total of 72 traits were included. the 'glmnet' R package (Friedman et al. 2010) where the majority of SNP effects are shrunk to zero. (ii) For comparison, a non-linear, statistical learning approach was used which generally included much larger numbers of SNPs with non-additive effects in each model: RF, implemented in the 'randomForest' R package (Breiman 2001). For LASSO models, the value of lambda (a shrinkage penalty) used for each prediction was optimized using 8-fold cross-validation within the available training data. For RF models, 300 trees were run per model and default parameters of one-third of variables randomly sampled at each split, and a minimum of five observations in terminal leaf nodes were used. Previous work by Scott et al. (2021) found that ridge regression models that include all marker effects with a small, but non-zero effect, did not have as high prediction accuracy as LASSO in the MAGIC population, and so were not further tested here. Two types of MT models were implemented. Firstly, by performing single value decomposition (SVD) of the matrix of all phenotypes, as proposed by Montesinos-López et al. (2019a), whereby each of the decomposed and uncorrelated vectors from all the traits were predicted as traits themselves using the same genomic models as for ST predictions. The predictions of vectors were then back-transformed to the original trait scales to derive the MT predictions per trait. Secondly, a MT stacked ensemble method was used which employs an approach often used in machine learning (Spyromitros-Xioufis et al. 2016) and has previously been applied for Bayesian multi-output regression of MT predictions (Montesinos-López et al. 2019b;Sapkota et al. 2020). For this, a two-step model was used where each trait was first predicted from genomic data with the same genomic models as for ST predictions, and then all trait predictions were used as explanatory variables (features) in a second MT ensemble model to again predict each response trait. Both first-and second-stage predictions were fitted only on data from the training fraction and predictions were independently made for test lines with only genetic marker data. Either LASSO or RF models were used to fit first-stage ST models, but only RF models were used to flexibly include non-linear MT relationships for the second-stage ensemble models. Information from related traits is therefore used in a model, trained only on the training fraction to adjust ST predictions made directly from genomic data. Unlike trait-assisted genomic prediction, such as used by Fernandes et al. (2018), no observed trait data are used in the tested cross-validation fraction. As both MT prediction approaches can be applied with any genomic prediction model for each ST prediction or for SVD vectors, we were able to compare LASSO and RF genomic models for both ST and MT approaches.Three rounds of 10-fold random cross-validation were performed among all lines in the data set where all models were trained and optimized on a random subsample of 90 % of the lines and accuracy assessed on predictions of the remaining 10 % of lines. The prediction accuracy was determined by averaging the three Pearson's correlation coefficients between all observed and predicted trait values across all cross-validation folds. Valid comparisons of prediction accuracy were ensured by testing all prediction models using the same cross-validation fold assignments. After model cross-validation, full prediction models were fitted using the entire data set for combinations of both ST and MT models with both LASSO and RF genomic models. Variable importance scores for each SNP marker in RF genomic prediction models and for each trait covariate in MT ensemble models were derived from the full models as the mean decrease in mean square error using the 'importance' function in the 'ran-domForest' R package. Effect sizes for each SNP marker were also derived from full LASSO models where the majority of SNP effects were shrunk to zero.A genetic map [see Supporting Information-Table S1; Supporting Information-Fig. S1] based on the observed population was constructed using the 'qtl2' R package (Broman et al. 2019) with the marker data ordered by physical map position (RefSeq v1.0, IWGSC 2018). The genetic map distance was then re-estimated using the 'est_map' function with 1000 maximum iterations and an assumed genotyping error probability of 0.001. The cross object was considered as a 16-way multi-parent recombinant inbred line population, so the differing local recombination effects for each founder haplotypes were preserved for subsequent simulations. Twenty-three markers were removed from the full set as they caused genetic map distortion.We then simulated a recurrent genomic selection programme within the NDM using the models described in Section 2.2.1 above to assess the performance of different prediction models to achieve long-term genetic gain in grain yield. This was done within a framework of assuming a true inherited genetic model based on the MT ensemble RF genetic model as outlined above and trained on the observed genetic and phenotype data. Thus, true phenotypes for all traits were derived from predictions from this model for genotypes at each cycle of simulations so that assumptions of shared pleiotropy among traits was based on the observed population. Then the different genomic prediction models outlined above were trained on the true phenotypes of the individuals in the first cycle.Selection of lines for crossing at each cycle was made based on predicted phenotypes from the genomic prediction model. To reduce excessive inbreeding and loss of genetic variance, 15 lines from different 16-way or bi-parental families with the highest selection index values were selected for simulated inter-crossing. New cycles of inbred line genotypes were created using the 'sim.cross' function in the 'qtl' package in R (Broman et al. 2003) with the genetic map of ~55 000 SNPs for each pair of selected lines. Thirty offspring inbred line genotypes were simulated for each of 105 possible pairwise cross combinations among the selected lines so that each following cycle was comprised of a total of 3150 lines from 105 bi-parental families. The true phenotypes of new lines were again derived from MT ensemble RF models and predictions of these phenotypes at all subsequent cycles were again predicted from the genomic prediction models trained on the true phenotypes of the first cycle and the process repeated for 20 cycles of recurrent selection. Twenty iterations of the simulations were run for each genomic prediction model. Genomic prediction models were fitted as detailed above for ST and MT, LASSO and RF models, but additionally RF models were run that were restricted to a tree depth of one (RF1) to completely limit the degree of marker interaction effects. Two thousand trees were used for RF1 models.Genetic gain for each trait over the selection simulations was determined by comparing the mean true trait value of all lines at each generation to the mean true trait value in the first generation. The divergence from this mean among different traits was standardized to the standard deviation of trait values in the first generation. The accuracy of genomic prediction models was also determined as the Pearson's correlation coefficient between the true and predicted trait values among genotypes at each simulation cycle.In addition to simulations of different genomic selection procedures within a simulated true genetic model, we also compared simulations with different true genetic models to assess both phenotypic and genomic response to selection with different genetic model assumptions of trait genetic architecture. Simulations were run as above but selections of individuals were based on the true phenotypes derived from different genetic models so that it was assumed that the simulated breeder could make perfect estimates of trait values from phenotypic selection. Different simulations were run for ST and MT as well as RF and LASSO models as outlined above and for different selection indices as outlined below. Genetic response to selection was also characterized as the change in allele frequency for all ~55 000 SNPs at each generation, and the genetic diversity was calculated as the number of polymorphic SNPs at each generation. For each set of simulations, traits or SNP markers were considered under selection rather than drift if their response to selection was significantly different to 0 considering all 20 simulation repeats using a t-test.Indices for simulated selection were defined as follows:1. Grain yield measured in each trial year. 2. Multi-trait index including grain yield and traits known to be associated with weed competitiveness. The weed competitive ability selection index (Weeds_ESIM) was based on the restricted eigenvector selection index method (RESIM) (Cerón-Rojas et al. 2008). For this, principal component analysis was performed on a selection of desirable traits based on the literature, which included yield measured in both years as well as traits previously identified as valuable for weed competitive ability. These included high early vigour, measured as green leaf area (GLA) over the development phase before flowering time, and planophile (horizontal) flag leaf angle (FLA) (Korres and Froud-Williams 2002;Andrew et al. 2015;Mwendwa et al. 2020;Kissing Kucek et al. 2021). To mitigate risk of lodging (i.e. the permanent displacement of a stem from vertical), mean crop height (height to ear tip [HET]) between both years was also then restricted to values between 60 and 65 cm. The vector weightings on the first principal component with mean HET values between this range therefore represented the Weeds_ESIM. Most traits involved in this selection index were positively correlated, so the first principal component could be assumed to provide a desirable combined index for selection.3. Grain yield protein deviation (GYPD). The GYPD selection index was calculated as the sum of the scaled and centred mean yield and protein across both years using the equation:where nis the number of observations per trait, Y and Pare the BLUP yield and protein values across years, respectively, and Ȳ and Pare the mean yield and protein content values across all genotypes. This approach gives equal weighting to both yield and protein so that the direction of selection is perpendicular to the negative correlation. Both the Weeds_ESIM and the GYPD selection indices were calculated for traits across both trial years as these comparisons were less concerned with differences between trial years.We analysed data from a genetically diverse and highly recombined 16-founder wheat MAGIC population for a wide range of agronomically important traits over multiple trial years (72 trait-year combinations) to investigate complex trait-trait relationships and their implications for breeding. Correlation analysis across all traits and years revealed complex trait relationships and substantial differences in patterns between the two trial years (Fig. 1; see Supporting Information-Table S2). Considering grain yield as the primary trait of interest, many other secondary traits were found to be correlated (Fig. 1). The strong negative trade-off between yield and GPC was mediated by yield component traits. For example, grain size traits (such as TGW), grains per spikelet (GPS) and total spikelets per ear (TS) were all positively correlated with grain yield, but negatively correlated with protein content and with each other. Therefore, potential benefits of selecting for any one of the yield component traits in isolation are buffered by problematic trade-offs with other yield component traits and likely have negative effects on protein content. Supporting the low correlation between yield measured in the 2 years (r = 0.4), differential relationships between yield and other developmental stage and plant architecture traits between the two trial years were also found. In year 1, taller and later flowering genotypes were generally higher yielding (yield-height to ear tip correlation = 0.20; yield-heading date correlation = 0.32), whereas in year 2, the correlation between height and yield was negative (correlation = −0.11) and between yield and heading date was non-significant. Therefore, strong genotype by environment interaction (G × E) effects on yield means that selection for yield, or related adaptive traits, in any single environment may have limited potential to increase yield in another environment. However, contrasting patterns of rainfall and temperature between the two yield trial years (Fig. 2), in which year 1 was characterized by high temperatures and drought before anthesis (March and April) whilst year 2 was characterized by extreme terminal heat and drought after anthesis ( June and July), may explain the differences in relationships between adaptive traits and yield in this study. Each of the two trial years experienced different extremes of monthly climate variables at the NIAB, Cambridge weather station (lat: 52.245; lon: 0.102) compared to the distributions from 1960 to 2016 so were considered separately in these analyses.Other plant architecture traits, such as GLA in the development phase, juvenile growth habit and flag leaf morphology had weak but positive correlations with yield, suggesting potential relevance of these traits as mechanisms to increase yield, or as valuable traits themselves to select for in combination with yield to increase crop competitive ability with weeds. However, the strong positive correlations between GLA traits and plant height traits mean that increasing these traits without increasing lodging risk may be problematic. Optimizing combinations of important traits therefore requires consideration of correlated responses due to pleiotropy and linkage.We tested the accuracy of several genomic prediction approaches to determine the genetic architecture of the multiple related traits, using both ST and MT models that take into account relationships among correlated traits. LASSO represents Abbreviations for all additional trait names are given in Table 1. Trait node colours indicate the eight groups of related traits as identified using hierarchical clustering. The _1 and _2 designations used after trait abbreviations refer to trial year 1 and trial year 2, respectively. Blue and red connecting lines indicate positive and negative correlations, respectively, while line thickness is relative to correlation P-value significance. models including trait genetic architecture controlled by a minimal number of additive genetic effects across the genome, while RF represents models including a much greater number of interacting genetic effects. Random Forest outperformed LASSO for most traits in ST models and was particularly advantageous for traits with generally low genomic prediction accuracy, such as GLA and grain yield in both years (Fig. 3A). Prediction accuracy was increased from 0.34 and 0.20 in ST LASSO models to 0.38 and 0.27 in ST RF models for grain yield measured in each year, respectively. In contrast, traits with greater prediction accuracy, such as plant height or grain dimension traits, were better predicted by LASSO. This suggests that RF can successfully predict genetic effects in traits with more complex genetic architecture, potentially using non-additive and epistatic effects.Multi-trait ensemble models consistently produced more accurate predictions for almost all traits for both RF (86 % of traits) and particularly for LASSO (90 % of traits) models (Fig. 3B and C). On the other hand, SVD MT models were less reliable and generally resulted in lower prediction accuracies (Fig. 3B and C), although RF notably outperformed LASSO in SVD MT models. Therefore, including information from predictions of other related traits in an MT ensemble model was advantageous over attempting to predict pleiotropic effects directly in a decomposed trait matrix. Traits that were poorly predicted by LASSO compared to RF for ST models (Fig. 3A, left panel) had particularly increased prediction accuracies via the MT ensemble predictions for LASSO (Fig. 3B, left panel). This suggests traits that were predicted better by either of the MT models have few direct or large genetic effects and are rather the culmination of many other component traits. These indirect genetic effects may be picked up in complex RF prediction models, but are best captured by the use of MT models that can directly model pleiotropic trait trade-offs.Multi-trait ensemble models increased genomic prediction accuracy of grain yield from an average of 0.27 to 0.33 for LASSO models and from 0.32 to 0.34 for RF models on average across both years and cross-validations. Variable importance of trait covariates in the RFs used in the MT ensemble models indicates the influence of these traits in the model. Across all traits, most highly influential traits had strong positive or negative correlations in each year among the observed lines (Fig. 4A). Considering grain yield in each year as the primary trait of interest, highly correlated traits such as GPC and grain yield measured in the other year, were highly important in MT ensemble models for grain yield, suggesting that pleiotropic effects mediating the grain yield and protein content trade-off are useful for predicting grain yield itself (Fig. 4B). Base model predictions of yield in the other year as the focal yield trait were also included in models with high importance suggesting that the ensemble model effectively takes yield genotype by environment interaction (G × E) effects into account. Developmental stage traits including dates of growth stages GS39 (flag leaf blade all visible), GS55 (ear half emerged) and GS65 (flowering half-way complete) and flag leaf senescence (FLS) were particularly important covariate traits and were positively correlated with yield in year 1 to a greater extent than in year 2 (Fig. 1). These traits also featured with greater importance in MT ensemble models when grain yield in year 1, compared to year 2, was predicted (Fig. 4B). This indicates that later-developing lines were predicted to be higher yielding in the year without terminal drought stress. Other yield component traits including GPS and grains per ear (GPE), but not grain size traits, were found to be of high importance (Fig. 4B). Many GLA traits, particularly when measured in the spring, were also included with fairly high importance in MT ensemble models (Fig. 4B), suggesting a role of the crop development phase in resource acquisition for final grain yield. These results not only identify important traits for inclusion in MT prediction models, but also physiological mechanisms for grain yield improvement.We then investigated the potential for different genomic prediction models to achieve genetic gain in yield through simulation of a recurrent genomic selection programme within the NDM. Multi-trait ensemble RF models were found to be the most accurate model from cross-validation within the observed population (Fig. 3) and so were used as the true genetic model to define the true phenotypes of simulated lines. The genomic prediction models were then trained on the simulated true phenotype data of lines in the first generation and genomic predictions of phenotypes were used to make selections for subsequent cycles of lines.The accuracy of genomic prediction models over the course of the selection simulations generally reflected those in cross-validated of the observed data. Prediction accuracy of all models decreased in later cycles of the simulations, but models that were more accurate in the observed data and maintained accuracy for longer, such as MT RF and ST RF (Fig. 5A), achieved greater long-term genetic gain in yield (Fig. 5B). Random Forest models that included restricted trees with an interaction depth of one so that genetic marker interaction effects could not be included were much less accurate and led to less genetic gain, particularly for grain yield in year 1 (Fig. 5). This suggests an important role for prediction of non-additive genetic effects in RF models for continued accuracy of genomic prediction models, particularly as breeding cycles become more distantly related to the training set.Phenotypic correlations identified traits that may be under similar genetic control through either pleiotropy or linkage, so we investigated the potential for recurrent selection to achieve genetic gains in traits directly under selection as well as indirect effects on other traits. Simulations of a phenotypic recurrent selection programme were run that compared different selection indices and true genetic models. For these, selections were made based on the true phenotypic values, based on the assumed true genetic model (MT RF), rather than the predicted phenotypes as for simulations of recurrent genomic selection.Firstly, we simulated selection based purely on grain yield measured in each trial year. Considering the MT ensemble RF as the true genetic model, which achieved the greatest prediction accuracy across traits (Fig. 3), selection on grain yield per se resulted in rapid genetic gain in the yield trait under direct selection as well as indirect effects on other related traits (Fig. 6). These included selection for combinations of related traits that were complementary to, as well as those that were antagonistic to, their correlation in the unselected population. As an example of complementary trait selection, GPC was shown to be strongly negatively correlated with grain yield in the original population (Fig. 1) and therefore rapidly decreased as grain yield was selected for. Although both grain yield and GPC are both positively valued traits, here we define these as under complementary selection where their trait correlations and selection covariance are in the same direction. In contrast, antagonistic trait selection could be demonstrated by plant height traits and  and GY_2). All trait abbreviations are as listed in Table 1 and colour coded according to trait group, as in Fig. 1. The _1 and _2 designations used after trait abbreviations refer to trial year 1 and trial year 2, respectively. grain dimension traits that were all positively correlated with each other in the original population (Fig. 1), but covaried negatively over time in the simulated population under selection for yield measured in each trial year; large grain size traits increased over time (GA, GL, GW, TGW), whereas plant height traits (HET, HFLB) decreased (Fig. 6). Similarly, GLA traits over the foundation development stage were generally positively correlated with plant height traits but increased over time as grain yield was selected for, while plant height traits decreased (Fig. 6). Although the majority of trait relationships had complementary rather than antagonistic trait correlations in the original population and covariances in the simulated population (55.4 and 57.8 % of pairwise relationship when grain yield selected in each year, respectively, had both positive or both negative correlations and covariances under selection; Fig. 6), the significant remaining proportion did not. This indicates that antagonistic trait trade-offs were required to be optimized to achieve the genetic gains in yield simulated in the population, and highlights the benefit of the MT prediction approach.As suggested by the low correlation between yields in each year, selection for yield in either year had only limited effects on yield in the other year where approximately half the genetic gain in yield in the alternate year was achieved in simulated selection for yield in either year. This G × E effect for yield was reflected by how the yield component traits were co-selected with yield between the 2 years. Grains per ear and GPS were increased when selection was for grain yield in year 2 but remained mostly neutral for grain yield in year 1 (Fig. 6). Further to the differential importance of traits in the MT ensemble models outlined above, differential selection responses of yield component traits according to yield in differing environments highlights the capacity for G × E interactions to buffer response to selection for grain yield. However, when G × E is predictable, in certain target environments, contrasting yield component strategies could be used to adapt the crop to the environment. For example, it may be supposed that a genotype that can be high yielding by producing many grain sites per ear throughout an extended development phase due  to being later flowering would be better adapted to environments without terminal drought stress.We next tested whether MT selection indices could be employed to simultaneously optimize selection for yield and other traits of interest, such as GPC or crop architecture traits that aid competition with weeds. As outlined by the observed trait correlations, early season GLA traits and grain yield were found to be slightly positively correlated, so could be co-selected, but the additional association between GLA and plant height would need to be restricted to limit risk of lodging. We therefore simulated effects of a phenotypic selection strategy based on selection index to increase important traits for crop competitive ability with weeds in combination with grain yield, whilst restricting changes in plant height as well as an index for high GYPD to combine both negatively correlated traits.Considering the ST RF as the true genetic model, the combined grain yield + weed competition selection index succeeded in increasing desirable competitive traits including GLA, FLA as well as grain yield in both years, whilst maintaining plant height at an acceptable level (Fig. 7). Indirect effects on other traits included rapid early selection for spring-type growth habit (SH) up to the fifth breeding cycle, but which then remained at around 90 % frequency in the population without fixation in any of the simulation repetitions. The GYPD selection index also achieved genetic gain in desirable traits (grain yield and protein content in both years) and had some indirect effects on related traits (Fig. 7). As an example of one trait that was co-selected with GYPD, flag leaf width (FLW) increased in all simulation repeats, increasing by 3 % and 4.2 % for the trait when measured in year 1 and year 2, respectively. Whilst most of the trait relationships selected for in the weed competition index were positively correlated and complementary traits, such as all of the GLA traits and grain yield, the GYPD selection index included more antagonistic trait relationships (positive correlation and negative covariance or negative correlation and positive covariance) that were required to be optimized in addition to yield and protein trade-off (Fig. 7). For example, under GYPD selection, GPS correlated negatively with GPC in each year (correlation = −0.33 and −0.36 in each year, respectively), but covaried positively over simulated selection (covariance = 0.52 and 0.35 in each year, respectively), where GPS increased by an average of 0.23 over the course of simulated selection while GPC measured in each year also increased by 2.48 % and 1.57 %, respectively. Furthermore, the flag leaf to ear distance (FLED) and GPC measured in year 2 correlated positively (correlation = 0.21), but covaried negatively over the simulated selection (covariance = −0.25), where FLED decreased by 2.73 cm while GPC increased by 1.57 % over the course of simulated selection. These provide examples of trait mechanisms by which yield and GPC could be simultaneously selected.Selection on multiple traits, which requires optimization of multiple trait trade-offs, slowed the rate of genetic gain in grain yield for each of the selection indices: mean grain yield across both trial years increased when using both selection indices, but at a slower rate, particularly for grain yield in year 1 under GYPD selection, compared to when grain yield was selected for per se (Fig. 8). However, in comparison to gain in grain yield in either one of the 2 years when selection was for grain yield in the other year, both GYPD and the yield + weed competition selection indices achieved generally comparable gains for yield whilst also increasing other favourable traits (Fig. 8). These results show that antagonistic trait relationships are generally possible to optimize through appropriate selection. However, while this may slow genetic gain to some extent in the primary traits of interest, such as grain yield, this more realistically represents the balance of selection for multiple traits that occurs in breeding programmes.After comparing simulated response to different selection indices, we then tested how using different true genetic models that are based on the different genomic prediction models trained on the observed NDM population (LASSO versus RF; using either ST or MT approaches) affect phenotypic and genomic response to selection. Both RF and MT ensemble models were shown above to generally increase the prediction accuracy across traits (Fig. 3), and here we show these predictions had a lower degree of shrinkage towards the mean of predicted trait values in comparison to the grain yield trait values of observed lines (Fig. 9A).The MT RF models in fact had comparable variances in prediction values to the observed grain yield data, indicating their realistic prediction of phenotypic variation. While this would be expected from an overfitting model, cross-validation with the observed data showed an increased accuracy of these models. Simulations with MT RF true genetic models tended to have the largest and longest increase of genetic gain over the course of simulated selection of grain yield (Fig. 9B). Genetic gain in grain yield plateaued, at a relatively low level, after only around six cycles of selection using ST LASSO genetic model simulations but cycle time to plateaux and plateaux height (maximum genetic gain) were both extended by either using a RF or MT model. This pattern of faster and higher genetic gain in RF or MT models was accompanied by the retention of higher phenotypic (Fig. 9C) and genetic (Fig. 9D) variance, particularly over long-term selection in the MT models. Almost all non-zero LASSO SNP effects were fixed after eight cycles of selection in any simulation repeat for selection for grain yield in either year, limiting further genetic gain (Fig. 9). Continued loss of genetic diversity once all genetic effects that affect phenotypic variance were fixed was down to genetic drift. Many of the SNP with highest variable importance in RF models were in common with the largest LASSO SNP effect coefficients, and the largest of these were fixed in the first few cycles of selection at a similar rate for both ST RF and ST LASSO (Fig. 9E), where almost all of the 10 SNPs with the largest LASSO effect or RF variable importance were fixed after five cycles of selection for both models. However, RF models included many more SNPs with nonzero importance (~20 000) than non-zero LASSO effects (61 and 87 for grain yield in years 1 and 2, respectively) and many more of these small or non-additive genetic effects in RF models remained polymorphic for longer (Fig. 9E). For example, a significant proportion of these (14.3 and 13.8 % for grain yield in years 1 and 2, respectively) remained polymorphic after 10 cycles of selection while genetic gain in yield still continued to increase (Fig. 9B). This suggests that accumulation of the SNP effects, that were too small to be included in LASSO, or complex non-additive SNP by SNP epistatic genetic effects, made a large contribution to continued long-term genetic gain in RF models even after large effect QTL are fixed.Furthermore, simply adding a MT second step to LASSO models to include indirect pleiotropic effects also increased and extended long-term genetic gain to a similar or greater extent to ST or MT RF models (Fig. 9B). Using MT models, LASSO SNP effects were fixed at a much slower rate (Fig. 9E) and phenotypic and genetic variance was maintained for much longer (Fig. 9C  and D), where on average 12 % of the 10 largest LASSO SNP effects for each ST were polymorphic after 10 cycles of selection for across all simulation repeats with selection for grain yield in both years. This also suggests that the greater degree of pleiotropy present in MT models, which increased prediction accuracy for low accuracy LASSO models in particular (Fig. 3), meant that the number of small effect loci involved in each trait was greatly increased. However, the number of indirect pleiotropic LASSO SNP effects across non-additive ensemble models could not be quantified. Selection could therefore act on more complex trait relationships driven by pleiotropy and/ or linkage.Linkage among antagonistic genetic effects could be shown to partly limit genetic gain. On average, only 0.8 and 5 % of nonzero ST LASSO model SNP coefficients were negatively fixed resulting in an average of 0.28 and 2.15 % loss of the maximum yield after 20 cycles of selection for yield in each year, respectively. However, this was exacerbated in MT LASSO genetic models where 16.4 and 28.7 % of ST LASSO SNP effects with negative effects on the trait under selection were incorrectly fixed resulting in 14.1 and 23.5 % loss of potential genetic gain if the ST LASSO SNP effects are considered. Despite this, MT LASSO models achieved much greater genetic gain than ST LASSO models because the much larger number of smaller genetic effects that are associated with related traits provided a greater genetic variance for selection. This further indicates insufficient recombination to completely decouple antagonistic linked QTL that were not directly involved in ST LASSO models for grain yield but pleiotropically linked through MT models.A complex structure of trait relationships that interact with environmental conditions were found to be involved in prediction of grain yield. Through simulation of recurrent selection within a genetically diverse highly recombined multi-founder wheat population, and based on observed genomic and phenotypic data, we tested several contrasting genetic models and quantitative genetic approaches to recurrent selection. We found that, in comparison to a simplifying LASSO genetic model where each trait was predicted directly from a minimal subset of markers with additive effects, prediction accuracies were increased both by using a MT ensemble approach and RF prediction models, which potentially incorporate pleiotropy and epistatic effects respectively. This was particularly so for complex traits with low prediction accuracy, and in simulations of recurrent selection these models also increased the rate and extent of long-term genetic gain, whilst maintaining phenotypic and genetic variance. Thus, genomic prediction models that include more complex genetic effects such as epistasis, and pleiotropy may better reflect how continued genetic gain is achieved through breeding.We showed that modelling relationships among traits is valuable for increasing genomic prediction accuracy. We validated this in the observed data set demonstrated the resulting benefits for genetic gain in simulations of recurrent genomic selection. While demonstrating improved accuracy in noisy real data can be challenging, the typical increases in prediction accuracy observed here for grain yield by including MT ensemble models is comparable to differences between commonly used prediction models in other studies (e.g. Heslot et al. 2012;Charmet et al. 2020). By comparison, demonstrating an advantage to these models in simulated data with the assumed true genetic model is more theoretical, but provides further evidence for their utility in a forward prediction and selection breeding context.Traditional MT genomic prediction models consider the covariance structure of related traits across multiple environments and replicates and increase genomic prediction accuracy for cross-validation schemes when test fractions include partially phenotyped individuals in the test environment ( Jia and Jannink 2012). However, other studies often do not find an advantage to MT models for untested genotypes in real data sets (Ward et al. 2019;Bhatta et al. 2020). We present results from MT ensembles that integrate predictions of multiple traits into the same model (Van der Laan et al. 2007;He et al. 2016). These ensemble models consistently outperformed ST models, while a contrasting approach using SVD of the MT matrix performed poorly and more variably across traits. Although the increase in prediction accuracy was small for most traits, the advantage of MT ensemble models was greater for traits that were poorly predicted by LASSO models, such as grain yield, suggesting that ensemble methods efficiently incorporate additional information from large numbers of small pleiotropic genetic effects among related traits, which ST LASSO models would otherwise overlook when each trait is considered independently. Traits such as grain yield are polygenic and few genetic markers with large and consistent effects have been identified and applied in breeding (Bernardo 2016). However, including predictions of component traits of yield, many of which have simpler genetic architectures (Scott et al. 2021), can improve the ensemble prediction model for yield. We found that many highly correlated traits were used as covariates with high importance in MT models. Furthermore, the covariate importance scores of traits in the ensemble models highlight physiological mechanisms for trait improvement and enable optimization of antagonistic trait relationships (Fig. 4). Where yield components correlate negatively with each other, the MT ensemble model is able to optimize the interplay among these traits to increase the prediction accuracy of yield as the primary trait of interest. Similar to the approach taken by Powell et al. (2022) who modelled multiple systems biology development processes to bridge the gap between genotype to complex phenotype, we used multiple physiological traits in more agnostic models without defined crop growth parameters to aid prediction of the complex processes behind grain yield.Inter-year environmental variation can modulate relationships between traits. We noted strongly contrasting weather conditions between the two trial years in which phenotypic data were collected (Fig. 2). The covariate importances of traits for predicting yield changed with the year scenario being predicted, revealing some mechanisms controlling G × E for yield (Fig. 4). For example, growth stage phenotypes were more important covariates in year 1. Similarly, trade-offs in plant size and earliness likely maintain polygenic trait variation due to varying environmental pressures in the wild plant Mimulus guttatus (Troth et al. 2018). In breeding, any single strategy to achieve high yield may be hampered by unpredictable year-to-year environmental variation, and thus limit response to selection and reduction in genetic variance. While our simulations of future genetic gain cannot account for unmeasured environments in the future, commercial wheat breeders often take this into account and make selections of promising lines with a diversity of phenological or plant height traits to ensure adaptive potential.Using MT data from a MAGIC population that controls for confounding effects of population structure (Scott et al. 2020), we found that pleiotropy and/or tight genetic linkage are significant causes of correlated trait responses to selection. These data also shed light on the combination of traits that would be required to be co-selected or optimized to achieve continuous gains in grain yield as a primary trait under selection. Furthermore, we find antagonistic trade-offs among traits that have been problematic for wheat crop improvement. We suggest that historic enhancement of grain yield by breeders at the cost of key traits such as weed competitive ability, or GPC, has been due to the overriding value placed on grain yield as a primary selection criterion during variety testing, as well as market pressures, leaving little scope for compromise with other traits. Integration of novel trait variation to optimize these trade-offs within an elite wheat genepool, which has been under such strong directional selection, would therefore be difficult. However, simulations presented here show that with appropriate selection indices, genetic gain in both yield and other valuable but negatively correlated traits was possible to some extent.Simulating selection using prediction models with contrasting genetic architectures (i.e. in terms of additive or epistatic and direct or pleiotropic genetic effects) had major impacts on the outcomes of recurrent selection. The greater complexity of these models both increased cross-validated prediction accuracy of complex traits in the observed population and extended the accuracy of genomic predictions in simulations of recurrent genomic selection. Furthermore, simulations of phenotypic selection assuming a complex genetic model demonstrated accelerated and extended potential for genetic gain while maintaining genetic and phenotypic variance. The role of non-additive genetic effects has been demonstrated elsewhere to preserve genetic variance over long-term selection in simulated populations (Wientjes et al. 2022). Wang et al. (2004) used simulations of selection within the CIMMYT wheat breeding programme to compare genetic models, finding that inclusion of epistasis in genetic models greatly reduced the rate that additive genetic variance is lost due to selection. Although the role of epistasis is thought to contribute little to overall genetic variance, at least in outbred populations (Hill and Mäki-Tanila 2015), evolutionary theory supports these observations in crop breeding; selection can enable conversion of epistatic to additive genetic effects, allowing hidden or cryptic genetic variation to then be unlocked (Carlborg et al. 2006;Hill 2017). The limits to trait variation in our study are likely underestimates because as allele frequencies shift and trait genetic architectures evolve under selection new additive genetic effects would be unlocked for selection which cannot be modelled or predicted in the observed population. Supporting this, we found that prediction models soon become out of date and suffer loss of prediction accuracy, particularly for simple additive prediction models (LASSO), when target genotypes become more distantly related to the training set (Edwards et al. 2019). However, in realistic scenarios of a wheat breeding programme practicing genomic selection, the training model is continually updated with data from advanced breeding line testing which would enable more linear continued genetic gain. Continuous novel mutations may also play an important role in regenerating genetic variation and extending limits to long-term selection in large populations (Hill 1982) but were not considered in simulations reported here. Pre-breeding programmes can also introduce novel genetic diversity from the primary, secondary and tertiary wheat genepool (Balfourier et al. 2019). Nevertheless, the population we study is representative of diverse north-west European wheats across 70 years. We found that additive variation included in minimal LASSO prediction models was quickly depleted during simulated selection. We propose that pleiotropic and epistatic genetic effects and G × E interactions have played a major role in maintaining wheat genetic diversity despite strong selection and will be particularly important for applied genomic selection of elite varieties in already highly selected breeding populations.MAGIC populations have proven valuable resources for direct generation of commercial varieties of some less intensively bred crops than wheat (Scott et al. 2020). In simulated breeding programmes, Bernardo (2021) suggested that multi-parent crossing schemes may be valuable for maintaining genetic diversity. However, the diverse MAGIC wheat population described here is unlikely to generate commercially competitive varieties due to the broad genetic basis and historic founders. Instead, this MAGIC population samples and recombines genetic diversity across 70 years and can therefore be considered a microcosm of past and future selective breeding. In this context, our simulations rerun alternate histories to test different selection models and approaches and reveal physiological and genetic mechanisms for future breeding. We suggest that this approach, including MT ensembles, could be further integrated with environmental information to inform crop models (Stöckle and Kemanian 2020;Cooper et al. 2021). Considering that traditional wheat breeding programme cycles generally extend over at least 5 years, our simulations of twenty cycles of recurrent selection represent an equivalent of over 100 years of traditional wheat breeding (albeit it with no further input from genotypes outside of the 16 founders from which the MAGIC population was constructed). Current wheat breeding programmes are also likely to be at a point towards the later stages of selection simulations presented here where the majority of large effect QTL are either fixed or well accounted for. Further genetic gain in current breeding programmes will therefore likely be achieved through optimization of small and complex genetic effects (Gorjanc et al. 2018).Through selection, breeders appear to often maintain LD across unexpectedly large genomic regions because they contain several beneficial alleles (Fradgley et al. 2019;Brinton et al. 2020), which could also interact epistatically. Therefore, prediction models that capture relevant haplotype blocks and the most recently unlocked epistatic effects will be increasingly important for forward prediction of high performing breeding lines. Comparisons between patterns of LD in commercial selected varieties and in simulations presented here would validate this process and uncover valuable sites for further marker assisted selection. Our simulations suggest that beneficial variation is often lost during breeding. This diverse MAGIC population is a reservoir for such this genetic diversity and the phenotypic and genomic data allow beneficial alleles to be identified. Through targeted rapid recurrent selection and breeding technologies that reduce generation time (Watson et al. 2018;Cha et al. 2022), this population could therefore be used to provide useful pre-breeding material for commercial breeding programmes to deliver accelerated and continued genetic gain. Optimum contribution selection can also be applied to maximize longterm genetic gain by maintaining genetic variance for selection at later generations.In summary, we demonstrated the value of MT ensemble models for genomic prediction of complex traits and simulated recurrent selection using these genetic models based empirically on an extensively genotyped and phenotyped NDM population. We consider this a microcosm of wider wheat breeding programmes working with the wider pool of wheat germplasm so that our results provide insights into the trends and mechanisms by which the considerable progress and genetic gain has been made in modern wheat breeding without apparent genetic diversity loss. These findings highlight the importance of models and approaches that take into","tokenCount":"9269"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8ecf0c790d73af9d14bbfe5831c6c91c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b4b3e4c5-83ac-4c68-9687-c1b911ef5a1c/retrieve","id":"1032585695"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"630d8b0b-015d-4055-ab6b-a822a6b1a7e3","pagecount":"4","content":"In the Philippines, the effects of climate change are felt hardest by poor smallholder farmers and fi sherfolk. To help alleviate their situation, the Department of Agriculture (DA) developed the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) Program in 2014. Managed by the Systems-Wide Climate Change Offi ce (SWCCO), the program identifi ed, tested, and promoted climate resilient agriculture (CRA) technologies and approaches, with the ultimate goal of mainstreaming climate resilience within DA. Almost six years into the program, SWCCO and DA Regional Field Offi ces (DA-RFOs) have drawn initial sets of lessons and insights from the AMIA villages established across the Philippines. In November 2019, as DA observes the Climate Change Consciousness1 Support local platforms for Climate Resilient Agriculture as foundations for resilient agriculture and fi sheries Week, SWCCO and the DA-RFOs are poised to bring understanding within the DA system the value of programming for resilience, the relevance of CRA, and the need for mainstreaming, scaling, and sustainability at local levels.This document highlights the key messages drawn from climate adaptation efforts and events done with DA-RFOs across the country. This brief, developed for the Climate Change Consciousness Week, offers DA a synthesis of lessons from the AMIA village experience as a bankable model for establishing contextspecifi c, local adaptation platforms for developing and disseminating CRA technologies and processes. This brief also offers valuable policy insights for the Philippines' National Adaptation Plan.Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) is the Department of Agriculture's approach to building climate resilient livelihood and communities.• CRA a) increases agriculture productivity and income in a sustainable and environmentally-sound manner; b) builds the capacity of households and food systems to adapt to climate change; and c) reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. Climate-risk vulnerability assessment was done to identify hazards in a given area and serve as basis for suitable CRA options.• 21 AMIA Villages were established across the Philippines. These were selected based on level of climate risk vulnerability, the capacity of the community to adapt to climate change, and the capacity of the local institutions to provide support services.• AMIA villages are lighthouses that serve as learning and dissemination sites of the most relevant CRA technologies and practices Through this iteration of the learning process, the AMIA village concept and practices are brought to scale.2 Pursue sustainable and competitive livelihoods while effectively managing climate and environment risks through promotion of adaptation strategies• DA and its partners have developed tools and methodologies that assess climate risk vulnerabilities. These can be readily used for objective programming at various levels of DA's banner programs. (For more information, visit www.ciatph.github.io)• DA is implementing an extensive number of available, mature, and scalable CRA technologies and practices on the ground, with AMIA villages as models. (See www.swcco.da.gov.ph)• In promoting CRA technologies and practices, market potential and increase in income must be taken into consideration.• Adaptation strategies facilitated on the ground: agricultural diversification; climate resilient crops; sustainable mechanization; enterprise development; climate information services; agricultural financial services; learning platform; farmers database; and soil and water management.3 Review and re-orient existing DA programs to facilitate greater access of farming and fishing communities to adaptation strategies• Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan (AFMP) realized: CRA is crucial to agriculture and fisheries modernization, which aims to increase the resilience of agri-fishery communities.• Mainstreaming CRA: Climate resilience, sustainability, and productivity have to be integrated in regular DA programs, plans, operations, and investments. Competitiveness and profitability should link with resilience.• Paradigm shift: Mainstreaming climate resilience in DA requires a paradigm shift that deviates from \"business-as-usual\" approaches. Lessons and evidences from the field must support top-down directives.• Role of champions: Champions drive efforts to sustain and scale up adaptation work on the ground and establish linkages to policy and investments.4 Empower women to take advantage of opportunities presented by Climate Resilient Agriculture• Climate change has differential effects on men and women that aggravate gender inequality. 35% of Filipinas involved in agriculture are unpaid (PIDS, 2018). Their plight are largely due to traditions and norms that limit their abilities and participation in agriculture.• Gender disaggregated data, gender-sensitive data collection, monitoring and evaluation indicators, and gender-equitable budgeting bring targeted attention to women in agriculture.• An in-depth analysis of opportunities and constraints of women in accessing and controlling resources and services is needed to develop appropriate approaches and technologies that address gender-related issues.• There are emerging agricultural technologies that are favorable to women. Examples of these are backyard gardening, small livestock production, weeder, transplanter, and seeder.Increasing support for capacity building and local extension to harness potential of agri-fishery communities to adapt and innovate towards resilience building• Provide opportunities to capacitate agri-fishery communities in testing and innovating practices that enhance resilience and competitiveness.• Improve local agricultural extension mechanisms for farmers and fisherfolk to utilize research outputs on Climate Resilient Agriculture.• Consider the inherent adaptation mechanisms and traditional practices of farmers when promoting new technologies and practices. Maximize the unique opportunities presented by LGUs in delivering Climate Resilient Agriculture at the community level while fostering strategic local partnerships• The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Local Government Units (LGUs) have a shared responsibility of delivering agricultural services to farmers and fisherfolk.•LGUs have unique capacities to mobilize human and financial resources to deliver CRA down to grassroots level. DA can formulate and operationalize national agriculture programs and projects, provide capacity building support, and develop platforms for LGUs to deliver this mandate.• The AMIA village is a good model of a local platform for partnerships in pursuing climate resilience in agriculture and fisheries.Capitalize on private sector contribution to sustain and scale out Climate Resilient Agriculture through enhanced services provision, financing, and value chain support• Sustaining CRA requires increased investments in infrastructure (i.e. irrigation, farm to market roads,marketing facilites), mechanization, local seed systems, agricultural credit, and crop insurance.• CRA should be financially benefial to agri-fishery communities in the long run by reducing production cost and enhancing the resilience of existing, well-established community value chains.• The local private sector ensures that agri-fishery communities have assured supply of agricultural inputs and services, fair trade prices, better access to markets, and services to support CRA practices.","tokenCount":"1015"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7f0fb25f9c50f0e04d87e2bd7c44edd5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0a385dab-0ac1-47fb-bd34-29961f5ac205/retrieve","id":"-5581789"},"keywords":["Farming systems","Food access","Food security","Mathematical models"],"sieverID":"eb196e24-9a5d-454a-b9b4-ccb9833a040f","pagecount":"128","content":"Setting priorities to address the research gaps between agricultural systems analysis and food security outcomes in low-and middle-income countries. CCAFS Working Paper no. 255. Wageningen, the Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Available online at: www.ccafs.cgiar.org Titles in this Working Paper series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Environments literature indicates that it currently emphasizes a broad range of environmental and personal factors that influence food choice in higher-income country settings, but additional work is necessary to apply these concepts to low-and middleincome countries, and to populations of agricultural producers.The representations of food security indicators in empirical model analyses of both households and regions are diverse yet often inconsistent with the definitions more commonly emphasized by human nutritionists. Often, empirical models appear to equate measures of production or yields with \"food security\" when these are indicators only of the \"availability\" dimension of food security. In general, agricultural system model analyses more commonly employ availability indicators (which can be viewed as a necessary but not sufficient condition for \"food security\") but would provide improved guidance for research and programmatic efforts with a focus on indicators of food access. Even when dynamic models are specified, the time units, time horizons and criteria to evaluate the \"stability\" dimension of food security often are not adequate.We recommend that agricultural systems models focus on incorporating three food access indicators: 1) food consumption expenditures, 2) experience-based food insecurity scales such as the Food Insecurity Experience Scales (FIES) or the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) instruments, and 3) measures of household dietary diversity such as the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS). These indicators are preferable because of the limited empirical relationship between national-level availability and individual nutritional status and because capturing own production on farms or production at regional scales is not sufficient for understanding households' and individuals' experience of food insecurity, which entails considerable access to markets, dependence on food prices, and interactions with diverse food environments. Moreover, these indicators should also be evaluated over time using the approaches like that developed by Herrera (2017) to assess more formally the robustness and adaptability components defining food security stability.The evidence base is currently insufficient to support robust and reliable integration of experience-based food insecurity scales and household dietary diversity into agricultural systems models. Although a number of studies have examined the determinants of these indicators and found a few consistent relationships (e.g., higher household incomes improve all indicators) often these are not specific to the settings modeled by existing agricultural systems models. This suggests that collection of this information, preferably using longitudinal data approaches, is needed so that model extensions can include these indicators.Additional study (implying larger and longer-term investments) is needed to document and refine the general nature of relationships between common outputs of agricultural systems models and the other two indicators of food access (food insecurity and household dietary diversity scales). There is also undoubtedly much work to be done to determine appropriate analytical (statistical) techniques, theoretical foundations and functional forms linking determinants to these and other indicators for the purposes of agricultural systems modeling but even more simplistic, reduced form empirical relationships may be useful as this body of work is explored and expanded.Priorities for application of agricultural systems models integrating improved representations of food security indicators could include assessment of shocks that could negatively affect production or incomes (e.g., weather, pests, disease, rapid changes in market conditions or access). Other key assessments could include longerterm processes that could negatively affect food security such as climate change (both effects of changes in rainfall and temperature distribution and evaluation of adaptation strategies), land use change, land fragmentation (or consolidation policies), decreases in biodiversity, natural resource degradation and demographic shifts (migration to urban areas).Our proof-of-concept analyses incorporating food access indicators at the household and regional levels have highlighted the empirical challenges of doing so, but also the benefits of doing so. For example, the household-level analysis using the CLASSES model indicated that for two different households, food security outcomes are not \"robust\" with respect to a yield shock but demonstrate \"adaptability\" in returning to close to pre-shock conditions. The CLASSES model also indicates the desirability of incorporating multiple alternative measures of food security, because these respond differently over time in the face of a shock.We recommend broad dissemination of the findings of this study to the agricultural systems modeling community and to the nutrition community (those working in the agriculture-nutrition space in particular). We encourage investments to support development of a broader base of empirical evidence about the determinants of food access indicators and their linkages to variables included in agricultural systems models, and efforts to extend existing agricultural systems models to include improved representations of food access indicators and intra-household food security outcomes.Moreover, further assessment is merited of the costs and benefits of representing utilization indicators (such as nutritional status) in agricultural systems models.The linkages between agriculture and nutrition-related outcomes-including food security outcomes-have long been recognized in various conceptual frameworks.Actions based on these linkages have become more prominent during the past decade with efforts such as the United Nations Scaling Up Nutrition and other organizational efforts to \"mainstream nutrition\" into sectors beyond health (IFAD, 2014). In particular, nutritional considerations have become more important in the design and implementation of agricultural development projects and best practices have been proposed (e.g., FAO, 2013;Garrett, 2017). Although agriculture is only one among many factors influencing food security outcomes, for certain populations and regions the linkages between food security outcomes and the performance of agricultural systems are vitally important-particularly in light of ongoing environmental challenges due to soil degradation, water availability and global climate change.Despite the recognition of these important linkages and challenges, there are a limited number of studies that include explicit quantitative analysis of the linkages between food security outcomes and agricultural systems. In a review of previous research for a special issue of Agricultural Systems of papers compiled from the 2 nd International Conference on Global Food Security in 2015, Stephens et al. (2018) noted the gap between conceptualization and quantitative implementation of linkages between agricultural systems outcomes and food security, stating:An emphasis on measuring household or individual level access to food, and understanding the dietary or nutritional impacts of changes to agricultural systems are conspicuously underrepresented… They ultimately concluded that: …further work is needed to examine the interfaces between agricultural systems, food systems and food security, including examination of agricultural produce markets, value chains, international exports and imports of agricultural commodities, food demand and preferences and constraints (so called 'food environments ' Herforth and Ahmed, 2015).A few studies (e.g., Stephens et al. 2012, Kopainsky andNicholson, 2015) have tried to link agricultural systems models with food security outcomes to understand evolving intertemporal dynamics and assess the impacts of system intensification. However, such studies appear to be small in number and are limited by the use of rudimentary indicators of food security (e.g., proportion of household caloric needs) and a focus only on household-level outcomes.Thus, there is a crucial need for-and a large potential benefit to-additional exploration of the \"uncharted territory\" (Stephens et al., 2018) linking agricultural systems analysis and food security outcomes in a broader sense. This paper provides a further update on the current state of literature encompassing quantitative linkages between agricultural systems analysis and food system outcomes, identifies priority research actions for improving the quantitative analysis of such linkages at household and regional scales, and illustrates how the integration of food security indicators into agricultural systems models might be done with a proof-of-concept case analysis.This working paper has the following objectives:1. Additional review and assessment of systems-oriented conceptual frameworks that link food security outcomes to other components of agricultural systems, building on the discussion in Stephens et al (2018); 2. Additional review and assessment of previously-developed quantitative models that link agricultural system outcomes and food security outcomes, also building on the discussion in Stephens et al (2018); 3. Delineation of priority research themes and contexts that would facilitate analysis of key linkages between quantitative agricultural systems analysis (with an emphasis on systems modeling) and a relevant set of food security outcomes at household and regional scales; 4. Describe a proof-of-concept case analysis illustrating the process of integration and the usefulness of explicit consideration of linkages.A few clarifications and caveats are appropriate to more clearly delineate the scope of this assessment. A principal purpose of this document is to provide guidelines and recommendations for improvement of the practice of modeling food security outcomes using agricultural systems models. Although not categorically excluding other types of analyses from our discussions, we generally imply by the term 'agricultural systems model' an empirical model that includes biophysical content, sometimes complemented by economic content because both of these elements can be necessary (if not sufficient) for an assessment of linkages between agriculture and food security indicators. Often, this will comprise a simulation model (of one or more types) that is used for the assessment of counterfactual situations compared to a baseline or status quo situationin contrast to a purely statistical model that is used primarily to determine the nature of associations between variables 1 . Although our assessment of the literature has turned up many types of models, our focus in this assessment is on how to better represent food security outcomes in those models fitting our definition of an 'agricultural systems model'. The extensive literature on agriculture, food security, and systems models required us to impose some limits on our review.Many agricultural systems models focus at the plot, farm, household or landscape level due to their focus on biophysical dimensions of agricultural production. In contrast, many models assessing food security outcomes tend to be focused on the household or on national or regional markets. In general, our focus is on food security outcomes for households that have an active role in agriculture, rather than for all households in a given region. This is consistent with common practice for household-level agricultural systems models, as illustrated by analyses such as Stephens et al. (2012) and Wossen et al. (2018). However, there are examples of analyses that integrate households across regional markets (e.g., the agent-based modeling work of Bakker et al., 2018) that could readily be extended to assess the impacts on non-agricultural households (e.g., urban residents not producing their own food). Despite our focus on agricultural households so that biophysical, economic and food security outcomes can be more closely linked, the basic approach we employ could in principle be applied to other simulation model settings at various scales, including analysis of non-farming households for whom representing consumption decisions would be most relevant. We define \"regional\" as a higher level of aggregation than an individual household, which can encompass various spatial aggregations (typically, at the level of a country or its subregions).Our focus on agricultural systems models and food security has a number of implications. First, although there is broad and continuously-growing literature on the linkages between agriculture and food security or food and nutrition security (reflected, e.g., in the development of 'nutrition-sensitive agriculture' and related analyses), we generally limit our review to those analyses that have been formalized in development of empirical (and simulation) models. The broader literature linking agriculture to food security outcomes can be a valuable complement to the development of improved agricultural systems models, but we deemed a comprehensive review of this literature as outside of the scope of this document.We have provided only cursory treatment of linkages between agricultural systems and intra-household (individual) food security outcomes, despite its acknowledged importance, particularly for women and children. We have done so in part because of the quite limited treatment of intra-household outcomes in the existing agricultural systems modeling literature, and because we believe additional assessment of the costs and benefits of alternative approaches to modeling intra-household disaggregation is merited. We offer some assessments of the current state of practice of intra-household representations throughout.Finally, although food security frequently is defined to include four elements (availability, access, utilization and stability) we focus much of our discussion on the access and stability dimensions. As we note below, the availability component is often the most easily measured and represented in agricultural systems models, but improved availability should generally be thought of as necessary but not sufficient for improved food security, given the somewhat hierarchical nature of these four elements 2 . Thus, we believe it is both necessary and useful for agricultural systems models to transcend the use of only availability measures. Utilization typically comprises food actually consumed by individuals and the resulting individual nutritional outcomes. Often, these outcomes are described as related to \"food and nutrition security\" (FNS), which certainly has considerable overlap with our treatment of \"food security.\" However, because the utilization component often has substantive interactions with health status (see, e.g., Randolph et al., 2007) that are challenging to represent in agricultural systems models, we do not focus on the utilization component of food security. However, we note in the conclusions some recommendations for follow-on work that could encompass the broader concept of FNS.Conceptual frameworks that link food security outcomes to other components of agricultural systems provide a starting point for examining research gaps between agricultural systems analysis and food security outcomes. There is a large and growing literature that hypothesizes and documents the linkages between agriculture, nutrition and health. Our objective here is to review the conceptual bases that have been offered for these linkages, with two main purposes related to our assessment of food security outcomes using agricultural systems models. First, a review of the conceptual basis indicates the degree of consensus regarding the underlying nature of these relationships, which can be used to motivate their explicit inclusion in agricultural systems models. Second, this review provides a means of reviewing hypothesized pathways and effects that may be useful to guide the development of agricultural systems models with explicit linkages to food security for specific contexts. Thus, we undertook a review of a variety of conceptual frameworks, including those that focus on food and nutrition security as well as those that represent a more general \"food system\".We began reviewing frameworks with which the authors were already familiar and additional relevant frameworks were identified in SCOPUS using the search terms \"food security conceptual framework.\" We also offer comments on how the existing frameworks might be modified or complemented to facilitate their use in the development of quantitative (especially structural) modeling approaches.The literature on conceptual frameworks that link agriculture with food security is growing, and early frameworks that differentiate between food system activities, outcomes and drivers (cf. Ingram et al., 2010) are being refined (e.g., by the explicit discussion of the role of diets as a core link between food systems and their nutrition and health outcomes (HLPE, 2017) and extended (e.g., by the explicit discussion of the political system and governance issues, e.g., Braun & Birner, 2017;Wegener et al., 2012).Existing conceptual frameworks that link food security outcomes to other components of agricultural systems share a number of features and components. Many frameworks acknowledge that food systems are complex and adaptive systems that are composed of:▪ Food system activities such as food production, processing, distribution, and consumption.▪ The resources going into these activities.▪ Outcomes of these activities, spanning from food security to environmental and social welfare outcomes.▪ Actors, institutions, and organisms whose decentralized behavior and interaction shape and modify food system activities and resource use and whose behavior and interaction might change in response to food system outcomes.▪ Feedback and interdependence across levels and scales.Nearly all of the frameworks recognize that a wide variety of factors-not just agriculture-affect food security outcomes for both households involved in agriculture and those that are not. More recent additions to existing frameworks are the concepts of food environments and resilience. Food environments describe the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural context in which consumers engage with the food system to acquire, prepare and consume food (HLPE, 2017). Resilience refers to the capacity of the food system to provide food security over time and despite disturbances (Tendall et al., 2015). There are three generic potential responses for food systems when they are affected by disturbance (Walker et al., 2004):▪ Stability or robustness: the system does not exhibit changes in its behavior. Stability describes a behavior that follows the same trajectory as it would without a disturbance.▪ Adaptation: the behavior of the system bends when affected by a disturbance but eventually, it bounces back to the behavior over time of a system without a disturbance.▪ Transformation: the system as it currently exists breaks and changes into a new system with different structure, relationships and identity. The new system might or might not produce the same outcomes (e.g., food security). Whereas some transformations might be positive, risk management is often concerned with those transformations that are not and with cases in which the system might collapse.In general, the above criteria as defined are most relevant for the consideration of (often, unintended) shocks that would have a negative impact on food security (such as drought, pests, disease or conflict). For the analysis of (often, intended) interventions to improve food security outcomes (such as productivity-enhancing technologies), \"stability\" (no change) or \"adaptation\" (return to previous conditions) would generally be considered less than desirable. (We illustrate this with our proof-of-concept analysis with the Mexico Sheep Sector Model, p. 65 below.) This suggests the need to more carefully define the meanings of these indicators with respect to the analyses to be undertaken, in addition to more clearly defining what constitutes \"stability\" and \"adaptation.\" In addition, it is generally more challenging to assess the \"transformation\" component in agricultural systems models, and this appears less common in the literature we review below. Although dynamic models (perhaps most particularly agent-based model analyses) could in principle capture some types of transformative change, it may be adequate for analyses with a time frame extending to only a few years to focus on the first two of these responses to system shocks or evolution. Herrera (2017) develops a series of metrices that can be calculated with dynamic simulation models to assess stability or robustness, adaptation and transformation in social-ecological systems. The metrices help a) anticipating whether robustness, adaptation or transformation can be expected as a result of a given disturbance, b) identifying where the thresholds are between robustness, adaptation and transformation and c) understanding what the resources and drivers are that foster robustness, adaptation and transformation. The metrices described in Herrera (2017) all refer to the impact of a disturbance (defined as the multiplication of the extent of a shock and the duration thereof) with respect to an outcome function. The outcome function describes the behavior over time of variables or indicators of interest such as food security indicators. The impact of a disturbance is usually measured by comparing the time-dependent behavior of the outcome function with the reference behavior of the same function, that is, with the time-dependent behavior of the outcome function in the absence of a disturbance. Four main resilience metrices discussed in Herrera (2017) are:▪ Hardness: The ability of the system to withstand a disturbance without experiencing a change in the performance of the outcome function F(x) (the threshold value between robustness and adaptation).▪ Recovery rapidity: The average rate at which the system returns to the reference behavior of the outcome function (i.e., returns to the same steady state, pathway or regime).▪ Elasticity: The ability of the system to recover from a disturbance without changing to a different steady state or regime (the threshold value between adaptation and transformation).▪ Index of resilience: The probability of keeping the current steady state or regime.Hardness and elasticity indicators are examined more specifically for the two proof-ofconcept models (in Section 7).Appendix 1 provides a more detailed overview of the conceptual frameworks in diagrams and tabular form (Appendix Table A1). The myriad of frameworks seems to serve different purposes: Some provide a high-level perspective on the interconnected nature of agricultural systems and food-related outcomes. These frameworks illustrate that food security both depends on and influences agricultural systems. Examples of this type of conceptual frameworks are: Fanzo et al., 2017;IOM, 2015;Neff & Lawrence, 2015;Sobal et al., 1998. Another set of frameworks provides more details about the connections between environmental, farming, economic and social sectors. They identify and visualize the major subsystems and key connections among them. Examples of this type of conceptual framework are in Fanzo, et al., 2017;HLPE, 2017;Horton et al., 2016;Ingram, et al., 2010;Pinstrup-Andersen & Watson II, 2011;Wegener, et al., 2012. A last category of frameworks has a somewhat narrower focus but describes the specific pathways linking agricultural systems and food and nutrition security. Examples of this type of conceptual frameworks are: Acharya et al., 2014;Hammond & Dubé, 2012;K. Suneetha et al., 2014;Kanter et al., 2015. Maybe the most comprehensive effort at conceptualizing the linkages between agricultural systems and food and nutrition security is the global food system map that depicts the inter-related concepts and challenges that connect the global food system (Figure 1; ShiftN, 2009).Many of the frameworks discussed above provide insights about how to model the linkages between agricultural systems and food security. The most useful for the purposes of systems model development tend to be those that focus on food security and specify pathways linking agriculture to food and nutrition outcomes. These include frameworks presented in Kadiyala et al (2014), Randolph et al. (2007), Dobbie and Balbi (2017), Garrett (2017), Kanter et al. (2015) and Sassi (2018). The illustrative pathways in these frameworks suggest more directly the mechanisms (variables and relationships) by which agricultural systems outcomes and food security outcomes are linked. Many of the frameworks are quite high-level and describe very general relationships rather than specific pathways. Perhaps the most notable example is from Wossen et al (2018), for which \"Adaptation\" is directly linked to \"Food Security\" in oneway causality. These higher-level depictions can be useful as conceptual guidelines, but they provide limited support for quantitative model development and assessment of interventions because they are not sufficiently specific about quantitative indicators and impact pathways. (In some cases, \"policy\" is viewed as a higher-level determinant of food security, but simply stating that is not sufficiently specific to provide insight about how to change policy.) The ShiftN (2009) food system diagrams have a greater level of complexity and begin to delineate pathways, but they don't really focus clearly on food security.Most of the frameworks (even some that focus on food security) do not include all elements of availability, access, utilization and stability. Especially the latter is more frequently ignored, as discussed further below. In addition, it is often not clear if these are viewed as some sort of hierarchy (especially the availability-access-utilization linkages) or whether they are separate. In some cases, access causes availability in a diagram, in other cases, it is the reverse. Related to this is the frequent absence of delineating levels of analysis (, data or outcomes. Most of the frameworks also do not include specific indicators for food security or nutrition outcomes. It is common to have the outcome be \"food security\" or \"nutritional status\" and only a few mention specific indicators at the household level such as dietary diversity (e.g., Kanter et al, 2015). This higher-level approach may be appropriate for the intended purposes of the frameworks, but they may not provide much guidance to quantitative model developers.Many frameworks are also not particularly clear about which actors are covered and who makes what decisions. This is relevant models often need to specify one or more decision makers at multiple scales. The Hawkes (2009) and Hawkes et al. (2012) frameworks use an Actors-Processes-Outcomes framework, but this is quite high level and \"processes\" include \"ag inputs\" that are not always clearly defined. Arachya et al.(2014) includes producers, \"food chain actors\" and consumers. \"Consumers\" or \"households\" are frequently represented (e.g., Garrett, 2017;Ecker and Breisinger, 2012). Sometimes the frameworks delineate \"levels\" (e.g., national, regional, community, household, individual) with specific effects or outcomes of interest for each (e.g., the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System (FIVIMS), FAO, 2000).Few of the frameworks address intra-household food security issues. Of the more than 50 frameworks reviewed (and summarized in Appendix 1), only 4 had explicit treatment of individuals with the household, focused on children (especially for nutritional status) and women. Three other frameworks implied treatment of individuals (e.g., Sassi 2018 mentions \"individual food and nutrition pathways\") but in general the conceptual treatment of the linkages determining intra-household food security status is limited. Although we acknowledge that we did not search for frameworks specifically addressing intra-household allocation and outcomes, the limited treatment of this issue in more general frameworks suggests the need for a reconsideration of the treatment of intra-household issues from both the conceptual and empirical perspective.Most of the frameworks do not specifically represent intertemporal dynamics or feedback processes, both of which would be important to represent the \"stability\" component of food security. \"Stability\" is also at times referred to by the broader concept of \"resilience\". Intertemporal change is admittedly a challenging concept to represent in a two-dimensional diagram, but improvements to existing frameworks would seem possible in this regard. Some frameworks discuss general resilience concepts (e.g., Tendall et al., 2015;FAO, 2016), but the linkages to the stability component of food security are not explicit. Burchi et al. (2011) depict stability in a framework that primarily defines the four components of food security but include suggested actions and strategies to promote stability of food availability, access and utilization. Allen and Prosperi (2016) integrate resilience concepts into the Ericksen (2008) and Ingram (2011) frameworks.Many of the frameworks also depict a linear cause-and-effect model with limited feedbacks among system elements determining food security outcomes. Representation of feedback is relevant because-as noted above-these systems demonstrate feedback and interdependence within and across levels. Appropriate representation of feedback processes is relevant, particularly when considering proposed agriculture-based interventions designed to improve food security outcomes. The systems modeling literature (e.g., as summarized in Sterman, 2000) has long since noted that feedback processes, accumulation and non-linearities result in \"dynamic complexity\", which gives rise to \"policy resistance\" (the intended effects of interventions will be delayed or largely offset) and \"unintended consequences\" (other, often negative, effects may occur in response to interventions; short-term and long-term impacts of system changes can differ). Thus, understanding and appropriately representing feedback processes in conceptual frameworks and quantitative models will often be both necessary and appropriate. Moreover, feedback representations provide a specific link with intertemporal dynamics that is often appropriate, as noted above. Most intertemporal quantitative models include at least some feedback processes that link system elements over time, so an understanding of which feedback processes are likely to be important conceptually is relevant for empirical model development (including data collection efforts).The frameworks that do represent feedback processes tend to include only a few such linkages that differ for each diagram. General resilience frameworks (e.g., IOM 2015;FAO, 2016, Tendall et al. 2015) tend to represent changes in high-level \"state\" (key variables) over time. The high-level framework from Hammond and Dube (2012) indicates feedback processes (and some specific mechanisms) among the \"agri-food\", \"environmental\" and \"health/disease\" components of the system that determines food and nutrition security. One of the more common inclusions is feedbacks between the food system (or agriculture) and environmental outcomes (Lawrence, 2015;Horton et al., 2016;Burchi et al., 2011;Ericksen, 2008;Ingram 2011;Allen and Prosperi, 2016;ShiftN, 2009). Frameworks that focus on household assets and livelihood strategies (e.g., Kadiyala et al., 2014;Ashley and Carney, 1999;World Food Programme, 2012) tend to link livelihood outcomes (including food security) back to increases in household assets in a reinforcing feedback loop. Similarly, the UNICEF (1998) framework shows a reinforcing feedback process where lack of initial livelihood assets limits improvements in child nutritional status-with ongoing intertemporal effects.Other frameworks focus on feedbacks between consumer decisions and the structure of food supply chains and food environments (e.g., Pinstrup-Andersen and Watson, 2011;HLPE, 2017;Arachya et al, 2014;Hawkes et al. (2012). An extension of this concept includes when consumer decisions and related outcomes (nutritional, social, economic, environmental) are hypothesized to affect system drivers such as biophysical, environmental, technology, political, socio-cultural, and demographic ones (as in HLPE, 2017;Ericksen, 2008;Ingram, 2011;Allen and Prosperi, 2016). More specific to food security, a number of frameworks depict interactions-if not exactly feedbackbetween nutrition outcomes and health outcomes (Garrett, 2017;et al., 2012;Randolph et al., 2007).Although all of the represented feedback processes are likely to be appropriate for specific purposes, the lack of consistency among the frameworks implies challenges for effective representation of these effects in agricultural systems models linking to food security outcomes. The Randolph et al. (2007) diagram is probably the most detailed and relevant of the feedback-inclusive frameworks, because it provides a more detailed representation of alternative pathways (including some described elsewhere, e.g., Kadiyala et al., 2014;Gillespie et al, 2012) linking agriculture, nutrition and health for the specific context of livestock ownership.Not surprisingly, diagramming conventions are highly variable. Many frameworks show connecting lines (sometimes with arrows in both directions) without really indicating implied directions of causality, and only Randolph et al (2007) indicates polarities of hypothesized linkages. Diagrams are inconsistent in their depictions of hypothesized feedback processes, and in some cases it is difficult to determine what is connected to what. Language is often cryptic or a bit inconsistent among linked variables (e.g., \"resources\" cause \"inadequate education\"). The conventions used in \"Causal Loop Diagramming\" (e.g., Sterman, 2000) and similar hybrid diagrams that also show stocks and flows would bring a good deal of additional clarity of meaning to these diagrams (and allow them to more clearly delineate hypothesized pathways).Many of the frameworks could also more clearly delineate so-called \"model boundaries\", which define what is endogenous and what is exogenous for the purposes of the (conceptual or quantitative) analysis. In many frameworks, \"context\" or \"environment\" variables appear to be assumed to be exogenous, and these encompass a vast variety of factors (political, social, cultural, knowledge, infrastructure, services, (macro)economic, climate, disease outbreak, policies, programs, conflicts, technology, food environments, legal systems, ethical values, productive assets and sometimes even food availability itself). For the purposes of many of frameworks, assuming these to be exogenous may be fine, but from a modeling perspective delineation of the model boundary is important. It is also not clear at what level many of these factors have the largest influence on outcomes. For example, the WFP framework suggests that all factors have equal impact at the community and household levels, and 'exposure to shocks and hazards' affects all levels (implied equally). This also doesn't suggest much to modelers about which effects or causal relationships are most important. A growing number of studies have more recently applied the 'ecological system theory approach' (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1989) from the human development literature to the analysis of food system outcomes (e.g., Herforth and Ahmed, 2015), which highlights the increased understanding of the importance of the food environment. . This subfield conceptualizes food acquisition and consumption choices and opportunities as being driven and shaped by what has been classified as an individual's 'food environment.' This food environment is often defined-in conceptual terms at least-rather broadly as all factors affecting choices about the consumption of food. This includes factors such as the spatial density of foods on offer, food prices, product properties (e.g., quality, safety, convenience, diversity), the types of vendors offering food and \"food messaging\" such as advertising and promotion (HLPE, 2017). The food environment is frequently conceived of a set of overlapping hierarchical influences comprising social and cultural norms and values, sectors of influence (e.g., government and media), environmental settings where food is consumed, and individual factors (e.g., demographics and knowledge) that affect food intake and physical activity levels (Herforth and Ahmed, 2015). Given the potential overlap between agricultural systems modeling and frameworks emphasizing the \"Food Environment\" (FE) as a key determinant of food security outcomes, we examined the current status of the literature on Food Environments to assess its potential relevance.The diversity of factors characterizing the food environment presents challenges for more complete integration of these concepts into agricultural systems models that would also represent food security outcomes.To date, much research about food environments has been conducted in high-income regions, typically investigating potential food environment drivers of health issues resulting from over-nutrition, such as obesity. Key metrics in these contexts have included spatial analysis of the location and distance to food sources for certain populations and communities, the relative affordability of foods with respect to average incomes of consumers, inventories of food types and quality within food source outlets like stores and restaurants, or detailed breakdowns of the nutritional content of foods that are available to a population of interest. Lytle and Sokol (2017) and Ruel et al (2017) recently surveyed the literature and conclude that spatial indicators as food environment metrics dominate (such as the density of food retailers in a city center), partly due to the relative ease of obtaining these data compared to collecting detailed inventories of food outlets. Thus, much of this literature tends to emphasize settings in which food consumption decisions are made by individuals and households that do not produce substantive amounts of the food they consume-which is in contrast to the populations of agricultural producers often represented in agricultural systems models.A recent brief by the Food Environment Working group on research gaps on food environments emphasizes the need to conduct research to apply the food environment concept in low-and middle-income countries (Turner et al 2017). Work that would emphasize elements of the food environment for households that are food producers (even if net buyers) would be most relevant for linkages to agricultural systems models, because farm production and sales patterns would be a major influence on the types of food available, distribution, relative prices and food quality. The inclusion of food security metrics into agricultural systems models in recommended in this paper, such as food consumption expenditures or the household food insecurity scale, would go some way to filling this void by linking food choices to food production in low-and middleincome settings.Given the (incomplete) overlap between typical agricultural systems and food environment analyses it is useful to assess those variables commonly used in the food environment literature and their potential to be included in agricultural systems models (Table 1). As outlined by Lytle and Sokol (2017), the food environment has thus far been assessed through a host of survey instruments that gather variables that collectively characterize the overall food environment. For example, one common measurement tool is a 'Market Basket' questionnaire. With this, researchers estimate the overall price of a common basket of important food goods across multiple food outlets, including unit prices and quality data for a fixed set of items (e.g. milk or dairy, produce, meat etc.). Ranking the cost of a common basket for different target populations is used to assess the food environment, with lower cost baskets serving as a proxy for a better food environment overall. In contrast, agricultural systems models more frequently focus on a few specific commodities. However, market prices and agricultural output quality, of at least the commodities being modeled, are outputs from many agricultural system models that can be used to assess some components of the food environment.Given the large range of food environment variables that could be considered, this review project will only cover a subset of food environment metrics that we view as more readily able to be incorporated into agricultural systems model analyses.The Food Environment Working group brief also outlines another useful conceptual framework for us to consider, breaking down the elements of the food environment further into an 'external' as well as a 'personal' food environment. The 'external' food environment often consists of exogenous factors that influence food acquisition and consumption, like spatial indicators of locations of food outlets, but also food prices in markets and food quality properties. The 'personal' food environment often consists of endogenous variables that are specific to household food choices, like income and expenditures on food, time constraints to obtaining and preparing food, household demographic composition and preferences. It seems possible, therefore, that some of these factors may be important, both for our primary objective of jointly modeling agricultural systems and food security indicators (like food prices or distance to markets) but also could help tease out the role of the food environment in the overall food security (and agricultural system) status of a household in a low/middle income setting. Some factors can be treated as exogenous model variables (like prices for subsistence commodities or household size) that could be adjusted to test their influence over model outcomes. They will be important in determining multiple aspects of the agricultural system behavior, calculating the food security indicator of interest and also can represent important elements of the food environment that vary across low/income settings. However, some other potential indicators, like spatial surveys or checklists of the inventories of types/qualities of foods around a given population (as exemplified by the 'food desert' 4 concept, for example), will be less relevant and would be difficult to validate with data from the low/middle income settings we are considering (rural mixed farming communities in Kenya, or commercial sheep farmers in Mexico). Thus, an incomplete accounting of the influence or role of the food environment, as captured by jointly appropriate variables, is the most likely outcome.4 Food deserts are defined as geographic locations lacking access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. This is largely due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers' markets, and healthy food providers (American Nutrition Association, ANA Nutrition Digest, volume 38, number 2. http://americannutritionassociation.org/newsletter/usda-defines-food-deserts. USDA's definition is that a \"low-access community,\" must have at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population that reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles). Agricultural systems models are quite diverse in terms of the agricultural activities and processes they represent (crops, livestock, fisheries, land or landscape management), although it is common for models to focus on a limited number of crop and livestock species-and sometimes their interactions. The scale analyzed can also vary, with models representing the plant, plot, enterprise, farm or household, landscape, region, country or global level. Models also differ in terms of their representation of decisions by a set of actors (often, humans assumed to be managing the system). Some models assume little or no human intervention in the system, whereas others make human decision-making a central component upon which many outcomes depend (see additional discussion below). Agricultural systems models can be static (analyzing a single time period) or dynamic (analyzing multiple time periods, typically with intertemporal linkages among outcomes).Simulation model is a general term implying use of an empirical model to compare alternative scenarios. A simulation model can focus primarily on biophysical outcomes (such as crop yields or greenhouse gas emissions), economic decision making and outcomes (such as the choice of which crops to plant and determination of household income) or integrate the two kinds of outcomes into a single modeling framework. As an example of this latter type, the CLASSES model (Stephens et al. 2012) has detailed representation of soil nutrients, crop and livestock production, household income and assumes that a household decides how to allocate their resources (land and labor).Optimization models are typically used to identify what activities will best achieve a desired objective, and often have substantive economic content. An example would be a model to determine the crop mix for given farm would use to generate the largest possible farm income. Optimization models are also used to determine the equilibrium price and quantity outcomes in the markets for one or more crops based on supply and demand relationships; these are often referred to as partial equilibrium models 6 . Agentbased models (ABM) include explicit specification of numerous decision-making agents, whose interactions (either through direct sharing of information or through their collective impact on markets) affect outcomes for all of the agents. An example of an ABM is Wossen et al. (2018), who analyzed how multiple households with assumed different characteristics interact through crop and livestock markets to determine incomes and food availability outcomes.Several distinct theoretical approaches and schools of thought about human decision making have emerged from the economics discipline that attempt to explain observed economic decision-making behavior. At present, most researchers in economics employ a variety of mathematical models to represent these theories and capture key aspects of human decision making about scarce resources. In applied settings, researchers use these mathematical representations to explain and analyze empirical data gathered about different economic phenomena, like market trading quantities and prices, or consumer spending patterns, for example.Two of the main features of economic models of human decision making are:1) An objective function, which uses a mathematical expression to represent the overall goals and preferences of the decision maker. Examples include utility to describe the overall level of happiness obtained by a consumer after allocating their scarce resources, or profit for a producer in an economic enterprise.2) A mathematical representation of the constraints (or forms of scarcity) that the decision maker faces, for example, a limited financial budget, available land or labor resources to allocate across different activities.The final piece of economic models of human decision making relates to how economic agents actually make decisions and choices about what to do with their scarce resources.The predominant theoretical paradigm in the discipline is known as neoclassical economics. Within this, economists assume agents are rational actors, and will make decisions in order to allocate resources in such a way that is optimal from the perspective of the objective function (as noted above). For example, a consumer is assumed to spend their limited income on consumption goods in order to maximize their utility. This process of optimizing the value of the objective function, while still respecting the constraints, is therefore known as constrained optimization. Thus, for consumers, they make decisions based on constrained utility maximization, producers will make input decisions based on constrained profit maximization (or constrained cost minimization if the objective function for producers is instead to limit their overall costs).Constrained optimization can be simulated for an economic agent over a variety of important economic parameter values, like prices or income levels. If this is done, the modeler can generate an overall demand function for consumers, that describes what is optimal over a range of circumstances, or a supply function, for a producer, that indicates a set of profit maximizing choices that the decision maker is assumed to make when economic parameters change.Within agricultural systems models, approaches to modeling economic factors and decision making vary widely, as initially discussed. In some instances, there is no active decision making done within the model, although the value of an economic objective function, like profits or costs or food consumption, can sometimes be one of the model outputs. The IMPACT model from IFPRI is one large scale example (https://www.ifpri.org/program/impact-model). In other cases, as in Stephens et al. (2012), human decision making is actively modeled, with human managers making allocation decisions over scarce resources in order to optimize the value of the relevant objective function (in the CLASSES model, the objective function is economic returns to the farmer's labor time, which is related to an overall notion of the profitability of labor on the farm).Important alternatives exist to the neoclassical approach and are sometimes included in agricultural systems models. One overall critique from within economics as well as from other disciplines, is that the assumption of fully rational human decision making is often an unrealistic one. Alternatives to this assumption have also been employed in agricultural systems models. For example, Dobbie and Balbi (2017) employ much simpler decision-making 'heuristics' or rules of thumb when modeling the human decision making done to allocate resources for their agent-based model of Malawian smallholders. These 'heuristics' may not generate optimal outcomes for the households, with respect to the economic concepts of utility or profits. However, this may appropriate, because these outcomes may be closer to the outcomes achieved through actual decision making practices employed by individuals, particularly in light of limited information or cognitive limitations or bias in interpreting the information that is available.We conducted a Scopus search of the search terms \"Household Food Security Model\" to identify the extent of existing research on food security modeling at the household level.The initial Scopus search returned 997 references that model food security at the household level in a wide variety of ways. Across this initial set of works, we found three main categories of research on food security: research at the household level, in high income settings, without agriculture; low-and middle-income settings without agriculture and low-and middle-income settings with explicit reference to agriculture.Although the first two categories are not of primary interest, these papers often discuss complex relationships between food security and other health and welfare outcomes of interest (like maternal and child health, HIV status and food security, food security in low-income urban areas etc.). Food security is either an outcome to be explained by a host of other factors (wages, demographics, poverty, living conditions or locations, for example), or as an explanatory factor for other outcomes, primarily health related (such as maternal and child nutrition, obesity). Due to the fact that these papers omit the supply side considerations of food production via the agriculture sector, they are considered outside of the scope of our review.For our specific objectives, we focused on the third category of household food security analysis within an agricultural setting in a low-or middle-income region. Of the original 997 search results, 84 papers (detailed listing in Appendix Table A2) explicitly discussed both agriculture and food security. Despite the fact that these works explicitly mentioned both food security and agriculture, not all works examined the linkages between agriculture and food security to the same degree. The overwhelming majority of papers utilized statistical methods with cross-sectional data to assess various causal relationships between food security and an agricultural variable of interest.Furthermore, definitions of food security itself varied across these works, ranging from equating yields to food security directly, to utilizing one of the specific food security metrics we have identified as potential candidates for linking into agricultural systems research (like the Household Dietary Diversity Score, for example). Within this category, four broad categories of research were identified:Papers that are motivated by issues of food security, but food security itself is not modeled. Food security is invoked in the motivation for the paper or in the abstract, but food security is implicitly equated to yields or increased productivity. Examples of this approach include analyses of vaccination rates for livestock (DeBruyn et al., 2017), adoption rates for drought tolerant maize varieties (Ali et al., 2017), women's empowerment programs (Burroway, 2016) and agricultural productivity (Haselow et al., 2016). No specific, validated food security metrics are used in these works.One or more metrics representing a component of food security are analyzed as a function of a limited number of agricultural system level variables. Typically, the analysis in these papers makes use of an agricultural household survey (like an LSMS survey, for example) that has both a production and a consumption module, and possibly a distinct food security module, like HFIAS, included in the household survey.This literature most often assesses statistical relationships between different agricultural household production variables and food security status that is assessed with a specific food security indicator. Examples include the relationship between farm production diversity and household dietary diversity (Islam et al., 2018); farm size (area) and food security and food self-sufficiency (Waithaka et al., 2006) off-farm income prevalence and food expenditures (Zereyesus et al., 2017) coffee certification and both calorie and micronutrient consumption (Chiputwa and Qiam, 2016). These works typically do not model the biophysical system and think of natural capital (as measured, like soil quality, weed presence, etc.) as production inputs, measurable in levels, with no feedback or more complex system dynamics involved.Agricultural system modeled with projection of some indicator of food security status.These works often utilize a detailed systems-oriented model of biophysical or agricultural outcomes, and the manuscript has a specific objective of analyzing agricultural system behavior and outputs from a food security perspective. These works translate agricultural system outputs, typically yields, but also potentially production of specific food characteristics, like macro-and micronutrients contained within food output, into food security metrics. As they do not typically have survey data from households on food choices, from which they could construct consumption expenditures as a food security metric, they often use a standard benchmark and compare system outputs to the benchmark. A typical benchmark used is calories produced relative to recommended level of calories per person (adult equivalent) modeled in the household (i.e., takes basic averages and ignores intra-household distribution issues and inequality). Other examples include interventions to increase animal supplementation interventions and crop-livestock farm system outputs relative to a calorie threshold per adult equivalent (Rigolot et al., 2017) and adoption of climate-smart practices and an income-based measure of food security (Shikuku et al., 2017).More integrated biophysical or agricultural system model at the household level that considers both agricultural and food security outcomes. These works utilize full scale biophysical or agricultural system models (either household or regional level) combined with a household decision-making model to examine interplay between biophysical system and food consumption patterns, choices, vulnerabilities etc. We found nine papers of this type at the household level of analysis. The analyses in these works woud be more useful if they were morepredictive and dynamic. Leonardo et al (2018) relates agricultural productivity programs to maize self-sufficiency but also to maize sales Ghana, including the how production of calories may be changed as a resultAs indicated above and in the summary tables, the papers in the fourth category are most closely related to the research question we are pursuing in this project, but they are very few in number, and often still simplify human decision making to a great degree, leading to a limited knowledge base on the 'psychometric' food security indicators and their interactions and influence within agricultural systems models.Our review indicates that a) a large majority of papers (about 90% of them) using these key words do not fit with the criteria that we assigned for further review, b) more than half of the 84 papers we reviewed in detail are based on statistical analysis to associate a variety of variables with food security outcomes, and c) many papers do not address the stability component in any formal manner. Of the models using other than statistical methods-thus, those more likely to be consistent with our definition of an agricultural systems model-24 of 41 papers used measures of availability, especially yields or production (in quantity or calories). Eleven of the studies used some indicator of food security outcomes that was not readily categorized into availability, access or utilization.Only five of the papers using methods other than statistics employed some indicator of food access, and all of these were consumption amounts (physical quantities of food) or expenditures. Of the 10 papers using experienced-based food insecurity or dietary diversity indicators, all were based on statistical models, which indicates essentially no use of these indicators of food access in agricultural systems models.It is also relevant to note that very few of these publications explicitly addressed the issue of food security from an intra-household perspective. Only three of 84 studies reviewed in detail (Appendix Table A2) mentioned or employed individual-specific metrics, and none of these used a simulation modeling approach. Islam et al. (2018) used a dietary diversity indicator specific to women as a dependent variable in a statistical analysis of the impacts of farm diversification. The RHoMIS framework (Hammond et al., 2017) includes a \"gender equity indicator\" but is not itself a model  Note: Totals for indicators are larger than the number of papers reviewed because some papers reported multiple indicators. 7 The Consumption category in this case includes both amounts of food and expenditures on food.8 Other 'food security' indicators include coping strategy index, nutrient content of food, self-assessment of food scarcity (but not FIES or HFIAS), expected future food consumption, self-reported food shortages, FIVIMS, other FS indices designed by researchers in various ways (subjective, PCA), vegetable consumption per person, length of hunger periods.As a complement to our review of the literature on household-level model analyses of food security outcomes, we also evaluated the smaller number of regional-level analyses. We undertook a Scopus search using the terms \"Regional Food SecurityModel\", which returned 643 possible publications. We then reviewed the abstract for each of the 643 publications and eliminated those that did not meet the specified criteria for further review: an apparent empirical model including at least one food security indicator other than crop or livestock yields or production. This left only 26 publications that were reviewed in further detail (these are listed in Appendix Table A3), which in and of itself perhaps suggests overuse of the key words \"food security\" in this body of literature.As might be expected, this is a diverse group of analyses, using a variety of methods applied in different settings. For our purposes, the integration of food security indicators and the representation of dynamics are of greater importance. We assigned each of the food security indicators employed in these studies into three categories, corresponding to whether the main focus 9 was on availability, access or utilization (Table 3). Ten of the studies reviewed used variables primarily describing food availability as the principal indicator of food security. Although our intent was to screen out those publications that focused exclusively on yields or production based on the descriptions in the abstract, five of the publications employing availability measures used yield as their indicator 10 . The five other studies employing availability measures used per capita caloric availability or aggregate production (often for only some subset of grain crops).Eight of the studies reported food security indicator measures that primarily describe the access component of food security. Three of these studies used experienced-based food security scales with questions similar to the FIES or HFIAS but only one (Cordero-Ahiman et al., 2017) used a validated experience-based instrument (the ELSCA scale).The other studies in this category employed indicators such as aggregated food consumption (i.e., physical quantities) 11 , food consumption per capita and calories per capita. Three studies employed measures that primarily focus on utilization; two used caloric intake and one used a proportion of children underweight. Perhaps surprisinglyfor studies indicating that they analyze food security outcomes, six of the studies reported indicators that did not obviously align with core elements of the definition of food security, using a variety of indicators (Table 3). Of these studies, Antle et al. (2014) used a household income threshold that may align with the \"economically accessible\"component of food access.The integration of these food security measures into alternative modeling approaches is also of interest (Table 3). We classified models into eight categories, depending on our interpretation of their main characteristics or focus. Models using consumption (quantities of food) or caloric intake 12 tended to employ models with an economic focus (partial equilibrium or simulation models, or integrated simulation models). A number of types of models used yields or production as key indicators, but especially (and not surprisingly) those that were classified as biophysical simulation models. The three models using experience-scale indicators of food security were all statistical models, developed with the purpose of an improved empirical understanding the factors that contributed to food insecurity. Although in principle these relationships could be incorporated into models to simulate the impacts of changes of experiences of food insecurity, this was not done in any of these three studies.In sum, very few of the simulation models reviewed-that is, those models that might be more consistent with the typical practice of agricultural systems analysis-used any of the three indicators we propose to measure the degree of food insecurity. Moreover, none of the analyses explicitly addressed all three dimensions of food security.11 We assigned indicators based on \"food consumption\" variables to the access category because they often appeared consistent with the representation of \"food acquired by the household\", particularly in studies employing economic demand relationships.However, there is some degree of conceptual and empirical overlap between \"consumption\" (measured as a food security indicator by three studies) and \"consumption expenditure.\" Measures of caloric intake (used by five studies) may also provide relevant information for food security and nutritional status assessment (particularly if converted to expenditure equivalents) even if not aligned directly with our suggested indicators.It is our assessment that many of the studies could be more accurately described as assessing outcomes that could be described as \"potential contributions to improved food security\", rather than as more specific or appropriate indicators of \"food security\" as frequently conceived of and measured by nutritionists. There is a substantial body of evidence that suggests that food availability (e.g., improved yields, increased total production, or increased imports) is more likely to be a (generally) necessary but not a sufficient condition for broad-based improvement of food security outcomes. Thus, developers of empirical agricultural systems models could improve the accuracy of the descriptions of their contributions to knowledge if they exercised more caution in stating that their work represents \"food security\" outcomes.Another observation regarding the models used to assess regional-level indicators of food security is the limited number that explicitly address intra-household outcomes.Only two of the 26 studies reviewed in detail included analysis disaggregated to examine outcomes of individual household members, and both of these depicted consumption or nutritional status and thus the utilization component of food security. Bakker et al.(2016) examined caloric intake by adult females and Lloyd et al. (2011) examined the number of children underweight. This suggests that as for household-level analyses, a reconsideration of the need for and methods to allow integration of intra-household outcomes is appropriate.Another issue concerns the assessment of the stability component of food security. In principle, assessment of the stability component requires a model to represent dynamics for both a relevant time horizon (e.g., the length of time necessary to assess stability in light of potential shocks to the system or for the relevant impacts of, and recovery process from, a specific shock to be assessed) and a relevant time unit of observation 13 . Seven of the models reviewed would be characterized as dynamic in the sense of simulating outcomes over time 14 (Table 4), although in some cases neither the time horizon or time unit of observation is clearly stated. Models simulating annual outcomes may capture essential elements of food security challenges due to either interannual variation (e.g., years with good and bad harvests) or longer-term changes (e.g., to population or land use). However, when food security issues depend to a significant extent on seasonality or shorter-term shocks, annual models may not provide sufficient insights. We judged three of the publications to have models that have potential to address food security issues arising from seasonality. Akter and Basher (2014) used panel data and statistical analysis to assess determinants of food insecurity scale outcomes in Bangladesh during 2009-2010. This empirical information could be linked to agricultural systems analysis, but this was done not in their publication. Harttgen et al (2016) used statistical analysis of household-level survey data to assess impacts on caloric intake during a specific 12-month period. This could presumably be extended to future time periods with additional data. Bakker et al (2018) provide one of the better representations of food-security-relevant dynamics, simulating monthly outcomes for a period of six years (albeit with rather aggregated caloric intake indicators of food security outcomes).A key takeaway from the assessment of models intending to assess regional food security is that relatively few of the models clearly describe a representation of dynamics relevant for analysis of the stability component of food security. (This also is consistent with the less frequent or appropriate depiction of the stability component in conceptual frameworks of food security.) In principle, developers of agricultural 13 Here we make the distinction between time unit of observation and time step. systems models with the objective of assessing food security outcomes should be explicit about why the time horizon and time unit of observation are appropriate and consistent with their indicators of food security outcomes, particularly whether they include or ignore the stability component. It is likely that in many cases a higher degree of spatial, temporal and household-level (farm) disaggregation than that represented in the regional analysis models assessed in this review would be appropriate. The objective of this component of the project was to identify and discuss a relevant set of food security indicators at varying scales, with emphasis on households and individuals. In selecting these indicators, we were guided by the conceptual framework in Figure 2 from Jones et al. (2013) that describes the four main pillars of food insecurity: 1) food availability; 2) food access; 3) food utilization; and 4) stability. We emphasized indicators of food access in this review for several reasons. First, although food availability is certainly a cornerstone of food security, it has been recognized for decades that availability of food is not sufficient to ensure physical or economic entitlement or access to that food (Sen, 1981). National-level food availability is only weakly correlated with indicators of undernutrition, with child underweight rates, for example, varying widely at the same levels of per capita energy supplies (Haddad and Smith, 1999). Second, most low-income rural farming families depend predominantly on purchased food (vis-à-vis home-produced food) for household consumption (Global Panel, 2016). Therefore, capturing own production on farms or production at regional scales is not sufficient for understanding households' and individuals' experience of food insecurity, which entails considerable access to markets, dependence on food prices, and interactions with diverse food environments. Third, we chose not to prioritize food utilization given the challenges of assessing individual-level health and nutritional status (which strongly modifies the influence of dietary intake on nutrition and health outcomes) without hard-to-obtain clinical health and nutrition indicator data, and the considerable difficulties of ascribing a causal relationship between individual-level diet or nutrition outcomes and agricultural production indicators. Agricultural production and diet or nutrition outcomes are often conceptually \"distant\" from one another andthere is an abundance of potential mediators along the causal pathways that present challenges for interpreting such relationships. Food access, on the other hand, captures many of these mediators (e.g., market access, household income, preferences), is more proximal to the nutrition outcomes of interest, and is therefore easier to conceptualize and model as a direct determinant of these outcomes.We summarize several key household and individual-level indicators of food access to facilitate the delineation of those most appropriate for incorporation in agricultural systems models (Table 5). The first set of indicators is so-called experience-based indicators that rely on an individual's subjective assessment of her own or her household's recent food security status. These indicators are derived from in-depth qualitative research conducted over two decades to understand individuals' lived experiences of food insecurity (Radimer et al. 1990;Coates et al., 2006). Based on our review and the information in Table 5, we recommend that agricultural systems models focus on incorporating three food access indicators: 1) food consumption expenditures, 2) experience-based food insecurity scales such as the Food Insecurity Experience Scales (FIES) or the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) instruments, and 3) measures of household dietary diversity such as the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS). These indicators are preferable because of the limited empirical relationship between national-level availability and individual nutritional status and because capturing own production on farms or production at regional scales is not sufficient for understanding households' and individuals' experience of food insecurity, which entails considerable access to markets, dependence on food prices, and interactions with diverse food environments (see Section 5). These recommendations acknowledge the basic validity of the approaches to measure food insecurity (see, e.g., Coates et al., 2006 andSwindale andBilinsky, 2006). Our recommendations also align with more recent reviews of literature on food security measurement (e.g., Jones et al., 2013 andLeRoy et al. 2015). However, these indicators should be evaluated over time using the approaches like that developed by Herrera (2017) to assess more formally the robustness and adaptability components defining food security stability. Coping Strategies Index (CSI)Assesses frequency of occurrence of increasingly severe coping strategies (i.e., behaviors people engage in when they cannot access enough food).There is no universal CSI, but rather a methodology to derive locally relevant CSIsCoping strategies are organized in 4 categories: 1) dietary change; 2) short-term measures to increase household food availability; 3) short-term measures to decrease the number of people to be fed; and 4) approaches to rationing or managing  of food security indicators into agricultural systems modelsWe examined the research literature to identify studies that had assessed determinants of household-level food insecurity using two experience-based food insecurity scales we recommend be incorporated into agricultural systems models: the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).Experience-based food insecurity scales are meant to directly measure household-or individual-level experiences of food insecurity (Jones et al., 2013). Such scales are based on in-depth qualitative research that has identified domains of food insecurity that are consistently experienced across contexts (Coates, Frongillo, et al., 2006;Radimer et al., 1990). The HFIAS in particular was designed for use in low-and middle-income countries adapting questions from the Household Food Security Survey Module in the United States. It consists of a set of nine questions that represent universal domains of household food access (e.g., anxiety, altering food quality, and limiting food intake (Coates, Swindale, et al., 2006). The scale was designed to reflect this as a single statistical dimension of food security and has found common use as a monitoring indicator for USAID Title II food security programs. The FIES is a similar psychometric scale composed of eight questions that ask about the same experiences of FI as those in the HFIAS (Cafiero et al., 2016). The dichotomous-response options, longer recall period, and focus on categorized outcomes (i.e., mild, moderate and severe food insecurity) in part allow the FIES to be implemented as a more cross-culturally relevant assessment toolIn our examination of the research literature, we further searched for studies that assessed determinants of dietary diversity, whether at an individual-level (most commonly among young children or women), or at the level of households. Dietary diversity, the number of distinct foods or food groups in the diet, has been shown to be associated with numerous measures of household socioeconomic status that are often considered indicators of household food insecurity (Jones, et al., 2013). As a result, dietary diversity is often used as a stand-alone proxy indicator of household food insecurity.Using Google Scholar to identify the largest range of possible studies that provide empirical evidence about the determinants of FIES/HFIAS and HDDS, we searched for studies using the following sets of search terms: \"determinants of diet diversity\" or \"determinants of dietary diversity\" (132 results); \"determinants of household food security\" or \"determinants of household food insecurity\" (842 results); \"food insecurity experience scale\" (268 results). Upon reviewing the titles of all 1,242 identified studies, we identified 25 relevant studies. Studies were excluded if they were not English language, were not published in a peer-reviewed index journal, included a sample population that was not easily generalizable to broader free-living populations (e.g., people living with HIV), or had very small sample sizes (generally less than 100 observations).Studies employing the FIES were centered on global or regional analyses of data from multiple countries. This is largely due to the fact that the FIES has recently been incorporated in the Gallup World Poll, and data from this global survey are the primary source of information for the FIES at this time. Global studies examining determinants of the FIES found that the core dimensions of household socioeconomic status, namely wealth, education, and employment, were consistently inversely associated with higher household food insecurity (Frongillo et al., 2017;Grimaccia & Naccarato, 2018;Smith, Rabbitt, et al., 2017). These same studies also observed that larger numbers of children in the household, peri-urban residents of large cities (as compared to urban or rural residents), and lower social capital were all associated with a higher risk of food insecurity. Lower socioeconomic status, limited social capital, and large household sizes were similarly found to be associated with FI among regional studies from Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Smith, Kassa, et al., 2017;Wambogo et al., 2018).In contrast to the FIES, the HFIAS has primarily been used in studies within single countries of SSA, or within specific regions of individual countries. Numerous studies have used this instrument to assess household FI among people living with HIV (Hussein et al., 2018;Nagata et al., 2012;Palermo et al., 2013). Among the seven studies we identified that examined determinants of household FI using the HFIAS, five were in SSA.In the three of these studies from Ethiopia, lower monthly income, low diversity of income sources (i.e., no income from off-farm activities), larger household size, and lower levels of education were all associated with higher household FI as measured by the HFIAS (Endale et al., 2014;Megersa et al., 2014;Motbainor et al., 2016). These determining factors are highly consistent with those identified from studies using the FIES. Across all three of these studies from Ethiopia, however, low number of livestock reared, low diversity of livestock reared, or absence of livestock were also all associated with high levels of household FI. In Ethiopia, like in many low-income contexts of SSA, livestock are kept primarily as a source of wealth and income (Nyantakyi-Frimpong et al., 2018). Therefore, livestock ownership may also serve as a proxy indicator of household wealth. Two other studies from Ghana and Nigeria, respectively, further indicated the importance of household income as an important correlate of household food insecurity (Atuoye et al., 2017;Owoladeet al., 2013). Lower household income and expenditures, poorer education, lower-level employment, and larger family size were also observed as important determinants of household FI in studies from Iran and Pakistan as well (Yousaf et al., 2018).Numerous studies have also examined associations of dietary diversity with child nutritional outcomes (Arimond & Ruel, 2004), and validation studies of the key dietary diversity indicators in common use today have examined associations of micronutrient adequacy with various combinations of foods and food groups (FANTA, 2006;Martin-Prevel et al., 2017). A much smaller set of studies has examined determinants of dietary diversity scores themselves. Among the 13 studies reviewed here, nearly all relied on food group indicators of dietary diversity, either at the household-or individual-level, while two derived a Simpson's Index (Simpson, 1949) of dietary diversity (Parappurathu et al., 2015;Venkatesh et al., 2016), and two others used a food variety score to track consumption of individual food items (Islam AHS et al., 2018;Torheim et al., 2004). Eight of the 13 studies were conducted in countries of SSA (i.e., Kenya, Benin, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali, Nigeria, Malawi; Ayenew et al., 2018;Kiboi et al., 2017;Kumar et al., 2015;Marinda et al., 2018;Mitchodigni et al., 2017;Ochieng et al., 2017;Snapp & Fisher, 2015;Torheim, et al., 2004), while the remainder were conducted in India and Bangladesh. Among those from SSA, again, socioeconomic indicators related to education, employment, income, food expenditures, and assets were among the most salient predictors of dietary diversity. Not surprisingly, child age was also positively associated with diet diversity in several studies (Marinda, et al., 2018;Mitchodigni, et al., 2017;Torheim, et al., 2004). As children age out of infancy, the diversity, amount, and range of consistencies of foods they can consume increases, thus allowing for more diverse diets. Several studies also found that households headed by women, or those with the women as income earners also had higher diet diversity (Kumar, et al., 2015;Ochieng, et al., 2017). These findings align with prior evidence suggesting that greater decision-making responsibility in the hands of women within households is associated with more positive diet and nutritional outcomes (Herforth A et al., 2012). Many of these same sociodemographic factors were identified as associated with higher dietary diversity in India and Bangladesh as well including literacy, per-capita income, women's self-efficacy and spousal support (Chinnadurai et al., 2016;Nguyen et al., 2017;Parappurathu, et al., 2015;Venkatesh, et al., 2016).Yet, in addition these sociodemographic factors, land ownership was also positively associated with more diverse diets in Kenya (Kiboi, et al., 2017), Tanzania (Ochieng, et al., 2017), and India (Chinnadurai, et al., 2016), while in Zambia, the inverse relationship was observed (Kumar, et al., 2015). The authors of the Zambia study posited that this finding may have been due to households with larger land holdings cultivating cash crops (e.g., maize and cotton) that did not directly contribute to the diets of farming households. Furthermore, agricultural production diversity was associated with more diverse diets in Benin, Mali, Zambia, Nigeria, India and Bangladesh. These findings are supported by a larger set of studies that have been previously reviewed that have found a consistent positive, albeit small in magnitude, association between on-farm crop species richness and household-level dietary diversity (Jones, 2017). In some contexts, this relationship may be stronger among households with low on-farm diversity (Sibhatu et al., 2015). The study from Nigeria reviewed here observed that agricultural production diversity was especially strongly associated with dietary diversity among households in higher income quantiles (Ayenew, et al., 2018). Importantly, several studies, including those examining production diversity, have also found that access to markets (i.e., proximity to nearby markets) is positively associated with dietary diversity as well (Bellon et al., 2016;Jones , 2016;Koppmair et al., 2017;Kumar, et al., 2015;Sibhatu, et al., 2015;Snapp & Fisher, 2015). However, it is clear that agricultural production diversity and market-orientation of farms are not contradictory trends, and rather are often complementary (Jones, 2016). Experimental studies intervening to diversify homestead food production through kitchen gardens and the rearing of poultry and micro-livestock have observed corroborating findings that more diversified home agricultural production leads to more diverse diets and higher consumption of targeted fruits, vegetables and animal-source foods (Olney et al., 2015).In total, these studies suggest the paramount importance of household socioeconomic status (i.e., wealth, education, and employment) in shaping food insecurity (Table 6).Increasing women's status within households (i.e., control over income and decisionmaking, bolstered by spousal and familial support), in particular, may be crucial for improving food security on the margins. Larger numbers of children within families may be related both to socioeconomic and women's status, as large families have to distribute income among more household members, and the burden of childcare commonly falls to women who must trade-off time and labor to childcare with other activities (including income-generating activities; Mcguire & Popkin, 1990). Among rural farming households, larger land sizes, more diverse agricultural production (which are themselves positively correlated), and access to markets are also predominant household-level factors that likely serve as important determinants of household FI across contexts.Social capital -Could be included as exogenous determinant of food security.Although agricultural systems outcomes could affect social capital, most models do not include this as an endogenous variable.Land ownership + Could be included as exogenous determinant of food security.Although agricultural systems outcomes could affect land ownership most models do not include this as an endogenous variable.Literacy + Could be included as exogenous determinant of food security.Although agricultural systems outcomes could affect literacy, most models do not include this as an endogenous variable.Proximity to markets + Could be included as exogenous determinant of decisions affecting food security.Peri-urban resident + Could be included as exogenous determinant of decisions affecting food security.a Measures of dietary diversity include food group indicators, Simpson's Index and food variety score. b Here we define a \"model output\" as a variable that is calculated by the model rather than using an assumed value. A model output thus derives from computations made by the model (often referred to as \"endogenous\" in the model structure). \"Model inputs\" are values that are assumed in order to make the calculations (thus are \"exogenous\" based on model structure). \"Model components\" include parts of a model that could be either assumed as inputs (thus, are exogenous) or based on decisions that are represented in the model (endogenous). For example, the number of livestock could be assumed as an (exogenous) input or determined by decision making (endogenous). C This includes female-headed households, women's control over income and decision-making, women's self-efficacy, spousal support and related measures.Note: Signs are interpreted as partial impacts of an increase in the value of the determinant variable on the food security indicators, holding other factors constant (i.e., consistent with link polarity in SD models). For example, an increase in wealth causes a reduction in the degree of FIES (i.e., an improvement). An increase in the number of children causes an increase in the degree of FIES (i.e., a deterioration). Thus, + signs for FIES and HFIAS indicators indicate worsening, + for Dietary Diversity is an improvement. Note: The summary comments above assess a) whether the determinant is currently directly represented in agricultural systems models, and b) whether the determinant is likely to be affected by agricultural system outcomes (production, income, labor allocation, etc.) The importance of each of the determinants for agricultural systems models would in principle depend on the magnitude of the impact and the degree of difficulty in incorporating into models and the degree of effort required for empirical representation.Agricultural systems models treat human decision making in a variety of ways, some of which are more conducive than others to connecting agricultural system model outcomes to one of our proposed indicators of food security, food consumption expenditures. Various ways in which the interface between agricultural systems and consumption expenditures are discussed in the literature are summarized below, along with exemplar papers of the type and methodological approach.The Agricultural Household Model (Singh et al., 1986), emerging from the agricultural and development economics literature in the 1980s, represents one approach to the question of how to integrate agricultural production and consumption into a combined model. However, the AHM often lacks in sophistication on the agricultural system side, although it does include a modeling framework for determining consumption expenditures via a household consumption demand function, oftentimes for food specifically, given the low-income, rural settings where it is usually employed.A 2003 review of the AHM by Ed Taylor and Irma Adelman outlines the various questions and settings where the AHM has been employed. From the beginning, the AHM has been concerned with the impact of agricultural policy on food production and consumption, arising in part out of the counterintuitive evidence that government pricing policies did not necessarily incentivize more food production in low income areas with large numbers of food insecure people. The AHM employs a utilitymaximization framework for the household, with consumption expenditures emerging from the constrained household optimization model as a set of demand functions, both for market and non-market consumption goods (as well as production inputs). A 1994 edited volume by Joachim von Braun and Eileen Kennedy at IFPRI highlights the use of the AHM more specifically to examine agricultural commercialization policies, comparing different agricultural production systems in the context of their impact on food security, and the likely impact of commercialization schemes, particularly emphasizing cash/non-food crops, on overall household ability to guarantee food consumption. It covers research that is more detailed on the agricultural systems side than is typical for the literature on the AHM overall, since the concern in the volume is with a switch to commercial, market-oriented production, thus an enterprise shift that can be compared in its food consumption expenditure outcomes, via changes in food demand functions that are derived from the AHM. But besides management or enterprise mix, there is little in these models of the biophysical information that characterizes many agricultural systems models published in the literature. Radchenko and Corral (2018) is another recent work using a version of the AHM to link agricultural production and crop portfolio choice (cash vs. food cropping) to food expenditures, using semi-parametric methods. The likelihood of choosing to grow cash crops, based on biophysical as well as local market data, is used as an input into modeling food expenditure, although it does not specifically model food expenditures as a structured demand function and has limited biophysical information. The approach is possible in this instance because the authors have direct access to food expenditure data that they can try to model and link to production data, rather than constructing food expenditure demand as a function of household preferences and utility functions, as well as production inputs, prices etc.At a basic level, many agricultural systems models, which are typically more detailed than the AHM in their structures for the biophysical dimensions of agriculture, simply parameterize human decision making, in the sense that analysis of agricultural systems in these instances often compares a set of farm management practices to another, and then reports system outputs (such as production or income) . One of these outcomes might be food that is available for consumption (physical quantities), which is sometimes passively compared to a self-sufficiency benchmark. The model behavior does not necessarily change if the consumption benchmark is not met, indicating a lack of active decision-making about consumption.An example of this approach can be seen in a recent Agricultural Systems paper by Rigolot et al (2017) that contrasts two typical multiple-agricultural-enterprise systems and their implications for food production, and food security, defined as calorie production as a percentage of a fixed caloric benchmark. There is no feedback in this model from the household food security calculations and outcomes back to the underlying biophysical model, but consumption can be compared across enterprise systems. But an assumption is made about the equivalency between food production and consumption, and consumption expenditures are not truly modeled, as food consumed by the household is assumed to come out of own production, with surplus food produced sold to provide additional income. Since there is no feedback between the economic submodule and the production module, food consumption expenditures will not emerge as a model variable or outcome, as shortfalls do not trigger additional food expenditures in the market.Other joint models include human decision-making more directly in the model behavior during simulation, by introducing potential simple decision rules about minimum consumption levels as a fixed constraint in the system. The modeled household will then manage system resources in such a way to guarantee a particular (fixed) level of consumption, either by producing it themselves, or purchasing from the market in the case of a shortfall. This introduces feedback from the economic decision-making about consumption expenditures back into the biophysical system, and allows some degree of active choice about consumption expenditures in terms of re-allocating system resources.An example of a combined model in this mode can be seen in an Agricultural Systems paper by Thornton, Galvin and Boone (2003)  or some positive amount required to finance the gap, which is financed through selling livestock, drawing down cash reserves, deferring some types of consumption and some additional techniques. Consumption expenditures are thus not modeled like a demand function per se, one that is sensitive to food prices and income levels, and potentially flexible when the household is faced with trade-offs in obtaining food from own production and the market, vs. consuming other goods. There is a subsistence constraint, and if it is met, then expenditures will not occur.A third approach involves incorporating the AHM into an agricultural systems model more explicitly, where household decision-making is modeled via constrained household utility maximization, but household demand for consumption expenditures is flexible and sensitive to internal and external relative market and/or shadow prices, incomes, preferences, etc. A recent paper by Leonardo et. al (2018) on the impact of extensification and intensification of agriculture in Mozambique and maize production comes somewhat close to this approach, in that there is an assumed decision maker in the household that chooses to either maximize total farm gross margins or maize sales, The discussion in Sections 6.1 and 6.2 above are central to the ability to specify quantitative relationships between the outputs typical of (or relatively easily derived from) agricultural systems models and food security outcomes such as consumption expenditures, FIES and HDDS and to understand priorities for needed future research.This section builds upon this and previous information to describe our assessment of priority opportunities. We acknowledge that these are somewhat speculative in the sense that they are not based on more formal analysis of the costs, benefits or importance of the opportunities, and that such an analysis could be helpful to further refine our judgments. We discuss separately three sets of opportunities, as follows:Settings for which there is an opportunity for low cost for inclusion of food security indicators (perhaps due to both the structure of extant models and data to support empirical linkages to food security outcomes). Our review above suggests that the potential for low-cost implementation of food security indicators in agricultural systems models may be rather narrow at present. This is because relatively few of the existing model analyses currently include any of our three recommended indicators directlythe most common being some form of consumption (food amounts, expenditures, or calories)-and model analyses were nearly universally vague at best about defining what pattern of indicators describes the stability component of food security. This suggests that the lowest-cost means of analyzing food-security in agricultural systems models likely will be improvements in existing models to the representation of food consumption, aligning definitions more closely with the indicators and categories (e.g., the food access dimension) suggested herein, and applying the kinds of stability metrics described by Herrera (2017). Note that this suggests that dynamic models (i.e., rather than partial equilibrium ones) with appropriate temporal resolution (perhaps monthly at minimum), time horizon (likely more than one year) and analyzing households individually would tend to be more appropriate for incorporating this type of analysis.In the few situations where empirical data are available to link the outcomes of agricultural systems model to experienced-based food insecurity indicators and household dietary diversity scales, these could generally be incorporated into existing dynamic agricultural systems models at low cost. We illustrate this with our proof-ofconcept household and regional model analyses in the next section (albeit assuming many of the necessary empirical relationships).Settings or linkages for which additional empirical evidence (data) is needed to integrate food security indicators. This appears to be the far more common context for the agricultural systems models we have reviewed. Many models appear to have been developed without reference to specific food security indicators as defined by human nutritionists (e.g., these previous analyses assume production equates to food security)or with only a limited subset (e.g., various indicators of consumption). In general, agricultural systems model analyses tend to focus on the outcomes with closer linkages to the \"availability\" component of food security (which is understandable given their biophysical focus), whereas we suggest a focus on indicators of food access. In very few cases is the empirical evidence to link the biophysical outcomes (and economic outcomes, such as income) to experience-based food insecurity scales and household dietary diversity, although as we illustrate below, the extant literature on their determinants suggests some common patterns with regard to outcomes such as income.Greater efforts at data collection to facilitate the analysis of the determinants of these outcomes-especially those biophysical and economic outcomes common in agricultural systems models-is urgently needed if these indicators are to be systematically represented in agricultural systems models.Efforts such as RHoMIS 15 (Hammond et al. 2017) that collect experience-based food insecurity and dietary diversity information provide a framework for collection of these data, which in principle would best be undertaken as one of the components of the empirical evidence base underlying model development. This would not seem to involve a great deal of additional effort or cost if model development is based on field survey work collecting related information such as yields, income consumption, etc.However, the appropriate degree of temporal granularity may suggest that multiple rounds of such data collection are appropriate for dynamic model development. There is undoubtedly much work to be done to determine appropriate analytical (statistical)techniques of analysis to develop appropriate theoretical foundations and functional forms linking determinants to indicators, but even more simplistic empirical relationships may be useful as this body of work is explored and expanded. As more empirical evidence linking outputs from agricultural systems models to indicators such as FIES and HDDS, it may be possible to use relationships from other (reasonably similar) settings in a more stylized manner.Themes (events, influences or interventions) that would likely have a large impact on food security outcomes related to agricultural systems dynamics. As noted earlier, it would be possible (and also necessary) to undertake a more formal assessment to determine which \"events, influences or interventions\" amenable to analyses by agricultural systems models have the largest degree of impact (either positive or negative) on food security outcomes. Moreover, the empirical evidence base to date allows relatively limited inferences about which of the determinants of food security indicators has the largest positive impact in defined contexts. This also may be relevant to the development of model analyses-particularly those with the objective of 15 We believe that the RHoMIS approach has great potential to facilitate the incorporation of food security indicators into agricultural systems models. However, it is worth noting that the methods used for the collection of these indicators depart in potentially important ways from those used in validating the original indicators. For example, The HDDS departs from standard practice by using long-term (and seasonal) recall rather than 24-hour recall as in the validated scale. We thus recommend caution in the use of these indicators generated through RHoMIS pending additional validation work. We include a short additional discussion in Appendix 2.determining which system modifications result in the largest improvements in food security. Thus, we use both professional judgment and a review of the previous modeling work to suggest priority areas.One set of priorities relates to shocks that could negatively affect production, incomes or both for populations of agricultural households that are likely to be more vulnerable due to less favored environments or smaller initial resource endowments. Some obvious sources of these shocks include weather events (drought, flooding), plant or animal disease outbreaks, major agricultural or trade policy changes, decreased access to agricultural market outlets and household-specific idiosyncratic shocks (e.g., loss of a family member's labor). Weather events (especially changes in rainfall) were a common motivation for analysis of food security among the household-level and regional-level publications reviewed.Longer-term processes that could negatively affect food security include climate change (both effects of changes in rainfall and temperature distribution and evaluation of adaptation strategies), land use change, land fragmentation (or consolidation policies), decreases in biodiversity, natural resource degradation and demographic shifts (migration to urban areas). Many of the reviewed studies were motivated by a desire to understand the food security implications of these processes.It is also possible to envision events, influences or outcomes that would result in temporary or enduring improvements in food security. Thus, many of the publications we reviewed focused on such influences as farm technology adoption (for management of crops, livestock, trees, nutrients, water and soils), participation in new (or more commercialized) agricultural value chains, diversification of agricultural production. In some cases, the analyses focused on assessment of policies or programs designed to facilitate these changes.A number of regional studies focused on what might be termed \"visioning\" studies that used simulation modeling of stakeholder-generated scenarios to compare food security (and other) outcomes under alternative futures (e.g., Springmann et al., 2016). These studies are less concerned with the assessment of specific shocks or programmatic implementation than influencing the strategic direction for country and regional food and agricultural sector development. To the extent that such longer-term studies consider food security outcomes, there are opportunities for improvement of their representations, although the lengthy time horizon may imply changes in the empirical nature of the relationships between determinants and food-security outcomes.Analysis of Strategic Priorities and Transformative Changes to Food Systems. In the next section, we describe proof-of-concept analyses of common shocks (e.g., reduced crop yields) or policy interventions (e.g., supporting the adoption of productivity-enhancing technology by larger-scale producers). These align with common applications of agricultural systems models-particularly those with economic content, and many models would allow the assessment of a large number of similar impacts or interventions. However, there are potential applications of agricultural systems models that assess the food security impacts of transformative changes to food systems and provide a more strategic assessment of intervention (and research) priorities.As an example of the former, it would be possible with certain types of models at both the household and regional scales to evaluate the impacts of large-scale changes in crop and livestock production patterns 16 --perhaps to align them more closely with recommendations for healthy or environmentally sustainable diets. Agricultural systems models incorporating these assumptions could then be used to assess the impacts on food security indicators and other outcomes of interest, such as incomes, relative prices (for market models), nutrient flows and other environmental indicators.A number of modeling approaches (particularly the System Dynamics approach used in our proof-of-concept analyses) have as their principal objective the identification of key \"leverage points\" (strategies) that can result in the largest sustained improvement in outcomes of interest. Used in this manner, at least some agricultural systems model could be used to assess strategic approaches that provide the largest sustained improvement in food security outcomes-or that best prevent or mitigate the impact of shocks affecting food security. Typically, these would be done in a comparative manner 16 Typically, imposing this sort of large-scale structural change would require \"over-riding\" the underlying economic decision-making logic (at the household level) or market responses (at the regional level) and might also require substantive consideration of the capacity of input production and post-production supply chains.that assess a number of possible strategies. At a very general level, these could include comparisons of production-related decisions (improved crop varieties, irrigation, croplivestock mix), consumption-related decisions (educational efforts to effect behavioral change, e.g., \"demand generation\", Monterrosa, 2018) or supply chain interventions(such as improved transportation or storage). Analyses could also focus on decisions about one of these general areas, such as which \"climate-smart\" production practices (e.g., Thornton et al., 2017) have the largest benefit in terms of food security. This approach can also be used to assess the trade-offs between food security and other outcomes (such as income or environmental impact).Agricultural systems models could also be used to assess which information is most needed to assess and improve food security outcomes, through the application of uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. It is common in many models that some uncertainties about assumptions have a limited effect on simulated outcomes, whereas the results are quite sensitive to other assumptions. This suggests that efforts be focused on better understanding of assumptions (information) the results in large uncertainties of outcomes (such as food security). Thus, in addition to assessing specific interventions or modifications, agricultural systems models incorporating food security indicators can be highly useful for priority-setting.We determined that it would be appropriate to modify two existing models: one at the household level (CLASSES, Stephens et al., 2012) and one at the regional level (Mexico Sheep Sector Model (MSSM), Parsons and Nicholson, 2017) to include relevant linkages to food security indictors. The CLASSES model represents a single household in the Kenyan highlights producing maize and potentially dairy cows, forage and tea. The MSSM represents sheep supply and demand for all of Mexico with production disaggregated by farm types and regions. We also decided that that because this is a \"proof of concept\" exercise, the models used would not need to a) allow the assessment of a wide range of possible impacts of shocks or interventions on food security indicators, or b) have fully-developed empirical evidence to support the linkages between their predicted bio-economic outcomes and food security indicators (although clearly more is preferred). Thus, the purpose is to provide a template for integration of food security indicators in agricultural systems models and demonstrate the usefulness of this integration-with appropriate emphasis on dynamic stability of outcomes.The CLASSES model is a bio-economic system dynamics model of a small mixed enterprise farming system, calibrated with survey data on smallholder producers managing a portfolio of maize, livestock, Napier grass and tea in Kenya. Several key agricultural and economic systems are represented, including tracking dynamic behavior of key soil nutrients and organic matter stocks, crop production for three important representative food, forage and cash crops, livestock investment and management for dairy production, and an overall decision-making structure that allows for the household to continually adjust land and labor resources towards their highest returns on the farm. The primary causal loops for the CLASSES model include those for consumption, cash accumulation and soil organic matter dynamics (Figure 3). The figure illustrates the principal stocks (accumulations such as cash or soil organic matter)with boxes, and inflows and outflows that affect the value of the stocks as double arrows with a valve (two triangles). Arrows illustrate causal linkages between variables and their hypothesized sign (or polarity). (A \"+\" sign indicates that a change in variable at the beginning of the arrow will cause a change in the same direction for the variable the arrow points to; a \"-\" sign indicates a change in the opposite direction. Thus, an increase in household available cash is hypothesized to cause an increase in the value of grain consumption, but an increase in the value of grain consumption results in a decrease in the consumption shortfall.) Feedback loops are indicated as collections of causal linkages (e.g., household cash available is part of a loop comprising a series of connected causal linkages that also includes a livestock purchases, livestock numbers, milk production, milk cash value and cash inflow). Because it was designed to evaluate longer-term poverty-trap dynamics, the model uses quarterly time units, but the numerical integration calculations are done 16 times per quarter (i.e., time step of 0.0625). In order to highlight the relationships between agricultural system dynamics and potential food security (as represented by selected indicators) for the smallholders represented by the CLASSES model, we examined the impact of a negative maize yield shock, with households experiencing two consecutive maize crop failures. We imposed this yield shock on two distinct types of households to further examine the impact of various scale factors on both agricultural system and food security outcomes. The first household has 0.5 ha in land, 6 family members (2 adult laborers) and relatively low levels of human and financial capital. The second household has 1 ha, 5 family members (3 adult laborers) and higher levels of human and financial capital (Table 7). For this analysis, the model is simulated for a time horizon of seven years, long enough to examine initial behavioral patterns before the yield shock and the adjustment process afterwards.In previous analysis done with the CLASSES model, farm size proved important in determining whether households could avoid low-equilibrium welfare level poverty traps, with bifurcated trends in yields, biophysical capital, income and wealth accumulation between small and poor vs. larger, wealthier farms (Stephens et. al, 2012).Many of these same factors are associated with food security, as evidenced by the literature review, thus examining the impact of a significant agricultural shock on these two household types can help further highlight the additional welfare impacts with respect to food consumption patterns that are likely attendant with other indicators of household well-being. Further, a supply shock for an agricultural subsistence producer represents the direct shock to the food availability dimension of food security that is also the main focus of much of the literature on agriculture and food security. a All land is assumed to be planted to maize (no tea or Napier) and there are no livestock for the entire simulation period of 28 quarters. Note that livestock could be purchased but sufficient cash is not accumulated to do so. We further assume no use of inorganic fertilizer for both households.b Variable AccumSurplus in CLASSES. Calculated based on the minimum food consumption expenditures per quarter times 1 for Household 1 and 2 for Household 2.C Although a \"Base Score\" value for this indicator is assumed to be the same for the two households, household characteristics that affect the value of the initial FIES and HDDS scores in the model differ for the two households.We modified the CLASSES model to incorporate three separate food security indicators:food consumption expenditures, the FIES and the HDDS. For food consumption expenditures, following one basic approach in existing literature (e.g., Wossen et al 2018), consumption functions were added for five food item categories with assumed values of minimum recommended consumption, mean price and income elasticity of per capita consumption (Table 8). b Can vary depending on whether household is net buyer (higher value) or net seller (value above).c Income elasticity values are adapted in a stylized manner from Wossen et. al (2018) The consumption functions are based on the net income to the household relative to the total expenditure required for the household to consume the minimum recommended quantities of each of the five food items. Net income (NI) is defined as the net inflows per quarter of cash from sales, wages, off-farm labor earnings, remittances, minus any cash outlays for production (hired in labor, production inputs).Household consumption of each food item (kg/quarter) is thus calculated for three situations:1) household income is currently adequate to consume at or above the minimum recommended amount of each food item;2) household income is not adequate to consume the minimum recommended amount of each food item, but savings are available to support consumption at the minimum recommended level;3) household income is not adequate to consume the minimum recommended amount of each food item and no savings are available.The applicable amount of each food item to be consumed is calculated conditional on the situation above, and total food expenditures (in KSh/quarter) are calculated using consumption and prices.The specific consumption functions follow a basic log-linear form, with net income (NI)influencing the household's ability to consume relative to a minimum standard, asshown below:HH Consumption of Food Item f = (Min. Recommended HH Consumption of Food Item f) x {NI + Allowable Savings Draw/ERCMRA} Income Elasticity for Food Item f , where the Allowable Savings Draw (ASD) indicates the amount that can be withdrawn from the household's savings. In the first two scenarios described above, the household has sufficient cash resources to afford the minimum required consumption bundle (ERCMRA), either through quarterly net income, or some combination of net income and drawing down savings.If net income falls below the amount needed to afford the minimum required consumption bundle (the ERCMRA), but the household also does not have savings on hand, existing resources are allocated with priority given first to cereals and oils, and then equally across the remaining three food categories with remaining cash resources. This is reflective of likely prioritization given by severely food insecure households, but relative weights have been chosen arbitrarily, and could be adjusted if there were known rankings and priority weights for a specific set of households.Amounts of actual consumption by the HH for each of the five food items also is calculated as discussed reported above. In addition to actual consumption amounts, we calculated the number of food items for which the household consumed more than 25% of the minimum recommended amount, and this was indicated as a proxy for the total number of food groups consumed (and thus, one measure of dietary diversity).The FIES and HDDS indicators were also included, with linkages added to additional important determinants taken from the literature (like numbers of dependent children, for example). These indicators are the summed responses to a series of yes/no questions about food security, resulting in integer valued scores. We thus used discrete thresholds for linking agricultural system model variables to the FIES and HDDS food security metrics, starting with an assumed set of base values, to which discrete additions or subtractions from the Base value are made when agricultural system model values pass the thresholds.For example, the FIES score is calculated as:FIES Score = Base FIES Score + f (Wealth, NI, Education, HH Size, Children, Off-farm Income),Where the elements of the f( ) are as follows: These are arbitrary both in their formulation and their specific numerical values but attempt to capture in a stylized manner the kinds of effects that would be relevant to consider. Further consideration of how to collect and analyze data on the determinants of FIES and HDDS will be essential for more appropriate empirical analyses.The dynamic patterns for the three food security indicators across both household types, along with several other key characteristics of food consumption, are shown below (Figures 4 to 7). The maize yield shock is imposed on the model in quarter 8, leading to both short-term and long-term changes from the baseline (i.e. no yield shock) scenarios shown for both households.The yield shock has a substantive effect (Figure 4) on food consumption expenditures, as well as the cost of the minimum required consumption bundle (the ERCMRA as described above). Several important features stand out. First, intuitively, the yield shock negatively impacts overall food consumption expenditures, but not to the same degree for both households. Household 1 experiences a deeper and more prolonged drop in food expenditures, remaining below the minimum required for 5 quarters, while expenditures for Household 2 drop below the minimum threshold later and rebound more quickly. Household 2 starts the simulation with more than double the level of savings of Household 1 and is able to use these resources to better maintain access to food from markets, despite the production shortfall. Also of note are the differential effects long term on food expenditures between the households. Household 2 eventually returns to expenditure patterns of its baseline, butHousehold 1 displays different levels of expenditures after the yield shock, with food consumption expenditures rising over baseline. This is not necessarily an indicator of greater food security, however, as the cost of the minimum bundle begins to fluctuate as the household switches between being a net seller of maize (with lower market prices) and a net buyer, which raises the overall cost of the consumption bundle. Thus, expenditures rise along with costs, as the shock appears to permanently diminish the household's capacity to produce enough maize for minimum consumption-in part because it now in engages in off-farm labor-and it makes up the maize production shortfall with purchases in the market.All three elements of food security represented in the model are affected by the shock.Food availability is affected (due to lower production), as well as access (through higher prices for households that transition into net buyers and have more reliance on market purchases fluctuations in food expenditures, due to variable seasonal levels of production of the main staple crop between short and long rains seasons, as modeled in CLASSES.However, these fluctuations remain above the minimum required expenditures for Household 2, operating on a larger farm, with more savings to compensate for any shortfalls. Both households appear to adapt to the shock to food consumption expenditures, but this adaptation is incomplete for Household 1, as it leads to a series of shortfalls below the minimum expenditures required.The HDDS reflects the number of 12 food items consumed by any member of the household during the previous 24 hours. The initial values for the two households differ based on food consumption expenditures and land area and attempt to capture differences in HDDS due to different resource bases. In the absence of a shock, Household 1 experiences an increase in quarter 1 based on food consumption expenditures higher than a threshold value, but a reduction in HDDS when food consumption expenditures decrease after quarter 2. The increase in HDDS in quarter 24 is due to educational attainment. Household 2 experiences fluctuations in HDDS due to seasonal variations in food consumption expenditures. The yield shock lowers the HDDS by 1 for Household 1 during quarters 9 to 13 due to lower food consumption expenditures. However, Household 1 also does not experience the improvement in HDDS that occurs at quarter 24 in scenario without the yield shock, because lower income prevents educational attainment. Similar to the impact of the yield shock on Household 1, Household 2 experiences a decrease of 1 unit during quarters 9 to 13, but also an improvement in the value of the HDDS from quarters 21 to 23. This increase is due to additional food consumption expenditures made possible by maize yields sufficient to meet the consumption expenditure threshold. Maize yields after the shock are larger than they would have been in the absence of the yield shock for the three subsequent harvests due to soil nutrient dynamics and because nutrients were not harvested in the form of maize during the yield shock. These higher yields support higher income and additional cash savings accumulation, which supports higher consumption levels in the quarters immediately after the shock. The pattern of behavior for the indicator of the count of food groups consumed which underlies the HDDS can also be assessed. For this analysis we use a simplified approach based on only five categories of food groups rather than the 12 in the HDDS survey 17 .We assess the baseline number of these food groups for which consumption is more than 25% of the minimum required, and then the impacts of the shock. In the absence of the shock, both households are able to consume all five food groups well above minimum levels. The impact of the shock is quite different for the two households (Figure 6). Both households experience declines in the numbers of food groups consumed, however the reduction in food group variety is only prolonged for Household 1, dropping to just one food group (cereals) consumed above the 25% level a year after the shock and remaining below 5 for a year. Household 2 consumes only one food group at less than 25% (animal source foods) and only for one quarter. Both households recover from the shock and increase variety back to initial levels. If this indicator is 17 We acknowledge that the count values are not entirely consistent between our analysis of the HDDS that is more comprehensive and the analysis of the counts for these five food categories but for illustrative purposes this may be acceptable. designed more stringently (with 50% thresholds rather than 25% of the minimum), Household 1 consumes only 1 food group (cereals) at levels above the minimum for twice as long (4 quarters rather than 2) and experiences brief periods during quarter 11 when even cereals consumption is below 50% of the minimum requirement (not shown). The baseline pattern and impact of a yield shock can also be assessed for the FIES score.Starting from a lower based value of the FIES, Household 2 experiences two step increases in the FIES at quarter 9 and quarter 11, with an overall increase compared to the scenario without the yield shock during quarters 9 to 13. After quarter 13, the impact of the shock has passed and the FIES score returns to the initial value (Figure 7).  Monte Carlo analyses where we varied yield changes in a range between -25% and -99% and a pulse duration (duration of yield change) in a range between 2 to 10 quarters. For the economic disturbances, we varied the magnitude of maize price change from -5% to -50% and the duration of the price change from 2 to 10 quarters.Our analysis summarizes results for hardness and elasticity for the household food consumption expenditures and an underlying determinant, total accumulated cash savings held by the household (Figure 8). The hardness metric denotes the maximum disturbance that the indicator can tolerate before its behavior changes significantly (within a 5% confidence bound) with respect to its behavior in the absence of a disturbance. It can be thought of as the maximum disturbance before the system bends.The elasticity metric describes the maximum disturbance the indicators can tolerate before they never recover to their reference behavior (within a 5% confidence bound).It can be thought of as the maximum disturbance before the system breaks.Both the smoothed total household food consumption expenditure and the accumulated cash savings deviate significantly (5% confidence bound) from the reference behavior at very small disturbances (very low values of the hardness metrices, Figure 8). (The values in the figure are negative because a larger shock has a larger negative impact on the value of food consumption expenditures and accumulated savings). However, both indicators are able to recover from very large disturbances (very high values of the elasticity metrics). Given the parameter ranges we used for the Monte Carlo simulations, both parameters were able to recover from the maximum disturbance (99% reduction in yield and 50% reduction in maize price). Therefore, while the system seems to be very susceptible to disturbances, it shows at the same time a fairly high degree of adaptability. This is true for both household types analyzed, but the adaptability is associated with different behavioral responses. Household 2 is able to recover from the shock and return to the previous pattern of production. Household 1 makes a permanent shift in the allocation of its labor, devoting more labor to off-farm employment and less labor to its maize production. We did not find any significant differences in resilience between household food consumption expenditures and accumulated cash savings, which suggests the importance of liquid wealth as a factor mitigating the impacts of shocks affecting food security. Overall, including a variety of food security metrics into the CLASSES model highlights different potential impacts of the yield shock on food security. For example, food expenditures fall, particularly for the smaller, poorer household, but the household is still able to maintain a degree of dietary diversity. The experience of food insecurity, as measured by FIES, is also dynamic, and demonstrating continuous representations of food security in this way highlights new potential questions about how households manage food security across time. Existing literature about the role of seasonality in agriculture (and food security), highlights variation across seasons, but is typically measured discretely, given the cost associated with fielding household surveys multiple times during the year. Patterns shown here, if calibrated better with known elasticities and empirical relationships, can fill in gaps from survey data alone, and also prompt new questions about household validation of variable food security experiences, or their ability to plan, foresee them, compensate for them.The Mexico Sheep Sector Model (MSSM) comprises a stock-flow-feedback structure originally designed to represent the potential for nonlinear (or counterintuitive) responses to current livestock policy instruments and productivity-enhancing technological change (Parsons and Nicholson, 2017) 18 . The model represents sheep and sheep meat markets in Mexico, but also includes trade linkages because of the importance of imported sheep meat in Mexican consumption. The production sector is represented by two different regions (Yucatán and Other), rather than household decision-making as is represented in CLASSES. Although Yucatán only produces a small proportion of Mexico's sheep meat, it is represented separately to illustrate impacts on a region with a large proportion of small producers, relatively distant from main consumption centers. Each region has two different types of producers: commercial or tras patio (Parsons et al., 2006). Commercial producers tend to be larger scale, have better access to capital, have good market access and are often owned by individuals for whom agriculture is not the principal economic activity. Tras patio, or backyard, producers are smaller scale, often have a limited investment in sheep production other than animals, (that is, they do not typically invest in housing or equipment) have poorer market access and are owned by individuals who earn a significant portion of household cash income from agriculture. The differences in producer characteristics are assumed to influence the costs of production and prices received for live animals. Consistent with available evidence, demand for sheep meat is centered on a single market in Mexico City.As in the commodity models developed by Meadows (1970) and Sterman (2000), inventories of sheep meat are assumed to influence the price of sheep meat, which in turn influences both sales (quantity demanded) and sheep meat imports. The model uses a monthly time unit of observation, a time step of 0.125 months, and is typically simulated for a period of 10 years. A diagrammatic representation of the model shows the major stocks, flows and feedbacks (Figure 9). Similar to Figure 3, the figure illustrates the principal stocks (accumulations such as animal numbers or meat inventories) with boxes, and inflows and outflows that affect the value of the stocks as A representation of each of the three recommended food security indicators was incorporated into the MSSM. Because this is a model at regional scale, we ignore household-specific characteristics and focus on only one driver of food security outcomes, regional producer income, for only one subset of producers, tras patio producers in Yucatán. (Commercial producers generally represent a socio-economic demographic for whom food security would not be a major issue.) We assumed a given level of non-sheep income for tras patio producers in aggregate, although we also allowed for (but did not use) in the model structure for the possibility that non-sheep income could decrease if producers devoted additional resources to sheep production 19 .We used proportional changes in income from the reference scenario (dynamic equilibrium) to calculate proportional changes in food security indicators assuming constant-elasticity responses. The basic formulation for computing these proportional changes is:Where FSI indicates the food security indicator, INC indicates total regional income (from sheep production and non-sheep activities) for tras patio producers, and  is an elasticity value that relates the average level of FSI for Yucatán tras patio producers with respect to income. This formulation is rather simplistic, assuming a constant elasticity value of responses, but is one approach that minimizes data requirements and facilitates sensitivity analysis with respect to uncertain elasticity parameters.Empirical implementation of the model is challenging due to the lack of data specific to sheep-producing households in the Yucatán. However, Magaña-Lemus et al. (2013) have previously shown the linkage between income and food security outcomes measured by experienced-based food insecurity scales for different socio-economic groups in Mexico at the national level, and Torres (2015) provided a detailed set of expenditure elasticities for a set of nine food categories that can be used to assess 19 Because production by tras patio sheep producers is low-input and tends to rely on shared grazing resources and limited time inputs, it may well be possible to increase production with limited impact on income from other sources.changes in food expenditures in response to income changes 20 . As is likely to the case with many other agricultural systems models not developed with these specific food security indicators in mind, the empirical evidence base is illustrative and suggestive of potential sources rather than empirically specific to this particular setting. We could not find empirical evidence linking dietary diversity to income for Mexico, so the assumed value has a limited empirical basis. For the purposes of illustration, values for expenditure elasticities (Table 9) were selected for the lowest income decile (which tend to have higher numerical values), and the food insecurity elasticity value was approximated based on the values for households below and above poverty lines for income or assets from Magaña-Lemus et al. (2013). The negative value of the FIES means that the degree of food insecurity would decrease as income increases (which constitutes an improvement), and the positive values for the other elasticities indicate increased dietary diversity or consumption expenditures with higher incomes. The simulations indicate that although growth in demand for sheep meat can increase income for tras patio sheep producers in Yucatán, income increases may not be maintained when demand growth slows (Figure 10). When demand growth slows and commercial producers receive subsidies, initial income increases can be more than offset in the long-run-when the supply response for commercial producers reaches its fullest impact. The initial increase in income in the Demand Growth scenario is due to higher prices and increased sales, from which sheep producers throughout Mexico initially benefit. The dynamic supply response over time (after about three years, when demand is assumed to cease to grow) results in lower prices and incomes after the initial increase. In the scenario with subsidies, tras patio sheep producers initially see very rapid increases in income because the cost subsidies provide incentives for rapid expansion by commercial producers, who retain additional animals as breeding stock.The number of marketed animals from commercial operations falls and price increases (This is consistent with supply response analyses such as those by Meadows (1970) and Sterman (2000).) Once this initial supply response has occurred, incomes begin to fall for tras patio producers as additional sheep meat supply comes online. As a result, from year 5 to year 9, total income for tras patio sheep producers in Yucatán is lower than in the base case, even with demand growth. The impacts on food security indicators mirror the impacts on income in this case (Figures 11 to 13, which is not surprising given the elasticity-based formulation linking these outcomes in the model). This analysis highlights the stability dimension that tends to receive insufficient treatment in many agricultural system model analyses. In this case, the \"stability\" or \"robustness\" criterion is not met-the system does not respond to the \"shock\" of cost subsidies with relative stability in food security outcomes for smallholders-although in this case, that would be considered a good thing due to initial improvements in food security outcomes. The \"adaptation\" criterion is met in the sense that the system adapts over time to the shock to return to levels of food security similar to those prior to the shock. In this case, \"adaptation\" is associated with a decline from previous improvements. Although the nature of this assessment is rather qualitative, it highlights the need to distinguish between (often, intended) shocks (e.g., interventions) to improve food security (for which \"stability\" and \"adaptability\" would be associated with negative outcomes, and (often, unintended) negative shocks for which stability and adaptability would be considered positive outcomes. It also is relevant to note that \"dynamic complexity\" (where short-run and long-run impacts of an intervention or shock can differ) applies to food security outcomes for tras patio sheep producers. Initially, there are improvements in all three indicators due to increased income, but as demand growth slows, some of the gains are now offset. When large producers are subsidized, tras patio producers may see very large initial improvements in food security indicators but may be marginally worse off after the subsidy program has been in operation for four years. Sustaining the improvements in food security indicators can be challenging, even when there are no unexpected shocks.Given that the simplified representation employed in this stylized analysis implies that changes food security indicators are scaled values of income changes, it is reasonable to question the additional value that is provided by their calculation, particularly given that many agricultural systems model formulations already represent income, which could thus be used as a proxy for food security. First, the different indicators will generally scale differently, so even if their direction of change in this formulation mirrors income changes, the specific numerical values will differ for the food security indicators. This may provide additional relevant insights, particularly when some indicators are deemed of greater importance. Second, this analysis examines proportional changes in regional average values, but this could be complemented with information showing initial starting values and comparing changes over time to relevant thresholds. For example, starting values of per capita grain consumption could be used with proportional change values from the simulation to determine regional average per capita grain consumption among this population to provide another indicator of access, particularly relative to a desired benchmark. Third, the average values here may be useful to suggest how distributional outcomes across the population would change for the food security indicators given increases in average values, for example, the proportion of tras patio sheep producers above a threshold value. Although it may be preferable to consider model formulations that represent individual decision makers explicitly (as in agentbased models), useful insights may still be gained from aggregated models such as this if empirical links can be made between regional average outcomes and the distribution of outcomes. Finally, when more than one driver of food security outcomes can be documented empirically and is represented in an agricultural systems model, the scaling between drivers and food security outcomes will not be as direct as it is in this case, even if a similar elasticity-based formulation is used. It is worth noting also that different values of the elasticities would affect the results, with larger values indicating a more pronounced response for both increases and decreases in food security. More sophisticated regional models might also include food security effects on labor productivity and allocation (CLASSES modifies both availability of household labor for agricultural activities as well as its allocation, but not productivity), and the number of producers participating in an activity. These might be best formulated as more disaggregated agent-based models that allow for regional market interactions.    Similar to the analyses performed with the CLASSES model, we calculated hardness and elasticity values for two indicators and one type of disturbance. The disturbance in this case was a variation in the size of the variable-cost subsidies to commercial producers from values between 10% and 50% (compared to a reference value of 30%). We tested for the sensitivity of FIES and income to variations in these subsidies, assuming a 1.5% annual growth in demand from the beginning of year 2 (month 24) to the end of year 4 (month 48).The proportional change in FIES deviates significantly (at the 5% confidence bound) from the reference behavior at very small disturbances (Figure 14). (The values in the figure are positive because an increase in the subsidy increases the average value of FIES-a deterioration in food security status.) A hardness or elasticity value indicates the percentage deviation of the variable cost subsidy to the reference value of 30%. A high hardness value therefore implies that when cost subsidies deviate by a small amount from the reference value, they still have a substantive effect on FIES. Whereas these high hardness values indicate high susceptibility to disturbances, both indicators rebound from large disturbances (fairly low values of the elasticity metrics). With the parameter ranges we used for the Monte Carlo simulations, both parameters were able to recover from the maximum disturbance of a 50% cost subsidy. Therefore, and similar to the CLASSES case, while the system seems to be very susceptible to disturbances, it shows at the same time a fairly high degree of adaptability. In general, representations of food security in agricultural systems models are not consistent with those viewed as more appropriate by human nutritionists and thus can be improved. To the extent that current agricultural systems models represent food security indicators more closely aligned with those we describe in Section 5, they tend to focus on the availability dimension rather than the access and stability dimensions.Although this often would require additional empirical evidence, indicators of food access (experienced-based food insecurity scales and dietary diversity scales) can and often should be incorporated into analyses of food security outcomes. In addition, greater attention should be paid to the stability dimension-generally requiring a dynamic model with suitable time units and time horizon-with more formalized treatment of the concepts of \"robustness\" and \"adaptability\" as in Herrera (2017).The limited availability of empirical evidence linking indicators of food access to determinants commonly represented in agricultural systems model is a key challenge, but mechanisms exist to address this challenge. We have noted in our review of the modeling literature and in our proof-of-concept analyses that although there is a long history in the economics literature of the determinants of food consumption expenditures, only general evidence about the determinants of two of the food access indicators (FIES and HDDS) is available and from a small number of cross-sectional studies. Although in some cases-say for stylized analyses such as those we undertook-these can be useful, in general an evidence base about the determinants more specific to the particular setting for the simulation model will be appropriate. We have noted before that frameworks such as RHoMIS can provide a good starting point for assessment of food access indicators, but recommend that 1) the determinants be carefully linked to concepts (i.e., determinants) represented in the simulation model, 2)food access be collected based on a panel data (longitudinal) design to allow better representation of the stability component, and 3) analytical methods relating the determinants to the relationships in the simulation model be carefully considered. As an example related to the last point, the CLASSES model assumes discrete impacts of determinants (such as household size or employment status) on the categorial variables FIES and HDDS, which suggests the need for a limited-dependent variable model such as an ordered logit model. For the regional analysis using the MSSM model, the formulation was a simpler one using elasticity values that related changes in income from a Baseline to counterfactual scenarios, which may be estimated with simpler regression techniques or proportional relationships.Representation of Intra-household (individual) food security outcomes is limited in the agricultural systems modeling literature and should be more fully evaluated in terms of the costs and benefits. Many conceptual models of food security take the household as the unit of analysis, particularly when the focus is on food access (rather than food availability, which is often assessed at a more aggregated scale). Our emphasis on household models is thus consistent with the focus on food access and agricultural systems models, but we note that the utilization component of food security uses individuals rather than households as the units of observation. We believe that additional work to assess the feasibility, costs and benefits of incorporating food access indicators for individuals (e.g., already illustrated by the use of the HDDS specific to women in a few published papers) is relevant.Extensions to include representation of \"food and nutrition security\" outcomes should be further evaluated. We have justified our focus on the access and stability dimensions of food security by describing the need to move beyond availability-only measures and the challenges of modeling the utilization elements that are generally the focus on FNS.However, we recognize that for some purposes the linkages between agricultural systems and utilization indicators (especially maternal and child nutritional status) may be of great interest and importance. This is true in part because in some sense they are these 'ultimate' indicators that supply evidence about whether the larger set of the pathways is functioning adequately. As is the case for modeling our three recommended food security indicators, a challenge is the availability of empirical evidence linking determinants to utilization outcomes. The determinants of utilization tend to transcend those typically included in agricultural systems models, encompassing such factors as care-giving behavior, water quality, exposure to disease and toxins, access to health care, and numerous others. However, Randolph et al. (2007) illustrated in a conceptual model that some of the elements determining nutritional outcomes (as contrasted with food security outcomes) can depend on the interactions of the agricultural system itself, as measured by land and labor allocation, income, exposure to zoonotic disease from livestock owned, water quality and consumption patterns. The framework by Kadiyala et al (2014) illustrates similar concepts in a more generally applicable framework.Although these could still be empirically challenging to implement, there is a reasonably lengthy history of empirical analyses of the determinants of nutritional outcomes (not reviewed herein) that could facilitate integration into agricultural systems models.Representing those factors more directly related to agricultural system outcomes (assuming other not included are constant) could be a starting point for analyses linking agricultural systems models and FNS.Given the foregoing, we encourage a number of follow-on steps, including: ▪ Development of efforts to extend existing agricultural systems models to include improved representations of food access indicators, to further assess the challenges and benefits of these efforts. This will likely require additional data collection to document the linkages between food access and agricultural systems model variables (as noted above), which may be facilitated by the use of frameworks such as RHoMIS (Hammond et al. 2017);▪ Further assessment of the costs and benefits of more specific representation of intra-household food security outcomes in agricultural systems models-for which there is currently limited evidence;▪ Further assessment of the costs and benefits of representing utilization indicators (such as nutritional status) in agricultural systems models. This may require broadening the boundaries of existing models (increasing their complexity) to account for the interactions with other factors such as health status but these indicators will often be of interest for the purposes of programmatic or policy assessment. Despite increased complexity, modeling nutritional outcomes may be facilitated by the larger empirical evidence base (e.g., Smith and Haddad, 2015) about the determinants of nutritional outcomes.","tokenCount":"22105"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"17473d6dc82db34d8c151a7d60f658a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/287a8c4c-4669-48aa-b937-eaf4b9303d80/retrieve","id":"-1730944438"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"72ccc46d-826b-4c56-89a8-732e199a9edd","pagecount":"10","content":"Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. Explore our work at aiccra.cgiar.org aiccra.cgiar.orgClimate change presents one of the biggest threats to sustainable development globally. Its widespread unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and the most vulnerable majority -a significant number of whom live in Africa. The most prominent global policy response to climate change is currently covered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). There is a clear evidence that Africa is constrained by its limited capacity to effectively participate in the international climate change policy discourse to foster climate actions at regional and national levels. Climate change diplomacy and negotiations are often technical and complex. It is difficult for new negotiators to fully grasp the nuances of the proceedings even over a period of many years.The African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES), with the support of AICCRA, has designed this training program on climate governance, diplomacy and negotiations leadership with a view to address this important continental challenge.The overall objective of the Program is to build and strengthen African climate leaders and to improve their knowledge and negotiation skills to enable them to engage effectively in international climate change policy discourse as well as contribute to the successful implementation of climate actions at regional and national levels.To date, 711 people have been trained (384 male and 327 female), representing 52 African countries.AGNES and AICCRA have been in close partnership, collaborating on a number of initiatives: providing evidence to inform the common African position and submissions on agriculture and gender; support to AGN agriculture negotiators and experts to attend United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) subsidiary bodies sessions and the Conference of the Parties (COPs); design and delivery of AGNES's Climate Governance, Diplomacy and Negotiations Leadership Program and support in project development of successful proposal submitted to Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (BMGF), Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) amounting to $7.5 million for three years.The Climate Leadership Program has been supported both financially and technically by AICCRA from the beginning. Partnering with AGNES has been a win-win relationship. For AICCRA, it has meant not only achieving the organization's capacity building targets but also sharing key evidence, policy learnings and tools from their research with negotiators and climate action implementers. For AGNES, the course has been offered free of charge to participants, allowing the numbers to reach into the hundreds and across 90.7% of the entire continent.In October 2023, we conducted a survey focusing on how alumni from the course have benefitted from the capacity building. Out of 650 participants, 84 filled out the survey. Many of them come from the NGO sector (21 respondents) and research/academia (20 respondents) as well as from the private sector (13 respondents). 11 policymakers/advisers filled out the survey. 6 government representatives gave us their answers (one diplomatic mission, one climate change specialist from the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia, one from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, one working on policy and program formulation, one civil servant and one technician). The others were two extension officers, two students, one consultant on adaptation, one from the finance sector, one forestry engineer, one occupational safety and health environment specialist and one journalist. Four respondents did not answer this question.We aimed to find out what they gained from the Program and how they have used the new knowledge and skills in their work. We asked about how their knowledge, skills and attitudes have changed as a result of the Participants elaborated on how their knowledge, skills or attitudes changed as a result of the course. In terms of knowledge, most of them said that they learned about the different aspects of climate change. All of them reported that they now understand more about certain topics as a result of the course. These include the six main areas presented above (Figure 1.) as well as a number of topics, such as: understanding Africa's position in climate change, NDC implementation, climate advocacy, climate leadership, diplomacy and negotiation processes, among others. Someone reported that the course helped him get a more holistic view of climate conversation (scientific, political, socio-economic, financial).We asked participants how the AGNES Climate Leadership course has improved their skills as climate leaders. We received a variety of responses, from the ability to integrate climate change into planning and implementation, through using knowledge to train others on climate issues, to gaining knowledge to support county government.Some of the reported leadership skills were team management and coordination, communication, decisionmaking and problem-solving skills.highlighted one of the respondents. Someone noted that they learned \"the essence of what a good leader is.\" In addition to leadership, negotiation and diplomacy skills resulting from the course were also identified by the participants.\"I am now a better negotiator as a result of the training,\" one participant noted. Respondents reported on a variety of negotiation skills obtained. Many of them highlighted communication, active listening as well as conflict resolution as the main skills gained. Responses included psychological awareness, preparing and understanding differing viewpoints, the ability to find common ground, the importance of verbal and nonverbal skills, and dealing with climate funders, among others.\"The course has taught me various negotiation techniques and strategies that have helped me to better navigate complex climate change negotiations and dialogues. I have learned how to communicate effectively, build alliances, and find creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems. These skills have proven invaluable in my current role, where I frequently engage with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to address climate change challenges.\"Another said: \"I have gained the art of using key negotiation tactics such as tradeoffs, caucusing and collective bargaining to advance my interests and those I represent, as well as formulating mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships.\"In terms of diplomacy skills, participants gave similar answers as to the questions on leadership and negotiation skills (communication, conflict resolution, listening, collaboration, etc.). Some additional skills reported were cultural sensitivity and understanding diverse perspectives, understanding the audience and parties involved, the need for compromise and the ability to engage various stakeholders.One participant summarized:\"I acquired valuable diplomacy skills, including the ability to build relationships and partnerships, navigate sensitive and complex environmental negotiations, engage in constructive dialogue with various stakeholders, balance conflicting interests, and promote consensus-building in the context of climate diplomacy.\"Participants identified a number of actions taken and attitude change that they attribute to the AGNES Climate Leadership Program. Responses included integrating climate issues at work, giving more focus on climate change in work programs, being more aware of climate change in general and spreading awareness, being involved in climate change actions thanks to the course. One said he improved his PhD research and journal articles to be more impact driven, another changed career path-enrolled in PhD about climate change and adaptation, and someone said that the course gave him added advantage in his job application.One participants organized and coordinated Kenyan private sector participation at ACS and ACW2023.Another respondent applied the knowledge in helping countries develop and implement NDCs as a consultant. He highlighted that he has been able to apply the skills and knowledge learned from the course in his consultancy work. He added that the networks he created at the Climate Leadership course have helped him get a job.Other change includes someone being nominated to be part of the government delegation. An alumnus shared that he was selected as a COP27 youth delegate by the Government of Leshotho and admitted to an MSc program in Climate Change thanks to the course. He added: Participants were asked how they integrated what they learned from the course in their work. Somewhat similar answers came as to the question on how their attitudes have changed and what actions they have taken as a result of the course. Some reported to have shared key learnings from the Program-with colleagues and with farmers (e.g. communicating technical information to farmers). One participant added: \"I have a privilege of working with Ondo State Agricultural Inputs Supply Agency in Ondo State, Nigeria. We relate with rural farmers including fish farmers as we selling fishing nets etc. I have had the privilege of helping rural farmers to know why the climate is changing and the various climate-smart agricultural methods or alternatives they can adopt.\"Others integrated new knowledge in their teaching, for example, one participant added climate negotiations and diplomacy in his climate change course outline. Some strengthened their activism work, such as developing community projects (e.g. tree planting), integrating climate issues in the school club, and creating an association. Many participants reported how specifically they changed the way they work. A few examples include:• designing projects to strengthen evidence generation in support of climate negotiations,• integrating topics such as climate risk management in decision-making, training, policy engagement, reporting, etc., • coming up with a youth mentorship programme towards climate change, • coming up with adaptation measures to build resilience of pastoralists, • incorporating long-term planning and financial strategies into sustainability projects, • integrating this training by asking specific questions to have clear answers for wide distribution on communication channels -answered by a journalist covering the environment, • coming up with rating models for climate associated risks,• organizing capacity building workshop for youth, training them on various aspects of negotiations.Two participants, working in the agriculture sector in Ghana, told us about how they have integrated new knowledge in their work targeting cocoa farmers in Ghana. \"I was able to use the information I learned to make the connection between the rising rates of insecurity, conflict, and rape cases in the community and the declining farming activities caused by the excessive rain that flooded their farmland.\"The survey responses show that participants have benefitted from the capacity building one way or another. They gained new knowledge and skills, and the training has contributed to change in attitudes as well as to integrating knowledge that they gained from the course in their work.In terms of the objectives of the Program, we see some positive results. As a reminder, objectives of the Program are:• (i) to build and strengthen African climate leaders -Many participants reported to have gained leadership skills that they already integrate in their work.• (ii) to improve their knowledge and negotiation skills -We have shown in this report what the main topics are that participants have learned about.• (iii) to enable them to engage effectively in international climate change policy discourse -Some participants stated to have been actively involved and others reported to understand more about the discourse as before.• (iv) to enable them to contribute to the successful implementation of climate actions at regional and national levels -We have included a few responses demonstrating how participants are integrating new knowledge and skills in their work, although these are mainly on local level but we included some country examples as well.","tokenCount":"1842"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0a0e857cbc5622bd3239d297ee81947","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fadd8f45-cb25-455d-9add-7372da404c7a/retrieve","id":"-1225460730"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"57407a29-89cb-4b94-8481-477d76421126","pagecount":"70","content":"The strategic objective of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) is to contribute scientific evidence and solutions to support a transition to sustainable intensification of agricultural production and other critical ecosystem services at scale for poverty alleviation and livelihood improvements. The launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, and the December 2015 COP21 climate agreement to limit global warming to below 1.5-2°C, mark historic commitments to further strengthen sustainability across all levels and sectors.WLE has continued playing an active role in shaping the SDG indicators and contributing to national implementation plans. Engagement in the SDG process has been an important pathway to operationalize WLE's pioneering work. This Report documents WLE's significant contributions to supporting sustainable intensification of agricultural systems at scale, while enhancing other critical ecosystem services.An important advance in 2015 was more effective use of our Theory of Change (ToC) and updated impact pathways as a management tool. This is reflected in our having achieved most of our planned outcomes, despite the unanticipated budget reductions for 2015 (see Section A.3). WLE's strong network of partners has been a great asset, fostering continued momentum and leveraging resources 1 to continue moving along our impact pathways.The two examples below demonstrate pathways for sustainably intensifying agricultural systems and assessing the potential and actual synergies and trade-offs among investments in water, food and energy.Rehabilitating degraded landscapes in the Highlands is a high-priority of the Ethiopian government and its partners. The Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Program aims to invest over USD 6.7 billion from 2009 to 2023 to double agricultural productivity through improved natural resources management (NRM). Research by CGIAR Centers and programs, such as the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), working with national partners, has helped lay the groundwork.Through its Regenerating Degraded Ecosystems (RDE) Flagship, WLE has built on this earlier work to support activities aimed at increasing the sustainability and impacts of SLM investments. An ICRISATled activity is promoting integrated watershed management in the Yewol watershed in the Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. By strengthening local capacity, facilitating collective action, using research to identify niches for integration of technologies at farm and landscape scales, and introducing systemcompatible technologies, the project has led to \"improved productivity, crop diversification, improved downstream water availability and strengthened livelihoods for an estimated 15,000 beneficiaries\" (Evaluation of WLE, p. 52). As highlighted by the CGIAR's Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA), this work has the potential to lead to major impacts on a wide scale. The local government considers this project to be a showcase and has institutionalized the approach, using the Yewol watershed as a learning site for training district administrators and officers. About half of the community members trained are women. ICRISAT has partnered with Wollo University and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) to create a framework for national action, and the two partners are coleading a national task force to carry this forward.Managing trade-offs among food, energy, environment and water needs is critical to the well-being of both people and landscapes. Too often, decisions are made in one domain without considering the effects in another. This has become well recognized since the Bonn 2011 Nexus Conference. WLE is supporting cross-sectoral analysis and co-development of tools and approaches to better manage the trade-offs and opportunities.At the national scale in India, WLE has further developed its smart solar pump policy program (Solar Power as a Remunerative Crop, SPaRC), a concept described in the 2014 Annual Report. In 2015, the world's first Solar Pump Irrigator's Cooperative Enterprise (SPICE) was launched. Located in Dhundi, Gujarat, it was established in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Limited (MGVCL), and the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI). It aims to provide an incentive system to reduce the risk of over-abstracting finite groundwater resources, while encouraging the use of renewable energy for agriculture. Six solar pumps have been installed by the cooperative as a pilot, with a formal power purchase agreement from MGVCL. This enterprise has an important gender component: women are independent members of the enterprise. We discuss this case further in Section C. During 2015, WLE undertook a major review of its Theory of Change (ToC) and impact pathways, strengthened by the analysis of the independent evaluation of WLE. This included reviewing the specific outcome contributions to the CGIAR's Strategic Results Framework (SRF), its sub-IDOs and IDOS, and a review of critical assumptions linking planned outputs (capacities, solutions, technologies and innovations) to delivery of outcomes. WLE also reviewed the evidence behind these assumptions. We prepared and submitted to the Consortium Office a refreshed outcome matrix with specific quantitative indicators and targets for 2015 and 2016. The Program remains focused on contributing directly to seven IDOs and nine sub-IDOs of the SRF, with a particular emphasis on enhancing benefits from ecosystems goods and services, and within this, specifically on the sub-IDO to support more productive and equitable management of natural resources. WLE's work has resulted in measurable changes in capacity, behavior and practice -outcomes -in 2015. WLE is on track to continue this progress in 2016 to facilitate the transition from current unsustainable, low-productivity practices to dynamic, sustainable, high-productivity systems.WLE's impact pathway highlights three critical challenges: (1) rapidly degrading agricultural ecosystems, which is largely the result of (2) inefficient and unsustainable natural resources management (NRM) practices. These practices continue because of (3) unsupportive policies, institutions and market systems. WLE's comparative advantage in addressing these challenges is its cross-sectoral perspective and its integrated landscape approach. In this Report, we focus on three major research questions designed to address these challenges: 3 a) How can we balance healthy ecosystem services while increasing agricultural productivity?b) What innovative institutional, governance and management practices can improve ecosystem provisioning and support the achievement of gender equity? c) How can we ensure that investments in water, food, land and energy are sustainable and meet national and sub-national goals?Answering these three questions directly contributes to the CGIAR's System Level Outcome (SLO) 3: \"improving natural resource systems and ecosystem services\" and its associated IDOs. This section presents examples of WLE's progress in 2015 towards answering these three questions, the influence this research has had, and evidence of emerging impacts. This and the following sub-sections are organized around the three research questions introduced above. We present a few examples here; more details can be found in Annex 1.The most important WLE outputs that address this question are a growing suite of analytical, mapping and decision-support tools to support ecosystem-based approaches. WLE posits that building resilience and long-term viability of agri-food systems, from field through landscape levels, requires connecting people and agro-ecosystems using an explicit sustainability framework to understand, assess, monitor and influence agricultural transitions to increase their contribution to multiple SDGs. Another important tool produced through the Land and Water Productivity (LWP) Flagship is an updated version of the irrigated area map of Asia (2000, 2010) and Africa (2010). The Asia map was reported in 2014, but the Africa map is new. Asia's and Africa's irrigated areas have been charted before, but the new maps for the first time give consistent details of land use at a resolution of 250 meters with greater clarity than current reporting systems. The maps provide a wealth of information. For instance, preliminary analysis of Ethiopia shows the area under irrigation is 4.1 million ha, 14 times greater than formally reported. Broadly, in Africa the areas with improved water management practices, including irrigation, are about two to three times greater than was previously thought. For policymakers, finding out just how much irrigation is practiced, exactly where it is located and the nature of different technologies used, is essential for long-term investment planning. If the trends can be accurately mapped and measured, more informed investment decisions can be taken, and measures to use water supplies more sustainably can be developed.Through its Regenerating Degraded Agricultural Ecosystems (RDE) Flagship and Decision Analysis and Information Systems (DAI) theme, WLE has produced several important tools and support services aimed at improving management of soils and land, focusing on Africa. The AfSIS Soil Spectral Prediction App is a desktop version, which includes more spectroscopy instruments, more soil properties, improved prediction algorithms, and more user-friendly interfaces. The app is complemented by a digital map of soil properties for sub-Saharan Africa at a scale of 250 m, published in PLosOne; a supporting dataset; a landmark paper on a protocol for plant element analysis using pXRF in X-Ray Spectrometry; and a review paper on the potential of soil spectroscopy techniques.A recently published paper describes a proposed new, innovative Framework on Land Health Surveillance and Response for evidence-based land management. Scientifically rigorous land health surveillance has the potential to provide a sound basis for directing and assessing action to combat land degradation. Using this surveillance framework could result in a shift from a focus on rehabilitation of severely degraded land towards a preventive approach that focuses more on reducing distal risks at national and regional levels. practices. WLE has also drafted recommendations for district agricultural extension agents on how slope gradients and lengths translate to soil loss and runoff in agricultural fields. We anticipate that these recommendations will be mainstreamed within communities where extension agents are working to reduce the impact of soil erosion.Significant outcomes are also emerging from a project led by Bioversity International on enhanced use of crop varietal diversity in integrated production and pest management. Implemented in China, Uganda, Ecuador and Morocco from 2012 to 2015, the three-year project aimed to sustain food production and improve ecosystem health through better use of crop genetic diversity within the production system. Building on the project outputs and significant capacity building efforts (over 15,000 farmers trained), the project is already generating important outcomes beyond the project field sites. These include a revised draft seed policy in Uganda, which acknowledges the importance of local seed systems and the need to support them and to conserve diversity. Achieving this outcome at scale requires innovative cross-sectoral thinking around the incentive frameworks needed to change behavior. For example, previous research had identified the critical linkages between the rapid depletion of groundwater in many regions of India and the government's policy of subsidizing electricity for irrigation pumps. There is a danger the government's new subsidies for solar pumps will increase over-pumping. Linking energy, natural resource management and agriculture, WLE collaborated with CCAFS to propose a program that combines solar irrigation pumps with sales of power to the grid. Section A, above, describes the pilot SPICE cooperative in Gujarat, India, which became operational in June 2015. There are indications Gujarat is changing its policy to accommodate purchasing power from solar producers, and the World Bank is considering it for other states. If this pilot is as successful as anticipated, it will be scaled out in future, and its potential impacts in India and elsewhere are substantial, as explained in Section C.3.Another major planned outcome was that 'Governments and donors test RRR business models with municipalities based on WLE research'. The recent evaluation of WLE (p. 49) highlighted the \"positive outcomes in developing new and creative business opportunities in the area of water, nutrient and energy recovery.\" Building directly on research implemented through WLE's RRR Flagship, some reported in previous annual reports, three new public-private partnerships (PPPs) are in the process of being set up in Ghana (a fourth, WaFo, had been set up in 2014). In each case, WLE developed the business models, studied the technologies, and, with local partners, facilitated the PPP set-up via tendering and capacity development. One PPP is a joint venture between the Volta Ghana Investment Company Ltd. (GICL) and Jekora Ventures Ltd. to produce fuel briquettes from municipal solid waste in the greater Accra region. Jekora VL will play the roles of production manager and waste supplier to the business, while Volta GICL will provide land in an area of the city where the business is expected to be integrated into city plans (to reach 150,000 inhabitants at scale).Following up on an initial joint venture agreement signed in 2014, the second PPP will replicate WaFo production (fecal sludge based compost) in a selected municipality. It is expected that the municipality and a private entity will join to produce Fortifer (in raw form or as pellets) as fertilizer for local market.The third PPP is a small business on fish production to be set in Kumasi (Ashanti Region). Fish will be raised in ponds that also serve for domestic wastewater purification. Many of WLE's research activities are expected to have major impacts over the coming years. WLE will build on the recommendation from a CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment study on impact assessments of irrigation and water management research in the future. Here, we highlight progress since 2014 on two promising examples. In both, we have baseline data for measuring impacts; we have strong evidence from research followed by pilot testing, policy dialogues, and in some cases technical support; and we have concrete evidence that investments are either committed or being seriously considered to scale out the innovation.Converting waste into resources: Section C.2 reports on WLE's research leading to commercialization of RRR businesses to turn waste into valuable assets. Several countries, including Ghana, Uganda, India, Sri Lanka and Peru, have made significant progress in initiating new policies and investment programs involving PPPs. The three PPPs established in Ghana during 2015 are expected to produce 1,000 metric tons of fuel briquettes, 200 metric tons of fertilizer from sludge, and 2,000 kg of fish annually. The 2014 PPP (WaFo) targeted 500 t/year of commercialized co-compost 7 for the Fortifer production plant. WLE has also produced detailed feasibility studies of similar investments for four major cities: Hanoi, Kampala, Bangalore and Lima. WLE's partnerships with United Nations agencies, such as the World Health Organization, and international finance institutions such as the World Bank, offer pathways to scale out these innovations. Strong evidence exists that real impacts in terms of reductions in negative urban footprints, reduced health risks, and reuse of wastes for productive uses such as fertilizer and raising fish will be achieved by 2017 and beyond.Solar power as a crop: IWMI, most recently with joint WLE and CCAFS support, has been using research evidence as a basis for policy dialogues on how India can sustainably use its groundwater resources.Our smart solar pump policy program (Solar Power as a Remunerative Crop, SPaRC) was described in the 2014 WLE Annual Report, and the case of the world's first Solar Pump Cooperative Enterprise (SPICE) is described above. The advantage of the cooperative is it reduces the transaction costs for the utility compared to purchasing power from individual farmers, as is the policy in Karnataka State. India has set an ambitious solar target of 100 GW by 2022, largely through megawatt-scale greenfield projects and urban rooftop solar systems. While such an approach could achieve the stated green energy target, large capital costs are involved, solar pump owners would be disbursed (and costly to reach) and solar farmers would remain net buyers of grid power. The SPaRC (and supporting SPICE) program, if scaled up, could \"solarize\" 100 million 10 kw grid-connected solar irrigation pumps and therefore offers an alternative pathway. WLE researchers estimate that a SPaRC type program could generate the following benefits by 2022: 150 billion kWh/year of green power generated; solar farmers earn up to USD 1,000/year net by selling 40% of their solar power to the grid; USD 10 billion/year saved in power subsidies; CO2 emissions from groundwater pumping reduced by 110 million metric tons/year; and groundwater use in irrigation drops from 240 BCM to 190-200 BCM/year. WLE anticipates this pilot program will be scaled out at a very large scale within the next five or so years.There is strong evidence that demand for WLE's products and services is growing. A district officer in Uttar Pradesh, India, has requested a proposal to scale up a joint WLE-CCAFS pilot activity in India (reported in 2014) on underground taming of floods for irrigation (UTFI) to address the dual challenges of urban/rural flooding and groundwater depletion. This proof of concept project will benefit 1.2 million people. Other requests include one from a city in Sri Lanka to help establish a waste to fertilizer business; a request from the Nile Basin Initiative for suggestions on addressing regional water-energyfood challenges; and an Arab Water Council request and supporting MoU for an assessment of waterenergy-food solutions for Arab economies.WLE continued to improve its understanding of gender and equity dynamics in agro-ecological systems and to find ways to ensure women have greater access and decision-making power and receive benefits from agriculture and natural resources, as set out in WLE's gender strategy. Three achievements of WLE's gender research in 2015 stand out: 1) a growing body of evidence to support the focal region approach to gender as a proven means of delivering results; 2) WLE's ability to open new areas of research, for example the work on migration; and 3) the growing contribution of data, information and methods developed by the Gender, Poverty and Institutions (GPI) theme to influence WLE's priorities and strategies.In 2014, WLE reported it had launched an open competitive call for funding in each of the program's focal regions (East Africa and the Nile/East Africa corridor, the Volta/Niger, the Ganges and the Greater Mekong). Gender was an important selection criterion, and each project worked with the GPI unit to integrate gender into the problem analysis and to identify gender-specific research questions and outputs. Although the projects are still in early stages, interesting findings are already emerging.Research in the Volta aims to support investable water management options for women. One project has demonstrated that small reservoirs with built-in canals are the most functional for women, and that women often benefit more from informal schemes. In the Nile, UNESCO-IHE and partners are examining how to make water accounting contextually relevant by including social, gender and ecological dimensions. The project is looking at the issue of re-allocation of water in irrigation and the gender differential implications of irrigation investments. 2016 will be dedicated to analyzing, publishing and synthesizing the research and lessons from these and the other focal region projects. As noted by the recent external evaluation, the WLE partnership strategy provides a coherent framework for the program and captures its comparative advantage. The IEA Evaluation Team found that partners had a \"very positive opinion about the effectiveness and utility of their WLE partnership experience\" (Evaluation of WLE, p. 57). The Team also highlighted the use of partnership approaches along the impact pathway and the continuity of interaction with uptake partners in particular as a \"key feature of WLE\" (p. In WLE classifies risks into four primary categories: financial and fiduciary; governance and management; delivery; and reputational. These are reviewed monthly in terms of their probability and impact on a three-point scale (high/medium/low). Those deemed to be of high risk are monitored carefully with detailed contingency plans devised. Three inter-related risks with the greatest potential impact are: 1) uncertainty and instability of funding; 2) sustaining staffing levels; and 3) program planning and delivery.As in 2014, the uncertainty and instability of funding remained the paramount risk to the program. In November 2014, the extension budgets for 2015-16 approved by the Fund Council reduced WLE's W1-W2 budget by 15% just as new initiatives associated with the IES flagship were being finalized for implementation by partners. Two additional reductions to the WLE budget occurred during 2015. While the IEA Evaluation Team commended the program for delivering according to plans in spite of this \"challenging context\" (Evaluation of WLE, p. x), these budget cuts have required WLE to make difficult decisions to reduce both operating and programmatic budgets. This includes staff redundancies, curtailment of some ongoing activities and carefully prioritizing (within a limited budget) new initiatives. The potential reputational risk to WLE emerging from an environment of uncertain and unstable funding was highlighted as a key concern by the IEA Evaluation Team, and the WLE Steering Committee is monitoring this closely. Key ongoing actions to mitigate the effects on WLE's commitments include:• Working closely with our partners to attract greater bilateral financing as we complete Phase 1 and transition to Phase 2. This includes prioritizing initiatives to synthesize and share key outputs from Phase 1 with donors and others;• Collaborating with CGIAR colleagues to establish clear rules and procedures in Phase 2 for performance-based allocations, ensuring transparency in financial projects; and• Preparing a long-term strategy, through the Phase 2 proposal process, to provide clarity of what will be delivered, the cost, and the plans for realization.In 2015, data on publications, gender-disaggregated tools, activities targeting women farmers, and communications products has been more thoroughly recorded than in 2014. A reclassification exercise resulted in a more consistent methodology for characterizing various output types across activity clusters. Thus, indicators related to tools, technologies and publications are now considered to be good.We have also improved reporting of gender-disaggregated impacts across tools, databases and technologies.The set of indicators related to agro-ecosystems, populations, users and beneficiaries of various technologies needs further improvement. As described in the 2014 WLE Annual Report, the definition of these indicators is still subject to varying interpretations. The 2015 report is based on a new methodology to track affected agro-ecosystems; however, there is a high degree of uncertainty in these indicators because there is no field in the CGIAR project reporting system to record this information. The same can be said for selecting the most relevant stage or phase for a technology and calculating the number of users of databases maintained by WLE. WLE will refine its criteria for each indicator and further increase the guidance and support offered to partners to improve the accuracy of reporting. Annex 1 contains further details.Approximately 1% of projects could not achieve intended results, due largely to externalities, e.g. political constraints (Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Mali) and natural crises (Nepal, El Salvador). Political constraints primarily affected access to data and localized uptake strategies. Natural crises, such as the earthquake in Nepal, created delays, while the drought in El Salvador led to the loss of demonstration plots. Sensitivities around water resource management -such as independent dam-related fish research in the Mekong or researching investments in irrigation in the Nile basin -require timeconsuming intensive relationship building and adaptation to be successful.New directions pursued during 2015 fall into two categories: 1) the introduction of a new flagship on integrating ecosystem solutions (IES) through partnerships in four river basins (Volta, Nile, Mekong, Ganges); and 2) the introduction of an innovation fund to further embed the ecosystem services approach into programing. This was a direct response to the assessment of WLE during its initial phase 2012-14. Projects within the IES Flagship include a focus on strengthening regional and national policy platforms; testing new methods, tools and approaches to improve land and water health indicators for use in decision-making; and a strong capacity building and gender focus. Other initiatives reflect new opportunities to strengthen the depth and quality of analysis and results, such as the introduction of multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate water productivity technologies in the Nile, and enhanced social science research to improve the understanding of capacity and demand for solar technologies and other small-scale irrigation technologies.As described in Section B and related links, in 2015 WLE has emphasized strengthening the evidence behind its ToC and impact pathways, enhancing what is monitored and when, and enhancing learning and adaptation. Reliance on external data sets within partner countries remains problematic, as biophysical and socio-economic data are not always available. Increased use of satellites, remote sensing and innovations such as drones have, in part, filled these gaps and provided more real-time data, but a significant opportunity exists for WLE to strengthen the collection and dissemination of primary data. Capturing qualitative progress and unanticipated changes and results has been addressed by reforms to the WLE online planning and reporting system, including requirements for greater depth of evidence on assumptions, research evidence and results. In 2016, WLE will work with the other global integrating CRPs (CCAFS, A4NH and PIM) to develop a joint cutting-edge planning and reporting system that will improve quality and reduce transaction costs for the centers and projects involved.See Annex 4 for financial reports.The master list from which this data was derived is here. ","tokenCount":"4049"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acafcda28773c0100434ab535342b077","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/01725826-4de7-44bc-9dbf-4b0c775cc531/retrieve","id":"995365965"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"87e2dba1-e5c4-4d7d-8ff9-9a806524b52c","pagecount":"19","content":"This workshop brought together grass-roots stakeholders from the 4 IPMS pilot learning woredas in which the Fodder Adoption Project is working. The aim of the workshop was to provide a forum for experience sharing around the whole area of the usefulness of stakeholder groups to accelerate innovation within the livestock/ fodder sector. Participants represented the diversity of actors from the study sites including representatives of the regional research system, the extension service, private and NGO sectors and the international research sector.On Day 1 the workshop started with a series of presentations from Ada'a, Mieso, Atsbi and Alamata woredas outlining what different participants had been doing so far on livestock feed development. Presentations showed the breadth of constraints and experiences found at the different sites. The presenters were asked to cover a range of topics including their own views on the Major Fodder Issues, Historical Livestock Feed Initiatives, the Stakeholders Involved and Changes since FAP arrived.There followed a presentation by Mona Dhamankar of the Fodder Innovation Project (India and Nigeria) on what the FIP approach to livestock development has been. FIP has initiated formation of networks around the feed scarcity issue using innovation facilitators which they term Key Partner Organisations. The project is studying the functioning of these networks to learn lessons about network formation and performance and the extent to which they build innovation capacity in the livestock/fodder sector.The next phase of our discussions was focused on Visioning. Participants were asked to develop a vision for improved livelihoods through increased use of fodder and to set out the steps needed to get there. Various issues emerged in discussion; visions need to be achievable; the visions developed tended to involve development of the input side with less attention to outputs and the extended value chain; market orientation is an important element of the vision since without market pull, feed interventions are unlikely to succeed; fodder needs to be considered as part of a larger system which includes breed and health aspects.Seife Ayele then gave a presentation on innovation networks covering issues such as network formation, drivers of innovation and scaling up issues. In the subsequent discussion various issues arose; how to resource networks and how to make them self-sustaining; the difficulty of imposing rules and accountability within voluntary networks; the difficulty of drawing the private sector into networks.The next task presented to participants was to think about the stakeholder groups, their aims, operating principals and rules of engagement. This was a fruitful session highlighting a number of issues: how wide should a group be -if too wide, difficult to focus on activities -if too narrow, activities are ineffective; how should group performance be monitored -we need a mechanism; group leadership -should this rotate?; need to define roles and responsibilities for each actor and avoid too much overlap; does the group need to agree a ToR?; meetings have high transaction costs -are there lighter ways to maintain group coherence and progress (email, telephone, newsletters etc)?;The meeting was concluded by Alan Duncan who promised to circulate workshop proceedings, a draft Innovation Charter, and a proforma for defining Roles and Responsibilities of each actor.The issue of innovation and technical change sits at the heart of agricultural development and remains a potentially critical driver of social and economic transformation in the agrarian based economies of many developing countries. Building the scientific, managerial, entrepreneurial and facilitative capacity of development practitioners has become instrumental to solve community's pressing social and economic problems and have a positive impact on the livelihoods of the poorest strata of the society. This requires enhancing the actors' level of understanding on the concepts of innovation systems approaches, its ways of working and sharing experiences among other things. Fodder Adoption Project has been engaged in facilitating the evolution of new institutional arrangements by which the various actors in fodder-livestock development can operate for mutual benefit since it started operation in 2007 in four IPMS pilot learning Woredas (PLW), viz., Ada'a, Miesso, Alamata and Atsbi of Ethiopia. FAP strives to build effective and trust-based links between actors within the \"fodder innovation system\", between 'suppliers' and 'users' of research-based knowledge and the many \"service providing organizations\" required to facilitate interactions within the system and to broker support services such as finance, technical advice and capacity building.An Innovation Experience Sharing Workshop was convened in Adama town during 3-4 June 2009 to enhance the understanding of important actors about the importance of Innovation Platform (IP) as part of capacity building to reduce fodder scarcity. The workshop was organized to share the learning experiences of the evolving fodder innovation platforms in each PLW. The Innovation Platform is expected to create a level playing ground between researchers, advisory service providers, farmers and private sector, allowing interactive learning. Ultimately the Innovation Platforms will develop plans for research and development activities and organize experience sharing visits and workshops.The workshop brought together participants from R&D service providers, viz., the heads and experts of Office of Agricultural and Rural Development of the four pilot sites, directors of Agricultural Research Centers operating in the selected PLWs; representatives of Land O' Lakes, Coordinator of Ethiopian Sheep and Goat Productivity Improvement Program, Ada'a Dairy Cooperative and representatives of the private sector. The discussions were guided by paper presentations interspersed with group discussion sessions (Meeting agenda is attached in the Annex). The workshop was skillfully facilitated by Julius Nyangaga of ILRI-Nairobi.Update on FAP including international activities (Dr. Alan Duncan)Alan gave the overview of the project and set the scene of the workshop. His presentation highlighted the goal, purpose and expected outputs of the project; concept of innovation systems and workshop objectives. He stated the major objectives of the workshop as follows:• • On-farm production and utilization of improved fodder • Addition and consolidation of \"Fodder Stakeholders Group\"• Facilitating the acquisition of improved dairy cattle breeds and improved forage species• Increased awareness of farmers about improved forages and their management • More focused work with larger number of farmers • More sense of ownership and partnership in addressing the issues of livestock feeds • The Demonstration of practical fodder utilization • Facilitate direct contact with specialists and mentors • New approach in addressing fodder issue-Fodder Clinic • Support in training Discussions were held after the presentations and among points raised were the following: Are there participants from government offices to address issues pertaining to policy intervention?Yes, but it shouldn't be only government policies which influence the process but also local policies like community by-laws. Example: Tigray experience of engaging by laws for area closure What is the facilitation role of the OoARD in practice? OoARD plays over all responsibility of following up the process and bear ownership.IPMS experience: IPMS and OoARD held meeting and selected priority commodities including livestock products and identified fodder as a major impediment to livestock production. FAP experience: Focus group discussion and problem identification with target beneficiaries to link fodder to livestock commodities. Options were listed and stakeholders were invited to deal with the problems and suggested options. This was followed by awareness creation with farmers by facilitating experience sharing visits and practical trainings and livestock fairs, etcIn the afternoon, the participants from each PLW were assigned discussion points around the whole area of stakeholder groups and their functioning. the. The following were among the major issues came out from group breakout session:1) What has worked well so far in terms of actor group?• Discussion on common issues • Learning by doing enhances capacity This was followed by questions and suggestions:Why FIP worked with NGO's instead of government offices? Phase I of FIP emphasized on technology transfer with government offices and didn't have success. Government offices are still there in phase II but the NGO's play the major role. Involvement of government offices is vital because they have all the infrastructure and sustainability.Key actors selected first and then looked for including more as needed.The vision for improved livelihoods through increased use of fodder and the steps needed to get there discussed in breakout groups. The major points of the group reports are summarized as follows:Each PLW group was asked to discuss the following points and report back:• What is our vision for improved livelihoods through increased use of fodder?• What steps do we need to get there?The major issues discussed after group presentations are summarized below.• Some visions are ambitious? Visions could be aspirations for future achievements, but shouldn't be over ambitious and should take in to account the internal and external environmental changes • Most activities are on the input side and less on the out put side? The whole value chain to be considered in the process.• Is the out put for home consumption or market? Yes, satisfying home need is important but we have to look ahead as far as commodity commercialization if we aim for sustainability and livelihoods improvement • Factors like livestock breed and health are overlooked in some of the visions and steps? True, we have to think broadly and include all the factors and involve the relevant actors in the group to address such issues • Should we include figures in vision setting? There are different schools of thought with this who say yes and no, but in general it is wise to set vision which could inspire us for achievement.• Mission and vision setting should consider: Target population, pathways to get there, tangible statements, the whole value chain Developing an innovation charter -rules of the game (Dr. Siefe Ayele)His presentation was framed based on the following major points:• Concepts of innovation systems approach • Innovation network formation • Innovation networks and innovations • Drawing lessons: learning, action research, communication… • Some lessons and out and up scaling innovations • Innovation networks and drivers • innovation networks capacity This was also followed by questions and discussions.• The steps taken in net work formation are long and require resources to implement? Yes. Organizing net work is a challenging activity. There are lots of transactions involved and we need to get ready for it. • Net works are different from partnership and as such difficult to impose rules and also difficult to analyze. However, there needs to be at least a guiding principle which creates room for learning by doing • Involving private sector is a major challenge as this sector is more profit oriented than any other sector wants to see tangible benefits? Yes. The net work should consider things like this for the rest of the actors too and look for opportunities not only problems to involve actors in the value chain.• We have to capitalize on past experiences in order to develop guiding principles • Who is to drive the innovation agenda after projects? It should be the net works driven by the problems/opportunities from the ultimate users side • Innovation is not a new idea, but sustainability? It is the capacity to be sustained not necessarily net worksFollowing the presentation on developing an innovation charter the participants were grouped by each pilot learning district and discussed on the following points:• What is the aim of the actor group?• What principals should apply to make it work?• What are the rules of engagement?The consensus of the groups were presented at plenary and discussed. The major points came out of the group discussion are presented as follows:What is the aim of the actor group?• Improve feed quantity and quality to improve livestock production What principals should apply to make it work? • Creation of awareness among actors to gain their will and commitmentIt means the actors need to be accommodative and appreciative of others values, rules and norms. How effective can TOR be?It helps to gauge if each actor has fulfilled its promises and measure contributions How can we influence our bosses as we return home?The participants have a big responsibility to brief their bosses and other colleagues about what they gained from the workshop. It is always important for a few people who had a chance to such trainings to influence others around them.It is important to register successes to influence other actors. We need to see champions. Ideally it can be individual commitment. The individual trained should influence others. Finally the representatives of the four pilot learning Woredas were given a package of extension materials as part of capacity building. Participants were asked about their impression on the workshop. They indicated that the conference has given them better understanding about actor groups. We need to identify important actors and their roles. We should also identify missing actors and engage in the actor platform. ","tokenCount":"2088"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d5d62e4a811b3ec17d54ad52ff3f5763","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2771d5ce-8e65-4cd5-b5ae-98e0050ba0d4/retrieve","id":"1993314416"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31ad7750-e09c-4de9-aa72-907fdc9b983b","pagecount":"27","content":"Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING is creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.Sustainable agricultural intensification practices (SAI) have been widely promoted in southern Africa as one of the most effective mechanisms of building climate-resilient smallholder farming and reducing recurring food deficits and malnutrition (Vanlauwe et al 2014). This technology package was also recognized as crucial for fostering economic growth, poverty reduction and enhancing household food and nutritional security for agrobased economies and with a large concentration of agricultural households among the poor (Dile et al 2013). The wide-scale support from donors and governments of SAI practices promotion was based on the fact that smallholder farmers are responsible for the majority of agricultural production in southern Africa and if given the necessary technological inputs and commercial incentives, they can enhance their food security and livelihoods (Akinwumi, et al 2019). The underlying theory of change suggested that smallholder farmers' development could both drive sustainable economic growth and deliver more equitable development outcomes (Akinwumi, et al 2019;Dile et al 2013). SAI involves a multitude of agronomic options, environmental processes, scales of intervention and diverse pathways. These include production, economic, environmental, human, and social outcomes (Smith et al 2016;Musumba et al 2017). The empirical evidence indicates that the production, economic and environmental outcomes for the smallholder farmers and local farming systems and communities are highly uneven and differentiated across space and time (Thierfelder, et al 2016;Mutenje et 2019). Though the human and social dimensions of sustainable agricultural intensification have been highlighted in the literature and discussion forums recently, the confluence of SAI with socio-economic realities confronting smallholders is weakly understood. There is a limited understanding of the social and human impacts of SAI practices, in particular the changing processes involved (what interventions, lead to what kinds of changes, power relations in decision making?), potential shifts in the distribution of benefits, costs and labour demands within and between households in the communities.Participatory action research approaches with a focus on co-learning was applied to understand gender differentials in climate change exposure, uptake of the sustainable agricultural intensification practices promoted by the Africa RISING project and the associated social and human impacts. The research aimed to understand the different SAI technology and practices used by men and women from diverse household structures, the divisions of labour and power relations embedded therein, shape and adaptation outcomes. It also emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the counting of numbers of men and women to unpacking relations of power, of inclusion and exclusion in decision-making and challenging cultural beliefs that impact equal opportunities and rights. The researchers working with extension officers and key informants from each community identified four types of households based on SAI technology uptake. These include farmers hosting on-farm trials, adopters, dis-adopters, and non-adopters of SAI technologies. The selection of focus group discussions (FGDs) participants was based on stratified random sampling using a list of all households in the community. Invitations that indicated the gender of the participants were issued to 24 households orally or in writing. The target size for focus group discussions was 16-24 individuals. It was assumed that some invitees would not respond while in cases farmers who had not been invited would show interest and join a group. The researchers ensured that key informants and community leaders did not participate in the group discussion. In each community, separate female and male FGDs were conducted to understand the gendered climate trends and impacts of extreme weather events, livelihood trends, adaptive capacities and other non-climate and socioeconomic risks dynamic influencing agricultural livelihood portfolios. A total of 320 farmers (168 women and 152 men) participated in the FGDs.Ethical considerations were fundamental to the implementation and participation of informants in the research, informed by the core ethical principles for USAID funded projects. The ethical strategies used by the lead researchers and facilitators included voluntary participation, informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, honesty to participants, and ethical reporting (USAID; 2014).FGDs evaluated farm-specific gender differentiated vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and strategies to climate change impacts. The aim of the FGDs was to assess the current and likely impacts of future climate change and identify experiences and adaptive capacities of women and men farmers in the face of climate hazards and extreme events. In this study extreme weather or climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather such as heat waves, flash floods and very heavy rains with a short space of time. Each focus group was structured into three sub-topics: (i) vulnerability to climate change and extreme events; (ii) engaging in SAI practices that sustainably increase productivity and climate adaptation; and (iii) the role of male and female farmers in making decisions that help them shape their adaptive capacities to climate shock.To understand climate-related risks of women, men farmers and farm households , we used a range of participatory vulnerability assessment tools, such as a) hazard and vulnerability mapping; b) vulnerability matrices; and c) field profiles; d) seasonal calendars to understand how vulnerability is expressed at different times of the year; e) vulnerability matrices that link climate stressors hazards with the sensitivity of the system; f)) wealth ranking; and i) village history, the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF, Musumba et al., 2017. During the FGDs, men and women groups (with the assistance of researcher facilitators) developed risk assessment sheets describing the range of climate and extreme weather events and contributing socio-economic risks to the SIAF five livelihood indicators (Productivity, Economic, Environment, Human and Social) described in the sustainable intensification assessment framework (Musumba et al., 2017). The design of participatory models of vulnerability assessment at community levels provided flexibility while comprehending farmers' perspectives of vulnerability. Information from FGDs was augmented by field observations, and secondary data on climate trends and hazards, the sensitivity of the agriculture sector and vulnerability assessment obtained from different stakeholder organizations, consisting of published and unpublished assessment reports.A mix of participatory techniques was applied to understand the drivers of SAI practices uptake, assess farm-specific gender-differentiated SAI adoption impacts and women-led initiatives. These included matrix ranking, Venn diagrams, participatory storytelling and a tool called 'changing farming practices' (FAO, 2012). These techniques were applied to facilitate a discussion on farm-scale agriculture adaptation changes in the last 10 years and to identify the best 3 to 5 adaptation strategies. The key changes were discussed in detail, including drivers of change, decision-making related to SAI uptake dynamics, adoption rates and types, constraints to decision making participation and adoption, types and distribution of cost and benefits and the overall impacts of change on the five domains (i.e. productivity, economic, environmental, social and human) of the sustainable intensification assessment framework (SIAF).Women's participation in decision-making is an important element and indicator of women's empowerment (Alkire et al. 2012;Hanmer and Klugman 2016). Contemporary evidence highlight women's participation in decision making particularly resource allocation and use as a key indicator of gender transformative change (Hillenbrand et al. 2015;Phan 2015;Hanmer and Klugman 2016). Therefore, it is important to understand gendered household decision-making participation processes and power relations that influence climate risk perception, SAI adoption and impacts.The in-depth study, however, considered decisions beyond the adoption of SAI practices, covering a wide range of agricultural and household decisions. The study used two main research methods: focus group discussions and key informant interviews. In each community, three FGDs were conducted, first separate female and male FGDs took place concurrently and separately for the two groups. This was then followed by combined male and female farmers focus group discussions to verify the outcome of the two groups. The FGDs evaluated decision-making participation in about 30 agricultural activities. The survey's decision-making questions regarded the five agricultural production themes: a) land allocation to the key cereal and legume allocation. ,b) commercial input & technology access) c)labour allocation to agricultural production activities, d) Marketing and utilization of the agricultural production and e) changes in agricultural management practices due to climate risks over the past decade and the drivers. For each theme, six decision-making questions were asked. In the two groups, each participant was given three colour cards: blue (for decisions made by the man), pink (for decisions made by the woman), and yellow (for decisions made together by the men and woman in the household). Each of the 30 activities was read out loud and we asked participants to raise a card, depending on with whom they instinctively associated the decision-making process. To reduce the mutual influence, the participants were asked to raise cards at the same time. For each activity, after the number of cards of each colour was noted, follow-up questions were asked to measure the degree of decision-making participation. The gendered household of decisionmaking index was determined by counting and weighting the responses to the 30 decision questions using principal component analysis. Each of these indicators was then rescaled to create a gender equity decision-making index for each of the 5 agricultural production themes. Key informant interviews with local leaders were done to validate the focus group discussion.Raw data from each FGD was recorded by the research facilitators using standardized forms following the guidelines provided in the checklist for each thematic topic. The facilitators provided the researchers with all documentation, along with images of any diagrams or charts and a report with analysis, observations, conclusions, and recommendations. The FGDs recording forms were separated by sex to capture a nuanced gendered understanding of climate change impacts and agricultural adaptation practices. The collected data were analysed separately for men and women by theme in each research site. Qualitative data analysis was undertaken, using NVivo 10, via thematic analysis, where data is grouped into themes regarding the climate hazards and extreme weather risks/ impacts, adaptation strategies and technology trends. Coding was applied to all the transcripts at three levels: initial/open coding focused, and thematic coding as recommended by Strauss and Corbin, (1990). Data obtained from matrix rankings were tabulated and mean values calculated. In examining the qualitative data, important timeline features were extracted and discussed in relation to the climate hazards and SAI portfolios. A comparative analysis across sites was also done.Smallholder farmers acknowledged that hazards associated with climate change have increased in intensity in Southern Africa. Men and women farmers face frequent climate risks linked to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events impacting their agricultural livelihoods. A range of climate-related hazards were identified by farmers, including heatwaves, flash floods, in-season dry spells, droughts, uneven distribution of rainfall and shortening of the rainfall season (Tables 2, 3 and 4). Across all locations in the two southern African countries, the most common slow-onset and extreme events observed by farmers in the last 20 years include heat waves, increased frequency of in-season drought, long and intense droughts. All the sixteen communities reiterated that since 2000, severe droughts have increased in frequency and intensity, occurring once every three years with 2012, 2016 and 2018 droughts being the most devastating in southern Malawi. In eastern Zambia, 2012, 2016 and 2019 were observed as being the most severe, with more than 50% of the households being food and water insecure. Men and women farmers in central Malawi corroborated the observed climate hazards in southern Malawi but they perceived the droughts to be moderate.There was a local perception that in-season dry spells have increased, are long, intense, and unpredictable accompanied by heatwaves compared to 10 years ago in all the communities. For example, both women and men groups in southern Malawi echoed that since the year 2000, they have been experiencing an average of 3 dry spells that last for more than 3weeks.Participants from all the communities in southern Malawi also emphasized that they have observed shortening of the growing season and since the millennium they have never had a successful season. They stressed how seasons have become so unpredictable with one season vary from the other. For example, they pointed out that in these current years it has become so difficult to plan your production cycle. They highlighted that sometimes it is those who plant early who manage to get a good harvest and at times it is those who plant late (Tables 2, 3, 4). The women groups in central and southern Malawi affirmed using the 2020/21 season as an example. They noted that despite the season having above-normal rains compared to other years' average in the current decade, they had experienced severe dry spells and earlier than normal termination of rainfall. This was accompanied by heatwaves, pest, and disease outbreaks, fall armyworm in maize and rosette diseases in groundnuts.FGDs results also indicated that the smallholder framers in all the communities are vulnerable to multiple shocks reducing their adaptive capacity. The farmers from all the communities concurred that their communities' vulnerabilities to these climate hazards are further intensified by the interaction of climatic shocks with social, economic, and biophysical factors (Tables 2, 3, 4). For example, in Southern Malawi, both women and men members observed that severe droughts occurred simultaneously with macroeconomic turmoil creating multiple sources of food insecurity (Tables 2). They reiterated that the severe 2012 and 2018 droughts also coincided with the country's worst economic depression leading to deep poverty and migration of productive members to urban areas and neighboring countries. They also mentioned that the conflation of these shocks with economic depression further undermined private investments in soil fertility improvement contributing to further soil fertility depletion and deforestation. The eastern Zambia farmers linked severe droughts to policy changes and political instabilities. In particular, 2016 and 2019 droughts, the community perceived that the effects were worsened by the weakening of the currency resulting in increased cost of living (Tables 4).The    The results from the SIAF are presented in figures 1, 2, &3 for all the 16 communities. The most direct climate change impact was on the production and economic domains. Across all the sixteen communities the most immediate and significant impact has been low yields and reduced agricultural income. Smallholder farmers in all the communities stated that increasing loss of agricultural income resulting from decreasing yields over the past five years was the greatest climate change effect (Figures 1, 2 & 3). The crop yield reduction was compounded by an increased and frequent fall armyworm in maize and rosette viral diseases in ground nuts. Women groups in Malawi indicated that the yield reduction and income loss impacted more the poor smallholder farmers who could not afford to buy improved maize and groundnuts seeds every season. Men groups in Malawi also highlighted that fish production has been reduced by climate change and variability impacts. The climate stressors for decreased fish production varied across communities in Malawi. For communities close to Lake Malawi such as Linga and Zidyana they linked the increased erratic onset of rain, droughts and floods to deforestation and overfishing. (Table 3). For southern Malawi communities increased crop failures due to increased frequency of droughts and dry spells were identified as the most important climate stressors of fish production. Participants from southern Malawi stressed that the shortening of the growing season due to climate change had greatly impacted their agricultural livelihoods resorting to fishing and charcoal making (Figures 1 and 2). Women reported the strong negative impact of droughts on dietary diversity in southern Malawi. Women and men groups in all the communities of Malawi reiterated that climate change and extreme weather events have resulted in social dissolution. Recurrent climate change and extreme weather were observed to erode social cohesion and key common pull resources. Limited economic opportunities restricted households in all the sixteen communities from alternate livelihood strategies, reducing their adaptive capacity. Both women and men groups in Malawi stressed that climate change and variability compounded by economic hardships had resulted in increased domestic violence and disempowerment (figures 1, 2 and 3). Recurrent droughts, erratic onset, severe dry spells, and shorter growing seasons reduced agricultural investments and increased extraction of common pull resources such as fish and charcoal in all the communities. The environmental domain was greatly impacted in the Linga, Malula, Songani, Mtaya, Kapara and Chanje due to increased population pressure and the breakdown of local institutions.In eastern Zambia, both men and women reiterated that recurrent droughts and reduced annual rainfall amount had impacted forestry conservation and water supply. They continually lamented how the severe drought of 2012 had dried most perennial rivers reducing their horticultural income source. Overall, all communities confirmed that climate change has profound effects on all five domains of the SIAF but the most impacted are the production, economic and social domains for Malawi. Whilst in eastern Zambia the production, economic and environment are the most affected by the climatic stressors. Men and women in southern Malawi and eastern Zambia cite erratic and decreased rainfall, increased season dry spells as the most common climate-related reasons for changes they are making to farming practices. Minimum tillage, intercropping, drought tolerant crop species, drought tolerant crop varieties and mulching were the commonly practiced sustainable intensification practices in the two regions (Figures 4, and 6). Women farmers mostly adopted minimum tillage, intercropping, drought tolerant crop species and mulching as adaptation strategies. Whilst men adopted drought-tolerant crop varieties and fertilizer management as key climate change adaptation strategies in these regions. Farmers in central Malawi highlighted three main drivers of changing to SAI practices as changing rainfall patterns, declining soil fertility (attributed mainly to tree cutting and charcoal making) and increased crop pests and diseases. Women reported adopting a variety of SAI practices combinations than did the men, including new crop species such as short-season cassava and orange sweet potatoes varieties, mulching, and intercropping of legumes. Among the SAI technologies promoted by Africa RISING, drought tolerant maize varieties, and fertilizer management were ranked as the most important adaptation strategies by men in all the communities (Figures 4, 5, 6). There were variations of Africa RISING SAI technologies adoption and preferences among women in the case study communities.Women groups in southern Malawi ranked mulching, minimum tillage, maize-legume intercropping and drought tolerant species as the most important agricultural adaptation strategies (Figure 4). Drought tolerant maize varieties, maize-legume rotation and drought tolerant crop species were ranked as the most important agricultural adaptation strategies by central Malawi women farmers. Whereas in eastern Zambia, women highly rated crop species diversification, inorganic fertilizers, drought tolerant maize varieties, maize legume intercropping and minimum tillage. The gender-disaggregated focus groups elicited an interesting difference in points of view about the adoption of SAI practices. In Malawi, men indicated that women have been targeted and exposed to several agricultural practices as agents of change by learning and have been benefiting a lot from NGOs hence their interest in many agricultural adaptation strategies. Secondly, the men also pointed out that they have little incentive to adopt SAI practices, particularly making investments that pay off in the longer term such as minimum tillage, mulching and composting because they do not own land in the matrilineal system. Men also reported that mulching had been discouraged by the government agricultural extension officers as it was viewed as harboring fall armyworm during the dry season. Men groups particularly in southern Malawi reiterated that multiple organizations have been involved in introducing agricultural changes, including the government extension services without visible impacts on production and often with conflicting messages. Women in Malawi and Sinda district, Zambia reported that they are the primary decisionmakers and responsible for the family's food supply. As such, they were receptive to new agricultural adaptation that improved food production and coping abilities to climates shocks. These women pointed out that men are traditionally engaged in off-farm employment and farm activities with quick and short-term benefits. They highlighted that men in their household had always found it difficult to switch to agricultural adaptation strategies with long term benefits. They noted that lucrative groundnuts, soybean, and cowpea markets had prompted both men and women, farmers, to switch to agricultural adaptation strategies such as minimum tillage, legume intercropping and improved droughttolerant varieties. These results confirmed the importance of market incentives in the scaling of SAI technologies in smallholder farming systems (Mutenje et al 2019). The results also corroborate several findings on the importance of understanding gender differences and relations of technology and market solutions in building adaptive capacities for smallholder farmers (Mutenje et al 2019;Jost et al 2016;Quisumbing, 2010). This section explores how household decision-making dynamics influence SAI practice adoption and the contribution to enhancing household adaptive capacity. The genderdisaggregated focus groups revealed fundamental household decision-making dynamics due to increased exposure to climate hazards, interaction with multiple organisations (research, extension and non-governmental organisations) and markets in shaping their adaptive capacity. In six of the ten communities in Malawi, women reported actively participating in decisions regarding maize, groundnuts and other legume variety selection, adoption of SAI practices in particular minimum tillage, mulching and crop diversification. Both women and men focus group discussions in these communities indicated that women have a greater role in farm activities decision-making as most of the men are engaged in off-farm activities. The gendered group discussions in these communities also revealed that women were commonly involved in most fieldwork, and extension meetings. Joint decision making was most common for fertilizer purchases, utilization of income from the main cash crops such as maize, groundnuts and rice. Both gendered focus group discussions and participatory observations demonstrated that women in male-headed households participated actively, provided substantial input and consensus in joint decisions particularly regarding farm income expenditures. The women in these communities stressed that they are the ones spending more time in the field, hence they were most active in SAI practices adoption and adaption decisions. They also reiterated that household food security nutrition and children welfare were women's responsibility. Therefore, women have more decision-making power given their control of farm production. Contrary to the literature, these discussions suggested that women in control of farm production have more decision making power and have the ability to enhance household adaptive capacity and explore new opportunities (Doss et al., 2014 ).  Decision making within households in Dowa, Matandika and Songani regarding farm activities are predominantly made by men (Figures 7& 8). In these communities, both women and men focus group discussions indicated that men and women have access to different resources such as land, water, and livestock. Though the power to make decisions is traditionally positioned in the hands of men, women have more decision-making power regarding farm activities. Women dominate decisions regarding legume varieties and SAI practice adoption. Men have full control over decisions regarding household income and expenditures. These findings confirmed some results from other studies that even though women in these communities have control of farm-level field activities and spend more time at the farm, they have limited access to key production resources and all the main decisions are made by men on their behalf ( Doss et al 2014; Mutenje et al 2019). In these communities' men participated in the extension meetings, gathering farming information whilst women learned about new SAI technologies and market opportunities from the male household heads. On the contrary, the gender-differentiated focus group discussion in Chinguluwe revealed pseudo cooperation due to increasing mistrust among household heads and their spouses (Figure 8). Almost all decisions were made jointly with the active participation of both men and women except for groundnuts, seed selection and mulching. The in-depth discussions revealed that growing mistrust, misinformation, and ill-treatment of women by their spouses after marketing agricultural produce leads women to actively participate in all decision making. According to the narration from both groups, 10 years ago the power to make decisions was traditionally positioned in the hands of men until women realized that men were not declaring all the farm income after marketing the crops at trading centres. When women realized that they were being misinformed about crop income they also devised ways of keeping some produce to themselves and engage in side marketing. The increased mistrust and misinformation led household heads and their spouse to engage in joint decision-making activities as a way of monitoring each other's activity. In these communities, women in male-headed households are active in decision making and having substantial input and consensus in decisions is necessary joint (Figure 8).Similarly, household decision-making dynamics were also observed in eastern Zambia. In the matrilineal setting of the Chipata and Sinda districts, women had more bargaining power and decision-making power regarding control and access to key farm production resource and their utilization (Figure 9). Both women and men focus group discussions on these communities indicated that women in male-headed households have a greater role in farm activities decision-making. The gender-disaggregated focus group discussions stressed that women in these communities are the ones spending more time in the fields and were more active in SAI practice adoption and adaption decisions. Conversely in the patrilineal setting of Lundazi district, men have the power to make all decisions and control all agricultural production resources traditionally. The discussions demonstrated that all key farm activities decisions were made by men including adoption and adaption of SAI technologies. The women group discussion concurred that though women were responsible for most of the farm activities and spend more time in the field, all the decisions were made by men. The men have more decision-making power in the households.The main objective of the study was to understand gender differentials in climate change exposure, uptake of the sustainable agricultural intensification practices promoted by the Africa RISING project and the associated impacts based on the SIAF framework. We contributed to the empirical literature on sustainable intensification by exploring the vulnerability of smallholder farming systems to climate hazards, identifying SAI practices that enhance adaptive capacity. The findings revealed climate change impacts on agriculture productions are increasing the vulnerability of smallholder farmers in all the case study communities. The most common climate change hazards in southern African communities included the erratic onset of rains, increased dry spells, long and intense droughts and heatwaves. The main non -climate stressors identified as main drivers of low agricultural productivity were population increase, political and economic policy change, and market failures. There was variation in the sensitivity to climate change impact across the southern African communities based on the SIAF. Climate change and extreme weather impacted directly on crop production and income. Indirectly it contributed to social dissolution in central Malawi and overfishing and deforestation in Southern Malawi and limited dietary diversity and soil fertility depletion in eastern Zambia. SAI adoption and adaption varied by gender and location. The key drivers of SAI uptake also varied significantly across communities. Increased exposure to climate hazards and compounding effects such as increased pest diseases were the main drivers of SAI uptake in Malawi. The study also revealed that fundamental gender dynamics in decision-making significantly influenced SAI adoption and adaption. Collectively the study demonstrated the importance of understanding the multidimensional effects of climate change, the gendered impacts of climate variability and change on agricultural livelihoods.","tokenCount":"4491"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ccb933eb090074f161bd9b9b4bb78073","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b788bc44-71fd-472d-90fe-d445eea8e836/retrieve","id":"1521822244"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4d1c551-d25f-4a10-a769-72a9bea102fe","pagecount":"72","content":"Despues de la guerra civi I y el consecuente genocidio en Ruanda, durante los meses de junio y julio de 1994 mas de un mil Ion de refugiados pasaron las fronteras hacia las zonas vecinas de Zaire (actualmente Republica Democratica del Congo) . Es asi que se establecieron campos de refugiados, bajo el auspicio de las Naciones Unidas y diversas ONG. La poblacion desplazada vivio en estos campos durante a Igo mas de dos anos, hasta que, en octubre de 1996, fueran dispersados, algunos hacia su pais de origen, Ruanda, y otros hacia otros lugares en la RDC. En 1998, Motombo Tanganik y Phemba Phezo, del lnstituto Nac ional de lnvestigacion Agricola (INERA), condujeron una encuesta en el sur de Kivu, RDC, sobre el impacto de esta crisis en la agricultura local.Los programas nacionales de papa y batata del INERA tienen su sede en la Estacion de lnvestigacion de Mulungu, en Bukavu, RDC, cerca al anterior campo de refugiados. Estos programas forman parte de la red PRAPACE y, en los ultimas 20 anos, han recibido del CIP germoplasma mejorado y capacitacion. La estacion se involucro en la multiplicacion de mate rial de siembra destinado a los agricultores locales, quienes vendian su cosecha directamente a los refugiados asi como a las agencias de ayuda.Las alturas del sur de Kivu son montanosas y la tierra cultivable esta situada en areas de elevaciones media y alta (1,400-2,500 metros sobre el nivel del mar). El cultivo predominante es la banana, que localmente se consume sobre todo como cerveza. Los cultivos mas importantes son la batata, el frijol, el maiz, la yuca y la papa. La batata, conocida como cilera abana o \"protectora de los ninos\", es cultivada portodos en pequena escala para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria. Junto con otros vegetales, la papa es cultivada extensamente, casi siempre por los miembros mas ricos de la comunidad, como un cultivo comercial en pantanos drenados. Para responder al mercado de refugiados durante la crisis, los agricultores pudieron intensificar rapidamente la produccion de estos dos cu:tivos.En respuesta a la demanda de los refugiados, que crecia dia a dia, gran parte de los agricultores dedicados al cultivo de papa aumentaron la frecuencia de su produccion, pasando de una a dos o hasta a tres cosechas al ano. Mas de la mitad de los agricultores entrevistados disminuyeron el area de plantacion de otros cultivos para asi poder aumentar la produccion de papa. Esto ocurrio a expensas del frijol, del maiz, de la yuca y del sorgo. Dos tercios de los agricultores adoptaron nuevas variedades, entre ellas, la Cruza 148 (720118), traida de Mexico a fines de los 70. Esta variedad tiene un rendimiento relativamente alto, es resistente al tizon tardio y tolerante a la marchitez bacteriana. Sin embargo, su aceptacion ha sido limitada, debido a que su calidad culinaria es relativamente deficiente, por lo que su introduccion en el mercado no es facil. No obstante, para el mercado de refugiados esto obviamente carecia de importancia, y rapidamente se convirtio en la variedad mas cultivada. Tambien se adoptaron otras variedades desarrolladas, como Montsama (720049) y la seleccion de Ruanda llamada Mabondo. Se obtuvo semi Ila proveniente de la estacion experimental de Mulungu, de la extension y de las ONG. Algunas semillas fueron tambien traidas por los mismos refugiados. La disponibilidad de refugiados para realizar faenas de campo estimulo a los agricultores locales a adoptar practicas de cultivo relativamente intensas en mano de obra. Estas incluian cubrir densamente las plantas durante la siembra, la labranza profunda, la preparacion y aplicacion de compost organico, el drenaje de lotes pantanosos y el aporque alto. Mas de la mitad de los agricultores aumentaron el uso de fungicidas para controlar el tizon tardio, y un 42 por ciento arrancaron de raiz las plantas enfermas o sospechosas, para asi mejorar la calidad de la se milla.Te ni endo en cu enta las tende nc ias actuales y enfocan do las neces id ades del futu ro, el Pane l asumio la tarea de anali za r qu e hace fa lta para alca nza r la meta preem in ente de l GCIAI: po ner fin a la pob reza y al hambre, proteg iendo el medio ambi ente . \" No pued e haber una age nd a a largo pl azo pa ra erradicar la pobreza y ga ranti za r la se guridad alimentari a sostenibl e sin el GCIAI\", afirm o .Reco nociendo la excele nci a qu e el sistema mostro en el pasa do, el Panel hi zo hin ca pie en los lin ea mi entos futuros. Los Centros deben fo rtalecer sus logros y co rreg ir las in efic ienc ias de l pasado, insi st iendo en las areas c lave que les perm itiran enfrentar los nu evos reto s y lograr lo max imo de las nu eva s oportunidad es qu e se les prese nten.En el CIP hemos ll egado al fi nal de un ano en el que, con gran cuidad o, hemos escudr in ado y as ign ado pri o rid ades en nuestro program a de investigac io n, del cu al surgio el nu evo si ste ma de gestion del CIP, basado en proyectos. N ues tro nu evo portafo lio de 17 proyectos de in vesti gac ion ha sid o c uidadosam ente estudi ado y ba lanceado : siete proyectos en papa, cinco en batata, y c in co en el man ej o de recursos natu rales .El nu evo sistema basa do en proyectos fue eva lu ado en 1998. Nu estros c ientifi cos as umieron el reto ad icion al y la respo nsab ilid ad que represe ntaba la gest io n d irec ta de proyectos y subproyectos. En espec ial los lideres de proyectos -p ara qu iene s, en su mayo ria, las tareas inh erentes a este sistema eran un a novedad-lleva ro n a cabo con efi cie nc ia sus programas de in vest igac ion durante esta transic ion y los fe li c itam os por ello. Para ayuda rl es a mantene r el buen rum bo y afin ar el sistema durante el tra ye cto, in auguramos tamb ien, en 199 8, e l nu evo Marco de Evaluacion , Seg uimi ento y Ca lifica c io n basa do en la rev i sion ex haust iva yen la eva luacio n rea li zada por un grup o de cientifi cos del CIP, lid erados por la Directora Gen eral Ad junta para la ln vesti gacio n.Nos fue mu y grato co mprobar qu e las priori dades que nos habiamos fijado en este proceso co in ci dian con las necesidades de acc io n qu e surg ieron durante la Rev ision . Por ej emplo, el Panel de Rev ision so licito qu e se rea li ce un im porta nte v iraj e hac ia la Gesti o n de Recursos N aturales (GRN ). Desde 19 92, el CIP ha id o in co rp o rand o grad ualme nte en su age nda la atenc io n qu e se le debe prestar a la GRN , parti cul arm ente en las zo na s altoandi nas . El artic ul o «Co mprendi endo l a situ ac ion » nos d a m ayo r inform acion so bre este compro miso as umido.Nu estras ini c iat ivas en las zon as altas se basan en otro de los prin c ipios que la Rev ision respa ldo co mo punto c lave para lograr el ex ito futu ro de l sistema: la co part icipacio n. CON DESAN , el co nsorcio de in ve stigacion li derado po r e l C IP de sde 1992 , es un ve rd ade ro eje mpl o de lo que signifi ca la co labo rac ion en l a in ves ti gac ion y el desa rro ll o. Durante sus se is anos de existenc ia, CON DESA N ha logrado la part icipac ion acti va de m as de SO institucion es prove ni entes del sector publi co y pri va do, en c inco paises andinos.A ped id o del GCIAI , el CIP tambi en ha asumid o el lid erazgo en el Programa Glob al de Gesti o n de Ecosistemas de Montana , basado en el ex itoso modelo de co labo racio n de CON DESAN. En esta inici at iva los soc io s son el Cen tro Intern ac io nal de ln vest igacio nes Agrofo restales (ICRAF) , para las zo nas altas de Afr ica o ri ental; El Centro Inte rn ac io nal para el D esa rrollo lnteg rado de Zonas de Montana (ICIMOD), para los Him alayas; y el ln stituto Intern ac io nal de ln vest igac io nes Pec uari as (ILRI ) para la ga naderia, importa nte compo nente en los ecos istemas de montana. Traba j ando conjuntam ente, nu estros c ientifi cos cree n que g ran parte de l a tecno I ogia que resu lte de este prog rama de i nvesti gacion g loba I puede apl ica rs e en la s tres eco logias de montana.Busca ndo esta co labo rac ion act iva respaldada por la Re vision, el CIP continu a co nstru ye ndo la base de su in ves ti gac ion sobre lazos so li dos co n sus soc ios, prove ni entes de paises indu strializados ye n desarrollo. Ademas, estam os fo rt alec iend o los mecanismo s ex istentes y exp lora ndo nu evas vi as de colaboracion entre los ce ntros, en areas ta les com a la agricu ltura urbana y periurbana, y la ayud a y rehabilitacion en situacio nes de desastre. En estos ultimos afios hemos visto como se ha ido incrementando nuestra participacion en estas areas prioritarias.El CIP reconoce la creciente urgencia de aplicar soluciones agricolas para aliviar el hambre y la pobreza en el interior yen las zonas marginales de nuestras crecientes ciudades. El trabajo que venimos realizando con varios cultivos, asi como con la papa y la batata -que pueden proporcionar cantidades relativamente grandes de alimento y vitaminas en pequefias parcelas de tierra-nos coloca en muy buena posicion para continuar con las actividades en esta area. En este lnforme Anual encontraremos varios articulos que relatan el modo en que la papa y la batata -frescas o procesadas-pueden ayudar a diversificar las dietas, a luchar contra el hambre ya evitar enfermedades en las zonas mas pobladas y necesitadas del mundo en desarrollo. Cuando los desastres -como aquellos descritos en nuestro articulo principal-transtornan la agricultura y nuestras vidas, los centros del GCIAI proporcionan los mecan is mos para enfrentarlos de la form a mas eficiente y completa posible . En un futuro, esperamos que con una mayor preparacion podamos contribuir aun mas al al ivio de estas catastrofes. La posibi I idad de desarrol lar en el interior del GCIAI una capacidad permanente para brindar rapidamente ayuda de emergencia, acelerara la rehabilitacion de la agricultura, reducira las perdidas en las ganancias obtenidas y disminuira el tiempo de interrupcion de los cronogramas de i nvestigacion de los Centros.En Africa, Asia y America Latina, el CIP respondi6 a los llarnados de ayuda de ernergencia.IJ ' 0.C: ~ c:1•1•0.\\_...j(.) .; . \\-:, El Centro Internacional de la Papa respondi6 rapidamente a las emergencias en cultivos alimenticios en Honduras y Nicaragua, asolados por el huracan Mitch en octubre; y en la Rept'.iblica Democratica de Corea, que buscaba restablecer la producci6n de papa despues de una hambruna de cuatro af\\os. El CIP tambien colaboro con los agricu I tores peruanos para superar los efectos de un fen6meno de El Nino especialmente se vero. En el Africa oriental , el reemplazo de yuca infestada por batata ay udo a prevenir una crisis alimentaria.El huracan Mitch fue el peor desastre natural que haya golpeado America Central en este siglo. El devastador huracan que azoto la region en octubre, termino con la v ida de mas de 1 0 ,000 person as y causo mas de US$5 millones en dafios. Los•sectores agricolas de Honduras y Nicaragua fueron afectados muy seriamente por la tormenta. Las autoridades encargadas de desastres estiman que el huracan destru yo hasta el 70 por ciento de los culti vos alimenticios basicos de los dos paises, asi como la semilla necesaria para futuras plantaciones de produ ctos como el frijol , el maiz y la papa.En consecuencia, los investigadores del GCIAI , conjuntamente con los cientificos de programas nacionales, lanzaron un esfuerzo internac ional llamado \"Semillas de Esperanza para America Central \", un pro yecto de dos afios para restablecer la agricultura en los dos paises, coordinado por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) en Colombia. Ademas del CIP participaron el Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) en Mexico y el lnstituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogeneticos (IPGRI ) en Roma.\" Semillas de Esperanza para America Central \" se inspira en las lecciones aprendidas de la exitosa operacion \"Seeds of Hope\" I lev ada a cabo en Ruanda en 1995, despues de la guerra civil que destru yera la capacidad de produccion alimenticia del pais. \" A rafz de nuestra experiencia con Ruanda, en 1995, aprendimos lo importante que es estar preparados para los desastres antes de que estos ocurran \", explica el Director General del CIP, Hubert Zandstra. \" Alli, por ejemplo, la iniciativa ' Semi I las de Esperanza' solo fue posib le porque varios centros del GCIAI , incluido el CIP, habian trabajado por muchos afios en proyectos de investigacion . La experiencia adquirida en la produccion de alimentos y en el mejoramiento genetico fue crucial para restablecer la agricultura, y con ella la seguridad alimentaria. Tambi en impidio una perdida total de lo que se habia avanzado en la investigacion\". El progra-ma «Semi I las de Esperanza », de Ruand a, que involucro al CIP y a otros siete centros de investigacion del GCIAI , difundio con exito entre los agricultores una moderna tecnologia de semi I las, ay udo a restaurar la seguridad alimentaria y reintrodujo la diversidad en los cultivos.A pesar de que en la region que actualmente es N icaragua la batata era un culti vo tradicional, esta ya nose cultiva en el pais. Desde el huracan , el gobierno nicaraguense se ha fijado como prioridad reintroducir la batata . Conocida durante mucho ti empo como un cultivo de emergencia, la batata es especialmente conveniente en situaciones de riesgo alimenticio, por ser una fuente de subsistencia versatil y resistente, y por lo tanto una base solida para la reconst ruccion agricola. Es tambien una excelente fuente de vitamina A .El ministro de agricultura de Nicaragua, Mario De Franco, explica que su gobierno aspira a \"convertir el desastre en oportun id ad \". Enfocando su atenci6n en los pequefios agricultores, el CIP y los cientificos nacionales estan reintroduciendo la batata en Nicaragua y, en colaboracion con el CIMMYT, estan incentivando y ayudando a los agricu I tores de Nicaragua a sembrar batata junto con el maiz , practica agricola queen China ha contribuido a reducir la erosion del suelo . Ademas, la batata necesita de una cantidad relativamente pequefia de ferti I izantes y produce un gran volumen de raices por hectarea.Noel Pallais, cientifico del CIP, viaj6 a Nicaragua para asistir a reuniones de emergencia con representantes del gobierno y los programas nacionales, asf como con colegas del GCIAI, con el fin de desarroll ar una estrategia de reconstruccion de la agricultura en Honduras y Nicaragua.La presencia de un mercado disponible motivo a todos los agricultores entrevistados a incrementar significativamente la produccion de batata. La gran mayoria empezo a cultivar la batata dos veces al ano, reduciendo el area destinada a las plantaciones de maiz, frijol, mani y vegetales. Mas de la mita d de los agricultores planto nuevas variedades, disponibles en la estacion de Mulungu. Estas nuevas variedades habian sido seleccionadas principalmen te por su precocidad y alto rendimiento: Karebe II y Muga nde, variedades regionales de los agricultores, inicialmente identificadas como superiores por el programa de investigacion de Ruanda; Yanshu 1 1 variedad china de alto rendimiento y precocidad, norm almente calificada por los paneles de degustacion en Africa como marginal; Mulungu I, variedad local de agricultores congolenos, recientemente identificada como superior por lo'S investigadores; y Benikomachi, variedad japonesa de rendimiento relativamente bajo, pero de excelente sabor. La preferencia de los agricultores por Yanshu 1 por encima de la de mejor sabor, Benikomashi, lndica que el mercado de refugiados esta dispuesto a aceptar variedades de calidad culin aria relativamente baja. 'El estudio de este caso i lustra los efectos positivos que tiene el aplicartecnologia agricola en un programa de respuesta rapida a los desastres, cuyo costo aumenta de una forma alarmante en el Africa Subsahariana. La papa y la batata jugaran roles importantes por ser cultivos de estacion corta, nutritivos y disponibles loc almente. El CIP y el PRAPACE continuaran trabajando con socios y donantes para que esten disponibles tan rapida y eficientemente como sea posible en situaciones de emergencia, y al mismo tiempo desarrollaran una estrategia a largo plazo para ampliar las oportunidades del mercado .En Honduras, el CIP esta ayudando a reempl aza r las va riedades de papa que se perdieron a causa del huraca n, utilizando la sem ill a sexua l de papa (TPS). Segu n explica el Direc to r General, Hubert Zandstra, \"e l CIP ha producido una reserva estrateg ica de TPS que nos permite responder rap id ame nte a emergencias como estas\". Poco antes de la to rm enta, los agricultores en H o nduras ya estaban siendo capac itados en la utili zac i6 n de TPS , co n el fin de reducir el costo del cultivo de papa. La torm enta destruy6 la primera plantaci6n , pero e l CIP ha ampliado sus esfuerzos para distribuir nu evas sem illa s y materiales de capac itac i6 n a lo largo del pa is. \" La utilizaci6n de TPS debera producir grandes cantidades de semilla de papa li bre de enfermedades, en una fracci6n del tiempo que norm almente se requiere c uando se utiliza sem ill a-tuberc ulo \", dijo Zandstra.En anos rec ientes, Co rea del Norte padeci6 un a hamb runa que segu n algunos ca lcu los, ha produ c id o la muerte de mas de 3 mill o nes de personas. Desde 1990, la producci6n de papa en este pais ha s; do baj a (alrededor de 1 mill6n de toneladas). Dos tercios del area c ultivada de papa se han perdido en los ultimos c uatr o anos, ya sea debido a la seq uia ca usada por El N ino o a severas inundacion es.La papa , traida desde Rusia hace 70 anos, ocupa el tercer lu gar entre los culti vos de Corea del Norte, despues del arroz y el maiz. Los ag ri cu I tores norco reanos siembran anu alm ente un promedio de 200,00C hectarea s de cuatro va ri edades loca les mejoradas que hasta 1998 no habian sid o renovadas por ma s de diez a nos. Como resultado, el tiz6n tardio y los v iru s ca u sa n la perdida de mas de dos tercios de la produ cc i6 n de papa. Cultivada en suelos pobres, no fe rtiliz ados, en di ve rsas rotacion es con maiz , vegetales y arroz, la papa ti ene un rendimi en to promed io de alrededor de siete to neladas por hec tarea.Extremadamente ansiosos po r log rar el autoabasteci mi ento en lo que a la producci6n de papa se refiere y venee r su prolongada emerge nc ia alimentaria, en 1998 Corea del No rte so li c it6 ayuda al CIP para restablecer la producci6n de papa utili za nd o TPS y semilla-tuberc ulo. El Centro respo ndi 6 inm ediata mente co n un a donaci6n de 1 kil o de TPS (Ser rana X TPS-67), la que fue transportada perso nalm ente por el tecnico del CIP , Rolando Cabello. Cabello ca pacit6 a doce cientificos norcoreanos y tecni cos del lnstituto Agrobiol6gico de Pyonyang, en tod os los aspectos relacionados co n la producci6n de papa a partir de TPS. Para ayudar a Corea del Norte a utili za r esta tecnologia , el CIP tr aba j 6 con juntamente con un grupo de age nc ias, conformado por la ONG World Vision , la Oficina de Asistencia a Desastres Extranj eros (Office of Foreign Di saster Assistance) de USAID, Potato Production International (PPI ), un a compania privada co n sede en California; y sus soc ios de los programas nac ion ales en Vietnam y China. La TPS, entregada a traves de un co ntrato con PPI , co nti ene tres combinaciones que fueron desarrol ladas por el CIP hacia finales de los anos 80 (Serra na x TPS-67 , Atzimba x TPS-67 , y TPS-7 x TPS-13). .La se mi Ila proporcionada por el C IP ha sido distribuida a in stituc iones gubernamentales en las tres principal es reg ion es de producci6n de papa de Corea del Norte, para se r se mbrada por las coope rati vas locales. La Academia de Ciencias Agrico las se ha puesto como meta pl antar 200 hectareas en 1999 (1 por ciento del total del semillero de papa) de semill a-tuberculo, producida a partir de TPS . Los norco reanos estan preparando sus semilleros para la estac i6 n de siembra 1999 .Zandstra man ifiesta que, debido a la expe riencia qu e e l C IP tiene en paises vec in os que cuenta n con condic iones de c recimiento simi I ares, tambien pu ede contribu ir en gran m edida en la producci6n de papa a partir de sem illa-tuberculo. Por eje mpl o, el C IP y la Academia China de Ciencias Ag rico las han desa rroll ado una va riedad , la CIP-24, que se cu lti va en millones de hecta reas de la China.Se espe ra que la asistencia del CIP y otras organizac ion es abra el camino para amp li ar los lazos entre los gob ierno s de Corea del Norte y Estados Unidos de Nortea m erica , paises que se han m antenido en una permanente Gu err a Fria por cas i med io sig lo.H ace va rios a nos se produj o en el no reste de Uganda un se rio brote de la enfermedad causada por el Virus del Mosaico Africa no de la Yu ca, que devast6 este cultivo. Ello ll ev6 a un sustancial in creme nto en la producci6n de batata destinada a los hoga res y a la ve nta en la capita l, Kampala. Este rap id o ca mbio hacia el cultivo de la batata impidi6 un a inmin ente em erge ncia alimentaria en una region qu e desde 1995 -a raiz de las revue ltas c iv i lesestaba siend o ame na za da por la desnu tri ci6 n cr6nica y la in ani c i6 n.Al mismo tiempo se es ta vo lv iendo a c ulti va r la yuca, gracias a la puesta en c ircu lac i6 n y multiplicaci6n de variedades resistentes a enfe rm edades. Al respecto, Peter Ewe I I, representante reg ion a I del CIP para el Afr ica Subsahariana en Nairobi, afirm a que los cientificos soc iales estan in vest igando c61110 aumentar la producci6n de batata para alca nza r nu evas neces idad es y mercados, y en que med id a esto afectaria a los ag ri c ultores. La ba tata esta adq ui riendo un a importanc ia ca da vez mayo r en el Afri ca O ri enta l, y se espera qu e siga e l mi smo patron estab lec id o en Asi a durante los ultim os 30 afi os, dond e se produjo un a tran sic i6 n hac ia la utili zac i6 n de la batata para procesam iento y como alim ento de animal es .Mi entras tanto, el virus de la yuca se es ta exte ndi endo rapidamente hac ia el oeste de Kenya. Ewe ll afirm a qu e el CIP esta rec ibi endo mu chas so li citu des proven ientes de o rga n izac io nes no gubern amentales y comunales, qu e pi den ayud a para impl eme nta r program as di rigid os a la multipli cac i6 n y distribu c i6 n de va ri edad es superiores de batata desa rrollad as po r el CIP .El Nino de 1997-98, que fuera part icul arm ente seve ro, aum ent6 en el Peru las temperaturas entre 3 a 5 grados por encim a del promedio, e inund6 co n aguace ros torre nc iales reg io nes donde desde hacia mas d e un a decada no se habfan reg istrado llu vias. Como co nsec uenc ia, el rendim iento de la papa se reduj o a la mitad en va ri as de las prin c ipales reg io nes de produ c-ci6 n, al mismo t i em po que se in cre ment6 el num ero de plagas y enfermedades, espec ialm ente el t iz6 n ta rdio . En efecto, gran num ero de va ri edades de papa en el Peru se vieron afectadas severamente por el tiz6 n ta rdio, entre ell as la Ca nc han -IN IA, un a de las mas prom etedoras, produ cto de l trabajo co nj unto del CIP y el programa nac io nal de papa peru ano, qu e fuera difundid a entre los ag ri culto res en 1990 . Sin embargo, un hibrido de TPS del CIP, Chacas in a, respondi 6 bi en a los desaffos de El Nifi o. Chacasin a prov iene de un c ru ce entre Yun gay, la var iedad loca l mas po pul ar produ cida en los Andes ce ntrales, y una li nea de mejo rami ento del CIP co n res istenc ia al tiz 6 n tardio.El ex ito de Chaca sin a sigue c rec iendo en el Peru . En mas de 1 00 loca l id ad es peruanas do n de se ha uti I iza do esta ,variedad, las cosec has han sido excepcio nales.Co mo resu ltado, se ha so l icita do al Ce ntro produ cir dos • var iedades simil ares adi c io nales . M ientras tanto, segun Noe l Pallais, Jefe de la U nid ad de Sem i I las del CIP , en las postrimerfas de El Nino, el CIP ha distribuido 16 k il os de Cha casina TPS a mas de 5,000 fa mili as de ag ri culto res en 17 departamentos, 59 prov in c ias, y 108 di stri tos del Peru . Las ensayos en el campo son importantes para probar las tecnicas y afinar los objetivos de la investigaci6n .10 \" Sin la b atata\", afirm a Ro bert Oe u, \" habria un a terri ble ham brun a\" . Ro bert es de la a Idea D o ko lo en la pro v inc ia de So ro ti en el noreste de Uga nd a. Un a decada de guerra c iv il ha termin ado co n el ga nad o de los aldeanos, la hi erb a paras itari a str iga ha atacad o al m ai z y al so rgo, y un v irul ento v iru s del mosa ico ha devas tado el c u lti vo de la y u ca . La a Idea D o ko lo no es la un ica. En las densam ente pob ladas pl ani c ies semi arid as de Afr ica Ori ental , mil es de aldeas dependen de la batata pa ra su seg urid ad alim entari a.Se pu ede co nfi ar en la batata. U na vez qu e la pl anta fo rm a raices co mestibl es, una fa mili a co n hambre ya puede empezar a ali me ntarse; un a pl anta ya fo rm ada sigue pro du c iend o durante meses, a pesa r de la seq uia. La batata es flex ibl e. Los ag ri cul to res pu eden cult iva rl a durante las dos estac iones de llu v ia de la reg io n, de ab ril a junio-julio y de agosto a nov iembre-di c iembre .Pu eden dej arl a en la ti erra, cosec hando lo necesa ri o pa ra alimentarse, o pu eden cosec harla toda al mi smo ti empo . M ientra s dura, las fa mili as hi erven , o pon en al vapo r, las raices, y las co men co n sa lsas picantes a base de m ani.Sin emb argo, la seg urid ad alimentar ia esta re lac io nada tanto co n el procesa mi ento co m o co n la p rodu cc i6 n. Cuand o ll ega la estac i6 n sec a, los go rgoj os comien za n a pro li ferar. Para impedir qu e el culti vo de batata sea destruido, los ald ea no s cosec han lo qu e qu eda en sus ca mpos . Este exce dente pu ede se ri es de uti-1 idad durante la larga tempo rada seca de diciembre a abril, si logran ev itar que se estropee.Co mo represe ntante de su a Idea, Ro bert Odeu trabaj a en un pro yec to de poscosec ha copatroc in ado po r el CIP y la O rga ni zac i6 n Nac ional para la ln vesti gac i6 n Ag rico la en Ugand a (NA RO ). Su obj eti vo es ut ili za r de di ve rsa s m anera s las tecn o logi as tr ad ic ionales de alm ace nami ento . Para ay ud ar a los ca mpesino s a m antener la batata fresca durante m as tiempo, el ln sti tuto de ln vesti gac i6 n Kwa nd a de la NARO ha introdu c ido pozos de almacenamiento fab ri ca dos con m ateria les locales. Un pozo c irc ul ar ti pi co ti ene alreded o r de un metro de profundid ad y un m etro y medi o de anc ho. U na vez cav ado el pozo, los ag ri c u I to res compac tan las paredes y cubren el fond o y lo s I ados con pasto seco. En seguid a se almacenan las raices en el pozo, sigui end o un di se fio que permite sufi c iente c ircul ac i6 n de aire. Por enc im a se coloca un tec ho de paj a, qu e es sostenid o desde abaj o po r un m arco de bambu. Proteg id as de esta m anera, la s raice s frescas pu eden ser m ante ni das po r un peri od o de dos a tres meses..-rJ..-.1-..-rr..-La fo rm a tradi c ion al de prese rvac i6 n de la batata es el seca do. Para la preparac i6 n de un rustico ing in yo, las muj eres aplastan ped azos de raiz fresc a y las po nen a seca r al sol. Para preparar los chips amukeke, los ho mbres cortan las raices en taj adas redond as y pl anas, y las mujeres las ext iende n para sec ar. Estos dos produ ctos pu eden se r co nse rva dos de cu atro a c in co meses . La batata seca se coc in a en sa lsa s, aco mpanad a de frijol es y vegetales. Para la prepara c i6n del popul ar gui sa do de fecul a ll amado atapa, las mujeres mu elen la ba tata seca hasta obtener un a harin a gru esa, la qu e es sumergid a en agua p ara reh id ratarl a, posteriorm ente es herv id a, pren sa da y lu ego co nsumida direc tamente co ma un a es pec ie de pure espeso . A este gui so se le pu ede ag rega r so rgo o mij o mo li do s, con tam arind o , lim 6 n o man go . La dem and a co mercial de chips am ukeke de alta calid ad crece dia a dfa. Lo s molin eros muelen los chips para co nve rtirl os en harina, la que lu ego es ve ndida en las c iudades, cas i siempre para preparar atapa. La harin a tambien puede se r utili zada en reposte rfa . La m asa qu e se frie en ace ite para prepara r el mandazi, as i como la usada p ara varios tipo s de ga ll etas, pu ede ser elaborada cas i exc lusivamente co n harin a de batata.Para prepara r bi zcoc hos y pan se puede uti I izar hasta 50 por c iento de har ina de batata seca, pero es ta tien e que ser muy blanca y estar mu y limpi a. Tambi en se puede ag rega r pure de batata fresca a la m asa. En las pruebas de degustaci6n, los co nsumid ores indi ca ron que estos afiad id os m ejoraba n el co lo r, la textura, el sabor y la frescura de los bollos fritos en ace ite , de los chapatis y de los mandazis. Ad em as, el producto final es m enos grasoso .En co labo rac i6 n co n el program a de poscosecha del NARO, e l CIP orga niz6 un tall er de procesamiento de tres di as de duraci6n en el ln st ituto Distrital de Agricultura de Soroti, en Serere.Asisti eron m as de 50 mujeres del pueblo, ademas de mi embros de o rga nizaciones co mun ales e incluso algunos panade ros del lugar. Pasaro n un dfa degustando diferentes rece tas y experimentando co n diferentes cantidades de harina de batata. Probaron la m aquin a cortadora, debatieron sobre la mejor manera de construir hornos y exam in aro n los pozos de alm acenami ento. La s expectativas para la ve nta de artfc ul os de reposter fa so n mu y prometedoras: ya ex iste la demanda, se dispone de tecnolo gfa de procesamiento y el alto precio de l trigo importado hace que la sustituci6n co n harina de batata sea virtualmente una neces id ad.La batata, fresca o seca, es un producto basico para cas i todas las aldeas en Soroti. Tambien res ulta un buen alim ento para cerdos. Segun D ai Peters, espec iali sta en desarrollo rur al del CIP, \"criar cerdos ayuda a los ald ea nos a convertir los excede ntes de batata en un a fuente de ca pital , los ce rd os se co nvierten en pequefias cuentas de ahorro qu e dan su s frutos a corto plazo\". Para fac ilitar la di gesti bilid ad de la batata, las raicesFrescas deben se r herv id as, y el fol laj e, que ofrece un a buena fuente de protein a, debe se r cortado y afiadido al alim ento. Utiliz ar las rafces co mo alimento de cerdos no disminuye la seguridad alimentaria. Tai co mo exp li ca Dai: \"los aldeanos emp ieza n a criar ce rd os en juli o, al ini c io de la primera cosec ha de batata . Las rafces so n abundantes hasta diciembre y los ce rd os son ve ndid os durante la epoca de Navidad, ju sto cua ndo emp ieza la temporada seca\" .La segur idad alimentaria depende de la capac id ad mejorada de almacenamiento, procesamiento y util izac i6 n. Pero tampoco podemos ignorar la produ cc i6 n en sf. Es co mun que los ald eanos dejen algunas rafces en el suelo durante la temporada seca. M eses despues, c uand o empiez an la s llu v ias, las raices de esta v igorosa y perenne planta reb rota n. Despues de un as pocas sem anas, los ca mpes in os puedan obtener esquejes, que lu ego utilizan para restab lece r el culti vo . El afio pasado, las lluvia s termin aron temprano y empezaro n ta rd e. El res ultado fue una seq ufa de seis meses que m at6 cas i todas las plantas y puso en riesgo el abastec imi ento de alimentos de la region. \"Logramos restablece r el culti vo, pero nos tom6 mu c ho ti empo \", indi c6 Philip Ndo lo, qui en lid era el prog rama de batata en el ln st ituto de ln vest igac i6n Ag rico la de Kenia (KAR I).Para prevenir otra cr isis en la producci6n, Nd o lo y su eq uipo trabajan co n grup os de mujeres en quince co mun id ades cercanas a Alupe, en el distrito de Kisumu. Este afio, cada mi embro plantara esquejes sa nos en pequefias camas de alm ac igos de 1 .5 metros cuad rados, prepa radas co n anti cipac i6n . Los almacigos sera nLa importancia de la batata ha aumentado considerablemente en el norte de Zambia, donde la mayoria de los hogares tienen una parcela.regado s, segun sea necesa rio, durante la estaci o n seca. Luego, un a vez que empiece la estac ion de 1 luvias, pueden obte ner esquejes de inm ed iato, sin espe rar a qu e las ant iguas ra ices rebroten.Ex iste otra ventaja. Segun la ento mologa del CIP , Nicole Smit, los gorgojos prefieren e l follaj e lenoso so brante de la ultim a cosec ha. Cuando los agricultores o btien en esq uejes de sus v iejas plantas, termin an por transferi r gorgo jos a su s n uevas p I antacion es. \" Sin embargo\", ex pli ca Smit, \"co n esquejes obtenidos de almaci gos, los agricultores empiezan la siguiente temporada co n materi al de siembra fresco y limpi o, yes menos probable que este infestado\" . Los gorgojos no pueden excavar mu y profundamente en el su elo, o sea que aporcar alrededor de las pl antas y cosechar prirnero los tuberculo s mas grandes ayuda tarnbi en a rninirni za r el rie sgo . Los danos ca u sados por cada una de las dos es peci es de go rgojos de la re gio n (Cy /as brunneus y Cy/as pun cticollis) hace n que estas practicas de co ntrol se an necesa rias. H asta ahora, la resistencia va ri etal no ha dernostrado se r confiable, y los rnetod os utili za dos para el control b io logico, co rn o las tram pas de ferornonas, no han ten id o gran efecto so b re la pobl ac io n de gorgojos.\" Lo s agricu I tore s se lecc ionaron su s va ri edad es bajo una gran arne naza de enfe rrned ades y plagas\", ob serv a el rn ejorado r del CIP, Ted Carey. \"Co n poca utili zac ion de in sum os, sus cultivares tienen un rnejor co rnportarniento que el ge rrnoplasma mej o rado del CIP \" . Teniendo en cuenta el gran numero de va riedad es nat ivas de batata ex istentes en Africa tropi ca l, adem as de su alto contenido en rnateria seca y su res istenci a a v irus , la region es co nsiderada co rno un ce ntro secund ario en lo que a la diversidad ge neti ca de la batata se refiere. Cruzando tipos africanos con las rnejores var iedades del CIP, Ca rey y sus soc ios de los prog ram as nac io nal es espe ran obte ner va ri eda des con rnadurez temprana y de ma yor rendirniento, que pued an alrnacen arse bien. Tarnbi en espe ran obte ner una nu eva se lecc io n, corno por ejernp lo la SPK 004, para ayud ar a cornbat ir la deficien c ia.de v itarnin a A, especialrnente en los ninos. La carencia de v itarnin a A, cr6nica en casi toda el Africa tropical, pu ede co ndu c ir a la ceguera permanente.Tanto en Uganda co mo en Keni a, se prefi eren las va ried ades de pulpa blanca, con alto conten ido de rnateri a seca (3 0-38%) , tanto para e l consurno corno para el procesarniento. En contraste, las va ri edades de pulpa naranja, ri cas en betacarote no (v itarn in a A), tienden a se r pulposas y rara vez ti enen un contenido de rnateri a seca superi o r al 24 por ciento. Debid o a que la v itarnin a A es defici ente en la di eta loca l, es prioritario enco ntrar un tipo de batata de pulpa naranja qu e sea aceptada por los agricultores. La via m as rapida para la se lecc ion pro v iene de los Ensayos Nacionales de Rendimi ento (N ati o nal Perform ance Trial s, o NPT), reali zados en multipl es localid ades . A partir de estos ensayos, Uganda y Keni a intercarnbi aron y evaluaron materi al reco lectado po r los agri c u I tores. Estos ensayos ay udaron a Carey y a su co ntraparte en los prograrn as nac ionales, a identifi ca r al Ken ya n SPK 004. Este culti va r es ri co en v itarnin a A: 3.44 mi I ig rarnos por cad a 100 grarnos de batata, y ti ene un contenido de rn ateri a seca aceptable: 3 1.6 po r c iento. Grac i as a la red de in vestigaci6n res paldad a por el CIP, PRAPACE, que superv isa la di stribuci6n reg io nal y los ex perirnentos en el ca rnpo, va ri edades co rno la SPK 004 pueden ser rapidarnente distribuidas a los paises vec inos y a los agri c ultores loca les.Como parte de un experimento a ni ve l de finca, la se nora Mwanzi, de la a Id ea de Okarn e, ce rca a Alup e, tenia una p arce la de SPK 004. Ella y su hij a de 10 anos prepararon el terreno , apo rcaron e l suelo y lo se rnbraron. Lo s esq uejes procedian de la subestacion de Alupe. \"Me gusta culti va r distinta s var iedades , para que esten di spo n ibles en d iferentes rnornentos\", nos dice. Por esa razon, ell a tarnbien hace una siembra escalonada. La se nora Mwanzi hizo una dernostra c io n de su teen ica, que consistfa en co rtar c uatro largos tallos de un a pl anta con su machete, cada uno de m as o rnenos 30 ce ntirnetros de largo . Junt6 dos, arrn o un monticulo de lodo con sus ma nos, y lu ego introduj o los tallos en el m o nticulo. To rno uno s cuantos esquejes m as y los in trod ujo , desde los costados. \" Es mejo r pl antar rnu c hos tallos \", dij o, \"e n caso de que al gunos rnueran\". La se nora M wa nzi se rnbro la SPK 004 porqu e habia escuchado qu e era buena para la sa lud de sus hij os. Tarnbi en planto un almaci go para la esta c io n seca \" para obtener pronto las prirneras raices y rn ata r el harnbre \".Co n el fin de ga rantizar la seg uridad al irnentaria , el C IP y sus soc ios de los prograrn as nacion ales deben ataca r rnu c hos frentes sirnu ltan ea rn ente, desde el rn ejorarni ento hasta la gestion de plagas y la utilizac i6n de la batata. Para caracterizar el gerrnoplasrna y elirninar dupli cados, neces itan las herrarn ientas que les b rinda la biotecnologia. Con el fin de disenar estrategias efectivas de control de plagas, hace fa lta la colaboracion a ni ve l de los agricu I tores. No pueden ignorar los problem as de poscosecha y rnercadeo, in c lu yend o el alrnacenami ento y el procesa rniento. Par a cornpartir resultados, debe n c rea r redes de in ve stigac io n s61idas. Y, para fin ali za r, no pueden o lv idar el ultimo requ er imiento: qu e la c ulti ve n campesinos del Afr ica oriental, co rno la senora Mwanzi.Se estim a que ap rox imad amente 250 mill o nes de nifi os en los paises en desarrollo mu estran defic ienc ia de vi tam in a A, lo que los pon e en ri esgo no so lo de adqu irir cegue ra nocturn a, sin o t ambi en de co ntrae r enfermedades alta mente infecc iosas, deb ido a la dism inu c io n de su res istenci a inmun o logica . En Keni a, la batata es un culti vo trad ic io nal ex tensamente d ifundido. La reg ion de mayo r prod ucc io n de batata esta en la parte ori enta l de l pais, donde la defic iencia en v itam in a A es comun. Actualm ente las va ri eda des mas c ulti va das en Keni a so n las de pul pa blanca, baj as en betaca rote no. A l oes te de Ken ia, la batata es un alim ento bas ico sup lementar io y se cons um e entera (hervid a), o en pure co n leg umbres, vegeta les de hoja , ca rn e o pescado. La batata es co nsiderada un c ulti vo de muj eres, pu esto qu e puede c recer en las peq uefias parce las qu e las muj eres rec iben de sus marid os al co ntrae r matrimoni o .En este estudio, la batata de pulpa nara nj a, rica en vi tamin a A, fue entregada a un grup o de 20 muj eres en dos distritos de l oeste de Kenia , don de la defic ienc ia de vita min a A era alta y donde las batatas b lancas eran un ali mento sec und ario (e l alimento prin c ip al es el mai z). La mitad de los grupo s recibio un paquete di sefiado para promo ver el uso y consum o de la batata naranja , in c lu ye nd o edu cac io n nutri c io nal y capacitac io n en procesami ento de a lim entos, emp aq uetad o, prepa rac ion y mercadeo.Los resu ltados mostraro n que la ba tata de pu lpa naranja y los productos alim ent ic ios basados en esta rai z eran b ien aceptado s, tanto por los produ ctores co mo por los consumidores, y qu e ayudaban a in ge rir ma yo r co ntenid o de v itamin a A. M uch as de las nu evas vari ed ades de batata, culti vadas dura nte los ensayos a ni ve l de finca, tu v iero n un bu en rendimiento en lo que a su produ cc io n y res istencia a p lagas se refiere, y, • adem as, tenian un alto contenido de betaca rote no. La apariencia, la textura y el sabor de las nuevas va riedades fueeron bien aceptadas por los grupos de la comunidad. Tambien tuvieron buena acogida los alimentos procesados, preparados con batata como sustituto de otros ingredientes. Las condiciones de crecimiento observadas en el estudio resultaron ser favorables, lo que permitirfa obtener va rias cosechas de batata al ano. La suma de estos facto res puede hacer de la batata un alimento rico en betacaroteno y accesible durante todo el ano.Desde la iniciaci6n del pro yecto, se produjo la distribuci6n a gran escala de las plantas de batata de pulpa naranja . Siendo esta batata tan popular , su utilizaci6n seguramente crecera , a medida qu e las autoridades del KARI se propongan continuar poniendo al alcance de los agricultores el material de siembra. La costumbre que existe entre los agricultores de Kenia oriental de repartir gratuitamente materiales de siembra a sus vec inos tambien deberfa ga rantizar una difusi6n rapida y constante. Los datos obten idos a parti r de los ensayos realizados a ni vel de finca mostraron que las nuevas va riedades de batata naranja resistieron bien a la sequia y tenfan mayor rendimiento qu e las v ariedades blancas tradicionales, ambos factores importantes para continuar cultivandola.Los in vestigadores notaron que la situaci6n nutricional de los ninos pequenos no mejoraba automaticamente por,el simple hecho de distribuir va riedades de batata rica en betacaroteno y ofrecer un apoyo mini mo para su producci6n. Para que aumentase entre ellos el ni vel de v itamina A resultaron decisi vas las actividades de pro-moci6n que educan a las mujeres en el uso y consumo de la batata naranja .Estas actividades ensenaron a las mujeres a tener mejor control sobre algunos de los recursos que les son necesarios para alimentar a sus familias y mejorar la situaci6n nutricional de sus miembros, especialmente la de los ninos pequenos. Una de las mas importantes lecciones aprendidas fue que las va riedades de batata con pulpa naranja eran mejor aceptadas cuando se presentaban en un contexto de extens ion y educaci6n sobre sa lud y nutrici6n familiar. A las madres se les debe convencer de que estas nueva s variedades son buenas para sus hijos. En el pr61ogo de uno de sus informes, el Doctor Cyrus Ndiritu , direc tor del KARI , senal6 estos ben eficios , al escribir: \" Los resultados de algunos estudios indican que la batata de pu lpa naranja (inclu ye ndo el follaje) y los alimentos preparados a partir de esta batata son altamente nutritivos y pueden contribuir significativamente, durantEj todo el ano, a disminuir la deficiencia de vitamina f>l entre los ninos menores de cinco anos.\"\" Un a bu ena alimentaci6n nose obti ene so lo con ce real es. Para poder atender la demand a de alim entos en el futuro , deben exp lota rse los cu ltivo s altern ativo s\", afi rma el es pec iali sta en desarrollo rural del CIP, Dai Peters. Nin gun pafs en el mundo ha hec ho m as que la Ch in a para ex p lotar el potenc ial de la batata. En este pafs, las cosec has de 1995-1997 ll ega ron a los 117 mill o nes de ton elada s por ano, lo qu e equ iva le a un 85 por c iento de las cosec has a ni ve l mundi al. Y con un to tal de 48 millones de ton elad as, el culti vo de la papa en Chin a no ti ene par. Con la des in teg rac i6 n de la Un io n Sovi eti ca, Ch in a se ha co nvertid o en e l mayo r produ ctor de papa en el mundo .Entre los anos 2000 y 2020, la pob lac i6 n mundial aum entara en 1,500 millon es; la mitad de es e c rec imi ento se produ c ira en Asia. Chin a se ra res pon sable de m as del 20 por cien to del c rec imi ento de la pob lac i6 n as iat ica. Para que China mantenga su autoabastec imi ento en la prod ucc i6n de alim entos, la papa y la batata d eberan ju gar un papel cl ave. Chin a produce menos de 4 mi ll on es de ton elad as de yuca y no prod uce name. Po r este moti vo, el CIP y Ch ina han formado una soc ied ad c uyos res ultados de in vesti gac i6 n po dran ser apli ca dos en todo el cont inente as iati co .La co lab o rac i6n de l CIP con Chin a se remonta a dos deca das . En 1978, la Acad emi a Chin a de C ienc ias A grico las env i6 una delegaci6n de c ientifi cos al CIP ; a su vez, un a delega ci6n del CIP v isit6 las reg io nes de @n Chrna mayor pro du cc i6 n de papa de Chin a. Lu ego, sigui eron vis itas peri 6di cas de c ientificos de alto nivel. En 1985 , la Acad emi a Chin a de Cie nc ias Agrfco las y el CIP firm aron un co nve nio por el cual se c rea ba un a ofi c in a re gion al del CIP en Beijing. En se guid a, co n la in co rporaci 6 n de la bata ta dentro del mand ato del CIP , se intensi fic6 la coo peraci6n a traves del interca mbi o de germoplasma, proyectos mutuos de in vesti gac i6n, talleres y ca pac itac i6 n.Las pro vin c ias de Sec huan y Shandon g produ ce n, ca da una, alrededor de 17 mi ll ones de to neladas de ba tata al ano; a estas do s prov in c ias juntas se atr ibuye cas i el 40 por c iento de la producci6n total en la Chin a. En Sechu an, la tecn o logia de poscosec ha, es pec ialmente la produ cc i6 n de alm id6n , es un a pr io rid ad de gran enve rgadura. Des de 19 78, la s empresas loca les han hec ho i nve rsiones en el procesam iento de al imentos. Al mi sm o ti empo, las preferenci as en la d ieta de los habitantes urbanos han v ariado. Por ej empl o, el co nsumo direc to de las rafces frescas ha di sminuid o . A pe sa r de esto, la produ cc i6 n total de batata se ha manten ido, apoya da por la de mand a de la indu stri a del alm id6 n. Gran parte de l almid 6n produ c id o en Sec hu an se vend e como masa para la produ cc i6 n de tal larin es . Deb i do a que el producto no res ulta atractivo porqu e el alm id6 n no es blanco y es ta l leno de impureza s co mo ce ni za, los con sumidores urb anos -desco n- Fi gura 2. Comparaci6n entre la producci 6n rea l de papa en Ch ina y la proyecci6n de la FAO.Fi gura 3.Tasas de cr ecimient o promedio anu al (por ce ntaje) de la batata en China, ca lculadas en interva los de 10 aiios, de 196 1 a 1997 .Taj adas de batata seca .Creci miento (%)-2. Fu ente: FAOSTAT (febrero 1999, obtenida en marzo de 1999).100.000 I---- Tasa de crecimiento (%) En la ultim a decada, e l CIP y la Aca dem ia de Ci enc ias Ag rico las de Sec hu an han trabaj ado en el mejo ram iento de la cali dad del almid 6 n. D e l procesa mi ento manu al se ha pasa do a un equipo meca ni zad o de pequ e fi a es cala; es te in c luye lava do ras de raices, mo linos, raspadoras y se parado res de tambo r. El CIP y sus co labo rad o res de Sec hu an id entifi ca ro n las variables de extracc i6 n qu e tenia n el mayor im pacto sob re la ca l id ad, tal com o el tamaii o de la m all a uti li za d a para la separac i6 n. U n alm id6 n bl anco y pu ro t iene un prec io m as alto, pero a ca mb io mej o ra la ca l idad de los produ ctos en tod a su lfn ea. Los tall ar in es tr ansparentes so n un ej emp lo de el lo.Co n e l res paldo de l CIP, la Acade m ia de Sec huan desa rro ll 6 un a extruso ra de to rni ll o m o to ri za d a, dentro de la c u al se pres iona la m asa de batata ca liente. De esta fo rm a, se o bt iene un produ cto un ifo rm e, de alta ca l id ad , m as atrac t ivo pa ra el merca do : un producto que t iene la v iscos id ad , la o pac id ad , y el grosor adecuados. En el co nd ado de Sa ntai, la dem and a del eq u ipo de procesa m iento de bata tas ha au mentado a m as del do b le. En 1996, por ejem p lo, las ventas de lava do ras de raices , separado ras de alm id6 n y ex tru soras, todas fa bri ca das localm ente, to tal iza ro n mas de US$1 80, 000 . Entretanto, de las 9 1,0 00 to neladas de batata qu e produ cfa e l co nd ado de Santai, la pro po rc i6n procesad a se inc rem ent6 de 36 a 76 po r c iento, lo qu e equi va le a 69 ,000 to neladas . Los resi du os fuero n rec ic lados p ara prod u c ir alim ento para anim ales. Actualm ente, el co nd ado de Sa ntai crf a 110,000 ce rd os. Estas c ifras equ iva len a un 70 po r c iento de in c remento resp ec to a las de 1989.En la Prov in c ia de Sh ando ng, los c ien tff icos ch inos utili za n la propagac i6 n por med io del cult ivo de tej idos y las pru ebas ELI SA para eli min ar los v iru s de l m aterial de siembra de b atata. El pro yec to se remo nta a 1987, c uand o el C IP di ct6 un c urso corto so bre detecc i6 n de v irus. A l afi o sigu iente, se rea li z6 un cu rso de cl.J lti vo de te jid os. Este curso, copatroc in ado por el CIP y e lDurante la ultima deca da, la tasa de crec imi ento pro med io anu al en la producc i6n de pap a en Chin a ha sido m ayo r qu e la de c u alqu ier otro de los prin c ipales c ult ivos (Fig. 1 ). En efec to, la tasa de crec im iento de la produ cc i6 n de papa en Chin a durante los u ltima s 35 afi os fu e de un extraord inar io 3 .9 por c iento. Tanto as f que la d iferenc ia entre las proyecc io nes de la FAO y la prod ucc i6n rea l se h izo c ada vez m as ev idente en la u lt im a dec ada (F ig. 2). A lo largo de los u lt imas 10 afi os, la tasa de c recim iento de / area cu lti va da tambi en ha superado la de o tro s cu lt ivos, siend o es te facto r mas importante qu e el rend im iento mism o, en lo qu e al i nc remento de la produ cc i6n de papa se refi ere. La ev ide nc ia obtenid a en Chin a ye n otros pafses asiati cos ind ica qu e ex isten dos razon es fund amenta les para es te notab le incre mento en la pro ducc i6n de papa.En pr imer lu gar, el c rec imi ento de la economfa c hina ha m ej o rado los ingresos y ha ace lerado el c rec im iento de las c iud ades, lo cu al ha ll evado a los co nsumi do res a d ive rsifi ca r su al im entac i6 n, dej ando de /ado un a di eta basa da est rictamente en ce rea l es. A los ch inos, co mo a los co nsumidores de cas i cualqu ier lu ga r de / mundo, /es gu sta e l sa bo r de la papa. Su sa bo r neutral hace de el/ a un in gred iente qu e co mp lementa fac ilmente /os p latos loca les do nd e se ut il iza n cond imentos tradi c iona les, asi com o o tros al imentos, dand o les un a apar ienc ia atr acti va y sabrosa . De o tro /ado, el auge de los restaura ntes de comic/ a rapid a, qu e empez6 en Hon g Ko ng y Taiwa n, se ha extendicl o ac tu almente po r toda la Chin a.Con sicl eracl as en a/gun m omenta coma un p lato ca ro y luj oso, las papas fr itas estan co nv irt iend ose rapidam ente en un al imento popu /ar, no so lo en /os restaurantes d e ca denas intern ac ion ales, sino ta m b ien en lo s restaurantes y supermerca do s aclmini strados por c h inos.Seg und o, la papa es un c ulti vo ve ntaj oso para los pequ efi os ag ri cu lto res . D acia la ve rsa t flicl acl de la p lanta, la papa pu ede prosperar en las zo nas temperad as y montafiosas del no rte del pa is, as i co mo en los campos de arroz drenad os y en las co l in as qu e ca rac teriza n la zo na semitrop ica l de / sud oeste de Ch ina. Co n la introdu cc i6n de ge rm o pl as ma mej o rado y deb icl o a que e l area se mbrad a con papa ha crec ido en /o s u ltim as afios, la tasa de inc remento en los re nd im ie ntos se ha acelerado . Es ta tend enc ia nos su giere qu e la papa esta siend o se mbracl a en algun as zo nas de/ pafs co n un a tecno logia mej o rada yen t ierras m as fe rtil es, sustitu ye ndo a o tros culti vos com o el arroz, pu es to qu e los agri c u lto res, en un esfuerzo po r obtener mayo res in gres os, estan cambi and ose a culti v os m as rentab les.El aum ento de /o s ingresos y e l c rec imi ento de las c iud ades han tenicl o un impacto aun m as no tabl e en la batata, a pesa r de qu e ha afectado m enos intensa mente las tasas de c rec imi ento en la produ cc i6n ye n el area se mbrada. Con la ex pansio n eco n6 m ica, los con sum id ores c hin os ta mbi en han aumen tado la demand a de carn es y prod uctos procesa dos. En el caso de la batata, este camb io en los habi tos de con sum o signifi ca qu e ha id o ut il iza ndose ca d a vez m as, tanto sus raices co mo su fo l laje, como al imento para cerdos . D e 1995 a 1997, fu ero n uti lizadas para este prop6s ito, to m and o en c uenta so lo las rafces, entre 30 y 50 mi l/ on es de to neladas de b atata. Po r lo tanto, no es simp le co inciden c ia qu e:• Chin a sea actu alm ente el m ayo r c r iador de ce rd os en el mundo, • mas de / 80 po r c iento de la produ cc i6 n po rc in a se l leve a cabo en los hogares o ald eas, • Sec huan sea la pro v inc ia de m ayor produ cc i6n porc in a en Chin a, • Sec huan sea una pro v in c ia def ic iente en mafz, • Po r sf so /a, la prov in c ia de Sec hu an proclu zca m as batata qu e tocl os los pafses en desa rro ll o juntos; y, • en los u lti m as afi os, la ba tata se uti/i ce cad a vez mas para a/im entar ce rcl o s.En efec to, los pequ efi os ag r ic u /to res de Sec hu an y de o tras zo nas de / pa fs han respo ndicl o a los ca mbi os de los nab itos alim entici o s tran sform and o la b atata en \"c arn e\", y co nse rva ndo el va lor agrega do para sus hoga res . D e esta man era, la batata es co mpo nente de un a es trateg ia glo bal qu e bu sca mantener la seg urid ad a/imentaria, tanto a ni ve l de fin ca com o a ni ve l nac io nal.Un fe n6 meno parale lo al anter io r ha sido el incremento en el procesa m iento de batata para obtener produ ctos a /im enti c ios y no al iment icio s. Estudi os rea l iza dos rec ientemente en las prov in c ias de Shanclon g y Sec hu an mu estran un in c remento acelerado en la demanda de almid6n de batata en form a de fideos, tanto para con sumo domestico coma para exportaci6n. A nivel de finca, del proceso de extracci6n del almid6n de las raices de la batata se obtiene, coma subproducto, un pure libre de almid6n, que se utiliza en la alimentaci6n. Esta practica sugiere una relaci6n simbi6tica, masque de rivalidad, entre las nuevas maneras de utilizaci6n de la batata.Debido a estos mercados emergentes interesados en la batata procesada, calculos recientes de las tasas de crecimiento en la producci6n y area plantada de este cu ltivo reflejan que se han revertido las tendencias decrecientes anteriores (Fig. 3). En los af\\os venideros, se espera que con ma yores rendimientos en la producci6n de papa y batata, y con una mayor difusi6n de al imentos procesados, China estara en optima posici6n para lograr un crecimiento adicional en su desarrol lo orientado hacia el cultivo de raices y tuberosas en el nuevo milenio.~ Mayor a 5,000 Centro Asiatico de lnvestigac i6n y Desarrol lo Horticola (AVRDC), se llev6 a cabo en el Centro de lnvest igaci6n de la Batata del ln stituto de Ciencias A gri co las de Xuz hou, en la prov in cia de Ji angs hu . La in vestigaci6n, cuyos resultados so n faci lmente adaptab les, proporcionaba la base para un program a inn ovador d e propagac i6n de semi Il a, que fue rea lizado por el Program a de Batata del lnstitu to de lnvest igac i6n de Culti vos de la Ac ademia de Cien c ias Agricolas de Shandong. El programa de batata ha sido firmemente apoyado por el gob ierno provincial de Shand ong. Este apoyo ha sido dec isivo para la di stribuci6n a gran esca la de material de siembra libre de pat6 ge nos. H oy en dia, e l trabajo es patroc inado por la Aca demi a de Cienc ias Ag rico las de Shan dong.Lo s c ientificos produ ce n plantula s libres de virus a part ir del cu lti vo de meri ste ma s con el fin de obte ner esqu ej es. Despu es de comenzar con tan so lo 500 plantul as durante la prim era prima ve ra , el proyecto produjo sem i Il a ce rtifi cada sufic iente para cubrir 6.7 hecta re as de pl antas durante la seg unda prim ave ra. A su vez, los es qu ej es de estas pl antas ge neraron 1 00 hec tareas de raices, eq ui va lentes a 3,000 tonelad as de semi I la. Haci a la tercera prima vera , el proyecto contaba co n un a ca ntidad sufi c iente co mo para sembrar mas de 13 ,000 hecta reas. Graci as a este esfuerzo, en 199 4 los ag ric ultores de la prov in c ia empezaron a se mbrar batatas libres de virus. El im pacto sobre el rendimi ento fue so rpren dente; el mej oram iento sobre la product ividad prom edio en nu eve loca lid ades y con c in co var iedades fue superior al 40 por c iento. Esta produ cc i6n ad ic ion al no neces ita fertili za nte ni agua supl ementario s, ni camb ios en los metodos de producc i6n. Pract ica mente cualquier agricultor qu e utili za el mate rial libre de v iru s logra mayores rendimientos. En 1998, los agricultores de Shandong sembraron medio mi I 16n de hectareas de batata I ibre de v iru s, equ ivalente al 80 por ciento del tota l de la prov in c ia. Un aproximado de 3. 1 mill6n de fam ili as campe sin as se benefic iaron de l rendimiento ag rega do, va lo rado en US$133 m_illon es en un ano. En Shando ng, el almid6 n de batata, utili za do es pecia lmente para la preparaci6n de tall ar in es, es una indu stria crec iente . Actualmente, la mitad de la producci6n de Shando ng es des tin ada a la in dustria loca l de al-mid6n.Como alimento bas ico, la batata puede cons umirse fresca o seca rse al so l para su uso poste ri or. Tanto las raices co mo el fo ll aj e son un exce lente alimento para animales. En mu c hes lu gares de Chin a, sin embargo, el futuro de la batata esta li gado a las multipl es fo rma s de procesa miento de su almid6n: en tall arin es, fideos y lamin as de ge latin a; almid6n refinado, deri va dos del almid 6 n (a mil ofosfato, am iloacetato, y almid 6 n solubl e) ; y res iduos del almid 6 n (fo rr aj e, maltosa y res idu os del az uca r, produ ctos para la. e laborac i6n de ce rveza). Po r lo tanto, el mejoramiento para increm.entar el co ntenido de mate ri a seca, que tien e un impacto di recto sob re la ca nt idad de al mid6n extraido, es de alta prio rid ad para el CIP y los mejoradores c hin os. Segun Dapeng Zhan, f itomej orado r del CIP y lide r del pro yecto, el objet ivo es \"prod uc ir mayor ca ntid ad de materi al aprovechable en ca da batata\". El ran go de recup erac i6n prom ed io de almid6n es alrededor del 15 por c iento (a l peso) de las raic es fres cas, sin pelar. N uevas va ri edades de batata, que contengan sufic iente materi a seca como para obtene r entre 5 y 20 por c iento de G. CHAN G La papa ha marcado la diferencia en las dietas en China. En dos decadas, la producci6n de este cultivo en el pais casi se ha duplicado.almid 6 n ad ic io nal, podrian agregar un impres io nante tercio al tota l extraid o. La selecci6n va rietal se rea li za en cooperaci6n co n el Centro de ln vestiga c i6 n de la Batata de C hin a, en Xuzhou , provin c ia de Ji angs hu. Ch in a no es so lo el mayor productor de batata del mundo, sin o qu ee n este pais el culti vo esta d istribui do en c inco zo nas c li maticas diferentes. La batata no sue le ser el c ulti vo prin c i pa l. Los ag ric ultores la siembra n en rotac i6n con cerea les (a rroz , trigo, maiz, mijo), se mi-Hace un a decada, la mac a era un cultivo cas i desconoc ido, parte de la agricultura de subsistencia de los ca mpesinos mas pobres y aislados del Peru. H oy en dia, es te es uno de los produ ctos agrico las de expo rtac ion mas prometedo res del pais.Hasta ha ce poco, el ulluco se enco ntrab a en los mercados so lo unos cuantos meses al aiio. Actualmente, este co lorido tuberculo se encuentra pract ica m ente todo el aiio en lo s superm ercado s m as co ncurrido s de Lima.El crocante yacon, rico en fructosa, era co nsid erado un du Ice secreto entre los habitantes de las zo nas andinas. Hoy en dia, ese secreto es compa rtido por personas di abeti cas o que estan a dieta en lu gares tan alejados como Brasil y Japo n.Estos son so lo algunos de los tuberculos y raices andinos, estudiados y conservados por el CIP y sus socios, que rec ientemente han empezado a encon trar su camino desde las pequeiias parcelas hac ia lo s mercados re gion ales, nac io nales e intern ac ional es.Cultivada por enc ima de los 4,000 metros de a ltura en una pequeiia zona de los A ndes central es del Peru, la maca ha sid o usada durante siglos para est imular la fertilidad hum ana y animal, la c ual se ve naturalmente reducida por la altura. Lo s pocos ex perim entos rea lizados con la maca antes de mediar los 90 parecian co nfirmar este co nocimi ento trad ic ion al, hecho que co n gran v isio n del m ercado no fue igno rado por la companfa fa rm ace utica Quimica Suiza.Trabajando en estrec ha co labo ra c ion con el CIP, Qui mica Suiza ha in ve rtido desde 1994 m as de US$1 mil Ion en la in vest igac io n de la maca y el desarrollo del producto. Lo s funcionarios de la compania afirm an que la maca no so lo mejora la fertilidad masc ulin a y femenina, sino que actua como vitalizante y disminuye el estres. En 1998, en base a estas afirmacion es, Q uimica Suiza expo rto alrededor de US$80,000 en pastillas de maca ha c ia el Japo n, Europa y los Estados Unidos. La com panfa espera que en 1999 sus ventas al exte rior alcancen e l mil Io n de dolares americ anos.A medid a que c rec e el interes por esta rai z, otros empresarios tambien se han unido a la cor ri en te y, con gra ri rap id ez, han concebido, fabricado y lanzado al m erc ado productos basados en la m aca, que van desde licores y cara m elos ha sta harin as y ca p sul as m ed icinales. El aumento repentino en la demanda de este cultivo ha tran sfo rm ado la economia alrededo r del Iago Junin en Peru . El area de plantac io n de maca c rec io de solo 200 hectareas en 1995 hasta alrededor de 1,500 l=n1pieLa11 a l=ncontrar hecta reas hac ia f in ales de 199 8. El Ministerio de Agricultura espera ve r crecer esa c ifra a casi 3,000 hecta reas en 19 99.El C IP ha jugad o un papel muy impo rtante en el c rec imi ento del mercado de ulluco en el Peru, brindando su ayuda a los productores loca les para construir y ope rar u na i nsta I ac io n de a I m acena m iento cerca de Hu ancay o. Utili za ndo la tecnolo gfa que fuer a desarroll ada para la papa, esta instalac ion permite a lo s produ cto res vender sus productos en Lima durante los meses de vera no, epoca en que el abastecimi ento es bajo y los prec ios so n altos.En un futuro ce rca no, el ulluco fuera de temporada podrfa tambien ay udar a aumentar rapidamente lo s in gresos de Bolivi a. La colaboracion del CIP co n in vest igado res de la Uni ve rsid ad Sa n Simon de Cochaba mba ha dado co mo resultado la produ cc io n, co mo proyecto pi loto, de hoju elas de u I lu co, empaquetadas en forma atractiva. El nu evo producto debe permitir que lo s co nsumidores tengan acceso a este nutriti vo alimento durante todo el ano, mientra s que al mi smo tiempo, los agr icultores se vera n favorecidos por la estab ili zac ion de los prec ios.Los c ientfficos del C l P, trabajando en co laboracion co n el Ce ntro Intern ac ion al de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y ot ras institu c io nes, estan invest igando actualmente las oportunidad es de mercado para algunos productos de industria artesanal prepa rado s en base a raices y tubercu los andinos, en va rios zonas de Peru, Ecuador y Bolivia. Particul arm ente prometedor es el \" rall ado\", un du Ice tradici ona l preparado a base de arracacha y miel de cana de azuca r, que es consum ido durante las fiestas. Otros productos que han sido evaluados o estudi ados deb ido a su potencial co mercial so n: la j alea de oca, el alim ento para bebes a base de oca, los in sectic id as a base de m as hua, y los encurtidos, tes, hoju elas y helad os de yacon (vease el rec uadro). papas, donde la demanda del mercado determina que predominen solo algunas variedades seleccionadas.Lo mismo podria ocurrir con las raices y tuberculos menos conocidos. Por ejemplo, si la empresas industriales que procesan alimentos para bebes requirieran de una sol a variedad de oca , es posibl e que los agricultores con espiritu mercanti I que siempre han cu lti vado la oca empezaran a sembrar solo la variedad deseable comercialmente. Esto podria suceder tambien con la mayoria de los otros culti vos tradicionales andinos, cuyas di v ersas variedades muestran caracteristicas marcadamente diferentes.Sin embargo, hasta el presente, los estudios realizados por el CIP y sus socios indican que la perdida de las variedades de culti vos andinos tradicionales ha sido minima, a pesar de las tendencias a aumentar su comercializacion. Esto se debe, en parte, a que las variedades no comerciales se intercambian y transportan fuera de sus \" microcentros de origen \" en forma mucho mas frecuente y general izada de lo que los i nvestigadores habian pensado. Asi, la desaparicion de una v ariedad en una finca o una aldea a causa del mercado no significa necesariamente que la variedad este extinta.Este asunto toma fuerza con las tradiciones conservacionistas de la agricultura andina. Los estudios de economia demuestran que son pocos los pequefios agricultores andinos que son productores comerciales unicamente. Por el contrario, la gran mayoria mantiene algunos cultivos y variedades tradicionales de su preferencia para uso familiar o ritual , asi coma para asegurarse que podran enfrentar la sequia u otras crisis. Sin embargo, esto podria cambiar cuando las demandas del mercado I leguen a zonas mas remotas. El Programa de Raices y Tuberculos Andi nos del CIP promue ve las posibilidades de produccion y comercializacion que lleven a aumentar los ingresos de los pequefios agricultores. Una de sus responsabilidades consiste en hacer un seguimiento del impacto de la presion comercial sob re estos agricu I tores y la riqueza genetica que promue ven y protegen . Es un culti vo ancestr-al, redesc ubi erto por c ientifi cos en los afios 60. La respu es ta a este dilema, seg un el fisi 9 logo de pl antas Noel Pal la is, pu ede estar dentro de los genes de algunas de las 3, 500 entradas de p apas nati va s andin as del banco de ge nes del CIP. A un c uando han sido co nservadas po r mas de 30 anos, el material de pl anta recole ctado no ha sido in ves ti ga do a fJ ndo .«Las tecni cas ac tuales de biologia mol Ejcular han ca mbiado el periodo de ti em po qu e requerian los fitom ejoradores para transferir lo s ge nes, y ahora se o bti enen resultado s m as rapidamente », dec lara Pallai s. «Por lo tanto, este es el momenta prec iso para com enza r a prestarl e atenc i6 n al valor aun no descubi erto qu e puede yace r dentro de nuestro ge rmopl asma de papa », ind ica.El CIP evalu6 134 razas nati vas de los Ande s de oc ho espec ies de papa que fu ero n c ulti v adas antes de la epoca in ca ica . Las v aried ades a nti g u ~s se se mbraron junto con el grup o de control de 78 cu lti vares modernos mejorad os, y todas las apli cac iones de agua fu ero n suspendid as luego de los prim ero s 38 dias. (No hubo riego prove ni ente de la llu v ia, ya qu e el experim ento se efectu6 en la se de del CIP en las afu era s de Lim a, dond e la llu v ia es un fen6meno poco usual).Pal la is enco ntr6 que varios de los c lones daban bu enos rendimi entos bajo condi c ion es aridas. «Esta respu esta adaptati va a la sequia » -dij o el in vesti gador-«Se debe a una co mbin ac i6n de carac teres valiosos >>, qu e in c luyen alta materi a seca total, aum ento temprano en el volumen, bajo numero de tub erc u los y un alto in di ce de cosech a (e l rati o de materi a co mestibl e versu s hoj as y tallos).Todo esto indi ca la uti Ii dad de hace r m as experim entos e in vesti gac io nes sobre la habilid ad de las vari edades de papa para extraer y utili za r el agua disponibl e en el suelo. Pall a is in siste que bi en va ldria la pen a hacer e l gasto de eva lu ar las 3,500 entradas nati v as andin as.Estas mu estras de materi al de pl anta que han estado descansand o en el banco de ge nes ~el CIP durante decada s pu eden ahora ju ga r un papel importante para ali v iar la sed de la tierra en el futuro ercan o .Lu ego de afios de c rec imiento, la in ves ti gac io n de la Gestion de Recursos Natural es del CIP (GRN) ha entrado en la etapa de florec imi ento.Med iante una pode ro sa var iedad de herrami entas de recopil ac ion de datos y ana li sis, los c ientificos del CIP y sus co laboradores han ampli ado co nsiderabl emente su entendim iento de los compl ejos ecos istem as altoandinos. En muchos lu ga res, se trata de transform ar ahora esos co nocimi entos en accion.En Cajamarca, Peru, tras afios de recopilacion de datos se ha logrado estab lece r un \"atlas digital\" exhaustivo d e la zo na. Este atlas, que se concluyo en 1998, co mbina informacion ag ronoma (areas de c ultivo, tipo s de sue lo, abastecimi ento de agua, pendi entes, c lim a, etc. ) con datos socia les y economi cos. Las age nci as gubernam entales y las ON G's usaran es to s \" m apas di gitales\" para plan ifi car e i mplementa r actividades de desa rrollo y mejoras de in fraestructura co n el fin de combatir la pobreza y disminuir la degra dac io n del suelo. At las simi lares estan elabo rando se en la actualidad para otros lugares claves en los And es.En Carch i, Ecuad o r, los c ientifi cos del CIP esta n relac ion ando modelos de procesa mi ento de sue los, ca l idad de pa stos, produ cti v idad lechera y crecimiento de cultivos con un mode lo de «co mpensac iones» eco nomicas que cua ntifi ca n los costos y beneficios de diferentes esce narios en termino s de sa lu d, productividad, rentabilidad e impac to ambiental. Este esfuerzo debe resultar en recom endac iones especificas para el uso y ges ti o n de sue los en zo nas impo rt antes de prod ucc io n ag rfco la, al igual qu e en metodos que ayuden a los c ientffi cos y a las personas enca rga das de f ij ar polfticas, a tomar dec isio nes acertadas en otros ca mpos.En el altiplano de Bol iv ia y PerC1 , los c ientifi cos de l CIP, en co laboracion co n investi ga dores de divers as in stituc iones nacional es e internacion ales, han hecho uso de im age nes satelitales y datos pl anim etrico s de terreno para elabo rar mapas de grandes superficie s para riesgos de helada y producc ion de bioma sa . Estos mapas seran indi spensab les para in c rem entar la produ cc ion ag rf co la y lechera en una de las areas mas dep rimidas del hemisferio occidental.En la s montafi as del Afr ica Central y Orienta l, los investi gadores del C IP laboran co n otras in stitu c iones como pa rte de la lni c iativa de las Zonas Altas Africanas . Esta ini c iativa prete nd e expandir sus res ultados y metodos de in vest igac io n a zona s que no han sid o muy estudiadas, y promo ve r la idea de un desa rr o ll o rural integrado en ambi entes montafio sos co mplejos. Ac tualm ente, losc ientfficosde l CIP esta n uni endotec ni cas de gest ion integrada de plagas co n es fu erzos por mejorar la fertilidad del suelo en pequ ei1 as parce las d e papa, co n el obj eti vo de aum entar la produ cti v idad , redu c ir la perdid a de nutri entes y ayudar a co ntrolar la diseminac ion de enfermedades en los c u lt ivos.D es de su funda c io n, el CIP se ha abocado a la interaccion entre la ag ri c ultura y el medio ambi ente. Los c ientfficos del Centro han trab aj ado para redu c ir el uso de qufm icos to x icos, promover la co nservaci o n y el uso de la b iod ive rsid ad agrfcola y m ejorar las practi cas del uso de la tierra asoc iadas a los sistemas de produ cc ion de pap a y batata.No obstante, el co mpromiso de l C IP con la GRN se ini c io en 1992, ce rca de la epoca en que el Comite de Asesoramiento Tecn ico del CG IAR respondfa a la D ec laracion de Rio sobre el M edio Ambi ente y el D esa rrollo con un co nj unto de directivas destin adas a ayud ar a los mi embros a promover la agricultura sostenibl e. La sostenibilidad ambi ental rapid amente setorn o en la piedra angular de la agenda de in ves ti gac ion del CIP, no solo porque es tab a de moda, sino por la propi a naturaleza de la produ cc ion de raices tub erosas en el mundo en desa rrollo.A diferenc ia de la mayo rfa de areas produ cto ras de ce rea les, los ambientes en qu e se c ultivan la papa y la batata ge nera lm ente se caracterizan por su co mplejid ad geografica. En las alturas de Sudamerica, Africa y As ia, la diversid ad es la caracterfstica mas notabl e del paisaje. Las pendi entes, los suelos, la disponibilid ad de ag ua e in c lu so el c lima pued en ca mbiar dram ati camente dentro de un a zona pequ efi a.a dec ision es ambienta lmente equ ivoca das sob re el uso de la tierra. En las zo nas montan osas todo esta interco nectado.Por ambos moti vos, la compl ejid ad y la interco nex io n, las so lu c io nes para mejorar la produ cc ion y hacer frente a los desafios ambi entales no deben basarse en prin c ipios general es, sino m as bi en en un co noci mi ento detal I ado ye n un entendimi ento suti I de las mu ltipl es fuerzas qu e estan en juego en un siti o dado.La Gestion de Rec ursos Naturales es po r su propia naturaleza un esfuerzo de co laborac io n. Ninguna institu c ion por sf so la puede desc ifrar caba lm ente la real id ad co mpl ej a, tan to fisica co mo hum ana, de un a reg io n o loca lid ad , y menos au n prescribir so lu c io nes a sus problemas y I levar a cabo la implementacion de las mi smas. Po r lo tanto, el CIP ha trabajado para crea r asoc iac io nes estrategicas, no so lo co n in stituciones de i nvesti gacio n, sin o co n las perso n as enca rgadas de fij ar las po liticas y las organizac iones de desarrollo.Gran parte del trabajo de El Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sosten ibl e de la Ecorregion Andina (CONDESAN) reline a instituciones de in vesti gac io n andin as e internac ion ales, uni vers id ades, age nc ias gubernamentales, ONG y otros grupo s intere sa dos en buscar so lu c iones c ientifi cas de base so l ida a los probl emas co mpl ejos del desa rrol lo rural integral en los Andes.En Co lombia, los in vesti gado res del CIP, del Cen tro Intern acio nal de Agricu ltura Tro pi ca l (CIAT), de la Universidad de Ca ld as, de la Fundacion Eduquemos, de la Univers id ad del Va lle y de la ONG CO LCIEN CIAS han estado trabajando para adaptar mod elos de gestion de cuencas a las cond ic io nes andinas. Un objetivo es desarrollar metodos para identificar los ri esgos de eros ion, lu ego estimar el impacto de intervenc io nes potenciales en la sedimentacion y el flujo de aguas. Al ser en lazados co n mode los eco nomicos, estos nu evos metodos permitiran a los investigado res eva lu ar y priorizar diferentes escenarios para el uso de tierras, tanto en termino s bioffsicos coma econom icos .En Ecuador, un eq uipo de CONDESAN liderado por la Facultad Latin oame ri cana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) y la ONG FUNDAGRO -con sede en Q ui to -se ha dedicado a desa rrollar formas de involucrar a los tres gob iern os municipales en la c uenca del rfo El Angel (prov in c ia de Ca rc hi ) en la gestio n de recursos naturales. Sabre la base de esta experien c ia, la Asoc iac ion de Municipalidades del Ecuador (AME) fungio de moderadora en un faro electro n ico de CON DESAN sob re este tema, co n una parti c ipac io n de m as de 350 perso nas de toda la zona andina. A l aumentar la descentralizacion en muchos pafses, los gob iernos locales se estan co nv irtiendo en fi guras c laves del proceso de desarrol lo .En el Peru, c ientificos de la Universid ad de Cajamarca, la ONG ASPADERUC-con sede en Cajamarca-y el CIP han venido trabajando en estrecha co laborac io n con la sucu rsa l loca l del programa nacional de conservac ion de suelos y agua. El objet ivo de este esfuerzo es desarrollar un a metodo logfa pa ra el uso de mapa s derivados de los SGI para id entifi car zo nas pro pensas a la eros ion y se lecc ion ar las interve nc iones de co nservacio n apropi adas (po r ejempl o, refo restac io n, anden er fas, aceq ui as de infiltrac io n, ce rcos v ivas, microirri gac ion). Si esta metodologfa ti ene ex ito, el equ ipo sera invitado a presentarla en Cusco y Tarma.En Bolivia, un eq uipo de CONDESAN li derado por el ln st ituto In ternac iona l de lnvest igac io n Ganadera, ILRI , qu e in c lu ye al CIP y a la asociaci6n ga nadera loca l ASPROLPA, esta trabajando para desarrollar mejoras en el uso de la ti err a y sistemas de producciori lec hera para productores de pequefia escala en el altipl ano frfo y semiarido al sudeste de La Paz. El desafio es mantener costos de produccion competitivos con aquellos de los productores de los valles interandinos e intern ac ioc nales. La labo r se esta centrando en el manejo de forrajes, la ge netica anim al y el acceso al c redito.Muchas otras iniciati vas del Consorcio son de alca nce transandino. Estas incluyen el forta lec imi ento de programas de Mag ister en C ienc ias espec ial izados en la gestio n de rec ursos naturales, la promoci6n de la in version privada en las zonas altoa ndin as, la conse rvac io n de la agrobiodiversidad mediante el mercadeo de productos andin os, y el interco nectar a perso na s que trabajan en desarrollo co n in vestigado res a traves del co rreo electro nico y las pa ginas web.El co nso rc io tambi en proporcion a un a variedad de servicios de infor macio n que in c luy e n boletines informativo s regulares, una pagin a web en In te rn et (www.condesan.org), una biblioteca virtual y un a librerfa. El brazo de info rm ac io n de CO N DESAN, lnfoAndina (lnfoandina@cgiar.org) manti ene un a red electro ni ca de 450 Consciente de l potenc ial que brin da la in vest igac i6n biotecnol 6g ica para aumentar la produ cc i6 n de alimentos y mej o rar la ca lid ad de los mi smos, el CIP ha co ntinu ado aum entando su in ve rsio n en este ca mpo . M edi ante la co mbin ac i6n de herram ientas biotecno l6gicas de ultima ge nerac i6n y la abundanc ia de la extensa co lecc i6 n de ge rm o pl asma de bata ta y papa del CIP, los in vesti gadores ag ricola s estan id ent ifi ca ndo fuentes es pecifi cas de res istenc ia a las enfe rm edades y a las pl agas, determ in ando los ge nes asoc iados co n estas ca racteri st icas e in co rporand o los a nu evas va ri edades y li neas de mejo ramie nto , Esto a su vez ayud a a proteger el medi o ambi ente medi ante la redu cc i6 n de la neces idad de in sec ti c id as y otros ag roq uimi cos.La biotecno logia moderna comprende tecn icas mol ec ul ares y ce lul ares aplicabl es a una gama de ac tiv id ades c ientificas, que in c lu yen la eva lu ac i6 n de la biod ive rsid ad , el aislamiento e ident if icac i6 n de genes especificos asociados co n caracteristicas de las p lantas y un in cremen to en la eficien c ia del fitomejoramiento. Estos metodos pueden se r utili zados para transfo rm ar ge neti camen te un cu ltivo mediante la introdu cci6 n de genes directamente a los cu lti va res. Los cu lt ivares ret ienen sus ca racteristicas deseab les o ri g in ales ya la vez obtienen nu evas mediante la trans fe renc ia de ge nes.Como la papa fue e l primer cu lti vo a lim entic io en se r ge neti ca mente transfo rm ado o \" di sefiado\", los c ientificos del CIP han to rn ado la del antera en la ap l icac i6 n de metodos biotecno l6g icos. La in gen ieria ge netica fue introduc ida al CIP en 1985. Poco t iempo despues, el CI P estuvo entre los pr imeros en ap li car estas tecnicas a la batata. Desde esa fecha, el CIP ha prod uc ido sistemat ica mente nuevos c lo nes de papa y batata med iante la in ge ni eria geneti ca, y cont inu a eva lu andol os de d ive rsas manera, in c lu ye ndo los experimentos de ca mpo.En la actualidad ex iste n mapas genet icos de papa para va ri as espec ies, in c lu yendo las es pec ies sil vestres, las espec ies cu lt ivadas primiti vas de los A nd es y las papas modernas c ulti vadas. El CIP tamb ien esta elabo rando mapas para la batata, una tarea dificil si se co nside ra la com pl ejid ad ge net ica y la escasez de informaci6n ge neti ca sob re este c u ltivo.Un a vez co mpil ada, la inform ac i6n ge neti ca es utilizad a para desarro ll ar las estrategias de in vestigac i6 n del CIP. Cuando se ha log rado id entifi car la fuente de un a ca racteri sti ca especifica deseada, el ge n o los ge nes pueden se r c lo nados y tran sfe rid os directamente o incorporados indirecta mente a va ri edades suscep tibl es u sa nd o los marca dores asociados. De este modo, la bi otecno logia esta proporcio nando al CIP las herrami entas para produc ir va riedad es co n altos ni ve les de resistenc ia duradera en el ca mpo a plagas y enfermedad es, lo que signi f ica menor u so de sustancias quimi cas t6x icas .Mediante el mapeo geneti co de focos de genes en un a gama de espec ies d ipl o id es, los in vestigadores de l CIP estan com pil and o datos mo lec ula res sobre fuentes de resi sten c ia existen tes en la co lecc i6n de germo pl asma de papa de l Centro, in c lu ye ndo la resistenc ia al ti z6 n tardio. El punto ce ntral es la ident ificaci6n de res iste nc ia poligen ica, cuantitat iva u \" hor izo nta l\" , qu e probablemente sea mas durab le que la res istenc ia especifica a determin adas razas al se r confro ntad a co n pat6genos nu evos y ag res ivos. Recientemente se han in crementado los esfuerzos para elabo rar mapa l de res istenc ia c uantitativa, y esta tarea ha tr aido mu It , p ies beneficios para la co lecc i6 n de ge rm op las ma del CIP.El CIP ha ll evado a cabo de mane ra rec urrente la selecci6n de pob laciones de Solanum tuberosum subsp.Andigena , una papa tetrap lo ide culti vada or igin ari a de America del Su r. Los esfue rzos se ce n ran en el mej o-El germoplasma de variedades cultivadas en los Andes es analizado por medio del sistema de dactilografia AFLP, separado en un secuenciador automatico de ADN, gracias a colaboradores de los Estados Unidos. Esta tecnologia sera pronto implementada en la sede, para permitir el estudio de las grandes colecciones de germoplasma en forma sistematica y regular.ram iento de la resistencia al tiz6n tardfo, como complemento a la res istencia con qu e actualm ente se cuenta en el 5. tuberosum subsp. Tuberosum. Tambien se ha id entifi cado un alto nivel de res istenc ia en 5. phureja, un a papa diploide cultivada. Ambas espec ies se estan uti I iza ndo para loca l izar ge neticamente los ge nes que pu edan co nferir resistencia c uant itati va al tiz6n tardfo.Mediante la util izac i6n de ADN polim6rfico amp I ifi cado aleator io (RAPD), polimo rfi smos de fragmentos de long itud ampli ados (A FLP), y marcadores microsate-1 ital es, los cientfficos han logrado id ent ifi car va rios loci de caracterfsticas c uantitati vas (QTL por sus siglas en in gles) que pueden contribuir a un a mayor res istencia.Los sigu ientes pasos permitiran id entificar estos loci en una amp li a gama de germoplasma a partir del repertori o genetico de la papa y utili za rl os para e l mejorami ento molecular .No obsta nte, la busq ueda de ap li cac iones de nu evas herrami entas biotecnol6gicas no se detiene en este punto. Los in vest igadores del ln stituto Internacional de ln vest igac iones sab re Arroz (IRRI) y de la Universidad del Estado de Kansas estan colaborando co n el CIP para desarroll ar un co njunto de genes que podrfan desempefiar un importante papel en la protecci6n de material vegetal. Estos ge nes se pueden emp lea r como sondas para el mapeo de QTL en otros cultivos. Si resultan eficaces en la.lu cha co ntra el tiz6n tardio, se ra posible aislar los, compara rlo s con los c lones de gen es ex istentes y transferirlos a las papas susceptibles.La introducc i6n de genes med iante el mejoramiento mol ec ul ar tambien puede apro vecha r la transferencia natural de ADN mediante la bacteri a Agrobacterium tum efaciens. Se trata de un pat6 ge no de las plantas que en esta do natural transfiere el ADN de las bacterias a las ce lul as de las plantas produci endo tumores. Los in ge ni eros geneticos han log rado modifi car la bacteria de manera q ue se ha el imin ado el proceso de inducci6n de tumor para que s6 1o se transfiera el o los genes deseados a los cromosoma s de la pl anta. Tamb ien se pu ede uti I izar seg mentos cromos6m icos de ban cos que proporcionan segmentos grandes de AON para su inser-ci6n de man era que se modifiqu e la compos ic i6 n genetica de la papa y la batata .Una de las ap li cac iones mas prometedo ras del mejorami ento utili zando tecno logia de ge nes es la papa Bt.Se ha transfe rid o ex itosame nte a la papa un ge n de Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) que confiere res istenc ia a la polilla de la papa. El ge n provi ene del Plant Ge net ic Systems, Gent, Belgica. Como consecu enci a de esta modifi cac i6n genetica, se ha introducido res istencia a la polilla de la papa en va riedad es de paises en desarrollo. Actualmente, estan sie nd o so met id as a pruebas.La pol ii la de la papa ca usa gra ves danos en la papa qu e los pequefios ag ri c u I tores destinan al alm ace namiento. Esta pl aga puede causa r perdidas sign ifica ti vas en el campo, espec ialm ente en las zonas subtropi ca les o templadas ca l idas, que so n contrarres tad as por los agricultores co n fuertes dos is de in sectic idas. La res istenci a a la polilla de la papa obtenida medi ante in genieria genet ica y el uso de una ex presi6n end6gena de un a protein a de Bt co n propied ades i nsec ticidas ha dado como resu ltado altos ni ve les de resistencia tanto en los tubercu los como en el follaje de c lones y va riedades adaptadas para un a amp li a gama de agroecologias.El exito que ha alca nzado la papa Bt ha dado a los c ientificos una experien c ia va l io sa que puede exte nd erse a la batata . En la ac tualidad, la linea de in vestigaci6n mas prometedora para el desarrollo de res istenc ia de la batata a los go rgojos se basa en el empl eo de genes ex6genos co mo el gen de la papa Bt. Se co ntinu a buscando el ge n Bt mas apropiado para la batata.En las variedades transgenicas de papa con el gen Bt se observan impresionantes resultados en la resistencia a la polilla de la papa, tanto en el follaje como en los tuberculos. Las papas no transformadas (lado izquierdo de las fotos) muestran un gran dafio en las hojas y en los tuberculos. Las papas transformadas (lado derecho de las fotos) practicamente no muestran ninguna sefial de dafio.Se ha ex presado gran preoc upac 1on publi ca respecto a la bi osegur idad de los organi sm os m odifi cados ge neticam ente. El C IP consid era qu e co n adec uado cuid ado y esm ero, la in ge ni eria geneti ca de c ulti vos es un modo v iabl e de produ c ir alim entos para la po bl ac i6n mundi al qu e, segun los pron6sti cos, se multiplicara en la pr6x im a m itad del si g lo.El C IP ado pta todas las medid as necesa rias para asegurar qu e su in vesti gac i6 n bi otecno l6gica cumpl a con los estand ares de seg urid ad aceptados intern ac io nalm ente. Adem as, el Ce ntro cu mpl e co n todos los requi sitos lega les de los pai ses do nd e se ll eva a ca bo este tip o d e tareas. El C IP c uenta co n un Co mi te de Bi osegurid ad qu e superv isa toda la ex perim entac i6 n que se efectu a en pl antas m odificad as geneti ca mente de acu erd o a reg las de con d ucta establ ec idas. EL Centro trabaj a de m anera tr ansparente, ide ntifi ca adec uadam ente todos sus m ateria les y to m a medid as extrem as de p reca uc i6 n en los as untos co ncerni entes a la bi oseg uri dad.La preocupac i6 n en c uanto a c ul t ivos transge ni cos tiene dos aspec tos, pu es se refi ere al ri esgo po tenc ial p ara los co n sumid o res, al igual que para el medi a ambi ente. El CIP abo rd a estas preoc upacion es co n es mero a l pl anifi ca r e im pl ementar todo trabaj o co n materi al modi fica do ge neti ca mente.A l desarro ll arse las pl antas transge nicas, la hi bri daci6 n qu e se produ ce en los ensayos de campo en tre el las y o tras espec ies relac io nadas o si lves tres se elim i na medi ante la remoc i6 n di ari a de los boto nes f lo ral es de las pl antas, destru ye ndo tod o e l fo ll aje al mo m enta de la cosec ha y mo ni to rea ndo el m ed ia ambi ente.Preocupa qu e las va ri edad es ge neti ca mente m odifi ca das pu edan introduc irse en las inmedi ac io nes de los ce ntro s de dive rsid ad de pap a o ba tata. Para minimi z ar el ri esgo de qu e flu ya n ge nes a co njuntos de ge nes nativos, se pu ede usa r genotipos esteril es m ac hos, en con co rd anc ia co n las pa utas establ ec id as en el tal ler in tern ac io nal rea li za do en 1995.Otras preoc upac io nes a ni ve l mundi al se relac io nan con los derec hos de pro pi edad intelec tu al (D PI) sabre los rec ursos ge neti cos y el materi al ge neti ca mente mejorado a traves del fitom ej o rami ento c las ico de pl antas, m ateria les m odi fica dos por in ge ni eri a geneti ca, y proceso s y tec no logi as ag rico las. El CIP, al igual q ue o tros centros in tern acio nales del Gru po Co nsulti vo para la lnvesti gac i6n Ag rico la Intern ac io nal (GCI A I), ma nti ene un a pos ic i6 n fir me de qu e sus mater iales, produ ctos, inn ovac io nes y tec no logia se m antenga n a la libre d ispos ic i6 n de los benefi c iari os de los pai ses en desarroll o . El G rup o Co nsulti vo para la ln vest igac i6 n Ag ricola Intern ac io nal ha aproba do las directri ces sabre el uso de rec ursos ge neti co s de pl antas y los DPI relac ion ados co n el pro p6sito de pro move r el acceso irrestri El C IP co ntinu ara ex igiendo qu e las entid ades come rc iales y priva das qu e desee n pro tege r los D PI de las va ri edades logradas con un a co ntribu c i6 n sustanc ial del C IP obtenga n el co nse ntimi ento del Ce ntro. Este co nse ntimi ento se ra otorgado so lamente si resulta en algun benefic io p ara qui enes origin alm ente sumini straro n los rec ursos ge neti co s qu e co ntri buyero n a desa rro ll ar las va ri edades, o si el mund o en desa rroll o p uede acceder li brem ente a di c h as va ri edades. A l mismo ti empo, el CI P rec ibe y em pl ea mate ria l pro teg id o po r los DPI de terce ro s medi ante ac uerdos transparentes que estab lece n c laramente las res tri ccio nes y ob li gac io nes en cuanto al uso del m ateri al po r pa rt e del Centro y sus asoc iados. El CI P em p lea ra este materi al so lam ente si ex iste es peranza razo nab le de qu e los produ ctos resul ta ntes esta ran di spo nibl es pa ra su libre d istribu c i6 n, o sil os resul tad os de in vest igac i6 n del uso del m ateri al benefi c iaran al mund o en desa rrollo.En Java , un equipo de in ves ti gac i6n de oc ho persona s es ta elaborando metodos pa ra el manej o integ rado de la ba tata , un c ulti vo de v ital impo rtancia que ha sid o poco investi ga do en Ind o nes ia. El equipo es ta disefiando los p rog ram as de estudi o y los materi ales edu ca ti vos para los tall eres de ca mpo para ag ri c ultores donde se ensaya, refin a y pru eba los nu evos materi ales.En las montafias de N epal, los ex pertos en c ulti vo de raices estudi an la forma que las co munid ades participen conjuntamente en el m anejo del ti z6n tardio de la papa, un a pl aga devastadora que pon e en serio peligro la segurid ad alim entar ia d e las familias. Uno de los pr in c ipales reto s co nsiste en lograr qu e los pequefio s ag ri c ultores coo rdin en la rotaci6n de c ulti vos y los procedimi entos de c uarentena para control ar la disemin ac i6 n del pat6geno.En el no rte del Peru , dond e el t iz6 n tardio a menudo di ez ma cu lti vos enteros de papa, desde hace mu c hos afios dece nas de in ves ti ga dores es tan estudi ando la res istenc ia al t iz6 n tardfo de va ri ed ades p rom etedoras de papa en un ampli o espec tro de co ndi c io nes c lim aticas, de c ultivo y ambi entales . Tanto los res ultados como los m etodos de investigaci6n se ran in co rp o rados al programa piloto de esc uelas de ca mpo para ag ri c ulto res en se is pai ses, a part ir de 1999 .En el ce ntro y sur del Peru , lo s es pec iali stas en co nservac i6n es tan sembrando c iento s de variedades tradic io nales de papa y otras va ri edades de tubercul os y raices, co m o parte de un esfuerzo para mantener la b iodiversid ad ag rico la de la reg io n. La ini c iati va t iene po r f in co mpl eme ntar la co nse rvaci6 n ex situ (e n ba ncos de ge nes), so metie nd o las va ri eda des tradi c io nales a presiones evo luti vas no rm ales.En este caso, los inves ti gadores no so n c ientifi cos sin o agricu lto res cuya parti c ipac i6 n en el proceso de in vestiga c i6 n no s6 1o acelera la adopc i6 n de nu evas tecnologias, sin o que co ntribu ye a asegurar qu e estas tecn o log fa s efecti va mente sa ti sfaga n neces id ades y condi c io nes del mund o rea l.En el programa de in ves ti gac i6 n de manejo y culti vo de batata del CIP en Ind o nes ia, trabaj an dos agricultores con sultores cuid adosa mente e leg idos de ca da un a de las cuatro zo nas diferentes de estudi o qu e estan co laborand o estrechamente co n expe rto s de l CIP, un o rganism o no gubernamenta l asociado, un in stituto de investi gac i6n nac io nal y el programa na c io nal de manejo integ rado de pl agas. Su interve nc i6 n en cada fase del disefio, la impl ementac i6 n y eva lu ac i6 n del proyec to los ha ayudado a aumentar los rendimi entos, red uc ir costos, redu c ir el uso de sustanc ias qufmi cas y en tend er mejor los sistemas eco l6g icos y biol 6g icos.Tambi en ti enen mayor capac id ad para resolver pro bl emas y pa ra tom ar dec isio nes . Durante la primera ca mpafia se efectuaro n expe rim entos re lat iva mente se nc illos: pruebas de lfneas de mej o rami ento de batata para identifi ca r res iste nci a a enferm eda des y eva lu ac i6 n de re nd imientos basados en las difere ntes dos is de urea. En la segunda ca mpafi a, los agr ic ultores ya di se fi aban y reali zaba n expe rim entos sofisti ca dos de manejo de multife rt ili za ntes y sob re la efect iv idad relat iva de un a se ri e de pract icas cu ltura les .Tanto los resu ltados co mo los metodos se esta n ca nalizan do a otros agri cultores a traves de las esc uelas de ca mpo para agri culto res durante las ca mp afi as largas . A fines de 1998, m as de 80 agricultores, extensi o ni stas y personal de desa rrollo de trece provincias habian recibido capac itac io n para convertirse en faci I itado res de esc uelas de cam po para agricu I tores. Los talleres de capac itac io n en ca mpo sobre co ntro l integrado de cu lt ivo de batata rec ibieron la participacion de 161 agri cultores. Esto s talleres edu cati vos de campo perm it iero n aumentar los ren dimi entos, reducir los in sumos externos y mejorar la capacidad de los agricultores para ada ptar e impl ementar la tecno logia de m anejo integrado de cultivos. Todo ello provoco el interes de la Direccion de Produ cc ion de Cultivos Alimenticios de Ind ones ia qu e des igno un programa nac ional de escuelas de ca mpo para agricultores para capacitar a12,000 agricultores en 13 pro v in c ias. Los parti c ipantes en el programa se ran ca pa c itado s en m anejo integrado de cultivos por fac ilitadores de las esc uelas de campo para agricu I tores.La participacion es e l corazon del enfoque adoptado por las esc uel as de ca mpo para agri c ultores . Los tall eres de ca pac itacio n en campo no se basan en la transfe rencia unil ate ral de inform ac ion tradicional , sino en los resultado s que los pro pios agri c ultores obtienen de su invest igacion. Durante tod a la etapa de c recim iento, los agr ic ultores efectua n ex perim entos y reu nen datos usa ndo sus resultados para hacer aju stes en sus estrateg ias de manejo de c ulti vo. Algunos ag ric ul to re s qu e ya han pasado por esta experienci a de los ta ll eres de capacitacion en campo se han reunid o por prop ia iniciati va para alquilar ti erras donde efectuaran otros experimentos en temas de su interes .Gran parte de la expe riencia de in vestigac io n parti c ipatoria del CIP se ha hecho mediante el patroc ini o de la Perspectiva de los Usuarios en la ln vestigac io n y Desarrollo de la Agr ic ultura, U PWARD, una red asiat ica que reun e a c ientificos extensionistas con los gobiernos local es y personal de las ONG, familias de • agr ic ultores, comerciantes, procesa d o res y co nsumidores. La red fue estab leci da en 1990 yes financiada por el gobi erno de H o land a. La sede de coo rdin acion se enc uentra en Lo s Banos, Filipin as.UPWARD ha pu esto en march a apro x imadam ente 50 proyectos de in vest igac ion y desa rro llo de raices en seis paises del As ia. Lo s temas aba rca n el manejo integ rado de c ulti vos, co nse rvac io n de rec ursos genet icos en las comunidades, procesamiento co n va lor ag rega do y mercadeo.Un a reciente eva lu ac io n de los aspectos participatorios de estos pro yectos, mostro que la intervencion de los usuarios frecuentemente amplifica e l impacto de la in vestigacio n. Po r ej emplo, la parti cipac ion en la deter-mina c io n de necesidades puede permiti n que los investigadores opten porno tratar proyectos de in vestigacion qu e pueden ser interesa ntes desde e l punto de v ista cientifico, pero que son de re leva nci a m argina l para los usuari os fina les. Por ej empl o, un pro yegto en Filipin as se dedi ca a mejorar los hu ertos famili ares urbanos y rural es al haberse determinado el preponde rante papel qu e ju ega n en la seguridad alimentari a de los hogares, a pesar de que tradicional mente reci be n poca atencion de pa rte de los c ientifi cos ag ricolas y no son muy bi en considerados por las mi sm as familias a c uyo sustento contri bu ye n.En otros casos, un a esmerada atenc ion a las neces idad es rea l es de los presuntos beneficiarios puede modificar la manera en que los usu arios comprend en sus propias priorid ades . En Nepal , po r ejemplo, la1 co munidades dedic adas al culti vo de papa atacadas por una severa infestacion de tizon tardfo decidieron de jar de I ado los objetivos inmed iatos de la produccion de alimentos en favor de los benefic io s a m as largo pl azo que se obtienen del m anejo integrado de plagas.Tambi en se ha determin ado que la participacion es fundamental para ampliar el c ulti vo de apa, como en el caso de la prov in cia de Zhejiang, en la region oriental de Chin a, donde los ag riculto res so n ex trem adamente ex igentes en la ca l idad agro nolill ica y de mesa de su s culti va res . En es ta region, la part ic ipac ion del agricultor en la eva luac io n de las papa s ge net icamente mejoradas ha sido un factor crucial para la adopc ion de nuevas va ri edades en un a de las partes mas pobres del pais (ver Diversificando Oietas en China, pag. 15).La participacion de los ag ricultores se ha to rn ado rec ientemen te en un compone nte c lave de la in vesti- Los c ursos de campo para el tizon tard fo han tenido multiples propositos, como educar a los ag ri c ultores sob re el manej o integrado de enfermedad es, ace lerar la eva lu ac io n y el estab lec imi ento de vari edades de papa resistentes, proporc io nar a los agr icu I to res herramientas analiti cas con las c uales puedan enfrentar futuros probl em as y generar d atos de manera qu e los c ientfficos pu edan realizar es tudi o s in teg rales, desde la genetica de la resiste ncia has ta la ep id em io logia del ti zo n tard io.Este ultimo beneficio pu ede ser sumam ente importante. Los experimentos de ca mpo son costos os y a menud o sufren li mitacion es c ru c iales debid o a fa lt a de tiempo y esp ac io . En la in vest igac io n co nvenc io nal, las h ipotes is frec uentemente se exa m in an sob re la base de los datos recol ectados en dos luga res durante d os afio s de culti vo . Sin embargo, dado qu e los agri c ulto res han estado condu c iendo la in ves ti gac ion en sus propios ca mpos, el volumen de d atos disponibl es se eleva enormemente. En el caso de l ti zo n tardio, ello permite qu e los c ientffi cos evaluen c on mu c ha mayor prec isio n la estabi lid ad de la resi stenc ia a la enferm ed ad y los rendimi entos de las lin eas de mejorami ento y de las v ari edades pro m isorias . Esta mej o r comprensio n es particularm ente ut il en las areas montafiosas, do nde lo s facto res c li mati cos, cul tur ales y amb ientales varian signif icati va mente de un lu ga r a otro.La calid ad de la in forma c ion ge nerada po r los ag ri c ulto res pued e ser so rprendentemente alta. El equ ipo de tizon tardio del CIP co mparo los resu ltados de in vest igac io n de seis ex perimento s de ca m po, condu c idos po r el program a de in vest igac ion agricola nac io nal del Peru , con los de cuatro experim entos de cam po, conduc idos por los ag ri c ultores co m o parte de sus ac tiv id ades de c ursos de cap ac itac ion. Lo s c ientificos encontraron qu e los datos ge nerados por los ag ric ultores era n tan bu enos o mejores qu e los de los in ve stigadores profes ion ales.La participac io n del agr icu lto r necesariam ente varia seg un el lu ga r y los objetivos qu e se persiguen, y su El estudio de UPWA RD, aunqu e es altamente positi vo por los ben ef ic ios qu e apo rta a la in vesti gacion partic ipato ri a, puso de reli eve vario s retos y posibl es areas pro b lematicas. Estas in c luyen la d if icultad de determinar el nume ro y ti po de particip antes de cada pro yecto es pecifi co, la neces id ad de metodos participato rios qu e respeten la di ve rsid ad c ultural y lin guisti ca, la impo rtanc ia de que los c ientffi cos y no c ientfficos compartan la co mp rension de los obj etivos de l proyecto, y la nece sid ad de cu antifica r o est imar el impacto de la partic ipacion en termino s de los diferentes in tereses de todos los part ic ipantes . En algun os cas os, el estudi o determin o que los usuario s f in ales so n m as efecti vos com o co nsu ltores, mi entras queen otros ca so s pu eden se r mej o res en ca lid ad de disefi ado res de pro yectos o admin istrado res de in vest igac ion. No hay pu es, en res umen, una fo rmul a se ncill a para la in ve sti gac io n parti c ip atoria y el desa rro ll o.D ada la compl ejidad de los ecos istemas de las zo nas altas y el mayor reco noc imi ento de la importanc ia de adaptar so lu c ion es tecn icas a las neces idades especificas ambi enta les y eco no m icas de los pequefios produ cto res, un numero c rec iente de c ientif icos esta exper imentando co n enfoques parti c ipatori os. Como pa rte del proceso, se han dado c uenta qu e los agri cultores no so n so lo be neficiario s de la in ve st igac io n, sino que a menudo so n tambien soc ios in dispe nsa b les .Agricultores que participan en los cursos de base del CIP, trabajando una parcela comunal en Chimborazo, Ecuador.. ';-, IAgricultores Reponen sus Cultivos de Papa con Colecci6n del Cl P La coleccion de papa que mantiene el Cl Pesta pagan do dividendos a los agricultores peruanos. Los cientificos del Centro respondieron a un llamado de ayuda transmitido por una de las estaciones peruanas de radio mas populares. Las autoridades de Cochas Paca, distante comunidad altoandina del departamento de Lima, comunicaron la perdida de sus va riedades tradicionales debido a un serio brote severo de tizon tardio, la devastado ra enfermedad de la papa. Las fuertes lluvias y elevadas temperaturas ocasionadas por el fenomeno de El Nino agravaron el problema, incrementando la v irulencia de la enfermedad. Las autoridades de Cochas Paca habian oido hablar del banco de genes de papa del CIP y decidieron transmitir publicamente su peticion de ayuda. El CIP respondio proporcionando semi I la de 1 09 cu lti va res de papa tradicionales de la misma region para restituir aquellos perdidos debido al tizon tardio . Situaciones similares surgieron en otras dos comunidades altoandinas: en Racracalla (depa rtamento de Junin) los agricultores recibieron 79 cultivares de papa ye n lscopampa (departamento de Huanuco) se restituyo a la comunidad 51 cultivares.La poblacion 83, la fuente mas avanzada de resistencia horizontal al tizon tardio qu e se esta mejorando en el CIP, ha rendido aproximadamente 60 clones altamente resistente s con caracteristicas agronomicas sobresalientes y altos rendimientos de tuberculos. La resistencia al tizon tardio, las caracteristicas agron6micas y la ca l idad (tanto para papa fresca de con sumo como de procesamiento) se mejoran de manera continua en el CIP mediante ciclos de selecci6n recurrentes. Tras haber sido seleccionados de la primera recombinaci6n del ciclo de la poblaci6n 83 , se probaron 60 nuevos clones, bajo condiciones severas de enfermedad, en dos localidades de las zonas altoandinas del oriente peruano. El primer lugar, Comas, es representati vo de un valle interandino mientras que el segundo lugar, Oxapampa, tiene las caracteristicas tipicas de un ambiente de bosque tropical alto. Los clones del CIP tambien resistieron los efectos del fenomeno de El Nino de 199 7-98 que contribuyo a elevar ma al la de lo usual la incidencia de esta enfermedad. Los mejores clones dieron rendimientos de hasta 3,3 kilog ~amos de tuberculos comerciales por metro cuadrado ~5 dias despues de sembrados, sin aplicacion de fungi c idas. Unos 30 clones se utilizaran el pro x imo ano e1 el Pe.ru en los cursos de capacitacion en campo pa ~a agricultores, preparandolos para su distribucion a los institutos de investigacion agricola nacional, siguie do los protocolos de cuarentena .Una patologa del CIP ha desarrol lado un nuevo ju ego de materi ales de capacitacion basados en su metodo refinado de deteccion de Ralstonia solana 9earum, el patogeno que causa la march itez bacteriana.i° podredumbr.e marron en la papa . El juego de materif les de capac1-• taci6n incluye un v ideo, un manual de i 1struccion sobre el uso de la serie de posenriquecimiento NCM-ELISA (prueba de enlazamiento de enzimasj inmunoabsorbentes o uso de muestras de membrana den itrocelu losa enriquecida). Los materiales estan dis ponibles e_n ingles, chino y castellano. Con estos nu ~vos -mater1ales, los cientificos del Cl P I levaron a cabo una serie de actividades de capacitacion en Americk Latina, Africa del Este, el Sudeste asiatico y Chin J En 1998 los materiales se distribuyeron en 1 S paisE1 en desarrollo.El test de ELIS A del CIP se hace en membranas de nitrocelulosas y no en placas de microti ~ulacion, lo cual reduce su costo. Otra ventaja es que las m embranas pueden almacenarse varia. s semanas por lo que pueden ser sacadas de los laboratorios para hacer pru ebas. Con los materiales se puede detecta r toda las razas, biovares y serotipos de Rs, aun en tuberrnlos o tallos sin sintomas (por ejemplo, infecc ion es lat ntes). Antes de la prueba, los extractos de tuberculcis tleben enriquecerse en un caldo semiselectivo. Esto aumenta la sensibilidad mas de 1 millon de veces, ~ermitiendo la deteccion de hasta 1 0 bacterias por mi Ii I itro (e n vez de los 1-10 millones/ ml que normalmente serequiere para la deteccion). La mayor precision de estos procedimientos refinado s hace posible aseg rar de manera rapid a, faci I, confiable y barata que los material es para la siembra esten I ibres de marchitez ba ateriana en todo el mundo . La serie tambien es adecuai:la para investigac ion epidemiologica de la marchite~ bacteriana por evaluacion de germoplasma.Un a nu eva tec ni ca, basa da en el metodo NASH , ayud a ~.a detectar un a amenaza qu e es ta aparec iendo en la zon a andin a: el v irus de am arill ami ento de la papa. La ev iden c ia de es te viru s en c ulti va res peru anos encont rados en 1998 sugiere qu e el v iru s entro po r lo menos un afio antes, p ro babl emente medi ante la impo rtac ion d e culti vares ex tranj ero s. El es tudi o y co ntro l del v iru s es dific il debid o a la falta de tecnolo gia co nfi abl e de deteccion. Los v iro logos de l CIP estan a la bu squ ed a de metodos de eva lu ac io n efi c ientes para impedir qu e la enfermedad se propague. No se pu ede confi ar en las mu estr as de eva lu ac ion es po r sintom as v isibl es del v irus ya qu e el age nte ca usa l es ta latente en algun os c u ltivares, parti c ul arm ente en tub ercu los cu lti va dos en las zona s altoa ndin as bajo co ndi c ion es m as frias. H ac ienda uso de un a pl antill a de ac id o rib o nucl eico (AR N), los c ientifi cos del C IP han elaborado un metodo de detecc io n del v iru s. Esta tecn ica se ra util izada po r los laboratori os de cuarentena y el CIP para asegurar que los materi ales distribuid os a nivel intern ac ion al esten libres del v iru s.La polilla del tuberc ulo de papa, Tecia solani vora, esta amenazand o las papas en la reg ion andin a lu ego de ca usar estr agos en Am eri ca Ce ntral. A pesa r del uso inten si vo de in sec ti c id as en esa reg ion donde aparentemente se ha o ri gin ado la pl aga, T. solanivora ha viaj ado sostenid amente hac ia el sur a Ve nez uel a, Co lo mbi a y Ec uador. Para detener la embes tid a, el Peru ha co nce n-•trado sus rec ursos en la preve nc io n incluyend o la pl aga en su li sta de .. cuarentena y medi ante un programa de detec c ion a gran esca la. Para co ntribuir a la ta rea , el CIP ha propo rc io nado ayud a tec ni ca a SEN A SA, la entid ad peru ana del sec tor agri c u ltura a ca rgo de la o pera c ion. Junta a otros in ves ti ga dores, el CIP tambi en esta trabaj ando para desa rrol lar un a estrateg ia de manejo integ rado de p laga s qu e pu eda d ar a los ag ri c ulto res mejor acceso a las herrami entas y la ca pac id ad de lu c har contra esta pl aga. Las tram pas de feromo nas (e n los ca mpos de los agri cultores) y baculoviru s (en las unid ades de alm ace nami ento de tub erculos) se usa n ampli amente. Tambi en se han adaptado las tecnologias empl ea das en el co ntro l de la po lill a co mun del tub erc ul o para usarl as contra la Tec ia. El pro ximo afio , el CIP eva luara su s va ri edades de papas transgeni cas ( Bttr ansfo rmadas ) para tratar de ayud ar a man ejar es ta devas tadora pl aga . La va ri ed ad mas popular (Parda p astuza) ha sid o transformada y actu almente es evalu ada par el CIP .Un a nueva enferm edad ha hec ho su aparicion en las zo nas papera s del sur del Peru , do nde se c ulti va m as de l 50% de la produ cc io n to tal de este tub erculo. La enfe rmedad, qu e ca usa si ntom as simil are s a aqu ell os de l viru s de la papa (enro ll ami ento seve ro de hoj as, y pl antas debi les y enanas), ha redu c id o los rendimi entos en m as de 60 % . Los c ientifi cos asoc ian su disemin ac io n co n los patron es de alim entac io n del insecto sili do Russe lliana solanico la, de rec iente introducc ion y disemin ac ion en la reg io n. lni c ialmente se atribu yo estos sintomas a un fitop lasma. N o o bstante, estudi os rec ientes sugieren qu e el o rga ni smo es transmitid o po r otro in secto de la fa mili a Ci ca llid ae, Empoasca sp. La ocurrenc ia de enfe rm edades ca usa das por fitopl asm as en los va ll es produ cto res de semi I las de las zon as altas po ne de reli eve esta nu eva enferm edad del grup o de fito pl asmas. Este nu evo v iru s isometri co es di fe rente (se ro log ica mente ye n sus priorid ades bioquimi cas) a cualqui er otro v iru s de papa. H ac ienda uso de mu es tras infectadas, los c ientifi cos del CIP han desc rito este nu evo virus, el SB-26, y han podido aislarlo consistentemente de pl antas sintom at icas. En la actu alid ad la in vesti gacion se aboca a id entifi ca r el virus y obtener tecn o logia esp ecifi ca para detec tarl o de man era qu e las prog ramas de pro du cc io n y c uarentena pu edan impedir su ava nce. Los es fu erzos de los agricultores po r manej ar el in secto vecto r han fracasa do. En efec to, la pob lacio n de in sec tos ha aum entado . D ebido a la alta ve loc id ad del in sec to vec tor, este v iru s tambi en represe nta una gran amenaza potenc ial para otras reg ion es paperas de Am eri ca del Sur.--.0 D ~l J ~.J ** l ncluye $120 ,000 de l Gobi erno de las Pafses Ba jos . El manejo de liquid ez sigue siendo un desaffo para las act i v id ades fin anc ieras d e l C IP. Hasta e l 3 1 de diciemb re, el CIP hab fa rec ibido 9 .1 mi I I ones de do lares (79 %) del in greso de efectivo espe rado para e l ano en curso . Aun faltab a rec ibir 5.0 millon es de d6 1ares . Las cuentas por co br a r incluf a n contribucio n es compromet id as de 3.6 millones de do lares, en 1998 y 1.4 millones de d6 1ares, en 1997.rd@ r ccrp en 1998La ad ministracion de l CIP pi ensa forta lecer su manejo de dinero medi ante la coordin ac i6n co n los donantes para ac ortar e l t iempo qu e t arda en rec ibir las co ntribuciones, de manera qu e pueda coord in ar la ll ega da de din ero con los gastos ya la vez cont inu ar aprovechando su habilidad para sol ic itar prestamos con una not ifi cac ion breve y en terminos favo rab les cuando sea necesa rio.El in greso total del CIP comprende do I ares (44%), euro (22%) y otras monedas (34%). Como resultado, el in greso esta altamente influ enciado por los mercados fin anc ieros intern ac ionales. La posicion del es tado fin anc iero desd e el 3 1 de dici embre de 1998  En 1998 el CIP culmino el primer af\\o de actividades del nuevo sistema de manejo basado en diecisiete proyectos que abarcan todas las actividades programaticas del CIP. El sistema es resultado de un esfuerzo profundo e intenso para establecer prioridades que orienten el programa de investigacion del Centro. Estos proyectos se abocan a las I imitaciones mas urgentes que enfrenta el mun do para mejorar la cal idad de vida sosten ible mediante la produccion y uti I izacion de papa y batata, el manejo de recursos naturales en el ecosistema de montaf\\a, y la conservacion y uti I izacion de raices y tuberculos an di nos usados hasta hoy. Los proyectos form an la base del plan a mediano plazo del CIP aprobado por el Grupo Consultivo para la lnvestigacion Agricola lnternacional(GCIAI) para los proximos tres af\\os.La cartera de proyectos constituye una agenda de investigacion que responde a requerimientos especificos y se implementa a traves de estrategias regionales en todas las areas relevantes de produccion del mundo . La implementacion en cada region comprende una relacion estrecha con los programas nacionales, universidades, ONG (locales, regionales e internacionales), agricultores, asociaciones de agricultores y el sector privado.Tambien es importante y necesario contar con una asociacion estrecha con instituciones a la vanguardia en la investigacion que aporten las herramientas o tecnicas mas adelantadas para enfrentar dichas limitaciones.N° PRO. Este proyecto representa la prioridad mas alta del CIP en este momento y se dirige principalmente a elaborar, adaptar e integrar tecnologias para el manejo de la enfermedad de cultivos agrfcolas mas grave del mundo. El proyecto integra herramientas biotecnol6gicas para la epidemiologfa del pat6geno y para lograr resistencia a la enfermedad mediante su manejo y control en el campo, gracias a los cursos de capaci t aci6 n en campo para agricultores.La investigaci6n estrategica tiene como fin obtener, adaptar e integrar tecnologias de manejo del tiz6n tardfo, causado por Phytophthora infestans, la mas grave enfermedad de papa a nivel mundial . El CIP usa una serie de metodos que inclu ye n las tecnicas biotec-nol6gicas mas avanzadas que existen para crear poblaciones reproducibles y clones avanzados con resistencia duradera al tiz6n tardio. Se esta obteniendo tecnologias con componentes adicionales para el manejo de .enfermedades bajo las condiciones de los agricu 1tores de escasos recursos de los paises en desarrol lo. Se estan disefiando e implementando metodos de manejo integrado de enfermedades gracias a la colaboraci6n entre sistemas nacionales de investigaci6n, agencias gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, y los mismos agricultores.La marchitez bacteriana es la segunda enfermedad de la papa mas grave del mundo . Como es diffcil obtener y mantener resi stenc ia, el programa del CIP se concentra en la observaci6n y diagn6stico de la presencia de la bacteria en el suelo y los tuberculos. El prop6sito es mejorar el manejo en el lugar mismo , en los sistemas de semi I las ye n el uso de material res iste nte ya d isponible. La disminuci6n de la transmi si6n de la enfermedad es el objetivo principal del control.La marchitez bacteriana, causada por Pseudomonas solanacearum, sigue al tiz6n tardio coma principal factor fitopatol6gico limitante de la producci6n de papa en el mundo en desarrollo . En afios recientes, la enfermedad se ha diseminado a paises templados coma Holanda y el Reino Unido, donde puede amenazar la producci6n de papa . Este proyecto esta dirigido a documentar las practicas conocidas de control integrado (rotaci6n, sanidad, selecci6n de semilla, etc.) que usan los agricu I tores en los paises productores de papa seleccionados, donde la marchitez es una limitante seve ra, y posteriormente verificar estas practicas mediante pruebas de rendimiento . Ademas, pretende culminar la selecci6n de progenies de papa con tolerancia a la enfermedad logradas en los ultimas afios para pro mover el manejo integrado mediante un mejor conocimiento de la transmisi6n de la enfermedad y su control en diferentes sistemas de producci6n, al igual que el uso de variedades de papa resistentes.Los virus causan enormes perdidas de pTpa e impiden e l traslado de semi Ila y recursos geneticos. El proyecto se centra en los siguientes aspectos: sensibilidad, de-tecci6n a bajo costo y factores epidem iol6gicos que afectan su diseminaci6n. La ingenieria genetica se utiliza para identificar, clonar y transferir genes de especies relac ionad as a la papa para logr 1 ar resi stencia; e llo se combina con metodos tradicion ales de mejoramiento para alcanzar ma x ima eficienc ia en la incor-poraci6n de la resistencia para diferentr virus.Este pro yecto se dirige a identificar y cTracterizar los v irus y agentes similares mas important) S que afectan a la papa , lo cual es un paso esenci al para poder elaborar tecnicas de diagn6stico. El pro yecto pretende desarrollar metodos sensibles de bajo costo para la detecci6n en gran escala y para identi f icar aquel los genes que confieren resistencia contra lb s principales virus y luego usarlos para obtener cultiva 1 res resistentes adaptados. Se estan empleando metodos 1 convencionales de mejoramiento, al igual que las tecnicas moleculares mas avanzadas que se disponen . Los investigadores del CIP tambien estan investigan do los factores epidemiol6gicos que afectan la disemin aci6n de virus, con particular enfasis en la interacci6n entre los virus y otros pat6genos que pudieran influir en la respuesta de la resistencia de la planta. A la ve~, nuestros inve stigadores estan capacitando cientificos nacionales en la identificaci6n y detecci6n de v irus 1 yen tecnicas de control. Las actividades de investigac i6n y capaci-taci6n se concentran en los v irus mas imi;>ortantes de la papa: el v irus del enrollamiento de la p1pa (PLRV), el v irus yde la papa (PVY) y el v irus xde la ~apa (PVX), al igual que el viroide ahusado del tuberc ~lo de la papa (PSTVd ). Se presta especial atenci6n al uso/adopci6n de material es practicos, resistentes al virus producidos por el CIP (inclusive genotipos que tienen una resistencia combinada a mas de un v irus, prefe i iblemente en condici6n multiplex).Las plagas mas importantes son: las polill as de tuberculo de papa (una amenaza creciente) , el ' orgojo de los A ndes, la mosca minadora de hoja, y la J mosca blanca. El objeti vo del pro yecto es combinar practicas de manejo co n los paq uetes adaptados lo ' almente para reducir el uso de pesticida s qufmicos e i ~crementar los beneficios totales para los agricultoresl . Los co mponentes incluyen los aspectos biol6gicos, ! u lturales y de resistencia para logra r el control.El proyecto busca obtener prototipos de programas de Manejo I ntegrado de Plagas para el contr0I de plagas de insectos importantes de la papa, ponie rl do enfasis en practicas sostenibles, ecol6gicas y ec ~n6micas que conllevaran a la reducci6n del uso de pe ticidas quimi-' cos. Las prin c ipales plagas de importanci a a nivel reg ional y mundi al son tres espec ies de la polilla del tubercu lo de la papa, varias es pec ies de gorgojos de los Andes, una espec ie de mosca minadora y va ri as espec ies de pulguill as de la papa. Las espec ies de nematodos que disminuyen los rendimi entos de papa y favo rece n el establecimiento de patogenos de m arc hitez bacteriana son: el quiste d e la papa, el ros ario y los nematodos del nudo de la raiz .Aument ar la efi c ienc ia y efectiv id ad de los siste mas tanto formales co mo inform ales de se mill as, es el objet ivo de este proyecto. La introd ucc i6n va rieta l y su difusion depend en de sistem as in for males, pero debe es tar I igada al sistema formal y debe pon er en fas is en material de bu ena calidad para la siembra. El proyecto log ra es te obj et ivo m ed iante la ca pa c itac io n d el agr icultor y el es tab lec imi ento de siste mas piloto de sem i I las.En muchos paises, la falta de sistemas de semillas de papa formal es e informal es ha limitado la difusion de variedades nu evas y mejoradas debido a qu e so lo se c uenta con ca ntid ades I imitadas de material sa no para siembra clon al. Este proyec to proporcion a as istencia c ientifica y tecnica a algunos sistemas seleccionados fo rmal es e informales de diferentes paises para que mejoren su efi c ienc ia y efectividad. El proyecto tambien examina nu evas rela c ion es o es labon ami entos entre sistemas de semi I las formales e informal es, co n el objeti vo de ace lerar la introduce io n y difu sio n va rietal.Propagaci6n Sexual de Papa (Semilla Sexual de Papa) La semi Ila botani ca de pap a presenta cada vez mayores posibilidades en areas esp ecifi cas del mund o donde han fracasado los sistem as de prod ucc io n m as tradic io nales. El CIP co ncentra sus esfu erzos en areas potenc iales de in vest igac i6 n para mej o rar e l dese mpeno parental en hibrid os, al igu al qu e en algunos facto res limitantes (res istencia al t izon tardio, precoc id ad, formac io n de baya s, etc .) El apoyo en cuesti ones tee n icas es proporcionado por las in st itu c io nes loca les (sec to r privado, O N G 's y sistemas nac iona les de in ves t igac io n agricola) en un es fuerzo por com erc iali za r sistemas de semi Il a botani ca para apunt alar las peq uenas indu stria s emergentes.Este proyecto pretende au menta r la eficiencia (d isminuir los costos de produ cc ion e incrementa r los rendimientos) del cultivo de la papa, ampliarlo a areas no tradicionales y, mediante la transferenc ia de tecno logia de sem ill a botani ca, a regiones tropicales y subtropical es do nd e la escasez de semilla-tuberc ul o es el principal factor limitante de la produce io n. Ademas, se busca obtener semi Ila botani ca madre qu e d e buena ca lid ad de semill a y tuberculo, asi co mo tecni cas de reproduccion para la produccion de semilla botani ca.del lmpacto de la Papa a Nivel Global La fa lta de estadisti ca s co nsistentes y co nfiabl es sob re aspectos agronomi cos, eco nomi cos, soc iales y amb iental es de las tecnolo gias nu evas y mejoradas de la papa , d ism inu ye la posibi lid ad de docum entar la efecti v idad y dar pautas para la in versio n. Este pro yecto esta propo rc io nand o in formac io n para determinar las tasa s de retorno de la in vest igacio n del CIP. Se han c rea do bas es de prec io s de produccion qu e se pueden consu 1tar co nstantemente y sirve n para establ ece r pr ior idades. El an ali sis de productos basico s permite mejorar la com erc ializacion in tern a de la papa y las perspect iva s de come rc io intern ac io nal para los paises en desarro ll o .El proyecto pretende cuantificar los efectos agro no micos, eco no mi cos, sociales y ambi entales de las tecnolo gias mejoradas de papa y a la vez docume ntar la tasa de retorno y el impacto sobre la pobreza de la investigacion del CIP. Esto inc luye la evaluaci6n del nivel adec uado y la co nveni encia de las inversiones para mejorar el cultivo de papa en los paises en vias de desarro llo. Tambi en comprende la elaborac ion y mantenimi ento de bases de datos con informacion de prec ios y produ ce io n para poder esta blecer priorid ades. Se estan eva lu ando los efectos de la inestab ilid ad de precios de la papa en di ve rsos grupo s soc iales, al igual que la amplitud de las interv enc iones del secto r publi co y los incentivos del sec tor privado. La investigac io n bu sea mejorar la come rcial iz ac i6 n de papa a n ive l local y su comerc io intern acio nal co n parti cipac ion de los paises en desarrollo, asi com o fo mentar una mayor conc ienci a ent re qui enes tom an decisiones en los secto res publi cos y privados (a nivel nacio nal e intern ac ional) sabre el potenci al y los beneficios de un mayor uso de la papa.Aunq ue los v iru s de la batata cau sa n perdid as signifi cativas en la produ cc i6 n, es pec ialmente en el Afri ca Subsaha ri ana, todavia fa lta un a mayo r in vesti gac io n. Este proyecto esta elaborand o metodos de detecc i6n y co ntro l para el co mplejo de v iru s co nocido como WB V . Tambi en busca enco ntrar res istenc ia al comp lejo del viru s.En todas las regio nes, las enferm edades causadas por v iru s de la batata disminuyen los rendimi entos. El co ntrol puede ser log rad o med iante la produ cc ion de mate ri ales de siemb ra sanos y la obte nci o n de c ultivares res istentes . Co n este fin es fundamental obtener C. ROSSENOUff --. . metodos sensitivos de detecci6n de virus . La in vesti-gaci6n anterior ha mostrado una sinergia entre el v irus moteado de la batata (SPFM V) y un virus transmitido por las moscas blancas (WBV) que puede devastar cu ltivos enteros (complejo de enfermedades virosas, SP V D). Por lo tanto, simplemente usando material de siembra libre de virus se puede triplicar los rendimientos. El proyecto busca identificar con mas certeza el WBV y elabora metodos de detecci6n, ademas de aplicar metodos de control. Los investigadores buscan encontrar resistencia al WBV haciendo uso de una variedad de enfoques de mejoramiento que incluyen los metodos molecu I ares mas avanzados que existen en la actualidad.Manejo lntegrado de Plagas de la Batata El Ma nejo lntegrado de Plagas de la batata depende de un buen co noc imi ento de la biologia y del punto focal de la in c idenc ia de estas plagas. Los componentes del Manejo lnteg rado de Plagas (MIP) deben permitir la eva luac i6n eco l6g ica en lu gares especifico s y tamb ien tomar en cuenta factores soc iales. Las unidad es piloto y los c ursos de capacitaci6n en campo para agricultores se usan como mecanismos para eva luar e implementar los componentes del ma nejo integrado de plagas.El objetivo general es disefiar el manejo integrado de plagas para la batata. Estos programas buscan la compatibilidad con otras practicas de manejo de cultivos e identifican las condiciones socioecon6micas de los agricultores para asegurar soluciones efectivas y econ6micas que puedan reducir el uso de pesticidas. El logro de este objetivo requiere conocimientos s61idos alcanzados mediante el estudio de la ocurrencia estacional y biol6gica de las plagas clave; la identificaci6n de los componentes de control integrado de plagas (medidas de control); la evaluaci6n de la compatibi-1 id ad de estas med id as con facto res econ6micos, ecol6gicos y sociales que prevalecen en los agroecosistemas representativos; la implementaci6n del manejo integrado de plagas (que con I leva un manejo integrado del cultivo) en unidades piloto en campo de agricultores, recurriendo al enfoque de participaci6n; y el desarrol lo de estrategias para difundir entre organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales el conocimiento del manejo integrado de plagas mediante una labor conjunta. Esto incluye actividades de capacitaci6n y producci6n de materiales de difusi6n en este campo.U til izaci 6n de la Batata en Poscosecha El proyecto investiga una gama de tecnologias y la ado pc i6 n de ot ras para mejorar la ca lidad de v ida soste nib le de los pobres en las zo nas rurales mediante la d iversificaci6n y mayor uso de la bat1ta . En diversos paises, las muj eres y los nifios de peRuefios grupos familiares son los mas beneficiados, pu Js se in c rementa el ingreso econ6 mi co y mejora la nutri c i6n , redu c iend os e asi la pobreza.Las metas del proyecto incluyen el desarrollo de pequefias empresas que afiadan valor al Pjoducto gracias al procesamiento primario (es decir, almid6n y harina) y un uso mas eficiente de las raices d ~ la batata, sus hojas y los subproductos como forraje animal. En Africa, el objetivo es mejorar la disponibili ~ad de alimentos mediante un mejor uso de la calida 9 nutricional de la batata. El proyecto evalua cuidadosamente las oportunidades de in vestigaci6n y colabora~i6n de investi-gaci6n en mercadeo, calidad de materi ~ cruda y proceso de desarrollo, calidad del producto y aceptabilidad social de la innovaci6n a tra ves de empr1sas piloto. Con este fin , el CIP utiliza recursos como los sistemas nacionales de in vestigaci6n agricola, las ONG y los usuarios en los paises meta, conjuntamente con los centros mundiales de i nvestigaci6n que hayan alcanzado un 6ptimo nivel en disciplinas que nd estan disponibles localmente, tales como la tecnolo¢la de las ciencias alimentarias y las ciencias anim J les. Las actividades de I os proyectos es tan estrecham bnte i ntegradas con el proyecto de mejoramiento de bbtata para rendimiento de materia seca y adaptaci:6n, y con los proyectos del CIAT y el I IT A , cuando sea rele vante.Mejorami ento de Batata para Adaptacil6n y Alto Contenido de Materia Seca l El proyecto proporcio na mater ia l para umen tar el uso de la batata fresca y procesada . La materia seca, co mponente esencia l en las do s formas de uso , ha log rado in c rementarse y se ha puesto ~ disposici6n el material genet ico . Lo s nuevos clone estan siendo ada ptados a sistemas de sub sistencia de pocos in sumos para abastecer los mercados en vias d desarro l lo.Este proyecto busca mejorar la producci6n de batata y SU utilizaci6n mediante la obtenci6n n adopci6n de variedades con alto conten ido de materi a seca/ almid6n ya la vez con adaptabilidad a sistemas ~e subsistencia para agricultores con pocos insumos . L1 diversidad de germoplasma de batata del CIP se util d a para generar clones parentales de alto contenido db materia seca mediante cruzam.ientos de poblaciones :IUn marco bien establecido y descentralizado de mejoramiento usa estos clones parentales avanz.ados par~ producir nuevas variedades con mayor y mas amp I ia base genetica y buena adaptabilidad para enfrentar e ~bstres bi6tico y el abi6tico en los ambientes designa ~1 os. Se aplican enfoques moleculares para obtener, ex pander y usar eficientemente las variaciones geneti das de manera que se pueda cumplir con las necesi b des para los procesamientos. Las acti v idades de los ~royectos estan estre c hamente ent relaza d as con lo s pro yectos del Cl P en m anejo del ge rm o pl as m a de batata y la utili za cion posc osec ha.Analisis del Sector de Productos Basicos y Evaluaci 6n del lmpacto de la Batata a Nivel Global El anal isis de los productos y de los datos para med ir el impacto son dific i les de ub icar y ge nerar . Med iante estud ios de caso en paises especificos, literatura loca l y regio nal y datos para elaborar los an ali sis necesa ri os, este proyecto pro p orciona gran parte de la informacion necesaria para estud iar tanto las bar reras coma el potencial para el desarrol lo de la produccion de batata y los sistemas de poscosecha .Este proyecto rev isa datos sec un da rios y ge nera datos primari os p ara anali za r si ste m as impo rtantes de produ cc io n/ poscosec ha de batata. Co n este f in , el p royecto doc um enta el im pacto de la produ ccio n es pecifica y de las tecnologias poscosec ha, y lu ego reun e y m anti ene base s de datos sabre produ cc io n, prec ios y ut ili zac ion . Los in vestigadores evalu aran la pro du cc i o n fu t ura y las proyecc ion es de te nd enc ias de ut ili zac io n y parti c iparan co njuntamente co n la FA Q y el IFPRI en la prepa rac io n con junta de est a info rm ac io n.Se ha culminado la evaluac ion de oportunidades pa ra adaptar la papa a los sistemas agricolas de la estacion seca y fria posterior a la est acion lluv iosa del arroz . El potencia l es bueno para aumentar la efici enc ia de esta ecologia de cultivo median te la i nclu sion de la papa. La labor actual se concentra en diagno st icar las d ificultades e incrementar la productividad de un sistema basa do tot almente en pa pa-arroz. El m anejo de los recursos del ecosistem a es particularm ente crit ico y el proyecto esta elaboran do mode los para proporciona r opc iones de manejo de los recursos natural es.La produ cc ion de pa pa se ha ex pandi do ra pid am ente al t ro pi co del sur y al sud este de A sia. N o rm alm ente, el arroz se siembra al comi enzo de la estac io n de llu v ias en tanto qu e la p apa b aj o ri ego es se mbrad a en la estac io n seca fri a. El arroz baj o ri ego u otro c ulti vo se desa rro ll a en la estac ion ca lurosa del ve rano . En respu esta a la c rec iente escasez de t ierras, las papas co n un al to pote nc ial por unid ad de t iempo de produ cc io n esta n siend o cada vez m as utili za das en sistema s ag rico las sec uenc iales e inte nsivo s, tales co ma arr oz-papa-arroz, y en sistem as interc u lti vos m as in te nsivos, t ales coma arroz-papa/m aiz . Para potenciar el c ul t ivo de papa , se deben iden t ifi ca r y tr ata r los facto res qu e ame naz an la soste n ibi I id ad de estos siste m as ag rico las qu e res po nd en a in su mos. Este p royecto evalu a las o po rtunid ades de exp ansio n y sostenib i I id ad de la papa en la est ac io n seca y fria posteri o r al cul t ivo de arroz en epoca de llu v ia; di ag nosti ca los obstac ulo s para m antener y aum entar la produ ct iv id ad en siste mas ag rico las se lecc io nados basados en papa y arroz; y gene ra info rmac io n de m anejo de rec ursos natural es de los c u lti vos, co n m iras a ali v iar los prin c ip ales obstac ul os de estos cada vez mas po pul ares sistem as agrico las.Uso Sosten ible de la Ti e rra en los Andes La ecorreg ion and ina es un ecos istema pa rt icul armente v uln erab le pa ra la ag ri c ul tura sosten ible . El proyecto esta proporc io nando un a base so Iida, cientifica ytecn ica tanto para las recome ndac iones po lit icas coma tecno log icas . Se esta elabo rando tecn icas in novadoras pa ra la in vestigac io n eco rreg io nal, med iante la i ntegrac ion de mode los de c recim iento de cu lt ivos basados en procesos, sistemas de se nso res remotos y mode los de dec isiones econo mi cas, al igua l que Sistemas de lnfo rmac ion Geografica (G IS). Estas herramientas i nteg radas tamb ien p uede n adaptarse a otros ecosistemas de montafia de otras partes de l m undo.Los A ndes represe nta n una se ri e de areas uni cas en am bi entes ri cos en rec ursos natu ra les . Los hab itantes de esta eco rreg io n enfrenta n pobreza mas iva, aum ento en la po bl ac io n y degradac io n rap id a de SU base de rec ursos natura les. A dem as, ti enen el gran desa fio de aum entar la produ ctiv idad ag rico la y, a la vez, di sminuir simul ta nea mente el estre s de l medi a ambi ente. Este proyecto propan e ca racteri za r la eco rreg io n and ina en cuanto a su potenc ial para la ag ri c ul t ura sosten ibl e y propo rc io nar un a b ase para reco men dac io nes po liti cas y tec no logica s en e l area c ientif ica, tecn ica y ec ologica para las pe rson as q ue to m an las dec ision es de la reg io n. Tam b ien tr ata de enco ntrar metodo logi as inn ovadoras para la in vestigac io n eco rreg io nal medi ante un a integ rac io n efectiva de los m odelos de crec imie nto de cul t ivos basa dos en procesos, sistem as de se n sores remotos, mod elos de dec isio n eco nomi ca y sistemas de in fo rm ac io n geog rafica (G IS) . A traves de capacitac io nes co rtas e in vesti gac io n co njunta, el proyecto se pro pa ne estab lece r un a co muni dad inte rnac ion al de in vestigado res qu e t rab aj en para el desarro ll o sostenibl e de la ag ri cultura en las areas de mo nta fi a.El proyecto conse rva la colecc ion mas comp leta de papas cu ltivadas y si lvestres de l mu ndo. La caracterizac ion (tanto a nive l mo lecu lar coma morfolog ico) es un obj et ivo pr imord ial, conj untamente con el establecimiento y la dispon ib il idad de un a base de datos. Las activ idades mas signi ficat ivas se ce ntran en la ident ificac ion de las caracteri st icas deseab les pr incipa les yen la distr ibuc ion de material sa no a t raves de l mundo para la util izacion de papa en proyectos de mejorami ento. El proyec to proporc iona insumos c l aves a los esfu erzos de mejoramiento del CIP.Los obj eti vos in c lu ye n la co nse rv aci 6 n de col ecc io nes compl etas d e papas c u lti va das y si lvestres de ce ntros de di ve rsid ad , haci enda uso de tecno log ia de punta y caracteri zand o las papas c ulti va das de A meri ca Latin a pa ra dete rmin ar la di ve rsid ad ge net ica y selecc io nar un a co lecc i6 n bas ica. La i nvesti gaci6 n in te nta aum entar el uso de la di ve rsid ad ge neti ca de la pa pa m ed ia nte la ide ntifi caci6n de f uentes de ca racterist icas desea bles y la di str ibuc i6 n de se mi I las de papa sa na, asi com o de m ateri ales c lona les. Trata, as imism o, de o btener y m ante ner un a base de datos qu e co ntenga toda la in fo rm aci6 n d ispo ni b le sob re la co lecc i6 n .Conservaci 6n y Caract eri zaci6n de los Recursos Geneticos de la Batata Este proyecto conserva la colecc i6n mas comp leta de las espec ies de ipomoea cu lt ivadas y si lvestres (inc luyendo la batata cul ti vada). Se esta invest iga ndo m etodos nu evos y mas efic ientes de conservac i6 n (p.ej . crioprese rvac i6n ). La co lecci6n esta siendo caracterizada para obtener una co lecc i6n bas ica y hace rl a acce sib le a los f itomejorado res. La errad icac i6n de v irus es un componente c lave en este pro yecto. Para un uso mas ef ic ien te de la co lecci6n se estan ident ificando las ca racterist icas deseab les.Los obj eti vos del pro yec to in c lu ye n el ma ntenim ie nto de c::o lecc io nes cul t ivadas y sil vestres hac iendo uso de metodos mo dern os de co nservac i6 n. Los in vest igado res esta n eva lu and o nu evos metodos para la co nse rv aci6 n de los rec ursos genet icos de la batat a. Tam bi en es ta n ca rac ter izan do la colecc i6 n cu lti vada y se lecc ionando un a co lecc i6 n basi ca; y, a la vez , err adi ca nd o los v iru s de las entradas de la co lecc i6 n base, eva luand o las co lecc ion es pa ra ide nti f ica r fu e ntes d e ca racteristi cas desea bl es . El proyecto bu sca obtener y m antener un a base de datos qu e contenga toda la informac i6 n di spo ni b le de la co lecc i6 n. Conservaci6n y Caracterizaci6n de Ra k es y Tuberculos Andino s Las activ idades de este proyecto ayuda r a los p rog ram as nac io nales de los A nd es a ra c io n alilzar las estrategias de conse rvac i6 n de los culti vos de las raice s y t uberc u los. Se estan in c lu yendo nu eve generos pa ra su co lecc i6n , estudi o y co nse rv ac i6 n de su biod ivers idad. Tamb ien se esta in vesti gando el potenc ial para la utili zac i6 n de las raices y tubercu los and in os (RTA) en una base mas amp li a med iante patrone~ de co nsumo y me rcadeo , asi co m o la id ent ificaci6 n 9e la de mand a m al doc um entada. Lo s agric u Ito res proa uce n m ate ri al de siem bra sa no. Este pro yecto es qui z.i s el unico co n el c ual se esta hac iend a un esfuerzo sign ifi cativo para obte ner proced im ientos de ide nt ificac i6 rl y errad icac i6 n de los v irus de estos c ul t ivos subutili zAdos, pero que so n tan im portantes .Ay ud ar a los progra m as nac io nal es a J c io nali zar sus estr ateg ias ta nto para la co nse rvac i6 n ~x situ e in situ de RTA in vo lu c ra la re co lecc i6 n, el estud io y la prese rvac i6 n de la bi odi versid ad, co n enfas is + c uatro ge neros pri o ritari os (Oxalis, Ullu cus Ca nnna, y A rracacia, in c lu ye nd o las espec ies sil ve stres) y ~n el m ateri al M irabilis expa nsa, Pachyrhiz us ahipa, s 1 allanthus sonchifolius, Tropaeolum tuberosum, y Le p 1dium sp p. (H ac ienda uso de estra teg ias para I lenar jbrec has). Este proyecto esta eva lua nd o s i s t e mati ca m e ~te el potenc ial de las RTA pa ra pro move r un mayo r ufo en las montanas altas del subtr6 pi co y del tr6 pi co, 1 dentro y fu era de la region andin a, med iante un estudio de patron es actu al es de m erca deo y co nsumo. El pro yecto prete nd e ide ntifi ca r dem andas latentes de estos c ulti vos qu e puedan se r sati sfec has en el futu ro, al 1 igual qu e produc ir m ater ial es de siem bra sa nos para 1J s agri c ultores. I... ,.. '.\"\"'1IJjr .• 4 -~~t:'~ ~ w tJlllll\"\"\"' .   ' : / . 't ,.,.,,El Grupo Cons ulti vo para la ln vestigac i6 n Agrico la Intern ac io nal (GCIA I) promu eve e l desa rro ll o ag rico la sostenibl e basado en la gesti6n de los rec ursos natura les sin desc uid ar el medio ambiente. La m isi6 n de l GCI A I es co ntribuir a la segur id ad ali men tar ia ya la erradi caci6n de la pobreza en los paises en desa rrol lo, a traves de la in vesti gaci6 n, la co parti c ipac i6 n, el desarrollo de capac id ades y el apoyo al mejorami ento de las po liti cas .Creado en 1971 , el GCIA I es una asoc iac i6 n in fo rm al integ rada por 58 mi embros pertenec ientes a los sectores pub li co y pr iva do qu e respa ld an un a red de 16 centros intern ac iona les de invest igac iones agrico las. El presupu esto del GCIA I para 1998 fu e fin ancia do en su totalid ad y alca nz6 los US$345 mill o nes .El GCIAI es copatroc in ado por el Banco Mund ial, la Orga n izac i6n de las Nac iones Unida s para la Agr icultur a y la A li mentac i6n (FAO), e l Programa de las Nacio nes Un idas para el D esa rroll o (PNUD) y el Programa de las N acio nes Unidas para e l M eci io Amb iente (PNUM A). Ismail Serage ldin , V icep res idente de Programas Espec iales de l Banco Mundi al, pres id e e l Grupo.A med id a qu e nos ace rcamos al siglo XX I, e l mundo se v e co nfro ntado co n los desa fio s qu e nos im ponen los temas glo bales, estrec hamente relac io nados entre sf, como so n la pobreza, el hambre, el c rec imi ento demografico y la degradaci6 n amb iental. La ag ri c ultura sostenib le debe ser parte de la respuesta a estos desafios, ya qu e la agri cultura co nstitu ye la pi edra angular del desa rrol lo en los paises pob res, donde m as del 70% de la pob lac i6n depen de de la tierra para su superv ive nc ia. La expe ri encia no mu estra que la agricultura es un in strum ento mu y poderoso para el desarroll o, qu e ayud a a aumentar la ~eguridad alim entaria y a redu c ir el prec io de los al im entos; crear empleo y gene rar in gresos para los i pobres en zo n as rural es; ali v iar la pobreza rural y u bana; proteger y co nserva r el med io amb iente; estim u lar el desa rrol lo en e l resto de la eco no mia; y asegu rar la prosperid ;;id genera l a tra ves de l estimu lo del conr ercio intern acional y un a mayo r estab ili dad pol itica a ni ve l mund ial.El crec imi ento de la agri cultura debe ser alca nzado con metodos qu e preserven la producti vid~d de los rec ursos natu rales, sin causa r mas dafio a loslva li osos siste m as qu e sostienen la v ida en nu estro pla ~e t a, ti erra, agua, fl o ra y fa un a, qu e hoy seve n en cr isis!. La in ves t igac i6 n es el med io po r el cual aumenta y mejo ra el conoc imi ento mun dia l sob re la agri c ultu r . La in vesti gac i6 n agricola, que aspira a ayu dar a las personas mas pobres, proporc iona un bienestar duradero para sus v idas y las de sus h ij os, yes por lo tanto ese ncial para e l progreso de la hum anid ad.Los centros de l GCIAI rea li zan sus ir vest igac io nes en colaborac i6n con un a amplia represertac i6 n de asoc iados dentro del marco de un emer ente sistema de in vest igac i6 n agrico la internacional. La produ ct iv idad alimentic ia en los paises en desa rrol lo ha aumentado a traves de la ap licaci6n de tecn olog' as basadas en la in vest igac i6n . Otros resu ltados o bt n id os so n: la reducci 6 n del prec io de los alim entos, un a mejor nutr ic i6n , la ap li cac i6 n de po liti cas ma rac io nales, y el forta lec imi ento de las institucion es.La ini ciativa 'Cosecha del Futuro' (' Future H arvest'), instituida por los 16Centres del GCIAI, es un a ca mpafi a de alerta puolica que busca crear \"Nu es tra s es pe ranzas pata el pr6xi o milenio estan pu • stas en Ti rra vet e y pr6spera que mu ' cfo\".conciencia sabre la importancia de los temas agrico las y las investi gac io nes ag ricolas internaci o nales. 'Cosecha del Futuro' agrupa a renombradas institucio nes de investi gac i6n , figuras polfticas influyentes y c ientffi cos agrfco las de va nguardi a, y pon e enfasis en los grandes .,.beneficios sociales que aporta la agricultura mejorada: paz, prosperid ad, renovaci 6n ambiental, salud, y alivio del sufrimi ento de la humanidad .... ","tokenCount":"30544"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bb8cabe79177e95e031ce87fd3c87756","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b153cd86-1891-4403-846b-d4920651744e/content","id":"1617487266"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a04c5991-24d1-4589-8678-2729b5ac4912","pagecount":"31","content":"✓ Criollos mejorados ✓ Variedades mejoradas ✓ Híbridos ✓ Variedades mejoradas de trigo✓ Herramientas de diagnóstico (análisis de suelos, análisis de tejidos, franja rica, Green Seeker, Green Sat, entre otras. Producción con enfoque sistémico Adaptación a cada agroecosistema (temporal, riego, PV, OI) con un enfoque sustentable que cuida el medio ambiente, conservando el agua y suelo y asegurando la calidad de los cultivos.• Proyecto de medir salud de suelo en Norte América: 120 experimentos con 150 variables • Cada 1% de MO guarda 3 mm de agua cada 10 cm de suelo.Manejo del cultivo y uso de tecnología adecuadaComo aumentar la productividad del agua ?Agricultura de conservación Cambio de cultivoDiseño de sistema de riego Nivelación y camas elevadas Uso de sensores o software Riego reducido y Tecnificación de riegoObjetivo: Reducir la huella hídrica de la cebada maltera en el Bajio• Mayor productividad de agua y rendimiento con AC, goteo y AC+goteo • Ahorro de 1200 m3/ha en cebada y 700 m3/ha en maíz.• Suelo en AC se seca más lento al inicio del ciclo productivo Uso del agua de riego fue en promedio:• 17% menor con Agricultura de Conservación que con labranza convencional• 36% menor con riego por goteo que con riego por surcos en la labranza convencional,• 40% menor con riego por goteo y Agricultura de Conservación combinadoManejo del cultivo y uso de tecnología adecuadaMas infiltración: mas recarga de acuíferos Menos erosión: Menos sedimentos y nutrientes en canales y ríos Es posible de reducir uso de agua de riego mediante uso de buenas practicasLa AC ofrece nuevas posibilidades para mejorar el uso de agua, pero resultados dependen de sistema de producción Tecnificación de riego no es la solución prioritaria, con buenas practicas y asistencia técnica se pueden lograr grandes ahorros de aguaPileteo en condiciones sin residuos Objetivo: Mejorar la sostentabilidad hidrica de los acuiferos de Calera (Zacatecas) y Apan (Hidalgo)• Mecanización: Pileteo, nivelación y curvas de nivel + siembra directa y rotura vertical • Agronomía: Fechas de siembra, buen control de maleza y cobertura vegetal  • Fertilizantes: 10% de eficiencia en la aplicación • Agua:10% de eficiencia en el aprovechamiento del riego • Menos uso de maquinaria, menor dependencia de combustibles (menores emisiones de CO2 vs prácticas convencionales)• Desarrollo de capacidades en más de 20 técnicos Alianza Sinaloa y Guanajuato desde 2018 Enfoque: Promover el Abastecimiento de Maíz Amarillo a través de la Agricultura Sustentable Alianza en Sinaloa, Jalisco y GTO desde 2018 Enfoque: Optimizar el abasto de trigo, maíz y cultivos asociados bajo prácticas de Agricultura Regenerativa• Más de 7,000 ha de trigo y más de 5,000 de maíz bajo prácticas regenerativas • Agricultores en Jalisco y Sinaloa incorporan Ajonjolí y Chía a sus rotaciones de cultivos y se benefician de un mejor acceso al mercado • Optimización en el uso de agua (hasta 20% vs practices convencionales)Rotación con Chía, Jalisco, 2022Enfoque: Incrementar la adopción de prácticas del marco de Agricultura Regenerativa de Nestlé• Cultivos principales: maíz, trigo • Identificar cultivos de servicio, rotación o cobertura más adecuados para el sistema de maíz-trigo del Bajío• Desde 2022, acompañamiento a agricultores de maíz y trigo para acelerar su transición hacia un sistema productivo basado en las metas de agricultura regenerativa de Nestlé• Menor huella de carbono","tokenCount":"537"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63ade09fea66146c4d2ecc76fcab4518","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dc46e287-7aa9-4b47-9add-b76baf632e9b/retrieve","id":"-64896564"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"66b28712-d477-40fa-b598-b23f5acb0ff7","pagecount":"32","content":"community-based capacity for managing technological innovation in agriculture, and that this will be a very significant output of the project.CIA T expects that farroer participation will improve access to new technology for an estimated 1,600-3,200 farro families during the life of the project. Improved welfare of small farroers and farro communities will result from direct food and income benefits generated by adoption of locally-adapted technology.El¡pected outcmnes of the ProjectThe overall goal of this project is to improve the welfare of small farmers in poor rural communities by institutionalizing their active role, through participatory methods, in generating appropriate agricultura! technology for their community.The development of local leadership for farmer participation in agricultura! technology development requires the project to build skills, experience and confidence among a1l participants in arder for farmers to be recognized by the scientific community as . capable partners in adaptive technology testing.Implementing participatory methods for adaptive technology testing at the community leve! will generate documented experience and systematic methodology which the project • distills into training materials. These materials are the basis for disseminating and multiplying the approach.Another outcome of this project is the implementation of a community-based organizational strategy for farmer participation in adaptive technology testing, involving the creation of farmers' local agricultura! research committees. Setting up sustainable farmer committees for adaptive research in rural committees requires the project to construct a completely new methodology for the organizational model or \"blueprint\" for farmers' committees.This organizational model could be called a social technology which the project is developing. As such the organizational model can be (and indeed already is being) adopted by other institutions. Experience is suggesting that the organizational model is the indispensable or necessary condition for building a truly participatory and sustainableThe project proposed to create up to six farmers Local Agricultura! Research Comrnittees (Comités de Investigación Agricola Local-CIAL) in each of three types of institutional setting: informal groups !inked with NGO's; in local government structure; and   in local farmer associations or cooperatives.Six CIAL were initiated in member associations of a regional farmers' marketing organization, CORMAC, sponsored by the Coffee Growers Federation. Of these, two comrnittees did not continue because there was friction in the communities over control of the comrnittee. However, three other associations of CORMAC have since requested CIAL Five CIAL were proposed in informal groups of agricultura! NGO's. The regional development NGO, CORPOTUNIA, sponsored by the Carvajal Foundation of Cali (Colombia) set up a new program cal!ed \"Programa CIAL\" in mid-1991. lt undertook the formation of eight CIAL together with the project.In the local government setting the project has encountered complete resistance by farmers to the idea of linking their community CIAL to local government. lntead farmers want to form their own associations, and to sponsor a CIAL as a nuc!eus of this effort. The project formed CIAL with five communities on this basis, with an understanding with the Carvajal Foundation that the \"Programa CIAL\" might take on these CIAL if the communities so wish. It appears that this is not an auspicious time to test the CIAL with local government in the pi!ot site, and that this situation is not like!y to change in the short run.  The first stage ClAL worked on their own initiative and with project staff to develop a set of statutes. Functions and responsibilities for each of four committee members were elaborated: the leader, secretaiy, treasurer and extensionist. A mechanism for accountability and community control was established. We recognized that for the CIAL to depend one hundred percent on farmers' voluntarism was not viable, when key research activities such as planting and hiuvesting come at peak times of labor demand.The principies of a small (US $500) fund for each ClAL were therefore elaborated.With the establishment of a fund, the opportunity to link the CIAL with development of financia! management, cost control, and entrepreneurial skills for farmers became apparent.Farmers became enthusiastic about making their fund grow and decided to reinvest profits from experiments in the fund. With the Carvajal Foundation \"Programa CIAL\", the project is defining further principies for a self-sustaining fund which will be managed by a joint committee of ClAL representatives in the \"Programa CIAL\"The CIAL has progressed as a concept and in reality from a group of volunteers who meet to participate in an experiment for evaluating agricultura! technology, to something different. Perhaps the CIAL might evolve to look like a small enterprise that finances itself from doing technology testing for the community. While this is still a hypothesis (or a vision) which has yet to be fully formulated, and proven, this year's work has laid the foundation for this type of development.actiyities of the CIAL: participatozy technoloc;y testingOnce the ~st CIAL had debated and accepted the organization and statutes for the CIAL they drew up with the project, they began the first of six steps in participatory methodology. NGO staff supported by the project personnel visited each CIAL every two weeks from diagnosis to planting, monitoring, analysis of results and their verbal report to their cominunity. Similar work began with the second wave of CIAL which planted their experiments in September, 1991.A farmer-designed seed production stratec;y for beansIn the previous phase of this project, farmers participated in the selection of improved varieties, showing the importance of including their criteria in the breeding process. In the pilot area, farmers identified severa! varieties which they began to multiply for seed and produce on a comercial scale, new to small farmers in the area. In November 1991 the variety PV A 773, selected and multiplied by the farmers' seed business, SemillasPescadoL was released by ICA AS \"ICA Caucayá.\"In response to the seasonal difficulties of marketing beans as grain, a group of farmers who had been participating in the varietal selections, decided to experiment with producing beans for seed.The project continues to facilitate the participatory decision-making of this group of seven farmers in evaluating and adapting seed production technology, methods and machinery to their needs and resources. This activity is described in more detail in Roa et al, 1991. Table 2 shows the volume of seed and number of farmers supplied in 1990-91. The farmers' seed production has been a seminal experience for the project because their experience showed us the tremendous importance of generating organizational and business management skills in connection with participatory research. In addition to participatory technology evaluation with seed producers the project meets regularly with them to monitor costs, marketing strategy, production planning and the decisions involved in the gradual creation of a small business enterprise.Towards the end of the last phase the Carvajal Foundation set up a marketing• experiment with the project to assess whether small farmers could sell poor quality beans that middlemen would often not accept except at a discount price. Farmers and their families selected and bagged in 1 lb bags 1.5 tons of dry beans which were rapidly sold in poor urban neighborhoods at the beginning of the harvest season. However once a glut of beans arrived on the market, poor consumers could buy the better quality beans at a lower price; the small farmers' inferior quality beans could not be so readily sold; and farmers had to wait severa! weeks to realize a sale. In addition the selection and bagging of grains required more labor at a peak season of hard work. Farmers decided it was not worth the extra work given the slow sales, and now only sell to the experimental marketing outlet when they can get a quick sale.One conclusion of this experiment was that a storage technology is required, but farmers are sceptical, expecting that the beans will lose color, weight and appeal to the consumer if stored. A second conclusion of the project was the need for a marketing organization to realize the benefits of new technology for small farmers. The CIAL, like the seed producers group, can be expected to have a significant effect on the demand for new technology and so on increasing production. But small farmers must have sorne channels for selling their product which allow them to be price-makers, not just price-takers, as is the case at present with beans.  (1991).The project continues to con tribute to CIA T courses in which participatory methods have become a regular feature (see Table 3).A field training-action program was carried out in June-July of 1990 at the request of the NGO FUNDAEC (the Foundation of the Application and Teaching of Science) to evaluate their 5-year cropping system trials and orient their staff in IPRA methodology.CEI.ATER (a networking NGO) organized a course with IPRA to introduce participatory methodology to agricultura! NGO's working in the Cauca area of Colombia.In July a training action program was set up with the \"Programa CIAL\", Corpotun1a, Carvajal Foundation, which meets every two weeks for 2 days (1 theory, 1 practice).Support to Kellogg-Funded Cassava Project, Brazil.The project associate visited this project for two weeks in May. She taught a workshop on participatory methods for participants in the Kellogg-funded project, who  Tralnfng strategy ard trafnlng materfals (!LEJA). Seed Systems for Small Farmers  they fonnulate recommendations they wish to give to the community. These verbal reports are given by the CIAL to the community, with project observers.lt is too soon to say how the CIAL will irnpact on technology adoption or incomes.However, significant progress in this area has been achieved by the seed producers (who function A a CIAL specialized in seed).The Farmer participation has also stimulated the developrnent of appropriate rnachinery for small bean producers. A prototype thresher developed with Semillas Pescador and farmers in their area, is being sold in increasing numbers.The seed producers are now providing training to other farmers in bean production practices. This multiplier effect, put in place by the project, is increasing the demand for seed and the production of beans, rnaking the process sustainable without project intervention. However, the development of organized marketing channels will be critical to long-tenn viabili ty of this effort. A participatory diagnosis is a group analysis of a situation. It is designed to elucidate local knowledge and perceptions in a systematic way through group dynamics, so that the group improves its understanding of the situation. The results also help outsiders (who are not members of the group or community) to obtain a rapid appreciation of how the group perceives a given situation or topic, since the whole exercise takes from three to eight hours.The participatory diagnosis of soil conservation involved a group of thirteen farmers from eight different veredas in Caldono municipio in north Cauca. Farmers with small holdings (less than 10 ha) were invited to attend if they felt erosion and soil conservation was of interest to them. This was therefore, a self-selected group of farmers with an established concem with soil conservation. The objectives of the group analysis were defined by research and extension staff as follows: to explore how farmers saw the issue of soil erosion and conservation in the framework of the history of the area; to seek farmers suggestions about possible ways to control erosion; to present sorne proposals for erosion control practices (using drawings) and to invite their suggestions for changes to the proposed practices.Hlstorlcal Analysis: Farmers recalled that their latid was once more fertile and they did not need to use fertilizers. There was more woodland, more sources of water, and the rainy season was more clearly differentiated from the dry season. These days, they commented, after three crops the soil is powdery, the black topsoil has washed away. But they continue to plant cassava because it resists drought.Proposecl solutions: When solutions to the soil fertility problem were discussed by farmers in small groups, they mentioned that live contour barriers, and run-off channels were recommended for erosion control. However, farmers suggested new crop rotations, intercropping (beans with cassava); planting pastures with citrus fruit trees on steep slopes; planting pineapple in barriers; making stone barriers every 10-20 metres, as altematives they would like to try.The following suggestions were obtained when farmers reacted to drawings of different types of live contour barriers for soil erosion control in • cassava plots:for conserving relatively fertile soils, contour barriers of coffee bushes with fruit trees in between; live barriers of sugar cane were criticised because cane required fertilization in their soils.the women especially liked the idea of two rows of pineapple planted every 10-20 m., because they expected to get something to sell and not to fertilize the pineapple.Also it would not shade other crops.barriers of pasture (Brachiaria decumbens) were perceived as having potential for establishing pastures after the prior crop.farmers without cattle rejected the barriers of pasture grass because it was too invasive, and too much work to control.live barriers of cut-and-carry forage grasses were liked better than pasture grass ( especially Telembi}.farmers wanted to grow a hlgher value crop than cassava in plots where barriers were established, eg. beans or coffee.In snmmary the participatory diagnosis showed that a self-selected group of farmers recognized erosion as a problem, were informed about the technology available for soil conservation, and had a variety of ideas to propase for experimentation. None, however were actually implementing any of these ideas on their own initiative. Farmers' critiqued proposals for contour-skrip barriers in terms of the utility of the barriers' product, rather than its effectiveness in controling erosion. Another important criterion for farmers was the amount of work involved in maintaining, or controling the barrier. Finally, farmers were interested in the use of live barriers to conserve their more fertile soils (where beans could be grown or coffee could be established}, and the possibility of changing to a different cropping system or rotation, as an altemative to cassava, if live barriers were established.The survey questionnaire was administered to twenty-two farmers currently using soil conservation tecbniques. The respondents were purposively selected, and are the entire Farmers were first asked which farming problems they think are important, to assess the extent to which they spontaneously identify erosion among these. The interviewers were unknown to the farmers and the interviewer's purpose was not explained as connected with erosion, so there was no reason for farmers to expect this topic to be one of special interest.Although only four out of the twenty-two farmers using conservation practices identified erosion as one of their problems (Table 1) soil fertility was mentioned more frequently.However it appears that farmers perceive problems like lack of water and pests and diseases as more pressing concerns than erosion. The questionnaire asked each farmer to explain what the word \"erosion\" meant to him or her. Responses, shown in Table 3, demonstrate that most farmers were able to express the idea that erosion involves physicalloss of soil and affects fertility. When asked \"Does erosion have any importance for you,\" most farmers conveyed their sense that the loss of soil and declining fertility was a significant phenomenon for them (Table 4). lt is clear from farmers' assessments of the different practices on their plots, that they understood the purpose of these practices. For example the purpose of live contour barriers of forage grass a commonly established practice, was readily explained in terms of reducing soil loss, and building up soil behind the barrier (Table 5). The open-ended evaluation of this practice by farmers showed that there were mixed experiences: sorne found it easy to manage; others had difficulties in keeping on top of the need to cut regularly. Most comments on another type of live barrier were positive, but also related to the management aspects and the utility of the grass, rather than its effect on soilloss or fertility.Although these farmers understand the concept of erosion and the soil conservation function of the practices established on their plots, and although their evaluation of the practices is by no means negative, there is no evidence that these farmers are spontaneously undertaking soil conservation on their own initiative. The farmers interviewed constitute the entire population of users of soil conservation practices in the area studied; only two farmers (out of twenty-two) have a plot with a soil conservation practice established without either credit or extension assistance. However, nineteen plots are receiving technical assistance without credit, mostly those established upwards of two years ago.There are several possible explanations for this lack of spontaneous adoption, which were explored with key informant farmers after the survey was completed. One explanation is that the conservation practices are perceived by farmers as impossible to replicate without technical assistance, because laying out the contour strip seems complicated. Another explanation is that farmers don't consider that the benefits of the practices are worth the extra work involved. A third possible explanation is that because the extension strategy is aimed at recuperating badly-eroded plots, and at cassava plots (normally the least fertile on the farm), farmers see these soil erosion control practices as purely remedial.The participatory diagnosis discussed earlier, showed that fanners' preferences were to implement soil conservation practices on relatively fertile plots, with the hope that soil erosion control would help them to \"graduate\" to a higher-value crop (requring better fertility conditions) than cassava Perhaps the extension strategy aimed at recuperating badly-eroded soil or conserving less-fertile soils is not fomenting spontaneous adoption because it is out of step with these fanners' preferences. It may be that the recommended practices need to be redesigned by researchers, to include a more aggressive strategy for short-run improvement of fertility on a plot, enabling the farmer to upgrade bis or her cropping system, and so justify the additional work involved in maintaining the soil conservation practices.These are hypothesis, not recommendations. But they do suggest the need for to understand fanners' objectives and to develop strategies which are congruent with farmers perceptions and preferences, when designing soil conservation practices.A preliminary test was made of the hypothesis arising from the participatory diagnosis, that fanners' strategy is to use soil conservation methods to improve relatively more fertile plots, so as to shift to an alternative, higher value crop. Five fanners who volunteered to take part in trials of live contour barriers, were invited to choose the materials to be used in the barriers, the size and number of barriers, and the plots where these were to be located. After a visit to experimental trials where they viewed and discussed the array of conservation practices available, the fanners made the choices shown in Table 9. All farmers decided that they would establish soil conservation practices on plots where they plan to, or are already establishing coffee. Coffee is the cash crop with a secure market, and thus their \"premium\" crop which occupies their most fertile plots. All farmers except one decided to conserve soil on plots where they could intercrop beans, an indicator of relatively better fertility (compared to cassava plots). The farmer who chose establish soil conservation practices on a fallow plot which had had five successive cassava crops taken on it, decided to combine the live barriers with heavy fertilization at bis own expense, in order to upgrade the plot rapidly. This very preliminary test of small farmers'   What is the pux:pose of this practice?\"To stop the soil from washing away.\"''The soil builds up in the barrier, it doesn't wash away down below.\"\"lt ~eeps the soil and it's used to feed the cattle\" \"lt slows down the water running off the plot\" Source: Survey of 22 users, 1991. \"What adyantages or disadvamages has this practice?\" Imperial grass is not so fuzzy (unpleasant to cut) and doesn't grow too fast.Imperial is not so tough for the cattle to eat.Even after three or four cuttings it grows back and is always green.If y9u don't have animals you can sell it.You can sell the seed at Col $10.000 a sack.Imperial is easy to manage.It spreads a lot of seed which you have to keep weeding.If you cut it too late, then the animals won't eat it.If you let it flower then you have to cut it up with machete ( difficult to cut and for the animals to eat it).It needs a lot of work (to take care of it).After 1 cut it eight times, 1 had to replace it, it was finished by too much cutting.Source: Survey of 22 users, 1991. • What is its purpose?\"To protect the soil from eroding, so that the soil doesn't wash away with the water in heavily fainfall\" \"So that the rain doesn't wash away the seed\" \"Coptains the erosion, so that the soil can recuperate\" \"After planting (the barrier) in a cassava plot you can leave it to establish a pasture\"What adyantªces or disªdvantªces ha.s jt?\"You are cóllecting the soil available to establish apasture more quickly.You can get (vegetative) seed from the barrier.Its useful to feed the cattle.Uve barriers are more useful tan bamboo ones.You have to keep cutting it although you can take the cattle (to the barrier) to graze it before planting another crop in that plot.Source: Survey of 22 users, 1991.Table 8 Relationship between credit, agricultura! extension and the length of time soil conservation practices were used by farmers. Three municipios, north Cauca, Colombia, 1991. • 29 ","tokenCount":"3493"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9419dfb2bda9ca6f5e9be8c7378a2d4d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/28456268-691a-44e6-a69c-6eb8144bab17/retrieve","id":"642732350"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"71d0b4d2-fad7-4fe7-9bbf-af6fc6572562","pagecount":"1","content":"• Assess policy alternatives • Select and implement appropriate optionsImproved detection methods:• Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)• All samples will be screened with ELISAThe ELISA determines quantitatively at the level of ng per liter (ppt) the aflatoxin concentration in samples • Further analysis and quantification of samples will be done using HPLC to compare the methods' performance• HPLC is one of the most common methods to detect and quantify aflatoxins in food. It has been used jointly with techniques such as UV absorption, fluorescence and mass spectrometry • HPLC will be used to identify and quantify the different aflatoxins including B1, B2, G1 and G2 in feeds• Easiness of use and cost-effectiveness of techniques will be explored for future routine mycotoxin analysis","tokenCount":"121"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d475ee1cfe1255ccf9894c8e5ea241d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f397ceda-6d93-460f-8b3e-b6e646d168c5/content","id":"-729385017"},"keywords":["42° 56' N Longitude","112° 50' W Elevation","1333 meters above sea level Latitude","32° 52' N Longitude","13° 12' E Elevation","25 meters above sea level 25° 0.2' N Longitude","63° 38' E Elevation","191 meters above sea level"],"sieverID":"dc3bf8ed-7aa6-45d9-901b-860259bd19ec","pagecount":"142","content":"Pitic 62 -one of first two semi-dwarf varieties released in Mexico. It has yielded well in the Inter-American nurseries and was the highest yielder in all three Near East-American nurseries and in the First International Spring Wheat Yield Nursery but is currently grown on only a limited commercial area in Mexico because of low test weight and its susceptibility to new races of stem rust.Penjamo 62 -one of the first two semi-dwarf varieties released in Mexico. It occupied over half of the Mexican wheat area for the past several years.Sonora 64 -the shortest strawed variety that has been widely grown commercially in Mexico. It is currently recommended only for areas where leaf rust is not a serious problem. It has been a very valuable parent in the Mexican, Indian, Pakistan and Argentine programs.Siete Cerros 66 -a dwarf, white seeded Mexican variety of very high yield potential. It has been entered in certain previous nurseries as Penjamo sib x Gabo 55 (white grain), (Frontana x Kenya 58 -Newthatch) Norin 10 -Brevor x Gabo 55 (white grain) and 8156 (white grain). Although it has not been widely grown in Mexico because of partial rust susceptibility, it and its red seeded sister (both with the pedigree of II-8156-1M-2R-4M) have been widely grown under various names including Siete Cerros, Super X, Kalyansona, S-227, PV-18, Indus 66, and Mexipak 65. It is now very widely seeded in Pakistan, India and other Near Eastern countries.Roque 66 -a Mexican dwarf variety originally entered as Son 64 -SkE -AnE' II 18883 -6M-6R-11C-1Y.J aral 66 -a new Mexican dwarf variety originally entered as [Son 64 (TzPP -Nai 60)], Il-18889-101M-1R-3C-4Y.Bajio 66 -a new Mexican dwarf variety originally entered as [Son 64 (TzPP -Nai 60)) II-18889-4M-1Y-1M-3Y.Son 64 x KnotiA -a promising new dwarf selection with the pedigree of II-18892-2M-3Y-5M-2Y.TzPP x An 64 --a promising new dwarf selection with the pedigree ofll-19025-100M-101Y-100C-2Y.For the past several years the Rockefeller Foundation and later the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has prepared and coordinated a series of international yield trials in spring wheats. Originally two different yield tests were prepared, one for the Near East and the second for the Americas. In 1964 both were combined into a single worldwide nursery for seeding wherever spring wheats are grown. This report covers the results from the second of these combined nurseries.These nurseries have been used: (1) to collect basic information concerning adaptation in spring wheats, (2) as a complement to the training of young scientists from developing countries, (3) to provide information as to what varieties might be directly introduced into cei:tain areas in order to make a strong and immediate impact on commercial production, ( 4) to identify outstanding varieties combining broad adaptation.high yield, outstanding agronomic characteristics and a broad spectrum of disease resistance that makes such varieties uniquely useful as progenitores, and (5) to provide wheat breeders from any part of the world a vehicle in which to evaluate their most promising advanced lines on a world-wide basis.• The results from these nurseries have provided a new insight into a number of factors influencing varietal development and use. It has become apparent that it is possible to produce spring wheat varieties of nearly universal adaptation. Varieties have been found that perfonn well over the whole range of environments where these nurseries have been grown, including areas with long or short daylengths, irrigated or dryland, highland or lowland, and cool or hot.Respectively: Resident Coordinator, CIMMYT Wheat Program; Head,Computing Laboratory of the Centro de Estadfstica y Ccilculo, Chapingo; Director, CIMMYT Wheat Program; and Director, Cereals Program, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrfcolas (INIA), Secretarfa de Agricultura y Ganaderfa, Mexico. Data were all processed in the Centro de Estadfstica y Ccilculo, Chapingo. A special acknowledgement is given to Dr. Henry Tucker, Visiting Professor, Iowa State University Contract Centro de Estadistica y Calculo, Chapingo, for his help in programming the analyses. Also acknowledgement is made to Reyes Vega and Miguel Martinez for their help in preparing the nurseries, to Mrs. Guillermina Hardy in preparation of the tables and to Miss Judith Franco for typing the tables and manuscript.These nurseries have clearly shown the importance of daylength sensitivity in limiting varietal adaptation. They have identified certain geographic areas with gene pools of very diverse pathogenicity of some of the important wheat pathogens i.e. the rusts that assist in identifying lines with broad resistance which are likely to be useful throughout the spring wheat areas of the world. They have clearly indicated the importance of developing varieties with short, strong straw for use particularly under irrigation and heavy fertilization as a means of increasing world wheat production.The nurseries have had very important practical as well as academic implications. It was in these nurseries that two lines from the Mexican cross 8156 (Penjamo sib x Gabo 55) were identified as wheats of outstanding potential value. These have become the highly successful commercial varieties Kalyansona 227 (India), Mexipak 65 • (Pakistan), Siete Cerros (Mexico), and Indus 66 (Pakistan), PV-18 (India), Super X (Mexico), which are now grown on millions of acres in Pakistan, India, Turkey, Afghanistan and Mexieo. In all probability they will become the two most important commercial wheat varieties across the vast expanse from Morocco to India within the next three years.The breakthrough in revolutionizing wheat production in Pakistan, India, Turkey and Afghanistan is in many ways tied directly to the outstanding performance of the Mexican varieties Penjamo 62, Pitic 62, Lerma Rojo 64, Sonora 64 and the cross 8156 in the early years of the International Spring Wheat Yield Nursery. During the 1967-68 crop season more than 10 million acres of these varieties and lines were grown half-way around the world from their country of origin, Mexico.The 1965-66 trial consisted of 25 varieties representing the principal commercial types seeded throughout the spring wheat regions of the world Plots consisted of six, 2.5 meter rows with four replications arranged in a randomized block design. Seed was packeted for each row using a seedling rate equivalent to 80 kg/ha for the variety Penjamo 62. Adjustments were made for each variety so that the number of seeds per row was approximately the same as for Penjamo 62.Seed for the nursery was produced in increase plots at the Centro de lnvestigaciones Agricolas del Noroeste, (CIANO) at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. The seed was treated with an organic mercurial seed disinfectant prior to being packaged. Instructions concerning seeding, nursery management and note-taking, as well as data sheets were included in each seed box. The distribution and management of\" the nursery in the Near East is coordinated through the Near and Middle East Wheat and Barley Improvement Project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Data were obtained from 50 locations in 28 countries repiaeating the major wheat regions of the world. These trials were seeded ...._ both dryland and irrigated conditions, both fertilized and unfertilized, from approximately 35° S latitude in Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Australia through 0° in Ecuador to 61° N at Palmer, Alaska. They were seeded at elevations from 226 meters below sea level in the Jordan Valley to 3312 meters above sea level in Peru. A list of the cooperating stations and scientists with -many other countrres. It is very smceptible to *ipe rust. Mendos -a newer representative of the widely adapted Australian wheats.Giza 144 -a widely adapted variety representative of the present commercial varieties used in Egypt.Carazinho -an important commercial variety reported to be able to produce relatively good yields on highly acid soils. It has good stripe rust resistance under most conditions.C-271 -a tall, awnletted, pubescent, white seeded variety grown commerically on a considerable acreage in West Pakistan.Pakistan 5747 -a newer, experimental line with stronger straw than most Indian and Pakistani varieties.As far as possible, data were converted to metric units or percentages for presentation in this report. Every effort was made to assure the correctness of such conversions as well as the accuracy of translations of terms from other languages and the interpretation of supplementary information. The authors, however, take full responsibility for any errors that might have been made. Data are not presented in the tables nor included in the analyses for characters where no differential varietal effect was obseived.Yield data were requested from the central four rows of each six-row plot. All six or only two rows were harvested by some cooperators. Yields were converted from the units reported by the cooperator to kilograms per hectare. For readers more accustomed to yield in bushels per acre, 1000 kilograms of wheat per hectare is equivalent to approximately 15 bushels per acre.Both test weight and 1000 grain weight data were requested as a measure of grain quality because some cooperators do not have test weight equipment. In some cases the cooperator had to combine seed from the four replications to have enough seed to take a test weight determination. Test weight is reported in kilograms per hectoliter, and 1000 grain weights are reported in grams. For readers more accustomed to test weight expressed in pounds per bushel, one kilogram per hectoliter = 08018 pounds per bushel, i.e. 75 kilograms per hectoliter is approximately 60 pounds per bushel.For statistical analysis the rust notes were converted to a coefficient of infection as used by Dr. W.Q. Loegering in the United States Department of Agriculture's International Rust Nurseries. This coefficient is calculated by multiplying the percentage of infection by a \"response value\" for each infection type. Thus, the coefficient combines both the amount of infection and the reaction type. The response values are as follows: 0 = O; VR (very resistant) and R (resistant)= 0.2; MR (moderately resistant)= 0.4; M (intermediate) = 0.6; MS (moderately susceptible) = 0.8; and S (susceptible and VS (very susceptible) = 1.0. The coefficients can be analyzed statistically as well as correlated with yield and other traits to estimate the degree of association between rust attack and other traits. To avoid handling of fractional values, coefficients less than 1.0 and more than 0 were rounded to 1.0, and all other values were rounded to the nearest whole number.In the case of cooperators who reported only percentage of rust, this was used directly as the coefficient, and for the ocassional case where only the infection type was reported, the response value was used as the coefficient. Due to the fact that 0 values were common and that the coefficients do not usuall fit a normal distribution, the coefficients were routinely transformed as coefficient + 1, i.e. VXTI, for analysis. While other transformations may have been more appropriate in specific cases, the '\\/'XTI transformation considerably improved the normality of the distributions. The vx+J. values were the ones used for all statistical analyses and are the ones presented in the table of results.Throughout this report, the terms stripe rust, stem rust and leaf rust are used instead of yellow rust, black rust and brown rust such as are used in the Near East and instead of the scientific names of the causal organisms. Stripe rust readings are normally taken on the leaves, but under severe conditions an additional note was taken on severity of infection in the head or spike. This was usually expressed as the average percentage of infected spikelets in the plot. Four locations reported this type of data in addition to the usual leaf note and these data were also transformed to V % + 1.Lodging was recorded as percentage of lodged plants, and shattering was recorded as average percentage of shattered spikelets or percentage of yield loss due to shattering. Both lodging and shattering data were transformed intoV 6 /o + 1 to normalize their distribution. Some data were reported as a score and were not converted to percentages nor used in averages with data from other locations. The cooperators were urged to include data for any other factor for which differential data could be recorded, and such additional factors were often the most important ones in influencing yield at that site. These were analyzed and presented wherever availableAt any given location, an analysis of variance was performed for all traits on which data were reported from more than one replication. Pertinent information from these analyses -0f variance are presented for each trait as the mean for each variety for each trait in the tables for each location.The information from these analyses includes the mean of the trait, statistical level of significance, coefficient of variation, standard error of the mean and the least significant difference at the S°lo level. The coefficient of variation is a good measure of the precision of the experiment particularly for a trait such as yield. However, a high coefficient of variation for a trait where zero readings are frequent such as rust, lodging, etc. does not necessarily mean that the data are imprecisely taken.The statistical level of significance includes from 0.5% to 25 % (11) rather than just the usual 5% and l°lo levels. \"NS\" indicates non-significance at even the 25°/o level. The standard error is the standard error of the Mean i.e . .../ EMS/r (6).The least significant difference (LSD) for the 5° lo level is also presented (11). The disadvantages of this test as compared, for example, to the Duncan or other tests as well as the mis-uses that are frequently made of the LSD are fully appreciated. Nevertheless, LSD values are presented because: it remains the best understood statistical test in many countries, it still serves as a reasonably reliable basis of comparison, and it lends itself to more concise presentation in the tables than the various sequential range tests. Readers wishing to use the Duncan multiple range test, for example, may do so using the standard error presented in the table.Considerable understanding as to which factors are influencing yield and the interactions between these factors may be gained by studying the correlations presented in the tables for each location for which more than one trait was measured. The correlations are between the means of all traits for which data are reported. Correlations were calculated between the1IDeans rather than using the raw data first because this appeared to be somewhat more meaningful genetically and second because some types of data were frequently reported for only one replication.As the number of varieties is fairly small, it is realized that spurious or meaningless correlations may be encountered. An example of this might be the occasionally encountered correlation between leaf and stem rust notes (e.g. Table 68). This should not be interpreted that susceptibility to one rust causes susceptibility to another but is probably due to the fact that several of the varieties have been selected for good resistance to both diseases while several other varieties are from programs in which little attention has been devoted to disease resistance.The means of each character for each variety were also used to compute a multiple linear regression for yield considering all other variables for which differential data were reported as \"independent\" variables. Test weight, however, and I 000 grain weight data were generally not included as independent variables as has been done in previous reports. It is realized that many of these variables are not truly independent from either a statistical or a biological viewpoint. The multiple regression analysis values, and both partial regression coefficients and \"t\" values are presented for each variable. In computing multiple regressions it is often customary to begin with the variable explaining the largest amount of variance of the dependent variable (in this case, yield) and continue adding variables that account for the next most amount of variance until the \"t\" values for additional variables are no longer significant. When this point is reached, no more additional variables are included. It will be noted, however, that coefficients and \"t\" values are included for all \"independent\" variables. This was done partially because the magnitude of the \"t\" value (sign ignored) may be a measure of the relative importance of a variable in determining yield. Such interpretations should be made with some care, however, particularly when there are two variables that are not truly independent or that may measure much the same thing (e.g. heading date and maturity date).For readers who have not had much experience with multiple regression, the R 2 value is the amount of the variance for yield that can be accounted for by the regression equation. This regression equation consists of the independent variables. The equation can be used to calculate an expected yield for each variety based on the values for each of the independent traits that were measured. That is, we may compute an expected yield for a variety on the basis of its maturity, rust reaction, straw strength, etc. For example, the expected yield of variety 22 at Tandojam, Pakistan can be calculated as (see data in Table 89 and coefficients and constant term in Table 90): Y = 4043.793 -19.0426(90) + 157.4561(6.40) = 3337.678 or 3338.For the reader's convenience, expected (i.e. calculated) yields using the multiple regression equations are presented in Table 101 for all locations reporting more than one independent variable. The differences between observed and calculated yields are presented in Table 102. In attempting to verify any of the figures in these two tables, it should be remembered that variations may be due to differences in the procedure for rounding off. Incidentally, as Ostle (10, p223) suggests, R (i.e.~) may bethought of as a linear correlation between the expected and observed yields. While many workers will find the multiple regresSion analyses interesting and useful, a full understanding is not essential to the interpretation of the yield data or the factors influencing yield.The overall summary of the data reported for all varieties is presented in Table 99. These are the means for all traits averaged over all locations from which differential data were reported. As will be noted, the number of locations differs between traits. No combined analysis of variance over all locations was attempted due to some disparity in data recording, heterogeneity of variances and to the fact that the data were incomplete -at some locations par• ticularly for varieties that are sensitive to short day lengths.The correlation values in Table 100 were calculated from the means of the traits averaged over all locations where both traits were measured~ These are perhaps the best estimates of the relationship between traits.Because of the unique nature of . the data reported being representative of a diverse group of varieties tested\"c>Ver a sizable part of the world's spring wheat area, the philosophy of the authors has been to try to provide the reader with a maximum amount _of usable information. No attempt has been made to \"digest\" the data and explor.e all of its ramifications, but it is hoped that students and scientists alike will continue to find applications and interpretations that cannot be visualized today.The five highest yielding varieties averaged over the 50 locations were ( These are largely the same varieties that have performed well in previous nurseries (I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9). Penjamo 62 has now placed first in nurseries, second in 1 nursery and third in 4 nurseries in the 7 times it has been entered in international yield trials. Nainari 60 has been among the five highest yielding varieties in 8 of the 9 international nurseries in which it was entered. Pitic 62 in fourth place performed relatively poorer in this nursery than in previous trials where it had the highest yield in 5 of the 6 nurseries in which it was entered. This can probably be explained by its rust susceptibility at several locations.Crespo 63 was entered in the nursery for the first time this year. It is the only non-Mexican variety among the ten highest yielding varieties and with Nainari 60 the only non-dwarf variety among the ten highest yielding varieties. Crespo 63 was jointly released by Colombia and Ecuador in to confront a new race of stripe rust that eliminated from production the variety Narifio 59. Crespo 63 has a high level and broad spectrum of adult plant resistance to the extremely virulent races of stripe rust in the highlands of these two countries. They are, in fact, some of the most virulent race complexes of stripe rust in the world and in the generally favorable climate for rust development can drastically reduce yields. In Santa Catalina, Ecuador, for example, Crespo (Table 11) yielded nearly twice as much as any non-Colombian variety. Lerma Rojo 64A and Siete Cerros 66 which have quite adequate stripe rust resistance in the Near East hardly produced any yield at all. In addition to its good•resistance to stripe rust as well as to stem rust and several minor diseases, Crespo has a very high yield potential for a non-dwarf variety and tended to yield well at many locations quite different from the cool, moist equatorial highlands of the Andes.The yield advantage of the dwarf traits is well illustrated by data. Of the highest yielding ten varieties (Table 99), only Crespo 63 and Nainari 60 are not dwarf or semi-dwarf in stature. The data are further substantiated by the impact of the trait on commercial production. The Mexican national wheat yield rose one metric ton per hectare withinthn:e years after the release of the first dwarfs, Penjamo 62 and Pitic 62. A similar break-through has been associated with the release of the dwarf, winter wheat variety Gaines in the northwestern United States. Pakistan is hopeful of doubting its national wheat production in the near future by the use of dwarf varieties coupled with the better management to which they will respond. India, Turkey and several other Near Eastern countries are also moving aggressively toward the use of dwarf wheats.The Norin 10 source of dwarfness that has been used in both Washington (U.S.A.) and Mexico gives short stature that resists lodging but also gives greater tillering and a greater number of seeds per head. This increased productivity and ability to withstand lodging allows dwarf varieties to respond well to irrigation and heavy fertilizer applications. Such responsiveness to better management is very important in the irrigated regions of e.g. Mexico (Table 23), Egypt (Table 60) or Pakistan (Table 87).Some scientists have felt that the dwarf trait will be undesirable under dryland or non-fertilized conditions. Little support for such a belief can be found in the data reported herein nor in the results of previous international yield nurseries (e.g. 7, p9). The same dwarf varieties tend to perfonn as well or better than any local or introduced material at all locations whether fertilized or non-fertilized and whether irrigated or non-irrigated. This agrees with the experience in introducing dwarf wheats into dryland as well as irrigated areas of Pakistan, India and other Near Eastern countries. This allows these countries to concentrate their resources on one set of varieties rather than trying to carry on separate programs for irrigated, fertilized production and for dryland, nonfertilized production. The impact of the dwarf trait is, of course, greater under intensive management.Perhaps the most fundamental concept that has come from these nurseries is that high yielding varieties can be produced that are very broad in their adaptation. This is in sharp contrast to the commonly held idea that a high yielding variety must be \"tailored\" for a given set of conditions. The broad adaptation exemplified by several varieties in this and previous international nurseries is particularly impressive in view of the tremendous range of environments involved. This includes locations with a less than 12-hour day such as northwestern Mexico, the southwestern United States and the Near East where spring wheat is seeded during a mild winter to areas with very long summer daylengths such as northern Europe, Canada and the United States. It also includes elevations of from below sea level to over 3300 meters above sea level and latitudes from approximately 35°S in three continents to 61°N in Alaska. These nurseries undoubtedly represent the largest systematic yield testing of genotypes that has been attempted in any crop.There has been much speculation as to why varieties usch as Penjamo 62, Pitic 62, Crespo 63, etc. are so high yielding under such a broad range of environments. There does not seem to be any simple, single answer. As discussed above, the dwarf trait plays a very important role in increasing productivity particularly under good conditions.Daylength sensitivity is also very important in limiting the adaptation of certain varieties as has been discussed in a previous publication (8, pl2-13). Varieties from extreme northern latitudes usually require a long daylength while those adapted to short daylengths, such as the almost exact 12 hour daylength of Ecuador or Colombia or the less than 12 hour daylength of the mild Mexican and Near Eastern winters, are largely daylength insensitive.Another reason these varieties are so widely adapted is their di-sease resistance. Both Mexico and Colombia have extremely virulent races of all three rusts and a conscious, aggressive attempt is made in both programs to insure that all new varieties are resistant to all diseases at all locations within the country. Once this is achieved their resistance is adequate in a high percentage of the spring wheat locations of the world. Perhaps another reason for the broad adaptation of some of these varieties is that they were produced in programs in which the emphasis was on breeding for productivity under good management. The resultant varieties are responsive to good management and appear to do at least as well as other varieties under poor and mediocre conditions. There does not seem to be much basis for believing varieties can be bred for ability to yield well under poor conditions. Breeding programs designed specifically to develop varieties with the ability to yield well under very poor conditions implies accepting continued poverty and human misery.Twenty five wheat varieties representing the major types grown throughout the spring wheat regions of the world were incorporated into a replicated international yield trial. Results were obtained from 50 locations in 28 countries from Argentina and Chile to Alaska and from South Africa to Sweden and through the Near and Middle East to Australia. These included both irrigated and rainfed conditions from 216 meters below sea level in the Jordan valley to 3312 meters above sea level in Peru and from approximately 35°S latitude to 61 °N.In addition to yield, wherever possible data were obtained on disease reaction, height, flowering and maturity date, lodging, shattering, 1000 grain weight and test weight. The data from all traits were analyzed statistically when data were reported on more than one replication, and correlations were calculated between the means of all traits measured at each location. A multiple regression analysis of yield on the other variables was also calculated for each location.The varieties having the highest average yield over 50 locations were Penjamo 62, Crespo 63, Nainari 60, Pitic 62 a'nd Lerma Rojo 64A. Crespo 63 was a joint Colombian-Ecuadorian release •and appears in the nursery for the first time this year. The other four are of Mexican origin and have performed well in previous nurseries. The previous international yield nurseries results, both in the Americas and through the Near East, as well as the current results show that it is possible to breed varieties that have a much wider range of adaptation than is usually believed possible. There was a marlced tendency for varieties to maintain their relative rankings at all locations whether they were fertilized or not fertilized, irrigated or rainfed and over a wide range of environment.  21 and 22 Data for the second planting date are presented in Tables 23 and 24 Date of planting: April 11, 1966 Amount of irrigation used: Flood-irrigated 5 times Fertilizer used: 100-45-0 ofNPK General description of climatic conditions during test: a dry, cool spring, with warm days and cool nights during the summer Disease development in general: none Insects, weeds or pest problems: none The data are presented in Tables 30 and 31 Elevation: 84 meters above sea level Date of planting: May 11 and 12, 1966 Precipitation during the cycle of the test: 225 mm (normal approximately 308 mm) Fertilizer used: 75-45-30 kg/ha of N-P z.O 5 -K 2 0 General description of climatic condit10ns cfuring test: the early development of the plants was normal. Due to a dry and mainly hot period in the last part of May, and the three first weeks of June, the development of the wheat plants was abnormally fast. Result: very weak kernels and a very lax stand. After a rain period in late June, tillering started fanning new green, late-ripening shoots, which yielded a very unevenly ripened crop Disease development in general: no diseases of importance Insect, weed or pest problems: no insects, but a slight attack by sparrows Weeding was done by hand The data are presented in Tables 42 and 43 SOUTH AFRICA Stellenbosch Cooperators: F X. Laubscher, Johanna Theron and T.G. Paxton Latitude: 33° 56' S Longitude: 18° 51' E Elevation: 91 meters above sea level Date of planting: December 21, 1965 (This is not the normal planting date for wheat at this location. Wheat is normally seeded in May) Amount of irrigation applied: weekly sprinkler irrigations of 1\" at a time were given Fertilizer used: 10 kilos of N and 29 kilos of P 2 o 5 per hectare applied in a 5-14 -0 formula Description of climatic conditions during the test: dry, warm summer conditions Disease development in general: the atmospheric conditions were too dry for a rust epiphytotic, but rust was severe on very susceptible varieties Insect, weed or pest problems: no insects. Birds became troublesome toward the end of the test. Weeds were controlled by hand The data are presented in Tables 44 and 45          In In     .. \"   ----------------     -       •c--partial-----rr?'-w \" \".J:.s :s 00 00 0. ,..   ------------------------------------------- :r:-. 36       ., ..:i \"'  iT-SubStitlit~dfOi=-KTeinR~didO'r-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- :;::   . .                        ...       ","tokenCount":"4966"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c357d20ba9fca15c54061bac97aac5a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e4705a1b-639a-431b-a69f-f4c2a41ab7a0/retrieve","id":"-1757180083"},"keywords":["Degefie Tibebe, Spatial Analyst, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Ethiopia Agroecological transition","multi-stakeholder platforms","landscape analysis","wheat value chain"],"sieverID":"153ada0a-5b42-466c-bebc-244c1ca6f942","pagecount":"44","content":"The contents and opinions expressed in this publication are not peer reviewed and are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, IFAD or affiliated organizations.Multi-stakeholder platforms, networks, dialogue, and processes (MSPs) are increasingly popular approaches used in agricultural research and development to stimulate stakeholder interaction, collaboration, and engagement in innovation processes (Hermans et al., 2017;Minh et al., 2020). MSPs are platforms for interactive learning, knowledge sharing, resource mobilization, and collaboration and coordination among stakeholders. MSPs come in many forms, including formal (e.g., multi-stakeholder alliances, partnerships, platforms, and initiatives) and informal (e.g., networks, interactions, and relationships). MSPs may be led or initiated by the government or non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, the private sector, and development partners. MSPs can be orientated around innovation, research, or development, or established for coordination and networking. MSPs can be a mechanism to facilitate collaboration between private-sector companies and other actors across sectors by creating organizational and institutional spaces that bring together multistakeholders and provide them with a sphere for learning, action, and change, whilst stimulating private-sector investments and partnerships (Davies et al., 2018;Schut et al., 2019;Minh et al., 2020).Agroecology, as an approach, promises a more sustainable and resilient future for food systems by minimizing damage to natural resources, reducing the use of chemical inputs (e.g., fertilizers), and increasing social inclusion. Yet, despite widespread support from social movements, transitioning to agroecology remains constrained by a lack of holistic performance metrics, top-down innovation system regimes, and weak private-and public-sector incentives and investments.These three constraints provide the main impetus for the CGIAR Program on Agroecological Transitions for Building Resilient and Inclusive Agricultural and Food Systems (TRANSITIONS). Over the course of four years (2022)(2023)(2024)(2025), the TRANSITIONS Program aims to empower farmers to make large-scale \"climateinformed agroecologically based transitions\" by developing (1) innovative incentive and investment mechanisms for adopting agroecological principles, (2) integrating holistic metrics in digital tools for traceability, (3) Co-creation, capacity strengthening and scaling out of agroecological innovations for food systems transformation in three countries: Ethiopia, Peru, and Vietnam.Many agricultural and development programs have used agriculture-related multi-stakeholder platforms (AMSPs) as one of many key intervention strategies. Often, AMSPs exist at multiple national, regional, and local levels within and across sectors, as well as within and across thematic areas. These AMSPs can be related to agroecological approaches in different ways. Hence, a comprehensive overview and insights related to the existing AMSP landscape is needed in each country (Ethiopia, Peru, and Vietnam) where TRANSITIONS operates. These insights will help engage relevant AMSPs to build local institutions' capacities for developing and applying private-public investment models, assessments, and policies that support agroecological transitions.Ethiopia is one of the largest wheat producers in sub-Saharan Africa, with 4.7 million farmers producing wheat. The crop makes a significant contribution to food security. Despite increasing yields, wheat production is relatively low compared to international standards, and Ethiopia faces a supply deficit (Anteneh & Asrat, 2020). The Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) (2020) suggests the importance of adopting sustainable agricultural practices for prioritized crops like wheat to increase its supply, but also to prevent forest loss. To be less dependent on wheat imports and to work towards an independent food supply, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is promoting irrigated wheat production (Planning and Development Commission, 2021) and recognizes the importance of agroecological development (Mockshell et al., 2023). However, these efforts alone are not enough. To successfully address these challenges, it is important to apply an AMSP approach that aims at balancing different stakeholders' interests including farmers, processors, traders, members of the government, and civil society organizations. Multistakeholder approaches move away from mandating through government regulations towards more holistic approaches (Ingram et al., 2018). This creates an enabling environment for stakeholder collaboration to identify and address conflicts, intersectoral linkages, and to make collective decisions that promote sustainable wheat production practices that mitigate environmental impacts.This landscape analysis report focuses on AMSP processes and networks that build multiple stakeholders' resilience and adaptive capacity in the agricultural infrastructure, water, solar energy, health, and natural resources sectors, as well as in socioeconomic sustainability, environment, and climate change issues. The analysis aims to:▪ Identify and develop AMSP typologies using multiple contextual, structural, and operational characteristics.▪ Analyze how the different types of AMSPs influence policy and practices in the agricultural sector, including agroecological agriculture.▪ Explore opportunities and challenges related to AMSPs' impact and sustainability.▪ Identify the gaps in facilitating private-sector engagement and investments for agroecological transitions.▪ Identify mechanisms and possibilities to engage with the existing AMSPs to strengthen private-sector engagement and investments for agroecological transitions.Wheat farmer in Ethiopia. E. Quilligan/CIMMYTTRANSITIONS research involves three primary analysis components: identification, categorization, and in-depth analysis.Identification aims to search for AMSPs, including those involved with wheat production in Ethiopia. At the outset of the identification process, purposive sampling was used by applying expert knowledge of the population to select stakeholder samples in a non-random manner (Lavrakas, 2008). The sampling identified the corresponding governmental and nongovernmental actors (NGOs and private sector) and their platforms, networks, and ongoing processes.The sample considered the areas of (agroecological) agriculture, natural resource management, environmental protection, sustainable development, climate change adaptation, food and nutrition, gender and social inclusion, and beyond. These areas were used as keywords to search for the relevant AMSPs. The keywords were updated throughout the searching and identifying, to consider the new relevant areas and AMSPs. In total, 45 AMSPs that operate at international, national, and local levels in Ethiopia were identified. We selected 29 of these AMSPs for analysis, based on their relevance, dynamics, and data availability. Their details are documented in Annex 1.The study collected data and information about each of the 29 AMSPs identified from secondary sources such as grey literature gathered from AMSPs and organization/project websites, meeting reports and proceedings, briefs, brochures, and presentations as well as academic literature on AMSP-related topics. Links to the selected AMSPs' websites are provided in Annex 1. Secondary data collection also included additional information on the AMSPs' operating context and regional/international experience. The data was systematically organized in an excel worksheet, designed according to the four analytical dimensions: Structure, Context and Issue, Operation, and Relation (Annex 2). A total of three grey literature sources, five reports, and eight academic publications were reviewed and cited.Primary data was collected from key informants via semi-structured interviews via online meetings, email correspondence, and telephone calls. Key informants were first identified from secondary sources (websites and grey literature), followed by non-probability sampling (purposive and snowball sampling) using social and professional networks.Agricultural extension officer collecting data from farmer.G. Smith/CIAT Strengthening multi-stakeholder agroecology platforms in Ethiopia: a landscape analysisIn all, 15 respondents were contacted for information about AMSPs and/or other potential sources of information about AMSPs, of which 10 provided inputs. A protocol and template (Annex 2) for data collection were developed to organize and document the qualitative information about each AMSP identified. This information includes AMSPs' geographical coverage, thematic focus areas, objectives, lead organization, participants and stakeholders, strategic and routine activities, and life cycle (short-term/project-based, long-term/non-project-based), achievements, and challenges. Interview guidelines for the primary data collection were developed to cover any information gaps that could not be collected through the secondary data sources (as detailed above).Categorization, the second primary component of the analysis, employs a qualitative method that relies on literature, and researchers' knowledge and judgments in interpreting patterns to define the specific categories of different AMSP groups. Guiding questions for the categorization include: This section provides an overview of the documented AMSPs in Ethiopia. These AMSPs are organized into and presented within four main typologies, based on the type of lead organization, as presented in Table 1. • Carrying out research; developing strategies and plans.• Facilitating awarenessraising and disseminating agroecology knowledge products.• Collaborating: bring together stakeholders, establish partnerships• Connecting stakeholders through mechanisms and events.• Providing services: conservation planning; implementing project, research.• Practical implementation of scientifically proven concepts.• Capacity building and environmental education.• Implementing activities: private-sector development, innovation, and empowerment.• Project implementation: research, conservation planning, practical implementing scientifically proven concepts; publications, documentations and dissemination.• Research to strengthen scientific and economic evidence base for policy reform; publishing policy recommendations.• Organizing events: meetings, debates, campaigns, capacity building, for networking, advocacy.• Capacity building: environmental education.• Establishing coalitions for innovative solutions and resource mobilization.• Engaging in climate changerelated activities and negotiations.• Enhancing integrated learning through review of reports.• Capacity building through learning events, field visits, facilitating field dialogue, training, workshops, and panel discussions.• Incubation and acceleration of agri-food enterprises.• Provision of financial and technical support.• Establishment of quality testing labs for products.• Project development and implementation.• Resource mobilization.• Networking and connecting actors.• Strategy development.• Periodic meetings, coordination and monitoring.• Lobbying for the seed sector.• Regular meetings for experience sharing and collaboration.• Organizing national learning events on selected thematic areas.• Sharing information on government policies, strategies, and programs.• Documenting best practices, lessons learned in publications, scaling-up.• Providing support for capacity building.• Periodic (annual) events.• Organizing events: communicating government policies and strategies on learning, to share best practices and lessons learned.• Building partnerships and connecting actors for joint planning and collaboration.• Improving sectoral and cross-sectoral coordination.• Facilitating challenges and integrating them into research programs.• Organizing strategic events for collaboration, knowledge exchange, policy advocacy.• Connecting actors.Coverage National, regional National National, regional, local National, regional National  • Routine activities: Organizing periodic events and regular stakeholder meetings.We identified seven AMSPs that are led by civil society. Examples of CSO-led AMSPs include: the Forum for Environment (FFE), Environment and Coffee Forest Forum (ECFF), FOLU, the Consortium on Climate Change Ethiopia (CCC-E), the National Seed Forum (NSF), the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), and Population, Health and Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHEEC).AFSA is an alliance of 40 member networks and is active in around 50 countries, advocating agroecology in policy and practice to achieve food sovereignty in Africa. The following activities are undertaken to achieve these objectives:• Strategic activities: Organizing strategic events for networking and collaborating; establishing coalitions and alliances for innovative solutions and resource mobilization; organizing events for network building and strategic partnerships; discussing pertinent seed issues.Organizing periodic meetings and events.  (Bekele et al., 2015). The platform is led by the Environment Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC). Similarly, the RATCSs have been established due to UN multilateral environmental agreements on agricultural transformation councils, as autonomous federal organs. HARECN was established by Addis Ababa University and seeks to unite practitioners and academia to promote environmental conservation and natural resource management.Government-led AMSPs are active on a national, regional, and local scales. With the exception of TAAT, they all have a long-term life cycle.Government-led AMSPs have the following objectives:(i) Knowledge management focuses on research; disseminating knowledge and experiences; building capacities; and providing recommendations for scaling-up. AMSPs applying knowledge management include ENGEA, REDD+, EAAP, HARECN, VCAs, RATCs, ADPLACs, PRSCN, and TAAT. To reach this objective, these AMSPs implement a set of strategic and routine activities:• Strategic activities: Enhancing integrated learning through the review of progress reports; provision of inputs; capacity building through learning events; field visits; trainings; workshops; knowledge dissemination; hosting projects on agriculture; renewable energy; circular economy; and project development and implementation.Organizing periodic meetings; coordination and monitoring; regular meetings for experience sharing.(ii) Engaging and influencing focuses on policy advocacy and supporting policy implementation.Examples are ENGEA, REDD+, HARECN, RATC, NSF, PRSCN, and TAAT. The following activities are undertaken to achieve these objectives:• Strategic activities: organizing trainings for networking with policymakers and other relevant groups; creating awareness among policymakers and community members; providing a platform for environmental diplomacy and inter-disciplinary dialogue among civil society organizations, governments, and academic institutions;recommending sustainability solutions; bringing together stakeholders to identify priorities in the sector; formulating strategies to overcome challenges; and lobbying.• Routine activities: Organizing periodic events and meetings.(iii) Facilitating partnerships and collaboration by providing national knowledge hubs and platforms for dialogues and collaboration. Examples include ENGEA, REDD+, HARECN, VCAs, RATCs, ADPLAC, PRSCN, and TAAT. To achieve this objective, these AMSPs implement the following set of activities:• Strategic activities: Developing and accelerating agri-food enterprises; providing financial and technical support; establishing quality testing labs for products; project development and implementation; resource mobilization; networking and connecting actors; organizing collaborative meetings and events for collaborative problem identification; and providing access to credit facilities for agricultural inputs.• Routine activities: Organizing regular meetings for experience sharing and collaboration.This category consists of two AMSPs that are coled by the Ethiopian government and development organizations: Partnering for Growth (P4G) Ethiopian National Platform (P4GENP), and the National Watershed and Agroforestry Multi-Stakeholder Platform (NWAMP).P4GENP is co-hosted by P4G, an international nonprofit development actor, the Environment Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC), and the Ethiopian Environment Protection Authority (EPA). P4GENP aims at accelerating partnerships and aligns them with development priorities including smallholder farms, smart irrigation, renewable energy, as well as sustainable food and agriculture value chains. This AMSP has supported various partnerships, two of which are still active and related to agroecology: the Agroforestry for People Peace and Prosperity (APPP) and the Sustainable Sourcing at Scale (SSS). APPP connects Ethiopian smallholder farmers to South Korea's specialty coffee market. They build capacities for seedling production and for creating organic fertilizer from waste residues. SSS drives capital investments into rural areas, providing scalable solutions for economic growth and income generation. P4GENP is funded by different sources that P4G has mobilized from international donors.NWAMP is co-hosted by ICRAF and the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. This AMSP aims at accelerating the adoption and scaling-up of agroforestry practices on Ethiopia through collaboratively developing agroforestry strategies. The platform plans to organize one large annual workshop, which is foreseen to be established at the national, regional, and local levels.These AMSPs focus on the thematic areas of sustainable development and natural resource management, and specific issues such as watershed development and management, agroforestry, smallholder farms, smart irrigation, renewable energy, sustainable food and agriculture value chains. They are funded by CGIAR, which mobilizes resources through donor funding. P4GENP and NWAMP both have a long-term life cycle, thus facilitating long-term partnerships. facilitating issues and challenges that are then integrated into national and international research programs; and facilitating networks with relevant stakeholders.• Routine activities: Organizing periodic events. Strengthening multi-stakeholder agroecology platforms in Ethiopia: a landscape analysisThis category of AMSPs consists of only one platform, namely the Ethiopian Solar Energy Development Association (ESEDA), which was established in 2010.Experts in the field mentioned that solar pumps are promoted on farms as a climate-friendly solution for irrigation systems. The State provides incentives (e.g., access to finance, and duty and tax exemptions) for engaging with the solar pump sector. The AMSP aims at promoting the solar energy industry's interests. Different solar energy market stakeholders are collaborating in this platform, mainly from the private sector. But the government is also participating. The AMSP is not project based and has a long-term life cycle.This private sector-led AMSP has various objectives, which are similar to the ones of the other AMSP types.(i) Knowledge management to create a forum for the dissemination and exchange of information and ideas, and increasing stakeholders' skills and awareness levels regarding solar energy technologies.• Strategic activities: Organizing events.• Routine activities: Organizing periodic events, meetings, and debates.(ii) Engaging and influencing for policy advocacy towards pro-renewable energy policies and regulations, as well as to improve the business environment for renewable energies.The following activities are undertaken to achieve these objectives:• Strategic activities: Organizing advocacy events.• Routine activities: Organizing periodic events.(iii) Facilitating partnerships and collaboration to increase coordination between members and partners.• Strategic activities: Facilitating coordination between actors when developing and implementing solar initiatives; and organizing events for collaboration.• Routine activities: Connecting the relevant actors/stakeholders.The following activities are undertaken to achieve these objectives:• Strategic activities: Organizing strategic events for networking and collaborating; establishing coalitions and alliances to develop innovative solutions and for resource mobilization; organizing events for network building and strategic partnerships; and discussing pertinent seed issues.Organizing periodic meetings and events. From the data collected, the five types of AMSPs share some similarities and differences, observed in their organizational structure, thematic areas of focus, objectives, main activities, geographic coverage, life cycle, and types of stakeholders they engage with. In terms of organizational structure, all types of AMSPs are organized differently. Often data availability of the organizational structure is not provided; however, most AMSPs seem to be organized through participatory approaches.Development organization-led AMSPs are mostly project based and are funded by those projects. CSOled AMSPs have a variety of funding sources and are mainly funded by international funding organizations. Government organization-led AMSPs are funded by the government, but also by international funders. GDOco-led AMSPs are mostly financed by development organizations. And the private sector-led AMSP is funded by the private sector.This section briefly evaluates if and how the different AMSPs influence practice and policy in Ethiopia. For this purpose, the study examines how the five types of AMSP perform with regard to engagement and influencing, knowledge management, and other relevant strategic activities. It assesses how these contribute towards improving the policy environment and the adoption and scaling of best practices. Key points are summarized in Table 2.Private sector-led AMSP• Integrating conservation agriculture into extension policy.• Economics of climate change, environment, energy, natural resource management.• Sustainable development.• Healthy ecosystem and resilient community.• Open-data access and big data analytics in the agricultural sector for optimal use of natural resources (e.g. water, nutrients).• Seed sector.• Agroecology.• Organic and ecological agriculture.• Food and nutrition.• Environment and climate change-related policies.• Sustainable and equitable use of natural resources.• Regenerative agriculture.• Land use.• Addressing food loss and waste.• Community rights, family farming, food sovereignty.• Agroecology.• Gender equality.• Deforestation and land use.• Land rehabilitation.• Environmental protection.• Sustainable energy.• Waste management.• Irrigation in wheat.• Agroforestry.• Watershed development and management.• Pro-renewable energy policies and regulations.• Lobbying and policy advocacy in networking events, and partnerships, through multistakeholder platforms.• Serve as focal point with regards to policy research.• Serve as a platform for advocacy and communication.• Networking.• Policy-level discussions.• Policy-relevant research (strengthening scientific and economic evidence base for policy reform).• Demonstrate influence through pilots.• Publishing policy recommendations.• Provide support to policymakers and other influential stakeholders.• Engaging in climate change related-activities and negotiations.• Policy advocacy in events and meetings.• Trainings and awareness creation for policymakers and other relevant groups.• Providing a platform for environmental diplomacy and interdisciplinary dialogue.• Capacity development.• Promoting and scaling irrigation practices in wheat production.• Support and guidance of policies.• Strategy and plan development.• Organizing events for policy advocacy.• Creating a forum related to solar energy. • Good practices and technologies (agroecology, climate smart, organic, soil management, seeds).• Enabling good practices (sustainable renewable energy, increased productivity through sustainable resources use).• Inclusive business models, private-sector development.-Good practices (ecological practices, land and soil management, pastoralism, fisheries management).-Enabling good practices (increase production and productivity, food quality, solid waste management, health, population, gender equality).-Good practices (climate smart, irrigation in wheat).- -Enabling good practices (solar energy).• Policy-and practice-oriented research: dissemination of research results; publications.• To serve as a focal point for longterm collaboration: experience sharing, creating learning groups at local level.• Linking various actors and implementing projects.• Capacity building through trainings, programs.• Thematic research, education, and pilot implementation of research findings.• Capacity building through workshops and events.• Building clear narratives backed up with evidence for transition to agroecology.• Serving as platform for communication, networking, and advocacy.• Building capacities by providing incubation services for agribusinesses 1 .• Providing a platform for environmental diplomacy and interdisciplinary dialogue.• Facilitate value chain development by creating linkages and developing strategies.• Conduct evidence-based identification of problems and formulate short-, mid-, and longterm strategies to resolve them.• Facilitation/ acceleration of partnerships.• Coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating of the performance.-Facilitating awareness raising and sharing or dissemination of agroforestry knowledge products.• Implementing solar energy initiatives.Many themes and corresponding targeted policies are similar among the five types of AMSPs. Similar targeted policies include agroecology, and organic and ecological agriculture. Integrating conservation agriculture into extension policy, regenerative agriculture, economics of climate change, environment, energy and natural resource management, deforestation and land-use. Development organization-led AMSPs also focus on open-data access, big data analytics for optimal use of resources (e.g., water and nutrients), and on policies related to the seed sector. CSO-led AMSPs promote policies targeted on food loss/waste. They also aim at improving food sovereignty by targeting policies about community rights and family farming. Government organization-led AMSPs in turn target policies on gender equality, waste management, sustainable energy and irrigation in wheat. GDO-coled AMSPs target policies related to agroforestry, as well as watershed development and management.Development organization-led AMSPs work to influence policies for sustainable agricultural development and family farming to increase food security in Ethiopia. They use lobbying and policy advocacy in networking events, and partnerships to influence policy processes. The Environment for Development Initiative-Ethiopia (EDIE) serves as focal point with regard to policy research on the economics of climate change, environment, energy, natural resource management, and sustainable development. The Ethiopian Food System and Agroecology Consortium (EFSAC) aims to contribute to the creation of a healthy ecosystem and resilient community through policy advocacy towards agroecological production systems. The Pesticide Action Nexus Association (PANA) supports policies and strategies that promote a sustainable and safe environment for all people and beings by advocating against hazardous chemicals. The Pelum Ethiopia Consortium (PEC) addresses food and nutrition security by advocating scaling-up of agroecological practices through networking, lobbying and policy advocacy. Similarly, the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative (EOAI) scales up ecologically and organically sound strategies through policy advocacy.CSO-led AMSPs aim to target climate changerelated policies and often use agroecology as a means for sustainable resource use, and to create resilient communities for food security. The Forum for Environment (FFE) is a platform for advocacy and communication for stakeholders concerned with the Ethiopian environment. In this framework, they organize policy-level discussions and influence public opinion through radio programs. The Environment and Coffee Forest Forum (ECFF) uses environmental education, and practical implementation of scientifically proven concepts to influence policy processes. The Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) aims at providing support to policymakers and other influential stakeholders at national and local levels. The Consortium for Climate Change Ethiopia (CCC-E) uses policy advocacy to achieve commitments to address the effects of climate change. The Population, Health and Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHEEC) uses policy advocacy as a mechanism to contribute towards sustainable development.Most Government organization-led AMSPs use policy advocacy in events and meetings, and conduct training to create awareness amongst policymakers and other stakeholders. REDD+, for instance, conducts training to networks and members including policymakers to raise awareness and advocate for zero-deforestation and environmental rehabilitation in agriculture (Bekele et al., 2015). HOARECN provides a platform for environmental diplomacy and inter-disciplinary dialogue among stakeholders, including policymakers.GDO-co-led AMSPs support the guidance of policies and strategy plan development. NWAMP disseminates agroforestry knowledge products while technically supporting the creation of an enabling policy environment.The private sector-led AMSP Solar Energy Development Association (ESEDA) promotes the interests of the solar sector industry by organizing events for policy advocacy and by creating a forum for knowledge dissemination and ideas related to solar energy development. Access to information about private-sector involvement in AMSPs in Ethiopia is limited for all categories, where the private sector is less involved than in any other stakeholder groups. Experts in the field have mentioned that low private-sector involvement is a general issue in Ethiopia. In some AMSPs, the private sector is not represented at all. Only some AMSPs have experience in collaborating with the private sector. However, the private sector seems to be more interested in solar energy (ESEDA), as well as seed production (NSF). P4GEN and GAIN mention that the private-sector lacks the necessary capacity to collaborate towards a common goal. GAIN also mentions that the private sector lacks awareness on food and nutrition themes. FOLU mentions that financing tools are required to catalyze public and private investment in the agricultural and forest sectors.A further challenge is the lack of a standardized definition of the term agroecology. Stakeholders in the agricultural landscape mention that the majority of terms like regenerative agriculture, nature-based solutions, climate-smart agriculture, and climate change adaptation create confusion. Government officials have articulated their support towards developing a roadmap or strategy to align concepts, since the non-existence of concepts impedes privatesector involvement.Another factor that impedes private-sector involvement is the absence of a national and international price premium for agroecology products. Efforts to establish national markets and align the export of organic products to international markets are underway by different projects; however, there are no efforts to promote agroecology incentives.Private-sector interest in agroecology is mixed. This might be partly caused by the non-promotion of agroecology by the Ethiopian government. Agroecological transformation for wheat needs the participation of various stakeholders, sectors, and ministries. Policies that facilitate agroecological transitions need to be integrated at different levels (local, national, and international) and sectors. Through the Ten-Year Development Plan (2021-2030), the Ethiopian government aims to work towards an agricultural sector that is more resilient to climate change and one that is able to withstand the impacts of climatological and environmental changes affecting it. The main approach is to reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture and to promote irrigation in agriculture. Agroecology as such is not mentioned in the national strategy. However, recent government efforts to enhance wheat production acknowledge the importance of sustainable production through the application of agroecological practices (Mockshell et al., 2023). To ensure self-sufficiency and substitute wheat imports, the government aims at expanding wheat production through irrigation projects. In the Agricultural Extension Strategy of Ethiopia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource (2017) articulates support for environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. However, strategies and policies regarding agroecology are not clearly defined. Nonetheless, the ministers of the Ministry of Agriculture have expressed their interest on receiving guidance on how agroecology could be implemented in the Ethiopian context. Policy support is needed to create incentives for private-sector engagement.Based on the challenges described, recommendations to strengthen the existing AMSP landscape are suggested below:▪ Use AMSPs to map the opportunity and challenges generated by differing perceptions of the concept \"agroecology\" and create a standardized definition.▪ Create incentives for agroecology, e.g., certification systems, market premiums, training, participatory guarantee systems, etc.▪ Strengthen AMSPs directly related to agroecology through capacity building, improve the capacity to deal with organizational challenges and attract the private sector.▪ Create mechanisms for funding/financing opportunities for AMSPs.▪ Improve agroecology-related policies and their implementation strategies.Ethiopian landscape.A.Eitzinger/CIATBased on the challenges facing AMSPs and the gaps in facilitating public-and private-sector engagement and investments in agroecological transition, certain priorities and mechanisms should be considered for three types of AMSPs to strengthen such engagement and investment opportunities.First, the TRANSITIONS Program should collaborate with key platforms directly related to agroecology, i.e., EAP, NWAMP, EFSAC, PANA, PEC, and EOAI to benefit from the large number of stakeholders involved in agroecology. In collaboration with these platforms, the opportunities and challenges of the concept of agroecology should be mapped and a clear definition of the concept should be made to strengthen publicand private-sector engagement and investments.Since the above-mentioned platforms have experience in providing training on agroecological practices, synergies could arise from collaboration. This could also provide the opportunity to scale the promotion of agroecological practices. Joint research activities could be implemented to create incentives for public-and private-sector involvement, as well as for farmers. This could make public-and private-sector engagement in the agroecology sector more attractive.Second, the TRANSITIONS Program should prioritize collaboration with different types of AMSPs that have more experience in engaging with the private sector e.g., EAAP, ESEDA, HOARECN; EFSAC, TAAT, and ENSP. Furthermore, the project should build the capacities of farmers and their associations, and local communities to adopt agroecological practices, and engage with the public and private sector.Third, the TRANSITION project should emphasize developing partnerships with private-sector actors and trading to leverage resources and facilitate application of metrics that assess agroecology and trade promotion of agroecology products.Fourth, the project should advocate for policy changes that support agroecological transitions and create incentives for the private sector and farmers in the Ethiopian wheat sector. Targeted policies and regulations should create incentives for private-sector actors to invest in sustainable wheat production and support the adoption of agroecological practices, but should also incentivize farmers to participate in agroecological initiatives. The participation of all stakeholders is important to successfully address power imbalances and to include diverse perspectives, hence incentives for participation should be implemented. To allow for continuous learning and improvement, it is also important to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of AMSPs, the engagement of the private sector, and investment strategies that are in place.This study conducted a landscape analysis of agriculture-related multi-stakeholder platforms in Ethiopia. This analysis aims to strengthen publicand private-sector engagement and investments for agroecological transitions, especially in the wheat value chain. A total of 45 AMSPs that operate at international, national, and local levels were identified. Of these, 29 AMSPs were selected for analysis according to their relevance, dynamics, and data availability. Based on their functions, five types were classified, specifically development organizationled AMSPs, CSO-led AMSPs, government-led AMSPs, and GDO co-led AMSPs, and one private sector-led AMSP. Subsequently, the main characteristics of these types of AMSPs were studied with respect to the four basic pillars of organizational theory, i.e., structural, contextual, operational, and relational. Next, the influence of each AMSP type on agricultural-sector policy and practice was investigated. Furthermore, the study analyzed the achievements and challenges of the AMSPs' impact and sustainability, together with the gaps in facilitating private-sector engagement and investments in agroecological transition. Finally, the analysis identified appropriate mechanisms for the TRANSITION project to engage with each type of AMSP to encourage private-sector engagement and investments in support of agroecological transitions.To strengthen public-and private-sector engagements and investments, the authors recommend:Greater collaboration with specific AMSPs to map opportunities and challenges regarding the concept of \"agroecology\" and create a standard definition.ii) Identifying and promoting successful agroecological practices for wheat cultivation to articulate their economic, environmental, and social benefits.iii) Creating incentives for private-sector and farmers' involvement.iv) Building capacities of farmers and their associations, and local communities.v) Emphasizing developing partnerships with private-sector actors in the wheat sector.vi) Advocate policy changes that support agroecological transitions and that create incentives for the public-and private-sector and farmers' involvement in sustainable wheat production.The Program on Agroecological Transitions for Building Resilient, Inclusive, Agricultural and Food Systems (TRANSITIONS) aims to enable climate-informed agroecological transitions by farmers in lowand middle-income countries through the development and adoption of holistic metrics for food and agricultural systems performance, inclusive digital tools and transparent private-sector engagement.Learn more about the program here.The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, IWNI, CIFOR and World Agroforestry are part of CGIAR, a global partnership for a food-secure future.In partnership withFunded by","tokenCount":"5068"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ec3455031bbf2e23f42e3a3e044ad65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H013688.pdf","id":"-1351053348"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ee0a1fb6-1620-4cf4-b678-821fd0dd8a2a","pagecount":"171","content":"The first activity TNA, which was composed of a series of eight workshops, was conducted from 7 -18 August in Wad Medani, and involved 1.35 MOl staff, including managers, researchers and prospective trainers.The second activity win involve workshops on Irrigation Management for the top managers and senior officials of MOL This is the subject of this plan.The workshops promoted by MOl and IIMI aim to present the results of the Training Needs and Organizational Constraints Assessment (TNAL and introduce the Strategic Planning and Human Resources Development related to irrigation management to the top managers and senior officials of the Ministry of Irrigation in Sudan.The major objectives of the workshops are:1 .Deliver the results of training needs and organizational constraints assessment (TNA) 2 Raise the awareness of national participants to major trends and issues in water resources management in general, and in the irrigation sub-sector in particular.Demonstrate to the chief executive and his senior policy-makers the effectiveness of Corporate Planning as a management tool to develop the agency' s obje~tives in harmony with national planning policies, and to manage the change process.Demonstrate the vital role of Human Resource Development Planning in these endeavors .Introduce these concepts to a group of senior and middle managers, to develop a critical mass of professionals and managers in the agency who will facilitate the adoption of these concepts throughout the agency.Exercise Action Plans to facilitate implementation of activities which aim to '.operationalize the concepts discussed during the workshops.The workshops will have 20 participants for each session. They are the MOl top managers, their assistants and senior engineers who participated in the TNA exercise last August. They will attend the events in the following way.1st group: 25 -27 September: Under Secretary and Directors 2nd group: 28 29 September:Chief Engineers, Division Engineers, Resident Engineers, Assistant Director of Finance 3rd group: 30 September:Under Secretary and Directors and some from the second group.The sessions will be conducted from 8:00 to 14:30 for the five days and from 8:30 to 13:30 for the last day of the exercise.The strategy of the workshops was designed to facilitate discussion of staff skills and MOl constraints with the view of exercising Strategic Planning and Human Resources Development for the organization.This strategy incorporates a series of methods and techniques which promote opportunities for individual and group exercises.Among others, the following techniques will be used to facilitate the participants' interaction and learning.1 .Case studyTrip around the table 3.Group discussion (small and large groups)Integrated panels 6.The following instructional materials will be used during this program: transparencies, video, texts (hand-outs), exercise sheets, flipcharts, etc. Bibliography will also be provided to the participants for later readings and studies.The following resource will participate in this program: Process and Program Evaluation: Since these workshops will be mostly developed through group process and individual methods, the participants will be invited to evaluate the process of learning, interaction, practicing planning, skills, etc. which will take place during the events. They also will assess the organization, planning, implementation including methods, techniques, trainer's performance, instructional materials, etc. used during the program. The group will be invited to give oral feedback also to evaluate the activities as well.MOl: TNA and organizational constraintsGlobal issues in irrigation managementIrrigation management -National perspectivesPlanning and management processes -Corporate planning conceptsManagement process -Role of Leader/ManagerAgency role -Key issues (Mission Statement) 7.Translating mission into action-setting objectives 8.Performance categories, measures and standardsHuman Resources Development Plan -Strategic context 10.  In last 30 years there has been a three-fold increase.Rate of development has slowed down since mid 1980's.Currently more than 80% of water use is for irrigation.In most countries significant Government intervention has been reauired to facditate this development by:Ll -2-making available land and water resources in extent and location required. marshalling large amounts of investment capital.• Shows average annual lending for irrigation by international lending agencies.• To this must be added investments by National Governments.• Note rate of investment in mid 1980'~ in real terms had fallen to one-third level of the 1970•s. • .Evidence of low levels of productivity or poor standards of maintenance of existing schemes which reduces capacity for projects to service the capital debt. or provide a fiow of benefits to maintain the facilities at effective operational standards.The emergence of social and health problems related to development projects in some areas.L1 -3 lSLlDE LI -._JWorld Populatjon Growth• World Population has passed 5,000 million.Will reach 8,000 million by year 2025.• By year 2000, there will be 22 metropolises with populations greater than 10 million (18 of them in Asia. Africa and Latin ~merica).• By year 2025, 60% (5,000 million people) of world population will be living in cities and urban communities.+ Consequential increased demands for urban and industrial water supply and sanitation.• Potential for further pollution and degradation of available water supplies.Dilemma for World Community .. Acknowledgment that the availability,of clean. useable water ,,,,II be lilllitinq in most countries.Greater purpose and direction for the whole agency it designs the future, and invents ways of bringing that future about.Sharing of common goals by the various component units develops a \"team\" approach to managelnentIt creates an agency sensitive to the external environment Identification of strategies to react to that environment Provides a step by step process towards the futureParticipants are asked to reflect on the National issues that will have an impact on Agency Policies and Programs in the future.The Development of overall Government Policies, Objectives and Strategies is the outcome of a series of dynamic interactions. Some objectives require long periods for their achievement, e.g. self-sufficiency in food production.• However, at any particular stage of development there will be a set of specific issues, which need to be addressed in policy development.The relative priority and criticality of some issues may change over time. Policies in the water and agriculture sectors can be influenced by international events and pressures, variable climatic conditions (e.g. droughts, floods) as well as by internal political, economic and social changes.Resource materialThe groups' discussions may be assisted by consideration of the attached questions and summary_Tvvo questions for an irrigation agency• What impact will the shift to integrated water resources management policies have on the role and functions of this agency?• What are the likely changes in agricultural production in the short to medium term say (5-20 years) requiring appropriate policy changes in the agency?The exploration of these issues might be assisted by considering the following questions:• What are the relative roles of Government, Government Institutions (including the irrigation agency) and the private sector (including farmers) for irrigation and drainage for agriculture?• Are existing Water Laws and/or Proclamations and Regulations appropriate as far as specifying and protecting individual entitlement to the water supply service, and in defining the accountability of institutions?• How do government, their institutions and farmers interact at the strategy planning and operational level?• By what processes should the defined \"levels of service\" be determined and specified?• Are the existing \"levels of service\" to be provided to users of the system clearly defined and capable of being met?Will improved or changed \"levels of service\" be required to meet the demands of irrigated agriculture in the future?• Can these re-defined \"levels of service\" be provided by improving existing operational performance?• Is additional investment required in modernizing systems or improving existing services?• How should the costs of re-development and on-going operation and maintenance costs to provide these \"levels of service\" be identified and recovered or shared?• Are the existing Management Information Systems appropriate to provide a basis for management decisions in the short and longer term?  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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"973c982e0e86aee4bd2ea5b3f39f4464","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/22d8f802-47ab-465b-9448-e3ff8404f23e/retrieve","id":"1512575871"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4963dae2-aa0c-43cf-b05b-c468449dbd4f","pagecount":"1","content":"Cassava is a crucial staple crop in tropical regions, particularly Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Biofortified cassava, enriched with provitamin A carotenoids, addresses nutritional deficiencies. A 13-year study at CIAT, Colombia, shows genetic gains in β-carotenoids (7%), yield (4.1%), dry matter (0.55%), and plant height (1.30%), while branch number remained mostly unchanged (0.81%). This highlights the need to focus on branch number in future breeding efforts.The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the breeding program in addressing vitamin A deficiency, which is particularly important in lowincome regions with limited dietary diversity. However, there was a lack of significant genetic progress in the number of branches, indicating a possible area of focus for future breeding efforts. The study confirms the potential of biofortification to improve the nutritional profile of cassava, while identifying traits where targeted interventions are needed for comprehensive crop improvement.","tokenCount":"140"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"19f00322fec3ca0e68eebfe84836a5e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/926de234-6f5f-40f6-b9e5-b6f3306cc4c6/retrieve","id":"1678696503"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"844a1595-dc84-4e1e-a088-2be70d6d3116","pagecount":"22","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-Communities organize themselves in unique ways into social/functional units based on their cultural aspirations, threats and resources that they depend on. In many cases, these resources and the ecosystems to which they pertain do not correspond either to individual communities or to administrative boundaries. Landscape approaches are being promoted as an alternative. At the level of landscapes, however, the interaction of different people's aspirations complicate natural resources management (NRM). Success of NRM strategies depends on how well the complexity is addressed. Linkages which assist people and organizations to share information and resources across levels and scales can help provide opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of new threats, of what works and what does not, and of the range of options available to enable them to adapt accordingly.We investigated a case in northeastern Kenya where a landscape approach is being applied to rangeland management. In Garba Tula as elsewhere in Kenya, post-independence provincial administration guided by decisions made at central government with total disregard of traditional governance and resource management systems greatly undermined the traditional system. As a result, over the years natural resources were misused and degraded. This has been manifested in the inability of livelihoods to adapt to weather variations and drought. Recently the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), together with the local NGO Resource Advocacy Program (RAP) and communities in Garba Tula, initiated a process of reinvigorating the traditional management institutions and practices and integrating them into modern conservation strategies for the landscape.Using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a review of secondary data, we reviewed the way governance has been structured in this landscape approach, the decision-making processes, and the challenges facing the interventions so far. While the capacity building, rangeland management planning and other elements of the work that has been done to strengthen landscape level management demonstrate a potential for improved resource management and increased resilience of the livelihoods, it requires political buy-in from the various levels of administration. Although the Garba Tula landscape is an appropriate level at which to focus efforts aimed at promoting rangeland management, authority over the management of natural resources lies in various organizations and institutions, most of them operating at higher levels. The landscape level interventions have been carried out without devolution of authority to the institutions and processes which correspond to the geographical boundaries of the Garba Tula landscape. Appropriate linkages to governance actors and institutions at higher levels which could sustain and legitimize the processes at landscape level have not been established. Successful governance of the natural resources at the Garba Tula landscape needs to use the existing and potential opportunities for cross-scale dialogue and deliberation. Balancing power and influence among the stakeholders would allow for more effective dialogue among different interest groups and help to avoid situations where interventions may treat a landscape as an isolated island. Communities organize themselves in unique ways into social/functional units based on their cultural aspirations, threats and resources that they depend on. In many cases, these resources and the ecosystems to which they pertain do not correspond either to individual communities or to administrative boundaries. Landscape approaches are being promoted as an alternative. At the level of landscapes, however, the interaction of different people's needs complicate management of natural resources. Success of natural resource management (NRM) strategies depends on how well the complexity is addressed. Linkages which assist people and organizations to share information and resources across levels and scales can help provide opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of new threats, of what works and what does not, and of the range of options available to enable them to adapt accordingly.Another issue that must be considered is how biophysical characteristics and the kinds of production systems adapted to particular characteristics affect the ways in which NRM can and should be carried out. Drylands in developing countries represent a particular context that is unique, and present different requirements for optimal strategies to promote effective NRM than do other kinds of environments. One such difference relates to scale. Dryland farming and livelihood systems tend to be more extensive than farming systems in more humid climates. This is particularly true for mobile pastoralists. Rangeland management in pastoralist settings, therefore, may constitute a setting where landscape approaches are particularly appropriate. Drylands in developing countries present different and unique context that requires different optimal strategies for the promotion of sustainable NRM. Some models of communitybased approaches that would be effective in a sedentary village, such as when a village is managing its own forest, may not be applicable to mobile pastoralists. Instead, the relevant scale may be more at a landscape level. It may also be that cross-scale dimensions of management require more attention in dryland settings. Moreover, what constitutes a functional landscape, and what constitutes an effective landscape approach will be different in drylands than in other kinds of climates. In this case study, we explored how landscape management and governance can function in dryland pastoralist settings, how participation can be structured, and the kinds of challenges that are faced.One key aspect of governance in such situations is how pastoralists' knowledge is, or is not, incorporated into decision-making. Pastoral communities' participation in decision-making for environmental monitoring is regarded as one of the pillars of sound rangeland management (Oba 2012). Meaningful participation is needed not only in ongoing management but also in the design of the management institutions to ensure that relevant contextual knowledge, values and perspectives are incorporated in the design of resource governance systems.We investigated a case in Isiolo county in Kenya where a landscape approach is being applied to rangeland management. In Garba Tula as elsewhere in Kenya, the post-independence provincial administration system, guided by decisions made by central government with disregard of traditional governance and resource management systems, greatly undermined traditional management and governance. As a result, over the years natural resources were misused and degraded. This has been manifested in the inability of livelihoods to adapt to weather variations and drought. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), together with local NGO Resilience Advocacy Program (RAP) and communities in Garba Tula recently initiated a process of reinvigorating the traditional management institutions and practices by integrating them into modern conservation strategies for the landscape.This case study investigated the structure and functioning of management and governance in relation to this initiative.The two aims of the study were to characterize the organization of management and governance for the Garba Tula landscape and to explore successes and challenges of the system in place in implementing landscape level rangeland management.This included establishing the main governance issues that affect the successful incorporation of the traditional resources management strategies in the contemporary management of the Garba Tula landscape. Particularly, we set out to establish:• What are the issues and challenges?• Is planning top-down, bottom-up, or both?• How are planning and governance for natural resources structured?• What role does the traditional institution, Jarsa Dheeda play in rangeland management planning in Garba Tula?• What have been the successes and challenges in legitimizing community-based management of rangelands at county level through the Isiolo Customary Institution Bill?The study area was the Garba Tula traditional rangeland territory (dheeda), which effectively corresponds to Garba Tula subcounty in Isiolo county, Kenya. The smaller administrative units, the council wards, included in the study area were Kinna, Garba Tula, Kula Mawe, Serucho, Gafarsa and Benane. We selected focus groups from the members of the already established community resilience enhancement groups called Ward Adaptation Planning Committees (WAPCs) and Village Climate Adaptation Committees. The committees were constituted of community leaders who were either members of the customary dheeda council or represented the smallest social units in the community, from which dheeda council representative came. In total we conducted 18 discussions with focus groups in all 4 wards in Garba Tula. In addition, a total of 24 key informant interviews were conducted. Nineteen key informants at the ward level were interviewed. The key informants were leaders of the WAPCs at the ward level, people who had participated in leadership of any community development initiatives, members of the dheeda council, and leaders of community-based organizations. By being leaders or members of a social group, these individuals understood the customary and environmental issues within the landscape. The other five key informants included three members of county assembly (MCAs), the district commissioner and one district officer. Audio recordings were made of the interviews and focus groups and then transcribed.Analysis aimed at characterizing the structures of governance and management at the landscape level was based on the key dimensions identified in a framework that has been developed by ILRI. These include:• Definition of the landscape-What criteria and considerations were used to define the landscape? Was it predefined based on biophysical criteria? Was the definition of the landscape negotiated amongst stakeholders? Or does it remain fuzzy and not precisely defined?• Authority and governance powers of the landscape-level institution process-What degree of authority is accorded to the landscape-level management institution/process? What governance powers does it have?• Governance by whom?-Which type of actors have prominent role in the landscape level institution or process?• Multilevel planning approach-How does resource planning at the landscape level relate to planning at levels above and below?• Involvement of women and minorities-Identifying the role these social groups play in decision-making processes and in actual management of the resources.Further analysis aimed at identifying emerging themes on the successes and challenges for management and governance needs to be undertaken.Customary institutions, resource management and livelihoodsThe Borana community, a subtribe of the Oromo, with a much smaller number of ethnic Somalis occupied the Garba Tula landscape. The term Garba Tula in Borana means 'deep wells'. This landscape was a dry season refuge for Borana coming from Ethiopia long before some permanently settled in the area. The land is communally owned and managed as per the Kenya Trust Lands Act, 1963. The act provides guidelines on managing the resources by county councils on behalf of the community members.Garba Tula is part of a much larger rangeland ecosystem that stretches from the traditional territory of the Meru community in the south and the Samburu and Gabra communities in the north. The Garba Tula landscape is endowed with various natural resources which characterize it and also dictate the nature of livelihoods. The water resources include major rivers and wells. Garba Tula being of a place of many deep wells is a dry season-grazing area for many communities. The region is dry, consisting of a few water sources, mainly rivers, wells, springs and pans. The landscape is mosaicked with pastures of grass and browse vegetation, acacia patches and trees. Pastoralism is a main livelihood strategy.The organizational structure of Borana society is generally described in terms of a hierarchy, which includes the household, extended families, encampments or villages (ollaa), and neighbourhoods containing encampments (madda). At a larger scale there are rangelands called dheeda (Homan 2005). The smallest unit is the hearth (ibidda) with one male household head, his wife or wives and children. This is followed by warra-the fundamental component of production-which comprises households with extended family including up to four other relatives who live and eat with the herd owner's family (see Figure 1). Cross-cutting this territorially-based hierarchy are the mana (lineage) and gosa which broadly nests clans within submoieties and moieties. Functional aspects of this pastoral system include procedures for decision-making and allocation of responsibilities and resources (Swift and Abdi 1991).The production system here thrives in an erratic environment often characterized by uncertainty and variability of the resource base. Rainfall and the subsequent pasture growth are not predictable over space and time. The community has constantly adapted to these changes by using strategies such as herd mobility and coordinated grazing patterns. Their elaborate water and pasture management system include tools for checking livestock numbers and ensuring optimum resource use. A key part of this system was a council of elders at the dheeda level (Swift and Abdi 1991).Based on traditional ecological knowledge, the landscape has been classified to dry season and wet season grazing areas and water points. Traditional place names describe the physical features, soils and vegetation throughout the landscape while others describe historical events in Borana history. The dheeda council gave guidelines on the use of water and pastures. However, pasture management was also effected through water management. The physical location, legal status and technical condition of a water source determine the method or condition for the pastoralists' access to and use of water. Both the colonial and post-independence central governments which imposed the provincial administration on the community, effectively interrupting the flexible nature of pastoralist management in this landscape have weakened this system. Forceful sedentarization of the community members started when Kenya became independent. As mobility became more constricted, the ability to cope with the highly variable climate weakened.With the breakdown of the traditional system, there was unregulated and haphazard use of pastures. Over the years, there has frequently been an influx of livestock from surrounding Somali and Samburu pastoralist communities especially during very severe drought. Mutual respect for each other's management institutions among these communities was lacking. This has led to conflict over the resources and sometimes tribal clashes which often result in loss of lives. Planned grazing and any form of pasture management became essentially impossible. Over the years, the rangelands have faced significant degradation due to poor management practices and as a result a loss of livelihood and coping capacity for most pastoralists.Another factor has been that the areas around Meru National Park, starting from Kachulu and extending out to Bisanad conservancy have been used for crop production. The farmers here have cleared much of the natural forest for farmland and also extract the water from rivers for irrigation. Most of the rivers are now seasonal or dried up due to uncontrolled upstream abstraction and extraction. This has also affected wells in Garba Tula. The infrastructure around the wells and pans broke down a few years ago due to poor management and neglect of traditional management practices.Charcoal making and illegal logging have also been experienced in this landscape. There are isolated incidences of tree poachers coming in with power saws to cut down the hard wood in the area for timber. There were also incidences of wildlife poaching including elephant poaching.Initiatives from the IUCN, IIED and a local advocacy group called Resilience Advocacy Program (RAP) have tried to address some of these challenges. The IUCN recognized the importance of the existing local ecological knowledge among the Borana and used it to drive a social learning process that would lead to adaptive management of the landscape and resources. From December 2010 to April 2011, IUCN conducted a governance assessment to facilitate understanding of the existing natural resources management strategies and the governance issues impacting on the Garba Tula natural resource and livelihood values with the aim of identifying opportunities for strengthening governance mechanisms. The IUCN developed a partnership with RAP to enable them facilitate a change on the ground through community sensitization and awareness creation, supporting and strengthening their operations. RAP and IUCN worked together to mobilize the community to re-establish the traditional resource management system and to reinvigorate the dheeda council. Through a participatory process, mapping and documenting the regulations under the dheeda council for the Garba Tula resources was initiated.IUCN facilitated the capacity building of these representatives in areas of needs assessment, fundraising and on how to successfully run a community-based organization. The training is aimed at instituting a strong community-based governance mechanism at the landscape level. The capacity building interventions have helped the community to identify their weaknesses, strengths, and ways of using the existing resources/opportunities to deal with the problems at the community level. The committee, with the help of RAP mobilized a participatory assessment process through which the priority needs of the community were identified. Water was identified as the major need of the community. Rehabilitating and protecting water supply sources was made a top priority. With funding acquired from IIED, the community embarked on the rehabilitation of major water pans in the area. They set up a protective fence around the water pans to prevent livestock from haphazardly accessing the water or dirtying the water inside. They also set up a system of managing the water, based on the traditional Borana resource management system. An elder was nominated to look after each water pan and to ensure equitable access to the resource by all members within the landscape. From our interviews with local stakeholders, we found that the IUCN did not influence the decisionmaking nor did they dictate on how the resource use planning would be done. Since that time, IIED has become more involved in moving forward the community participatory resource mapping and resource use planning. The community representatives have worked with RAP leaders to map all the resources in the landscape. They further trained a section of these representatives in the use of computer tools (QGIS) to produce a digital map.This also led to the birth of a county bill on traditional resource management based on the Borana traditional resource management institutions and practices. The process involved the nomination of two representatives from each ward or social unit in the area-Kinna, Garba Tula, Sericho, Merti, Jairap and Oldonyiro-to a taskforce. The representatives of the other communities in the county government level have not endorsed the bylaws mainly because they feel their communities were not involved in drafting the bill and also that the ownership of the bylaws is mainly in the Borana community's hands. Some elected officials who are from the Borana community also feel the bill will not be their product since the process of reinvigorating it started before they were elected into office.Overview ILRI developed a common framework that was used to describe the structures and processes of governance and management of the Garba Tula landscape. The findings are summarized in Table 1. The landscapes in landscape management approaches can be defined in different ways: according to watersheds or other biophysical criteria, according to pre-existing administrative or customary boundaries, or may be negotiated among participating communities or other partners.IUCN and RAP efforts helped to strengthen rangeland governance and management to be focused on the traditional dheeda territory and on the institutions that correspond to it-particularly the dheeda council. The post-independence Kenya government derived administrative boundaries according to the ethnic groups with the lower level administrative units and in some cases districts tending to correspond to an area occupied by one ethnic community. The Borana community mainly occupied what is now Garba Tula subcounty that also corresponded to the customary Garba Tula dheeda. Therefore the landscape where the assessment took place was essentially predefined.There are a range of governance powers relevant to management and allocation of resources. In some cases, the landscape level institution or process may be very strong having full power to manage the resource, establish regulations etc. In other cases, it may have a mandate for establishing planning and managing frameworks, but little authority for actual management. Or it may have only an advisory capacity and voluntary coordination function.The Borana community who practice pastoralism for many centuries occupied the Garba Tula landscape. They are a subgroup of the larger Oromo community in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. There is a rich history of the community's cultural practices dating as far back as the 14 th century when the Gada system was established.The Gada system serves as a basis for democratic and egalitarian political system under which the power to make and enforce rules is in the hands of the people. Abba Gada, who is an equivalent of a nation's president, heads the system. Under the Gada system, there are other councils of elders who make and enforce decisions on the management of natural resources at the landscape level. In Garba Tula, the council of elders is the dheeda council who are in charge of water and pasture resources. They decide how to use the pastures during certain times of the year to ensure sustainability of the resources and availability throughout the year. Traditionally, the council of elders is given a very high degree of recognition. The post-independence government who installed the provincial administration system of government has weakened the council of elders system thus reducing the powers and significance of the dheeda council. In recent times, there has been declining rangeland productivity leading to poor livestock outcomes like reduced milk and meat production and reduced livestock numbers due to drought and poor mating success in livestock. The pastoralists had to make choices on how to adapt with these changes. With the support of IUCN and RAP, they were consulted about their traditional knowledge of the landscape and its management. This saw the rebirth of the dheeda council.While the council is seen as legitimate and enjoys widespread support from the community, it has not, however, received much recognition from the Kenyan government. Its management powers only go as far as resource management is concerned and only affects the Borana households. The Somali and Samburu do not respect the provisions of the dheeda, and therefore cases of conflict are common. At present, the rightful authority for managing the landscape lies more in the central government through institutions like Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and sometimes the National Government Administration Organization (NGAO). Water Management Authority (WRMA) regulated the water resources. The regional KWS office is in the Meru National Park and oversees the whole region. The KFS and WRMA do not have a local presence in the area and mainly operate from Isiolo. The district commissioner and district officer work very closely with the dheeda council in resolving disputes on the ground. Collectively, the mandates and roles played by these governance actors reduce the powers that the dheeda council might otherwise have. On the other hand, the capacity of the government agencies and officers to implement and enforce decisions is weak. This implies that the de jure authority for resource management within the landscape lies with institutions at a higher level than the dheeda council, whereas de facto authority is contested and uncertain.Attempts have been made to change this. Following the capacity building activities, RAP facilitated a process to assist the council to document the traditional resource management practices and have the document formally recognized at the county government level. This bill was to be presented to the county government for adoption. Because the bill was going to affect more than one ethnic community, it has been queried and referred back to the community. The Somali and Samburu communities feel the document would affect them even though they were not involved in drafting it. RAP and other stakeholders promoting the bill will require political buy-in from all the county government members to get the bill adopted. IUCN and RAP may have underestimated the complexity of steering the political issues involved in legitimizing the landscape level processes at the county level. The MCAs that are not from the Borana community feel they need to be part of the design process so they do not pass a bill that may discriminate against their people. The bill has also been criticized for not ensuring representation of women.Governance by whom?Distinct from the matter of what degree of authority the landscape level institution or process has is the question of who participates in and controls that institution or process. Some landscape approaches bring together different government actors and are controlled by them; others are community-based; in others the approach is collaborative, bringing together government and communities and sometimes private sector actors.The participation ('governance by whom?') dimension for Garba Tula can be classified as 'governance by communities'. The primary decision-making institution/process is the dheeda council, membership in which is based on representation of the communities within dheeda. The dheeda council elders are nominated by the community and vetted by the incumbent council members. Some of the criteria for nominating a council representative is the wealth level (in terms of livestock owned), and the general level of knowledge of the contemporary issues. Women do not have a physical representation in the dheeda council but in theory can have their views represented through their husbands who can be on the council.Government representatives for the NGAO (e.g. chiefs and subchiefs) take part in making decisions regarding natural resource management in Garba Tula. However, when they participate in dheeda council decision-making, they tend to do so as elders rather than in their capacity as chiefs/subchiefs and hence there is no clear difference of roles for the NGAO from those of the council of elders.Landscapes contain resources at lower levels and smaller spatial scales, and are themselves parts of larger river basins, bioregions and other systems. Planning and decision-making take place at many different levels. How planning and management decisions at the landscape level relate to planning and decision-making at levels above and below is a key consideration in understanding any landscape approach.Traditionally, planning for pasture resources was done primarily at dheeda level. Management of water resources, however, plays an important role in the use and management of pasture resources, and this is done at lower levels. Presently, there are other planning and management processes that interact with the decision-making that happens at dheeda level. In particular, at the ward level, there is the Ward Adaptation Planning Committee (WAPC) responsible for planning interventions that enhance the people's capacity to cope with changing environments. These bodies work with the Isiolo County Climate Adaptation Committee (ICCAC). The WAPCs work closely with the council of elders at the ward or village level. Other actors like RAP work with the WAPC to plan for resource management at the ward level but also provide a link to the county government directly. The ICCAC works with the county bodies responsible for natural resources management to provide guidelines on how the resources will be managed in the whole county. The WAPC is linked to the county government through the MCAs. In these ways, planning done at these other levels is integrated with the landscape (dheeda) level planning but in an ad hoc way based on informal linkages and overlapping membership between the dheeda council and the WAPCs. Aside from the somewhat weaker connection to the ICCAC, connections between planning at landscape and county levels are essentially non-existent.Other cross-level planning challenges relate to the KWS, KFS, and the neighbouring Meru county. The KWS is in charge of the Bisanadi game reserve which is a protected area within Garba Tula, and Meru National Park which borders on Gabra Tula. 1 Decisions made on natural resources use in Meru county affect ecological processes that are important for resource management in the Garba Tula district. For example, expansion of horticulture production in Meru has led to increased water extraction and reduced water flow to the wetlands in Bisanadi. KWS does not allow the use of the Meru National Park for livestock grazing even during very dry seasons, yet traditionally it is a refuge 1. The boundary between Isiolo and Meru counties in the area of Meru National Park is contested. Part of the park may therefore be within the boundaries of Isiolo county and Garba Tula subcounty.grazing area for the Borana. The complexity of these relationships is not reflected in current formal relationships nor in the proposed county bill.In the future, with the new county government, planning is to be done at the lower levels and then the plans amalgamated at the county government level. This should provide an opportunity for planning done at the landscape level to find a place in the system.The decision-making role of women within landscape governance and management processes is an important consideration. Effective and equitable NRM requires addressing the intracommunity power differences that often make strategies fail. Gender can be a strong source of such differences.The role of women in decision-making is very minimal in Garba Tula. Traditionally, women are not formally involved or consulted on any resource use plans. This is so despite the fact that they manage a good proportion of livestock resources. The proposed county bill, however, mentions that 'a person of either gender accorded such status owing to respect, level of knowledge, experience and wisdom shall be called elders regardless of their age' but there are no women on the Garba Tula dheeda council.RAP has included women in their leadership team who takes an active role in their planning processes. Through such individuals, women have started getting involved in active decision-making.As mentioned above, given that the organizational structure is based on customary (ethnically-defined) institutions, no other ethnic groups are represented on the primary landscape-level body, i.e. the dheeda council.Successes at the local levelThe post-independence Kenyan government adopted policies on land management and institutional structures that disregarded traditional knowledge, institutions and practices. As a result, traditional resource use practices employed by Borana and other pastoralists were gradually weakened. This in turn has contributed to degradation of the rangeland ecosystems and the undermining of pastoralist livelihoods. The governance assessment done by IUCN suggested that in the past the traditional systems had worked much better than in recent years, which informed the strategy of reinvigorating traditional institutions, a process which has met significant success. Participatory resource mapping and planning was done with the help of IIED and this helped people to appreciate their environment as a main source of livelihood. These activities have initiated a process for improving capacity of local communities to manage their institutions through effective participatory decision-making processes. The reinvigorated dheeda council works much in the same way as it was traditionally, and the planning processes here consider the social, cultural and ecological dimensions, with the availability and abundance of water and pasture being the main consideration.While the interventions tended to adopt a strategy of working through and strengthening traditional institutions, particularly the dheeda council which is made up entirely of men, there have also been some positive developments in women's participation. Most sectors of the community were represented in community resource planning process and are considered in the draft resource management bill. A few women are involved in the village adaptation planning committees and also in the RAP committee. This is a big departure from what it is used to be traditionally.The landscape level management system in Garba Tula has not been in operation long enough to see its impact on the natural resources. However, the community members interviewed in this research expressed optimism that their resources and livelihoods would be secure in the future. Our observations suggest that people have a stronger sense of ownership over decision-making processes related to pasture and water resources. Moreover, environment degradation around the water pans has reduced since the animals drink their water from a watering point outside the water pan. The trees within the landscape are not so much threatened by charcoal making. Now the community reports any serious threat to the natural environment like charcoal making and forest fires to the authorities and deliberate effort is made to mitigate or prevent such threats.At the level of landscapes, the interaction of different people's eco-bio-social aspirations complicate NRM. Success of NRM strategies depends on how well the complexity is addressed. Linkages which assist people and organizations to share information and resources across levels and scales can help provide opportunities to broaden their knowledge and understanding of new threats, of what works and what does not, and of the range of options available to enable them to adapt accordingly.The Garba Tula landscape is an appropriate level at which to focus efforts at promoting rangeland management, and the capacity building, rangeland management planning and other elements of the work that has been done to strengthen resource management demonstrate a potential for improved resource management and increased resilience of people's livelihoods. The boundaries of Garba Tula, however, are porous, as is to be expected for mobile pastoralists in a semi-arid environment. The variability of rainfall and pasture resources compel mobility-pastoralists from Garba Tula often need to graze their livestock beyond Garba Tula and pastoralists from other places often bring their livestock to Garba Tula. This entails the involvement of other ethnic groups which complicates matters further.The recently enacted resources management planning processes and the evolving institutions have not included the vertical and horizontal linkages needed to deal with this complexity.Currently, formal authority over the management of natural resources lies in various organizations and institutions, most of them operating at higher levels. The landscape level interventions have been carried out without devolution of authority to the institutions and processes which correspond to the geographical boundaries of the Garba Tula landscape.The linkages to these governance actors that are needed include relationships to the national and county governments, each of which have their own priorities in resource management, priorities which sometimes conflict with the priorities of the dheeda council of elders and other spaces of resource planning (such as WAPCs). For example, KFS implements forest protection which sometimes excludes some pastoral people's routine activities.The county governments of Isiolo and Meru plan independently yet the broader rangeland ecosystem transverses the two counties. At times, these various actors reconcile their aspirations and reach a common point regarding natural resources in this landscape. This ad hoc coordination is helpful but takes a lot of time to reach and implement decisions, and has thus far done more to undermine the Garba Tula level processes than to strengthen them. Making landscape level management at Garba Tula effective will require political buy-in from the various levels of administration.Although the strategy of strengthening customary resource management has been appropriate in some ways and improved the ability of Borana communities within Garba Tula to engage in collective planning, lack of broader stakeholder inclusion in the processes have seriously undermined the ability to implement the plans. The plans required to include all social groups affected by the bill right from the initial stages of design. Since political leaders have a strong influence on the adoption of the bill, they should have been included in the design process. This would create a sense of ownership on the part of the leaders hence political and financial support. County government has not adopted the traditional resource management strategy as a management plan that can be used in the whole county; most leaders approve of the strategy and have recommended that the process of formulating be revised to include all the appropriate stakeholders.The process of improved and sustainable resource management for sustainable livelihoods and environmental conservation in Garba Tula is an appropriate and potentially powerful one. However, it requires appropriate collaboration and inclusiveness of all stakeholders in its design and implementation for it to be successful. There should be appropriate policy guidance for the management of the natural resources in this dry land. The formal and informal institutions and organizations such as the dheeda, county government and the community-based advocacy groups need to collaborate in participatory decision-making and general management of natural resources.Appropriate linkages to governance actors and institutions at higher levels which could sustain and legitimize the processes at landscape level have not been established. Successful governance of the natural resources at the Garba Tula landscape needs to use the existing and potential opportunities for cross-scale dialogue and deliberation. Balancing power or influence among the stakeholders would allow for more effective dialogue among different interest groups and help to avoid situations where interventions may treat a landscape as an isolated island. ","tokenCount":"5948"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9235c8bdfe1be903593f72c6e8f4db3b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65f46236-0f8e-450a-b02c-a8d7896d0560/retrieve","id":"1554491179"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"40a66508-9abe-495c-95b4-cae851e65230","pagecount":"4","content":"There is great potential for groundwater irrigation in much of Sub-Saharan Africa.• Smallholder farmers are eager to tap reliable new irrigation sources.• The most critical constraints lie in developing supply chains, finance, and other essential infrastructure.Pavelic et al. estimate that groundwater is considerably underutilized, from a study in a subset of 13 countries in the region. Of these, the highest potential is in Zambia, followed by Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Niger have limited potential. Collectively, these countries could extend groundwater-irrigated area by 13.5 million hectares. Altchenko & Villholth (2015) put the total area of cropland in Africa potentially irrigable with renewable groundwater at anywhere from 27.2 to 64.3 million hectares, after accounting for human needs and environmental requirements. With proper integrated management at all levels, this potential can be developed without compromising domestic water supply.Smallholders readily embrace groundwater irrigation. According to Villholth, smallholders form the nucleus of growth behind expanding groundwater irrigation, driven by improved access to low-cost technologies for pumps and drilling services. Smallholders favor groundwater irrigation due to the generally reliable year-round access and their autonomy over its utilization. This reduces their risk when making investments in other production inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and energy), which enables them to intensify through multiple cropping and to diversify, leading to greater productivity and higher net incomes.A small motor pump, usually less than five horsepower, is the best of the irrigation technologies evaluated for improving the agricultural production of typical smallholders in Sub-Saharan countries. When Shah et al. asked rainfed farmers from nine countries in SSA to name their preferred mode of irrigation, they overwhelmingly chose to have a private well, a small-motor pump, and adequate flexible pipe. Namara et al. find that small-motorized pumps are the most widely used method for extracting groundwater. While small motor pumps provide a path for smallholders to transition to groundwater irrigation, a web of complicating factors overshadows movement in that direction. Under-developed supply chains complicate the acquisition and use of small motor pumps. Focusing on Zambia, Colenbrander & van Koppen show how centralized provision of sales and services requiring farmers to travel long distances, unreliable availability of spare parts, and limited quality control create unacceptably high transaction costs for the farmers. Remote rural farmers also find it difficult to access adequate information regarding the available range of pump makes, models, prices, and how to operate and maintain the pumps properly.Other indirect factors hinder smallholders' adoption of groundwater pumps. In Ghana, Dittoh et al. show that smallholders recognize the economic advantages of groundwater irrigation but many cannot acquire the equipment due to inadequate working capital. More broadly across the region, Chokkakula & Giordano reveal obstacles such as borehole investment costs, the price of energy, access to credit, and land tenure security.While diesel pumps usually cost more to operate than electric pumps, only 14% of rural Sub-Saharan Africa has electricity infrastructure. Forced to rely on diesel to power pumps, many smallholders find access to credit is a crucial factor, but they face unacceptable interest rates. Women are often particularly disadvantaged in getting access to credit, as they lack land tenure for collateral. van Koppen et al. show that female farmers given equitable opportunities are quite capable of achieving adequate livelihoods Solar irrigation pumps can help smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa overcome the working capital problem. Solar pumps are gaining prominence in Asia and slowly also in parts of Africa, because they provide high quality energy for irrigation at nearzero marginal cost. Their capital cost remains beyond the reach of most smallholders, but in some cases, governments offer significant capital subsidies to promote adoption (Hartung & Pluschke, 2018). If the issues of initial cost and working capital can be overcome, solar and motor pumps provide a path for smallholders' to improve their livelihoods through greater groundwater irrigation. • Decentralized supply and maintenance of pumps.• Smallholder access to reasonable financing options.• Smallholder access to reliable and low-cost energy sources, particularly solar energy.Developing groundwater for irrigation will improve smallholder incomes. For groundwater to be sustainable, however, this use cannot impinge on the quantity or quality available for domestic and environmental uses. Villholth reminds us of this problem, and points to the necessity to ensure local management of the resource, with appropriate external support, to avoid depletion and intersectoral conflicts.","tokenCount":"720"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e321ee3741e689ffbedf57a211ab9626","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a9854203-bca4-4889-818d-88dbfd3efaa4/retrieve","id":"-1827998431"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b9e8afba-d695-4df8-aa83-1f9904a33d79","pagecount":"144","content":"This publication has been prepared with care by the authors. Responsibility for editing, proofreading and design/layout of the document, and for any remaining errors and opinions expressed lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IWMI.viii o Similar trends were observed for the remaining provisioning, regulatory and cultural services where reductions in risk associated with the implementation of e-flows are expected. The cultural services for the Marico, Lotsane and Sand Rivers (10.5% of the basin) remained in a high-risk state, which is attributed to non-flow drivers.  Should the e-flows not be implemented, and extensive droughts associated with climate change scenarios occur in the future: o the risk to the supporting services will increase significantly to 99% of the entire basin area with the Luvuvhu River alone remaining in a sustainable moderate risk state. o The regulatory services in the upper part of the catchment where the rivers are seasonal will in particular be at risk if no e-flows are implemented and climate change causes excessive droughts. o The provisioning and cultural services are not expected to change excessively if e-flows are not met but some areas in the upper and middle reaches of the basin will be affected.  As there are 14 million people living within the Limpopo Basin that are reliant on the water resources it is imperative that they are managed sustainably.  The PROBFLO approach was used to predict the proposed risk to the above services for four flow scenarios: Natural, Present Day, E-flows and Drought.  This ecological risk assessment approach can be used by water resource managers to determine the risk that potential developments will have on the ecosystem services the river provides in a specific area and subsequently how it will affect the associated environment and the communities.  The socio-economic costs associated with implementation of e-flows are outweighed by the long-term risks of not doing so as the river will degrade into an unsustainable state.  The present-day total supply of unused water in the basin exceeds the e-flow requirements. This suggests that current use and e-flows can both be achieved in the basin, however such a consideration is based on total flows which include floods and freshets that are seasonal in nature. Thus there is an uneven distribution of flow, with the result that during low-flow periods, the current flows cannot support the e-flows unless there is adequate storage capacity to provide these flows. Consequently the observed shift in state from perennial to seasonal and seasonal to ephemeral of many of the rivers is in the basin is indicative of the inability of base flows to meet existing water demand and e-flow requirements. This suggests that with current usage, storage or other forms of flow augmentation are imperative if the e-flows are to be provided.The Limpopo basin in southern Africa is shared by Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa and contains important water resources that have tremendous social, economic and ecological value that are required by large rural communities who make use of these resources and are highly vulnerable to any adverse impacts caused by climate change and excessive upstream use. The water resources of the Limpopo Basin are limited, over-utilised and the goods and services provided by the rivers in the basin are affected by droughts, resulting in water and food insecurity. Attaining a sustainable balance between the use and protection of the resource of the Limpopo River is urgently required. To contribute to the sustainable management of the water resources in the Limpopo Basin, environmental flows (e-flows) have been established that consider the volume, timing and duration of flow needed to sustain critical ecosystems in the basin, which in turn support ecosystem services and the livelihoods of human communities in the basin. In this study a regional scale ecological risk assessment using the PROBFLO method has been undertaken to evaluate the risk of flow and non-flow alteration stressors affecting ecosystem services throughout the Limpopo Basin. The spatial extent of the study includes the entire Limpopo Basin upstream of the floodplain and estuary in Mozambique, which has been divided into 26 sub-basin areas or risk regions for the relative risk assessment. The aim of the study is to evaluate the socio-ecological consequences of altered flows and non-flow stressors associated with four alternative water resource scenarios established for the study, including the e-flows established in the study using PROBFLO and reported in Report 7: Environmental Flow Determination for The Limpopo Basin. In this report, we include consideration of the relative risk of flow alterations and non-flow stressor alterations to four scenarios (see Table i);  The PROBFLO approach used in the study combines Relative-Risk Modelling (RRM) and the use of Bayesian Network (BN) probability modelling in a combined BN-RRM approach. Bayesian networks are graphical models that use conditional probability distributions to represent relationships between the variables in the model. The PROBFLO approach is based on ten procedural (RRM) steps that have been used to structure this report.E-flows for the Limpopo River Basin: Risk of Altered Flows to the Ecosystem Servicesx From existing and available knowledge or evidence describing the bio-physical attributes of the water resources of the Limpopo Basin, and ecosystem services and their use, and within the context of existing country and regional legislation, a vision for the water resources of the Limpopo Basin has been described. The detailed methods and the vision itself are documented in the Report 3: \"From Vision to Management Report\". This vision requires the establishment of a suitable, sustainable balance between the use and protection of water resources. Our study was based on this vision and included the collection of bio-physical and social information to establish endpoints that would represent the successful implementation of this vision throughout the basin. In addition, in this study e-flows that would secure this balance were determined which included socio-ecological system integrity/condition requirements for different reaches of rivers throughout the basin, that, if met, would meet the vision requirements and would ensure a sustainable balance between the use and protection of the water resources in the basin.In this report, where the socio-ecological consequences of altered flows are considered, the trade-offs between development or continued use, climate change and EFLOW scenarios, are available to support decision making. The summarised outcome is that the e-flows that have been determined for the Limpopo Basin, if implemented, will meet user and environmental water requirements so that the system can continue providing ecosystem services (supporting, provisioning, regulatory and cultural services) and thus achieve the associated endpoints.Through a review of available information and field surveys where a suit of bio-physical and social system components were evaluated, the location of potential sources of stress, habitats and impacts were identified. The data provided evidence of the status quo of the ecosystem, and at the same time provided evidence that can be used to determine the relationship between the drivers of change and the response of the ecosystem. The drivers of ecosystem change all exert their influence over the instream and riparian ecosystem. To monitor the response of the ecosystem health, fish, macro-invertebrates and the riparian vegetation were selected as indictors to describe the present state of the ecosystem.The Limpopo Basin was divided into a number of risk regions (see Figure i). Risk regions are major sub-basin regions delineated by a combination of socio-economic and biophysical characters including transboundary issues. In this study a combination of the management objectives, source information, and available biophysical and habitat data also contributed. By using these risk regions, the dynamism of flow and non-flow variables of different regions can be incorporated into the study and allow for a holistic assessment of the basin. The approach addresses the spatial and temporal relationships of variables between risk regions, such as the downstream effects of a source of stress on multiple risk regions, in the context of the assimilative capacity of the ecosystem or the requirements of ecosystem response components. For the RRM-BN a conceptual risk model that represents the spatial causal relationships between source, stressors, receptors and endpoints was developed (see Figure ii and the more detailed conceptual model in section 2.4). The conceptual model was used to generate BN models for each site (see detailed BN in section 2.4). The BN models describe in detail the exposure pathway of the model, which is combined with the effects to describe the overall risk to the endpoints of the study. The BN model structures and conditional probability tables that represent relationships between variables selected to represent the system were modified per RR to represent the dynamism of each RR, and thus for the entire basin. For the study a ranking scheme that allows for the calculation of relative risk for each endpoint and represents the range of well-being conditions, levels of impacts and management ideals, was established (i.e. zero, low, moderate and high risk). Zero risk usually represent a reference state with low-risk states representing management targets with little impact. Moderate risk represents partially suitable ecosystem conditions that usually warrant management/mitigation measures to avoid high-risk conditions that are deemed unacceptable. Bayesian network modelling is a robust probabilistic approach established in the late 1700s and is now used as a foundation probabilistic modelling approach in actuarial, medical and environmental sciences. The inclusion of BN modelling in PROBFLO facilitates the evaluation of relative comparable risk between endpoints using comparable ranks where risk is presented as a frequency or profile with a probable percentage for each rank occurring. This is particularly important where the possibility of failure or high-risk rank needs to be considered. In a PROBFLO assessment, socio-ecological system indicators of flow and non-flow variables are identified and used to represent the system (Figure iii). These indicators are linked through relationships that can be defined and represented in a PROBFLO model, and then linked to study endpoints or what we care about managing. Unique measures and units of measurement for indicators are converted into and represented by ranks for integration in BN assessments. The outputs of the model are relative risk calculations per ecosystem service (viz. provisioning, regulatory and cultural services that represent the social parts of the system, and supporting services that represent the ecological requirements of the system).xii xiiiThe water resources within the Limpopo basin provide supporting services to the associated fish, vegetation and invertebrate communities. This service primarily represents the requirements of the ecosystem for flows and was used to establish the EFLOW scenario in the study. The condition of this service is determined by the quantity and quality of the water resources and the habitat provided. The risks that the ecosystem may not be sustained, as represented by the supporting service endpoints, indicate that under NAT conditions, the relative risk is low to zero for all risk regions, but under PRS conditions the risk increases into the moderate category for most risk regions and into the high category for the Olifants sub-basin as well as for the Groot Letaba sub-basin. The Luvuvhu sub-basin remains in a low-risk category for PRS and EFLOW conditions. Implementation of e-flows would result in a reduction in risk for many risk regions but due to the requirement for e-flows to maintain Moderately Modified or Largely Modified ecological states (C&D categories -see Table ii), the risk to the supporting services at many of the sites would remain the same as at PRS when under EFLOW conditions, or would increase slightly into the moderate or threshold of potential concern categories. While the impact of present day altered flows to the supporting services of the Limpopo Basin, including the fauna and flora and other services is severe, the vision for the river which considers the suitability of the river to provide other services for social and economic benefits has resulted in a hardworking but sustainable resource vision for the majority of the basin (C&D categories). Most of the risk regions will remain in a moderate risk category under the EFLOW scenario except for the whole Olifants sub-basin as well as for the Groot Letaba sub-basin that will still remain in a high-risk category with a high probability of these endpoints will become unsustainable. These risk projections for the Letaba and Olifants Rivers are excessive and suggest that the e-flows are not sufficient to maintain the ecosystem, however these eflows have been formally gazetted through the National Water Act in South Africa as a part of the Resource Directed Measures (RDM) of the country and can only be formally updated when the RDM process is revised for this basin. In the interim, the knowledge that these requirements may be unsuitable will be communicated to the stakeholders in this sub-basin. The risk associated with the DRGHT or worst-case climate change scenario is variable but includes very high risk of failure for the supporting service (including the ecosystem) components considered in the study. Maintaining the status quo without implementing e-flows and if this worst-case climate change event occurs, the ecological impacts on the water resources would be catastrophic.The relative risk posed to the combined provisioning services endpoints (i.e., fish for food, vegetation for livelihoods and grazing, water for human use) under NAT conditions has indicated low risk of failure of provisioning services in all risk regions except the Shingwedzi sub-basin that would be in a moderate relative risk category. For the present-day scenario, most risk regions will be subject to a moderate relative risk. The e-flows scenario will lead to some reduction in risk compared to the present. The worst-case DRGHT scenario will result in an increase in the relative risk for most risk regions.The relative risk to the combined regulatory services endpoints (i.e., flood attenuation, nutrient assimilation, diseases, and resource resilience) indicates that for the NAT scenario, the risk regions would be in a low to moderate relative risk category. There has been a noticeable increase in the relative risk for all risk regions for the PRS scenario, while for the proposed EFLOW scenario there would be a reduction in relative risk for some risk regions but they all remain in a moderate risk category. The worst-case DRGHT scenario has an increase in the relative risk for all risk regions with the whole of RR1 and most of RR2 in Botswana including the Matlabas, Mokolo and Sand Rivers, being in a highrisk category. An example of the outputs of the risk assessment is given for the regulatory services below (Figure iv). The risk is summarised onto a map format, and clearly shows how the risk to the  xiv regulatory ecosystem services changes with each of the development scenarios. Such maps are provided for each of the ecosystem services.The combined risk to the cultural services (i.e., recreation, spiritual activities, and tourism) provided by the water resources within each sub-basin, for the NAT scenario, would range from moderate to low for all the risk regions. The PRS scenario, the Marico, Mokolo, Lotsane, Motloutse, and Sand River sub-basins would be in a high relative risk category while the remaining risk regions are in a low to moderate relative risk category. The EFLOW scenario would lead to a reduction in risk for some of the risk regions with the Mokolo and Lotsane sub-basins returning to a moderate risk category. The worstcase DRGHT scenario shows an increase in risk for many of the risk regions but the Olifants and Luvuvhu sub-basins have remained in a low-risk category for all four scenarios. The 10 worst drought years observed in the Olifants River prior to present day flows have all included relatively good base flows and have been better than present day flows. These surprising results demonstrate how severe the present day reductions in flows are for the Olifants River, and that in the future if these flows are maintained and droughts occur the historical resilience of the system would be lost.The regional scale ecological risk assessment undertaken in this study has demonstrated how multiple stressors are potentially impacting on the socio-ecologically important river resources of the Limpopo Basin. All the risk regions considered in the study are exposed to considerable changes in the volume, timing, duration and frequency of river flows, with many rivers that have historically been perennial, with no evidence of zero flow conditions observed, over time becoming seasonal and or episodic today.In addition, due to noticeable transformation of the landscape in the basin through urbanization and agriculture, mining and industrial development, additional water quality, habitat alterations and disturbance to wildlife stressors are evident, which exacerbate the impacts to water resources due to reduced flows. In the Limpopo River Basin, the supporting services (i.e. supporting the ecosystem) were identified as the most vulnerable components of the study.It has been reported in Report 7: Environmental Flow Determination for the Limpopo Basin how the e-flows of the Limpopo River have been determined using the minimum volume, timing, duration and frequency of river flows required to maintain the supporting services. That report shows that a noticeable increase in resilience of the water resource will be achieved through the implementation of the e-flows. They require however, a noticeable increase in river flows relative to present-day flows, which would result in the recovery of the ecosystem and associated key supporting service components of the ecosystem. There is potential that this would present economic challenges to the existing formal water use sector that is using the available water from the basin, although no evidence of this is provided. If no mitigation measures (e-flows) are provided and worst-case climate change predictions for the region occur, including a prolonged and or extensive drought, the risk to the supporting services, including the ecosystem and associated processes, will increase considerably from the present-day levels of risk and render the wellbeing of the ecosystem in a Critically Modified and unacceptable state. This would include significant losses of biodiversity and important ecosystem processes.The provisioning services were demonstrated in the study to deteriorate from the NAT scenario to the PRS conditions, however they are considerably less vulnerable to the flow and non-flow stressors compared to supporting services. This can explained in that the supporting services are based on support of all species and their ecosystem preferences, while the provisioning services are required only by human communities who could use any fish or food source for food, can clean polluted water for drinking purposes and can even transition from cattle to goats, for example, in response to reduced grazing. Presently the provisioning services are generally in a Moderately Modified state (Table ii), particularly where many vulnerable human communities occur and depend on the ecosystem services.This study demonstrates that through the implementation of e-flows local vulnerable human communities will benefit from e-flows and will be more resilient to climate variability for example. This study shows that if no e-flows are provided, and the worst-case climate change impacts occur including a prolonged drought in the region, a deterioration of provisioning services is expected to result which will include increased stress and hardships for local human communities.Outputs of the risk assessment include increased risk to all the regulatory services from natural to PRS conditions, which has resulted in changes in use-dynamics due to new protected and wilderness areas and reduced quality of the water resource that affects water borne disease vectors. These trends are similar to those for the provisioning services, where e-flow will also result in a slight improvement to the regulatory services. Interestingly while the regulatory services are potentially less vulnerable to multiple stressors compared to supporting and provisioning services, the potential impacts of climate change on regulatory services in the upper reaches of the basin in particular are noticeably greater than the risk expected to occur to provisioning services.Finally, the cultural services important in the Basin include recreation and spiritual activities, and tourism. Interestingly while the risk to tourism is highly dependent on the demand for tourism in the basin, which did not exist in the NAT scenario, today due to the presence of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area and the many wilderness areas in the upper parts of the Crocodile River (West) sub-basin and middle Limpopo River, this ecosystem service is being well provided to stakeholders. These results demonstrate how important tourism is as a cultural service with associated socio-economic benefits. The spiritual and recreational activities however, which occur outside of the protected areas, are dependent on the water resource and its quality. Changes in risk for this important social service of the Limpopo River follows trends where, compared to today, there has been a considerable increase in risk compared to NAT conditions. This service is however, more tolerant to changes in flows and non-flow stressors compared to the supporting and provisioning services. If eflows are not implemented and a worst-case climate change scenario including a prolonged drought occurs in the region, the state of the cultural services will deteriorate considerably in the tributaries of the Limpopo Basin where perennial or seasonal streams occur. The Olifants River has surprisingly been identified as a very resilient sub-catchment of the Limpopo Basin where tourism and other cultural services are proposed to be maintained even during a prolonged drought.The Limpopo River is an important, dynamic socio-ecological system with a high diversity of endemic and unique aquatic biota and important ecosystem processes that affects the more than 14 million people who live in the basin and depend on its resources. The limited water resources of the basin are overutilised, with most of the rivers that were perennial, now seasonal, and where previously seasonal rivers are now episodic. Additional water quality stressors in the Crocodile (West) and Olifants Rivers and other stressors such as habitat alteration, alien invasive fauna and flora and disturbance to wildlife impacts have been shown to have a synergistic effect of the wellbeing of the water resources in the basin. While most of the rivers in the basin today occur in a Largely Modified state, many parts of the basin are in an unsustainable deteriorating state with an associated loss of biodiversity, ecosystem processes and services that people depend on. The evidence-based risk assessment undertaken in this study can contribute to stakeholders' understandings of how water resources have been developed in the Limpopo Basin, and the impacts of the stressors associated with developments. The assessment includes relative risk to ecosystem services which facilitates the consideration of trade-offs that are spatially linked to the basin so that in different places stakeholders can consider what is presently occurring in the basin, what the socio-economic potential of the developments are, and how the management of the environment will affect these socio-economic attributes. While we acknowledge that there are socio-economic costs associated with flow mitigation (providing e-flows), the long-term costs of maintaining a system in an unsustainable state may out-way these short-term costs.   The Sustainable Development Goals report for 2021 (UN, 2021) indicates that many countries around the world are dealing with degraded water-related ecosystems and water scarcity due to climate change, underinvestment in water and sanitation and insufficient cooperation on transboundary waters and affirms the need for integrated and holistic approaches to water resource management. This would include the consideration of not just river flow, but also non-flow related stressors on water resource and the effect that these would have on social and ecological consequences; with the ultimate aim of finding a sustainable balance between the use and protection of water resources.The Limpopo basin in southern Africa is shared by Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa and contains important water resources that have tremendous social, economic and ecological value that are required by large rural communities who make use of these resources in the basin and are highly vulnerable to any adverse impacts caused by climate change (Mwenge Kahinda et al, 2015). Sixty nine percent (69%) of Botswana's total population lives within the Limpopo basin and 22% of South Africa's population, which results in water requirements for domestic use being the second largest user of water within the basin after irrigation. Other uses include industrial, mining, forestry, livestock and power generation (Mwenge Kahinda et al, 2015). The water resources of the Limpopo Basin are limited, over-utilised and the goods and services provided by the rivers in the basin are affected by droughts, resulting in water and food insecurity (Petri et. al. 2014).Presently in the Limpopo Basin the mainstem Limpopo River, from its source at the confluence of the Marico and Crocodile Rivers, has been transformed from a perennial river into a seasonal river, with many tributaries also being transformed from perennial into seasonal rivers and some seasonal rivers into episodic rivers. It is clear that the rivers in the catchment are being over utilised and that no sustainable balance between the use and protection of the river, its ecosystem and the services it provides to vulnerable human communities, has been attained. Attaining a sustainable balance between the use and protection of the resource of the Limpopo River is urgently required, but due to the shared nature of the transboundary resource, the dynamism of the socio-ecological system of the basin, the plethora of stressors impacting on both the social and ecological attributes of the resource, and new emerging stressors such as climate variability associated with climate change in the region, it is difficult to understand how these stressors affect the resource and probably more difficult to bring all of the information and the stakeholders of the resource together in an attempt to manage it.As an emerging threat in the region, climate variability has resulted in the unpredictability of the hydrological regime leaving the river in parts without flows for nearly 70% of the year (ADB, 2014). Foundationally, river flows and the management of flow, and non-flow stressors in the catchment through environmental flow (e-flow) frameworks is very important in the basin, for the future sustainability of the water resources especially as growing populations will impose greater demands on available freshwater and associated ecosystem services. In this study the e-flows for selected sites in the Limpopo Basin have been determined (Reference Report 6: Present Ecological State of the Limpopo River: Ecological Responses to Change) using the PROBFLO approach, which includes e-flow framework functionality (Horne et al., 2017;O'Brien et al, 2018;2021). This functionality includes the application of the evidence-based probability models established for each of the e-flow sites in the study (consider e-flow report), with additional hydrology data and limited socio-ecological evidence/information, to model the e-flow requirements for risk regions or sub-catchments of the entire basin.The PROBFLO regional-scale risk assessment approach that was used to determine e-flows also includes the functionality to evaluate the risk of multiple stressors associated with different flow management scenarios. In this project application of PROBFLO, we included consideration of the relative risk of flow alterations and non-flow stressor alterations to;The aim of this report is to detail the approach followed to determine the relative risk that altered flow scenarios would have on the ecosystem services provided by the water resources within the 26 subbasins of the Limpopo basin. See the \"risk information\" box below that describes the use of \"risk\" in this study.The PROBFLO approach (O'Brien et al, 2018) is a holistic e-flow determination that includes an eflow consequence evaluation, nested in a framework approach that has been adapted in Africa and applied throughout the continent. It has now been implemented to determine the e-flows for the Limpopo basin and the methodology and results are documented in Report 7: Environmental Flow Determination for the Limpopo Basin. PROBFLO incorporates the use of relative-risk assessment and Bayesian Networks (BN) into a holistic, probabilistic approach that can be used to determine the relative risk of multiple stressors to ecosystem services and socio-ecological endpoints (Landis and Wiegers, 1997;2007, O'Brien et al, 2018)). In this study, the flow-related risks to the resilience of ecosystems and communities were linked to socio-ecological endpoints, for example, food security needs being met by fisheries, with sustainable e-flows. The tool's modular structure quantitatively shows the causal linkages between change drivers (e.g., climate, pollution, water withdrawal from both surface and groundwater) and ecosystem service degradation. It allows users to evaluate the drivers of change and the impact of mitigation measures (e.g., re-establishing flows in tributaries) on the provision of ecosystem services to users.Scenarios used in this report:1  et al. 2018;Landis 2021) to evaluate the magnitudes and probabilities of multiple stressors associated with anthropogenic activities, that affect the social, and or ecological attributes of ecosystems (in our case study we're interested in the water ecosystems of the Limpopo River).Ecological risk assessments traditionally incorporate two relationships, the exposure and effects relationships, which are required to establish risk pathways. The exposure relationship considers the potential for a stressor (e.g. altered water quality, quantity or habitat characteristics of an ecosystem) to affect an ecosystem, while the effects relationship describes how the ecosystem will dynamically respond to the exposure. The effects relationship considers, for example, on a relative scale what the ecosystem consists of, how resilient it may be and what, and or who, utilizes the resource. All of this information contributes to our understanding of the risk of multiple stressors to social and ecological attributes of an ecosystem.In the context of using PROBFLO in e-flow determination studies and regional scale risk assessments, the term risk is thus used to describe the potential for a stressor or hazard to occur and enter an ecosystem (exposure relationship), affect changes to the environmental characteristics of the system and how the biodiversity, ecosystem processes and people of that system, will respond to these changes (effects relationship). This approach allows us to communicate not only how socio-ecological systems responded to multiple stressors in the past, and present (which we can measure), but also to predict the potential for stressors and associated impacts to occur in the future! Continues in next box…PROBFLO assessments result in two outputs; (1) the potential risk or likelihood of occurrence and severity, of stressors to impact an endpoint, and (2) the probability of the endpoint failing, or occurring in an unacceptable state. The potential risk or likelihood of occurrence, and severity of stressors to impact an endpoint is based on the highest probable point of a PROBFLO output risk profile or frequency distribution. These risk profiles represent the modelled probable states, conditions or integrity of an endpoint, with the highest probable point, or most likely outcome communicated. In addition to the relative risk outcome, information about the risk profile itself, specifically the probability of an endpoint occurring in an unacceptable state, is communicated.An example from this study is consideration of the fish community wellbeing or integrity as an important component of the upper Limpopo River ecosystem at the Spanwerk site. This is an endpoint selected to contribute to our understanding of the availability, and condition, of supporting ecosystem services in the study. The risk assessment implemented, included consideration of multiple flow alteration and non-flow (water quality and habitat changes etc.) stressors to the wellbeing of the fish communities during the four scenarios namely; (1) NAT -natural pre-anthropogenic scenario (pre-1960s), ( 2) PRS -(1980PRS -( -2010)), ( 3) EFLOW -e-flows and (4) DRGHT -worst-case climate change or prolonged drought scenario.Scenario 1: During the NAT scenario in the upper Limpopo River at the Spanwerk site, the fish community most likely occured in a pristine condition with only 18% out of 100% chance of the fish community occurring in an unsustainable or unacceptable condition. This 18% represents how the fish communities have naturally responded to natural environmental variability, or it may represent our uncertain knowledge of the processes affecting fishes in the assessment.Scenario 2: In the PRS scenario the probable risk to the fishes has increased from the 18% risk in the NAT scenario to a probable Largely Modified state today with a massive 62.5% chance of failure. This is attributed to significant changes in the volume, timing, duration and frequency of flows in the Limpopo River, with additional water quality, habitat and disturbance to wildlife stressors associated with the unsustainable development of the river resources in this area. These risk results suggest that while the fish community can potentially tolerate high stress during no-or low-flow periods, there are some opportunities for the stressed community to recover during high flow periods. The 62.5% probability of high risk however suggests that the fish communities at this site today are unsustainable and their wellbeing is probably declining.Scenario 3: In the EFLOW scenario the improved base flows and maintenance of a perennial state of the upper Limpopo River through the implementation of e-flows would result in the state of the community regaining a Largely Modified state, where the chances of failure of the endpoint will reduce considerably to 47%. These results demonstrate how e-flows can build resilience of the fish community to environmental variability, and synergistic affects of the multiple stressors affecting the upper Limpopo River. These results are aligned to the vision for this part of the river which described a hard-working but sustainable resource.Scenario 4: In the DRGHT scenario, the risk which is associated with worst-case climate change predictions and no e-flow provisions, will result in an unsustainable high risk state for fish communities and a 75% chance of failure of these communities. This scenario is unsustainable and unacceptable in the context of the vision for the resource.The use of the risk assessment approach here demonstrates that the impact of multiple flow and nonflow stressors has increased considerably from NAT to PRS conditions, probably resulting in an unsustainable, deteriorating fish community. The risk assessment also demonstrates that e-flows would reduce the present high flow variability between no-flow and seasonal flows improving the resilience of the fish communities in the river and contributing to a sustainable ecosystem. Finally, without implementation of the e-flows, and if climate change results in prolonged droughts in the region, the wellbeing of the existing fish community would deteriorate further into an unsustainable state with a 75% chance of loss of biodiversity and associated ecosystem processes in the region.The Limpopo e-flows study utilised the ecological risk assessment approach of a scenario-based e-flow assessment tool called PROBFLO (O'Brien et al, 2018) to a) determine the e-flows for the rivers within the Limpopo basin (Report 7: Environmental flow determination for the Limpopo Basin) and b) evaluate and determine the risk various scenarios related to altered flows will have on selected socio-ecological endpoints. PROBFLO combines Relative-Risk Modelling (RRM) and the use of BN in a BN-RRM approach. Bayesian networks are graphical models that use conditional probability distributions to represent relationships between the variables in the model (Wade et al, 2021). The PROBFLO approach is based on ten procedural (RRM) steps (Figure 2-1 -O' Brien et al, 2018), that were implemented to determine and evaluate the relative risk of four hydrological scenarios (Table 2-1) to various socio-ecological endpoints. These procedural steps will be discussed in further detail below. In order to implement PROBFLO, large amounts of data and information have been produced and then synthesised into the derivation of the e-flows and likewise into the outputs of this report on the consequences of altered flows in the Limpopo River. This data and information cannot be presented in this final report but is contained in a series of reports shown in the table below. The reader is urged to make use of these reports to provide greater depth to what is presented in this report, which is the last in the series, Report 8.Report title E-flows can only be set in relation to a vision and management objective for the condition of the river within the basin and for the communities that the river supports. This already exists in different styles for the different parts of the basin as part of policy, strategies and resource objectives within riparian governments and LIMCOM have completed a study on the vision for the basin. The detailed methods and outputs of the visioning exercise for this study are documented in the \"From Vision to Management Report\" that is Annexed to Report 2: E-Flows for the Limpopo River Basin: Basin Description. The summarised outcome is that the e-flows that are to be determined for the Limpopo Basin, need to meet user and environmental water requirements so that the system can continue providing ecosystem services as per the categories provided in the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA 2005) (supporting, provisioning, regulatory and cultural services) and associated endpoints (Table 2-2). The determination of e-flows for the Limpopo is thus based on support provided primarily by river flow to the ecosystem services associated with the river.Supporting services are those that are necessary in the production of other ecosystem services and play a crucial role to maintain them (Rodríguez 2005). They also contribute directly and indirectly to the wellbeing and livelihoods of people. The ability of ecosystems to provide habitat for species, produce biomass, soil and atmospheric oxygen are some examples of supporting services, while the abundance of biodiversity may also be considered a supporting service. For this study, the maintenance of fish, invertebrates and vegetation were selected as endpoints for the supporting ecosystem services as these were also used to determine the e-flows for each sub-basin.Provisioning services are the tangible products that people obtain from ecosystems, and they include food, water, raw materials, energy and genetic resources and most often are considered as the most fundamental benefits of nature to livelihoods (Darwall et al. 2009). The provisioning services considered most important for the Limpopo basin and selected as endpoints are the maintaining of fisheries and plants for livelihoods, the maintaining of plants for domestic livestock and the maintaining of water for domestic use.The prevention and mitigation of natural disasters such as floods and human induced impacts like pollution of water bodies are some of the regulating service benefits that are derived from ecosystems (MEA 2005). The endpoints chosen to represent this ecosystem service included; flood attenuation, river assimilation, water-borne diseases and resource resilience. River assimilation is the ability for the water resources to dilute or absorb pollution, whereas resource resilience is the extent of disturbance that a system can tolerate before it deteriorates into a different state.The last ecosystem services considered are cultural services, which are the non-material benefits that people obtain from nature, which include recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, physical and mental health benefits and spiritual experiences (MEA 2005). The two endpoints selected for this service are maintaining water resources for recreational and spiritual activities, as well as for tourism.  The present ecological state (PES) for each ecological component (Figure 2-2 A-C) was determined through extensive field surveys. This information combined with existing literature was used to identify indicator species, populations, and communities to represent the ecosystem. Based on this, the recommended ecological category (REC) (Figure 2-2D) was also determined to represent the vison for the sustainable use and protection of water resources in the Limpopo Basin.The spatial extent of the Limpopo basin was defined, and the location of potential sources of stress, habitats and impacts were identified. Large amounts of data provided evidence of the status quo of the ecosystem, and at the same time provided evidence that can be used to determine the relationship between the drivers of change and the response of the ecosystem (see Reports 1-5).The drivers of ecosystem change all exert their influence over the instream and riparian ecosystem and are documented in Report 5. To monitor the response of the ecosystem health, fish, macro-invertebrates and the riparian vegetation were selected as indictors to describe the present state of the ecosystem, the results of which are presented in Report 6. The categories listed in Table 2-3 were used to describe the state of the rivers within the Limpopo Basin. Moderately Modified. A lower-than-expected species richness and presence of most intolerant species. Some impairment of health may be evident at the lower limit of this class.Largely Modified. A clearly lower than expected species richness and absence or much lowered presence of intolerant and moderately intolerant species. Impairment of health may become more evident at the lower limit of this class.Seriously Modified. A strikingly lower than expected species richness and general absence of intolerant and moderately intolerant species. Impairment of health may become very evident.Critically Modified. An extremely lowered species richness and absence of intolerant and moderately intolerant species. Only tolerant species may be present with a complete loss of species at the lower limit of the class. Impairment of health generally very evident.The drivers of change are those factors that are directly affected by land-use changes and developments, in particular water withdrawals, as well as by climate change, and include the hydrology, hydraulic characteristics, geomorphology and sediment movement, water quality, and groundwater. Each of these drivers will have impacts on the responding biology and are pivotal to understand what drives the ecosystem, so that the required amounts of water at the right time can be estimated. This data was presented in detail in Report 5: Present Ecological State of the Limpopo River: Drivers of Ecosystem Change.The hydrology assessment included the analysis of the long-term natural hydrological flow time series at the selected e-flow sites for the main stem Limpopo River and the major tributaries. These include basic hydrographs, flow duration curves and statistics based on monthly modelled natural flow data at the e-flows sites. Additional information is also provided in terms of drought flows, sizes and duration of freshets and floods. Table 2-4 summarises the hydrological characteristics in terms of the Natural Mean Annual Runoff (nMAR) and the variability index (CV_Index) which indicates the seasonal, perennial or ephemeral character of the rivers (between 1 and 4 indicates a perennial system, 5 a seasonal and >6 an ephemeral system). It can be seen from the table that a number of systems are naturally ephemeral, especially those in Botswana. It should be noted that this index was calculated for the flows at the e-flow sites that are mostly situated in the lower reaches of the rivers and some systems may differ in the upper reaches.The hydraulic and geomorphology assessment determined the hydraulic habitat that includes a combination of the water depth, velocity and the underlying sediments and the river shape. This specialist component of the e-flow study described this habitat at all of the available sites. The water quality assessment indicated pH and orthophosphate issues for some sites on the Limpopo River and pH, electrical conductivity, orthophosphate and nitrate issues in some of the tributaries. The results of the groundwater assessment indicated that chemistry of groundwater and surface water for sites in the Limpopo River Basin, were characterized by similar mixtures of constituents and reflects water with similar history, origin and interactions. This supports the hypothesis that there is a strong interaction between surface water and groundwater to provide environmental water flows, even under the high flows in the wet season.For some rivers within the Limpopo Basin in South Africa, e-flows have already been gazetted as the Reserve or Resource Quality Objectives (RQO) and are legally binding and therefore no new e-flow requirements were determined for these sites.  The ecological responses to the drivers of change in this PROBFLO implementation have focused on three biological components, the fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, and riparian vegetation. While it would be possible to consider other responses as well, these components were the most wide-spread, well known and amenable to interpretation. The detail of the information collected was provided in Report 6: Present Ecological State of the Limpopo River: Ecological Responses to Change.The fish assessment indicated that there is a noticeable and significant change in the fish community structure of the Limpopo River Basin with most sites assessed being in a Moderately to Largely Modified state; mainly due to altered flows, altered habitats, barriers, water quality, alien invasive species and overexploitation. The sites closest to anthropogenic activities were in a worst state whereas sites within Kruger National Park had a higher present ecological status. The invertebrate communities were categorised as Moderately impaired over most of the basin, with a worse state in the Mogalakwena River, where flow was restricted to a trickle despite most other tributaries in the region experiencing high to moderate flows. The Shingwedzi River was categorised as Largely Natural to Moderate. The riparian vegetation at most of the sites was significantly degraded from natural, with the Luvuvhu and Shingwedzi being the only two sites approaching natural. The vegetation of the Shashe, Umzingwani and Limpopo at Chokwe were the most degraded mostly due to over-utilisation.The results of the ecosystem service assessment showed that at most of the sites, there is major competition between users and the ecosystem in the basin. In the upper reaches of the catchment (Lephalale, Marico) irrigation and commercial agriculture competes with smallholder livelihoods like fishing and subsistence agriculture. In the middle parts of the basin (Luvuvhu, Mogalekwena, Olifants) cultural services (eco-tourism) are the most common and compete with small holder provisioning services, for example fishing and household water use. In the lower reaches of the basin (Chokwe), the major competition is between irrigation and subsistence water use and fishing. Most of the rural local communities rely on the ecosystem services for subsistence needs, food security and livelihood activities. However, their degree of dependency differs across communities and regions, with very high dependency in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.It has been shown that there is uneven distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities across the basin and that people from Botswana and South Africa tend to be less dependent on ecosystem services. Based on interactions with communities, there has been loss of ecosystem services at some sites (Chokwe and Groot-Letaba) where unpredictable low flows were identified as the main reason for loss of ecosystem services affecting livelihoods. Communities along the Groot-Letaba explained that they have experienced some periods of water shortage during their agriculture growing season which have resulted in lower-than-expected yields. Since these rural communities are highly dependent on the basin's ecosystem goods and services, changes in the supply of these services would have major impacts on the sustainability of local livelihoods, and human well-being. A study undertaken in 2021 (Dickens et al, 2022) however showed that with active supplementation of river flow levels to maintain both environmental and livelihoods-oriented river flows, water shortages for the crops within the Letaba Basin could be fully eliminated. This supplementation of river flows that might be through dam releases, would improve irrigation water availability and have positive implications for the livelihoods of subsistence farmers, who would be able to cultivate crops all year round. For this scenario to be realistic, it would depend on the availability of upstream water resources that may entail restriction of current water uses further upstream. Thus, sustainably maintaining the e-flow and smallholder farmers in the Letaba area may not be possible or may require limiting water abstraction upstream, an option that could create conflicts with upstream commercial farmers.Risk regions are major sub-basin regions as determined by a combination of socio-economic and biophysical characters including transboundary issues. For the selection of risk regions in this study a combination of the political boundaries and associated socio-ecological activities, management objectives from existing IWRM, source information, and available habitat data was used to establish geographical risk regions for the relative risk assessment (Landis 2004;O'Brien and Wepener, 2012). Note that political boundaries do NOT play a major role in the allocation of risk regions. These regions allow the outputs of the assessment to be presented at a spatial scale with multiple regions compared in a relative manner. Through this approach, the dynamism of different regions can be incorporated into the study and allow for a holistic assessment of flow and non-flow variables. The approach can address spatial and temporal relationships of variables between risk regions, such as the downstream effect of a source of stress on multiple risk regions, in the context of the assimilative capacity of the ecosystem or the requirements of ecosystem response components e.g., fish.The results of the PROBFLO assessment will be reported under the ten risk regions identified in the Limpopo basin, namely: 1) Marico Crocodile, 2) Upper Limpopo, 3) Shashe, 4) Middle Limpopo, 5) Luvuvhu, 6) Mwenedzi, 7) Olifants, 8) Letaba, 9) Shingwedzi and 10) Lower Limpopo (Figure 2-3). The Changane area in Mozambique has not been included in the project and is thus not considered as a risk region. The reason for this exclusion is based on the experience gathered while collecting data for the Monograph e-flow study, where although the basin is large with many inhabitants, the area is largely wetland with little flowing river channel. The water was also highly saline resulting from groundwater intrusion. The Changane catchment is also relatively independent of the rest of the river, entering near to the estuary, and thus does not contribute to the overall Limpopo main-stem hydrology. The present ecological state of the water resources was determined by undertaking surveys of sites in the upper, middle and lower Limpopo Basin (Table 2-5) with the results reported in Report 6. Each site was located in the lower reaches of important tributaries, and within the Limpopo River main stem at selected locations to consider changes in instream habitat and consider the effect of upstream drivers of change to the ecosystems.In addition to the 18 sites that were surveyed in the study, the PROBFLO approach was used in an eflow framework context (Horne et al., 2017) where desktop e-flows were established for five additional seasonal tributaries, four in Botswana and one in Zimbabwe. This approach was implemented in the study to fill gaps in available e-flow data using a desktop extrapolation e-flow determination approach for sites where no field data was collected. This approach to infer ecosystem requirement data from one site to another is based on a holistic e-flows framework approach such as ELOHA (Poff et al., 2010;Horne et al., 2017). The Ngotwane sub-basin's requirements were inferred from the Matlabas sub-basin, the Marico sub-basin from the Crocodile sub-basin, the Bonwapitse, Mokolo, Lotsane, Motloutse and Bubye sub-basins from the Sand sub-basin and the upper Olifants sub-basin from the lower Olifants sub-basin. The Ngotwane is naturally a seasonal system with very low to no flows during the drier months and large floods during summer.Water use in upper catchment for urban, mining and irrigation with two dams, namely Gaborone (FSC = 141.4 MCM) and Bokaa (FSC = 18.5 MCM).Significant transmission losses in the lower reaches of the river.Requirements inferred from Matlabas RiverThe Marico is naturally a perennial system with large quantities of dolomitic water in the upper reaches.The Molatedi Dam (FSC = 200.95 MCM) on the lower reaches release water to the Twasa Weir for irrigation downstream at Derdepoort. Water can also be transferred to Botswana if required.Requirements inferred from the Crocodile RiverThe Crocodile (West) is naturally a perennial system.Water use is extensive in the upper reaches for urban and industrial. Large WWTW also release water into the rivers after treatment.A number of large dams are situated on the main stem as well as major tributaries, with the larger dams the Hartbeespoort (FSC = 194.8 MCM), Roodekopjes (FSC = 102.61 MCM), Vaalkop (FSC =55.3 MCM), Roodeplaat (FSC = 43.57 MCM) and Klipvoor (FSC = 42.4 MCM). Water is released from these dams for domestic, industrial and irrigation purposes.There are no major dams in the lower reach of the Crocodile (West) River, but extensive irrigation occurs, both from the river and aquifers.The river is naturally an ephemeral system with no significant water uses.Significant transmission losses in the lower reaches of the river.Requirements inferred from the Sand River.The upper reaches of the Matlabas is naturally a perennial system, but the lower reaches can be dry during dry periods.Water use is mainly small dams for livestock and game watering with small areas of irrigation.The Mokolo River is naturally a perennial system.The Mokolo Dam (FSC = 146.0 MCM) in the middle reaches of the river provides water for extensive irrigation downstream.Requirements inferred from the Sand River.This river is naturally a perennial system.Extensive irrigation occurs in the upper and middle reaches with numerous small dams on the main stem river and tributaries.The river is naturally an ephemeral to episodic river with long periods of no flow and large floods.The Lotsane Dam (FSC = 40.0 MCM) is situated in the middle reaches with the purpose to supply urban water.Significant transmission losses in the lower reaches of the river.Requirements inferred from the Sand River.This system is naturally a perennial system.Extensive irrigation occurs in the system from numerous small dams and a few larger dams namely Doorndraai (FSC = 44.2 MCM), Rooiwal (FSC = 6.81 MCM) and Glen Alpine (FSC = 19.95 MCM).The river is naturally ephemeral with no flows for a large percentage of time during the low flow month and larger floods during the wet months.Water use is mainly by the mining sector A number of large dams are situated on the river, with the Letsibogo (FSC = 100.0 MCM) and Thune (FSC = 90.0 MCM) dams the main source of water.Significant transmission losses in the lower reaches of the river.Requirements inferred from the Sand River.This reach of the Limpopo River is naturally perennial.The Crocodile, Marico, Ngotwane, Matlabas Bonwapitse, Mokolo and Lephalale contributes to the flows in this reach.Most of the water uses occur in the tributaries with some irrigation from the main stem.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in this reach of the river.This reach of the Limpopo River is naturally perennial.The Mogalakwena, Lotsane and Motloutse contributes to the flow s in this reach of the Limpopo.Some abstractions for irrigation from the main stem.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in this reach of the river.The Shashe is naturally an ephemeral system, especially in the lower reaches with no flows during most of the winter months.A number of large dams for urban water supply are present in this catchment with the largest urban user Francistown.The larger dams are the Shashe Dam (FSC = 87.9 MCM), Ntimbale (FSC = 26.4 MCM) and the Dikgathong (FSC = 400.0 MCM). These dams are mostly for urban water use within the catchment, but water is also transferred to other catchments.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.This reach of the Limpopo River is naturally perennial.The Shashe is the only major tributary of the Limpopo in this reach.Abstractions for extensive irrigation occurs in this reach.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in this reach of the river.River/sub-basin DescriptionThe river is naturally ephemeral with almost no flows during the low flow months and larger floods during the wet months.A large number of dams, including the Mzingwane Dam (FSC = 42.1MCM) occur within this catchment, mostly for urban (Bulawayo and others) and irrigation demands.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.The Sand River is naturally a seasonal to ephemeral system.A number of dams (Houtrivier, FSC = 6.93 MCM; Turfloop, FSC = 3.35 MCM; Dikgale, FSC = 8.25 MCM) are situated within the catchment for mainly irrigation demands.The river is naturally ephemeral with almost no flows during the low flow months and larger floods during the wet months.No major dams in the catchment, but a number of smaller dams mainly for irrigation purposes.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.The Luvuvhu River is naturally a perennial system.Water uses include afforestation in upper reaches of the catchment, irrigation and domestic. A number of large dams are in the catchment, including Albasini (FSC -28.3 MCM), Vondo (FSC = 30.3 MCM) and Nandoni (FSC = 164.0 MCM).This river is naturally ephemeral with almost no flows during the low flow months and large floods during summer.The main water uses are irrigation and domestic. The Manyuchi Dam is the largest in the catchment (FSC = 309.0 MCM).Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.7. OlifantsThe Upper Olifants River is naturally perennial with a number of large tributaries contributing to the flows, including Little Olifants, Elands, Wilge and Steelpoort as the larger rivers.Large dams in the upper catchments for irrigation, mining and urban water supply include Middleburg (FSC = 47.9 MCM), Bronkhorstspruit (FSC = 58.0 MCM), Witbank (FSC = 104.0 MCM), Loskop (FSC = 374.3 MCM), Mkhombo (FSC = 206.0 MCM), Flag Boshielo (FSC = 347.6 MCM) and De Hoop (FSC = MCM). Water is also transferred from Flag Boshielo Dam to neighbouring catchments for domestic water supply.Requirements inferred from the lower Olifants River.The river is natural perennial.The Blyde River contributes the largest percentage of flow to the lower Olifants River with smaller tributaries (Ga-Selati, Klaserie). No major dams are in the main stem river, with the Blyderivierspoort Dam the largest (FSC = 54.6 MCM) on tributaries. A number of smaller dams and weirs are in some of the other smaller tributaries. A major abstraction from the Olifants River is just downstream of the Ga-Selati confluence.8. LetabaThe river is natural perennial.Extensive forestry and irrigation together with urban and industrial water use in the upper catchment. Major dams include the Ebenezer (FSC = 70.0 MCM) and Tzaneen (FSC = 157.3 MCM) and few smaller dams in tributaries.The river is natural perennial.Tributaries contributing most to the flows in the lower Letaba are the Middle and Little Letaba rivers.Lorna Dawn (FSC = 11.7 MCM), Middle Letaba (FSC = 173.1 MCM) and Nsami (FSC = 29.5 MCM) are the major dams on tributaries in the lower Letaba. No major dams are situated on the main stem Letaba. Some forestry and irrigation abstractions are present in this catchment.This river is naturally seasonal to perennial in the upper reaches where the e-flow site is situated. The lower reaches (especially in Mozambique) is ephemeral with almost no flows year round and large floods during summer.Abstractions for irrigation and domestic water use occur outside the KNP with the Makulele Dam the largest (FSC = 13.0 MCM).Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.This reach of the Limpopo River is naturally perennial.The major tributaries contributing to flow in this reach are the Mzingwani, Nzhelele, Sand, Bubye, Luvuvhu and Mwanedzi.Very little water use occurs from the main stem river.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in this reach of the river.The Elephantes is naturally a perennial system.The Massingir Dam (FSC = 2840 MCM) is situated at the top of this reach and releases water for irrigation purposes in Mozambique.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in the lower reaches of the river.This reach of the Limpopo River is naturally perennial.Major tributaries in this reach are the Elephantes and Changane (mainly a large wetland system).Water use is mainly abstractions for extensive irrigation in the lower reaches of the Limpopo River.Significant transmission losses and alluvial storage in this reach of the river.A conceptual model was developed that represents hypothesised cause-effect relationships between stressors and receptors that represent the ecosystem services and endpoints. The basic conceptual model that is used is shown in Figure 2-4, showing how the SOURCES of change (dam development etc) lead to STRESSORS on the river (altered timing of flows, volumes of water etc). These in turn affect either the instream, riparian or floodplain HABITATS, where most of the RECEPTORS (Instream biota, etc) will be impacted. These in turn impact on socio-ecological ENDPOINTS (supply of water for agriculture, biodiversity etc).   All input nodes are evidence based and use existing or collected (in this study) and modelled data to represent a flow (or non-flow for water quality and geomorphology characteristics) relationship with ecological variables. All of the daughter nodes are conditional to the parent nodes and integrate response relationship distributions in the form parent nodes using Conditional Probability Tables or rules that represent how the data is integrated. These relationships will also all be presented as evidence for the model.The detailed conceptual model was used to generate BN models for each site using NeticaTM BN software (by Norsys Software) (Figure 2-13 to Figure 2-13 for example). The BN models include exposure relationships with socio-ecological system structure and function variables (green nodes) which contribute to the exposure pathway of the model (yellow nodes). The exposure component of the system is then combined with the effects (pink) component where they contribute to the overall risk to the endpoints of the study (blue nodes). The ranking scheme allows for the calculation of relative risk for each endpoint and represents the range of well-being conditions, levels of impacts and management ideals as detailed in    This section presents the results and a discussion of the outcome of the relative risk calculations per ecosystem service (provisioning, regulatory and cultural services that represent the social parts of the system and the supporting services that represents the ecological requirements of the system). The graphs and corresponding maps present the trends in the relative risk scores for the four scenarios (natural, present, e-flows and drought) for each risk region representing the sub-catchment areas of the Limpopo Basin. Detailed results are provided for each endpoint in APPENDIX B, with graphs of probable risk. While the relative risk of the flow and non-flow stressors to the endpoints of the study have been determined using the RRA-BN approach, resulting in risk distributions for each endpoint or component of the socio-ecological system we have selected in the study to represent the whole system, we have used a Monte Carlo randomisation approach (1 000 iterations) to integrate the risk from endpoints per ecosystem service category (refer to the information box below).The water resources within the Limpopo basin provide supporting services to the associated fish, vegetation and invertebrate communities (Table 2-2). This service primarily represents the requirements of the ecosystem for flows and was used to establish the EFLOW scenario in the study. The condition of this service is determined by the quantity and quality of the water resources and the habitat provided.MONTE CARLO METHOD USED TO INTEGRATE RISK TO ECOSYSTEM SERVICES.The approach adopted is to integrate the risk scores into ecosystem service categories as described in detail in O'Brien et al. ( 2018) and includes the use of Oracle Crystal Ball ® software. The risk profiles of each endpoint per ecosystem service category have been combined through addition where risk ranks (zero, low, moderate and high) have been assigned to each of the 1 000 random iterations, based on the risk distribution outcomes of the RRM-BN assessment.For example, for each scenario where the wellbeing of the fish (FISH-ECO-END), invertebrates (INV-ECO-END) and riparian vegetation (VEG-ECO-END) endpoints are combined, their risk profiles which may include, for example for FISH-ECO-END for NAT scenario, 66.4% chance of a zero risk rank and a 16.5% chance of a low risk rank with an 8.5% and 8.4% chance of a moderate and high risk rank respectively. Using this information the Monte Carlo assessment assigns a rank score of 25 to the FISH-ECO-END 66.4% of the time and for low 16.5% of the time etc., for the 1 000 random iterations. These scores are then randomly added to the ranks associated with the frequency distribution of the INV-ECO-END and VEG-ECO-END endpoints.This approach is somewhat conservative as any risk outcome between 0 and 25 is allocated a zero risk rank (25) etc. with any score between 75 and 100 allocated a high risk rank (100) for the integration. This approach has been established as a suitable risk endpoint integration approach where there are no links between co-variables or endpoints of each ecosystem service that can be modelled using the RRM-BN. This approach is only used to communicate the probable socio-ecological consequences of altered flow and non-flow stressors per ecosystem category. The results for the FISH-ECO-END indicate that under NAT conditions, the relative risk posed to the fish community endpoint is dominated by a low to zero rank for all risk regions (Figure 3-1, Figure 3-3A) but under PRS conditions (Figure 3-1, Figure 3-3B), the risk increases into the moderate category for most risk regions and into the high category for the whole Olifants sub-basin (RR7.1 and RR7.2), as well as for the Groot Letaba sub-basin (RR8.1). These three risk regions have a 78% probability of the high risk occurring (Figure 3-2) and the fish communities being in a Seriously Modified state under PRS conditions. The Luvuvhu sub-basin (RR5) remains in a low-risk category for PRS and EFLOW conditions.The proposed e-flows scenario results in a reduction in risk for many risk regions but due to the requirement for e-flows to maintain Moderately Modified or Largely Modified ecological states, the risk to the fish at many of the sites remains the same as present when under EFLOW conditions, or increases slightly into the moderate or threshold of potential concern ( RR1.2 Marico, RR2.2 Matlabas, RR.2.5 Lotsane, RR2.6 Mogalakwena, RR2.7 Motloutse, RR5 Luvuvhu, RR6 Mwenedzi, RR7.2 Olifants, RR8 Letaba, RR10.1 Limpopo and RR10.2 Elephantes) (Figure 3-1, Figure 3-3C).While the impact of altered flows to the supporting services of the Limpopo Basin, including the fish, is severe, the vision for the river, which considers the suitability of the river to provide other services for social and economic benefits, has resulted in a hardworking but sustainable resource vision for the majority of the basin (Refer to Report 3 where the vision was used to determine e-flows). In this study the states of the fish communities are still considered to be sustainable (moderate risk or Largely Modified states) and may be appropriate for hard working rivers.The majority of the risk regions remained in a moderate risk category for the e-flows scenario except for the whole Olifants (RR7) and Groot Letaba (RR8.1) sub-basins that still remained in a high-risk category with probability of failure varying between 77.8% (RR7.1) and 82.3% (RR8.1) (Figure 3-2). These risk projections in the Letaba and Olifants Rivers are excessive and suggest that the e-flows are not sufficient to maintain suitable fish communities in these rivers, but these e-flows cannot be adjusted as they have been formally gazetted through the National Water Act (108 of 1998) in South Africa as a part of the Resource Directed Measures of the country.The worst-case DRGHT scenario places many more risk regions within a high risk category (RR1.2 Marico, RR1.3 Crocodile, RR2.6 Mogalakwena, RR2.8 Limpopo, RR3 Shashe, RR4.1 Limpopo, RR4.2 Umzingwani, RR4.4 Bubye, RR5 Luvuvhu, RR7 Olifants, RR8 Letaba and RR10.3 Limpopo) (Figure 3-1, Figure 3-3D). The risk regions with more than 75% probability of fish communities being in a serious to critical condition during a worst-case drought include: Marico (RR1.2), Mogalakwena (RR2.6), Limpopo mainstem (RR2.8), Shashe (RR3), Olifants (RR7.1 and RR7.2), Groot Letaba and Letaba (RR8.1 and RR8.2) (Figure 3-2).As with the FISH-ECO-END endpoint, the relative risk posed to the invertebrate community (INV-ECO-END) endpoint under NAT conditions was zero to low (Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-6A). Under PRS conditions, many of the risk regions are within a moderate risk category except for the Limpopo mainstem from RR2.9, downstream (RR4.1, RR10.1 and RR10.3) towards the floodplain, as well as the Luvuvhu sub-basin (RR5), which are in a low risk category (Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-6B). The Marico sub-basin (RR1.2) presents the highest probability of failure (69.8%) under PRS conditions with RR2.1, RR2.3, RR2.5, RR4.3, RR7 all having between 55.45% and 58.56% change of failure (Figure 9-5). The EFLOW scenario shows a reduction in the relative risk scores for some risk regions but many had similar or slightly increased relative risk scores (RR2.2 Matlabas, RR2.3 Mokolo, RR2.5 Lotsane, RR2.6 Mogalakwena, RR2.7 Motloutse, RR3 Shashe, RR4.2 Umzingwani, RR4.3 Sand, RR6 Mwenedzi, RR7 Olifants, RR8.1 Groot Letaba, RR10.2 Elephantes and RR10.3 Limpopo), although still within the low to moderate risk ranges (Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-6C). The Lephalale (RR2.4) and Shingwedzi (RR9) sub-basins were the only two sub-basins where the relative risk improved to a low risk category for the e-flows scenario compared to the moderate risk predicted for the PRS scenario.The EFLOW scenario showed similar or a reduction in the probability of failure for all sites with only the Marico and Olifants basin having a probability over 50% (59.3% and 55.5% respectively) (Figure 9-5). The DRGHT scenario does not impact the INV-ECO-END endpoint as dramatically as predicted for the FISH-ECO-END endpoint with most risk regions falling within the upper range of the moderate risk category (Figure 9-4 and Figure 9-6D). Only the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin falls with the high-risk category with a 72.1% probability of failure during DRGHT conditions (Figure 9-5). Most of the remaining risk regions had a probability of failure between 51.2% and 67.2% with only RR4.1, RR5 and RR10 being below 50% (Figure 9-5).The VEG-ECO-END endpoint also reflects zero to low relative risk to all risk regions for the NAT scenario (Figure 9-7 and Figure 9-9A) but under PRS conditions, the relative risk for most sites increases into the upper range of the moderate risk category (Figure 9-7 and Figure 9-9B), uniformly high relative to the fish and invertebrates. The relative risk predicted for the Crocodile (RR1.3) and Groot Letaba sub-basins (RR8.1) falls within the high-risk category with a probability of failure being 73.8% and 72.5% respectively (Figure 9-8). Although the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin is within a moderate risk category, its probability of failure under PRS conditions is 81.2% (Figure 9-8). The average probability of failure for all risk regions for the PRS scenario is 61.6% compared to the average for the e-flows scenario which is 47%. The VEG-ECO-END endpoint reflects a greater reduction in risk between the present and EFLOW scenarios for most of the sites when compared to the other supporting services, although all the sites still remained within the moderate risk category (Figure 9-7 and Figure 9-9C). Only the Ngotwane (RR1.1), Sand (RR4.3) and Luvuvhu (RR5) sub-basins showed similar or slight increases in the relative risk scores for the EFLOW scenario compared to the PRS scenario. The DRGHT scenario predicts high relative risk for the whole of RR1-4, 6, and 8 with probability of failure ranging from 74.3% -82.6%. Risk regions 5, 7, 9 and 10 were in the upper range of the moderate risk category (Figure 9-7 and Figure 9-9D) with probability of failure ranging between 60.7% and 70.7% (Figure 9-8). The vegetation community of the Matlabas sub-basin (RR2.2) has the highest relative risk score of 88.3 and a probability of failure of 80.1% under DRGHT conditions. While the probable ecological consequence of the altered flows associated with the e-flows will improve riparian vegetation communities from present states, the high potential for high risk or periodic failure is concerning and need to be monitored.   The combined relative risk scores for the three supporting services for each scenario is represented in Figure 3-4A-D. As expected, the relative risk for the NAT scenario is low for most risk regions but for the PRS scenario a high risk is predicted for many of the risk regions, especially most of the more ephemeral sub-basins with the Marico (RR1.2) and Olifants sub-basins (RR7) reflecting the highest predicted risk. The relative risk predicted for the risk regions in which the Kruger National Park is located (RR4.1 Limpopo, RR5 Luvuvhu, RR9 Shingwedzi, RR7 Olifants, RR9 Shingwedzi), as well as those in Mozambique (RR10) are in the upper range of the moderate risk category. These results indicated that for the PRS scenario, the water resources of the Limpopo basin are at a moderate to high risk of not being able to provide the supporting services to the associated aquatic ecosystems. The EFLOW scenario reflects a noticeable reduction in the risk posed to most of the risk regions to a moderate risk range. The Marico (RR1.2) and Olifants sub-basins (RR7) still remain in a high relative risk category, but this may be related to quality and not quantity impacts within these sub-basins. The DRGHT scenario predicts high relative risk to the supporting services for all risk regions except the Luvuvhu (RR5) sub-basin which is in the upper range of the moderate risk category. During DRGHT conditions, there is a high relative risk that the water resources will not be able to support the associated aquatic ecosystems which could result in complete failure of the aquatic ecosystem. The provisioning services provided by the water resources within the Limpopo basin include the maintaining of fisheries (SUB-FISH-END) and plants (SUB-VEG-END) for livelihoods, maintaining plants for domestic livestock (LIV-VEG-END) and maintaining water for domestic use (DOM-WAT-END) (Table 2-2).The SUB-FISH-END endpoint considers the risk of altered flows to the maintaining of fisheries for livelihoods and for NAT conditions the risk to all risk regions was zero to low (Figure 9-10 and Figure 9-12A). For the PRS scenario, there is an increased risk for all risk regions but most risk regions still remain in a low risk category although for a few of the more ephemeral sub-basins the relative risk increases to moderate risk (RR1.2 Marico, RR2.1 Bonwapitse, RR2.3 Mokolo, RR2.5 Lotsane, RR2.7 Motloutse, RR4.3 Sand, RR4.4 Bubye and RR8.1 Groot Letaba) (Figure 9-10 and Figure 9-12B). The probability of failure to the SUB-FISH-END endpoint also remained low for the PRS scenario with an average of 18.6% (Figure 9-11). The EFLOW scenario reflected marginal changes to the relative risk scores and the probability of failure for most risk regions, the most noticeable being the increase in the relative risk for the Marico (RR1.2) and Shashe (RR3) sub-basins (Figure 9-10 and Figure 9-12C). The DRGHT scenario further increases the risk for many risk regions to moderate risk, especially the ephemeral rivers in Botswana and Zimbabwe and some of the more perennial systems located in the central region of the Limpopo Basin, highlighting the increased risk for those community's dependant on subsistence fish as an important food source. The probability of failure for the DRGHT scenario did not exceed 37.6% (Figure 9-11). The Ngotwane (RR1.1), Matlabas (RR2.2), Luvuvhu (RR5), Mwanedzi (RR6), Olifants (RR7), Shingwedzi (RR9) and sections of the Limpopo systems (RR10.1 and RR10.3) all remained in a low risk category for the present, e-flow and DRGHT scenarios because the potential or need for subsistence fisheries in these systems was low and many of these risk regions contain nation parks were subsistence fishing is not allowed.The SUB-VEG-END endpoint also reflects zero to low relative risk for the NAT scenario (Figure 9-13 and Figure 9-15A). The PRS scenario indicates that the relative risk increases to a moderate category for many of the risk regions, especially the more ephemeral risk regions where many of the communities in Botswana and Zimbabwe are reliant on water resources for their crops (RR2.1 Bonwapitse, RR2.3 Mokolo, RR2.5 Lotsane, RR2.7 Motloutse, RR3 Shashe, RR4.2 Umzingwani, RR4.3 Sand, RR4.4 Bubye and RR8.1Groot Letaba) (Figure 9-13 and Figure 9-15B). The EFLOW scenario indicates decreases in the relative risk for most of the risk regions although the risk to some risk regions did increase marginally, with the relative risk to the Sand (RR4.3) sub-basin being the most noticeable (Figure 9-13 and Figure 9-15C). A more distinct positive impact of the e-flows is shown in the average reduction of the probability of failure from 21% for the PRS scenario to 18.6% for the e-flows scenario (Figure 9-14). Under DRGHT conditions, the average probability of failure increased to 31.04% with RR2.1 (Bonwapitse), RR2.3 (Mokolo), RR2.5 (Lotsane) and RR4.4 (Bubye) having the greatest percentage (45%). The DRGHT scenario indicates moderate risk for not just the ephemeral sub-basins but also some perennial sub-basins (Figure 9-13 and Figure 9-15D). The Marico (RR1.2), Crocodile (RR1.3), Luvuvhu (RR5), Olifants (RR7) and sections of the Limpopo systems (RR2.8, RR10.1 and RR10.3) all remained in a zero to low-risk category for all four scenarios. This is mainly due to a combination of low flow requirements for the SUB-VEG-END endpoint and a low dependence of communities on this ecosystem service in these sub-basins.As expected, the LIV-VEG-END endpoint reflects low relative risk to all risk regions under NAT conditions (Figure 9-16 and Figure 9-18A) compared to the PRS scenario where most of the risk regions indicate moderate risk, especially the ephemeral risk regions in Botswana (RR2.1 Bonwapitse, RR2.5Lotsane and RR2.7 Motloutse) (Figure 9-16 and Figure 9-18B). These risk regions indicated a reduction in the relative risk for the EFLOW scenario with the Crocodile (RR1.3) sub-basin and RR2.9 on the Limpopo mainstem indicating a reduction in risk to low risk (Figure 9-16 and Figure 9-18C). The DRGHT scenario predicts an increase to moderate risk for most risk regions, including the Limpopo mainstem at RR10.1 that have remained in a low risk category for the other three scenarios (Figure 9-16 and Figure 9-18D). The Luvuvhu (RR5) sub-basin and downstream Limpopo mainstem (RR10.2 and RR10.3) remain in a low-risk category for all scenarios also due to a combination of low flow requirements for the endpoint and a low dependence of communities on this ecosystem service in these sub-basins. The probability of failure for this endpoint remained low with average percentages ranging from 14% under NAT conditions, 25% and 22% for the present and EFLOW scenarios respectively and 32% for the DRGHT scenario (Figure 9-17).The DOM-WAT-END endpoint also predicts low risk for all risk regions under NAT conditions (  and RR6). The Marico (RR1.2), Crocodile (RR1.3), Limpopo mainstem (RR2.8, RR2.9, RR4.1, RR10.1 and RR10.3), Luvuvhu (RR5), Olifants (RR7), Letaba (RR8.2), Shingwedzi (RR9) and Elephantes (RR10.2) subbasins all remained in a zero to low risk category for the present, e-flow and DRGHT scenarios because either the potential or need for domestic water use in these systems was zero or low, for example the Kruger National Park or the water is being treated before it is used, reducing the relative risk. The average probability of failure for this endpoint remained low for all scenarios with the average percentage for the DRGHT scenario being 19.7% (Figure 9-20).The relative risk posed to the combined provisioning services endpoints indicated low relative risk for all risk regions except the Shingwedzi (RR9) sub-basin that is in a moderate relative risk category under NAT conditions (Figure 3-5A). For the PRS scenario, most risk regions fall within the moderate relative risk range with only RR1.3 (Crocodile), RR5 (Luvuvhu) and RR10.1 (Limpopo) remaining in a low relative risk category (Figure 3-5B). The e-flows scenario indicates some reduction in risk, especially for RR2.8 and RR4.1 that also reflect a low relative risk score (Figure 3-5C). The DRGHT scenario reflects an increase in the relative risk for most risk regions, especially RR2.3 (Mokolo) and RR.2.5 (Lotsane) that fall within a high-risk category. The regulatory services provided by the water resources within the Limpopo basin include flood attenuation services (FLO-ATT-END), river assimilation capacity (RIV-ASS-END), maintenance of water-borne diseases (WAT-DIS-END) as well as resource resilience (RES-RES-END) endpoints.The risk posed to the FLO-ATT-END endpoint relates to the ability for the water resources to perform the regulatory services of reducing the threat posed by flooding events. For NAT conditions, the relative risk to this endpoint for all risk regions is zero to low (Figure 9-22 and Figure 9-24A) with an average probability of failure of only 4% (Figure 9-23). For the PRS scenario, the relative risk increases into a moderate category for most risk regions (Figure 9-22 and Figure 9-24B), except for RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR5 (Luvuvhu), RR9 (Shingwedzi) and RR10.1 (Limpopo) which remained in a low relative risk category. The average probability of failure increased to 29% for the PRS scenario and reduced marginally to 26% by the e-flows scenario (Figure 9-23). The EFLOW scenario indicates a reduction in relative risk for most risk regions with RR4.1 (Limpopo) falling within the low relative risk category (Figure 9-22 and Figure 9-24C). Some marginal increases in relative risk were noted for RR1.1 (Ngotwane), RR2.2 (Matlabas), RR3 (Shashe), RR4.3 (Sand), RR5 (Luvuvhu), RR9 (Shingwedzi) (increasing in relative risk to a moderate risk category), RR10.2 (Elephantes) and RR10.3 (Limpopo).The DRGHT scenario indicates an increase in risk for all risk regions as they all fall within the moderate risk range (Figure 9-22 and Figure 9-24D) with the average probability of failure increasing to 37%.River assimilation capacity (RIV-ASS-END) endpoint is the regulatory service water resources provide by absorbing or diluting waste and under NAT conditions this regulatory service is in a zero to low risk category except for the Shingwedzi (RR9) sub-basin that is in a moderate risk category (Figure 9-25 and Figure 9-27A) with a 33.6% probability of failure (Figure 9-26). For the PRS scenario, most of the risk regions are in a moderate risk category except for those associated with the Limpopo mainstem (RR2.9, RR4.1, RR10.1 and RR10.3) as well as the Luvuvhu (RR5) sub-basin which remain in low risk as there is sufficient flow to provide assimilation services (Figure 9-25 and Figure 9-27B). The Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin had the highest probability of failure of 54.8% with an average percentage for all risk regions of 27.3%. The EFLOW scenario shows a reduction in relative risk for most risk regions, with the relative risk to Lephalala (RR2.4), Limpopo mainstem (RR2.8) and Letaba (RR82) sub-basins reducing to a low risk category (Figure 9-25 and Figure 9-27C). The probability of failure for the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin remained the same for the e-flows scenario, when compared to the PRS conditions but the average percentage decreased to 25.4%. The DRGHT scenario predicts moderate risk for all risk regions except the Luvuvh (RR5) sub-basin that remains in a low risk category (Figure 9-25 and Figure 9-27D). The probability of failure for the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin increase to 56.5% with RR1.3 (Corocodile), RR2.4 (Lephalala), RR2.6 (Mogalakwena), RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR8 (Letaba) and RR9 (Shingwedzi) ranging between 50.9% and 52.4%.The waterborne diseases (WAT-DIS-END) endpoint is an interesting one to consider because under NAT conditions, waterborne diseases like malaria occurred and possibly to a greater extent than PRS conditions as malaria controls are in place presently. This is reflected in a comparison between the natural (Figure 9-28 and Figure 9-30A) and PRS scenarios (Figure 9-28 and Figure 9-30B). For the NAT scenario, RR1.1 (Ngotwane), RR2.2 (Matlabas), RR2.6 (Mogalakwena), RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR4.1 (Limpopo), RR5 (Luvuvhu), RR7 (Olifants), RR8 (Letaba) and RR10 (Limpopo and Elephantes) are all in a moderate risk category whereas for the PRS scenario, the relative risk predicted for RR2.6 (Mogalakwena), RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR4.1 (Limpopo) and RR8.2 (Letaba) reduces to a low risk category but the relative risk to the other risk regions (RR1.2 Marico, RR1.3 Crocodile, RR2.3 Mokolo, RR4.3 Sand, RR4.4 Bubye) increased to a moderate risk category. The EFLOW scenario indicated marginal changes in the relative risk for most sites, the most noticeable being the Crocodile (RR1.3), Sand (RR4.3) and Bubye (RR4.4) sub-basins reducing in risk to a low-risk category and the Limpopo (RR4.1) and Letaba (RR8.2) sub-basins increasing in risk to a moderate risk category. The DRGHT scenario does not affect the WAT-DIS-END endpoint as much as for other endpoints as the reduction in water removes the possibility of some waterborne diseases from occurring (Figure 9-28 and Figure 9-30D). The average percentage probability of failure for this endpoint was the same for the nature and EFLOW scenarios (27%) with a reduction in the PRS scenario (25.9%) and the DRGHT scenario (23.8%) (Figure 9-26).The resource resilience (RES-RES-END) endpoint refers to a water resource's natural ability to deal with stressors. The NAT scenario indicates zero to low risk for all the risk regions (Figure 9-31 and Figure 9-33A) as there would not have been many stressors impacting the water resources. For the PRS scenario, the relative risk increases to a moderate category for many risk regions, including most of the seasonal and ephemeral rivers. RR1.1 (Ngotwane), RR2.2 (Matlabas), RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR4.1 (Limpopo), RR4.2 (Umzingwani), RR5 (Luvuvhu), RR7 (Olifants), RR8 (Letaba), RR10 (Limpopo and Elephantes) all remained in a low risk category (Figure 9-31 and Figure 9-33B). The relative risk for the EFLOW scenario was similar to those for the PRS scenario with marginal differences in the risk scores (Figure 9-31 and Figure 9-33C) and the percentage probability of failure (25% -Figure 9-32).The relative risk increases for the DRGHT scenario with most of the risk regions in a moderate risk category and only RR5 (Luvuvhu), RR7 (Olifants) and RR10 (Limpopo and Elephantes) still in a lowrisk category. The average percentage probability of failure for the DRGHT scenario was 35% with RR2.1 (Bonwapitse), RR2.3 (Mokolo), RR2.5 (Lotsane), RR2.7 (Motloutse), RR4.3 (Sand) and RR4.4 (Bubye) showing the highest percentages ranging between 54.2% and 54.6%.The proposed relative risk to the combined regulatory services indicates that for the NAT scenario, the risk regions are in a low to moderate relative risk category (Figure 3-6A). A noticeable increase in the relative risk for all risk regions for the PRS scenario is shown in Figure 3-6B with the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin reflecting a high relative risk. The EFLOW scenario indicates a reduction in relative risk for some risk regions, but they all remain in a moderate risk category with the Marico (RR1.2) sub-basin still remaining in a high relative risk category. The DRGHT scenario indicates an increase in the relative risk for all risk regions with the whole of RR1 and most of RR2 that occurs in Botswana including the Matlabas (RR2.2), Mokolo (RR2.3) and Sand (RR4.3) in a high-risk category. The two endpoints that were selected to represent the cultural services within the basis that are reliant on the water resources is the maintenance of recreational and spiritual activities (REC-SPIR-END) endpoint and the tourism (TOURISM-END) endpoint.The maintenance of recreational and spiritual activities (REC-SPIR-END) endpoint reflects interesting results as the Mogalakwena (RR2.6), Limpopo mainstem (RR2.9, RR4.1 and RR10.1), Luvuvhu (RR5), Olifants (RR7), Letaba (RR8.2) and Shingwedzi (RR9) sub-basins all reflect zero relative risk for the present, e-flow and some even for DRGHT scenarios compared to the low to moderate risk predicted under NAT conditions (Figure 9-34 and Figure 9-36 A-D). This is because under NAT conditions, increased flows or natural threats like crocodiles might have made it unsafe to undertake these activities at these sites. With the present and e-flows scenarios, many of these sub-basins contain national parks like the Kruger National Park, where access for these activities to take place is no longer available so the potential or demand for this endpoint is low. The average percentage probability of failure is highest for the natural and DRGHT scenarios (34.3% and 36% respectively) with a reduction to 30% and 26.6% for the present and e-flows scenarios respectively (Figure 9-35). The Groot Letaba (RR8.1) has the highest probability of failure for the DRGHT scenario (61.2%) with RR2.1 (Bonwapitse), RR2.3 (Mokolo), RR2.5 (Lotsane), RR2.7 (Motloutse), RR4.3 (Sand) and RR4.4 (Bubye) all having a 60% probability of failure (Figure 9-35).The tourism (TOURISM-END) endpoint reflects zero relative risk under NAT conditions and 0% probability of failure, for all the sites because under NAT conditions there is little potential or demand for tourism (Figure 9-37 and Figure 9-39A). The relative risk for the PRS scenario falls within the low to moderate categories for all the risk regions (Figure 9-37 and Figure 9-39B) with similar results for the EFLOW scenario with some noticeable reductions in risk in RR1.3 (Crocodile), RR2.3 (Mokolo), RR2.7 (Motloutse), RR2.9 (Limpopo), RR4.1 (Limpopo), RR4.2 (Umzingwani) and RR4.4 (Bubye).The Shashe (RR3) sub-basin was the only risk region where the risk increased for the e-flows scenario (Figure 9-37 and Figure 9-39C). The average probability of failure percentage also remains similar for the present and EFLOW scenarios (23% and 21.2% respectively) (Figure 9-38). Relative risk scores increased for most risk regions under DRGHT condition, especially those risk regions that are reliant on tourism like the Kruger Park (RR8 Letaba and RR9 Shingwedzi) (Figure 9-37 and Figure 9-39D).The average probability of failure percentage for the DRGHT scenario was 34.1% (Figure 9-38).The combined risk to the cultural services provided by the water resources within each sub-basin is represented in Figure 3-7A-D and shows that for the NAT scenario, there is moderate to low risk for cultural services for all the risk regions. For the PRS scenario, the Marico (RR1.2), Mokolo (RR2.3), Lotsane (RR2.5), Motloutse (RR2.7), and Sand (RR4.3) sub-basins would be in a high relative risk category while the remaining risk regions are in a low to moderate relative risk category. The EFLOW scenario reflects a reduction in risk for some of the risk regions with the Mokolo (RR2.3) and Lotsane (RR2.5) sub-basins returning to a moderate risk category. The DRGHT scenario shows in increase in risk for many of the risk regions but the Olifants (RR7) and Luvuvhu (RR5) sub-basins have remained in a low risk category for all four scenarios. The regional scale ecological risk assessment undertaken in this study demonstrated how multiple stressors occur and are potentially impacting on the socio-ecologically important river resources of the Limpopo Basin. All the risk regions considered in the study are exposed to considerable changes in the volume, timing, duration and frequency of river flows, with many rivers that have historically been perennial, with no evidence of zero flow conditions observed, having become seasonal and or episodic today. In addition, due to noticeable transformation of the landscape in the basin through urbanization and agriculture, mining and industrial development, water quality perturbations, habitat alterations and disturbance to wildlife, there has been considerable impact to water resources in the basin. The rivers of the Limpopo Basin are some of the most hard-working rivers of the region with for example the Olifants River sub-basin recognized globally as one of the worlds most altered and impacted river systems (Dabrowski and De Klerk, 2013;DWS 2014;Nkhonjera 2017).The Crocodile-West and Olifants (including the Letaba) River sub-basins, have, in their present state, been identified in this study as the most severely threatened river ecosystems in the basin due to reduced flows and altered water quality and other stressors. Outputs of the risk assessment includes evidence that the Olifants and Letaba Rivers occur in unsustainable, unacceptable states with high risk to most of the ecosystem services that the biodiversity, ecosystem processes and vulnerable human communities depend on. The risk of the altered flows to the ecosystem services in the middle and lower reaches of the Limpopo River is currently moderate, with variability between moderate and high risk associated with no-flow vs. seasonal or episodic flows. During no-flow periods the risk is unacceptably high although there is some recovery during wet periods. Interestingly some of the services considered in the study are more resilient to the flow variability, while supporting services were identified as the most vulnerable, followed by provisioning services, regulatory and cultural services have been identified as relatively resilient.The supporting services considered in the study included the wellbeing of the fish, macroinvertebrates and vegetation communities in the Limpopo Basin. These indicators represent the biodiversity of species and key ecosystem processes of the river that respond to environmental variability of the driver components (water quality, flow, habitat and other). In the Limpopo River Basin these supporting services were identified as the most vulnerable components of the study. Using multiple lines of evidence, the present-day wellbeing of these components was generally Largely Modified, but the relative risk assessment demonstrates that the integrated (i.e., when these are considered together) risk extends into the high or serious modified risk level, an unsustainable state that would occur in the upper and middle reaches of the basin in particular.The \"Largely Modified\" state, derived from the application of selected eco-classification and multivariate statistical assessment approaches, represents a noticeable change from present, but still potentially sustainable in its present state. This state overlaps in terms of its definition with the threshold of potential concern for ecosystem components between a sustainable and unsustainable condition. While this Largely Modified state is generally \"still acceptable\" for a hard-working river and is \"sustainable\", it is based on knowledge of noticeable changes in the diversity and state of many ecosystem processes. Importantly the present extent of the \"Largely Modified\" state of the rivers determined through eco-classification and multi-variate statically assessments, across the majority of the basin, is concerning as these outcomes suggest that there are no longer any rivers, or reaches of rivers in the basin that maintain a healthy diverse community of fishes and vegetation in particular. The \"high risk\" outputs of the risk assessment heighten this concern that the ecosystem across most of the basin has been significantly transformed, the development is unsustainable and the river ecosystem may be beyond recovery. These outputs are corroborated by the high percentage of threatened aquatic fauna that are endemic to the Limpopo River and or surrounding east-flowing basins in southern Africa.The e-flows of the Limpopo River have been determined using the minimum volume, timing, duration and frequency of flows that would maintain the supporting services, and the outputs of the study demonstrate that a noticeable increase in resilience of the water resource will be achieved through the implementation of these e-flows. They include however a noticeable increase in river flows compared to the present day flows, that would result in the recovery of the ecosystem and associated supporting service components of the ecosystem, but this recovery may conflict with the water-use sector that is over-exploiting water resources in the basin. If no mitigation measures (e-flows) are provided and worst-case climate change predictions for the region occur, including a prolonged and/or extensive drought, the risk to the supporting services, including the ecosystem and associated processes will increase considerably from the present risk, and would depress the ecosystem into a Critically Modified, unacceptable state. This would include significant losses of biodiversity and important ecosystem processes.The provisioning services provided by the water resources of the Limpopo Basin included consideration of fish and other natural products and grazing for livestock and water for domestic use. These provisioning services were shown to follow the trend in deterioration from natural to present day conditions, but are considerably less vulnerable to the flow and non-flow stressors compared to supporting services. This can easily be demonstrated in that the supporting services are based on all of the species and their ecosystem preferences, while human communities will use any fish or food source for food, can treat water for drinking purposes and can change livestock from cattle to goats, for example, to deal with reduced grazing.Presently the provisioning services are generally in a Moderately Modified state, particularly where many vulnerable human communities occur and depend on the ecosystem services. In the wilderness areas, including wildlife ranching and protected areas, the demand for provisioning services by human communities is low to zero and, as such, the present risk to these services has decreased from natural conditions where historically human communities used to live close these resources and use their services. Through the implementation of e-flows, this study has shown that there will be an improvement of base flows in the rivers that will improve ecosystem conditions, and the associated supply of resources for provisioning services, especially along the mainstem of the Limpopo River. This study demonstrates that through the implementation of e-flows local vulnerable human communities will benefit more from the river and will be more resilient to climate variability for example. However, if no e-flows are provided, and the worst-case climate change impacts occur, including a prolonged drought in the region, a deterioration of provisioning services is expected to result which will include increased stress and hardships for local human communities.The regulatory services in the study included consideration of flood attenuation potential, resource resilience, the assimilative capacity of the rivers, and limiting water borne disease outbreaks. The risk assessment shows increased risk to all of these regulatory services from natural to present conditions incorporating changes in use dynamics due to new protected and wilderness areas (from natural), and reduced quality of the water resource that affects water borne disease vectors. These trends are similar to those for the provisioning services, and implementation of e-flow will also result in a slight improvement to the regulatory services. Interestingly while the regulatory services are potentially less vulnerable to multiple stressors, compared to supporting and provisioning services, the potential impacts of climate change to the upper reaches of the basin in particular are noticeably greater than the risk expected to occur to provisioning services.Finally, the cultural services selected for the study include recreation, spiritual activities and tourism. Interestingly while the risk to tourism is highly dependent on the demand for tourism in the basin, which did not exist in the NAT scenario, today due to the location of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area and wilderness areas in the upper parts of the Crocodile River (West) sub-basin and middle Limpopo River, this ecosystem service is in abundant supply. These results demonstrate how important tourism is as a cultural service with associated socio-economic benefits. The spiritual and recreational activities however, which occur outside of these protected areas are dependent on the water resource and its quality.Changes in risk for this important cultural component shows there has been a considerable increase in risk from natural conditions, however this service is more tolerant to changes in flows and non-flow stressors compared to supporting services and provisioning services. Here the danger of crocodile attacks is considered to be reduced due to formal crossings established over dangerous rivers, and considers how the distribution of the predators has changed through resource development and changes in the state of resources, for example where perennial rivers have been changed into seasonal or episodic rivers and the populations of crocodiles have decreased. If e-flows are implemented, a reduction in risk to this service is expected due primarily to improved opportunities for recreation and spiritual activities.There are also expected to be less drownings if more stable base flows are provided and sudden erratic floods are controlled through releases. If, however, e-flows are not implemented and a worst-case climate change scenario including a prolonged drought in the region occurs, the state of the cultural services will deteriorate considerably especially in those tributaries of the Limpopo Basin where perennial or seasonal rivers have been changed to seasonal or episodic systems.The Olifants River has surprisingly been identified as a very resilient sub-catchment where the 10 lowest flow or drought years obtained from historical data have all been identified as being \"suitable\", as during prolonged droughts the tourism and other cultural services are likely to be maintained.The probabilistic risk models used in this study incorporate available evidence and use justified solicitations (Appendix A) to establish the models and represent knowledge of the relationships between variables. Uncertainty associated with the availability and use of data, and the modelling process can influence the risk estimate. To reduce uncertainty in the study after implementing the RRM-BN model and the preliminary analyses, the model's structure, parametrization, and findings were evaluated by hydrology, hydraulic, water quality, ecology and social experts involved in the study. With their assistance the model was calibrated to best represent the risk of multiple stressors to natural preanthropogenic conditions for which some data is available, and to represent the risk to endpoints observed under PRS conditions that were evaluated in the study. The RRM-BN approach included the opportunity to incorporate uncertainty in the conditional probability tables where relationships between variables are represented as limited or high confidence, in the knowledge of the flow-ecosystem relationships using broad (low confidence with high SD) relationship profiles or high confidence (low SD) combinations. Uncertainty associated with available data specific to the reach of river being considered in the study, can be reduced though additional sampling and/or risk projection testing in monitoring and uncertainty reduction experimentation.Additionally, the level of confidence of the assessment due to the large spatial scope and limited evidence is low, and uncertainty high for the sub-basins (Ngotwane, Marico, Bonwapitse, Mokolo, Lotsane, Motloutse and Bubye) that were not physically sampled in this study by the specialists, and requirements were instead inferred from other sub-basins with similar characteristics. For example, for the upper Olifants sub-basin evidence is inferred from the lower Olifants sub-basin within the Kruger National Park. This data skews the results for some of the ecosystem services as the upper catchment in not in the Kruger. If it were necessary to reduce the uncertainty of results for these sub-basins, it would be necessary to collect new data.The RRM-BN approach includes an evaluation of the uncertainty to identify key drivers in the model and sources of uncertainty that may impact the overall uncertainty of the model (Ayre and Landis 2012).The results of uncertainty evaluation provide context of the uncertainty associated with the outcomes to stakeholders, and contributes to the water resource management decision-making process. The successful establishment and testing of risk hypotheses in the future will allow RRM to be validated, and reduce overall uncertainty. This includes the application of the \"Sensitivity to findings\" tool of Netica to evaluate the contribution of individual variables (nodes) to the risk outcomes (O'Brien et al. 2018) (Appendix C).The Limpopo River is an important, dynamic socio-ecological system with a high diversity of endemic and unique aquatic biota and important ecosystem processes that affects more than 14 million people who live in the basin and depend on its resources. The limited water resources of the basin are overutilised with most of the rivers that were historically perennial now seasonal and seasonal rivers now episodic. Additional water quality stressors in the Crocodile (West) and Olifants Rivers and other stressors such as habitat alteration, alien invasive fauna and flora and disturbance to wildlife impacts have a synergistic effect of the wellbeing of the water resources in the basin. While most of the rivers in the basin today occur in a Largely Modified (but sustainable) state many parts of the basin are now in an unsustainable deteriorating state with an associated loss of biodiversity, ecosystem processes and services that people depend on. The evidence-based risk assessment undertaken in this study can contribute to stakeholders' understanding of how water resources have been developed in the Limpopo Basin, and the impacts of this development on ecosystems and people. The assessment includes an evaluation of the relative risk to ecosystem services, which can be used to facilitate consideration of trade-offs that are spatially linked, which can be used for more sustainable and appropriate development planning. While we acknowledge that there are socio-economic costs associated with implementation of e-flows (flow mitigation), the long-term costs of operating the system in an unsustainable state may out-weigh these costs.The risk associated with e-flow scenarios to the ecosystem service endpoints considered in this study for the Olifants and Letaba Rivers is unacceptably high and will not provide sufficient flows for sustainability. This study shows that the current e-flows requirements are probably insufficient, but the e-flows were not determined during this study but have been gazetted and come from previous studies and should be re-evaluated. Some of the risk assessments for risk regions are based on socio-ecological system requirements inferred to those regions from adjacent regions and or from regions where socioecological systems are considered to be comparable. This approach allows for the determination of comparable risk of altered flows and other stressors for all scenarios using the hydrology from the relevant risk region but the requirements from others. This approach results in uncertainty as the availability of flows in a relevant risk region is compared to requirements from another region. In this study the risk proposed to the Marico and seasonal rivers in Botswana were shown to be moderate to high. These projections can contribute to planning and or management, but the uncertainty must be addressed. We recommend site specific data be obtained from these rivers.The risk assessment includes four scenarios that generally consider how the risk to the ecosystem services have changed overtime and what may result if no consideration for sustainability is afforded in the form of implementing e-flows. Additional scenarios can be established and tested and the actual experiences or real scenarios that are implemented can be tested in an adaptive context to guide the balance between the use and protection of the resource and test the risk assessments. In an adaptive context the risk models will be able to learn from new information which will improve prediction accuracy and reduce uncertainty. Similarly in an adaptive context the current risk framework and associated risk regions can be increased to provide greater regional, spatial confidence. Here we recommend increasing the number of risk regions and colleting additional bio-physical information at multiple sites on the main rivers/tributaries to improve confidence of the assessment and support fine spatial scale development and or sustainable management of the resource.The study did not include a hydrological model to budget water requirements to align or synchronise eflow allocations between risk regions. The study presents the requirements and propose that through implementation, the contribution of e-flows in upstream reaches will need to be determined to meet downstream requirements. This is particularly important where requirements in the lower portion of the basin depends on upstream flows. We recommend an alignment process be undertaken with interested and affected parties to determine how to meet e-flows throughout the basin. We have also identified misalignments of legislation and or sustainable water resource management between riparian countries of the Limpopo Basin. For example, in South Africa e-flow requirements are gazetted as part of the Ecological Reserve and included as Resource Quality Objectives to force regulators to implement them. This has legal implications to developers and or polluters within South Africa. The other riparian states do not currently have comparable legislation. This misalignment should be addressed.Finally, some parts of the water resources including for example the Luvuvhu and Shingwedzi Rivers are currently in good ecological conditions they should receive priority for protection, while the rivers in the Upper Limpopo Basin, and Olifants River basins are being used excessively and these rivers should be prioritised for rehabilitation.This risk assessment can be implemented as a framework and make a direct, positive contribution to sustainable water resource management in the Limpopo Basin. The framework should be developed and applied in an adaptive context to meet these potential contributions.Variable title (BN CODE)Justification (Incl. indicator and measure (units) and specify rank descriptions, standard Zero, Low, Moderate (Mod) and High, or continuous or categorical etc.) ReferencesIn the context of geomorphic substrates that provide habitat for macro-invertebrate communities. The potential for the supply of sediment into the rivers has been considered. Sedimentation is a natural process, but increased sediment inputs and deposition associated with upstream and onsite anthropogenic impacts. Sediment input and deposition potentially reduces habitat heterogeneity, smothering available interstitial spaces. Severity impact of sedimentation affects dependant on shape, size, density of particles; potential for microbial colonisation; availability of nutrients; and water flow, velocity, turbulence and temperature. Ranks selected for this node include consideration of condition of catchment and land use activities that may affect supply of sediment that can potentially affect habitat diversity. Measure include an intact catchment area with pristine buffer of sediments from entering the river that supports indicator species (Zero), near-natural conditions that do not affect indicator species (Low), acceptable condition to provide minimal requirements for indicator species (consider abundances on reach scale) (Mod) and unacceptable loss of substrate types that will significantly affect aquatic macroinvertebrate communities.Significant reduction or increase in sediment volume and fine-coarse ratio from upstream or lateral supply associated with runoff from terrestrial areas due to degradation type (degradation intensity) and extent (% catchment degradation). Connectivity and catchment position plays a role too, with distal or poorly connected sources having a smaller impact compared to local or well buffered sources.The shift in sediment supply will directly affect habitat availability within the river associated with river flows that will describe geomorphic/instream habitat characteristics for substrate availability and location for indicator invertebrate species. Ranks selected include degradation condition of catchment, land use activities or upstream supply of sediment that provides potential for habitat diversity to be maintained in natural/pristine condition (Zero), near-natural conditions that do not affect indicator species (Low), acceptable condition to provide minimal requirements for indicator species (consider abundances on reach scale) (Mod) and unacceptable loss of substrate types that will significantly affect invertebrate communities. River flows measured as discharge (m3/s) associated with velocities (m/s) using hydraulics to provide suitable shear stress which mobilise sediments, maintaining instream substrate and hydraulic biotope diversity. Indicator aquatic macroinvertebrates for upper (cold water, cobble-boulder taxa e.g., Blepharoceridae, Synlestidae, Baetidae: Demoreptus sp., etc.), mid reach (cool -warm water, cobble-boulder-gravel taxa e.g., Aeshnidae: Pinheyschna subpupillata, Libellulidae: Zygonyx natalensis, Tricorythidae: Tricorythus sp., Heptageniidae: Afronus sp., etc.), lower reach (warm water, gravel-sand-mud (Gomphidae, Unionidae, Corbiculidae and marginal & aquatic vegetation biotopes taxa e.g., Heptageniidae: Compsoneuria sp., Coenagrionidae: Pseudagrion sp., Palaemonidae: Macrobrachium sp. River flows measured as discharge (m 3 /s) associated with velocities (m/s) using hydraulics to provide suitable shear stress to mobilise fine and medium sized sediments to maintain instream habitat diversity preferred by indicator invertebrate communities in a near natural condition (Zero rank), altered distributions but suitable abundances of required habitats for indicator species (Low rank), altered habitat distributions that will not significantly affect invertebrate communities (Mod rank) and altered flows that significantly change substrate characteristics that will result in loss of instream substrates and morphological features required by indicator invertebrate species for lifecycle events. Endpoint representing integration of geomorphic substrates, velocity depth classes and cover characteristics.The physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) available and conditions comparable to pre-anthropogenic activities Low Some alterations to the physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) but suitable availability and conditions present to sustain subsistence fisheries.Concerning loss to physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) not all expected subsistence fisheries are present.Critical loss to physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) absences of subsistence fisheries.Occurrence and abundance (measure and unit) of competing/predacious impact of known alien fauna (fish) on indigenous fishesOccurrence and abundance (measure and unit) of competing impact of known alien fauna (fish) on indigenous fishes considered where ranks represents no threat/potential impact. 0 individuals.Occurrence of alien (not invasive) species that will not significantly affect life cycle of any indigenous species. 1 individual. Riparian habitat for livestock (LIV_VEG_RIP) Diversity of riparian habitats across a range of geomorphic features / zones that support riparian species suitable for grazing. Habitat diversity key components are substrate and hydrological / hydraulic characteristics.Riparian habitat diversity intact, all expected geomorphic units and substrates are represented for the risk region and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species diversity and abundance.Riparian habitat diversity mostly intact, all expected geomorphic units and substrates are represented for the risk region and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species diversity and abundance.Riparian habitat diversity reduced, geomorphic unit and substrate diversity reduced and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species dominance with loss of diversity.Riparian habitat diversity lost, geomorphic unit and substrate diversity reduced and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species dominance with loss of diversity.Based on presence/absence of instream and off stream predators that threaten safety of livestock Relates to moderate threat due to presence of predators but low abundance and species poses threat to juviniles but not adults.Relates to high threat due to presence of predators that poses threat to livestock.Environment for flood control (FLO_ATT_ENV)The riparian zone / habitats and overall vegetation abundance and structure all contribute to reach roughness which attenuates risk to flood damage e.g. function is intact with high vegetation cover, especially reeds and woody component.Riparian habitat diversity intact, all expected geomorphic units and substrates are represented for the risk region and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species diversity and abundance.Riparian habitat diversity mostly intact, all expected geomorphic units and substrates are represented for the risk region and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species diversity and abundance.Riparian habitat diversity reduced, geomorphic unit and substrate diversity reduced and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species dominance with loss of diversity.Riparian habitat diversity lost, geomorphic unit and substrate diversity reduced and hydraulic / hydrological characteristics promote species dominance with loss of diversity. Endpoint representing integration of geomorphic substrates, velocity depth classes and cover characteristics.The physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) available and conditions comparable to pre-anthropogenic activities Low Some alterations to the physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) but suitable availability and conditions present to sustain fish communitiesConcerning loss to physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) not all expected fish species are present.Critical loss to physical habitat (velocity depth classes, geomorphic substrates, cover features) absences of fish communities. Occurrence of alien (not invasive) species that will not significantly affect life cycle of any indigenous species. 1 individual.Occurrence of alien species (invasive) with potential to affect indigenous populations significantly in low abundances. > 1 individual.Presence of alien species in high abundances that poses high threat to indigenous populations. Invasive species dominate the site.Alien fauna on fish (FISH_ECO_ALI)Endpoint representing alien fauna competition and alien fauna predation. (Maybe alien fauna hybridization). ZeroOccurrence and abundance (measure and unit) of competing impact of known alien fauna (fish) on indigenous fishes considered where ranks represents no threat/potential impact. 0 individuals.Description for conditional probability tables (CPTs) Ranks Description of ranks for variableOccurrence of alien (not invasive) species that will not significantly affect life cycle of any indigenous species. 1 individual.Occurrence of alien species (invasive) with potential to affect indigenous populations significantly in low abundances. > 1 individual.Presence of alien species in high abundances that poses high threat to indigenous populations. Invasive species dominate the site.Endpoint representing integration of environment potential for vegetation (causal leg of risk assessment) and environment condition for vegetation, which represents riverine conditions for vegetation communities (as represented by the interaction of substrate and flow) that may/may not be affected by alien flora.The environment has the potential to maintain riparian vegetation communities and the environmental conditions cater for expected community structure, abundance and diversity.The environment has the potential to maintain riparian vegetation communities and the environmental conditions mostly cater for expected community structure, abundance and diversity, with low perturbation from expectations.The environment has some potential to maintain riparian vegetation communities and/or the environmental conditions acceptably cater for expected community structure, abundance and diversity, with moderate perturbation from expectations.The environment has limited potential to maintain riparian vegetation communities and/or the environmental conditions cater poorly for expected community structure, abundance and diversity, with high levels of perturbation from expectations.Endpoint representing integration of river environment for vegetation, which represents riverine conditions for vegetation communities (as represented by the interaction of substrate and flow) that may/may not be affected by alien flora.The river environment for riparian vegetation is in keeping with background (reference) expectations, and alien vegetation is absent or negligibleThe river environment for riparian vegetation is in keeping with background (near reference) expectations, and alien vegetation is low, or comprised of annuals only.Description for conditional probability tables (CPTs) Ranks Description of ranks for variableThe river environment for riparian vegetation is satisfactory and moderately in keeping with expectations, and alien vegetation is present (annual and perennial), but has low to moderate negative affect on diversity.The river environment does not support riparian vegetation well, and is not in keeping with expectations, and alien vegetation is dominant (and invasive), and has significantly reduced indigenous diversity.The only input is the instream environment for vegetation, suggest amalgamation of the two and call as is (representing instream and riparian) and delete instream node? Zero Combination of substrate and flow/depth characteristics required for riparian vegetation exist and are in keeping with background [reference] expectations.Combination of substrate and flow/depth characteristics required for riparian vegetation exist and are mostly in keeping with background [reference] expectations.Perturbations of substrate and/or flow/depth characteristics required for riparian vegetation exist and therefore hinder expected occurrence of riparian vegetation.An absence of either substrate or flow/depth characteristics required for riparian vegetation, singly or in combination, but do not facilitate riparian vegetation occurrence /persistence.Endpoint representing integration of water quality, geomorphic substrates and hydraulic/hydrological preferences. The combination of these three parameters affects microsite characteristics for aquatic and riparian vegetation recruitment (most importantly) and persistence. The potential for the environment to be suitable for invertebrates in this study is based on knowledge of inst. Env for inverts, barriers and Alien fauna. Conditional relationship. Deterioration of instream env and increase in barriers and inc. in aliens results in increase in risk. Measure available river-stream length (potential habitat) based on historical species distribution data as reference. Compare against current available stream-river length habitats (linked and free flowing rivers). Use % free flowing habitat to set parameters. Express number of manmade barriers in relation to river-stream length to determine severity of fragmentation.Free-flowing river (no manmade barriers -measure fluvial distance), influencing migration (i.e., Palaemonidae: Macrobrachium sp. in lower reaches), habitat loss (e.g., fluvial habitats, flow modification, over abstraction, etc.), and sources for introductions of alien invasive species (competition, predation, introducing new diseases, parasites). Alien invasive fauna absent or present in very low abundance.Free-flowing river habitat (fluvial connectivity) reduced by ≤20% (e.g., distance between 1st barrier and estuary/mouth compared against \"reference\") -in case of Macrobrachium sp.. Upstream barriers/fluvial length, potential habitat reduced by ≤20%. Alien invasive fauna present but in low abundance. Endpoint representing integration of river's physical environment for recreation and spiritual activities and holistic environment including instream and other stressors that affect use of river for recreation and spiritual activities per risk region/site. This node represents the endpoint selected through the visioning process of the study as a part of supporting services in the study.Water depth and flow heterogenous to maintain a pristine and natural character of the river for recreational water use( people's appreciation and enjoyment of the water body) and spiritual use.Water depth and flow heterogenous most parts of the river's natural character is maintained for recreational water use( people's appreciation and enjoyment of the water body) and spiritual use.Minimal disturbances which obstruct flow and depth, changing some parts of the river from their natural character for recreational and spiritual use Unacceptable or unsustainable demand for tourism or river environment not for acceptable tourist environment which will affect their social well being. This rank shows potential for this endpoint not being met as a result of one or many stressors.Endpoint representing integration of physical environment for tourism and impacts like social barriers affecting tourism per risk region/site. This node represents the endpoint selected through the visioning process of the study as part of supporting services in the study.Ultimate environment potential to support tourism with no impact of social barriers and physical environment.Sufficient environment potential to support tourism with no impact of social barriers and physical environment.Moderate environment potential where the physical environment supports tourism with moderate impact of social barriersLow environment potential where the physical environment supports tourism with high impact of social barriers and unsustainable and/or dysfunctional tourism                                           ","tokenCount":"19606"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b7bd54a8a64ad5a135cef95fd0ac3b7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/851c8ed2-4d02-4bd5-a6cd-dcef5c668162/retrieve","id":"1312200571"},"keywords":["Industrial crop","seed physicochemical content","Vigna unduiculata"],"sieverID":"c54dfb7a-26a8-41df-ac55-ce7dd847918b","pagecount":"6","content":"Cowpea is an important food, cash and fodder crop in Sub-Saharan Africa and has potential of becoming an industrial crop. A trial was conducted to evaluate selected improved and popular varieties of cowpea for physicochemical characteristics that can help to promote commercial production and industrial use. Variations in content were found among varieties for protein (21.3 -26.9%), carbohydrate (63.37 -69.56%), fat (1.2 to 1.80%), crude fibre (0.43 to 1.03%), and tannin (0.87 -1.51 mg/g), also in water binding capacity (91.77 -108.35%) and gelatinization temperature (79.13 -84.83 o C). High positive correlations (0.86) were observed between the content of fat and crude fibre, ash and protein (0.78), carbohydrate and viscosity of cowpea flour (0.76), and between ash and tannin (0.61) content of cowpea seed, negative correlations were observed between the content of crude protein and carbohydrate (-0.98), ash and fat (-0.78), crude protein and viscosity (-0.76) of cowpea flour, fat and water binding capacity of cowpea flour (-0.72) and carbohydrate and tannin (-0.54) in cowpea seed. Seed coat colour plays no significant role in the chemical content of the seed. The physicochemical properties evaluated generally had high broad sense heritability (56 -99%). Cowpea varieties (IT97K-1101-5 and IT89KD-288) with high protein content could be selected for formulating infant feeds, varieties with lower carbohydrate, low fat and high crude fibre (IT90K-277-2) would be desirable in making meals for diabetic patients.Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.], is the most important source of vegetable protein in rural and urban diets across West and Central Africa and in parts of East and Southern Africa (Bressani, 1985;Singh et al., 1997). It is consumed in many forms. Young leaves, green pods, and seeds are eaten as vegetables and dry seeds are used in various food preparations (Nielsen et al., 1997). Varieties are selected based on yield potential, pest resistance, seed quality, maturity period, suitability for use as grain for food and fodder for livestock, taste and cooking properties (Singh and Ntare, 1985;Singh, 2001). *Corresponding author. E-mail: h.ajeigbe@cgiar.org.Varietal differences from region to region depend on the seed characteristics (IITA, 1983). The crude protein content ranges from 22 to 30% in the grain and leaves on a dry weight basis (Omueti and Singh, 1987;Nielsen et al, 1997). As the bulk of the diet of rural and urban poor especially in Africa, consists of starchy food made from cassava, yam, plantain and banana, millet, sorghum and maize, the addition of even a small amount of cowpea ensures nutritional balance. It enhances the quality by the synergistic effect of high protein and high lysine from cowpea and high methionine and high energy from the starchy food (Singh et al., 2003). Because of its high protein, vitamins and minerals contents, it impacts positively on the health of women and children. A study was conducted to evaluate the contributions of cowpea and other legumes to the food intake of pre-school children and pregnant women in the rural areas of northern Anambra State, Nigeria, during the wet and dry seasons (King et al., 1986). This showed that for children 2 -5 year old, in the wet season, cowpea and other legumes together contributed 35% of thiamine intake, 31% of protein, 24% of iron, 21% of niacin, 16% of energy and riboflavin and 13% of calcium. Among the pregnant women, cowpea and other legumes together contributed 27% of thiamin intake, 25% of protein, 20% of iron, 16% of niacin, 14% of riboflavin, 13% of energy and 10% of calcium.The high protein content with hardly any anti-nutritive factor represents a major advantage in the use of cowpea in nutritional products for infant and children's food and cowpea could be a good source of protein for industrial product manufacturing. The major constraints to the industrial use by food companies in Africa include the lack of reliable statistics on production, strong price fluctuations during the year and the problem of the availability of raw material of acceptable quality and quantity (Lambot, 2002). Only limited studies have been done to draw the relationship between seed type and it physical properties and their effect on other attributes (Fery, 1985;Fery and Singh, 1997) and relation ship between different seed types and their physical properties (Singh, 2001). However, there are no known reports on the relationship between the seed types, physical properties and their chemical properties. The determination of the nutritive quality would benefit the producers and consumers of cowpea products. There is a need to evaluate varieties for their physico-chemical properties and the relationship among these properties. This would help breeders, other researchers and processors to note which varieties are suitable for what purposes, in terms of their innate characteristics for various needs: general purpose use, processing into flour, and other industrial uses for infant formula and diabetic patients. The present study was conducted to evaluate selected improved and popular cowpea varieties for characteristics which will help to promote selected varieties for commercial production and industrial use.Nine improved cowpea varieties were used for the assessment (Table 1). The cowpea varieties included three varieties (IT90K-76, IT90K-277-2 and IT93K-452-1 ) that have been released in Nigeria, two that have been recommended for release (IT97K-499-35 and IT89KD-288) and four (IT89KD-391, IT97K-569-18, IT97K-1101-1 and IT98K-131-2) that are in advance stages of evaluation and are likely to be released. They were also selected to reflect the wide range of seed types accepted in the country. Physical properties were estimated for each of the nine varieties using the following methods.Seed size: One hundred seeds for each variety were randomly picked and weighed.Dry seed density: 20 g of seed of each variety were placed in a 100 ml measuring cylinder filled with 50 ml water. The rise in water level after through shaking to remove air bubble was recorded as dry seed volume. Dry seed density was estimated by dividing 20 g with the dry seed volume.The 20 g seeds of each variety were allowed o stay overnight in the measuring cylinder with 50 ml of water. The water level in the cylinder was noted in the morning as total volume of the wet seeds and unabsorbed water. The excess water was then saved in another measuring cylinder. The difference between the total volume and excess water was recorded as the wet seed volume.The wet seed volume was divided by the dry seed volume to obtain swelling ratio. Water absorbed: The excess water removed after overnight soaking was subtracted from 50 ml and the difference was recorded as water absorbed.The crushing strength of individual seed was measured in using a Hardness Tester Model No. 174886 made by M/S KIYA SEISAKUSHO Ltd, Tokyo, Japan.The seed were manually de-hulled and dried using a cabinet drier at 60°C for 24 h. The dried de-hulled samples were milled, using a hammer mill (model A1, Nigeria Tech. Co, Lagos). The milled flour was sieved through a 250 micro-mesh sieve. The flour obtained from the each variety was then divided into three parts to give three replications for each variety for subsequent analysis. Chemical determinations were made of flour samples from each variety: Moisture content, crude protein, ash, carbohydrate and crude fibre using AACC (1981) and AOAC (1975) methods. The flour hydration capacities were measured using the method of Yasunaga et al. (1968). The hydration capacity was calculated using the following formula:Hydration capacity (%) = [Uptake of water (g) / Flour dry matter content] × 100The viscosity and pasting properties of the flour were determined using the rapid visco-analyzer (RVA) at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan. The design was a completely randomise design with four replication for the physical properties and two replication for the chemical properties. The data were then subjected to statistical analysis using computer package GenStat Discovery Edition2 7 (2005). Least Significant Difference (LSD) among means was calculated at 5% significant level. Correlation co-efficient was used to determine the degree of association between different parameters. Broad sense heritability was estimated from the ANOVA table as follows:Variety MS = 2 v = 2 e + r 2 gError MS = 2 e Genotype variance = 2 g = ( 2 v-2 e)/r Replication = rBroad sense heritability = 2 g/( 2 e + 2 g)The physical characteristics of the 9 selected cowpea varieties are given in Table 1. Seed coat colours were white (4), brown (4) and black (1). Eight varieties had a rough seed coat and one was smooth seeded. Significant differences (5%) were observed among the cowpea varieties for all the physical properties. The 100 seed weight ranged from 13.1 g in IT90K-76 to 24.2 g in IT97K-1101-5. Dry seed volume was lowest for IT93K-452-1 (15.25) and highest for IT97K-1101-5 (19.0), while IT90K-277-2 (42.75) had the lowest wet volume and IT97K-1101-5 (51.75) had the highest wet volume. IT97K-1101-5, which had the highest volume (wet and dry), however had the lowest density (1.05) and IT93K-452-1 (1.31) had the highest density. Swelling ratio ranged from 2.51 in IT90K-277-2 to 3.00 in IT90K-76. IT90K-277-2 (6.6 kg) had the highest hardness and IT98K-131-2 had the lowest hardness. Broad sense heritability was above 75% for all the physical characteristics evaluated except hardness which was 35%.The chemical constituents of the seed of the selected cowpea varieties are given in Table 2. There were significant differences among the varieties for percentage crude protein content that ranged from 21.3% in IT90K-76 to 26.5% in IT97K-1101-5. The highest protein content was found in IT97K-1101-5 (black seeded) and IT89KD-288 (white seeded) and the lowest of 21.3% in IT93K-452-1 (white seeded) and IT90K-76 (brown seeded) va-  riety. Broad sense heritability of protein content was 86%. The results from the analysis showed that, apart from IT97K-1101-5 with ash content of 4.59% which was significantly higher than ash content of 6 other varieties, the ash contents of the remaining cowpea varieties did not vary significantly among themselves and had broad sense heritability of 56%. The varieties can be grouped into two on the basis of carbohydrate content of seed. The first group (7 varieties) had a carbohydrate content of 67 to 69.56 %; in the second group, carbohydrate content was 63.37% for IT97K-1101-5, and 64.86% for IT89KD-288. These two varieties with the lowest carbohydrate however had the highest crude protein content. Significant differences were recorded for fat con-tent as IT90K-277-2 had the highest amount of fat (1.7%), IT97-K-1101-5 had the least (1.20%). Significant differences were also observed among the selected varieties for crude fibre content that ranged from 0.43% in IT98K-131-2 to 1.03% in IT90K-277-2. Significant differences were also observed for tannin content that ranged from 0.87 mg g -1 in IT93K-452-1 to 1.51 mg g -1 in IT89KD-288. IT93K 452-1 (91.77%) had the least water binding capacity, while IT97K-1101-5 (108.35%), had the highest. The potential for cowpea to go into slurry/become viscous quickly vary significantly among the varieties. IT90K-76 attained a maximum peak viscosity of 250.18, which significantly varied from the others; IT97K-1101-5 attained the least peak viscosity of 154.09. The integrity of starch molecules in cowpea varieties differs significantly. From the results, the gelatinization temperature, i.e. the temperature at which starch molecules rupture was highest with IT98K-131-2 (84.82 o C), and lowest in IT97K-452-1 (79.13 o C). Broad sense heritability was 73, 86, 92, 96 and 98% for fat content, carbohydrate and crude protein, water binding capa-city, crude fibre, and tannin content, respectively, and 99% for final viscosity and pasting time temperature.The correlation coefficients among the various physico-chemical properties of cowpea seed are given in Table 3. The following properties had positive and significant correlation coefficient: one hundred seed weight vs dry and wet seed volume (r = 0.77 and 0.49 respectively), one hundred seed weight vs crude protein and % ash content (0.73). Dry seed volume vs wet seed volume (0.60), crude protein and ash content (0.71) and water binding capacity (0.59), wet seed volume vs water uptake (0.94), crude protein (0.61), ash content (0.84), water binding capacity (0.61) and tannin content (0.58). Dry seed density vs swelling ratio (0.53), carbohydrate content (0.67), fat content (0.64) and final viscosity (0.71). Swelling ratio vs water uptake (0.47) and final viscosity (0.42), while water uptake had positive and significant correlation coefficient with crude protein (0.45) and ash content (0.65), and with water binding capacity (0.57). Seed hardness was also positively correlated with fat content (0.69) and crude fibre (0.68). Crude protein was positively correlated with ash content (0.78) and tannin content (0.54), and ash with tannin content (0.61), carbohydrate with fat (0.54), and 0.76 with final viscosity, while fat content was also positively correlated with crude fibre content (0.86).The following properties had negative and significant correlation coefficient: Seed weight with dry seed density (r = -0.75), % carbohydrate (-0.78) and final viscosity (-0.84); dry seed volume with dry seed density (-1), swelling ratio (-0.52), seed hardness (-0.48), carbohydrate (-0.68), fat (-0.63) and final viscosity (-0.73); wet seed volume with dry seed density (-0.59), seed hardness (-0.64), % carbohydrate (-0.67) and % fat content (-0.73); dry seed density with crude protein (-0.71), ash content (-0.70), and water binding capacity (-0.60); water uptake with hardness (-0.68), carbohydrate (-0.52), fat (-0.61) contents; seed hardness with ash (-0.46), and water binding capacity (-0.48); crude protein content with carbohydrate (-0.98), fat (-0.56), and final viscosity (-0.76); ash content with carbohydrate (-0.84), fat (-0.78), final viscosity (-0.55) and crude fibre (-0.48); carbohydrate with tannin content (-0.55) and fat with water binding capacity (-0.72).Whereas the highest protein content was found in IT97K-1101-5 (black seeded) and IT 89KD 288 (white seeded) and the lowest in IT93K-452-1 (white seeded) and IT 90K-76 (brown seeded) with 21.36 and 21.30%, respectively. Seed coat does not appear to play a significant role in determining the protein content, as the white and brown seeded varieties were distributed evenly in the protein range. Significant genetic differences were observed for all the physical and chemical properties evaluated in this trial. Heritability for the physical properties recorded in this trial were high, ranging from 78 to 93% and are similar to that recorded by Singh, (2001), except for seed hardness which was low (35%), Singh (2001) observed 92% for seed hardness. Varieties with high protein content (IT97K-1101-5 and IT 89KD 288) would be suitable in formulating infant feeds, while Ajeigbe et al. 3643 those with the lower protein content would be suitable for general purposes and adult consumption. The range of protein content recorded was similar to that obtained by other authors (Bliss, 1975;Omueti and Singh 1987;Nielsen et al., 1993). Cowpea is rich in lysine, but deficient in sulfurous amino acids (Lambot 2002), and to a lesser extent isoleucine, however levels of essential amino acids are at least as high as those in soybean (Lambot 2002). Cowpea contains a higher level of flatulent sugars than that found in soybean but its raffinose content (most flatulent sugar) is lower than that in soybean (Lambot, 2002). These characteristics present a major advantage in the use of cowpea in nutritional products, for infant's and children's food. Ash content of cowpea seed was comparatively stable among the selected varieties compared to other chemical characters studied; however variations existed for carbohydrate content. The carbohydrate content (63.37 to 69.56%) found in this study was similar to that (59.7 -71.6%) reported by Nielsen et al. (1993). As with other studies (Nielsen et al., 1993), protein content was positively correlated with ash and negatively correlated with fat and carbohydrate content indicating that selection for high protein will decrease carbohydrate content and increase ash content which will make the improved line nutritional superior. In formulating cowpea diets for diabetic patients, varieties with low carbohydrate could be selected since diabetic patients may need a reduced consumption of carbohydrate rich foods. Varieties with less fat may be most suited for formulating food/meals for diabetic patients. Carbohydrate was positively correlated with fat content making these varieties excellent for this purpose. In using cowpea flour in products, the water binding capacity would be important. Here again, significant differences were observed. The variety with highest water binding capacity (IT97K-1101-5) would absorb more water in formulating any product. Varieties with high peak viscosities flow better when re-constituted in water, and thus make a better paste. Usually, varieties with a high gelatinization temperature take longer to cook, because of the hard and strong chemical bonding binding the nutrients in the grain structure of starch composition in the grain. A high positive correlation observed between ash and protein implies varieties with these characters would be suitable for infant formulae that can be fortified with high energy cereals.The present study has shown that significant variations exist among cowpea lines for most of the physicochemical constituents of cowpea grain with high heritability. Suitable parents could therefore be selected for further improvement of any of the characters. Varieties also exist that can be used for specialized industrial pro-ducts like infants formula etc. Cowpea varieties (IT97K-1101-5 and IT89KD-288) with high protein content could be selected for formulating infant feeds, varieties with lower carbohydrate, low fat and high crude fibre (IT90K-277-2) would be desirable in making meals for diabetic patients.","tokenCount":"2820"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63199ac4f2951daa69b6e5ee1c12bc39","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8c29b5b-43a9-4f78-ae6d-b7b3574b4914/retrieve","id":"-944974626"},"keywords":["Cassava","root yield","source/sink limitation","photosynthesis","carbon fixation","enzyme activity","nitrogen metabolism","starch synthesis","K battery","chlorogenic acid"],"sieverID":"287b9a05-8054-4d28-a915-7a7b6a7b4af8","pagecount":"40","content":"Cassava is an important staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa, due to its high productivity even on nutrient poor soils. The metabolic characteristics underlying this high productivity are poorly understood including the mode of photosynthesis, reasons for the high rate of photosynthesis, the extent of source/sink limitation, the impact of environment, and the extent of variation between cultivars. Six commercial African cassava cultivars were grown in the greenhouse in Erlangen, Germany and the field in Ibadan, Nigeria. Source leaves, sink leaves, stems and storage roots were harvested during storage root bulking and analyzed for sugars, organic acids, amino acids, phosphorylated intermediates, minerals, starch, protein, activities of enzymes in central metabolism and yield traits. High ratios of Rubisco:phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity support a C 3 mode of photosynthesis. The high rate of photosynthesis is likely attributed to high activities of enzymes in the Calvin-Benson cycle and pathways for sucrose and starch synthesis.Nevertheless, source limitation is indicated because root yield traits correlated with metabolic traits in leaves rather than in the stem or storage roots. This was especially so in greenhousegrown plants, where irradiance will have been low. In the field, plants produced more storage roots. This was associated with higher AGPase activity and lower sucrose in the roots, indicating that feedforward loops enhance sink capacity in the high light and low nitrogen environment in the field. Overall, the results indicate that carbon assimilation rate, the K battery, root starch synthesis, trehalose, and chlorogenic acid accumulation are potential target traits for genetic improvement.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a perennial woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae family and a staple food for over a billion people in Africa, Latin America and Asia (Chetty et al., 2013;De Souza et al., 2017). In Africa, cassava is the second most important calorific source with its tuberous roots often providing over a quarter of the daily calorie consumption (De Souza et al., 2017), and even more for the rural poor (FAO, 2016). In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa cassava leaves also provide an important source of protein, vitamins and micronutrients for humans and livestock . Worldwide cassava harvest expanded by 60% between 2000 and 2013 due to increased average yields per hectare (Howeler et al., 2013). The latest FAO statistics reveal that cassava has overtaken soybean and potato in terms of calorific yield (FAO, 2016).Despite extensive research on disease susceptibility and post-harvest deterioration, relatively little is currently known about metabolism and source-sink interactions in this important crop.Indeed fundamental questions such as the mode of photosynthesis, how sucrose is unloaded in storage tubers and how the use of nutrients in growth is balanced with the requirement for antipathogenic cyanoglucosides whilst growing on impoverished soils remain unanswered or, in the case of the first question, were only recently answered (Arrivault et al., 2019). Earlier publications varyingly claimed that cassava is either a C 3 (Calatayud et al., 2002), a C 4 or a C 3 -C 4 intermediate plant (Cock et al., 1987;El-Sharkawy and Cock, 1987), with the latter claims seemingly largely made due to the high levels of foliar malate and elevated activities of the C 4 enzyme PEP carboxylase (El-Sharkawy, 2004). However, cassava does not display Kranz anatomy (El-Sharkawy, 2004) and archeological isotope dating on conserved stomach contents give consistent ages for cassava to those for plants that are well established to employ the C 3 mode of photosynthesis. To directly address this question, 13 CO 2 feeding experiments were performed on cassava and the metabolic fate of the 13 C followed by mass-spectrometry and shown to be very similar to the C 3 plant Arabidopsis (Szecowka et al., 2013) and different to the C 4 plant maize (Arrivault et al., 2017).Crop yield can be limited by the ability to carry out photosynthesis and incorporate carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and other metabolites, or by the ability to utilize these resources for growth of storage organs. These are often termed \"source\" and \"sink\" limitation, respectively. The contribution of source-and sink-limitation to yield has been mainly researched in temperate crops. There is considerable evidence that source and sink can co-limit yield to a varying extent, and that their contribution varies with developmental stage and environmental conditions, including the availability of light, water, and nutrients (Sonnewald and Fernie, 2018), as well asThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved the plant architecture including the leaf area ratio (White et al., 2016). In cassava, our poor current understanding of basic fundamental aspects of metabolism and development makes it difficult to assess the extent to which yield is source-and sink-limited. It is also possible that the impact of developmental stage and environment may be more complex than in temperate crops.For example, under conditions of extreme drought cassava shed their leaves and later, when water becomes available again, remobilize reserves from the storage roots to make new leaves (El-Sharkawy, 2004).Cassava is known to be reasonably productive even on unfertilized poor soils (El-Sharkawy, 2012). This renders cassava a suitable staple crop for resource-limited small-holders to cultivate for successive seasons on low fertility soil. Productivity on low nitrogen soil is partly attributed to high photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (El-Sharkawy and De Tafur, 2010). A positive correlation is observed between photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency and root yield in different cassava genotypes (El-Sharkawy and De Tafur, 2010). However, the metabolic characteristics that enable cassava to grow under such conditions remain unclear. Also, although cassava is tolerant to low fertility soil, fertilization significantly improves root yield (Fermont et al., 2009 ) indicating that nitrogen availability can be a limiting factor for cassava root production. Indeed, cassava can consume a vast amount of soil N with some 180 kg N ha -1 being required to produce 30 t ha -1 tuberous roots (Byju and Anand, 2009). High nitrogen fertilization is unaffordable to many small-holders and therefore is rarely applied in African fields. This may be a major reason for the low per hectare yields in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to the high yields in South Asia where cassava is fertilized (FAO, 2018). On the other hand, over-fertilization causes phenological changes that enhance shoot growth at the cost of root production (Pellet and El-Sharkawy, 1993).Better understanding of nitrogen metabolism in cassava is crucial to enhance root production, irrespective of whether this is done by improving agronomical practice, cultivar selection, or breeding.Cassava is characterized by a high content of cyanogenic glucosides. Linamarin is the major cyanogenic glucoside in cassava, with significant amounts accumulating in all organs including leaves, stems, and roots (Picmanova et al., 2015). Cyanogenic glucosides are considered to function in herbivore deterrence as these compounds release highly toxic cyanide when they are mixed with β-glucosidases at the event of herbivore attack (Gleadow and Moller, 2014). For this reason, linamarin must be removed before dietary use by humans or as feed. Linamarin is also hypothesized to serve as carbon and nitrogen sink since it is a conjugate of glucose and cyanide moieties. However, although a possible recycling pathway for linamarin has been indicated from metabolite profiling, evidence is lacking to support its functionality in vivo (Picmanova et al., 2015). As well as linamarin metabolism, biofortification of vitamin content in cassava (Sayre et al., 2011;Li et al., 2015;Fudge et al., 2017), and more recently studies on its starch structure (Bull et al., 2018) have begun to appear. However, there is still no comprehensive picture of primary metabolism in cassava.In order to identify which metabolic characteristics are related to yield traits in cassava, we grew six African cassava cultivars namely TMEB419, TMEB693, IITA-TMS-IBA980002, IITA-TMS-IBA980581, IITA-TMS-IBA30572 and IITA-TMS-IBA011412 under controlled well-fertilized greenhouse conditions in Erlangen, Germany and in the field at IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria. We harvested source leaves, sink leaves, upper stems and storage roots for metabolite and enzyme activity profiling, and determined yield-associated traits and performed pairwise correlation analyses between each metabolic trait and the yield-associated traits. We paid attention to differences between field and greenhouse conditions, as well as to inter-cultivar differences in specific metabolic traits. We also compared the metabolite levels and enzyme activities in cassava to those previously documented in other crops These analyses are discussed within the context of the metabolic traits that underlie the high photosynthesis rates in cassava, the contribution of source-and sink to root yield in different growth conditions, the response to nitrogen supply, the balance between central metabolism and aspects of specialized metabolism, and possibilities for improving root yield under limited input agriculture.To investigate inter-cultivar differences in yield, storage root weight, shoot weight, plant total weight and the harvest index (root weight divided by total plant weight) were determined in six cassava genotypes after storage root bulking (12 and 16 weeks after planting, WAP, in greenhouse and field trials, respectively). The greenhouse regime was characterized by higher N supply, and lower irradiance. These parameters were determined also after one year (52 WAP) in the field trial to assess final yield at agricultural harvest.Root weight and harvest index were lower in the greenhouse than in the field (Figure 1, note scale differs between panels). There were also marked differences between the six cultivars.Generally, in a given condition, cultivars showed similar shoot weights but rather different root weights. For example, root weight was high in IITA-TMS-IBA980002 under greenhouseconditions, and in TMEB419 in the field at the bulking stage. These variations in the root weight were reflected in the harvest index. Interestingly, IITA-TMS-IBA980002 showed the highest harvest index in the greenhouse but a low harvest index in the field at the bulking stage (Figure 1). As such, root weight at the early stage of storage root development varied among cultivars and environments. Five of the cultivars did not display dramatic differences in root weight in the field at agricultural harvest (TMEB419 was not included in this harvest).Tissue specific accumulation of metabolites are more prominent in the greenhouse-grown plants Chemical properties including abundance of starch, protein, sugars, sugar phosphates, nucleotides, amino acids, organic acids and minerals in the source leaf, sink leaf, storage roots and upper stem were determined 16 WAP in the field-grown plants and 12 WAP in greenhousegrown plants. In total, 100 chemical properties were determined by multiple analytical approaches (Data S1).Principal component analysis (PCA) showed clear separation of the samples from each tissue in both the field and the greenhouse (Figure 2a & c). The storage root was characterized by high starch content in both conditions (Figure S1). Ornithine and arginine contributed to the separation of roots from other tissues in the greenhouse samples (Figure 2b) but made only minor contributions in field material (Figure 2d). Glutamine and putrescine characterized the stem in the greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 2b). Putrescine made little contribution (Figure 2d) and glucose, fructose, and nitrate made more prominent contributions (Figure 2b & d, Figure S1) to separation of the stem samples in field-grown material.The relative levels of metabolites normalized by the median of the contents of each metabolite are shown as a heatmap (Figure 3). Tissue-specific accumulation can be seen for metabolites belonging to the bottom cluster, which contains putrescine, glutamine, ornithine, arginine, asparagine, serine, proline, nitrate, and trehalose. However, tissue specific accumulation of these metabolites was less evident in field-than greenhouse-grown material (Figure 3). This cluster included some major amino acids and their derivatives (which accumulated to above 1 mg g -1 in at least one of the tissues). Tissue contents of selected metabolites are shown in the Figure 4 (the results for all metabolites are provided in the Data S2). As already mentioned, metabolites were often highly accumulated in one or two tissues in the greenhouse-grown plants while tissue specificity was less evident in field-grown plants. Glutamine and putrescine reached 641 mg g -1 and 5 mg g -1 in the stem ofgreenhouse-grown plants, respectively. Alanine also displayed stem-specific accumulation but in this case the effect of growth environment was less evident. Arginine and ornithine accumulated in sink leaves and roots of greenhouse-grown plants. Asparagine, glutamic acid and serine accumulated in sink leaves of greenhouse-grown plants. Aspartic acid also accumulated in the sink leaves of the greenhouse-grown plants while it accumulated in roots in the field-grown plants (Figure 4). The generally high levels of major amino acids in the greenhouse plants may reflect the higher N supply. Contrary, the minor amino acids in the bottom cluster in the Figure 3 showed no clear changes in tissue distribution between greenhouse and field trials and were unevenly accumulated among tissues (Figure S2). A few amino acids showed tissue-specific accumulation only in field-grown plants, including tryptophan, glycine and leucine that were highly accumulated in leaves of the field samples (Figure S3).High contents of linamarin were detected in all tissues although accumulation was less marked in root material (Figure 4). The linamarin content was similar in greenhouse-and field-grown plants except that the sink leaf content was slightly higher in greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 4).Source leaf-and stem-specific accumulation of trehalose was found in greenhouse-but not in field-grown plants (Figure 4). Some organic acids and sugar monophosphates (Figure S4) occurred at higher levels in source leaves of greenhouse-grown than field-grown plants, whereas their levels in other tissues were similar under both growth environments. Roots accumulated much more starch than other tissues in both environments (Figure 4). Close inspection reveals that source and sink leaves accumulated more starch in field than in greenhouse conditions. Sucrose contents in leaves and stem were comparable between greenhouse-and field-grown plants (Figure 4). However, whereas sucrose in storage roots was very low in field-grown plants, it was almost 3-times higher in the greenhouse plants (Figure 4). This may point to a restriction on sucrose use in the roots in the greenhouse plants. Most minerals accumulated in a similar manner in greenhouse-and field-grown plants (Data S2). However, stem specific accumulation of nitrate was much more prominent in greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 4).In order to identify metabolic traits that are potentially related to cassava yield, correlations between metabolite contents in each tissue and yield parameters were tested by Pearson correlation analysis. For the greenhouse trial, metabolites and yield traits were compared at bulking (12 WAP). For the field trial, metabolites at bulking (16 WAP) were compared with yield traits at bulking (16 WAP) and agricultural harvest (52 WAP). The results of all correlation testsare shown in Data S3, and genotypic variation of metabolite levels in each tissue is shown for all metabolites in Data S4.Under greenhouse conditions, eight metabolites in source leaves displayed significant correlations with yield traits (Figure 5a). Under field conditions, two metabolites in source leaves and two metabolites in sink leaves displayed significant correlations with yield traits (Figure 5b).In both conditions, we did not detect any significant correlations between metabolites in stem or storage roots and root yield traits. Sucrose and sugars showed minor variation among cultivars in both greenhouse and field environments (Figure S5).In greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 5a) glutamic acid and Mg showed negative and positive correlations, respectively, with both harvest index and root weight, threonine and AMP showed negative correlations with harvest index, and leaf K correlated negatively with root yield. Genotypic variation of metabolite and ion contents in source leaves of greenhouse-grown plants is shown in the Figure 6a. Source leaves of TMEB693, which showed poor root yield in the greenhouse (Figure 1) had high levels of glutamate acid, threonine, AMP and K, all of which showed negative correlations with yield parameters (Figure 5a) and low levels of Mg, which showed a positive correlation with yield. Source leaves of IITA-TMS-IBA980002 which showed the highest yield performance (Figure 1), tended to accumulate less glutamate, AMP and K than other cultivars and the highest amount of Mg (Figure 6a).In field-grown plants (Figure 5b), AMP in sink leaves showed a positive correlation with shoot weight at 52 WAP, 3-trans-cafferoylquinic acid (chlorogenic acid) in source leaves showed a positive correlation with harvest index at 16 WAP, and trehalose in both the sink and source leaves showed a positive correlation with harvest index at 16 WAP (Figure 5b). These positive correlations depend on the TMEB419 cultivar, which accumulated much higher levels of trehalose and chlorogenic acid in leaves (Figure 6b) and had a high yield (Figure 1b) in the field.We profiled the activity of a panel of enzymes involved in photosynthesis, starch and sucrose synthesis, nitrogen metabolism, glycolysis and respiratory metabolism using assays previously established for Arabidopsis (Gibon et al., 2004;Sulpice et al., 2007), tomato fruit (Steinhauser et al., 2010)and maize leaves (Wang et al., 2014;Table  S2). For each enzyme and tissue, assays were optimized by modifying pH, ion and substrate levels to achieve maximal activity, and validated by checking for linearity of activity with extract amount (Table S3, S4). In all analysisbatches, we included standard greenhouse-grown Arabidopsis rosette material as a control.Enzyme activities were analyzed in the greenhouse trial in Erlangen and two field trials at IITA in 2015 and 2016, with the latter being a dry year (data provided in Data S5). Whereas enzyme activities could be harvested in fresh material from the greenhouse, transport of field-grown material required lyophilization. This led to loss of activity for some enzymes, which were therefore excluded from the data set for field-grown material.We first compared enzyme activities between genotypes. Variation was larger between trials than between genotypes, as illustrated by selected enzymes in the mature leaf (Fig S6A) and storage root (Figure S6b) of the six genotypes that were jointly investigated in the greenhouse and one of the field trials. In a PCA, samples grouped according to trial, rather than genotype (Figure S6c).We therefore focused on features that were shared between genotypes. One striking result was that the activities of enzymes related to photosynthesis and starch and sucrose synthesis were very high in cassava source leaves. Figure 7 shows enzyme activities for greenhouse-grown plants. Enzymes that were especially high in cassava relative to Arabidopsis included photosynthesis enzymes (FBPase, Rubisco, TK, TPI), enzymes of sucrose and starch synthesis (AGPase, SPS, UGPase) and PEP carboxylase. Those enzymes that could be measured in lyophilized material had even higher activity in field-grown than greenhouse material (Figure S6a). The high activities of photosynthesis-related enzymes in cassava leaves may partly reflect their high protein and chlorophyll content (Data S5; Arrivault et al., 2019). On the other hand, many enzymes that are involved exclusively in respiratory metabolism (G6PDH, pyruvate kinase, fructokinase, glucokinase, isocitrate DH) and N metabolism (AspAT, AlaAT) were similar or lower in cassava than Arabidopsis.The relatively high PEP carboxylase activity in cassava leaves prompted us to directly compare Rubisco and PEP carboxylase activities in cassava, the C 3 species Arabidopsis and the C 4 species maize, all measured on the same analytic platform (Table S5). The high PEP carboxylase activity in cassava largely paralleled the high Rubisco activity. The ratio of PEP carboxylase activity:Rubisco activity was low in cassava and Arabidopsis (0.31 and 0.17, respectively) and 15-40 times higher in maize (3.3 to 8.1).AGPase activity in roots was consistently about 2-fold higher in field-than greenhouse-grown material (Table S6, Figure S6b). This contrasts with the glycolytic enzymes PFK and PK, which showed similar activities in field and greenhouse material. This high AGPase activity may partly explain the higher starch and lower sucrose contents in roots from field-compared to greenhouse-grown plants (see above). AGPase, PFK, and PK activities were all higher in the Accepted Article stems of field-than greenhouse-grown plants (Table S6), possibly reflecting an increased importance of the latter as a transient store and metabolic compartment in the field.High activities of enzymes involved in photosynthesis and sucrose and starch synthesis in cassava leaves support high photosynthesis rates According to FAO statistics, cassava is currently the fourth most important crop on Earth in terms of calorific yield (FAO 2016). However, fundamental metabolic features pertinent to yield remain under-researched. One striking feature of cassava metabolism uncovered in this study is the very high activities of enzymes involved in photosynthesis, sucrose synthesis and starch synthesis in source leaves (Figure 7). The Calvin-Benson cycle enzymes investigated in this study included Rubisco, FBPase and TK; Rubisco and FBPase often exert considerable and small amount of control on the rate of photosynthesis, respectively, and TK is only in small excess (Henkes et al., 2001;Tamoi et al., 2006;Stitt et al., 2010;De Souza et al., 2019). These high enzyme activities may contribute to the high rates of photosynthesis in cassava (Angelov et al., 1993) and to the high sucrose levels in its source leaves, compared to other crops. The relatively high activity of PEP carboxylase may contribute to increased synthesis of organic acids and amino acids.All of the metabolic traits that showed significant correlation with yield traits were for leaves, and most were for source leaves (Figure 5). Metabolite contents in storage roots did not show any significant correlations with yield traits in the greenhouse or field trial. This is most likely due to the increase of storage root mass keeping the root metabolite content constant on a dry weight basis. It is rather reasonable for plants to extend the storage capacity by increasing storage root mass rather than accumulating metabolites in the roots. The preponderance of source leaf metabolic traits in the correlation matrix between metabolic and yield traits indicates close relationship between source metabolism and root yield in cassava, especially in greenhouse plants. However, we did not find any obvious relationship of yield traits with sugar or starch contents in the source leaf.The yield traits in greenhouse plants positively correlated with Mg and negatively with glutamate, threonine and AMP, while those in field-grown plants positively with trehalose, 3-trans-Accepted Article caffeoylquinic acid (chlorogenic acid) and AMP (Figure 5). Some of these relationships point to a relation between energy status and yield. Mg has been reported to have a positive impact on the yield in many crops. It has various functions related to photosynthesis including being required for chlorophyll and Rubisco activity, chloroplast ultrastructure and phloem loading and photoassimilate transport (Trankner et al., 2018). AMP may activate SnRK1, which plays a central role in the regulation of metabolism in response to energy and stress (Crozet et al., 2014).Trehalose provides protection against abiotic stress. It is also associated with the trehalose-6phosphate (T6P) signaling pathway, which regulates carbon and nitrogen metabolism, as well as developmental transitions (Lunn et al., 2014;Figueroa and Lunn, 2016), and acts at least in part by inhibiting SnRK1 (Zhang et al., 2009;Debast et al., 2011;Zhai et al., 2018). However, the signaling function of trehalose metabolism in cassava has not been investigated and sucrose levels showed no correlation with yield parameters.Source leaf K correlated negatively with root and total weight in greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 5). This is unexpected because K usually has positive effects on photosynthesis, phloem transport and crop yield (Trankner et al., 2018) and K deficiency impacts on organic acid and nitrogen metabolism (Armengaud et al., 2009). Although cassava absorbs large amounts of K from the soil, K often becomes the most deficient nutrient and can restrict root production (El-Sharkawy, 2012). The negative correlation between K and yield traits might reflect an interaction between K and sucrose transport from source leaves to storage roots. K is a major solute in sieve cells (Mengel and Haeder, 1977;Prajapati, 2012) and sucrose loading depends on a concomitant import of K (Giaquinta, 1980). The negative correlation between source leaf K and root weight might indicate that transport of sucrose to sink tissues is supported by rapid K + loading into the phloem, which reduces source leaf K levels. A major function of K import into the phloem is to reload the \"potassium battery\" (Gajdanowicz et al., 2011). The phloem is prone to hypoxia, leading to decreased energy charge (van Dongen et al., 2003) and this is especially likely in plants with a thick stem, like cassava. A low energy charge and accompanying membrane depolarization usually leads to substrate leakage (Minchin and Thorpe, 1987), which high concentrations of K in the phloem serve to counteract.The contribution of source-and sink-limitation depends on conditions and development (Sonnewald and Fernie, 2018). The growth conditions in the field and the greenhouse environments of our study differed, with lower light intensity and temperature but higher nitrogenThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved availability in the greenhouse than in the field. This is likely to lead to stronger source limitation in the greenhouse-compared to the field-grown plants. The preponderance of correlations between source leaf metabolite levels and root yield parameters in the greenhouse condition (Figure 5) is consistent with the idea that source metabolism limits the root yield. This conclusion is in agreement with the observation that cassava tuber yield is increased under elevated atmospheric CO 2 (Rosenthal et al., 2012).De Souza & Long (2019) suggested that cassava can become sink-limited in conditions that allow high rates of photosynthesis. In our study, field-grown plants had a much higher root yield than greenhouse plants. This was accompanied by a 2-to 3-fold increase in AGPase activity (Figure S6b) and a 3-fold decrease in sucrose levels (Figure 4) in the root. AGPase typically exerts control over starch synthesis, especially in sink organs (Geigenberger et al., 2004;Smidansky et al., 2007;Zeeman et al., 2010). Our results indicate that under greenhouse conditions the conversion of sucrose to starch in the roots may be restricted by low AGPase activity, and that this restriction is at least partially relieved in field-grown plants. As already mentioned, the rate of photosynthesis and the supply of sucrose to the roots is likely to be higher in the field grown plants than in greenhouse plants. The increase in AGPase activity may be important to support the higher flux to starch in roots. Further, by reducing root sucrose levels it may promote movement of sucrose to the root. It is possible that the increase in AGPase activity is accompanied by coordinated increase in the activity of other enzymes or transporters involved in sucrose breakdown but, notably, it was not accompanied by an increase in activity of the key respiratory enzymes PFK and PK. Further experiments are needed to identify the molecular mechanisms that lead to the increase in AGPase activity in the field, but they are likely to include positive effects of carbon-signaling and possibly negative effects of nitrogen signaling (Scheible et al., 1997;Nielsen et al., 1998;Stitt et al., 2002) on AGPase expression (see also below for a wider discussion of the impact of nitrogen signaling on storage roots). Although not addressed in our study, sugars also promote post-translational activation of AGPase (Tiessen et al., 2002;Geigenberger et al., 2004). Taken together, our results point to a shift towards sink-limitation in the field, albeit alleviated by feedforward regulation of AGPase and possibly further steps in the conversion of sucrose to starch. Further evidence for a key role of AGPase in starch accumulation in cassava roots is provided by a study in which the bacterial glgC gene (a deregulated version of the starch biosynthesis enzyme AGPase) was overexpressed in cassava storage roots (Ihemere et al., 2006). Compared to control plants this resulted in a 2.6-fold higher storage root biomass and significant increases in above-ground biomass consistent with a possible reduction in feedback inhibition of photosynthetic carbon fixation. This earlier findingThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved highlights the importance of the difference in AGPase activity that we observed between greenhouse and field conditions.Taken together, cassava root yield is likely co-limited by source and sink, as has previously been documented for potato tuber yield (Sweetlove et al., 1998;Jonik et al., 2012;Sweetlove et al., 2017). In our greenhouse plants, the supply of carbon is likely to be low, AGPase activity is low, and root yield is low. In field grown plants the supply carbon is likely to be higher, AGPase activity is increased and root yield is higher. This close interaction between source and sink capacities implies that optimal yield improvement of African cassava will likely require intervention in both source and sink function. At first sight, this conclusion is unexpected, as cassava has very high rates of photosynthesis for a C 3 species (see above). However, photosynthesis rates including cumulative photosynthesis over a season are not always high, and photosynthetic efficiency is only ~14% of the theoretical maximum for a C 3 plant (De Souza et al., 2017). Further, conversion of photosynthate into tuber biomass is rather inefficient due to simultaneous growth of the shoot, stem and tubers (De Souza et al., 2017).Many major metabolic characteristics of the various tissues in cassava were similar between the two growth conditions despite vast differences in the parameters including light and temperature regimes (Figure 3, 4, and S1-S5). In both greenhouse-and field-grown plants, the storage root was characterized by high starch and low protein, whilst the stem was characterized by high levels of glucose, fructose and glutamine and high linamarin (Figure 2 and 4). A different picture appears for nitrogen-containing primary metabolites, with most of these being considerably higher in greenhouse-than field-grown plants (Figure 4). This is almost certainly due to the paucity of soil nitrogen in Ibadan with total nitrogen representing 0.07 % of soil mass in Ibadan, compared to 0.12 % in the soil used in the greenhouse (Table S7). Differing nitrogen supply may also explain the lack of consistency between yield data in the greenhouse and field (Figure 1). As mentioned in the Introduction, over-fertilization of cassava can enhance shoot growth at the cost of root production (Pellet and El-Sharkawy, 1993). This may explain why all the cultivars we tested, except for IITA-TMS-IBA980002 which showed lower harvest index in the greenhouse than in the field. The inconsistent root yield in the two growth environments may reflect cultivar specific sensitivities of growth to nitrogen availability. For example, our results suggest that IITA-TMS-IBA980002 may be tolerant to excess nitrogen. These will in turn affect the carbon source-sink interactions (Burnett et al., 2016). It is also possible that further factors like light and temperature,This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved a less stable environment and biotic interactions contribute to the different responses in the greenhouse and field.Our study provides new insights into nitrogen metabolism in cassava. First, total protein content in cassava, surprisingly, showed only minor differences between the greenhouse and the nutrient impoverished field (Figure S1), despite quantitative differences in the levels of many abundant amino acids (Figure 4). Photosynthesis enzymes represent a large part of total leaf nitrogen. As already mentioned, their activities were even higher in field-than greenhouse-grown material, pointing to the ability of cassava to maintain photosynthesis capacity in low nitrogen conditions.Second, increased tuber yield in the field compared to the greenhouse was associated with lower amino acid levels in many organs (Figure 4 and S2). This might reflect a restriction of tuber initiation or growth by high nitrogen (Pellet and El-Sharkawy, 1993). This is also indicated by the negative correlation between yield traits and source leaf glutamate and threonine contents, which was observed specifically in the greenhouse-grown plants (Figure 5). Third, in the fertilized greenhouse-grown plants; a subset of N-containing metabolites accumulated to very high levels, including glutamine, putrescine and nitrate in the stem, and ornithine and arginine in roots and sink leaves (Figure 4). Asparagine, serine and glutamate showed similar trends in sink leaves in greenhouse-and field-grown plants (Figure 4). These amino acids likely serve for nitrogen storage and transport (Nordin and Nasholm, 1997;Couturier et al., 2010). It is also noteworthy that the cyanogen linamarin, which contains nitrogen and is highly abundant in aerial tissues, showed higher accumulation in greenhouse-than field-material (Figure 4) suggesting that linamarin likely serve as an N storage compound. Linamarin is considered a nitrogen storage molecule (Siritunga and Sayre, 2004) since it accumulates in the shoot apex when cassava is fertilized with nitrate (Jorgensen et al., 2005) and the nitrogen in the cyanide moiety is incorporated into amino acids in cassava seedlings (Nartey, 1969). Although this cyanogenic glycoside accumulated to higher levels in the nitrogen-rich greenhouse condition than in the field, the increase in amount is less than that of glutamine (Figure 4). Considering the high atomic N/C ratio in the molecules, glutamine and putrescine most likely serve as the major nitrogen storage in cassava. These results indicate distinctive mechanisms to maintain nitrogen homeostasis in cassava, which enables this plant to maintain the protein concentration in leaves regardless of nitrogen availability and further its productivity on low nitrogen soil.Comparative analysis of the absolute levels of metabolites across source and sink tissues with those of other better characterized crops such as potato (Roessner et al., 2000;Fernie et al., 2002;Evers et al., 2010), and tomato (Roessner-Tunali, 2003;Schauer et al., 2005;Leyva et al., 2014;Benard et al., 2015) reveals similar trends and similar ranges of absolute levels of mostThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved nitrogen-rich metabolites across all these species (Data S1). However, asparagine and glutamine were considerably higher in cassava than tomato leaves whilst tryptophan, lysine and histidine were considerably lower (Data S1). Furthermore, tryptophan, lysine and histidine, were considerably lower in cassava roots than potato tubers or tomato fruits (Data S1). Interestingly, the amino acids that are higher in cassava contain more than one nitrogen atom. This comparison highlights its distinctive nitrogen metabolism and could contribute to the ability of cassava to maintain productivity on depleted soils. Our results also indicate that the stem metabolite profile is probably a good indicator of cassava nitrogen status, with putrescine accumulation in the stem potentially being a good marker of nitrogen soil nutrition since it was undetectable in field-grown and high in greenhouse material.We detected a few secondary metabolites with 3-trans-caffeoylquinic acid (chlorogenic acid), accumulating to much higher levels in TMEB419 than the other cultivars (Figures 5 and 6). This cultivar also showed the highest root weight and harvest index in the field (Figure 1). Chlorogenic acid functions as an antioxidant as well as an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agent. It is likely that the capability of TMEB419 to accumulate chlorogenic acid in photosynthetic tissues renders it more resistant to pathogen attack, leading to the higher yield in the field. The low chlorogenic acid in the greenhouse may be because it is induced by pathogens that were absent in the greenhouse, or because chlorogenic acid is induced by to UV-B (Tohge and Fernie, 2017). The ability to accumulate chlorogenic acid appears to be cultivar specific, making it a promising candidate marker to screen high yield cultivars and a potential breeding target to introduce environmental resilience to susceptible cultivars in the actual agricultural environment in Africa along with trehalose which showed similar correlation and cultivar specificity (Figures 5 and 6).In summary, profiling of metabolite levels and enzyme activities has provided new insights into metabolism in cassava. First, in addition to providing further support for the recent conclusion that cassava employs a C 3 mode of photosynthesis, our results reveal that the high rate of photosynthesis in cassava is likely due to high activities of photosynthetic enzymes. Second, storage root formation in cassava is likely co-limited by both sink and source capacity, with the interaction to the growth conditions. Third, yield is remarkably robust against low nitrogen in the field, despite a decrease in the levels of nitrogen metabolites. This may be due to change in nitrogen metabolism compared to temperate crops. Glutamine and putrescine accumulated in the stem under the nitrogen rich environment most probably serving as forms of nitrogen storage, which may partially support the high nitrogen use efficiency of cassava plants. More generally,This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved our dataset represents a valuable knowledge base for the analysis of cassava metabolism, for example, absolute quantification of metabolite contents in each tissue provides information about their relative contribution in nitrogen and carbon metabolism. Our study also highlights photosynthetic carbon assimilation rate (source capacity) under photosynthetically unfavorable condition, the K battery, the regulation of root AGPase activity (sink capacity), and accumulation of chlorogenic acid as specific target traits for future improvement of this important crop species.Six African commercial and farmer preferred cassava cultivars, TMEB419, TMEB693, IITA-TMS-IBA980002, IITA-TMS-IBA980581, IITA-TMS-IBA30572 and IITA-TMS-IBA011412, were grown in a greenhouse in Erlangen, Germany (August, 2015-October, 2015) and in one experimental field in Ibadan, Nigeria (May, 2015-August 2016). The genotypes were chosen to cover diversity in yield, flowering time, resistance to cassava mosaic virus (CMV) and other specific features.The information was extracted from historical data at IITA hosted by cassavabase.org. The characteristics of each genotype are described in Table S1. In the greenhouse experiment, plants from tissue culture were carefully transferred to substrate (Einheits Erde Classic Profi, Einheits Erde, Sinntal-Altengronau, Germany) in a 3.5-liter pot and grown in a 20 m 2 chamber from August TMS-IBA980002 and IITA-TMS-IBA011412, were replaced with IITA-TMS-IBA980505 and IITA-TMS-EB7. A summary of experimental details, conditions and analysis performed are presented in Table S8.Plants were harvested for yield-associated traits at 12 WAP for greenhouse and at 16 and 52 WAP for field-grown plants. Each plant was carefully manually uprooted. Different plant parts were separated into storage roots, lignified stems, and young stem together with leaves. Different part weights were measured. For the greenhouse experiment, individual plants are treated as replicates. For the field sampling at 16 and 52 weeks after planting (WAP), two individual plants per plot or pool of all plants (18 to 24 plants) from each plot were treated as replicates, respectively. The results are expressed in t/ha (10,000 plants per hectare, planted in a 1m x 1m grid).For detailed metabolic analysis, source leaves, sink leaves, upper stems, and storage roots were sampled at 12 and 16 WAP in the greenhouse and field trials, respectively. The materials were sampled from the plants used for the determination of agronomic traits. Sampling took place between late morning and early afternoon to minimize diurnal deviation in metabolite levels.Roots were carefully washed before sampling. Samples from each tissue were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after sampling and freeze dried prior to shipments. The samples were well ground to a fine powder to be well-mixed by motor and pestle and the aliquots were distributed to institutions for specific analyses.Measurements of organic acids and phosphorylated intermediates were performed on 25 mg of freeze-dried cassava tissue according to (Horst et al., 2010a;Horst et al., 2010b). The recovery rate for each metabolite and tissue was determined prior to analysis by adding known quantities of authentic standards at the start of the metabolite determination process i.e. the extraction of the metabolites (Figure S7).For the isolation of anions, 0.5 ml of water was added to 5 mg of freeze-dried and fine milled (Retsch) cassava tissue material, mixed thoroughly and heated for 15 min at 95 °C. After centrifugation (10 min, 16000 g), the supernatant was used for quantification via ionThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved chromatography by a 761-IC compact device (Metrohm). The column system consisting of Metrosep A Supp 4/5 Guard 4.0 and Metrosep A Supp 4-250/4.0 (Metrohm), followed by conductometry at a flow rate of 1ml/min and pressure of 7.5 MPa, using 1.8 mM sodium carbonate and 1.7 mM sodium hydrogencarbonate as the mobile phase and 50 mM sulfuric acid as counter-ion.The quantification of elements was performed as described earlier in (Klaumann et al., 2011), with 20-30 mg of freeze-dried cassava tissue material. In brief, samples were in a mixture consisting of 5 ml HNO 3 (65 %, v/v), 2 ml H 2 O 2 (30 %, v/v) and 3 ml double-distilled water in a MLS-Ethos microwave oven using a temperature step gradient with a maximum temperature of 210°C. Digests were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) on an iCAP 6300 DUO.Total protein contents were quantified in freeze-dried cassava tissue material via the assay described in (Bradford, 1976) adapted for microplates.Metabolite extraction for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was carried out as previously described by (Lisec et al., 2006) using 10 mg of ground freeze-dried cassava tissue. Ribitol (0.2 mg/ml in H 2 O) was used as internal standard during extraction. A dry aliquot of the polar phase was resuspended in methoxyaminhydrochlorid (20 mg/mL in pyridine) and derivatized using N-methyl-N-[trimethylsilyl] trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) containing 20 μL/ml fatty acid methyl esters mixture (FAMEs) as retention time standards. A volume of 1 μl of derivatized metabolite solution was used for injection. Peaks were annotated to metabolites by comparing mass spectra and GC retention times to database entries and those of authentic standards available in a reference library from the Golm Metabolome Database (Kopka et al., 2005). The GC-MS system comprised a CTC CombiPAL autosampler, an Agilent 6890N gas chromatograph, and a LECO Pegasus III TOF-MS running in EI+ mode. Chromatograms and mass spectra were evaluated using Chroma TOF 1.0 (Leco) and TagFinder 4.0 software (Luedemann et al., 2008).Mixtures of authentic standards with 0, 200, 500, and 1000 ng of each compound were included in each batch of GC-MS analysis to calculate absolute amount of metabolites from the peak intensity of a representative fragment.The effects of freeze-drying in the detection of individual metabolites in each tissue was determined prior to analysis. 54 of 59 detected metabolites showed smaller than 20% differences of peak intensities between fresh and dry samples (Figure S8), suggesting the minor effects of freeze-drying on GC-MS quantification in general.In order to evaluate the matrix effect of cassava materials, a preliminary recombination experiment was conducted by mixing the metabolite extracts of cassava organs with standard compound mixtures containing 1.0 µg of each metabolite and analyzed by GC-MS with no significant matrix effect being observed in 41 of 52 detected metabolites (Figure S9).Soluble sugars, starch and free amino acids were extracted as described previously (Jung et al., 2015). Levels of starch and soluble sugars and starch were determined using a NADP-coupled enzymatic test (Jung et al., 2015) in 96-well plates and measured with a TECAN Infinite 200 Pro plate reader.For the determination of free amino acids, 20 µl from the ethanol extraction or 20 µl of a 1:10 diluted standard (Thermo Scientific Pierce Amino Acid Standard H) were mixed with 60 µl borate buffer (200 mM, pH 8.8) and 20 µl AQC solution (6-Aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate, Synchem UG & Co. KG, 2 mg/ml acetonitrile) vortexed immediately and heated at 55°C for 10 min. The derivatized AQC amino acids were quantified using a Dionex P680-HPLC system with an RF 2000 fluorescence detector (Dionex) and the column system consisting of CC8/4 ND 100-5 C18ec and CC 250/4 ND 100-5 C18ec (Macherey-Nagel). For the separation of amino acids, a gradient consisting of 100 mM sodium acetate/7 mM Triethanolamine (pH 5.2, Buffer A) and acetonitrile/water (90 %, Buffer B) (0 to 100 %) was used. The AQC amino acids were detected by fluorescence with excitation wavelength at 254 nm and emission at 395 nm.Matrix effects on the measurement were minor for these metabolites (Figure S10).Enzyme activitieswere assayed as described in (Gibon et al., 2004) and modified as in the Table S3. The optimization of the enzymes measured was carried out with cassava plant material (TMEB419) grown under greenhouse conditions. The recovery of enzyme activities in each tissue after lyophilisation was determined prior to analysis as presented in Table S4.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved All statistical analysis was carried out by R (version 3.4.3 or 3.5.0). PCA was performed for the greenhouse and field data separately. The contents of each metabolite were normalized by the mean of them from all samples. The normalized metabolite contents were averaged for each tissue from each genotype. The PCA was conducted by prcomp function with the default parameters without scaling and the score and loading plots were drawn by autoplot function in ggfortify package. The top 20 metabolites which contributed in the separation in PC1 and PC2 were identified based on squared coordinates values calculated by get_pca_var function in factoextra package. Heatmap with hierarchical clustering was drawn using both greenhouse and field data together. The contents of each metabolite were normalized by the median of them from all samples and the mean values for each tissue from each genotype in each growth environment were log 2 transformed. The heatmap was drawn by pheatmap function in pheatmap package without clustering the samples. Variation of the contents of each metabolite among tissues were analyzed using both greenhouse and field data together. The raw metabolite contents data was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with aov function using tissues in each growth environment as a factor. Tissues from individual plants were considered as replicates in both greenhouse (n=24) and field (n=36) experiments. Following Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD) test was performed by glht function in multcomp package and the results were presented as letters generated by cld function in multcomp package. Boxplots were drawn by ggplot function of ggplot2 package. Genotypic variation of agronomic and metabolic traits were analyzed for each tissue from greenhouse and field experiments separately by one-way ANOVA using cultivars as a factor. Pearson correlation analysis between metabolite contents and yield traits was performed by cor.test function and scatter plots were drawn by ggplot function.Metabolite contents and yield traits from a single plant were considered as a replicate for the greenhouse trial (n=24, 4 plants x 6 cultivars). For the correlation analysis between metabolite contents and yield parameters at 16 WAP in the field trial, a single plant was considered as a replicate (n=36, 6 plants x 6 cultivars). Means of metabolite contents from two plants in the same plot were analyzed against the yield parameters at 52 WAP derived from the same plot (n=18, 3 plots x 6 cultivars). The correlation p-value below 3.125 x 10 -5 was considered as significant based on Bonferroni correction to the multiple analysis (1600 multiple analyses).Table S7. Results of composition analysis for substrate used in the greenhouse, Germany and soil in experimental plots in the field in Nigeria.Table S8. Overview of experimental details, conditions and analysis. Abbreviation: Greenhouse, GH.          S6. Similarly high activities of enzymes from the CBC, starch and sucrose synthesis and PEPC were also seen in the other cultures and, for enzymes that could be measured, in the field-grown plants (Data S5, Figure S6). ","tokenCount":"7619"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c0860f7b2d5ebe29cf778f7bf3545508","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3c286057-c15a-44e7-b62e-b5f5b84f125d/retrieve","id":"-10542174"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e496845e-50af-499c-ad15-86dfc0385793","pagecount":"16","content":"Climate change represents a growing threat to smallholder coffee producers, in addition to the ongoing challenge of fluctuating coffee and food prices; 2. The impacts of climate change predicted to have the greatest effects on coffee farms in Central America are: 2-2.5°C higher temperatures, 5-10% lower rainfall, more extreme weather events, increased pest and disease prevalence, and 40% or more decreased suitability of production areas. Thus the goals of building resilience involve implementing practices that minimize these impacts; 3. Data on coffee production and resilience show that agroforestry and incorporation of shade trees deliver benefits for the greatest number of agronomic and livelihood resilience indicators; 4. For farmers and support agencies interested in implementing adaptation measures with greatest payoff (in terms of delivering on multiple indicators of resilience), incorporating /maintaining shade trees to achieve between 30-45% shade cover and maintaining ground cover of leaf litter are recommended.Arabica coffee production provides the principal source of monetary income for many smallholder households throughout the mountainous regions of Central America. Coffee agroecosystems serve several functions, which can include supporting livelihoods, and providing ecosystem services (e.g. carbon sequestration), and conserving biodiversity (De Beenhouwer et al., 2013;Valencia et al., 2014). For these reasons, coffee farming plays a key synergistic role in socioeconomic and ecological resilience. Despite these synergies, the livelihoods of Central American smallholder coffee farmers are in a precarious state due to their exposure and sensitivity to common stressors and shocks, including the seasonality of incomes, volatile commodity prices and natural disasters (Jha et al., 2014). This vulnerability makes it extremely difficult for growers to maintain (let alone build) their assets and capabilities, and to embark on pathways out of poverty.Today, coffee farmers face the added threat of climate change, including higher temperatures and alternating extreme weather events, such as erratic rainfall and drought. Marginalized people, including women, the poor, and the elderly, have unequal access to resources and often suffer the worst impacts of changing environmental conditions from climate change (Tompkins & Adger, 2004). This points to a need for immediate and sustained support for adaptation to climate change-specific threats and integrated resilience-building strategies. It also merits a focus on climate change adaptation rather than mitigation, in order to highlight farmer-centered challenges and solutions to climate vulnerability for smallholder coffee producers. We define adaptation as the actions taken to prepare a system for long-term change, and adaptive capacity is the ability of a system to cope with disturbance and adjust to change (Cutter et al., 2008) The literature lacks a concise, evidence-based evaluation of the ability of specific practices and interventions to build coffee agroecosystem resilience. To address this shortcoming, we undertook a comprehensive review seeking evidence on the potential of agroecological practices to support the resilience of smallholder coffee agroecosystems and livelihoods in the face of climate change.Agroecology is an approach that integrates ecological science with other scientific disciplines and knowledge systems, including local and traditional knowledge, to guide the sustainable transformation of our current agrifood system (Mendez et al., 2013). Some critics argue that most literature on the benefits of agroecology is either anecdotal or so contextspecific that broader application is difficult. Taking this into account, we specifically focused on studies that provided evidence on how agroecological practices build resilience and contribute to climate change adaptation for smallholder coffee production. The biophysical indicators of interest included soil water holding capacity, soil erodibility, farm microclimate, nutrient-use efficiency and yield. We also included evidence related to social and economic indicators (such as income stability, food security and empowerment) that could reflect the health and resilience of the household.While there is no single factor that increases resilience across all domains, we found that incorporation or maintenance of shade trees (i.e. coffee agroforestry), delivers benefits on the greatest number of agronomic and livelihood resilience indicators. With proper management, incorporating/maintaining shade trees can be an effective, low-cost way for smallholder coffee farmers to build farm resilience to climate threats, while simultaneously supporting food security and providing income. Although the management of shade trees with coffee is a classic recommendation, our analysis reinforces this by uniquely demonstrating shade's effect on climate change resilience indicators.By bringing together and highlighting existing research and gaps in the literature, we seek to inspire future scholarship, inform policy and help direct development interventions. Although this paper primarily focuses on Central American coffee production, many of the examples and lessons are broadly applicable to smallholder coffee producers worldwide. We hope this research brief will benefit multiple stakeholders including coffee cooperatives, development practitioners, industry agents, researchers and policy-makers.Over the past two decades, coffee farmers, the specialty coffee industry, and international development agencies have collaborated to address coffee market price fluctuations, which lead to periodic price crises. These actors responded to the 1999-2002 coffee price crisis with multiple responses, such as promoting price floors and premiums (including certified Fair Trade and organic channels, as well as direct trade relationships); social programs including cooperatives and capacity building; and crop and livelihood diversification efforts. More recently, conversations and resources have shifted toward building coffee farm and livelihood resilience, particularly in response to predicted climate change impacts and in the context of severe crop losses due to an outbreak of coffee leaf rust disease ('la Roya'), beginning in 2012.Climate change threatens coffee production in Mesoamerica through increased temperatures, greater seasonal extremes (drier dry seasons, warmer and wetter rainy seasons), lower and more erratic rainfall, more extreme and damaging weather events, and increased incidence of pest and disease outbreaks. In many cases, this amounts to a decrease in suitability of production areas. It is estimated that 40% or more of current coffee areas in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador will be affected if no adaptation measures are implemented (Läderach et al., 2010). Other climate scenarios show a loss of 56% of the area currently suitable for Arabica coffee production by 2050, with a gain of Climate-related threats to coffee production:  2015). Arabica coffee is especially sensitive to agroclimatic conditions related to temperature and moisture (Magrach & Ghazoul, 2015). Once temperature thresholds are reached, crop cycles are affected and critical phases are triggered, with negative impacts on flowering, fruit set, and pollen count. Above 20-24°C, the net photosynthesis of coffee decreases, and above 23°C, fruit ripening accelerates and quality decreases (Lin, 2007). Maximum and mean temperatures are expected to increase by 2°C in Mesoamerica, which would shift the suitable Arabica coffee altitude range from 400-2000 masl to 800-2500 masl. In countries without high mountains, including Nicaragua and El Salvador, it will not be possible to shift coffee farms up the altitudinal gradient (Ovalle-Rivera et al., 2015). Altitudinal migration of coffee farms is also not feasible in many areas, due to lack of land and competing needs for food production on arable land. Even where land is available at higher elevations, soil conditions may not be suited to Arabica coffee production (Jaramillo et al., 2011). Extreme weather also presents problems for farmers through its impact on soils and physical damage to coffee plants. Heavy rainfall during Hurricane Stan caused fruit drop, damage to infrastructure, and landslides (Philpott et al., 2008). Coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico that were closest to riverbeds, and coffee farmers with most of their land in coffee production, rather than diversified crops, were most vulnerable to losses from Hurricane Stan (Eakin et al., 2012). The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), an insect pest, and a substantial biotic constraint for coffee production, was not found in coffee above 1500 meters until 2001. With increasing temperatures, the coffee berry borer is found at higher elevations, including above 1800 masl in East Africa. Climate models predict that by 2050 the coffee berry borer will be particularly damaging to high quality Arabica coffee at 1200-1800 masl in East Africa, and that the number of generations of coffee berry borer per season could double to 5-10 (Jaramillo et al., 2013). In turn, these agronomic pressures weigh on decisions about land use; for instance, smallholders might be compelled to convert part of their holding to crops that do not provide the same benefits as coffee agroforestry systems, or they might be compelled to abandon coffee altogether. In the worst cases, smallholders might be forced to sell their land to cover short-term needs, undermining their asset base and jeopardizing future well-being.Many of the same interventions that have been applied in the past to cushion coffee farmers from price fluctuations can also function to build climate change resilience and adaptive capacity. Existing adaptation strategies include irrigation, agroforestry and shade management, as well as diversification into crops that are less sensitive to increased temperatures, such as cocoa and mango (Eitzinger, 2013). An important question to examine is what the evidence shows, in terms of what specific practices and interventions have been most successful at building resilience to climate impacts. Here we present a review of data that quantifies the benefits of agroecological practices on coffee farms in building agroecosystem and livelihood resilience to climate change impacts. A table summarizing the evidence is presented below, followed by further description of each resilience indicator. The majority of cases included are from Latin America; however, several examples from other regions are included for their applicability to this topic. The evidence is summarized below (Table 1).Agroecological Practice Source Key Results a. Arabica coffee agroforestry plots had 2.6 t C/ha more soil organic Carbon and significantly higher bulk density than coffee monoculture (Uganda)b. Agroforestry coffee with Inga had less water runoff, higher ground cover, higher water infiltration rates than coffee monocultures (Costa Rica) c. Incorporation of crop residue allowed better root system distribution, reduced soil temperature, increased soil organic matter and soil water retention capacity (Brazil) Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate ChangeShade trees in coffee agroforestry systems can buffer coffee against temperature spikes and regulate microclimatic temperatures more effectively than in full-sun coffee. Mean daily maximum temperatures in the Atlantic Rainforest biome were 5.4° C lower in agroforestry coffee plots, than in sun coffee plots, on average, across 12 months (Souza et al., 2012). Also in Brazil, shade trees at a density of 60-70 shade trees per hectare were found to decrease air temperature fluctuations by 2-3° C, reduce the risk of frost damage, decrease wind speeds, and increase air relative humidity (Camargo, 2010).A 15-year experiment of side-by-side Caturra coffee plots at the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (ICAFE) showed a strong influence of shade canopy on microclimate (Siles et al., 2010). Coffee leaf temperatures were between 1-7° C lower in the shaded agroforestry system (coffee with Inga densiflora shade trees, with percentage shade cover between 25 and 50) than in the coffee monoculture. This is significant, since the optimal temperature for Arabica coffee photosynthesis is 18-24 degrees C, and mean annual temperatures are increasing with climate change. Coffee yields were comparable for the two plots when shade cover was below 50%. There was no evidence of competition for nutrients or water in the agroforestry system. The combined aerial biomass of coffee and shade trees was nearly three times higher in the agroforestry plot than the monoculture, which represents an additional benefit of carbon sequestration potential.In Chiapas, Mexico, shade cover in coffee agroforests was important in protecting coffee from microclimate extremes and retaining soil moisture, thus representing a viable smallholder climate change adaptation strategy (Lin, 2007). In the study, there was an inverse correlation between the level of shade on the coffee farm and the degree of fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and solar radiation. Shade trees also had the effect of mitigating microclimate extremes and buffering coffee plants from microclimate variability in Brazil, leading to less crop damage from water and heat stress. Maximum leaf temperatures were 4°C lower; Maximum air temperatures were 4.5°C lower; Difference between daily max and min temps 2.1°C lower (Morais et al., 2006).Shade and leaf litter affects water runoff, soil erosion and water infiltration. Farmers can incorporate shade trees and vegetative complexity to reduce vulnerability to erosion from extreme weather. A study of 10 shade coffee farms in Chiapas, Mexico assessed the influence of various factors on agroecosystem vulnerability to hurricane damage (Philpott et al., 2008). At the landscape scale, higher vegetative complexity was correlated with fewer landslides (the vegetative complexity index accounted for tree species richness, number of trees per m², number of coffee plants per m², stand basal area, and canopy cover) (Philpott et al., 2008).Perhaps most important for soil protection, especially during heavy rains, is the leaf litter from shade trees, which can also reduce soil temperature, allow for better root system distribution, build soil organic matter and increase soil water retention capacity (Camargo, 2010). A Nicaraguan study on six medium-large coffee agroforests with Inga spp and Musa spp shade showed that the most significant predictor variable for erosion was the percentage ground cover by leaf litter, followed by slope gradient (Blanco Sepúlveda & Aguilar Carrillo, 2015). Even in slopes with gradients of 50-70%, the presence of a substantial leaf litter layer reduced the influence of slope gradient on soil erodibility (benefit was maximized at 60-65% or more of ground covered by leaf litter). A three-year study comparing Costa Rican coffee agroforestry systems with coffee monocultures showed higher ground cover in agroforestry systems of coffee intercropped with Inga densiflora than coffee monocultures, which resulted in less water runoff (Cannavo et al., 2011). All plots had minimal slope (3-5%).Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate ChangeAgroforestry systems also had higher water infiltration rates than coffee monocultures, a fact that is immediately relevant to regions currently recovering from severe droughts. Deep soil layers had significantly lower water content in the agroforestry systems than monoculture, suggesting that shade trees drew water from deep horizons. In Mexico, coffee farms with a greater percentage shade cover experienced less evapotranspiration water loss from the farm, and soil moisture was maintained more consistently in the high shade sites (30-80% shade cover) than low shade sites (10-30% shade cover) (Lin, 2007).Nutrient-use efficiency and coffee yield stability reflect one aspect of resilience of both the agroecosystem and coffee household socioeconomics. Full-sun coffee monocultures have been promoted by some (Fournier, 1986) for their ability to maximize coffee yields per unit area of land. Farmers may choose sun coffee production under optimal environmental conditions and/or high external inputs, and full sun coffee systems may require fertilizer inputs to maintain yields over time. Shade may decrease Arabica coffee yields due to higher stimulus to vegetative growth rather than flowering and node development (DaMatta, 2004). Full sun stimulates coffee plants to overbear fruit one year, which results in exhaustion of the coffee tree the following year, leading to high variability in coffee yields in a biennial cycle. Shade manages flowering, buffers against overbearing and stabilizes productivity (DaMatta, 2004).A long-term study in Turrialba, Costa Rica comparing four organic and four conventional coffee agroforests (Caturra coffee variety intercropped with Erythrina poeppigiana and Musa acuminata) showed that shade trees had a greater effect on soil nutrients than the type or quantity of fertilizer used (Tully et al., 2012). Greater aboveground biomass of shade trees resulted in higher soil nitrogen, whereas nitrogen losses were not significantly different between coffee agroforests fertilized with mineral fertilizers and those fertilized with organic amendments over the 20-year period. Nitrogen losses were three times higher in a nearby coffee monoculture than in the coffee agroforests, suggesting that shade trees help reduce nutrient leaching and maximize nutrient use efficiency (Tully et al., 2012). Long-term experiments in Costa Rica and Nicaragua showed that Erythrina shade trees had a positive effect on coffee productivity under moderate organic management, and higher nitrogen use efficiency in terms of coffee yield per kg of Nitrogen applied (Haggar et al., 2011).With similar levels of nutrient inputs, organic and conventional coffee production yielded similar levels of coffee production. Also in this study, comparisons of different levels of nutrient inputs, shade species, and pruning practices showed that leguminous shade trees can benefit coffee production through increased nitrogen availability, but that the benefits are greatest for low or moderate input and organic management than for high input production (Haggar et al., 2011). Under certain circumstances, including sufficient pruning, shade can contribute to coffee yields being maintained or enhanced while minimizing the need for farmers to use fertilizer. Coffee agroforestry plots have also been shown to have significantly higher bulk density and soil organic carbon than coffee monocrop plots (Tumwebaze & Byakagaba, 2016). This shows the carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry, while simultaneously supporting adaptation (Richards and Mendez, 2014).The presence of shade trees can result in lower coffee berry borer densities; shade coffee systems can harbor beneficial arthropods that provide biological control of the coffee berry borer (Avelino et al., 2011). Shade cover attracts birds, which can contribute close to 80% of arthropod removal from coffee agroecosystems. Stomach analysis of three arthropod predators, black-throated blue warbler, American redstart, and prairie warbler show approximately half of the stomach content comprised of coffee berry borer. Ants are also important predators of coffee berry borer, and are more abundant in shaded coffee plantations (Avelino et al., 2011).Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate ChangeCoffee leaf rust, caused by the fungi Heileia vastatrix, is another major threat to coffee production, as traditional Typica and Bourbon cultivars are characterized by high susceptibility to almost all known races of coffee leaf rust (Silva et al., 2006).In some cases, higher percentages of shade have been associated with greater incidence of coffee leaf rust (Avelino et al., 2006;Lopez-Bravo et al., 2012), which led coffee agencies such as Mexico's INMECAFE to encourage shade simplification and intensification (Eakin et al., 2012). However, disease pressures only increased beyond the yield threshold of 230 fruiting nodes per tree, as coffee tree yield was the most significant variable in coffee leaf rust incidence (Avelino et al., 2006). Other diseases, such as Rosellinia root rot and American leaf spot disease (Mycena citricolor), may also spread more readily in coffee farms with high planting density of coffee, where dispersal distance is low (Avelino et al., 2011).Scientific research and technological solutions to the coffee leaf rust challenge have included breeding for resistant varieties, such as the work of World Coffee Research, and chemical control, although these may not be accessible to smallholder coffee farmers due to higher cost (McCook & Vandermeer, 2015). Agroecological management can be a lowcost, labor intensive way for farmers to prevent leaf rust outbreaks (McCook & Vandermeer, 2015). Incorporation of shade trees can reduce wind speeds on coffee farms and minimize the spread of windborne pathogens including coffee leaf rust (Avelino et al., 2011;McCook & Vandermeer, 2015). Intercropping with non-host plants, and lining plots with windbreaks and woody borders can also intercept pests and diseases. Reducing wind speeds also benefits coffee by protecting coffee plants from physical damage.Leaf litter from shade trees can also act as a physical barrier to prevent or delay the spread of soil borne diseases (Avelino et al., 2011). Optimal management of the coffee farm, including sufficient pruning, fertilization, and replacement of aging coffee trees, can increase the resilience of plants to diseases and pests (Avelino et al., 2015). There are trade-offs associated with any approach to leaf rust prevention and treatment; what may make agroforestry and shade trees particularly appealing for smallholder farmers is that, coupled with the provision of other ecosystem services and foods and forest products,the benefits may outweigh the potential drawbacks.In addition to the ecosystem services shade trees provide as part of the coffee agroforestry system, their products also contribute to food security and sources of income for farming families. Shade trees are used by farmers for food, firewood, construction, medicine, and other domestic uses (Soto-Pinto et al., 2000). In Nicaragua, number of fruit trees on coffee farms was correlated with fewer months of food insecurity for coffee households (Bacon et al., 2014). In some cases, diversification within and outside of the coffee plot enhanced livelihood security, which in turn could help to preserve coffee agroecosystems through on-farm investment or tolerance of sub-optimal yields. However, there are trade-offs inherent in these strategies, particularly in the conversion of coffee to alternative land uses and in the re-allocation of labor to alternative activities.A common concern is that shade will reduce coffee yields. Reviewing the literature on coffee production under full sun and regulated shade (approximately 25% shade), Fournier et al. (1988) determined that full-sun coffee yields were 10 to 20 percent higher than those under regulated shade. However, a more recent study of 36 small-scale shaded coffee farms (less than 3 ha, between 600-1100 masl) in Chiapas, Mexico showed a positive effect of shade trees on coffee yields (Soto-Pinto et al., 2000). In this study, shade cover appeared to have a positive effect on coffee yields between 30-45% shade, whereas yields began to decrease above 50% shade cover. The relationship between shade cover and coffee yield is not linear; there is likely a threshold beyond which shade cover has a negative effect on yield (Perfecto et al., 2005).Furthermore, the economic gains from higher yields under full sun could be partially offset by the costs of more frequent plot renovation as a result of the effect of full sun on the length of the coffee plant's life cycle and on soil characteristics. Gains from higher yields might also be partially offset by the foregone nutrients that shade trees (particularly leguminous trees) could provide (Fournier et al., 1988).Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate ChangeTo truly weigh the costs of foregoing higher yields under full sun, researchers and producers must incorporate into their equations the additional benefits that shade trees offer both to the extended life of the coffee plant as a results of optimal microclimatic conditions, as well as to the grower in additional forest products.Implementing projects for improvements to shade coverage and management implies capital investments, which can be subsidized externally, through on-farm investments, or both. Micro-loans can be used to increase production or to cope with natural disasters and crop loss in the short term (Quiroga et al., 2015). Access to credit has been shown improve food security among Guatemalan coffee farmers, likely due to increasing their investment and land in food production (Caswell et al., 2014). However, in most cases in Central America, financing conditions are unfavourable for small-scale producers (i.e., high interest rates) and households are at-risk of falling into debt (Caswell et al., 2014). The situation can be improved by microfinance opportunities that are tailored to rural agricultural producers with limited collateral (Llanto, 2007).Coffee cooperatives and other farmer organizations can play key roles in adoption of agricultural best management practices by providing technical assistance to producers, serving both as conduits or collaborators in agronomic research, as well as performing agricultural research internally. They also offer a central body for pooling resources, attracting investments and acquiring credit, from external sources (buyers, investors, NGOs, etc.). Because land use and livelihoods are deeply integrated, it is also interesting to examine how previous development interventions have impacted livelihoods in Central America, given that these factors are tied to the current resilience of coffee agroecosystems.Price premiums from alternative certifications, usually in conjunction with producer organizations, deliver economic benefits at both the household (including farm investment and expansion and sustainable management practices), (Bacon et al., 2008;Donovan & Poole, 2014) and community levels, through development projects, health, and education programs (Gingrich & King, 2012). In terms of income, recent research on Fair Trade and Organic certifications showed that it can deliver income increases toward a coffee farmer's income of between 5% (Barham & Weber, 2012) and 15% (Gingrich & King, 2012).However, the impact of access to specialty markets on coffee-based livelihoods resilience is limited, particularly for smallholder farmers with low yields and high vulnerability (Mendez et al., 2010b), and coffee yields could be more important than price premiums for increasing net cash returns for coffee producers (Barham & Weber, 2012). In addition, real prices for certified coffee often do not keep pace with the rising costs of sustainable production (new adaptive practices could exacerbate this cost-price squeeze). Furthermore, recent changes within the governance structure of alternative trade schemes have reduced smallholders' influence, calling into question alternative trade's commitment to farmer empowerment. Nevertheless, going forward, livelihood resilience is likely to depend on a balanced approach toward international trade and local modes of resistance (Bacon, 2015).Community focus group in Guatemala, 2015Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate ChangeMill outside of San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, 2015In addition to their roles of providing access to markets, technical information and, in some cases, credit, cooperatives and other collective associations have also been instrumental in food security and food sovereignty by managing direct interventions for food access (such as organizing communal grain storage co-ops and distributing food donations), as well as representing smallholders in broader agricultural, environmental and food policy debates (Bacon, 2015). Increasing adaptive capacity for smallholder farmers in the Biosphere Reserve region of Mexico has been aided by the formation of strong producer groups (cooperatives), along with diversification of land use types and crops. This has been supported by 'co-management', which entails shifting land rights and responsibilities from government to local resource users. In this particular case, the longterm support of an NGO and a highly motivated local community were essential in allowing for effective increases in adaptation, in combination with favorable biophysical attributes (Ruiz Meza, 2014).Capacity building and financing, including earning carbon offsets that can be traded to fund adaptation practices, can reduce farmer vulnerability (Rahn et al., 2014), and support networks and institutions help build social resilience to environmental hazards (Tompkins & Adger, 2004). Similar to distinctions in type and quality of shade coffee, cooperatives vary widely by function (e.g., production or marketing cooperative) and stages of development. Cooperatives are also poised within unique historical contexts. These intricacies make it difficult to conclude whether the cooperative model, in abstract, provides (and will continue to provide) benefits in terms of the socioeconomic indicators here. For instance, benefits from membership in Central American coffee cooperatives have had to be qualified by the concurrent advantages accruing from political movements and agrarian reforms (Bacon, 2015). In the future, if coffee cooperatives are able to further consolidate to increase their profits and power, questions emerge around the impact of consolidation on smallholder empowerment and co-optation by local and regional elites. And while cooperatives can have a positive impact on empowerment, special efforts have been necessary to ensure that they empower all genders equitably (Bacon, 2010).Assertions around the positive contributions of farmer organizations should include other forms of association among farmers (e.g., learning exchanges such as Campesino a Campesino and Farmer Field Schools, international movements such as La Via Campesina, and crop-specific associations).In addition to promoting self-organization among farmers, these bodies can contribute to farmer resilience through improved connection with service providers and more consistent access to markets, including specialty markets and markets for multiple commodities when relevant (Irwin and Campbell, 2015). Those seeking to leverage these strengths through investments should be guided toward developing interventions that are in line with the strategic plans of these farmer groups (including the implementation of context-specific food security interventions, such as grain storage facilities and seed banks), building democratic, operational and gender equity capacities, and forming strategic alliances with social agrarian movements (Bacon, 2015).Dec, 2016Agroecology and Climate Change A recurring theme in the literature is that, in many cases, coffee farmers perceive climate risks as inevitable. Farmers might not explicitly cite climate change as a priority concern, expressing more concern about market volatility and low prices (Eakin et al., 2006. Tucker et al., 2010). In our own research with coffee farmers, we have witnessed the importance of a place-based perspective and cultural sensitivity when working with coffee farmers on climate change. Farmers were more motivated to discuss and act on climate change when it was framed in their own terms, including climate 'chaos' (Caswell, personal communication), underlining the continuing relevance of farmers' knowledge to larger scale adaptation strategies (Castellanos et al., 2013).A review of the evidence shows that the practices of shade management and coffee agroforestry build farm resilience to the greatest number and variety of climate-related threats. Increasing plant diversity, and managing density, in coffee agroecosystems can affect the microclimate of the understory, including buffering air and soil temperatures, reducing wind speed and solar radiation, and increasing soil humidity and relative humidity (Avelino et al., 2011). Shade trees can also stabilize soils, contribute soil nutrients, minimize coffee pest and disease pressure, and provide additional income, food, medicinal plants, firewood and timber. (Méndez et al., 2010: Toledo & Moguel, 2012). There are additional benefits of incorporating a greater number and diversity of shade trees on coffee farms, from the perspective of carbon sequestration (mitigation) and biodiversity conservation of certain species (Jha et al., 2011).Despite the assumption that coffee produced under a shade canopy is less productive (Magrach & Ghazoul, 2015), shade has both direct and indirect effects on coffee yields, most of which can be positive. The optimal species, diversity and densities of shade trees can vary, depending on the primary goal (stabilizing soils, decreasing on-farm temperatures, and/or supporting farmer livelihoods through additional products).Considering the complexity of research on shade coffee and the urgency of the situation, we recommend approaches that work closely with growers and rural communities to develop on-farm methods for measuring shade levels, choosing between different types of shade cover according to local needs and interests, and identifying indicators and parameters relevant to growers in order to evaluate the impact of shaded agroforestry systems. This approach integrates rigor and participation without postponing action.At least part of the reason that shade was highlighted during our literature review was that it has received the most scholarly attention; other agroecological practices might fit within a climate change adaptation program, but the analysis of their impact on resilience indicators has been sparse. The use of resistant coffee varieties is an additional adaptation strategy (Camargo, 2010;Silva et al., 2006), including the use of Robusta coffee. However, genetic selection must be carefully used as a solution and may not be appropriate for smallholders with limited financial resources, in particular where it replaces geographically-specific varieties that have been selected by farmers. If disease resistant hybrids are promoted, farmers and cooperatives should be included throughout the process to ensure that their knowledge is taken into account and to increase the likelihood of acceptance. Furthermore, a number of articles have focused on the impact of development interventions on assets and food security, but few have attempted to evaluate their impact on less easily quantifiable indicators, such as empowerment.We consider this a shortcoming for a more complete understanding of resilience and vulnerability.The resilience of coffee agroecosystems and livelihoods will rely on more than household-level assets and strategies. In order to reduce the vulnerability of smallholder coffee farmers, inequalities need to be minimized through initiatives that strengthen social and political equity and empowerment (Ruiz Meza, 2014).","tokenCount":"5110"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f456de72f91b36acd954004fcdbd3132","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe10ef99-1431-4422-8494-45ffec704b90/retrieve","id":"-1334825317"},"keywords":["best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP)","cowpea accessions","glasshouse","heritability","moisture stress"],"sieverID":"18863fb0-fdf7-4d22-b86b-99ec99b0f667","pagecount":"14","content":"Cowpea is one of the most important leguminous crops in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and moisture stress is among the constraints affecting its productivity. This study was conducted to understand the response of cowpea accessions to moisture stress. A total of 255 cowpea accessions from Togo and four checks from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), were assessed. The trials were conducted in the glasshouse and an open field (which was divided into moisture-stressed (MS) and non-moisture-stressed fields (NMS)). In the non-moisture-stressed environment compared to the moisture-stressed environment, there was a greater heritability for agronomic traits such as biomass, seed weight, and pod weight. The accessions with the highest seed weights (yield-related traits), surpassing the checks under both moisture-stressed and non-moisturestressed conditions in the field, were six viz.: RK173 (49.8 g (MS); 90.4 g (NMS)), RP225 (34.6 g (MS); 119.9 g (NMS)), RP232 (33.4 g (MS); 51.9 g (NMS)), RM357 (27.9 g (MS); 62.9 g (NMS)), RK148 (23.9 g (MS); 63.4 g (NMS)), and Vu081_2_2 (21.8 g (MS); 46.7 g (NMS)). The most promising accession was RK173; this was ranked first under the moisture-stressed condition and ranked second under the non-moisture-stressed condition with a loss in weight of 44.9% due to drought stress. Of the top 20 accessions that recovered after watering resumed in the glasshouse screening, only the following 9 had a recovery percentage higher than 5% viz.: RS029 (34.5%), RK014 (14.2%), RS114 (9.6%), RK121 (8.3%), RS007 (7.6%), RK123 (7.3%), RS037 (7.3%), RS101 (5.6%), and RS108 (5.1%). The best line and those with a higher recovery percentage could be exploited further in order to improve them in future drought breeding programs by crossing them with lines susceptible to drought or using other drought breeding techniques.Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.), is a warm-season annual herbaceous crop [1]. Its grains are widely consumed by humans and dried haulms are fed to livestock [2]. As a result of its high folic acid and vitamin B contents, which are necessary to prevent birth abnormalities during pregnancy, and its seed protein level, which varies from 23% to 32% of seed weight, cowpea is commonly referred to as \"poor man's meat\" [3]. Its grains are rich in sodium (16 mg/100 g), potassium (1112 mg/100 g), dietary fiber (~11%), and lipids (<2%) [4], as well as antioxidants, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and polyphenols, in addition to other nutrients [5][6][7]. Cowpea has the potential to contribute significantly to global food and nutritional security. Furthermore, it can be an important component of a sustainable food system as a genetic resource for future crop improvement, contributing to resilience and boosting agricultural sustainability under climate change circumstances [8].Cowpea production globally is projected to be 4.5-6.5 million tons annually, with West Africa accounting for around 80% of the total production [9] with Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso in the forefront [10,11]. Its productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is poor due to a variety of abiotic and biotic stresses, as well as socio-economic constraints [12]. A major abiotic stress in areas where cowpea is mostly produced is drought, resulting from low and unpredictable rainfall [13].Cowpea does relatively well in drought circumstances as compared to many other crops. Drought, however, may still have a detrimental effect on yield, especially during the seedling and flowering stages [14,15]. The level of tolerance to drought in varieties that are currently cultivated can be further improved by breeding [15]. Several cultivars with good agronomic features have been discovered to be vulnerable to water scarcity [16]. In effect, cowpea breeding initiatives aimed at boosting the crop's drought tolerance are still needed. Drought stress is usually encountered by cowpea at both the seedling and terminal development phases and has often resulted in significant reductions in grain yield and biomass outputs [7]. During flowering and pod filling, drought stress has a detrimental influence on flower development, pollen viability, pod setting, and grain filling, resulting in fewer pods per plant, lower seed weight, and poorer seed output [13]. According to [17], there is a major need in Africa to screen and breed for drought-tolerant and water-efficient cultivars, as cowpea is largely farmed under rain-fed conditions, with regular exposure to periodic droughts. Recently, a collection of cowpea accessions from Togo was assembled. Togo is one of the countries in West Africa where cowpea is cultivated. The present study sought to determine the responses of cowpea accessions to drought stress in the glasshouse for the seedling stage and in the field for terminal stage drought tolerance.The study was carried out at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), (latitude 7 • 30 ′ 5 ′′ N, longitude 3 • 54 ′ 36 ′′ E), Old Oyo Road, Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. A total of 255 cowpea accessions from Togo and four checks viz. Vita 7, CB 27, TVu7778 and Danila from IITA were used in the field experiment, while the same 255 accessions and two checks, namely Danila and TVu7778 from IITA, were assessed in the glasshouse for seedling drought tolerance.A field experiment was established in the dry season in December 2022. The land was plowed and harrowed. Thereafter, the field was cleared of all vegetation and divided into two, viz. an area to be irrigated (non-stressed) and the other for managed drought stress (moisture-stressed). The cowpea accessions were planted on 5 December 2022 under each of the two moisture regimes using an alpha lattice design with three replications. Twelve blocks were allocated 20 accessions each, while 1 block received 19 accessions. Plots consisted of single rows spaced 0.75 m apart. Seeds of the test lines and the checks were planted at a spacing of 20 cm on each row. Two seeds were planted per hill and thinned to one plant per hill two weeks after planting. No fertilizer was applied. Both the moisture-stressed and non-moisture-stressed blocks were irrigated for the first six weeks after planting. Thereafter, only the non-stressed block was irrigated twice weekly, and this continued till plant maturity. Insects were controlled with termex (active ingredient: chlorpyrifos, 480 g/L) and dynamec (active ingredient: abamectin, 18 g/L).The wooden box technique (shown in Figure 1), was used to assess the 255 cowpea accessions and two checks, viz. Danila and TVu7778, in the glasshouse. Each wooden box (length: 60.7 cm; width: 44.8 cm; and height: 11.4 cm) was filled with sieved gutter sand and top loamy soil mixed in a ratio of 3:1. Each tray was filled with 34 kg of the mixed soil. An alpha lattice design with two replicates was used in the glasshouse experiment. Each replicate consisted of 64 boxes. Four accessions were evaluated together with the two checks, viz. TVu7778 and Danila, in each of the 63 boxes. Additionally, one box contained three accessions and the two checks. In all, a total of 128 wooden boxes were used. Planting was carried out on 27 March 2023. The plants were watered to field capacity every 2-3 days. Watering in the glasshouse was suspended two weeks after planting.The wooden box technique (shown in Figure 1), was used to assess the 255 cowpea accessions and two checks, viz. Danila and TVu7778, in the glasshouse. Each wooden box (length: 60.7 cm; width: 44.8 cm; and height: 11.4 cm) was filled with sieved gutter sand and top loamy soil mixed in a ratio of 3:1. Each tray was filled with 34 kg of the mixed soil. An alpha lattice design with two replicates was used in the glasshouse experiment. Each replicate consisted of 64 boxes. Four accessions were evaluated together with the two checks, viz. TVu7778 and Danila, in each of the 63 boxes. Additionally, one box contained three accessions and the two checks. In all, a total of 128 wooden boxes were used. Planting was carried out on 27 March 2023. The plants were watered to field capacity every 2-3 days. Watering in the glasshouse was suspended two weeks after planting. Data were collected in both trials (field and glasshouse). In the field, data on agronomic traits were taken on plants under moisture-stressed and non-moisture-stressed conditions. Days to first flowering were recorded as the number of days from planting to the day when the first flower appeared on the plants in a row. Days to 50% flowering is the number of days from planting to the day when 50% of the plants flowered in a row. Days to 90% pod maturity was defined as the number of days from the date of planting to the day 90% of the pods in a row had become brown. The number of plants in each row was counted. Biomass weight was determined by cutting all the plants in a row at the base of the stem at harvest and then weighed. The weight was divided by the number of plants in each row to obtain biomass weight per plant. The pod weight per plant was determined by weighing all the pods harvested from each row and dividing by the number of plants in the row. Seed weight was determined by weighing all the seeds harvested from each row; this was divided by the Data were collected in both trials (field and glasshouse). In the field, data on agronomic traits were taken on plants under moisture-stressed and non-moisture-stressed conditions. Days to first flowering were recorded as the number of days from planting to the day when the first flower appeared on the plants in a row. Days to 50% flowering is the number of days from planting to the day when 50% of the plants flowered in a row. Days to 90% pod maturity was defined as the number of days from the date of planting to the day 90% of the pods in a row had become brown. The number of plants in each row was counted. Biomass weight was determined by cutting all the plants in a row at the base of the stem at harvest and then weighed. The weight was divided by the number of plants in each row to obtain biomass weight per plant. The pod weight per plant was determined by weighing all the pods harvested from each row and dividing by the number of plants in the row. Seed weight was determined by weighing all the seeds harvested from each row; this was divided by the number of plants in a row to determine the mean weight per plant. The 100-seed weight was obtained by counting 100 seeds from the bulked seeds of each row and weighing them in grams (g), but if the number of seeds was not up to 100, then the 100-seed weight was estimated as weight in grams of seeds/total number of seeds × 100.In the glasshouse, the number of days to first seedling emergence was recorded as the number of days from planting to the day the first seedlings emerged. The number of days to 50% emergence was recorded as the number of days from planting to when 50% of the seedlings emerged and number of days to 90% emergence was obtained as the number of days when 90% of the seeds per row emerged. Stem greenness was determined on 21 and 30 days after stress was imposed (DAS). It was rated on a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 = 25% of the stems are green while 75% are brown, 2 = 50% of the stems are green, 3 = 75% of the stems are green while 25% are brown, and 4 = 100% or all the stems are green. The extent of wilting was scored on a scale of 0 to 4, where 0 = no wilting, 1 = 25% wilting, 2 = 50% wilting, 3 = 75% wilting, and 4 = 100% wilting. This was determined on 15, 21, 30, and 34 days from when watering was suspended. The number of plants was counted for each accession. Days to permanent wilting were obtained by recording the number of days from planting to the day the plants wilted completely. This observation was made for plants that did not regain their turgidity, became shriveled, and every part turned brown, one to two weeks after watering resumed. The number of plants that recovered after three weeks of water deprivation was counted. The percentage (%) of recovered plants was derived by dividing the number of plants that survived by the total number of plants that emerged multiplied by 100. The number of dead plants after watering resumed was also counted.The average temperature recorded during the field experiment (December 2022-March 2023) ranged from 21.7 • C to 33.4 • C and relative humidity ranged from 20% to 86%. Rainfall occurred twice in January with an average of 1.3 mm and thrice in February with an average of 13.4 mm. The average day length in December, January, and February 2022 were 8.0 h, 7.6 h, and 6.2 h, respectively.The average temperature within the screen house during the experiment ranged between 27.2 • C and 46.7 • C, while the relative humidity ranged between 39% and 81%.Data were analyzed using mixed models where replicate was considered a fixed effect and block, nested in replicate was considered a random effect. Accession was considered a fixed effect for estimating Best Linear Unbiased Estimators (BLUEs) and a random effect for estimating Best Linear Unbiased Predictions (BLUPs) and heritability. For the field data, we tested whether there was a significant treatment by accession interaction effect, and, where this was the case, we fitted a model for each treatment (stress, non-stress) separately. For analyses of days to 50% emergence, days to 90% emergence, days to 90% plant leaf fall, days to permanent wilting, number of dead plants, number of plants, stem greenness at 21 days after stress (DAS) was imposed, stem greenness at 30 DAS, wilting at 15 DAS, wilting at 21 DAS, wilting at 30 DAS, wilting at 34 DAS in the glasshouse as well as days to 50% flowering, days to 90% maturity, and days to first flower in the field, a generalized linear mixed model [18], was used under the assumption of a Poisson distribution. For percentage of recovered plants, a binomial distribution was considered. All other traits were assumed to be normally distributed. Phenotypic correlations were calculated as Pearson correlations between each pair of traits within the glasshouse dataset and separately for each treatment within the field dataset. All analyses were carried out using R (version 4) [19].Accession by moisture conditions interaction effects on biomass, pod_wt, 100 seedwt, and seed_wt per plant were significant, requiring analysis per moisture condition (Table 1). Pod weight had a mean of 14.12 g and ranged from 0.13 g to 85.81 g under moisture stress while having a mean of 21.16 g and ranging from 1.07 g to 203.85 g when not moisturestressed. The seed weight had a mean of 10.23 g and varied from 0.27 to 61.46 g under water stress and varied from 0.05 to 144.50 g with a mean of 14.95 g under non-water stress. The one hundred seed weight ranged from 5.52 g to 20.01 g with a mean of 12.57 g under moisture stress and ranged from 4.49 g to 27.03 g when not moisture-stressed with a mean of 11.07 g. Under moisture stress, biomass weight was in a range of 0.42 g to 120.13 g with a mean of 19.42 g and was in a range of 1.42 g to 213.95 g under non-moisture stress with a mean of 24.16 g (Table 2). The number of days to first flower varied from 42.0 g to 67.24 g with a mean of 49.35 g under moisture stress and varied from 40.33 g to 60.45 g with a mean of 47.29 g when not moisture-stressed. The number of days to 50% flowering varied from 25.45 g to 70.28 g with a mean of 52.42 g under moisture stress and varied from 41.73 g to 67.46 g under the non-stressed condition with a mean of 51.03 g. Number of days to 90% pod maturity ranged from 61.93 g to 78.18 g with a mean of 68.69 g under moisture stress and 63.01 g to 83.84 g under non-moisture stress with a mean of 69.63 g.  The mixed model analysis showed highly significant differences for percentage of recovered plants and days to permanent wilting among the cowpea accessions evaluated in the glasshouse (Table 3). The number of recovered plants ranged from 0.0 to 2.5, with a mean of 0.1. The number of days to 90% emergence varied from 5.0 to 7.2, with a mean of 6.7. The percentage of recovered plants varied from 0.0 to 58.9, with a mean of 0.9. The stem greenness score at 21 DAS ranged from 0.5 to 4.0 with a mean of 2.2. The stem greenness score at 30 DAS ranged from 0.0 to 3.5 with a mean of 1.3. Wilting at 15 DAS ranged from 0.0 to 1.0 with a mean of 0.6. Wilting at 21 DAS was in the range of 0.5 to 3.0, with a mean of 1.3. Wilting at 30 DAS ranged from 1.0 to 4.0 with a mean of 2.6. Wilting at 34 DAS ranged from 1.0 to 4.0 with an average of 3.0 (Table 4).   Table 5 shows the accessions with the highest seed weight from the moisture-stressed and non-moisture-stressed field environments. With respect to seed weight, six of the twenty accessions with the highest seed weights under non-stressed conditions were among the top twenty accessions under moisture-stressed conditions. These are RK173, RP225, RP232, RM357, RK148, and Vu081_2_2. These six accessions have great potential as the potential cowpea lines in breeding varieties that can produce good yields under non-stressed and moisture-stressed conditions. RK173 is the most promising of all the accessions. It was ranked number 1 under the moisture-stressed and number 2 under the non-stressed conditions. The loss in weight of this accession as a result of moisture stress was 44.9%. The correlation results among traits for the moisture-stressed condition are shown in Figure 2. The traits with the highest positive and significant correlations were pod weight vs. seed weight (r = 0.99, p < 0.001), biomass vs. seed weight (r = 0.80, p < 0.001), and biomass vs. pod weight (r = 0.80, p < 0.001). Seed weight had a low negative correlation with days to 50% flowering (r = −0.13, p < 0.05) and days to 90% maturity (r = −0.19, p < 0.01). Correlation was also high between days to first flower and days to 50% flowering (r = 0.71, p < 0.001) while moderate and positive correlation was obtained between days to first flower and days to 90% pod maturity (r = 0.41, p < 0.001), and days to 50% flowering vs. days to 90% pod maturity (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). The results of the correlations between pairs of traits under the non-stressed condition in the field are shown in Figure 3. High significant correlations were obtained for pod weight vs. seed weight (r = 0.99, p < 0.001), biomass vs. pod weight (r = 0.91, p < 0.001), and seed weight vs. biomass (r = 0.91, p < 0.001). Days to 50% flowering and days to first flower The results of the correlations between pairs of traits under the non-stressed condition in the field are shown in Figure 3. High significant correlations were obtained for pod weight vs. seed weight (r = 0.99, p < 0.001), biomass vs. pod weight (r = 0.91, p < 0.001), and seed weight vs. biomass (r = 0.91, p < 0.001). Days to 50% flowering and days to first flower also showed a high positive and significant correlation (r = 0.75, p < 0.001). Correlations were high, positive, and significant for days to 90% maturity vs. days to 50% flowering (r = 0.62, p < 0.001) and days to 90% pod maturity vs. days to first flower (r = 0.53, p < 0.001). Days to first flower had a low but significant correlation with seed weight and pod weight (r = 0.16, p < 0.05). The correlation results among traits in the glasshouse experiment are shown in  The correlation results among traits in the glasshouse experiment are shown in Figure 4. Stem greenness 21 DAS had a high positive and significant correlation with stem greenness 30 DAS (r = 0.87, p < 0.001), wilting at 30 DAS and wilting at 34 DAS (r = 0.84, p < 0.001) were significantly correlated, which is the same for wilting at 21 DAS and wilting at 34 DAS (r = 0.56, p < 0.001), and wilting at 21 DAS vs. wilting at 30 DAS (r = 0.69, p < 0.001). High significant negative correlations were obtained between stem greenness at 21 DAS and wilting at 34 DAS (r = −0.66, p < 0.001); stem greenness at 21 DAS and wilting at 30 DAS (r = −0.61, p < 0.001); stem greenness at 21 DAS and wilting at 21 DAS (r = −0.52, p < 0.001); wilting at 34 DAS and days to permanent wilting (r = −0.63, p < 0.001); and wilting at 30 DAS and days to permanent wilting (r = −0.80, p < 0.001).The correlations were positively significant for stem greenness at 30 DAS and percentage of recovered plants (r = 0.26, p < 0.001); and stem greenness at 30 DAS and number of recovered plants (r = 0.38, p < 0.001). The results also showed a significantly weak negative correlation between wilting at 34 DAS and percentage of recovered plants (r = −0.18, p < 0.01); and wilting at 30 DAS and number of recovered plants (r = −0.15, p < 0.05). −stem greenness at 21 days after stress was imposed, sg30das−stem greenness at 30 days after stress was imposed, w15das−wilting at 15 days after stress was imposed, w21das−wilting at 21 days after stress was imposed, w30das−wilting at 30 days after stress was imposed, w34daswilting at 34 days after stress was imposed.The heritability estimates from the stressed and non-stressed field experiments are shown in Table 6. Heritability for pod weight in the non-moisture-stressed field was 0.73 and 0.68 in the moisture-stressed field condition. Seed weight had a heritability value of 0.73 for non-moisture-stressed while heritability for the moisture-stressed condition was 0.67. One hundred seed weight had a heritability value of 0.57 under non-moisturestressed field and 0.54 for the stressed field. Heritability for biomass was 0.72 in non-moisture-stressed condition compared to 0.67 in moisture-stressed condition in the field.  The heritability estimates from the stressed and non-stressed field experiments are shown in Table 6. Heritability for pod weight in the non-moisture-stressed field was 0.73 and 0.68 in the moisture-stressed field condition. Seed weight had a heritability value of 0.73 for non-moisture-stressed while heritability for the moisture-stressed condition was 0.67. One hundred seed weight had a heritability value of 0.57 under non-moisture-stressed field and 0.54 for the stressed field. Heritability for biomass was 0.72 in non-moisture-stressed condition compared to 0.67 in moisture-stressed condition in the field. The heritability estimates from the glasshouse experiment are shown in Table 7. Traits such as days to permanent wilting, stem greenness at 21 DAS, stem greenness at 30 DAS, wilting at 21 DAS, wilting at 30 DAS, and wilting at 34 DAS had high heritability values of 0.63, 0.62, 0.61, 0.59, 0.62, and 0.61, respectively. Days to 50% emergence, number of recovered plants and percentage of recovered plants, had low heritability values of 0.27, 0.22, and 0.23. The traits with the lowest heritability values were days to 90% emergence (0.01) and wilting at 15 DAS (0.12). A total of 20 of the accessions evaluated in the glasshouse experiment proved to have the highest percentage recovery from the imposed moisture stress in the glasshouse (Table 8). These plants wilted during the drought stress but were able to recover when watering resumed, indicating that they were able to withstand the drought. An increasing threat to crop production globally is drought [20][21][22]. Cowpea growth and development are affected negatively by drought stress at the vegetative stage [23,24]. It also affects development of cowpea at the reproductive stage and causes a significant reduction in morphological traits at the flowering stage [14,25]. Efforts should be undertaken to produce drought-tolerant cowpea varieties that can withstand future climate change projections better than those presently available [26]. Screening for drought tolerant genotypes is a critical step in improving cowpea yield [27]. The results from this study revealed that the mean days to flowering were slightly higher under the moisture-stressed field condition than under the non-moisture-stressed field condition. This contradicted the findings of [28,29], which stated that flowering occurred earlier in grain legumes during moisture stress as an escape mechanism to adapt to the moisture stress situation. Lower mean values were also observed for pod weight and seed weight under the moisture-stressed condition as opposed to the non-stressed condition. The findings from this study (Table 2) indicated that the imposed drought lowered seed and pod weights by an average of 33%. Reduction in seed and pod weights in the moisture-stressed environment applied to the majority of the accessions. This suggests that drought situations may have an impact on seed yield and supports the finding of [15] that drought conditions may affect cowpea yields, particularly if they occur during the seedling and flowering stages. The outcomes corroborate earlier findings [13,27], that considerable reductions were observed for yield-related traits under drought stress. [30] also stated that crop yields are reduced by drought stress through reduction in radiation efficiency, harvest index, and photosynthetic active radiation [30].According to [31], 40% of the world's chickpea losses each year is caused by drought stress. These observations show that moisture stress negatively affects yield in grain legumes.The positive significant correlation between seed weight and pod weight is consistent with results obtained by [10,11,32,33]. The high positive correlation between biomass and yield-related parameters (pod weight and seed weight) implies that a reduction in biomass could ultimately lead to a reduction in yield and related traits. This corroborates reports by [34] that a reduction in shoot biomass results in a decreased yield under drought conditions. Correlation between biomass on one hand and pod weight and seed weight on the other hand were higher under the non-stressed than under the moisture-stressed condition (r = 0.91 vs. r = 0.80). This is also true for days to first flower and days to 50% flowering (r = 0.75 vs. r = 0.71), days to first flower and days to 90% pod maturity (r = 0.53 vs. r = 0.41), and days to 50% flowering vs. days to 90% pod maturity (r = 0.62 vs. r = 0.43). This could be an indication that the correlation among some traits is lower under drought conditions as shown from this study. More research should be conducted to ascertain this. The correlation between pod weight and seed weight was the same under the non-stressed condition than under the moisture-stressed condition (r = 0.99 vs. r = 0.99). The negative correlation obtained in this study for wilting vs. stem greenness, recovery, and percentage recovery are in consonance with the findings of [35]. This implies that stem greenness diminishes as plants continue to wilt due to water stress. [14,35] reported positive correlations between stem greenness and recovery which was also determined in this study. However, further studies are needed to unravel the bases of such correlations.When highly heritable traits are linked to an important trait like yield, the former are good candidates to exploit for yield improvement [36]. Heritability was slightly higher among the traits evaluated under the non-stressed field condition than those evaluated under the moisture-stressed condition for pod weight, seed weight, 100 seed weight, and biomass weight as shown in this study. Further research might help to explain this. Pod weight, seed weight, 100 seed weight, and biomass weight had the highest heritability values under both moisture-stressed and non-stressed conditions. These traits can be useful for further cowpea improvement. The traits with high heritability values could be due to a higher genotypic variance than environmental variance, resulting in a broad sense of heritability [10]. This implies that the environment had little influence on these traits [37]. With regard to biomass weight, [38] reported a low heritability as opposed to the result obtained in this study. Traits such as permanent wilting, stem greenness at 21 days, stem greenness at 30 days, wilting at 21 days, wilting at 30 days, and wilting at 34 days after stress was imposed had the highest heritability values from the glasshouse experiment.The most promising accession from the field experiment, RK173, was ranked number 1 under the moisture-stressed condition and number 2 under the non-stressed condition with reduction in weight of 44.9%. This accession can serve as an asset in future drought breeding experiments. In the glasshouse, only nine accessions had a recovery percentage higher than 5%, viz. RS029 (34.5%), RK014 (14.2%), RS114 (9.6%), RK121 (8.3%), RS007 (7.6%), RK123 (7.3%), RS037 (7.3%), RS101 (5.6%), and RS108 (5.1%). These accessions are coming mainly from the Savanna and Kara regions of Togo and can be utilized in the development of drought tolerant cowpea cultivars.To evaluate the response of 255 cowpea accessions from Togo and four checks from IITA, for drought tolerance, trials were conducted on the field and glasshouse at IITA. The results revealed that significant variations for agronomic traits existed among the cowpea accessions evaluated under moisture-stressed and non-stressed conditions in the field and in the glasshouse. The positive correlations obtained for seed weight vs. biomass weight and seed weight vs. pod weight implies that improving biomass and pod weight will directly increase seed yield. The accessions RK173, RP225, RP232, RM357, RK148, and Vu081_2_2 were among the twenty cowpea accessions with higher seed weights that surpassed the checks and were found under both moisture-stressed and non-stressed conditions in the field. These six promising accessions have great potential to produce good yields under drought conditions. There were nine accessions with percentage recovery higher than 5% in the glasshouse, viz. RS029 (34.5%), RK014 (14.2%), RS114 (9.6%), RK121 (8.3%), RS007 (7.6%), RK123 (7.3%), RS037 (7.3%), RS101 (5.6%), and RS108 (5.1%). These should be exploited further for improvement in drought tolerance breeding programs by crossing the lines with higher percentage recovery to the lines with lower percentage recovery to improve their drought tolerance capabilities.","tokenCount":"5031"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"050da662f1849f010419c459d6e3801d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f880e0d2-8ad5-4b89-8a4b-1b9faa8754d2/retrieve","id":"217061652"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"89ca4b68-e6e1-427f-8c27-a06fb2f491c6","pagecount":"27","content":"Con otOSlon de lo conmemoroclon del Declmo AniversariO del Centro Intern:Jclon.::a1 de Agnculturo Troplcol (C'Al), consideramos e~ el momento op 0010:;0 no solomente p.:lra reconocer los logros del CIAT durante lo p:H::JOO: decodo, $Ino tamblen poro osedvror que el CIAT, como InstltUCIO'1\" te¡go fod:lS les condIciones necesoftQS p.Jro lograr de lo manero mas eflCIC'1te sus ob¡ehvos CLJ~ndo el CIAT se fu,\"do hoce diez 0'\\05, se estobleCIO como un nuevo concepto qJS' pe mdíc conceitror recursos Internocionales p'jro uno Inshtucl0n de Investlgoclon '=lltamc\"lle p ofeSl0n::l1 con el oblativo de acelerar el dC$orrollo ogrtco!o y contrlbuír 01 mcrc'Tlento de 10 produeclOn o3rícolo en el trapico así como tomblen 01 de~orrollo de 10$ p ogramos n':JClonales, e Em\"lo Tngueros Motina Rep esentonte Regional de lo FAO en Colomblo , • Por el CIAT ~(~~.,4~ J hn L NíCeI lfector Generol Por el Programo de las NOCiones Un. dos poro el De,orrollo Wil¡'om T Moshl\"r Dtrector, Proyectos Globales e Interregloñoles DIR-1166 Page 3 Los copatrocmadores desean hrmar el Memorando de Entend,mIento en un futuro cercano. por lo tanto. agradecena su respuesta a la brevedad posIble De la manera mas respetuosa me suscrIbo de usted, Atentamente, ~~ D,rector General Anexos GJLNll ) L • , j~Como lo establecen sus estatutos tanto los ob)ehvos como las actIvldades de InvestlgaclOn y cooperaclOn de CIAT son de estricto caracter lI1ternaclonalEl CIA T, en sus relacIones con variOS palses alrededor del mundo lleva a cabo sus negocIaCIones y es tratado como una lnstltucIOn lI1ternaclOnal Sln embargo, legalmente. el CIAT es una organlzaclOn ColombIana SIn anlmo de lucro Esto eS debIdo a que cuando se fundo el CIAT, producto de un Acuerdo entre la FundacIOn Rockefeller y el Goblerno de ColombIa, no eXlstla el CGIAR Los centros InternaCIonales de mvestlgaclon agrIcola reCIentemente creados, fundados despues de la creaCIon del CGlAR, tIenen un verdadero estatus InternaCIOnal puesto que ellos son el resultado de cuerdos lnte1 nacIOnales entre dos o mas copatroclnadores del CGlAR (el Banco MundIal el PNUD y la FAO)Por Decreto No 301 de 1967, se le ha otorgado al CrA T muchos de los prlvlleglOs de los cuales gozan las lI1ShtucIones internaCIonales DebIdo a este decreto y a la buena colaboracIOn y buena voluntad por parte de los representantes del GobIerno ColombIano, el ClAT ha podIdo llevar a cabo, de una manera sahsfactorIa. sus responsabIlIdades mternaclOnales Vitales 5111 embargo. en el transcurso de los años se ha hecho eVidente que es muy Importante para CIAT obtener un estatus mternaclOnal legal convirtiendo su actual figura de hecho en una Ílgura de derecho Los miembros del CGIAR y la Junta DirectIva de ClA T han expresado su deseo de que esta sltuaclon sea formalIzada Por 10 tanto, hace vanos años en una reunlon con el entonces MinIstro de RelaclOnes Extenores. Dr Rodngo Lloreda Calcedo, se acordo que deberIamos proceder y dar los pasos necesarIOS para conseguir el estatus mternaclOnill legal del CIAT Como resultado de estas dlcuslOnes y de dISCUSIones con los copatrocmadores del CGlAR. se brmo un Memorando el 12 de Octubre de 1983 entro; representantes del Gobierno de ColombIa y los Téle. 05769 CIAT CO Teléfono Conmutador 6130111 DIR-1166 Page 2 copatrocInadores, expresando su Interés de que CIAT obtuvIese condIcIones y caracterlstlcas apropIadas a sus mandatos InternacIOnales, a sus fuentes de fInancIamIento InternacIonales, y al caracter InternacIOnal de sus clenhÍlcos A ralz de la fIrma de este Memorando se prepar6 un borrador del Acuerdo entre el Banco MundIal y PNDU por un lado, y el GobIerno de ColombIa por el otro, para dar al presente CIAT los privIlegIOs e inmunIdades apropIados, normalmente pertenecIentes a una organlzaclOn InternacIOnal Sin embargo, la SecclOn Legal del MInIsterio de RelacIOnes Exteriores, despues de haber estudIado esle documento encontro que algunos de los privilegIOs e Inmunidades requeridos podlan ser concedIdos por el GobIerno de ColombIa solamente a instItucIOnes verdaderamente InternacIOnales Estos criterios fueron transmItidos al Dr Jose VIcente Ayerbe-Chaux, consejero legal del CIAT, en una carta de fecha 20 de JUniO de 1984, de la entonces VIce MInistra, Dra Laura Ochoa de Ardlla En dIcha carta se suglrlO que SI por medIO de un acuerdo InternacIonal se podrla crear un CIAT verdaderamente InternacIonal, se le podrlan otorgar tales privilegIOs e InmunIdades De esta manera, durante el año pasado se llevaron a cabo extensas consultas entre el Banco MundIal, representantes del PNUD, y el Consejero Legal de las NacIOnes UnIdas, sobre la mejor manera de establecer un nuevo CIAT internacIOnal, el cual asumIrla todos los activos, oblIgaCIOnes y responsabIlIdades del actual CIA T El procedImIento acordado fue el mIsmo utllIzado por varios de los centros InternacIOnales recIentemente establecIdos, ello es que el Banco MundIal y el PNUD Ílrmen un Memorando de EntendImIento estableCIendo una nueva entidad internacIOnal Este nuevo CIAT, con personerla legal InternacIOnal, entrara en un acuerdo de sede con el GobIerno de ColombIa en el que se otorgara las InmunIdades y privilegIOs internacIonales apropIadas y la transferencIa ordenada de los actIvos, oblIgaCIOnes y responsabilIdades de la vIeja InstltuclOn a la nueva El Banco MundIal y el PNUD estan preparados ahora para la Ílrma de dIcho acuerdo SIn embargo, antes de hacerlo qUIeren saber SI el GobIerno de ColombIa esta de acuerdo con este procedImIento y estarla dIspuesto a fIrmar un acuerdo de sede, menCIOnado anteriormente Al efecto, adjunto copIa del borrador de acuerdo entre el BIRF y el PNUD sobre la constlluclOn del nuevo CIAT, como tamblen una copIa del borrador de acuerdo de sede entre el CIAT mternaclOnal y el GobIerno de ColombIa Sabemos que el acuerdo sobre sede deber a ser sometido a una extensa consulta, y que despues de esta y de su Ílrma debera ser ratlÍlcado por el Congreso ColombIano SIn embargo, este proceso no puede Ir muy leJos hasta que no se cree la nueva entidad InternacIOnal Para poder hacer esto los copatrocInadores desean obtener, en prinCIpIO, el acuerdo del GobIerno ColombIano  Quo cOP'un loa Eotrttut.):] del ci ....... Jo CC:Jtro de 1\\:r1 C' \" 't,.M Tropical (t-IAT), u:-Lculc 12 to<lo~ _~J b1er:c:; J elcr.cnLr j \\lu'\\j voz di'-unlto J li(~uid ldo é~to ?\",= c\\.::ü.1\\l..~r C:lU!Hl, ~ ;\"\"1\"-,11 :)t'r tr'lD-rC ... :!..l t3 (l _ .... :¡tltuclcn-: ... c'n 1 \"'j '-'l.l(n ~ c!~ ea C1.C_~\" 1) ,,-otr::..J ir tituCll\" P 0011 JIH'll'll.J, ruC' 1)\"\"1 lc>n2\"\"'n tilÚ. u_u,J_' e ()  nicn J u8 ro~_~~en~~nte ae u~ O~~lnlo ~ltorn~c1cr31, ~ ~~ iC tanto uc:rJt r:¡ oe l:::.s 1:!rerrot:>:.t~'''':J \"¡\" ~jcnC.lcre.::l CJ,.,,'1Cl. ~¡\"..J ... en lOrJ 1) c\"' .... \"\".:oo :.135 ee 1.956, t.=tiC\"'.l.!.o :0 • OrcJ.\"1::1 :.!, :t,. .... ,.:: le! ~ J 232 ce 1 ~:)7 .. ~D.r:.l este ~fe-c\"'o l::t Jl..ntu Dlr~ct:.\":! ~ : ¡Cent:-o !n\"',;l\"\" .... c.lot\"::ll de Af:T.l.cul\"'''\\lr'''' -'_{' .... ic'11 (CL\\:'), Te!\" :..¡ ..... meGl.O 00 ...,..1 \"\"1 );:~UC!'J,\"';~, deltoró' CCl.l:':1::'CC.!'\" 1:' ..1 1. lni\" ... ';O!'.l C'::C :;:'l e1o\"1es r:. tc:r~o:,::;~ en C::lC~ cano, el DC:: ... lO do la re:::ncZJ.:J. occ . 1r\"'L::11 t:¡,r\"o :;.r-:c el ,4.in~o t2!\"1. o uo ,l{ 11c~r'1 JO w~tc-r1 c!\"e~ t T\"::::-:.. L 1 de Uf':.l (.,....1~11 c\"\"ci6n rel ... t ... vc [¡ 3\"\"c 11. bO'\"'tJ'l que V~ u dc,ca_rr 0 1l::. r en el 1'llG J e:l 't~r;¡Jlno do d\\lruc~cn <.l\" 1. n I;:aPEOS. AR':'ICU•O ()._ ::1 .,u1 .... ~J .... ~r10 de t:'cL\"1cicrco E\"'tteriC'l\"\"Po o~cr'\" :\".:5. 1 1.\"10 \"-1 \"13. ecoticn:::rA 1.:u) o,,;:cDcic\"1!!..¡. (:) ir::t .. ':-J-j tOD Y d'J.r .. 1. 1\"\"';:; f\"1c1.l.:uludcs \"1t.CC-,'::¡~\"\":l ;.:-....... ln. crtr:lc.a el ~:2l0 ce lo~ fl'1CiC'j~~'J 01 del t.ent.ro ~ 00 ~uo f::W111'1rc!j, n::d. c .... 'J\"'I_~ SU!l L,¡uc ... l.:!:,j jo c~ct.ton dO U\"lO e{ ... !u\"'~\"o t'\\l?on'1l U.i.. tCDOl cJv .-.) I diDruc~to en leo J~crotoD m.u:.LrC::I ,3135 \\2c 1956 y lt25 d~ 1 Ijj Y' 232 ~c 1.957, :lo to~:;¡;¡O oue en 1::1 L\"J 1:;,. de 1.959 y de::' J ~i!l pOOl.C1cnc:J lvl,c-~on ... u)u con C'1'\\.'1 ... :::.tcl-in. HOJA No -3- . .- ARTICULO 70.-L09 autor.lcn.aen G~n1.t ri:13, aCUtlP9ro.a J del _ i~ nl..Jter10 ce A;.,T.l.cult1.r\"l rc=::::1t1r<.::n el ll.:}:~:o >:,0 I vi.ol.onto de seL.ill\"1s y I:l3t9r~c)-;,s: CC¡l'~t~coo, de T'r\"or' .... cd:.,J c.c:~ ¡ Centro Intcrnuci on:ü oc ..I¡;r1culturc l'ro~_c\"l (elA T) I e sn•ro 0'\"-terr~torio oc ln Rcrubl~ca o nu J~ore ex~crt~c~Y~ o 1-~cr•~c~~r o\\l3ndo .... e:::: neceGnr~o, Sl€:;:¡\"\"'ro J cucnno et.e ect<:l3 seo11:!.:'3 J c..~! ter~::llcs cotén acocr3\"'o.d~B oc los corr\\'}spcndientes cc;;::'t1f:!.o:.--¡ ,. dos 53n1 t3ri os.A'l7ICU T O 130 -LCl Direcci6-¡ ¡¡¡:¡~:ton:ll de ~dU2!J\"S a IlO):¡.C.J. tJd d~l, lu1I\"lfi+er10 <-Q FfJl::!clcn<;:3 -A1::: ..... 1o!\"cc c.~c't:::r_ l::lD I nOl\"lJac y r~01orúntC::l e:::recio.le t.e i':lcll-l\"t:D la r~\"\" ... ';.~ .... --------------------------- SOl:lte usted a !ül conslderacl6n el Proyec.to Ú..: ¡,tIJl!f•j\" ,< Sede edre el C.o!Jferr,Q da C\"}lol~bll'l y el Centro Intt.ruclona I \"''' ¡,r¡rlcu} tura Tropical -CIAl--:\";hrc el \",;.¡rt1culdr .... ~ .. 4;;r 1t( c\". lIP,:, rlr... ,11' Cvi'.C 11'\" ¡ro I~~ lo \"\"ntl:. úir .. ctlViI \"el l.IAT, estoy lrfC'r ~ lo ,,\" 11 r,í..::v;k.l, JJ¡; -;;1 -CiD Ccptro ,1er~ tLfd a,.t~ner 5t'tu~ ~e or¡arjs~o 11 tprl•~lDn~l. I COllO ~Ilnistro de Agrfl..ultura sé de su lat.or rl¡.¡,tif,cl cíe ';ll$ 101'1\"05 al,\\I¡,z.,llos, rdrllcul\"f.,ollto ó..Il lvs cultIves .,Je >lrr..;.!. )1 ra, fdjol. ;><l$tos tro .. dcales J tecTr-l::-h ~c sonllliS I:nHe\"uo (,Jé 1(.. prlvllé¡los,/ ¡rE'lrO'I!)tlv\",S soi1cl,a::!,):. la ,,,,,0-r1il oll les tu, h.s \"H~I' pr~\\'lsté~ di ¡ 1 : .. Cl\"éto )01 d~ ~.~ , 51:'''1lur.\"ut! t.TI t;)r .1I.es !/ .. J1er6Ies SI: .;¡tOI\"\\lD\" a organIsmos 1I1terr.,;¡cülI,a les de este género, y qu~ ~n otros p~tsl'S se I','r toret('jr\" a \\..en : tr)~ h¡;r7lnoS del CI\"T.As' las cosas, este N1nister10 tonel rt~~ f~vorat lell'l'ntc ~t \\-re el -Acuerdo de Sede propuesto y solicito 1\\ fse PéS¡;.!d.~ p '~l.i.rle la de!:>1,l\" at¡;'1c1ón ;uc JW<lltúa su t,~!i~f ,'.0 1.1'-CI\" >,4r4::1 \"\") cole.biano CrA T tendra mmunldad de )urIsdlcclOn y competencIa, excepto 1) en la medIda en que el CIA T haya renunCIado expresamente a tal mmunldad en un caso determmado.   ","tokenCount":"1623"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/5962896098.json b/data/part_2/5962896098.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..36a42ea806b24df1e68649d6bf97e6f0d4e551db
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+++ b/data/part_2/5962896098.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4192b421907018fc31531f54c642afff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2a91ffd8-100b-4eda-b5d9-b56563d43021/retrieve","id":"-527274028"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b89f6584-1676-48e1-af25-8c7b9d7f191c","pagecount":"2","content":"• Historically lowest deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, with zero deforestation during Brazil's REDD+ baseline period (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)  The Amapá Green Free Trade Zone (Zona Franca Verde -ZFV), created in 2015 by the Federal Government, is an 8,162 km² industrial zone with tax exemption for industries supplying national and international markets with timber and non-timber forest products. Located near the port of Santana, an export hub, the initiative aims to stimulate production and processing of forest products and value chains that support biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods. Two industries currently operate in the ZFV: one for animal feed based on açai and buriti fruits, and another for ice cream based on native Amazon fruits. ZFV-based companies can receive the associated Green Seal certification. It is expected that more industries will relocate production to the ZFV, and that their use of local forest products will stimulate the local economy. Other benefits include attraction of outside investments, job creation, and economic growth, including in the agricultural sector. Expected expansion of the Santana port will increase capacity for exportation of products. The ZFV is managed by the Superintendence of the Free Zone of Manaus (SUFRAMA), a federal agency; the state is not involved in management, but determines how to adapt the zone to state conditions.  • No state-level MRV system • SEMA-AP refines PRODES deforestation data, using Landsat images & manual classification; published every 2 years, heavy cloud cover impedes comprehensive monitoring • Technical cooperation agreement with Censipam will allow use of radar imagery to improve monitoring despite cloud cover   ","tokenCount":"256"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6000451114.json b/data/part_2/6000451114.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..100728ad146618a82329485d6dd593537169919a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/6000451114.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e9499598ac17335ab62a59120b21664c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/235f2aa7-66f5-4a97-a324-b3df17b12210/retrieve","id":"207544473"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"291412d8-83b6-4c39-8f84-9f8ac57bd467","pagecount":"2","content":"Légumineuses de couverture : évaluation et innovation par les agriculteurs L 'Initiative pour la productivité intégrée des sols par la recherche et l'éducation INSPIRE) a été lancée en 1998 avec comme objectif principal de mettre au point et de mettre en place des essais en exploitation agricole, et de diffuser les techniques améliorées de gestion intégrée de la fertilité des sols, de façon à combattre les problèmes alarmants liés au déclin de la productivité des sols dans l'Est de l'Ouganda. Les partenaires du projet INSPIRE incluent le réseau Afrique 2000 (A2N), « Appropriate Technology » (Ouganda), le CIAT (notamment l'Institut de la biologie et de la fertilité des sols), le ministère de l'Agriculture, les services régionaux de vulgarisation agricole, des représentants d'exploitants agricoles, le projet sur la sécurité alimentaire et la commercialisation (FOSEM), l'ICRAF, l'organisation nationale de recherche en agriculture, l'Université de Makerere et l'Association ougandaise des agriculteurs (UNFA). Parmi les différentes techniques d'amélioration de la fertilité des sols, le recours aux légumineuses de couverture a montré d'excellents résultats, en faisant l'une des méthodes les plus viables grâce à son caractère économique, sa pertinence, sa simplicité, et ses utilisations multiples permettant de subvenir aux divers besoins des agriculteurs pauvres.L'idée de demander aux agriculteurs d'évaluer les méthodes de culture des légumineuses de couverture visait essentiellement à obtenir des informations sur l'impact des légumineuses de couverture et de certains arbustes introduits ou disponibles localement sur la fertilité des sols. Il s'agissait en particulier de documenter les innovations que les agriculteurs avaient réalisées à partir de ces techniques. De nombreux agriculteurs ont rapporté avoir essayé d'utiliser les cultures de couverture comme engrais vert selon des méthodes différentes de celles qui avaient été décrites par les chercheurs au cours de essais (Tableau 2).A partir de critères définis en collaboration avec les agriculteurs (Tableau 1), on a utilisé un outil d'analyse des préférences permettant de déterminer, pour chaque élément des différentes techniques, les chances d'acceptation ou de refus. La probabilité d'acceptation (0-100%) pour chaque espèce -calculée en additionnant le taux de probabilité des espèces se présentant à un niveau donné de l'échelle -a été inscrite par rapport à l'ordre de classement (de 1 à 10 ","tokenCount":"360"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6015063061.json b/data/part_2/6015063061.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f873efccb251f308e8cfe33e3d523e6370a607a0
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+++ b/data/part_2/6015063061.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5c79a3ad754e4db2ce4c6fc3e6967f7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c212e7f6-b5b6-44fd-b5af-afb0fdc780b5/retrieve","id":"1184897982"},"keywords":["Extrusion","common beans","optimization","desirability function","physicochemical properties","RSM"],"sieverID":"9f9a0f22-106e-4be8-9665-4df8b6280788","pagecount":"30","content":"The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are a nutritious food consumed as a staple by a large population throughout the world, especially in developing countries (Anderson et al., 2016). Beans not only provide proteins, but are also rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre (Nyombaire, Siddiq, & Dolan, 2011), and average daily per capita consumption ranges between 0.01 and 0.18 kg/day (Blair, 2013).Recently, new common bean varieties enriched with iron and zinc through conventional breeding were developed with the aim of reducing micronutrient malnutrition among vulnerable populations. Among these is Roba1 containing about 66.7 and 27.6 g/g of Fe and Zn, respectively (Natabirwa, Muyonga, Nakimbugwe, & Lungaho, 2018). Roba1 is a high-yielding and multiple diseaseresistant haricot bean variety currently produced in Sub-Saharan African countries (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda), with average yield of about 1.8 tons/ha (Mukankusi, Nkalubo, Katungi, et al, 2015).Biofortified and iron-rich beans in general ontain higher levels of iron (~70 -96 ug/g) and zinc and (~26 -35ug/g) than the conventional beans (Bouis & Welch, 2010). The use of biofortified beans as major ingredients in processed foods would help to improve the nutritional quality.Bean consumption however has generally remained relatively low due to the lengthy cooking time which translates into high fuel costs (Rocha-Guzman et al., 2008), and monotonous preparation techniques involved. Moreover, common beans have hardly been explored as raw material in the food industry, except canning and to some extent, flour production (Nyombaire et al., 2011;Pedrosa et al., 2015). Even though sprouting, soaking, fermentation and roasting have been explored for nutritional improvement, the processes are cumbersome and can only be used on small-scale (Nkundabombi, Nakimbugwe, & Muyonga, 2015;Rehman, Salariya, & Zafar, 2001;Rocha-Guzman et al., 2008).Extrusion cooking, a high temperature-short time industrial processing technique, has been singled out as the most promising method which can transform food raw material into highly nutritious, palatable and quality food (Ghumman, Kaur, Singh, & Singh, 2016;Siddiq, Kelkar, Harte, Dolan, & Nyombaire, 2013). Extrusion produces a range of food products from cereals and legumes (including flours, snacks, breakfast cereal, etcetera) with distinctive characteristics (Anton, Fulcher, & Arntfield, 2009;Meng, Threinen, Hansen, & Driedger, 2010;Nyombaire et al., 2011). The technology offers high efficiency in terms of fuel cost and output, but it is affected by a range of factors including ingredient type and extrusion conditions which determine the properties of extrudates (Ghumman et al., 2016;Steel et al., 2012). Notably, any variations in parameters such as extruder barrel temperatures, ingredient moisture, specific mechanical energy and screw speed, affect process variables as well as product quality.Reports have shown that mild extrusion conditions (high moisture content, low residence time, low temperature) improve the nutritional quality of beans, while high extrusion temperatures (>200 °C), low moisture contents (< 15%) and/or improper formulation (such as presence of high-reactive sugars) can adversely impair the nutritional quality (Berrios, Ascheri, & Losso, 2012;Siddiq et al., 2013). However, studies on effects of extrusion processing conditions on extrudate properties have majorly been undertaken on conventional beans, other legumes and cereals (Ghumman et al., 2016;Korus, Gumul, & Czechowska, 2007;Nyombaire et al., 2011;Rathod & Annapure, 2017;Siddiq et al., 2013).Response Surface methodology (RSM) and multi-response desirability function can be used for optimization of processing conditions through exploration of relationship between several processes and responses (Altan, McCarthy, & Maskan, 2008;Bezerra, Santelli, Oliveira, Villar, & Escaleira, 2008;Jain, Monika;Singh, Chetna;Gupta, Kushboo;Jain, 2014). The RSM approach is important in design, development and formulation of new products, as well as improvement of existing product design (Bezerra et al., 2008). With the desirability function approach, operating conditions that meet the criteria set for optimization and provide the best value of compromise for combined responses, are established (Vera Candioti, De Zan, Cámara, & Goicoechea, 2014). Various product quality characteristics can be optimized together. For the extrusion of biofortified beans to be successful, critical control of processing conditions and a precise study of the variations that occur in product properties are necessary. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of feed moisture, screw speed and die temperature on physicochemical and nutritional properties of Roba1 bean extrudate and; to determine the best combination of extrusion processing parameters for a desirable snack extrudate.Roba1 bean extrudates were developed following a Box Behnken design with three independent variables including ingredient feed moisture, extruder die temperature, and screw speed. Levels of each variable were established basing on preliminary trials and works from previous authors (Anton et al., 2009;Berrios et al., 2012). The three levels of process variables were coded as -1, 0 and 1, making the total number of experiments equal to 15 by Box Behnken design. Coded and actual values for process variables are given in Table 1. Newly harvested dry beans of variety Roba1, a plain cream coloured bean enriched with iron and zinc through biofortification, were purchased from farmers in Rakai district, Uganda. The beans were sorted, washed with clean tap water and solar dried at temperatures 30 -55°C for approximately 20 hours. Dried bean grains were milled using a commercial mill (Model YZMF, Yize, Shuliy Henan, China), to pass through a 1.5 mm sieve.Beans were extruded in a Twin Screw Extruder (Model DP 70-III, Jinan, China) at barrel temperatures 60/100/120°C, 60/110/135 °C and 60/110/150 °C, and feed moisture 15 to 20 % and screw speeds (35,40 and 45 Hz), as described in Table 1 above. The die diameter, screw diameter and length to diameter ratio of extruder were 5 mm, 27 mm and 18:1, respectively. Resultant extrudates were cooled to room temperature, and milled using a Stainless Steel mill (Model 30B-C, Changzhou, China) to pass through a 1.5 mm pore size sieve.Extrudate expansion ratio (ER) and bulk density (BD) were determined according to methods described (Natabirwa, Muyonga, Nakimbugwe, & Lungaho, 2017). Water absorption index (WAI) and water solubility index (WSI)were determined using methods described (Natabirwa et al., 2017;Nyombaire et al., 2011). The final pasting viscosity of extruded flour was determined using extrusion profile on a Rapid Viscoanalyzer, Model RVA 4500, (Perten Instruments, Australia) using methods described (Natabirwa et al., 2017).The texture of cylindrical extrudates (approximately 3 -4 cm long pieces) was A multi-enzyme in vitro technique (Hsu, Vavak, Satterlee, & Miller, 1977;Krupa-Kozak & Soral-Śmietana, 2010) was applied for determination of protein digestibility since it could avoid under-predicting the digestibility of proteins. The digestibility was calculated using the regression equation (eq. 1) (Hsu et al, 1977).where, H is the pH value of the sample suspension after 10 minutes digestion with the multi-enzyme solution.Total polyphenol content Total polyphenol content was determined using the Folin-Ciocalteau reagent, as described (Makkar, 2000;Natukunda, Muyonga, & Mukisa, 2016), with modifications. Briefly, 0.20 g of finely ground bean flour was measured into a 50 ml polypropyrene tube and extracted twice using 5 ml of methanol:water (50:50, v/v) with ultrasonication (20 min). The extraction solution was centrifuged at 3000 x g, for 10 min.), and the supernatant (extract) was stored at 4°C in a refrigerator until time for use. Total polyphenols in the extract were then determined as described (Natukunda et al., 2016). A standard curve was prepared with gallic acid at concentrations 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.10 mg/ml. Final results were expressed as gallic acid equivalents (mg GAE/100 g of bean flour).Phytate content was determined according to the method described (Gao et al., 2007) with modifications. Briefly, 0.5 g of raw and extruded bean flour (ground to pass A standard curve was prepared using series of calibration standards containing 0, 1.12, 2.24, 3.36, 5.6, 7.84, or 11.2 mg L−1 PA-P from phytic acid sodium salt hydrate (Sigma, P8810) and phytic acid content determined as above.Means and standard deviations for experimental data were computed using Statistica 7.0 (Tulsa, OK, USA). Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to relate product characteristics to extrusion variables. Response surface plots were generated as a function of two variables, while keeping the third variable constant at its intermediate value. Regression coefficients were generated by a second order polynomial:where, \uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC56 is a response variable;\uD835\uDC35 0 is a constant; \uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC56 , \uD835\uDC35 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC57 are gradients; \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56,\uD835\uDC57 are factors; and \uD835\uDF00 is error term.The simultaneous optimization of the process conditions and product responses (protein digestibility, WAI, WSI, extrudate expansion ratio (ER), bulk density and hardness) for Roba1 bean snack was accomplished using a multi-response desirability method (Derringer & Suich, 1980). Individual desirability functions for each response variable were manipulated to achieve optimum values (Granato, Ribeiro, Castro, & Masson, 2010). In this study, WAI, bulk density and extrudate hardness demanded minimization, while protein digestibility, WSI and ER were maximized.Roba1 bean extrudate properties differed significantly with variation in die temperature, feed moisture and screw speed (Tables 2, 3 and 4). The coefficients of determinations (R 2 ) for regression equations varied between 0.484 and 0.842 with significant probability values (p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001) (Table 4).Significant negative quadratic effects (p < 0.01) of die temperature and positive interaction effects (p < 0.05) of die temperature with feed moisture on protein digestibility were observed (Table 4). Total polyphenols were significantly decreased with increase in feed moisture (linear terms, p < 0.05) and interactions of die temperature (linear) with feed moisture (quadratic). Increases in screw speed (linear terms) and feed moisture (quadratic terms) resulted in increases in total polyphenols. The increases in screw speed (quadratic) and interaction effects of die temperature (quadratic) with screw speed (linear) resulted in decrease in total polyphenols. Possibly high screw speed limits the time of exposure of polyphenols to heat destruction (Anton et al, 2008).Phytates are considered undesirable in foods since they form complexes with major divalent and trivalent cations (Ca, Fe, Zn, Mg and Cu) bearing an effect on mineral uptake, and also bind with proteins affecting their nutritional quality and absorption (Greiner, R., Konietzny, U., Jany, 2006). In this study, reduction in phytate content (Table 3) by at least 12 % as a result of extrusion was observed. Raw Roba1 flour was initially analyzed with average phytate content of 38.3 mg/g. No significant effect of change in feed moisture, die temperature and/or screw speed (linear, quadratic or interaction terms) on phytates were observed (p > 0.05) for Roba1 extrudate as seen from regression models.  Increases in feed moisture by linear terms resulted in reduced expansion of Roba1 extrudate, while increases in screw speed (linear), feed moisture (quadratic) and interaction terms of die temperature with feed moisture resulted in increased extrudate expansion (Table 4). Decreases in expansion at high feed moisture might be due to reduced elasticity of dough through plasticization of melt in the extruder (Ding, Ainsworth, Plunkett, Tucker, & Marson, 2006;Hagenimana, Ding, & Fang, 2006). The significant increases in expansion (p < 0.01) due to increased screw speed may be attributed to bubble growth resulting from increased water vapour pressure at the die nozzle (Hagenimana et al., 2006). The results suggest that low feed moisture and high screw speed would be important for attainment of high expansion of extrudates.Bulk density is related to the extent of extrudate expansion (Hagenimana et al., 2006) and is very important in the production of expanded and formed food products.Increases in feed moisture at low die temperatures (<130 °C) and high feed moisture at high die temperatures (>145°C) resulted in increased bulk density (Table 3; Fig. 1). High bulk density at high feed moisture was probably due to the lubricating and plasticizing effect of water, which lowers the mechanical shear effects and disruption of starch in the extruder (Altan & Maskan, 2011). High bulk density could also be due to rupture of the starch cell walls caused by fibre particles before the gas bubbles in the starch attained full expansion (Altan & Maskan, 2011;Chiu, Peng, Tsai, Tsay, & Lui, 2013). Chiu et al (2013) reported that high bulk density may result from binding of water to non-starch polysaccharides (fibre) which inhibits water loss at the die thus reducing expansion. Low bulk density at high screw speed (Fig. 1b and    1c) for all temperatures was probably due to starch gelatinization and increased expansion of extrudate caused by increased water vapour pressure at the die (Hagenimana et al., 2006). In this study it is notable that high bulk density was a function of increase in feed moisture (linear terms) and the interactions of feed moisture (linear terms) with die temperature (Table 4). Low feed moisture and high screw speed therefore would be necessary for obtaining an extrudate with low bulk density.Water absorption index (WAI) was significantly influenced by feed moisture in both linear and quadratic terms, screw speed (linear terms) and the interaction of die temperature and feed moisture (Table 4, Fig. 1d to 1f). The negative coefficients of the linear terms of screw speed, quadratic terms of feed moisture and interaction terms of die temperature and feed moisture indicate that WAI decreases with increase of those variables. Positive coefficients of the linear terms of feed moisture indicated that WAI increased with increases in feed moisture. The increase in WAI with increasing feed moisture could be attributed to the dispersion of starch in excess water, the increased degree of starch damage by gelatinization and the extrusion induced fragmentation of starch granules (Chiu et al., 2013;Ding, Ainsworth, Tucker, & Marson, 2005;Hagenimana et al., 2006;Yagcı & Gögüs, 2011). High moisture content builds low viscosity, thus allowing for internal mixing and uniform heating of the dough which would account for enhanced gelatinization (Yagcı & Gögüs, 2011). Additionally, protein denaturation, starch gelatinization and swelling of fibre at high feed moisture could be responsible for increase in WAI (Altan & Maskan, 2011).Increases in die temperature (linear) and interactions of die temperature and feed moisture (linear and quadratic terms) caused increase in WSI, while increases in feed moisture (linear) resulted in reduction of WSI (Table 3). Similarly increases in screw speed caused significant increase in WSI at low feed moisture and at high die temperature (Fig. 1h and 1i). Increase in WSI at high die temperatures was probably associated with the disintegration of starch granules and low molecular compounds from extrudate melt during the extrusion process, thus increasing the soluble material. (Yağcı & Göğüş, 2008) The increase in WSI with increase in screw speed was in agreement with previous works (Altan & Maskan, 2011;Altan et al., 2008) and may be due to increased specific mechanical energy, mechanical shear and degradation of macromolecules. Increased WSI at high temperature and high screw speed (Fig. 1h) was possibly associated with the starch degradation at high temperature and greater shear action at high screw speed (Altan & Maskan, 2011;Seth, Badwaik, & Ganapathy, 2015) High WSI at high feed moisture could be explained by the complete changes of food components from native forms, that is starch gelatinization and protein denaturation, respectively (Yu, Liang;Ramaswamy, 2012). The low WSI at high feed moisture and low die temperature, as well as at low screw speed and low die temperature could be explained by the low degree of starch transformation, the reduced shear degradation of starch and the low tendency to dextrinization (Hernandez-Diaz, Quintero-Ramos, Barnard, & Balandran-Quintana, 2007;Liu et al., 2011). High moisture content in extrusion processes may reduce protein denaturation and starch degradation (Hernandez-Diaz et al., 2007). Alternatively, high feed moisture acts as a plasticizer thus hindering full expansion and rupture of starch in the extruder (Liu et al., 2011). WSI is an indication of the ease of solubilization and extent of water absorption of the cooked product (Altan & Maskan, 2011). While WAI measures the volume occupied by starch after swelling in excess water, thus its integrity in aqueous dispersions ( Ding et al., 2005). Both WAI and WSI can be useful indicators of the suitability for use of extruded starchy products in suspensions or solutions (Yagcı, & Gögüs, 2011). Results from this study were in agreement with Ding et al., (2006) who reported increases in WSI as extrusion temperature increased at feed moisture of 18.2%. High WAI obtained at moderate feed moisture and low-to-high die temperatures possibly reflected the ability of Roba1 extrudate to absorb moisture and the stability of starch polymer composites upon exposure to water treatment;which would be a good attribute in flour applications for aqueous dispersions (Sarifudin & Assiry, 2014) such as soups and gruels. This study therefore reveals that both extrusion conditions and material composition appear to influence the functional properties of bean extrudates (WAI, WSI, bulk density and expansion).The hardness, crunchiness and crispiness of Roba1 extrudates measured in terms of peak force and area under force deformation curve were determined. Peak force represents the resistance of extrudate to initial penetration and is believed to be the hardness of the extrudate (Anton & Luciano, 2007;Ding et al., 2006). The regression model of extrudate hardness was significant as a function of screw speed (linear terms), feed moisture (quadratic terms), and the interactions of feed moisture with die temperature (Table 4). High screw speed and low feed moisture resulted in soft extrudates. Increase in feed moisture at low die temperatures resulted in increased extrudate hardness (Fig. 2 and 3). Positive coefficients of feed moisture (LT and QT) and interactions of die temperature (QT) with screw speed resulted in increased extrudate hardness (Table 4, Fig. 3). This could partly be due to the reduced dough friction in the extruder, permitting rapid extrusion and full expansion of extrudate at the die exit at high temperatures (Hagenimana et al., 2006). Increase in screw speed (LT) significantly (p < 0.05) decreased Roba1 extrudate hardness, particularly at low feed moisture and high die temperature (Figures 2b, 2c, and 3). Low hardness, a favoured property of extrudates (Meng et al., 2010), was observed at low feed moisture and high screw speed. Results from this study are similar to reports from previous works (Altan et al., 2008;Ding et al., 2005), which showed that extrudate hardness increased with increase in feed moisture at low die temperatures. This may be due to the reduced pressure resulting from lubrication of extruder walls at high feed moisture, thus lowering expansion. The hardness of extrudates was highly related to the bulk density (Fig. 1 and 2). Low screw speed resulted in harder extrudates, which probably was due to increase in melt viscosity of the mix (Ding et al., 2006;Maskus & Arntfield, 2015).The area under the force determination curve (Table 2) represents the energy required for a given displacement and can measure the crispiness and brittleness in texture of a product (Anton & Luciano, 2007). Roba1 extrudate brittleness tended to increase with increase in screw speed (LT, p < 0.01) and decrease in feed moisture (QT, p < 0.001)(Table 4; Figure 3b). Increase in die temperature (QT) increased the crispiness of Roba1 extrudate. Interactions between die temperature (quadratic) and feed moisture (linear) significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the area under the forcedeformation curve (  et al., (2008) and Ding et al., (2006) who reported similar findings.Optimal extrusion conditions that simultaneously satisfied all selected extrudate responses and could improve the efficiency of the process for Roba1 snack extrudate were identified (Fig. 4). Notable, individual optimal desirability values (\uD835\uDC51) (Fig. 4) differed from those obtained with a global optimal desirability (\uD835\uDC37). This was due to the conversions that occurred statistically to reach a simultaneously optimal values (Tumwesigye et al., 2016;Vera Candioti et al., 2014). Results revealed that die temperature 142.5 °C, feed moisture 15 % and screw speed 45 Hz, were sufficient for producing best characteristics for Roba1extrudate with bulk density 1.32 g/cm 3 , expansion ratio 2.60 and hardness 24.4 N at optimal desirability of 0.75. High expansion, low bulk density and hardness were identified as important attributes in extruded beans snack processing, properties also established by previous workers (Altan & Maskan, 2011;Jyothi, Sheriff, & Sajeev, 2009;Maskus & Arntfield, 2015). These findings show that low feed moisture and high screw speed are essential for obtaining bean snack extrudate with desirable expansion, hardness, bulk density and protein digestibility.The results of this study revealed that die temperature, feed moisture and screw significantly influenced Roba1 bean extrudate properties. Regression coefficient (R 2 ) values showed significant effect of individual factors and their interactions in influencing bean extrudate properties. Increases in WAI, bulk density and extrudate hardness and reductions in expansion and WSI were a function of the linear, quadratic and interaction relationships of feed moisture, die temperature and screw speed. Low feed moisture and high screw speed were found essential to produce a soft crispy snack extrudate with low bulk density and high water solubility index.Die temperature 142.5 °C, feed moisture (15%) and screw speed 270 rpm were found as optimal process conditions for producing an expanded snack extrudate from Roba1 bean with optimal desirability >0.7. Results of this study therefore can be very important for application in the food industry, providing extrusion conditions that for generating acceptable and nutritious products. This in turn will contribute to increased diversity of bean products on the market, reduce monotony and overcome the challenge of hard-to-cook defects. Subsequent inclusion of Roba1 beans in extruded snacks shall increase protein, fibre and mineral intake by the consumers.","tokenCount":"3545"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6015820626.json b/data/part_2/6015820626.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"27b48aefb0f2f6f518dc74b55a4d8bd6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/339f0c36-1152-411a-a98b-7015bede061a/content","id":"-395919127"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73c47162-46fb-45a5-97f0-fe78bca703a5","pagecount":"1","content":"Smallholder farmers often do not know accurately the area of the field they want to plant and, consequently, they don't know how much seed to purchase. Most seed packets do not provide information on the number of seeds in the pack. Yet, the size of seeds can vary from variety to variety -almost twofold. Maize-Seed-Area can calculate the amount of seed required for different varieties and help farmers buy the correct quantity.Increasing the knowledge delivery capacity Few smallholder farmers have regular contact with extension workers. Mobile phone apps can improve access to independent advice; they can be used by agro-dealers, extension workers, and smartphone-owning farmers.Mobile phone apps can deliver field-specific advice, adjusted to the farmer's circumstances. For instance, the appropriate plant spacing depends on the variety grown -long duration varieties need wider spacing than short duration ones.Besides providing advice, mobile apps can also collect automatically information from farmers, such as what they do on their fields or what varieties they prefer. Thus research becomes more demand-driven and the quality of agronomic advice improves.Is this variety Striga weed resistant? Which varieties mature quickly? Which varieties are drought tolerant? These questions can now be answered quickly using dedicated search options: Farmers are usually given standard plant spacing advice, typically 75 x 25 cm (between x within rows) and one seed per planting hole. Yet, yields will improve when plant spacing is adjusted to the field's soil management and variety used. This option advises on appropriate plant spacing using information on soil characteristics and farmers' use of manure, fertiliser and maize variety. Smallholder farmers often do not know how big the field area they want to plant really is. Consequently, they buy too little or too much fertiliser and seed, or pay too much for ploughing and weeding services. GPS-measurement of the field can prevent unnecessary expenditure or buying too few seeds.Maize-Seed-Area uses the (GPS-measured) field size, the farmer's preferred variety and plant spacing, to calculate how many kilograms of seed is needed.for more information (scan / mail): Jens Andersson, e-mail: j.andersson@cgiar.org Peter Craufurd, e-mail: p.craufurd@cgiar.org ","tokenCount":"343"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6026154866.json b/data/part_2/6026154866.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a129d1aeea3883ccb7c3fe511a13a5b6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dbe1277b-ef71-4c51-8251-dbffc60294b8/retrieve","id":"618739367"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2bf9784e-1390-499c-9bf1-10403b023082","pagecount":"4","content":"Tanzania's Agricultural Sector Development Programme Phase II emphasizes that agricultural development is crucial for the growth of the national economy, as well as for providing adequate food to guarantee nutritional security to the Tanzanian population. It calls for enhanced agricultural productivity with sustainable water and land use management, in other words sustainable intensification.The livestock sector is particularly critical to this development, as it provides:1. important nutrients for a diverse diet; 2. high value products; 3. risk mitigation for smallholder farmers; and 4. manure for soil health.However, it is resource intensive and can cause environmental pollution when badly managed.A three-country country project (ResLeSS 2 ) has shown how, by using the CLEANED approach, local government and value chain actors can explore alternative ways to increase productivity of their livestock sector, to produce more animal sourced food while maintaining or even reducing the pressure on their local environment.The CLEANED approach is a computer-assisted participatory learning process that aims to understand the opportunities and constraints to local livestock production, taking environmental, equity and well-being considerations into account. It seeks to identify trade-offs and synergies between the environmental and well-being impacts associated with different options for developing a livestock value chain, with a view to designing a locally supported, shared vision of an ambitious yet realistic livestock sector development.\"The CLEANED approach aims to understand the local opportunities and constraints to livestock production.\"The CLEANED approach seeks a balance between being implementable within a short time while also being sensitive to the particular context. It does this by combining existing data with local and expert knowledge. The aim is to produce information that is meaningful, capturing the locally relevant dynamics in the livestock value chain.The CLEANED approach is implemented in four steps:A 'reconnaissance tour' during which interviews are undertaken with key informants to identify the major locally relevant livestock trends.• Agricultural development, including livestock, is crucial for national economic growth and to guarantee nutritional security.The CLEANED 1 approach, using the CLEANED R tool, explores alternative ways to increase productivity and well-being while mitigating the amount and distribution of environmental and well-being impacts across the value chain. As such, this contributes to sustainable water and land use management.The approach allows local government and value chain actors to translate national policies such as the Agricultural Sector Development Programme Phase II into plans for implementation that are locally relevant and agreed on by all actors.• In high potential areas, the approach can be used to refine strategies of livestock improvement, while in agro-pastoral areas the approach can contribute to conflict resolution over land use for livestock production.Author affiliations:1. A first (of two) multi-stakeholder workshop with three objectives. First, to validate major livestock issues as well as the state and use of existing natural resource. Second, to describe locally relevant systems of livestock production and their associated feed baskets (that is, the type and amount of feed and fodder used for livestock in that system). Third, for participants to develop locally relevant well-being indicators to assess the success of livestock livelihood strategies.• Parametrization of the CLEANED R tool, that can compute locally specific production and environmental impact measures, namely water used for fodder production; greenhouse gas emissions including enteric fermentation, manure management and fodder production; biodiversity losses resulting from land use change for fodder; and soil fertility which compares nitrogen added from manure with nitrogen extracted by fodder production.  Lessons from high potential highland in Lushoto, TanzaniaThe CLEANED R tool for Lushoto, Tanga, Tanzania was parameterized to explore the benefits and trade-offs of improving livestock breeds for dairy production, namely local breeds (kienyeji), cross-breeds (chotara), and mostly exotic breeds (kisasa).The improved breeds require better management in terms of housing, veterinary services and sufficient high value feed. High value feed means more planted fodder, which competes with food production, and more concentrates such as brans or oil seed cakes which need to be purchased. The group agreed that a move to improved breeds therefore means competition for limited financial resources, such that emergencies may even require families to sell land to maintain good livestock management.The 2010 scenario agreed by the group showed that an increase of 160 per cent of milk production is possible at the cost of 50 per cent of total staple food production. Participants felt they had no competitive advantage in staple production and already need to purchase it. Getting more income from milk will allow them to be more food secure as well as fulfil their other objectives such as educating children or having a brick house with running water and electricity.In addition, the move to purchased concentrates that do not require land will reduce the overall pressure on land, allowing more higher-producing animals to be kept, or freeing up the land for planting fodder or other economic activities.\"Participants... learned to look beyond their own farm and realized they can benefit from moving to more intensive production together...\"Participants of the workshop learned to look beyond their own farm and realized they can benefit from moving to more intensive production together, as their joint increased demand for veterinary services and livestock related inputs will increase the provision and quality of these services, most likely reducing their cost to individual farmers. Also, by exploring options for 2030 they discovered that understanding their constraints and planning how to overcome these will help them to reach their objectives.Lessons from peri-urban agro-pastoral area in Bama, Burkina FasoIn Burkina Faso, the CLEANED approach explored both dairy and meat production in Bama, the peri-urban area of Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city of Burkina Faso. The CLEANED R tool was parameterized to explore the cohabitation between two conflicting parties, the sedentary livestock keepers and agro-pastoral livestock keepers.Improving both breeds and livestock management is only possible for the sedentary farmers, as agro-pastoral systems rely on local breeds that are sturdy enough to go on transhumance. Therefore, the CLEANED R tool only allowed for exotic, high producing breeds in the sedentary system.The pastoral system was set up to mitigate risks by splitting animals into different groups based on travelling distance, each of which had its own set of management options.The scenario for 2030 agreed by the group showed a potential increase of 30 per cent of milk and 80 per cent of meat production. The sedentary farmer will move to exotic breeds with more intensive management, and similarly to Lushoto in Tanzania, rely mainly on planted fodder and concentrates. This reduces the pressure on grazing land that can then be used by the pastoralists for their moving animals that are mainly kept for meat in today's management which mainly relies on grass and crop residues. In return, pastoralists agreed to improve the feed and therefore the productivity of their lactating herd that does not go on transhumance.\"Two conflicting parties came together and listened to each other's arguments with respect.\"In playing the value chain transformation game in a learning space, two conflicting parties came together and, for the first time in years, listened to each other's arguments with respect. Not only did they discover that peaceful co-habitation could be possible, they agreed on better land-use planning that not only secures the pastoral routes (land rights) but also improves the quality and quantity of grass in these areas.What is the potential of the CLEANED approach for Tanzania?Tanzania's livestock master plan is ambitious in terms of animal sourced food production, especially in the high potential areas. Yet it does not take local resource base or the environment into account. Neither does it suggest how to mobilize actors on the ground.The CLEANED approach can be used to \"down-scale\" the master plan to the local context, to develop a shared vision among the different actors of how they can contribute both to their own objectives and to national development. An additional planning step could be added to develop a locally relevant road map to a realistic implementation of the national master plan, in collaboration with local and international businesses and knowledge partners. For sustainable implementation, the CLEANED approach should be a complement to capacity building of local institutions and communities.The CLEANED approach will yield different benefits in different settings. The focus in high potential areas can lie on improving dairy value chains through management and breeding, making use of a parametrization of the CLEANED R tool similar to Lushoto. By contrast, in agro-pastoral areas, a CLEANED R tool parametrization like Burkina Faso can play a key role in the conflict resolution process between sedentary farmers and pastoralists, and focus on improving the meat value chain. Catherine Pfeifer ILRI, Kenya c.pfeifer@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"1418"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6030714950.json b/data/part_2/6030714950.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f00eaca0585d81aa580230a70643dff56113aa86
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0c73c109a88637c62518ae31fb2b216f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/07e98c2b-5b43-4ab7-bf6b-bc675cabe4df/content","id":"179553535"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"05c57d49-50d2-48ec-8dac-ad14f4d51ba3","pagecount":"13","content":"Brachiaria humidicola (syn. Urochloa humidicola) has been acknowledged to control soil nitrification through release of nitrification inhibitors (NI), a phenomenon conceptualized as biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). Liming and N fertilization as features of agricultural intensification may suppress BNI performance, due to a decrease in NI exudation, increased NH 3 availability and promotion of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) over archaea (AOA). A 2-year three-factorial pot trial was conducted to investigate the influence of soil pH and soil microbial background (ratio of archaea to bacteria) on BNI performance of B. humidicola. The study verified the capacity of B. humidicola to reduce net nitrification rates by 50 to 85% compared to the non-planted control, irrespective of soil pH and microbial background. The reduction of net nitrification, however, was largely dependent on microbial N immobilization and efficient plant N uptake. A reduction of gross nitrification could not be confirmed for the AOA dominated soil, but possibly contributed to reduced net nitrification rates in the AOB-dominated soil. However, this putative reduction of gross nitrification was attributed to plant-facilitated intermicrobial competition between bacterial heterotrophs and nitrifiers rather than BNI. It was concluded that BNI may play a dominant role in extensive B. humidicola pasture systems, while N immobilization and efficient plant N uptake may display the dominant factors controlling net nitrification rates under intensively managed B. humidicola.The tropical forage grass Brachiaria humidicola (syn. Urochloa humidicola) has been acknowledged to control soil nitrification, an attribute contributing to the mitigation of nitrification-related N losses, including NO 3 − leaching and N 2 O emissions (Byrnes et al. 2017;Subbarao et al. 2009;Sylvester-Bradley el al. 1988). This functional trait has been proposed to be based on an allelopathic reduction of gross nitrification rates, through release of nitrification inhibitors (NI) into the rhizosphere, a phenomenon termed Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) (Subbarao et al. 2006). For B. humidicola, BNI has been attributed to different fusicoccanes described as brachialactones (Egenolf et al. 2020a;Subbarao et al. 2009), as well as phenolic compounds including, but not limited to methyl-coumarate, methylferulate (Gopalakrishnan et al. 2007), and vanillin (Egenolf 2021), as well as different free fatty acids (Subbarao et al. 2008). The first group of NI -brachialactones -are actively exuded from the root under conditions favoring a low rhizosphere pH, i.e. low background soil pH levels and rhizosphere acidification related to plant nutrition (e.g. cation/NH 4 + uptake) (Egenolf et al. 2020b;Subbarao et al. 2007). Accordingly, it has been argued that BNI of B. humidicola evolves primarily under acidic soil conditions, reflected in a reduced activity of nitrifiers (Norton 2008) accentuated by increased amounts of nitrification inhibitors released into the rhizosphere.The majority of Brachiaria spp. production areas in tropical Latin America can be characterized as extensively managed grasslands on highly weathered and acidic soils (Miles et al. 2004;Rao et al. 1995). Although viewed critically by parts of the scientific community (Kaimowitz and Angelsen 2008;Kreidenweis et al. 2018), the intensification of these pasture systems is generally considered as alternative to the progressive deforestation of natural habitats and therefore promoted by many governments, e.g. Brazil and Colombia (Cohn et al. 2014;Rudel et al. 2015;Strassburg et al. 2014). Following the introduction of new forage genotypes, lime and fertilizer applications are key strategies to increase productivity and to avoid pasture degradation (Rudel et al. 2015). It remains unclear, however, to what extent such significant alterations in soil chemical properties, as a response of intensifying grassland management, may impact the expression of BNI. Recent field and greenhouse assessments of BNI on a Vertisol with near neutral pH confirmed a plantmediated and genotype-dependent reduction of net nitrification rates (Byrnes et al. 2017;Nuñez et al. 2018). Yet, additional studies on the same site, emphasizing the underlying soil N dynamics, raised the question whether the observed effects were due to a reduction of gross nitrification (i.e. a real BNI effect) or rather an increase of microbial N (both NH 4+ and NO 3 − ) immobilization rates (Vazquez et al. 2020). Besides influencing plant NI exudation patterns, soil pH and N availability determine the soil microbial community composition (Zhalnina et al. 2015). With regard to nitrifiers, both factors affect the competitiveness (niche differentiation) of ammonia oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB). While AOA are able to take up NH 4 + (Li et al. 2018) and therefore perform better under low pH and NH 3 limited conditions, AOB reveal higher maximum NH 3 turnover rates and, hence, higher competitiveness in neutral to alkaline and N abundant soils (Di et al. 2009;Prosser and Nicol 2012;Thion et al. 2016;Zhang et al. 2012). It could be speculated that conversion of extensively managed tropical grasslands on low pH soils into productive pastures through liming and increased N fertilization leads to a shift from AOA towards AOB populations (Zhang et al. 2017;Zhao et al. 2018). Consequently, an increase of soil pH may not only affect BNI performance of B. humidicola in terms of reduced NI exudation rates, but may also induce changes in ammonia oxidizer populations, possibly affecting its sensitivity. This assumption is based on a recently published laboratory study observing that (with the only exception of methyl 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate) AOA show a higher sensitivity to selected NI than AOB (Kaur-Bhambra et al. 2021). In addition, under field conditions, a plant exerted control of ammonia oxidizer abundance was mainly confirmed for AOA (Byrnes et al. 2017;Nakamura et al. 2020;Nuñez et al. 2018;Srikanthasamy et al. 2018;Subbarao et al. 2009), while only to a lesser extent for AOB (Subbarao et al. 2009).To verify these assumptions, we hypothesized that (1) B. humidicola is capable of reducing soil net nitrification rates under conditions favorable to nitrification facilitated through pH increments and regular N amendments, (2) the reduction of net nitrification rates is the result of a BNI-induced reduction of gross nitrification, and (3) B. humidicola controls nitrification under both archaea and bacteria dominated soil environments. Pertaining to the verification of these hypotheses, alternative mechanisms shaping soil N cycling have been conceptualized and a broader concept of plant exerted control of soil nitrification is proposed.A three-factorial, controlled pot experiment was conducted at CIAT headquarters, Cali (Colombia), from March 2016 till March 2018. Pots were fabricated from PVC drainpipes (16.8 cm diameter, 1.20 m length) and the experiment was set up in a randomized complete block design (three replications) in an open greenhouse equipped with a shading net. Experimental factors were (1) Soil: soil microbial background as reflected by the ratio between archaea and bacteria, (2) Liming: soil pH increment, and (3) Genotype: B. humidicola accessions.The first experimental factor (soil) consisted of two soils (A horizon, 0-20 cm) originating from natural savanna sites along a soil texture transect from Villavicencio to Puerto Gaitan (Colombian Llanos region), which were chosen due to their soil texture and organic matter-related contrasting microbial backgrounds (Table S2, Fig. S1). In the following, the soils will be referred to the site of origin, with \"Taluma\" representing an archaea dominated, sandy soil (4°22′11.03704 N 72°13′31.49378 W), and \"Porvenir\" a slightly bacteria-dominated, clayey soil (4°13′23.52 N 72°32′40.05 W). Both soils were classified as Ferralsols (IUSS working group WRB, 2006), and physical soil properties are detailed in Table S1. The initial archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA and amoA gene copy numbers of these two soils before experimental start are displayed in Table S2.The second experimental factor (liming) consisted of a non-limed and limed variant of each soil. Liming rates aimed at reducing aluminum (Al) saturation rates to ~ 5% and increase pH to near neutral range (pH = 6-7). Liming rates were calculated in dependence of Al saturation and cation exchange capacity (CEC), according to Cochrane et al. (1980): Liming rate (t CaCO 3 ha −1 ) = 1,8 * (Al saturation [cmol kg −1 ] -(target Al saturation [%] * effective CEC [cmol kg −1 ]/100)), applying a target Al saturation of 5%. The calculations resulted in liming rates of 1.6 t ha −1 (equivalent to 5.4 g kg −1 soil) for the Taluma, and 3.8 t ha −1 (equivalent to 12.8 g kg −1 soil) for the Porvenir soil. Soil pH (H 2 O extracts) were verified at the end of the experiment, leveling out at 6.3 versus 6.8 (Taluma soil) and 5.8 versus 6.3 (Porvenir soil) for non-limed and limed treatments, respectively. Unexpectedly, the pH levels of non-limed soils were above initial soil pH levels (4.6), which was attributed to occasional carbonate input via irrigation water.The third experimental factor (genotype) consisted of three B. humidicola accessions with contrasting BNI ratings (Karwat et al. 2019;Nuñez et al. 2018), which were received from the CIAT germplasm bank: CIAT 16888 (high BNI), CIAT 679 (medium BNI), CIAT 26146 (low BNI). A non-planted bare soil was used as control.Before filling the pots, soils were homogenized including base fertilization with all plant essential nutrients [mg kg −1 soil]: N [11.5], P [6.4], K [25.6],Ca [25.6]To ensure percolation, pots were equipped with a 10-cm drainage layer of sand at the bottom and care was taken to avoid compaction when filling in the soil (100-cm soil horizon). Through the course of the experiment, plants were regularly fertilized with N (80 kg N ha −1 every 6 months as (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 solution) to stimulate soil nitrification potential. Plants were trimmed every 3 months to promote vigorous growth, and irrigation was performed manually according to plant demand. In dependence of the three experimental factors, BNI performance was evaluated at the end of the experiment (2 years after establishment): To simulate grazing, plants were cut back and N was applied at the rate of 150 kg N ha −1 in the form of (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 solution (200 ml per pot), allowing topsoil penetration. N cycling was monitored over a period of 14 days after fertilization, before destructively harvesting the experiment to obtain soil and biomass samples.For in situ monitoring of soil NO 3 − concentrations after the application of NH 4 + , soil solution was regularly sampled via micro-suction-tubes (Rhizons Soil Moisture Sampler, Ø 2.3 × 50 mm, hydrophilic polymer, porosity 0.1 µm, Ecotech, Bonn, Germany) installed horizontally at 7.5-cm depth (Karwat et al. 2018). NO 3 − concentration in the soil solution was quantified colorimetrically at 410 nm as yellow nitro-salicylate obtained by salicylic acid nitration in sulfuric acid solution (ISO 7890-3, 1988).Topsoil NH 4 + and NO 3 − contents were quantified 7 and 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization. Seven days after NH 4 + fertilization, soil samples were taken with a soil auger (Ø = 1.5 cm, 3 punctures per pot, 5-cm depth), whereas 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization the soil sample consisted of an aliquot of sieved and homogenized topsoil at 0-10 cm (destructive harvesting of the experiment). Extraction was performed immediately with 1 M KCl. NH 4 + was quantified colorimetrically as green ammonium salicylate complex at 667 nm (Kempers and Zweers 1986)  and NO 3 − as yellow nitro-salicylate at 410 nm (ISO 7890-3, 1988).Microbial C and N pools (C mic /N mic ) were quantified by chloroform fumigation (ISO 14240-2, 1997), using the sieved and homogenized soil samples taken 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization. In brief, unfumigated and chloroform fumigated (24 h) soil sample aliquots (10 g) were extracted with 40 ml of a 0.5 M K 2 SO 4 solution on a horizontal shaker (30 min, 200 rpm). After centrifugation at 4400 × g for 30 min, the supernatant was diluted 1:4 and analyzed for C and N (Multi N/C 2100C, Analytik Jena AG, Jena, Germany). Microbial C pools were obtained by calculating the difference in C content between fumigated and unfumigated aliquots and dividing by k EN = 0.45, representing the proportion of extractable microbial C (Jörgensen 1996). Microbial N pools were obtained by calculating the difference in N content between fumigated and unfumigated aliquots and dividing by k EN = 0.54, representing the proportion of extractable microbial N (Brookes et al. 1985).Soil nitrification and N immobilization potential were estimated based on the soil incubation method described by Karwat et al. (2017). Sieved (2-mm mesh size) and homogenized soil samples taken 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization were air-dried, and 5-g aliquots were incubated in eightfold replications with 1.5 ml of 27 mM (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 (225 mg N kg −1 soil) at 25 °C. To maintain soil moisture but allow aeration, incubation vessels (small glass flasks) were sealed with parafilm, which was punctured three times with a needle. Mineral N was extracted with 50 ml of 1 M KCl solution from 2 replicates each at days 0, 4, 12, and 20 after incubation start. Extracts were filtered immediately and analyzed colorimetrically for NH 4 + and NO 3 − as described above. Nitrification potentials represent the steepest slope of the NO 3 − curve. In this study, the steepest slope was recorded between Days 4 and 12. The N immobilization potential was calculated based on mineral N (NH 4 + and NO 3 − ) disappearance from the start till end (Day 20) of incubation. Although it is acknowledged that NH 3 volatilization constitutes a potential N leak during the incubation, volatilization-related losses were judged negligible due to soil pH below seven, incorporation of fertilizer N (application as solution) and poor surface ventilation (parafilm-sealed incubation vessels).Archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA (total archaea and bacteria), as well as archaeal and bacterial amoA (archaeal and bacterial ammonia oxidizers) gene copy numbers were quantified for selected treatment combinations, using both soil samples taken prior to fertilization (soil auger, Ø = 1.5 cm, 3 punctures per pot, 5-cm depth), as well as the sieved and homogenized soil samples taken 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization. Soil samples were frozen and lyophilized prior to transport to University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart, Germany). DNA was extracted with the DNA™ Spin Kit for Soil (MP, Biomedicals Solon, OH, USA), following the manufacturer's instructions along with two additional washings with guanidine thiocyanate solution (5 M) for humic acid removal. Quantification of archaeal and bacterial 16S rRNA and amoA genes via quantitative PCR (qPCR) (StepOnePlus™ Real Time PCR System (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Foster City, CA, USA)) was performed according to Nuñez et al. (2018). For quality check, melting curves of amplicons were generated and reaction efficiency determined (archaeal 16S rRNA gene 80-85%, bacterial 16S rRNA gene 94-107%, archaeal amoA gene 79-89%, bacterial amoA gene 84-91%) using StepOne™ software version 2.2.2 (Thermo Fisher Scientific).Plant N uptake was estimated based on N content of aboveground plant biomass re-grown within 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization. The entire re-grown biomass was harvested, dried, and ball milled. Leaf tissue samples were evaluated for N content by dry combustion (Vario El Cube, Elementar Analysesysteme, Germany).Statistical analysis was performed and plots were created with R version 3.5.3 (R Core Team, 2018), using the packages \"lme4\", \"lsmeans\", \"multcompView\" and \"ggplot2\". The \"lme4\" package was used to fit linear models with soil solution NO 3 − , topsoil NH 4 + and NO 3 − , plant N, N mic , nitrification rates, total archaeal and total bacterial as well as AOA and AOB abundance as response variables and the three factors \"soil\", \"liming\" and \"genotype\" as main effects and \"block\" as random effect. Studentized residuals were inspected graphically for normality and homogeneity. Package \"lsmeans2\" was used to perform ANOVA and \"multcompView\" to perform Tukey HSD tests on the differences of means between treatment levels. Package \"ggplot2\" was used to create the figures. A correlation analysis (Pearson) between the variables shoot biomass, root biomass, plant N uptake, soil NH 4 + , soil NO 3 − and N mic pools was conducted using the \"lm\" function.As both soils revealed similar NO 3 − concentration in the soil solution (no significant soil effect), the displayed values consist of the modeled averages over both soils (Fig. 1). Both liming and genotype influenced NO 3 − levels (p < 0.001). Liming boosted NO 3 − evolution within the soil solution, and planted pots revealed lower NO 3 − levels than the non-planted control. Genotypic differences between B. humidicola accessions were only observed under limed conditions, with genotype CIAT 26146 revealing lowest NO 3 − evolution (p < 0.05). Topsoil (0-10 cm) N min analysis at 7 and 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization (Table S3) reflects the patterns observed for soil solution NO 3 − levels, confirming the suitability of the non-destructive monitoring approach via micro suction-cups. Additional N mic analysis and estimates of plant N uptake (based on N in re-grown aboveground biomass) completed the estimation of system N fluxes. Trends were consistent between non-limed and limed treatments but more pronounced for the limed treatment. Figure 2 displays N pool sizes 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization for the limed treatment. Total fertilizer N recovery (plant and soil) ranged from 33 to 50% in Taluma and 65 to 80% in Porvenir soil. Presence of plants reduced topsoil NO 3 − contents by 65 to 85% compared to the non-planted control. This reduction of soil NO 3 − was reflected by plant N uptake and increased soil N mic pools. Aboveground plant biomass (regrown) accounted for 12 to 20% of applied N and although not significant genotype CIAT 26146 tended to have highest acquisition rates. N mic pools showed a higher variability, reflecting 10 to 25% of applied N in the planted pots, but lower amounts (0 to 10%) in the non-planted control (p < 0.05). N mic pools were largest under genotype CIAT 26146 and always higher than under genotype CIAT 16888 (p < 0.05). Soil NH 4 + levels did not show any difference (p > 0.05).To segregate direct plant competition effects (plant uptake) from plant-mediated alterations of the microbial N cycle (nitrification, immobilization), both soil nitrification and N immobilization potentials were assessed without the influence of plant roots (ex situ). This was achieved through a soil incubation approach with simultaneous monitoring of NH 4+ and NO 3 − levels (Table 1). Soil incubation (ex situ) confirmed the results obtained from the in situ evaluation. While soils did not differ in nitrification potential, both liming (p < 0.001) and genotype (p = 0.02) had an influence upon nitrification. Nitrification potentials were increased by factor 2 to 10 (depending on soil and genotype) in the limed compared to the non-limed treatments. Genotype-dependent differences in nitrification potential (ex situ) were only detectable for the limed treatment of the clayey, bacteria dominated Porvenir soil, but not for the sandy, archaea dominated Taluma soil, indicating that in the limed Taluma soil differences in net nitrification observed in situ were probably related to differences in plant N uptake (Fig. 2). In the Porvenir soil, genotype CIAT 26146 showed lowest net nitrification rates (p < 0.05).Regarding N immobilization, the incubation study reflected only partially the soil N mic pools quantified in situ. N immobilization was not verifiable for the sandy Taluma soil. For the Porvenir soil, however, N immobilization was detectable, with a considerable magnitude in the limed variant (up to 20% of applied N), although similar in situ N mic pools were determined for both non-limed and limed treatments. Generally, soils from planted pots had a higher N immobilization rate than the non-planted control (p < 0.05). A summary of in situ estimates of net nitrification rates and N mic pools, as well as ex situ estimates of net nitrification rates and N immobilization potential is provided in Table 1.Soils were chosen to compare the influence of contrasting microbial backgrounds on nitrification dynamics. To capture functional niche occupation of both soils, abundance of archaeal (AOA) and bacterial (AOB) nitrifier groups were quantified 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization and related to the soil N min pools 7 days after NH 4 + fertilization. In the case of Taluma, soil NH 4 + levels were negatively correlated with AOA (R 2 = − 0.74, p < 0.001, Fig. 3), whereas soil NO 3 − levels showed a strong positive correlation with AOA (R 2 = 0.91, p < 0.001, Fig. 3). In the Porvenir soil, however, NO 3 − correlated only slightly with AOA (R 2 = 0.44, p = 0.051), but strongly with AOB (R 2 = 0.81, p < 0.001). These tendencies were confirmed with AOA to AOB ratios of 5:1 versus 1:5 for the Taluma and Porvenir soil, respectively.Root biomass showed a strong positive correlation with N mic , especially in the Porvenir soil (R 2 = 0.84, p < 0.01) (Fig. 4a), and a strong negative correlation (R 2 = − 0.68, p < 0.001) with soil NO 3 − (Fig. 4b). Root biomass did not correlate with soil NH 4 + and shoot biomass and plant N uptake did not correlate with any factor (p > 0.05, data not shown).In situ (pot trial) and ex situ (incubation study) estimation of nitrification and N immobilization potential. Soil pH was 6.3 versus 6.8 in non-limed versus limed treatments for Taluma and 5.8 versus 6.   of reducing net nitrification rates even under conditions favorable to nitrification. On the other hand, it was deduced that the observed effects reflect dynamics expected for ammonia oxidizer control through effective resource competition rather than allelopathic inhibition (BNI). In this sense, especially the large differences in net nitrification between planted and non-planted soils on the one hand, and low intergenotypic variation inverting commonly suggested BNI ratings (Karwat et al. 2019;Moreta et al. 2014;Nuñez et al. 2018) on the other, suggested that reduced soil NO 3 − levels could predominantly be attributed to a net increase of heterotrophic N immobilization (confirmed both in situ and ex situ) and plant competition for N (confirmed by in situ data). This assumption aligns with the ongoing controversy on the ecological reasons for reduced net nitrification in certain climax ecosystems, i.e. grasslands and coniferous forests (Davidson et al. 1992;Nardi et al. 2020;Vazquez et al. 2020). Precisely, it reflects our second hypothesis whether reduced net nitrification rates can be attributed to a BNI-induced reduction of gross nitrification rates. Several researchers favor a plant exerted control of gross nitrification through allelopathic inhibition of ammonia oxidizers, i.e. BNI, as explanation for low soil NO 3 − levels (Lodhi and Killingbeck 1980;Subbarao et al. 2009;Ward et al. 1997). Others emphasize heterotrophic competition for N and efficient plant NO 3 − uptake as the dominant factors (Davidson et al. 1992;Stark and Hart 1997;Vazquez et al. 2020). The latter position is corroborated by the higher competitiveness of microbial heterotrophs for mineralized or deposited NH 4 + -N (Hodge et al. 2000;Kuzyakov and Xu 2013;Verhagen et al. 1992) and dominant (or even preferential) NO 3 − feeding as described for many plants adapted to nitrifying ecosystems, i.e. dryland and calcareous soils (Li et al. 2013;Marschner 1995;Zhang et al. 2018) and certain grasslands (Jackson et al. 1989;Schimel et al. 1989).How effectively soil heterotrophs immobilize and hence prevent mineralized or applied NH 4 + from nitrification, depends on the size and activity of the heterotrophic community, which in turn is controlled by plant derived C inputs, e.g. root exudation and turnover (Karwat et al. 2017;Leptin et al. 2021;Vazquez et al. 2020). This fundamental relationship was confirmed by the strongly positive correlations between root system size (approximated through topsoil root biomass) and soil microbial N pools, highlighting the importance of an active soil microbial community in preventing NH 4 + -N from being nitrified (Fig. 5 -mechanism 1 \"Plant facilitated heterotrophic N immobilization\"). Interestingly, the incubation study proved high net immobilization, despite overall low soil microbial biomass (C mic quantified in situ, data not shown). This observation was corroborated by Kaye and Hart (1997) reporting long-term net N immobilization ranging between 6 and 15% of applied N in a temperate grassland soil. In our experiment, net immobilization under B. humidicola amounted up to 20% of applied N (both in situ and ex situ), despite high N amendments (150 kg ha −1 in situ, 225 mg kg −1 soil in the incubation study). Notably, immobilization (ex situ) increased with liming (Porvenir soil), a result in line with Garbuio et al. (2011) reporting increased activity and growth of heterotrophs after liming of Ferralsols. B. humidicola fulfills all characteristics of a calcifuge plant adapted to low-nitrifying environments (Li et al. 2013). It is adapted to humid and low pH soil conditions with low redox potential (Miles et al. 2004), and feeds on NH 4 + as sole N source (Castilla and Jackson 1991). The concluded NH 4 + preference has, however, been recently questioned. Using hydroponic studies, Egenolf et al. (2020b) verified that under mixed N nutrition B. humidicola captured 90% of its N uptake from the NO 3 − pool. This obvious preference of NO 3 − over NH 4 + finds support in the high affinity of the NO 3 − transporter systems described for Brachiaria spp. (Nakamura et al. 2005;Silveira et al. 2014). In the case of B. humidicola for instance, the extraordinarily low K m value (Michaelis constant) for NO 3 − uptake (4.4 µmol l −1 ) has been reported to lie far below the K m value for NH 4 + uptake (36.7 µmol l −1 ), indicating efficient depletion of the soil NO 3 − pool and -at least under N limited conditions -preference for NO 3 − (Nakamura et al. 2005). It could be further hypothesized that this physiological affinity for NO 3 − is accentuated in a soil-based system, in which higher mobility of NO 3 − compared to NH 4 + and mass flow movement towards the root discriminates against NH 4 + . This assumption finds support by Karwat et al. (2019) verifying that under field conditions B. humidicola readily feeds on nitrification derived NO 3 − with uptake rates responding linearly to soil NO 3 − concentrations. Consequently -for the special case of this study simulating an intensified grassland system -it was assumed that B. humidicola was almost exclusively feeding on NO 3 − , due to the following reasons: (1) the above-described physiological affinity towards NO 3 − , (2) a high NO 3 − availability in the soil solution within days after fertilization, and (3) disabled NH 4 + uptake due to energy shortage in the root as a result of plant pruning (Castilla and Jackson, 1991). Accordingly, it was concluded that beyond altering soil microbial N fluxes, B. humidicola directly affected net nitrification rates by strongly depleting the soil NO 3 − pool. Preferential and efficient NO 3 − feeding is thus proposed as additional factor pivotal to low net nitrification (Fig. 5 -mechanism 4 \"Preferential & efficient NO 3 − uptake\"). As for heterotrophic immobilization, root system size is fundamental for an effective reduction of soil NO 3 − levels and hence net nitrification rates. This was confirmed by the negative correlation between root biomass and topsoil NO 3 − levels, a finding in line with Nuñez et al. (2018).Unlimed soils revealed constantly low soil NO 3 − levels both 7 and 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization, indicating uniformly low net nitrification rates within these soils. The intergenotypic differences between soil NH 4 + levels, especially 7 days after NH 4 + fertilization were therefore probably not related to differences in net nitrification, but to differences in heterotrophic NH 4 + immobilization. In contrast, in the limed variants, decreasing soil NH 4 + levels were mirrored by increasing soil NO 3 − levels, indicating inter-genotypic differences in net nitrification. Based on the presented dataset, it could not be concluded with confidence, whether these differences in net nitrification were based on differences in gross nitrification. However, the tendency for higher topsoil NH 4 + pools -despite high N immobilization (N mic pools, in situ) and higher (Taluma) or constant (Porvenir) plant N uptake rates -were taken as indication for reduced gross nitrification rates under genotype CIAT 26146, as compared to genotypes CIAT 16888 and CIAT 679. This reasoning is based on the argument that alternative explanations, e.g. increased gross mineralization or DNRA rates, seemed improbable under the given circumstances. Interestingly, these differences in nitrification were probably not related to BNI, as the observed genotype performance disagreed with previous BNI ratings (Karwat et al. 2019;Moreta et al. 2014;Nuñez et al. 2018). In this sense, the poor BNI performance of genotypes CIAT 679 and CIAT 16888 (in situ), both generally considered as high BNI cultivars, suggested that the BNI effect was impaired under regular N fertilization. Accordingly, our second hypothesis could not be confirmed. This finding is in line with Castoldi et al. (2013) and was presumably attributed to (1) low NI exudation as a result of reduced plant terpene and especially phenolics synthesis due to constant rejuvenation through pruning (Burney and Jacobs 2012) and N inputs (Bryant et al. 1987;Hussain 2016;Lavola and Julkunen-Tiitto 1994) and (2) a reduced effectiveness of plant allelopathics and especially nitrification inhibitors in N abundant (high nitrifying) soil environments (Blum et al. 1993;White 1991).Interestingly, our data indicated inverse genotypic effects on the abundance of bacterial heterotrophs on the one hand, and abundances of both archaeal heterotrophs and ammonia oxidizers (AOA, AOB) on the other. In both soils, the abundance of heterotrophic bacteria increased with roots system size (CIAT 16888 < CIAT 679 < CIAT 26146), whereas those of archaea, AOA and AOB decreased (Fig. S1 and S2). Hence, it could be speculated that the plant-dependent reduction of nitrifier populations was due to increased inter-microbial competition between bacterial heterotrophs (stimulated by the plant) and nitrifiers. A possible explanation for the latter theory would be long-term competition for substrate N, proposed to be the predominant control of ammonia oxidizer abundance (Xiao et al. 2020). In our experiment, especially the concomitant reduction of amoA and archaeal 16S rRNA gene abundances favors the conceptualized theory of intermicrobial competition (Fig. 5 -mechanism 2 \"Plant facilitated inter-microbial competition\") rather than BNI (Fig. 5 -mechanism 3 \"Inhibition of nitrifiers (BNI)\") as determinant of nitrifier abundance. These findings are in line with Subbarao et al. (2009), confirming a reduction of both amoA and archaeal 16S rRNA gene abundances under Brachiaria spp.The third hypothesis in this study addressed the question whether B. humidicola is able to control nitrification under both archaea and bacteria dominated soil microbial backgrounds. The contrasting soil microbial community compositions (Fig. S1, Table S2) between both soils were mainly attributed to differences in soil texture and soil organic matter content (Girvan et al. 2003;Rasche et al. 2006;Sessitsch et al. 2001). Although both factors have been acknowledged to influence soil N dynamics (NH 4 + sorption to clay minerals, N mineralization dynamics), the soil microbial community composition was considered as the primary determinant of N immobilization and nitrification. The presented correlations between the abundance of nitrifier groups (AOA, AOB) and soil N pools as well as the changes of nitrifier community size within 14 days after NH 4 + fertilization (Fig. S1) suggested that nitrification was predominantly controlled by AOA in the archaea dominated Taluma soil, whereas by AOB in the bacteria dominated Porvenir soil. This was unexpected, as pH correction by liming and regular N inputs generally favor AOB over AOA (Di et al. 2009;Prosser and Nicol 2012;Thion et al. 2016) and have been reported to provoke community shifts towards AOB (Zhao et al. 2018). Furthermore, genotypic effects on soil microbial populations were consistent, irrespective of the soil microbial environment. Genotype CIAT 26146 always favored the proliferation of bacteria, along with a suppressive effect on archaea and both nitrifying groups. Hence, under the described conditions, hypothesis 3 could be accepted. Due to the ambiguity regarding the underlying mechanism of ammonia oxidizer control (BNI versus plant facilitated inter-microbial competition, Fig. 5), we remain cautious to infer any conclusion towards BNI in general.This study confirmed the capacity of B. humidicola to reduce soil net nitrification rates, irrespective of soil pH, microbial background and genotype. The reduction of net nitrification, however, was largely dependent on microbial N immobilization and efficient plant N (probably NO 3 − ) uptake, reflected by an equal N partitioning of NH 4 + -N towards the microbial N pool, the plant N pool and the soil NO 3 − pool. If the reduction of net nitrification was at least partially attributable to a reduction of gross nitrification cannot be answered with certainty. Furthermore, it remains unclear, whether a putative reduction of gross nitrification under genotype 26146 can be attributed to a plant exerted control of nitrifiers through BNI or rather to the facilitation of bacterial heterotrophs and subsequent suppression of ammonia oxidizers via competition.Therefore, we generally conclude, that reduced net nitrification rates under B. humidicola were the result of several, interacting mechanisms: (1) heterotrophic N immobilization, (2) plant facilitated inter-microbial competition, (3) BNI, and (4) preferential and efficient NO 3 − uptake by plants. Consequently, we proposed a broader concept on the plant exerted control of soil nitrification (Fig. 5). Which of the proposed mechanisms predominates depends strongly on the management intensity. Accordingly, under intensification of B. humidicola pasture systems (soil liming, N fertilization), heterotrophic N immobilization and efficient plant N uptake rather than BNI represent the dominant factors controlling net nitrification rates, irrespective of the soil microbial background. This hypothesis should be considered upon future studies, advising a thorough investigation and dissection of the different N pathways affecting soil net nitrification rates via 15 N stable isotope approaches. Lopez, Edwin Palma and Brayan Morales (CIAT, Palmira) for their support and dedication during setup and management of the experiment. The authors are grateful to Aracely Vidal, Patricia Higuita and Gonzalo Borrero (Servicios analíticos-CIAT), Despina Savvidou, Carolin Röhl and Dr. Mary Musyoki (Hans-Ruthenberg Institute, University of Hohenheim) and Dr. Sven Marhan and Dr. Christian Poll (Soil Biology, University of Hohenheim) for their support and advice during laboratory analysis. Furthermore, we thank Paola Pardo Saray and Daniel Vergara (CIAT, Villavicencio) for assistance during the soil collection from the savanna sites. The first author (K. Egenolf) is grateful to Dr. Idupulapati Rao, Jonathan Nuñez, Jaumer Ricaurte, Alba Lucia Chavez, Johanna Mazabel, Juan Cardoso, Juan de la Cruz, Mauricio Sotelo and Stefan Burkart for the valuable discussions on the topic. ","tokenCount":"5677"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66d77e1248d789eaa46dd5f8fd2e3b44","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/29d42f3b-d33f-4bab-bbf1-3d22b96e3644/retrieve","id":"1997164361"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ab0575b9-c0c7-4e8e-8e3e-9eaf37e63a3b","pagecount":"16","content":"This working paper has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of AICCRA, donors, or partners.Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non-commercial 4.0 International License.The workshop was graced by the representative of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Zambia. The Vice Chancellor recognized the timeliness of the training in view of the negative effects of climate change on agriculture. The Dean of the School of Agricultural Sciences who was also present at the meeting noted that Zambia as a country has made some significant progress towards breeding drought resistant crop varieties in response to the negative impacts of climate change and variability. He further noted that trainings such as this one in climate smart agriculture would contribute to the enhancement of food production and security as well as the exploitation of regional markets for agricultural produce. The workshop coordinator introduced AICCRA projects, its aims & scope at continental and national levels, and outlined the workshop objectives & expected outcomes. The coordinator recognized and appreciated the financial and technical support towards the hosting of the training from RUFORUM.This session outlined the concepts and principles of soil health and nutrient management in crop production within the local Zambian context. The participants expressed interest in soil health and sort further clarification on whether a health soil still requires external inputs to remain productive.The workshop was organised as a three-day Modular Training of Trainers in eight ( 8) interactive sessions and a field visit (Appendix II). The various sessions were facilitated by experts from the Department of Soil Science within the School of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Zambia.This session introduced plant and water relationships important for guiding irrigation scheduling and water virtual footprints. Insights into the potential use of dry boreholes for recharging acquifers and the importance of vegetation management around ground water recharge areas within farm landscapes were shared with participants. The participants expressed concern on the frequent and recent flooding events within urban areas due to excessive paving of potential water seepage zones.This session brought out the interrelatedness of the different effects of climate change on the soil physical, biological and chemical attributes for soil fertility. The participants expressed the need to manage the soils in terms of acidity as it is key for nutrient availability for crop production. A need was identified to develop onsite lime application recommendations based on soil pH ranges. Further, the need to maintain residues in fields for erosion prevention and to serve as substrates for soil organisms was recognised.This session introduced the concept of landscapes based on matrices and patches for achieving sustainable crop production and land use. The session brought out the importance of collaboration and networking among various actors in landscapes for their effective management. The participants observed the frequent occurrence of extreme events such as floods and erratic rainfall warranting the application of landscape based practices in water management.This session highlighted the need for nutrient management as a measure for climate change adaptation and crop production. The participants appreciated the need to: (i) apply nutrients at the right time and correct place rather than broadcasting which might lead to volatilization and decrease the nutrient use efficiency, (ii) manage of fertilizer application to minimize volatization which might lead to an increase in greenhouse gases emission and further exacerbate negative impact of climate change and (iii) observe the correct storage practices for chicken, pig, goat and cow manure in order to minimize volatization.schemes and have an extension system around such structures to ensure their longevity. Further, it was observed that there is need to develop monitoring and evaluation measures and strategies around water bodies to enhance quality and quantity of the water.This session highlighted the current policies and strategies in Zambia in relation to climate smart crop production and nutrient management systems. The session further highlighted the functions of various categories of plant nutrients and factors that affect their availability in relation to climate change. The participants expressed concern on how soil analysis could be performed at field level to manage nutrient deficiencies. This information could be used to guide the type of fertilizer required for a particular location in the absence of detailed soil nutrient maps. The participants expressed the need to have local expressions/terminologies of soil parameters such as 'soil acidity' for easy communication and interpretation.The participants appreciated the importance of combining organic and inorganic fertilizers for the optimization of nutrient management in climate smart crop production and the maintenance of healthy soils.Farmer explaining on CSA practices of residue retention, crop rotation and diversification winter maize, tomato and livestock production I.Based on the ToT training, the following issues on CSA/CIS emerged:II.There is need to scale-up the training to cover additional institutions and farmers for enhancement of CSA practices, we therefore recommend that this is considered for inclusion in the next phase of the AICCRA projects.There is need to contextualize the module to suite the different stakeholders and environments i.e media, students, academicians, policy makers, farmers, among others. We therefore, recommend that the next phase includes the development of contextualized materials including booklets, pamphlets, flyers, videos, bulletins and newsletters. Such materials could be developed in partnership with the media houses.IV.There is need to develop a toolkit translating scientific terms into the major local languages of Zambia e.g. soil acidity, soil alkalinity, erosion, pollution/ contamination among others.V.Based on the success of the training workshop, the Department of Soil Science has since received requests to organise similar training to targeting seed companies in climate smart agriculture","tokenCount":"928"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7eddcd6c18da0ea0cabc839e1bc6ff86","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/93e383cf-d5f0-4a79-9328-3455957de01d/retrieve","id":"1174812829"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"20d2c260-87d4-45fc-a21e-85142b75897f","pagecount":"23","content":"Nepal is a small land-locked mountainous country with diverse agroecologies, culture and agriculture. Agriculture is a key source of economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability in Nepal. It is the mainstay of the national economy, contributing one third of GDP and providing livelihood to more than two thirds of the population (MoF, 2013). The poverty rate is declining over the last two decades but it is still high with one-quarter of its population (25.1%) living below poverty line (CBS, 2012). Food crops are the major components accounting for about 40% of AGDP, while livestock and fishery account for 30%, horticulture and cash crops 20%, and forestry about 10% (MoF, 2013).The country is divided into three primary ecological zones mainly running east to west: (i) the mountain region bordering Tibet of China covering high Himalaya and high mountains, (ii) the Hill region in the middle, and (iii) the Terai or plains covering inner (siwalik) and main Terai bordering India. The Mountain, Hills and Terai, respectively, covers 35%, 42%, and 23% of the total land area of the country (CBS, 2012). Each of the three main ecological zones has its own unique resource endowments, cropping patterns and farming systems leading to differences in commodities produced, production levels, and productivity. There is also a high socioeconomic diversity: with more than 100 ethnic groups with different culture, communities and economic conditions (large absentee landlords to landless tenant farmers) with diverse needs for farm machinery and equipments. A high agroecological diversity exists in Nepal ranging from flat lowlands and rivers basin to rugged mid hills and steep mountain slopes with subtropical to warm temperate, cool temperate, and alpine to arctic type climates (Figure 1). As a result, there is a diversity and complexity of farming systems with adaptation to specific crops and commodities in specific altitudinal zones. Rice based farming system is predominant in Terai, inner Terai and lower part of mid hills, while maize based system is predominant in middle hill to lower part of high mountain region. In rice based system, double cropping of rice is only possible in subtropics below 1,000 msl in Terai and Siwalik (inner Terai), while single rice cropping is possible until 2,000 msl1 in middle mountains where warm temperate climate is prevalent. The mountain crops such as buckwheat and naked barley is grown in high mountain region up to 4,500 msl, where climate is subalpine and alpine type. Pastoral production system with livestock grazing is possible in arctic climate upto altitudinal range of 5000 msl. Croplivestock and forestry integration is the characteristic features in all these systems. average size of 0.21 ha per parcel (CBS, 2013). At present, about half (52%) of the farm households own less than 0.50 ha land with low farm labour productivity, and low level of intensification. Area under farming is declining over the years as a result of conversion of prime agricultural land into non-agricultural uses (e.g. housing, industries and infrastructure development) through rapid urbanisation and rural-urban migration. Hence, in the last 10 years, net cultivated area has declined by 5% from 2.65 million ha in 2001 to 2.52 ha million in 2010 (CBS, 2013). Average farm size has also declined over the years from 1.11 ha in 1961/62 to 0.68 ha in 2011/12. The number of households with 2 ha or more of land has decreased from 12 percent in 1995/96 to 4 percent in 2010/11. Moreover, two thirds of the cultivated area is rainfed, where agricultural production is risk-prone and marginal. A large proportion of farm households (30%) are employed only partially. About 60% of the households in Nepal have only six months of food sufficiency from their own production. Population density on cultivated land is high where more than 10 people are dependent on a hectare of land for their livelihood. Agricultural productivity and profitability from farming are low due to low use of modern and mechanised technologies, high cost of production, limited commercialisation and diversification of agriculture. Labour scarcity is chronic in agriculture as a result of massive youth migration from rural areas.Agricultural mechanisation is being recently realised by policy makers and planners as one of the potential options for addressing agricultural labour scarcity, high cost of production and promoting commercialisation in agriculture. Mechanisation is also an option for improving efficiency in agriculture production, reducing women drudgery and promoting diversification in agriculture. Mechanisation saves costs and resources (labour, energy) by reducing operational time in agriculture and improving timely farm operation. It helps make agriculture competitive in the region by reducing the cultivation cost, improving quality of the products and creating conducive environment for the competitive market price of the produced agricultural commodities. The rationale for mechanisation in agricultural development is to increase the scale of farming operations and to improve the timeliness, quality, and efficiency of the operations for increase production, productivity and profitability of farming operation. Mechanisation, therefore, can contribute to increasing production, productivity, and profitability of agriculture by increasing land and labour productivity as envisaged in Agriculture Perspective Plan  and newly formulated Agriculture Development Strategy (2014) of the Government of Nepal.The history of institutional development for formal sector farm mechanisation dates back with the establishment of Agricultural Implement Research Unit at Birganj in 1960(MoAD, 2014). Since early 1960s, private sector played important role in farm mechanisation with the import of four-wheel tractors (4WTs) for agricultural production and transport in the Terai (Pudasaini, 1976). Since 1970s, mechanisation picture has changed significantly with the spread and use of threshers (in wheat and rice) and diesel pumps in farm irrigation. Two-wheel tractors (2WTs) were promoted during the mid-1970s and early 1980s, with two Japanese aid programmes importing approximately 2,000 tractors (Pariyar et al., 2001). Initially, the spread of 2WTs was limited to the Kathmandu and Pokhara Valleys, where they were used for transport and tillage (Biggs et al., 2011). Tractors are common in tillage and transportation of agricultural products, while combine harvesters are increasing being used in harvesting. From the mid 1990s onwards, large Indian combine harvesters were seen in Nepal, and today about 200 Nepali combine owners work on a contract basis in various districts in the Terai, majority of which are concentrated in Rupandehi, Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Kapilvastu and Kailali districts. Mechanisation technologies and machines available across the long open border with India greatly influenced mechanisation patterns in the Nepal Terai (Biggs et al., 2011;Justice and Biggs, 2013). With increasing road connectivity in rural hills and mountains, use of tractors, power tillers, pumpsets and threshers is increasing in rural hills and mountains as well. At present, the most widely used farm machineries are threshers and small scale irrigation pumps that are becoming popular in most parts of the Terai and market accessible hills because farmers see a clear advantage of using machineries in terms of saving time, resources, and labour. In addition, mechanical equipments are increasingly being used in the rapidly growing horticultural, poultry, dairy and animal feed industries and other \"value added chains\", mainly through private sector initiatives based on agricultural and other rural resources.Use of farm mechanisation is currently very low in Nepal. Official statistics show that animal and human power are still major sources of power used in agriculture, which constitute about 41% and 36%, respectively. Use of machine power is estimated to be only about one -fifth of the power used in Nepal (AED, 2013;Shrestha, 2012). About 90% of the currently used mechanical power is concentrated in market accessible Terai. In the hills and mountain districts, mechanisation is low given the difficulties of transporting heavy machinery and using it on small terraces. However, with increasing road connectivity in rural hills and mountains, use of tractors, power tillers, pumpsets and threshers is increasing in recent years. In the last five decades, some progress has been made in agricultural mechanisation in Nepal with various types of machinery being adopted, primarily through imports by the private sector and its engagement with farmers. These include several power-operated agricultural machines including the following: water pumps; tractors both 4 wheel and 2 wheel; harrows; rotavators; seed drills; threshers; combine harvesters; agricultural processing machines; rice, oil, and pulse mills; and laser land-levelers particularly in Nepal Terai (Biggs and Justice, 2013). The data of national sample census in agriculture revealed that most common agricultural machinery used in agriculture includes iron ploughs, tractors and power tillers, thresher, pumping sets, sprayers, shallow tube wells, etc. (Table 1). Animal drawn carts, and treadle pumps (Dhiki) are also in operation in Terai. As per the recent national census in agriculture (CBS 2013), the percentage of households using iron ploughs, tractors and power tillers, thresher, pumping sets and shallow tube wells constitute about 28%, 24%, 21%, 14 %, and 9%, respectively. In Nepal, mechanised equipment has also spread, but this does not appear to be so focused on rural poverty reduction, rural employment and productivity increasing (Justice and Biggs, 2013). In Nepal, about 76 thousand four-wheel tractors are registered till 2011. It is estimated that about 22,000 power tillers and about 5,000 mini tillers are in operation in Nepal (AED, 2011). But not all of these are used in agriculture. It is estimated that about 30 % of the registered tractors and above 80% of registered power tillers and 100 % mini tillers are actually used in agriculture. A large proportion of tractors are used in non -agricultural purposes, including use in rural transport, construction, sand mining and quarrying industries. According to 2010 estimates, there are 120,000 pump sets, 190,000 threshers, 10,000 mills 190,000 threshers, and 40,000 hand cranked winnowing fans (MoAD, 2012). A most recent estimate shows that there are about 200 combined harvesters operated in Nepal Terai. Similarly, in the livestock sector, commercial dairy farming has increased with increase in use of machinery in milking, storage, cooling and processing technologies associated with dairy. Information also shows that there are more than 200 thousand biogas plants being operated resulting in increased rural energy use in agriculture. Recently two-wheel tractors are increasingly being popular in Nepal particularly in the market accessible hills and mountains with the increased road connectivity and labour shortage. In the Terai region also there is increase in the use of two-wheel Chinese tractors apart from existing use of four-wheel ones, mostly Indian tractors. Similarly, mini tillers have also increased owing to their compatibility to small land holding size, especially in the hills. The trend of mechanisation is apparent and will be helpful to lift agricultural productivity in several regions of Nepal. Mechanisation in Nepal in the past is often influenced by not only as a result of government and donor support policies but also because of the long open border with India, where 4WTs and combined harvesters were being promoted as the symbol of a modern, commercial and efficient agriculture (Justice and Biggs, 2013). The major drivers of agricultural mechanisation in recent years are labour scarcity, high cost of production and increased focus on market oriented farming system including demographic shift and socioeconomic and policy changes in the country. It is triggered by easy availability and access of farm machinery in the market (low cost Chinese hand tractors, and pump sets, etc.) with commercialisation of agriculture and scarcity of labour for crop production and raising animals with rising animal fodder scarcity. In addition, liberal import policy for tractors and farm machinery and spill-over effect from neighbouring long-open border of India (Bihar, UP, WB) as a result of increasing emphasis on mechanisation in bordering regions of India have promoted use of farm machinery in bordering Terai and market accessible hills. Nepal's historical, cultural and even political connections along with a long and open border with India have led to different patterns for investments in agricultural mechanisation, whether it is farmers' buying machinery, establishing import and export businesses, or local manufacturing capability (Biggs and Justice, 2013).Agricultural wage rate has more than doubled in less than one decade as a result of labour scarcity and increasing opportunity cost of labour in other sectors. This has stimulated the increasing use of agricultural machinery to substitute human and animal labour and reduce cost. Low tariff rate for the import of tractors and increasing access and availability of farm machinery in the market, such as 2WTs and 4WTs including enabling environment for the promotion of machinery and rural energy technologies in recent years has promoted mechanisation. This is evident by the most recent increasing use of combined harvesters for rice and wheat harvesting in Terai. Furthermore, recently some government R&D programmes are promoting agricultural machineries and technologies, such as zero and minimum tillage and other Resource Conservation Technologies (RCTs).Mechanisation was often misunderstood in the past as use of large four-wheel tractors rather than encompassing whole sets of manually operated, animal drawn equipments and smaller machines ( two-wheel tractors, pump sets, etc.). The past policies, such as Land Act (1964) focused on individual rights to land, land ceiling and land reform but not on commercial use of agriculture land and its productivity improvement. National Civil Code (1853;1962) also focused on land inheritance and individual rights to land rather than productivity improvement. Nepalese labour policy also has not adequately recognised the value of agricultural labour and its welfare aspects, such as drudgery reduction. Therefore, these policies mainly focused on individual property rights and equity which encouraged land fragmentation with the provisions of land inheritance and land ceiling resulting in disincentives for mechanisations. The major agricultural development policies and programmes formulated in the last decades, such as Agriculture Perspective Plan (1995Plan ( -2015) ) and National Agricultural Policy ( 2004) also ignored mechanisation due to fear of labour displacement by the use of larger power operated machines (mainly tractor).The context of agrarian structure, (small farm size, fragmented land holding), geographical constraints of rugged topography and narrow terraces in Hills and Mountains and poor understanding of the role of rural and farm equipments other than large tractors also discouraged formulation of policies and programmes for adoption, use and promotion of machineries.Recently, there is an increasing realisation of agricultural mechanisation among planners and policy makers in Nepal. With the economic liberalisation and need of agricultural development, government of Nepal since late 1990s opted liberal economic policies and encouraged import of agricultural machinery particularly tractors with the import tax exemption focusing on farmers. Most recently, Government of Nepal has formulated and approved \"Agriculture Mechanisation Promotion Policy (2014)\" to promote agricultural mechanisation and commercialisation in agriculture. Government of Nepal also has recently formulated Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) which has also strongly recognised the need for promotion of agricultural mechanisation for the commercialisation and development of competitive agriculture. In addition, Government has very liberal import policies mainly tax exemption for the import of large agricultural machinery particularly tractors. There are many other cross-sectoral policies that have directly or indirectly influenced agricultural mechanisation in Nepal. The important ones are presented below;The Trade Policy (2010) is relatively favourable; it favours agricultural machinery with lower import to mechanisation duties (only 1% of import tax) and exemption of value added tax as compared to other machineries. However, the establishment of local agricultural machinery industries is difficult to flourish due to high import duty and value added tax on raw materials. This happens due to difficulty in separating agricultural raw materials with other agricultural machineries.Rural Energy Policy ( 2006) was favourable to mechanisation that uses rural renewable energy technologies. It has provision for providing 50-75% subsidy for the use of rural renewable technologies, such as solar dryer, solar pump, micro-hydro, cold storage facilities and machinery and equipments that are run by renewable and environment friendly energy including low tariff rate for irrigation.The existing Transport Policy ( 2002) is neutral to agricultural and rural mechanisation. There is no specific content and provision for promotion or restriction of the mechanisation. However, there is low renewal tax for agricultural machineries as compared to commercial vehicles, indicating that it is slightly fabourable to agricultural mechanisation.Credit sector has recently made priority on agricultural sector including mechanisation. Government of Nepal in the budget speech of 2014/15 made special credit interest rate subsidy to 6% from 10% of the current lending rate of commercial bank. The directive for the implementation of this interest rate subsidy scheme has been developed but most of the formal sector credit institutions (commercial banks) have not reached in rural areas. Moreover, the processing cost for credit is high and access is also not easy particularly for the use of farm machinery and equipments.Industry Policy (2010) also makes emphasis on establishment of agrobased industries in addition to specific focus on overall industrial development. But due to high custom duty on raw materials and value added tax on it, there is little incentive for establishment of agricultural machinery based industries.The government of Nepal in fiscal year 2014/15 has allotted Nepalese Rs. 9.5 crores fund and initiated implementation of subsidy schemes to farmers for purchase of farm machinery. About 50% subsidy is provided to farmers who make purchase of specific farm machinery and equipments, such as power tillers with cultivators and mini-tillers. The focus of subsidy is on small-scale machinery and their attachments, but the amount of subsidy allocated is limited to promoting mechanisation to large number of farmers. Moreover, providing limited amount of flat subsidy on agricultural machinery may distort the market and under privileged groups of farmers will have difficulty in accessing government subsidy.In spite of the dominance of small and fragmented land holdings, physical constraints of rugged topography, lack of emphasis on past policy, agriculture mechanisation is spreading in many parts of Nepal including remote hills and mountains. Agricultural machinery is having a positive impact on smallholders since they are efficient in accomplishing timely farm operations, reducing cost and improving product quality. Small-scale threshers, pump sets, and tillage equipment are now more widely available, less expensive, and suitable for small-holders even in rural hills and mountains with increased road connectivity. Other farm machinery needed for harvesting and irrigation also have shown successful implementation in Terai. Use of farm machinery can reduce cost of production significantly since labour cost alone accounts for about 60-65% of the total cost of rice production in Nepal (Gauchan et al., 2012). Field evidences from some parts of Terai and accessible central hills indicate that use of small-scale machinery has helped reduce women drudgery and improved efficiency in the production. Smallholders can also avoid capital investment as, increasingly, Nepalese machinery owners provide custom hiring of machines, particularly tillage equipments, threshers and combined harvesters (Biggs and Justice, 2013;Joshi et al., 2012, Justice andBiggs, 2013). This trend of mechanisation has been growing over the past years as labour shortages arise. Evidence from Bangladesh indicates that the operation of the machines are highly profitable with higher income and profit from use of power tillers followed by that of power threshers and shallow tube wells, respectively (Hossain et al., 2013). The cost of investment from machinery use is recovered within two years indicating farm mechanisation is an economically more preferred option as compared to conventional manually labour operated farming.Recently, Ministry of ` (MoAD) has made efforts with private sector support in the formulation of Agricultural mechanisation Promotion Policy (2014), which is a good step in this direction. The state can speed up the process for implementation of Agro-mechanisation policy that has been approved by the Government of Nepal. The role of state is also to support long-term research and development programmes on agricultural mechanisation, which is participatory and client-oriented so that appropriate farmer-friendly tools, equipment, and machinery could be developed and promoted.In areas where private sector has no incentives in provisioning services, public sector can take lead to facilitate implementation of mechanisation programmes, such as by linking with occupational caste of Nepal, who are engaged traditionally in rural area on manufacturing agricultural tools and equipments. This will help generate employment and poverty reduction in rural areas by engaging liberated bonded labour (Haliyas), particularly blacksmiths in manufacturing agricultural tools and equipment and helping to establish their cooperatives for the sale of such machinery.Private sectors in Nepal have played an important role in the spread of agricultural and rural mechanisation. Potential exists for mechanisation, especially in powering the agriculture sector with tractors and other tillage equipment, and crop protection and harvesting machines. There are a number of private sectors run engineering workshops/metal craft workshops, mainly concentrated in the Terai; these are also involved in manufacturing as well as providing services for agricultural tools, equipment, and machinery. Some of them are providing critical services, such as repair and maintenance and custom hiring of machinery for small farmers who are not able to purchase machinery. Considering small farm size and hilly terrains, private sector investment is geared towards improvements in the two-wheel tractors. Private sectors can play important role in research on commercial viability and market research for agricultural machinery and equipments (Clarke, 2000). They will continue to play important role with better policy support and capacity building from public sector agencies. Private investment in small scale mechanisation can improve if the state provides an additional incentive in the machinery. At present, however, the machinery-supply industry is still dominated by few actors and is less competitive.Availability of spare part is a huge concern as Nepal imports its tractor, power tiller and other farm machinery and this is due to the weak financial status of both dealers and traders to stock necessary spare parts. A high cost of spare parts for agricultural machinery is the result of high import duty and value added tax (VAT). The heavy duty (15-45%) on importing raw materials for manufacturing has created a disincentive to all local engineering firms to engage in local production and sales of machinery, tools and equipment.Subsistence Farming, Small and Fragmented Farm Size and Difficult Terrain Nepalese farming system is mainly rainfed and subsistence oriented; two thirds of cultivated area suffers from inadequate availability of irrigation water. Subsistence farming, small farm size, fragmented land holding and physical constraints of rugged and steep topography and narrow terraces in hills and mountains discouraged use of machineries. Farm sizes are not only small but also fragmented into 3-4 parcels that are dispersed in different locations.Declining farm size with land fragmentation poses a significant challenge for agricultural mechanisation in Nepal. Smaller landholding size reduces the selfsufficiency of farms, and it also reduces incentive for farmers to invest in mechanised agriculture, farming infrastructure and tools due to weak economies of scale.Farmers currently lack appropriate mechanisation technologies addressing the needs of diverse socioeconomic groups of farmers (women, small farmers), farming systems and agroecological domains. Technologies are needed for conservation farming, high value agriculture, value addition focusing on improved manual tools, animal drawn implements and appropriate mechanical machinery for tillage, intercultural operations, harvesting, post-harvest operations, transportation and processing. As the majority of farm operations are performed by women in rural areas of Nepal as a result of male migration, the tools and machinery currently promoted do not meet the specific needs of women farmers or reduce their drudgery.In Farmers and agro-entrepreneurs currently face limited access to institutional credit, although interest rates of credit for tractors and other agriculture machineries are high. Farmers are mainly smallholders with limited cash to purchase and hire machinery. Agro-entrepreneurs also lack working capital. Furthermore, investment in farm machinery is highly risky due to various climate and market related risks in agriculture. Government of Nepal has recently initiated agricultural insurance programmes to reduce risk in farming. However, agricultural insurance schemes are not effectively implemented due to lack of adequate awareness among farmers, high transaction cost of administration and subsistence nature of farming in many parts of Nepal.At present, the country lacks adequately skilled and experienced human resources in public and private sectors at all levels. The agricultural sector is less mechanised and commercialised because of the lack of skill related to manufacturing of farm machineries. Existing man power in public and private sectors are not only limited but they also lack adequate knowledge and skills in machinery manufacturing and servicing. Traditional artisans (blacksmiths) have been playing an important role in producing and repairing indigenous hand tools and bullocks drawn implements. They do however lack appropriate technical and capital support to develop their skill and volume of business.Agri-machinery sub-sector in Nepal is emerging with dominance of small and medium sized enterprises. Currently, agri-machinery enterprises are mostly limited to repair and maintenance service sector and it lacks experience and technical knowledge related to business development services Their capacity to manufacture sophisticated agricultural machines and equipments is also very limited. The enterprises also lack information and adequate knowledge about production and marketing of quality machines and spare parts. Lack of quality control authority is also an issue for consideration.Farm mechanisation requires easy access to rural energy sources, such as electricity and petroleum products at affordable prices. But currently energy prices are very high and beyond the reach of small farmers due to lack of incountry production and stocking. Moreover, Nepal suffers from lack of adequate and uncertainty of access to energy sources (fuel, electricity) due to frequent load shedding and petroleum shortage for fueling power operated machines and manufacturing. Use of renewable energy for running and fueling machinery is very much limited. Operation)The agriculture production developed and tested in NARC include technologies for tillage, planting and intercultural operations (AED, 2013; NARC, 2012). These include, (i) mechanised rice transplanter, which is able to transplant rice in 0.20 ha/hour. It saves 50-60 human labour per ha. This facilitates machinery use in inter-culture operation as it is planted in rows; (ii) maize dibbler for planting maize in rows is being promoted, which is efficient as compared to traditional manual sowing using plough; (iv) minimum tillage by power-tiller drills is a promising technology that performs three operations simultaneously-soil tilling, seed sowing, and planking. It saves on cost and overcomes the problem of poor plant-stand that can result from poor tilth and manual broadcasting (Joshi et al., 2012). Hence, they are gaining popularity among small and medium-farmers in western Terai. Minimum tillage is beneficial which produces higher yields as compared with typical yields based on farmers' practice (Manandhar et al., 2009;Pariyar et al., 2001). The technology on intercultural operation that is tested and promoted includes, (iii) mechanised intercultural operation for maize using tractor. It includes tractor fitted with 4/11 tyne cultivator which is very efficient and saves 80% of human labour. There are also different types of irrigation technologies, such as pump sets, drip and sprinkle, etc., which are being promoted both by private and public sector organisations.There are some indigenous and newly promoted postharvest and processing technologies available in Nepal in agriculture and rural development. Adoption and spread of agricultural and rural mechanisation technologies are increasing recently in Nepal with liberal import policies, increased connectivity and acute labour scarcity resulting from youth migration. Feminisation in agriculture is apparent. In addition, spill-over effect from India also played important role in the promotion of mechanisation in the bordering Terai districts.Agricultural machinery is having a positive impact on smallholders since they are efficient in accomplishing timely farm operations, reducing cost and improving product quality. With increased road connectivity, market accessibility and liberal economic policy, small-scale threshers, pump sets, and tillage equipments are now more widely available; these are less expensive, and suitable for small-holders even in rural hills and mountains. The country needs to identify, evaluate and promote widely promising existing indigenous and newly developed technologies on production, post-harvest and processing to spur agricultural growth in the country. Considering diversity of geography, agroecology, farming system and socioeconomic setting, selective mechanisation is suggested in Nepal based on specific context. Focus need to be given on custom hiring of machines with enabling policy environment and programme activities. Special efforts should be made in the development, testing and promotion of resource conserving, environmentally safe, women and youth friendly mechanisation technologies suited to small-scale farming of Nepal.Considering a small farm size and fragmented land holdings and difficult terrain of hills and mountains, promotion of small-scale machinery is most suited for Nepal. This case is supported by the evidence of success of small scale farm mechanisation of neighbouring countries e.g., China and Bangladesh (see Mandal, 2014 for illustration of Bangladesh case). Therefore, there is a strong argument of policy intervention in favour of small-scale machinery to smallholder farmers (see Biggs et al., 2013 andJustice andBiggs, 2013). Small scale farm mechanisation focusing on women and youth friendly machineries is essential for enhancing access, improving production efficiency and addressing labour scarcity caused by youth migration and feminisation in agriculture (Gauchan, 2014). Promotion of small scale farm mechanisation is also best suited to the difficult topography of the hills and mountains of Nepal.Considering the dominance of resource poor farm households and relatively large investment required for farm machinery at the individual household level, developing market for custom hiring will be best strategy to promote agricultural mechanisation in Nepal. This will require enabling policy and institutional environment that government of Nepal needs to promote and address. In such context, small-scale machinery is not always the best choice. Small scale machinery will be most suited to hills and mountains where terrains are difficult and plots are of smaller size and fragmented. In the flat land of Terai, where road connectivity exists and farm sizes are larger, relatively large size machinery (e.g. combine harvesters, and mobile threshers) will be the best technology and custom hiring of such expensive machinery will be viable economic option for the vast majority of farmers. In the past, custom hiring of large equipments was dominated by Indian machine owners but more recently, increasingly, Nepalese machine owners are being popular in custom hiring of equipments for tillage, harvesting and threshing. Therefore, there is a need to develop and implement an appropriate policy to facilitate custom hiring for the wider benefit of smallholders. Research on the evaluation of performance of models of custom hiring services provision will be essential to design and recommend appropriate custom hiring options.Cooperative Farming, Contract Farming, Land Banking and Land Consolidation Considering a small and fragmented landholdings, use of machinery through the promotion of rural institutions, such as cooperative farming and community based organisations (CBOs) would be most suited in Nepal. This will provide economic use of tractors and other machineries when large number of farmers is organised into cooperatives for collective use to improve efficiency and reduce cost of production. In addition, for economic use of farm machinery, there is a need of regulation of land registration to encourage farmers' of larger land holding size. Furthermore, legislation on land leasing, contract farming and land banking are suggested options for promoting mechanisation and commercialisation of agriculture. Land consolidation is the obvious antidote to high levels of fragmentation. Consolidating a land owner's holding into a single location is by no means a simple task but it can be achieved by sale and purchase and through mutual exchange employing concept of land banking. Land consolidation has been successfully achieved elsewhere, most notably in Taiwan where agricultural productivity has increased by 32% (ADS, 2014).In order to promote farm mechanisation, there is a need to develop and strengthen institutional and human resource development in farm mechanisation at all levels (national, sub-national & local level) and ecological and development regions. This will require strengthening existing Agriculture Implement Research Centre (AIRC), Birganj and Agri Engineering Division (AED), NARC and establishment of new research centres in hills, mountains and mid/far western Terai region. Similarly establishment of agricultural engineering /farm mechanisation units in each of district agricultural development offices with adequate trained professional is needed for promotion of mechanisation extension programmes. Agricultural educational institutions also need to be strengthened for agricultural and rural mechanisation faculties and course curricula. Private sector manufacturing establishment and repair and maintenance workshops in different regions and locations are to be promoted and supported with suitable policies and programme. In addition, capacity building of indigenous entrepreneurs (e.g. blacksmiths) and agro-related metal working industries is essential for in-country production of farm machinery prototypes that are adapted to fragmented lands and small holdings. Research capability in agricultural mechanisation needs to be strengthened.Development of technologies on conservation farming with suitable accessories to farm machineries and attachments (e.g., planters, zero till drill, hoes, etc.) will help to improve efficiency in cultivation, conserve resources (water, energy) and reduce cost and labour demand. In addition, this will promote commercialisation of agriculture related to postharvest handling, storage and distribution of products. Other interesting areas of R&D are enhancing machine use efficiency, safety (both operators' safety and environmental safety), quality standards; and the prospects of using renewable energy like solar pumps, solar dryers, bio-fuel, biogas plants etc in operating farm machines. Research on development and piloting of advanced technologies, such as precision farming technologies is suggested to accomplish agricultural operations timely with the highest efficiency, thereby the quality of agricultural products specified by their ingredients, freshness, maturity and shelf life are improved, leading to higher prices at the market.The government needs to make provisions for appropriate policies and regulations on mechanisation, preferential treatment on capital machinery importation and multiple value added tax on imported raw materials. Tax and subsidy rationalisation is needed to promote use of farm machinery without distorting market and making compatible with private traders' incentives.Considering the need to focus on small-scale environmentally safe farm mechanisation, differentiated and targeted import duty is needed for raw materials, spare parts, machineries, accessories and attachments. Financing and credit policy with soft and easy loans for agricultural machineries and commercial agriculture in rural areas is suggested. Implementation of insurance schemes to minimise risks in farming is essential for the adoption of farm mechanisation and commercialisation of agriculture. This will require a portfolio of policy incentives and support measures for farmers and stakeholders to modernise and commercialise agriculture through enhancing adoption of appropriate agriculture and rural mechanisation technologies. An immediate work plan is needed for the development of strategy and action plans for the implementation of new Agriculture Mechanisation Promotion Policy that includes most of these suggested policy options including formulation and implementation of other policies, legislations and regulations favouring commercialisation of agriculture. (e.g. Contract Farming Act, Land leasing legislation, Agriculture Land Use Act, Cooperative Act, etc.).","tokenCount":"5666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6e900834d1caebec16b9df5dd7b18b91","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/89a3d2cb-7935-451e-a80b-3bf387b1d3ae/retrieve","id":"-754404166"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ddf541e5-1ad6-44e9-abd3-3d153b473f7e","pagecount":"1","content":"• Agreement with Ultimate Business Strategies to coach and mentor aggregators, farmers and input providers on the market arrangements, signed.• Champions to be trained in market systems approaches identified.• Completion of aggregator and input supplier scoping studies.• High interest by aggregators in Masaka, Mukono and Wakiso districts to support farmers through the market agreements as it also supports their businesses.The Put a caption for your images or graphs together with either photo credit or source.• Phase 1 of Livestock & Fish CRP: productivityenhancing best-bet technological interventions pilot tested to address specific value chain (VC) constraints.• Results show limited uptake due to financial resource constraints and market inefficiencies.• Piloting and evaluating innovative market arrangements with pig aggregators to strengthen linkages with pig farmers and inputs and services in project sites.• Test hypotheses that such arrangements will result in improved incomes, improved relationships and catalyze uptake of an integrated productivity enhancing package.• Training of Trainers in market systems approaches for wider application and mentorship• Learning based on the pilots for further refinement ","tokenCount":"170"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"79f37e79c7847ab2c462bebbe297d5cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d6dd007c-76eb-4b7f-a4ef-e5749a130da5/retrieve","id":"-787603531"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db6ee4eb-36d5-4fb1-a78c-0f1aac70e6ca","pagecount":"13","content":"Currently, over 500 Farmer Field Schools (FFS) on integrated pest management (IPM) and/or integrated soil management are being successfully implemented in Kenya and many more in Africa as a whole. The FFS methodology needs to be developed for similarly complex situations like animal health and production where responses to interventions may not be as fast.In a recent study in Central and Rift Valley Provinces of Kenya, approximately 90% of rural households were agricultural and of these 73% had dairy cattle. In the DFID bilaterally funded Smallholder Dairy Project (SDP) characterisation and longitudinal monitoring of smallholder dairy farms has confirmed that in Rift Valley Province, smallholder farmers consider endemic diseases, particularly tick-borne diseases (TBD), and inadequate supplies of feed resources the major constraints to increased dairy production.The livestock FFS project started in April 2001 and funded by the DFID Animal Health Programme and FAO, is adapting and testing the FFS methodology for animal health and production, focussing upon smallholder dairy farmers. Ten pilot FFS have been established in five different agro-ecological zones in Central, Rift Valley and Coastal Provinces of Kenya. Implementation of these FFS is allowing adaptation of agro-ecological system analysis (AESA) with the animal as a focal point and development of participatory technology development (PTD) to address livestock related issues. Approaches and methods to test and introduce integrated methods to control tick-borne diseases and helminth infections and to improve animal husbandry practices and the efficiency of utilization of available feed resources within the crop-dairy system are being developed.Considering the escalating population growth, shrinking grazing land and increased demand for animal products, sustaining livestock production through improved management is critical to the issue of food security and poverty alleviation in most developing countries. The challenge facing the research and extension services in these countries is to increase productivity in the livestock sector while sustaining and enhancing the productive potential of the available natural resources.In a climate of declining governmental support for conventional means of extension and the evidence of lack of success of traditional methods, the need for alternative methods for disseminating technologies is recognised (Moris, 1991;Scarborough et al. 1997;Wambugu, 1999). Failure of these traditional methods, can be partly attributed to the fact that they have not always focused on farmers priority issues, or have given recommendation that were inappropriate or with no immediate tangible benefits (Heffernan & Misturelli, 2000). The underlying reason for these failings is that farmers were insufficiently involved, or not involved at all, in identifying their problems, or in selecting, testing and evaluating the possible solutions. Therefore the traditional extension system in Africa, based on a top-down approach, rarely delivers in an integrated manner the necessary information (Nyambo & Kimani, 1998). Livestock extension has focused on delivery of services such as artificial insemination rather than delivery of information on improved management practices and it is generally acknowledged that livestock production and marketing information has been poor or non-existent, particularly in comparison with the services offered to crop producers (Barton & Reynolds, 1996). D epartments of Veterinary Services have historically not undertaken extension advisory work, focusing instead on provision of emergency health care services by animal health assistant often insufficiently supported and supervised by a veterinarian (Leonard, 1985(Leonard, & 2000)).It is now generally recognised in extension and community development that a major means of ensuring sustainability and therefore success is to design programmes where the recipient is participating at all stages of their planning, implementation and evaluation (Axin, 1988). In such participatory approaches, farmers are participating in determining the agenda, the content, the dissemination pathway (Garforth, 1998) and sometimes the person to be responsible for the programme (Chambers 1983(Chambers & 1993;;Chambers et al. 1989;Sutherland, 1998;Martin & Sherington, 1997). As for extension, very few example of participatory livestock research exist compared to crop production and protection (ICIPE 1992;Morton et al., 1997;Jones et al., 1998).Although a growing number of organisations have sought models which might be both more effective in serving farmers' needs and institutionally more sustainable, most of these \"farmer-led extension\" projects described by Scarborough et al. (1997) have been in the voluntary sector and few as yet have been sponsored by government organisations. Yet, the only way for an extension programme to be sustainable and reach a significant number of farmers is to be integrated within a national programme agenda.The Farm Field School (FFS) methodology originally developed by FAO in Asia for integrated pest management on rice was subsequently broadened to address other crops and topics (Matteson et al., 1992;Ooi, 1996& 1998, van de Fliert, 1993). Although, the FFS methodology can be implemented by NGO's or private institutions it can easily be integrated into the existing extension services. Currently, over 500 FFS on IPM and/or integrated soil management are being successfully implemented in Kenya and thousands of FFS involving millions of farmers have already been established in several African, Asian and South American countries. In an evaluation report in Uganda and Kenya, Fujisaka (2000) recognised the positive contribution of FFS (IPM, soil management and poultry) to sustainable livelihoods. Fujisaka (2000) observed that FFS clearly assisted in building social and human capital in terms of furthering collaboration within groups, information and decision sharing, group management of finances, trust among members and general dynamics.In Kenya, it is estimated that 80% of marketed milk is produced by approximately 3 million dairy cattle ( Bos taurus cattle and their crosses with Bos indicus) of which 2.5 million are found on smallholder farms (Omore et al., 1999). Omore et al. (1999) observed that approx. 70% of all the marketed milk comes from smallholder farmers. In a systematic survey carried out in Central, Eastern and central Rift Valley Provinces of Kenya (Staal et al., 1999), an increasing shift towards intensification of dairying through growing of fodder crops with \"cut-and-carry\" feeding systems and keeping of improved dairy breeds on the ever decreasing land available for agriculture was observed. This selection of crossbred and exotic dairy cattle has the potential to rapidly improve milk production but with the unwanted consequence of lowering resistance against diseases (Minjauw & de Castro, 1999) and increasing the need for quality forage and improved management practices. Staal et al. (1998) stated that the success of smallholder dairying would depend on the ability of producers to adapt to changes in available resources and market forces. Thus, the smallholder dairy farmer systems requires information and services covering a range of subjects including animal health, nutrition, breeding and marketing t o i ncreasing the productivity of their high potential animal (Barton & Reynolds, 1996;Schreiber, 2002.) In a study of agricultural knowledge and information systems undertaken by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), field research conducted to assess the significance of different actors and organisations as potential dissemination pathways for agricultural technologies, the results showed that most farmers require information on technical details of farming. The study demonstrated the importance of participatory learning approaches as potential delivery systems and entry-points for knowledge dissemination (Rees et al., 2000).In another study in Kiambu District, Wambugu (2000) exposed the deficiencies of the current extension services to provide the necessary information to dairy farmers and she suggested that participatory and interactive learning approaches should be promoted.Furthermore, using PRA and survey techniques, Schreiber (2002) showed that lack of information is a major constraint to improved milk production in Kenya. In a formal survey carried out with dairy farmers in Western Kenya, the most important category of source of information, service or input needed by farmers to implement changes in their dairy management systems was extension services. This included information material, education and individual farm visits by extension officers. The most important areas where information is needed were cited as feeding and breeding, followed by information on how to improve general farm management (Schreiber, 2002).Although, demand for FFS on livestock and particularly on dairy has been expressed by farmers in Africa and elsewhere, no curriculum has yet been developed. The main reason is that FFS was originally developed by agronomists specializing in integrated pest management (IPM).Following the success of crop FFS, FAO expressed the need to develop the methodology for livestock before implementation can take place. Experimental FFS on poultry already exist in Kenya and show promising results but it was felt that before cattle FFS could be implemented, some basic research has to be performed. Indeed, dairy cattle represent a high investment with a slow return and therefore a much higher risk than crop or poultry production. Responses to health and production issues may also be longer term therefore requiring adaptation of the single season cycles used in FFS for crop issues (Schmidt, 1997). Furthermore, the health and nutrition issues are both quantitatively and qualitatively more complex.Therefore, the current ILRI/DFID-AHP/FAO livestock FFS project is adapting and developing the methodology specifically for livestock and particularly for the smallholder dairy production system focussed on animal health and production issues. The approach is applied to developing integrated methods to control vector -borne diseases and helminth infections and to improve the efficiency of utilization of available feed resources and the management of nutrients within the crop-dairy system. Using the FFS approach, the project develops an innovative process through which farmers adapt existing technologies and try out new ideas, which are developed through interactions between farmers, scientists and extension workers. Facilitators trained in FFS approaches worked with established groups to prioritise the main constraints to improved efficiency of milk production using participatory pair-wise and matrix ranking techniques. Issues highlighted for all groups were similar and, in order of priority included 1) Feeding strategies; 2) Fodder establishment and conservation; 3) Calf rearing and mortality; 4) Diseases (tick-borne and mastitis) 5) Water management and breeding (equal priority given). Based on the results of this exercise, individual grant proposals were prepared by each group including a detailed work plan with a corresponding budget. A grant of US$600 was deposited in an account controlled by elected members of the FFS group to cover the cost of field activities and the cost of facilitation, i.e. the transport and lunch allowanc es to enable the extension worker to visit. Management of this budget empowered the farmers to demand and control activities covered by the FFS and ensured that the extension services offered responded to farmers' actual priority problems and needs. FFS groups meet normally on a weekly basis but some vary their frequency to fortnightly. The main participatory techniques used, including agro-ecological system analysis (AESA) and participatory technology development (PTD) were adapted to suit the specific needs of learning about livestock issues.One major difference between crop and livestock FFS resides in the understanding of the impact of animal health on productivity and how to control diseases occurrence. Specific activities using participatory methods modified for basic epidemiology studies provide assistance to facilitators to integrated animal health activities in their FFS programme.The AESA exercise helps to establish, through a process of structured observation, the interaction between livestock and other biotic and abiotic factors co-existing in the field. The exercise is used to improve farmers decision making skills by developing a system whereby regular observations of the livestock and their environment are used as a basis for identifying problems, deciding on improvements and monitoring change. At each FFS meeting farmers are divided into sub-groups who visit neighbouring farms of some of the participants. Data is collected through observation of a single animal and its interaction with the environment. Decisions on interventions to improve the health and nutrition of the animal with a view to optimizing farming objectives are made and the conclusions presented back to the whole group for critique.The AESA takes place in four steps using a record sheet prepared by the group (see Figure 1).General Information: Farmers interview the owner to get general background information on the animal examined.Parameters: Farmers record all parameter that can be measured or estimate. A weigh band system is used to estimate liveweight and recorded weights are compared to previous weeks. Milk production is recorded and reproductive status and management noted. Farmers also observe the type, quality and quantity of basal forage and supplements offered. This section should encourage the farmers to improve their record keeping.Observations: One of the objectives of the AESA exercise is to improve the observation skill of the farmer. This should become an automatic checklist that the farmer will mentally go through every time he sees his animal. Observations are performed in 3 steps: observations from a distance, close-up observation and attention to the environment.Step 1: Hair/coat, body condition, rumination, movement/temperament, respirationStep 2: Temperature, presence of ecto and endo-parasites, discharges, dung, urine, wounds, eye condition, mucus membrane color, lymph nodes, presence of diarrhea etc…Step 3: Details of the production system (zero grazing, extensive, semi-extensive) for example infrastructure details, quality and quantity of available feed, water, shade, presence of other animal/insects, noises, etc… 4) Recommendations: The recommendations section gives an opportunity to the farmers to suggest some solutions to improve the overall condition of the animal examined. These might include how to improve the AESA through recording additional parameters or changing the way observations are made; suggestions for improving infrastructure or changes tha t could be made to improve productivity such as changes in fodder type or amount of supplement. The PTDs are implemented to empower participants (both farmers and facilitators) with analytical skills to investigate cause and effect relationships of problems in farming practices. Since the main objective of the PTD is to develop farmers learning skills rather than just increase knowledge of a particular technical issue, record keeping and accurate observation are an important component. For this the AESA technique is an integral component of the PTDs. The AESA technique is used to record and observe the results of the PTD experiments.The establishment of PTD is on of the biggest challenges for livestock FFS. Indeed, while it is relatively easy to design comparative studies for crop integrated pest management, the high economical value of cattle does not allow any experiment involving risk or even short term productivity losses of the animal. Therefore, one of the objectives of the livestock FFS project, is to establish the type of PTDs that can be performed without any risk or detrimental effect and still allo w farmers to experiment with new technologies. Three type of PTDs have emerged from ongoing activities:1) Classical PTDs Although livestock are the focus for the FFS, a lot of activities of the livestock keeper are crop related when they are focused on addressing food scarcity through improved fodder production and grazing improvement. PTDs that have been carried out include 1 Establishment of alternative sources of fodder. A range of fodders varieties are planted using different planting methods, treatments and/or different fertilizer regime. 2 Preservation of fodder using different techniques such as silage making and the box baler for hay are tested using material grown on the plots.Observation and evaluation of the variation in strategies used by farmers both within the group as well as neighbours, provide the opportunity to address issues that do not lend themselves to experimentation because of the high risk in terms of animal well-being or high cost implications. Examples include: 1 Tick control: comparison of efficacy of different acaricides and/or of different application regimes. 2 Vaccination efficacy: comparison of disease incidence in immunised and non-immunised animals 3 Comparison of milk quality, animal health and losses due to milk spoilage in relation to the quality of the milking stall and zero grazing infrastructure.In ex-post analysis, farmers compare actual experimental results with practices that were used before. Results may be quantitative if records are available from the past or from similar situations or qualitative where farmer perceptions are evaluated. This also includes the \"Stop and Go\" method, where the treatment is stopped and re-introduced several times to show its effect using an animal as its own control. Those tested include: 1. Water availability: the amount of water available to the dairy animal is changed according to the calculated needs. Milk production on the new regime is compared with previous records of production on the old regime. 2. Genetic material: calf weights on farms where artificial insemination is used are compared with birth weights of calves from natural production methods, or the expected weights. 3. Prophylactic programmes: a prophylactic programme is applied to a group of cattle and their performance is compared with previous productivity and with neighbouring herds. This could include deworming, trypanocide and/ or vaccination against prevalent diseases.PE i s based on the use of participatory techniques for the harvesting of qualitative epidemiological data contained within community observations, existing veterinary knowledge and traditional oral history. It relies on the widely accepted techniques of participatory rural appraisal, ethno-veterinary surveys and qualitative epidemiology ( Mariner, 2001). This information can be used by the facilitators to disseminate information on disease prevalence, to design relevant participatory technology development, and to introduce more successful surveillance and control strategies. Although PE is an adaptation of PRA methods to address animal health issues, these methods can also be used to identify, explore and score animal production issues. A range of techniques will be used in the dairy FFS to complement the AESA and examine specific issues or problems in more detail. Methods include the following.Interviewing is a specialised skill that improves with practise.Although just about any one can collect useful information through an interview, the amount and reliability of information obtained can be greatly improved with experience. In participatory assessment, an interview questionnaire is not used. Instead, the facilitator prepares a checklist of important points and exercises to be covered. This allows the interview to be flexible and permits the respondents to express their thoughts in their own words within their own conceptual frameworks.Participatory Mapping: Mapping is a type o f visualisation method is a popular participatory among animal health workers and livestock keepers. Examples of maps that could be used in the dairy FFS include, resource flow maps showing movement of resources within and between farms; movement of milk p roduced to explore and understand marketing issues and problems; opportunities and service maps to highlight where farmers obtain services and where the deficiencies lie; social maps to show where farmers obtain information and identify social support networks. Natural resource maps combining disease incidence for a community could help to highlight factors at a community level which influence disease.Mapping is a useful method for the following reasons:Ø both literate and non-literate people can contribute to the construction of a map (as it is not necessary to have written text on the map) Ø when large maps are constructed on the ground, many people an be involved in the process and contribute ideas. People also correct each other, and make sure that the map is accurate Ø maps can represent complex information that would be difficult to describe using text alone Ø maps can act as a focus for discussion Mapping is very useful during the ground-working stage of the FFS. The method tends to prompt much discussion and activity among farmers, and enables them to define the area under consideration. Although when copied to paper maps become useful outputs of mapping methods, it is important to note that maps can act as the focus for much discussion and follow-up questioning.This method is used for understanding local characterisation of livestock diseases and meanings of local diseasenames (see Catley et al., 2001Catley et al., & 2002)). The method can help to answer the question: \" Are the facilitators and livestock keepers talking about the same diseases?\"Seasonal calendars to describe cropping activities, labour use, or feed use or availability are common, they can also be useful to facilitate farmers to explore issues relating to animal health. Temporal variations in disease occurrence are a common aspect of epidemiological investigation. Seasonal calendars are a useful method for understanding farmers perceptions of seasonal variations in disease incidence or populations of ticks, biting flies or other factors (Catley et al., 2002). Seasonal calendars can also generate new hypotheses about associations between diseases, environmental factors, and interactions with wildlife and ve ctors.If scientific research is to achieve real impact on farm productivity and livelihoods, new methodologies for dissemination of information have to be developed. Participatory approaches, which facilitate farmer demand for knowledge, give the opportunity to the end users to choose, test and adapt technologies according to their needs. Through participation in FFS, farmers develop skills, which allow them to continually analyse their own situation and adapt to changing circumstances. The livestock FFS facilitates in a sustainable manner the identification and exchange of knowledge on appropriate technologies for smallholders to improve their dairy production system in environments with high disease risk and nutrition stress. The ILRI livestock FFS project is testing and adapting a participatory method to create a sustainable relation between farmers, extension officers and research institutes. These relationships are thought to be a fundamental tool for scientists to collect appropriate data and to transform developed technologies into products adapted to the end user needs. Not every problem can be easily dealt with by a \"learning by doing\" approach. Some problems, dealing with contagious diseases, for example, are not suitable or too dange rous for experiment. Others may be too abstract to be demonstrated physically, such as the importance of epidemiological status or immunological reactions and these can be addressed in special topic sessions where issues are discussed. Since the facilitator cannot be an expert in every subject, he will help the farmer group to invite the right person to talk about the subject chosen by the farmers. This empowers the FFS group to contact other organisations such as NGOs, national or international research institutes to conduct a special topics. Special topics can also include livestock and non-livestock related issues, giving the chance to farmers to access the information responding to their priority at a particular moment. For example, talking to the community about trypanosomiasis when the village is threatened by a cholera outbreak is unlikely to be addressing a priority issue, when advice about cholera control may be more relevant.During the course of the project a small number of farmer groups will be affected. However, manuals and tools will be developed that can be used by other groups of people responsible for delivering knowledge and in the long term large numbers of livestock farmers in Kenya and similar regions will benefit from the research findings.","tokenCount":"3714"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13cb08e1edca27770d9e9ed0f8dea23d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a2da8a94-7654-4a80-9490-885646cdea56/content","id":"-1414697431"},"keywords":["Funding information Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","Grant/Award Numbers: OPP1134248","OPPGD1390"],"sieverID":"df0385cd-8295-405d-b097-52469ee0a72d","pagecount":"19","content":"Common rust (CR) caused by Puccinia sorghi Schwein is one of the major foliar diseases of maize (Zea mays L.) in Eastern and Southern Africa. This study was conducted to (i) evaluate the response of elite tropical adapted maize inbred lines to Puccinia sorghi and identify resistant lines (ii) examine associations between CR disease parameters and agronomic traits, and (iii) assess the genetic diversity of the inbred lines. Fifty inbred lines were evaluated in field trials for three seasons (2017)(2018)(2019) in Uganda under artificial inoculation. Disease severity was rated on a 1-9 scale at 21 (Rust 1), 28 (Rust 2), and 35 (Rust 3) days after inoculation. Area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) was calculated. The genetic diversity of the lines was assessed using 44,975 single nucleotide polymorphism markers. Combined ANOVA across seasons showed significant (P < .001) line mean squares for the three rust scores and AUDPC. Heritability was high for Rust 2 (0.90), Rust 3 (0.83), and AUDPC (0.93). Of the 50 lines, 12 were highly resistant to CR. Inbred lines CKL1522, CKL05010, and CKL05017 had significantly lower Rust 3 scores and AUDPC compared to the resistant check CML444 and are potential donors of CR resistance alleles. The genetic correlations between CR disease resistance parameters were positive and strong. A neighbor-joining (NJ) tree and STRUCTURE suggested the presence of three major groups among the lines, with lines highly resistant to CR spread across the three groups. The genetic diversity among the highly resistant lines can be exploited by recycling genetically distant lines to develop new multiple disease resistant inbred lines for hybrid development and deployment.millions of people in ESA. Maize production in this region is affected by several biotic stresses including insect pests (Goergen, Kumar, Sankung, Togola, & Tamò, 2016;Kfir, Overholt, Khan, & Polaszek, 2002;Mugo et al., 2004), virus and foliar diseases (Kyetere et al., 1999;Mahuku et al., 2015;Marenya et al., 2018;Martin & Shepherd, 2009;Prasanna et al., 2020;Wangai et al., 2012), and parasitic weeds especially Striga hermonthica (Kanampiu et al., 2018). The major foliar diseases of economic importance in the mid-altitude and highland ecologies of ESA are northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) caused by Exserohilum turcicum (Pass.) Leonard & Suggs (Pratt et al., 2003;Vivek et al., 2010), gray leaf spot (GLS) caused by Cercospora zeae-maydis Tehon & Daniels (Asea et al., 2002;Bigirwa, Pratt, Adipala, & Lipps, 2001;Menkir & Ayodele, 2005;Ward, Stromberg, Nowell, & Nutter, 1999), and common rust caused by Puccinia sorghi Schwein (CABI, 2019;Fininsa & Yuen, 2001;Vivek et al., 2010).Common rust (CR) of maize is widely distributed in temperate (Gingera, Davis, & Groth, 1994;Pataky & Tracy, 1999) and subtropical and tropical (Bekeko, 2019;Darino et al., 2016;Pratt & Gordon, 2006;Vivek et al., 2010) maize growing regions of the world. Puccinia sorghi is an obligate parasite (Anderson, Tyler, & Pryor, 1992;Pryor, 1994). Common rust disease epidemics are characterized with short latency periods of about five to ten days at temperatures of 15-25 • C and are more common at a relative humidity of at least 98% (Hooker, 1985;Pataky & Tracy, 1999). Common rust leads to loss of photosynthetic leaf area, chlorosis and premature leaf senescence, resulting in incomplete grain filling and poor yields, and low grain quality (Groth, Zeyen, Davis, & Christ, 1983a;Roelfs & Bushnell, 1985). Grain yield losses ranging from 12-75% have been reported for different maize genotypes (Dey et al., 2012;Groth et al., 1983a;Kim & Brewbaker, 1976;Shah & Dillard, 2006). Pataky (1987) estimated a 6.5% yield loss for every 10% of leaf area diseased by CR.Several options to control CR have been proposed including use of fungicides (Pataky & Headrick, 1989;Wegulo, Rivera-C, Martinson, & Nutter, 1998;Wright, Parkerb, Van Tilburg, & Hedderley, 2014), foliar fertilizer (Reuveni, Agapov, & Reuveni, 1994), biocontrol agents (Dey et al., 2013;Sartori et al., 2017) and resistant varieties (Headrick & Pataky, 1987;Pataky & Headrick, 1989;Pataky & Eastburn, 1993;Abedon & Tracy, 1998;Gingera et al., 1994). The development and deployment of resistant maize genotypes is the most ecologically friendly strategy to minimize the effects of P. sorghi, reduce the cost and adverse effects of fungicides, and significantly contribute to increased grain yield (Lübberstedt et al., 1998). Climate change projections have indicated that some areas of Africa will likely experience an increased risk of occurrence of both common and southern (Puccinia polysora Underw.) rust by 2050 (Ramirez-• Twelve inbred lines highly resistant to common rust (CR) were identified in a 3-year study. • The highly resistant inbred lines were genetically diverse. • The highly resistant inbred lines are potential donors of CR resistance alleles.Cabral, Kumar, & Shabani, 2017). Hence, to mitigate the potential risks, there is a need to introgress resistance to CR in inbred lines adapted to the different agro-ecologies where the disease is a challenge. Both race specific (Hu & Hulbert, 1996;Hulbert, 1997;Hulbert, Lyons, & Bennetzen, 1991) and partial resistance (Gingera et al., 1994;Randle, Davis, & Groth, 1984) to CR have been reported.Several studies have identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to CR on different chromosomes in different germplasm (Brown, Juvik, & Pataky, 2001;Kerns, Dudley, & Rufener, 1999;Lübberstedt et al., 1998;Olukolu, Tracy, Wisser, De Vries, & Balint-Kurti, 2016;Rossi, Ruiz, Bonamico, & Balzarini, 2020;Zheng et al., 2018). Sources of resistance to CR have been reported in temperate (Groth, Davis, Zeyen, & Mogen, 1983b;Kim & Brewbaker, 1976;Reid et al., 2017;Russell, Penny, Sprague, Guthrie, & Dicke, 1971) and in tropical maize. In tropical germplasm, inbred lines CML239-CML246 from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center were reported to be resistant (CIMMYT, 2005). However, there is limited published information on sources of resistance to CR in adapted maize lines for ESA. An earlier report indicated presence of resistance to CR among open-pollinated varieties and an inbred line from Africa (Wilkinson & Hooker, 1968). In a recent study (Vivek et al., 2010), the response of hybrids formed from a limited number of lines adapted to the mid-altitude ecology and evaluated under natural disease pressure was reported, with some lines exhibiting negative general combining ability effects for CR resistance. Zheng et al. (2018), evaluated an association mapping panel of 292 lines including some lines adapted to the mid-altitudes under natural CR disease pressure and artificial inoculation in Kenya and Mexico respectively, and reported variable response to CR among some lines developed in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Rossi et al. (2020) evaluated some tropical lines from CIMMYT and reported six lines with low disease severity index for CR. The findings from these few studies indicate presence of native genetic resistance to CR among tropical maize germplasm sources. However, further research to identify new sources of resistance to CR in germplasm Crop Science adapted to ESA is needed. The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate the response of elite tropical adapted maize inbred lines to Puccinia sorghi and identify resistant lines (ii) examine associations between CR disease parameters and agronomic traits, and (iii) assess the genetic diversity of the inbred lines using high density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DArTseq markers.A set of 50 inbred lines developed by CIMMYT maize breeding programs in Kenya (46 lines), Zimbabwe and Colombia (two each) were used for this study (Table 1). The lines were developed through pedigree breeding from bi-parental crosses except five lines (42 to 46) that were derived using the doubled haploid (DH) method. Selection of lines for use in populations for inbred line development was based on good agronomic traits, resistance to foliar diseases (NCLB and GLS), maize streak virus, and tolerance to some abiotic stresses (drought, low N, and acid soils). Some of these lines used in this study have been used to develop hybrids of FAO maturity classification series 500-600 that have been evaluated widely in ESA (Magorokosho, Vivek, MacRobert, & Tarekegne, 2010;Makumbi, 2011). Forty eight out of the 50 inbred lines were of mid-altitude ESA adaptation, and intermediate to late in maturity (819-966 growing degree days, GDD). The GDDs were calculated by setting maximum daily temperature at 30 . Genetic purity of the lines was verified using SNP markers as described by Semagn et al. (2012a). The resistant inbred line check was CML444, while the susceptible check was CKL141373. These two inbred line checks were chosen based on previous assessment under severe natural CR infestation at a location used regularly for disease screening in Kenya (Vivek et al., 2010).The inbred lines were evaluated in field trials for three seasons between 2017-2019 at National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Namulonge, Uganda, under artificial inoculation with Puccinia sorghi. The soil type at Namulonge (0 • 36' N, 32 • 36' E; 1150 m asl) is sandy clay loam and is classified as Orthic Ferrasol. The mean annual rainfall at Namulonge is 1270 mm with a bimodal distribution (March-July and September-November). The experimental design was a 5 × 10 alpha-lattice (Patterson & Williams, 1976) with two replications. The experimental unit was a two-row plot, 5 m long, spaced 0.75 m apart and 0.25 m between plants in a row, resulting in a final plant population density of approximately 53,333 plants ha −1 . Standard location specific recommended agronomic and cultural practices were followed. Weeding was carried out by hand and fertilizer applied at a rate of 77 kg N and 27 kg P ha −1 split over two applications at planting and for topdressing four weeks after planting, respectively. The trials were planted under rain-fed conditions with supplemental irrigation provided as required for optimal disease development. Since the evaluation was carried during the main cropping season, conditions were conducive for disease development (Supplemental Table S1).Urediniospores of Puccinia sorghi were collected from infected maize leaves at NaCRRI, Namulonge, Uganda in 2016 and maintained on a known susceptible experimental hybrid CKH107887 grown in a screenhouse. Spores of P. sorghi were collected from infected leaves by brushing them into 100 ml of distilled water containing 0.2 ml of Tween 20 to make an aqueous suspension of P. sorghi (Reuveni et al., 1994). Spore concentration in the suspension was estimated to be 5 × 10 4 spore ml −1 using a hemocytometer. The plants were inoculated once at the 4-6 leaf stage. Inoculation was carried out following the method of Olukolu et al. (2016), whereby a knapsack sprayer was used to deliver the spore suspension by spraying the whorl and upper surface of fully expanded leaves of each plant to run-off.Disease severity was visually assessed by observing the symptoms on 28-34 plants in a plot. Sporulation was checked on both the adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces. Disease severity was rated on nine-point scale based on the percent leaf area showing pustules of P. sorghi where 1 = 0% of leaf surface diseased (no rust pustules or a few pustules scattered on the leaf surface), 2 = 1% of leaf surface diseased; 3 = 2% of leaf surface diseased; 4 = 3-5% of leaf surface diseased; 5 = 6-10% of leaf surface diseased; 6 = 11TA B L E 1 List of 50 inbred lines used for common rust (Puccinia sorghi Schwein) screening at Namulonge, Uganda, 2017-2019Name Pedigree Background/Derivation and notes Growing degree daysCrop ScienceBackground/Derivation and notes Growing degree days -20% of leaf surface diseased; 7 = 21-40% of leaf surface diseased; 8 = 41-80% of leaf surface diseased; and 9 = 81-100% of leaf surface diseased (CIMMYT, unpublished internal protocols). Disease reaction was scored thrice during crop growth. The first disease score (Rust 1) was taken 21 days after inoculation when there were discernible differences between plots for the severity of disease symptoms. The second score (Rust 2) was taken 28 days after inoculation, while the third score (Rust 3) was taken 35 days after inoculation. The three disease severity scores were used to calculate the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) as:where i = time of rust severity rating, T i is the number of days after inoculation, and Y i is the rust severity (Shaner & Finney, 1977). Additional traits measured on plot basis were days to anthesis (AD, recorded as days from planting to when 50% of the plants started to shed pollen), plant height (PH, measured in centimeters as the distance from the base of the plant to the base of the first tassel branch), ear height (EH, measured in centimeters as the distance from the base of the plant to the point of attachment of the top ear on a plant), and plant aspect (PA, scored on a scale of 1 to 5 for overall plant appearance where 1 = attractive plant type (uniform height and ear placement, and free of foliar diseases) while 5 = undesirable plant type (variable height and ear placement, and affected by foliar diseases). Reaction to GLS disease was recorded on a scale of 1-9 (same as for CR) when the crop was at the dough stage. All ears in a two-row plot were harvested, weighed, and representative samples of ears shelled to determine percent moisture using a Dickey-John multi-grain moisture tester (DICKEY-John Corporation, IL, USA). Grain yield (Mg ha −1 ) was calculated from cob weight assuming a shelling percentage of 80% and grain yield adjusted to 12.5% moisture content.Seedlings of the 50 inbred lines were raised in a screenhouse at National Crops Resources Research Institute, Filtered genotypic data (using a minor allele frequency of 0.1 and a minimum count of 80% of the sample size) from IGSS was verified using TASSEL v.5.2 software (Bradbury et al., 2007) to retain 44,975 SNP markers for further analysis.Homogeneity of variance of the data was ascertained using Levene's test before the analysis of variance.Analyses of variance were performed using PROC MIXED of SAS (SAS Institute, 2011). Entries were considered fixed effects, whereas seasons were considered random effects. Each season-year combination was considered an environment. In the across-environment analysis of variance, genotype effects were tested for significance using the corresponding interaction with the environment as the error term, whereas the genotype × environment interaction was tested using the pooled error. To estimate variance components, all factors were considered random effects. Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP; Piepho, Möhring, Melchinger, & Büchse, 2008) for all traits was computed using META-R (Alvarado et al., 2020). Broadsense heritability for traits across environments was estimated as described by Hallauer, Carena, and Miranda Filho (2010). Cluster analysis following Ward's minimum variance (Ward, 1963) was used to group lines with similar response to artificial inoculation with P. sorghi using a combination of Rust 1, Rust 2, Rust 3, and AUDPC. The SAS procedures PROC CLUSTER and PROC TREE were used for cluster analysis and to generate the dendrograms, respectively.To assess consistency of inbred line performance in different seasons, Kendall's (1962) coefficient of concordance (W statistic) was computed for P. sorghi severity based on ranks of line means across artificial inoculation conditions. TA B L E 5 Phenotypic (above diagonal) and genetic (below diagonal) correlation coefficients between BLUPs for common rust (Puccinia sorghi) disease rating and AUDPC across three seasons under artificial inoculation and gray leaf spot (GLS) severity and grain yield Kendall's W statistic is calculated as:in which S is a sum-of-squares statistic over the row sums of ranks, n is the number of lines, p the number of locations, and T is a correction factor for tied ranks. Spearman rank correlation coefficients among rust severity scores and GLS were computed using PROC CORR of SAS (SAS Institute, 2011). Genetic correlations among traits were computed using META-R (Alvarado et al., 2020). Sequential path analysis (Mohammadi, Prasanna, & Singh, 2003;Samonte, Wilson, & McClung, 1998) was used to examine cause and effect relationships among CR disease parameters and agronomic traits. In sequential path analysis, traits were categorized into first, second, and third order or higher depending on their contribution to the total variation in CR severity (Mohammadi et al., 2003, Samonte et al., 1998). We used sequential path analysis to avoid potential problems due to multicollinearity. Stepwise regression analysis was carried out in SPSS version 20 (IBM, 2011). In this analysis, Rust 3 was regressed on all other traits to identify first order traits. The first order traits were then regressed on other traits not among the first order traits to identify second-order traits. The secondorder traits were then regressed on other traits not among the second-order traits to identify third-order traits. A trait was in first, second, or third order if it contributed significantly to variation in CR severity at P ≤ .05. Ordering traits into different categories allows identification of traits of primary (first-order) and secondary (second-order) importance, and then others. First-order traits can be considered for use as indirect selection criteria. The standardized coefficient (b value) in stepwise regression analysis is equivalent to the direct path coefficient.Genetic distance was computed between pairs of maize lines using identity by state method in TASSEL version 5.2 (Bradbury et al., 2007). A dendrogram was generated from the identity by state matrix using the neighborjoining option in TASSEL version 5.2, and the resulting tree was visualised and edited using the interactive tree of life (iTOL) tool (Letunic & Bork, 2019). The model-based clustering approach implemented in STRUCTURE software (Pritchard, Stephens, & Donnelly, 2000) was used to analyze population structure, following the procedure described by Semagn et al. (2012b) and Sserumaga et al. (2019). Delta K was computed for each value of K using software Structure Harvester (Evanno, Regnaut, & Goudet, 2005).Individual environment ANOVA revealed significant (P < .05) differences among entries for all three rust disease severity ratings and AUDPC except Rust 1 in 2018 (Supplemental Table S2). Heritability for the disease resistance parameters was high (0.72-0.92) in 2017-2019 except for Rust 1 in 2017 and 2018 when it was moderate (0.52) or low (0.22), respectively (Table 2). Combined ANOVA across three environments showed significant (P < .001) environment mean squares for two disease severity scores Rust 1 and 2, and significant (P < .001) line mean squares for the three rust scores and AUDPC (Table 3). The line × environment interaction was significant (P < .001) for only Rust 1. Heritability was moderate for Rust 1 (0.59) and high (0.83-0.93) for the other disease parameters (Table 4). The genotypic variance was larger than the environment (1.5 ×) and genotype × environment variance (13.6 ×) for Rust 2. Significant (P < .01) line mean squares for grain yield, AD, and GLS were recorded in 2017 and 2018 while significant (P < .01) line mean squares for PH and EH were recorded in 2019 (Supplemental Table S3). Combined ANOVA revealed significant (P < .01) environment and line mean squares for grain yield, AD, PH, EH, and GLS.The disease pressure was sufficient to differentiate among entries for their response to inoculation with P. sorghi. Disease severity scores in 2017 ranged from 1.0 to 2.9, 1.0 to 5.5 and 2.0 to 8.9 for Rust 1, Rust 2, and Rust 3, respectively (Table 2). In 2018, Rust 1 had a smaller range (1.0-2.5) compared to 2017 but a larger range was recorded in 2019 (1.0-4.3). The second Rust score varied more among entries in 2019 compared to 2018. The AUDPC ranged from 18.5 to 79.4 and 11.3 to 82.2 in 2017 and 2018, respectively (Table 2; Figure 1). In 2019 when only two disease scores were taken (Rust 1 and Rust 2), the range of AUDPC was smaller compared to the other two seasons. Across environments, disease severity scores ranged from 1.0 to 3.1, 1.4 to 6.6 and 1.5 to 8.7 for Rust 1, Rust 2, and Rust 3, respectively (Table 4). Lines showing the lowest scores (< 2) for Rust 2 were CKL05010, CKL05017, CKL141015, CKL14207, CKL141398, CKL1522, CKL15622 and CML395. Lines CKL05010, CKL05017, and CKL1522 maintained a score of <2 for Rust 3. The AUDPC varied from 18.4 to 76.9. The top three inbred lines with a score of < 2 for Rust 3 (CKL05017, CKL1522 and CKL05010) recorded 40.1%, 36.2% and 39.7% lower AUDPC, respectively, compared to the resistant check CML444. These three top lines recorded 74.5%, 76.1% and 75.9% lower AUDPC, respectively, compared to the susceptible check CKL141373.Based on Rust 3 severity scores across environments, lines were classified as either highly resistant (HR, score ≤3), resistant (score 3.1-3.9), moderately resistant (MR, score 4-5.5), moderately susceptible (MS, score 5.6-6.5), susceptible (score 6.6-7.5), or highly susceptible (HS, score ≥7.5). Eleven new elite inbred lines and CML395, a widely used line in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were classified as highly resistant, five lines were classified as resistant, while 17 lines were classified as MR (Table 4). Inbred line CML444 that was included in the study as a resistant check was classified as MR. Based on AUPDC no line escaped infection or expressed immunity to CR. Using a combination of the three rust scores and AUDPC, the lines clustered into two clusters according to their response to artificial inoculation with P. sorghi (Figure 2). The resistant/moderately resistant (blue ellipse) and highly resistant/resistant (green ellipse) lines formed one cluster while the moderately susceptible, susceptible, and highly susceptible made up the other cluster (red ellipse). The only exception were seven lines (13, 19, 25, 31, 38, 45 and 46) which were classified as MR based on Rust 3 but clustered with the susceptible group.The consistency of ranking of the inbred lines for their response to CR was assessed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The coefficient of concordance (W) was moderate for Rust 1 and Rust 3 and high for Rust 2 andF I G U R E 4 Phylogenetic tree for 50 maize inbred lines based on genetic distance calculated from identity by state matrix using 44,975 DArTseq SNP markers. The clusters have been colored to match the groups from STRUCTURE. The highly resistant inbred lines are shown in bold text AUDPC and was significant (P < .0001 or P = .001) for all traits (Supplemental Table S4). There were highly significant correlations between the three CR severity parameters, and between CR severity and AUDPC across seasons (Table 5). The AUDPC had a significant correlation with Rust 2 score (r = 0.984, P < .0001). Gray leaf spot severity was negatively and significantly correlated with all three CR severity parameters and AUDPC. The genetic correlation between CR disease resistance parameters ranged from 0.387 to 0.990 (Table 5). All the three CR disease resistance parameters had a positive and significant genetic correlation with AUDPC (r = 0.965-0.987, P < .0001).The genetic correlation between the CR disease resistance parameters and GLS and grain yield was negative and significant. Rust 3 showed a negative significant phenotypic correlation with grain yield.Spearman rank correlation coefficients for CR disease resistance parameters and AUDPC between seasons were significant (P < .0001) and ranged from 0.745-0.886 (Supplemental Table S5). Six of the 12 lines classified as HR using combined data (lines 3, 4, 5, 16, 21, and 32) were consistently ranked in the HR category in each of the three seasons (Supplemental Table S2). Lines 22, 23, 34, 41 and 49 which were also classified as HR were consistent as HRF I G U R E 5 Plot of changes in ΔK value with the number of subpopulations in two of the three seasons. Path analysis using stepwise regression identified Rust 2 and PA as the first-order traits, which accounted for 79% of the variability in Rust 3 scores under artificial inoculation across three seasons (Figure 3). Of the two traits, Rust 2 had the largest and positive path coefficient (0.83). Rust 1, GLS, and PH were the secondorder traits that contributed to variation in Rust 3 scores, with Rust 1 and GLS contributing indirectly via Rust 2, while PH acted through PA. Rust 1 had the largest indirect effect (0.78) followed by plant height (0.39). Ear height (indirect effect 0.71) and AD (indirect effect 0.28) were the third-and fourth-order traits that contributed to variation in Rust 3 scores through PH and EH, respectively.The neighbor-joining (NJ) tree generated from identity by state matrix was used to understand the genetic diversity among this set maize lines. The dendrogram showed that the 48 lines were grouped into three major groups (Figure 4). The three groups consisted of 18 (37.5%), 14 (29.2%) and 16 (33.3%) inbred lines, respectively. Groups 1, 2 and 3 consisted of three, two and four subgroups, respectively. The three clusters did not show a clear pattern related to pedigree or breeding history. For example, the lines derived from CKL05006 (line 2; group 2) were in both groups 1 (six lines) and 2 (one line). Group 2 had five out of seven lines derived from the drought tolerant La Posta Sequía C7 background. Lines with temperate germplasm were in both groups 2 (three lines) and 3 (one line). Group 3 had four out of five lines with background of germplasm from IITA while the fifth line was in group 2. The lines classified as highly resistant to CR were spread across the three groups with four, three and five lines in groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Results from STRUCTURE suggested the presence of either 2, 3, 4, 6 or 8 subgroups among the 48 lines (Figure 5). The ad hoc statistic ΔK sharply increased between K = 6 and K = 8, and less between K = 2 and K = 4. When the results from different K values were compared with pedigree and breeding history, the groups obtained at K = 3 appear to be the best possible number of populations (Figure 6). With K = 3, there was close agreement with the three groups based on NJ clustering. The membership of the lines in the 3 subgroups based on STRUCTURE was 37.5% (group 1) and 31.3% (groups 2 and 3).Developing adapted maize germplasm with resistance to CR (Puccinia sorghi) for the target agro-ecologies in SSA is an important breeding objective. Common rust has been projected to expand within the region in response to climate change (Ramirez-Cabral et al., 2017). This study assessed response of diverse maize inbred lines to CR under artificial inoculation for three seasons. Results revealed significant differences among lines for CR, suggesting the presence of sufficient genetic variation that can be utilized in breeding for resistance to CR (Gingera et al., 1994;Kim & Brewbaker, 1977;Zheng et al., 2018). There was seasonal variation in CR severity which may be attributed to differences in temperature and relative humidity during field experimentation across the three seasons. Similar results have been reported for CR and southern leaf rust (Bailey, Wolfgang, Frederiksen, Bockholt, & Smith, 1987;Zheng et al., 2018). However, the AUDPC was consistent across seasons. The line × environment interaction was not significant for Rust 2 and 3. This result is similar to that reported for lines and single cross hybrids evaluated for resistance to southern rust (Bailey et al., 1987) and for segregating populations evaluated for CR (Gingera et al., 1994). Limited line × environment interaction could be attributed to a longer first pustule appearance after inoculation (Gingera & Davis, 1995). The possible cause of nonsignificant line × environment interaction could not be established using the data collected in this study. The lack of a significant line × environment interaction suggested consistent response of the lines across the seasons for these two scores. The consistency of response of the lines to CR was supported by the significant rank correlation coefficients for the rust scores and AUDPC across seasons. Furthermore, there was consistent performance of lines as revealed by the significant coefficient of concordance. The consistency of performance suggests little or no variation between the rust inoculum across the three seasons and uniformity in inoculation procedures. The lines that were consistently classified as HR in each of the three seasons probably have stable resistance to CR. Identification of stable sources of resistance offers good prospects for control of CR through host-plant resistance. The AUDPC did not show a significant line × environment interaction mean square, a result similar to that reported by Bailey et al. (1987). The heritability estimates were high for the disease resistance parameters every season and across seasons except for Rust 1, which could indicate consistency of disease pressure in the different seasons. The high heritability estimates for these two parameters suggests that genetic gain from selection for resistance to CR is likely to be high (Falconer & Mackay, 1996).The inbred lines exhibited good variation in response to inoculation with P. sorghi. We identified 12 lines that were highly resistance to CR, and whose response to CR was better than that of the widely used inbred line CML444 which was included as a resistant check. Inbred lines CKL05010, CKL05017, CKL1522 and CKL141398 showed the best response to CR and could be used as donors for CR resistance. The identification of highly resistant lines was based on multiple disease severity ratings and AUDPC, which increases reliability and allows better control of selection decisions for disease resistance (Brown et al., 2001;Carson, 2006). The use of multiple disease ratings to identify disease resistance is useful in screening germplasm (Menkir & Ayodele, 2005;Zheng et al., 2018). Nine of the 12 inbred lines classified as highly resistant are newer inbred lines developed between 2014 and 2017 by combining elite lines from different CIM-MYT maize breeding hubs in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Colombia, and from IITA. These lines may potentially provide new alleles for resistance to P. sorghi and other adaptive traits that can be exploited to develop the new lines with multiple stress tolerance and higher yield potential.Use of exotic germplasm is important for enriching the gene pool of different breeding programs to enhance genetic gains (Cupertino-Rodrigues, Dhliwayo, Trachsel, Guo, & San Vicente, 2020; Menkir et al., 2006). Inbred line CKL177000 (line 38) derived from a backcross population between CKL05003 (MR) and an expired Plant Variety Protection Act line PHG39 (PI 600981) known to be susceptible to southern leaf rust expressed moderate resistance to CR. PHG39 has been reported to combine well with some tropical lines and expressed positive general combining ability for grain yield (Cupertino-Rodrigues et al., 2020). Most of the highly resistant lines identified in this study are resistant/tolerant to NCLB, GLS, and maize streak virus (CIM-MYT, unpublished data, 2015) which makes them good candidates for use in biparental populations for line development. In SSA, multiple disease resistance in parental inbred lines is important as there are several foliar and viral diseases some of which occur in combination that must be addressed through breeding (Fininsa & Yuen, 2001;Okori, Adipala, & Kyetere, 1999;Pratt et al., 2003;Vivek et al., 2010).Resistance to CR is governed by a set of >25 dominant race-specific Rp genes identified in diverse germplasm (Chavan, Gray, & Smith, 2015;Delaney, Webb, & Hulbert, 1998;Groth, Pataky, & Gingera, 1992;Hulbert, 1997;Webb et al., 2002). Limited information is available on which clusters of the Rp genes are present in tropical maize germplasm outside of the report by Wilkinson and Hooker (1968). Although host genetic background and the environmental conditions may significantly affect the performance of resistance genes, an investigation to determine the clusters of genes present in tropical germplasm highly resistant, resistant or MR to CR should be considered. A few studies have reported QTLs for rust resistance in tropical maize (Danson, Lagat, Kimani, & Kuria, 2008;Rossi et al., 2020;Zheng et al., 2018). Some of the highly resistant lines identified in this study could be good candidates to develop populations for fine mapping some of the large effect QTLs for resistance to CR (Danson et al., 2008;Rossi et al., 2020;Zheng et al., 2018) and potentially for development of breeder-ready markers for selection in large breeding populations.A genetic correlation between two traits may be due to pleiotropy and linkage disequilibrium while a phenotypic correlation is an additive combination of both genetic and environmental correlations. Both phenotypic and geneticcorrelations among CR scores were positive and strong. Based on this result and high heritability estimates for Rust 2, disease severity recorded 28 days after inoculation can reliably predict CR severity in later phenological stages. The strong positive genetic correlation between the CR resistance parameters suggests that these parameters are controlled by the same set of genes. Strong phenotypic correlations between disease severity ratings taken at multiple intervals have also been reported by Gingera et al. (1994) for CR and by Bailey et al. (1987) for southern rust. The correlation between the CR scores and AUDPC was strong, which suggested that AUDPC is a good measure of resistance. AUDPC does not vary with rate of disease development and should be routinely used for disease resistance screening.In this study, we recorded a strong negative genetic correlation between CR scores 1 and 2 with GLS, which suggested that greater resistance to CR was associated with reduced resistance to GLS. This underscores the importance of testing lines across multiple biotic stresses and use of a multivariate selection index to select lines with resistance to both CR and GLS. This result is contrary to findings by Olukolu et al. (2016) who reported positive and small genetic correlation between CR and GLS. The difference in results between two studies could be attributed to different germplasm used. Path coefficient analysis was used to understand the important interrelationships among CR resistance parameters and agronomic traits. Path coefficient analysis indicated that Rust 2 had the largest direct path coefficient (0.83) with Rust 3. This suggests that to evaluate resistance to CR in different genotypes under artificial inoculation, disease rating taken 28 days after inoculation is a good indicator of scores 35 days after inoculation. A strong and significant genetic correlation between Rust 2 and Rust 3 (r = 0.759, P < .0001) further supports this conclusion. Taking CR disease score once 35 days after inoculation can save time and labor. However, disease resistance breeding programs in localities where labor is not expensive, should use AUDPC as the best measure of disease resistance.Genetic diversity was assessed using identity by state and STRUCTURE in this set of lines. Clustering revealed genetic diversity among the inbred lines as showed by the three distinct clusters generated. This can be attributed to the diverse nature of the bi-parental populations used to develop the lines which included tropical, subtropical, and temperate sources. Several studies with tropical maize inbred lines have reported diversity which was attributed to the large make-up of the source germplasm used to develop the lines (Semagn et al., 2012b;Sserumaga et al., 2019;Warburton et al., 2002Warburton et al., , 2008;;Wu et al., 2016). Furthermore, the variation can be attributed to breeding system, selection, and differences in geographical origin of the source populations. It is worth noting that the new lines with resistance to CR were spread across the three clusters. This suggested diversity among these lines can be exploited to develop new lines through recycling. Since these lines already possess resistance to multiple diseases (foliar and virus diseases), they are potentially good candidates for recycling. For example, highly resistant line 21 (CKL1522, group 2, heterotic group B) could be used as a source of alleles to improve CR resistance in MR line 35 (CKL15636) and MS line 24 (CKL141340) in group 1, and MR line 19 (CKL14502, group 3) that have alleles from several other breeding programs. Similarly, highly resistant line 5 (CKL05017, group 3, heterotic group A) could be used to improve CR resistance in line 9 (resistant, group 2), which is a product of CIMMYT × IITA germplasm. Such bi-parental crosses between genetically divergent lines will potentially result into combinations of several favorable alleles at different loci leading to new mid-altitude adapted inbred lines with higher yield potential and multiple disease resistance.This study identified 12 inbred lines highly resistant to CR based on multiple disease severity ratings and AUDPC under artificial inoculation with Puccinia sorghi for three seasons. Eight of the 12 highly resistant lines were developed between 2014 and 2017 from different germplasm sources and contain many beneficial alleles for other traits. Assessment of CR resistance in a breeding program should be done using AUDPC which is not affected by environmental conditions. The diversity present among the lines can be exploited by recycling some of the highly resistant genetically distant lines with good genetic potential for important traits to develop new high yielding and multiple disease resistant inbred lines for hybrid development and deployment. The resistant lines could be used develop mapping populations to fine map QTLs for CR resistance. Furthermore, these highly resistant lines can be used to widen genetic diversity in other tropical maize breeding programs.This research was supported by grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA, OPPGD1390) and Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA, OPP1134248 ","tokenCount":"6050"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9e4db9ba0fce39f6aa6492b408ff9ccc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4343bd7b-fa03-4e9b-adc2-309eb2b7404f/content","id":"1112879794"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a1444b0e-f9a3-49bd-b521-4cf735121841","pagecount":"11","content":"Many Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) technologies fail to achieve their full potential impact due to low levels of adoption by smallholder farmers and difficulties in scaling CSA. This paper presents how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can act as change agents for the uptake of CSA technologies where their business models may be seen as adoption and scaling mechanisms. Drawing upon our fieldwork in Punjab (India) during which over 100 respondents have been interviewed, critical issues and enabling factors for the business model of two types of SMEs, i.e. farmer cooperatives and individual service providers of climate smart technologies have been identified. Enabling factors supporting adoption are driven by scientific and practical evidence of CSA technologies, good partnership between SMEs and research institutes, good customer relationships and effective channels through farmers' field trials. Critical issues consist of distortive government subsidies on energy and the lack of market intelligence affecting the profitability of the business model. Scaling is enhanced through market intelligence and a favouring regulatory landscape. However, difficult socio-economic circumstances and distortive government subsidies limit the role of SMEs business model as mechanism for scaling.Agriculture faces the enormous challenge of feeding the world's growing population. Although crop yields have grown impressively in the last few decades, production still requires an increase by another 60e70% by 2050 to meet the expected demand (Neufeldt et al., 2013). Climate change poses additional challenges to agriculture, particularly in developing countries. Since 1980, climate change is estimated to have reduced global yields of maize and wheat by respectively 3.8% and 5.5% (Campbell et al., 2014). Increased climate variability in the coming decades will increase the frequency and severity of floods and droughts, and will increase production risks.Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) aims to respond to these challenges. It represents a strategy that could help to increase farmers' resilience to weather extremes (Aryal et al., 2016), adapting to climate change and climate variability, whilst decreasing agriculture's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Steenwerth et al., 2014). Currently several options are available for farmers to sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience to climatic stresses, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are known as climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies and practices. Despite the availability of CSA technologies and practices, many of them are still not achieving their full potential impact due to low levels of adoption by smallholder farmers. Barriers in adopting CSA technologies vary in economic, political, institutional, organisational, behavioural or social character and/or are related to poor markets (Westermann et al., 2015). Long et al. (2016) were among the first examining the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their business models in the adoption of CSA technologies. Their study, however, focusses only on the European context (Long et al., 2016). A relatively small body of literature is concerned with adoption of CSA in a developmental context (Senyolo et al., 2018). Strategic partnership with the private sector is recognized as promising to support the adoption of CSA (Westermann et al., 2015), but is not systematically examined.Climate change adds considerable urgency to the need to transform agricultural systems to support food security. CSA technologies contribute to such transformation process, but need large scale adoption to achieve aspired impact. Opportunities for closer collaboration with the private sector for scaling CSA are noted, but mainly concern large companies (Vermeulen and Cotula, 2010).There is a hardly any literature that is concerned with the role of SMEs and their business models in scaling CSA in developing countries. This paper starts from the premise that SMEs can act as change agents for the adoption and scaling of climate smart technologies. Their business models are seen as mechanisms supporting adoption and scaling. The main question this paper responds to is 'what are critical issues and drivers of SME's business models for the adoption and scaling of CSA technologies in the context of a developing country?' Drawing on our fieldwork in Punjab, India, drivers and critical issues for the business model of two types of SMEs are identified, i.e. farmer cooperatives and individual service providers who are selling and hiring out climate smart technologies to small and medium -size landholders.Extensive research on adoption of technological innovations in sustainable agricultural development show drivers and barriers associated with the innovations (that may not be suitable for riskexposed smallholders), with the context (policies, infrastructure, trading opportunities), with the agricultural extension system (Leeuwis, 2004;Pamuk et al., 2014), and with farming households (access to credit or attitudes towards risk) (Aker, 2011;Rogers Everett, 1995;Sunding and Zilberman, 2001). A relatively small body of literature is concerned with barriers and enabling factors for adoption of climate smart technologies in a developmental context. In a recent review on adoption of climate smart technologies in European countries, (Long et al., 2016) identify a set of barriers, which they classify as internal (e.g. behaviour) and external barriers (e.g. policies) (Long et al., 2016). Furthermore they distinguish barriers on the supply side (e.g. financial costs), and the demand side of these technologies (e.g. conflict with traditional methods). Recent studies focusing on the adoption of CSA technologies in a development context identify low awareness of climate change, limited understanding of what works in different agro-ecological systems and difficulties in proving added value of CSA technologies' as factors constraining adoption of CSA (Lipper et al., 2014;Westermann et al., 2015).So far, little attention has been paid to the potential of agribusiness to support adoption of CSA. Agribusinesses are often accused of pursuing short-term gains at the expense of social development and the environment. However, in recent years, the private sector has shown renewed interest to invest in climate smart agriculture. Agribusiness leaders are increasingly realizing that aside from profits, a license to produce is of equal importance for acceptance in society and long term investments (Connolly and Phillips-Connolly, 2012). Not only large companies but also SMEs can act as delivery mechanisms for CSA. Long and colleagues were amongst the first who examined the role of business models in the adoption of CSA technologies (Long et al., 2017). They applied the Business Model Canvas (BMC) to review literature on business models for climate smart agriculture. They examined the business models of ten service providers selling or leasing CSA technologies in different European countries and identified critical issues and enabling factors.The BMC is a framework extensively used by practitioners, from start-ups to large FT Global companies to describe how a firm creates value, relates to its customers and generates revenue from a set of operations. It combines several elements into a coherent mix that is considered to be essential for a business to be viable (Osterwalder, 2004): Building upon the findings of Long and his colleagues (Long et al., 2017) and those of other scholars (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013), an initial list of critical issues of business models for the adoption of CSA technologies is produced, which is mapped onto a Business Model Canvas (BMC) (Fig. 1). Mapping these factors onto a BMC allows us to create an initial framework, which is used to contrast our own findings from the context of Punjab. In this way, the business model framework is used as a lens to identify critical issues and enabling factors in the adoption of climate smart technologies.The review highlighted the value proposition as a critical issue hindering the adoption of CSA technologies because it appears difficult to prove the value and demonstrate the impact of these technologies (Long et al., 2017). Similar findings are discussed by (Westermann et al., 2015). Service providers also experience obstacles in accessing customers, which is relevant for the channel building block and relates well to the importance of links to customers stressed by others (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). Widening the network would facilitate the diffusion of CSA technologies. Key-resources are identified as barriers in the adoption of CSA technologies as well. (Long et al., 2017) highlight difficulties to access capital and investment hindering the organisation of suitable marketing campaigns or investments into customers' relationship. They also cite the lack of market intelligence as barrier relevant for the key-resource building block. Poor access to wider networks, including those related to lobbying and policy are also Fig. 1. Critical issues of SME's business models for the adoption of CSA (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013;Long et al., 2016;Long et al., 2017;Osterwalder, 2004). identified as barriers, which relate to the key-partners building block. In addition, (Nair and Paulose, 2014) emphasize the need for a supportive regulatory environment for green innovations. The cost structure forms another critical issue for service providers. CSA technologies appear to be expensive and have a non-competitive return on investment (Westermann et al., 2015).This paper takes the discussion on SME's business models as mechanism to support adoption of CSA one-step further by also looking at scaling CSA. Some authors use both the terms 'scaling up' and 'scaling out'. Scaling out means that technologies and practices are spread geographically to cover more farmers and communities, and involves expansion within the same stakeholder group or sector (Pachico, 2004). Strategies supporting scaling out are farmerto-farmer learning, agricultural extension and the use of participatory approaches (Westermann et al., 2015). Scaling up is institutional in nature and involves different stakeholder groups from the level of grassroots organisations to policy makers, research institutes and investors at the national and international level. Developing large-scale investment plans, informing policy instruments, mainstreaming institutional changes and establishing multi-stakeholder learning alliances are examples of scaling up strategies. For simplicity, in this paper the term 'scaling' refers to a number of processes that brings more quality benefits to more people over a wider geographical area, more quickly, more equitably, and more permanently (Franzel et al., 2001). Scaling includes both scaling out and scaling up which occurs in multiple dimensions. As programs scale quantitatively and functionally (more complexity), they typically need to scale politically and organizationally as well involving multiple actors and layers (Hartmann and Linn, 2008).Due to its complexity, knowledge about the process of scaling remains limited (Wigboldus et al., 2016). First experiences show the context specificity of CSA technologies impedes the generation of science-based evidence for CSA, limiting its potential for scaling out (Aggarwal et al., 2018). Scaling out at the local level is also hindered by the relatively high transaction costs of agricultural extension and participatory research struggling to work over large areas beyond pilot villages (Braun and Hocd e, 2000). The institutional barriers constraining scaling up include a lack of adequate and sufficient finance for farmers and service providers, poor markets and severe gaps in capacities of farmers, extension staff, bankers and service providers on CSA (Westermann et al., 2015).Building upon the insight on SMEs as delivery mechanisms supporting adoption of CSA technologies, research on the role of SMEs as change agents for scaling CSA:Gill demonstrated the commercial profitability for SMEs hiring out the Land Laser Leveller, a climate smart technology promoted to level irrigated fields in the North of India to farmers (Gill, 2014). He concluded that service providers are to play an important role in supporting the process of scaling out. (Westermann et al., 2015) highlight the expanding role of private service providers, from mere dealership in inputs to increasingly procuring and selling climate smart technologies together with advice and information. To fulfil this more complex role, public sector extension services, along with Non-Governmental Organisations, Community Based Organisations, farmers, and research institutes, are to play unique roles in supporting them. SMEs will conduct business in CSA technologies when they experience the net economic and social profit outweigh the costs. Searching for viable business models for CSA technologies and exploring factors that enable or hinder the scaling of these models may thus be a promising way to support SMEs as change agents in the scaling of CSA.The above discussion results in the conceptual framework as shown in Fig. 2. It positions adoption as a process of accepting a new CSA technology delivered by service providers and adopted by clients, i.e. farmers. From a business perspective adoption is about entering a market involving experimentation and pilots at the niche level. The framework furthermore places the process of scaling between adopted and scaled CSA technologies. Scaling from a business perspective, however, is about market scaling requiring a supportive institutional and policy environment. For both the adoption and scaling process, SMEs' business models are assumed a moderating factor affecting these processes.Punjab was chosen as case study area to examine the role of business models of SMEs in scaling climate smart agriculture (CSA). In Punjab the urgency for CSA is high, data on CSA technologies is well available, and where farmer cooperatives and service providers are selling or hiring out CSA technologies to farmers. In Punjab, adaptation to climate change is no longer an option, but a compulsion to minimise the losses due to adverse impacts of climate change. About 51% of the Indo-Gangetic plains, on which Punjab is located, may become unsuitable for one of their most important crops; wheat, due to increased heat-stress by 2050 (Lobell et al., 2012;Ortiz et al., 2008). Similarly, in central Punjab, the rate of decline in the water table increased over time from 0.2 m yr to 1 during 1973e2001 to about 1 m yr-1 during 2000e2006 (Humphreys et al., 2010). To address these challenges, research is supporting farmers with CSA technologies and practices that promote sustainable intensification and adaptation to emerging climatic variability (Aryal et al., 2016), (Kakraliya et al., 2018). Research institutes such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) are working closely with farmer cooperatives and service providers in so-called climate smart villages. Participatory field trials have generated knowledge on the agricultural and socioeconomic effects of CSA technologies, which is needed to assess the viability of the business model. In Punjab, 1609 farmer cooperatives exist out of which 1308 were viable during 2015e2016. Total membership in cooperatives is 719,460 members. Cooperatives cover 88.18% of a total of 6687 Punjabi villages (Government of India, 2007). BISA's director estimates approximately 13,000 services providers are in the business of selling CSA technologies to farmers. Examining SME's business models in relation to adoption and scaling CSA in a developing context is relatively new topic this paper seeks to improve understanding about. Therefore the paper takes an exploratory research approach and attempts to lay the groundwork leading to future studies. Data for this research was collected through the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) project \"Developing, adapting and targeting portfolios of CSA practices for sustainable intensification of smallholder and vulnerable farming systems in South Asia\". The research team involving three researchers applied two data collection strategies to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Firstly, analysis of documents with relevance to sustainable business models and CSA technologies, including results of field research trials. Secondly, semi-structured interviews with key informants to gather in-depth data on SMEs' business model in use and its enabling and hindering factors for adopting and scaling CSA technologies.The team used an iterative process for data collection and analysis following grounded theory methodology (Glaser, 1992). In the beginning the Business Model Canvas was used to gather and analyse data. When other issues of importance to adoption or scaling emerged these were addressed in the next steps. In addition, in the beginning the research focussed more on understanding SMEs' business model and its drivers and barriers to adoption, later on the focus shifted more towards scaling.Over a period of 3 years, 103 respondents were interviewed, including smallholder farmers (members and non-members of cooperatives), private service providers, manufacturers, policy makers, researchers, NGOs, agro food companies and financial institutes (Table 1). The respondents were identified with the use of the snowball sampling method starting from the researchers' network. Some of the respondents were interviewed once, others multiple times either face-to-face or in group interviews. Most of the interviews were conducted in the local language and simultaneously translated. Each interview lasted between 60 and 120 min. Follow-up telephone/skype interviews were conducted to clarify previous unclear responses. Reports were made of each interview. In total 11 SMEs have been interviewed of which 5 cooperatives and 6 service providers.Prices and costs (constant cost, variable cost, sales) of CSA technologies are derived from the interviews. Data on effects of CSA technologies on yield, labour requirement, fuel and water use are collected from respondents and crosschecked with research results. Data on effects of layered CSA technologies and practices are based on participatory research trials (Kakraliya et al., 2018). Figures used to assess the market potential of the business model are derived from literature.The conceptual framework to identify critical issues and enabling factors in the adoption and scaling of CSA (Fig. 2) has been further operationalized in terms of indicators to guide the data collection and analyses (Table 2). Over the course of time, discussions on scaling gave rise to new themes to look into. Indicators including potential new markets, competition, competences, finance, culture, regulatory framework and policies were used to further analyse the interviews.The indicators in Table 2 as well as the newly emerging ones were used to analyse empirical data. Interview reports were analysed manually using different colours for different indicators. Inconsistencies and gaps were discussed amongst the team members and addressed or cross checked in follow-up interviews or literature. Moreover, preliminary findings were cross checked with respondents and discussed in six (inter) national conferences (Table 3).The results are presented in three sections. Firstly, a description of the business model of SMEs who sell and/or hire out a package of CSA technologies is presented. Secondly, drivers and barriers of this business model in the support of adoption will be highlighted. Thirdly, drivers and barriers of the model for scaling are provided. Noorpur-Bet is used as concrete example to describe a business model for a cooperative. The cooperative is a private institute providing a variety of services to all members. The cooperative runs a small petrol station and a shop for villagers. It sells improved certified seeds and different types of fertilizers to farmers, and provides them with relative cheap loans. It rents conventional agricultural machineries including a rotator, harrow, cultivator, disc plough and tractors as well as CSA technologies such as zero-till multi crop planters (3), Land Laser Levellers (3), Happy Seeder (1) and a GreenSeeker for Nutrient-management (1). All interviewed cooperatives (Code 8, 10, 20, 21) provide similar services. However, relatively new or expensive technologies such as the GreenSeeker, Happy Seeder and Combined Harvester are not part of a standard package.For anonymity reasons the name of a specific service provider is not mentioned. But service providers are relatively large entrepreneurial farmers who aim to generate an income from selling services to farmers. For most of them, renting CSA technologies is an additional source of income. The interviewed service providers (Code 13, 24) own one or more Land Laser Levellers, a Happy Seeder, one or more Combined Harvester(s) and multiple zero-till multi crop planters. In addition, they own conventional machineries such as rotavator, cultivator, harrow etc. and one or more tractors, which they rent out as well.This paper describes and analyses the business case relevant for both cooperatives and service providers for the following package of CSA technologies:C Land Laser Leveller (LLL) enables the levelling of fields within certain degree of the desired slope (applied once in every three years) C Happy Seeder enables direct drilling of wheat into rice stubbles C Zero-till multi crop planter enables direct drilling of rice and C Combined Harvester and tractor 1Customers: Customers are farmers with a rice -wheat cropping system. For cooperatives, the customers are small (<2e3 acres) and medium-size farmers (3e7 acres). Only few large farmers (>7 acres) are part of their clientele (Aryal et al., 2016). The cooperative Noorpur-Bet has about 400 customers consisting of 200 members and 200 non-members coming from different surrounding villages representing approximately 4000 acres. Service providers do not work through memberships, but sell their services to any farmer willing and able to pay. The number of clients vary from 10 to 40 and include mainly large farmers from neighbouring villages.Value proposition: The CSA technologies increase yield, save input costs in the form of labour and water, and allow for sowing on time. Farmers' experiences are confirmed by research trials showing that layered use of the CSA technologies, in combination with the recommended fertilizer application, increased yield by 9% and profitability by 25%. It saved 28% of irrigation water use and improved total water productivity by 37% compared to traditional farmer practices. Energy use-efficiency and energy productivity were improved by 58% and 56% respectively compared to farmers' conventional practices. Greenhouse gas intensity was also reduced with 34% compared to conventional farmer practices (Kakraliya et al., 2018). The application of Happy Seeder reduces air pollution as it enables sowing of wheat without the need for rice stubbles burning. The improvement in yield and profitability, and the possibility of sowing at an optimum time increases farmers' resilience to climatic stresses. The overall value propositions for the CSA technologies are the same for cooperatives and service providers. Through interviews, customers of both SMEs have expressed factors they consider to be valuable for cooperatives and others for service providers. Cooperatives may offer additional value in offering extra service such as relatively cheap loans for renting and/or buying CSA technologies. Service providers offer additional value when offering flexibility in service hours as they deliver even during evening hours.Framework with indicators guiding data collection and analyses (Long et al., 2016), (Chong, 2014) Cooperatives and service providers are important for farmers acquiring new knowledge. Through the interviews (Code 1,2,5,6,8,9,10) it became clear farmers are often unaware of alternatives when facing environmental problems or new regulation, such as the ban on stubble burning. This is where cooperatives and service providers, often considered peers, play a role. Farmers are more open to receiving and getting knowledge from people from their own community. Lastly, CSA technologies are expensive, especially for smallholder farmers. Cooperatives and service providers provide access to the latest technologies in a relatively short distance in a trustworthy environment without the need of purchasing the machinery themselves.Customer relationships and channels: Managers of cooperatives and service providers have a strong personal relationship with their customers and with technology developers such as CIMMYT, BISA and Agricultural University of Punjab. This enables them to share new insights from research trials amongst customers and to develop skills for application. Personal contact on effects continues even after the service has been provided, which is highly appreciated by the customers.Key resources: These exist of the capital factors encompassing capital (funds, machinery, inputs), nature (water, land), and labour. Both SMEs need funds to purchase new CSA technologies. The cooperative is eligible to receive government subsidies on new technologies. In 2017, Noorpur-Bet received a subsidy of 3 lakhs (~33% of the initial costs) on a package of technologies including a tractor, LLL and a rotavator). Earlier the cooperative had received a subsidy of 50,000 INR for another LLL. In 2017, the government announced that also service providers could apply for subsidy on machineries. However none of the service providers who submitted a request had received any approval.Both SMEs can take a loan from the bank e.g. the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. 50% of the interviewed service providers (Code 13, 24) mentioned that they had taken a loan from the bank to purchase a CSA technology, which implies additional costs in the form of interest to be returned through revenues. None of the interviewed cooperatives (Code 19, 20, 21) had taken a loan.Key activities: Cooperatives rent out machines for an hourly (or daily) rate and are able to provide a tractor driver. Service providers undertake the same activities, however they usually apply the technologies on the field themselves. An important activity of cooperatives is organising demonstrations with the help of research institutes and producers of CSA technologies. This is where farmers are introduced to new technologies and learn from their peers. It is a form of marketing and creating a customer relationship.Key partners: Research and academic institutes play a key role in research and development of CSA technologies. Contacts with CIMMYT, BISA, Punjab Agricultural University, the Department of Agriculture, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (farmer training centres) and the Agricultural Management Training Institute are important sources to acquire reliable knowledge and skills in the use of CSA technologies. New machineries are mainly purchased from manufacturers in Ludhiana and Amritsar. Cooperatives have a strong relationship with the government because of the provision of subsidies on CSA technologies.Cost and revenues: In assessing a Business Model Canvas, attention is usually primarily geared towards the value proposition and secondly to the revenue model. Furthermore, conducting business in a social or sustainable way is often considered costly or a sacrifice in light of profit maximisation. By demonstrating possible financial outlooks we underline the strength of the business case itself, which will increase the likelihood of adoption and scaling of climate smart technologies.To clarify the cost and revenue streams for selling services for a package of CSA technologies constant and variable costs are considered. Constant costs includes costs of technologies, depreciation and maintenance. Tax and insurance are not included. Furthermore, costs of storage are not included, which would translate more in opportunity costs. Variable costs include expenses for fuel and labour and are estimated at 500 INR/acre for the different technologies. Sales and revenues include subsidy and sales.Costs and revenues streams relate to current practice, which is the situation wherein a cooperative or service provider starts with one CSA technology and grows their business organically by adding new technologies through previously earned revenues. Technologies generating highest margin are rated on top, therefore the order for purchase is a Combine Harvester, the Turbo Happy Seeder, the Zero Tillage and the LLL. Technologies that generate highest margins also require the highest investments.The first two dashed lines of the cooperative and service provider represent the net cash flow overviews earned over time (Fig. 3). The trends are based on organic growth with the revenues of an earlier purchased technology. A new technology is added until all four technologies are part of the offered services. A cooperative would start with the technology with the highest margin i.e. a Combine Harvester and is able to afford the next technology, which is a Turbo Happy Seeder in year six. This means that for 6 years, the cooperative or service provider has been able to purchase only one technology. The next technologies are purchased in year 7 and 8. Based on respondents' experience, subsidy is estimated at 33, 33% for both the Combine Harvester and the Turbo Happy Seeder.The uninterrupted lines show the accumulated results over time. It was observed that the service provider is able to reach higher profits more rapidly, the return on investment is much faster as the service provider is better able to increase its market potential by optimally using the available time windows within the season. These numbers could be improved further by servicing 24 h per day through shifts (seasonal work). These numbers would be hampered by uneven level playing field, for example caused by subsidies.A package of CSA technologies amount to an investment of 1,333,340.00 INR, where assumed 33,33% subsidy on the Combine Harvester and the Turbo Happy Seeder, and an annual revenue of 542,837.30 INR. For a cooperative, the payback period is 4,3 years and for a service provider approximately 1,6 years. For a cooperative, the Return on Investment (ROI) (without deducting salary, tax, insurance and storage) is 0.407 translating to 40,7%. This ROI is based on an eventual stable result of 542,837.30 INR with an investment of 1,333,340.00 INR and the assumption of 33,33% subsidy on the Combine Harvester and the Turbo Happy Seeder. For a service provider, the ROI is 0.993, which translates to 99.3%. This ROI is based on an eventual stable result of 1,323,730.16 INR with an investment of 1,333,340.00. A 33,33% subsidy on the Combine Harvester and the Turbo Happy Seeder is also assumed.These figure and numbers suggest the business model is more promising to service providers as they are more capable to increase their market opportunity by being able to better exploit the available time windows. A service provider applies the technologies for 16 h per day (often in shifts with close family members). However, it is more difficult for a service provider to reach their market as they have less efficient networks compared to cooperatives.Market potentials: Insight into potentials of the SME business model to scale CSA requires analysis of its market potentials, which is based on the following assumptions and starting-points:Smart Villages where both providers and customers can fully benefit from research, advisory and government support; C The package of technologies consists of a LLL, Turbo Happy Seeder, Zero-till multi crop planter and the Combine Harvester; C Customers are marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farmers with a Rice e Wheat cropping system.The potential of the market describes the estimated maximum total sales revenue in a market during a certain period. Maximum number of farmers in Punjab growing wheat and rice through a rotating system are considered. For the land-sizes, stratification as applied by the Department of Agriculture in Punjab is used. In total 2,560,000 ha are under rice and wheat rotating system in Punjab (Sharma et al., 2004).Table 4 gives an estimation of the full size of the potential market in terms of customers. Service providers will most likely target large farmers as this is more efficient and increases the relative revenue in terms of time. This market consists of 46,200 farmers in Punjab. Cooperatives will be more likely to target smaller farmers who can benefit from the additional services provided. Their market consists of 238,000 farmers. Either mediumsized farmers will hire from a service provider or cooperative or they might become service providers themselves.Though technologies are considered as a package, different technologies can be applied to a different amount of acreage per year, resulting in different required numbers of machines. Table 5 presents the market potential of CSA technologies per customer segment.The full market potential in Punjab follows from Table 5. The column 'acres/year' is based on what cooperatives and service providers are currently able to service in a year. Therefore, the total required machines in Punjab also loosely represents the number of required cooperatives or service providers if they would offer one full package (one of each technology).Above numbers are rough estimations based on current agriculture activities. Furthermore, currently there is no level playing field as some farmers are subsidised for technologies whereas other farmers need to save up for. This results in a form of unfair competition. Furthermore, a lack of market intelligence sometimes leads to harmful situations where SMEs are forced to lower their prices to below cost price in situations with excessive competition. These factors negatively affect their financial prospects. Respondents suggested several ways to increase their market potential for SMEs:C Adding more technologies to their asset, which could increase production by 100% per technology; C Full optimisation of the available timelines, for example by working shifts, optimising 24 h per day. For cooperatives this could lead to a market increase of 200% as cooperatives are currently providing service for 8 h per day; C By moving to other districts and states for service provision as seasons differ across states.Overall, it can be concluded there is potential for scaling, provided competition is healthy (efficient competitive market with realistic prices) and SMEs become better aware of market opportunities. The government could play an important role in facilitating the proper infrastructure and knowledge processes. SMEs' business model for selling CSA services is summarized in Fig. 4.Value proposition: Farmers significantly benefit from CSA technologies. The technologies address urgent environmental and social problems farmers are facing. All respondents put forward that application of CSA technologies increases rice and wheat yield reduces input costs (fuel, water, labour) and enables farmers to sow and plant at an optimum time. The combination of beneficial technologies and additional services such as relatively cheap loans for CSA services (cooperatives), flexibility in service provision (service providers) and after sale services (cooperatives and service providers) leads to a clear value proposition driving SMEs' business model and supporting adoption of CSA.Key partners: The existence of key partners can be identified as a key driver for SMEs selling CSA services. For SMEs, CIMMYT, BISA, Punjab Agricultural University, the Department of Agriculture, the farmer training centres and the Agricultural Management Training Institute are important sources to acquire reliable knowledge and skills in the use of CSA technologies, which is essential to build trust with their clients.Channelsecustomer relationship: A partnership with CIMMYT and BISA manifests in participation of SMEs' in research trials on CSA technologies in the Climate Smart Villages. SMEs' collaboration with farmers in trials and demonstrations can be identified as a driver of their business model, which is relevant for the channel and customer relations building blocks. These activities enable acquisition of new knowledge and skills, and enable the sharing of experience between SMEs and customers.Land holding size, no. of farmers and landholding in rotation Rice-Wheat (Sharma et al., 2004) The limited time window of the technologies is constraining the business. SMEs stated that outside the time window wherein CSA technologies can be applied, the machines are idle and stored. Concrete actions to increase the time window of some of the technologies by e.g. leasing machineries in other districts are practiced by service providers only, albeit at a limited scale. A society (Code 8) explains that they have implemented a policy stating the society cannot move to other states: \"We would have to write a letter to the government of the other state we would like to move to and we have never tried this before\".Subsidy policies do not match SMEs' reality: Cooperatives considered the time-consuming application process and the timing of subsidy provision as weaknesses in the subsidy scheme adversely affecting their business. One respondent (Code 13) puts forward: \"The government provides subsidy, but not in time. For the purchase of the Happy Seeder, we need to pay the whole amount up front. The government will start paying back after 6 months, but full compensation might be finalised after 6 years\".Limited access to finance: The access to finance as barrier for cooperatives and service providers is ambiguous. Both SMEs need funds to purchase new CSA technologies and provide loans to their customers (cooperatives). For cooperatives this need appears to be addressed by the government through subsidies which all interviewed cooperatives received. However, the provision itself is an arduous process. Since 2017, service providers are eligible to receive government subsidies as well but, the service providers who submitted a request had not received any approval. They instead go to banks or any other financial institution to obtain a loan, which in turn can be tiring processes as well. A service provider (Code 13) explains: \"The government provides subsidy but not in time. I am still waiting for the subsidy on my LLL. On the other hand we need to pay the manufacturer instantly and without the possibility to pay in instalments\".From our interviews it appeared that subsidies would make it more attractive to invest, although the business case in itself is already promising. The financial prospects show financial viable investments, without subsidy they would just lead to a longer time to earn back the initial investment. Therefore, perhaps entrepreneurship is a more important driver than access to finance.Favouring regulatory landscape: Enforcement of the ban on residue burning supports the implementation and scaling of the business model of SMEs. The Government of Punjab has recently introduced enforcement of the ban on rice and wheat stubble burning in the farmlands of Punjab with the aim to improve air quality. Farmers and other stakeholders are increasingly becoming aware of the need to search for alternatives. Examples are CSA technologies such as the Zero-till multi crop planter, which can be used under anchored residue conditions and the Happy Seeder for all residue conditions. All interviewed service providers mentioned they will buy a Happy Seeder in case of strict enforcement of the ban on rice stubble burning. In the end of 2018, all Happy Seeders were sold out in Punjab. A manufacturer of Happy Seeder machines (Code 14) mentions: \"The government should be used as a vehicle for small farmers to take up a technology. We feel subsidy is not really helping, but the ban on burning is of great help\".Youth as new niche market: CSA technologies are attractive to youth, which opens a possible niche market and favours SMEs business model. One respondent from a government body (Code 16) mentioned: \"The youth does not like farming due to hard manual labour work, poor margins, and the lack of an intellectually challenging environment and the use of conventional methods\". He suggested that the introduction of new CSA technologies such as Happy Seeder or Land Laser Leveller could trigger young farmers joining or remaining in agriculture.Perverse effects of government subsidy: Five respondents from government and research institutes stressed the perverse effects of subsidy on electricity. In the short term, the provision of free energy impedes farmers' interest in energy saving CSA technologies, which hinders SMEs business hiring out energy saving technologies such as the LLL. In the long term, energy subsidy leads to a steep increase in the use of pumps for groundwater, drastically decreasing the groundwater level. A service provider (Code 13) added: \"The schedule of electricity is a waste of money. I would like to pay for energy as long as we receive it in time\".The lack of market intelligence: Lack of knowledge on market potential can be considered a barrier adversely affecting SMEs' business model. Cooperatives, neither service providers nor the government have accurate information on potential clients for CSA technologies. Likewise, information about competitors is lacking. As a government official (Code 12) explained: \"An important aspect that is currently missing is market intelligence. The lack of this information is harming industrialists, entrepreneurs and farmers alike\". Three service providers mentioned that for them the LLL is not profitable anymore as nowadays there are too many levellers available in the region. Decline in farm size: Respondents mentioned the continuous declining farm sizes as a structural bottleneck in farmers' capacity to invest in agriculture and as such can be considered a barrier for SMEs selling CSA services at large scale. One respondent from a government body (Code 16) mentioned: \"The farm sizes are very small. Insignificant holdings do not generate adequate income and inhibit farmers to rent or apply CSA technologies\". Farmers expect small farmers to quit farming and rent their land to bigger farmers. In the short term, this will affect the business of cooperatives more than that of service providers as customers of the latter mostly concern larger farmers. Furthermore smaller land sizes increase variable costs as the time and distance between serviced lands are enhanced.Poor socio-economic situation: Respondents are concerned about the current socio-economic environment of the farming community in Punjab. One 17-year old man (Code 9, although not interviewed as farmer) explained: \"I was not able to finish my education due to our economic condition. [...] I don't have any trust in pursuing agriculture as I don't own any land myself \". Farmers increasingly take up loans and currently more than 85% of the farmers is under debt. The use of loans for consumption and ceremonies are likely to increase debt rates hindering farmers to invest in new climate smart agricultural developments.Previous literature highlights the value proposition as a critical issue for SME's business models. Difficulties in proving the value and demonstrating positive impact of CSA technologies to their costumers hinder SME in selling CSA services (Long et al., 2016;Westermann et al., 2015). Our study indicates, however, that SMEs selling CSA services have a clear value proposition for their customers. Due to the existence of a mix of enabling factors including scientific and practical evidence of CSA technologies, partnership between SMEs and research institutes, good customer relationships and effective channels through farmers' field trials and demonstrations, SMEs' business model creates a clear value.Literature on business models supporting CSA in Europe stresses difficulties in accessing customers due to obstacles in the channel building block and customer relationships (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013;Long et al., 2017). Service providers experience difficulties to transfer knowledge on CSA technologies to farmers, which is aggravated by the use of obstructive terminology (Long et al., 2016). Our study demonstrates that membership of cooperatives facilitates good relationships between staff members of a cooperative and their customers. Farmers consider staff of cooperatives and service providers peers from whom they are willing to learn more compared to outsiders. The field trials and demonstrations in the climate smart villages provide good opportunities for both cooperatives and service providers to engage with their customers.Lack of skills in the application of CSA technologies highlighted in previous work (del Río Gonz alez, 2005;Montalvo, 2008) was identified as critical issue by a few cooperative members only when they mentioned problems to hire skilled drivers.Different European scholars highlight that service providers experience the cost structure in relation to the revenues as another critical issue. CSA technologies appear to be expensive and have an uncompetitive return on investment. They suggest to minimise the cost structure through competitive pricing. Chances for profit maximising could be realised through shifting from 'pricing on the job' rather than per product (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). Our study does not fully support these findings. Notably, however, the government subsidies on CSA technologies give a distorted picture of the relatively short payback periods, which may explain that cost structure is not highlighted as a key-issue. Cost structure is only indirectly identified as barrier for their business model when respondents from cooperatives criticized governments' subsidy scheme for CSA technologies. Difficulties for SMEs in accessing subsidies because of tiring procedures are in agreement with those obtained by Weiss and Bonvillian who consider this barrier to be also relevant to SMEs selling CSA services outside India (Weiss and Bonvillian, 2013).Noteworthy, recent participatory research trials demonstrated positive financial effects of layered CSA technologies (Kakraliya et al., 2018). These trials tested more technologies than those included in the package analysed in this paper. This future outlook as well as further optimisation of the available timelines by working shifts, optimising 24 h per day (Jat et al., 2006) are promising options to make SMEs' business model more profitable.Regulatory and policy difficulties hindering SMEs' business are noted by several scholars and can be linked to poor access to wider policy networks (Long et al., 2016(Long et al., , 2017;;Senyolo et al., 2018). Our findings are consistent with previous results. Several respondents have highlighted the distortive effect of government subsidies on energy for their business model as they prevent farmers from investing in energy saving CSA technologies. As such, subsidies have a negative effect on the revenue stream of SMEs. The importance of a conducive regulatory environment for green innovations (Nair and Paulose, 2014) is confirmed by our study. Enforcement of the ban on residue burning supports the implementation and scaling of SMEs' business. Fig. 5 summarizes the critical issues and drivers of SMEs' business model as identified in this study.Despite critical issues for SMEs' business model, our findings show that selling/hiring out CSA services to farmers can be a profitable business in Punjab under certain conditions. To reflect on the business model as scaling mechanism for CSA, first, it is interesting to explore whether and how SMEs can be helpful in removing current obstacles in the adoption of CSA by farmers. Second, it is useful to study the changes to SMEs' business model that are required to transform SMEs into effective change agents supporting CSA. Farmers need access to finance to buy or hire CSA services for which they mainly use community based financial institutions. Cooperatives are amongst these institutions as they provide relatively cheap loans for renting and/or buying CSA technologies. In turn, cooperatives receive government subsidies for purchasing CSA technologies. This suggests that in the end government's subsidy is a driver enabling farmers to buy or lease CSA technologies rather than the cooperative itself. No evidence for service providers providing loans to farmers was found. However, the ability of service providers to access loans from banks, which benefits farmers as it enables them to agree on flexible payback regimes, partly addresses the financial obstacle faced by farmers.Farmers' gaps in knowledge and skills are well addressed by cooperatives and service providers. They both acknowledge farmers prefer learning about new technologies from peers rather than from outsiders. This in line with previous research highlighting farmers' need for 'user friendly' information and after sale services (Long et al., 2017).Obstacles for farmers such as declining farm sizes decreasing their investment capacity in agricultural innovation cannot be removed by SMEs. It is very likely that the current practice of cooperatives serving the relatively smaller farmers and service providers the larger farms will be reinforced.Favouring regulatory landscape, widening partnership and ensure access to finance: This study shows that SMEs' business model can benefit from a favouring regulatory landscape. The Punjab Government has agreed to fully ban residue burning by 2019e2020 to improve air quality (Tallis et al., 2017). The ban calls for a new crop residue management systems, for which the Happy Seeder and Zero-till multi crop planter are interesting options. Hiring out a package of CSA technologies including these technologies can be a profitable business if accompanied by factors such as access to capital and knowledge, good customer relationship and productive partnership. Supporting SMEs in knowledge acquisition on CSA is likely to increase the adoption rate of CSA technologies, but needs to be combined with experimentation and demonstration opportunities. Moreover, access to sufficient and adequate finance needs to be guaranteed to ensure the production and purchase by SMEs of these technologies.Review subsidy scheme: The use of government subsidies and other governmental financial incentives for services providers is recommended to increase the adoption of new CSA technologies by several scholars (Senyolo et al., 2018;Tallis et al., 2017). Our study shows that the effect of government's subsidy on SMEs' business model is ambiguous. Government subsidies enable cooperatives to purchase CSA technologies and provide loans to their customers for renting of CSA technologies. But this study also shows that for both cooperatives and service providers, the CSA business model is viable even without subsidies.There is need to better link government subsidy to market intelligence. Subsidy on the Land Laser Leveller has served its purpose, and it could be withdrawn. The savings would be considerable and could be diverted to supporting SMEs in delivering other proven forms of CSA technologies, which have yet to achieve widespread uptake (Gill, 2014).Several scholars discussed the adverse effects of subsidies on inputs (Beddington et al., 2012;Grainger-Jones, 2011). In this study, government respondents and scientists put forward that subsidy on electricity and free use of water forms a critical issue preventing farmers to rent SMEs' services on water and fuel saving technologies.To better use SMEs' business as mechanism for adoption and scaling CSA, existing government's subsidies should be modified on the basis of an assessment of market potentials and proven CSA technologies, which have yet to achieve widespread uptake.Land reform: For decades, Punjab has been considered the granary of India. However, decline in landholdings in combination with other socio-economic and environmental developments creates negative growth rates in agriculture. This trend puts SMEs' business at risk in the near future. Some CSA technologies require a certain acreage to be effectively applied. (Jat et al., 2006) conclude that a LLL is less efficient for small sized fields. Gill (2014) also signals that fields of marginal farmers are too small to access a LLL, which adversely affects SMEs' market for this technology. In the short term, this effect will be larger for cooperatives compared to service providers as the farm size of cooperatives' customers is smaller compared to that of service providers' clients. In the midterm, this scale issue may be overcome through the trend that small farmers sell their farm to larger farmers or service providers (Gill, 2014).More importantly, farming may become no longer a viable occupation due to fragmented and shrinking land holdings. Debt rate under small and medium size landholdings is relatively large (Singh et al., 2009). Decreasing capacity to invest in new CSA technologies again will affect cooperatives' business more than that of service providers. Options like liberalization of the land lease market and allowing for large holdings are beyond the scope of this study.Considering the nature of the study, some limitations surfaced. Initially the majority of respondents were identified and contacted by CIMMYT and BISA. The snowball method was used to interview stakeholders outside the network of partnering research institutes, but bias and Hawthorne effect may have been introduced. Second, interviewed SMEs interviewed were considered representative for Punjab. Large scale study to verify results has not been conducted. However, results were cross checked between respondents and research team members. Findings were also cross checked and complemented with other researchers, policymakers and private sector parties in national and international scientific events. Future research should seek to validate the above findings through larger samples, covering other Indian states and countries.This paper starts from the premise that the business models of SMEs (farmer cooperatives and service providers) can be a mechanism for adoption and scaling of CSA. It responds the main question 'what are critical issues and drivers of SMEs' business models for the adoption and scaling of CSA technologies in a developing country context'.The described case of Punjab shows that SMEs' business models can be seen as a mechanism for adoption of CSA technologies. This is enabled by the presence of a mix of drivers including scientific and practical evidence of CSA technologies, good partnership between SMEs and researchers, good customer relationships and effective channels through farmers' field trials and demonstrations in climate smart villages. All together creating a clear value to their customers, i.e. farmers and therefore supportive to the adoption of CSA. Distortive government subsidies on energy and the lack of market intelligence negatively affect the profitability of the business model and as such adoption.SMEs' business models, as mechanism for scaling requiring favourable institutions and policies is less evident. Good partnership, customer relationships and effective channels in combination with favourable regulations facilitate SMEs to support scaling of CSA. However, a lack of market intelligence, difficult socioeconomic circumstances and distortive government subsidies limit the role of SMEs business model as mechanism for scaling.To strengthen SMEs' role as change agents for CSA, policy makers should reconsider current subsidy regime and ensure flexible and targeted (financial) incentives. Research and extension services can help SMEs in the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, which they can in turn share with their customers.From a scientific perspective, the novelty of our study is the distinction between adoption and scaling of CSA technologies. Previous literature on business models supporting CSA focussed on adoption only. By introducing the concept of scaling, this paper explicates the institutional and political dimensions of large scale adoption at different levels involving multiple actors to bring about the societal changes needed to address climate change impacts and enhance food security.","tokenCount":"8494"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c4e05c9c3bd1a87dbd32f4c8b988c0e7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Reports/8210-Bougnounou-Report.pdf","id":"-1313780045"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bddbba58-0d73-4f79-bb0d-b36fa32bffaf","pagecount":"28","content":"En Afrique subsaharienne, les ressources naturelles (RN) contribuent énormément à l'économie, notamment domestique. Elles « constituent un élément central des moyens de subsistance des populations rurales ». Pendant longtemps, l'utilisation des RN par les populations rurales au Burkina Faso a été influencée par des modes de gestion traditionnels, soumis aux normes et coutumes locales. A côté de cette forme motivée essentiellement par la satisfaction des besoins de sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle, on note une autre forme de gestion par l'Etat, à travers ses services techniques qui ont pour mandat de réguler l'exploitation des RN et d'en assurer leur durabilité notamment lorsqu'il s'agit des besoins d'utilisation commerciale.A l'instar d'autres pays, au Burkina, l'évolution des dynamiques autour de la responsabilisation et de participation des acteurs pour une gestion durable des RN a imposé aux acteurs un transfert de compétence et de responsabilité, notamment depuis l'avènement de la décentralisation au début des années 1990.Le Burkina Faso a une économie peu diversifiée, qui repose essentiellement sur l'agriculture et l'élevage, axes prioritaires des politiques de développement par leur contribution à l'économie nationale (43 % du PIB). En dépit de cette place prépondérante, ces secteurs sont confrontés aux exigences des nouvelles problématiques de développement social et économique (sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle, dégradation des écosystèmes, compétitivité des filières, accès inclusif des populations défavorisées aux ressources, aux services et aux marchés, etc.). Le changement climatique, la démographie galopante, et les pressions anthropiques constituent des facteurs clés de dégradation des RN avec des effets sur l'équilibre du milieu, sur les systèmes de production agropastoraux et forestiers, compromettant ainsi les objectifs et stratégies inclusives de sécurité alimentaire, nutritionnelle, et de résilience (ILRI, 2015).Face à la vulnérabilité des ménages, l'exploitation des produits forestiers non ligneux (PNFL) dont le karité (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn) compte parmi les stratégies de résilience des populations rurales burkinabé. Le pays dispose d'un riche potentiel (environ 190 millions d'arbres à karité) et est l'un des plus grands producteurs, consommateurs et exportateurs d'amandes de karité et de beurre en Afrique de l'Ouest (UNIDO, 2017).La valorisation du karité contribue à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle ; à l'amélioration et à la diversification des revenus des ménages ruraux et périurbains par la conservation, la transformation, et la commercialisation. La filière karité génère annuellement depuis 2011, environ 20 milliards de FCFA de recettes d'exportation. En 2015, le pays a exporté 117 914 tonnes d'amandes et 9 938 tonnes de beurre de Karité, ce qui a généré des recettes de 24,4 milliards au total (APNFL, 2011). Le karité est ainsi aujourd'hui un produit à haute valeur ajoutée. L'adoption d'une stratégie Karité 2014-2019 élaborée avec l'implication de plusieurs parties prenantes marque un tournant important dans la filière karité qui occupe environ 500 000 femmes. Cependant, une très forte pression s'exerce sur la ressource entrainant ainsi sa dégradation et affectant les moyens de subsistance de nombreux ménages.La présente recherche vise à identifier et à évaluer les principaux facteurs qui contribuent au maintien et à l'amélioration de la gestion de l'espèce dans deux provinces (Sissili et Ziro). Elle s'inscrit dans le cadre du projet « La mondialisation en bref : Opportunités et risques pour les productrices de karité dans les parcs à karité de l'Afrique de l'Ouest ». Ce projet, d'une durée de 2 ans (2019)(2020), est financé par le Centre de recherche pour le développement international (CRDI) et le Programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les forêts, les arbres et l'agroforesterie, exécuté par le Centre de recherche forestière internationale (CIFOR), en étroite collaboration avec Bioversity International. Le projet qui s'aligne sur la nouvelle politique égalitariste et féministe du CRDI vise à lutter contre le changement climatique, en renforçant la résilience des communautés et l'égalité entre les sexes.La présente intervention qui concerne la composante 1 du projet, a été exécutée par l'Organisation Néerlandaise de Développement (SNV) au Burkina Faso. Cette composante vise à comprendre l'évolution des parcs à karité, les facteurs qui influencent l'utilisation des terres et les décisions prises par les communautés par rapport à la gestion de la ressource karité. Il s'agit d'accompagner les communautés dans un processus de réflexion collective qui puisse résulter en une gestion plus équitable de leurs ressources naturelles et particulièrement du karité. Trois livrables étaient escomptés dont le présent plan d'actions. Ce plan comporte les suggestions institutionnelles, techniques, politiques, économiques et sociales pour améliorer la gestion des arbres à karité dans les forêts gérées par les communautés. Les rôles et responsabilités des acteurs sont précisés dans ces plans assortis des périodes de mise en oeuvre. Le plan a été développé de façon participative et inclusive en prenant en compte les ressources locales disponibles.Le plan d'actions vise à permettre aux acteurs impliqués dans la gestion des parcs à karité de planifier des activités qui incluent l'ensemble des parties prenantes. Le plan permet de suivre et d'évaluer les acquis et réussites ainsi que les échecs éventuels.Afin d'élaborer un plan consensuel, la démarche a suivi les étapes suivantes : le diagnostic participatif, la planification participative et la validation du plan d'actions.La participation : la méthode participative a été privilégiée à travers la contribution des principales catégories d'acteurs à l'élaboration du plan. La participation a ainsi été un principe qui a marqué l'organisation des ateliers. Les critères suivants ont été pris en compte pour le choix des participants : la répartition géographique, le type d'activités, le sexe, l'âge, le statut social (migrant, autochtone), etc.Ces ateliers ont permis la collecte d'informations avec la participation des acteurs impliqués dans la gestion du CAF (les techniciens, les membres hommes, femmes et jeunes des GGF et UGGF, la mairie). Ainsi les problèmes de gestion des parcs à karité ont été identifiés et discutés et des solutions ont été proposées lors de ces ateliers.Des focus groups ont été conduits pour connaitre les perceptions, les pratiques et stratégies des acteurs du CAF. Les ménages et des groupements de productrices de karité ont été également concernés par ces focus group.La responsabilisation : les ateliers ont été une opportunité pour les participants d'acquérir des connaissances ou de renforcer leurs capacités sur les thématiques en lien avec la gestion des ressources naturelles et sur les bonnes pratiques. Cette « dimension de renforcement des capacités a été intégrée aux ateliers afin d'assurer la continuité et la durabilité du processus. Les communautés et les autres parties prenantes doivent être en mesure de poursuivre les activités au retrait des projets de recherche développement ».La cohérence politique et culturelle : le souci de cohérence politique a amené les facilitateurs à tenir compte de ce critère. Ainsi, des parties prenantes comme la mairie, les services techniques de l'environnement ont été conviés. Ils ont été mis au courant de toutes les activités menées par le projet dans leur zone, y compris l'inventaire conduit par le doctorant. Les coutumiers (autorité coutumière) ont été impliqués, à travers leurs représentants qui | 3 sont en même temps des membres du CAF. Tout cela participe de la durabilité des actions.Le genre : les femmes (jeunes et aînées), les jeunes hommes et les hommes adultes ont participé aux échanges. Les rôles de chaque catégorie d'acteurs, les besoins, les intérêts, les niveaux de décision, etc. ont été analysés et ces éléments ont permis d'avoir une compréhension harmonisée des problèmes identifiés et des solutions proposées, ainsi que des priorités par rapport à la gestion du chantier et spécifiquement des parcs à karité.L'équité : afin de favoriser une participation équitable des femmes, des jeunes et des hommes, des espaces de dialogues ont été créés pendant les ateliers. Deux groupes ont été mis en place sur proposition des participants : le groupe des hommes et celui des femmes. En plus de tenir compte du sexe, la parole a été donnée aux participants en tenant compte des types d'activités (exploitants de bois, productrices de karité, éleveurs, agropasteurs, etc…). Pendant les plénières, les hommes, les femmes et les jeunes se sont exprimés librement.Les techniques utilisées ont consisté en : • Une revue de la documentation existante • La collecte de données primaires lors des ateliers • Des focus groups en marge des ateliers. Il n'a pas toujours les moyens pour étaler les sensibilisations dans le temps et instaurer un dialogue permanent qui prenne en compte des catégories sensibles et à forte mobilité comme les pasteurs et les déplacés. Il découle de cette situation de nombreux conflits.Plusieurs types de conflits découlent de la convergence de pratiques et intérêts divergents : La cartographie des acteurs a été utilisée pour analyser le contexte. La carte ci-dessous a été élaborée de façon participative avec les acteurs du CAF de Bougnounou -Nébielianayou. Deux groupes ont travaillé sur la cartographie. La taille des cartes est fonction de l'importance de l'acteur.Les acteurs les plus importants sont représentés par les cartes les plus grandes et les acteurs moins importants, par de petites cartes.  La plupart des problèmes sont liés à la persistance de mauvaises pratiques par les acteurs. Les participants ont procédé à une priorisation des problèmes identifiés.Les problèmes identifiés ont été priorisés comme suit : 1. Les feux de brousse 2. La coupe abusive du bois 3. Les maladies du karité 4. La récolte des fruits verts 5. La divagation des animaux 6. La défleuraison du karité par les grands vents 7. L'utilisation des herbicides 8. Le non-respect des cahiers des charges par les agrobusinessmen. 9. Le faible accès des productrices aux marchés Les échanges ont révélé que les mauvaises pratiques (feux de brousse, coupe abusive du bois, récolte de fruits verts) et le non-respect des cahiers de charge par les agrobusiness men compromettent la conservation des parcs à karité et en général des ressources du chantier. Les feux de brousse causent des dégâts aux arbres (diminution ou destruction des jeunes pousses), tuent les animaux ou les délogent, dégradent les sols. Cela affecte le bien-être des populations, les revenus et la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle.Les problèmes ont été priorisés en tenant compte de leur impact sur la vie des communautés et de la capacité des acteurs d'agir. Les solutions proposées par les participants sont consignées ci-dessous. Pour chacune des priorités stratégiques, des actions ont été définies par les acteurs au cours d'un atelier de planification. Les actions sont décrites dans les paragraphes qui suivent.La protection et le renouvellement permettront l'amélioration de la production du karité dans les parcs et dans les champs familiaux. Il s'agira de protéger les parcs à karité à travers la réalisation de brise-vents. Le changement climatique cause de grands vents et la défleuraison du karité, avec un impact sur la productivité du karité. Des haies vives seront réalisées pour protéger le karité contre la divagation des animaux par exemple. La protection et la préservation des jeunes plants passeront par la pratique de la régénération naturelle assistée (RNA). L'entretien du chantier occupera une place importante. La délimitation des unités, l'allumage de feux précoces, la taille sanitaire du karité seront réalisés, par les hommes et les jeunes. Le nettoyage des unités et la surveillance du chantier seront régulièrement entrepris avec le leadership des productrices de karité et l'appui des jeunes et des hommes. Afin de contribuer à la pérennisation des actions, un focus particulier sera mis sur le suivi et la surveillance du chantier à travers le renforcement des ressources humaines.Afin d'augmenter la densité du karité dans les UAF et la production du karité, le CAF à travers les GGF réalisera des reboisements dans les UAF. Les femmes collecteront les semences dans le chantier. Elles réaliseront des pépinières pour faciliter les reboisements. Ainsi, les GGF n'auront pas besoin d'attendre les services techniques pour avoir les plants, les femmes qui jouent déjà bien ce rôle seront renforcées. L'enrichissement des parcs à karité sera également entrepris avec des espèces sélectionnées par les femmes et semées directement. Pour avoir un bon taux de levée et permettre le succès de l'opération, le suivi des plants sera réalisé par le CAF et les points focaux choisis dans les groupements.Le renforcement des ressources humaines et matérielles des capacités techniques des productrices, et des équipes techniques visant à mettre un accent plus accru sur les suivis et le contrôle des CAF seront entrepris. Ainsi, il s'agira d'augmenter le nombre d'agents techniques de l'Etat à 3 agents pour un suivi plus efficace. Le nombre de chefs d'unité doit également augmenter. Actuellement 3 villages sont réunis autour d'une unité avec un seul chef d'unités. Par ailleurs afin de permettre aux femmes de s'impliquer véritablement dans la gestion de la ressource, il faudra désigner au sein des groupements de productrices 3 personnes qui appuieront les organes déjà en place pour le suivi du chantier et qui participeront à la prise de décision. Le renforcement des équipements est également important pour permettre aux femmes de fabriquer des produits de qualité et pénétrer les marchés porteurs.Le CAF devra également être renforcé techniquement pour lui permettre de prendre le contrôle de la gestion des ressources avec l'appui des partenaires. Conscient que la synergie d'actions est nécessaire pour assurer leur mission, le CAF veut mettre l'accent sur la collaboration avec la mairie, les services techniques, les coutumiers, les groupements de femmes, les autres groupements PFNL, etc.Les ressources s'amenuisent chaque jour sous l'effet du changement climatique, les feux de brousse, la coupe abusive du bois, etc., limitant ainsi l'accès des femmes au karité. Une nouvelle forme de compétition pour le karité a lieu au sein du ménage. Les hommes ramassent de plus en plus les noix dans leurs champs alors que cette activité était menée par les femmes. « Les hommes aussi ramassent le karité parce que pour eux, les femmes aujourd'hui ramassent le karité et vendent pour satisfaire leur propres besoins », (Cf. un homme adulte de Bougnounou). Cette compétition pour le karité est déloyale selon les femmes : « les champs appartiennent aux hommes et ils possèdent les moyens de transport (moto, taxi moto, charrettes). Ils peuvent parcourir ainsi de longues distances et ramasser en quantité dans les champs éloignés et dans les parcs », (Cf. une jeune femme de Bougnounou).Il ressort des échanges que certaines femmes disposent de plus de moyens que d'autres. Certaines sont aidées par leurs enfants qui ont des motos, d'autres, parce qu'ils sont des migrants ne peuvent accéder facilement à la ressource, etc. L'accès des femmes au karité est ainsi non seulement limité, mais n'est pas équitable. Afin de rétablir une certaine équité et inclure les plus vulnérables, le CAF et ses membres pensent organiser les femmes en deux groupes rotatifs pour le ramassage des amandes du karité. Le passage de chaque groupe sera planifié dans la semaine. Par ailleurs, afin de faciliter l'accès aux marchés pour toutes, et de satisfaire aux exigences du marché, la commercialisation groupée des amandes sera soutenue.Il s'agira d'organiser des rencontres d'information et de concertation avec la communauté. Un dialogue sera engagé avec les communautés, les chefs de terre, les éleveurs, etc. afin de minimiser certaines pratiques néfastes (la coupe clandestine du karité, les feux de brousse dans les UAF et la récolte de fruits verts). Les bûcherons seront sensibilisés sur les techniques de coupe. La population et les membres du CAF seront sensibilisés sur les effets néfastes de la coupe du karité. Des rencontres seront organisées pour sensibiliser les groupements de productrices sur les techniques de récolte. Afin d'éviter la récolte des fruits verts, le canal des coutumes locales sera utilisé à travers la prise de mesures pour protéger le karité.Les activités et sous-activités retenues pour être mises en oeuvre sont détaillées dans le point suivant. Certains risques peuvent compromettre la mise en oeuvre du plan d'actions. Il s'agit de :• La faible adhésion des groupements de femmes à la mise en oeuvre du plan ","tokenCount":"2590"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"25b178785842530d2edd1d2abd3f039d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3fdbfb45-e07e-47fe-a44c-a181b2c72450/retrieve","id":"1147944672"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5529e6e2-4503-4ae8-9d42-ee59d1b6ecf4","pagecount":"2","content":"ILRI is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License ILRI works with partners worldwide to help poor people keep their farm animals alive and productive, increase and sustain their livestock and farm productivity, and find profitable markets for their animal products. ILRI's headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya; we have a principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and 14 offices in other regions of Africa and Asia. ILRI is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (www.cgiar.org), which works to reduce hunger, poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries by generating and sharing relevant agricultural knowledge, technologies and policies.The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is a regional industry development program implemented by a consortium of partners led by Heifer International. It is currently being piloted in 18 sites in Kenya, 8 in Rwanda and 27 in Uganda. The overall goal of the project is to transform the lives of 179,000 families, or about 1 million people, by doubling household dairy income in 10 years through integrated interventions in dairy production, market access and knowledge application.This brief highlights key results of a baseline survey that was carried out with the objective of analyzing the level of preference for and use of artificial insemination (AI) in different project sites, and identifying constraints or problems hindering the optimal use of the service and possible solutions. Details are available in the baseline survey report No. 2.Why: To assess the baseline situation of dairy farmers and their communities at the start of the project, and to identify key constraints dairy farmers and market agents face and opportunities for overcoming them through targeted project interventions. In all three countries, Holstein-Friesian (cross) was the most widely kept exotic breed (55.6% of households in Kenya, 30.1% in Rwanda and 16.4% in Uganda). However, almost half (49.6%) of households in Kenya also kept Ayrshire crosses. Among the local breeds, Ankole and Nganda were the most widely kept by households in Uganda (34.9% and 16.9% of households, respectively), while in Rwanda and Kenya the most widely kept local breeds were Ankole (88.2%) and local Zebu (28.9%), respectively.Overall in all three countries, households preferred to use bull service over AI. However, there were a few hubs where a greater proportion of households preferred AI; these were Mukono in Uganda, Bwisanga in Rwanda and Kabiyet in Kenya. Currently, AI services are mostly provided by private practitioners in Kenya while in Uganda and Rwanda, the government plays the lead role in provision of these services. In Uganda, the present scenario reflects a shift from five years ago when private practitioners and nongovernmental organizations were the main providers of AI services. In Kenya private practitioners still play the key role in provision of AI services as they did five years ago, while the situation in Rwanda remains unchanged with the government acting as the primary provider. In all three countries, over 80% of cattle keepers reported not using AI in the last five years. More female-headed households in Kenya and Uganda reportedly used AI in the last five years as compared to their Rwandese counterparts.At the hub level, use of AI was generally low with most livestock farmers preferring natural service. The main constraints to adoption of AI include low availability of the service; high cost; low capacity of farmers and technicians to effectively use the technology; inappropriateness of the technology in meeting farmers' needs; lack of cash to pay for AI services; and lack of support services such as veterinary and extension services.Across all three countries, the average cost of AI was higher than that of bull service, with marked differences observed in Uganda and Kenya as compared to marginal differences in Rwanda. Kenya recorded the highest average cost of AI (USD 17.3) and Rwanda the lowest (USD 4.9). The relatively lower cost of AI services to livestock farmers in Rwanda is due to the fact that the government there covers over two-thirds of all related costs. With regard to bull service, the average cost was highest in Uganda and lowest in Kenya.Key solutions suggested by farmers to increase use of AI were: J. Mburu, J.M.K. Ojango, K. Kariuki and I. Baltenweck Disclaimer: This material was funded by and is the absolute property of the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) Project. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the EADD Project. The mention of specific organizations or their services, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by EADD in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.For more information, contact Julie Ojango (j.ojango@cgiar.org) or visit the EADD project website at http://eadairy.wordpress.com","tokenCount":"808"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d6cd386248c64b0585036a6e765ad92c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee548bb4-380a-4caa-a5b4-166d31b23ea3/retrieve","id":"2032052428"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a4c47823-8505-4ba3-a495-61c36a742309","pagecount":"8","content":"In previous commentaries on earlier submissions of CRP 3.5, the ISPC highlighted the need to strengthen justification for a CRP on grain legumes (GLs) and the approach used to prioritize across crop species, regions and constraints in the context of delivering impact. Issues related to narrowing the focus (fewer product lines), clearer articulation and justification of impact pathways and more effective integration with other CRPs were also highlighted. In response to these concerns, CRP 3.5 proponents have fully revised and restructured the proposal attempting to address each of the must-haves identified by the ISPC and FC. Substantial changes found in the new version attest to serious effort and commitment by proponents to address these concerns, and to the value of some key steps taken to revise the document: (i) the assembly of data on grain legumes for analysis of trends and setting of priorities, (ii) an assessment of past research, and (iii) an analysis of the constraints to adoption of improved legume technologies. The ISPC agrees with the proponents that this process has resulted in a substantially improved proposal that addresses the must-haves. Some of the major improvements found in the current version include:  New Justification section (pp7-24) establishes a much stronger case for research on GLs.  A more explicit logical framework with a hierarchical structure is used to identify target regions and GL crop species, based on an analysis of trends in productivity, production and consumption of GLs in each region and constraints to adoption of improved GLs.  A new strategic component on analyzing demand and setting research priorities (SC 1) has been created to focus on assembling quality data on GL adoption and use and filling key information gaps.  The earlier three strategic objectives on genetic resources/genomics, crop improvement, and crop management has been merged into a single strategic component (SC2) providing scope for better integration of the crop improvement and NRM work.  Eight key product lines (PLs) have been developed that serve as a focus of activities and target critical outputs and outcomes. PLs define a global program that encompasses research across GLs, regions and institutes.While the CRP responses under each of the must-haves are deemed adequate, some further issues such as lack of detail on impact pathways warrant attention. Critically important will be implementation of a rigorous monitoring and evaluation system as the program gets underway to maintain focus and to support future impact assessment. These issues and concerns are discussed in the narratives below under each of the must-haves.In summary, CRP 3.5 proponents should be congratulated on producing a much improved document, which provides a clearer and more convincing justification, focus, content, and implementation of proposed research. It is evident that significant and substantive revisions were made in response to the ISPC and FC comments. Recommendation: The ISPC recommends that CRP 3.5 be approved. While there remain several issues requiring careful monitoring and evaluation during implementationphase, and a few weaknesses requiring attention in early stages of the program, the program should begin.Adequately addressed. The overall justification for a CRP on grain legumes (pp7-24) has been expanded and considerably strengthened. In particular, this CRP's potential for leading to improvements in the diets of the poor has been more clearly and accurately presented, and the critical role GLs can play in terms of enhancing sustainability and resilience in cereal-based and niche production systems is highlighted. The prioritization framework is also much stronger. The text provides greater specificity with regard to assumptions, recent production trends, and the description of the process used in setting research priorities (see below). Importantly, the CRP now includes a new Strategic Component (SC 1) on analyzing demand and setting research priorities which will focus on assembling quality data on GL adoption and use and filling key information gaps.A more comprehensive review of GL production and consumption trendsregionally (and sometimes nationally) differentiatedis provided in the Justification section. This includes a new sub-section describing the multiple benefits of GL cultivation, especially related to sales and consumption. In lowincome, food deficient countries (LIFDCs), besides having roughly equivalent total production value, the eight targeted GLs also have a larger cultivated area than that of either maize or wheat. Consumption trendspast and futureare also analyzed. While demand trends vary considerably by geographic region and over time, GLs continue to be an important nutritional component in households' diets in LIFDCs. The narrative more clearly and accurately assesses the CRP's potential for contributing to improvements in diets of the poor, and emphasizes the critical role GLs can play in terms of enhancing sustainability and resilience in cereal-based and niche production systems.Table 2 is a helpful presentation. But given the correct emphasis on the importance of legumes for the poor, there is actually very little discussion of which classes of poor households are being targetedpoor subsistence producers, poor non-producing (mostly urban) consumers, or perhaps somewhat poor (potential) producer-sellers. There are several other gaps in characterization and analysis which should be addressed early on, presumably under the new SC 1 (analyzing demand and setting research priorities). Dietary studies from countries besides India illustrating GL consumption by income class.  Identification and characterization of GL producers vs sellers. Given that SC4 is devoted to market opportunities, it would be useful to have data on who sells, what proportions of total production enter marketing chains, and prospects for the future?  Studies assessing current and possible future soybean utilization in SSA. Specifically, does the CRP aim at Nigeria-style home consumption or Zimbabwe-style marketing? (Fig. 4 indicates the former; p.129 the latter.) In either case, what are the implications for the poor, and which poor?  PL7, which concentrates on innovations for very commercial and more likely large-scale agriculture (including herbicide tolerance and mechanical harvesting), makes no reference to poverty analysis, except to mention \"reducing drudgery of women\". Which women, farmers or hired laborers are being targeted, and who, if any, could be adversely affected?The proponents highlight the value of exploring and leveraging commonalities across the eight GLs with coordinated research efforts, which is indeed a compelling rationale and central objective of the CRP. While such efforts will not attain a singular research focus on a sole legume species, nevertheless, the proponents argue that substantial gains are expected in improving performance of multiple legumes in terms of yield, adoption rates and other advances along the value chain. A more explicit analysis showing examples of these cross-GL commonalities, with a description of where cost savings might occur, should be performed early in the implementation phase and opportunities for leveraging should be continually on the radar screen.In making the case for these eight GLs, it is important to consider the role that international markets can and do play in supplying the consumption demand for these commodities. Groundnut and soybean may be important sources of vegetable oil and/or protein in much of South Asia, the Middle East, or sub-Saharan Africa, but that does not mean the production needs to take place in the same region where the consumption will occur. Does it make sense to invest in soybean or groundnut improvement in these regions? Or should they instead rely on highly efficient mechanized production from South America, and produce (and perhaps export) other crops? The answer will depend in part on improving the productivity of these GL crops, which is a desired outcome of this CRP. The nutritional value of legumes for the poor does not necessarily imply that these are the crops that the poor should produce.The analysis of constraints, barriers and threats (specific request from the previous review) is presented beginning at the bottom of p12. This 'pan-grain legume and analysis' relied on use of national and international partners knowledge of GL farming systems in each relevant LIFDC and GL experts' judgments to estimate for each crop-region-farming system: (a) yield losses from specific major biotic (disease, insects), abiotic (drought, heat) and other factor (water-logging, soil fertility) constraints addressed in the PLs; (b) yield gains from PLs adopted within a specific production context; and, (c) likely adoption rates. Table 5 is the summary. Table 6 shows the estimated gross value of production increases per Product Line 1 .While a number of non-trivial questions related to the process used to identify constraints and adoption barriers come to mind (no reference to how this was done appears in the document), the proponents should be commended for undertaking this attempt to quantify systematically a large number of different potential payoffs and research opportunities in a relatively short period of time. The quantification which used both qualitative and quantitative analyses is impressive, but it is also important to understand the dangers in a strict and absolute interpretation of these results and their application based on an exercise of this kind. 2 While this initial effort is worthwhile, the analysis should not at this stage be represented as an objective assessment of the potential underlying payoffs. The need to rely on an ad hoc elicitation process to obtain relevant data illustrates how little literature exists with comprehensive analyses of production constraints for these crops. In this respect, SC 1 is highly pertinent to CRP success.1 Information about calculations of expected production increases and many other critical sources of information cited in the text (e.g., yield gains and adoption rate increases per crop/country/farming system; comprehensive reviews of past research by crop; case made for soybeans) is said to be available at the GrainLegumes website (p. 16) but the site does not appear to be functional yet.2 For example, the scores will be highly susceptible to differences among individuals and to the non-random population of people doing the scoring. There are no standard errors or confidence intervals, so we do not know whether differences in expected benefits across potential product lines are statistically meaningful or not.Oddly, there seems to be little effort to map the results in Table 5 onto the priorities and selected PLs of the CRP. Diseases generally score high across the board, but are not a prominent feature of the PLs -only one of the eight explicitly treat disease tolerance. Weeds score low (except lentil), but there is a PL devoted to weed control. Faba bean gets a \"0\" for heat, but heat-tolerant faba bean is in PL2. Seed availability appears less a problem for groundnuts than for common beans. Faba beans appear to have fewer marketing problems than soybean (marketing codes are unclear). These are all anomalies that can surely be explained, but there isn't any effort to do so.The revised proposal provides a stronger analysis of past research successes in terms of research outputs by legume species and region, and in terms of successes in adoption (pp. 19-26). But there is also explicit recognition that overall, adoption of improved GL varieties has been slow. The text needs to be more consistent in this respect as elsewhere it states that the CG and its partners of GLs \"have achieved remarkable impacts in all target regions\" (p2). Appendix 8 (past research outputs) and Appendix 9 (analysis of adoption rates) 3 provide the basis for these analyses. That being said, there is still relatively little analysis of past failures and the reasons for greater or less adoption and impact 4 . The major difference in yield growth of GLs in WCA versus much slower growth in ESA is an example. This type of analysis is critical to have when setting research priorities. Likewise, there would seem to be tremendous opportunity to evaluate the relationship between rate of yield gain for specific GLs and countries (e.g., data from yield trends in Appendix 3) versus adoption of improved cultivars using existing data from Appendix 9. This may provide evidence of where research may have had impact, which would support follow up studies to verify and understand why. Finally, it will be important to buttress the summary analysis of constraints to adoption of improved cultivars and production technologies in GLs (p22) with rigorous studies and meta-analysis to arrive at general conclusions and insights for supporting continuous efforts on prioritization within this CRP.The bottom line is that there will need to be strong efforts in M&E of this program to maintain appropriate focus and to support future impact assessment.In the revised version of the CRP, a more explicit logical framework with hierarchical structure is used to identify targeted regions and GL crop species as follows: Tier 1. Harvested area and level of poverty Tier 2. End uses, alternative providers, and potential spillover effects Tier 3. Recent trends in production and the potential of research outcomes to impact hunger and poverty in targeted regions. The latter part of Tier 3 relies on use of national and international partners knowledge of GL farming systems in each relevant LIDC and GL experts' judgments to estimate key parameters for each cropregion-farming system as described above. Government programs focused on specific GLs and standing commitments of funding from donors such as the BMGF and USAID are also factored into the equation.Prioritization benefits from a much stronger analysis of trends in legume production in terms of area and yields, by region (appendix 2 and 3, and associated figures and tables). This is a major improvement because it helps provide context to better understand where to invest and which grain legumes (GLs) to invest in. At the same time, some of the analyses of past trends are weak and rely on forcing linear regression through clearly curvilinear (diminishing) growth rates. A more rigorous statistical analysis of those trends within and across regions for different GLs would likely reveal important lessons and help in understanding constraints and opportunities leading to better prioritization of the research agenda, e.g., what can be learned from the fact that progress in GL yield gains is so much slower for dry bean and groundnut (and legumes in general) in ESA compared to WCA?The case for GL investment in CWANA remains weak given the data provided in the appendices. It is not clear, for example, why peas are grown on some 780,000 ha in SSEA where the highest number of poor live (1.3 billion) is not given priority over lentils in CWANA which is grown on some 600,000 ha in a region with only a small fraction of the number of poor. Assuming that CRP 3.5 investments in CWANA flow through ICARDA, investment in this region represents 18% of window 1 and 2 funding, and 11% of total funding requested. Will the proposed work have a comparable contribution to total impact of this CRP? This issue must be monitored as the project is implemented.Due (presumably) to prior commitments and inter-Center agreements it is not surprising that there are almost no changes in individual Center and specific SC budgets from the previous version of the proposal, despite the presentation of a more systematic prioritization framework. The ISPC would encourage the proponents to build on the analyses presented here and to begin to make necessary changes in emphasis and resource allocation that follows from the results of the prioritization. The statement on page 9 that research priorities may shift as more data become available is reassuring, especially given incomplete data. The proponents should be commended for understanding the importance of this and dedicating SC1 to this task of priority setting and regular review.Adequately addressed. There is a greater focus now with a reduced number of strategic components having combined three previous SCs into one, and adding a new one \"Analyzing Demand and Setting Priorities\" (SC 1), which will embed the need for better data and tools to support a continuing process for improved prioritization for legume research under CRP 3.5. This is very welcome. At the same time, lingering concerns about some of the other SCs remain, along the lines alluded to in previous ISPC commentaries. SC3 focuses on seed systems, and one must question whether its objectives fall within the CRP's areas of competence. For instance, one objective of SC3 is to \"motivate small and medium seed companies to enter legume seed business.\" Others are to \"enhance decentralized seed systems using appropriate models\" and to \"engage national and regional policy makers for supportive seed policies.\" It is not so clear what the CRP can do about issues like these, so this work seems overly ambitious. Similar issues arise with SC4. And SC5 seems to be a catch-all covering a wide range of communication activities. Some of these (such as scientific publications) would already fall under other activities. The issue of the CGIAR's comparative advantage in soybean improvement relative to alternative suppliers still merits further examination and continuous monitoring.New is the set of eight product lines (PLs) that respond to constraints and \"demand-driven\" opportunities.The PLs define a global program that encompasses research across legumes, regions and institutes. Each PL targets a set of focused countries, where the research activities will be conducted, plus other countries that will benefit from more downstream delivery (spillover) activities. Brief descriptions of each PL are presented in the main body of the proposal. For each PL, a short description of expected intermediate research outputs is given as well as how these outputs fit into an impact pathway. Appendix 10 provides time frames, milestones, regions for each of the PLs. The PL development is quite useful and helps focus the targeted outputs and outcomes on some major big-ticket but discrete GL related development challenges. Overall, the PL and SC organization is sensible.With respect to the global and integrated nature of the CRP, further elaboration and examples of crosscutting collaboration among crops and centers would be useful. There is introductory mention of joining forces etc (p25), but there does not appear to be many instances where the document explicitly says that a certain activity will be done more efficiently by sharing resources. This should be easy to do. In PL 1, for instance, there will be shared phenotyping methods and expanded crop modeling. It is not clear if the network of phenotyping sites (p29) is managed jointly. In PL2 there will be comparative studies of heat tolerance (pp30-31). In PL4 there will be comparative physiology studies for symbiotic nitrogen fixation (p36). The final paragraph of \"Innovative Contributions\" of SC2 (p54) lists possible cross-species research. Under \"Innovations\" there seem to be more examples: comparative genomic analysis (p77); crop modeling (p78); cross-legume data bases (p80). There could be more discussion of collaboration in the description of the SCs as well. SC5 seems an opportunity for pooling resources across institutes, but the language is typically vague and unfocused --\"Courses and workshops that cut across crops, regions and partners will be organized collectively focusing on the highest priority needs\" (p63).Finally, a brief comment about the rationale for selecting eight target GLs. While the basis for selecting those GLs seems reasonable, there are important considerations missing from the poverty-area matrix that underpins the selection. It would be useful to see some discussion of innovation potential for the different species. Are they all equally promising in terms of research? Are there particular opportunities for some crops that make them good research targets? Moreover, might there be some advantages in focusing research for some key constraints on a single (model) legume crop, concentrating a larger share of the CRP resources there, with the idea that advances made in one crop might eventually spill out into other crops. There was little discussion of these supply-side issues in the prioritization discussion. This is yet another candidate for a SC 1 topic.Not fully addressed. The revised proposal includes a short section on impact pathways for each PL with specification of intermediate products. Most of these are quite non-specific and end with major responsibility of the NARS, the system CRPs 1.1 and 1.2, or other partners to drive impact at broader scales commensurate with the SLOs. For example, the pursuit of herbicide tolerance (transgenic or otherwise) does not include any discussion of the fact that such technology will almost certainly be proprietary. There is only the briefest of mention of private sector partnerships on p70. Such partnerships would also be vital for any aspirations of providing products such as bio-pesticides. In addition, very few five-and ten-year output targets are provided, typically one or two per each PL.Assumptions underpinning these pathways and progress in moving research outputs to impact must be rigorously followed under the M & E process. The specification of intermediate outputs will help support such monitoring. The CRP should strengthen the role of the PL Coordinators in relation to ensuring an effective two-way flow of knowledge along the impact pathways. At present the PL Coordinators are responsible for delivery of agreed outputs, with M&E left to the RMC, but in order to drive the culture change required, there needs to be one individual within each PL who has responsibility for impact and ensuring that those in NARS and other bodies involved in delivering impact are kept in the loop early on.As noted under M&E below, there is a critical need for baseline data, and thus the need to target that as a specific objective of this CRP.Overall, the section on impact pathways (pp66-69) based on a \"demand led\" process is helpful, although the effectiveness and strength of the underpinning assumptions will need to be rigorously monitored and evaluated as the CRP is implemented. Additionally, some aspects described therein would benefit from more clarity, e.g.,  The summary of successful bean seed dissemination in Africa -no attempt has been made to draw lessons, except that many different models are needed.  Five examples of widespread adoption as examples of the value of \"enhanced awareness\"but not clear in showing how enhancing awareness brought about success.  The discussion of what constitutes an impact pathway (p67), including Figure 5, does not really shed any new light on the topic.  PABRA bean network discussion (p68) is useful and a big success story -but no indication if the other GL partner centers will use it as a model.In terms of technology delivery, SC3 is \"seed and technology delivery\" but it's all seed. It includes many different types of things, from multinational companies (p57) to farmer groups, with no apparent prioritization or analysis. And SC3 hardly appears in any of the Output Targets in the logframes, Appendix 10. There are occasional, odd references to things such as information delivery, and the use of \"cell-phone ready animation videos\" for farmers (p54). In short, there is no place in the document that says clearly, \"Our experience shows that A, B and C do not work and we will abandon them in favor of X, Y and Z, for which we have evidence of greater potential\".Adequately addressed. This is discussed on pp82-85. Particular attention has been given to describing the linkages and potential collaboration and coordination with CRP 1.1 Dryland Systems. The new CRP version also makes explicit opportunities to interact with CRP 1.2 research activities, expanding the possibilities for impact of CRP 3.5. While it is not stated specifically in the revised proposal, the CRP 3.5 response to ISPC and FC Must Haves indicates that they will be proposing that each system CRP have a representative on the management committee of CRP 3.5, and vice-versa. Also, interactions with CCAFS are now more visible as related to specific PLs that deal with heat and drought tolerance. At the same time, some of the discussion of some CRP links, e.g., the one on Livestock and Fish, reads as if the linkages are somewhat superficial, rather than showing evidence of what process would be adopted to make sure that that CRP 3.7 would be interested in the outputs from Grain Legumes rather than as currently stated: 'Grain Legumes will provide dual-purpose legume varieties for evaluation in croplivestock systems.'Of the must-haves from the FC, all but two were covered in the above responses to ISPC musthaves. Those two are addressed below.Adequately addressed. Monitoring and evaluation are discussed on pp92-93. The response to this Must Have is adequate but still lacks specificity on what will be measured (i.e., the specific metrics), who will measure them, and how often. Particular concern is lack of attention to getting baseline data in first years of implementation to allow quantitative assessment of adoption of research outputs and as the basis for later impact assessment. For this reason the ISPC feels the responsibility for M&E and impact needs to reside within the PL teams, in the first instance, rather than at the RMC level.There are considerable data collection challenges in all of this. The subject is treated in SC1 but statements about collecting \"high resolution data\" (p48) by themselves are not particularly informative and begs the question of feasibility, cost, and resource implications of this kind of data collection.Adequately addressed. This was part of the motivation for integrating the previous SCs on crop improvement and crop/pest management into a single SC (current SC 2). The PLs provide explicit links to potential NRM improvements, but implementation will require collaboration and follow through with systems CRPs 1.1 and 1.2. Key cross CRP linkages are described although follow-through must be rigorously evaluated and monitored both internally by the CRP3.5 leadership, and by the CGIAR M & E process.The ISPC welcomes text in SC 2 that makes crop specific breeding targets explicit. Also, ISPC congratulates proponents for the CRP efforts towards developing a global breeding platform for grain legumes, making use of integrated relevant pre-breeding information coming from molecular and informatics modern tools, results being shared among partners in the process of addressing specific crop breeding targets.","tokenCount":"4233"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e2f50fde5cddb7483c67bfa65efbb8a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7e60b38c-a1b0-45e7-8f02-efad0a06c8c5/retrieve","id":"-479481196"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"04de9dad-189c-4ec9-9ac5-b557c5a7aa0b","pagecount":"7","content":"This panel discussion took place at a time in all over the world. Its impact, however, are are disproportionately exposed and vulnerable mitigate both climate hazards and related countries remain among those most vulnerable to climate risks and hazards levels of socio-economic, political, and institutional Despite this, there exists a lack of robust, localised, and policy how exactly climate security risks may African contexts. The Africa Climate Security Observatory (ACSO) generating local, almost real-time evidence to inform timely and responsive decision focus, therefore, on three key questions:• How can we effectively integrate processes in Africa at all levels in order• How can we tailor observatory data interventions?• What new or existing mechanisms its scalability and \"break the cycle\" of climate and conflict in the continent?The climate crisis, and the security challenges it compounds, millions of individuals, households, and communities across the globe, translated into very real threats to livelihoods, emerges as disproportionately vulnerable should avoid making continent-wide generalisations 40 most climate-vulnerable countri of 2019 (Eckstein, Kunzel and Schafer, 2021). Similarly, over 23 of the world's 40 most fragile countries are located in Africa, 6 of which are located in the topIn such contexts, drivers of climate vulnerability For example, fragile states that lack state-society relations are less likely event of climate-related shocks, but also lack the capacity to instability or tension that may follow. Furthermore, and discriminatory political and economic structures fuelling both political grievances and of a changing climate can, especially self-reinforcing cycles of vulnerability suffer under the joint burden of climate change and conflict. climate impacts are intrinsically tied into socio demands integrated, cross-sectoral interrelated dimensions of insecurity need to be tackled responses must also be localized and policies of the risks they intend to tackle.Given the current absence of relevant evidence on the intersection between climate and existing insecurities, tackling these issues remains very difficult programmers needs to go beyond simply identifying the role of climate and what questions, in order to intervene fundamental lack of knowledge. This means that whil on food security, nutritional values, information remain siloed, making it hard to create set of responses. Additionally, analytical information needs to be presented to decision accessible ways, and must align with designed and implemented. There remains something of a structural disconnect between researchers, practitioners, and politicians, visible in the different ways these groups communicate but also in the timescales they use. This is responses to climate-related security need to be reached before a potential escalation into violence and conflict. for integrated, robust and rapid or real climate interacts with specific local, sub economic and political processes.challenges it compounds, is no longer a hypothetical concept. For millions of individuals, households, and communities across the globe, climate change translated into very real threats to livelihoods, health, and physical security. Africa in particular disproportionately vulnerable to compounded climate and security risks. Whil wide generalisations, it's notable that over a quarter of the world's countries are located in Africa, 4 of which were located in the top 10 as of 2019 (Eckstein, Kunzel and Schafer, 2021). Similarly, over 23 of the world's 40 most fragile countries are located in Africa, 6 of which are located in the top 10 (Fragile States Index, 2021). climate vulnerability often overlap with drivers of insecurity and conflict.lack the capacity to effectively govern and manage inter less likely to provide social, economic, and nutritional safety nets in the but also lack the capacity to address and resolve any potential instability or tension that may follow. Furthermore, undemocratic states often institutionalise economic structures that marginalise certain groups in particular, grievances and a disproportionate vulnerability to climate shocks., especially in already fragile contexts, therefore initiate, catalyse or sustain reinforcing cycles of vulnerability and violence. Communities in these contexts subsequently of climate change and conflict. As the exact nature and severity of climate impacts are intrinsically tied into socio-economic and political grievances, breaking this cycle sectoral policy and development responses. In other words, interrelated dimensions of insecurity need to be tackled at the same time. In addition to this, and policies right sized, to match the often highly localized n absence of relevant evidence on the intersection between climate and existing , tackling these issues remains very difficult. Evidence generated for policy makers needs to go beyond simply identifying the role of climate, and answer the order to intervene appropriately. While there is ample data, there remains a . This means that while there is information availableon food security, nutritional values, and the frequency and nature of conflicts -these streams making it hard to create a coherent picture that can inform an integrated esponses. Additionally, analytical information needs to be presented to decision with the processes through which policies and programmes are . There remains something of a structural disconnect between researchers, practitioners, and politicians, visible in the different ways these groups communicate . This is particularly important in the context of climate security related security threats are incredibly time sensitive. Vulnerable communities need to be reached before a potential escalation into violence and conflict. There is therefore a need and rapid or real-time evidence generation that takes into account with specific local, sub-national, or national-level characteristics and ongoing socio is no longer a hypothetical concept. For climate change has already in particular . While we over a quarter of the world's 4 of which were located in the top 10 as of 2019 (Eckstein, Kunzel and Schafer, 2021). Similarly, over 23 of the world's 40 most fragile 10 (Fragile States Index, 2021).overlap with drivers of insecurity and conflict. tively govern and manage inter-group or provide social, economic, and nutritional safety nets in the any potential institutionalise unjust marginalise certain groups in particular, a disproportionate vulnerability to climate shocks. The impacts initiate, catalyse or sustain subsequently the exact nature and severity of , breaking this cycle policy and development responses. In other words, the multiple In addition to this, , to match the often highly localized nature absence of relevant evidence on the intersection between climate and existing makers and and answer the why, where, there is ample data, there remains a for instance, these streams of a coherent picture that can inform an integrated esponses. Additionally, analytical information needs to be presented to decision makers in programmes are . There remains something of a structural disconnect between researchers, practitioners, and politicians, visible in the different ways these groups communicate in the context of climate security as ulnerable communities There is therefore a need takes into account how level characteristics and ongoing socio-Africa is a hugely diverse continent, and even within divergent environmental, socio-economic, political, and institutional degree to which African countries are exposed to climate the substantial overlap between the vulnerability (Buhaug & von Uexkull, 2021 climate crises worsens, many African and fragility-related issues in the short Climate-fragility risks are defined as a series of may potentially emerge when the impacts of climate change (Rüttinger et al., 2015). Conceptualising framework is perhaps the best way to responsive climate security-related interventions fragility risks means that we should avoid drawing deterministic conclusions wary of conducting retrospective analysis in which climate impacts are perhaps given more weight than they are due. Climate change is other more structural factors. This means we need to accept terms of how, if, and when climateemergence of climate security risks occurring at multiple spatial scalesunpredictable. Because of this, it is essential evidence to inform programme and policy There are several climate-fragility risks that areas in Africa. For example, competition over access to scarce resources may spill over into conflict and violence in the absence of effective and equitable resource sharing or dispute resolution mechanisms (see case study on Kenya), particularly in areas and economic development. Such dynamics are visible Saharan Africa, where pastoralist communities are increasingly forced to travel further afield to access pasture and water, at times communities or large agri-businesses. Climate livelihood insecurity and force people to migrate climate-sensitive sectors and wholivelihood diversification strategies made from rural to urban areas, which can end up especially if urban authorities are already overwhelmed and unable to provide and support to growing urban populations supply chain disruption, potentially f protests, or violence., and even within its separate counties there exist hugely economic, political, and institutional settings. This means degree to which African countries are exposed to climate-fragility risks varies massively the (structural) drivers of conflict and drivers of climate Buhaug & von Uexkull, 2021) means these risks tend to be self-reinforcing African countries are likely to face increasingly compounded climate related issues in the short-to medium-term. defined as a series of overlapping and compounding risk pathways that the impacts of climate change interact with pre-existing Conceptualising of the climate security nexus through a risk-resilience way to understand how the nexus operates, and also serves to inform related interventions. The complex and emergent nature of means that we should avoid drawing deterministic conclusions about causality and analysis in which climate impacts are perhaps given more weight change is more likely to produce insecurity only when combined with means we need to accept a certain degree of unknowability in -fragility risks may escalate into conflict and violence. risks are made more likely by processes from multiple dimensions -its emergence and exactly what shape it will take is incredibly is essential to continuously and rapidly gather and monitor nd policy adaptation. fragility risks that appear to be particularly relevant for already , competition over access to scarce resources may spill over into conflict and violence in the absence of effective and equitable resource sharing or dispute resolution tudy on Kenya), particularly in areas experiencing rapid demograp Such dynamics are visible across the Sahel and other areas of sub Saharan Africa, where pastoralist communities are increasingly forced to travel further afield to , at times coming into violent contact with small-holder farmer businesses. Climate-induced resource scarcity may also contribute to force people to migrate. This is particularly true for those who work in -due to pre-existing inequality or fragility-have little access to and are unable to find work elsewhere. Most of such which can end up reproducing insecurity and fuelling grievances are already overwhelmed and unable to provide proper safety nets to growing urban populations. Climate change may also lead to food price potentially fuelling longstanding grievances and sparking demonstrations, separate counties there exist hugely This means that the massively. However, (structural) drivers of conflict and drivers of climate reinforcing, and as the countries are likely to face increasingly compounded climate overlapping and compounding risk pathways that existing insecurities resilience nd also serves to inform The complex and emergent nature of climatecausality and be analysis in which climate impacts are perhaps given more weight only when combined with a certain degree of unknowability in fragility risks may escalate into conflict and violence. As the by processes from multiple dimensionsits emergence and exactly what shape it will take is incredibly monitor already fragile , competition over access to scarce resources may spill over into conflict and violence in the absence of effective and equitable resource sharing or dispute resolution ing rapid demographic growth the Sahel and other areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where pastoralist communities are increasingly forced to travel further afield to holder farmer induced resource scarcity may also contribute to for those who work in have little access to of such moves are grievances, safety nets food price volatility and uelling longstanding grievances and sparking demonstrations,The Africa Climate Security Crisis Observatory (ACSCO), aims to address gaps in evidence in this area an interdisciplinary set of methodologies of the climate security nexus as it manifests itself locally in diverse observatory makes use of several technologies at the These include complexity-informed impact pathways the interaction of climate, conflict, and other in automated spatial and hot-spot analyses to regularly identify highly insecure and fragile areas and their main drivers. These complimentary methodologies will and analysis needed (and in appropriate formats and time frames) to answer crucial and what, questions:• Which areas are particularly vulnerable to overlapping climate and fragility risks?• Which communities are disproportionately affected by these risks, and within these communities, which groups are the most vulnerable? • What is the set of integrated solutions that need to be applied simultaneously to reduce the risks associated with the climate security nexus?Kenya has in recent years suffered under more frequent and more severe drought, so much so that President Kenyatta has at the time of writing droughts used to occur once every decade, affected by this are the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) that characterise Kenya's front which have historically seen low rates of government investmen developed, and are therefore particularly vulnerable to climate hazards. communities reliant grazing pasture and wate these, at times bringing them into contact with sedentary agriculturalist communities or agri Several have died in the resulting clashes.Given the increased frequency of these dro climatic early warning systems, which will allow communities the time to prepare for shocks and stresses. However, such initiatives need to go hand in hand with other efforts that are likely to help reduce the risk of insecurity and attendant conflict and violence. The Council (FCDC), which represents and works to improve coordination and cooperation between the 10 frontier counties in Kenya, has helped draft within areas particularly affected by climate disaster response mechanism to mitigate the effects of drought when they do occur.he Africa Climate Security Crisis Observatory (ACSCO), developed by CGIAR's climate security team, aims to address gaps in evidence in this area. The observatory is a decision-support tool an interdisciplinary set of methodologies, will produce an integrated and coherent analytical picture manifests itself locally in diverse contexts throughout several technologies at the regional, national, and sub-national level informed impact pathways, real-time monitoring and risk forecasting of climate, conflict, and other insecurities using big-data and machine learning spot analyses to regularly identify highly insecure and fragile areas and their main drivers. These complimentary methodologies will help give decision-makers information lysis needed (and in appropriate formats and time frames) to answer crucial where, who, areas are particularly vulnerable to overlapping climate and fragility risks? Which communities are disproportionately affected by these risks, and within these communities, which groups are the most vulnerable? hat is the set of integrated solutions that need to be applied simultaneously to reduce the imate security nexus?Kenya has in recent years suffered under more frequent and more severe drought, so much so that writing declared a state of emergency across the country. droughts used to occur once every decade, they now occur once every two or three years. Particularly arid lands (ASALs) that characterise Kenya's frontier counties which have historically seen low rates of government investment, are generally less economically , and are therefore particularly vulnerable to climate hazards. In these areas, pastoralist communities reliant grazing pasture and water are increasingly forced to travel further afield to access contact with sedentary agriculturalist communities or agri-businesses. clashes.Given the increased frequency of these droughts, there is a pressing need to develop appropriate climatic early warning systems, which will allow communities the time to prepare for shocks and s. However, such initiatives need to go hand in hand with other efforts that are likely to help duce the risk of insecurity and attendant conflict and violence. The Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), which represents and works to improve coordination and cooperation between the 10 helped draft a bill, which is designed to help manage security and peace within areas particularly affected by climate-related security impacts, as well as working to develop a mitigate the effects of drought when they do occur.developed by CGIAR's climate security team, support tool which, using will produce an integrated and coherent analytical picture throughout Africa. The national level. time monitoring and risk forecasting of data and machine learning, and spot analyses to regularly identify highly insecure and fragile areas and makers information where, who, areas are particularly vulnerable to overlapping climate and fragility risks? Which communities are disproportionately affected by these risks, and within these hat is the set of integrated solutions that need to be applied simultaneously to reduce the Kenya has in recent years suffered under more frequent and more severe drought, so much so that declared a state of emergency across the country. Whereas Particularly ier counties, economically In these areas, pastoralist increasingly forced to travel further afield to access businesses., there is a pressing need to develop appropriate climatic early warning systems, which will allow communities the time to prepare for shocks and s. However, such initiatives need to go hand in hand with other efforts that are likely to help Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), which represents and works to improve coordination and cooperation between the 10 designed to help manage security and peace related security impacts, as well as working to develop a Answering these questions will help improve insecurity and conflict, by identifying and mapping with each other. Such variables include the prevalence and type of conflict, how these variables interact to produce insecurity and heighten the risk of conflict makers make more targeted decisions that are responsive to local conditions. will be provided in real and almost real and implemented before an escalati designed to complement and inform pre aim to help build and inform resilience to climate impacts and reduce the risk of conflict. By addi local and sub-national components localized responses.The observatory will aim to contribute continent. The African Union's (AU) for example, is working to better map the within efforts to support regional level efforts undertaken by member states has identified potential routes to support include mediating conflicts over natural resource violence, and seek to mitigate other forms of conflict that may emerge as a consequence of climatic pressures. There is also an increased inter between climate and conflict and work The observatory will also enable programming evidence on rapidly shifting socio-ecological contexts and are linked in complex ways, and give rise to timescales. The exact nature of these meaning that the future behaviour exact outcomes of any intervention knowledge inductively can help tackle this issue, generate knowledge, and to continuously adapt with multiple parallel interventions are crucial in ensuring programming and intervention strategies remain responsive (de Coning, 2018). The observatory is able to provide the improve the monitoring and evaluation of peacebuilding interventions in climate-sensitive and conflict-prone Answering these questions will help improve our understanding of the ways climate can cause by identifying and mapping how variables from different dimensions include the nutritional values of the food available to communities the prevalence and type of conflict, as well as data around economic shocks and stresses to produce insecurity and heighten the risk of conflict will help decision targeted decisions that are responsive to local conditions. Crucially, this evidence will be provided in real and almost real-time, meaning that effective interventions can be designed and implemented before an escalation into violence occurs. In addition, the platform has been complement and inform pre-existing systems and processes of evidence generation that aim to help build and inform resilience to climate impacts and reduce the risk of conflict. By addi s, an additional layer of data will help refine indicators upport to contribute and align with processes already underway across (AU) Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS) department to better map the links between climate, insecurity and conflict regional level efforts undertaken by member states, the AU department support peacebuilding and conflict prevention efforts natural resources, taking steps to prevent transhumance other forms of conflict that may emerge as a consequence of climatic pressures. There is also an increased inter-departmental effort to mainstream the relationship work towards more climate security-sensitive approaches of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable which hosts the AU's climate change mandate -to bring together different through its inter-departmental coordination platform: the Climate and ata and evidence produced by the observatory could be integrated to create interventions across different sectors while helping to shed light on what works, in what contexts, and how by improving monitoring and evaluation of interventions. This policy and programming support could therefore help prevent or adjust unintended negative impacts of climate adaptation or climate mitigation efforts.programming to adapt better, by capturing and generating ecological contexts and conditions. Social and ecological systems give rise to dynamics that operate across multiple spatial hese dynamics is emergent and non-linear as a consequence of this of said systems is inherently uncertain. It also means that the any intervention cannot be predicted during the planning stage. Throughout all of these processes of evidence generation and provision the observatory is as participatory as possible. that are accessible both to local policymakers, but also to community members encourage participation and to verify can build upon and provide useful evidence for processes. This is a crucial exercise range of relevant actors and communities. priorities the CGAIR'S Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security ( deploys when conducting its research at every stage in order to co-develop research and priorities, which accompani that partners are able to effectively use and implement CGIAR research. The replicate these values and practices and national level. Actors can work qualitative verification process in which empirical results are tested against local experiences providing the evidence base for the development of localised initiatives to reduce the risk of climateClimate finance is a potentially vast resource to tackle the roo conflict. The allocation of funding for adaptation, has increased significantly over the past years climate funds that have been directed into countries that are at major risks of climate instability (Detges et al., 2020). By delivering and future key climate security hotspots, international bodies such as the Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Fund, Global Environmental Facility and Green Climate Fund to identify and vulnerable to compounded climate and conflict risks. Moreover, while opportunities for climate finance to adaptation and peacebuilding exist, responses and solutions and often fail to environment in which they take place (Peters et al., 2020). challenges, however, in making sure green investments do no harm by worsening or causing entirely new conflicts. Barriers include, for instance, technical constraints such as a lack of reliable and consistent data sets, accurate information, and locally relevant indicators (Goud and Tabet, 2020). An institutional lack of know-how within financial institutions with appropriately interpreting climate-risk information the observatory can help international and private investors gain a systemic understanding specific contexts and integrate it into framework of an interventions. The sure funds are managed sensitively, important for fragile and conflict-affected can actually reinforce or worsen existing conflict d processes of evidence generation and provision, it is essential to as participatory as possible. Evidence generated must be translated into formats local policymakers, but also to community members, in order to verify analytical results at a local level. In this way, the o evidence for local peace and resilience-building activities and a crucial exercise in ensuring solutions are used and have the buy-in from range of relevant actors and communities. These priorities are broadly reflected in the values and the CGAIR'S Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security ( deploys when conducting its research. Particularly notable is the program's aims to involve develop research and priorities, which accompanies capacity building so that partners are able to effectively use and implement CGIAR research. The observatory aims to replicate these values and practices by involving stakeholders from the community, sub to cooperatively identify key areas of interest, by engaging in a qualitative verification process in which empirical results are tested against local experiences he evidence base for the development of localised, evidence-based collective action initiatives to reduce the risk of climate-related insecurity and conflict.Climate finance is a potentially vast resource to tackle the root causes of vulnerability and prevent for fragile and conflict-affected states, and for climate change has increased significantly over the past years. Despite this, there remain relatively been directed into countries that are at major risks of climate-By delivering better and timely information and analysis climate security hotspots, the observatory can play an important role in supporting international bodies such as the Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Fund, Global Environmental identify and reach countries, regions, and populations mate and conflict risks. opportunities for climate finance to yield benefits for both climate change adaptation and peacebuilding exist, these funding opportunities generally support more often fail to address the increasingly complex and changing place (Peters et al., 2020). There remain a number of barriers and challenges, however, in making sure green investments do no harm by worsening or causing entirely Barriers include, for instance, technical constraints such as a lack of reliable and consistent data sets, accurate information, and locally relevant indicators (Goud and Tabet, 2020).how within financial institutions with regards to reading and risk information is also likely to play a role. The data produced by can help international and private investors gain a systemic understanding it into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation The observatory can, therefore, act as a useful support tool sensitively, and negative impacts are minimised. This is particularly affected countries, where conflict-blind adaptation investments existing conflict drivers., it is essential to make sure be translated into formats in order to observatory building activities and in from a wide These priorities are broadly reflected in the values and the CGAIR'S Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) involve partners capacity building so bservatory aims to sub-national, cooperatively identify key areas of interest, by engaging in a qualitative verification process in which empirical results are tested against local experiences, and by collective action causes of vulnerability and prevent , and for climate change relatively few -driven and analysis on current play an important role in supporting international bodies such as the Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Fund, Global Environmental and populations most yield benefits for both climate change more siloed address the increasingly complex and changing There remain a number of barriers and challenges, however, in making sure green investments do no harm by worsening or causing entirely Barriers include, for instance, technical constraints such as a lack of reliable and consistent data sets, accurate information, and locally relevant indicators (Goud and Tabet, 2020).regards to reading and data produced by can help international and private investors gain a systemic understanding of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation useful support tool to make . This is particularly blind adaptation investments","tokenCount":"4373"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73d89c64c54431259d1a561169d14494","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a8d43071-7238-4cef-8c43-70817bbfea48/retrieve","id":"472287386"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b2babaf7-5d9c-4abf-82b0-49d2d01670ca","pagecount":"9","content":"A systemic analysis of the role that climate, natural resource and food systems play in conflict and peace is key to design and implement interventions addressing and preventing conflict. This document is one part of the 6-policy note outputs from the CGIAR Climate Security Webinar Series. These notes summarize the key messages made during the webinar panel discussion. Recordings of the webinar sessions are available here.Conflict scholars have been exploring the theoretical and empirical drivers of climate on conflict, including newly available sources of data (Burke et al., 2015;Ide, 2017). Within the realm of climate science, big data played a crucial role in generating new research opportunities, through revolutionizing technologies, i.e. machine learning, satellite data. However, at its current standing, big data is not able to predict conflict, as there is massive theoretical and empirical uncertainty. Nonetheless, realizing the great potential for big data to conduct socioeconomic climate research, there is an opportunity to close this knowledge gap (Knüsel et al., 2019). \"Conflict-preventive methods using information on climate extremes are increasingly available but can fail to reach the most vulnerable in time\", is a key statement our panelists mutually agreed on. Hence, if we can understand the linkages between climate and security, anticipating climate shocks can promote action on the mechanisms known to be potential triggers for conflict and can shape peacebuilding efforts (Castro-Nunez et al., 2017;Gemenne et al., 2014).A rising number of humanitarian and development actors agree that the issues of climate and security are becoming more inseparable, which has caused the humanitarian workload to increase over the years. Enrica Pocari and Maarten van Aalst explained that climate-related risks exacerbate socio-economic problems, while conflict undermines people's resilience and food security. Both highlighted the fact, that some of the most complex and expensive aid programs are caught between climate-risks and violent conflict, affecting people who barely have a chance of escaping the cycle of hunger. This leads to a double threat of climate change and conflict, leaving the most vulnerable to be trapped in a cyclical dimension. Several opportunities for affected populations in the recovery phase exist and tackling some underpinning vulnerabilities before conflict happens can decrease these negative impacts.The driving information is the climate signal that is steering vulnerability to their hazards.Enrica Pocari identified that finding the right balance of programs providing acute food aid and programs strengthening the resilience of livelihoods is getting increasingly challenging. More attention is being shifted from reacting to situations to anticipating and preventing disastrous consequences through early warnings. A step towards that direction has been taken through forecast-based financing, which is a mechanism current in development by IFRC and WFP that August 2020 ensures that funding and support is in place even before it is needed and in the end is more successful in terms of humanitarian effectiveness. Better preparedness and anticipation are the key for more effective humanitarian and development action.In today's world, data is growingly available through modern tools in AI such as machine learning, satellite imagery and drones, which are collecting data almost in real-time and are constantly generating new data. Satellites are revolutionary and can directly inform on what is going on in the field. The WFP uses drones to inform on happenings on the ground and obtains micro-level data directly from field workers through crowdsourcing.Climate modeling and forecasting capacities have enabled accurate prediction of short-term weather patterns and create seasonal forecasts. While long-term climate projections are less certain, Enrica Pocari noted that they can nonetheless shed light on whether livelihoods within a region will be self-sufficient in the future, and whether transformative actions need to be taken to restructure societies.In terms of current gaps, Andy Jarvis laid out that to organize this wide array of social media, socio-economic and climate data, better traditional methods need to analyze quicker to put acquired knowledge into immediate action and new methods are needed to create most relevant information. Moreover, he added that barriers to access data need to be reduced to move closer towards organizing the existing data and present it in a more relevant form to decision-makers.The blind alley in research and science Academia has been increasingly working towards establishing a causal link between climate and conflict by making use of econometric tools and social theories aiming to explain causality.\"Although not necessarily a model where climate leads to conflict shall be aimed for\", Elisabeth Gilmore stressed. She and many other scholars argue that climate should be expressed as a threat multiplier, especially within the already existing conflict contexts, and not as the primary or even direct driver of conflict.In current climate security research, there is clear presence of the street-light bias, leading to innovations and solutions only being applied where relevant data is already available (Adams et al., 2018). Elisabeth suggests that to overcome this obstacle to new findings, scientists need to move beyond their barriers and engage more in collaboration to generate policy-relevant knowledge while working together with a variety of different stakeholders. Access to more spatial data could help researchers to forward new insights and hypotheses and expand the array of understanding around pathways and drivers of conflict. Moreover, the better use of statistical methods could accelerate the learning process and could test the forwarded hypotheses and models in a faster manner, resulting in information that can be provided in a timelier manner.The ability to test the predictability of models could be a very innovative next step and should be happening together with the decision-makers. Elisabeth advises that the results should be co-produced at all scales in order to increase response to the climate crisis.Realizing the identified opportunities and challenges, our panelists detailed 3 key points that will be to harness current data and technology capacities for research and action on climate security:(The political will to include data and technology in climate and security work is constantly (Technologies have proven its benefits in a variety of areas but are at risk of not being used if the emphasis is not put to the decision-makers, as stated by Maarten van Aalst. Often the information that is already at hand, fails to reach the people on the ground and so to travel the 'last mile' from the knowledge to the local action. The capacity to analyze data is there, and now the crucial point is that the right analysis is also communicated effectively. Overall, the attention needs to lie on providing the answers exactly when the decision-makers require them.The challenge is that it can be difficult to frame and to communicate in a way that is not only true to the information but also understandable, as climate science often works with probabilities and statistics of individual events to occur. Maarten and Andy both agreed that it is challenging to communicate this type of uncertainty.To answer knowledge questions in the climate security context, a multidisciplinary approach linking science and policy is needed. Elisabeth argues that cooperation can help to better make use of the data, information and research that is produced from the academic community.Collaboration needs to be tailored for each individual context and centered to the most affected populations. Joint work with digital tools is more effective, and public and civil society and the private sector should aim to find common solutions. Andy suggests one approach to provide decision-makers with the relevant information could be through providing a toolkit of sciencebased approaches.Overall, the biggest contribution by the CGIAR in achieving climate security lie behind the food security lens and the provision of climate information, as highlighted by Andy Jarvis.CGIAR's work in agricultural science helps climate vulnerable farmers to balance agricultural production costs and outputs and livestock management programs which are helping to create a stable food system and potentially preventing or mitigation the outbreaks of conflict.In big data and technology, the CGIAR is increasingly working on improving its efforts related to focusing on three dimensions -\"organize, convene and inspire\" (CGIAR, 2020a). Firstly, CGIAR works on improving the organization of data aiming to improve capturing and delivering information, secondly, on effectively transmitting information from and to the field Approaches addressing both the impact of climate variability on food insecurity and strengthening government institutions are seen as instrumental for preventing conflicts and contributing to the prospects of peace. These approaches are central in CGIAR's work. To demonstrate these contributions, the CGIAR has created a searchable database, the CGIAR Climate Security Explorer. This database maps exactly how our research, across our institutions, are addressing specific environmental, economic, institutional and social drivers of conflict. Shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, IWMI together with CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) has releases a global crop monitoring tool to aid farmers and decision-makers to plan harvest timings under health restrictions. The tool is embedded in a satellite map, showing present states of maturity of crops around the world (Amarnath et al., 2020). Satellite imaginary showing flood affected areas in Bangladesh is aiding insurers with claim settlements through an in innovative index-based flood insurance. This initiative was developed with IWMI and Oxfam Bangladesh, as well as private sector insurance and microfinance companies, serving as the first initiative using satellite data to insure low-income rural households against climate-related risks (Amarnath, 2020). To strengthen resilience in climate-vulnerable regions, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) together with the WFP created an agricultural forecasting toolbox helping to predict crop yields, enabling farmers and policy makers to better prepare strategies to mitigate risk (Gyawali et al., 2018). CGIAR center IFPRI in collaboration with its partners IGAD and ICPAC, has been providing high resolution quantified seasonal forecasts, communicated as expected rainfall, to rural communities, with the aim of contributing to food security in East Africa. Jointly with its partners, CGIAR is providing early warnings to national and local governments to strengthen effectiveness of response and enhance climate risk management (Coffey et al., 2015).Adams, C., Ide, T., Barnett, J., & Detges, A. (2018). Sampling bias in climate-conflict research. Nature Climate Change,8(3). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0068-2","tokenCount":"1659"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88fbf26d94376ead44b02b20d2bdd844","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6b991d81-51f3-4608-a4ce-edde8bbb2951/retrieve","id":"-226723986"},"keywords":["Cassava","gari","process optimisation","process scale","product quality","quality attributes"],"sieverID":"2789e045-d254-4cf4-b308-7e40baec20b7","pagecount":"11","content":"The gari-making process involves several unit operations (U.O.), some of which strongly influence the quality of the end product. Two contrasting process scales (laboratory-scale vs conventional) were compared in order to identify which U.O. were affected by the change of scale. U.O. that changed end-product characteristics depending on process scale were deemed critical; whereas U.O. that resulted in similar characteristics were deemed robust. The classification depended on quality attributes considered: rasping and roasting were critical for physical properties, in particular particle size which ranged from 0.44 to 0.89 mm between the two process scales; and robust for biochemical properties. In contrast, fermentation and pressing were critical for biochemical properties such as lactic acid content (0.93-1.88 g/100 g dry matter after pressing), which influences the perception of flavour, and robust for physical properties. This classification between critical and robust operations help quality control of gari, by pinpointing which U.O. control specific quality characteristics.In West Africa, cassava is widely consumed after processing into different types of staple foods, such as gari (Bechoff et al., 2016, Oyeyinka et al., 2019). Gari is a granulated foodstuff with many regional variations depending on consumer preferences and final consumption mode (Adinsi et al., 2019). Processing conditions therefore also vary depending on the region, in order to adjust physico-chemical characteristics and end-product quality according to local expectations. In addition, to increase shelf life and avoid health risks, the moisture content and cyanogens content of gari must be maintained below defined thresholds (Njankouo Ndam et al., 2019). To meet these technological, sanitary and sensorial requirements, gari processors combine and adjust the parameters of several unit operations: peeling, washing and rasping the raw cassava roots; and fermenting, pressing, sieving and roasting the pulp to produce gari (Akingbala et al., 2005). Several studies have evaluated the impact of unit operations and cassava genotypes on the quality of gari (Agbor-Egbe & Lape Mbome, 2006, Nwancho et al., 2014, Olaoye et al., 2015), in particular fermentation (Moorthy & Mathew, 1998, Iwuoha & Eke, 1996, Sokari & Karibo, 1996, Kostinek et al., 2005, Montagnac et al., 2009) and roasting (Chuzel et al., 1995a, Igbeka et al., 1992, Sobowale et al., 2017, Ezeocha et al., 2019, Samuel et al., 2010). More recently, Escobar et al. (2018) investigated the combined effect of the successive unit operations on the final quality of gari, under controlled laboratory conditions. This approach led to a comprehensive description of the evolution of biochemical, physical and hydro-textural properties of cassava along the gari production steps.Comparing these studies is delicate, however, as different methods were used to characterise different sets of quality attributes. To further understand how unit operations influence the quality of gari, in this work a single methodological framework (Escobar et al., 2018) was applied to characterise gari processing at two contrasting scales (conventional process by smallscale processors at village level vs. a smaller-scale process using laboratory equipment). The main objective was to identify which unit operations are affected by processing scale and hence are critical in determining the quality of the end product, as opposed to robust unit operations, which are not affected by processing scale. Specific objectives were as follows: (i) to describe the physical and biochemical mechanisms at play during each unit operation; (ii) to evaluate how robust or critical the main unit operations for gari are; and (iii) to assess their impact on product characteristics. Identifying robust or critical operations has practical applications when developing equipment to mechanise the gari process while maintaining end-product quality according to consumer expectations.Gari production with the conventional process was conducted in Benin, using roots of a local cassava cultivar named Odoungbo purchased from a local farmer, and processed by a small-scale cassava processor in the Plateau department. Gari production with the laboratory-scale process was conducted in Colombia, using roots from the genotype MCOL-22 grown, harvested and processed at CIAT headquarters in Palmira, Valle del Cauca Dept., Colombia.Cassava roots were transformed into gari (Fig. 1) according to the two process scales.After peeling and washing, 100 kg of cassava roots was rasped using a motorised mechanical rasper made of a perforated cylindrical sheet metal (diameter of the rotor 190 mm; diameter of the holes 5 mm, surface occupied by the holes 55% of the cylinder surface) rotating at 256 g (1550 r.p.m.). The rasped pulp was placed in woven plastic bags and pressed to remove water. The bags were left under pressure in the press for 72 h under ambient conditions (35 °C during daytime, 25 °C during night-time, 85% relative humidity) for lactic acid fermentation. The press was composed of a manually operated mechanical screw. To extract as much liquid as possible, increasing pressure was applied four times: The initial pressure application at time t 0 , then three successive increases at 10, 12 and 17 min after t 0 . The fermented cake was sieved using a 3.35 mm mesh sieve. The resulting pulp was roasted over a wood fire using a metallic pan of surface area 0.63 m 2 and average temperature 184 °C. Sieved pulp (3 kg) was gradually introduced into the pan (4.8 kg pulp m −2 ) while stirring: at the beginning, after 2 or 3 min and after 5 or 6 min. The tool for stirring was a triangular piece of gourd shell the operator moved in circles and sometimes along figures of eight, at the same time tossing and turning the product. The total roasting time was 8 min. At the end of roasting, the gari was collected, cooled and stored in air-tight plastic containers until characterisation.Gari was produced at laboratory-scale according to Escobar et al. (2018). Cassava roots (3 kg) were rasped using a disc rasper rotating at 22 g (438 rpm, disc diameter 203 mm, diameter of the holes 5 mm, surface occupied by the holes 40% of the disc surface; Skymsen PA-7SE, Bateas, Brazil). Cassava pulp was fermented for 72 h in a pressurised (0.04 bar) thermostatic fermentation unit (35 °C and 55% relative humidity). The fermented pulp (300 g) was pressed in a compression unit (IFTS, Foulayronnes, France) for 1 h at 3 bar and then manually sieved using a 3.35 mm mesh sieve. Sieved pulp (90 g) was sprinkled onto a 0.69 m 2 hot plate (128 °C AE 8 °C; 0.26 kg pulp m −2 ) and cooked for 3 min while stirring with a metal spatula, using circular movements and tossing and turning the product. A second portion of sieved pulp (90 g) was then added and cooked for 3 more minutes, also under stirring. The total roasting time was 6 min.The water content, w (g g −1 ) of the cassava roots, pulp and gari was determined according to Eq. 1, where m w is the mass of water evaporated during oven drying (105 °C until constant mass) and m s the mass of solid after drying.The solid true mass density ρ * s (kg m −3 ) of dried and milled roots was measured using a helium multivolume pycnometer 1305 Micromeritics (Quantachrome Instruments, Odelzhausen, Germany). Analyses were performed in triplicate. The solid true mass density of the dried roots was 1565 (AE2) kg m −3 .Total volume (V) and solid volume fraction (θ s ) of fresh cassava roots and gari were calculated based on their mass measured in air (W a ) and immersed in liquid (W l )--water and paraffin for fresh roots and gari, respectively (Archimedes' principle). Calculations are detailed by Equation 2 and Equation 3 where ρ * l is the mass density of the liquid (1.00 and 0.88 g cm −3 for water and paraffin, respectively), and W a and W l the masses of fresh roots or gari measured in air and in liquid, respectively. Analyses were performed in triplicate. Solid volume fraction of pulp, fermented pulp and pressed pulp The solid volume fraction (θ s ) of pulp, fermented pulp and pressed pulp was determined (Eqn 4) either by sample coring using cylindrical cores of known volume V (19 cm 3 for laboratory-scale process and 244 cm 3 for conventional process) or by using directly the known volume V of the compression unit in which pulp was pressed (laboratory-scale process). The mass of dry solids m s in the sample of volume V was determined by drying, from which the volume of the solids V s was calculated. Measurements were performed in triplicate.The particle size distribution of rasped pulp (300 g) was measured by wet sieving according to (Da et al., 2013). The particle size distribution of sieved pulp (100 g) and of gari was determined by conventional dry sieving using a set of seven sieves (Test Sieve, Fisher Scientific Co., Portsmouth, USA) with a decreasing mesh size (3.35, 2, 1.4, 0.85, 0.6, 0.3 and 0.15 mm). The particle size distribution was described by the median particle diameter (d 50 ). All the analyses were performed at least in triplicate.During rasping, damaged cells release starch granules from intracellular compartments (Fig. 2) to the extracellular space. An original method developed in this study estimated the damaged cell ratio in cassava pulp (rasped, fermented, pressed) based on the evaluation of the distribution of starch content between the extracellular and intracellular compartments. The pulp sample (200 g) was washed on a 53 µm mesh sieve until the washing water was clear, to remove extracellular starch from the pulp. The remaining intracellular starch content was measured by enzymatic method (Holm et al., 1986). The damaged cell ratio was estimated using Eqn 5, where m is is the dry mass of intracellular starch and m p , the dry mass of total starch in the sample studied.Cyanogenic potential and titratable acidity Cyanogenic potential (HCN, µg HCN g −1 dry matter) and titratable acidity (g of lactic acid/100 g of dry matter) were quantified on rasped, fermented, pressed pulp and gari using, respectively, the colorimetric procedure (Sánchez et al., 2009, Essers et al., 1993)) and an automatic Titroline apparatus (Schott Schweiz AG, St. Gallen, Switzerland) (Escobar et al., 2018). All the analyses were performed in duplicate.Soluble sugars and lactic acid contents Sugars and lactic acid contents were quantified by HPLC (Agilent Technologies Software Inc. 2006 © ) (Holloway et al., 1989, Sánchez et al., 2013) using 0.5 g of dry milled samples of rasped, fermented, pressed pulp and gari (Escobar et al., 2018). All the analyses were performed in triplicate.Gelatinisation enthalpies of sieved pulp and gari (respectively, ΔH pulp and ΔH gari , J g −1 of dry starch) were measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC 8500 Perkin Elmer, Norwalk, USA) (Escobar et al., 2018). Starch gelatinisation (%) was calculated using Eqn 6.Swelling capacity of gari. The swelling capacity of gari (mL water mL −1 gari) was estimated in triplicate by measuring the volume of a gari sample (10 mL) before and after dispersion in 40 mL of water (Olayinka Sanni, 1994). Experiments were carried out in triplicate.Colour of gari. Gari colour was determined in triplicate according to the L*a*b* colour notation system using a Minolta Chroma Meter (CR-400 Konica Minolta, Japan).Statistical analysis. The statistical significance of measured values was verified using single factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test on replicated data. Statistical analyses were carried out with JMP software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) at 95% confidence level.The experimental values of water content and solid volume fraction of native cassava roots, pulp and gari for the two process scales were plotted on the hydrotextural diagram (Fig. 3a) (Ruiz et al., 2005). The area below the saturation curve (dotted line, Eqn 7) corresponds to unsaturated samples in which water does not fill all the spaces between the fragments of rasped vegetal tissues (spaces between the fragments and/or intercellular spaces within fragments).Fresh cassava roots were located on the saturation curve, which confirmed that roots are a continuous cellular matrix saturated with aqueous liquid. Although the initial water contents of the two cassava genotypes were significantly different (Table 1), their solid volume fraction and saturation degree were similar (Fig. 3a). The rasping operation did not significantly change the water content, but reduced slightly the solid volume fraction (rasped pulp, Table 1 and Fig. 3a). The main effect of rasping was to modify the distribution of the liquid phase due to cell damage, as a large fraction of water initially located inside the cells was redistributed towards the extracellular and intercellular spaces (Rondet et al., 2019).Both the fermentation and pressing operations reduced water content and increased the solid volume fraction, thus maintaining the pulp in a near-saturated state (Fig. 3a). Drying, draining and gravitational flow mechanisms (due to the own weight of the sample) were at play to reduce water content during fermentation, while draining was the main phenomenon during pressing. Both operations reduced the differences between the two cassava cultivars, even though operating conditions were markedly different between conventional and laboratory processes (Table 1).Roasting caused the largest reduction in water content through evaporation, from 0.8 to 0.1 g g −1 dry matter or less (Table 1), and increased the solid volume fraction of gari particles up to 0.73-0.78, independently of the process scale. The final water content of gari was low enough to ensure preservation at ambient temperature, with water activity in the range 0.3-0.5. This highlighted the strong influence of roasting conditions on the final characteristics of gari, in this case related to the lower load of pulp in the roasting pan at laboratory-scale, resulting in more heating and water evaporation.The initial rasping operation broke the native continuous cellular structure of cassava roots and generated discrete particles. Due to the higher rasping rotation speed, the median diameter of these particles was significantly lower for the conventional compared to the laboratory process (0.77 vs. 0.97 mm, Table 1). The fermentation, pressing and sieving operations modified the median diameter, with a slight increase in the case of the laboratory-scale process and decrease in the case of the conventional process (Fig. 3b). The roasting operation led to significant differences between the two process scales: At laboratory-scale, the particle size of gari was close to that of the pulp (0.90 mm) whereas at conventional scale, the final particle size was half that of the pulp (0.44 mm) (Fig. 3b). These differences may be related to the evaporation rate of water, which controls the extent of various phenomena during roasting such as agglomeration, shrinkage and starch gelatinisation.The rasping operation damaged the cells markedly (63-66%, Table 1), with no significant difference in the damaged cells ratio between conventional and laboratory-scale processes. The absence of difference between the two process scales also indicates that the cultivar had no effect on the physical characteristics of the products obtained. During the following fermentation and pressing operations, neither mechanical forces nor bacterial activity did cause further changes in damaged cell ratio, contrary to other observations (Williams et al., 2019, Ha et al., 2020; Table 1). This may indicate that the maximum extent of cell damage was reached after rasping. Biochemical and functional characteristicsDuring fermentation, cyanogenic potential decreased significantly and in similar proportions whatever the process conditions (Table 2), as previously observed (Agbor-Egbe & Lape Mbome, 2006, Montagnac et al., 2009). The usual explanation is that during rasping and subsequent fermentation, linamarase-containing vacuoles are ruptured, resulting in the hydrolysis of cyanogenic glycoproteins and evaporation of cyanide under ambient conditions. Pressing also significantly reduced the cyanogenic potential of the pulp, whatever the process scale, thanks to the draining of cyanogenic soluble compounds with water (Onabolu et al., 2002). Roasting further reduced cyanogenic potential (Table 2), due to the volatilisation of HCN (O'Brien et al., 1992). Laboratory-scale roasting reduced cyanogenic potential more than the conventional process (respectively, 6.3 and 12.8 µg HCN g −1 dry matter, after roasting), possibly because of the lower load of the roasting pan at laboratory-scale. Nevertheless, at both process scales, cyanogenic potential remained above the FAO recommended value of 2 µg g −1 dry matter (FAO/WHO, 1995), which constitutes a health concern due to long-term exposure to cyanide.Titratable acidity and lactic acid content were significantly higher in the rasped pulp used in the conventional process (Table 2), reflecting differences between the two cassava genotypes. Lactic fermentation predictably increased titratable acidity and lactic acid content, while pressing had the opposite effect due to drainage of acidic compounds with water. The final roasting operation significantly increased titratable acidity for both process scales, and lactic acid content only in the case of the laboratory-scale process (Table 2), due to water evaporation and subsequent concentration of the chemical compounds remaining in gari particles. Lactic acid content and titratable acidity followed the same general pattern across unit operations, but were not strongly correlated.The two cassava cultivars in this study had contrasting sugar contents (Table 3). The cultivar used for the In some cases, the quantity of sample available was too small to carry out replicates, so that standard deviations and significant differences could not be evaluated. laboratory-scale process had a high total sugars content (42.8 mg g −1 dry matter), with high sucrose and low fructose, whereas the cultivar used for the conventional process had a higher fructose content. For both processes, fermentation consumed the sugars initially present in the rasped pulp, to levels below the quantification limit of the analytical method. After fermentation, sugars remained below detectable levels in the pulp and final gari.Starch was almost fully gelatinised in gari samples during roasting, with a slightly higher degree of gelatinisation for the laboratory-scale process (92.4%, Table 4).The degrees of starch gelatinisation were consistent with values reported previously (>65%) in gari (Chuzel et al., 1995b). The degree of starch gelatinisation controls the ability of gari to absorb water before human consumption and therefore contributes to swelling capacity and to the final texture of the product. The small difference in degree of starch gelatinisation between conventional and laboratory-scale processes may explain the lack of significant difference in swelling ability (Table 4). The gari produced at laboratoryscale was significantly darker (L* = 77.4) with more yellow (b* = 27.0) and red (a* = 7.3) hues compared to gari from the conventional process (Table 4), possibly due to harsher roasting conditions leading to stronger Maillard reactions. Maillard reactions are classically observed during heat treatment of partly dried products and produce specific colour and aromatic compounds that contribute to the sensory characteristics (colour and taste) of the end product.The rasping operation was critical in determining the particle size (median diameter) of the rasped pulp and gari at different processing scales, but did not influence the hydro-textural characteristics, which remained similar to the fresh roots. This is in line with previous findings that rasping conditions (number and diameter of holes of the metal sheet, rotation speed), combined with the properties of cassava roots, in particular dry matter content and hardness, determine the particle size distribution of the rasped material (Escobar et al., 2018). Regarding biochemical composition, the rasping operation was robust with no influence of scale on the quality of the gari end product.The fermentation operation was considered robust for physical characteristics, as it reduced the hydrotextural differences between pulp samples rasped at different processing scales and did not modify particle size, thus giving similar saturated structure to fermented pulp. On the other hand, fermentation was considered critical for biochemical composition, because lactic bacteria produced lactic acid to different extents at different processing scales, which may play a role in the perception of flavour of the final gari product (Moorthy & Mathew, 1998, Kostinek et al., 2005, Montagnac et al., 2009, Iwuoha & Eke, 1996, Sokari & Karibo, 1996). Compared to the changes during fermentation, initial genotypic differences in the biochemical composition of the fresh roots were small, which explains that unit operations before fermentation had little or no influence on biochemical properties of the end product.Similarly, the pressing operation was considered robust as it did not modify particle size and also reduced the hydro-textural differences between pulp samples from the two processing scales. This result was interpreted as due to complete draining of all the mechanically extractable liquid, leaving the pressed pulp with similar water contents (0.81 and 0.83 g g −1 dry matter, Table 1) and in the same hydro-textural state, as suggested by the concept of maximum dryness (Ruiz et al., 2007). On the other hand, pressing was  considered critical for biochemical composition, as drainage reduced lactic acid, titratable acidity and cyanogenic compounds to different levels at different processing scales, depending on the initial quantities present before pressing, as well as the type of press.Other studies also reported the role of pressing in reducing biochemical compounds (Akingbala et al., 1991;Taiwo et al., 2001;Onabolu et al., 2002 ).Sieving the pressed pulp generated discrete particles, but with only small changes in median diameters compared to the rasped pulp (Table 1). Two opposite mechanisms could simultaneously occur during the pressing and sieving operations (Escobar et al., 2018): (i) an increase in particle diameter due to wet agglomeration of tissue fragments and (ii) a decrease in particle diameter due to drainage of intracellular and extracellular liquid. The specific contribution of these opposite mechanisms seems to depend on the process type. In this study, wet agglomeration was favoured in the laboratory-scale process and drainage of liquid in the conventional process. Hence, sieving can be considered critical in determining particle size of the gari end product; however, its effect was smaller than that of the roasting operation. Other studies also identified the influence of sieving on particle size (Sanni et al., 2008;Ezeocha et al., 2019).The roasting operation was critical in determining hydro-textural characteristics and particle size of gari at different processing scales, as a result of the combined effects of agglomeration and shrinkage mechanisms, driven mainly by water evaporation. Liquid capillary bridges between particles at the beginning of roasting induce agglomeration as the departure of water reduces the length of the bridges, until free liquid is exhausted. Simultaneously, dry matter content and viscosity increase in the capillary bridges, inducing a shift from liquid-like to a more solid-like behaviour. This phenomenon is enhanced by starch granule gelatinisation in the capillary bridges, which contributes to increasing viscosity. Shrinkage occurs in parallel to agglomeration, as water evaporation reduces the volume of pulp particles. Shrinkage lasts as long as water content is high enough to maintain strain capacity, in other words as long as the pulp remains in the rubbery state, above the glass transition (Perdomo et al., 2009). The agglomeration and shrinkage mechanisms were not sufficient to compensate the volume of evaporated water, so that some internal porosity appeared in the final gari, as indicated by their location below the saturation curve on the hydro-textural diagram (Fig. 3). These various phenomena determine the texture of the end product and depend on the evolution of the quantity of free water remaining in the product; water content at the beginning and during roasting therefore plays a critical role on the quality of the final product. Thus, for particle size, both the rasping and roasting operations combined together in influencing the quality of the gari end product (Sobowale et al., 2017, Ezeocha et al., 2019). For biochemical and functional characteristics, roasting was critical in determining the colour and degree of starch gelatinisation of the final gari (Chuzel et al., 1995b), but was considered robust for titratable acidity and lactic acid content, as these parameters were influenced more by the fermentation and pressing operations.The comparison of two process scales for elaboration of gari allowed identifying which unit operations are sensitive to process scale and hence critical in determining the quality of the end product, and which operations result in similar end-product quality independently of process scale (referred to as robust operations). Among unit operations for gari processing, the classification between critical and robust depended on the quality properties considered. Rasping and roasting were critical for physical properties, in particular particle size, which in the end determine the texture of the final product, and were robust for biochemical properties. Roasting was also critical in determining the colour of the end product. In contrast, fermentation and pressing were critical for biochemical properties, which influence the perception of flavour and the safety (low cyanogens content) of the end product, and were robust for physical properties. In addition to process parameters, the cultivar played a role in determining biochemical properties, but not physical properties. These results contribute to solving quality issues during gari processing, by pinpointing which unit operations are more likely to be the source of specific problems. When modifying the process, for instance upgrading a piece of equipment or introducing a new technology, these findings on the critical or robust nature of unit operations also assist in anticipating and addressing potential impacts on product quality, thereby ensuring that the final product still meets consumers' expectations. grateful to Clair Hershey for his support revising and proofreading the manuscript of this article.","tokenCount":"4127"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9b69de27f12f6fbc20ff48b7b5ccaa76","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6149579f-0e3b-4bee-9aca-17c0cf0b3a31/retrieve","id":"136716696"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6ba7900f-4534-4313-b702-e4f2c665a019","pagecount":"162","content":"El Ciclo de aprendizaje sobre sistematización que vamos a iniciar (Resumen) Justificación Una de las principales debilidades que tienen las experiencias locales de desarrollo rural es la sistematización. Aunque al final del proceso se logren identificar los resultados, generalmente, no queda documentado el método o el camino que se recorrió para llegar a ellos. Así por ejemplo, aquellas experiencias que son exitosas, que dejan motivados a los actores y logran interesar a otros, no suelen dejar como herencia su \"historia\" escrita; sólo quienes participaron tienen esa información y, normalmente, la tienen en su memoria. El riesgo con la memoria no sólo es que ésta puede fallar, sino que se va o se muere con quien la guarda.Por eso, el ejercicio de Sistematización no es solamente una necesidad, sino que también es una responsabilidad cuando se quieren desarrollar capacidades locales, maximizar la comprensión de los resultados obtenidos y fortalecer los procesos para tomar decisiones.Por lo tanto, el propósito de la sistematización es provocar procesos de aprendizaje e identificar no sólo lo que pasó, sino porqué pasó lo que pasó y por qué se obtuvieron esos resultados (Berdegué y otros, 2002), bien sea que realice al final de una experiencia o durante su desarrollo. En este último caso, la sistematización permitirá mantener clara la visión de hacia dónde se está dirigiendo el proceso y evaluar más rápidamente los resultados al final del Ciclo. Éste es el caso de esta propuesta.Desarrollar con el personal de CRS y sus socios un proceso de aprendizaje teórico-práctico sobre la sistematización de experiencias locales de desarrollo rural, que permita la documentación de 4 proyectos ubicados en la región oriental de El Salvador. Fortalecer las capacidades del personal de CRS y sus socios para un continuo ejercicio de la sistematización de experiencias a nivel de los proyectos de desarrollo. Elaborar un informe maestro que documente los resultados de cada sistematización realizada por CRS y sus socios durante esta consultoría, para facilitar su escalamiento a otros niveles y con otros actores. Este Ciclo de aprendizaje está diseñado en un 10% teórico y un 90% práctico, dado que sistematizar es un ejercicio que requiere práctica y habilidades que se deben desarrollar. Por eso, los ejercicios y actividades que se contemplan van más allá de la simple aplicación y se realizarán alrededor de una experiencia de desarrollo local real.De tal forma, durante el Ciclo los participantes desarrollarán su propio proceso de sistematización, que va desde el diseño de los instrumentos para la recolección de información hasta la escritura del Informe Maestro en el que se plasman los resultados de la sistematización.Como pudo observarse en los contenidos, el Ciclo está estructurado en tres Módulos, de los cuales el primero y el tercero se desarrollarán con la presencia de los Facilitadores, mientras que el segundo módulo tendrá un acompañamiento virtual.Este primer módulo se desarrollará durante la primera visita de los consultores a El Salvador [del 12 al 16 de febrero] y se concentrará en los siguientes dos productos:Durante este evento, que se desarrollará en dos días de trabajo, se abordará el concepto de sistematización y se presentarán, uno a uno, los pasos recomendados para el desarrollo de un proceso de sistematización, entre los cuales se encuentran: la identificación de la experiencia que se va a sistematizar, la definición de un eje de sistematización, el inventario de la información existente, la identificación de los actores claves para entrevistar y el desarrollo de los instrumentos para la recolección de información.Por ello, durante este taller se realizarán ejercicios prácticos que le permitan a los participantes interiorizar los conceptos y preparar los insumos que necesitarán para la fase de campo; es decir que durante este evento, los actores desarrollarán sus propios instrumentos para la recolección de información, los cuales quedarán como modelo para futuros procesos de sistematización.Por otra parte, aunque el ordenamiento y el análisis de la información serán actividades posteriores a las visitas de campo, durante este taller los participantes también planearán cómo van a ordenar y a analizar la información después de recogerla en campo.Una vez concluya el taller teórico-práctico, los participantes se desplazarán hasta donde se encuentren los actores claves que se seleccionaron para ser entrevistados y, con el apoyo de los consultores, levantarán la información requerida.El propósito de esta actividad es que los participantes desarrollen su habilidad para recolectar y ordenar la información, de tal manera que puedan continuar el levantamiento de datos aún sin la presencia de los consultores, en caso de que no se alcance a recoger toda la información durante su visita y para futuros procesos de sistematización.Este módulo corresponde al periodo de tiempo que transcurrirá entre la primera y la segunda visita de los consultores; tiempo durante el cual los participantes del proceso de sistematización ordenarán y analizarán la información, de acuerdo con el método aprendido y con el plan que desarrollaron durante el taller teórico-práctico. El acompañamiento de los consultores durante esta fase será virtual, a través de correo electrónico y Skype.Este tercer módulo [programado para el mes de mayo] se desarrollará durante la segunda visita de los consultores a El Salvador y tiene como propósito plasmar la información ordenada y analizada, en productos tangibles para compartir los resultados. Para ello, se realizarán dos grandes actividades:El propósito de este evento [planificado para tres días de trabajo] es producir un Informe maestro -sobre el caso escogido-a partir del cual podrán prepararse, en el futuro, otros productos de información o materiales audiovisuales para comunicar los resultados de la experiencia a diferentes actores y públicos.Sin embargo, este taller no se circunscribe a la escritura. Teniendo en cuenta que el módulo de ordenamiento y análisis de la información sólo tiene un acompañamiento virtual por parte de los consultores, durante este evento se retomarán los resultados del Módulo 2 para detectar errores o vacíos que pudieron haber quedado y realizar los ajustes necesarios antes de empezar a escribir.Este evento será el espacio de discusión durante el cual se darán a conocer formalmente tanto los resultados de la sistematización como los resultados de esta consultoría. Además, se entregarán a CRS, el Programa Binacional y los demás socios participantes, los productos generados durante este proceso.Érika Eliana Mosquera (e.mosquera@cgiar.org) Comunicadora Social -Periodista, Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, Cali, Colombia,  Cada uno de los siguientes formularios contiene una pregunta diferente para cada participante.Fotocopiar y cortar los formularios según se indica, antes de que comience la sesión introductoria.Entregar a cada participante una pregunta. Sin embargo, como 'las muchas ramas no dejan ver el tronco', simplificaremos el concepto y definiremos la sistematización como el ordenamiento de la información que existe sobre una experiencia para reflexionar sobre ella y compartir los aprendizajes resultantes.De esta manera, empezaremos a desmitificar un concepto que normalmente es concebido por muchos agentes de desarrollo como \"un mal necesario\", un ejercicio valioso, pero complicado y dispendioso, que requiere un alto nivel de especialidad.¿Para qué sistematizamos?La alta rotación de personal al interior de las organizaciones de desarrollo es una realidad innegable que no sólo ha obstaculizado la continuidad de los procesos, sino que, además, ha incrementado la pérdida del capital intelectual de estas organizaciones, pues quienes se van, se llevan con ellos todas las habilidades y el \"saber hacer\" que desarrollaron allí.1 Martinic, Sergio. 1984. Algunas categorías de análisis para la sistematización. CIDE-FLACSO. Santiago de Chile.2 Jara, Oscar. 1998. Para sistematizar experiencias. ALFORJA. San José, Costa Rica.Por otra parte, seguramente conocemos experiencias exitosas que lograron resultados muy interesantes y cuyos participantes quedaron motivados por los cambios y los resultados que se obtuvieron. Sin embargo, cuando alguien pregunta ¿cómo lo lograron?, sólo quienes participaron tienen la información y, normalmente, la tienen en su memoria.Ambos casos no sólo limitan los alcances de los impactos que pueda lograr una experiencia, sino que entorpecen el proceso de aprendizaje social y son los principales causantes de la multiplicación de esfuerzos.Es claro que en América Latina y el Caribe, culturalmente, no tenemos una fuerte inclinación hacia la lectoescritura [y esto se encuentra reforzado por los altos índices de analfabetismo que existen], pero hay que reconocer que sólo lo que se escribe tiene la posibilidad de trascender en el tiempo sin que el contenido varíe. Aunque seamos muy hábiles con nuestra memoria, ésta no sólo puede fallar, sino que se muere con nosotros.Por esta razón, si no hacemos el esfuerzo de plasmar en el papel todos los datos y la historia de nuestro proceso, nos estamos arriesgando a cometer los mismos errores del pasado y a olvidar cómo logramos nuestros resultados; además de negarnos la posibilidad de sembrar nuestro conocimiento en otras personas, otras organizaciones e, incluso, otros países.De tal manera, lo verdaderamente importante en el tema de la sistematización no es el método, sino el propósito. En muy poco contribuye, realmente, una herramienta compleja de uso restringido. Lo primero que necesitamos para gestionar el conocimiento en nuestros entornos es materializar el aprendizaje y para eso, no se necesita tanta habilidad como tradicionalmente se ha pensado.¿Cuál es la diferencia entre sistematizar y documentar?Según la Real Academia Española, documentar es probar o justificar la verdad de algo con documentos o Instruir o informar a alguien acerca de las noticias y pruebas que atañen a un asunto.Es decir que, en el sentido práctico, documentar es plasmar una experiencia, una práctica o cualquier otra cosa en el papel, en audio o en video, de tal manera que otros puedan tener acceso a ello.Sin embargo, hay quienes definen la documentación como:\"Un proceso de preparación de la información disponible sobre un hecho que se está investigando. [el cual] hace que esta información esté dispuesta o asequible para examinar y analizar los hechos, las variables o los datos en general\" 3 En otras palabras, la documentación es un paso previo al análisis o la reflexión. Así que la vamos a considerar sólo una parte del proceso de sistematización [el primer paso] y usaremos el término documentar como un sinónimo de ordenar la información.Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte: Así que es fundamental realizar pequeñas acciones, bien direccionadas, a lo largo de todo el proceso, para que al final, la sistematización no parezca una misión imposible.Si no tenemos claro, desde el inicio, cuál será la estructura que usaremos para analizar la información, en realidad no podremos irla ordenando a medida que la recojamos y eso no sólo hará más compleja la fase de análisis, sino que perpetuará la idea de que sistematizar es una tarea difícil que quita mucho tiempo.De manera que 'empezar por el final' es un principio básico para que la sistematización, además de ser efectiva, sea fácil de manejar.La estructura 5 que vamos a manejar durante todo nuestro proceso de sistematización es ésta: En la sesión 3 y 5 iremos profundizando cada uno de estos componentes.¿Por qué es tan importante la definición de un eje de sistematización?El eje de una rueda es el punto central sobre el cual ésta se apoya para girar. Entonces, el eje de sistematización es el punto central sobre el que haremos toda nuestra reflexión. Por eso, debemos darle a este punto la importancia que un arquitecto le daría a una columna de su obra. No importa si es necesario invertir una buena cantidad de tiempo en definirlo, lo importante es que quede claro y firme; de lo contrario, el proceso de sistematización puede quedar inconsistente.Vamos a ver en la siguiente sesión cómo definir un eje de sistematización.Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte: Entonces, supongamos que elegimos el primer enunciado [ha sido una experiencia exitosa]; razón por la cual, de las siguientes tres opciones también elegiremos y contestaremos la primera opción:¿En qué creemos que es exitosa nuestra experiencia?. A lo que podríamos contestar algo como esto: \"Esta experiencia ha sido exitosa en que los ingresos por ventas para los actores que participaron en ella crecieron en un 30%\". Éste será nuestro Eje de Sistematización.Basados en dicho eje o premisa empezaremos a recolectar la información, no buscando \"comprobar\" que este enunciado es \"la verdad\", sino buscando recoger distintos puntos de vista y elementos que nos permitan determinar para cuáles actores esto es una realidad y por qué.Durante el desarrollo de los instrumentos de recolección de información ampliaremos este aspecto.Ahora, es posible que usted tenga varias respuestas para la pregunta ¿en qué ha sido exitosa mi experiencia o en qué ha fracasado o en qué es innovadora?, Pero también en ese caso la recomendación es elegir sólo una. De lo contrario, usted tendría dos ejes y estaría en riesgo de enredarse [sólo imagine cómo podría funcionar una rueda con dos ejes].Es muy importante tener en cuenta que el Eje de Sistematización no es \"el todo\": no se trata de que el Eje recoja todo lo que nos gustaría observar y decir sobre nuestra experiencia. El Eje se escoge, precisamente, para delimitar lo que vamos a analizar y para concentrarnos sólo en lo que hemos definido como lo más importante.Así que, si al final de este ejercicio usted se da cuenta que podría tener varios ejes, no se preocupe, podrá realizar un proceso de sistematización por cada uno de ellos. Por lo pronto, vamos a empezar con uno.Cuando ya sabemos cuál será nuestro eje, debemos empezar a recolectar toda la información que nos pueda ayudar a reflexionar sobre nuestro proceso. Serán importantes los informes de talleres y diagnósticos, datos de encuestas, mediciones de campo, actas de reuniones, fotografías, videos y toda la información que se haya ordenado y archivado durante la experiencia. Además, necesitaremos información sobre el contexto en el que trabajamos, y para esto pueden servirnos algunos informes o planes de desarrollo que hayan elaborado las organizaciones locales.De la disciplina con la que se haya ido recogiendo, ordenando y guardando toda la información durante la experiencia, dependerá qué tan fácil o qué tan difícil sea para nosotros el ejercicio de sistematizar. Sin embargo, si la información no está organizada, tampoco se preocupe, de los errores se aprende, y mucho. Seguramente para la próxima experiencia lo tendremos en cuenta.En el ejercicio No. 4 usted encontrará un formato que le ayudará a identificar qué información posee, para qué le sirve, dónde está o quién la tiene y quién se encargará de obtenerla y analizarla.Al realizar este ejercicio también estaremos avanzando en la definición de tareas que deberán quedar consignadas en el plan de trabajo para ordenar y analizar la información.Para recolectar la información que no está documentada [todos esos \"fragmentos\" de la historia que se encuentran dispersos en la memoria de sus participantes] el instrumento propuesto para la recolección de información es la entrevista en profundidad, dado que necesitamos conocer ampliamente las opiniones y percepciones de los distintos actores que han intervenido en nuestra experiencia.Por lo tanto, el propósito de este paso es seleccionar a los actores que vamos a entrevistar para recuperar la \"historia\" del proceso, desde distintas perspectivas. Para lograr este objetivo la recomendación es clasificar a los actores para después poder tener una representación equilibrada por cada tipo de actor. Por ejemplo, que no todos los actores seleccionados sean productores, sino que también podamos recoger el punto de vista de un técnico, de un agente de desarrollo, de una asociación, etc. Dependiendo, claro está, de la participación que ellos hayan tenido en la experiencia.De manera que esta selección es determinante para la sistematización, porque si eligiéramos, por ejemplo, sólo hombres para que participen, estaríamos dándole un sesgo de género al proceso.Para empezar, separemos a los actores directos de los actores indirectos. Los actores directos son:• los que han participado en la toma de decisiones y acciones de la experiencia Si ve que la lista es muy larga, elija sólo a las personas que han tenido más importancia dentro de la experiencia, porque puede que no le alcance el tiempo para entrevistarlos a todos. Lo importante es que haya representantes de los diferentes tipos de actores participantes, pues así es como podemos reunir los distintos puntos de vista que existen sobre la experiencia. Recuerde que cada punto de vista rescata una parte de la realidad.Como lo hemos mencionado anteriormente, la herramienta que se propone aplicar para la recolección de información es la entrevista en profundidad, así que una vez seleccionemos a quiénes vamos a entrevistar, debemos planear las entrevistas. Para ello, primero profundizaremos en la estructura interna de nuestra sistematización, ya que las preguntas que formulemos deben sondear las opiniones y percepciones de los actores alrededor de los cuatro temas que definimos previamente:La situación inicial corresponde a lo que estaba pasando en el contexto, en relación con el eje de sistematización, antes de empezar a desarrollar la experiencia. 1. ¿Cómo era la calidad de las flores de La Campiña?Respuesta:2. ¿Cómo era su relación con la Cadena de Flores de La Campiña?, ¿Por qué?Respuesta:3. ¿Qué porcentaje de sus compras las hacía a los productores de La Campiña?Respuesta:4. ¿Cuánto pagaba por una docena de flores de La Campiña?, ¿Por qué?Respuesta:[Durante el trabajo de los GIAR]1. ¿Cómo fue el ensayo de compra-venta que hizo con los GIAR?Respuesta:2. ¿Cuál fue su función dentro de ese ensayo?Respuesta:3. ¿Cómo evalúa usted ese ensayo?, ¿Por qué?Respuesta:4. ¿Qué lo motivó a apoyar el trabajo de los GIAR?Respuesta:[Después del trabajo de los GIAR]1. ¿Cómo es la calidad de las flores de La Campiña?Respuesta:2. ¿Cómo es su relación con la Cadena de Flores de La Campiña?, ¿Por qué?Respuesta:3. ¿Qué porcentaje de sus compras las hace a los productores de La Campiña?Respuesta:4. ¿Cuánto paga por una docena de flores de La Campiña?, ¿Por qué?Respuesta:1. ¿Usted cree que algo se pudo haber hecho diferente o de una mejor manera? Por favor, exprese abiertamente sus puntos de vista y explique cómo cree que se podría haber hecho mejor.2. ¿Qué cosas cree usted que permitieron el éxito de este proceso?Respuesta:3. ¿Qué aprendió usted de esta experiencia?Respuesta:En el ejercicio No. 6 encontrará varios planes de entrevista vacíos que usted podrá completar con la información de su experiencia.En el ejemplo anterior se trataba de una entrevista exclusiva, porque este actor fue el único comprador que participó en la experiencia de los GIAR, pero no es necesario que se elabore un plan diferente para cada persona que vaya a entrevistar; se puede elaborar un plan de entrevista para cada grupo de actores; es decir: un plan de entrevista para los productores, otro plan para los técnicos, otro para los agentes de desarrollo, otro para las organizaciones locales que apoyaron la experiencia, etc.Es importante recordar que el Eje de Sistematización es el centro de todo este proceso, así que las preguntas que formulemos deben estar totalmente articuladas a él. ¿Qué cambios ha observado usted en su Cadena con el trabajo que se ha realizado durante este proyecto?Si este proyecto volviera a empezar, ¿Qué cosas haría igual y qué cosas no repetiría?, ¿Por qué?Como podemos observar, todas las preguntas buscan información que confirme o niegue la premisa que tenemos como Eje de sistematización, pero de una manera indirecta, como si no supiéramos absolutamente nada del proyecto. Debemos evitar hacer preguntas con las que el entrevistado se sienta presionado a dar \"cierta\" respuesta. Por ejemplo, no debemos preguntar directamente cosas como: ¿Usted cree que este proyecto ha innovado?, Porque, seguramente, algunos entrevistados se sentirán incómodos para responder que no; de manera que nos estaríamos arriesgando a que las respuestas no representen realmente lo que los entrevistados piensan y opinan.De igual forma sucede si preguntamos cosas como: ¿Los proyectos que se desarrollaron anteriormente en la zona hacían los cambios a partir de las oportunidades de mercado?, Pues este tipo de pregunta, además de que puede presionar al entrevistado a responder que no, es realmente una pregunta cerrada a la que nos pueden contestar, simplemente, con un \"sí\" o un \"no\". Siempre debemos buscar que el entrevistado describa y narre su historia, y para ello, son muy útiles las preguntas que empiezan con \"¿Qué?\", \"¿Cómo?\", \"¿Cuándo?\", \"¿Dónde?\" Y \"¿Por qué?\".Por otra parte, aproveche también este paso para definir quién se encargará de realizar cada entrevista. Tenga en cuenta que esta selección \"determinará que obtengamos respuestas sesgadas o respuestas que realmente representen lo que el entrevistado piensa y opina. Por ejemplo, si el entrevistador es la persona responsable del crédito, es probable que el entrevistado se cuide de dar alguna opinión que pudiera, a su juicio, afectar sus posibilidades futuras de acceder a este servicio del proyecto\" 6 .Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte:  Ejercicio 4. Identificación de la información complementaria disponibleA través del siguiente formato los grupos de trabajo conformados podrán identificar qué información tienen, para qué les podría servir dentro del proceso de sistematización [con base en la estructura que hemos visto], dónde está esa información o quién la tiene, y quién se encargará de obtenerla y analizarla. Nombre del entrevistado:Nombre del entrevistador:Fecha: Lugar: Caso:Fortalezas y Debilidades del Día Dos ¿Cuáles fueron las tres fortalezas del día dos? 4.5.¿Cuáles fueron las tres debilidades del día dos? 4.5.¿Qué sugiere usted que se podría mejorar?Guías para Proveer Retroalimentación sobre el Taller El éxito de las entrevistas no sólo dependerá de la buena estructuración de las preguntas y de la coherencia que éstas tengan con el propósito de nuestra sistematización. Es muy importante contar también con una buena estrategia de acercamiento al actor entrevistado. Para ello, tenga en cuenta las siguientes recomendaciones:• Explíquele al entrevistado cómo va a usar usted la información que él le dé. Ésta es una expresión de respeto hacia el entrevistado y un deber del entrevistador. Cuéntele al entrevistado sobre el proceso de sistematización que usted está realizando y su objetivo; de esa manera usted también estará sentando las bases para que exista un ambiente de confianza durante la entrevista.• No entre de lleno a las preguntas del cuestionario. Tómese un tiempo para familiarizarse con su entrevistado. Pregúntele cuántos hijos tiene, en qué año nació y dónde, hace cuánto que se dedica a su oficio, etc. Trate de interesarse en la persona y no se limite a recoger la información que a usted le interesa.• Escuche atentamente al entrevistado. Esto significa no enfocarse sólo en la información que a usted le interesa, sino en lo que el entrevistado le está contando. A veces con una sola pregunta que usted le haga, él podrá responder a tres interrogantes más; así que esté atento.• Administre bien el tiempo. Si usted escucha con atención, es probable que logre evacuar rápidamente el cuestionario. Sin embargo, escuchar no implica dejar que el entrevistado hable sin parar. Si el entrevistado se extiende mucho en sus respuestas o tiende a desviarse del tema, usted deberá buscar una manera respetuosa y amable de retomar la pregunta o de pasar a la siguiente. Tenga en cuenta que realizar una entrevista puede tomarle entre 90 y 120 minutos.• Intente mantener una posición neutral y escéptica. Esto quiere decir que aunque se haya elegido un eje de sistematización, usted no debe esperar que los actores confirmen ese eje con sus opiniones y respuestas. Su trabajo consiste en averiguar primero qué piensa el actor y, después, en su oficina o en su casa, separar los elementos que confirman lo que usted pensaba de la experiencia y los que no, para consignar ambos en la sistematización, con una mirada crítica.• Use bien la grabadora, pero también tome nota. Para que el audio quede \"limpio\" y sea fácil después transcribir o volver a oír lo que dijo el entrevistado, busque un lugar lo más silencioso posible para hacer la entrevista [lejos de fuentes de ruido como radios, televisores, ventiladores, maquinarias u otros]. Revise también que el micrófono de la grabadora esté en dirección a la boca del entrevistado. Sin embargo, no se confíe en la grabadora, porque además de que puede fallar, hay actores que se sienten incómodos o cohibidos por ella y, en ocasiones, es mejor apagarla para que el actor pueda expresarse tranquilamente. En tal caso, es necesario que al menos estén presentes dos entrevistadores tomando nota, para asegurarse de no perder información importante.• No haga compromisos que después no vaya a cumplir. A veces, los entrevistados piden copias de las fotos o de las entrevistas que les hacemos o pueden prestarnos material de apoyo para la entrevista. Si usted se compromete a llevarles posteriormente esas copias o a devolverle el material, hágalo. De lo contrario, no sólo perderá la confianza de esos actores, sino que pondrá en juego la credibilidad de la organización para la cual usted trabaja. Si usted ve que no va a poder cumplir un compromiso, mejor dígaselo a tiempo al entrevistado y no se comprometa. Las personas valorarán más la honestidad que un compromiso incierto.Recolección Si volvemos al ejemplo de la Sesión 1 sobre los distintos tipos de granos [fríjoles, lentejas, garbanzos, blanquillos, etc.] que se cayeron al piso y están revueltos, podemos ver de una manera más gráfica el concepto del análisis, el cual consistiría, en este caso, en empezar a separar los granos por color e ir formando grupos homogéneos para poder ver con claridad: ¿Cuántos tipos de granos hay?, ¿Qué características tiene cada tipo de grano? Y empezar a hacernos otras preguntas como ¿por qué unos son más grandes que otros?, ¿por qué fue fácil o difícil separarlos?, etc. Este mismo ejercicio es el que hacemos dentro de nuestro proceso de sistematización cuando ordenamos y analizamos la información: separar para entender.De tal manera, nuestro trabajo en esta sección consistirá en tomar toda la información que hemos recogido y separarla en grupos o en categorías que nos permitan entender \"lo que pasó\" en nuestra experiencia y \"por qué pasó lo que pasó\". Por fortuna, estos grupos o categorías fueron los que definimos desde el inicio con la estructura de la sistematización [la Situación Inicial, el Proceso de Intervención, la Situación Actual o Final y las Lecciones Aprendidas], de manera que, en nuestro caso, a medida que recogimos la información, ésta fue quedando ordenada.Sin embargo, aún es mucha información y necesitamos cernirla 7 más. Para esto, a partir de aquí empezaremos a recorrer un camino que nos permitirá ir realizando esta tarea de una manera rápida y sencilla.Durante este segundo módulo vamos a tener tres preguntas guía: ¿Qué tanta variedad existe en los puntos de vista de los actores entrevistados? ¿Cuáles son los principales consensos en cada uno de los temas definidos [situación inicial, proceso de intervención, situación actual o final y lecciones aprendidas]? ¿Cuáles son las principales diferencias o desacuerdos en cada uno de esos temas?La razón por la cual estas tres preguntas son tan importantes es porque al cernir la información el propósito no es llegar a una \"verdad\", sino identificar las 'versiones' que existen sobre la experiencia en cada una de las categorías que definimos.Aún si nuestro Eje de Sistematización girara en torno al éxito de experiencia, no vamos a ignorar o a desestimar aquellos datos u opiniones que van en un sentido contrario a lo que pensábamos. Vamos a intentar hacernos ajenos al proceso y formar 'subcategorías' a partir de las opiniones y percepciones de los actores entrevistados.Estos son los pasos recomendados, pero no es una receta. Si necesita cambiar, adaptar o crear un nuevo paso o formato, hágalo. Esta es sólo una guía:Paso 1Pase en limpio los apuntes y/o transcriba las grabaciones de las entrevistas.Repase la información obtenida de cada entrevistado y, a medida que lo vaya haciendo, anote sintéticamente, y por cada pregunta, las principales ideas del entrevistado, en un cuadro como éste:Nombre del entrevistado:Nombre del entrevistador:Fecha: Lugar: Caso:¿Cómo hacía usted para vender sus cosechas antes de 1995, es decir, antes que comenzara este proyecto?Ejemplo: La mayor parte de los años no llegaban compradores a la zona y sólo se podía vender una pequeña parte de la cosecha¿Podría decirme cuáles han sido las actividades o hechos más importantes que ha hecho el comité con este proyecto, con relación a la comercialización?Ejemplo: Lo más importante fue la compra de la cámara refrigerada, porque permite prolongar la temporada de mercadeo y así esperar mejores preciosEn la última cosecha, ¿Cómo estuvieron los precios del tomate que ustedes recibieron, en comparación con los precios que les pagaron a los que no están en el proyecto?Ejemplo: Esta zona se ha convertido en la principal proveedora de tomate para las ciudades de X y de YSi pudiera volver a comenzar de nuevo con este proyecto, ¿Qué cosas haría de una manera diferente?, ¿Por qué?Ejemplo: La capacitación y la asistencia técnica para mejorar la calidad del tomate debería haberse comenzado desde el primer año Paso 3Cuando haya sintetizado la información proporcionada por cada entrevistado, compare los puntos de vista y opiniones de todos los actores. Así será posible ver con mayor facilidad y claridad los acuerdos y desacuerdos que existen entre los diferentes actores [que es el paso siguiente]. Esta vez el ejercicio ya no consistirá en sintetizar cada pregunta [pues ya lo hicimos en el paso anterior], sino en sintetizar la información que le dio cada entrevistado por tema, para seguir cerniendo la información.8 Formato y ejemplos adaptados de: J.A. Berdegué, A. Ocampo y G. Escobar. 2002. Sistematización de experiencias locales de desarrollo agrícola y rural. Guías de terreno. Versión 2. FIDAMÉRICA-PREVAL: Lima, Perú.Tenga en cuenta que usted puede encontrar información sobre un tema en las preguntas que se hicieron dentro de otro tema. Por ejemplo, usted puede identificar algunos resultados [que pertenecen a la situación final o actual] dentro de lo que la gente le contó sobre el proceso de intervención y sobre sus aprendizajes. Esté atento a estos \"cruces\" y ordénelos durante este paso. No se trata de cambiar las preguntas de lugar, sino de incluir en la síntesis de cada tema toda la información que le haya dado cada entrevistado sobre ese tema.Para comparar las entrevistas usted puede formar grupos de actores [productores, técnicos, representantes de organizaciones de apoyo, etc.] y usar un formato como el siguiente: Lecciones aprendidas [síntesis de este tema]Paso 4A partir de los cuadros anteriores, en los que se ha cernido la mayor parte de la información, identifique los acuerdos y desacuerdos que existen entre los distintos actores entrevistados. Para ello, tenga en cuenta que usted va a encontrarse con opiniones o puntos de vista discrepantes, porque cada actor interpreta y asume el proceso de acuerdo con su contexto, su rol y sus intereses particulares, entre otras cosas.Por ejemplo, puede suceder que en el tema de la Situación inicial haya cinco personas que piensen que antes de su proyecto no habían existido otros que combinaran la teoría y la práctica, mientras que otros dos actores dicen que sí era así. En este caso, usted pondrá usar un formato como el siguiente, y llenarlo así: Sin embargo, no todos los casos son iguales, habrá ideas sobre las que todas las personas están de acuerdo, y esto también se debe incluir en este cuadro.Por otra parte, tenga en cuenta que no sólo va a ser importante observar quiénes dicen que \"sí\" y quiénes dicen que \"no\"; también debemos observar el contexto de cada actor, no para determinar quién tiene la razón y quién no la tiene o para descifrar cuál es \"la verdad\", sino para contarle al lector [cuando escribamos el informe final de la experiencia] qué contexto tienen los que dicen que \"sí\" y qué contexto tienen los que dicen que \"no\". Ahora bien, el gran dilema a la hora de escribir es: \"Por dónde empezar, Qué quiero decir y cómo lo digo\". Por eso, en este paso vamos a unir la conclusión del análisis de la información con el inicio de la escritura del informe; de tal manera que podamos lograr simultáneamente ambos objetivos.En este paso trataremos de usufructuar aún más la información que ordenamos en los pasos anteriores para reflexionar y sacar las conclusiones finales sobre \"lo que pasó\" y \"por qué pasó lo que pasó\". Estas conclusiones serán, al mimo tiempo, el contenido de nuestro informe maestro.Para ello utilizaremos algunas herramientas que nos van a permitir representar gráficamente los resultados que hemos obtenido sobre cada tema del proceso para facilitar su observación crítica e identificar fácilmente los cambios que han tenido lugar a partir de nuestra experiencia. No pierda de vista que sus principales fuentes de información serán las entrevistas que usted ya ordenó y la información complementaria que identificó en la Sesión 3 del Módulo Uno.Nuestro propósito a partir de ahora es interpretar, de una manera crítica y reflexiva, toda la información que logramos separar durante las fases anteriores. Por eso iremos abordando, uno a uno, los cuatro temas o fases de nuestra experiencia, con relación al Eje de Sistematización.Lo que debemos buscar en este primer punto es identificar con precisión cuál era el problema o la De esta manera vamos concluyendo nuestro análisis y, simultáneamente, empezamos a escribir nuestro Informe Maestro. Ejercicio 2: Análisis de los factores del contexto que influyeron positiva y negativamente en el aprovechamiento de la oportunidad o en la solución de la problemática Igual que en el anterior ejercicio, la tarea consiste en enumerar y reflexionar sobre aquellos factores que limitaban o potenciaban las posibilidades de acción local para resolver el problema o aprovechar la oportunidad. Sólo deben contemplarse aquellos que hayan sido realmente relevantes para la experiencia y que tengan una estrecha relación con el Eje de sistematización.Los factores de contexto pueden ser: la situación de los mercados, la política económica, la estabilidad social y política, la dotación y calidad de la infraestructura pública (caminos, sistemas de regadío, etc.), el nivel educacional de la población, las normas legales y administrativas, etc.Factor del contexto Conclusión a partir de la reflexión crítica Tenga en cuenta que todos estos aspectos hacen referencia a la situación inicial y no a la situación actual de la experiencia.Esta fase es la parte más gruesa de la historia, por eso debemos tener cuidado con dedicarnos a recordar detalles innecesarios. Realizaremos cinco ejercicios que nos permitirán definir cuáles son esos aspectos centrales que se pueden usufructuar mediante el análisis. Ejercicio 3: Elaboración y análisis de la línea de tiempo del proceso Como dentro de la intervención de un proyecto o iniciativa se desarrollan tantas actividades, es muy útil elaborar una línea de tiempo que nos permita resaltar sólo los principales acontecimientos o actividades desarrolladas.No es necesario reconstruir lo que sucedió paso a paso, sólo debemos identificar esos hechos principales que se pueden denominar \"hitos\" del proceso [Berdegué y otros, 2002]. Para esto, tenga en cuenta las actividades o acontecimientos que resaltaron los actores durante las entrevistas.Éste es un ejemplo de línea de tiempo:Después de haber elaborado la línea de tiempo, analice por qué cada una de estas actividades fue tan importante para el proceso: ¿Cambió el rumbo de la intervención?, ¿facilitó la integración de nuevos actores?, ¿Produjo beneficios para los participantes?, ¿Qué beneficios produjo?, etc. Para realizar este ejercicio se puede utilizar el siguiente formato:Actividad o acontecimiento Conclusión a partir de la reflexión crítica  Ejercicio 4: Construcción y análisis de Diagramas de funciones y relaciones entre los actores, antes y después del proceso Aunque la identificación de los hitos del proceso es importante, el resultado de una sistematización debe ser más que la narración de una historia. Es necesario reflexionar no sólo sobre lo que pasó y porqué pasó lo que pasó, sino también sobre cómo intervinieron los distintos actores en el proceso y cómo cambiaron las relaciones existentes entre ellos. Para esto, vamos a desarrollar dos diagramas: uno para representar gráficamente las relaciones existentes entre los actores participantes antes de iniciar el proceso y otro para representar estas mismas relaciones después de haber iniciado. Esto nos permitirá analizar si se fortalecieron las relaciones, si se integraron nuevos actores, si se crearon nuevos vínculos, si cada actor cumplió sus funciones, si las funciones se recargaron más en unos actores que en otros, y por qué, etc.A continuación veremos un ejemplo de estos diagramas, en los cuales debemos representar:-Todos los actores directos e indirectos [personas y organizaciones] -Las relaciones entre ellos y el tipo de relación [unidireccional o bidireccional] -El papel que jugó cada actor En este ejercicio usted puede diferenciar el tipo de roles con flechas de distintos colores [por ejemplo: verde para los que gestionaban los recursos, amarillo para los que acompañaban a los beneficiarios, rojo para los beneficiarios, etc.] y también puede usar flechas en un solo sentido para las relaciones unidireccionales y en doble sentido para las relaciones bidireccionales.Una vez haya elaborado ambos diagramas haga una comparación crítica de ellos, para formular por escrito sus conclusiones. Durante esta fase es posible analizar si se fortalecieron las relaciones, si se integraron nuevos actores al proceso y por qué, si cada actor cumplió sus funciones, si las funciones se recargaron más en unos actores que en otros y por qué, etc.  Ejercicio 5: Reflexión sobre los Métodos, metodologías y estrategias empleadas durante la experiencia Mientras que en la línea de tiempo buscamos responder a la pregunta ¿Qué hicimos?, en este ejercicio vamos a responder a la pregunta: ¿Cómo lo hicimos?Clarificar los métodos utilizados [tanto los que dieron resultado como los que no], es fundamental para la sistematización. Especialmente porque es así como realmente podemos facilitar la replicación de nuestras experiencias y evitar la duplicación de esfuerzos y la repetición de errores.Por lo tanto, durante este ejercicio identificaremos los métodos, las metodologías y las estrategias utilizadas durante el proceso de intervención; así como las características de cada uno de ellos y su influencia [positiva o negativa] en el proceso.Para realizar este ejercicio se propone la siguiente matriz:Ejemplo:Metodología GIARConsiste en trabajar con representantes de todos los eslabones de una misma cadena productiva para que sean ellos mismos los que identifiquen cuáles son los cambios que deben realizarse. Estos fueron los pasos que se siguieron: 1. Se convoca a toda la Cadena para presentarle la metodología y seleccionar a los representantes de cada eslabón 2. Se conforma el grupo de trabajo 3. Se decide cómo se va a realizar el monitoreo y seguimiento 4. Se realizan unas giras en cultivo, mercado y poscosecha 5. Se analiza la Cadena 6. Se elabora un plan de acción 7. Se comparte este plan con la Cadena 8. Se ejecutar el plan 9. Se sistematizan los resultados y 10. Se difundenAl principio los representantes de cada eslabón querían ver satisfechos sus intereses, pero el análisis conjunto de la Cadena permitió llegar a un consenso sobre los problemas que debían ser atendidos con más prontitud. Esto empezó a motivar la participación de todos y unió esfuerzos en torno al beneficio común. Los participantes dicen haber aprendido sobre procesos que antes no conocían y ahora tienen una mayor disposición a compartir su conocimiento.Este ejercicio, como su nombre lo indica, consiste en elaborar una lista de los recursos utilizados durante la intervención: dinero, personal, tiempo, etc. Esta vez vamos a responder a la pregunta: ¿Con qué lo hicimos?, una pregunta a la que suele dársele poca importancia, pero que es muy fundamental para incrementar nuestra efectividad y eficiencia en el manejo de los recursos y para contarles a otros qué necesitan para replicar nuestra experiencia. Por eso, no será suficiente con elaborar la lista, sino que debemos reflexionar sobre el uso de estos recursos. Para ello, se propone la siguiente matriz.Personal Tiempo Dinero  Ejercicio 7: Análisis de los factores del contexto que influyeron positiva y negativamente en la intervención Ahora, igual que en el ejercicio 2, vamos a analizar los factores del contexto, pero esta vez con respecto al proceso de intervención: ¿Qué aspectos nos facilitaron o dificultaron el trabajo?Algunos ejemplos son: las características del territorio, el nivel de escolaridad los participantes, la participación de las organizaciones de apoyo existentes en la zona, etc.Si hay factores de contexto del ejercicio 2 que se repiten [incluso podrían ser todos], es importante que reflexione sobre cómo estos mismos factores influyeron específicamente en la intervención.Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte: Después, frente a cada factor identificado, los grupos escribirán las conclusiones de su análisis.Factores positivos Conclusión a partir de la reflexión crítica Ejercicio 3. Elaboración y análisis de la línea de tiempo del proceso Cada grupo identificará las actividades y acontecimientos más importantes de su proceso de intervención y las representará sobre una línea de tiempo.Después de haber elaborado la línea de tiempo, cada grupo analizará por qué cada una de estas actividades fue tan importante para el proceso: ¿Cambió el rumbo de la intervención?, ¿facilitó la integración de nuevos actores?, ¿Produjo beneficios para los participantes?, ¿Qué beneficios produjo?, etc. Para realizar este ejercicio se puede utilizar el siguiente formato [de la misma forma que se usó para los ejercicios 1 y 2 de este módulo]:Actividad o acontecimiento Conclusión a partir de la reflexión crítica Ejercicio 4. Construcción y análisis de Diagramas de funciones y relaciones entre los actores, antes y después del proceso Después, los grupos realizarán el mismo ejercicio de la fase 1, pero esta vez será entorno a las funciones y relaciones de los actores después del proceso de intervención. Deben tenerse en cuenta los mismos aspectos recomendados en la fase anterior.Al final, los grupos harán una comparación crítica de los dos diagramas, para formular sus conclusiones. Durante esta fase es posible analizar si se fortalecieron las relaciones, si se integraron nuevos actores al proceso y por qué, si cada actor cumplió sus funciones, si las funciones se recargaron más en unos actores que en otros y por qué, etc.Ejercicio 5. Reflexión sobre los métodos, metodologías y estrategias empleadas durante la experienciaCada grupo identificará los métodos, metodologías y estrategias más importantes que se utilizaron durante el proceso de intervención. Después, describirá brevemente cada una de estas herramientas y reflexionará sobre la influencia [positiva o negativa] que tuvo cada una de ellas en el proceso.Descripción Cómo influyó en el proceso Ejercicio 7. Análisis de los factores de contexto que influyeron positiva y negativamente en la intervenciónAl igual que en el ejercicio 2, los grupos analizarán los factores de contexto, pero esta vez con respecto al proceso de intervención. Cada grupo elaborará un listado [en la columna izquierda de la tabla] de los factores positivos y negativos que limitaron o impulsaron la intervención.Después, frente a cada factor identificado, los grupos escribirán las conclusiones de su análisis.Factores negativos Conclusión a partir de la reflexión críticaFortalezas y Debilidades del Día Uno ¿Cuáles fueron las tres fortalezas del día uno? 7.8.¿Cuáles fueron las tres debilidades del día uno? 7.8.¿Qué sugiere usted que se podría mejorar?Guías para Proveer Retroalimentación sobre el Taller El propósito dentro de este tema es identificar los resultados que hemos obtenido y confrontarlos con los objetivos del proyecto o la experiencia que estamos sistematizando. Para hacer esta reflexión una estrategia muy útil es comparar la situación inicial con el estado actual o final de la experiencia.Por ejemplo, uno de los objetivos de los GIAR que tomamos como ejemplo en el Módulo Uno era aprovechar un nuevo contacto de mercado. Entonces, en ese caso se deberían comparar: la calidad que tenían las flores antes con la de ahora, los mercados a los que antes se tenía acceso con los actuales, los precios promedio que se obtenían antes y después del trabajo de los Gestores, los cambios que hubo en la cadena de comercialización, el aprendizaje de los actores, etc.Debemos tener en cuenta tanto los elementos tangibles [ingresos, rendimientos, volúmenes de ventas, etc.] como los intangibles [el desarrollo de relaciones de confianza, el cambio de pensamiento de los actores participantes, el intercambio de conocimientos, el aumento de la participación, etc.], además de reflexionar sobre cómo ha sido la distribución de los beneficios: quiénes han recibido en mayor proporción los beneficios [o perjuicios] de la experiencia.Para lograr el propósito de esta sección, realizaremos dos ejercicios: Ejercicio 8: Identificación y análisis de resultados Este ejercicio consiste en hacer una lista de los resultados obtenidos con la experiencia y para ello, los resultados del Ejercicio 1 serán un apoyo fundamental, puesto que los resultados que analizaremos [para que sean coherentes con el proceso] deben estar relacionados con la problemática u oportunidad a partir de la cual surgió la experiencia y con las causas directas que se querían atender.Seguramente habrá experiencias en las que los objetivos o el rumbo del proceso hayan cambiado durante la intervención. En estos casos, los resultados deberán confrontarse con los últimos objetivos que se hayan definido y, en el Informe final, deberá resaltarse este cambio de dirección, en la sección del proceso de intervención.Por ejemplo, si la experiencia perseguía resolver el problema de la comercialización de los productos, habrá que comparar elementos tales como: los mercados a los que antes se tenía acceso con los actuales, los precios promedio que se obtenían antes y después, los cambios en la cadena de comercialización, el aprendizaje de los actores, etc. De esta comparación usted podrá concluir cuáles fueron los resultados específicos de la experiencia.Tenga en cuenta que la razón por la cual esta identificación de resultados se hace de esta forma y no sólo a partir de nuestra memoria, es porque así podemos asegurarnos, primero, de que no se nos pase ningún resultado importante y, segundo, de que todo lo que vayamos a escribir en el  Si usted siente que hay otros resultados importantes que no están directamente relacionados con las causas que identificó o con el propósito central de su experiencia, por favor, no los ignore.Adicione una nueva fila a su tabla y haga la síntesis crítica sobre ellos. Indique si se trata de resultados no esperados. Ejercicio 9: Análisis de los factores del contexto que influyeron positiva y negativamente en los resultados Igual que en los ejercicios 2 y 7, la tarea consiste en enumerar y reflexionar sobre aquellos factores que limitaron o potencializaron los resultados. Recuerde que sólo deben contemplarse aquellos factores que hayan sido realmente relevantes para la experiencia.Factor del contexto Conclusión a partir de la reflexión crítica Aunque los factores de contexto aquí fueran los mismos que influyeron en las fases anteriores de su experiencia, es importante que reflexione sobre cómo estos mismos factores influyeron específicamente en los resultados.Una lección aprendida \"señala aquello que es probable que suceda, y/o lo que hay que hacer para obtener [o prevenir] un determinado resultado\" 12 . Por eso, hemos definido dos categorías para ordenar las lecciones aprendidas: los factores de éxito para repetir y los factores de riesgo para evitar.Los factores de éxito se refieren a aquello que aprendimos que hay que hacer para obtener un buen resultado y los factores de riesgo indican aquello que aprendimos que no se debe hacer, ya sea porque representará una gran amenaza o porque sólo puede arrojar resultados negativos.Para analizar ambos tipos de aprendizajes desarrollaremos el siguiente ejercicio: Ejercicio 10: Análisis de factores de riesgo y de éxito extraídos de la sistematización Primero, es necesario separar los factores de éxito de los factores de riesgo. Una vez realizado el listado, haremos una reflexión crítica sobre los factores identificados y escribiremos la síntesis de nuestra reflexión frente a cada uno de ellos.Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte: Síntesis crítica de los resultados Ejercicio 9. Análisis de los factores del contexto que influyeron positiva y negativamente en los resultadosAl igual que en los ejercicios 2 y 7, los grupos analizarán los factores de contexto, pero esta vez con respecto los resultados. Cada grupo elaborará un listado [en la columna izquierda de la tabla] de los factores positivos y negativos que limitaron o potencializaron los resultados.Después, frente a cada factor identificado, los grupos escribirán las conclusiones de su análisis.Factores positivos Conclusión a partir de la reflexión críticaEjercicio 10. Análisis de factores de riesgo y de éxito extraídos de la sistematizaciónA través del siguiente formato los grupos de trabajo conformados harán una lista de los factores de éxito y de riesgo identificados durante la sistematización y escribirán frente a cada uno de estos factores una síntesis de su reflexión crítica. ¿Cómo escribir un Informe Maestro?Escribir este informe es una tarea muy sencilla cuando hemos realizado todos los ejercicios anteriores.En realidad, sólo se trata de ir colocando en cada una de las secciones del informe las síntesis críticas que se obtuvieron en cada ejercicio del Módulo Dos [según corresponda]. Por supuesto, esto debemos hacerlo cuidando que el texto tenga coherencia y linealidad en el tiempo.Este informe no debe tener una extensión mayor a cinco páginas ni es necesario buscar un lenguaje muy complicado para escribirlo. Sólo debemos imaginar quién será nuestro lector y pensar que le estamos contando una historia, nuestra historia. Si usted la vivió, no hay nadie mejor para contarla.En el Ejercicio No. 11 podrá encontrar la Guía para redactar su informe maestro.¿Después del Informe Maestro termina nuestro proceso de sistematización?Dijimos, al inicio del Módulo Uno que el principal propósito de la sistematización es capitalizar el aprendizaje: ordenar y materializar el conocimiento que está fragmentado en nuestras memorias para compartirlo con otros. De tal modo, al escribir el informe maestro sí concluimos el ejercicio de sistematización; pero aún no cumplimos el gran propósito por el cual iniciamos nuestro proceso de reflexión.Los verdaderos efectos de un proceso de sistematización sólo pueden verse realmente una vez que empezamos a darle uso a sus resultados, bien sea para mejorar nuestros propios procesos organizativos o para replicar la experiencia con otros. En ambos casos el método requerido es el mismo: compartir los resultados. Por ello, una vez se concluya la redacción del informe maestro, se recomienda diseñar un plan para la comunicación de resultados a distintos públicos [los que sean de nuestro interés].Dicho Plan es realmente sencillo de construir. Basta con identificar los públicos a los que queremos llegar y definir cuál será la estrategia más apropiada para llegar a ellos 13 . A partir de allí, se pueden definir tiempos y recursos como en cualquier otro plan de trabajo, tal como se muestra en el ejemplo:13 Es importante tener en cuenta que no todos los medios de comunicación son apropiados para todo tipo de público. Los medios audiovisuales [como la radio, la televisión] son de amplia cobertura y pueden llegar a cualquier tipo de público, mientras que los medios escritos, aunque también tienen buena cobertura, sólo pueden ser dirigidos a poblaciones que sepan leer y escribir [un reducido porcentaje en América Latina]. Eso sí, sea cual sea su experiencia, el primer público que usted deberá contemplar son los actores a quienes usted entrevistó para desarrollar este proceso. Ellos no sólo merecen conocer los resultados, sino que serán los más indicados para expresar una opinión frente a las conclusiones de su sistematización.Para ampliar el contenido visto en esta sesión, consulte: Cada grupo conformado elegirá a un líder, quien se encargará de ir digitando en un computador, o escribiendo en una hoja de papel, el Informe Maestro, a partir de las discusiones y conclusiones de todo el grupo de trabajo.Para asegurar que todos los miembros del equipo tengan la misma posibilidad de intervenir en la redacción del informe, cada uno de ellos deberá tener impresos tanto los resultados de los ejercicios del Módulo Dos, como la siguiente guía para la redacción del Informe Maestro:El propósito de esta herramienta es facilitar que se plasmen en el papel las reflexiones críticas obtenidas de todo el proceso de sistematización. Recuerde el Eje de Sistematización y téngalo en cuenta a lo largo de todo el ejercicio de escritura, ya que deberá ser la columna vertebral del texto.Imagine desde ahora que su lector no conoce nada ni del contexto de su País, ni de su organización, ni de los actores con los que usted trabajó, ni de esta experiencia. Esto le ayudará a ser más generoso en la primera sección del informe, donde usted deberá situar al lector en el contexto de la experiencia sistematizada.Entre menos especializado sea el lenguaje que usted utilice, más amplia será la cantidad potencial de lectores que su informe pueda tener. Sin embargo, tenga cuidado de caer en una minuciosidad que sature el texto con detalles innecesarios.Al escribir el texto no piense que está escribiendo un informe más. Hágase a la idea de que va a generar un producto trascendental y muy útil tanto para el proceso como para su organización.Esto le ayudará a asumir con mayor motivación la tarea de escribir.El documento no debe tener una extensión mayor a 5 páginas.Secciones del Informe para redactar:Describa en uno o dos párrafos en qué consistió su experiencia. Para ello, tenga en cuenta preguntas como: Este segmento es fundamental, porque le permitirá al lector identificar si el artículo es o no de su interés.Describa el motivo general de su interés en esta experiencia. ¿Qué Eje de sistematización se definió y por qué?A partir de los Ejercicios 1 y 2 de este módulo, describa la problemática u oportunidad a partir de la cual surgió la experiencia que está sistematizando, las causas directas de esa problemática u oportunidad y los factores negativos y positivos del contexto que afectaban las posibilidades de acción local.Escriba la historia reflexiva de su experiencia. Para ello, deberá tener en cuenta: En esta sección es fundamental identificar y resaltar los aspectos centrales o esenciales de la experiencia para evitar saturar la descripción con detalles innecesarios.Describa los resultados de su experiencia hasta el momento [si no ha concluido] o al final del proceso [si ya concluyó], y los factores del contexto que influyeron en estos resultados. Puede apoyarse en los Ejercicios 8 y 9.Fortalezas y Debilidades del Día Cuatro ¿Cuáles fueron las tres fortalezas del día cuatro? 16. 17.¿Cuáles fueron las tres debilidades del día cuatro? 16. 17.¿Qué sugiere usted que se podría mejorar?","tokenCount":"8863"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5476fa1848b21d8b5c22d4ba5cb9ddcd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f9aca69a-6039-45e5-ba89-543eed3b5a0f/retrieve","id":"720517883"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c317e7c-a3a6-4de2-82cc-dc8b76d04adf","pagecount":"14","content":"El manejo de plagas de la yuca se debe basar, fundamentalmente, en el control biológico, en la resistencia de la planta hospedante y en el empleo de prácticas culturales. Estos eslabones de la cadena de control integrado han tenido un papel importante en los programas de manejo de las plagas de la yuca en los últimos 20 años. Por ello, este modelo de manejo debe continuar siendo implementado para evitar el deterioro ambiental y la posible contaminación de los alimentos en el futuro. Uno de los objetivos prácticos de los entomólogos es mantener las poblaciones de insectos plaga en el nivel de cero importancia económica; este enunciado, claro y fácil de entender, se olvida en la práctica porque se ignora su verdadero sentido.Cuando se habla de mantener los insectos perjudiciales en niveles de baja importancia económica, debe entenderse que no siempre la presencia y el daño de un insecto plaga significa una reducción en la producción; casi todos los cultivos tienen capacidad para soportar cierto porcentaje de daño y tienen habilidad para recuperarse. Por tanto, no tiene sentido aplicar insecticidas por la sola presencia de un insecto dañino.La habilidad de la planta de yuca para recuperarse de daños de plagas es una cualidad importante que siempre debe ser considerada. No se debe recurrir a la aplicación de insumos de control, a menos que se haya hecho un estimativo de la pérdida de rendimiento.Actualmente existe información precisa relacionada con las plagas más importantes que reducen el rendimiento, y con las épocas y las edades clave en las que deben tomarse precauciones o acciones adecuadas de manejo. Se conocen también las plagas que no afectan la producción aunque sus síntomas parezcan severos y hacen, por ello, que se ejecuten acciones de control innecesarias.El control de plagas de este cultivo se debe hacer con un mínimo de insumos costosos, sobre todo de pesticidas. Para lograr este objetivo se han incrementado en los últimos años los conocimientos básicos sobre la biología y la ecología de muchas de estas plagas y de sus enemigos naturales. Se deben aprovechar los factores favorables involucrados en la interacción insecto-planta-medio ambiente y las consideraciones que hacen que un sistema de manejo de plagas de yuca sea un objetivo atractivo y práctico.1. La yuca se cultiva de 8 a 24 meses; por lo tanto, el uso continuo de pesticidas es costoso y antieconómico en relación con su rentabilidad.2. Por ser un cultivo de ciclo largo, la yuca es ideal para programas de control biológico, especialmente en áreas donde se cultiva sin interrupción y en grandes extensiones. Ya se han identificado y estudiado con profundidad muchos agentes de control biológico para muchas de sus plagas principales.3. La planta de yuca se puede recuperar casi siempre del daño causado por los insectos. Durante los períodos de precipitación pluvial adecuada, los niveles altos de defoliación causarán poca o ninguna reducción del rendimiento.4. Muchas de las plagas no están diseminadas ampliamente y su incidencia es a menudo estacional. Las épocas secas favorecen el aumento de poblaciones de muchas plagas, pero la habilidad de la planta para resistir largos períodos de sequía le permitirá, generalmente, recuperarse cuando comiencen las lluvias.5. La yuca tiene un umbral alto para el daño económico por plagas; las variedades vigorosas pueden perder bastante follaje (40% más) y hay períodos cuando pueden sufrir aún más defoliación sin que se afecte significativamente el rendimiento. En la actualidad, las nuevas variedades desarrolladas pueden tener una tolerancia mayor a la defoliación, debido a los métodos de selección utilizados, tanto por vigor como por resistencia a factores bióticos y abióticos.6. Muy pocas son las plagas que realmente pueden matar la planta, lo que hace posible que ésta se recupere del daño y produzca raíces comestibles.7. La selección de material de propagación sano y vigoroso, junto con un tratamiento de fungicidas e insecticidas de bajo costo, permite una germinación rápida y exitosa. Se asegura así el vigor inicial de la planta durante esta fase tan importante y se aumenta finalmente el rendimiento.8. Se ha demostrado que existen fuentes de resistencia en la yuca, en niveles, bajos, medianos y altos, que pueden ser adecuadas para evitar graves pérdidas del cultivo por las plagas.9. A menudo se cultiva la yuca en pequeñas fincas, bajo condiciones de cultivo mixto; este sistema no sólo reduce la incidencia de las plagas, sino que también evita brotes de plagas en extensiones grandes de cultivo.10. Hay pruebas de que los insectos pueden ocasionar disminuciones en el rendimiento durante períodos específicos del desarrollo de la planta. En muchas plagas de la yuca ya se han identificado estos períodos, para que puedan intensificarse las prácticas de control durante este tiempo.Los insectos existen en la tierra desde hace más de 300 millones de años y han sobrevivido y evolucionado a pesar de todos los cambios drásticos derivados de la evolución de la Tierra.Los insectos presentan una gran capacidad reproductora. Una termita (comején) reina puede llegar a ovipositar 30,000 huevos diarios. Cuando apareció el D.D.T. para uso agrícola, su efecto letal sobre los insectos fue de tal magnitud que muchos entomólogos iniciaron la recolección de especies de insectos para conservarlos, ya que se creía que el D.D.T. los exterminaría; sin embargo, los insectos habían sobrevivido a situaciones mucho más difíciles y respondieron desarrollando resistencia no sólo al D.D.T. sino a la mayoría de los insecticidas.Hasta la fecha se registran 321 especies de insectos resistentes a varios grupos de insecticidas, lo cual quiere decir que éstos ya no son efectivos para reducir sus poblaciones y que, por tanto, la especie humana debe buscar otras alternativas, valiéndose de métodos más racionales y económicos, que no continúen aumentando la resistencia de los insectos a los insecticidas, pero que tampoco contaminen el ambiente en niveles críticos para la humanidad.Muchos entomólogos y científicos, algunos ya fallecidos, dedicaron su vida al estudio de los insectos benéficos y a pregonar que éstos debían ser utilizados en los programas de control de insectos plaga. Están convencidos de que el empleo de sólo insecticidas propiciaría el desequilibrio biológico y tendría consecuencias catastróficas para la humanidad.Estas investigaciones reposan en los libros y boletines especializados, en los cuales se presentan en detalle los métodos y recomendaciones para seguir en los programas de manejo integrado y de plagas. Hoy en día, la situación ha cambiado. Corresponde por tanto a los entomólogos y técnicos y también a toda la humanidad verter a la práctica estos principios y experiencias que, además de resolver problemas de producción, minimizan la contaminación del ambiente.El cultivo de la yuca puede servir de modelo para entender algunos principios básicos del control integrado y, principalmente, del control biológico por medio de insectos benéficos.A pesar de que en algunas épocas ocurren explosiones de algunas plagas, se puede decir que el cultivo de la yuca no está sometido permanentemente a ataques severos de insectos y que, por el contrario, mantiene un excelente equilibrio biológico. Hay factores de mortalidad que han mantenido las poblaciones de insectos en niveles de poca importancia económica.Esta situación favorable debe conservarse. Para entender mejor este punto, se presenta el ejemplo del cultivo algodonero en Colombia. Durante 1977 llegó a lo que se llamó \"estado de catástrofe\" en lo que se refiere a control de plagas: las larvas del género Heliothis, su principal plaga, alcanzaron tal grado de resistencia a los insecticidas que su control se hizo imposible.Debe recordarse que, cuando se inició en Colombia el cultivo del algodonero, hace más de 35 años, eran pocas las plagas que lo atacaban y su control era relativamente fácil. Era una situación similar a la presentada hace 20 años por el cultivo de la yuca. Pues bien, puede asegurarse que si no se manejan racionalmente las plagas de la yuca y si se aplican insecticidas de manera indiscriminada, se llegará en un futuro no muy lejano a la misma situación de desesperación que vivieron los algodoneros.Aunque se han investigado las plagas de la yuca, o sea, su relación con factores bióticos y abióticos, las técnicas de manejo del cultivo y la producción de variedades adaptadas a diferentes ecosistemas, todavía hace falta una mayor conciencia del problema para adoptar el manejo que permita prevenir epizootias a escala regional o nacional. Una de ellas ocurrió en los 90 en la Costa Atlántica de Colombia: la dispersión del barrenador del tallo de la yuca (Chilomima clarkei). No se ejecutaron las normas cuarentenarias, o sea, se intercambiaron estacas de una zona a otra, no se destruyeron los residuos de cosecha, hubo malas condiciones para almacenamiento de la 'semilla' (estacas), se usaron estacas de mala calidad e infestadas de la plaga, y se hizo un uso inadecuado de los plaguicidas. Como resultado, la plaga se convirtió en un problema social, que causó escasez de semilla asexual y llevó a muchos agricultores a situaciones precarias, ya que este cultivo es la base del sustento de muchas familias de escasos recursos de la región.Una situación similar ha ocurrido con la \"mosca blanca\" de la yuca (Aleurotrachelus socialis) en el norte del departamento del Cauca, en el sur del Valle del Cauca, en Tolima y en algunas localidades de la Costa Atlántica y los Llanos Orientales. Esta plaga se ha vuelto endémica y ha incrementado drásticamente sus poblaciones, al punto de ocasionar daños severos al cultivo durante períodos prolongados y afectar en forma significativa la producción de raíces. En respuesta, los agricultores aplican insecticidas de manera indiscriminada, agravando aún más el problema: la plaga está apareciendo en épocas y zonas donde no se la veía anteriormente.Actualmente, el CIAT trabaja en la búsqueda de resistencia varietal y control biológico para el manejo de estas plagas; los resultados futuros darán una respuesta positiva a estos problemas.El manejo integrado, que parece ser la forma más racional de luchar contra los insectos plaga, consiste en la combinación e integración de todas las técnicas disponibles para aplicarlas en forma armoniosa y mantener así los insectos plaga en niveles que no produzcan daño de importancia económica a los cultivos. El manejo integrado consiste, pues, en todas las técnicas disponibles y no únicamente en el control biológico y en los insecticidas; éstos son, sin lugar a dudas, dos de sus componentes básicos. entre otras. Las técnicas disponibles pueden ser muchas, pero es más importante, para que se apliquen exitosamente, que sean entendidas y utilizadas de manera correcta por los técnicos y por los agricultores.El control biológico se puede definir como el combate de las plagas mediante la utilización deliberada y sistemática de sus enemigos naturales. La acción de parásitos, predadores y patógenos mantiene la densidad de población de otros organismos en un nivel más bajo del que podrían tener en ausencia de aquellos. Esta forma de control tiene varias ventajas:• Relativamente permanente.• Económica.• Mantiene en buen nivel la calidad del ambiente.• Permite consumir alimentos no contaminados con plaguicidas.La idea de que una población de insectos podría ser reducida por otros insectos es antigua. Parece que se originó en China cuando utilizaron hormigas predadoras para controlar ciertas plagas de los cítricos. Este mismo sistema se sigue usando en la actualidad en algunos sitios de Asia.El parasitismo de insectos fue registrado, por primera vez, por el científico Vallisnieri (1661-1730) en Italia. Notó la asociación particular entre la avispa parásita Apanteles glomeratus y el gusano del repollo Pieris rapae.Los primeros parásitos para control biológico en cultivos agrícolas se usaron en Europa, principalmente en Alemania, Francia e Italia, durante el siglo XIX. Sin embargo, la ciencia del control biológico se desarrolló en Estados Unidos durante los siglos XIX y XX.El proyecto de control biológico de la escama algodonosa (Icerya purchasi), de los cítricos, en California, fue el primer ejemplo exitoso de dicho control. La escama había sido introducida en Australia y, en 1888, los entomólogos trajeron del mismo país dos enemigos naturales, uno de ellos el predador coccinélido \"Vedalia\" (Rodolia cardinalis). Las poblaciones de escamas disminuyeron rápidamente. La técnica de crianza masiva de parásitos y predadores y sus liberaciones periódicas para el control de plagas se desarrollaron en California, en 1919, con el proyecto del coccinélido Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, predador del piojo harinoso.Desde entonces, más de 96 proyectos de control biológico han sido completamente evaluados y se consideran sustancialmente exitosos; más de 66 han sido evaluados como parcialmente exitosos (DeBach, 1964) en muchas partes del mundo.En las últimas 2 décadas, instituciones como el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), en Colombia, el International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), en Africa, y la Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa), en Brasil, trabajan en colaboración para alcanzar valiosos logros en el cultivo de la yuca y en el control de varias plagas importantes; ellos han empleado con éxito el control biológico, tanto usando insectos como organismos entomopatógenos.• El uso del microhimenóptero Epidinocarsis lopezi para el control de Phenacoccus manihoti, en Africa, mediante liberaciones masivas del parasitoide.• El control del gusano cachón de la yuca, en Colombia, Brasil y Venezuela, con la aplicación de un baculovirus de Erinnyis ello, un virus encontrado en colonias del gusano cachón del CIAT desde 1973, que fue aplicado en Brasil a escala de cultivos comerciales desde los años 80, y en Venezuela, desde los 90.• El control biológico del ácaro verde de la yuca Mononychellus spp. con ácaros predadores de la familia Phytoseiidae, en Africa y Brasil.Lo expuesto anteriormente facilita el entendimiento de la definición de 'manejo de plagas'. Es un conjunto de acciones que obligan a entender que, antes de tratar de eliminar los insectos plaga, se debe aprender a convivir con ellos y a realizar un inteligente manejo de los recursos; se razona entonces no sólo en función económica sino también en función ecológica.El manejo de plagas (MP) es una categoría superior al control integrado porque, además de los factores considerados por éste, considera fundamentales varios principios biológicos y ecológicos. Reconoce que el estado al que llega una plaga es el resultado de la actividad humana que lleva plagas a regiones antes no infestadas cuando introduce plantas y animales exóticos en áreas nuevas, cuando produce variedades o razas de organismos y cuando simplifica los ecosistemas. Estas acciones son un resultado de las actividades agrícolas o industriales.Partiendo de las investigaciones realizadas por el CIAT sobre el gusano cachón Erinnyis ello, se puede elaborar un programa de manejo de este insecto empleando las diferentes técnicas que ofrece el Manejo Integrado de Plagas (MIP).Hay varios insectos parásitos y predadores, hay bacterias, hongos y virus que hacen factible el control de E. ello sin necesidad de recurrir a la aplicación de insecticidas que rompan el equilibrio que debe existir entre el gusano cachón y sus enemigos naturales (Cuadro 12-1). Si no se aplican insecticidas, no sólo se conservan los agentes entomófagos, sino que se evita hacer aplicaciones más frecuentes contra E. ello y se impide la aparición de otras plagas, especialmente ácaros, los cuales son más difíciles de manejar.Trichogramma spp. y Telenomus sp. ayuda a reducir las poblaciones del gusano cachón.Trichogramma es un parásito de mucha importancia, ya que se encuentra durante todo el año en los campos de yuca y hace un parasitismo superior al 50%; además, es fácil hacer su cría masal en el laboratorio. Se recomienda, en cada liberación, usar de 50 a 100 pulgadas por hectárea, las cuales se pueden dosificar para liberarlas en dos o tres jornadas por semana, en la medida en que emerjan los parasitoides. Esto equivale a liberar de 150,000 a 300,000 adultos por hectárea. Durante el período vegetativo se realizan de 5 a 10 liberaciones (establecidas en evaluaciones previas), que tienen un costo aproximado de US$25/ha. Es importante tener en cuenta el momento preciso para realizar las liberaciones de Trichogramma; se logra realizando evaluaciones periódicas en los lotes de yuca, con el fin de detectar en qué momento o época ocurren las mayores poblaciones de huevos de E. ello.No existe un patrón que sirva de base para indicar el número de huevos de Erinnyis con que se debe iniciar la liberación de Trichogramma spp., pero la experiencia de técnicos y agricultores indica que si se libera cuando aparecen las primeras posturas del gusano cachón, se puede establecer el parásito para controlar las súbitas poblaciones de E. ello que aparecen de un día para otro.Una liberación de Trichogramma debe hacerse cuando los huevos están recién colocados y presentan una coloración verde o amarilla. No puede permitirse que el huevo de E. ello se desarrolle mucho antes de hacer las liberaciones, porque en estos huevos se ha iniciado la formación de la cápsula cefálica de la larva y no son parasitados así por Trichogramma spp.Trichogramma austrilicum es una de las especies de mayor actividad parasítica sobre las posturas de E. ello (CIAT, 1977).Telenomus sphinguis es un parásito de huevos de E. ello y E. alope y tiene mucha importancia en la regulación de sus poblaciones. La duración del ciclo biológico de Telenomus sphinguis, de huevo a adulto, es de 11 a 14 días. Una hembra de este parásito puede dar origen a 228 huevos, con un promedio de 99 adultos.Enemigos naturales de las larvas. Cinco especies de predadores, varias de parasitoides y un virus patogénico atacan las larvas de esta plaga.Predadores. Dos avispas y una chinche son los más usados.• Polistes erythrocephalus, P. canadensis y P. carnifex. La capacidad de predación de los adultos depende del número de larvas propias que tengan sus nidos. En el CIAT se determinó que cada larva de Polistes consume diariamente 0.47 larvas de E. ello (CIAT, 1977;Martín, 1985).Los campos de yuca se pueden colonizar con nidos de Polistes colocados en casetas o ranchos. Los adultos prefieren los lugares sombreados, frescos, cercanos a las fuentes de agua para establecer sus colonias; por eso se han utilizado la guadua y hojas de palma en la construcción de las casetas. Se recomienda un rancho por cada 4 hectáreas y 20 nidos por rancho. Los nidos deben tener más de 50 celdas para que haya suficiente número de hembras y machos y se favorezca el establecimiento de nuevas colonias.• Podisus spp. (Hemiptera:Pentatomidae). Las especies más comunes son: Podisus obscurus y P. nigrispinus. Su importancia radica en la facilidad de su cría masiva y en su capacidad de predación. Durante toda su vida, una chinche de P. obscurus (Dallas) puede consumir entre 339 y 1023 larvas de primero y segundo instares (promedio: 720).El ciclo biológico de esta especie dura de 65 a 119 días y su promedio es de 97 días (Arias y Bellotti, 1989).Parasitoides. Varias especies se han usado con buenos resultados.  Gallego, 1950).Es posible la cría masiva del parásito para usarlo en programas de control biológico.• Drino sp., Belvosia sp. y Chetogena (Euphorocera) scutellaris. Son dípteros (moscas) que parasitan las larvas de E. ello; C. scutellaris tiene particular importancia por la posibilidad de su cría masal en el laboratorio y por la rapidez de su ciclo biológico.Patógenos controladores. Las larvas son atacadas por un virus de la granulosis nuclear (baculovirus de E. ello) y por la bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. Esta última se consigue comercialmente (lo que facilita su utilización) con los nombres de Dipel, Thuricide, Bactospeine y Biotrol.• Bacillus thuringiensis. Ensayos hechos en el CIAT mostraron que esta bacteria es efectiva contra todos los estados larvales (especialmente contra el primero y segundo instares), si se aplica en dosis de 3 a 4 g de producto comercial por litro de agua en aplicaciones terrestres, y de 800 a 1000 g/lt en aplicaciones aéreas. Este producto tiene la ventaja de no afectar ni a los enemigos naturales de E. ello ni a los demás insectos (Arias y Bellotti, 1977).• Baculovirus. Este virus tiene la ventaja, entre los agentes deseables para el manejo de plagas, de haber demostrado alta especificidad y virulencia respecto a la plaga. Los parásitos de huevos, como Trichogramma sp., son más abundantes en áreas donde se utiliza el Baculovirus erinnyis; estos dos agentes benéficos son los más eficientes controladores de Erinnyis ello (Arias et al., 1989;Torrecilla et al., 1992).• El baculovirus puede obtenerse de insectos infectados en el campo o a partir de una solución madre mantenida en el congelador; ésta se prepara partiendo del 'marandová' muerto (la larva) por la enfermedad (Arias y Bellotti, 1987;Torrecilla et al., 1992).• El baculovirus comienza a actuar sobre las larvas del gusano cachón cuando éstas ingieren las hojas contaminadas. Después de 4 días, las larvas enfermas comienzan a perder su capacidad de locomoción y de alimentación, quedando el cuerpo blanco y descolorido. Su muerte ocurre a partir del séptimo día cuando quedan suspendidas de la planta cabeza abajo (Torrecilla et al., 1992).Los resultados obtenidos en diferentes investigaciones realizadas con B. erinnyis señalan sus ventajas frente a la mayoría de los agentes de control biológico, ya que la cantidad de éstos disminuye cuando no disponen de su hospedante en el campo; el virus, en cambio, aunque no haya plaga, se puede almacenar para utilizarlo oportunamente varios años después (Arias y Bellotti, 1987;Torrecilla et al., 1992).Generalmente, las larvas atacadas por el virus se tornan lentas, regurgitan permanentemente y presentan residuos de excrementos adheridos a la zona anal. Las larvas negras toman una tonalidad brillante y se vuelven muy flácidas, quedando finalmente colgadas de la pseudopatas anales. Las larvas de color verde y amarillo, además de adquirir las características anteriores, desarrollan manchas de color marrón en los pliegues de algunos segmentos o en la parte central de éstos, como si fueran quemaduras hechas con cigarrillo. Finalmente, las larvas muertas se secan (Arias y Bellotti, 1987;Torrecilla et al., 1992).En el campo, las larvas afectadas por este virus se revientan, lo que contribuye a su propagación y a desencadenar una endemia que puede acabar con la plaga. Cuando las larvas han muerto, se descomponen por acción conjunta de otros microorganismos, especialmente bacterias, y emiten olores repugnantes. Por esta razón, es necesario refrigerar las larvas colectadas para obtener soluciones madre o para procesar o purificar el virus (Torrecilla et al., 1992).Una solución madre se prepara con larvas muertas maceradas; la solución se asperja directamente sobre las plantas. Para obtener una buena distribución del virus en el cultivo, se necesitan de 20 a 70 cc en 200 litros de agua, por hectárea (Torrecilla et al., 1992).Las siguientes indicaciones para el manejo del virus son importantes:• El Baculovirus erinnyis puede guardarse en el congelador en forma de larvas muertas o en solución (mezcla licuada), en bolsas plásticas o en frascos de vidrio tapados.• Se retira del congelador en el momento en que se utiliza y se usa la cantidad necesaria (Torrecilla et al., 1992).• No deben recolectarse larvas vivas o que hayan muerto por otras causas, o que ya estén en proceso de descomposición, para preparar la solución (Torrecilla et al., 1992).• La aspersión o pulverización debe hacerse en las horas frescas de la mañana (Torrecilla et al., 1992).• No conviene hacer la aspersión cuando las larvas están grandes (Torrecilla et al., 1992).• Es obligatorio realizar visitas periódicas a la plantación de yuca para detectar la plaga en el momento en que aparezca (Torrecilla et al., 1992).Recomendaciones. En sus primeros estadios del ciclo de vida, las larvas permanecen ocultas en el envés de las hojas terminales; por ello, al recorrer los campos es necesario examinar muy bien esta parte. Cuando se encuentren de 5 a 7 larvas de primero o segundo instar por planta, es el momento de aplicar el producto. Este nivel es flexible, dependiendo de la abundancia de enemigos naturales, de las condiciones climáticas, de la variedad de yuca, y de la edad y el vigor de la planta.El número de plantas que se revisan por hectárea depende del área plantada de la planta y de la disponibilidad de tiempo; un mínimo de cinco plantas por hectárea sería aceptable. Lo más conveniente es que, en extensiones superiores a 15 ha, haya un 'plaguero' (obrero entrenado) que esté revisando permanentemente los campos.Es importante recalcar que el éxito del control integrado depende de la oportuna aplicación de sus diferentes técnicas; los insecticidas, por ejemplo, son componentes valiosos de ese control, pero sólo se recurrirá a ellos cuando sea estrictamente indispensable.En ocasiones, los insectos benéficos no son suficientes para controlar el gusano cachón o sus larvas ya tienen un tamaño superior al del tercer instar; en este caso, las aplicaciones de insecticidas microbianos no tendrían la efectividad esperada. Se puede recurrir entonces a la aplicación de Dipterex sp. 80 (triclorfon) en dosis de 3 g de producto comercial por litro de agua para aplicaciones terrestres, y 600 a 800 g por hectárea para aplicaciones aéreas.Las trampas de luz ultravioleta ejercen atracción sobre los adultos del gusano cachón.Se ha observado que la lámpara de luz negra, tipo BL, y la lámpara de luz negra azulada, tipo BLB, son las más recomendables para las trampas que capturan el E. ello (Bellotti et al., 1983).Las trampas de luz no constituyen un método de control; permiten solamente conocer la fluctuación de las poblaciones de adultos de E. ello, las épocas de mayor y menor abundancia de la plaga; con esos datos se puede planificar mejor la aplicación de las diferentes técnicas que integran el manejo de plagas.En experimentos preliminares se capturaron hasta 3094 adultos en una noche y se determinó que el mayor número de individuos fueron atrapados entre las 12 p.m. y las 2 a.m.Esta información es importante porque, en los lugares donde no haya energía, las trampas sólo deben funcionar de 12 p.m. a 2 a.m. utilizando baterías o motores movidos por combustible (Bellotti et al., 1983).La recolección manual de larvas y pupas resulta muy efectiva para reducir las poblaciones del gusano cachón. Esta práctica es más aplicable en los campos donde se inician los ataques del insecto.En el Cuadro 12-2 se presentan, de manera resumida, las opciones de control de que se dispone en la actualidad para manejar las principales plagas que atacan la yuca. Normalmente aparecen plagas para las cuales los niveles de resistencia de la planta no existen o son muy bajos; sin embargo, para estas plagas puede existir un gran número de agentes de control biológico. También se da la situación en que los controladores naturales son escasos; afortunadamente se han encontrado niveles de resistencia muy aceptables.En la mayoría de los casos, las dos herramientas de control están disponibles y una de ellas es más eficiente que la otra. El control mediante la combinación de las dos es el ideal, junto con el empleo de prácticas agronómicas Cuadro 12-2. Opciones para controlar las plagas principales de la yuca.Opciones de control Referencias Gusano cachón Control biológico: Baculovirus como plaguicida; Arias y Bellotti, 1987; monitoría de poblaciones de adultos con trampas Bellotti et al., 1992;1999; de luz y recuento de huevos en el campo. Braun et al., 1993;Schmitt, 1988.Acaros RPH a : Niveles moderados de resistencia disponible en Bellotti et al., 1994;Braun et al., clones de yuca; es necesario un programa efectivo para 1989; Byrne et al., 1982;1983; incorporar la resistencia en cultivares comerciales.CIAT, 1999.Control biológico: Está disponible un complejo grande Bellotti et al., 1999; de predadores Phytoseiidae que puede reducir las Yaninek et al., 1991. poblaciones de ácaros; entomopatógenos (Neozygites) y virus han sido identificados y evaluados.Existen clones e híbridos con alto nivel de resistencia. Arias, 1995;Bellotti et al., 1994;1999;Castillo, 1996;CIAT, 1999. Control biológico: Enemigos, especialmente parasitoides, se han identificado y se están evaluando. Algunos entomopatógenos dan posibilidades de control.Piojos harinosos Resistencia adecuada no se ha encontrado en Bellotti et al., 1999; germoplasma de M. esculenta. Algunas especies de Bento et al., 1999  Bellotti et al.,1987;1999;de encaje Se han identificado enemigos naturales, pero faltan Calvacante y Ciociola, 1985; investigaciones sobre su eficacia. CIAT, 1990;Farías, 1985. a. RPH = Resistencia de planta hospedera.FUENTE: Bellotti, 2000.Se están hallando entomopatógenos para ácaros, piojo harinoso, mosca blanca, gusano cachón, chizas, chinche de la viruela, langostas y otros. Adicionalmente es necesario realizar investigaciones para desarrollar bioplaguicidas y metodologías para implementarlos efectivamente. Esta acción requiere enlaces de colaboración con la industria de bioplaguicidas, un proceso que ya se ha iniciado en Colombia con la producción del baculovirus de E. ello (Bellotti, 2000).Los agricultores tradicionales, en la mayoría de las regiones donde se cultiva yuca, han dependido de un conjunto de prácticas del cultivo que les han permitido una reducción efectiva de las poblaciones de la plaga (Lozano y Bellotti, 1985). Los intercultivos son una práctica común entre pequeños agricultores, que presenta una reducción en la población de la mosca blanca, del gusano cachón y de la chinche de la viruela, así como del daño que causan (Bellotti, 2000).Los agricultores podrían, sin embargo, ser renuentes a adoptar estas prácticas si las especies usadas en los intercultivos no son comercialmente aceptadas o si el rendimiento del cultivo de la yuca se reduce considerablemente. En las grandes plantaciones, donde la mecanización hace parte de las prácticas de producción, se podría ir en contra de la adopción del intercultivo. Otras prácticas culturales que pueden reducir la población de una plaga son la mezcla de variedades, la destrucción (quema) de residuos de la cosecha, la rotación de cultivos, la época de siembra, y el material de siembra de alta calidad y libre de plagas (Bellotti, 2000).En Africa, el control biológico clásico ha sido muy exitoso para manejar plagas introducidas. El manejo de muchas plagas de yuca en el neotrópico requiere mayor compromiso de los agricultores para lograr una efectiva implementación de soluciones (Bellotti et al., 1999). Numerosos estudios en campos de yuca de varias regiones del neotrópico han revelado un abundante complejo de especies de enemigos naturales de las plagas de importancia de ese cultivo. El CIAT mantiene una colección adecuadas, para tener éxito con este cultivo, minimizando el uso de pesticidas.Un exitoso programa de Manejo Integrado de Plagas (MIP) de la yuca debería estar en armonía con el medio ambiente, y las tecnologías para el manejo de las plagas deberían estar disponibles a un bajo costo para los agricultores de países en desarrollo (Bellotti, 2000).Las herramientas de biotecnología disponibles ofrecen, generalmente, el potencial para desarrollar variedades mejoradas resistentes a las plagas y aumentar la efectividad de los controladores naturales, incluyendo aquí los parasitoides y los entomopatógenos. La nueva generación de tecnologías genéticas para el manejo de plagas está siendo integrada actualmente con el tradicional MIP. Ofrece tecnologías alternativas para el control del barrenador del tallo de las hormigas cortadoras de hojas, la langosta, las chizas y otras plagas de difícil control. Esta investigación está ya en marcha y puede estar disponible para los agricultores en un futuro cercano (Bellotti, 2000).Los plaguicidas usados en los agroecosistemas tradicionales de yuca son muy pocos, debido a su alto costo y al largo ciclo del cultivo que puede hacer necesarias varias aplicaciones. Algunos agricultores en el neotrópico pueden responder con plaguicidas a explosiones de las plagas (Bellotti, 2000).Puesto que la producción de yuca se está realizando en grandes plantaciones, ha aumentado la tendencia a aplicar más plaguicidas para el control de estas explosiones; tal es el caso de ciertas áreas de Colombia, Venezuela y Brasil (Bellotti, 2000).Hay buenas posibilidades de remplazar el uso de plaguicidas químicos por bioplaguicidas en el manejo de las plagas en yuca; la efectividad del baculovirus contra el gusano cachón y su exitosa implementación, especialmente en las grandes plantaciones, es un ejemplo de esta posible tendencia (Bellotti, 2000). taxonómica de referencia para trabajo, con una base de datos sistematizada de las plagas de la yuca y sus enemigos naturales; esta información se encuentra disponible para productores, investigadores agrícolas y programas de extensión, taxónomos y museos (Bellotti, 2000).Los resultados de exploraciones y estudios indican que el control biológico natural está ocurriendo mucho en el neotrópico. Este fenómeno se esperaba por la diversidad de sistemas de cultivo; la yuca es un cultivo perenne y en él podría estar en equilibrio una asociación entre las plagas y sus enemigos naturales (Bellotti, 2000).El rompimiento de este sistema (por ejemplo, con el uso de plaguicidas) podría causar una explosión de la plaga. Como se describió, la población del ácaro verde de la yuca (M. tanajoa) en el norte de América del Sur está siendo regulado por un complejo de ácaros fitoseidos predadores que, al ser disturbados, provocan una reducción del rendimiento (Bellotti, 2000).Es posible aumentar la efectividad de la virulencia de los enemigos naturales mediante la ingeniería genética, lo que permite el aprovechamiento de este abundante complejo (Bellotti, 2000).El Banco de Germoplasma del CIAT ofrece a entomólogos y mejoradores más de 6000 variedades de yuca que tienen un grupo de genes de resistencia a las plagas. Como ya se mencionó, se han identificado niveles variables de resistencia para ácaros, mosca blanca, trips, chinche de la viruela, chinche de encaje y barrenadores del tallo (Bellotti, 2000).Las novedosas herramientas biotecnológicas que se encuentran disponibles permiten un eficiente y fácil acceso a genes resistentes y una más rápida manipulación de los niveles moleculares. Un considerable número de materiales del Banco de Germoplasma está continuamente plantado en campo y se halla disponible para hacer evaluaciones sistemáticas de resistencia a plagas (Bellotti, 2000).En el CIAT hay técnicas y metodologías disponibles para la cría masiva de la mayoría de las principales plagas de yuca, y también la descripción del daño y de las escalas de población para identificar germoplasma susceptible y resistente. Se necesita hacer evaluaciones seguras del germoplasma en el campo haciendo infestación natural o artificial. Algunos síntomas de daño de la mayoría de las plagas de yuca no se expresan verdaderamente en las evaluaciones hechas en plantas mantenidas en casa de malla o en invernadero, lo que resulta en una falsa identificación de la resistencia (Bellotti, 2000).Se han identificado variedades que poseen múltiple resistencia (o sea, para más de una plaga). Por ejemplo, MECU 72 contiene niveles altos de resistencia a mosca blanca, a trips y una moderada resistencia contra ácaros. Uno de los retos que confrontan los genetistas y los mejoradores podría ser incluir resistencia a enfermedades y artrópodos en una misma variedad (Bellotti, 2000).La principal fuente de resistencia a las plagas puede provenir de las especies silvestres de Manihot. Más de 100 de estas especies están siendo identificadas (Allem, 1994) y una pequeña colección de ellas existe en algunas localidades (entre ellas CIAT, Embrapa-Brasil e IITA) (Bellotti, 2000).El mapa genético-molecular de la yuca se está desarrollando (Fregene et al., 1997;ver Capítulo 21) y ésta podría ser una herramienta muy útil para desarrollar plantas transgénicas de yuca con resistencia a las plagas (usando otras especies de Manihot) (Bellotti, 2000).Los proyectos de MIP en yuca son pocos y la decisión de realizar guías y estrategias requeridas para una apropiada implementación de opciones de control no están disponibles para los pequeños agricultores en un sistema de producción tradicional (Bellotti, 2000).Esta ausencia se siente fuertemente en los sistemas de cultivo de grandes extensiones, donde la implementación de un efectivo sistema MIP, basado en el control biológico y en variedades resistentes, es decisivo para sostener un alto rendimiento; esto es especialmente cierto en el neotrópico, donde existe un gran complejo de artrópodos plaga y de enfermedades (Bellotti, 2000).Una propuesta efectiva para los productores de yuca, que permite superar la lenta difusión de la tecnología, es el uso de métodos participativos con agricultores, en las que se incluya al sector privado en la planeación de la investigación y en sus objetivos. La implementación exitosa en un cultivo de un proyecto piloto de MIP desarrollado con agricultores tradicionales en el nordeste de Brasil, es un ejemplo real de que es posible aplicar esta metodología (Bellotti, 2000).","tokenCount":"5865"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0a10399bde80235d5d43ec595604c6f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc5fcf47-8e0a-4452-b253-3d475dde05fe/retrieve","id":"785896399"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ad76c9a8-e9fe-4d99-bf13-1e098eb2427a","pagecount":"6","content":"Tropical Forages Program y Strategies such as the Policy Guidelines, promoted for the cattle sector in Colombia since 2016 through the work carried out by the Colombian Roundtable for Sustainable Cattle (MGS-Col), establish the political and practical roadmap for the transition to socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable cattle systems. These guidelines serve as participatory alternatives where, through dialogues among multiple stakeholders from different links of the value chain, a common framework for the sustainability of cattle landscapes is consolidated. y Policy guidelines require institutional and financial support to solidify as roadmaps for sustainable cattle production in the country. National government leadership is necessary to coordinate institutions along the cattle value chain. Isabela Rivas / CIATCattle farming is one of the most economically relevant agricultural activities in the Colombia (Fedegan, 2023). However, traditional methods of cattle farming have significant social and environmental impacts, such as land grabbing, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and growing deforestation (Castro-Nuñez et al., 2017;Murillo-Sandoval et al., 2022;MADS 2020). In response, in recent years, various public and private strategies (see Table 1) have focused on promoting the productive transformation of cattle systems towards sustainability that drive greenhouse gas emissions reduction, contribute to climate change adaptation, and enhance the productivity and profitability of the sector.Several of these strategies focused on goals related to deforestation control, strengthening the value chain, adopting sustainable practices, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The above has allowed the country to make progress in improving the productivity of the cattle sector and in implementing more resilient and adaptable systems to the challenges posed by climate change. From the continuity of these conversations and initiatives for sector improvement, Resolution 126 of 2022 emerges, which establishes the Policy Guidelines for Sustainable Cattle -GBS / 2022 -2050 (Lineamientos de Política para la Ganadería Bovina Sostenible, LPGBS). The objective is to set the roadmap for cattle farming in Colombia in the coming years, defining the foundationsVISIÓN AMAZONIA Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Reducing deforestation levels to zero in the Amazon by the year 2020. Generating improvements in the value-added of the value chain by fostering collaborative schemes, increasing the education levels of stakeholders, and promoting environmentally sustainable production.Over 70 participants from the public and private sectors Promoting the implementation of sustainable production systems through the promotion of silvo-pastoral systems.Involvement of more than 100 public and private institutions at the national and regional levels.Responsible for implementing actions of the national roundtable in each of the prioritized regions. Public policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by beef and dairy value chains.Agreements between the public and private sectors, government members, and organizations, seeking to reduce deforestation and mitigate the effects of climate change.Fondo Colombia Sostenible, Alliance Bioversity -CIAT Planning cattle farming in harmony with the environment until the year 2050.Program responsible for transitioning from extensive cattle farming to a sustainable production scheme. Although the construction process of LPGBS began in 2016 and involved the participation of more than 40 public and private institutions in national and regional discussion spaces in the 15 regional roundtables, there has not been adequate progress in implementing the initial strategies established in the LPGBS Action Plan. Currently, the institutions participating in the construction process view the implementation of the initial strategies with doubts and reservations.The present document analyzes the current state of the LPGBS to identify existing difficulties and determine strategies to promote sustainability in cattle systems through capacity building among various stakeholders. The methodology used is based on a mixed methods approach. First, a literature review was conducted on studies related to the evaluation of public policies, knowledge transfer, and education in the national cattle sector. This information was complemented by 26 key informant interviews with experts representing public and private institutions in Colombia who participated in the design of the LPGBS. These interviews provided updated information, as well as key perspectives and practical experiences to understand current challenges and identify the capacities needed to transition towards sustainable cattle farming in Colombia.The LPGBS emerge from the need to build policy tools that address the persistent challenges of the cattle sector, such as low productivity, increasing greenhouse gas emissions,  Revisiting, from the perspective of various stakeholders, the narratives surrounding the construction of the LPGBS revealed significant difficulties in terms of institutional coordination.y The institutional weakness of some government entities to lead the discussion and design of the LPGBS was repeatedly and prominently mentioned. This was reflected in the low participation of ministries in the construction spaces and generated little trust among stakeholders and institutions.y The presence of egos and divergent political agendas created barriers to the participation of all actors involved in the discussions within the MGS-Col. In terms of representativeness, some interviewed actors expressed the absence of representatives of small-and mediumscale producers in these spaces, defining them primarily as dialogues between institutions.Our informants also identified barriers in the implementation process:y The uncertainty caused by the implementation of the action plan is leading to inter-institutional disarticulation, despite the achievements and progress made in the spaces of the MGS-Col. The collaborative work of these spaces has started to lose strength, and for the actors involved in the development of the LPGBS, this is a clear signal that an important opportunity to drive the transition in the sustainability of cattle production in the country is being lost.y The establishment of an information and traceability system to implement control and monitoring mechanisms for cattle farming in the country is facing delays. There are currently issues in the fulfillment and coordination of these programs, making it difficult to establish measurement and control standards in the sector. An example of this is the SINIGAN traceability system, established in Law 914 of 2004 and managed by the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA), which has not reached the expected level of implementation, and adoption by the cattle sector has been low.y The rural multipurpose cadaster. The outdated cadastral information, limited data availability, and the lack of updated information related to land ownership, use, and location greatly hinder the implementation of many national government policies, including initiatives related to sustainability and productive improvement in the cattle sector.The future of the LPGBS is currently uncertain. The implementation of the action plan has not progressed as expected during the formulation stages. Actors mention the lack of will on the part of the national government to start implementing programs identified as priorities within the action plan as a decisive factor. This lack of leadership creates doubts among various value chain actors, and the fear that the work done in recent years may be lost is palpable.Within the LPGBS design process, some early achievements emerged through national and regional discussion spaces.y A shared criterion of social, environmental, and productive sustainability. The LPGBS design process generated a comprehensive strategy, consolidated in the sustainability approach at the cattle landscape level. This approach allows for understanding sustainability as a quest for the implementation of sustainable practices and technologies in ecosystems and landscapes. It integrates considerations about the social and economic contexts and needs present in the cattle regions of the country as central elements.y Regional participation through the consolidation of regional roundtables. The dynamics of these construction spaces are highlighted even in the context of uncertainty at the national level.y The integration of initiatives such as the Zero Deforestation Agreements, conservation agreements, cattle extension programs, and financing and education programs. The coordination of various initiatives under the common framework generated by the LPGBS will enhance their reach in regions where there are deficiencies in providing opportunities for small and medium-sized producers.The necessary capacities among sector actors, identified as priorities during interviews with key stakeholders, can be grouped into three major categories: i) knowledge, ii) institutions, and iii) infrastructure.y The creation of a standardized curriculum nationwide that allows for the education of young technicians, technologists, and professionals in sustainable cattle production. While there are currently sustainable cattle programs driven by the National Learning Service (SENA), and educational offerings in some regions, it is necessary to construct a curriculum that aligns with the sustainability objectives established in the LPGBS and seeks points of dialogue with the traditional knowledge of cattle farming in regions where it is an important part of the cultural values.y Rural extension programs that can be sustained over time.Additionally, the promotion and dissemination of financial programs for investment in sustainable production systems. These aspects are identified as crucial since they are pillars for creating the necessary basic conditions for productive transformation and are seen as important tools for engaging young cattle farmers.y Addressing the infrastructure needs that require attention.There is a need to improve the road infrastructure in many areas where cattle is present, allowing for connectivity with other links in the value chain.The transition towards sustainable cattle production systems faces numerous technical and institutional challenges. The results of this research reveal the existence of barriers in the implementation of the LPGBS. These, in turn, are linked to pre-existing difficulties in the design and discussion stage of the policy. Challenges during the design stage were associated with a lack of leadership from national government institutions and the establishment of a common framework for sustainability. Currently, the main challenge is identified as the low coordination among various institutions and the lack of support and political will from the national government to execute the action plan.The actors involved in the design process emphasize the need to prioritize the implementation of an integrated information and traceability system that allows for constant monitoring and evaluation of progress in sustainability. They also highlight the importance of tangible improvement in the road infrastructure in the country's cattle regions to connect small-and medium-scale producers, as well as strengthening initiatives in rural education and technical assistance to close educational gaps and create incentives for young people.These findings underscore the importance of conducting early policy assessments that allow for on-the-go corrections. The transformation towards a sustainable cattle sector requires not only the cohesion of actors in the value chain but also constant support and guidance from the government through its institutions.","tokenCount":"1668"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b3be90f8f93d66dc30496dcc711aaff1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5296524c-9d5b-4e50-8180-0513e45b2071/retrieve","id":"-1787639941"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"83c4c8cd-dfcb-41ed-a87d-b9e6251df5fa","pagecount":"5","content":"Demand for five cereals (maize, millet, rice, sorghum and wheat) is projected to increase between 2015 and 2050 by a factor 2.8 in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) due to population increase and dietary changes.◼ To meet this demand, SSA could achieve selfsufficiency in 2050 using existing cereal cropland area, but only just so. Yields would have to increase between 2015 and 2050 from current levels, which are about 20-40% of the agronomic yield potential under rainfed conditions, to ca. 80% of that potential. This is an unprecedented rate of yield increase for rainfed systems in the world.◼ To enable the required yield increases, crop nutrient requirements will have to increase enormously, to -for example -an average minimum requirement of 140 kg nitrogen (N)/ha for maize, which is the most widely planted cereal in SSA. This is equivalent to a 15-fold increase between 2015 and 2050.◼ If cereal demand will be fulfilled in SSA, by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from cereal production will be at least 50% higher than in 2015 due to the larger production, regardless whether scenarios of intensification or crop area expansion will be followed.◼ Intensification of cereal production with sufficient and efficient use of fertilizers will lead to lowest GHG emissions, but requires excellent agronomy, including the use of well-adapted cultivars, proper planting densities, good nutrient management and crop protection against weeds, pests and diseases.Cereals play a central role in food security in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where they account for approximately 50% of caloric intake and total crop area. Cereal demand in the region is projected to nearly triple between 2015 and 2050 due to rapid population growth (van Ittersum et al. 2016). Increases in cereal yields are very slow in most SSA countries and agricultural area expansion is still an important means to keep up with the growing demand, causing losses of forests or grasslands, thereby reducing carbon stocks. At the same time the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP21) Agreement aims to keep global warming below 2 °C or even 1.5 °C by 2100. SSA has already seen a continuous increase in emissions from agriculture-driven deforestation between 1990 and 2015. Yet, intensification, i.e. higher yields per hectare with sufficient and judicious use of inputs, will also lead to higher emissions per unit area because of the required fertiliser use. This info note summarizes results of three recent studies that assessed whether SSA can be self-sufficient in cereals by 2050 under different scenarios of intensification on existing cereal area. For each scenario, yield increases and area expansion to meet cereal demand by 2050 were assessed. Increased demands for fertiliser use and associated GHG emissions were quantified.population growth and dietary change for ten countries (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia; Figure 1).Whilst the population of these countries is projected to increase by a factor 2.3, dietary changes will lead to a total increase in cereal demand of a factor 2.8 (2050 relative to 2015). The ten countries represent 52% of the population and 58% of the cropland in SSA. To assess whether the increase in cereal demand can be met by increasing production, spatially differentiated yield potentials under rainfed conditions were simulated for current cereal cropland using crop growth models. Detailed findings are available in the Global Yield Gap Atlas (www.yieldgap.org). Four different intensification scenarios were assessed: 1) In 2050, per-ha cereal yields are the same as today (the year 2015); 2) Cereal yield trends over the period 1991-2014 are extrapolated to 2050; 3) In 2050, cereal yields are 50% of water-limited potential yield (Yw); 4) In 2050, cereal yields are 80% of Yw. In all of these, the levels and spatial distribution of Yw are assumed to remain as they are today, thus not including effects of climate change.We show that cereal self-sufficiency in SSA in 2050 is possible with current cereal area, but only just so (Figure 2). Current yields of ca. 20-40% of yield potential will have to increase to ca. 80% of the potential, which requires an unprecedented steep and continuous increase in production for rainfed systems. While for some countries (Mali and Ethiopia) current trends in cereal yields would suffice to achieve selfsufficiency in 2050, most countries will not be selfsufficient by 2050 even if farmers achieve 80% of the yield potential. Eighty percent of the yield potential is what farmers achieve today in parts of Europe or the United States. Assuming free trade between countries within West and East Africa, respectively, the selected five countries per region could together just achieve regional self-sufficiency with 80% of rainfed yield potential on current cropland (Figure 2).Nutrient limitations are amongst the main causes of yield gaps in SSA (Sanchez 2015). Current nutrient inputs are extremely low in SSA (FAO 2019) and intensification will therefore require substantial increases in nutrient inputs. We assessed minimum nutrient (nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P and potassium-K) input requirements for increasing levels of yield gap closure of maize, the dominant crop in SSA. Minimum nutrient input requirements of maize were calculated using high agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (N-AE) based on a long-term equilibrium model. In addition, nutrient input requirements for maize were also estimated using current empirical mean N-AE, obtained from large sets of on-farm experiments in SSA.We estimate that minimum nitrogen requirements for maize crops with ca. 80% of rainfed yield potential will be ca. 140 kg N/ha, while current average fertilizer inputs are ca. 10 kg N/ha (all results are available on www.yieldgap.org). Current phosphorus and potassium inputs are on average very low to negligible (less than 5 kg/ha). Whilst on the short-term soil P and K supply might be sufficient for crop growth, on the long-term, P and K applications should also increase to avoid future soil depletion. Our results therefore show that conventional maize production techniques in most areas in the investigated countries deplete soil nutrients. Future food demands will most likely aggravate this. Even sustaining 2015 average yields into the future will require at least three times more nitrogen and phosphorus input than the amounts currently reported by FAOSTAT. Required nitrogen inputs vary with the level of agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (Figure 3). If farmers minimize nitrogen losses and manage crop, soil and nutrients to build soil fertility over the years, they will only need the 'minimum nitrogen requirement' (green color) in the long term. This presumes a high nitrogen use efficiency of ca. 50 kg grain per kg N input. Failing to build up soil fertility will increase annual input requirements (yellow color). Finally, if nitrogen use efficiency remains at its current low rate (14 kg grain per kg N input in on-farm experiments), even higher nitrogen inputs would be required (blue color). The latter estimates have little practical relevance: it is highly unlikely that the target yields are attainable without lifting barriers (poor management) that are causing today's low agronomic N efficiency in the first place. Applying such high N doses to poorly managed crops will only exacerbate N losses including GHG emissions.Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in crop production are mostly caused by the production and use of nitrogen fertilisers (intensification), and by the conversion of forest and grassland to cropland (area expansion) which accelerates the oxidation of natural carbon stocks in soil and vegetation. Policies which are good for food security and for the climate must therefore seek to strike an optimum balance between these two pathways.The impact of achieving cereal self-sufficiency by 2050 on GHG emissions was assessed for the same (above) ten countries and the same four yield increase scenarios. If yield increases by intensification based on fertiliser use were not sufficient to achieve self-sufficiency in 2050, we assumed complementary crop area expansion and related loss of forest and grasslands. For each of the four scenarios, we assumed that individual countries or SSA in total (through mutual trade) aim for self-sufficiency in cereal production in 2050. Crop area expansion decreased from Scenario 1 to 4; required crop area expansion in Scenarios 1 and 2 exceeded potential cropland availability (Chamberlin et al. 2014) indicating that these scenarios are not realistic options for selfsufficiency. To compare the different scenarios in terms of GHG emissions we nevertheless assumed that such land expansion would take place. In summary, the four scenarios were: 1) In 2050, cereal yields are the same as today (the year 2015); Scenario 2) Actual cereal yield trends over the period 1991-2014 are extrapolated to 2050; Scenario 3) In 2050, cereal yields are 50% of water-limited potential yield (Yw); Scenario 4) In 2050, cereal yields are 80% of Yw. in all scenarios, Yw in 2050 was assumed the same as in 2015.Intensification brings lower GHG emissions than expansion scenarios but gains in GHG depend on the level of N-AE achieved (Figure 4). Regardless of scenario, GHG emissions from maize cultivation will at least double between 2015 and 2050. Under high agronomic nitrogen use efficiency, intensifying to 80% of Yw (Scenario 4) led to ca. 4 times less GHG emissions than assuming no intensification (Scenario 1) and 3 times less than assuming current yield trends (Scenario 2).In conclusion, we assessed that intensification (more production per ha on existing land) is clearly superior to area expansion in terms of climate change mitigation, but only if current N-AE values are increased to levels that are commonly achieved in e.g. the United States, and which have been demonstrated to be feasible in some locations in SSA. As such, intensifying cereal production with good agronomy and nutrient management is essential to moderate inevitable increases in GHG emissions. Sustainably increasing crop production in SSA is therefore a daunting challenge in the coming decades.Increasing fertiliser use in SSA may come with additional synergies or trade-offs. Use of N fertilizer can increase soil carbon stocks by (1) increasing biomass, which can increase the amount of organic residue returned to the soil (directly, after composting, or, after feeding to animals, as animal manure), or (2) improving the carbonto-nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio), which increases the rate at which soil organic carbon forms when crop residues are incorporated into the soil (Hijbeek et al 2019). In this way for regions with low yields, increasing yields by applying more nutrients can generate a positive feedback between soil fertility and crop yields (Hijbeek et al 2019). Combining organic and mineral fertilizers leads to the largest increases in soil carbon. The increase in soil organic carbon can offset some of the emissions from mineral nitrogen fertilisers to help mitigate climate change, however, at the field level, usually cannot compensate for all agricultural GHG emissions. Also, once an equilibrium is reached for soil carbon, nitrogen fertilizer emissions will continue, yielding net emissions annually. Surplus nitrogen may also be emitted to surface and groundwater. Best management practices for nitrogen use efficiency, including improved seeds, planting density, time of sowing, and better management of weeds, and pests and diseases, can help to minimize emissions annually. Together, these findings show that more attention is needed to potential synergies between increasing yields, soil carbon sequestration and avoided expansion of agricultural land in high carbon landscapes, and trade-offs with N2O, nitrate and other emissions.Although being self-sufficient in cereals is not a necessary aim for individual countries, regional selfsufficiency in major agricultural commodities is a common goal for the African continent (African Development Bank 2015). Substantial dependence on food imports is only possible if economic development is sufficient to afford them, while economic development of low-income countries to support such imports requires strong agricultural development. Until now, area expansion has been a major contributor to the increase of food production in SSA. This is not sustainable for several reasons: (i) land area is limited; (ii) expansion comes at great loss of biodiversity; and as we show in this brief (iii) it causes substantial GHG emissions. While we show that some increase of GHG emissions to feed a greatly expanding population is probably unavoidable, this increase can clearly be mitigated by intensifying agriculture in a responsible manner. The challenge will be to transition African agriculture from a soil-mining and low productivity activity towards a highly efficient activity with minimum emissions while avoiding the mistakes of overuse and mismanagement of nutrients made on other continents, and achieving this in just three decades. That challenge is unprecedented. This will require supportive international, national and regional policies that enable cost-effective integrated soil fertility management. Support should include: ◼ Improved physical infrastructure and financial mechanisms are necessary to ensure widespread availability and affordability of farm inputs.◼ Government, development agencies, and private sector agricultural extension efforts must intensify support to good agronomic crop and soil management and associated risk management, from planting (adapted genotypes, sanitized seed, timely soil preparation and proper seed rate) to healthy growth (weed control and protection from pest and diseases) to harvest and post-harvest technology and grain storage facilities that prevent waste or farmers being forced to sell at rock bottom prices.◼ Technical advisors should support farmers to use sufficient nutrient inputs efficiently, applied at the right time and place, from a combination of organic and mineral fertilizers, which generally leads to the highest efficiency and best build-up of soil fertility (Hijbeek et al. 2019).","tokenCount":"2183"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b713949834247fb918ca8cf1492a77dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a73ba335-c93d-41a6-a280-c8ca4b4d9a74/retrieve","id":"-416282226"},"keywords":["biofertilizer","biological properties","biotic constraint","meta-analysis","mushroom","organic banana","spent mushroom waste"],"sieverID":"2ac2cd19-a5e8-4726-abfe-baccbcaf7347","pagecount":"10","content":"Manipulation of the rhizosphere can improve soil health; and foster sustainable management of pests and diseases. Biological inputs such as spent substrates from edible mushrooms (e.g., Pleurotus ostreatus) gardens offer sustainable alternatives on that direction. This work presents a meta-analysis of major trends in knowledge generation on edible mushroom use in agriculture, especially to benefit the crop rhizosphere. It further delves into a detailed synthesis of the effects of spent mushroom wastes (SMW) on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil rhizosphere and agroecosystems. The review concludes by providing an outlook on how SMW can potentially support the management of key soil health challenges in organic banana production systems.The increasing global demand for safe and healthy foods produced using environmentally sound approaches has catapulted the importance of organic farming. Soil health, considered as the continued capacity of soils to function as a vital living ecosystem to sustain plants, animals, and humans (Karlen et al., 2003;Kibblewhite et al., 2008) is an integral component of this. Healthy soils provide regulating and supporting ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, water infiltration and retention, gas exchange, pest and disease suppression, biodiversity, and storage of carbon, many of which highly impact agricultural productivity (Lal, 2016;Barrios, 2007;Drinkwater et al., 2017).Management of soil health has over the past few decades received an increased attention in the context of sustainable agriculture. For organic systems, this requires the elimination or reduction of the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals for the management of biotic constraints and meeting plant nutrient needs. Soil management strategies that promote soil health include increasing crop diversity, crop rotations, avoiding mechanical soil disturbance, and adding organic amendments (Kibblewhite et al., 2008;Moebius-Clune et al., 2016). These measures can be applied in combination, depending on the context of the farming systems. The use of organic amendments (manures, bio-pesticides, and biofertilizers) is constrained by challenges related to access, availability, and the tedious and often complex methods of preparation (Ghanghas et al., 2021). Spent wastes of edible mushrooms (SMW) and their composts (SMC) offer an opportunity for bridging some of the demand for soil organic amendments in organic banana systems.Edible mushroom production has increased over the past two decades (FAO, 2022), resulting in large quantities of waste. Mushrooms are macrofungal species with members falling within the phylum Basidiomycota and phylum Ascomycota (Cao et al., 2021). About 67% of the 3000 known edible fungal spp. are consumed by humans (Li et al., 2021). Nearly 100 spp. are cultivated with about 30 spp. commercially cultivated for food (Chang, 1999;Li et al., 2021). Global mushroom consumption from 1993 to 2013 increased from 1 to 4.7 kg fresh weight person -1 year -1 (Royse et al., 2017). Mushrooms are also an important source of pharmaceutical products (Li et al., 2021).In 2020, global mushroom trade reached USD 54.6 billion, with production exceeding 40 million t, a 300% increase from the year 2001 (IMARC Group, 2021;FAO, 2022). Rajavat et al. (2022) predict a growth in mushroom trade of over USD 87 billion by 2025. For each kg of mushroom, about 5 kg of SMW is produced (Prabu et al., 2014). Thus, about 200 million t of SMW was produced in 2020. This SMW poses a challenge of disposal due to its negative environmental impacts (Jasińska, 2018). However, SMS and their composts contain large amounts of mineral nutrients, lignocellulolytic enzymes and microbial biomass, making them suitable for agricultural use (Catal and Peksen, 2020). SMW have been reported to improve soil physical, biological and chemical parameters (Marin et al., 2014); and to suppress soil borne pests and diseases (Suárez-Estrella et al., 2012;Marin et al., 2014;Adedeji and Aduramigba, 2016;Ocimati et al., 2021). This review conducts a meta-analysis of publications to determine the major trends on the benefit of SMW in the rhizosphere through improvement of soil physical, chemical, and biological properties. The review concludes by providing an outlook on how SMW can potentially support the management of key soil health constraints in organic banana production systems.A literature search was conducted in four available electronic databases: AGRIS, CAB Abstracts, SciVerse Scopus, and ProQuest. These are major comprehensive databases for research in agricultural and life sciences. Databases were searched from their first entries up to June 2022 using two search strings, one for each category (spent mushroom substrate, edible mushrooms) and while combining them with the Boolean operator \"AND\" to obtain the intersection. Due to limited resources for translation, publication in languages other than English were excluded. Duplicates were identified using queries targeting identical digital object identifiers, titles, authors, or first 50 characters of the abstract. Articles without an abstract or articles clearly indexed either as review, editorial, or errata were excluded. The articles were then screened to remove those not related to the theme of the study.The contents of the papers were first coded into broad themes of biology and genetics, functional food, industrial applications, environmental applications, and agricultural applications. Papers on agricultural applications of edible mushrooms were further synthesised in to use as animal feeds, biofertilizers and biocontrol of pests and diseases.The review then delved into agricultural uses of SMW as biocontrol agents and biofertilizer. Biofertilizer aspects included mushroom waste effects on soil physical, chemical and biological properties whereas the biocontrol aspects included mushroom effects on pathogenic fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and soil microbial diversity. The mechanisms of pest and disease suppression were also elucidated. The data were summarized and synthesised using MS excel and visualizations were performed using R version 4.2.1 (R Core Team, 2022).A total of 1,851 publications were obtained from the period 1936 to 2022. Limited publications (121 publications) on edible mushrooms were observed between 1936 and 1996, with a predominant focus on the biology of the fungi. The period between 1985 and 2022 saw a proliferation in publications with additional subjects including the application of the fungi in agriculture, environment, functional foods, and industrial use (Figure 1A). This proliferation could be attributed to the increased consumption of mushrooms and the increased digitalization of data.The highest number of publications (35%) focused on the biology and genetics of the fungi. Mushroom use in agriculture (23%) and environment (17%) also ranked highly. Thirteen and 12% of the publications, respectively, focused on functional foods and industrial use of mushrooms. On average, approximately between 7 and 17 publications have been published annually on each of the five themes above over the period 1985 to 2022 (Figure 1B). Out of 427 publications that focused on agricultural application of mushrooms or their wastes, 69, 16 and 15%, respectively, focused on mushroom or SMS use as biofertilizers, animal feed and biocontrol agents. On average, 5 manuscripts have been published annually on spent mushroom waste (SMW) use as biofertilizer between the period 1985 and 2022, while their use as animal feed and biocontrol averaged at 3 publications per annum (Figure 1C). These findings suggest that SMS use in the field of agriculture is still new and/or underdeveloped.In the field of biocontrol, the meta-analysis revealed a diverse genus of edible mushrooms to be suppressive (Figure 2A) to different biotic constraints. Pleurotus and Lentinula were the most prevalent genera, while P. ostreatus was the most prevalent mushroom species reported in publications. SMS use in the management of fungal pathogens (58%) dominated the publications on biotic constraints (Figure 2B). Publications on SMW use in the management of bacterial pathogens (16%) and nematodes (12%) were also common. Other publications on biotic factors covered SMW use for mycotoxin degradation (9%), insect pest control (4%), and control of parasitic weeds (2%) (Figure 2A). Table 1 summarizes some of the pathogens and pests that have been reported to be suppressed by SMW in the form of SMS, SMC and extracts/teas.   A diverse range of mechanism of suppression of plant pathogens and pests by SMW have been proposed in literature (Table 1; Figure 2C). Suppression through secondary metabolites or enzymes (33% of publications), was the predominantly reported mechanism of suppression by SMW (Figure 2C). Modulation of plant defence responses (16%), promotion of secondary metabolites (13%) and plant growth promotion are other highly reported mechanisms. Other mechanisms of pest and disease suppression in publications included, modification of the soil environment, predation, mycotoxin degradation, and competition for resources (Figure 2C). Use of SMW of different edible mushroom spp. as biofertilizers have been reported in literature, with A. bisporus and P. ostreatus, predominating (Figure 3A). Publications on SMW use as biofertilizers covered different biological, physical, and chemical soil properties (Figure 3B). Themes on SMW use as biofertilizers covered SMW effects on crop growth attributes (vigor, yield, and nutritional quality), soil nitrogen, soil organic matter (SOM), phosphorus, soil pH and potassium (Figure 3B). Edible mushrooms are grown on agricultural by-products and lignocellulosic wastes such as coffee husks, corn cobs, rice husks and cotton seeds (Sánchez, 2010). SMW thus contain diverse and high levels of SOM, macro-and micronutrients, and are suitable for improving soil pH, SOM and soil nutrient levels. For example, soil pH, SOM, total N, total P, total K, total Ca and Mg levels in SMS varying respectively from 6.0 to 8.25, 407-740 g kg -1 , 17-28 g kg -1 , 7-38 g kg -1 , 11-34 g kg -1 , 3-101 g kg -1 , and 0.6-39 g kg -1 have been reported (Jordan et al., 2008;Paredes et al., 2016). Unlike inorganic fertilizers, SMW have a slow mineralization and release nutrients slowly, making them a suitable source for these nutrients. The SMW can be used immediately after mushrooms harvesting or after composting/ vermicomposting to homogenize and stabilize it (Marıń-Benito et al., 2016). Other themes in literature included SMW effects on soil structure, microbial diversity, micro elements, soil moisture, temperature, soil macrofauna and degradation of pollutants. Table 2 summarizes some of the benefits of using SMW as biofertilizers in different crop species.Table 2. Summary of findings on the biofertilizer related benefits arising from the use of spent edible mushroom waste from some sampled publications.Benefits in the soil rhizosphere Citation Improvement of crop growth (high vigor), and yield attributes Kadiri and Mustapha, 2010 Improvement of soil organic carbon and matter Li et al., 2020;Becher et  Soil health management is a core challenge for organic production systems due to the heavy reliance on inorganic chemicals for improving soil nutrient availability, and managing weeds, pests, and diseases. Key soil health challenges in banana systems include the banana parasitic nematodes; soil borne pathogens, mainly Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) and low soil fertility (Dita et al., 2020;Blomme et al., 2020).Plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) affect banana production globally. The most important banana nematode species include Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus spp., Meloidogyne spp., and Helicotylenchus multicinctus (Gaidashova et al., 2009;Lara Posadas et al., 2016). These PPN damage plant roots affecting their ability to take up water and nutrients from the soil reducing plant vigour and yield. Plants with heavily damaged roots become vulnerable to toppling. The damaged roots also become entry points for soil borne pathogens such as Foc. Yield losses of up to 51% have been reported for East African highland banana cultivars due to nematode damage (Speijer and Kajumba, 2000). The management of PPN is challenging due to their rapid population build-up and the presence of multiple alternative host plants (Atolani and Fabiyi, 2020). Use of nematicides, though effective, has potential negative environmental and health effects (Gowen, 1997) and are prohibited for organic systems. The above findings show SMW to have nematicidal effects on different nematode spp. in other crops (Table 1). Thus, SMW could potentially be beneficial for the management of banana nematodes.Fusarium wilt caused by Foc is the main soil borne threat to banana production. Foc that is mainly spread through the infected planting materials and contaminated soil and water, has significantly impacted the banana industry and livelihoods of smallholder farmers (Ploetz, 2015;Dita et al., Banana production is especially threatened by the more recent outbreaks and spread of the Foc TR4 strain that has caused yield losses of up to 100% in Cavendish banana that currently dominates the banana export market (Dita et al., 2020). Foc has a long survival/residence time in soil and can survive on alternative hosts making fields unsuitable for susceptible banana cultivars for decades (Dita et al., 2020), thus complicating its management. This study shows (Table 1) SMW to suppress fungal pathogens including the genus Fusarium. Ocimati et al. (2021) also showed SMS of P. ostreatus to suppress Foc in-vitro and under screenhouse conditions using both sterile and naturally infested field soils. Assessing the potential of SMW of a wider range of edible mushroom species to suppress Foc (including Foc TR4) under field conditions is recommended. In addition, studies to elucidate the mechanisms of Foc suppression by SMW are also needed.Wastes from different species of edible mushrooms have been shown to suppress a diverse range of bacterial pathogens (Table 1). In banana, important bacterial pathogens include Xanthomonas vasicola pv. musacearum (Xvm), Ralstonia solanacearum and R. syzygii subsp. celebesensis (Blomme et al., 2017). Though the rhizosphere is not a major route for Xvm spread, it is important for Ralstonia spp. Existing literature already shows the suppression of Xanthomonas spp. and Ralstonia spp. by SMW in other crop species. The integration of SMS as part of the current cultural control packages could potentially help in reducing or eliminating soil inoculum, thus in turn limiting the entry of these bacterial pathogens through wounds on roots or the corms.Low soil moisture content and deficiency in soil nutrients, especially potassium (K) and nitrogen (N) have been reported as major yield limiting factors for the banana crop (Nyombi et al., 2010;Taulya, 2013). Deficiency in soil nutrients also affects the ability of the plants to withstand harsh environmental conditions, and pests and diseases. Soil K is for example, crucial for the uptake of soil water (Taulya, 2013) while K also enhances plant resistance to pests and diseases (Wang et al., 2013). Strategies for ensuring a balanced soil nutrient composition to meet crop nutrient needs is thus crucial for a sound soil health status. Studies above show SMW to improve soil structure, soil pH, levels of macro-and micro-elements that could be crucial for improving the performance of the banana crop in organic systems.These findings reveal a huge potential for the improvement of soil health and management of key biotic and abiotic constraints of organic banana production systems using of SMW. In a cyclic farming, the residues from banana and other crops could be used as substrates for growing mushrooms and the resultant SMW subsequently returned to these fields to improve the soil health and key pests and diseases. Studies to explore the highlighted benefits above on organic banana systems is recommended. Exploration of other models for delivering the services provided SMW where it is not feasible to access SMW is also recommended.","tokenCount":"2442"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e8f880adb8c21143378df86bef998b9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ece3d15a-4c68-4349-89fb-5c6060826db1/retrieve","id":"-205719829"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"365b85bd-c0d1-4e1c-bea2-f8bcbd84bbd5","pagecount":"35","content":"The Great Lakes Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative Rapid Delivery Hub (AID-I GLR) is a twoyear (2023-2024), multiple-stakeholder initiative funded by Feed the Future through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the United States' response to address the immediate and long-term effects of the global food security crisis in Burundi, Rwanda, and DRC. This project is led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In DRC, the project has facilitated the establishment of a partnership led by RIKOLTO to rapidly deliver technologies to smallholder farmers. The established partnership is built on its existing networks made of grassroot farmer organizations working with RIKOLTO, the Service d'Accompagnement et de Renforcement des Capacités d'Autopromotion de la Femme (SARCAF), and Vétérinaires sans Frontières (VSF) on cassava, rice, banana, orange flesh sweet potato, beans, vegetables, maize, and milk value chains delivering innovations to farmers in six territories of South-Kivu province, Eastern DRC.The author's views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. The training was organized by IITA AID-I GLR team under guidance of Dr. Millicent Liani (IITA), the project's GESI technical lead, with the support of Mrs Lydie KASONIA (GESI focal person for DRC, and in charge of environmental and social protection at Rikolto). Participants came from six territories in South Kivu -where the AID-I GLR Project is being implemented. They included agricultural extension officers, members of cooperatives, extension agents, agricultural engineers, agronomist, veterinarians and monitoring and evaluation and Learning (MEL) officers (see list of participants in Annex 1). The objectives of the training were to provide participants with: (1) knowledge of the basic concepts of gender research and how they relate to agricultural research work and in particular to the dissemination of agricultural innovations;(2) an understanding of where gender work is integrated into the AID-I GLR project and embrace gender and social inclusivity in scaling of innovations and technologies; (3) ability to integrate GESI lens and various approaches throughout the project cycle; and (4) the potential to become gender champions for the AID-I GLR project and other related initiatives.The facilitators used various approaches to stimulate discussion among the participants, including the use of role-plays, group discussions and plenaries, as well as the use of assorted cards, which made the training both lively and productive. The facilitators felt that the training was timely in providing a better understanding of GESI and its role in the AID-I GLR project and in agricultural research in general, as most participants were initially sceptical about gender issues due to the responses about aversion to gender research as highlighted on the cards. However, as the training progressed, they began to understand and appreciate the importance of GESI integration in scaling of agricultural innovations. Participants were engaged in the learning process, as evidenced by the group discussions and plenary presentations, as well as during recaps including the conversations that continued throughout the training sessions. However, the training had its limitations as the twoday training was not enough to engage participants in such difficult and deep discussions, as most of them had never received training on GESI before. Therefore, the number of days needed to organize future training workshops should depend on the information and materials we prepare and provide in subsequent training sessions. Pre-and post-training tests showed a great improvement in the understanding of GESI issues.Day 1| Monday 2 nd October 2023The Acting Officer in Charge representative from the IITA-Kalambo Research Station, President Olusengun Obasanjo, Dr Kokou Kintche, called on all participants to take the activities of the AID-I GLR project into their own hands by disseminating them to the whole community, as we all know that women play a very important role in agricultural activities. He highlighted the importance of integrating GESI perspectives at all levels of the project.Before commencing the training, Millicent explained that it is important to set together ground rules to adhere to during the workshop so as to foster a safe learning environment for all and ensure the training runs smoothly. She suggested some rules which included:Active listening to the facilitators and other participants Punctuality -need to start on time, end on time.Respect each other's opinions -there are no right or wrong answers.Give each other an opportunity to speak and share at a time.Participate and engage constructively.Good practice of putting phones on silent mode, and minimal use of computers during the training.Participants defined their own expectations of the training. They were given three assorted cards in pink, blue and yellow colours -and were asked to write on them one main expectation of the GESI training (pink card), one thing they liked about gender and gender research (blue card) and one thing they disliked, feared or felt uncomfortable about (yellow card). The cards were exchanged with each participant on the right. Each participant read what was written on the three cards, as summarized in Box 1, Table 1 and the images below:Box 1: Participants' own expectations of GESI training 1) Women's participation in decision-making at all levels, whether in the home or in society.2) To know more about women's work 3) Knowing and being able to explain the concept of gender equality 4) Participation of women in decision-making at all levels and promotion of women in development 5) Learn about the project, but also take the message back to my community 6) My role is to find out what gender is 7) Learning more about our work as women 8) To know how to make people understand gender. Increase my knowledge about gender 9) To know how to live in our families (2) 10) To hear and put into practice what we have learned in the workshop 11) Learning about gender (15) 12) Knowing the gender approach to help my organisation develop (2) 13) Learn how to integrate gender and social inclusion into our management projects for the Idjwi Nature Reserve. Learn more about the USAID_AID project  Participants' dislike/ fears of gender research 1) Being listened to in public, being a woman (2) 2) Harmonious management of issues in the household; gender integration in households 3) Finding out how to use gender in our homes 4) Building the capacity of women in society to make the right decisions and learn the lessons that will be taught to us.1) Gender-based violence denounced only against women, never against men (4) 2) Ignoring women's contribution to the household (1) 3) Discrimination against women in activities, in decision-making, in the distribution of positions between men and women, in the management and leadership of organisations (11) 5) To acquire knowledge that will enable me to make a positive contribution to society. 6) Convincing our partners to support women's projects, because the partners do not yet understand that they need to support women's projects to help them achieve autonomy in their agricultural activities. 7) Victimization of women in relation to men; men have not yet accepted gender equality in the home, leading to domestic violence. 8) Integrate good family cooperation 9) To ensure with certainty to bring help in the family, that of the man and the woman; to give the latter the same chance in all the works. 10) To have the same understanding 11) To say that the mother has the same rights as the father of the family. 12) I like cattle breeding and I like peace-loving people. 13) I like gender, it's a good thing and I'd like the moderator to explain it to us. 14) I like it when we consider the man and the woman in a family (2) 15) Sharing tasks or power 16) Women must also be respected, acting as a gender. 17) Include women, men, young and old in all projects (3) 18) As far as gender is concerned, I like it when men and women are seen as equal. 19) 1Women are no longer pushed to the side and are taken into account. 20) I'm glad to see that women are taught to remain women and men to consider their wives. Humanism and the appreciation of every being and their abilities. 21) I like to see women involved in the work of the land (agriculture) (2) 22) I like the way men and women work, giving everyone the same opportunities. 23) What interests me about gender is that it involves all social categories, especially the disadvantaged. 24) Women's participation and decision-making 4) Men doing men's work and vice versa 5) Non-inclusion of women in decision-making 6) Empowerment of women 7) Conflicts in couples 8) Arrogance in women, disrespect by women in the name of gender (2) 9) Disobedience of a woman 10) The loss of authority and social status of men, the reversal of power in the household, the imposition of women (3) 11) Gender as an adventure 12) Separate management of male and female property 13) Resistance to gender mainstreaming in activities 14) The dominance of men who underestimate women 15) The westernization of women and women's libertinism 16) The weight of discriminatory customs and cultures in society 17) The misinterpretation of the concept of gender by considering only sex 18) Priority given to women even when they do not deserve it, exaggerated promotion of women without taking into account their abilities, poor recruitment of agents in organizations (3) 19) Lack of respect. The selfish interests of some women.25) Equality without discrimination at home and at work (6) 26) In our organisation, it's the ability and determination of all our employees that counts. 27) The participatory integration of men and women for the progress of humanity 28) The development of women 29) I'm not interested in gender if men and women work according to their intellectual abilities. Millicent highlighted the AID-I GLR goal and the GESI training objectives. She noted that the overall goal of the USAID AID-I GLR is to accelerate last-mile delivery of agricultural tools, technologies, and production methods that will help smallholder farmers to boost their productivity, efficiency, and incomes. Spefically, AID-I GLR aims to:1) To equitably increase the availability and accessibility of proven agricultural and nutritional practices and technologies to farming households.2) To increase the use and adoption of good agricultural and nutritional practices and technologies to enhance productivity and consumption of nutritious food products equitably among farming households.For the GESI training, the participants should be able to:1) Develop a clear understanding of basic concepts on gender equality and social inclusion and how they are linked to agricultural work.2) Understand where the GESI work is embedded within AID-I GLR Project, and embrace gender and social inclusivity in scaling of innovations and technologies.3) Learn how to GESI lens and various approaches throughout the project cycle.4) Become GESI champions for the AID-I GLR Project and other related initiatives.After presenting their expectations for the workshop, their likes and dislikes about gender and gender research, and the objectives of the training workshop, the participants were given a 15-minute pretest to assess their level of knowledge about GESI before getting down to the nitty-gritty of the training. The training commenced by acquinting participants with an understanding about gender and the key terms and concepts associated with GESI to support AID-I GLR scaling partners to become more responsive to the needs of the individuals and social groups with whom they work and support. These included understanding the difference between sex and gender, the reasons for focusing on gender; gender roles and gender relations; the types of gender needs related, the concepts of gender equality and gender equity, and their importance in agricultural research and the challenges associated with them; meaning of GESI, whilst underscoring the commitment to GESI integration in project activities for which USAID AID-I GLR is guided by the following seven GESI principles, adapted from the USAID 2023 Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Policy.This was followed by as a session on intersectionality, which depicts moving beyond binary gender analysis towards social inclusion. This was conducted with participants engaging in role-plays on the \"one step forward and backward\" exercise to help them understand the meaning of intersectionality. Specifically, the exercise involved putting participants in the shoes of different groups of farmers, each of whom was given a new identity i.e. on the basis of age, education, marital status, number of children, hierarchical position in the family and community, proximity to sources of power, through which she/he experiences opportunities or constraints in a variety of situations related to farm work, as shown in Table 2 below. Based on the results of this exercise, participants discussed the concept of intersectionality and its practical implications for the provision of extension and advisory services to different groups of farmers. When the last participant had revealed his or her identity vs. their end positions (see picture below), the facilitator opened a discussion so that each participant could talk about a) what is striking when looking at their end positions? b) What does the pattern of end positions in the room tell us about gender equality? What does it tell us about social inclusion? c) Which social groups ended up in the front, in the middle, or at the back? Which groups were excluded? Why were they excluded? d) What are some of the possible solutions that could enhance their inclusion? Key insights by the participants about their end positions were as follows:It was found that people who had studied, who had extra income (off-farm) or children over the age of ten years, the elderly and those who were related to the landowner were the most advantaged. On the other hand, women with many children under ten years old, those who had not studied and were not related to the landowner, the disabled, those with no income and the young were the least advantaged.To reduce inequalities, there is need to raise community awareness of the importance of GESI, to carry out ongoing self-assessment by organisations of their level of integration of GESI into their project cycle, to engage in dialogue with land chiefs to ensure inclusive access to land, to consider women's work schedules in the implementation of activities to enable them to actively participate in activities and benefit from capacity building. Thereafter, the facilitator then introduced the standard definition of intersectionality a term coined by Kimberly Chrenshaw, then used the coin model of privilege and oppression as well as the intersectionality wheel diagram to help participants better understand this concept. She also shared the principles of intersectionality and how to apply intersectional gender analysis in research.The facilitator introduced the topic of gender analysis in agricultural research, where she asked the participants to brainstorm what is meant by gender analysis. Thereafter, she clarified the meaning of gender analysis by noting that: 'Gender analysis is the process that make visible the varied roles and relations of women, men, girls and boys in the family, in the community, and in economic, legal and political structures. It is also a set of tools to strengthen development planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and to make programmes and projects more effective, efficient and relevant to context by cataloguing differences and identifies inequities and assesses power relationships between women and men. Such a process helps us to frame questions about women and men's roles and relations to challenge OUR assumptions about 'who does what, when, where how and why'. Key   (1999). A Guide to Gender-Analysis Frameworks. Available at https://policypractice.oxfam.org/resources/a-guide-to-gender-analysis-frameworks-115397/ This was followed by the key issues in gender analysis, the key components of gender analysis and related issues around division of labour between women and men in agriculture, analysis of access to and control over agricultural resources by gender; the common tools used for gender analysis such as focus group discussions, Individual in-depth interviews, Key informant interviews, Socio-economic activity profile, Value chain group interviews, Daily activity clocks, Venn diagrams, Seasonal activities calendars, and Community resource maps among others; the identification of appropriate units of analysis for sex-disaggregated data; and the recommended prerequisites for gender analysis. Participants discussed strategies for social inclusion such as appropriate timing and scheduling of meetings by being congnisant of women's triple gender roles compared to men.This session was led by Mrs. Lydie Kasonia, who asked participants to share the learnings from the previous day. The facilitator made a ball from waste papers where we asked all participants to stand at the back of the room in semi-circle, where the passed the ball to each participant in random direction asking them to share in turn what they had learned and understood from the first day's training. This was summarized on a flipchart as shown in the pictures below: Following the understanding of GESI concepts and terms as provided in day one summary, led by Millicent, the training for day two was centered around integrating GESI in AID-I GLR work. She highlighted why GESI considerations matters in the scaling of agricultural innovations. She reiterated that such ambition is set in the USAID Global Food Security Strategy roadmap to the better future focuses on reducing global poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, climate change, and rising inequality through Feed the Future Global Hunger and Food-Security Initiative (USAID, 2022). Accordingly, USAID places much emphasis on equality and inclusion, with a particular focus on inclusive agricultural-led economic growth that empowers women, girls, youth, and marginalized communities, as realization that could be achieved through inclusive scaling of agricultural innovations to affected communities in AID-I GLR. The facilitator also presented three sets of arguments for the importance of gender in scaling up agricultural innovations and the corresponding case studies. The highlights and discussion points raised by the participants, in particular the way they linked the three case studies around the business case; social justice; poverty reduction and food security arguments were as follows:On social justice, discussions were held on the everyday experiences in our communities where assets such as agricultural inputs, animals, land, houses, etc. are distributed inequitably. Although these assets are produced jointly by women and men, the results and income are generally controlled by men. In particular, participants indicated that the problem arises when the extension agent is opposed to the approaches or does not understand the gender dynamics in the family. There was therefore a need for more training on the importance of gender for extension staff and farmers. In terms of analyzing profitability, the facilitator pointed out that women generally work longer hours than men and do unpaid and community work that is often invisible and unrecognized. On the other hand, compared to men, women often face restrictions on movement/mobility, limited participation in training, lucrative markets and other events related to scaling up. In agriculture in particular, women have less access to extension services and improved technologies. Fewer agricultural inputs, such as improved seeds and fertilizers, are used by female-headed households, which affects the productivity and income of women farmers compared to men. Talking about the resources needed to reduce poverty and food insecurity, the facilitator showed how important women are (70%) in the fight against poverty and food security. Unfortunately, they are discriminated against in terms of access to resources for agricultural production and property rights. In most cases, opportunities go to the head of the family, who is registered as a farmer, mainly men, and are passed on to other members. All these factors affect the productivity and income of women farmers compared to men. It is therefore preferable for the project to involve all family members involved in the production process. Training and extension services should not be provided only to heads of households, even if they are the ones who control the family resources.The facilitator presented on the dimensions of scaling up inclusive innovations. She first asked participants to share insights on their own understanding of the term 'scaling', where she later noted that 'Scaling refers to the use of an innovation outside its original design team (Sartas et al., 2020) with the goal of using an innovation to create a positive social benefit or outcome (McGuire et al., 2022)'. She then provided the typology of three approaches to scaling for systemic impact which underscores the complexities and complementary nature of the strategies involved in advancing change that comprises of scaling out, scaling deep and scaling up as depicted in the picture below: She noted that scaling out refers to reaching a larger number of people (women, men, young people and other social groups) through the multiplication, dissemination and popularization of innovations; scaling deep refers to approaches that h leads to a change in mindset, values and cultural practices regarding the use of innovations through capacity building and awareness raising; while scaling up depicts changing institutional conditions (policies, strategic partnerships, value chain development) to enable effective scaling.Millicent highlighted that in order to achieve the two overarching AID-I GLR objectives, the integration of GESI considerations is guided by two approaches namely the: (i) GenderUp methodology for inclusive scaling with an intersectionality lens among intended beneficiaries; and (ii) Reach-Benefit-Empower framework developed by Johnson et al., (2018). 1The facilitator introduced the GenderUp methodology which is a conversational method for genderresponsive scaling. In her explanations, she was able to show how this approach goes from identifying diversity and intersectionality among the intended users of the innovation from a social and gender perspective, to creating a scaling-up strategy or plan that anticipates unintended negative consequences for specific social categories and allows for mitigating them appropriately, while seizing opportunities. She also mentioned that when designing a scaling strategy, the core innovations usually account for 10%, while 90% is comprised of complementary non-technological innovations. She mentioned that complementary innovations are developed before and during the scaling-up process to ensure different social groups of people can successfully use and benefit from the core innovation introduced. She provided an example of scaling a new livestock vaccine, the core innovation, which also requires complementary innovations such as (i) new vaccine dosage and application practices; (ii) certification from vaccine control agencies; (iii) establishing or improving vaccine delivery systems; and (iv) education about vaccine characteristics and use (Sartas et al., 2020) to enable its successful adoption by farmers.The facilitator defined and explained the five key steps in applying GenderUp, namely (1) defining the innovation and ambition of the scaling-up, (2) exploring the relevant dimensions of diversity and social inclusion, (3) understanding the implications of intersectionality, (4) mitigating the consequences and embracing the opportunities, and finally (5) integrating GenderUp into project management. Participants were divided into five groups and asked to discuss and devise inclusive scaling strategies with GESI indicators with each group working tasked to work on one core innovation namely, rice, cassava, banana, vegetables and artificial insemination. They were given 50 minutes for group discussions and documentation on flipcharts, which they then presented in plenary, with each group having 15 minutes for presentation and question and answer session. The groupwork plenary presentations are as summarized in Tables 3 and 4 below, with supporting images in Figures 4 and 5.     Innovative activities to empower women and young people were also discussed. These include providing them with access to resources and opportunities (training in GAP, access to markets, opportunities to develop a spirit of initiative, etc.); providing them with access to finance by establishing links with micro-credit/financial institutions and/or by providing training in the use of the Internet); providing access to finance by establishing links with micro-credit/financial institutions and/or encouraging membership of savings groups; and introducing them to mentoring schemes, frameworks in which experienced farmers provide advice and support to new and aspiring farmers; transferring knowledge and skills; creating networks and relationships within the community, etc.The facilitator shared some of the good practices on how to integrate GESI in AID-I GLR by drawing examples from the Feed the Future Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES) project (See McNamara and Harris-Coble, 2018 3 ). They included:1) Using set quotas to increase the participation and representation of women and youth. She noted that affirmative action by use of participation quotas for women and youth is the common GESI strategy by AID-I scaling partners who have set it 60%, with 40% and 20% representation of women and youth respectively. 2) Working with influential community power gatekeepers is essential. Community leaders can positively change attitudes associated with gender-based violence through social marketing techniques such as radio programs for push-back on men's reactions to shifting norms and traditions about women's roles and practices. 3) Need to address women's time poverty. Lack of recognition of women's time poverty considering their triple gender roles may result to women's limited or lack of engagement in the project thus unable to achieve the project's set objectives. Projects that do not consider the value of time visà-vis socially prescribed gender roles may end up neither benefiting nor empowering women. 4) Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of impact on GESI related activities is paramount. Measuring the project outcome and impact of GESI related activities requires data disaggregated by gender and other social identities. This requires GESI specific indicators and routine data collection of gender, age, and other related social identifiers to enable data disaggregation which helps document successes and gaps in GESI activities and to adjust project activities if the impacts are not what they expected. The facilitator highlighted that it is imperative to track the impact of activities to 'Reach', 'Benefit' and 'Empower' specific groups (i.e. women, youth) through the collection of data disaggregated by gender and other identities. A GESI-responsive MEL plan that collects disaggregated data with different social markers i.e. gender, age group, and type of household headship among others has been developed.Forty-three (43) participants completed both the pre-and post-test assessments. All scores were calculated and analyzed for the 43 participants who completed these assessments. The average score on the pre-test was 28.23%, with the lowest and highest scores being 0% and 60% respectively. The post-test results showed that the lowest and highest scores were 6% and 88% respectively, with an average score of 40.37%. We then analyzed the difference between the pre-test and post-test results and found that the top two participants who improved the most were Ms TUKUZENI MURHULA NOELLA with a score of 60% and Mr AMANI ZIGABE BIENFAIT with a score of 53%.The training ended with Ms. Julie Lunzihirwa N'namanvu (IITA) presenting certificates of attendance to all participants. In her closing remarks, she congratulated all the participants for their diligence and commitment and urged them to go out and disseminate what they had learnt within their structures and communities. After attending the GESI training, participants were asked to evaluate the course. A training evaluation form was given to everyone. They were asked whether they had already attended a gender training course and how they rated the organisation of the course. The latter was done on a five-point Likert scale -1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree -on aspects related to (cf. Annex 3): the objectives and expectations; the relevance of the content to their work needs; whether the amount of new information and knowledge was good and whether they could recommend the training to other staff in a similar position in the institution; whether the facilitators were knowledgeable about the topics; whether they would like to participate in a similar workshop in the future; and whether the duration of the training was sufficient. Participants then indicated the main messages they wanted to take away from the workshop, what they did not fully understand, and recommendations for improving future equality workshops.The results of the analysis showed that 43 participants (25 women, 18 men) out of 51 (31 women, 22 men) completed the evaluation forms.Box 2 below summarises the messages that participants took away from the workshop:Box 2: Participants' take-home message(s) from the workshop 1. Mainstreaming gender equality and social inclusion is a necessity that affects all areas of life/projects. It enables the integral development of society and harmony in social relations. It corresponds to the aspirations of the Creator. It ensures intergenerational progress. GESI integration promotes productivity at work and family prosperity. 2. It is the fact that the most vulnerable categories are involved in the implementation of AID-I and other projects. This has the advantage of involving all strata of society and contributes to the inclusion and acceptance of the project by the community. 3. How to integrate gender into society 4. Gender roles and needs 5. I have to promote gender wherever I need to be. 6. The project aims to reach all levels of society. The workshop covers different modules such as communication, data collection among beneficiaries, etc. 7. It's the way I have to run my organisation properly, checking the type so that the work is done properly and development is achieved. 8. Taking into account the gender dimension in the implementation of the AID-I project is essential and constitutes a factor in favour of social inclusion. 9. Gender is socially acquired as we grow up, we have to reduce discrimination between men and women, we have to be fair in the discrimination of seeds and make sure that everyone has received and been praised. 10. All the topics covered were highly relevant 11. Integration of gender equality and social inclusion in the AID-I GLR project of which I am a beneficiary. 12. Gender roles in the AID project. 13. Not to discriminate against certain categories of people, so that the massive production, distribution and profits can reach a favourable percentage, thus boosting the agricultural economy of the region, but also of the country. 14. The implementation of the results of the AID-I project must take into account all social strata without gender discrimination. 15. The amount of information and new knowledge was good 16. New gender strategies that show that women and men can do any job without exception. 17. Introduction to the basic principles and concept of gender 18. Gender, gender equality and social inclusion, the different roles of the sexes in society 19. How the gender approach contributes to innovation in different sectors by creating space for equality between men and women. 20. I've just understood what gender is (2) 21. Women need to be taken into account in society, but they also need to know their rights. 22. I have learnt that women also need to be taken into account in society. 23. The importance of gender mainstreaming in business activities 24. In our work, we must apply gender without discrimination and regardless of social rank (8) 25. We thank RIKOLTO for the training 26. We need to raise gender awareness 27. Women have their rights 28. Active participation of all 29. Peace in our homes 30. Promotion of women 31. The duration of the project with their knowledge What the participants did not understand during the training workshop was the following The \"reachbenefit-empower framework\" approach, scaling up and types of scaling up, the gender approach in the AID-I GLR project, etc. Notably, some participants only attended day two training thus missed out on day one training on GESI concepts and terms. The other responses are presented in Box 3 below.:Box 3: What participants did not fully understand about gender training 1. Scaling Up and scaling types (2) 2. The introduction of agricultural technologies and their use 3. The merits of completely replacing local seeds, how to educate women without crushing men. 4. The time it takes for the women to finish between jobs. 5. Gender mainstreaming in daily activities, with a focus on the AID-I project 6. The seven principles of GESI and gender analysis 7. The issue of gender in relation to the specificities of men and women. 8. Data collection for activity reports 9. The specific number of men/women/boys and girls to be reached by the project. 10. Gender approach in AID-I GLR (2) 11. Approaches to integration 12. Business case 13. Reach -Benefit -Empower framework (3) 14. How to integrate gender into the community where there is no fulfilment 15. The role of a woman in the integrated work of the AID-I project 16. Scaling-up processes and the inclusive dimensions of agricultural innovations -when to use them in the communityIn order to improve future gender workshops, the training participants made a number of suggestions, which are summarised in Box 4: It would be a good idea to hold the training workshop in French, as this would ensure that it was properly assimilated and would allow participants to reveal what they had learned from the training. In addition, distributing the training materials would ensure that the trainees could consult them if they needed to recall a chapter or anything else they had forgotten, and strengthening the gender training sessions would help to establish this approach within the AID-I GLR project. What's more, the time devoted to training was insufficient. In the near future, 3 to 5 days will be needed to master the subject.Box 4: Recommendations for improving future gender workshops. 1. Delivering content that is close to our local cultures and values. 2. Improve and innovate yields with our endangered traditional seeds.3. Increase research into local seeds and the conditions that affect them. 4. Ensure that the same people are involved in this activity in the future for better understanding. 5. Training on women's rights. 6. Involve women in the AID project, including village women. 7. When the project starts, there must be gender parity, i.e. half men and half women. 8. Reduce gender stereotypes in our villages 9. More training for men 10. There wasn't enough time. In the near future, it will take 3-5 days to master the material.Give enough time to learn more and, if necessary, invite a man and a woman from the organisation (8) 11. Organize the training in French to ensure that the learning acquired during the course is properly assimilated and communicated (12) 12. That the training materials or tools be translated into French or Swahili so that everyone can follow the lessons in the languages most commonly used by the participants. Even if the lessons are given in Swahili, the support material should be in the language that most people can speak and read (2). 13. Distribute the training material so that the trainee can refer to it if he/she needs to remember if he/she has forgotten a chapter or something else (5). 14. Intensify gender training workshops to establish the approach within the AID-I project (5) 15. Participants have the right to eat their own food 16. Providing financial resources to member organisations to re-establish the method in their communities (3) 17. Publication of legal instruments to protect and promote women's rights.  Component Rating 1) Objectives and expectations have been met2) The content was relevant to the needs of my work3) The amount of new information and knowledge was good 4) Participation and interaction have been encouraged 5) I would recommend the training to staff in a similar position in my institution.6) The presenter(s) knew the subjects well 7) I would like to take part in a similar workshop in the future 8) Sufficient time was set aside for questions and discussion 9) The duration of the workshop was appropriate 10) The meeting room and facilities were adequate and comfortable","tokenCount":"5834"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5fa7375e2a2c937a2600cf254808161","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20235-1.pdf","id":"479524578"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"233982b2-4259-4d5f-b20c-a7252b949f7d","pagecount":"11","content":"Strawberry is an excellent source of natural antioxidants with high capacity of scavenging free radicals. This study evaluated the effects of two plant probiotic bacteria, Bacillus amylolequefaciens BChi1 and Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 on growth, fruit yield and antioxidant contents in strawberry fruits. Root dipping of seedlings (plug plants) followed by spray applications of both probiotic bacteria in the field on foliage significantly increased fruit yield (up to 48%) over non-treated control. Enhanced fruit yield likely to be linked with higher root and shoot growth, individual and total fruit weight/plant and production of phytohormone by the probiotic bacteria applied on plants. Interestingly, the fruits from plants inoculated with the isolates BChi1 and BRRh-4 had significantly higher contents of phenolics, carotenoids, flavonoids and anthocyanins over non-treated control. Total antioxidant activities were also significantly higher (p < 0.05) in fruits of strawberry plants treated with both probiotic bacteria. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of significant improvement of both yield and quality of strawberry fruits by the application of plant probiotic bacteria BChi1 and BRRh-4 in a field condition. Further study is needed to elucidate underlying mechanism of growth and quality improvement of strawberry fruits by probiotic bacteria.The consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables containing bioactive compounds has increased considerably in recent years. Several lines of evidence suggest that these bioactive compounds are beneficial to human health 1 . Strawberry (Fragaria × annanasa) is an excellent source of natural antioxidants including carotenoids, vitamins, anthocyanins, phenols, and flavonoids with the capacity of scavenging free radicals 2,3 . Major phenolic compounds such as flavonoids present in strawberries exhibited high antioxidant 4 and anticancer properties 5 . The level of flavonoid groups, flavonols, and anthocyanins in strawberries are directly or indirectly linked with total antioxidant capacity 6 . Elevated levels of these secondary metabolites should provide better health benefits to the consumers of strawberry. Use of synthetic chemicals for enhancing fruit yield and contents of secondary metabolites in strawberry fruits is discouraged due to the health concern of the consumer and deleterious effects to the environment. Therefore, a novel eco-friendly approach is preferred to improve yield and quality of strawberry fruits.Plant probiotic bacteria are naturally occurring plant-associated microorganisms that enhance the growth of the host plants including yield, and may suppress diseases when applied in adequate amounts 7 . Major genera of plant growth promoting probiotic bacteria include Bacillus, Paraburkholderia, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Arthrobacter, and Serratia [8][9][10][11][12] . They provide beneficial effects to host plants through production of phytohormones, antibiotics and lytic enzymes, fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, solubilization of soil mineral nutrients and induction of systemic resistance in the host plants 7 . Although promotion of growth and yield of strawberry by plant growth promoting probiotic bacteria has been described in several reports [13][14][15] , no information is available on the influence of plant probiotics on contents of anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoids, total phenolics and antioxidant activities of strawberry fruits. Recently, enhancement of vitamin C content in strawberry fruits by the application of a strain of the genus Phyllobacterium has been reported 16 . We recently developed a bank of 650 endophytic plant probiotic bacteria isolated from diverse plant species of Bangladesh. Application of some of these bacteria significantly increased growth and yield of several crops under nutrient poor conditions 11 . Screening and field testing of our 650 plant probiotic bacteria assisted us identifying the most effective isolates. Among the effective ones, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BChi1 and Paraburkholderia BRRh-4 11 showed multiple plant growth promoting traits including solubilization of phosphorus, production of phytohormone and antagonism to major phytopathogens 11,12,15,17 . Paraburkholderia is a newly proposed genus delineated from Burkholderia through phylogenomic analysis 12 . We examined the phylogenic position of Burkholderia BRRh-4 based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence and renamed it as Paraburkholderia fungorum 12 . Considering the potential of these plant probiotics for enhancing plant growth, yield and quality, this study was conducted to investigate the performance of BChi1 and BRRh-4 on growth, fruit yield and biofunctional properties of field-grown strawberry fruits. Specific objectives of the study were to (i) evaluate the effects of two plant probiotic bacterial strains BChi1 and BRRh-4 on growth and fruit yield of strawberry, and (ii) determine the effects of these probiotic bacteria on contents of total anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and antioxidant activities in fresh strawberry fruits.Enhancement of growth and yield of strawberry by plant probiotic bacteria. Leaf canopy characteristics. Application of probiotic bacteria significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), leaf number/plant and canopy diameter compared with non-treated control (Table 1). The highest leaf length (23.42 cm) was observed in plants treated with BRRh-4 and the lowest (18.68 cm) was in non-treated control plants. Similar to leaf length, leaf width also significantly varied among the treatments. The highest leaf width (14.15 cm) was found in plants treated with BRRh-4 whereas lowest leaf width (10.78 cm) was observed in nontreated plants. Leaf number and canopy diameter of strawberry plants also varied significantly among the treatments (Table 1). The highest leaf number (18.21)/plant was recorded in BChi1 treated plants and lowest leaf number/plant (13.84) was observed in non-treated control plants. Consistent with leaf number, canopy diameter also had significant variation among the treatments. The highest canopy diameter (33.75 cm) was recorded in BChi1 treated plants and lowest canopy diameter (29.12 cm) was observed in non-treated control.Plant height and root length. Plant height and root length also were positively influenced and varied significantly due to the plant probiotic bacteria applications. The highest plant height (20.50 cm) was observed in BRRh-4 treated plants whereas lowest was recorded in non-treated control (18.58 cm) plants (Fig. 1). Similar to plant height, root length also significantly (p < 0.05) varied among the treatments (Fig. 1). The highest root length (23.5 cm) was found in BRRh-4 bacteria treated plants and lowest root length (19.25 cm) was recorded in non-treated control plants (Fig. 1).Effect of probiotic bacteria on fresh and dry biomass. The plant probiotic bacteria had positive effects on fresh and dry biomass of strawberry plants (Table 2). The highest shoot fresh weight was recorded in BRRh-4 (220 g/plant) treated plants, which was statistically superior to all other treatments, and lowest shoot fresh weight was found in non-treated control (134.5 g/plant) plants. However, this difference of biomass diminished due to drying up of plant samples. The highest shoot dry weight was found in BRRh-4 (49.6 g/plant) treated plants and lowest was found in non-treated control (30.7 g/plant) plants. Consistent with shoot fresh and dry weight increase, application of probiotic bacteria significantly influenced root fresh and dry weight of strawberry plants (Table 2). The highest root fresh weight was found in BRRh-4 (21 g/plant) bacteria treated plants whereas the lowest root fresh weight was recorded in non-treated control (12.63 g/plant). The highest root dry weight was recorded in BRRh-4 (11 g/plant) treated plants whereas the lowest root dry weight was found in non-treated control (7.2 g/plant) plants (Table 2). There were no significant differences between the growth enhancement of strawberry roots by two plant probiotic bacteria.Effect of probiotic bacteria on fruit yield. Consistent with several important growth parameters of strawberry plants recorded in this study, enhancement of fruit yield of strawberry was significantly influenced by probiotic bacteria. Plant probiotic bacteria significantly increased individual fruit weight and fruit yield of strawberry compared with non-treated control. Both individual fruit weight (g/fruit) and total fruit weight per plant (g/plant) were higher in plant probiotic bacteria (BRRh-4 and BChi1) treated plants than non-treated control plants (Fig. 2). Higher individual fruit weight (~18.8 g/fruit) was recorded in both BChi1 and BRRh-4 treated plants compared with 16.1 g/fruit in non-treated control plant (Fig. 3). The highest strawberry fruit yield was obtained by the treatment of BRRh-4 (467.8 g/plant) followed by BChi1 (453.0 g/plant), and the lowest (316.6 g/plant) was in non-treated control (Fig. 3). There was no significant difference between fruit yield of strawberry obtained by the treatment of plant probiotic bacterial strains BRRh-4 and BChi1. The BRRh-4 and BChi1 treated plants had about 48% and 43% higher fruit yield compared to non-treated control plants (Fig. 3).Total anthocyanin and carotenoids. Application of plant probiotic bacteria significantly increased total anthocyanin content in strawberry fruits compared to non-treated control. The highest anthocyanin content (222.0 mg cyanidin-3-O-glucoside/100 g fruit) in strawberry fruits was recorded in plants treated with BRRh-4 followed by BChi1 (187.47 mg cyanidin-3-O-glucoside /100 g fruit) that were statistically different from non-treated control (81.11 mg cyanidin-3-O-glucoside/100 g fruit) (Fig. 4). Total anthocyanin contents in strawberry fruits produced by the treatments of probiotic bacterial strains BRRh-4 and BChi1 were statistically similar. Similar to anthocyanin, total carotenoids content in strawberry fruits from plants treated with plant probiotic was also significantly higher than those of non-treated plants. The highest carotenoids content was estimated in fruits of BRRh-4 (7.71 mg lutein/g fruit) treated plants, which was statistically different from the fruits of BChi1 (6.46 mg lutein/g fruit) and non-treated control plants (2.82 mg lutein/g fruit) (Fig. 4).Total flavonoids and phenolics. Total flavonoids content of strawberry fruit significantly varied with the application of plant probiotic bacteria compared to non-treated control. Plants inoculated with strain BRRh-4 had the highest total flavonoids content (751.81 µg Quercetin/g fruit) in fruits, while the lowest total flavonoids content (501.03 µg Quercetin/g fruit) was recorded in non-treated control (Fig. 5). Fruits produced in plants treated with BChi1 had 631.98 µg Quercetin/g fruit total flavonoids, which was statistically similar to the fruits produced in BRRh-4 treatment. Total phenolics content in fruits was also significantly enhanced by the application of plant probiotic bacteria compared to non-treated control. The fruits produced by the plants treated with BRRh-4 had the highest total phenolics content (380.5 µg Gallic acid/g fruit), which was statistically similar to the phenolics content in BChi1 (377.72 µg Gallic acid/g fruit) treatment (Fig. 5). The lowest total phenolics content (317.08 µg Gallic acid/g fruit) was recorded in fruits produced in non-treated control plants.   Total Antioxidant activity. To evaluate whether plant probiotic bacteria had any effect on antioxidant activities of strawberry fruits obtained from both probiotic bacteria and non-treated control plants, we estimated total antioxidant activities of fresh strawberry fruits by DPPH assay. The results of the DPPH assay for total antioxidant activity were expressed as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) equivalents per gram of strawberry fruit. As expected, the total antioxidant activity of fresh strawberry fruits was highest in BRRh-4 (385.47 µg BHT/g fruit) followed by BChi1 treatment (382.00 µg BHT/g fruit) (Fig. 5). Total antioxidant activities of the fruits produced by the treatment of both probiotic bacteria were significantly higher than that of non-treated control (250.89 µg BHT/g fruit).Alternative approach for plant growth promotion and pest management is being explored for sustainable agriculture worldwide. Application of synthetic chemical inputs (fertilizer and pesticides) in crop production has created both environmental and health hazards 18 . This is more relevant and significant for fruit crops such as strawberry    that are used for fresh consumption 19 . This study explored an environment-friendly option for boosting strawberry plant growth, fruit yield and functional properties of fruits through the application of two plant growth promoting probiotic bacteria and compared the results with that of non-treated control. Results showed significant improvement in plant growth, yield, various antioxidant contents and total antioxidant activities of strawberry fruits by the application of both Bacillus amylolequifaciens BChi1 and Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 treatment compared to non-treated control. Although plant growth promotion by the application of various species of Bacillus and Paraburkholderia has been reported 10,12,20 , this study for the first time demonstrated that two plant probiotic bacteria, B. amylolequifaciens BChi1 and Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 significantly increased both yield and functional properties of strawberry fruits. This study is one of the few of this kind to evaluate the effects of plant probiotics on both yield and quality of strawberry fruits. Significant increase in vitamin C contents in strawberry fruits by the application of a strain of genus Phyllobacterium has recently been reported 16 .One of the interesting findings of this study is that both plant probiotic bacteria significantly improved growth and yield of strawberry almost at the same level with some minor differences although they belong to different bacterial genera. Probiotic bacterium, BRRh-4 provided the highest fruit yield increase (48%) in plants of 'Strawberry Festival' compared to non-treated control (Fig. 3). Generally, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria facilitate plant growth directly by either assisting in resource acquisition (nitrogen, phosphorus and essential minerals) or modulating plant hormone levels, or indirectly by inhibiting various pathogens as biocontrol agents 21 . Early colonization of root system has the potential to preclude pathogen colonization and infection in addition with induction of disease resistance or a range of beneficial secondary metabolites. However, a large-scale field study with multiple cultivars is needed for testing this hypothesis. Although suppression of fungal pathogens that cause black root rot complex of strawberries was not the focus of this study, it is possible that due to pre-colonization of strawberry root system by beneficial bacteria, treated plants had lower root disease. Future studies should evaluate roots of treated and non-treated plants for the extent of black root rot complex/crown rot. Probiotic bacteria also promote plant growth by a number of similar mechanisms regardless of their taxonomic groupings. These include phosphate solubilization activity 22,23 , indole acetic acid production 24 and production of siderophore 25 . Moreover, a number of other beneficial effects on plant growth have been attributed to plant probiotic bacteria that include modification of root morphology, enhanced uptake of minerals and alteration of nitrogen accumulation and metabolism and/or induction of gene expression in host plants 26 .In the current study, inoculation of strawberry plants separately with two bacterial isolates significantly increased vegetative growth (leaf length, leaf number, shoot and root dry weights) of the strawberry plants (Tables 1 and 2). Similar growth enhancement effects by bacteria on growth and yield of crop plant were reported in several earlier studies [27][28][29] . Due to the documented growth promoting effect by two plant probiotic bacteria on strawberry in this study, it is logical to get these included in the PGPR group. The growth-promoting activities of PGPR on plants can be explained in various ways, including biocontrol and induction of disease resistance in the inoculated plant, biological N 2 fixation, phosphorus solubilization, and/or production of phytohormone such as IAA 24,28 . The objective and extent of work in this study did not allow us to determine if phytohormones or nutrient uptake were also enhanced by probiotic bacteria, but we have undertaken a separate study to assess those beneficial effects, which is highly likely to occur. We recently demonstrated a significant increase in growth and yield of rice by Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 11 and B. amylolequifaciens BChi1 under nutrient deficient soils 11,17 . Application of these probiotic bacteria through root colonization and spray application on strawberry plants enhanced growth, yield and functional properties of fruits and the improvement was modest that may benefit strawberry growers and consumers if adopted in their production practice.Strawberry is particularly a good source of antioxidants with 10-fold greater capacity of scavenging free radicals than that of many other fruits, including oranges, kiwis, grapefruits, grapes and mangoes 30 . Anthocyanins are in part responsible for the antioxidant property of strawberry fruits, together with ascorbic acid and a wide variety of phenolics, including hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acid derivates, flavanols, proanthocyanidins and hydrolysable tannins 31 . In the current study, application of plant probiotic bacteria significantly increased total antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and total anthocyanin contents in fresh strawberry fruits compared to non-treated control (Figs 4 and 5), making these very interesting and important findings. Treatments of strawberry plants with bacteria strains BRRh-4 and BChi1 consistently produced higher antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and total anthocyanins compared to non-treated control. Previous study showed that the members of the genus Phyllobacterium were good plant probiotics with the capacity of increasing fruit yield as well as quality 32 . However, this study for the first time demonstrated that both B. amyloliquefaciens and Paraburkholderia fungorum not only increased yield but also significantly improved contents of several antioxidants and total antioxidant activities of fruits. Functional properties of fruits are dependent on bioactive compounds that may be increased when plants are biofertilized with Rhizobium 33 by impacting plant's secondary metabolism. Chamam et al. showed that Azospirillum sp. was able to modulate the phenolic compounds in rice 34 . The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization on the concentration of anthocyanins was previously measured in strawberry fruits by Castellanos-Morales et al. 35 . They showed for the first time that symbiosis induced an increase in cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (and that of some other phenolics). Both B. amyloliquefaciens and Paraburkholderia fungorum are well-known and widely studied plant growth promoting bacteria, and many of the strains are used for producing commercial products 10,12,36,37 . Molecular mechanisms of plant growth promotion by Bacillus spp. have largely been elucidated 10,36 . Growth promotion of common bean by Paraburkholderia fungorum has also been reported 12,20 . To the best of our knowledge, there are no data available on the positive effects of plant probiotic bacteria B. amyloliquefaciens and Paraburkholderia fungorum on enhancement of total antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and total anthocyanins in strawberry. In the current study, vitamin C content in strawberry fruits also increased by both of these probiotic bacteria (data not shown). In an earlier study, increased induction of transcriptional profile of phenylpropanoid pathway genes and increased contents of flavonoid and lignin in Arabidopsis leaves in response to the application of commercial microbial products have been reported 38 .Results from this study suggest that application of B. amyloliquefaciens and Paraburkholderia fungorum not only can significantly increase growth and fruit yield but also enhance functional properties of strawberry by inducing enhanced production of total antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and anthocyanins. Elucidation of molecular mechanism involved with the improvement of growth, yield and quality of strawberry by these two plant probiotic bacteria would help finding more efficient microbial strains for inducing gene expression in plants related to secondary metabolites overproduction. The findings of this study however, indicate the plant probiotic bacteria BRRh-4 and BChi1 isolated from the native environment could be used as natural agents for sustainable production of high quality strawberry with no or little additional use of expensive synthetic inputs.Experimental site and treatment application. This study was conducted at the experimental field of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University during the period of November 30, 2014 to March 25, 2015. Soil of the experimental field was shallow red brown terrace under Salna Series 39 in Madhupur Tract (Agroecological zone 28) having a pH 6.71. This soil contained 1.70% organic matter, 0.115% nitrogen (N), 21.35 ppm phosphorus (P) and 0.24 meq. 100 g −1 soil exchangeable potassium (K). Runner grown seedlings of cv. Strawberry Festival were collected from the Akafuji Agrotechnology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. All intercultural operations and fertility management were performed following commercial recommendations.Experimental design and layout. The field experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The unit plot size was 75 cm × 150 cm and the plants were spaced 30.5 cm × 30.5 cm on the beds. Beds were raised 30.5 cm above main field with 34 inches aisles in between 2 beds. Each plot contained 8 plants in two adjacent rows 30.5 cm apart. Thirty days old strawberry plug plants were transplanted on November 30, 2014. Data on vegetative growth and fruit yield were collected from each plant of each replicated plot.Bacterial isolates used in the experiment. The bacterial strains BChi1 and BRRh-4 used in this study were isolated as endophytes from the surface sterilized roots of chili plant and rhizosphere soil of rice cv. BINAdhan-7, respectively. They were tentatively identified through 16S rRNA gene sequencing as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BChi1 (GenBank accession No. KT306960) and Burkholderia sp. BRRh-4 (GenBank accession No. KF921290) 11 . However, a recent comparative molecular signature and phylogenomic analyses of a large number of Burkholderia spp. from diverse origins suggest that non-pathogenic environmental Burkholderia should be considered as a new genus Paraburkholderia 12 . Reexamination of 16S rRNA sequence data of BRRh-4 revealed 99% similarity to the sequence data of the Paraburkholderia fungorum (AF215705). Therefore, we renamed BRRh-4 as Paraburkholderia fungorum BRRh-4 (NCBI Genbank accession No. KF921290). We constructed a neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA sequences (Fig. 6). All the sequences utilized in the study were obtained from GenBank of NCBI. Multiple sequence alignment was carried out using the CLUSTAL W Multiple Alignment program in BioEdit version 7.2.3, and a NJ tree based upon 1000 bootstrap replicates of this alignment was constructed using the Kimura 2-parameter model in MEGA 6.0.Both of these plants-associated bacteria (BChi1 and BRRh-4) were confirmed to possess antagonistic activities towards major phytopathogenic microorganisms, produced indole-3-acetic acid and displayed high phosphate solubilizing activities. They were preserved in 20% glycerol at −20 °C until used in this study.Preparation and application of bacterial suspension. Bacterial isolates (BRRh-4 and BChi1) were cultured separately in 500 mL nutrient broth (Merck, Germany) in conical flasks taking a single colony from actively growing bacterial culture plates that were maintained on lab bench at ambient temperature (25° ± 2 °C). Then each flask was placed on a shaking incubator adjusted at 120 rpm and 25 °C for 72 h for bacterial growth in nutrient broth. The broth was centrifuged at 12,000 g and the pellet was washed thrice with sterilized distilled water to remove nutrients. The bacterial pellet was suspended in water and diluted to a concentration of approx. 1 × 10 9 CFU mL −1 . Roots of strawberry plug plants were dipped overnight in the suspension to facilitate bacterial root colonization 13 . For foliar application, nutrient-free bacterial suspension containing ca. 1 × 10 9 CFU mL −1 of bacteria was sprayed until run-off in five different times with 10-d intervals starting (at flower initiation stage) from December 20, 2014 to February 22, 2015. Plants in the non-inoculated control plots were sprayed with equal volume of sterile water without any bacterial cells.Assessment of probiotic bacterial effect on vegetative growth of strawberry plants. A total of three treatments, plant inoculation with strain BChi1, BRRh-4 and non-inoculated control (8 plants/treatment) were assessed from three replicated plots. Effect of probiotic bacteria on strawberry vegetative growth was determined by measuring plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, leaf length (cm) leaf width (cm), and canopy diameter (cm) with a ruler. The appearance of new flowers and fruits was recorded weekly. Runners generated from the growing plants were removed immediately as noticed on any plant. Fruits were harvested when most of the fruit surfaces had turned red. Sepals were discarded and only fruit flesh was used for biochemical analyses 40 . The length and diameter of the fruits were recorded; then fruits were weighed and immediately stored at −20 °C for analyses. After 20 weeks of growth, plants were dug out of the ground, root systems and shoots were separated, washed under running water, and weighed. Length of roots (cm) was recorded with a ruler. Shoots and roots were dried at 60 °C for one week to assess dry weight.Determination of total anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoids, and phenolics. Sample matrix, particle size and binding of phenolics with other biochemical substances such as carbohydrate and proteins strongly influence phenolic extraction from plant materials 41 . In our assays, we chose the protocols that have been widely used due to their reproducibility. For the determination of total anthocyanins, carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolics and total antioxidant activities, 100 g preserved fruits were thawed and homogenized in a standard food homogenizer. Sub-samples were used to determine bioactive contents for each of the above listed compounds.Anthocyanin was extracted by placing 1g of homogenized fruit sample in 5 mL 6M HCl: H 2 O: MeOH (7: 23: 70) in the dark at 4 °C for 24 h. To separate chlorophylls from anthocyanins, 2 mL of chloroform and 1 mL of water was added to 2 mL of fruit extracts and then centrifuged for 15 min at 5,000 g. Three mL of the supernatant was used for determination of total anthocyanins 42 . Anthocyanins concentration was determined as cyanidin-3-O-glucoside equivalent using the absorbance A530 (CT60, UV-visible spectrophotometer, PG INSTRUMENTS) and a molar extinction coefficient of 30000 l mol −1 cm −1 43 . To determine carotenoid content, 5 mL acetone was added to 2 g homogenized fruit sample in a glass vial followed by incubation for 24 h in dark at 4 °C. Three mL supernatant was taken in a glass cuvette and the absorbance of the acetone extract was measured at 444 nm using acetone as blank in the spectrophotometer mentioned above in triplicate. Total carotenoid content was measured in mg g −1 of sample as lutein equivalent according to the protocol described earlier 44 .Total flavonoid was determined spectrophotometrically according to aluminium chloride colorimetric assay method. Briefly, 0.4 mL 5% sodium nitrate was added to 1 mL methanol extract of strawberry fruit in a test tube. For blank reaction, 1 mL methanol was taken instead of methanol extract of strawberry. After 5 minutes, 0.6 mL of 10% AlCl 3 .6H 2 O was added to the mixture. At 6 th minute, 2 mL of 1M NaOH was added to the mixture, followed by shaking thoroughly and measuring the absorbance of the solution at 510 nm against the blank sample 45 . The measurements were compared to a standard curve of quercetin solutions and total flavonoids content was expressed as (µg/g FW) quercetin equivalent. Total phenolic compounds were also determined spectrophotometrically following Folin-Ciocalteau method. Briefly, 0.5 mL 10% (0.2 N) Folin-Ciocalteau reagent was added to each test tube containing 1 mL methanol extract of fruit sample and 1 mL methanol alone as blank. The test tubes were shaken for 10 s, covered and incubated for 15 min at room temperature. Aqueous 700 mM sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) solution (2.5 mL) was added to each reaction mixture and then vortexed, covered and incubated at room temperature for 2 h. The absorbance of the solution was measured at 765 nm against the blank sample 46 . The measurements were compared to a standard curve of gallic acid solutions and total phenolics were expressed as (µg/g FW) gallic acid equivalent.Measurement of radical scavenging activity using discoloration of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH radical scavenging assay) has been widely used due to its stability, simplicity, and reproducibility. Therefore, antioxidant activity of strawberry fruits was assayed by DPPH (CalBiochem, Germany) radical scavenging assay 47 . The DPPH assay method is based on the reduction of DPPH, a stable free radical. The free radical of DPPH has an odd electron, which gives a maximum Figure 6. A neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree based on the 16S rRNA gene sequences showing the position of the isolate Paraburkholderia sp. BRRh-4 (NCBI GenBank accession No. KF921290) to other strains of the genus Burkholderia. Accession numbers for the 16S rRNA sequences used for each organism are provided in the brackets following the name of the organism. The tree was rooted using one species from the genus Ralstonia and three species from the genus Pseudomonas. The significance of each branch is indicated by a bootstrap value based on 1000 replications. absorption at 517 nm (purple color). Methanol extracted supernatant of strawberry fruit sample (1mL) was taken in test tube and DPPH solution (0.0788g of 0.2 mM DPPH in 1L methanol) was added to it. The reaction mixture was incubated at 25 °C for 5 min, after which time the absorbance was measured at 517 nm 47 . When the antioxidants react with DPPH, the DPPH is reduced to DPPH-H and, as a consequence, the absorbance decreases. DPPH-H formation results in decolorization (yellow color) with respect to the number of electrons captured. The DPPH solution with corresponding solvents (i.e., without plant material) served as the control. Methanol with the respective plant extracts was used as the blank. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of each plant extract was calculated as the percentage inhibition. ","tokenCount":"4667"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b8cfca30ec1c073675ab8ecb65e2f1b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5999f742-069f-4cdb-a990-8081ad129542/retrieve","id":"2100032082"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ed73d5e-1c01-409b-adb3-f36fb409ca0a","pagecount":"33","content":"This work is licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.• Priorities for effective climate adaptation include capacity building to access finance from the Green Climate Fund, improved climate information and weather insurance products for farmers.• ClimBeR can contribute to the research agenda by strengthening climate information services, designing improved insurance products for farmers, and building capacity in developing proposals to the Green Climate Fund.The CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience, ClimBeR, aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land, and water systems in Zambia and five other low-and middle-income countries, ultimately increasing the resilience of smallholder production systems to withstand severe climate change effects like drought, flooding, and high temperatures.The variability in Zambia's climate means farmers are challenged by droughts, floods, high temperatures, and increased unpredictability. In response, the government is integrating climate change concerns into its agricultural policy agenda. Under its climate-smart agriculture (CSA) framework, Zambia is promoting various adaptation solutions to sustainably increase productivity and enhance resilience. ClimBeR will contribute to the adaptation priorities outlined in Zambia's Nationally Determined Contribution and Eighth National Development Plan by strengthening early warning systems and increasing access to climate finance, among other activities.The ClimBeR Initiative in collaboration with the Zambia Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MGEE) and Ministry of Agriculture organized a workshop to bring together stakeholders from the Ministry of National Development Planning, Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA), Zambia Meteorological Department, Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU), along with international agencies, development partners, and civil society. The objective of this workshop was to have a deeper understanding on how to co-produce knowledge and innovations that contribute to building systemic resilience against climate variability and extremes in Zambia.49 national and regional organizations that have a presence in Zambia were represented in this meeting at the Radisson Blu Hotel. We had in total 82 participants in person and at least 9 participants online. Please refer to Annex 1 for a detailed list of participants.The workshop provided insight into the main challenges to effective adaptation in Zambia. According to several ministries leading climate action in Zambia, ClimBeR can contribute to Zambia's adaptation priorities on:1) access to accurate and available climate information; 2) capacity building to develop bankable project proposals; 3) farmers' access to insurance and credit; 4) incentives for farmers to diversify crops; 5) improved dissemination platforms for early warning systems; and 6) the development of partnerships to coordinate financial resources for implementation.Session 1: Linking ClimBeR to Climate Action in ZambiaThe objective of this session was the identification of strategic needs for climate action and adaptation by national stakeholders for Zambia that can be addressed by ClimBeR's work. Primary conclusions include:Lizzy Muzungaire moderated the inception workshop. She first introduced the program by thanking the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment as well as Ministry of Agriculture for hosting this workshop, with special appreciation to IITA and IWMI for the collaboration given to the ClimBeR team.ClimBeR is being implemented in Zambia and five other countries to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land and water systems, ultimately increasing the resilience of smallholder production systems to withstand severe climate change effects like drought, flooding and high temperatures.We recognize that in the recent past we have witnessed unprecedented effects of climate change shocks, floods where we didn't expect, drought where we least expect it. How can we get together to come out with ways, ideas, innovations to address these issues to get to a point of adapting these innovations?The main objective of the workshop is to establish a common vision and action plan on how to strengthen climate smart adaptation efforts in Zambia.Dr. Jon Hellin, Co-Lead of ClimBeR ClimBeR deals with issues of reducing climate change vulnerabilities and extremes. ClimBeR is not a CGIAR Initiative, but a Zambia Initiative; CGIAR is just leading and facilitating. ClimBeR is owned by our national partners; owned by Zambia. ClimBeR can contribute to the agenda of the Zambian Government in responding to climate change challenges.The IPCC report in February suggests that changes in climate response require incremental steps, with transformative change in agricultural systems and institutions. It requires a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary approach.Transformative adaptation requires strong partnerships to achieve the objectives of ClimBeR. Globally, ClimBeR is being implemented in six countries (in Asia, Africa and Latin America) to achieve its proposed outcomes, including Zambia. ClimBeR is comprised of four work packages and two crosscutting themes (climate finance and gender and social equity).The presentation by Dr. Jon Hellin can be downloaded here (slides 2-5).This workshop celebrates ClimBeR's launch in Zambia. CGIAR has gone through major reforms; working with partners in the regions across the world including farmers. Diverse partnerships will help us achieve the objectives of the ClimBeR program.ClimBeR will be owned by Zambia stakeholders: we complement and synergize. We need to make various synergies with different stakeholders and institutions working in Zambia. How can we best learn from you and farmers and other stakeholders?Each panelist described the mandate of their institution and challenges they face in adapting to climate change.Mandate: Henry Mgomba, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA)Mandate:• Ministry of Agriculture's mandate involves dissemination of proven agricultural technologies and practices to smallholder farmers to improve their livelihoods • Poverty rates are high in rural areas; they are MoA's target to build their capacity to improve their productivity through the ministry's diverse extension system.Challenges:• Climate information is needed; it the basis for advising farmers. It should come quickly for dissemination to farmers. • Conservation agriculture: this consists of three principles including crop rotation, residue retention and minimum tillage. However, residue retention is hard to achieve especially in the southern part of Zambia. There is a tradeoff between animals and crops since residues provide fodder to animals. • Adaptation planning is done in two phases: (i) development of the national plan, and (ii) water adaptation plan. Adaptation and capacity gaps have been identified; MGEE reviewed climate change adaption and monitoring and evaluation, developed adaptation indicators and tools for integrating climate change adaptation in budgeting and planning processes, and developed climate change policy guidelines. • MGEE is going into identification and prioritization of climate adaptation strategies. They hope to benefit from ClimBeR by working closely and creating synergies on prioritization of adaptation innovations and strategies for adaptation and providing evidence-based information.• Progress on transforming food systems has been hindered by working in isolation. The food system considers all stakeholders. MoA acknowledges all stakeholders in supply chain, marketing and those dealing with farmers. They try to harmonise extension systems and work closely with the private sector.o Working in partnerships across different value chains as one unit is necessary (ClimBeR will help to achieve it). o Working in isolation has been the major issue: working with other stakeholders in the supply chain and marketing is paramount. o MoA needs to work closely with input suppliers and agrochemical dealers (to eliminate banned chemicals).Challenges below have been identified by all and not specific to a given ministry or stakeholder:• Availability of climate information-e.g., climate advisory for agriculture, early warning systems focusing on drought and flooding, and area specific information Session 2: Reducing risk in production system-linked livelihoods and value chains at scaleThe objective of this session was to identify together with stakeholders the need and opportunities to promote climate information services and digital financial services for reducing risk and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers at scale in Zambia. Primary conclusions include:• The focus areas of this aspect include: digital climate and active advising services; financial services for farmers; risk profiling system; and nutritional impacts of climate risk. • One of the main problems in Zambia is the high climatic variability that occurs every year.Success with Shamba Shape Up demonstrates the importance of communicating climate information through channels such as television programs to benefit more farmers. • Access to insurance by farmers in Zambia is relatively low. Zambia is sparsely populated, so the cost of physically reaching 3 million smallholder farmers will increase the cost of the premiums. This problem can be solved with innovative digital solutions, and increased financial awareness on multimedia platforms. ACRE will play a key role in the work to be carried out in this field. • Promoting bio-fortified, micronutrient-rich crops in Zambia with farmers will help to support the entire value chain business cycle, from production to market.Evan emphasized the importance of financial services for de-risking farming and production systems as the focus of ClimBeR's Work Package 1. The activities aim to reach at least 300,000 vulnerable farmers in six countries including Zambia, at least 30% of them being women.The presentation by Dr. Evan Girvetz can be downloaded here (slides 6-15).Four priority areas include: 1. Digital climate and active advising services: not just about getting more data, but information that is accurate and usable. One of the ways that ClimBeR is addressing this is by using innovative delivery mechanisms, including television programming such as the Shamba Shape Up TV show. 2. Financial services for farmers: This can be credit and insurance for smallholder farmers to help them to get the capital they need. ClimBeR aims to also de-risk the capital through different mechanisms like insurance. This will be working with partners such as Acre Africa/ZepRe, Agora Microfinance in Zambia. 3. Risk profiling system: Analyze and understand the climate risks to production systems in specific places. The output information can be useful for sending advisories to farmers or informing insurance and/or credit services. 4. Reduce nutritional impacts of climate risk: addressing nutritional risk through diversification.The three panelists covered the four thematic areas of the Work Package 1 extremely well. Many of the activities in Zambia will be based on the learnings from the ongoing activities in Kenya, except for Harvest Plus.• Patricia Gichinga, Mediae, head of production of Shamba Shape Up TV program: Patricia described how Shamba Shape Up started in Kenya as a reality makeover show to farm makeover show, running for 12 years in Kenya, reaching more than 8 million viewers. Among others, she described that the most common problem now is the variable weather, particularly every year. To address this issue, they have been developing series on climate smart agriculture, as well as introducing a 2-minute weather segment that provides weather updates weekly based on the forecast. There was also mention about iShamba, the mobile agro-advisory system. • He also mentioned a very important challenge related to insurance access by Zambian farmers. Unlike many other countries, Zambia is sparsely populated, so the cost of physically reaching 3 million smallholder farmers will increase the cost of the premiums, leading to either a higher subsidy from the Government or low uptake by the farmers. This problem can be addressed with innovative digital solutions and increased financial literacy on multimedia platforms such as Shamba Shape Up.• Emily Mwale, HarvestPlus, Alliance country coordinator for Zambia: She described how HarvestPlus has been promoting bio-fortified, micronutrient rich crops in Zambia and other African counties. They work with farmers to support the entire value chain business cycle, from production to market. Their main partners are various CGIAR centers, government, United Nations organizations and private sector such as aggregators and processors. She emphasized the huge success of orange maize that is a climate resilient, vitamin A enriched crop in Zambia. She also mentioned the benefits of other varieties such as high iron beans and orange flesh sweet potatoes. Learning from the benefits of orange maize varieties, many other countries are also growing it. They have also teamed up with World Food Programme (WFP) to provide insurance to farmers growing biofortified crops.We finally have it in the formation.Plenary Q&A• From the audience three main questions were asked. One was around the accessibility and packaging of more information that is localized. In response to that, Patricia described how Mediae works with local experts and languages, and context-specific research to generate the knowledge that are locally relevant. • Another question was around insurance and financing in aquaculture. Aquaculture is a gap and could be an opportunity to work with WorldFish.Session 3: Building production-system resilience through recognizing the relationships among climate, agriculture, security, and peace.The objective of this session was to discuss what climate security is as a concept, increase understanding of how and why climate-related security risks emerge, and discuss its relevance in the context of Zambia. Primary conclusions include:• Climate change, rather than directly causing conflict, has become a multiplier.• Risk mapping in Zambia confirms the existence of zones that are more vulnerable than others (climate hotspots) and potential regions where climate security risks may be amplified. • One method to address climate security risks is to build a resilient landscape with productive agriculture practices along and with ecosystem services, for a multi-sectoral approach. • Inequitable access to limited natural resources contributes to conflicts.• Accessing finance from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) remains a challenges because few entities in Zambia are accredited. Additional support is needed to increase the number of accredited entities and ultimately access more finance from the GCF. She mentioned that the session will focusing on on addressing the following questions:• What does climate security look like in Zambia?• What are climate security priorities in Zambia?• What are the climate security concerns in Zambia?• What are the possible solutions?The presentation by Sithembile Mwamakamba can be downloaded here (slides 16-24).Morgan Katati, Zambia Institute of Environmental Management (ZIEM)• Mr. Morgan elaborated that climate change is an issue of concern in Zambia.• He indicated that carbon emissions are increasing in Zambia as a result of agricultural activities, migration, urbanization and mining among other activities. • He further pointed out that climate security should be one of the target topics for Zambia.• Mr Katati showed how Zambia increased its emissions during the last century, with agriculture as one of the major sources of emissions. He mentioned a lot of risk mapping has been done, and this has shown that some zones are more vulnerable than others (climate hotspots). This connects with another aspect he mentioned: natural resources sharing (water). Inequitable access to limited natural resources contributes to conflicts around the world. • In Zambia, there are noticeable changes resulting from migration. There is movement from the southern province towards northwestern province because of issues such as soil degradation and conflicts over water resources. • In Zambia, having mainly agriculturally based livelihoods, dependence on natural resources is common. The failure of traditional methods to address climate change will lead to greater use of natural resources. The over utilization of these resources causes a threat to ecosystem services that will subsequently affect agricultural productivity. • If not well addressed, this is a major risk if the practices that we are promoting, Climate Smart Agriculture and many other practices are not addressing the issues that Zambia is faced with at hand.• Mr Mwale pointed out that when different security issues around the climate crisis are examined in more detail, it's possible to notice such issues are increasingly affecting the productivity and economy of the country. • Climate change, rather than directly causing conflict, has become a multiplier.• Climate change impacts food production, economic aspects in terms of livelihoods but also nutrition. • In Zambia there is a scarcity of food and people are fighting for the little that is available.• Part of the work done by COMESA includes capacitating the rural farmers for instance on how they can use climate-resilient seed varieties so that in the face of climate change they are still able to produce food not only for themselves but also sell the surplus so that their livelihoods can also improve. • There is a need to understand that climate change does not directly cause conflict but rather it has a multiplier effect, because it rides on the already existing vulnerabilities.• Mr. Ziba talked about the increases of climate security threats in agriculture. The solution to overcome these issues should be building a resilient landscape with productive agriculture practices along and with ecosystem services, for a multi-sectoral approach to address climate change.• Mr. Nyambe pointed out that there are still many challenges when addressing proposals for accredited entities that have evidence and have been working on climate change for a long time. Accredited entities can receive a lot of investment from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), but access is limited due to the small number of these entities in Zambia. This is a risk for the country since it delays the implementation of more sustainable activities.Plenary Q&A• Concerns from the audience were related to how to increase the number of accredited entities to the GCF and the importance of promoting multidisciplinary approaches for climate solutions. It was said that more strategies to guarantee investment on sustainable solutions are needed. Also, it's necessary to identify different mechanisms that allow farmers to overcome the climate crisis, such as designing integrated approaches for governance mechanisms that help bring justice and amplify community voices.Session 4: Developing adaptation instruments to inform policy and investmentsThe objective of this session was to find synergies and complementarities in support of work with partners to develop adaptation instruments to inform policy and investments. Primary conclusions include:• iFEED (The integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets) is a tool to help decision makers plan for the future and identify needs to be prioritized in the agriculture sector in order to reduce climate change risks.• iFEED provides information on how climate change and government policy will affect crop yields, land and water use, and nutritious diets in the future. • The aim of ClimBeR is for co-development and use of future scenarios (as projected by iFEED) to develop policies that will effectively address future climate change risks and build resilient food systems. • There is a need to consider nutrition-sensitive agriculture, which can be achieved through crop diversification.• Crop diversification plays a key role to increase the income of farmers in Zambia. Market access and linkages for farmers are very important as they provide an incentive for farmers to crop diversify.Rebecca asked participants, \"What matters to you most as a decision maker when you think about agriculture?\". She emphasized the need for evidence-based decision making. Decision makers need to be informed by evidence that has been generated through research.One such tool that can be used to inform decision making is the integrated Future Estimator for Emissions and Diets (iFEED). iFEED is a tool that shows how climate change and government policy will affect crop yields, land and water use, and how nutritious diets will be in the future. The tool helps decision makers to plan for the future and identify needs to be prioritized in the agriculture sector in order to reduce climate change risks. The tool was developed by various experts such as Climate Scientists, Food Scientists, Meteorologists, Agriculturist and Economists.iFEED is one example of how ClimBeR will bring together various experts to find a common solution to the issues that are affecting the agricultural sector.Christian Chomba, Agricultural Consultative Forum (ACF)• iFEED was developed under a project called Agricultural and Food systems Resilience: Increasing Capacity & Advising Policy (AFRICAP). The project's aim was to make agriculture and food production in sub-Saharan Africa more productive, sustainable and resilient to climate change. • iFEED is a tool that was developed to help create scenarios of how climate change will affect the agriculture and food systems in the future up to 2050. • For Zambia, it was observed that the critical risk factors are (i) climate change risk and (ii) market connectivity and function. • Under the same project, media personnel were trained to report on emerging issues in relation to climate change. • The outputs from iFEED contributed to key national policy processes such as the Second National Agriculture Investment Plan, the African Union Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Malabo Biennial Review process, the crop diversification agenda, the review of the Farmer Input Support Program and the development of the livestock value chain framework. • An iFEED Zambia Champion was identified to champion the work of iFEED and the outputs.The presentation by Christian Chomba can be downloaded here (slides 25-33).Can you reflect on results from iFEED that we need to expand food production?• To achieve food security and build resilient food systems in Zambia and across the region, there is a need to look at climate change issues in a multidisciplinary or cross disciplinary way. • iFEED, much like ClimBeR, brought together experts from different disciplines to find solutions that will ensure that resilient food systems are built. • There is a need to bring onboard policy and decision makers so that they appreciate the evidence that is presented to them so that they make informed decisions about the future. • The aim of ClimBeR is for co-development and use of future scenarios (as projected by iFEED) to develop policies that will effectively address future climate change risks and build resilient food systems.• There are high levels of food insecurity resulting in stunting and underweight children. To mitigate this, there is a need to diversify crop production. • There is need to educate the populace on the right nutrition feeding. There is need to consider nutrition sensitive agriculture which can be achieved through crop diversification. • We should promote vegetable production as Zambia has a favorable and conducive production environment. We should reduce our importation of fruits and vegetables and be self-sufficient.• Any intervention such as ClimBeR that promotes increased production and productivity is welcome.What policy issues are critical to crop diversification?• It is important to understand that crop diversification is good for income generation because of its high value (especially in the horticulture sector). • When there is a challenge/shock regarding horticulture, the government intervenes which shows that there is an enabling environment. For example, there was an issue of vegetable dumping on the market which affected supply and demand leading to waste and greenhouse gas emissions. • Access to agriculture equipment (especially irrigation equipment) can be challenging for smallholder farmers, therefore support in this area is required in order to build the resilience of farmers to climate shocks. • Interventions such as iFEED and ClimBeR should involve the marginalized such us the disabled, women and youth. • The outputs from iFEED should be used to enhance extension services.How is the policy state in irrigation and mechanization relevant and critical to food systems?• Currently, Zambia wants to prioritize climate resilience through irrigation to avoid dependency on rain-fed agriculture. • The current government is building dams in various parts of the country and also helping small scale farmers with simple irrigation equipment. • If we are to build resilient food systems by 2050 and beyond, we need to not only consider the available land for agriculture but also invest in irrigation to utilize the available water resource. • Market access and linkages for farmers are very important as they provide an incentive for farmers to crop diversify.The participants broke out in groups to discuss the following issues:i. What regions or provinces are mostly affected when it comes to nutritional status? ii.What are some of the interventions that the government has in place to address the identified nutritional deficits? iii.Is land easily accessible to men women and youth? What is the main land tenure system? iv.Who finances or resources agricultural technologies and innovations? v.Is the cost of seed favorable and does it support crop diversification?Responses from the breakout groups• Western and Northern provinces are the most affected in terms of nutrition status.• Some of the interventions that government has put in place to mitigate against nutrition challenges include among others the Scaling Up Nutrition, the Social Cash Transfer, the Food Security Pack, the extended Farmer Input Support Program and the Water and Sanitation Development Plan to enable farmers to develop irrigation systems. • Most land is under traditional or customary tenure which is biased towards men. The government has made a deliberate policy to mitigate this by making sure that women have access to 30% of the land while the rest of the 70% both men and women can have access to it. • Agricultural innovations and technologies are largely resourced by the private sector.• There is need to engage the banks and other private stakeholders to provide incentives that enhance irrigation and farm mechanization in order to improve agricultural production and productivity. • Costs of seed and fertilizer are high. There is need to make sure that farmers have access to seed in order to crop diversify. • Farmers should refrain from using recycled seed as it reduces productivity overtime.The objective of this session was to discuss with various stakeholders the promotion of multiscale polycentric governance and innovative tools to build the adaptive capacity of local communities, increasing their resilience against climate-related shocks. Primary conclusions include:• A multi-scale governance approach is critical when executing climate change activities and interventions in the country. The approach outlined in the National Policy on Climate Change allows the implementation and coordination of climate action using a multi-level governance system. • ClimBeR could help WARMA localize its early warning system to provide more timely data to communities. • Early warning information needs better dissemination platforms to ensure information is reaching the desired communities.• Key research needs include innovations that improve productivity on farm, adaptation indices, research to support NDC implementation, and tools to analyze climate change in the meteorological department. • Capacity building should be at the center of all activities. This includes capacity building in data analysis and innovation.Effective adaptation cannot happen without strong governance. ClimBeR's Governance 4 Resilience (G4R) research examines institutional barriers to adaptation from local to national levels. This presentation highlighted the importance of having a balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches. This is crucial to have a systemic approach to transformation that embraces different sectors working together. G4R will be focused on improving coordination, enabling responsiveness to climate extremes, improving facilitation and planning, and champions of change (key actors). Next steps will be to finalize a work plan along with the key institutions working with ClimBeR, codesign and co-produce the Early Warning, Early Action, and Early Finance (AWARE) platform, and prepare capacity development plans with key stakeholders.The presentation by Giriraj Amarnath can be downloaded here (slides 34-45).Moderated by Lizzy Muzungaire, WorldFish. • Disaster risk knowledge is also crucial gap. There is a need to ensure that information is actually disseminated to the desired end user.• Zambia Red Cross implements forecast-based financing, where finance is mobilized to take early action to mitigate impacts of floods. Red Cross' impact-based forecasting can inform stakeholders of floods seven days in advance, working in Satellite Disaster Management Committees. They bring together various stakeholder groups, including funders and researchers to take action before a disaster occurs.Plenary Q&A• Questions from the audience were related to the feasibility of downscaling climate information from provincial levels to camp levels. With a certain level of uncertainty, DMMU can downscale climate information by using supplemental satellite data. Another participant asked about differentiating between \"disasters\" and extreme events in areas that are already known to be vulnerable. Irrespective of areas being prone to disasters or not, the government has a duty to respond. In areas that are more vulnerable, it is necessary to sensitize communities in these areas of the potential dangers of climate extremes in their communities.The participants broke out in groups to discuss the following issues: Responses from the breakout groups• Finance is a gap. Timely finance needs to be mobilized so farmers can use these resources when they need it. • There is a need to improve coordination at the national, provincial, district, and community level as well as between public and private entities. Jon Hellin, ClimBeR Co-Lead provided reflections, beginning with thanks to all participants. There were common concerns raised on climate information and drought-tolerant varieties, and these aspects need to be supported by policy and governance. ClimBeR's approach is transdisciplinary in nature, and transdisciplinary work takes time. We need to continue coordinating and collaborating together towards a climate adapted Zambia. ClimBeR is very grateful for the input from everyone represented in the meeting.Mr. Kasanda Bunda closed saying that the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment is glad to partner with ClimBeR to build resilience in Zambia. Climate change is not a story but a reality. Zambia is already seeing the impact of climate change among vulnerable farmers. Therefore, partnerships like those with ClimBeR are very critical.Mr. Joy Sinyangwe of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasized the need for greater collaboration. Problems that farmers face are holistic in nature. These challenges require significant collaboration. At the local level, there is a need for capacity building. The Ministry of Agriculture is committed to work to ensure farmers do not remain small-scale forever. Giriraj Amarnath, ClimBeR Zambia Lead closed the workshop thanking Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Green Economy and Environment for co-hosting. He assured the group that committed partnership is critical, and ClimBeR looks forward to engaging with partners in the near future. • Breakout groups with flipcharts to answer specific questions on agricultural area expansion, crop diversity and irrigation, including links to policy processes.Expected outputs:• Participants are aware of plans and the capabilities of iFEED and are able to input their ideas and perspectives, including but not limited to ideas for target policies. • Identify key individuals who wish to engage with ClimBeR's iFEED team beyond the workshop, to help orient the work and/or to link with policy. • Explore links with other ClimBeR research areas and begin to co-ordinate stakeholder engagement. Session 5: Multiscale governance for transformative adaptation","tokenCount":"4899"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"58192201fe57dfc06f3415d3b0ce8b90","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eee54f64-7a17-4913-af63-e2fc9f65f57a/retrieve","id":"-1620935301"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e5439416-049a-4d32-b8a0-6725647b3e59","pagecount":"24","content":"The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily representative of or endorsed by CGIAR, IFPRI, and OUAT.The concept of food systems has evolved rapidly in recent years, with a more holistic approach gaining traction among scholars and policymakers. This new perspective encompasses all elements and activities related to food production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption, as well as the socioeconomic and environmental outcomes of these activities (HLPE, 2016*). Despite growing awareness, the global food system is under threat due to unsustainable practices and the current trajectory of agrifood systems drivers, which risk derailing the achievement of Agenda 2030 targets (FAO, 2022**). Increasingly, international organizations, countries, and civil society groups are utilizing foresight exercises to explore alternative scenarios and pathways for more resilient and sustainable food systems.Odisha, a predominantly agrarian economy, exemplifies many of these global challenges. More than 75% of its population lives in rural areas, and a significant portion is reliant on agriculture. However, the contribution of agriculture to the state's economy has dwindled to 17%, with manufacturing (37%) and services (36%) sectors dominating. While 48% of Odisha's population is still dependent on agriculture and allied sectors, the sector's contribution to GVA has declined by 11% over the past two decades leading to inefficiencies and disguised employment in the sector, which is exacerbated by poor infrastructure and limited resources. Although Odisha's agriculture sector has seen some improvements in rice production since the implementation of Green This seminar was organized to meet the following objectives:1. To churn out the findings of the draft report on AFS transformation in Odisha  Food trains can be started to boost market accessibility. Converting \"Masses\" (producers/farmers) to \"Classes\" (entrepreneurs) by boosting entrepreneurship which can be beneficial to build a robust food chain.","tokenCount":"297"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"72f464f9f207ec5ad90eed9d6b4da425","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9abe6b6e-b77d-4b3c-81e4-d4f9863204c5/retrieve","id":"916672463"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ee118d18-1854-4674-a492-3d934a4f6500","pagecount":"26","content":"• Livestock, the fastest-growing, highest-value and a highly controversial agriculture sector, is at a crossroads. Following a new set of 17 sustainable development goals, the current and potential roles of livestock systems in food and nutrition security and other aspects of sustainable development, including the environment, human health and livelihoods, continue to be debated. • Opinions are sharply divided in the industrialized world between those who consider animals to be more part of the solution and those who consider them to be more part of the problem. • Using the format of lively and critical debate led by key players in the livestock food system, workshop participants will identify challenges and formulate actionable responses to advance the roles livestock play in sustainable global food security.• Welcome by the co-chairs  The 'Goldilocks' solution  Changes in diets (higher consumption of meat, sugars, refined fats and oils) have contributed to increases in Type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other diseases.Lower GHG-emitting diets such as a Mediterranean diet (more vegetable-and fish-based, but some meat), pescetarian diets and vegetarian diets have been linked to reductions in the incidence of such diseases.Adoption of such diets is predicted to have environmental benefits in terms of both lower GHG emissions and reduced landuse requirements, compared to both a 2009 \"average\" global diet, and an income-dependent predicted diet based on the 2009 average. 4. Rapporteurs also record gender, 'development perspective' (north versus south) and 'animal products perspective' (1) \"we have to …\" 2) \"we want to …\" 3) \"we mustn't … \" have more meat, eggs, milk and animals) 5. Participants discuss choices 6. Excel charts are generated for each group, and for the room as a whole.The charts show how different categories of people in the room ranked different intervention dimensions Differences between development and consumption categories could be explained. Differences by gender were more difficult to explain. ","tokenCount":"311"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f8e64d78bc15295c292dc39fccaa45ff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fe679f88-95a8-4d6f-8d6d-f8b4cd595da6/retrieve","id":"-154761550"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fe8dae5a-d969-44a7-99e2-9c690a159d0a","pagecount":"36","content":"En Colombia la ganadería constituye una de las principales actividades productivas del país y con mayor presencia en el sector rural. Su importancia económica radica en que ocupa una fracción muy significativa del uso del suelo (80% del total de uso agropecuario), contribuye a la oferta total de alimentos y es una fuente de generación de ingresos (53% en el PIB pecuario, el 19.8% en el PIB agropecuario, el 1,3% del PIB nacional) y empleo en el país (7% del total nacional y 25% del total rural) (FEDEGAN, 2014).La producción ganadera es manejada en un 81,4% por pequeños ganaderos (con menos de 50 animales) bajo sistemas de producción extensivos (FEDEGAN, 2014). Estos sistemas están caracterizados por bajos niveles de productividad, baja eficiencia en el uso del suelo, bajos niveles de inversión, fuerte dependencia de las condiciones climáticas, y un gran impacto ambiental (p. ej. la emisión de gases efecto invernadero-GEI, degradación del suelo y del agua, y reducción de la biodiversidad) (Bacab et al., 2013;Gerber et al., 2013). Los anteriores problemas están relacionados con la baja calidad nutricional y oferta forrajera en muchas regiones del país, principalmente por el uso de pasturas nativas/naturalizadas y pasturas degradadas (FEDEGAN, 2014).No obstante, el sector ganadero tiene un gran potencial de mitigar dichos impactos, aumentar los indicadores de productividad y adaptarse a los efectos del cambio climático, mediante la adopción de prácticas y tecnologías de producción más sostenibles (Gerber et al., 2013;Peters et al., 2012). Dentro de estas opciones tecnológicas se encuentran los sistemas silvopastoriles (SSP) y las pasturas mejoradas, las cuales representan una mejor opción que los sistemas tradicionales desde el punto de vista de productividad, contribución a la conservación de los recursos naturales y bienestar de las familias ganaderas (Rao et al., 2015).Particularmente, en términos económicos, la adopción de las anteriores tecnologías ha demostrado importantes beneficios. Estas mejoras provienen de la reducción de los costos de producción, mayores tasas de carga, mayor productividad animal por unidad de área, liberación de tierras de pastoreo para usos alternativos, importantes aumentos de ingresos netos y mejores indicadores financieros (Holmann, et a., 2008).No obstante, la adopción de las anteriores tecnologías representa un proyecto de inversión individual para cada productor. Así pues, una condición básica para el éxito de su adopción es su sustentabilidad privada, donde además del rendimiento técnico de la alternativa dependen los costos de los factores e insumos involucrados y el precio del bien final (Roura & Cepeda, 1999). En este sentido, es importante desarrollar una evaluación económica que permita generar información al productor acerca de la viabilidad y la rentabilidad asociadas a las nuevas tecnologías.El presente documento tiene como objetivo evaluar la viabilidad financiera de dos nuevas opciones forrajeras a ser liberadas en Colombia, resultado de diferentes procesos de evaluación y selección por parte de AGROSAVIA y sus socios.Específicamente se evalúan las variedades: i) Brachiaria brizantha 26124 cv.Orinoquia para la producción de carne en la región de los Llanos orientales a; y ii) Megathyrsus Maximus cv. Agrosavia sabanera para la producción de carne en la región del Caribe húmedo. La metodología se basa en un modelo de flujo de caja libre descontado, la estimación de los indicadores de viabilidad financiera, y un análisis que se basa en simulación Montecarlo, para considerar el nivel de riesgo de variables críticas del modelo.Los datos de productividad de la variedad B. brizantha CIAT 26124 cv. Orinoquia se obtuvieron de evaluaciones en campo llevados a cabo por AGROSAVIA en conjunto con CIAT en la zona de los Llanos Orientales de Colombia. Específicamente las evaluaciones se realizaron en la estación experimental Taluma y el Centro de Investigaciones Carimagua, bajo condiciones de la Altillanura bien drenada con temperaturas medias y precipitación anual de 26°C y 2500 mm respectivamente. La productividad del tratamiento fue calculada como el promedio de la ganancia acumulada de peso a lo largo de un año, bajo un sistema de levante y ceba de ganado bovino. Estas mediciones se realizaron de forma mensual entre 2011 y 2015 a seis grupos de novillos de ganado mestizo en pastoreo. Los animales pastorearon bajo un diseño rotacional con 14 días de ocupación y 28 días de descanso.La información asociada con la tecnología tradicional se obtuvo por medio de fuentes secundarias, como lo fueron documentos y artículos de investigación de AGROSAVIA con información sobre evaluaciones en campo de la zona de estudio.Para este caso, el escenario base consiste en el uso de la pastura en monocultivo B. decumbens, la cual fue introducida y usada masivamente en el país hacia 1970 (Rincón et al., 2010). El estudio supone prácticas de manejo adecuadas en términos de fertilización y rotación, con el fin de no sobreestimar los beneficios asociados a la adopción de la nueva variedad. Los datos productivos fueron validados con expertos de CIAT y AGROSAVIA.Los datos productivos de la variedad Megathyrsus maximus Cv. Agrosavia sabanera se obtuvieron de evaluaciones de campo llevados a cabo por AGROSAVIA en la zona del Caribe húmedo de Colombia. Específicamente las evaluaciones se realizaron en el Centro de Investigaciones Turipaná durante cuatro ciclos de ceba (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017).Adicionalmente, se obtuvieron datos de AGROSAVIA en ensayos de fincas localizadas en zonas de sabanas del departamento de Córdoba (Chinú) del 2014 al 2015.Como tecnología tradicional a modo de comparación se usó la gramínea naturalizada Colosuana (Bothriochloa pertusa (L.) A. Camus). Esta pastura se ha difundido ampliamente en suelos de la Región Caribe, dada su abundante producción de semilla y rusticidad, desplazando a especies introducidas como angletón, puntero y guinea (Uribe, 1998). Los datos de productividad para dicha especie se obtuvieron por medio de un estudio realizado por AGROSAVIA durante 2010-2011, en el cual se evaluaron diferentes alternativas de manejo para las pasturas de Colosuana en sistemas ganaderos del trópico bajo (Corpoica, 2011). Los datos de Colosuana se suponen bajo prácticas de manejo adecuadas en términos de fertilización (50 kg de N/ ha año) y rotación (Corpoica, 2011), con el fin de no sobreestimar los beneficios asociados a la adopción de la nueva variedad.Los costos de establecimiento y manejo de las tecnologías a evaluar se calcularon usando la información económica recopilada durante el establecimiento de los ensayos, la cual fue ajustada con la ayuda de expertos de forrajes y ganadería según las condiciones de producción en una finca típica ganadera. Los precios se actualizaron a 2018 de acuerdo a los boletines de precios del Sistema de Información de Precios del Sector Agropecuario (SIPSA) y bases de datos de la Federación Colombiana de Ganaderos (FEDEGAN).El análisis se basó en un modelo de flujo de caja libre descontado y la estimación de los indicadores de rentabilidad financiera: tasa interna de retorno (TIR), valor presente neto (VPN), relación beneficio/costo (B/C) y período de recuperación de la inversión (PRI). El cálculo de los indicadores se realiza con base en los principios establecidos por Park (2007) (Anexo 1). Este análisis tiene sentido cuando la comparación se hace entre una tecnología tradicional y una novedosa. De esta forma es posible determinar cuáles son los cambios en costos e ingresos asociados a la nueva tecnología. Por lo tanto, en el presente estudio, las nuevas tecnologías evaluadas fueron contrastadas con un escenario tradicional para cada región de estudio.Esta metodología permite ordenar y sintetizar la secuencia de ingresos, costos e inversiones asociada a las tecnologías evaluadas. Específicamente, las siguientes categorías de costos variables por hectárea han sido consideradas: costos totales de establecimiento, renovación y mantenimiento de cada tratamiento, costos de oportunidad del capital durante el periodo de establecimiento para ambos tratamientos (3 meses) y costos de operación (compra de animales, sanidad animal, suplementación, personal fijo y ocasional). Por otro lado, los beneficios se derivan de la producción de carne en un sistema de levante y ceba de ganado, según los indicadores de respuesta animal obtenidos para cada variedad.Para incluir niveles de riesgo e incertidumbre, así como considerar diferentes escenarios, se realizó un análisis cuantitativo de riesgos mediante simulación Montecarlo en el software @Risk (Paladise Corporation). El modelo implica identificar las variables de entrada aleatorias y definir una distribución de probabilidad para cada una, esto según su comportamiento empírico, literatura o basado en entrevistas de expertos. En la simulación se asignan aleatoriamente valores de las variables identificadas como críticas, de acuerdo a sus funciones de distribución de probabilidad, para posteriormente calcular los indicadores de rentabilidad determinados (salidas del modelo). Este proceso se repite numerosas veces para obtener las distribuciones de probabilidad de dichas salidas y nivel de riesgo (Figura 1) (Park, 2007).Figura 1. Secuencia lógica de una simulación Monte Carlo para obtener la distribución de probabilidad de VPN para un proyecto de inversión. Fuente: Adaptado de Park, (2007) Como criterios de decisión se utilizan los valores medios y las variaciones de los indicadores de rentabilidad resultado de la simulación:Donde, E (FCt): Valor esperado del Flujo de beneficios netos para el período t r: Tasa de descuento real r*: Tasa interna de retorno t: horizonte del proyecto El uso del criterio de valor medio se basa en la ley de los grandes números, la cual establece que si se realizan muchas repeticiones de un experimento, el resultado promedio tenderá hacia el valor esperado (Park, 2007). También, se estima la probabilidad de éxito de las tecnologías evaluadas (Prob (VPN(Medio) > 0)).Adicionalmente, se realizó un análisis de sensibilidad mediante un diagrama de tornado, el cual perturba cada variable para medir el impacto de cada una sobre la varianza en el resultado del modelo, con el fin de identificar dentro de las variables definidas como críticas, aquellas con mayores efectos sobre los indicadores de rentabilidad.El cultivar Orinoquia es una nueva alternativa forrajera proveniente directamente de la accesión Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 26124, la cual fue recolectada en Karuzi (África) en 1985. La recolección de este material fue realizada por investigadores del CIAT en colaboración con técnicos de ISABU, la institución nacional de investigación de Burundi (África) (Peters et al., s.f.). La evaluación agronómica y de respuesta animal fue realizada bajo el convenio interinstitucional AGROSAVIA-CIAT (2011-2015). Los resultados de dichas evaluaciones permitieron identificar al cultivar Orinoquia como material promisorio para la producción ganadera en la región de los Llanos Orientales, dado su amplio rango de adaptación a suelos ácidos, alta producción de biomasa y palatabilidad (M. Sotelo, comunicación personal, 17 de mayo, 2018). No obstante, esta nueva variedad puede ser ampliamente adoptada en otras regiones de Colombia dado su gran rango de adaptación a climas y suelos, esto es, a condiciones de trópico húmedo y subhúmedo, así como en localidades con suelos de mediana a buena fertilidad (Peters et al., s.f.).Tabla 1. Producción de materia seca, calidad nutricional y respuesta animal de las pasturas evaluadas. Periodo de tiempo requerido para llevar un animal de peso promedio 200 kg a un peso de venta de 450 kg.En la Tabla 1 se presenta el resumen de los principales indicadores productivos de la nueva especie a liberar, así como los asociados al escenario base en la región a modo de comparación. Estas mediciones muestran que la adopción de B. brizanthaCIAT 26124 aumenta el forraje total disponible en un 45% y el contenido de proteína en un 46% respecto al escenario base. Lo anterior se refleja en los resultados de respuesta animal, donde la mayor ganancia de peso fue para la B. brizantha CIAT 26124 cv. Orinoquia con un promedio de 332 kg/ha/año, mientras que en el escenario base fue de 294 kg/ha/año, diferencias que fueron estadísticamente significativas (p<0.01). De acuerdo a los datos de ganancia de peso día, el periodo de levante y ceba hasta alcanzar el peso final de venta (de 200 kg a 450 kg) fue de 18 meses para el cultivar Orinoquia y 24 meses para el escenario base. Cabe anotar que, de los dos tratamientos, la mayor variabilidad en la respuesta animal fue para el nuevo material, medida por los indicadores de desviación estándar (D.E.) y el coeficiente de variación (CV.). Para la construcción del flujo de caja se realizan los siguientes supuestos:-Horizonte de evaluación: 10 años de acuerdo a la vida útil de las pasturas (Holmann & Estrada, 1997),-Flujos ajustados al ciclo de levante y ceba de cada tratamiento: i) B. brizantha 26124= 18 meses; Escenario base =24 meses y ii) Agrosavia sabanera= 12 meses; Colosuana =24 meses.-Tasa de descuento: tasa de interés de crédito para el sector agropecuario de FINAGRO a pequeños productores DTF+5% e.a.-Mano de obra permanente: FEDEGAN (2008) determina para un sistema de levante y ceba de ganado se requiere 2.5 empleos permanentes.-Precios constantes año 2018.-Salario mano de obra permanente: sueldo base, el auxilio de transporte, los aportes a la seguridad social, las prestaciones sociales y parafiscales.Se realizaron 5.000 simulaciones o iteraciones, donde se combinaron aleatoriamente las variables de: ganancia de PV por animal día, costos de inversión, costos de mantenimiento, y precio por kg de PV a la venta. La simulación utilizó un nivel de confianza del 95%. Las distribuciones de probabilidad para las variables de entrada se presentan a continuación. 866.759 291.069 1 Cerca eléctrica para un sistema de pastoreo rotacional; 2 Estimados: 2.5 empleos permanentes requeridos por cada 100 animales en un sistema de levante y ceba de ganado, y un salario mínimo legal vigente más prestaciones a 2018 de COP $1.313.605; 3 Suplementación con sal mineralizada a una tasa de 100 gr / animal / día para ambos tratamientos; 4 se obtiene al dividir el costo total del producto entre la producción total; 5 Ingreso total (precio de venta x rendimiento) menos los costos totales de producción.En la Tabla 4 se presentan los principales resultados asociados a los costos e ingresos por hectárea para la pastura B. brizantha 26124 cv. Orinoquia en la región de los Llanos Orientales, así como del escenario base. Los costos de inversión para ambos tratamientos incluyen el establecimiento de la pastura, la instalación de cercas y la compra de animales. Dentro de los costos directamente relacionados al establecimiento de la pastura, el monto total fue en promedio de $1.434.180 para ambos tratamientos, siendo un 1% mayor en la nueva variedad asociado a la mayor densidad de siembra. Respecto a la participación de los rubros en el costo de establecimiento, el mayor peso lo tienen la compra de insumos (73.8%), seguido del uso de maquinaria (21.5%), y por último mano de obra (4.7%). Dentro de los insumos, los fertilizantes y correctivos tienen la mayor participación con el 68%, dada la necesidad de aplicar grandes cantidades de estos para acondicionar las propiedades químicas del suelo, a causa de la baja fertilidad, alta saturación de aluminio y acidez característicos de la región. Para mantener los niveles de productividad de las pasturas, se supone un mantenimiento adecuado en términos de fertilización, control de arvenses y rotación para ambos tratamientos. El mantenimiento se realiza cada dos años con un costo por hectárea de $497.800. Las estructuras de costos para los dos tratamientos evaluados se presentan en los Anexos 2, 3 y 4. Por otra parte, los ingresos estuvieron dados por la venta de animales para carne con un peso promedio de 450 kg. Como resultado de los mejores indicadores de respuesta animal de la B. brizantha 26124, el ingreso bruto promedio año se incrementó en un 42%, la utilidad neta en un 197% y el costo de producción por kg de carne se redujo en un 19%, respecto al escenario base.Tabla 5. Indicadores de rentabilidad modelo de simulación. Medio 14,06 16,79 1 Valor obtenido antes de realizar la simulación; 2 Valor medio del VPN obtenido en la simulación (5,000 iteraciones); 3 Desviación estándar del VPN respecto al valor medio; 4 Valor mínimo y valor máximo en un intervalo de confianza (IC) del 95%; 5 Cociente entre los beneficios y costos descontados; 6 Número de años necesarios para recuperar la inversión inicial; 7 Hectáreas mínimas para obtener un ingreso de dos salarios mínimos.El resumen de los principales resultados financieros de la simulación para las dos tecnologías evaluadas se presenta en la Tabla 5. Bajo los supuestos usados en este modelo, el uso de B. brizantha 26124 demuestra ser financieramente rentable y permite mejorar todos los indicadores de riesgo y desempeño respecto al escenario base. Para la nueva variedad, el modelo arroja un VPN medio de COP 675.570, con una tasa interna de retorno a los recursos propios del 19%. Cabe resaltar que los mayores indicadores productivos para B. brizantha 26124 permiten reducir los requerimientos de tierra para sostener una familia, pasando de 16,79 a 14,06 hectáreas, así como disminuir el periodo de recuperación de la inversión de seis a cinco años.Con respecto a la probabilidad de no obtener factibilidad financiera de las pasturas evaluadas, la Figura 2 muestra las distribuciones para el indicador de VPN, las cuales reflejan la amplitud de la variación para el indicador de VPN. Para las pasturas evaluadas en el escenario base, el indicador puede tomar valores negativos cercanos a $2.457.567 y valores positivos cercanos a $1.459.638, con una probabilidad de obtener valores negativos de 83%. Para la nueva variedad, la mejora en la productividad permite un desplazamiento hacia la derecha de la curva de distribución, reduciendo la probabilidad de pérdidas al 8.6%, con un rango que varía entre -$1.972.102 y $3.588.033. La contribución de las variables de entrada a la varianza del VPN se muestra en los gráficos de tornados de la Figura 3. Los coeficientes de correlación calculados entre los valores de entrada y la varianza del VPN muestran que la rentabilidad se vio afectada principalmente por dos variables: la productividad animal y el precio de venta por kg de peso vivo. Los aumentos de dichas variables tienen un efecto positivo en la variabilidad del pronóstico del indicador de la siguiente manera: cambios en la variable de productividad animal modifican la varianza del indicador en 51,24% y 59,43% para nueva variedad y el escenario base, respectivamente. Del mismo modo, los cambios en el precio de venta por kg de peso vivo conducen a cambios en la varianza de 46,86% y 39%.  En la Tabla 7 se presenta el resumen de los principales costos e ingresos asociados a las pasturas evaluadas. Los costos de inversión para ambos tratamientos incluyen el establecimiento de la pastura, la instalación de cercas y la compra de animales.Dentro de los costos directamente relacionados al establecimiento de la pastura, el monto total fue de $1.180.960 para la variedad Agrosavia sabanera y de $415.500 para la Colosuana. El establecimiento de la Colosuana se refiere a un pase de arado y cincel para acondicionar las propiedades físicas del suelo, y una fertilización con N a razón de 50 kg /ha. Para la variedad Agrosavia sabanera, el mayor peso dentro de los costos de establecimiento lo tienen la compra de insumos (47%), seguido del uso de maquinaria (44%), y por último mano de obra (8.5%). Dentro de los insumos, la compra de semilla botánica tiene la mayor participación con el 99%. Para mantener los niveles de productividad de las pasturas, se supone un mantenimiento adecuado en términos de control de arvenses y rotación para ambos tratamientos. Las estructuras de costos para los dos tratamientos evaluados se presentan en el Anexo 5. Por otra parte, los ingresos estuvieron dados por la venta de animales para carne con un peso promedio de 450 kg. Como resultado de los mejores indicadores de respuesta animal de la variedad Agrosavia sabanera, el ingreso bruto promedio año se incrementó en un 200% y el costo de producción por kg de carne se redujo en un 18%, respecto al escenario base con Colosuana.Tabla 8. Indicadores de rentabilidad modelo de simulación. El resumen de los principales resultados financieros de la simulación para las dos pasturas evaluadas se presenta en la Tabla 8. Bajo los supuestos usados en este modelo, el uso de M. maximus cv. Agrosavia sabanera demuestra ser financieramente rentable y permite mejorar todos los indicadores de riesgo y desempeño respecto al escenario base con Colosuana. Para la nueva variedad, el modelo arroja un VPN medio de COP 1.657.256, con una tasa interna de retorno a los recursos propios del 14%.Con respecto a la probabilidad de no obtener factibilidad financiera de las pasturas evaluadas, la Figura 5 muestra las distribuciones para el indicador de VPN. Para la pastura Colosuana, el indicador puede tomar valores negativos que fluctúan entre -5.814.382 y 479.986, con un 100% de probabilidades de obtener perdidas. Para la nueva variedad, la mejora en la productividad permite un desplazamiento hacia la derecha de la curva de distribución, reduciendo la probabilidad de pérdidas al 26%, con un rango que varía entre -$5.344.332 y $10.427.801. Otro factor con gran impacto en los resultados económicos es la persistencia de la pastura. Esto es, cuando se supone un factor de reducción de la carga animal del 1% y 3% anual para la nueva variedad, la probabilidad de tener pérdidas económicas asociadas se incrementa en un 17 % y 34% respectivamente.Figura 5. Distribución de probabilidad y densidad acumulada para el indicador VPN para los tratamientos evaluados.La contribución de las variables de entrada a la varianza del VPN se muestra en los gráficos de tornados de la Figura 6. Los coeficientes de correlación calculados entre los valores de entrada y la varianza del VPN muestran que la rentabilidad se vio afectada principalmente por dos variables: la productividad animal y el precio de venta por kg de peso vivo. Los aumentos de dichas variables tienen un efecto positivo en la variabilidad del pronóstico del indicador de la siguiente manera: cambios en la variable de productividad animal modifican la varianza del indicador en 73,17% y 63,85% para nueva variedad y el escenario base, respectivamente. Del mismo modo, los cambios en el precio de venta por kg de peso vivo conducen a cambios en la varianza de 26.69% y 35.99% para la nueva variedad y escenario base, respectivamente.  8,609,925 -7,747,147 -6,884,368 -6,021,590 -5,158,811 -4,296,033 -3,433,254 -2,570,476 -1,707,697 Las dos variables identificadas en el anterior análisis se estudian de forma individual mediante un análisis de mapa de calor, donde se realizan cambios simultáneos en  (Feder 1980;Marra et al. 2003), las tecnologías con un menor riesgo y varianza ofrecen un incentivo adicional para su adopción.Por otro lado, aunque los cultivares Orinoquia y Agrosavia sabanera demuestran mejorar la productividad y reducir los indicadores de riesgo, los sistemas de pastoreo basados en pasturas en monocultivo se encuentran expuestas a cambios importantes en la producción de forraje y calidad durante el año, a causa de las variaciones en las condiciones climáticas y de fertilidad del suelo (Tedonkeng et al., 2007). Por lo tanto, alternativas de asociaciones de estas nuevas pasturas con árboles o leguminosas permitirían incrementar la persistencia del material a causa de la fijación de nitrógeno del medio ambiente al suelo, el aporte de materia orgánica a las pasturas, el aumento de la retención de agua en el suelo, y la mejoría en la regulación de la temperatura (Harrison et al. 2015;Dubeux et al. 2017;Reckling et al. 2016, Navas, 2010), reduciendo de esta manera las fluctuaciones en los rendimientos reales esperados en un sistema de pasturas en monocultivo. ","tokenCount":"3806"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"edeea9c6179f0fc3fe76b3e3345f1dd9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/00d9bb57-3747-476d-9cc3-370177d9058b/retrieve","id":"1136417007"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd2bf80c-fc10-4f74-a983-5254aad27f2c","pagecount":"28","content":"This work was conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock, and is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 Research Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners across the globe. www.cgiar.org Thank you! Tropical Forages ResearcherForage production• Select the materials with the best agronomic performance and forage production based on dry matter in the maximum and minimum precipitation period.• Location and type of soil: CIAT-Palmira -sandy loam soils. Options currently being evaluated for the tropicsChloris gayana (Rhodes)• A major forage in the tropics and subtropics.• Cross-pollinating C4, with diploid and tetraploid forms, usually propagated by seed • Known for its wide adaptability and ease of establishment Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel)• One of the best pasture grasses for the Africa subtropics • An apomictic, perennial C4 grass • Good forage potential, and particularly a candidate for drought tolerance • Also helps to prevent soil erosion• Well adapted and widely used in the highlands Ethiopia along with natural resource management practices Focusing on guarantee effectiveness and therefore adoption, and launch products with optimum performance under real farmers conditions.Current breeding programs ","tokenCount":"209"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd131bd930bfb3c20d5c5bb3303b59c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1353f15d-42c9-4f5f-9404-b2d6679bbbac/content","id":"893192889"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b02e5190-35b1-4839-b6ba-5f6cf0ccc835","pagecount":"20","content":"The designations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.CIMMYT is the global leader in research for development for maize and wheat and for maize-and wheat-based farming systems. Headquartered at El Batán, Mexico, CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to improve food security and livelihoods. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.List of Tables Table 1.   Mixed crop-livestock systems cover 40% of the landmass in Ethiopia while more than 75% of the land used for crop cultivation in the country is found within this same landmass. This means that mixed crop-livestock systems support more than 90% of the Ethiopian farming population. Compared with other farming systems, crop-livestock systems are also practiced in densely populated areas. Crop and livestock production under systems in these areas are, thus, interrelated in such a way that outputs from one subsystem are used as inputs in the other. For instance, livestock provide both draft power and manure used in crop production. On the other hand, crop residue is used as livestock feed both during the dry and wet seasons. The level of interaction between the two subsystems, however, depends on the scarcity of other inputs that farmers use in both crop and livestock production in place of these outputs. The interaction could also vary depending on agro-ecological variations, household level resource endowments, and other factors.In areas with limited grazing land, crop residues are the major sources of livestock feed. This means lesser amounts of crop residues are used as mulch and soil fertility management and thus the amount of organic matter going back to the soil is minimal, which also challenges the sustainability of cereal-based cropping systems. Apart from improving soil organic matter, the retention of crop residues helps to reduce surface run-offs, improve water infiltration, and increase the moisture retention capacities of the soil, all of which contribute to increased crop productivity (Valbuena et al., 2009).In mixed systems, the livestock type farmers keep are primarily large and small ruminants. This helps in efficiently converting pastures, crop residues, and other roughages into meat and milk products used for human consumption, and in to more energy to draft power and manure used in crop production. However, in areas where trees are scarce and limited fuelwood (even from crop residues), households use dried cow dung as a major source of fuel for cooking (Tesfaye et al., 2011). This increases the outflow of soil nutrients from the soil and again challenges the sustainability of production in cereal-based systems.Such challenges on the overall productivity and sustainability of mixed crop-livestock systems and their severity need to be assessed and remedies should be taken to break the downward spiral that results in environmental degradation, reduction in production and productivity and exacerbates household poverty over time. This report is thus part of the \"Enhancing Total Farm Productivity in Smallholder Conservation Agriculture based Systems in Eastern Africa\" project, which is being implemented in Kenya and Ethiopia, and its major objective is to shed light on the croplivestock interactions existing at the household level and also determine as to how this interaction varies by agroecology both in the central Rift Valley and the western, mid-highland areas of Ethiopia. This report is structured such that section 2 describes data used in the analysis. Section 3, then, presents a descriptive analysis of the results and discusses on the existing interactions between crop and livestock production at the household level. Section 4 concludes the diagnostic report. Crop-livestock interactions and their accompanying constraints and opportunities in the major interaction areas were analyzed using household-level survey data collected in 2011. The results and syntheses are presented below.The average land holding size of farmers in both the Rift Valley and mid-highland areas is presented in Table 2. Average land holding was found to be higher in Gobbu-Sayyo district in the western mid-highland, followed by Dugda district in the Rift Valley. The lowest average holding was registered for Bako Tibe district. As indicated in Table 3  At both the locations where this survey was conducted smallholders own livestock, which they use for different purposes including as a source of cash, meat and milk products, as well as draft power and manure for crop production. The average cattle holding in the five districts ranges from 6.2 to 8.8 heads per household (Table 4). Except in Shala, farmers in all the other districts owned a small number of cross-bred and exotic dairy cows. The interesting finding from this summary table is that the average number of trained oxen a household keeps for plowing is more than that of all the other types of cattle kept. This is a clear indication of how the use of oxen for draft power is important in the mixed croplivestock systems of Ethiopia.Since both the project sites are maize-based, above 90% of the sample households in all the five districts grew maize (Table 5). Almost all the sample households in Adami Tullu, Jido Kombolcha, Bako Tibbe and Gobbu Sayyo districts grew maize. Next to maize, Teff is the next cereal grown by a large proportion of the households in Gobbu Sayyo (90%), Dugda (85%), and Bako Tibbe (70%) districts. 74% of the sample households in Dugda grew wheat with more diversified cereal crop production seen at this district. Shala also has more maize planted. At the midhighland districts of Bako Tibbe and Gobbu Sayyo, Maize, teff and sorghum are the major cereals planted in decreasing order of proportion.  Note: The total area covered by field crops reported here is larger than the average land holding reported in Table 2 above. This might be a result of multiple cropping practices or renting-in land for crop production. The survey results show that maize, wheat, teff, barley and sorghum are the major cereal crops produced in both the study sites and the residue produced from these crops is used mainly as livestock feed and fuelwood (Table 7). In the Rift valley area, up to 77% of the residue from wheat and teff is used as livestock feed with a larger percentage of the rest used for construction (Plastering walls for teff and roof thatching for wheat residues). Comparing the two research sites, a larger proportion of the residue from cereal crops is used as feed in the mid-highlands than that in the Rift Valley area.Looking in particular at the use of maize residues, the proportion allocated for fuelwood is higher in mid-highland districts, with 56% for Bako Tibbe and 51% for Gobbu Sayyo. For the districts in the Rift Valley, the use of maize stalks for fuelwood stands second next to use as livestock feed. In all the districts, the proportion of maize residue left on farmland as soil mulch was found to be not more than 10%, with the average proportion ranging from 1.7% at Bakko Tibbe to 10.9% at Dugda district. Maize stalks are not sold in the mid-highlands and at Dugda district in the Rift Valley. On average 4% of maize stalk is sold at Adami Tullu Jiddo Kombolcha district (Table 8).  Farmers use cow dung as fuel for cooking (after drying) and as manure for crop production. The proportion between the two purposes depends on the scarcity of fuelwood and other alternative sources of fuel for cooking. The survey also helped gather information on the amount and source of manure used in crop production and the results show that, on average, 279.3 to 487.5 kg of manure per household is used for crop production (Table 9). A larger share of the manure used in crop production is allocated for maize cultivation. There is no market for manures and no household in the five districts reported to have purchased and used manure for crop production.The absence of a market for manures implies that households need to keep livestock in order to make manure available for the management of soil fertility.As stated under the section on livestock production, the use of oxen for draft power means that oxen constitute the largest share from the type of livestock that households keep. Cereal plots are plowed two to three times, on average, before planting. All these land preparation and planting activities are conducted by using oxen power.. However, the market for oxen draft power is minimal. Farmers usually prefer to borrow draft animals than renting them out. A household who owns farmland but lacks oxen for plowing could request and get the plowing service or the oxen from relatives or neighbors. Plowing services could be obtained in exchange for farm-or non-farm labor or by rendering other important social obligations by the seeker of the services. In the absence of the market for draft power, the ownership of oxen for draft power is highly important for preparing land and planting crops in time and households have to do anything to keep these animals.On average, more number of oxen days was used at Dugda than in any other of the districts under this study. This could be because farmers in this district grow teff and other cereal crops that demand more and frequent plowing than maize and other crops, which could be planted by plowing just one or two times . Apart from plowing, trained oxen are used for threshing cereal crops as most cereals are threshed using livestock hooves and oxen are the major role players, though other adult cattle types are used as well. In this section, the level of association between livestock holding and crop production at the household level is assessed.The frequency of plowing for land preparation varies depending on the type of crop grown. Crops like teff require three to four times of plowing before planting, whereas maize requires plowing at least two times before planting. More frequency of plowing means more demand for oxen power, especially if the crop area is large. Thus, households who own larger numbers of oxen are able to grow field crops on a wider area. Figure 3 shows the positive relationship between the number of oxen households own and the average area of field crops they operate on.In the absence of the market for oxen, farmers who own land but who do not have oxen should either get draft power service from their relatives, neighbors or friends, or they have to share or rent some of their land to earn some money to buy food for the family. Figure 4 below shows the existing negative relationship between the number of oxen and area of own farmland shared-out or rented out to others. The lack of oxen power is not the only push factor to share or rent farmland out and lack of family labor, lack of seeds, having excess farmland, and the likes could be good reasons. However, the lack of oxen is one of the major causes for land transaction in crop production.    As indicated above, operating a larger-sized farmland requires the ownership of more oxen for plowing.Having a larger farmland also enables farmers to get more amounts of crop residues that could help to maintain large numbers of livestock. The production of a large volume of crop byproducts from a larger crop area also helps to maintain livestock feed especially during the dry season, when feed is very scarce. Therefore, there is a positive relationship between size of farmland operated and number of cattle owned.Mixed farming systems had a long tradition of producing manure from cattle dung and using it to enhance soil fertility. Owning larger numbers of livestock (particularly cattle and small ruminant) is indispensable in order to produce and use more manure for crop production. There is, thus, a positive relationship between the amount of manure produced and the number of livestock (especially cattle) owned by farm households.Most farmers in the study area kept diversified livestock types. Table 11 shows that most of the respondents kept at least two types of livestock, which included: small ruminants, equines and chickens. Cattle constituted the majority of livestock types kept by respondents in all the surveyed districts (Table 12). This could have two implications. On the one hand, having more number of large ruminants could pose a burden on the availability of crop residues for soil fertility enhancement as more of it is used for feed.On the other hand, keeping more numbers of large ruminants can help the farmers to produce more quantity of manure that could be applied on farm plots and reduce the cost of crop production, i.e., saving expenditure on chemical fertilizers.  clearly shows that having more livestock is correlated with a higher proportion of crop residues utilized as feed. In other words, having more cattle is a challenge on managing soil fertility as a large proportion of the crop residue is used for feeding livestock.This crop-livestock interaction study was developed from a comprehensive household survey undertaken in 2011. In the five districts where the project operates, a total of 499 sample households were surveyed. Data analyses were focused on crop and livestock production and on how the two subsystems are intertwined. The study also examined how the interaction between crop and livestock systems affects the adoption and practice of conservation agriculture, in which farmers are expected to retain crop residues on farm, reduce tillage to zero or below the conventional level and rotate/ intercrop legumes with cereals to maintain/replenish soil fertility. The paper discussed the findings using descriptive statistics and the following conclusions have been drawn based on these major findings.In all the study districts, more than 90% of the households owned cattle and close to 50% owned small ruminants. Most of the households also kept up to four livestock types: cattle, small ruminants, chicken and equines. The number of draft oxen owned per household exceeded that of any of the other cattle types owned. This is also apparent in cases where the ownership of oxen is decisive for timely land preparation and crop threshing in mixed farming systems. This is supported by the existing strong, positive relationship between the number of oxen owned and area of field crops operated by the sample households. As the number of oxen owned per household increases, the amount of land households rent-out dramatically decreases. The level of manure produced and used for field crops production increases correspondingly with the number of livestock owned.In the study area, residue from various crops was used for various proposes. A higher proportion of the crop residue is used as livestock feed and for fuelwood.Only a small proportion of the crop residue is left on farm plots for soil amendments. Maize stover in midhighlands (Bako-Tibbe and Gobbu-Sayyo) are mostly used for fuelwood followed by use for livestock feed.Conversely, in the Rift valley districts, maize stover are used mainly for livestock feed followed by fuelwood. Feed shortage during the dry season is more serious in the Rift valley districts than in the mid-highlands.In general, crop and livestock production in the maize based systems of the Ethiopian highlands goes hand in hand. Livestock are essential in crop production while crop residues are a major feed source for livestock in dry seasons. The introduction of the zero tillage technology under conservation agriculture might help reduce the demand for oxen draft power but under the existing circumstances, the retention of crop residues in the field could be challenged as it severely competes with livestock feed. A gradual reduction on the need for oxen power that results from the introduction of CA-based practices could help in decreasing the level of crop residues required for animal feed, which, in turn, would help to allocate some proportion of the crop residue as soil mulch. In addition to livestock feed, the use of crop residue as fuelwood also puts much pressure on the level of crop residues retained in the field.","tokenCount":"2702"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"20fbcd29a91cb0b76ac07df1e2a5d894","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0a1bb36f-c21c-4c13-aa29-a0636692be2b/retrieve","id":"-951395589"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5eeb8e1a-02c8-4dbb-974b-9f0aece3b108","pagecount":"16","content":"Les établissements universitaires sont bien placés pour utiliser un éventail de canaux de distribution des TIC.Le secteur agricole peut mettre à profit la créativité du secteur privé. de l'agriculture inclusive le tremplin digital 4-8 novembre 2013 Kigali, Rwanda www.ict4ag.org Au-delà des téléphones portables Utilisation de vidéos animées visant à former les agriculteurs peu instruits. Un bulletin d'alerte pour l'agriculture ACP Guest editorTable des matières et colophon http://ictupdate.cta.int This license applies only to the text portion of this publication.Au-delà des téléphones portables P armi le groupe des États d'Afrique, Caraïbes et Pacifique (ACP), près de 200 millions de personnes dépendent de l'agriculture pour survivre. La plupart vivent en Afrique sub-saharienne. Les petits exploitants agricoles représentent la majorité d'entre elles. Loin des zones urbaines, ils ont un accès limité aux services d'assistance technique ou financiers. Les TIC peuvent améliorer cette accessibilité. La téléphonie mobile, dispositif de communication portable et peu onéreux, peut être utilisée afin d'avoir accès à des informations et effectuer des transactions financières. Au premier trimestre 2015, près de la moitié de la population des pays en développement possédait un téléphone portable. La création de services de téléphonie mobile renforcés par des circuits de médias alternatifs (télévision, radio et Internet) permettra d'élargir le marché potentiel en incluant des services plus que nécessaires.Les petits exploitants agricoles sont généralement mal desservis dans trois domaines clés où les téléphones portables peuvent jouer un rôle significatif :Premièrement, les téléphones portables peuvent aider à combler le déficit d'informations dont souffrent les travailleurs agricoles. Les petits exploitants s'appuient sur les connaissances traditionnelles dans le domaine des cultures, de l'élevage, de la commercialisation et des prévisions météorologiques. Or ce savoir qui peut être difficilement accessible n'est souvent pas fiable. Le service à valeur ajoutée dans le domaine agricole (SAV agricole) peut apporter une solution à ce défi. En Tanzanie, par exemple, l'opérateur mobile Tigo, l'un des bénéficiaires de l'initiative mFarmer mise en place par la GSM Association, fournit des renseignements en agronomie, ainsi que des informations sur les prix du marché et des prévisions météorologiques à court terme par le biais de son service Tigo Kilimo. En décembre 2014, ce service comptait environ 400 000 utilisateurs enregistrés.La téléphonie mobile permet également de lutter contre les dysfonctionnements de la chaîne d'approvisionnement : l'insuffisance des moyens logistiques et la faiblesse des infrastructures dans les zones rurales sont souvent à l'origine du gaspillage de produits agricoles et d'autres ressources. Des solutions interentreprises, comme la Farmforce de la société Sygenta, permettent aux entreprises agricoles de gérer les relations et les transactions avec leurs petits fournisseurs au moyen de téléphones portables ordinaires (via SMS) et de Smartphones (via desLa téléphonie mobile au service de l'agriculture a contribué efficacement à l'évolution actuelle du secteur des ICT4Ag. Les rédacteurs invités du présent numéro prévoient que les répercussions sur le secteur seront encore plus importantes si l'on parvient à établir des partenariats inter-canaux pour les projets faisant appel aux ICT4Ag.Benjamin Kwasi Addom (addom@cta.int) est coordinateur du programme ICT4D du CTA à Wageningen, aux Pays-Bas.Daniele Tricarico (daniele.tricarico@gsma.com) est directeur des aperçus marketing du programme mAgri et Tegan Palmer (tpalmer@GSMA.com) est directrice de l'intelligence économique du programme mAgri. Tous deux travaillent à la GSM Association, à Londres, au Royaume-Uni. applications), tout en améliorant les normes et l'efficacité de la production, ainsi que la traçabilité tout au long de la chaîne d'approvisionnement.Enfin, les téléphones portables peuvent faciliter l'accès aux services financiers. Les paysans ne disposent pas toujours d'un accès aisé aux capitaux et n'ont donc pas la possibilité d'investir dans de nouvelles technologies agricoles. Les services bancaires mobiles permettent d'octroyer aux petits exploitants des prêts, ainsi qu'une épargne rémunérée ou des subventions électroniques pour les engrais. Une assurance agricole contractée par téléphone portable peut réduire les risques liés à la production, comme par exemple en cas de changements et d'aléas climatiques.La mise en place de l'argent mobile sur le marché rural est un tout nouveau domaine prometteur pour les opérateurs de téléphonie mobile ; c'est la raison pour laquelle nous ne disposons que de peu d'exemples des meilleures pratiques en la matière. Cependant, l'opérateur Vodafone à ouvert la voie avec Connected Farmer en Afrique de l'Est où le système M-Pesa permet aux exploitants agricoles d'épargner et d'investir.Le service « deployment tracker » de la GSM Association suit les progrès de 124 services agricoles mobiles (mAgri) à l'échelon planétaire. La majorité des services mis en place dans ces régions sont des services B2C fournissant des informations propres au domaine agricole.En Afrique sub-saharienne, Asie du Sud, Amérique latine et Caraïbes, la GSM Association prévoit 47 millions d'utilisateurs potentiels de SAV agricoles d'ici fin 2015. Étant donné que les opérateurs mobiles et les fournisseurs de SAV se concentrent davantage sur les zones mal desservies, on prévoit de passer de 47 millions à plus de 90 millions en 2020.L'Inde abrite le marché potentiel le plus important au monde (22 millions d'utilisateurs en 2015). Suivie de l'Afrique de l'Est.Parmi les États ACP, le Ghana et Haïti sont deux marchés prometteurs. Le Ghana a tiré profit de la présence des technologies panafricaines et des fournisseurs de contenu comme Esoko, dont les services ciblent les petits exploitants agricoles. Si de nouveaux opérateurs venaient à investir dans des services agricoles mobiles, le pays atteindrait près de deux millions d'utilisateurs de SAV agricoles à l'horizon 2020. La technologie mobile présente un grand potentiel pour lutter contre la pauvreté à Haïti. Près de 75 % de la population et plus de la moitié de la main-d'oeuvre active qui travaille dans le domaine de l'agriculture possèdent un téléphone portable La mise en place de plus de services mobiles ciblant la population rurale pourrait jouer un rôle significatif pour améliorer la productivité agricole qui est actuellement très faible, avec un rendement céréalier d'à peine un peu plus d'une tonne par hectare.L'expérience de la GSM Association a montré que ces services progressent plus rapidement au sein des marchés où l'écosystème du contenu est plus avancé. L'investissement public et les partenariats entre les secteurs public et privé deviennent des outils essentiels pour étendre la connectivité, les services et les informations. La mise en place de partenariats entre opérateurs mobiles, fournisseurs de SAV agricoles, fournisseurs de contenu, institutions gouvernementales, industrie agroalimentaire et autres acteurs de la chaîne de valeur est fondamentale pour la création de tels écosystèmes. Toutefois, ces partenariats sont souvent difficiles à établir car les différents acteurs poursuivent des objectifs différents.Un projet du CTA (Wageningen, Pays-Bas), créant une base de données Apps4Ag, met à jour de nombreuses solutions TIC en utilisant des canaux des TIC différents des téléphones portables (vidéo, radio, Web et animations). Cela met en évidence la diversité des applications TIC et le peu de cohérence au sein des processus de développement. Au lieu d'exploiter plusieurs canaux, la plupart des SAV se concentrent sur le potentiel d'un seul canal pour séduire leurs utilisateurs.Comme c'est le cas au sein de l'écosystème agricole mobile, les partenariats entre les fournisseurs de TIC ne se font pas toujours sans problèmes (délais divergents, concurrence pour les ressources…). Toutefois, une convention du CTA (octobre 2014) démontre que les perspectives sont bonnes pour les produits ICT4Ag inter-canaux, avec une réelle volonté d'établir des collaborations entre différents canaux pour augmenter leur impact.On pourra s'inspirer des projets n'entrant pas dans le cadre des ICT4Ag, comme BBC Janala, une initiative associant un feuilleton télévisé à plusieurs autres canaux. Cette solution permet de toucher 28 millions d'utilisateurs. Il est difficile de mettre en place des partenariats entre différentes organisations, mais l'impact potentiel sur les utilisateurs finaux est bien plus important. ◀Pour transmettre des informations agricoles en zone rurale, une solution audio pourrait s'avérer efficace, en particulier pour toucher les agriculteurs les plus marginalisés ou vulnérables. Literacy Bridge et Farm Radio International (FRI) utilisent la technologie audio depuis des décennies. FRI utilise un réseau de stations de radio partenaires, tandis que Literacy Bridge utilise son livre audio (Talking Book), un appareil audio robuste.   Au-delà des téléphones portables L 'éradication de la faim fait partie des objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement adoptés par les Nations Unies. L'agriculture constitue un des piliers majeurs de cet objectif. Dans les pays en développement, le manque d'informations agricoles, d'instruction, et les langages différents compliquent la situation. Des changements se produisant à l'échelle internationale pourraient avoir des conséquences sur la façon dont les connaissances peuvent être partagées avec des apprenants peu instruits. Un grand nombre de nouvelles stratégies totalement complémentaires émerge, permettant de développer des contenus éducatifs.Les problèmes sont disproportionnés par rapport aux ressources financières disponibles. Il s'agit donc de savoir comment relier les « professionnels » et les « volontaires » de manière efficace et économique pour créer et partager des contenus utiles aux exploitants pratiquant une agriculture de subsistance. « Les professionnels » sont impliqués professionnellement à plein temps ou temps partiel, dans le développement international et disposent d'un soutien financier. Les « volontaires », une ressource traditionnellement inexploitée, viennent en aide aux autres au sein de leur communauté ou dans une communauté éloignée, mais ne disposent pas de soutien financier pour ce développement plus local.Les films d'animation se présentent comme une stratégie logique pour relier acteurs locaux et experts internationaux afin de développer un contenu efficace et rentable. L'interactivité en ligne permet de générer du contenu dans différentes langues et à peu de frais. Les animations peuvent être divertissantes, aisément compréhensibles, et permettre de surmonter les barrières culturelles et générationnelles. Une fois créé, le contenu peut être utilisé avec des groupes cibles présentant des caractéristiques très variées (géographie, culture, langue) et facilement modifié pour s'adapter à de nouvelles situations.Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) réfléchit à la façon de rapprocher « professionnels » et « bénévoles » au profit de l'utilisateur final. SAWBO s'appuie en grande partieJulia Bello-Bravo et Barry Robert Pittendrigh présentent une nouvelle stratégie pour réunir des experts locaux et internationaux, afin de créer et de déployer un contenu pédagogique sous la forme de vidéos animées, destiné à des apprenants peu instruits. Les ressources disponibles pour créer un tel contenu restent néanmoins insuffisantes pour répondre aux besoins des agriculteurs à l'échelle mondiale et des groupes de travail vont tacher de trouver des solutions pour répondre à ces besoins. ◀ Julia Bello-Bravo (juliab@illinois.edu) et Barry Robert Pittendrigh (pittendr@illinois.edu) sont respectivement co-directrice et directeur de Scientific Animations Without Borders à l'Université de l'Illinois à Urbana-Champaign, aux États-Unis.Bluetooth®, ainsi que les téléphones mobiles et d'autres appareils équipés de la fonction vidéo sur le marché international ont permis l'utilisation de nouvelles stratégies, parmi lesquelles deux approches permettant de développer des contenus éducatifs, à savoir des films et des animations.Le secteur ICT4Ag n'en est qu'à ses débuts. Nous en sommes encore à apprendre ce qui fonctionne le mieux, une phase de test de produits et de modèles d'entreprise. Cependant, nous devons créer des modèles d'entreprise à la fois durables et évolutifs. La durabilité se rapporte au fait de gagner assez d'argent pour survivre. Le caractère évolutif consiste à s'assurer qu'il y ait assez de clients générant des revenus pour le produit, et que les coûts engendrés ne soient pas trop élevés.La plupart des produits que je vois sur le marché aujourd'hui sont soit « destinés directement aux agriculteurs » (la majorité), soit interentreprises (un secteur en expansion). Le modèle « destinés directement aux agriculteurs » a constitué la priorité de nombreux produits d'ICT4Ag de première génération. Ceux destinés directement aux agriculteurs sont intéressants en raison de l'importance de la clientèle de base potentielle, mais très peu d'entreprises ont réussi à concrétiser, même celles ayant une vision claire et de faibles coûts. Nous verrons d'avantage d'expérimentation avec des modèles de revenus alternatifs (ceux n'impliquant pas que les agriculteurs paient pour le service). Les modèles considérant la monétisation des données sur les exploitants et l'intégration de services financiers numériques sont parmi les plus intéressants.Les modèles interentreprises qui s'adressent aux entreprises agricoles attirent désormais de plus en plus l'attention. Ces entreprises sont souvent mieux placées pour appréhender et quantifier la valeur des solutions TIC, et donc plus disposées à payer pour celles-ci. Même pour les fournisseurs d'ICT4Ag, surtout intéressés par les données relatives aux agriculteurs et les relations avec ces derniers, une solution B2B constitue un bon point de départ : chaque inscription sur votre plateforme élargit votre base d'exploitants utilisateurs. Dans ce modèle, les coûts d'acquisition par agriculteur sont bien plus bas que ceux des campagnes commerciales ou éducatives à grande échelle.La majorité des efforts déployés par les bailleurs de fonds ou les ONG se sont concentrés sur les modèles « destinés directement aux agriculteurs » offrant généralement aux exploitants des contenus agronomiques, météorologiques, ou des informations sur les prix du marché, pour une somme modique, voire gratuitement. Certains opérateurs de réseaux mobiles offrent un contenu similaire au modèle « destiné directement à l'agriculteur », et misent soit sur des revenus directs tirés des produits, soit sur des profits indirects liés à leur activité principale. Vous avez aussi les acteurs du secteur privé qui utilisent les modèles B2B visant des entreprises de la chaîne de valeur.Il y a encore peu de vrais gagnants dans le domaine des ICT4Ag. Les produits qui vont finalement réussir seront en grande partie le résultat de PPA -un secteur privé détenteur de l'IP ou du produit et contribuant au financement, et des ONG offrant l'assistance technique initiale et le personnel de terrain. La clé ? Impliquer le secteur privé dès le début et s'assurer qu'il contribue pour une portion suffisante au financement.Nous devons être plus créatifs dans notre façon d'aborder le marché. Les agriculteurs peuvent s'avérer des clients difficiles à obtenir et monétiser. Nous devons penser aux autres acteurs des chaînes de valeur, en particulier aux entreprises pouvant mieux comprendre la valeur des solutions TIC et disposées à payer pour ce genre de service ; et penser également à la façon de créer des produits qui répondent à leurs besoins, tout en apportant de la valeur aux agriculteurs.Les possibilités d'intégrer des services financiers numériques dans les produits ICT4Ag sont également très intéressantes. La numérisation des paiements dans la chaîne de valeurs devrait être facile à obtenir. Nous devrions également envisager d'intégrer l'épargne, le crédit, et les produits d'assurance qui mettent à profit les téléphones mobiles.Nous devons également examiner en détail comment monnayer les données récoltées sur les exploitants. Un modèle d'entreprise basé sur des annonces publicitaires n'est probablement pas envisageable sur la plupart des marchés à l'heure actuelle, mais il existe d'autres façons de monétiser les données, dont certaines pourraient avoir un impact extraordinairement positif sur les agriculteurs. Si nous envisageons de partager des données sur les paiements liés à l'agriculture avec les institutions financières, nous pouvons potentiellement rendre ces agriculteurs solvables et faciliter l'inclusion financière de millions d'entre eux. Bien entendu, il faut être vigilant face aux abus et aux problèmes de confidentialité. ◀Michael Elliott (melliott@tns.org) est le directeur régional du programme TechnoServe pour Connected Farmer Alliance responsable pour le Kenya, la Tanzanie, et le Mozambique. Grace Agili et Stephen Rono étudient les efforts déployés par le secteur public pour introduire au niveau national la vulgarisation électronique au Kenya.Grace Agili (graceagili@yahoo.com) est la directrice du Centre d'information agricole (AIRC) à Nairobi (Kenya).Stephen Rono (ronosteve@yahoo.com) travaille à l'acquisition et au traitement des informations à l'AIRC.Le département de l'agriculture a lancé un projet de vulgarisation électronique en 2013, visant à exploiter le potentiel des TIC dans le but de renforcer l'efficience et l'efficacité des services de vulgarisation fournis. L'AIRC et les employés de la division de gestion de la vulgarisation ont fait équipe pour développer un programme de formation en vulgarisation électronique, intégrant l'utilisation d'outils et d'applications mobiles Web2pourDev, tout en adoptant des innovations en termes de développement agricole dans le domaine des TIC. Le manuel a été utilisé pour former les agents de vulgarisation sur le terrain (soit plus de 600 employés formés et équipés en juin 2014).Depuis que le Kenya a adopté une nouvelle constitution en 2010, les services de vulgarisation agricole ont été délégués au niveau des comtés, la formulation des politiques restant aux mains du gouvernement national et de l'AIRC. Une étude de l'AIRC de mars 2015 a montré que les politiques appliquées au niveau des comtés avaient mis à mal l'adoption des services de vulgarisation électronique.Les élections de 2017 constituent la principale préoccupation des autorités politiques des comtés kényans. Ces dernières ont tendance à favoriser les projets de développement d'infrastructure concrets aux yeux des citoyens (routes, bains d'insecticides pour le bétail, industries agroalimentaires et intrants agricoles) ; au détriment de programmes moins concrets tels que les services de vulgarisation et de formation sur le terrain à l'intention des agriculteurs.Certains membres du personnel ont tout de même bénéficié de formations en vulgarisation électronique, au cours desquelles ils ont appris à se servir d'outils ainsi que de moyens innovants et rentables pour sensibiliser les agriculteurs, réduisant ainsi le coût global de la vulgarisation dans leurs districts respectifs. Parmi les vulgarisateurs, Daniel Kefa est parvenu à se faire un nom en utilisant Twitter pour communiquer avec les agents de vulgarisation et les agriculteurs. Il est agent agricole dans le district de Kapkures au sein du comté de Nakuru. Il a réussi à surmonter les difficultés en utilisant les réseaux sociaux pour fournir des services de vulgarisation agricole qui font cruellement défaut dans la région. Il doit néanmoins faire face à un manque de services Internet et aux lacunes des agriculteurs en matière d'utilisation des applications mobiles permettant d'accéder aux services de vulgarisation.Le changement le plus remarquable réside dans l'attitude du personnel qui a bénéficié d'une formation en vulgarisation électronique envers les TIC par rapport à leur travail quotidien. Les personnes n'ayant pas été formées à la vulgarisation électronique et aux avantages qu'elle présente) sont logiquement demeurées indifférentes à cette initiative. Ce n'est pas le cas de Virginia Gitau, conseillère agricole en chef dans la circonscription de Njoro, au sein du comté de Nakuru, qui a intégré les concepts de l'initiative et se familiarise aux outils de vulgarisation électronique auprès de ses collègues formés. Elle a même commencé à intégrer ces outils à ses activités.Les résultats de l'étude viennent compléter des études antérieures sur la préparation électronique, qui avaient révélé que la mise en oeuvre de la vulgarisation électronique nécessitait des infrastructures physiques et une expertise technique, tout comme une préparation psychologique. Le secteur public doit donc évaluer la façon dont la vulgarisation électronique est perçue dans l'ensemble de la chaîne de valeur en termes de vulgarisation agricole, tout en s'efforçant de créer l'état d'esprit adapté à l'accueil des services de vulgarisation électronique au sein des communautés. ◀ Shaun Ferris (shaun.ferris@crs.org) est directeur des moyens de subsistance agricoles pour Catholic Relief Services, à Baltimore, aux États-Unis.Shaun Ferris explique comment différentes technologies ont transformé la façon dont les ONG travaillent au sein des communautés affectées par la pauvreté et l'injustice.L a technologie fait rapidement évoluer les méthodes, les systèmes d'aide et la façon dont les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) travaillent avec les communautés et avec leurs prestataires de services. Cette transformation crée de nouvelles opportunités dans les communautés du monde entier, et améliore la vie quotidienne de nombreuses personnes affectées par la pauvreté et l'injustice, leur permettant d'accéder à une vaste gamme d'informations et de services numériques grâce à leurs appareils mobiles. La technologie est également à l'origine de l'ère de la prise de décision pour les organismes de développement international, basée sur la capacité de collecter, d'analyser et de diffuser des données avec plus de rapidité et de précision.Il y a quinze ans, hormis les compagnies de téléphone, peu d'entreprises locales dans les économies émergentes pouvaient prendre en charge de nouvelles applications et des innovations d'ICT4D. Dans les dix années qui ont suivi, l'utilisation des téléphones portables a explosé dans le monde en développement. Inspirée par cette transformation, la communauté des ONG a commencé à s'intéresser à la technologie, générant de nombreux projets pilotes. Dans les années 2000, la plupart des produits TIC testés étaient expérimentaux et gratuits. Les coûts d'utilisation des TIC en dehors des capitales nationales étaient souvent prohibitifs et la capacité à payer pour les nouveaux services faible. Le développement des infrastructures est pourtant actuellement en marche. L'utilisation des communications vocales et l'essor rapide de l'argent mobile ont profondément modifié les pratiques commerciales dans toute l'Afrique.Les ONG s'efforcent désormais d'établir des partenariats avec des sociétés locales et étrangères. Ce mélange d'expérience, de capital, de connaissances et de solutions localisées donne naissance à une nouvelle génération de produits, d'entrepreneurs et de services. Ces partenariats explorent également des modèles commerciaux nouveaux, dont certains sont gratuits et prennent en charge des services essentiels du secteur public, alors que d'autres se transforment en modèles payants.Le monde des ONG collabore plus étroitement avec les secteurs gouvernementaux et le secteur privé pour renforcer les systèmes locaux, dans le but de soutenir des secteurs tels que la fourniture d'intrants, la gestion des ressources naturelles, les systèmes d'alerte rapide et le développement des marchés. Tous ces acteurs travaillent dans leur domaine d'expertise et relient de plus en plus leurs opérations via une technologie qui contribue à l'amélioration des opérations de la chaîne d'approvisionnement, de la cartographie, des outils d'aide à la décision, des communications ou de la collecte plus rapide d'informations.Catholic Relief Services (CRS), association humanitaire internationale de l'église catholique des États-Unis d'Amérique, utilise les TIC pour améliorer la conception et la mise en oeuvre de ses programmes. L'utilisation d'approches basées sur la technologie a permis de réduire de 75 % le temps nécessaire pour procéder à des évaluations d'urgence, de 53 % le nombre d'erreurs dans la collecte de données et de 51 % les couts associés à l'organisation de foires aux semences.Dans le secteur agricole, CRS s'efforce d'élargir ses connaissances de l'espace ICT4Ag depuis 7-8 ans. Travaillant avec de nombreux partenaires et testant plusieurs technologies, les expériences pilotes sont un élément essentiel du processus d'apprentissage pour CRS, qui développe des outils et des méthodes pour exploiter la puissance de la technologie et aider les agriculteurs et les services de vulgarisation agricole à réunir des informations, développer des outils d'aide à la décision, décrire leurs taches et surveiller leur performance commerciale. Les appareils mobiles et les services en ligne permettent d'enregistrer les bénéficiaires et les vendeurs de semences, d'offrir des coupons avec code-barres et de suivre le paiement des fournisseurs. CRS travaille également avec des agents de terrain pour aider les exploitants à améliorer leur performance sur les marchés. Les agents de terrain acquièrent de nouvelles compétences en commercialisation et en gestion en utilisant la plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne. Ils enregistrent les modèles d'entreprise des agriculteurs en utilisant un registre numérique, et un outil de suivi leur permet de consigner leurs activités. Les prix du marché en temps réel et les mises à jour des prévisions météorologiques sont fournis aux producteurs par SMS, ce qui leur permet de décider à quel moment et sur quel marché vendre leurs produits et augmenter ainsi leurs recettes. CRS insiste sur l'importance de travailler en étroite collaboration avec tous les acteurs de l'écosystème « technologie-client », en prenant le temps d'écouter, d'apprendre, et de partager les réussites et les échecs. Intégrer encore davantage de systèmes numériques dans le fonctionnement du secteur permettra aux communautés de bénéficier de meilleurs services à l'avenir. ◀Les établissements universitaires jouent un rôle clé pour relever les défis auxquels le secteur agricole est confronté.C haque soir, un milliard de personnes, dont 70 % sont de petits agriculteurs et leurs familles, se couchent le ventre vide. Le manque de crédit et les difficultés d'accès aux marchés et aux informations sont souvent au coeur de leurs problèmes. Pour tenter d'y palier, des millions de dollars sont alloués chaque année pour aider les agriculteurs pauvres, protéger l'environnement et promouvoir le développement économique global. Certaines universités jouent un rôle majeur dans le développement mondial, comme l'université de Californie à Davis (États-Unis) et l'université des Indes occidentales (UWI) à Saint Augustine (Trinité), pour lesquelles l'une des priorités actuelles réside dans l'application des technologies de l'information et des communications au service de l'agriculture (ICT4Ag), en vue de résoudre les problèmes de sécurité alimentaire et d'environnement, en élargissant l'accès à l'information et en établissant des liens entre les petits exploitants agricoles et les pêcheurs, les vendeurs, les marchés, les décideurs politiques et les utilisateurs des ressources naturelles.Les universités sont à l'origine de travaux de recherches disciplinaires et interdisciplinaires à l'appui des politiques, des meilleures pratiques et de la programmation dans le domaine de l'agriculture. La création du centre mondial de l'alimentation à l'UC Davis et l'accueil au sein de la faculté d'alimentation et d'agriculture (FF&A) de l'UWI d'unités comme le centre de recherche sur le cacao illustrent l'engagement institutionnel de nombreuses universités à l'échelle mondiale. Les  Kim Mallalieu (kim.mallalieu@sta.uwi.edu) dirige le groupe des systèmes de communication au sein du département d'ingénierie électrique et informatique de l'Université des Indes occidentales à Saint Augustine (Trinité).L es organisations agricoles (OA)   jouent un rôle prépondérant de soutien dans l'autonomie des producteurs africains et asiatiques, donnant essentiellement la parole aux agriculteurs pauvres et analphabètes et gardant un contact continu avec leurs membres. Leur efficacité repose sur un canal de communication solide. L'accès dans les villages à une information pertinente et en temps voulu devrait permettre aux citoyens des zones rurales de jouir d'une plus grande autonomie. Renforcer la sensibilisation et les connaissances grâce à des informations sur les programmes gouvernementaux et les mesures de protection sociale peuvent améliorer considérablement la qualité de vie des zones rurales, alors que la majorité des habitants éprouvent des difficultés à accéder aux ressources mises en place pour préserver leur bien-être. Les OA luttent depuis longtemps contre ces problèmes en employant plutôt des moyens conventionnels, alors que l'utilisation de TIC pour aider les agriculteurs est un moyen infaillible de parfaire, et dans bien des cas de surpasser, l'efficacité des moyens conventionnels. Stephen Muchiri (infoj@eaffu.org) est le PDG de la Fédération des agriculteurs d'Afrique de l'Est, à Nairobi, au Kenya.Les organisations agricoles sont idéalement placées pour offrir des services de TIC qui permettent aux exploitants d'améliorer leurs revenus, de réduire les coûts et le gaspillage, et d'étendre leurs marchés.BEAM signifie « Building Effective and Accessible Markets » (Mise en place de marchés accessibles et efficaces). L'échange BEAM est un « guichet unique » pour le partage des connaissances et l'apprentissage des approches des systèmes de marché pour réduire la pauvreté. BEAM contribue à la création de nouveaux emplois, à l'augmentation des revenus et à l'amélioration des services de base. BEAM utilise son site internet, ses réseaux sociaux, ses ateliers et ses événements pour soutenir les acteurs du développement qui participent au projet, grâce à la mise en place de marchés plus efficaces pour les pauvres. BEAM vise aussi à exploiter les forces des organismes communautaires de marché en pleine expansion. BEAM englobe des secteurs dans lesquels les stratégies de marchés sont encore nouvelles et émergentes (tels que la santé, l'éducation, l'assainissement et les services énergétiques), ainsi que les secteurs plus établis de l'agriculture et des services financiers.Pour plus d'informations, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous : ➜ http://goo.gl/ZYvdZxLancé par l'ICCO, une organisation hollandaise internationale pour le développement, avec le soutien d'Enviu et FIT Uganda Ltd., il s'agit d'attirer des modèles innovants de l'industrie agroalimentaires susceptibles d'améliorer substantiellement la qualité de vie des petits agriculteurs en Ouganda, grâce à la mise à disposition d'outils agricoles et de technologies ayant fait leurs preuves dans des contextes similaires, mais qui ne disposent pas d'un modèle économique durable ou qui n'ont pas été déployés efficacement en Ouganda. Ces industries agroalimentaires existantes peuvent faire face à tous les problèmes qui surviendraient dans la chaîne de valeur et freineraient la productivité des petits producteurs ainsi que la rentabilité des récoltes et du bétail. Une compétition lancée le 29 mai et terminée en septembre 2015 s'est efforcée de trouver des entrepreneurs et des idées adaptées.Pour plus d'information, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous : ➜ http://goo.gl/BpIqFl SEWARUDI La Rudi Multi Trading Compagny, soutenue par l'Association des femmes indépendantes (« Self-Employed Women Association », SEWA; d'où SEWA-RUDI), est une société de marketing indienne de produits agricoles fournis directement par les agriculteurs, puis transformés, conditionnés et commercialisés par des femmes du milieu rural. La société utilise un modèle de chaîne logistique unique pour l'approvisionnement, la transformation, le conditionnement et la distribution de ses produits, créant des opportunités économiques considérables. SEWARUDI effectue des rotations internes au sein des groupes de producteurs ruraux avec qui elle travaille, de manière à améliorer la qualité, la capacité et l'efficacité de la production par l'utilisation de technologies plus développées, et distribue actuellement ses produits dans 14 districts du Gujarat. Le groupe vend ses produits via un réseau de distribution de femmes rurales, appelé Rudiben, réduisant ainsi les frais accessoires, augmentant la disponibilité de produits de qualité auprès des consommateurs en milieu rural, supprimant les intermédiaires, et améliorant le niveau de vie des personnes défavorisées des milieux ruraux. Rudi Multi Trading et la SEWA sont également impliqués dans de nombreux événements tel qu'Ananta, qui donne plus de visibilité aux femmes artisans des milieux ruraux pauvres en mettant en valeur leurs compétences et talents.Pour plus d'informations sur SEWARUDU, cliquez sur le lien ci-dessous : ➜ http://goo.gl/URy0F8Dépêches du festival de films Consom'Acteurs D es films documentaires pour éveiller l'intérêt de la population du Burkina Faso et la sensibiliser aux thèmes liés à l'alimentation et l'agriculture : c'est le projet lancé par l'association burkinabè des journalistes et communicateurs agricoles (ABJCA) à travers le festival de films Consom'Acteurs (contraction de deux mots consommateurs et acteurs) tenu du 1er au 3 mai 2015 à Ouagadougou. Il s'agit de faire circuler l'idée qu'aujourd'hui plus que jamais, chaque citoyen du Burkina Faso doit repenser sa consommation afin de contribuer réellement au développement du pays.Cette première édition du festival Consom'Acteurs s'est composée de quatre projections suivies de discussions, quatre panels thématiques et des sessions de dégustations de plats élaborés avec des produits issus de l'agriculture locale. Un des films projetés, Paysans d'ici et d'ailleurs blues sans frontières, met en parallèle des situations réelles vécues par des exploitants dans deux villages burkinabés et des agriculteurs du Luxembourg. Il montre que des deux côtés les agriculteurs rencontrent les mêmes difficultés et ressentent le même attachement à la terre. Le film révèle qu'au Burkina Faso, de plus en plus de jeunes quittent la vie à la ferme qui ne les séduit plus. « Je ne veux pas que mon enfant soit agriculteur. Je préfèrerais qu'il soit professeur ou infirmier » déclare une agricultrice dans le film. « Ces propos reflètent véritablement la mentalité actuelle de nos parents, de ceux d'entre nous qui L'alimentation et l'agriculture deviennent des sujets de discussion populaires chez les jeunes du Burkina Faso grâce au festival de films Consom'Acteurs.Inoussa Maïga (maiga.inou@gmail.com) est Directeur de MediaProd à Ouagadougou, au Burkina Faso. ","tokenCount":"5100"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce739ea4a2889a2cbae7ac47c923a4ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/911f6f2c-0de0-44cf-b4c9-b91685b6b0be/retrieve","id":"957341271"},"keywords":["Village Baseline Survey","Laos","Participatory Mapping","Climate Change","Agriculture","Food Security"],"sieverID":"c10a5a01-9a16-4878-afb5-66442d729efd","pagecount":"48","content":"Data collection for the Village Baseline Study for the Ekxang Climate-Smart Village located in Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Lao PDR, took place on November 19 th -21 st , 2014. Three days of focus group discussions were conducted separately for men and women. Participatory methods were used to gather information on community resources, organizational landscapes, information networks, and the community's vision for the future.Men and women in Ekxang village had different point of views on their community's resources. Women were focused more on the conservation and increased forest land as they are responsible for collecting the Non-Timber Forest Product. Men were more interested in the development of agro-forestry. Regarding agriculture, men were focused on rice paddies while the women were more focused on the smaller household vegetable gardens. There were several changes in community resources. Forest and pasture areas were significantly degraded due to urban development, increasing people demands, and expansion of agricultural lands since 1980s. Infrastructures for irrigation were improved 30 years ago to expand the irrigated area but only few households in Ekxang could benefit from it. Villagers experience that soil fertility has declined compared to 25 years ago. There were a number of organizations operating at the village, half of them related to food security, food crisis and natural resource management. However, linkages is not strong the organizations. Farmer-tofarmer, mobile phone and television are main sources of information that support farmers in their decision making. There is a high potential to develop ICT-based technologies in order to support climate-smart farming practices to farmers. From the farmers' perspective, their Climate-Smart Village should be an agroforestry landscape with smart groundwater use, smart pest management and crop diversification, and smart information services.. Visions for the future by mixed group of women and men ....................................... Table 4. The five most important organisations ranked by the men and women's group ....... Table 5. The five most important organisations ranked by the men and men's group ............ Table 6. Information on highlighted organisations of men and women (unless otherwise noted, 1=Yes, 0=No) ..    4. Organisational landscape of food security from the women's group ....................... Figure 5 . Organisational landscape of food crisis from the men's group ............................... Figure 6 . Organisational landscape of food crisis from the women's group ........................... Figure 7. Organisational landscape of natural resource management from the men's group .. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic ten-year partnership between the CGIAR and Future Earth to deal with the threats posed by a changing climate, to achieve food security, improve agriculture and livelihoods. In 2014, CCAFS South East Asia region identified sites for implementing Climate Smart Villages (CSVs). Six sites were selected in three countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR. The objectives of CCAFS CSV is to increase the adaptive capacity of small-holder famers in light of climate change effects, improve livelihoods by sustainably increasing productivity and resilience, mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs), and enhance national food security and development goals. This report presents the results of the Village Baseline Study (VBS) that took place in the Ekxang CSV located in the Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Lao PDR. The VBS is part of the baseline activities (including Household Baseline Survey and Organizational Study) done in target sites for CSVs. The VBS aims to provide baseline information at the village level about community resources, organizational landscapes, information networks, and the community's vision for the future.The objectives of the VBS are to:1. Collect baseline data on indicators that allow site comparability and monitor changes in the villages over time. In particular, these are changes that allow people to manage current climate risks, adapt to long -run climate change, and reduce/mitigate greenhouse gas emission; 2. Understand the enabling environment that mediates certain practices and behaviours and creates constraints and opportunities (policies, institutions, infrastructure, information and services) for communities to respond to change. 3. Gather information on the aspirations of the community in order to make future interventions more sustainable and easily adopted. 4. Explore gender differentiation.-Perceptions of women and men were gathered separately to be able to present different gender perspectives. -Focus group participants were selected to present perceptions of groups differentiated by age.This report is presented in five sections: the Introduction is followed by a brief overview of the methodologies used, brief profile of Ekxang village, and the results relating to the three evaluated topicscommunity resources, organizational landscapes, and information networks. A conclusion and recommendations for CCAFS end this report.The VBS consisted of 3-days of Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and participatory activities held separately for men and women on 19-21 November 2014.The venue was pagoda of Ekxang. Each day, 15 men and 15 women from the village were randomly selected and invited to participate in male and female FGDs. The Lao CSV Team, consisting of representatives from various local organizations including NAFRI, DAFO, PAFO, MDC, CUSO and IWMI, were responsible for conducting the VBS. Following CCAFS protocol on gender differentiated FGDs, male team members worked with the male participants while the female team members worked with the women participants. A facilitator and a note-taker were assigned to each FGD to lead and to record the discussion, respectively. . Day 1 of the VBS was for the community mapping activity. Initially, each male and female focus group created a map of the village on the ground, which was then transferred map on to a flip chart. A block of 10 x10 km satellite image covering Ekxang and other surrounding villages was used to facilitate mapping by villagers of the past and current resources available in the community. These maps were used to capture important resources of the community, their state, and driving forces of change.Day 2 of the VBS focused on understanding the organizational landscapes of the community, particularly identifying organizations that contribute to food security, food crisis, and natural resource management. Each male and female focus group were made 1) to list the organizations working in the village; 2) rank the organizations in terms of importance; 3) identify the organizations that contributed to food security, food crisis, and natural resource management; and 4) describe the linkages between the various organizations. The outputs were the score of each organization and three diagrams showing the organisational landscape and the linkage of the organizations for food security, food crisis and natural resource management.Day 3 had two main activities. The first set of activities was focused on understanding the information networks within the community through separate FGDs with men and women. The FGD participants were asked to list the information they need to help them make agricultural decisions, and discuss the ways this information is accessed. The outputs were diagrams containing illustration of the kind of information accessed via four main sources: individuals (farmers-farmers), media (TV, radio, internet and etc), organizations (NGOs and Government), and other sources (companies). The second set of activities focused on generating a vision of what the community would like to see in the future. The output of the men and women was a map overlaid on a 10 x10 km satellite image showing \"the vision of the community in the next 15 years (2030)\". Before starting this vision, 3 volunteers from Day 1 presented 15 photos they took representing images they were most proud of and images they are not proud of and do not want to see in the future. This process was meant to make the villagers to think about their future.Data collected was captured on sketches, maps, flip charts, information cards, and notes. All these were brought together in one debriefing report which is the basis of this VBS site analysis report.The detailed tools and guidelines used for the implementation of the village baseline study across all CCAFS sites, as well as the manuals, data and analysis reports can be accessed at http://ccafs.cgiar.org/resources/baseline-surveys.Ekxang was selected as a CSV by CCAFS-SEA and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in 2014. Ekxang village is located in Phonhong District, Vientiane Province, Laos (Map 1). The village's is located in coordinates 102° 26' 23\" E-102° 30' 48\" E and 18° 20' 6\" N -18° 22' 31\" N. The distance between Ekxang and Vientiane capital is approximately 52 km.The main livelihood source of 70% of the households in Ekxang village is agriculture. Paddy rice is the major crop during the wet season, and vegetables and watermelon during the dry season. Livestock production, fishing, and the collection of non-timber forest products, such as bamboo shoots, mushrooms and wildlife, are also important sources of household income and food. The quality of natural resources supporting agricultural livelihoods such as forests, ponds, rivers and pastures have declined since the 1980's due to rapid population growth, urban development, and perceived climate change.Despite the degradation of resources, Ekxang farmers are able to produce a diverse and large quantity of agricultural products compared with other villages in Phonghong district. This is due to multiple reasons relating to effective use of groundwater and surface water resources, and efforts of many organizations such as Oxfam, Phonesoung Agriculture Development Centre, JICA and DAFO, that have contributed in increasing agricultural production and improving people livelihoods. Farmers receive a variety of information that facilitates agricultural decision making on aspects including weather conditions, crop varieties, livestock vaccinations, sustainable agricultural production techniques, market prices, pest control and fertilizers. Sources for this information include government extension workers, other farmers, NGOs, and the media. Through the process of participatory visual interpretation of high resolution satellite imagery, the VBS team gained a greater understanding of community resources (including infrastructure, forest, water resources, agricultural lands and pastures), their quality, access, management, history and drivers of change. This information was gathered separately for men and women, enabling the team to capture the gender differentiated perspectives of community resources. Five maps were produced: the current community resources by women (Photo 1) and men (Figure 3), the past community resources by women (Figure 4) and men (Figure 5), and \"the future vision\" map of community resources and human well-being into 2030 (Figure 6). The future vision map illustrated the community's concerns and aspirations to guide CCAFS interventions within the village and to ensure that these interventions will be sustainable, easily adopted, and in line with the community's own goals.During the community mapping activity, the note taker in each male and female focus group recorded details about the quality and management of the natural resources described. These detailed notes were included in the debriefing document in the format prescribed by CCAFS VBS manual. The most important resources identified by men and women groups are described below:The total farmland area in the village is 230 hectares. Most of cropland is used for cultivating paddy rice during the rainy season. During the dry season, the area is used to cultivate cash crops such as vegetables and watermelon. Household gardens also produce vegetables such as morning glory, lettuce, spring onion, egg-plant, and mint. Some of these household gardens make use of greenhouses, compost, bio-char, raised beds, and organic production techniques.Although most of croplands in the village are privately owned, there are three hectares of communal cropland managed by the Village Elder Association. Currently, the area is rented out to support the Village Fund, which is mainly used for village infrastructural development.Large livestock production, specifically cow and buffalo, is important for household livelihood in Ekxang village. There are over 1,000 heads of large livestock in the village requiring areas for grazing.Pastures in Ekxang can be areas specialized for grazing or can be fallowed croplands. Pastures are also the source of mushrooms, herbs, bamboo shoots, and insects for villagers. All pastures are privately owned land but the owner may allow other villagers to raise livestock on their land during off-crop season. Pastures are generally small and overcrowded. Distance from residential land to pastures varies from 10 minutes to 2-hours walk. Areas far from the village are difficult to access and to monitor livestock. Pastures often have tree cover to create shade for the livestock. However, the cove rate is reducing quickly nowadays.Ten years ago, the area had large communal forest land. Currently, there is only a small private forest area of 159 ha. The reduction was due to deforestation, urbanization and expansion of agricultural land. The remaining forest is located along the main road access to Ekxang, which takes 30 minutes to reach by walking. Villagers depend on this resource for NTFPs such as fuel wood, mushrooms, herbs, bamboo shoots, and wild animals. However, there is a high competition for collecting these products threatening the sustainability of this forest. The future of the forest depends on the land use decision of the land owner.There are eight ponds that provide fish, amphibians, and insects for households in the region. These ponds are often dried up in the dry season, and thus population of aquatic species is small. Six ponds are managed by the Village Elder Association. Fish in these ponds is often harvested for community's events. Fish is also sold and sales is contributed to the Village Fund.A river located outside the village were mentioned by the men's group. The river passes Phongthanh, a neighbouring village. This river is important for irrigation and fish breeding. In the 1980's, Korea supported the local government to build a small concrete dam to retain water for irrigation. Although the dam is managed by Phongthanh village, farmers in Ekxang, who have fields nearby can also access this water source via irrigation canals.Groundwater is the main source for irrigation and domestic uses. Almost every household has their own well. Exploitation of groundwater enables farmers in Ekxang to have two cropping seasons a year. The use of this resource requires an electric pumping machine and can only supply water needs of fields surrounding the wells. Recently, IWMI DOI in partnership with other organizations drilled three boreholes, which will be used to test community-managed irrigation.A main road connects Ekxang to Highway Number 13 North (the main highway leading to Vientiane capital and the market at Km 52). This enables villagers to sell their products to the market, access schools, communicate to other regions, and find off-farm works in surrounding areas. The road used to be a dirt road until 2009 when it was improved and expanded by government. Due to poor maintenance, the road is not in good condition with many potholes, making it difficult to use during the rainy season.Ekxang village has a primary school. The school was re-built in 2008 with support of JICA. The school is small, overloaded, lack proper facilities, and teachers. The school, however, is very important to the community, especially to the young generation. It is widely believed in the community that education will create opportunities to improve their livelihoods.The pagoda is the focal landmark in the community. It is a place for cultural expression, religious activities, and holding community events and meetings. The pagoda was made of wood until it was converted into a concrete structure using funds contributed by the community. It has beautiful painted walls, paved driveway, and sliding doors.A small local market in Ekxang opens every evening. A variety of local products such as meat, fish, insects, fruits, herbs, and vegetables are sold. To buy clothing, facilities and other products, villagers have to go to a larger market at KM 52 of the Highway 13, which is about 3 km from Ekxang.  The men and the women had different point of views on their community's resources. With regard to the forest area, women seemed to focus more on the conservation and improvement of forests within the community as they are responsible for collecting the NTFPs. Men were more interested in increasing forested area through agro-forestry, with products such as eucalyptus, palm and fruit trees. Regarding agriculture, the men were highly focused on rice paddies while women were more focused on the smaller household vegetable gardens. Women were interested in improving the local market as they are the ones selling their products within the community while the men were interested in improving the road so they could access larger markets outside the village.Regarding water access, the men were focused on large scale groundwater access for irrigation while the women were more interested in the household water supply for domestic uses and for irrigating their small household vegetable gardens. Women tend to spend the majority of their time doing household work such as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes, watering the household garden, and giving water to the livestock. The men tend to spend most of their time in the field. The difference in the work of men and women is reflected in their descriptions of current resources.The men's and the women's group were asked to describe historical land use and natural resources and to identify the major changes that had occurred in their community as well as in the 10 x10km block. Causes of change were also discussed by both men and women's groups. Maps describing the past resources developed by the groups are shown below:In the past, forest areas within and surrounding Ekxang were dense and covered large and extensive areas. However, due to urban development and the expansion of agricultural lands in the 1980s, many of the forests were cut down. The remaining forests are much smaller and have sparse tree cover.The pasture land currently used in Ekxang was previously a small area and full of large trees. However, due to the continuous increase of livestock population and need for fuel wood, the expansion of the pasture land and deforestation within the pasture has been steadily increasing since the 1980's.Some farmers in Ekxang receive irrigation via a canal from the PhaNaiy river located in Phonthanh, a neighbouring village. This river used to be free flowing, but 30 years ago, with help from a Korean organization, a small concrete dam was built to facilitate and expand irrigated areas.Another important water resource for Ekxang village is ponds. Previously, these ponds were rich with biodiversity (supporting mainly fish and amphibian populations). Due to prolonged dry season and increased use of water for irrigation, the ponds have become shallow and dry during the dry season. Lack of pond water decreases the fish and amphibian populations resulting to reduced food available for the community.Trees were abundant within the rice fields 25 years ago. The soil was relatively high in organic matter, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not used. Today, the cropland area has expanded and the trees in this area have been cut down. There is a noticeable decrease in soil organic matter and overall soil fertility. Due to increased access to irrigation during the dry season and a higher demand for fruits and vegetables, farmers began to grow vegetables and watermelon during the dry season. However, these cropping systems require intense use of fertilizers and pesticides that negatively affect the health of farmers and the sustainability of the farmland system.There have been a lot of infrastructural improvements in Ekxang including the road, school and pagoda. In the past the roads were narrow dirt road that ends just before the village. Villagers were used to walking within Ekxang. In 1980, the government funded road constructionm, widening and extending the road network to connect Ekxang to other villages nearby. Similarly, the primary school in Ekxang used to be small and lacked basic facilities including water and sanitation. In 1996, th primary school was reconstructed with support of JICA. It is now a bigger and concrete structure with water supply and a bathroom. The Pagoda was recently upgraded from a small, wooden structure to a bigger and concrete structure with Buddhist paintings from pooled donated funds of the villagers.The detailed notes of men and women's discussions are presented in Table 2 below. The 'Vision of the Future' was discussed by a mixed group of men and women. The goal was to develop an image of village resources and human wellbeing by 2030. The exercise enabled the understanding of the opportunities and constraints, as well as aspirations of the community. The exercise built on the activities completed in the previous sessions (Days 1 and 2), which included a presentation of the current community resource map given by a volunteer from the men's group and a volunteer from the women's group who participated on the first day. It also included a presentation of 15 photographs taken by 3 villagers from Day 2 highlighting things in the village they are proud of and things that need to be improved upon in the future. The map that encapsulates Ekxang's Vision of the Future is presented below (Figure 6). A description of the future aspirations is presented in Table 3.  Enough land is available but need to increase productivity of this land with steady irrigation supply and sustainable agriculture techniques. Diversification of crops to increase income and increase household nutrition.Need irrigation supply and extension workers to train farmers in techniques on sustainable agriculture.Oxfam, IWMI, DAFO Cemetery Increase number of trees in this area Planting diverse food trees can make area more beautiful and simultaneously provide food for community events and celebrations.Need diverse tree seedlings DAFO Pasture Increase livestock production and increase tree density within pasture.Increase in income of villagers from selling meat products. Opportunity to test the production of smaller/new breeds of livestock.Need increased pasture area as livestock production increases but don't know where to get the land for this. Current pasture area is privately owned land. DAFO, land owners, community.Increased tree density and diversity of trees.Opportunity to increase tree cover via agroforestry, near the cemetery and within the pasture.Forest is privately owned land.DAFO, village organizations, land owners, ICRAFT.All participants indicated that roads are very important for the development of the village. The main road leading to the village brings opportunities to the community: access to markets, schools, off-farm work, information, and enables villagers to connect to outsiders. Good transportation allows farmers to sell their products directly to big markets where they can get higher income than by operating through the middleman. The villagers were unable to repair the roads by themselves as the costs are high and thus, requiring government support. In addition to the main road, villagers expected to have small paved roads within the village to reduce the hazards caused by dust. Villagers believed that when the road is in a better condition it will encourage more people to visit and invest in the village.Currently, no clinic or health care station operates in Ekxang. Villagers have to travel to Phonhong health centre (30 minutes by car) for medical care. Villagers expected that the government or organizations could support them to build a health station in the village.The existing village office is small and lacks adequate facilities. The villages hope for a new, bigger, cleaner office with better facilities.Groundwater has the potential to increase the productivity and diversify agricultural products during the dry season. IWMI, DOI and other partners are launching a communitylevel groundwater irrigation trial but it only supplies water to about 20 farmers in the village. Therefore, access to groundwater in the future was highly expected.Although current cropland is enough to produce food, farmers would like to o increase the productivity of their current land area. They preferred having 2 or 3 cropping cycles per year and requested support on new cultivation techniques, greenhouses mitigation, improved seed varieties, and soil-fertility management.There are currently over 1,000 cows in Ekxang. Cattle population will continue to increase in the future due to high income from livestock production. However, the pasture areas have many limitations, Ekxang people want to have a larger and more secure pasture areas, which will require community land management/planning.Villagers believe that deforestation in their area is the cause of the higher temperatures and disappearance of morning fog. In addition, many villagers rely on the forests for NTFPs. Therefore they expressed the need to increase forest density and the diversification within the village, particularly through agroforestry.The cemetery is a communal land. Currently it lacks trees, and thus when a ceremony takes place there, there is no shade for the people. They planned to grow diverse fruit trees. Farmers expect the help from DAFO in terms of good tree seedlings.This topic aims to show evidence of organisational capacities that help address food security and manage resources in the target region. This activity enables the CCAFS team to determine how the village is prepared to respond to climate change impacts and other future challenges and to engage CCAFS partners in implementing collective actions. Specially, this section presents the different formal and informal organisations involved in/responsible for food security, food crisis and natural resource management. It also elaborates on what types of activities the organisations are engaged in, their members, and how to engage these organizations in our future interventions.Each male and female focus group was asked to draw three large concentric circles on the whiteboard. The inner circle represents the community (Ekxang village) level, the middle circle for locality (district/provincial) level, and the outer circle for beyond the locality (national, regional, international) level. The participants were asked to name organisations working in the area, write the names on cards, and place on the appropriate circle. The results for both women and men's groups are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. Based on this structure, the men's group identified 18 organisations while the women's group identified 14 organizations. More detailed information on the most important organizations ranked by participants is provided in Table 4.   This part of the activity enabled the team to understand how the organisations contribute to the food security of the community. The men and women FGD participants were asked to discuss the concepts of food availability, access and utilization. They were then made to review each organisation they had previously identified. Villagers placed a card representing an organization on the appropriate location on the organizational landscape diagram with different colour tags to identify weather the organization contributes to food security by the means of availability, access and utilization (Figure 3 and 4).Legend:  A total of 23 organizations were listed by both men's and women's groups. Ten of the 23 organizations were identified to contribute to food security in the village by supporting agricultural production, distribution, exchange, affordability, allocation, preference, nutritional value, and food safety. This indicates a relatively high involvement of organizations on food security in the village. However, most of the groups addressing food security operate beyond the locality (80%) while 20% operate at the province, district and village level. There are not many linkages between the various organizations operating in the community except that Oxfam previously funded Phonesoung Agricultural Development Center and the approval requirements for bank loans from the village elders association. New linkages could be formed in the future to maximize the efforts of future CSV interventions and to build synergy between the various organizations from every level, community to international.The purpose of this exercise was to understand the roles of organizations in helping villagers cope in times of food crisis. Each men and women's group were asked recall a time when there was a food crisis in the community, identify the organizations that were involved in providing support during that period or those that would provide support if a food crisis occur in the future, and indicate their role. The villagers placed the cards representing these organizations on the organizational landscape diagrams (Figure 5 and 6 for men and women, respectively) and marked them with colored tags representing the ways they contribute in a food crisis situation in terms of availability, access, and utilization.1. Phonesoung Agriculture Development Center 2. JICA 7. Village Elders Association Funding/loans   During this activity, the participants indicated that they never go hungry and they always have access to healthy food throughout the year. Even the landless can access food such as mushrooms, insects, amphibians, fish, bamboo shoots and wild animals in the forests, rice paddies, ponds and pastures. There have been, however, food crises in the past, particularly in 1966 and 1996 when the entire region was flooded from overflow of the Nam Ngum river. During those times the government (DAFO) provided villagers with emergency food aid through the members of the village youth union. Currently, 70% of the villagers are farming households, while the remaining 30% earn income from off-farm work in areas such as teaching, government service, small business and factory work. This off-farm income can soften the impacts of a food crisis in the future. Villagers have ways of earning income independent of agriculture and can afford to purchase food.Each of the men and women's focus groups were asked to identify which organizations were involved in natural resource management and/or environmental protection in the village and place the cards representing each organization in their place on the organizational landscape diagram (Figure 7 and 8 for men and women, respectively). Discussions on the links between organizations and their roles in natural resource management were recorded by the note taker in both focus groups.  Out of 23 organizations identified by both the men's and women's discussion groups, 10 were involved in NRM and/or environmental protection. Of this number, 5 were identified by the men's group (Figure 7) and 8 were identified by the women's group (Figure 8). Most of the organizations identified to contribute to food security also contribute to environmental protection and natural resource management by encouraging the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices including composting, reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide use, and water management. These organizations include Oxfam, Phonesoung Agricultural Development Center, DAFO, IWMI and JICA. Other important organizations at the village level are the Women's Union and the Village Elders Association as they are well respected groups and often provide advice and disseminate information on the use of community resources.Table 6 below summarizes gender differentiated data for all the organisations obtained from 'Activity 2'. Organizations are identified for being mentioned by either male or female focus groups and being perceived by villagers as being involved in food security, food crisis situations, and NRM in the village.The aim of this exercise wasto understand the diversity and importance of options that people have in accessing information related to agricultural decision making, how people take advantage of the alternative sources of information available, and why some sources may or may not be used. The goal was s to describe networks of how people access and share information within the community. Information networks of women and men were investigated separately. The method by which these networks were investigated included the listing of information that farmers require in in making agricultural decisions and to asking them to draw the sources of information for each of these topics such as the. media, organizations or individuals (Figure 9).Figure 9. Sources of information from men and women's groups. Internet/Mobile Technology: Most of villagers own cell phones that they often use to communicate and share information with others. A few villagers (mostly the younger generation) have smart-phone and can access to internet. They also use social media applications such as Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate. However, they do not use internet to access information regarding agriculture or weather. However, this is high potential technology for famers to access a wide range of information in near future.In Ekxang, the main agriculture activity during the rainy season is rice production and during the dry season is watermelon and vegetable production. Unlike most rural villages in Laos, Ekxang has access to ground water that enables farmers to adapt to dry spells and produce a variety of crop products during the dry season. A large part of paddy fields is often used to grow watermelon after rice harvest.In order to encourage sustainable use of natural resources, there is the need to improve people knowledge on appropriate farming practices, varieties, crop diversification and \"green\" agriculture. Success achieved by several governmental and NGOs programs on diversifying agricultural production, sustainable agricultural techniques, livestock disease prevention, greenhouses should be taken into consideration to gain effectiveness of CCAFS interventions.Access to surface water in Ekxang village is very limited. Only few households can get irrigation water from a river in the neighbouring village. There are some small and shallow ponds for water storage but they easily dry up in the dry season. For majority of the village, groundwater is the main source of water for irrigation and domestic use. Most of households have built their own well/boreholes. Currently, IWMI, DOI and other partners are building three large boreholes and establishing platform for community managed irrigation scheme.Small forested areas within and surrounding Ekxang village have been degraded due to deforestation and expansion of agricultural land since the 1980's. These private forests are currently used for grazing, firewood and other non-timber forest products (e.g. mushrooms, herbs, bamboo shoots, insects and wild animals). Local people are aware of the importance of forest and expect to increase quantity as well as quality of this resource within the village.Roads are important infrastructure for villagers in Ekxang village. The roads enable villagers to access large markets outside the village, such as the market at Km 52 of the Highway 13 North, and Vientiane markets. The pagoda is also important because it is the place for hosting large community meetings, events and celebrations. Some infrastructures are not in good condition, such as dirt roads, the primary school, village office.There are 23 locally and internationally based organizations that are currently working at Ekxang village. Half of these organizations contribute to food security, food crisis, and/or manage natural resources. The main activities of the organizations in the area are to provide training on sustainable agriculture techniques, new varieties, greenhouses, market access, loans, water management, and livestock vaccinations. Various banks, Village Elder Association, Youth Union and Women's Union are organizations that can help farmers in case of food crisis. Emergency food aid was provided by DAFO and distributed by members of Youth Union. Regarding natural resource management, IWMI, JICA, DAFO, Phonesoung Agriculture Development Center and Oxfam gave trainings and supports for sustainable water management, sustainable agriculture and agroforestry. The local organizations that were often mentioned in the community are the Women's Union, Village Elders Association and Village Authorities, which play important roles in community development and resource management. However, there were few linkages between organizations. These should be improved in the future to facilitate the effectiveness of projects and knowledge sharing.In Ekxang, the most important way of sharing information on agricultural-related decision making is from farmer-to-farmer route. Information such as agricultural production techniques and technologies are provided by various organizations but are then disseminated throughout the community by word of mouth. TV is the main source of weather information as nearly every household has access to TV and cable. However, the weather forecasts are not specific to the area of Ekxang. Nearly everyone in the village has a cell phone and some people make use of mobile internet and applications, particularly the younger generation. With training, this emerging technology could be used to increase the villager's access to a wider range of information.Ekxang is a good choice to establish a CSV as it has already implemented some Climate-Smart technologies and it is a convergent point of various national and international organizations. Below are recommendations for future CCAFS interventions in Ekxang CSV:Community mobilization and planning: In order to strengthen the community and to prepare the social readiness, community mobilization activities should be conducted. Community mobilization activities can include CSV launching ceremony, coordination meeting between the various organizations working in Ekxang, trainings for local staff and dissemination of baseline survey results at all levels.Groundwater management: Currently, lack of irrigation water during the dry season limits large-scale agricultural production. Sustainable use of groundwater for boosting irrigation is being studied by IWMI and DOI. The knowledge gained from this research will be shared among stakeholders. This can be considered as a Climate-Smart Agriculture technique for CCAFS to reference and disseminate to other communities in the region.Pest management and diversification of cropping systems: Vegetables and watermelon are the major products in Ekxang during the dry season. These crops require the intensive use of pesticides, some of which have been banned due to their impacts on human and animal health. This suggests that CCAFS should organize trainings for farmers on proper pesticide use or alternative valuable and environmentally-friendly crops. Collaboration between organizations such as CUSO International, DAFO, NAFRI, CABI, and Phonesoung Agriculture Development Center would maximize efforts.Mobile phone is popularly used nowadays as almost every famer has his own device. ICT-based techniques that make use of this modern technology would be useful for farmers to access different information and facilitate their agricultural decision making. This can also be useful for boosting agricultural production and income generation.Farmers also requested trainings on practices that could help them to improve farming production, increase sustainability and strengthen resilience to climate change. Some topics suggested by villagers are soil management, pest and disease management, improved crop","tokenCount":"6126"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"330813be29aa0e7481e591fdbb9568c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1439f105-d20a-4fe7-a47f-c69903135533/content","id":"856597141"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b6b07d0a-1092-4117-89d3-a264297266d9","pagecount":"10","content":"Huerta-Espino, J., Singh, R.P., Villaseñor-Mir, H.E., Espitia-Rangel, E., y Leyva-Mir, S.G. 2003. Postulación de genes de resistencia a la roya de la hoja (Puccinia triticina Ericks.) en plántula y planta adulta en genotipos élite de trigo harinero (Triticum aestivum L.). Revista Mexicana de Fitopatología 21:239-247. Resumen. El programa de mejoramiento genético de trigo (Triticum aestivum) del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias de México está trabajando para generar variedades que posean resistencia parcial o resistencia de planta adulta al hongo Puccinia triticina, para lo cual, es necesario conocer los genes que el germoplasma élite expresa a nivel de plántula y planta adulta. Se evaluaron 48 genotipos de trigo harinero inoculados con 18 razas fisiológicas de roya de la hoja bajo condiciones de invernadero, y bajo condiciones de campo con las razas TBD/ TM, TCB/TD y MCJ/SP, con el objetivo de postular los genes de resistencia presentes en cada uno. Entre los 50 genes designados que confieren resistencia a la roya de la hoja, sólo se pudieron postular 12 en estado de plántula: Lr1, Lr3, Lr9, Lr10, Lr13, Lr14a, Lr16, Lr19, Lr23, Lr24, Lr26, Lr27 y Lr31, que estuvieron presentes solos o en combinación; de éstos, sólamente Lr9, Lr19 y Lr24 continúan siendo efectivos en el noroeste de México en planta adulta. Entre los 48 genotipos, se observaron 28 combinaciones distintas de resistencia en estado de plántula. En planta adulta, 22 de los 48 genotipos presentaron necrosis de la punta de la hoja, la cual está asociada con la presencia del gene Lr34 que confiere resistencia para el desarrollo lento de la roya. El nivel de resistencia de estos 22 genotipos dependió del número de genes menores de efectos aditivos (de uno a tres) que se encontraron asociados con Lr34. Otros genotipos expresaron la presencia del gene Lr46 más otros genes de efectos aditivos aún no designados, mientras que en otros genotipos se detectaron hasta cuatro genes de efectos aditivos diferentes a Lr34 y Lr46. Se deduce que en el germoplasma élite de trigo para el noroeste de México se dispone de una serie de combinaciones de genes mayores y genes menores de efectos aditivos, que una vez que se conjunten, se podrá lograr el control genético durable de la roya de la hoja.Palabras clave adicionales: Resistencia de desarrollo lento de la roya, genes mayores, genes menores, combinación de genes, Lr34.Abstract. The wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding program of the Mexican National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research is working to generate cultivars with adult plant or partial resistance to the fungus Puccinia triticina. Therefore, it is necessary to know the resistance genes expressed by the elite germplasm in either the seedling or adult plant stages. Forty-eight wheat genotypes were evaluated by inoculation with 18 leaf rust physiological races under greenhouse conditions, and with the races TBD/TM, TCB/TD, and MCJ/SP in the field. Among the 50 identified genes that confer resistance to leaf rust, only 12 could be postulated at seedling stage: Lr1, Lr3, Lr9, Lr10, Lr13, Lr14a, Lr16, Lr19, Lr23, Lr24, Lr26, Lr27, and Lr31, alone or in combination. Only Lr9, Lr19, and Lr24 are still effective in Northwest Mexico in adult plants. Among the 48 genotypes, 28 different seedling resistance combinations were observed. In adult plants, 22 of the 48 genotypes showed leaf tip necrosis character known to be linked to the slow rusting gene Lr34. The level of resistance of these 22 genotypes was conditioned by the number of minor additive genes (one to three), which were associated with Lr34. Other genotypes displayed Lr46 plus other additive genes not yet designated, whereas in other genotypes, up to four minor genes different from Lr34 or Lr46 were detected. It is concluded that in elite germplasm for Northwest Mexico, combinations of major and minor genes with additive effect are available. Once combined, these genes will provide durable genetic control of wheat leaf rust.Additional keywords: Slow rusting resistance, major genes, minor genes, gene combinations, Lr34.La resistencia del trigo (Triticum aestivum L.) a la roya de la hoja (Puccinia triticina Ericks.) está condicionada por factores genéticos, tanto del hospedante como del patógeno que actúan en una relación gene por gene, lo que implica que por cada gene de resistencia en una variedad, existe un gene de avirulencia en las poblaciones del patógeno. En la mayoría de las variedades liberadas en México, actualmente se conocen los genes que les confirieron resistencia a las poblaciones de roya de la hoja que se manifestaron cuando dichas variedades fueron cultivadas, así como los genes que les confieren resistencia a las razas actuales del patógeno. La postulación de genes o el conocimiento de los genes de resistencia que una variedad de trigo posee, permite a los mejoradores identificar los genes de resistencia que aún permanecen efectivos contra las poblaciones de roya de la hoja que en este momento existen, así como identificar los genes que serán efectivos cuando la frecuencia de razas cambie o cuando aparezcan nuevas razas. Por otra parte, también es una herramienta valiosa para tomar decisiones sobre el tipo de resistencia genética más conveniente para las condiciones de determinada región, como lo es la resistencia parcial o resistencia para el desarrollo lento de la roya, la cual se considera como la más efectiva y conveniente dentro del control genético de este patógeno, ya que las pérdidas en rendimiento llegan a ser insignificantes y porque se llega a establecer una relación hospedante-patógeno de convivencia, presumiblemente de tipo durable. Una vez que Flor (1956) estableció que la interacción hospedantepatógeno, en el caso de la roya de la linaza, estaba gobernada en una relación de un gene por un gene, la especialización fisiológica de la roya de la hoja en trigo se entendió claramente, y de esta manera se postuló la presencia o ausencia de un gene específico para resistencia en plántula o en planta adulta. Actualmente se conocen más de 50 genes de resistencia a la roya de la hoja (McIntosh et al., 1998). El principal origen de estos genes es la especie Triticum aestivum; otros más, provienen de otras especies del género Triticum e inclusive de otros géneros. La utilidad o durabilidad de estos genes no parece estar relacionada con los géneros o especies donantes, aunque algunas veces se enfatiza cuando un gene que proviene de especies lejanas a T. aestivum o al género Triticum, pierde su efectividad (Roelfs et al., 1992, McIntosh et al., 1998). A través del mejoramiento genético, se ha logrado acumular genes de resistencia en las variedades mexicanas. Del grupo de genes que determinan la resistencia a razas específicas, los genes Lr3Ka, Lr9, Lr25, Lr29 y Lr35 todavía son efectivos en México (Singh et al., 1994). Ninguno de estos genes está presente en variedades comerciales, lo que indica que la resistencia se debe a genes que no manifiestan resistencia a una raza en particular (Singh et al., 2001). La postulación de genes de resistencia se ha hecho para la mayoría de las variedades liberadas en México (Singh y Rajaram, 1991;Singh, 1993), así como en otros genotipos que son importantes para el programa de mejoramiento. De los 50 genes conocidos, se ha postulado que 14 ocurren individualmente o en conjunto en variedades liberadas en México. Así, Lr1 se encontró en 22 variedades, Lr3 en cuatro, Lr3bg en dos, Lr10 en diez, Lr13 en 41, Lr14a en siete, Lr16 en seis, Lr17 en diez, Lr19 en Oasis 86 sólamente, Lr23 en cinco, Lr26 en diez y Lr27+Lr31 en siete. Otros genes aún no designados y generalmente sensibles a altas temperaturas fueron postulados en 46 variedades, de las cuales al menos 31 poseen el gene Lr34 (Singh y Rajaram, 1991;Singh y Rajaram, 1992;Singh, 1993). Cincuenta y ocho variedades mostraron diferente grado de resistencia de planta adulta cuando se inocularon con aislamientos virulentos a los genes de resistencia que poseen. De esta forma, cuando una variedad previamente resistente reacciona como susceptible a una raza, es posible saber que gene ha dejado de ser efectivo y/o por lo menos indica que se debe analizar el comportamiento de este gene en ausencia de otros genes para confirmar su efectividad. Debido a la importancia que ha representado el mejoramiento genético para controlar la roya de la hoja en México, el objetivo de la presente investigación fue el de postular los genes de resistencia a esta enfermedad presentes en plántula y planta adulta en 48 genotipos élite de trigo para el noroeste de México.Genotipos. Cuarenta y ocho genotipos de trigo harinero (Cuadro 1), obtenidos del programa de trigo del Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo, se evaluaron bajo condiciones de invernadero durante el verano de 1994 en El Batán, Edo. de México, y bajo condiciones de campo durante el ciclo otoño-invierno 1994-95 en el Valle del Yaqui, Sonora, México. Razas de roya de la hoja. Las esporas del hongo de las diferentes razas usadas en el estudio, se conservaron en refrigeración -55°C, a las cuales se les dió un tratamiento de calor en baño maría por 7 min a 45°C, dejándose hidratar en cámara húmeda por un mínimo de 3 h. La razas se determinaron usando la nomenclatura de Singh (1991) y Villaseñor-Espín et al. (2003). Pruebas de invernadero en plántula. Se colocaron entre 6 y 10 semillas de cada genotipo por charola en ocho hileras y seis columnas. También se incluyó las líneas diferenciales (Cuadro 2) para hacer una mejor postulación de genes presentes en los 48 genotipos de trigo, seguidos de la inoculación, incubación y desarrollo de la enfermedad en el invernadero. Cuando las plántulas tuvieron ocho días de edad, los 48 genotipos y las líneas diferenciales se inocularon con esporas frescas de las 18 razas, incluyendo MCJ/SP, CCJ/SP, y CCJ/QM, de manera independiente identificadas entre diez nuevas, las cuales se suspendieron en aceite mineral (Soltrol 170 ®) y se asperjaron con un atomizador conectado a un compresor eléctrico. Las plántulas se dejaron secar por 20 min, y luego se incubaron durante 12 h en una cámara húmeda cerrada donde se generó rocío en forma artificial, y posteriormente en un invernadero a 20-24°C con dos horas de luz suplementaria. Durante el período de incubación, las charolas conteniendo los genotipos se mantuvieron siempre húmedas, dada la naturaleza del suelo utilizado, no fue necesaria fertilización adicional. Los datos de tipo de infección se tomaron 10 días después de la inoculación, Cuadro 1. Cruza e historia de selección de 48 genotipos de trigo harinero (Triticum aestivum) utilizados en el estudio de postulación de genes de resistencia a roya de la hoja (Puccinia triticina) en plántula y planta adulta z . z Bajo condiciones de invernadero durante el verano de 1994 en El Batán, Edo. de México, y bajo condiciones de campo durante el ciclo otoño-invierno 1994-95 en el Valle del Yaqui, Sonora, México. siguiendo los procedimientos de Roelfs et al. (1992). La escala utilizada fue de 0-4 como sigue: 0 = sin uredinias u otros signos macroscópicos de infección; \";\" = sin uredinias, pero signos de hipersensibilidad con pequeñas manchas cloróticas o necróticas de tamaño variable; 1 = uredinias pequeñas rodeadas de necrosis; 2 = uredinias de tamaño medio a pequeñas rodeadas de islas verdes; X = distribución aleatoria de todos los tipos de infección en la misma hoja como resultado de infección de un aislamiento puro; 3 y 4 (susceptible) = uredinia de tamaño medio a grande sin clorosis o necrosis; + = uredinia más grande de lo normal para el tipo de infección; -= uredinia más pequeña de lo normal para el tipo de infección; C = mayor clorosis de la normal para el tipo de infección. Más de una designación representa el rango en los tipos de infección. El ensayo se repitió dos veces en diferentes fechas, y se puso especial interés en las líneas en que se postuló inicialmente el gene Lr13. En los Cuadros 2 y 3 se presentan los tipos de infección de uno de los ensayos, ya que no se encontró variación significativa entre ambos. La presencia de los genes de resistencia (genes Lr) a la roya de la hoja en los diferentes genotipos, se postuló mediante comparación de los tipos de infección que expresaron los genotipos con el tipo de infección de los genes Lr en las diferenciales (Singh y Rajaram, 1991). Pruebas de campo. Los 48 genotipos se sembraron bajo condiciones de campo en un surco doble de 2 m de longitud sin diseño experimental y sin repeticiones, en terrenos del bloque 810 en el Valle del Yaqui, Sonora, y se inocularon separadamente con las razas TBD/TM, TCB/TD y MCJ/SP en el ciclo otoño-invierno 1994-95. También, los genotipos se inocularon con una mezcla de razas fisiológicas que incluyó las tres anteriores en dos diferentes fechas. Además de las líneas en evaluación, la variedad susceptible Morocco se sembró en golpe en las calles alternas, para luego inocularse. La inoculación se realizó preparando una suspensión de urediniosporas con cada una de las tres razas antes indicadas en aceite mineral (Soltrol 170 ), y asperjada con un atomizador manual durante la etapa de embuche. Las evaluaciones de severidad de la roya de la hoja se realizaron siguiendo la escala modificada de Cobb que va de 0 a 100% (Peterson et al., 1948).Pruebas en plántula en invernadero. Entre los 50 genes designados que confieren resistencia a roya de la hoja (McIntosh et al., 1995(McIntosh et al., , 1998)), sólo se identificaron 12 en estado de plántula: Lr1, Lr3, Lr9, Lr10, Lr13, Lr14a, Lr16, Lr19, Lr23, Lr24, Lr26 y Lr27+Lr31, solos o en combinación, en los 48 genotipos evaluados (Cuadro 4). De los genes indicados, sólamente Lr9, Lr19 y Lr24 continúan siendo efectivos en el Noroeste de México; sin embargo, se considera que su resistencia no durará mucho tiempo en esta región, ya que se reporta que existe virulencia para Lr24 en los estados de Coahuila, Tamaulipas y Nuevo León, así como virulencia para Lr19 en el centro del país (Huerta y Singh, 1994). En 21 genotipos se postuló sólo un gene de resistencia en plántula: Lr3, Lr9, Lr13, Lr16, Lr19, Lr23, Lr24 o Lr26. En 16 genotipos se postuló la combinación de dos genes de resistencia; las entradas 29, 39 y 40 presentaron la combinación Lr1+Lr13; la 1 y 42 combinaron a Lr16+Lr26 Cuadro 2. Tipos de reacción x de diferentes líneas isogénicas de trigo (Triticum aestivum) usadas como probadores en respuesta a la inoculación de 18 razas fisiológicas de la roya (Puccinia triticina) de la hoja. R a z a f i s i o l ó g i c a  z Gatcher también tiene el gene Lr10 por eso tiene un tipo de reacción \";\" con la raza TCB/TD.(en los genotipos Luan y Arivechi M92, respectivamente), en la 33 y 35 se postuló a Lr23 y Lr26; las combinaciones Lr10 con Lr13, Lr3 con Lr16 y Lr13 con Lr23 se postularon en una sola entrada, respectivamente. Se postularon las combinaciones Lr13 con Lr26 en la entrada 30, Lr26 más un gene no identificado, pero inefectivo a la raza MCJ/SP (varias entradas, Cuadros 3 y 4), además de Lr26 un gen distinto al anterior en el genotipo VEE/PJN (entrada 5). Los genes complementarios Lr27+Lr31 fueron postulados en Baviácora M92 (entrada 44) y en la entrada 26; este par de genes, cuando están separados no expresan un fenotipo definido; sin embargo, cuando se manifiestan juntos, el tipo de infección \"X\" o mesotético es típico en ausencia de otros genes, y cuando el patógeno es avirulento a esta combinación. Siete combinaciones de tres genes presentes en plántula se postularon como sigue: Lr1 con Lr10 y Lr13 (entrada 36), Lr1 con Lr23 y Lr26 (entradas 31 y 35, aunque la 35 fue heterocigótica para Lr1), Lr10 con Lr14a y Lr23 (entrada 3), Cuadro 3. Tipos de reacción z de 48 genotipos de trigo (Triticum aestivum) en respuesta a la inoculación de 18 razas fisiológicas de roya (Puccinia triticina) de la hoja. R a z a f i s i o l ó g i c aCuadro 4. Reacción de 48 genotipos de trigo harinero (Triticum aestivum) en plántula y y planta adulta z , a tres razas de la roya (Puccinia triticina) de la hoja y postulación de genes de resistencia. Escala 0-4 (Roelfs et al., 1992):0\" ;\",1, 2, X = Resistente; 3 y 4 = Susceptible; +, ó -indican la variación en el tipo de infección; C = clorosis. i = Número de genes de efecto aditivo adicionales, i = uno, ii = dos, etc.z Escala modificado de Cobb (Peterson et al., 1948). Tiene dos componentes % de infección y respuesta de la planta (S = susceptible, MS = moderadamente susceptible, MSS = combinación de ambos).Lr10 con Lr13 y Lr26 (entrada 10), Lr10 con Lr23 y Lr26 (entrada 48), Lr13 con Lr23 y Lr26 (entradas 8, 9 y 18), y Lr26 con Lr27 y Lr31 (entrada 44). Sólamente en la entrada 7 se pudo postular la presencia de más de tres genes (Lr3 con Lr10, Lr23 y Lr26). Los genes de resistencia a roya de la hoja en genotipos de trigo se postulan mediante la comparación de la respuesta de resistencia o susceptibilidad que expresan a las diferentes razas del patógeno, y cuando se comparan con las diferenciales que poseen los genes designados (McIntosh et al., 1995), por lo tanto, lo más importante no es el número de razas usadas en el estudio, sino el número de genes designados y el número de diferentes combinaciones de resistencia que se puedan postular. La presencia del gene Lr1 se puede postular comparando su respuesta en las diferenciales a las razas MCJ/SP y CCJ/SP, las cuales son casi isogénicas para este gen (Cuadro 2). Si el genotipo es resistente a CCJ/SP pero susceptible a MCJ/SP, entonces el gene postulado o responsable del tipo de infección es Lr1, como es el caso de las entradas 29, 32, 36 y 39 (Cuadro 3). De la misma manera, Lr3 se puede postular en los genotipos BOW/CROW (entrada 4) y Maviri F99 (MYNA/ VUL//PRL, entrada 16) al mostrar resistencia a las razas que son avirulentas a este gene, y por la respuesta del probador (Lr3) a las diferentes razas (Cuadro 2). En la entrada 11 se postuló el gen Lr9. Por el análisis de los progenitores implicados en la cruza, en este caso se encontró RL6010 (Roelfs et al., 1992;McIntosh et al., 1995) en la cruza, lo que permite postular la presencia de Lr9. La presencia o ausencia de Lr10 se determina por la reacción a la raza TCB/ TD, entre otras; su tipo de infección es \";\". Por otra parte, Lr13 aunque es efectivo sólo en planta adulta (McIntosh et al., 1995), se puede detectar en plántula por su tipo de infección \"X\" en la segunda hoja y a temperaturas mayores de 24°C con las razas BBB/BN, LBJ/BL, LCJ/BN, NBJ/GL y NCJ/BN (Cuadro 2). Lr13 se postuló en forma individual en las entradas 2, 24, 37, 38 y 46 (Cuadro 4). La presencia del gene Lr14a en el presente estudio, se pudo detectar con la raza BBB/BN que es típica de trigos duros (Triticum turgidum var. durum L.), aunque otra opción es usar las razas BBB/BB y BBG/BN (Herrera-Foessel et al., 2003) . Lr16 tiene un tipo de infección típico de \"1\" ó \"1+\" en ausencia de virulencia (McIntosh et al., 1995); las entradas 19 y 20 aparentemente poseen este gene en forma individual, porque el tipo de infección es similar al mostrado por las 17 razas avirulentas a este gene, al mismo que sólo MGB/SM es virulento. Lr19 confiere resistencia a las razas usadas en este estudio, por lo que este gene puede ser postulado en Oasis F86 (entrada 45), ya que mostró casi inmunidad (Cuadro 3). Este gene se hereda de su progenitor Agatha, reportado por McIntosh et al. (1995). Huerta y Singh (1994) indican que la presencia de la raza CBJ/QQ es capaz de vencer la resistencia de Lr19 (de Oasis F86), sin embargo, combinado con Lr1 y Lr34 sería suficiente para mantener la resistencia en contra de las razas que existen en México. La postulación del gene Lr24 inicialmente se esperaría estuviese presente en los genotipos correspondientes a las entradas 23, 24 y 25 derivadas del progenitor TAM 200 que lo posee (McIntosh et al., 1995). De las 18 razas probadas en el presente estudio, sólo MFB/SP es virulenta al gene Lr24; entonces, por el tipo de infección en las entradas 23 y 25 es posible postular que poseen este gene en forma individual. El gene Lr26, presente en la translocación 1BL.1RS, fue postulado en la variedad Bacanora T88 (entrada 43) actuando de manera individual en estado de plántula (Cuadro 4). Este gene confiere resistencia a la raza TBD/TM que fue muy común en México hasta 1994 (Huerta-Espino y Singh, 1996); sin embargo, Lr26 no es efectivo en contra de las razas TCB/TB y TCB/TD. Actualmente existen razas casi isogénicas para virulencia a Lr26 como MCJ/SP y MBJ/SP que permiten identificar la presencia o ausencia de este gene en forma más rápida (Villaseñor, 2001). Los genes complementarios Lr27 y Lr31 fueron postulados en la variedad Baviácora M92. Estos genes en ausencia de virulencia confieren un tipo de infección \"X\"; el probador Gatcher (Cuadro 2) puede poseer el gene Lr10, por lo que si la raza es avirulenta para este gene, será difícil hacer la postulación. Sin embargo, las razas LCJ/BN, NCJ/ BN y CBJ/QL, que son virulentas a Lr10, permiten identificar y postular la combinación Lr27 y Lr31. Baviácora fue heterogénea para Lr26, pero mediante la selección de espigas se identificaron aquéllas que no poseen Lr26, y como Lr10 no está presente en esta variedad, Baviácora M92 puede ser un mejor probador o diferencial para los genes complementarios Lr27+Lr31 (Cuadros 3 y 4). Las combinaciones de genes o la presencia de más de uno en un determinado genotipo, se postuló usando el principio de que el tipo de infección que se expresa es el de la acción génica de mayor efecto; esto es cuando existe más de un gene, el de mayor efecto es epistático al de efecto menor: el tipo de infección que se observa es el que proporciona mayor nivel de resistencia en la escala de 0 a 4 siendo 0 >; > 1 > 2, etc.Por ejemplo, el tipo de infección para Lr26 es \";\" a la raza TBD/TM, por lo tanto si un genotipo dado posee este gene será resistente a esta raza, con el mismo tipo de infección \";\". Si además de este gene, el genotipo posee Lr16, entonces el tipo de infección del mismo genotipo cuando se inocula con la raza TCB/TD, que es virulenta a Lr26, será 1 ó 1+, y así sucesivamente se puede postular la presencia de varios genes, siempre y cuando las razas sean virulentas a algunos genotipos pero avirulentas a otros. Los requisitos para la postulación efectiva y confiable de genes, son el grado de homocigosis o de pureza de los genotipos en cuestión, así como la pureza de los aislamientos de las diferentes razas.  (Camacho-Casas et al., 2002) variedad para el sur de Sonora, sobresaliendo por su alto potencial de rendimiento y por su resistencia al desarrollo lento de la roya de la hoja.Se postuló la presencia de 12 genes en estado de plántula, de los 50 identificados y catalogados, observándose fenotipos asociados a su presencia solos o hasta en 28 combinaciones distintas que aglutinan hasta cuatro genes diferentes. En planta adulta se postuló la presencia de los genes Lr34 y Lr46 solos o en combinación cada uno con hasta tres genes menores de efectos aditivos, así como la presencia de hasta cuatro genes menores diferentes que manifestaron niveles de resistencia altos, y que no se asociaron con los dos genes ya designados Lr34 y Lr46. De confirmarse la presencia del grupo de genes mayores y genes menores de efectos aditivos que se postularon en el germoplasma élite, se dispone de una base genética suficiente para que a través de mejoramiento genético se conjunten para lograr resistencia de desarrollo lento de la roya de la hoja en las nuevas variedades, como es el caso de Maviri F99 y Tacupeto F2001. ","tokenCount":"4008"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a42b1fa78e5a1a058bd5254dc41f944b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/83a1c0a1-7120-407c-959a-ab4ceef8a355/retrieve","id":"-1214225737"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4656ea3a-0b26-4ae0-b614-e99749c4e65b","pagecount":"19","content":"Between July and September 2019, Marchmont Communications carried out a series of interviews with 15 funders of livestock initiatives for global development, in order to understand their current and future funding as well as the underlying perceptions guiding this decision-making.The aim of this exercise was to identify which aspects of livestock for global development were more or less important to funders, as well as any underlying perceptions or emerging insights that might shape future funding cycles.There was overwhelming consensus that livestock was inadequately funded. However, the main priority issues divided respondents.Several investors identified climate change and the environment and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) as primary areas of funding focus. Respondents highlighted climate/environment as the most contentious for livestock, as well as a cross-cutting theme where more research was needed. Livestock's environmental impact was discussed by several investors as a funding priority for next year, with some suggesting that 2020 may be a crucial year to \"get it right\" if the sector's funding levels are to continue.Another consistent theme was gender empowerment and youth. Investors agreed more livestock interventions should be funded as a vehicle for empowering these two groups, yet it was often overlooked. Some investors mentioned that livestock empowered youth by providing a means of employment, therefore merited more focus.On certain key issues, investors flagged that the public dialogue was shaping their views, not the other way around. This came up, for instance, during discussions around animal health, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and climate/environment, where investors noted that public perceptions of the sector were impacting funding levels. African investors, more than bilateral organisations, also noted that livestock was not sufficiently differentiated between developing and developed countries in media and public perception.Finally, most respondents agreed that the livestock sector needed to \"make its case\" both by generating more and better evidence but also by disseminating it more effectively. This would provide the data needed to help shape and control public perceptions and better manage the narrative around the role of livestock. They noted that this had to be done in ways that the general public could more easily understand. On average, investors ranked livestock as equal to other areas when asked how central livestock was to their activities on a scale of one to five (3.2). There were few areas related to livestock that were expressly excluded but some mentioned commercial and intensive systems. Investor perceptions of livestock's positive contribution varied. Nutrition had the highest rating, with respondents particularly noting the positive contribution to the first 1,000 days and to women and children. On the other hand, climate and the environment had the lowest rating, shaped by concerns over emissions and uncertainty around livestock's role in mitigation. This section explored investor perception of livestock as it relates to: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, being adequately funded, overlooked thematic areas, cross-cutting issues and whether it is sufficiently differentiated in the developed and developing world.Investors generally saw livestock as relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals, noting its links to several of them and giving it an average of 4.2 on a scale of one to five, yet 100 per cent of respondents said that livestock initiatives were not adequately funded to achieve its development potential.The multi-functional nature of livestock is not just about producing animal-source food, it's about livelihoods, etc.\"Climate change emerged as the most common cross-cutting issue and also one commonly overlooked in development funding. Investors felt more funding was needed, particularly in the coming years, as the climate crisis unfolds further.Investors were divided over whether livestock was sufficiently differentiated between developing and developed countries. Respondents from bilateral organisations argued this distinction was made while respondents from African investors asserted it was not sufficiently differentiated in media and public perceptions. Investors were asked about their future funding priorities, cycles and emerging themes. Funding cycles typically fell in five to 10-year cycles, and were dependent on government or global trends. The primary new themes emerging were climate change and the environment, and antimicrobial resistance.\"We're going to pay more and more attention on ensuring animal welfare, antimicrobial resistance, carbon neutral impacts are elements of investment project designs.\"Respondents were asked about the most influential sources of information and events for livestock for development, as well as how to better advocate for funding in the sector.Most influential events for livestock agenda How could the sector advocate for better funding? Respondents were asked to rate \"How central livestock is to their organisation's funding activities?\" on a scale of one to five where: 1 = not at all; 2 = a little; 3 = equal to other activities; 4 = fairly; 5 = very central; (Don't Know).The average rating was \"3.2\", indicating that it was equal to other to activities. African organisations, followed closely by multilaterals, considered livestock as more central to their activities than bilateral organisations.Most investors supported many of the same interventions and likewise, most excluded similar interventions from consideration, such as intensive production systems, genetics and breeding from consideration.Are there any areas excluded from consideration?• Strengthening animal health Ratings were based on the following: 1 = not at all; 2 = a little; 3= neutral; 4 = fairly; 5 = very important; (Don't Know). In this case, livestock's contribution to nutrition had the most positive perception with nine respondents rating it \"5\" whilst livestock's contribution to climate change and the environment had the least, with several ratings of \"3\" or less. African organisations considered livestock's contribution to economic opportunity, health and nutrition as higher than climate change or gender empowerment. Bilateral organisations ratings most closely reflected the average, whilst multilateral organisations had the lowest rating for health. Investors were asked \"Which thematic areas are overlooked?\" and \"Which crosscutting issues need to be addressed?\" Several answers emerged in both, including climate change and the environment, gender empowerment, animal health and pastoralists.Which thematic areas are overlooked? Cross-cutting issues needing to be addressed?• Rural areas neglected This section explored potential areas of future support for funding livestock, including typical funding cycles, emerging themes, key sources of information and influential events. Funding cycles typically fell into three to four-year or five to 10-year cycles, based on global trends and government policies. Similar themes emerged, with antimicrobial resistance and climate change among them. Most investors sourced their information from ILRI or other NGO research papers, whilst events like GASL and UNGA were important in shaping the livestock agenda.Overall, the most popular answer was \"evidence generation.\" Respondents believed finding and building the evidence needed to advocate for better funding was essential, and many answered that this could focus on livestock's role in mitigation.There was little divergence amongst the investors when it came to advocacy options, with \"evidence generation\" the most popular answer amongst all organisations. Section 5 -Additional InformationIs there anything else that you would like to add that has not already been covered?","tokenCount":"1132"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78d654b73d62321cba89aabce2870df3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/66036390-f41f-4d04-9443-d70e3246a88a/content","id":"-760526024"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"efc278dc-138d-4949-91eb-1d1065bc310f","pagecount":"3","content":"This progress report builds on the report for 2022, in which the background and the objectives of this study have been described in more detail. In brief, the purpose of this study is to determine whether radar (Sentinel-1) and optical (Sentinel-2) satellite data can be used to detect residue management and whether a field was under conventional, minimal, or no tillage. The study also aims at estimating biomass production, which is an indicator of carbon sequestration by the roots. The study site is located in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The insitu data, which consist of detailed logs on land preparation and crop management, had been collected by the CIMMYT led MasAgro Guanajuato project, which is financed by the state of Guanajuato. CIMMYT operates an innovation hub that investigates, validates, demonstrates and promotes conservation agriculture, amongst other sustainable practices.The main activity in 2023 was focused on identifying satellite data based indices which can detect residues and tillage operations. Having such indices in place would greatly facilitate the development of a simple monitoring system, which requires no or few in-situ data for training.Various tillage and residue detection indices were tested using the 2021 data. These indices had been described in various studies (Beeson et al., 2020;Bégué et al., 2018;Ding et al., 2020;McNairn et al., 1993;Wang et al., 2024;Zhou et al., 2021). They are listed in Table 1. Sentinel-2 band based formulaThese indices work well when they are tested against field observations that were sampled at the same time. In our study, however, we have information on crop management over an entire year. The Guanajuato region is especially challenging since some farmers grow an irrigated crop during the winter season, whereas others leave their fields fallow. Irrigation gives them flexibility in terms of the timing of land preparation. In addition, they use a wide range of land preparation methods. Some farmers practice a partial removal of residues, which, combined with different land preparation methods, such as reshaping of the permanent beds or furrows, or use of different harrows, etc, can result in various degrees of soil roughness and burying of residues. Some of the tested indices could detect trends, but none of them were consistent. Rainfall, as well as irrigation also distort the satellite signals (Begué at al., 2018). For these reasons, different approaches need to be tested in 2024.Most successful remote sensing applications for tillage detection and residue management rely on survey data (Bhargava et al., 2018;Zhou et al., 2021;Wang et al., 2024), which directly record the field conditions (and not the date and type of farm operation). It is therefore recommended that we conduct field surveys at bi-monthly intervals. These data can then be used to train machine learning based algorithms, which have been implemented in the so called Sen4CAP software system. Detailed information on the system can be found at: http://esa-sen4cap.org and at http://esa-sen4cap.org/sites/default/files/01_Sen4CAP_TrainingforBeginners_SystemOverview.pdf This approach will then enable us to classify the satellite images directly and determine residue cover.","tokenCount":"491"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0555df9a8b898b248c8b2dfafeac7fc2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eab761c9-1f13-4ce6-a707-f5b591ac3f4f/retrieve","id":"261549584"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6f6e96fc-72b6-4113-963a-acff966a4a79","pagecount":"14","content":"• The relationship between agricultural credit and agricultural production as well as the impacts on sustainable development (i.e., poverty alleviation, reduction of inequalities, food and nutrition security, and stimulation of economic growth) (Lozano, 2009;Echavarría et al., 2018). • Producers who have access to formal credit are, for example, better situated regarding quality of life, productive capacity, social status, and some covariates of poverty (Goldberg, 2005;Chen, 2025;Benti, 2019). • One of main limitations for rural development is access to formal credit, developing countries need alternatives for improving financial inclusion within rural populations (Kraay & McKenzie, 2014;Okamoto et al., 2021) . • Most formal credits involve high transaction costs, information asymmetries, high interest rates, and numerous formal requirements (e.g., collateral) (Boucher et al., 2009;Hazari et al., 2025;Carrer et al., 2020). • Finagro and Agricultural Bank are two key actors in agricultural credit in Colombia. Around 75% of agricultural credits have been granted through FINAGRO (Estrada et al, 2016, Echavarría et al., 2028).Cattle farming is among the most important activities within the agricultural sector in Colombia (Fedegan, 2023):• Contributes 1.4% of the national, 21.8% of the agricultural, and 48.7% of the livestock GDP of the country.• Generates around 1.1 million direct jobs.• About 23 million hectares of land are used for pastures and forage production and the transformation of native landscapes and forests into pastures generates impacts on the different ecosystems of the country.• The cattle sector is held responsible for approximately 60% of the country's deforestation.Sustainable intensification increase cattle production and mitigate negative environmental externalities, promoting ecosystem services and environmental benefits (Flórez et al. 2023; Sandoval et al. 2023).Agricultural credit could promote sustainable intensification.Objective: Analyze the impact of credit on cattle production and deforestation in Colombia through spatial panel data models.In addition, by using spatial panel data models, the study analyzes if spatial effects of credit distribution come along with spillover effects on the cattle herd and deforestation.Contributes to two major political debates currently on-going in Colombia,• How to sustainably intensify cattle production systems considering a constantly increasing demand for animalsourced foods and the negative impacts of cattle production on the environment. • How to reduce deforestation rates and contribute to ecological conservation of fragile and threatened ecosystems, such as the Amazon.• Departmental data panel was constructed for the period 2011-2020.• Two dependent variables are proposed:• Cattle herd size as indicator for cattle production and• Deforestation rate at a specific moment in time.• Independent and control variables• Access to credit: The total amounts and values of credits disbursed by FINAGRO by department are considered, both in terms of overall agricultural credits and credits specifically granted to the cattle sector.• Land use: The use of agricultural land is defined as the use of suitable land for a wide variety of crops due to its favorable conditions such as temperature, soil PH, fertility, and texture, among other factors.• Coca: The number of hectares planted with coca at the departmental level are considered to observe the relationship of illicit crops with deforestation and cattle production.• Sociodemographic control variable: The percentage of rurality is considered as a control variable.• spatial panel data modelsto credit and cattle production, considering that our individuals (n) are the 32 Colombian departments, the appropriate specification is Fixed Effects (FE). • To modeling the annual deforestation rate, the appropriate specification is Random Effects (RE) (Hausman test). • To model spatial interdependencies, we use weight matrix or contiguity matrix (W), which is made up of 1 and 0 and shows the contiguity between two geographic units by having at least one limit in common.• Cattle production has a negative and significant effect on the annual departmental deforestation rates, meaning that if the cattle herd increases and more land is used for cattle production, deforestation rates also increase.• Cattle credit does not seem to cause greater changes in deforestation levels caused by this activity.• Deforestation could be explained by external phenomena not taken into account in this work, such us the peace process, the limitations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic or the change of land use for the land appropriation.• Both an increase in the number of credits placed in a department as well as in the credit values destined to the cattle sector also increase cattle production in the same department.• The study further provides evidence on the negative effect of cattle production on deforestation rates but also highlights that cattle production is not the only cause of it.• Strategies aimed at expanding the coverage of credits, i.e., in (remote) rural areas, is recommended and could be achieved, e.g., through increasing the number of bank branches in the peripherical departments.• The exploration of alternative strategies, such as alliances with local microcredit institutions, financial cooperatives, and municipal administrations, is recommended to expand the coverage of Agricultural Bank credits in remote regions.The credits can effectively reach those who need them most and are no more concentrated mostly among large producers from the interior of the country• The expansion of cattle credit should be linked to pre-conditions that help assuring a sustainable growth of the sector and ecological conservation.• It is thus recommended that prior to granting credit, a verification of no deforestation in the registered properties is assured.• It is also recommended that the reduction of negative environmental impacts of cattle production is incentivized through the access to specific credit lines for sustainable intensification.• You can consult our study in njp Climate Action journal https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-024-00107-3Establishment of silvo-pastoral system and improved pastures which comprise reduced interest rates that are dependent on the compliance with environmental criteria.","tokenCount":"920"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6f344ec6e653514d87a164ee4f811aac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c03cae99-cc10-40e8-b7c5-f8ddd93828ec/retrieve","id":"-1233463291"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eaf6c0a6-4eb8-4513-829a-b90db3b6c211","pagecount":"16","content":"Depuis le milieu des années 1990, le CTA s'investit activement dans la promotion et les essais pilotes de systèmes d'information du marché (SIM) 1 et de bourses agricoles (BA) 2 aux niveaux local, national et régional en Afrique, dans les Caraïbes et le Pacifique (ACP). Les résultats de ses interventions ont été analysés dans le cadre de consultations d'experts en octobre 2000 et novembre 2001. Le CTA appuie également une série d'activités de formation et diffuse l'information au travers de systèmes électroniques de partage des connaissances et de publications. Les parties prenantes ont néanmoins rappelé la nécessité d'offrir des informations plus utiles aux paysans et aux négociants des zones rurales. De même, les investissements pour développer de nouveaux points de vente (par exemple, les ventes aux enchères, les bourses agricoles) ont permis de tester de nouvelles idées avec de bons résultats, mais ces points de vente restent en fait inaccessibles à certains paysans (par exemple, ceux mal organisés sur le plan marketing ou incapables d'approvisionner les marchés formels en produits de qualité suffisante).La consultation d'experts sur les systèmes d'information du marché et les bourses agricoles : « renforcer les signaux et les institutions de marché » a été organisée pour se pencher sur les investissements du CTA dans les SIM et les BA, de façon à identifier les systèmes donnant les meilleurs résultats, les conditions permettant leur bon fonctionnement et, leur utilisation par les organisations paysannes, les commerçants et d'autres partenaires du développement. L'objectif de cette consultation était donc d'identifier les facteurs clés de succès, et de discuter les nouvelles possibilités de renforcer les signaux du marché et de mieux comprendre les conditions nécessaires assurant aux petits exploitants un accès plus durable et plus rémunérateur aux marchés.Les principales questions abordées lors de la consultation :L'ordre : Est-il important de respecter un ordre dans l'élaboration et la mise en place d'un système de marketing efficace ?Les conditions : Existe-t-il des conditions préalables nécessaires pour que ces stratégies, outils et institutions puissent soutenir les petits exploitants ?Le contexte : Comment adapter les outils et les stratégies de marketing pour assurer leur fonctionnement efficace dans les différents pays ACP ?Le leadership (et l'appropriation) : Qui devrait mettre en place ces outils et ces stratégies? Comment les financer ?Les liens : Faut-il introduire ces outils, stratégies et institutions séparément ou conjointement pour assurer une plus grande efficacité ?Les priorités : Quels investissements pour le CTA, en particulier au niveau de la recherche et du développement (R&D) ?Un groupe de travail électronique s'est constitué, réunissant les participants à la consultation et d'autres partenaires sélectionnés pour présenter les thèmes et instaurer un forum de partage des informations sur les sujets à débattre. Le groupe de travail électronique était animé par un noyau d'experts ; il a démarré fin octobre 2005 et a duré 3 semaines. Un des animateurs était chargé de rédiger un résumé hebdomadaire. L'objectif de ce groupe de travail électronique était de permettre aux participants de poser des questions et de réagir aux idées exprimées sur les institutions de marketing, afin de tirer une leçon des expériences passées et de proposer de nouvelles perspectives. La question principale portait sur la façon dont les petits exploitants des pays ACP peuvent profiter des opportunités offertes par la libéralisation des marchés agricoles. Le groupe de travail électronique a identifié les questions importantes devant être débattues en cours de réunion (voir Introduction -Objectifs et attentes ci-dessus).  ","tokenCount":"568"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9af970310af13d463d6916721c02468a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49a8e4b7-2876-40ee-8dfc-9063d0f1adac/retrieve","id":"153822817"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c63fcb57-9912-4d5c-823a-2ad570146802","pagecount":"40","content":"Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) in partnership with the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative of the One CGIAR designed and delivered a customized course on developing gender-and youth-responsive agronomic solutions to Use Case teams and demand partners. The 5-day course took place from 27 th February to 3 rd March 2023 at the Grand Legacy Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. It was attended by 23 participants (8 women, 15 men) drawn from 13 Use Cases, ten countries, and three continents.The course aimed at enhancing the capacity of Use Case teams and partners to integrate gender and youth considerations in their workflows for more equitable and sustainable agronomic outcomes. The content spanned five thematic areas, namely, gender concepts and why gender and youth inclusion matters in agronomy innovations; frameworks for gender and youth integration in the EiA workflow; gender and social analysis; the EiA Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for gender and youth integration; targeting women, youth and gender-responsive scaling.This report presents an evaluation of the course based on trainers' reflections and data collected from participants before, during, and after the course. A pre-course knowledge assessment survey established participants' prior knowledge levels on core areas addressed by the course, and these were compared with post-training scores to measure any changes in knowledge. During the course, both trainers and participants conducted daily reflections on the process for continuous improvement. At the end of the course, an online survey (n=23) was conducted to get feedback on participants' perceptions about the effect of the course on their technical competencies, satisfaction with the planning, delivery approach, course content, sessions, logistics as well as the duration of the course. In-depth qualitative feedback was sought from key informant interviews with five participants (two agronomists and three social scientists, two women, and three men from Africa, Asia, and Latin America) within one month after the course.Overall, course participants rated the training highly on the set indicators.• Most participants reported satisfaction with all technical aspects of the course (i.e, course content, training materials, disciplinary balance of sessions, assignments), at weighted average scores above 3.5 out of a possible maximum of 4.• All participants expressed satisfaction with the trainers' technical competence and delivery methods at an average rating of 3.83 out of 4.• Participants were generally satisfied with the individual course sessions (average scores above 3.5). Discipline disaggregated data reveals no significant variations in the proportions of biophysical and social scientists who were extremely satisfied with the trainers' competency and delivery methods.• Overall, eight in every ten participants (78 percent) reported that the training was entirely worth the time and costs they invested in participating, while 13 percent and 9 percent noted that it was worth to a moderate and limited extent respectively. Social scientists (83 percent) were more likely to find the training entirely worth their time and costs than their biophysical counterparts (73 percent).• Participants reported increased proficiencies across all competence areas after the training course.• All participants were likely to recommend the course to their colleagues (weighted average score of 4.87 out of 5).Participants applauded the participatory adult learning training approach, which created a relaxed, comfortable, fun learning environment and facilitated bonding among participants and trainers. The selection of participants, course duration, content, and sequencing of sessions were highly rated by participants and trainers.We conclude that the course effectively enhanced knowledge and comprehension of gender concepts and approaches for integrating gender and youth issues in agronomy innovation design. There is ample evidence of a positive change in attitude toward an appreciation of the value of gender-and youth-responsive agronomy innovation design. However, skills in collection, analysis, and interpretation of gender and youth issues diagnostic data; as well as gender transformative approaches and gender responsive scaling require further capacity building.For further improvement in course content, participants recommended including practical tips on stakeholder engagement and how to conduct interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data before the field exercise on collecting diagnostic gender and youthresponsive data. There should be more content on youth inclusion to balance with the current proportionately greater emphasis on gender. More time should be devoted to guiding participants on how to integrate gender and youth responsiveness in the Use Cases with the use of case studies.Participants' aspirations and action plans indicate a substantial likelihood of post-training application of learning. However, this is likely to be contingent on the endorsement of action plans by Use Case leads, availability of adequate budget support, and technical support by gender experts. It is important that EiA puts in place mechanisms to provide post-training technical support to ensure the application of the action plans developed.The course created a sense of community amongst the participants. This could be strengthened and leveraged as a support system for continuous peer-to-peer sharing of information and experiences, collaboration and troubleshooting of issues to enhance application. EiA could integrate this community of practice into the One-Stop Shop for Agronomic Solutions currently under development.The Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project and Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative of the OneCGIAR organized a 5-day customized training course for Use Case teams and their demand partners to enhance their capacity to integrate gender and youth considerations in their workflows for more equitable and sustainable agronomic outcomes. The course was held at the Grand Legacy Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda from 27 th February to 3rd March 2023.Specifically, the course intended to equip participants with:i) Increased ability to articulate the concepts and principles of gender-responsive agronomy innovation design and scaling ii) Demonstrated positive attitude and appreciation of the value of gender-responsive agronomy innovation design iii) Demonstrated comprehension of approaches and entry points for gender and youth integration in agronomy innovations design and scaling iv) Enhanced knowledge and skills on how to collect, analyze and interpret data from gender diagnostic studies to inform agronomy solutions v) Enhanced capacity to conceptualize and implement gender transformative practices in agronomy innovations design, piloting, and scaling vi) Action plan for integration of gender and youth considerations in EiA work packages formulated EiA aims at developing and delivering locally relevant agronomic solutions at scale based on demand. Such demand is then formulated and operationalized around Use Cases. The overall goal is the sustainable intensification and climate change adaptation (and mitigation) of smallholder farming systems. The Initiative taps into existing innovations and expertise within the CGIAR and other innovation systems and matches them with proven demand from scaling partners in the private, public, and NGO sectors to develop Use Cases. EiA follows the innovation logic i.e., moving from an idea to developing a concept, testing or experimenting with the concept, and running pilots, which if successful lead to scaling activities.GREAT through Makerere University and EiA through the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), entered into a collaboration to develop sequenced gender research and youth inclusion training courses for Use Case teams and their partners.The purpose is to build the capacity to carry out gender and youth-responsive diagnostic studies to integrate gender youth issues at different stages of their workflows when designing, validating, and piloting agronomic solutions. The course was designed based on a training needs assessment of the Use Case teams and partners that identified their gender and youth research capacities and needs.The plan is for EiA to provide follow-on field-based support to Use Case teams during critical steps of their workflows to enable them to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in this course. For example, during the development stages of a particular MVP (steps 1 to 4) to ensure the agronomic solution being developed is responsive to the practical needs of women, men, and youth, or during validation (step 5) to engage diverse user groups for feedback on the technical and architectural but also social and economic aspects of the tool using appropriate approaches, or during piloting (step 6) to help activate feedback loops with farmers, farmer groups and other users of the tool. EiA and GREAT will document the learning by these teams and partners to understand the training courses' contribution to EiA's ability to develop, validate, pilot, and scale gender and youth-responsive solutions and transformative approaches in diverse contexts.GREAT is a gender and agriculture capacity-building program jointly implemented by Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. During the first five years (2016 -2020) and the bridge phase implemented in partnership with the CGIAR GENDER platform (2021 -2022), GREAT tested and refined a capacity-building approach targeting researchers working in plant breeding and seed systems programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. GREAT training programs typically bring together biophysical scientists and social scientists to learn how to holistically incorporate gender issues into every phase of the plant breeding cycle along the design, implementation, evaluation, and communication pathway. This conventional GREAT training model initially developed and tested with plant breeding and seed systems was adapted to agronomy in this course.The course participants were 23 (8 women, 15 men) working on 13 Use Cases from 10 countries in three continents-Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Most participants had post-graduate qualifications (65 percent had master's degrees, 17 percent had doctoral degrees), and 17 percent had graduate degrees. The majority (52 percent) were between 25 and 34 years, 39 percent were between 35 and 44, and nine percent were between 45 and 55 years. Their disciplines were categorized into biophysical and social scientists in box 1 below.  The participants were from 14 organizations, mostly from the CGIAR (69.5 percent). The non-CGIAR participants were from the National Agricultural Research System (13 percent), followed by International Non-Governmental Organizations and the private sector at 8.6 percent each.  The course adopted a participatory approach to training and learning. A variety of adult learning facilitation techniques were used. These included interactive lectures, individual and team reflection exercises, interactive role plays, case study presentations, question and answer, and plenary discussions. These were interspersed with energizers to keep the participants actively engaged throughout the course. Participants responded positively to the training methodology and by the third day, they were leading energizers drawn from their cultures. This contributed to the fun, bonding, and comfortable learning environment. Through the exercises, participants generated outputs on gaps in their EiA Use Cases and what they plan to do differently after the course to ensure gender and youth responsiveness. The pictures below illustrate some of the delivery methods used. Trainers systematically guided participants to reflect on their ongoing Use Case work, identify gaps in gender-and youthresponsiveness, and entry points for gender and youth integration. Progressively, the participants' critique of their own and fellow participants' research work demonstrated that valuable learning was taking place. Participants also showed interest and appreciation of the learning through enthusiastic reactions to the presentations and active exercise engagement.The majority of the participants reported that most activities in their agronomy programs were neither gender nor youthresponsive. As part of the changes to their Use Case workflows, participants were tasked to generate a list of realistic, concrete action items; assign responsibilities, and indicate timelines for implementation. Out of the thirteen Use Cases, only the following five reported having gender-focal persons: ATAFI/CARI Nigeria, Sasakawa Nigeria, Ghana GAIP, Data management (Mexico, Colombia, Peru), and Planting dates India. Regarding the stage of the EiA workflow, eight were on pilot/validation, while five were on the design/adjustment of the MPV. One team had completed the gender and youth diagnostic study and was on the stage of validation of the gender-and youth-responsive MVP (India). Two Use Case teams from Ethiopia were doing diagnostic work, while nine were yet to start on the diagnostic work (Step 1). See the EiA Workflow in Figure 5 below. In the action plans, none of the teams were sure about the budget to support gender and youth integration. However, during his closing remarks, the EiA Chief Growth Officer Mandla Nkomo assured participants that EiA leadership is committed to creating an enabling environment for gender and youth-responsive work and that funding would not be a problem.There are sufficient resources to make this happen\" Mandla saidThe EiA workflow -7 stteps Pre-course gender-related knowledge assessment survey: This survey sought to establish participants' prior knowledge levels on core areas addressed by the course. This was meant to provide a reference point for comparison with scores on subsequent data collection points to measure changes (if any), in technical competencies.During the course: On a daily basis, participants shared their key learning and provided feedback on the training process. Similarly, trainers had daily debriefs to reflect on the process and participants' feedback.Post-course evaluation: The end-of-course evaluation sought to assess self-reported changes in knowledge, skills, and competencies of the participants. The course evaluation also sought to get feedback on participants' satisfaction with aspects of the training such as planning, delivery approach, course content, sessions, logistics as well as the duration of the course.• The following four-level scale was used to assess participant satisfaction: 4=extremely satisfied, 3=satisfied, 2=partly satisfied, or 1=not satisfied at all.• The following four-level scale was used to assess proficiency in key competencies: 4=Very high proficiency, 3=high proficiency, 2= sufficient proficiency, and 1=very low proficiency.Data were collected electronically using google forms. A total of 23 participants (11 biophysical scientists and 12 social scientists; seven from non-CGIAR and 16 CGIAR affiliated) completed the post-course evaluation form, while 19 completed the pre-course evaluation. In addition, key informant interviews were conducted with five participants (two agronomists and three social scientists; two women, and three men from Africa, Asia, and Latin America). Care was taken to ensure the representation of disciplines, sex, and various regions.Descriptive statistics, including means and percentages, were used to analyze the quantitative findings from the pre and postcourse evaluation. Given the small sample size, weighted averages were computed and used to give a better representation of where the entire group fell on the Likert scale and to allow easier ranking of issues/aspects under consideration. The satisfaction and proficiency ratings were assigned scores, and the proportions of participants that gave the various ratings were then multiplied by the score to establish the weighted averages for each aspect. The proportions reporting different issues/aspects are presented together with the weighted mean in the findings section. Qualitative data captured through the open-ended questions in the post-course evaluation tool, and indepth key informant interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for themes and patterns. Findings from qualitative techniques were merged with results from quantitative data for triangulation and explanations for the convergence/divergence. Quotes were used to give voice to the participants by further illuminating their perspectives and experiences.All participants expressed satisfaction with the course content, disciplinary balance in terms of time spent and depth of coverage between agronomy-related and social sciences, the number of assignments, and course duration. (Table 2). Average rating 2.9 2.9 2.9The quote below illustrates the positive sentiments around the content. Participants applauded the course for including pertinent topics not usually part of gender training courses.\"Then really I got to see some topics that I did not anticipate such as masculinity, the frameworks of gender and youth responsiveness, ……and putting all this in context. Really, I feel that the course content was well developed and well thought through\" (KII, Man, social scientist).Regarding duration, while the majority (82 percent) indicated that the course was just the right length, some participants felt it was either a bit too short (14 percent) or too long (4 percent). Social scientists were more likely to report that the duration of the course was just the right length compared to biophysical scientists. There was a suggestion from a Social scientist that extra time could have been added to cover content on qualitative and quantitative social research methods. These sentiments are illuminated in the quote below:\"The fieldwork exercise was great, but after fieldwork, how do we do the quantitative and qualitative analysis? What next? Maybe we could have had extra time like 4 days to have the content on data analysis and I pray this is the next part of the training\" (KII, Woman, social scientist).Overall, the weighted average scores of above 3.5 out of a possible maximum of 4 for all items indicate that participants were satisfied with all technical aspects. The most highly rated aspects, namely, training course content and disciplinary balance between agronomy-related and social sciences sessions registered average scores above 3.7 out of a possible maximum of 4.(Figure 4).Average ra�ng Besides the actual content, participants appreciated the logical sequencing.\"The content was very, very well-defined. It was in stages and progressive. You understand first why you are there, you make yourself comfortable with the team, and that is very important\" (KII, Woman, social scientist)Participants assessed each session based on its content and the extent to which it added value to them and their work. Findings reveal that participants were generally satisfied with the course sessions (average scores above 3.5 out of a possible maximum of 4 for all the sessions).  The voices from the qualitative findings revealed what stood out prominently for the various participants in some sessions. Agronomists were pleased that the session on gender concepts enabled them to understand the meaning of concepts such as gender awareness, gender-responsive, equality, equity, and many others. They also understood why gender matters in agronomy.\"Sometimes honestly, I'm listening to my colleagues at work talking about gender issues in agriculture and agronomy, and I was always thinking… How can we as agronomists be interested in gender? When I came to this course I think I now understand that language a bit. Gender is very important for the transformation and performance of society. That was very clear on day one\" (KII, Man, agronomist).\"From this course, I now really understand that gender is very important in agronomy. My expectation was met because I wanted to understand all this concept of gender and I got it\" (KII, Man, agronomist).The session on masculinities was appreciated for being an eye-opener for understanding how understanding men is important in integrating gender into agronomy projects. The quote below illustrates these sentiments vividly.\"The issue of masculinity is something that I had never heard of and it is still fresh in my memory. These things happen in communities but we don't talk about them…It was my first gender training and masculinity caught my attention in the extreme, that's quite interesting. When you look back in the communities we work with, men will always want to take their position and we should know how such matters affect our work\" (KII, Man, agronomist).The exercises in the session on concepts, terminologies, and frameworks for gender integration in agricultural R&D projects where participants rated their projects on gender and youth responsiveness were also particularly appreciated. They triggered participants to reflect on their ongoing Use Case work, identify gaps, and map out a course of action to plug them as illustrated below:\"My workmate and I found out that we need to do more and be more gender and youth-inclusive\" (KII, Woman, biophysical scientist).\"Those sessions about gender-aware, gender-blind, I am planning to get it into the team and ask them to rate themselves where they are in the field, and if they are integrating youth and gender. When the professor asked us the question, I looked back and felt we can do better\" (KII, Woman, social scientist).The fieldwork session to test the EiA gender diagnostic tool enabled the participants to appreciate the cultural contexts and draw some comparisons with their communities as indicated in the narrative below:\"What I learned was very powerful from the cross-culture angle of women not speaking up, women not coming up, women not getting equal opportunities\" (KII, Woman, social scientist).All participants expressed satisfaction with the trainers' technical competence and delivery methods. Discipline disaggregated data reveals no significant variations in the proportions of biophysical and social scientists who were extremely satisfied with the trainers' competency and delivery methods (Figure 5). The overall average rating of 3.83 out of a possible maximum of 4 indicates that participants were extremely satisfied with the trainers' technical competence and delivery methods.  Participants also indicated that trainers were kind and friendly to the participants; they felt respected. Overall, the training approach created a comfortable environment to open up, engage and learn. The methods used including the exercises and energizers, were also appreciated.\" We are professionals and adults, but the groups worked together so well. So when there are more and more examples being shared, more and more interaction being done, that was the best and all that was adding value. So I don't think any other switch of the methodology would be suitable\" (KII, Woman, social scientist)\"All of them were excellent and it is quite difficult even to mention names. Remember the one who told us to close our eyes and imagine the woman farmer? It is still fresh in my memory. I still see that woman farmer that I saw when I closed my eyes\" (KII, Man, social scientist).\"I would say the breaks were fun and I was looking forward to more. There was humanity, which was being celebrated. There are some trainings you go to that are mechanical. I really love the way we were respecting and giving our thanks to the professors or to the fellow colleagues there\" (KII, Woman, social scientist)The above qualitative views were corroborated by the quantitative data whereby participants were asked to indicate the extent to which various aspects of the GREAT-EiA training made it possible for them to learn and internalize the knowledge on genderand youth-responsive agronomy research. Findings reveal that live delivery sessions coupled with a component of engaging interactions between participants and trainers through the mini reflections, as well as question and answer segments were the most highly rated aspects for facilitating learning and internalization of the messages. The assignments and participant presentations, and fieldwork were also rated highly (scoring above 3.7 out of a possible maximum of 4) (Table 4). Participants rated the extent to which the training was worth the time and costs invested to participate. Overall, eight in every ten participants (78 percent) reported that the training was entirely worth the time and costs they invested in participating. In contrast, 13 percent and 9 percent noted that it was worth to a moderate and limited extent, respectively. Social scientists (83 percent) were more likely to rate the training highly in this respect compared to biophysical scientists (73 percent). Participants from non-CGIAR organizations were more likely to find the training worth the investment than those from CGIAR (Table 5). The overall average score of 3.70 out of 4 indicates that participants found the course valuable to their work.Limited, 9%  The training was valued for addressing important competence gaps, fostering change in attitude, and acquisition of knowledge and skills relevant to participants' work. They were equipped to address gender and youth considerations which according to one respondent 'had become a buzzword in the CGIAR' as a key pathway to enhanced adoption of agronomic solutions and attainment of inclusive development outcomes.\"I've learnt a great deal about gender-and youth-awareness and responsiveness. Due to my profession, genderand youth-were largely ignored although it's important when we want to promulgate our innovations. In short, this workshop is an eye-opening experience for me\" (Survey, Woman, biophysical scientist)\"I was initiated into the world of gender and social analysis. Learned the scientific way to design gender and youthinclusive agronomic solutions. Learnt the framework mechanism to understand and dissect complex socio-cultural contexts. This will help me as a government Use Case partner to better evaluate the process of MVP piloting and scaling\" (Survey, Man, social scientist).\"I work in areas where gender norms constrain successful adoption of innovation. This course provided the right skills to tackle this\" (KII, Man, biophysical scientist).\"This has brought me a better perspective into looking at gender and youth related issues to agriculture than I had ever thought of and the facilitation of the program was very engaging, insightful and great knowledge transfer. I have been transformed going back home in relation to issues related to gender and youth\" (Survey, Man, social scientist).An unintended outcome of the course possibly attributed to the delivery approach and methods used was strengthening a valuable peer network. Participants attached value to the relationships created and the genuine intercultural engagement with diverse participants. These could be leveraged for post-course follow-up learning and support. Some voices below illustrate the value attached to the relationships:\"Meeting great minds that have a wide range of experiences in this field, learning and unlearning new things that are of great help in my career as an agronomist. Also great participants! I mean haven't bonded with new beings like this in decades. As an agronomist and also extensionist, I found a lot of pending answers to my questions after the training course. God bless GREAT\" (KII, Woman, biophysical scientist)\"And the cross-cultural learning from various partners, you know, it was okay, youth agriculture is becoming buzz in the CGIAR. But with these very few days of experience, I could make it out with the intercultural point that problems are the same. There can be different solution, which is subjective and dependent on the cultural dimension\" (KII, Woman, social scientist)Findings reveal that all participants (100 percent) reported that the training had changed their attitudes towards the development and implementation of gender-and youth-responsive agronomy solutions. Discipline disaggregated data shows no variation in the proportion of social scientists and biophysical scientists acknowledging that the course had changed their attitudes towards the development and implementation of gender-and youth-responsive agronomy solutions. The overall average rating of 3.82 out of 4 indicates that participants regarded the course to have changed their knowledge of gender-and youth-responsive agronomy solutions to a greater extent. Social scientists were more likely to acknowledge that the training had changed their attitudes and knowledge to a great extent compared to the biophysical scientists (Figure 7). Similarly, participants from non-CGIAR organizations were more likely to report that the training improved their technical knowledge of gender-and youth-responsive agronomy solutions, and addressed the knowledge gaps related to gender-and youth-responsive agronomic solutions to a greater extent compared to those from the CGIAR (Table 6).Average ra�ng  Participants were asked to give three examples of the most significant skills, knowledge, and information they acquired from the course. The following were mentioned (in descending order). Enhanced understanding of gender concepts, integrating genderand youth responsiveness in the development and implementation of research, and approaches and frameworks for gender and social analysis were cited by 78%, 56%, and 52% respectively. On the other hand, the importance of gender and youth-responsive research was referenced by 39% of participants (Table 7). Specifically, participants indicated that they learned that the concept of gender is a social construct that is different from sex which is determined biologically, appreciating how gender interacts with other social markers. Some mentioned the distinction between gender roles and norms, gender equality, gender equity, and the importance of recognizing and avoiding gender stereotypes.Participants whose most significant learning was 'Integrating gender and youth responsiveness in development and implementation of research' indicated that they now appreciate the need for deliberate/intentional inclusion of gender-youth considerations at every stage of research and specifically the stepwise EiA workflow from designing, piloting, validating, and scaling gender and youth responsive agronomic solutions. Participants who referenced approaches and frameworks for gender and social analysis cited understanding the gender and youth typologies, as well as the approaches and frameworks for engaging men and women, and youth in the Use-cases.Insights from the above unstructured participants' perspectives regarding their key learning show that the most significant immediate effect of the course was in charge of attitudes and knowledge. Change in skills would only be achieved through opportunities for application and practice which was not possible during this short time. Participants rated their levels of proficiency before and after participation in the GREAT-EiA course (in terms of knowledge acquisition and ability to apply) in various competencies which the training course sought to build. Findings revealed that participants reported increased proficiencies across all competence areas after the training course. Average scores increased from 2.5 (at most) before the course to above 3 out of a possible maximum of 4 after the course. Average scores for specific categories indicate that proficiency levels increased from at best sufficient to very high in case of gender-related concepts; and to high with respect to gender approaches and competencies respectively. Changes in average scores were more pronounced in the category of gender approaches, followed by gender competencies.Organization affiliated disaggregated data reveal that participants from non-CGIAR organizations reported a relatively higher increase in their proficiency levels compared to their counterparts from the CGIAR (Table 8). Knowledge areas that registered highest percentage change in scores by category were:• Gender Approaches: Gender Exploitative approach; and Gender accommodative vs Gender Transformative approaches• Gender competencies: Ability to identify the needs and interests of men, women, boys, and girls relevant to designing, validating, piloting, and scaling MVP; Able to recognize and avoid use of gender stereotypes; and Ability to identify entry points for gender integration in designing, validating, piloting, and scaling MVP.• Gender-related concepts: Levels of gender inequalities; How gender intersects with other social identities; and Masculinities vs Femininities.Participants were satisfied with the logistical aspects of the GREAT-EiA training course, averaging scores above 3.3 in all cases out of a possible maximum of 4. They were most satisfied with precourse communication, registration process, venue, and time management (Figure 8).Average ra�ng  Regarding composition of the participant team, participants appreciated the approach of recruiting people from the same Use Case to attend the course together. They indicated that this was helpful to break the ice and remove any existing social barriers between CGIAR and demand partners. It brought the team on a common footing.\"The scaling partners who came were really amazing. They got to understand why they were there. So when a person coming from the public sector/ government, or private sector owns the importance of evidence, that is important, very important. But here I found that ice-breaking with demand partners happened at the very beginning. Participants who were not satisfied or only partly satisfied with a particular aspect were asked to provide comments in terms of areas of concern and recommendations for improvement. Those who were partly satisfied with the meals (1 out of 23) cited limited diversity in the food options provided on the various days during the week and the taste of food. They requested that the diversity of meals be increased and provide more fruits and green vegetables. Participants were asked to indicate the likelihood 1 that they would recommend the GREAT-EiA Gender-and youth-Responsive agronomy solutions training course to their colleagues. All participants reported that they were likely (13 percent likely and 87 percent very likely) to recommend the GREAT-EiA course to their colleagues (weighted average score of 4.87 out of 5). Discipline disaggregated data revealed no significant variation in the proportion of biophysical scientists and social scientists who are likely to recommend the course to their colleagues, although relatively higher proportions of social scientists (92 percent) reported that they were very likely to do so compared to the 82 percent of biophysical scientists who reported the same (Table 10). The reasons given for staying in touch were varied including, continuous access to information, further training and opportunities to join the trainer team. Overall, participants indicated a need for more capacity building in various aspects to enable them transition from acquisition of knowledge on gender and youth responsiveness to skills for application. • Sensitization of institution/project leads on the importance of gender and youth integration in the workflows ○ To train more project leads and budget holders.○ Collaboration and partnership to mainstream gender and youth-related issues beyond EiA.During his closing remarks, the EiA Chief Growth officer assured participants to reserve a page and portal for the gender community of practice on the virtual one-stop shop concept under development. This would provide a valuable mechanism for continuous engagement amongst participants and the wide EiA community.We conclude that the course design and delivery model elements namely, participants selection, duration, content, session sequencing, and delivery methods, worked well. The course effectively enhanced knowledge and comprehension of gender concepts and approaches for integrating gender and youth issues in agronomy innovation design. There is ample evidence of positive change in attitude toward the appreciation of the value of gender-responsive agronomy innovation design. However, since this short course stopped at attitude change and knowledge acquisition, participants would require more tailored training to impart practical skills in gender analysis (qualitative and quantitative methods) and gender-responsive and transformative approaches for agronomy solutions design and scaling. In addition, skills in collection, analysis, and interpretation of gender and youth issues diagnostic data using the EiA tools require further capacity building.The verbalized aspirations of the participants and action plans developed point to a substantial likelihood of post-training application of learning. However, this is likely to be contingent on the endorsement of action plans by Use Case leads, availability of adequate budget support, and technical support by gender experts.Course management team perspectives:The following lessons can inform future courses:• Recruiting Use Case teams was appreciated for strengthening relationships between CGIAR and the demand partners and providing a valuable opportunity for joint learning, diagnosis of gaps, and action planning. We recommend the recruitment of teams as opposed to individual participants.• While the duration was considered okay by most participants, there was insufficient time for in-depth coverage of sessions such as gender transformative approaches (GTA), gender-responsive scaling, and mastery of the EiA gender and youth integration standard operating procedures and diagnostic tools. In future courses, these sessions could be covered separately.• The first three days of the course had the most impact on the participants' learning. During these days, participants internalized the critical gender concepts and appreciated why gender and youth integration in agronomy innovation scaling matters. The period also triggered reflection on gender at personal, research team, and workplace (organizational) levels, and provided a conducive environment to build a community of practice. This community is essential to generate the motivation and energy to propel further learning and application of gender and youth-responsive research after the training. We recommend that for blended training, the topics covered in the first three days are delivered using a face-toface approach.Participants gave the following recommendations to improve the content and promote the post-training application of learning from the course.i.Course content:a) The field exercise on collection of diagnostic gender and youth-responsive data should be preceded with tips on how to conduct interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data.b) The training should cover tips on stakeholder analysis and effective community entry processes to ensure the engagement and support of all the relevant stakeholders.c) Devote more time to guiding participants on how to integrate gender and youth responsiveness in the Use Cases. It would be helpful if some real case studies are provided along with the EiA SoPs. d) Consider using a phased approach in the delivery of the course with the second phase focusing on quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and interpretation of data.e) Increase the focus on youth. Currently, the content is more focused on gender. ","tokenCount":"5804"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3dd9c33c8d0073a5b86282429cc683d5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/be42bda5-ab5d-4d41-a7cd-fb0e5cb6da79/retrieve","id":"1779317008"},"keywords":["Milk consumers","Aflatoxin","Kenya","Best-Worst Analysis","Willingness to Pay"],"sieverID":"78a89d31-1cec-4139-af46-d44ae9b995f4","pagecount":"14","content":"Aflatoxin is a human health threat concern in many developing countries. This study examines Kenyan milk consumers' behaviour toward aflatoxin by way of choice experiments. Further, willingness to pay for different types of milk and aflatoxin status awareness were assessed. Four attributes were selected to describe milk products: smell, colour, price and aflatoxin-free certification.Results indicate that awareness of aflatoxin is relatively high, and that consumers are willing to pay a significant premium for milk that is certified as aflatoxin-free. Results also show, however, that the substantial majority does not know how to avoid aflatoxin-contaminated milk. The results indicate a great need for further education and awareness-raising programs throughout the Kenyan dairy value chain, and a potential for market-based solutions to aflatoxin control in milk.Aflatoxins are mycotoxins produced by certain species of moulds, mainly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxins are considered an important public health concern in the developing world and can seriously affect people's health and livelihoods. The problem is rooted throughout the food chain, and as freedom of choice in food is limited for a poor and food-insecure population, exposure to aflatoxin is widespread and consumers in developing countries are at risk from aflatoxin-related illnesses. Recent estimates suggest that there are more than five billion people worldwide at risk of chronic exposure to aflatoxins (Williams et al., 2004;WHO, 2005).Although there are no accurate estimates of incidence of chronic and acute disease related to aflatoxin exposure, outbreaks in Kenya (1982Kenya ( , 2001Kenya ( , 2004Kenya ( and 2005) ) and Somalia (1997/98) indicate the magnitude of the problem. The 2004 outbreak in Kenya was responsible for 317 cases and 125 deaths. A known consequence of chronic exposure to aflatoxins is increased risk of liver cancer. Moreover, aflatoxin exposure in young children has been shown to be associated with stunting and underweight (Wang et al., 1996;WHO, 2005). In general, adults have a higher tolerance for aflatoxin than do children, and children are more prone to death from acute aflatoxicosis (Cullen and Newberne, 1994).Because Kenya´s climate is favorable to the growth of aflatoxin-producing moulds, the country faces high risk of mycotoxin-related livestock and human poisoning (Lanyasunya et al., 2005). Humans are exposed to aflatoxins not only through staple foods such as cereals, but also through animal source food; the most risky food is milk (Jarvis, 2002). Aflatoxins found in milk are produced by lactating animals after they have consumed aflatoxincontaminated feed or fodder (Lanyasunya et al., 2005;Lizárraga-Paulin, 2011). The most effective means of controlling aflatoxin in milk is therefore by restricting its presence in the cattle´s feed (FAO, 2005). In Kenya, Feed represents the largest part of the cost of milk production in market-oriented Kenyan dairy farming, and so there is a pronounced incentive for minimizing these costs. There are consequent incentives to feed forage of low quality, and such practices are widely observed (Muriuki, 2011). There are no effective mechanisms to ensure quality in the market for feeds.The negative impacts of aflatoxins in milk on human health have led to several research projects being focused on the subject. Widespread uptake of information on similar threats to health in Kenya, from various sources, has been documented (USAID, 2010) The consequence should be a dairy industry encouraged to strive for better control of aflatoxins' occurrence in milk. Milk is an important source of animal protein in Kenya. It is of special importance for society's three most nutritionally vulnerable groups: infants, children and pregnant women. Therefore, if exposure could be reduced by inspection and certification controlling the levels of aflatoxins in milk, the overall health of Kenyans could be enhanced, while also reducing health care costs.In Kenya, traditional as well as modern milk sales channels play important roles in satisfying consumer needs: small-scale milk traders constitute a cost-effective link between consumers and dairy producers. Hence, standards must be realistic for this context, for setting up and administering certification. Introducing licensing of raw milk traders also involves monitoring of milk quality, and so leads to development of the raw milk market. It also requires establishment of a recognized system of accreditation and training. Informal traders in Kenya must be trained in order to be certified and licensed to sell milk (Omore et al., 2005). Theoretically, addition of an aflatoxin-quality assured element to current certification would support a gradual \"formalizing\" of raw milk traders´ operations. This implies additional production and handling costs that directly affect milk selling prices.Understanding consumer behaviour plays a major role in the design of successful interventions in commercial processes. Relevant research has been widely conducted in developing countries for animal products' consumption (e.g. Jabbar et al., 2010). The current study aims to reveal important insights in Kenyans´ milk purchase and consumption behaviour. It also addresses a major public health concern by focusing on aflatoxin. Kenyan raw milk consumers' perceptions of aflatoxin are identified, along with any willingness to pay (WTP) for an aflatoxin-free certificate. Such WTP could encourage dairy stakeholders to invest in credible certification instruments. This paper also identifies the needs of a certification by providing insights into milk consumers´ attitudes.A survey was conducted during July 2013 using face-to-face interviews with consumers/buyers of raw milk on public streets. Data were collected in Dagoretti, one of the eight divisions of Kenya's capital city of Nairobi. Dagoretti division is characterised by high practice of urban agriculture including dairy production and high human and cattle populations (Kang'ethe et al., 2012).For the selection of respondents, systematic sampling was conducted, pursuant to assumptions of randomness over time. Refusal to participate (an early concern of the authors) was negligible, so systematic bias concerning respondents´ characteristics is unlikely. All categories of consumers were targeted, by way of conducting the survey across different periods of time. This involved collection from Tuesday until Saturday from 9am to 6pm for a 3-week period. Four enumerators established a total sample size of 323 respondents.The questionnaire contains five sections. The first addresses milk purchase and consumption habits, and so helps depict the respondent´s purchase and consumption behaviour. The second part assesses the respondent´s aflatoxin awareness. Following this, the consumer was given informational text informing about aflatoxins and the risks of aflatoxins in milk especially. This information was needed to complete the subsequent section of the questionnaire which simulates a purchase decision by using a choice experiment. Finally, some questions concerning the respondent´s attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics were asked. To choose the appropriate attributes and their corresponding levels for the choice experiment, relevant literature about raw milk purchase and consumption in developing countries (Waithaka et al., 2002;Omore et al., 2005;Makokha and Mohamadou, 2010) was reviewed. When selecting attributes, it was found that smell and colour are two important criteria used by consumers for assessing raw milk quality. Therefore, both attributes were included in the choice experiment to define the milk choices. To reflect the milk market´s price level, four levels ranging from 50 KSH to 80 KSH per litre were selected (Table 1).The combination of the four attributes with their corresponding levels led to a total of 32 (2x2x2x4) hypothetical products. As the questionnaire was supposed to be completed in a reasonable time, the number of choice cards needed to be reduced, and this task employed an orthogonal design procedure. Considering efficiency and orthogonality requirements, without reducing variability, eight choice cards was the minimum feasible number. Each card contained three choices of hypothetical milk products. Respondents were asked to state their most, as well as their least, preferred choice of milk (product) for each card. The resulting choice experiment fulfils the properties of orthogonality, and exhibits a high D-efficiency level (95%). Figure 1 below shows an example of a choice experiment card. This type of experiment is better known as a Best-Worst, or sometimes a Most-Least, experiment. Respondents were asked to indicate the most and least preferred products. In the case of this experiment which includes three alternatives, the choice of most and least preferred products makes possible the full classification of the three products. Because the alternatives have no specific label or name, this class of choice experiment is referred to as generic or unlabelled (Louviere et al., 2000).Conjoint analysis arises from the theory of Lancaster (1966), which stipulates that utility is derived from the properties or characteristics that goods possess (bundle of attributes) rather than the good per se. Since its first development during the 1970s (Green and Rao, 1971;Green and Srinivasan, 1978), the conjoint analysis technique has grown in popularity and has been extended to many disciplines such as transportat, telecommunications, the environment, marketing, and human health. In the agrifood sector, various studies used conjoint analysis (choice experiments) to explore consumer behaviour.Generally, conjoint experiments employ ordered logit (OL) and ordered probit (OP) models to study consumers' preferences in the case of ordered responses; that is, the dependent variable takes ordered discrete values: 1, 2, 3, and so on. In this study the OL model was selected, based on ease of interpretation of the parameter estimates, which are employed in the WTP calculation. In addition, to maximise the degrees of freedom, three alternative models were estimated by considering product cards' ordering as a discrete choice experiment: that is, the first ranked alternative is considered the chosen product. These are the conditional logit (CL), the rank ordered logit (ROL), and the random parameters logit (RPL, also called the mixed logit). The rationale of using these three models is to obtain more robust and precise estimates, particularly the RPL model which allows for randomness in the attributes' measurement across respondents.All the abovementioned models rely on the Lancaster assumption regarding overall utility decomposition as well as random utility theory (Manski, 1977). The latter states that overall utility U ij can be expressed as the sum of a systematic (deterministic) component V ij , which is expressed as a function of the attributes presented (raw milk characteristics in this example), and a random stochastic component :(1)Lancaster theory leads to the following linear additive decomposition of V ij :(2) where x ijn is the n th attribute value for card j for consumer i, and n represents the coefficients to be estimated. Finally, following additional assumptions about the distribution of the error term, the following probability models could be derived:CL (McFadden, 1973):RPL model (Train, 2009):where ( ) is the density function ofBased on the aforementioned models, the willingness to pay (for specific attributes) estimates (WTP) are obtained as follows (Haefele and Loomis, 2001): (5) In the case of the RPL moidel, a fixed term for the price coefficient and a normal distribution for the random parameters, are imposed.The following paragraphs present the descriptive statistics for the study, derived using the software STATA (version 13). As per sampling strategy, every respondent is consuming or buying raw milk, and all are Kenyan citizens.Respondents were asked about their milk purchase habits (Table 2). For the majority, raw milk is the first choice. Only around 5 percent prefer processed milk and opt for raw milk thereafter. Cow milk is consumed by all respondents while other types of milk, like goat and camel milk, play a negligible role.Women are significantly frequently more often responsible for the household´s milk purchase than are men. The place where people buy their milk varies by area. More than 40 percent normally buy their raw milk in a shop. 25 percent respectively prefer to buy directly at the producer/farmer or at a milk bar. Kiosks (15 percent) and hawkers (ten percent) are the least common buying places. Since people in such regions generally do not have the possibility to refrigerate, more than 90 percent buy milk once or more than once a day in order to ensure freshness. Some 60 percent report not knowing who has produced the milk they are buying. The remaining 40 percent, who know the producer, were asked how much they trust the farmer to provide hygienically produced raw milk. Almost 95 percent fully or mostly trust; only five percent do not trust at all. Moreover, all respondents were asked how much they trust the reseller to provide hygienic raw milk. Again, a high percentage fully or mostly trusts the reseller.There is a price variation among respondents. The most affordable milk cost 30 KSH/litre; the most expensive 95 KSH/litre. However, the range between 40 KSH/litre and 70 KSH/litre reflects the most frequently paid prices. These results also confirm the price levels used in the choice experiment. It is also notable that almost every respondent knew how much milk they recently purchased, as well as how much it cost.Survey results for consumption habits are presented in table 3. Almost all respondents report boiling milk prior to consumption and more than 95 percent believe milk is totally safe after boiling. Health and hygiene concerns are the main reasons stated for boiling the milk, followed by \"because everybody does it\". Almost half of the respondents drink milk on a daily basis where the quantities of 300 ml, 600 ml and 900 ml are the most frequently reported. For consumption by the respondents´ children, infants (two years and younger) were distinguished from children (from three to 18 years of age). In 18 percent of the interviewed persons´ households, there are children younger than three years. Of those children, 67 percent consume milk. Most of the infants receive between 300 ml and one litre per day.Almost half of the respondents have children aged between three and 18 years in their household. Some 55 percent of those children consume raw milk daily, and another four percent several times per week. There were also a considerable number of infants and children who never or only occasionally consumed milk. A few respondents could not specify the amounts of milk their children consume. Table 4 summarizes some of the findings of the aflatoxin awareness testing. These show that 55 percent of respondents had previously heard about aflatoxin. More than half of the people who had heard about aflatoxin believe, or know, that it can be transferred into milk. Some 45 percent had never heard about aflatoxin. Out of that group, 34 percent believe that the toxins can be transferred into milk. Without distinguishing between those two groups, almost half of the 323 respondents believe that aflatoxins in cattle feed can be transferred into the cow´s milk: and these respondents were asked further questions concerning aflatoxins in milk.Respondents assessed the health impact on humans when consuming contaminated milk. The majority perceive a serious or medium threat. It was also asked if it is possible to make contaminated milk safe for human consumption. In total, 37 percent think that it is, 27 percent think not, and 36 percent do not know if it possible to make the contaminated milk safe. There is no substantial difference in the answers given, between persons that knew about aflatoxin before, and those that did not. Respondents who thought it is possible to make contaminated milk safe for human consumption were also asked how they think this can be done (an open-ended question). Some 75 percent answered boiling, including extensive boiling and the combination of boiling and refrigeration, with the latter being the most provided answer. This was followed by processing/pasteurizing/purification and treating with chemicals or herbs. Only a very few people said that not feeding contaminated feed ensures safe milk, although this is in fact the most effective means of controlling aflatoxins in milk (FAO, 2005).In addition to assessing the WTP for aflatoxin-free certified milk, it is important to know consumers´ attitude towards information provided by the industry or government, such as labels and certificates which would be the main communicated elements of the certification system. The survey sought respondents´ opinions about food certificates/food safety labels, as well as information given on product packaging labels and commercial advertisements. Results are similar for both of these. However, the perception of certificates and labels is slightly more positive than that of packaging and advertisements. More than 60 percent of respondents stated that they do not trust, or do not even look at, the certificates and labels. In contrast, more than 35 percent report trust in them. Towards information provided on product packaging labels and commercial advertisements, respondents are even more sceptical: less than 30 percent rely on such information.The survey also assessed milk consumers´ main sources of information for staying current. Multiple answers were allowed and the results are consistent with those achieved by USAID in 2010. Television is the most popular one, stated by more than 80 percent. This is followed by radio, newspaper and internet. Consequently, TV and radio are the most efficient channels to inform people in peri-urban areas. As outlined above, these communication means are available to organizations in order to spread information, for example about health threats and new products.As discussed, we used two models (CL and RPL) to analyse the importance of raw milk attributes and evaluate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for milk attributes. The log likelihood ratio test (LL) indicates the two models´ overall significance. The obtained results (table 5) for both models feature the same coefficients´ signs and pattern of significance. All the variables are significant at a 1% level of test, in each model. a Dummy variable takes 1 when the milk is white and 0 when it is yellowish. b Dummy variable takes 1 when the milk is smelly and 0 when it is not smelly. c Dummy variable takes 1 when the milk is certified and 0 when it is non-certified. *** Significant at 1%.Results from Table 5 indicate that consumers prefer white milk to yellowish milk. As expected, smelly milk is less preferred than is non-smelly milk and respondents prefer to buy milk from certified retailers. The negative price coefficient estimate indicates that lower prices are preferred to higher prices, which is consistent with conventional demand theory. In the case of the RPL model, the random coefficients are all significant at the 1% level. This indicates the heterogeneity of respondents' attribute preferences.The second step in the analysis was to estimate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) following equation 5. Table 6 summarizes the WTP estimates and 95% confidence intervals obtained following the Krinsky and Robb (1986) parametric bootstrapping procedure with 2,000 replications.Although the majority of respondents stated that they fully or mostly trust in the hygienic milk handling of farmers and retailers, results indicate that they would be willing to pay a premium for improved quality. Those results agree with those of previous studies such as USAID (2010) and Jabbar et al. (2010) which found that the majority is willing to pay a premium for enhanced quality for raw milk due to the uncertainty about the milk´s authenticity and the unhygienic handling conditions.The WTP estimates obtained with CL and RPL differ. This was expected since for the latter model, consumers' preference heterogeneity is taken into account. On average consumers are willing to pay between 8 and 12 KSH/litre more for getting white milk compared to yellowish. This could be considered as surprising because white milk may indicate dilution with water. However, for milk buyers, the white colour could be an indicator of the hygienic quality of the product.Since smell is one of the most important attributes to assess the quality of raw milk (Omore et al., 2005;Lapar et al., 2010;Makokha and Fadiga, 2010), consumers are willing to pay between 61 and 93 KSH/litre more to shift from smelly to non-smelly milk. The extra amount they are willing to pay in order to buy from an aflatoxin-free certified retailer is on average between 58 and 77 KSH/litre. These last two WTP estimates show that there is a high interest among the Kenyan peri-urban population in purchasing milk that is harmless to health. At the same time, a notable result is that these consumers are willing to pay more for non-smelly milk than for an aflatoxin-free certified product, ceteris paribus.The results are of value to the dairy industry in the design and implementation of the necessary actions to improve the quality of the product and provide consumers with aflatoxinfree and safe product. The obtained WTP estimates, although consistent in sign across models, are slightly high. These estimates should be interpreted in context. First, providing respondents with information on aflatoxin increases respondents' awareness and may bias WTP estimates. Second, stated preference methods generally face the problem of response bias since it is impossible to simulate precisely a purchase decision. As a consequence, in many cases estimates of WTP are higher than what consumers will really spend. However, especially when testing for a new or unknown product, there are no other available options.This study reveals important insights into Kenyans´ attitudes and behaviour regarding milk and its consumption.The results show that consumers in peri-urban areas are willing to pay a premium for buying the milk from a certified retailer. However, since people prefer raw milk because of its low price (USAID, 2010;Makokha and Fadiga, 2010), it remains questionable if they would still be willing to pay more once they would have the choice. Many researchers have recommended lowering the milk prices in order to encourage more people to buy milk (USAID, 2010). However, in the context of aflatoxin, the question arises as to whether it is better to drink a recommended amount of milk at a low price, or rather focus on the quality of milk even if such attributes of safety are available only at higher prices. Although further research is needed on the subject, this study confirms others' (USAID, 2010) findings that quality improvements are desired by a high percentage, and that an aflatoxin-free certificate would be in demand.The survey revealed that the majority of Kenyans does not trust certificates and labels. As this result contradicts some other findings in similar contexts (Jabbar et al., 2010), the need for further research is apparent, possibly on steps to improve the image of Kenyan certification. Certification requires credibility and intense public information, as well as institutional development. Although the current study does not address these issues directly, its findings of significant WTP suggest that there is sufficient private incentive for change to occur. Hence, its results can be used to put further pressure on stakeholders in the milk value chain to tackle the challenging objective of establishing an independent certification setup that will be accepted and trusted.As processors are aware that milk of high quality leads to increased sales (USAID, 2010), there can be expected to be interest in enhancing their products by certifying them. Launching a certificate involves cost which would be incident to some extent on milk consumers. Therefore, people need to understand why there is a need to pay more for milk. The study shows that people have insufficient knowledge about aflatoxin and its associated health risks in milk. Research results such as these can then provide the latest and most relevant information which, in association with dairy industry advertisements and brands, can have a high impact on Kenyans and their perceptions. This advocates for partnership amongst researchers, government and the private sector, for further research into the topics covered here, and for further examination of experimental methods and analytical approaches.","tokenCount":"3833"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fcd7395f37f23897c5d410de2c951bb2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f34e99d0-baf4-4871-b649-98241ce35804/retrieve","id":"-575501579"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"edc1a765-438c-4efb-bda8-11ec857d3428","pagecount":"16","content":"La ganadería bovina es uno de los subsectores agropecuarios de mayor importancia para Centroamérica. El producto interno bruto ganadero (PIBG), compuesto por los rubros de carne y leche bovina, representa el 1.3% del producto interno bruto regional (PIB), y cerca del 20% del producto interno bruto agropecuario (PIBA). La mayor contribución al producto interno bruto agropecuario está en Nicaragua (38%), seguido por Panamá (31%), Honduras (20%), Costa Rica (20%), El Salvador (16%) y Guatemala (8%), respectivamente (Acosta y Valdés, 2014). En 2019, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Honduras aportaron respectivamente 46.7%, 30.7% y 22.6% de una producción total de 288.4 miles de toneladas de carne de ganado vacuno, generadas por 1.53 millones de cabezas; la producción de leche fresca entera de ganado bovino ese mismo año fue de 2.5 millones de toneladas, con un promedio de 2.16 millones de vacas en ordeño diario; la mayor proporción viniendo de Costa Rica (47.9%) seguido por Honduras (28%) y Nicaragua (24.1%) (FAOSTAT, 2020). De acuerdo a Acosta y Valdés (2014), desde un punto de vista social, la ganadería tiene gran importancia dentro del sector agropecuario de esos tres países por la participación destacada de explotaciones familiares, que se caracterizan por sistemas mixtos combinando agricultura y ganadería, una alta participación de mano de obra familiar, y por un tamaño de finca entre 17 a 30 ha y un hato ganadero de 20 a 50 animales. Este tipo de explotaciones representa en promedio el 91% de los sistemas ganaderos en los tres países y aporta en promedio el 33% por todo el sector agropecuario y 73% del empleo ganadero. Diversos estudios señalan que los sistemas de producción ganaderos constituyen un mecanismo de capitalización para los hogares rurales, funcionan como sistema de resiliencia frente a choques; sirven de respaldo colateral para la obtención de créditos tanto formales como informales; y constituyen una fuente de alimentos para la diversificación de la dieta, tradicionalmente basada en granos básicos, lo que permite un mayor nivel de consumo de proteína animal al interior del hogar rural (Acosta y Valdés, 2014). No obstante la importancia económica y social de la ganadería en los tres países, y las expectativas generadas por la creciente demanda global de alimentos de origen animal, el sector enfrenta el reto de aumentar la producción y productividad. Al mismo tiempo existe una mayor presión política y social para impulsar acciones dirigidas a reducir los impactos ambientales del sector; en este sentido, el principal reto de la ganadería del trópico consiste en aumentar la eficiencia de los sistemas productivos, mitigar el impacto ambiental y avanzar en los esfuerzos de adaptación ante el cambio climático (Enciso et al., 2019). A nivel global se ha realizado grandes esfuerzos por aumentos en la productividad de carne y leche durante las últimas décadas. Muchos aumentos de la productividad vinieron con altos costos ambientales, como la contaminación por nutrientes y pesticidas, la salinización del suelo y la contaminación del agua (Godfray et al., 2010). En los últimos 40 años las áreas en bosques en Centroamérica se han reducido en aproximadamente un 40%. De manera contrastante, durante este mismo periodo, la reducción de las áreas en bosques ha coincidido con el incremento en el número de hectáreas en pastos y el volumen del hato ganadero en la región. De hecho, de acuerdo a la FAO (2011) durante la última década, cerca del 75% de las áreas deforestadas en Centroamérica fueron convertidas a pastos (Acosta et al., 2014). A nivel de la región centroamericana existe conocimientos y disponibilidad de tecnologías con potencial para aumentar productividad y resiliencia ante los efectos del cambio climático en los sistemas ganaderos, y que además contribuyen a reducir los impactos de la actividad ganadera en el clima y los recursos naturales; sin embargo, hasta ahora, se considera que el impacto de esas tecnologías ha estado muy por debajo de su potencial, asociado con bajos niveles de adopción de las mismas. Aunque resulta innegable que el sector científico e investigativo ha cumplido un papel fundamental en la creación de tecnologías que coadyuvan a incrementar la productividad, buscan mitigar los efectos del cambio climático y propenden por el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de pequeños productores (en especial al trabajar en asocio con el sector público y las organizaciones no gubernamentales), estas inversiones resultan no ser suficientes para permitir la innovación agrícola (Enciso et al., 2019). Este proceso [de innovación] comprende el conjunto de todas las organizaciones y personas (públicas y privados) involucradas en la generación, difusión, adopción y uso social y económico de las nuevas tecnologías agrícolas (World Bank, 2006;Hambly, Hall & Dorai, 2012, citados por Enciso, 2019). De cualquier manera, la investigación es una fuente clave de innovación y por otro lado debe alimentar a la extensión (Ardila, J. 2010). Para la movilización o entrega de los conocimientos y tecnologías generados por la investigación se hace necesario el apoyo de los Servicios de Extensión y Asistencia Técnica. Desde sus inicios, los Servicios de Extensión han presentado una serie de transformaciones importantes en ALC [América Latina y El Caribe], que han buscado, ante todo, adaptarse a las nuevas realidades tanto políticas e institucionales de cada país, como a la evolución en las condiciones socioeconómicas de la agricultura familiar, y más ampliamente, de las economías rurales (Ardila, J., 2010). El subsector de la ganadería bovina, como parte del sector agropecuario, también ha experimentado importantes transformaciones en los Servicios de Extensión en las últimas décadas en los tres países objetos de este estudio, y existe un vacío de información sobre cómo funcionan actualmente, para poder entender el rol que han tenido en la baja adopción e impacto de tecnologías en la ganadería bovina, mencionado en párrafos anteriores. El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar cómo trabajan actualmente los sistemas de extensión en los países en cuestión y establecer sus deficiencias y oportunidades, con el fin de contribuir en mecanismos futuros para el diseño de los sistemas de extensión.El presente documento presenta un primer acercamiento sobre el funcionamiento de los esquemas de extensión para la ganadería bovina en tres países de Centroamérica: Costa Rica, Nicaragua y Honduras. La información que en este se presenta se basa en información secundaria y entrevistas realizadas a actores claves del sistema de extensión para ganadería en cada uno de los países.El servicio de extensión rural en ganadería es brindado principalmente por el Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, a través de la Dirección Nacional de Extensión Agropecuaria, la cual tiene su expresión en cada una de las ocho regiones que conforman el territorio nacional. Según últimos censos, definen que la ganadería se concentra mayormente en cinco de las ocho regiones: i) Región Huetar Norte, en la frontera con Nicaragua; ii) Región Brunca, al sur en la frontera con Panamá; iii) Región Chorotega; iv) Región Huetar Caribe, y v) Región Central Occidental. Entre los sistemas ganaderos, se identifican cuatro sistemas de leche: a) Lechería especializada de altura, que predomina en la cordillera volcánica central, se caracteriza por altos niveles de uso de concentrados, altos niveles de tecnologías y animales puros de razas especializadas en producción de leche (Jersey, Holstein, Pardo Suizo). b) Lechería especializada de bajura, ordeño sin ternero al pie, uso no tan intensivo de concentrados, animales mestizos de cruces de razas lecheras (Jersey, Holstein) con razas cebuinas (Gyr, Guzerat). c) Doble propósito zona seca. d) Doble propósito zona húmeda. En amos sistemas doble propósito se usa muy poco o nada de concentrado, ordeño con ternero al pie, baja producción, animales tipo cebuinos.En el caso de los sistemas ganaderos de carne, estos se pueden encontrar en casi todas las regiones, excepto en la cordillera volcánica donde predominan los sistemas de lechería especializada de altura.Para brindar el servicio de extensión, cada una de las Direcciones Regionales de Extensión están conformadas por varias Agencias de Extensión que atienden los diferentes cantones que comprenden una región. Por cada Agencia de Extensión hay un promedio de dos técnicos para atender la demanda de Extensión y Asistencia Técnica en Ganadería.Por ley, el MAG es el principal proveedor del Servicio de Extensión Agropecuaria. Para su funcionamiento, existen las Direcciones Regionales de Extensión Agropecuaria, las cuales operan a través de las Agencias de Extensión. Se reconocen otros dos actores dentro del sector público que apoyan los Servicios de Extensión: uno es el Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal (SENASA), que es una dependencia del Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería que brinda apoyo a través de servicios de análisis de laboratorio y capacitación en temas de sanidad y reproducción animal, y el otro es el Instituto Nacional de Innovación y Transferencia en Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), que apoya a través de la entrega y divulgación de resultados de investigaciones en ganadería mediante actividades de transferencia tecnológica y capacitación a técnicos y productores. También, se reconoce una participación cada vez más creciente, en extensión para ganadería, del Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje.Por parte de la academia, se reconoce los aportes que realizan a la Extensión el Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica y la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, principalmente con el uso de las TIC en el contexto actual de la pandemia del COVID 19.A nivel de regiones y de las Agencias de extensión destacan la participación de organizaciones gremiales, como la Corporación Ganadera (CORFOGA) y la Cooperativa Dos Pinos, y existe el aporte del sector académico a través de universidades locales o sedes de las universidades con presencia nacional y la participación de colegios o liceos agropecuarios. Otro actor importante dentro del sistema está representado por las empresas o compañías que venden insumos pecuarios. Actualmente, todos los esfuerzos de extensión en ganadería están bajo la guía de una estrategia nacional de ganadería baja en emisiones (NAMA Ganadería) la cual establece la creación de Mesas Regionales de Ganadería, la cual es un espacio de consulta y concertación y desde donde se genera un plan de acción del sub sector cada año.Actualmente la mayor parte de los esfuerzos de capacitación están dirigidos hacia los temas: Gestión de la alimentación, manejo y uso propicio de las pasturas lo que incluye rotación pasturas, pastoreo Voisin, división de potreros, bancos forrajeros, captura de carbono, disminución GEI, cercas eléctricas, cercas vivas, abrevaderos. Adaptabilidad y resiliencia al cambio climático. Genética especializada, carne y leche; doble propósito, razas más adaptadas. Mejoramiento genético con biotipo acordes a condiciones climáticas de la zona, Producción de leche con ganado razas adaptadas más al trópico, y no especializadas en leche; ganado para carne buscar cruces cebuinas con razas europeas, feedlots. Registros ganaderos, no hay una política que exija en llevar registros, no hay lineamientos ni herramientas claves como por ejemplo el que lleva Dos Pinos para ganadería baja en carbono, trabajando con varias fincas para cuantificar acumulación de carbono y que las fincas se vuelvan altamente productivas y que tengan un balance positivo del carbono. Forrajes, bajar costos en lecherías especializadas para disminuir gastos en materias primas fuera de dela finca e importadas. Uso de purines para fertilizaciones. Intensificación en superficie para leche y engorde. Modificando concepto doble propósito más a lechería tropical, leche de bajura con sistemas eficientes con tecnologías.Estos conocimientos son entregados a productores a través de métodos grupales de extensiónmayormente-como charlas, demostraciones de métodos, días de campo, entre otros, combinados con visita directa y fomento a la aplicación de prácticas, como entrega de picadoras a grupos de productores para facilitarles acceso a servicio de picado de forrajes para ensilajes; cercas eléctricas, apoyado con banca de desarrollo para créditos de bajo interés para productores integrados en los grupos del MAG. Más recientemente, y en el contexto de la pandemia del COVID, se ha intensificado el uso de las TIC, como webinars, grupos de WhatsApp, eventos de capacitación virtuales apoyados por INTA y otros ofertados por las Universidades, boletines técnicos y videos de capacitación divulgados por WhatsApp u otras aplicaciones (Facebook, email); a nivel de regiones usan espacios en canales locales en un programa televisivo y también blogs de periodistas locales. Recursos humanos limitados por bajo presupuesto, lo que no permite expansión de los servicios en territorios y número de productores. Falta de relevo generacional en fincas, la mayoría de productores son de avanzada edad los que se apegan a sus esquemas tradicionales de producción. Por esta razón, existen iniciativas para incentivar a jóvenes que se dediquen a esta actividad y se queden en las fincas. Hay muchos resultados de investigación pero que no se pueden aplicar a la realidad del sector productivo, por lo que se requiere investigación más aplicada y apropiada. Individualismo de los productores ganaderos, falta de organización, lo cual dificultad su integración hacia adelante en las cadenas de valor. Se estima que 60% de la producción queda en manos de intermediarios. No hay claridad sobre línea de acción para los productores y no hay vinculación y articulación del MAG con otras entidades.2.5 Oportunidades para los servicios de extensión en ganadería  Existencia de tecnologías y con información disponible y accesible, para tomar en cuenta y aplicación. Integración de profesionales jóvenes en el mercado laboral, orientar hacia una nueva percepción de la extensión y formas de hacerlo. Hay suficiente evidencias y conocimientos sobre producción de carne y leche baja en emisiones y que cumple con normas sociales de Ganadería sostenible. Necesidad de promover competitividad por entrada de leche de Estados Unidos, libre de aranceles. Costa Rica tiene vasta experiencia y conocimientos sobre producción de leche desde hace mucho tiempo. Costa Rica tiene alto consumo per cápita de leche y es exportador neto con muchas oportunidades en el mercado internacional. Reconocimiento internacional por cambio hacia ganadería baja en carbono, está abriendo puertas a mercados y atrae recursos de la cooperación internacional. Existencia de Plataforma de mesas de ganadería es una buena oportunidad de trabajo conjunto, que ha permitido que todos los actores se mantengan en conversación permanente, brindando mejores orientaciones para el sub sector y definición de objetivos claros para el sub sector. Acceso a recursos internacionales para el desarrollo de diferentes iniciativas que permiten a los productores acceder a recursos financieros para avanzar un poco más rápido en la implementación de innovaciones en fincas. Obtención de recursos internacionales que incentivan la contratación de servicios profesionales de jóvenes, lo que permite sumar este recurso valioso a la estrategia de bajas emisiones. Uso de las TIC en la extensión han permitido generar mayor nivel de tecnologías -se habla de una agricultura 4.0-dentro de las unidades de producción, lo que las hace mucho más eficientes (una ganadería de precisión), además permiten llegar de manera rápida a más productores y con menos personal. Oportunidades de mercados a nivel nacional gracias a iniciativas como el Programa de Abastecimiento Institucional a colegios cárceles, hospitales, entre otros, a cargo del Consejo Nacional de Producción.En el año 1993 se creó el Instituto Nicaragüense de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), integrando en una sola institución pública la investigación y servicios de extensión agropecuaria, lo cual se mantuvo durante casi dos décadas. A mediados de la década de 2010, el mandato de brindar el servicio de extensión agrícola se traspasó del INTA al MEFCCA (Ministerio de Economía Familiar, Comunitaria, Cooperativa y Asociativa), y el INTA se quedó sólo con la transferencia de tecnologías a través de las Fincas de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (FIIT).En Nicaragua [actualmente] son tres los tipos de actores que proveen la extensión, la transferencia de tecnología y la asistencia técnica. El primero es el sector público conformado por el INTA y el MEFCCA, con una visión de la atención como bien público. El segundo son las organizaciones de productores y las ONG, exportadoras y casas comerciales, quienes llegan a los usuarios con servicios de bien público o cofinanciamiento. El tercer y último actor es el proveedor privado individual (FAO, 2014). En el caso del sector público, la transferencia de tecnologías a los productores en ganadería como un bien público se complementa con la transferencia de activos o recursos técnicos, con el apoyo de algunos programas o proyectos emblemáticos que ejecutan el INTA (Proyecto Bovinos financiado por la UE) y el MEFCCA (Programa de mejoramiento genético). El modelo de transferencia de tecnologías del INTA tiene como núcleo central la FIIT, la cual funciona como una finca vitrina o finca demostrativa para irradiar las tecnologías ganaderas generadas o validadas por la investigación en el INTA a otras 12 fincas aledañas. Un técnico cubre el territorio en uno o dos municipalidades y tiene a su cargo el trabajo con 8 FIIT. En la mayor parte del territorio nacional, los técnicos trabajan con FIIT agropecuarias, es decir atienden tanto el sistema de producción agrícola como el sistema de producción pecuaria dentro de la misma finca; la atención exclusiva para el sistema de ganadería dentro de cada finca ocurre solo en los territorios donde se ejecuta el Programa Bovinos, en el cual se orientó la selección de fincas con vocación ganadera o que la producción ganadera sea la actividad principal de la familia productora. En estas fincas el servicio de transferencia tecnológica y extensión se inicia con un diagnóstico de línea base identificando potencialidades y debilidades de la unidad productiva y luego se elabora un plan de finca con el productor para planificar la transferencia de conocimientos y recursos técnicos para aplicar tecnologías. La experiencia del Programa Bovinos con ese modelo se ha considerado como exitosa, por lo que para 2021 existen planes de impulsar más la orientación por rubros y especializado en áreas mediante la selección de fincas especializadas en ganadería e integración de acciones en temas de reproducción y mejoramiento genético como nuevas razas e inseminación artificial, para lo cual se están desarrollando condiciones técnicas dentro de los centros de investigación del INTA.A nivel del MEFCCA se disponen de diferentes programas y proyectos que impulsan los servicios de extensión, asistencia técnica, fortalecimiento de capacidades e inversión en los productores organizados [como las cooperativas de acopio y procesamiento de leche]. En cada uno de los programas [como el programa de mejoramiento genético que es uno de los proyectos insignes que ejecuta el MEFCCA] disponen de instrumentos metodológicos y financieros para la asignación de recursos, muchos de ellos son planes de negocio, inversión, planes de desarrollo innovador, planes familiares y otros. En cada uno de los planes se ubican los incentivos, en muchos de los casos las organizaciones de productores reciben recursos para la inversión y la contratación de extensionistas que proveen el servicio de extensión dentro de la cooperativa. Bajo esta modalidad no existe metodologías de extensión definidas, cada cooperativa es libre de seleccionar las que consideren conveniente. En otras iniciativas, existe un equipo del Ministerio que ofrece el fortalecimiento de capacidades a los productores. La modalidad utilizada son visitas y capacitación, para ésta última acción, cada plan de la cooperativa define los temas a abordar durante la ejecución del proyecto (Saavedra y Briones, 2019). Actualmente existen dos espacios o plataformas de consulta y dirección para la investigación, innovación y extensión agropecuaria, y que consecuentemente incluye la extensión en ganadería. Uno es el Sistema Nicaragüense de Investigación e Innovación Agropecuaria (SNIA), el cual es un mecanismo de concertación entre actores claves a nivel nacional, regional y territorial, para coordinar, planificar, implementar y evaluar la agenda de investigación e innovación, tomando en cuenta las necesidades y saberes de los productores y sus familias, y el otro espacio es el Sistema Nacional de Producción, Consumo y Comercio (SNPCC) integrado por INTA, en Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG), MEFCCA, el Instituto Nacional Forestal (INAFOR), el Ministerio de Fomento y Comercio (MIFIC), Ministerio de Recursos Naturales y el Ambiente (MARENA) y el Instituto Nicaragüense de la Pesca (INPESCA), dentro del cual desde 2020 se han venido realizando eventos de consultas con gremios para conocer demandas e identificar transformaciones con mayor potencial de impacto. También, dentro del sector público cabe destacar el apoyo que brindan a la extensión en ganadería las universidades públicas como la Universidad Nacional Agraria (UNA), UNAN-León y los Centros Regionales Universitarios (CUR) de la UNAN-Managua, bajo las modalidades de pasantías de estudiantes y egresados de las carreras de Medicina Veterinaria, Zootecnia e Ingeniería Agropecuaria, asesoría técnica a proyectos y cursos de capacitación. Entre el grupo de actores claves de las ONG, organizaciones gremiales, exportadoras y casas comerciales, caben destacar ONG internacionales como TECHNOSERVE, CRS, SOLIDARIDAD, HEIFER, ONG nacionales como NITLAPAN, centros internacionales de investigación (como la Alianza Bioversity International y CIAT) así como las organizaciones gremiales CONAGAN y la Federación de Asociaciones Ganaderas de Nicaragua (FAGANIC), las cuales han estado ejecutando en los últimos cinco años algunos proyectos de desarrollo para el sub sector de la ganadería bovina a través de los cuales implementan acciones de capacitación, transferencia de tecnología, extensión y entrega de recursos técnicos en especies o apoyo financiero a coinversiones para que los productores implementen tecnologías en sus sistemas productivos de ganadería. También, deben mencionarse los esfuerzos propios de las organizaciones gremiales antes mencionadas y de Cooperativas de productores, principalmente del sector lácteo, que brindan servicios de extensión y otros servicios de apoyo a la producción con sus propios técnicos y medios. Otros actores claves dentro de este grupo son las empresas de la industria láctea y la Cámara Nicaragüense del Sector Lácteo (CANISLAC), que apoyan en la transferencia de tecnologías para mejoramiento de la calidad e inocuidad de la leche, y las empresas de agroservicios como distribuidoras de semilla de pastos mejorados (organizadas en la Comisión Nicaragüense de Importadores de Semilla de Pastos (CONISEPA)), oferentes de productos y servicios de inseminación artificial y distribuidoras de agroquímicos, las que además de la venta de sus insumos ofrecen asesoría técnica en su ramo a los productores.A nivel del sector público y privado existe un creciente interés por una estrategia de ganadería sostenible baja en emisiones, que apunta a los tres pilares del enfoque de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) o Agricultura Climáticamente Inteligente: Productividad, adaptación al cambio climático y mitigación de los impactos de la ganadería en el clima y el ambiente. También, otro aspecto al que apuntan los esfuerzos de la extensión es el mejoramiento de la calidad de la leche y la carne. Estos temas globales están siendo abordados a través de temas específicos como: Gestión de la alimentación, mediante el establecimiento, manejo y uso de pasturas mejoradas, lo que incluye manejo del pastoreo, división de potreros, bancos forrajeros, cercas eléctricas, cercas vivas, abrevaderos; y mediante la suplementación estratégica, basada en mayor aprovechamiento de recursos producidos en la finca y uso en menor intensidad de recursos obtenidos fuera de la finca, para mejorar productividad y desempeño reproductivo de los animales. Preparación y suministro de sales minerales. Manejo adecuado de terneros para desarrollo del rumen y aumento de la ganancia diaria de peso, con miras a mejorar indicadores reproductivos en hembras y mejora de calidad de carne mediante obtención de peso al sacrificio a menor edad. Sistemas silvopastoriles para aumentar la adaptación y resiliencia al cambio climático de los sistemas ganaderos. Trazabilidad y bienestar animal. Mejoramiento genético mediante la promoción de razas más especializadas en producción de leche o carne y con mejor adaptación a condiciones tropicales, y acceso de pequeños y medianos productores a servicios de inseminación.En los últimos años, y más recientemente con la pandemia del coronavirus, se ha intensificado el uso de las TIC, como webinars, grupos de WhatsApp, eventos de capacitación virtual ofertados por las Universidades, boletines técnicos y videos de capacitación divulgados por WhatsApp u otras aplicaciones (Facebook, email); programas de televisión y de radio.3.4 Debilidades o Limitaciones de los servicios de extensión  Limitaciones a lo interno de la unidad ganadera, baja eficiencia en uso de recursos, predomino de la ganadería extensiva. Doble propósito, tecnologías para especialidad leche o carne. Tecnologías apropiadas, oferta validadas. Falta de recursos para inversión en tecnologías. Hay vacíos o brechas de conocimientos en la oferta de tecnologías apropiadas para productividad y bajo impacto ambiental. Se requiere mayor conocimiento científico y técnico, fortalecer especialización genética, nutrición, se requiere procesos de formación del personal. Extensión debe responder a las necesidades de la familia, inversión, conocimientos, validación. Falta de articulación entre investigación y trasferencia, después de la separación de extensión. Mayor capacitación a los técnicos. Cultura de recibir asistencia pública, subsidiada por el estado, restringe demanda de servicios de asistencia técnica y extensión. Baja capacidad de contratación de recursos técnicos para aumento de cobertura. Existencia de una plataforma con la participación de actores claves en el desarrollo de la ganadería, orientada a resultados, en últimos 3 años. Hay una sombrilla, PNDH, con lineamientos tecnológicos. Cambios en liderazgo de transferencia dentro del INTA, ha mejorado articulación entre investigación, innovación y extensión. Reconocimiento de ganadería como actor principal social y económico. Creación de una estrategia nacional de ganadería sostenible baja en emisiones  Fortalecimiento de centros experimentales y laboratorios. Cooperación internacional. Mayor conciencia entre técnicos y productores por mejoramiento de ganadería con bajo impacto ambiental. Uso de las TIC. Disponibilidad de industria a brindar incentivos por calidad y productividad. Organizaciones gremiales con presencia en todo el territorio nacional.La ganadería en Honduras se encuentra distribuida en casi todo el territorio nacional; sin embargo, se considera que la mayor parte de la actividad ganadera se encuentra en tres regiones: i) Departamento de Olancho, ii) Zona sur del país, principalmente en el departamento de Choluteca y iii) Zona Atlántica, en departamentos de Yoro, Atlántida y Colón. El 90% de las fincas ganaderas son explotaciones familiares que poseen entre 5 y 50 ha, con baja productividad y nivel tecnológico; mientras que el 9.7% de las fincas poseen áreas entre 50 y 250 ha.El servicio de extensión para ganadería en Honduras se considera bastante deprimido, no obstante, el gobierno realiza algunas actividades de extensión para este rubro en las tres zonas antes mencionadas a través de las delegaciones departamentales de la Sub Dirección de Transferencia de Tecnologías de la Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA), aunque atendiendo solo un bajo porcentaje de los ganaderos en cada territorio.DICTA está en proceso de ejecutar una iniciativa presidencial denominada \"Honduras se Levanta\" a través de la cual brindarán servicios de trasferencia de tecnologías, capacitación en temas ganaderos y entrega de recursos técnicos en especies a grupos de productores; la iniciativa pretende alcanzar a unos 1000 ganaderos con la participación de 25 técnicos. DICTA ha hecho invitación a empresas distribuidoras de agro insumos, como empresas proveedoras de semen y servicios de inseminación artificia, a que se unan y colaboren con esta iniciativa.Otros de los muy pocos actores que han estado brindando servicios de extensión a la ganadería son las ONG, destacando el trabajo realizado por HEIFER en Olancho y actualmente también está entrando en la zona Atlántica. También, en años anteriores hubo apoyo al sub sector de la ganadería, principalmente en el departamento de Choluteca, por parte del proyecto DEISUR ejecutado por TECHNOSERVE y Ayuda en Acción; sin embargo, se informó que para 2021 el proyecto no contratará extensionistas. En Honduras existen algunas empresas privadas que brindan servicio de extensión agropecuaria, pero ninguna ofrece actualmente servicios en el rubro de ganado bovino.Desde hace dos años DICTA recibió el mandato de gobierno para crear e implementar el Sistema Nacional de Extensión Agropecuaria y Forestal de Honduras (SINEAFH), y en este sentido vienen realizando esfuerzos para la integración de organizaciones claves que están vinculadas y realizan actividades de investigación, innovación y extensión agropecuaria. Actualmente participan la Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA); ONG como Catholic Relief Services (CRS); universidades como Universidad Nacional de Agricultura y Ganadería (UNAG), Zamorano, Centro Universitario Regional del Litoral Atlántico (CURLA) y Universidad Nacional de Ciencias Forestales (UNACIFOR), Institutos de Investigación, entre otros, pero hasta la fecha no hay propuestas para reactivar la extensión en ganadería.También, desde hace unos años algunas organizaciones gremiales vienen promoviendo la conformación de la Mesa de Ganadería, la cual se prevé sea también un espacio para abordar el tema de la extensión en ganadería. En esta iniciativa participan la Federación Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (FENAG), Cámara de Fomento de la Ganadería de Carne (CAFOGA), Cámara Hondureña de la Leche (CAHLE), HEIFER y existe interés de la FAO por esta iniciativa.Debido a la baja actividad de extensión para ganadería, también es reducido los temas en que se ha estado transfiriendo conocimiento y tecnologías para la producción ganadera; entre los temas priorizados se encuentran: Gestión de la alimentación, principalmente a través del fomento al establecimiento de pastos mejorados  Administración de las fincasLas principales modalidades que han implementado son las visitas de asistencia técnica y capacitación mediante Escuelas de Campo, lo cual se ha venido a complementar con webinars ante los riesgos por la Pandemia del COVID 19. El tema pecuario se había descuidado, y se había estado dando mayor énfasis a granos básicos, pero desde hace dos años se ha retomado el tema de la ganadería. Muy pocos extensionistas pecuarios en DICTA y en las organizaciones que brindan extensión. Debilidades de conocimientos técnicos sobre ganadería sostenible. Ganadería no había sido prioridad para el estado ni la cooperación internacional. Aplicación de la Ley para la Modernización y el Desarrollo del Sector Agrícola (LMDSA), a través de la cual se mandató la privatización de servicios correspondientes al estado y se desarticuló la extensión pública. Falta de presupuesto actual para servicios de extensión pública, debido a efectos de la LMDSA.4.5 Oportunidades para los servicios de extensión en ganadería  Voluntad del gobierno de promover extensión en ganadería, iniciativa de arranque, pilotaje. Enfoque de diversificación de la ganadería es necesario, fenómeno del cambio climático lo impone o lo exige.","tokenCount":"4883"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"405e48aa988c816de8486a11e2d95555","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6803d1fd-68d2-4cd6-8b5b-0cb9bbd46e9d/retrieve","id":"-1636524703"},"keywords":["credit","microenterprises","gender","agricultural value chains","informal sector","qualitative methods"],"sieverID":"a686d7e8-1efe-4022-85e1-bba33f9bfffe","pagecount":"48","content":"in 1975, provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. IFPRI's strategic research aims to foster a climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promote healthy diets and nutrition for all; build inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industries; transform agricultural and rural economies; and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is integrated in all the Institute's work. Partnerships, communications, capacity strengthening, and data and knowledge management are essential components to translate IFPRI's research from action to impact. The Institute's regional and country programs play a critical role in responding to demand for food policy research and in delivering holistic support for country-led development. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world.Microbusiness-focused interventions, many of which target small-scale actors in agricultural value chains, are intended to contribute to upward socio-economic mobility, gender equality, women's empowerment, and poverty reduction among the poor in low-and middle-income countries (Midgley 2008;Sattar, 2011). Microbusinesses typically require low start-up costs and less skilled labor, making them easy to start and maintain and therefore attractive to the poor (Agyapong 2010). Moreover, microbusinesses may have specific advantages for women, because they allow women to combine their domestic and income generation activities more easily given that day-to-day operations are flexible (Klapper and Parker 2011).Small business owners often simultaneously borrow from their suppliers and sell on credit to customers, which may leave them in a precarious position, unable to earn a profit and at risk of losing their businesses and accumulating debts. As Guérin (2006;p. 555) said of women's informal financial practices in Senegal, \"communities are embedded in a vast, interlocking configuration of debts and debt claims, which serve as guarantees for one's personal or professional future.\" However, few studies have examined the position of small business owners who both borrow and sell on credit. Additionally, no studies present contiguous discussions of how men and women make decisions about both accessing and granting credit, why they make those decisions, and the gender dynamics that underpin their experiences with borrowing from suppliers, community financial groups, and/or banks and simultaneously selling on credit. To address these overlapping gaps in the literature about borrowing, selling on credit, and gender, we examine simultaneous borrowing and selling on credit by drawing on qualitative findings from a study of women and men milk vendors, all of whom are owner-operators, in the informal dairy market of periurban Nairobi.In the following sections, we first present select examples from the literature of how gender may moderate the viability of small businesses and summarize borrowing practices from various sources and selling on credit among small business owners. This section is followed by the study objectives and methods. Results of our gender analysis are organized as follows: (1) borrowing among microbusiness owners;(2) selling on credit among microbusiness owners; and (3) simultaneous borrowing and selling on credit. The discussion section considers these findings in the context of previously reported gendered differences in borrowing and selling on credit among microbusiness owners and presents various recommendations to close the gendered gaps identified through our analysis. We also discuss potential strategies to reduce the volatility of borrowing and selling on credit simultaneously, regardless of gender.Gender roles and social norms shape how women and men pursue livelihood opportunities, including via small business (Bernier et al. 2015). For instance, regarding dairy production in Kenya, gender norms prioritize masculine control over commercial assets (e.g., livestock, milk) and related income and delegitimize women's full participation in the dairy sector (Tavenner and Crane 2018). More broadly, women entrepreneurs report a higher fear of failure relative to men globally (Minniti 2010). A study of population-based surveys from 17 upper-middle and high income countries determined women's fear of failure to be one of the principal causes behind the existence of fewer women-owned businesses (Koellinger et al. 2013).Efforts have been made to close such gender gaps among small business ownership and management, although they do not always function as intended. For instance, an evaluation of a financial literacy training program in Eswatini found that women's sales did not increase upon completion of the program (Brixiová et al. 2020). Further, although support from husbands may improve women's business success, particularly in low-resource settings, convincing men to support their spouses' businesses in the first place is often a challenge (Wolf and Frese 2018).These select examples show how gender and social norms may moderate women's and men's livelihoods, including microbusiness owner-operators. Although a wealth of gender-sensitive research regarding small businesses exists, little information specifically examines small business owner-operators borrowing from banks and community-based organizations and selling on credit to customers. Further, existing evidence seldom compares women's and men's experiences with such financial activities, and instead focuses exclusively on one gender or disregards gender entirely. The following sections review the existing literature around credit and small businesses, including gender-sensitive information when available.Borrowing-defined here as accessing money or goods with the expectation the debt will be repaid, with or without a legal agreement-is one method through which owner-operators may access the capital needed to invest in their small businesses. Borrowing includes loans from loan sharks 1 , banks, community-based organizations, or, in the case of our study, milk producers and suppliers at earlier nodes of agricultural value chains. This section will focus on borrowing from banks and community-based organizations, as these loans are most typically used to enhance business outcomes for small businesses and have been thoroughly discussed in the literature.Existing evidence suggests small business owners often prefer community-based lending institutions to loans from banks. Small business owners seeking credit from banks may encounter large collateral requirements and strict repayment procedures, and more generally, banks may be inaccessiblemaking their services difficult to obtain (Dupas et al. 2018;Legas 2015;Mokhtar et al. 2012).Additionally, collateralization processes are generally weak in low-resource settings; as such, banks are not encouraged to lend because they are disadvantaged in enforcing their contracts (Sacerdoti 2005;McDonald and Schumacher 2007;Lyons and Brown 2011). Slow titling procedures only exacerbate this issue, as prospective borrowers are unable to prove they have the collateral needed to take a loan from a bank (Sacerdoti 2005;Lyons and Brown 2011). Such market failures encourage community-based lending.Further, women may have less access to capital and/or credit relative to men, due to gender disparities in educational attainment and property rights (Njuki et al. 2019). For example, lower educational attainment may mean that women lack the skills needed to navigate formal lending systems (Quisumbing et al. 2015). Or, patrilineal inheritance customs may exclude women from inheriting land; in Nepal, women generally have fewer assets (e.g., land) than men, meaning women often have difficulty providing collateral to take a loan from a bank (Pradhan et al. 2018).The lending constraints banks place on small business owners only serve to heighten the advantages of community-based financial services. Lower interest rates, enhanced social relationships, and, for women, greater independence and freedom of movement resulting from participation in microfinance schemes are among some of the reasons small business owners may prefer communitybased lending schemes over banks (Ahmed 2008;Musinguzi 2016;Peters et al. 2016;Shetty 2010). For example, informal lending groups may build trust among members by charging nominal interest rates to discourage those without a serious commitment or purpose from borrowing, as documented by an ethnographic study of mixed-gender groups from the Congo (le Polain et al. 2018). Further, some community financial groups have provisions disallowing members from borrowing more than double their contribution, to guard against individuals who may ultimately fail to repay larger loans (ibid). These restrictions may reduce the need for collateral assets that an individual would otherwise need to borrow from a bank -the same assets that women are often less likely to own than men. Such provisions may facilitate business owners', particularly women's, access to financial groups in their communities. For instance, women, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, take fewer bank loans but report greater access to community-based financial services than men (Njuki et al. 2019). Additionally, a systematic review of 19 qualitative studies found that, overall, women who participated in microfinance schemes enjoyed greater freedom of movement relative to those who did not participate (Peters et al. 2016).Despite the global proliferation of community-based lending schemes, not all of their impacts are positive. Research on small businesses (owned by women or men) in Zambia found that more than one year after taking a microfinance loan, businesses experienced significant losses that offset any gains made in the first year, demonstrating that microfinance loans may not always provide long-term help to business owners (Copestake 2002). In some cases, lending schemes may even hinder progress toward gender equality. For example, in Malawi, households that took microcredit loans for their smallholder farms increased agricultural activities but were also associated with lower school attendance among daughters relative to sons (Shimamura and Lastarria-Cornhiel 2010). Both these examples reveal longterm, unintended consequences stemming from microcredit schemes.Selling on credit is defined as allowing customers to access goods and/or services with the mutual understanding (between seller and customer) that the customer will provide monetary compensation for the goods and/or services at a later time. Small business owners sell to customers on credit for a variety of reasons: enhancing competitiveness, offloading perishable goods, and maintaining personal relationships (Blanc et al. 2011;Christian 2014;Guérin 2006). Among women microentrepreneurs in townships in Senegal, they sell on credit-charging interest rates between 10 and 15 percent-to retain customers, remain competitive, and offload perishable items prior to expiration (Guérin 2006). Nevertheless, these women cited defaulting clients as a principal reason they close their businesses. In rural Mexico, small business owners sell on credit, because they recognize their customers face economic struggles of their own and small business owners may opt to sell their goods on credit to remain competitive, even at a loss (Blanc et al. 2011). To protect their businesses, they may restrict the amount of credit their customers may access or set up repayment plans (ibid). Similarly, in poor communities in rural Yemen, a study found that shopkeepers impose credit limits on their customers (Christian 2014).As stated above, no studies examine the gender dynamics that shape women's and men's experiences with selling on credit. Guérin (2006), Blanc et al. (2011), andChristian (2014) do not comment on any potential differences or similarities between women and men business owners. Guérin (2006) only investigated women microentrepreneurs in Senegal, although both men and women are traders; in Christian's (2014) case, the gender of shopkeepers is not mentioned, although it is likely that the majority, if not all, are men. The dearth of gender-sensitive evidence about how small business owners sell on credit is a constraint in developing policies and programs that support small business owners and ultimately foster gender equality.The objective of this study is to determine how women and men microbusiness owner-operators navigate borrowing and selling on credit and how their choices may affect their businesses. The informal milk sector in peri-urban Nairobi is an especially suitable context for this study, as milk consumption is high and milk is typically purchased fresh and consumed daily (Salasya et al. 2006). Additionally, low business start-up costs (i.e., milk and a container to store it in are the only requirements), makes informal milk vending an attractive livelihood pursuit for the urban poor. Given these circumstances, there is sufficient motivation to begin filling the knowledge gap around simultaneous borrowing from various sources and selling on credit to customers in informal sectors in this setting.The data analyzed herein come from an exploratory study of women's empowerment and of Nairobi, Kenya. We used emerging results from the FGDs and SSIIs to develop preliminary hypotheses, which we tested in key informant interviews (KIIs) with experienced, current milk vendors who are members of a large dairy trader association.Participants were recruited for FGDs, SSIIs, and KIIs with the intention of maximizing variation among participants' backgrounds and milk vending experiences. Selection criteria included: had at least one government license related to milk trading; did not have a milk trading license; sold milk at a bar, shop, or milk ATM 2 ; sold as a mobile vendor or at a fixed-point without infrastructure; sourced milk directly from farmers; and bought milk through an intermediary (i.e., processor or broker). The sampling strategy aimed to recruit eight to twelve individuals for each of the six planned FGDs: four with current vendors (two each with men and women) and two with former vendors (one with men and one with women). Sampling planned for 49 participants for SSII interviews and aimed to include at least six men and six women not currently in the dairy business but who were former vendors. Of the four key informants, three were men and one was a woman. All key informants were current milk traders and members of a large dairy trader association.We completed the number of FGDs planned and exceeded the planned number of SSIIs. The decision to conduct four KIIs was made during fieldwork. In total, 99 people participated in a SSII, KII, or FGD. Tables 1, 2, and 3 include information about the age, education level, marital status, vending status (i.e., current or former vendor), and business type (i.e., shop, milk ATM, street vendor, etc.) from the three different data sources. Table 1 presents the FGD participants by individual focus group; most importantly, we have a balance of focus groups of solely women and solely men, with a diverse representation of participants across business type, education level, and vending status. Tables 2 and 3 present the SSII and KII participants, respectively. Both Tables 2 and 3 denote the number of women and men who participated in each type of interview. Of the SSIIs described in Table 2, there is a diverse range of women and men represented regarding their business type, education, and marital status, though most participants (42) were current vendors while only 7 were former vendors. Regarding the KIIs presented in Table 3, it is of note that only one key informant was a woman. Also, though only four interviews were conducted, KII participants all had a secondary education or higher-making KIIs more educated than FGDs and SSIIs.   A field team of six interviewers and notetakers with previous qualitative data collection experience and who were fluent in English and Swahili were trained on research ethics, gender concepts, dairy value chains, and interviewing and facilitation strategies. Each FGD or interview had a designated interviewer and a designated note taker. Oral consent, available in both English and Swahili, was obtained prior to the start of each FGD, SSII, and KII. Separate consent was also specifically sought to record. All FGDs, KIIs, and all but one SSII, for which consent to record was denied, were audio-recorded. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the ethics review committee of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).The recordings were simultaneously translated and transcribed verbatim into English by a team of experienced transcriptionists. All transcripts and notes were uploaded to NVivo for analysis. Deductive codes were developed based on themes identified in the literature. Inductive codes were developed based on discussions among the research team during coding as new themes emerged (see Appendix 1 for codebook). After each transcript had been coded by two members of the research team, the transcripts were compared for consistency, and divergent interpretations were resolved through discussion. After coding was completed, codes were queried to identify patterns in the data across gender, type of business, and education level. Thematic analysis informed the results presented below.Herein we first report women's and men's perceptions around borrowing from various lenders and selling on credit to customers. Perceptions around borrowing are organized by lender type: banks, credit groups, and informal lenders (e.g., milk suppliers, family members). Perceptions around selling on credit are organized by why vendors sell on credit to customers, perceived advantages and disadvantages of selling on credit, and strategies used to collect debt from customers. Finally, we explore borrowing and selling on credit simultaneously, and how this practice may render owner-operators and their businesses and livelihoods vulnerable to economic shocks.Borrowing is common among milk vendors, regardless of gender. Thirty-two participants ( 16women and 16 men), from among SSIIs (29) and FGDs (3), shared experiences about attempting and/or successfully borrowing for any reason. Of these 32 individuals, 22 had a business with permanent infrastructure: shop, milk bar, or milk ATM-the remaining participants were mobile or street vendors.Overall, women and men seem to borrow-for any reason-relatively equally. However, the men used banks more than women (four men; two women), and participating women used credit groups more than men (six women; three men).Regarding borrowing to invest in one's milk business specifically, 19 (ten women and nine men) of the 32 total borrowers stated they had attempted to do so (whether successfully or not). These 19 owner-operators sought financing from a variety of sources: loans from banks (one SSII participant), credit groups (six SSII participants; one FGD participant), or informal loans from their business contacts or family 3 (nine SSII participants; two FGD participants). The analysis below reflects participants' perspectives on borrowing overall, regardless of whether they had sought credit from a particular lender or sought credit specifically for their milk businesses.Of those that explained their motivation for the loan they sought, participants noted two main reasons: accessing capital to enhance their milk businesses and to sustain their day-to-day operations.Although few disclosed the size of the loan sought for their milk businesses, those that were disclosed ranged in size from 10,000 KSH 4 for unspecified use to 250,000 5 KSH for a car to transport milk.Although many participants discussed bank loans, such loans are uncommon among milk vendors: only six of 49 SSII participants (four men and two women) attempted to take a loan from a bank.Only one SSII participant (a man currently operating a milk bar) sought a loan specifically for his milk business. Four other SSII participants (three men and one woman) had sought bank loans (and had taken them successfully) for reasons unrelated to their milk businesses. One woman, a former milk bar owner, had failed to take a loan, although that loan was also not intended for her milk business. Nonetheless, the results presented herein reflect all participants' opinions about bank loans, regardless of whether they have sought a bank loan.Overall, women's perceptions of bank loans contrast with men's. Men emphasized the risk of losing collateral to a bank, while women emphasized the stress of taking a bank loan and the fear of failing to repay. Three men (one SSII; two FGD) brought up the risk of a bank seizing collateral when a borrower fails to repay. One man, who owns a milk ATM, posed a hypothetical scenario invoking land as collateral. He explained, \"Some of the disadvantage is that when a man uses a collateral, like land, and the business fails, the land will be taken and the family will be left without land.\" Another man in a FGD, a milk bar owner, said, \"You must use something to sign for the loan like a title deed or something precious, so that if you fail to pay the loan they can come and take it to clear the loan.\"Women-five total (four SSII participants; one FGD participant)-identified fear of failing to repay as a challenge to accessing a loan, indicating a dearth of self-confidence regarding their creditworthiness; no men shared such concerns. These women's education levels ranged from primary school to college, suggesting that fear of failure to repay is not a consequence of low educational attainment alone. As one woman, a FGD participant and a current shopkeeper, said, \"The loan business is stressful. Yeah, especially in milk. If you apply for a loan and say the milk spoils today and spoils…. And you know in a week maybe you are supposed to pay 500 [KSH]. Where will you get that 500 to pay back?...It is risky.\" Another woman, also a current shopkeeper, shared that, \"I have never applied for a loan, because paying [it] back is a headache and can make one spend sleepless nights.\" One man, a current vendor, mentioned fear of failing to repay, but mentioned it as a general concern anyone could have, not a concern he personally has. In examining women's and men's perceptions of bank loans, there is an obvious gendered division: while anyone of any gender would suffer an economic impact and likely experience stress from defaulting on a bank loan, men emphasize the risk of losing their tangible assets in default and women emphasize negative psychological consequences.One key informant, who runs a milk bar, believes women specifically lack confidence in this area and are more fearful of defaulting on a loan in comparison to men. In his opinion:I think men have some personal savings. Again, other men take the risks of going to the banks and SACCOs to take loans, and many ladies fear getting loans from banks…I think most women fear on how they repay their loans back, unlike men who get the bank loans without factoring in how they will repay back the loan. Women have small chamas, savings groups where they get money at lower interest rates. Unfortunately, those chamas savings group don't give large amounts…Access to loans from banks and SACCOs requires security, [in] which ladies are disadvantaged … Men can easily risk their title deeds or even logbooks without the consent of the wife and secure loans.In short, he perceived women as more risk-averse in comparison to men, while men have greater access to assets which they may use to repay a loan in comparison to women. If his opinion is correct, women's fewer assets may be why they fear defaulting on a loan more than men -women do not have the assets to leverage a loan, and if they defaulted, they would not have collateral to rely upon to repay their debts owed.Some milk vendors access loans through financial groups, which may offer loans or use merrygo-round savings schemes (in which members take turns giving other members a pre-specified amount of cash). The present study only examines groups that offer loans (called a credit group for the purposes of this study). Four women (three SSII participants; one FGD participant) and three men (all SSII participants) had borrowed loans via credit group for their milk businesses.Overall, men and women vendors perceived loans from credit groups as more favorable than those from banks, due to how groups handle repayment. In explaining her group, one woman, a current shopkeeper with a secondary education, stated that members, \"Can borrow and repay back at a lower interest [compared to banks].\" A man from a FGD shared a similar thought, although he had not explicitly stated whether he has borrowed from a group previously; he said, \"They are usually good because when you need a loan, instead of going to the bank, the group can give [it to] you, and they give you ample time to pay back. And the interest that they ask for is fair.\"In some instances, milk vendors may leverage their participation in a credit group with a larger financial institution-another incentive to participate in such a group, although not as frequently discussed among participants. As one woman-a current shop owner and the only participant to share such an experience-explained in a FGD, \"[Groups] can help, because…before I raise that money it will take a while, but if it's is in the group they will have contributed for you, and then you can maybe also take the money to the bank so that they can give you a bigger loan so that you can afford to buy the ATM machine.\" Her experience shows how milk vendors may navigate multiple spheres of credit simultaneously to advantage their businesses, by purchasing a valuable asset such as a milk ATM, or how they may wield credit groups to make credit from banks accessible.Despite the overall appeal of credit groups, some participants discussed how they may harm members. As one woman from a FGD-a current shopkeeper-said, \"The groups also have their disadvantages. There are these groups that can sign a loan for you. You take a loan, and they sign for you… but when it comes to paying they disappear and leave you-the guarantors-to pay the money.\"No one mentioned any strategies used to prevent theft or mitigate negative consequences of participation in a credit group. However, some participants had experiences in merry-go-round savings groups, which may enable members to bypass the obligation of repaying a loan.Borrowing from informal lenders is defined as when vendors ultimately repay an individual, not an institution (e.g., bank or credit group). Vendors, including women and men, often borrow from their milk suppliers; seven SSII participants (four women and three men) and two FGD participants (a woman and a man) discussed informally borrowing from their suppliers. These nine individuals had a wide range of characteristics and included current and former vendors, a range of business types (i.e., shops, milk bars, street vendors, and a supplier), and education levels ranging from primary school to college.Participant owner-operators typically borrow informally when they do not have enough cash to sustain their day-to-day business (e.g., purchase milk supply); they do not typically seek informal credit to make long-term investments in their businesses (e.g., buy an expensive commercial asset like a refrigerator or milk ATM). Given that informal borrowing is used to sustain day-to-day operations, social relationships with other agents within the dairy value chain moderate such borrowing. Three study participants acknowledged this role. As one woman, a former shopkeeper with some high school education, explained, \"We have had a good relationship with my milk supplier as he was understanding…[he] was selling milk to me on credit, and I paid later.\" One of the men, who runs a shop and has a college education, likewise explained that, \"I have cordial relationship with [my supplier]…Whenever I have a problem, I say I don't have money to pay. I can be given credit even for a week…I don't have to pay all that lump sum in one day. For instance, they can give me up to 50,000 KSH 6 to be paid 2,000 7 per week till I finish paying the amount.\" In short, trusting relationships with their suppliers facilitates women's and men's access to informal borrowing.Selling on credit is defined as permitting a customer to take a good or service with the agreement-written or verbal-that they will repay a pre-determined amount in the future. In this study, we did not find any examples of milk vendors charging customers interest under such an agreement. The majority of study participants -47 total (44 SII and three FGD participants; 26 women and 21 men)explicitly stated they sell on credit or, among former vendors, did so regularly. These 47 participants represent milk businesses of all kinds, but none owned a milk ATM-which may be simply because milk ATMs are expensive and therefore few milk vendors invest in them.Participants stated four reasons they sell (or sold) on credit: (1) to maintain social relationships (two women and two men); (2) to maintain customers (two men); (3) to wait for customers themselves to be paid (two men and one woman); and (4) to sell milk before it spoils (one man). The remaining SSII and FGD participants who stated they sell (or sold) on credit did not elaborate why.Most explanations for selling on credit emphasized the social relationships vendors have (or had)with their customers as a factor considered when selling to customers on credit among both women and men. As stated above, four individuals (two men and two women) emphasized such relationships. A man who owns a milk bar and completed primary school explained, \"I do [sell on credit], but only to those close and [if] we have made some arrangements, depending on the relationship we have with the customer.\" Other vendors may find it difficult to refuse credit to a customer who frequently purchases milk. As a woman, who completed primary school and runs a shop said, \"There are some people who are daily customers. They may come to you and ask you for something, but then they always pay the next day.\" Such comments indicate that an ongoing relationship, in which a customer has developed a good reputation with a vendor, determines whether a vendor may sell on credit to a particular customer.Some vendors weigh the tradeoffs between selling on credit-and potentially never being repaid-or ultimately losing (frequent) customers who cannot pay cash at the time of sale. As one man from a FGD explained, \"If you are the person selling to them, for you to maintain customers even if they don't have money, you will have to give them the milk today and tomorrow.\" The decision to sell on credit is therefore, at least in part, motivated by the desire to build and maintain a regular customer base, despite the risk of never being repaid. In other words, milk vendors bet on earning more profit by offering customer-friendly credit policies than they might lose to customers who never repay.Three other milk vendors (two men and one woman) shared that they sell on credit to customers who work jobs that pay weekly or monthly, and therefore vendors cannot collect at the time of the sale.One man who currently owns a milk bar said that, \"There are those who prefer to pay at the end of the month after they get their monthly salary, so you agree how the payments will be done.\" The woman, who formerly operated a shop and had a secondary education, said \"Some of my customers are working in casual jobs and were only getting money at the end of the week. Some used to come and explain to me when they did not have money. Yet, they have children, and they want to consume milk.\"Finally, milk vendors may sell on credit because their product is perishable. Although milk vendors may prefer immediate payments, they may feel compelled to sell on credit, because if the milk spoils, they cannot sell it at all and must take it as a loss. 8 Many participants described milk spoilage as a hindrance to their business, although only one man explicitly linked it to selling on credit. As he, a mobile vendor with a secondary education, explained, \"Someone comes for milk, and he has no money. Milk can also not be kept, so you leave him the milk.\" Milk that spoils largely represents a loss of money for the business; selling milk on credit is not a definitive loss, as there is a chance that the vendor will be repaid.In explaining perceived advantages of selling on credit, two themes emerge: gaining customers (one SSII participant) and planning for a lump sum upon repayment (seven SSII participants). One manwho currently owns a shop and has a university education-thought that selling on credit could bolster his customer base. As he said, \"Once the customers have trust in you [after selling on credit], hence they are loyal, they even look for other customers to come and buy milk from you.\" The explanation he offers overlaps with those who stated they sell on credit to maintain customers, but his was raised explicitly as an advantage for one's business, not solely as discussion of why milk vendors may opt to sell on credit in their day-to-day operations. Nevertheless, his opinion that selling on credit is advantageous for this reason was not stated by others.The most common explanation of how selling on credit may advantage milk vendors comes from five women and two men, who perceived it as advantageous because they may collect the debt as a lump sum and plan how to use the funds upon repayment. As one woman, a current mobile vendor, stated, \"[Selling on credit] is benefiting the business, because when they pay me at the end of the week, I am able to plan for the money.\" Another woman, a former milk bar owner, said that, \"[Selling on credit] wasn't ruining [the business; it] was like saving.\"Evidence suggests that milk vendors-both men and women, current and former vendors-report more negative experiences with selling on credit than they do positive ones. As such, milk vendors largely perceive selling on credit as disadvantageous, despite feeling compelled to do so, as discussed earlier. The primary perceived disadvantages are that owner-operators may not have the cash needed to restock their business after selling on credit and that some customers simply never repay.Three vendors (two women; one man) explained how selling on credit limits their ability to restock their milk inventory. One woman, a current mobile vendor, said that, \"[selling on credit] is hard…because I need the money to buy more stock, and if I sell on credit, it means I will either not get another supply or I reduce the supply.\" When they sell on credit, vendors may not have the cash needed to restock for the next business day. Ultimately, their overhead costs remain the same, but they must balance expenditures with unpredictable revenue, which may affect financial plans-whether for their business, household, or personal use-for the anticipated revenue and profit.Unfortunately for milk vendors, some customers simply never repay their debt. In total, 21 participants (18 SSII participants; three FGD participants), both women (10) and men ( 11), explicitly stated they had such experiences. Of these 21 individuals, 18 are current vendors. As a man who formerly operated a shop remarked that selling on credit was not beneficial to his business, \"because there are people who never paid me.\" Similarly, a woman, who sells from her home and has no formal education, said, \"lack of capital and debts from customers [are a challenge] as some fail to pay for the milk.\" Further, five vendors (one woman; four men) explained that some customers never repay, because they have moved away. As a current vendor, a man who owns a shop, explained, \"[I have] lent to some people and the debt becomes big [and] the debtor moves away…They have broken my trust.\"In summary, several study participants articulated that selling on credit is detrimental to their businesses, partly because milk vendors may not have enough financial resources to continue operations the next day and/or because some customers completely fail to repay, meaning vendors lose revenue they would otherwise have. Offering credit limits the financial resources milk vendors have for their businesses and livelihoods. In fact, two participants, a woman and a man who both currently operate shops, said they sell on cash exclusively, possibly to avoid such outcomes.To mitigate the threat of customers failing to repay, milk vendors-across gender and educational level-employ a variety of methods including recordkeeping, payment schedules, and customer reminders strategies to collect debt. To a lesser extent, vendors may request collateral to ensure repayment. Some vendors may also combine strategies to encourage repayment. Overall, none of the strategies for collecting debts are proactive.One strategy was to keep records of how much customers owe; six SSII participants (four women and two men) of the 48 who have sold on credit used this strategy. A woman who was a former vendor stated that, \"I used to write the name of the debtor and the amount he owes, and once they pay I just tick [it off].\" Such recordkeeping allows vendors to keep evidence of debts owed so they do not lose earnings by forgetting individual credit agreements with customers.Another strategy-that three men and one woman, all SSII participants, used-was to agree to a payment schedule with their customers. As a man who currently owns a shop explained, \"We have arrangements with some who don't get money daily. They come and pay maybe monthly…Some tell you they didn't get money that day. So, they promise money the next day and if they fail to pay, they pay the day after that day.\"Another debt collection strategy mentioned-by women more than men-was to remind customers of debts owed. Six women and one man, all SSII participants and current vendors, stated they use this method. As the man said, \"I usually remind my debtors…by word of mouth. Others I call via phone. It never gets [to having to call the police], because I never allow one to get so much milk [it] calls for the legal process.\"Finally, although less frequently, milk vendors may combine strategies. A woman, with no formal education and who sells from her home, combined a pay schedule with reminders, \"We have an agreement on the day and time for the debts to be paid, and at times I follow up with my phone.\" The man, a milk bar owner-operator with a primary education, restricts additional credit sales and reminds customers.Unfortunately for vendors, the collection strategies outlined above do not always work, regardless of gender. As mentioned earlier, 21 vendors, including ten women and 11 men, had customers who never repaid their debts, despite the range of debt collection strategies (recordkeeping, payment schedules, reminders, and combinations thereof) they used.Simultaneous borrowing and selling on credit is common among milk vendors, both current and former. For instance, 27 total participants (24 SSII and three FGD participants) both borrowed and sold milk on credit at least once. Table 4 summarizes all participants (from SSIIs and FGDs) 9 who indicated they did so, including information on sex, current vending status (i.e., current or former), premises type (e.g., supplier, mobile vendor), from whom they borrowed (e.g., community credit group, their supplier), and whether their borrowing was specifically for their milk business 10 for each participant. Of note, Table 4 shows that 14 women and 13 men borrowed and sold on credit, though only nine women and eight men borrowed specifically for their businesses. As we described in the following paragraphs, such simultaneous activity leaves milk vendors in vulnerable financial positions; vendors may be unable to repay their banks, credit groups, or informal lenders, and in extreme cases, may be forced out of business entirely. Given the reasons behind why vendors feel compelled to sell on credit (maintain social relationships and customers; wait for customers to have cash; sell milk before spoiling), the precarity is often unavoidable.A current vendor-a man who works as a motorbike supplier-described how he was unable to repay his supplier on time due to simultaneous borrowing and selling on credit. In his words, \"One customer failed to pay 700 KSH 11 . So, I had to look for funds and pay the supplier of milk. For the debts I normally finance the milk I sell on credit, and then refund when I am paid for the milk.\" In other words, when he sells on credit, he may also need to borrow from his milk supplier to restock milk and continue sales.More generally, once vendors are repaid, they may repay their suppliers, but the cycle of selling on credit and therefore borrowing from informal lenders (or having to delay repayment to banks or credit groups) may continue. Given that 27 participants have borrowed (for any reason) and sold milk on credit, such a situation is common among milk vendors.In some instances, selling on credit and borrowing simultaneously may drive vendors to shutter their businesses, cutting them off from the livelihood opportunities offered by the informal dairy sector completely. Three former vendors from FGDs, one woman and two men, shared such experiences with closing their businesses in detail. As the woman, a former supplier with a secondary education, said, \"I was a supplier [i.e., sold to milk businesses, which in turn sold milk to final consumers], but the challenge was the delays [and] late payments for milk payment from buyers who I was selling to on credit and pay at the end of the month. So, I was being forced to go borrow cash from the groups. I ended up incurring huge losses which I could not sustain the business because of other costs…Customers started buying on credit and delaying the payments, which made it hard to pay farmers. I had to stop the business.\" One of the men, a former mobile vendor with a primary education, shared a near identical experience; in his words, \"I was getting milk from farmers and selling to several customers. Some of them failed to pay for the milk, and so I could not be able to pay farmers for their milk which made me stop the milk business.\"Similarly, the second man, a former broker 12 and a mobile vendor, explained that he borrowed from farmers (his milk suppliers) and sold on credit to vendors. He said, \"Some [farmers] used to put water and flour [in the milk], so the milk ends up spoilt. The one selling the milk in Nairobi fails to pay, claiming that the milk quality is bad, so the debts accumulate, and farmers start complaining. That made me stop the milk business.\" The former broker's story adds additional insights, as those who simultaneously borrow and sell on credit, regardless of their place in the dairy value chain, must absorb any economic shocks stemming from dubious milk quality.To insulate their businesses from the volatility of simultaneous borrowing and selling on credit, some vendors have adopted protective strategies, such as holding additional funds until repayment by customers or restricting debt accumulation. Two women held other funds they already had until customers repaid them. As a woman who formerly operated a shop explained, \"For every credit sale, I used to note it somewhere and take the money equivalent to the debts from the shop and return at the end of the week once they pay for the milk.\" The other woman, a shopkeeper, uses a similar strategy. While this strategy may protect their businesses in the short term-and only if customers ultimately repay-it still reduces the capital vendors would otherwise have immediately available to invest in their businesses or to support their families.Other vendors restrict how much or to whom they sell on credit to protect themselves from customers who may fail to repay. As one woman who currently owns a shop stated, \"[I limit] the amount of credit sales to the customers,\" although she was the only participant to share this strategy. Two others, a man and a woman both milk bar owners, do not sell to those with outstanding debts. Small and microbusiness owner-operators, including those who serve as the final retailer in agricultural value chains, are typically thought of as credit recipients as they aim to develop their businesses. Our findings demonstrate how these retailers in fact operate in joint roles as credit recipients and credit granters within their communities, often to the detriment of their own businesses. The results of this study shed light on this unique role. To date, little has been written about how vendors in agricultural value chains may borrow to operate and upgrade one's business while simultaneously selling on credit to customers. Despite this study's specific focus on milk retailers in peri-urban Nairobi, this experience is likely widespread across agriculture value chains in low and middle-income countries due to low levels of capital and the perishability of products common to these value chains.Our findings on the experiences of milk retailers as borrowers are consistent with previous findings in the literature and offer novel contributions. For example, retailers often perceive credit groups more favorably than bank loans (Ahmed 2008;Musinguzi 2016;Peters et al. 2016;Shetty 2010). A novel finding of our work is in detailing the experiences of women and men who sell milk to customers on credit. They do so partly out of a desire to maintain relationships with customers and to foster new ones with prospective clients, adding to the evidence of the importance of strong social networks among Africa's urban poor (Kebede and Butterfield 2009;Shimamura et al. 2017). Or, to restate Guérin (2006;p. 555), \"communities are embedded in a vast, interlocking configuration of debts and debt claims, which serve as guarantees for one's personal or professional future.\" Our work contextualizes this assertion.Importantly, however, the benefits of these social networks are not guaranteed and may even have negative consequences. Selling on credit is overwhelmingly perceived negatively as vendors may then lack the cash needed to restock their businesses, forcing them to borrow informally from their suppliers.Additionally, we find that despite the strategies vendors of any gender implement to encourage repayment and the social networks that encouraged selling on credit in the first place, some customers never repay. Owner-operators may then be thrust out of business because they cannot afford to restock their businesses nor repay their suppliers, credit groups, or banks. Moreover, as microbusiness owner-operators lose their livelihoods, their communities may also suffer due to shuttered businesses. In theory, retailers could raise their milk prices to incorporate implicit lending charges to guard against customers who fail to repay and subsequent financial losses that drive them out of business. However, no respondents indicated they used such a strategy, possibly because raising prices would render their businesses less competitive, given their primary clientele are peri-urban Nairobi's working poor, risking the longevity of their businesses anyway.We also find important gender differences that begin to fill knowledge gaps around borrowing and selling on credit. For instance, men often explicitly expressed concern over losing their tangible assets as a risk of default, while women emphasized negative psychological consequences (e.g., stress, sleeplessness). These differences may be due to women's limited access to assets to use as collateral and/or differences in the types of loans that women and men are able to take -framing how women and men think about the risks of taking a loan. Or, these differences may simply stem from differences in how women and men express their concerns during interviews.Regarding selling on credit, women owner-operators may find it more difficult to seek repayment and be especially burdened by the failure of customers to repay and may be more likely to go out of business. In seeking repayment, women must navigate gender norms that hold them to more stringent standards of \"polite\" behavior, while expecting them not to be perceived as \"too friendly\" for fear of being considered promiscuous (Seguino 2007;Heckert et al. in preparation). Moreover, the failure of repayment is risky, especially, for women microbusiness owner-operators who have fewer assets, limited credit options, and smaller profit margins (Galiè et al. in preparation;Njuki et al. 2019).The findings presented herein also offer insights into the development programming approaches that may improve the livelihoods of small business owner-operators. First, considering the provision of credit through microfinance groups, one of the more common sources of credit for milk vendors, many individuals reported the negative experiences of themselves or acquaintances. Looking forward to mitigate such negative experiences, microfinance groups with democratically selected leadership are found to be most cohesive and effective at achieving their groups' goals (Chan 2010;Gurtoo and Singh 2014). Similarly, group models that use symmetric loans, foster social ties, and contain members with similar risk tolerance may be most secure (Bond and Rai 2008;Guttman 2008;Thorp et al. 2005). This recommendation is important in light of our findings around lending and borrowing as a way to reinforce existing or build new social networks.Financial technologies, also called fintech, offer additional opportunities for microbusiness owner-operators to strengthen their ability to repay their own loans, as well as seek repayment from their debtors. One such example comes from Kenya and Tanzania, where small business owners are already successfully using fintech innovations to conduct transactions, purchase stock, and receive payments (Bångens and Söderberg 2011;Chale and Mbamba 2015;Kirui and Onyuma 2015;Ngaruiya et al. 2014;Wanyonyi and Bwisa 2013). Additionally, some microcredit programs already collect debts via mobile money platforms (Francis et al. 2017;Njuki et al. 2019). Extending and tweaking these services for informal vendors' needs may mitigate their risk of never being repaid, and potentially losing their livelihood because of it. For instance, developing a phone-based application that automatically sends customers reminders to repay may reduce the need for formal bookkeeping-an attractive option for microbusiness owners with limited training in this area-and reduce the burden to be polite that disproportionately falls to women vendors. Overall, fintech innovations tailored to small business owners, especially those operating in informal sectors, may bolster owner-operators' ability to maintain their relationships with lenders and customers and ultimately facilitate the flow of goods and services in their communities.Also, fintech is recognized for addressing some barriers to financial services women face (e.g., proximity to financial institutions, affordability, and know-your-client requirements), making it an attractive innovation to enhance women's ability to function as simultaneous debtors and creditors (Njuki et al. 2019). While a complementary quantitative study of milk retailers in peri-urban Nairboi found all retailers had mobile phones, women's mobile phone use lags behind men's globally, so programs aiming to increase use of fintech solutions will need to be gender-sensitive and aim to increase women's access to and use of mobile phones as well (Galiè et al. in preparation;Rowntree 2019;Silver et al. 2019).This study examines how women and men microbusiness owner-operators navigate borrowing money and selling on credit, and the consequences for their businesses, while drawing on the case of the informal milk sector in peri-urban Nairobi. Overall, we find that microbusiness owners function as debtors and creditors simultaneously, and these actions are heavily embedded in their existing social networks-given that they largely sell on credit to maintain relationships with existing customers and to foster new ones with prospective clients. These findings have important implications for development interventions, which have not previously acknowledged the role of microbusiness owner-operators in selling on credit. Providing credit comes with risks to retailers, and more so for women vendors, who often have fewer assets and operate with smaller profit margins. Our discussion highlights how future development projects might aim to benefit owner-operators, and how to ensure that these benefits extend to women owner-operators. Importantly, fintech interventions may hold considerable potential in this area. ","tokenCount":"8259"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1529820809c9758c2d7f96196796040f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/74d1e8da-55d8-4d6d-8254-5fe2d5d1f4fd/retrieve","id":"-1370991860"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28e9f47f-5b00-4fd8-8e92-7efc940bef61","pagecount":"16","content":"Generally, the contribution of the livestock sector in socioeconomic development is not fully appreciated partly due to lack of empirical evidence to counter the prevailing perception • Emerging empirical evidence ==> potential contribution of livestock sector much larger than is currently believed • It has big potential to contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction and food security • Livelihoods and income generation for smallholder farmers through production of high value products 1. Recognition of importance/contribution to economic growth, Livelihoods etc. ➢ Existence of actual statistics/figures ➢ Quality of statistics (sources, date and methodology used) 2. Clear identification of challenges, constraints and opportunities ➢ Methods used (e.g. SWOT) ➢ Are institutional, policy & capacity challenges captured in addition to technical ones? ➢ Are there differentiated by commodity, region, value chain actors, scale of operation, gender etc. 3. Stakeholder consultation in NAIP preparation (based on independent reviews) ➢ Diversity of representation ➢ Representativeness by region, gender, minority, private sector etc.• Contribution to household asset base for finance and insurance• Contribution to household nutrition security especially for vulnerable members (children, the sick, and the elderly)• Direct contribution to soil fertility through manure and organic matter ","tokenCount":"192"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"32e67159038462599334b02121f6c3a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/618c906c-2b8e-4d09-966c-c495492257d9/retrieve","id":"546755354"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"40dde4c8-4dfe-48f2-9ca3-5c0058f39273","pagecount":"18","content":"El proyecto Programa de Gestión Rural, Empresarial, Sanidad y Ambiente (PROGRESA) inició sus acciones en Nicaragua y específicamente en la zona norte del país, en febrero de 2013, con el objetivo de fortalecer las cadenas de valor de ganado doble propósito, frijol, y hortalizas y frutas. Este proyecto es financiado por el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA, por sus siglas en inglés), y ejecutado por Catholic Relief Services (CRS) y ocho organizaciones socias: Cáritas Matagalpa, Cáritas Estelí, la Asociación para el Desarrollo Social de Nicaragua (ASDENIC), la Fundación de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural (FIDER), la Asociación para la Diversificación y el Desarrollo Agrícola Comunal (ADDAC), la Comisión Nacional Ganadera (CONAGAN), el Instituto de Promoción Humana (INPRHU) y la Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples La Unión R.L.; en los departamentos de Jinotega, Madriz, Matagalpa y Nueva Segovia.Como parte de la búsqueda de alternativas económicas y la diversificación de la producción agrícola para pequeños productores de la zona norte de Nicaragua, PROGRESA a través de sus socios Cooperativa La Unión, Cáritas Matagalpa y FIDER, ha unido esfuerzos para la implementación de alternativas de agricultura protegida.Al compartir experiencias en otros países sobre la agricultura moderna y protegida, ésta se visualizó como una opción que podía dar resultados en las zonas de acción, por lo cual se decidió apoyar a los productores para validar la tecnología, que brindó resultados favorables. Así, se empezaron a implementar sistemas de agricultura protegida como macrotúneles y megatúneles, los cuales han generado mayores rendimientos en los cultivos y la obtención de un producto de calidad y con inocuidad que cumple los estándares que demandan los mercados formales de Nicaragua.Mediante la implementación de agricultura protegida en los cultivos de tomate (Solanum Lycopersicum) y chiltomo (Capsicum annuum), se han logrado reducir costos de producción a mediano plazo. A la vez, se ha logrado aumentar la productividad de los cultivos, lo cual se traduce en mayores ingresos para los productores. Estos sistemas de producción son amigables con el medio ambiente, ya que se reduce la utilización de productos químicos y esto disminuye la contaminación de fuentes de agua y suelos. Así mismo, se disminuyen los riegos de intoxicación en los trabajadores y se puede ofertar un producto que no causa daño a los consumidores.Si bien es cierto que existen otras formas de agricultura protegida tales como microtúneles y casa china, que permiten tener protegido el cultivo por Producción de chiltomo bajo megatúneles.Comunidad Las Delicias, municipio de Cuidad Darío.• 3,82 ha de cultivo de tomate y chiltomo bajo macrotúnel.• Chiltomo: 1.608 mallas de 12 kg más que en el sistema convencional.• Tomate: 1.846 cajillas de 25 kg más que en el sistema convencional.• 0,8 ha de cultivo de chiles de colores, chiltomo criolla y mejorada, y tomate de mesa.• 121 productores involucrados.• Ingresos por hectárea de tomate y chiltomo en macrotúnel: US$43.055 y US$27.132, respectivamente.• Ingresos por ha en cultivo de chiltomo en megatúneles de US$48.704 y en chiles de colores: US$132.352.• 157 empleos directos.• 700 empleos indirectos.• 86.400 unidades de chiles de colores vendidos al mercado formal e informal e ingresos de US$31.764.• 2.445 mallas de 12 kg de chiltomo vendidos al mercado formal e informal para ingresos de US$26.966.• 7.000 cajillas de 25 kg de tomate vendidos al mercado informal para ingresos de US$39.622.un cierto tiempo del ciclo vegetativo, PROGRESA, en conjunto con los productores, decidió optar por tecnologías con las cuales se puede tener protegido el cultivo por mayor tiempo o durante todo el ciclo: macrotúneles y megatúneles.Para implementar los macrotúneles se construyen arcos con tubos de PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) SDR 1 17, de 6 metros de longitud por 2,5 cm de diámetro, los cuales se ubican a una distancia de tres metros entre sí y generan un túnel de 3,7 metros de ancho, con altura máxima dos metros, que se recubren con tela sintética de 6,4 metros de ancho y dentro de los cuales se pueden establecer tres surcos de tomate o chiltomo. Mediante la implementación de macrotúneles se protege el cultivo durante 50 a 60 días, logrando así disminuir las afectaciones por plagas vectores de enfermedades. En este sistema se han logrado rendimientos por hectárea de 2.460 mallas en chiltomo y 3.346 cajillas de 25 kg en tomate, lo cual se traduce en ingresos brutos de US$27.132 en chiltomo y US$43.055 en tomate.Los megatúneles se construyen con tubos galvanizados de 2,5 cm, chapa número 16, con los cuales se forman arcos de 14 metros de ancho, separados a una distancia de tres metros entre sí, que se sujetan con 14 cuerdas de alambre galvanizado número 12, para una longitud del túnel de 25 metros. Esta estructura es recubierta con malla anti insectos (la de 50 mesh 2 ), la cual va sujetada con tierra en los extremos inferiores. Una vez construido el megatúnel, queda con un ancho de 11 metros y se pueden ubicar en él 8 camas de chiltomo a doble hilera o chiles de colores. Con este sistema se han logrado aumentar los rendimientos en chiltomo hasta 3.563 mallas más que en el sistema convencional, y en chiles de colores se han obtenido rendimientos de 360.000 unidades por hectárea.El propósito de este documento es compartir los resultados de la implementación de estos sistemas de agricultura macro y megatúneles en la producción de hortalizas para el mercado selectivo y local.Antes de iniciar con el proyecto los productores de hortalizas beneficiarios de PROGRESA en los departamentos de Jinotega y Matagalpa, implementaban el sistema de producción extensivo de hortalizas, que consistía en el establecimiento de cultivos a campo abierto, y sin tener en consideración las prácticas para conservación de suelos y agua. Se establecían los cultivos de chiltomo y tomate sin protección y con sistemas de riego por manguereo o inundación, lo cual traía como consecuencia un uso irracional del recurso agua y un aumento de afectaciones por hongos y bacterias, debido a la alta humedad y al salpique. Posteriormente, se inició el uso indiscriminado de diversos productos químicos, que trajo como consecuencia resistencia de las plagas claves de los cultivos a los plaguicidas, a tal punto que cada vez que se establecían los cultivos era más difícil su control.Por tal razón, surgía la necesidad de establecer cultivos en nuevas áreas para poder obtener una producción aceptable. Esto trajo como consecuencia el avance de la frontera agrícola y la tala de bosques, lo cual disminuía considerablemente el caudal de las fuentes de agua y contribuía al calentamiento global, que se ha traducido en un fenómeno bien conocido actualmente: el cambio climático, que ha provocado que la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades en los cultivos sea más severa.En este sentido no se realizaban acciones en pro de la preservación de recursos como el suelo y el agua en algunas fincas de productores de las zonas determinadas. Sin embargo, en la zona de acción de La Unión, FIDER y Cáritas Matagalpa -específicamente con socios de la Cooperativa Sacaclí y la Cooperativa Agropecuaria de Producción de Hortalizas (COPRAHOR)-, mediante el apoyo de algunos proyectos anteriores a PROGRESA, se habían empezado a implementar los sistemas de riego por goteo, como respuesta a una necesidad de optimizar el agua, considerando que estos productores estaban ubicados en la zona seca de los departamentos de Jinotega y Matagalpa. Fue entonces cuando los productores valoraron, experimentaron y posteriormente adoptaron la tecnología de riego por goteo, que generó impactos positivos como: la reducción de mano de obra en riego, fertilización y control de malezas, mejores rendimientos de cosecha respecto a sistemas convencionales y una extensión en el ciclo productivo de la planta.Debido a las pérdidas económicas generadas por bajos rendimientos de cosecha y productos de mala calidad, surgió la necesidad de optar por tecnologías para la protección de cultivos, ya que era bastante difícil controlar plagas vectores de enfermedades virales y bacterianas, generalmente trasmitidas por mosca blanca (Bemicia tabaci) y paratrioza (Bactericera cockerelli). Como respuesta a esta necesidad se empezaron a establecer tecnologías como microtúneles y casa china.Los microtúneles consisten en la utilización de aros de alambre galvanizado calibre 8, de 2 metros de longitud, los cuales forman un arco sobre el surco con un espaciamiento de 3 metros entre sí y están unidos por tres líneas de nylon que los sujeta. Posteriormente, los aros de alambre son sujetados en los extremos por estacas de madera de 2 metros de longitud, y este esqueleto es recubierto con tela agribón de 1,8 metros de ancho, sujetado en los extremos por tierra. Con este sistema se protege al cultivo por un periodo de 30 a 40 días.Por su parte, la casa china consiste en la utilización de tela sintética no tejida de 1,3 metros de ancho, la cual sirve para recubrir el surco de cultivo por ambos lados, ya que la tela va sujeta a una cuerda de nylon que está establecida sobre estacas de 1,6 metros que después de quitar la tela servirán para tutorear 3 el cultivo. Con este sistema se puede tener protegida la planta entre 35 y 45 días.Estos sistemas se implementaron en fincas de 47 productores de hortalizas (33 de Matagalpa y 14 de Jinotega), con las que se obtuvieron resultados aceptables en cuanto a la disminución de afectaciones por plagas, así como mejores rendimientos frente a la forma tradicional.Adicionalmente a esto se implementó la cubertura de suelo con plástico mulch 4 para control de malezas dentro de la infraestructura, y así evitar estar destapando y tapando el cultivo, porque se facilitaba el ingreso de insectos y la proliferación de enfermedades trasmitidas por los mismos. Un factor que influyó en que los productores establecieran cultivos con cobertura mulch bajo microtúnel y/o casa china, fue la exigencia del mercado formal, el cual requería productos con mejores estándares de calidad, que solo se podían lograr mediante la implementación de estos sistemas.Sin embargo, para muchos productores esto no parecía muy fácil a causa de varios factores:1. No contaban con capital económico para realizar la inversión, debido a dificultades para acceder a créditos con cooperativas y entes financieros, considerando que la inversión en estos sistemas es alta en comparación con los sistemas tradicionales, lo cual desmotivaba al productor.2. En la agricultura tradicional no se manejaban registros operativos y contables que generaran datos aproximados sobre los costos de producción.En la toma de decisiones para mejoramiento, estas cooperativas manejaban información detallada de los grupos de productores y los volúmenes de producto que ellos pudieran cosechar y ofertar a los mercados, siendo esto una base para considerar si se apoyaba con financiamiento a los productores para la implementación de tecnologías que aumentaran la productividad de los cultivos.De otro lado, si bien se tenía poca información sobre agricultura protegida a pequeña escala, mediante la implementación del sistema en pequeñas áreas, se pudo valorar que aumentaba la producción respecto al sistema tradicional y que el producto mejoraba en cuanto a calidad, lo cual también aportó a la toma de decisiones para continuar con el establecimiento del sistema en otras áreas, con otros productores.Mediante la ejecución del proyecto Alianzas para la Creación de Oportunidades de Desarrollo Rural a través de Relaciones Agroempresariales (ACORDAR, por sus siglas en inglés), que dio inicio en el año 2007 y finalizó en el 2012, se logró que productores de las zonas de Matagalpa y Jinotega, específicamente de las cooperativas COPRAHOR, Ecovegetales y COOSMPROJIN, atendidos actualmente por FIDER y Cáritas Matagalpa, implementaran en sus fincas las Buenas Prácticas Agrícolas (BPA) en los cultivos de hortalizas, mismas que contribuyeron a la obtención de un producto inocuo para ofertar a mercados formales que requieren mejores estándares de calidad.De estas organizaciones de productores únicamente la cooperativa COPRAHOR contaba con un centro de lavado y empaque de hortalizas, del cual hacía uso para proveer un producto limpio al comprador y así obtener un mejor precio, ya que tenía relaciones comerciales con mercados formales. En el caso de los productores de la Cooperativa Sacaclí, producían mediante las tecnologías anteriormente mencionadas, pero siempre para un mercado informal, lo cual representaba una limitante, debido a la relación de costos y beneficios, pues el producto lo vendían al mismo precio de uno que se cultivara de forma tradicional.En cuanto al apoyo del sector privado con inversiones en la oferta de servicios especializados para mejoramiento de las cadenas de valor en hortalizas, en estas zonas ha sido nulo; este sector únicamente ha planteado pagar mejor el producto que el mercado local, pero exigiendo mejores estándares de calidad y ciertos procesos de limpieza y empaque.Para la implementación de los sistemas de agricultura protegida se participó en intercambios de experiencias que se llevaron a cabo en el departamento de Comayagua (Honduras), y en el municipio de Somoto, Madriz (Nicaragua), con el objetivo de conocer la tecnología e implementarla. En estos intercambios participaron asesores técnicos, técnicos de campo y productores de Cáritas Matagalpa, La Unión y FIDER.Una vez realizadas estas giras en el año 2013, los productores empezaron a demandar apoyo para implementar la tecnología en sus fincas y fue entonces cuando PROGRESA tomó en consideración estas demandas y decidió apoyarlos, aunque esto no estaba considerado en el plan operativo anual del proyecto. Así, a inicios del año 2014 se empezó la implementación de agricultura protegida mediante macrotúneles y megatúneles.El proyecto PROGRESA decidió apoyar a 14 productores de La Unión con la implementación de macrotúneles para el cultivo de tomate, en un área de 2,64 ha, correspondiente a 14 parcelas de 0,17 ha cada una; y también apoyó a un productor de FIDER con 0,18 hectáreas, para el cultivo de chiles de colores. PROGRESA aportó el 50% de los costos y cada productor el 50% restante. Para la selección de los productores se tomó en cuenta a los que estaban implementando BPA en sus fincas, que tuvieran disponibilidad para participar en capacitaciones e intercambios de experiencias, y que pudieran optar a crédito en las cooperativas atendidas.En cada parcela se establecieron un total de 3.000 plantas de tomate. Inicialmente la meta era mantener el cultivo por el mayor tiempo posible; sin embargo, solo se pudo mantener hasta los 50 días después de trasplantado, debido a que tuvo un desarrollo vegetativo rápido y la tela fue deteriorada por los fuertes vientos, pues no hubo barreras vivas bien establecidas que disminuyeran su velocidad. Las variedades de tomate que se establecieron son Shanty, Phony, Azera 3057 y Chisthy. En el cultivo de chiltomo la variedad utilizada fue Nathalie.Un factor que tuvo gran impacto en el desarrollo vegetativo y el cuaje de los frutos fue la sequía, que disminuyó el caudal de las fuentes de agua y trajo como consecuencia que al cultivo no se le suministrara la cantidad de agua requerida, lo cual afectó los rendimientos.Por su parte, el productor apoyado por FIDER que instaló 0,18 ha de macrotúneles en el cultivo de chiles de colores, estableció 5.500 plantas. Esta instalación se aprovechó para capacitar a distintos productores a través de escuelas de campo (más conocidas como ecas) en las que se valoró el comportamiento de las variedades de esta zona con el sistema de macrotúneles, por ello se establecieron 8 líneas de chiles de colores (B1138, B1139, B1140, B1141, B1142, B1143, B1144, B1145) y una línea de chile jalapeño(El Rey).Por otra parte, con Cáritas Matagalpa se estableció una parcela de 0,18 ha con macrotúneles para Chiltoma bajo megatúnel. Productor Carlos González, de la comunidad Las Delicias, Ciudad Darío.valorar la tecnología mediante escuelas de campo.Esto fue donado en un 100% por PROGRESA, pero no funcionó a causa de los fuertes vientos que rasgaban la tela. En vista de ello, Cáritas decidió apoyar a 30 productores con la implementación de megatúneles en igual número de parcelas, con un tamaño de 265 metros cuadrados cada uno, para un área total de 0,8 hectáreas en los cultivos de chiles de colores y chiltomo Nathalie. Para la selección de los productores se establecieron reuniones con los comités directivos de las cooperativas, con el objetivo de definir los criterios de selección, entre los cuales se destacaron los siguientes: participación activa de los productores en PROGRESA, que estuvieran trabajando en sus unidades de producción y que implementaran BPA con el fin de certificar sus fincas.Con este sistema de megatúneles, en el cultivo de chiles de colores se establecieron 8.640 plantas; esto se implementó en pequeñas áreas de cultivo y mediante la organización de los productores involucrados se logró mantener una siembra escalonada, determinada por la cantidad del producto requerido por el mercado formal. Las variedades de chiles con las cuales se experimentó la tecnología son: Kavery, Consul Y Glory, de colores rojo, amarillo y anaranjado, respectivamente. En el cultivo de chiltomo se establecieron 7.560 plantas de la variedad Nathalie.Cabe señalar que en los dos sistemas de agricultura protegida se implementó el sistema de riego por goteo, que brinda mejor eficiencia en el uso del agua, ya que se suministra únicamente la lámina de riego que la planta necesita y, por tratarse de un riego lento, el agua tiene mayor facilidad para infiltrarse y la humedad permanece por más tiempo en el suelo. Además se utilizó plástico mulch para el control de malezas y evitar que los frutos tuvieran contacto directo con el suelo.La cosecha en el cultivo de tomate en macrotúnel no se realizó en su totalidad debido a los bajos precios y a que el producto no salió de la calidad esperada porque, como se mencionó anteriormente, la tela se rompió y no protegió al cultivo por mayor tiempo. En el caso de chiltomo en macrotúneles, se cosechó todo el producto pero fue vendido al mercado informal; solamente se vendió al mercado formal una cantidad de 4.600 unidades, adquiridas por Supermercado \"Las Segovias\"e Industrias Cárnicas Integradas de Nicaragua S A.En los cultivos de chiltomo Nathalie y chiles de colores, con productores de Cáritas Matagalpa (en megatúneles) y FIDER (en macrotúneles), se realizó la cosecha y el producto se vendió en el mercado formal, ya que estos productores tenían relaciones comerciales con mercados que si bien exigen ciertas normas de selección, clasificación y empaque, pagan el producto a precios diferenciados.La cosecha se realizó de forma manual, donde el obrero seleccionaba los frutos que tuvieran el tamaño y la coloración que se requería, depositaba el producto en cajillas plásticas, y este era transportado al centro de acopio donde se realizaba el proceso de clasificación, limpieza y empaque; así quedaba listo para ser entregado al mercado (era para consumo fresco).Esta comercialización de chiles de colores y chiltomo producidos en macrotúneles y megatúneles estuvo orientada a satisfacer necesidades de mercados formales como La Colonia y Walmart, quienes compran a excelentes precios, que van desde $0,36 hasta $0,73 dólares por unidad, en el caso de chiles de colores; y desde $0,18 hasta $0,36 dólares por unidad, en el caso de chiltomo.En el desarrollo de esta experiencia participaron varios actores:1. Productores, quienes aplicaron la tecnología en fincas.2. Equipos técnicos de PROGRESA, quienes brindaron asesoría técnica.3. Casas comerciales, quienes brindaron asesoramiento sobre la tecnología.y Sacaclí, quienes brindaron financiamiento a los productores para establecer el sistema y cultivar los rubros establecidos (tomate, chiltomo, chiles de colores).El financiamiento fue uno de los puntos clave para lograr implementar la tecnología, ya que las cooperativas desconocían los costos de la infraestructura y, en consecuencia, cuánto aumentarían los costos de producción. Además, al igual que los productores, tenían ciertas dudas en cuanto a:• Si funcionaría la tecnología al implementarla en la zona en la que ellos trabajan.• Si al establecer el cultivo bajo estas condiciones les sería rentable.• Si los rendimientos aumentarían considerablemente respecto al sistema convencional.• Si estas tecnologías tendrían un efecto positivo sobre el manejo de plagas y la disminución de aplicaciones de plaguicidas.De otro lado, una dificultad importante fue la falta de prestadores de servicios locales para implementar las tecnologías. En el caso de los megatúneles fue difícil encontrar personas capacitadas en metalúrgica que fabricaran la estructura metálica para los mismos, pero finalmente se halló alguien interesado en incursionar en la elaboración de los arcos, quien los pudo elaborar, y al instalarlos fueron funcionales.Vale la pena mencionar que el entusiasmo de los productores, la necesidad de contrarrestar las afectaciones por plagas vectores de enfermedades, la oportunidad de mercado y el apoyo de PROGRESA, fueron elementos claves que impulsaron la implementación de estas tecnologías.Productor Douglas Flores. Comunidad Las Delicias, municipio de Cuidad Darío.Actualmente se continúa trabajando con 30 productores de Cáritas en la zona de Matagalpa, quienes están implementando la tecnología de megatúneles en los cultivos de chile de colores y chiltomo para comercializar en el mercado formal. Así mismo, 23 productores de La Unión en Jinotega implementaron el sistema de macrotúneles en los cultivos de chiltomo y tomate para comercializarlos en el mercado informal.En la implementación de macrotúneles para el cultivo de tomate y chiltomo hay aceptación por parte del productor, ya que existen dos hectáreas de chiltomo establecidas con fondos propios de un productor y 0,12 ha de tomate financiadas por otro productor, ambos beneficiarios de PROGRESA a través de La Unión.Según datos de cosecha y ventas reportadas durante la ejecución de PROGRESA se considera que los más beneficiados con la implementación de la tecnología son los productores, pues reciben de manera directa los ingresos económicos por la venta de productos de calidad. En el caso de chiltomo en macrotúneles obtienen US$17.735 más por hectárea que de la forma convencional; y en megatúneles, US$39.307 más que en el sistema convencional, considerando que la producción proveniente de megatúneles es para mercados formales. Por otra parte, los consumidores también se benefician, ya que pueden acceder a alimentos de calidad que son más seguros, desde el punto de vista de inocuidad, para su consumo en fresco.Aspectos importantes que limitaron los resultados en cuanto a producción mediante la implementación de esta tecnología fueron los siguientes:• La sequía limitó los rendimientos en el caso del cultivo de tomate, esto porque todos los productores que implementaron macrotúneles en este cultivo obtenían el agua de pozos perforados a mano, los cuales disminuyeron su caudal. Por lo tanto, la cantidad de agua que se suministraba al cultivo no era la suficiente para la planta, más aun cuando el cultivo estaba en proceso de floración y cuajado de frutos. Por eso se presentaron problemas de pudrición en la base del fruto (culillo negro), ya que al haber menos disponibilidad de agua en el suelo, el calcio se hace menos móvil y Productor de la comunidad Carreta Quebrada, Sébaco.la planta no lo puede obtener en las cantidades necesarias para producir una fruta de buen tamaño y consistencia.• Los precios bajos del tomate al momento de la cosecha hicieron que los resultados en cuanto a ingresos fueran menores. Al momento de planificar la siembra el precio de la caja de tomate era de US$17 y debido a este buen precio muchos productores no beneficiarios de PROGRESA establecieron grandes áreas en la zona húmeda y semihúmeda de Jinotega, donde hay buenas condiciones climáticas para el cultivo; por ello hubo una sobre producción y a la hora de cosechar el precio de la caja de tomate bajó a US$2,56.• En el caso de la cosecha de chiles de colores con productores de FIDER, el mercado formal había acordado acopiar toda la producción, pero al solo compró el 60%, por lo cual hubo pérdidas del 40% del producto que se pudo haber ubicado en el mercado informal.Por otra parte, algunos aspectos que contribuyeron a la ampliación de los resultados obtenidos fueron:• Menor utilización de aplicaciones de agroquímicos, lo cual redujo los costos de producción y permitió obtener un producto más sano.• Apoyo de PROGRESA con el 50% del costo de los macrotúneles y megatúneles.• Las cooperativas están brindando oportunamente a los productores servicios de financiamiento para los cultivos y la infraestructura, con tasas de interés entre el 18 y el 22% anual. Además, los productores pueden obtener los plaguicidas y fertilizantes en los agroservicios de las cooperativas en forma de crédito, que se paga al final de la cosecha.• Tanto PROGRESA como las cooperativas han dispuesto de su personal para brindar asistencia técnica a productores de manera gratuita para llevar una producción permanente y escalonada que permita satisfacer las necesidades del mercado formal e informal.• La implementación del sistema de riego por goteo, que facilita las labores de riego, fertilización y control de maleza, y contribuye al uso racional del agua.Con la implementación de la tecnología de agricultura protegida las cooperativas han ganado mayor confianza en ofertar productos y servicios a sus socios, debido a que han valorado la rentabilidad de estos sistemas, mediante los cuales se logra una mayor productividad.Otro aspecto importante es que se han creado conexiones con mercados formales (Walmart) que demandan productos de calidad los que pueden ser obtenidos mediante sistemas de agricultura protegida. En el caso de Cáritas Matagalpa y FIDER, los productores están supliendo los requerimientos del mercado debido a que han aumentado la producción de los cultivos por área (se cultiva menos área y se obtiene más volumen de producción), de manera que están vendiendo a estos mercados de forma continua.De otro lado, debido a la capacidad comprobada de los productores de ofertar productos permanentemente, los mercados tienen ahora mayor confianza para establecer relaciones comerciales con ellos y así brindarles un buen precio por los productos, lo cual se traduce en mayores ingresos: US$10.422/ciclo por la venta de chiltomo y US$35.208/ciclo por la venta de chiles de colores.En cuanto al tema de las BPA, este se encuentra concatenado con la producción protegida de hortalizas. Los productos que provienen de fincas BPA tienen mayor posibilidad de ser ubicados en mercados diferenciados por su calidad e inocuidad, a la vez que los compradores pueden obtener, mediante registros, información detallada de todas las actividades o aplicaciones realizadas en el cultivo, lo cual da más credibilidad a la calidad del producto; por eso la agricultura protegida y las BPA no pueden estar divorciadas, porque de ello depende la obtención de productos competitivos para mercados formales. PROGRESA impulsó también el proceso de certificación en fincas mediante la norma nacional para ofertar productos sanos que no causen daño a los consumidores, y con énfasis en la protección de los recursos naturales y el bienestar de los trabajadores en cuanto a su salud (para conocer más detalles sobre esta experiencia particular en BPA puede consultar el recuento de sistematización dedicado a ella).De manera complementaria, se ha mejorado el acceso a la información sobre el mercado, ya que a través de las cooperativas se mantiene informados a los productores sobre los precios y las tendencias del mercado, para que así puedan tomar decisiones correctas o acertadas al momento de la comercialización de los productos obtenidos.La forma en que los productores y directivos de las cooperativas tienen acceso a la información del mercado es mediante su participación en comisiones nacionales de hortalizas: tanto en la comisión de la Asociación Nacional de Productores y Exportadores de Nicaragua (APEN), como en la Comisión Nacional de Hortalizas (promovida por varias cooperativas productoras de Nicaragua). Estas realizan reuniones para conocer precios, regular importaciones y proponer alternativas para mantener precios que le permitan al productor obtener ingresos considerables por su cosecha.Feria de promoción de vegetales y frutas certificadas con BPA, realizada en Multicentro Las Américas, Managua.• Una de las dificultades que se presentó durante la implementación fue que no se previó cómo desechar los materiales utilizados en la construcción de los macro y megatúneles, como tela sintética, cinta de riego, pita para sujetar las plantas, envases de productos químicos y tubos plásticos que se utilizan para los esqueletos; por ello, para las próximas experiencias es fundamental formular un plan para la eliminación de estos desechos.• En la construcción de los megatúneles anteriormente se utilizaban refuerzos de los arcos cada seis metros, pero esto creó una dificultad porque el esqueleto de los mismos quedó débil y ya con la tela instalada, la estructura se movía aún más, lo cual generaba rose en las plantas de los surcos que estaban más cerca del borde de los arcos. Por ello los productores y los técnicos participantes en esta experiencia consideran conveniente, para nuevas obras, establecer estos refuerzos cada tres metros de distancia.• El apoyo de las cooperativas en el financiamiento a los productores es primordial para garantizar la continuidad y la ampliación de nuevas áreas de cultivo mediante el sistema de agricultura protegida.• Un aspecto importante para garantizar la integridad de los macrotúneles es el establecimiento oportuno de barreras vivas. Durante la implementación de los macrotúneles el viento causó daños considerables en la tela sintética, haciendo que el cultivo estuviera protegido por menos tiempo. La principal causa de esto fue que el sorgo que se estableció como barrera viva solo se sembró hasta que se construyó el macrotúnel, por lo cual no pudo proteger el cultivo debido a su bajo porte; lo recomendable hubiese sido sembrar las barreras de sorgo con una anticipación de al menos 40 días, y establecer variedades como millón común (Sorghum vulgare), Taiwán (Pennisetum purpureum) y maíz (Zea mays), que son de rápido crecimiento.• Cuando se realizó el estaquillado en cultivos de chiltomo y tomate se hizo con estacas de 1,5 metros de longitud y 15 días después de trasplantado. De esta manera hubo daños en la tela que rozaba las estacas en los surcos laterales.Por eso, para futuras experiencias se considera realizar el estaquillado en tres etapas: primero con una estaca de 60 centímetros de longitud, después con una estaca de 1 metro, y finalmente, cuando esté próximo el desinstalado de la tela, con una estaca definitiva de 1,5 metros, para así evitar que se rompa la tela y tener protegido el cultivo por al menos 50 a 60 días.• Para garantizar la comercialización de la producción es muy importante el establecimiento del cultivo en siembra escalonada para garantizar producto a los mercados de manera permanente y sin tener sobreproducción.• Para mantener la calidad del producto en el caso del chiltomo y los chiles de colores se debe implementar un manejo agronómico adecuadoProductor que recibe asistencia técnica del personal de Cáritas Matagalpa. Comunidad Carreta Quebrada, Sébaco.que incluya prácticas culturales como el raleo de frutos no comerciales (eliminación de frutos pequeños y mal formados) para lograr que los frutos bien formados obtengan un tamaño adecuado que cumpla con el estándar de calidad requerido por el comprador y así disminuir los rechazos.• Por el historial de variabilidad de los precios de la producción de hortalizas en Nicaragua es importante que los productores diversifiquen la producción de los cultivos, ya que así se logra la obtención de ingresos de varios rubros.• Los grupos de interés como: las Escuelas de campo y los Comités de Investigación Agrícola Local son claves para maximizar la cobertura por parte del equipo técnico en actividades como capacitaciones, asistencia técnica y transferencia de las tecnologías. Además, los intercambios de experiencias entre agricultores que se dan en el marco de estos grupos y a través de otros espacios como las giras, han motivado y fortalecido a los productores para poner en práctica la iniciativa de agricultura protegida.Productor Santana del Carmen, quien recicla los desechos de plástico en la preparación de los macrotúneles para la producción de hortalizas.","tokenCount":"5161"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f515961bc9c374ee6892bb612c5c1186","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40520657-08c6-4e78-9449-fd59f78c6f65/retrieve","id":"-1801878502"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a331981-61a6-4eb7-a5af-2ad28b087464","pagecount":"24","content":"Aquatic agricultural systems are farming and fishing systems where the annual production dynamics of natural freshwater or coastal ecosystems contribute significantly to household livelihoods, including income and food security. The CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) 1 works to strengthen these contributions and develop aquatic agricultural systems as centers of rural innovation and growth. We address this objective by taking a systems approach to agricultural research, one that recognizes the complex interactions between system ecology and the integrated livelihoods of the people who depend upon these landscapes for their wellbeing. In doing so we pursue a demand driven research agenda focused on the specific complexities and needs of each place we work.We estimate that some 480 million people in the developing world 2 , depend on aquatic agricultural systems for their livelihoods, with approximately 200 million living on <US$ 1.25/day. Many millions more rely on these systems for food -the fish produced by the Mekong river for example, provide protein and micronutrients for 22m people in Cambodia and Laos, and the fish harvested from the large lakes of Eastern and Southern Africa are traded widely and feed poor consumers across large parts of that region. The overall challenge of AAS is to foster innovation that can strengthen the livelihoods of the women and men who live in these systems, and do so in ways that increase their contribution to wider economic development and national food security.Fisheries or aquaculture are generally an important component of aquatic agricultural systems, but other farming and natural resource management activities predominate in some. In all cases the communities that live there adopt a mix of farming practices designed to harness the diversity of options available. For example, rice and cattle are particularly important in many of the larger freshwater plains and deltas, while a diversity of root crops and other vegetables are grown in most types of aquatic agricultural system, often combined with small ruminants and poultry and a range of off-farm activities. Recognizing this complexity AAS works together with local stakeholders to identify opportunities and challenges, and nurture innovative approaches and capacities to address them.In developing AAS, the CGIAR has recognized that, while aquatic agricultural systems contribute to rural growth, poverty reduction, food security and nutrition, past investments in agricultural research and development in these places have had limited sustainable impact on poverty. Accordingly AAS has been designed to foster technological and methodological innovations that both harness the productivity and diversity of these systems and increase the inherent capacity of smallholder farmers to experiment and innovate. Of particular importance is the fact that the program is built on a place-based approach through which we seek to bring to bear the strengths of the CGIAR 3 and multiple research and development partners to address the challenges and opportunities identified by local stakeholders in these locations. We seek to do this by working initially in a limited number of locations, generating learning that can have broader applicability, and by building partnerships and capacities to apply this learning at scale. In collaboration with other CRPs, notably those focusing on other agricultural and natural management systems, and with wider networks of researchers and development practitioners, we also seek to contribute to improved policy and practice in other complex farming and systems.AAS aims to improve the lives of an estimated 21 million people by 2023 through the development, dissemination and scaling of technologies in the places we work, and by improving conditions for innovation there. We also aim to benefit a further 27 million through national and regional scaling of the learning developed through AAS. To achieve this goal and these targets, our work is focused on four types of aquatic agricultural systems in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, each with significant numbers of low income people 4 :  Freshwater systems of sub-Saharan Africa. These aquatic systems lie along Africa's rivers and lake shores. They cover some 800,000km² and support over 70 million people, of whom an estimated 43 million live on <$1.25/day. AAS has focused initially on the Zambezi basin and the Barotse floodplain of Western Zambia. In collaboration with NEPAD, through both the Rural Futures Initiative and CAADP, we will expand this to West, Central and Eastern Africa in 2014-2017. Coastal systems of sub-Saharan Africa. These aquatic systems lie along Africa's coasts. They cover approximately 300,000km² and support over 12 million people, of whom an estimated 7 million live on <$1.25/day. AAS did not focus on coastal systems in Africa in our first phase, but will do so in 2014-2017 in collaboration with NEPAD. Asian Mega Deltas. These systems cover the deltas of Asia's major rivers where substantial areas of natural ecosystems remain and where the natural productivity of these ecosystems contribute substantially to the agricultural economy. They include the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna system of Bangladesh and eastern India, the Irrawaddy in Myanmar, the Mekong in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the Yangtze in China. The aquatic agricultural systems in these deltas cover an estimated 50,000km² and support over 100 million people, of whom an estimated 40 million live on <$1.25/day. AAS has focused initially on the deltas in Bangladesh and Cambodia in the first phase.During the period 2014-2017 we will expand to include the Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar. Island systems of South-East Asia and the Pacific. These coastal systems cover approximately 650,000 km² and support 54 million people, of whom an estimated 22 million live on <$1.25/day. AAS focused initially on the southern Philippines and Solomon islands. During the period 2014-2017 we will expand to include other systems as opportunities emerge in partnership with national partners and the Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC).These four systems provide both the geographic and substantive focus for the program. They are generally highly productive, support comparatively high population densities, and play an important role in wider rural and national economies. They are also very dynamic, evolving in the face of a diversity of demographic and resource pressures. Most of these pressures are set to increase over the next 25-50 years, and be exacerbated by the emerging impacts of climate change. In order that the development contribution of these systems is sustained and enhanced, investments are needed now to build the necessary capacities to innovate and adapt.Within each system we have identified specific large geographies (coastal zones, deltas, or river basins), and countries within these, that are representative of the opportunities and challenges in each. For example the research agenda that is emerging from our work in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta in Bangladesh will address the challenges of sustaining and increasing agricultural productivity and development benefits in the face of rising salinity, changing demography, and sea level rise. This is important not only for Bangladesh, but for all of Asia's mega deltas (and several in Africa). Similarly for Africa's inland systems we have focused first on the Zambezi basin and within this the Barotse floodplain in Zambia. By pursuing a research agenda focused on understanding how to improve development opportunities, and reduce livelihood risk and undernutrition in the face of seasonal flooding and migration, the program seeks to shape future development investment both in Barotse and freshwater agricultural systems across the continent.Within each of the focal systems we have used three main criteria to choose the countries and hubs we work in. First, we prioritize places where a significant number, or proportion of a country's poor, are dependent upon aquatic agricultural systems. Second, we look to work in locations where the program can address issues of regional importance, and where the learning generated will therefore be of value for neighboring countries addressing similar opportunities and challenges. Third, we work where strong government support and good operational conditions, accompanied by learning from previous work and partnerships, provide a platform on which to build. We believe that these criteria together enable both good site selection and increase the likelihood of influence at scale. Targets. Specific indicators and targets for each IDO have been developed (and will continue to be refined) through dialogue with stakeholders and partners in focal countries and hubs. Table 2 sets out examples of these initial targets for four AAS IDOs, two material and two instrumental. A fuller set of draft AAS IDOs and targets is provided in Annex 3. Table 3 provides projections for total numbers of beneficiaries by 2023 in all current and anticipated hubs, and from national and regional scaling.Table 1. AAS IDOs.Material Outcomes Increased and more equitable income from agricultural and natural resource management and environmental services earned by low income value chain actors in aquatic agricultural systems Increased and stable access to food commodities from aquatic agricultural systems by rural and urban poor Increased consumption of nutritious, safe foods by low income households in aquatic agricultural systems, especially by nutritionally vulnerable women and children Instrumental Outcomes Improved productivity in aquatic agricultural systems (water and total factor productivity) Increased control of assets, inputs, decision-making and benefits by women and other marginalized groups in aquatic agricultural systems Increased capacity to innovate within low income and vulnerable rural communities in aquatic agricultural systems allowing them to seize new opportunities to improve livelihoods and increase household income Increased capacity to adapt to environmental and economic variability, shocks and longer term changes in low income communities in aquatic agricultural systems Greater resilience of aquatic agricultural systems through enhanced ecosystem services Policies supporting sustainable and equitable agricultural and natural resource management in aquatic agricultural systems developed and adopted by agricultural, conservation and development organizations, national governments and international bodies Environmental Outcomes Minimized adverse environmental effects of increased production and intensification in aquatic agricultural systems Increased carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gases through improved agriculture and natural resources management in aquatic agricultural systems Table 3. Total numbers of people benefitting from AAS by 2023, through direct engagement in program hubs, and from scaling at national and regional levels. These figures for direct AAS engagement are derived from detailed estimates for current hubs and projections for potential additional hubs. These are provided in Annex 4. The figures for scaling at national and regional levels are based on the assumption that learning from the program will influence development investment impacting approximately 25% of poor people dependent on the four focal systems. They are derived from a first draft of a detailed GIS study of aquatic agricultural system dependent populations that will be published in the second half of 2013. The outcome targets described in Tables 2 and 3 are ambitious but achievable. Reaching these targets, however, requires geographical focus and careful investment in a combination of partnerships, knowledge sharing and learning, and capacity development. AAS is making these investments to achieve impact at scale by pursuing three distinct but related programmatic impact pathways. These are summarized Fig. 1 and described in more detail below. Focus on hubs: direct engagement with communities and partners build on their strengths and identify where new research can support development of specific innovations addressing the opportunities or challenges they face. It is intended that the resulting innovations (technologies, institutional arrangements, methods, insights and knowledge), and the outcomes they bring, will be scaled up and out (to adjacent villages) through community to community learning and increase in the effectiveness and reach of organizations serving households in the hubs. NGO partners in particular are working to scale the approach through their engagement in the hubs, so allowing the program to reach significantly larger numbers of communities and households. To facilitate this we are working with partners to establish \"innovation platforms\" that share knowledge and learning around key areas of work, and so help create an environment that fosters innovation. Our innovation platform approach is illustrated in section 5 for the research we will conduct on value chains in Zambia, one of the priority issues through which we will address the Barotse development challenge. As part of this work we aim to stimulate and scale up learning processes that stabilize and bolster what is already working, drive the uptake of novel ideas, techniques and technologies, and begin to transform norms and institutions.Impact Pathway 2. Our work under Pathway 1 is designed to help scale the specific innovations developed through AAS interventions. Under Pathway 2 we aim to leverage the innovation friendly environment created by AAS to encourage farmers and other stakeholders to pursue their own innovative solutions to other challenges and opportunities as these emerge within our hubs. The program is working to do this by 1) fostering collective action by enabling new alliances and collaborations; 2) building upon this to transform power relations and gender norms that constrain rural households and communities from having a greater say in choosing and taking control of their livelihood options; 3) creating opportunities for women and men farmers to experiment with new approaches to pursue these options; 4) improving the knowledge, information and technology systems that can support these new approaches; 5) building capacity of all stakeholders to support and engage effectively in these community processes; and 6) informing necessary policy reform. Several research networks e.g. Prolinnova, are working to support conditions for farmer innovation and the program is exploring how it might work with these networks to foster mutual learning.Impact Pathway 3. For AAS to achieve impact at scale beyond the program's geographic hubs, the knowledge and learning generated through the program will need to be recognized as beneficial by the development community and used widely at national, regional and global scale. Achieving this will in turn require not only that our research is of the highest quality, but also that our monitoring and evaluation shows clearly how the program's approach has resulted in significant outcomes, and that we communicate these effectively. The absence of M&E methods suitable for learning from, and measuring outcomes and impact of, research in complex agricultural and natural resource management systems, has been recognized by the ISPC as a critical weakness of earlier CGIAR research in this area. In response AAS is working with other concerned CRPs in developing new approaches to M&E. A paper describing this work is available at www.aas.cgiar.org.Translating this learning into an effective body of international public goods will however require substantial investment in high quality partnerships at multiple levels. To this end AAS has also prioritized engagement with both national and international development partners, and is working with these to scale the learning from our work into national, regional and international development policy and practice, into research practice and networking, and into capacity development at multiple scales.For example at regional level in Africa, AAS has entered into partnership with NEPAD, with a view to supporting the Rural Futures Initiative and CAADP, while at national level we are partnering with Bangladesh's National Planning Commission to integrate learning from AAS into policies governing polder management. Similarly AAS is working with FARA to design an African regional platform on knowledge sharing and capacity building for aquatic agricultural systems. At global level we are also exploring opportunities to exchange learning with international research networks and development partners, including bilateral and multilateral aid agencies. Complementing these initiatives the program has also worked closely with development NGOs in focal countries and hubs, and is building upon this to pursue wider collaboration on policy and practice. This is facilitated through the participation of CARE and CRS in the program's leadership team. A fuller summary of partnerships being developed to pursue Pathway 3 is provided in Annex 5.Sections 3 and 4 above summarize AAS IDOs and targets, and outline the impact pathways required to achieve these at scale. They do not however provide a detailed description of how the program's research will lead to the innovation and improvements in wellbeing that we aspire to. This section addresses this issue by summarizing the approach the program is taking in the places we are focusing, and illustrating this with reference to our work in Zambia.The AAS approach. AAS is built on the premise that rural people, including those currently living in poverty, possess the potential to transform their lives through social, institutional and technological innovation. We are therefore designing and implementing our research in ways that foster rural innovation capacity, and improve well-being in the face of evolving opportunities and challenges. Our approach (Fig. 2) focuses initial efforts on selected geographical hubs and the people who live there, and works with these communities to develop and pursue a participatory action research agenda. At the core of this work we apply a Gender Transformative Approach (see www.aas.cgiar.org), and emphasize knowledge sharing and learning through our program networks. These four elements of our research in development approach are accompanied by significant investment in partnerships and capacity building at multiple levels, and it is the successful blend of these six elements that we believe will achieve the development outcomes we seek, and do so at scale. A separate working paper describing this approach in available at www.aas.cgiar.org. A program science handbook is also currently being written. This builds on the program's six research themes of productivity, markets, resilience, gender, policies and institutions, and knowledge sharing and learning, and describes the range of science being drawn upon and developed through the program. The first version of this handbook will be available later in 2013. Designing research to address a development challenge. In each of the program hubs we work with partners, stakeholders and communities to identify a compelling development challenge facing agriculture and natural resource management there. We then build upon this collective analysis to identify how the program's research can help build the understanding, commitment, engagement and capacity required to meet this challenge and bring about positive change. For example in the Barotse floodplain in Zambia, local stakeholders aligned strongly around the annual flooding cycle as the key development challenge that AAS needed to focus upon there. While this sustains the area's fisheries and livestock production, and provides water for agriculture, it also curtails the farming season, threatens lost production and food shortages, and compels people to move off the floodplain and rely upon less productive upland areas for several months a year. In response the research agenda agreed for Barotse highlights: i) development of pro poor agricultural and natural resource value chains as a means of better harnessing the productivity of the floodplain and optimizing the benefits to local people from these sectors; ii) opportunities for crop diversification and improved productivity designed to improve food security and eliminate the hunger season for the poorest; iii) development of new approaches to flood risk management and water management; and iv) use of our gender transformative approach to realize the untapped potential for women and youth to engage in, and earn income from, agriculture in Barotse. By pursuing this research agenda we seek not only to help increase the effectiveness of future investments in agricultural development in the Barotse floodplain, but also to harness the learning derived and use this to help address similar challenges in Africa's other inland systems.Similarly in Bangladesh stakeholders identified increasing salinity, changing hydrology and climate change as the key development challenge for the southern polder zone. Future investments in agricultural development here need to recognize and adapt to these changing conditions, and the challenges and opportunities they bring. Learning from this work will also be important for other countries working to address the challenges of Asia's large deltas.The detailed process used to work with stakeholders in developing the development challenges is set out in the program's scoping and design methodology which is available separately in the AAS Rollout Handbook at www.aas.cgiar.org. It is based on the premise that the quality of engagement we develop with and between stakeholders shapes our ability to address the more immediate dimensions of the development challenge while helping to build the long term capacity and commitment required for sustained innovation. A key element of this approach lies in the program's commitment to transforming power relations and gender norms.While it is too early at this stage to judge the success of these processes, first outcomes indicate quality engagement. For example in Barotse the design workshop was attended by CGIAR Centers, NARS, NGOs, national and local government, the Royal Barotse Establishment (the traditional authority), the private sector and community representatives. Participants said they appreciated \"the evolution of team spirit and joint ownership\", \"the good effort to get engagement by many\" and \"the process and methodology used to come up with community priorities\". Several made reference to beginning to see the potential of building better linkages between the organizations and sectors supporting community development.Pathways to impact. Whether our approach to the priorities identified in each hub's research agenda leads to the impact we seek depends on the credibility and practicality of the impact pathways we will pursue. While these pathways are yet to be developed fully with stakeholders, and will evolve over time, our work so far illustrates how we believe these pathways will deliver the changes we seek. The broader engagement of stakeholders in developing the program's research agenda and their enthusiasm for the approach also provides first evidence that the conditions required to achieve sustainable change are being put in place.We have detailed impact pathways and theories of change for two of our early research initiatives in a working paper available separately at www.aas.cgiar.org. These initiatives: i) value chains in the Barotse hub; and ii) productivity and diversification in the Southern Bangladesh Polder Zone (SBPZ), provide examples of the research that we will pursue to address the development challenges in each hub. The full research agenda as identified by stakeholders in each hub is described in the working paper. Box 1 provides a short description of the impact pathway for the Barotse value chain research. While we can't be certain at this point in all of the causal linkages described we are confident that the innovation platform and participatory action research we are putting in place will allow for the stakeholders involved to make expected linkages explicit and then test their validity. It is by enabling the value chain actors themselves to think through how they will achieve their objectives, to then act, reflect, and modify their assumptions and future actions that we expect to build sustainable capacity and lay the foundation for long-term impact at scale.Rice and fish are respectively the most important agricultural commodity and natural resource in the household economies of the Barotse floodplain. Yet despite their importance local stakeholders agree that they have received little development investment. Recognizing this priority AAS is now working with value chain actors, ranging from farmers, fishers, processors and traders, to improve collective capacity to engage in development of each value chain through an innovation platform approach. A first step has involved using participatory action research at community level as a means to enhance entrepreneurial and technical skills of community level actors. Simultaneously we are working to improve availability of market information, credit, and services, as a means of enhancing their capacity to proactively respond to market opportunities. Building on these two steps we are now bringing value chain actors together to help improve mutual understanding and vertical linkages within the chain and explore ways through which to improve efficiency and equity along the chain.Our investment in collective action at community level is also helping to improve horizontal coordination, and we believe will foster economies of scale and strengthen the position of communities when engaging with processors and traders, many of whom are not from Western Province. Similarly our gendered approach to value chain analysis is helping to improve understanding and dialogue about men and women's roles and responsibilities in the value chain and the household. This dialogue challenges existing norms and attitudes that prevent women and youth from benefiting equitably, and we believe this will contribute in time to transformative change in their engagement in, and equitable benefit from, these value chains. In turn it has been well documented that increased incomes and greater control over resources by women leads to improved education, food and nutrition security, and our approach is designed to achieve this.Building on good progress made with program implementation from July 2011 to June 2013, AAS has developed plans for steady growth of the program in the four focal systems over the period 2014-2017, followed by consolidation and scaling from 2018-2023. This will focus on delivery of the research agenda and associated investments in impact pathways in the five hubs where the program has rolled out in 2012 and 2013, while progressively increasing the number of countries and hubs in each of the focal systems. By 2017 the program aims to have 24 operational hubs in 12-14 countries. Roughly half of these countries and hubs will be located in Africa and half in Asia-Pacific, providing balanced coverage of the four systems. A provisional schedule for country engagement is provided in Annex 6. As the program matures we will focus increasingly upon learning across hubs and countries and working with partners to scale. The four focal systems will provide a geographical framework for this scaling work.Program expenditure in the initial 3.5 years (2011-2014) is projected to total US$ 81 million, with US$41 million for W1/W2 and US$40 million from bilateral sources. The expansion described here will require expenditure to grow to US$ 207 million in the period 2015-2017, US$ 303 million in the period 2018-2020 and US$ 340 million in the period 2021-2023. The anticipated source of this funding in each of these periods is summarized in Table 4. The total cost of the program over the period from 2011-2023 is projected to reach US$ 931 million, with US$ 485 million from W1/W2 and US$446 million from bilateral sources. Increased control by women and other marginalized groups of assets, inputs, decisionmaking and benefits Increased control of assets, inputs, decision-making and benefits by women and other marginalized groups in aquatic agricultural systems Increased capacity for innovation within low income and vulnerable rural communities allowing them to seize new opportunities to improve livelihoods and increase household income Increased capacity to innovate within low income and vulnerable rural communities in aquatic agricultural systems allowing them to seize new opportunities to improve livelihoods and increase household income Increased capacity in low income communities to adapt to environmental and economic variability, shocks and longer term changes Increased capacity to adapt to environmental and economic variability, shocks and longer term changes in low income communities in aquatic agricultural systems Greater resilience of agricultural/forest/water based/mixed crop livestock, aquatic systems through enhanced ecosystem services Greater resilience of aquatic agricultural systems through enhanced ecosystem services Additional policies supporting sustainable and equitable agricultural and natural resource management developed and adopted by agricultural, conservation and development organizations, national governments and international bodies Policies supporting sustainable and equitable agricultural and natural resource management in aquatic agricultural systems developed and adopted by agricultural, conservation and development organizations, national governments and international bodiesMinimized adverse environmental effects of increased production and intensification in aquatic agricultural systems Increased carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gases through improved agriculture and natural resources management Increased carbon sequestration and reduction of greenhouse gases through improved agriculture and natural resources management in aquatic agricultural systems Annex 3. Draft indicators and targets for AAS IDOs by 2017, 2020 and 2023. The indicators and specific targets provided below are still being refined in discussion with partners and will be finalized later in 2013. For control of assets and decision-making, capacity to innovate, and policies, more detailed process indicators have been provided to illustrate how the program will track progress towards creating the enabling conditions required for the higher order outcomes.Material OutcomesIncome in 270,000 poor households increased by at least 30% and with 40% of that income earned by women.Income in 1.2m poor households increased by at least 30% and with 40% of that income earned by women.Income in 2.7m poor households increased by at least 30% and with 40% of that income earned by women.20% increase in production of major foods (crops, livestock, fishcommodities we focus on through our initiatives) in 5 hubs.Food stocks in 135,000 hub households last through the year.40% increase in production of major foods (crops, livestock, fishcommodities we focus on through our initiatives) in 10 hubs.20% increase in target foods marketed in 10 hubs.Food stocks in 600,000 hub households last through the year.60% increase in production of major foods (crops, livestock, fishcommodities we focus on through our initiatives) in 15 hubs 40% increase in target foods marketed in 20 hubs Food stocks in 1.35m hub households last through the year.50% increase in consumption of nutrient rich small fish and vegetables by women and children in 135,000 poor rural households.50% increase in consumption of nutrient rich small fish and vegetables by women and children in 600,000 poor rural households.50% increase in consumption of nutrient rich small fish and vegetables by women and children in 1.35m poor rural households. Grand total 21.3m6 Number of households in each hub has been calculated on the basis of the number of communities engaged with directly in each, and the number of communities that will be reached through scaling. This multiplier varies between countries and hubs according to population density and number and track record of development partners through whom the program will scale. 7 Number of people assumes 5 people per household for all hubs except Philippines, Myanmar and Zambia where available data show household size to be 6.Annex 5. Examples of strategic partnerships being developed through AAS as part of our work on impact pathway 3.In all focal countries the program has engaged closely with national ministries of agriculture, fisheries and livestock or their equivalents as well as other related ministries such a environment or planning. For example in Bangladesh the program has worked particularly closely with the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries, and with the National Planning Commission and Local Government Engineering Department. These agencies all play a central role in developing and implementing policy and effective collaboration is essential if the program is to make the contribution to national policy that we seek.In order to help ensure relevance of the program at regional level, and lay the basis for scaling, we have worked closely with regional institutions in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Of particular importance for the program's work in Africa a joint planning workshop was convened with NEPAD and FARA, with a view to agreeing how the program might best contribute to national and regional priorities as it expands. Through this work AAS and NEPAD have agreed to focus program implementation in Africa on supporting the Rural Futures Initiative and CAADP, and within these also contribute to the Program on African Fisheries and the NEPAD Environment Framework.The program enjoys good relations with both bilateral and multilateral agencies in focal countries, and is working closely to strengthen synergies between the AAS priorities and processes and donor engagement in these countries. While this is taking the traditional form of bilateral funding for specific initiatives in AAS hubs, the program is also seeking to draw upon hub learning to influence donor engagement in these systems. Building upon this work opportunities for broader international collaboration with selected donors on specific themes are being explored, including for example with IFAD on AAS and nutrition.Effective engagement with regional and global research networks is essential for scaling learning from AAS. To this end the program is working closely with a range of research networks. For example in Africa the program is working with FARA to design an African regional platform on knowledge sharing and capacity building for aquatic agricultural systems. Similarly at sub-regional level AAS is working with ASARECA to develop capacity through program extension there.At global level the program is prioritizing development of research partnerships with institutions and networks that have a strong focus on rural innovation, including Prolinnova, Constellation, ICRA, and CIRAD, and others with a focus on sustainability, including Ecoagricultural Partners and the Stockholm Environment Institute.A wide range of national and international development NGOs are working in the AAS hubs and we are working closely with these wherever possible. In view of our scaling aspirations we are also working closely with some of the largest of these NGOs to generate collaborative learning and use this to inform their policy and practice. Reflecting this approach CARE and CRS are important members of the program's leadership team.","tokenCount":"5357"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"13f1ef8fee32b2456bcf0cbaad3f9860","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a93cf70e-51d3-4123-ae05-e9220f60fbde/content","id":"928134234"},"keywords":["C management","elevated CO 2","photosynthetic acclimation","proteomic characterization","Rubisco","stable isotopes"],"sieverID":"b0168ade-973b-48aa-82f3-458210cb64a6","pagecount":"13","content":"Wheat plants (Triticum durum Desf., cv. Regallo) were grown in the field to study the effects of contrasting [CO 2 ] conditions (700 versus 370 mmol mol 21 ) on growth, photosynthetic performance, and C management during the post-anthesis period. The aim was to test whether a restricted capacity of sink organs to utilize photosynthates drives a loss of photosynthetic capacity in elevated CO 2 . The ambient 13 C/ 12 C isotopic composition (d 13 C) of air CO 2 was changed from -10.2& in ambient [CO 2 ] to -23.6& under elevated [CO 2  ] between the 7th and the 14th days after anthesis in order to study C assimilation and partitioning between leaves and ears. Elevated [CO 2 ] had no significant effect on biomass production and grain filling, and caused an accumulation of C compounds in leaves. This was accompanied by up-regulation of phosphoglycerate mutase and ATP synthase protein content, together with downregulation of adenosine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphatase protein. Growth in elevated [CO 2 ] negatively affected Rubisco and Rubisco activase protein content and induced photosynthetic down-regulation. CO 2 enrichment caused a specific decrease in Rubisco content, together with decreases in the amino acid and total N content of leaves. The C labelling revealed that in flag leaves, part of the C fixed during grain filling was stored as starch and structural C compounds whereas the rest of the labelled C (mainly in the form of soluble sugars) was completely respired 48 h after the end of labelling. Although labelled C was not detected in the d 13 C of ear total organic matter and respired CO 2 , soluble sugar d 13 C revealed that a small amount of labelled C reached the ear. The 12 CO 2 labelling suggests that during the beginning of post-anthesis the ear did not contribute towards overcoming flag leaf carbohydrate accumulation, and this had a consequent effect on protein expression and photosynthetic acclimation.The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ([CO 2 ]) has increased from ;280 lmol mol À1 during the pre-industrial period to 388.5 lmol mol À1 in 2010 (Dr Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL, www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/ trends/) and is expected to reach 700 lmol mol À1 by the end of this century (Prentice et al., 2001). The primary effects of increased [CO 2 ] on C 3 plants include (i) increased plant biomass and (ii) leaf net photosynthetic rates, and (iii) decreased stomatal conductance (Long et al., 2004;Nowak et al., 2004;Ainsworth and Long, 2005). The biochemical basis for the leaf CO 2 assimilation response to increased atmospheric [CO 2 ] is well established (Farquhar et al., 1980). At relatively low [CO 2 ] concentrations leaf CO 2 assimilation increases because Rubisco carboxylation is enhanced by increased substrate availability and the suppression of competitive Rubisco oxygenation (Ellsworth et al., 2004). Although the initial stimulation of net photosynthesis associated with elevated [CO 2 ] is sometimes retained (Davey et al., 2006), some species fail to sustain the initial, maximal stimulation (Stitt, 1991;Long et al., 2004;Aranjuelo et al., 2005b;Martı ´nez-Carrasco et al., 2005;Ainsworth and Rogers, 2007;Pe ´rez et al., 2007;Alonso et al., 2009;Gutie ´rrez et al., 2009), a phenomenon called photosynthetic acclimation or down-regulation.Stomatal limitations reduce photosynthesis due to depletion of intercellular [CO 2 ] (C i ) as a result of stomatal closure (Naumburg et al., 2004), i.e. a reduced supply of CO 2 to the photosynthetic apparatus within leaves. Limited mesophyll conductance (g m ) to CO 2 diffusion can also significantly constrain photosynthesis, but the extent of this limitation is still not well known (Evans et al., 2009). Previous studies conducted by Singsaas et al. (2003) and Flexas et al. (2007) with a range of plants exposed to different [CO 2 ] showed that g m was involved in photosynthetic acclimation. Non-stomatal limitations reduce photosynthesis due to reduced photosynthetic electron transport (Aranjuelo et al., 2008) or decreased Rubisco carboxylation of RuBP (Stitt and Krapp, 1999;Long et al., 2004;Aranjuelo et al., 2005b). Decreased Rubisco carboxylation occurs through two basic mechanisms: one that involves C source-sink relationships and a second that involves N allocation. Enhanced leaf C content caused by greater photosynthetic rates in plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] induces repression of the expression of genes coding for photosynthetic proteins, leading to a down-regulation of photosynthetic capacity (Moore et al., 1999;Jifon and Wolfe, 2002). At the whole-plant level this occurs when photosynthesis exceeds the capacity of sink organs to utilize photosynthate (Lewis et al., 2002;Aranjuelo et al., 2009b). In this sense, a previous study conducted by Ainsworth et al. (2004) showed that under elevated [CO 2 ] conditions, a decrease in carboxylation capacity occurred in a determinate soybean mutant, which was genetically limited in its capacity to add 'sinks' for photosynthate, while no acclimation occurred in the indeterminate isogenic line. Accordingly, when plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] have limitations on increasing C sink strength, they decrease their photosynthetic activity to balance C source activity and sink capacity (Thomas and Strain, 1991). The second basic mechanism leading to down-regulation is reduced Rubisco content is caused by non-selective decreases in leaf N content (Ellsworth et al., 2004;Aranjuelo et al., 2005b) or by reallocation of N within the plant (Nakano et al., 1997). In both cases, reduced leaf N decreases Rubisco content.Leaf carbohydrate accumulation is determined by the C source (photosynthesis) and sink balance (i.e. growth, respiration, and partitioning to other organs) (Aranjuelo et al., 2009b). Despite the relevance of C loss through respiration, little attention has been given to this topic in cereals (Araus et al., 1993;Bort et al., 1996). Previous studies conducted in wheat and other cereals by Araus et al. (1993) revealed that dark respiration (R) in ears during grain filling ranged from 44% to 63% of the gross photosynthesis (net CO 2 assimilation plus R), 12-20 d after ear emergence. Furthermore, as observed in recent studies (Aranjuelo et al., 2009b), the 'ability' to respire recently assimilated C may contribute towards preventing carbohydrate build-up and consequently to the avoidance of photosynthetic acclimation. In cereals like wheat, the ear comprises a very important C sink, especially during grain filling (Schnyder, 1993). In wheat, grain filling is sustained by photoassimilates (i) from the flag leaf (Evans et al., 1975), (ii) from C fixed by the ear itself (Tambussi et al., 2007), and (iii) from C remobilized from the stem internodes that was assimilated before anthesis (Gebbing and Schnyder, 1999).Stable C isotope tracers are a key tool to study C management and its implications in photosynthetic performance (Ko ¨rner et al., 2005;von Felten et al., 2007;Aranjuelo et al., 2008Aranjuelo et al., , 2009b)). One of the difficulties in analysing the processes of C metabolism (photosynthesis, respiration, allocation, and partitioning) is measuring the different processes simultaneously in the same experiment (Amthor, 2001). The lack of studies analysing the loss of photoassimilates by respiration during grain filling underscores the importance of examining this further. Labelling with 13 C/ 12 C enables the characterization of assimilated C and its further partitioning into different organs (Nogue ´s et al., 2004;Aranjuelo et al., 2009a,b). C allocation and partitioning can be studied further by analysing the isotopic composition of soluble sugars (especially sucrose, glucose, etc.) (Ko ¨rner et al., 2005;Kodama et al., 2010).As has been explained above, ensuring adequate sink strength in crops will be essential for maximizing the response to rising [CO 2 ] conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the role of the ears as major C sinks during grain filling and its effect on the leaf C content, photosynthetic acclimation, and plant growth of wheat plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] under near field conditions. The significance of C management (photosynthesis, respiration, allocation, and partitioning) for grain filling in wheat under elevated [CO 2 ] was assessed through 12 CO 2 labelling carried out in greenhouses located in the field. 12 CO 2 labelling was conducted at the plant level to gain a better understanding of C management in the whole plant. Furthermore, a biochemical and proteomic characterization was conducted to extend knowledge of the effects of elevated [CO 2 ] on the expression profile of proteins other than the most extensively characterized Rubisco.The experiment was conducted at Mun ˜ovela, the experimental farm of the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Salamanca, CSIC (Salamanca, Spain). Durum wheat seeds (Triticum durum Desf. cv. Regallo) were sown at a rate of 200 kg ha À1 and 0.13 m row spacing on 29 October 2007. Before sowing, 60 kg ha À1 each of P and K (as P 2 O 5 and K 2 O, respectively) were added. An application of nitrogen fertilizer [Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ] as an aqueous solution was made by hand at 140 kg ha À1 , on 15 February 2008. The crop was watered weekly with a drip irrigation system, providing the amount of water required to equal potential evapotranspiration. After seedling emergence, six greenhouses (Aranjuelo et al., 2005a;Pe ´rez et al., 2005;Gutie ´rrez et al., 2009), based on those described by Rawson et al. (1995), were erected over the crop. The greenhouses were 9 m long, 2.2 m wide, and 1.7 m high at the ridge. They had rigid polycarbonate walls and a UVstable polyethylene sheet roof. This material has good transmission of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and UV radiation, adequately mimicking outdoor conditions. PAR at mid-morning was 10206187 lmol m À2 s À1 outdoors, whereas inside the greenhouses the PAR was 8256113 lmol m À2 s À1 . Three greenhouses were kept at ambient [CO 2 ] (370 lmol mol À1 ), while in the other three atmospheric [CO 2 ] was increased to 700 lmol mol À1 (elevated [CO 2 ]) by injecting pure CO 2 at the two inlet fans during the light hours. CO 2 was not elevated during the night because little or no effect on R has been reported (Davey et al., 2004). The atmospheric CO 2 concentration inside the greenhouses was continuously monitored at the plant level and regulated by PID controllers (Aranjuelo et al., 2005b). Temperature and humidity were measured with sensors (HMD50; Vaisala, Helsinki, Finland) attached to a computer through analogue-digital convertors (Microlink 751; Biodata Ltd, Manchester, UK). Supplementary Fig. S1 (available at JXB online) shows the temperature and relative humidity inside the greenhouses during the experiment.To analyse C allocation and partitioning in the plants, during the first week after anthesis and coinciding with the period of largest photoassimilate contribution to grain filling (Schnyder et al., 2003), C labelling was conducted over 1 week via modification of the isotopic composition of the air 13 C (d 13 C). During the C labelling period, the plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] conditions were grown in an environment where the d 13 C of the greenhouses was deliberately modified (-23.660.4&) to distinguish it from the d 13 C of elevated [CO 2 ] (-20.160.4&) during the previous period. Air d 13 C in the ambient [CO 2 ] was -10.260.4&. The CO 2 was provided by Air Liquide (Valladolid, Spain). See below for details on air d 13 C collection and measurements. The labelling period lasted for 1 week starting 7 d after anthesis. All the determinations, with the exception of C-labelling-derived parameters, were conducted on the last day of the experiment, 14 d after anthesis. Isotopic characterization data were collected the day before the beginning of labelling (pre-label period), at the end of 7 d labelling (T 0 ; 2 weeks after anthesis), and 24 h (T 1 ) and 48 h (T 2 ) later after labelling (during post-labelling period).Gas exchange of leaves was recorded in the central segment of flag leaves between 3 h and 8 h after the start of the photoperiod.Measurements were carried out with an air flow rate of 300 ml min À1 , 1500 lmol m À2 s À1 irradiance, and a 1.660.23 kPa vapour pressure deficit, using a 1.7-cm 2 window leaf chamber connected to a portable infrared gas analyser (CIRAS-2; PP Systems, Hitchin, Herts, UK) with differential operation in an open system. Temperature was kept at 25 °C with the Peltier system of the analyser. Photosynthesis was recorded at 370 lmol mol À1 and 700 lmol mol À1 CO 2 .To determine dry matter (DM) accumulation, the number of shoots in 0.5 m of two adjacent rows was counted, five consecutive shoots were harvested from each of the rows, and the dry weight of leaves, stems, and ears was recorded after drying in an oven at 60 °C for 48 h. This allowed the results to be expressed on a ground area basis.Rubisco protein, amino acids, and Rubisco activity At mid-morning samples consisting of four leaves were harvested and rapidly plunged in situ into liquid nitrogen and then stored at -80 °C until analysed. The fresh weight, leaf area, and chlorophyll content of subsamples of frozen leaves were determined as described (Pe ´rez et al., 2005).This allowed the results to be expressed on a leaf area basis.Total amino acids were determined spectrophotometrically by the ninhydrin method according to Hare (1977) as described by Morcuende et al. (2004). The soluble proteins were extracted and measured spectrophotometrically (Bradford, 1976), and the amount of Rubisco subunits was determined by quantitative electrophoresis followed by densitometry (Pe ´rez et al., 2011).For Rubisco initial and total activity assays, a NADH-coupled spectrophotometric procedure was followed (Pe ´rez et al., 2005). To estimate the k cat , total Rubisco activity was divided by the number of enzyme active sites, which was obtained by multiplying the number of moles of Rubisco by 8.For sugar extraction, plant samples were lyophilized and then ground to a fine powder (<10 lm). About 50 mg of the fine powder were suspended in 1 ml of distilled water in an Eppendorf tube (Eppendorf Scientific, Hamburg, Germany), mixed, and then centrifuged at 12,0003g for 5 min at 5 °C. After centrifugation, the supernatant was used for sugar quantification, whereas the pellet was stored at -80 °C for further starch analyses. The supernatant was heated for 3 min at 100 °C and afterward the solution was put on ice for 3 min. The supernatant containing the total soluble sugar (TSS) fraction was centrifuged at 12,0003g for 5 min at 5 °C (Nogue ´s et al., 2004). The supernatant was used for quantification of the individual sugars. Soluble sugar samples were purified using a solid phase extraction pre-column (Oasis MCX 3cc; Waters). Sugar content was analysed using a Waters 600 high performance liquid chromatograph (Waters Millipore Corp., Milford, MA, USA). The HPLC refractive index detector (Waters 2414) was set at 37 °C. Samples were eluted from the columns at 85 °C (Aminex HPX-87P and Aminex HPX-87C connected in series, 30037.8 mm; Bio-Rad) with water at 0.6 ml min À1 flow rate and a total run time of 45 min. Sucrose, glucose, and fructans were collected and transferred to tin capsules for isotope analysis. The use of the purification pre-columns, together with the two Aminex columns connected in series enabled the separation of sucrose, glucose, and fructans, avoiding possible contamination problems raised by Richter et al. (2009). Furthermore, as an additional precaution, initial and final phases of peaks were discarded when collecting the peaks. As mentioned by Richter et al. (2009), there is no method that enables analysis of purified starch d 13 C. Following one of the protocols described in the study conducted by Ritcher et al. (2009), the d 13 C of the HCl-hydrolysable C (HCl-C), which is composed mainly of starch, was analysed. Therefore, as suggested, the HCl-C was used as a reference for starch C isotopic composition. C isotope composition (d 13 C) of carbohydrates, total organic matter, together with C and N analyses Flag leaf and ear samples were collected (T 0 , T 1 , and T 2 ) and dried at 60 °C for 48 h and then ground; 1.5 mg samples were used for total organic matter (TOM) analyses, and three biological replicates were analysed for each sample. Determinations of carbohydrates and TOM C, d 13 C, and N were conducted at the Serveis Cientifico-Te `cnics, University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) using an elemental analyser (EA1108, Series 1; Carbo Erba Instrumentazione, Milan, Italy) coupled to an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (Delta C) operating in continuous flow mode.Closed system for dark respiration sampling Flag leaves and ears were placed separately in a gas analysis chamber to collect dark-respired CO 2 and to analyse d 13 C. The chamber was connected in parallel to the sample air hose of a LI-COR 6400 (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE, USA) (Aranjuelo et al., 2009b).To accumulate CO 2 for the d 13 C analyses, respiration samples of flag leaves and ears were collected separately in the chamber described above. The gas analysis chamber was first flushed with CO 2 -free air to ensure that only the CO 2 respired in the chamber was accumulated. The CO 2 concentration inside the chamber was measured by the LI-COR 6400. When the CO 2 inside reached the 300 lmol mol À1 concentration value, CO 2 samples were collected and analysed as described (Aranjuelo et al., 2009b).d 13 C measurements corresponding to each greenhouse and plant respiration (flag leaf and ear respiration) of air samples were analysed by Gas Chromatography-Combustion-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) at the Serveis Cientifico-Tecnics of the University of Barcelona (as previously described by Nogue ´s et al., 2008).13 C/ 12 C ratios of air samples and plant materials were expressed in d notation:where R sample refers to plant material and R standard to Pee Dee Belemnite (PDB) calcium carbonate.C isotope discrimination (D) of leaf and ear TOM was calculated as described by Farquhar et al. (1989):where d a and d p denote air (d 13 C a ) and plant (d 13 C p ) isotopic composition, respectively.Four biological replicates of flag leaf samples (200 mg fresh weight) were ground in a mortar using liquid nitrogen and resuspended in 2 ml of cold acetone containing 10% TCA. After centrifugation at 160003g for 3 min at 4 °C, the supernatant was discarded, and the pellet was rinsed with methanol, acetone, and phenol solutions as previously described by Wang et al. (2003). The pellet was stored at -20 °C or immediately resuspended in 200 ll of R2D2 rehydration buffer. The total soluble protein (TSP) concentration was determined by the method of Bradford (Bradford, 1976) using BSA as standard. For two-dimensional electrophoresis, the protocol detailed in Aranjuelo et al. (2011) was followed.After staining, the images of the two-dimensional gels were acquired with the ProXPRESS 2D proteomic Imaging System and analysed using Phoretix 2-D Expression Software v2004 (Nonlinear Dynamics, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK). Gels from four independent biological replicates were used and the analysis of gels was performed as previously described by Aranjuelo et al. (2011). Molecular mass (M r ) and isoelectric point (pI) were each calculated using Samespots software calibrated with commercial molecular mass standards (precision protein standards prestained; Bio-Rad) run in a separate marker lane on the two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) gel. ANOVA (P<0.05) was performed using MiniTAB to compare the relative abundance of the total volume of all detected spots for each gel.For protein identification by ESI-LC MS/MS, excised spots were washed several times with water and dried for a few minutes. Trypsin digestion was performed overnight with a dedicated automated system (MultiPROBE II; PerkinElmer). The gel fragments were subsequently incubated twice for 15 min in a H 2 O/ CH 3 CN solution to allow extraction of peptides from the gel pieces. Peptide extracts were then dried and dissolved in starting buffer for chromatographic elution, which consisted of 3% CH 3 CN and 0.1% HCOOH in water. Peptides were enriched and separated using a lab-on-a-chip technology (Agilent, Massy, France) and fragmented using an on-line XCT mass spectrometer (Agilent). The fragmentation data were interpreted using the Data Analysis program (version 3.4; Bruker Daltonic, Billerica, MA, USA). For protein identification, tandem mass spectrometry peak lists were extracted and compared with the protein database using MASCOT Daemon (version 2.1.3; Matrix Science, London, UK) search engine as previously described by Desclos et al. (2009). Once the proteins were identified, their presumed biological function assigned according to Bevan et al. (1998).Data were processed by one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means 6standard errors (SE) were calculated, and when the Fratio was significant, least significant differences were evaluated by the LSD test using the statistical software package SPSS 12.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The results were accepted as significant at P<0.05. All values shown in the figures and tables are means 6SE. Growth in elevated [CO 2 ] had no effect on leaf and total biomass; however, ear DM marginally decreased (P¼0.093) in these treatments (Table 1). Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the ear DM/total DM ratio. At the respective CO 2 growth conditions, flag leaf photosynthesis was higher in elevated than ambient CO 2 plants, although the difference was not significant (Table 1). However, when photosynthesis was determined at a common concentration of 370 or 700 lmol m À2 s À1 (A 370 and A 700 , respectively) the results revealed that plants grown under elevated [CO 2 ] had lower photosynthetic rates. This was associated with higher intercellular [CO 2 ] (C i ) and lower stomatal conductance values (g s ) than in ambient [CO 2 ]-grown plants, which suggests that the lower capacity of plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] (Table 1) is attributable to mesophyll reactions.The leaf carbohydrate determinations (Fig. 1) showed that although glucose and sucrose were not affected by [CO 2 ], starch (marginally) and fructan concentration increased in plants exposed to 700 lmol mol À1 . In ears, no significant differences were detected in any of the analysed carbohydrates. As shown in Fig. 2, N content decreased in leaves exposed to elevated [CO 2 ], whereas no significant differences were detected in ears. The C/N ratio showed an increase in flag leaves and no significant difference in ears in response to elevated [CO 2 ]. Leaf N, Rubisco, and amino acid content decreased in elevated [CO 2 ] (Fig. 3). Although TSP content was not significantly affected by [CO 2 ], the percentage of Rubisco in TSP decreased in elevated [CO 2 ]. The authors would like to clarify that apparent discrepancies concerning Rubisco concentration decreases observed by SDS-PAGE and not by the 2-DE were explained by saturation of the silver staining of Rubisco in the 2-DE methodology, due to its abundance. Total Rubisco activity (Fig. 4) was decreased by elevated [CO 2 ] while initial Rubisco activity was not significantly affected, because Rubisco activation increased. The k cat of Rubisco (Fig. 4) was significantly lower in elevated [CO 2 ] than in ambient [CO 2 ].After 7 d of labelling (during labelling period), the d 13 C in leaf TOM was -39.92&. This value was constant during the post-labelling period, 24 h and 48 h (-40.22& and -40.08&, respectively) after the end of labelling (Fig. 5). Interestingly, the analyses of leaf respired CO 2 also revealed that in elevated [CO 2 ], the (T 0 ) d 13 C was lower in labelled than non-labelled plants (-34.10& and -30.72&, respectively) immediately after the labelling. However, such depletion decreased to -32.36& by 24 h and to -31.12& by 48 h after the end of labelling (Fig. 5). For ears of labelled and non-labelled plants in elevated [CO 2 ], the similar d 13 C in TOM (-36.90& and -37.75&, respectively) and in respired CO 2 (-33.51& and -33.66&, respectively) suggests that pre-labelled C was present in ears (Fig. 5). In both flag leaves and ears, the d 13 C of sucrose and fructans were similar in labelled and non-labelled plants exposed to  (Fig. 5). Immediately after labelling, the d 13 C of glucose in ears was similar to that of pre-labelled plants in elevated [CO 2 ] (-32.37& and -31.69&, respectively). As shown in Fig. 5, such values were depleted to -34.03& at T 1 and to -31.66& at T 2 . Figure 5 also shows that d 13 C of leaf starch in elevated [CO 2 ] conditions was -38.01& in labelled plants and -35.81& in non-labelled plants. Such values were maintained at T 1 and T 2 . However, Fig. 5 also shows that starch in ears of labelled (-34.93&) and unlabelled (-34.20&) plants had a similar d 13 C.The effect of elevated CO 2 on the leaf protein pattern in wheat plants was studied using 2-DE (Fig. 6). The protocol used here enabled the identification of 14 proteins that differed in their expression under ambient and elevated CO 2 conditions (Tables 2, 3). Eight of these proteins were upregulated under elevated CO 2 conditions (Table 2), with the remaining six being down-regulated (Table 3). These proteins were classified in different groups according to their presumed biological function. The up-regulated proteins were classified into six groups: metabolic processes (one protein identified), energy processes (one protein identified), transporters (one protein identified), disease/defence processes (one protein identified), proteins with unclear classification (two proteins identified), and unclassified proteins (two proteins identified). Among the down-regulated proteins, energy processes (two proteins identified), disease/defence (one protein identified), and unclassified proteins (three proteins identified) were detected. The roles of these proteins are discussed in the following section with regard to the changes in physiological traits in response to elevated CO 2 conditions.A review conducted by Amthor (2001), summarizing 156 experiments that analyse wheat yield under elevated [CO 2 ] conditions, has shown that CO 2 response ranges from no effect or a negative one in some studies to several-fold increases in others. As shown in Table 1, exposure to 700 lmol mol À1 CO 2 marginally decreased ear DM during the post-anthesis period (P¼0.093) and no effect was observed in total DM and ear DM/total DM ratio. This revealed that elevated [CO 2 ] did not contribute to increased grain filling, which is in agreement with previous reports (Amthor, 2001;Uddling et al., 2008;Ho ¨gy et al., 2009). These results were corroborated in the supplementary harvest conducted at the grain maturity stage (see Supplementary Table S1 at JXB online). Absence of effects on total DM, together with the lower ear DM suggest that under elevated [CO 2 ] exposure, the plants invested a larger amount of photoassimilates in the development of vegetative biomass rather than in grain filling. Grain filling may be limited by (i) translocation of photoassimilates from source to sink, (ii) photosynthetic activity, and (iii) ear sink capacity (Uddling et al., 2008). Evans et al. (1970) showed that assimilate movement from leaves to ears in wheat was not limited by phloem stem transport. Photosynthesis (measured at the respective A and E stand for ambient and elevated [CO2], respectively, before labelling (pre-labelling period). T 0 refers to the end of labelling (labelling period; 14 d after anthesis), whereas T 1 and T 2 refer to 24 h and 48 h after the end of labelling (post-labelling period), respectively. Otherwise as in Fig. 1. growth conditions) was increased by elevated [CO 2 ] (Table 1). However, when photosynthetic activity was determined in all plant treatments at 370 lmol mol À1 and 700 lmol mol À1 [CO 2 ] (Table 1) it was found that plants grown in elevated [CO 2 ] had lower photosynthetic capacity than plants grown in ambient [CO 2 ]. Similar results were described by Zhang et al. (2009). Photosynthetic acclimation has been previously described in wheat plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] in greenhouses located in the field (Martı ´nez-Carrasco et al., 2005;Alonso et al., 2009;Gutie ´rrez et al., 2009). Although exposure to elevated [CO 2 ] decreased g s , similar (Ci 700 ) or even higher (Ci 370 ) intercellular CO 2 concentrations (C i ) in elevated [CO 2 ] than in ambient [CO 2 ] ruled out stomatal closure as the main cause of the reduction in photosynthetic capacity in elevated [CO 2 ]. Carbonic anhydrase (CA), a protein that catalyses the reversible conversion of CO 2 to HCO 3 -, has been recognized as an important enzyme that is closely associated with photosynthesis (Jebanathirajah and Coleman, 1998;Sasaki et al., 1998;Evans et al., 2009). CA, together with aquaporins, has been described as a fastresponding biochemical process that regulates mesophyll conductance (Nakhoul et al., 1998;Gillon and Yakir, 2000;Terashima and Ono, 2002;Flexas et al., 2006). A 198% increase was found in this enzyme in elevated [CO 2 ] relative to control leaves that could partly compensate for the closure of stomata, thus ensuring the supply of CO 2 to the chloroplasts.The SDS-PAGE densitometric analysis revealed that the photosynthetic down-regulation in elevated [CO 2 ] was caused by a lower Rubisco protein content (Fig. 3) (Theobald et al., 1998;Aranjuelo et al., 2005b). This decrease was not detected by proteomic analysis due to saturation of the silver staining. Moreover, the proteomic characterization showed a decrease in Rubisco activase content in plants exposed to 700 lmol mol À1 CO 2 (Table 3). Rubisco activase is essential for the maintenance of Rubisco catalytic activity because it promotes the removal of tightly bound inhibitors from the catalytic sites (Robinson and Portis, 1989;Parry et al., 2008). The lower photosynthetic rates of plants exposed to 700 lmol mol À1 [CO 2 ] (Table 3) may be a consequence of both decreased Rubisco protein and increased binding of inhibitors to Rubisco active sites, which is consistent with the decreased k cat of the enzyme in Fig. 6. Silver-stained two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of proteins extracted from wheat leaves grown under ambient and elevated conditions 14 days after anthesis. In the first dimension, 125 mg of total protein was loaded on a 18 cm IEF strip with a linear gradient of pH 4-7. The second dimension was conducted in 12% polyacrylamide (w/v) gels (20 3 20 cm) (for details see ''Materials and Methods''). The gel image analyses was conducted with Progenesis SameSpots software v3.0 and the subsequent mass spectrometry analyses identified up to 14 proteins (marked by arrows) with significantly different expression in elevated [CO 2 ]. elevated [CO 2 ] found in this (Fig. 4) and previous studies (Pe ´rez et al., 2005(Pe ´rez et al., , 2007)).Lack of significant differences in TSP content, and the decrease of Rubisco as a fraction of TSP (Fig. 3) revealed that the diminished Rubisco concentration was caused by a specific inhibition of this protein in leaves exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] (Pe ´rez et al., 2007). According to Zhu et al. (2009) and Fangmeier et al. (2000), in flag leaves of wheat exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] there is an increase in protease activity that enables the remobilization of N. In agreement with this finding, the lower amino acid level in flag leaves (Table 2) under elevated [CO 2 ] suggests that the flag leaf Rubisco-derived N was reallocated to the ear, an organ with high N sink capacity. Furthermore, according to Theobald et al. (1998), in elevated [CO 2 ] there is a greater reduction in Rubisco than in other photosynthetic components (ATP synthase, etc.). Consistent with this, the decrease in Rubisco under elevated [CO 2 ] was accompanied by the up-regulation of ATP synthase (b subunit), in this experiment. This result suggests a rebalancing away from carboxylation to RuBP-regeneration capacity (Theobald et al., 1998).Table 2. Annotation of elevated [CO 2 ] up-regulated spots identified in silver-stained 2-DE gels of leaves collected 14 d after anthesis A total of 125 lg of total proteins was loaded on an 18-cm gel strip forming an immobilized linear pH gradient of 4-7. Second-dimension electrophoresis (SDS1258-PAGE) was carried out on 12% polyacrylamide (w/v) gels (20320 cm; for details see Material and methods). The decrease in photosynthetic capacity under elevated [CO 2 ] has been attributed to end-product inhibition, in which the demand for carbohydrates is insufficient to cope with the enhanced carbohydrate supply (Rogers and Ellsworth, 2002;Ainsworth and Long, 2005;Aranjuelo et al., 2008). The accumulation of fructans and starch in flag leaves in elevated CO 2 (Fig. 1) was associated with decreases in Rubisco (Fig. 2) and Rubisco activase (Table 3), and may be causal in down-regulation of photosynthetic capacity (Moore et al., 1999;Jifon and Wolfe, 2002). As shown in Tables 2 and 3, the proteomic characterization provided relevant information concerning the possible involvement of altered protein levels in carbon metabolism in elevated CO 2 . This study revealed that phosphoglycerate mutase (PGAM) content increased by 627.13% in plants grown in elevated [CO 2 ] (Table 2). PGAM catalyses the intercoversion of 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA) to 2phosphoglycerate (2-PGA) (Batz et al., 1992), and its increase could lead to enhanced glycolysis. Carbohydrate accumulation in leaves, irrespective of whether it is a result of sugar-feeding or an inhibition of phloem transport or growth in elevated [CO 2 ], has been shown to stimulate organic acid synthesis (Morcuende et al., 1998;Stitt and Krapp, 1999) and respiratory pathways, leading to a decrease in the levels of 3-PGA (Morcuende et al., 1996(Morcuende et al., , 1997) ) and increased formation of ATP (Stitt and Krapp, 1999). A recent study conducted by Leakey et al. (2009) revealed that exposure to elevated [CO 2 ] increased the abundance of transcripts associated with respiration and carbohydrate metabolism The proteomic characterization conducted in this study also revealed a 79% decrease in adenosine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphatase (AGP-Pase) in elevated [CO 2 ] (Table 3). AGPPase catalyses the hydrolytic conversion of ADPglucose (ADPG), the universal glucosyl donor for starch biosynthesis, to AMP and G1P (Rodriguez-Lo ´pez et al., 2000). Although starch and fructan accumulation in leaves in elevated [CO 2 ] may be accounted for by the observed decrease in leaf nitrogen content, since nitrate is known to repress AGP pyrophosphorylase (Scheible et al., 1997) and at least one enzyme of fructan synthesis (Morcuende et al., 2004), the decrease in AGPPase protein can contribute to the observed starch build-up in elevated [CO 2 ]. The fact that this protein is inhibited by ATP content (Emes et al., 2003), and that the ATP synthase b subunit increased under elevated [CO 2 ], points to a tight control of starch build-up in leaves. A previous study conducted by Leakey et al. (2009) observed an increase in transcripts associated with starch metabolism in soybean plants exposed to 550 lmol mol À1 CO 2 . The up-regulation of PGAM and down-regulation of AGPPase show an altered protein pattern that can enhance C utilization for storage and energy in elevated [CO 2 ].Carbohydrate build-up in leaves is determined by the plant's ability to develop new sinks (e.g. new vegetative or reproductive structures, enhanced respiratory rates), or to expand the storage capacity or growth rate of existing sinks (Lewis et al., 2002). Although respiration processes require an investment of a large quantity of photoassimilates (Amthor, 2001;Aranjuelo et al., 2009a), little attention has been given to this topic (especially in ears) in C balance studies analysing grain filling in cereals. Leaf-respired d 13 C (Fig. 5) was depleted immediately after 12 CO 2 labelling, and 24 h (T 1 ) and 48 h (T 2 ) later, showing that these plants were respiring, in part, C assimilated during the labelling period. However, the fact that 48 h later (T 2 ) the d 13 C was similar to the values obtained before labelling (E) suggests that, 2 d after labelling, the leaves had respired almost all the labelled respiratory substrates. The determination of d 13 C in the various carbohydrates (Fig. 5), suggested that these leaves were respiring the labelled TSS and especially glucose. This point is reinforced by the fact that 48 h after the end of labelling, pre-labelled C was present among glucose C, which is similar to the observation for leaf respiration d 13 C. Opposite to the observation for leaf respiration and soluble sugar, the d 13 C of TOM of flag leaves remained constant even 48 h after the end of labelling. Such results could be explained by part of the labelled C being partitioned to structural and storage compounds. While fructan d 13 C did not contribute detectable labelled C in flag leaves, the d 13 C depletion in starch (-35.81& in non-labelled plants versus -37.93& in labelled plants) revealed that part of the labelled C present in TOM was accounted for by C accumulation in starch. It is very likely that because pre-labelled C was present in soluble sugars 48 h after the labelling, most of the remaining labelled C consisted of structural C compounds. The fact that TOM was more depleted than starch (-39.86& and -37.93&, respectively) confirmed this point.As mentioned above, leaf carbohydrate in wheat is also determined by ear C sink strength. These data revealed that although exposure to 700 lmol mol À1 CO 2 did not modify sucrose and glucose concentrations in ears, fructan and starch concentrations tended to increase. During grain filling, the strong C demand by wheat ears is met by ear photosynthesis and respiration (Tambussi et al., 2007), together with translocation of C from flag leaves and stem internodes (Gebbing and Schnyder, 1999;Aranjuelo et al., 2009a). Absence of differences in the d 13 C in ear TOM and respired CO 2 between labelled and non-labelled plants (Fig. 5) confirmed that exposure to elevated [CO 2 ] did not increase ear filling during the beginning of anthesis, which is in agreement with the data on ear DM/total DM ratios (Table 1). Even if the ear TOM was not labelled, the fact that sucrose and glucose d 13 C was depleted (Fig. 5) highlighted that a small fraction of labelled C reached the ear. Apparent discrepancies in TOM and sugar d 13 C could be explained by the fact that glucose and sucrose concentrations represent a small fraction of ear C, and therefore labelled C was diluted in TOM that was almost totally composed of nonlabelled C (see Fig. 2). Although the photosynthetic activity of ears should not be ignored (Tambussi et al., 2007;Zhu et al., 2009), the fact that glucose, TSS, and especially sucrose d 13 C depletion was more marked at 24 h and 48 h after labelling, indicates that this labelled C originated in flag leaves.In summary this study suggested that the absence of elevated [CO 2 ] effects on biomass production, and especially ear grain filling, reflected the inability of these wheat plants to increase C sink strength. Absence of elevated [CO 2 ] effects on biomass production of plants with larger photosynthetic rates caused a leaf carbohydrate build-up. Such an increase induced photosynthetic acclimation, as reflected by the lower carboxylation capacity of plants exposed to 700 lmol mol À1 . The d 13 C determinations conducted during the post-anthesis period showed that in flag leaves, under elevated [CO 2 ], part of the newly assimilated C was allocated to storage compounds and that another part of labelled C (mainly soluble sugars) was totally respired 48 h after the end of labelling. In ears, the differences in the d 13 C data revealed that although no changes were detected in ear TOM, a small amount of C reached the ears in the form of soluble sugars. Proteomic characterization showed that in these plants the changes in protein content enhanced C storage and glycolysis. Furthermore, the protein characterization also revealed that photosynthetic acclimation was caused by a decrease in Rubisco protein content and in the capacity to release Rubisco tight-binding inhibitors. The decreases in leaf N, Rubisco, and amino acid content suggest that under elevated [CO 2 ] there was a reallocation of leaf N to ears during grain filling. The ear DM, together with the ear isotopic and biochemical determinations revealed that 2 weeks after anthesis, ears of wheat plants exposed to elevated [CO 2 ] did not contribute to an increase in C sink strength. Therefore, such plants were incapable of overcoming leaf photoassimilate accumulation, with a consequent alteration in leaf N and protein content that caused the photosynthetic down-regulation.","tokenCount":"6666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5e16b6de6a62fa7d756c4b5be766170e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8feeadf0-e6af-4dd2-a6b0-d9039f40a31d/retrieve","id":"-1625230663"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ad59a231-ae12-4c35-b381-62603bbee3ac","pagecount":"4","content":"Examinamos el potencial para incrementar los niveles de conservación de mecanismos de recompensa externos, tal como los pagos por servicios ambientales (PSA), así como el grado en que los enfoques alternativos (como incentivos individuales versus colectivos) interactúan con las normas sociales que subyacen a la acción colectiva asociados con el manejo de los recursos fitogenéticos (RFG).Los análisis se basan en experimentos de campo en dos lugares de estudio en el Altiplano Andino. Comunidades rurales de subsistencia en el Altiplano Norte de Perú y comunidades con sistemas de agricultura más comerciales en el Altiplano Sur en Bolivia. Esto nos permite representar contextos diferentes de mercado.Los resultados indican que generalmente no se puede asumir que los mecanismos de recompensa externos inequívocamente provean incentivos a los usuarios de los recursos para aumentar sus esfuerzos de conservación. Diferentes sistemas de recompensa influencian diferentes tipos de usuarios de los recursos de formas diferentes y complejas, y así pueden diferenciarse en su eficacia dependiendo del contexto del mercado.La conservación de servicios ambientales (incluyendo aquellos relacionados con la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad) está sujeta a problemas asociados a bienes públicos, donde hay divergencias entre los intereses privados/individuales y sociales. La conservación en fincas de un portafolio diverso de variedades de cultivos puede estar asociada con beneficios locales, nacionales y globales de carácter público. Los beneficios públicos locales incluyen las contribuciones a la resiliencia del agroecosistema, el mantenimiento de los procesos evolutivos, el conocimiento tradicional y cultural, y los valores de opción futuro que pueden disfrutar todos los agricultores dentro de una comunidad.Los mercados, sin embargo, tienden en gran parte a favorecer sólo aquellas variedades con características comerciales. Bajo tales circunstancias, los agricultores solamente tienen un incentivo para cultivar variedades comerciales a fin de maximizar beneficios privados/ individuales, mientras se benefician gratuitamente de aquellos que continúan cultivando una diversidad de variedades (incluidos los cultivos tradicionales) que generan beneficios públicos.También hay evidencia que los usuarios de los recursos naturales, incluyendo los agricultores, pueden cooperar hasta cierto punto para superar dilemas sociales relacionados con la sobreexplotación de los recursos comunitarios y la provisión de bienes públicos. Mecanismos de recompensa externos, como PSA, pueden proveer a los usuarios de los recursos de un incentivo para conservar lo que beneficia a la sociedad en general, y por lo tanto ha sido elogiado como un instrumento eficaz para facilitar la conservación. Generalmente en las comunidades rurales la acción colectiva hacia la conservación está basada en motivaciones \"intrínsecas\" que conducen a un comportamiento pro-social. las preferencias sociales específicas del usuario del recurso y las interacciones con las recompensas externas. Más específicamente, se puede suponer que el incremento de los incentivos económicos para la conservación de los servicios públicos ambientales a través de recompensas individuales puede erosionar normas existentes pro-sociales. De otra parte, el uso de recompensas colectivas en forma de incentivos a nivel grupal puede realmente complementar esas normas.Sin embargo, las respuestas a tales mecanismos de incentivos pueden variar considerablemente de una comunidad a otra dependiendo de las normas sociales que prevalecen. Existe evidencia que sugiere que aunque las estrategias reguladoras puedan complementar los esfuerzos de la comunidad, bajo ciertas circunstancias pueden ser ineficaces o incluso reducir los niveles de conservación. En particular, parece que los incentivos externos podrían ser beneficiosos donde los mecanismos auto-reguladores son débiles o inestables, pero podrían ser ineficaces o incluso nocivos donde las reglas y normas pro-sociales son fuertes y robustas. Por lo tanto, es importante tener en cuenta las preferencias sociales en el contexto de la aplicación de las estrategias en marcos regulatorios como PSA, incluso bajo mercados diferentes y contextos grupales, con el fin de apoyar el mejor diseño de mecanismos de recompensa; y con la idea de facilitar la capacidad de construir en lugar de debilitar patrones existentes de acción colectiva.Un acercamiento al entendimiento de preferencias sociales es el uso de experimentos enmarcados en el campo. Tales experimentos pueden dar una luz sobre la dinámica del comportamiento de los usuarios de los recursos cuando se enfrentan a diferentes situaciones de ganancias sujetas a sus contextos de grupo. Sin embargo, hasta el momento, la aplicación sólo se ha limitado al uso de investigación experimental de campo en cuanto a la provisión de bienes públicos en comunidades rurales pobres y el impacto de mecanismos de recompensa PSA. Adicionalmente, no tenemos conocimiento de ninguna aplicación en el contexto de la diversidad de los recursos genéticos cultivados.Es en este contexto que un juego de bienes públicos fue enmarcado alrededor de decisiones relacionadas con la asignación de tierra para el cultivo de diferentes variedades de quinua. Cada participante hizo parte de un grupo de 4 jugadores y se le asignó un número de unidades de tierra. Para controlar la heterogeneidad en la dotación de tierras, organizamos grupos homogéneos (4 unidades de tierra cada uno), así como grupos heterogéneos (2 participantes con 2 unidades de tierra cada uno y 2 participantes con 6 unidades de tierra cada uno).Participantes de más de 12 rondas deciden cuántas unidades de tierra destinar a la conservación de una variedad tradicional amenazada. Como los precios de mercado para esta variedad son inferiores a los de una variedad comercial, el agricultor incurre en gastos privados para la conservación. Aún así, el cultivo de la variedad tradicional está asociado con los beneficios para la conservación pública que beneficia a cada comunidad una vez que se alcanza cierto umbral (en este caso un grupo total de 7 unidades de tierra). Se jugaron 6 rondas, antes de introducir incentivos económicos para la conservación y el juego de seis rondas adicionales con recompensas individuales que disminuyen los gastos privados de conservación o con las recompensas colectivas que incrementan los beneficios de conservación para el bien público.El grado óptimo social, es decir, cuando los beneficios totales del grupo se aprovechan al máximo, se logra cuando todos los miembros de grupo asignan la totalidad de sus unidades de tierra para conservación. Sin embargo, un dilema social surge desde el incentivo privado de los participantes para no cultivar una variedad tradicional y en cambio aprovechar de forma oportunista las actividades de conservación de otros; alternativamente los participantes podrán optar por asignar un cierto número de unidades de tierra a la variedad tradicional para asegurar que el umbral puede ser alcanzado, considerando las expectativas respecto a cómo los otros miembros de grupo puedan asignar sus unidades de tierra. Con recompensas externas, el conjunto de estrategias óptimas privadas incluiría la conservación de más unidades de tierra dependiendo de las expectativas del comportamiento de otros, pero no hay ninguna estrategia dominante que permita que un grado óptimo social siempre pueda ser alcanzado.Entre febrero y abril de 2010, se organizaron cuatro sesiones en el Altiplano Sur de Bolivia y cuatro más en el Altiplano Norte de Perú. La mitad de estas sesiones se hizo de manera individual y la otra mitad con recompensas colectivas. Cada sesión fue organizada con 20 participantes provenientes de familias de agricultores o comunidades (vecinas) cultivadores de quinua, que fueron seleccionadas de zonas diferentes dentro de los dos sitios de estudio.Los agricultores participantes se organizaron al azar en tres grupos \"uniformes\" y dos \"heterogéneos\" de cuatro participantes cada uno. Los agricultores no sabían quién más estaba en su grupo. Sin embargo, después de cada ronda, los participantes fueron informados sobre las asignaciones individuales de tierra de sus pares de grupo (anónimos) y el incentivo total en conjunto. Esto permite que los miembros de grupo puedan formarse expectativas del comportamiento de sus miembros de grupo en futuras rondas.Con el fin de proporcionar un incentivo para comportarse de una manera realista, dos rondas de ganadores fueron seleccionadas al azar -una de los juegos de línea base y una del juego de recompensas, y los participantes fueron remunerados con dinero real respecto a los puntos ganados en estas rondas del juego. Incluyendo un pago fijo de participación, se pagó un promedio de US$ 7 a los agricultores, que es aproximadamente el equivalente al salario diario en ambas regiones de estudio.(9) En el sitio peruano, los beneficios derivados de la conservación a nivel de grupo mediante recompensas colectivas en realidad pueden aumentar los incentivos para la acción colectiva.(10) En el sitio peruano, las recompensas colectivas pueden, sin embargo, desplazar las normas basadas en reciprocidad.Posiblemente algunos agricultores podrían esperar una mayor acción colectiva de los miembros del grupo en virtud de la recompensa colectiva y por lo tanto asumir que los beneficios públicos se generen sin su contribución.(11) En el sitio boliviano, hay cierta evidencia de un efecto de \"alivio de culpabilidad\" asociada a las recompensas individuales. Debido al incremento en el nivel de ganancia individual de la conservación, los agricultores se sienten menos obligados a contribuir con la conservación. Esto parece ser relevante sobre todo en los grupos que están por encima del umbral para la generación de beneficios colectivos.(12) En el sitio boliviano, las recompensas individuales parecen dar un incentivo adicional para la conservación a los agricultores que son impulsados por el altruismo, complementando de este modo esta norma pro-social.(13) En ambos sitios, las recompensas parecen posibilitar una dinámica inversa anti-social. En contextos donde la cooperación es muy frágil debido a la presencia de oportunistas, el aumento de los incentivos a nivel individual puede tener un efecto estabilizador debido a la motivación de las personas para adherirse a normas pro-sociales. Esto aumentaría la confianza para la cooperación de los demás y así facilitaría las dinámicas pro-sociales.Los resultados indican que generalmente no podemos asumir que los mecanismos externos de recompensa inequívocamente provean a los usuarios de los recursos de incentivos para incrementar sus esfuerzos de conservación. Diferentes sistemas de recompensa influyen en los tipos diferentes de usuarios de los recursos en formas diferentes y complejas, y por lo tanto puede diferir en su eficacia dependiendo del contexto del mercado.Por ejemplo, en el sitio boliviano se notó que las recompensas colectivas no parecen generar ningún cambio de comportamiento y por lo tanto no son efectivas (aunque este resultado puede también estar relacionado con el nivel de recompensa ofrecido). En el sitio peruano, las recompensas colectivas pueden tener un efecto positivo en la conservación a través de la provisión de beneficios mediante esfuerzos colectivos de conservación, pero al mismo tiempo puede provocar el oportunismo de algunos agricultores. Esto genera una preocupación acerca del efecto de desplazamiento de normas prosociales. Por tanto, se debe considerar cuidadosamente el impacto general para la conservación relacionado a los diferentes tipos de comportamiento de los agricultores dentro de las comunidades.Las recompensas individuales en el Altiplano parecen despertar dinámicas pro-sociales. En el sitio boliviano, parecen proporcionar a los agricultores altruistas de incentivos para aumentar la conservación. En ambos sitios de estudio, estos premios o recompensas parecen ser un medio potencial para estabilizar el comportamiento pro-social, de modo que estos resultados sugieren que las recompensas individuales efectivamente pueden aumentar los niveles de conservación debido a una reversión de la dinámica anti-social.(1) Los agricultores de las comunidades bolivianas tienen sistemas de producción de quinua más comercializados y asignan una pequeña proporción de sus tierras para la conservación de variedades no comerciales. Ellos confían menos en patrones de acción colectiva y en promedio conservan menos unidades de tierra en el juego de la conservación de la agrobiodiversidad en comparación con los participantes peruanos.(2) En el sitio peruano, los agricultores con menos recursos (ya sea en términos reales de las explotaciones o de unidades de tierra hipotéticamente asignadas en el juego) contribuyen menos a la conservación. Esto posiblemente se debe a una aversión a la inequidad así como un primer comportamiento de seguridad (es decir, ellos primero tratan de obtener beneficios individuales antes de invertir en proyectos de grupo para asegurar un beneficio en un bien público local). Los grupos heterogéneos conservan menos que los grupos uniformes.(3) En ambos sitios, los agricultores cooperan incondicionalmente, es decir, que ellos conservan alguna parte de sus unidades de tierra en la primera ronda sin haber conocido el grado de disposición a cooperar por parte de otros miembros del grupo. Este comportamiento es probable que sea impulsado por una combinación de expectativas positivas debido a la confianza en el cooperativismo de los demás, así como el altruismo. Las expectativas desde luego se desarrollan a medida que el juego continúa.(4) En ambos sitios, los niveles iniciales de conservación en gran medida determinan la conservación en rondas posteriores, por lo que parece que el altruismo juega un papel clave para garantizar la acción colectiva. No hay diferencias en la relevancia de esta norma pro-social en ninguno de los dos sitios.(5) En ambos sitios, los niveles de conservación oscilan en torno al umbral, por lo que el umbral parece tener un efecto estabilizador en los niveles de conservación.(6) En el sitio boliviano, el comportamiento de oportunismo estratégico (free-riding) parece debilitar los niveles de conservación en la ronda inicial. En ambos sitios hay un número similar de participantes con un comportamiento de oportunistas (entre 33% y 40%).(7) En el sitio peruano, hay más participantes que siguen un comportamiento basado en la reciprocidad (el 36 %) que en el sitio boliviano (el 19 %). Esto parecería indicar que el comportamiento pro-social parece ser reducido en contextos de agricultura comercializada. Esto concuerda con las conclusiones que el cooperativismo condicional disminuye con el grado de comercialización a nivel individual (medido por la cantidad de quinua vendida en los mercados) dentro de los dos sitios.(8) En ambos sitios, el nivel de conservación aumenta significativamente bajo recompensas individuales (en ambos grupos uniformes y heterogéneos), pero las recompensas colectivas sólo parecen tener un efecto facilitador de la conservación en los grupos heterogéneos de Perú. Sin embargo, esta conclusión puede parcialmente indicar que los niveles de recompensa colectiva usados en el juego fueron insuficientes para promover un incremento de los niveles de conservación.Estos resultados destacan la importancia de realizar una evaluación cuidadosa de las preferencias sociales existentes de relevancia para el éxito de las instituciones formales (como PSA) traídas desde afuera a la comunidad. Con la creciente aplicación de los esquemas PSA en el campo, hay una necesidad de investigación urgente de estudio específico de sitio, incluso mediante la experimentación en campo, con el fin de ampliar la comprensión de las maneras por las cuales los sistemas de recompensas externas pueden afectar las prácticas de manejo de los recursos existentes, bajo diferentes contextos de mercados y grupos. Esto también es muy importante para ayudar a los tomadores de decisiones a diseñar esquemas de pagos por servicios de conservación de la agrobiodiversidad de tal modo que estos esquemas puedan aprovechar, apoyar y complementar patrones existentes de acción colectiva.Mayor información y citas completas en:• Narloch, U., Pascual, U. and Drucker, A.G. 2011. Do external rewards crowd out collective action? Experimental evidence from the Andes. University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy (Mimeo). • Narloch, U., Pascual, U. and Drucker A.G. 2010. Pro-social  ","tokenCount":"2454"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd20fa599422ef71eb4d4a35f0d62bfd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7c554ab0-5919-4597-b300-e552cef20d79/content","id":"1596022299"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"346715ee-bb02-4d5c-9169-1fc3138c0fa2","pagecount":"8","content":"In this blog, A. G. Adeeth Cariappa discusses how carbon credits can be used to incentivize farmers to adopt measures that can support climate change mitigation and how agricultural extension can spread the word. \"The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable. The heat is unbearable… It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.\" -António Guterres, U. N. Secretary GeneralClimate change mitigation is particularly important for lower-middle and low-income countries, where agriculture's share in total GHG emissions is higher compared to high-income countries. Agriculture accounts for 48% of total emissions in low-income countries and 7% in high-income countries (Ritchie et al., 2020). Moreover, measures to reduce GHG emissions can be cost-effective in middle-and low-income countries (Glennerster & Jayachandran, 2023). Though agriculture is one of the major contributors to GHG emissions, it can also play a crucial role in climate change mitigation. Carbon credits (Box 1) can help mitigate climate change while benefiting farmers.Box 1: Understanding carbon credits Policies aimed at reducing GHG emissions can be divided into two broad categories: regulation and incentivization. Carbon markets, where a price is placed on carbon emissions, are built on these two foundations. Carbon markets are of two types: compliance markets that are regulated by governments or international agencies, and voluntary carbon markets (VCM) that provide incentives for emission reduction. Participation is voluntary in VCM, unlike in compliance markets. Carbon credits generated from agriculture are traded specifically in the VCM, where buyers and sellers participate voluntarily. Recognizing the potential of carbon markets, the Government of India is all set to start India's own carbon market.Carbon credits form the foundation of these carbon markets. Entities such as individuals, companies, or governments can receive financial incentives for reducing their emissions below a certain baseline. The emission reduction is quantified in the form of carbon credits, which can be traded in carbon markets. One carbon credit is equivalent to one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), a unit that combines the warming potential of CO2, CH4, and N2O.Carbon credits are seen as a solution to mitigate climate change by rewarding GHG emissions reduction or carbon removal from the atmosphere. In the context of agriculture, carbon credits can be generated by implementing sustainable practices that reduce emissions or sequester carbon. How does this process work and how can it impact agriculture and farmers? We now know that GHG emissions from agricultural residue burning in India has increased by 75 % since 2011 (Deshpande et al., 2023). Consider a paddy farmer who traditionally burns residues after the Kharif season's harvest. Assuming a carbon company or an NGO approaches farmers and convinces them not to burn residue, and they propose a plan of action: after verifying that the farmers have not burnt crop residue in the next season, they will provide a specified amount of money. The farmer agrees to this arrangement and does not burn crop residue in the next season.Let's say that by not burning residues, the farmer achieves a reduction of 1.5 tonnes of CO2e per hectare compared to the previous season's baseline. This reduction translates to the generation of 1.5 carbon credits per hectare, with the understanding that 1 tonne of CO2e is equivalent to 1 carbon credit. Assuming a market value of US$ 10 per carbon credit, and with the agreement specifying that 60% of the revenue reaches the farmers, the farmer who avoided burning rice residues would receive an estimated amount of approximately INR 750 per hectare 1 . It's important to note that the disbursal of funds to the farmer is contingent upon a third-party verifier confirming that the farmer has indeed not burnt residues and that the calculations are accurate and error-free.This approach provides farmers with a financial incentive to adopt sustainable practices, such as not burning residues. By participating in such initiatives, farmers contribute to climate change mitigation efforts while also potentially improving their own livelihoods. The involvement of a third-party verifier helps ensure the integrity and credibility of the process, providing assurance to all stakeholders involved.The process of generating and selling carbon credits involves several stakeholders (Figure 1). First, a project developer conceptualizes and designs a project, preparing a project document according to a specific carbon offset program's 2 requirements. Organizations like Verra and Gold Standard serve as certifying bodies, establishing standards and methodologies for different sectors. There are basically two types of projects based on the partners -those developed and implemented by carbon companies themselves and those implemented with implementation agencies (NGOs). For example, some of the project proponents in India are startups such as Boomitra Inc., Grow Indigo Private Ltd., Nurture Agtech Private Limited, Varaha ClimateAg Private Limited, Value Network Ventures Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., and companies such as Godrej Agrovet Limited and Landmark Agri Exports Private Limited.Once the project design is complete, farmers implement sustainable agricultural practices with the assistance of the companies or implementation partners (NGOs/farmer collectives), and the resulting emissions reduction/ carbon removal is measured and reported by project developers. Third-party bodies validate and verify these reductions. Upon successful verification, carbon credits are issued, which can be sold in the marketplace or through over-the-counter deals with corporate buyers. A real example is provided in Box 2. The project proponent (VNV) designs the whole project, selects the intervention, area of intervention, and the scale based on their and the implementation partner's capacity. The project proponent trains the implementation partner (NGO) on the interventions (AWD here) and tasks them to onboard farmers to the project. The NGO also collects basic information on farmers, like the agricultural practices followed and GPS of plots to establish the baseline and monitor the plot using remote sensing. The NGO's role is to enroll farmers, create awareness about AWD, supply AWD pipes, install AWD pipes in farmers' field, ensure that the farmers continue using AWD, monitor and assist the third-party validation/verification bodies (VVBs) during the audit. VNV creates the baseline, measures emissions reductions, takes care of all the documentation with Verra, validation and verification processes, and reporting and sales of carbon credits. Generally, the project proponent takes care of all the costs (registration, validation, verification, and project costs) at the beginning of the project. Once the carbon credits are sold, they subtract this cost from the gross revenue from the sales of carbon credits and share a percentage of the net revenue with the NGO and farmers. Farmers usually get the higher share of the net revenue. Based on our discussions with various project proponents, around 55-70% of the net revenue reaches farmers. Note that the project is still under development and therefore, none of the farmers might have received income from carbon credits. Preliminary findings from the survey of carbon farmers 7 conducted by CIMMYT in 2 states of India covering 7 carbon credit projects revealed that a major share of farmers enrolled in carbon farming projects did not receive any kind of training on the interventions. Also, farmers had little knowledge about the written/digital contract with the company, ownership of carbon credits generated and the whole process of carbon crediting. Furthermore, most of the farmers highlighted that the company did not contact them or share any information after they had enrolled in the project. These observations underline the need for training and farmer engagement for the success of individual carbon farming projects and the larger goal of climate change mitigation. Thus, proven models of agricultural extension should be used by the companies who could hire qualified extension professionals or devise context-specific strategies for better engagement, information sharing and training of farmers.Interviewing a carbon farmer in Haryana ©Pravakar BeheraWhen properly planned and implemented, carbon farming projects offer promising avenues for both climate change mitigation and farmer prosperity. By reducing GHG emissions and generating carbon credits, agriculture can play an important role in addressing the global climate crisis. As policymakers, organizations, and individuals embrace carbon markets and incentivize sustainable practices, we can move closer to a sustainable and resilient future for the planet. The time to act is now, and the potential rewards are immense.CIMMYT is working on various aspects of carbon farming through quantitative surveys, case studies and stakeholder interviews across India and Africa. Following are some research questions to explore for interested researchers: projects be designed to ensure social inclusion and gender equity? 6. Is there information asymmetry among the stakeholders of carbon farming projects? How can their effects be reduced?","tokenCount":"1422"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ade458fb5425d4afcfd0b3ff93a17a7c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ae2f29ab-81b1-4762-ad61-83b6069893a3/content","id":"652049562"},"keywords":["Africa","agro-dealers","maize","new product development","seed preferences","varietal turnover"],"sieverID":"d1490f92-9cde-4976-a218-0c0a91ec6e14","pagecount":"19","content":"During the past decade, sizable investments have been made to strengthen maize (Zea mays L.) seed production in Eastern and Southern Africa by private seed companies. However, efforts have generally overlooked downstream issues, such as how seed companies market their products and position their business in a competitive market. This paper assesses competition and customer preferences in Kenya at the retail level for varieties from the parastatal, private domestic and international companies. Data were collected from agro-dealer surveys (n = 80) and farmer intercept interviews (n = 377). Compared to the market leader, the parastatal Kenya Seed Company, private domestic and international companies provide greater value to farmers by selling varieties that are, on average, 10 years younger. However, these companies offer few late-maturing varieties, thus giving the parastatal a near monopoly in that market segment. Kenya Seed Company also excels at being present at all sales locations with their varieties. If private domestic companies focus more on smallholders with lower budgets (including travel budget), they should consider the most cost-effective ways to extend their networks to remote areas as well as compete with the lower prices of Kenya Seed Company. Modern breeding programs should explicitly consider these marketing challenges when designing strategies for seed production and engagement with seed companies.Strengthening in-country seed production forms a key element of strategies for advancing food security and poverty reduction goals (Lipton and Longhurst 1989;Byerlee and Eicher 1997;Louwaars and de Boef 2012), as well as for mitigating the effects of climate variability and extremes (Access to Seeds Foundation 2019; Atlin, Cairns, and Das 2017;Fisher et al. 2015) Sperling 2016), for the maize seed sector in East and Southern Africa, the dominant approach for maize emphasizes seed production by privately owned, often small and medium-scale, businesses and agro-input companies (AGRA 2017;McGuire and Sperling 2016;Toenniessen, Adesina, and DeVries 2008;Erenstein and Kassie 2018).Kenya provided an early success story of public-sector maize-breeding programs (Gerhart 1975;De Groote et al. 2002). Since the liberalization of the Kenyan seed market in the mid-1990s, the country has experienced an expanding offer of hybrid maize seed. Before the liberalization, seed was provided through the parastatal Kenya Seed Company (KSC). In the years following liberalization, they continued to dominate the seed market. At the start of the twenty-first century, the first international companies (IC), including Monsanto and Pioneer as well as Pannar, a South African seed company, began selling maize seed in Kenya (Swanckaert 2012). Around the same time, private domestic companies (PDC) started selling seed in Kenya. In 2015, 19 companies were producing and selling maize seed in Kenya, including 8 IC, 10 PDC, and the parastatal KSC (The African Seed Access Index 2016). However, the liberalization of the seed market has not been without challenges. KSC continues to dominate the maize seed market (Nagarajan, Naseem, and Pray 2019;Tripp and Rohrbach 2001;Smale and Olwande 2014) and sells seed at fixed low price regardless of package, type (hybrid or open-pollinated), or place (center of the city or rural market) (Nambiro, de Groote, and Osura 2002). Expensive and long varietal registration and release processes still hamper competition by restricting the launch of new seed products in the Kenyan market (Spielman and Smale 2017).A key expectation of PDC, as compared with their multi-national counterparts, is that they are more willing to seek out traditionally underserved segments of the seed market, including poor farming households located in less-favored production zones. For this reason, these businesses have been the preferred partner of governments, international research and donor organizations for production and diffusion of improved varieties emerging from public-sector maize-breeding programs. The expansion of the maize seed supply by locally owned businesses in the Kenya market, as well as other markets in the region, has been supported by long-term donor engagement aimed at strengthening the breeding work by public-sector agencies (e.g., providing access to new germplasm, building capacity of breeders, implementing on-farm trials). At the same time, investments have also aimed to strengthen the capacity of domestic seed businesses to produce and market quality seed and renew their seed portfolio. Through breeding projects by CIMMYT and partners, including Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA), >80 stress-tolerant varieties were released in Kenya in the last 15 years. Through the program for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS), AGRA invested significantly in breeding, training, and production programs of seed companies in Kenya (AGRA 2017).However, the focus of development interventions in formal maize seed systems has concentrated mainly on seed production and less on understanding how PDC, some of which are likely to be flush with new seed products, can market their new seed products and position their business visà-vis the market leader -KSC, and growing competition from IC. Farmers are now presented with different choices for seed purchase, but likely have limited information at hand on the attributes of these products (Waldman et al. 2017). But how successful are companies in understanding their target audience and what that audience needs with respect to maize seed? By taking a snapshot of seed sales in Kenya at the retail level, i.e., by looking at both seed availability and farmer preferences, the paper aims to understand the positioning of PDC in a competitive market and provide recommendations for further strengthening of a dynamic and strong local seed sector.The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: In Section 2, current frameworks in seed systems are discussed and complemented with concepts from new product development. In Section 3, the two data collection methods, i.e., the agro-dealer survey and farmer intercept interviews, are discussed and Section 4 reports the results. In the final section, we discuss the implications of the competitor and customer analysis for the local seed sector as well as for donors and implementing partners supporting this sector.Frameworks for assessing formal maize seed systems have centered largely on seed production and distributionwith the major issue being getting enough quality seed to farmers. In his conceptualization of the maize seed industry development, Morris (1998) discussed a pathway of four stages through which a seed industry evolves, going from \"preindustrial stage\" to \"maturity stage.\" Indicators to evaluate the industry stage are mainly based on production criteria, including the seed production and distribution capacity (e.g., capacity to produce hybrids). A similar analysis of the growth stages of the seed industry in sub-Saharan Africa was recently carried out by Ariga et al. (2019). In their synthesis of seed systems for vegetatively propagated crops, Bentley et al. (2018) highlighted three key dimensions: availability, access, and quality. Langyintuo et al. (2010) assessed the bottlenecks for maize seed business growth and expansion in Eastern and Southern Africa. Besides several supply-side-related challenges, such as company establishment and seed production, they also considered demand-side problems in seed systems, including low adoption rates, lack of demand estimates and limited reach of extension. However, a common assumption in these frameworks and assessments is that seed companies operate in a quasi-monopolistic system, where increased supply translates into increased sales and market competition can be discarded.Recent trends in the Kenyan maize seed sector beg the question: what if farmers that are looking for improved maize varieties all have access to an existing seed portfolio? This would imply that new seed products would need to capture market share from existing players, a challenge that has received a substantial amount of attention in the field of new product development (Gray et al. 2004;Cooper 1986Cooper , 2011;;Krishnan and Ulrich 2001;Boehlje, Roucan-Kane, and Broring 2011) but not in seed systems. In general, launching a new seed product poses considerable risk and expense for seed businesses. Farmers have limited information on seed attributes (Simtowe et al. 2019) and tend to be adverse to experimentation in seed utilization (Fisher and Kandiwa 2014;Das et al. 2019). These challenges are compounded by weak agricultural extension programs and limited engagement by agrodealers with their farmer clients at the point of sale (Rutsaert and Donovan 2020). Moreover, we know little about the reach or effectiveness of seed demonstration plots, a key tool employed by maize seed companies to build demand for new products.Incorporating concepts and frameworks of new product development and innovation literature can support the local seed sector in their business decisions. When a seed company launches a new product or targets a new area, it can be seen as an innovation in the local offer for farmers. Christensen and Raynor (2003) make the distinction between three types of innovation: (i) sustaining innovations focused on new attributes added to existing products (for example, releasing a new hybrid that has a higher yield or stress resilience than existing hybrids in the market), (ii) new market innovations that offer completely new products (releasing hybrids in an area where only saved seed is being used) and (iii) low-end innovations focusing on less demanding customers and delivering a product at lower cost (selling a cheaper openpollinated variety (OPV) in a hybrid-dominated market). These different innovations require very different approaches in targeting customers, creating value, dealing with competition and getting profit (Gray et al. 2004). Understanding the type of innovation, a seed company wants to introduce, can guide decision-making on the criteria mentioned above. In the case of Kenya, where most farmers buy hybrid seeds (Smale and Olwande 2014) and OPVs have been phased out in the main maize-producing zones (Rutsaert and Donovan 2020), sustaining innovations in the formal maize seed sector is most prevalent.Incorporating a stronger demand-side perspective into formal maize seed systems requires new thinking about the role of market structure and competition in shaping the opportunities and constraints for seed businesses. Two key aspects of new product development, according to Gray et al. (2004), are customer analysis and competitor analysis. An important element of customer analysis is understanding the value a new product gives to the customer, also referred to as consumer surplus. For sustaining innovations, this can be done by improved performance on highly valued attributes. Knowing which customers are interested is also critical for the success of sustaining innovations. It is often the more demanding and knowledgeable customers, who will be the first adopters of these new, improved products (Simtowe et al. 2019). Besides knowing who their customers are, seed companies should also be aware of their competitors. Competitor analysis and the concept of competitive advantage are fundamental concepts in the corporate world and business-management literature (Peteraf 1993;Barney 1991;Porter 2008Porter , 1980)). In his Five Forces Model, Porter (1980) provides a framework for competitor analysis, focusing on (i) new entrants, (ii) substitute products, (iii) bargaining power of suppliers, (iv) bargaining power of buyers and (v) rivalry among existing firms, i.e., the direct competition in a sector. Access and understanding of market data are required to have a better understanding of competition and customers and this is something that is lacking in maize seed markets. In his paper on the upcoming reforms of the CGIAR, Haddad (2020) underscored the importance of research on consumer insights as one of the key gaps in public research. While he was referring to food systems in the paper, we argue the same argument holds true for seed systems. This paper aims to fill this gap by focusing on seed retail to assess the current competition domestic seed companies are facing and by getting a better understanding of the customer (farmer) buying maize seed, either from Kenyabased companies, international competitors, or KSC.Data were collected in Kenya at the start of the 2019 main maize-growing season that began in March and ended in June. Structured surveys were carried out with agro-dealer attendants, to include store owners, managers or full-time employees, and intercept interviews were implemented with farmers who visited agrodealerships to purchase maize seed. Important to note is that the majority of maize seed in Kenya is purchased within a short period, roughly 2-3 weeks, following the first rains, which mark the start of the planting season. Because the tropical cyclone \"Idai\" redirected rains away from East Africa (FAO 2019), the traditional starting period of the maize-growing season was disturbed by scattered and absent rainfall. We adjusted our data collection to weather patterns and carried out intercept interviews in locations where rain had started to fall, as farmers were only buying during those days.A structured survey was carried out with 80 agro-dealers, where sample design considered potential differences among agro-dealers with respect to the agroecological zone in which they were located and their proximity to urban centers.Two counties were randomly selected in each of the following agro-ecological zones: tropical highlands, moist transitional, moist mid-altitude, dry transitional and dry mid-altitude. In these 10 counties, one sub-county was randomly selected and in that sub-county, four agro-dealers in the sub-county main center (referred to as urban center) and four agro-dealers in rural centers were randomly selected from a centralized agro-dealer database of Kenya. This database was verified and adjusted where necessary by local government officials at the sub-county level. Figure 1 represents the selected counties and locations of the agro-dealers. Interviews lasted roughly 60 minutes and information was recorded with electronic tablets by experienced enumerators. The survey was extensively pretested before the seed-selling season and revised across several iterations. Interviews were carried out with the individual, who was most knowledgeable about maize seed sales and day-to-day transactions. Most often, the respondent was the store owner but, in some cases, it was a store manager or experienced employee. Intercept interviews were carried out with farmers exiting the selected agrodealers. Selected farmers had purchased maize seed for themselves or someone in their family and reported to be involved in maize farming. Examples of those excluded from intercept interviews included drivers who picked up seed for their employers, as well as family members who purchased seed, but were not involved in maize farming. Respondents were invited to participate when coming out of the agro-dealer in a 10-to 15-min survey. Tents were placed in the vicinity of the agro-dealer to provide shade during interviews, as well as to reduce potential unease (and bias) among respondents answering sensitive questions about seed selection inside the agro-dealership. Two teams of three enumerators carried out the survey. A team leader recruited farmers coming out of the store, who made a purchase and two enumerators carried out the surveys. Respondents received a small incentive for their participation. Each farmer coming out of the agro-dealer was invited to participate in the survey.Three counties were selected on the basis of their agro-ecological zone and the high prevalence of maize farming: Embu (dry mid-altitude), Kakamega (moist mid-altitude), and Trans-Nzoia (highlands) (see Figure 1). However, the results of the intercept interviews in Trans-Nzoia were not included in the analysis for two reasons: (i) sample size was small because the absence of rain and (ii) KSC dominated the retail landscape, with little competition from other seed companies. In each county, the main county center and a rural location were selected and depending on store traffic per agro-dealer, one to three agro-dealers were chosen in each location to recruit farmers. Pretesting was done in the first week of the maize seed-purchasing season in Kiambu county, where early rains had resulted in an early wave of maize seed purchases.The focus of the analysis, at agro-dealer and farmer levels, was on the varieties offered by agro-dealers and purchased by local farmers, respectively. To evaluate the performance of the parastatal KSC, private domestic companies (PDC) and international companies (IC), all varieties captured in our sample were classified in one of the three categories. Data were further analyzed on a category level; examination of distinct varieties or company performance was not the focus of this study. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 22.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and STATA 15.0. Statistical significance was evaluated at α = 0.05. We carried out descriptive statistics, such as Chi-square association tests, independent sample t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare variety attributes and consumer profiles between parastatal, national, and domestic companies as well as characteristics of farmer samples in Embu and Kakamega.Table 1 contains basic information on the selected agro-dealerships (n = 80). The selected agro-dealerships had, on average, 8 years in business at the time of data collection and most stores were owned by a sole proprietor. A few dealerships were direct agents of seed companies, KSC in most cases. Approximately half of the stores reported the sale of maize seed as one of the top three annual revenue generators and it was the most important annual revenue generator for roughly 10%.The characteristics of the farmer sample participating in the intercept interviews in Kakamega (n = 205) and Embu (n = 172) are described in Table 2. Roughly one-third of our sample consisted of female farmers in both locations with an average age was close to 50. Education levels were lower in Kakamega, with almost 70% not having finished secondary education, compared to approximately 50% in Embu. Maize fields were small in both locations, with an average of 0.61 ha; the share of maize sold was higher in Embu. Public transport was the most used transport to purchase maize in both locations.In total, 59 different varieties were available in the agro-dealerships (Table 3) for the 2018 maize seed-purchasing season, of which 15 were produced by KSC, 20 were produced by PDC and 24 by IC (including Monsanto Seed Co, Pioneer, Syngenta, and Pannar). The average varietal age (based on release date 1 ) produced by PDC and IC was around 11 years; varieties coming from KSC were significantly older, with an average varietal age of 21 years. Whereas a large part of the offer by KSC was focused on late-maturity varieties, this was not the case for PDC and IC. The focus of PDC was largely on intermediate-maturity varieties, while IC had a good share of early-maturity varieties. Table 4 contains an overview of varieties from the three company categories available at agro-dealers across the maize-growing area. Noteworthy is the difference in the physical accessibility of varieties. Although PDC produced a significant share of the varieties available in Kenya, access to these varieties seemed to be problematic. They accounted for only 12% of stock-keeping units (SKUs) or distinct items for sale available at our sampled agro-dealers and there were no varieties of PDC available in 55% of the agro-dealers. The spread across different agro-ecological zones is most equally divided for the IC, except for a lower presence in the highlands. Varieties from KSC were mostly available in the highlands and wet upper mid-altitude, which reflects its focus on late-maturity varieties. Varieties from PDC were mainly available in the wet-lower and upper mid-altitude zones; availability in the dry zones was low. 2  Figure 2 is meant to provide a deeper look into retail presence per agroecological zone, with each zone weighted by the share of maize production. KSC dominated the offer of maize varieties in the maize belt, i.e., the highlands and moist transitional zone, where late-maturing varieties were most popular. In  both dry zones, IC had a strong presence. Varieties of PDC were mostly present in the moist mid-altitude and moist transitional zones.Local distributors (large agro-dealers or wholesalers) provided three out of four SKUs to the sampled agro-dealers and this percentage was highest for IC, followed by PDC. The reliability of supply was different between the different company categories, with the parastatal outperforming all others. Unreliable supply was highest among the PDC. Most seed in the Kenyan market was sold in two-kg packs; only KSC sold it in larger packs. Price points of varieties also differed significantly among the three. Figure 3 contains more detail about the price setting of the different producing groups. Varieties sold by KSC were priced at 1.80 $/kg 3 (= 180 KES/kg) or sometimes lower when sold in bags larger than 2 kg. IC favored the 2.50 $/kg (= 250 KES/kg) as price point, almost 40% higher than the parastatal price, with >70% of varieties sold at that price. The pricing strategy of PDC was less discernible. Some opted to sell their seed at a similar price as their international competitors, others maintained the price below the 2.50 $/kg threshold. The difference in sales price did not result in large margin differences for the agro-dealers. The average margin per kg was 0.17 USD (or 7.5% of sales price), being slightly lower for the parastatal varieties because of lower unit margin per kg for high-volume packages of 10 kg and 25 kg. Seed purchases by farmers, collected through intercept interviews at the agrodealers in Kakamega and Embu are shown in Tables 5 and 6, respectively. In Kakamega, KSC varieties were most popular, accounting for 65% of maize seed sales during the monitoring period. where >55% of the purchases represented varieties from IC. Only three farmers bought a variety from a PDC; therefore, we left that category out of the data analysis from Embu. The price levels were in line with results reported on access in Table 4, with clear differences in price categories in Kakamega. In Embu, however, prices of varieties from KSC were higher than those in Kakamega, exceeding the 1.80 $/kg benchmark. Farmers in Kakamega mostly purchased late-maturity varieties (from parastatal) and intermediate-maturity varieties (from PDC), while they preferred earlymaturity varieties (from IC) and intermediate-maturity varieties (from KSC) in Embu. Seed of IC was mainly purchased at urban agro-dealerships in both locations; the parastatal varieties were preferred in rural areas. Travel cost of farmers preferring varieties of IC was in both places significantly higher than that of farmers purchasing varieties from KSC.The socio-demographic profile of farmers preferring varieties of the three company categories is reported in Tables 5 and 6. Gender or age did not have an effect on farmer preferences. In Embu, farmers with larger maize fields preferred the varieties from IC. These were also the farmers who bought a larger seed quantity and sold a larger part of their harvest. In Kakamega, the farmers who purchased varieties from PDC were the ones that kept most of their harvest for their own consumption. Lastly, the key product attribute was explored for the different varieties. Overall, yield remains the most mentioned key attribute across the different categories. In Kakamega, early maturity stood out for PDC and IC to a lesser extent. In Embu, there was no difference in key attributes between IC and KSC.Extensive investments have been made, and will likely continue to be made, in developing a strong and economically viable domestic maize-seed sector in maize-dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. With this study, the goal was to take stock of the presence of these PDC in Kenya and obtain more insights into their positioning versus the present IC and KSC. Investments in domestic seed production had a strong and positive effect on the availability of seed varieties coming from PDC, responsible for one third of the available products on the market. The variety release age was at par with the IC; both still had some older varieties in the market but were making investments to commercialize new maize varieties, unlike KSC, of which the most recent commercial variety was released in 2009. Under the assumption that genetic gains through breeding are higher for recently released varieties (Atlin, Cairns, and Das 2017), PDC and IC provided greater value to farmers. On the other hand, the low investments of those two company categories in late-maturing varieties, highly preferred in the main maize-producing zones in Kenya, resulted in passing over a significant Standard deviation in parentheses.The a-c indicates significantly different average scores using ANOVA and Scheffe post-hoc tests (when equal variances not assumed: Dunnett's C post-hoc test). *12 farmers bought two varieties of different categories and are therefore included in both categories for the analysis of socio-demographics. 1 USD = 99.9 KES at the start of the data collection, 18 March 2019.customer base. Their quasi-monopoly on late-maturing varieties implied minimal competitive pressure on KSC to invest in developing and marketing new varieties; the parastatal can easily hold its dominant position with its current market offer. KSC has one additional advantage: reliable and widespread farmer access to its products. While its strong position and dominance with older varieties have often been questioned (Smale and Olwande 2014;Das et al. 2019;Swanckaert 2012), the focus of discussion has mainly been on the product itself and not about access to those products. Our findings show that the parastatals' strong position seems to be supported by product availability. They were present in all agro-dealers, with reliable access to its products, according to agro-dealers in our sample and lower prices than the competition while maintaining margins for retailers. While access being the strength of KSC, it seemed to be the domestic companies' weak point. Not only were they not present in a large part of the agro-dealers, but reliability of supply also was not as good as that of KSC or the international competition. Another key point of discussion in the competitor analysis was the affordability of the product. In that sense, Kenya represented a special situation with the presence of KSC and their fixed recommended price of 1.80 $/kg. ICs in Kenya have ignored this benchmark and have priced their seed products significantly higher at 2.50 $/kg, with relatively little variation on that price point. For domestic companies, data showed a greater variation in pricing strategy. Almost half of the seed was sold at the same benchmark price as the international companies, while the other half was sold below that price but almost none of them lowered to the KSC benchmark price. Price setting can be determined with respect to production cost and margin. If the production cost of PDC was lower compared with the IC (because of lower transportation costs), then PDC could make the same profit on a kg of seed while selling at a lower price. However, there was no evidence that this was the case, as ICs were likely to enjoy considerable scale in their breeding, production and marketing operations. More likely, seed pricing by PDC responded to their marketing strategya calculated effort to undercut the price of the international companies. However, farmers who explicitly wanted a cheap variety could have always gone for the well-known varieties offered by the parastatal that had stood the test of time. To the extent that price is an indicator of quality (Wolinsky 1983), setting seed prices lower than the competition in imperfect markets may likely send negative signals to farmers regarding seed quality. For a product, such as seed, where evaluation is mainly based on experience attributes (i.e., attributes that can only be evaluated after product use), price and brand are some of the few attributes to evaluate a product at the point of purchase. Another possible strategy for PDC could be to set sales price at the same level of the prices from ICs, but increase margins of retailers (resulting in higher retailer surplus) and use their vested interest and position to \"push\" their products to the farmer (Ailawadi et al. 2009;Rutsaert and Donovan 2020).Looking at the customers, there were some differences among the buyers of KSC, PDC, and IC. The most consistent element was that farmers who purchased from IC sold a larger part of their seeds and in Embu, these were also the farmers with larger fields and purchase volumes. Another key element was the preference of farmers who purchased seed in rural and urban locations. Varieties of IC were selling much better in urban locations. In relation to that, farmers preferring those varieties were also willing to pay a higher travel cost. For IC, it did not seem to be necessary to extend their networks to rural zones. However, if the focus of PDC is on smallholders with reduced budgets (including travel budget), they should consider what the most cost-effective ways are to extend their networks to remote areas.While the latest reports still confirmed KSC dominance in the Kenyan seed market (The African Seed Access Index 2016), keeping its position will become an increasingly difficult task if their material is judged to be inferior against the new products being released by PDC and IC. However, having the product alone will not automatically result in increased market share. PDC will need to invest in reliable access to seed, i.e., having a steady supply in their target areas, with backing from retail networks. Being in competition with IC, with larger budgets, on one hand, and a parastatal with undercutting prices, on the other hand, forces them to optimally invest their resources in high-value products supported by smart and targeted marketing investments (Heiman, Ferguson, and Zilberman 2020). Only the companies able to do this will be able to compete in the long run.Access to improved seed for farmers will remain a key pillar of development programs and there is still a great need for investments in this field to increase the adoption of improved varieties in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when programs are focusing on replacement of current varieties that are not suitable to deal with climate change with a new generation of stress-tolerant varieties (Atlin, Cairns, and Das 2017), an assessment of the commercial potential of these new products should be an indispensable part of product development. Without a clear understanding of the farmer needs, an assessment of the competitor products or a good understanding of the competitive advantage of the new variety, most new market introductions are likely to fail. In 2017, CGIAR launched the Excellence in Breeding platform to unify breeding ideas, technology, resources, demand, and capacity across species and systems (Hickey et al. 2017). One of the key pillars of this platform is to mainstream and optimize product design and management by developing product profiles that can increase the success of product-replacement strategies. Actions like this can help to increase return on investments of modern breeding programs. However, it should not stop at improving the breeding programs. Research partners like National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), CGIAR, and the donor community need to make sure that they not only supply those companies with top-quality material but also provide necessary support with respect to market intelligence, farmer and consumer preferences and best practices in product promotion and sales. Notes 1. Varietal release date is not the same as the date of commercialization. After release, the variety still needs to go through National Performance Testing (NPT) and bulking of parent seeds so it still can take 4 to 6 years before the variety is released. 2. Later correspondence with one of the key domestic seed companies in the dry zone informed that the company was struggling with seed production and therefore unable to produce sufficient quantities for the 2019 March-June season. 3. Exchange rate on 18 March 2019 (start of the field work) 1$ = 99.9 KES. those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the associated and/or supporting institutions.","tokenCount":"5129"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f353ec0b460a79ff15e1e7efbbb40d3d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0ed1ee6-8544-4cc7-884b-cc85f09c8cc9/retrieve","id":"-857052220"},"keywords":["Soil and water conservation","biological nitrogen fixation","mixed farming system","Malawi","forage","FarmDESIGN"],"sieverID":"1528908a-bbc8-4975-adec-6bb3968cd0c4","pagecount":"45","content":"Contour bund showcasing by extension officer M.C. Adams (right) to Mattis Höft (left); Jonathan Odhong , middle: Perennial grass and legume forage species on a contour bund in Tanzania; right: Marker ridge construction during workshop.Peak ecosystem productivity is determined by the available amount of solar energy and ambient temperature, utilized by plants in the form of light, and their genetic potential (Schneider & Kay, 1994;Schramski et al., 2015). In practice however, especially in rainfed, human-modified agro-ecosystems, which grow products for human consumption, plants' potential yield is further limited by water and nutrient availability, only allowing a reduced, attainable yield (Rabbinge, 1993;van Ittersum & Rabbinge, 1997). The yield difference, or yield gap, can be narrowed by improving water and nutrient supply (van Ittersum et al., 2013). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) 95% of farms are rainfed systems, limited mainly by water availability (Stewart & Hash, 1982;Svendsen et al., 2009;Tesfaye & Walker, 2004). Here, unpredictable precipitation patterns and poor soil management reduce soil moisture, which is generally low during seasonal dry periods (Raats & Holness, 1999;Sivakumar, 1992).In Malawi's wet season, reaching from December to April, only a fraction of rainfall is plant accessible. Large parts evaporate and widespread impermeable hoe pans hinder remaining water to infiltrate into the soil (Daamen et al., 1995;Douglas et al., 1999;World Bank, 2021). Additionally, Malawi's common sloping topography causes up to 30% of rainfall to run off arable land before it can infiltrate (Swai et al., 2007). Soil covering and protecting plant biomass, which would slow down water flow, is rare due to progressing deforestation and inadequate farm management (Omuto & Vargas, 2019). Stronger and shorter rainfall events further reduce time for soil infiltration and worsen soil erosion (Vargas & Omuto, 2016). Whilst climate change progresses, rainfall events decrease in frequency, but increase in intensity, which causes dry spells and floods during the cropping season (IPCC, 2023;Muthoni et al., 2019;Prein et al., 2017). As such Malawi is currently facing the effects of El Niño, which is projected to cause a 22% reduction in produced maize, the country's main staple crop (Duchoslav et al., 2024). In the face of these factors, which threaten crop yields, water conservation measures are urgently needed (Gondwe, 2023).Malawi's arable land is degrading from long-term inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizer-dominant maize monocropping. But the country is in a paradoxical dependency, as fertilizer demand is increasing to maintain yields (Bekunda et al., 1997;Burke et al., 2022a). Malawian farm systems rely on artificial fertilizer imports, mainly Urea and NPK, which historically the government provides to smallholders at subsidised rates through agricultural input programs (Duchoslav & Rusike, 2021). However, maize response to fertilizer has plummeted, from about 14 kg of maize grain produced per kg fertilizer in 1990 to just above 2 kg in 2018 (Burke et al., 2022b). The main drivers, declining soil organic carbon contents and fertilizer induced soil acidification are caused by inappropriate agronomic management (Bekunda et al., 1997;Burke et al., 2022a). With mineral fertilizers becoming a financially and environmentally unsustainable primary nitrogen source, alternative soil fertility management pathways are urgently needed (Campbell et al., 2023;Duchoslav & Rusike, 2021). As such, higher nitrogen system influx by biological nitrogen fixing (BNF) legumes and organic fertilizers in combination with N system retention and cycling needs to be prioritised, while avoiding losses (Bekunda et al., 2022, pp. 33-80;Burke et al., 2022a;Campbell et al., 2023;Giller et al., 1997).Soil water erosion is a main driver for water and soil nutrient losses, as the runoff contains considerable amounts of soil organic matter, mineral particles and nutrients (Omuto & Vargas, 2019). About threequarters of Malawian soils are prone to erosion, with national annual soil loss numbered at 29 Mg ha -1 in 2014 (Vargas & Omuto, 2016). Soil erosion susceptibility depends on precipitation, topography, soil texture, soil cover and management (Omuto & Vargas, 2019). While precipitation cannot be changed, soil and water conservation structures (SWC) can modify field's slope, create barriers and water catchments, while management practices influence soil cover and soil amendments, changing soil texture over time.Soil and water conservation measures have been demonstrated to effectively control erosion, and increase farm system yields by improving soil fertility and water availability (Kizito et al., 2022;Liniger et al., 2011;Saiz et al., 2016). There are several structures commonly constructed on contour: simple ridges across the slope, box ridges (perpendicular connected ridges, creating micro-catchment \"boxes\"), grass strips, Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) stabilized bunds and large fanya juu or fanya chini bunds (a dug trench, with the soil deposited up-slope \"juu\" or down-slope \"chini\") (Kizito et al., 2022;Liniger et al., 2011). More elaborate and labour intensive interventions have been associated with improved soil conservation und thus financial and environmental benefits (Tenge et al., 2005). For construction labour of about 40 to 390 hours ha -1 yield increases ranging from 25% to 85% have been reported (Kizito et al., 2022;Liniger et al., 2011;Tenge et al., 2005). For bund stabilisation, Vetiver grass and Yellow Cassia (Senna spectabilis) have been widely promoted in Malawi as they are unpalatable for livestock and thus easy to maintain (Bunderson et al., 2001;FAO, 2015;Greenfield, 1990;TVNI, 2021). Improved, multipurpose forages, which consist of selected fast-growing grasses and leguminous groundcovers, shrubs and trees, increase animal as well as crop productivity and can replace livestock unpalatable species (Kizito et al., 2022;Notenbaert et al., 2021). Their benefits range from pollen supply, medicinal properties, and fuelwood to large biomass quantities, which are usable as animal fodder, or mulch and compost for crop production (Jansen et al., 2020;Mokgolodi et al., 2011;Sibale et al., 2013). Deep-rooting, drought resistant species supply harvestable products during the dry season (Baruch, 1994;Hanum & Maesen, 1997;Shelton, 2000;Sibale et al., 2013). Forages are thus a promising option to deal with reported feed shortage during dry season (Ikyume et al., 2018).Allocation of biomass impacts farm system dynamics dependent on the farm type. When biomass is sold off-farm, forages contribute to household income (Tenge et al., 2005). When used on-farm as mulch or compost for plant production soil fertility indicators, such as soil organic matter content, water holding capacity and nutrient levels, increase. This can enable a complete replacement of inorganic N fertilizer with leguminous biomass in low to medium input systems, while increasing yields (Akinnifesi et al., 2010;Mokgolodi et al., 2011;Sileshi et al., 2008). Feeding forage biomass to livestock increases farm system productivity by elevating animal weight gain, milk and manure yields, which boosts crop production if returned to the soil (Paul et al., 2020a;Peters et al., 2001;Shelton & Dalzell, 2007;Smith & Staines, 2021). Elevating soil organic carbon contents can create a positive feedback loop, as the resulting higher crop biomass yields in turn increase manure or compost quantities (Kim et al., 2011;Schoenau, 2006). Cultivating forages in home vicinity saves labour time spent on off-farm feed acquisition or animal herding (Maxwell et al., 2012;Philp et al., 2019). Additionally, large ruminants can be utilised for draught power, act as financial reserve and insurance, and animal sourced food has a high nutritional value (Itty et al., 1997;Notenbaert et al., 2021;Paul et al., 2020b;Peters et al., 2001). Therefore, utilizing forages on-farm can increase overall farm productivity and resistance to outside shocks (Conrad, 2014;Peters et al., 2001;Thierfelder, 2022).Improved forage hedge integration on contour and the effects of erosion control structures on smallholder farm systems have mostly been explored separately in the last decades (Akinnifesi et al., 2010;Mangisoni, 2004;Mutegi et al., 2008;Shelton & Brewbaker, 1994;Tenge et al., 2005). Only few studies investigated the combination (Kizito et al., 2022;Liniger et al., 2011, p. 122;Menashe, 2001). A recent study found nearly completely mitigated soil erosion, which increased soil fertility and resulted in crop yield increases of 120%. The gross margin increased by more than 400% when fuelwood and biomass were accounted for, which also increased farm system resilience through income diversification (Kizito et al., 2022).Soil water erosion, and insufficient feed quantity and quality have been limiting smallholder farm system productivity in Malawi (Chimonyo et al., 2023;Omuto & Vargas, 2019;Reynolds, 2006). Ongoing climate change increases dry spell occurrence and drought durations, while the recent severe increase in fertilizer prices rendered inorganic fertilizer unaffordable for most smallholder farmers (Duchoslav & Rusike, 2021;IPCC, 2023). Both issues can be tackled by elevating crop water availability and nutrient input, specifically nitrogen, in the system. SWC and forage technologies pose a possible solution.However, smallholder uptake and external support by government and organizations is low (Chimonyo et al., 2023;Mangisoni, 2004;Toth et al., 2017). The reason for little farmer adoption seems to be multifaceted including social and economic challenges. Investment into farmland is discouraged by the dominant land tenure system of land-leasing and highly fragmented ownership with average household land sizes rarely exceeding 1 ha (Caruso & Sosa, 2022;Deininger et al., 2019). Crop or agroforestry system establishment is challenging due to the free grazing policy, which allows livestock to roam freely outside of the cropping season (Reynolds, 2006). Extreme inflation of 20% and a high interest rate of minimum 25% make financial market participation unattractive and smallholders rely on self-produced crop and animal food products (IFAD, 2017). External organizations and the government predominantly focus their financial support on green revolution technology, developing ever more advanced seed varieties and subsidizing inorganic fertilizer (Chimonyo et al., 2023;Milu Muyanga, 2020).Various studies have analyzed farmers' motivations for non-adoption of SWC structures and forages. For SWC structures, most studies identified the high labour demand, lost cropland, and delayed financial returns on labour or financial investment as main barriers, rendering alternative activities more profitable (Emerton & Snyder, 2018;Mangisoni, 2004;Tenge et al., 2005). Considering forage technology, the majority of studies named a lack of knowledge on improved forage species and insufficient understanding of animal nutrition as uptake constraints (Toth et al., 2017). Emerton and Snyder (2018) found that smallholder willingness to implement SWC was generally present, but hindered by financial constraints. In line with this, Giller et al. (1997, p. 26) reported that contour structure adoption was higher when farmers yielded secondary benefits in addition to erosion control. To improve low forage technology adoption rates, Paul et al. (2020b) and Groot et al. (2017) have recently been calling for a systems agronomy approach employing multidimensional farm modelling, which respects case-specific socioeconomic and biophysical constraints.The core problem is that depending on socioeconomic and biophysical context, specifically mixed farming system trade-offs and synergies between components are difficult to predict. Therefore technological innovations need be tailored to individual locations. This difficulty might explain why contour bund and forage hedge adoption is neither widely spread among Malawian smallholders, nor a prioritized technology promoted by state or private organisations. Therefore, this research applies a participatory systems approach to fill the knowledge gap for which mixed-farming system context in Malawi contour bund and forage integration is most effective. This is addressed by the following research objectives.The main objective of this research was to quantify the effect of establishing contour bunds in combination with mixed perennial forage crops on farm-context specific smallholder farm productivity and assess how landowners evaluate this technology. To address this, four research questions were answered: i.What are the key characteristics of the current smallholder production system, especially in regard to contour bund utilisation and forage species cultivation?ii.How does the integration of contour structures and forage species affect farm system productivity?a. What are the technical details of the contour structure and forage species? b. Which forage species combination would be optimal, given site-specific socioeconomic and biophysical constraints? c. How is current farm system productivity impacted by the redesign?iii.How does the implementation affect present day farm system productivity in terms of income, labour input, and soil fertility, given farm type specific forage biomass utilisation? Three scenarios will explore forage biomass allocation to: a) livestock production, b) composting and input for crop cultivation, c) forage sales. The study applied a participatory systems approach for quantifying the effect of integrating a contour bund and forage hedge landscape-design on smallholder village performance. Firstly, the case study village was identified by analysing the baseline dataset, results from an initial extension officer survey, and interviewing local MFS experts (Fig. 1). Using this data, a repository farm system was modelled in FarmDESIGN. Secondly, for model verification and characterising the baseline farm system, a first focus group discussion (FGD) was held, which further aimed to reveal farmer utilisation of SWC structures and forages. The discussion was followed by a brief survey, a transect walk and soil sampling. In conjunction, the contour bund and forage hedge landscape-design was developed using information from SWC expert interviews and secondary data. For identifying the optimal forage species combination, forage scientists were consulted, and FGD results and feed databases studied. For final plant selection, the findings were compared against previously sampled forage biomass elemental analysis and soil sampling results as well as climate data. Thirdly, using quantified data of the contour landscape-design, the previously created baseline model was expanded by three forage biomass allocation scenarios. Subsequently, scenario performance was compared to the baseline and main findings illustrated. In a second FGD performance study results were presented and evaluated by farmers. On the second day of the FGD a workshop was held, addressing farmers' topics requested by farmers. Lastly, farmer feedback was evaluated and conclusions drawn. The case study village Changamire, was selected based on IITA (2023a) dataset evaluation, findings of an agricultural extension development officer (AEDO) survey (see Supplementary Material 1), and interviewing MFS scientists of the Alliance. Selection criteria were the degree of present water erosion, ruminant livestock numbers and the diversity of SWC structures. The first two criteria were found to be highest in the case study village, although more elaborate contour structures were described for Dedza.Changamire is located on the Northern mid-altitude plateau in the Mzimba district (12°14'28.6\"S 33°39'44.4\"E), along the M1 highway (Fig. 2). Positioned at an elevation of about 1500 m on a ridge, which falls into a dambo wetland on both sides, the average land slope is highly variable, yet is on average moderate (Table 1). The climate is cool, but frost free and features a distinct dry season from May to November. The dominant soil type is a Sandy Clay Loam featuring an acid pH, average soil OM content and mainly low nutrient levels.A landscape-scale farm system analysis approach was chosen, as natural resources would be transferred and managed on a village level and effective SWC implemented would require a similar scale. Village farmland was mainly leased, fuelwood for cooking a common good and freely grazing animals would be transferring nutrients between fields. Engaging farmers collectively would also allow for discussion of topics associated with SWC implementation, such as the costs and benefits of free grazing livestock and required labour. Although merely half the registered village HH participated in this research, their combined agricultural activity will be referred to as \"village farm system\" throughout this study.  2.4 Participatory farm system characterisation 2.4.1 Expert interviews Semi-structured interviews were held with 20 specialists for case study village identification, information on contour bund design, forage species selection and agronomic data collection for FarmDESIGN input (see Supplementary Material 2). Experts were selected by snowball sampling and started with the first three subjects. Interview durations ranged from about 15 minutes to two hours and where in some cases followed up on via email.Two FGDs were held with 23 participating household (HH) heads in total, split into men, women and youth. Participants were selected based on a village register provided by the local AEDO. Selection criteria were gender, age and arable land endowment, forming eight individuals per group. An age limit of 30 years was set for the youth group, yet two individuals exceeded this limit due to limited young farmers residing in the village. Further, an equal number of men and women was planned for in the youth group, yet one women was unable to attend. For each event a protocol was developed, which was presented to the Alliance's Institutional Review Board for ethical evaluation. After approval, the FGDs were carried out and facilitated in the local language, Tumbuka, by local, experienced enumerators. With written or audiovisual participant consent the discussions were recorded. During the session the village's AEDO translated most parts of the conversations into English. The protocol and translated recording summaries are provided in Supplementary Material 3 for FGD I, and Supplementary Material 4 for FGD II. Quantitative data from the FGD was used for model calibration, whereas qualitative information was utilized as quotes to underline farmer opinionsThe first FGD was held to fine-tune the repository model and identify smallholder use of SWC and forages. Farmers were engaged in several activities. For evaluating landscape erosion severity, a participatory mapping exercise was conducted, grounded in methodology developed by Braslow et al. (2016). Farmers were asked to mark their fields, level of slope and existing erosion (see Supplementary Material 5). For SWC structures, forage and assessment, participants were first asked to name familiar items and then rank them against another in analogy to tools developed by Emerton et al. (2015). Desired forage characteristics were brainstormed and voted for by hand signs, since participants had difficulties to weigh them against another. Connected to the FGD, assisted by two AEDOs, smallholders were asked to fill in a structured survey translated to Tumbuka for quantifying key HH farm characteristics. All participants completed a short one, while three completed a long version (see Supplementary Material 6). After the FGD, in a transect walk soil erosion was inspected, native forage species identified and a soil sample collected for analyses (see Table 1.). Data that could not be gathered through the survey was sourced through expert interviews (see section 2.4.1) and secondary literature.For evaluating farmer perceptions of the redesign and forage allocation scenarios, a second FGD was conducted. Yet, to miscommunication with the local AEDO, the youth group was not available and only opinions of men and women could be recorded. Smallholders were asked to name positives and negatives about the explained scenarios and perceived challenges discussed (see Supplementary Material 4). For the second day, a workshop was prepared about soil fertility, composting and contour line identification, concerns voiced by the farmers and the local AEDO during the first FGD.FarmDESIGN is a bio-economic whole-farm model and was developed to analyse and optimize complex mixed-farming operations (Groot et al., 2012). Applying the Describe -Explain -Explore -Design, DEED cycle, described by (Giller et al., 2008;Tittonell, 2008), or rather inclusive InDEED cycle (Groot et al., 2017), when conducting participatory research, the model uses a vast amount of agronomic and social data, to calculate annual farm system performance. In a next step, constraints and objectives can be formulated to let the model optimise the baseline farm system by applying a multi-objective optimization algorithm based on Pareto optimality. Alternatively tailored settings can be created to explore 'what-if' scenarios and explore future perspectives (Schreefel et al., 2022;van Ittersum et al., 1998). In this study, the static FarmDESIGN model (version 5.13.0.0) was used to assess the economic, social and environmental performance of the baseline village farm system in comparison to three forage biomass allocation scenarios. For this, the first two steps, Describe and Explain, of the InDEED cycle were conducted and results analysed. The indicators farm income, financial free budget, leisure time and SOM balance, as a metric for soil fertility, were measured on an annual basis. In a nutshell farm income is based on revenue from crop and animal product sales, deducted by farm related variable and fixed costs. Financial free budget is the balance of off-farm labour income addition to farm income, and subtraction of food expenditure and other household costs. Leisure time is calculated by deducting farm related labour hours from the total available farm labour hours. SOM is computed by subtracting all degraded and lost OM from OM soil inputs. Thereby two economic indicators were selected, farm income to evaluate production differences, and financial free budget to account for food and other expenditures that were not accounted for in the other marker.First, a repository farm system was parameterisation with village-specific average HH data from the MFS baseline dataset as primary input. A secondary source was the model's repository data, which stored country-specific data collected by Meijer (2023). A village farm system boundary was set for major farm components. Excluded were crops cultivated on less than one hectare in sum, children that did not contributed to farmwork and livestock summing less than 0.3 TLU. In a second step the baseline model was created, by fine-tuning the existing data with results from the first FGD, farmer surveys and expert interviews, see section 3.7.1. The results of the participatory sessions were supplemented with secondary data were necessary and thereafter integrated into FarmDESIGN. Specific input data is supplied in the attached FarmDESIGN model files.After FarmDESIGN introduction of the contour bund redesign (see section 2.6) and for measuring it's impact on the baseline farm system, three scenarios were modelled: Forage Feeding, Forage Composting and Forage Selling. In those, total biomass produced by the forage hedges was allocated to either ruminant livestock feeding, composting and crop production, or off-farm cut-and-carry sale.In each forage scenario, in addition to the contour bund design integration, further main changes to the village farm system were made. For Forage Feeding, higher animal numbers were integrated, the required general labour for herding was decreased, and inorganic fertilizer substituted with manure.In the Forage Feeding scenario general labour time was increased due to composting making and inorganic fertilizer was substituted with compost. For Forage Selling a price for forage selling was introduced. Detailed changes to the baseline system are provided in the FarmDESIGN files of the respective scenario.The redesign was created by merging the individual system components, contour bund and forage hedge, described in section 2.6.1 and 2.6.2, into a landscape-design, which would be strip-wise integrated into the entire farmland of the case-study village. For incorporation into FarmDESIGN, the contour bund design was treated as one continuous crop. For parameterisation, agronomic data, such as required labour hours for construction and maintenance, forage planting material costs, and produced forage products were calculated. In addition, a reduction in existing cropland and changes to crop productivity were simulated. Based on literature, the biomass produced by the forage hedge was calculated, together with livestock numbers, which could be sustained by the higher fodder supply.An incremental establishment period of five years was considered for a realistic division of labour. Therefore, the farm system performance was captured in the fifth year, still accounting for the initial labour required to set up the structures, while considering field crop and forage biomass yield changes. Together this formed the starting point for the scenario-based analysis, which was performed next (see section 2.5.2).The fundamental design idea for integrating contour bunds with multi-layered plant species stemmed from similarly designed permaculture swales (Mollison, 1991) Suitable forage species were identified based on a three-step selection process (Fig. 3). Firstly, a list of 15 improved forage species was collected for Malawi with input from forage scientists and literature, which served as foundation for further selection (Supplementary Material 7). Secondly, based on farmers' preferred forage characteristics, and forages' physiological niche strata, the initial list was condensed to eight species. For these in-depth agronomic characteristics were collected in Supplementary Material 8, and elemental biomass composition analysed (see Supplementary Material 9). Finally, by weighing species data against each other, and selecting for precipitation requirements, acidity tolerance, waterlogging and drought resistance (see Table 1), four species were chosen. The number four was a compromise between maximised species diversity and intercropping benefits, and available time that could be spent modelling species performance. For an optimal yield increase from intercropping by spatial niche differentiation, a three-layered arrangement was chosen and leguminous species integrated, based on findings from Li et al. (2020); Martin-Guay et al. (2018). 3. ResultsData analysis and focus group results pictured the case study village households' as predominantly maize-based, low input production system, with extensively managed livestock, mainly consisting of ruminants, Fig. 4. Detailed information is provided in Table 2.  Farmers reported to cultivate maize on about half the arable land in rotation with soybean, common bean, groundnut and sweet potato. Notably large differences in cropland and animal endowment between men and women headed households existed, with men owning more than double as much land and eleven times the animals than women. Compared to women, the youth, comprised mostly of farmers aged below 30, had about double the arable land and livestock. However, compared to men the youth possessed similar sized cropland, but about a fifth of the animals. Only maize received fertilizer, at a rate of about 40 kg N ha -1 y -1 . As a reason, farmers named the unaffordability of fertilizer and underlined the need for it: \"[…] our soils are bad, we are growing hybrids seed on soils which are degraded and demand a lot of fertilizer so that only those with fertilizer are the ones harvesting […].\" (see Supplementary Material 3). Most crop residues were grazed by free-roaming ruminants after harvest and a small fraction was kept for dry season feeding. The remaining residues, mostly from leguminous crops, were burnt to provide fertility for the following maize crop with a male farmer stating: \"[…] when you plant maize, where you have burnt the maize grows well, compared to where it has not burnt.\" Characteristically, all ruminants were herded and grazed year-round off-farm, except for a free grazing period on cropland after harvest. Basic manure management was performed by collection from open-air stables and direct field application during soil preparation at wet season onset. Most produced crop products were used for subsistence. Only soyabeans and sweet potatoes were sold in larger quantities, in addition to meat and milk.Knowledge and utilisation of SWC differed between groups (Supplementary Material 10(a)). Men had the most comprehensive understanding, while the youth could only name a few techniques to counteract erosion. Preparing ridges perpendicular to the slope direction was practiced by all farmers. Men stated that these were often constructed in combination with box ridges. Few reported to also use vetiver bunds, while no group stated to create elaborate, \"large [fanya chini] ridges\".When evaluating SWC, proportionally higher effectiveness was attributed to elaborate structures that required more labour input (Supplementary Material 10 (c)), while at the same time, the largest constraints preventing construction were said to be labour demand, cropland loss, lacking technical knowledge and material scarcity. Female farmers expressed: \"Constructing a big ridge is for men, we cannot afford to do it […].\" \"We do not have expertise on how to construct ridges, […] it is better if we can be taught.\". Female farmers also indicated that ridges would be arranged by eye and water erosion would persist.Forage crops, neither indigenous nor improved, were cultivated intentionally although farmers experienced animal feed scarcity and long ruminant herd travelling time to grazing grounds during the dry season. While all smallholders were unaware of any improved forage species, men listed native species, including their fodder and medicinal values (Supplementary Material 7). However, livestock owners reasoned that growing them would not be necessary: \"[…] until now we have been feeding our livestock grass and crop residues when available, at least now some people started to store crop residues.\" Nonetheless, at the same time an inexplicable, high animal mortality was reported and a male farmer admitted: \"No one has ever planted forages in the community, it is now that we are learning new things from the government […].\"The baseline farm system modelled in FarmDESIGN had an annual per person performance of about 140,000 MWK financial free budget and 500 hours leisure time, with a negative per hectare SOM balance of 316 kg (Table 2). The farm income level resulted from crop and animal product sales. The largest expenditure was food, requiring about 65% of the farm income. Notably the soil organic matter balance was negative, as OM inputs from manure and crop residues were insufficient to balance degradation, erosion and burning losses. The highest nutrient inflow to the system stemmed from inorganic fertilizer, followed by BNF (Supplementary Material 11), while simultaneously about half the nutrient influx was lost through erosion, crop residue burning and volatilization.3.2 Landscape-design description and quantificationTo curb soil and nutrient losses, a landscape design combining contour bunds and forage hedges was developed. This design consisted of a trench dug along contour, the excavated soil forming a wall down-slope (Fig. 5). The combined width was 2.5 meters. Based on an average farmland slope of 10%, a 20 meter structure spacing was calculated (see Equation 1), reducing cropland by 12.5%. However, merely 2.5% cropland was lost permanently, since the earthen walls were cultivated with forages, covering 3.45 ha of the entire farm system. A spatial three-layer species arrangement was selected, optimised for resource partitioning by niche differentiation. For maximised plant-root contour bund stabilisation and biomass yield a dense plant row and interrow spacing of 50x50 cm would be applied. A list of improve forage species was compiled and served as decision basis for further selection (see section 2.6.2). Narrowing down this list, smallholders' named and then ranked forage characteristics during FGD I revealed that agronomic, as well as socially influenced traits were desired Table 3. Men mentioned livestock related agronomic qualities, such as medicinal properties and good feed value. Contrastingly, women and the youth named more multipurpose characteristics related to crop production and social properties. However, when ranking, all groups voted year-round availability and a low labour requirement into the top three, apart from the youth, who ranked labour least important. Needs to be edibleBased on these socioeconomic preferences, recommendations from DARS forage experts and forage species' niche strata, the initial forage list was condensed to eight. Next, in depth agronomic characteristics were collected in Supplementary Material 8, and elemental biomass composition analysed (see Supplementary Material 9). Finally, comparing species data against each other, and selecting for biophysical suitability of the case study farm's soil and climate ( see Tables 1.), four species were chosen, Dwarf Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum cv. Mott), Gliricidia (Gliricidia sepium), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and silverleaf Desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum). Based on their niche strata, and susceptibility to waterlogging species were integrated into the forage hedge on the contour bund.The potential impact of the redesign with contour structures and forage hedges on performance of all field crops was quantified. Firstly, although arable land was reduced by 1250 m 2 ha -1 , and thus yields by 12.5%, net positive yields of +2.5% were expected two years past redesign implementation. For this, a literature-based, conservative yield increase of 15% was estimated considering higher crop productivity due to soil erosion and water stress mitigation. On the contrary a considerable number of labour hours was necessary for contour bund construction, 200 hours ha -1 , and 1630 hours ha -1 for annual structural maintenance, weeding and continuous forage harvesting (see Supplementary Material 12). Secondly, cultivated forages in the three-layer, intercropped hedge would produce ca. 1.6 Mg DM biomass, which increased the cropland's nutritional carrying capacity (Table 4). Thereby pigeon pea contributed the highest biomass yields and silverleaf Desmodium the lowest. Considering a land equivalent ratio of 1.2 from intercropping and a biomass feeding loss of 5%, sufficient forage was produced to support higher ruminant numbers. Since cattle was more efficient than goats at utilizing energy and protein per TLU (see Supplementary Material 13), a maximum cattle equivalent per hectare of 1.3 TLU for energy and 2.2 TLU for protein was supported by the introduced forages. Simultaneously, only a little more than half the goats could be sustained for energy and about 90% for protein. Pigeon pea, deemed for human consumption, provided 4 kg ha -1 protein annually. A model-based whole farm assessment of the effect of replacing crop monocultures with the redesigned field layout with contour bunds and forage hedges was done. The impact of the additionally produced forage was explored in three scenarios. This farm redesign analysis revealed that a higher performance was obtained when forages were used on-farm.Despite reduced cropland, Forage Feeding improved financial free budget the most, compared to the baseline, with a three times higher performance than the Forage Selling scenario (Table 6). A detailed financial balance is provided in Supplementary Material 14. Similarly it improved the baseline's leisure time by nearly 10%, while the other two scenarios decreased this indicator by about a fourth. The SOM balance increased the most in the Forage Composting scenario, nearly tripling the baseline's performance. Forage Selling improved the current SOM balance, but still resulted in an annual loss of ca. 50 kg ha -1 . For all scenarios' performances a literature-based erosion reduction of more than 90%, which was reported for similar SWC, was reflected. This was achieved on the cost of a leisure time decrease due to farm-wide contour bund construction. Major changes to the farm configurations were possible when forages were used on farm. For Forage Feeding, additional nutrients provided by forages enabled a growth in ruminant numbers by a factor of 1.2, which would be stall fed instead of herded. This would increase financial performance, as additional animal products were sold and previously purchased NPK fertilizer was completely substituted with on-farm produced manure. Moreover, labour time dedicated to herding personnel would decrease, which increased leisure time. In the Forage Composting scenario the manufactured compost substituted inorganic fertilizer nitrogen supply and permitted a full halt of fertilizer import. This would increase the farm system's financial and soil fertility performance, but would decrease leisure time, since compost making demands extra labour. Directing forage biomass to off-farm sale in the Forage Selling scenario caused the overall weakest change in indicators. Only for leisure time the Forage Composting scenario performed worse.The changes in farm system performance were reflected in the scenarios' nitrogen cycling dynamics (Fig. 6). For the Forage Feeding and Forage Composting scenarios higher transfer of nitrogen to manure could be accompanied by reduction in fertilizer N import. However, in the Forage Feeding scenario, less N was transferred, as part of BNF N was integrated into animal products. Together with this, animal product N export for the Forage Feeding scenario was more than 70% higher than for the other scenarios. For the Forage Selling scenario no N cycling was observed, as all BNF N left the farm system by crop product export. Notably, for all scenarios erosion losses were reduced, however, particularly losses from manure increased manyfold for the Forage Feeding scenario and slightly for the Forage Composting scenario.  In the second FGD, after a simplified explanation of the results of the whole-farm assessment of the impact of the changed cropland layout in the FarmDESIGN model with the redesign approach and the scenarios, farmers evaluated the results as mostly positive (Table 7). Generally, smallholders complimented the visualization of farm interconnections and especially valued the improvements in farm income by reducing fertilizer imports and increasing animal numbers together with fodder quality (Supplementary Material 4). The main criticism pointed at high labour demand to construct the contour bunds and produce forage biomass, plus the high quantities of biomass needed to create compost. However, when asked how the high labour demand would be handled they responded to encourage group work for the construction of contour bunds and for forage planting. Voted by hand-signs, farmers favorited the scenario of allocating forages to compost production. However, participants with livestock said they would prioritize feeding forages to their livestock and only secondly allocate them to compost making. The main reason for preferring compost production was their concern for low soil fertility and extreme cost of mineral fertilizer. A male farmer said: \"Fertilizer is expensive, hence I am opting for manure [compost] making.\" A young farmer added that he had no animals to feed forages to and thus chose this option. While male farmers raised doubts about the possibility to sell forages: \"There is no market for the biomass, especially if farmers don't have livestock\", women said they would approach livestock owning farmers and exchange forage biomass with manure if selling would not be possible, or make compost themselves.During the first FGD farmers addressed their uncertainty about making quality compost and how to properly construct SWC along contour. Hence, in connection to the second FGD, after consultation with the local extension officers, a practical workshop on composting, soil fertility and A-frame level, plus marker ridge construction was held. Handouts, which were translated into the local language, Tumbuka, were distributed afterwards, see Supplementary Materials 15 and 16.In Malawi, adoption of SWC structures and forage plants has been low in most parts and soil degradation and dry season livestock feed shortages persist (Barungi & Maonga, 2011;Mangisoni, 2004;Omuto & Vargas, 2019). For higher technology adoption rates, Paul et al. (2020b) and Groot et al. (2017) have been calling for a systems agronomy approach, which respects case-specific socioeconomic and biophysical constraints.The case study village was characterised as a maize-legume dominated subsistence production system, reliant on inorganic nitrogen fertilizer import, with high livestock endowment. Main challenges were high fertilizer input costs and soil degradation due to water erosion and a negative SOM balance. The community implemented only basic SWC measures, and did not cultivate any forages. Based on these findings the system was redesigned, merging a contour bund with a three layer forage hedge that included leguminous species for BNF. Three allocation scenarios of the grown forages revealed the highest overall performance for biomass fed to livestock, considerably increasing farm income, extending leisure time and doubling SOM balance. Smallholders evaluated all redesigns as positive, but preferred the adoption of forage allocation as compost to crops due to the best improvements in soil fertility, their greatest concern.4.1 Study results in the context of previous literature 4.1.Addressing my first research objective, the current village farm system composition on the Northern mid-altitude plateau was generally in line with region-specific MFS baseline survey data conducted by IITA (2023b), although land and animal endowment were above the reported household averages. Further, farmers reported to only practice basic SWC measures due to high amounts of required labour for establishment, a loss in cropland, lacking technical knowledge and planting material scarcity. While previously reported on by Mangisoni (2004), smallholder adoption was here mainly linked to effectiveness, with farmers most willing to invest extra labour for the Forage Crops scenario, with a high increase in soil fertility. Improved forages were unknown to Malawian farmers, although native plants with medicinal and fodder qualities could be named, in line with the forage unfamiliarity found in a recent study by Toth et al. (2017). In this study, men, who owned the most livestock, had the most comprehensive understanding. When inquiring about desired forage characteristics, men mentioned more animal husbandry related agronomic traits than the other two groups . Women and youth on the other hand voted for crop production supporting characteristics and social features that concerned food security and labour hours. In regard to addressing smallholder gender and age separately, the study finding underlined that desired socioeconomic interests differed between village groups, which emphasises the importance of facilitating FGD separately (Djenontin et al., 2022;IITA, 2023a;Waldman et al., 2016).The implementation of the contour bund and forage hedge landscape-design led to a reduction in farmland, but due to soil erosion mitigation and enhanced water availability, a slight yield increase was considered. The selected value, 15%, was a conservative estimate based on literature, which reported increases between 25% and 85% for comparable SWC interactions (Kizito et al., 2022;Liniger et al., 2011;Tenge et al., 2005). However, as crop yields are easily overestimated under experimental conditions (Laajaj et al., 2020) due to socio-economic and biophysical disparities, a rather cautious yield increase was considered. The depicted necessary labour for redesign establishment of 200 hours ha -1 was lower than in most comparable literature (Supplementary Material 12). For a similar structure and slope of 10% Liniger et al. (2011) andTenge et al. (2005) reported labour requirements of 336 to 480 hours ha -1 . For this study, continuous, manual soil excavation of 0.75 m 3 hour -1 was considered, so that an underestimation could have been possible, especially when accounting for varying soil conditions and pauses during workdays. Critchley (1991) reported even higher labour requirements of 1200 to 2800 hours ha -1 , which underlines the context dependency of required labour hours. The technical design dimensions of the trench and bund were based on expert knowledge and horizontal distance calculated by a simple equation, only respecting land slope (see section 2.6.1). More detailed equations, which applied further variables, such as soil type and precipitation were considered, (Singh, 2018;Tenge et al., 2005). Yet, using an average farm land slope, calculated spacing did not change considerably. However, when practically implementing this design, plot-level specific slope and soil texture have to be considered, which would result in varying spacing (Singh, 2018). Furthermore, erosion reduction from contour bunds was estimated at 95% based on (Tenge et al., 2005), who reported a soil loss change from 15 Mg ha -1 to 0.8 Mg ha -1 following similar SWC establishment. But across Effective erosion control depends on many variables, among others rainfall intensity and duration, land slope, soil texture, vegetation cover and quality of the contour structure (Renard, 1997), which is why the chosen value might vary across the arable land.Moreover, the trench of the contour bund was found to serve as dual purpose composting pit, which was suggested by farmers and AEDO Mithi Adams during a field visit in Champira EPA (M.C. Adams, personal communication, 26.01.2024). The pit would be utilised during dry season and emptied when preparing the soil before onset of the next rainy season. This could increase compost quality, as pits conserve water and reduce common termite infestations in the tropics (HDRA -The Organic Organization, 2014; Nkunika, 2013), while substantially decreasing needed labour time to transport compost to the field, a well documented constraint hindering compost adoption (Conrad, 2014, p. 235;Mwangi et al., 2004, p. 319;Tittonell, 2008). Since this was not reflected in the modelling approach, leisure time could perform better in Forage Composting scenario.While 2.5% of farm cropland were lost from the trench area, of the redesign, the earthen bund, 10% of baseline cropland, is used for layered, perennial forage cultivation. The forage selection process resulted in Gliricidia, pigeon pea, silverleaf Desmodium and dwarf Napier grass forming the contextspecific optimal combination. While from an agronomic and food security perspective higher biomass yielding species and fruit trees could have been chosen, the main objectives were among others, to satisfy community needs, protect contour bunds from erosion and fit within environmental constraints. Nonetheless, from the species list (Supplementary Material 8), Brachiaria grass (Brachiaria sp. var. Mulato II) and Calliandra (Calliandra calothyrsus) equally fit all selection criteria and could have been implemented. Yet, every plant in the system had its purpose. The ground cover was chosen to limit weed growth and bund erosion. The dwarf Napier grass' extensive root system stabilizes and retains soil at the bund's basis. Moreover, its energy and fibre content balances the high protein content of the leguminous species, while benefitting from nitrogen transfer by them. Gliricidia was selected mainly due to its high biomass yield, protein and energy content, and dual purpose use as fuelwood. Pigeon pea use as either N-containing biomass or food made it an ideal addition.With the additional forage, more livestock could be sustained on the field level. The focus was set on enlarging the ruminant herd, as monogastric animals have issues with digesting leguminous forage volumes, due to anti-nutritive tannin contents, which can be toxic when fed at high doses (Chilanga, 2020;Smith & Staines, 2021). In this context ruminant diets should not exceed 45% DM intake of leguminous forages, although goats are more tolerant than cattle to high tannin contents (Kaitho, 1997). Considering the overproduction of protein-rich biomass by the redesign (Table 4), ruminant diets need to be supplemented with biomass high in energy and fibre.Trade-offs and synergies were found when analysing forage allocation scenarios model output. Farm system performance would increase the most when forages where used on farm. Animal feeding and compost making scenarios revealed nutrient cycling throughout the system, enabling inorganic N fertilizer substitution, which jointly increased soil fertility and farm income. Conversely, when forages were sold off-farm, farm income would still be increase compared to the baseline, but at the cost of a decreased SOM balance. Similarly a trade-off was identified for leisure time and SOM balance in the Forage Composting and Forage Selling scenario. Here the leisure time decreased with the construction of the contour design, but therefore elevated soil fertility.The Forage Feeding scenario was the only option in which performance indicators improved across the board. Greater farm income stemmed from higher animal numbers and halved fertilizer imports. Leisure time increased in contrast to the baseline due to stall feeding animals for half of the year, which would render herding labour redundant in this period. However, it must be mentioned that labour reduction from stall-feeding animals is case dependent on who contributes the labour, as oftentimes teenagers or children who do not contribute any manual labour to the farm carry out this work. Thus, it could be argued, that no actual decrease of farm labour would be achieved. Surprisingly, Maxwell et al. (2012) and Philp et al. (2019) documented similar labour decreases from adoption of on-farm forage cultivation, which resulted in an improved social and economic situation, e.g. better school performance of children and teenagers. This shows that while field-working farmers might not be affected directly, on a household level or village level, leisure time would increase. The soil fertility indicator, SOM balance, increased drastically as a result of erosion control and a doubled manure application to maize. The Forage Composting scenario showed the second highest improvement in income, greatest reduction in leisure time and overall highest soil fertility increase. Full fertilizer substitution with on-site produced compost led to this economic performance. Leisure time was the lowest, as extra time was spent creating compost. Yet, the highest SOM balance was achieved from the added high dose of compost to all maize fields. Forage Selling resulted in a higher economic performance than the baseline, however compared to the other biomass allocation scenarios it was the lowest. In contrast to the baseline, leisure time was decreased. The environmental indicator increased, but still resulted in a slightly negative SOM balance. Farm income depended entirely on market forage demand and price. However, the calculated value of 1240 MWK Mg -1 FM, diverted by a factor of eight from Tenge et al. ( 2005), who described a value of US$ 6 Mg -1 FM (10,080 MWK Mg -1 FM) in Tanzania, where a forage market is established already (Lukuyu et al., 2016). Applying this value, economic performance of Forage Selling would be 27% higher than the baseline and provides a better outlook for possible future income streams. Nonetheless, since farmers reported that there would not be a market for forage sales at present, this scenario considers future possibilities. Overall the performance differences were primarily attributed to erosion control, inorganic fertilizer substitution by on-farm produced manure or compost, and a higher stall-fed livestock number. Apart from contour bund establishment, a leisure time reduction was caused by compost production.The feedback from the farmers was is in line with findings by Giller et al. (1997, p. 26), who mentioned that contour structures would be adapted more easily if smallholders would yield secondary benefits apart from erosion control. Yet, after technical assistance by extension workers and provision of planting material, a follow up study should explore true technology uptake, specifically, since there has been limited success in the uptake of promoted SWC in the past (Mangisoni, 2004), with regional differences depending on topography, precipitation and farm types. In addition to these adoption constraints, one persistent root cause seems to be an underfunded agricultural extension system which prohibits knowledge dissemination of technologies to smallholders (Chimonyo et al., 2023;Mangisoni, 1999). AEDOs consulted in Kasungu and Mzimba district during fieldwork reported to be responsible for supporting about 2000 smallholders each, with limited or no mobility and insufficient financial support.Several limitations were encountered during the course of this study.For the Forage Feeding biomass allocation scenario a maximum of 45 extra TLU cattle could have been supported by the produced forages (Table 4), yet cattle and goat numbers were increased proportionally to existing animal numbers, by about 3.5 goats for every cattle, only adding approximately 37 TLU. Even though goats proved to be less efficient than cattle, this approach was chosen to simulate a realistic livestock increase, without completely changing existing animal husbandry structures. Chikagwa-Malunga and Banda (2006) showed that Malawian smallholders would often prefer goats over cattle despite their lower energy and protein utilization efficiency, as they require less resources for maintenance. For Forage Composting, a leisure time reduction from compost making was estimated at 20 hours Mg -1 finished compost, with 10 hours for transporting compost to the field. Yet, this value is highly dependent on the distance between the compost storage and fields. Far distances could increase the time of compost transportation, whereas using trenches from the contour structures for pit composting could decrease it.For two of the three scenarios inorganic fertilizer N was substituted with animal manure or compost based on N content. It has to be considered that most N in manure and compost is present in organic form, mineralisation and therefore plant N availability is much slower than from water-soluble inorganic N fertilizer (Cassity-Duffey et al., 2020;Lazicki et al., 2020). Thus, when only applying organic fertilizers, soil N levels need to be built over a few years to reach a comparable N supply level to inorganic fertilizer use. During this time, low-rate inorganic N fertilizer supplementation might be needed to sustain yields (Kihara et al., 2022;Wei et al., 2016). Secondly, for the entire farm system performance analysis in FarmDESIGN, the financial interest rate was set to 0% instead of the reported 25%. If the national interest rate would have been applied, the economic performance of the Forage Feeding scenario would have been skewed. The gross margin from animal returns would have shrunk considerably, as interest costs for capital in the form of animals would have diminished returns. As smallholders generally do not participate in financial markets, as stated in the IFAD (2017) report, scenario comparison would have been unrealistic.A further modelling assumption has to be acknowledged. In all scenarios nitrogen from BNF provided a substantial amount of total N influxes to the farm system. However, since BNF quantities by legumes were not tested, this quantity could have been overestimated, as the present low soil pH and phosphorus levels have been reported to reduce BNF (Graham & Vance, 2003).Lastly, FarmDESIGN modelling results have to be interpreted with care. Since the model functions on an annual basis, long-term seasonal variability is difficult to reflect. Detailed modelling of biophysical and socioeconomic variables, e.g. crop cultivars and animal breeds, are possible only with immense amounts of data. While the used averages and estimates allow for general conclusions, they reduce specificity. Using databases, secondary literature and national averages is a great way to form the repository model \"frame\". Even though validation by farmer consultation and other experts helps finetuning, \"colour the picture\", population heterogeneity is difficult to reflect. The goal of modelling would be to find a \"balance between the level of detail, the precision required, the model's flexibility and the data requirements\" (Groot et al., 2012).By applying a participatory systems approach the findings of this study present possibilities for reducing the yield gap caused by water and nutrient scarcity in Malawian smallholder production systems. It contributes to understanding farmer motivations, by analysing their evaluation of the presented trade-offs and synergies between redesign options.Future research should most importantly conduct field tests and subsequent smallholder trials to verify and refine these findings and explore if farmer uptake would be higher when contour bunds are combined with forage hedges. Since this technological integration can be applied in other erosion prone regions, trials could be expanded to other countries participating in the MFS initiative.To conclude, this study has applied a participatory modelling approach, analysing the effect of establishing a forage hedge vegetated contour bund on smallholder farm system performance.Although smallholders main challenges in the village farm system were degraded soils, unaffordable inorganic fertilizer, and dry season animal feed scarcity, paradoxically SWC structures were not implemented, nor forages cultivated. While farmers reported high labour requirement and loss of arable land to be main barriers, the insufficient knowledge about forages and animal nutrition also points towards lacking farmer support from extension services. While the latter can not be addressed with this study, the developed contour bund and layered forage hedge landscape-design seems to be a suitable solution for effective erosion control and to provide sufficient fodder for ruminant livestock.Trade-offs and synergies were found and showed that farm system performance would benefit most when produced forages were allocated to on-farm use. Animal feeding and compost making scenarios revealed nutrient cycling throughout the system, enabling inorganic N fertilizer substitution, which jointly increased soil fertility and farm income. Since forage feeding allocation also increased leisure time, these findings motivate crop-livestock integration. Although off-farm sales increased short-term farm income at the cost of a decreased SOM balance, it provides an option for crop farmers to generate additional revenue. Applying FarmDESIGN helped in participatory research, as the modelled nutrient cycle provided entry points for discussion with the farmers during FGD. Further, interacting with the smallholders on a village level was found to be valuable, as it allowed for united discussion on anticipated challenges from redesign implementation. The proposed solutions for sharing the needed high labour for construction as a group seemed fitting, and ideas for restricting the free grazing policy locally would be followed up on by the local extension officer.As next steps, verification of the studies results in a field trial in the case study area is recommended. Further, before conducting field trials in other Malawian agroecological zones, it is advised to reapply the studies' forage selection process to tailor the design to the socioeconomic needs of the community and biophysical constraints of the production system. In conclusion, these findings provide insights into synergies and trade-offs attached to farm context-specific forage biomass allocation and offer a valuable perspective for farmers, organisations and policy makers when combating soil degradation or searching for alternative ways to escape farm systems' overreliance on inorganic N fertilizer inputs.","tokenCount":"9013"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c9aff86b15b7756bea19f054652b276","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/39b3d053-09ed-428f-b77f-b35a891ea7f1/content","id":"832222261"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df7b2ea7-00ec-4c3a-b1de-f9c0fbeefaf6","pagecount":"94","content":"Food prices: Food prices generally increased during the lockdown, although the prices of many commodities have returned to more normal levels since commerce recovered at the end of May. Loss of income among daily wage earners reduced demand, causing market prices for poultry, eggs, dairy and beef to fluctuate. About 70 percent of workers in Bangladesh are in the informal sector, and the lockdown caused hardship for many of them. Although labour prices temporarily spiked, they appear to be returning to normal.Agricultural inputs: Over 70 percent of surveyed farmers reported difficulties in obtaining agricultural inputs (e.g. seeds for the upcoming aus (spring) and aman (summer) seasons, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel for irrigation pumps), new varieties of rice and extension services. More than 90 percent of surveyed farmers reported scarcity of labour and machinery for harvesting and threshing of boro (winter) rice and planting of aus rice. Eighty-five percent of surveyed agricultural input dealers reported a significant decline in business volumes in the pre-and post-pandemic onset period. Twenty percent of input dealers also appear to have faced more than a 50 percent decline in business compared to the same period in 2019.FAO. 2020. Second rapid assessment of food and nutrition security in the context of COVID-19 in Bangladesh. Dhaka.Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN © FAO, 2020 Some rights reserved. This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo/legalcode).Under the terms of this licence, this work may be copied, redistributed and adapted for non-commercial purposes, provided that the work is appropriately cited. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that FAO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the FAO logo is not permitted. If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: \"This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition. \"Disputes arising under the licence that cannot be settled amicably will be resolved by mediation and arbitration as described in Article 8 of the licence except as otherwise provided herein. The applicable mediation rules will be the mediation rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/mediation/rules and any arbitration will be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user.Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through publications-sales@fao.org. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: copyright@fao.org. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a first Rapid Assessment of Food and Nutrition Security in the Context of COVID-19 in Bangladesh based on qualitative data collected during April and May 2020. This second assessment involved more quantitative analysis of data collected from May and June by the FAO, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Institutes, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).The analysis determined that the entire food supply chain was hampered by the COVID-19 lockdown and resulting economic crisis that occurred from mid-March to May. The study detailed and analyzed major impacts, which are summarized below:Food insecurity: More than a third (36.4 percent) of the youth and adolescents surveyed in rural and urban areas reported moderate or severe food insecurity during the lockdown period. This figure is higher than the national average (31.5 percent) before the COVID-19 pandemic. Severely food-insecure populations reported going without eating for an entire day, exhaustion of food reserves, or both. Compared to changes in income status due to COVID-19, the highest prevalences of \"moderate or severe food insecurity\" (42.9 percent) and \"severe food insecurity\" (11.8 percent) were found in groups that reported concurrent losses in household income. The survey found that among youths, almost twice the proportion of boys (43.6 percent) reported higher moderate or severe food insecurity compared to girls (28.8 percent). Severe food insecurity was also reportedly higher among boys at 12.9 percent compared to girls at 5 percent. Across regions, Sylhet had the highest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity (61.6 percent), followed by Rangpur (52.7 percent), and Mymensingh (51.7 percent). The lowest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was found in Barisal (14.9 percent). Similarly, the prevalence of severe food insecurity was highest in Sylhet (24.7 percent) followed by Rangpur (17.3 percent) and Khulna (16.3 percent).Available data indicate that there are adequate domestic reserves of rice, wheat, potatoes, pulses and maize both in public and private storage to meet domestic demand until November. This time horizon is, however, relatively near, and available data indicate the need for urgent actions to assure continued national food supply, including potential emergency import actions for December 2020 and early 2021. Additional concerns are also starting to emerge if winter season (rabi) cropping -which commences in November -is impacted by a shortage of inputs, particularly for hybrid maize that largely relies on stocks of seed imported from India.A total of 290 import orders of frozen fish worth approximately BDT 4.60 billion (USD 54.2 million) were recently cancelled. Unsold fish stocks were valued at BDT 9.99 billion (USD 117.8 million). Similarly, there was a dramatic decline of vegetable and fruit exports from 100 tonnes a week down to 3 tonnes a week, down as a result of suspended air cargo shipments.Data indicate that the percentage of respondents able to access transport for fish sales dropped from 100 percent to 56 percent during the lockdown. Farmers and fish marketers able to find buyers dropped from 98 percent to 39 percent. While fish hatcheries experienced a moderate nine percent production increase for both catla and rohu hatchlings between March and April, the production of tilapia and mrigal hatchlings decreased by 78 percent and 24 percent, respectively. The total quantity and value of sold farmed fish, marine capture fish and xi shrimp all decreased, while that of freshwater capture fish increased. Both the quantity and value of farmed fish sold decreased by nearly 50 percent.Seventy-five percent of dairy farmers surveyed said they encountered considerable disruptions in getting milk to markets, causing them to suffer significant losses. They were also affected by disruptions in input supplies, such as dairy feed and veterinary medicines. Data indicate that average milk prices continued to drop until April, falling by 27 percent. They rebounded slightly in the following months but still remained 19 percent below the pre-crisis market price of February 2020. These survey responses indicate that farmers faced significant losses and were continuing to experience the ramifications of lost dairy sales at the time of this report's publication. Among surveyed dairy producers, 52 percent believed the price decline of milk was the result of the mandatory shutdown of sweet shops, and the closures of hotels and tea stalls. Many popular sweets sold for family gatherings and social events are predominantly dairy-based. These factors caused the milk price to drop.As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, Government-sponsored social safety net programmes (SSNPs) for the 2020/21 fiscal year have focused mainly on expanding coverage of existing schemes with better targeting of beneficiaries. Emergency policies indicate that safety-net allocations will increase to include people made newly poor by the COVID-19 crisis. Statistics show the total number of beneficiaries increased by 42 percent from 2018-19 to 2019-20. Many of the planned Government allocations include assistance to the unemployed, cash transfers to the newly poor, and food transfers.Recommendations: A list of short-term and long-term recommendations are synthesized from the results of this document. Food supply chains -impacts, disruptions and response optionsFood processing -impacts, disruptions, and responsesFood safety related disruptions of COVID-19 -impacts and response optionsLabour movements, sudden unemployment, migration, and implications for food production, supply chains and livelihoodsFood demand disruptions and response optionsSocial inclusion measures to mitigate impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable populationsFish, livestock, poultry production and market disruptionTrade exposure and cross-border and international tradeimpacts and response measures CHAPTER 10 Food reserves CHAPTER 11 Consumption patterns and nutritional changes CHAPTER 12 Short-term and long-term recommendations Like many other countries, Bangladesh adopted a national lockdown strategy to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Although referred to as a 'general holiday,' the closure period lasted from 26 March -30 May. This strategy included a portfolio of protective measures against COVID-19 such as border closures, restraints on movement, transport restrictions, closures of offices, schools and restaurants as well as quarantine measures.The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and the prevention measures on the food system are complex, heterogeneous and dynamic. Regular assessments are necessary to gauge the impacts on the system at all stages of the value chain from the supply of inputs, to field activities, harvesting, processing, distribution and sales (Amjath-Babu et al.,  2020). 1 Figure 2.1 shows possible disruptions in the supply of farm inputs (including seed and hatchery sectors, agrochemicals and feed sectors), services (such as machinery services, labour, extension and banking services) and trade (domestic and international). All can potentially lead to significant impacts on food security and farm income with nutritional consequences.The impacts of COVID-19 containment measures on employment opportunities and income generation also risk creating a decline in the effective demand for agricultural goods. These measures include travel restrictions, social distancing and stay-at-home rules. The imbalances in supply and demand also cause price volatility, affecting poor and vulnerable sections of society. Issues affecting crop, livestock, poultry and fish production and marketing need to be mitigated. Otherwise, the interacting effects of the pandemic's disruptions could influence liquidity in the food supply system and constrain capital availability among farmers and associated value-chain actors in subsequent seasons (Amjath-Babu et al., 2020). Despite the lifting of lockdown measures, the potential cascading effects underscore that careful assessment and coordinated response actions are crucial to avoid medium-and long-term consequences.Community members of the Agargaon slum wait in long lines for Government -subsidized food assistance, Open Market Sales (OMS). Food distribution has been criticized for lack of social distancing, long queues, and insufficient supplies for impoverished communities.  Data indicate that COVID-19 impacted the ability of farmers to hire machinery services for land preparation, planting, irrigation, harvesting and post-harvesting activities. The exception was in government-sponsored programmes to accelerate the boro season rice harvest in the haor or wetland basins (see section 5.1). In 15 districts, 25 percent of combine harvester service providers experienced a reduction in farmers hiring their services compared to March and April of 2019, according to surveys of machinery service providers conducted by the International Maize  and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). This corresponded to a 40 percent reduction in land area harvested by combines outside of the Hoar basin. Considering reaper-harvesters, 30 percent of surveyed reaper service providers reported an approximate 30 percent reduction in area harvested in March 2020 compared to March 2019. By April, this increased to a 42 percent reduction. More than half of the power tiller operator seeder (PTOS) machinery service providers reported a reduction of 25 percent in hires in March that escalated to 30 percent in April, compared to corresponding months in 2019.Food supply chains -impacts, disruptions and response options Farm machinery service providers also reported that the lockdown and aftermath led to new business constraints and aggravation of existing bottlenecks. These included spare parts shortages; 22 percent of service providers said that market closures reduced the availability of spare parts while another 22 percent reported a hike in prices, though spare parts were available. Fifteen percent of service providers faced trouble in sourcing lubricants, in addition to reduced access to mechanics or service persons (35 percent reported that mechanics were either unavailable or unable to do machinery repair due to shortages of machine parts). Service providers also reported reduced access to customers (15 percent cited travel restrictions), the reluctance of machine operators to work, or inability to reach locations of farmer clients. Twelve percent of surveyed machinery operators were reluctant to work due to fear of infection and travel restrictions, while another 17 percent required machinery owners to pay higher wages. However, 82 percent of agricultural machinery operators and service providers responded to the threat of COVID-19 by wearing masks, although social distancing and hand hygiene were not widely followed.Fifty-two percent of machinery owners who rent equipment and provide services to farrmer clients reported a sharp decline in customers. Of those, 22 percent reported a 25 percent decline in customers while another 30 percent reported a decline greater than 25 percent. Machinery service providers in some districts reported farmer client declines of greater than 50 percent. Those districts were Meherpur, Jashore, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Magura, Satkhira, Khulna, Bhola, Faridpur and Barishal. Figure 2.2 shows the correlations among various factors affecting machinery service providers' ability to assist farmers as client customers in Bangladesh. Some of the insights provided by the correlation diagram include:1) The operational area of service providers showed a strong negative correlation with issues related to access or the affordability of spare parts, access to mechanics and issues with drivers and machine operators. In other words, these factors interacted and caused a reduction in the amount of land area in which machinery services were provided, except for the haor basin as described above.2) Spare-parts availability also constrained the effectiveness of mechanics to respond to breakdowns in agricultural equipment, ultimately leaving them unable to serve some customers. Service providers reported issues concerning travel restrictions and challenges in moving to locations of clients that also clearly affected their number of customers. Social distancing guidelines prevented service providers from having face-to-face interactions with farmer clients, reducing the operational area.  The major policy lesson emerging from this information involves ensuring the ongoing availability of spare-parts and lubricants -in addition to mechanics -so that local service providers (LSP) can benefit their farmer clients with land preparation, seeding, irrigation, harvest and post-harvest operations. Clear guidelines for COVID-19 safety measures and creating platforms that connect clients to customers could be ways forward in managing the decline in customer base. As farm mechanization is an increasingly important priority for the Government of Bangladesh, providing supportive measures to service providers should include:• ensuring service providers are permitted to move between districts.• providing clear COVID-19 safe operation protocols.• strengthening the light engineering sector, particularly for spare parts.COVID-19 and measures to limit its spread impacted input dealers of pesticides and fertilizers. Eighty-five percent of dealers reported a significant decline in business volumes in the pre-and post-pandemic onset period, according to a survey by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Twenty percent of input dealers faced more than a 50 percent decline in business compared to the same period in 2019. Only 15 percent of the surveyed dealers reported no reduction in business. Of those who experienced business losses, 30 percent cited product supply constraints, 15 percent blamed increased prices, while 50 percent named transportation problems. Twenty-one percent encountered labour shortages for loading and unloading products, while 13 percent had issues in obtaining products on a credit basis from suppliers. In response, 85 percent of the surveyed dealerships worked limited hours, either to follow restrictions (45 percent out of 85 percent) due to lockdown or to reduce possible exposure to COVID-19 (40 percent out of 85 percent).Thirteen percent of input retailers reported financial liquidity problems as a result of lower business volumes during and after lockdown, while 22 percent reported issues with access to banks that led to financial hurdles. The data on pesticide prices show that though the average price did not change significantly in February, March and April, the variance in prices appears to have reduced. It means that those dealerships that initially charged lower than mean prices started to increase prices towards mean prices, leading to more or less uniform prices of inputs. Agricultural input dealers also appear to believe that farmers are unable to sell agricultural produce, and their resulting financial difficulties are translating to lower demand for input products. That creates a liquidity deficit in the system. Figure 2.3 shows the interactions between different factors that affect the business of input dealers and, consequently, access to inputs by farmers. Observed business volume decline is strongly correlated with road access issues, labour shortages, reduced working hours, and availability of funds to keep businesses open. Reduced availability of products on a credit basis is linked with stock and transport constraints as well as increased prices of products facing shortages. To improve the business sustainability of agricultural input dealers as the pandemic proceeds, operating hours likely need to be restored to normal. Input dealers need access to staff and labour to assist in loading and unloading products, while road transport and courier services for input distribution should continue unfettered. As the country is moving out of lockdown, business hours will be extended, and labour shortages will ease. But many highdemand pesticides and agricultural chemicals used by farmers are imported and could potentially become in short supply, leading to price spikes in the future. Continued monitoring of input prices is required for aman (summer monsoon rice) and the forthcoming rabi (winter) season. Given the financial constraints of input dealers, and also the need for contactless transactions, digital means of financing and payments should likely be encouraged, alongside the extension of credit facilities.According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rice farmers was relatively small as compared to farmers producing high-value agricultural commodities, such as vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, and livestock. The results of a survey of farmers showed that rice farmers faced the following major challenges due to COVID-19:• More than 70 percent of respondents reported difficulties in obtaining agricultural inputs (e.g. seeds for the upcoming spring aus and summer aman season, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel to run irrigation pumps), new varieties of rice, and extension services.• More than 90 percent of surveyed farmers reported scarcity of labour and machinery for harvesting and threshing of boro rice and planting of aus rice. The lockdown and mobility restrictions caused a scarcity of seasonal labour for rice harvesting. However, the Ministry of Agriculture played a vital role to facilitate the movement of agricultural labour and the supply of combine harvesters. This substantially eased the labour crisis during the rice harvest, with most of the ministry's efforts concentrated in the hoar basin. Also, migrant workers who returned to their villages due to COVID-19 partially replaced hired labourers for rice planting and harvesting. The results show that the labour wage rate during the boro harvest increased by 10 to 20 percent in 2020 compared to the same months in 2019. Labour costs would have been higher without the availability of combine rice harvesters. Both the public and the private sector played vital roles in overcoming the labour crisis during rice harvesting by supplying combine harvesters and reapers.• About 30 percent of farmers reported delays in the harvesting of rice due to labour shortages. The delayed harvesting increased the risk of crop damage from early flash floods.• About 40 percent of farmers reported some difficulties in selling their rice because of disruptions in logistics, supply chains, and the closing of local markets.• About 60 percent of farmers reported increases in the marketing cost of rice due to higher transportation costs and the limited operation of market places.• Seed entrepreneurs faced challenges to harvest, process, package, store, and distribute good-quality seeds because of a lack of services from seed technicians, shortage of labourers and transport, lack of good storage facilities, and mobility restrictions. These factors are likely to cause a deficiency in the supply of quality seeds next year.COVID-19 also had some positive impacts on rice farmers. More than 90 percent of farmers reported a 20 to 30 percent increase in the farmgate price of paddy this year compared to last year. The reason was that traders and rice millers were buying and storing paddy in anticipation of a price rise in the future. Among the Government's proactive and timely policy responses to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the rice sector and national food security was its declaration of a fair minimum support price for boro (winter season) rice and its increased procurement of boro rice. These measures aimed to achieve four objectives: (i) a fair rice price and high income for rice farmers, (ii) encouraging farmers to produce rice, (iii) maintaining enough rice reserves in Government stocks, and (iv) stabilizing the rice market. In the 2020 season, the Government declared it would purchase 2.15 million tonnes of paddy and rice, which includes one million tonnes of paddy at Bangaldesh taka (BDT) 26 per kg, one million tonnes of parboiled rice at BDT 36 per kg, and 0.15 million tonnes of parboiled rice at BDT 35 per kg. While paddy has been purchased directly from farmers, rice has been purchased from millers.To help farmers sell their rice during the COVID-19 situation, the Government increased the quantity of its boro rice procurement this year by over 50 percent compared to last year. In the 2019 boro season, the Government procured 1.4 million tonnes of paddy and rice, which included 0.4 million tonnes of paddy at BDT 27 per kg and one million tonnes of milled rice at BDT 36 per kg. This year's boro rice procurement price is more or less the same as last year.The Government started the procurement of boro rice in the last week of April 2020 and plans to complete the procurement by the end of August 2020. The Directorate General of Food under the Ministry of Food instructed its field offices to achieve a boro rice procurement of 60 percent by June, 90 percent by July, and 100 percent by mid-August when the drive ends. However, the Department of Food, so far, has procured only a small quantity of the targeted purchase of paddy and rice. Through mid-July, the boro rice procurement was only about 20 percent of the target. Through mid-July, the government had procured only about 95 000 tonnes of paddy (10 percent of the target), 318 000 tonnes of parboiled rice (32 percent of the target), and 42 000 tonnes of non-parboiled rice (28 percent of the target).During interviews, many farmers said they were unable to sell their paddy to the Government and so have not directly benefitted from the Government's minimum support price (MSP) of BDT 1 040 per 40 kg. However, farmers have indirectly benefitted because the procurement programme helped raise paddy prices in the local markets. Farmers who were interviewed said that it was mainly rich farmers who directly benefitted from the public procurement programme.Smallholder farmers reported various difficulties in selling paddy to public warehouses. First, the procurement centres are located far from their homes, which requires extra time, transport, and cost to sell even a small quantity of paddy. Second, farmers must get an approval from the local government authority to sell paddy to the Government. These approvals are not easy to obtain. The transaction cost of receiving an approval from the local government body is huge. Third, the Government purchases paddy with a moisture content of 14 percent or below and many farmers are unable to meet this requirement. If the moisture content of paddy is above 14 percent at the time of selling, farmers are compelled to bring their paddy back home. Fourth, the transaction cost of selling paddy to the Government procurement centre is high, which discourages farmers. Fifth, the quantity of paddy purchased per farmer is relatively small. Because of these difficulties, farmers prefer to sell their paddy to local markets and traders instead of the public warehouse. Hence in this boro season, farmers are finding it more attractive to sell their paddy in local markets, given the fewer regulations and the lower costs.Surveys among maize farmers by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) found that 26 percent of farmers faced labour shortages because of the COVID-19 lockdown. In response, 23 percent paid additional labour costs to assure harvests. The average additional wage payments reported were BDT 90 for male labourers and BDT 63 for female labourers. Thirty percent of farmers surveyed also reported an average loss of BDT 2 600 per tonne of maize because of COVID-19's impact on farmgate prices. If we consider 2020 rabi maize production could be between 0.3 million tonnes to 0.4 million tonnes, the loss to maize farmers due to price changes can be estimated at about BDT 2.1 to 3.1 billion (US dollar or USD 25 to 37 million). This is a very preliminary assessment and does not include costs incurred by farmers for higher labour prices for harvesting. In the case of rice, the IRRI survey found that farmers reported a little less than a 10 percent decrease in rice yield and a 30 to 40 percent decrease in household income (farm and non-farm) due to COVID-19.Farmers across the country producing perishable commodities suffered losses of around BDT 565.36 billion during the forced lockdown period, 2 as they could not sell their commodities at competitive prices due to the lack of demand.Given the perishability of their products, farmers were even forced to sell at less than half their production cost. This happened mostly with vegetable, livestock, fish, and poultry farmers (Further details are in Module 8). A study by BRAC, 3 a Bangladesh-based development organization, revealed that 42 percent of farmers had no way of coping with the crisis, while 60 percent of crop and vegetable farmers said they had to completely absorb the losses, whereas, around 11 percent of all farmers and 17 percent of poultry farmers had to reduce their production.The survey by the CIMMYT among rabi maize farmers showed that 85 percent of farmer respondents began planting aman rice in the kharif (summer) season. However, one-third of the farmers planting aman rice indicated that they were unable to procure their preferred variety of rice seed due to market and associated COVID-19 restrictions. IRRI data also supported that observation. This indicates a shortage of high-yield rice seeds, which may impact production in the 2020 aman season if weather conditions are unfavourable. Further assessment is needed to confirm the availability of seeds and whether farmers are using repetitively saved seeds. A study by InnoVision 4 during April also reported around 44 percent of farmers owing an average of BDT 12 000 to input suppliers, along with 53 percent reporting a lack of sufficient cash for next season's planting activities.About 30 percent of surveyed farmers reported scarcity, higher prices for quality seeds and delayed planting of aus rice due to COVID-19. The Government has provided over BDT 90 million to marginal farmers for aus seed and fertilizer. To ensure that farmers will have sufficient labour for the next aman harvest, the Government is considering creating labour banks.sufficient labour for the next aman harvest, the Government is considering creating labour banks. These would consist of groups of willing, healthy workers who can be contracted, assembled, and deployed at affordable prices to assist in harvesting, using COVID-19 safety measures, alongside mechanized harvesting. The Government assembled migrant and returned urban labour to help in harvesting boro rice in haor areas this spring. In addition, an increase in support prices of crops and increasing procurement are also important support measures already taken by the Government. However, the success of such measures has been mixed so far. To achieve optimum aman production, the Government provided over BDT 190 million to farmers for seed support.To overcome the impact of COVID-19, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) through the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) launched a special programme to ensure sufficient vegetables for the country. The programme addressed the summer vegetable season and followed the Kalikapur Model 5 (homestead vegetable gardens for family nutrition) to support the marginal and landless farmers. Under the programme, 34 households in each of the country's 4 554 Union Councils have been given support for eight types of vegetable seeds along with fertilizer. Upazila Agriculture Offices (UAO) have already distributed these inputs. Upazilas are sub-districts. To support the programme, the Government allocated more than BDT 370 million (USD 4.4 million) in the 2019/20 fiscal year.A visible impact of COVID-19 disruption is that a majority of the unskilled labour in the food processing sector (2.2 percent of the total workforce) have now become unemployed. These labourers include extremely poor women and men who worked in small food-processing plants for puffed rice, flattened rice, and in small hotels and bakery factories. Although the Government has announced a BDT 2.35-billion stimulus package dedicated to MSMEs, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to further add to the existing problems in the industry. Those problems include weak market linkages, absence of skilled labour, and lack of export markets. This assessment section explores and analyses the impacts of COVID-19 induced supply chain disruptions, input supply and demand shocks, and increased processing and logistical costs in this crucial sub-sector. The graphic below summarizes the impacts of COVID-19 in the sector.Food processing -impacts, disruptions and responses business-to-consumer sales while B2B implies business-to-business sales)An IRRI survey of different rice value-chain actors shows that COVID-19 impacted the upstream (input supply and production), midstream (marketing, processing, and trade), and downstream (retail and consumption) segments of the rice value chain, although the intensity varied across segments. The respondents reported that the biggest impacts on the rice value chain included the shortage and higher cost of labour for rice planting and harvesting, limited access to extension services, difficulties in procuring and distributing rice seeds, limited supply of paddy to rice mills, limited capacity of rice mills, disruptions in the supply chains of inputs and outputs, and reduced cash flow to run business. Other notable impacts identified by the respondents were a rise in the cost of production, decreased flow of cash from urban to rural areas, reduced access to loans, and closure of businesses in the private sector. The lockdown and movement restrictions disrupted the supply of paddy from farmers to traders/millers and the supply of rice from millers to wholesalers to retailers.Consumers' panic buying and stockpiling behaviour, especially at the beginning of the lockdown, caused a 20 to 30 percent rise in rice prices. However, the rice market stabilized later as a result of the Government's strong market monitoring, distribution of food stocks, and a good boro rice harvest. Rice prices have started gradually rising since the beginning of July. The survey also shows that per-capita consumption of rice increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic because rice is easily available and cheaper than other foods. Private-sector agribusiness companies reported some challenges, such as decreased sales volumes of agricultural products, decreased quantities of rice seeds sold, the inability to import agricultural inputs (e.g. seeds, fertilizers, and machines), scarcity of capital, and decreased income and earnings.There are about 420 semi-automatic rice mills and 400 fully automatic rice mills operating in Bangladesh for processing rice (IDLC, 30 Dec 2014). With the completion of the boro season rice harvest, all rice mills are currently working. However, in terms of capacity, the exception is that aromatic rice processing mills have not returned to full capacity. An automatic rice mill in Rajshahi reported that it processes only aromatic rice and its business has been heavily affected. Around 50 percent of its sales have declined as the operation of hotels, restaurants, and food catering for social events (weddings, meetings, workshops, etc.) are all still suspended. Another reason is that the Government has fixed the nationwide paddy rice price at an increased rate of BDT 700 to 806 per 40 kg rice this year, compared to BDT 600 last year. Another automatic rice mill said production has declined by 30 to 35 percent while the labour costs increased up to 40 percent during the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. Since late June, the labour cost has settled back to the prior rate of BDT 500 per day. However, processed rice retail outlets have to remain shut after 4 pm on Government orders, which resulted in an overall decline in sales. According to the management of an automatic rice mill at Dinajpur, transport costs have increased by 20 to 30 percent along with a labour cost increase of up to 25 percent, leading to a 10 percent decline in business. The COVID-19 pandemic also reduced paddy availability for milling because local weekly markets were not fully functional. The management also mentioned that the police checked their labourers for adequate use of safety measures such as masks. However, this inspection scared off the labourers. The problem is that when the labourers carry heavy sacks it becomes almost impossible to wear a mask as it prevents normal breathing.In the case of puffed rice and flattened rice, production fell by 20 to 25 percent with a 30 percent reduction in sales compared to last year because of the limited operation of retail shops. The decline in income and purchasing power of the poor, including ready-made-garment workers, due to COVID-19 resulted in lower demand for puffed and flattened rice, according to a food processing company located in Gazipur. Puffed rice is one of the most common breakfast food items among 60 to 70 percent of the population. According to the respondent, the price of puffed and flattened rice had increased by 10 to 15 percent in the retail shops. In comparison, Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) data indicated a 14 percent and 29 percent increase in the retail prices of these items, respectively, since February 2020 (Figure 3.2a).IRRI surveys of rice mills (automatic, semi-automatic, and Engelberg Huller) also show similar impacts of COVID-19. These impacts include the closure or limited operation of rice mills, scarcity and higher cost of labour and transport, decreased availability and processing of paddy, decreased quantity of rice sold, increased cost of milling, limited number of traders to buy rice, traders buying rice on credit, limited access to credit, and reduced income and cash flow. During the full lockdown period (March to May 2020), the quantity of paddy purchased and processed by rice mills declined by 30 to 50 percent, while the quantity of milled rice sold by rice mills declined by 40 to 60 percent. The proportion of decline in rice processing was higher for automatic mills, followed by semi-automatic mills and lower for Engelberg Huller mills. The decline in the quantity of processed rice was due to the limited operation of rice mills, decreased availability of paddy, and lower demand for milled rice. The situation is gradually improving after the lifting of the lockdown. Millers reported that paddy and rice prices increased by 20 to 30 percent in the 2020 boro season compared to 2019. Rice millers believe that if the COVID-19 situation continues, then rice prices will increase by 20 to 30 percent in the next three to four months until the aman season rice harvest. According to the millers, the lockdown and health-and-safety measures have increased paddy marketing and processing costs by 15 to 20 percent. The survey results show that rice mills operated only at 20 to 40 percent capacity, the storage quantity of paddy and rice increased by 30 to 50 percent, operations costs increased by 15 to 20 percent, and income declined by 20 to 25 percent.Maize has two distinct uses in Bangladesh. It is a major ingredient in feed for livestock and fish, and for humans it is used for popcorn and cornflour. Surveys indicate that a few companies have started producing corn starch for industrial purposes in response to the crisis, though the extent of these actions and their durability following the end of the lockdown needs to be verified. However, it was reported by the Maize Association of Bangladesh that popcorn processing had been halted as its sales as a street food declined to insignificant levels during the pandemic. The prices for popcorn have fallen by 4 percent since February 2020 (figure 3.2a).The lentil and other pulse processing businesses have been seriously affected, leading to price increases of 13 percent and 16 percent at retail and wholesale markets, respectively (see DAM data in Figure 3.2a). In Chittagong, the Khatunganj Lentil Mill Owner's Association reported that 40 lentil mills have shut down in Khatunganj, one of the most important wholesale hubs in the nation. The retail price of lentils recently increased to BDT 130 per kg from BDT 70 per kg. Prices for other processed pulses, such as mungbean and gram, have also increased by 30 to 35 percent. A prominent food-processing company said that imports of necessary chemical raw materials and flavours from international markets had been hampered. According to another leading food processor, though the company's overall financial transactions have fallen due to COVID-19, they have started collecting mungbean from farmers in Barguna, Patuakhali, Bhola and Natore districts this year through contract farming. Their target is 5 000 metric tonnes from May through July.COVID-19 has substantially disrupted vegetable and fruit exports, according to an exporter who used to ship nearly 100 tonnes of vegetables and fruits a week before the outbreak. His export volume fell to barely three tonnes a week because of difficulty booking space on cargo planes and lower demand from buyers. Though a few international airlines have resumed cargo flights from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) since June 1, the fares have more than doubled compared to the pre-pandemic months, mainly because of the lack of available cargo flights and the limited number of carriers. Exporters of perishable goods now pay between USD 4 and 4.5 for carrying a kilogram of vegetable from HSIA to London, compared to USD 1.5 to 1.7 before the pandemic. Although the profits are significantly lower, the exporters are continuing export to retain their relationships with international buyers, especially in the Middle East and the UK, which are major export markets. Also, potato exports have been affected, declining by 35 to 40 percent on a 30 percent increase in trucking fares along with a 20 to 30 percent increase in maritime shipping charges. The uncertainty of receiving payment from buyers because of COVID-19 is also an additional factor affecting potato exports, according to the president of the potato-exporting companies association. Figure 3.2a presents information from the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), showing a 27 percent increase in domestic retail prices for potatoes since February 2020. Prices for all types of meat have increased in the retail markets because of supply chain disruptions, higher animal purchase costs, labour shortages and increased labour costs for slaughterhouses. Some 40 percent of workers had returned to their rural homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, since a major amount of raw materials for feed are imported, the disruption in trade could create a crisis, especially for the poultry industry (Dhaka Tribune, 6 May 2020). One of the largest meat-processing companies in Bangladesh reported a 20 percent decline in B2C customers for beef and mutton and around an 80 to 90 percent reduction in B2B sales caused by the limited operation of hotels and restaurants, and fewer social ceremonies. The company also said its total production has declined by 30 to 40 percent while production costs have significantly increased. Higher costs were incurred for measures to ensure safe food and accommodation for workers, and sourcing some spices and other raw materials.According to another large meat processor, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain packaging materials, laminating services from third-party companies, and raw materials such as spices and seasonings from domestic and international sources. However, demand for their frozen chicken increased 10 to 15 percent in superstores even as sales declined at their franchise outlets by at least 60 percent for fried chicken and 70 to 90 percent for ice cream. To mitigate the losses, the company has strengthened its online sales based on customer demand. The impact of COVID-19 on fish processing is evident from the declining earnings from frozen fish, one of the country's major exports (Figure 3.3). A total of 290 orders for frozen fish imports worth BDT 4.6 billion have recently been cancelled, leaving unsold fish worth BDT 9.99 billion, according to the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association. The Shrimp Hatchery Association of Bangladesh (SHAB), the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF), and the Bangladesh Aqua ProductsCompanies Association (BAPCA) made a joint statement Year 6 Business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to selling products directly between a business and consumers who are the end-users of its products.7 Business-to-business (B2B) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another business hotel, motel and restaurant depend on aromatic rice, beef, mutton, chicken, fish etc. 3.9 Summary of the findings on disruptions and impacts on the food processing sector• The availability of raw materials, domestic and imported, has been hampered, and prices of those materials have increased.• Processed food production has fallen by an average of 10 to 20 percent, as reported by different interviewed companies/ enterprises.• Labour costs have increased by 20 to 25 percent, with some companies having had to arrange for food and accommodation at their plants to retain workers.• Transportation costs for processed foods, especially for staples such as rice and pulses, have increased by 30 percent or more, affecting retail market prices.• Sales of processed foods, including puffed rice and flattened rice, have declined.• Aromatic rice sales have drastically declined by around 70 percent due to the limited operation of hotels, restaurants and fewer social ceremonies.• B2C beef and mutton sales have fallen by 20 percent, and B2B sales around 80 to 90 percent for the same reasons.• Food processing companies told interviewers that they maintained food processing quality even though their total production was hampered to varying degrees.• Processing companies are trying to ensure that workers are maintaining social distancing and wearing masks, but this can be difficult to enforce while carrying heavy weight.• Some rice mills and other companies said that they were not covered under the Government's financial stimulus package Recommendations:• Labour management with COVID-19 safeguards: Rice mills and food processors need to ensure labourers practice best health measures as much as possible.Increase Government support to the food-processing sector: The sector faces cash scarcity for labour payments and other costs due to unsold inventory of commodities. Government support could contribute to sustaining the sector and protecting its jobs. The Prime Minister announced an allocation of BDT 750 billion in low-interest loans for feed mills and businesses in need of working capital. In addition, she allocated BDT 50 billion for loans to the livestock and dairy sectors with minimum interest. Frozen-fish and fish-product exports have dropped to 30 to 35 percent of previous levels. These developments are mainly the result of labour shortages, lack of logistics support locally and internationally, and the cancellation of orders from importing countries. Additional COVID-19-inspired prerequisites for sanitary and phytosanitary exports, and other import/export security measures have also caused major disruptions to businesses involved in trade.Overall imports of food products dropped by 90 percent. Demand among consumers and institutions for imported food items significantly decreased because of concerns about shelf-life. Imports of fresh fruits have declined by 50 percent because of massive domestic production and availability of seasonal fruits, and the false notion that imported fruits may be contaminated with COVID-19. Misconceptions about the safety of poultry meat and eggs had caused a decline in the consumption of poultry products. However, consumption of poultry meat and eggs has rebounded following a relaxing of restrictions on restaurants, hotels and catering of social events since 1 June.In Bangladesh, a Food Safety Management certification is not mandatory. To The food industry must urgently protect food handlers from contracting COVID-19. To prevent transmission of COVID 19, food hygiene and sanitation practices need to be enforced in accordance with Codex guidelines. Food premises must continue to follow food safety practices in line with the established Food Security Monitoring System. Good hygienic practices for the staff are:• Proper hand hygiene -washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds (WHO advice);• Frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers;• Good respiratory hygiene (cover mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing; dispose of tissues and wash hands);• Frequent cleaning/disinfection of work surfaces and touch-points such as door handles.• Avoiding close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing;• The primary focus of any additional hygiene and sanitation measures implemented by food businesses needs to be on keeping the COVID-19 virus out of their businesses. The virus may enter business premises when an infected person arrives, or if someone brings contaminated products or items into the premises.• Drivers and other staff delivering to food premises should not leave their vehicles during delivery. Supply drivers with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, a disinfectant and paper towels. Drivers should use a hand sanitizer before passing delivery documents to food premises staff.• Disposable containers and packaging should be used to avoid the need for cleaning of any returns. In the case of reusable containers, implement appropriate hygiene and sanitation protocols.• Drivers delivering to food premises should be aware of the potential risks involved in contact transmission of COVID-19. The virus can spread if drivers touch a contaminated surface or shake hands with an infected person. Surfaces most likely to be contaminated with the virus include frequently touched surfaces such as steering wheels, door handles, mobile devices, etc. Therefore, hand hygiene, in conjunction with physical distancing, is of paramount importance and contact surface sanitation is critical to avoid cross-contamination.• Drivers need to be aware of physical distancing when picking up deliveries and passing deliveries to customers. They need to maintain a high degree of personal cleanliness and to wear clean protective clothing. Drivers also need to be aware of the need to ensure that all transport containers are kept clean and frequently disinfected, food must be protected from contamination, and separated from other goods that may cause contamination.• No evidence exists that consuming contaminated food transmits COVID-19. If someone is concerned about possible surface contamination of a shopping bag or takeout bag, container or package, in the unlikely event that an infected person touched those surfaces, they can minimize the risk. Let the driver or delivery man leave the food at the doorstep. Wait until the driver is at least 6 feet away before picking up the food. Rinse the outside of fruits and vegetables with water. Remove outer surfaces (e.g. outer lettuce leaves) before consumption. Pay (and tip) in advance (electronically) to avoid person-to-person interaction.Labour movement, unemployment, migrationimplications for food production, supply chains and livelihoodsThe nationwide lockdown raised serious concerns regarding the harvest of its main rice crop -boro. with the help of local governments, took the initiative and sent agricultural workers to harvest boro rice along with its subsidized machinery support (see table 5.1). 9 The Government bore the transportation costs. Moreover, an additional 1 000 farmers from Chittagong moved to haor for boro crop cutting areas (Kaler Kantha, 29 April 2020).S. Alam Group absorbed the transportation cost by providing 40 buses for that group. However, it should be noted that usually during the harvesting period of boro rice, every year almost 200 000 farmers from the northern region move to the south for higher wages. During the primary survey for this assessment, all respondents from labourer and smallholder groups mentioned the Government's interventions for smooth labour mobility for the boro crop harvest.  Considering the large number of international Bangladeshi migrants (figures range from 11 to 14 million), any decline in remittances could cause secondary economic impacts through depressed demand. Sixty percent of the families receiving remittances are dependent on them for their daily expenses, and they use 41.8 percent of the remittance earnings for food and non-food consumption. These families normally invest some portion (25 percent) of these remittances in agriculture (3 percent), housing, construction, savings and other sectors (SIR'16, BBS), generating secondary economic activity in Bangladesh. As a cushion, the Government has created a USD 85 million fund to help returned migrants, offering them soft loans without the need for collateral. The intent is to train migrants so that they can find better jobs abroad once the situation returns to normal, and provide them with seed money to start employment-generating activities.July (Figure 5.2). In April, the World Bank predicted that South Asian countries might face a 22 percent decline in remittances during 2020 as part of a global trend. However, these estimates could be further refined as the pandemic persists. • Scale-up agricultural labour migration programmes: The Government should introduce wellplanned agricultural labour migration programmes similar to its programme for the boro harvest to benefit marginal seasonal workers both in the long and short term. This would not only contribute to overcoming the volatility of the labour supply for major crop harvests but also benefit overall agricultural and food system productivity along with containing the outbreak.• Continue support to the agricultural and service sectors: In case of in-migration to rural areas, extending Government support to the service sector, in addition to agriculture, may help reduce the adverse impacts on food security and nutrition of returnees. Apart from short-term interventions, medium-term measures that enhance rural employment through capacity building and providing seed money for alternative income sources are required.• Improve financial sector operation capacities: Easing and promoting banking transfers and prioritizing the migrants would increase the resilience of the financial sector and safeguard the valuable earnings from remittances. In addition to the direct benefits of enhancing the livelihood security of remittancereceiving households, it also ensures continued investment and growth across in sectors.Food demand disruptions and response optionsThe COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted food demand and supply from early March to until July. Bangladesh reported its first case of COVID-19 in early March. To prevent transmission of the virus, the Government of Bangladesh enforced lockdowns and announced general holidays. Available evidence suggests that following the announcement, 40 percent of the higher-and middle-income citizens in urban areas started to buy food in bulk amounts to reduce market visits and exposure to COVID-19. In the last week of March, the demand for essential food commodities went up by a staggering 300 percent on the panic caused by COVID-19. However, later in May, demand dried up, leading to food prices dropping. But the production of crops, livestock and fish continued.Ultimately, the imposition of the lockdown disrupted the entire food supply chain, especially of perishable food commodities, such as vegetables, fish, eggs, chicken and dairy products. This resulted in a lack of fair prices paid to farmers (66 percent they were unfairly paid) according to a Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 10 study. Fewer customers shopping at wet markets, limited operating hours in shops, problems with transportation and labour shortages caused reduced demand for food products. This reduced demand may persist as a large proportion of urban consumers have lost some of their purchasing power due to their lowered incomes.The enforcement of the general holidays and the strict lockdown from 26 March had a significant impact on the income of citizens in Dhaka and other cities. The poor were affected most severely. BRAC estimated their income fell to 76 percent on average and 51 percent of the population had zero income 11 during the initial lockdown period.To give a sense of scale, in Dhaka's two city corporations, around 1.5 million people are working as rickshaw pullers. 12 Similarly, millions are working as construction workers, mobile vendors, food vendors, transportation workers, and housemaids. The impact of the COVID-19 crisis has meant that day labourers could not find work, housemaids were laid off, and garment workers lost their jobs or were not paid their full wages. Middle-income and lower-middle-income groups also saw significant reductions to their earnings. These factors had an impact on their consumption patterns. For many, less income meant they had to cut down on their consumption and avoid relatively expensive food items, which led to a decline in demand for income-elastic commodities such as vegetables, meat, fish, dairy and poultry products. At the same time, high numbers of urban dwellers returned to their rural home villages, many after losing their jobs and incomes, but also students when their educational institutions closed. Anecdotal evidence from mobile phone companies suggested that about 10 percent of the urban population left the cities for their villages. That was an important factor in reducing food demand in the cities. This migration threatened food-related businesses because the demand for food dropped so dramatically and became unpredictable. Businesses were challenged by these sudden and significant changes in consumer behaviour, and uncertainty about the future.From March through June, the Ramadan fasting and Eid holidays contributed to fluctuations in demand for food, already affected by pandemic containment measures and falling purchasing power. The mismatch in demand and supply created sharp volatility for the prices of many food items. At the end of May, the Government decided to discontinue the general holidays, and this allowed citizens to return to their jobs. The re-opening is likely to reduce the price of many food items. Still, for poor families it will probably take longer for their incomes and economic situations to recover and return to previous levels.The COVID-19 pandemic impacted food demand drastically. Figure 6.1 shows the estimated demand for the essential food commodities in the year 2020. Here, the quantities are given in millions of kilograms, except for eggs, which is given in millions of units.Figure 6.3 Estimated demand of essential food commodities in 2020 given in millions of kilograms, except for eggs, which is given in millions of units, based on IFPRI report 13 FAO's Dhaka Food System Project (DFS) assessed the impact of COVID-19 on food demand, supply disruptions, and response options for essential food commodities such as rice, potatoes, lentils, onions, fish, broilers and eggs.The project collected secondary data about food prices from a network of respondents in approximately 150 poor communities across Dhaka's four cities. The key findings of the DFS study showed that the demand for all essential food commodities has decreased from normal, pre-lockdown levels. Changed consumer behaviour was the major driver for this demand disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all market channels. Wet markets contribute about 20 percent of the total market share, whereas independent grocery stores have about 75 percent, and convenience stores 5 percent. Of these categories, informal market channels, which include wet markets and street vendors, were most affected by low demand. Mr Mostafa, the wet-market representative from Banani Kacha Bazar, related that sales fell by almost 50 percent for all food commodities because of the shutting down of hotels, restaurants, universities, and other institutions that traditionally are big buyers. In addition, many of the poor returned to their villages and also reduced their consumption. On the other hand, formal channels such as supermarkets increased their online sales, accounting for about 30 percent and 15 percent of sales for Khaas Food and Shawapno, respectively. The middle class and upper-middle class are the end consumers for online channels.Figure 6.5 shows that the price trends of the food basket increased every week from the first week of April up to the last week of May before Eid, according to data from the Dhaka Food System Project (DFS). Fourteen essential food commodities with the mentioned quantities have been included in the consumer basket: rice 2 kg, potatoes 1 kg, onions 250 g, garlics 100 g, pangas (catfish) 1 kg, broilers 1.5 kg, eggs 4 pcs, green chillies 100 g, bananas 4 pcs, and powdered milk 100 g. The project team arrived at these estimates by interviewing poor households about how much they usually purchased and which items they most frequently bought. The study data shows that the food basket price continued to increase during the lockdown, fell slightly during the week at the end of May, and then started to go up again. The price of broiler meat was the key contributor to the sharp increase in the food basket price. In the week of Eid, the price of broiler meat decreased, which reduced the food basket price. Since then, the prices of meat and the food basket have been rising in parallel. Although the prices of lentils and rice have decreased, there has been a sharp increase in the price of eggs and meat preventing the food basket price from decreasing. Overall, price decreases for staple food items would provide a small respite for the poor, but poor It clearly shows that the price of rice increased 38 percent, lentils 23 percent and potatoes 30 percent. After a sudden surge in prices, the prices of rice and potatoes remained similar in the following weeks. However, since mid-May, the price of potatoes has been increasing sharply. Prices for lentils kept increasing throughout the lockdown period. Since the lifting of the lockdown, the prices for lentils have been decreasing sharply.14 (https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-economy-down-poverty-up-in-bangladesh/a-53759686) communities would still be unable to meet their nutritional needs because of the high prices of most food items. At this point, the poor communities, including the newly poor, are 40.9 percent of the population, according to an estimate by the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM). 14 Additionally, reduced household income and unemployment among the poor gave them no alternative except to cut back their consumption, which resulted in an overall reduction in demand and reverberated back through the food supply chain to the farmer level.The Government took initiatives to keep the prices of food items in wet markets at an affordable level. Mobile courts (the GOB equivalent of inspectors) regularly visited wet markets to monitor the prices of food items. Several retailers were penalized for selling food items at unreasonable prices. The Government also urged people to stop panic buying, stating there was enough availability of food items for all citizens. In some cases, ceiling prices for food items were declared to keep the price within the reach of all income groups. Various business owners were also penalized during this period for hoarding large quantities of food items for higher profit. .7 presents the weekly retail price of coarse rice in Dhaka. COVID-19 caused moderate (20 to 30 percent) inflation in retail prices for rice. The price rise would have been higher without the Government's strong food-market monitoring and interventions. The average retail price of coarse rice was around BDT 35 to 37 per kg when the first COVID-19 case was reported in the second week of March 2020. Rice prices suddenly increased, reaching BDT 46 per kg in the first week of April (30 percent higher compared to the first week of March). This sudden and large increase in rice prices soon after the lockdown announcement can be attributed to panic buying and hoarding by consumers, and an artificial price hike by traders. Rice prices gradually declined from the first week of May with the start of the boro rice harvest. Average prices dropped to BDT 42 to 43 per kg during mid-May to the end of June (20 percent higher than the first week of March). The survey of rice millers and traders found rice prices started rising again since the beginning of July. Traders and millers reported that the retail prices of the coarse, medium, and fine grain quality rice increased by BDT 2 to 4 per kg in the first two weeks of July. The trend indicates that rice prices are likely to increase in the next 3 to 4 months. The Government is now exploring options to import rice to stabilize the domestic rice market. COVID-19 had a positive impact on the farmgate price of rice. Although the Government set the minium support price for boro rice at the same level (BDT 26 per kg) in 2019 and 2020 (The Financial Express, 2020), farmers are getting a higher price for paddy this year. Survey results show that farmers are getting 20 to 30 percent higher farmgate prices for boro rice compared to 2019 boro rice in local markets. The average price of boro paddy is BDT 20 to 23 per kg in 2020 but was BDT 15 to 18 per kg in 2019. The main reasons for higher farmgate prices for boro rice are the Government's higher target for boro rice procurement at a reasonably good minimum support price, fear of future food crises due to COVID-19, higher quantities of rice purchased and stored by traders and millers (with expectation of higher rice prices in the coming months), and speculation about a price rise. Farmers reported that there are more rice traders this year and their demand for paddy is higher because because many urban workers with cash have returned to their villages and entered the rice trading business. These new traders include many young urban migrant workers. These traders are visiting farmers and buying paddy directly from them. As a containment measure, restaurants remained closed. Even now in July, the restaurants are operating at a lower capacity because of the shortage of customers. Some restaurants are now running online food delivery to keep open. Even though the general holidays are over, schools, colleges and universities are still closed. The closure of educational institutions has robbed restaurants a primary segment of their customers -young people. Over the years, restaurants have become the primary consumers of chicken. Restaurant closures have resulted in a drastic fall in demand for chicken. Similarly, the prolonged closure of restaurants has lowered demand for mutton. Many small-scale chicken farmers have suffered severe losses.During the lockdown period, the demand for rice, lentils, potatoes and eggs increased among the poor section of the community. Sales by the Open Market Sales, a social protection programme, and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, a wing of the Commerce Ministry, came as subsidies to assist the poor. They sold food packages at a much lower price than the market price to ensure access to affordable food by the poor. As poor people's income dwindled, they were forced to cut down on their consumption. With less or no income, they could no longer afford meat and fish. Although for the major part of the lockdown period the price of meat and fish remained stable, the poor could not afford to buy these items. The unemployed were more concerned about satisfying their hunger with low-cost carbohydrates because protein-rich food items were now too expensive for them. As a result, nutritional deficiencies among the poor deepened even further when compared to normal circumstances.Fear of COVID-19 infection and the unavailability of transportation drove up the prices of rice, lentils, vegetables, ginger and various fruits. Since the beginning of June, the prices of rice and lentils have been decreasing steadily.The prices are still higher, however, than pre-lockdown prices. Prices for non-leafy vegetables were fluctuating from week to week. At the beginning of May, the prices of non-leafy vegetables increased by around 28 percent.The sharpest price increases were noticed in mid-June when they rose by 50 percent compared to earlier weeks. The poor have been finding it hard to buy non-leafy vegetables because of the high prices. Online shopping gained popularity as customers felt going to the wet markets was risky. Supermarkets and cyber shops started selling products online. Online shopping has more than doubled during the pandemic.After remaining relatively stable up to mid-May, the prices of broiler chickens and eggs have started to go up on a shortage of poultry (figure 6.8). According to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association, poultry production has been significantly affected after producers suffered a loss of USD 417.76 million in March and April. The poultry farmers had to sell their chickens and eggs for half of their production cost. The small farmers who make up about 25 percent of poultry farmers have been struggling, and nearly 45 percent of the country's 88 000 poultry farms have had to close, according to poultry industry experts. Throughout the lockdown period, poultry meat generally remained out of reach for the poor, mainly because of their lack of income. However, during June, 60 percent of the poultry farmers re-opened their businesses by reducing the size of their operations to just about 25 percent of what they originally were. The price of broiler meat is still going up because of this lower level of production. Broiler meat is likely to remain unaffordable for the poor for the foreseeable future. The poor had been relying on eggs for protein during the lockdown, but egg prices are now also beginning to increase sharply. If the trend continues, sources of protein will become even scarcer for the poor.• Re-establish and strengthen linkages between wet markets and growers to ensure undisrupted supply of food for the poor. Developing more farmers' markets across the cities can significantly improve the supply chain.• Scale-up Open Market Sales and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh services in more areas and include perishable items in the packages to prevent nutritional deficiencies among the majority of the population.• Emphasize building online platforms for vendors. As online shopping is relatively safer and popular among the citizens, introduce an online shopping system for wet markets.• Promote small-scale agriculture by providing training and subsidies for inputs.• Encourage people to grow their own food to reduce food insecurity and significantly supplement their nutrition.• Provide low-interest loans with easy terms and conditions and incentives for small businesses to ensure the production of various food items does not fall significantly below the demand level. Fish, livestock, poultry production and market disruptionsWorldFish, an international non-profit research organization, conducted multiple surveys of fish supply chain actors to assess the effects of COVID-19 on the availability and price of aquatic foods and production inputs. Respondents answered questions about their activity during February, March and April 2020.The surveys showed that between February and April, there was a 10 percent decrease in respondents hiring male daily labour, while there was a 9 percent increase in respondents unable to hire daily labour. Although the percentage of respondents attempting to buy inputs remained relatively stable, respondents' ability to access inputs and transport declined drastically, down 44 percent and 54 percent, respectively (Figure 8.1). The percentage of respondents attempting to sell fish products remained relatively stable. At the same time, the percentage of respondents able to access transport for sales dropped from 100 percent to 56 percent, and those that were able to find buyers dropped from 98 percent to 39 percent.% of respondents able to access inputs, transport and who bought products through social media or webIn February, the majority of hatcheries were not operating because they were offseason. In March and April, however, nearly all hatcheries were operating. Among the 10 percent of hatcheries not operating, reasons cited included reduced production because of low demand, restrictions on transportation, inability to hire transport, and suspensions due to COVID-19. While hatcheries experienced a moderate 9 percent production increase in both catla and rohu hatchlings between March and April, the production of tilapia and mrigal (carp) hatchlings decreased by 78 percent and 24 percent, respectively. In 2019, average tilapia fry production was 15.32 million/per hatchery, which has decreased to 10.89 million (29 percent) due to the adverse situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative consequences/impacts.All feed mills remained operating from February through March. After March, feed mills experienced a 16 percent decrease in average procurement price alongside an increase in the total quantity of feed ingredients procured, from 665 to 3 718 tonnes. While the average sales value of feed remained stable, the total quantity feed manufactured increased by 2 347 tonnes and total value rose by BDT 115 million.Pelleted Feed Sellers: Almost all pelleted feed sellers were operating between February and April. The average sales value of pelleted feed remained stable during those months. At the same time, both the total quantity and total value of pelleted feed sold increased by approximately 33 percent.Non-Pelleted Feed Sellers: Although all sellers of non-pelleted feed were operating in February, half were not working from March through April. Among those operating, the number of days of operation fell by half from February to April. Among those not operating, 10 percent reported having closed permanently in March due to COVID-19. In April, 20 percent of non-operating businesses were temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Other stated reasons for not operating included current market prices being too high, input supplies not being available or out of stock, and an inability to hire transport services. The average sales value of non-pelleted feed remained relatively stable between February and April. However, the average sales value of rice bran increased by 52 percent during that time. The total quantity and total value of non-pelleted feed sold declined by 82.7 percent and 81 percent, respectively (Figure 8.2). The percentage of fishers who did not go fishing increased by 33 percent between February and March, peaking at 79 percent of all fishers, according to the WorldFish surveys. The share of fishers active in April increased to 46 percent. However, those still fishing in April did so for an average of just one day per week and four hours per day. The primary reason that fishers did not go fishing was the closed season, with only 8 percent citing a temporary suspension due to COVID-19. Forty-two percent of fishers were without a boat, and among those with a boat, the majority used engine boats. Fishers experienced a 94 percent decline in the total sales value of fish, but this decline may largely be attributed to the closed season.Although the majority of farms were operating, the total area worked by the surveyed farmers dropped from 1 028 hectares in February to 661 hectares in April. In March, the average procurement price of fish seed reached its highest at 347 BDT per 1 000 pieces, while the total quantity and total value of fish seed procured were at their lowest. As the average procurement price fell from BDT 437 to BDT 200 per 1 000 fish seed between March and April, the total quantity and total value of fish seed procured rose from 488 000 to 5 309 000 pieces and from BDT 200 000 to BDT 1.1 million, respectively. From February through April, there were also increases in the total quantity of fish sold from 31 to 52 tonnes and the total value of fish sold from BDT 4.1 million to BDT 6.2 million.The majority of fish traders remained operating through April. Among the 20 percent of fish traders not operating in March and April, reasons cited included the season being closed for fishing, input suppliers not being open, restrictions on road transportation, and temporary suspension because of COVID-19. The total amount and value of farmed fish, marine capture fish, and shrimp sold all decreased, while that of freshwater capture fish sold increased. Both the amount and value of farmed fish sold decreased by nearly 50 percent (Figure 8.3). Similarly, the total quantity and value of marine capture fish declined by 80 percent and 85 percent, respectively, most likely due to the ban on hilsha (herring) fishing. Freshwater capture fish, on the other hand, saw large increases in quantity and value sold, from 1 ton to 20 tonnes and BDT 1.2 million to BDT 16 million, respectively. At the same time, the average sales value of freshwater capture fish dropped from BDT 1 200 to BDT 791 per kilogram. Thirty-eight percent of fish processors (mainly fish driers) were not operating in April. For non-operating fish processors, the main reasons included restrictions on road transport and the inability to obtain credit for inputs. Thirty-three percent of non-operating fish processors temporarily halted operations due to COVID-19 in March.The quantity of fresh fish processed, the quantity of processed fish sold, and the sales value of processed fish all experienced marked declines at 73 percent, 73 percent, and 78 percent, respectively.The majority of fish retailers were operating from February through April. Among non-operational retailers in April, half were closed because of restrictions on road transport, and the other half temporarily suspended operations due to COVID-19. The average sales value of freshwater capture fish increased from BDT 295 to BDT 371 per kilogram. At the same time, the total quantity and total value of freshwater capture fish sold decreased drastically between March and April. Specifically, the total quantity of freshwater capture fish sold dropped from 7 tonnes to less than 1 tonnes among surveyed retailers (Figure 8.4), with the total value falling by BDT 2.39 million. Similarly, the average sales value of shrimp sold fell. For farmed fish, the average sales value, total quantity sold, and the total value sold remained relatively stable.WorldFish is conducting high-frequency surveys to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on seed systems for the genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) strain. Preliminary results of the surveys show that fish seed systems for GIFT have been adversely affected on both the supply and demand side, but have also helped the industry respond to and increase resilience to the pandemic. On the supply side, movement restrictions have increased the transportation costs of the inputs required for GIFT seed production. Consequently, the cost of feed and other aqua-inputs has increased substantially. The transportation problem has further reduced the ability of seed suppliers to deliver the inputs to grow-out farmers on time, in a context where poor road infrastructure is already a constraint to the dissemination of improved fish seed. On the demand side, the closure of restaurants and the enforcement of lockdowns have reduced the market for tilapia. Reduction in demand is partly because of the shrinking of income-earning activities. For example, there are fewer fish traders buying fish from farmers for selling in cities such as Dhaka. When markets are unavailable, it forces farmers to delay selling their fish. Consequently, their fish ponds are not available for re-stocking. In turn, that and loss of income reduces farmers' demand for fish seed, feed, and other inputs. Farmers' production costs also substantially increase because they must continue feeding otherwise mature fish ready for the market.Holding fish in the ponds beyond the cycle increases the likelihood of increased fish mortality due to unfavourable weather conditions. Furthermore, feed retailers who previously sold feed on credit are now only selling for cash, making it difficult for farmers faced with liquidity constraints to afford the input.Demand-side shocks have mostly affected the supply of seed used for broodstock development of 'breeder seed' to multiplier hatcheries. A recent study by WorldFish evaluating the tilapia seed system in Bangladesh showed that demand for breeder seed for elite broodstock of GIFT was low because multiplier hatcheries tend to rely on their own seed for broodstock development. Most hatcheries specializing in the dissemination of breeder seed have stopped production due to reduced demand. There is variability in the supply of mono sex seed of GIFT from the hatcheries with a breeding nucleus that have a cohort breeding system. However, the trend in fish seed sales is slightly rising, demonstrating the resilience of GIFT seed systems to the pandemic.Usually, hatcheries provide bonus fry to customers as a way to promote their businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted hatcheries to increase the amount of bonus fry offered. Before the crisis, hatcheries mostly sold GIFT seed for cash. However, hatcheries are now selling on credit as a demand-creation strategy. Despite the fear of defaulting on payments, hatcheries are prepared to take the risk, which seems better than possibly losing all seed because of the mortality of fry. Grow-out producers are responding to COVID-19 impacts by reducing their purchases of inputs and delaying harvesting and sales. In terms of support, WorldFish, local Department of Fisheries (DoF) officials, and hatchery operators have collaborated to facilitate access by grow-out producers to hatcheries for seed. This close coordination has helped to avoid penalizing farmers if they are caught in the lockdown. There are also efforts by WorldFish and its partners to ensure the delivery of extension services to GIFT farmers using digital innovations.• Safeguard the ability to access transportation, movement of merchandise, and connections between supply chain actors.• Provide extension advice and technical support required in the management of seed production by hatcheries and pond management by farmers.• Provide financial support and access to credit for supply chain actors who have lost substantial amounts of revenue.• Conduct research on how COVID-19 may transfer through fish market practices and ways to mitigate this.• Support supply-chain actors during the closed season through other income-generating activities and access to social-safety net programmes. During the first weeks of the COVID-19 crisis, between March and April, the public reacted to widespread fear of infection by avoiding buying food at wet markets to limit their possible exposure to the virus. Social media fuelled these fears by suggesting that poultry and eggs could be partly to blame for this virus. This misinformation partly influenced consumer behaviour. At the same time, many people lost their jobs and had less income to spend on food, so they economized their expenses. The result was that retail sales in markets suddenly decreased by 25 percent.The medium-term impacts of lowered demand were transmitted back to poultry farmers who received less profit to invest in raising new chickens. Lower consumption of eggs and chicken leads to malnutrition for many people.During the first 20 days of the lockdown (26 March through 14 April) no trucks or deliveries of non-essential products could be made, with only movements by essential and emergency services permitted (including food deliveries). Transportation restrictions caused a massive disruption to the poultry supply chain as they prevented farmers from receiving essential inputs. This led to shortages of feed, vaccines and essential medicines, and this induced huge mortality among chickens because farmers could not prevent the common poultry diseases that arose during this period.The combination of weaker consumer demand and disruption to the transportation system caused farm prices to drop significantly. According to The Financial Express (20 April), the prices of chicken and eggs reached record lows for the last twelve years. In different districts, farmers sold their broiler chicken for BDT 55 to 70 per kilogram, and farm eggs for BDT 4.0 to 4.8 per piece. Those prices were far below the respective production costs of BDT 118 to 128 per kilogram and BDT 6.0 to 6.5 per piece. As farmers do not have processing and storage facilities, they could not hold their eggs and chicken for a better price. They were forced sell immediately at very low prices, some for even half of their production cost. Many lost all of their capital.The large number of intermediaries involved in the chicken-and-egg marketing system leads to lower profits for farmers and higher prices for urban consumers. At the same time, wholesalers and retailers adjust their selling prices based on their buying price. They can manipulate prices to their advantage, but to the detriment of farmers and consumers. This dynamic causes significant price gaps between farmers and consumers. The contributing factors behind this problem include a lack of government policy, the existence of several intermediaries, long distances between farmers and consumers, lack of clear consumer demands, lack of vehicles to bring products to consumers, and the popularity of live chicken markets, among others. An improved marketing channel is needed to reduce the price gap.The Department of Livestock Services (DLS) provided mobile sales services assistance in several districts to reduce farmers' losses. However, most of the small-scale farmers were unable to access this assistance because the services were relatively few and covered limited areas and districts. As a result, the majority of the farmers were not able to sell their eggs and chickens through DLS mobile sales services. In addition, most small-scale farmers are unregistered, which prevents them from accessing Government assistance.The COVID-19 crisis has caused many poultry farms to close, particularly smaller-scale farms, which are more financially vulnerable. Small-scale farmers, who make up around 25 percent of poultry farmers, generally have little savings, conduct farm financing on credit, and have incurred debts after selling chickens. Consequently, they have suffered more extreme financial hardship in the past months. The lack of capital and prior debts means these farmers face major challenges to access further credit. Some are planning to migrate to cities to find alternative job opportunities. Wider coverage of Government food relief, the Open Market System and Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to rural areas and other incentives could help the newly poor to maintain adequate levels of nutrition.Many small-scale farmers have closed their farms, while only a few medium-scale farms are still operating. The majority of large-scale farmers, who make up only about 5 percent of farmers, are maintaining the supply of eggs and chicken by decrementing their size. However, their numbers are few, and so they cannot make significant changes in the retail market. The Financial Express reported on 12 May that the broiler price shot up to BDT 150 to 170 from BDT 115 to 130 a week earlier. On 29 May, Prothom Alo reported that egg prices had started to increase sharply. FAO data showed that over the last 11 weeks, chicken and eggs showed significant price fluctuations.From the second week of May to the first week of June, the broiler price increased by 32 percent, and egg prices fell by 17.5 percent.This trend of prices rising is an indicator of lower chicken and egg production on the farm, leading to lower supply in the retail markets and increasing prices. It signals that consumers may face future scarcity of eggs and chicken, making them unaffordable for the poor struggling with less income.Ultimately, this dynamic will deprive the poor of their daily essential protein. Eggs and broiler price trendLike other sectors, the dairy value chain has also suffered severe disruptions from COVID-19, and a rapid assessment was done to assess and understand the impacts. The most important impact of COVID-19 on the dairy farmers was the disruptions in marketing milk, as reported by 75 percent of the surveyed farmers. This disruption caused significant losses to the farmers. Disruptions in the supply of inputs, such as dairy feed and veterinary medicine, also hit farmers hard.Most of the dairy farmers in the surveyed areas prepare the dairy ration by themselves. They buy different feed ingredients from the market and mix them to feed the animals. Nearly 13 percent of farmers said that supplies of a few of the feed ingredients, such as pulse bran and soybean oil cake, were not available in sufficient quantities to meet demand in markets in April and May. Many of them thought that the lockdown led to the lack of supply. Around 8 percent of farmers said that the quality of feed items decreased in April, May and June. According to the survey, 67 percent of the farmers reported that the price of the feed ingredients such as bran, soybean meal and some other concentrates increased during the same period.Nearly 8 percent, 14 percent and 10 percent of farmers responded that they did not get veterinary medicine as per their demand in April, May and June, respectively. Around 13 percent of farmers reported that they had to pay higher prices to buy medicine in May than in February. Nevertheless, none of the surveyed farmers, in general, reported any problem to get animal vaccines, except a single case of an imported vaccine. About 6 percent of dairy farmers said that they faced difficulties in getting health services for their cattle during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic because veterinarians would not physically come to the farm. At that time, veterinarians provided their support over the telephone, which was inadequate. About 33 percent of farmers faced cattle health problems during the period from March to June. The dairy farmers in this survey used to sell milk to sweet shops, middlemen, local consumers, or local markets and milk processing companies. Sometimes, they also sell milk through home delivery. Many of the farmers used to have multiple types of customers for milk.Among the farmers, 52 percent believed that that price decline was due to the shutdown of sweet shops, hotels, and tea stalls. Nearly 25 percent of the farmers said that people did not come to the market to buy milk, so the milk price dropped. In addition, 8 percent of the farmers thought that the milk price fell because milk processing companies did not collect milk. The other 21 percent of farmers said that the general demand for milk fell, so the price went down. One farmer explained that the COVID-19 crisis created an economic disaster for many people. As they are struggling with less income, they stopped buying milk. Farmers suddenly had to face challenges to sell milk and find alternative customers. Many of them did not have enough facilities to preserve all their milk or any knowledge or facilities to process milk. Raw milk is an easily perishable item. Milk production was often higher than the local demand. As a result, the farmers had to sell the bulk amount of milk at a lower price in local areas. The prohibition on social gatherings or social programmes further reduced demand. Farmers who used to sell by home delivery also faced constraints in their business.To cope with the disruption of the usual market chain, the farmers attempted to sell milk in different ways. In March through June, 2 to 15 percent of farmers tried to sell their milk by the home delivery channel when they could not sell milk to their regular customers. Around 4 to 13 percent of farmers sold milk by mobile vending. Moreover, 2 to 23 percent of farmers sold milk to relatives, local areas and bazaars.Despite all these efforts, many of the farmers could not sell all their milk. According to the survey, 73 percent of farmers had unsold milk in April, 52 percent in May, and 31 percent in June. Farmers also tried alternate means to deal with the unsold milk. Overall, 38 percent of farmers refrigerated some amount of milk. Farmers also attempted to make sweets (2 percent), butter (4 percent), curd (6 percent) and ghee (8 percent). About 2 percent of farmers tried to separate cream with a cream separator. Thirty-eight percent of farmers gave the milk away to others free of cost.Among the surveyed farmers, 31 percent had to dump some amount of spoiled milk. Only 18 percent of farmers did not have any unsold milk.Fifty percent of the surveyed farmers adopted the strategy of feeding their animals less to reduce milk production and minimize losses. Some of them cut down concentrate feed to reduce milk production. A few reported that they were able to reduce milk production within a few days, but were facing problems regaining the productivity of cows and were worried whether the cows would have the same productivity in future lactation periods. About 8 percent of farmers practised feeding milk to calves. Around 10 percent of farmers reduced the frequency of milking to keep milk for calf feeding. Some farmers sold cattle to minimize losses, which also reduced their production of milk. Twentythree percent of surveyed farmers sold their cattle during March through June to cope with the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The farmers were facing losses due to marketing problems and lower milk prices. Many said they sold the cattle to pay their loans and farm-staff salaries. Some sold animals to minimize the losses, others to raise the capital needed to run the business. So, the farmers sold the less productive cows, calves, non-lactating, and even lactating cows.About 63 percent of farmers knew that the Government would support affected farmers. Among them, 57 percent heard about the interest-free bank loans, and 13 percent said that they had heard about support but didn't know the details. Another 17 percent heard about cash incentives from local government/DLS. None of the surveyed farmers had yet received any support from the Government. Few farmers went to banks to learn about the details for applying for loans. The banks visited by surveyed farmers had not yet received notice from the Government to give loans to the farmers. From the survey, 98 percent of farmers said they would continue in their business. Among them, 19 percent said that they have no other option; 38 percent will carry on the business as usual; 26 percent said that they will continue with increased herd size, and 6 percent with reduced herd size. Around 4 percent said that they have a desire to do business with increased herd size, but Government support, such as loans, is needed.Experienced dairy farmers had many constructive and practical suggestions on actions the Government could take to sustain dairy farming during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic or in similar situations in the future. The following are a summary of their recommendations:• Provide Government loans with low interest or no interest, with easy terms and a one-to two-year grace period for repayment.• Develop a milk collection system with milk-chilling centres run by the Government.• Provide cattle feed during a crisis.• Ensure and monitor stable and standard market prices for milk, feed, and medicine throughout the year, supporting milk marketing and its supply chain.• Provide farmers with cream separators. Agricultural exports from Bangladesh have been driven chiefly by shrimp, vegetables and processed food, among others. While the global market for shrimp has been expanding, exports from Bangladesh have been shrinking. A disaggregated monthly analysis of the major agro-export commodities indicates that while vegetable exports were doing well in 2019/20 compared to the preceding year, shrimp and dry-food exports were mostly below par (Figure 9.4). The volume of these exports also followed a relatively similar trajectory to the preceding year with months of lower and higher volumes indicating seasonal variation in exports. Exports for all three commodities fell from March 2020 onwards compared to the preceding year. While agricultural exports were experiencing mixed trends, the arrival and rapid spread of COVID-19 disrupted trading in global markets. For Bangladesh, it began with export destinations limiting their imports to essential commodities and was followed by domestic COVID-19 protection measures with restrictions on work attendance, logistical support, banking operations, etc. As in the case of manufactured goods, the exports of major agro-export commodities, such as frozen fish, shrimp, vegetables, and processed and dry foods, declined significantly from March through May 2020 (Figure 9.4).At the primary stage of these supply and value chains are the small producers and input and inbound logistics suppliers that sustain the export enterprises. Shortages of labour, the shutting down of industrial units, closures of land and seaports, and other restrictions have impeded access by producers to markets and curbed their productive capacities. Stricter controls on cargo vessels aimed at avoiding the spread of COVID-19 have also impacted trade. As the economy has suffered, the Government has been under unprecedented pressure to deploy its limited resources to minimize the negative impact on the income of vulnerable populations resulting from export losses.Recent developments since the easing of the COVID-19 protection measures are summarized below:• On 18 May 2020, the export of frozen shrimp resumed to the EU and Japan. The President of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters' Association reported that export orders have begun trickling in and they are receiving two to three orders (compared to around ten during the pre-COVID-19 period) each month. From the onset of the pandemic until 8 June 2020, international buyers cancelled 299 export orders worth USD 55 million.• Vegetable exports resumed after two months on 29 May 2020 by chartered airplane. Regular exports of vegetables as cargo by passenger flights to around 40 countries remain suspended.• Mahdipur-Sonamasjid Land Port opened after 75 days on 4 June 2020, and the movement of trucks has resumed.Eighty-six trucks loaded with maize, onions, fruits, livestock and poultry feed entered Bangladesh after the lockdown as of 4 June 2020. Before the lockdown around 200 trucks per day usually used the port. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh through the Petrapole-Benapole border resumed on 5 July 2020. This land port accounts for 70 percent of the trade between the two countries, and therefore this is a significant development.Quarantine facilities have been established in the land port for truck drivers. Seaports and land ports are now operating at their full capacity, and the trading of food and agricultural commodities is being prioritized.• India and Bangladesh are initiating a major step towards smoother trade connectivity through the railway network that is a potential game-changer and win-win for both counties. In June, Bangladesh railways increased the monthly number of freight trains scheduled to travel to and from India by approximately 33 percent for the month. Also, for the first time, the Indian Railways ran special parcel trains beyond the country's borders to Benapole in Bangladesh with dry chillies from Reddipa. Previously, farmers and merchants in and around the Guntur area had been transporting dry chilies by road to Bangladesh in small quantities, and that was costing around Rs 7 000 per tonne.• China recently granted Bangladesh duty-free access for 97 percent of the items it ships to China. This will allow an additional 5 161 items to be exported duty-free to China.Imports of essential commodities were generally consistent throughout FY 2019/20 but declined in April 2020 with the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Nonetheless, imports of essential commodities were still higher in March and April 2020 than in the same months of previous years, except for rice and onion (Figure 9.5). Raw sugar imports in March 2020 were higher than in March and April a year earlier. Comparison of current import trends based on the import Letter of Credit (LC) condition:• Bangladesh Bank LC statistics show that until 30 May 2020, merchants opened LCs for a total of 418 000 metric tonnes of wheat in the last two months. However, the statistics for May and June 2020 were not available at the publication time of this report.• Rice import LCs declined from February through April 2020 compared to 2019. The Import LCs for wheat were also lower in 2020 than in 2019 in corresponding periods (Figure 9.6).• Sugar import LCs rose in February and March but declined in April 2020 compared to the previous year (Figure 9.6).• Pulse and milk-food import LC numbers were nearly the same in both periods of 2019 and 2020 (Figure 9.6).• Import LCs for edible oils were quite higher in February and March 2020 than the previous year. However, they declined in April compared to the previous year. However, the total import LCs for edible oils was higher in the first six months of 2020 than in the same period in 2019.  Food reserves Table 10.1 presents food reserves at the end of June 2020. Figure 10.1 shows that Bangladesh has adequate domestic reserves of rice, wheat, potatoes, pulses and maize to meet domestic demand in the coming months. • While domestic supplies of wheat and rice are steady, the public reserves are lower than the 2018/19 not 2018/2019 levels.• In the case of wheat, landing and clearance of imports need to be prioritized.• The reserves of edible oils are enough to sustain the national demand for two-and-a-half months. Fresh imports will have to be expedited to avert shortages, especially in the likelihood of prices climbing in the short-term due to depleted stocks in exporting countries.• Imports of pulses were adequate in the last quarter, which along with domestic production is sufficient to meet the national demand for over eight months.• Exports were performing sluggishly in 2019/20 and fell drastically after the imposition of the lockdown at the end of March 2020. Both perishable and nonperishable agricultural exports were affected.  With over 11 million metric tonnes of production, there is a glut of potatoes in the domestic market with ample reserves to meet demand for over nine months. In the case of maize, both area under cultivation and production have increased over the last ten years. Maize yields at over 8 tonnes/ha are among the highest in Asia, and the growing demand from the feed industry has catapulted maize to the second-biggest cereal crop in Bangladesh after rice. A quarter of the domestic demand for maize is met through imports, which are expected to decline in 2020/21 due to lower demand from the feed sector. Going by past trends, the estimated reserves in June 2020 are enough to meet demand for the next ten months. This is, however, still concerning: if import markets do not remain open, farmers could face difficulty sourcing maize seed -the vast majority of which is hybrid and imported from other countries -creating a shortfall in domestic production.Bangladesh is import-dependent in terms of edible oils. The domestic production of oilseeds is inadequate, and every year a large amount of palm and soybean (both crude and refined) oils are imported. Soybeans are also imported in seed form for oil extraction. By end-June 2020, the reserves for edible oils were sufficient to last for two-and-a-half months. Recent Letter of Credit (LC) statistics published by the Bangladesh Bank (the country's central bank) indicate that a large number of LCs were opened and settled during March and April, and a bulk of these were for palm oil (refined) and soybean oil (crude). The March and April settlements of LCs were higher than in the preceding year and point towards the market's readiness for absorbing the increased stocks of edible oils in the coming months.Production assessments generated by international agencies indicate that there are abundant supplies globally (Table 10.2). The June 2020 Food Outlook of FAO points out that while food markets will face many more months of uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agro-food sector is likely to display more resilience to the crisis than other sectors. However, price risks remain high due to uncertainties caused by the current downturn in economic activities. These competitions enhanced their nutrition knowledge and engagement in food and nutrition security.To better understand COVID-19 coping strategies of adolescents and youth, a rapid online survey gauged their nutrition awareness, practices and behaviour. The survey also measured the impact of COVID-19 on the food-security situation of adolescents and youth using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), as developed by FAO and adapted globally for gauging progress on achieving the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Target 2.1 by 2030. 23 Additionally, the dietary diversity among adolescents and youth was assessed by using the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) method as a proxy measure of diet quality. The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), and Joint Action for Nutrition Outcome (JANO).This module provides an assessment of the findings among adolescents and youth on the following issues:• COVID-19 knowledge and coping methods in relation to nutrition awareness, practices and behaviour;• food insecurity situation; and• diet quality and micronutrient adequacy.All the respondents except one female said they knew about COVID-19 and that it was an infection affecting health.More than half of the respondents reported that their knowledge about how to protect themselves from COVID-19 was high or very high. Female respondents rated their knowledge slightly higher than how males rated their knowledge.The top three measures that children and youths had taken to prevent infection from COVID-19 were: (1) washing hands with soap for at least 20 seconds, followed by (2) wearing a face mask and (3) covering their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. Given that more than half of the respondents followed these practices, it can be assumed that preventative measures were effectively communicated to adolescents and youths.More than half of the respondents (56 percent) were worried about the pandemic situation, and a slightly higher number of female respondents (59 percent) reported they were worried more often compared to male respondents (53 percent). The primary cause of their worry was their family's health and fear of contracting COVID-19 among both girls and boys. Other causes of concern among girls were a shortage of money, their own health and fear of contracting COVID-19. Boys were mainly worried about shortages of food and money.Consumption patterns and nutritional changes The top three methods young people adopted to cope with worries were seeking more information and news on COVID-19, interacting with friends by telephone and online, and using social media more than before.Figure 11.1 shows that 72.6 percent of the respondents claimed that their family income had decreased compared to the months before the COVID-19 crisis. The most affected families were those earning an annual income less than BDT 100 000 (33.5 percent), followed by an income between BDT 100 000 and BDT 200 000.District-wise, Dhaka had the most respondents reporting decreased income, followed by Chittagong and Rangpur. The economic shutdown sparked by COVID-19 has especially threatened urban populations, a majority of whom earn a livelihood to provide for the food and nutrition security of their families, education of their children, and sustaining their living. Asked if they did any indoor or outdoor exercise to stay healthy and fit while being at home, 65.2 percent of adolescents and youths reported that they exercised.A slightly higher number of male respondents (70 percent) reported they exercised, compared to females (61 percent). About 30 percent did not do any exercise. The effects of adolescent and youth lifestyle behaviours, such as physical activity and sedentary behaviour, on fitness and health would have been amplified during the prolonged school closures and home confinement. In such situations, physical and mental health problems are likely to become significant concerns.In terms of handwashing practices, almost all the adolescents and youths (95.3 percent) reported they were frequently washing their hands with soap, a good sign. Asked when they wash their hands, the top answers were: after using the toilet; before and after eating food; after blowing their nose, coughing or sneezing; and, after touching surfaces outside. The last two actions are highly linked to spreading or contracting COVID-19, so it could be concluded that the respondents' had adopted positive practices to increase health and safety. Washing and keeping hands clean through good hygiene is one of the most important steps to prevent infection by germs and viruses.The COVID-19 pandemic has increased hunger and malnutrition, with greater numbers of young people and their families facing food insecurity. FIES, a measure of access to food at the level of individuals or households, was used to assess the severity of food insecurity based on the responses from the adolescents and youths to questions about constraints on their family's ability to obtain adequate food.Over a third (36.4 percent) of the respondents reported moderate or severe food insecurity, which is higher than the national average (31.5 percent) before the COVID-19 pandemic. 24 On the other hand, 9.1 percent of the respondents reported severe food insecurity, a decline of 1.5 percent from the pre-COVID-19 situation (10.6 percent). 25 Moderate food-insecure adolescents and youths had insufficient money or resources to access a healthy diet, were uncertain about the ability to obtain food, had skipped meals or had occasionally run out of food. Severely food-insecure young populations most likely ran out of food or had gone without eating for an entire day, or both. Moreover, compared with changes in income status due to COVID-19, the highest prevalences of \"moderate or severe\" (42.9 percent)and \"severe\" (11.8 percent) food insecurity were found in those who reported decreased income. With more than a third of adolescents and youths being food insecure and deprived of nutritious diets, the implication is that there Higher (0.1%) Don't know (9.5%) Similar (17.8%) Lower (72.6%) will be direct effects on pubertal growth, nutritional status and development. Poor diets impact the nutritional status of adolescents and youths and leave students susceptible to illness, resulting in reduced productivity, and poor academic and work performance.Youths and adolescents who received nutrition education through platforms such as Nutrition Clubs (NC) and the Nutrition Challenge Badge (NCB) initiative had a lower prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity (48.7 percent) than those who had no formal/informal education on nutrition (27.2 percent). The prevalence of severe food insecurity was five times higher (16.4 percent) among non-NC and NCB children compared to children who were a part of NC and NCB (3.5 percent). The findings point to the benefits of nutrition education and awareness sessions with an emphasis on popularizing consumption of low-cost, local, nutritious food along with promoting the concept of food-to-food enrichment for improving diets and nutrition. The adolescents and youths empowered with greater awareness and education on nutrition were probably better able to adopt appropriate food-related behaviours and experiences despite difficulties in accessing nutritious food during the lockdown.Almost twice the number of boys than girls reported higher moderate or severe food insecurity, the prevalence being 43.6 percent in boys and 28.8 percent in girls. Severe food insecurity was also reportedly higher among boys at 12.9 percent compared to girls at 5.2 percent.The findings are interesting in that discriminatory social norms are a significant source of persisting gender inequalities, especially within the household where women and girls engage more in household work and often eat less than their male counterparts. However, the reasons for the differences seen in this survey could be manifold. Adolescent girls and female youths are likely to have been more engaged in household food distribution, preparation and management of the food provisions, kitchen and cooking activities at home. It is also probable that in the lockdown situation, females ate more of the frugal meals prepared using available ingredients than the males. It is also likely that the uptake and application of the NCB lessons on healthy diets and nutrition were higher among the female participants in the survey.Across regions (Figure 11.2), Sylhet had the highest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity (61.6 percent) followed by Rangpur (52.7 percent) and Mymensingh (51.7 percent). The lowest prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was found in Barisal (14.9 percent). Although Barisal and its neighbouring districts are highly prone to climate hazards, Barisal is also a fertile region. Following a devastating cyclone in 2007 and vulnerability to flooding, farmers have been finding ways to fight back against climate change that impacts food security. 26   Patterns of food group intake in the survey showed that the percentage contributions of meat, milk and milk products, vegetables, and food-group intake to key micronutrient intake exceeded percent contributions to energy intake. Table 11.1 is a list of micronutrients and corresponding foods or food groups that contribute to an understanding of the foods/food group and nutrient-intake pattern among adolescents and youths.Figure 11.3 gives the food-consumption patterns of male and female adolescents and youths during the COVID-19 pandemic . Males and females had nearly similar consumption patterns. A higher proportion consumed cereals, followed by vegetables and pulses in their daily diet. However, the percentage of females consuming cereals was significantly higher than males (79 percent and 53 percent). Nearly half of the females consumed both leafy and other vegetables, while a third of males consumed these vegetables. The consumption of vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables was low among both male and females. One-third of females and one-fourth of males consumed other fruits. The consumption of animal-source foods, such as meat and fish, dairy products and eggs, also remained low -nearly one in four females and less than one in five males consumed meat or fish daily. A similar proportion of females (37 percent) consumed milk and eggs, while a lower percentage of males consumed these foods.The least commonly consumed foods were nuts/seeds, which were eaten by every fifth respondent. Peanuts, which are a rich source of energy, protein and some antioxidants, is an affordable food and are commonly eaten as a snack sold at street corners and small shops. In all likelihood, these were foods that were not sold during the lockdown as street vendors were not available. .3 shows that male students had diets that were less diversified than female students. Seventy-five percent of females had a minimum dietary diversity (MDD >= 5 food groups) and were either from the NCB or NC group, while 62 percent of males who had an MDD were from the NCB or NC group. The percentage of females was significantly higher than males (42 percent and 34 percent) among the NCB participants who had an MDD.These findings imply that the NCB initiative undertaken by MUCH to raise awareness, educate, and motivate young people to change their dietary behaviour might have had a positive impact on improving their dietary diversity.Moreover, NC members have been participating in nutrition awareness activities like the Nutrition Olympiad that have been advocating for a diversity of diets through innovative ways. They are likely to have been influenced by nutrition knowledge for behaviour change, made healthier food choices and had diversified food consumption. MDD-W is measured by a simple count of food groups consumed over a limited period (usually the last 24 days).Out of 675 adolescents and youths aged 10-24 years, less than one-third had minimum dietary diversity (Figure 11.4). Among them, 26.7 percent of males had MDD, while 37 percent of females had MDD. Similarly, among the youths aged 15-24 years, more than one-fourth of the males (26.6 percent) and nearly one-third of the females, respectively, had MDD.Across regions (Figure 11.4), Mymensingh had the highest prevalence of adolescents and youths (52.5 percent) with MDD, followed by Rangpur (52.5 percent) and Rajshahi (48.0 percent).The lowest prevalences of MDD among youths and adolescents were in Khulna and Dhaka (29.9 percent each), followed by  ","tokenCount":"18366"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29ea696e362ecfad425cfee0baebaee2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e57227e3-b231-4a5b-92ba-b3a6f69c5e17/retrieve","id":"-874496553"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"23bb7c83-1b19-4ff0-b811-f855f76f0890","pagecount":"5","content":"Rice blast is one of the most devastating and economically important diseases of rice worldwide. The disease is caused by Pyricularia oryzae which is commonly spread across countries through seed exchange. Blast has long been a concern in Asia, but it is now widespread in every region where rice is grown worldwide and is a growing problem in Africa. Yield losses due to rice blast have reached 100% in some SSA countries (Mutiga et al., 2021). Given this threat to the SSA rice production, a collaborative and integrated rice blast research effort is needed for a thorough understanding of its biology and management. P. oryzae isolates have been divided into four genetic groups, I to IV, based on earlier genetic investigations. However, because just a few isolates from Africa have frequently been utilized in biological studies, it is challenging to determine the precise number of groups present in Africa. It is also challenging to identify the origin of blast introduction into Africa, despite the fact that the first record of a blast in Africa was documented in Uganda in 1922. Furthermore, little is known about the biology of the blast pathogen population or how it can affect the region's rice production. This output will address this need by focusing on research questions concerning blast biology and surveillance. In order to eliminate unnecessary effort duplication and promote cooperative information and idea exchange, we have partnered up with scientists from the UK, France, and Africa. Our primary goal is to establish that P. oryzae is an introduced pathogen; however, as we proceed, even after all this time, there are still good reasons to prevent further introductions and determine whether the genetic data is consistent with all isolates deriving from a single introduced genotype.that SSA isolates were introduced at different times, with Ghana experiencing the initial introduction about 1870, followed by Kenya and Uganda around 1890. Across the genome, the diversity of the SSA P. oryzae population still implies multiple introductions of the blast pathogen and identifies East Africa as its first introduction site. Later, in the 1960s, the disease was brought into West Africa, but there was little cross-talk between the two regions of the continent (Figure 2). Analysis of population structure with PCA split the isolates into four groups, with only a few SSA isolates appearing in group 1, but dominantly present in groups 2-4 (Figure 3). Four isolates from West Africa (Mali, Togo, and Nigeria) and one strain from East Africa (Uganda) belonged to genetic group 1. Phylogenetic network construction was done using SplitsTree 4.16.1 to confirm the clustering seen in PCA. The network tree showed a similar picture with PCA analysis (Figure 4). It should be noted that these are only preliminary findings and that additional explanation is expected to come from subsequent analysis. ","tokenCount":"465"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e7f8d8a59faf6226e488aa9b463b4e77","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a13da715-4ff5-455a-b1b9-4f96699cd6b2/retrieve","id":"-1748461408"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b1772bc2-dc64-4691-9262-537f393f2616","pagecount":"8","content":"Les petits exploitants africains cultivent chaque année plus de quatre millions d'hectares de haricots, source d'alimentation pour plus de 100 millions d'africains. • L'Afrique de l'Est détient le record mondial de consommation de haricots par personne, celle-ci s'élevant à environ 50 à 60 kg par an. • Avec un taux de 22%, le haricot est riche en protéines; il contient également du fer, du zinc, des fibres et des carbohydrates lents. • Le haricot représente une source de revenus notable et de plus en plus importante en faveur des foyers ruraux, les ventes annuelles africaines s'élevant à plus de 580 millions de dollars en 2005.Originaire d'Amérique du sud, le haricot commun (Phaseolus vulgaris L) est cultivé sur tout le continent africain, principalement par les femmes. Sa qualité de légumineuse en fait à la fois un fertilisant, et une source de nourriture et de revenus pour les ménages.Etablie en 1996, l'Alliance de recherche panafricaine sur le haricot (PABRA) est un consortium de réseaux régionaux sur le haricot qui rassemble les groupes nationaux de recherche agricole, les scientifiques du Centre international d'agriculture tropicale (CIAT) et les représentants de divers donateurs. Par ses recherches sur le haricot, l'Alliance vise à améliorer la sécurité alimentaire, les revenus et la santé des agriculteurs pauvres en ressources sur le continent africain.Pour atteindre cet objectif, l'Alliance travaille en partenariat avec les exploitants et les communautés rurales, les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG), les commerçants et d'autres partenaires du secteur privé. Les travaux de l'Alliance bénéficient en premier lieu aux femmes, principales responsables de la production agricole, comme des activités post-récolte. Les populations pauvres des zones urbaines, pour qui le haricot est une source majeure de protéines, constituent également une catégorie importante de bénéficiaires.L'Alliance favorise la recherche collaborative entre ses divers partenaires. Cette approche implique, au-delà de l'exécution même des projets, un effort de planification, de définition des priorités, de suivi et d'évaluation. L'approche collaborative engendre des économies d'échelle grâce au partage de l'information, à l'échange de matériel génétique, et à la dissémination des technologies et des méthodes au-delà des frontières nationales.La PABRA facilite également le développement des capacités. Avec l'appui de l'Alliance, les réseaux régionaux identifient, développent et déploient une expertise nationale dans des domaines tels que l'amélioration des plantes, la recherche participative des agriculteurs, la diffusion des semences, le développement d'agro-entreprises et la lutte intégrée contre les ravageurs et les maladies. L'attention accrue accordée au développement des capacités a permis de faire passer le nombre de scientifiques travaillant à l'échelon régional en qualité de personnes ressources de la PABRA, de 5 en 2003 à 23 en 2005.Les partenaires clés en matière de recherche participative et de développement des capacités dans le domaine de l'amélioration des plantes sont l'Université de Nairobi, au Kenya, et la station de recherche agricole de Chitedze, à Lilongwe, au Malawi.La PABRA est appuyée par le CIAT, également partenaire au sein du programme de recherche stratégique de l'Alliance. L'Alliance est administrée par un Comité directeur qui se réunit tous les ans avec Deux réseaux régionaux sur le haricot, solidement établis, font partie de l'Alliance :• Le Réseau de recherche sur le haricot pour l'Afrique de l'Est et du Centre (ECABREN), et• Le Réseau de recherche sur le haricot pour l'Afrique australe (SABRN).Des efforts sont en cours en vue de créer un troisième réseau pour l'Afrique occidentale et centrale. Les réseaux instaurés sont affiliés à leurs organisations sous-régionales respectives -l'Association pour le renforcement de la recherche agricole en Afrique de l'Est et du Centre (ASARECA) et la Division des ressources naturelles de la Communauté pour le développement de l'Afrique australe (SADC-FANR). Le réseau à venir pour l'Afrique occidentale et centrale sera affilié au Conseil Ouest et centrafricain pour la recherche et le développement agricoles (CORAF).Les 18 pays participant à l'Alliance sont l'Afrique du sud, l'Angola, le Burundi, le Cameroun, l'Ethiopie, le Kenya, le Lesotho, le Madagascar, le Malawi, le Mozambique, l'Ouganda, la République démocratique du Congo, le Rwanda, le Soudan, le Swaziland, la Tanzanie, la Zambie et le Zimbabwe.Les variétés améliorées de haricot volubile mises au point et diffusées par les partenaires de la PABRA ont un rendement trois fois supérieur à celui des variétés naines traditionnelles. Leur résistance au pourridié les rend parfaitement adaptées aux hautes terres humides densément peuplées, où la maladie est particulièrement destructive. En outre, leur croissance verticale induit une moindre superficie cultivée, permettant d'allouer plus d'espace aux autres cultures.Ces divers cultivars ont d'abord été introduits au Rwanda, chef de file de la recherche au niveau régional. L'ISAR s'emploie actuellement à reproduire des variétés qui conjuguent des qualités de résistance aux maladies et d'autres traits souhaités. Depuis 1996, les partenaires de l'Alliance ont réussi à résoudre plusieurs questions de recherche complexes, concernant notamment la lutte contre les ravageurs et les maladies du haricot, et l'amélioration de la fertilité des sols. Ils ont également réalisé des progrès très rapides en matière de diffusion de nouvelles variétés de haricot.Le début des années 1990 reste marqué comme une période noire pour les agriculteurs et les consommateurs des grandes régions productrices de haricots en Afrique de l'Est: le pourridié a littéralement décimé les récoltes, entraînant une hausse des prix et de graves pénuries alimentaires. Afin de résoudre ce problème, les scientifiques du CIAT et de l'Institut des sciences agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR) ont entrepris des études de recherche intensives qui ont permis d'identifier des variétés de haricot nain et grimpant résistantes à la maladie. Ces dernières ont été largement diffusées au Rwanda, puis introduites dans l'ouest du Kenya et le sud-ouest de l'Ouganda. Selon une étude d'impact réalisée dans l'ouest du Kenya, le taux de ménages ayant adopté au moins l'une des variétés naines résistantes à la maladie s'élevait à 80% dès 2001, améliorant ainsi nettement la sécurité alimentaire.L'utilisation de variétés résistantes s'est vue associée à la lutte intégrée contre les ravageurs et les maladies, fondée sur une combinaison du savoir traditionnel et des connaissances scientifiques. La mise en oeuvre simultanée de ces deux activités s'est avérée extrêmement efficace pour lutter contre le pourridié du haricot, tout comme les autres maladies et ravageurs.La PABRA aborde les problèmes connexes de la pauvreté des sols et de la vulnérabilité aux maladies et aux ravageurs en adoptant une approche holistique des écosystèmes. Les efforts visant à confronter ces obstacles sont ainsi intégrés aux activités tendant à mettre au point et expérimenter d'autres interventions.L'Alliance a identifié un certain nombre de variétés de haricot en mesure de donner de très bons résultats dans des sols peu fertiles, et a encouragé leur utilisation, tout en expérimentant de façon simultanée des options disponibles sur le plan local, telles que les engrais et les amendements organiques. Les sélectionneurs de plantes ont ainsi réussi à mettre au point des variétés améliorées combinant les atouts de tolérance à des sols de faible fertilité, de résistance aux maladies et aux ravageurs, et d'autres traits souhaités.Pour combattre efficacement les maladies et les ravageurs, les agriculteurs associent à la culture de variétés améliorées, toute une série de technologies et méthodes nouvelles. Ces dernières incluent notamment le strict respect du calendrier de plantation, ainsi que le recours à des extraits de souci, de neem et d'autres espèces de plantes. Ces technologies intégrées de lutte contre les ravageurs permettent de réduire l'emploi de pesticides chimiques. La plantation ou l'application sur le terrain de légumineuses telles que l'espèce Tephrosia restaure la fertilité des sols, tout en repoussant les ravageurs.Certaines variétés améliorées mises au point par les partenaires de la PABRA nécessitent un temps de cuisson plus court que les variétés traditionnelles. Les femmes estiment que celle-ci est réduite de presque moitié, ce qui représente un avantage certain en termes de temps de travail et de protection de l'environnement.La PABRA a encouragé le développement de groupes de recherche d'agriculteurs dynamiques. En mars 2006, on dénombrait plus de 300 groupements de la sorte et plus de 5000 agriculteurs membres avaient reçu une formation en matière de tests variétaux et de production semencière. Le partage des connaissances entre cultivateurs a permis d'accélérer de façon significative la dissémination et l'adoption des technologies.De même, les programmes nationaux ont été incités à diriger des programmes participatifs de sélection variétale ou d'amélioration des plantes en association avec les agriculteurs. Grâce à ces approches, les exploitants ont pu adopter les nouvelles variétés bien avant leur introduction officielle.A 47 ans, Haile Wako, père de quatre enfants, cultive le haricot depuis sa plus tendre enfance. Haile et sa famille vivent à Boffa, village situé dans la vallée centrale de l'Ethiopie. « J'ai décidé de cultiver des haricots améliorés car je savais que je pourrais en retirer 400 birr par mois » indique Haile. Cela représente environ 48 dollars, une somme largement supérieure au revenu mensuel moyen de 30 dollars ou moins que perçoit la majorité des agriculteurs pauvres en ressources en Ethiopie.Depuis 2001, Haile est semencier sous contrat pour la « Ethiopian Seed Enterprises», compagnie produisant des semences de classe Fondation destinées aux communautés locales, aux ONG et aux coopératives. Il est également devenu vendeur de semences, à son propre compte. Les revenus issus de la culture du haricot lui ont permis d'acheter une pompe à eau et un camion, et de construire une maison en briques pour sa famille. Enfin, il a pris en fermage des terres additionnelles en vue de l'expansion de son exploitation de haricots.Avec l'appui du CIAT, les chercheurs nationaux et les vulgarisateurs ont adopté des approches non conventionnelles de diffusion des technologies, impliquant, dans un souci constant d'atteindre de nouveaux utilisateurs, la participation de lieux de vente tels que les cliniques, les magasins de semences, et même les kiosques de vente de boissons.Cette initiative, appelée l'approche concertée de partenariat, a été couronnée de succès. A peine 18 mois après son lancement en 2003, des variétés améliorées de haricot avaient été distribuées à quelques 2,5 millions de foyers en Afrique centrale, australe et orientale. Autrement dit, l'initiative a déjà largement dépassé le chiffre de 2 millions qu'elle s'était fixé au départ. En Ethiopie seulement, une année de campagne aura suffi pour que 137 tonnes de semences améliorées soient distribuées aux agriculteurs, comprenant essentiellement des paysans pauvres qui expérimentaient du germoplasme amélioré pour la première fois.L'empaquetage des semences en lots de petite taille, peu coûteux, constitue un facteur déterminant de la réussite d'une telle initiative. 50 tonnes de semences permettront d'atteindre des millions d'agriculteurs si tant est que l'on utilise des paquets contenant seulement 50 grammes de graines. Plus de 80 partenaires se sont joints à l'initiative par le biais d'accords avec les instituts nationaux de recherche en matière de production et diffusion des semences.Afin d'accélérer plus encore les activités de diffusion, la PABRA a appuyé le développement de la production semencière au niveau communautaire, dans le cadre d'agro-entreprises. Parallèlement, des manuels techniques portant sur le sujet ont été publiés en huit langues et ont été distribués aux agriculteurs et aux organisations de vulgarisation. L'augmentation des revenus résulte non seulement de la vente d'un plus grand volume de haricots pour la consommation, mais également de la vente des semences qui est devenue une activité rentable dans plusieurs pays.Les technologies applicables à la culture du haricot sont accessibles à tous, indépendamment du niveau de richesse : dans plusieurs pays, au Rwanda notamment, les cultivateurs ont indiqué que les nouvelles technologies pouvaient être adoptées autant par les familles démunies, voire très pauvres, de la communauté que par les agriculteurs plus riches. Ce sont souvent les femmes qui adoptent ces technologies, voyant ainsi leurs revenus s'accroître considérablement. Afin d'éviter que les hommes s'accaparent les profits réalisés en prenant en charge une culture traditionnellement aux mains des femmes, l'Alliance s'est attachée à développer la capacité des groupements de femmes et de leurs fournisseurs de services en matière de création et de gestion d'agro-entreprises.Selon les exploitants, ces technologies ont généré d'autres bénéfices, prenant la forme de nouveaux services disponibles, tels que le crédit, la fourniture de ressources, ainsi qu'une information actualisée en matière de nutrition et de santé.demeurera donc une activité majeure. L'apparition constante de nouvelles menaces impose d'intensifier la lutte contre les ravageurs et les maladies et d'en élargir la portée. Outre le pourridié, l'attention doit se porter sur d'autres maladies critiques, telles que la tache anguleuse, l'anthracnose, la rouille, la brûlure bactérienne commune, et le virus de la mosaïque du haricot. De son côté, la lutte contre les ravageurs doit accorder la priorité à la mouche du haricot, aux aphidés et au ver gris. Dans les deux cas, à l'image de l'approche actuellement suivie, la sélection et l'amélioration visant les qualités de résistance et de tolérance seront associées à la lutte intégrée contre les ravageurs et les maladies, de manière à maximiser les gains en faveur des agriculteurs et la santé de l'écosystème.Le haricot est extrêmement vulnérable aux aléas climatiques, particulièrement à la sécheresse. La progression du réchauffement climatique pourrait transformer cette contrainte en réelle menace dans certaines parties de la région. La PABRA a mis l'accent sur les semences et les technologies qui y sont associées, et cette approche a porté ses fruits. L'amélioration des plantes, qui est le fondement de ces technologies, Le VIH/SIDA a paralysé l'agriculture de petite échelle dans de vastes zones du continent africain. Au-delà des pertes qui en résultent au niveau des ressources, des revenus et de la sécurité alimentaire, la force de travail se trouve amoindrie et le savoir traditionnel agricole qui se passe de génération à génération s'érode. Souvent, la nourriture se fait de plus en plus rare, le régime alimentaire de moins en moins varié, ouvrant la voie vers une faim chronique et cachée.La PABRA aborde le problème des besoins nutritionnels des personnes atteintes du sida en mettant au point des variétés de haricot riches en fer et en zinc. L'Alliance accorde également une attention particulière aux technologies permettant de réduire la main d'oeuvre, tout en augmentant la productivité. La culture du haricot présente un avantage certain pour les familles touchées par le sida en ce qu'elle exige moins de travail que les cultures céréalières. L'association de variétés naines et grimpantes, conjuguée à des cultures précoces ou tardives, permet également de réduire le temps alloué au désherbage.Les partenaires de l'Alliance travaillent conjointement en vue d'aider les familles rwandaises touchées par le sida à améliorer leur nutrition, et à utiliser des méthodes culinaires et des recettes plus nutritives. Le projet a permis de distribuer quatre variétés améliorées de haricot à quelques 12 000 agriculteurs, dont la famille ou la communauté était touchée par le sida.L'Alliance panafricaine de recherche sur le haricot tient à exprimer sa gratitude aux organisations suivantes pour l'appui financier qu'elles ont apporté à ses activités: l'Association pour le renforcement de la recherche agricole en Afrique de l'Est et du Centre, le Département britannique pour le développement international, l'Agence canadienne de développement international, la Fondation Rockefeller, l'Agence Suisse pour le développement et la coopération, et l'Agence des Etats-Unis pour le développement international. Les vues exprimées dans ce document ne représentent pas nécessairement la position de ces organisations.Compiled and produced by Green Ink Ltd (www.greenink.co.uk) point et la diffusion de nouvelles variétés riches en minéraux, il importe de consolider les liens avec les professionnels de la santé et de la nutrition travaillant au niveau de la communauté, qui devront activement participer aux campagnes promotionnelles.Afin d'assurer que la culture du haricot demeure une activité rentable pour les petits exploitants alors même que la production augmente, il conviendra d'explorer de nouvelles possibilités de transformation et de stimuler la création de nouveaux marchés régionaux. La stabilité des prix du haricot et d'autres cultures de rente devrait inciter les cultivateurs à investir dans leur exploitation, notamment dans la fertilité des sols.La question de l'autonomisation des agriculteurs pauvres en ressources par un meilleur accès au crédit, aux ressources, et à l'information demeurera probablement un défi majeur tout au long des dix prochaines années. La PABRA affrontera ce défi de taille en travaillant avec d'autres organisations, sur la base des enseignements tirés du nombre restreint mais croissant des succès rencontrés aux quatre coins de la région.","tokenCount":"2658"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc45ca32d5bb209c5a2ae65abf6b2be9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a6a77a42-41f1-49b2-b74b-9492b29db864/retrieve","id":"1103360799"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6682abfa-897c-4b99-b5ef-0860ab8b55fc","pagecount":"79","content":"El éxito para el desarrollo y explotación de sis temas de pasturas tropicales, las cuales consideran en conjunto la trilogía suelo-planta-animal, se debe en gran parte a la adecuada provisión de aquellos nutrientes limitantes par~ el establecimiento y mantenimiento de gramíneas \" y/o leguminosas forrajeras tropicales. Los requerímie~ tos nutricionales de 'pastos tropicales que se desarr~ , ' ''O' 20.4. 1. Toxicidad de Aluminio: 4.2. 4.3. 404. 4.5., Me~anismos de Tolerancia a la Toxicidad del Al.T o 1 e r a n c i a d e E s pe c i e s ro r r a j e r a s T ro p i cal ~ s a la toxi~idad de Aluminio. so. Tolerancia de Especies ~rrajeras Tropicales a la Toxicidad de Manganeso. Jeras enAecos,stema~, sea. o no est~. modificado~ por el hombre. De esta manera, es posible identificar re~ puestas diferenciales entre ecotipos en ambos, entre y dentro de especies forrajeras, y asi, llegar a conocer el potencial productivo de las mismas que define la c~ pacidad de adquisición y uso de nutrimentos por parte de las plantas. Tal conocimiento, es esencial para s~ leccionar las mej~res especies para una determinada si tuación asi como también llegar a ~dnocer las interacciones existentes en una c~munidad de plantas forraj~ ras • . El estado nutricional de un suelo puede considerarse como satisfactorio cuando éste suministra nutri mentos en una concentración y tasa suficientes para las necesidades de la planta forrajera en la fase de Ph. D., 2. su establecimiento. ~ctores del medio ambiente, sue 10 y planta influyen sobre este suministro adecuado y por tanto, el sistema es dinlmico antes que estltico • El diagnóstico inicial del estado nutricional de un suelo constituye la información básica obtenida de una evaluación del recursos tier!a, la cual describe en forma general la naturaleza de los suelos, clasificación, distribución y composiCiÓn~q';n;ica.El objetivo principal del diagnóstico nutricional de los suelos dentro de un ecosistema o ecosistemas es determinar qué nutrimentos son limitantes en el desarrollo de la planta forrajera y qué cantidad de cada nutrimento es necesaria para eliminar la limitación, en función de la respuesta diferencial de especies fo-rrajera¡;. En general, N, P, K, Ca,;IIg y S son los más variables en cuanto al requerimiento nutricional en diferentes suelos y especies forrajeras. Además, los requerimiento~ para el mantenimiento de pasturas pueden' diferir de los del establecimiento y también, el estado nutricional puede cambiar con el tiempo, debido a la remoción del sistema. reciclamiento y/o a pérdidas tales como lixiviación y fijación en el suelo.Existen varias técnicas disponibles para el estudio del diagnóstico nutricional de un suelo en relación al establecimiento de especies forrajeras. Entre ellas están el uso adecuado de los anáTisis de suelos y pla~ tas, experimentos de invernadero y campo y el diagnóstico de síntomas visuales de deficiencias nutricionales.Una secuencia lógica de eventos en un área nueva consistiría en los siguientes puntos: l.Evaluaci6n del Recurso Tierra en un Ecosistema. a) Oescripci6n y representación geogrlfica de clima, suelo y vegetaci6n.. .• 3 • b) Caracterización química de los suelos, perfiles de suelo. e) Evaluación inicial del potencial productivo de los suelos. 2. Diagnóstico General del Estado Nutricional del Sue 10 y de la Planta forrajera. a) Calibración de métodos analíticos para suelos y plantas. b} Determinación de nutrimentos limitante~ en el suelo.e)Relaciones entre estado nutricional y factores edafo1ógicos. d) Diagnóstico de síntomas visuales de deficiencia nutricional en plantas forrajeras. Pruebas anal'íticas de suelos y plantas. e) Estudios de requerimientos nutricionales para mantenimiento de pasturas. d) ~anejo del sistema suelo-planta-animal. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es proporcionar una información general de los aspectos inherentes a la nutrición de plantas forrajeras. enfatizando una estr~ tegia de fer~ilización con insumos bajos en suelos áci dos de fertilidad nativa baja existente en América Tro pica 1 • llan en un suelo dado pueden ser obtenidos por una variedad'de métodos tales como la experimentación directa en campo, experimentación en inverna~erot caracterización química del suelo y de la planta forrajera, cara~ terización de sintomas foliares de deficiencia nutricio nal y ademas, la experiencia del ganadero y/o de los ex tensionistas (Smith 1978).Es importante remarcar que el banco d~ datos que ha sido acumulado\" en zonas templadas sobre aspectos n,!!. tricionales, que incluyen --.\"~ el diagnóstico nutric ion a 1 por m e d ; o d\"e u n a ca r a c ter iza ció n a n a 1 í tic a de suelos y plantas. no esta disponible en el caso de las re9ion~s tropicales o De aqui, las correlaciones ese~ ciales entre pruebas analíticas de suelos y, plantas versus la respuesta de plantas forrajeras son general mente muy pocaso De esta manera, esa falta de inform~ ción 'en los trópicos, determina la necesidad de que la investigación en la caracterización de los requerimie~ tos nutricionales en pastos tropicales tenga un enfo que prioritario.2. 1. Determinación de los Requerimientos N~tricio nales.,La base para el uso de niveles' nutricionales en .--\"., \"',:plantas forrajeras, con el fin de un diagnóstico del estado nutricional, es la' relación que existe entre el rendimiento y las concentraciones de nutrimentos en la planta. La composición mineral de una planta forrajera es relativa al análisis químico del tejido forraj~ ro. De aquí, los tipos de análisis de la planta a re~ 1 iza r s e y 1 a . ma n e r él en q u e ello s s o n i n ter p re t a d o s depende sobre todo del propqsito por el cual los análisis . , son realizados. 1uy a menudo, estos objetivos no son claramente definidos antes d~ embarcarse en un programa de investigación. Smith (1978) indica que entre los objetivos que determinan la caracterizaciónnutr~cional de plantas forrajeras están: a. Diagnostico simple de la deficienci~de un nutrimento • b. Diagnostico de la toxicidad mineral. c. Guía para la correción de defi'cien'cia(s) nu-tricion~l (es). d. Medio eficiente para mant~ner la fertilidad del suelo en base a la extracción de nutrimen tos para las plantas forrajeras. e. Establecer la recomendación de una fertilización. f. Predecir el potencial productivo de una pastura. Es me~ester indicar que todos estos objetivos no son respondidos por el análisis químico de la planta~ Además debe tenerse en cuenta que en la mayoría de los casos, un análisis simple del tejido vegetal, indica sol~ mente que un nutrimento en particular esta limitando al momento del muestreo. De esta manera, además del a~ nálisis cuantitativo, deben considerarse los siguientes aspectos para la interpretación y satisfacer los objeti Especies y ecotipos dentro de especies forrajeras presenta una variabilidad amplia tanto en sus requeri mientas nutricionales asi como en sus habilidades para absorber y acumular elementos minerales (J\\ndre\\'I et.!l, 1971, 1977). El Cuadro l. resume algunos datos sobre concentraciones crfticas internas de ci~rtos nutrimentos y la variabilidad que existe entre especies.Los trabajos de Andrew y Robins (1969), confirman la existencia de nive1ej críticos internos. Ellos' de terminaron las concentraciones crfticas de fósforo en la parte aérea de varias especies de pastos tropicales, las cuales fueron correlacionadas con máximos rendimien tos. Este porcentaje de fósforo en la parte aérea de la planta, sobre el cual no hubo respuesta posterior de crecimiento, fue considerado co~o nivel critico interno de fósforo. Algunos resultados (Cuadro 2) muestran que especies leguminosas forrajeras tales como Stylo~an the~ humili~ y Cent~o6ema pube6cen~ tienen un nivel cri tico interno más Hajo que especies tales como Glycine weightii y Medicago 6ativa. Las primeras dos especies son nativas de regiones con suelos bajos en fósforo di~ ponible y otros nutrimentos.La misma observación fue hecha con gramineas forr~ jeras. Gramíneas tales como Ándltopogon gayaltu~, B~achia ~ia decumbe~ y Melini~ minuti6lolta tienen bajos niveles críticos y son muy comunes en suelos ácidos con baja disponibilidad de fósforo, mientras Chlo~i6 gayana y Pa6 pallum dilalatum tienen un nivel crítico interno más al to.Existe también evidencia cuanti~ativa entre especies y ecotipos dentro una especie en relación a niveles críticos externos de fósforo (en el suelo). Si el fós foro disponible en el suelo que produce entre 60-00% del rendimiento máximo, es considerado como el \"reque-  Clarkson (1967) encontró que la alta tolerancia a aluminio de A9~o~t~~ ~etacea en comparación con A~ 9~o~l~4 canina y Ag~o6t~6 6tolon~6e~a est' asociada con una tolerancia a baja disponibilidad de fósforo.Andrew y Vanden Berg (1973) hicieron observaciones similares cuando varias especies de leguminosas f~ rrajeras fueron sometidas a varias concentraciones de aluminio en soluciones nutritivas. Algunos de sus resultados (Figura 9) muestran que VC6modium unc~natum y Stylo6anlhe6 hum¿l¿6 son tolerantes a niveles altos de aluminio mientras Glyc¿ne we¿9ht~¿ Y Med¿cado 6ativa son bastante sensitivas. Esto se demuestra en datos de producción de materia seca en la parte aérea de la planta. Las diferencias en materia seca de las rafces Son menos espectaculares debido al engrosamiento que normalmente acompaña a la toxicidad de aluminio •. Con excepción de la alfalfa, el incremento de aluminio resultó en un incremento de la tasa de absorción de fós foro. •Este efecto fue mas pronunci.ado en las dos esp~ cies tolerantes a aluminio. La mayor parte del fósforo absorbido fue acumulado externa o internamente en la ralz. Solo 2 a 16% del fósforo fue translocado a la parte aérea durante el tiempo de experimentación. Si bien el incremento de los niveles de aluminio disminuyó la tasa de trans10cación de fósforo, las dos especies tolerantes a aluminio promediarion 11% de translocación, mientras que las dos variedades sensitivas a aluminio promediarion 6.5%. De una manera similar, Salinas y Delgadill0 (CIAT, 1979) encontraron interacciones significativas entre saturación de Al y el P disponible (Bray 11) en función de la tolerancia de especies forra jeras en un Oxisol de Carfmagua (Aguras 10 y 11, respectivamente). Sfntomas ~suales de Deft~tenc\\l Nutr\\ctonal.Las deficiencias nutricionales en especies forra jeras ocurren con irregularidad y son a menudo relati vas a condiciones especificas del suelo, el cual en forma directa o indirecta influye en la disponibilidad de nutrimentos o En la mayoría de los casos, los sínt~ mas visuales de deficiencia nutricional en forraje son bastante especificos y el ~econocimiento de tales sintomas esta mayormente en función de la experiencia del observador. Estos síntomas visibles de deficiencia pueden constituir una guía para los requerimentos de fertilización, ya que en principio, la manifestación de un s1ntoma esta correlacionada con la modificación 'normal externa de la planta (Andre\\'l, 1960). Sin embar go, muchas veces no sucede tal situación ya que una r~ ducción en la tasa de crecimiento de las plantas sucede antes de reconocer el sintoma visual de deficiencia. Además, un diagnóstico exitoso basado en sintomas foli~ res, depende prioritariamente del conocimiento de las especies en consideración y de las condiciones medioag bitales que afectan a la planta entera.El desarrollo de una colección fotooráfica de sín ..tomas visuales de deficiencia nutricional, tanto en i~ vernaderos como en condiciones de campo prooorciona una ayuda muy valiosa en el diagnóstico de las deficiencias  ~ resumen de las principales caracteristicas de los sintomas visuales de deficiencia nutricional en e~ pecies forrajeras se da a continuaci5n. Esta descrip-ci6n general fue ~xtractado del Manual en preparaci6n en CIAT, sobre sfntomas de deficiencias nutricionales en forrajes tropicales. (Salinas,'1.980) • '\"' ..   La deficiencia de nitrógeno está caracterizada por una disminución inmediata en la tasa de crecimien to y por una p~rdida general de clorofila en las hojas. La c,lorosis se inicia en la hojas más viejas puesto que el N es translocado a los sitios de crecimiento rápido (meristemas) cuando la planta esta en una condición de estr~s de N, en la planta entera se manifiesta el am~ rillento. El nitrógeno es un constituyente principal de un gran nGmero de compuestos indispensables en las plantas forrajeras, pero los síntomas de deficiencia son más relativos con una reducción en la s~ntesis de clorofila.Sfntomas foli,ares de la deficiencia de P son más visibles en el caso de gramfneas que en leguminosas ,.forrajeras. En el caso de graminea~ forrajeras, existe una disminución de la tasa de crecimiento y una for mac;ón y acumulación del pigmento rojo-pGrpura de anto cianina en las hojas ya formadas. El ápice de las hojas viejas se tornan pálidas para luego presentarse la necrosis en un estado avanzado de deficiencia de P.En el caso de las leguminosas forrajeras, la defic;encia de P se manifiesta en general con una coloración verde oscura en las hojas, las cuales aumentan ligeramente en grosor y en una forma de crecimiento más ere~ to que las hojas normales. En casos de una deficiencia acentuada las hojas viejas muestran pequeHas puntas necróticas de color caf~ en las áreas intervena~es. Otra caracteristica es una defoliación acentuada en el caso de leguminosas forrajeras. Por otra parte, un efecto -. ,, .• 16.directo del exceso de P en plantas forraj~ras incluye la deficiencia inducida de Cu y Zn.La clorosis y necrosis ~arginal de hojas ya form~ das y posteriormente de hojas jóvenes es talvez la indicación universal de una deficiencia de K. la necrosis es precedida por una clorosis que se inicia en los &pices de las hojas y se prolonga hacia los márgenes de la lámina foliar o folio10s. En algunos casos, el síntoma de clorosis y necrosis marginal esta asociada con una clorosis intervena1 de las hojas en posición baja e intermedia. El potasio es esencial para la síntesis de proteina y en caso de deficiencia, existe una acumulación de compuestos nitrogenados solubles y entre ellos esta la acumulación de diaminas que son tóxicos para las Jlantas y que son los responsables de la necrosis marginal del tejido, c\"aracteristica sinto matotógica de la deficiencia de K.El calcio es un nutrimento pobremente distribuido dentro la planta q Este hecho es debido en parte a un mecanismo de transporte por intercambio, el cual impide el transporte por el xi1ema por flujo de masas o difusión. El calcio una vez depositado en la hoja, es incorporado en compuestos relativamente insolubles, de manera que su translocación por el f10ema es muy poca o casi nula, aGn en condiciones de un estr~s ~centuado ~e Ca. Debido a la dificultad del transporte del calcio en la planta, los síntomas de deficiencia son co-   múnmente observados en los ápices de los tejidos veg~ tales (hojas jovenes y brotes meristemáticos). El' síntoma visual de la deficiencia de Ca es una clorosis apical y lateral de los fo1io10s en hojas jovenes y s.e presenta la emisión de muchos rebrotes de color ama' ril10 a café y de crecimiento reducido. Otro síntoma caracteristico y especialmente en gramíneas forrajeras es el enroscamiento del ápice de las hojas. 18.en los tejidos más jovenes que en los viejos como ocurre ~n una d~ficienci~ inicial de ~.Los sfntomas de deficiencia di Zn ~n plantas forrageras son mas relativos a.tipo de especie así como también a ecotipos dentro una especie dada. Sin embar go, un s'nto~a general de deficiencia de Zn resulta en una reducción de la altura de la planta y áreas cloró ticas sobre las hojas viejas que luego se presenta en las hojas jovenes. Esta clorosis se inicia en el ápice de la lamina foliar y avanza hacia la base de la hoja. Las hojas jovenes se tornan cloróticas con venas verdes y presentan un ligero encrespamiento de la ner vadura central a medida que avanza la deficiencia de Zn • Cobre.La deficiencia de Cu se manifiesta en las hojas j~ yenes siguiendo un~ secuencia de ~architamiento inicial, clorosis y necrosis. En algunas leguminosas del género Ve4mod~umt se manifiesta con una clorosis intervenal en las hojas viejas y un amarillamiento en las hojas j~ yenes con los' ápices de los foliolos de color rojizo.La deficiencia de ~ se caracteriza por una clorosis que se acentQa desde las' hOjas jovenes hacia las h~ jas Viejas. El síntoma es un amarillaniento completo y uniforme de la lámina de las hojas o folioles. La La disminución de la formación de clorofila es relati-. va a que el ~ es requerido en su síntesis. En el ca so de las gramíneas forrageras, la deficiencia de Fe se manifiesta en fajas longitudinales alternadas de color verde y amarillo en las hojas viejas, las hojas intermedias y jovenes son cloróticas totalmente. En un estado avanzado de deficiencia de Fe, sobreviene la necrosis del tejido que avanza del Spice hacia la b a s e del a h'o j a • La deficiencia de S, al igual que la deficiencia de Ca, se manifiesta inicialmente en las área próxiMas a las puntas de crecimiento activo (tejida meristemáti ca). La razón es la baja movilidad de B dentro el tejido vegetal y por tanto el síntoma característico de una deficiencia de boro es la necrosis rSpida de las . . hojas más jovenes y recien expandidas, asf cono tanbifin la muerte del téjido meristemático en los sitios de cr~ cimiento activo (brotes). En varios casos se observa la formación anormal de hOjas, aQn hasta darse el caso de aparecer la formación de folioles unidos por uno de los lados, formando una sola hoja con dos nervaduras centrales. En otros casos, existe una deformació~ de las hojas con pérdida de simetría.(101 ibdeno.La deficiencia de ~o en plantas forrajeras, y esp~ c1almenfe en leguminosas, se presenta con un Bmarillamiento de las hojas viejas en las cuales 1.os bordes se tornan necróticos. Sfntomas similares aparecen en ho-jas jovenes a medida que la deficiencia va progresan~ do. La clorosis observada en plantas deficientes de ~o, ha sido relacionada a la acumulación de nitratos, debido a la falta de una reducción de estos, proceso esencial en el cual el ',lo juega un rol importante. La' intensidad de la necrosis en los bordes de las hojas ha sido correlacionada con una mayor acumulación de nitratos en las hojas adultas.REQUERIi1 1E11TOS NUTR1C10NALES DE PASTOS TROPICALES Por 10 mencionado anteriormente, la adaptación ecológica de especies forrajeras a diferentes contenidos de nutrimentos en el suelo es reconocida. En plantas forrajeras, la primera división en grande es relativa a gramíneas y leguminosas.~a diferencia básica entre ambos grupos proviene de la simbiosis de las leg~ minosas con el Rffizobium. Sin embargo, dentro de cada grupo de especies pueden diferir en ciertos requerim:i~n tos nütricionales .(Andre\\'1 y Fergus, 1976). Este aspecto se intensifica aún más al considerar el desarrollo de una tecnología de producción de pastos en vastas á reas con suelos ácidos e infertiles de América Tropical (CIAT, 1980). La gran mayoría de estos suelos pr~ sentan un IIcomplejo de infertiliqad natural\", que comprende una deficiencia general de varios macro y microe lementos, alta ácidez y toxicidad de Al y/o Mn.La principal barrera en la producción de ganado va cuno en el trópico es la falta de forraje de calidad a ceptable durante el año y especialmente en la época de sequía. El problema se podría solucionar en parte mediante la introducción de leguminosas asociadas con ,'\"• 21 • gramíneas nativas ó introducidas, asegurando aSl un fa rraje de mejor calidad durante todo el año y evitando• la necesidad de abono nitrogenado (Spain, et !l., 1979).La investigación en el establecimiento y mantenimiento de pasto en las áreas de suelos ácidos e infer tiles de América Tropical presenta aún muchas interrogantes relacionadas con el desarrollo de pastos en las inmensas sabanas y bosques tropicales. Sin embargo, se adelantan investigaciones en función de los factores básicos-suelo-planta-animal (CIAT, 1978).En la fase de establecimiento se da prioridad a la investigación sobre la acidez y baja fertilidad de los suelos. En general, las condiciones normalmente consl deradas como adversas pueden modificarse mediante ap1l caciones de insumas en fertilizantes y enmiendas, pero muchas veces a causa de la distancia y falta de acceso, el costo de los insumas voluminosos es demasiado alto para permitir el uso de grandes cantidades para la madi ficación del suelo (Spain et !l., 1.979). Por lo tanto, ha sido necesario considerar el factor planta, que por su propia evolución en estos ecosistemas llegan a adaptarse a las condiciones edáficas con un mínimo de insumas. la consideración dada en el capitulo anterior con~ tituye una fase de la investigación para la determina_ ción de los requerimientos nutricionales de especies forrajeras en suelos ácidos e infértiles de América Tro pical.mo de los primeros y más importantes pasos en la prueba de nuevas accesiones es la.verificación de su t~ lerancia a la acidez. Resultados de investigación sobre esta limitación es dada en el próximo capitulo de este trabajo.La tolerancia a bajos niveles de P. es otra prioridad de investigación en el establecimiento de gramí-22.neas y leguminosas tropicales. Los requerimientos e~ ternos de P en varias especies forrajeras con el crit~ río de niveles criticos en el suelo están siendo evaluados.La ngura 12. presenta los resultados de un ensayo de campo en que P. maxlmum, A. gayanu4, B. decumben4 y H. 4u6a respondieron fuertemente a la aplicación de P teniendo p. maxlmun, y H. 4uóa la mayor respuesta y A. gayanu4 la menor. La respuesta de H.4u6a al K fui la más notable y sin K sus poblaciones se deterioraron notablemente. Los rendimientos de los tratamientos sin K. promediados a todos los niveles de P, alcanzaron só 10 un 15% del rendimiento máximo (CIAT, 1973).Además de trabajar con especies adaptadas al medio Con un mfnimo de modificación del mismo se busca la for ma de aprovechar más eficientemente las cantidades mini mas de fertilizantes utilizadas. La planta tiene su má ximo requerimiento, especialmente en el caso de fósforo, durante las primeras semanas despuis de ger~inar y antes de tener un sistema radicular bien desarrollado. ~uchos trabajos han mostrado las ventajas de sembrar en hilera y aplicar en banda el fertilizante junto ó muy cerca a la semilla. Con un mínimo de fertilizante se alcanzan condiciones favorables para la plántula (Spain et ~, 1979).La Figura 13 muestra el efecto de la aplicación de tres dosis de P205 al voleo y en banda en tres asociaci~ nes. La aplicación en banda parece ser especialmente ventajosa para B. dccumben4 y p. pllcatulum y para S. 9u~ancn4~4 en todas las tres asociaciones (CIAT, 1977). Otra ventaja de este método eficiente de aplicar pequ~ ñas cantidades de fertilizantes, es la reducción en la competencia de malezas comparado con la siembra y apli ..w -..Respecto a la investigación sobre los requeri~ie~ tos de otros nutrimentos tales como Azufre y microele mento para la fase de establecimiento, la información d i s po-n i b 1 e de j a m u e h o q u e d e s e a r. T o d o e n fa t iza 1 a n ~ cesid&d de uria ~nvestigación prioritaria en Am~rica Tropical en cuanto' a esos nutrimentos.En la fase de manteni~iento de pasturas, la exp~ riencia que se tiene sobre los requerimientos nutrici~ nales es también poca. Spain y colaboradores (1979) señalan que es una étapa mucho más dificil y costosa que la del establecimiento de pasturas, por el hecho de tener presente al animal. Otro aspecto importante del efecto de la pastura sobre la fertilidad_del suelo es la determinación de la disponibilidad de nutrimentos que están acumulandose en función del sistemasuelo-planta-anima1, (Bryan y Evans, 1973).La investigación de los requerimientos nutricionales en parcelas pequeñas manejadas bajo corte son de 11 mitada utilidad para la fase de mantenimiento debido a la no presencia del animal y el reciclaje de elemen tos através de éste.La remoción de elementos del potrero bajo pastoreo no es sino el contenido de estos elementos en el a nimal al sacarlo. Por supuesto, las pérdidas son más grandes cuando se trata de ganado lechero que cuando es ganado de carne. Sin embargos existe un problema de redistribución de fertilidad puesto que el animal consume de todo el potrero y deposita, en forma de heces y orina en un porcentaje limitado del área total • Eleme~tos relativamente solubles y móviles e~ el suelo son f~cilmente lixiviados de los sitios de concentración. Otros que son poco solubles e inmoviles en el \" 24.suelo como el f6sforo, se concentran y se fijan en parte pero no se pierden del potrero. ~ientras m~s alta la carga, menos grave el problena de redistri buci6n porque los animales van cubriendo toda el á rea en un tiempo relativamente corto •. Suelos areno• sos generalmente requieren mis fertilizante para su mantenimiento a un mismo nivel de producci6n que su~ los más pes~dos debido a ~irdidas por lixiviaci6n ( S P a i n II !l., 1 97 9 ) La a .. plicación de fertilizantes de mantenimiento se debe hacer en una ipoca en que el suelo tenga humedad suficiente para su crecimiento activo del pasto pero no excesiva, ya que provoca' pirdida por lixiviaci6n. La mejor época podría ser a finales 6 a principios de la estaci6n lluviosa. Si las cantidades a aplicar son muy reducidas, sería mejor hacer el mantenimiento cada dos años para reducir gastos de aplicaci6n (Spain et Está generalmente aceptado que las praderas de ma yor productividad absoluta son aquellas en que se uti 1izan altos niveles de nitr6geno de hasta 500 Kg Nlhal afio. Este tipo de praderas se basan Gnicamente en las gramíneas, ya que las leguminosas no persisten bajo ~stas condiciones. Las condiciones econ6micas que determinan que este tipo de sistemas (insumas máximos) sean rentables existen actualmente 5610 en algunos par ses desarrollados. En otros países, se incluye un co~ ponente leguminoso en las praderas no s610 como fuente de nitr6geno para el ecosistema sino tambi~n como fuen te de proteína para el ganado.Se ha demostrado en la Qayoría de los casos que las mezclas de gramíneas y leguminosas son en general inestables y relativamente en cortos períodos de tiem-. . po uno de los dos componentes es suprimido. En general, se observa que la leguminosa es el componente suprimido debido al incremento del nitrógeno del sue 10 que favorece e incrementa la agresividad de la gram'ínea.An~lisis teóricos sugieren que las leguminosas son intrínsecamente competidoras más debi1es que las gram'íneas por luz, nutrimentos yagua. Esto se debe a que el mecanismo de fijación de nitrógeno necesita grandes cantidades de energía (carbohidratos) que no se encuentran disponibles para competir por luz y nu trimentos. No es sorprendente entonces que distintos trabajos hayan demostrado que para lograr persistencia de la mayorla de las 'leguminosas se necesitan sistenas de ~orte o pastoreo intensos, ya que no compiten eficientemente por luz. Sin embargo, se ha sugerido {Donald, 1963} que una mayor competiti•vidad en el espacio a~reo puede ser, fln muchos casos, el resultado de una mayor competitividad por nutrimentos que le per~ite produci.r una biomasa m~s importante. Esta sugerencia ha recibido' una demostración experimental en estudios r~ cientes de interferencia entre especies (King, 1971;Snaydon, 1971;Eagles, 1972). Los resultados han demostrado que en la mayorfa de las situaciones la comp~ tencia por nutrimentos es m~s importante que la comp~ tencia por luz.En mezclas de gramfneas y leguminosas~ la relación nutritiva m~s e~tudiada es sin duda la del nitrógeno y 1 a s d i fe re n e i a s a e s ter e s p e c t o s o n 1 a s q u'e pro por c i onan no sólo una justificación para el uso de estas me~ clas sino un indicio claro del potencial de compatibil! dad entre ambos componentes. A pesar de las diferencias n~tricionales con respecto a N, existe evidencia de quecompetencia por\" ocurre y es especialmente importante durante las fases de establecimiento, mientras el ~ro ceso de infecci6n de Rhlzoblum ocurre y los n6dulos se desarrollan. Leguminosas con bajo poder competitivo por N no solo crecen muy lentamente durante las fases iniciales sino que la gramfnea absorbe más nitr6geno creeiendo más rápidamente y ~uprimiendo a la leguminosa. Compatibilidad que en, este caso depende de un el~ .v.ado poder competi ti va de 1 a 1 egumi nosa por fI. ' El trabajo de Uall (1974) utilizando series de reemplazo demuestra que es posible individualizar re1~ ciones competitivas y no competitivas (fijaci6n atmosflrica de N) para N entre gramfneas y leguminosas.Relativamente poca informaci6n existe r~specto a l~s relaciones nutritivas para otros elementos. Resul ta obvia la importancia de individualizar mezclas de gramíneas y leguminosas con alta compatibilidad para otros elementos, no solo como forma de lograr que la• compatibilidad por N se exprese sino como forna adici~ nal de lograr mayores rendimientos en las mezclas y reducir la dependencia con respecto a adiciones de fer til izantes.Existen numerosas referencias en la literatura a la distinta capacidad de gramfneas y leguminosas para competir por K y P. Desde los trabajos de Gray et .!l (1953) está establecido con relativa claridad que las leguminosas son competitivas en situaciones con baja disponibilidad de P mientras que en el caso opuesto ocurre para las gramíneas con respecto a K.• ;¡La disponibilidad del aluminio y/o manganeso en el suelo se torna mayor para las plantas, a valores de pH por debajo de 5.5. De aquí J la' toxicidad de Al es uno de los próminentes factnres que limita el desarrollo agrícola en la mayoría de los suelos ácidos de Amé rica Tropic~l. Altos niviles de saturaci6n'de Al redu c~n el crecimiento radicular y afectan severamente el rendimiento de los cultivos. Además del Al, el :>1n can s ti tuye tambi én otro fa'ctor 1 imi tante de 1 a cónd;-cf6n ácida de estos suelos, pero el grado de su toxicidad depende, además del bajo pH, de los cambios de 6xido-reducción de este elemento en el suelo, proceso que esta relacionado con el drenaje de los suelos.Durante los últimos años, se ha realizado en estos suelos una considerable investigacf6n basada principalmente .en el concepto de modificar el suelo para el des~ rrollo de plantas farajeras {Pearson y Hoveland, 1974; Fr e ita s y P r a t t, 1 96 9; B han m i k Y A s t han a } • D e a q u í , la principal estrategia usada para anular los efectos limitantes del complejo ácido infertil del suelo ha si do fertilizar y encalar a niveles \"6ptimos\" y tomar ve~ taja de sus efectos residuales. Además, especies. forr~ jeras han sido seleccionadas para altos rendimientos, resistencia a plagas y enfermedades con poca atenci6n a las propiedades del suelo, debido a que el trabajo de mejoramiento y selección ha sido llevado a cabo bajo condiciones óptimas del suelo.Una alternativa para la producción de pastos tropicales en áreas de suelos ácidos es adaptar la planta a las limitaciones especificas de fertilidad del suelo. 28. tu\" considerando las condiciones adversas de suelo-planta, las \"cuales constituyen el factor mis limifan-\" \" te para la producción de\" pastos en la Am€rica Tropical. El caso es que durante los últimos años tanto fitomejoradores, fisiólogos asi como especialistas en suelos, han reconocido la existencia de diferencias entre especies forr.Jeras del trópico para tolerar condiciones adversas del suelo.La razón por la inhabilidad de las plantas para Crecer en suelos ácidos, y los efectos inhibitorios del subsuelo ácido sobre la penetración radicular, ha con~ tituído una pregunta de inter€s por ~uchos años (Tisd~ le y Nelson, 1966). Aunque la presencia de Al interca!1!, biab1e en suelos ¡cidos ha sido conocida desde comienzos de este siglo (Veitch, 1904), la idea del efecto detrimental de l~ acidez del suelo sobre el crecirn1ento de las plantas, a causa de ~oncentraciones tóxicas de Al, fue aparentemente sugerido por Abbott y colaboradores (19l3). La revisión inicial de la literatura sobre el Al en el suelo fue hecha por Ragland (1959), y la más reciente por Coleman y Thomas (1967), Adams (1974), y l~cLean (1976).La mayorfa de los suelos altamente meteorizados presentan bajas reservas de Ca y Mg, de manera que el Al es el catión principal en los sitios de cambio. La contribución del clima es considerada como un importa~ te factor en el desarrollo de la acidez del suelo y la toxicidad de Al en suelos ácidos. En efecto, Kamprath y fuy (1971) remarcaron que en regiones tropicales la acidez del suelo toma lugar como resultadfr de la rem~ ción de uases y un incremento de H y Al debido a la fluctuación de precipitación y evapotranspiración. La reactividad del Al en suelos ácidos varía con la forma en la cual ocurre, disminuyendo desde la formá Al+ 3soluble en agua a m:>nómeros de OH-AL, hasta formar polim~ rizadas de hidr6xidos de Al. Recientemente,McLean (1~76) remarcó nuevamente que el proteso hidro\"tico del Al y por lo tanto su ~olübilidad en la solució~ del suelo es afect~ da por el pH de la solución. La secuencia de las posibles formas de Al pueden ser representadas en la siguiente pr~ gresión: De esta secuencia puede concluirse que la solubilidad del Al es bastante baja dentro el rango de pH entre 5.5 a 7 9 5 donde es precipitado y permanece relativamente insoluble como Al(OH)3. Por debajo de pH 5.5 Y sobre pH 7.5, las concentraciones de Al aumentan rápidamente. La pregu~ tal que emana, es relativa a la forma tóxica de Al para las plantas. Datos presentados por Kerridge (1969) indican que el Al fue considerablemente más tóxico para las plantas a pH 4.5 que a pH 4.0 Y sugirió que un producto hidrolítico de Al en vez de la forma soluble Al+ 3 sería responsable en la inhibición del crecimiento radicular. A medida que el pH aumenta de 4.0 a 4.5 la solubilidad de Al+3 disfIl•;nuye, mientras que la forma ilidrolftica A10U+ 2 au--..• 30. menta (Raupach, 1963). Consetuent~mentet Moore (1973) concluy6 que la forma A10H+ 2 es responsable de lo~ ~fe~ tos adversos del Al sobre el crecimiento de las plantas y específicamente sobre el crecimiento radicular. Sin embargo, la solubilidad del Al y la severidad de sus ~' fectos t6xicos sobre las plantas son afectadas por va ríos factores del suelo, incluyendo pH, mineral de ar cilla predominante, concentraci6n de otros cationes y contenido da materia orgiriica ~cCart y Kamprath, 1965;Evans y Kamprath, 1970;~cLean, 1976 de Al estuvo presente en la solución del suelo. Por otra parte, la relación entre pH del suelo y la saturación de Al es consistente con varias observaciones hechas en muchos suelos ¡cidos del trópico (Brams,   1971; Fax et.!l. .. 1962; Popenoe, 1960; Soares, et .!l.,  1975; Abruña et .!l., 1974). Además, a pesar de habe!.se demostrado que el pH del suelo está relacionado con el crecimiento radicular' (Pearson, 1975), el nivel de Al en la solución del su,elo es usualmente el factor responsable por el reducido crecimiento radicular en suelos ácidos (Adams y Lund, 1966). En conclusión, el Al en la solución del suelo y el porcentaje de saturación de Al están relacionados en suelos ácidos (I vans y Kamprath, 1970;Brenes y Pearson, 1973;Gonza-1ez, 1976), así como también el porcentaje de saturación de Al y la respuesta de la planta (Abruña et  2.l, 1970, 1974;Sartain y Kamprath, 1975;Salinas, 1978). De aquí, aunque, la actividad química del Al en la solu ción del suelo es probablemente ei\" mejor parámetro pa-ra estimar el potencial tóxico del Al de un suelo, el porcentaje de saturación de Al provee una indicación satisfactoria de la acidez del suelo y es mucho más simple su determinación.Además, debido a los niveles bajos de bases cambiables, la alta saturación de Al juega un importante rol en estos suelos ácidos (Olmos y Ca~argo, 1976; ~eitas y Silveria, 1977). En efecto, Lopes y Cox {1977} sugieren que en la mayoría de los casos 'el po!. centaje de saturación de Al, debería ser considerado primero, ya que en suelos ácidos teniendo el mismo nivel de Al intercambiable pero diferente porcentaje de saturación de Al t es de esperar que la respuesta de un cultivo dado sea diferente al encalar con la misma can tidad en base a la neutralización del Al intercambiable.• 32, Nnalmente, el grado de tolerancia de especies y varie dades puede ser expresado en t@rminos del porcentaje de saturación de Al de la capacidad efectiva de cationes cambiables. Consecuentemente, viene a ser neces~ rio sólo la aplicación de cal en una cantidad suficic! te como para reducir el porcentaje de saturación de Al a niveles que no ~fecten la producción. Con este ~r' terio, fue desarrollada una ecuación para esti~ar los requerimientos de cal para compensar la tolerancia de Al de especies y variedades (Cochrane y colaboradores, 1980) • 4.2. ~ecanismos de Tolerancia a la Toxicidad del Aluminio.La caracterización de especies y variedades tolerantes a Al ha sido estudiada por mediQ siglo (Hartwell y Pemb 8\"', 1918; :'1cLean y Gilbert, 1927;Hewitt, 1943;Aimi y Murakami, ,,1964;Foy y Bro\\\"/n, 1963;C1arkson, 1966;Adams y Pearson, 1970;Foy, 197~;Spain, 1977;Salinas, 1978). Estos estudios han usado una diversi dad de especies y variedades cuyas respuestas han mas trado la evidencia de t~l tolerancia diferencial.Parece que la tolerancia a Al entre especies y va riedades se debe a una adaptación genética como resu1t~ do de una selección involuntaria en suelos ácidos ( fuy, 1976). La genfitica de la tolerancia a Al está actualmente bajo estudio (Devine et al., 1976), pero la nat~ raleza de la tolerancia diferencial no ha sido esclare cicla al presente, debido a que los mecanismos exactos de toxicidad de Al no están todavía completamente cono cidos (roy, 1976).Varios intentos se han hecho para expl icar la . , causa de la tolerancia a Al por las plantas. Básica mente estos pueden ser separados en dos categorías:(1) cambios diferenciales en la morfología de la pla~ ta, y (2) cambiqs diferenciales en la fisiología y bio qufmica de la plan~a (fuy, 1976;Helyar, 1978). Esta separación no implica que la tolerancia a Al resulte de cada categoría independientemente, por el contrario, el grado de tolerancia parece ser una combinación de ambas categorías, pero la segunda es a menudo refe rida como una consecuencia de cambios morfológicos en el sistema radicular (Jackson, 1967;:~oore, 1973;Ali, 1973;Helyar, 1978).La reducción de crecimiento, tanto en las rafces Como en la parte aérea debido al Al. fue observada desde comienzos del siglo (Magistad, 1925). Sin embar go, el crecimiento radicular parece ser más afectado que la parte aér~i debido a la influencia directa del Al. Jackson (1967) remarcó que los cambios morfológi-co~ y fisiológicos de la parte aérea generalmente se manifiestan después que el crecimiento radicular ha si do afectado. Consecuentemente, los síntomas visuales de toxicidad de Al en la parte aérea pueden ser un efecto indirecto del daño radicular por el Al (de-Waard y Sutton. 1960;Rees y Sidrak, 1961;Kerridge, 1969;A1i,1973). En efecto, la inhibición del crecimiento radicular es el efecto primario de la toxicidad de Al (Kerridge, 1969;Rhue y Grogan, 1977;Uelyar, 1978;S,! linas, 1978).Rafces afectadas por el Al son ineficientes para a b s o r b e r a g u a y n u tri m en t o s (Fl e mi n 9 y Fa y, 1 968; C 1 a!. k s o n. 1 969; Re i d e tal • t 1 971; La f e ver e t '-ª.l., 1 977 ;Heylar, 1978). Ha sido sugerido que el Al actúa como un inhibidor de crecimiento de sitios especfficos ~n las ralces en lugar de ser un veneno sistémico (ne~ ming y Foy, 1968). En erecto, Clarkson (1965Clarkson ( , 1969) ) remarcó que el Al inhibe la división celular en los meristemas apicales resultandD un sistema radicular dr&sticamente restringido. Es crfiico recalcar que la tolerancia diferencial a Al puede estar asociada con daño morfológico radicular en Sreas específicas en lugar de un da~o a todo el sistema. Consecuentemente, la tasa de crecimiento durante un períodO de recuperación luego de un estres de Al puede ser importante (r\"oore et al., 1977). Clarkson (1965) encontró que las anormalidades morfológicas de las raíces causadas por el Al pueden ser explicadas por el rol inhibitorio del Al sobre la división y extensión cel~lar. La naturaleza de este daño fue explicada posteriormente por Sampson y colaboradores (1965) cuando establecieron que el daño del Al est& asociado directamente con algunas funciones m~ tabólicas durante la divisiQn celular. El efecto de Al en la mitosis celular y la resultante paralización de la elongación radicular fue confirmada por Clarkson y Sanderson (1969). Sobre la base de resultados bio-q~fmicos la mitocondria y nGcleo, ambos ricos en ADN, fueron sugeridos como los dos sitios celulares posibles don d e e 1 Al e\"s t a r f a a c t u a n d o (K 1 i m a s h e v s k ; i e t !.l., 1973). Consecuentemente, una vez que el Al est& dentro ~na célula meristemitica, interfiere en la formación de ADN y el resultado neto es una inhibición del crecimien to radicular (Ali, 1973).\"En base a las consideraciones arriba mencionadas, se han hecho varios intentos para explicar la-tolerancia diferencial entre especies y variedades en t~rminos de daños causados por el Al a las rafees. La habilidad •-\",• 35.de una plant. para continuar su elongaci6n y proliferación, así como también resistir daños morfológicos en los ápices y rafees laterales, son relativos a to lerancia a A'l (roy y Brown, 1963; Adams y Lund, 1966;   Reíd et !l., 1971; Sartain y Kampra th , 1975; Howeler  y Cadavid, 1976; t400re et al., 1977; Keser et !l.,   1977; Helyar, 1978). Especies y variedades dentro es pecies difieren en el grado en el cual una concentra ción dada 'de' Al interfiere con el crecimiento radicular. En general, variedades sensitivas a Al muestran una severa inhibición del crecimiento radicular mientras que variedades tolerantes son ligeramente afect~ das~ Consecuentemente, la habilidad diferencial del crecimiento radicular en presencia de Al es consider~ da una importante medida de tolerancia a Al y frecue~ temente ha sido usada como un criterio para clasificar especies y variedades de acuerdo a su tolerancia a Al (Kerridge y Kronstad, 1968;Kerridge et al., 1971;Reid et al q 197f;foy, 1974;Moore et al., 1977; HO\"/~ 1er y Cadavid, 1976;Rhue y Grogan, 1977;Salinas, -1978).~rios intentos también han sido realizados para explicar diferencias entre especies y variedades en términos de absorción y trans10cación de nutrimentos y Al, así como también cambios de pH extremo (Foy, 1974;Heylar, 1978). La tolerancia a Al ha sido usual• mente asociada con una disminución en la absorción y translocación de elementos minera1es rna deficiencia de P en la parte aérea es tal vez el síntoma visual típico de la toxicidad de Al (Foy y Brown, 1963, 1964). El exceso de Al reduce la solubi lidad de P en el medio de crecimiento y su absorción y transporte por las p1antai (Kamprath y fuy, 1971). Por otra parte, un exceso de P puede precipitar el Al y eliminar su toxicidad, aumentar la absorción de P y eliminar los síntomas de deficiencias de P (~unnst 1965). Por ejemplo, los efecto~ tóxicos de Al fueron eliminados en plantas de algodón cuando la relación: P:Al en el medio extremo' fue mayor que dos (Foy y Brown, 1963). Por lo tanto, interacciones Al-P han sido propuestas como un factor importante en el grado . de t o x i cid a d d e A 1 par a 1 a s p 1 a n t a s (R a n d a 11 y Vo s e , 1 96 3; M un n s t 1 9 6 5 i ;1 c L e a d y J a c k s o n, 1 9 Ó 7; ro y, 1 9 7 6 ) • Dos tipos de interacciones Al-P han sido sugeridos por e 1 a r k s o n (1 9 Ó 6 ) • E 1 p r i m e ro o'c u r r e a 1 n i ve 1 d e s uperficie celular con fijación de P por una reacción de adsorción-precipitación. El segundo ocurre dentro la célula, posiblemente dentro la mitocondria, y resulta en una marcada disminución de la tasa de fosforilación del azúcar probablemente afectando la inhibicción de hexokinasa. Recientemente ~cCormick y Borden (1964) han mostrado a través del microscopio electrónico que un precipitado de Al-P0 4 'ocurre en las raíces como gló bulos dispersos. La interacción ocurrió en la capa musilaginosa a lo largo de la superficie radicular y en las regiones int~rcelulares de los Spices. Estos resultados confirman teorías anteriores sobre el proceso de adsorción-precipitación que toma lugar en las rafees, resultando en un reducido transporte de P a la .,..parte aérea. Consecuentemente, la deficiencia de P,' debido a la presencia de .Al puede ser un resultado de la precipitación del Al y P en las raíces, De aquí, las diferencias entre especies y variedades en relación a estres de Al pueden resultar de la tasa de translocaclón a la cual el P •escapa~ esta precipit~ ción~ ~rios investigadores informan que la tolerancia diferencial a Al entre especies y variedades ha estado asociada con una habilidad diferencial para absorber y utilizar P en presencia de Al (Jones, 1961;foy Y Brown, 1964;Foy, 1974Foy, , 1976Foy, , 1977)). Además, la t.Q. lerancia a Al en ciertas especies forrajeras coincidió con una mayor eficiencia en la asimilación y transporte de P (Andre\\ '1 y VandenBerg, 1973).la literatura sobre interacciones entre Al y cati.Q. nes básicos indica una tendencia casi invariable de un efecto antagónico de Al sobre ellos (C1arkson, 1971, . . Lee, 1971;Ali, 1973;foy, 1974).' Estres de Al resul ta en la reducción de absorción de Ca y ~g de acuerdo a Johnson y Jackson (1964( ), Martin (1961)), ~cLead y Jackson (1967), y:1unns (1965).lha disminución en el crecimiento debido a la deficiencia de Ca causada por el Al ha sido también sugerida por Armiger y co1abor~ dores (1968). Estos resultados sugieren que los síntomas de deficiencia de Ca observados en algunos culti vos en suelos ácidos son debidos a un efecto antagónico del Al sobre el Ca en vez de niveles bajos de Ca en tales suelos.Este antagonismo entre el Al y Ca parece ocurrir en las raíces. Lance y Pearson (1969) indican que el efecto del Al sobre la absorción de Ca ocurre rápidamente cerca de la superficie de las raíces. Estas ob 38. servaciones suglrleron que la permeabilidad de las. membranas celulares sería afectada por el Al. Por lo tanto, la alteración de la configuración estructural de las membranas por reemplazo de Ca por Al puede i~ hibir la asimilación de Ca (lance y Pearson, 1969). Patterson (1965)   Kerridge, 1969; lee, 1,971). Estos investigadores concluyen que el efecto del Al resulta en una marcada inhibicción de la absorción de I~g, en igual forma que la del Ca. En con clusión, las inte~acci~nes entre Al, Ca y Mg parece j~ gar un importante rol en la disponibilidad de estos n~ trimentos para las plantas y también en la eficiencia de absorción para detectar una habilidad diferencial entre especies y variedades.Mutua competencia entre pares de cationes parae~  , 1961, 1964; lee, 1971). Si el Al es absorbido en una manera similar a otros cationes, competencia e~ tre Al y otros cationes existe (Ali, 1973). Por tanto, es razonable afirmar que el sistema radicular es inhibido debido a una mayor absorción de Al dentro las cé lulas meristematicas. Estp su~iere,que especies y va En base a los factores mencionados anteriormente, se puede observar que durante los últimos años difere,!!. cias consistentes han sido encontradas entre especies y variedades par~ tolerar el Al. La mayoría de los r~ sultados y discusiones han enfatizado sobre la reducción. radicular y disminución de rendimientos con poca atención a los mecanismos fisiológicos en la nutrición de las plantas. Esto ha determinado que al presente todavía no se conozca exactamente la fisiología de to 1 era n c i aa Al.Toxicidad de Al • rna estrategia para la producción de ganado de carne en América tropical, es el desarrollo de una tec nología de producción de forrajes en suelos ácidos y de baja fertilidad natural (CIAT, 1970). De aquí, dos componentes de esta estrategia resaltan en la produ- cClon de pasturas y son, el factor suelo (suelo ~cido e infértil) y el factor planta (germoplasma forrajero). El principio de esta estrategia es incorporar el factor planta como participante directo en el complejo de infertilidad de los suelos ácidos de Amfirica trap! cal. En muchos casos, la selección de especies forr! jeras para suelos ácidos de baja fertilidad natural puede resultar más económica que modificar la fertili dad del suelo ácido para establecer pasturas.Respecto al factor su~lo, durante los últimos aftas se ha enfatizado el estudio de la distribución geográfica y propiedades de los suelos en Amfirica tro pical y un resultado de estos estudios es el mapa te~ tativo presentado por Sánchez y Cochrane (1979). Los Oxisoles y Ultisoles representan los órdenes más extensos, cubrie~do el 56% de la superficie de Am~rica tropical en las zonas de tierras bajas (0-900 m) y z~ nas in~ermedias (~OO-1800 m). De esta manera, estas áreas constituyen un bloque extenso de tierra, siendo la mayoría potencialmente arable. A pesar de la favo senta ciertas limitaciones. llio de los principales obstáculos para la producción de cultivos y/o pasturas es la baja fertil idad. natural del suelo. La mayoría de los suelos del trópico americ~no presenta un \"complejo de infertilidad\". el cual identifica una deficiencia general de varios macro y micronutrimentos, al ta acidez y toxicidades de Al y/o Mn (Spain, 1976;Salinas, 1979a).La toxicidad de Al es uno de los factores prominentes que limita el desarrollo agrícola en la mayoría de estos suelos. Altos niveles de saturación de Al reducen el crecimiento radicular inhibiendo su elong~ ción y penetración en el. suelo y consecuentemente, r~ duciendo los sitios de absorción de agua y nutrimentos, así como también la utilización de éstos en el subsu~ 10 (Salinas, 1979a; ~ualdrón'y Spain, 1979). En una segunda fasa,el Al obstaculiza la translocación de v~ rios nutrimentos a la parte aérea, los cuales se maní fiestan como deficiencias nutricionales principalmente de P, Ca y :' *1g (Heylar, 1978;Andre\\.¡ y \\á.nden Berg, 1973;Salinas, 1978). Todos estos efectos de Al se re flejan en un descenso de la productividad de los cu1tí vos • O t r a i ro por tan t e 1 i mi t a ció n e n O x i s o 1 e s y L1 t i s oles de América tropical. es la baja disponibilidad del P nativo para el establecimiento de pastos mejorados, de manera que cantidades considerables de P deben ser añadidas para satisfacer los requerimentos de las pla~ tas (~nster y León, 1979). Consecuentemente esta situación causa serias limitaciones. agroeconómicas debi d o a los al t o s c o s t o s de fe r ti 1 iza n t e s f o s fa r a do s • llia alternativa ppra la producción de forrajes en los suelos ácidos e infértiles de América tropical es adaptar la planta a estas limitaciones. En efecto, a medi\"da que progresa \"la investigación sobre gramíneas y leguminosas. forrajeras tropicales, es posible evaluar el grado de tolerancia de diferentes especies o ecotipos, con respecto a la toxicidad 'de Al y la baja disp~ nibi1idad de P en el suelo (CIAT, 1978;Spain, 1979).Con referencia al factor plañta; la evolución de las plantas forrajeras en el trópico ha sido en la mayoría de los casos el resultado de una adaptación n~ tural al ecosistema y a la migración de especies a nu~ vos ambientes, en los cuales han sido some~idas a otro tipo de presiones, dando lugar a nuevas combinaciones \"o 42.de ca r a c ter e s (,' 1 o t t Y Hu t ton, 1 9 7 9 ) • L a s p r e s ion e s de selección han sido aquellas impuestas principalmente por el clima, disponibilidad de nutrimentos en el su~ 10 y competencia de otras especies vegetales y consecuentemente, creando una variabilidad considerable en el recurso genético forrajero del trópico. Schultze-Kraft y Giacometti (1979) se~a1an que, debido a la a~ plia variabilidad del material genético existente en el trópico, no se justifica en la actualidad un esfue~ zo en la hibridización dejo material vegetal y por el contrario, deberla aumentarse la variabilidad genética en aquellos géneros promisorios mediante la recole~ 'ció'; _ de germoplasma nativo en regiones con suelos ácidos e inférti1es, que pe~ 6e estaría adaptado a esas condiciones adversas. Sin embargo, bajo cond;c;~ nes externas adversas, el criterio de adaptación tiene la implicación importante en cuanto se refiere a la supervivencia del material vegetal por una parte, y al potencial de proauctión como -forraje por otra. Además, la capacidad de subsistencia de la planta forrajera al pastoreo y al corte, aS1 como también la calidad\"del forraje son aspectos muy importantes, ya que al final el producto a desarrollar es una planta para pastoreo. Una vez realizada la recolección del germoplasma forr~ jera, la caracterización y evaluación cuantitativa del potencial dé producción, bajo un rango de condiciones de elevada acidez (toxicidad de Al) y/o disponibil idad de nutrimentos en el suelo, constituyen una etapa importante en el proceso de selección de especies\" forr~ jeras promisorias. De esta manera, un mejor conocimie~ to sobre la respuesta diferencial de especies forrajeras a las limitaciones de suelo mencionadas, puede pr~ porcionar un significativo aporte en la utilización de extensas 'reas de Am~rica tropical, lo cual puede de~ terminar una menor i~versión en fertilizantes y cal, Esto no implicaría necesariamente la eliminación total de fertilizantes y cal, pero si puede disminuir las tasas de aplicación necesarias para obtener un establ~ cimiento adecuado de la pastura.Es reconocido el hecho 'de que algunas especies o variedades son más to1era~tes que otras, pero no se c~ nace qu~ característica vegetal diferencia entre pla~ tas tolerantes y susceptibles baja las condiciones que se denominan \"adversas\". Por esta razón t en la actu~ lidad se considera el ~rado de productividad de una especie o variedad como un indicador de esa \"tolerancia\" (Nieman y Shannon, 1976). En base a este crite rio, durante la evaluación e interpretación de los re sultados de este trabajo, se díó importancia particular al hecho da que especies forrajeras bajo estrls mineral pueden ünicamentesobrevivir o producir. Con secuentemente, s~ visualiza que prrr lo menos existen cuatrornaneras para explicar la tolerancia de estas e~ pecies forrajeras a es trIs de Al y/o P: 1) La habi1i dad de una planta para sobrevivir en suelos ácidos in flrtiles; 2) La producción relativa de la planta obtenida a diferentes grados de acidez y fertilidad del suelo, comparado con la producción obtenida bajo condiciones de acidez nula (ausenCia de Al) y alta fert..:!. lidad (alta dosis de P);'y 4) La producción relativa de la planta, obtenida a diferentes grados de acidez y fertilidad del suelo en relación a la producción ma xima obtenida. Este último criterio difiere del ter cero en el sentido de que no todas las especies o variedades desarrollan su máxima productividad baja con diciones de acidez nula y alta fertilidad.por otra parte, se consideró que solamente la -ha bilidad de una gramínea forrajera para sobrevivir en suelos ácidos infértiles no tendría valor si la producción es baja, por tanto, la producción absoluta i~ dicar!a el pote~cial de una especie forrajera para producir en condiciones adve~sas del suelo. De aquf, rendimientos relativos y a~solutos fueron considerados como criterios útiles para interpretar la respuesta diferencial de las gramíneas a estrés de Al y/o P en el Oxisol de Carimagua (.Salinas y Oelgadi11o,19aO).Considerando el rendimiento relativo, se estimó que una producción de materia seca que no excedió al 50% de su rendimiento máximo, es determinant~ de la condición de \"supervivencia\" o \"producción relativa baja\". Cuando el rendimiento relativo estuvo entre 50 y 80% de ese máximo, se consideró a la gramínea en condición de \"producción relativa media\" y finalmente, por encima del 80-% del rendimiento máximo, en condición de \"produccidn relativa alta\" bajo estrés de Al ylo P. El límite inferior se fijó en un 50%, con el criterio de que la reducción del potencial de producción de una especie a un 50% o menos tiene una imp1i cación de supervivencia y no de productividad. Criterio bastante empleado en toxicologfa biológica ~ats~ m u r a, 1 976; L i e n e r, 1 96 9; L a 1 t 1 97 9 ) • Fi na 1 m e n te, e 1 límite superior se fijÓ en 80%, debido a que en la m~ yoría de los casos por encima de este porcentaje, la tasa de incremento en producción de materia seca por unidad de insumo aplicado (cal y/o fósforo) fue relati vamente baja.La respuesta diferencial de ocho gramíneas forraj e r a s e s 11 u s t r a d a en 1 a s Fi 9 u ras r4, 1 5) 1 6.. E n a u s e!! cia de cal y P (92% Sat. Al y 1,5 ppm p) las gramíneas mostraron diferencias marcadas. B~achla~la humldlcola 682 Y And~opo90n 9ayanu~ 621 produjeron m~s del 50% de su rendimiento máximo, mientras el resto de las gral]li neas mostraron 40% o menos de sus rendimientos máximos.El primer juego de histogramas muestra pe~ ~e el orden de las gramineas que ilustra la amplia diferencia entre ellas para tolerar condiciones adversas de Al y P. Cuan do el nivel de P fue incrementado, pero manteniendo el mismo porcentaje de saturación de Al, todas las gramíneas aumentaron su rendimiento. Hypa4~hen4a. ~u6a 601 y Mel4n4~ m4nu~46lo~4 608 alcanzaron el 50% de rendimiento con el primer incremento de P y BJtach4a~4a decu~ ben~ con el segundo incremento de P.Con la adición de media tonelada de cal/ha, la mayorla de las especies mostraron un incremento en produe ció n d e m a ter i a s e e a (Fi g. 1 5 ) • R e s u 1 t a d o s s i mi 1 a r e s fueron notados al añadir 1 ton cal/ha (Fig. 16). Estos resultados indican que la respuesta de las gramfneas tolerantes a Al, es principalmente relativa a requerimientos de Ca y ~g más que un efecto de encalado. Cuan do la toxicidad de Al fue eliminada con la aplicación de 5 ton cal/ha (~g. 17), las ocho gramfnea~ forrajeras ~obrepasaron m~s del 50% de sus rendimientos en los niveles bajos de P. Sin embargo, cuando el fertilizante fosforado fué incrementado, la mayoría de las graml neas mostraron una reducción en sus rendimientos, lo cual probablemente esté relacionado con algún desbalan ce nutricional debido a las dosis elevadas de cal y P aplicadas. los resultados con leguminosas forrajeras se prese~ tan e n 1 a s Ff g u r a s 1 ti. 1 9. 2 O. 21. A P e s a r d e e x i s t ir' marcadas variaciones entre especies en respuesta a las aplicaciones de Cal y P, en general los resul~ados siguen en forma similar al de las gramfneas.   Otro de los factores limitantes para el crecimien to de las plantas forrajeras en suelos ácidos constit~ ye la toxicidad de ;1n. El efecto tóxico de :1n general mente ocurre a pH del suelo inferior a 5.5. Sin embar go, en suelos inund~dos o compactados. 'el exceso de ~n puede limitar el crecimiento-de las plantas a pH 6.0 o mayor (Siman ~ .!l., 1974).\" Bajo condiciones de airea ción pobre, el ~n es reducido a la forma bivalente, la c u a 1 e s d i s pon i b 1 e par a 1 a s p 1 a n t a s (Fa y, 1 97 6 ) • Consecuentementa. la toxicidad de ~n puede ocurrir ~ valo res de pH similares a la toxicidad de Al asi como también a valores de pH que son demasiado altos para que el Al sea soluble en concentraciones tóxicas. La absor ción de ~n depende mayormente de la actividad de ~n b! valente en la solución del suelo y es dependiente de la presencia de ~\"n fácilmente reducible en el suelo (Pea!,. son, 1975).Contrariamente al efecto tóxico del Al en las pla~ tas, el ~n no parece afectar directamente el sistema ra dicular, pero puede reducir su crecimiento indirectame~ ~e al afectar la parte aérea. lh exceso de \"1n produce sfntomas más definidos que el Al en la parte aérea y el grado de toxicidad está relacionado a su acurnulac~ón en la parte aérea y no en las rafces (rey, 1976). La toxi cidad de ~n e~tá caracterizada por una clorosis marginal y una distorci6n de las hojas jóvenes asociada con acum~ 1 a ció n 1 o cal iza dad e ' -{ n e n e 1 te j ido f o 1 i a r • (Fa y J 1 97 7 ; \\1amis et !l., 1973). loa toxicidad severa de \"n ocasio na que el sistema radicular se torne café pero, usualme~ te, solo después que el follaje ha sido afectado. En muchos casos, clorosis intervenal ha sido observada y es te efecto ha sido explicado en el sentido de que el ~n i n d u c e u na d e f i c i e n c i a d e F e (H e \\.Ji t, t , 1 9 6 3 ) •4.5. Mecanismos de Tolerancia a la Toxicidad de \\~an9a neso.Existen varios trabajos que indican una variabili dad en la tolerancia de especies y 'variedades a la toxicidc:.d de Mn. {Foy, 1975}. Sin embargo, al igual que la tolerancia a Al, dentro de cada especie existen ecotipos con mayor toleran:cia que otros. Esto indica que en el estudio de adaptabilidad o tolerancia a niveles t6xicos de Mn, debe~'a enfatizarse a nivel de ecotipo o accesi6n y no de especie, .puesto que la su~ ceptibilidad de una especie no significa la elimina-ci6n de ésta por el hecho de tener variedades que son tol erantes a es tres de ;.1 n. Por otra parte, una planta tolerante a toxicidad de Mn no necesariamente resulta ser tolerante a Al (Jackson, 1967). Sin embargo, ex;~ ten casos que algunas plantas son tolerantes o susceptibles a ambos, Al y Mn, mientras que otras muestran tolerancias opuestas a un exceso de los dos elementos {foy, 1976).Respecto a los posibles mecanismos de tolerancia a Mn, algunas plantas parecen escapar de los efectos t6xicos de Mn por medio de una menor absorci6n, o por medio de una retenci6n de Mn en el sistema radicular, o en otras partes de la planta, donde es física o qu'micamente separado de los sitios metab61icos impo~ tantes (foy, 1976).El desarrollo de un mecanismo de exclusi6n de Mn para evitar toxicidad de Mn tiene problemas inherentes debido a que determina si la planta es más tolerable a toxicidad pero más susceptible' a deficiencia.-Sin embargo, existe evidencia q~e la tolerancia J ~n está asociada algunas veces con bajas tasas de absorción de M: n (L o h n i s. 1 9 51; \\b s e y R a n d a 11. 1 9 6 2} Y g r a n d e s d i fe rencias en ac~mu1ac~6n de Mn por varias especies en la parte aérea (Jackson, 1967). Tolerancia a :.1 n en algunas especies ha sido atribuida a baja absorción de Mn y tal reducción se atribuye a un incremento del pH e~ . terno o a una oxidación de ~n de la forma bivalente a tetravalente en la zona de interfase raíz-suelo. 'Esto indica que la menor 'absorción de ;1 n y por ende una ma-, yor toleran¿ia, puede atribuIrse a propieda~es del si~ tema radicular al tener un, mayor poder de oxidación. Algunas plantas restringen el transporte de Mn de las rafces a la parte aérea (Ouellette and Dessureau~, 1958). Esto probablemente se debe a una deposición de exceso de ~n en los vacuolos de las células radiculares. Sin embargo, existen grandes diferencias entre especies y variedades en los niveles de Mn acumulados en la pa~ te aérea (Helyar, 1978). Esto enfatiza el hecho de que mecanismos de tolerancia en la parte aérea también Existen varios trabajos de investigación que muestran una tolerancia diferencial ~ntre especies forrajer a s a 1 a t o x i cid a d d e :1 n • En gen e r al, par e c e q u e 1 a s leguminosas son mas sensibles que las gramíneas (Hewitt, 1963;Lohnis, 1951). Algunas leguminosas forrajeras del trópico han recibido atención durante la última década en cuanto a la tolerancia del exceso de manganeso en el suelo y el orden relativo de esta tolerancia en 9 especies estudiadas se presenta en el cuadro 4 • Souto y Dobereiner (1969) encontraron resultados similares en ,.. .Brazil con un orden relativo de tolerancia siguiente; Ce.ntJt.Ohema pube.f.tc.'ellh> Styf.oha.ntlteh gJt.a.c.Le.ih> Glyc.in''e. ja.va.nic.a Mac.Jt.optilum atlLopuJt.puJt.eum. De estos resulta dos se concluye que c. entJt.o6e.ma pUbe6c.en6 es bastante tolerante a la toxicidad del 'manganeso. Sin embargo, o b s e r v a e ion e,s v i s u a 1 e s e n C 1 A T -Q u i 1 i c h a o e n u na col e e ción de ecotipos de c.e.ntJt.o6ema. parecen i~dicar que entre ecotipos de la misma, especie existen diferen,cias significativas en el grado de tolerancia al ~n tóxico.Datos de Andrew y He~arty (1969) muestran que las deficiencias en especies forrajeras para tolerar exc~ so de Mn son debidas en parte a la acumulación de este elemento en la parte aérea de las plantas de manera que los niveles crfticos internos de ~n varian entre especies. Algunos de los resultados (Cuadro 5 ) muestran que especies leguminosas forrajeras tales como eentJt. o6ema. pUbe6c.en6,Stylo6anthe.6 humilif.t y Lotononi6 ba.ine6ii, que son considerados como tolerantes, presen tan ni ve 1 e s c r i t i'c o sin ter n o s de;\" n b a s tan t e a 1 t o s (>1000 ppm-Mn) mientras que leguminosas susceptibles tales como: Leueaena le.u ..eoc.epltala, Glyc.ine wigh.tLi., M! eJt.optilum a.tJt.opuJt.puJt.eu..m, IJ  Medic.ctgo oa.tiva tienen un nivel critico bastante bajo «600 ppm). Generalmente, las concentraciones de Mn en las rafces son mayores que la parte aérea, sin embargo la relación de Mn (Nn en raíces a Mn en la parte aérea) varía entre especies. Por ejemplo, en Styf.ooanthe6 humif.ih lasrelaci~ nes de Mn fueron superiores que las de Mac.lLoptilium a-tJt.opuJt.puJt.eum a cualquier nivel externo de :-1 n (Andre\\'/ y Hegarty, 1969). De aquí, la primera leguminosa retuvo proporcionalmente m!s Mn en su listema radicular que la segunda leguminosa.De lo mencionado, parece que por 10 menos 3 mecanismos fi~i~ lógicos, determinan que especies forrajeras sean tole rantes a la toxicidad de Mn. Primero, resistencia de la parte a~rea a una cantidad• dada de Mn externo (pr~ ducción de materia seca), Segundo, una retención pr~ porcionalmente alta de)Jn en• el sistema radicular y finalmente una reducida absorción de Mn • . . el Andrew (1977).63.  . .Cuadro 4. Respuesta dif~rencial de 9 leguminosas forraje ras tropicales a la toxicidad de Manganeso.Centrosema pubescensLotononis bainesii • Coeficientes de regresión obtenidos de la producción de ma teria seca de cada leguminosa en varios niveles tóxicos de manganeso\" FUENTE: Andre\\'1 y Hegarty (1969).  ..--..s::.      PzOs (kg/ha)Fi gura 8. 400 (kg/ha) Eficiencia de producción de materia seca de tres gramíneas 'forrajeras tropicales por cada kg de KzO aplicado a diferentes niveles de aplicación de fósforo en un Oxisol de Carimagua. Fuente: CIAT (.1980)      -----------------     ~ ------------------- ---------------------~ Figura 12. Respuesta de cuatro gramíneas a la aplicación de fósforo, potasio, magnesio y azufre, en un Oxisol de Carimagua. Los rendimientos de materia seca represen tan promedios de tres y cuatro cosechas, durante el primer año después-del es tablecimiento. Fuente: CIAT (1978).   Figura 14. Respuesta\"diferencial de ocho gramfneas tropicales a diferentes niveles de fósforo y 92% de saturación de Al (sin aplicación de cal) bajo condiciones de campo en Carimagua.          * Rendimiento MS (ton/ha) Figura 18. Respuesta diferencial de 11 leg~minosas forrajeras a 'diferentes niveles de f6~foro y 92% de saturación de Al (sin aplicación de cal) bajo condiciones de campo en Cat'imagua.(S. c. 1078c. , 1342c. , 1405c. , 1019 ::: StY!0.6antlru c.ap,¿ta,ta; ::: StY!0.6antlru c.ap,¿ta,ta;S.g. 184 = S.tlj.f.o.óaYLthu gt.Ua.¡1eYLó-i/~; S. h. 118 :;: S.tlj!o.6an.the.6 Iltuni.e..wi         .' .","tokenCount":"11344"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c50307c3efdbf254b223a77e39edbba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1ba9b26-628b-44e2-a36d-4284dd2f2c26/retrieve","id":"656472670"},"keywords":["Smallholder agriculture","Sub-Saharan Africa","Tree crop","Agrobiodiversity conservation","Agroforestry","Urbanization"],"sieverID":"3c2aeea7-7468-4dca-be6e-60705fdde61c","pagecount":"17","content":"Background: Understanding the perceptions, preferences and management practices associated with intraspecific variability of emblematic African tree crops is critical for their sustainable management. In this paper, we examine how the agrobiodiversity of a fruit tree species native to Central Africa, the African plum tree (Dacryodes edulis), is perceived and managed by Cameroonian cultivators.Methods: Semi-structured interviews and tree surveys were conducted over four months with 441 African plum tree owners from three different ethnic groups (Bamileke, Bassa, Beti) in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Questions focused on trees owners' perceptions-including the local nomenclature-preferences and management practices related to African plum trees and their intraspecific agrobiodiversity.Results: Across the three ethnic groups in the study area, more than 300 different local varietal names were recorded. These were mainly based on morphological and organoleptic traits, with two-thirds of the names referring to fruit size, skin color and fruit taste. The same traits were used by tree owners to describe their fruit preferences, but their relative importance in shaping fruit preferences varied among groups. The preferences of urban dwellers from different ethnic groups when purchasing African plum fruit focused on the fruit's taste characteristics, while those of rural dwellers differed among ethnic groups. In rural areas, where African plums are sold and consumed by their growers, the preferences of Bassa consumers reflect quantity (fruit size) over quality (fruit taste or skin color) considerations. These preferences are reflected in the choice of seeds used for planting. Bassa owners sought seeds from trees with large fruits (with 34.8% of Bassa owners giving top priority to this trait as a selection criterion) to a significantly greater extent than Bamileke and Beti owners who prioritized taste and skin color instead. Among tree growers who selectively retained African plum trees in their fields, 44% considered tree productivity as a primary selection criterion.Conclusions: Findings linking perceptions of and preferences for fruit traits to intraspecific tree diversity, with attention to inter-ethnic and rural-urban differences, will help design locally specific measures to conserve the agrobiodiversity of African plum in the context of its ongoing domestication.Profound and rapid changes are currently taking place in global agricultural production and trade. In sub-Saharan Africa, changing eating habits associated with urban growth increase the demand for specific crops and agricultural products [1]. As such, rural cultivators need to adapt to potential changes in demand from urban dwellers [2], particularly for local crops and varieties with valued traits [3,4]. Moreover, cultivators also consume a portion of the crops they grow, and their food preferences further guide their choice of cultivated crops and varieties [5]. The set of local crops and varieties they manage ultimately reflects demand, the varieties farmers value, as well as supply possibilities, the access they have to this set of varieties [6].Understanding how farmers perceive their environment, and the nature and categorization of ecological perceptions as knowledge, meaning and preferences, is essential to understand the decisions agriculturalists make regarding species and agrobiodiversity management [7]. Within agrobiodiversity, which includes all the resources used for food and agriculture as well as the non-harvested species that support production [8], local varieties or ethnovarieties are defined as the intraspecific diversity, named and recognized by local users [9]. They are relevant entry points to understand how farmers perceive and manage their crop diversity [10,11]. Perceptions-or cultural interpretations of sensory and biological information [12]-play a major role in farmers' management decisions. Perceptions of crop traits vary across ethnic groups [13,14]. Culturally specific names of local crop varieties reflect these different perceptions to some extent and provide insight into owners' preferences, whether agronomic, aesthetic, or culinary [15,16]. Preferences denote positive or negative individual evaluations of the objects under consideration, including comparisons or prioritization, and ranking [17]. Following the different perceptions they may have, diverse ethnic groups often favor other valued or unvalued traits [18,19].Emphasizing local perceptions and preferences of valued crop species also helps to show how they relate to practices. Research includes, for example, the link between local varietal knowledge and varietal management practices [20], between cultivator preferences and local variety conservation [21], and between cultivator values and on-farm variety persistence [22].Changes in cultivators' rationales and related patterns of crop diversity induced by market penetration and increased commercialization have received much attention [23][24][25][26][27]. There is also growing interest in traditional ecological knowledge of urban and periurban dwellers [28,29], and numerous questions about the specificities of urban dwellers' knowledge [30,31]. Yet, there is a lack of scholarly attention to changes in knowledge-apprehended here through local perceptions and preferences-and practices, and their link with crop diversity along urbanization gradients, from rural agrosystems where crops are produced to urban areas where they are sold and consumed in large numbers.In this study, we aim to document how perceptions, preferences and practices related to the agrobiodiversity of a cultivated African fruit tree species vary along an urbanization gradient and among three main ethnic groups involved in its trade in Cameroon. The fruit tree species Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) H.J. Lam (Burseraceae), locally known as the African plum tree (French: safou), is particularly important for the food security and economy of local populations in its native region in Central Africa [32][33][34]. This tree species is commonly found in agroforestry systems, home gardens and cities from Central Africa, where it is cultivated as a fruit and shade tree in coffee-cocoa agroforests and in home gardens [35]. It is a subdioecious species, some \"male\" trees presenting both male and hermaphrodite flowers in varying proportions, while \"female\" trees have only female flowers [36]. African plum trees are easily propagated from seed; vegetative propagation techniques have been developed by agricultural research centers to promote improved varieties [37] but are seldom known by cultivators [38]. Seed-propagated trees usually enter fructification five to eight years after planting, bearing fruits that are oval-shaped drupes, with high lipid, protein and fiber content [39]. Part of the staple diet and particularly appreciated, they can be eaten raw but are most often boiled or roasted to soften fruit pulp, and consumed with all types of side dishes [40,41]. Fruit characteristics vary significantly between and within tree populations [38,[42][43][44]. Whereas African plum fruits have been tentatively classified on the basis of morphological traits [45] or morphological and biochemical traits [46,47], cultivators' perceptions of and preferences for the fruit have hardly been studied [48]. The ubiquity of the tree in urban, peri-urban and rural environments, where it is the most prevalent indigenous agroforestry tree species [49], makes it a good candidate for contrasting these perceptions and preferences across sites and ethnic groups. Moreover, consumer knowledge, perceptions and preferences for certain types of fruit are reflected in selling prices: in retail markets, large, thick-fleshed, good-tasting and oily fruits are sold at a higher price [33,50]. Those fruits are thus more likely to be valued by producers.Specifically, we examine how African plum trees owners view and use the species across an urbanization gradient, wherein urban areas are presumed to be predominantly consumption areas, and rural areas predominantly production areas. We then verify how these perceptions are corroborated by local names for the species, as local names often, but not only, refer to plant characteristics. Second, we observe how preferences for African plum vary according to fruit use (self-consumption, sale, purchase) and among differentiated groups of tree owners (rural and urban; from different ethnic groups). Finally, we examine patterns of variation in management practices, to see whether they reflect different preferences for the fruit. Following previous findings on end-users' desired breeding traits in an African fruit tree species [19], we expected differentiated changes in the perceptions, preferences and practices in the context of rapid market changes along the urbanization gradient and between ethnic groups. We assumed more diversity in perceptions and practices in rural than in urban areas. As for the ethnic dimension, having no prior knowledge of ethnic-species links, we were keen to consider this dimension, which is structuring in many similar cases, even in the absence of specific prior assumptions.We chose as our study area a region where cultivated African plum trees are abundant, both historically and due to a booming commercial production, as the region supplies Yaoundé (3.9 million inhabitants), one of the largest urban markets in Cameroon. Our sampling considered two parameters: (i) the continuous presence of African plum tree populations in agrosystems along an urbanization gradient stretching from urban to periurban to rural areas; (ii) the existence of three main ethnic groups (Beti, Bassa, Bamileke) in each of the main production basins supplying Yaoundé, where they are also settled.Owing to the seasonality of production, the capital's supply of African plum relies on different basins of production, populated by different ethnic groups [51]: the Littoral region (Bassa people), especially the Moungo and Sanaga departments which produce fruit at the beginning of the fruiting season (April, May); the Western region (Bamileke people) with the Noun and Ndé departments, as well as the neighboring region around Makénéné, where trees fruit in June and until the beginning of July; and the Central region located around Yaoundé (Beti people), with mature fruit produced in the Mbam, Lékié and Nyong Ekéllé departments from July to October. Study sites thus included: (a) urban sites, with three neighborhoods (Essos, Messa-Carrière and Oyom-Abang) in Yaoundé populated by both Beti, Bassa and Bamileke fruit tree owners with moderate housing density and buildings surrounded by small home gardens; (b) peri-urban sites, defined as agricultural spaces in which production systems are oriented toward urban market supply [52], with three towns close to Yaoundé and connected to it by asphalt road, one for each ethnic group (Beti : Okola ; Bassa : Eseka ; Bamileke : Obala, where many Bamileke people are settled); (c) rural sites, more detached from the urban market but still connected to it by trade, with three villages sampled, one for each ethnic group (Beti : Nkolekosting ; Bassa : Mbeng ; Bamileke : Bandounga ; Fig. 1). In rural sites, it is likely that some spontaneous African plum trees were occurring in low densities in surrounding forests, but as owners are not used to collect them in the wild, they were not considered in this study.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 441 plum tree owners from April to July 2018 (Table 1). Interviews were conducted in French and based on an opportunistic sampling with owners who would then point to possible respondents (snowballing approach). We collected information on the status of D. edulis tree owners (age and gender, not used in this study) to keep a good representation of the different age categories and gender. We included in the analysis their ethnicity and their location on the gradient (urban, peri-urban or rural dwellers).Prior to the interview, tree owners were informed of the research intentions and of their right to participate or decline. At the end of the interview, tree owners were given a form stating that the interview had been conducted in accordance with the principles of free and informed consent, which they could sign if they agreed.To document perceptions, the semi-structured interviews focused on two elements. First, we asked tree owners about criteria (including fruit traits) they used to distinguish African plum trees and their ethnovarieties. To see if similar traits were used in the local nomenclature of the three ethnic groups, we recorded the local names of African plum trees used by tree owners, their translation and their description. The described ethnovarieties were then categorized according either to the trait justifying their names, or to other justifications (symbolic, environmental, agronomic).To describe fruit morphological characteristics, an identification sheet was used for tree surveys (Additional file 1), with several choices proposed for fruit size, shape, skin and pulp color. Fruit taste was also described orally, most often on a scale between very sour and very good, and later grouped in three standard categories: (very) good, average and (very) bad. To have the largest pool possible, we recorded both planted ethnovarieties (corresponding to the trees they had in their home garden or field, 806 trees in total) and known ethnovarieties (exercise based on the trees from other places the owners remembered, 427 trees in total).To document preferences, the semi-structured interviews focused on the traits tree owners used to rank African plum trees and ethnovarieties. We asked with open-ended questions about their criteria for three different types of uses: self-consumption, sale (which types of fruits owners favored to be sold) and purchase (which types of fruits owners preferred to buy) of the fruit. We also asked about criteria that negatively affected the appreciation of the fruit (selection criteria). These different criteria were compiled for each owner and used as qualitative variables. Owners also reported their preference for each ethnovariety (\"valued\", \"not valued\").To document practices, we collected information on how tree owners managed their trees. Some of these practices had a direct impact on the diversity of  ethnovarieties (e.g., tree propagation and felling practices). Other practices (e.g., production techniques and traditional practices) were identified to determine whether they differed according to the location on the rural-urban gradient and ethnicity of tree owners.Differences between quantitative variables and tree owners' groups (Table 2) were tested using a one-way ANOVA (for categories with more than two options) or a Wilcoxon ranking test. To see preferential associations between qualitative variables, cross-tabulation analyses were based on the χ 2 statistic. The χ 2 gives a global diagnosis of the dependence or independence between the variables. In order to visualize the categorical associations, mosaic plots [53] were plotted: The relative frequencies of the two variables are indicated by rectangles whose area is proportional to the cell value. The rectangles are colored if the residuals derive significantly from the independence hypothesis and are thus informative of the over-or under-representation of the association between some groups and variables.Analyses were carried out on R version 3.6.0 [54] using the vcd package, with the shading_max option [55].To map how fruit traits were related to preferences, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used. It was based on the data set combining the full description of ethnovarieties with fruit size, skin and pulp color and fruit taste. MCA is a method of factoring categorical variables (fruit characteristics) and displaying their associations in a two-or more-dimensional space. Owners' preferences were not used as a variable in the analysis but were displayed within the same space as a supplementary variable: In this way, preferences associated with ethnovarieties were plotted on top of the ethnovarieties' categorical dependent variables. The MCA was performed using the function \"dudi.acm\" present in the package \"ade4\" [56].African plums were predominantly self-consumed, sold and purchased by tree owners. Food was the main use cited by more than 95% of the tree owners, the oily mesocarp of African plums being consumed after fruit boiling, grilling or roasting, by 100% of owners. Fruits that were consumed either came from privately owned trees or from fruits bought on the market, which 70% of tree owners reported doing sometimes. An even larger proportion of owners also sold them (78%). African plum tree owners gave an average price, for fruits sold in retail markets, of circa 1000 CFA (~ 1$80) per kilogram, although prices were said to fluctuate heavily depending on fructification seasonality and fruit size.Other marginal uses of the trees were cited: medicine, with the use of leaves and bark for the treatment of many different diseases, and agronomy, as a shade tree in agroforests, accounting for 4% and 2% of the uses respectively. The average number of plum trees per owner was 1.4 ± 0.1, 13.1 ± 2.4 and 26.9 ± 2.8 in the urban, peri-urban and rural sites, respectively. Tree uses varied greatly along the gradient. In the urban sites, the dominant use was consumption or gift (84% of owners), while sale was marginal (16%). In the peri-urban sites, owners using exclusively their fruits for own-consumption accounted for 49% of the total, and 51% consumed some of the fruits and sold the rest to supply the urban market. In rural sites, most tree owners reported selling their fruits (83%). The proportions of exclusive consumers and sellers were similar in the urban and rural sites for the different ethnic groups, but in the peri-urban sites Beti owners were significantly more engaged in the plum trade (80% of them, p value < 0.001), compared to Bamileke and Bassa owners (33% of owners for both). Over the whole gradient, Bassa owned more trees (21.6 ± 3.1) than Bamileke (11.2 ± 2.1) and Beti (7.6 ± 1.1).More than ten criteria for distinguishing African plum fruits and trees were recorded (837 citations in total, Table 3). Overall, the most cited criteria were fruit traits rather than tree features. The first criterion of distinction cited was the taste of the fruit (30% of the citation). The most cited taste was sourness, with good fruits being perceived as the least sour. The peculiar taste of African plum was expressed by the use of adjectives such as savory, tasty and fragrant (although these were mentioned by only five people). Taste descriptors also referred to texture characteristics: because of its soft/ tender/smooth texture, it was compared to other foods, such as buttery avocado or dairy products (butter, cream, cheese). Its floury texture was mentioned as well; hence, it was compared with tubers (cassava, cocoyam, yam, baked potato). African plums trees were also distinguished by the way trees produce fruits, based on their productivity or their belonging to improved varieties.The three most common criteria (taste, fruit size and skin color), which accounted for more than 75% of the total responses, were not cited with similar proportions along the gradient. To distinguish plum varieties, rural dwellers cited fruit taste less often, but instead cited fruit size as their first criterion (47.6% of citations by rural dwellers, p value = 0.008; Fig. 2). Differences in the frequencies of traits cited by the three ethnic groups to distinguish plums were mainly found for the rural site. The trait most cited by rural dwellers, fruit size, was significantly more cited by the Bassa owners, who accounted for 59% of fruit size citations.Of all the 1083 trees described, almost half (526 trees) had been given a local name by its users, whereas no name was recorded for the rest of the trees (51%). Most names were recorded in rural sites (269 trees), followed by peri-urban and urban sites (126 and 131 names, respectively). As regards the distribution by ethnic groups, 303 (58%) of these trees were named by Beti, 124 (24%) by Bassa and 99 (19%) by Bamileke owners in their respective languages. Due to the absence of a common Bamileke dialect, Bamileke names were rarely shared, except at the rural level. Within one ethnic group, different names were also recorded for fruits with similar traits. Names were not shared between ethnic groups, even in urban sites where ethnic groups cohabit closely. However, the meanings of these names were shared across groups (Fig. 3). Ethnovarieties named using these three different traits were cited with similar proportions along the gradient. Among ethnic groups, Bassa owners named significantly fewer varieties based on fruit size, and more based on skin color.  As some names were cited several times (180 were cited by at least two respondents), a total of 346 different African plum tree local names were recorded from 219 different tree owners. Regardless of ethnic group, names mainly referred to morphological (size, skin color, shape) and organoleptic (taste, texture) criteria of the fruit (78% of the names), followed by names referring to the history of the tree, including its owner's name or the place where the tree was planted (Fig. 4). Ethnovarieties were most often named based on their fruit size (37% of the names), taste (20%), and skin color (11%), which were also the three most cited traits for distinguishing fruits. Some ethnovarieties were recognized and named based on the combination of several of these criteria, fruit size and taste or fruit size and pulp color, for instance.African plum trees owners reported the use of different parts of their trees. The use of fruit as food (selfconsumption) was reported by all plum tree owners throughout the gradient, whereas its use as a commodity varied along the gradient: Fruit sales increased from urban to rural sites. The second most used part was tree branches (55% of owners), which were collected as fuel wood for cooking. The use of its bark (34% of owners) and leaves (33% of owners) were reported, both for medicinal purposes. The tree as a whole was also reported to be useful by 10% of the owners, for the shade it provided to cocoa and coffee trees in agroforests. Finally, few owners (2%) cited roots as a part of the tree they used, also for medicinal purposes. These uses were unrelated to preferences for most tree owners, but some reported preferences for medicinal uses. These preferences concerned trees bearing rare white fruits (\"white plum trees are more used for indigenous remedies; it is also the case with white cola and red corn\" Obala, Eton owner, May 2018), the bark and leaves of male trees that never bear fruits (nèlom sa, Bassa) to prepare remedies (bark for tuberculosis, leaves for jaundice) or specific age categories of trees (bark and leaves of old trees used to prevent typhoid fever; bark and leaves of young trees used to prepare treatment for snakebites).We recorded the preferences that were associated with the main uses of the fruit. Overall, eight criteria were primarily (99%) cited to describe preferences, whether they were related to self-consumption, purchase or sale. Seven out of these nine criteria were related to fruit traits: taste, fruit size, skin color, pulp texture, pulp color, pulp width and fruit shape. For some people, the geographic origin of African plums was also one of the most important criteria of choice. Other criteria (smell, seed color, affinity with a seller) accounted for less than one percent of the total citations. Other owners (9%) reported to have no criteria, meaning they liked all fruit types equally.Globally, tree owners described the ethnovarieties they knew or had planted with four main criteria (pulp and skin color, size and taste of the fruit) and they specified if they liked or disliked them (Fig. 5). The valued ethnovarieties were those with a blue, black, white or green skin, a green or white pulp, a medium or big size and a mildly sour taste (traits close to the \"valued\" preference type). The ethnovarieties that were not valued were those with a pink or a two-colored skin, a red pulp, a very small size and a very sour taste (traits close to the \"not valued\" preference type).Irrespective of whether the fruit was used for selfconsumption, purchase or sale, the most valued traits for selecting fruits were its taste, size and skin color. The three criteria taken altogether accounted for 94% of Fig. 3 Mosaic plot showing associations between tree owners from different sites and between different ethnic groups (Bamileke, Bassa, Beti, N = 341) in all the sites combined, and the three criteria mainly used to name ethnovarieties, FS: fruit size, T: taste, SC: skin color preference criteria. Some owners (12%) stated that they had no preference criteria and were eating/buying/selling all types of African plums equally.The favored criteria for fruit selection varied according to the types of uses (self-consumption, purchase, sale) considered (Fig. 6). Taste was the most cited criterion related to self-consumption and purchase of the fruit (64% and 46% of all cited criteria for these use types, respectively). For purchase preferences, taste was followed by the skin color criterion (24%), which was used as a proxy for taste: The darker the African plum, the better the taste. Fruit size was the most cited criterion (50%) of the selling preferences, with large fruits getting to be sold and small fruits kept for self-consumption.As for preferences, the most frequently cited criteria were always the same across ethnic groups for urban sites, but differed significantly across ethnic groups for rural sites (Fig. 7). Fruit size was over-represented as the primary preference criterion for the following groups and preference categories: Bamileke owners for self-consumption (35% of Bamileke owners, p value < 0.001); Bassa owners for buying and selling (respectively, 64% and 87% of Bassa owners, both p value < 0.001). Beti owners cited fruit taste more often for selling preferences (50% of Beti owners), emphasizing the importance of selling non-sour fruits. Two categories of management practices (propagation practices, cultivation practices) were recorded. Some of them were aimed at obtaining valued types or at getting rid of undesirable trees (propagation, counter-selection), some were related to other aspects of management (production techniques such as pruning of trees, use of fertilizers).Propagation practices included tree transplanting, direct seeding in the field, or in a backyard nursery and later transplanting the plant into the field. Vegetative propagation was generally not used. Production techniques either targeted individual African plum trees (pruning, heading) or the whole field (natural and chemical manure application, watering, weeding). Overall, more propagation and cultivation practices were cited (one-way ANOVA, p < 2.98e −05 , Table 4) in rural (4.4) and peri-urban sites (4.2) than in urban ones (3.6). Bamileke owners cited more propagation and cultivation practices (4.9) than owners from other ethnic groups.Practices that were not linked to the management of tree varietal diversity were also recorded. Traditional practices were used by 14.1% of the owners to manage Fig. 5 MCA discriminating different groups of ethnovarieties based on pulp and skin color, fruit size and taste, with as a supplementary (inactive) variable the preference criteria relative to the ethnovarieties (valued or not valued). Fruit traits on the right side of the graph correspond to the valued ethnovarieties, fruit traits on the left side of the graph correspond to the non-valued ethnovarieties Fig. 6 Bar plot showing the relative frequencies of the four most cited fruit criteria depending on the type of use considered. The stars signal criteria that were significantly different between categories of preferences low production or high fruit drop. The two most common practices were notching the trunk with a sharp object (6.9%) and tying the trunk with lianas or banana leaves (6.3%). Bassa tree owners (19.7%), followed by Bamileke owners (15.3%) cited these practices, whereas Beti owners (10.0%) applied them much less frequently (p value = 0.038). Urban dwellers also cited far fewer practices (8.7%, p value = 0.035) than did owners living in peri-urban (17.1%) and rural (17.5%) sites.As for the seed chosen to be planted, two criteria (fruit taste and fruit size) represented more than 90% of the criteria cited. Some other owners (40%) used no criteria. Urban dwellers took much less account of fruit size (p value = 0.01) than did peri-urban and rural dwellers (Fig. 8). In the rural sites, Bassa owners cited fruit size (34.8% of the Bassa's first planting selection criteria; p value < 0.001) significantly more than Bamileke and Beti owners (7% and 18.3%). They also cited skin color more than the other owners. Most of the seeds selected for planting did not come from the owners' own fields (77% of the 467 trees with information on the seed provenance). They came mainly from trees in the village or city through exchanges with neighbors (14% of seed sources) or from fruits in the market (local or city market, 37%). Only a few trees from spontaneous regeneration were protected or transplanted (6%). The average distance between the seed source and the planting site was high in urban sites (55.1 ± 5.2 km), intermediate in peri-urban sites (18.9 ± 4.7 km) and low in rural sites (6.7 ± 1.3 km). In urban sites, seeds were brought back from the villages of origins of the tree owners and from regions known for the quality of their fruits (Makénéné market, improved varieties from the IRAD). This distance is underestimated because some seeds were bought at the market and therefore of unknown origin. The average distance is thus much greater in peri-urban and urban sites, where about 40% of the trees originated from market seeds.Of the 23% of seeds that were coming from the owners' field, owners were asked how they selected which tree to propagate. These trees were mostly (91%) owned by owners in peri-urban and rural sites; urban dwellers stated that they had too little space. The two main selection criteria for these seeds were the taste of the parent tree's fruits, such as a mildly or very mildly sour taste (61%) and fruit size (29%), with large fruits being multiplied regardless of their taste. Only five percent of owners cited airlayering as a propagation practice that they knew or used: They were from all ethnic groups and evenly distributed along the gradient.Undesirable traits further guided selection practices. Not all tree owners selected their trees; only 230 owners (52% of the total) did. Urban dwellers were significantly less likely to report selection practices (44% of them). Bamileke owners reported selection practices much more often (68% of Bamileke owners, p value < 0.001), and Beti owners significantly less (41% of them). A variety of criteria (six major categories of criteria) justified tree selection, some targeting specific undesirable traits. A problem cited by 20% of owners was that the desired traits of the mother tree were not inherited in its offspring, which made selection ineffective for achieving desired traits.Lack of production (cited by 44% of the selective tree owners) leads to the felling of unproductive trees. This practice was cited more (p value < 0.001) by Bassa owners (63% of Bassa owners) than by Bamileke or Beti owners (38% and 36% respectively). Urbanization (15%) and the resulting lack of space for maintaining existing trees led to tree felling. This criterion was significantly (p value < 0.001) more cited in urban than in rural sites (representing 27% and 4% of the citations per site, respectively). Bad (sour) fruit taste led to the felling of some trees. This criterion was cited by 15.4% of selective owners with similar frequencies among tree owners throughout the gradient and across ethnic groups (18.3, 9.6 and 16.7% for Bamileke, Bassa and Beti, respectively). In the peri-urban and rural sites, excessive shade for cocoa trees sometimes resulted in cutting down plum trees (10.6% of respondents). Tall trees (8.1%) were felled because they were difficult and dangerous to harvest. Finally, some trees were felled (7.0%) because of their small fruit size.A vast number of different names were recorded, in all three ethnic groups surveyed. This high number is in part due to synonymy, which occurs when fruits with similar traits are named differently. The lack of name consistency in varieties can stem from the presence of different languages [57], from significant variety exchanges [15] and from the acquisition, at the owner level, of \"new\" varieties (already present in other farms or villages) obtained through cross-pollination and named differently. Given the scarcity of the scientific literature referring to varietal names of fruit trees within the studied area, it is difficult to say how remarkable this result is. Nonetheless, comparison is possible with other fruit tree species cultivated in Central Africa. Imported fruit trees, which entered production systems later than indigenous species such as the African plum tree, could also have different names, but in limited number and without symbolic value. This is the case, for example, for mangoes and avocadoes, whose names qualify instead their origin (Ngaoundéré's mango, German mango), their importance in local trade (\"Number One\" mango; [58]) or their texture (\"butter avocado\"). For the Beti people in particular, the nomenclature described for the perennial species Musa × paradisiaca was more expanded than for the previously investigated fruit trees [59], but was not as dense as what reported here for the African plum tree. This extensive ethnovarietal nomenclature, which is also found for other African perennial species in East and West Africa [60][61][62], expresses the salience of the species [63], and the human involvement around it [64]. The great morphological differences between African plums foster the diversity of local names as well, with phenotypic boundaries being delineated by cultural preferences [65]. The names of ethnovarieties shared along the urbanization gradient for Beti owners also indicate the flow of information within communities through learning the general distinctive features of ethnovarieties and their associated names [66]. This, along with the fact that more than half of the names recorded originated from Beti owners, is quite a puzzle and begs for more investigation on the singular nature of this finding.Linguistic expressions are indicators of the cultural and social dimensions and value of agricultural resource management: Through local names, significant elements of the cultural and economic importance of varieties, and of their commonness, are revealed [67]. It is thus worth noting the predominance of names referring to size in the local species nomenclature system. With regard to the variation in perceptions of the species (i.e., the way sensory and biological information regarding African plums are interpreted by their owners) along the gradient, the most common fruit traits used to define African plums differed. More rural dwellers cited fruit size as the primary criterion for distinguishing plums, whereas fruit taste was predominantly mentioned by urban dwellers. The dominant use of the fruits in the different sites, respectively, sales and self-consumption, was thus reflected in these two contrasted perceptions.Perceptions also differed among ethnic groups in all sites except for urban sites where they were homogeneous. Rozzi [68] proposed that rural-urban migration, by bringing in cities a diversity of ethnic groups, favors knowledge homogenization. Even if plant knowledge loss is not necessarily occurring in urban areas [69], the homogenization of knowledge among different cultural groups could be a likely consequence of urbanization and has already been described regarding plant knowledge in urban markets [70]. In our case, the effect of having together different ethnic groups in urban environments might be acting on its nomenclature as well. Indeed, the names of ethnovarieties differ from one language to another (Bamileke, Bassa, Beti), and even within Bamileke, a linguistically fragmented language [71], leading to the sharing of local names only at the rural scale for this group. But with the marketing of African plums linking people from different ethnic groups and languages, it would be interesting to see to what extent ethnovarieties that have been given local names are renamed by people specialized in the African plum trade. The nomenclature of other food products was simplified in urban markets [72], with traditional names being adapted to optimize trade [73].Overall, African plum tree is among the most important indigenous food tree in Central Africa, thanks to its use as both a food and a commodity. The tree has also a cultural value, expressed through its symbolic use as a living memory. Among the Beti, it was commonly said that plum trees were planted or dedicated to the memory and commemoration of exceptional people. This could be manifested by planting a seed from a parent (especially older or notable people), or by letting a young child plant the seed, leading to an association between the two. This association also exists when a tree is planted for a newborn [74]. It was seen as well in the fact that some trees are named after people, either the cultivator himself or other relatives. In southern Africa as well, fruit trees are often known by individual names, referring to community members [75]. An additional peculiarity distinguishes it from fruit trees: Theft of African plums, as well as that of kola nuts, would be punished by customary code [76,77]. However, the cultural value of African plum was not manifested through ceremonial gift exchanges, unlike products from other indigenous fruits trees, such as Garcinia kola seeds [78], Raphia wine and products [79] and many others [80].Ethnic groups had more similar preferences in urban sites than in rural sites. Regardless of the type of use considered (self-consumption, buying or selling), the fruit preference criteria were not significantly different between ethnic groups living in an urban environment. The urban specificity that might come into play is that owners are exclusively consumers, of their own fruits and of fruits bought on the market, rather than sellers.The different rationales of consumers and sellers, studied through preferences related to the different uses of plums, showed that preferences changed in the rural, peri-urban and urban sites as a result of the different uses. Fruit taste was valued preferentially through selfconsumption preferences and buying preferences, which are those of consumers. On the contrary, fruit size was ranked first in selling preferences. The shift from preferences based on a quality-related trait (fruit taste) expressed by urban dwellers, who are mostly consumers, to preferences based on a quantity-related trait (fruit size) expressed by rural dwellers, who are mostly sellers, shows the strong influence of market-driven logics. Although the preferences expressed by consumers (\"buying preferences\") target fruit taste, the owners prefer to sell large fruits. These fruits are indeed more expensive on the market [81] and thus more profitable to the sellers. They are also more sought after by buyam-sellam, intermediaries who buy crops or non-timber forest products in bulk and then retail in urban markets [82] and who are in charge of a large part of the African plum trade. As they travel to rural environments to buy plums and transfer them to urban markets, their overall standards are less focused on quality [83].In rural sites, where most owners are also sellers, the important value of plum size is corroborated by the fact that this trait is also overrepresented for preferences which are categorized as consumer preferences (self-consumption, buying), preferences that are never associated with size in urban sites. But the two uses (as self-consumed food or as a traded commodity) are not necessarily contradictory. Rural Beti owners, for instance, seem more attached to the criterion of taste than the other ethnic groups and even cite it when expressing their preferences as sellers. Incidentally, this logic is more in line with buying preferences, which are mainly based on fruit taste.Analyzing the variation in perceptions and preferences is crucial as both reflect cultural or economic values and influence management practices. Owners indeed aim at increasing the phenotypes producing the desired fruits in the managed tree populations [84]. Here, following the valued traits and preferences, practices of rural and urban dwellers also differ. Dacryodes edulis is mainly propagated using seeds collected by farmers on trees presenting fruits with desirable traits. Urban dwellers are using the fruit size criterion less often than peri-urban and rural tree owners to select the tree to be propagated. The fruit size criterion is more cited by rural Bassa owners than Beti or Bamileke as a key trait for selecting seeds used to plant their trees. As Bassa owners also cited fruit size as a preferential buying criterion, this shows how preferences may be translated to some extent into planting practices. However, improved planting materials, which would be the best option for obtaining trees with the most valued characteristics, were used by only a few owners. The improved varieties (named cultivars) developed in agronomic centers [50] were indeed perceived by these owners as having valuable traits: small trees are easy to harvest, and large fruits easy to sell. But the improved cultivars were also described as having nonvalued traits, being characterized as fragile and shortlived trees, with fruits whose taste tends to become more and more sour over the years.Concerning selection practices, Vasquez and Gentry [85] described some attributes motivating, in the context of commercial trade, the felling of less profitable trees. They were related to: (i) the fruiting phenology of the species (dioecious species with separate male and female trees), (ii) fruit accessibility and (iii) demand for fruit. As for D. edulis, trees bear either female flowers only or a variable ratio of male and hermaphrodite flowers [36]. For this latter category, trees presenting a high proportion of male flowers tend to be removed. The African plum trees most likely to be felled are therefore (i) unproductive trees bearing mostly male flowers, (ii) large trees that are difficult to harvest and (iii) trees that bear the fruits least valued on the market (sour fruits, small fruits). But the low percentage (< 10%) of owners citing fruit size as a reason for selection also shows that market logic is not the only reason for choosing which trees to keep. Plum trees that bear small fruits are, for instance, often referred to as \"the children's plum tree\". In contrast to trees bearing large fruits, often preserved for the market or the family, these trees are used by children to collect the fruits without causing problems. The diversity of plums' morphology and taste thus ensures that the uses and expectations of the species' cultivators complement each other. Its maintenance acts as a strategy to maintain food security or reduce risks [38], as was seen for other tree species in sub-Saharan African [86]. More broadly, the diversity of local varieties can be valued in itself, as an object of pride for cultivators [87,88].From our study, two sets of values are coexisting. On the one hand, owners who predominantly sell value a quantity-related trait and thus express that the increased market accessibility for large-sized plums is a strong incentive for them to grow trees of these varieties. Other studies have highlighted the predominant role played by economic and social drivers in the choices made by individual farmers between local varieties [89]. Farmers' management is altered by changing market incentives due to the growing importance of certain products or varieties [90]. Farmers' tendency to produce specific crops and varieties that meet market demand is identified as one of many changes underway in sub-Saharan agricultural systems [91]. On the other hand, owners who predominantly consume value a quality-related trait, taste, which is found in all kinds of different ethnovarieties, and thus express a wide range of preferences. This finding is important to better understand that the ongoing domestication process does not always target the largest fruits, which are not necessarily the most sought after by consumers. This was also expressed when some owners answered that they had no criteria for the African plums they were planting: All types of ethnovarieties had the same value to them. Indeed, attributes valued by local markets often fail to explain the variation in the number of varieties grown on farms [92].Our findings underscore the need to analyze several levels of knowledge (different ethnic groups, urban and rural dwellers) to obtain a comprehensive picture of the considerations underlying the diversification or erosion of varietal diversity. Urban centers can be important repositories of diversity, as urban owners are less concerned about selecting trees based on fruit size. Urban home gardens thus have multiple potentials as production and conservation areas, all the more as they represent unexpected places to safeguard species' genetic diversity [93]. On the other hand, although more specific criteria are applied to planting material in rural environment than in urban and peri-urban ones, their effect is limited by the predominant allogamy of the species: Cross-pollination between trees, combined with high heterozygosity (high genetic variability), prevents the reproduction of targeted maternal traits. As selection practices are rather weak on trees that bear non-valued fruits, pressures on plum agrodiversity remains relatively low. The selective retention of these less useful trees in the future might also depend on land pressure, which is increasingly strong along the urbanization gradient.The value of local varieties is assessed first and foremost by what farmers say and do about them, and is therefore based on their uses and expectations [8,24,94]. These uses respond to different needs and constraints, both for cultivators themselves (ecological benefits, consumption qualities, cultural significance) and for use on the market, in order to take advantage of commercial opportunities [95]. Uses and preferences are functionally related in that different traits valued for local varieties correspond to different uses [13,96]. In our case, the main uses-selfconsumption, sales-are, respectively, associated with fruit taste and fruit size. These preferences are translated into practices as rural owners who are also sellers are more likely to plant trees using seeds from large fruits. Market integration is expected to change the uses of local varieties, with a shift from subsistence to trade-oriented strategies, and to homogenize the valued traits of varieties [97]. For African plum trees in Cameroon, this risk is mitigated by the current exclusion of fruit crops from government food security policies, which therefore receive neither preferential treatment under subsidized seed dissemination programs nor extensive tree breeding programs. Competition between improved cultivars and traditional seed systems is thus weak. Besides, market development could go hand in hand with the development of new opportunities for local varieties [98].African plums are food products as well as commodities. Urban dwellers use them as the former only, whereas rural dwellers have both uses. Throughout the urbanization gradient, the different ethnic groups investigated here name and classify the existing intraspecific fruit variation using mainly morphological and organoleptic criteria. Interestingly, the most valued fruit criteria vary by use type: taste for self-consumption and purchase, size for sale. They also differ according to the groups of owners. People in rural sites, and especially in the Bassa group, tend to prefer larger fruits. This preference influences the seed selection process, with rural Bassa owners also favoring fruit size over fruit taste.Divergences between rural and urban dwellers show how choices, preferences and strategies must be understood in a broad economic and social context, in which owners' strategies are underpinned by different logics. Indeed, the choice of ethnovarieties responds to distinct motives along the urbanization gradient: City dwellers have few constraints, apart from lack of space, whereas rural dwellers are driven by demand and market requirements. Some owners are seeking a pool of different varieties, despite the call of market intermediaries for bigger fruits. Our study stresses the need to explore the consumption/production linkage to inform policy decisions on agricultural production and conservation strategies. It also suggests that urban areas should be considered not only for the threats they pose to local knowledge but also for the opportunities they offer as production areas able to foster knowledge exchanges. In the rural sites studied, located within the main production areas for African plum, the fact that some fruit phenotypes are favored could point to a possible negative impact on their diversity. However, the situation is offset by the species being highly outcrossing and by the limited removal of trees whose fruits are not valued. This calls for a methodology formally testing the intensity of varietal selection in commercial areas, and comparing it, along with preferences and propagation practices, in areas further away from commercial networks.funding the data collection and the Gold Open Access Fund of the University of Lausanne for support with open access fees.","tokenCount":"7765"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15c7ff86bfb335c3db62b09b729ad86e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3df5dade-fcf7-4767-a6b1-527f1c8e95f7/retrieve","id":"-1361197193"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"45c4d969-c47f-49c0-9ed4-2a35cf1a9484","pagecount":"8","content":"Here are 11 ways that pastoralists can improve the marketing of their livestock.Organise marketing groupsIf you want to sell only a few animals occasionally, you have little bargaining power.Traders and abattoirs need a regular, reliable supply: they like to fill a lorry in one go instead of travelling around remote locations in search of animals to buy.• Organise a group of herders to market your animals together. That will give you a higher price and a wider range of buyers. Such groups also benefit traders and abattoirs, who get a more reliable supply of animals. • Divide the tasks among the group: coordination, contacting buyers, managing the collection point, feeding and watering, grading, handling money. • Share information about production and marketing.• Work out how to get services such as extension advice and credit that are available only to groups.If you trek animals to the market, they will get hungry and thirsty along the way. Some may even die. They arrive in poor condition and weighing less than when they set out. It is better to load them onto lorries: that costs money, but is more profitable because the animals fetch a higher price. It also avoids the dangers of banditry and disease infection on the way.• Organise transport. Organise yourselves in groups to transport animals to a distant market. • Transport animals in lorries as opposed to walking them long distances. Load the animals onto lorries at the earliest opportunity.If you trek the animals to market, make agreements with landowners and local authorities along the route so the herd can get enough feed and water.Take animals to market by truck so they arrive in good condition.In remote areas it is hard to get information about markets, prices and potential buyers. If you do not know what the market requires, or where to get the best prices, you will be at a disadvantage in negotiating with buyers.What to do • Learn what buyers want. Find out buyers' needs so you can supply them with the right types of animals. • Target particular markets. For example, you could aim to supply small ruminants for the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, when many families traditionally slaughter a sheep or goat. • Watch market prices. Don't wait too long: watch the weather and market trends, and sell when the price is high. • Sell animals in good condition. Sell animals when they are strong and healthy to fetch a good price. • Get a price guarantee. Agree with a buyer to supply a certain number of animals of a particular age or type on a regular basis and at a guaranteed price.Watch the market prices and sell your animals when they will make the most money.Give enough feed and water in the dry seasonIn the dry season, animals can find little to eat and drink, so lose weight and condition. That reduces their value. In severe droughts, large numbers may die. Make troughs for animals to drink from. • Involve elders in the management of water and grazing land to reduce conflict.Banks and credit institutions are scarce in the drylands and have few services designed for pastoralists or livestock traders. Many pastoralists rely on barter rather than using cash. That cuts them off from opportunities to market their animals.• Treat your animals as a business. Keep written records of your animals and your costs. Watch the market prices of animals so you can decide when to sell. • Set up a savings-and-credit association. Meet each week with around 20 other herders to pay money into a savings kitty. The group lends out money from the kitty to members who need a loan. Get help from a non-government organisation or microfinance institution to set up and manage such a group. • Insure your animals. If a suitable scheme is available in your area, insure your animals with it. You pay a small amount each year. If there is a severe drought, the scheme will pay you for the lost production. • Transfer money by mobile phone. Storing and carrying cash is risky. Use a mobile money scheme like Safaricom's M-Pesa to transfer cash. • Open a bank account. You (or your marketing group) can use the account to receive money from a buyer and to pay expenses. You may also be able to get a loan to invest in your animal production.Give extra feed so the animals are fat when you sell them.People will produce a quality product only if they have incentives to do so. Prices should reflect the quality of your animals.As a group of herders, negotiate with traders and abattoirs to pay more for good-quality animals.Make prices transparent for everyone in the marketing group. • Offer good-quality animals, and encourage other herders to do the same.Bring substandard animals up to grade by fattening them in feedlots.Livestock markets are few and far between in the drylands. Those that exist lack suitable facilities and are poorly managed.• Set up a market committee. Form a committee of pastoralists, traders and the local authority to manage the marketing of animals. • Set up a new market. If there is no market nearby, get your group to build a new one. Find a suitable location and design the market in close consultation with other herders and traders. • Improve the facilities. Make sure the market has shade, fencing, loading ramps, feeding and watering facilities, toilets and offices. • Improve the market management. Make the administration transparent and accountable to the users. Charge people for using the market: for buying and selling animals, loading animals and parking. Use the money to pay for administration, management and security.Get together with other market users to improve the management of your local market.By improving your marketing, you can earn more and pay for things that are important.10 Set up a small feedlot, abattoir or tannery A lack of buyers restricts the demand for livestock in remote areas. The few big abattoirs are located too far away from pastoralist areas, forcing producers to truck their animals long distances. The lack of a tanning industry means that in many areas hides fetch a very low price. If you have money to invest, you can set up your own processing facility to buy animals. Or organise a group of herders to do the same.• Get outside support. You will probably need a loan and expert advice to set up a processing facility. Approach the local government or a non-government organisation for assistance. • Set up a feedlot. Fence some land to use as a feedlot. Put in feeding and watering troughs, some shelter and a loading ramp. Make or buy hay or silage to use as feed. Buy animals from other herders, or offer to feed their animals for a fee. Arrange for traders to come and buy the fattened animals. • Set up a small abattoir. Big abattoirs are expensive but a small one is not. It should include a holding pen with feeding and watering troughs, a slaughter slab, a supply of clean water, a room free of flies to hang and butcher meat, waste facilities and, if possible, refrigeration facilities. A small abattoir can serve local towns and do simple processing. It can act as a satellite for a larger abattoir, perhaps operating on a seasonal basis. • Set up a small tannery. A tannery can turn worthless hides into valuable leather.The great strength of pastoralism is the mobility of producers. This enables you to take advantage of unpredictable rainfall and scattered patches of vegetation. Unfortunately, government policies encourage (and sometimes force) you into staying in one place. That overuses the grazing and water in some places but leaves other areas unused.• Lobby government to ease mobility and prevent the fencing of rangelands.• Conserve dry-season grazing areas.• Maintain good relations with neighbouring pastoralists and farmers. Offer them help when they need it, and ask for help when you need it. • Invest in peace. Find ways to reduce misunderstandings with neighbouring groups and others who rely on the same land and water resources.","tokenCount":"1343"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"639693e3a7eb5776c6b2ccd02feb84eb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/33ca2ad3-54f6-4033-a160-7d78a25aa86a/retrieve","id":"1341619955"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5af9e4b0-d580-4c8d-b94a-4f9aae42f6d0","pagecount":"28","content":"Coffee From the nursery to the cup revolutioNisiNg agri-fiNaNce Bridging the gap in Te rv ie w Ad im ai m al ag a Ta fu na 'i, W IB DI co -f ou nd er an d ex ec ut ive di re cto r ClimATe-smArT AgriCulTure A practical or idealistic approach? dOSSiEr COVEr STOrY 4 ADimAimAlAgA TAfunA'i Reaping the benefits of mobile apps iNTErViEw 12 revoluTionising Agri-finAnCe Bridging the gap 13 4 | Cover story 6 | Agriculture 8 | Livestock and fisheries 9 | Environment 10 | research and iCT 11 | Business and trade 12 | interview 13 | dOSSiEr Revolutionising agri-finance: bridging the gap securing finance for small and medium farmers 17 | Viewpoint Esther Muiruri: inclusive access to finance equity bank -providing effective agricultural financing 18 | Field report Kenya: bagging a good deal with onions Accessing markets and obtaining affordable credit 20 | Value chains Coffee -from the nursery to the cup 21 | Publications 25 | Get on board with CTA © One Acre Fund/E Bagambiki is the bi-monthly magazine of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). CTA operates under the Cotonou Agreement between the countries of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union and is financed by the EU.The Fin4Ag conference, which CTA organised with its partners in July 2014 in Nairobi, was a trendsetter in many ways. As the Nigerian minister of agriculture, Akin Adesina, said in his keynote address, bringing together the financial sector with the agricultural sector in the same room was a \"revolution in itself\". Governors of central banks from several African countries debated whether they should support agriculture; learning from their Asian counterparts also present at the conference, the African banks were convinced it was a worthwhile investment. The Ugandan minister of finance, Maria Kiwanuka, challenged the ministers of agriculture present on whether their public institutions could effectively use the 10% of national budgets called for under the 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security. The response was a resounding \"yes\" but the debate demonstrated the need to get many more finance ministers to support the agricultural sector more fully.The overriding message at the conference was that African farmers finance 90% of their production from their own resources, but they could do much more to increase their productivity and capture a bigger share of the value chain if they had additional financing from other sources. Opportunities for agricultural growth are enormous, with burgeoning African cities demanding more food and higher-quality produce.CTA has benefited from the conference in many ways. It has helped us to connect with many entrepreneurs and innovators who are conducting exciting work in agricultural finance. It has also helped us to identify priority areas for our programming in the coming few years. We will continue to provide a platform so that more people can learn about financing models that work. In addition, CTA will support ongoing dialogue between the agricultural and financial sectors at the levels of policy and of working capital and investment finance. Finally, we will support capacity-building initiatives to raise the know-how of farmers in financial management and of financiers in agriculture.sPore n° 172 -oCTober-november 2014 sustainable agricultural development, enhanced natural resource management and sometimes ancestral knowledge revamped for today's world. Practices inspired by conservation agriculture, agroforestry and agroecology enable farmers to adapt to climate change: introducing trees in farming systems to capture nitrogen; creating ponds, dams or basins to collect and retain water; adopting new seed varieties, e.g. a rice variety resistant to salt water or flooding, or a drought-tolerant maize variety; and setting up direct seeding mulch-based cropping systems.Solutions are also possible to curb methane and carbon monoxide production linked directly to agricultural activities. The East Africa Dairy Development programme, which is helping some 200,000 farmers boost their milk production and gain access to markets, is striving to reduce the dairy industry's climate footprint by promoting alternative sources of cattle feed (improving fodder species, planting legumes for livestock feed, using agricultural by-products), while producing fertiliser and biogas from manure. National and regional meteorological services could be improved and mobilised to optimise these practices. Several countries already issue weather reports to meet farmers' needs -these are, for instance, disseminated by SMS in Kenya and Uganda and/or via rural radio stations, while the African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development and the AGRHYMET Regional Centre publishes seasonal rainfall forecasts.reaching out to all farmers \"Information on CSA is paramount. When conventional national extension systems are weak or have even completely crumbled in some countries, it is essential to come up with innovative ways to get the message out to farmers as quickly as possible. This is especially true since some techniques are emerging and/or are knowledge-intensive technologies,\" says Oluyede Ajayi, senior programme coordinator for agricultural policy and rural development at CTA.CCAFS has also set up 15 Climate-Smart Villages in Eastern and West Africa and Southeast Asia which serve as centres to test different adaptation strategies, technologies and practices while promoting interactions between researchers and local communities.Capacity building for farmers is an essential step in adaptation to climate change, but implementing policies to create a supportive and encouraging environment is also vital. \"Some political and institutional arrangements in a given geographical area sometimes hamper CSA adoption. This is the case, for instance, when the land tenure system impedes the planting of perennial trees on farms, especially when farmers are tenants and hence do not have permanent property rights to ensure their long-term investment,\" stresses Ajayi. Based on a multi-sectoral approach, these policies should encourage farmers to invest in CSA.A ragbag concept? Some French, English and Dutch NGOs take a cautious approach to CSA. \"This is a relatively vague concept that could potentially involve a very diverse range of practices, some of which are widely disputed, especially regarding their negative impact on the environment and communities. For example, genetically modified organisms (GMO) are used, in addition to intensive pesticide and chemical fertiliser applications,\" says Pierre Ferrand, agricultural and food sector development project officer for GRET, a French development NGO. He also feels that CSA overlooks agroecology, a field whose findings are proving, to an increasing extent, that the world can do without returning to the substantial use of chemical inputs and GMOs. Ferrand also questions the form of the future Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, which was officially launched in September 2014 by Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, at the 2014 UN Climate Summit in New York. \"On the governance as such, there is no transparency on who exactly will spearhead this famous Alliance, no definition of the rules or accountability of the different stakeholders, or the ability to control the investment practices that will be certified in this framework,\" says Ferrand.The Alliance could be a way to mobilise financial resources required to cover the overall cost of agricultural adaptations to climate change, i.e. US$7 billion according to the lowest estimates, but which could reach up to US$14 billion a year. Otherwise there are solutions, but it is family farmers who must bear the brunt of their cost.While war took them from the fields, peace has allowed them to return to 'grow together' on land where crops have replaced land mines 'planted' by armed conflict.Over 1 million slum dwellers in Douala and Yaoundé, and over 200 rural farming households, are benefitting from a new source of indoor lighting during the day. Clear plastic 1 litre bottles are filled with water and a few drops of 'eau de javel', which bleaches the water and keeps it clean. The bottle is then inserted into the roof, with the top sticking out; when the sunlight hits the bottle, the water reflects it down into the house. The amount of light produced by one bottle is equivalent to a 50 watt electric light bulb, and each bottle costs around 1,500 FCFA (€2.30) to make and install. Lighting up dark areas should also help to keep mosquitoes at bay.Aerial composting is a low cost composting method developed by niger's national agricultural research institute, inrAn. The technique involves mixing organic waste (plant residues, decomposable household waste and manure) directly into the soil and then watering copiously. The mixture has to be turned every 10-14 days and ferments within 4 weeks.A team of scientists from several institutes, including the french research centre, CirAD, and the us Agency for international Development, successfully tested vegetable nets with small-scale farmers in benin and Kenya. These simple and easy to use nets enabled farmers to reduce insecticide sprayings on cabbage and tomato crops by 70-100%.Cocoa's health benefits are numerous. in 2013, the european food safety Authority (efsA) recognised that cocoa flavonols contribute to improving blood circulation. efsA now recognises that cocoa extracts have the same health benefits as cocoa powder and dark chocolate. An opinion on cocoa's health benefits still needs to be endorsed by the european Commission.A round 2,500 families in the northern Angolan province of Malange have escaped poverty with the success of the Kikula Ku Moxi (Growing Together) family farming project, created in 2010 by the Capanda Agro-industrial Hub Development Society. From a minefield 'planted' over decades of war experienced by Angola until 2002, the perimeter of the Capanda Agroindustrial Hub in the Cacuso municipality has become farmland, from which 35 t of diverse products such as maize, rice, groundnut, cassava, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, potatoes, beans, millet and vegetables are harvested each month. As a result of this project, families' average monthly income will rise from 3,000 (€22.50) to 13,000 (€97.70) Angolan Kwanza.Weighing up the impact of Kikula Ku Moxi over the past 4 years, Garcia Alves, deputy technical administrator of the Cacuso municipality, underscores the socioeconomic improvement of these families, with benefits including an improved diet for more than 3,500 people, access to potable water for more than 11,000 citizens and the drastic reduction in 1-year-old infant mortality from 118 to 33 per 1,000 live births. Production is predicted to increase by 50 t by the end of 2014, thereby boosting product distribution in primary national and regional consumption centres (supermarkets, restaurants and cafeterias).The purpose of the Kikula Ku Moxi programme, one of several different facets of the Capanda Agro-industrial Hub, is to promote and consolidate family agriculture in this region, which has major agricultural and agroindustrial potential due to its natural soil and weather conditions. Another goal is to increase the number of participating families. The desired increase in participating families is directly tied to the expansion of arable land in the Capanda Agro-industrial Hub, which covers 411,000 ha with 270,000 ha of arable land. It has also become easier for farmers to receive training on climate change adaptation and other areas related to food production and income generation. \"With the changing climatic conditions, we realise that there is need to prepare farmers adequately, so that they have the right seed, and in good time. Experiences have shown that planting crops just 1 week late can reduce the yield by 50% or more,\" Damien adds.Mukankiko Odeth, a smallholder from Rwanda's Kirehe district, says the changing climate has made it difficult to know exactly what type of seed to plant, when and how, without relevant information. \"But that is the information we are getting from cooperatives, in addition to training, farm inputs and access to markets,\" he explains.By being members of a cooperative, farmers are also able to store their produce after harvest in a common warehouse. When it is sold, the farmers are paid and a small percentage is given to the cooperative which can then be used as an investment, or used as collateral to borrow money from a bank. This enables a farmer to source credit they wouldn't otherwise be able to access.\"With climate change, population pressure and hard economic times, our country was suffering from food insecurity just a few years ago,\" says Gasirabo Claver from the Rwanda Development Organisation, which works with the government and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to offer training and support to 122 cooperative organisations. \"But now, farmers under cooperatives have enough for their families, and more for the market.\"Smallholder farmers in Rwanda are adapting to climate change and boosting production by forming cooperatives.The mozambique institute of Agricultural research has developed high yielding cassava varieties that resist mosaic disease. The new, widely adopted varieties are being used by the brewing industry and are proving more popular than hybrid maize varieties, as they are considered better able to withstand tough climatic conditions and a lack of inputs.sTrigA Limiting the damage legume cover crops and crop rotation reduce damage from Striga, a parasitic weed that causes cereal yield losses. This method, which also enriches the soil with organic matter, has boosted rice and maize crop yields in madagascar's Hauts Plateaux region.loCAl ProDuCTionThe Cabo verdean school social Action foundation recently supplied the island school lunchrooms with locally-produced agricultural products, replacing imported food. The use of 'regional products' in lunchrooms, which supply hot meals to more than 180,000 students per day, is encouraging farmers to boost production. biogAs Pay as You Go in Kiambu County, Kenya, over 100 families have adopted a Pay-as-You-go (PAYg) biogas system which costs 10,000 Ksh (€84) to install, compared to the €840 normally paid. subsequent payments of €0.04 per unit of biogas are made via mobile phone. The PAYg system uses a communal digester, from which biogas is piped to clients' homes, sufficient for the cooking needs of a five member family.The Gesforcom project, implemented in Madagascar, Mali and Niger, promotes techniques for improving the quality of gum arabic and increasing its market value. These techniques involve frequently pruning gum trees from an early age, and cutting the first small branches. The tree is then tapped when it is 3 to 5 years old (as gum production begins at this age) after it has shed its leaves. There are two ideal times for tapping: at the beginning of the cold season, around November, and during March. This process stimulates exudation and enables the trees to increase production by five or even six times. Gum quality is improved by cleaning, grading -sorting nodules by size -and drying in a shaded and dust free area. Finally the gum is packaged in 25-30 kg jute bags. Currently earning only us$5 million per year from commercial fishing, the republic of Palau in the western Pacific is considering closing its exclusive economic zone to foreign fishing vessels and patrolling its waters with drones. small-scale fishing and tourism-related sports fishing will still be allowed.bovine semenThe indian company, Aadicon biotechnologies ltd, is operating in mauritius to produce bovine semen. The 'frozen semen extraction Technology' has been brought from india, and cows and bulls are imported from south Africa. Their semen is collected, analysed and treated in mauritius to be used for artificial insemination all over Africa.guArAnTeeing THe fuTure women committed to preserving fisheries resources Cooperatives of women from northern mozambique are developing public awareness campaigns to respect fisheries closures and expand sanctuaries for threatened species. \"we feel that fish resources are dwindling, so we are getting involved to prevent the worst from happening,\" says latiza Domingos, association manager of the moma district.sun AnD iCeThe fishing village of salamansa, on the Cabo verdean island of são vicente, is able to produce its own ice thanks to a unit powered by solar energy, thereby reducing operating and production costs. Considered a pioneering experiment in Cabo verde, this system has opened the doors to a new source of community income.A nationwide marketing campaign and programme to provide training on tilapia breeding and pond construction is boosting local production.n early 2014, Trinidad and Tobago suffered an environmental disaster in the form of a bunker fuel (oil) spill which polluted fishing and breeding grounds, as well as coastal communities along the south western coastline of the country. The incident was a blow to the fishing industry, severely reducing the demand for fish and sea products as well as having a devastating impact on the fish stock.The oil spill, while being an environmental tragedy, has helped springboard the demand for local tilapia. Prior to this incident, the Ministry of Food Production had mandated the Sugarcane Feeds Centre (SFC), a local research station, to improve the marketability of tilapia from aquaculture producers on the island. Through the programme, officials bought tilapia from local operators, which was then processed and sold to consumers. Since the spill, the interest in tilapia rearing has boomed.\"The industry was stimulated, allowing producers an outlet for their fish while simultaneously giving coastal fisherfolk a possible option to continue their livelihoods, albeit in a different form,\" explains SFC project director Suresh Benny. \"Consumers began buying more farmed-raised fish because of concerns about pollution following the oil spills.\" As a result, production of tilapia has increased from 225 kg per week to 900 kg per week, in terms of whole fish. It is hoped that such production levels will offset the high level of tilapia imports. According to the Ministry of Food Production, current imports stand at 100 t per year, whereas local production, annually, is only 12 t.The increasing consumer demand for farmed fish has created an added incentive to encourage new fish farmers into the sector. In response, the SFC has joined forces with the Seafood Industry Development Company, a major stakeholder of the fisheries industry on the island, and with the Agriculture NOW Training Unit. Together, they have launched an aquaculture training programme, providing capacity building on equipment, breeding and pond construction. The programme began in May 2014 and has already trained approximately 40 new aquaculture producers.To supplement these efforts towards increased production, the Ministry of Food Production has also constructed a hatchery to produce approximately 1.2 million fingerlings per year. This hatchery is expected to produce approximately half of the nation's annual demand for fingerlings.Civil society in Guinea-Bissau is mobilising to protect the country's last stands of forest.To combat hidden hunger, a number of biofortified climate resilient crops are being developed.W ith many institutions aiming to increase agricultural production as a way of adapting to climate change, experts have warned of 'hidden hunger', where people have more to eat but the food does not contain the necessary micronutrients for sound health. To bridge this gap, HarvestPlus, is working with national research institutions, NGOs, governments and development partners to develop climate resilient crops that are biofortified with essential nutrients.In Rwanda for example, about 700,000 smallholder farmers are already growing iron-rich beans, and in Nigeria three new vitamin A cassava varieties -which provide up to 40% of the recommended vitamin A intake for children under five -were launched in 2013 as part of the government's Agricultural Transformation Agenda. \"We are excited about these new cassava varieties and their potential to contribute to improved nutritional status among Nigerians, particularly among children and women,\" explains Paul Ilona, the HarvestPlus Nigeria Country Manager. The organisation expects to reach more than 350,000 Nigerian households with vitamin A cassava in 2014.A concern for deforestation in his community led Tomas Ebo, born in Quicabo, Bengo, in northern Angola, to revive an ancient rule that 'requires' a tree to be planted when another one is cut down. Thousands of trees are cut to manufacture charcoal, resulting in a risk of desertification of vast areas once covered by dense woodlands. Around 31.18% of Angola is threatened by desertification due to constant slash-and-burn, deforestation and agricultural practices. Ebo's example is considered a success resulting from the awareness initiatives of the Forest Development Institute aimed at reducing the indiscriminate cutting of the country's trees.To combat climate change, Nepal has pioneered the development of 'Local Adaptation Plans of Action' (LAPA). LAPA is a village-or local-based approach which takes climate change impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation priorities into account by focusing on enhancing resilience. Run by District Development Councils at village level, LAPA aims to include vulnerable people, including the elderly, women, ethnic and religious groups. With representatives of the agriculture, health and education sectors, the District Development Councils review each new project, considering its impacts on climate. This approach is now inspiring other Asian and African countries. For example, Mozambique has started to implement structures to launch LAPA in 22 of its districts.farmers in the agricultural valley of ribeira da Cruz, on the Cabo verdean island of santo Antão, have had a photovoltaic power station installed, allowing solar energy to be used to pump irrigation water. The system has cut production costs and expanded the irrigated area.Manually crossing pollen from a sweet potato variety rich in vitamin A to a high yielding variety © I Esipisu T he Guinea-Bissau Anti-Deforestation Movement (MCDFGB) arose to 'save the last stands of forest' in the country after decades of unbridled deforestation due to ongoing political and military instability. The MCDFGB's first step in stopping the indiscriminate cutting of trees was to create a report showing that the agreed quotas for national wood exploration are being largely surpassed by foreign companies. This document was sent to the UN Secretary General, the Beijing Government and international environmental protection organisations, warning that indiscriminate cutting of protected species has left Guinea-Bissau, a country once rich in forests, with just a few remaining stands of trees.MCDFGB representative, Idrissa Yafa, says that deforestation in Guinea-Bissau aparticularly affects local populations, due to the \"destruction of houses and harvests by winds that only occur after the forest has been devastated\". Yafa goes on to say that the Movement aims to achieve three main goals: \"To stop the indiscriminate cutting of trees and to replant; to help affected communities; and to create a control system to protect the forest in the future, with international support if necessary.\" october-november 2014 | Spore 172 | rESEArCh ANd iCT soilThe international Crops research institute for the semi-Arid Tropics has opened a soil testing centre in Zimbabwe, to improve farmers' knowledge of soil fertility. The centre will offer advice on soil improvement, including how and when to select and apply appropriate and affordable fertiliser.The international institute of Tropical Agriculture has launched a new science facility in Kalambo, near bukavu (south Kivu Province) in the Democratic republic of Congo, which will cover 14 African countries. The facility contains a fabrication unit, a processing centre for cassava and soybean, and a laboratory which is the largest and the most modern in Central Africa.mauritius has established a climate change centre for eastern Africa in Portlouis, which is a unique information desk that collects, keeps up-to-date and disseminates local and international data for free. it aims to foster awareness of climate change, and causes impacts and steps to be taken for mitigation and adaptation.iCT Scrutinising the soil four students from the university of rwanda have developed software for analysing soil fertility. The software simply needs a picture of the soil to start the assessment process. The group of young people, known as Agristars, have developed this application during the imagine Cup, a competition for students that is part of microsoft's Youth spark initiative.he Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) has recommended a new variety of tomato, MAL-SI/LE/01/14, to farmers in the Solomon Islands. The new tomato is the result of years of ongoing collaborative research and evaluation between MAL and AVRDC -The World Vegetable Center. \"The line had been evaluated under varying conditions over a number of cropping seasons and has out-performed locally available tomato varieties in both yield and taste,\" explains MAL permanent secretary, Jimi Saelea. Rose Sese, who participated in the initial stages of the evaluation, supports the Ministry's initiative to get more farmers to take on the new variety. \"Before getting involved in the project, I had planted a variety of tomatoes on my farm. It was then that AVRDC got me and other farmers to carry out tests to choose the best tomato variety from the seeds they supplied,\" she explains. \"I picked this variety because of its tough skin texture, sweet taste, and ability to grow in any soil type and condition.\"Hotel owners in Honiara have also come to appreciate the new variety, with high demand from the tourism sector boosting its popularity. Over 230 seed packets of the new line have been distributed to interested farmers so far. AVRDC says that under local conditions the new variety can produce ripe fruits in approximately 56 days after transplanting, with average fruit weighing 190 g. Based on information from farmer field trials during 2013, the average marketable yield was 16 t per ha.A young farmer from the small town of Tarrafal de Monte Trigo, on the Cabo Verdean island of Santo Antão, has created a new irrigation method for growing yams, and has become the largest producer of this tuber, a common food item eaten by the island's inhabitants. Just a short time ago, yams were only grown in stream beds, requiring a lot of irrigation water. But everything changed when Armando decided to try planting yams in previously prepared beds, so that irrigation water could be reused through a system that connected the various crop areas. This method also shortens the plant's maturity cycle, allowing several harvests per year.The system was so successful that it was adopted by other farmers in the town, who also began focusing more on this type of farming. Today, more than two dozen families from Tarrafal de Monte Trigo, a small town of around 900 inhabitants in the interior of the Porto Novo municipality, grow yams as their primary source of income. Money earned from selling yams, in addition to helping improve the quality of people's lives, has also allowed families to send their children to continue their education on the neighbouring island of São Vicente, with some children now attending university.A new tomato variety is offering a tantalising opportunity for Solomon Islands' farmers looking to increase their yields.A new system for producing yams on Santo Antão means more profit for farmers from this Cabo Verdean island and more time at school for their children. Tomato exporters in Kenya have formed a professional society which provides loans to help farmers expand their operations. The exporters are able to use their savings or produce as collateral and the repayment rate so far is 99.4%. The scheme has 6,000 registered tomato exporters; three-quarters of their produce is sold to european markets. Administrative Court (FAC) ended a ban on kava-based products. The roots of the kava plant (Piper methysticum), which is grown in the Pacific, are used to produce a drink with sedative and anaesthetic properties. However, in 2002, the FAC banned kava-based products because of public health authority fears that they caused liver damage. Reversing that decision, the court concluded that the risks from using kava were not unusually high.A Vanuatu-based researcher, Vincent Lebot, who provided scientific evidence at the trial, says that the victory came after a hard-fought battle which had a severe impact on exports to the EU and US. \"This over-reaction cost hundreds of millions of dollars to the South Pacific kava growers. Not only did they lose the German market overnight, but also the whole EU market because countries like France and Switzerland decided to ban kava based on the German decision,\" Lebot explained in an interview with Radio New Zealand. \"And the American market, which at that time was growing very fast, was severely impacted.\"\"What happened in Germany is a clear victory for all of us who know that when kava is properly used, with the right varieties cultivated with the right agricultural practices and processed in a reasonable way, it's not a dangerous product,\" Lebot added. \"It has been drunk for millennia in the South Pacific and we know that there are no sights of liver toxicity -nothing comparable to alcohol.\" Speaking to Radio New Zealand, the chair of the International Kava Executive Council, Tagaloa Eddie Wilson, said that he expects supplies to be back to normal within 3 years: \"Now we are going to have to work with our farmers to rebuild and set production up again. At the moment there are supplies ready, available now, but not in the quantities that the market will require.\"But Lebot also acknowledged that the region's kava trade is still under threat as there are serious problems regarding the quality of kava being exported. \"The wrong varieties and the wrong parts of the plants are being exported,\" he explains, warning that this is potentially very dangerous as exporting poor quality kava to the EU could result in further bans.One of Germany's highest courts has ruled that Germany's ban on products containing kava is unlawful.As a result of lower interest rates, around 5,900 mango farmers have taken up loans in the last 2 years. According to the Central Bank of Kenya, banks have been charging between 8-10% and repayment rates have been as high as 97.6%. With their exports destined for Europe, all the farmers need as collateral is the produce, a piece of land, or both depending on which bank issues the loan. \"I have had three loans from Equity Bank,\" explains Kimani Njogu, who owns a 2.5 ha mango farm. \"The funds helped me purchase mango seedlings from suppliers. I was given 2 years to repay the loans at 10% interest and I have repaid all three in full.\" Kenya currently exports over 12,798 t of mango per year, according to the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, and the sector is growing at 16% per year.  ICTs offer economic and efficiency benefits for many Pacific nations because although we have small populations, these can be widely spread across multiple islands. Using ICTs can help increase our communication with farmers and also give farmers access to market and extension information. ICTs also help to amplify the voice of farmers because they may be able to use ICT tools to talk with each other and to raise issues.The use of ICTs for agriculture is rapidly evolving, but many of these can be complex and the costs of these technologies prohibitive for smallholder farmers. How can these challenges be overcome?At WIBDI, we are creating a suite of apps known as 'm-Link' to support our Farm to Table project, which is working towards the objective of providing hotels and restaurants in Samoa with 80% of their food needs through local production. Apps like these that target smallholder farmers need to consider their particular social, economic and cultural needs. It is a case of knowing that community really well and understanding their perspectives and this has mostly meant keeping the app simple and having much of it accessible offline, to reduce costs and increase uptake. We have also tried to involve mobile networks with limited success, although one network has offered discounts and is continuing to talk with us about the potential of ICTs in the agricultural sector.There are four apps planned, with one already completed. The first app is mExtension, which has been developed with our extension workers in order to meet their needs. It provides extension advice on crops, pests and diseases, and organic certification, and features profiles of all our farmers. The second is mFarm. Designed for the farmer, it will feature extension advice based on the queries we often receive from our famers, organic compliance advice, a planting and harvesting calendar and basic bookkeeping, including e-receipts for those who are involved in our livelihood programmes. This app is the next to be developed, in consultation with our 600 organic farmers and extension workers.The third is mKitchen, which is an app for hoteliers and restaurants. It will have an ordering function, nutritional and seasonal information as well as recipes designed by chef Robert Oliver, who is the cuisine consultant on our Farm to Table programme. The last app, mTable, is focused on the consumer and will feature the restaurants and hotels where they can eat organic Farm to Table produce.Once the apps are developed, we expect to see better organic compliance among our farmers, better communication between our extension workers, farmers and restaurateurs, better and more produce being supplied in a timely manner, better business literacy from our farmers and more produce being ordered from our clients. We also expect to see more efficiency in terms of time and fuel, because our workers will be able to plan their work schedules with more up-to-date information. In the end, we expect to see the farmers earning more.The way WIBDI see development happening best in Samoa is to look at the whole family and make sure everyone benefits. Nevertheless, ICTs have the ability to show information that might normally only be discussed or revealed through mainstream media or through extension visits. So in terms of benefits for women, it may give them equal access to information and allow them to have a greater role in decision-making processes.Simplify and stay in charge -because you know your farmers, your workers and your markets better than the technical experts. In many ways it is not about the technology but about people.Note: Supported by the Pacific Media Assistance programme and CTA, WIBDI launched the m-Link system at the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States in September 2014 in Samoa.ADimAimAlAgA TAfunA'iAdimaimalaga Tafuna'I, WIBDI co-founder and executive director.The complexity and costs of ICTs can be a barrier for smallholder farmers. Women in Business Development Inc (WIBDI), an NGO in Samoa, has embarked on designing and commissioning a suite of mobile apps to assist its extension workers, farmers and markets. dOSSiEr revoluTionising Agri-finAnCeFinancing agricultural value chains is a major challenge in ACP countries. To promote access to credit and reduce financial risks, CTA co-organised an international conference (Fin4Ag) in July 2014 in Nairobi with over 750 participants. The reinvention of current business and regulatory finance models has begun. Perceived as high risk, having poor financial management and offering modest returns, their situation is compounded by the high costs of extending traditional banking to rural areas, which deters many lenders.Agriculturally, Africa should be a net exporter, says Akinwumi Adesina, Nigerian Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development. Delivering a keynote speech at CTA's recent conference on \"Revolutionising finance for agri-value chains\" (Fin4Ag), Adesina reported that instead of this, African countries currently spend around US$35 billion each year on food imports. With more than 750 people, including private sector executives, government officials and farmers' representatives from some 80 countries gathered at the event, the Minister emphasised that minimal irrigation, poor infrastructure, limited value-adding, high postharvest losses and -most importantly -lack of access to credit means that Africa's farmers are failing to fulfil their potential.In Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, less than 10% of the population has formal access to credit and less than 4% have a bank account. Too many banks continue with a traditional and outmoded approach, warned Michael Hailu, CTA director, curbing farmers' profits and driving young people from agriculture. On average, a mere 5% of domestic resources are allocated by most developing country governments to the agricultural sector. But Africa is at a tipping point, Hailu believes, and the time has come to focus on solutions and scaling up success.Currently, 90% of investments in African agriculture are made by farmers themselves. \"This is not acceptable,\" said Lamon Rutten, CTA programme manager for policies, markets and ICTs. \"Farmers are ready to see themselves as businessmen, rather than just subsistence producers, but investments need to increase for farmers to be more profitable and banks and financial institutions need to see farming as a business that is worth supporting.\" Theo de Jager, president of the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions concurred, asking why farmers should shoulder the burden of agricultural financing and not make money just like any other business. Nothing is possible in the modernisation of agriculture without agri-financing, he asserted, and whilst there are no easy solutions, the bridge between farmers and financiers needs to be better supported.Improved communication is a vital part of that bridge. Financiers need to understand the constraints faced by farmers and farmers need a better understanding of inclusive agri-finance products, something which was highlighted more than once during the 5-day conference. In the case of Equity Bank (see p17, Inclusive access to finance), a holistic approach that combines lending with advisory services is helping the bank protect its portfolio whilst supporting customers to gain credit as well as build repayment records.Training enables farmers to have a better understanding of the financial products and tools on offer. For example, the One Acre Fund provides a complete service bundle of seeds, fertilisers, credit, training, postharvest management and market support, which is enabling farmers to produce a surplus and achieve a profit of US$250 in a year. Repayment rates are 98%, with field officers in Rwanda working to overcome transport and distribution problems and ensuring that farmers get the advice, support and credit they need. Currently working with 180,000 farmers, One Acre aims to support 500,000 farmers by 2016.Understanding customers' needs underscores the approach used by MicroEnsure, which currently provides crop insurance to around 60,000 farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa. A further 1,000 farmers have taken out hurricane index insurance in the Caribbean. MicroEnsure's aim is to provide reliable protection with simple, innovative products at low or no cost. However, to make insurance more inclusive, more companies need to change their processes and accept thinner profits, says MicroEnsure's Agrotosh Mookerjee. Telecom companies willing to offer a free product, for example, are helping to change market perceptions about the need for insurance. Value added products, such as crop advisories and weather forecasts, are also stimulating insurance uptake and allowing farmers to further mitigate their risks (for more on index insurance see Spore 164 Dossier -Index insurance: managing risks).Mobile phones and other ICTs are revolutionising the way in which agri-finance and insurance is delivered, dOSSiErA successful microfinance approach, known as the System of Agriculture Financing and Insurance in Haiti (Syfaah) is soon to be rolled out to Latin America and Africa. Funded by the Canadian government, where a similar system helped transform Quebec's agricultural sector 50 years ago, Syfaah brings together three components that Sylvain Dufour, credit counsellor at Developpement International Desjardins (DID) states are key to its success. Smallholders are able to improve their yields and manage their risks through a combination of small loans, weather insurance products and technical assistance, all of which are tailored to meet farmers' needs. By March 2014, Syfaah was working with 6,300 Haitian producers providing €8 million credit. By 2018, it aims to have extended the system nationwide. \"Employing agro-economists as credit officers means that lenders don't make the same mistakes as in the past -insisting for example, that a farmer make monthly repayments rather than repayments that are timed to coincide with the sale of his produce,\" says Dufour. as demonstrated throughout the Fin4Ag conference sessions, including the Plug and Play Day. Since 2009, Zoona has processed nearly 1 million eVouchers to facilitate bulk payments for specific purposes. Clients for the service have included the governments of Malawi and Zambia, as well as WFP and FAO. In Malawi, eVouchers delivered via SMS or scratchcard enable 60,000 farmers involved in a subsidised farm input scheme to buy hybrid seed from local dealers.In Ghana, the Visa-supported Rice Mobile Finance project is a mobile payment platform to support the rice value chain, increasing transparency, reducing side selling, facilitating money transfers and providing financial inclusiveness to thousands of farmers. In Nigeria, the electronic wallet system has helped reduce corruption in fertiliser supply schemes and farmers are now accessing subsidised farm inputs via their mobile phones. According to Nigerian minister Adesina, the system is now being adopted in other African countries, with interest also being shown by Brazil, China and India.The first digital clearing house in Jamaica has recently been launched, utilising Web-to-SMS technology to connect small farmers to buyers. Using SMS, Agrocentral allows farmers to alert buyers when they have a crop to sell, via a central website. In the same way, buyers can post a request to buy a certain crop which is relayed to farmers via SMS. Middlemen are thus eliminated and margins increased.However, whilst ICTs are certainly revolutionising agri-finance, they are not the panacea. In Madagascar, a simple but successful community inventory credit systemFrom focusing on multi-national subsidiaries, the ANZ bank has recently started to provide more structured solutions by extending pre-export finance to nationally owned coffee and cocoa companies in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that have a proven track record. In 2014, ANZ also extended its pre-export finance to the Solomon Islands, to a small Asiabased cocoa trading company, to coffee growers in Timor as well as sugar producers in Fiji, where the nation's entire production is exported via the Fiji Sugar Corporation. \"Funding against existing orders of sale is considered a palatable risk by the bank,\" says Gareth Coleman, of ANZ in PNG. Equity Bank has been very successful in agricultural financing with smallholder farmers. Why don't more banks take a similar approach? With agriculture financing there are challenges and risks. However, instead of fearing the risks, we need to see the opportunities, work to mitigate the risks, and explore what interventions can be developed to help smallholder farmers. The reason why some organisations do not currently work like this is because of their perception of risk. But financing is a process and we need to work with farmers to develop an effective risk mitigation strategy.Banks need to establish a relationship so that they understand the farmers, who also develop an understanding of banks. You then have a winwin situation and can develop solutions that are acceptable to both. In addition, we should bring in other players who work with farmers, who can work in partnership and support both farmers and financiers. This way, everybody understands the situation and can work to fix problems rather than leaving farmers on their own; working in partnership is a mitigation against risk. We also train our financiers in relationship management so that they not only visit the farm to talk about finances but they offer a level of extension service.The farmer then feels that we talk their language and understand their circumstances; we develop a working relationship by following their activities and supporting them to address any issue that arises.Any tool that is developed needs to be understood by farmers. You can develop a very good insurance product but if farmers do not understand the concept of insurance then it becomes a challenge for them to take up the product. So every tool needs to be supported by really effective communication so that farmers understand exactly what are the pros and cons of each concept and how it works for them. Our approach has always been to start with a level of training to explain, to create awareness and to sensitise them so that by the time they are taking up the facility, farmers know what to expect and there are no surprises.involves over 80,000 farmers storing their crops -mainly paddy but also cloves and coffee -at home in the family compound. The system has been wholeheartedly adopted by two leading microfinance institutions, resulting in close to 100% repayment rates and seasonal price stabilisation.The success story was revealed as part of crosscountry report which examines the lessons learned from community, public and private warehousing in Madagascar and eight other African countries. The report, commissioned by CTA, the French development agency, AFD, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, also examines the legislation that supports or constrains warehouse financing (see Spore Special Issue on Structured Trade). Uganda, for instance, introduced specific legislation in 2006 and 2007 to encourage public warehouses and could provide a model for other countries. But in practice, it depends on the enabling environment and, even if there is political will, as has been the case in Côte d'Ivoire, it can still take a long time to introduce enforceable legislation.Daniel Gad, owner and managing director of Omega Farms, a leading vegetable producer in Ethiopia, insisted that legislation and enabling policies for agrifinancing are key and warned that most policies lack full commitment and are subject to change. \"The capital value of farmers is enormous,\" he said, valuing it as a US$280 billion business opportunity. \"So why is it so difficult for governments and bankers to take a risk?\" (see box on p16, A change of focus in the Pacific). Gad emphasised that cultural perceptions need to change, and that central banks need to make lending easier, so that people, including the youth, move higher up the value chain.In Brazil, government support for agri-finance has led to the development of farmer IOUs -Cedula de Produto Rural (CPRs) -which are issued on the basis of future crop or cattle sales. These have proved highly effective for medium-sized commercial farmers. A farmer with 100 head of cattle, for example, would not have the credit rating to attract a big bank, but can now enter a sophisticated financial market. Over the years, electronic CPRs have been developed and have now become the basis for many other forms of agri-financing. For example, CPRs can be auctioned through an electronic network or commodity exchange or bundled to sell to pension funds.In 2013, over 600,000 CPRs were legally registered in Brazil, with billions of US dollars flowing to farmers. With agricultural production in Brazil more than doubling between 1991 and 2004, the World Bank has identified CPRs as one of the best ways forward for agri-finance. However, says Rutten, CPRs can only operate within an enabling environment, which may be country-wide, or if this proves too difficult, may be made specific to certain sectors where conditions can be met, associations are approved by government, and collateral registry and arbitration systems established. Nevertheless, the system is attractive to farmers and investors alike and inspires farmers to become more commercial.  Concern International (FCI) to develop the onion value chain using new improved hybrid varieties, along with inputs of fertiliser and pesticides. The farmers are grouped in commercial villages (CVs), made up of small clusters of around 20 to 30 households, to form larger groups of over 300. Buying and selling in bulk, the groups are able to increase their bargaining power with traders to obtain better prices for their onions, and purchase inputs, irrigation kits and quality seeds at discounted prices.Like many small-scale farmers across the region, a lack of collateral and credit records is a major constraining factor in improving farmer investment and farm productivity. However, with the farmers grouped in CVs, they are able to co-guarantee each other and access credit from Taifa SACCO, a savings and credit organisation.Prior to the intervention of FCI and Taifa SACCO,rePorT from KenYATaifa SACCO provide training in financial literacy, entrepreneurship and record keeping dOSSiEr the onion farmers traditionally grew low yielding open pollinated varieties (OPV) and staples including maize and beans. Prices for onions at the farmgate were low, reaching only 8 to 12 Kenya shillings (Ksh) (€0.06-0.12) per kg. To allow farmers to gain access to key markets in Central Kenya, FCI introduced superior hybrid seeds and provided links to seed and chemical companies, as well as buyers, enabling them to become more competitive. However, although Taifa SACCO provided the loans for purchasing inputs and the CV members provided co-guarantee, some farmers were unable to afford the interest repayments. \"Poor farmers obtained loans from other sources or sold household stuff to pay the monthly interest,\" says Mugo Kamau, Taifa SACCO's deputy marketing manager, who added that finding money to pay for farm labour was a further burden.To overcome the problem of making monthly repayments, Taifo SACCO created a loan package known as small microenterprise credit (SMEC), which was tailored to allow farmers to pay back the loan once the onions had been sold. According to Kamau, SMEC particularly helped young farmers interested in taking up onion farming but who lacked start-up capital for inputs and labour.Taifa SACCO also provided training in financial literacy, entrepreneurship and record keeping. To date, Taifa SACCO has provided over 200 million Ksh (€1.7 million) to onion CV members. As the scheme has progressed, more farmers have overcome their previous financial reservations about taking out loans. \"With increased incomes more people are becoming bankable,\" Kamau states.For example, the SMEC has helped 46 year old Daniel Gakuu to expand his onion farming from 1.6 ha to leasing another 1.3 ha since 2009. He initially took a loan of 200,000 Ksh (€1,700) payable after 6 months at 8% interest to purchase inputs and hire local labour. However, when Gakuu's onions were harvested, the 250,000 Ksh (€2,125) proceeds from 0.4 ha were enough for him to repay the loan before the 6 months elapsed. \"There is money in onion farming,\" enthuses Gakuu.Financing has also helped Grace Wanjiku Kingori significantly increase her onion farming from 0.05 ha to 0.8 ha. Previously, when growing three seasons of OPVs, Wanjiku harvested around 900 kg. In 2010, after obtaining SMEC for 10,000 Ksh (€85) she bought hybrid seeds and fertiliser for her small plot of land. Four years later, with the profits she had made, she has been able to expand her farm and production to harvest 6,000 kg during the peak harvest season between October to January.After their first initial loan, Gakuu and Wanjiku have not needed further credit as their more profitable onion farming has provided enough income to become self-sustaining. However, to prevent other new, low-income farmers in Wanjiku's CV becoming dependent on loans, there is a rule, made by the CV members, that farmers must first repay the loan and interest and to then prioritise using surplus income to buy inputs for the next year before the remaining money is spent. \"It's a rule to help instill self reliance,\" says Wanjiku.With investment in irrigation pumps and kits, farmers like Gakuu are able to consistently do three seasons in a year. \"Onion farming has become commercial in Kieni West and its spillover effect is impacting over 10,000 people here,\" says Muchiri. With improved bulking and marketing, buying prices have also improved. \"Lately, the lowest we sell a kilogram of onion is 25 Ksh,\" says Wanjiku when there is oversupply. When demand is high, according to Muchiri, 1 kg of onions sells locally for 60 Kshs (€0.5).Left: With the help of a loan, Daniel Gakuu has been able to expand his onion farming Right: When demand is high, 1 kg of onions can sell locally for 60 Kshs (€0.5) C ameroonian coffee exports are not yet buoyant despite the range of incentive policies and projects that have been implemented. Export volumes even dropped from 26,664 t to 17,340 t between 2013 and May 2014, whereas 156,000 t was exported in 1990. Yet the national coffee sector is relatively vibrant, with both small and major stakeholders still -against all the oddsbelieving in its future.Further up the chain, mechanisation is slowly making its entrance in coffee plantations. \"We have been supporting mechanisation since 2012 as it enables us to readily expand our coffee-growing area and reduces labour. The Ministry of Agriculture offered us a cultivator, which means we can till 3 ha a day, whereas it took us 2-3 weeks to till a single hectare manually. mechanisation helps us increase our coffee yields,\" says Rebecca Kamgue, President of COOPAFERLOS, a Cameroonian women farmers' cooperative.\"With mechanisation, we also don't have to pay the very high piapias labour costs. Manually, it costs FCFA 40,000 (€60) to clear a 1 ha field, while only FCFA 30,000 (€45) is needed for fuel to mechanically clear a 2 ha field.\"Patricia Ndam Njoya heads one of the largest private coffee plantations in Cameroon, at Foumban, and she is also convinced that mechanisation is the way forward. The two cultivators she recently purchased in France reduce the cost of hired labour while also liberating her family from heavy weeding work. Experience has shown that manual labour provides employment but does not improve living conditions in the long run. \"When cultivating with a hoe and machete, we have been living in the same type of houses for the past three generations with no improvement. With manual labour, we're barely able to earn enough to sustain us throughout the year, but machines help us boost our production. This makes it possible for women, especially, to leave the plantation and become involved in other levels further up the value chain.\"Where could women, especially young people, find less strenuous, better paid and more rewarding jobs elsewhere in the coffee sector? What about becoming a barista (who prepares and serves coffee drinks)? This was one of the challenges taken up by Njoya when she launched the Maison du Café in May 2014 in downtown Yaoundé. Her daughter became a barista in this trendy café after being trained by Mbula Kaluki Musau, a Kenyan woman who is a licensed Q Coffee Grader.'From the nursery to the cup' is the slogan of the Maison du Café because the coffee served comes from the Foumban plantation. It is roasted at the café, where young Cameroonians who appreciate good coffee gather.Further down the value chain, the Cameroonian coffee sector has been bolstered by Nestlé's announcement in May 2014 that it had decided to no longer import Nescafé from Côte d'Ivoire to then be sold in Cameroon or elsewhere in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECOWAS). Instead, Cameroonian green coffee will now be shipped to Côte d'Ivoire for semi-processing, to subsequently be brought back duty-free to Cameroon, where it will be processed into end products and sold on domestic and regional markets. This coffee should be able to better compete with Nescafé fraudulently brought in from Nigeria, which imports its Nescafé dutyfree from Côte d'Ivoire, as these two countries are members of ECOWAS.Finally, single-serve coffee pods are now the rage, and Cameroon is no exception. Cafés Pierre André, a local coffee company that also has a branch in Gabon, launched into this subsector in 2012. Empty pods are imported from Italy and filled with the company's coffee in the Yaoundé factory using a machine specifically designed by Pierre André, the company founder. These pods are filled only with the best quality coffees -a winning strategy!Cameroon's export coffee sector has had trouble taking off. But stakeholders who believe in its future are readily integrating into the value chain -right to the consumer's cup. This wide-ranging and well written book brings together findings and stories from those reports, under headings that include food and farming, water, health, energy, disasters and conflict. In the context of farming, it highlights how training of farmerto-farmer agents, farmer exchange visits, and community action to share ideas and resources are helping many to cope with climate change. From a scientific standpoint, however, a claim that under conservation agriculture, 'yields typically increase tenfold' sounds alarm bells. This is certainly at odds with FAO findings, and should perhaps caution readers to be aware of the mandates and missions of the contributing organisations. The latest edition of ICT4Ag explores how mobile applications have helped smallholder farmers improve their commercial farming practices and their access to information and markets. Innovations highlighted in this edition include applications such as FarmDrive, which help farmers to electronically maintain revenue and expense records, and Agrilife which provides farmers with access to finance, markets and agricultural inputs. Taking the example of Maa-speaking herders in the Laikipia region of central Kenya as a case study, this paper considers how trends to accelerating livestock commercialisation and private investment in rangelands might change the dynamics of pastoral livelihoods and vulnerability. The experience of pastoralists in Laikipia suggests a future in which many will scrape-by or be pushed into doing other things, while a fraction will derive great advantage from economic transformation. Customary and statutory land management systems are evolving, but are often not responding adequately to the tenure insecurity these changes bring. This briefing documents lessons learned through action research in developing inclusive and locally rooted tools for securing land rights and shows how they can help implement and shape national policies. Attempting to write a guide to the growing of peppersboth sweet pepper and chilli pepper -in a short publication of this nature is ambitious, and this book should best be viewed as a useful introduction to the enterprise. From its opening sentence -'Pepper is a vegetable crop' -it takes a straightforward approach, and goes on to offer simple, basic information on the important stages of crop production. These include climatic requirements for growing pepper, crop establishment in the field, crop protection and harvesting.Potential pepper growers are advised to take advantage of available plant health services and laboratories, for example in testing their soil for pathogens. Sterilisation of nursery beds through steam treatment, solarisation or pesticides, is advised where pathogens may be present. The writer also highlights the need for farmers to research the national and international competitiveness of the pepper harvest, and to carefully select those markets that are major consumers of pepper. A glossary of technical and some non-technical terms is provided.■ The Latin American and Caribbean region, stretching from the Northern Hemisphere to the Antarctic, contains enormous biological diversity. While this underpins many human activities, including agriculture, aquaculture and nature tourism, biodiversity also generates a wide range of ecosystem services (from water purification to pollination) that are hard to put a value on, 'dampening' the economic incentive to preserve it.Making policy recommendations for biodiversity conservation is therefore challenging, especially in a region that is home to great diversity in politics, culture and economics as well as ecosystems. The authors outline current regulatory policies, such as protected areas and forest management, and also market-based approaches such as payment for environmental services, highlighting the challenges they face. This leads to recommendations on five 'lines of action' for biodiversity conservation, including promotion of green agriculture, strengthening of protected areas and improving environmental governance.Over the last 20 years, the concepts and practice of action research and participatory innovation development have transformed the way that much agricultural science and rural development are carried out. But there is an increasing realisation that the complex problems facing many rural communities require collaborative thinking and action by a large number of stakeholders, not just scientists and farmers. Partnerships, including with the private sector, are now the setting for research and development, and those facilitating such processes must be ready and equipped to manage multiple interactions.Drawing on the experience of Francophone scientists (and originally published in French), this handbook to conducting action research in partnership will be invaluable to those working in this field. Clear and practical, it outlines basic concepts, provides numerous case study examples and discusses the key steps in the process, from defining the problem and assembling the stakeholder team to implementing the activities and monitoring the outcomes.This special issue of UNEP's Our Planet magazine features stories on green growth, energy access, low-carbon development, and the conservation of water, forests and biodiversity. One article highlights how sustainable development of renewable raw materials found in native forests and plantations, and new processes and technologies, could play a part in a commercial planting and reforestation programme that would create 500 million ha of forests by 2050, sequester 65 billion t of carbon, and ease pressure on natural forests. Growing financial, climate and social challenges in the Caribbean have sparked the search for new economic pathways that would better serve the region. This paper summarises diverse perspectives on green economy progress, needs and prospects, and proposes an 'action learning' agenda as a way to evolve green economy pathways for: small, medium and micro enterprises; multi-stakeholder mechanisms for developing green economy policy; and 'triple bottom line' reporting that assesses investments based on their potential environmental, social and economic benefits. ■ With nearly 30 years' experience as a consulting hydrologist specialising in groundwater dispute prevention and conflict resolution, Jarvis is keen to emphasise that this is not an easy subject. Unlike surface watersheds, groundwater resources are not static, and resolving conflicts over their use raises a large number of specific challenges. Mediators attempting to resolve disputes between different parties should, Jarvis advises, have some expertise in the subject -knowledge of mediation processes alone is unlikely to be sufficient.Whether potential mediators might expect to gain sufficient expertise by reading this book, however, is open to question -and perhaps not the intention of the author. Jarvis writes as if to 'get off his chest' years of thinking, struggling and realising, and readers should not hope for a series of easily followed bullet points on groundwater dispute resolution. Contesting Hidden Waters is more interesting and much more personal than that, offering the patient reader a uniquely informed insight into a murky and complex subterranean world.■ In 2009, while on a 'window shoppingspree' in Taveta Road, central Nairobi, the author noticed a surprising change. Fifteen years previously, the shops had been run by Asian men with male African shop assistants. Now, most had been divided into small stalls and kiosks belonging to African women. The dramatic change prompted this book, which describes how women in Nairobi are bringing the informal economy right into the heart of the city.It makes for fascinating reading. Faced with patriarchal planning ideologies and gender inequality, women whose economic activity was once restricted to the city margins have 'infiltrated the central business district', using the strengths of the informal economy -mobility, solidarity, entrepreneurialism and collective organisation -to do so. While urban planners struggle to fit Africa's urban development experience (dominated by the huge growth of slum settlements) into developed world models, recognising the achievements of women traders in the urban environment should inspire new thinking about how Africa's cities might shape their future.■ Discussion of the Chinese in Africa tends to be seen either as 'bad' new imperialism or 'good' South-South cooperation. In popular coverage, China is typically seen as the rich powerful partner that can manipulate Africa, its laws and leaders, to its own advantage. This highly-praised volume, authored by four academics with British university links, seeks to offer a more nuanced account, based on interviews with Chinese migrants and the Africans with whom they live and work.Key to its message is that the future of China's development impact in Africa will be determined by the interaction between the formal realm of politics and the informal social relations that exist between the in-comers and the local population. And while news coverage may focus on tensions between the two communities, the authors believe that many interactions at grassroots level point to a growing conviviality, cooperation and mutually beneficial relationship. As such, this volume makes interesting reading; academic in style, it will be particularly valued by students of Sino-African relations.This policy brief highlights key roles that neglected and underutilised species (NUS) play in addressing conservation agricultural biodiversity, agricultural and rural development, climate change, food and nutrition security, and gender, culture and empowerment of women. The need for capacity development in NUS is stressed and recommendations of key actions to mainstream NUS into policies and progresses are outlined. The latest edition of FAO's State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture reveals that more people than ever before are relying on fisheries and aquaculture for food as a source of income, but harmful practices and poor management are threatening the sector's sustainability. The report states that fish farming households hold tremendous promise in responding to surging demand for food, but to continue to grow sustainably, aquaculture needs to become less dependent on wild fish for feeds and introduce greater diversity in farmed culture species and practices. After decades of neglect, drylands in the Horn of Africa are experiencing an unprecedented surge of investment. To ensure that investment reinforces poverty reduction and food security, the policy recommendation calls for large-scale public investments to be complemented by medium-sized infrastructure (rural roads, animal health delivery systems, and marketing and processing facilities) that are more likely to benefit the poor. Other recommendations include the need to climate-proof investment, and better coordinate private and public investments. Agriculture is under-represented in bank portfolios, and only a very small minority of farmers have access to commercial loans. On the basis of previous unfortunate experiences -partly the result of poor government and development agency approachesmany banks think they are unable to earn reasonable returns from agriculture. The reality is that this is more the result of banks not knowing how to lend to farmers -how to create and manage tailored lending mechanisms -rather than the inherent lack of profitability in agriculture. There is no doubt that agriculture, even smallholder agriculture, can be profitable, and that global trends are rather favourable in this respect -although there are risks that need to be managed. So for financiers that learn how to lend to farmers in a safe way, which is the case only if farmers are given the tools to be profitable, market-oriented business men and women, there are great business opportunities. The conference discussed many mechanisms that have proven to work, and many participants have already indicated that they went home with new ideas that they will be looking to implement. This may be enough to change the question that shareholders ask to financiers, from \"Why risk our money to finance agriculture?\" to \"How can you miss the opportunities in financing agriculture?\" Of course, we need to continue reinforcing the message that, as a financier, you really don't want to miss out on these opportunities and that the time to build a presence in the market is now.The conference particularly focused on digital financial services. Is there an initiative that you were particularly impressed with for its innovative approach and its originality?There were many original and replicable ideas. If I have to pick just one, let me mention Umati Capital, a Kenyan company, which becomes involved in value chains where farmers reliably deliver but have to wait some time to be paid. After studying the value chain, Umati Capital equips the chain actors with a tailored digital platform (mobile technology and software) that demonstrates how the goods are moving through the value chain. On this basis, with investors' money and taking out insurance against the risk of non-payment by the final buyer, the company is able to lend to farmers as soon as they deliver. It's a simple product, but a game-changer for farmers, which brings a good return to investors, and builds the evidence for more extensive financing in the future. Around the world, millions of farmers could immediately profit from similar enterprise ventures.Do you think that the 'revolution' of financing value chains is actually happening? And is it happening in the same way in ACP countries?The separate elements that are necessary for a radically new approach towards agrifinance -from data and risk management products to delivery tools, credit support systems and knowledge about supporting legal and regulatory structures -have been developed in recent years. ICT and the exchange of ideas and experiences are now allowing these elements to be brought together. This will move faster in Africa than in the other regions -in particular as banks in the region are better developed, and development agencies have been more involved in agro-financing -but as this is a win-win for all involved it will spread to the Caribbean and Pacific as well. One swallow does not make a summer…but if you're willing to look, there are quite a few swallows moving here and there -summer can't be too far away.What follow-up actions will CTA put in place?CTA will continue playing a catalytic role, bringing people together where we think that this can lead to cross-fertilisation of ideas, new partnerships and other significant results. We will also document best practices to facilitate replication and up-scaling and build capacity so that all value chain players can work together more effectively to develop and implement innovative financing approaches. ","tokenCount":"11252"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f4e2268b25c6566954f35d213fc9d267","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/149ddd8c-d707-4b14-9217-d6b3dac7a381/retrieve","id":"-1229107089"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4abd705b-9164-48fa-84f3-a18507d7e5e5","pagecount":"70","content":"Many regions, especially in rural Africa are only marginally involved in the market economy. Low rainfall, poor soil fertility as well as inadequate infrastructure are among the factors that make it difficult for farmers to produce for market. The unfavourable terms of international trade and the growing dependence of urban communities on imported foods has also disadvantaged local farming and pastoral communities.Microfinance can help poor and marginal communities develop their economic capacities. In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of microfinance institutions and clients. However, microfinance services remain limited in rural areas which are often sparsely populated and poorly developed in terms of economic and physical infrastructure. Efforts are, therefore, needed to identify 'rural finance' approaches -savings and lending systems-that respond to the needs and capacities of poorer clients and rural entrepreneurs.Rural financial services vary in scale and objective. Community-based savings and lending groups, for example, make small but essential amounts of money available to their members. Where agricultural production, processing and marketing is more capital intensive the demand for more formal financial service providers is stronger. This Agrodok describes current savings, lending, and insurance practices, identifies the service providers working in the informal, semiformal and formal sector and discusses current approaches and methodologies. It targets those who want to know more about rural finance as well as development practitioners concerned with identifying the financial services most appropriate for their project or organisations.Designing and executing rural finance programmes requires 'expert' knowledge. Although this Agrodok pays some attention to good practices in rural finance, it is not a training manual. It does not set out to show readers how they can develop and implement programmes. The Useful Addresses list contains the addresses of organizations that can be consulted when this type of assistance is needed.The author would like to thank all those who have contributed to this publication with their valuable comments on earlier drafts, in particular Gabrielle Athmer, Frank Bakx, Harry Clemens and Cor Wattel.The author, Wageningen, 2008 1 Introduction Rural finance refers to financial services such as savings, lending, insurance and remittance services that can be provided by a variety of actors. These actors can be friends, relatives, shopkeepers, traders, money lenders, traditional savings and lending groups, microfinance programmes or banks. Rural finance is a term used to cover those financial services provided in rural areas for agricultural as well as nonagricultural purposes.Within the rural sector different groups and categories of individual require services designed to meet their particular needs. While poorer groups might need savings facilities and micro-credit to cover production costs and emergency expenses, farmers and farmers' organizations involved in cash-crop production will probably require larger amounts of credit to finance production, inputs, processing and marketing.Rural finance is the provision of financial services, including savings, lending, insurance and remittance services to rural households and entrepreneurs.All rural households save, although the amount will vary from household to household depending on the capacity, motivation and determination of the farm family. ? At harvest time, subsistence farmers will sell part of their food crop but they will also try to store as much as they can to carry them through to the next harvest and build up their reserves. ? Some of the money received from the sale of cash crops will be saved to meet future household expenses. It will either be saved in cash or used to buy small animals, jewellery or other valuables that can be sold when money is needed (savings in kind). ? Income flows from non-agricultural activities such as trade or wage labour are not evenly distributed over the year. For this reason peo-ple save to have enough money for when there is little cash available. ? People save to prepare themselves for recurring expenses such as school fees, for special occasions like marriages and funerals and for unforeseen events such as sickness or poor harvests. They also save so they can make investments later.Figure 1: Farmers store as much food as possible to carry them through to the next harvest Borrowing patterns vary. Some people borrow regularly, others very occasionally. Poor people are often forced to borrow and contract debts because they need money to pay for everyday expenses or cope with medical and other emergencies. Business (wo)men and farmers borrow to obtain working capital and pay for investments. In cash economies producers borrow because they need capital.Savings can be seen as a form of insurance to be used when problems arise so the household does not get into debt. Access to lending can be seen as a form of insurance. Social capital -the willingness of friends, relatives and others to help each other in emergencies -is also a particularly important and common form of insurance.Recently, financial service organizations -insurance companies, banks and microfinance organizations -have been exploring the possibility of developing insurance services for the poor. These include health and life insurance and, on a smaller scale, animal and crop insurance. However, this is a relatively new field and much still needs to be done.Remittances form an important part of rural income. Relatives who migrate in search of cash employment send money back to assist their families. This money is often used to meet immediate family needs, to pay for emergencies or school fees or invested in building. Remittance money is not generally used to finance the development of economic activities.If migrants deposit part of their remittance in a savings account at a local bank or microfinance institution, these funds can be lent out again. This means that more capital will be available for investment in local production and local development will be strengthened.Local banks and microfinance institutions depend on external funds, loans from donors and larger banks to build up their loan capital. It is not always easy to get external funding and it is usually more expensive than funds acquired through clients' savings. Remittances provide local banks and microfinance institutions with the opportunity of becoming less dependent on borrowing from external funds.Rural finance covers informal, semi formal and formal institutional savings and lending arrangements.Households and individuals can save by storing their cash themselves or by investing it in valuables such as jewellery or (small) animals. Some individuals will save through traditional savings and lending groups. In some countries there are money collectors who regularly collect savings from rural producers and entrepreneurs. The main providers of loans to the poor are family, friends, shopkeepers, pawnshops, traders, moneylenders and landlords as well as traditional savings and lending groups. Because they are not regulated by law, this type of saving and lending activity is said to belong to the informal sector.The formal financial sector is controlled by law and consists of banks that are regulated by banking law and -in countries where this sector is regulated -microfinance institutions. In some countries the microfinance sector is not regulated but development organizations are allowed to collect savings and lend on a small scale. This type of organization is typical of the 'semi-formal' financial sector. In the semi-formal sector the NGO microfinance programmes and the small-scale financial activities of unregistered organizations predominate.Rural finance targets the rural farm and non-farm population and includes both agricultural finance and rural microfinance.Rural households are involved in agricultural as well as nonagricultural activities: small restaurants, crafts, hairdressing, food processing and trade are amongst the ways cash is earned. The standard lending practice of most microfinance programmes is based on short-term loans. This type of lending strategy is well adapted to short business cycles. Petty traders, for example, may need credit to buy stock which they hope to sell within a few days or weeks. Once products have been sold and the loan repaid, the trader can begin a new (short) business cycle. Because income has been generated relatively quickly the loan can be repaid -in instalments -over a short period of time and repayments can be started soon after a loan has been disbursed.Agricultural activities, however, require a different type of financial support. Loans made to help farmers increase their agricultural production must take into account the time crops and livestock need to mature. Farmers can face difficulties if they have to start repaying loans too quickly and they have no other source of income like money earned from non-agricultural activities or from crops harvested and marketed at different times of the year. If farmers or rural entrepreneurs install new equipment or infrastructure they cannot expect immediate results. These types of investment require mid-or long-term loans.Risks within the agricultural sector often extend beyond the individual farm household to affect a whole region. Crops can be destroyed by drought, floods or insect pests. Herds can be devastated by disease and hunger. Unpredictable markets also threaten farm livelihoods and incomes. Since such events affect large groups of farmers at the same time, they represent a high risk for microfinance programmes and banks because many clients will have repayment problems. For this reason, financial service providers are reluctant to extend their services to a risk-prone agricultural sector. Specially adapted rural finance programmes are required to deal with these types of risk.There are different approaches to rural finance. The needs of a specific target group or the characteristics of a region determine the approach selected. The financial needs of the poor or those living in marginal areas will not be the same as those who have access to more resources.Poor households depend largely on subsistence agriculture. They are not in a position to take risks and their on-and off-farm activities are usually small scale and yield little income. Savings services -tailored to their capacities and needs -are very important to them.Farmers with access to more resources often produce and market cash crops. They earn more and are able -and willing -to take more risks. They often need credit so they can invest and improve their production.Farmers in marginal regions prefer to minimise their risks. They practice multiple cropping and meet their basic needs by growing crops that require little capital input. They do not commit themselves fully to the market economy because they are unable to take the risk that bad weather and poor prices may destroy their crops, income and food supply. However, they do need cash to pay for services and goods and they raise it either by selling farm products or -if this is not possibleby engaging in non-agricultural activities.Figure 3: Non-agricultural activities such as basket making can provide rural households with much needed cash.Because their economic and financial capacity is limited, households in marginal areas do not need much capital and non-agricultural activities are usually conducted on a small scale. Rural families do not need loans but they do need to save. The conventional way of dealing with emergencies and recurrent expenses is to sell valuable assets such as livestock and equipment. If farm families have access to savings facilities they can put aside part of their earning to meet future expenses and in this way avoid going into debt or having to sell their assets.Box 1: Seasonality of income, expenditure, savings and credit in Arusha, TanzaniaBecause of the seasonal fluctuation in income in rural areas, the poor save money during high income seasons so they have enough cash for the months when money is scarce. This practice is known as 'income smoothing'.In the Arusha district of Tanzania, farmers can expect to earn money in the period July to December when crops ripen and there are jobs in the tourist industry. People save part of this income to carry them through the period January to June when there is little money around to meet school fees and household expenses. Health bills also tend to be higher in the period January to June because there is more illness and disease at this time of year. Households rely on a combination of savings and loans to meet their expenses in these difficult months.From: Use and Impact of Savings in Tanzania. L. Mutesasira. Micro Save, August 1999Landless labourers, small landowners and women predominate in marginal groups. Because they earn little cash from agriculture and other activities, they can benefit from saving facilities that help them 'smooth' their income.Credit can be supplied to marginal groups wishing to undertake (new) income generating activities. However, it is essential that a careful study is made of the proposed activity to ensure that it will make enough money for farmers to repay their loans and continue production. Costs and risks can be reduced if the working capital or investment can be (partly) financed from the producers own capital or savings. Risks can further be reduced if activities are started on a small scale using only small loans. As their experience increases and risks decline, farmers will be in a better position to take on larger loans and extend production.Farmers producing for market and traders and artisans doing business on a significant scale, need money to buy inputs, hire labour and invest in the future of their enterprise. Often their own financial reserves are small and they need access to appropriate credit facilities to keep their businesses going. If credit is not available on acceptable terms, farmers may cut back on investment and -as output declines -cease to market their products.A new approach is to analyse the bottlenecks in production and marketing and identify ways in which producers can attract added value to their products and activities. This involves evaluating the production or value chain as a whole. At farm level the production chain may begin with an initial input of seed, fertilizer, labour and the purchase of livestock or machinery. Once agricultural products are ready for market, farmers, traders and other rural entrepreneurs may consider processing them to increase their market value. Marketing the product and the price consumers are prepared to pay for the goods on offer is the final link in the chain.Farmers can add value to their product at any point in the chain. They can improve their production efficiency, bargain over the price of inputs or try to sell their products in new markets. Farmers who are directly involved at different stages in the chain will benefit from the added value achieved through processing and selective marketing.More money can also be earned when farmers' organizations start to explore new markets and begin marketing products themselves. Rural finance has an important role to play in this process. It can provide the funds needed to pay for inputs and the cost of production, processing and marketing.Regions, sectors, producers and producer organizations with development potential need specifically tailored credit facilities. Credit facilities can be of particular help to those involved in cash crop production. However, the extent to which individual farm households or producers can benefit from credit facilities will depend on their access to land, knowledge and other critical assets.If development is successful, farmers and other rural entrepreneurs will be able to improve their living conditions, invest in production and have more opportunity to save. As rural incomes improve, the demand for insurance services is likely to increase. As their capital investment increases, farmers who can afford to pay the premiums will consider insuring themselves against possible risks.In an attempt to help alleviate poverty, the Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) in Ghana has developed a strategy to improve the income of small-scale farmers by making them part of the value chain. The Savannah Farmers Marketing Company (SFMC) was created and given the responsibility of finding markets that offered farmers a good price for their products. Credit was extended to farmers groups' that took part in the project.The farmers involved were members of local farmer-based organizations and these organizations sold their products at a fixed price to the SFMC. The SFMC signed contracts with several large companies. These contracts set out pricing policy, quality standards and the services to be provided. The products purchased from farmers' groups are sold directly to these companies.The SFMC buys certified seed and this is made available to farmers on credit.It also provides credit for land preparation services and farmers receive agricultural training when necessary. After the harvest, farmers bring their crops to fixed collection points. The crops are inspected and then stored ready for sale.Once the farmers have been paid they repay their loans.The project has been extremely successful and more and more farmers have joined the scheme. As a result the SFMC decided to concentrate on marketing -where it had considerable experience -and hand over credit-related activities to two rural banks. Now a small unit within the SFMC liaises with these banks and helps farmers obtain credit. The unit assesses farmers' credit applications and provides the banks with a list of farmers it considers credit worthy. The banks themselves must then decide which farmers are eligible for micro loans and it is the banks that carry the risk if loans are not repaid.There are plans to create two separate business units. The first -the SFMCwill focus on marketing. The second -ACDEP Financial Services (AFS) will be responsible for all credit-related activities. The AFS will assess and monitor credit applications and pass its recommendations to the rural banks. As soon as credit is given to clients, AFS becomes responsible for monitoring loan repayment and retrieving unpaid loans.In this way it may be possible to overcome the problem of credit applications from vulnerable farmers -especially those from farmers living in more remote areas -being rejected by the banks. It is hoped that AFS can become a strong, profit generating unit able to operate beyond the current client base of the SFMC.From: Study Support Methodologies for Rural Finance among the Dutch Mi-croNed members. MicroNed, The Hague, the Netherlands (2007)As the field of rural microfinance continues to develop, more products and services targeting the specific needs of farmers, pastoralists and rural entrepreneurs are becoming available. The importance of savings has often been undervalued but an analysis of the role it can play in rural society emphasizes its importance.Attention must be paid to the way in which the limited outreach of microfinance in rural areas affects access to and the availability of credit. Ways of overcoming this problem are being developed and because financial services are important for all categories of the rural poor, these new facilities and approaches need to be explored. Insurance services are also being developed to mitigate the risks and uncertainties faced by rural producers.Many microfinance organizations only supply credit and the importance of savings -especially for the poor -continues to be underestimated. The experience of traditional savings and credit groups, community-based savings and lending groups and savings and credit cooperatives show that the poor need savings services more than credit facilities.Savings services can have the following functions: ? Income smoothing: In rural areas incomes are often irregular. This is as true for agriculture as for other economic activities. However, money is needed throughout the year. If cash is saved when it becomes available, it reduces the risk of money running out when it is most needed. ? Safe place: Many households do not have a safe place to keep their money because there are no local banks or financial organizations.It can be difficult to withstand the impulse to spend money if it is kept at home. ? Liquidity: Many people in rural areas buy animals, jewellery or other valuables when they have cash. Saving in kind, however, does have some disadvantages. It is not always easy to sell goods or animals when cash is needed and if they are sold the amount of money raised may either exceed or be less than the amount required. ? Insurance: If households are able to save they will be in a better position to avoid going into debt when emergencies arise. ? Financial provisions: Savings can be used to meet the costs of occasional -but expensive -events such as marriages and funerals. They can also be used to finance a child's education. ? Investments: Farmers and other rural entrepreneurs save so they can invest in the development of their farms and business without having to rely on loans. Banks and microfinance institutions also benefit from the savings deposited by their clients: ? They can use the savings deposited by their members/clients for their loan funds instead of having to borrow from other sources. Capital acquired in this way will be cheaper than borrowed capital.It also reduces their dependency on external agencies. ? Many organizations use the savings deposited by individual clients as a guarantee for outstanding loans. If there are repayment problems, the client's savings will be confiscated.? A financial organization can assess a client's repayment ability by analyzing the way he or she saves. Clients who save regularly are low risk because they have shown they are able to consistently save money from their normal income. ? Some organizations link the maximum credit they grant to clients to the amount the client has saved. A regular savings pattern indicates that clients will be able to repay their loan from their normal household or business income.Many microfinance organizations oblige their clients to save. Before clients can apply for a loan they must have saved for a specific period of time and/or have saved a certain amount. Sometimes clients are obliged to continue saving after they have received their loan. This is called obligatory saving.While obligatory savings are useful for microfinance organizations, the conditions imposed are often not favourable to the client. For example, clients may not be allowed to withdraw their savings until the loan has been fully repaid or they may receive little or no interest on their savings. Obligatory savings do not encourage clients to have a positive attitude towards saving.Many people -especially the poor -feel they are unable to save. Setting money aside on a regular basis can be difficult for those with very small incomes. However, experience has shown it can be done. If financial organizations collect savings regularly -daily, weekly or biweekly, for example, and the amounts are kept small -a dollar a week or just a few cents -they can gradually build up their reserves.Some people refuse to save with banks or microfinance programmes either because they have little confidence in the type of organization or they think that traditional forms of saving are just as effective. If financial service organizations are to attract farmers and rural entrepreneurs into voluntary savings schemes, they must ensure that their schemes are tailored to the needs and capacities of their prospective clients. For example, clients should know they are free to withdraw their savings if necessary, that they can save small amounts at frequent intervals and that interest will be paid on any money they deposit.Limited rural outreach After informal sources, microfinance organizations are the main providers of credit to low income groups in developing countries. However, they have a limited presence in rural areas, especially in the less populated and economically under-developed parts of Africa and Latin America. Where microfinance organizations do exist, the poorest groups are often unable to access their services.Microfinance organizations tend to avoid rural areas for several reasons:? Except for some countries in South Asia such as India and Bangladesh, for example, rural population density tends to be low and communication infrastructure poor. This means that setting up microfinance programmes, monitoring business and keeping in touch with clients will involve a lot of travelling and high transport costs. ? In many rural areas agricultural productivity is low and the income generated by rural businesses is small. There will not be many prospective clients unless the microfinance organization is prepared to serve clients with limited savings and borrowing capacity. This means they will have to handle savings and loans involving quite small amounts money. Providing such services often proves too expensive for microfinance organizations. ? Profit margins in agricultural production are often low and farmers are not able to pay the high interest rates microfinance organizations charge for their loans. ? Many microfinance organizations -like other financial institutions in the formal sector such as banks -ask for collateral to guarantee loan repayment. But in rural areas the poor have no land, buildings or salaries to offer as collateral to guarantee loan repayment.? Agriculture is a high risk occupation. It is also an activity that involves high co-variant risk. This means that if drought, storms, disease or unfavourable market conditions occur a large number of clients will be at risk at the same time. All clients will face the same repayment problems and -for this reason -microfinance organizations are reluctant to extend their services to marginal and riskprone agricultural areas. Individual loans or group loans When an individual applies for a loan, the financing organization will ask the loan applicant either for the names of individuals who will guarantee repayment if he or she cannot repay the loan or for collateral such land or a house that can be confiscated if the borrower defaults.Many poor people do not have the type of asset that can be used as collateral and they may find it difficult to find somebody willing to act as their personal guarantor. For this reason many microfinance organizations have replaced individual loans with group loans where the group accepts responsibility for repaying the loans taken out by its members.This approach is known as the solidarity group approach. Clients are organised in small groups of between 5-20 members and they meet on a regular basis. During their meetings members deposit savings, repay the instalments due on their loans and discuss loan applications. Loans are also disbursed.Because these groups select their own members, there is a high level of common understanding and trust. Individual members who apply for loans are not asked to provide collateral themselves. Instead each group member accepts responsibility for ensuring that the loans made to its members are repaid. This can be done in one of two ways. Either group members agree that they will all contribute to repaying the debt of a member who defaults on his or her loan repayments. Or group members will not be entitled to new loans until every group member has repaid his or her outstanding loan. In this case, if the group wants to access a new loan, they will either have to put social pressure on the defaulter to repay, help the defaulter with his or her repayments or repay the loan themselves.While group loans can solve collateral problems in marginal and impoverished areas, the cost of providing financial services to rural producers and entrepreneurs remains high.It is expensive to keep credit agents in the field and management and administrative staff in central offices. Solidarity groups can -to some extent -offset field costs when group members take on the responsibility of collecting savings and repayments, dealing with defaulters and assessing loan applications. Nevertheless, organizational costs will still be substantial. Credit agents need to monitor the groups and carry out administrative tasks while the cost of communication and administration involved in maintaining rural financial services is relatively high.Operational costs can, however, be reduced considerably when local groups take over the monitoring and management of savings and credit on a voluntary bases such as in community-based saving and lending groups, village level self-help groups and village banks. Such organizations, together with credit and saving cooperatives, are categorised as member-owned organizations. They have significantly lower costs than centrally managed types of microfinance organizations, banks and other non-member organizations.Decentralised, member-owned organizations are often better adapted to clients needs and can bring more social pressure to bear on members who default on loans. Experience suggests that member organizations are also more effective in providing financial services to the poor in isolated rural areas than non-member organizations. For extremely poor groups and communities living in marginal agricultural areas, community-based approaches are extremely appropriate.Rural entrepreneurs and those engaged in cash crop production frequently need credit facilities. Farm inputs must be paid for, seasonal labour employed and investments made. When there are no banks or microfinance organizations that can provide the necessary financial support alternatives are needed: ? Traders are a traditional source of credit for farmers. Some organizations have developed a system known as trader credit. Traders provide farmers -on a credit basis -with the inputs they need to cultivate their crops and maintain their herds. These loans are repaid at harvest time. Traders deduct the loan from the income farmers earn from the sale of their crops. Banks and microfinance organizations find it convenient to work through traders because they have local networks and understand the communities in their area. They can also provide low cost credit. If banks and other funding agencies cooperate with traders they can avoid the expense of setting-up new networks of offices and appointing credit agents to manage rural business.? Out-grower advance schemes and contract farming are particular forms of trader credit. Farmers enter into a contract with traders, wholesalers or food processors prepared to provide cash advances and supply inputs on credit. In return farmers agree to sell their harvest to these contractors.? Warehouse receipt schemes. Farmers stock their produce in warehouses. In return they get a receipt that they can use as collateral if they want to apply for a loan. This arrangement can be used, for example, by farmer cooperatives if they decide to store their products until prices rise or if farmers have to wait for payment from buyers. Under the warehouse receipt scheme farmers do not have to wait for payment. ? Leasing. If production is partially mechanised, farmers may need mid-or long-term loans to buy and maintain equipment. Many financial institutions consider that the risks attached to providing long-term credit are too high. Leasing can be an alternative in such situations. The leasing company provides farmers with equipment for a few years on a contract basis and farmers pay off the lease in periodic instalments. At the end of the lease period the leasing company either repossesses the equipment or offers to sell it to the farmer. As the equipment leased to the farmer remains the property of the owner and can be easily withdrawn if the farmer defaults on payments, it is less risky than lending. Withdrawing the equipment is also simpler than claiming the collateral offered to guarantee a loan because legal constraints and weak judicial systems often make it difficult to take possession of assets offered as collateral.Loan size is determined by the clients' plans and his or her repayment capacity. Experience has shown that it is better for a new borrower to start with a relatively small loan. High risks should be avoided. New clients have to build up a relationship of trust with their financial service provider. They have to show they have the capacity to generate enough income to repay their loans. However, the loan should not be too small. It should be large enough for rural producers to launch economically viable enterprises and generate enough income to repay the loan, cover household and business costs and make savings and investment possible.Credit can be extended for various lengths of time. Short-term loans have to be repaid within 1-12 months, mid-term loans within 1-3 years. Long-term credit can be extended for periods of more than three years.Most microfinance programmes only provide short-term loans for a period of three to six months. This approach is well adapted to economic activities with a rapid turnover of capital but less well adapted to agricultural activities.Most microfinance programmes require their clients to repay their loans relatively quickly -often within 3-4 months -and in monthly instalments without a period of grace i.e. a delay before the first instalment has to be paid.It is debatable whether this type of system is appropriate for agricultural loans.It might be more effective if the repayment schedule attached to agricultural loans followed the agricultural cycle. Then farmers would only be required to repay their loans after they had sold crops or livestock. However, such a system does not take into account the advantage of being in regular contact with clients. When repayment problems are identified at an early stage appropriate action can be taken.Farm families often have other sources of (non-farm) income or cultivate a variety of crops that can be harvested and marketed throughout the year. This makes it possible for them to repay their loans in regular instalments soon after the loan has been granted. The repayment system can, if necessary, be adapted to the clients needs. The first instalment(s) can be kept relatively small, for example, so that they only cover the interest rate or a small part of the total loan amount.Insurance services can help farmers and rural producers cope with events that threaten their livelihood such as the death, illness or injury of family members, poor harvests, cattle disease and theft.Coping with risk: traditional mechanisms Traditionally, farm households and rural producers build up reserves when times are good. They save income in cash or kind and ensure they have sufficient food reserves to carry them through more difficult times. Membership of traditional saving and lending clubs enable farm families to save and prepare themselves for possible future expenses.The burial and funeral societies that are widespread in Ethiopia, for example, provide an example of this type of traditional insurance. Family relationships and local networks are also important sources of financial support in times of need.Iddirs are traditional burial societies or funeral associations. They are found in all parts of Ethiopia except Tigray. In 2007, the Global Action Poverty Group made a study of 15 Ethiopian Peasant Associations. Of the 1500 households involved in the research nearly 90% belonged to at least one iddir, 21% belonged to two and 20% were members of three iddirs or more. Only 4% of households said they did not belong to an iddir because they could not afford the monthly payments.The members of an iddir typically meet once or twice a month and make a small payment into a group fund of about 1 or 2 birr (US$0.10c). The iddirs are rather formal organizations. They often have written rules and keep records of contributions and payouts. When a member dies, the iddir makes a payment to surviving family members either in cash or in kind. The average amount paid by the iddirs in the study was about 100 birr (US$5). In addition to providing this form of life insurance, about a third of the iddirs also make cash payouts or provided loans to members when emergencies arise.  Poor people are particularly vulnerable to risks. They often have few reserves and little savings. In addition they have limited access to lending facilities and their social networks are generally smaller and less effective than the social network of wealthier groups. Therefore, savings and lending products that are specifically designed to help marginalised and poor communities deal with the risks that threaten their livelihood are extremely important.Recently financial service organizations -including insurance companies, banks and microfinance organizations -have started to experiment with special insurance products for the poor. At present considerable attention is being given to the development of health and life insurance schemes and -to some extent -products that cover crops and animal health. This is a very new field, however, and much work still needs to be done. Experience shows that one of the greatest challenges to the successful development of insurance products for the rural poor is ensuring financial sustainability. Many schemes are small scale, their administration complex and there is always the risk that the microfinance organization will not have sufficient reserves to meet high claims because its client base is too small.In a study of micro insurance in the 100 poorest countries in the world carried out for the Micro Insurance Centre (2007), J.R Roth and his fellow researchers found that there is very little micro insurance available for the poor. In South and Central America only 7.8% of the poor are covered by some form of insurance and this figure is itself unrepresentative because it includes Peru where 40% of the poor have access to insurance. In India and Africa the percentage of poor people covered by insurance are 2.7% and 2% respectively. It is widely recognised that much still needs to be done in this branch of microfinance. However, it is a considerable challenge to provide a cost effective and sustainable insurance service.Some risks only affect individual households. These individual, specific or idiosyncratic risks include disease, death and theft. Other risks, however, may affect large numbers of individuals and households within a particular region. These risks are referred to as common or covariant risks and include natural calamities such as low or extremely high rainfall, outbreaks of disease, plant and animal pests, low product prices, war and epidemics such as HIV/AIDS. This type of mass /covariant risk is difficult to insure since the insurer is exposed to high losses if an entire population is affected by a calamity.Pilot insurance schemes exist to cover individual or idiosyncratic risks. These provide the rural poor with health and life insurance and make it possible for them to insure their property and livestock.Several microfinance programmes have credit-life insurance schemes. These are often obligatory and are designed to ensure that if the bor-rower dies the loan will be repaid. The borrower takes out life insurance for the period of the loan. If he or she dies the outstanding debt will be paid out of the insurance fund. Some microfinance programmes with schemes to provide farmers with loans to buy cattle have also developed similar arrangements to cover the risk that animals may die or be stolen. Farmers pay a cattle insurance premium so that if anything happens to their animals their loans are covered.Health insurance schemes are usually based on the payment of monthly premiums. Some cover the cost of hospitalization; others include the cost of medicines. Life insurance programmes pay compensation to the family of the deceased at the time of death and may also meet funeral costs.Common or co-variant risk Uncertain weather conditions, pests and disease as well as fluctuating and unpredictable market prices mean that agricultural is a risky business. Insurance is needed but since these hazards involve common or covariant risks it is not easy to develop appropriate insurance products. The insurance agency itself can be exposed to high losses if a calamity strikes an entire region.Assessing each farmer's crop and livestock losses in the aftermath of a natural disaster or in cases of recurrent drought or excessive rainfall involves an enormous amount of work. Experiments are being carried out using index-based insurance to reduce costs. Instead of visiting the fields of each farmer to assess how much has been lost, the insurance agency estimates farmers' losses on the basis, for example, of deviations from such indicators as the normal rainfall figures for the region. The average loss per farm surface is then estimated for an entire region using these 'proxy' estimates. The results will later be used to calculate how much compensation a farmer should receive. Some, however, express doubts about applying index-based crop insurance in remote areas. Unfortunately weather trends are changing and local rainfall records can no longer be relied upon to provide good approximations.Box 5: Credit life insurance and emergency loans offered by PULSE, Zambia PULSE (Peri-Urban Lusaka Small Enterprise) began lending in 1995.Founded by CARE International its aim was to fight urban poverty by making it easier for micro and small enterprises to access credit. It offered two types of business loan: Ntemba, a group loan product for micro traders and small business loans designed for individuals. PULSE's experience with insurance began in 2000 with a self-managed insurance scheme called Borrowers Protection Fund (BPF). BFP was designed to provide credit life insurance to clients. Premiums ranged from 1-3% of the loan depending on its size and the terms of repayment. The BPF paid off outstanding loans. The scheme grew and PULSE realised that it would be better if it were managed by an insurance company. In cooperation with Madison -a local insurance company -a Credit Life Assurance Scheme was developed to replace the BPF. This scheme ensured that loans were paid off if a borrower died before he or she had finished paying for a loan or could not repay loan instalments because of illness.Toward the end of 2002, PULSE added Thandizo, an insurance product that covered the borrower and selected household members. PULSE also started to provide emergency loans to deal with economic stresses and risks that were not already covered by its business and insurance products. Household emergency loans were made available for periods of three months with repayments being required on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. The collateral for these household emergency loans could be a salary, personal savings, an employer's guarantee or the borrower's own repayment record. The size of the loan depended on its purpose. Loans of up to ZMK500,000 (US$108) were made available to meet funeral costs and loans of ZMK3 million (US$645) were made for school fees. The maximum loan for medical expenses was ZMK1 million (US$216). The interest on these loans was 5.5% per month on a flat rate basis and borrowers were required to pay loan processing fees ranging from ZMK30,000 (US$6.50) to ZMK200,000 (US$43), depending on the size of the loan.Source: Good and Bad Practices. Case Study No.10, May 2005; Madison Insurance, Zambia. CGAP Working Group on Micro Insurance.Financial service providers within the informal, semi-formal and formal sector offer a wide range of products and have developed many different approaches. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Costs, flexibility, outreach and saving and lending methods will determine how appropriate these services are for specific target groups and especially those living and working in poverty stricken and marginal areas.Friends, relatives, shopkeepers, moneylenders etc.The poor first turn to friends, relatives, local shopkeepers, traders, pawnbrokers, money lenders and landlords when they need to borrow money. Many people deposit savings with persons they trust or with money collectors.Friends and relatives generally lend money without charging interest. Pawnbrokers, money collectors, shopkeepers and landlords, however, are often heavily criticised for exploiting and charging abusively high interest rates to those in financial need.Despite these problems informal sources of credit have definite advantages. They are: ? Easily accessible. In some regions there are no financial service providers and borrowers have to travel to nearby towns to arrange loans. Informal lending takes place without the filling in of complex loan applications and there is no collateral involved. ? Flexible. There are no restrictions on the way the loan can be used.While microfinance providers are often only prepared to lend money for \"productive purposes\", many borrowers require loans to buy consumer goods, for example, or deal with emergencies. Within the informal sector there is usually a degree of flexibility as far as repayment arrangements are concerned.? Able to respond quickly. Moneylenders and pawnbrokers can pay out money quickly and shopkeepers and traders are able to supply goods bought on credit immediately.So long as other financial service providers cannot offer this type of advantage, informal service providers will continue to be the main source of loans to the poor.Traditional savings and lending groups have many different names depending on where they are found: In some countries they are known as merry-go-rounds in others as tontines, tandas or haqbads. Local names abound but traditional savings and lending groups have certain basic principals in common.The most common form of traditional savings and lending is the Rotating Saving and Credit Association (ROSCA). Community members voluntarily come together as a group on a regular basis and each time they meet they contribute a fixed amount of money. These contributions or savings are paid out immediately to a member of the group present at the meeting. A lottery may be held to decide who will receive this money. Once a member has received a payment he or she will no longer be entitled to take part in future lotteries. However, he or she will continue to participate in meetings and pay contributions until the cycle ends. A ROSCA cycle comes to an end once all members of the group have received a payment. At this point new members can enter the group, old members can leave and a new cycle of contributions and payments begins. Many ROSCAs continue for years although their membership can change.The advantage of the system is that members commit themselves to saving for the entire ROSCA cycle. Each will receive one lump-sum payment making it possible for them to invest, buy equipment and other consumer items or pay school fees. The system is most popular among women, but is also practised by men particularly by traders and those who, like civil servants, receive a regular income. ASCA groups usually have a limited life cycle of about a year and at the end of this time the money saved is distributed amongst group members. ASCAs are more difficult to manage than ROSCAs because money is held in cash and records have to be kept to keep track of loans and repayments. This is probably the reason why they are less common than ROSCAs.ROSCAs and ASCAs have many advantages.? Autonomy. They are initiated by their members and do not depend on outside assistance. The members manage the groups themselves, decide on the amount and frequency of saving and determine their own loan conditions and procedures. ? Social coherence. Group coherence is assured because members select co-members themselves. ? Adaptability. The groups are generally made up of people in the same financial position. Some groups consist of women traders who have larger financial capacities and needs. In other groups rural women with limited savings capacity may get together to provide each other with financial support. Amounts saved will range from a few dollars a week in some groups to a few cents in groups where money is scarce. ? Mutual assistance. Members also join these groups for social reasons. The group provides them with the opportunity to meet regularly and relationships built up in the group can be a valuable source of support in times of trouble. Group members often assist each other in emergencies with advice as well as material and financial support. This is an important social resource and is sometimes referred to as social capital -a phrase that indicates the status of human resources in a community.But traditional saving and lending groups also have their limitations: ? Some savings and lending groups last for many years but others have a limited life cycle. This means that they are unable to offer their members permanent access to financial services. ? They function well when there is good group leadership. However, there is always the risk of fraud. ? Members are often not capable of mobilising sufficient funds for those who have larger enterprises and need bigger loans.? ASCAs only provide short-term loans and cannot help members who want to invest but need loans that can be repaid over a longer period of time.The semi-formal sector is made up of NGOs and developmentorientated organizations that offer financial services not covered by the legislation that regulates financial service providers.Several NGOs have developed community-based savings and lending groups, village savings and lending association and self-help groups.Their programmes are built along the lines of traditional savings and lending groups. Since the principles underlying the traditional groups are well known to the target groups, it is relatively easy for NGOs to introduce these new programmes.The programmes all start with savings. The amount saved is determined by the group members themselves. Groups vary considerably in size with the smaller groups having no more than three or four members while larger groups may have as many as 30 members. Loans become available to members as soon as enough capital has been generated through members' savings. The group is responsible for selecting beneficiaries, managing loans, monitoring repayments and deciding the conditions (interest rate, repayment period) under which loans can be made.These programmes differ from the traditional ROSCA and ASCA systems because they have been introduced by external agencies -mostly NGOs. The NGOs promote the idea of setting up a savings and lending programme and introduce members to the general principles of the system. Emphasis is placed on group formation, leadership training and the setting up of a simple system to administer loans and financial transactions. Responsibility for managing newly created groups is then handed over to the members although guidance in the form of monitoring, technical advice and assistance is still provided. The advantages of this type of community-based or self-help group approach are: ? They are well adapted to the financial capacity and needs of the poor. Since savings can range from a few cents to a few dollars a week, access is assured even to the lowest income groups. ? Group members can take loans either to invest in production and trade or to meet the cost of emergencies and social and family obligations. Often small loans are taken out to cover occasional costs such as the purchase of agricultural inputs or to hired labour. ? Beneficiaries use their own savings to meet exceptional expenses.They no longer need to take out loans and risk the chance of falling into debt. ? Operational costs are minimal because the groups manage themselves. This makes it possible for them to keep interest rates low. Sometimes, however, a group may decide to charge a commercial interest rate because it wants to build up its capital so it can provide more loans. ? An important advantage for group members is that the system is flexible and decisions are reached through a process of group discussion. Another advantage is that loans can be issued without much delay if sufficient capital is available. ? The experience of self organization can lead to the empowerment of the group and its individual members. The group provides a forum where members can find support, exchange experiences and undertake joint action.Disadvantages of semi-formal organizations are: ? It can take a long time for the group to accumulate enough capital to meet its members' loan requirements.? Organizational sustainability is uncertain. Much depends on the quality of leadership and members' commitment.The conventional way for NGOs to set up a (savings) and credit programme is to establish an externally funded revolving fund from which loans can be disbursed to members or clients. NGOs use many different approaches and lending strategies in their programmes. Some use the solidarity group approach, others practice individual lending. Some NGOs require clients to accumulate some savings before they are entitled to take out a loan, others do not impose this type of condition.Revolving funds differ from the community-based systems discussed above not only in their source of funding -which is largely externalbut also in the way tasks are managed. Programme staff rather than group members deal with financial and loan administration as well as the selection and approval of loan applications and repayments.Experience has shown that most revolving fund programmes established by NGOs are not sustainable. Most of them run into financial difficulties because of repayment problems and a high rate of default. Because their interest rates are low and administration is often inefficient, they are unable to cover programme costs.Some of the programmes succeed, however, in transforming themselves into sustainable microfinance programmes. Changes include the introduction of appropriate loan and financial management procedures, the separation of microfinance administration and management activities from other parts of the programme and the adoption of procedures to strictly control repayments. These successful experiences can be a useful guide to those organizations wanting to professionalize their microfinance services. Some programmes hire in expertise for extra support.In general, however, the best way to ensure effective financial service is to rely on specialised financial service organizations if these are available. The successful administration of revolving fund programmes requires expertise in managing and operationalizing savings and credit programmes. Many NGOs do not have the expertise to successfully operate microfinance services and they need to employ experienced personnel. Developing reliable services costs time and there is always the risk that NGOs will not have enough capacity to set up a microfinance programme and maintain its other key activities.Self-help groups, community-based savings and lending groups and revolving fund programmes managed by development-orientated NGOs can be linked to microfinance programmes or banks. NGOs can play an important role in taking the initiative and starting the process. They can take the first step towards organising a target group and introduce members to savings and credit practices that -if managed properly -can help increase their economic and financial strength. After they have gained experience group members will be in a position to become clients either of banks or microfinance institutions. The self-help group banking model in India is a good example of how this strategy works.The self-help group banking model has been very successful in India.It is said to be the largest and fastest growing microfinance programme in the developing world. According to a report published in 2005 by H.D.Seibel there are now some 1.4 million active self-help groups and together they have about 21 million members. Ninety percent of members are very poor rural women. There are about 36,000 bank branches and primary cooperatives that provide savings and credit services to these self-help groups. At the same time some 3100 governmental and non-governmental agencies experienced in group development act as facilitators. They strengthen existing self-help groups and help establish new ones. The Government of India actively promotes and supports this programme. Before a bank participating in this microfinance programme can extend credit services to a self-help group, it must be satisfied that the group is stable and has the ability to function well. The group must have been in operation for at least six months, have members who consistently save and repay their loans and there must also be an efficient internal financial system for administrating savings and outstanding loans. If the bank is satisfied with the way the self-help group is organized it will make loans to the group. The group will manage these loans, make them available to members and ensure they are repaid. Banks find the self-help group banking model profitable because repayment rates are high and transaction costs low. The self-help group can be relied on to act as an intermediary between the bank and individual group members.All financial services regulated by legislation fall within the formal sector. While most countries have banking legislation, not all have developed comprehensive laws and regulation to cover the field of microfinance. Sometimes organizations with small loan portfolios are excluded from regulation and fall within the semi-formal sector discussed above. Cooperative societies, savings and credit associations and credit unions are generally covered by legislation designed specifically for cooperatives and fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Cooperatives.The formal sector consists of banks, registered microfinance institutions and registered saving and credit associations and unions. Within the formal microfinance sector there are many different approaches to lending and the structure and organizations of registered organizations and agencies vary considerable depending on location and type of client.State owned and semi-autonomous agricultural banks set up to stimulate economic activity in less developed rural areas in the immediate post-colonial period, frequently ran into problems. This was because they were obliged to undertake subsidised lending operations in sectors and regions where the return on investment was unpredictable. When loans to these areas failed to produce results and farmers and rural entrepreneurs were unable to repay them, the banks were often forced -for political reasons -to write-off these loans. Many agricultural banks were only able to operate if they had access to government subsidies or donor support. This situation changed in the 1990s with privatisations and a new wave of government reform. Government policy no longer included the provision of subsidies to agricultural banks and those agricultural banks that survived this policy shift cut back sharply on operations.Commercial banks have never been particularly active amongst vulnerable groups or in the small-scale agricultural sector. Their contacts with rural communities have usually been indirect and restricted to providing traders with credit or extending loans to the wealthier class of farmer or shopkeeper. Sometimes, however, commercial banks do provide microfinance organizations with credit.Microfinance programmes are the main providers of financial services to poor and marginal groups. They have developed a range of approaches, methods and models that include:The international NGO FINCA has been the main promoter of the village banking approach. Village banks are found throughout South America. They are community run credit and savings associations managed at village level and supervised by the external NGO responsible for initiating the association.Once a village bank concept has been explained to the community and accepted, the external NGO will start introducing members -usually between 30 and 50 people -to the principals behind village banking. A management committee is established and by-laws agreed. Once this has been done, the village bank is ready to receive an external loan from the NGO. This can then be used to provide loans to members.Some village banks practice individual lending, while others extend loans to solidarity groups. Loans are usually granted for periods of between four and six months and repayments are required at regular weekly, bi-weekly or monthly intervals. Members are required to save and as their savings increase they become entitled to larger loans.Members' loan repayments are kept by the village bank in an external account. Although this cash can be used for re-lending, the village bank must ensure that -at the end of the loan cycle -it has sufficient funds to repay the money it originally borrowed from the NGO. The village bank can apply for another loan from the NGO when the original loan has been fully repaid.The village bank management committee keeps members' savings, the interest paid on loans and other income generated by members' activities in an internal account. The village bank is fully responsible for this account and -if it is managed well -the bank's capital will grow.Members' savings, skilful loan fund management, interest paid on internal loans and other sources of income will increase the capacity of the village bank to build up its internal reserves. Unlike the Grameen Bank, for example, village banks are financial institutions that are fully community owned.The Grameen bank in Bangladesh is often taken as a model for solidarity groups. Its approach has been adopted in different forms by microfinance programmes all over the world. The Grameen bank's primary aim is to reach the poorest of the rural poor. Group membership is, therefore, restricted to impoverished and vulnerable women.The poor do not have the collateral needed to guarantee loans. To solve this problem a solidarity group will agree to take responsibility for repaying a Grameen bank loan. Solidarity groups consist of five prospective borrowers and they are given special training. Once the group becomes active two members become eligible for a loan.The Grameen bank observes the group for a month and monitors whether or not its members are able to meet the terms of their loan.The other members of the group will only become eligible for a loan if the first two borrowers pay back their loan -in instalments -over a period of six weeks. This means that -within the group -there will be considerable pressure to ensure that loans are repaid on time. The collective responsibility of the group serves as collateral for the loan.The Grameen bank encourages its members to save but this is not obligatory. It provides small loans that have to be repaid in weekly instalments over the course of one year. Members meet weekly to save and repay their loans.The Grameen bank has development objectives that extend beyond microfinance. It has a list of \"Sixteen Principles\" that cover problems ranging from sanitation to health, education, cooperation and family planning. These issues are discussed regularly during weekly solidarity group meetings.Unlike the village bank, the financial and administrative affairs of the Grameen bank at branch level are managed by professional staff. These branches usually serve between 15 and 20 villages. A number of centres will be organized at village level depending on the size of the village. These centres provide a basis for solidarity group activities.Many microfinance organizations have drawn on the experiences of the Grameen bank and the solidarity group approach when developing rural microfinance services. The approach has often been modified: ? Vulnerability. Microfinance organizations target the poor but most of them do not apply strictly defined vulnerability criteria for membership groups in the same way as the Grameen Bank. It is often said that this is not necessary because within each group a process of self-selection takes place. Because the loans available within the solidarity groups are small, they are of little interest to wealthier participants. ? Development goals. Unlike the Grameen bank, many microfinance organizations do not actively pursue broader development goals. They restrict themselves to offering financial services to members. This is primarily because they want to keep programme costs low because high costs threaten sustainability. ? Savings. Many organizations require members to take part in a period of 'obligatory' saving before loans are disbursed. This can be seen as a training period during which members learn that they do have the capacity to save and that they can rely on their own resources. During the obligatory period it is sometimes possible for members to withdraw funds if emergencies arise or they need money for 'non-productive' purposes. But generally savings are kept by the organization as a guarantee that the loan will be repaid. ? Group size: The group size of microfinance organizations varies but on average it is somewhere between five and ten members.One important characteristic of the Grameen bank and all solidarity group programmes is that they mainly -although not exclusivelytarget women. This is partly because rural women are often found in particularly vulnerability situations but it is also because experience has shown that women are easier to organise and are generally better at repaying their debts.Figure 12: Experience shows that women use their loans well and make their repayments on time Individual lending.Individual lending schemes often exclude the poor but group lending is not always possible or acceptable. In some societies in Eastern Europe and Latin America group lending is not popular and it is often difficult to get men and \"wealthier\" groups involved in this type of programme. For this reason many microfinance programmes opt for individual lending schemes rather that group lending projects.Some programmes have adopted a dual approach which allows individual group members to take out individual loans as their economic activities grow and their need for cash increases.Credit unions or Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) are institutionalized community-based, cooperative financial institutions. Credit unions are officially registered although this is not everywhere the case. However, where SACCOs function as semi-formal institutions, their organizational structure is similar to that of a credit-union.Membership is open to anyone in the community in return for the payment of a membership fee. This fee can be seen as a share.Credit unions are owned and controlled by their members. Although paid managers may be responsible for day-to-day decisions, the ultimate control of the organization lies with a general assembly consisting of member owners. Each member has equal rights regardless of the number of shares he or she may possess or the amount of money they may have deposited. The principal one member one vote applies during general assemblies. Credit unions are led by an elected management committee. Within this committee there may be several subcommittees including, for example, a credit committee and a loan monitoring committee.In the past many credit unions focused on credit delivery. They were less concerned with mobilising savings because loan capital was provided by external donors. In recent years, however, there has been a switch towards encouraging savings as a way of generating the start capital needed to run the union. Sometimes local credit unions are supported by so-called apex organizations. These umbrella organizations include, for example, national or regional federations of credit unions that can supply additional funding if local credit unions wish to expand their loan capital.Individual lending is the dominant strategy in credit unions. Loans are generally in proportion to members' savings and loan guarantees consist either of appropriate collateral or a personal guarantee -sometimes provided by a fellow member. But a growing number of credit unions now apply the principals of solidarity group loans.The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the umbrella organization of local credit unions and their regional and national federations. It has affiliates in almost 100 countries and provides longterm technical assistance to help develop, strengthen and modernise credit unions in all parts of the world.Financial service organizations in the formal sector are officially registered and often have easier access to the external funds provided by (central) banks and donor agencies than organizations in the semiformal sector. Also they are better able to meet the professional criteria donors use when assessing organizational performance and sustainability and the quality of financial and loan management.Because they have easier access to external funds, service providers in the formal sector have more capital at their disposal, many more clients and a much broader outreach. However, their operations in rural areas -especially in Africa -continue to be marginal. Because they are generally more efficiently and professionally organised, formal sector organizations can guarantee higher levels of sustainability than organizations in the semi-formal or informal sector.A main disadvantage of formal sector service providers -and especially non-member organizations -however, is the high cost of employing salaried staff to manage, execute and monitor programmes. This makes it difficult for them to deliver services at affordable rates and creates particular problems for regions and groups that are only marginally involved in the cash economy. Farmers and rural producers in these areas are only able to save and borrow small amounts and often they require funds at short notice. Where population density is low, service delivery is very expensive and cannot be easily provided by organizations that have high staff costs.Within the formal sector the products offered and the approach used often fails to meet the needs and specific circumstances of the target group. Formal sector organizations are not easily able to adapt their services and strategies because they lack flexibility. Many formal sector organizations focus on credit delivery even though savings services are often more important to the poor. Organizations may insist that loans are used for productive activities but clients may need them for consumption or emergency purposes. Organizations that require collateral or a co-guarantor tend to exclude poorer groups.Leasing companies, traders and other local sources Some types of credit can be supplied by non-financial actors. Traders' credit, contract farming, warehouse receipt schemes and leasing fall under this heading. Leasing companies, traders, wholesalers or other crop buyers can provide credit services from their own capital funds or use the lump-sum loans they receive from banks and donors.Credit can also be supplied by farmers' organizations and production boards. This is especially the case in areas where cash crops such as coffee, cotton and tea are being grown. Here, production boards and farmer and producer organizations often offer such services as technical advice, credit, inputs and assistance with marketing. Credit can be supplied by special arrangement and can include traders' credit, contract farming, and warehouse receipt schemes. Funds can also be made available through more conventional loan arrangements. Banks too can make lump-sum loans available to farmer and producer organiza-tions that offer loans to members who can provide acceptable repayment guarantees.Linking farmers or producer organizations to financial service providers Development-orientated NGOs often try to establish links between themselves and financial service providers. NGOs introduce new agricultural practices, provide agricultural training and monitor the progress of new technologies at farmer level. If all goes well agricultural productivity and farmers' revenues improve and the farmers concerned become more acceptable as clients to financial service providers. This type of cooperation involves the financial service provider committing itself to issue loans to all eligible farmers participating in the programme, while retaining control over the management of any savings and credit programme.The issue of sustainability is one that concerns all microfinance organizations. It is of utmost importance, yet the emphasis on sustainability has its drawbacks, especially when trying to extend the outreach of financial services in rural areas. Alternatives that increase outreach while guaranteeing sustainability, however, are being developed. Recently microfinance institutions have taken initiatives to ensure they fulfil the original mission of microfinance which is to serve the poor and the very poor through the better management of microfinance organizations and by monitoring their 'social performance'.In the past credit supply to farmers was considered to be part of agricultural development. Credit was provided to enable farmers to mechanise production, install irrigation, buy fertilisers and improved seeds and take advantage of other new agricultural technologies. Credit was frequently provided at rates that did not cover costs so farmers would not be burdened by heavy repayments. Credit was 'cheap'. Often, when farmers had difficulty in repaying their loans or deliberately defaulted on their repayments, no measures were taken against them.This lead to poor discipline amongst borrowers and many ceased to take their repayment responsibilities seriously. As a result many loan funds suffered serious losses. Cheap credit meant that credit programmes became dependent on external resources and this undermined their sustainability. In addition, it was the wealthier farmerwho probably could have mobilized credit from other sources anyway -who tended to benefit most from these programmes. Experience shows that these types of cheap credit programmes were not very successful in reducing rural poverty.A new approach to financial services emerged in the 1980s. Financial programmes started to emphasize the need for sustainability and programmes that could guarantee clients permanent access to financial services. Developing sustainable financial services became an objective in itself. Programmes extending credit had to ensure that they could raise enough income through interest payments to cover costs. These included the expense involved in raising external loans, the losses incurred when clients defaulted on repayments and the negative effects of inflation on the value of loan capital.New approaches were developed to enable financial organizations to extend their services to the poorer category of client. These included group lending, simpler client and loan assessment procedures and the delegation of administrative tasks to the members of a savings and lending group. These new methods were not only more client friendly, they also helped reduce the cost of microfinance operations.Even so the interest rates that microfinance institutions have to charge to ensure sustainability remain relatively high. Unlike conventional banks, microfinance organizations deal with very large numbers of small loans and savings. Handling this type of business is more expensive than dealing with a small number of large loans. In addition, professional staff members are needed to assess clients' loan applications and ensure that effective loan monitoring and financial management systems are established.Currently, good practice in microfinance is measured by the degree of sustainability achieved. This means that microfinance organizations have to make sure that -when they select clients -they choose those who are able to repay their loans. The emphasis on sustainability can contribute to the \"health\" of microfinance organizations. But there are also drawbacks. The interest rates charged by microfinance institutions to cover their costs are often in the region of 25 -30% per yearhigher than the market rates of commercial banks. Potential clients often find this excessive.It is a considerable challenge to keep the cost of providing financial services to remote areas and vulnerable clients within realistic margins. To do this effectively microfinance organizations must continually try to improve the efficiency of their operations. If market conditions in marginal and impoverished areas are such that it is not possible to provide financial services at a reasonable rate -then alternatives are needed.Microfinance institutions are aware of the criticism that the emphasis on financial sustainability has led to a decrease in outreach to poor and very poor clients. It has also been questioned whether microfinance in reality creates a dependence on credit rather than helping the poor to improve their position economically. For example, the possibility that clients fall into spiralling indebtedness by borrowing money to pay back other debts. In response some 150 microfinance institutions and donor agencies have joined the 'Social Performance' initiative. Social performance assessments are being made of microfinance institutions with the aim of developing better management practices to enhance their social performance.Questions raised during such assessments include: ? What is the mission of the institution? Does it have clear social objectives? ? What activities will the institution undertake to achieve its social mission? Are systems designed and in place to achieve those objectives? ? Does the institution serve the poor and the very poor? Are the products designed to meet their needs? ? Have clients experienced social and economic improvements?Other alternatives currently being explored include: ? Seed capital: Donors often provide young financial service organization with 'seed capital' -usually for a period of three to five years to cover start-up costs. Sometimes this seed capital is granted for a longer period if the financial service organizations have to deal with very vulnerable and marginalised communities. This makes it possible for organizations to take more time to build up their income to the point where it covers costs. In this way they avoid having to pass start-up costs on to their clients in the form of high interest rates. ? Technical assistance: Ensure that adequate and appropriate technical assistance is available to vulnerable groups and those living in marginal regions so they can develop profitable economic activities and repay their loans. ? Start-up grants: Provide very vulnerable clients with start-up grants instead of loans. This makes it possible for them to begin investing in their farm or enterprise without the additional burden of having to repay a loan. Once their business has become sustainable or has the potential to expand and they can comply with credit conditions, they become eligible for a loan. ? Savings: Relying on the client's own savings rather than loans especially when the money is being used for non-productive purposes prevents clients falling into debt. ? Community run: Setting up financial service structures such as community-based savings and lending groups that do not require expensive professional management because they are run by the members themselves. ? Communication technology: Applying recent technical innovations in the communication industry to the financial sector such as the use of mobile phones and internet in locations where this is technically possible. The mobile banking approach where bank staff visit villages on fixed (market) days has also proved successful because clients no longer have to travel long distances and the banks avoid the cost of having to set up local agencies.Rural microfinance is often linked to programmes of livelihood improvement and poverty alleviation. Access to credit plays an essential role in economic development but other factors are equally important. Rural people need training in technical and business skills to enable them to plan and manage their activities; they need access to appropriate agricultural and pastoral technologies to improve production and they need roads and other communication networks so they can keep in touch with market opportunities.Many financial service organizations only offer services that are directly related to their core activities such as the provision of loans, savings facilities, assessing the financial and repayment capacity of borrowers and monitoring repayments. This is known as the minimalist approach. These organizations have chosen to specialise in what they can do best. By adopting this approach organizations avoid having to pass on the cost of additional services to their clients. However, other services including marketing support, training and input-supply are also needed for economic development. The shortcomings of the minimalist approach can be compensated if financial service organizations cooperate with NGOs, producers' organizations, the private sector and government and development-orientated agencies.Vulnerable groups -including rural women -may lack the self confidence to take up new economic activities or change their way of doing things. Working together in solidarity or self-help groups organized by microfinance organizations can help them strengthen their skills and capacities and makes it easier for them to exchange experiences and work together to solve their livelihood problems.Many development programmes and NGOs have tried to create their own micro credit services but experience has shown that success is difficult to achieve. The most common problems are the large number of clients who do not repay their loans and the high cost of providing programme services.Running a microfinance programmes requires expertise and a business-oriented attitude. Those running development programmes or NGO activities often do not have these skills. Organizations planning to launch credit services should ensure that their staff can: ? Assess: Assess borrowers financial and repayment capacities. They should be able to analyse the profitability of the proposed economic activity and the cash flow that this business -together with other household livelihood activities -will generate. ? Enforce: Enforce strict obedience to the conditions attached to the loan. NGO staff are often too lenient where defaulters are concerned. This does not encourage borrowers to develop good repayment habits and can eventually lead to the failure of an entire credit programme. ? Management: Managing financial affairs efficiently. The financial management of the loan and savings programme should be kept apart from other programme activities and all costs related to it should be administered separately. This makes it possible to realistically assess costs and take them into account in developing savings and loan policy. ? Monitor: Understand and initiate monitoring systems capable of tracking repayment, the status of the loan portfolio and the balance between \"good\" loans -where repayments have been paid in regularly -and \"bad\" loans that mean a loss of loan capital and profit.Monitoring makes it possible to assess operational soundness and financial sustainability.Figure 14: With advice and support equipment bought with a loan can be used more productively and better maintained.An organization should only consider setting up financial services if there are no other microfinance organizations able to meet the needs of its client group. If an organization does decide to establish a financial service programme the following should be taken into account: ? Does the proposed programme fit in with the culture, identity and other activities of the organization? ? Should microfinance activities be organised as separate activities or can they be combined with existing programmes? In general it is better to keep financial service activities separate from other activities;? Will specialised staff be needed to run the proposed programmes or will existing staff need specialised training?Development programmes and NGOs play an important intermediary role in linking clients to financial service providers. Vulnerable groups need more than just credit to enable them to establish economically viable livelihoods.The best approach, therefore, is for development programmes and NGOs to provide additional services aimed at improving the technical skills and confidence of their client group and leave the provision of microfinance services to specialised financial service providers. If vulnerable clients are well prepared before they start out on their planned economic activity, they present a lower risk to financial service providers and these in turn will be more prepared to accept them as clients.The characteristics of the rural economy of a region or group will determine the choice of financial services and service institution. (see Table 2). Any decision on the provision of financial services should start by analyzing these characteristics and the type of demand.The number of microfinance institutions and clients has increased rapidly in recent years, but rural areas and marginal groups have not benefited equally from this growth. Therefore, new approaches are being developed to serve modern agriculture as well as marginal rural areas and groups.The financial sustainability of microfinance institution has been of strategic importance in recent decades. However, this has often been achieved at the expense of their social performance. Alternatives have to be sought to ensure that marginal groups and regions also have access to appropriate financial services.In Chapter One, two types of target group were identified. Each type requires a different strategy: ? Type One: Type One is characterised by groups who are only marginally involved in the market economy. They live in areas that are geographically isolated, have poor soils and rainfall and few marketing opportunities. As a result they avoid taking risks and produce mainly for their own subsistence. Extreme poverty or the lack of land, capital and labour can also make it extremely difficult for groups living in more prosperous regions to participate successfully in the market economy. ? Type Two: Type Two includes producers who have sufficient assets and who live and work in regions where there are enough resources to enable them to participate (fully) in the market economy.Saving is the most important entry point for those planning to provide financial services for farm households in the Type One category. Income smoothing is a well-known part of household management in rural economies. Savings and lending programmes can build on this practice to help rural producers manage their incomes more effectively and build up their financial reserves. Savings can be used to finance investments. This enables individuals and households to avoid having to borrow money and possibly falling into debt if they cannot repay their loans on time.Farmers, shopkeepers, traders and entrepreneurs in the Type Two category are usually involved in income generating activities that offer good economic prospects. However, they need credit because they often lack the capital to develop their activities. Because they have resources they are less vulnerable to falling into debt than the resource poor.Most microfinance programmes do not provide mid-term or long-term credit. Microfinance programmes that supply short-term credit and require repayment in weekly or monthly instalments that start shortly after loans have been disbursed are most suitable for producers and traders. This is because their economic activities are characterised by short business cycles and many of them will probably be able to repay their loans from other sources of income. Short-term credit facilities are less appropriate for agricultural production and investment, however. Plants and animals need time to mature before their products become available, and investments in machinery and buildings often take several years to produce returns.Insurance services can help people as well as financial service providers cope with risks. Health and life insurance programmes are being developed. There are microfinance programmes that are now experimenting with insurance systems that cover such risks as the nonrepayment of outstanding debts when animals become sick, harvests are spoiled or a client dies. Most of these programmes are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen whether it is possible to create micro-insurance programmes for the poor in such a costeffective way that clients can afford the premiums. In the agricultural sector calamities such as droughts, floods, and low prices often affect a very large number of clients at the same time. It is difficult to insure such 'co-variant' risks, since the financial claims in such cases can be enormous. Most poor rural households particularly in marginal areas rely on informal sector' providers like friends, relatives, shopkeepers and money lenders when they need loans. Savings are often kept in kind and traditional saving and lending groups are common in such communities.People resort to informal sources of lending because they have no alternative. Formal or semi-formal financial services providers often avoid the rural areas especially those that are marginal or thinly populated. This is because of the high cost of providing services when transport, communication and other infrastructures are poor and clients save or borrow very small amounts of money.Member-based organizations, such as village banks, savings and credit associations, community-based savings and lending groups as well as self-help groups can reduce the cost of service delivery by handing over management tasks to local members who are better able to offer low cost services in rural areas than other microfinance institutions.In the community-based savings and lending groups approach, the management of the programme is handed over fully to the group. In this way operational and management costs can be reduced to almost nil. The community-based savings and lending group approach also focuses on the accumulations of savings. This approach is well adapted to the capacity of the poor(est) and their needs. One disadvantage, however, is that the loans available are limited to the capital the group can mobilise through members' savings. The self-help groupbanking linkage approach as practiced in India is a good alternative. Through linkages with banks larger loans can be made available to individual clients whose capital needs are beyond those that can be met by the group.Banks or microfinance organizations that have a higher cost structure and higher operational costs can play a role for regions and groups that are well integrated into the market economy. Clients operating within the commercial sector may require special financial products not only for production, but also for trading, marketing and investment. Providing such services requires costly specialised skills -expertise which these types of organizations can afford. The average loan taken out by these clients is high enough and their communities accessible enough to reduce operational costs.Even so the costs involved in accessing credit service in many cases remain high because farmers' profit margins and incomes are generally low. Therefore, alternatives have to be identified. These include trader's credit, contract farming and warehouse receipt schemes. Also technological innovations, such as electronic banking and mobile banking can contribute to cost reduction.In the past agricultural banks were often dependent on constant injections of government or donor money to compensate for the financial losses they incurred when required -often for political reasons -to target sectors and regions where clients had few economic opportuni-ties. Also strict obedience to the terms of loan repayments was often not enforced. NGOs and development programmes that based their financial service programmes on revolving funds were largely unsuccessful in establishing sustainable services.In general, most NGOs are not well equipped to manage financial service programmes and the provision of these services should be left to specialised organizations. NGOs do not have the expertise or the business-like approach needed to ensure the sustainability of financial programmes. NGOs are most effective when providing support services such as agricultural or business training and ensuring that clients develop viable economic activities and take advantage of market opportunities. The provision of financial services can best be left to specialised organizations.In recent years sustainability has become one of the main objectives of financial service providers and organizations. Although sustainability is important, if it is over-emphasized it can create problems for those concerned with rural development and the livelihoods of the poor. Initiatives are being taken to improve the social performance of microfinance institutions. In this context, alternatives are being developed that focus on the needs of marginal groups as well as the importance of ensuring sustainability. The provision of start-up grants to very vulnerable clients and increasing the length of time a new programme can be subsidised before sustainability can be expected are examples of this approach. Putting savings first, relying more on community-based structures and providing proper technical support to assist clients develop economic activities, can also ensure appropriate and sustainable financial services for the poor.Hivos is a Dutch non-governmental organisation inspired by humanist values. Together with local organisations in developing countries, Hivos seeks to contribute to a free, fair and sustainable world in which citizens -women and men -have equal access to the resources and opportunities for their development. Hivos provides financial and political support for local NGOs. Hivos is also active in networking, lobbying and in exchanging knowledge and expertise, not only at international level, but also in the Netherlands. Contact: P.O. box 85565, 2508 CG The Hague, Netherlands T: +31 70 376 5500, F: +31 70 362 4600 E: info@hivos.nl, W: www.hivos.nl ILEIA Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture. Promotes exchange of information for small-scale farmers in the South through identifying promising technologies. Information about these technologies is exchanged mainly through the LEISA Magazine. All articles accessible on-line. Contact: ILEIA, Zuidsingel 16, 3811 HA Amersfoort, The Netherlands T: +31(0)33-4673870, F: +31(0)33-4632410 E: ileia@ileia.nl, W: www.leisa.info CGAP: www.cgap.org CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) is a leading agency in the field of microfinance, housed at the World Bank but operating as an independent entity. It is a consortium of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, private foundations, and international financial institutions. CGAP works with stakeholders to set standards and identify best practices for microfinance, and provides advisory services for governments and financial institutions. It also distributes information and research through a variety of free publications (occasional papers and guidelines).","tokenCount":"14727"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"04a6cc9f36479d34fc80fe371ef76392","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a643ae85-b59c-4d5c-acd2-22b430be4050/retrieve","id":"1755717264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7b8c67a8-d34b-4e77-aeee-0b9a286cdb64","pagecount":"14","content":"Latin America and the Caribbean economies began to slow down and stagnate during the 2008 economic crisis. This situation has been aggravated by the current health crisis, which is expected to set back regional development by almost ten years. Projected gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to shrink by 9.1% by the end of 2020, falling to values similar to those observed in 2010. In addition, poverty has increased like never before in only one year, reaching an estimated total of 231 million people, about 38% of all the population, with almost two out of every five poor people living in extreme poverty, and who are more exposed to food insecurity. However, the extent of the current economic crisis is quite heterogeneous among countries. For some, it is coupled with pre-pandemic conditions of political instability, social unrest, high poverty rates, and extreme food insecurity. Countries from the Dry Corridor (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala) were already facing a continuing exodus of people trying to escape from their precarious economic situations aggravated by environmental disasters such as the recent hurricanes. Countries facing political instability and social unrest are likely to suffer more from the uncertainty in their economic systems and their populations are prone to leave, while areas with erratic climate conditions have had to deal with high-risk agriculture and face similar consequences. If no immediate actions are taken, this problem could be exacerbated, creating an even greater flow of outward migration, risking the region's stability and its potential to become a major food producer for the world. Agriculture is one of the most relevant sectors for its potential to continue contributing to food security, poverty reduction, and resilience to counteract external shocks such as climate uncertainty or the current health crisis.security for almost 650 million people living in the region (The World Bank, 2021b), although availability is not a concern (except for the Caribbean); rather, access to diversified healthy food remains a problem (Intini et al., 2019). The contribution of agriculture to the region's economic growth, significant progress in diverse socioeconomic indicators, and its key contribution throughout time are undeniable. Currently, the sector represents 5% of the total GDP and 14% of the regional labor force. During the past decade, its moving average annual growth rate was higher than the total GDP growth rate that in contrast with agriculture has declined (Figure 1, Panel A). However, the agricultural GDP growth rate has wide variations year by year, making evident the sector's sensitivity to external shocks (e.g., climate change, market instability, social unrest, world health crisis) (Figure 1, Panel B).This dynamic agricultural sector results from years of agricultural research and development (R&D) investments that have contributed to the reaping of such benefits. LAC was investing in agricultural R&D merely 1.5% of the total agricultural GDP, and this represented almost 9% of the total agricultural R&D shared worldwide in 2011 (Pardey et al., 2016). It was estimated that agricultural R&D investments have a median annual internal rate of return of 39% and a median benefit-cost ratio of 10.7 (Hurley et al., 2016). Nevertheless, maintaining these high returns requires consistent investments in agricultural R&D. Currently, a heavy concentration of R&D capacity exists. Countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico account for 76% of the R&D funding in the region and 74% of the total agricultural production value in recent decades, but during recent years, Brazil has cut its investments in agricultural R&D dramatically (Dehmer et al., 2019;Pardey et al., 2018). Other countries, such as Chile, Uruguay, and Colombia, have implemented policies to encourage private-public partnerships for R&D in earlier stages that lead to R&D systems in which private farmers' associations actively participate in the agenda (Trigo et al., 2013). These countries account for almost one-tenth of R&D funding and a similar percentage of agricultural production value (Dehmer et al., 2019;Pardey et al., 2016;Pardey et al., 2018). The remaining group of countries ( 22) accounts for the remaining percentage, but many have the potential to improve and strengthen their national R&D systems. For instance, Venezuela had strong research institutions that were decimated by their economic crisis but could recover, eventually building upon what was already available. Other countries, such as Peru, lack a strong public system for R&D; economic growth has led universities and others to take on the role to carry out R&D (Stads and Beintema, 2009;Chaherli and Nash, 2013). On the other hand, some regions have stagnated like most of the Caribbean countries that account for small agricultural production and do not have robust research systems, instead heavily depending on R&D spillover technologies from other countries and regions. Besides the regional R&D context, since the 2008 global financial crisis, most LAC economies have slowed down and stagnated. This situation has been aggravated by the current health crisis, which is expected to set back regional development by almost ten years. Projected GDP was expected to shrink by 9.1% by the end of 2020, falling to values similar to those observed in 2010 (CEPAL, 2020a). In addition, poverty has increased like never before in only one year, reaching an estimated total of 231 million people, about 38% of all the regional population, with almost two out of every five poor people living in extreme poverty, and who are more exposed to food insecurity (CEPAL, 2020a). However, the extent of the current economic crisis is quite heterogeneous among countries. For some, it is coupled with pre-pandemic conditions of political instability, social unrest, huge poverty rates, and extreme food insecurity. For example, countries such as Venezuela and those in the Central American Dry Corridor (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua) were already facing a continuing exodus of people trying to escape from precarious economic situations, which has aggravated socioeconomic conditions around the region (Soto and Saramago, 2019).Under this challenging context, the region faces a crossroads to invest in short-term policies, but also to consider adequate long-term measures that would strengthen regional conditions and maintain food sovereignty. Laborde et al. (2020) advise an estimated investment in agricultural R&D of an additional US$14 billion per year on average until 2030 to end hunger and increase small-scale producers' income in low-and middle-income countries across the globe. No specific recommendations exist for the region, but it is relevant to strengthen regional R&D investments in view of the aforementioned heavy concentration of R&D funds in only a few countries and the economic problems that most governments face.Neil Palmer / CIAT Investing wisely to end hunger and strengthen agriculture, with no region left behind: Latin America |Over the past five years, LAC has faced a continuous deterioration in its food security conditions: a significant increment in hunger, with almost one in every three persons affected by moderate or severe food insecurity by 2020. During this period, the number of undernourished people increased by more than 13 million, and it is expected that the zero-hunger goal (Sustainable Development Goal 2) might not be met in 2030 if this trend continues.Estimates calculate that 67 million people will suffer from hunger by 2030, and that value has not yet taken into consideration the current health crisis. It is also worrisome that almost 75% of all deaths (2.8 million people) in 2016 were attributed to non-communicable diseases (FAO et al., 2021), which are avoidable with good nutrition and preventive measures.Stunting and overweight in children under five years old remain a prevalent concern, even though in the past three decades stunting decreased by more than half (to 9% in 2019) and overweight barely increased (7.5% in 2019). These issues have a specific prevalence related to both the rural and urban population. For example, the former population has higher stunting levels, while the latter population is more affected by overweight, especially those poorer people that lack financial means to obtain healthier diets (FAO et al., 2021;FAO and CEPAL, 2020a). Besides children, several studies demonstrate that females are more vulnerable to food insecurity. In LAC, food insecurity prevails in 32% of all females, with only 26% for males, representing almost 20 million more females affected than males (FAO et al., 2021).Another relevant aspect of ending hunger relates to the composition of diets. Traditionally in the region, most countries rely on cereals, roots, and tubers as the main sources of energy (39% of the average calorie intake), but with notorious differences across countries. Even though cereals remain the main source of energy, most countries have evolved their diets to incorporate other products into them, and have diversified energy sources, with heterogeneous diets across countries. For example, in Bolivia, Haiti,The origins of agricultural R&D in Latin America trace back at least two centuries, when the Portuguese established the first botanical garden in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1808. However, it wasn't until the beginning of the twentieth century that R&D systems became institutionalized in the region, primarily led by the public sector, with incipient efforts that lacked cohesion. It was not until World War II that the region revamped its agricultural R&D efforts with the support of the United States, which considered the region a strategic target given its natural resource endowment and food production capacity during periods of conflict. Countries such as Mexico (1943)   (Byerlee, 2016;Lynam and Byerlee, 2017). The region's historical contribution to global R&D in agriculture is undeniable, and it continues to have critical potential to provide lessons and innovations for all the world.Nicaragua, and Peru, cereals and roots and tubers provide more than half of the calorie intake (Rapallo and Rivera, 2019).Most countries should focus on investing in agriculture to diminish hunger and its related problems. They should take immediate actions and keep in mind that R&D investments generate returns in the long term, and an integrated portfolio of solutions will be required. Usually, it takes decades before returns are sought, but not investing could have extreme lag effects on the whole system. It is also important that future investments be concentrated in supporting small-scale producers since they are responsible for about one-third of the global food supply (Laborde et al., 2020) and have been undercapitalized during the current health crisis.Migration in LAC is not a recent problem, but it is quickly becoming one of the most pressing concerns to be addressed. While the millions who have left Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua) have headed for the United States (and Costa Rica in the case of Nicaragua), the millions who have fled Venezuela have settled in other countries within LAC. These countries already had high levels of poverty and food insecurity, which has exposed them to a greater risk under the current exodus and health crisis (FAO et al., 2021). In addition to these migratory events between countries, an important migratory component within countries is related to seasonal migration for agriculture. Although national figures are not available, the flow of people is mainly composed of females and children, with even entire families confronting informal labor and lower wages, and exposing themselves to health risks (Soto and Saramago, 2019).In the case of Venezuela, its migration process is considered the largest migratory flow in history. It is estimated that almost 5.4 million people fled Venezuela from 2015 to 2020, moving mainly into Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Ecuador (WFP, 2020). Most of these migrants work informally and are therefore often excluded from national social protection and health systems, which deteriorates their conditions and exposes them to acute food insecurity (WFP, 2020). It is therefore urgent to find alternatives that offset or diminish the effects of migration on food systems.To do this, it is necessary to have more sustainable and dynamic food systems that integrate better the different actors in the value chain and benefit smallscale producers by providing them with innovations.In addition, in 2016, after four decades of internal conflict, Colombia signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). One crucial chapter was rural development and the substitution of illicit crops. Four years later, around 60,000 hectares continue under these types of crops, with all the consequences that illegal activities have brought to rural communities (UNODC, 2020).Another major migration hotspot is the Central American Dry Corridor, where El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua face a double burden of problems related to highly unpredictable climate, political instability, and violence. In 2019, 1.6, 1.2, 0.8, and 0.7 million migrants left from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, respectively, mainly heading to the United States (WFP, 2020). Also, agricultural production is of high risk because of the erratic climate conditions, with smallholders being the most vulnerable. Members of families affected by drought in the Dry Corridor are 1.5% more likely to emigrate than similar households elsewhere, in addition to the clear link between food insecurity and migrating communities, with a higher propensity to migrate among the younger and more vulnerable people (WFP et al., 2017). Furthermore, the region was recently hit by hurricanes Eta and Iota, affecting about 8 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua and causing devastating effects on the production of staples. FAO is pledging US$14.4 million to support 333,000 smallholders in these countries (FAO, 2021b). Hence, investing in agricultural innovations to cope with the extreme climatic conditions and to increase food availability and access for the population is urgent, especially when considering that the region's food supply relies on imports (FAO and CEPAL, 2020b).The region was not well prepared for the current world health crisis. Most countries had decreasing GDP growth rates during the past decade (Figure 1, Panel A) and many were suffering from political instability, social unrest, and harsh natural disasters before the pandemic. Under these fragile conditions, COVID-19 disrupted the whole economic system, challenging governments to take immediate action and rethink their policy approaches. The latest series reports suggest that the agricultural sector has been the most resilient during this health crisis. In the short run, there was no direct evidence of food shortages, and good harvests in the South and previous stocks assured the food supply during the strictest quarantine period (FAO and CEPAL, 2020c). Nonetheless, it is necessary to be cautious since agriculture is most likely to be affected in the long term because of its biological processes. Every minor effect can have harmful impacts that compromise food security in the region, with small-scale producers being the most vulnerable (FAO and CEPAL, 2020d).In the region, most farmers have not reported major limitations to their production and harvesting systems. Still, they have warned that selling became a significant hurdle for certain crops because of transportation restrictions, while others took this crisis as an opportunity to improve their exports (CEPAL, 2020c; Salazar et al., 2020;Urioste et al., 2020). It has been mentioned that most of the effects are heterogeneous across countries and more information is needed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the food systems. Nevertheless, it is important to be alert that some farmers (small-scale producers) have started to report liquidity constraints for the next planting season. Labor shortage (for large-scale producers/intensive crops such as fruits and vegetables) and lack of inputs for the next cycle are other relevant aspects already affected (FAO and CEPAL, 2020e;Salazar et al., 2020). This could further shrink the road to food availability in several countries and threaten national food systems, thus transforming the current health crisis into a food and humanitarian crisis.Besides COVID-19 effects on agriculture, the pandemic measures have threatened economic conditions and food security. Unemployment is projected to increase to 11.5% (3.4% more than in 2019) and the total value of remittances is expected to contract by 10% to 15%. This puts the capability of affected families to access safe and nutritious food at great risk, with the urban poor and migrant communities being particularly vulnerable (FAO and CEPAL, 2020b;2020c;2020f). Beyond the evident effect that quarantine measures have had on informal employment and income availability, there has been a substantial dent in children's food security in the region. With the closure of many schools, 85 million children have ceased to receive their governmental school meals, although some countries have compensated for these programs through other measures (CEPAL, 2020b). Nonetheless, children's nutrition is compromised in most of these countries.Most institutions consider that the current health crisis is an opportunity to reshape our current production systems in all areas, especially by strengthening intraregional relations and supporting small-scale farms. Family farming accounts for 81% of all farms and generates around 50% of employment in agriculture in the region (FAO and CEPAL, 2020e). It is important to deal with the short-term problems. It is relevant to invest in medium-and long-term solutions through a green recovery based on social equity and economic sustainability, taking into account a multidimensional approach to find solutions. It is necessary that investments in R&D respond to users' needs and consider the importance of combating climate change and improving ecosystem conditions (CEPAL and OPS, 2020;FAO and CEPAL, 2020e;Laborde et al., 2020). The pandemic hit particularly hard the most vulnerable populations and territories, where there are a significant number of informal jobs, lower incomes, and limited access to safe and nutritious food. The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the economy suggests a substantial increase in hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in the coming years.Cassava is a crop with high potential to attain environmental and socioeconomic targets, including several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cassava resilience to extreme climate conditions, its potential to restore degraded lands, and its multiple uses for the industry make it a perfect, simple, and low-cost solution (Villarino et al., 2020). An excellent example is how cassava became one of the most important cash crops in Asia. Producers have largely benefited from adopting innovations such as improved varieties, specifically KU50, a material bred jointly by the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT and Kasetsart University in Thailand. The adoption of KU50 generated almost US$400 million in Vietnam and Thailand from 1992 to 2010. These economic returns to agricultural R&D increased farmers' gross annual income per family by US$51 in Vietnam and by US$460 in Thailand (CGIAR, 2021).The industry in LAC is not yet that advanced. Nonetheless, processors and farmers have a growing interest in strengthening the cassava value chain. Recent agreements signed between Ingredion and the Alliance to develop a new generation of waxy cassava varieties confirm that regional interest (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, 2020). In Colombia, the industrial cassava area planted increased almost twofold from 2010 to 2018. Furthermore, LAC has 8.3% of the world cassava area and represents 9.7% of the production. In the region, cassava covers 1.3% of the crop area and is the seventh most consumed plant-based food. Regarding yield, LAC has had an average yield of 11.2 t/ha in the past five years, similar to the world average (11.1 t/ha) but still quite far from Asia's average of 21.7 t/ha, showing that there is room to continue to improve in this sector.Iron (Fe) deficiency is one of the most prevalent forms of malnutrition worldwide. In 2019, it had a global prevalence of 14%, accounting for 28.5 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally (IHME, 2021a). One of the many consequences of iron deficiency is anemia, which affects 33% of the world's population (Pasricha et al., 2021), especially pre-school children (aged 0-5 years), women of childbearing age, and pregnant women. Another relevant micronutrient is zinc (Zn), which is necessary for normal pregnancy and child growth, immune system function, and neurobehavioral development (Hotz and Brown, 2004). However, millions of people have inadequate zinc contents in their diets because of limited access to foods rich in zinc. It is estimated that 17% of the global population is at risk of inadequate zinc intake (Wessells and Brown, 2012). In 2019, zinc deficiency was responsible for 0.3 million DALYs and almost 3,000 deaths (IHME, 2021b). Iron and zinc deficiencies are prevalent because of inadequate food sources and dietary factors that inhibit absorption of the two nutrients (Gupta et al., 2020). Therefore, their control should represent a global health priority.There is strong evidence that biofortified crops can significantly diminish nutrient deficiencies and improve the health of consumers (Bouis et al., 2011;Finkelstein et al., 2017). Moreover, biofortification has the potential to help offset decreases in the nutritional quality of plants due to climate change. For these reasons, since 2004, CIAT (now part of the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT) has included germplasm of beans with more iron and rice with more zinc in its breeding programs for LAC. In 2010, the maize breeding program of CIMMYT (for all of the breeding programs based in Latin America) began to contribute sustainably to decreasing nutritional deficiencies through the development of biofortified germplasm with high iron and zinc contents.The Alliance has been the hub for sending material to various countries beyond the LAC region. A total of 47 highly competitive advanced lines were sent for registration and commercial release in 14 countries around the world (e.g., Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, DR Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe) representing 61% of the world's ironbiofortified beans. In addition, 6,000 experimental rice lines are developed and evaluated every year at the Alliance and sent to national breeding programs in Latin America and Africa. Three highly competitive advanced lines are currently ready for commercial release in Bolivia, Colombia, and Nicaragua. CIMMYT's maize breeding program has developed biofortified maize germplasm with high zinc content. Every year, 4,000 experimental biofortified maize lines are developed and evaluated. These advanced lines are sent to national breeding programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America. In fact, all the biofortified maize materials in the world with zinc have been developed in LAC.Latin America is set to become the next big supplier of food in the world. The availability of natural resources and a great potential to improve could transform the region into a major agricultural power; however, important improvements need to be made. Production gaps themselves represent a big space for improvement. Gaps in adoption of technologies, land tenure, availability and access to services, access to markets and information, improved supply chains, and financial opportunities are areas for intervention where differences should be assessed.Guaranteeing the region's food security is more important than ever. LAC is facing its biggest outmigration flow in history and is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Being one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic and considering the impact that it has had on the economy, millions in the region could fall into poverty and suffer from hunger if no immediate actions are implemented.Although smallholders remain vulnerable, special attention should be given to the urban poor, particularly the migrant communities, women, children, and indigenous communities.Countries characterized by political instability and social unrest are likely to suffer more from the uncertainty in their economic systems and their people are prone to leave, while areas with erratic climate conditions have to deal with high-risk agriculture and face similar consequences. If no immediate actions are taken, the problem could be exacerbated, creating an even greater flow of outward migration, thus risking the region's stability and its potential to become a major food producer for the world.Furthermore, this becomes an opportunity to change to more sustainable, inclusive, and climate-resilient food systems. There is no need to start from scratch. A growing agricultural sector, successful cases of publicprivate partnerships for agricultural R&D funding, already established institutions through the national research systems and private endeavors, active and continuous presence of CGIAR in the region, and close collaboration with research centers and donors from the United States and around the world are important pillars upon which investments can be made.The introduction of variety IR8 in LAC in the late 1960s is one of the main rice research milestones in the region. The legacy of semi-dwarf IR8-related varieties being widely adopted by farmers throughout the continent catapulted rice production across the continent. CIAT, alongside local partners and under the guidance of Peter Jennings, laid the groundwork for a new approach to delivering this germplasm through the national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) in LAC, with the stepwise participation of breeding programs from the private sector over the years.Under the umbrella of the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), this initiative established a strong network of rice breeding programs throughout the region, which was affected by shortages of funding for rice research in the early 1990s. This, along with the noticeable effects of the ongoing transformation toward irrigated rice production in LAC to increase yields, led to the creation in 1995 of the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) (https://flar.org/), a public-private partnership of rice-related institutions, with CIAT as a strategic partner. Through FLAR, LAC public and private rice research programs maintained and strengthened their network of scientists, with a focus on inter-institutional collaboration, a bottom-up approach to define priorities, and a collaborative model to fund research. To date, FLAR members in 17 LAC countries have released 86 rice varieties, in addition to a broad set of technologies to improve production and the establishment of a strong network of professionals who were trained for the goodwill of the sector. Furthermore, by 2017, it was estimated that nearly 300 varieties based on CIAT advanced lines had been released in LAC (Lynam and Byerlee, 2017). In 2017, the adoption of CIAT-related rice varieties in the region was estimated to have generated US$10.8 billion in economic benefits. Even though LAC lost some of its relevance for international donors during the past decade, undeniably LAC has played a significant role in developing and disseminating agricultural innovations that have spillover around the world, generating larger impacts on producer and consumer well-being. These achievements result from years of investments that strengthen and transform the research sector, and under current conditions the region cannot let its guard down.The innovations developed in this sector are still far from being fully exploited and they have to ensure the lives of 650 million people in the region and contribute to benefiting many more around the world.","tokenCount":"4308"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0420e10d479fd64342b9106421ae6ceb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/33303b3a-bd6b-4a66-891d-d15c3f86e894/content","id":"-376937408"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af1c1913-0dd8-41b1-bbc1-df57e6a16a00","pagecount":"13","content":"Aggregate stability is a commonly used indicator of soil health because improvements in aggregate stability are related to reduced erodibility and improved soil-water dynamics. During the past 80 to 90 years, numerous methods have been developed to assess aggregate stability. Limited comparisons among the methods have resulted in varied magnitudes of response to soil health management practices and varied influences of inherent soil properties and climate. It is not clear whether selection of a specific method creates any advantage to the investigator. This study assessed four commonly used methods of measuring aggregate stability using data E.L. Rieke et al.    Soil structure is the backbone of a soil's ability to support processes vital to the health and productivity of plants, animals, and ecosystems. Soil structural units, or aggregates, form when fresh organic matter is decomposed by macrofauna and transformed by microbial community members into binding agents between mineral soil particles (Guhra et al., 2022;Jouquet et al., 2006). Work from Six et al. (2000) has provided evidence that over time, stable microaggregates form within macroaggregates, further enabling the development of soil structure; macroaggregates eventually bind into peds (several mm or even cm). The arrangement and stability of these structural units govern water and gas flow through soil, influencing soil microbial community members' ability to transform organic matter and cycle nutrients (Finn et al., 2017). Because of the role of soil structure in multiple soil functions, Dexter (1988) defined good soil structure as ''one where all the hierarchical orders are well-developed and are stable against the actions of water and external mechanical stresses.'' Measuring the arrangement and stability of soil structure throughout the soil profile is time consuming and difficult, but an accepted indicator of soil structure is the ability of macroaggregates to resist dispersion, often referred to as aggregate stability (Amézketa, 2008).Aggregate stability is generally quantified as the fraction of aggregates remaining after exposure to destabilizing stressors (Angers and Carter, 2020). The measure is a valuable indicator of soil health because it is conceptually linked to soil hydrologic function (Arshad and Coen, 1992;Hortensius and Welling, 2008;Moncada et al., 2015) and empirically linked to reduced erodibility (Barthès and Roose, 2002;Bryan, 1968;Coote et al., 1988;Elwell, 1986;Miller and Baharuddin, 1986) and increased infiltration (Miller and Baharuddin, 1986;Shainberg et al., 1992), as well as to agronomic function (root development, seedling emergence, etc.) (Angers and Caron, 1998;Gallardo-Carrera et al., 2007). These findings have led to the development of several methods to quantify aggregate stability with some currently incorporated in soil health tests (Andrews et al., 2004;Moebius-Clune et al., 2016). Although each method has been shown to be sensitive to soil health management systems (Bagnall and Morgan, 2021;Li et al., 2019;Moebius-Clune et al., 2008), limited comparisons between methods have found that the magnitude of response to changes in management varies greatly with method (Almajmaie et al., 2017;Flynn et al., 2020;Moncada et al., 2015;Obalum et al., 2019;Van Eerd et al., 2018). Understanding each method's sensitivity to changes in management practices is key to providing appropriate interpretations of the measurement in relation to soil health.Differences in indicator sensitivity to management likely stem from the various methods assessing different diameters and masses of aggregates and applying different types and magnitudes of disruptive forces (Table 1) (Almajmaie et al., 2017;Amézketa, 2008;Deviren Saygin et al., 2012;Moncada et al., 2015). These differences may affect how inherent conditions contribute to measures of aggregate stability. For example, the relationship between clay content and aggregate stability is disputed in literature. Some studies, conducted in croplands located in arid to subhumid climates show that aggregate stability increases with clay content (Boix-Fayos et al., 2001;Kemper and Koch, 1966), while others report that aggregates, collected from native and cropland soils from a wide range of climates (300-mm to 1500-mm annual precipitation) were less stable in high clay soils (Fajardo et al., 2016;Ternan et al., 1996). Furthermore, external factors, such as climate, may indirectly influence aggregate stability through differential organic carbon formation at the continental scale (Nunes et al., 2020). Organic compounds are known to form organo-mineral complexes in soil. However, contradictory results exist among correlations between aggregate stability and organic matter (Amézketa, 2008). Determining how inherent soil properties and climate influence different measures of aggregate stability will enhance interpretability of the measures across geographic regions.The goal of the present study was to evaluate the influence of inherent soil properties, climate, and agricultural management on four commonly used measures of aggregate stability recorded on samples collected from long-term research stations across primary agricultural areas in North America. These measures included the Cornell Rainfall Simulator (Moebius-Clune et al., 2016), wet sieve Procedure (Kemper and Rosenau, 1986;Yoder, 1936), the SLAKES smart phone app (Fajardo et al., 2016), and the mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates (Franzluebbers et al., 2000). The wet sieve procedure and mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates both utilize mechanical forces from standardized movements to induce slaking of unstable aggregates. The Cornell Rainfall simulator method mimics the impact of raindrops on aggregates, while the SLAKES smart phone app measures the slaking of aggregates following a 10-minute submersion in water. Our first objective was to evaluate the influence of inherent soil properties and climate across the North American Continent on the four methods. Secondly, method sensitivity to long-term adoption of soil health management practices was investigated. We explored how inherent soil property relationships influence changes in aggregate stability due to tillage. Finally, aggregate stability responses to tillage in relation to changes in other common soil health indicators was investigated.Data used in these analyses were collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements. A more detailed description of the project can be found in Norris et al. (2020). The project sampled 2,012 experimental units from 688 replicated treatments located at 124 long-term experimental agricultural research sites across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Five-hundred sixtyeight treatments contained at least ten years of continuous management and the remaining 120 treatments contained between six and ten years of continuous management. Sites were chosen based on the presence of treatments designed to test management effects of tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, residue retention, and nutrient amendments.Sites were sampled in spring of 2019 prior to spring chemical or physical management practices. For each treatment, a five-year detailed management history, representative of the long-term management history (>10-years) was collected. Experimental units were collected using a sharpshooter shovel and soil knife. The sharpshooter shovel was used to remove 15-cm deep plugs from four to six representative locations within a given experimental unit (either plots or fields that represent one replication of a treatment). At each hole, three uniform soil knife slices (4-cm wide by 1.5-cm thick) were collected to a depth of 15-cm from the three undisturbed sides of the hole. All slices of soil for each experimental unit were composited and homogenized by hand mixing with care to maintain as much natural aggregation as possible. Composited samples were divided into subsamples of various weights appropriate for each analysis and mailed to laboratories. In addition to the composite soil sample, four intact 7.6-cm diameter soil cores were collected to a depth of 7.6 cm in each experimental unit and maintained intact using a plastic sleeve. Two of the four cores were kept intact for analysis, while the remaining two were combined into a bag. The composite cores and intact cores were analyzed for bulk density, while only intact cores were analyzed for available water holding capacity (results presented elsewhere, (Bagnall et al., 2022)).Hand-homogenized soil from knife slices collected from each experimental unit was sent to the Soil Water and Environmental Lab at Ohio State University for measurement of pH, particle size distribution, total carbon, inorganic carbon, and effective cation exchange capacity. Particle size analyses were performed using the pipette method and sands were wet sieved (Gee and Or, 2018). Soil pH was measured using a 1:2 soil:water slurry with a pH electrode. Total carbon was measured by dry combustion (Nelson and Sommers, 2015). Inorganic carbon was measured using the Chittick gasometric calcimeter 1 (St. Louis, MO, USA). Soil organic carbon was calculated as the difference between total organic carbon and inorganic carbon (Dreimanis, 1962). Potential carbon mineralization was measured as an accumulation of CO 2 -C following rewetting to an estimated 50 % water filled pore space and a 24-hour incubation period (Zibilske, 2018). Sodium, magnesium, potassium, and calcium ion concentrations were extracted with Mehlich-3 extractants (Mehlich, 1984) and quantified using inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (Thomas, 2015). Ion concentrations were transformed to molar equivalent charges and summed to calculate effective cation exchange capacity. Ratios of individual ions were computed by dividing molar equivalent charges by effective cation exchange capacity.Soil from the four intact cores were shipped to the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory (Ithaca, NY) for bulk density calculations. For experimental units with less than 2 % coarse fragments by mass (determined during particle size analysis preparations), bulk density was calculated as the mean value of all four cores. For experimental units with more than 2 % coarse fragments by mass, fine-earth fraction bulk density was calculated as the mean of the two composited cores, following removal of coarse fragments, with adjustments correcting for mass and volume of the coarse fragments.For aggregate stability analyses, composite soil from each experimental unit was sent to three labs, the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory (Ithaca, NY), the Ohio State University's Soil, Water, and Environmental Laboratory (Columbus, OH), and the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Soil Characterization Laboratory (College Station, TX). Four aggregate stability methods were employed as follows: the Cornell Rainfall Simulator method (commonly referred to as the \"Cornell wet aggregate stability test\") (Moebius-Clune et al., 2016) was performed at Cornell; both the Wet Sieve Procedure (commonly referred to the \"wet aggregate stability test\") (Kemper and Rosenau, 1986) and water stable aggregate mean weight diameter (Franzluebbers et al., 2000) were performed at Ohio State; and image recognition using the SLAKES smart phone application was employed at Texas A&M (Fajardo et al., 2016). An overview of each procedure can be found in Table 1. Aggregate stability indicator, climate, inherent soil properties, and measured soil metric descriptive statistics are located in Supplementary Table 1.The Cornell Rainfall Simulator method examines the force of water droplets on air-dried aggregates. Aggregates used in the method were collected by initially passing air-dried soil through an 8-mm sieve. Approximately 250 g of this soil was placed onto a stack of two sieves (2mm and 0.25-mm) and a catch pan. This assembly was shaken for 15 s on a Tyler Sieve shaker (Moebius-Clune et al., 2016). The aggregates captured on the 0.25-mm sieve were collected. The Cornell rainfall simulator device applied deionized water droplets with a total force of 1.9 J to the soil aggregates placed on a 0.25-mm mesh sieve for 5 min. Soil that passed through the sieve during the simulated rainfall was collected on filter paper beneath the sieve and weighed. Aggregates remaining on the sieve were crushed, separating sand from stable aggregate components, so only sand particles remain on the sieve. Sand particles and unstable aggregates were dried and weighed. Water stable aggregates (WSA CASH ) were calculated as percent of the total soil mass as follows:Aggregate dispersion was measured using image recognition software via the SLAKES free smart phone application (Fajardo et al., 2016;SLAKES, 2018). Three non-sieved, air-dried aggregates, measuring approximately 3 to 10-mm in diameter, were placed in an empty petri dish positioned on top of white paper. The smart phone was suspended above the petri dish at a height such that the entire petri dish was visible in the view of the phone camera. Two light sources were directed toward the petri dish in a position that eliminated shadows within the field of view on the phone. A referenced image (A 0 ) of the aggregates was captured, and then aggregates were transferred to a petri dish filled with water. Care was taken to place aggregates in the petri dish with water in the same relative location and orientation as in the reference image. As the aggregates dispersed, SLAKES software recorded the area of each aggregate continuously for 10 min. At the conclusion of the 10-min dispersion, the area of each aggregate was recorded (A 600 ). The time 1 Names given are to provide specific information and do not constitute endorsement by the authors over other entities that may be equally suitable.stamp and aggregate area data in the SLAKES application were exported to an Excel file where a 10-min stability value (STAB 10 ) was calculated by dividing the initial area (A 0 ) of the reference image by the final area at 600 s, or 10 min, (A 600 ) (Eq. 4).The image-recognized aggregate area wavered considerably during the first five seconds for some samples. This was caused by improper recognition of soil aggregates due to shadowing or rapid dispersion. As a result, several 10-min stability values were>1. To obtain the most accurate quantification of 10-min stability, the value for A 0 was reselected using the minimum aggregate area within the first five seconds and A 600 was reselected as the maximum aggregate area within the final five seconds. For STAB 10 , nine STAB 10 values were used from three petri dishes containing three aggregates in each dish. Nine 10-min stability values were obtained for each experimental unit by measuring dispersion of three aggregates in three separate petri dishes. The STAB 10 aggregate stability reported for each experimental unit represents the geometric mean of STAB 10 from the nine aggregates.The wet sieve procedure described in Kemper and Rosenau (1986) evaluated the slaking of aggregates subject to oscillation in water. Aggregates used in the method were prepared by gently crumbling fieldmoist soil without causing compression and oven-dried at 55 • C for 2 to 3 days. The oven-dried soil was then passed through a 4.75-mm sieve by tapping with a mallet to apply the minimum force necessary to cause it to pass through the sieve. Approximately 4 g of air-dried aggregates 1 to 2-mm in diameter were placed on a 0.25-mm mesh sieve. The sieve was oscillated in deionized water for 2 min. Aggregates remaining on top of the sieve were then oscillated in a dispersing solution (2 g (NaPO 3 ) 6 and 0.45 g Na 2 CO 3 dissolved in 1 L of deionized water) for 5 min to separate the stable aggregates from sand particles. A rubbertipped rod was used to break any aggregates remaining on the sieve. The contents of the dispersing residue container were then dried and weighed. Aggregate stability, via the wet sieve procedure (WSA ARS ), was calculated and expressed as percent water-stable aggregates using the following equation:Mean Weight Diameter (MWD) was calculated as the weighted mean of each aggregate size class and their respective relative weight proportions. Aggregates used in this method were prepared in the same manners as those used in the WSA ARS method. To calculate MWD, 19 g of the prepared aggregates were placed on a stack of sieves with mesh sizes of 1.0 and 0.25-mm and oscillated in water for 10 min. Aggregates passing through the 0.25-mm mesh sieve were transferred to a 0.053mm mesh sieve and flushed with water. Aggregates remaining on each sieve were dried and weighed for determination of MWD using the following equation:where x ⇀ i is the mean diameter of the sieve size the wet stable aggregates did not pass through, and w i is the ratio of stable aggregate weight to total weight for each size portion, and i ranges from 1 to n reflecting an index of the number of mesh sizes used.Data analysis was performed in RStudio Version 1.2.5001 (R Core Team, 2020) with base R functions and statistical significance determined at p < 0.05, unless noted otherwise. Distributions of the aggregate stability indicators were explored with histograms. Indicators were log transformed based on distributions. Relationships between the indicators were characterized using Pearson's correlation coefficients. Variability of the four aggregate stability indicators was explored in treatments containing at least three experimental units. Random intercept models were used to partition each indicator's total variance using restricted maximum likelihood estimation in the lme4 package (Bates et al., 2015). Three sources of variance were calculated: 1) variance among site means; 2) variance among treatment means nested within site; and 3) variance among individual replicates nested within treatment. The estimates from the models are reported as the percent of total variance that can be attributed to the respective source. Relationships between aggregate stability indicators and inherent site properties were explored using multiple regression models using site means for all variables. Inherent properties included sand content, clay content, pH, temperature, and precipitation. Temperature and precipitation variables consisted of 10-year mean annual temperature and precipitation for each site. Daily weather data were collected from Daymet (Thornton et al., 2016) from 2009 to 2019 to compute 10-year means.To determine the sensitivity of aggregate stability indicators to management, treatment comparisons, within any one site, were confined to those that differed by only one soil health management practice. Soil health promoting practices included rotation diversity, crop count, residue management, organic nutrient sources, cover crops, and reduced physical disturbance. Rotation diversity compared rotations with only cereal grains to rotations with additional types of crops. Additional types of crops mainly consisted of legumes, but also included canola (Brassica napus), safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). Crop count compared monoculture treatments to treatments with at least two different cash crops. Residue management compared treatments with identical management other than the amount of biomass removed following grain harvest. Organic nutrient treatments were compared against treatments receiving inorganic nitrogen and/or phosphorus commercial fertilizers. Organic nutrients included biosolids, compost, herbaceous materials, and manure. Treatments that included a cover crop in at least one year of the cropping system rotation were compared to treatments not containing cover crops. A cover crop was defined as a crop which was planted and terminated within a year by herbicides, fall frost, or tillage, and the biomass was not harvested or removed. Sites with varying physical soil disturbances were classified using the standard tillage intensity rating (STIR) (USDA-NRCS, 2008) value for the most disruptive implement for each treatment. Paired disturbance treatments were selected if management was the same except tillage, and therefore different STIR values.A meta-analysis approach was used to compare the response of aggregate stability indicators to long-term adoption of soil health management practices of this investigation. The rma.mv function in the metafor R package (Viechtbauer, 2010) was used to fit a meta-analytic model to predict log response ratios between treatments with only one different management practice. The log response ratios were the natural log of the ratio between a soil health management practice and treatment not containing the management practice, controlling for site as a random variable. Aggregate stability indicators were determined to have a significant response to each individual soil health management practice if the 95 % confidence interval, calculated by the meta-analytic model, did not contain zero. Response ratios and calculated confidence intervals were transformed to percent change for clear communication of relative change due to management.The influence of inherent soil properties and climate on aggregate stability indicator response to tillage was explored by fitting multiple linear regressions to tillage log response ratios, averaged by site. Only models for tillage were fit because the other management practices had too few sites. Predictors included site average clay and sand contents, pH, mean annual precipitation, and mean annual temperature, along with their two-way interactions. The relationship between changes in aggregate stability indicators due to tillage and changes in common soil health indicators due to tillage were explored by fitting linear regressions to tillage log response ratios. Predictors were soil organic carbon, potential carbon mineralization, and bulk density log response ratios. Response ratios were transformed to percent change to ease visual interpretation of the relationships. Additionally, the effects of management practices on concentrations of sodium ions were explored with paired t-test performed on paired treatment means used to calculate log response ratios.All four methods of measuring of aggregate stability were log normally distributed (Fig. 1). Each method represented a wide range of aggregation from very stable to unstable. The methods were moderately correlated with each other with Pearson's correlation coefficient ranging from 0.45 to 0.69. The strongest correlation was between WSA CASH and WSA ARS and weakest between STAB 10 and MWD (Fig. 1). In general, STAB 10 was least correlated with the others. Random intercept model results for all treatments with at least three experimental units identified variance among sites accounted for the majority of variance for all indicators, followed by variance among treatments and within treatments, respectively (Table 2). The within treatment variation was greatest in STAB 10 , followed by WSA CASH , MWD, and WSA ARS (Fig. 2). Variance among sites accounted for 59 to 77 % of total variance (Table 2). The adjusted R 2 for multiple linear regression models used to predict aggregate stability indicators with inherent characteristics ranged from 0.05 for MWD to 0.37 for STAB 10 (Table 3). Every variable was significant in the WSA CASH model, which was the only model where clay content and pH were significant. Precipitation was a significant predictor in all four models. Additionally, only climatic variables (temperature and precipitation) were significant in predicting WSA ARS . Furthermore, sand was a significant predictor in modeling STAB 10 and WSA CASH .Treatment means nested within sites accounted for between 12 and 33 % of total variance (Table 2). Based on the meta-analysis, the aggregate stability indicators were sensitive to some soil health management practices, but not all. Increased rotation diversity or crop counts did not significantly increase any of the indicators (Fig. 3a, 3b). Conversely, reducing tillage significantly increased all four aggregate stability indicators (Fig. 3f). Mean increases in the indicators ranged from 10 to 18 %, with WSA CASH having the greatest mean response to reductions in tillage. Residue retention significantly increased WSA CASH , STAB 10 , and MWD (Fig. 3c). Organic nutrient additions significantly increased only WSA ARS and MWD (Fig. 3d), while implementing cover crops significantly increased WSA CASH and STAB 10 (Fig. 3e). Although WSA ARS and MWD did not significantly increase with cover crops, the measures trended similarly to the other indicators.Two of the four aggregate stability indicators, WSA CASH and WSA ARS , had significant multiple linear regression models when the response of aggregate stability to tillage was predicted by inherent and climatic variables. Predictors included site average clay and sand contents, pH, precipitation, and temperature, along with their two-way interactions. The model for WSA CASH had an R 2 of 0.25 and the model for WSA ARS had an R 2 of 0.28. For WSA CASH , two interaction terms were significant: 1) the interaction of temperature and precipitation; and 2) the interaction of sand content by clay content. Interaction plots were used to display the conditional effect (accounting for all model predictors) of each significant interaction term on the response of the aggregate stability indicator to tillage by plotting one predictor from the interaction as a continuous variable on the x-axis and the second predictor variable as three regression lines (Fig. 4). The regression lines in Fig. 4 represent the mean of that variable, one standard deviation below the mean, and one standard deviation above the mean. Soils in this study with greater clay content had greater increases in WSA CASH due to decreased tillage, but soils with little sand were exceptions (Fig. 4a). As well, WSA CASH had lesser responses to decreased tillage either in dry, cool climates or in hot, wet climates (Fig. 4b). The largest response of WSA CASH to reduced tillage was in sites with low temperature and high precipitation. For WSA ARS , only the interaction between sand and temperature was significant. The interaction indicated that in general, WSA ARS has less of a response to reduced tillage when mean annual temperature is greater, except in very sandy soils (sand > 58 %).Linear regressions between log response ratios of soil organic carbon to tillage and log response ratios of aggregate stability to tillage revealed significant, positive relationships (p < 0.001) for all four aggregate stability indicators (Fig. 5a). The positive relationships indicate  05 § Predictor contained a positive slope. β Predictor contained a negative slope. increases soil organic carbon, resulting from reduced tillage, are correlated with increases in aggregate stability indicators. Linear regression coefficients between the log response ratios ranged from r 2 = 0.12 for STAB 10 to r 2 = 0.41 for WSA CASH . Similarly, linear regressions between log response ratios for potential carbon mineralization and aggregate stability to tillage were all positively significant (p < 0.001), with regression coefficients ranging from r 2 = 0.09 for STAB 10 to r 2 = 0.23 for WSA CASH (Fig. 5b). Though changes in soil organic carbon and potential carbon mineralization reflected changes in every aggregate stability indicator due to tillage, only changes in STAB 10 values were significantly related to changes in bulk density (p = 0.02), with r 2 = 0.02 (Fig. 5c).The effect of inherent soil properties and climate on soil health indicators must be considered prior to indicator comparison across space.The magnitude of influence of the selected inherent and climatic variables varied among the four aggregate stability indicators, from little influence on MWD to moderately influence on STAB 10 . Although the magnitude of influence differed among the indicators, all four indicators had a significant, positive relationship with mean annual precipitation. While most prior studies analyzing aggregate stability were performed in a single location or region, Cerdà (2000) & Buchi et al., (2022) found regions with a greater precipitation demonstrated greater aggregate stability. Conversely, many studies have linked aggregate stability to soil organic carbon (Amézketa, 2008), which is influenced by precipitation at the continental scale (Nunes et al., 2020). Furthermore, WSA ARS and WSA CASH were negatively related to mean annual air temperature, which is also known to influence soil organic carbon at the continental scale (Nunes et al., 2020). Thus, the influences of air temperature and precipitation on aggregate stability are likely driven by changes in soil organic C (Liptzin et al., 2022), with cooler temperatures and greater precipitation being related to greater aggregate stability.In addition to precipitation, sand content positively influenced STAB 10 and WSA CASH measurements at the site level. The positive relationship of STAB 10 with sand may be attributed to sand particles quickly falling out of suspension following submersion of the aggregates in water, resulting in a smaller change in aggregate diameter. The positive influence of sand content on WSA CASH measurements at the site level may be attributed to the way the procedure corrects for sand in the method. The procedure corrects for coarser sand particles by rinsing the stable aggregate fraction remaining after rainfall simulations through a 0.25 mm sieve (Moebius-Clune et al., 2016). However, soils with high fractions of fine and very fine sand (0.25 mm − 0.10 mm and 0.10 mm − 0.05 mm, respectively) are not corrected for with this method. The effect of texture is considered in the Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health scoring function for WSA CASH , where greater values of WSA CASH in coarse soils are necessary to achieve a \"good\" or \"very good\" rating compared to fine and medium textured soils (Fine et al., 2017).Only WSA CASH had a significant, positive relationship with clay content at the site level. Sensitivity to clay content was also observed by Fine et al. (2017), where WSA CASH was greater in fine-textured soils when compared to medium-textured soils. Additionally, prior studies have reported a range of influence of clay content on aggregate stability, including positive, negative, and negligible effects (Angers, 1998;Fajardo et al., 2016;Franzluebbers et al., 2000;Regelink et al., 2015). The variable sensitivity to inherent features likely arises from different indicator methodologies, where a range of aggregate sizes, forces applied, and metrics measured are observed. While certain inherent Fig. 4. Plots for conditional effects (accounting for all predictor variables in the model) of significant two-way interactions from multiple linear regressions. Multiple linear regressions predicted the response ratios of water stable aggregates following simulated rainfall (WSA CASH ) and wet sieved water stable aggregates (WSA ARS ) to tillage. Response of soil health indicators to tillage (yaxis) is plotted against one predictor from the significant interaction term (xaxis). The second predictor from the significant interaction term is depicted by simple linear regression lines representing predicted values for the mean, and the mean minus (and plus) one standard deviation of the predictor variable. Fig. 5. Linear regressions (p-value < 0.001) between the percent differences in aggregate stability indicators in response to decreased tillage and A) percent difference in soil organic carbon in response to decreased tillage; B) percent difference in potential carbon mineralization in response to decreased tillage; and C) percent difference in bulk density in response to decreased tillage. MWD is mean weight diameter; WSA ARS is wet sieved water stable aggregates; STAB 10 is 10-minute change in aggregate stability; and WSA CASH is water stable aggregates following simulated rainfall.features are known to aid in building soil structure (e.g. clay particles forming organo-mineral complexes, clay particle flocculation in saline soils), it is important to note aggregate stability indicators, which are assessed on macroaggregates only, are proxies for understanding differences in soil structure (including microaggregates, macroaggregates, and larger soil structural units) resulting from changes in management. Furthermore, pH, clay, sand, temperature, and precipitation only predicted a small proportion of indicator variability at the site level, while random intercept model results indicated variance among sites accounted for most of the variation. This suggests that other, unmeasured, site-specific properties contributed to indicator variability between sites.A desired trait across all indicators of soil health is sensitivity to changes in agricultural management (Doran and Zeiss, 2000). Our study investigated the effect of six individual soil health management practices on aggregate stability indicators, including reduced tillage, cover cropping, organic nutrient amendments, reduced residue removal, extended crop rotations, and increased cropping system diversity. Most indicators were sensitive to reduced tillage, cover cropping, organic nutrient amendments, and reduced residue removal, but no indicator significantly changed in response to increased rotation diversity or crop counts. In fact, most indicator responses to increased rotation diversity and crop counts trended slightly negative. This response may partially be due to 25 % of the rotation diversity and crop count comparisons in this study were between continuous corn and corn-soybean rotations. Rotations that include legumes generally return less biomass to the soil compared to cereal grains and can lead to reductions in soil organic carbon (King and Blesh, 2018;West and Post, 2002), thus affecting aggregate stability (Amézketa, 2008). Although increasing cropping diversity did not lead to greater aggregate stability in this study, the management practice has been linked to other benefits, such as reductions in disease severity (Larkin et al., 2012;Latz et al., 2012).All four indicators responded positively to residue retention, with significant increases in WSA CASH , STAB 10 , and MWD. These results complement prior studies assessing the effect of residue management on aggregate stability. A recent meta-analysis by Li et al. (2019) found residue retention significantly increased measurements similar to MWD and WSA ARS in this study. Previous studies have also shown WSA CASH to be sensitive to residue retention (Mochizuki et al., 2008;Moebius-Clune et al., 2008;Moebius et al., 2007). To date, no prior studies have analyzed the impact of residue removal on STAB 10 . The consistent, positive response of all aggregate stability indicators in this study and prior studies suggests any of the methods can capture changes in soil structure resulting from differences in residue management, though WSA ARS did not have a significant response in this study.Indicator response to organic nutrient amendments varied the most out of all six management practices analyzed, with WSA ARS and MWD significantly increasing, WSA CASH slightly increasing, and STAB 10 slightly decreasing. The nutrient amendment management category mainly compared treatments receiving fresh or composted manure against those receiving only inorganic fertilizers. Although indicator responses were variable, the results aligned with findings from prior studies. A number of studies have found increases in WSA ARS and MWD following compost, manure and straw additions (Bottinelli et al., 2017;Gerzabek et al., 1995;Karami et al., 2012;Wortmann and Shapiro, 2008). Few studies to date have assessed WSA CASH in relation to organic additions and report variable results (Roper et al., 2017;van Es and Karlen, 2019). Furthermore, this study was the first to report STAB 10 results in relation to organic amendments. The slight, negative response of STAB 10 to organic nutrient amendments was the only occasion where the indicator response did not trend similarly to the other indicators. Paré et al., (1999) found slaking to be greater in aggregates from soils receiving fresh manure when compared to non-manured soils; however, overall proportions of water stable aggregates were still greater in manured soils. Organically amended soils in this study contained significantly greater proportions (p < 0.05, mean difference = 1.50 × 10 -3 ) of sodium ions when compared to their non-amended counterparts. The greater concentrations of sodium ions contained in the treatments and the larger aggregates used to measure STAB 10 may have both contributed to the increased slaking, which is considered the dominant force acting on the measurement.The use of cover crops significantly increased WSA CASH and STAB 10 , while WSA ARS and MWD trended towards positive responses. Numerous studies have investigated the effect of cover crops on aggregate stability. Most studies report significant increases in aggregate stability in at least one cover crop treatment (Antosh et al., 2020;Jokela et al., 2009;Liu et al., 2005;Steele et al., 2012;Wood and Bowman, 2021), while others found increases in all cover crop treatments (Mitchell et al., 2017;Villamil et al., 2006) or no cover crop treatments (Abdollahi and Munkholm, 2014;Idowu et al., 2009). The differing results from individual studies may be partially attributed to limited adoption periods (2 to 4 years) prior to sampling. There were only twenty-one long-term (average adoption period of fifteen years) cover crop treatment comparisons, located at ten sites, the fewest of any management comparisons in the study. There was also considerable variation in the types of cover crops used (grasses, legumes, brassicas), which is expected to have a differential impact on the quantity and quality of biomass additions and may have led to greater variation. The greater sensitivity of WSA-CASH and STAB 10 to cover crop implementation in this study may make these indicators more desirable for identifying significant differences in aggregate stability among cover crop treatments.Reduced tillage was the only management practice where all four indicators detected significant, positive effects. These results agree with numerous studies that have found increases in aggregate stability in reduced tillage treatments across methods (Abid and Lal, 2008;Bagnall and Morgan, 2021;Bottinelli et al., 2017;Guo et al., 2020;Idowu et al., 2009;Kasper et al., 2009;Van Eerd et al., 2018;Weidhuner et al., 2021). This suggests that multiple methods of measuring aggregate stability are suitable for capturing soil structure changes related to reduced physical disturbance. However, the magnitudes of response to tillage for WSA-CASH and WSA ARS were dependent on inherent soil properties and climate interactions. This indicates that reducing tillage will not uniformly increase measures of WSA CASH and WSA ARS across climates and soil textures. Although magnitudes of response to tillage differed for WSA CASH and WSA ARS , all four indicators' response to reduced tillage were positively correlated with changes in soil organic carbon and potential carbon mineralization. Elucidating the expected magnitude of change in aggregate stability indicators due to changes in management practices for a given location will provide stakeholders the context as to what increases in indicator values are realistically achievable following adoption of soil health management practices.All four indicators were moderately to highly correlated with each other. Additionally, while treatment coefficients of variation were not uniform across indicators, greater variation did not appear to impede response to management practices. In fact, WSA ARS , which had the smallest within treatment coefficient of variation, was only significantly greater in two of the six soil health management practices analyzed, while the other indicators were significantly greater in three management practices. There was no consistency as to each of the indicator's three management practices, suggesting no indicator was the most sensitive to all management practices. Furthermore, indicators that were not significantly greater due to residue retention, organic nutrient amendments, or cover crop usage generally trended towards positive responses. These results suggest that sensitivity to management is dependent on the indicator, but positive responses to reduced tillage, cover crops, organic amendments, and residue retention can be expected across most of the aggregate stability indicators in this study.To compare aggregate stability indicators across space, indicator sensitivity to inherent properties and climate must be considered. All aggregate stability indicators were sensitive to either climatic factors, inherent soil properties, or both to a certain degree, with STAB 10 being the most sensitive. This indicates that certain climates and soil types are likely to contain greater fractions of stable aggregates, regardless of management strategy. These results align with prior work, which identified greater concentrations of water stable aggregates in soils derived from wetter, cooler climates (Büchi et al., 2022;Cerdà, 2000). Furthermore, the methodological nature of STAB 10 and WSA CASH revealed the positive influence of sand on stable aggregates. Additionally, the differing magnitudes of responses to tillage, based on climate and inherent soil properties for WSA ARS and WSA CASH further signify the need to incorporate inherent properties, into aggregate stability indicator assessments. Previous soil health assessments have included broadscale inherent soil properties and climatic effects to produce soil health scores, which in theory, are comparable across regions (Andrews et al., 2004;Moebius-Clune et al., 2016). However, more recent approaches for analyzing soil health have used finer spatial scales, where soils with a given set of inherent properties and climate are directly compared against one another (Nunes et al., 2021). Given the dependence of indicators on inherent soil properties and climate in this study, similar considerations should be made prior to comparison of aggregate stability measurements.Although many aggregate stability methods have been developed by the scientific community, the tests must also be available at commercial labs for a reasonable price to be useful to producers and other stakeholders. Currently, to our knowledge, MWD is not available at any commercial laboratories because of the time-consuming nature of the method. Similarly, WSA CASH is only available through the Cornell Soil Health Laboratory and Oregon State Soil Health Laboratory for a price of twenty dollars per sample. Wet sieve aggregate stability tests like WSA ARS are available at several private laboratories and range in cost from fifteen to fifty dollars (personal communications). While STAB 10 isn't currently available commercially, the method is the least time consuming of those tested in this study and can be performed simply. Preliminary cost estimates from private laboratories for STAB 10 range from five to ten dollars per sample (personal communications). Providing a cost-effective aggregate stability indicator, such as STAB 10 , will likely increase the number of stakeholders who are able to test the quality of their soils, which in turn, facilitates quantitative soil health monitoring and may reinforce management decisions that result in healthier soil.Four measurements of aggregate stability were evaluated and compared based on their ability to assess soil quality. All four aggregate stability indicators analyzed in this study were sensitive, to a certain degree, to soil health management practices, inherent soil properties, and climate. While all four methods generally increased in treatments practicing reduced tillage, cover cropping, organic nutrient amendments, and residue retention, different subsets of indicators were significantly greater for each individual management practice evaluated in this study. This indicates that no one method was the most sensitive to all soil health management practices. Furthermore, all aggregate stability indicators were sensitive to climate and inherent soil properties at the continental scale, suggesting that measurements should be interpreted in this context. Overall, the similar responses to management practices suggest that all four methods analyzed in this study are suitable as measures of soil aggregate stability. Although the methods were correlated with each other (0.45 ≤ r ≤ 0.69), the associated variability suggests the methods are not interoperable. Therefore, it is important to consistently use the same method when monitoring changes in soil health over time. Secondary considerations, driven by project-specific constraints (e.g., budgets, method availability, within-treatment variability, increased sensitivity to a specific management practice) will determine the most appropriate method for a given investigation.","tokenCount":"6753"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29d813f84358c8bef38da68b2fc0bf8a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/24702/8UWQRL","id":"-361837028"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"be2df4f1-77dd-451f-8112-eb5f523311c4","pagecount":"19","content":"This paper documents a Zambian Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for the year 2007. The national SAM is built using a new input-output use tables, national accounts, government budgets, and balance of payments, and so provides a detailed representation of the Zambian economy. It separates 44 activities and commodities; labor is disaggregated by education level; and households by rural and urban per capita expenditure quintiles. Information on labor is drawn from the 2006 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey. Finally, the SAM identifies government, investment and foreign accounts. It is therefore an ideal database for conducting economywide impact assessments, including SAM-based multiplier analysis and computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling.This paper outlines the construction of a 2007 social accounting matrix (SAM) for Zambia. A SAM is a consistent data framework that captures the information contained in the national income and product accounts and the supply-use table (SUT), as well as the monetary flows between institutions. A SAM is an ex-post accounting framework since, within its square matrix, total receipts must equal total payments for each account contained within the SAM. Since the required data is not drawn from a single source, information from various sources must be compiled and made consistent. This process is valuable since it helps identify inconsistencies among statistical sources. For example, there are invariably differences between the incomes and expenditures reported in national household surveys. SAMs are economy-wide databases which are used in conjunction with analytical techniques to strengthen the evidence underlying policy decisions.Section 2 reviews the general structure of SAMs and Section 3 presents the key features of the South African SAM. The first step in constructing the South African SAM is compiling national accounts and other official data sources into a consistent SAM framework. The second step then draws on survey information to disaggregate labor and household accounts. Given the diversity and inaccuracy of survey data sources, the prior SAM is invariably inconsistent (i.e., there are inequalities between household receipts and payments). Section 4 describes the data sources used to construct the prior SAM and the balancing procedure of SAM accounts.This SAM was constructed as part of a collaboration between the Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR), the United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 1A SAM is an economy-wide data framework that usually represents the real economy of a single country. 2 More technically, a SAM is a square matrix in which each account is represented by a row and column. Each cell shows the payment from the account of its column to the account of its rowthe incomes of an account appear along its row, its expenditures along its column. The 2 For general discussions of SAMs and SAM-based modeling, see Pyatt and Round (1985), Reinert and Roland-Holst (1997), Pyatt (1988), Robinson andRoland-Holst (1988), andBreisinger, Thomas andThurlow (2009).underlying principle of double-entry accounting requires that, for each account in the SAM, total revenue (row total) equals total expenditure (column total). Table 1 shows an aggregate SAM (with verbal explanations in place of numbers).The SAM distinguishes between 'activities' (the entities that carry out production) and 'commodities' (representing markets for goods and non-factor services). SAM flows are valued at producers' prices in the activity accounts and at market prices (including indirect commodity taxes and transactions costs) in the commodity accounts. The commodities are activity outputs, either exported or sold domestically, and imports. In the activity columns, payments are made to commodities (intermediate demand), and factors of production (value-added comprising of operating surplus and compensation of employees). In the commodity columns, payments are made to domestic activities, the rest of the world, and various tax accounts (for domestic and import taxes). This treatment provides the data needed to model imports as perfect or imperfect substitutes vis-à-vis domestic production.The government is disaggregated into a core government account and different tax collection accounts, one for each tax type. This disaggregation is necessary since otherwise the economic interpretation of some payments is often ambiguous. In the SAM, direct payments between the government and households are reserved for transfers. Finally, payments from the government to factors (for the labor services provided by public sector employees) are captured in the government services activity. Government consumption demand is a purchase of the output from the government services activity, which in turn, pays labor.The SAM contains a number of factors of production, which earn incomes from their use in the production process, and then pay their incomes to enterprises, households, government and the rest of the world. Indirect capital earnings or enterprise profits are taxed according to average corporate tax rates and some profits may be repatriated abroad. The remaining capital earnings, together with labor earnings are paid to households. Households use their incomes to pay taxes, save, and consume domestically produced and imported commodities. The initial task in building a SAM involves compiling data from various sources into the SAM framework. For Zambia, this information was drawn from national accounts, national supply-use tables, household surveys, government budgets and balance of payments. This information often uses (1) different disaggregation of sectors, production factors, and socio-economic household groups, (2) different years and/or base-year prices, and (3) different data collection and compilation techniques. Consequently, the initial or prior SAM inevitably includes imbalances between row and column account totals.The macro SAM shown in Table 2 is an aggregation of the more detailed micro SAM. This section explains how each macro SAM entry is derived and disaggregated to arrive at the prior micro SAM. Each entry in the SAM is discussed below. The notation for SAM entries is (row, column) and the values are in billions of 2007 Zambian Kwacha. The final disaggregated SAM is quite large and is included in the accompanying spreadsheet file.This is the value of gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost or alternatively, total value-added generated by labor and capital. Value-added at factor costs for broad economic sectors was drawn from the 2007 national accounts data, which provides estimates of the sum of compensation of employees and gross operating surplus (including consumption of fixed capital and land use). The single value for each sector was disaggregated across 44 activities, 15 of which are in agriculture, 15 are in industry, and 14 are in services. The disaggregation of labor and capital value-added was calculated using an updated input-output (IO) table that was constructed using information from agricultural and industrial surveys.Labor value-added was disaggregated into four education-based categories: not completed primary school; completed primary school (grade 7); completed secondary school (grade 12); and completed at least some tertiary education. It was assumed that a fixed portion of agriculture's sectoral capital value-added accrues to crop land or livestock capital. Therefore within agriculture, capital value-added is divided into land, livestock and \"other capital\", i.e., there are three capital accounts. The returns to primary agricultural capital and the returns to capital in industry and mining are estimated from enterprise budgets. New technology coefficients were estimated for crop and livestock production using farm budgets obtained from relevant government ministries and associated agencies involved in the agricultural sector. Farm budget data provide detailed information on labor costs, land rents, intermediate inputs, such as fertilizer, chemicals and transport services, and estimates on fixed costs by crop and agro-ecological zone. New technology coefficients were also estimated for industrial sectors using annual financial statements and management accounts of firms with leading market shares.This is the value of total marketed output (i.e., the \"supply\" matrix). Since all output is assumed to be supplied to markets, this value is equivalent to gross output, where gross output is the sum of intermediate demand and GDP at factor cost. Each activity in the Zambia SAM produces only one commodity and so this is a straight-forward calculation of a diagonal matrix (i.e., products and sectors are synonymous in the SAM).The payment by commodities to commodities is a condensed version of the treatment of trade margins in the 2007 SAM. In the SAM there are separate margin accounts for the trade costs incurred through the marketing of each commodity. This transaction cost is further disaggregated to distinguish between the costs incurred by imports, exports, and domestically-produced and sold goods.Unlike most other entries in the SAM, this entry was first calculated on a disaggregated level, and then aggregated to arrive at a final SAM value. Due to data gaps in the construction of the current SAM, some trade costs per unit of marketed output were subjectively determined based on the 1995 Zambia SAM (Hausner, 1999). In the 1995 SAM, results from other countries in the region and knowledge of Zambia's transport system were used to determine the trade overheads. For agricultural commodities, value chain analysis data was also used to derive trade margins. These were found to be not very different from those determined by Hausner (1999). The assumed margins prior to balancing are shown in Table 3 below. According to the 2001 Zambia SAM, export agriculture faces lower transactions costs because these activities are generally closer to trunk road and rail networks. For instance cotton is grown in the Eastern Province and has high access to road networks. In contrast the staple crops and other drought-tolerant crops are produced in areas further from road networks. Accordingly staples and other non-export agriculture face higher transaction costs per unit sold (Thurlow et al, 2004).While the Macro SAM shows only a single row and column for taxes, this account actually consists of a number of distinct tax accounts. These include specific accounts for activity, income, sales, export, and import taxes. The commodity tax entry in this cell is disaggregated in the detailed SAM into sales taxes (1,062), value added taxes (2,239), import tariffs (807) and export taxes (4). Import tariffs, sales and export tax rates by commodity category were computed using trade information from the Customs and Excise Department of the Zambia Revenue Authority. It should be noted that the implied aggregate import tariff rate and tax rates are based on tariff and tax collections and therefore, due to tax collection challenges and exemptions, this might not coincide with the tariff book rate.The value of total imports of goods and services was taken from the Balance of Payments (BOP) accounts (Bank of Zambia, 2007). Goods imports were disaggregated according to trade data for 2007 from the National Accounts Department at the Central Statistical Office.Total final household consumption is computed from the 2007 National Accounts data adjusted to include own-household consumption. In estimating the macro SAM, household consumption was a residual balancing item to remove the residual (omissions and errors) that appears in national accounts.Households in the SAM are disaggregated by rural and urban per capita expenditure percentiles (defined at the national level). This was based on information from the 2006 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey. Consumption shares for each commodity were used to disaggregate consumption spending across the various household groups.Government final consumption matches the corresponding total expenditure figure on personal emoluments, financial charges and use of goods and services in the 2007 Government Accounts data.This is the value of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), which includes fixed capital investments, such as in construction, machinery and equipment, plus changes in stocks or inventories. This is taken from the 2007 National Accounts data.Exports of goods and services are extracted from the 2007 National Accounts data. These comprise of exports, f.o.b, goods procured in ports by carriers (bunker oil), nonmonetary gold and services receipts. Total export demand was disaggregated across goods using data from the Customs and Excise Department of the Zambia Revenue Authority, and across services using shares from the balance of payments accounts estimated by the International Monetary Fund.Enterprise earn the returns to capital generated during the production process after they have paid factor taxes and repatriated profits. This is therefore a residual balancing item for capital income and expenditure.Households receive factor payments accruing directly from agricultural and nonagricultural land (2,575) and labor (22,934). Labor payments to individual households in the SAM are based on households' reported wage receipts and half of their farm/nonfarm enterprise earnings as reported in the 2006 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey.Government transfers to enterprises are taken from the 2007 Government Accounts data. These generally include government expenses on subsides, legal costs, and constitutional and statutory expenditure.This is taken from 2007 balance of payments data, and income receipts from the rest of the world to domestic enterprises.These are enterprise payments to government in form of fines, operating licenses, fees to court or government offices and other miscellaneous payments as provided in the 2007 Government Accounts data. It also includes direct corporate taxes, which was computed as total direct tax collection (3,832) minus personal income tax on households (2,231). Apart from corporate tax, this entry includes smaller items, such as training levies, excess-profit taxes, and estate duties.Enterprise payments to households are treated as the sum of enterprise income less direct taxes, dividend payments to the government, and enterprise savings. These payments are distributed across households according to income from non-farm businesses and other related sources, as reported in the 2006 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey.Enterprise savings were assumed to be ten percent of their total receipts or income. This generates a similar savings rate for households. This assumption was necessary since there is no information in Zambia on the distribution of private savings.xviii. (Rest of world, Enterprises)… 6,271The 2007 balance of payment reports income on equity payments and payments by government to the rest of the world (both net) as a negative number. Hence, this was treated as payments by enterprises less payments by government to the rest of the world.Government transfers to households are excerpted from the 2007 Government Accounts data. These are remitted in form of social benefits, grants and other payments.These are current transfers to private individuals from the rest of the world, and was drawn from 2007 balance of payment information on current transfers.The value of direct taxes on households is taken from the 2007 Government Accounts data, and represents total PAYE tax, medical levy and other taxes on self-and formally employed individuals.See [Savings, Enterprises] for an explanation of how this account was derived by assuming a roughly uniform ten percent savings rates for private domestic institutions.This is the value of gross saving by the government and is a residual balancing item for the government account, i.e., the differences between total revenues and recurrent expenditures.Government transfers to the rest of the world are taken from the 2007 balance of payments data. This is a sum of expenditure on short-term liabilities (payable within one year) and long-term liabilities (payable in more than one year).xxv.(Government, Rest of world)… 1,794These are official transfers to government from the rest of the world extracted from 2007 balance of payments data. They comprise of bilateral and multilateral grants from development partners.Foreign savings inflows (or the current account balance) is taken from the 2007 balance of payments data. This is a residual of foreign exchange inflows less exports, foreign enterprise receipts, foreign remittances received and government transfers from the rest of the world.The range of datasets used to construct the prior micro SAM implies that there will inevitably be imbalances (i.e., row and column totals are unequal). Cross-entropy econometrics is used to reconcile SAM accounts (see Robinson et al., 2001). This approach begins with the construction of the prior SAM, which as explained in the previous section, used a variety of data from a number of sources of varying quality. This prior SAM provided the initial 'best guess' for the estimation procedure. Additional information is then brought to bear, including knowledge about aggregate values from national accounts and technology coefficients. A balanced SAM was then estimated by minimizing the entropy 'distance' measure between the final SAM and the initial unbalanced prior SAM, taking into account of all additional information.Balancing procedure for the SAMThe balancing procedure takes places in two stages. First, a very detailed national SAM was constructed using the supply-use table, national accounts, state budgets and balance of payments. At this stage, the SAM contains aggregate entries for factors and households. This aggregate national SAM was then balanced using cross-entropy.After balancing the national SAM, it was then disaggregated across factors and households. Since the aggregate national SAM is balanced, this results in imbalances for the household accounts only. These household accounts were again balanced using cross-entropy, but holding all other non-household-related entries of the national SAM constant. Given the imbalances in the household survey between incomes and expenditures, the target household income/expenditure total for the final balanced SAM was the expenditure totals in the unbalanced prior SAM.Table 8 presents the equations defining the SAM estimation procedure. Starting from an initial estimate of the SAM, additional information is imposed in the form of constraints on the estimation. Equation 1 specifies that row sums and corresponding column sums must be equal, which is the defining characteristic for a consistent set of SAM accounts. Equation 2 specifies that sub-accounts of the SAM must equal control totals, and that these totals are assumed to be measured with error (Equation 3). An example would be the estimate of GDP provided by national accounts, which is the total value of the Factor-Activity matrix in the prior SAM. The matrix G is an aggregator matrix, with entries equal to 0 or 1. The index k is general and can include individual cells, column/row sums, and any combination of cells such as macro aggregates. Equation 4allows for the imposition of information about column coefficients in the SAM rather than cell values, also allowing for error (Equation 5).  The error specification in Equations 2 and 3 describes the errors as a weighted sum of a specified 'support set' (the V parameters). The weights (W) are probabilities to be estimated, starting from a prior on the standard error of measurement of aggregates of flows (Equation 8) or coefficients (Equation 9). The number of elements in the error support set (w) determines how many moments of the error distribution are estimated. The probability weights must be non-negative and sum to one (Equations 8 and 9). The objective function is the cross-entropy distance between the estimated probability weights and their prior for the errors in both coefficients and aggregates of SAM flows. It can be shown that this minimand is uniquely appropriate, and that using any other minimand introduces unwarranted assumptions (or information) about the errors.Various constraints were imposed on the model according to the perceived reliability of the data.Certain values that appeared in the supply-use table and national accounts were maintained in order to remain consistent with the overall macro structure of the economy. The macroeconomic aggregates that were maintained in the micro-SAM include: total labor value-added; total capital value-added; household final demand; government spending; investment demand; exports; imports; government borrowing/saving; current account balance; sales taxes; import tariffs; direct taxes on enterprises; government transfers to enterprises; enterprise transfers to the rest of the world; enterprise transfers to government; household transfers to government; government transfers to the rest of the world; and household foreign transfers received. The same standard errors were applied to all representative household groups.","tokenCount":"3171"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"96179c5877982316e6f1b70792546eea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9c0d16c6-1815-4def-b409-4b856d9c4836/retrieve","id":"-1410738636"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78f9fb6e-ff6b-4cdb-b635-734083cb419f","pagecount":"81","content":"Contacta al ministerio de agricultura de tu país para más información sobre cómo participar en las MTA.El Comité Regional de Recursos Hidráulicos del sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (CRRH-SICA), es una organización creada en 1966, especializada en los campos de la meteorología, la climatología y la hidrología. Desde el año 2000 coordina la realización de los Foros del Clima de la Región Centroamericana, en los que participan expertos en meteorología y climatología provenientes de los Servicios Meteorológicos e Hidrológicos Nacionales (SMHNs).El CRRH y el CAC se complacen en compartir con los usuarios del sector agropecuario el primer Boletín Centroamericano, Clima y Agricultura, a través del cual se comparte información sobre el comportamiento esperado del Clima para el trimestre mayo a julio y los impactos esperados, así como las recomendaciones para el sector agrícola.El comportamiento esperado para el trimestre es producto del LXI Foro del Clima de América Central, realizado del 15 al 17, en el mismo participaron expertos de México, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá y República Dominicana. Utilizando la Perspectiva del Clima como insumo se desarrolló el LX Foro de Aplicaciones de los Pronósticos Climáticos a la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional, coordinado por PROGRESAN-SICA, durante este Foro se desarrolló la mesa de Agricultura y Café en la cual se discutieron los impactos que las condiciones pronosticadas del clima para los próximos 3 meses podían producir y se generaron recomendaciones para el sector agrícola, particularmente en el contexto de COVID19. Agradecemos al equipo de CIAT por el apoyo prestado para la realización del mismo.Esperamos que la información recopilada en el Boletín Centroamericano, Clima y Agricultura, sea difundida ampliamente entre los técnicos, promotores agrícolas y productores.• El cuadro 1 muestra la anomalía de la lluvia en el 2019 y el 2020, para 3 estaciones meteorológicas aportadas por los servicios Meteorológicos Nacionales, miembros del CRRH-SICA. Los valores en rojo, representan las estaciones que registraron lluvias menores a sus valores normales. Los valores en blanco representan estaciones con más lluvia que su valor normal.• Podemos notar que el año 2019 prácticamente, todas las estaciones registraron lluvias deficitarias, en algunos casos, estos déficit fueron superiores al 50 %.• El año 2020 inicio con una temporada seca deficitaria, es decir. los pocos aportes de lluvias que se reciben en enero, febrero y marzo producto de los empujes fríos no se recibieron.• Estamos entrando a la temperada de lluviosa con déficit en los acumulados de lluvia, eso representa bajos niveles en las capas freáticas.Cuadro 1. Lluvia registrada en estaciones a nivel regional, 2019 y enero, febrero y marzo 2020.Condición ENOS• Entre los meses de noviembre del 2019 a marzo del 2020, se presentó un leve calentamiento de del Océano Pacífico Oriental, lo que corresponde a un episodio débil de El Niño (Figura 1). • El pequeño evento de El Niño registrado durante los últimos meses causó alteraciones climáticas en el régimen de lluvias en varias zonas de la región centroamericana, especialmente en la costa Caribe.• Para la región Centroamericana, la época seca da inicio con el incremento de la presión atmosférica y la migración de masas de aire frío proveniente de la zona polar, causando un descenso de la temperatura e incrementando la velocidad del viento, por lo general se tiene predominancia de viento Norte.• La época fría se marca de noviembre a febrero, durante esta época se pueden presentar algunas lluvias locales de tipo convectivo, o prefrontales por la influencia de los frentes fríos. Las cuales no se registraronCondición ENOS• Hay una alta probabilidad (65%) que para los próximos meses prevalezcan las condiciones neutras del ENOS (ni calentamiento, ni enfriamiento) durante el periodo de validez de esta perspectiva (Figura 2).• Condición neutra de ENOS nos indica lluvias en el rango normal en comparación al promedio histórico. Después de julio posiblemente mantengamos condiciones neutras, aunque no se descarta una transición hacia el enfriamiento del Pacífico (La Niña); lo que induce a mayores lluvias. Perspectiva climática Mayo-Junio-Julio• La perspectiva climática para el trimestre Mayo-Junio-Julio (MJJ) de 2020 fue presentada en el LXI Foro del Clima de América Central. El foro estimó la probabilidad de que la lluvia acumulada en el período de mayo a julio de 2020 esté en el rango Bajo de lo Normal (B), en el rango Normal (N) o en el rango Arriba de lo Normal (A), como se observa en la Figura 3.• Para esta perspectiva en particular es importante destacar que: I.Zonas indicadas en verde tienen una probabilidad de 40% que la lluvia acumulada ocurra en el escenario arriba de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en marrón existe un 40% de que, la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en amarillo existe una probabilidad de 45% que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal.• Las tendencias de las proyecciones indican que las temperaturas del mar en la cuenca del océano Atlántico (incluye el Golfo de México y el Mar Caribe) estarán en niveles más altos que los del año pasado y que los normales de la época, por lo que puede presentarse una temporada activa en sistemas tropicales en el Atlántico y Caribe.(años con condiciones similares al trimestre MJJ 2020) 1986, 1989, 2003, 2006, 2013 y 2014• El comportamiento de los años análogos considerados muestran que los acumulados de lluvia registrada han sido valores con escenarios hacia arriba de lo normal en áreas de Boca Costa, Sur-Occidente y Occidente y para el resto del país de normal hacia arriba de lo normal.• La Perspectiva del Clima es una estimación sobre el posible comportamiento de la lluvia y la temperatura realizada con herramientas estadísticas, comparación con años análogos y análisis de los resultados de modelos globales y regionales sobre las temperaturas de la superficie del mar, los patrones de viento, presión atmosférica y la precipitación, que tienen como objetivo complementar las actividades de pronóstico que realizan los SMHNs en cada uno de los países de la región.• La perspectiva no contempla eventos extremos puntuales y de corta duración.El mapa presenta escenarios de probabilidad de la condición media en el cuatrimestre; no se refiere a las condiciones en cada uno de los meses individualmente.• En el Cuadro 1 se describen las condiciones predominantes por país en relación con las categorías de los escenarios. El Cuadro 2 muestra el comportamiento esperado de la temperatura, cómo sería el inicio de las lluvias y la canícula por país.• Debido a lo amplio de la escala, en áreas con microclimas el comportamiento de la lluvia puede presentar variaciones respecto a lo descrito en la perspectiva, por tanto, las decisiones que se tomen basados en esta información, deben considerar estas singularidades.Occidente de la Península de Yucatán y costa de Chiapas.Porción central de la Península de Yucatán, planicie de Tabasco y región Central de Chiapas. Norte de Chiapas y Sur de Tabasco, además del Oriente de la Península de Yucatán. • Buenas condiciones de lluvias: Cultivos de maíz y frijol pueden verse favorecidos con el pronóstico de lluvia, que muestra condiciones normales y arriba de lo normal en la mayoría de territorios en los países. Los buenos acumulados de lluvias pronosticados en este trimestre pueden favorecer los porcentajes de germinación, así que se recomienda a los agricultores sembrar oportunamente.• Distribución de lluvias: Las cantidades de lluvia pronosticadas en el trimestre favorecen la actividad agrícola. Sin embargo, hay que prestar atención a la distribución. Una distribución errática puede ocasionar problemas en agricultura familiar o de subsistencia. En este contexto, es recomendable establecer mecanismos de captación de agua de lluvia para momentos de interrupciones de la precipitación.• Fechas de siembra: Las fechas probables de inicios de lluvias son las típicas de la temporada de lluvia en los países, a excepción de Honduras y Costa Rica donde se esperan atrasos en su inicio y en el occidente de Panamá donde se espera que se adelante. Esperar que el suelo esté por lo menos al 75 % de la capacidad de campo sería recomendable para sembrar.• Preparación del suelo: Sobre la base de las presentes perspectivas del período lluvioso mayo a julio, se recomienda realizar con tiempo todas aquellas labores de preparación de tierra que permitan un desarrollo óptimo de los cultivos y el aprovechamiento de las lluvias desde el inicio de la temporada húmeda.• Plagas y enfermedades: Hay que estar atentos al tema de plagas y enfermedades, derivados del incremento de las lluvias. Para su control puede considerarse el uso de agroquímicos, pero evitar su exceso para no contaminar las fuentes de agua (por lavado), principalmente zonas de alta pendiente. Enfermedades comunes como la mancha de asfalto se controla típicamente con productos a base de cobre o Benomilo. También considerar opciones de manejo integrado de plagas, por ejemplo para monitorear y controlar el gusano cogollero, áfidos y babosas. Priorizar el uso de bio-insumos (soluciones caseras) para combatir las plagas.• Canícula: De presentarse la canícula en los países, no se espera que ésta sea prolongada y pueda ser interrumpida por algunos períodos de lluvia.• Selección de semilla: Es importante una buena selección de semilla y el uso de semilla certificada para los que tengan posibilidades de hacerlo. El distanciamiento de siembra debe hacerse de acuerdo al tipo de semilla. Utilizar variedades criollas puede ser recomendable, especialmente en zonas altas (típicamente uso de maíces morados, amarillos, blancos). Para zonas bajas se pueden emplear variedades como Guayape, Tuxpeñó, variedades criollas o híbridos de ciclo corto (dependiendo del contexto de cada zona/país). Así mismo, en el caso de fríjol se recomienda sembrar variedades criollas adaptadas a cada territorio.• Altas temperaturas: Por las altas temperaturas que pueden presentarse es importante considerar una alta evapotranspiración en los cultivos y en la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades.Revisar periódicamente los cultivos sería recomendable para asegurar que el cultivo no se quede sin la humedad adecuada.• Fertilización: Hacerlo de forma oportuna cuando la planta lo requiere (típicamente a los 8, 25 y 40 días después de la siembra). En el caso de frijol de ser posible hacer aplicación de rhizobium para la fijación de nitrógeno• NO quema: Esto evita matar insectos benéficos, perder micronutrientes y/o la estructura del suelo.• Manejo post-cosecha: Prepararse para un buen manejo postcosecha, que incluya la recogida temprana de cosechas previendo condiciones de una canícula corta y débil. Tener condiciones especialmente para secado y almacenamiento de los granos (p.e. silos metálicos. silos de barriles o pichingas, bolsas de plástico y otros medios artesanales para almacenamiento). En el caso de frijol cosechar cuando la parte inferior de la vaina este seca, No secar el grano en la parcela. Para maíz el secado del grano para su cosecha y almacenamiento debe de ser a un 14% de humedad.Las siguientes recomendaciones se basan en el análisis hecho por las instituciones nacionales de café (Anacafe, IHCAFE, ICAFE, entre otras) junto con otras organizaciones del sector.• Desarrollo del cultivo: Los acumulados de lluvia pronosticados, implica una alta probabilidad de ayudar a que la cosecha mejore, especialmente si está bien distribuidas dichas lluvias. En las partes bajas, el aumento de lluvia da como resultado condiciones aptas para que el cultivo se desarrolle, no obstante, excesos de lluvias o granizo tendría podría ocasionar pérdidas en la formación de frutos del café. Se favorecerá el programa de renovación cafetalera por la disponibilidad de humedad.• Control de Malezas: La perspectiva de precipitación para este periodo se ve favorable. Antes de fertilizar se recomienda hacer control de malezas de forma manual (con machete) o mecánico (chapeadora). Tratar de mantener cobertura vegetal con el objetivo de retención de humedad. El uso de azadón y abuso de herbicida pudiera llegar a ocasionar en el suelo desnudo afectación de las raíces, debido a las altas temperaturas y llegar a ocasionar erosión en el suelo.• Manejo de Sombra: El manejo de sombra debe ser regulado, la cobertura debe de estar entre 50-60%, lo que permitirá no exponer a la planta a radiación solar directa, donde le provoque consumo de energía innecesario.• Fertilización: Se recomienda la planificación adecuada de las épocas oportunas para la fertilización. Si se hace tardío, existe la posibilidad de un lavado de nutrientes en el suelo (lavado de bases).• Siembra y resiembras: Se recomienda incorporar materia orgánica en el hoyo de siembra para retención de humedad o bien se evite la erosión que va vinculado a la recomendación anterior. En caso de deficiencia o ausencia de sobra, implementar sombra temporal o semipermanente. Ej. banano, gandul, higuerillo entre otros.• Roya: Hacer muestreos de roya previos a la entrada de la lluvia para conocer los índices de incidencia, así se evita que la roya puede dispararse y no se pueda controlar en los próximos tres meses. Pueden presentarse algunos repuntes de roya por lluvias tardías del año pasado. Así mismo monitorear otro tipo de enfermedades como el ojo de gallo.• Fungicidas: Con basé a los muestreos de roya, es conveniente preparar fungicidas, comuníquese con el técnico del área para mejores recomendaciones, se recuerda que la aplicación preventiva conlleva menos costos y que la aparición de la enfermedad disminuya.• Desarrollo del cultivo: Buenas condiciones para el desarrollo de estos cultivos particularmente en zonas de menor altitud. Acumulados de lluvias esperados favorecerían la floración y ayudarían a tener buenas producciones en el caso de frutales. Sin embargo, lluvias más fuertes en menos tiempo podrían ocasionar baja concentración de azucares y baja calidad del fruto• Fertilizantes: Se recomiendan las aplicaciones oportunas de fertilizantes foliares: Zinc y Boro.• Plagas y enfermedades: Prestar atención a la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades como cigatoca o moco (banano). También estar atentos a la erradicación oportuna de hongos en el suelo, tipo fusarium, fitium, nematodos y otros. considerar opciones de manejo integrado de plagas.• Pudrición: Prestar atención en las partes bajas donde acumulaciones de humedad, podrían producir pudrición. Para ello se recomienda el mejoramiento o mantenimiento de los sistemas de drenaje en el suelo.• Conservación de suelos: Se recomienda prácticas agrícolas para mantener la humedad en el suelo (p.e. labranza mínima sobre todo en zonas de ladera) y obtener más producción. Una buena precipitación sin un suelo que pueda retener la humedad se traduce en escorrentía y no humedad efectiva.El trabajar acequias y barreras vivas serían las principales actividades que se tendrían que trabajar con los agricultores en estos meses.• Cobertura: El manejo de cobertura es fundamental. el manejo del rastrojo no solo es para conservar la humedad sino para mantener un suelo sano, con nutrientes y otros elementos.• Cosecha de agua: Aunque hay buenos acumulados de lluvias pronosticadas es importante hacer prácticas de cosecha de agua. Con esto se puede hacer frente a cualquier distribución de lluvia errática que pudiera presentarse.• Sistemas de riego: Para quién tenga acceso, se recomienda instalación y mantenimiento de sistemas de riego dependiendo del cultivo a establecer.• Curvas a nivel: Se recomienda el desarrollo de todas las prácticas agronómicas en contra del sentido de la pendiente desde el momento de la siembra (sembrar en curvas a nivel). Esto ayuda a la conservación de la humedad y sobre todo a la conservación del suelo.• Huertos familiares: Se recomienda incentivar la elaboración de huertos familiares aprovechando todas las condiciones disponibles, como mecanismo de provisión de alimentos vegetales y animales.• Reforestación: Aprovechar desde el inicio temporada de lluvia para hacer las reforestaciones.• Manejo forestal: Manejo de ramas; realizar previo a las lluvias para evitar la posibilidad de aparición enfermedades.• Siembra de pastos mejorados:Realizando buena fertilización, con abonos orgánicos. Deben ser altos en proteínas para mejorar dieta y nutricion del Ganado.• Realizar ensilaje, bloques nutricionales y heno: para asegurar alimentación del ganado. Establecer bancos forrajeros, mediante la siembra de árboles como leguminosas.• Vitaminas y vacunación: Suministrar sales minerales, para asegurar salud del ganado tanto en la época seca como en la lluviosa, para obtener una buena producción de carne y leche. Efectuar vacunación, desparasitación y vitaminado del ganado.• Procesamiento de la leche: valor agregado para darle mayor durabilidad al producto y evitar perdidasServicios climáticos: Es importante que con la información de clima unido a la información agrícola se generen servicios climáticos para el sector en el país, por ejemplo a través de las mesas agroclimáticas locales, mesas de monitoreo de cultivos, mesas de seguridad alimentaria y otros espacios.• Monitorear periódicamente:Actualizaciones del pronóstico: emitidas mensualmente los servicios meteorológicos, incluyendo: pronóstico de corto plazo (24, 48, 72 horas), pronósticos semanales, pronósticos mensuales y las tablas de contingencia de las estaciones meteorológicas. Mucha de esta información está disponible en las páginas web de los servicios meteorológicos de cada país.Resultados de los informes de precios de granos básicos y otros productos de la canasta familiar, emitidos típicamente por la FAO y los ministerios de agricultura de los países.Resultados de informes de inseguridad alimentaria emitidos por las organizaciones nacionales de seguridad alimentaria y algunas agencias de las Naciones Unidas (e.g. PMA).Los mensajes de alerta emitidos por los organismos de gestión de riesgos.La pandemia de coronavirus podría tener algunos impactos en la producción de alimentos, el acceso al mercado y el empleo rural. Algunos de estos que podrían presentarse en la región se enuncian a continuación:• Menor acceso a insumos: Pequeños agricultores no pueden acceder a los mercados para vender productos o comprar bienes, como semillas o fertilizantes. Las familias rurales están consumiendo o vendiendo sus reservas de granos básicos, insumos o ganado.• Presión en los hogares rurales: Las medidas de cierre limitan las actividades alternativas que tenían algunos hogares. Esta inestabilidad podría empeorar los niveles agudos de inseguridad alimentaria y nutricional. Escasez acelerada de alimentos. Es probable que el aumento del desempleo y el subempleo reduzcan drásticamente el poder adquisitivo de las personas y reduzcan la demanda de algún tipo de alimento. La situación de la pandemia puede agravar el hambre estacional.• Disponibilidad de alimentos: Las restricciones de movimiento necesarias para contener la propagación del virus interrumpirán el transporte y el procesamiento de alimentos y otros bienes críticos, aumentando los tiempos de entrega y reduciendo la disponibilidad de los alimentos, incluso los más básicos. También hay escasez de algunos otros alimentos en los mercados locales donde las familias rurales los compraron.• Restricciones comerciales: afectan a los pequeños agricultores a través de mecanismos de precios, las prohibiciones de importación / exportación hacen bajar los precios en los países productores. Es probable que las restricciones de movimiento (y la enfermedad) limiten la disponibilidad de mano de obra agrícola, lo que contribuirá al aumento de los precios de los alimentos.• Inestabilidad social: Crear las condiciones para los disturbios sociales y políticos, especialmente en los países más vulnerables en crisis alimentaria.La Pandemia del SARS-COVI2 plantea retos importantes para la seguridad alimentaria de la región. Ahora más que nunca es necesario destacar el valor que los productores locales tienen durante la atención de una crisis como la actual. Es necesario proveerles de las herramientas tecnológicas y el conocimiento adecuado para que, en conjunto con los demás actores del sector, puedan tomar las mejores decisiones en su actividad.En vista que nos encontramos en esta emergencia sanitaria y a la limitada movilidad en los diferentes países de la región se describen a continuación algunas otras recomendaciones:• Incentivar la producción: Hoy más que nunca es importante la agricultura de producción de granos, para evitar desabastecimiento en la región como efecto del COVID19. Esto se ve favorecido por las condiciones climáticas pronosticadas.• Garantizar insumos: Incentivar programas sociales para otorgar semillas y otros insumos agrícolas prioritarios. Si los productores no disponen de suficiente semilla, se recomienda acudir a los bancos de semilla. Se deben incentivar la generación de programas sociales que apoyen a los agricultores más vulnerables, especialmente aquellos referentes a los arrendamientos de tierras.• Canales de difusión: Se llama la atención respecto a la pertinencia de contar con canales de comunicación adecuados con tal de asegurar que la información de esta perspectiva y las recomendaciones para el sector agrícola sean diseminadas de manera efectiva. Es necesario buscar los mecanismos para que los productores, extensionistas y tomadores de decisión política a nivel de ministerio o secretaría, puedan transferir la información actualizada de manera oportuna. Se insta a los países a aprovechar los canales de comunicación y divulgación existentes como chats de WhatsApp, redes sociales, radios locales, llamadas telefónicas, puntos focales de mesas técnicas agroclimáticas y servicios de extensión.• Seguridad alimentaria: Instituciones humanitarias deben prestar atención a las tendencias de hambre estacional que pueden verse agravadas por las situaciones de aislamiento. Sumado a esto, es relevante que los ministerios de agricultura de los países informen constantemente a las instituciones públicas y privadas sobre los cambios en los precios de los alimentos, para que estas a su vez informen a los productores y a las asociaciones de los productores sobre oportunidades para la compra de sus alimentos y los precios.• Prácticas agrícolas locales: Elaborar bio-insumos y la implementación de prácticas agroecológicas de bajo costo y el uso recursos locales para suplir las necesidades de nutrición en los cultivos en caso de que no se puedan adquirir los fertilizantes tradicionales. Instituciones locales tienen experiencia y materiales para la preparación de estos. Diversificar los cultivos en las parcelas (en asocio y relevo) para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria. Comportamiento de la lluvia durante agosto, septiembre, octubre de 2020• La Figura 1 muestra la anomalía de la lluvia acumulada, utilizando la herramienta CHIRPS*, para el trimestre mayo, junio y julio de 2020.• En el mapa se puede apreciar algunas zonas hacia el Pacífico Norte de Centroamérica con excesos, hacia la parte Este de El Salvador y el Sur Este de Honduras. Esta condición está asociada sobre todo con las lluvias asociadas a la Tormentas Amanda y Cristóbal.• Se observan zonas con acumulados menores a lo normal en la parte Central de Guatemala, hacia el Caribe de Costa Rica y Oeste de Panamá.Figura 1. Anomalía de lluvia acumulada durante mayo a julio de 2020.• Desde el año 2019 la temperatura de la superficie del mar en el Atlántico Tropical Norte ha mostrado una tendencia al ascenso y durante el 2020 han registrado valores excepcionalmente altos, tal y como lo muestra la Figura 2.• Que esta condición en el Atlántico favorece la generación de más ciclones tropicales.• La temporada de ciclones tropicales será más activa que lo normal por el calentamiento en el Atlántico Norte, el Caribe y Golfo de México. Se pronostica que en el Atlántico se formarán 18 ciclones tropicales, de los cuales 9 serían huracanes y de estos 5 serían huracanes intensos y destructivos. En el Pacífico Nororiental se pronostica de 15 a 18 ciclones tropicales, de los cuales entre 8 y 10 se convertirían en huracanes. • Desde el mes de mayo 2020, los indicadores oceánicos del fenómeno ENOS, como Niño 3.4 y Niño 3, han venido mostrando magnitudes y tendencias propias de la transición de la condición Neutra a la de La Niña (Figura 2) impulsando a varios Centros Climáticos Mundiales (NCEP, BoM) y SMHNs de Mesoamérica a activar sus sistemas de alerta temprana a un nivel de \"Vigilancia de La Niña\".• Durante junio las temperaturas disminuyeron rápidamente durante algunas semanas, pero permanecimos sobre condiciones neutras (Figura 3).• De acuerdo a todos los modelos existe una alta probabilidad (50%) que el fenómeno de La Niña se desarrolle en el periodo de esta Perspectiva. El escenario Neutro y El Niño tienen las probabilidades de 47% y 3%, respectivamente. • La perspectiva climática para el trimestre agosto-septiembre-octubre (ASO) de 2020 fue producida por el grupo de expertos en meteorología y climatología que participó del LXII Foro del Clima de América Central. El foro estimó la probabilidad de que la lluvia acumulada en el período de agosto a octubre de 2020 esté en el rango Bajo de lo Normal (B), en el rango Normal (N) o en el rango Arriba de lo Normal (A), como se observa en la Figura 4.• Para interpretar la perspectiva se debe tener en cuenta que:Zonas indicadas en verde tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia acumulada ocurra en el escenario arriba de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en marrón tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en amarillo tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal.5 * La Perspectiva del Clima es una estimación sobre el posible comportamiento de la lluvia y la temperatura realizada con herramientas estadísticas, comparación con años análogos y análisis de los resultados de modelos globales y regionales sobre las temperaturas de la superficie del mar, los patrones de viento, presión atmosférica y la precipitación, que tienen como objetivo complementar las actividades de pronóstico que realizan los servicios meteorológicos en cada uno de los países de la región.** La perspectiva no contempla eventos extremos puntuales y de corta duración. El mapa presenta escenarios de probabilidad de la condición media en el trimestre; no se refiere a las condiciones en cada uno de los meses individualmente.• En las semanas de canícula en países con corredor seco se presentarían algunos déficits de precipitación sin esperar que la ésta sea prolongada y que siga siendo interrumpida por lluvias.• A partir de la segunda quincena de agosto, se espera que las lluvias vayan en incremento para alcanzar su segundo máximo en el mes de septiembre y octubre.• De consolidarse el Fenómeno de la La Niña podría ocasionar una situación crítica para Centroamérica por los elevados acumulados de lluvias que se tendrían.• En el Cuadro 1 se describen las condiciones predominantes por país 2 en relación con las categorías de los escenarios. El Cuadro 2 muestra el comportamiento esperado de la temperatura, cómo sería el inicio de las lluvias y la canícula por país.• Debido a lo amplio de la escala, en áreas con microclimas el comportamiento de la lluvia puede presentar variaciones respecto a lo descrito en la perspectiva, por tanto, las decisiones que se tomen basados en esta información, deben considerar estas singularidades.2 Para mayores detalles sobre las perspectivas climáticas por país, contactar a los institutos especializados del clima (Servicios Meteorológicos Nacionales) de cada país.1983 , 1988, 1989, 1995, 1998, 2008 Se espera con un 87 % de probabilidad que el inicio de la época seca se establezca en el país a partir del seis de noviembre en adelanteSuperior a lo normal La estación lluviosa finalizará en los primeros días de noviembre en el corredor seco.Se mantiene la probabilidad del 30% que en la primera semana de agosto exista reducción de cantidades de lluvia.Se espera que para la última semana de octubre las precipitaciones disminuyen gradualmente finalizando el período normal de lluvias a finales del mesNo se espera que la temporada seca se adelante en octubre, al contrario, será más tarde lo normal.Para la Vertiente del Caribe se prolongarían y acentuarían aún más, pero totalmente imperceptible o más débil en el Valle Central y la Vertiente del Pacífico.Para el presente año no se prevé una canícula marcada, sólo una leve disminución de las lluvias en un periodo de 3 a 6 días a finales de julio.Respecto a granos básicos, se esperan condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de los cultivos, pero se proponen las siguientes recomendaciones ante las altas precipitaciones esperadas:Manejar la cobertura/protección de suelos para evitar o reducir erosión por escorrentía.Evitar la siembra de cultivos en zonas propensas a inundaciones o deslices.Ante las condiciones de alta humedad pronosticadas, vigilancia y control de pudriciones radiculares en frijol y el complejo de mancha de asfalto en maíz.Evitar encharcamientos por los excesos de lluvia y la saturación de los suelos, implementar acequias, cunetas entre otras obras que favorezcan el drenaje en las parcelas.Respecto al manejo postcosecha, incorporar medidas e infraestructura que beneficien el secado y calidad de granos.Incrementar la vigilancia epidemiológica fitosanitaria para el monitoreo de plagas por la alta humedad. Particularmente para plagas de lepidópteros mediante el uso de Bacillus thuringiensis, Metharhizium spp., parasitoides específicos y utilizando productos biorracionales.Desarrollar procesos adecuados de desinfección del suelo y tratamiento de las semillas.Evitar el exceso de fertilizantes nitrogenados.El viento puede provocar acame (doblez o inclinación del tallo) en maíz, frijol y otros granos básicos. Barreras vivas como se recomienda en zonas expuestas a vientos fuertes que se repiten cíclicamente.Las siguientes recomendaciones se basan en el análisis hecho por las instituciones nacionales de café (Anacafe, IHCAFE, ICAFE, entre otras) y Promecafe, junto con otras organizaciones del sector:Establecer acciones de vigilancia en fincas respecto a brotes de enfermedades relacionadas con hongos en condiciones de alta humedad (Mal de hilacha y Ojo de Gallo). El exceso de lluvias o granizo podrían ocasionar pérdidas en la formación de frutos del café. Evitar que la curva se dispare en el mes de octubre.Planificación adecuada de las épocas oportunas para la fertilización. Si se hace tardío, durante los meses de septiembre y octubre, existe la posibilidad de un lavado de nutrientes en el suelo (lavado de bases) por la alta incidencia de lluvias para estos meses.Continuar atentos al desarrollo y comportamiento de la plaga de langostas, coordinar acciones con los sistemas de sanidad agropecuaria en cada país.Realizar buenas prácticas sanitarias relacionadas con el manejo de tejidos y regulación de sombra.Se recomienda establecer un periodo de vigilancia durante este periodo, lluvias más fuertes en menos tiempo podrían ocasionar baja concentración de azucares y baja calidad del fruto Se debe de prestar atención a la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades como sigatoka o moco (banano). También estar atentos a la erradicación oportuna de hongos en el suelo, tipo fusarium, pythium, nemátodos y otros. Considerar opciones de manejo integrado de plagas. Asociado al enfriamiento del Pacífico, en zonas bajas como en Boca costa y suroccidente de Guatemala la época lluviosa tiende a finalizar tardíamente en la primera semana de noviembre, lo cual es relevante para el sector cañero.La saturación en los suelos por las lluvias que se presentan en septiembre y octubre, generan deslaves, inundaciones, deslizamientos de tierra, daños en las redes viales de los países y lahares en la cadena volcánica.El manejo de cobertura es fundamental. El manejo del rastrojo y cultivos de cobertura no sólo es para conservar la humedad y evitar la evaporación, sino también para mantener un suelo sano, con nutrientes y otros elementos.En áreas bajas buscar aguas subterráneas para hacer pozos de infiltración para ayudar a manejar el agua y evitar la erosión hídrica.Aunque hay buenos acumulados de lluvia en ASO, es importante hacer prácticas de captura de agua. Es momento oportuno para establecer reservorios de agua que permitan su almacenamiento y hacer frente a cualquier variación o cualquier distribución errática de lluvia.La Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC), contempla la implementación de mejores prácticas a nivel de plantación, finca y paisaje, como pilares para fomentar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas agropecuarios. Algunas de estas prácticas sostenibles, las cuales están entrelazadas y se detallan a continuación:El sistema suelo es un ente vivo y dinámico, por lo que conservar y mejorar sus condiciones es clave para garantizar su calidad y productividad en el largo plazo. Para ello, se debe considerar una serie de prácticas complementarias, tales como:Según datos del Banco Mundial 3 (2020), la agricultura consume alrededor del 70% del suministro de agua dulce del planeta. Al ser un recurso escaso e indispensable para la vida, resulta fundamental que se incorporen prácticas sostenibles que garanticen su conservación y manejo sostenible, como, por ejemplo:1. En regiones adonde las condiciones de siembra son secas o áridas (e.g. Corredor Seco): implementar técnicas de cosecha y almacenamiento de agua de lluvia, en conjunto con las prácticas de manejo de suelo que conserven la humedad, tales como las mencionadas anteriormente.3 Fuente: https://www.bancomundial.org/es/topic/water-inagriculture 2. En regiones en las que existan sistemas de riego: optimizar y hacer más eficiente el riego, reemplazando el riego por gravedad, que es el riego en el que más agua se desperdicia, por riego conducido, utilizando mangueras o tuberías, y revisando periódicamente posibles fugas desde la fuente y a lo largo del recorrido.También se puede programar el riego para realizarlo durante las horas más frescas, considerando su disponibilidad temporal y con base en información periódica sobre las condiciones del tiempo y/o utilizando los servicios climáticos.Según datos de FAO 4 (2018), la ganadería cumple un papel clave frente al cambio climático y la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional, destacando que:• Los productos ganaderos son responsables de más emisiones de Gases de Efecto Invernadero que la mayoría de las otras fuentes de alimentos. Las emisiones son causadas por la producción de alimento, la fermentación entérica, los desechos de animales y el cambio en el uso de la tierra.• La ganadería es clave para la seguridad alimentaria: La carne, la leche y los huevos proporcionan el 34% de la proteína que se consume en todo el mundo e igualmente micronutrientes esenciales como la vitamina B12, vitamina A, hierro, zinc, calcio y riboflavina. Cientos de millones de personas vulnerables confían en la ganadería en un clima cambiante, debido a la capacidad de los animales para adaptarse a las condiciones marginales y resistir las crisis.Debido a esto, es fundamental considerar la implementación de prácticas sostenibles tales como:1. Implementar técnicas de conservación de forrajes.2. En el caso de la producción de leche bajo sistema de pastoreo: distribuir el pastoreo en diferentes zonas de repastos, considerando una rotación adecuada para optimizar el consumo de forraje y evitar la compactación y degradación del suelo y los pastos.3. Combinar áreas de repasto con árboles, por ejemplo, mediante el uso de diferentes especies forrajeras como cercas vivas, de manera que se ofrezca sombra al ganado durante días con altas temperaturas (reduciendo el estrés calórico), se cuente con diferentes fuentes de proteína, aprovechable por medio del ramoneo de hojas y tallos tiernos, y se fije nitrógeno naturalmente, aumentando fertilidad de los pastos.Como consecuencia de un período de verano seco y caluroso y su cambio a un invierno con exceso de precipitación, es de esperarse el incremento de hongos y bacterias, así como de algunas especies de insectos cuya bioecología está asociada a este tipo de eventos. En este caso el principal riesgo lo constituye el incremento de poblaciones de Langosta Voladora Shistocerca piceifrons, por lo que es fundamental el refuerzo de las actividades de vigilancia.• Incrementar la vigilancia epidemiológica fitosanitarias para el monitoreo de plagas utilizando trampas de color amarillas, verdes y azules pegajosos, así también, el uso de feromonas para la detección oportuna de plagas en cultivos de solanáceas, brássicas, cucurbitáceas.• Ampliar la aplicación de medidas de control biológico para plagas de lepidópteros tanto en granos básicos, como en hortalizas mediante el uso de Bacillus thuringiensis, Metharhizium spp., parasitoides específicos y utilizando productos biorracionales.• Realizar prospecciones de langosta voladora en zonas gregaigenas y chapulines en la región., se espera también el incremento de las poblaciones de lepidópteros propios de la época, poblaciones de larvas de insectos de los géneros Spodoptera, Agriotes, Pseudoplusia son de importancia.• En el caso de las pudriciones se debe poner principal atención a las causadas por los géneros de bacteria Ralstonia, Xanthomona y Erwinia y los hongos Fusarium, Phytophtora y Alternaria.• Tener en consideración para el desarrollo de cualquier medida fitosanitaria las condiciones del tiempo y su pronóstico, así como las implicaciones de los mismos en términos del riesgo de plaga. El geoportal de OIRSA se encuentra a disponibilidad para servir de guía y utilidad: https://geoportal.oirsa.orgLos principales riesgos están asociados a la saturación de los suelos producto del incremento de las precipitaciones. Esto afecta fundamentalmente la disponibilidad de forrajes e incrementa la proliferación de parásitos y vectores de enfermedades. Entre las medidas recomendadas por OIRSA que se deben aplicar en esta época del año se recomienda:• Asegurar fuentes de alimento ante la eventual escases causada por las inundaciones.• Asegurar y resguardar fuentes de agua de buena calidad.• Observar y aplicar las medidas de bioseguridad básicas en su finca, granja o establecimiento.• Efectuar baños contra los parásitos externos como moscas y garrapatas• Aplicar la desparasitación para endo y ectoparásitos en bovinos, equinos y porcinos.• Aplicar vitaminas aprovechando la actividad de desparasitación de los animales• Movilizar a los animales a partes altas o secas de los terrenos susceptibles a inundaciones o encharcamientos.• Vigilar la presencia de síntomas o signos de las enfermedades de mayor riesgoLa pandemia de coronavirus esta generando impactos en la producción de alimentos, el acceso al mercado y el empleo rural. Algunos de estos que ya se están presentando principalmente en la región se enuncian a continuación:• Reducción de los ingresos de las familias vulnerables: algunos hogares han reducido sus ahorros debido al aumento de los precios de los alimentos y los insumos.• Acceso limitado a insumos para la producción de alimentos: Además de las limitaciones para conseguir dichos insumos se presenta un alza en los precios de los mismos, afectando a muchos productores su compra.• Restricciones comerciales: las limitaciones en la movilidad además afectan el desarrollo de actividades alternativas como fuentes de ingreso familiar, propiciando los disturbios y la inestabilidad social.• El Impacto adicional de los fenómenos climáticos como sequias y temporales de lluvia: Acorde a los pronósticos climáticos estimados, es necesario prepararse ante la llegada del fenómeno de la Niña y su condición lluviosa para toda la región, impactando en la mayoría de los rubros productivos.Ante la situación actual del COVID-19, y como una herramienta de apoyo territorial, Las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) impulsadas por el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, la Agricultura y la Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y sus socios, han sido cruciales para mitigar los efectos negativos de la pandemia.Las MTA han abordado cuestiones como los efectos de la pandemia en la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria de la región y lo que sucederá con los millones de habitantes de las zonas rurales que dependen de la agricultura, así como las medidas que pueden adoptarse para reducir los efectos 6 . Entre estas medidas se encuentran:• Canales de comunicación adecuados: Las herramientas digitales han demostrado ser una forma eficaz de difundir información agroclimática y recomendaciones para el sector agrícola durante la pandemia.• Incentivar prácticas agrícolas locales: para hacer frente a la falta de acceso a fertilizantes y otros insumos tradicionales, es importante seguir implementando prácticas como el uso de 6 Para más Información consulte https://ccafs.cgiar.org/es/research-highlight/informaci%C3%B3n-agroclim%C3%A1tica-ayuda-luchar-contra-la-covid-19-en-am%C3%A9rica-latina insumos biológicos, prácticas agroecológicas de bajo costo y la utilización de recursos locales para satisfacer las necesidades de nutrición de los cultivos • Garantizar insumos: fomentar los programas sociales para proporcionar semillas y otros insumos agrícolas prioritarios.• Diversificar e incentivar la producción: Enfatizar en la importancia de la producción de cereales para evitar la escasez como maíz, sorgo, frijoles, hortalizas.A través de estos espacios de dialogo, se permite apoyar las decisiones del sector agrícola, gracias a la identificación de los impactos y a las recomendaciones generadas, los agricultores pueden tomar decisiones informadas para mantener la productividad de sus cultivos, combatir el cambio climático, pero especialmente en estos momentos seguir proveyendo de alimentos a la población em medio de la crisis sanitaria efecto del COVID-19.Las Mesas Técnicas Agroalimentarias están desempeñando un papel fundamental en el diagnóstico de los impactos y la generación de recomendaciones. Ante las perspectivas climáticas consideradas para estos próximos meses, entre las recomendaciones generales se indican:• Servicios climáticos: Es importante que con la información de clima unido a la información agrícola se generen servicios climáticos para el sector en el país, por ejemplo a través de las mesas agroclimáticas locales, mesas de monitoreo de cultivos, mesas de seguridad alimentaria y otros espacios.• Monitorear periódicamente:Actualizaciones del pronóstico: emitidas mensualmente los servicios meteorológicos, incluyendo: pronóstico de corto plazo (24, 48, 72 horas), pronósticos semanales, pronósticos mensuales y las tablas de contingencia de las estaciones meteorológicas. Mucha de esta información está disponible en las páginas web de los servicios meteorológicos de cada país.Resultados de los informes de precios de granos básicos y otros productos de la canasta familiar, emitidos típicamente por la FAO y los ministerios de agricultura de los países.III. Resultados de informes de inseguridad alimentaria emitidos por las organizaciones nacionales de seguridad alimentaria y algunas agencias de las Naciones Unidas (e.g. PMA).Los mensajes de alerta emitidos por los organismos de gestión de riesgos.  • La perspectiva climática para el trimestre diciembre 2020, enero, febrero y marzo de 2021, fue producida por el grupo de expertos en meteorología y climatología que participó del LXIII Foro del Clima de América Central.• El foro estimó la probabilidad de que la lluvia acumulada en el período de Diciembre de 2020 a Marzo 2021 esté en el rango Bajo de lo Normal (B), en el rango Normal (N) o en el rango Arriba de lo Normal (A), como se observa en la Figura 1.• Para interpretar la perspectiva se debe tener en cuenta que:Zonas indicadas en verde tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia acumulada ocurra en el escenario arriba de lo normal.II. Zonas indicadas en marrón tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal.III. Zonas indicadas en amarillo tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal.Cuadro 1. Cuadro de Interpretación de Perspectivas para el Periodo Diciembre 2020-Marzo 2021. * La Perspectiva del Clima es una estimación sobre el posible comportamiento de la lluvia y la temperatura realizada con herramientas estadísticas, comparación con años análogos y análisis de los resultados de modelos globales y regionales sobre las temperaturas de la superficie del mar, los patrones de viento, presión atmosférica y la precipitación, que tienen como objetivo complementar las actividades de pronóstico que realizan los servicios meteorológicos en cada uno de los países de la región.** La perspectiva no contempla eventos extremos puntuales y de corta duración. El mapa presenta escenarios de probabilidad de la condición media en el trimestre; no se refiere a las condiciones en cada uno de los meses individualmente. • En general, se puede esperar condiciones de precipitación superiores a la media en fragmentos importantes de la región durante los meses de diciembre 2020 a febrero 2021.• En los próximos meses se registrarán valores negativos o cercanos a su promedio; con lo cual se considera que la temporada de empujes fríos en este periodo será normal, con un estimado entre 12 y 14 eventos por ingresar.• Para el mes de marzo 2021, se esperan condiciones de precipitación por debajo de lo normal.• En el Cuadro 2 se describen las condiciones predominantes por país 2 en relación con las categorías de los escenarios.• El pronóstico para el período de diciembre de 2020 a marzo de 2021, en el contexto de la Pandemia de la COVID-19, estima que la mayor parte de los territorios tendrán para este periodo seco de verano, un período de precipitaciones con mayor probabilidad dentro de lo normal. También se presentarían lluvias arriba de lo normal en algunos territorios particularmente en Guatemala, Costa Rica y Panamá. • Debido a lo amplio de la escala, en áreas con microclimas el comportamiento de la lluvia puede presentar variaciones respecto a lo descrito en la perspectiva, por tanto, las decisiones que se tomen basados en esta información, deben considerar estas singularidades. Frontera Sur Todo el país, a excepción de la frontera sur. *Fuente: LXIII Foro del Clima de América Central.Respecto a granos básicos, se esperan condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de los cultivos, en fragmentos importantes del Corredor Seco de la región, durante los meses de enero a marzo de 2021, pero se proponen las siguientes recomendaciones:En zonas donde las precipitaciones puedan estar por encima de lo normal, se recomienda estar atentos ante la alta saturación de suelos que se puede observar como resultado de las condiciones climáticas presentadas en las últimas semanas, por lo que se debe continuar realizando prácticas de conservación y manejo de suelo.La probabilidad de ocurrencia del fenómeno de la Nina es alrededor de un 80-90%, por lo que se esperan condiciones de alta humedad. Se recomienda una vigilancia y control de pudriciones radiculares en frijol y el complejo de mancha de asfalto en maíz.Evitar encharcamientos por los excesos de lluvia y la saturación de los suelos, implementar acequias, cunetas entre otras obras que favorezcan el drenaje en las parcelas.Respecto al manejo postcosecha, incorporar medidas e infraestructura que beneficien el secado y calidad de granos. Se recomienda realizar podas fitosanitarias y recolección de frutos infestados por plagas.Incrementar la vigilancia epidemiológica fitosanitaria para el monitoreo de plagas por la alta humedad.Se espera mancha de asfalto en maíz, enfermedades fungosas y bacterianas en frijol, así como, un incremento en trips (Thrips palmi) y mosca blanca (Bemisia tabaci y Trialeurodes spp.).Utilizar al máximo el control biológico y agronómico y dejar como última opción la aplicación de agroquímicos.Evitar el exceso de fertilizantes nitrogenados.Ante altas temperaturas y empujes fríos, se podrían presentar heladas agrícolas, principalmente en las zonas del Altiplano Central y Occidental de Guatemala, pudiendo incrementar la velocidad del viento norte.Tomar en cuenta las metodologías para el manejo de heladas, ante la alta ocurrencia de heladas agrícolas. Se recomienda el uso del agua para riego, cubiertas flotantes como el polipropileno o polietileno y la aplicación de aceites. Para la contención de granizadas, se recomienda la utilización de mallas antigranizo.Las siguientes recomendaciones se basan en el análisis hecho por las instituciones nacionales de café y Promecafe, junto con otras organizaciones del sector:Establecer acciones de vigilancia en fincas respecto a brotes de enfermedades relacionadas con hongos en condiciones de alta humedad (Roya del cafeto, Broca del Café, Mal de hilacha y Ojo de Gallo). El exceso de humedad o granizo podrían ocasionar pérdidas en la formación de frutos del café.El inicio temprano de floración para el ciclo 2021 podrá observarse.Planificación adecuada de las épocas oportunas para la fertilización.Se debe seguir haciendo un control de la evolución del suelo debido a los efectos de las altas precipitaciones de los meses anteriores que han incrementado la saturación del suelo Realizar buenas prácticas sanitarias relacionadas con el manejo de tejidos y regulación de sombra.Se recomienda recoger los frutos del suelo y cortar adecuadamente todos los granos para evitar daños por broca de café.La temporada de frentes fríos puede afectar cultivos en zonas elevadas y la velocidad del viento puede provocar la caída de granos.Para temas de semilleros y almácigos de café se recomienda regular y ralear la sombra, con el objetivo de brindarle a la planta de café plantías mayor luminosidad y evitar la sobre saturación de los suelos, esto ayudará a evitar plagas y enfermedades, tomar en cuenta el realizar drenajes de agua y eliminación manual de malezasLa temporada seca 2020-2021 se caracterizará por más días con lluvia que lo normal. En cuanto a los vientos alisios y Nortes, se pronostican velocidades más altas que las normales.Se recomienda establecer un periodo de vigilancia durante este periodo, ante la alta presencia de humedad por las altas lluvias observadas en el periodo pasado.En el caso de hortalizas, se espera incremento en el porcentaje de virosis debido a una mayor presencia de vectores como mosca blanca, entre otros.Además, se espera presencia de enfermedades fungosas como el tizón temprano por Alternaria y tizón tardío por Phytophthora. Los problemas de bacteriosis se esperan, principalmente, en tomate, chile y papa. Asimismo, se desarrollarán problemas de milduis bellosos en cucurbitáceas.Se debe de prestar atención a la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades como sigatoka o moco (banano). También estar atentos a la erradicación oportuna de hongos en el suelo, tipo fusarium, pythium, nemátodos y otros. Considerar opciones de manejo integrado de plagas.En frutales, se recomienda mantener el estatus de áreas y sitios libres de mosca de la fruta La saturación en los suelos por las lluvia del periodo anterior, han generado acumulación de agua y saturación de suelos, incrementando las posibilidades de deslaves, inundaciones, deslizamientos de tierra, daños en las redes viales de los países y lahares en la cadena volcánica.El manejo de cobertura es fundamental. El manejo del rastrojo y cultivos de cobertura no sólo es para conservar la humedad y evitar la evaporación, sino también para mantener un suelo sano, con nutrientes y otros elementos.En áreas bajas buscar aguas subterráneas para hacer pozos de infiltración para ayudar a manejar el agua y evitar la erosión hídrica.Para la prevención de danos a los cultivos ante los fuertes vientos, se recomienda instalar barreras físicas como el uso de plástico y establecer barreras naturales con árboles alrededor de los cultivos.Para el caso de heladas, se recomienda el uso del agua para riego, cubiertas flotantes como el polipropileno o polietileno y la aplicación de aceites.Para la contención de granizadas se recomienda la utilización de mallas antigranizo.El Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), recomienda tomar en cuenta las siguientes consideraciones:• Incrementar la vigilancia epidemiológica fitosanitarias para el monitoreo de plagas utilizando trampas de color amarillas, verdes y azules pegajosos, así también, el uso de feromonas para la detección oportuna de plagas en cultivos de solanáceas, brássicas, cucurbitáceas.• Ampliar la aplicación de medidas de control biológico para plagas de lepidópteros tanto en granos básicos, 3 Fuente: OIRSA, Clima y Sanidad Agropecuaria https://www.oirsa.org como en hortalizas mediante el uso de Bacillus thuringiensis, Metharhizium spp., parasitoides específicos y utilizando productos biorracionales.• Realizar prospecciones de langosta voladora en zonas gregaigenas y chapulines en la región., se espera también el incremento de las poblaciones de lepidópteros propios de la época, poblaciones de larvas de insectos de los géneros Spodoptera, Agriotes, Pseudoplusia son de importancia.• En el caso de las pudriciones se debe poner principal atención a las causadas por los géneros de bacteria Ralstonia, Xanthomona y Erwinia y los hongos Fusarium, Phytophtora y Alternaria.• Tener en consideración para el desarrollo de cualquier medida fitosanitaria las condiciones del tiempo y su pronóstico, así como las implicaciones de los mismos en términos del riesgo de plaga. El geoportal de OIRSA se encuentra a disponibilidad para servir de guía y utilidad: https://geoportal.oirsa.orgLos principales riesgos en materia de Salud Animal están asociados a enfermedades del tipo respiratorio por el descenso de las temperaturas, el aumento de los vientos y la carencia de alimentos durante la época seca.La saturación de los suelos producto del incremento de las precipitaciones durante el periodo anterior, afecto fundamentalmente la disponibilidad de forrajes e incremento de la proliferación de parásitos y vectores de enfermedades, por la pérdida de que causen enfermedades del tipo parasitarias y carenciales. Al inicio del periodo puede aumentar la incidencia de enfermedades como las clostridiasis, así como de la estomatitis vesicular por la presencia de vectores que proliferaron por la gran cantidad de agua que se acumuló. Otras enfermedades causadas por hematozoarios, como la piro y anaplasmosis, deben aparecer a medida que aumente la población de garrapatas, por lo cual la vacunación contra los clostridios, al inicio del periodo, así como los tratamientos contra ectoparásitos, durante todo el periodo, deben establecerse.Entre las medidas recomendadas por OIRSA que se deben aplicar en esta época del año se recomienda:• Asegurar fuentes de alimento ante la eventual escases causada por las inundaciones.• Asegurar y resguardar fuentes de agua de buena calidad.• Observar y aplicar las medidas de bioseguridad básicas en su finca, granja o establecimiento.• Efectuar baños contra los parásitos externos como moscas y garrapatas• Aplicar la desparasitación para endo y ectoparásitos en bovinos, equinos y porcinos.• Aplicar vitaminas aprovechando la actividad de desparasitación de los animales• Movilizar a los animales a partes altas o secas de los terrenos susceptibles a inundaciones o encharcamientos.• Vigilar la presencia de síntomas o signos de las enfermedades de mayor riesgoTras varios meses de confinamiento por la COVID-19 y con la reactivación económica gradual, el sector agroalimentario centroamericano tiene grandes retos y los productores locales son un eslabón clave para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria en la región. A su vez, los productores están siendo amenazados en su seguridad alimentaria por las medidas de prevención tomadas en diferentes países.Durante los meses de junio, julio y agosto de 2020 se llevó a cabo una ronda de encuestas de monitoreo sobre los efectos inmediatos de la pandemia de la COVID-19 en las familias rurales de algunos territorios de Guatemala y Honduras 4 . El estudio fue realizado en el marco de los varios proyectos llevados a cabo en la región, liderados por el Programa de Cambio Climático y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS).Entre los principales hallazgos sobre los impactos de la COVID-19 en las actividades productivas, la seguridad alimentaria y el riesgo sanitario de familias agricultoras se encontró que en los sitios estudiados la mayoría de productores siembra cultivos alimenticios por ciclos como su actividad productiva principal. Sobre estas actividades, las tres principales afectaciones durante la pandemia corresponden a:• Reducción de los ingresos de las familias vulnerables: algunos hogares han reducido sus ahorros debido al aumento de los precios de los alimentos y los insumos. La mayoría de los productores encuestados han experimentado escasez de alimentos durante la pandemia y se han visto obligados a limitar la dieta.• Acceso limitado a insumos para la producción de alimentos: Además de las limitaciones para conseguir dichos insumos se presenta un alza en los precios de los mismos, afectando a muchos productores su compra. Según los productores es más difícil adquirir insumos y mano de obra en los últimos meses.• Restricciones comerciales: las limitaciones en la movilidad además afectan el desarrollo de actividades alternativas como fuentes de ingreso familiar, propiciando los disturbios y la inestabilidad social. Incluso, la mayoría de los productores no pudieron vender el producto en el mercado, vendieron menos o con un precio más bajo.Ante la situación actual del COVID-19, y como una herramienta de apoyo territorial, Las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) impulsadas por el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, la Agricultura y la Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y sus socios, han sido cruciales para mitigar los efectos negativos de la pandemia.Las MTA han abordado cuestiones como los efectos de la pandemia en la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria de la región y lo que sucederá con los millones de habitantes de las zonas rurales que dependen de la agricultura, así como las medidas que pueden adoptarse para reducir los efectos 5 . Entre estas medidas se encuentran:• Canales de comunicación adecuados: Las herramientas digitales han demostrado ser una forma eficaz de difundir información agroclimática y recomendaciones para el sector agrícola durante la pandemia.• Incentivar prácticas agrícolas locales: para hacer frente a la falta de acceso a fertilizantes y otros insumos tradicionales, es importante seguir implementando prácticas como el uso de insumos biológicos, prácticas agroecológicas de bajo costo y la utilización de recursos locales para satisfacer las necesidades de nutrición de los cultivos • Garantizar insumos: fomentar los programas sociales para proporcionar semillas y otros insumos agrícolas prioritarios.• Diversificar e incentivar la producción: Enfatizar en la importancia de la producción de cereales para evitar la escasez como maíz, sorgo, frijoles, hortalizas.A través de estos espacios de dialogo, se permite apoyar las decisiones del sector agrícola, gracias a la identificación de los impactos y a las recomendaciones generadas, los agricultores pueden tomar decisiones informadas para mantener la productividad de sus cultivos, combatir el cambio climático, pero especialmente en estos momentos seguir proveyendo de alimentos a la población em medio de la crisis sanitaria efecto del COVID-19.Las Mesas Técnicas Agroalimentarias están desempeñando un papel fundamental en el diagnóstico de los impactos y la generación de recomendaciones. Ante las perspectivas climáticas consideradas para este siguiente periodo, entre las recomendaciones generales se indican:• Servicios climáticos: Es importante que con la información de clima unido a la información agrícola se generen servicios climáticos para el sector en el país, por ejemplo a través de las mesas agroclimáticas locales, mesas de monitoreo de cultivos, mesas de seguridad alimentaria y otros espacios.• Monitorear periódicamente: I.Actualizaciones del pronóstico: emitidas mensualmente los servicios meteorológicos, incluyendo: pronóstico de corto plazo (24, 48, 72 horas), pronósticos semanales, pronósticos mensuales y las tablas de contingencia de las estaciones meteorológicas. Mucha de esta información está disponible en las páginas web de los servicios meteorológicos de cada país.Resultados de los informes de precios de granos básicos y otros productos de la canasta familiar, emitidos típicamente por la FAO y los ministerios de agricultura de los países.III. Resultados de informes de inseguridad alimentaria emitidos por las organizaciones nacionales de seguridad alimentaria y algunas agencias de las Naciones Unidas (e.g. PMA).Los mensajes de alerta emitidos por los organismos de gestión de riesgos. Esperamos que la información recopilada en el Boletín Centroamericano, Clima y Agricultura, sea difundida ampliamente entre los técnicos, promotores agrícolas y productores de la región.• Existe un 85% de probabilidad que prevalezca la fase neutra del fenómeno ENOS durante el período de validez de esta perspectiva.• La oscilación Decadal del Pacífico (PDO, por sus siglas en inglés) se encuentra en fase negativa desde al menos el 2019 y persistirá sin cambios en los próximos 3 meses, lo cual en teoría impediría el desarrollo de un evento de El Niño en el corto y mediano plazo.• La Oscilación Multidecadal del Atlántico Norte (AMO, por sus siglas en inglés) se encuentra más debilitada en comparación con el año pasado, sin embargo, continuará en fase positiva en los próximos 3 meses, condición que ocasionaría una temporada de ciclones (de la cuenca del océano Atlántico) menos activa que la del 2020.• La perspectiva climática para el trimestre Mayo, Junio y Julio 2021, fue producida por el grupo de expertos en meteorología y climatología que participó del LXIV Foro del Clima de América Central.• El foro estimó la probabilidad de que la lluvia acumulada en el período de Mayo a Julio 2021 esté en el rango Bajo de lo Normal (B), en el rango Normal (N) o en el rango Arriba de lo Normal (A), como se observa en la Figura 1.• Para interpretar la perspectiva se debe tener en cuenta que: I. Zonas indicadas en verde tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia acumulada ocurra en el escenario arriba de lo normal.II. Zonas indicadas en marrón tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal.III. Zonas indicadas en amarillo tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal. * La Perspectiva del Clima es una estimación sobre el posible comportamiento de la lluvia y la temperatura realizada con herramientas estadísticas, comparación con años análogos y análisis de los resultados de modelos globales y regionales sobre las temperaturas de la superficie del mar, los patrones de viento, presión atmosférica y la precipitación, que tienen como objetivo complementar las actividades de pronóstico que realizan los servicios meteorológicos en cada uno de los países de la región.** La perspectiva no contempla eventos extremos puntuales y de corta duración. El mapa presenta escenarios de probabilidad de la condición media en el trimestre; no se refiere a las condiciones en cada uno de los meses individualmente.1 Para descargar el mapa, visitar la plataforma Centro Clima: http://centroclima.org/perspectiva-climatica • El fenómeno de La Niña, que inició en julio del 2020 y que alcanzó una magnitud moderada, finalizará para el mes de abril 2021.• Hay una alta probabilidad (80%) que para los próximos meses la fase NEUTRA del ENOS prevalezca durante el periodo de validez de esta Perspectiva (MJJ).• En general, se puede esperar condiciones de precipitación normales a la media, pero también se presentaran lluvias por arriba del promedio en algunos territorios particularmente en Franja Transversal del Norte, Caribe, Bocacosta y Sur de Petén, de Guatemala; Cuenca del río Motagua (Frontera con Guatemala), sur de los departamentos de Lempira, Atlántida, centro de Yoro y la cuenca baja del río Patuca, de Honduras; Valle Central, Pacífico Central y Pacífico Sur, de Costa Rica; y Oriente de la provincia de Chiriquí y Centro de la provincia de Veraguas., de Panamá.• Si bien hay certeza de que la temporada 2021 de ciclones tropicales del océano Atlántico Norte será menos intensa que la del 2020, hay acuerdo entre los pronosticadores de que será más alta que una temporada norma, estimando en promedio 14-18 ciclones en total (tormentas y huracanes), de las cuales 8 serían huracanes, y 16 tormentas para la cuenca del Océano Pacifico.• Además, en este trimestre aparece el período canicular con características de ser de normal con una duración no muy prolongada, a mediados de julio, y se prevé que durante el período de pronóstico se tendrá 80% de probabilidad que prevalezca la fase neutra del fenómeno ENOS.• Aunque históricamente los meses de agosto, septiembre y octubre son los meses más activos en la Cuenca del Mar Caribe. El análisis de años análogos nos da probabilidades altas de formación de al menos un ciclón tropical entre junio y julio en el Mar Caribe cerca de la costa centroamericana• En el Cuadro 2 se describen las condiciones predominantes por país 2 en relación con las categorías de los escenarios.2 Para mayores detalles sobre las perspectivas climáticas por país, contactar a los institutos especializados del clima (Servicios Meteorológicos Nacionales) de cada país.• El pronóstico para el período de Mayo -Julio 2021, se estima que la mayor parte de los territorios de la región tendrán un adelanto del período de precipitaciones bajo una intensidad dentro de lo normal, especialmente durante el mes de Mayo 2021.• Debido a lo amplio de la escala, en áreas con microclimas el comportamiento de la lluvia puede presentar variaciones respecto a lo descrito en la perspectiva, por tanto, las decisiones que se tomen basados en esta información, deben considerar estas singularidades.• Para esta perspectiva en particular es importante destacar que las zonas indicadas en verde tienen una probabilidad de 45% que la lluvia acumulada para el trimestre mayo a julio 2020 ocurran en el escenario arriba de lo normal. Así mismo, para las zonas indicadas en marrón existe un 45% de que, la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal. En las zonas amarillas existe una probabilidad de 45% que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal. Costa Sureste de Belize.Franja Transversal del Norte, Caribe, Bocacosta y Sur de Petén.Altiplano Central, Occidente, Pacífico, Valles de Oriente y Norte de PeténCuenca del río Motagua (Frontera con Guatemala), sur de los departamentos de Lempira, Atlántida, centro de Yoro y la cuenca baja del río Patuca.Municipios del suroccidente de Olancho, noreste de los departamentos de Francisco Morazán y Choluteca.En todo el territorioGran parte de las regiones del Pacifico, Central y Costa Caribe Zonas centrales y occidentales de la Región Norte principalmente el corredor seco.Valle Central, Pacífico Central y Pacífico Sur Pacífico Norte, Zona Norte y Caribe.Oriente de la provincia de Chiriquí y Centro de la provincia de Veraguas.Región Noroeste, Norte y Noreste del país.Para mayores detalles de información sobre las perspectivas climáticas por país, contactar a los Institutos Especializados del Clima (Servicios Meteorológicos Nacionales) de cada país.*Fuente: LXVI Foro del Clima de América Central.Respecto a granos básicos, se esperan condiciones favorables para el establecimiento de estos cultivos, durante los meses de mayo a julio de 2021, particularmente en zonas de Corredor Seco de la región. Se proponen las siguientes recomendaciones:• En la mayoría de países de la región la perspectiva climática indica un inicio temprano de lluvias, por lo que se recomienda sembrar granos básicos en cuanto exista suficiente humedad en el suelo.• En algunos países se estima un inicio temprano de las lluvias por lo cual es importante poder adelantar las siembras.• Hacer una buena selección de la semilla bien sea variedades locales (criollas) o híbridos. La selección debe tener en cuenta aspectos técnicos como la altitud, el suelo y la humedad. • En zonas con problemas de desnutrición se recomienda el uso de variedades biofortificadas.• Tomar en cuenta que los híbridos generalmente tienen una mayor demanda de nutrientes (uso de fertilizantes).• Aplicar protector o tratadores de semilla en las dosis adecuadas por cantidad de semilla para evitar problemas posteriores de plagas y enfermedades.• Realizar monitoreo de plagas tempranas (p.ej., gusano cogollero), que pueda ser provocado por alta humedad relativa y altas temperaturas.• Realizar las fertilizaciones en maíz, cuando sea posible, en los momentos que exista mayor humedad en el suelo, de manera localizada o sembrada.• Promover acequias de infiltración para mejor la retención de humedad e infiltración de agua lluvia en laderas. • Recordar que la captación de agua lluvia es importante para posibles riegos alternativos u otros usos en el manejo agronómico del cultivo. • Cobertura del suelo con mulch o con otras plantas de abonos verdes.• En zonas propensas a inundaciones procurar relocalizar o redistribuir los cultivos y prestar atención a los sistemas de drenaje• En zonas susceptibles a caída de granizo, vientos fuertes sembrar maíz de porte bajo o realizar el aporque en las variedades más altas a su debido tiempo., establecer barreras, sembrar por surco y arriba del surco.• Revisión de buenas condiciones de almacenaje de la cosecha anterior para evitar daños principalmente por exceso de humedad, plagas, etc.Las siguientes recomendaciones se basan en el análisis hecho por las instituciones nacionales de café y Promecafe, junto con otras organizaciones del sector:• Planificación adecuada de las épocas oportunas para la fertilización. • Hacer control de la evolución del suelo debido a los efectos de las altas precipitaciones de los meses anteriores que han incrementado la saturación del suelo.• Enmiendas acordes a las necesidades del cultivo, ante el posible lavado de bases (Calcio, Magnesio, Potasio) por excesos de lluvias que se tuvieron por las tormentas tropicales ETA e IOTA. • Realizar el deshije dentro de la unidad productiva previo a la primera fertilización, para garantizar que los nutrientes aportados se aprovechen por la planta de la mejor manera.• Realizar buenas prácticas sanitarias relacionadas con el manejo de tejidos y regulación de sombra con base a la altura de la unidad productiva, para reducir el ataque de plagas y enfermedades.• Se recomienda recoger los frutos del suelo y cortar adecuadamente todos los granos para evitar daños por broca de café.• Para temas de semilleros y almácigos de café se recomienda regular y ralear la sombra, con el objetivo de brindarle a la planta de café plantías mayor luminosidad y evitar la sobre saturación de los suelos, esto ayudará a evitar plagas y enfermedades, tomar en cuenta el realizar drenajes de agua y eliminación manual de malezas• Establecer acciones de vigilancia en fincas respecto a brotes de enfermedades relacionadas con hongos en condiciones de alta humedad (Roya del cafeto, Broca del Café, Mal de hilacha y Ojo de Gallo).• El exceso de humedad o granizo podrían ocasionar pérdidas en la formación de frutos del café.• Según las condiciones climáticas que se prevén, existe riesgo de aborto de floraciones e incremento de la incidencia de brote vegetativo en frutales. En el caso de cultivos de mango y aguacate, es importante dar principal atención a la inducción floral (puesto que los brotes pueden verse interrumpidos por los estímulos ambientales) y valorar una segunda aplicación de inductores de floración.• Vigilancia durante este periodo, ante la alta presencia de humedad derivado de las altas lluvias observadas en el periodo pasado. • En todo tipo de frutales y caña, revisión constante para detectar plagas o enfermedades. Hacer aplicaciones preventivas contra enfermedades, dadas las condiciones de humedad que prevalecen.• En plátano y banano se debe de prestar atención a la incidencia de plagas y enfermedades como sigatoka o moco. También estar atentos a la erradicación oportuna de hongos en el suelo, tipo fusarium, pythium, nemátodos y otros.• Considerar opciones de manejo integrado de plagas.• En frutales, se recomienda mantener el estatus de áreas y sitios libres de mosca de la fruta de los géneros Ceratitis, Toxotripana y Anastrepha, además se esperan problemas con enfermedades fungosas en flores y frutos.• En cultivos como el Aguacate es importante realizar aplicaciones de abonos para nutrir las plantas y el establecimiento de barreras rompeviento.• Importante prestar atención en las partes bajas donde acumulaciones de humedad podrían producir pudrición. Para ello se recomienda el mejoramiento o mantenimiento de los sistemas de drenaje en el suelo.• En frutales y otros cultivos perennes, la cobertura ayuda a mantener la humedad en el suelo, considerando las lluvias que se prevén. Sin embargo, hay que mantener los drenajes limpios y hacer control de malezas, para evitar pérdidas daños por el agua de escorrentía.• La saturación en los suelos ya generada por los periodos anteriores más las lluvias que se esperan, pueden generar deslaves, inundaciones, deslizamientos de tierra, daños en la red vial del país y lahares en la cadena volcánica.• Tener mayor precaución en zonas aledañas al litoral, propensas a inundaciones.• Aunque hay buenos acumulados de lluvia en MJJ, es importante hacer prácticas de captura de agua. Es momento oportuno para establecer reservorios de agua que permitan su almacenamiento y hacer frente a cualquier variación de lluvia. Muchas de ellas son de bajo costo y son fáciles de implementar• El manejo de cobertura es fundamental. El manejo del rastrojo y cultivos de cobertura no sólo es para conservar la humedad y evitar la evaporación, sino también para mantener un suelo sano y con nutrientes. • En áreas bajas buscar aguas subterráneas para hacer pozos de infiltración para ayudar a manejar el agua y evitar la erosión hídrica.• Se recomienda emplear prácticas tales como labranza vertical, uso de cobertura, curvas de nivel, terrazas de muro vivo, barreras de piedra acomodada, barreras vivas, abonos verdes, adición de materia orgánica, entre otras, para mantener la humedad en el suelo y obtener mayor producción, especialmente en agricultura de subsistencia.El Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), recomienda tomar en cuenta las siguientes consideraciones:• El aumento de la temperatura y la humedad propician el desarrollo de pudriciones vasculares y radiculares en la mayoría de hortalizas y las afectaciones de la cosecha por mohos que pueden afectar la salud de las personas.• Ampliar la aplicación de medidas de control biológico para plagas de lepidópteros de los géneros Spodoptera, Agriotes, Pseudoplusia son de 3 Fuente: OIRSA, Clima y Sanidad Agropecuaria https://www.oirsa.org importancia, tanto en granos básicos, como en hortalizas mediante el uso de Bacillus thuringiensis, Metharhizium spp., parasitoides específicos y utilizando productos biorracionales.• Es importante la vigilancia y control de Sigatoka en Banano, Roya en Café y Moniliasis en Cacao, así como las pudriciones radiculares en frijol y el complejo de mancha de asfalto en maíz, por lo que se recomienda realizar podas fitosanitarias y recolección de frutos infestados por plagas.• En el caso de las pudriciones se debe poner principal atención a las causadas por los géneros de bacteria Ralstonia, Xanthomona y Erwinia y los hongos Fusarium, Phytophtora y Alternaria.• Tener en consideración para el desarrollo de cualquier medida fitosanitaria las condiciones del tiempo y su pronóstico, así como las implicaciones de los mismos en términos del riesgo de plaga. El geoportal de OIRSA se encuentra a disponibilidad para servir de guía y utilidad: https://geoportal.oirsa.orgLos principales riesgos en materia de Salud Animal están asociados a enfermedades del tipo respiratorio por el descenso de las temperaturas, el aumento de los vientos y la carencia de alimentos durante la época seca.La saturación de los suelos producto del incremento de las precipitaciones durante el periodo anterior, afecto fundamentalmente la disponibilidad de forrajes e incremento de la proliferación de parásitos y vectores de enfermedades, por la pérdida de que causen enfermedades del tipo parasitarias y carenciales.Al inicio del periodo puede aumentar la incidencia de enfermedades como las clostridiasis, así como de la estomatitis vesicular por la presencia de vectores que proliferaron por la gran cantidad de agua que se acumuló. Otras enfermedades causadas por hematozoarios, como la piro y anaplasmosis, deben aparecer a medida que aumente la población de garrapatas, por lo cual la vacunación contra los clostridios, al inicio del periodo, así como los tratamientos contra ectoparásitos, durante todo el periodo, deben establecerse.Bajo las condiciones normales de precipitación, que son las esperadas en el actual pronóstico, en términos generales se recomienda:• Aplicar/reforzar las medidas de bioseguridad básicas en la finca, granja o establecimiento.• Aplicar programas de vacunación conforme a lo establecido por los servicios veterinarios nacionales de cada país de la región del OIRSA, que incluya enfermedades clostridiales y rabia.• Aplicar desparasitación para endoparásitos en bovinos, equinos, porcinos y aves.• Efectuar baños contra los parásitos externos como moscas y garrapatas.• Movilizar a los animales a partes altas o secas de los terrenos susceptibles a inundaciones o encharcamientos.• Proveer a los animales de sal mineralizada.• En colmenas es necesario fortalecer la vigilancia y control del pequeño escarabajo de las colmenas (Aethina tumida), así como endoparásitos (nosema, amebas) y fungosis (cría calcificada).• Ante la presencia de cualquier signo de enfermedad reportar inmediatamente al servicio veterinario oficial.Tras los meses de confinamiento por la COVID-19 y con la reactivación económica gradual, el sector agroalimentario centroamericano tiene grandes retos y los productores locales son un eslabón clave para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria en la región. A su vez, los productores están siendo amenazados en su seguridad alimentaria por las medidas de prevención tomadas en diferentes países. Se recomienda seguir apoyando las familias rurales en los siguientes aspectos:• Canales de comunicación adecuados: Las herramientas digitales han demostrado ser una forma eficaz de difundir información agroclimática y recomendaciones para el sector agrícola durante la pandemia.• Incentivar prácticas agrícolas locales: para hacer frente a la falta de acceso a fertilizantes y otros insumos tradicionales, es importante seguir implementando prácticas como el uso de insumos biológicos, prácticas agroecológicas de bajo costo y la utilización de recursos locales para satisfacer las necesidades de nutrición de los cultivos • Garantizar insumos: fomentar los programas sociales para proporcionar semillas y otros insumos agrícolas prioritarios.• Diversificar e incentivar la producción: Enfatizar en la importancia de la producción de cereales para evitar la escasez como maíz, sorgo, frijoles, hortalizas.Figura 2. Pasos para evitar contagios (Fuente: CIAT, SAG, ResCA).Ante las perspectivas climáticas consideradas para este siguiente periodo, entre las recomendaciones generales se indican:• Servicios climáticos: Es importante que con la información de clima unido a la información agrícola se generen servicios climáticos para el sector en el país, por ejemplo a través de las mesas agroclimáticas locales (MTA), mesas de monitoreo de cultivos, mesas de seguridad alimentaria y otros espacios.• Monitorear periódicamente: I.Actualizaciones del pronóstico: emitidas mensualmente los servicios meteorológicos, incluyendo: pronóstico de corto plazo (24, 48, 72 horas), pronósticos semanales, pronósticos mensuales y las tablas de contingencia de las estaciones meteorológicas. Mucha de esta información está disponible en las páginas web de los servicios meteorológicos de cada país.Resultados de los informes de precios de granos básicos y otros productos de la canasta familiar, emitidos típicamente por la FAO y los ministerios de agricultura de los países.III. Resultados de informes de inseguridad alimentaria emitidos por las organizaciones nacionales de seguridad alimentaria y algunas agencias de las Naciones Unidas (e.g. PMA).Los mensajes de alerta emitidos por los organismos de gestión de riesgos.Las MTA (Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas) son espacios de diálogo entre una diversidad de actores locales incluyendo científicos, técnicos, representantes del sector público, privado y agricultores que busca comprender el posible comportamiento del clima en una localidad y generar recomendaciones para disminuir los riesgos asociados a la variabilidad climática esperada. Como resultado de dicho diálogo, se genera un boletín agroclimático que contiene la predicción climática, su posible impacto en los cultivos para condiciones específicas en tiempo y espacio, asociado a recomendaciones como toma de decisión para cada rubro productivo.  • La perspectiva climática para el trimestre agosto-septiembre-octubre (ASO) de 2021 fue producida por el grupo de expertos en meteorología y climatología que participó del LXV Foro del Clima de América Central. El foro estimó la probabilidad de que la lluvia acumulada en el período de agosto a octubre de 2021 esté en el rango Bajo de lo Normal (B), en el rango Normal (N) o en el rango Arriba de lo Normal (A), como se observa en la Figura 1.• Para interpretar la perspectiva se debe tener en cuenta que:Zonas indicadas en verde tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia acumulada ocurra en el escenario arriba de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en marrón tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra por debajo de lo normal.Zonas indicadas en amarillo tienen mayor probabilidad que la lluvia ocurra en el escenario normal.4Figura 1. Mapa de la Perspectiva del Clima para Centroamérica 1 * ** * La Perspectiva del Clima es una estimación sobre el posible comportamiento de la lluvia y la temperatura realizada con herramientas estadísticas, comparación con años análogos y análisis de los resultados de modelos globales y regionales sobre las temperaturas de la superficie del mar, los patrones de viento, presión atmosférica y la precipitación, que tienen como objetivo complementar las actividades de pronóstico que realizan los servicios meteorológicos en cada uno de los países de la región.** La perspectiva no contempla eventos extremos puntuales y de corta duración. El mapa presenta escenarios de probabilidad de la condición media en el trimestre; no se refiere a las condiciones en cada uno de los meses individualmente.• Para la primera quincena de agosto, se presentara la canícula en países con corredor seco con algunos déficits de precipitación sin esperar que ésta sea prolongada, y que siga siendo interrumpida por lluvias, entre la primera y segunda canícula.• Ante la probabilidad de más del 40% que existan condiciones frías en el océano pacifico para el final del trimestre, se presentan condiciones favorables para el desarrollo y distribución de los cultivos, pero se continúa impulsando la vigilancia del sector agropecuario de la región, ante la transición del cambio de precipitaciones.• A partir de la segunda quincena de agosto, se espera que las lluvias vayan en incremento para alcanzar su segundo máximo en el mes de septiembre y octubre.• De consolidarse el Fenómeno de la La Niña para finales de la perspectiva, podría ocasionar una situación importante para Centroamérica por los acumulados de lluvias que se tendrían.• En el Cuadro 1 se describen las condiciones predominantes por país 2 en relación con las categorías de los escenarios. El Cuadro 2 muestra el comportamiento esperado de la temperatura, cómo sería el inicio de las lluvias y la canícula por país.• Debido a lo amplio de la escala, en áreas con microclimas el comportamiento de la lluvia puede presentar variaciones respecto a lo descrito en la perspectiva, por tanto, las decisiones que se tomen basados en esta información, deben considerar estas singularidades.2 Para mayores detalles sobre las perspectivas climáticas por país, contactar a los institutos especializados del clima (Servicios Meteorológicos Nacionales) de cada país. Se espera, con un 80% de probabilidad, que el pleno establecimiento de la época seca tenga lugar en la primera década del mes de noviembre (primeros 10 días del mes).Durante el mes de julio y primeros días de agosto se produce una disminución natural de la cantidad de lluvia, es decir, la precipitación ocurre diariamente, pero en cantidades bajas o muy bajas, en caso de sequía meteorológica. Para el trimestre de agosto a septiembre, se prevé en términos de periodos cortos de Días Secos Consecutivos (DSC) previendo pocos días secos consecutivos a principios del mes de agosto y a mediados de septiembre con énfasis en el sur oriente del país. No se pronostica que el final de temporada de lluvias se presente durante el plazo de esta Perspectiva. Por lo general, la temporada seca comienza por el La canícula presentará un receso o interrupción desde finales de julio y hasta el 12 de agosto, es decir, se presentarán lluvias en ese periodo. La canícula reiniciaría a partir del 13 de Pacífico Norte (a principios de noviembre) y se extiende gradualmente hacia el sur. Por el momento no hay razones físicas que indiquen que la temporada seca se adelantará con respecto a las fechas usuales. agosto y se extendería por unos 10 días.Por lo general entre finales del mes de julio y principio de agosto se presenta un segundo periodo seco denominado canícula. Sin embargo, para el presente año no se prevé una canícula marcada, sólo una leve disminución de las lluvias en un período de 3 a 6 días a finales de julio e inicio de agosto 2021, en particular para la región Pacífico Central (Respecto a granos básicos, se esperan condiciones favorables para el desarrollo de los cultivos, pero se proponen las siguientes recomendaciones ante las altas precipitaciones esperadas: Manejar la cobertura/protección de suelos para evitar o reducir erosión por escorrentía, principalmente durante los meses de Septiembre y Octubre.Evitar la siembra de cultivos en zonas propensas a inundaciones o deslices.Ante las condiciones de alta humedad pronosticadas, vigilancia y control de pudriciones radiculares en frijol y el complejo de mancha de asfalto en maíz.Evitar encharcamientos por los excesos de lluvia y la saturación de los suelos, implementar acequias, cunetas entre otras obras que favorezcan el drenaje en las parcelas. Las siguientes recomendaciones se basan en el análisis hecho por las instituciones nacionales de café (Anacafe, IHCAFE, ICAFE, entre otras) y Promecafe, junto con otras organizaciones del sector:Establecer acciones de vigilancia en fincas respecto a brotes de enfermedades relacionadas con hongos en condiciones de alta humedad (Mal de hilacha y Ojo de Gallo). El exceso de lluvias o granizo podrían ocasionar pérdidas en la formación de frutos del café. Evitar que la curva se dispare en el mes de octubre.Planificación adecuada de las épocas oportunas para la fertilización. Si se hace tardío, durante los meses de septiembre y octubre, existe la posibilidad de un lavado de nutrientes en el suelo (lavado de bases) por la alta incidencia de lluvias para estos meses.Continuar atentos al desarrollo y comportamiento de la plaga de langostas, coordinar acciones con los sistemas de sanidad agropecuaria en cada país.buenas prácticas sanitarias relacionadas con el manejo de tejidos y regulación de sombra. Asociado al enfriamiento del Pacífico, en zonas bajas como en Boca costa y suroccidente de Guatemala la época lluviosa tiende a finalizar tardíamente en la última semana de octubre, lo cual es relevante para el sector cañero.La saturación en los suelos por las lluvias que se presentan durante los meses de septiembre y octubre, generando deslaves, inundaciones, deslizamientos de tierra, daños en las redes viales de los países y lahares en la cadena volcánica.El manejo de cobertura es fundamental. El manejo del rastrojo y cultivos de cobertura no sólo es para conservar la humedad y evitar la evaporación, sino también para mantener un suelo sano, con nutrientes y otros elementos.En áreas bajas buscar aguas subterráneas para hacer pozos de infiltración para ayudar a manejar el agua y evitar la erosión hídrica. Se recomienda emplear prácticas tales como labranza vertical, uso de cobertura, curvas de nivel, terrazas de muro vivo, barreras de piedra acomodada, barreras vivas, abonos verdes, adición de materia orgánica, entre otras, para mantener la humedad en el suelo y obtener más producción, especialmente en agricultura de subsistencia.Como consecuencia de un período de verano seco y caluroso y su cambio a un invierno con exceso de precipitación, es de esperarse el incremento de hongos y bacterias, así como de algunas especies de insectos cuya bioecología está asociada a este tipo de eventos. En este caso el principal riesgo lo constituye el incremento de poblaciones de Langosta Voladora Shistocerca piceifrons, por lo que es fundamental el refuerzo de las actividades de vigilancia. Son relevantes también las poblaciones de moscas de la fruta que pudieran existir, así como la presencia del pulgón amarillo del sorgo Mellanaphis sachari, chinche salivosa de los pastos Aeneolamia ssp y el vector del HLB Diaphorina citri.El Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), recomienda tomar en cuenta las siguientes consideraciones:• Incrementar la vigilancia epidemiológica fitosanitarias para el monitoreo de plagas utilizando trampas de color amarillas, verdes y azules pegajosos, así también, el uso de feromonas para la detección oportuna de plagas en cultivos de solanáceas, brássicas, cucurbitáceas.• Ampliar la aplicación de medidas de control biológico para plagas de lepidópteros tanto en granos básicos, como en hortalizas mediante el uso de Bacillus thuringiensis, Metharhizium spp., parasitoides específicos y utilizando productos biorracionales.• Realizar prospecciones de langosta voladora en zonas gregaigenas y chapulines en la región., se espera también el incremento de las poblaciones de lepidópteros propios de la época, poblaciones de larvas de insectos de los géneros Spodoptera, Agriotes, Pseudoplusia son de importancia.• En el caso de las pudriciones se debe poner principal atención a las causadas por los géneros de bacteria Ralstonia, Xanthomona y Erwinia y los hongos Fusarium, Phytophtora y Alternaria.• Prestar atención al distanciamiento de cultivos para evitar plagas y enfermedades, principalmente ocasionadas por hongos.• Tener en consideración para el desarrollo de cualquier medida fitosanitaria las condiciones del tiempo y su pronóstico, así como las implicaciones de los mismos en términos del riesgo de plaga. El geoportal de OIRSA se encuentra a disponibilidad para servir de guía y utilidad: https://geoportal.oirsa.orgLos principales riesgos están asociados a la saturación de los suelos producto del incremento de las precipitaciones. Esto afecta fundamentalmente la disponibilidad de forrajes e incrementa la proliferación de parásitos y vectores de enfermedades. Entre las medidas recomendadas por OIRSA que se deben aplicar en esta época del año a iniciar se recomienda:• Asegurar fuentes de alimento ante la eventual escases causada por las inundaciones.• Asegurar y resguardar fuentes de agua de buena calidad.• Observar y aplicar las medidas de bioseguridad básicas en su finca, granja o establecimiento.• Efectuar baños contra los parásitos externos como moscas y garrapatas• Aplicar la desparasitación para eno y ectoparásitos en bovinos, equinos y porcinos.• Aplicar vitaminas aprovechando la actividad de desparasitación de los animales• Movilizar a los animales a partes altas o secas de los terrenos susceptibles a inundaciones o encharcamientos.• Vigilar la presencia de síntomas o signos de las enfermedades de mayor riesgo• Actualmente es momento oportuno para forrajes, por lo que se recomienda sembrar maíz, sorgo o pastos de corte para aprovechar las lluvias y tener una reserva para la época critica.La pandemia de coronavirus durante los últimos meses ha generando impactos en la producción de alimentos, el acceso al mercado y el empleo rural. Algunos de estos que ya se están presentando principalmente en la región se enuncian a continuación:• Reducción de los ingresos de las familias vulnerables: algunos hogares han reducido sus ahorros debido al aumento de los precios de los alimentos y los insumos.• Acceso limitado a insumos para la producción de alimentos: Además de las limitaciones para conseguir dichos insumos se presenta un alza en los precios de los mismos, afectando a muchos productores su compra.• Restricciones comerciales: las limitaciones en la movilidad además afectan el desarrollo de actividades alternativas como fuentes de ingreso familiar, propiciando los disturbios y la inestabilidad social.• El Impacto adicional de los fenómenos climáticos como sequias y temporales de lluvia: Acorde a los pronósticos climáticos estimados, es necesario prepararse ante la llegada del fenómeno de la Niña y su condición lluviosa para toda la región, impactando en la mayoría de los rubros productivos.Ante la situación actual del COVID-19, y como una herramienta de apoyo territorial, Las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) impulsadas por el Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, la Agricultura y la Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y sus socios, han sido cruciales para mitigar los efectos negativos de la pandemia.Las MTA han abordado cuestiones como los efectos de la pandemia en la agricultura y la seguridad alimentaria de la región y lo que sucederá con los millones de habitantes de las zonas rurales que dependen de la agricultura, así como las medidas que pueden adoptarse para reducir los efectos 4 . Entre estas medidas se encuentran:• Canales de comunicación adecuados: Las herramientas digitales han demostrado ser una forma eficaz de difundir información agroclimática y recomendaciones para el sector agrícola durante la pandemia.• Incentivar prácticas agrícolas locales: para hacer frente a la falta de acceso a fertilizantes y otros insumos tradicionales, es importante seguir implementando prácticas como el uso de insumos biológicos, prácticas agroecológicas de bajo costo y la utilización de recursos locales para satisfacer las necesidades de nutrición de los cultivos • Garantizar insumos: fomentar los programas sociales para proporcionar semillas y otros insumos agrícolas prioritarios.• Diversificar e incentivar la producción: Enfatizar en la importancia de la producción de cereales para evitar la escasez como maíz, sorgo, frijoles, hortalizas.A través de estos espacios de dialogo, se permite apoyar las decisiones del sector agrícola, gracias a la identificación de los impactos y a las recomendaciones generadas, los agricultores pueden tomar decisiones informadas para mantener la productividad de sus cultivos, combatir el cambio climático, pero especialmente en estos momentos seguir proveyendo de alimentos a la población em medio de la crisis sanitaria efecto del COVID-19.Las Mesas Técnicas Agroalimentarias están desempeñando un papel fundamental en el diagnóstico de los impactos y la generación de recomendaciones.  Ante las perspectivas climáticas consideradas para estos próximos meses, entre las recomendaciones generales se indican:• Servicios climáticos: Es importante que con la información de clima unido a la información agrícola se generen servicios climáticos para el sector en el país, por ejemplo a través de las mesas agroclimáticas locales, mesas de monitoreo de cultivos, mesas de seguridad alimentaria y otros espacios.• Monitorear periódicamente: I.Actualizaciones del pronóstico: emitidas mensualmente los servicios meteorológicos, incluyendo: pronóstico de corto plazo (24, 48, 72 horas), pronósticos semanales, pronósticos mensuales y las tablas de contingencia de las estaciones meteorológicas. Mucha de esta información está disponible en las páginas web de los servicios meteorológicos de cada país.Resultados de los informes de precios de granos básicos y otros productos de la canasta familiar, emitidos típicamente por la FAO y los ministerios de agricultura de los países.III. Resultados de informes de inseguridad alimentaria emitidos por las organizaciones nacionales de seguridad alimentaria y algunas agencias de las Naciones Unidas (e.g. PMA).Los mensajes de alerta emitidos por los organismos de gestión de riesgos.","tokenCount":"14754"}
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"052aa72e10020deab97468bb004607bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6b83c556-c51b-408b-b3a3-10c91e1d8a3b/retrieve","id":"-655240431"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f4cff9db-61d1-4e81-b6d6-11a7fa5e1f0b","pagecount":"2","content":"Using a multi--disciplinary approach, PN65 assessed the extent, potential and socio--economics of SGI in the White Volta Basin. The study used high image resolution to delineate irrigated areas and developed a conceptual numerical model to analyze the sustainability of SGI in the study area. Socio-economic surveys were carried out to determine SGI adoption patterns and coverage. Results from the study show that farmers practicing SGI are generating considerable economic benefits that can be enhanced by addressing issues of appropriate technology, value--chain analysis, and input--output marketing systems. The study also confirmed that the incidence of poverty among households with access to shallow groundwater irrigation is lower as compared to purely rainfed farmers. However, the1. The shallow groundwater based irrigation systems have significantly contributed to communities' economy, proverty reduction, and food access. 2. Appropriate technical, policy and institutional support systems such as provision of appropriate technologies, value chains, input--output marketing systems, better understanding of the hydrogeology and the nature and extent of existing use are required to enable the farmers to fully exploit the potential of groundwater based irrigated agriculture. . hard--labor associated with the digging of wells during the cropping season and refilling them after harvesting remains a major constraint to SGI expansion. PN65 Phase 2 will assess current irrigation practices, test, and recommend alternative SGI technologies that are less labor--intensive and affordable.It will examine factors that lower enterprise profitability and challenges facing farmers and offer recommendations to improve returns on investment in SGI. Opportunities for farm diversification will be explored to enhance productivity. The project will also identify opportunities for outscaling SGI in other areas beyond the initial study sites including identification of extrapolation domains within the Basin that are homogeneous with respect to biophysical and socio--economic variables for out--scaling SGI practices. ","tokenCount":"292"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6660366518.json b/data/part_2/6660366518.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f082ac63da63ca6f5bb19d6a1ea9b9254d971989
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+++ b/data/part_2/6660366518.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0cb72bcb05540f027d3fe26a0ea489c3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd6f518a-a3b9-47b5-ab03-db2106392245/retrieve","id":"-250215371"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"290c2959-b3c3-441e-b63a-53df2be2b5a4","pagecount":"53","content":"Consultation -The process of gathering information or advice from stakeholders and taking these views into account when making project decisions and/or setting targets and defining strategies.Engagement -A process in which a company builds and maintains constructive and sustainable relationships with stakeholders impacted over the life of a project. This is part of a broader \"stakeholder engagement\" strategy, which also encompasses governments, civil society, employees, suppliers, and others with an interest in the Project.Grievance Mechanism -a process for receiving, evaluating, and addressing project-related complaints from citizens, stakeholders, and other affected communities.Stakeholders -Persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by a project, as well as those who may have interests in a project and/or the ability to influence its outcome, either positively or negatively; workers, local communities directly affected by the project and other stakeholders not directly affected by the project but that have an interest in it, e.g., local authorities, neighboring projects, and/or nongovernmental organizations, etc.Stakeholder Engagement Plan -A plan which assists investors with effectively engaging with stakeholders throughout the life of the project and specifying activities that will be implemented to manage or enhance engagement.Complainant-An individual, group, association, or organization that submits a verbal or written complaint.Grievance/Complaint -an expression of dissatisfaction that stems from real or perceived issues, typically referring to a specific source of concern and/or seeking a specific solution. For the purpose of this GRM, real and perceived impacts are treated equally and given the same due process. The term grievance and complaint are used interchangeably in this document.Sexual Exploitation: any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. In World Bank financed operations, sexual exploitation occurs when access to or benefit from Bank-financed goods, works, nonconsulting services or consulting services is used to extract sexual gain.Sexual Abuse -actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions Sexual Harassment-Any unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, verbal or physical conduct or gesture of a sexual nature, or any other behavior of a sexual nature that might be reasonably expected or perceived to cause offense or humiliation to another when such conduct interferes with work; is made a condition of employment; or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.Survivor -A survivor is a person who has experienced the SEA/SH incident in the context of this GM.Vulnerable Groups-Individuals and groups, who by virtue of gender, ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, economic disadvantage, sexual orientation and gender identity, or social status may be more adversely affected by a Project than others and who may be limited in their ability to claim or take advantage of development benefits. This SEP is a living document and might be updated anytime during project implementation to capture issues that could arise due to address changing circumstances and uncertainties.The overall objectives of SEP as stated in the ESS-10 are to:• Identify all stakeholders and ensure their participation in all stages of the project cycle.• Establish a systematic approach to stakeholder and citizen engagements that will help to identify stakeholders and build and maintain a constructive relationship with them, in particular projectaffected parties.• Assess the level of stakeholder interest and support for the project and to enable stakeholders' views to be considered in project design and environmental and social performance.• Promote and provide means for effective and inclusive engagement with projectaffected parties throughout the project cycle on issues that could potentially affect them.• Ensure that appropriate project information on environmental and social risks and impacts is disclosed to stakeholders, especially to the vulnerable individual and groups, in a timely, understandable, accessible, and appropriate manner and format taking special consideration for the disadvantaged or vulnerable groups and address their concerns and feedback during subproject activities implementation.• Provide project-affected parties, including the vulnerable persons, with accessible and inclusive means to raise issues and grievances and allow the Project Implementing Entity and its Project Implementation Unit to respond to and manage such grievances, especially those coming from vulnerable persons and groups.The World Bank-funded project AICCRA supports CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) programs and activities that are targeted specifically to Africa and aims to help taking to scale the most strategic and impactful CCAFS-Africa programs, promoting resilience to climate change and improved food security in target countries. and promote the adoption of CSA solutions across sub-regions within Africa that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. The project will also support on-the-ground activities in selected countries where CGIAR science has the greatest chance of success in delivering catalytic results, which can be adopted by other countries in the region.The Project Development Objective is to strengthen the technical, institutional, and human capacity needed to enhance transfer of climate-relevant information, decision-making tools, and technologies in support of scaling efforts in IDA-eligible countries in Africa. Based on this overall objective the project is structured into four components, which include:Component 1. Knowledge generation and sharing: Supporting generation and sharing of knowledge products and tools designed to address critical gaps in the design and provision of agricultural climate services, enable climate-informed investment planning, and contribute to the design of policies to promote uptake of climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices at the regional, sub-regional and national levels.Component 2. Strengthen partnership for delivery: Strengthening the capacities of key regional and national institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa along the research-to-development continuum for anticipating climate effects and accelerating identification, prioritization, and uptake of best-bet adaptive measures.  Launch event of the AICCRA Zambia Accelerator GrantProject stakeholders are defined as individuals, groups, or other entities who:(i) are impacted or likely to be impacted directly or indirectly, positively or adversely, by the Project (also known as 'affected parties'); and (ii)may have an interest in the Project ('interested parties'). They include individuals or groups whose interests may be affected by the Project and who have the potential to influence the Project outcomes in any way.For the purposes of effective and tailored engagement, stakeholders of the proposed project can be divided into the following core categories: affected parties, interested parties, and disadvantaged/vulnerable individuals or groups.Affected Parties refers to persons, groups, and other entities within the Project Area of Influence (PAI) that are directly influenced (actually or potentially) by the project and/or have been identified as most susceptible to change associated with the project. Affected parties need to be closely engaged to identify impacts and assess their significance, as well as participate in decision-making on mitigation and management measures. Zambia Cluster activities cluster will involve scaling CSA through SMEs/start-up companies through an Accelerator Grant mechanism. Accelerator activities are not expected to adversely affect any group of people. The proposed CSA innovations to be piloted with SMEs have no known negative impacts.Besides, project activities are designed in such a way that there will not be any risk of excluding vulnerable or disadvantaged groups from accessing and benefiting from the CSA and CIS innovations. Rather, the project will pay attention to the interest of the vulnerable groups, and aims to strengthen their capacity of adaptation to environmental risks including climate variability and change. Some specific activities are therefore planned to identify the specific constraints of the vulnerable groups and support them in stepping up.Nearly all partners and collaborators as well as clients and end users will be positively affected in some way.Partners and collaborators will have opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills, making them more effective in their respective roles. Institutional capacities will be strengthened. Private firms will have greater opportunities to benefit either from sales of equipment and inputs or from more and higher quality produce reaching the market. End users -farmers -will potentially have higher and more stable production and incomes, while consumers will have a more reliable food supply. Governments will benefit from more rapid and predictable agricultural growth, fewer people facing hunger and destitution because of crop failures, and lower levels of migration and conflict over resource use.Specifically, the stakeholders that are expected to directly benefit from the project include:• ACDI/VOCA; • Commercial farmers;• Local women in agricultural products marketing, market agents;• Smallholder farmers and marginalized populations, especially women and youth in fish and livestock farming as well as irrigation farming;• Agri-businesses and farming cooperatives focusing on aquaculture in the Northern and Luapula province;• Youth entrepreneurs or start-ups including women;• Irrigation farmers in Zambia;• Livestock farmers in Zambia;• Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM);• Universities e.g., University of Zambia, Kwame Nkrumah University, Copperbelt University, Chalimbana University, Mulungushi University etc.Interested Parties include stakeholders who may not experience direct impacts from the project but who consider or perceive their interests as being affected by the project and/or who could affect the project and the process of its implementation in some way. This category will include the following individuals and groups:• Policy makers in Zambia particularly from ministries of 1) Agriculture; 2) Green Economy and Environment; 3) Small and medium Enterprises; 4) Fisheries and Livestock; and 5) Commerce, trade, and industry; as well as those in key government agencies such as WARMA, ZMD, and DMMU;• Local communities who can benefit indirectly from improved agriculture and food security in Zambia;• Agricultural Sector Workers Union (e.g., Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU));• Private sector investors in agriculture e.g., commodity marketing companies, solar irrigation firms;• Financial institutions including lending companies and agricultural banks; • Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO);• The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Zambia;• Professionals involved in international development or climate change adaptation initiatives;• Regional Economic Community organizations (Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC), SADC Ground Water Institute, SADC Climate Service Center, Waternet etc);• The Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI);• UN Women in Zambia;• Ministry of Gender, Zambia;• Ministry of Water and Development, Zambia.Disadvantaged or vulnerable individuals or groups refers to those who may experience disproportional adverse impacts or exclusion, who often do not have voice to express their concerns or understand benefit from this project at the same level as others, thus exacerbating social and economic inequality. In the context of AICCRA Zambia, the vulnerable groups that may be at risk of exclusion from consultations and information disclosure include:• Women empowerment groups, networks, and associations (e.g. Zambia Alliance of Women (ZAW), Women for Change Zambia, etc.);• Local women marketing agricultural products;• Smallholder farmers especially women, youth, and persons with disability (PWD);• Resource-poor communities in marginalized geographical areas in project districts, such as Lukulu (Western Province), Chavuma (Northwest), Milengi (Luapula), Luangwa (Lusaka Province), Shang'ombo (Western); and• Local fisher folk.Women and youth are typically excluded and have greater challenges accessing markets and finance. In addition, existing gender norms, power structures, and division of labor could constraint them from accessing information services on CSA innovations. IWMI therefore has set a requirement for all collaborating SMEs to include women and youth in CSA demonstrations on fish, livestock farming, and labor-saving mechanized solar irrigation technologies. Women-only sessions will be organized to encourage open discussions, safe spaces for information and experience sharing and learning.High illiteracy rates among smallholder farmers including women could also impede access to marketing information and updates on agricultural produce and price, which will be made available on digital platforms to be created under the project. Zambia AICCRA cluster has activities that focuses on working with local community radio stations to disseminate climate-smart information on livestock and aquaculture advisory services, including early warning systems (flood, fish, and livestock disease outbreak), market information (availability of fingerlings, feed, fish harvesting, livestock etc.).More specific details on vulnerable groups that may be affected by the project activities are not known at this stage. They will be confirmed through screening and consulted through dedicated means as appropriate.A baseline study will be conducted in March 2022 to understand vulnerabilities and challenges faced by marginalized groups when it comes to accessing CIS and scaling CSA.Furthermore, AICCRA-Zambia's approach in the implementation of activities is 1) value chain agnostic, 2) gender transformative and 3) nation-wide. This means, that all flagship activities such as the Accelerator Grant, the Internship Program, the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Space, the integrated Ag Data Hub, and the various communication channels used, will all endeavor to reach 40% women participation/inclusion, and actively seek ways to support vulnerable groups. For example, the winning SMEs in the Accelerator Grant mechanism will need to demonstrate in their business case how they are targeting vulnerable groups; in the internship grant, gender and diversity will be encouraged and students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be encouraged to apply.The assessment of stakeholder needs was based on the institutional and stakeholder chain for the implementation of the AICCRA project in Zambia. In essence we distinguished the needs of: 1) direct partners, i.e. CGIAR research institutions that will receive funds directly from the project implementing agency (CIAT); 2) indirect partners, i.e. those institutions that will receive funds through sub-contracts from IWMI 3) collaborating partners, i.e. those institutions receiving technical support, training opportunities, and workshop invitations but not directly funded by AICCRA; 4) clients, i.e. those institutions that will be responsible for making AICCRA solutions and technologies available to 5) end users, i.e. farmers and vulnerable groups. The table below provides the summary of needs for the following categories of operational stakeholders. All CSA knowledge products and innovations produced by the Zambia Cluster will be in the public domain.Implementing partners in the Zambia Cluster intend to use a broad range of channels to share information on cluster activities and outputs. This will include Audio-visuals in electronic and hard-copy formats, in person and virtual workshops and symposia, field visits, blogs, radio and television broadcasts, Program Reports, emails, virtual meetings, books, technical reports, technical and policy briefs, websites, electronic newsletters, workshops and training courses, journal articles, multimedia content (videos, infographics), and social media outreach.To ensure that project information disclosure is inclusive, the project will collaborate with trusted farmerbased organizations to hold community level meetings to share project information with farmers in their respective local languages. In so doing, AICCRA Zambia will pay particular attention to cultural sensitivities around holding community meetings with both men, women, and youth together. In some instances, separate focus group meetings will be held with women and youth groups to communicate project information. In general, the strategies considered for information disclosure include the following:• Publication of key project documents at IWMI and AICCRA project website;• Sharing of information through emails to project implementing partners and some external stakeholders;• Virtual and face to face meetings with project implementing partners and some external stakeholders;• Disclosure in national newspapers through our media partners e.g., National Agriculture Information Services (NAIS), Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), Daily Mail, Times of Zambia, The Mast, TechTrends, Rainbow News, New Vision Newspaper, Guardian Weekly;• Television broadcasting will also be used to communicate key events, and opportunities using the following television and radio media partners: National Agriculture Information Services (NAIS), Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), Prime TV, Life TV /CBC TV, Oblate Radio Liseli Mongu, Cruze FM, Mozo Tv, QFM/QTV, Camnet TV, Millennium TV/Radio, Chipata TV, Musanza TV, Hot FM, KNC TV/Radio, DC Talk Radio;• Online journals and blogs;• Community meetings with farmer groups;• Focus group meetings with different farmer groups especially disadvantaged groups including women, and youth;• Radio announcement and discussions through community radio e.g., Breeze FM, Radio Chikuni, Hot FM, Radio Icengelo, Kasempa FM, Radio Liseli, Mosi-oa-Tunya FM, Mphangwe FM, Yangeni FM, Yatsani Radio, Radio Chikaya, Iso FM, Itezhi-Tezhi FM, Radio Kabangabanga, Radio Mano, Radio Mpika. The design of AICCRA Zambia cluster activities involves considerable number of planned consultations to facilitate implementations. The table below provides a summary of all planned consultations with stakeholders. This will be regarded as AICCRA Zambia CIS/CSA integration week where AICCRA Zambia partners will conduct our second inperson visit to Zambia as a combined team, this time with the purpose of strengthening partnerships with CIS providers (for the ag data hub and communication channels) and engage with the winners of the Accelerator grant to explore how they will integrate CIS into their business models.Given the unique challenges that disadvantaged/vulnerable groups could face during consultations process, IWMI and other implementing partners in the AICCRA Zambia cluster have considered the following measures to ensure the involvement of disadvantaged groups in consultation processes and access to project information.• Consultations in local language: Most smallholder farmers in localities targeted for CSA pilot demonstrations speak local languages so the project will hold all meetings with vulnerable groups identified in local languages i.e., with translation. The project team will explain printed disclosure material in local languages for people who are not literate or have challenges reading and understanding English;• Identify and connect with local agencies working with vulnerable groups: When specific project communities are identified IWMI will consult with local NGOs and CSOs supporting vulnerable groups identified to obtain insights into local context and culture and collaborate with them on information dissemination and consultations with the vulnerable groups;• Diversify means of communication and rely more on community radio, which is highly used by smallholder farmers in Zambia and in communication of CIS. Community radio can be highly effective in conveying relevant information to vulnerable groups and allow them to provide their feedback and suggestions;• Women focus groups: IWMI and implementing partners will facilitate formation of focus groups for women during consultation and information disclosure. This will particularly ensure that female farmers/entrepreneurs have the opportunities and safe space to participate in and benefit from the project. When necessary, the project team will hire a woman as the facilitator and will keep record of issue of discussions in the meeting of such group. The project and sub-project teams will put maximum efforts to address the genuine concerns of the women group;• Focus group discussions with women farmers, youth and PWD: IWMI and in-country collaborators will give priority to tailored consultations with vulnerable groups, youth groups, and PWD to ensure that their concerns are factored into the design and selection of farms to benefit from CSA demonstrations;• In person visits to women traders in markets or women market agents: IWMI and in-country collaborators will visit women traders in markets in project communities. When necessary, the project team will hire experienced community facilitators to visit and introduce the project climate information services to these women;• Consultations in appropriate manner: While reaching out to different groups particularly vulnerable groups such as women, and PWD, IWMI and in-country collaborators will make sure that timing and location of consultations are appropriate to their needs and sensitive to local cultural dynamics. In addition, the team will make sure that the vulnerable groups are adequately informed about the consultations at least one week prior to the schedule dates.IWM Safeguard Focal Person will closely monitor the consultation process to ensure vulnerable groups access and awareness of the equal access to the consultation process and to guarantee that their voices are taken into account in order to find and implement solutions to some specific situations or issues.Stakeholder engagements for the Zambia cluster have been a continuous process from the project design and preparatory stage to date. As per table 4, IWMI and other implementing partners will continue to engage all relevant stakeholders throughout the project implementation process until the project closure.IWMI and other implementing partners recognize feedback from stakeholders as important inputs needed for the successful implementation of the overall project. During engagements, all written and oral comments from stakeholders will be gathered, reviewed, and consolidated to improve content management of documents, design of key project manuals and climate smart models. A summary of how comments were taken into account will be shared with stakeholders when reporting back with final products.The SEP will be periodically revised and updated as necessary during project implementation to ensure that the information presented herein is consistent and up to date, and that the identified methods of engagement remain appropriate and effective in relation to the project context. Any major changes to the project related activities and to its schedule will be duly reflected in the SEP and communicated to stakeholders.Project stakeholders and individuals who may be affected by sites identified and screened for pilot or demonstration of CSA technologies will be informed about the outcome of the screening, key risks identified, and mitigation measures considered to respond to risks identified.Information on public engagement activities undertaken by the project during a project year will be conveyed to the stakeholders during biannual progress updates sessions with stakeholders. Information that will be shared include type of engagement opportunities given to project stakeholders, nature of participation in terms of gender and involvement of disadvantage groups, the extent to which stakeholders views were considered, and updates on project grievances.There will be the need to cater for the cost of meetings, transport, logistics, as well as staff costs related to communication and grievance management. The budget for the SEP is included in the project implementation budget. AICCRA through implementing partners will allocate funds for stakeholder engagement activities.The table below gives the approximate budget for the AICCRA Zambia SEP activities. The summary of key institutions concerned about the implementation of this SEP and responsibilities cast are as follows:  For any comment, question of feedback on the stakeholder engagement process, the following persons can be contacted.• Emails to AICCRA Country Leader (Inga Jacobs-Mata, i.jacobs-mata@cgiar.org ) Phone/WhatsApp: +27-84-674-2470; AICCRA Zambia Coordinator (Munyaradzi Mutenje, mmutenje@yahoo.co.uk) WhatsApp: +263-773-509-710)IWMI will establish and maintain a functional grievance mechanism (GM) to guide the receipt, and mediation of complaints and response to questions from project stakeholders and project affected persons including cases linked to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and sexual harassment (SH).The GM is intended to:• Provide avenues for stakeholders to seek information and ask questions on the AICCRA project;• Provide project affected people with avenues for lodging concerns, complaints and resolving a dispute arising from project activities;• Ensure that appropriate and mutually acceptable redress actions are identified and implemented to the satisfaction of complainants;• Provide avenue for vulnerable groups and victims of SEA/SH to have equal access to grievance redress process and support;• Avoid project-community conflicts and improve community support for the project activities.Although project affected parties have the right to seek redress in court, the project recognizes that court cases are known to be cumbersome and time consuming. Therefore, the project, through this GRM intends to propose an alternative simple but functional first point procedure for aggrieved project affected persons to amicably seek redress to their complaints. Nonetheless, aggrieved persons would remain free to access the court system without any hindrance or retribution from the project as provided by the laws of Zambia.The operationalization of this GM shall be guided by the following principles.• An accessible, inclusive, and free grievance mechanism (GM), broadly disclosed, which facilitates the resolution of concerns and grievances in a safe, confidential, and timely manner;• A grievance mechanism that allows stakeholders to file complaints by various means (face-to-face, mail, email, phone, text, website, and in person) and when necessary, in an anonymous manner;• A grievance mechanism that provides a clear, impartial, and objective procedures for handling and responding to complaints, including timelines for acknowledgement, decisions, and appeals;• A grievance process free of retaliation, abuse, or discrimination;• A grievance mechanism that provides an avenue for lodging SEA/SH cases in a safe, confidential, and non-stigmatizing manner and with a referral pathway for such cases.Drawing from past related projects, the grievances anticipated on this project could fall into the following categories.• Complaints received on AICCRA Zambia cluster activities will be managed through the existing project implementation structures. In so doing, a three-tier bottom-up grievance approach will be followed. This will involve an in-country grievance committee, Project Management grievance committee and Independent Steering Committee. The AICCRA Zambia Grievance Committee will comprise of a four-member committee made up of AICCRA Zambia Country Lead (Inga Jacobs-Mata), Safeguard Focal Person (Munyaradzi Mutenje), IITA Project Lead (David Chikoye), and a representative from project collaborative partners (ZMD). In some cases, the committee may also choose to include one or more project staff or reputable and independent third parties on the committee deliberations. The country level grievance committee (GC) is expected to handle all grievance on AICCRA Zambia activities.The GC through the Safeguard Focal Person will notify the AICCRA E&S Safeguard Specialists on all cases relating to major incidents and accidents within 48 hours, and SEA/SH cases within 24 hours. Such cases would require the active involvement of AICCRA Safeguard Specialist in the resolution process and reporting to the World Bank. In addition, the country level GC will escalate project related grievances that remain unresolved at the Country level within the stipulated time frame to the Project Management GC for redress.The Project Management GC will be hosted by AICCRA PMU and will comprise of the Project Director, AICCRA E&S Safeguard Specialists, Regional Project Leads and Project Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist. This committee shall mediate all unresolved complaints from the country level as well as complaints from activities of regional partners as well as other complaints that may be received directly at the PMU level through CIAT complaint lodging points. In some cases, the committee may choose to include one or morePreject Mananagment Grievance Committee AICCRA Zambia Grievance Committee project staff or reputable and independent third parties on the Panel. Where the Project Management GC determines a complaint to be highly significant, such cases shall be referred to the Independent Steering committee for advice.Another high-level grievance redress panel that will assist in the resolution of complaints on AICCRA would be the Independent Steering Committee (ISC). The ISC is the key governance body for the project. It consists of seven members who are all independent of the project. It is responsible for oversight of AICCRA program of work, budget, and evaluations. The ISC takes all grievances seriously and will investigate all cases referred to it. All grievances referred to it will be recorded and discussed in the ISC meetings, bearing in mind requests for confidentiality. The ISC will require the AICCRA project management to prepare a proposed response to each grievance, which after discussion and approval, will be implemented. At subsequent ISC meetings, AICCRA management will report on the progress of implementation. Where ISC deems the grievance as highly significant, the Alliance CIAT Director General and Alliance-CIAT Board of Trustees will also be informed for their discussion and action.The general steps of the grievance process comprise:• Registration/receipt of complaints;• Acknowledging the complaints;• Investigate and determine solution to the complaint;• Implement the Redress Action;• Verifying the Redress Action;• Recourse or alternatives. Registration/Receipts/Acknowledging of complaints AICCRA Zambia will establish a register of all grievances received through the lodging points at section 6.5 to aid monitoring of complaint resolution status and reporting on GM performance. A grievance lodging template provided at Annex VII will be used to maintain an electronic and manual database of all grievances received. Complaints can be submitted in any language applicable to the project locations either verbally or in writing to the designated lodging points.The complainant may ask for confidentiality in the handling of the request, in which case the project shall preserve confidentiality on aspects of the complaint where confidentiality is required. However, there could be situations where it will not be possible to resolve the complaint without revealing identity (for example, when evidence needs to be presented in court). In this case, the Project will discuss with the complainant whether and how best to proceed.Complaints can also be raised anonymously and in such cases, complainants may be required to provide sufficient facts and data to enable the GC to look into the matter without assistance. The GC will make every effort to evaluate anonymous complaints; however, anonymity may make it more difficult to investigate, protect the position of the complainant, offer, and implement resolution, and give feedback. All complainants who raise complaints outside the grievance lodging points to project implementing staff would be directed and advised to use the lodging points to officially register their complaint to the project.The Safeguard Focal Persons shall officially register all complaints received using the proposed complaint registration form at Annex II, and further inform the GC at the country level within 24 hours of any complaint lodged. The grievance submission should be dated and signed by the complainant or the representative, except when the complaint was made verbally through phone calls from a distant location or required to be anonymous.At the project management level, the AICCRA Safeguard Specialist shall also inform the Project Management GC within 24 hours after lodging any unresolved complaint escalated from the Zambia cluster.The project will acknowledge receipt of the complaint by letter within 3 workings days of receipt. Sample acknowledgement letter is provided at Annex IV. The acknowledgement letter will specify a contact person within the project and a description of what the complainant can expect next including timeline. All SEA/SH cases shall be received with the guideline provided at section 6.9.For each submission, the complainant is expected to at least include the following:• Detail explanation of the complaint or information requested relating to AICCRA; • Location related to the submission; • Whether the complainant lives in the project area;• Whether a similar submission has been previously filed to AICCRA; • If known, the operational procedures that have been violated by AICCRA; • Whether the submission concerns an individual submission or on behalf of a community; • Whether the submission is requested to be kept confidential;• Contact details of the complainant; • A signature of the complainant.When a grievance is recorded as per the above-mentioned registration procedures, the Grievance Committee will be called into action to investigate the case and further hold mediation meetings with interested parties to resolve the issue. Minutes of meetings will be recorded.The GC will first investigate the foundation of the grievance and then determine the redress action in consultation with the complainant and concerned parties if necessary. This is expected to be completed within 7 working days after receipt/registration of the grievance. Any redress action considered after the mediation process will also be implemented within 10 working days of receipt of complaints. The Project will implement the resolution either directly or through a third party, which will be done in consultation with the complainant.The Project will review complaints regularly to ensure progress is being made towards resolution. The AICCRA Zambia GC will get in touch with the complainant or visit the affected sit to confirm that the redress action is carried out. If the complainant is satisfied with the resolution implemented, the Safeguard Focal Person will close the case and require the complainant to sign a statement to acknowledge satisfaction using the form provided at Annex VI. However, signing the statement does not preclude the complainant from raising the issue again, or seeking other avenues for redress should the resolution not result in a permanent fix, or the issue recurs. The Project may re-open the complaint if the complainant provides new information and may also contact the complainant after closure to ensure no other problems have arisen.Verification would be completed within 7 days of execution of the redress action. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of the redress proposal or action, additional steps may be taken to resolve the issues or the AICCRA Zambia GC may decide to escalate the complaint to Project Management GC. The committee may decide to refuse an appeal if they feel the complaint has not been presented in good faith. The decision to refuse an appeal must be reviewed and signed off by the AICCRA E&S Specialist.Alternatively, if the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution offered, the complainant may choose to appeal the decision through the Safeguard Focal Person or seek other recourse.Two alternative or recourse actions are considered, amicable mediation and settlement or appeal to court.If the complainant is not satisfied with the decision of the AICCRA-Zambia GC, he/she can bring it to the attention of the Safeguard Focal Person. The AICCRA Zambia GC may remediate on the case or forward it to the Project Management GC for further action. In certain circumstances, the AICCRA Zambia GC may decide to appoint an individual mediator or Independent Appeals Panel that is neutral and wholly independent of the Project. The selection of the mediator or individuals comprising the Independent Appeals Panel will be conducted in consultation with the complainant and other key stakeholders to ensure trustworthiness of the process.For cases escalated to the Project Management GC, the GC may also decide to resolve the complaint or set up an appropriate mediation team to resolve the issue in consultation with the Country Lead Person and the complainant. The Project Management GC will be required to resolve the issue within 2 weeks of the date of receipt of such deferred cases. If such a timeline is not possible, the AICCRA E&S Safeguard Specialist would inform the complainant through the in-country Safeguard Focal Person by giving reasons and possible new date. When new resolution measures are considered, the implementation and verification process outlined above shall be followed to close the case or determine the next line of action.If the complainant remains dissatisfied with the mediation effort of the project grievance committee, the complainant has the option to pursue appropriate recourse via judicial process of choice. The AICCRA project will allow any aggrieved person the right of access to Court of law. Courts of law will be a \"last resort\" option, in view of the above mechanism. The AICCRA Zambia Cluster led by IWMI will follow the following procedure in handling SEA/SH related complaints.All grievance lodging points outlined at section 6.5 will be opened for uptake of SEA/SH complaints. When a survivor comes forward to report a case of SEA/SH, the recipient will record the survivors' account of the incident. This is expected to be conducted in a private setting and ensure that any specific vulnerabilities are taken into consideration. To maintain confidentiality and minimize stigmatization, below is the list of elements that will be recorded on complaint forms of SEA/SH survivors. Sample SEA/SH intake form is provided at Annex III.• Age and sex of survivor; • Type of alleged incident (as reported);Grievance received through uptake points and documented in grievance logbookRespond to complainant, outline findings, proposed solution and implement actions -within 10 daysComplainant signed statement of satisfaction, Case closed.Acknowledgement letter issued to complainant including outline of how the complaint will be resolved -within 3 days • Whether the alleged perpetrator relates to the project, as indicated by the survivor;• Whether the survivor was referred to a service provider.Where the complainant is not the survivor, the Safeguard Focal person will encourage the complainant to reach out to the survivor and explain the potential benefit of coming forward alone or with the person reporting the case. All SEA/SH cases will be reported to the World Bank within 24hours through the AICCRA E&S Safeguard Specialist and recorded in the grievance logbook at Annex VIII.The Safeguard focal person will examine the case and seek the consent of the survivor to refer the case to AICCRA Zambia GC or depending on the case, refer to any of the external GBV service providers listed at Annex IX. In the case of children and persons with intellectual disability, this will be done with full consent of the survivor's guardian. Depending on the case reported, the support services may include one or more of the following services.• Health -examination or treatment, collection of forensic evidence, provision of post-exposure prophylaxis/ abortion services;• Legal/Justice -Legal advice/support to survivors and witnesses to understand benefits/barriers of taking care through legal process; support to ensure that prosecution and case closure happens with few or no delays;• Psychosocial Support -Emotional support/crisis counseling; Social/community reintegration;• Safety/Security -protection of survivors and witnesses, investigation of the case, arrest of alleged perpetrator.These service providers will be:• Provided with financial support to cater for expenses in the mediation process. The GBV service providers will not be paid any basic fee for their services. Payment will be based on case by case, where the Project will seek the World Bank advice and approval on the maximum expense cost that can be absorbed by the project for the survivor of each case;• Required to use their respective GBV case management procedures to provide the essential services required by the survivor;• Required to maintain confidentiality, safety, and security of survivors in accordance with best practices, in particular ensuring survivor centeredness through the processes and seeking the consent of the survivor when personal data has to be shared;• Required to inform the Safeguard Focal person when a case is resolved so it is recorded in the grievance logbook.Acknowledgment and Follow-up: After registering the case, the Safeguard Focal Person will inform the AICCRA Zambia GC and the AICCRA E&S Safeguard Specialist within 24 hours of receipt and send an acknowledgment letter to the complainant or survivor within 3 workings days of receipt. A sample acknowledgement letter is provided at Annex IV.Fact Analysis: After receiving the case, the AICCRA Zambia GC will analyze the facts of the allegation by determining whether (i) the allegation falls within the definition of SEA/SH; and (ii) the alleged perpetrator is an individual associated with the AICCRA project. If the GC confirms these two elements, it shall proceed to handle the case or otherwise discontinue the case and write to inform the survivor or complainant. Only SEA/SH complaints allegedly committed by any individual associated with the AICCRA project may be considered by the project after referring to GBV service providers.In the event that the survivor does not wish to pursue disciplinary action against the alleged perpetrator the case will be closed after providing referral assistance. The Safeguard Focal person shall record the survivor's preference and indicate that in the acknowledgement letter as well. However, irrespective of the survivor's choice, if the alleged perpetrator is a staff of AICCRA implementing partner, the AICCRA GC will address the case according to the implementing partner's code of conduct, sanction regime, and national legislations.The AICCRA Zambia GC will review all cases referred to it to determine and agree upon course of action for handling and resolving the case. The appropriate institution that employs the perpetrator takes the agreed disciplinary action in accordance with the employer's code of conduct and national legislation. Disciplinary actions may include informal warning; formal warning; additional training, loss of salary, suspension, or termination of employment. A survivor may continue to receive support from the appropriate GBV service providers while the case is being handled by the AICCRA Zambia GC.As and when necessary, a representative of the survivor or an independent reputable third party may be invited to serve on the resolution panel. To avoid conflict of interest, the composition of the GC may also change depending on the nature and source of the allegation. The Safeguard Focal Person shall write to inform the survivor about the course of action and disciplinary action taken against the perpetrator.Instances where the case is being handled by a service provider, the Service Provider will work with the survivor or guardian to develop a comprehensive plan that identifies what the survivor needs and how these needs may be met. The survivor may be referred to connect with a range of service providers which correspond to their needs. The Safeguard Focal Person shall continue to track, monitor, and collaborate with service providers on all such cases until they are resolved.Closing SEA/SH cases: Closing of SEA/SH cases will occur at these instances• If the survivor does not wish to place an official complain with employer;• If after investigation, the GRC determines that the allegation does not fall within the definition of SEA/SH and the alleged perpetrator is not associated with the project;• If when the case is pursued, and the GC confirms that the disciplinary action taken is appropriate and has been implemented conclusively;• If a Service Provider follows its internal procedure to meet the needs of the survivor on the case.In all these instances, the Safeguard Focal Person may require the survivor or its representative to sign a statement to acknowledge satisfaction using the form provided at annex VII.Filling an information access request: All stakeholders willing to request information on AICCRA project can do so through information request points outlined in section 6.5. Requests can be made in writing or verbally, and in any language applicable to the project locations. The Safeguard Focal Person will open a file to keep records of all information requested. Stakeholders who request information directly from staff of project implementing agencies would be advised and assisted to officially make their request through the information request points at section 6.5.Upon receipt, an acknowledgement letter will be sent to the requester, whilst the request is being referred to the appropriate project lead. All information requests shall be referred to the Country Lead.The Country Leads or the Project Director will review the request to determine its applicability to the project, the appropriate response needed, and the right person to be consulted whilst considering the appropriate response to the request made. Where applicable, such requests may escalate from country level to PMU level for advice and determination of response.After the Project Director or the Country Lead reviews the request and determines the appropriate response, the Safeguard Focal Person will prepare and transmit the approved response to the requester. The transmission will be done in a language and in a manner (verbally, written, in-person, email, phone etc.) suitable to the context of the requester. Irrespective of the medium of transmission, a written record shall be kept on all information released. Where applicable, the response may indicate why the information requested or aspects of it cannot be provided or released.After receipt of information request, the Safeguard Focal Person will relay the information to the appropriate project lead within a maximum 24 hours. The Country Lead or the Project Director will generally be required to decide whether or not to disclose information within 30 consecutive days. The 30-day time period begins to run on the date the Country Lead or the Director receives the written information request. The Director or the Country Lead may in appropriate circumstances extend the 30-day deadline and shall notify the requester in writing of such extension through the Safeguard Focal Person and by stating the reasons for extension and the new deadline.• Information requests will be free, and no fees will be charged for the processing of information to be provided to the requester;• The Country Lead may deny access to requests which in the Leads view may constitute frivolous or vexatious. In such cases, the requester shall be given a written notification on the reason for which the information requested is considered frivolous or vexatious;• The Project Director or the Country Lead may ask for clarification on the identity of the third-party requesting information if not clear;• If the scope of information requested is not sufficiently clear or is so broad in scope that it makes it difficult to generate, the Project Director or the Country Lead may write to the requester seeking clarification before taking further steps. The requester shall have 30 consecutive days from the date of such letter to clarify the request made. If there is no response, the request will be considered abandoned, and the case closed. In addition, IWMI will conduct regular feedback survey with collaborating SME's on CSA innovations being piloted. Such surveys will be conducted in local languages and in a manner that allows the farmers to share their learning progress on the CSA innovations being piloted.Information on public engagement activities undertaken by the project during the year will be conveyed to the stakeholders during biannual progress updates sessions with stakeholders. Any necessary changes made in this SEP in course of implementation will be communicated to stakeholders. Biannual summaries and internal reports on public grievances, and enquiries together with the status of implementation will be collated and reported to AICCRA Program Management Unit and included in regular reporting summaries.","tokenCount":"7294"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e2cef19c472bacd7a7934ed9e852fe3a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3421d34e-b8e8-444a-a2fc-f430d4aa1208/retrieve","id":"-524373019"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ce91e4bc-02b7-45b0-b553-67598b7dd5b4","pagecount":"13","content":"In addition to the focus countries, regional engagement and a series of virtual events and stakeholder interviews have been synthesised into the knowledge series. We would like to thank the time and expertise from stakeholders for interviews, workshops, regional events and sharing their insights towards this important project. In addition, thank you to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for providing results of research undertaken in 2021/22 in Sudan and Ethiopia in phase 1 of the project. In addition, thanks to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for providing results of research undertaken in 2021/22 in Sudan and Ethiopia in phase 1 of the project.that affect GGW implementation • Land degradation is not sufficiently prioritised in national and state level development frameworks;• There is a lack of a policy to combat land degradation;• Appropriate and coherent policies for sustainable natural resource management are not sufficiently developed;• There is a lack of a nationally driven and agreed upon long term vision for smallholder producers;• Climate change policies and strategies are inadequate;• Policy frameworks do not adequately address existing inequalities in access to land and natural resources;• Three is a lack of clarity over the semimechanized farming sector. Policy recommendations made by the study \"Sustainable Development of the Semi Mechanized Farming Sector in Sudan\" prepared for the Government of Sudan and funded by World Bank Multi Donor Trust Fund have not been implemented.• Gaps and inadequacies in land use plans and laws governing land tenure and land use have resulted in conflicts between land users. The conflicting interests of traditional rainfed farming, pastoralism, and forest uses at local, state and national levels are not adequately addressed within legal and institutional frameworks, which undermines effective land management and restoration.• Agricultural policy supports horizontal expansion of mechanized farming for agricultural development to support food security and supply grain exports and agricultural industries. The expansion is at the expense of forests and natural resources conservation. This has greatly influenced present day forest and range policies and practices and has resulted in significant land degradation. The agricultural sector is also facing land tenure/governance and land ownership problems.• There is a need to operationalise policies that support integrated land management, building on practices and methodologies such as agro-pastoral and agro-forestry interventions, bushfallow systems and shelterbelts in the context of traditional agriculture, irrigation schemes and mechanized farming.• The Forest Policy (1986, revised 2006) encourages forest reservation, conservation and community and private sector participation in forestry development and management. The forest policies are strongly supported by the Comprehensive National Strategies (1992-2002 and 2003-2027) both being concerned with the importance of forests in environmental conservation as well as a source of goods and services for the country and local communities. In addition, the policy emphasises the role of the international community and public participation in tree planting and sustainable management of forests and recognises the need for research in forest development and the importance of forest extension. These components of the forest policy framework reflect good practices that support the implementation of the GGW initiative. These objectives are in line with the objectives of the SSNRMP and indicative of the role that sustainable management of forestry resources can play if the forestry policy framework is coordinated and harmonized with other policies.• There is a lack of clarity around statutory and customary rights, which needs to be taken into consideration for any GGW intervention. The tensions and contradictions between statutory and customary rights has led to conflict. It is not clear whether statutory or customary rights have legal status in terms of who owns, who controls and who has rights to access land, nor how these issues can be negotiated, contested or amended. As a result, borders between the so called 'government land' and 'tribal land' is highly blurred, with statutory laws appearing to have no legitimacy at community level. This situation has created wide-ranging disputes between the government and communities. Similarly, are important legislative gaps in terms of clarifying the rights and entitlements of smallholders (both farmers and pastoralists) to land and natural resources. The INTD document focuses on a sector approach to reduce vulnerability in the following:• water;• agriculture (both livestock and crop production systems);• coastal zone, and• human health.Vulnerability and adaptation assessments will be conducted through a process consisting of four steps, namely:• capacity building of actors and institutions;•. vulnerability assessments in each state;• adaptation assessments to reduce vulnerabilities, and• increasing public awareness of national development objectives.To make agriculture more productive and sustainable, the Government of Sudan will encourage: • Recognition of pastoralists' right on their defined grazing lands;• Conservation and protection of rangeland resources;• Establishment of transboundary resource sharing with neighbouring countries and within states,• Increased awareness among pastoral communities and sensitisation about their difficult situation, and• Adoption of suitable rangeland management techniques in order to improve traditional grazing systems.• The policy work to protect the range land from different types of deteriorations This policy is triggered because there may be indigenous people in the areas where future REDD+ activities will be implemented. There will be a process of free, prior and informed consultation with the affected indigenous peoples, particularly during sub-project preparation. Moreover, a social assessment will be conducted by the client, consulted upon and disclosed.In each area, indigenous peoples need to be well taken care of; peoples' savings' needs will stabilise the system as the general project strategy will consider such important components.1. REDD+ readiness activities are countrywide. However, the activities are limited to analytical studies, capacity building and consultation processes at national and state levels. No physical activities will be implemented on the ground.2. Implementation stopped due to political instability. • Curricula may not be relevant or appropriate.• The right people may not be selected for training and there may be ecosystem disturbances, introduction of nonindigenous or invasive species for new forest products.• Pest management issues.• Soil productivity issues.• Loss of aesthetic value and, finally, inappropriate plans, policies that impact on users, rights or livelihoods.• Non-compliance with new policies. The gaps can be listed as following:• Inappropriate policy and non-compliance with policy;• Cost barriers, infrastructure barriers and high initial cost• Culture change resistance, lack of enforcement, and The strategy aims to offer guidance and information about the positive and negative social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of natural and non-natural wildfires, as well as to support decision makers in achieving sustainable fire management in the country. In order to set up the framework and outline a fire management strategy, updated information needs to be collected and analysed via both spatial and nonspatial means.1. Fire management actions should be based on a clear and sound legal, institutional and policy framework.2. This framework provides the basis and structure for strategy options, consideration of plans and implementation of actions. The legal framework for fire management encompasses broad multisector resource management plans, with clear-cut roles and responsibilities with much emphasis on climate changes and land restoration issues.3. Ensure that Sudan's natural resources, forest, grassland, wildlife resources, water sources and land are not affected by wildfire.There are many points raised for further consideration in relation to its effects on climate change and related topics, which are:1. Involvement of native administration with specific roles and responsibilities was suggested to take part in the fire management framework, 2. The strategy findings indicated overlaps, contradictions, conflicts of interest and deficiency in the existing policy and legislation frameworks regarding fire management at national and state levels, due to existing contradictions between the federal and state level.","tokenCount":"1243"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"240f6aec3a00ab74e31086f8b2ec063d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7b0538cd-cee5-4566-a55a-f24dd8820bcd/retrieve","id":"1575570813"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"476bf309-3e87-466f-8060-73d0c7f59854","pagecount":"14","content":"In recent years, semi-intensified and intensified poultry production in Laos has become common and is expanding rapidly. This intensification trend favors the demanded use of antimicrobials for growth promotion, prophylaxis, and treatment. Numerous action areas to reduce antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and preserve the efficacy of existing drugs in the poultry value chain have been initiated under several global, regional, and national AMR plans.This study aimed to develop the evidence base on the drivers of antimicrobial use (AMU) among farmers in semi-intensive poultry production systems, so that key features of the production system can be captured to build understanding of the drivers of AMU by Laotian farmers. A cross-sectional survey, using a structured questionnaire, was conducted in poultry farms across districts in Vientiane, Bolikhamxay and Luangprabang provinces from February to March 2024. A total of 250 broiler farms were selected from the list of chicken farms which were provided by local veterinary and husbandry authorities. Amongst the farmers interviewed, 60% were female, who often oversaw raising chicken in the survey farms. Almost half of the farms (47.2%) gained some of their family income from broiler farming, while 5.6% of the respondents said chicken farming accounted for most or all of their family income. Only 8.5% of respondents reported that they have attended at least one training related to animal (chicken) husbandry or veterinary care. The studied farms which used fences partly or completely around the pen or farm area accounted for 47.6% and 29.3% of surveyed farms, respectively. Farms not using fences accounted for 23.1% of total farms. Most of the farms (92.5%) had no footbath at the farm gate or pens entrance.Seventy-one percent (71%) of farmers mentioned that they have used antibiotics for their chicken in the last production cycle. When asking about farmer's perception on the main purpose of using antibiotics in poultry production, two third of respondents (76.1%) reported 'to prevent the diseases.' The average amount of money, which farmers spent on antibiotics in the last cycle was LAK 100,000 (~ USD 5, min-max: USD 0.35-40). Over the year, farmers use antibiotics most in June and July, followed by January and February. The months farmers used the least amount of antibiotics were March and April. About 18% of respondents revealed that they have mixed antibiotics in commercial feed either at starter or finisher stage. The common antibiotic types used were doxycycline and some farmers mixed tetracycline and erythromycin into feed. For treatment or metaphylaxis e.g. after vaccination of birds, farmers used doxycycline mixed in feed. Other antibiotics used for treatment included oxytetracycline.Rising levels of bacterial infections resistant to last-line antimicrobials represent a global health crisis (Davies, 2011;World Health Organization, 2015;O'Neill, 2016), and the role of livestock in the rising levels of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) to bacterial infections in humans has been suggested (Bélanger, L., 2011;O'Neill, 2015). Recently, there is an increase in the number of resistant bacteria strains occurring in livestockparticularly in intensively reared and fast growing species like chickens -but also in humans in low-middle income settings (van Boeckel T.P. et al., 2019). As of 2023, Laos had an estimated 45 million poultry (Carron, et al. 2017), which are mostly in small-and middle-scale sized farms. Antimicrobial misuse and overuse are major drivers of the emergence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. In recent years, poultry production in Laos has increased in semi-and intensified scales. This intensification trend favors the increased use of antimicrobials for growth promotion, prophylaxis, and treatment. Global, regional, and national action plans have been developed that identify action areas to reduce AMR and preserve the efficacy of existing drugs. To design and evaluate feasible interventions for reduced on-farm antimicrobial use and AMR burden it is critical to understand farmers' drivers and perceptions of the impact of antibiotic use and related practices.The objective of the study was to develop evidence on the drivers of antimicrobial use among farmers in semi-intensive poultry production systems in Laos. Using a crosssectional design this study captured key features of the production system to build understanding of the drivers of AMU by farmers. Analysis of this data will be used to suggest suitable interventions to the problem.This study was a cross-sectional study of poultry farms across districts in Vientiane, Bolikhamxay and Luangprabang provinces of Laos. These provinces are in middle of Laos and are characterized by high human and poultry population densities. The study population consisted of broiler farms with total flock sizes ranging from 20 and 2,000 birds. Such farm-scale range accounts for over 80% of the total number of poultry farms in those provinces and is a primary source of those households' income. The target population was semi-intensive commercial production scale farmers who contribute significantly to the broiler meat market in Laos. Frequent and diverse antibiotics use in response to limited biosecurity measures was expected in these poultry farms.Sample size calculations with a finite population correction were used to compare AMU/practice proportions between small-(40%) versus medium-scale farms (65%). Using average cluster (village) size of 12 farms, and assumed intercluster correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.1 and 95% confidence level, the number of farms per group was 125 (for a total of 250 farms for two groups). Random selection of participating farmers was applied from a larger sampling frame which was provided by local authorities in target provinces.This study included (i) a scoping stage to pre-identify the study area (e.g., information of the chicken population), (ii) training and pretest survey tools, and (iii) interview stages. Based on the findings, feedback meetings, recommendations, and guidelines to farmers towards prudent use and practice of antibiotics in poultry farms will be disseminated.In the survey, enumerators asked the farm owner and/or manager to provide detailed retrospective information on their most recent completed production cycle including stocking purchases; type and quantity of feed used; other inputs; use of growth promoters or other supplements; use of medicines and veterinary services; livestock mortality; and sales, consumption, and other uses of livestock. Farmers were also asked to identify an eligible flock from their current production cycle.Collected data was entered into the overall data file in MS Excel (Microsoft). A total of 250 farms were entered and proceed for data processing and analyses using RStudio (R Core team). Descriptive statistics were used to provide mean, standard deviation (for numeric data) and proportion or frequency (for count data). Other statistical analyses, such as Chi square or Fisher exact tests, where appropriate, were also used to test differences among proportions, and to investigate the potential drivers of AMU/R and practices at the farm level derived from the responses to the questionnaire.Among the farm respondents interviewed, 60% were female, who often take in charge of raising chicken in their households. Only two fifth were male, who participated in the chicken farming (Figure 1). The average experience years of raising chicken were 10.7 (min-max: 1-35). About half of the farms (47.2%) gained up to one quarter of their family income from broiler farming, while 27.4% of the respondents said chicken farming accounted for at least half of their family income (Figure 2). Only 8.5% of respondents reported that they have attended at least one training related to animal (chicken) husbandry or animal health. Farms using a fence partly or completely around the pen or farm area accounted for 47.6% and 29.3% of all farms, respectively. Farms with no fence accounted for 23.1% of all farms (Figure 3). Most of the farms (92.5%) had neither foot bath placed in the farm gate nor at the pen entrance. Regarding antibiotics use at the farm, 71.4% of farmers stated that they have used antibiotics for their chicken in the last production cycle. When asking about farmer's perception of the main purpose of using antibiotics in poultry production, three fourths of the respondents (76.1%) reported that they use antibiotics for diseases prevention (Figure 4), while 14.8 for treatment only. The main reason for not using antibiotics by 83.3% of farmers was that chickens were healthy, and hence there was no need to use antibiotics. Few respondents referred to the high price of antibiotics (7.1%). Only a minor fraction raised concerns of antibiotics use for either their own health (2.3%) or consumers' health (2:3%, Figure 5).The average amount of money, which farmers spent for antibiotics in the last cycle was LAK 100,000 LAK (~ USD 5, min-max: USD 0.35-40).Figure 5. Why were the chicken not given antibiotics?Among the farmers who used antibiotics for their chicken during the year, they used them most in June and July (onset of rainy season), followed by January and February (colder season). The months farmers used proportionally less antibiotics were March to May (Figure 6).  For those who mixed antibiotics in feed, the most used antibiotic was doxycycline. Some farmers also mixed tetracycline and erythromycin in both starter and finisher feeds.For treatment or use after vaccination of birds, farmers used doxycycline, which was also the main antibiotic mixed in feed. Other antibiotics used for treatment were oxytetracycline and tetracycline (Table 1). Broiler production is an important contributor to the household income in Laos (contributing 50% or more for 27% of households). In large farms broiler production and sale accounted for a higher income portion for the household income than in smallscale farms. Poor biosecurity measures have been observed at surveyed broiler farms in the studied areas. Only few farmers were exposed to animal husbandry and animal health training in the past. Moreover, only a minor fraction of respondents stated that they do not use antibiotics in their farms due to perceived negative health effects for them or the consumers. Antibiotics are predominantly used for disease prevention.Mixing antibiotics and chicken feed was practiced by 18% of the interviewed farmers.The most used antibiotic for prevention, metaphylaxis and treatment was doxycycline. It was used often in the middle of dry season (Jan-Feb) and the middle of rainy season (Jun-Aug). These initial results indicate the need for farmer training on animal health, but also for awareness raising on antibiotics use, side effects of abuse and AMR among the target groups.The next steps of this study are finalizing data analyses and writing a report. The study team will also provide recommendations and feedback to farmers and relevant authorities with suggestions on tackling AMR.","tokenCount":"1693"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4531a923a6e8a865c9ebf0d185dbd087","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10460-013-9425-y.pdf","id":"-798425850"},"keywords":["Urban agriculture","Food security","Dietary diversity","Social capital","Kibera slums","Kenya"],"sieverID":"85597cb3-e96b-4c1c-8235-eae756755c43","pagecount":"16","content":"Much of the developing world, including Kenya, is rapidly urbanizing. Rising food and fuel prices in recent years have put the food security of the urban poor in a precarious position. In cities worldwide, urban agriculture helps some poor people gain access to food, but urban agriculture is less common in densely populated slums that lack space. In the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya, households have recently begun a new form of urban agriculture called sack gardening in which vegetables such as kale and Swiss chard are planted into large sacks filled with topsoil. This paper examines relationships among sack gardening, social capital, and food security in Kibera. We used a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with a household survey, as well as focus group discussions with both farmers and non-farmers. We present evidence that sack gardening increases social capital, especially for those households that undertake sack gardening in groups. We also find that sack gardening in the Kibera slums has a positive impact on household food security by improving household dietary diversity and by reducing the need to resort to painful coping mechanisms that are used during food shortages.The first decade of the twenty-first century marked a major shift in the distribution of the world population. For the first time, the number of people living in urban areas outnumbered those in rural areas. Current estimates suggest that by 2030 the world will be over 60 % urban, with most urbanization taking place in developing countries (UN Habitat 2003). Kenya is one such rapidly urbanizing developing country. With urbanization, the proportion of the urban population living below the poverty line continues to rise. Currently between a third and a half of Kenya's population live in urban areas, but by 2020 more than half of Kenya's poor population is expected to be urban. Levels of urban poverty continue to deepen, as the percentage of urban dwellers in the poorest categories, those considered to be 'food poor' and 'hardcore poor' 1 continues to rise (Taylor and Goodfellow 2009). Urban poverty can be particularly debilitating because while the rural poor are often able to obtain or produce their own basic needs such as food, water, and shelter, the urban poor become increasingly dependent upon the cash economy to obtain these goods, rendering them more vulnerable. More than half of Kenya's total 'food poor' live in slum environments, where the poorest urban dwellers may spend up to 80 % of their total income on food (Taylor and Goodfellow 2009). Rising food and fuel prices in recent years have made it increasingly difficult for the poor to afford food (Erulkar and Matheka 2007;IRIN 2009;Satterthwaite 2004).While food insecurity historically was viewed as a result of inadequate agricultural production and food supply at the regional or national level, Sen (1981) showed that a household's food security status depends on its ability to access food by producing or purchasing it with its own assets. Deveraux and Maxwell (2001) characterize the causes of food insecurity in Africa in this way as well. Recent literature characterizes household livelihood strategies as an effort to combine different assets, or capital types, including financial capital and human capital but also natural capital (e.g., soil and water), physical capital (e.g., machines or tools), and social capital (social relationships that support productive efforts) (Bebbington and Perreault 1999;Swift and Hamilton 2001).In this paper we examine urban agriculture as part of livelihood strategies in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya. In densely populated Kibera a new form of urban agriculture called sack gardening has spread during the last several years, with farmers planting kale and Swiss chard 2 in sacks filled with soil. 3 Urban agriculture can be an important part of an urban livelihood strategy; various studies have demonstrated that it can have some impact on household food security, either by providing an additional income source, increasing dietary diversity, or helping to protect against seasonal unavailability in the food supply (Maxwell et al. 1998;Vall and Shalizi 2006). An early study of urban agriculture in Nairobi (Freeman 1991) found that although active urban farmers were often part of the upper or middle class, farming by the urban poor was particularly important as it was frequently used to supplement household food consumption rather than as a business venture.Within the context of the livelihood framework we focus in particular on interactions between urban agriculture and social capital as they contribute to food security. Social capital encompasses the social resources on which people rely when pursuing their livelihoods, including social networks, membership in groups, relationships of trust and reciprocity, and access to wider institutions of society (Rakodi 2002). Social capital can enable households to become urban farmers, helping them gain access to needed supplies and allowing them to work together for increased efficiency and security. Participating in urban agriculture can also influence a household's social capital. This relationship could be positive, for example if households work together as farmers and build stronger relationships, or it could conceivably be negative if a household farms alone, becomes more food secure, and neglects ties with neighbors who have become less important in the household's livelihood strategy. We will explore such relationships below. Social capital in turn can have other effects on food security independent of urban agriculture, for example by having people to turn to in times of need, or contacts through whom to gain employment (Swift and Hamilton 2001).Following this introduction we briefly review the literature on urban agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa and then we present a conceptual framework for examining the interaction of urban agriculture and social capital in contributing to household food security. We introduce Kibera, present our research methods, and then report our findings regarding the contribution of sack gardening to household food security and the interaction of sack gardening and social capital. We find that sack gardening in Kibera has positively impacted household food security by improving household dietary diversity and reducing the need for various coping mechanisms that are used in times of food shortages. We also find that sack gardening increases social capital among farmers.Urban agriculture in Kenya and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa Urban agriculture is a feature of most if not all cities in sub-Saharan Africa, but the literature on urban agriculture is of relatively recent origin. People have been farming in African cities since these cities were born; however, colonial and post-colonial governments often discouraged or outlawed the practice of urban agriculture because it did not fit with their conceptions of modern cities. This resulted in very little attention to urban agriculture and little formal support.Urban agriculture generally plays a smaller role in providing food security in very dense informal settlements such as Kibera with a shortage of land for farming (Crush et al. 2011). This has changed, however, with the recent advent of sack or vertical gardening. By planting vegetables into both the top and sides of sacks, farmers in Kibera can grow a large number of vegetables in the small spaces available to them (Fig. 1). Sack gardening has been practiced in a limited way for many years, but since 2008 it has spread greatly due to the availability of free seedlings and technical advice from a non-profit organization called Solidarite ´s. Farmers, however, must purchase inputs such as fertilizer and water for their sacks, which can be costly for families with limited financial capital. Anecdotal evidence suggests that sack gardening in Kibera has had a positive impact on household food security.Early studies of urban agriculture in Kenya were mostly descriptive in nature, focused on documenting who was involved in urban crop and livestock production and the ways in which urban agriculture contributed to household food security. These early studies clearly showed that agriculture was an important part of the urban landscape with a third or more of households practicing some form of agriculture (Egziabher et al. 1994;Freeman 1991;Maxwell 1995;Mwangi 1995).The urban landscape of Kenya has changed greatly over the past two decades, with rapid urbanization and an increase in the population of the urban poor. It is now more important than ever to understand the contributions of urban agriculture to household livelihood strategies and food security, because many of the urban poor are unable to afford food, spending up to eighty percent of their household income on food (Maxwell 1996). However, there have been few recent studies on the contributions of urban agriculture to household food security in Kenya. More recent research on urban agriculture in Kenya has tended to focus on the broader contributions of urban agriculture to income generation and household livelihood strategies (Foeken 2006;Foeken and Owuor 2008) or the role of urban agriculture in nutrient waste cycling (Karanja et al. 2010;Njenga et al. 2010).As sack gardening grows in popularity and spreads throughout Kenya, it is important to understand how people are using and potentially benefiting from this type of urban agriculture. Sack gardening has been discussed anecdotally in newspapers and books as being a beneficial activity (Ayieko 2008;Karanja and Njenga 2011;Pascal and Mwende 2009) but there have been no formal studies of its practice nor information about the extent to which it contributes to household food security.A meta-analysis of 49 communities throughout southern and eastern Africa found that increasing poverty and conflict in many communities was linked to a decrease in social coherence and social capital, leading to increasing vulnerability and food insecurity in these communities (Misselhorn 2005). The high levels of food insecurity in Kibera likely reflect the intense levels of poverty and prevalent violence within the Kibera slums, along with a lack of livelihood strategies that allow households to meet their food needs. Urban agriculture is sometimes practiced as a community activity, and if sack gardening were to strengthen relationships among households, it could positively impact household food security beyond just providing an additional food source for the household.Social capital, sack gardening, and food security We examine the relationships among social capital, sack gardening, and food security as characterized in Fig. 2. We suggest that social capital and participation in sack gardening can affect each other, and that each in turn has its separate effects on household food security.First, for a household to engage in sack gardening requires access to materials and inputs, including the sacks, seeds, soil, manure, and water; it also requires space to locate the sacks and the ability to guard them against theft. These requirements can be achieved individually, but for many people they will be easier with the help of others. For example, the NGO Solidarite ´s provides seeds and sacks, so a relationship with Solidarite ´s facilitates participation in urban agriculture. Similarly, topsoil is scarce in Kibera and at times households may obtain it through local organizations, such as churches or mosques. Topsoil is heavy, so transporting it may require assistance from a friend. Perhaps most importantly, space is very limited in Kibera, so much so that some households lack private space even to place a sack. Many households engage in sack gardening in groups using shared space.Second, households that work together in sack gardening may be expected to strengthen relationships with each other, thus building their social capital, particularly if their work is successful. These relationships in turn may enhance a household's livelihood and help it gain greater access to food. On the other hand, one might hypothesize that if a household becomes more self-sufficient in food thanks to sack gardening, it might allow its social capital to weaken due to reduced reliance on social networks to access food. In reality, however, such a situation is unlikely in Kibera, where sack gardens are small and serve more as a way for a household to fill gaps in its food supply rather than serve as a major food source (Karanja and Njenga 2011).Other literature from a range of contexts tells us that building social capital is likely to have wider livelihood benefits. Studies have suggested that higher levels of social capital are related to improved economic development of communities (Midgley and Livermore 1998), decreased crime rates (Sampson et al. 1997), and a variety of positive health outcomes, including improved child welfare and lower levels of teen pregnancy (Putnam 2001). In Ecuador, Bebbington and Perreault (1999) demonstrated that increased social capital was also correlated with improved community access to other important assets such as land, credit, and new technologies.Remarkably few studies have explicitly examined the relationship between food security and social capital. One study of food insecure households in Hartford, Connecticut, USA found that social capital was associated with decreased risk of hunger, even after controlling for various socio-economic factors (Martin et al. 2004). A study in Peru found that families with higher measures of social capital were more likely to be able to obtain food when they needed it (Dı ´az et al. 2002). Given that communities with higher levels of social capital have greater wealth and greater senses of trust and reciprocity, we expected to find that households in the Kibera slums with higher levels of social capital would correspondingly have greater measures of household food security.In our research in Kibera we examine a third relationship more closely: the direct effect of sack gardening on a household's food security. Although sack gardening cannot provide all or even a large proportion of a household's food supply due to its small scale, it can play an important role in allowing access to leafy greens that otherwise would have to be purchased. In this way it can expand overall dietary diversity and the diversity of vegetables consumed, and it can alleviate the need to engage in various coping mechanisms associated with hunger. We examine these effects below.As the largest informal settlement in Nairobi, Kibera characterizes some of the most challenging issues faced by residents in informal settlements in Kenya, and arguably the world, today. Kibera is located about 7 km southwest of downtown Nairobi, within the legal city boundary. It is East Africa's largest slum with approximately half a million residents occupying about 2.5 sq km, making it one of the most denselyFig. 2 Relationships among social capital, sack gardening, and food security populated urban settlements in the world. Kibera is comprised of 10-13 'villages', depending on how boundaries are drawn, many of which are divided along ethnic lines (UN Habitat 2009). For the purposes of this research, we recognized the following 10 villages in Kibera: Makina, Mashimoni, Laini Saba, Soweto East, Lindi, Silanga, Soweto West, Kianda, Gatwekera, and Kisumu Ndogo (Fig. 3).Over half of the households in Kibera live below the poverty line of $1 per day (Erulkar and Matheka 2007), but in reality the number of households experiencing poverty is actually much higher. The income level on which poverty lines are set in Kenya often ignores the cost of non-food essentials in urban areas, such as the cost of water, health care, and education (Satterthwaite 2004). Many poverty estimates are based on a cost of living of $1 per day (80 shillings). 4 While people in Kibera may earn more than 80 shillings per day, this is not nearly sufficient to cover other costs associated with life in the slum. People in Kibera living on $1-2 per day (80-160 shillings) still struggle to pay for the cost of essential goods and services, with family members combining their incomes and borrowing heavily, leaving many families with heavy debt burdens. (Umande Trust et al. 2007). Gulyani and Talukdar (2010) suggest that in reality more than three quarters of the households in Kibera live below the poverty line, when the poverty line is defined based on the urban poverty threshold set by the Kenyan government of 3,174 Kenyan shillings (KSh) per month (USD $40), excluding rent.Many Kibera residents began to garden after the postelection violence of early 2008, and sack gardening is now practiced by upwards of 5,000 Kibera households (personal communication with Solidarite ´s; Karanja and Njenga 2011). The great diversity of the Kibera slums allows comparisons to be made concerning the impact of sack gardening on household food security amongst a wide variety of household structures, income levels, and ethnic backgrounds.The research presented in this paper was part of a larger study conducted during 2010-2011 that examined the impact of sack gardening on farmers' livelihood strategies, household food security, and exposure to environmental risks. 5 Fig. 3 The Kibera slums are located in Nairobi, Kenya. Approximately half a million residents occupy about 2.5 sq km, making it one of the most densely populated urban settlements in the world. Kibera is comprised of 10 villages or neighborhoodsThere is no consensus on the best way to measure social capital because it involves trying to measure social structures and relationships. I t has been measured in a number of different ways in the literature, depending on the scale of interest. At an individual or household level, it is often measured using individual interviews or household surveys, at a community level by using household surveys or focus groups, and at a regional level by using case studies or key informant interviews (Krishna 2002). Measures of social capital need to be culturally relevant, so we chose to focus on exchanges of goods and services between households as well as the quality of relationships people had with their urban neighbors.Measuring household food insecurity can be complicated. A number of methodological approaches are present in the literature, including measuring household production and purchases, measuring food consumption using 24-h recall, or using indirect indicators such as rainfall and marketing data, or anthropometric measurements (Hendriks 2005;Maxwell and Frankenburger 1992). Data for these measures are often time consuming to collect and unreliable. Thus, other types of indicators have been developed to measure household food security. One measure looks at coping strategies that households use when they do not have access to sufficient food (e.g., Maxwell 1996).Coping strategies consist of behavioral modifications such as eating foods that are less preferred, limiting portion sizes, and skipping meals. Our study measured coping strategies used by households using a tool developed by the USAID Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA) (Bilinsky and Swindale 2010) that asks households whether they have used a series of eight different coping strategies over the past year.Another method for measuring household food security involves quantifying the diversity of the diet consumed by household members. Several studies in Sub-Saharan Africa have compared household dietary diversity with other measures of household food security. These studies have found that greater dietary diversity scores are correlated with other measures of improved food security (Faber et al. 2009;Hatloy et al. 1999;Hoddinott and Yohannes 2002). We used a modified version of a tool developed by USAID FANTA to measure overall dietary diversity as well as the diversity of vegetable consumption amongst households in Kibera.We used mixed methods to understand the impact of sack gardens on household food security in the Kibera slums, drawing on qualitative interviews, household surveys, and focus group discussions with farmers and non-farmers (Cameron 2005;Dunn 2005). Farming households were defined as any household currently practicing sack farming, and the farmer was the primary caretaker for the sack gardens. Non-farming households were not involved in any form of urban agriculture at the time of the survey.Preliminary open-ended qualitative interviews were conducted in late 2010 with 31 farmers from Makina and Mashimoni villages within Kibera slums. Farmers were chosen for these interviews using purposive sampling, based on the recommendations of other farmers in the area, with the goal of interviewing people with a wide range of experience in terms of length of time gardening, number of sacks, age, and educational attainment. These interviews were conducted in Kiswahili by the primary author and a field assistant, transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed for key themes using thematic analysis (Waitt 2005). During the interviews farmers were asked about a variety of issues including their farming practices and how they felt that gardening was impacting their ability to feed their families, and the variety of foods they were eating.Information from the preliminary interviews was used to design a survey instrument that we used in a survey of 306 households (153 farmers, 153 non-farmers) in Kibera in early 2011. Households were selected using stratified random sampling of nine villages within the Kibera slums. Although there are ten villages in Kibera, one village (Lindi) was excluded for safety reasons. Local field assistants compiled lists of 40 farmers and 40 non-farmers from each village within Kibera, and 17 farmers and non-farmers were randomly selected for interviews from each village list. The interviews were conducted in Kiswahili by a team of four research assistants, plus local assistants who accompanied the research assistants to the households.In the qualitative interviews and the survey, households were asked various questions related to measures of social capital, including participating in informal or formally registered groups (e.g., religious groups, savings groups, or farming groups), their relationships with their neighbors, and exchanges of goods between rural and urban households. We measured their relationship with their neighbors by asking them to rate the quality of their relationship with their neighbors on a scale of 1 to 4, from 1 = very good (speak every day) to 4 = poor (do not get along). 6 We also asked farmers whether they thought their relationship with their neighbors had improved, stayed the same, or worsened since beginning sack gardening. Exchanges of goods between households were measured by asking whether or not, in the month prior to the interview, their household had exchanged items from a list of different goods and services with their rural relatives, urban relatives, or urban friends and neighbors. Goods and services included items such as cash, cash loans, child care, cooked foods, and harvested foods. We asked first about whether they had given these goods, and the frequency with which they were given, and then about whether they had received them.The household survey used a variety of questions to assess household food security. USAID FANTA has created a set of survey tools designed to use food access as a measure of improved household food consumption (FAO 2003). The first component of these tools measures dietary diversity as a proxy for household food security. We measured dietary diversity using a 24-h food recall, where foods consumed were categorized into one of 15 nutritionally unique food groups.Respondents were asked what they ate at each meal during the previous 24 h, including the ingredients used to prepare each meal. This information was used to quantify which food groups the respondent consumed. A total dietary diversity score was assigned to each respondent based on the total number of food groups consumed. We also compared the number of farmers and non-farmers who had consumed foods in each individual food group. In addition to measuring total dietary diversity, we measured the dietary diversity of vegetables consumed over the previous month. Respondents were asked whether or not they had consumed 17 different commonly eaten vegetables in the past month. They were also asked how frequently they consumed each vegetable, and how frequently during the month they were able to harvest this vegetable from their sack garden rather than purchasing it.The survey also measured elements of coping strategies used by households during times of food insecurity by looking at months of inadequate food access over the previous year.Respondents were asked whether or not they had experienced a series of eight different situations where they lacked access to food, such as worrying about not being able to purchase food, skipping meals, or reducing portion sizes (Gulyani and Talukdar 2010). Respondents were asked if they had ever experienced these scenarios, how frequently they experienced them, and if the children in the household experienced them.Data from the household survey was analyzed using SPSS (Version 15). Using a series of independent t tests and Pearson's correlations, we tested the significance of mean values (at a 95 % confidence level) between farmers and non-farmers for indicators of dietary diversity, coping strategies, and social capital.Establishing causality of relationships is very difficult in the social sciences, and even establishing directionality in statistically significant associations is difficult (Moser and Kalton 1971). For example, a finding that sack gardeners have stronger social capital than non-gardeners would leave unanswered the question of whether stronger social capital facilitated sack gardening or the reverse. In this section we present such associations between measures of a household's social capital and its participation in sack gardening, and between both social capital and sack gardening and well-being as in the model depicted in Fig. 2. We draw on evidence from qualitative interviews to help interpret some of the findings.We begin by describing our sample including demographic characteristics of sack gardeners. We present evidence suggesting that participation in sack gardening is associated with higher social capital, and then augment that evidence from the survey and from qualitative interviews that sack gardening contributes to improved social capital. We then present evidence that social capital is associated with improved well-being including food security, and that participation in sack gardening is associated with greater household food security.In our sample (n = 306), 90 % of the respondents were female and 10 % were male. This reflects that the majority of sack farmers are female, which is consistent with findings on urban agriculture elsewhere in instances when this form of agriculture is primarily a subsistence activity. When urban agriculture is more of a commercial venture, then it is more likely to engage men (Freeman 1991;Mudimu 1996;WinklerPrins and de Souza 2005). Farmers were an average of 5 years older than non-farmers, with the mean age of farmers being 34.5 years and non-farmers being 29.5 years. There was no significant difference in the age of the males and females. The farmers we interviewed had lived in Kibera for a significantly longer period of time (14.8 years) than non-farmers (11.6 years). However, there were more immigrants from rural areas among farmers (86.3 %) than among non-farmers (81 %). In addition, the average family size for farming households (5.15 people) was significantly larger (p \\ 0.001) than for non-farming households (4.17 people). With larger families, households may be more drawn to an activity such as urban agriculture as a source of food to feed more people in their households. Smaller households with younger parents may be less likely to begin farming because they feel they are able to support their families with cash incomes alone. The mean level of education for all respondents was upper primary school.For some farmers, sack gardening is a social activity in addition to being a strategy to improve food security. Fiftythree percent of farmers shared space for their sack gardens with other farmers and 19 % of farmers were members of a formal or informal gardening group. Farmers also reported sharing in other activities, with 42 % of farmers helping each other carry soil for the sacks, 52 % helping to construct the sacks, and 75 % consulting each other about farming issues.Farmers reported having significantly (p = 0.003) better relationships with their neighbors than non-farmers. In Kibera, where it is normal for multiple families to share a single housing block, having a good relationship with neighbors is important for household safety and survival, and is thus a good measure of a person's social capital.Another important aspect of social capital is the variety of exchanges that take place among households. Studies in developing countries have examined exchange networks between urban and rural families, with the assumption that urban families remit cash payments to rural areas, while rural areas contribute harvested goods to urban families (Baker and Aina 1995;Linares 1996;Vall and Shalizi 2006;WinklerPrins 2002;WinklerPrins and de Souza 2005). However, as the population of urban areas grows, the exchange of goods between urban relatives, friends, and neighbors is important as well. Farmers and nonfarmers who were part of our study received goods or services from rural and urban relatives with equal frequency. However, farmers received goods from urban friends or neighbors marginally significantly more frequently (p = 0.086) than non-farmers. Although all households tended to receive the same types of goods from rural areas and from their rural and urban relatives, there were significant differences in terms of the types of goods and services that households received from urban friends and neighbors. Farmers receive harvested goods (vegetables) and information from their neighbors significantly more frequently than non-farmers. Both groups received cash, child-minding, cooked foods, or loans with equal frequency.An interesting finding concerns differences between farmers who undertake sack gardening jointly with their friends or neighbors as opposed to those who do so individually. Farmers who share space for sack gardening nearly always work together with other farmers to carry soil, construct their sacks, and share seedlings for the sacks. These farmers also report getting along better with their neighbors (p = 0.006) than farmers who farm individually. Farmers who share space for their sack gardens are also significantly more frequently to be part of an informal gardening group (p = 0.007) or another type of formal group (p \\ 0.0005). Additionally, farmers who farmed individually exchanged goods and services with their rural and urban relatives or urban friends no more frequently overall than non-farmers. These findings suggest that the act of working together as sack gardeners is what is most closely associated with measures of social capital as opposed to sack gardening per se.We were unable to obtain data on how much private space for sack gardening each respondent had access to, but we did find farmers who share space more frequently have a smaller number of sacks than those who farm individually (r = -0.141, p \\ 0.07). This may signify that farmers who share space do so because they lack space of their own, but this correlation is significant only at the 10 % level. Similarly, we found a weak negative association between household income 7 and some aspects of working together in sack gardening. A household's reported income was negatively and statistically significantly associated with consulting with others (p \\ 0.0005), constructing sacks, (p = 0.028), sharing seeds (p = 0.36), and carrying soil (p = 0.06), but curiously it was not correlated with sharing space.The evidence in the previous subsection only demonstrates a positive correlation between sack gardening and social capital. Evidence also suggests that sack gardening contributes to improved social capital. Farmers reported having significantly (p = 0.003) better relationships with their neighbors than did non-farmers. While the previous section demonstrated that farmers who were part of a group had strong relationships with their neighbors, even individual farmers had a significantly better relationship with their neighbors than non-farmers (p = 0.001), which may result from sharing vegetables from their garden with their neighbors. In addition, 32 % of farmers reported that they now interact with their neighbors more frequently than they did before they began sack gardening.During the qualitative interviews, many farmers reported that sack gardening had strengthened friendships or cooperation amongst people in Kibera. Some farmers felt gardening was beneficial because they were now able to share their vegetables with their friends, while others worked together with others by giving them extra seedlings, helping each other carry soil or build sacks, or by pooling money to buy fertilizer and pesticides. Sack gardening has helped to create a sense of community because it has given people reasons to talk with their neighbors. Thirty-two percent of farmers reported that they now interact with their neighbors more frequently than they did before they began sack gardening. They buy water from each other, consult with each other about problems, and create employment for each other. Sack farming has been a way to bring the women of certain neighborhoods together. As one farmer explained, ''Sack gardening brings women together… If it weren't for my kale, I wouldn't have a reason to talk to them… I would only talk to my customers. Now we buy water from others, creating employment and a sense of community here in Kibera.'' Compared to those who farm alone, people who share space for sack gardening report more frequently that their relationships with neighbors have improved since they began sack gardening, though the correlations are only significant at the 5 % level (p = 0.046). 8Studies elsewhere suggest that social capital contributes to economic development and household food security (e.g., Krishna 2002). Given that our data suggest that sack farmers have higher levels of social capital than non-farmers, we then explored the relationship between social capital and food security for farmers and non-farmers, looking at the exchanges of goods between households and their friends and relatives, as well as a respondent's relationship with their neighbors. Not surprisingly, both farmers and non-farmers more frequently reported receiving goods or services from their urban friends or neighbors if they reported having a good relationship with their neighbors. Farmers who reported that their relationship with neighbors had improved since beginning sack gardening reported receiving information (p = 0.026), labor for agriculture (p \\ 0.000), and cash loans from their neighbors (p = 0.061) significantly more frequently than other farmers. Receipt of cash loans is particularly important because it demonstrates an increase in trust between the farmer and their neighbors, thus improving their social safety net as a result of sack gardening.The exchange of goods between households, particularly between urban friends and neighbors is related to improved household food security. Farmers and non-farmers who reported having a better relationship with their neighbors more frequently gave goods or services. Farmers with good relationships more frequently gave cash (p = 0.048), cooked foods (p \\ 0.000), and loans (p \\ 0.000) than other farmers, while non-farmers with good relationships more frequently gave cash loans (p \\ 0.000) or cooked foods (p \\ 0.000) than other non-farmers. Among farmers who reported an improved relationship with their neighbors since beginning gardening, they also reported significantly more frequently giving their friends and neighbors child care (p = 0.015) or labor for agriculture (p = 0.027). This indicates a greater sense of trust and cooperation between these households and their neighbors. Those who received a wider variety of goods from their urban neighbors significantly less frequently reported being unable to eat what they wanted (p = 0.053), eating a limited variety of foods (p = 0.037), eating reduced portion sizes (p = 0.065), and eating a reduced number of meals (p = 0.052).To summarize the overall findings of this section, households with more social capital were more food secure than those who had less social capital. This suggests that neighbors provide a basic support system that prevents households from going without at least some food in times of need. People who participate in sack gardening were shown to have greater social capital than those who did not, possibly because of the opportunities that gardening creates for socializing and sharing with other people. In this sense, gardening contributes more to food security than just the food harvested from the garden. It helps to create a social network that shares food so that people do not find themselves in situations where they need to rely on coping strategies such as reducing portion sizes or skipping meals.In terms of food security, there was a significant correlation between people who have a positive relationship with their neighbors and whether or not they were worried they would run out of food (see Table 1). Respondents who had good relationships with their neighbors were less likely to be worried about running out of food, and they were also less likely to reduce the number of meals they eat. Farmers whose relationship with their neighbors had improved since beginning sack gardening less frequently reported being unable to eat the foods they want (p = 0.035), eating reduced portion sizes at meals (p = 0.041), or finding themselves with no food in the house (p = 0.002). In addition, farmers who reported sharing harvested goods with their urban neighbors were less likely to eat a limited variety of foods. However, this relationship was not true for respondents who received harvested goods from their neighbors.We examine effects of sack gardening on food security in terms of overall dietary diversity, diversity of vegetable consumption, and ability to avoid using painful coping mechanisms to manage food scarcity.We measured overall dietary diversity and diversity of vegetable consumption among farmers and non-farmers in the Kibera slums using the USAID FANTA Index. We found no significant difference in overall dietary diversity between the farming and non-farming households, all of whom consumed an average of 6.4 unique food groups in the 24 h prior to the survey. Amongst the respondents of this survey, there was no significant correlation between dietary diversity and household wealth, the amount of money people spent on food, or the percentage of their income spent on food. There are several reasons why any potential increases in food security that may result from gardening would not show up in an overall dietary diversity index. First, food harvested from sack gardens would be classified only in the category of 'dark leafy green vegetables', which is a category of food that is eaten by most households in Kibera on a regular basis. Second, farmers who reported selling their crop to purchase other food items purchased larger quantities of commonly eaten foods, such as maize flour to make ugali, the staple starch, rather than purchasing food from a different food group, such as meat or fish.In terms of individual food categories, there were few differences between farmers and non-farmers in terms of their consumption. The two exceptions were that farmers significantly more frequently reported consuming green leafy vegetables than non-farmers (p = 0.033) and marginally significantly more frequently reported consuming fruits (p = 0.090). People who naturally consume more fruits and vegetables may be more inclined to plant gardens, or people who plant gardens may have easier access to these vegetables and thus be more inclined to eat them. Non-farmers consumed significantly more seafood (p = 0.023) than farmers, which suggests they may have been consuming omena (small dried fish) in place of kale or Swiss chard with ugali (a maize meal porridge).Leafy green vegetables are central to the diet of households in Kibera. A typical meal consists of ugali, served with some type of leafy green vegetable (fried or boiled) and a simple meat stew if it is affordable. Many households consume vegetables at every meal, but most consume them at least once per day. Historically, Kenyans have eaten a wide range of vegetables including indigenous vegetables such as cowpea leaves, amaranth, and African nightshade, as shown in Table 2. Over the past several decades, especially in urban areas, these indigenous vegetables have been replaced by kale, Swiss chard, and cabbage, which are higher yielding and easier to harvest and thus much cheaper to purchase in the market. Indigenous vegetables, which were foraged from the wild, were also associated with poor, rural farming practices and were ignored by urban consumers. However, this trend is slowly beginning to reverse following campaigns that advocate the consumption of indigenous vegetables by enhancing consumers' nutritional knowledge and creating more favorable attitudes (Herforth 2010). The nutritional properties of these indigenous vegetables are very different than the newer varieties of kale, Swiss chard, and cabbage. For example, amaranth is rich in lysine, an essential amino acid, and can be an important source of this amino acid for people who lack access to meat or other sources of protein (Schippers 2000). People who eat a greater diversity of leafy green vegetables are likely consuming a more nutritionally balanced diet than people who eat fewer kinds of vegetables.In addition to measuring the overall diversity of foods consumed by farmers and non-farmers, our survey asked respondents about consumption of a list of vegetables that we had identified during qualitative interviews as ones that are commonly consumed, and sometimes grown in sack gardens. These vegetables are listed in Table 2. Overall, farmers reported consuming a significantly greater diversity of vegetables than non-farmers (p \\ 0.001) (Fig. 4). In particular, farmers were significantly more likely than non-farmers to consume certain vegetables such as kale, Swiss chard, coriander, beans, terere, kunde, managu, and nderema. There were no vegetables that non-farmers were statistically significantly more likely to consume than farmers. Farmers and non-farmers who consumed any of these vegetables tended to consume them with the same frequency, with the exception of Swiss chard and coriander, which farmers consumed more frequently than non-farmers. Given that these two crops are commonly grown in sack gardens, farmers may be consuming them more frequently because they are readily available. While sack gardening does not appear to have had an impact on the overall dietary diversity of households in Kibera, it has positively influenced the diversity of vegetables that a household consumed. Part of the reason for that is that farming households are able to use money saved from selling vegetables or by not needing to purchase vegetables to buy other kinds of foods. During the survey, when asked how consumption of food from sack gardens affects their household, 87 % of farmers stated that it saved money for the purchase of other types of foods, and 88 % felt that their gardens provided them with extra food. As one farmer explained, ''One benefit of sack gardening is that when I harvest vegetables, I don't have to buy them. I save the money I would have spent, and I can even buy fish.'' Gardening provides farmers with extra money, either from selling their crops or not having to buy them, and they use this money to buy staple foods (e.g., sugar, maize flour, cooking fat) and other kinds of vegetables. In qualitative interviews, farmers also suggested that gardening allowed them to buy the more expensive indigenous vegetables that they prefer from the market. Different indigenous vegetables are associated with different ethnic groups in Kenya, so people often have a strong cultural preference for particular indigenous vegetables (Herforth 2010). Because these vegetables are often more expensive than kale or Swiss chard, non-farming households may have been consuming fewer indigenous vegetables because they were less able to afford them than farmers.The urban poor often lack access to food because they are unable to afford the kinds of foods they would prefer, or cannot purchase it in sufficient quantities. Thus, they develop various coping strategies, sets of actions that include limiting the variety or quantity of food they consume (Maxwell 1995), but also extraordinary measures such as migration, disposal of assets, consumption of highly unattractive items, and unlawful means of procuring food (Corbett 1988).The urban poor who engage in urban agriculture often use it as a means to provide more food and reduce the need for other coping strategies. Therefore, we examined the impact of sack gardening in Kibera on household food security by looking at how frequently farmers experienced various coping mechanisms in the previous 12 months, as well as how households perceived their own food security. During the household survey, respondents were asked a series of questions to capture how food secure they felt their households were over the previous 12-month period. These questions asked about a range of scenarios that varied in terms of the severity of food insecurity, from simply worrying they might run out of food, to reduced portion sizes, to skipping meals, to going an entire day and night without food.Overall, farmers and non-farmers both reported high levels of food insecurity over the previous 12 months. Over 95 % of households reported worrying at some point in the last 12 months that their household would run out of food before they would acquire money to buy more. A majority of households reported using coping mechanisms such as eating foods they do not like, limiting the variety of foods they eat, and reducing their portion sizes or the number of Sack farmers grow all of these crops, but kale, Swiss chard, green onions, and coriander are the most frequently grown. Crops are listed in order of importance, based on the percentage of households who consumed the vegetable in the month prior to the survey meals they eat. Additionally, more than half the households interviewed reported having no food in their house at some point over the last year, and nearly 20 % reported going a whole day and night without food.There was no significant difference between the number of farming and non-farming households that reported these individual events happening over the previous 12 months, with the exception of reducing the number of meals (Table 3). Significantly fewer farmers than non-farmers reported having to reduce the number of meals they consumed (p = 0.059). In addition, there was a marginally significant difference (p = 0.070) in the total number of coping mechanisms that households used during the previous year, with farmers using fewer of them than non-farmers (Table 4). Farmers reported using an average of 5.6 coping mechanisms over the previous 12 months, while non-farmers used an average of 6.1. This indicates that farmers were marginally more food secure than non-farmers.After indicating whether or not they had used these different coping scenarios over the past year, respondents were then asked to rank how frequently they occurred, ranging from never to always or nearly always in all months. Amongst households that experienced these different food insecurity scenarios, there was no statistical difference between farmers and non-farmers in terms of how frequently they occurred. In addition, there was no difference between farmers and non-farmers in terms of whether or not children in the household were affected.Different variables, such as household wealth or level of education, are frequently assumed to impact household food security. Not surprisingly, lower household incomes were correlated with all respondents' inability to eat the types of foods they wanted, eating a limited variety of foods, eating reduced portion sizes, reducing the number of meals consumed, having no food in the house, sleeping hungry at night, and going an entire day and night without food. For both farmers and non-farmers, the lower their monthly income, the less their ability to secure food for their households.While most Kibera households are food insecure, sack gardening appears to have had a positive impact on household food security. By providing the household with extra food, or income from the sale of the crops, households are somewhat less reliant on other coping mechanisms such as reducing the quantity of food consumed at each meal. However, the extent to which sack gardens can contribute to overall household food security is constrained by the number of sacks that each household has. Because space is so limited within the slum, households in our study had limited space for sacks, planting an average of 5.3 sacks. These sacks supplement consumption or provide vegetables to sell, but not necessarily enough to alter behavioral patterns to a more significant extent.Although the impact of sack gardening on household coping strategies is marginal, one important benefit of sack gardening is that it has provided farmers with a perceived sense of security in times of need. Over and over during qualitative interviews, farmers stated that a positive benefit of sack gardening for them was that they knew there was always a source of food to turn to if they ran out of other food in their house. As one farmer explained, when asked about the benefits of sack gardening, ''The first thing is that it helps a lot. I never go to sleep hungry, and even my children will never sleep hungry.'' As part of the household survey, respondents were asked to rate how food secure their household was during the month prior to the interview, on a scale of one to four. Farmers felt that their households were more food secure a Consumption of vegetables, fruits or seafood was part of the overall FANTA dietary diversity index, and was scored as 0 or 1 (not eaten, eaten) in the previous 24-h period. Total vegetable diversity looked at number of vegetables consumed out of a list of 16 vegetables over the past 1 month b Coping strategies measure whether or not the respondent used the coping strategy in the 12 months prior to the interview c Social capital was measured on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being a good relationship with their neighbors and 4 being a poor relationship. Exchanges of goods and services asked whether or not (0 or 1) households had given or received goods in the previous 1 month compared to non-farmers (p = 0.005). While over 90 % of households reported experiencing some food insecurity in the month prior to the interview, farmers more frequently reported getting enough food to eat, just not necessarily the kinds they would like, while non-farmers more frequently reported that they did not get enough to eat (Fig. 5).Sack gardening is relatively new in the Kibera slums and was introduced to the area as a way to improve food security in a place where urban poverty is endemic. Although commonly accepted that it has improved food security, to date no empirical study has demonstrated that sack gardening has in fact done so, nor how. We were able to demonstrate that sack gardening has contributed to improved household food security directly. We also found that while there was not a significant change in overall dietary diversity, there was an increase in the variety of vegetables consumed, with farmers consuming more leafy green vegetables and fruit than nonfarmers. In addition, farmers eat a wider variety of leafy green vegetables, including many indigenous vegetables, which have broader nutritional benefits and are culturally preferred to kale, Swiss chard, and cabbage, which are consumed by most households in Kibera. More importantly, farmers feel more food secure than non-farmers do. They more frequently reported being able to eat enough and less likely to skip meals. Sack gardening has also resulted in an increase in social capital, particularly for those households that undertake sack gardening together with others. This helps food security indirectly. Theories suggest that communities with greater senses of trust and reciprocity have greater social capital. Our findings support this, demonstrating that by helping to improve social capital, sack gardening has helped farmers to strengthen the social safety nets that help to provide them with assistance in times of need.Although this study was conducted in a single informal settlement in Nairobi, it is one of the world's largest and most diverse slums, and we expect that this form of sack gardening would contribute to household food security in a similar manner in other densely populated slums elsewhere in the world, although the extent to which households benefit from sack gardening may vary with the cost of inputs such as seeds, water, and fertilizer. Worldwide, countries are undergoing rapid urbanization with the majority of population growth in urban areas taking place amongst the urban poor. The urban poor, particularly those living in informal settlements such as Kibera, often do not benefit from urban agriculture because they lack access to plots needed for farming (Tevera 1999). A recent baseline survey of urban agriculture in 11 cities across southern Africa found that very few poor residents practiced urban agriculture, partly because they lacked land to farm (Crush et al. 2011). Policies that promote types of low-space agriculture, such as sack gardening, that are more accessible to the urban poor have the potential to improve household food security as well as provide these households with alternate livelihood strategies.","tokenCount":"8543"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9d7b9bc65709109a136f11e4a73642e6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9145b976-2c8f-4b60-9724-e6069e150400/retrieve","id":"618521916"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"443b9e13-9eaa-4ed2-93b5-71bc191438e3","pagecount":"102","content":"31 st Dec 2021 -Sorghum simulation grid refined and validated -Use of modeling as a decision-making breeding support tool to design location-specific fine-tuning (GxM) agronomic interventions -In-vivo multi-location trials of relevant GxM predicted options On-going 20 K Determination of bean breeding targets in ColombiaThe Community of Practice on Crop Modeling (CoP CM) started a mini-grant program in 2017 to provide our CoP members from CGIAR and external partners with mini-grants (10K-20K) to facilitate the development of key activities, tools, datasets, and model analysis that can facilitate CGIAR's crop modeling research and could achieve some boost/impact and promote collaborations between CGIAR centers and partners. The results of the funded projects will be shared among the CoP via webinars and news feeds.The first call was sent out on November 2 nd 2017 within the CoP on CM members and 5 competitive proposals were received and evaluated. 3 out of the 5 proposals were selected and have been developing their activities during 2018: In the following sections, each of the projects will be described and the results and main outputs generated during 2018 presented.Senthold Asseng, Co-Leader of AgMIP-Wheat, University of Florida, USA Gerrit Hoogenboom, University of Florida, USA Ms. Cheryl Porter, University of Florida, USA Chris Villalobos, University of Florida, USAThe CGIAR has a vast asset of field experimental data that could be extremely useful for crop model evaluation and improvement. In return, well-tested crop models can guide research in the CGIAR, particularly on adapting germplasm to future climate change and on developing crop management practices for sustainable and environmentally friendly food production. Under the \"Organize\" component of the Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, the GARDIAN tool is being developed to provide access to all the data that have been collected at the CGIAR Centers since their inception. The main goal of this project, led by Senthold Asseng from the University of Florida in partnership with Matthew Reynolds from CIMMYT, is to employ the current stage of the search engine GARDIAN to search, retrieve and translate the data that have been collected at the CGIAR Centers since their inception into AgMIP format field experimental data sets and then made available to crop modelers through the AgMIP network. The specific objective is to develop an end-to-end case to show that the data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable (FAIR). As a case study, the CIMMYT wheat database for field data on germplasm with increased heat stress tolerance was explored. To be useful for crop modeling, such field data need to include information on crop management (sowing, N fertilizer, irrigation, any effect from pest and diseases, lodging), soil (texture, soil organic carbon, bulk density, any constraints to root growth, potential rooting depth, and initial conditions), germplasm characteristics (phenology and yield characteristics, and specific traits, especially those related to heat tolerance), weather (daily max and min temperature, rainfall, solar radiation) and crop measurements (yield, yield components, phenology stages, growth patterns, soil water dynamics). This project started in January 2018 and finished in June 2018.This project highlights three very different types of datasets and the steps involved to locate, access, and prepare the data for crop models using AgMIP data translation tools.Three datasets were retrieved from GARDIAN and evaluated for usefulness in crop modeling applications.The field data sets have been made available to the international crop modeling community through upload to the AgMIP Crop Site Database. International Heat Stress Genotype Wheat Experiment: https://api.agmip.org/cropsitedb/2/dataset/24c86f43-8b79-4d7e-b10c-f232cef05d66 ICARDA Calibrated Wheat: https://api.agmip.org/cropsitedb/2/dataset/d127429e-c915-41f1-94cf-824224e60582The usefulness of GARDIAN as a user-friendly method of discovering data was also validated. According to the collaborators, the current GARDIAN system is easy to navigate and to perform simple queries on data and publications; however, there is a challenge to making these data useable on a large scale. Currently datasets are stored in many formats using vocabularies to describe dataset content which are determined on an ad hoc basis by each researcher. When the ICASA Data Dictionary is used as the definition of terms in the dataset, existing AgMIP data translation tools allow rapid translation of data to crop model-specific formats for multiple crop models. Making data useful on a large scale would require annotation of each dataset with terms and definitions that are in alignment with ICASA terms.A new application was developed that allows Excel spreadsheets to be read directly and relational connections be automatically discovered by the application. This allows the data manager much greater flexibility in organization of the data and also removes the burden of creating csv files from the Excel workbook prior to translation. There were not sufficient funds in this mini-grant to fully incorporate the tool into a user interface, so it runs from a command line only and has limited diagnostics for troubleshooting. The collaborators are currently working with the Module 1 from Big Data Platform in Agriculture to make this translator more generally useful for translating data from spreadsheets including a robust user interface.The impact of the proposed project is awareness to the crop modeling community of the CGIAR Big Data Platform and the FAIR principles of CGIAR data, and the broader support and impact of the CGIAR to science and policy.The complete final report that contains the results of the project can be found in Annex 1.As project outputs we can highlighted: 2 Model-ready CGIAR datasets have been made available to the international crop modeling community: There is a major gap between the potential value of data collected in agricultural experiments and the value currently obtained through the use of those data. READ…Jana Kholova, ICRISAT, India.In India, sorghum supports the livelihood of millions food and income-insecure households. Low input agronomic practice and droughts caused by climatic variability are the main reasons why the farmer's yields across post-rainy (rabi) sorghum tract stagnate at ~800kg/ha despite yield potential of same material can attain ~3500kg/ha. With this project, the GEMS team (www.gems.icrisat.org) from ICRISAT and national collaborators from the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) aim to develop necessary tools to accelerate production of post-rainy (rabi) sorghum yields in India. This will involve using APSIM_sorghum as a decision support tool to design suitable crop and management interventions for particular locations and to optimize rabi sorghum systems productivity.The validated modelling set-up from prior work is being used and being spatially refined to suit this particular purpose. The model refinement includes parameterization of the elite sorghum material into APSIM. This tool will allow assessment of particular GxM fitness to particular production zones (E), development of novel approaches, and its quantitative advantage over standard Maldandi cultivar (M35-1) and standard management practices.Such improved set-up will be further used to design the site-specific optimal genotype x management (G×M) options, which have higher probability to increase productivity in specific regions of rabi-sorghum production tract in India. The most relevant of predicted GxM options will be tested in multi-location trials in-vivo to clearly demonstrate and validate the tool for practical on-ground use of such modeling framework. The project is planned for three years and all the data obtained from the project and resulting publications will be available open-source.During the first year of the project, Sorghum module of APSIM platform (v7.6) was used to simulate the yields of rabi sorghum in different Indian districts with two different nitrogen applications. Grain and stover yields generated under on-station N management were compared to the farmer practice and the frequencies of yield advantage of on-station over FP were calculated for all simulation units. The simulation experiments showed that the on-station (OS) practice enhanced stover production across central India, but in low yielding environments average yield was 1500 kg/ha with significant grain yield loss. This was on expected lines. Well-fertilized crops establish larger canopy earlier in the season which reflects in higher crop demand for transpiration and leads to earlier water depletion from the soil. Therefore, on-station crops face water stress earlier in the season with less moisture available to facilitate grain-filling processes.The study showed that out of 83 investigated districts, only 19 would benefit from OS-N practice in terms of sorghum production. These 19 districts generally encompass regions with deep vertisols with high soil water holding capacity; higher chance of in-crop rainfall -i.e. less chance of severe droughts. In other words, majority of post-rainy sorghum production areas will suffer the grain production losses if higher doses of N fertilizers were applied.Post rainy Sorghum grain and stover yield response simulation was evaluated using 3 different plant densities:-Recommended Plant density (RP): 12 plants per m 2 -Low density planting (LDP): 6 plants per m 2 -High density planting (HDP): 18 plants per m 2 .The simulation results indicated that there was an increased grain yield with adoption of 6 plants per m 2 in most of the districts over 12 plants per m 2 . Adoption of high density planting with 18 plants per m 2 resulted in decreased yields and even complete crop failure in most of the rabi sorghum areas. The beneficial effect of increased plant density was realized in good environmental and soil conditions. Contrary to grain yield, the stover yield increased with increasing plant density from 12 to 18 plants per m 2 and decreased with reducing the plant density from 12 to 6 plants per m 2 .During this period, Field experiments were conducted at ICRISAT and ICAR-IIMR during rabi 2017-18 for collecting the data for parameterization of rabi sorghum cultivars into APSIM and for validation of APSIM in split plot design in well watered and water stress conditions at two plant densities and two nitrogen levels.Grain yields and biomass were compared by running model with observed weather data versus running model with gridded data of NASA and the collaborators observed that simulated yields (both grain yield and biomass) with NASA data were in better agreement with simulated yields with observed weather data. The full project update can be found in Annex 2: Partial Report 2018.Julián Ramírez-Villegas, CIAT, ColombiaCurrently, climate variability and extremes, and particularly drought and heat stress affect crop production across the developing world. Crop improvement plays a central role in enhancing the resilience of the food system to climate variability and climate change.However, the breeding, delivery and adoption of new varieties is constrained by many factors, most notably, the phenotyping capacity and precision and the suitability, The CSM-CROPGRO-DRYBEAN model was calibrated and evaluated using detailed growth and development data from an experiment conducted in 2014 in the locality of Villanueva in the Santander department in Colombia. The model was calibrated and evaluated for two varieties included in the trial, a representative commercial check (Calima) and a promising line for drought and heat stress for Colombia (SAB686). The SAB686 variety has been calibrated using the genetic Algorithm (GA) methodology, and Sum square error (SSE) and Distances as function to minimize. A preliminary coefficients set were got for SAB686 and some sensitivity analysis, calibration and evaluation have been performed. The field experiment included seven treatments (i.e. seven different planting dates), out of which two were used for model calibration, and the remaining four were used for model evaluation. The model was calibrated and evaluated for both varieties. In general, the simulation of phenology is found to be accurate for both calibration and evaluation experiments, suggesting the model represents well the phenology of these genotypes. The model was able to simulate well some treatments, however other were poorly simulated, suggesting that there are inherent limitations in the model that require more careful examination and improvement, especially under stress situations and for genotype Calima. Despite these limitations, the model performs sufficiently well for phenology, growth and yield, especially for genotype SAB686.The analysis of temperature TPEs (Target Population of Environments) indicates distinct responses for the different temperature environments analyzed. Since the future projected yield of the optimal TPE becomes increasingly similar to that of the warm TPE, it is possible that current optimal growing areas in Colombia are likely to become heat stressed, thus requiring focusing breeding efforts on heat stress adaptation. Ramirez and collaborators are currently reviewing inputs for the model in order to improve some variables (weather, soil, and experimental information) that could contribute better fit for the model and improve the validation. The full project update can be found in Annex 3As an output from 2018, we can highlight the publication of a Blog post of the project in the Crop Modeling CoP website:Projections about the future indicate many parts of the world will see greater heat stress -higher temperatures that can result in more frequent, longer periods of excessive heat for crops. READ…Combining crop and disease modeling with numerical weather forecasting to inform wheat blast early warning systems in Bangladesh, Brazil and beyond Timothy J. Krupnik, CIMMYT, BangladeshWheat blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT), is one of the most problematic wheat diseases globally, and has spread across South America and is now found in South Asia, resulting in significant yield losses undermining food security.Wheat blast infections vary with prevailing climatic conditions, the degree of susceptibility Asian climatic conditions, and to train extension services in its use. This activity also provides the basis for further regional modeling of wheat blast risks using historical climate data and climate change models combined with scenario analysis. These activities will result in both decision support tools and advisories to assist in rational and integrated disease management in South Asia. The project started in July 2018 and will finish by the end of 2019.During According to the first experimental results, a general decline in grain yield was observed as sowing date was delayed from November 25 th through January 1 that can be associated to terminal heat stress. Preliminary simulated wheat yield and 1,000 grain weight results however showed variable fit with observed data. Efforts to further improve model calibration and fit with observed data will be undertaken in the initial months of 2019.Simulated outputs for virtual experiments conducted using weather data for the 2015/16 wheat season showed a grain and biomass yield decline to model runs with progressively later sowing dates without disease. Simulations of blast disease during the 2016/17 wheat season reduced yield only marginally, e.g. from 0-3% relative to disease-free simulations, with a slight increase in disease inflicted yield loss with later sowing dates. The results herein presented are partial results and more work is in progress to validate the results.The full project update can be found in Annex 4.As Peter Jones, Waen Associates Ltd., UK. This work has updated the MarkSim application data with the new data from WorldClim v2.0, Fick & Hijmans (2017). The outputs are a new set of MetGrid files at 10, 5 and 2.5 arc minutes and 30 arc seconds, and sets of CLI files, which can be used as input to the standalone version of MarkSim or as input to other weather generators. Until now, MetGrid files have not been available to the general user; this changes with this version and they will be available for download from CCAFS at CIAT during March 2018. As they are a highly specialised format, a Fortran module, MetGrid_Handler, has been produced for general distribution to assist their use. The full final report or the project can be found at Annex 5.During March 2019, the compressed CLI files and the panes descriptor will be installed and made available from a world map interface at CIAT.Urs Schulthess and Wei Xiong, CIMMYT, China.The International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN), as well as contributing to over half of the wheat germplasm grown worldwide, has amassed millions of yield and other agronomic data points from the yield and screening nurseries grown over approximately 4decades by hundreds of public and private breeders globally. Relatively little of this data has been explored and used, due in part to a lack of metadata, such as daily temperature, radiation and other essential environmental information. The nursery trials are being conducted by many national programs worldwide. While there is a standard protocol in place, which encourages the partners to collect key parameters, not all of the sites follow the entire protocol. An initial analysis showed that key parameters, such as anthesis date are missing for some sites. Weather data are largely missing or not consistent. CIMMYT recently signed a data sharing agreement with meteoblue <www.meteoblue.com>, one of the leading providers of weather data at a global scale. It will provide CIMMYT with hourly weather data for the main nursery sites starting from 1986 until now. The data have a spatial resolution (grid size) that ranges between 8 and 30 km, depending on the geographic region. The main activity of this project will be to clean and curate the IWIN data sets and to fill gaps, such as anthesis date and other missing parameters, which will be modeled, to have a complete and rich dataset ready to be used for the crop modeling community and other research activities. This project will also use machine learning algorithms in order to establish a connection between phenotypes, genomic data and performance of CIMMYT's nursery lines at a global scale.The outputs of the project will include: Quality controlled and gap filled IWIN nursery data sets starting from 1986 until 2018.Key phenology parameters, where missing, such as sowing, flowering and maturity date will be modeled and added to the dataset. IWIN data sets will be curated and made publically available via the GARDIAN portal following the CGIAR data sharing standards  Hourly weather data for the key IWIN data sites (max 500) will be made publicly available, following the CGIAR data sharing standards. Duration: 1986 until 2018.The project will start in February 2019 and will finish by January 2021.This project starts on February 2019, thus no results can be reported during 2018. There is a wide variation in datasets available in GARDIAN, including the data quantity, quality, format, and terminologies used to describe the data. This project highlights three very different types of datasets and the steps involved to locate, access, and prepare the data for crop models using AgMIP data translation tools. Three datasets were retrieved from GARDIAN and evaluated for usefulness in crop modeling applications.The current GARDIAN system is easy to navigate and to perform simple queries on data and publications; however there is a challenge to making these data useable on a large scale. Currently datasets are stored in many formats using vocabularies to describe dataset content which are determined on an ad hoc basis by each researcher. When the ICASA Data Dictionary is used as the definition of terms in the dataset, existing AgMIP data translation tools allow rapid translation of data to crop model-specific formats for multiple crop models. Making data useful on a large scale would require annotation of each dataset with terms and definitions that are in alignment with ICASA terms.Data could be exposed to ICASA terminology by providing a mapping of variables in the dataset to terms in a standard ontology such as the AgrO. This ontology provides descriptions of each term and has been mapped to the ICASA Data Dictionary for selected terms. We recommend developing these annotations and variable mapping for datasets, and exposing the list of variables such that appropriateness for use in crop models can be easily determined with a simple query in GARDIAN. This proposed work was beyond the scope of this pilot project, but could be explored in a follow-up project.The CGIAR has a vast asset of field experimental data that could be extremely useful for crop model evaluation and improvement. In return, well-tested crop models can guide research in the CGIAR, particularly on adapting germplasm to future climate change and on developing crop management practices for sustainable and environmentally friendly food production. Under the \"Organize\" component of the Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, the CeRES tool (now renamed GARDIAN) is being developed to provide access to all the data that have been collected at the CGIAR Centers since their inception. The main goal of this proposal is to employ the current stage of this search engine to search, retrieve and translate the data into AgMIP format field experimental data sets. The specific objective is to develop an end-to-end case to show that the data are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). As a case study, we will explore the CIMMYT wheat data base for field data on germplasm with increased heat stress tolerance. To be useful for crop modeling, such field data need to include information on crop management (sowing, N fertilizer, irrigation, any effect from pest and diseases, lodging), soil (texture, soil organic carbon, bulk density, any constraints to root growth, potential rooting depth, and initial conditions), germplasm characteristics (phenology and yield characteristics, and specific traits, especially those related to heat tolerance), weather (daily max and min temperature, rainfall, solar radiation) and crop measurements (yield, yield components, phenology stages, growth patterns, soil water dynamics). Outputs 1) An example of field data sets derived from the CGIAR data base (in this case for wheat on improved heat stress tolerance) in AgMIP format for model evaluation and improvement, 2) An evaluation of the currently developed data search engine for the Big Data Platform, and 3) An assessment of potential usefulness of CGIAR field data for crop modeling. 4) The results will be summarized in a report and scientific publication. Deliverables 1) An example of field data sets derived from the CGIAR data base (in this case for wheat on improved heat stress tolerance) in AgMIP format for model development and testing. 2) An evaluation of the currently developed data search engine CeRES for the Big Data Platform, 3) New tools to link CeRES with the AgMIP data translators 4) An assessment of potential usefulness of CGIAR field data for crop modeling, 5) A summary report and scientific publication.Three datasets were identified using the GARDIAN search engine for use as demonstration datasets for translation to crop modeling formats. The utility for crop modeling and the ease of translation to AgMIP and to crop modeling formats varied significantly between the three as discussed below. Additional details of each dataset are included in Appendix A. This dataset is a variety trial dataset which does not include sufficient data for modeling.The GARDIAN search engine works well for finding generic terms about a dataset, which have been previously added to the descriptions. It was simple to find the correct datasets specified for this project by keywords. However, GARDIAN currently is lacking support for more detailed searches when it concerns any data not contained in the tags, description or title of the dataset. For example, the search for Wheat Uzbekistan does not currently bring up the 2 nd targeted dataset. This may be due to a lack of metadata for each dataset and the search therefore not leveraging that metadata, which will be addressed over time. Currently, this makes searching for quantitative and modeling datasets more difficult.The output of the search is currently organized by the internal storage ID and unsortable (by date for instance), however the filters work well for narrowing down some of the searches. An individual dataset, once selected by the search results, can be difficult to navigate. The Dataset FilesAgricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (http://www.agmip.org/ Rosenzweig et al., 2012). International Consortium for Agricultural Systems Applications, (White et al., 2013). AgMIP DOME files supply information required by crop models, but not included in the original dataset.International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer dropdown properly shows a list of downloadable files from the dataset, but the link to the files themselves are not apparent from there. Also, the various links themselves can be confusing for new users. The HDL, URL, DOI terms could be expanded to a Download Data (DOI) for example.As part of the AgMIP data interoperability system (Porter et al., 2014), a few generic templates for data entry were developed for commonly encountered data sources for modeling. These include farm survey data, detailed field crop research data, paddy rice systems, and others. Each template is an Excel spreadsheet with representative data fields annotated with the ICASA variable name for each and have encoding to help the translate determine how data are relationally connected. This approach requires that spreadsheets be saved in comma-delimited format (csv) translated using java desktop utilities.A new application was developed that allows Excel spreadsheets to be read directly and relational connections be automatically discovered by the application. This allows the data manager much greater flexibility in organization of the data and also removes the burden of creating csv files from the Excel workbook prior to translation.Each data element in the dataset must still be mapped to an ICASA variable in order for the translator to interpret the values and produce meaningful crop model inputs. This can be a time consuming task and must be done by someone familiar with the data set, the methods of data collection, and the ICASA Data Dictionary.We found that data in GARDIAN were well annotated and easily found with a few simple keywords. For example, using the keywords \"wheat\" and \"heat\" brought up 8 datasets as shown in Figure 1 below. Selection of the 2nd dataset, \"Data from the International Heat Stress Genotype Experiment for modeling wheat response to heat: field experiments and AgMIP-Wheat multi-model simulations\", brought up a summary of the data, a word cloud of keywords, a list of relevant publications, and a link to the dataset in compressed \"rar\" format. The link leads to the Open Data Journal for Agricultural Research (ODJAR , https://library.wur.nl/ojs/index.php/odjar/) from which additional descriptions of the dataset and the data are available.Figure 1. Screen shot of results of search in GARDIAN for \"wheat\" and \"heat\".While GARDIAN is a very user-friendly method of discovering data that are available, there is a challenge to making these data useable on a large scale. Currently datasets are stored in many formats using vocabularies to describe dataset content which are determined on an ad hoc basis by each researcher. The Big Data Platform proposes to align each dataset vocabulary to a well annotated vocabulary that is described in the Agronomy Ontology (Devare, et al., 2016). Vocabulary definitions for each dataset are to be described fully in metadata so that researchers can maintain their own vocabularies and methods of data collection and description, while at the same time, linking these data to other datasets through mapping of variables to a well-documented and maintained ontology. Once data are annotated with these metadata, the datasets are made not only findable and accessible, but interoperable. Combining the annotated datasets with AgMIP data translation tools, makes these data further usable by allowing them to be used in crop modeling applications associated with AgMIP.This document consists of the final summary report for the project. A scientific publication will be written as part of a follow-up project with the CGIAR which integrates AgMIP data translation tools in the GARDIAN user interface.The field data sets have been made available to the international crop modeling community through upload to the AgMIP Crop Site Database. AgMIP is one of the largest international research communities with more than 1000 members. The Big Data Platform will be highlighted through this wheat example. This will ensure great visibility of the potential impact of the Big Data Platform in CGIAR for other scientific communities, with broader implications for future research direction and policy makers.The impact of the proposed project is awareness to the crop modeling community of the CGIAR Big Data Platform and the FAIR principles of CGIAR data, and the broader support and impact of the CGIAR to science and policy. This exercise revealed a potential error in the archived data. A single soil profile was archived for Maricopa, Arizona, USA, rather than site specific soils for the six field locations. The soil profile data archived may be a remnant of a data template used to input data to AgMIP format. Therefore the results of the crop model simulations are not considered to be reliable and were not compared to observed data.  Because this dataset was archived in DSSAT format, very little time was required to prepare the files for simulation for both wheat and cotton. Model-specific species, ecotype and cultivar files had to be updated for the latest version of DSSAT-CSM and the soil file had to be renamed to conform to DSSAT file naming conventions. Although the cultivar was calibrated for DSSAT v4.6, the results are acceptable when run with DSSAT v4.7 for the wheat data ( Table A-2 presents the variables included in the dataset.Although the archived files were formatted for DSSAT, these files have been converted to AgMIP format and are available for translation to other model formats.   The first set of baseline simulations was carried out with the recommended farmer practice (FP) of applying 20 kg urea/ha as a starter dose and 20 kg urea/ha as top dressing. The second set was carried out using the typical on-station N practice of applying 50 kg DAP/ha as a starter dose and 100 kg urea/ha as top dressing. Grain and stover yields generated under on-station N management were compared to the farmer practice and the frequencies of yield advantage of OS over FP were calculated for all simulation units and projected onto a map (Fig 1). The on-station practice enhanced stover production across central India, but in low yielding environments average yield was 1500 kg/ha with significant grain yield loss. This was on expected lines. Well-fertilized crops establish larger canopy earlier in the season which reflects in higher crop demand for transpiration and leads to earlier water depletion from the soil.Therefore, on-station crops face water stress earlier in the season with less moisture available to facilitate grain-filling processes.Our study showed that out of 83 investigated districts, only 19 would benefit from OS-N practice in terms of sorghum production. These 19 districts generally encompass regions with deep vertisols with high soil water holding capacity; higher chance of in-crop rainfalli.e. less chance of severe droughts. In other words, majority of post-rainy sorghum production areas will suffer the grain production losses if higher doses of N fertilizers were applied.   Grain and stover yields generated under these three simulations were compared and the yield difference and frequencies of yield advantage were calculated for all simulation units and projected onto a map using ArcGIS software (v. 10.    Data on agronomic parameters (Phenology, biomass accumulation and grain yield) and canopy characteristics were documented to derive genetic coefficients. The observations necessary to derive reliable genetic coefficients for parameterization of cultivars was collected from low density, well-fertilized and irrigated treatment and will be validated upon other treatments. The detailed parameterization process, basic equations and coefficient optimization tools used are available open-access at:http://gems.icrisat.org/allinstruments/parameterization-for-apsim-simulation/For parameterisation, the data was collected from irrigated, low density and high nitrogen treatment.Firstly, maximum leaf area for all the cultivars was determined by calculating the relation between maximum leaf number and maximum leaf size (Fig. 7) For the ease of calculations, the cultivars are grouped into 4 types based on maximum leaf area values and canopy coefficients are derived for each group: The field experiments were repeated in the second year (2018-19 Rabi season) with the same treatments.The data collected in the first and second year will be compiled and then used for parameterization and validation of APSIM.Comparison of yield and biomass by running model with observed weather data versus running model with gridded NASA data. We found that simulated yields (both grain yield and biomass) with NASA data were in better agreement with simulated yields with observed weather data. The previous report (4 th Sept 2018) summarized data gathering and initial calibration of the SAB686 variety. Progress reported here relates to the completion of deliverable D2 (model calibration), with preliminary results also presented for deliverable D3 (analysis of stress patterns). Finally, a summary bulleted list of next steps is presented.The CSM-CROPGRO-DRYBEAN model was calibrated and evaluated using detailed growth and development data from an experiment conducted in 2014 in the locality of Villanueva in the Santander department in Colombia. The model was calibrated and evaluated for two varieties included in the trial, a representative commercial check (Calima) and a promising line for drought and heat stress for Colombia (SAB686). Genotype SEF60 has not been included in this work due to lack of data. These two varieties were deemed representative enough of commercial and breeding genotypes, and will hence be used for all analyses. The field experiment included seven treatments (i.e. seven different planting dates), out of which two were used for model calibration, and the remaining four were used for model evaluation.Model calibration was performed through the following steps: Identify key parameters that needed calibration through sensitivity analysis. To this aim, we conducted a Sobol (Sobol et al., 2007;Saltelli et al., 2007)  Growth parameters included the specific leaf area under standard growth conditions (SLAVR), maximum size of full leaf (SIZLF), maximum leaf photosynthesis rate (LFMAX), and the maximum weight per seed (WTPSD). Calibration of model parameters through a genetic algorithm with calibration data (2 treatments). Using observed dates of flowering, pod and seed appearance and physiological maturity, we first calibrated phenology parameters. Next, we calibrated growth parameters using total, leaf, stem, and pod biomass, yield, and leaf area index. For phenology, for which all variables are in the same units (i.e. days), we sought to minimize the sum squared error (SSE), whereas for growth, we used the distance correlation normalized by the mean absolute error. Evaluation of the calibrated model with evaluation data (4 treatments). For SAB686 we also tested the model against a number of CIAT experiments in other localities than Villanueva.For Calima, we compared our calibration results with those of Clavijo-Michelangeli et al.(2014) (CM14 calibration hereafter). For more details on the Clavijo-Michelangeli et al.(2014) experiments and data the reader is referred to Hwang et al. (2017).Fig. 1 shows phenology calibration and evaluation results for both SAB686, Calima (our calibration) and Calima (CM14 calibration). In general, the simulation of phenology is found to be accurate for both calibration and evaluation experiments, with RMSE being the smallest for SAB686 (RMSE=2.47 days, RMSE relative to mean = 4.8 %), and about twice as large for Calima (4.95 days, 9.8 %). Notably, RMSE for both reduces in the evaluation experiments (except for CM14), suggesting the model represents well the phenology of these genotypes. We also note that CM14 calibration performed better than the calibration reported here in both calibration and evaluation experiments. estimating the degree of drought stress in treatment 4 for the three genotypes, or that there is associated experimental error in the field measurements, especially for genotype Calima, for which variation across replicates is larger. It is also possible that the weather measurements or the initial field conditions are not captured well. As for calibration experiments, the performance of the model for SAB686 was greater compared with that of Calima. Finally, we note that the CM14 growth parameter set tends to perform less well than our calibration. These results suggest that there are inherent limitations in the model that require more careful examination and improvement, especially under stress situations and for genotype Calima.However, despite these limitations, the model performs sufficiently well for phenology, growth and yield, especially for genotype SAB686. Model parameters are shown in Table 1 for the two genotypes. As a reference, we include parameters from CM14, which are generally consistent with the calibration results from the genetic algorithm.With the calibrated model, we simulated crop growth of the common bean initially in a set of five representative sites in Colombia. Two of the five sites have temperatures near the optimal for common bean, namely, Palmira and Santander de Quilichao. One site (Barichara) is sub-optimal in terms of temperature. Lastly, two sites have supra-optimal temperatures during the bean growing season (Espinal and La Uribe). Simulations were conducted for both current and future climate conditions. To represent current climates, we used observed 1981-2010 climate data, whereas for future climates we used 2040-2069 projections of the GFDL-ESM2 General Circulation Model (GCM) under RCP 8.5. Future climate data were bias-corrected using the change factor method (Hawkins et al., 2013). Simulations were run for a range of planting dates and only for one of the genotypes (SAB686). Using these simulations, we conducted a preliminary Target Population of Environments (TPE)analysis, with particular focus on temperature response. We classified the five sites and all simulated years into three TPEs: cool, warm, and optimal. In the current climate (Fig. 2 -solid lines), the optimal TPE (green solid line) has considerably more high yield simulations than the colder (blue solid line) and hotter (red solid line) TPEs. By 2050 (dashed lines), the difference between temperature TPEs narrows: low yield seasons become more common in the above optimal TPE, closing the gap in simulated yield between the hotter and colder environments (Fig. 2 -dashed lines). Notably, the future projected yield of the optimal TPE becomes increasingly similar to that of the warm TPE, possibly suggesting similar patterns of stress. This will be a matter of further investigation.These results indicate that TPEs useful means of capturing changes in bean stress patterns. The difference in yield between the wet (optimal) and dry TPEs also narrows (not shown), as both increasingly similar to that of the warm TPE, it is possible that current optimal growing areas in Colombia are likely to become heat stressed, thus requiring focusing breeding efforts on heat stress adaptation. Representative sites toward this aim would be Espinal (Tolima) and La Uribe (Meta). Scale the TPE analysis to a broader set of sites, including other temperature regimes and post-conflict areas with potential to grow beans. Revise calibration for Calima, and perform model simulations and TPE analyses in all selected sites with the two calibrated genotypes. Discuss results with bean program experts and propose target selection sites for bean breeding for heat stress.Wheat blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT), was first discovered in six municipalities in the Parana state of Brazil in 1985 (Igarashi et al., 1986). While the disease attacks all above ground plant parts, fungal infection of wheat spikes by MoT can cause significant yield losses (Cruz and Valent, 2017). While spike infection by MoT resembles Fusarium head blight, the two diseases can be differentiated because MoT infects the rachis, above which spikes appear white with partially or completely unfilled grain. Black spotting of the entire spike can be seen with the naked eye in advanced infections. Yield loss is reported to be most severe when wheat is infected during the flowering and early grain formation stages.Following initial appearance of the disease in Brazil, wheat blast spread to Bolivia, Paraguay and parts of Argentina (Duveiller et al., 2016). In 2016, MoT unexpectedly appeared in South Asia, causing losses on >15,000 ha in Bangladesh (Malaker et al., 2016). At that time, wheat was Bangladesh's second most widely grown cereal crop. Large-scale infection sparked fears of potential spread across the region. The disease reappeared in Bangladesh during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 wheat growing seasons, with reports of spread to India appearing in the popular press (e.g. Das 2017). Although prevailing climatic conditions and a significant reduction in wheat areas in Bangladesh limited the area of infection in these seasons, the threat posed by wheat blast remains very real. Regional extrapolation estimates have suggested that South Asian farmers could lose up to 1.77 million tons year -1 with light infections of just 10% (Mottaleb et al., 2018).Wheat blast infections vary with prevailing climatic conditions, the degree of susceptibility of host cultivars, and the location of infection (leaf, stem or spike) (Goulart et al., 2003). Fungicides are ineffective under high disease pressure and partially effective under moderate-to-low pressure. A 2NS translocation segment from Aegilops ventricosa was reported to confer moderate resistance to wheat blast in some genotypes (Cruz et al. 2016). However, in Bolivia, during the 2015 epidemic, the best resistance available was insufficient for controlling blast (Vales et al. 2018). In Bangladesh, a resistant variety (BARI Gom 33 which carries the 2NS translocation segment) is now publicly available, although seed is in limited supply and the durability of resistance remains unclear.Despite this information, most programs in Bangladesh focus on advising farmers on how to reduce wheat blast risks concentrate on seed treatment and calendar based fungicide application. This approach can be costly and relies on assumptions of large-scale fungicide availability. An alternative approach to mitigating the threat posed by wheat blast is to incorporate principles of integrated pest management (IPM), although most IPM programs require farmers to regularly visit and observe their fields to estimate infection levels. In addition to the time-consuming nature of repetitive field visits, this approach is arguably problematic because it requires an advanced knowledge of the disease symptoms. Yet once symptoms are visible, infection is already underway. This limits the farmers' to preventatively control the disease with fungicides.An alternative approach that can be used as part of an IPM strategy is to use weather forecasts and disease models when and where disease might occur, with preventative management advisories delivered to farmers several days in advance of potential disease outbreaks. Such 'early warning systems' however require knowledge of disease ecology, reliable weather forecasts and significant efforts to properly model disease outbreaks before advising farmers.MoT tends to be associated with regions that have high humidity (Fernandes et al. 2017).Combined with temperature, relative humidity influences the speed of M. oryzae development (Calvero et al. 1996). Cardoso et al. (2008) suggested that the optimal temperatures for blast infection of wet or damp spikes range between 25 and 30 C.  2017) sought to simplify input parameters to increase the ease by which users can make use of the model. Several parameters common in plant disease models, for example duration of leaf wetness, are not included in the empirically based modeling approach.To assess the potential impacts of pests and diseases on crop production, some crop models include coupling points, which can be thought of as special model variables whose changing values can be used to represent pest and disease damage to crop organs or growth processes.The coupling point concept was first introduced in 1983 (Boote et al. 1983), and later formally implemented in the DSSAT crop modeling platform (Jones, et al., 2003) as a Pest Module (Batchelor et al., 1993). Examples of coupling point variables include leaf mass or area, stem mass, root mass, root length, and seed mass or number, all of which might be negatively impacted by pests and diseases. By identifying specific mechanical and infection damage pathways, and rates of damage using these variables, growth models can be tuned to quantify how crop development and yield might be affected. The DSSAT Pest Module allows users to input field observations or dynamically modeled data on insect damage, disease severity, and physical damage to plants or plant components (e.g., grains or leaves). Users can then simulate the likely effects of those pests and diseases on crop growth and economic yield.This report provides information on initial progress to dynamically simulate and couple both the MoT life cycle and wheat crop development by linking weather-data driven disease and crop models to estimate infection and spike damage. Although this project focuses on both Bangladesh and Brazil, this report provides details of initial model coupling and preliminary simulation efforts in Bangladesh only. Simulations for Brazil and for multiple locations in Bangladesh will be presented in the final project report in the third quarter of 2019. All results presented in this report should therefore be treated as preliminary and non-definitive.The Nwheat model simulates wheat growth under differing environmental and management conditions. The model allows users to compare simulation results to potential (unconstrained) growth. Nwheat was recently embedded in the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT, Version 4.7) model as an Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) Nwheat model (Kassie et al., 2016). This model has been tested under the shell of APSIM-Nwheat in a number of environments variable in temperature, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and soilwater conditions. Conveniently, DSSAT-Nwheat uses the same input information as CERES-Wheat. Additional cultivar genetic coefficients are nonetheless needed during calibration.DSSAT-Nwheat is currently under developer improvement to enable simulations that account for biotic stresses to crop growth, most notably for the damage imposed by diseases and pests (Farman et al., 2017). Lazzaretti et al. (2016) parameterized a generic disease simulator to mimic wheat blast inoculum build-up and consequent colonization of foliage and wheat spikes.An inverse relationship between wheat grain weight without disease control and the spread of fungal mycelia within the spikes was programmed into the model, representing the effect of increasing wheat blast intensity on the crop. This routine was coupled with a weather-based wheat blast simulation developed in Brazil by Fernandes et al. (2017) that requires hourly observations of temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, and solar radiation. The coupling of this model to the DSSAT-Nwheat is described in this report. Our work to couple the models is novel and is intended to predict yield in the presence or absence of wheat blast.To achieve these aims, non-relational open source database known as MongoDB was utilized to implement a flexible structured data schema. This permitted the storage and retrieval of experimental data and model-required input data. The MongoDB is shown in Figure 1 Field experiments to calibrate model performance were carried out in Bangladesh in the 2017/18 wheat growing season. A split-plot design six wheat cultivars and five sowing dates was utilized. The experiment was replicated in three locations in Bangladesh. This focuses research locations managed by the Bangladesh Maize and Wheat Improvement Institute (BMWI) in Dinajpur (25°44'38.62\"N,88°40'21.36\"E) and Jessore (23°11'11.71\"N,89°11'16.06\"E). The former location was used for model calibration, the latter location was used for virtual experimentation. Experimental sub-plot size was 6m2 (3m row length and 10 rows spaced 20 cm apart). Sowing dates included November 25, December 2, December 12, December 22 and January 1. Cultivars tested included BARI Gom 26, 28, 30, 31, 32 and 33. Seed was sown by hand at between 5-7 cm depth following two tillage passes and covered with soil. Seed rates were 120 kg ha-1 for all varieties exempting BARI Gom 33 which tillers poorly, for which rates were increased by 20 kg ha-1. This report focuses on performance and calibration for BARI Gom 26. Based on field observations, this cultivar is classified as susceptible to blast. Other varieties will be considered in the next report.Fertilizers were applied at elemental rates of 100-27-40-20-1 kg ha -1 of N-P-K-S-B. Two-thirds of N and the full amount of the other fertilizers were applied basally. The remaining N split was applied immediately before the first irrigation near crown root initiation (17-21 days after sowing (DAS)). Three light irrigations no more than 5 cm deep were applied. The first was applied as described above, the second and third irrigations were applied at booting (50-55 DAS) and grain-filling (70-75 DAS) stages. Weeds were controlled to reduce any competition with the crop.After excluding 20 cm borders to minimize edge effects, the remaining plot was harvested at physiological maturity a corrected to a moisture content of 12%. Measured crop variables from experiments included anthesis and maturity dates, total above ground biomass, and grain yield. 1,000 grain weight was also measured.The DSSAT-Nwheat model combination requires daily precipitation, maximum and minimum air temperature, and solar radiation as standard weather inputs. In Bangladesh, these inputs were taken from HOBO automated weather stations (Bourne, MA, USA) placed at 2 m height from less than 200 m from the experiments. Any gaps in data due to equipment malfunction were filled with data from the nearest Bangladesh Department of Meteorology (BMD) synoptic observation station. The wheat blast simulator required hourly temperature and relative humidity data from the same sources. Where only three-hourly data were available (as was the case with BMD stations), data were interpolated to obtain hourly values.A wheat blast simulation model that accounts for inoculum build-up and infection has been validated in Brazil (Fernandes et. al., 2017). This model forms the basis disease severity estimates this preliminary research coupled with the DSSAT-Nwheat model to simulate diseaseinduced yield loss. Fernandes et. al. (2017) developed and evaluated a prediction model based on the analysis of historical epidemics and weather series data in the northern Paraná state, Brazil. Local available epidemiological knowledge was also employed in model parameterization. Importantly the model also assumes the spatially uniform presence of MoT inoculum in the environment for which simulations are run.The disease and hourly-scale weather datasets examined by Fernandes et. al. (2017) for Brazil encompassed the 2001-2012 period. A specific database management application developed using R Shiny was programmed to visualize and identify patterns in weather variables during two major outbreaks (2004 and 2009). Uncommonly humid and warm weather was observed for most locations in this study during a 60-day period preceding wheat heading during years of major outbreaks. These conditions were therefore were considered key drivers of inoculum build-up and airborne spores from regional inoculum sources in the surroundings.The blast model developed by Fernandes et. al. (2017) has four components. The first component assumes spores are present and estimates the rate of conidiophore development as a function of temperature and relative humidity, both of which are integrated to estimate blast inoculum potential by solving equation 1 for the hourly sum of inoculum potential (IP) over the season: \uD835\uDC3C\uD835\uDC43 = { 14.35 − 0.25 * \uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC53 15\uD835\uDC36 < \uD835\uDC47 < 27\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC45\uD835\uDC3B ≥ 93% −8.5 − 0.59 * \uD835\uDC47 \uD835\uDC56\uD835\uDC53 27\uD835\uDC36 < \uD835\uDC47 < 35\uD835\uDC36 \uD835\uDC4E\uD835\uDC5B\uD835\uDC51 \uD835\uDC45\uD835\uDC3B ≥ 93% 0 otherwise [1] where IT and RH are air temperature and relative humidity, respectively. Where RH is below the threshold in Equation 1, the model does not accumulate thermal time. The model also calculates the development of a spore cloud subject to assumptions of air current uptake, atmospheric diffusion and wind shear that affect spore longevity. Survival of spores while airborne may also be affected by temperature, solar and ultraviolet radiation, in addition to relative humidity (Deacon 2005). Spore cohorts were therefore assumed to have a half-life of three days within any seven-day window.The model also determines the number and timing of days with climatic conditions favoring blast infection using a conditional ruleset. Days favoring infection were consequently declared following spore cloud development when the daily maximum temperature exceeded 23C and temperature amplitude (calculated daily minimum temperature subtracted from daily maximum temperature) was > 13C, with mean daily RH above 70%. The model adequately described observed epidemic and non-epidemics years during and beyond the study period in Brazil. This report details preliminary efforts to transfer this model to Bangladesh while also coupling it with DSSAT-Nwheat.Because a pest simulation module in DSSAT has been made accessible to the DSSAT-Nwheat model, a communication approach was used to couple the parameterized wheat blast model to DSSAT-Nwheat. Using this system, models are executed as independent programs that can communicate with each other during execution using a Message Passing Interface (MPI). This effectively permits the passing of information between models and allows automated changes in the results produced by one model based on the outcomes of the other (Browne and Wilson, 2015).When applied in Bangladesh, the genetic coefficients of the model were refined to numerically represent the genotypic constitution of wheat cultivar BARI Gom 26. These genetic coefficients express all relevant information regarding the life cycle, distribution and duration of each phenological stage, growth rates indexes, biomass distribution and reproductive processes. The genetic coefficients BARI Gom 26 are presented in Annex 1.In this study, the development of a customized graphical user interface (GUI) was motivated by the need to enhance researchers' capability to manipulate DSSAT-Crop Simulation Model (CSM) files to achieve simulation and data visualization goals. As such, an interactive library that could provide a mechanism for reading, writing and processing different DSSAT-CSM files was needed (Figure 2). There was also a need to implement software engineering best practices to achieve cross-platform goals. Windows, MacOS X and Linux are three of the world's most common operating systems. A JavaScript library was consequently created to read, write and process DSSAT-CSM files using DSSAT data standards with each of these operating systems (White et al., 2013). The library is also able to integrate with different output files (.OUT extension) from the DSSAT-CSM, for example plant growth, soil water, weather information, and other .OUT files. Each output file is generated with meta-data including information about the model, experimental runs, treatments and simulated values. The GUI was created using R Shiny to visually represent model coupling and allow users to point and click and run virtual experiments. The beta form of this GUI can be found at: http://dev.sisalert.com.br/shiny/cropwheat/. The overall concept for the integration of both crop and disease models as important components of a numerical weather model driven wheat blast early warning system can be found in Figure 3.The DSSAT-Nwheat application uses the MongoDB database to store outputs from simulations and collates these alongside observed data. The R software embedded in the application enables the development of more robust and flexible graphs within the user interface. This in turn allows GUI users to produce graphs of simulated outputs with observed data and associated statistics.The goal of this research was to develop a proof of concept that models could be coupled to simulate wheat blast impact on yield in Bangladesh. To this end, we calibrated the DSSAT-Nwheat CSM by comparing it to experimental results for grain and biomass yield, 1,000 grain weight, and phenology. DSSAT-Nwheat model calibration was achieved by manipulating the genetic coefficients of each cultivar by iterative trial and error until observed data sufficiently matched simulated data.We implemented three virtual experiments for the wheat cultivar BARI Gom 26 using the customized GUI and simulated wheat productivity performance with and without the blast model coupling given measured weather conditions in the 2016/2017, 2016/2017 and 2016/2018 wheat growing seasons in Jessore. Importantly, the calibration procedures described in this report were conducted for Dinajpur only. This was due to constraints in time and accessing unbroken weather data records; calibration will be undertaken for the remaining two experimental sites in Bangladesh, as well as a range of locations and years in Brazil and presented in the next project report.simulation models to develop an early warning and advisory system to mitigate wheat blast risks.Exempting the December 20 th sowing date, experimental results from Dinajpur showed a general decline in grain yield as sowing date was delayed from November 25 th through January 1 (Figure 4). The inverse relationship between sowing date and in yield has been observed by a number of research groups in South Asia and is associated with terminal heat stress (Farooq et al. 2011;Mondal et al., 2013;Krupnik et al., 2015;Arshad et al. 2018). Heat stress in wheat can cause a reduction in pollen sterility and desiccation of stigma that result in lower seed set and grain filling (Reynolds et al. 2016). Simulated wheat yield and 1,000 grain weight results however showed variable fit with observed data; simulated grain yield was consistently 1-30% lower than observed values. 1,000 grain weight was also between 1-7 g below observed values, depending on sowing dates. Crop biomass (grain + straw) weights were however consistently underestimated by 15 to 50%.The DSSAT-Nwheat model conversely simulated the number of days after planting (DAP) to anthesis and maturity quite well, with most data falling close to a 1:1 line between simulated and observed data (Figure 5). This indicates only a few days of error. All of these results should however be taken as preliminary and not as definitive. Efforts to further improve model calibration and fit with observed data will be undertaken in the initial months of 2019 for Dinajpur and Jessore. Maximum and minimum temperature patterns in Jessore varied in the years for which simulations were performed. Average temperatures were 24.13/17.64, 25.89/14.21, and 28.31/13.65 °C in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 (Figure 6). This location is characterized by generally high maximum RH, but day-to-day fluctuation that results in a variable minimum RH. Crop water demand was not met by sufficient rainfall in any of these years (hence the need for irrigation). The wheat growing season rainfall totals were 27 mm in 2015/16, 1.1 in 2016/17 and 21.8 mm in 2017/18, the latter associated with a large precipitation event in early December that caused a large increase in RH. Precipitation in the 2015/16 season had four light precipitation events.  An example of the GUI depicting blast disease simulation model outputs for the year 2015/16 in Jessore can be found in Figure 7. Simulated outputs for virtual experiments conducted using weather data for the 2015/16 wheat season in Jessore showed a grain and biomass yield decline to model runs with progressively later sowing dates without disease (Figure 8). The 2015/16 season was the first season during which large-scale outbreak of wheat blast occurred in Bangladesh (Malaker et al., 2016;Mottaleb et al. 2018). During this season, nearly 15,000 ha were affected (approximately 3.5% of Bangladesh's wheat area) with yield declines reported from 5-51% (Islam et al., 2016). Our preliminary simulation efforts show a reduction in yield of 5-10% in disease. This reduction is relatively light and indicates that further refinements in the model may be necessary to accurately represent yield declines. That said, a 'conservative' range of yield loss from wheat blast was employed by Mottaleb et al. (2018) in an ex-ante a climate analogue study that estimated the potential economic impact of wheat blast across South Asia.When data were simulated for the 2016/17 wheat season on Jessore, both disease-free and diseased crop grain yield showed a decline from the first to last sowing date (Figure 9A). Simulations of blast disease reduced yield only marginally, e.g. from 0-3% relative to disease-free simulations, with a slight increase in disease inflicted yield loss with later sowing dates. Impact on 1,000 grain weight and total biomass was also small. These limited simulated yield loss values for the 2016/17 cropping season are to some extent supported by large-scale field surveillance that was undertaken by the BWMRI, CIMMYT and Cornell University throughout Bangladesh in early 2017. Out of 800 wheat fields surveyed in 25 districts of Bangladesh, only 77 showed symptoms of blast. Those that with blast however all had very low levels of infection and negligent yield or economic impact (data not shown). Simulations for the Jessore BWMRI station during the 2017/18 wheat growing season showed similar trends, with a gradual decline in simulated wheat yield without blast disease (Figure 9B). Overall, model simulations indicted a potential 3-7% reduction in yield as a result of wheat blast infection (Figure 8B). Little effect of simulated disease was however found for 1,000 grain weight (which ranged in reduction from zero to 2 grams only. Total crop biomass reduction from simulated disease pressure ranged from 6-13%, the latter occurring on the latter two sowing dates. Surveillance from repeat visits to 616 fields across Bangladesh during this season also found very limited infections. Less than 5 ha were found to have infections throughout the country, and those that did registered blast severity <20% (data not shown). While promising, these results are however only very preliminary and should be treated with considerable caution. This report documents initial efforts to couple a weather-data driven wheat blast development model with the DSSAT-Nwheat model to simulate yield reduction as a function of disease severity in Bangladesh. The original weather-data riven disease model was developed in Brazil and validated for locations where more than a decade of wheat blast observations were available. This model was subsequently transferred to Bangladesh. Disease and crop model coupling will eventually permit model users to explore a range of sowing dates, weather conditions, and cultivar effects on wheat blast infection.Our very preliminary results showed that the DSSAT-Nwheat model reproduced the general effects of sowing date on wheat phenology and yields. Simulations showed relatively good consistency with the higher yields in earlier sowing dates. Further model calibration efforts undertaken in early 2019 will include direct comparisons of DSSAT-Nwheat simulations to observed experimental data in Jessore. We will also work to relate simulated data to visual estimates of blast incidence and severity at experimental locations in Bangladesh, while also utilizing a broader range of genetic coefficients for other wheat cultivars. The same modeling process will also be used to evaluate the performance of model coupling over more than ten years of data in Brazil.Outbreak risk maps will be produced over different years using available field trial data to calibrate DSSAT and examine past climatic and crop risks in Bangladesh and Brazil, although we expect that this model can be applied to other countries where data are available. This work will improve upon provisional climatic modeling efforts to estimate the potential effect of wheat blast infection. Mottaleb et al. (2018) for example made use of a climate analogue approach that identifies locations with analogous temperature and precipitation regimes to a location of interest (for example locations where blast infections were observed in Bangladesh in 2016) to estimate the potential geographical area vulnerable to wheat blast. This approachwhile initially usefuldoes not include a biologically approach to estimating when and where blast spores might develop to levels creating outbreaks in wheat. This approach takes work a step further to permit dynamic simulation of potential yield losses from blast given variable weather conditions and climatic regimes.Although it is still under validation using historical data and field observations, our efforts to estimate the environmentally suitable locations and days during which wheat blast outbreak risks are most severe will incorporate numerical weather model forecast outputs produced by BMD. These will be used to generate time-and location-specific advisories on a five-day forecasted basis. This system will result in the triggering of an automated alert system using the GUI described above. We are also investigating options or delivering blast warnings directly to farmers using interactive voice response (IVR) technologies for at-risk locations prior to potential infection. In contrast to advisories that encourage calendar-based preventative sprays without field scouting, this data-driven approach can be used to adaptively advise farmers how to take effective and safe preventative action through the intelligent use of fungicides for disease control. This preliminary early warning system is available in beta-format at: http://dev.sisalert.com.br/shiny/wheatblast/. In combination with the DSSAT-Nwheat crop model coupling, our future objective is to provide farmers not only with forecast advisories, but also estimates of potential yield loss if they do not take preventative action to control blast. This however requires considerably more additional research that will be discussed in the subsequent report. From the first records in the 18 th century in Europe daily weather has been observed and recorded; it was crucial for the agricultural revolution in England. Researchers have long used these data for agronomic and grazing studies, some of these go back to not long after the records began.The ethos of data collection for the agricultural world spread to European colonies around the world. These were used to plan and manage plantations. Tea in Kenya and Assam, cacao in western Africa, rubber in the Malay peninsula and cotton in America.All of these analyses were done on a point basis; if meteorological data were need then they had to be recorded at the point of use. Early methods of interpolation relied on climate classifications, which could be mapped; Kӧppen (1884) is an example. Digital versions of climate data, for example Hijmans et. al (2005) are useful for GIS application where environmental indices can be calculated from the monthly climate data.Daily data are generally needed For crop modelling, but these are far too voluminous to store in a high-resolution global coverage. This problem is compounded by the need to include realistic variation, both short term and annual, in modelling analyses. One solution to this is to use a weather generator. MarkSim is a daily rainfall generator devised for the tropics in CIAT and ILRI in the late 1990's building on work at CIAT from the previous 15 years; Jones & Thornton, (1993, 1997, 1999, 2000), Jones et. al. (2002). More recently, see Jones & Thornton (2013), we have added a capability to simulate future weather sequences from a suite of GCM models, MarkSimGCM a stand-alone version is available in an EXE as MarkSim_Standalone.The weather generator needs all of the monthly climate values in one record and so the MetGrid file was born. This eventually used the data layers of WorldClim. This work is to update the MarkSim application data with the new data from WorldClim v2.0, Fick & Hijmans (2017). The outputs are a new set of MetGrid files at 10, 5 and 2.5 arc minutes and 30 arc seconds, and sets of CLI files, which can be used as input to the stand-alone version of MarkSim or as input to other weather generators. Until now, MetGrid files have not been available to the general user; this changes with this version and they will be available for download from CCAFS at CIAT. As they are a highly specialised format, a Fortran module, MetGrid_Handler, has been produced for general distribution to assist their use.The basic MetGrid structure was created in the late '80s for various applications in CIAT that used long-term climate data from the CIAT Climate Database. In those days GIS was rudimentary and using single variable coverages for any calculation more complicated than simple overlay was out of the question. The CIAT Climate Database (later to be incorporated into WorldClim) held individual station data. These were interpolated into 10 minute and 5 minute grids, but instead of storing the grids by monthly variates, I devised the MetGrid file so that calculations such as water balance, length of season, climate and land classification and varietal suitability could all be calculated directly, pixel by pixel, using Fortran programs.For a start, a MetGrid file is not a grid file. It is a space-conserving file can be used to construct derived climate grids throughout the world. The base data are from WorldClim v2.0 with the exception of the number of rain days that are derived from MarkSim v1.0. MetGrid files come in four resolutions; 10 arc-minutes, 5 arc-minutes, 2.5 arc-minutes and 30 arc-seconds. The big difference from the WorldClim files is that all variates are represented in one record.The MetGrid files are not raster grids, or, in fact, any sort of grid, and so they have to carry additional data to identify the record. This is simply the Latitude, longitude, and median elevation of the pixel. MetGrid v1.0 used the latitude and longitude of the lower left corner of the pixel, but we found that rounding errors made it difficult to translate easily to normal GIS grids. In version 2 we've decided on the latitude and longitude of the centre of the pixel. The user will now find no problem with translating any MetGrid to a raster image using the functions in the MetGrid_handler module. MetGrid records are stored as binary record in order from North to South in lines of longitude from West to East, but non-land areas are not recorded. There is therefore no simple relationship between a record number in the MetGrid file and a raster map. In order to overcome this the full MetGrid fileset is a group of three files with dedicated file extensions. They should always be copied together as a unit or the full functioning of the MetGrid will be impaired.They consist of a file header, extension .hdr, which describes the fileset. It is a small ASCII file such as this one for the 10 arc minute dataset. Note that although the contents appear to describe a raster grid dataset, the MetGrid is not; what is being described here is the grid that it represents.World2_10m.mtg MarkSim Record. The use of 12-bit words in modern computing is unusual, but the type and quality of the data in this case lend themselves to it, considerably reducing record size and hence file size. The extra computation involved can be offset against the reduced seek and read times from the file which will only have to be produced once. The overall record does conform to standard 32-bit word boundaries, and so it is read efficiently. The index file (extension .idx) is a binary file that can efficiently relate a latitude and longitude to a single record in the direct access .mtg file without involving multiple reads and searches. It is essentially a run length encoded file by lines of latitude. The run length encoded values are simply presence or absence of a land based pixel and the identity of the target record within the .mtg file can be returned with the absolute minimum of computation. Each .idx is specific to the resolution of the .mtg file and so must never be separated from it.The use of MarkSim and the MetGrid files requires an understanding of climate rotation. The following section was taken mainly from the original manuals of FloraMap, MarkSim and Homologue, where it is crucial in the operation of these applications.The climatic events that occur through the year, such as summer/winter and start/finish of the rainy season, are of prime importance when comparing one climate with another. Unfortunately, they occur at different dates in many climate types. The most obvious case is where we compare climates between points in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but more subtle differences occur in climate event timing throughout the tropics. What we need is a method of eliminating these differences to allow us to make comparisons free of these annual timing effects.Let us look at two hypothetical climate stations. They are in a typical Mediterranean climatewarm wet winters, hot dry summers. Northville could be somewhere in California, and Southville might be in Chile. The August rainfall in Southville happens in January in Northville (Figure 3.3). If we plot these rainfalls in polar coordinates, we can readily see that to compare them we need to rotate them to a standard time.  How do we do this automatically? The answer is the 12-point Fourier transform. This is fortunately the simplest of all the possible Fourier transform algorithms. It is highly computationally efficient and fast. It takes the 12 monthly values and converts them to a series of sine and cosine functions. The one used in MarkSim has a modification to make it conserve the monthly total values (Jones, 1987). The equation produced is:We can write this as a series of frequency vectors, each with an amplitude I, and a phase angle, i: If we subtract the first phase angle from all the other vectors in the set, we have produced a rigid rotation of the vectors; this is the rotation we want, it puts the maximum of the first frequency at a phase angle of zero and places the rest in positions equivalent to their angular separation in the original data. We then use the first phase angle for rainfall to rotate the data for temperature and diurnal temperature range, which we rotate through the same angle. This explanation works well for the tropics. There was a small chance of the procedure going off the rails if the rainfall record did not have a seasonal peak. This was the case in some records from tropical desert regions, in these cases the rotation was ambiguous and sometimes resulted in pixels allocated to the wrong cluster. The beta release of MarkSim went out with this type of rotation algorithm, as did the first release of FloraMap. When the climate grids of the latter were extended to Europe, the case arose where annual climate pattern was dominated by temperature and not rainfall.We therefore have the possibility of rotating on rainfall or temperature, but when to decide which is the dominant? We tried many combinations of rules, but unfortunately came to the conclusion that none were acceptable. They all resulted in a hard line across the map at some point where the rotation basis changed. This led to climates that should have been grading imperceptibly from one type to another suddenly jumping at a discontinuity. This would have given the users serious problems when fitting models in these areas.The best solution found is to use BOTH the rainfall and the temperature in calculating the rotation phase angle. Thus: Luckily, the Mediterranean climates are at moderately high latitudes and we can afford to have the rotation dominated by temperature without losing generality in the rotations and comparisons. We therefore need to increase the weighting for the temperature vector smoothly as we approach the Mediterranean climates (in order to avoid a sudden swing). I found the following weightings to work well: The index marked OK at 0.79 indicates (see Fig 7) an angle of 90 degrees between the two vectors if they are of equal length that denotes a reasonably stable rotation angle. It also corresponds to the case where one vector dominates the phase angle, which is also acceptable. The perfect confidence is found in the subtropics there the two vectors point in same direction. The equatorial regions and some Mediterranean regions have vectors pointing to different degrees in opposite direction. Luckily, none of these areas reaches the level where the phase angle is completely indefinite. The highest index noted is about 1.1, which is equivalent to an angle of about 120 degrees between two vectors of the same length. While this is somewhat indeterminate, there is still enough purchase to get a unique phase angle for rotation  A Fortran module contains data structure definitions that specify defined type variables that allow the grouping of various types of data into structured data units, and sets of functions or subroutines that use these units or operate on them. The module is invoked from within a Fortran program with the use command thus: use MetGrid_HandlerThe structure most likely to be interpreted by the user, in that the internal variables will be used in a Fortran program is the climate_structure. Most of the others are specific to the internal workings of the module and so are mostly only minimally described. Some variables are used within the module, but are defined as public as they may be of use in a program using the module. These include halfpi, pi and twopi as real*4, eof, year, month and day as integer*4 and month_code as an array of 12 three byte character representations of the calendar month. If the MetGrid header has been read then it is held in the variable h. Lastly, two logical*4 variables header_loaded and index_loaded indicate if the respective loading has been done.The index arrays are defined as private and are only accessed within the module; module routines to access MetGrid records use the loaded index arrays.As with the variable structures, not all module functions are necessarily called by the end user. Some have to be included because they are called by end-user functions; others are there because they are of use in the administration of the files.These four function rely on having the MetGrid header loaded in public variable h This MUST be used if MetGrid files are to be opened subsequently in the program. It is not enough to close (unit) as the index arrays must be deallocated.These routines are principally used for development and debugging, none have any use in actual analysis programs; they are largely self-descriptive. B04 type (climate_structure) function rotate_climate (c, phase) care must be taken when using this function as it can do one of three things depending on the call and the state of the climate_structure. parameters c type (climate_structure), input will not be changed unless specified as the function target. phase real*4, optional. a phase angle radians, may be any magnitude but will be used modulo twopi. 1) If phase is specified the structure is rotated through the angle, 'phase' irrespective of whether the structure is rotated or not. 2) if phase is not specified and the structure is rotated, ti will be rotated to zero phase angle i.e. true calendar time.3) if phase is not specified and the structure is not rotated, then a new, natural, phase angle will be calculated for the structure and it will be rotated to this angle.This function transforms a climate_structure into a MetGrid_record. This is used in creation of the MetGrids, but can be used as a handy way to save climate_structures by writing them to a binary file, the record length should be 104 bytes.As for null_climate, this is a way of creating an empty metgrid_record.None of these routines need concern the end user as they are all subsumed into rotate_climate. However, I will briefly describe them so that the end user may gain an insight into what is happening. They all have to be present in the module because they are interdependent and used on the working of rotate_climate.This function creates a new climate_structure such that the rotation angle is the definitive angle that rotates the structure to match similar climates. It cannot be used if the structure is already rotatedThis routine correct for small errors that are sometimes introduced during rotation. These are notices on variates that cannot go negative, such as rain and raindays. They are an artefact of the rotation process, but are invariably small and can be eliminated parameter v 12 valued real*4 array, declared as input and outputRotate a 12 valued variate array through a phase angle. Although there may be times when this routine is appropriate, it is dangerous as the array is divorced from any structure and no internal knowledge of the state of previous rotation is known. parameters v 12 values real*4 variate array, declared as input and output phase real*4, rotation phase angle R04 subroutine decode (q, v) This, and R05, are applications of the 12 point Fourier transform described in Hamming (1973). However there is a difference, the routines here have been recalculated to fit the curve, not through the mid-point of the month, but to the monthly integral of the data. In other words, the daily values of each month sum to the total for that month, and therefore monthly means are conserved parameters q real*4, 13-valued array of Fourier coefficients v real*4, 12 values variate arrayThe inverse of R04 For some instances, it is useful to have an index of the resolution. This routine returns the index value (1,2,3,4) for the resolutions (6,12,24,120) The MetGrid is always rotated. This is because the majority of the uses for a MetGrid file require the data in the rotated form. This line rotates the record to normal calendar form so that August is actually month 8.Rainfall is stored as rain per day. This has the advantage of being independent of month length, however this is available from the module.Find Abermaw (Barmouth) with coordinates from an unreliable map.  This is an example of how having all of the monthly variables together in one record can be handy for calculations. That the index is pretty useless is irrelevant, still, it brings up the hilly terrain quite nicely. I apologise for slipping in the image_processing module which is not available on this site. Phil Thornton and I use it extensively to produce Idrisi Images from Fortran programs but I've never got round to documenting it. If any would like a copy please contact me at p.jones@cgiar.org Grid functions are basic to using the MetGrid file in a grid oriented way. They take all relevant information from the MetGrid header, which must be loaded.!2 These are statements relevant to the production of the Idrisi image, you could use any other format for the production of the map image. They are indented one extra tab to indicate that they are not basic to the calculation.Error return is used here to skip all other processing when a pixel is all at sea.There is no need to rotate the structure in this case because we are only interested in the total of the monthly indices. Of course the rotation angle is unlikely to fall such that monthly values are exactly conserved. I will leave it to the interested reader to produce the alternative map with the structure rotated back to standard calendar to see what difference this would make. Hint! You don't need to produce two images, merely do two calculation on each pixel and subtract one from the other. The resultant image will be the difference of the two.These are basic input files for the DSSAT weather generators and are used as input to the executable version of MarkSim (MarkSim_Standalone) which allows researchers without detailed Fortran knowledge to run multiple geographic points for interface with DSSAT. This is particularly useful for mapping crop responses over geographic areas. We chose the DSSAT format because it is widely known and understood and can be adjusted to local climate data where these are available and when they don't match the baseline WorldClim 2.0The format for the CLI files closely follows the initial definition part of the standard DSSAT CLI file format (DSSAT, 2003(DSSAT, , 2017)). The following is an example from the MetGrid at 2.5 arc minutes The CLI pane descriptor is both a file that can be found in the compressed copy of each pane and a Fortran type descriptor for the information contained therein. The file looks like this:Lat,Row 20.000 1921 Long,Column 20.000 4801 Pixels/degree 24 Total pixels 14400As can be seen above, the pane descriptor has a directory definition. This is more for the analysts implementing the application than for the end user, but it can be used to structure the directories for the panes if the user so wishes. The directories define 40 degree squares to hold copes of the compressed panes of CLI files.The panes are made of CLI files from a geographic square of 120 pixels on the side. This means that the pane sizes are 20 degrees of latitude and longitude for the 10 arc minute resolution and 10 and 5 degrees for the 5 arc minute and 2.5 arc minute ones respectively. The maximum number of files in a pane is therefore 14400, but this is only found in panes that do not include a coastline.The pane name is constructed from the coordinates, in degrees, of the south western corner of the pane, it is given in the pane descriptor file and is used as the name of the compressed structure, i.e. N020E020.rar. The CLI files are named by row and column, thus: R01921C04801.CLI. Note that the row and column numbers are those of the virtual grid of the MetGrid file and not row and column within the pane. This is to ensure that all CLI files have unique names, however the names will not be unique between resolutions so it is important to keep the three sets separate if you are using more than one. The SOURCE field with the CLI file will define the resolution, but this would involve reading the file to determine its resolution.The CLI files and the pane descriptor file are compressed using WinRAR with the -s option to benefit from compressing multiple files with the same structure. This yields a compression to half the size of that obtained from compressing the files without this option. The panes can be uncompressed with WinRAR or WinZip.The compressed panes have a maximum size of about 3 Mb and can be downloaded individually from a world map interface at http*******************, (this description to be completed once the files and interface have been installed)","tokenCount":"13832"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2994a7637dbd5ec093162e228c6feca2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8fda0997-9c99-458c-bbb0-5cb16474ee5a/retrieve","id":"40113333"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2f539326-e54a-4d8e-9bd1-50e780c8c997","pagecount":"24","content":"No 01/3 CREDIT CTA is funded by the European Union The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States and the European Union Member States. Since 2000, it has operated within the framework of the ACP-EC Cotonou Agreement.CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area.Credit TECHNICAL INFORMATION (and suggestions for using RRRPs in the studio) Improving access to credit and banking facilities for the rural and urban poor is regarded by many people as the most effective way to improve standards of living. Credit can allow people to develop activities that will generate an income, may increase employment opportunities for others, create assets, bring opportunities to learn new skills, reduce vulnerability and increase the confidence of those who successfully manage their credit.Credit comes in many different forms and can have different goals. This pack concentrates on credit schemes that offer loans of money in order to help borrowers either start up, or expand, a small business such as trading or livestock keeping. There is a wide variety of institutions that offer such loans: state and commercial banks, private finance companies, local credit unions and associations, non-government organisations and development agencies. Some of these may be motivated purely by profit, while others are more interested in the social and economic development of the loan takers and their families. Some credit schemes have been very successful; others have been disasters. In this resource pack the interviews explore some of the factors which have made schemes successful or not.There is considerable disagreement about the value of credit, particularly over whether the ′poorest of the poor′ are likely to benefit from it. This disagreement is reflected in the interviews here. For example, Florence Chiburesha in the item called ′For the poor or the poorest′ argues that the poorest need welfare schemes in order to increase their capacities, before they are able to benefit from credit. This contrasts with Cecelia Fomenky in ′Keeping an eye on the money′ whose organisation only targets the very poor.Those planning to offer credit to the poor will need to consider some or all of the following:• Providing training to the loan recipients e.g. in book-keeping, using a bank, project management, group dynamics, or even in the practical skills of their chosen business.• Whether to loan to groups rather than individuals. The argument for loaning to groups is that the group can put pressure on the individual members to keep up with repayments, and can support individuals going through difficult times. A group may be required to write a constitution, in which it is agreed what action will be taken if one or more members fail to honour their repayments -see Making a profit from credit.• How should a repayment schedule be decided? In this pack there are arguments both for weekly repayment -see Being cruel to be kind -as well as for giving greater flexibility in repayment -see For the poor or the poorest?• Where should the money come from? Several of the credit institutions in this pack are funded by the borrowing communities themselves -see The importance of ownership. This would appear to increase the rate of repayment as it makes the borrowers feel responsible for the success of the scheme. In other cases the money comes from a private company. Such a company may need to find different incentives to encourage repayment -see Making a profit from credit.• Do borrowers need to have savings or property to act as collateral? Some credit schemes do not require borrowers to have any savings or property to guarantee repayment of a loan. Generally commercial operations and banks will require such collateral.Many of the interviews in this pack involve credit schemes which target women. One important reason for targeting women is the belief that they are more likely to use money borrowed or earned for the benefit of the whole family. However other people make the point that encouraging women to undertake business activities through loans, actually increases the burden on women, who are still expected to do all their other jobs in the household. In Learning to manage your money, Christine Tanyi explains how her organisation does a feasibility study of a woman′s capacity to take on extra work, before a loan is given.Another criticism is that even when women are able to borrow and earn money, how that money is spent is often in fact controlled by the man in the household. An interesting parallel to this situation is made by Cecilia Fomenky in Keeping an eye on the money, when she discusses the women borrowers who use their loans to buy snacks and beerBelow you will find some lessons learned by the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which has a very successful micro-finance programmes targeting mostly women. Repayment rates are over 90%, a very high figure indicating the effectiveness of the bank's system. The points may give you some ideas for subjects to tackle in your programmes. Many of them are covered in the interviews in this pack.• Small Loans:Successful programmes offer small loans (usually less than $100) in the beginning. Larger loans are given later after the women have developed the skills, discipline and commitment needed for success • Primarily Women:Successful programmes make loans mostly to women, who are much more committed to using their loans for the benefit of their families, and generally have a stronger commitment to repay their loans in order to qualify for larger loans in the future.Successful programmes insist that the women be organised into groups of five, with each person in the group guaranteeing the loan payment of the other members in the group.Successful programmes insist that payments be made on a weekly basis, thus helping to build discipline and consistency. Weekly payments on small loans over a period of 52 weeks also ensure that the payments required each week are small enough, that if one person in the group could not pay in a given week, the others would be able to make the payment for her.Successful programmes provide loans only to the very poorest of the poor. These women have no other alternatives, so they are much more committed to repaying their loans.• Required Savings:Successful programmes require all borrowers to put some amount of money into a savings account each week that will earn interest. Establishing these savings accounts appears to strengthen the borrowers commitment to the programme, but also helps to build their sense of discipline, self-esteem, and well-being.• Interest Charged: Successful programmes charge an appropriate level of interest, usually higher than what a bank might charge, but much less than what a money lender would charge: this is generally between 2-3 percent per month, just enough to pay salaries of the bank workers supervising the programme in their area.Successful programmes develop a strong commitment to meet with the people every week on a regular schedule, to give training in literacy, health, and community development, in addition to training in accounting, marketing and entrepreneurial skills.Credit is a controversial subject which is likely to be of interest to your listeners, many of whom may have had either good or bad experiences of it. The issues raised in these interviews, for example who benefits most from credit, how to maximise repayment rates, and the potentially negative effects of offering credit, could all be the subject of discussion or phone-in programmes. What experiences have your listeners had?If one or more of the issues seems to be particularly relevant in your country or region, record some interviews with the people involved. Try to represent both sides of any disagreement, for example from both givers and receivers of credit.Learning to manage your money 3'48\"For the poor or the poorest? 4'23\"Making a profit from credit 3'56\"The importance of ownership 4'32\"Keeping an eye on the money 5'50\"Being cruel to be kind 4'52\"RRRP 2001/3 CreditLearning to manage your money Cue: In Cameroon, credit unions have become a popular way for poorer people to access credit. Members of a credit union pool their savings in a fund which individuals can borrow from, at interest. A co-ordinating body for the credit unions, called CAMCCUL, trains the union members in how to manage their money.However, attempting to strengthen poor people′s livelihoods by increasing their access to credit has sometimes had the opposite effect: it can put more pressure on families as they try to earn a profit from a loan and keep to a fixed repayment schedule. CAMCCUL has tried to address these problems, as Christine Tanyi, an assistant general manager of CAMCCUL explained to Martha Chindong. Martha began by asking Christine whether providing loans to people with very little money had proved an effective way of relieving poverty.\"Money is not how much… OUT:…where he or she is involved.\" DUR′N 3'48\"Christine Tanyi explaining some of the secrets behind the success of CAMCCUL, the co-ordinating body for credit unions in Cameroon.Money is not how much you have it's how well you can use the little you have. With the little money they have they are being taught how to manage it well. This is one major activity of the credit union to educate the members how to use the little money. And how do they educate them? They encourage them to save. So they understand this and they make sure that they try to save just a bit, little by little. We even have our poster which we say 'Drop by drop forms a mighty ocean.'What of the loans, when they take are they able to pay back with ease? Tanyi I want to assure you that the best results we have on loan repayments come from the rural area because they take just what is enough for them for their farming and it is programmed in such a way that they start repaying when they are harvesting. Therefore it is at their convenience and they pay gradually until they complete the repayments. And they have programmed it in such a way that by the next season they must have finished repaying and come for the next loan.How is the repayment of credit union loans scheduled?The repayment schedule is drawn up by the member himself or herself according to his or her capability. The time limit of any loan can not exceed 36 months. And therefore, you have to estimate how you are going to be repaying in order to finish within 36 months.There is another point that people believe that when they give money to women, you know, they make the women poorer because they have to spend time managing the loan, they have to do other housework and they will not really have time to use the loan well in order to pay back?Yes still in this scheme they try to educate them how to come out with a feasibility study. Therefore for any project a woman wants to do, the officials of the department they come, they go out and try to guide the woman how to come out with a feasibility study and take into cognisance all her other activities. So if you say you want to do buyand-sell, they try to find out when will you take care of your husband, your children and so forth. They try to time the activities, and this has worked very well.CAMCCUL seems to be succeeding in all its activities including managing the rural women as you have just said. What is the secret behind CAMCCUL and its successes?Trying to educate the masses on credit unionism, the first step is to make them understand that as they are members of the credit union, they own the credit union. They are the ones responsible for the management, and you can imagine if you know that this thing I'm doing belongs to me, you take all your time to do it, and therefore it must succeed. And of course the one vital point again is accountability.There is a lot of accountability in the credit union and therefore every member is confident of where he or she is involved. End of tape.For the poor or the poorest? Cue: Who can benefit most from credit? Men or women? Rich or poor? It is often argued that those who are categorised as poorest of the poor are frequently unable to use loans effectively. Instead they use them to buy their daily needs, and fail to gain extra income from the loan.Zambia′s Women Finance Co-operative is a Micro-Finance Institution or MFI, that targets poor women, who are supported in starting small businesses. However, as Florence Chiburesha, the Executive Director of Women Finance explained to Chris Kakunta, the co-operative does not target the poorest of the poor. Those that are targeted for loans are encouraged to make their own decisions about how they use them, and how they make their repayments.\"We don't want to tell… OUT:…want their country to be run.\" DUR′N 4'23\"Florence Chiburesha explaining how the Women Finance Co-operative is supporting development for Zambian women and their families.We don't want to tell a client which business to go into for the simple reason that I am the one giving the loan. If I tell them which business to go into and it fails they will come back to me and say ′I can't repay the loan because you told me which business and it has failed′. But we will provide options for them, we will tell them, ′Well these are the options available to you′, and then the women would then make an informed decision as to which is more viable and which they should go into.How about in terms of the schedule for loan repayments, does it suit the women entrepreneurs?Chiburesha We would like to believe it does. In fact one of the reasons when we ask clients why they prefer us as opposed to other MFI's that are providing the same services most of them will say that because of our repayment schedule. We allow clients to start repaying on a monthly basis. When they take out the smaller loans we are saying to them that in fact it is easier to make weekly repayments but we don't force them to make these weekly repayments. If they still opt to make the monthly repayment they go ahead. Because you must realise, the bigger the loan the more time you need to give them to make their first weekly repayment. We've also noticed that in fact if they start to get bigger loans and you continue to ask weekly repayments most clients will drop out because the weekly repayment then becomes too large for them to manage.Chiburesha Two things. I think the impact of giving loans to the poorest is minimal. I mean the impact is less, maybe not minimal, the impact is less than if you gave a loan to somebody that is not categorised poorest of the poor. Simply because the poorest of the poor take less risks. So it means that their business will not really grow and most of their money will go into subsistence. So the impact I think is not as much, they have to graduate and move to another category I think, for the loan to have higher impact. Also sometimes the poorest of the poorest to begin with don't need loans. They probably need some kind of social welfare assistance until they get to a level through training, through exposure, through assisting them first with their basic needs until they get to a level where then they can access a loan and really plough it back and help that business to grow.Chiburesha In the last two years, 2000 and 2001, Women Finance has experienced a repayment of between 95 and 98%, currently as I'm speaking as of July 31 st 2001 the repayment rate was 98%.What do you think has led to this programme to be successful?Chiburesha I think the major thing is probably that it's responsive to the client needs and the service that we provide, we would like to believe, is not supply driven. It's not the MFI coming up and deciding it needs to set up and provide this service. I think our service is demand driven. We also run a savings programme and I think the clients see that once they take out a loan and they are doing the voluntary savings this acts as a buffer in case they can't pay back the loan or in case they undergo some kind of crisis in their daily lives. They are then able to fall back on these savings and use them. And I think also the very fact that we allow for flexible repayment schedules.Finally is there anything that you want to get across in as far as your organisation is concerned, and services that it's offering to the small scale entrepreneurs?Chiburesha I think as Women Finance we still believe that we have the mandate.Our programme is demand driven. As you know micro-finance industry in Zambia is still in its infancy and would like to believe that there is still a need for women to access credit. We believe that this helps; one, the woman herself economically. Also it trickles down to the rest of her family. They are able to meet their needs and they are able to eventually become equal participants in making choices about how they want their country to be run. End of tape.A private credit offering institution, like the Malawi Rural Finance Company, will soon go out of business if borrowers fail to keep up their repayments. Such companies need effective ways of maximising repayments, while also deciding how they will respond to natural disasters such as drought, which can greatly effect people′s ability to pay off their loans.Many institutions have realised that lending to groups rather than individuals can improve rates of repayment. The Malawi Rural Finance Company has also taken this approach, and supports the groups who borrow from it with a variety of training packages. Excello Zidana spoke to Charles Nangwale, Credit Officer of the Northern Region Branch, and asked him what mechanisms the company was using both to support the farmers who borrow from it, and to keep itself in business.\"We know people are different… OUT:…to improve their life standard.\" DUR′N 3'56\"Charles Nangwale explaining how the Malawi Rural Finance Company balances its goals, both supporting farmers and staying in business.We know people are different, we are born with different characters and we want these people to be able to work together. So the first thing is, we train them on group dynamics. And after that we train them on the particular farming activity or business they want to carry out. Then we teach them our credit procedures so that they understand how we want them to run the businesses, how we want them to repay our loans.In any society there might be some people who are definitely not honest. If they fail to honour their loans what do you do?We are working to assist the people but at a profit. So we have tried to be a bit clever. During the training we teach those people to draw a constitution which is supposed to govern, you know, their group. So in that constitution they are supposed to outline what are they going to do should somebody fail to repay their loan or should somebody maybe passes away, what is going to happen? The first thing is those people themselves are going to take an action against whoever has failed to repay the loan. But then if the group has failed to do that, then we come in and that's why, you know, we have things like loan agreements so that we know we can act on these people without any legal problems.Drought is unpredictable and you cannot prevent drought. We know this is a problem, it is not the customer′s making, it′s something that has just happened to him. So we give those people an opportunity to reschedule their loan so that they can repay it maybe in the next two years, should there be no drought that is again.I understand that most lending institutions before they give out loans, they think of sureties. What does your company do in this regard?Yes we also require these people to give us what we call collateral. Of course we don't require collateral for all the loans because Rural Finance has targeted everybody so we know there are people out there in the villages who cannot raise collateral. So for those people we give them loans which don't require collateral. But for those people who want loans that require collateral, we require two types of collateral, cash collateral and material collateral. In cash collateral we require our customers to pay 20% cash deposit of the loan they are looking for. And material collateral is supposed to be 150% of the loan they are looking for.But as you said that your main focus is on the poor of the poorest farmers. So when we go around you see people in the villages, they are still very poor and some even complain that your company tends to take other items as part of the whole strategy of loan recovery. Is this act aimed at helping farmers?Yes if you remember what I said, I said Rural Finance is a company which is there to assist the farmers and the general public as a whole. But then we are supposed to do that at a profit, because if we don't make profit then we won't survive. When somebody has failed to pay us back there must be a way of getting back our money you see because we are in business. Much as we want to assist the farmers they shouldn't just take that as a grant, they should actually work to pay off the loan and to improve their life standard. End of tape.Moyo I definitely would say this training has helped a lot in facilitating the groups′ day-to-day running of the projects very well.Whereas banks or commercial or otherwise would ask for collateral security before they actually give credit have you had any problems with people defaulting on the grants that you give them? And how have you got around that problem?Well thank you for that question. Fortunately we have rarely had problems in the sense that we make sure that these project holders own the projects and they'll have contributed substantially before they come to seek for any assistance from the foundation. As such it assures ownership and you find that there is very little defaulting among the project holders. Nonetheless we have had a problem with one or two. Sometimes we discover they need more training in leadership skills, in the project cycle management and we undertake to find those organisations that are into training, to facilitate that kind of situation together with the community leadership.And lastly Mrs Moyo, most beneficiaries of your scheme under the foundation have been women. Does this mean less men are keen to take credit risks in areas you are operating in than women?Well women are the backbone of the economy, particularly the rural economy. I would say men sometimes are reluctant until they realise, you know, profits, or profit within the activities that women are engaged in. Only then do they want to join in. I would say generally women take the lead and men will follow after.The belief we have is to have all the staff working for the VISACAS to be at the village, so that at the end it can be sustainable because everybody is from the village. But for other projects that have failed the problem is most of their staff were brought in the village and at the end of the project if they don't receive salaries anymore everything fails.Fatou, you have just highlighted the reason why you are making success where others have failed. Basically the fact that staff attrition is high, when people are not stationed in the village and incorporated within the system. Now what is the kind of loan policy that you promote?For us all our loans policies are defined by the villagers themselves, because what we normally do is we give them the guidelines of how to operate the VISACAS. But all the internal regulations of the VISACAS are designed by the villagers themselves.Now you are targeting the poor. Are poor people good re-payers of loans?Yes because most of our VISACAS now we have 100% repayment because people in the village they have seen these VISACAS as their own. Because all the VISACAS are managed by the villagers themselves. The funds that are given as loans are from the villagers so they are seeing everything as theirs. So most of the credit schemes before failed because the villagers believed that the money is coming from the government or it is coming from other people but they have the belief with VISACAS that the money that is given out as loans is theirs. So they have to pay back. If they don't pay the project will fail. End of tape.When non-government organisations get involved in giving credit, they often have strong ideas about how the money should be used. Giving credit to women is often regarded as a way of supporting whole families, helping to ensure that children are fed, clothed and educated. But what happens if the recipients of loans do not use the money for their families. What if instead of becoming entrepreneurs the loanees just use the money to buy alcohol and snacks? Martha Chindong spoke to Cecilia Fomenky, the president of Cameroon′s National Centre for Counselling and Women Entrepreneurship Development Training, an organisation that keeps a very close watch on how its loans are used. Martha began by asking what the goals of the centre were.\"The NGO was actually created… OUT:…have gone back to school.\" DUR′N 5'50\"Cecilia Fomenky describing how loans, when used properly, can substantially improve the lives of women and their families.The NGO was actually created to train women on entrepreneurship development, that is small business development for rural women and urban poor women. And after training them for many years, we decided to find out the result; are women getting into small businesses? And we found out that many were not doing so. And many of them responded that they were not doing so because they lacked capital. We went to the level of the banks and found out that banks were not giving small loans to women, and more so to very poor women, and when we questioned them, their problem was that they were afraid that the poor would not be able to pay, and we have proved the contrary: the poor actually pay their loans.That′s interesting. Just tell us how you operate, madam.Well, our operation is very simple. We work with individuals, but in groups, and the first condition is that the women must be very poor. It′s not like we have money to dish out like groundnuts. We don′t even have. And we have a few people who are becoming interested in what we are doing, and the little money that they give us, we try to make optimum use of it. And the best way is to actually target the very poor. And so a woman who does not have any other possibility of expanding or of starting her activity comes to us, through the group, to get the loan.This set of women, they can take a loan of about how much?The maximum is 50,000 for first time loanees, and we, in order to measure whether they are growing their businesses, train them at the beginning, on the importance of saving. So at the same time as they are reimbursing, they are also saving an equal amount. We have what we call utilisation checks during the reimbursement period. We come to your business site once every week, one, to get the reimbursement, but more importantly to check what you are doing, see how you are doing it. If you are not at your market place where you should be, all this is taken into consideration. We have a few difficulties. Some of them are not behaving well at their business places; like some of them when they begin to get the money they resort to drinking, and that eats up the money, and then they have to borrow the money from somewhere to pay, and we say ′No′. So if such a woman comes with her money at the end, we can′t give her another loan, because during the utilisation checks we have seen that she is not responsible. She is not serious with the business activity. She is eating up into the business. She is drinking, she is eating soya, you meet her in the bar eating and drinking, eating soya and drinking, and that is that money. If she comes we don′t give her the loan, because she is not improving her family. She may be improving herself, if she calls that improving herself. We don′t see eating soya and drinking beer as improving oneself. It is not a responsible act, and so we discourage them.Madam, don′t you think that some of these women resort to drinking with the loan because of the frustration they have back at home. Maybe their husbands want to control the money; maybe they want to use the money for family rations so they decided to first of all enjoy themselves before they would take all of it from them.We are actually the friends of these women, and some of them say just what you have said. But we tell them it′s not a solution to the problem. It increases their frustration. I mean they should put the money in the bank and show the men that they can do something, better that drink it, become drunk and go and sleep, and tomorrow you don′t even have the capital again. And that′s why we won′t give some of them the second time loans, because they have eaten up into it, they have not improved their families. I don′t think drinking is even helping herself! It is killing herself! No woman should face a problem in that way.Have you taken time to find out what benefit these women have had from the loans, those that are successful?One of the first things that makes us say they are growing is the fact that they are able to save, at the same time as they are reimbursing.Another which shows us that the businesses of some of the women are growing, is the expansion. That is some of the women who were buying buckets of egusi, after about three months into the programme, they started buying a bag of egusi, which is very encouraging. Being cruel to be kind Cue: While many credit programmes target rural populations, FINCA, the Foundation for International Community Assistance, works in the towns and cities of Malawi, and offers credit to women in particular. It has a strict policy on repayments, demanding that these be made on a weekly basis. Patrick Mphaka spoke to both the Managing Director of FINCA Malawi, as well as one of the beneficiaries, and discovered that this policy causes problems for both the givers and receivers of credit.\"There is a saying among Malawians… OUT:… These two seem to be the major advantages of FINCA as seen from the eyes of the beneficiaries. One problem, which is cited time and again however, is the repayment period. Mrs. Zulu.FINCA has its own shortcomings. The first one is the repayment period. Since one needs to pay back the loan on weekly basis, this makes one a slave of the loan on daily basis, since you have to ensure that you are doing something to earn something to repay back by the end of the week. Sometimes if you fall sick, or the child falls sick, or there is a funeral, you become worried to death. You still have to find ways of earning something, somehow, which you can pay back to FINCA.It is ironic that the issue which the beneficiaries detest, the lending institution does not like also. Why not do away with it then? Mr. Mohiuddin.Mohiuddin Actually we have tried bi-weekly loan repayment not only in this country but many other countries because it is more costly for us to have a weekly system, because under weekly system a credit officer goes to the field to collect money on weekly basis. But actually we have seen that in the long run, it is more difficult for the client to pay bi-weekly because if they miss one payment, next time, actually, the payment is equal to four weekly payments. And we have seen that they have this difficulty.Many money lending institutions with better repayment periods were there before FINCA, have been there during FINCA's time and they will continue coming. The sad experience which they all live to tell is that more than eighty percent of their clients default on loan repayment. Consequently, they close down. FINCA has the reputation that the repayment rate is above ninety-five percent. No wonder it is expanding. There are many families who have benefited from it. There are men who are using FINCA money borrowed by their wives to run big businesses. One wonders whether the woman would have had the same opportunity of using her husband's loan, if FINCA were targeting men. End of tape.","tokenCount":"5608"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"883f8911d48a43109afa4c34a7c62311","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ce6d8c99-adf1-4b7c-a1a7-9bed16d265a1/retrieve","id":"1140401780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d7cf24b2-9468-46f7-9752-305dedd92c56","pagecount":"160","content":"Milk production of dual-purpose cows grazing Brachiaria brizantha cv. La Libertad alone and associated with Arachis pintoi cv.The project's main objective is to use improved legume-based pastures to increase milk production in smallholder dual-purpose systems, thus increasing income of dairy producers and ensuring the sustainability of their natural resources. The project 'Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in Latin America and the Caribbean' is conducted under the CIAT-led Tropileche Consortium that operates under the System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP) convened by ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). The Consortium is composed by scientists from CIAT, ILRI, and national agricultural research institutes in Peru (FUNDAAM, DEPAAM), Costa Rica (MAG, ECAG, CATIE, UCR), Nicaragua (IDR), and Honduras (DICTA). The strategy to improve feeding systems includes:• evaluation of new feed resources to satisfy the nutritional requirements of grazing animals • on-farm evaluation of new legume-based forage components and • economic analysis and acceptability/adoption studies of new technologies. This report includes the results generated during the last four years of the project (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000), which further confirm the significant impact of improved grasses and legumes on animal production.In Costa Rica's Pacific coastal region, the pasture association Brachiaria decumbens and Arachis pintoi increased the daily milk production of Jersey cows, even though these animals were receiving commercial concentrates. Likewise, this association supported a heavier stocking rate than did pastures of B. decumbens and Hyparrhenia rufa or of B. Decumbens alone under similar management. In the same region, research on Cratylia argentea (cratylia) demonstrated that this legume harvested fresh at 90 days after regrowth and 90 cm height can replace commercial concentrate or 82% of chicken manure given to dairy cows of medium production, and is an excellent feed alternative for the dry season. The use of cratylia supplements could therefore help small milk producers have access to a protein supplement produced on their own farms, thereby increasing their income and cash flow.Another form of using cratylia in the region is as silage with molasses added and fed to cows, together with chopped sugarcane, during milking. Other studies found that mixed cropping of maize with forage soybean is an excellent alternative for making silage, not only because of the increase in protein in the final product, but also because of the economic benefit from additional milk production and the partial use of harvested maize through the sale of tender maize ears.At the CIAT-Quilichao station (Department of Cauca, Colombia), researchers found that about 10 mg/dL of urea in the milk comprised an adequate reference point at which to increase the protein content in the animals' diet. Dairy cows would most probably respond to increased protein with significantly higher milk yields (provided that the cows' genetic potential is demonstrated).In the Colombian Amazon, the use of Stylosanthes guianensis (stylo) is an attractive option for raising pre-weaned calves and milking cows on small farms. The cost of establishing the legume is less than that of other alternatives based on grass and legume mix-tures. Moreover, cash flow increases because of increased sales of milk, without sacrificing calf weight gain. Because stylo can persist for 3 or 4 years, this technology can also form part of a crop/pasture rotation system, eliminating the need to rest the land or leave it in fallow. During rotation, the legume improves the soil through N fixation and nutrient recycling.In Pucallpa, Peru, stylo can fix as much as 50 kg/ha of N when it is established as a pioneer crop for sowing rice and the later establishment of improved pastures. In the Alto Mayo region of Peru, Centrosema macrocarpum has a positive impact when used as a supplement feed for Holstein × Gyr cows. Farmers in this region are highly likely to adopt, with positive impact, the technologies developed by the Tropileche Consortium. A high proportion of farmers had already adopted new cut-and-carry forages, improved milking pens and sheds to provide feed supplements to the herd, and installed forage choppers.An ex ante study examined the impact on the herds of small dairy farmers of Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua of several forage alternatives, i.e.:Level 1 = new germplasm based on cratylia and sugarcane; Level 2 = same areas of cratylia and sugarcane as those of level 1, plus areas of the Brachiaria varieties used in each country; and Level 3 = areas of cratylia and sugarcane larger than those of levels 1 and 2, plus associations of Brachiaria + Arachis pastures.The results were: 1. Level 1 permitted farmers in the different countries to completely eliminate the purchase of supplements for livestock for the dry season, thereby greatly improving the farmers' cash flow by reducing milk production costs by 11% in Nicaragua, 14% in Costa Rica and 25% in Honduras. 2. Level 2 not only provided the benefits of level 1 but also helped maintain the same milk production and herd size on smaller areas, releasing areas for alternative uses.The released areas varied from 9% for Honduras, 39% for Costa Rica, to as much as 45% for Nicaragua. This level of adoption also reduced milk production costs compared with level 1 by 8% in Honduras, 11% in Costa Rica and 12% in Nicaragua. 3. Level 3 increased milk productivity/hectare to 964 kg in Nicaragua, 1390 kg in Costa Rica and 1530 kg in Honduras.The potential impact of the adoption of these technologies at the regional level is significant. For level 1, at the time of study, the resources invested totalled US$ 2.7 million in Honduras, US$ 5.1 million in Nicaragua, and US$ 6.4 million in Costa Rica. By reducing production costs, this investment made possible an additional annual net earning of US$ 9.9 million in Nicaragua, US$ 11.9 million in Costa Rica and US$ 12.6 million in Honduras. Accordingly, the potential benefit of such investment is large, making repayments possible within the year.In Honduras and Nicaragua, the artisan-scale cheese industry is the principal buyer of milk produced by small and medium-sized dairy farmers. In both countries, in watersheds with seasonal climates, milk production during the rainy season is almost double that produced in the dry season, causing, respectively, an oversupply and scarcity of milk.A survey found that, during the dry season, even though the artisan-scale cheese producers were willing to buy 55% more milk in Honduras and 76% in Nicaragua, milk was unavailable. The main reason was apparently the lack of adoption of improved foragebased feeding technologies.This situation suggests that an aggressive program to promote the use of the shrub legume C. argentea and sugarcane to supplement the herd's feed during the dry season would have much more impact than promoting grasses or legumes for the rainy season. The artisan-scale cheese producers in both countries, but particularly in Honduras, require better quality milk, especially during the rainy season. In Honduras, milk prices would be 9.4% higher during the dry season and 11.2% higher during the rainy season. In Nicaragua, artisan-scale cheese producers would offer 17% higher prices, but only during the rainy season.In parallel with research, the Tropileche Consortium has developed media for communicating with its partners and users to disseminate research results. Media include a database on dual-purpose production systems, which database is available through Internet on the CIAT/Tropileche web site; the Hoja Informativa Tropileche (the Tropileche Newsletter), which contains information on the Consortium's research advances; informative brochures on B. brizantha cv. Pasto Toledo; publication of results in scientific journals; and videos on the impact of improved forage technologies.In collaboration with Nicaragua's Instituto de Desarrollo Rural (IDR) and Honduras' Dirección de Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria (DICTA), the Consortium established more than 65 ha of improved forages on 20 farms located at five sites in Nicaragua and Honduras. Other achievements include the spontaneous adoption of C. argentea in Costa Rica, where 230 kg of experimental seed and for commercial sowing were distributed to seed companies and 41 farmers at four different sites; the commercial release in October 2000 in Costa Rica of B. brizantha CIAT 26110 as cultivar Pasto Toledo; and the expected release of C. argentea CIAT 18516/18668 as cultivar Veraniega.The challenge ahead is to facilitate widespread evaluation of herbaceous and shrub legumes by small farmers and strengthen the production of seed of selected legumes. We are identifying new research needs from problems that are being experienced by farmers evaluating the new technologies. To effectively accomplish these objectives we need to continue to strengthen the alliances with other ILRI and CIAT projects, with partners in national R&D institutions, and the private livestock and seed sectors. The use of forage legumes as protein supplements during the rainy season increases milk production in cows with high genetic potential The use of forage legumes in association with improved grasses increases the stocking rate and reduces weeds, while improving the quality of biomass on offer in terms of crude protein and digestibility and favouring pasture sustainability Pastures of grasses and legumes in association increase the content of total solids in milk, resulting in better prices for the farmer 1.2 Use of forage resources and feed supplements during the dry seasonThe response of cows in terms of milk production to feed supplements of fresh or ensiled forage legumes + sugarcane is similar to their response to protein sources in commercial concentrates Direct grazing of shrub legumes increases milk production, compared with the cut-and-carry system. The legumes provide protein to the forage of the base diet, which is usually deficient in nitrogen Highly fermentable carbohydrates can stimulate the degradation of less fermentable fibre The use of carbohydrate additives improves the quality of ensiled shrub legumes The establishment of shrub legumes with sugarcane is a starting point toward achieving greater economic impact on small dual-purpose farms located in the dry tropics of America In Central America, the demand for milk from artisanal cheese producers is higher during the dry season than in the rainy season The artisanal cheese producers of Central America are willing to pay better prices for milk of better hygienic qualityThe dissemination of results is integral to research and technology transfer, and is essential in the adoption of new technologies xii Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC (cont)The main objective of the Tropileche Consortium is to increase milk and beef production of dual-purpose livestock in smallholder farms by developing improved foragebased feeding systems.The value of livestock production in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represents nearly 13% of the world production and 47% of the production in developing countries. Milk and meat provide 20% of the protein consumed by the region's population. However, LAC has a 12% deficit in milk production, which is currently compensated by imports.The livestock population in LAC is about 330 million head and nearly 78% of this population is in the hands of small farmers with dual-purpose cattle systems (i.e. producing milk and beef from the same system). The dual-purpose cattle system accounts for 42% of the milk produced in the region. In addition, there are 590 million hectares of pastureland, most of which is in advanced stage of degradation.Tropileche is a CIAT-led consortium that operates under the System-wide Livestock Programme (SLP) convened by ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). The Consortium initially selected the dry hillsides of Costa Rica (Central America) and the forest margins of the Peruvian Amazon as benchmark sites for its activities. In these areas, characterised by their fragility and severe erosion, livestock production is an important form of land use and a key economic activity for the wellbeing of the smallholder. The Consortium later extended its activities to the hillsides of Nicaragua and Honduras and the forest margins of Colombia.In the forest margins, degraded pastures, which lead to low-quality feed, limit milk production. In the seasonally dry hillsides, the major constraint to increasing milk production is the lack of forage.The following strategies were designed to overcome the above-mentioned constraints: (a) an evaluation of new feed resources that meet nutritional requirements of grazing animals, (b) on-farm participatory evaluation of new legume-based forage components to intensify livestock production and enhance sustainable land use, and (c) characterisation of benchmark sites, economic analysis and acceptability/adoption studies on new technologies.The Consortium takes advantage of the existing capability of the following entities: CIAT in forage germplasm development and land use characterisation; ILRI in livestock production systems; the University of Cornell in nutrient optimisation models for ruminants; and national agricultural research organisations active at the project's benchmark sites in Peru (FUNDAAM, DEPAAM), Costa Rica (MAG, ECAG, CATIE, UCR), Nicaragua (MA), and Honduras (DICTA).The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the German Agency for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) jointly finance the Tropileche Consortium project through the CGIAR System-wide Livestock Programme, co-ordinated by ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). This report presents the activities carried out for each research component carried out at the benchmark sites.F. Holmann and C. Lascano Effects of Brachiaria decumbens alone and associated with Arachis pintoi on milk production and milk components F. Romero and J. González ECAG, Costa Rica Arachis pintoi was initially used in association with grasses in the humid tropics. One of the strategies proposed by the Tropileche Consortium for Costa Rica was to search for alternatives to improve livestock feeding in those regions where producers find it difficult to maintain a sustainable production during the dry season. One of these alternatives is the use of Bracharia decumbens/Arachis pintoi pastures.• To evaluate milk production and milk components in cows grazing a pasture of Brachiaria decumbens alone, B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi and B. decumbens mixed with Hyparrhenia rufa. • To evaluate the availability, quality and dynamics of the botanical composition of the above-mentioned pastures.The experiment was carried out at the Escuela Centroamericana de Ganadería (ECAG), located in Balsa de Atenas, Costa Rica, at an altitude of 460 metres above sea level (masl). The mean annual temperature is 28°C, with an average annual precipitation of 1500 mm and well-defined dry season (December to May) and rainy season (June to November).A degraded pasture of B. decumbens invaded by jaragua grass (H. rufa), a pasture of B. decumbens in good condition, and a 10-years-old pasture of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi (CIAT 18744) were used. Each pasture was divided into two paddocks (1.25 ha each). One paddock was used for animal adjustment (7 days) and the other for measurement (7 days). Grazing consisted of 35 days of rest and 7 days of occupation.The experiment began in October 1995 with the establishment of A. pintoi in a degraded B. decumbens pasture using plant material sown in furrows spaced 1 m apart. The pasture was first grazed at 30 days, and evaluations began in July 1996 and finished in July 2000. Every year, during the rainy season, samplings were carried out in the pad-docks to measure botanical composition, forage availability and quality of forage on offer. These measurements were performed on Day 1 of the measurement period.Jersey cows of the ECAG herd, of different categories and stages of lactation, were used. Their milk production was measured during the 7 days of the measurement period, and milk components were measured on Day 4.Table 1 indicates that more forage was available in the associated pasture than in the other pastures evaluated. Results indicate that 33% more forage was available in the associated pasture as compared with the B. decumbens + H. rufa pasture and 39% more than that of the pasture of B. decumbens alone. In addition to the increase in availability of dry matter (DM), the inclusion of the legume had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on crude protein (CP) content and on in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of pastures on offer. In the first case, an increase of approximately 3% was obtained and in the second, more than 4%. van Heurck (1990) and González (1992) obtained similar results, in pastures of African star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis) alone and associated with A. pintoi.In 1996, at the beginning of the trial, the same stocking rate was used in all pastures (Table 2). In 1997, the stocking rate was increased in the B. decumbens + A. pintoi pasture to 3.2 animal unit (AU/ha) but was maintained the same as in the other pastures (2.5 AU/ha). During 1998 and 1999 the excellent conditions of the associated legume pasture allowed stocking rates above 4 AU/ha, which was almost 1 AU/ha higher than that of the other pastures.It should be highlighted that these results correspond to the stocking rate used during the rainy season and that cows consumed commercial concentrate at a ratio of 3:1 (3 kg concentrate per litre of milk produced). However, it is expected that this increase in stocking rate in non-associated pastures could be non-sustainable over time because of its accelerated degradation. Figure 1 shows that the botanical composition of the associated pasture increased from 23% for A. pintoi in year 1 to 43% in subsequent years of grazing. The percentage of B. decumbens was constant (59%), whereas the percentage of weeds decreased. Between 1996 and 1998, both grasses in the B. decumbens + H. rufa pasture increased slightly (5% for B. decumbens and 8% for H. rufa). Weed incidence decreased from 19% to 6% during the same period. However, in 1999, the percentage of both grasses tended to decrease while that of weeds increased. Between 1996 and 1997, in the grass pasture alone, the percentage of B. decumbens increased from 70 to 94%, whereas those of other pasture components decreased (Figure 3). In subsequent periods, the percentage of B. decumbens decreased from 94% to 83%, and weeds increased by 10%. The botanical composition of the pastures partially explains the changes in stocking rate during the experimental period (Table 2). Therefore, as of 1997, the components of the associated pasture finally stabilised and allowed the stocking rate to be increased to 4.6 AU/ha. In 1998, the increased biomass of the B. decumbens + H. rufa pasture allowed the stocking rate to be increased by 1 AU/ha, reaching 3.6 AU/ha. This stocking rate, however, was apparently too high and favoured pasture degradation.These results confirm that pastures of grasses and legumes in association can support higher stocking rates than non-associated pastures, without affecting their botanical composition and quality and without increasing the presence of weeds.Table 3 presents milk production/cow per day in the different treatments. The highest production average (12.4 kg/cow per day) was found in the pasture of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi, being significantly higher (P < 0.011) than those obtained in pastures of B. decumbens + H. rufa (11.7 kg/cow per day) and B. decumbens alone (11.6 kg/ cow per day). These data agree with those obtained by van Heurck (1990) and González (1992), in which the highest milk production was found in a pasture of African star grass associated with A. pintoi as compared with a pasture of African star grass alone. It is important to highlight that, although the Jersey cows used in the trial received as supplement a feed concentrate of 14% CP and 2.4 Mcal ME, the beneficial effect of Arachis on milk production could still be observed.Table 3 shows the components of the milk obtained from the different pastures. A higher fat content (P < 0.0004) was found in milk from cows grazing pastures of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi (4.84%) and B. decumbens alone (4.85%). This value for the pasture of B. decumbens + H. rufa was 4.71%. Cipagauta et al. (1998) found similar milk fat values in B. decumbens + A. pintoi pastures in the Colombian Amazon region, but fat content of milk produced by cows grazing B. decumbens alone was even lower than the native pasture. These results, however, differed with those found by González (1992) in which the percentage of fat did not differ among the three pastures evaluated.The milk protein content varied among pastures, and was higher in the pasture associated with A. pintoi (3.66%), compared with the pasture B. decumbens + H. rufa (3.58%) and B. decumbens alone (3.54%).Similar values of lactose were found in the milk of cows grazing the B. decumbens + A. pintoi pasture (4.68%) and B. decumbens + H. rufa (4.70%), but were higher (P < 0.0381) to that of milk of cows grazing the pasture of B. decumbens alone (4.62%).The total solids content of milk varied among pastures, being highest (P < 0.0004) in the pasture of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi (13.89%), followed by B. decumbens alone (13.73%) and B. decumbens associated with H. rufa (13.63%). The levels of non-fat solids (NFS) in milk did not differ significantly among the three pastures.The effect of the treatments (pastures), without the inclusion of a commercial feed supplement, on milk production and milk components was evaluated over one year in the same Jersey cows. Table 4 shows the significant difference (P < 0.0279) in milk production/cow per day, which was higher in the pasture associated with A. pintoi (9.3 kg/ cow per day) than in the other pastures. This difference is similar to that obtained with cows fed concentrate at a ratio of 3:1. No differences were found among the three treatments regarding milk components; however, these components differed from those found in the group of cows fed concentrate. Table 5 shows the availability and quality of the grass offered to cows that were not fed concentrate. The difference observed in milk production can be attributed to the greater availability of forage and its better quality in the associated pasture, as was the case of the pasture of B. decumbens associated with A. Pintoi.Based on study results, we conclude that:• Pastures of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi increase the daily milk production of Jersey cows, even when they receive a commercial feed concentrate. These pastures are also capable of supporting a higher stocking rate than B. decumbens + H. rufa pastures and B. decumbens alone, under similar management conditions.• The persistence of A. pintoi during the four years of the evaluation contributed to maintaining production and pasture quality, confirming the high potential of this legume in hillside areas with defined dry season in Central America.Cipagauta M., Velasquez J. and Pulido J.I.  Stylosanthes guianensis (stylo) is a legume adapted to the humid rainforest conditions of the Peruvian Amazon region, where it presents good growth and high biomass production. Smallholders in this region commonly plant rice (Oriza sativa). However, for this crop to develop well, it requires the application of N, which is a high-cost input. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of stylo to fix nitrogen and determine the use of this element by the rice crop prior to pasture establishment.The experiment was carried out between October 1998 and February 1999 on the Sara farm, located 15 km off the road that leads from Pucallpa to Tingo María, on an acid Ultisol with high aluminium content. This area belongs to the seasonal semi-evergreen tropical rainforest ecosystem with annual mean precipitation of 1900 mm and mean temperature of 26°C.Treatments were as follows: • T1, soil without application of N (control) • T2, soil after incorporating S. guianensis stubble without application of N • T3, T4, T5 and T6, soil after incorporating S. guianensis stubble with the application of 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg/ha of N, respectively. The variables evaluated were rice yield; number of tillers and of spikelets/m 2 , number of grains/spikelet and weight of 1000 grains. Rice variety Chancabanco, with a 90-day vegetative period, was planted. All treatments received a uniform basal application of 50 kg/ha of K 2 O/ha as potassium chloride and 50 kg/ha of P 2 O 5 as rock phosphate. A completely randomised block design, with six treatments and five replications, was used.Rice yields, after incorporation of stylo stubble, were higher (P < 0.05) than those obtained with the control treatment or equal to those obtained with the application of 50 kg/ha of N, which indicates the potential of this legume to supply N to the soil. However, the best results were obtained with the application of 100 kg/ha of N (Table 1). Dual-purpose livestock production accounts for 78% of the livestock and 41% of the milk produced in tropical Latin America. This type of exploitation is mainly found on smallholdings (Rivas 1992) that depend, to a large extent, on forage resources that present nutritional limitations and therefore restrict animal productivity. Forage legumes are an alternative to improve animal nutrition in dual-purpose systems. This is true in the case of the shrub legume Cratylia argentea, a species that adapts well to acid soils and preserves most of its leaves during the dry season. However, the use of cut-and-carry Cratylia in some areas of the tropics is not viable because of the high labour costs involved. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of Cratylia supplementation to cows in both cut-and-carry system and under direct grazing on Brachiaria decumbens pastures.The study was conducted during two contrasting seasons, at the CIAT experiment station in Santander de Quilichao (Cauca, Colombia), located at an altititude of 990 metres above sea level (masl), with annual rainfall averaging 1700 mm. Trial 1 was carried out from August to October 1999, a period corresponding to minimum precipitation (water balance <50 mm). Trial 2 was carried out from May to June 2000 during maximum precipitation (water balance >50 mm).Trials were arranged in a Latin square design (3 × 3) with the following treatments: • T1, B. decumbens associated with C. argentea under direct grazing • T2, B. decumbens with access to C. argentea at 1.5% DM liveweight (cut-and-carry) and • T3, B. decumbens alone, as control plot.Each treatment was assigned to a 1-ha grazing area, divided into two equal sections to allow 7 days for adjustment and 7 days for measurement. The animals spent 14 days in each treatment for a total of 42 days. The stocking rate for each trial was two cows/ hectare; six crossbred Holstein × Zebu cows with similar lactation status (second-third) and milk production levels was used.Availability of grass forage at the beginning of grazing was greater in Trial 2 as compared with Trial 1. This difference in forage on offer was associated with changes in precipitation.The quality of the grass varied considerably among treatments, the IVDMD and CP levels being lower in the control treatment (B. decumbens alone) in both experiments. The treatment and precipitation significantly affected both amount and quality of the grass.Milk production of cows on the associated Cratylia + Brachiaria pasture under direct grazing was consistently higher than that of the check treatment in both minimum (23% more milk) and maximum precipitation (16% more milk), although this difference was not significant (Table 1). The significant increase in milk production in Trial 1 can be partially explained by the low amount and quality of the basal pasture, which was affected by the lower precipitation. These results confirm once more the importance of providing supplementation not only when the basal pasture is deficient but also during the dry season, but not so in the rainy season (Avila 1999). However, the levels of fat and non-fat solids (NFS) in milk were similar for both trials. The milk urea nitrogen (MUN) levels differed significantly (P < 0.05) among treatments for both trials. When C. argentea was used as supplement, MUN levels were higher compared with the check treatment. The levels of these indicators without C. argentea supplementation were marginal (Table 2). MUN levels ranged from 9 to 10 mg/dL, suggesting a protein deficit (Hammond et al. 1994) and accounting for the lower milk production of the group of cows that did not receive legume supplementation.The partial information from these trials indicates that the use of C. argentea under direct grazing increased milk production the most. Also, direct supplementation with the legume is more viable during the drier season than during the rainy season because the economic response is greater when the basal pasture has limited nutrients during the dry season.Evaluation of milk production systems using Cratylia argentea Previous results from confined feeding trials suggested that when supplementing available forage sources on the farm to overcome nutrient deficiencies in ruminants, it is important to synchronise feeding of the higher quality forage supplement with the basal forage so that energy and protein are available concurrently. Also, synergism among forages may vary not only with the types of forages fed but also with how they are fed (for example, amount and frequency).Eight African type wethers (24 kg LW, on average) were fed a low-quality basal grass diet, and were randomly allocated to four supplementation treatments, arranged in a 4 × 4 Latin square design, consisting of sugarcane (60%) mixed with Cratylia argentea (40%).Treatments were as follows:• T1, low level of supplementation (0.5% LW) fed once a day (am)• T2, high level of supplementation (1.0% LW) fed once a day (am)• T3, low level of supplementation (0.5% LW) fed twice a day (am + pm) and• T4, high level of supplementation (1% LW) fed twice a day (am + pm).Measurements included quality of the basal diet, intake of supplements offered, digestibility and N balance.The low-quality basal grass diet was low in CP (4.8%) and high in cell wall content (79% NDF and 44% ADF). However, chopped sugarcane, fed as an energy supplement, was low in CP (3.1%) but had low cell wall content (39% NDF and 24% ADF). The legume (Cratylia leaves) fed had high CP (21%) and high cell wall contents (67% NDF and 37% ADF). Thus the supplement fed was high in energy and medium in protein (10% dry basis). Intake of the basal diet did not differ among treatments, but there were differences in supplement intake due to treatments. As expected, intake of sugarcane and Cratylia tended to be higher when fed at the highest level. However, it is interesting to note that when supplements were offered at the high level, intake of sugarcane and Cratylia increased with twice-a-day feeding compared with once-a-day feeding (Table 1).  (Quilichao, Cauca, Colombia).Frequency and level of supplementation These differences in intake of supplements were not reflected in significant changes in DM or cell wall digestibility. Nevertheless, there was a tendency for higher digestibility with twice a day feeding at both levels of supplementation.As expected, N intake was highest with increased level of supplementation (Table 2); however, intake was highest when wethers were fed twice a day. Because faecal and urinary N did not change with treatment, N retention was greater when sheep were given the forage-based supplements at the high level and twice a day.This study evidenced that the level and frequency of supplementary feeding had a significant effect on N utilisation by growing African-type wethers. Results indicate, however, that feeding twice a day would only be justified when high levels of forage-based supplements are offered. When the high level (1% LW) of sugarcane and Cratylia was fed twice a day, there was a 33% increase in N retention relative to feeding the same amount of supplement once a day. This was not the case when the low level (0.5% LW) was offered.Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC  (Quilichao, Cauca, Colombia).Frequency and level of supplementation The study aimed to evaluate the use of fresh and ensiled Cratylia argentea as a protein source. The study was based on the hypothesis that the protein quality of fresh and ensiled C. argentea was similar to that of yellow maize and soybean flour, which are sources of protein for commercial concentrates.The experiment was carried out between 25 February and 20 April 1999 at ECAG, located in Balsa de Atenas, Costa Rica, at an altitude of 460 metre above sea level (masl), with a mean annual temperature of 28°C. Average precipitation was 1500 mm/year, with two well-defined climatic seasons: a dry season from December to May and a rainy season from June to November.The heap silage method was used. Silage was made during November 1998, using a 6-month-old Cratylia regrowth, which was cut to a height of 30 cm above the ground. Usable parts (leaves and tender stems) were separated and chopped to a size of 2.5 cm. Chopped material was then spread out in 20-cm layers and compacted. Molasses was then added at a proportion of 10:1 (10 kg C. argentea:1 kg molasses).A 3-month-old regrowth was used. Plants were cut every day to a height of 30 cm above the ground, then chopped and offered to cows mixed with sugarcane.Whole sugarcane was offered chopped (2.5-cm size) on a daily basis. Its nutritional content was 2% CP and 3.0 Mcal ME.This concentrate was based on maize and soybean and prepared at the ECAG feed plant. Its nutritional content was 14% CP and 2. Six multifarious Jersey cows, at 50 days postpartum, were assigned at random to three treatments in a Latin square design repeated simultaneously. Treatments and amounts of products (in parenthesis as % LW) were as follows:• T1, sugarcane (1%) + semolina (0.5%) + concentrate (1.48%) + urea (0.02%) Because of the limited amount of silage, each period covered 12 days, 7 of which corresponded to animal adaptation and to sampling. Samplings were made on days 1, 3 and 5.DM intake was calculated as the difference between the amount of material on offer and that rejected on days 1, 3 and 5 during each five-day evaluation period. Composite samples for that week were sent to the ECAG laboratory to determine crude protein (CP) and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD).During the five days of each evaluation period, individual milk production (kg/cow) at both milking was weighed.To measure milk quality, two milkings proportional to production were sampled. Each sample was cooled for conservation and then analysed for fat, protein, lactose, total solids (TS) and non-fat solids (NFS).No major difference was observed among the three rations offered regarding total DM intake. In the case of fresh C. argental, intake was 10.7 kg/cow per day (3.0% animal LW) and that of silage was 10.4 kg/cow per day (2.9% animal LW), indicating that Cratylia does not present problems of consumption when offered fresh or as silage together with sugarcane (Table 1). Table 2 indicates that the different treatments did not affect milk production of cows significantly. These results do not coincide with those reported by Argel et al. (1999), where milk production differed depending on whether fresh or ensiled C. argentea was used (5.5 vs. 5.1 kg/cow per day). Except for protein, the values of all other milk components did not vary among treatments (Table 2). However, fat content tended to be slightly higher (P < 0.0627) in treatments that included C. argentea silage, which could benefit producers selling cream or milk, when the latter is paid based on the percentage of fat.But, most importantly, the milk production levels achieved with rations of C. argentea, either fresh or ensiled (10.9 and 10.7 kg/cow per day, respectively), were comparable to those obtained with a typical concentrate for dairy cows (11.1 kg/cow per day), in which the protein comes from maize and soybean. The production levels reached with C. argentea during the dry season would be fairly acceptable for medium and small producers. Furthermore, this legume could replace sources of energy and protein (maize and soybeans) used to manufacture concentrates that are usually beyond their reach.Fresh C. argentea with 3 months regrowth presents, on average, 19.9% CP and 53.4% IVDMD (Table 3). This last value agrees with that reported by Lascano (1995), but differs from those found by Perdomo (1991) and Xavier and Carvalho (1995). In ensiled C. argentea, the average values of CP (14.7%) and IVDMD (40.6%) were slightly lower than those of fresh Cratylia; this level of PC, however, fulfils the requirements of the animals used in the trial. Costs were calculated based on the costs appearing in Table 4. The biomass production of Cratylia at three months regrowth when plants reach their best leaf:stem ratio and produce larger amounts of edible material, thus reducing labour costs. Calculations considered the following costs per kg product on offer: concentrate (processed at the ECAG plant), semolina, sugarcane, fresh C. argentea (taking into account cutting, carrying, and chopping) and ensiled C. argentea (preparation).Table 5 shows that, although gross income was higher when the concentrate was used (US$ 3.13) compared with fresh or ensiled Cratylia (US$ 3.10 and 3.05, respectively), costs were also higher and the net income was US$ 0.84. When fresh Cratylia was used in the diet, net income was US$ 1.26 and with ensiled Cratylia it was US$ 1.16. In addition to the economic benefit, the use of the legume is environmentally beneficial in terms of nutrient recycling and sustainability of the system.The results of this study indicated that: 1. Fresh C. argentea, at three months regrowth, is a good alternative to feed milking cows 2. Under ECAG conditions, Cratylia should be harvested at three months regrowth to prepare silage because the leaf:stem ratio is best then and The production and quality of forage biomass from grasses is drastically reduced in ecosystems with prolonged droughts, such as the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. Producers solve this limitation by supplementing with agricultural by-products, such as chicken manure. Several years ago this by-product was inexpensive but its price in real terms has increased in view of the growing demand. Producers are therefore interested in evaluating alternatives to replace chicken manure. The results of three on-farm trials are reported: two trials evaluated the substitution of chicken manure with Cratylia argentea and the other trial evaluated cratylia fed fresh or as silage.This trial was conducted during the dry season (April 1999) on a small farm in Miramar, located at an altitude of 250 metres above sea level (masl) in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. The mean annual temperature is 28°C with a mean precipitation of 2400 mm. The following treatments were evaluated:• T1, control, only grazing (naturalised grass and jaragua grass) A Latin square design with three treatments was used, each treatment with two selected cows in the second month of lactation. The experiment lasted for 30 days, and animals were rotated through each treatment at 10 day intervals (7 days for adjustment and 3 for data collection).This trial was conducted in a small farm in Barranca, located at an altitude of 280 masl in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. The mean annual temperature is 28°C and mean precipitation of 2500 mm. Treatments evaluated were: • T1, 12 kg sugarcane + 6 kg silage of C. argentea + 0.6 kg rice polishing • T2, 12 kg sugarcane + 6 kg fresh C. argentea + 0.6 kg rice polishing and • T3, 12 kg sugarcane + 3 kg chicken manure + 0.6 kg rice polishing.A Latin square design with three treatments was used, each treatment with two cows as in the above experiment. Animals were managed in individual groups. The experiment lasted for 30 days and animals were rotated on each treatment at 10-day-intervals (7 days for adjustment and 3 for data collection).This on-farm trial was conducted as part of a student thesis programme on a small farm in Barranca, located at an altitude of 280 masl in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. The trial was conducted in the middle of the dry season (February-May 1998), with a mean annual temperature of 28°C and a mean precipitation of 2500 mm. Treatments evaluated were: • T1, chicken manure and molasses • T2, chicken manure, sugarcane, molasses and wheat bran • T3, chicken manure, molasses, C. argentea and wheat bran. Details of the different diets are presented in Table 1. Different amounts of supplements were used to balance the diets isonitrogenously and isocalorificly. C. argentea satisfied more than 75% of the CP requirements of animals, but a small amount of chicken manure was included in the diet because observed C. argentea intake was not sufficient to balance N requirements. Animals had access to H. rufa pastures. Cratylia CP content was 19.2% with 58.4% IVDMD; the respective values for H. rufa were 3.9% and 33.9%.A 3 × 3 Latin square changeover design with three replications was used with a total of 9 crossbred cows between 60-80 days into lactation. Each of the three experimental periods consisted of 10 days for adaptation to treatment and 5 days for collection of experimental data.Table 2 shows milk yield and composition, feeding costs, income from milk, and the cost:benefit ratio for the different treatments evaluated. Milk yields of T2 and T3 did not differ significantly (P = 0.076), indicating that C. argentea can be used to substitute chicken manure without reducing milk production. Furthermore, feeding costs are lower and the cost:benefit ratio is higher when C. argentea is used, which makes this alternative more economically attractive to farmers. Table 3 shows that the feeding alternatives based on C. argentea, both ensiled and fresh, were more economical than the one that used chicken manure as supplement. Not only are Cratylia rations more economical, the milk yields of cows consuming Cratylia, either fresh or ensiled, were similar to those of cows supplemented with chicken manure. However, milk yields of cows consuming Cratylia silage were lower than those of cows consuming fresh Cratylia. Nevertheless, Cratylia silage can be used as a substitute for chicken manure because of the lower feed costs. Table 3 shows the effect on milk yield per treatment. Milk yield averaged 6.0 kg/cow per day and there were no significant differences between treatments. Milk fat was lower (2.7%) for the treatment that had a higher amount of sugarcane in the diet, but differences were not significant. The results clearly show that Cratylia can be used as a substitute for chicken manure, at least up to 82% of the diet.In recent years, most farmers with dual-purpose cattle have produced milk during the dry season using chicken manure. Results clearly show that Cratylia can largely replace chicken manure as a protein supplement without significantly reducing milk yield. The growing demand for chicken manure to supplement dairy cows has increased its price in many tropical regions and farmers can no longer afford to buy it. By introducing C. argentea to cattle production systems in the Pacific region, the use of chicken manure has decreased in farms participating in the Tropileche Consortium to such degree that this year practically none was purchased. Therefore, the legume technology being promoted for dualpurpose cattle farms could allow small producers to have access to a farm-grown protein supplement and increase their cash flow and profits. In addition, spontaneous adoption of C. argentea is occurring in other locations in Costa Rica. During the last 12 months, 84 kg of experimental seed has been sold to 28 farmers located in three different sites-Guanacaste, Nicoya and around Esparza. The most economical option for a producer in the dry season is to supplement cows with fresh Cratylia. The next best option is to supplement with ensiled Cratylia. The least economical option is to supplement cows with chicken manure. As a result, the use of legume silage such as C. argentea is recommended over the use of chicken manure. In addition, the use of legume silage allows producers to use smaller areas because more edible biomass is produced for dry season supplementation, especially in situations where the opportunity cost for labour during the rainy season is low. In the dry tropics of Costa Rica (0-800 metres above sea level (masl), 1200-1800 mm of precipitation; 6 months of dry season), Cratylia argentea has been successfully introduced into dual-purpose farms to solve the problems of low forage availability during summer months. Mixing cratylia forage and chopped sugarcane has proved useful to maintain milk yields of 6-6.5 kg/cow per day in crossbred Zebu × European dairy cows (Argel andLascano 1998, Lobo andAcuña 1998).Producers value cratylia's high CP content (more than 15%) and its adaptability and persistence. Furthermore, one of its advantages is that surplus forage can be ensiled for use during times of feed shortage. This is especially important because cows do not readily consume cratylia forage when the offer of other forage grasses in the pastures is high.This study aims to evaluate the process of making silage from cratylia, using several fermentative and nutritive additives. Overall, legumes are more difficult to ensile than grasses because they have a high buffer capacity that hinders adequate acidification of anaerobic media, in addition to its low soluble carbohydrate content.The foliage of 90-day legume regrowth was manually harvested and chopped to a 16 mm bite size. Microsilos made of double polyethylene plastic bags, with approximately 1.5 kg capacity, were used. Cratylia was mixed with three additives: cane molasses (M), pineapple pulp (PP) and chopped sugarcane (CSC). Each additive was incorporated at three levels: M at 10, 20 and 30%; PP and CSC at 25, 50 and 75%, all on fresh basis (w/w). Treatments were arranged in a completely randomised design with three replicates.Cratylia foliage was obtained from an experimental plot at the Escuela Centro-americana de Ganadería (ECAG), located in Atenas, Costa Rica, at 460 masl. Pineapple pulp was collected at the Del Oro plant in Santa Cecilia de la Cruz, Guanacaste and the sugarcane was gathered at a private farm located in the Hojancha canton, also in Guanacaste.The silos were left to ferment for 60 days and, upon opening, pH and organoleptic characteristics (odour and colour) were assessed. Part of each sample was oven-dried at 60°C and a sub-sample was frozen to later analyse ammonium nitrogen. Laboratory tests were conducted to determine dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ammonium nitrogen (Nam) and rumen degradability of DM (D).A scale (from 1 to 3) was used for the organoleptic evaluation. All silages presented a strong lactic odour, except for those with high CSC content (75%), which presented an alcoholic odour with a lactic essence (Table 1). The silage with 25% PP and high levels of CSC presented a light brown colour. The pH correlated highly with lactic and acetic acid contents. A pH lower than four is considered a good indicator of superior fermentation in moist substrata such as the ones used in this project and, accordingly, of a good-quality end product. When carbohydrate levels are very high or very low, fermentation is altered, yielding final products and pH values that fall outside the optimal range. In the case of 75% CSC, the high levels of soluble carbohydrates (SC) induced fermentation tending more toward an alcoholic base, with a pH of almost 5. In the case of 25% PP, because of the high moisture content of this substratum, its SC contribution (dry basis) was small, causing lactic acid production to be poor. Therefore pH was almost 4.5.The 'buffer' effect was evident in Cratylia, especially in the treatment with 10% molasses. In elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), the addition of 10% cane molasses increases the SC content to more than 11%. Fermentation is also optimal with pH values close to 3.5 (Vargas et al. 1981;Chacón 1987). Furthermore, buffer capacity could limit carbohydrate use and lactic fermentation and, accordingly, high pH values in several other treatments, especially those with higher/lower SC contents.Based on available data, the following conclusions and recommendations were made:• The addition of 10% molasses should be sufficient to obtain good cratylia silage.• Pineapple pulp added at levels higher than 25% improves fermentation of cratylia silage, although this material has a high water content that increases transportation costs. • Chopped sugarcane, added at 25%, contributes SC for good lactic fermentation; at higher levels, there is a risk of promoting an alcoholic process.Planting maize in association with forage soybean for silage production In the tropics no other forage is superior to maize as silage. However, high production costs are the main constraint faced by both small-and medium-scale producers in Latin America.In recent years, beef cattle herds are quickly becoming dual-purpose herds along Costa Rica's North Pacific Coast. The milk produced by these farms is marketed as cheese, sold fresh to consumers or delivered to industrial co-operatives. Except for the milk destined to the co-operatives, summer prices (December to May) are higher because of the low supply and steady demand.To increase the availability of milk, the shortage and poor quality of forage on offer during the dry season must be corrected. Some dairy cattle farms in the region are using sugarcane and feed supplements, for example chicken manure, urea and molasses. These products, however, do not meet the requirements of genetically improved cows, which need forages of higher nutritive value to allow animals to best express this potential during the dry season.The Alfredo Volio Mata dairy cattle experiment station and the School of Zootechny of the University of Costa Rica, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of Costa Rica (MAG), are carrying out a project to evaluate new feeding technologies on 16 farms with genetically improved cows. During project execution new challenges have arisen that need to be resolved, for example, the lack of better-quality forages to meet animal requirements during the dry season.This study aimed to evaluate the factors that intervene in the production of maize and soybean silage, with special emphasis on the costs involved in cultivation and silage making.In August 1999 a locally adapted white maize hybrid (Cristiani Burkard HS-5G) and a soybean variety for grain and forage (CIGRAS 10), developed by the Grain and Seed Research Centre of the University of Costa Rica and successfully tested in the region, were planted. Maize was planted at a rate of 6 seeds/m of furrow and soybean at 15 seeds/m of furrow. In both cases, distance between furrows was 0.80 m. Main plots consisted of furrows of each crop as follows: 1. associated (1:1) 2. intercropped (4:4) and 3. monoculture.A split-split plot design was used in which subplots consisted of three forms of crop harvesting before silaging: 1. removal of 50% of the baby corn (at mid-flowering) 2. removal of 50% of mature maize (tender grain) and 3. removal of nothing.Experiment variables consisted of planting method and percentage of removal at harvest of mature maize or baby corn. Each treatment was replicated three times.Maize was planted in association to improve CP content of the final product. Modifications at harvest were included to estimate the economic impact of selling part of the agricultural harvest and the capacity to recover either partially or totally the high investment made in the crop and silaging process.The yields of baby corn, mature maize or tender grain, and forage of each crop were determined and the detailed costs of maize cultivation and silage making.Table 1 details the costs per hectare for planting, maintenance, harvest and silage making, assuming equal areas of each associated crop. Table 2 summarises crop yields for all treatments, forage being expressed in both fresh and dry basis.The average sale of baby corn was 7533 units/ha, at US$ 0.02 each, totalling US$ 150.66. If costs of growing maize and making silage are deducted from the harvest of baby corn, their sale only recovers 37.5% of total costs/ha. In the case of mature maize, the average harvest was 7312 units at US$ 0.0425/unit, representing a total income of US$ 310.76, which covered 77.4% of the costs.The average yield in terms of maize ears per plant was less than 1, which is much lower than that expected, significantly affecting results. With acceptable plant density (from 4 to 5 plants/m of furrow) and with 1 ear or more per plant, 50% of baby corn or mature maize can be harvested, which would represent from 25 to 30 thousand units/ ha.The maize produced approximately 30 t fresh forage/ha and soybean, 11 t/ha, which are equivalent to 10.5 and 3.5 t DM/ha. In the case of maize, optimal yields are between 40 and 45 t/ha. These yields can be improved by applying a more balanced fertilisation and by correcting the poor drainage in some plots. Soybean yields were 50% of those obtained in monoculture in the Carrillo canton (Costa Rica), in very similar soil and climatic conditions. Table 1. Production costs of maize for silage making (Pacific Coast, Costa Rica, 1999).Units Mixed cropping of maize and soybean for silage making has great potential in the Pacific region of Costa Rica, not only for increasing the amount of protein in the final product, but also because of the economic effect on the final value of the product and partial use of the maize harvest. Results show that it was possible to pay 77.5% of the cost of making silage, including planting, harvest and maintenance.In this case, if cropping conditions are improved, especially in terms of appropriate fertilisation and improved soil drainage in some plots, then yields will improve and more mature maize can be sold, allowing 100% or more of the initial investment to be recovered. The incorporation of a legume into the crop when making silage improves the quality of the end product. Also, the sale of part of the baby corn in maize fields could reduce production costs.On Costa Rica's North Pacific Coast, cattle owners have very sound dual-purpose dairy farms but face problems to feed cows during the dry season. Under these conditions, the use of good-quality silage-for example, maize plus forage soybean-would allow these farmers to maintain milk production during this season.The study was carried out at the Alfredo Volio Mata dairy cattle experiment station and the School of Zootechny of the University of Costa Rica, and complements previous studies. It aims to evaluate the quality of silage made from maize grown in association with soybean.Microsilos made of double polyethylene plastic bags with approximately 3 kg capacity were prepared with recently harvested maize and forage soybean in different proportions (Table 1). As in the previous study, the following maize forage conditions were considered:• removal of 50% of the baby corn (at mid-flowering)• removal of 50% of mature maize (tender grain) and • removal of nothing.Maize was harvested one week after tender grain was harvested and soybean when it reached phenological state R6 (seed formed and beginning to fill).The microsilos were left open after 70 days of fermentation; and pH and organoleptic characteristics (odour and colour) were assessed according to the scale in Table 2.Part of each sample was oven-dried at 60°C and a sub-sample was frozen to later analyse ammonium nitrogen (Nam). Laboratory tests were conducted to determine: 1. dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and crude protein (CP) contents 2. Nam and 3. rate of rumen degradability of dry matter (D).Treatments were organised in a completely randomised design with three replicates.The organoleptic characteristics of the silage are indicated in Table 3. The odour ranged from slightly acetic to lactic; as evidenced by the pH values obtained. These values correlated with lactic fermentation. As reference, three replicates of pure soybean were fermented and their average results were pH = 5, odour = 2, and colour = 3. The high pH indicates the high buffer capacity of legumes that can affect final fermentation results, even with as good a substratum as maize. The use of a lactobacillus as inoculums could improve fermentation characteristics. All silos showed an excellent conservation of the original colour.Soybean undoubtedly improves CP content, reaching almost 12% in a mixture with equal parts of maize:soybean (w/w) in fresh basis (Table 4). The CP content of similar silage made only of soybean was 15.6%. According to data of the University of Wisconsin, the average CP content of 1996 samples of maize silage, collected over 10 years in Iowa and Wisconsin, was 7.6 ± 0.81% (Lauer et al. 1999). Crude protein tends to decrease with decreasing percentage of soybean in the mixture, reaching values close to 8%.Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC Therefore, the data obtained in this experiment agree with normal values for maize silage (7.6 ± 0.81%). The DM contents of the mixtures were very similar and the addition of soybean had no effect, which is advantageous because it would not reduce animal DM intake.Planting maize in association with forage soybean for silage production  Titterton and Maasdorp (1997) worked with silage (1:1) of maize and 15 legumes in monoculture. They found that all legumes presented acceptable levels of fermentation (pH ranging between 3.7 and 4.5; NH 3 :N > 12%). They also found that protein content (dry basis) increased from 77 g/kg in pure maize silage to 93 g/kg in yellow lupine and 153 g/kg in soybean forage.• Based on the organoleptic evaluation and pH values obtained, the silages obtained in this study can be considered as of very good quality. DM contents, which ranged between 26.5% and 28.3%, are acceptable and associated with a low loss of effluents.• Silage quality values are within the normal ranges cited in literature and clearly evidence the advantage of using soybean forage in mixtures with maize for silaging.Milk urea nitrogen concentration for recommendations on optimum proteinto-energy ratios in tropical forage dietsWhen there is an excess of nitrogen relative to energy in the rumen, ruminal ammonia concentration increases. Unused urinal ammonia enters the portal blood through the rumen wall and is transferred to the liver where it is detoxified by conversion to urea. The liver also produces urea from diminution of amino acids rising from postruminal digestion and systemic protein turnover. Urea then circulates in the blood to the kidneys and is excreted with the urine or it can be diffused from the blood into milk. When there is a deficiency of dietary proteins, urinal ammonia concentrations are relatively low and the proportion of nitrogen recycled back to the rumen as urea increases. As a result of these metabolic transactions, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is highly correlated with urinal ammonia and milk urea nitrogen (MUN). Therefore, in healthy ruminants, MUN concentrations could be a good indicator of the protein-to-energy ratio in the diet.The purpose of the study was to determine the level of urea in the milk that could be used as reference to increase the protein content to supplement diets, with a high probability that cows will respond by increasing milk production.The study was carried out between 1992 and 1995 at the CIAT-Quilichao experiment station on contrasting pastures of Andropogon gayanus and Brachiaria dictyoneura. Two groups of four Brahman × Holstein cows were submitted to grazing on each pasture, with a 7-day period to adjust cows to the diet and 7 days of measurements. Milk yields were recorded during the 7-day measurement period, and milk samples for urea content were taken on days 1, 4 and 7 of each period. A 4 × 4 Latin square experiment design was used.Figure 1 shows the relationship between milk yield increase and MUN of cows supplemented with Cratylia argentea and sugarcane. Four groups can be identified, one in each quadrant. In the first group, cows showed an increase in milk yield when offered a legume supplement when the level of urea in milk was <10 mg/dL. These observations corresponded mainly to crossbred cows. In the second group, cows did not respond to legume supplementation even when the urea level was <10 mg/dL. These observations corresponded to crossbred and Brahman cows in similar proportions. The third group included cows with urea level >10 mg/dL that showed a modest increase in milk production. This group was composed of both crossbred and Brahman cows in similar proportions. The fourth group included those cows who did not respond to legume supplementation with an increase in milk yield when urea level in milk >10 mg/dL. This group was mostly composed of Brahman cows.These results suggest a urea level in milk of about 10 mg/dL could be used as a benchmark figure to increase dietary protein content with a high probability that milking cows will respond with increased milk yields provided demonstrated genetic potential.Furthermore, these results suggest that crossbred cows respond to legume supplementation, even when MUN levels are above 10 mg/dL. This did not seem to be the case for most Brahman-or Zebu-type cows. Among the main problems affecting beef cattle development in Costa Rica are low meat and milk productivity, low reproductive rates, nutritional deficiencies (especially because of the low forage availability and quality during the dry season), and health problems.Forage is the most available and inexpensive source of feed for livestock in Costa Rica; however, a high percentage of pastures are now degraded, reducing forage availability and quality.The improvement of both the quality and quantity of forage resources through the recovery of degraded pastures is important to increase overall livestock productivity. The study aims to evaluate milk production of dual-purpose cows grazing a recovered pasture of Brachiaria brizantha cv. La Libertad alone and associated with Arachis pintoi cv. El Porvenir and Centrosema brasilianum.The trial was carried out on a farm located in San Jerónimo de Esparza, in the subhumid tropical central Pacific region of Costa Rica, at an average altitude of 250 metres above sea level (masl). The region is characterised by having well-defined dry (December-May) and rainy (June-November) seasons, with an average annual precipitation of 2500 mm. Four hectares of Brachiaria brizantha cv. La Libertad were planted in a paddock where a degraded pasture of Brachiaria ruziziensis existed. The area was divided in half and two hectares were planted in association with A. pintoi CIAT 18744 cv. Porvenir and C. brasilianum CIAT 5234.Forage availability (dry basis) and botanical composition of both pastures (alone and associated) were determined using the Botanic method.A group of 26 milking cows of different breeds-predominantly Brown Swiss-and weighing 450 kg on average were used; a Brahman bull was also included. This group grazed the two hectares of sole cropped pasture for four consecutive days and the associated pasture for five days. Milk production was measured on days 1 and 4 in the sole cropped pasture and on days 1, 3 and 5 in the associated pasture. The production of both groups was compared with that obtained by cows grazing pastures sown to B. ruziziensis, the grass traditionally used on farms.During the rainy season, pastures were rotated; the grazing cycle consisted of 4 or 5 days of occupation and 27 days of rest. During the dry season, grazing was continuous.The Student's (t) test (Steel and Torrie 1988) was used to compare the average milk production. The averages of cows grazing the sole cropped pasture were compared with the averages of cows kept on the native pasture and with those of cows grazing the associated pasture. The stocking rates of the native pasture, the sole cropped pasture and the associated pasture were calculated using the method proposed by Paladines and Lascano (1983), which takes into account animal units and grazing system.Table 1 presents mean DM availability and botanical composition of both pastures during the rainy season over three consecutive periods. The percentage of C. brasilianum found in the associated pasture is so low that it was included in the percentage of legumes present in the associated pasture. Forage availability was found to increase in pastures under recovery as the trial advanced. At the beginning of the trial, forage availability in these pastures was 3 t/ha, increasing to 6.3 t/ha in late 1999 in the sole cropped pasture with improved grasses and to 7.1 t/ha in the associated pasture. This clearly shows the benefits of the method used to recover these pastures.Increased forage availability is reflected in the increased stocking rate of pastures, which in the case of native pastures was 1.5 AU/ha compared with 2.0 AU/ha for the sole cropped pasture and 2.4 AU/ha for the associated pasture. Also, the percentage of weeds was reduced in the associated pasture.The average milk production of cows grazing the native pasture and sole cropped pasture of B. brizantha were similar (Table 2). However, the average production obtained on the associated pasture was higher than that obtained on the native pasture (Table 3). Both trials were carried out independently, using the native pasture as control.  During 1997, the increase in milk production was higher compared with that of 1998 and 1999, because cows received a daily supplementation of 5 kg chicken manure and 1.5 kg of soybean hulls.The average increase in milk production during the three years of the evaluation in the sole cropped pasture as compared with the native grass was 3.8%, whereas the increase for cows grazing the associated pasture was 6.3%. Besides this increase in milk production, producer's income also increased because of the larger amount of milk sold.Differences in milk production between sole cropped and associated pastures were 250 g/animal per day, which agrees with results found by Ullrich et al. (1994) who worked with dual-purpose cows grazing B. decumbens alone and associated. At Escuela Centroamericana de Ganadería (ECAG) in Atenas, Costa Rica, milk production of Jersey dairy cows increased 9% when grazing B. decumbens + A. pintoi cv. El Porvenir pasture, as compared with cows grazing the sole cropped pasture and offered a commercial concentrate as supplement (Romero and González 1998). These results are similar to those found in this study, despite these being dairy cows well known for their milk production that received concentrate. This confirms once more the beneficial effect of the legumes on milk production.Besides the benefits in milk production when improved pastures are used, there is a significant increase in milk production/hectare as shown in Table 4.  Cipagauta et al. (1998) found that half-bred Holstein × Zebu dairy cows, grazing B. decumbens alone and associated with legumes (20% of the pasture) in the Amazon piedmont of Caqueta, Colombia, produced 52% more milk/hectare on the sole cropped pasture as compared with the native pasture, and 94% more milk on the associated pasture. The estimated milk production/hectare of cows grazing associated pastures differed by 23% from that of cows grazing sole cropped pastures. Increases obtained for both pastures in the study are slightly lower (37% for the associated pasture; 70% for the sole cropped pasture) as compared with the native pasture. The increase in milk production between the associated pasture and the sole cropped pasture was 24%. González et al. (1996) found that Jersey cows, a local Central American race of dairy cows, and crossbred cows between both of the former produced 14% more milk/hectare in pastures of African star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis) associated with A. pintoi than in pastures of the grass fertilised with 100 kg N/hectare per year. This increase in milk production was lower than that found in our study, but the stocking rate was similar (2.6 AU/ha). Lascano and Avila (1991) cite that the production of fat-corrected milk increased, on average, by 20% in associations of B. dictyoneura with C. acutifolium and C. macrocarpum, as compared with the grass pastures alone. In the case of Andropogon gayanus associated with the same legumes, the increase in milk production of the associated pastures was, on average, 15% as compared with the sole cropped pasture.with the same legumes, the increase in milk production of the associated pastures was, on average, 15% as compared with the sole cropped pasture.In this study the recovery of degraded pastures by establishing improved grasses increased milk production and pasture stocking rate. The introduction of legumes, such as A. pintoi made it possible to increase milk production and pasture stocking rate more as compared with native and improved sole cropped pastures. Pasture rehabilitation together with the introduction of improved grasses and legumes, enhances forage availability and, as a result, increases the pasture's stocking rate.Livestock development in the tropics, which is characterised as being extensive, is based on the use of grasses; however, in farms that are a little more intensive, as is the case of dual-purpose and semi-specialised dairies, animal nutrition is complemented with agroindustrial by-products during the dry season.More and more, these by-products are not used because of their highly variable nutritive quality and price. Furthermore, in several of these regions these by-products must be treated with heat, which affects their nutritive quality.Therefore the use of shrub legumes has been studied in recent years to offer cattle a better source of on-farm feed while reducing feeding costs.Cratylia argentea cv. Veraniega is a shrub legume native to the Amazon region and parts of Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. It is characterised by its adaptation to a broad range of soils, mainly well-drained, low-fertility acid soils, and its capacity for regrowth during the dry season. Its crude protein (CP) content is high, its in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) is intermediate, and the consumption of this forage becomes more appealing during the dry season.This study aims to evaluate the productivity (production and nutritive value) of C. argentea cv. Veraniega, at two ages of regrowth and three cutting heights, in Costa Rica's central Pacific region.At the beginning of the 1996 rainy season, a forage bank of C. argentea was established on a farm in San Juan Grande de Esparza (250 metres above sea level (masl) with annual average precipitation of 2400 mm and a six month dry season). Distance between plants was 50 cm and distance between rows was 1 m. The soil was a clay loam Ultisol, with the following characteristics: pH = 5.4, Ca = 7.2 cmol/litre, Mg = 0 2.6 cmol/litre, P = 6 mg/litre and OM = 3.1%.One year after the bank was established and submitted to cutting during the dry season, an area with 210 plants was selected for the present study. To determine the productivity of cv. Veraniega, uniform cutting was performed at test heights in April 1998. Two ages of regrowth (60 and 90 days) and three cutting heights (30, 60 and 90 cm above the ground) were assessed.At each cutting, the height of all plants was evaluated and 15 plants of each plot were selected at random to perform the cutting at the corresponding age and height; the number of sprouts in each and DM yield/plant was measured . The percentage of CP, acid and neutral detergent fibre, and lignin contents were determined in the laboratory. A Latin square design was used, and the averages were separated by the Waller-Duncan test (Steel and Torrie 1988).Frequent analyses were also made to determine the effect of the legume on soil fertility.The effect of the age of regrowth and cutting height on yield of C. argentea during 1998-2000 is indicated in Table 1. All cutting heights tested tended to increase DM production per plant and per hectare. As cutting height increased from 30 to 90 cm, DM production doubled. Likewise, the number of sprouts/plant tended to increase with increasing cutting height. Average DM yields/plant at 60 days regrowth fell within the range cited by Argel and Valerio (1996): 110-190 g/plant in cuttings performed between weeks 8 and 14 at sites with 5-to 6-month dry seasons. Yields obtained at 90 days regrowth averaged 352 g/ plant, being higher than those cited by the same researcher.The average forage production at 90 days regrowth is over 4 t/ha more than that obtained at 60 days. In addition, average forage production during the dry season accounts for approximately 43% and 30% of total production at the two ages of regrowth (60 and 90 days, respectively).Figure 1 shows average DM production for the treatments. Within a single cutting height, significant differences occurred between the two ages of regrowth, the yield always being higher at 90 days regrowth. Table 2 shows the effect of age of regrowth and cutting height on nutritive quality of C. argentea during 1998-2000. Forage quality at the three cutting heights showed that the CP content tended to increase with increasing cutting height from 30 to 90 days, and NDF and lignin contents. The CP content of plants harvested at 30 cm height did not differ significantly at both ages of regrowth. On the contrary, plants harvested at 60 and 90 cm height differed significantly (P = 0.08) in CP because of the effect of age of regrowth.The CP content in C. argentea varies broadly from 25% at 12 weeks of age (Franco 1997) to 20% at 8 weeks regrowth (Valerio 1994). Xavier and Carbalho (1995) reported that, at 84 days, nitrogen content of C. argentea is low, approximately 3%, which is equivalent to 20% CP. These values are within the limits observed for other tropical legumes. Franco (1997) found CP values of 23% at 2 months regrowth and values of 21% at 3 months regrowth. These values were higher than those found in the present study.Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC Significant differences in NDF content occurred between the two ages of regrowth when the cutting height was 30 cm (P = 0.0245). However, the highest NDF values always occurred in cuttings at 90 days because the amount of woody material is greater then (Figure 2).  In addition to the contribution of C. argentea to the quality of forage-on-offer, in the analysis carried out in 1999 soil OM increased by 1% (3.1% in 1996 vs. 4.1% in 1999) because of the high amounts of recycled material, especially leaves.The following conclusions can be reached: This study aims to evaluate the effect of the shrub legume Cratylia argentea cv. Veraniega, on milk production when offered as fresh forage or ensiled to dual-purpose cows.Trials were carried out on two farms located in Costa Rica's subhumid tropical Central Pacific region, between 0 and 250 metres above sea level (masl), and well-defined dry (December-April) and rainy (May-November) seasons. The average temperature is 26°C and the average annual precipitation is 2500 mm.Six cows of third parturition and in second month of lactation were selected from a herd of 45 milking cows that presented broad genetic variation, on a farm located in Barbudal de Barranca, Miramar. Cows produced, on average, 5.5 kg milk/day. After a 12-day period of adjustment to the new diets, each animal was offered the forage supplement for 3 hours/day after milking. The trial lasted 30 days, during which 6 animals were rotated per treatment over a 10-day period, which was divided into 7 days of adjustment and 3 days for individual measurement of milk production per cow. Milk quality, especially in terms of fat and total solids contents, was determined.The treatments evaluated were as follows: T1, control animals grazing the pasture alone; T2, supplement of 12 kg sugarcane, 8 kg C. argentea, 0.6 kg semolina and 0.5 kg molasses; and T3, 12 kg sugarcane, 3 kg chicken manure, 0.6 kg semolina and 0.5 kg molasses.The plants of C. argentea used had approximately 4 months regrowth, with an average nutritive value of 16% CP and 33% DM.A Latin square design was used in a changeover system (Lucas 1983), with three treatments and two animals per treatment. The separation of averages was performed by the Waller-Duncan test (Steel and Torrie 1988).Six milking cows of third parturition were selected from a group of 11 animals with similar breed characteristics (3/4 Swiss Brown and 1/4 Zebu) on a farm located in San Miguel de Barranca, Esparza. All cows were in their second month of lactation and producing 5.5 kg milk/day on average. After milking, forage supplements were offered individually for 3 hours. The experiment design and animal management used were similar to those of Experiment 1.The treatments evaluated were as follows: T1, 12 kg sugarcane, 6 kg C. argentea silage and 0.6 kg semolina; T2, 12 kg sugarcane, 6 kg fresh C. argentea and 0.6 kg semolina; and T3, 12 kg sugarcane, 3 kg chicken manure and 0.6 kg semolina.For T2, a heap silo was built for C. argentea plants at 4 months regrowth that had been previously chopped. Molasses was gradually added at 10% weight basis of material for ensilage as the silage was being compacted. Silage was first used 4 months after being ensiled and its quality was determined by measuring pH, percentage of CP, DM content and several organoleptic characteristics such as odour and colour.Milk production differed significantly between treatments (P = 0.076) (Table 1). Higher milk production was obtained when chicken manure was offered as protein supplement. No significant differences occurred between treatments when chicken manure was replaced with C. argentea. Milk production of cows not receiving protein supplement was similar to that reached with T2. This could be attributed, among other factors, to the high availability of fruits of the cohune palm (Acrocomia vinifera) existing in the pastures and to which the cows had access, and the consumption of several other sources of feed available during the dry season. The results of greatest interest in this study are reflected in the economic indicators, for example, the cost of supplements, the income obtained by sale of milk, and the costbenefit ratio. Replacing chicken manure with C. argentea reduces the costs/kg supplement from US$ 0.217 to US$ 0.11, thus doubling the benefits of the investment.The consumption of C. argentea was good and was not rejected by the animals.Milk production was highest in the treatment in which fresh C. argentea was offered; however, this treatment did not differ statistically from the treatment offering chicken manure or from the treatment offering ensiled cratylia (Table 2). The silage obtained was highly palatable and of good quality (pH = 4.5, CP = 16.5% and DM = 36%). Silage quality can accordingly be ranked as excellent (González et al. 1990). Milk quality did not differ among treatments; however, total solids and fat in milk were slightly higher in T1 (ensiled C. argentea) and T2 (fresh C. argentea) than in T3, which included chicken manure.The lowest production costs occurred in T2 and the highest in T3. However, the highest income per sale of milk was obtained with T1 and the lowest with T3. These results indicate that the highest economic benefit was obtained with T2, followed by T1 and T3.As in Experiment 1, the consumption of fresh and ensiled C. argentea was good and the percentage of rejection by animals was 10%, mainly stems.The experience with legume silage in the tropics is limited. In Cuba, Ojeda (1999) found that grass/legume silage had good quality. Reagen (1999) found that Cassia silage presented 12% CP and 58% IVDMD. In the process of ensiling legumes, fermentation is mainly dominated by clostridia, which can be attributed to the high buffer capacity, low soluble carbohydrate content in water, and, to a less extent, to the low DM content (Pezo et al. 1989). Kass and Rodríguez (1987), cited by Pezo et al. (1989), observed a high amount of volatile nitrogen (ammonium) and low levels of lactic acid in silage of Gliricidia sepium.• Cratylia argentea, used as a protein supplement during the dry season, can substitute chicken manure completely in milk cows, while it reduces the farmer's dependency on off-farm resources and improves the quality of the diet offered.• The nutritional quality of the milk produced by cows on diets of fresh or ensiled C. argentea is better in terms of fat and total solids. • Profits were higher when milk production involved fresh and ensiled C. argentea than when chicken manure was used because of the higher production and better-quality milk.• Additional studies should be conducted on milk quality and maximum voluntary consumption of cratylia. Different types of silos and silage systems should also be studied.D. Lara and K. Reátegui The inclusion of forage legumes is a production strategy that allows production to be optimised and nutritional deficiencies of grass pastures to be overcome. This alternative also makes better use of animal genotypes, land and producer's capacities.The Alto Mayo region covers 630,735 ha, of which 346,452 ha are suitable for grasslands. Of these 40% are not being used. A survey carried out in March of this year indicated that the Alto Mayo region has potential for livestock activities. Additional surveys indicated that the region offers good possibilities of livestock production on pastures planted to Brachiaria decumbens, B. brizantha and cut-and-carry grasses. However, Centrosema macrocarpum in protein banks and as cut-and-carry forage has proved to be a good alternative to improve the diets offered to grazing animals.The experiment aimed to: 1. measure the increase in milk production and the weight gain in calves attributed to the use of C. macrocarpum to feed dairy cows; and 2. compare the farmers' traditional system with a system based on Centrosema in terms of economic merit.Two 1-ha plots were planted on two farms located in Nueva Cajamarca and Soritor during September 1999. Planting density of Centrosema in both plots was high, with 0.4 m × 0.4 m between plants and 8 kg seed/ha. A 95% coverage was reached at 5.5 months.A completely randomised design was used with three treatments and seven cows/ treatment, over a 10-week period. The following model was used:Y ij = U + T j + E ij where: Y ij = milk production U = overall mean T j = effect of the n -n th treatment (i = 3) E ij = experimental error Treatments were as follows: T1, cut-and-carry grass (king grass) restricted to milking; T2, 50% amount of cut-and-carry grass provided in T1 and 50% of Centrosema provided in T3, restricted to milking; and T3, 100% Centrosema restricted to milking.Milking was done manually, once a day with calf on foot. After milking, calves were allowed to suckle for 5 minutes and were then transferred to pens. Crossbred dairy Gyr × Holstein cows were used and left to graze on the pasture 6 hours/day, after which they were taken to a pen where they received chopped king grass.Control variables were: consumption of supplementary forage; milk production, kg/cow per day during periods of maximum and minimum precipitation; production costs of supplementary feed; and economic evaluation of results.To measure consumption of supplementary forage (kg DM/cow per day), Centrosema and king grass were separately cut, carried and chopped with machete and supplied at milking. Forage on offer and forage rejected were monitored for the first 15 days of adjustment to determine the amount of forage needed during the experimental phase and thus estimate average intake per treatment.Milk production (kg/cow per day) was measured four days per week. Based on this report, production data had been determined for two periods of maximum and minimum precipitation.Costs of producing supplementary feed considered establishment costs and maintenance costs per hectare and the cost of cutting and transporting forage.The following evaluations were carried out to calculate total volume of forage (C. macrocarpum and king grass)/hectare per year; forage availability (kg DM/hectare) in random samples taken at the beginning of each grazing cycle; time of pasture recovery; and pasture coverage at 20, 45 and 60 days after initiating grazing.Economic merit was evaluated using the following formula:Milk production kg = / ( )Average consumption of DM at milking was 0.87, 0.96 and 0.90 kg/cow per day for T1, T2 and T3, respectively, in addition to the voluntary consumption of Brachiaria during grazing and king grass supplied in closed pens during the day and in the afternoon. A trend to consume more grass + legume mixture was observed so it can be inferred that the inclusion of the legume increases consumption by 23% in T2 and 11% in T3.The higher milk production was reached in cows supplemented exclusively with Centrosema (6.65 kg/cow per day), differing significantly (P < 0.05) with the treatment supplemented with Centrosema + king grass (5.56 kg/cow per day) and the treatment of only king grass (4.11 kg/cow per day). Therefore supplementation with Centrosema had a positive impact on milk production.No differences were observed in milk production between cows of two and three parturitions (4.66 kg/day) and cows of four and five parturitions (4.40 kg/day). Significant differences were observed, however, between these groups and first parturition cows (3.02 kg/day).The average milk production of cows during the period of maximum precipitation was 5.13 kg/day, while it was 5.72 kg/day during the period of minimum precipitation, the difference being significant (P < 0.001). This indicates the importance of the legume as a nutritional supplement of cows during the dry season.The cost/kg DM for each alternative was taken into account, which included the depreciation in a 6-year period of the establishment costs of Centrosema and king grass, maintenance costs and harvest costs.In the case of Centrosema, an establishment cost of US$ 380/ha was used, together with an annual maintenance costs of US$ 40/ha, and a harvest cost equivalent to 0.6 personday per each 50 kg of fresh biomass. Annual productivity was estimated at 15 t in 5 cuttings. Thus, the total cost per kilogramme of DM was estimated at US$ 0.105.In the case of king grass, estimated establishment cost was US$ 295/ha with annual maintenance costs of US$ 110/ha and harvest costs equivalent to 1.4 persondays for each 100 kg of fresh biomass. Annual productivity was estimated at 25 t in 4 cuttings. Therefore, total cost per kilogramme of DM was about US$ 0.184.The economic merit for each alternative appears in Table 1, which yielded indexes of 0.055 (T1), 0.056 (T2), and 0.047 (T3). Although production improved in T2 (32%) as compared with T1, the economic merit of this treatment did not improve attributable to the high consumption recorded in this treatment, which increased, in turn, the cost of supplementary feeding. T3, however, presented a better economic index as compared with T1 and T2. Results indicate that supplementation with Centrosema had a positive impact on milk yields when offered at milking to crossbred Gyr × Holstein cows. Supplementation with Centrosema also presented the best economic merit, ratifying the important role this legume plays in improving milk production efficiency. The significant increase in milk production recovered additional expenses involved and maintained an additional margin of profit.  The inclusion of legumes in pastures of Brachiaria decumbens and B. brizantha in the Alto Mayo Region of the Peruvian Amazon is a feasible alternative to increase animal productivity. This study therefore aimed to evaluate the effect of Arachis pintoi cv. Maní forrajero associated with Brachiaria on milk production and stocking rate of grazing cows.The treatments evaluated were: T1, B. brizantha in monoculture; and T2, A. pintoi associated with several species of Brachiaria.Plots of the associated pasture, 4 ha in size, were established on a small farm in Soritor. Initial availability of forage, milk production and stocking rate were recorded. Crossbred Gyr × Holstein cows were used in this evaluation. These same animals grazed both types of pastures.Each pasture was divided into two equivalent paddocks and animals grazed each paddock for 7 days. Milk production was measured in each paddock as of Day 3, during maximum precipitation. Forage availability and botanical composition were measured with random samplings in each paddock at the beginning of the grazing cycle.During the experimental period the producer controlled the rest/occupation periods and the number of animals grazing. The stocking rate of each pasture was calculated on the basis of these indicators: 2.07 AU/ha on pastures of B. brizantha and 4.13 AU/ha in the associated pasture.Forage availability and components of evaluated pastures indicated that total available DM in the associated pasture B. brizantha or A. pintoi was 7.59 t/ha at the beginning of grazing, with legumes accounting for 6% and weeds for 11% of the botanical composition of the pasture. The pasture of B. brizantha alone produced 6.29 t DM/ha, with 9% weeds.Milk production during the season of maximum precipitation was, on average, 5.98 kg/cow per day when the cows grazed the associated pasture, compared with 4.99 kg/ cow per day when they grazed the B. brizantha pasture.Although these results are preliminary and correspond to a single evaluation, farmer expectations are high because the stocking rate of the associated pasture doubled that of the sole cropped pasture and milk production per cow increased by 10%.• Supplementing pre-weaned calves with legumes during the dry season results in more milk for sale and higher liveweight gain compared with calves grazing a sole cropped grass pasture.Use of Stylosanthes guianensis for strategic supplementation of pre-weaned calvesIn the region of Pucallpa, in the Peruvian Amazon, milk price is very high due to a captive market of fresh milk. Pre-weaned calves usually consume between 15-20% of milk production from dam (residual milk). Therefore, developing a feeding alternative to partially substitute the milk consumed by pre-weaned calves with a high quality legume could have a great impact on the income of smallholders because they could sell more milk and improve their cash flow.The following treatments were evaluated: T1, access of calves to native grass pastures for 8 hours/day, together with dam, and the remaining 16 hours in a pasture of Stylosanthes guianensis + residual milk; T2, access of calves to native grass pastures 24 hours/day, without the presence of the dam + residual milk + concentrates; and T3, control (access to native grass pasture 24 hours/day + residual milk).Table 1 presents trial results. Average daily weight gain of calves grazing stylo pastures were similar to those obtained in the traditional pasture management system, but milk sales increased by 23% (0.89 kg additional milk/cow per day). This was reflected in a 25% increase in income. The treatment with stylo + concentrate presented similar milk sales to those of the treatment without concentrate, but higher daily weight gains. However, the variable cost was also higher, resulting in similar total net incomes as when only stylo was used.This improved feeding alternative can have significant impact on the quality of life of small farmers. Stylo can be used to replace concentrates and thus increases cash flow and income, and milk productivity without sacrificing a reduction in weight gain of preweaned calves.Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC The main outputs of dual-purpose cattle production systems are milk and weaned calves for fattening. Under traditional management, farmers usually prefer to sell as much milk as possible to improve their cash flow, but, as a result of this practice, calf growth is slow and mortality rates high. Therefore, the development of feeding systems that allow farmers to obtain more milk for sale and increase the number of pre-weaned calves with adequate weight is a priority in this type of systems. The use of Stylosanthes guianensis (stylo) for grazing pre-weaned calves has been tested in Pucallpa, Peru (see information presented in this document). Results indicate that with this alternative, farmers can sell almost one more litre of milk/cow per day and still maintain adequate calf growth, which has important economic implications. This study aimed to validate the results obtained in Pucallpa, using pre-weaned calves. The study was conducted at the experiment station of the Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Research (CORPOICA) in Macagual (Caqueta, Colombia).Two groups of six calves each, aged 1 to 3 months, were used. One group of calves had access to a 2-ha paddock of stylo after each milking and also received residual milk. The six calves in the control treatment received milk equivalent to one-fourth of the udder at milking and had access to a grass pasture after milking. In all cases calves remained with their dam for 3 to 4 hours after milking, before accessing the grass or legume pasture, depending on the treatment.The amount of milk for sale that resulted from the use of stylo for pre-weaned calves was 21% higher than that recorded with cows that had calves managed in the traditional systems (Table 1). In addition, daily liveweight gain of calves with access to legume was 30% higher than that of the control group during the 90 days of the experiment. The results of this study agree with those obtained on small dairy farms of Pucallpa, Peru. This technology could be very attractive to small dairy producers given that the establishment cost of this legume is less than that of other alternatives based on legumegrass associations. Furthermore, cash flow increases because of the higher sale of milk, without affecting calf liveweight gain.In addition, this technology could form part of a crop-pasture rotation system to improve soil fertility, thus eliminating the need to fallow land.Decision tools to overcome nutritional constraints in dual-purpose cattle in agrosilvopastoral systems: Net carbohydrate and protein system model F. Holmann and R.W. BlakeThe Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) model was developed to predict the nutrient requirements of cattle and feed utilisation by different types of animals with diverse environmental and management conditions. It is a structure that was designed to integrate and apply nutritional knowledge to:• solve feeding problems and reduce feed cost/production unit • set research priorities • design sensitive experiments • interpret experimental results• teach the application of biological principles through the integration of knowledge and • minimise nutrient excretion into the environment per unit of production.The CNCPS simulates the effects of nutrient intake, ruminal fermentation, intestinal digestion, absorption, and metabolism on nutrient utilisation and cattle performance. Specific uses of the model are to:• predict the effects of feed composition and quantity on cattle performance • predict the effects of digestive and metabolic modifiers on cattle performance • evaluate and balance rations for the host animal and rumen bacteria • adjust cattle requirements and estimates of performance for different environmental conditions and • simulate and predict the effects of gastrointestinal parameters on feed utilisation. Thus, this model predicts nutrient requirements and nutrient pool sizes interacting with changing diet composition available to animals.Data were collected from several trials with crossbred cows grazing Brachiaria decumbens at three stocking rates (2, 3 and 4 AU/ha) and supplemented with sugarcane and varying levels of Cratylia argentea.Chemical composition included NDF, CP, lignin, IVDMD and DM for B. decumbens; sugarcane and Cratylia for all trials. However, it was not possible to perform two important analyses that are also required by the model: solubility of protein and non-protein nitrogen (NPN). Thus, without these values it was not possible to calculate the protein and carbohydrate fractions. As an alternative, the values of solubility of protein and NPN for B. decumbens generated by a PhD student at Cornell for the gulf coast of Mexico were used to run the model and those for Gliricidia sepium (to emulate Cratylia) and for sugarcane available in literature.Other data from Avila (1999) included environmental and management variables. Tables 1 to 3 include composition of diets, forage consumption and availability, and actual milk yields vs. those predicted by the model. Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC The model predicts expected milk yield from three different sources: from metabolisable energy (ME), from protein (P) and from amino acids availability (AA). However, the discussion will be centred on the results obtained from the first two sources because there was no information on the AA composition of the forage obtained from Quilichao nor was information available from the tropical forages library.As can be observed, the CNCPS model predicted the observed milk yields in both the low and high stocking rate trials, but failed to predict the observed milk yields for the intermediate stocking rate trials. This under prediction came from both the energy and protein portions, but the bias was larger in predicting milk yields using the protein portion.The probable cause of the low prediction of milk yields for the intermediate stocking rate using the protein portion is the indigestible dry matter which causes low microbial growth, due to high levels of NDF from both B. decumbens (69-70%) and C. argentea (63-66%). Based on Dr Alice Pell's comments, the high lignin content found in cratylia could be the reason why the CNCPS model under-predicted observed milk yield. Based on Pell's experience, lignin content of cratylia leaves and stems should have been around 7-8% but not the 16-17% as found in the Quilichao work. The secondary compounds may be confounded with lignin, masking the overall effect of diet.Based on the Quilichao results, several hypotheses can be drawn: • Cows were selecting B. decumbens with a higher CP content than actual lab results.• Digestion rates for carbohydrate and protein fractions used were wrong.• Information about the pool sizes is inadequate.In addition, Table 4 presents the level of urea nitrogen found in milk (MUN) and the level predicted by the model. The difference could be due to the soluble protein level in the diet, which was higher than the CNCPS prediction.Decision tools to overcome nutritional constraints in dual-purpose cattle systems Because of the slow digestion rates associated with the B3 protein fraction, the CNCPS predicts that the neutral detergent insoluble protein (NDIP) makes little contribution to the rumen N pool. However, the NDIP contribution of tropical grasses to rumen N balance may be higher than that predicted by the CNCPS model. There is a probability that hypotheses (2) and ( 3) are valid.Increasing the CP content in the diet does not increase the protein available for milk yields in the same proportion because both the B. decumbens and the cratylia diets are energy-deficient. However, the model was very sensible when the degradation rate of fibre (B2 carbohydrate fraction) was changed.To better understand why the model is not adequately predicting the results of intermediate stocking rate trials, we should have the following additional information: (1) chemical analysis of feed refused (sugarcane + cratylia) during trials to better predict nutrient pool sizes consumed; (2) body weights at weekly intervals for all trials and treatments to adjust for average tissue mobilised or deposited; (3) biomass availability of B. decumbens after grazing (it was only measured at the beginning of grazing) to estimate growth; (4) estimate of pasture growth by taking forage samples at two weeks intervals, thus simulating cow grazing; (5) weekly milk yield and composition; and (6) body condition of animals.The Tropileche Consortium can benefit from a close collaboration with the University of Cornell by developing a broad database on tropical forages and by calibrating the model for tropical conditions. Potential benefits of the CNCPS for Tropileche include:• This tool may help joint efforts to identify alternatives with potential to increase animal productivity by identifying nutritional constraints, for example alternative diets.Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC The Tropileche Consortium held a workshop to plan and discuss its present and future activities in South America from 27 June to 2nd July 1999, in Moyobamba, Peru. The workshop aimed to: 1. present the research achievements obtained by the Consortium in Peru and pose future research needs 2. define new activities to be conducted in Peru for 1999 3. participate in a field visit to understand and identify opportunities and needs of animal production systems in the Alto Mayo region of the Peruvian Amazon 4. review strategic and participatory research based on needs and constraints and 5. analyse and discuss new forms of collaboration with other institutions in other countries of South America, especially Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil. Invited participants included 22 researchers from Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil.October 1999, Costa Rica F. Holmann, P. Argel, C. Lascano and A. Ramírez CIAT, Colombia A regional consultation meeting was held in Atenas, Costa Rica, to plan future activities of Phase II of the Consortium in Central America and the Caribbean. The objectives of the regional consultation were to: 1. present the status of Consortium activities and achievements to date 2. present and discuss opportunities to improve the dual-purpose production systems of each of the six countries that will participate in Phase II of Tropileche 3. participate in a field visit to observe and discuss the technologies being promoted among producers 4. develop profiles of research proposals for Central America and the Caribbean and for each one of the six participating countries and 5. identify potential sources of funding.A common vision of the future of regional production systems was developed at the regional consultation meeting, and specific activities to be carried out by each country, according to its specific priorities, were defined. There were 29 participants at the consultation meeting, including researchers, producers, and milk plant processing representatives from Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominican Republic.• Ex ante analysis of improved technologies is useful to identify constraints to potential adoption of new technologies by local producers.• Ex post analysis of new technologies is useful to determine the economic impact as a result of the adoption process. • There is a high demand for new improved forage-based alternatives to intensify milk production in the Alto Mayo region of the Peruvian Amazon.• The entry point to achieve greatest economic impact on small dual-purpose farms, located in the dry subtropics, is through the establishment of shrub legumes with sugarcane.• In Central America, the milk market for small artisan rural cheese factories has a higher demand in the dry season than during the rainy season. • Small artisan rural cheese factories in Central America are willing to pay a higher price for milk of better hygienic quality.One of the objectives of the Tropileche Consortium is to develop new feeding alternatives based on improved grasses and legumes. To achieve this, new germplasm generated at CIAT is tested and validated with the participation of producers at different benchmark sites. In addition, ex ante economic analyses are also performed to estimate the potential impact of these new technologies and possible constraints to their adoption. The objective of this study was to carry out an ex ante economic evaluation of new forage alternatives available to producers in the lowland tropics of Latin America, using as case studies the collaborating producers of the Tropileche Consortium in the forest margins of Pucallpa (Peru) and the hillsides of the dry tropics in Esparza (Costa Rica) and Esquipulas (Nicaragua).Data for this study was obtained through direct interviews with each collaborating producer of the Tropileche Consortium at benchmark sites to understand their production systems, use of resources, inputs and product prices, technologies used, and information about the main characteristics of the watersheds where farms were located. For this analysis, a CIAT-developed linear programming farm model was used. The model, based on an electronic spreadsheet, maximises income.Table 1 shows several indicators for herds on dual-purpose cattle farms in Peru, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Larger herds were found in Costa Rica (47 cows and 72 AU), followed by Peru (31 cows and 50 AU) and Nicaragua (29 cows and 48 AU). Milk production was higher in Costa Rica (5.0 kg/cow per day) and Nicaragua (3.7 kg/cow per day) and lower in Peru (3.0 kg/cow per day). These differences in milk production with Peru can be attributed to (a) milk market restrictions and not to differences in animal genotype, and (b) the low percentage of milking cows found in Peru (42%) compared with Costa Rica (60%) and Nicaragua (58%). Most of the farm area is in pastureland, ranging from 75% in Peru to 95% in Nicaragua. The highest forest area per farm ratio was found in Peru (23%) while in Nicaragua this ratio was very low (4%). The area dedicated to agriculture in Peru and Nicaragua is small (0.7-1.5 ha/farm) and limited to subsistence crops (rice, beans and maize); while in Costa Rica this area is larger and more diversified (4.6 ha including rice, maize, beans, sugarcane and fruit trees such as mango, cashew and melon).Most of the area under pastures is covered with 'naturalised' species, such as Hyparrhenia rufa in Costa Rica and Nicaragua; a small percentage is covered with improved pastures (11% in Costa Rica, 15% in Peru and 24% in Nicaragua) in different states of degradation. No pasture rehabilitation measures are applied, resulting in a low and similar stocking rate for all countries: 0.9 AU/ha.Table 2 shows resource prices and capital invested in dual-purpose systems in each country. The farmgate price of milk differs broadly among countries, ranging from US$ 0.22/kg in Esquipulas, Nicaragua, to US$ 0.32/kg in Pucallpa, Peru. The price in Costa Rica is intermediate between both the above prices: US$ 0.28/kg. The milk price received in Peru and Nicaragua is for raw milk while the price received in Costa Rica is for milk cooled to 5°C on the farm, which makes it a better quality product. The price of beef (as culled cows) was similar in Peru and Costa Rica-(US$ 0.60/kg LW), but lower in Nicaragua (US$ 0.50/kg LW). However, the price of the animals was higher in Costa Rica, followed by Peru. Nicaragua had the lowest prices for beef and live animals for all categories.The labour cost also differs dramatically among countries, ranging from US$ 1.75/ day in Nicaragua to US$ 8.80/day in Costa Rica, including social benefits. These differences in labour cost affect the establishment cost of forage alternatives most, which are higher in Costa Rica and lower in Nicaragua.Similarly, the commercial value of land also contrasted, ranging from US$ 200/ha in Pucallpa, Peru, to US$ 2364/ha in Esparza, Costa Rica. The main reason for this contrast lies in the high level of public infrastructure and proximity to markets found in Costa Rica, and its long social and economic stability compared with Pucallpa (Peru) or Esquipulas (Nicaragua).All factors indicated above contribute to a higher capital investment per farm in Costa Rica, with a commercial value of US$ 280 thousand/farm, compared with an average value of US$ 53 thousand/farm in Peru and US$ 45 thousand/farm in Nicaragua. Of these figures, land and livestock are the main investment in all countries. Therefore, the value of land accounts for 77% of the capital invested in Costa Rica, 44% in Nicaragua and 28% in Peru, while livestock represents 15% in Costa Rica, 41% in Nicaragua and 56% in Peru.Table 3 presents an estimate of direct production costs (variable + cash costs) during 1997, gross income, net cash flow and current profitability on invested capital. Labour cost is the most important production cost in Peru (43%) and Costa Rica (63%), and the second most important in Nicaragua (32%). This category includes family labour valued as minimum wage. The second most important category is supplementation cost, except in Nicaragua, where it was the most important cost. Total production cost of milk differed significantly in the three countries, ranging from US$ 0.20/kg in Esquipulas (Nicaragua) to US$ 0.23/kg in Esparza (Costa Rica) to US$ 0.29/kg in Pucallpa (Peru). The principal reason for the low production cost in Nicaragua is because labour cost is 5 times lower than in Costa Rica and 2.5 times lower than in Peru.Production costs in Pucallpa, Peru, are high and above the international price of milk (US$ 2000/t, equivalent to 130 g of powdered milk/litre of fluid milk, or US$ 0.26/kg fluid milk), mainly because of the low milk yields/cow (3.0 kg/cow per day) and the small proportion of milking cows (41.5%) regarding its counterparts in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.Regarding gross sales, most come from milk (60% in Peru, 76% in Costa Rica, and 74% in Nicaragua). The rest of income is represented by the sale of weaned calves and culled cows.Estimated monthly family income was US$ 270 for Pucallpa (Peru), US$ 586 for Esparza (Costa Rica) and US$ 147 for Nicaragua. However, this income was approximately double the minimum wage in Peru and Costa Rica, but almost three times more that in Nicaragua.The profitability on invested capital during 1997 was very low in Costa Rica (1.37%), followed by Nicaragua (2.53%) and Peru (2.87%). The reason why Costa Rica obtained the least profitability despite having the highest family income and labour retribution was because the farms in Costa Rica have a high commercial value (US$ 280 thousand/ farm) due to high land values, which is not the case for Peru or Nicaragua.Figure 1 shows the production cost/kg milk for the different forage options. In Esparza (Costa Rica), the production cost using traditional pasture (Hyparrhenia rufa) makes it necessary for producers to supplement their milking herd during the 5-month dry season. With an average production of 1350 kg/lactation, milk production costs were US$ 0.31/kg, while the milk price received was US$ 0.28/kg. With the sale of weaned calves, equilibrium was reached with a salary similar to the minimum wage.Production costs decreased as productivity increased. Therefore, going from a lactation producing 1350 kg (5.0 kg/cow per day) to 1500 kg (5.55 kg/cow per day) reduced the costs/kg from US$ 0.31 to US$ 0.29. With a lactation producing 2000 kg milk production costs decreased to US$ 0.23/kg, with cows grazing on H. rufa pastures and receiving year-round supplementation of chicken manure and molasses to satisfy those nutritional requirements that H. rufa cannot satisfy.With this forage option it is possible to completely eliminate the need to purchase feed concentrates, molasses or chicken manure during the dry period. This option is capable of maintaining the production even when lactating cows are producing 2000 kg/lac-tation (7.4 kg/day). The production cost/kg of milk is reduced by 13% compared with the current feeding system and 9% less with production levels of 1500 kg/lactation. The investment required to implement this option in a farm with an average herd of 47 cows in Esparza (Costa Rica) costs around US$ 6000, which includes the establishment of 8.9 ha of Cratylia, 1.8 ha of sugarcane and the purchase of a cane-chopper.Figure 2 shows the real interest rate that could be paid for this investment, depending on the productivity per cow, assuming that the producer allocates 50% of the marginal income obtained as a result of implementing this forage alternative. The real interest rate in Costa Rica during the study was set at 13% (24% nominal interest minus 11% inflation rate) and the available credit was for a 5-year term with 1 year of grace. Under this situation, it was not feasible to pay this credit unless cows achieved a production of 2000 kg/lactation. With productivities of 1500 kg/lactation, it would have been possible to pay this credit if real interest rates had been lower (5-10%) and longer payback time periods (close to 10 years).This situation should be analysed for purposes of livestock policy and competitiveness. In an economic scenario of open markets operating without subsidies, producers should have the option to obtain credits with real interest rates that reflect the oppor- tunity cost of money at the international level, which is currently at 5-7% in real terms, with 15 years to pay.Other alternatives analysed, for example, establishing Brachiaria brizantha with or without Arachis pintoi, yielded similar results. However, the establishment of these options releases fragile lands that could be put to other alternative uses, such as reforestation. Figure 3 shows the percentage of pastureland that could be released for other uses in Costa Rica.The situation in Esquipulas, Nicaragua, was similar to Costa Rica; in other words, the forage alternatives evaluated in this study significantly reduced production costs. Figure 4 shows the cost of producing milk with different forage options according to cow productivity. Under study conditions, milk production cost was US$ 0.26/kg while the Tropileche Consortium 97Ex ante analysis of new forage alternatives for dual-purpose cattle    This situation, however, could improve even with the current situation if cow productivity was higher. The quality of H. rufa is enough to maintain cows yielding up to 1500 kg/lactation, without additional supplementation during the rainy season and cows yielding 2000 kg/lactation, with energy and protein supplementation year-round, but with H. rufa it is possible to reduce milk production costs to US$ 0.20/kg based on grazing management (for example, good degree of coverage of pastures, weed control, rotation of paddocks, shade, availability of water for grazing animals and adequate resting period).With this forage option, and in the case of Costa Rica, it is possible to completely eliminate the need for supplementation during the dry season. The production cost was reduced by 31% (from US$ 0.26/kg to US$ 0.18/kg) with the same productivity of the existing herd. Similarly, it is possible to reduce the production cost to US$ 0.14/kg with a cow productivity of 1500 kg/lactation. It is even possible to reduce it to US$ 0.12/kg with a cow productivity of 2000 kg/lactation. The investment required to establish this forage option, on an average farm of 29 cows at this benchmark site, was approximately US$ 4600. This investment covered the establishment of 5 ha of Cratylia, 2.4 ha of sugarcane, and the purchase of a cane chopper with diesel or gasoline engine because very little rural electrification infrastructure exists at this site.Figure 5 shows the real interest rates that could be paid for this investment, depending on the productivity per cow, assuming that the producer allocates 50% of the marginal income to pay back the loan regarding the base scenario (H. rufa + feed concentrate). During the study, the Nicaraguan financial system offered a real interest rate of 18% for farm per livestock credits with a 5-year payback period.In this situation and with the prevailing milk productivity at that time, it was not possible to adopt this forage alternative because it was not economically viable. However, with productivities per cow of 1500 kg/lactation, the payment of a credit was perfectly viable under the conditions prevailing in the country at the time of the study because it was possible to pay a real interest rate up to 22%, with a payback period of 5 years. With production levels of 2000 kg/lactation, the situation would have been even more viable.The MAG-WFP dairy development project in Nicaragua offers credits to small milk producers at a real interest rate of 10% with a 5-year payback period, although the allowable maximum amount is up to US$ 3000/farm. This was an excellent opportunity for small producers to adopt these new improved forage-based technological alternatives, which allow them to significantly improve their competitiveness and income by reducing production costs.The case of Pucallpa, Peru, is different from that of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A characteristic of this region is the higher annual precipitation (2000 mm vs. 1200 mm in Costa Rica and Nicaragua) and its even distribution. In consequence, the dry season in Pucallpa is only 3 months long and not 6 months as in the case of Esparza (Costa Rica) and Esquipulas (Nicaragua). As a result, the climatic conditions in Pucallpa allow pastures to grow year-round.Another important characteristic in Pucallpa is that the production per cow is very low (3 kg/cow per day, Table 1), especially in the dry season when it is practically nil. This characteristic can be due to several factors: a) low genetic potential for milk production b) little availability of nutrients in grasses due to high pasture degradation in low fertility soils and c) a very limited market for raw milk.Regarding the last factor, daily production of fresh milk in the area of Pucallpa is about 2500 kg and the cattle inventory decreased from 82 thousand heads in 1986 to 26 thousand at present as a consequence of terrorist activities and cattle rustling. The city of 100Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC Pucallpa, with a population of 300 thousand, does not have a milk processing plant. As a result, consumption of milk in Pucallpa is mostly in the form of evaporated milk imported from other cities of the country. This situation has accustomed the population to drink pasteurised milk. Thus, the market for raw milk is very small. Four of the nine producers who collaborate with the Tropileche Consortium thought that if they increased their milk production, they would have problems to market the additional milk because the market was already saturated. The other five producers sell their milk to the School Milk Program, a public-funded project that provides fluid milk to children during school hours.Another factor that affects the potential to increase the milk market is the substitution of protein sources existing in the region. River products are a good example: a kg of DM of fish protein costs US$ 2.90 in Pucallpa, while a kg of milk protein costs US$ 8.80. In other words, milk protein is 303% more expensive than fish protein. Furthermore, there are other energy sources, such as cassava and rice, equivalent in dry matter and significantly less expensive than milk. As a result, the market of raw milk in Pucallpa is limited to the upper-class population and its possibilities for growth are very limited, unless a milk processing plant can be established in Pucallpa to satisfy the demand for evaporated milk that is now brought from Lima.Figure 6 shows milk production costs under different forage alternatives. Unlike the results from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the most profitable option for Pucallpa under the current situation in Peru is the base scenario found on farms. In other words, the most competitive option is to maintain the herd in native pastures and provide milking cows with a supplement of brewers' yeast during the short 3-month dry season. Brewers' yeast is a viable option because it is abundant and inexpensive (US$ 0.15/kg DM, 22% CP and 65% digestibility).With this alternative, the milk production cost was US$ 0.33/kg while the price received was US$ 0.32/kg. Therefore, the additional income from the sale of male calves increased farmers' income a little above the minimum wage and paid for variable costs.This alternative also proved to be the most attractive, with productivities of 1500 kg/ lactation and even up to 2000 kg/lactation. In no scenario did the forage alternatives evaluated in this study (Brachiaria + Arachis or Brachiaria + Cratylia) succeed in reducing milk production costs at levels below that of the native pastures supplemented with brewers' yeast.Under the assumption that brewers' yeast ceases to be a viable option for supplementation, another option evaluated was maize at US$ 0.23/kg. For the option of Brachiaria with Arachis and/or Cratylia to form part of the solution, and with milk production levels of 800 kg/lactation, maize price would have to be US$ 0.38/kg (a 65% increase) so that the cost of producing milk equals the current alternative. Therefore it seems very unlikely that producers will adopt the alternative of Brachiaria with Arachis and/or Cratylia if they have brewers' yeast and/or maize at US$ 0.23/kg as alternatives.With milking cows producing 1500 kg/lactation, the price of maize would have to increase 9% to equal the production cost of both alternatives evaluated.The fundamental reason why none of the improved forage options were economically better than the current management practice of native pastures + brewers' yeast is because of the high capital investment required per milking cow. The low current proportion of milking cows induces a high depreciation rate of improved pastures per cow. In Pucallpa, the percentage of milking cows was 41% while in Costa Rica and Nicaragua this figure was close to 60%. Therefore, to invest in these new improved forage alternatives, it would be necessary to increase the percentage of milking cows in a year to a minimum of 53%, or increase the stocking rate of 0.9 AU/ha to 1.3 AU/ha by introducing more animals. In this new scenario, the evaluated forage options would form part of the solution.From the financial viewpoint, Figure 7 presents the real interest rates that could be paid if a producer in Pucallpa invests in the establishment of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi. Peru had the highest real interest rate of the three countries considered in this study, with 34% (44% nominal minus 10% annual inflation rate). Therefore, even if the investment in these new forage options was economically superior, the high real interest rate available in Peru did not allow producers to adopt these technologies. Therefore, in the financial scenario existing during the study, producers in Pucallpa had no option for intensification, (not even with productivities per cow of 2000 kg/lactation and with payback periods of 10 years) because it was not possible to pay a real interest rate of 34% (the best scenario possible was 15%).However, the advantage of establishing these forage alternatives in Pucallpa is that both options successfully released significant proportions of areas currently under grazing so they could be destined to other alternative uses such as reforestation and/or conservation (Figure 8). The area released represents 35.4% in the case of Brachiaria + Cratylia (20.2 ha/farm), and 48.1% in the case of Brachiaria + Arachis (27.4 ha/farm).Ex ante analysis of new forage alternatives for dual-purpose cattle The case of dual-purpose cattle systems in Caqueta, ColombiaL. Rivas and F. HolmannThe region of Caquetá, Colombia, is representative of the environmental and economic situation prevailing in Colombia's Amazon region. Development efforts began in this region in the early 1900s and, have since gone through several phases up to the implementation of complex agricultural and cattle production systems that, over time, have been progressively intensified. CIAT, together with Nestlé, has assessed the evolution of livestock systems in Caquetá regarding two topics of interest for both institutions: (1) the adoption of forage technologies and (2) the production and productivity of livestock systems.The forage legume Arachis pintoi, or perennial forage peanut, is the result of a joint research effort of CIAT with collaborating institutions. This material was evaluated during several years and released in 1992 as a forage alternative. The adoption and transfer of new forage technologies are complex and time-consuming processes. The decision to adopt an improved pasture involves a considerable investment of capital not only in pasture establishment, but also in higher livestock requirements because this type of forage technology increases the stocking rate. This is a critical issue for small-and medium-scale farmers, such as those that exist in Caquetá, with little capital and limited access to financial institutions.The present study focused on analysing the evolution of the early adoption process of Arachis pintoi promoted by CIAT and Nestlé to generate relevant information that would allow possible limitations to adoption to be identified, while facilitating the design of strategies that would accelerate the adoption process.Basic data were collected through surveys in which the universe was the group of dairy farms that supplied milk to the Nestlé plant in Caquetá. Two sampling strategies were used: a. A random sample whose size was estimated using conventional statistical methods and b. An additional sample of 52 farms that were already using the new material, in view of the fact that the adoption of this technology was in an initial phase.Sufficient information was gathered accordingly regarding experiences, difficulties and prospects of producers testing Arachis.Available data shows that land use patterns in Caquetá are highly dynamic when compared with the results of a study carried out in 1986 by Ramirez and Seré (Tables 1 and  2). The most relevant aspects of this comparative analysis were that ( 1) the relative importance of natural grasses of low productivity decreased as the use of improved pastures increased; (2) the greater diversification of the forage germplasm used decreased the relative importance of B. decumbens as compared with other types of Brachiaria; and (3) unlike 1986, mixed pastures of grasses with legumes were observed as a new forage alternative for Caquetá. Of 226 producers interviewed, most of them ( 179) had heard about the existence of this new forage alternative in the region. Of this group, 171 had seen the material (76% of all producers). At the time of the interview, 68 of them (30% of total) were using A. pintoi. Two types of pastures with Arachis were identified: (1) seed banks, with an average area of 1.3 ha/farm, and (2) pastures of grasses mixed with Arachis with an average area of 9.6 ha/farm. Fifty-seven livestock owners (82%) who were experimenting with Arachis used it mixed with grasses. Of a total of 68 early adopters, 21 (31%) had had problems establishing peanut. The main problems were related to low germination rate of the grass (8%), and slow establishment of the peanut (7%). However, the degree of satisfaction with Arachis performance was high and 82% of farmers said they were satisfied with the results obtained so far. The fact that more than half of the adopters (55%) have already used the legume in associated pastures is significant. Producers who have used Arachis have identified its capacity to increase the productivity of the associated grass as an important attribute of this new forage option. About 63% of the producers have detected one or more of the following advantages: increased stocking rate, higher milk yield and increased weight gain, enhanced competitiveness with weeds and improved palatability for animals. Table 3 summarises how producers rate Arachis based on their experiences.  The adoption rate of A. pintoi in Caquetá, during the study period, expressed as the proportion of producers using this material, was close to 9.2% (16 early adopters out of a random sample of 174 producers). Based on this adoption rate, a preliminary estimate of total area planted to A. pintoi was about 3000 ha in the 2973 dairy farms supplying milk to the Nestle plant. Of this area, 2626 ha (88%) were associations of A. pintoi with grasses and the rest, seed banks of the legume. Of 68 early adopters, 58 (85%) said they were willing to expand planted areas and would increase, over the next three years, the area planted to Arachis by 11 ha/farm in year 1, by another 10 ha/farm in year 2, and 11 ha more during year 3.The technology of grass-legume pastures, using A. pintoi, is economically attractive for the Caquetá region. Its profitability, expressed as internal rate of return, is substantially higher than that of traditional technology based on improved grass pastures alone (Table 5). Changing traditional technology to a grass-legume association with Arachis substantially increases establishment cost from US$ 157/ha (B. decumbens alone) to US$ 368/ha (B. dictyoneura + A. pintoi). In addition to the substantial increase in establish-ment cost, the increase in stocking rate also implies the need to purchase more cattle.In view of the current situation of Colombia, where high real interest rates prevail, new and low-cost alternatives must be identified to establish improved forage alternatives.Although the quality of commercial seed used in Caquetá is high in terms of purity and germination, its local price is high compared with neighbouring countries such as Bolivia. The cost per kg of A. pintoi in the region ranged from US$ 20 to US$ 25/kg during the study, while that of Bolivian seed cost around US$ 15/kg. Despite the attributes of A. pintoi, its cost is substantially higher than that of other forage legumes used in the region, for example Pueraria phaseoloides (kudzu), Centrosema macrocarpum and Desmodium ovalifolium, whose costs ranged between US$ 12/kg and US$ 15/kg. The reduced economic activity in Colombia and the farmers' scarce knowledge of this new material affect its rate of adoption. Information on the use, management and potential of Arachis should be diffused broadly to accelerate its adoption rate; seed costs must also be lowered to reduce establishment costs.Mayo Region of the Peruvian Amazon S. Fujisaka, 1 D. Lara, 2 K. Reategui, 1 J. Montenegro, 3 R. Ventura, 3 M. Diaz, 4 R. Diaz 4 and D. White 11. CIAT, 2. FUNDAAM, 3. CTAR, 4. MAG-Peru Researchers from the Fundación del Alto Mayo (FUNDAAM), the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) of Peru, the CTAR (Consejo Transitorio Agropecuario Regional), and CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) conducted a diagnostic field survey to evaluate feeding systems for dual-purpose cattle in the Alto Mayo Region, Department of San Martin, in the Peruvian Amazon.The study was carried out in four communities (Nuevo Cajamarca, Soritor, Habana and Rioja), where farmers owned, on average, some 25-30 head of cattle, with 4 to 10 cows being milked at any given time throughout the year. Farm size ranged between 25 and 33 ha, of which 16-18 ha were sown to pastures. The most common species was Brachiaria decumbens, followed by B. brizantha. The milk produced in the region is mainly marketed through a processing plant that sells milk to the government for a social project providing milk to school children.The invasion of weeds and wet-season trampling, which caused soil compaction, were the most frequent pasture management problems. Parasites and diseases affected livestock. In addition to livestock production, the farmers also depend on subsistence crops such as irrigated rice and coffee.The survey indicated that the lack of improved forages was a constraint to enhanced herd productivity in the region. In the four communities surveyed, several farmers had established cut-and-carry forages, mainly elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and king grass (Pennisetum spp.). These farmers had also installed improved milking and feeding stalls and infrastructure for animal feeding. Because of the low prices paid for raw milk, many producers allocated the milk produced to late-weaned calves rather than to market.The study area was located in the piedmont region of the Peruvian Amazon region, at 1000 metres above sea level (masl). Average annual precipitation was 1380 mm, with a dry season between May and August. Mean annual temperature was 22°C. The survey covered 52 producers; interviews were informal, but structured around a series of themes. Data were tabulated and analysed each day after field visits. Interview themes for the following day were modified daily based on findings of the previous day. The research team spent the last day of the intensive 4-day diagnostic survey process to draw conclusions and discuss implications for future needs of research and collaboration.Cattle numbers were determined on 18 farms in Nuevo Cajamarca and 22 farms in Soritor. On the farms in Nuevo Cajamarca, the mean herd size was 32 animals, ranging between 6 and 70. This number included 15 cows, of which nine were being milked (Table 1). The ratio of cows to herd size and milking cows to dry cows were typical of the study area.  Number of herd size varied. In Soritor and Nuevo Cajamarca, 30% of the producers interviewed had up to 15 head of cattle (13 on average), 53% had between 16 and 49 (31 on average), and 18% had 50 or more head (62 on average). The ratio of small-, mediumand large-scale operations appeared to be characteristic of the whole area visited. Taking Soritor (where herd size averaged 26 head) as example, producers reported, on average, 8 births (ranging between 2 and 21), 2 accidental or disease-related deaths (ranging between 0 and 10), and five sales during the year immediately before (ranging between 0 and 17) (Table 1).Mean farm size ranged from 25 ha in Rioja and Soritor to 33 ha in Nuevo Cajamarca. Farm size ranged from 4 to 90 ha, with herd sizes proportional to farm size. All farmers had some land in pasture. Assuming an average area in pasture of 16-18 ha among the four communities, the mean proportions of pasture area in relation to the whole farm varied from 56 to 64% (Table 2). Stocking rates ranged from a mean 1.3 head/hectare in Habana to 1.8 head/hectare in Nuevo Cajamarca.In Habana, 82% of the farmers had B. decumbens in their pastures, while 100% of the farmers in Rioja and Soritor had pastures sown to this grass, accounting for 72-93% of total pasture area. In Rioja, 18% of the farmers had also sown B. brizantha and 42% in Soritor ( Many farmers had also established cut-and-carry forages: 27% of farmers interviewed in Rioja and 100% of the farmers in Nuevo Cajamarca. Areas sown ranged from small plots in Rioja, Soritor, and Habana (0.5 ha on average) to 3 ha in Nuevo Cajamarca (Table 2). Varieties sown for cut-and-carry feeding were mainly king grass and elephant grass. None of the farmers in Rioja and half of those in Soritor had mechanised forage cutters.Other main land uses were coffee, irrigated rice, annual crops, and forest or forest fallow. Between 50 and 66% of farmers in each community grew coffee on plots of 1 ha (in Rioja) to 5 ha (in Nuevo Cajamarca). From 21 to 73% of the farmers grew lowland rice on plots from 0.6 to 3 ha in size. More than half the farmers had land under forest or fallow. Habana was the most forested (11 ha/farm) (Table 2).Animal health problems were ectoparasites such as ticks and 'nuche', (a skin burrowing maggot) and diseases such as mastitis and stomatitis. Treatments consisted in farmers administering prophylactic drugs.Weed control was the problem associated with pasture management that demanded most labour. Farmers in flatter areas suffered from soil compaction caused by pasture trampling in the wet season. Although paddocks were regularly rotated, some farmers rented additional pastureland during the rainy season to decrease pasture degradation. Additional pastureland was seldom leased during the dry season (Table 3).Farmers interviewed were consistent in terms of what they wanted to achieve in the future. Around half wanted to increase their areas sown to pastures, and an equal number of farmers wanted to increase and/or improve their herds. Only a few mentioned plans to decrease herd size, but planned to improve herd quality by introducing improved breeds and selection. In Nuevo Cajamarca, 50% of farmers wanted to improve their feeding/milking sheds. From 33-66% of farmers wanted to improve their pastures by establishing B. brizantha and other new forage species, including legumes (Table 4).  The main conclusions of the activities carried out by this collaborative effort between national institutions and CIAT in the Alto Mayo Region of Peru were as follows:• Local farmers managed a mixture of enterprises, changing proportions over as time determined by market variables. • Farmers adjusted the amounts of milk sold versus the milk consumed by calves in response to prices paid for milk. • Farmers had technically sound but expensive solutions to their problems of weeds and cattle diseases.• A high number of farmers were in process of adopting cut-and-carry forages, improving feeding and milking sheds and installing forage cutters. The demand for improved forages was therefore relatively high. • Although the need for dietary protein was acknowledged, the adoption of forage legumes has been hindered by high losses in biomass due to attacks of insects and wild herbivores. • Very little pasture degradation due to pasture trampling by animals was observed at the time of the survey, although producers mentioned that this was a production constraint in flatter areas.Based on results and conclusions, the group recommended additional research on basic indicators, weeds, cattle pests, improved forages and soil macro-fauna.Recommendations included the following: • Basic indicators must be defined and monitored to better understand local dualpurpose systems and to measure future changes. The group proposed the monitoring of a sample group of dual-purpose cattle farms to record data on herd composition, birth and death rates, milk production, liveweight gain and feeding systems.• Research on weed control in pastures should be strengthened, especially regarding costs. Further research is needed on the effects of periodic burning, pasture rotations, stocking rates, and pasture species on weed composition and spread. Pasture species that help control weeds and that can be used in livestock or pastures associated management systems should be evaluated. • Farmers continually invested in treatments to control parasites in animals. Factors favouring the appearance of these pests should be studied. • FUNDAAM and the Ministry of Agriculture have conducted substantial research on forage improvement. The Ministry recently distributed seed of C. macrocarpum, P. maximum and B. brizantha to some 200 farmers for testing and multiplication. The goal was that each farmer would be able to establish a protein bank. Forage species and varieties that not only improve animal and milk outputs, but also help suppress weeds, are resistant to drought, and are tolerant to water logging should also be identified. Farmers recognised the potential value of forage legumes, although they are attacked by pests and rodents. The group suggested enhanced farmer participation in the testing of a 'cocktail' of forage varieties and species. The group agreed that there is need to better understand political decisions and the market context relevant to dual-purpose livestock producers. The issues discussed included national research priorities and policies, building of roads, the 'Glass of Milk' programme for local school students, credit, and national policies concerning milk imports, exports and subsidies.Milk production in Central America and the Caribbean has grown during the 1990s at an annual rate of 4.6%, which evidences the marked dynamism of the sector (Umaña 1998). However, even with this high growth, the region is a net importer of dairy products. These imports are growing at an annual rate of 13% due to the high demand. The region went from importing 20% of its needs in 1990 to almost 28% in 1996, equivalent to US$ 104 million/year (Umaña 1998).It is estimated that around 85% of the milk produced in the region comes from dualpurpose farms that produce milk and beef. This type of production system is mostly found in small and medium farms where pastures are the main feeding source because they are inexpensive and abundant.Research executed by CIAT and ILRI carried out by the Tropileche Consortium in the subhumid areas of Costa Rica has demonstrated that improved forages contribute to the intensification of milk production on small dairy farms by: (1) increasing milk production and stocking rate; (2) releasing areas not suitable for livestock for use as environmental reserves; and (3) reducing the demand for purchased feed inputs and thus improving the cash flow (Holmann et al. 1999). In addition, producers outside benchmark sites have been observed to spontaneously adopt new forages, mainly in Costa Rica and Peru and to a lesser extent in Nicaragua and Honduras.This study aims to measure the impact of new forage germplasm on productivity and reduction of production costs, at different on-farm levels of adoption; identify the potential benefits; and determine the region's seed production needs. The study covered dual-purpose farms located in hillside areas where the Tropileche Consortium operates in the dry tropics of Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua.Data for this study were obtained from direct interviews with 78 producers located in the dry tropics of each country to understand their systems of production, their use of resources, the prices of inputs and products, and the technologies used. In Costa Rica, 21 producers were randomly interviewed in the area of Puntarenas and Esparza in the Central Pacific region. In Honduras, 20 producers were interviewed in the areas of Olancho, Catacamas and Juticalpa. In Nicaragua, 37 producers were interviewed in the Muy-Muy and Esquipulas watersheds (Department of Matagalpa), where livestock production is an important activity.A CIAT-developed linear programming simulation model was used to analyse information. This model, based on electronic sheets, maximises on-farm income.Table 1 shows the averages for livestock inventory, milk production, reproductive parameters and land use in dual-purpose farms in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua during the time of the study.The largest mean herd size was found in Nicaragua (44 cows and 81 AU) followed by Honduras (42 cows and 78 AU); the smallest mean herd size was found in Costa Rica (23 cows and 36 AU). Milk yield, however, was highest in Costa Rica (6.8 kg/cow per day during the rainy season), followed by Honduras (6.6 kg/cow per day) and Nicaragua (4.2 kg/cow per day).Reproductive and animal management parameters are similar in the three countries with the only difference that calf and adult mortality is highest in Nicaragua.On-farm land use differed among countries. Large parts of the farms were allocated to pastures, ranging from 77% in Honduras to 95% in Nicaragua. The highest proportion of forest was found in Costa Rica (13%) while this area was minimal in Nicaragua (3%). Small areas were allocated to agricultural crops in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (0.6-1.8 ha), being much larger in Honduras (7.6 ha).The highest percentage of pasture area under low-productivity 'naturalised' species (96%) was found in Nicaragua, followed by Costa Rica (84%). The pasture area in Honduras had the highest proportion of improved varieties (69%), which explains to a great extent the high stocking rate found in Honduras (1.44 AU/ha) compared with the other two countries (0.75 AU/ha for Costa Rica and 0.99 AU/ha for Nicaragua).Table 2 contains the prices of inputs and outputs used by dual-purpose farms in each country. The farmgate price of milk paid to producers is different in each country and varies depending on the season of the year. The average weighed price is higher, however, in Honduras (US$ 0.26/kg), followed by Costa Rica (US$ 0.22/kg) and Nicaragua (US$ 0.21/kg). This difference in price could be attributed to the fact hat Honduras has a milk deficit, while Costa Rica and Nicaragua export milk-Costa Rica in the form of long-life UHT milk and Nicaragua in the form of fresh, non-pasteurised cheeses.During the rainy season the milk price varies from US$ 0.27/kg, paid by processing plants in Costa Rica, to US$ 0.18/kg in Honduras. During the dry season, intermediaries in Honduras pay the best milk price (US$ 0.34/kg), whereas intermediaries in Nicaragua pay the lowest (US$ 0.17/kg). The largest buyers of milk were processing plants in Honduras (65%) and Costa Rica (42%), while in Nicaragua intermediaries purchased 46% of the milk produced.The price of beef (as culled cow) was similar in Costa Rica (US$ 0.62/kg), and Nicaragua (US$ 0.65/kg), while it was higher in Honduras (US$ 0.80/kg), where the commercial price of animals is significantly higher.Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC The use and cost of labour also differs markedly among countries, ranging from US$ 2.30/personday in Nicaragua to US$ 9.30/personday in Costa Rica (including all social benefits). These differences in labour cost affect efficiency, this effect being greatest in Costa Rica (17.3 cows/person) with the smallest herd size and lowest in Nicaragua (13.2 cows/person) with larger herd sizes.Potential benefits of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose cattle systems in the dry tropics Similarly, commercial land value also contrasts, ranging from US$ 612/ha in Nicaragua to US$ 3676/ha in Costa Rica. The high land value in Costa Rica can be attributed to the high level of public infrastructure, the proximity to urban markets, and the country's long social and economic stability.The amount of feed supplements used/cow per year in Costa Rica is greater than those ones reported by the other countries (Table 3), which is consistent with the higher milk yields and efficiency of labour reported in Costa Rica. This study aims to estimate the potential benefits of new forage germplasm, with different levels of adoption on-farm and at the regional level in the dry tropical hillside areas where the Tropileche Consortium operates. The alternatives analysed were Brachiaria brizantha, B. decumbens, and B. dictyoneura, and the legumes Cratylia argentea and Arachis pintoi, and sugarcane as energy source. Table 4 presents the nutritional parameters and biomass production of all forage alternatives evaluated in this study using the simulation model. Animal management parameters were taken from farm averages in each country so that they represented the current conditions of management and resource use (Tables 1 to 3).The situation prevailing during the study was evaluated for each region within each country and this, in turn, was compared against three levels of adoption. Similarly, the following parameters were estimated to compare the different scenarios:• additional investment in the new germplasm (per farm and per cow in the herd)• net income (per hectare and per cow) after discounting fixed and variable costs and use of family labour valued as minimum wage cost • milk productivity/hectare • livestock area that can be released as a result of the different levels of adoption (in number of hectares and as percentage of farm area allocated to livestock production)• production cost/kg milk as the maximum expression of competitiveness.The average farm was assessed as to management practices and use of resources based on the results of each individual country survey (Tables 1 to 3).This level consisted in the adoption of new germplasm to substitute purchased feeds used to supplement the herd, especially during the dry season (Table 3). The same herd size (the same number of milking cows) and milk production per cow were assumed for this scenario. This adoption level requires the lowest level of investment and new forage alternatives will be established in small areas. With this level of adoption no areas are released for other alternative uses because its sole objective is to partially substitute purchased feed supplements.Potential benefits of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose cattle systems in the dry tropics Level 2This level implied the adoption of new alternatives to not only satisfy substitute feeds purchased to supplement the herd, but also to release areas currently allocated to livestock production for other alternative uses. As in Level 1, the same herd size and milk production per cow were assumed; this level required a slightly higher investment than Level 1 and could be considered the most rational option for producers already in Level 1.This level of adoption consisted in the establishment of new forage germplasm in the entire farm area allocated to livestock production. This level of adoption assumed the same milk production per cow but allowed the expansion in herd size. Therefore this level required the highest level of investment because it not only required that larger areas be established with improved forages, but also that additional animals be purchased to maximise land use. This level could be the option for producers already in Level 2.On-farm analysis of benefitsTables 5, 6 and 7 present the results of simulation runs of the linear programming model to analyse the situation at that time versus potential benefits of three levels of adoption of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose farms in Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. The situation of the dual-purpose farms surveyed was different in each of the three countries. Nicaragua presented the lowest milk productivity per hectare because practically all the farms surveyed were covered by naturalised Jaragua pastures (Table 7). The opposite situation was observed in Honduras where milk productivity per hectare was highest because the farmers surveyed had significant areas under improved pastures (>60%), and important areas under cut-and-carry systems, for example sugarcane and forage sorghum ( This level of adoption aimed to establish minimal areas of improved to replace the use of purchased feeds for the herd, especially during the dry season. The forage option that Tropileche Consortium 121Potential benefits of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose cattle systems in the dry tropics Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in LAC  In the case of Costa Rica, the establishment of 0.7 ha of sugarcane with 1.6 ha of Cratylia represented an investment of US$ 872 for a herd of 23 cows. This area produced enough nutrients and biomass to completely eliminate the need to purchase 491 kg of chicken manure and 270 kg of feed concentrate usually required per cow each year. This investment was equivalent to US$ 38/cow, and generated savings in cash flow of US$ 71/cow per year, allowing an increase in annual net income/cow of US$55 (from US$ 34 to 89) and a reduction in production cost/kg milk of US$ 0.03 (from US$ 0.21 to 0.18).The potential benefit of the new technology was even greater in Honduras than in Costa Rica because the annual cost of purchased feeds in Honduras was the highest of the three countries. Therefore, with a small investment of US$ 850/farm to establish 3.4 ha of sugarcane and 3 ha of Cratylia, the purchase of 88 kg of molasses and 418 kg of feed concentrate/cow per year could be eliminated (Table 6). In addition, this level of adoption reduced production cost/kg milk by US$ 0.04 (from US$ 0.16 to 0.12) and increased the net income/cow per year by US$ 94 (from US$ 167 to 261).The economic impact of this level of technology in Nicaragua was similar to that observed in Honduras. In this case, small areas (0.6 ha of sugarcane + 1.7 ha of Cratylia) were needed to replace the use of purchased feeds that amounted to 410 kg of chicken manure and 70 kg of molasses per cow/year, with a very modest investment of US$ 695/ farm (Table 7). The investment to achieve this level of adoption reduced production cost/kg milk by US$ 0.02 (from US$ 0.18 to 0.16), which increased net income/cow per year by US$ 31 (from US$ 38 to 69).This level of adoption aimed not only to substitute purchased feeds by establishing new forage options, but also to release areas currently allocated to livestock production for other alternative uses. To meet this objective, the simulation model incorporated not only the forage alternatives used in Level 1, but also the adoption of improved grasses such as Brachiaria spp.In the case of Costa Rica, this level of adoption required, in addition to the investment of Level 1 and the 7.2 ha of improved grasses already existing, that another 19.3 ha of Brachiaria spp. be established. This investment cost US$ 5730/farm (US$ 249/cow) and allowed up to 18.8 ha of land, equivalent to 39.2% of the area allocated to livestock production, to be released for alternative uses. As a result, the stocking rate was increased from 0.75 AU/ha to 1.23 AU/ha. The adoption of improved forages reduced milk production costs even more than in Level 1 and increased net income (Table 5).The additional investment to reach this level of adoption in Honduras was lower than that required in Costa Rica: US$ 1830/farm (US$ 44/cow) because the farms surveyed reported, on average, the existence of 27.1 ha of improved grasses. Thus, to achieve the objectives of this level of adoption, an investment similar to that of Level 1 was required, and producers also had to invest in the establishment of an additional 6.2 ha of Brachiaria spp.Because the stocking rate in Honduras was relatively high (approximately 1.44 AU/ ha) as a result of the adoption of improved grasses and cut-and-carry forages, the area that could be released without affecting herd size and production/farm was low compared with Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The area that could have been released in Honduras was about 4.1 ha, which represented 9.3% of the total farm area allocated to livestock production (Table 6). This level of adoption led to additional reduction in production cost/kg milk (US$ 0.11/kg) and an increase in net income/cow per year.Level 2 required a higher level of investment in Nicaragua than in Costa Rica and Nicaragua because the areas to be established with improved forages were larger in view of the precarious situation of farms at that time. To achieve Level 2 of adoption, an investment of US$ 7410/farm, equivalent to US$ 168/cow, was necessary to establish 4.4 ha of sugarcane, 2.2 ha of Cratylia, and 37.3 ha of Brachiaria spp. (Table 7). This investment increased the stocking rate from 1 AU/ha to 1.80 AU/ha, and released about 35.8 ha of land for other alternative uses (44.8% of area allocated to livestock production). With this level of adoption, it was possible to reduce even more milk production costs and increase net income/cow per year.This level attempts to show the potential of adopting new forage germplasm in the entire farm area allocated to livestock production. This level of adoption required the largest amount of capital investment because not only were improved forages established in larger areas, but also more animals had to be purchased as a result of increased stocking rate. This level of adoption can be regarded as the most intensive of the three levels considered in this study, both in terms of productivity/hectare and in terms of capital and labour use. The simulation model included the legume Arachis pintoi associated with grasses of Brachiaria spp.In Costa Rica this level of adoption required the additional establishment of 3.6 ha of Cratylia and 4.9 ha of sugarcane, in relation to levels 1 and 2, and the establishment of A. pintoi associated with Brachiaria in all pasture area (39.5 ha). The investment was US$ 15,960/farm, equivalent to US$ 333/cow, which allowed a significant increase in stocking rate (1.56 AU/ha) and the herd size (from 23 to 48 cows). This increase in herd size generated other benefits, such as increased milk productivity/hectare during the survey: from 666 kg milk/hectare at Level 1 to 1095 kg milk/hectare at Level 2 and 1390 kg milk/hectare at Level 3.Although the annual net income/cow and per hectare varies little regarding Level 2 (increased from US$ 98 to 119/hectare but decreased from US$ 124 to 119/cow), the net income/farm increased markedly because of the effect of stocking rate and expansion of herd size, practically duplicating the annual net income of producers from US$ 2852/farm with Level 2 to US$ 5712 with Level 3.As in Costa Rica, this level of adoption in Honduras required an additional increase in the area planted to Cratylia (3.2 ha) and sugarcane (4.1 ha), and the establishment of A. pintoi associated with Brachiaria (36.7 ha) in the total area under pastures. The investment to achieve this level of adoption totalled US$ 2580/farm and was significantly lower than that required in Costa Rica because the farms surveyed in Honduras already had more than 60% of the pasture area established with improved grasses, including important areas of cut-and-carry forages (3.2 ha or more per farm). This level of adoption allowed farmers in Honduras to increase herd size by 9.5%, from 42 to 46 cows, thus increasing net income (US$ 12,190/farm) as compared with the other levels of adoption (Table 6).The case of Nicaragua was similar to that of Costa Rica and Honduras because this level requires an additional increase in the area planted to Cratylia (for example, from 2.5 ha to 5.2 ha) and to sugarcane (for example, from 4.4 ha to 9.2 ha), and the estab-lishment of A. pintoi associated with Brachiaria spp. in the totality of the area under pastures (65.6 ha). The investment to achieve this level of adoption in Nicaragua was the highest of the three countries studied (US$ 22,070/farm) because the farms surveyed in Nicaragua were completely covered with naturalised pastures. This investment in Nicaragua allowed producers to double the current stocking rate from 0.99 AU/ha to 1.95 AU/ha and increase herd size from 44 to 86 cows, thus increasing net income to US$ 7482/farm per year, which is significantly higher than that obtained at Level 2 (US$ 4044/farm per year). As a result, even though the investment to reach this level of adoption is high, so is the potential benefit regarding the other two countries.As in Costa Rica and Honduras, milk production cost and net income/cow and per hectare in Nicaragua at Level 3 were similar to those of Level 2; however, net income/ farm increased by 85% because of the increase in herd size.Table 8 presents the area under pasture; the number of livestock producers, and the livestock population located in the dry tropics of each region where the germplasm validated by the Tropileche Consortium could be successfully replicated. Table 9 shows the potential benefits of new forage germplasm for each level of adoption, assuming these are effectively adopted in accordance with the data reported in Table 8.This level of adoption had the largest impact on the situation of farmers because large increases in net income/cow per year were obtained (from US$ 31 to 94) with small investments per cow (between US$ 16 and 38). Cash flow increased with the substitution of purchased feed supplements with improved germplasm.The investment required in each region ranged from US$ 2.7 million in Honduras to US$ 6.4 million in Costa Rica. This investment was represented by the establishment of new areas under improved forages, and estimated on the basis of the cost of each forage alternative (Table 9).The analysis of benefits, in terms of annual net income in cash for farmers in the region, increased from US$ 9.9 million to 12.6 million, which surpassed the one-time 126Tropileche ConsortiumFeeding systems with legumes to intensify dairy farms  (1999).investment required every 10 years. The payback period necessary to return the investment with the marginal income was lower or equal to 6 months in all countries. In other words, the initial investment could be paid back in the following 6 months, once the improved forages had been established, before the onset of the dry season, when feed supplements would be needed.This level, as analysed before, should be the next phase once Level 1 has been achieved because it demands a higher investment of capital, and is therefore not easy to adopt initially.The capital required for this level of adoption in different regions and countries ranged between US$ 6 and 54 million, equivalent to an investment of US$ 44/cow in Honduras and US$ 249/cow in Nicaragua. Furthermore, the payback period varied Tropileche Consortium 127Potential benefits of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose cattle systems in the dry tropics 9.9 17.0 30.7 Years to pay investment 0.5 3.2 2.71. Level 1 implied the adoption of new forage alternatives with the minimum area needed to eliminate the use of purchased feeds to maintain the same milk production and herd size. Level 2 implied the adoption of new alternatives to satisfy Level 1 and to also release the largest area under pasture for other alternative uses. Level 3 implied the adoption of improved forages on the entire farm to achieve the highest production potential both on-farm and at the regional level. 2. Marginal increase regarding the average situation of farms surveyed in each country. from 6 months to 3.2 years because the levels of investment were highest, except in Honduras where there was already a significant adoption of improved forages.This level was the most difficult because it demanded the highest investment. Achieving an impact at the regional level required from US$ 8 million in Honduras to US$ 82 million in Nicaragua; however, the benefit, in terms of additional income for producers in the dry tropics in each country, ranged between US$ 14.3 million/year in Honduras and US$ 30.7 million/year in Nicaragua. Thus, based on this cash flow, the payback period needed to recover the initial investment varied from 0.6 years in Honduras to 2.7 years in Nicaragua.Table 10 presents seed production needs required for the establishment of each forage alternative, according to the level of adoption at the regional level in each country (Table 8), assuming an annual rate of adoption of 10% of the available area for each alternative.About nine tonnes of C. argentea seed are required per country per year. Seed production/hectare of Cratylia is approximately 160 kg/ha (Argel and Lascano 1998) and the demand for seed is about 8 kg/ha. Because availability of Cratylia seed is a limitation, to satisfy the demand it will be necessary to establish 58 ha of seed multiplication plots in Costa Rica, 48 ha in Honduras, and 62 ha in Nicaragua.The demand of sugarcane propagation material is similar to that of Cratylia. It is estimated that 1 ha of sugarcane produces 60 t of planting material for multiplication and that approximately 14 t are needed to establish 1 ha. Therefore to satisfy planting needs, 68 ha of seed multiplication plot must be established in Costa Rica, 15 ha in Honduras, and 102 ha in Nicaragua.The amount of seed required to achieve this level of adoption at the regional level is greater because the area to plant is larger, especially of Brachiaria spp. However, grass seed is not a constraint because of the existence of local seed companies.To meet the seed needs of C. argentea, this level of adoption required the establishment of 62 ha of additional seed multiplication plots in Costa Rica, 48 ha in Honduras and 92 ha in Nicaragua. To meet the seed requirements of sugarcane, 119 ha of seed multiplication plots must be established in Costa Rica, 38 ha in Honduras and 748 ha in Nicaragua.This level of adoption required amounts of seed similar to Level 2, but it also required high amounts of seed of A. pintoi to establish associations with Brachiaria. As in the case of grass seed, the availability of Arachis seed did not represent a constraint because there were sufficient quantities in the regional market.To meet the requirements of Cratylia seed for this level of adoption, an additional 64 ha of seed multiplications plots must be established in Costa Rica, 47 ha in Honduras, and 97 ha in Nicaragua, whereas for sugarcane 374 ha are needed in Costa Rica, 61 ha in Honduras, and 800 ha in Nicaragua.Potential benefits of new forage germplasm in dual-purpose cattle systems in the dry tropics 1. Level 1 implied the adoption of new forage alternatives with the minimum area needed to eliminate the use of purchased feeds to maintain the same milk production and herd size. Level 2 implied the adoption of new alternatives to satisfy Level 1 and to also release the greatest amount possible of area under pasture for other alternative uses. Level 3 implied the adoption of improved forages in the entire farm area to reach the highest production potential both on farm and at the regional level. 2. It is assumed that Arachis pintoi is established in association with an improved grass.The requirements to reach a level of adoption similar to Level 1 are relatively easy to achieve given the large benefits that can be obtained in terms of reduced production costs and increased cash flow due to the substitution of purchased inputs with improved germplasm. Use of family labour, frequently under-utilised or with a very low opportunity cost, especially in Nicaragua and Honduras, is more efficient.The strategy to ensure successful adoption of Level 1 and subsequent advance toward other levels of adoption consists in establishing strategic alliances with organised farmers groups and/or extension agencies. These alliances allow the:• identification of producers interested in establishing seed multiplication plots on their farms so that they become facilitators for the local expansion of new areas in each region, and • creation of a follow-up mechanism to find markets for the seed produced, by identifying early adopters.The potential benefits that result from the progressive adoption of new forage options based on grasses and legumes validated by the Tropileche Consortium include the following:• Level 1 of adoption (new germplasm based on cratylia and sugarcane to substitute feed supplements for herds) allows producers in all three countries to completely eliminate the need to purchase feed supplements for the herd, especially during the dry season. This effect has a large impact on the cash flow of producers because milk production cost can be reduced by 14% in Costa Rica, by 25% in Honduras, and by 11% in Nicaragua. • Level 2 of adoption (areas of cratylia and sugarcane similar to Level 1, plus variable areas of Brachiaria in each country) not only offers the benefits obtained with Level 1, but also allows the producer to maintain the same milk production and herd size in a smaller area, thus releasing areas to be allocated to other alternative uses. The released areas vary from 9% in the case of Honduras to 39% in Costa Rica and 45% in Nicaragua. In addition, this level of adoption reduces milk production cost as compared with Level 1 by an additional 11% in Costa Rica, 8% in Honduras, and 12% in Nicaragua. • The potential impact that can be achieved by adopting these technologies at the regional level is significant. The required amount of investment to achieve Level 1 in Costa Rica was US$ 6.4 million; in Honduras, US$ 2.7 million; and in Nicaragua, US$ 5.1 million. Because of the reduced production cost, it was possible to obtain an additional annual net income in all regions studied: US$ 11.9 million in Costa Rica, US$ 12.6 million in Honduras, and US$ 9.9 million in Nicaragua. Thus, the potential benefit is quite large regarding the investment, and could be paid back in less than one year (Table 9). • To promote the adoption of these technologies at the regional level, a strategy must be designed to establish alliances with organised farmers groups and/or extension agencies, and a mechanism to supply seed to producers, especially of C. argentea and sugarcane. The availability of seed of Brachiaria and A. pintoi does not represent a constraint. • This study suggests that large economic incentives exist to design a regional strategy in each country to promote the adoption of technologies at Level 1 to improve the income of small milk producers and increase the competitiveness of dual-purpose production systems through the use of new improved forage germplasm based on grasses and legumes.Analysis of milk market of small-scale artisan cheese factories in watersheds of Honduras and Nicaragua involved in livestock productionProcessing plants collect 20% of the milk produced in Honduras and Nicaragua that is turned into pasteurised milk and other dairy products. The price paid for milk during the study period was approximately US$ 0.30/kg in both countries, but this price was obtained by less than 5% of dairy farms in both countries because these plants require that milk be cooled to improve its hygienic quality and that farms be located in easily accessible sites with good roads (Argel 1999a(Argel , 1999b)). The 'informal' market collects the remaining 80% of the milk produced in both countries, mainly in the form of cheese (Argel 1999a(Argel , 1999b)). This market is mainly constituted by small-scale artisan cheese factories-mostly located in milk-producing areas-that do not pasteurise milk. These factories transform milk into popular fresh cheeses with shelf lives shorter than 10 days (de Franco et al. 1995). In Honduras alone, there were about 600 artisan cheese factories at the time of the study (Argel 1999a). As a result, the artisan cheese industry in both countries is the principal buyer of milk produced by small and medium producers who do not fulfil the requirements of milk processing plants of the known 'formal' sector.The price paid to producers by artisan cheese factories depends on the supply of milk, which has a marked seasonality: it is abundant during the rainy season and scarce during the dry season. This situation leads to serious difficulties in allocating surplus milk produced during the rainy season because both countries lack an efficient industrialisation and marketing system. The seasonality in production causes milk prices to fluctuate, with differences of up to 50% between seasons (Cajina 1994;de Franco et al. 1995).In addition to this problem of seasonality, most milk collected by artisan cheese factories during the rainy season is of poor quality with bacterial counts close to 1 million/ cc. The pasteurisation process does not correct this problem for raw milks with bacterial counts higher than 500 thousand bacteria/cc because pasteurisation only guarantees the elimination of pathogenic bacteria, and many others remain alive thus affecting cheese quality (de Franco et al. 1996).Therefore it is not possible to make cheese of acceptable quality with this type of milk, a situation determined by the sanitary conditions during milking and the handling of milk until it reaches the cheese factories. Most milk producers in Honduras and Nicaragua do not have milking sheds or clean, running water. Milking is carried out in open corrals, by hand, using open buckets and surrounded by sludge. Milk cans are washed with any type of common detergent and chlorine is not always used to disinfect them (de Franco et al. 1996).The milk produced under these conditions during the dry season is of higher quality because there is no excess humidity in the corrals, the udders of cows are cleaner, and the transportation time to the rural cheese factories is shortened because roads are in better conditions (García 1996).As a result of these changes in supply and quality, it is more attractive to produce higher volumes of milk during the dry season because it benefits the producer, who receives a higher price, and the artisan cheese factories, that receive milk of better quality.This study was done to analyse the milk market of small-scale artisan cheese factories located in the livestock production areas of Honduras and Nicaragua where the Tropileche Consortium operates. The study aimed to answer the following questions:• Is there a market for additional milk production? If so, how much milk can be absorbed by artisan cheese factories each season? • Is there a market for milk of higher hygienic quality and, if so, would the farmgate price be higher? What price would the cheese factories is willing to pay?The data for this study was obtained through surveys carried out during March 2000 to 10 small-scale artisan cheese factories in Honduras and 13 in Nicaragua. These cheese factories were located in the area of influence of the Tropileche Consortium: Olancho, Catacamas, and Juticalpa in Honduras, and in Esquipulas and Muy-Muy in Nicaragua. Secondary information from both countries was used to complement survey data.The average milk collected was about 6 times more in Honduras than in Nicaragua in both rainy (6200 kg/day vs. 1100 kg/day) and dry season (3600 kg/day vs. 520 kg/day) (Tables 1 and 2). Milk collected during the rainy season was 73% more than that collected during the dry season in Honduras and 111% more in Nicaragua. This factor disrupts any market and has significant impact on the price of milk that artisan cheese factories are willing to pay. Therefore, the milk price during the rainy season compared with that paid during the dry season was 27% lower in Honduras and 38% lower in Nicaragua. In addition, the milk price paid by cheese factories for raw material of a similar quality was 33% higher in Honduras than in Nicaragua during the rainy season (US$ 0.24/kg vs. US$ 0.18/kg) and 14% higher during the dry season (US$ 0.33/kg vs. US$ 0.29/kg). Four types of cheese are produced in both countries by artisan factories. They also sell cream as a by-product because most cheeses are made with skimmed milk. The sale of cream represents a net profit in both countries and each type of cheese has a different price. Therefore, the marketing strategy was similar, being segmented to four different types of cheese (tastes) associated with the purchasing power of consumers.Although all types of cheese produced are fresh and have short shelf lifes, the difference between them is the amount of moisture they contain. To produce a cheese with low moisture content, a larger amount of fluid milk is required and, as a result, its price is higher (for example, dry cheese in Honduras and pure cheese in Nicaragua). This situation is demonstrated by the amount of fluid milk necessary to produce 1 kg of cheese, which, in turn, is directly related to sale price. The higher the moisture contents of the cheese, the shorter its shelf life. Therefore, low-cost cheeses are also those with the shortest shelf life because they contain more whey.The amount of milk necessary to produce each type of cheese varies according to the season of the year. During the rainy season, milk production/cow is higher but its solid contents is lower and, as a result, more milk is required to produce the same amount of cheese. For example, in Honduras the artisan factories required 7% more milk during Tropileche Consortium 135Analysis of milk market of artisan cheese factories in Honduras and Nicaragua the rainy season to produce 1 kg of 'dry' cheese and up to 15% more milk to produce 1 kg of string cheese or 'quesillo'. In Nicaragua, artisan factories required 14% more milk during the rainy season to produce 'pure' cheese and up to 19% more milk to produce 1 kg of cream cheese. This reduction in yield efficiency during the rainy season forces artisan factories to pay a lower milk price to producers.The potential growth of the cheese market was large and unsatisfied. The artisan cheese factories surveyed in Honduras could purchase up to 55% more milk during the dry season, but there was no milk on offer. In Nicaragua the potential was even greater because artisan factories were willing to purchase up to 76% more milk than that collected during the time of the study. This situation is not the same during the rainy season, when the potential for growth is null in both countries because of the excess offer of milk in the market. As a result, the artisan factories in both countries would only be willing to purchase more milk during the dry season, which has significant implications for the type of technologies that should be promoted among producers in both regions.In Honduras, 90% of artisan factories surveyed considered that the milk collected during the rainy season had low hygienic quality, but this figure decreased to only 10% during the dry season. Therefore there was a direct relationship between low hygienic quality of milk and rainy season, which agrees with de Franco et al. (1996). In Nicaragua, 30% of artisan factories considered that the milk produced during the rainy season was of low hygienic quality, which is still significant even though lower than in Honduras.Artisan cheese factories in Honduras and Nicaragua that considered that the milk collected was of low hygienic quality would be willing to pay a higher price if the quality of the milk improved. In Honduras this price would be 9.4% higher during the dry season and 11.2% higher during the rainy season. In Nicaragua the artisan cheese factories would be willing to pay 17% more, but only during the rainy season.Table 3 presents the needs and expectations of artisan cheese factories in both countries. The main need was the improvement of factory infrastructure by acquiring more equipment (for example, creameries, cold rooms, devices to determine hygienic quality). The future prospects of the cheese industry in both countries are promising.The improvement of milk quality was ranked as second priority in Honduras, while the search for new markets was ranked second in Nicaragua (Table 3). Nicaragua began to export fresh cheeses to El Salvador and Honduras in 1990 for a gross value of US$ 128 thousand. Since then, exports have been on the rise, reaching 8400 t of cheese in 1998 for a gross value of US$ 14 million (MAGFOR 2000). All factors considered indicate that this trend will continue in coming years.The third need identified in Honduras was the lack of technical assistance to produce new types of cheeses and thus diversify the market, and not so much the search for new markets for the same types of cheeses. In Nicaragua, the need was to improve the quality of cheeses produced by artisan factories.The results of this survey have two types of technological implications for the Tropileche Consortium: animal feeding and genetic improvement of animals.Regarding animal feeding, these results suggest that an aggressive programme to promote the shrub legume Cratylia argentea and sugarcane as supplements of cattle herds during the dry season would have a much higher impact than the promotion of grasses or legumes during the rainy season. This technological change would reduce the need to purchase feed concentrates to supplement the herd, thus improving the cash flow of producers and increasing milk fat content.The protein contained in milk is the main input to produce cheese. In other words, milk with higher protein content yields more cheese. It is estimated that for each 0.1% increase in protein content, cheese yield is increased by 4% (Sozzi 1999).Therefore, the other technological implication of improving yield efficiency of cheese making is by using milk with higher protein content, and this is mainly achieved by genetic improvement of animals at the farm level by crossbreeding with cows that produce milk with higher protein content. The type of livestock commonly found in Honduras and Nicaragua is Zebu (Brahman). The protein content of Bos indicus breeds such as Brahman, Guzerath and Nelore is 3.10%, with little variability among them. In Bos taurus breeds variability is greater, ranging from 3.15% for Holstein cows, to 3.50% for Brown Swiss cows, to 3.80% for Jersey cows (Ruiz 1999). As a result, a genetic improvement strategy that incorporates Jersey or Brown Swiss genes into the local Zebu gene pool would allow producers to offer artisan cheese factories milk with higher protein content, provided that a transparent payment system that values milk protein exists.Analysis of milk market of artisan cheese factories in Honduras and Nicaragua Study results and the implications of this analysis led to the following conclusions:• The main buyer of the milk produced by small and medium producers in Honduras and Nicaragua is the small-scale artisan cheese industry. • The production of milk in watersheds in the dry tropics where the Tropileche Consortium operates is seasonal. • Production during the rainy season is practically twice that of the dry season, causing over-supply during the rainy season and scarcity of milk during the dry season. • The milk shortage during the dry season in both countries leads to an unsatisfied market potential. • Of artisan factories in Honduras, 55.5% would be willing to buy more milk during the dry season, and of those in Nicaragua, 75.7%, but this supply is not available because of the lack of adoption of technologies for animal feeding based on low-cost improved forages. • The above situation suggests that an aggressive programme to promote the use of shrub legume C. argentea with sugarcane to supplement the milking herd during the dry season would have greater impact than the promotion of grasses and legumes for the rainy season. This technological change would reduce the need to purchase feed concentrates to supplement the herd, thus improving the cash flow of producers and increasing milk fat content. • Artisan cheese factories in both countries, but especially in Honduras, require higher quality milk, particularly during the rainy season. In Honduras these factories would be willing to pay 9.4% more during the dry season and 11.2% more during the rainy season. In Nicaragua the artisan factories would be willing to pay 17% more, but only during the rainy season. • The main need of artisan cheese factories was the improvement of infrastructure by purchasing more equipment. Future prospects for the industry seem promising in both countries. The second most important need in Honduras was to produce and purchase milk of higher hygienic quality, while in Nicaragua the second most important need was the search for new markets. The third most important need in Honduras was the lack of technical assistance to produce new types of cheese to diversify the market, while in Nicaragua it was the improvement of the quality of cheese produced. • The amount of milk necessary to produce each type of cheese varied depending on the season of the year. During the rainy season, milk production/cow was higher but contained less total solids and, as a result, more milk was required to yield the same amount of cheese as during the dry season.• The dissemination of results is an integral part of the research and development process and is essential in the adoption of new technologies.CIAT-ILRI, Colombia, and national institutions in Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and HondurasThe Tropileche Consortium has published 10 issues of the Tropileche Newsletter. Publication dates are March and October. This newsletter aims to inform our partners about the activities of the Consortium, on-going research trials, research results at the different benchmark sites, and any other news that could prove useful for our readers.The printed newsletter is distributed to those interested and can also be consulted on Internet at the Tropileche website: http:/www.ciat.cgiar.org/tropileche/start.htm.A. Medina and F. HolmannIn October 1996, the Tropileche Consortium developed a database that contains the results of research conducted on dual-purpose cattle systems in tropical Latin America since 1960. Topics covered are nutrition and feeding, forages (grasses and legumes), genetic improvement of animals and reproduction, animal health, economics and extension, transfer and adoption of technology.The database currently contains about 2260 references, all with basic descriptors; about 70% also include an abstract. This database was developed in Micro CD/ISIS and follows the guidelines of FAO's AGRIS-CARIS information system.The database can be accessed on Internet at the Tropileche website (http:/www.ciat.cgiar.org/tropileche/start.htm). Over the last two years, an average of 139 users consulted the database each month. Antonio is a smalholder farmer and one of the Consortium's collaborators who have adopted many of the technologies promoted by the Consortium through Costa Rica's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Production (MAG). Antonio is currently producing more milk on less area; he has doubled the family income, and has released areas from livestock production, which are now protecting the farm's water sources. This videotape will be used to show other producers in Costa Rica and elsewhere in Latin America how one smallholder farmer succeeded in intensifying production with new forage technologies, based on improved grasses and legumes, with the technical assistance of MAG and seed donated by the Tropileche Consortium.As part of a strategy to disseminate information on the new technologies being adopted by producers, the Tropileche Consortium, in collaboration with the Communications Department of Costa Rica's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Production, published two brochures for agricultural extension agents. These brochures aimed to explain, in simple terms, the knowledge acquired about the establishment and management of the shrub legume Cratylia argentea and the grass Brachiaria brizantha CIAT 26110 cv. Toledo, and their impact on livestock productivity. Summaries of these publications follow.Cratylia argentea: A shrub legume for livestock production in the tropics P. Argel, 1 J. Gonzalez 2 and M. Lobo 3   1. CIAT, Colombia 2. ECAG 3. MAG, Costa Rica Cratylia argentea (synonyms = C. floribunda, Dioclea floribunda) is a shrub legume that is evaluated and selected by the MAG, ECAG, UCR and CIAT for its adaptability to prolonged dry seasons and acid soils in Costa Rica.Cratylia argentea is a shrub that grows naturally in Brazil. Its distribution ranges, in a north-south direction, from the State of Pará to the States of Mato Grosso and Goiás and, in an east-west direction, from the State of Ceará to Peru. The shrub is between 1.5 m and 3.0 m high when it grows in the open, but becomes a climbing plant when associated with larger plants.Cratylia argentea grows naturally at altitudes between 0 and 930 metres above sea level (masl), although most inhabit areas between 300 and 800 masl. In Costa Rica, this legume adapts well to a broad range of climates and soils, particularly to subhumid climates and to acid Ultisols, which are poor soils with high aluminium content. The plant also responds to fertile soils, and the highest yields have been reported from fertile sites in the humid tropics. Nevertheless, the shrub does not tolerate poorly drained sites or heavy soils that are frequently saturated in rainy seasons. The shrub has an outstanding capacity to regrow and shows high foliar retention during dry seasons. A major reason is the development of vigorous roots that can be as long as 2 m. Thus, between 30 and 40% of the total DM yield can be produced during that critical period of the year-the dry season.So far, neither pests nor diseases of economic importance have been reported to attack C. argentea. At some sites, isolated cases of plant death have been observed during estab-lishment. The causal agents were 'jobotos' or dung beetles (Melolonthidae spp.) in the soil, crickets and leaf-cutting ants. For adult plants, isolated cases of death have also been reported from sites with heavy soils and frequent rains. Roots of infected plants have been found to carry fungi of the genera Pythium and Fusarium, although these were not proven to be the direct cause of mortality. In other similar cases of plant death, nematodes were found near the stem crown. Pod blight, caused by the fungal genera Phoma and Cladosporium, has been observed when flowering and fruiting occur under rainy conditions with high relative humidity.Cratylia argentea propagates easily through seed, whereas vegetative propagation through stakes has, so far, not been successful. Because seeds are soft, they do not need scarifying, but they need to be sown close to the soil's surface, that is, no more than 2 cm deep. Deep sowing causes seed rot, retards seedling emergence, and produces plants with less developed root systems. Sowing may be direct into the field with minimum tillage or after conventional land preparation with plough and harrow. Seeds may also be sown in bags for later transplanting to the field. Depending on soil fertility, fertilisation is, ideally, with phosphorus (100 to 150 kg/ha of triple superphosphate).Cratylia argentea seeds respond to inoculation with the strains of the cowpea type of Rhizobium, which are very common in tropical soils. Recent experiments show that the legume responds well to effective nodule formation by Rhizobium strains, CIAT 3561 and 3564, particularly in acid soils with high aluminium content.Cratylia argentea grows slowly, at least during the first two months after sowing, even though its seedlings are more vigorous than those of other shrubby legumes.Flowering in C. argentea is abundant but poorly synchronised and starts at the end of the rainy season in the lowland tropics. Plants can flower the first year they are established, but seed yields are low. Flowering lasts three months and pollinating insects are commonly seen around the flowers. First fruits are mature about one and a half months after pollination, and fruiting continues through the next 2 or 3 months. Harvesting seed is therefore a continuous process, carried out manually, once a week, throughout most of the dry season (February and March).Seed yield depends on genotype, plant age, cutting management and prevailing environmental conditions during flowering and fruiting. In Atenas, Costa Rica, 3-year-old plants, cut at 30 cm height, and fertilised with phosphorus at the beginning of the rains, yield, on the average, 50 to 70 g of pure seed per plant (CIAT 1999). However, the date of the uniformity cut affects first flowering and, as a result, the potential seed yield. Plants cut toward the end of the rainy season or within the dry season tend to flower little, forming few fruits.Cratylia argentea seed does not have marked physical (due to hardness of seed coat) or physiological dormancy, and can lose its viability relatively quickly if it is stored under the temperature and humidity conditions prevailing in the lowland tropics.The usable forage of 3-month-old C. argentea (leaves + thin and tender stems) has a CP content of 23%, but this figure varies from 19% to 26% according to the plant's age. Similarly, the in vitro dry matter digestibility of C. argentea ranges between 40 and 55%, which is higher than that of other shrub legumes adapted to acid soils, such as Codariocalyx giroides (30%) and Flemingia macrophylla (20%). The high percentage of CP and the low content of condensed tannins found in C. argentea make this legume an excellent source of nitrogen for the ruminant (Wilson and Lascano 1997).Cratylia argentea has shown that it is an excellent protein supplement in diets for dairy cows grazing poor quality grasses during the dry season. The highest response has been from cows with medium and high dairy potential and fed the legume as fresh and chopped or as ensiled, together with high-energy sources such as sugarcane. For example, for Jersey cows, as much as 66% of commercial concentrate can be replaced by C. argentea, either fresh or ensiled, without significant loss in milk production. The ensiled diet tends toward higher fat than does the fresh-legume diet (Romero and Gonzalez 2000). Similar results have been reported for dual-purpose cows, which were offered a daily diet of 12 kg of chopped sugarcane, 6 kg of chopped or ensiled C. argentea, and 0.6 kg of rice polishing (Table 1) (Lobo and Acuña 2000). Of the three supplements, fresh C. argentea was the most economical, because of its lower costs and the cows' signifi-cantly higher milk production. Cratylia argentea can also be used in direct grazing (browsing), with the legume either established as a protein bank or planted in bands within the paddocks. Experiment results showed that grazing cows having access to a bank of C. argentea consumed more mature foliage and less immature forage. A major advantage of this legume, therefore, is that, in direct grazing systems, its use by ruminants can be deferred to the dry season. No other management practices need be followed.In evaluations where cuts were made every 8 weeks during the rainy season and every 12 weeks during the dry season, C. argentea responded very well. Adult plants that were more than 1 year old had the highest yield and quality of forage when cut at 90 cm and after the respective 60 days' regrowth (Lobo et al. unpublished data). Total yield can range between 2 and 4 t DM/cut, although this depends on sowing density and the plant's age. A sowing density of 1.0 × 0.5 m gave the highest yield/hectare when planting C. argentea as protein bank. The legume's good response to cutting shows the high potential that it has for 'cut-and-carry' systems.Cratylia argentea does not adapt well to climates found above 1200 masl-at least, the most advanced ecotypes being evaluated (CIAT 18516 and CIAT 18668) do not. This legume establishes slowly, but more quickly than do other shrub legumes. The forage yields are also low during the first year of establishment.each carrying a single row of spike lets. One stalk can produce several inflorescences, each growing from a different node, although the largest is always at the terminal.Cultivar Toledo adapts to a broad range of climates and soils, and grows well, not only in subhumid tropical sites with a 5-6 month dry season but also in humid tropical sites with an average annual rainfall of 4300 mm. This characteristic was observed in the agronomic trials carried out at 11 sites in Colombia by the Colombian Brachiaria Evaluation Network. Although the grass grows well in less fertile and acid soils, it performs better at sites where soils are of medium to good fertility. It tolerates sandy soils and poorly-drained sites, although growth is reduced if the soil is waterlogged for more than 30 days. It also tolerates the dry season well, maintaining a higher proportion of green leaves than other B. brizantha cultivars such as Diamantes 1 (Marandú) and La Libertad. The higher greenery is probably a result of the high leaf tissue content of non-structural carbohydrates (197 mg/kg of DM) and few minerals (8% of ash) in cultivar Toledo. This cultivar also grows well under shade and, in Costa Rica, at mid-altitudes (1500 masl) where temperatures average 18°C.Biomass production of cultivar Toledo was high in Inceptisols in Costa Rica and Panama, located at sites with contrasting climate, both during the rainy and dry season. Average production of cultivar Toledo across 11 contrasting sites in Colombia, with cuts every 8 weeks, was about 3.88 t DM/ha for the dry season and 5.1 t DM/ha for the rainy season. These yields were higher than those of other Brachiaria accessions evaluated at the same sites and under similar management conditions.Cultivar Toledo is easily established by means of its seed, which are of good quality and give rise to vigorous seedlings. It can also be propagated vegetatively but, for best results, splits should be used.Seeds can be broadcast or sown in furrows that are spaced at 0.6 m. The land may be conventionally prepared with plough and harrow, or the cover vegetation is controlled with non-selective herbicides according to zero tillage practices. The amount of seed to use depends on its quality (purity and germination rate) and on the sowing method. For example, sowing in ploughed and harrowed furrows requires smaller quantities of seed, compared with sowing by broadcast on land receiving zero or minimal tillage. The final quantity of seed used can range between 3 and 4 kg/ha for seed classified at 60% (e.g. 80% purity and 75% germination rate).The high vigour of seedlings of cultivar Toledo and their initial aggressive growth allows this cultivar to compete adequately with weeds during establishment. Consequently, the collective experiences of farmers already growing this cultivar in Costa Rica is that the grass can be first grazed 3 to 4 months after sowing.Evaluations carried out at ECAG in Atenas showed that CP contents of leaves are 13.5, 10.1 and 8.7% for the regrowth ages of 25, 35 and 45 days, respectively. The in vitro dry matter digestibility values for the same ages were 67.8, 64.2 and 60.3%, respectively. These results suggest that cultivar Toledo has similar or slightly better forage qualities than other B. brizantha cultivars.Observations made on farms in Costa Rica and information provided by cattle producers indicate that cultivar Toledo can support a stocking rate between 2.5 and 3.0 AU/ha during the rainy season, with a frequency of grazing every 21-30 days. One dualpurpose farm reported that daily milk production tended to be similar to that observed for pastures of other Brachiaria species in association with the forage peanut (Arachis pintoi). Initial reports from Colombia indicate that the daily milk production of a Holstein cow is significantly less on cultivar Toledo (8.0 litre/cow) than on B. decumbens cv. Pasto Peludo or B. brizantha cv. Diamantes 1 (8.8 and 8.9 litre/cow, respectively).So far, cultivar Toledo has been used only for grazing cattle, although horses have been seen to consume tender leaves. Although little is known about the most adequate occupation and rest periods, considering its rapid recovery, an adequate rest period could be between 21 and 28 days. In addition, this cultivar's high forage production allows stocking rates higher than 2.5 AU/ha, at least during the rainy season.Because of its growth habit in form of tillers, this cultivar associates well with stoloniferous legumes such as Arachis pintoi, resulting in better soil cover and improved forage quality. These observations are still being evaluated in Costa Rica. Although caltivar Toledo is adequate for grazing, because of its size and vigorous growth, it could be successfully used in 'cut-and-carry' forage systems.","tokenCount":"31995"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e7ada0a4b397fcba84c32279125a10c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3e7de9fb-74c1-4d29-8b25-6f761c448327/retrieve","id":"1058890704"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e578535c-6787-4ce1-be89-2145fd555739","pagecount":"6","content":"In late 2009, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) established a digital repository to act as a complete open archive of the information and publications generated through its research. This was driven by ILRI's aim to have its knowledge travel by making it open access, by publishing it in full, by giving it permanent identifiers, and by providing reliable access through robust open repositories and other communication channels. The goal was to have the information taken off unreliable websites, given permanent identifiers , and made easier to find and share through new digital and web services.Over time, the repository has evolved from its initial ILRI focus into a collaboration involving seven CGIAR research centers, several CGIAR research programs and platforms and other initiatives and projects. The CGSpace repository is now the largest single collection of CGIAR-associated research outputs (read about CGSpace origins and early developments).Last month, the repository added its 100,000th unique item, reaching an important milestone on the route towards making CGIAR knowledge widely accessible.Reflecting the collaborative nature of most CGIAR science, the research outputs in CGSpace involve co-authors from thousands of national and international organizations -including all CGIAR entities and partners in national agricultural research systems. The outputs also cover most regions of the Global South, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America, which have been the main focus of much CGIAR research.Today, the repository is a direct resource for people to explore and discover many types of CGIAR research outputs -articles, books and reports as well as posters, presentations and multimedia. While most are aimed at scientists, there are resources and briefs designed for policy and decision makers as well as manuals, guides, brochures and other training resources for extension and advisory services.The repository content 'travels' in different ways as well. It is channelled across websites and other services bringing the content to where researchers and information seekers are. CGSpace content is harvested and found through Google Scholar, through online knowledge services like GARDIAN and CORE, via Altmetric, and on websites such as the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, ILRI, or the CGIAR Gender Impact platform.To give information seekers additional options, the CGSpace team recently joined forces with partners to create an open explorer application that provides more structured search options as well as ways to visualize and download search results. This service is able to search across several DSpace repositories (including ICARDA and WorldFish) and will hopefully be extended in the future to include others. This structured discovery is helped by the collaboration with other CGIAR centers and partners on metadata and terminology standardization -using 'CG core' metadata and constant quality checking and curation to make the content as consistent as possible.It does not only serve public audiences. CGSpace has been used to support internal performance and output reporting of ILRI scientists and it is used by CGIAR research programs (2010-2021) and the current One CGIAR research initiatives to record evidence of outputs included in performance reports.The immediate future is bright as CGSpace currently serves as the joint repository for all research outputs of the new CGIAR regional and research initiatives and impact platforms.As we reflect on the 100,000 milestone, the back end of CGSpace shows up some interesting indicators.First, around 2010-2011, when momentum on the repository started, ILRI and other CGIAR centers adopted various open access policies and, looking at accessibility data then and now, we can see around 90% of all CGSpace products today are open access in some form, versus around 75% or lower 10 years ago. The repository has been an important part of that drive towards open access, providing reliable publishing channels for diverse products, unique and permanent identifiers, and a means to promote the outputs to different audiences.Second, while the Altmetric data shows high attention scores mainly for articles and books, the download data for items in CGSpace show that the most popular items include more practical, extensionoriented manuals as well as more scientific outputs. The practical outputs are as useful as the usual scientific articles and books.Third, the repository has recorded around 14 million item views and 16 million file downloads over the past 12 years. Many of the item views are for outputs where the article or product is physically online elsewhere, so, while a download is not reported the user is sent to the individual item. The outputs of center research make up about 60% of the downloads, the CGIAR research programs and platforms that operated from 2012-2021 accounted for a further 23% of the downloads. The data show that some authors and outputs are much more downloaded than others, but no obvious pattern across centers or programs.As we look forward, the repository will undergo a further transformation to meet the emerging demands of the One CGIAR and its partners, hopefully retaining its focus on open content, using open code and software, working in collaboration and with industry experts, and delivering high quality products and services that can be easily and efficiently consumed and used by others and put to work to advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.View Infographic: CGSpace -an open access knowledge and information repository for CGIAR research","tokenCount":"863"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6782507236.json b/data/part_2/6782507236.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ba133d6accb9d7470f8cf9359c338c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/de6180b8-0c1f-4eee-9156-381059e0da10/retrieve","id":"-787550954"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5108f09a-54ab-40bc-a975-964219366200","pagecount":"1","content":"Food and nutrition security and environmental sustainability are indispensable prerequisites for human sustainable development and, presenting several interrelated factors of change, need to be jointly evaluated.Multidimensional approaches and modeling tools are strongly demanded for capturing essential nonlinearities and complex behavior in a sustainable food system perspective.The Mediterranean region is a geographically interlocked and heterogeneous areaincluding South European, North African and South-East Mediterranean Countriespresenting several conditions of vulnerability leading to food insecurity and unsustainability.The demographic growth, in urban and coastal areas of the Basin, leads to an increasing pressure on natural resources and to a widening disequilibria with rural areas.Poor consumption and dietary transition, leading to the double burden of malnutrition (over-and undernutrition), are closely related to behavioral socioeconomics and environmental drivers affecting the food system.Policy-makers need evidence-based information to lead public policy interventions towards sustainability.Indicators are essential in informing action but need conceptual contextualization and methodological organization to be expressed.Identifying a framework to link concepts, methods and metrics, for a multidimensional joint analysis of food and nutrition security and environmental sustainability applicable to the Mediterranean countries.Achieving evidence-based scientific knowledge and metrics to inform stakeholders, including policy-makers on response interventions to major changes at national and regional scale.• A coupled issue-vulnerability approach is applied to the analysis of sustainable food security and diets, using methods from natural disaster and sustainability sciences.• A causal factors approach analyzes the vulnerability domains and the dynamics of phenomena, instead of directly targeting the final outcomes.• Exposure, Sensitivity and Resilience are components of vulnerability that are taken into account for the assessment.• A DELPHI selection process is used to select the relevant indicators.An innovative and coherent assessment framework is identified for measuring the sustainability of food systems.The framework improves metrics and information analysis, introducing novel methods for scientific knowledge.Improving information, through causal factor analysis, deepens the understanding of phenomena for decision-making and response purposes.Participatory and multidisciplinary vulnerability-based methods indicate direction for assessing environmental, economic, social and health impacts and factors of change affecting food and nutrition security and environmental sustainability in a sensitive geographic region.The vulnerability approach enables investigating causal factors as sequential dynamics of the food system.Issues and challenges for food security and environmental sustainability have to be defined before choosing assessment methods.Use of the participatory approach of the DELPHI method allows objective evaluations, reaching consensus.Vulnerability approach and analysis are necessary for sustainability research, providing conceptual and methodological understanding of food security, and global change knowledge connecting science and decisionmaking.Urbanization is a main domain of vulnerability as it is a key driver of change affecting both market dynamics and consumers' behaviors, raising questions for food security.","tokenCount":"431"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/6800500122.json b/data/part_2/6800500122.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6dd8f13109e4f651859132bb2fcd828c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/04c66381-3d01-4d23-b9be-ab4925f81b23/retrieve","id":"-596977088"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7e0294f2-3595-491f-9dd3-2fb6671667a8","pagecount":"14","content":"Output 2-1 2004 Annual Report OUTPUT 2 Genetic base of cassava and related Manihot species evaluated and available for cassava improvement: higher commercial value.The overall objective of this output is to generate genetic stocks and knowledge about genetic variability for starch quality traits. The main activities focus in developing and identifying high-value cassava germplasm. Traits involving higher commercial value turn particularly around novel starch types. Related issues are the need for a better understanding of the biochemical and genetic basis of these high-value traits. Because of the scarcity of institutions conducting research on cassava new methods for assessing, identifying and exploiting genetic variability are required and need to be developed by CIAT.Several factors have limited the actual impact of this crop in tropical agriculture. On the biological side, cassava breeding is cumbersome and slow and little genetic variability has been found for key economic traits particularly for those determining starch quality. Cultural biases have also affected cassava. For several decades, public and private sector investment was biased favoring investments for research and development in cereals such as maize, rice, wheat and sorghum (Cock, 1985).In spite of the problems mentioned above, the globalization of the economies and new technological breakthroughs are offering a new opportunity for cassava, which was never available to the crop during the past. Tropical production of maize is facing increasing problems to compete with maize produced in temperate regions. This situation has prompted government and private sector of many tropical countries to turn to cassava as a competitive alternative to imported maize. In addition, advances in molecular biology, genetic engineering, plant-tissue culture protocols and starch technologies provide important tools that will allow bridging the main gaps between cassava and the cereals. Two major constraints are to be solved in relation to the objectives of this output.Genetic improvement of cassava has not been as consistent and efficient as in other crops and has some constraints. As in every crop improvement project, elite cassava clones are crossed to produce new segregating families. Each individual produced, as well as the parental clones used, is highly heterozygous. Once a superior genotype is identified (a process that requires no less than six years), it is vegetatively multiplied to take advantage of the reproductive habits of this crop (Kawano et al., 1998;Jennings and Iglesias, 2002). This Project IP3: improving cassava for the developing world Output 2-2 system (except for the vegetative multiplication) is similar to the ones used for autogamous crops (beans, wheat, rice, etc.) as well as for the hybrid maize industry. However, there is a major difference because cassava is seldom self-pollinated to produce partially or completely inbred (homozygous) lines from the segregating progenies. The system also bears some similarities with recurrent selection used in many crops, but there is a significant difference because in cassava there is not an actual population whose allelic frequencies are modified through evaluation and selection, as in true recurrent selection schemes.From the practical point of view, implementing a traditional recurrent selection method in cassava offers some problems. Pollinations (Kawano, 1980) are slow and inefficient. It takes about 16 to 18 months since a given cross is planned until the recombinant seed is finally obtained (usually field operations have to adjust to the occurrence of the rainy season, and if that is the case, then planting can only be done 24 months after planning the cross). The third year would be used to grow the plant from the botanical seed. During the fourth year, a clonal evaluation could finally be carried out. Therefore a typical recurrent selection method would require no less than four years. In this case, however, no self-pollinating for reducing genetic load would have been included, and few additional years will be required for the release of a variety.The time required for each selection cycle in cassava has limited the genetic gains for higher productivity in the crop. It should be emphasized that because the highly heterozygous condition of cassava in every stage of the breeding process, consolidation of genetic gains is difficult, due to the inherent genetic instability of the heterozygous status. Moreover, the absence of inbreeding allows for large genetic loads (deleterious or undesirable alleles carried by an individual) in the M. esculenta gene pool, further limiting genetic progress.One additional disadvantage for cassava to play a more important role in tropical agriculture is the relatively low genetic variability for root starch traits. Compared with the many economically advantageous mutations found and exploited, for example, in the maize kernel (sweet corn, pop corn, waxy corn, opaque 2, etc.), very little variability has been reported for cassava. It is valid to assume that such variability exists in the crop, and at least two main reasons could explain why it has not been readily found and reported: a) Starch mutations in the roots are more difficult to detect than in grain kernels (where they can be easily identified by visual inspection without the need of any sophisticated tests). To detect a mutation in the cassava root starch, the breeder will have to break the roots and most likely will have to conduct a particular test (such as the iodine test) to be able to pick potentially useful variants. It is possible, therefore, that waxy cassava clones have already been grown in breeding nurseries but could not be detected and, not showing an outstanding agronomic performance, they were discarded; b) The known starch mutants are usually recessive. The fact that cassava seldom undergoes inbreeding drastically reduces the chance of (expectedly) low-frequency recessive alleles, to express in the phenotype.The fact that roots are not reproductive or multiplicative organs may offer cassava (and other root crops) an advantage over the grains. It is valid to assume that cassava roots could withstand mutations that would otherwise be lethal for reproductive organs such as the kernels of cereals. Figures 2.1 through 2.4 provide a general illustration of the kind of variations found for key root starch traits in different studies conducted at CIAT. Currently CIAT is finalizing the analysis of the entire cassava collection (starch samples from around 6000 landraces and improved germplasm). However, further research is needed to confirm the extent of environmental influence on the observed variation. For example, it has been documented that age, cultural practices and environment, as well as genetic differences, play an important effect in dry matter content in the roots (van Oirschot at al., 2000).  CIAT has currently implemented several approaches at to modify the physical and chemical properties of cassava root starch. These approaches are briefly described below.The activities related to this Output are long term and reveal an important strategy that the cassava-breeding project at CIAT has gradually defined. It is difficult at this point in time to predict when or what kind of novel starch will be created and identified. Below there is a description of the status of each of the approaches followed with the goal of producing novel starch types in cassava.When an elite clone is self-pollinated two important events occur: a) the unique, specific combination of alleles present in the original genotype is broken, therefore loosing the agronomic superiority that the clone had; b) self-pollination forces that half of the loci on average to become homozygous. This facilitates the elimination of undesirable, deleterious alleles that, although present in the original clone, remain hidden because of the predominant heterozygosity. In other words, self-pollinated progenies allow for a reduction of the genetic load originally present in the clone, therefore becoming better progenitors themselves. In a way, self pollination allows to \"concentrate\" the desirable genes originally present in the elite clone.If inbreeding was pursued until near or complete homozygosity, then the transfer of desirable traits through the back-cross scheme becomes feasible. Also homozygosity \"captures\" genetic superiority because of its inherent stability. Therefore each cassava improvement cycle would be a consolidating step that could help further progress in a more consistent and predictable way. On the other hand, each time a hybrid is used as parent, the process goes back to the initial stage because of the unavoidable genetic instability of a heterozygous material. In this case, progress cannot be easily consolidated or sustained through time, but only in a rather inefficient way.In summary, inbred lines are better progenitors because, by definition, they carry lower levels of genetic load. The breeding value of a given genotype becomes more apparent when dealing with homozygous lines. Also if a breeding process is based on the use of inbred lines the transfer of valuable traits is greatly facilitated because the back-cross scheme becomes feasible. The availability of inbred lines in cassava would also benefit other areas in addition to breeding. Genetic and molecular marker analysis would be greatly facilitated if homozygous lines were available. The only way to maintain germplasm in cassava is either by growing the plants in the field or by maintaining them under tissue culture systems. Inbred lines, on the other hand, could be maintained and shipped in the form of botanical seed. Phytosanitary problems could be reduced significantly if maintenance and multiplication of genetic stocks were based on the use of botanical seed. Therefore, germplasm exchange among the few cassava breeding projects in the world would be greatly facilitated bypassing the need to use vitro-plants. Finally, elite clones could be reproduced by crossing the same parental lines from which they were originally derived.One final advantage of inbreeding in cassava is that in addition of exposing recessive deleterious alleles so that they can be eliminated from the gene pool, it also allows the Project IP3: improving cassava for the developing worldOutput 2-6 identification of useful recessive traits (such as the starch quality mutants found in different crops), which would lead to the development of value-added genetic stocks.There are, however, two major obstacles for the incorporation of inbreeding in cassava genetic improvement. Because of the large genetic load expected to be present in most cassava gene pools, inbreeding may lead to a rapid loss of vigor and, eventually, to non-viable plants. This is a common process known as inbreeding depression. Maize showed strong inbreeding depression and tolerance to it had to be gradually developed in maize adapted to temperate (early 1900s), and tropical (during the 1960s) regions. A similar approach will be used in cassava. Elite germplasm will be self-pollinated successively until vigor becomes too low. Then sister lines derived from the same elite clone will be crossed, generating several populations. Each population (or lineage) will be composed by the progenies derived from the same elite clone. By default, they will carry reduced genetic load and increased tolerance to inbreeding.A second problem still remains even if inbreeding depression was negligible. It would require about ten years to develop highly homozygous inbred lines through successive selfpollinations. This period is too long and would not allow cassava to sustain the genetic progress rate observed in other crops with which cassava competes. Therefore, an alternative and faster method for the production of homozygous lines needs to be developed. Tissue culture protocols for the production of doubled-haploid lines from anthers (occasionally from ovules) have been developed for many different crops and are routinely used for their genetic improvement. The production of doubled haploids in cassava provides an appealing option for a feasible introduction of inbreeding in cassava genetic improvement. This technology does not involve the use of transgenesis.CIAT, with the valuable support of UNDP and Rockefeller Foundation, and in collaboration with several cassava breeding programs (including Thailand) began in 2004 a research project to simultaneously improve tolerance to inbreeding in elite cassava germplasm. Jointly with Wageningen University from The Netherlands, CIAT is also coordinating a project to develop the anther culture protocol for the production of doubled haploids. As soon as partially inbred lines are produced the search of novel starch types will immediately began.The elite germplasm that is included in the crossing nurseries every year has been selfpollinated as well as used for the production of new hybrids. During the past year a total of 2793 botanical seed (615 S 1 s and 2178 S 2 s) were germinated. Eventually only 1995 seedlings derived from these botanical seeds were vigorous enough to be transplanted in the field (348 S 1 s and 1647 S 2 s) where they will be used for yet another round of self-pollinations to increase even further the level of inbreeding and also as source of stakes. Each partially inbred produced will be clonally kept for further phenotypic, genetic and/or molecular studies.During the past year, therefore, a heavy emphasis was invested in the production partially inbred cassava germplasm. A total of 8436 self-pollinations were made to produce S 1 botanical seed (50% average homozygosity); 3645 self-pollinations to produce S 2 seed (75% average homozygosity) and 391 self-pollinations to produce S 3 seed (87.3% average homozygosity). As soon as the starch quality laboratory reaches its capacity to process the thousands of genotypes developed, the starch derived from them will be carefully screened in search of useful mutants.There are few alternative approaches when no immediate genetic variability is available for the breeders to develop a desired product. Obviously the first approach is to identify a genetic source for the desired trait within the same gene pool (for instance M. esculenta). If this approach is unsuccessful, breeders have frequently sought for the desired trait in the gene pool of related wild relatives. For instance some of the sources of resistance to the African Cassava Mosaic Disease seem to have originated in crosses between M. esculenta and M. glaziovii. This approach has the disadvantage that along with the desired trait, many undesirable ones are also introduced from the wild relative species. Many years of additional work are usually required to eliminate undesirable genes while maintaining the useful trait.Another traditional approach used by many breeders (particularly in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s) was the induction of genetic variability through the use of mutagenic agents (chemical products such as EMS or irradiation such as gamma rays). Mutation breeding has few drawbacks. Events are totally random, so thousand of genotypes need to be evaluated until a useful mutation in the desired gene can be found. Furthermore, since mutations typically take place at individual cells, a large frequency of chimeras is very common. Chimeras will lead to drastic changes in the following generations, until the desired mutant can be stabilized. Finally, the common recessive nature of the mutations made it difficult to identify them through the phenotypes.With the advent of molecular biology tools, an interesting system was developed to renew the interest in mutation breeding. DNA TILLING (for Targeted Induced Local Lesions in Genome) has been successfully used in different plant species (McCallum et al. 2000;Perry et al. 2003;Till et al. 2003). Sexual seeds are mutagenized and, to avoid ambiguities caused by chimeras in the first generation (M 1 ), plants are self-pollinated and the resulting M 2 plants evaluated. DNA is extracted from each M 2 plant. For screening, DNAs are pooled eightfold to maximize the efficiency of mutation detection. PCR is performed using 5'-end labeled genespecific primers to target the desired locus, and heteroduplexes are formed by heating and cooling the PCR products. CEL I nuclease is used to cleave at base mismatches, and products representing induced mutations are visualized with denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (description of the TILLING method adapted from Till et al., 2003).CIAT is participating in a project lead by Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which is supported by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). About 4000 seeds from six different cassava clones were irradiated at IAEA facilities at Seibersdorf, Austria. Half the seeds were irradiated with gamma rays (using a Cobalt 60 source with a dosage level of 200 Gy) and the remaining half, with fast neutrons. Seeds were germinated and transplanted to the field early in 2004 (Table 2.1). By years end the plants will have been carefully evaluated in search of promising mutant forms (although it is recognized that the occurrence of chimeras and the lack of expression of recessive mutations will certainly reduce the probabilities of finding such mutants at the M 1 stage). Also, as soon as plants start to produce viable flowers they will be self-pollinated as indicated in Table 2.1. In the meantime the granule bound starch synthase GBSS I (Curtis Hannah, 2000) will be analyzed and key sequence(s) PCR-amplified for their use in the TILLING system.Project IP3: improving cassava for the developing worldOutput 2-8 If any of the 3000 plants have a mutation in the GBSS I gene, the TILLING system will be able to detect it, even if it is in the heterozygous condition and does not show in the phenotype. Figures 2.5 and 2.6 shows the plants from irradiated seed in the greenhouse and then after transplantation to the field.For this work two students from National University of Colombia -Sede Palmira (one undergraduate and the second enrolled in the Ph.D program), have been invited to participate. It is interesting to mention that a very similar approach has been successfully implemented for the production and identification of a potato clone which had one of the four alleles of the GBSSI (potato is a tetraploid species) mutated. The resulting material will be capable of producing amylose-free starch. Figures 2.1 through 2.4 depicted the kind of variation observed for key cassava root traits. A third approach that CIAT has just begun for modifying starch quality traits is through conventional breeding (Figure 2.7). Using the kind of information provided in Figure 2.3, CIAT will begin crossing clones with roots whose starch have low-amylose proportion. Ten to twenty such clones will be crossed among themselves (shaded areas in each distribution curve). The resulting progeny (single plants) will be harvested and the amylose content of the starch in their respective roots will be measured. It is expected that there will be considerable variation among these plants resulting in the L1 curve depicted in Figure 2.7. The plants with roots whose amylose proportion is lower than those of the parental clones will be selected. The remaining progeny will be discarded. Selected plants will be crossed among themselves to start a second cycle of selection, which results in the L2 distribution curve. A similar scheme will be used for clones with high-amylose clones, resulting in the H1 and H2 successive distribution curves.The scheme illustrated in Figure 2.7 is a theoretical response to recurrent selection. This response is based on the assumption that amylose proportion in the cassava root starch can be modified through gradual changes in the allelic frequencies of genes that have a quantitative inheritance.As described in Figures 2.1to 2.4 there is some variation in quality traits of cassava root starch. The information generated in the last few years has been used for identifying clones with high-and low-amylose. Table 2.2 describes the main characteristic of the two groups of clones. In-vitro plants from the germplasm bank were recovered from the selected clones, hardened and transplanted to the field in March 2004. As the materials begin to flower crosses within each group will be made in order to generate the first cycle of selection for the high-and low-amylose populations. The segregating genotypes will be analyzed the those plants with the lowest (in the low-amylose population) or highest (in the high-amylose population) amylose levels will be crosses to generate the second cycle of selection and soProject IP3: improving cassava for the developing world Output 2-10 forth. Eventually, some crosses between high-and low-amylose genotypes will be made to conduct genetic studies on the inheritance of this trait.  In addition to the crosses and selection process described above stability and genetic studies will be conducted to determine how much of the phenotypic observations that originated the selection of clones described in Table 2.2 is genetic and how much is environmental. Early stages of selection eliminate a large proportion of these new genotypes without analyzing the quality of their starches (CIAT, 2003;Jennings and Iglesias, 2002;Kawano et al., 1998;Kawano, 2003). It is feasible, therefore, that along the eliminated clones valuable starch quality traits have also been discarded. One of the problems, as explained above, is that starch mutants in cassava roots are not as readily identifiable as those in the cereal kernel.Some of the approaches described above (TILLING system for mutation breeding or the iodine test) are specifically targeting the identification of known mutations (i.e. waxy starch). However, it is valid to assume that known (as well as unknown and yet to be discovered) mutations may be available in cassava. A common need for many of the strategies described in this output is the availability of a high capacity starch analysis laboratory to screen large number of samples in search of those with novel pasting properties.CIAT  As can be seen in the horizontal axis, the Brabender requires 90 minutes to complete and amylogram. The main advantage of the RVAs is that it only needs 20 minutes to provide information similar to that provided by the more standard Brabender. The problem of the RVA is the cost, because each apparatus costs about 35,000 US$.In Figure 2.8 photographs of Brabender, RVA and DSC equipments are included for illustration. It is expected that the high-capacity starch quality laboratory (HCSL) will be located within the Agronatura Scientific Park and evolve towards a semi-autonomous operation coordinated by National University of Colombia -Palmira Campus and CIAT. The administrations of National University of Colombia -Palmira Campus and CIAT are already considering the requirements for the physical expansion of the current facilities to accommodate the new equipment and considering the legal implications and status that this semi-autonomous HCSL would have.An interesting feature of the proposal successfully submitted to COLCIENCIAS is the participation of the private processing sector. In this case a cassava-starch processing factory is part of the consortium contributing with fresh and in-kind resources and know-how capacities. This company operates in the northern coast of Colombia.Project IP3: improving cassava for the developing world Output 2-12 It remains one of the most relevant commodities for subsistence farming as food security, and it is acquiring an increasing role in rural development as material for many processing pathways. Starch production from cassava roots is clearly one of the most important examples of industrial uses in cassava, particularly in Asia (Chutharatkul, 2002).To maintain this trend and make cassava even more competitive several approaches have to be taken simultaneously: increased yields and reduced costs of production; widened uses of cassava (i.e. exploitation of foliage); and increased emphasis on the search for value added traits/products.The justification for this strategy can be found in the maize productive chain. Maize is a commodity directly competing with cassava in many areas, including starch. Corn, for example offers the case of \"waxy maize\", a mutation that inhibits the synthesis of amylose. Therefore waxy starch is only made up of amylopectin. Farmers growing waxy maize receive a 30% additional return for their efforts. This is a very appealing situation because the modification to degrade amylose or separate it from amylopectin is not made in a factory by chemical and/or physical means but in the plant using the metabolism of a useful genetic mutation. The environment, therefore, benefits because there is a reduced impact in the modification of native starches on one hand, and the farmer benefit from a considerably higher return. Similar benefits are expected to happen from the novel starch types that this activity aims at creating and identifying.","tokenCount":"3887"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"617248dfaf84e8167fc0c3d6cf18d635","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/087d09c0-d780-4b96-9924-4b0e781e0e82/content","id":"1084621841"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7cab0aeb-810f-4f53-9915-86f789067452","pagecount":"1","content":" Fig. 1 shows continuous distributions of final disease severities for stripe rust, leaf rust and stem rust, indicating polygenic inheritance.  Detected quantitative trait loci (QTLs)/genes for rust resistance are detailed in Table 1.  The QTL (Sr2/Yr30) on chromosome 3BS explained phenotypic variation (R 2 ) of 1.1-14.7% and 41.0-61.5% for YR and SR severities, respectively.  The second consistent QTL mapped to the same location as pleiotropic resistance geneLr34/Yr18/Sr57 on chromosome 7DS and it explained phenotypic variation (R 2 ) ranged from 22.5-78.0%, 40.0-84.3% and 13.8-24.8% for YR, LR and SR, respectively.  Comparison of mean relAUDPC values over years of RILs carrying different gene combinations are demonstrated in Fig. 2.   RILs possessing both Sr2/Yr30 and Lr34/Yr18/Sr57 had significantly enhanced APR to all three rusts in field trials conducted in Mexico and Kenya.  RILs carrying both Lr34/Yr18/Sr57 and Lr68 showed significantly higher APR to LR showing the benefit of utilizing this gene combination in wheat producing areas where LR is a major problem.  Lr68 did not interact with Sr2/Yr30 in reducing stem rust/yellow rust, but it did for leaf rust.  Strategic utilization of these two pleiotropic, multi-pathogen resistance genes with other minor genes is recommended to develop durable rust resistant wheat cultivars.• F5 RIL population Apav x Arula (190 lines)• Rust isolates: • Fungicide control of rusts is not-affordable especially for small holder farmers in developing countries, therefore, growing resistant wheat cultivars is considered as the best strategy to control rusts.• Arula, a recombinant inbred line (RIL) from Avocet S × Parula cross, shows adequate levels of resistance to the three rusts at the adult plant stage.• ","tokenCount":"274"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"18fbc31d942ed93749a404356d22b26e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/77e0935f-c09c-4c73-8aef-a4b5f12b3b1a/content","id":"2116664257"},"keywords":["Villar-Hernández, B.d.J.","Pérez-Rodríguez, P.","Vitale, P.","Gerard, G.","Montesinos-Lopez, O.A.","Saint Pierre, C.","Crossa, J.","Dreisigacker, S. Optimizing Genomic Parental Selection for Categorical and Continuous-Categorical Multi-Trait Bayesian decision theory","genomic prediction","continuous traits","categorical traits","genomic parental selection","mixture traits"],"sieverID":"88c48626-6b4b-4cee-9202-3481243d2d86","pagecount":"20","content":"This study presents a novel approach for the optimization of genomic parental selection in breeding programs involving categorical and continuous-categorical multi-trait mixtures (CMs and CCMMs). Utilizing the Bayesian decision theory (BDT) and latent trait models within a multivariate normal distribution framework, we address the complexities of selecting new parental lines across ordinal and continuous traits for breeding. Our methodology enhances precision and flexibility in genetic selection, validated through extensive simulations. This unified approach presents significant potential for the advancement of genetic improvements in diverse breeding contexts, underscoring the importance of integrating both categorical and continuous traits in genomic selection frameworks.Since the pioneering study by Meuwissen [1], the use of genomic selection (GS) has experienced consistent growth over the years. Initially, its applications were predominantly observed in the fields of plant [2][3][4][5][6] and animal breeding [7][8][9][10]. However, in more recent times, these applications have transcended into a diverse array of disciplines such as forest preservation and restoration [11,12].The GS process includes some basic steps: (1) Data collection is performed through genotyping and phenotyping for target traits to establish a training or base population.(2) Model building is accomplished by training a statistical or machine learning algorithm to learn from the data. (3) Once the models have learned, they are applied to individuals in a breeding population for which we have genotypic, but not phenotypic, information. This allows for us to predict breeding values (BVs) for the traits of interest. (4) Finally, the breeder decides which individuals to select to accelerate the genetic improvement of traits over time.For the second step in the GS process, breeders choose statistical machine learning algorithms based on the type of phenotypic information, which represents the realization of traits. Some traits are continuous, while others are discrete (nominal, ordinal, and counts). Typically, breeding value (BV) predictions are carried out for single traits, although the use of multi-trait predictions has recently become more frequent for continuous traits to exploit correlations between them.For continuous traits such as plant height, yield, and nutrient content, we can assume a normal distribution for the observed phenotypic data, a notion supported by the familiarity of the normal distributions and available software, such as the popular BGLR package in R-4.2.1 [13], although free distribution approaches such as quantile regression can be performed on skewed traits [14].For discrete traits, generalized linear models (GLM) are used. In the specific instance of categorical or binary traits, there is an assumption regarding the presence of a latent (unobserved) continuous variable. Such models are commonly referred to as threshold models. The accuracy of predicted BVs is closely linked to the use of suitable statistical machine learning models that match the type of traits. Authors of [15] provide a compelling argument for the use of binary traits instead of continuous traits in genomic prediction models, highlighting the potential benefits in terms of decision metrics such as sensitivity and specificity. Incorporating these viewpoints can enhance the rationale for using appropriate statistical learning algorithms in genomic selection, thereby improving the accuracy and reliability of predictions.When addressing the challenge of the curse of dimensionality in GS, statistical models are regularized. Regularization techniques play a pivotal role in GS by bolstering model stability, enhancing predictive accuracy, managing high-dimensional data (which arise due to the number of predictors, denoted as p, far exceeding the number of observations, denoted as n), and simplifying the process of selecting relevant genetic markers.Once an appropriate statistical machine learning model has been trained, the breeder uses it to predict BVs in a candidate set for selection. In the case of single-trait selection, a natural approach is to select individuals with the highest BVs if the trait is continuous. However, if the trait is binary or ordinal, the selection is based on choosing lines with the highest probability of achieving the desired level/category of interest for the breeder.When selecting for numerous continuous traits, breeders often use selection indices to rank individuals. A selection index generates a single numerical output representing a score for each candidate, reflecting a weighted average of the BVs [16]. The primary challenge associated with using selection indices lies in the intricate calibration of trait weights. In our previous works [17,18], we proposed an alternative approach in which selection is guided by the entire multivariate posterior predictive distribution for each candidate in continuous traits; this methodology is referred to as selection based on the Bayesian decision theory (BDT).Despite the increasing frequency of continuous multi-trait selection in the existing literature, there is no research addressing how to select candidates when there are two or more ordinal traits. This, regardless of many traits of interest, is measured on ordinal scales. For example, stripe rust resistance is commonly expressed in ordinal scales that reflect the magnitude of symptoms. Similarly, numerous characteristics in animals and plants are represented as either binary or ordinal traits. While some traits exhibit a continuous distribution, they are often measured as ordinal traits for practical reasons. The scenario with multiple ordinal traits is referred to in this work as categorical multi-trait (CM).A case that is even less explored in the literature, although it is quite common in practice, involves the presence of mixtures of different types of traits. This situation arises when breeders aim to select individuals that excel in one or more continuous traits, as well as in one or more discrete traits simultaneously. Henceforth, we will assume that discrete traits are categorical, implying that the order of categories or levels possesses a natural sequence. We will refer to this scenario as a continuous-categorical multi-trait mixture (CCMM).To address this lack of investigation, in this paper, we propose a methodology based on the BDT to select the best candidates considering the CM and CCMM scenarios. Our approach is based on the idea that each ordinal trait is associated with an underlying latent trait of continuous nature. By selecting individuals with higher values for the latent trait, we indirectly select the desired category of the trait of interest (if the order goes from lower to higher; otherwise, the order can simply reverse).By extending this idea to the scenario of T ordinal traits, we have T latent traits that can be assumed to have a multivariate normal distribution. For simplicity, it can be assumed that the latent traits are uncorrelated. This assumption is made because it is not trivial to train statistical machine learning models that contemplate the correlation structure between different ordinal traits in high-dimensional data (n ≪ p). By assuming uncorrelated latent traits, the complexity and computational cost is reduced significantly, but the price of this assumption might lead to a loss of valuable information. Correlations can capture relationships and trade-offs between traits that could be exploited to make more informed selection decisions. Ignoring these correlations might result in suboptimal selection outcomes. By assuming a multivariate normality of the latent traits, it is possible to calculate the expected a posteriori loss (PEL) using BDT and select those individuals with the lowest PEL values, such as the context of multi-trait selection with continuous traits developed in [18].In the case of CCMM, a practical approach involves modeling continuous traits separately from categorical traits. For continuous traits, a multi-trait linear model can be used to exploit correlations between traits, whereas categorical traits can be modeled assuming they are not correlated. Subsequently, continuous traits and latent traits are assumed to jointly follow a multivariate normal distribution, allowing for the application of BDT as explained in [18].Both scenarios, CM and CCMM, can be implemented using existing software. Specifically, the posterior predictive distributions of the latent traits and continuous traits can be approximated using the BGLR library [14], while the posterior expected loss (PEL) can be approximated using the MPS library [19].Hence, the main goal of this research endeavor is to propose a pragmatic methodology for multi-trait selection, targeting multiple ordinal traits (CMs) and CCMMs using GS and applying the BDT. This proposal is primarily directed towards the plant and animal breeding community. To incentivize the acceptance of this methodology, we present the results of a computer simulation study conducted on a long-term breeding program. In this simulation, we considered the CM context, where three ordinal traits, each one with three categories, were simulated. Furthermore, for the case of the CCMM, we simulated one ordinal trait with three categories, along with two continuous traits. Our simulation encompasses two heritability's, low and moderate, for both the CM and CCMM contexts. In addition, we include a simple real application example considering a CCMM case.Suppose our data take the form of {(x i , y i ), i = 1, . . . , n} with covariates (molecular markers) x i = (x i1 , . . . , x im ) T ∈ R m , m > 1 and a random response y i ∈ R in the case of a continuous trait. For a multi-trait continuous response, y i = (y i1 , . . . , y it ) T is a vector in which each element represents a trait, i.e., y i ∈ R t .In the case of an ordinal trait, y i represents ordered categories, the categories are not equidistant from each other. For example, plant vigor could have three categories (low = 1, medium = 2, high = 3); in this case, k = 3. In ordinal multi-trait scenario y i = (y i1 , . . . , y it ) T , each trait can have different categories.In the case of a single continuous trait, the response can be modelled using a linear function of covariates, i.e.,, where µ i = (µ i1 , . . . , µ it ) T , each element of µ i is modelled as above, i.e., µ ij = µ 0j + ∑ p m=1 x ijm β jm , for all traits j = 1, . . . , t. Finally, the covariance matrix is denoted as Σ, where the diagonal elements represent the variances of the traits, and the off-diagonal elements represent the covariances between traits The above formulation for Σ is known as an unstructured covariance matrix, but other configurations exist, such as diagonal, factor analytic and recursive; see details in [20]. Note that we are assuming y i is independent and identically distributed. However, in animal and plant breeding, individuals are often related. This relationship is incorporated by using a kinship and/or pedigree matrix.In an ordinal trait, the probability of observing a particular category-P r (y = j), j = 1, 2, . . . , k-can be linked to predictors using a non-linear function f (•) that in most cases is the probit function [21] that takes the linear predictor η i = ∑ p m=1 x im β m as input and a threshold parameter γ ∈ R associated with an unknown latent variable \uD835\uDCC1 ∈ R. Mathematically, P r (, where Φ(•) represents the cumulative standard normal distribution. The latent variable or latent trait, \uD835\uDCC1, can be interpreted as follows: rather than observing \uD835\uDCC1 directly, we observe its categorical version, which is determined by y i = k if, and only if,In turn, \uD835\uDCC1 i = ∑ p m=1 x im β m + ϵ i , and it is assumed that ϵ i ∼ N 0, σ 2 \uD835\uDCC1 with the restriction that σ 2 \uD835\uDCC1 = 1 for the identifiability of the rest of model parameters. It should be noted that intercepts are not included in liability formulation given that threshold parameters act as intercepts, with the restriction that −∞The presence of multiple ordinal traits, here referred to as categorical multi-trait (CM), occurs when breeders are interested in more than one ordinal trait. Consider, for instance, two such traits: \"drought tolerance\" with categories low = 1, medium = 2, and high = 3 and \"fruit quality\" with categories poor = 1, fair = 2, good = 3, very good = 4, and excellent = 5. It is noteworthy that the number of levels for each trait may differ. The breeder could be interested in individuals exhibiting high drought resistance and excellent fruit quality.In this example, it becomes apparent that presuming a multivariate normal distribution would not be prudent, given the discrete nature of the traits. Therefore, a simple choice is to use categorical regression models for each trait independently. For each categorical regression there is a latent variable \uD835\uDCC1 ∈ R. The combination of multiple categorical regressions forms a vector of latent variables \uD835\uDCC1 i = (\uD835\uDCC1 1 , . . . , \uD835\uDCC1 t ) T , \uD835\uDCC1 i ∼ MV N(η i , Σ l ), with η i = (η 1 , . . . , η t ) T and Σ \uD835\uDCC1 = Diag(1, . . . , 1).Suppose we have t traits; a subset is continuous (y i ), and the rest are ordinals (\uD835\uDCC1 i ). They jointly form a vector, y * i = (y i , \uD835\uDCC1 i ) T . By construction, continuous traits are multivariate normal, and for categorical traits, the corresponding latent traits are also multivariate normal. Thus, all the mixed continuous-categorical traits are multivariate normal that can be formulated as y * i ∼ MV N µ * i , Σ * , where µ * i = (µ i , η i ) T and the variance-covariance matrix Σ * = Σ 0 0 Σ l .The posterior distribution for a vector of parameters θ ∈ Θ, p(θ|X, Y * ) is obtained using Bayes' theorem, X is the matrix of molecular markers and Y * = y * T 1 , . . . , y * T n , where each y * T i was defined above. In GS, p(θ|X, Y * ) is approximated by the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) integration technique. The posterior predictive distribution of a candidate line for selection in the context of CCMM scenario is given by p(y * c |x c , Y * , X) = θ∈Θ p(y * c |θ, x c )p(θ|Y * , X)∂θ. By combining the Bayesian decision theory for genomic selection [18], we can compute the posterior expected loss for each candidate:where L F y * c , θ represents a generic loss function that depends on the multivariate distribution (F y * c ) of y * i = (y i , \uD835\uDCC1 i ) T . L(•, •) could be any of the loss functions proposed in [17,18]. After computing the posterior expected loss for each candidate, a decision maker could rank each candidate, from minimum to maximum posterior expected loss, and select a fraction of candidates with the lowest posterior expected loss.Note that in the above formulation, for model identifiability, we supposed that latent traits have a variance equal to one, and they are independent of each other; therefore, Σ \uD835\uDCC1 = Diag(1, . . . , 1). These assumptions are obviously unrealistic; most categorical traits might be least weakly correlated. Additionally, we suppose that every continuous trait is independent of each ordinal trait; therefore, solutions based on the above formulation are suboptimal. To date, breeders do not have any practical approaches to capture the dependence between ordinal traits in genomic selection, let alone in CCMM; consequently, our approach suggests that there is a practical first approach to conduct selection in CCMM cases.The above proposal can be implemented using existing software. Specifically, BGLR can be used to conduct multi-trait and ordinal regressions separately. The MCMC chains from BGLR can then be used to approximate the posterior expected loss, as given by Equation ( 1) for each candidate line, using the MPS-0.1.0 R Package [19].We simulated a recurring selection plan with ten selection cycles. In each selection cycle, an offspring of full siblings was derived from parents randomly chosen from the entire population. From each offspring, lines of double haploids were randomly generated, resulting in a total of 2000 lines in each cycle. To represent historical evolution and induce linkage disequilibrium, 200 generations of random mating were simulated in a population of 2000 lines segregating for all loci. The allelic frequency was fixed at 0.5. The simulated genetic component follows Mendelian segregation laws for diploid species. The genome was composed of 8000 sites segregating independently of each other.In the case of CM, three correlated categorical traits were genetically simulated based on three quantitative traits, assuming a full pleiotropic model [22]. The same was carried out for the CCMM design, although in this case, we simulated two quantitative traits and one categorical trait (categorized from a quantitative trait), the three of which were genetically correlated. In both cases, this was carried out by randomly sampling gene effects for all segregating sites from a multivariate normal distribution with a mean of zero and a previously stated variance-covariance, to ensure a genetic correlation of quantitative traits at the first generation of −0.37 between trait 1 and trait 2; a genetic correlation of 0.34 between traits 2 and 3; and a genetic correlation of −0.02 between trait 1 and trait 3. To mimic complex and simple quantitative traits, narrow-sense heritability of 0.3 and 0.6 were assumed for all traits as in [18]. Hereinafter, we will always refer to the traits in terms of narrow-sense heritability (h 2 ), given that in the simulation plan we simulated a purely additive model and did not include dominance effects. Each quantitative trait was transformed into an ordinal trait, each one with three categories in the CM scenario. In the case of CCMM, two quantitative traits were treated as continuous, and the third was discretized into three categories.The population proportion of each category for each categorical trait at the F0 for CM scenario was as follows: 49% for trait 1 category 1 (T1C1), 34% for T1C2, and 17% for T1C3; 49% for T2C1, 23% for T2C2, and 28% for T2C3; and 14% for T3C1, 36% for T3C2, and 50% for T3C3. In the case of CCMM, the proportion of the categorical trait at F0 was 49% (C1), 19% (C2), and 32% (C3). Subsequently, 70% of these lines were used to train the regression model using the BGLR-1.1.2 software.Thirty percent of the remaining lines were used as a pool of candidate individuals for selection, subjected to a 30% selection pressure. Selection was performed by ranking individuals based on their PEL from lowest to highest. The computation of multivariate posterior predictive distribution for latent traits and PEL were approximated using the MPS R Package, assuming preference for the third category of each trait in CM condition. In the context of CCMM, we assumed the need to increase the genetic values for the two quantitative traits and to increase the frequency of the third category for the ordinal trait. Subsequently, the selected lines were crossed by random mating to form the new improved population. In each selection cycle, the heritability of quantitative traits, the population mean of quantitative traits, and the population proportion in ordinal traits were monitored, among other things. This process was repeated twenty times (Monte Carlo replicates).This example illustrates the application of CCMM in wheat data. For this purpose, phenotypic and genotypic information of 300 lines is known. The phenotypic records correspond to five traits, three of which are continuous (GY-B5IR, GY-B2IR, and GY-BLHT) and two are discrete (SR-NJ and YR-NJ). The continuous traits include grain yield (GY) measured in three different selection environments at the CIMMYT experimental field in Ciudad de Obregón, Mexico: optimal environment (B5IR), intermediate drought (B2IR), and late heat stress (BLHT). The discrete traits represent the percentage severity of stem rust (SR) and yellow rust (YR) observed in Njoro, Kenya (NJ). SR and YR traits were placed into four categories according to the sample quartiles. Category 1 represents individuals who experienced the highest severity of the disease (upper quartile), whereas category 4 represents individuals who experienced the lowest severity of the disease (lower quartile). Thus, this categorization implies a preference for the selection of lines with a higher probability of belonging to category 4 (the most resistant). Finally, the genotypic information pertains to single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained through genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) technology. Raw data are allocated in https://github.com/bjesusvh/PaperGenes2024 (accessed on 1 June 2024). To replicate a realistic scenario that breeders might encounter, we randomly divided the data into a training set (300 lines) and a candidate set (50 lines). The training data were used to calibrate the statistical model. Subsequently, predictions were made for the candidate lines, with each line ranked based on the posterior expected loss using Kullback-Leibler loss. Technical details are provided in the Results Section.Table 1 provides a summary of the main findings from the simulation study across two heritability scenarios (h 2 = 0.3 and h 2 = 0.6) and under the CM and CCMM frameworks. The \"goal\" column refers to the selection objectives. In the CM framework, the objective was to decrease the population proportion of trait category 1 (less desired) across all traits over time, while increasing the proportion of trait category 3 (more desired). For category 2, the best-case scenario expected a decrease in frequency relative to category 3, although an increase was not entirely negative for improvement purposes, as category 2 is more desirable than category 1. According to the results, most scenarios achieved the selection objective. When comparing the percentage of genetic gain at the end of the selection program relative to the first cycle, large percentages corresponded to cases where there was a statistically significant difference (α = 0.01) as a function of time. In the CCMM scenario, both continuous traits were anticipated to increase their genetic value, and for the discrete trait, category 3 was the most desired and an increase of frequency expected. Based on the results, the expected objective was achieved for the the two continuous traits and the discrete trait, with greater percentage genetic gains when h 2 = 0.6. Figures 1 and 2 depict the population frequencies of each category in every categorical trait. Each point on the graphs represents the population proportion in a Monte Carlo replication, with the x-axis representing selection cycles. Particularly, Figure 1 presents the results when h 2 = 0.3. The trend of population proportions in category 3 of the three traits (Figure 1c,f,i) is observed to show an increase of frequency across selection cycles: 0.15% (T1C3), 0.86% (T2C3), and 2.70% (T3C3) per selection cycle. These increases follow a linear trend, although there is a non-uniform variance in the proportions over time, prompting a formal comparison in the following section using a non-parametric test.While the primary focus is on the third category of each trait, which is the desired one to increase, it is also important to analyze the trend in the other categories. Initially, there is a negative trend in the first categories of the three traits, as expected. Furthermore, for category 2, there is a slight increase per selection cycle in trait 1 (0.29%) and trait 2 (0.21%), while in trait 3, there is a negative trend (1.62%). When h 2 = 0.6, the trend is similar. Specifically, for the third category, the increases per selection cycle were 0.03% (T1C3), 1.92% (T2C3), and 4.24% (T3C3), as shown in Figure 2c, 2f, and 2i, respectively. The increases for the second and third traits are noted to be greater when h 2 = 0.6, in comparison to when h 2 = 0.3, but this is not the case for trait 1. While the primary focus is on the third category of each trait, which is the desired one to increase, it is also important to analyze the trend in the other categories. Initially, there is a negative trend in the first categories of the three traits, as expected. Furthermore, for category 2, there is a slight increase per selection cycle in trait 1 (0.29%) and trait 2 (0.21%), while in trait 3, there is a negative trend (1.62%). When ℎ = 0.6, the trend is similar. Specifically, for the third category, the increases per selection cycle were 0.03% (T1C3), 1.92% (T2C3), and 4.24% (T3C3), as shown in Figure 2c, 2f, and 2i, respectively. The increases for the second and third traits are noted to be greater when ℎ = 0.6, in comparison to when ℎ = 0.3, but this is not the case for trait 1.For the CCMM scenario and ℎ = 0.3, both continuous traits show the tendency to increase over time, as desired. However, for trait 1 (Figure 3d), this increase was only 0.93% per cycle, while for the second continuous trait, the increase per cycle was 4.87% (Figure 3e). For the third category of the third trait, the increase per cycle was 3.33% (Figure 3c). In conclusion, there were genetic gains in almost all traits.  For the CCMM scenario and h 2 = 0.3, both continuous traits show the tendency to increase over time, as desired. However, for trait 1 (Figure 3d), this increase was only 0.93% per cycle, while for the second continuous trait, the increase per cycle was 4.87% (Figure 3e). For the third category of the third trait, the increase per cycle was 3.33% (Figure 3c). In conclusion, there were genetic gains in almost all traits.   In the scenario of h 2 = 0.6 in CCMM, the average genetic gain per cycle, assuming a linear trend, was 2% for trait 1 (continuous) (Figure 4d), 6.1% for trait 2 (continuous) (Figure 4e), and 6.1% in category 3 of trait 3 (Figure 4c). In summary, the selection goal was achieved in two out of the three traits.Upon examination of Figures 1-4, it becomes apparent that the observed data exhibit deviations from the linear trend. Additionally, there is a discernible trend of increasing variance with the progression of improvement cycles. In response, we conducted the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test to assess whether there are statistically significant differences in population means across time, and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction was used to conduct multiple means comparisons.The outcomes of the Kruskal-Wallis test reveal significant disparities (α = 0.05) in population means for the following combinations within the CM scenario with h 2 = 0.3: T1C1, T2C1, T3C1, T1C2, T2C2, T3C2, T2C3, and T3C3. Similarly, in the CM scenario with h 2 = 0.6, significant differences are observed for T2C1, T3C1, T2C2, T3C2, T2C3, and T3C3. Tables 2 and 3 present the results of the Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction for multiple mean comparisons (α = 0.05) for T2C3 and T3C3 under h 2 = 0.3 and h 2 = 0.6, respectively. In these tables, \"S\" denotes statistically significant differences in mean comparisons between cycles, and \"NS\" indicates non-significant differences.In the scenario of ℎ = 0.6 in CCMM, the average genetic gain per cycle, assuming a linear trend, was 2% for trait 1 (continuous) (Figure 4d), 6.1% for trait 2 (continuous) (Figure 4e), and 6.1% in category 3 of trait 3 (Figure 4c). In summary, the selection goal was achieved in two out of the three traits. Upon examination of Figures 1-4, it becomes apparent that the observed data exhibit deviations from the linear trend. Additionally, there is a discernible trend of increasing variance with the progression of improvement cycles. In response, we conducted the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test to assess whether there are statistically significant differences in population means across time, and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction was used to conduct multiple means comparisons.The outcomes of the Kruskal-Wallis test reveal significant disparities (\uD835\uDEFC = 0.05) in population means for the following combinations within the CM scenario with ℎ = 0.3: T1C1, T2C1, T3C1, T1C2, T2C2, T3C2, T2C3, and T3C3. Similarly, in the CM scenario with ℎ = 0.6 , significant differences are observed for T2C1, T3C1, T2C2, T3C2, T2C3, and T3C3. Tables 2 and 3 present the results of the Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction for multiple mean comparisons (\uD835\uDEFC = 0.05) for T2C3 and T3C3 under ℎ = 0.3 and ℎ = 0.6, respectively. In these tables, \"S\" denotes statistically significant differences in mean comparisons between cycles, and \"NS\" indicates non-significant differences.Note that in the case of T3C3 (ℎ = 0.3), significant differences relative to cycle 1 are observed from cycles 9 and 10 onwards, as shown in Table 2. These discrepancies became apparent towards the latter stages of the breeding program. Conversely, for T3C3 (h 2 = 0.6), a statistical significance in differences was established as early as the initial selection cycle. Note that in the case of T3C3 (h 2 = 0.3), significant differences relative to cycle 1 are observed from cycles 9 and 10 onwards, as shown in Table 2. These discrepancies became apparent towards the latter stages of the breeding program. Conversely, for T3C3 (h 2 = 0.6), a statistical significance in differences was established as early as the initial selection cycle. For T2C3 (h 2 = 0.6) and T3C3 (h 2 = 0.6), statistically significant differences relative to cycle 1 began to appear as early as selection cycle 3, as depicted in Table 3. Furthermore, nearly all conceivable mean comparisons yielded statistically significant results. Furthermore, differences were also observed when testing CCMM. In the case of trait 2 (continuous, h 2 = 0.3), disparities relative to cycle 1 began to emerge as early as cycle 4, with the majority of possible comparisons yielding statistically significant results, as presented in Table 4. For the categorical trait, significant differences were observed across all three categories. However, Table 4 presents result solely for category 3 of the trait (the preferred category), revealing that significant differences were apparent from early selection cycles, with nearly all possible comparisons being statistically significant. Regarding trait 1 (continuous), no differences were observed, indicating that this trait remained neutral with no genetic gain or loss. Similarly, when h 2 = 0.6, more pronounced significant differences were observed. For trait 2 (continuous), genetic gains from cycle to cycle of selection were higher compared to when h 2 = 0.3. This conclusion is drawn from the comparison of the slopes of the trend lines in both cases (Figure 3e vs. Figure 4e) and is further confirmed by the nonparametric test, where a greater number of statistically different comparisons were found (Table 5). Additionally, the categorical trait also displayed significant differences across all three categories of the trait, and unlike when h 2 = 0.3, these differences were of a greater magnitude. Comparisons for category 3 (the preferred category) are presented in Table 5. Once again, trait 1 (continuous) showed neither genetic gain nor loss. Figure 5 depicts the distribution of the traits involved in the selection. The continuous traits (Figure 5a-c) exhibit symmetrical distributions. The Shapiro-Wilk test indicates that GY-B2IR and BLHT are normally distributed (α = 0.01). Therefore, we pragmatically assumed that all three traits follow a multivariate normal distribution. However, the discrete traits are asymmetrical, and normality is questionable. Therefore, we categorized into four categories as described previously. In addition, our example supposes that there is genomic information for 50 candidates for selection. In Appendix A, R codes and detailed explanations are provided to replicate the exercise; with minor modifications, users can adapt the code to suit their own needs.Therefore, each one the 50 candidates lines have a rank based on PEL. Suppose we are interested in identifying the top 10 candidates. The pair plots in Figure 6 illustrate the estimated GEBVs for each trait (including latent BVs for ordinal traits), highlighting (blue dots) the lines that should be selected. The red dotted lines indicate the regions where we expect the selected lines to fall, given the need to increase BVs across all traits. Notably, almost all the selected lines fall within these regions, confirming that these lines are the best according to the PEL criterion. Now, suppose we ignore the presence of ordinal traits and perform selection considering only the three continuous traits. The question that arises is whether the ranking of each line remains the same compared to when selection considers all traits. Figure 7 shows the discrepancies when selecting based on both approaches. By ignoring the ordinal traits, the top 10 lines identified are 36, 22, 3, 14, 20, 26, 50, 5, 29, and 33, whereas when considering all traits, the top 10 lines are 22,35,43,33,21,4,6,8,9, and 1. Note that only lines 22 and 33 appear in both cases, although they have different rankings. Observing the ranking of all lines, it is evident that the order is entirely different in both scenarios. These types of discrepancies result in suboptimal selection in breeding programs, highlighting the importance of selection in the context of CCMM. In addition, our example supposes that there is genomic information for 50 candidates for selection. In Appendix A, R codes and detailed explanations are provided to replicate the exercise; with minor modifications, users can adapt the code to suit their own needs.Therefore, each one the 50 candidates lines have a rank based on PEL. Suppose we are interested in identifying the top 10 candidates. The pair plots in Figure 6 illustrate the estimated GEBVs for each trait (including latent BVs for ordinal traits), highlighting (blue dots) the lines that should be selected. The red dotted lines indicate the regions where we expect the selected lines to fall, given the need to increase BVs across all traits. Notably, almost all the selected lines fall within these regions, confirming that these lines are the best according to the PEL criterion. Now, suppose we ignore the presence of ordinal traits and perform selection considering only the three continuous traits. The question that arises is whether the ranking of each line remains the same compared to when selection considers all traits. Figure 7 shows the discrepancies when selecting based on both approaches. By ignoring the ordinal traits, the top 10 lines identified are 36, 22, 3, 14, 20, 26, 50, 5, 29, and 33, whereas when considering all traits, the top 10 lines are 22, 35, 43, 33, 21, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 1. Note that only lines 22 and 33 appear in both cases, although they have different rankings. Observing the ranking of all lines, it is evident that the order is entirely different in both scenarios. These types of discrepancies result in suboptimal selection in breeding programs, highlighting the importance of selection in the context of CCMM.  Remember that this exercise mimics a real CCMM scenario. In practice, in the abse of statistical methodologies to address this challenge, selection is generally perform considering only continuous traits, or using categorical traits as continuous. But, this s ple example illustrates the importance of using appropriate methodologies in an easy w to implement.Observing the ranking of all lines (Figure 7a,b), it is evident that the order is entir different in both scenarios. Such discrepancies result in suboptimal selection in breed programs, underscoring the importance of selection in the context of CCMM. These crepancies highlight the critical role of comprehensive selection methods that integ both continuous and discrete traits. By neglecting discrete traits, valuable genetic va tions that could enhance the overall performance and adaptability of the breeding li  Remember that this exercise mimics a real CCMM scenario. In practice, in the absence of statistical methodologies to address this challenge, selection is generally performed considering only continuous traits, or using categorical traits as continuous. But, this simple example illustrates the importance of using appropriate methodologies in an easy way to implement.Observing the ranking of all lines (Figure 7a,b), it is evident that the order is entirely different in both scenarios. Such discrepancies result in suboptimal selection in breeding programs, underscoring the importance of selection in the context of CCMM. These discrepancies highlight the critical role of comprehensive selection methods that integrate both continuous and discrete traits. By neglecting discrete traits, valuable genetic variations that could enhance the overall performance and adaptability of the breeding lines are overlooked. Furthermore, the imbalance created by focusing solely on continuous traits can lead to an overemphasis on certain characteristics while neglecting others that are equally important for the success of the breeding program. This selective pressure might inadvertently favor traits that are advantageous under specific conditions but Remember that this exercise mimics a real CCMM scenario. In practice, in the absence of statistical methodologies to address this challenge, selection is generally performed considering only continuous traits, or using categorical traits as continuous. But, this simple example illustrates the importance of using appropriate methodologies in an easy way to implement.Observing the ranking of all lines (Figure 7a,b), it is evident that the order is entirely different in both scenarios. Such discrepancies result in suboptimal selection in breeding programs, underscoring the importance of selection in the context of CCMM. These discrepancies highlight the critical role of comprehensive selection methods that integrate both continuous and discrete traits. By neglecting discrete traits, valuable genetic variations that could enhance the overall performance and adaptability of the breeding lines are overlooked. Furthermore, the imbalance created by focusing solely on continuous traits can lead to an overemphasis on certain characteristics while neglecting others that are equally important for the success of the breeding program. This selective pressure might inadvertently favor traits that are advantageous under specific conditions but detrimental in broader contexts, thereby reducing the robustness and versatility of the selected lines.The exclusion of discrete traits not only limits the genetic diversity but also reduces the potential for innovation in breeding strategies. Discrete traits often represent key qualitative attributes, such as disease resistance or drought tolerance, which are critical for developing resilient and high-performing crop varieties. Ignoring these traits can make the breeding outcomes less applicable to real-world agricultural challenges, where such attributes play a crucial role in ensuring sustainable production and food security.This study introduces a novel methodology for optimizing genomic parental selection in breeding programs by integrating both categorical and continuous traits using Bayesian decision theory (BDT) and latent trait models within a multivariate normal distribution framework. The approach enhances selection precision and flexibility, capturing the genetic architecture of diverse traits more accurately. Extensive simulations and a real-world application demonstrate its practical utility and potential to advance genetic improvements across various breeding contexts.The methodology significantly improves selection precision by incorporating both trait types, addressing the challenge of dimensionality, and ensuring computational efficiency and practical implementation using existing software. This comprehensive approach allows for breeders to achieve more informed selection decisions, particularly for traits with categorical or ordinal distributions, such as disease resistance or quality traits. The successful application in simulations with various trait combinations and heritability's underscores its robustness and practical value. The simulation results, summarized in Table 1, highlight the differential outcomes under various heritability scenarios (h 2 = 0.3 and h 2 = 0.6) and selection frameworks (CM and CCMM). Notably, the CCMM framework yielded significant genetic gains for continuous traits and achieved selection objectives for categorical traits, albeit with some variability. This suggests that CCMM models can effectively balance the trade-offs between improving continuous traits and achieving categorical trait targets, which is critical for comprehensive breeding programs.Despite its strengths, our study acknowledges limitations, such as the assumption of uncorrelated latent traits, which may lead to the loss of valuable trait correlation information. Future research should focus on incorporating correlations between latent traits and expanding validation across different species and breeding programs to ensure the methodology's robustness and generalizability. Future research could explore the application of this methodology to real-world breeding programs, evaluating its effectiveness in practical scenarios. Integrating this approach with other genomic selection tools could further enhance its adoption and effectiveness in breeding programs.This study introduces a novel methodology to optimize genomic parental selection in scenarios involving CM and CCMM. By leveraging the BDT, we effectively address the complexities of selecting candidates across both ordinal and continuous traits. Our approach underscores the importance of considering both trait types simultaneously, enabling precise and flexible genetic selection. Specifically, we observed significant genetic gains in almost all traits, with a notable increase in the continuous traits by 4.87% per cycle and the categorical trait by 3.33% per cycle under the CCMM framework when heritability was set at 0.3. Furthermore, for a heritability of 0.6, the genetic gains were 2% and 6.1% per cycle for the two continuous traits, respectively, and 6.1% per cycle for the categorical trait. These results highlight the method's effectiveness in achieving the selection objectives and demonstrate the practical utility of our approach. Results from our experimental data further support the efficacy of the proposed method, showing a consistent improvement in trait selection accuracy and overall breeding efficiency. This reinforces the practical applicability of our methodology in real-world breeding programs.The integration of latent trait models within a multivariate normal distribution framework ensures comprehensive and efficient selection, validated through extensive simulations. This unified approach for CM and CCMM scenarios represents a significant advancement in genomic selection. Future research should refine these models and explore their broader applications, promising substantial genetic improvements in various breeding programs. regression model on the three continuous traits. Setting saveEffects = TRUE allows the MCMC chains of the covariance matrix to be saved. Subsequently, categorical regression models are independently fitted to the remaining two discrete traits.no_iter <-50e3 no_burn <-20e3 thin <-5 id_samples <-which(seq(1, no_iter, thin) > no_burn)Chunk #2 fits the regression models saving MCMC chains in the \"out\" folder that exists in our working directory. The Multitrait function of BGLR [20] is used to fit the multivariate regression model on the three continuous traits. Setting saveEffects = TRUE allows the MCMC chains of the covariance matrix to be saved. Subsequently, categorical regression models are independently fitted to the remaining two discrete traits. This matrix is filled to use in MPS R Package as the following: provide the upper triangular matrix including the main diagonal in the order: σ 2  1 , σ 12 , σ 13 , 0, 0, σ 2 2 , σ 23 , 0, 0, σ 2 3 , 0, 0, 1, 0, 1.This matrix is filled to use in MPS R Package as the following: provide the upper triangular matrix including the main diagonal in the order: \uD835\uDF0E , \uD835\uDF0E , \uD835\uDF0E , 0,0, \uD835\uDF0E , \uD835\uDF0E , 0,0, \uD835\uDF0E ,0,0,1,0,1.# Read MCMC samples from Multitrait model muQ <-as.matrix(read.table(file = \"./out/mu.dat\", header = FALSE))[id_samples, ] betasQ <-readBinMatMultitrait(\"./out/ETA_1_beta.bin\")[id_samples, ,] covQ <-as.matrix(read.table(file = \"./out/R.dat\", header = FALSE))[id_samples, ] # Read MCMC samples from ordinal model 1 betasO1 <-readBinMat(paste0(file.path(\"./out/O1ETA_1_b.bin\"))) # Read MCMC samples from ordinal model 2 betasO2 <-readBinMat(paste0(file.path(\"./out/O2ETA_1_b.bin\"))) n <-nrow(Y) # number of lines M <-length(id_samples) # number of MCMC after burnIn and thining k <-ncol(X) # number of SNPs The last line in chunk #3, the PEL, is approximated using the MPS R Package. In addition to the PEL, the 'out' object includes the posterior punctual BVs of each candidate for each trait and the ranking of each candidate.","tokenCount":"7110"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f69e867439535e9d4ca0d2633c90208e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f945ff76-4470-489f-9098-6d4550329477/content","id":"1312103674"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f742b642-32b9-4cd5-88c9-ebca2970cacd","pagecount":"17","content":"Understanding farm diversity is essential to delineate recommendation domains for new technologies, but diversity is a subjective concept, and can be described differently depending on the way it is perceived. Historically, new technologies have been targeted primarily based on agro-ecological conditions, largely ignoring socioeconomic conditions. Based on 273 farm households' surveys in Ethiopia, we compare two approaches for the delineation of farm type recommendation domains for crop and livestock technologies: one based on expert knowledge and one based on statistical methods. The expert-based typology used a simple discriminant key for stakeholders in the field to define four farm types based on Tropical Livestock Unit, total cultivated surface and the ratio of these two indicators. This simple key took only a few minutes to make inferences about the potential of adoption of crop and livestock technologies. The PCA-HC analysis included a greater number of variables describing the farm (land use, household size, cattle, fertilizer, off-farm work, hiring labour, production). This analysis emphasized the multi-dimensional potential of such a statistical approach and, in principle, its usefulness to grasp the full complexity of farming systems to identify their needs in crop and livestock technologies. A sub-sampling approach was used to test the impact of data selection on the diversity represented in the statistical approach. Our results show that diversity structure is significantly impacted according to the choice of a sub-sample of 15 of the 20 variables available. This paper shows the complementarity of the two approaches and demonstrates the influence of data selection within large baseline data sets on the total diversity represented in the clusters identified.Ethiopia has a long history of agricultural intensification through the adoption of technologies […]. Indeed, many projects have been implemented to understand the needs in terms of agricultural technologies in Ethiopia and adoption strategies by farmers (Feleke and Zegeye, 2006 ), but none of them has really explained why farming systems still rely mainly on traditional technologies. Von Braun and Olofinbiyi (2007) emphasized that Ethiopia's extension system faced challenges in promoting modern technologies such as improved seed, fertilizer and post-harvest technology. They demonstrated that climate variability, lack of access to finance and conflicts were the most important challenges. This highlights the complexity of understanding technology adoption which must include biophysical, socio-economic and even anthropologic dimensions. Of course, heterogeneity within a given community is high for any of these dimensions, but typologies allow for the delineation of relatively homogeneous groups, which are assumed to share similar needs in terms of technologies.Typologies have been extensively used in the past few years to understand the diversity of farms and in particular (i) to target technologies (understanding which farm type is most likely to adopt and benefit from a particular technology); and (ii) to scale out technologies (where typologies contribute to the necessary but not sufficient understanding of how representative a particular farm is of the larger farm population). In order to embrace diversity and target different technologies to different farms, two different approaches could be used: (i) to engage each and every farmer in discussions about his/her opportunities, constraints and orientation; or (ii) to apply a blanket recommendation of technologies across all farms. Whilst the first approach is not realistic (it would require considerable resources), the second might not increase the rate of adoption of improved technologies. This reductio ad absurdum introduces the core concept of what the objective of a typology is 'to allow capturing the main features of the diversity of farming systems of a given agronomic context without falling into the \"paralysing particularism\" (Perrot and Landais, 1993) that considers each farmer individually'.In this paper, we illustrate the two approaches mentioned by Jollivet (1965): extracted and constructed types. Extracted types are based on data analysis without a priori selection of discriminant variables in a 'blind work' process (Landais, 1996), and is illustrated in this paper by the implementation of a statistical based typology (PCA-HC method; a combination of Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering). On the other hand, constructed types are the product of a number of assumptions regarding the context and are based on a research hypothesis and its logical implication, and will be illustrated in this paper by the expert-based typology.Using Ethiopia as a case study, the objective of this paper was to compare the discriminant power of expert-based typologies and statistical-based typologies, and to understand their comparative advantages and their complementarities in targeting sustainable intensification technologies. Beyond the empirical exploration of farming system diversity in Ethiopia, our paper explores the intrinsic nature of both approaches (assumptions, temporal dimension, data selection, etc.) and its impact on technology promotion. The study area is located in the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopa,between 37°45 and 38°37 E and 6°54 and 8°16 N,at an altitude between 1600 and 2100 m above sea level. It encompasses three districts: Mesrak Badawacho, Meskan and Hawassa Zuriya. The study area is characterized by bimodal rainfalls pattern (between 700 and 1300 mm year −1 ) received between March and September, and an average annual maximum and minimum temperatures of 27 and 13 °C, respectively. The dominant soil types are Andosols and Lixosols. Population density is high (between 340 and 480 inhabitants km −2 ) and farming systems are characterized by a high diversity of crop and livestock species (i.e. maize, sorghum, teff, common bean, sheep, cattle, goats). In 2010, a survey was administered to a sample of 273 farm households in the three districts of the study area to understand technology adoption constraints in Eastern and Southern Africa. The sample of households is built on (i) selecting districts according to maize production importance; and (ii) membership to peasant association of different importance.We decided to focus only on selected variables of the total dataset, some of which were use as discriminant variables and some as explanatory variables (Table 1). The objective of the expert-based typology presented here was to produce a simple tool to target technologies (i.e. understand quickly which farm type is most likely to adopt and benefit from a particular technology), and to scale out technologies (i.e. understand quickly what type a particular farm belongs to, without complex analysis, to be able to transfer successes from similar farms).Interventions proposed by CIMMYT and its partners in Southern Ethiopia can be classified as being either (i) crop intensification technologies; (ii) livestock intensification technologies; (iii) crop-livestock integration technologies or (iv) laboursaving technologies. Thus, the expert-based approach purposefully identified: (1) crop-oriented farms, (2) livestock-oriented farms, (3) mixed crop-livestock farms and (4) small farms.Based on previous work in the area (Duriaux, 2014), small farms were considered to be smaller than 0.75 ha, and 0.5 ha of farmland was considered to provide enough biomass (crop residues, weeds, browse, etc.) to feed one TLU. Accordingly, four farm types were delineated:-Small farms (Type 1). Selected as farms < 0.75 ha and owning < 1.5 TLU (the livestock that could be sustained by a farm size of 0.75 ha considering a requirement of 0.5 ha TLU −1 ). -Livestock-oriented farms (Type 2). Selected as farms owning > 1.5 TLU and having a land: livestock ratio of > 0.625 ha TLU −1 (that is 0.5 + 25% ha TLU −1 ). -Mixed crop-livestock farms (Type 3). Selected as farms owning > 1.5 TLU, with a farm size > 0.75 ha, and with land: livestock ratio between 0.375 and 0.625 ha TLU −1 (that is a 0.5 ± 25% ha TLU −1 ). -Crop-oriented farms (Type 4). Selected as farms > 0.75 ha and with a land: livestock ratio < 0.375 ha TLU −1 (that is 0.5-25% ha TLU −1 ).Small farms with small livestock herd (Type 1) were assumed to depend more on off-farm activities than farming for their livelihoods. Such farms are expected to benefit from the adoption of labour saving technologies that would allow them to free more of their time for more rewarding off-farm activities. Mixed crop-livestock farms (Type 3) were assumed to have the potential to feed their livestock the entire year with biomass produced on-farm and to not face any feed shortage, as well as to produce enough manure to maintain their soil fertility with minimum requirement for mineral fertilizer. However, the total productivity of such farms could potentially be improved through the adoption of crop-livestock integration technologies (e.g. better use of crop residue as feed, more efficient use of manure). Farms with a low livestock density (Type 2) were assumed to not face any feed shortage, but to not produce enough manure to maintain their soil fertility without mineral fertilizers. The productivity of such farm could be improved through the adoption of crop intensification technologies. Finally, farms with a high livestock density (Type 4) were assumed to produce enough manure to maintain their soil fertility with minimum requirement for mineral fertilizer, but not to feed their livestock the entire year with biomass produced on-farm. This typology is a perfect example of Landais (1998) definition of 'constructed types' which 'derived by methods which proceed from a number of assumptions as to the nature of the object being studied'. Here, the assumption is that focussing on TLU and cultivated land is enough to get a realistic picture of the diversity of farming systems, according to the objective of targeting technologies.Here, the objective of the approach is to extract as much information as possible from the dataset with a system perspective, in line with extracted types (Landais, 1998). By a system perspective, we mean that the crop and livestock sub-systems are explicitly included in the dataset as well as the main flows within and through the systems (i.e. flows of agricultural production to either home consumption or markets, the main sources of income, the use of labour). The main concern of typology delineation in highly unstable environments (economic and environmental) is that typologies are only a 'snapshot' of the diversity of farming systems, which are highly dynamic in such environments (e.g. 'moving targets', Valbuena et al., 2015). Thus, variables that can be considered 'slow moving variables' were used as discriminant variables, i.e. land owned, TLU, area dedicated to crop types, herd size and composition. We considered these variables as representing types of systems (i.e. crop, livestock or mixed farms), and although these variables can suddenly suffer changes due to exogenous shocks, such changes (e.g. sale or loss of the livestock herd or no crop production because of drought) are not directly taken into account in the typology of farming systems. Discriminant variables are mainly used as proportions or percentages to capture the structure of the systems in terms of the sub-systems and their interactions, and to avoid the typology being driven by farm size. Once the typology is built, 'fast moving variables' or functional variables can then be used to give more information of each type, including time-dependant dimensions such as crop production levels, input use level or income level. In our distinction between slow and quickly moving variables, we are in line with functional and structural typologies described by Lopez-Ridaura and Tittonell (2011).The multivariate analysis chosen to build the typology is a classic and well-known two-step method. In a first step, a principal component analysis (PCA) is implemented on the discriminant variables to synthetize the diversity of the sample into few first principal components of the PCA (data-or dimension-reduction process). In a second step, a hierarchical clustering (HC) analysis is implemented on these synthetic principal components. Based on multi-dimensional Euclidian distances, the algorithm simply adds one-by-one farms according to their proximity in this hyper-plan. Both PCA and HC were implemented under R (3.0.0, R Development Core Team, 2005) using the ade4 package (Thioulouse et al., 1997).Compared with expert-based typologies, the main advantage of PCA-HC typologies is that it avoids subjectivity in the expert's perception of the agronomic context and reveals the diversity contained in a dataset. In a data scarce environment, data selection is quite straightforward and all data will likely be used. But in cases where many variables are available, such as with household or panel surveys, the issue of data selection becomes a critical one, which will impact the final result of the typology. In many SSA contexts, there is no regular or systematic source of data, and most of the time analyses are implemented on large surveys conducted once or infrequently. These surveys are often very broad and include data on many components of farming and livelihood systems, e.g. livelihood strategies, livestock activities, crop activities, natural resource management and income sources. Delineating a typology based on this diverse dataset will imply explicit and implicit knowledge on the purpose of the typology, the local context and the implementer's background. For instance, typology implemented within the context of crop and livestock production would emphasize all data related to those sub-components whilst a sociologist or economist will prefer to focus on income sources and livelihood strategies. If the explicit part can be explained and justified (data selection according to local context or typology's purpose), the implicit part is difficult to measure: How strong is the influence of the implementer's background, or his a priori perception of the farming systems, of the data selection, and thus of the diversity contained in it?Here, we decided to test this data selection question within the selected dataset. Amongst the 20 quantitative variables available, we created a simple code to randomly select 15 of them, and for each sub-sample run a PCA and compute the global inertia in the first two PCs. Global inertia is the total diversity contained in the sample which can be explained if we consider not solely the first PCs but all of them. We don't aim to contribute here to complex analytical analysis of PCA robustness as fuzzy robust PCA (Sarbu and Pop, 2005) or robust PCA to deal with skewed data (Hubert et al., 2009), but simply to answer the intuitive question: What is the impact of data selection on the overall diversity represented in the first two PC of a classic PCA analysis? R E S U LT SFigure 1 illustrates the discriminant key of the expert-based typology. The four farm types appear clearly according to their land and livestock endowment and livestock density.In order to further interpret the farming types resulting from expert knowledge, Figure 2 shows the average value of adult ha −1 , maize production, percentage of female headed household and percentage of farmer selling labour, with significant differences between types.Based on the nature of expert-based typology, and its construction based on the assumptions of technology promotion, the link between types and technologies is quite straightforward and described below:-Small farms (Expert type 1, ET1). Labour saving technologies: direct seeding, use of herbicide and mechanization. These technologies will reduce the As PCA-HC is widely used in typology construction, we will only interpret briefly the two graphics in Figure 3 to understand the four types built in this approach. For further information on the whole interpretation process, see Alvarez et al. (2014).Here, we decided to select the first three PCs, representing a total of 44% of the overall diversity, and which defined four farm types after consideration of the HC analysis. Figure 3a and Figure 3b can be analysed jointly and represent the projection of variables and farm household on the PC1-PC2 plan.Before entering into a precise description of each type, Figure 3a and Figure 3b already provide important information on discriminant sub-systems in Southern Ethiopia. The vertical axis is mainly driven by livestock systems, with livestockoriented farms on the upper part of the graphics. The horizontal axis is more multivariate and discriminates on the left farms that cultivate a significant proportion of their land with legumes from which they get a major part of their income. On the right side, farms are under land pressure, use high levels of fertilizer and get a significant part of their income from outside. Graphical exploration of PC1-PC3 didn't provide different information and are not represented in Figure 3. Beyond this first visual exploration, the average value per type of discriminant and descriptive variable (Table 2) allowed us to give a full description of these four farming systems, and evaluate their technological needs. -Livestock owning farming households with crop-legume production (Statistic Type 1, ST1). This type is characterized by significant livestock holdings (4.5 TLU and >2 small ruminants), from which they get 29% of their income. The area of land owned is not enough to feed livestock and household of almost six AE, so additional land is rented or borrowed. With 2.1 t of maize and 710 kg of legume, this group displays the highest production, of which about half is consumed within the household. More interestingly, 12% of the land is allocated to legume production, with low fertilizer use, emphasizing the benefits of crop rotation. Finally, income is significantly higher in this group, with a good balance between crop and livestock derived income. For this type of farm, intensifying crop and livestock production technologies, as well as their interaction, can improve the efficiency of the system.  -Low resource endowment farming households with off-farm income (ST2). With only 1.2 TLU, and low maize and legume production, this type is characterized by a significant proportion of the income (54%) coming from outside the farm. Seventy percent of the crop production is self-consumed and the remaining 30% of production constitutes 40% of total income. With low land availability, low livestock density and fertilization rate, this group is not focussing on agriculture as an income generator but to secure food availability, and relies mainly on external outcome. This farming system may well implement labour saving technologies (e.g. herbicide use, direct seeding) that allow them to pursue more profitable off-farm activities whilst ensuring food security. -Intensive maize-based farming households under land pressure (ST3). With 3.2 TLU and 1.3 ha land owned, surprisingly this group only cultivated 65% of land available, and then faced high land pressure. These are maize-based systems with 77% of land allocated to maize but with almost no legumes, but compensated for with high fertilization rate. One-third of income is derived from outside the farm and for 57% from crop production. High TLU ha −1 is certainly the indicator of crop-livestock interaction, which also explains the weak level of TLU sold per TLU owned. As for type ST1, technologies for the sustainable intensification of this group of farming systems may include:The design of crop rotations with legumes as well as manure management and crop residue management to improve crop-livestock integration, but also laboursaving technologies regarding contribution of off-farm activities. -Crop producers (ST4). With low livestock density and a significant amount of land borrowed or rented, this group is characterized by its income source at almost 90% from crop production. Allocating 64% of land to maize to produce 1.8 t of maize and 700 kg of legume; the 44% of production sold is not enough to generate enough income and this group displays the lowest average total income. In spite of 1.5 TLU, livestock is almost not exploited and only represent a small part of the household income (3%). Technologies for the sustainable intensification of these farming systems might be developed and implemented within the cropping systems.Figure 4 displays the distribution of the global inertia of 1000 random arrays of 15 variables out of the 20 available. The global inertia ranges from 29.6 to 44.2% of the diversity explained. To be more explicit, in the worst choice of 15 variables out of 20 available, the two first components will contain 29.6% of the total information on diversity in this sample. In contrast, when we select the best sample, 44.2 % of information will be contained in the first two PCs. Note that total diversity in those two cases are different, i.e. the percentages are not relative to the same absolute of potential 100 % variability, but to each sample's total variability. We assessed the structure of this variability, whether widespread in several PCs or concentrated in the first few (Table 3) and discussed in section 4.2. Table 3. Two samples amongst the 1000 draws of 15 variables out of 20 which represent the minimum and the maximum global inertia in the two first PCs (ticks means that the variable is considered in this typology, and crosses that this variable is not considered in this typology). As stated by Landais (1996), statistical approaches are assumed to be 'blind' approaches where no a priori perception of the context should influence the operator of the typology in determining the drivers of farming system diversity. Indeed, compared to expert-based typology where the discriminant key is clearly based on the local knowledge, statistical tools intend to avoid bias that could be caused by diverse factors such as affinity to certain farmers, expert's background and origin, amongst others. If this is well known, the statistical tool and its objectivity is less often debated. Our sub-sample didactic exercise pursues the objective of demonstrating the impact of data selection, and thus questions the assumed objectivity of statistical tools. Based on 20 variables available, we saw in Figure 4 that the selection of 15 variables can significantly influence the structure of the diversity in the sub-sample and what we called compactness, i.e. the amount of total inertia in the first PCs. This subsample exercise mimics data selection occurring frequently in agronomic studies, where researchers are asked to assess farming system diversity based on large surveys. In our case-study, the best choice would have given a total inertia in the two first component of 44.2%. Table 3 shows the five variables which have been removed in the worst-case sub-sample, and which are critical in understanding the diversity of farming systems in Southern Ethiopia, namely, AE per land cultivated, TLU per land Typologies to target technologies in Ethiopia 203 cultivated, production of maize, TLU and land cultivated. This result also confirms our assumptions that ratios are important in farming system descriptions, even if numerator and denominators of the ratio are already considered in variables sampled. Some would argue that ratios erase some information (e.g. one farmer with 100 TLU and 100 ha would have the same value of livestock density compared to a farmer with 1 TLU and 1 ha), but our case-study shows that livestock density is itself a variable to consider. In contrast, we can also see that AE per land is an important variable whilst AE itself is not chosen in the best-case sub-sample.This simple example shows that selection and calculation of indicators are a topic of interest closely linked to typology research. Within the context of increased interest in scaling-out targeting technologies and increasing adoption rates, researchers must select variables carefully. If for pragmatic reasons data availability and quality should be prioritized, more systemic reflection should lead the choice of selecting data to run a typology in a given context. This data selection should include statistical considerations, i.e. by assessing how to optimize variability in the whole sample, maybe by going one step further in our sub-sample analysis and run cluster analysis on each of the 1000 PCA ran. Nonetheless, we also argue that expert knowledge should be part of this data selection process.Figure 5 is a contingency table for the expert and statistical typologies described above and allows the matches and mismatches of both typologies to be seen. In order to compare typologies, the example of 43 farmers in Expert-based Type 1 (ET1, small farms) can be discussed. If they were no correspondence at all between the two typologies, these 43 farmers would be spread equally between the four statistical types (ST); whilst we see that 26 of them are actually in the ST2 (low resources endowment farm household with off-farm activities). This clearly demonstrates similarities in farms of these two types, from different typologies. Indeed, characterized by experts according to their low land availability and their small herd, these criteria also appear in the description of ST2. However, the important additional information here is that statistical-based typology showed that those farmers have high off-farm income, potentially a key characteristic in targeting technologies. Pursuing the same type of reasoning with ET2 (livestock oriented farms), we can see that the 140 farmers are mainly split into types ST1 (livestock farm household with crop-legume production) and ST3 (intensive maize-based farming systems under land pressure). Once again, we can see that indeed they both have high livestock numbers (which explain their classification into ET2), but display significant differences. Whilst ST1 is using legume and low level of fertilizer use, ST3 is under land pressure and uses higher levels of fertilizer on a crop system dominated by maize. In this case, the statistical typology based on a systems approach could help targeting more accurately the crop or livestock technologies suitable for these farmers, mainly in terms of manure and residue management. Figure 5, and specially number of farmers in ET2, emphasizes the unbalanced number of farmers in expert-typology due to the nature of discriminant key and selected thresholds for each variables. The same reflection applies to ET3 (mixed crop-livestock farms) split between ST1 and ST4 (crop producers), which differ mainly in their income sources, which are balanced between crop and livestock for the former, and 90% from crop for the latter. If crop-livestock technologies are promoted for these farmers, they will impact farming systems very differently as livestock is sold in one case and used for crop in the other. Finally, ET4 (crop oriented farms) is separated into ST1, ST2 and ST4, highlighting that this 'crop producer expert-type' is quite widely defined with high intra-type variability. Thus, beyond the incorporation of new variables such as income source or AE in the household into the typology, we can see that thresholds themselves can be dealt differently, as some farmers in statistical livestock type can end up in crop producers' type in expert typology.Beyond a dogmatic position arguing for a polarized vision of typology based on expert local knowledge and those based on a statistical tool, we think as Pacini et al. (2013) and Alvarez et al. (2014) do, that both constructed and extracted types can Typologies to target technologies in Ethiopia 205 help in designing an integrative framework to assess diversity of farming systems at different scales and through time. On one hand, expert knowledge is interacting very frequently with households for technical support, to provide expertise, and to collect data. A wide range of stakeholders are thus building knowledge capital based on their daily on-field observations. This knowledge is based on a diachronic vision of farming systems, where experts can also observe visually their diversity and change. On the other hand, a statistical typology is most of the time based on data collection at a single point in time. It only provides a 'snapshot' of farming system diversity, but in a more detailed way. Indeed, in spite of their synchronic nature, the main advantage of survey tools compared to expert knowledge is that it includes the environment of farming systems (socio-economic consideration, communities, etc.) as well as special insights on current global concern of agriculture (e.g. few years ago, no baseline distinguished gender in labour distribution as it is the case currently). On the time dimension, we thus see that if large data collection are less frequent, they also give different kind of information which can hardly be collected on a day-to-day basis by expert in the field. Statistical-based typology using large datasets and expert-based typology using field-observation clearly offer complementary perceptions of farming system diversity and its change.In Southern Ethiopia, as a case study to assess farming system diversity, an expert-based typology based on TLU, Land and TLU per land helped define the main characteristics of farming systems to assess their needs in terms of agricultural technologies. This hypothesis is currently being tested. The statistical typology clearly showed that experts were right on selecting those three indicators to tackle diversity of faming systems and Figure 5 illustrates that expert-based and statistical-based typologies were partially matching, in spite of the important number of additional variables in the latter. Nonetheless, the statistical typology emphasized the importance of factors such as source of income, level of fertilizer used, land allocated to maize or legume and livestock productivity. These factors can allow more accurate targeting of certain technologies. For example, to develop technologies for legume production or even develop fodder crop on land available and not cultivated for farmers selling livestock products.We can clearly see here the connection between the two approaches and the way to move forward by combining advantages of each methods. First of all, surveys should not be purely project-driven and collect data solely for a given project, but should include local knowledge and on-field partners, who can add their expert-based knowledge into the data collection process. Second, if statistical analyses highlight new drivers of diversity into farming systems, it is crucial that on-field expert update their expert-based typology in their day to day interaction with farmers to take into account these new components, i.e. an active feedback loop. As an example, we saw in our case-study that the source of income or fertilizer use should be included, and the threshold for livestock herd size redefined. We argue that combining expert-based and statistical based typologies in both data collection and analysis is the best way to tackle farming system diversity; but this can only be achieved through frequent interactions between on-field experts and researchers. The approach developed by 206 DAV I D B E R R E et al. Falconnier et al. (2015), where a statistical typology is used to select five key variables and identify critical thresholds in order to build a simple decision tree to enhance discussion with farmers and experts, is without a doubt a significant step towards a more participatory approach of typology.In this paper, two typologies have been used as a means to target technologies in a very diverse set of farming systems in southern Ethiopia. Our paper confirmed that the two approaches pursue different objectives and display different perception of diversity. In the expert-based approach, the types are 'built' in regards of the final purpose of targeting specific technologies and the assumed drivers of their usefulness and adoption. On the other side, the statistical typology pursues the objective to 'extract' types from important dataset, in an assumed 'blind' process, putatively more objective and reproducible. In our case-study, we indeed showed that the statisticalbased typology emphasized more drivers of diversity and their complex interactions, but expert-based typology demonstrated its usefulness to help on-field expert thanks to a simple discriminant key. Landais (1998) argued that 'building typologies involves a greater or lesser proportion of heuristic phases […]' but we argue that a welldefined heuristic process beyond dogmatic approach is necessary to tackle farming systems diversity and therefore optimize this diversity for its agro-ecosystemic and socio-economic benefits.","tokenCount":"5112"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"98f63b4811e9998fad71c212190ca1b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8ac50858-8e22-44d7-9980-624b01679e2c/retrieve","id":"1638776994"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"30bb5491-b503-43e8-919c-61a03b858e4b","pagecount":"1","content":"A LAB based biocontrol method seems to present a promising approach for aflatoxin control.Especially, strains of the genus Lactobacillus have been relatively well studied and, according to published research reports, provide noticeable potential to mitigate aflatoxin risks through inhibition of fungal growth and binding of aflatoxin contaminants in food and feed matrices.170 LAB strains of bacteria have been isolated from 21 different indigenous fermented dairy and cereal products prepared locally in different parts of Kenya.• Find local Kenyan strain which can effectively bind aflatoxins and inhibit mold growth • Use this/these strains in the human diet and animal feed to reduce the aflatoxin induced health risksAflatoxin binding is a reversible reaction, and occurs on bacterial surface and involves interaction with carbohydrates, peptidoglycan and to some extent protein structures.Reduced mold growth and aflatoxin production may be caused by competition between bacterial cells and fungi over living conditions. Most likely, binding of aflatoxins depends on environmental conditions and is strain-specific.Especially, strains of the genus Lactobacillus have been relatively well studied and, according to published research reports, provide noticeable potential to mitigate aflatoxin risks through inhibition of fungal growth and binding of aflatoxin contaminants in food and feed matrices. ","tokenCount":"196"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e4c18e8b5c059096779716a0361dee64","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2dcbd964-574e-4d17-b899-63443e6b8117/retrieve","id":"-1251906092"},"keywords":["children heading households","urban informal settlements","marginalisation","generational poverty","urban slums"],"sieverID":"e2a1e459-a7cc-415a-a4d6-bc45ace446fa","pagecount":"22","content":"Children heading households (CHH) in urban informal settlements face specific vulnerabilities shaped by limitations on their opportunities and capabilities within the context of urban inequities, which affect their wellbeing. We implemented photovoice research with CHHs to explore the intersections between their vulnerabilities and the social and environmental context of Nairobi's informal settlements. We enrolled and trained four CHHs living in two urban informal settlements-Korogocho and Viwandani-to utilise smartphones to take photos that reflected their experiences of marginalisation and what can be done to address their vulnerabilities. Further, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight more CHHs. We applied White's wellbeing framework to analyse data. We observed intersections between the different dimensions of wellbeing, which caused the CHHs tremendous stress that affected their mental health, social interactions, school performance and attendance. Key experiences of marginalisation were lack of adequate food and nutrition, hazardous living conditions and stigma from peers due to the limited livelihood opportunities available to them. Despite the hardships, we documented resilience among CHH. Policy action is required to take action to intervene in the generational transfer of poverty, both to improve the life chances of CHHs who have inherited their parents' marginalisation, and to prevent further transfer of vulnerabilities to their children. This calls for investing in CHHs' capacity for sustaining livelihoods to support their current and future independence and wellbeing.An estimated 1 billion people, globally, live in informal urban settlements, sometimes known as slums (Un-Habitat 2020). According to Yiftachel (2009), informal settlements are \"grey spaces\", as they are neither integrated nor eliminated from city plans, economics, and polity. The informality of populations and activities in urban informal settlements contributes to them being in a perpetual state of \"permanent temporariness\", meaning that they are acknowledged to exist but, at the same time, are destined for elimination (Yiftachel 2009). In short, informal spaces are a manifestation of urban inequities in wealth, health, and wellbeing (ibid.). There is limited literature on inequities within urban informal settlements and the invisibility of specific populations residing and working within them Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 296. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11070296 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 296 2 of 22 (Elsey et al. 2016). The central focus of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 'leave no one behind', commits to eradicating poverty (Goal 1) and reducing inequality and vulnerabilities (Goal 10) (United Nations 2017). In addition, the specific goals for health and wellbeing (Goal 3) and sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) cannot be achieved without a concerted effort to improve the lives of the most marginalised populations living and working in urban informal settlements (United Nations 2017).There are multiple, intersecting axes of inequity for people living in urban informal settlements, such as age, gender identity, and disability. Positionalities within these systems of power create vulnerabilities for particular individuals and households that exacerbate their discrimination and exclusion. Such positionalities of intersecting vulnerabilities can lead to marginalisation and exclusion from mainstream social, educational and cultural life (Sevelius et al. 2020). The Accountability and Responsiveness in Informal Settlements for Equity (ARISE) Research Consortium aims to increase accountability for marginalised people working and living in informal settlements to claim their rights to health across cities in Kenya, Sierra Leone, India, and Bangladesh (ARISE 2022). Whilst the Kenyan government has made efforts to reduce inequities in health outcomes at a national level, urban informal settlements and particularly vulnerable groups within them are being left behind. Through ARISE's work of exploring inequities within informal settlements, childheaded households (CHHs) in Nairobi have emerged as a particularly vulnerable group.Wellbeing as a concept emerged as a counterpoint to narrowly materialist and economic framings and measurements of development. Whilst complex and contested, understandings of wellbeing tend to share a holistic approach that includes multiple dynamic, person-and culture-specific dimensions of human experience, including material, subjective and relational dimensions (White 2009;King et al. 2014). Loewenson and Masotya (2018) identify areas of commonality among twelve wellbeing frameworks: social and political; material; ecological; and 'other' (which incorporates subjective dimensions such as people's levels of satisfaction and priorities). There is no commonly agreed upon definition of wellbeing (Loewenson and Masotya 2018). White (2010) points to a common formulation of wellbeing as 'doing well, feeling good; doing good, feeling well': 'doing well' referring to the material welfare or standard of living; 'feeling good' expressing a personal perception of satisfaction with life; 'doing good' relating to a moral dimension of 'living a good life', and 'feeling well' encapsulating a holistic sense of health (White 2010). King et al. (2014) broadly define wellbeing based on objective and subjective viewpoints. Objective components of wellbeing include many material and social attributes of people's life circumstances such as physical resources, employment and income, education, health, and housing (King et al. 2014). Subjective components of wellbeing relate to individuals' thoughts and feelings about their life and circumstances, and their level of satisfaction with specific dimensions (ibid.). White's (2009) influential 'Bath framework' conceptualises wellbeing as both a process and an outcome, involving the interplay between material and relational, objective and subjective dimensions of lived experience, which is dialectically produced in relation to social, economic, and political structures of power over time and space.In this article, we use White's (2009) wellbeing pyramid framework to frame and explore the unique experiences of CHHs and how these change through time and space. Within this framework, three dimensions are identified, which are seen as interdependent. The material dimension comprises aspects of living standards such as levels of consumption, livelihoods, and wealth. The relational dimension is made up of two aspects: first, social relations and access to public goods, including social networks, relations with the state, security and socio-cultural identities and inequities; and second, human capabilities, including education, information and skills, physical health and (dis)ability, personal relationships of love and obligation, self-concepts and attitudes to life. The subjective dimension comprises people's perceptions of their positions, both material and relational, their cultural values, ideologies, and beliefs. The subjective dimension is placed at the apex of a pyramid, emphasising that the meaning of a 'good life' is inextricably linked with subjective values located in time and place.A CHH is a complex construct with varied understandings across contexts (Van Breda) Here, CHHs are households where children assume most or all of the day-to-day parental and household responsibilities due to the death, illness, or incapacitation of parents or any adult caregiver (Le Roux-Kemp 2013;Thwala 2018). Sometimes, the extended family can absorb children, but changes such as urbanisation, challenging economic circumstances, and Westernisation have altered the tradition of children being absorbed by the communities surrounding them (Kanyi). When families do not absorb children within their communities, the eldest of the children may assume parental responsibilities (Van Breda 2010;Chidziva and Heeralal 2016). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the limited literature on CHHs mainly focuses on children that were made orphans amidst the strains on kinship networks due to the high mortality from the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021;Francis-Chizororo 2010;Mogotlane et al. 2010;Collins et al. 2016). The scale of the CHHs problem in Kenya is significant. Government surveys estimate that 8.4% of Kenya's children are orphans (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2021). An estimated 870,000 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) benefit from international charities, and the Kenya government is financing social security interventions such as cash-transfer programs (Ministry of Health 2018). A national HIV survey in 2021 revealed there were approximately 2.6 million OVC in Kenya; 1.8 million were orphans and 750,000 were vulnerable (Lee et al. 2014).Studies of CHHs experiences in Africa are framed from a range of perspectives, including quality of life (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021;Awino 2010), vulnerabilities (Donald and Clacherty 2005), resilience (Ward and Eyber 2009) and coping strategies (Daniel and Mathias 2012;Kurebwa and Kurebwa 2014). Some studies focus on psychological or psychosocial wellbeing (Caserta et al. 2017;Makuyana et al. 2020), whilst others consider multiple aspects of daily life including material, social aspects (Kanyi 2019;Collins et al. 2016;Kurebwa and Kurebwa 2014;Evans 2005;Mogotlane et al. 2010).These studies have identified multi-layered vulnerabilities of CHH. Ward and Eyber (2009) argue that a child's vulnerability is defined by the complex and dynamic interplay of individual characteristics, as well as risk and protective factors in his/her environment (Ward and Eyber 2009). Limited financial assets of CHHs often means that their socio-economic needs including access to food, health, hygiene, education, safety and shelter are not met (Mogotlane et al. 2010). Lack of material needs such as shelter creates increased exposure to extreme temperatures across different seasons and may perpetuate related health challenges (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021). Furthermore, lack of financial resources (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021) as well as lack of knowledge or the right documentation (Mogotlane et al. 2010) hinders adequate access to general health services. Rapid parentification and lack of financial assets translates to high school dropout rates, which have longstanding impacts on the opportunities for CHHs to break out of cycles of poverty (Collins et al. 2016;Kurebwa and Kurebwa 2014). CHHs are often vulnerable to exploitation by family, such as failure to recognise or grabbing inheritance, including in informal settlements in Kenya (Kanyi 2019) as well as in Uganda (Collins et al. 2016). Multiple layers of hardships intersect with social dimensions of vulnerability-such as stigma, exclusion and exploitation-and psychological trauma related to multiple losses, resulting in anxiety and depression, which are further exacerbated by lack of support and limited psychological resources (Van Breda 2010;Kanyi 2019;Mogotlane et al. 2010;Collins et al. 2016;Makuyana et al. 2020). Ndeda (2013) found that girls who head households experience a 'double vulnerability' by nature of their gender. Girls heading households take on a larger share of the caring responsibility and are more likely to report feelings of hopelessness and negative symptoms (Ndeda 2013). Despite experiencing chronic crises, many studies find that CHHs are resilient and adopt specific strategies such as developing time and financial management skills and social networking (Awino 2010;Donald and Clacherty 2005;Ward and Eyber 2009).Experiences of CHHs in Kenya and Nairobi in particular are not well understood (Gaciuki 2010), which limits opportunities to hold duty bearers accountable for their wellbeing (Lee et al. 2014). This study aimed to deepen understanding by exploring the experiences and drivers of vulnerability and wellbeing of CHHs in the specific context of two informal settlements in Nairobi from their own perspectives. A holistic wellbeing framing allows us to draw out the material, social and human dimensions that intersect to impact their experiences and perceptions of wellbeing and shape how they navigate the challenging environment they live in.Study setting: This study took place in Viwandani and Korogocho informal settlements in Nairobi, which have an estimated population of 52,698 and 36,276 residents, respectively. Korogocho, the fourth largest informal settlement located in the northeast of Nairobi, covers an area of about 0.97 km 2 (Beguy et al. 2015;Emina et al. 2011). Housing structures are built in rows and are mostly made of mud and timber walls, and waste tin cans are used as the roofing material. Korogocho has a settled population, as many of the residents have lived there for many years. Nairobi city's only dumpsite is adjacent to Korogocho and is a source of livelihood for many youthful residents who scavenge solid waste material for selling. The Viwandani informal settlement is situated on public land, occupied by its residents since 1973. In contrast to Korogocho, most residents are youthful and highly mobile, working or seeking employment within the nearby industrial area. Viwandani is situated along the Nairobi River, which is heavily polluted with industrial waste from the neighbouring industries. The majority of residential structures in Viwandani are made from iron sheets. Korogocho and Viwandani are characterised by poor or lack of basic infrastructures such as roads and sanitation.Study design and background to project: We adopted a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach, which was conducted within the larger ARISE Research Consortium. We first conducted a social mapping exercise in Korogocho and Viwandani to identify the most marginalised groups in both urban informal settlements. Through prioritisation exercises, community stakeholders identified older persons, persons with disability, and CHHs as particularly vulnerable and marginalised groups in both communities. We used the photo-voice research method, a form of visual participatory data collection with members of the marginalised groups that were residents of both urban informal settlements. Photovoice is a participatory visual research method that seeks to 'give voice' to communities using photography. This method enables an in-depth understanding of the realities of people that otherwise might remain inaccessible (Wang et al. 1997;Le and Yu 2021). Photovoice is frequently employed in community-based participatory research (CBPR) by giving cameras to participants to enable them to act as 'co-researchers' to identify and reflect on issues within their own community (Wang et al. 1997). This method has the potential to stimulate social engagement and the co-creation of sustainable solutions to complex problems (Budig et al. 2018;Fairey 2018;Nykiforuk et al. 2011). Photovoice has been applied to a wide range of health-related topics, (Catalani and Minkler 2010) such as community-based palliative care (Bates et al. 2018); child care in urban informal settlements (Hughes et al. 2020); maternal, child and women's (Wang 1999;Wang and Pies 2004); water, sanitation, hygiene (Bisung et al. 2015); and clean cooking practices and interventions (Ardrey et al. 2021;Ronzi et al. 2019). In this study, photovoice enabled us to gain an in-depth understanding of the daily lived experiences of the participants regarding marginalisation, wellbeing, and agency (Chloe et al. 2020;Lindhout et al. 2021). The approach enabled us to explore and understand the complex problems in the study settings in a way that is relevant to residents of informal settlements. In this article, we present and discuss in depth the findings of photovoice conducted with child-headed households as Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 296 5 of 22 this speaks to a clear evidence gap in the Kenyan setting. Findings from other marginalised groups with whom photovoice was conducted will be published separately.We undertook photovoice with four CHHs-two from each settlement. All participants had been residents in the informal settlement for at least six months, were above 15 years old and qualified as mature minors (National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP) (2015)). The photovoice process with these participants included production and discussion of visual data and narratives and is described in detail below. In addition, we conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) in Swahili with eight additional children who were heading households. Characteristics of all participants are presented in Table 1. Recruitment and training: Before we implemented the photovoice research, we sensitised community representatives and leaders on this study and clarified the purpose. During the sensitisation meetings, we presented to community gatekeepers how we selected the marginalised groups to work within both study sites. We then purposively sampled photovoice participants with help from community gatekeepers such as village elders, religious leaders, and community health volunteers (CHVs). We partnered with CHVs to vet each participant to ensure that they met the eligibility criteria. The CHVs, who were also residents in the study sites, had detailed knowledge of residents and their living conditions in both study settings. After obtaining written consent from the participants, we trained them for two days on how to take photos that convey meaning and photography ethics using simple terms and definitions. Because none of the participants had ever used a smartphone before, we trained them on photovoice using photos in newspapers to demonstrate photo angles and lighting. Before issuing the phones to the participants, we ensured they had adequate internet bundles throughout the study by regularly topping up their internet credit. We then activated the phones to automatically synchronise photographs into cloud storage to ensure real-time backing-up of photographs. We also installed the WhatsApp™ application to enable participants to share their photos with the research team daily. Photos shared via WhatsApp™ were backed up in a password-protected cloud database.Data collection: The process entailed three rounds of photography over a period of three weeks. In the first week, the participants took photos that reflected their day-to-day life, highlighting what marginalisation meant to them and how it was reflected in their lives daily. In the second week of photovoice, participants took photos that reflected what health and wellbeing meant to them. CHHs participants then highlighted their daily experiences (positive and negative) related to their health and well-being. In the third week, participants took photos that represented what needed to be addressed to make their own lives better and improve their health and wellbeing. Research team members met with the CHHs participants weekly to conduct in-depth interviews to gain a deeper understanding of why they took each photograph. These weekly meetings provided opportunities for researchers to engage with each of the CHHs and understand their fears and hopes regarding health and well-being.We documented feedback from each CHH on how the process impacted them as informal settlement residents. During these interviews, we encouraged each CHH to select five (5) photographs that would be shared with other CHHs and community members in a co-analysis workshop. After selecting the five photographs, we encouraged each CHH participant to write a caption that best described each of the five photographs they had selected. We then obtained another round of written consent from the CHHs to allow us to use the photos for advocacy and dissemination of study findings. We conducted additional in-depth interviews with eight additional CHHs, who were not part of those in the photovoice, in our study settings. In-depth interviews with these additional CHHs explored their experiences and perceptions of marginalization and vulnerability, and what can be done to alleviate these experiences. We conducted reflexivity sessions among the research team members and with the CHVs to journal our positionality, biases, experiences, challenges, and assumptions about our participants and their lived experiences. The research team held a series of four workshops to reflect on the photos prioritised by the photovoice participants, to further reflect on how they represented their everyday lived experiences of vulnerability and marginalisation among CHH.Data management and analysis: We transcribed the digital audio recordings verbatim in MS Word™ and translated them to English. Four researchers read through all the transcripts to ensure they aligned with the audio recordings and ensure that no meaning was lost during translation. We uploaded both transcripts and captioned photographs in the NVivo R version1.6 (QSR International Australia) analysis software for analysis. We used the framework analysis approach to analyse all IDIs and photovoice transcripts. This approach enabled us to organise and categorise narratives in the IDI transcripts and captioned photographs into themes and emerging concepts (Gale et al. 2013;Nowell et al. 2017). Four research team members independently read and re-read the transcripts and viewed the related photos to identify emerging themes and concepts inductively. We also analysed the captioned photos to categorise them into themes. To enhance trustworthiness in our analysis, four researchers (RK, IN, RS, NW) independently coded eight randomly selected transcripts with related photos in NVivo, discussed any discrepancies in coding, and made minor adjustments to the coding framework. We trained the research assistants on qualitative methods to ensure a high-quality standard. More experienced researchers continuously mentored the research assistants at all phases of this research. We utilised the reflexivity sessions to enhance the trustworthiness of our study by identifying any biases and values that may influence how we analysed and interpreted the qualitative data. We then charted the data to summarise our key findings, which we presented as preliminary findings to the CHHs participants and community leaders for validation and additional input.Ethical and safeguarding considerations: We obtained clearance to conduct this study from the AMREF Africa Ethics and Scientific Review Committee (ESRC-P747/2019) and the National Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation. We also received broader ethical clearance from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (Protocol: 19-089). Before our participants were engaged, they were trained on safeguarding and reporting channels for the same; thereafter, we sought written informed consent from them. Because we conducted this study within the evolving COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022, we ensured strict adherence to Kenya's public health regulations to minimise the risk of transmission, namely physical masks, physical distancing, and handwashing before each meeting and IDI. As part of our safeguarding considerations, we resolved that the ubiquitous nature of smartphones in Korogocho and Viwandani meant that possession of smartphones did not pose an additional threat to CHHs in our study, though we tracked them to ensure that data were safe. We trained the participants on photography ethics at the start of the study and provided continuous mentorship on the ethical conduct of photovoice. No safeguarding concerns or challenges with photography arose during data collection. We, however, offered counseling to the study participants after each data collection session. We also observed study participants for any signs of distress and discomfort during IDIs for referral to professional counseling services and follow-up, at no cost to them. We put in place safeguarding measures to prevent and manage burnout among researchers during data collection and analysis. Additionally, researchers participated in weekly debriefing sessions to minimise the risk of psychological distress. The ARISE Hub developed a safeguarding policy and identified safeguarding leads who met quarterly to deliberate on emerging concerns and agree on actions to address the safeguarding dilemmas. As part of our safeguarding practices, we organised group and individual counseling sessions for the CHHs participants to address any grief and distress that may have been triggered during the photovoice and IDIs.In this section, we present data on the perceptions and experiences of vulnerability and marginalisation among CHHs in our study sites. We also explored determinants that exacerbated their vulnerability in informal settlements. We structured our findings around the dimensions of White's wellbeing triangle (material, social, human, and subjective). Our results demonstrate much interaction between the dimensions, and we draw out these interlinkages and dynamics.All participants were born in urban informal settlements and had experienced poverty since birth. Five CHHs (all boys) were living with a parent that was incapacitated by either illness or alcohol dependence. Four CHHs (all girls) had been abandoned by their parents; two were orphaned (a boy and a girl), and one girl was driven away from her home by her parents when she became pregnant. The CHHs were living in parts of the urban informal settlements that were prone to flooding and environmental hazards. Their living surroundings were made hazardous by either open sewers or illegal electricity connections. The CHHs faced continuous experiences of food insecurity and hunger. Table 2 provides additional characteristics of the CHHs in our study. Violet is responsible for taking care of nine family members living in one room. She became the primary caregiver to her family since her mother fell ill in 2020. Her elder brother and sisters have turned to alcohol and drug abuse since her mother became unwell, leaving her to provide for her sisters, nieces and nephews. One of her sisters is disabled. Violet attends school but frequently skips to work for income e.g., washing clothes. Two of her sisters died in the course of the photovoice study.Robert's mother is blind which has led him to be the primary caregiver of his family with other young dependents-11 and 13-year-old siblings. He attends school when he has the funds and is actively involved in church. He is also taking ARV medication for HIV.Musa lives with his father, who is alcohol-dependent, and a stepmother. Musa's mother relocated to their rural home. Because his father and stepmother do not provide for the family, he dropped out of school to work and provide for his five siblings and biological mother.Tumaini was abandoned by her mother and could not proceed to secondary school. She has no source of income, and she takes care of 2 siblings aged below 10 years. Sandra was unable to proceed to high school after she was abandoned by her mother. She has no source of income and is responsible for taking care of three younger siblings and her own child. She has a history of experiencing GBV.Job is an orphaned child who dropped out of school. He lives on his own in a mud house and has no social support.Paula washes people's clothes for income so as to support the family. She lives in a mud house and is the primary caregiver to two siblings who are in primary school and her infant son. She was abandoned by her mother and had to drop out of school because she became pregnant and so that she could take care of her siblings and her own child. She has no social or financial support.Daniel's mother died. He lives with his father who is mentally ill. His father needs full-time care because he occasionally wanders off and has to be sought after. Daniel still attends school and is a primary caregiver to two siblings, a boy, and a girl. He engages himself in casual jobs after school and during weekends to generate income.Meshack dropped out of primary school to take care of his bedridden mother. To sustain the family, he engages in making illegal electricity and water connections to houses in the slums for a fee. He also works in a nearby market as a carrier. He does not have a birth certificate, which makes it impossible for him to obtain a national identification card when he turns 18 years old. This is a major source of stress for him.Mwangaza was abandoned by both parents and lives in a shack, which occasionally floods with stormwater and sewage. She dropped out of secondary school to take care of her two-year-old child. She does menial jobs such as dishwashing in a nearby food kiosk and is paid with food for herself and her child.Imani lives alone with her infant. The father of her child deserted her. She was chased away from her parents' home when she became pregnant and lost all her family support. She lives in a semi-permanent shack. She had to drop out of school to generate income by washing clothes.Shadrack lives with his mother who has a physical disability. His father relocated to their rural home when he lost employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His mother is uncomfortable with being taken care of by a child. He is unable to obtain employment in the surrounding factories because he is underage. He ekes out a living by washing utensils in nearby restaurants. Being out of school is a major source of stress for him because his ambition is to be a doctor when he grows up. Shadrack lives in constant fear of being evicted due to rental arrears.The physical environment was a key concern to CHHs participants. They reported living in dirty environments that weighed heavily on their minds and mental wellbeing. They also highlighted living in an environment characterised by exposed electricity wires that were used in illegal electricity connections, open sewage, and chemicals that produce a pungent stench. They perceived such environmental conditions where they lived as worse compared to other parts of the informal settlement in which they resided, and were ostracised by their peers due to their dirty living conditions. Consequently, their living environments impacted their own and their families' physical health and wellbeing (human dimension) and influenced their subjective wellbeing as described in the photos below (Figures 1 and 2). ostracised by their peers due to their dirty living conditions. Consequently, their living environments impacted their own and their families' physical health and wellbeing (human dimension) and influenced their subjective wellbeing as described in the photos below (Figures 1 and 2).   ostracised by their peers due to their dirty living conditions. Consequently, their living environments impacted their own and their families' physical health and wellbeing (human dimension) and influenced their subjective wellbeing as described in the photos below (Figures 1 and 2).   The CHHs, especially in Viwandani, reported that they lived under the constant threat of electrocution due to the exposed electrical wires that are used for illegal electricity connections in the informal settlement, as reflected in this quote:Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 296 10 of 22 \"Like at the bridge. When the bridge was removed there were some wires that were there on the wall. A woman went to pass, she touched a wire and she was electrocuted. So people are even afraid to pass through that road because of the wires . . . They [electricity gangs] hook electricity on your roof. So, when you touch the roof, you are shocked [electrocuted].\" (Mwangaza, 17-year-old girl, Viwandani) Some structure owners deliberately electrified their iron-sheet houses to prevent people from touching their roofs as they navigate the alleys within the urban settlements: \"During floods, the house owner may shock [electrocute] you so that you don't touch his roof while crossing the floods. That is the electricity challenge here. Someone puts current so that you don't touch his roof while you cross. They think you will lean on it [the roof] and bend it. So they put a current there.\" (Mwangaza, 17-year-old girl, Viwandani) Violet, who recently entered a CHH, also reflected on her own wellbeing in relation to other neighbourhoods. She expressed a form of grievance for her old life before her mother became unwell, highlighting the dynamic and relational aspects of wellbeing that shift with time and space.\"Those who are living in other areas like for example in Civo (nearby middle-class estate). They usually have garbage collection but here in Korogocho there is no garbage collection, you just throw the garbage into the river. Others even do flying toilets . . . . Someone goes for a long call (defecates) then puts the human waste in a plastic bag and throws it away. Sometimes it can even land into your food and they won't be bothered. For them, wherever it goes, let it go it's okay, but in the estates you cannot find such things.\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho) Our participants also reported that they lacked adequate nutrition and access to food, especially for themselves and their siblings. CHHs in Korogocho reported that the only food they could find was from either scavenging within the dumpsite or buying the cheapest available, which was kale and ugali (corn meal). Due to inadequate food, the CHHs narrated during the interviews that they often went without meals for prolonged periods of time or had to share small amounts of food with their siblings, as these quotes illustrate: \"I get laundry work to do . . . . There are sometimes I don't get [any] at all and sometimes I get-it depends. . . . When I don't get, we sleep like that . . . We sleep hungry.\" (Paula,Viwandani) The photos presented below (Figures 3 and 4) and their narratives illustrate CHHs experiences of accessing food for themselves and their siblings.CHHs of both genders in Korogocho reported scavenging in the nearby dumpsite for plastics, papers, and food. A male CHHs in the same setting worked in illicit brew dens to generate income for their upkeep as one male CHH narrated: \"I have been living as a street child, getting my earning from the garbage scavenging. Whatever I get, I go and sell and get money to go and buy food or sometimes [I] ask for some work from those who brew alcohol. Those who brew alcohol tell us to go to Boma and bring to them those things used to brew alcohol and when there is water shortage we go and fetch water for them . . . such things.\" (Job,Korogocho) This also revealed the subjective dimensions with regard to how CHHs viewed their satisfaction with the income-generating activities available to them-and how this interacted with the relational aspects of wellbeing-as the stigmatisation caused by working on the dumpsite and judgement from their peers caused distress: \"With my kind of work and having to collect garbage and over-ripe bananas, I am bound to get dirty. My peers (living in same settlement) tell me that I resemble a Chokora (homeless street child). They make fun that I eat food from the garbage river. They go to the extent of saying that I might infect them with COVID-19 just by virtue of being dirty.\" (Robert, 17-year-old boy, Korogocho) Figure 3. \"This photo was taken on a day when I had gone to work but I wasn't feeling well, so I just washed utensils for one person then bought rice which we ate on that day. Before we were not eating like this-everyone was eating from their own plate-but nowadays, we are sharing because it is not much. So you just put there for everyone to eat. Sometimes we even do not have any food to eat. The first days when my mum fell sick, the kids had not gotten used to eating less food but now, they are used to it. When you tell them that there is no lunch, they will just go out to play. Sometimes they will just sleep hungry since they are used to it\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho). CHHs of both genders in Korogocho reported scavenging in the nearby dumpsite for plastics, papers, and food. A male CHHs in the same setting worked in illicit brew dens to generate income for their upkeep as one male CHH narrated: \"I have been living as a street child, getting my earning from the garbage scavenging. Whatever I get, I go and sell and get money to go and buy food or sometimes [I] ask for some work from those who brew alcohol. Those who brew alcohol tell us to go to Boma and bring to them those things used to brew alcohol and when there is water shortage we go and fetch water for them...such things\" (Job, 17-year-old boy, Korogocho).This also revealed the subjective dimensions with regard to how CHHs viewed their satisfaction with the income-generating activities available to them-and how this interacted with the relational aspects of wellbeing-as the stigmatisation caused by working on the dumpsite and judgement from their peers caused distress: Figure 3. \"This photo was taken on a day when I had gone to work but I wasn't feeling well, so I just washed utensils for one person then bought rice which we ate on that day. Before we were not eating like this-everyone was eating from their own plate-but nowadays, we are sharing because it is not much. So you just put there for everyone to eat. Sometimes we even do not have any food to eat. The first days when my mum fell sick, the kids had not gotten used to eating less food but now, they are used to it. When you tell them that there is no lunch, they will just go out to play. Sometimes they will just sleep hungry since they are used to it\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho).Figure 3. \"This photo was taken on a day when I had gone to work but I wasn't feeling well, so I just washed utensils for one person then bought rice which we ate on that day. Before we were not eating like this-everyone was eating from their own plate-but nowadays, we are sharing because it is not much. So you just put there for everyone to eat. Sometimes we even do not have any food to eat. The first days when my mum fell sick, the kids had not gotten used to eating less food but now, they are used to it. When you tell them that there is no lunch, they will just go out to play. Sometimes they will just sleep hungry since they are used to it\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho). CHHs of both genders in Korogocho reported scavenging in the nearby dumpsite for plastics, papers, and food. A male CHHs in the same setting worked in illicit brew dens to generate income for their upkeep as one male CHH narrated: \"I have been living as a street child, getting my earning from the garbage scavenging. Whatever I get, I go and sell and get money to go and buy food or sometimes [I] ask for some work from those who brew alcohol. Those who brew alcohol tell us to go to Boma and bring to them those things used to brew alcohol and when there is water shortage we go and fetch water for them...such things\" (Job, 17-year-old boy, Korogocho).This also revealed the subjective dimensions with regard to how CHHs viewed their satisfaction with the income-generating activities available to them-and how this interacted with the relational aspects of wellbeing-as the stigmatisation caused by working on the dumpsite and judgement from their peers caused distress: The prioritisation of survival over education for this CHH was challenging and distressing to them. CHHs were somewhat envious of other children who did not have to take on such premature burdens of responsibility. Two CHHs reported a \"positive\" effect from the government directive when they closed all schools for almost nine months during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the CHHs had more time to scavenge in the Dandora dumpsite for food and recyclable waste that they sold for upkeep without falling behind with school work (Figures 5 and 6).ures 5 and 6).\"Last year were it not for COVID, I was struggling…. COVID started in March. Before COVID started I never used to go to school. So to some extent COVID has helped me because all those months I could have missed school since there was nobody at home who could have been left to take care of mum. And my sister has to go to work so that she can get the money for my mother's medication\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho).Figure 5. \"This is the dumpsite. When we go there we don't wear gloves because we cannot afford [them] so we have to touch everything. Sometimes we end up touching faeces because that is waste from people's households. You can even get diseases there. In this picture, I'm at the dump site because some of the waste dumped there is from abroad and that is where COVID is prevalent. So you can end up touching someone's mask then you forget and touch your face. You see in that situation you may end up getting COVID, so we are at high risk. Sometimes I get sick also-back aches and coughing-because I wake up very early in the morning\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho).Figure 5. \"This is the dumpsite. When we go there we don't wear gloves because we cannot afford [them] so we have to touch everything. Sometimes we end up touching faeces because that is waste from people's households. You can even get diseases there. In this picture, I'm at the dump site because some of the waste dumped there is from abroad and that is where COVID is prevalent. So you can end up touching someone's mask then you forget and touch your face. You see in that situation you may end up getting COVID, so we are at high risk. Sometimes I get sick also-back aches and coughing-because I wake up very early in the morning\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho). CHHs in our study experienced diminished access to public goods and support from public services. CHHs reflected about the dangerous, insecure and violent environments they experienced daily. They reported the multiple reports of drug and alcohol misuse and crime among their peers. They also asserted that their environment was rife with gender-based violence (GBV) and that girls turning to sex work to earn money to feed their siblings and parents was common, highlighting how gendered power relations also create further vulnerabilities, especially in the urban informal settlements. The quote below Figure 6. \"This is a matatu (minibus or similar vehicle used as a taxi) . . . where I work this is where I get some money. And the money you know that it is for supper, breakfast and lunch and other responsibilities\" (Daniel,Viwandani).\"Last year were it not for COVID, I was struggling . . . . COVID started in March. Before COVID started I never used to go to school. So to some extent COVID has helped me because all those months I could have missed school since there was nobody at home who could have been left to take care of mum. And my sister has to go to work so that she can get the money for my mother's medication.\" (Violet, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho)CHHs in our study experienced diminished access to public goods and support from public services. CHHs reflected about the dangerous, insecure and violent environments they experienced daily. They reported the multiple reports of drug and alcohol misuse and crime among their peers. They also asserted that their environment was rife with gender-based violence (GBV) and that girls turning to sex work to earn money to feed their siblings and parents was common, highlighting how gendered power relations also create further vulnerabilities, especially in the urban informal settlements. The quote below demonstrates how the female CHHs' bodily autonomy is contested, and limited available livelihood options place them at risk of physical harm.\"As I was doing casual jobs of washing clothes and utensils, there was a boy who wooed me, impregnated me. We lived together for like 6 months after I delivered. But he started beating me. I got pregnant, the second time. The guy was still abusive, he threated to stab me and kill the baby. I have even been strangled using electricity wires.\" (Sandra, 16-year-old girl, Korogocho) Some structures that had been built in the informal settlements created a perception of segregation and increased insecurity among residents. For example, a wall had been erected around the Viwandani informal settlement that separated the residents from another residential area that was across a railway line. A CHH elucidated how the wall increased incidents of crime as exemplified below (Figure 7): The general lack of governance and accountability for the wellbeing of CHHs in informal settlements also emerged from the data. Interviewing CHHs in our study revealed the desire for more accountability and support from the government, as well as a platform to be heard and air their grievances. Additionally, CHHs requested investment in their human capital/capacities for sustaining livelihoods that would support their future inde-Figure 7. \"The government came and put up that wall, to close us in, the people of the Kijiji (referring to Viwandani informal settlement), from the other side of the rail track. So, like when these houses burn, you find that the fire trucks are not able to reach the burning houses . . . they put up the wall to separate us. You start feeling like you are not a Kenyan, or you feel like you were thrown away and it is like you do not hold any significance\" (Daniel,Viwandani).The general lack of governance and accountability for the wellbeing of CHHs in informal settlements also emerged from the data. Interviewing CHHs in our study revealed the desire for more accountability and support from the government, as well as a platform to be heard and air their grievances. Additionally, CHHs requested investment in their human capital/capacities for sustaining livelihoods that would support their future independence and better wellbeing:\"We need to be given a chance to speak out. You find someone like me needs to be given a chance for us to air grievances or they take us to go and do a course or they offer us jobs.\" (Shadrack, 17-year-old boy, Viwandani) Some CHHs had been previously reliant on this support and had to seek alternative ways of accessing food. This was linked with social networks as a single mother further reported how relief food given during COVID-19 was very 'discriminative' and only wellconnected people in the community would be called to access relief food. This mother was also turned away and beaten when she sought community support which led her to further isolation from social support networks: \"During that period for COVID, I heard that there was money that used to be sent but I never got to receive any money and even my name was never registered anywhere. I just used to struggle on my own-I go to hassle (slang for work) and then come back I used to hear that people were being sent money . . . KES 7000 (Approximately USD 70) from the Chief's Office . . . but I never received any . . . I don't know why I didn't get it.\" (Meshack, 17-year-old boy, Viwandani)We found cases of CHHs relying on social networks to ease their daily struggles. For example, CHHs gave examples of structure owners that were lenient to CHHs whenever they were late with rent payments. A CHHs also reported receiving \"grace periods\" for late payment of school fees. Robert narrated how once the two-week grace period for late school fees was up, his teachers displayed a lack of empathy for his situation which impacted his emotional wellbeing: R: I feel very bad because sometimes the teacher does not care about our situation and thinks one is strong just by their outward looks, but little does he know how much suffering there is on the inside. He sometimes uses harsh and spiteful words while sending us away. He once said, 'Go and take your mother to town and beg for money' . . . this is something that we do not want to do. He tries to pressure us into it as long as he gets something to fill his pockets. I: When you are sent away and there is still learning ongoing, how does this make you feel? \"I feel terrible because everything that will be taught in my absence will not be repeated and this affects my performance in school and my grades as well. In secondary school, the teachers do not repeat what has once been taught even for students who do not understand. To them, it is just a job that will pay them after all and they even result to using rude language when questioned. My classmates are also selfish at times and will not share notes taken in my absence. They, however, tease and insult me citing my situation and poor state. This stresses me.\"Violet also narrated how despite being absent once a day every week to work at the dumpsite or wash clothes, teachers 'turned a blind eye' to her situation rather than supporting her to access assistance. There is little opportunity for the CHHs to catch up with missed schoolwork.The burden of caring for siblings and incapacitated parents emerged as a dominant theme which relates to human relational aspects of wellbeing. Photovoice participants had household structures that differed from the 'norm' or their peers, which they lamented. These structures were largely shaped by their parent's health status characterised by chronic illness, disability and alcoholism. In some cases, the participants became the default head of the household as the eldest sibling, but in other cases, they either became the head of the household due to limited family support, or because elder siblings had turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. None of the participants reported receiving familial or social support with taking care of their incapacitated parents and younger siblings.\"[Other relatives] are there but you cannot depend on them every day like for example today you go to them and borrow. Same situation again tomorrow they will tell you to also go out and work . . . I know you are aware how bad the relatives usually talk so you are forced to just depend on yourself. Sometimes they can even call to form a committee but the committee is not for helping it is just for gossip. So, you are forced to just solve your problems within your house.\" (Violet, CHH, 17-year-old girl, Korogocho) Participants demonstrated wisdom and maturity but also expressed sadness at the situations they found themselves in, longing for a return to normality or to be like their peers. CHHs took on a huge burden of caregiving and had to ensure their younger siblings and incapacitated parents were bathed and fed, on top of school work and incomegenerating activities for rent, food and school fees leaving them little time for leisure. There were no differences in the burden of care between male and female participants because children of both genders played this role. Tumaini's account of her day illustrates the heavy burden of responsibilities and time constraints: \"I usually wake up at 4.30 a.m. take a bath then prepare by 5.30 I make sure that even the other children have prepared and gone to school. Then I go to school and come back in the house around 6.20 or 6.30 p.m. there about. Upon arriving home I check with my sister-if there is work that she hasn't done, I do it, then check up on my mum to see if she has had her porridge or not. After that I go to the market shop for vegetables, then come and prepare them, then cook, after which I feed my mum . . . I serve food to the small ones first then give to my mum. I usually go to bed at around 9.30 p.m.\" (Tumaini,Korogocho) During the interviews, we observed stress among all the CHHs due to the caregiving roles, which had a direct effect on their mental health and lack of concentration in class. As a result, these children performed poorly academically, and some CHHs dropped out of school to take care of their family members, thus limiting their ability to attain education and break the cycle of poverty (Figure 8).As well as impacting their emotional wellbeing, their role as primary breadwinners and caregivers impacts their physical health. Stress was reported as leading to ulcers, and being forced to work in dangerous, unsanitary and unhygienic conditions that would lead to lung disease and nose bleeds to sustain their families also took its toll physically.\"Yes, it is at the market where I work. There is a place where there's sewage belonging to Nairobi water, but it smells so bad so whenever I come to dispose the ''mahuti\" (onion waste) . . . the stench from the sewage comes with a lot of pressure and the poison from those chemicals spoils my clothes-it also affects my chest and also there is a lot of dirt like from avocados and other garbage, but that is the same place that I try to look for something while I use my bare hands when looking for something or sweeping. It affects my clothes-for example you can see this sack that I usually use to carry the garbage is dirty and it also spoils my clothes. And also, the stench of that garbage and carrying the garbage on my back which affects my skin and makes it start peeling off.\" (Robert,Korogocho) which I feed my mum… I serve food to the small ones first then give to my mum. I usually go to bed at around 9.30 p.m.\" (Tumaini,Korogocho).During the interviews, we observed stress among all the CHHs due to the caregiving roles, which had a direct effect on their mental health and lack of concentration in class. As a result, these children performed poorly academically, and some CHHs dropped out of school to take care of their family members, thus limiting their ability to attain education and break the cycle of poverty (Figure 8). As well as impacting their emotional wellbeing, their role as primary breadwinners and caregivers impacts their physical health. Stress was reported as leading to ulcers, and being forced to work in dangerous, unsanitary and unhygienic conditions that would lead to lung disease and nose bleeds to sustain their families also took its toll physically.\"Yes, it is at the market where I work. There is a place where there's sewage belonging to Nairobi water, but it smells so bad so whenever I come to dispose the ''mahuti'' (onion waste)…the stench from the sewage comes with a lot of pressure and the poison from those chemicals spoils my clothes-it also affects my chest and also there is a lot of dirt like from avocados and other garbage, but that is the same place that I try to look for something while I use my bare hands when looking for something or sweeping. It affects my clothes-for example you can see this sack that I usually use to carry the garbage is dirty and it also spoils my clothes. And also, the stench of that garbage and carrying the garbage on my back which affects my skin and makes it start peeling off\" (Robert, 17 year-old boy, Korogocho).The narratives from participants described the lack of social interactions for CHHs in some cases, leading to loneliness and stress. Their perception of their wellbeing was also shaped by comparison to their peers, who did not have to work as hard as our participants and the heavy responsibility of caregiving and raining money to support their families, as illustrated in these quotes: The narratives from participants described the lack of social interactions for CHHs in some cases, leading to loneliness and stress. Their perception of their wellbeing was also shaped by comparison to their peers, who did not have to work as hard as our participants and the heavy responsibility of caregiving and raining money to support their families, as illustrated in these quotes: \"I feel bad that my friends are living comfortably while I'm suffering . . . When my friends call me to hang out, I cannot because most of the time, my mind is thinking of home. My friends sometimes advise and encouraged me to stop thinking about home and my family, but I cannot because I am the one who has to sustain it. Some of my peers who live with disabled parents have rejected their situations and abandoned responsibility and they even encourage me to do so but I cannot because even though my mother is blind, I still value her advice and respect her. This does not go down well with my peers who make me feel isolated and alone.\" (Musa, 17-year-old boy, Korogocho) Subjective perceptions of wellbeing among CHHs intersected with the human (caring burdens) and social (discrimination and stigma) dimensions. Generally, there was a sense of loss among all the CHHs in our study. This was manifested in the form of grief, especially due to the burdens that the CHHs experienced due to either incapacitation or absence of their parents due to death or desertion.Despite the suffering, there were also many examples of resilience, agency, and human capabilities expressed and demonstrated by participants. While being caught in hardship, CHHs expressed hope and optimism that things would change in the future and persistence in pursuing their goals, such as education. Further, they demonstrated leadership and encouragement to their younger siblings and fellow CHHs.What made you feel that these pictures are important? R: \"These pictures are important because one day I believe 'nitaomoka' (I will become rich). So when I'll look back at these photos, they will be reminding me of where I came from, so that is why I was taking them\" (Violet, 17-year-old, Korogocho).Robert used faith as a coping mechanism. He gained a lot of his strength to keep going from his faith; this enabled him to resist the temptation to succumb to peer pressure and fall into drugs like many of his friends. However, he also questioned God in relation to his situation as compared with his peers: R: When I see my friends going out, I question God about my situation. Some of them are also realising and utilising their talents while I do not get the chance to do so myself. I ask God why he made my situation to be like this.What is your talent? R: I have three. One is dancing another is drawing . . . actually, I have three, and acting.We conducted this study to explore the perceptions and experiences of wellbeing and its drivers with CHHs in Nairobi's informal settlements. Our study identified severe and inter-related health and wellbeing vulnerabilities facing CHHs across the material, human, relational and subjective dimensions in White's wellbeing framework (White 2009). Key experiences of marginalisation were lack of adequate food and nutrition, hazardous living conditions, stigma from peers and exploitation from employers due to the limited livelihood opportunities available to them. The daily experiences of extreme deprivation and the stress of survival in these harsh material and social conditions impacted the physical, mental health and perceptions of self-worth among CHHs and their siblings. They further negatively impacted their school performance and attendance with potentially long-term consequences for the development of their human capabilities and opportunities to improve their situations. Despite their many vulnerabilities, we documented resilience among CHHs. In this section, we discuss the key findings, propose recommendations, strengths and limitations of the study.Urban poverty and realities of life in informal settlements are poorly measured and documented, especially in national demographic surveys. As a result, the poor, including CHH, become increasingly invisible (Pipa and Caroline 2020), and the status of their health and well-being is largely unknown. The Kenyan government invests in social assistance programs such as cash transfers, social security and tax-funded health insurance for the most vulnerable populations, including CHHs. However, this programming is designed with little or no empirical evidence (McCollum et al. 2018). The social protection policy in Kenya recognizes CHHs as particularly vulnerable (Government of Kenya 2011Kenya , 2017)). However, an assessment of the social protection programs in Kenya noted that cash transfer programs for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) excluded other vulnerable children. Thus, CHHs remain unrecognised despite the care-giving burdens that they carry, which are sometimes heavier than those among adults, given their limited capabilities. As recommended by the Kenya social protection review report, there is need to focus on all vulnerable children including CHHs who may have both or one parent but who may be incapacitated and therefore dependent on their children for all their needs (Government of Kenya 2017).Our study findings on the material deprivation, including limited access to food, that CHHs face resonate with the findings of other studies in African contexts (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021;Mogotlane et al. 2010). Particular factors emerging in these informal settlement contexts were environmental risks related to not only poor-quality housing, contaminated environment and drinking water, but also the occupational risks related to their limited livelihood opportunities. The deprivations and risks experienced by CHHs in our study expose them to poor health outcomes such as malnutrition and infectious diseases. A comparative study in Kenya revealed that children in urban informal settlements are particularly vulnerable and their health outcomes in urban informal settlements are worse than in rural parts of Kenya (Ezeh et al. 2017). In line with other studies with CHHs, we found that health vulnerabilities were further exacerbated by poor financial and social access to healthcare, including lack of documentation to prove entitlements (Chademana and Van Wyk 2021;Mogotlane et al. 2010). Studies with CHHs in settings similar to our study sites reported similar risk factors for malnutrition and infectious diseases that contribute to stunted growth and longer-term effects on cognitive development, which affect school performance (Ezeh et al. 2017;De Vita et al. 2019). The social vulnerabilities faced by the CHHs in our study further resonate with studies in other informal settlements which show that social vulnerabilities exacerbated material deprivations and risks of poor health (Kanyi 2019;Collins et al. 2016). Together, social isolation and discrimination contribute towards poor mental health for many CHHs (Van Breda 2010;Kanyi 2019;Mogotlane et al. 2010;Collins et al. 2016;Makuyana et al. 2020).We found that the generationally transferred poverty experienced by CHHs in urban informal settlements worsens their limited access to and participation in school. Whilst some of the CHHs and their siblings remained in school, their material circumstances directly and indirectly affected their academic performance. Lack of empathy, negative attitudes from both teachers and classmates, stigmatization and social exclusion are common negative experiences reported by CHHs that remain in school (Pillay 2016). These hostilities result in CHHs feeling insecure, overwhelmed and performing poorly academically (ibid.). Our findings resonate with the existing literature that documents the negative effects of poverty and related stress, poor health, and nutrition on academic performance of CHHs (Collins et al. 2016;Kurebwa and Kurebwa 2014) including those residing in urban informal settlements in Kenya (Kakulu 2008;Moyo 2013). Kakulu (2008) found that poor school performance reduces CHHs chances of improving their livelihoods and escaping the vicious cycle of poverty inherited from their parents (Kakulu 2008). Despite the multi-layered vulnerabilities facing CHHs, our study findings align with others that identified their resilience, adaptability and capabilities (Awino 2010;Donald and Clacherty 2005;Ward and Eyber 2009).An important strength of our study was the participatory methodology, which creates spaces for and emphasises the importance of listening to children's voices and recognizing their capacities as a basis for designing interventions to strengthen their wellbeing (Ward and Eyber 2009). A limitation of our study is that financial and time constraints, to date, have limited the opportunities of CHHs to participate beyond the photovoice process to define the aims and approaches of the study. However, the participatory process is incomplete to date, with an intention for subsequent involvement of CHHs to prioritise ensuring that their perspectives and priorities influence the design of supportive interventions.Over the years, national governments and city authorities have ignored urban informal settlements and failed to identify them as unique settings, compared to other urban settings, during national surveys (The Lancet 2017). This failure further marginalises CHHs and other vulnerable groups living in informal settlements. We propose two recommendations. First, we recommend that city and national authorities recognise that urban informal settlements are a modern and growing phenomenon with identifiable challenges. Secondly, we call on government authorities to conduct a granular analysis of survey data to identify the exact populations that are left behind, especially in the urban informal settlements. This will require additional capacity strengthening for statistical offices to collect and analyse data from these informal settlements (Pipa and Caroline 2020). Such recognition of the rights of people living in informal settlements and granular information about specific vulnerabilities should be used to develop evidence-based interventions to promote health and wellbeing.Photovoice enabled us to shed light on wicked problems that contribute to the vulnerability and marginalisation of children heading households. Efforts to mitigate the economic and social drivers that contribute to the emergence of child-headed households should be prioritised. Using photovoice, we identified the day-to-day experiences of CHHs, who go through financial, educational, and parental poverty and are highly likely to transfer these vulnerabilities to the next generation. Policymakers should prioritize mitigating the generational transfer of poverty, especially in urban informal settlements. Through our photovoice findings, we recommend a multi-disciplinary approach for mitigating generational poverty that is inherited by CHHs. We recommend that policymakers, researchers, and advocates implement long-term strategies for addressing the factors that could curb generational poverty from CHHs to their children. For example, these actors could target the implementation of social protection, education subsidies, and employment creation interventions for vulnerable young people, particularly CHHs. Our findings also illustrate how lack of access to health services and catastrophic health expenditures lead to poverty and cause children to take on adult roles when parents become incapacitated due to unresolved debilitating chronic illnesses. We recommend an expedited scale-up of existing public-funded health insurance for marginalised persons in the urban informal settlements who need it the most. Finally, this photovoice study illustrates that vulnerable and marginalised CHHs can participate in identifying and prioritizing problems that affect their health and wellbeing. Participatory approaches offer potential to give a voice to CHHs by engaging them in co-designing interventions that will mitigate poverty and promote wellbeing for all in urban informal settlements.","tokenCount":"10589"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d0f6e8fc85a3150ddc0f1e078cb8977f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fdc87048-61e2-4b4e-8904-4ef4ec3ff868/retrieve","id":"473302969"},"keywords":["MSc.","Veterinary Medicine (BVM)","Dairy Development Authority","Uganda. Doris Kiconco: MSc.","Veterinary Medicine (BVM)","Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries","Uganda. Asaah Ndambi: MSc.","Dairy economist","IFCN Dairy research Centre","Germany Milk production costs","Uganda","Impact analysis","Policy","Poverty reduction","Small-scale dairy","Typical farms","Dairy development"],"sieverID":"955318dd-6580-40a1-bb31-b081fe512ddc","pagecount":"49","content":"This is the 9 th of a series of Working Papers prepared for the IGAD Livestock Policy Initiative. The purpose of these papers is to explore issues related to livestock development in the context of poverty alleviation.Livestock is vital to the economies of many developing countries. Animals are a source of food, more specifically protein for human diets, income, employment and possibly foreign exchange. For low income producers, livestock can serve as a store of wealth, draught power, fuel, prestige and organic fertiliser for crop production and a means of transport. Consumption of livestock and livestock products in developing countries, though starting from a low base, is growing rapidly.The study applies the economic methodology developed by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN), which is based on the concept of 'typical farms', to gain insights in the economics of typical dairy farming systems in Uganda and assess the potential impacts of dairy development policies. Two districts near the city of Kampala, holding all major farming systems, were selected. The district of Mukono holds the small-intensive (1 exotic cow, zero grazing), the fenced-grazing (15 exotic cows) and the large-intensive (45 exotic cows; selling milk directly to urban processors/retailers) dairy production systems. And the district of Kayunga, more distant, holds the dairy farming systems classified as small-extensive (3 indigenous cows), intermediate-extensive (13 indigenous cows), the pastoralist (35 indigenous cows) and the agro-pastoralist (40 low graded cows). Each farm is described in detailed economic information presented both graphically and in the text.Although this study is seen as a research method development exercise, we hope it will provide useful information to its readers. Any feedback on method improvements and results is much welcome by the authors, PPLPI and the Livestock Information, Sector Analysis and Policy Branch (AGAL) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities or concerning the delimitations of its frontiers or boundaries. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not constitute in any way the official position of the FAO. Furthermore, neither the authors nor any other legal entities related to the IFCN activities accept any liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss howsoever arising from any of the IFCN material or its content or otherwise arising in connection herewith.Ugandan milk production is largely dominated by small-scale farmers who own over 90 percent of the national cattle population (FAO 2004). In rural areas, where 96 percent of poor Ugandans live (Okidi et al, 2004), up to about 60 percent of the households keep mostly indigenous cattle (NADDS; King 2002). By far, the majority of milk production systems in Uganda are characterized by (a) a 'low input-low output' approach, (b) livestock is not an important source of cash, but a source of food, store of wealth and status symbol, and (c) milk demand is increasing and driving more and more of these dairy farms to intensify and often to diversify as to increase household returns.Due to market forces first, and to higher competition for production factors secondly, the main milk production systems in Uganda have been evolving seemingly in the same direction (towards intensification), but at different speeds. A coordinated dairy development program for the sector would require a clear understanding of (a) the present status of the main production systems and (b) an evaluation of potential impacts of the main dairy development interventions implemented and/or proposed on the predominant production system.The dairy sector is considered to be the most organized livestock sub-sector in Uganda. Currently, the Dairy Development Authority (DDA) is charged with promoting production, competition and monitoring the markets for milk and dairy products. To achieve this, DDA collaborates closely with multiple private sector organizations operating in Uganda.The main purposes of this study were to:1. Identify and characterize the main typical dairy farming systems in Uganda, 2. Evaluate the economics of these typical dairy farms, 3. Gain insights in the household economics of such farms, 4. Evaluate the impacts of the main dairy development policies on the predominant farming systems,In order to achieve the above, a methodology to quantify the farm-level impacts of different local dairy development programs, policies, interventions and ideas as seen by local dairy stakeholders (policy makers, farmers, milk processors, NGOs, etc.) was developed. The results are intended to both inform the political process and initiate discussions for finding the most efficient dairy development activities for the Ugandan dairy farming sector.The methodology applied for the economic analysis was developed by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) and utilizes the concept of typical farms. For this initial study, the districts of Mukono (peri-urban, with intensive farming systems) and Kayunga (rural, with extensive farm types) were selected. Therefore, the selected farms include from zero-grazing, fenced-grazing, up to large pastoralist and agro-pastoralist farming systems. Management levels on the typical farms are average to slightly above average compared to other farms of the same type. The data was collected using a panel of local dairy experts followed by data from existing farms through farm visits and interviews using a standard questionnaire.vThe calculations are based on the computer simulation model, TIPI-CAL (Technology Impact and Policy Impact Calculations) version 4.0. This version has been further developed in the years 2005-2006 to better represent the complexity of small-scale dairy farming and their non-cash benefits.Although great efforts were made both to model the economic, social and biological complexities, the authors invite readers' comments and suggestions for improvements of the research methodology utilized (Please contact Otto Garcia at: otto.garcia@ifcndairy.org).Using the EXTRAPOLATE model, a recent FAO study in Uganda identified fifteen direct stakeholder groups in the Ugandan dairy sector, from which seven represent the existing predominant dairy farming systems (FAO Paper still to be published). EXTRAPOLATE further classified the farming systems into three intensive and four extensive ones. Following the IFCN methodology, three and four cases were identified as 'typical' farming cases to be studied in the districts of Mukono and Kayunga. These dairy farm types provide an insightful picture of the income levels, possible effects of economies of scale and commercialisation on such systems.The household per capita incomes range from a low 0.33 up to a high 20 US-$. Four of the seven households make a per capita daily income below 0.60 US$; that's about half of the so-called international poverty line of 1 US-$/ person/ day. The large specialized Mukono farm and the large agro-pastoralist operation in Kayunga make a high per capita income of 20 US-$, but these households rely on off-farm employment in the city of Kampala and a lucrative cash crop operation, respectively.On the one dimension, all the farms except the small peri-urban one make a return to each labour put into the dairy business that is higher than the wages the farm would pay for it. This means that these farmers make a profit on the labour used. On the other, these returns to dairy labour for the medium and larger farms in both regions are higher than the wages around them.The farms that do not achieve the wage rate levels are a) the small farm in Mukono when it has to pay the costs of family labour and b) the two smaller Kayunga farm due to the extremely low productivity of their animals, low milk price, small herd size, and high mortality rates.When considering only the cash costs (darker section of the bars), all the farms make attractive net incomes ranging from 10 to 15 US-$/ 100 kg of Energy Corrected Milk (ECM). In this case the zero grazing farm in Mukono has the highest net income of 15 US-$/ 100 kg ECM. However, when the farms have to pay for all the family own resources used, then all except the zero grazing farm in Mukono make a profit, which ranges from 0.6 up to 7.5 US-$/ 100 kg ECM.The farm in Mukono receive an internationally competitive milk price (at the world milk price level of from 18 to 24 US-$/ 100 kg ECM), while their Kayunga counterparts receive about half of that.vi1 The large majority of cattle holders in Kayunga make an extremely low per capita income, on one side, while on the other, they are extremely competitive milk producers receiving an (inter)nationally low milk price. Such farmers, who form the vast majority in the country, are positioned to capitalize on dairy development interventions that both (a) connect them to the growing urban dairy markets of Kampala, Jinja, etc. and (b) promote access to affordable farm inputs and services that support business development.2The performance of the zero-grazing farm type (MK-1) is both strong and weak, depending on how it is looked at. All in all, this particular farming system in Mukono makes economic sense as long as farmers do not have a (more) lucrative alternative for their labour, which is the current situation. Once better-paid alternatives appear, we should see milk production shifting to more distant areas like Kayunga. viiHousehold Net Income Dairy stakeholders consulted agreed that the farm type KY-3 represents the most commonly found milk production system in Uganda. However, this farm types are not only low in the priority focus of ongoing dairy development efforts, but even when reached, this type of farmer does not engage in effectively enough to develop his/her operation. Presently, there are various sets of dairy development policies and some have the potential to both engage and develop this particular farm type. The following results show the impacts of the main (ongoing and proposed) dairy development policies on this most numerous farm type as perceived and expected by different dairy stakeholders in Uganda.When indigenous cows and extensive management are used, these policies could increase and decrease the household per capita daily income by 7 and 5 percent, when milk prices increase and decrease respectively. This relatively slight impact is due to the farm's poor link to input and output markets (poor commercial engagement). However, when both genetics and management are improved (higher commercial engagement), these policies could increase and decrease the household per capita daily income by 20 and 15 percent from the Graded farm respectively.Notice that a higher commercial engagement increases the household income by over 60 percent (from KY-3 to Graded). However, no scenario brings the household to the well-known reference poverty line of 1 US$ per capita per day. This is mostly explained by the low scale of the dairy business and lack of value-adding activities by the farmer.With indigenous cows, these policies could increase and decrease the return to dairy labour by 40 and 20 percent respectively. None of these policies bring the return to labour from working on the dairy farm to what the farmer would make working in an off-farm job. This means that whenever the family has an off-farm job alternative, producing milk for sale under these conditions is not attractive.With graded cows, this farm becomes a very attractive alternative for family labour since the return to labour is now 40 percent above the wages around it. Furthermore, six of these policies could lead to increases of up to 55 percent while the other four could decrease it to 30 percent of the current level.These policies have little impact on the costs of milk production for KY-3 as it is. Only when the farmer puts more hours in fetching water, opportunity costs increase by up to 20 percent, but notice that this is basically family labour which is not cash and most likely, there is no other economic use for it. When animals are graded, costs increase by 40 percent, but the real fear for this farms is that the cash costs increase from practically null to 6 US-$/ 100 kg ECM milk (about 55 percent of its total costs). This increase in cash expenses represents a major burden for a working-capital-constrained farm.ix1 These policies seem to have a slight impact on the household income and dairy competitiveness unless the farm intensifies and/or grows in size. Either direction will require more competitive dairy markets for both outputs and inputs. 2 If intensification is chosen, breed and management improvements would make the farm very competitive locally. However, while intensifying this farm type could increase the household income by 3 times, the cash needs to produce 100 kg milk increases by 30 times. 3 Either intensification or up-scaling of this farm type will mean more investment and higher risks for already capital-poor farmers. A successful dairy development in Kayunga will, therefore, require clear-cut policies that minimize risks for the farmers (so they engage commercially) and create efficient dairy chains (to link farmers to consumers most effectively).x Dairy production is largely dominated by small-scale farmers who own over 90 percent of the national cattle population (FAO 2004). In rural areas, where 96 percent of poor Ugandan live (Okidi et al, 2004), up to about 60 percent of households keep mostly indigenous cattle, as seen in the 'cattle corridor' zone (NADDS; King 2002). Then it can be said that dairy production provides subsistence and income for many Ugandans.It is also known that (a) milk production in Uganda is characterized by a 'low input-low output' approach, (b) for most households, livestock is not an important source of cash, but a source of food, store of wealth and status symbol, and (c) Ugandan dairy stakeholders have been looking for and capitalizing on opportunities to diversify on dairy production so as to increase their returns to land and labour.The most common milk production systems in Uganda have been evolving seemingly in the same direction (towards intensification), but at different speed, which depends on market forces and availability of production factors, especially land. A coordinated dairy development program for the sector would require a clear understanding of (a) the present status of the main production systems and (b) an evaluation of potential impacts of the main dairy development interventions implemented and/or proposed on the predominant production system.The dairy sector is considered to be the most organized livestock sub-sector in Uganda. Currently, the Dairy Development Authority (DDA) is charged with promoting production, competition and monitoring the markets for milk and dairy products. To achieve this, DDA collaborates closely with multiple private sector organizations operating in Uganda.The main purposes of this study were to:1. Identify and characterize the main typical dairy farming systems in Uganda, 2. Evaluate the economics of these typical dairy farms, 3. Gain insights in the household economics of such farms, 4. Evaluate the impacts of the main dairy development policies on the predominant farming systems,In order to achieve the above, a methodology to quantify the farm-level impacts of different local dairy development programs, policies, interventions and ideas as seen by local dairy stakeholders (policy makers, farmers, milk processors, NGOs, etc.) was developed. The results are intended to both inform the political process and initiate discussions for finding the most efficient dairy development activities for the Ugandan dairy farming sector.As the Ugandan dairy sector is increasingly moving towards a more open market environment, there is a paramount need to better understand the current economics of the main milk production systems found in Uganda and how dairy development programs impact both the household livelihood (income situation) and the (inter)national dairy competitiveness level of the most typical dairy farm type. In this context, this study aims to address the following specific questions:1. What is the current economic situation of typical dairy farming households in Uganda?How high are their incomes? How much do these households benefit from dairying and how competitive is milk production of the main farming systems both regionally and internationally speaking?2. What are the expected farm-level impacts of the main dairy development programs and proposed interventions to develop a pro-poor dairy farming sector in Uganda?The methodology applied for the economic analysis was developed by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN) and utilizes the concept of typical farms (for more on the IFCN methods, please go to Annex A1-A3). For this initial study, the districts of Mukono (peri-urban, with intensive farming systems) and Kayunga (rural, with extensive farm types) were selected. Therefore, the selected farms include from zero-grazing, fenced-grazing, up to large pastoralist and agro-pastoralist farming systems. Management levels on the typical farms are average to slightly above average compared to other farms of the same type. Data was collected using a panel of local dairy experts followed by and data from existing farms through a standard questionnaire.The calculations are based on the computer simulation model, TIPI-CAL (Technology Impact and Policy Impact Calculations, version 4.0. This version has been further developed in the years 2005-2006 to better represent the complexity of small-scale dairy farming and their non-cash benefits.Although great efforts were made both to model the economic, social and biological complexities, the authors invite readers' comments and suggestions for improvements of the research methodology utilized (Please contact Otto Garcia at: otto.garcia@ifcndairy.org).This paper has been arranged in the following sequence:1. Executive Summary: It gives a quick overview of the main findings of the study.It provides details about the project, the methodology used, and the contents of this report.3. Economics of Typical Milk Production Systems in Uganda: Firstly, it shows condensed pictures of the national and state milk production sectors and their characteristics, and secondly economic results are presented at the household, whole farm, and dairy enterprise levels for the selected typical farms.4. Impact Evaluation of Dairy Development Activities in Uganda: Presents the results from the farm-level impact analysis of the main dairy development intervention existing and emerging from key dairy stakeholders.The table on the next page attempts to supplement these brief introductions.Typical dairy farms in Mukono district (20 KM from Kampala)1-Cow farm (MK-1): (Small-holder Intensive)Introduction: This farming system represents the typical zero grazing 1 to 3 graded dairy cows and a total herd of around 2 to 6 animals at any one time. The household owns some land and grows mostly grass (i.e. Pennisetum purpureum) for the dairy and some cash crops. Milk yield per cow reaches 2,500 kg milk per lactation, which is obtained with relatively high use of concentrates. Manure is easily collected and utilized as fertilizer. The household income from off-farm sources is significant.Introduction: This farm keeps 15 graded cows grazing on fenced paddocks. Both lactation yield and use of concentrates per animal are lower than the zero grazing. Although this system has extra costs in fencing and its maintenance, it shows significant labour and purchased feed cost reductions.Introduction: This farm type represents a business man or a civil servant working and living in the city. The farm has high investment in farming assets such as highly productive animals and a pickup to deliver the milk to the city, thereby capturing a high milk price than other farm types. This farm type is seen as both a lucrative economic activity and attractive investment option for the savings from off-farm sources.Typical dairy farms in Kayunga district (130 KM from Kampala)Introduction: The household head is an agricultural labourer, who owns about 2 ha of land and has access to other 20 ha. Milk is sold to the local vendor, who comes once a day to the farm Due to a low milk volume sold daily, the farmer sees no reason in delivering the milk to the collection centre (about 3 km away). No concentrates are used, but salt as a mineral supplement.Introduction: The farmer is a civil servant and puts 1-2 hours per day in the dairy. A hired herdsman grazes the animals along with other herds on rented land. He sells milk to the collection centre directly.Introduction: This farm type is a semi-nomadic system. Due to the shortage of public grazing land, nomadic systems are increasingly renting private land and staying in the same area for months and even years. They also feed only salt and have a hired herdsman. Although the farm hires a herdsman, the children put many labour hours in the dairy, which makes the farm total labour costs considerably lower.Introduction: The farmer's main economic activity is cash crop production, which he sells under a contract basis with distributors in the capital city. The dairy is a side activity that allows better utilization of the available low-priced land and labour and produces manure to fertilize the crops. The animals here are about 25 percent graded, which means that they are slightly more productive than those of the other three farm types, while the management and technology levels used are basically the same. In addition, this system has crop residues to feed the animals during the dry season. The household net incomes combine the net cash income from on-farm and off-farm activities.When seen in a daily per capita income, the farm households MK-1, KY-3, KY-13, and KY-35 are extremely poor with incomes well below the well-known reference line for poverty of 1 US-$ per person per day.These household incomes come typically from off-farm sources first and the dairy enterprises secondly. The exceptions are MK-15 and KY-35, which are far more specialised in milk production, have little or no own land and poor access to off-farm employment while KY-40 is heavily focused on crop production.This clearly indicates that most Ugandan dairy farm households are mostly part-time farmers with proceeds from farming contributing less than 50 percent to their household incomes, with few exceptions.The distribution of assets of the farm households analyzed is highly inequitable with values ranging from 3,000 US-$ for KY-3 up to 293,000 US-$ for MK-45. Interestingly, the share of family assets used for income-generation activities is lowest for the smallest farms (40 to 60 percent), then highest for intermediate farms (80 to 97 percent), and goes again slightly down in the largest farms (65 to 85 percent).The use of family labour for income generating activities ranges from 1,500 to over 4,000 manhours per year. The tendency is that labour utilization increases for households near the urban centres and those in rural areas that have a government/ community job (like KY-13) and/or those with more assets to create employment opportunities (like KY-40 cash crops). The opposite is true for KY-35, which has animals, but no owned land and poor access to employments.The total family living expenses, including cash expenditure and consumption of own farm produce, vary significantly from 1,500 US-$ to over 22,000 US-$ per year (for KY-3 and MK-45).Interestingly, these households derive from 5 up to 70 percent of their living expenses from their own farms, which includes products from the dairy, crops and other farm enterprises (goat, chicken, etc.). In the case of smaller farms, households get from 50 to 70 percent of their living expenses from their own farms, which points to the relevance of the farms for food security. Furthermore, households in Kayunga are more reliant on food production from their own farms for their immediate consumption than those in Mukono. The exceptions are KY-35 (has no land for crops) and KY-40 (commercial crops). Even though both families consume much milk in various ways: KY-35 must rely on cash purchases for other food items to supplement its diet while KY-40 has, besides food purchases, also high non-food expenses linked to its higher social status.• Household per capita income: All cash receipts received by all family members from the farm and off-farm jobs. Farm returns range from 350 to 62,000 US-$ per year. All farms are able to cover the total farm expenses and generate a net positive farm income ranging from 200 to over 55,000 US-$ per year for (KY-3 and KY-40). Both the highest and lowest farm incomes are found in the Kayunga farms. On one side, the three smaller farm types in Kayunga show relatively small differences in returns, expenses and net incomes. On the other the larger Kayunga farm extremely high returns, which are mainly due to firstly its large and very profitable cash crop enterprises and secondly to factors in the dairy enterprise such as bigger herd size, better genetics and better feeding management during the dry seasons.The shares of dairy returns are higher than 75 percent of the total farm returns, except in the case of KY-40, whose crop enterprise dominates.In relation to the production volume, dairy products (milk, livestock and manure) show the highest proportion sold out (from 85 up to 99 percent in Mukono and about 90 percent in Kayunga). These high figures indicate that dairy farming is a major source of cash to meet the daily cash needs their households. Crops except for the agropastoralist farm, however, is sold at lower proportions (below 10 percent), which means that households tend to use them for own consumption and/or for their own farm enterprises. In the case of other farm enterprises (goats, chicken, etc.), household sell out at a rate of 60 to 80 percent as to add on the dairy daily cash income to meet higher cash needs happening at times.The annual net farm cash flow ranges from US-$ 211 to 55,000 for KY-3 and KY-40 respectively. This low net cash flows (particularly, those under 600 US-$/ year for MK-1, KY-3, and KY-13) indicates that the small-scale and medium dairy farms are in a subsistence basis, with weak farm liquidity status and high business risks.Farm assets vary significantly between slightly over 1,000 US-$ for KY-3 up to a high 165,000 US-$ for MK-45. While in Mukono land represents 60 to 70 percent of the farm assets, in Kayunga livestock is the main asset comprising from 50 up to 97 percent of the farm asset value.• Farm returns: All cash receipts minus the balance of inventory (for example livestock).Returns to dairy: Milk, cull cows, heifers, calves, sale and use of manure, draught power, etc. Net cash farm inco meReturns to the dairy enterprises (cash and non-cash)The total cash returns per 100 kg ECM range from 18 to 37 US-$ for KY-35 and MK-45 respectively. These returns combine the sales of milk, livestock and manure. In addition, households consume milk and beef, which are non-cash returns from the dairy enterprises. Noncash returns range from a low 0.15 up to almost 5 US-$/ 100 kg ECM produced. The milk used for calves and manure left on the field as fertilizer has not been deducted since they become the inputs for the production of milk , livestock, etc., which are readily captured here.When the household's own resources used on the dairy enterprises are included, total milk production costs range from 8 to 36 US-$ per 100 kg ECM for KY-40 and MK-45 respectively. In Mukono, the fenced system (MK-15) shows significant reductions in labour and feed cost as compared to the zero grazing (MK-1); while MK-45 has high costs of means of production. Low labour and land costs make Kayunga farmers very low cost producers.When only cash transactions are calculated, all farm types make a positive net farm income, which varies between 10 and 15 US-$/ 100 kg ECM. However, when the household's own resources are included in the cost calculations, six dairy enterprises generate a positive entrepreneurs profit that ranges from about 0.6 to 7.5 US-$ per 100 kg ECM. Only the MK-1 (zero grazing) makes a negative entrepreneur profit (loss) of 6 US-$/ 100 kg ECM. However, it is worth noting first of all that, dairy farming (like MK-1) will make definite sense, as long as there is no better alternative to it and if the farm makes a positive cash net income.The cost of milk production varies from 4.5 to 26 US-$ per 100 kg of ECM. The highest production cost of 26 US-$ (MK-1) is mainly attributable to high opportunity costs of labour, with family labour being valued at the existing market wage rate. However, the high unemployment rate questions the validity of using existing local wages for valuation of family labour. The high cash cost (darker blue bar) in MK-45 is mainly due to maintaining the farm as a hobby, vacation place and not necessarily an efficient business. This is reflected in the high capital and operating cash costs. Finally, KY-35 has high cash costs due to annual fees paid to private landowners to have access to reliable water sources in the drought seasons.Kayunga farmers are very cost competitive producers thanks to: minimal cash expenses and low opportunity costs for labour and land. This explains why they can make a profit regardless of receiving a milk price that is about half of the world milk price.All the farms, except MK-1, make a return to dairy labour higher than their local wage rates. This higher return on dairy labour shows that farmers make a higher income from working on their farms than from most of the jobs around their location. This also shows that dairy is a very competitive form of employment when compared to local alternatives. Kayunga's low labour and land rents favour high returns to dairy labour.• See Annexes 2 and 3  Labour input varies from about 100 up to 1,400 man-hours per lactating dairy animal per year.The profitability of the two large Mukono farms is clearly driven by higher labour productivity and resulting lower wage cost per 100 kg ECM (contrary to MK-1). The labour input per cow decreases as herd size increases. In the case of KY-40, labour wages are so low that the farmer can afford the extra labour.Capital input per dairy animal is significantly higher for MK-45 basically due to the farm being used as a recreational place for the owner's family, who live in the city of Kampala. Typically wealthy businessmen living and working in the capital city find dairy farming to be both an attractive investments opportunity and ideal to make their social activities away from their hectic urban lives.Both regions have similar capital productivities of between 1,500 to 2,000 kg of ECM/ each 1000 US-$ invested. This is mainly explained by the Mukono farms having higher output levels with high capital invested, while Kayunga farms have low production volumes with low investment.Land input per dairy animal varies from 0.4 up to almost 7 hectares, which includes owned and rented land used for both grazing and to produce by-products fed to dairy animals. In Mukono, unlike in Kayunga, the land needed per animal (about 0.5 ha per head) does not seem to decline as herd size increases.There is a clear difference in the intensity of land use for fodder cultivation in Mukono while Kayunga farmers rely on natural pastures. Cultivated crops allows for a constant supply of green fodder (such as sorghum, napier grass and maize grain & silage) throughout the year, which results in higher land productivity and hence a higher stocking rate. Livestock as an integral part of most farming systems in Uganda has evolved over time into a variety of dairy production systems. They range from highly intensive to highly extensive ones as to suit the different agro-ecological zones and socio-economic settings. The main factors driving changes of Ugandan dairy farming systems are a growing market for milk, increasing population pressure, and the promotion of dairy development by key stakeholders. Most, if not all, of these forces point to the same direction: the intensification of dairy production systems in Uganda.Intensification of dairy production usually anticipates that it is economically and ecologically sustainable. However, in the Ugandan case it is not clear what the impacts of such policies are on the economics of the predominant dairy production system. Research was therefore undertaken to quantify the potential and expected impacts of the main dairy development policies on the most common dairy production system in Uganda. This section of the report presents the key results and findings.The methodology used in this study is that of the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN). It is intended to build on and complement a recent FAO policy study done in the Ugandan dairy sector, which is to be published by the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative (PPLPI) shortly.The methodological steps done in this policy analyses can be summarized as follows:A-Farm selection: From the seven dairy farming systems analysed in the previous section, KY-3 was selected as the most representative of the largest number of farms in the country. The panels in both districts agreed that, at the country level cattle keeping is a small-holder and pastoralist undertaking. The most typical dairy farmer owns some land and has access to rented land for grazing either seasonally or throughout the year. Therefore, this farm type is no longer purely nomadic. This farm type also satisfied the pro-poor focus of PPLPI. KY-3 is located in the northern tip of the Kayunga district, an area belonging to the 'cattle corridor' zone, where 60 percent of the households keep local cattle and live on similar (extreme) poverty level as shown by the KY-3 household per capita income of 0.33 US-$ per day.Policy selection: Ugandan dairy stakeholders were quick to list the major dairy development interventions taking place and proposals they consider most appropriate to develop such farming system. Three broader policy categories emerged which include: genetic improvement, dairy market development and improving access to dairy farm inputs.Building policy scenarios and validating results: Researchers met with separate dairyrelated organizations and quantified farm-level changes in the production, economic and biological parameters of KY-3, which could result from the implementation of the current policies they are promoting. As a validation procedure, researchers discussed results and made adjustments based on new field insights from farmers, veterinarians and dairy development agents operating in Kayunga. However, the authors would truly welcome any feedback, , etc. that may result in improving this methodology for policy impact evaluation. (Any comment, please email Otto Garcia to otto.garcia@ifcndairy.org).Milk production in Kayunga relies on extensive systems holding indigenous cows with very low milk yields (about 500 kg milk per lactation). Local dairy stakeholders see genetic improvement through crossing local animals with exotic breeds as an appropriate approach to increase yields.Local stakeholders agreed that most KY-3 farmers would upgrade their genetics in a gradual manner and as fast as certain prerequisites are met as concerning output markets, inputs supplies and livestock services, among others. This is why they insisted in having at least one intermediate genetic improvement scenario, which we called Graded~25%.The household head is an agricultural labourer, who owns about 2 ha of land and has access to other 20 ha. Milk is sold to the local vendor, who comes once a day to the farm. Due to a low milk volume sold daily, the farmer sees no reason for delivering the milk to the collection centre (about 3 km away). No concentrates are used, but some mineral salt.The farmer, together with similar farmers, introduce and share a crossbred bull (50:50; local breed: Holstein Friesian) to bring the level of exotic blood from zero up to about 25 percent. The management of the animals and the herd remain unchanged. This means that the farmer keeps grazing his herd through a herdsman, milking once a day by hand and supplementing only with mineral salt. Only expenses for veterinary services and medicine increase slightly. On the other side, just by this genetic crossing, several key production parameters improve such as lactation length, inter-calving period, and a higher peak of daily milk production per cow. All of these improvements result in higher output sales. Important is that farmers see this step as a risk management necessity towards having more productive animals, during which they can learn more intensive farming practices and can also test the market conditions of their outputs and inputs.The farmer now utilizes as much technology and exotic-blood cows as in the farms in Mukono. This means high Holstein cows are stall-fed with elephant grass grown on the farm and relatively high concentrates and mineral supplementations. Veterinary, medicine and breeding costs are also significantly higher. Assuming the farmer is also as skilled at dairy farming as his counterpart in Mukono, this higher inputs result in significantly higher milk yields, shorter dry periods, lower mortalities and therefore higher sales (milk and cattle). Equally important is that with a marketable milk volume, which is over 4 times higher, the farmer finds it attractive to bypass the local vendor and start delivering milk to the collection centre for a 20 percent higher milk price. Direct milk delivery also increases the need and utilization of available family labour, which is not currently used for economic purposes. The KY-3 household currently obtains a total household income of 0.33 US-$ per capita per day. From this, off-farm employment and the farm activities contribute 75 and 25 percent respectively.By slightly increasing the level of exotic-blood in the herd, the Graded~25% scenario increases the household per capita income by 15 percent and requires little to practically no changes in how KY-3 is operating.However upgrading the herd to over 75 percent exotic-blood means making considerable changes, which in turn will increase both costs of production and farm outputs. These new production conditions for the Graded scenario result in a household per capita income 60 percent above that of KY-3.KY-3 currently achieves a return to labour of 0.046 US-$ per capita per hour put in the dairy.Although Graded~25% and Graded require 12 percent higher labour input, their milk yield increases bring up the return to labour imputed in the dairy farm by 120 and 300 percent above the KY-3 level. Furthermore, the higher the return to labour is as compared to the wages on the farms, the more attractive is to use available labour on the dairy enterprises. Here, it is evident that crossbreeding has a significant impact on increasing the profitability of the dairy farm.Presently, KY-3 has cost of milk production at about 8 US-$/ 100 kg ECM milk.Graded~25% has the same production with 24 percent less costs. In spite of its 12 and 25 percent higher requirement of labour and capital, Graded~25% higher milk outputs bring costs well down.Highly graded animals, in the Graded scenario, require so much higher capital investment, feed purchases, and cash expenses that the costs of producing 100 kg ECM is 27 percent higher than that of KY-3.Finally, the Graded scenario performs much better due to not only higher milk yields, but also a 20 percent higher milk price. With the higher milk output, the farmer stops selling to the milkman and starts delivering directly to the nearest collection centre, which brings his milk price up.• The household head is an agricultural labourer, who owns about 2 ha of land and has access to other 20 ha. Milk is sold to the local vendor, who comes once a day to the farm Due to a low milk volume sold daily, the farmer sees no reason in delivering the milk to the collection centre (about 3 km away). No concentrates are used, but salt as a mineral supplement.A group of farmers in Kayunga associates to provide the local school with yoghurt. Students consume it thrice a week and parents pay about 5 US-$ (or 10,000 Shillings) per term per kid. Farmer group or coop makes over 500 kg/day of yoghurt. (1 kg milk=1 yoghurt). Dairy processors in Uganda estimated that the costs of producing 1 kg yoghurt to be at about 0.47 US-$ (880 Shillings) including the raw material and would sell for 0.54 US-$ (1000 Shillings).This makes a profit of 0.07 US-$ (120 Shillings) per kg of yoghurt provided to the school. This scenario assumes that the farmer uses all his daily milk for the school milk yoghurt while for the graded Sch-Milk scenario only half of the farm milk production is taken by the school program; the rest is delivered to the collection centre.This scenario assumes that for any reason (or combination of factors) milk consumption in the region and country increases, which in turn results in a farmgate price as high as in the dry season. In other words, the 30 percent higher milk price that this farmer gets (about 325 shillings/kg) remains constant throughout the year. This increase reaches the farmer, who still sells to the local vendor.Assuming that anti-milkadulteration regulations are enforced and national milk volume shrinks by about 16.67 percent, which brings the farmer milk price up by 0.04 US-$ (or 75 Shillings) per kg. This is a 30 percent milk price increase passed from the vendor.Assuming that anti-milkadulteration regulations are enforced and in order to both comply with regulations and make profit informal traders reduce the farm milk price by 0.03 US-$ (or 50 shillings) per kg. This is a milk price decrease of 20 percent passed to the farmer, who still will not deliver to the collection centre.Farmer delivers to his cooperative for 250 shillings/ kg. The cooperative sells for 500 shillings in Kampala/Jinja. Farmer gets cooperative dividends at year end for about 25 US$. Milk price remain same, but spoilage of 4 percent of his milk delivered to the centre is eliminated.Farmer delivers to the private collection centre for 275 Shillings/ kg. Milk spoilage of 4 percent of his milk delivered to the centre is eliminated. Additional benefits, market is stable, payment is secure and every 2 weeks; training for members on production practices, milk quality, credit, etc.The farmer now utilizes as much technology and exotic blood cows as farms in Mukono. This means high Holstein-blood cows are stall-fed with elephant grass grown on the farm and relatively high concentrates and mineral supplementations. Veterinary, medicine and breeding costs are also significantly higher. Assuming the farmer is also as skilled at dairy farming as his counterpart in Mukono, this higher inputs result in significantly higher milk yields, shorter dry periods, lower mortalities and therefore higher sales. Equally important is that with a marketable milk volume, which is over 4 times higher, the farmer finds attractive to bypass the local vendor and start delivering milk to the collection centre for a 20 percent higher milk price. Direct milk delivery also increases the need and utilization of available family labour, which is not currently used for economic purposes. The KY-3 household currently obtains a total income of 0.33 US$/capita per day. From this, offfarm employment and the farm activities contribute 75 and 25 percent respectively.The policies promoting both milk quality throughout the chain and consumption of dairy products are assumed to result in higher farm-gate milk prices. Therefore, the scenarios of >Demand and >Q+Price would have identical farm-level impacts.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, a 30 percent higher milk price can increase the household income by up to 7 percent.However, if KY-3 held graded cows, a 30 percent higher milk price caused by these policies would mean a household income increase by 95 percent (doubling).Also interesting is that while only 20 percent of the KY-3 household income comes from the dairy, better genetics means that over 50 percent of the income will originate from the dairy business.KY-3 currently achieves a return to labour of 0.046 US-$ per capita per hour put in the dairy.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, the policies increasing the milk price (>Demand and >Q+Price) bring the dairy return to labour by up to 40 percent.However, if KY-3 had graded cows, a 30 percent higher milk price caused by these policies would mean a return to labour increase by 55 percent.Furthermore, the higher the return to labour is as compared to the wages on the farms, the more attractive is to use available labour on the dairy enterprises. Here, it is evident that crossbreeding has a significant impact on increasing the profitability of the dairy farm.Presently, KY-3 has cost of milk production at about 8 US-$/ 100 kg ECM milk.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, the policies Sch-Milk and Cooler-Coop reduce costs of milk production by 40 and 25 percent respectively.However, if KY-3 had graded cows, Sch-Milk and Cooler-Coop reduce costs of milk production by 30 and 20 percent respectively.The main impacts of these scenarios are that: Sch-Milk allows the farmer to add value to its milk while and Cooler-Coop assumes that the cooperative delivers milk to the urban market and pays dividends to farmer members at year end. Both scenarios keep the same milk price, but they process or deliver directly, both of which increases the competitiveness of this farm type significantly.• Household per capita income: Income from farming and off farm activities/ number of people (adult equivalents).Return to labour: Entrepreneur's profit plus labour costs divided by total labour input.Average wages on the farms: total labour costs (wages paid plus opportunity costs) divided by the total number of hours worked as Man-hour equivalent. Number of hours worked were estimated by farmers and local dairy experts.Cost of milk production: Costs of the dairy enterprise -non milk returns like livestock, manure, etc. Several entities are supporting private veterinary services to reach out to more farmers. Under current farm performance and prices for veterinary services and medicines, farmers like KY-3 would not make more use of health services than they currently do. Farmers' general perception is that local animals have low production and purchasing such services does not pay off. Only in emergency cases, the farmer would call the veterinarian. Therefore, the economics of the farm remains unchanged. >Vet-Med (Use of 10% more Medicine): This type of farmer rarely has access to veterinarian services and when so, he calls the veterinarian only in case of serious emergency. Otherwise, he spends very little in purchasing the basic anti-parasitic medicine routinely applied. This scenario assumes that due to the effect of veterinary services, free of charge, this farm spending in medicine increases by 10 percent.Any organization purchasing a specified volume of medicine per year could get a 6 percent discount from the major animal medicine distributors. This scenarios assumes that KY-3 belongs to a farmers group to benefit from this discount,. For that, he must have a minimum medicine expenditure of 35000 Ugandan Shillings and have about 2 visits by the veterinarian at 10000 each consultation. It is expected that milk yield would go slightly up, but the bigger impacts would be in decreased mortalities. >Credit (More Credit): Local groups are formed to save and lend out small loans to their membership. When lending to livestock keepers, these groups look carefully into the farm mortality rates among other factors. Therefore, for KY-3 to qualify for such loan, it may have to decrease its mortality rate. It does this by feeding small quantities of a local by-product to lactating cows as well as by increasing its medicine expenses by 25 percent.FeedP-30% (Feed Prices Lowered by 30 percent): Major feed suppliers in Kampala agreed that feed prices for KY-3 could cut down by up to 30 percent if an efficient feed chain were in place as they have suggested. This price reduction has been applied to all concentrates and minerals purchased in, but farmers do not increase their inputs. Therefore, there are not impacts on milk yields, mortalities, etc.Water for livestock use is a major constraint to farms like KY-3 and for several months per year. If this farmer would have water available throughout the year, he would invests in three plastic containers (25-30 litres each), use 1 extra hour per day to carry and provide one extra watering to lactating cows per day. This may result in a daily milk yield increase of 0.5 kg more per lactating animal.For the Graded scenarios, the descriptions above apply within the Graded production system. The KY-3 household currently obtains a total income of 0.33 US$/capita per day.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, these policies have a very slight impact of 2 percent higher household income for the >Water scenario. These low policy impacts are mainly due to low farm input purchased as well as to the low share of the household income comes from the dairy (only 20 percent). In the >Water scenario, the farmer puts in more family labour, which is a non-cash expense.However, if KY-3 held graded cows, the scenario of FeedP-30% has the highest impact of increasing household income by 10 percent. This is basically due to both the higher reliance on external farm inputs as well as a relatively higher dairy contribution to the household per capita income.KY-3 currently achieves a return to labour of 0.046 US-$ per capita per hour put in the dairy.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, the policy reducing the feed price (FeedP-30%) brings the dairy return to labour up a slight 6 percent. Notice that this farm uses little common salt as the only purchased feed.However, if KY-3 had graded cows, a 30 percent lower feed price caused would mean a return to labour increase by 25 percent.It is evident that the higher the engagement farm-market, the more easily can policymakers impact the economics of dairy farms. On the other side, this higher engagement makes poor farmers more vulnerable. For example, see that the scenario >Credit assumes a loan taken under the existing conditions for KY-3 to build housing for graded animals. This move hurt the profitability of the farm by bringing its return to labour down by 70 percent.Presently, KY-3 has cost of milk production at about 8 US-$/ 100 kg ECM milk.For KY-3, with indigenous cows, the policy FeedP-30% reduces costs of milk production by 15 percent while >Water increases it by 25 percent. In the >Water scenario, the farmer puts in more family labour, which is a non-cash expense. Besides, putting more family labour in the dairy seems acceptable considering the lack of better economic alternative.However, if KY-3 had graded cows, the policy FeedP-30% reduces costs of milk production by 10 percent while >Credit increases it by 40 percent. Notice that this negative effect of more credit, mostly to build a shed, is so high in the first year due to high interest rates and short repayment terms (of 1 to 1.5 years). Farmers expect that by the third year after the loan is initially taken, the farm cash production costs will be back to the Graded levels (about 6 US-$ per 100 kg ECM).Lastly, notice that >Water increases labour costs (non-cash cost) while >Credit increases farm liabilities to be repaid under specified conditions (cash cost).• Household per capita income: Income from farming and off farm activities/ number of people (adult equivalents). competitive milk price for KY-3, this farm type could afford to increase costs of production and remain a strong, competitive milk producer worldwide.Although small-scale dairy farms in Uganda make an extremely low per capita income, they are very competitive milk producers at both locally and internationally. Particularly dairy farmers in Kayunga are extremely low-cost producers, which puts them in an ideal standing to capitalize on existing and emerging market opportunities. Exploiting this national competitiveness could result in (a) improving the livelihood of thousands of poor livestock keepers, (b) producing quality and affordable milk for the many thousands of urban and rural consumers in Uganda, and (c) why not to increase dairy exports in the region.To achieve these developments, the Ugandan dairy sector will need clear-cut policies and a sharp focus on those with the highest potential impacts. Such policies, as shown in this study, should focus first on the main problem affecting Kayunga dairy farmers which is their low milk prices and secondly the lack of access to affordable farm inputs and services required for dairy business development.Milk price, as shown above, can be affected by policies that promote increased consumption of milk and dairy products, access to national and international markets, more milk value-adding by farmers themselves and farmers delivering their milk directly to processors/ consumers. The policy of increasing milk quality control and regulations throughout the chain can have either a positive or detrimental impact on the farm-gate milk price. In the worst scenario, higher quality control at the processing and retailing segments of the dairy chain may mean (a) lower milk consumption in the urban markets and hence lower milk demand and so lower prices for the more-distant milk from Kayunga; and (b) milk traders will not be able to adulterate their milk any longer and their milk would be too expensive for their price conscious customers, hence they will have in turn to pay a lower price to their farmersuppliers. This is, therefore, the most 'delicate' dairy policy being implemented in Uganda at the moment.Concerning the farm input challenge, this study shows that creating an effective farm input chain may have a slight impact on the economics of small-scale Kayunga farms now (because of their low input strategy to low risk), but it is a crucial prerequisite for dairy development in the region. Let it be dairy farm intensification or up-scaling, a successful dairy sector cannot be created in the absence of reliable and competitive livestock services.Once Kayunga dairy farm output and input markets start improving, farmers are expected to intensify their operations in a stepwise approach. As already seen in this study, farmers will carefully and slowly introduce exotic blood, consider feeding concentrates, and cultivating some forage. Such intensification steps will increase costs of milk production and hence Kayunga dairy farms will become less competitive in cost-per-kg milk produced. With higher costs, profit per unit will shrink and farmers will need to expand production by either further intensification or up-scaling. Under either strategy, Kayunga dairy farms will increasingly connect with local and international markets. The nature of these connections will determine the type of dairy development policies and their impacts on these farms and their households. Presently, the links between Kayunga dairy farms and markets are so weak that development policies hardly affect these subsistence farms and their families.Lastly, the main single farming objective of subsistence farmers in Kayunga, like anywhere else, is to utilize their limited resources to meet basic needs and then produce some cash income. From this perspective, policies that facilitate their achieving such objective first make strong sense. For instance, we saw cases in which dairy competitiveness may deteriorate in order to increase resource utilization and increase household income: the promotion of one-cow farms around major urban centre (see MK-1) and the facilitation of using available family labour otherwise economically wasted (see the >Water policy scenario). On the other hand, many of these policies can improve the farm dairy competitiveness, but they still fall short of improving the family income. Such policies merely set the foundation, on which greater improvement can be made. Therefore, policymakers must follow-up on these policies with other measures that reach beyond dairy competitiveness into improvement of the household income and so the family livelihood status.In this chapter, we will present the methods and sources of information used to collect data about the Uganda dairy sector and how the costs of production for the selected typical production systems are calculated.This project has followed the framework used by the International Farm Comparison Network (IFCN). IFCN is a world-wide association of agricultural researchers, advisors and farmers. These participants select typical agricultural systems in key production regions in their individual countries. In 2006, the number of participating countries extended to 34 countries with 101 farm types that represent more than 80 percent of the world milk production.1. To create and maintain a standardised infrastructure through which production data of the major agricultural products (milk, beef, wheat, sugar, etc.) and from major producing regions of the world can be effectively compared and discussed.2. To analyse the impact of the structure of production, technology applied and country-specific policies on the economic performance of agribusinesses, their costs of production and global competitiveness.In order to achieve these objectives, IFCN employs the following methods and principles:Direct contact with the production protagonists. A team of advisors and farmers is put together to set up the typical production models and to revise the final results. This approach brings the results closest to reality.The principle of 'Total Costs'. IFCN considers both direct costs and margins, and the indirect (fixed) costs (i.e. depreciation and interests of the infrastructure used) and the opportunity costs for owned assets and production factors (i.e. family labour, land, capital).A single and homogeneous method is utilised to calculate the costs of production for all participating countries. The IFCN standard is not the only truth, but a) it is scientifically correct, b) it includes all the existing production costs, and c) it creates transparency and international comparability in the arena of costs of agricultural production. Each IFCN member and client can reorganise the costs at his convenience and present them in the particular format of his country while he maintains an internationally comparable set of results.The concept of setting (regional) typical agricultural models. A team of country experts, advisors and producers is formed to identify and set up the typical regional production models for each agricultural product. Typical production models must represent the common production structures in the region or country.In the case of dairy production, for example, a working team composed of advisors, consultants and producers is formed as a panel. The first working step is to define the typical milk production systems of the major dairy regions in country. This model may be a 4-cow farm, feeding mostly cut grasses to fully confined animals, combine milk production with some other agricultural activities such as wheat and rice production in 3 ha of irrigated owned land, and milking is done by hand twice a day.The second working step is to collect all the needed information from these typical models. For this, IFCN has developed a standard questionnaire. It is crucial that these data collected should neither reflect an individual farm (too many particularities may hurt the ability to generalise the results) nor be an arithmetic average (an average does not show much about the technology and the economics involved). The typical model should rather represent real and common situations of the region and show clearly the predominant technology and infrastructure. Such models will be preferred by analysts. The model TIPI-CAL (Technology Impact and Policy Impact Calculations) is utilised for the simulations of these typical models and the calculations of their costs of production. TIPI-CAL can be easily shared with all IFCN members since it is a spreadsheet in MS-Excel. This model is a combination of production (physical data) and accounting (economic data). TIPI-CAL also consists of both a structure of costs of production and a simulation component (without optimisation). The simulations can be done for a period of up to 10 years in order to evaluate the growth, investments, policies or market conditions. For each year, TIPI-CAL produces a 'Profit and Loss Account', a balance and cash flow statement.Allocation of costs of production. When the typical milk production systems have several agricultural activities besides dairy, fixed costs and expenses (i.e. depreciation) are distributed to each activity according to their use. For example, the depreciation of the machinery, which is used, for the dairy and the crop enterprises is allocated according to the hours worked in each.Data about farm and off-farm household economics. IFCN takes into account all activities of the typical production systems, plus all the off-farm incomes and expenses realised by the owner and his family. This more complete picture of the typical model is necessary to obtain reliable information about the current economic situation of the model (including the household) and about the future of the farm (simulations).All the methods and principles above have been applied in this project. Full panels were set up since these models will be first part of the IFCN activities for the year 2007. It was decided that two IFCN scientists first form panels of dairy experts to identify and build typical dairy farming models, and then visit each and every model, talk with the owners to collect and confirm panels' specific information, analyse the data and then have the results cross-checked by local experts and farmers.The graphs of results follow the same structure as those in the 'IFCN Annual Dairy Report'. The main objectives of this report is to present the main economic results of the main typical milk production systems in Uganda and the farm level impacts of dairy development interventions.For more information about IFCN, visit http://www.ifcnnetwork.org and http://www.ifcndairy.org ","tokenCount":"9964"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"38bf087716f987bd0274842c95699098","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3337b500-4bc1-4b01-9deb-86e7abba3662/retrieve","id":"-439723314"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5ff3c7c5-e74c-413c-a3dd-2bb9b9307400","pagecount":"151","content":"I also would like to thank all my friends for their concern and love and hospitality expressed throughout our stay in the Philippines -Jit, Susila, Ellah and the CIP Region VII staff, Kota and Dishna, Vidura and Indira, Bony, Udeni, Axi, Ahamed and all other friends; My special thanks go to my wife, Yamuna, for her constant care, patience, understanding and much-needed love and encouragement in time of difficulties and for her company for two years in the Philippines; My parents, brothers, sisters and all my relatives for their concern of my academic achievement; andFinally, this piece of study is dedicated to my parents. viiiSri Lanka grows up to 6500 hectares of potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) which produce 65000 metric tons annually for consumption (CIP, 1981). One of the major constraints involved in production is non-availability of good quality seed potatoes in adequate quantity for planting.During the past two decades demand on seed potatoes has increased tremendously due to the recognition of potatoes as a highly profitable crop when compared to other vegetable crops.It motivated farmers to increase the area under cultivation and the cropping sequence.Another contributory factor to the seed demand is the identification of new areas for cultivation apart from traditional areas such as Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, and Jaffna districts.Until the later part of the sixties, the total requirement of seed potatoes had been imported from West European countries, involving considerable amount of foreign exchange.After that time there was increased demand for seed potatoes but the escalating price of imported seed potato prevented the importation of such a large quantity. Therefore, importation of seed potatoes was made for the Maha season (October-February) planting only. Exploring therefore, the possibility of producing local seed potatoes in higher elevations of above 1500 m as in Nuwara Eliya district where conducive environment prevails during most of the months of the year was made and it was found that good quality seed potatoes could be produced in this area.But the limiting factor in seed production beyond 1000 tons annually is the nonavailability of suitable arable lands (CIP, 1981).Rapid expansion of potato crop in medium-low elevation such as the South Central Badulla district where potato crop is grown on highland slopes under rainfed condition during the Maha season (October-February) and the Yala crop (June-October) grown in low land paddy lands aggravated considerably the seed demand. Farmers in Badulla district obtained their seed requirements for Maha cultivation from government farms through co-operatives which were either imported or produced locally.Some farmers obtained their seed requirements from farmers in high elevation presumably at a higher price than the government price.Farmers always prefer to buy sprouted seed potato at a relatively higher price than the freshly harvested potatoes from higher elevations which they could obtain at low price at the time of harvesting because they lack proper storage facilities which would enable them to store fresh tubers for 4-5 months after sprouting.The Maha crop is considered as seed crop and the major portion of the harvest in February and March will be kept for 4-5 months under traditional storage method until the Yala planting.The bulk of the yala harvest coincides with monsoonal rains and farmers are compelled to harvest immature potatoes and immediately after harvest.They are produce as seeds under this condition. for external sources of seeds for Maha send them to the market unable to keep some of the Thus, they have to look planting.Traditional storage methods not only cause storage losses but also reduce the quality of seeds.These methods seem not suitable for storing seed potatoes more than 4-5 months.To enable them to use their own seed potatoes at a low cost they need to store their produce for more than 8 months from the Maha seed crop to the next Maha planting.Approximately 3000 metric tons of seed potatoes are being imported annually into the country costing 1.5 millions US dollars.Socio-economic conditions of the potato farmers in Sri Lanka limit the use of capital intensive storage methods.As small farmers, their need was a simple low-cost on-farm storage for a ton or so of potatoes that could minimize the storage losses and facilitate prolonge~ storage without deterioration in seed quality within economical limits.With this in view the concept of diffused light storage (DLS) was introduced to Sri Lanka in late 1979's in collaboration with the International Potato Center (CIP,1983). Diffused light potato storage (DLS) refers to a seed potato storage method in which indirect light is provided on the stored seeds to prevent long etiolated weak sprout growths and to induce short sturdy sprouts on the tubers.This method ensures good seed quality and prolonged storage under natural ventilation and ambient temperatures.Initially after observations were made at government farms, the method was tested for its suitability and adaptability to the local setting.The first effort to expose farmers to the new DLS technology was made in 1980 when a few DLS demonstrations were established at strategic sites in Badulla and Nuwara Eliya districts.Extension programmes were carried out in both districts in order to disseminate the new technology to the farmers.It has been found that farmers' response to the new technology was encouraging and as a consequence many farmers in Badulla and Nuwara Eliya districts accepted and adopted it in place of their traditional potato storage method while other farmers modified their existing storage to some extent.By late 1984 more than 900 farmers adopted the new technology.However, the potential for the expansion of this type of DLS to other areas is still to be desired and assessed.There are more than 15,000 small potato farmers in Badulla district and the use of the new technology would be practical and beneficial. An attempt to evaluate the impact of the new technology on potato production and on the farmers in these two districts is also necessary.One of the major constraints facing the potato farmers in Badulla district is non-availability of good quality seeds at an affordable price especially at the time when they need it. Potato seed costs account for more than 50% of the total production cost (Van Der Zaag and Horton, 1982). Thus, farmers in these two districts have started to keep substantial amount of potato seeds for their subsequent plantings.Conventional seed potato storage methods used by potato farmers in Badulla district had been found to cause not only considerable storage losses but also reduced the quality of seeds (Albert, 1980;CIP, 1984).Normally, seed potatoes have to be stored for about 4-9 months after harvest in February-March if they have to be used for the next planting seasons. • But seeds do not keep that long since sprouts appear even just after 3-4 months of storage.If seed tubers are kept longer after natural dormancy under conventional storage methods it will cause high storage losses due to pests and diseases and excessive production of etiolated weak sprouts (Potts, 1983).Potato seed tubers in such conditions are no longer good for planting.It has been demonstrated that seed potatoes stored in diffused light under conditions of adequate ventilation in simple low cost structures have many advantages over conventional simple storage methods used by potato farmers (Booth, et al. 1982).light storage technology has been developed elsewhere with interdisciplinary research efforts, with a view of bringing about an appropriate seed potato storage technology that can be put into practice under farmers' present agro-socioeconomic conditions prevailing in the tropical areas. This study was conducted to find out the answers to the following questions:How was the DLS technology disseminated to potato farmers in Badulla district? How is the DLS technology being adopted by potato farmers? What interaction processes took place between and among farmers, researchers and extension system in the development, adoption and diffusion of DLS technology? What are some of the important impacts of DLS technology on potato production system?Based on the problems above, the following objectives were developed for this study: 1.To determine the processes involved in the development, adoption and diffusion of DLS technology;2.To analyze the interaction farmers, researchers and the development, diffusion technology; and between and among extension agents and adoption of the in DLS To find out the potato production economic aspects.impact system of DLS technology on the in terms of agro-socio-Potato crop is grown in countries where wide range of ecological and socio-economic diversities is found. Substantial number of attempts had been made to transfer new technologies to small farmers in developing countries without much success partly due to the recommended technologies which often do not solve their agro-socio-economic problems and some of the solutions were not socially and economically acceptable to them.Thus the socioeconomic aspect of farmers seemed to be a key factor in the adoption of new technologies.Although a few similar studies had been conducted on agrosocio-economic aspects of adoption of the DLS technology under different setting in other countries (Potts, et al., 1983), so far no attempt has been made to look into the aspect of generation and transfer of DLS technology to the farmers as an interactive process in wider perspective, ever since its introduction in 1979 in Sri Lanka.Hence a study of this nature is timely, because the technology was introduced several years ago and there is reasonably enough time period to identify the emerging implications as consequences of the new technology transfer and to evaluate its impact on farmers.It is also relevant because it deals with potato seed storage which is one of the most important problematic areas where information is lacking in Sri Lanka.Information from this study may also be used as preliminary data for researchers, extensionists, social scientists and others involved in development and/or disseminating future storage technologies for small farmers with more appropriate and acceptable form.Lastly, the findings of the study may be used in future researches in an effort to understand the seed potato problems in Sri Lanka.Process of technology development -refers to the sequential activities that took place from problem identification stage, research stage for potential solution, testing and adaptation stage and final evaluation by farmers.Process of diffusion -refers to the sequentially arranged series of steps in spreading the diffused light potato storage technology from the source of origin to the end-users.Process of adoption -refers to the activities that took place sequentially from farmers' awareness of diffused light potato storage technology to final adoption of DLS and utilization by them.Sustained adoption -refers to the farmers' acceptance and continuous utilization of DLS for storing seed potato after initial adoption.Interaction -refers to the communication behavior, frequency of contacts and content of communication between and among farmers, extension agents and research personnel in the development, diffusion and adoption of DLS.Impact -refers to both anticipated and unanticipated changes that occurred in the farmers' craping system, social system and economic system as a result of adoption of DLS technology. Severity index -refers to an index that indicates the severity of storage problems.Each storage problem was assessed by farmers according to their severity rank.Highest rank was given a score of 12 and subsequent ranks were assigned in descending order until last rank gets a score of one. Weighted average was calculated by multiplying frequency by the score for the rank and sum of the scores was divided by the number of ranks.Weigthed Average Score (WAS) = f x WS 3.Severity Index Range 1 0.65 0.32 -0.66 -0.33 -0Advantage index -To determine the technical, economical and social advantages perceived by the respondents, advantage indexes were developed using the following procedure:Each advantage was given a score scale from 6-1, 5-1 and 6-1 in descending order of rank of technical, economical, and social advantages, respectively.Each score was multiplied by the respective frequency count and divided by the number of ranks. Sum of the scores was divided by the total number of respondents to get the mean advantage index for the particular advantage.Weighted Average Score (WAS) where: Total score for each extension activity divided by the frequency represents the mean usefulness and effectiveness score of a particular extension activity.Level of social participation -Social participation is defined as any participation in agricultural extension activity and joining agricultural organization within the community.It was recorded by two indexes: number of agricultural extension programs, respondents' participation and number of agricultural organizations in which they affiliated and participated within a year.Level of social participation was calculated as follows: If the average number of their participation both in agricultural extension programs and agricultural organizations was more than 8 times, it was considered as \"high level\" of social participation.If the average number of such times was less than 7 and more than 4, it was considered \"moderate level\" of social participation.If both activities were less than 3 times, it was considered \"low level\" of social participation. It appears that food production in developing countries is subject to traditional technology which could not be optimal (Evenson, 1975). It is expected that the introduction of new technologies would increase agricultural production in developing countries.The development and diffusion of high yielding rice varieties had contributed to increased rice production in most of the developing countries (Herdt and Capule, 1983;Rhoades, et al., 1983;Cleaver, 1972). However, much of the past experiences over the last several decades in transferring new technologies to developing countries came up against realization that offered technologies often had little or no advantage over the traditional methods under the economic, social and climatic conditions facing the farmers (Evenson, 1975;Horton ,1983). It had also been found that many past attempts to transfer new technology failed as they either did not solve economically important problems or because farmers were reluctant to adopt them due to social unacceptability of the technology (Horton, 1981;CIP, 1981;CIP, 1984).Therefore, the need for development of appropriate technologies in considering both agro-economical and wider social context is now accepted widely within technology-generating research institutions (Barlow, et al, 1983;ICRISAT, 1980;Flinn, 1978). Moreover, Biggs (1976) reported that technological information generated in international research centres was not spreading equitability to the farmers of developing countries as fast as expected. Sometimes, technology development had often led to unanticipated implications (Rhoades, et al., 1983).New technology development must be dynamic and flexible and the strategy must start with need assessment of the end-users (Woods, 1977;ICRISAT, 1980;Rhoades and Booth, 1982). It is not an easy task to generate technologies which are appropriate in every aspect.Moreover, particular needs of the technology may change over time and space.It may also happen that the original technology becomes obsolete and replaced by more appropriate technologies (Woods, 1977;Rhoads, et al., 1982). Offered appropriate changes may not be appropriate as perceived by the farmers themselves (Hildebrand, 1980;Werge, 1977). As indicated by Hildebrand (1980) one of the reasons why small farmers do not accept changes in their existing farm systems as expected by the developers was the piecemeal fashion orientation of technology generation and diffusion strategies adopted by various disciplines in order to develop a technology which was not acceptable to the end-users. Ashby (1982) suggested that failure of agricultural technologies to diffuse can of ten be attributed to the locationspecificity of technology.This idea was supported by Jarrett (1982).It seemed that there was an observable gap existing between the available technology to the farmers and the kind of technology really needed by them to solve existing agricultural problems within their own agro-socio-economic settings. Woods (1977) andHilderbrand (1978) suggested that the development and transfer of acceptable technology must involve multidisciplinary team approach including intended clientele -the farmer.Until recently, few attempts had been made to develop technologies on this school of thought.In identifying suitable rice production technologies for small farmers in Nigeria, Bartlett (1983) suggested that interactive cooperation of multidisciplinary teams could be used successfully in making recommendations acceptable to farmers.Farmers' collaboration throughout the whole process of designing, execution and evaluation of new technologies had been regarded successful and had strengthened the dialogue between farmers, extension workers and researchers (Icaza and Lagermann 1983;IDRC, 1984). Rhoades and Booth (1982a) suggested an interdisciplinary approach in the identification, generation and transfer of accepted storage technology. It emphasized the active involvement of farmers, biological scientists, social scientists and other disciplines as a team working together toward the identification of problems, designing, generation and evaluation of agricultural technology.This approach pointed further that generating acceptable agricultural technologies to solve farmers' problems should begin and end with the farmers.This \"Farmer-back to-Farmer\" model also suggested the importance of continuous interactive activities between and among the different disciplines involved in technology development in order to develop an acceptable farmer-oriented technology, and identify the proper research needs.Lyman (1982) indicated that research process proceeds from the experimental station to regional trials and finally to on-farm research trials.It was often seen that most experimental station conditions where technologies developed were quite different from the farmers' field conditions (Hildebrand 1980;Byerlee, et al., 1979;Chambers and Ghildyal, 1985). Therefore, it is expected to have wide variation of performance of a particular technology under farmers' conditions.Biggs (1980) reported that farmers do informal research about new technologies in order to evaluate it under their own setting. Farmers may select some component of a package of technology (Biggs 1980;Rhoades, 1984a) for integration with their farming practices. Therefore, on-farm research activities may play an important role in the process of technology generation to its final adoption (Cortbaoui, 1981;Biggs, 1980;IRRI, 1977). It was observed that farmers' involvement with the other disciplines who engage in technology generation process is a vital component for the development of an appropriate and an acceptable technology which can be put into practice particularly in the farming systems of developing countries (Rhoades and Booth, 1982a;Biggs, 1980;Hildebrand, 1978;IDRC, 1984). It also scrutinized the cost and time taken for development of such technologies (IDRC, 1984).Conventional transfer of technology from developed countries to developing countries had exhibited • several unexpected discrepancies and consequences, and a growing concern to change this approach is needed (Biggs, et al., 1983;Sparks, 1983;Chambers, 1985).Traditional unilinear model of transfer of technology from research via extension to farmers had been criticized for its relevance and applicability (Whyle, 1981;Cuyno, 1984).Horizontal feedback model involving farmers and extension service in research process in technology generation, in spite of its improved communication flow in comparison with unilinear model had also been viewed as a weak and still linear model which isolate the farmer as passive recipient of the technology (Rhoades and Booth, 1983).A steady increase in agricultural production through technological changes in the farming systems is indispensable to economic growth.Moreover, it is essential that agricultural researches generate new technology within the condition found in a particular locality that would facilitate higher production.It is also necessary that these technologies must reach the ultimate end-users if they are to be put into practice and benefits are to be realized.Therefore, the process of diffusion of technology plays an important role in disseminating new technology and practices.Generally, when new technologies are introduced to the farmers, considerable time elapses before a new technology is adopted and utilized by them (Ashby, 1982;Lionberger, 1960;Rogers, 1962;Mohammad and Majud, 1979;Barlow, et al., 1983). Diffusion of technologies over time had been viewed as an aggregate outcome of many decisions made by the individual farmer (Barlow, et al., 1983).Individual decisions are influenced by several social, economic, psychological and physical factors (Mohammad and Majud, 1979;Wirasinghe, 1977;Malla, 1983;Shakya, 1983;Abd-ella, et al., 1981).Apart from these factors, characteristics of the new technology or practice and their influence on diffusion also had been studied (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971;Ashby, 1982). Diffusion of new technologies followed a certain pattern which is exhibited over time.Earlier work of Griliches (1957) showed that adoption of hybrid corn varieties by farmers was slow at the beginning and the rate of adoption was increased at a higher rate as the time elapses and followed a sigmoid curve and there was considerable difference between separate curves for each location. Later adoption studies also supported these sigmoid shape adoption curve (Shetty, 1966;Sumayao, 1969;Palmer, 1974;Islam and Halim, 1976;Huke, et al., 1980).However, Cheong (1973) reported that no such trend was observed for Tongil rice adoption in Korea within two years after introduction of new rice varieties.Wide variations in adopting new technologies after introduction had been studied (Huke and Duncan, 1969;Murshed and Alam, 1978) and some farmers were found to take four years to adopt a particular technology fully (Bari, 1974) while others only 4 months (Liao, 1968, Pachio andAshby, 1983).Diffusion of an innovation within a farming system also may be influenced by the communication network existing in that system. Rogers and Shoemaker (1971) viewed diffusion as a process by which certain innovations are communicated through certain channels over time.New technologies may diffuse even without involvement of an extension activity to those who can reap the benefits from it and who possess both knowledge and resources to apply it (Roling, 1984). Much of the earlier diffusion researches viewed the earliness of adoption as a socio-psychological trait of farmers (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971). Early adopters were said to be more progressive than the late adopters and usually had larger farms, higher level of education, more contact with extension agents and had access to more information (Wirasinghe, 1977;Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971;Shakya 1983). However, Roling (1984) and Monu (1983) suggested that earliness of adoption may be due to relatively high access to resources rather than venturesomeness of early adopters. Ashby (1982) conceptualized that early adaptors made the decision to adopt technologies under condition of uncertainty and farmers who adopt them later had access to information about their performance under local conditions which were obtained from the early adaptors and can make decision based on these information. She also indicated that the rate of diffusion of different technologies in different localities were varied depending on the technology and location.It was also found that a decision to adopt a new technology may be influenced even without knowing its characteristics and performance under local conditions as certain critical number of adopters had been attained in the farming community.She concluded that innovativeness among the farmers varied with the technology and the causal factors that would influence the farmers to adopt earlier or later stages were varied in the diffusion process.It was assumed that diffusion of a technology among farmers would allow trickle-down process from progressive farmers to less progressive farmers. But this process revealed a wide variety of discrepancies.It was a leaky process (Castillo, 1983) with the content and the essence of the technology may be adulterating and distorting progressively as it reaches the recipient. It also contributed to the rapidly increasing gap between the rich and the poor (Roling, 1984).This approach may lead to ignorance of the majority of the resource-poor small farmers by the extension and preferential treatments of those who are categorized progressive farmers (Monu, 1983). Recent diffusion researches revealed that diffusion as an activity benefited only those who had access to resources (Monu, 1983;Roling, 1984) and they suggested that horizontal diffusion approach would benefit homogeneous target groups within the farming communities. Barlow, et al. (1983) found that profitability of the technology, resource constraints and risk factor are important economic variables that influence the diffusion rate of a particular technology.Apart from these economic variables certain social and technological factors may also influence the diffusion rate.Farmers rarely adopt complete technological package; they select some of the components and incorporate them into their present farming pratices (Horton, 1984).Individual adoption behavior generally followed a heterogenous pattern.Accepting a new idea or a practice and its adoption may take few hours to many years depending on the individual, environment and the technology. Rogers (1962) and Lionberger (1960) found that some farmers may not adopt a particular technology at all. Some farmers respond to a particular technology faster than other farmers; while some farmers adopt the recommended technology fully, others adopt it only partially (Shakya, 1983;Liao, 1964). In understanding these individual differences in adoption behavior, Rogers and Shoemaker (1971), Lionberger (1960), andBeal andBohlen (1957) suggested five stages of learning process explaining how farmers were to adopt or reject a particular technology.At the awareness stage the individual farmer learns about the technology, but lacks adequate information. At the interest stage, the individual farmer may become interested about the new technology and seek more information. At the evaluation stage the farmer evaluates the technology within his conditions, expectations, resources and management, and decides whether or not to try it.The farmer tries this new technology on a smaller scale in order to assess its appropriateness to his conditions. At the last stage the farmer decides whether to adopt the technology or reject it. Rogers and Shoemaker (1971) came up with a more comprehensive analysis of adoption process which emphasized the continuing nature of adoption of an innovation and having four functions.During the \"knowledge function\" the individual develops some understanding about the new idea and gathers information from various sources. During the \"persuasion function\" stage he forms an attitude toward the innovation and persuades himself or subjects himself to persuasion by others. At this stage it may involve seeking more information, interaction with others and even try out the new idea or practice and weigh alternatives for making decisions.Based on the attitudes formed during the previous stages, the individual may accept or reject the idea or practice.During the \"decision-making function\" stage the individual may decide either to adopt or reject the new idea of production or delay the decision to allow further verification.Up to the decision making function, innovation -decision process remained as a mental activity.During the confirmation stage the individual may further justify the innovation decision he had taken from his experience with the new innovation or from others who adopted it.At this stage the individual may take decision to continue the adoption or discontinue it. Dixon (1982) concluded that time factor is involved in diffusion of innovation in two ways. Firstly, at the individual level as long as alternative practices exist, innovation-decision process occurs over time, and is never completed until the decision to adopt is subject to confirmation.Secondly, it takes time to diffuse an idea through a heterogeneous social system. However, these stages may not necessarily represent the individual adoption process but they provide a sequence of mental and physical activities intervening in the adoption process (Lionberger, 1960).He also pointed out that decision sequence may be terminated at any point or stages may be blended.Studies of the learning process also recognized the social influences which exert from the society and the extension agent that would influence individual decisions to adopt a technology. Islam and Halim (1976), Battad (1973), and Pal (1969) reported the varying degree of time period taken to initiate awareness stage and to the final adoption stage.It is evident that the effectiveness of communication media and the extension activities play a vital role in disseminating the new technology.Studies on the spatial pattern of adoption (Huke and Duncan, 1969;Cheong, 1973;Suh, 1976;Barker and Herdt, 1978) indicated that diffusion of new technologies over space is inconsistent.and Shoemaker (1971) categorized adopters into \"innovators\" \"early adopters\", \"majority\", \"laggards\" and \"nonadopters\" depending on the time taken to adopt a particular technology or practice.Although these categories are arbitrary each adopter category shows certain characteristics which are related to earliness or lateness of adoption.Within the context of diffusion model, farmers had been seen as major constraint in the development process and much of the studies have been focused to find out the distinction between innovators and laggards (Lionberger, 1960;Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971).Among their characteristics, independence, personal initiative, practical capabilities, and risk taking ability (Barlow, et al, 1983) were found to be associated with earliness of adoption of technology by farmers.Several other personal characteristics such as farmer education level (Mangahas, 1970;Chinnappa, 1977;Flinn, et al;1980), extension contact (Hossain, et al., 1977;Wirasinghe, 1977), level of technical knowledge (Kol Shus, 1971;Bhati, 1975;Ramaswamay, 1973), family size (South, et al., 1965;Bhati, 1975;Yim, 1978), farmers' experience (Mangahas, 1970) and family aspirations (Wilkening, 1954;Adb-Ella, et al., 1981) were found positvely related to early adoption of recommended practices.Apart from personal characteristics of the farmers, several socio-economic variables were also found to affect the adoption of new technologies.Furthermore, it was been argued that in explaining the adoption pattern, institutional constraints and social structural factors are much more explanatory and determinant than the personal characteristics of farmers (Hevens and Flinn, 1975). Farmers' participation in social organizations (Pascual, 1971) was found related to adoption of recommended practices as the organizations may provide relevant information and accessability to other resources (Herdt and Capule, 1983;Abd-Ella, et al., 1981;Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971;Bhati, 1975).The number of economic variables that are affecting adoption behavior had been studied.Thus, differential in access to capital are seen as an important factor in explaining variations in the rate of adoption (Schutjer and Van Der Veen, 1977). Moreover, Abarientos (1975), Islam and Halim (1976) and Rajagopalan and Singh (1971) found that those with high income tended to adopt modern rice varieties first. This trend was supported by Lionberger (1960), Battad (1973), and Rogers and Shoemaker (1971). An increase in family income may influence the allocative efficiency of farmers to enable them to operate near the economic optimum.Non-availability of adequate capital resources is often considered as a determinant of the rate of innovation adoption.It has been reported that availability of credit is an important factor in the adoption of modern high yielding rice varieties (Librero and Mangahas, 1975;Wirasinghe, 1977).Introduction of new technologies demands capital investment.It may not incur as an initial cost only but also as maintenance cost.In the case of potato storage technology, no matter how simple the storage method is, it costs money and it adds to the total production cost (Booth, et al., 1982).The relationship between farm size and adoption seemed to be inconsistent.Baker and Herdt (1978) and Ramaswamy (1973) found that small farm size leads to adoption of modern varieties while Kalirajan (1979)  and Flinn, et al., (1980) claimed that adoption is equal among all farm sizes. But Beal and Sibby (1961) and Khan (1975) indicated that those who possess larger farm size tend to adopt new technologies sooner than small farm size owners. Rhoades (1984a) reported that small-scale potato farmers in Peru were eager to adopt new farming practices provided that the offered technologies had clear benefits and advantages over their current practices. The case of diffusion of diffused light potato storage technology in the Philippines showed that farmers' individual need for the change in their existing circumstances influenced the adoption of the technology irrespective of their farm size (Acasio, 1984).Certain technological innovations are adopted relatively at a fast rate.It appears that farmers tended to adopt certain technologies depending on the performance of the technology under local conditions, available resources, and environmental constraints.Ashby {1982) discussed that relative adoption of a certain technology among farm resource groups at a given stage in the diffusion process also varies with the technology.Thus, suitability of technologies to local condition may be considered as variable in the diffusion process.Rogers and Shoemaker (1971) described five attributes which characterized the innovations, namely: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. These specific characteristics may influence the rate of adoption of technologies.Schutjer and Van der Veen (1977) also considered four characteristics of a particular technology related to its adoption: efficiency of the technology on net farm income, factors' intensity on use of factors of production, complexity of the technology and diversibility of the technology.They also reported that adoption of high yielding wheat varieties showed that the potential existence for divisability facilitated farmers to adopt the new variety in spite of the package recommendation. Van Uyen and Vander Zaag (1984) reported that simplicity of the technology and low initial cost and fast production rate and high yields were the main characteristics that influenced the adoption of rapid multiplication technology for potato production in Vietnam.Moock, technological conditions due researchers reported that the complete package farm innovators would produce high yields (Allan, 1973). However, Horton (1984) reported that package often failed to perform well under local to agroeconomic constraints prevailing in the local setting. Rhoades, et al. (1983) reported that farmers did not adopt diffused light storage technology as demonstrated but they modified or altered the technology to meet their requirements.The adoption of a new technology is expected to bring desirable consequences to the end-user Qf the technology and by doing so, little attention had been given to the unexpected consequence of adopting the technologies (Shingi, et al., 1981;Goss, 1979;Cleaver, 1972). It was seen that technology change processes in farming systems developed numerous agro-socioeconomic consequences that were never expected when the technological changes were developed and diffused to the end-users (Rhoades 1984b).Studies revealed that capital intensive technology tended to increase existing inequalities (Jhunjhunwalla and McPherson, 1972;Gotsch, 1972;, Hevens and Flinn, 1975). The introduction of modern rice varieties had increased the labor input per hectare but decreased the labor input per ton of rice produced (Barker and Cordova, 1978). It also increased the total rice production and yield per hectare (Herdt and Capule, 1983) and unequal distribution of income (Herdt and Wickham, 1978). However, increased production and income levels had also contributed to increased standard of living (Shingi, et al., 1981;Rogers and Shoemaker 1971).It was also found that the adoption of new rice technology brought about a new outlook in agriculture and developed farmer's new attitudes, aspirations, perceptions and anemities in life (Castillo, 1975).The consequence of the adoption of a new technology may not necessarily occur only exclusively to the adopters but also to non-adopters as well (Goss, 1979). Ruthenberg (1980) described farming as a system and several activities are related to each other by common use of the farmers' resources and limits management capability. Therefore, any change in the present agricultural practice may affect the changes in other activities in the system (Berlow, et al., 1983;Shakya, 1983;Wirasinghe, 1977). Introduction of new potato varieties to Andean regions in Peru had altered or modified the traditional storage practices (Rhoades, et al., 1983). Adoption of diffused light storage techniques for seed potato storage in Sri Lank.a resulted in the change in the planting season and increase in yields due to availability of good quality seeds at proper planting time (CIP, 1983).Substantial economic advantages of true potato technology may accompany increased labor requirement for production of seedlings (CIP, 1983). Van Uyen and Vander Zaag (1983) reported that the use of rapid multiplication technique for potato production did not only reduce the seed cost but also begin to replace degenerated seed stock, reduce storage losses, popularize new varieties and demand for training activities about the technology.The CIP (1984) reported that the introduction of DLS technology in Sri Lanka had brought about several observable impacts on the potato production system.Apart from the yield increase, changes in the cropping system, alteration of seed flow between farmers, reduction of seed storage losses and curtail seed importation from other countries had been observed.It also revealed that this technology did not only have an impact on potato production but also on other crop production systems as well.The flow of technology and knowledge from the time they were generated to the time they reached the end-user is a vital process which can enhance agricultural production. Shetty (1966) reported that it is not the lack of technologies or knowledge that limits this but the farmers' willingness, need and ability to accept the technologies and knowledge.Earlier conceptualization of this process as a research-linking-direct system (Rogers and Jain, 1969) had been criticized by various workers for its linearity knowledge having only from research to user (Gildeonse, 1968;Guba and Clark, 1975), one way communication \"down\" through the system (Cummings, 1977) and its dependency relationship between the user and the researcher rather than a collaborative activity (Cumming, 1977;Roling, 1973;Darling, 1977). Another criticism on this school of thought was the assumption of technology transfer rather than an interactive communication process (Castillo, 1983;Roling, 1973) resulting in adaptive, appropriate or acceptable technology. Moreover, Ruttan (1975), Castillo (1983), and Roling (1982) pointed out that dependence on trickle-down process of communication through the farming system as an extension strategy had unjustified and lacking in distributive effect to all members of the system where it was introduced.In this context, the challenge in transferring agricultural technology to farmers was indeed to create effective linkages between farmers and the systems, capable of providing the necessary technologies (IDRC, 1984). It was also expected to perform the effort of linkers or translators with a \"dual understanding\" (Beal and Meehan, 1978) of scientific knowledge and the practical conception of the problem.Generally, extension personnel were expected to act as linkers and interact with farmers and research system in order to disseminate and communicate the idea or technology.Activities in this phase usually included an understanding of the technology and its uses, designing strategies for dissemination and communication, adaptation and monitoring and evaluation under farmers' conditions (Beal and Meehan, 1978).More of ten technology development and technology transfer were viewed as separate functions but these two functions are one process (Castillo, 1982).It is also seen as a complicated, interactive and iterative process.Therefore extension system alone as a linkage between research system and farming system may not ideally be equipped to perform this complex task successfully. In this context, effective communication and interaction between and among farmers, extensionists and researchers play a vital role in the process of technology generation, integration, adaptation, dissemination and utilization. Beal and Meehan (1978) suggested an iterative dynamic model of knowledge production-utilization in agriculture.The model illustrated the repeated interactions and communicative activities as important aspects of every stage of knowledge production and utilization process.The farmer-back-to-farmer model suggested interdisciplinary approach in technology development and its adoption involving continuous interaction and communication between and among farmers and various disciplines (Rhoades and Booth, 1982).These two models explicitly emphasized the interaction and communication of the various sectors concerned from the initial problem identification up to technology development and back to be used by the endusers.Technology development as the part of researchers and the transfer of technology as the responsibility of extension never terminate at that level. They are not separate functions but a one or combined process.Therefore, the interaction and communication process between and among farmers and other disciplines involved in technology generation and dissemination may help in understanding the farmer and his conditions, the adaptabiity and suitability of the technology under these conditions and how the technology is perceived by the farmers in the research process (Rhoades, 1984;Chamber, 1980). Because of the complexity of the process of technology generation and its ultimate use, there may be several patterns and nature of interactions and communications with varying degrees between and among these disciplines.The introduction of new technologies is expected to bring about increased agricultural production in developing countries. However, past experiences in this effort revealed that offered technologies often failed to perform as expected under farmers' actual situations due to various reasons.Therefore, there had been a growing concern over the development of appropriate technologies considering both agro-economic and wider social context of farmers in technology-generating agricultural research institutions in order to develop technologies which would be put into practice under farmers' conditions (Burton and Booth, 1982).The burgeoning interest in the development and dissemination of appropriate technologies reflect the recognition of the essential role of technology in agricultural development particularly in developing countries.In this venture it is important to understand the farmer and his conditions before designing any technology.It is also important to consider that available technologies may need to be subjected to \"fine-tuning\" before being adapted to a particular farming system.In this context, Rhoades and Booth (1982) and Chambers and Ghildyal (1985) suggested that in generating technologies farmers' collaboration with other disciplines throughout the whole process of identifying the problem, designing a probable solution and executing and evaluating the technology as an interactive interdisciplinary activity would bring about an appropriate technology in an acceptable form. However, it is not possible to generate universal technologies which could operate everywhere equally well as expected.interdisciplinary relationship as shown in the conceptual model in Figure 2.1, does not terminate at the technology development stage but it is a continuing activity even after the subsequent sustained adoption process.It is also necessary that these technologies reach the enduser if they are to be put into practice. There are a number of different sources of agricultural information and different means and strategies for disseminating these information to end-users. During this process farmers may further evaluate and adapt different technologies in various aspects in order to fit them into their setting.However, farmers' objectives in adopting new technologies are more complex than increasing production. Diffusion of technologies over time had been viewed as aggregate outcome of many decisions taken by an individual. Individual decisions to adopt a certain technology may be influenced by several factors, namely: social, economic, psychologial and physical.Technology diffusion and adoption processes may vary in different dimensions among farmers due to various conditions and constraints within which the farmers operate.Apart from this, characteristics of the technology also affect these variations to a certain extent.Therefore, testing of technologies at the farmers' level is an important component of research process especially in developing countries where communication link between farmers and research is weak. Farmers often do not possess adequate information and competencies in combining or modifying the technological changes to their own environmental and production system.Adoption of a new idea is the consequence of a series of human relations. Therefore, insights unto the nature of interaction and communication flow between and among the farmers and other disciplines involved in technology generation and dissemination would help in understanding the diffusion and adoption process in a farming system.changes in existing farming systems are expected to bring about desired changes.These changes may also develop numerous unexpected agro-socio-economic impact that were never anticipated when the technological innovations were developed and diffused to the end-users. Any change in agricultural technology in a particular crop or practice may affect the changes in other activities in the farming systems. Therefore, the new technology changes must fit into the existing agro-socio-economic systems of the farmers (Fig. 1).  Rhoades and Booth, 1982).CHAPTER IIIThe study was conducted in Badulla district in Sri Lanka where potato crop has been grown for the last two decades.Most of the farmers in the upper part of the district are small farmers and they possess less than two hectares of cultivable land, both paddy and highland.Agro-climatic conditions are conducive for vegetable and rice cultivation.Rice cultivation is limited to Maha season and production is mainly for home consumption.Other important crops like potatoes, beans, cabbage, Brinjal, pumpkin, raddish, capsicum and tomato are grown both under the rainfed and irrigated conditions for commercial purposes.Nearly 2500 hectares are planted to potato in this area annually. Ten Agrarian Service Centers (ASC) are located in this area for extension and other support services.The study area is shown in Fig. 2.The main reasons for the selection of this particular area for the study were:1.More than 50% of the potato production is concentrated in this area (Albert, 1984) and majority of the farmers produce $eed potatoes and store them in their farms.DLS technology was introduced in this area in 1979 and considerable adoption of the technology had been observedand agro-socio-economic implications were emerging.A number of extension programs were carried out in this area in order to disseminate the DLS Technology.The unit of analysis was the individual potato farmer in 10 agriculture service centers in Badulla district.However, since farming activities are complex but interrelated activities of a subsystem in the farming system, additional data were also gathered from other members of the family who were engaged in farming activities. Extension agents, research personnel, village leaders and other government officials were interviewed for additional information.There were about 900 DLS technology adopters in this area.  1.On the first stage a listing down of all DLS adopters was made for each ASC area.On the second stage lists of adopter farmers were made for each ASC area according to the following criteria: a.those who cultivate at least two potato crops per year;b. those who used DLS technology for at least one year.Finally twelve percent of the total number of selected farmers in each ASC area was selected by random sampling.A list of alternative respondents was obtained just in case of unavailability of respondents.A sample of 30 non-adopters, representing three farmers from each ASC area was selected through simple random sampling from the potato farmers' list provided by the ASC.All the agricultural extension agents of the study area who were engaged in disseminating DLS technology during the period 1978-1984 were included in the sample.Further, all the research personnel engaged in adaptive research activities in the study area were also included in the sample.In order to get in-depth information on important aspects of seed storage practices and interaction patterns of technology diffusion, 10 key informants were purposively selected representing one from each ASC area.Table 1 shows the number of respondents included in the sample on different respondent types. The interview schedule was pre-tested for its validity.After pre-testing, necessary adjustments were made before the actual collection of data from farmer respondents. The interview schedule was translated into Sinhala language. Two interviewers were trained by the researcher in order to gather the data correctly from the farmer respondents.Cross checks were made frequently with researchers in order to correct any discrepancy.Personal observations were done in order to get relevant information on storage practices which were difficult to get by the other methods.Non-adopters were interviewed in order to get information on present seed storage practices, problems and advantages of their present storage systems and the reasons for non-adoption of DLS technology.Examination of records pertaining to potato production and seed supply were carried out.These information were gathered from the institutions and organizations involved in potato production and seed distribution.interviews with extension personnel, research personnel and key informants in villages were carried out in order to get information regarding the interactions and communications that took place in developing and disseminating the DLS technology.The data were statistically analyzed and interpreted in relation to the objective of the study.Frequencies, means, percentages and ranking were used to analyze some aspects of the variables.However, chi-square test was used to find the correlation and association between variables.The five percent level of probability was considered as the level of significance.The logit model was used to predict the factors with probability of adoption of DLS technology. The based on the cumulative logistic probability function. The first part of this chapter describes the agrosocioeconomic environment of the family farming units in the study area.It is followed by a brief description of the existing cropping patterns of the area. Traditional potato storage methods and practices, some of the potato seed storage problems. encountered by the farmers, various seed sources and utilization of potato seeds after and before adoption are discussed in the later part of this chapter.Lastly, the involvement of family members in seed storage practices was discussed.Part two of this chapter discusses the DLS technology adoption processes.It also focuses attention to adoption behavior of the farmers, information sources on DLS, farmers' perceived characteristics of the DLS and structural modification and adaptations made during the process of technology generation. Farmers' reasons for non-adoption and their assessment of DLS in terms of agro-socioeconomic aspects were also discussed. Probability of adopting DLS technology under farmers' agrosocioeconomic setting are also analyzed using a Logi t model.The final portion of this part is devoted to the description of the diffusion process of DLS among farmers in the study area.Analysis of interactions and communication between and among farmers, extension agents and research personnel during the process of technology generation, adoption and diffusion processes were described in the third part of this chapter.The last part of the chapter describes some of the agrosocioeconomic impact of DLS technology adoption on farming system of the area at its simplest level.In this section, some socioeconomic characteristics are discussed in order to understand the general profile of the adopters.In calculating family size, only family members who were engaged in farming activities in the farm were taken into consideration and grouped accordingly. This gave an indication of family labor availability for agricultural activities of the farm family units.Table 2 presents the distribution of farm family units.The mean farm family size was 5.3.The majority of the farm families belonged to the medium-size families (67%) with 5-6 members. Seventeen farm families included one or two outsiders as helpers or workers during the peak seasons.There were also nine extended families in which paternal and maternal parents lived with the farm family but they seldom contributed to the labor force of the family.Table 2. Family size of farmer adopters (N = 105). This did not categorize the typical DLS adopters to full extent due to the fact that adoption of DLS was not attributed to a single person activity in the farm family. It merely represents the sex composition of the household head as he or she is usually considered the adopter of the family unit.The age range of the farmer adopters was from 20-70 or an average of 43.3 years.Seven farmers were above 61 years old; they were mainly engaged in the less tedious work in farming. However, they made important decisions in the farming operations. This showed that there existed a rich tradition of taking necessary advice and opinion in farming operations from elders of the family.Section B of Table 3 shows the age structure of the farmers.Only five respondents had no schooling while about 95% had an average of 6.3 years of schooling.Two persons had university education.Of the 29 farmers who had more than 10 years of schooling, 11 were part-time farmers. This information suggests that the higher the educational level, the less likely that they take farming as their main occupation.It was found that six farmers had vocational training in agriculture. Table 3 section C shows the educational attainment of the farmers.  Out of 105 farmer adopters, 11 (10.5%) considered farming as an additional occupation since they were government employees. Although they got a better income from potato farming, no one among them was willing to give up or terminate their government positions.Apparently, the regular flow of wages and certain privileges derived from government employment supported and/or supplemented their farming activities to a considerable extent and because of these they gained a high social position in the farming community.Furthermore, because of their employment, these farmers had more access to seed sources (especially government seed sources) information and credit than the rest of the farmers. These were evidenced by the fact that six of these employeefarmers had larger DLS storage capacity (from 2-6 tons).The majority of the farmer adopters (72%) had more than 15 years of experience in potato produciton.Their average years of experience was 16.8 years (Table 3, section D).The shortest experience was four years, while the longest, 30 years. Because of this long years of experience, obviously these farmers would have better understanding about problems encountered in potato production as well as potato seed storage.It was also evident that the farmer adopters had evaluated the DLS, based on their previous experiences and problems associated or involved with the traditional potato seed storage methods.In considering the family farm size, all arable lands belonging to the family were considered.Although there were a number of tenurial patterns operating in the area, the majority (79%) of the farmers were found to be owner-operators. Classification of lands were made according to the topography, availability of water and seasonal utilization.Lowlands are usually irrigable paddy lands.Highlands and homestead lands are composed of irrigable and non-irrigable lands situated above the paddy lands and around the farmers' house.Chena lands or dry highlands are situated away from the farm house.They were usually rainfed and cultivated only once a year particularly during the wet season.The size of landholdings and types of arable lands are presented in Table 4. Almost all of the farmers owned all the types of arable land except Chena lands where only 95 farmers owned them.Table 4 shows that the majority of the farmers (71) owned less than 0.5 hectare of lowland paddy while only few (5) farmers owned more than 2 hectares.Average size of lowland paddy was only 0.65 hectares as compared to only 0.5 hectares of highland. Lowlands were planted to paddy during the Maha season (wet season) and then followed by potato and other vegetable crops in the Yala season (dry season).Furthermore, potato crops raised in lowland during the Yala season find their way to the market. This was the predominant cash crop in the farming system in the area.Hence, any change in the area cultivated in this type of land would have significant change in the total potato production, as well as total income of the farm family.As many as 72 farmers owned less than 0.5 hectares while only 3 farmers owned more than 2 hectares or an average land size of 0.5 hectares (Table 4).Potato and other vegetable crops were grown on these slopping hilly lands in Maha season (wet season) under rainfed conditions.Potato crop raised on these lands were considered as seed crops and a larger portion of the harvest were used to plant the lowland areas during Yala season (dry season) under irrigated condition.The farmers' houses were situated in these lands which were generally adjacent to the paddy lands.In comparison to other categories of land the average size of homestead lands was small (0.2 ha).A variety of vegetable crops are grown in this land irrespective of the season were mainly for domestic consumption. The relatively small size of lands (0.2 ha) posed as another serious constraint in the expansion of potato cultivation on these lands.It was found that only 15% of the farmers cultivated potatoes on these land.The majority of the farmers (93) possessed less than 0.5 hectares of homestead land while only three farmers were endowed with more than 1.5 hectares of homestead land.This type of lands is highland, usually situated far away from the farmers' house.These lands are government-owned and encroached by farmers for cultivating short-term crops such as potato, pulses and other vegetables.A relatively more fertile than the other lands, Chena lands are generally cultivated in the wet season. Only 86 farmers possessed these lands with an average size of 0.5 hectares.Farmers harvested a better potato crop on  .. ,Chena lands than in the highlands. The cropping practice in Chena lands was such that potato was grown only once a year but potatoes produced on these lands were mostly preferred as seeds by farmers to be planted in paddy lands during the Yala season.Having endowed with various types of lands seemed to be vital in sustaining and maintaining a continuous crop production system particularly in potato.For example, a major portion of the potato crop cultivated in the highlands and Chena lands during the Maha season (potato seed production is not feasible in lowlands during this season) was utilized for the subsequent Yala cultivation in the lowlands.This explains the existing harmony between the types of land, potato production and seed utilization in the present farming system.The predominant cropping patterns of the study areas with respect to the land types are shown in Table 5.All the farmers grow one crop of rice per year in the lowlands mainly for home consumption.It was clearly indicated that lowlands were intensively cultivated due to the availability of irrigation water.Potato crop may often be used as relay crop with pumpkins and sweet potato (74 farms) in lowlands.Otherwise potato may always be raised as a mono crop in other types of lands. Only 17 percent of the farmers were able to grow two crops of potato in Maha season, but almost all the DLS farmer adopters were able to raise at least two potato crops per year. There were consistent changes in the cropping pattern adopted by individual farmers.The cropping pattern depended on the availability of water, land and seeds.Detailed discussions on the changes that occurred in the cropping pattern is included under impact of DLS in the third part of this chapter.In Table 6 th~ cost of production of potato per hectare is shown. In the Maha season the total cost amounted to Rs. 65904.23 based on the sample. The cost of seed materials was 57 percent of the total cost of production, while the other input cost was 25 percent.Labor cost was 18 percent and this included the hired and family labor.The finding also revealed that potato crop demands highest capital investment as compared to any other crop used in their cropping system.  Comparing the cost of production for Maha and Yala seasons, there was a difference of Rs. 3200.The cost of seeds for the Maha season was higher than in Yala season. The reduction of cost of seeds in Yala season might have been due to the use of their own seeds for planting rather than purchased them from outside sources.Furthermore, the considerable increase in labour input (50%) in Yala season suggested the difficulties involved in intensive land preparation needed in lowlands during Yala for potato cultivation. The average yield for the Maha season was 8.5 tons per hectare while for Yala season was 10.0 tons per hectare. The average profit in Yala season was much more than the Maha. season (Rs. 27558.40).These findings explicitly indicated that potato crop gave a higher income during the Yala season.In general also, income in potato production is higher than any other crop planted in Maha and Yala seasons (Albert, 1984).Obviously, a this area may not have an overview prestigious position brief discussion on the sociology of potato in be sufficient, but it is pertinent perhaps to of the social context in understanding the attached to the potato.Potato crop was considered as the most expensive crop but the most profitable crop as compared to other crops in the area.In general, potato farmers were better off than other farmers. There were about 25,000 potato farmers in the island and 80 percent of the farmers in this area grow potato.They considered potato as the main income generating crop in this cropping system. They also believed that their level of living was relatively high because of the potato crop.Potato crop involved high inputs, high risk but high return. Unlike other crops, potato had a ready market throughout the year. Storability of potato was an added advantage.Traders preferred to buy potatoes first than the other vegetable. Price fluctuation of potatoes in the buying and selling markets were not haphazard but gradual.But there was a considerable gap between producer's price and the consumer's price of potatoes.Potato was considered as a prestigious crop not only by the farmers but also by the government and private sector organization. It had been given a wider and prompt attention when there were crisis and problems.Much emphasis had also given to research, extension and training on potato.Potato was also a \"political crop\" in this area, with•a great socioeconomic influence on all matters concerning daily life of people of this area.Household anemities such as radios, televisions, drawing room sets electrical items are often brought into the house following a potato harvest.Potato farmers generally visited relatives or the holy places more than other farmers, indicating that they were relatively well-off financially.Sometimes internal trade relationship within the community were done using seed potato.Owner-share relationship was controlled and sustained by seed utilization and also land.Ironically, per capita consumption of potato was very low (only 3.18 kg, Horton and Fugo, 1985) and as a food item it was considered a luxury, (Poats and Castillo, 1982).It was seldom included in the daily diet but it was a one-item in the menu when there were visitors at home.Potato was a relatively expensive food item in comparison with other vegetables.It is used as a curry in Sri Lanka diet rather than a main food.However, farmers in this area consumed potato in almost every major meal as a curry and they keep their own potatoes for this purpose.Apparently, potato was the crop which brought wealth, health, social prestige and ultimately quality of life into the farming community.Ad opt ion .2f DLS It appeared that the practice of seed potato storage had existed in the area for quite a long time.After 1967, there was a steady expansion of potato crop as a result of restriction in importation of potatoes for consumption and demand for seed potato also had increased tremendously.However, seed potatoes were imported into the country for both Maha and Yala seasons until the late 1970s.Subsequently seed importation for Yala season was terminated due to import restriction policies of the government. During this period, farmers encountered certain difficulties in obtaining their total seed potato requirement. This situation had motivated farmers to keep their own seeds for Yala season.Gradually, they developed their seed production system and storage methods.Table 7 shows the cumulative number of farmer adopters who practiced seed storage before DLS adoption.Seemingly after 1965, the practice of seed storage among farmers increased significantly.At the end of 1974, 45 percent of the farmers used their own seeds for Yala cultivation.In 1983, almost all of the farmers stored some amount of seeds for the Yala season.the records and informal interviews with village leaders and government officers revealed that there were little efforts to encourage and disseminate this practice among other farmers during this period. Table 7.Distribution of farmers who started seed potato storage before adoption of DLS (N=l05).YEAR 1960 -1964 1965 -1969 1970 -1974 1975 -1979 1980 -1983 NUMBER With regard to seed utilization before adoption of DLS it was revealed that 82 percent of the farmers stored seeds only for their own use while 18 (17.2%) farmers stored seed for planting and for sale (Table 8). Interestingly, four farmers revealed that they came to realize the possibility of selling excess seed and gaining extra income after one year's experience in seed storage. Table 8 shows the picture of this situation. The seed potato storage method which was widely used among the farmers in this area was keeping seed potatoes in old potato crates (capacity of 40-50 kg of seeds) in a dark place in the house.These old potato crates were slated wooden boxes in which potato seeds were imported from other countries and were issued to farmers when they purchased seeds from the government farms. These boxes can be reused for a longer time to transport seeds from the field, for seed storage and transport seeds back to the field during the planting time without causing much damage to seeds.More than 86 percent of the farmers revealed that one of the main reasons which facilitated the use of old potato crates for seed storage was their free availability.Another reason was these boxes can be fit into any corner of the house and piled without causing much inconvenience in the household activities.But after 1979 the government started issuing potato seeds without boxes due to various reasons.This directly affected the storage facility of the farmers and they had to look for alternative methods of seed storage.The difficulties which the farmers experienced might have been a reason why they got interested in DLS.Inspection of seeds in boxes was not routine.The majority of the farmers (85%) revealed that after sprouting, storage losses were very high and they produced long weak sprouts after one or two months.Table 9 shows the quantity of potatoes and storage methods used.It was observed that old potato crates were used to store small quantities as well as large quantities and it was the most preferred method (85%).The next method used mostly was spreading seeds on the floor in a dark place in the house (41.9%).In this storage method, seeds were spread on the cemented or mud floors in 6-8 inch layers.Sometimes, farmers cover the seeds with gunnysack to enhance sprouting.It was observed that some farmers made use of this facility as a temporary storage.They transferred these seeds to old potato crates after sprouting.Storage losses in this method were mainly due to rotting and rat damage in this method. Sorting of seeds was very seldom done.Storage of seeds in the attic was observed among 30 (28.6%) farmers.Attic is a place where they store other items such as farm tools, utensils and seed materials such as onion, garlic, beans and pumpkin.Potato seeds were spread on the wooden floor of the attic and often subjected to high temperature during the daytime and cool temperature during the night time.Losses were mainly due to shriveling of seeds, rat damage and tuber moth damage.However, only four farmers preferred this method as a good storage method.Another storage method used by farmers was keeping seeds spread under the beds.Farmers keep seeds on• a thickeT pile sometimes covered with gunny sacks.The 23 farmers who used this method expressed several beliefs and social implications involved in seed potato storage.Some farmers felt that seeds should not be exposed to outsiders in order to prevent the evil eye of others.Some farmers said that seeds were more secured and keeping them at very close proximity make them happy. Some farmers felt that the space available under the bed was ideal for seed storage. Obviously when seeds were treated with chemicals to prevent insect pest attack, there was a great possibility of contamination of hazardous chemicals.On the other hand, when tubers started rotting it caused a very uncomfortable atmosphere in the living area.However, most of the farmers kept less than 400 kg of seed potato in this kind of storage.It was observed that farmers never use a single storage method. Hence, they resorted to a combination of storage methods, perhaps due to unavailability of old potato crates, lack of space in the house or to avoid risk involved in keeping seeds in a single method. It was found that more than 27 percent of the seed losses occurred in traditional potato storage methods.Looking at the different traditional storage methods, it was obvious that farmers would like to store their seeds in a secured place within their house.It was also apparent that they hardly consider the need for caring the seeds during the storage period and this aspect had been completely neglected.Losses might have been considered a natural phenomenon in seed storage.There are 12 most conspicuous storage problems associated with traditional potato seed storage methods that were identified (Appendix Table B).These problems were categorized into four broad areas, namely: problems associated with pest and diseases, problems associated with quality of seeds, field performances of seeds and problems associated with household environment.Table 10 presents the problems associated with traditional potato seed storage methods.The majority of the farmers (65.7%) were faced with \"highly severe\" problems in storage while only 5 percent farmers seemed to have \"low severe\" problems.Farmers indicated losses due to rotting, weak sprout growth, inability to store for more than six months and tuber moth damage as severe problems in the traditional storage.The severity indexes for the above problems were 0.87, 0.78, 0.70 and 0.69, respectively.There were seven moderately severe problems and only one was considered a least severe problem.Farmers faced quite a number of problems throughout the storage period and these problems were in association with all the traditional storage methods.Actual losses occurred during the storage period and were beyond the assessment of the farmers especially that they failed to realize the magnitude of the overall deterioration of the seed quality. Tracing the individual factor that contributed to the overall seed quality deterioration was not possible as the storage problems were occurring simultaneously.For instance, difficulties in storage management The storage practices used by farmers before the adoption of DLS were limited to four.Selection of seeds before storage in order to remove spoiled tubers, was carried out by 85 percent of farmers before the adoption of DLS.Farmers were aware that unsorted seeds would result to rapid losses in storage as compared to sorted seeds.Table 11 summarizes the storage practices carried out by farmers before and after the adoption of DLS.It shows that after the adoption of DLS the number of farmers adopting storage practices increased together with the practices adopted by farmers.Almost 60 percent of the farmers adopted the eight different practices after the adoption of DLS. Accordingly, the adoption of DLS also changed the other associated storage practices as prerequisite to its successful utilization.In the light of the above findings, there seemed to have a growing concern among farmers about the recognition of the seed as an important input which need careful management during the storage phase.Furthermore, there had been a shift in family labor involvement in storage activities after adopting several additional storage practices.Potato Seed Sources and Utilization Before and After Adoption of DLS There were three major seed sources from which farmers purchased their potato seeds. Table 12 shows the seed sources and utilization before and after the adoption of DLS.Among the seed sources, government farms were the most commonly mentioned source from which farmers purchased seeds. There was no significant change in the number of farmers who purchased seeds from this source before and after the adoption of DLS for both Maha and Yala seasons.However, there was a decline in quantity of seed purchased from this source after the adoption of DLS.Table 13 shows the source, quantity of seeds and utilization of seeds after the adoption of DLS.It appeared that there was a dramatic change in the use of their own produced seeds.In Maha season, there were only 32 (30%) farmers who used their own seeds for planting and the quantity used was less than 200 kg.But after the adoption of DLS, the number of farmers who used own seeds for planting was increased to 103 (98%) and the average quantity of seeds used was During the Yala season there were only 33 farmers who used more than 800 kg of own seeds for their planting. It increased up to 62 farmers after the adoption of DLS.With regard to the third source of seeds there had slight increase in the quantity purchased from farmers or in Yala season after the adoption of DLS.These findings revealed that there had been a greater change in seed utilization particularly the use of own produced seeds as a consequence of DLS adoption.Despite the fact that seed availability was somewhat greater than before the adoption of DLS there were farmers who still purchased some quantity of seeds from government sources.Perhaps some of them still consider the government seeds are better than their own seeds and they could improve the seed stock using government seeds.In analyzing the cost of seeds from different sources, it turned out that farmer-produced seeds were approximately 50 percent cheaper than government seeds and nearly 100 percent cheaper than seeds purchased from dealers or farmers. This trend was observed for both seasons before and after adoption of DLS. However, there were significant price differences between and among seed sources before and after the adoption of DLS.Table 14 shows that more than 75 percent of the farmers preferred to buy just sprouted seeds at the time of planting but only 30 percent of farmers purchased well sprouted seeds.With regard to government seeds, farmers (85%) were compelled to buy what were available at the time of purchase hence there was no choice in buying preferred seeds from this source.None of the farmers were interested in purchasing freshly harvested potato which could be obtained at relatively lower price and stored in DLS for subsequent use.Seeds from Outside SourcesThe problems associated with external seed sources were related to governmet seed source.These problems are summarized in Table 15.It was also evident that almost all of the problems were connected with distribution system and quality of the seeds. More than 63 percent of the farmers reported that graft and corruption existed in potato seed distribution system and it had been perpetuated in the last decade.However, farmers had faith on the quality of seeds and the reasonable price structure of seeds from the government seed source. With regard to other seed source, seeds from farmers were considered as somewhat low in quality (42%) and high priced (30%). More than 68 percent of the farmers considered the seeds from dealers comparatively expensive.Simultaneous Use of Traditional Seed Storage Methods After Adoption of DLS It was expected that adoption of DLS would gradually replace the traditional storage system.However, this was not so in the study area even after four years of DLS adoption.It was found that 85 percent of the DLS farmer adopters still use the old potato crates for storing seeds (Table 16).Simultaneous use of traditional storage practices suggested that these farmer adopters were not still fully convinced of the DLS.Furthermore, it indicated that while DLS technology was still undergoing farmers' evaluation in their own situation, the use of traditional storage practices would provide them assurance of the seed supply.One reason behind this practice was lack of space in the DLS as disclosed by 23 percent of the farmer adopters.Another reason indicated by the farmers was that they still possess old potato crates and wanted to make use of them. This was disclosed by 18 farmers.Another 15 percent of the farmers used traditional storage methods to enhance early sprouting of seeds for early planting just on the onset of the season.Early planting of potato is preferred by the farmers especially in the Yala season to get a. better price for the produce if they harvest ahead from the rest. Some farmers who utilized DLS for storage of seed both for own planting and for sale used traditional methods as a temporary measure but they transfer the sprouted seeds from the traditional method to DLS storage.This study suggested that farmers do not get rid of old storage practices just because they adopted the DLS. Instead they tried to integrate DLS into the present storage methods and made use of the traditional methods to supplement and/or complement the DLS just to have an assurance that they had the supply of seeds just in case the new method fails.Family members provided the human resource especially in small-scale farming operations in the farms in this area. It was found that all the able members of the family participated in storage activities both before and after adoption of DLS. Table Table 16. Traditional potato seed storage methods and reasons for using them even after the adoption of DLS (N=105). It was apparent that storage practices were carried out usually by family members. Although there was no assigned storage practices to individual members of the family, the role played by the housewife in the storage practices was predominant.The involvement of the other family members was in the transport of seed from the field, sorting of tubers, putting the seeds into the storage, seed treatment, regular inspection, and seed selection. These activities needed the cooperation of all members. Older children were also important part of the family labour force.Table 18 presents the frequency of seed sorting in stored seed potatoes for planting.Sorting seeds in the storage was considered a family affair. It involved taking out the seeds from the storage place, sorting rotten tubers and putting them back into storage.The majority of family members were of the opinion that the most cumbersome storage activity was tuber sorting. This was revealed by 82 percent of the family units (Table 19).Frequency of sorting seeds was done more at the later stage of storage.Fifty percent of the farmers sorted seeds whenever possible and just before planting. Only 30 percent of the farmers sorted seeds once every two weeks and/or once a week. Looking at the time and labor involvement in the overall storage pratices, 80 percent of the farmers said that time and labour involvement after the adoption of DLS was less than before the adoption of DLS. However, 20 percent of the farmers viewed DLS as demanding more labour and time for storage activities.Perhaps, this might have been due to the use of other storage practices used before. The time taken for initial adoption decision varied widely among the farmers and it was viewed as a sequential process rather than a differential innovativeness of individual farmers (Roger and Shoemaker, 1971).Table 20 shows the cumulative percentage of farmers who adopted the DLS from the time of their initial exposure to the time of their final adoption of the practice.The average time taken for initial adoption decision was 17.85 months or about one and one-half years, although the range was 2-51 months and the standard deviation was 12.34. It could be observed that 43 percent of the farmers adopted DLS during the first year of introduction.At the end of the second year, there were 77 farmers (73%) who adopted DLS.However, there were 11 (10%) farmers who took more than 36 months to adopt DLS. Although the adoption rate followed the customary sigmoid curve, this trend might have been manipulated and influenced by farmer's external agro-socioeconomic environment to a larger extent.Rapid early adoption behavior of farmers might have been largely influenced by the hierarchical attention given by social technologists through extension delivery system first to resource-rich farmers in disseminating DLS with a diminishing effort extended later to resource-poor tail enders.It was obvious that DLS technology and its performance under farmer's condition at the early stage were foreign both to the farmers as well as those who were engaged in dissemination. However, it was observed that early adoption behavior of the farmers was not due to innovativeness of farmers but might have been due to early opportunities to exposure to the technology, easy access to resources and the farmers' pressing needs for such integration of technologies to ease their problems within their farming systems.It was also observed that early adopters modified their DLS storage structures several times as compared to late users of DLS. Although early adopters took adoption decision earlier, actual adoption of DLS was partial rather than total. They possibly had inadequate understanding about the DLS performance under their situation, required capacity of the storage, accompanied storage practices and seed utilization.In contrast, late users of DLS were more confident and aware about the performance of DLS under their own setting, utilization of seeds from DLS, and the construction and management of DLS within their means.These findings suggested that late users of DLS had an added advantage over early users in evaluating DLS over time without taxing their own resources and had an opportunity to evolve their own modifications.This process needed time for careful evaluation, adjustment and readjustment. Early researchers of ten viewed the late adopters as \"laggards\" in technology adoption process without giving due weight to these aspects of farmer adoption behavior. Therefore, it may be erroneous to conclude and classify late adopters as well as nonadopters as laggards since adoption process needs differential time periods to assess and adopt certain technologies under heterogeneous farmers conditions.On the contrary the offered technology may not be suitable to the farmers' agro-socioeconomic environment.Hence, farmers' rational behavior in this context may be inappropriate to perceive in terms of laggardness.It may rather be indirectly stated that the technology generation institutions and persons involved failed to recognize in time the farmers' actual needs and conditions.If they were known easily enough, the changes and modifications should have been incorporated in the process of developing the acceptable technology.The adoption adoption, (Fig. 3). above findings suggested that there were three broad processes among DLS adopters.They are: formal iterative adoption, and galloping adoption processes Formal Adoption Process Initially, there was a diffused awareness among the farmers with regard to the DLS technology and its adaptability to their setting as was created and developed by the extension agents. Given the inevitable uncertainties, farmers evaluated DLS in terms of its application to their farming system. This included seed utilization, expected changes in cropping system, farmers inconvenience over traditional methods and DLS adaption according to their resources and needs.After the trial stage the decision to adopt DLS was largely influenced by extension.Final adoption was partial rather than total.Some farmers used only racks for storing seed potatoes omitting aspects of diffused light and ventilation.Some farmers modified the existing storage while some farmers constructed separate buildings for this purpose. The majority of the early adopters (below average month of 17.34) were in trial stage for a long time.There had been several modifications to the storage despite earliness of adoption.In this process, it appeared that five stages of adoption process explained by Roger and Shoemaker (1980) had taken place in a sequential manner except the evaluation stage which perpetuated throughout the process.Thirty-two farmers had this process.In the second classification of the adoption process, the sequential steps proposed by Rogers and Shoemaker (1980) were not strictly followed.Once the farmers became aware of the DLS it was followed by repeated evaluation periods.Alternative courses of action were taken from time to time based on their perceptions. and observations of other farmers' DLS before making a final decision to adopt.This was enhanced by the several extension programs and training programs held for farmers as well as by the extension agents enable them to interact each other and facilitated dialogue between them.Seemingly, there was no evidence of trial stage in this adoption process. Farmers adopted DLS without any trial. This was reported by 46 farmers and their storage facilities were somewhat improved than the storage made by the early adopters and were subjected to repeated modifications.Hence, the repeated evaluation and adaptations activities during this period may be referred to as iterative adoption process.In the third adoption process as observed in this study, farmers adopted DLS after awareness without proper evaluation or trial.They came to realize the benefits of the technology after the adoption of DLS.After using DLS for few seasons farmers terminated its use but started utilizing it again in subsequent seasons.In this process, evaluation of technology and its trial was based on other farmers' storage experience on DLS rather than their own. But it was observed that subsequent adoption of DLS was complete and storage structure were mostly permanent by using durable materials in the construction.The majority of the farmers who followed this adoption process were late adopters.Interestingly, there were 14 farmers who adopted DLS initially not for seed storage purpose but to obtain extra imported seed crates which were given by extension agents as an incentive to adopter farmers for producing more seeds.However, these farmers modified some portion of their storage facility and showed it to the extension agents for their approval and get extra seed crates. Subsequently, they abandoned the DLS and not used it at all for seed storage.Four farmers adopted DLS abruptly in order to get bank loans which was launched in 1983 without even realizing how to use it for seed storage.Only two of these farmers reported that they were still using the storage facility while the other two abandoned the DLS storage utilization after obtaining the bank loans.The sequential decision taken by farmers at different stages of the adoption process might have been influenced substantially by different sources of information, their resources, constraints and their real needs at the adoption time.These different adoption processes suggested that farmers' decision to adopt new technologies do not necessarily follow sequential steps but an ad-mixture of these simultaneously. However, the farmers' pattern of exposure to DLS and pattern of adoption had a significant relationship.Figure 4 shows the cumulative number of farmers exposed to DLS and farmers' subsequent adoption patterns. It also shows the number of farmers exposed to DLS each year and corresponding number of adopters for that particular year. Both curves behaved in similar fashion.The curve shows that in 1982 there was a slow down in the number of farmers exposed to DLS.But cumulative effect of exposure during the previous years resulted to drastic increase of adopters in 1982.This suggested that continuous exposure to DLS technology followed a continuous adoption behavior among the farmers with a given set of resource endowment. Furthermore, this pattern did not imply that mere exposure to DLS would simply lead to subsequent adoptions after sometime.Perhaps the rate of exposure and rate of adoption patterns are important in determining some properties of the adoption process like time, sustainability and strategies used to expose the technology. Table 20 shows the number of farmers exposed to and who adopted DLS over time.The time gap for exposure to adoption was gradually diminished in the subsequent years.This could be attributed to the \"demonstration effect\" and availability of more information on its performance under the local conditions.One type of consideration underlying the spatial and temporal differences in adoption was the potential adoption information needs and access to relevant information.This aspect had been examined for the predominant information sources namely extension agents and farmers.The majority of the farmer adopters obtained information on practical utilization of DLS both from extension agents and farmers (82%, 70%, respectively).Similarly, 78 percent of the adopters revealed that they got information on construction aspects of DLS specially in structural modification and adaptation stage from extension agents.However, only 20 percent of farmers got information from the early adopters in the village.Table 21 shows the information provided by the farmers and extension agents.More than 75 percent of the farmer adopters were influenced by extension agents on the agro-socioeconomic benefits of the DLS.  It was revealed that most of these information were sought and provided during the evaluation stage of the adoption process followed by trial stage and hardly in the adoption stage. Results indicated that prior to adoption of DLS, farmers needed a wide range of information on various aspects of the DLS.Thus, extension agents should provide or disseminate adequate knowledge of the technology as well as its performance under the farmers' conditions after the awareness stage or introduction of the technology.Among the persons who influenced the farmers in the different stages of the adoption process, the extension agents played a vital role. In the awareness stage, 98 farmers came to know about DLS through the extension agents.Seventy-two farmers said that they were influenced by the extension agents in the evaluation stage.At the tail-end of the adoption process the diminishing role of extension agents was evident; only 32 farmers were influenced by the extension agents at the adoption decision stage.On the contrary a reversed trend was observed with regard to other farmers' influence. The influence of other farmers was relatively higher at the trial and adoption stages.Village leaders and other government officials influenced the farmers at the last two stages of the adoption process. Only four persons said that they were influenced by the research personnel at trial and adoption stages.Influence of varied elements in various stages of the adoption process had different effects on farmers' evaluation and final adoption of DLS.An unconspicuous picture of the role played by each element masked the understanding about the vital stages of adoption in which each Section B of Table 22 shows that most of the storage modifications were at the later stages of the adoption process. However, management practices of the storage were modified and adopted even at the awareness and evaluation stages. These information suggested that evaluation and trial stages were the most critical stages where influence of change agents should really be made.More9ver, it also suggested that re-orientation of extension activities at various stages would yield conspicuous effects on the total adoption process.It seemed that during the adoption process potential adopters particularly in the early stages of adoption had received preferential treatment both from fellow farmers and government officials in matters pertaining to potato production such as access to credit, access to government seed sources, and more extension contacts.More than 89 percent of the farmers received prefential treatment from the government officials while 45 percent received preferential treatment from the fellow farmers. Moreover, majority of the farmers said that they were accorded with a relatively high social position in the community after their adoption of DLS.Table 23 presents the incentives and encouragements they received from fellow farmers and others.It was also indicated that farmers were subjected to social degradation such as an evil eye or ill-will from other farmers of the village after adoption of DLS (55%).The existence of this kind of treatment among some farmers as a social force to hamper the adoption process was found negligible.Farmers believed that such evils were part and parcel of the farming community. Quality seeds. One of the factors that motivated and aroused interest among the farmer adopters was the ability to produce good quality seeds with strong and vigorous sprouts. This implied that although they had been using long sprouted seeds their intention to use good quality seed was pronounced.Further, they perceived that using potato seeds stored in DLS would result in higher yields.This view was contradictory to as far as their storage difficulties were concerned.Another factor that aroused the interest of the farmers was the need for a separate place for seed storage.This was reported by 77 percent of the farmers. Others were less storage losses and convenience in storage management.These are actually practical reasons/factors that any prospective adopter would look into.Table B in the Appendix shows the other factors that influenced the farmer adopters.The extent to which a certain technology is adopted and utilized in a farming system are greatly influenced by the specific characteristics of the particular technology, and suitability of the technology to a given set of resources. Furthermore, a plausible explanation for failure to diffuse new technologies thru the diverse agro-socioeconomic environment may be attributed to location-specificity of the technology (Ashby, 1982).In this context, terms of three criteria, aspects. the characteristics of DLS were viewed in namely: economic, social and agronomic With regard to economic characteristics associated with DLS as much as 87 percent of the farmers perceived that construction cost of DLS was affordable and it was not a limiting factor for adoption.The average construction cost for one ton capacity storage facility was Rs. 3200.00.The majority of the farmers (87%) initially made modification to the existing storage facilities rather than constructing new storage facilities. This would have been the reason for low-cost involvement.Among the farmers who constructed new storage facilties, 13 percent spent more than Rs. 4300.00 for a one-ton capacity storage structure.However~ 37 percent of non-adopter farmers revealed that lack of funds for construction of DLS was a stringent limitation.Another characteristic considered was labour saving ability of DLS over the traditional storage method.It was expected that DLS would save labour in storage.The figures on Table 24 revealed that it was not so.It was evident that convenience in management and utilization of DLS as compared to traditional storage method were very high (94%).B of Table 24 presents the other perceived characteristics of DLS by farmers.The majority of the farmers perceived that DLS was a simple technology, they could easily understand the underlying priciples of the technology and make use of them within their capabilities, skills and resources. The most important agronomic characteristic which attracted farmers (90%) was the capability of DLS to fit into their present cropping system adequately.This was not only observed in terms of resource endowment of the farmers but also in the social environment context of the farm family. However, farmers revealed that DLS was not perfectly fitted into their farming systems but it underwent certain adjustments and readjustments in order to fit it into the existing farming system. Furthermore, it also altered some aspects of the management and economic system of the farming operations.This was reflected both in the storage phase and field phase of the DLS seed utilization.Another fascinating characteristic of the DLS which was appreciated by the farmer adopters was its trialability.As many as 98 percent of the farmers viewed that feasibility of small scale trials of DLS was highly possible, irrespective of diverse agro-socioeconomic conditions of the farmers.It was apparent in the initial stage of adoption by adopters that some farmers tried the DLS in a small way early while others experimented adopting one or two salient features of DLS. One farmer revealed that he tried few tubers on the window sill to evaluate the effect of the diffused light on sprouted seeds and after two weeks he observed tubers greening and cessation of sprout elongation. Some farmers used the existing storage facility for experimenting about 10-15 kg of seed potatoes to be exposed to diffused light and planted separately to evaluate the performance of those seeds.Some farmers constructed a few racks using locally available material such as bamboo and round timber and evaluated the DLS technology in a small scale.Still a few farmers tried the effect of diffused light using the traditional attic.Thus, these findings suggested that one of the attractive features of DLS was its flexibility for adaptation utilization under the farmer's diverse conditions.Relative Advantages of DLS as Perceived by DLS Farmer Adopters most and These aspects had been examined from a broad agrosocioeconomic perspective.Relative advantage level was constructed to explain each component as perceived by the farmer adopters. Table 25 presents the perceived relative advantages.With regard to relative agronomic advantages over the traditional method of seed storage, the ability to produce good quality seeds and possible long storage period were considered as highly desirable and their advantage indexes were 0.82 and 0.72, respectively.Low pest and disease incidence in the DLS storage and less risk in using their own seeds were considered advantageous (advantage index 0.36 and 0.35 respectively), as compared to the previous method.Two of the relative economic advantages considered were reduction of cost of seeds, and increase in yield with concommitant increase in income. (Advantage indexes were 0.91 and 0.76 respectively).However, the actual contribution of DLS in the overall income increase was not possible to differentiate. The yield increase and the corresponding increase in income was not probably due to the use of DLS alone but to the other factors like variety, fertilization, etc. Farmers' capacity to sell more potato seeds to other farmers had been increased and this was claimed as an added advantage over the previous methods (Relative advantage index 0.59).Farmers' dependency on outside seed sources has been reduced to a substantial level while ease of decision making in potato production was facilitated.In this respect relative advantage indexes were 0.83 and 0.71, respectively.All other social aspects such as more social participation, relief from the drudgery involved in seed storage, clean household environment and family members' cooperation were considered advantageous and their indexes were 0.49, 0.57, 0.42 and 0.47, respectively.These findings suggested that the use of DLS was advantageous to the adopters as compared to their potato seed storage methods.One of the agronomic disadvantage mentioned was the delayed sprouting of seeds in DLS storage.This was particularly expressed by the farmers who planted small areas of potatoes during the Yala season, as they needed early sprouted seeds for early planting.More than 55 percent of the farmers claimed that seeds in DLS required 2-3 weeks more to initiate sprouting than the seeds in the traditional storage. Assessed disadvantage index was 0.61.This delay in sprouting may not be a disadvantage to the farmers who store seeds beyond the Yala season for the next planting.A major disadvantage in DLS was the insecurity of stored seed potato especially when out buildings were used. Disadvantage index was 0.83.Ill-will and other farmers' expectations for assistance in seed supply were perceived as other disadvantages.As far as economic disadvantages were concerned inability to use DLS the year around for storing seed, was expressed by 32 farmers.The disadvantage index was 0.26. These disadvantages however, did not considerably affect the acceptance of DLS as a technology which could solve the storage problems of the farmers.Although DLS technology was introduced to farmers in order to solve some of their seed storage problems, empirical evidence of the study suggested that most of the farmers adopted DLS technology in order to overcome certain external pressure exerted in their farms from the farming environment.Subsequently, farmers had realized the real benefits after using DLS technology in solving their storage problems.This implied that it was not only the storage problems that motivated farmers to adopt DLS but also other external imposition such as: non-availability of quality seeds, restriction of seed supply by government seed services and escalating price of imported seeds.Table 26 shows that the majority (73%) of the farmers were motivated to adopt DLS because they encountered difficulties in purchasing seeds from outside especially from the government sources.The adopters seemed to be more concerned of expanding This motivated 65 percent of the farmers to adopt DLS. However, only 13 percent of the farmers adopted DLS to reduce the cost of seeds. Although only 12 percent of the farmers were motivated to adopt DLS in order to sell more seeds, their quantity of seed storage was considerably larger than any one of the farmer adopters.It appeared that farmers speculative economic behavior was less expressed at the early stages of adoption.This may be due to uncertainties and risks involved in trying new ventures under the local conditions.Another important social motivation factor expressed by farmer adopters of DLS was that they could lessen the dependency on outside seed sources (35%) thus reinforcing their own socioeconomic position.Family members' enthusiasm to try DLS on a small scale (22%) was another motivation factor expressed by the farmers. This motivation factor had paramount importance in the family farms since farm family members were also involved in the decision making process in farming operations.Thirty non-adopters were interviewed to find out the reasons why DLS was not adopted by them.Of the thirty farmers, 23 were aware of the DLS technology mostly through the extension agents. Most of them ( 18) were reluctant to adopt DLS because of the insecurity of seeds during storage.Only eight farmers said they did not adopt DLS due to lack of funds. Interestingly, 12 farmers were planning to build DLS storage during the next season.Only four farmers totally rejected the DLS on the ground that it does not have any advantage over their traditional storage method.There were six farmers who were still evaluating the DLS technology while seven farmers said that they lack knowledge about the DLS.Appendix Table D shows the specific reasons for nonadoption of DLS by the farmers.Seemingly, the farmer non-adopters had some confidence in the traditional storage methods.Part B of Appendix D presents some of the reasons and advantages perceived by farmers in using the traditional storage method.Among non-adopters, 43 percent said that they had enough space in the house to store 200-250 kg of seed potatoes and they needed to keep the seeds only for 4-5 months.They plant potato only in one season. Eight farmers felt that they did not have any storage problem so as to change the traditional storage methods. Similar findings were reported by Rhoades and Booth (1981) in their study in Mantaro Valley in Peru.Some farmers stored seeds more than what they required and took it for granted that losses in storage were natural phenomenon.In this study, similar situation was reported by six farmers.One of the salient features of DLS is the provision of diffused light on the stored potato seeds to have the tuber greening effect, to check the sprout growth and other light effects.However, this feature was not quite useful and beneficial to some of the farmers as their need was to keep seeds only for 3-4 months until the next planting season.Since they did not have adequate amount of seeds even for the Yala planting, there were hardly any seeds left to be stored hence 7-8 months of storage was not needed.More than 57 percent of the farmers reported that they made provisions for light through various modification on the roof and walls, after realizing the effect of diffused light and potential use of it.These farmers used their own seeds for planting in both Yala and Maha seasons.With regard to ventilation of the storage which is another salient feature of DLS, most of the farmers (86%) disregarded it. However, 34 percent of the farmers made modifications later on this aspect specially when they utilized existing storage facilities and converted them to DLS.It was evident that the provision of light and ventilation in the storage invariably need exposure to the outside either through the walls or roof.Social environment in the areas was such that they logically feared that, as a consequence, their stored seeds may be stolen and may cause substantial seed losses.Thus, farmers were reluctant to run the risk of exposing their seeds to outsiders other than their families.Because of this, farmers were motivated to make adjustments to the DLS storage structure again for security, durability and management efficiency.Fifty-two percent of the farmers improved their storage facilities from semi-parmanent to permanent storage structures using expensive materials such as cement for the construction of walls and floor; asbestos, galvanized tin sheets and tiles for the roof; welded mesh behind the windows for extra protection and security; permanent windows with glass sheet and plastic sheets to provide light; and sawed timber for the construction of racks and other features.There was a gradual adaptation and modification of the temporary and semi-permanent storage structures to parmanent ones. Furthermore, the locally available and cheap materials used for the storage were gradually replaced by capital intensive inputs resulting to the gradual increase of the total cost of the construction.It seemed that farmers were more concerned about the security of the stored seeds.Thus, this social factor had influenced the farmers to adapt certain features of DLS depending on their situations.Expectedly, certain agricultural technologies are often subjected to farmers' own evaluation and adaptations before they are totally adopted. These adaptations are largely influenced by the variations existing within the farmers' agro-socioeconomic environment.Furthermore, factors which facilitate or inhibit technology adoption are not consistent over time.The DLS was subjected to numerous adaptations and modifications during the adoption process.Table 27 indicates that 72 percent of the farmers modified their original DLS storage during the trial and adoption periods in various aspects. However, changes in seed storage practices, seed utilization pattern, structure of the storage and in cropping systems, were made even before the DLS was adopted fully.These modifications occurred over a period of time.Thus this modification and adaptation behavior of farmers in evolving their own technologies would suggest the need for understanding the reasons for such changes and integrating them in future research work in the development of acceptable technologies to the local settings. Horton (1984) also reported on this aspect in his study in Mantaro Valley Project in Andean region.All farmers who adopted the DLS reconstructed the wooden racks several times.The reasons given by the majority of the farmers was that they underestimated of the seed holding capacity of the racks causing them to break very often.Thus, farmers had to modify the racks using wooden structures to hold more seeds and for more durability.More than 75 percent of the farmers made improvements on existing storage facilities.Provision of light through added windows and modified roof were the most commonly observed improvement to the existing storage facilities.Table 27 shows the specific modifications made to some parts of the storage structure.Another apparent change observed was the expansion of the DLS storage after using it for a few seasons.Perhaps, the growing confidence of the farmers on the DLS and the benefits that accrued to them were the motivations that made them expand the storage facility.This also suggested the farmers' economic speculative behavior when they realized the potential of DLS as a facility to store more seeds and sell the excess seeds to others. Only 58 percent (62) of the farmer adopters were satisfied of the present DLS storage facility and the overall performance of the technology under their setting.Obviously this category of farmers was confident in using the DLS without further modification. Thus adoption was sustained. Among the farmers who were not satisfied with the present DLS storage facility (41%) did not totally reject the DLS technology.Their disatisfaction were on the structural component of the DLS rather than on its performance under their agro-socioeconomic environment. This group of farmers were still in the process of modifying the construction of a desired DLS storage rather than reject the DLS. Table 28 indicates the level of satisfaction and reasons for nonsatisfaction.Only 21 farmers were planning to construct new storage facilities.These were those who had temporary storage structures.Diffused light potato storage technology was developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) through a farmer oriented interdisciplinary research approach (Rhoades and Booth (1982). The specific approaches and the conceptual model concerning DLS technology generation illustrated the strategies and the importance of the interdisciplinary efforts of the technology generation process.This study was not concerned with the generation of the original DLS technology but examined the subsequent technology developoment process that took place under the farmers' agrosocioeconomic condition in the study area, in evolving an adapted technology.It appeared that there were several processes by which certain principles of DLS technology had been integrated into the existing storage methods rather than adopt the whole DLS technology in toto.It suggested that even if much efforts have been made to generate technologies that would yield positive gains elsewhere but errors were inevitably committed and failures were still attributed to the inadequate adoption of technology in a specific agro-socioeconomic setting.The process of dynamic adjustment to DLS in response to changing needs and desires of the potato farmers seemed initiated and induced by the DLS technology itself.To cite a striking example, the 12 farmers who initially adopted DLS placed the DLS outside the house but were relocated again in the house with some features of DLS but without diffused light.It was evident that farmers were purposive in their behavior.This re-adaptation purpose had been due, firstly, to avert the risks of keeping seed potatoes exposed to outsiders In another situation, farmers used the traditional storage until the seeds sprouted and then transferred them to the DLS to get the light effect.Thus, farmers were capable of inventing their own technologies using the borrowed principles of DLS to suite their setting and expectations.The preceding part illustrated that farmers were inclined to change the management practices in the storage after using DLS realizing the fact that mere construction of a DLS storage and use it for seed storage do not yield successful utilization of the technology but it needed certain modifications and adaptation of the whole storage operations. Furthermore, the DLS technology was developed with a pre-occupied generalization that potato farmers in developing countries need relatively low cost storage technology.Some farmers in the study area, however, built DLS storage structures costing even up to Rs. 60,000.00 without any financial assistance from lending institutions.Furthermore, DLS was modified and utilized as commercial enterprise which needed somewhat different seed storage and management practices hetherto unknown to the farmer adopters.DLS was introduced to the study area at a time when there was no substantial knowlddge about real storage problems encountered by the farmers.Thus, at the early stages of DLS adoption, identification of farmers' storage problem was made concommittantly by the extension agents and other government officials to know the magnitude of the storage problems themselves and to make the farmer aware of them. In this process the most apparent pattern of problem identification in seed storage was the initial perception of the farmers about the problem and later substantiated by the extension agents in the situ.Table 29 presents the problem identification pattern.The majority (102) of the farmers said that the extension agents helped them to identify the storage problems during their home visits but rarely by research personnel ( 19) and other government officials (6).Part B of Table 29 shows the various combinations of storage problem identification patterns operated during this stage. Other farmers were not involved in storage problem identification because they also encountered the same problems in the storage. Furthermore, congruity of perceived seed storage problems between farmers and extension agents and research personnel was perplexing.The contradictory nature of perceived seed storage problems by farmers, extension agents, research personnel and other government officials had negative effects on technology dissemination and adoption processes. The cumulative logistic function model (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1978) was used to estimate regression coefficients of variables in order to predict the adoption probabilities.The effect of different variables on DLS adoption was analyzed using logit analysis.Logit analysis is a modification of regression method for situations where the dependent variables are dichotomous in nature.The PROC LOGIST of Statistical Analysis System (SAS) computer package (Harrel, 1980) was applied to estimate the maximum likelihood coefficients of the variables.Thirteen variables were identified as probably associated with adoption or non-adoption of DLS technology (Appendix F). However, adopters and non-adopters were not significantly different in terms of age and education.Therefore, these variables were not included in legit analysis.Similarly, six other variables: extent cultivated to potato per year, purpose of seed storage, total seed requirement per year, required storage duration, expected number of potato crops per year, and perceived benefits also could not be included in the model due to colinearity with at least one of the variables incuded in the logit model. However, exclusion of these variables did not imply that those variables were not contributing to the adoption of DLS.Table 30 presents the result of the regression analysis.From that model it was observed that potato farming experience, extension contact and seed deficit were the most important and significant variables that could predict adoption probabilities of DLS, and had significant beta coefficient values at 5 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Furthermore, these variables were postively associated with adoption probability of DLS.However, storage losses was only marginally significant at 25 percent level. The log likelihood ratio for the entire logit model was 90.93 with 5 degrees of freedom.It indicated that the independent variables taken together significantly explained the adoption probabilities of DLS.Results also showed that predictive ability of the model was very high.In 92.9 percent of the cases the adoption of DLS was correctly predicted by the model.Table 31 shows the predictive power of the model.Diffusion of agrotechnologies from the original source to the ultimate end-users took various processes depending largely on the technology, setting, and the delivery mechanism used to disseminate it.The DLS diffusion process should perhaps be viewed with a historical perspective which would eleborate the involvement of the international and national agencies in the early stages of diffusion process, before examining the farm level diffusion of DLS in the study area.In 1978, CIP post-harvest team took the headway to develop and introduce DLS technology through the regional network of CIP. Initially, DLS technology was introduced to the Philippine potato farmers in collaboration with the national potato programs.It was reported by Potts (1983) that there was a marked acceptance of DLS technology among the farmers in mountain province of the Philippines.In 1979, a Sri Lankan social technologist was exposed to DLS technology through the regional research trials activities of CIP in Region VII of the Philippines.After his arrival in Sri Lanka, he initially put-up four basic outdoor demonstrations. DLS storage structures were established on government farm sites in Badulla and Nuwara Eliya districts where potato crop was grown, as observation trials. However, government farm's storage conditions rarely matched the condition prevailing in the average potato farmers' storage situations.Usually, it was customary to test any new technology initially in the national agricultural research network before it is introduced to farmers.However, there were instances where this phase was often omitted and bypassed.Therefore, no monitoring or control of such situations were made even after being specially introduced into the farming community.In the case of DLS technology, it was tested under government farm rather than in agricultural research station which did not have similar conditions with the farmer's situation.With limited information on DLS performance under Sri Lankan conditions, the consultant returned to the Philippines for further advance practical training in CIP post-harvest team under farmers' condition.In 1981, another social technologist from the extension network of the study area was trained by the CIP Region VII in the Philippines and exposed to the DLS technology which was adopted by potato farmers in Mountain Province, Republic of the Philippines.While this technology diffusion pre-conditioning was taking place, it would be worthwhile to look into the situation of the locality where DLS was intended to be introduced.After 1977, when there was a policy decision to curtail potato imports in Sri Lanka, there was a gradual increase in potato cultivation.The price of potatoes for consumption also increased substantially in the market.Subsequently, demand for and the price of seed potato also escalated to a considerable degree, Farmers started keeping some of their harvests as seeds.In this context, it seemed that there was a growing concern among the farmers of seeking a better storage method and the conditions for introducing a technology of this nature to the area were timely and relevant.In 1980, there were some efforts by the extension agents to introduce DLS technology to the farmers but very little success was achieved as the extension agents themselves lacked knowledge about the DLS technology.In the early part of 1980, 10 demonstration seed storage structures were constructed in selected farmily farm units.Of the ten farmers, only two were average farmers and the rest were well-to-do or better-off farmers. These farmers were selected by the extension agent of the area. Some inputs were provided by the government with financial assistance from CIP.However, the cost of construction was less than Rs. 1500 per one ton capacity storage. As expected these farmers never constructed the storage structures which were similar to the government farm demonstration.They used local materials such as round timber, bamboo slats, mana grass, rice straw, mud and local brick for construction.These structures were more durable, solid and secure as compared to the demonstration storage structure built in government farms.Some farmers used capital intensive material such as galvanized roofing, asbestos, tiles, cement and sown timber.However, the capacities of the storage did not exceed 2-3 tons. Most of the storage structures were constructed using family labor only.All the 10 farm demonstrations were built outside the residential house.None of the demonstration seed storage structures had adequate diffused light.Ethnological observations and informal interviews with farmers revealed that the socioeconomic condition of the demonstration farmers with whom demonstrations were established relatively better than the average farmers.It appeared that demonstration sites were selected based on the convenience of the extension agents rather than of the farmers. apparently more biased toward the progressive, known farmers located along the main roads.Selection was also resource-rich and Construction of demonstration seed storage took an average of 5 months.After completion of the storage only four farmers were convinced to utilize the storage facility to the full extent while three farmers stored some of their seeds.Three other farmers did not use the storage at all during the first season.The introduction of a few demonstration seed storage did not ~ ~ trigger-off the diffusion of the DLS among the farmers. Farmers around these demonstrations became interested and curious about the technology.There were frequent intensive visits by extension agents to these demonstration sites.At this time, several scientists from CIP also visited these demonstrations and made their comments and observations about its performance in these areas • In 1981 extensive extension programs were conducted both for extension agents and farmers in collaboration with in-service training institutes in the areas and farmers' demonstrations. A summary of training activities is shown in Appendix Table E. It appeared that there was a strong link and interaction between the CIP and the farm and extension divisions of the Department of Agriculture at the international and regional levels but ironically there seemed to have minimum interactions and linkage with the research division at the national level with regard to DLS technology in the introduction phase. However, after 1982, farmers' acceptance of DLS had gathered momentum and the adoption trend was discussed in the preceding section.The foregoing discussion mainly focused on the processes by which DLS technology diffused from the CIP to regional and national levels to recapitulate some of the important events that took place prior to the farm level diffusion of DLS in Sri Lanka.It was obvious and apparent that there was no clear evidence of the flow of DLS technology through the complex farming community in the study area.An analysis of the survey data provided some information on the spatial patterns of diffusion processes of DLS over time. Some of the basic reasons for the apparent differences in extension strategy and diffusion were the farmers' strategic locations and differences in resource endowment.In this study, however, three broad spatial diffusion processes of DLS emerged among the farming community.The spatial diffusion of DLS among farmers' over in a 5-year period (1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)  Observations during the survey explicitly revealed that there was a professional bias towards some source-rich farms at the initial stages of the introduction of DLS into the area.In analyzing spatial distribution of DLS within the area in 1982 it was found that out of 37 farmers who adopted DLS, 22 farms were strategically located along the main roads.Complementary to this, majority of the farmers were socio-economically well-to-do and had relatively high access to extension information and other inputs.This trend was observed even in subsequent years. This clearly indicated that at the early stages of DLS diffusion process, extension agents selected a group of farmers who were relatively resource-rich, had previous rapport with them, and were easily accessible to them in order to disseminate the DLS. Informal interviews with key informants of the villages revealed that those who adopted DLS initially in their respective villages were more or less prestigious elite of the community and mostly they had contacts not only with the extension agents but also with other government officials and/or services.These category of farmers were continuously subjected to pre-conditioning of the selective delivery mechanisms at the initial stages led to a conspicuous horizontal selective diffusion process of DLS among strategically located resource-rich farmers in the study area (Fig. 6). It was pre-supposed that the spread of DLS would occur subsequently among other less privileged resource-poor farmers after this effort.Ironically, and very often, the branded \"progressive farmers\" and \"contact farmers\" failed to impart the new technologies, information to others as they were more often conservative in behavior, in communicating what they learned from extension agents.When extension agents were asked as to why they adopted such a strategy and catered to a selected group of farmers, they revealed that one of the reasons for this kind of skeptical extension activity was attributed to the fact that their contacts and the good rapport they established with these farmers even before the adoption of DLS motivated them to start with these categories of farmers. Furthermore, they pre-conceived that these farmers were easy to work with and had easy access to resources. Another reason given by the extension agents was the imposition of targets. They selected initially resource-rich farmers rather than resource-poor farmers, in order to achieve the target.Therefore, regretabble ignorance of potential resources of poor farmers in initial extension activities apparently shaped the emergence of horizontal selective diffusion process. Similar roadside extension activities were observed in disseminating DLS in the Philippines (Potts, et al., 1982;Acasio, 1984).From 1982, there was a rapid adoption of DLS as indicated in the preceding section.Extension agents' activities shifted the emphasis from demonstration and personal contacts to group training activities such as field trips, field days and farmers training classes and they were more committed to interact with adopter farmers. There was a growing awareness among the farmers during this period.It was observed that farmers did not solely depend on extension agents for information on DLS.It seemed that the farmer themselves had an extension network by which DLS spread around some adopter farmers in a radial fashion and adoption proceeded outward the core of adopters.This does not infer that extension activities were not functioning in this set up., but it illustrates the informal extension activities of farmers that disseminated the technology among them.Core DLS farmer adopter functioned as a reference to the other neighboring farmers and he was sometimes considered as the initial information source.He may be located in any place in the community.In this process, the flow of information about DLS was from farmer to farmer.These farmers later functioned as informant to other neighbors in the community.However, this diffusion pattern gradually diminished after six to seven farmers of the village adopted it.This process was observed in other studies also and was termed as \"neighbor effect\" or \"demonstration effect\" (Merrill, 1970). Strikingly, the core to periphery diffusion process was by and large a voluntary effort of farmers to choose or improve their existing seed storage within their resource endowment and circumstances.However, the emergence of this kind of diffusion process was only observed after a certain number of farmers adopted the DLS in the study area.It was found that seven clusters involving 62 farmers to have adopted DLS in this fashion. Recognizing the role played by the farmers themselves in disseminating DLS to other farmers it would suggest the strong possibility of considering informal but effective extension agents the farmers as active and important element in diffusion process.The sporadic adoption of DLS within the study area suggested a diffusion process in which farmers' adoption pattern was not apparent and the mechanism of diffusion was not traceable. Adoption of DLS was scattered all over the study area and some of the adopters somewhat remained isolated from other farmer adopters.From the 23 farmers it was gathered that they came to know about DLS from extension agents, relatives and other farmers outside the village.However, self-observation and selfevaluation made them more confident, in using DLS to a large extent.Adoption was voluntary rather than persuaded by extension agents or other farmers.These farmers were more receivers of information rather than givers thus, there were no personal information network between these farmers and extension agents of the area with regard to diffusion of DLS.Of the 23 farmers, 12 adopted DLS six months after awareness and others took more than 12 months to adopt DLS.It clearly showed that there was no neighboring effect or demonstration effect to the farming community from these conservative farmers. By inspecting their storage structure, it was observed that these farmer adopters of ten disregarded the use of diffused light concept and adopted strong security measure to prevent any theft or outside intervention.However, this diffusion process suggested that often diffusion technology could operate unnoticed under certain circumstances. A brief analysis of interactions and communication network between and among various disciplines involved in DLS technology development, diffusion and adoption was employed to understand the roles played by these sectors in the advancement and sustenance of these processes.Interaction and communication among farmers were predominantly interpersonal, face-to-face and informal (100%). Almost all of the farmers agreed that they had adequate time and opportunities to interact with each other.than 36 percent of the farmer adopters sought information from the immediate DLS adopters.But the majority sought information from other sources too, such as extension agents, official of the cooperatives and other development workers in the village.Table 29 in the previous part showed that 31 farmers identified their storage problem as a consequence of interactions with other farmers.Table 21 indicated that farmers' interactions with other farmers were more intensive in the adoption process and 70 percent of the farmers interacted and communicated to each other on the practical utilization of DLS.It appeared that there were a few farmers in the village who were contacted more often than other farmers on agricultural information. These farmers were considered as village leaders or key informant farmers who had relationships with sources of information and interaction between farmers and key informants were intensified after the adoption of DLS.It was found that the use of traditional village elites were very effective in the communication of information and in the process of diffusion of technology.Village leaders, key informant officials of the cooperative store and rural development society had all contributed with varying degrees of success to the diffusion of DLS in the area.The role of village elites in diffusion of innovations were also elaborated by Joof (1980).Farmer adopters as primary source of information on DLS played a vital role in DLS adoption process.Table 22 of the preceding section showed that other farmers and village leaders' influence was more at the trial and adoption stages of the adoption process.Table 32 summarizes the sources of information on DLS technology after its adoption.The most predominant source of information was the extension agents followed by farmer adopters. This was expressed by 99 and 69 percent of the respondents, respectively. This trend indicated the growing interaction among the farmers after adoption of DLS.Even the non-adopters were considered as information source (49%). Perhaps such information sources helped them to dispose excess seeds and bought freshly harvested seeds. There was a significant increase in interaction between village leaders (44%) and to a lesser degree with research personnel after the adoption of DLS.The propensity to seek more information from various sources likely indicated that farmer adopters encountered more storage problems after the adoption of the DLS.Perhaps, they were not confident about what they already knew.It was evident that there was a marked shift in the choice of information source after the adoption of the DLS.Table 33 indicated that the quality of information from farmers was regarded as practical, relevant, problem solving and credible.Furthermore, interaction with farmer adopters were relatively higher than the non-adopter farmers as far as seed storage problems were concerned.It was evident that interaction among farmers during the technology generation phase were not conspicuous.However, reciprocal interdependence of farmers' information on DLS during the later stages of adoption process through interactions played a vital role in evolving their own technologies.Farmers' communication environment had been always conducive for interpersonal informal interactions.These interactions also played an important role in disseminating DLS to a substantial proportion among other farmers.Relative homogenity of the farmers in terms of agro-socioeconomic environment had influenced thse intensive interactions among farmers coupled with their kinship relationships.Farmers' initial interaction patterns across the farming community followed the adopters, village leaders and non-adopters, respectively, in adoption and diffusion process of DLS.The study showed that frequent interactions took place between extension agents and farmers during the process of development, adoption and diffusion of DLS.The nature of interactions was mainly interpersonal and group contact.The complex interactions that took place during the farmers' evaluation and adoption stages were considered the phase in which farmers attempted to develop their own technologies by integrating DLS principles in their setting.Extension agents' contact with farmers is given in Table 34. As shown on the table, farmers preferred extension agents' personal visit to their home or to the farm while extension agents preferred group activities as a means of contact. Ironically, it was found that other contact methods, involving mass media -printed matter, radio, television and agricultural exhibitions were never used in any stage of adoption or diffusion process.Analysis on the initiation of such contacts and interaction between farmers and extension agents revealed that extension agents took more the initiative in this respect.Table 35 shows the initiative behavior of the farmers and the extension agents. Majority of the farmers' contacts were initiated by the extension agents in all he channels used.To some extent, these findings supported the earlier premise that extension agents served as the mechanism that fosters and accelerates diffusion of innovation (Wirasighe, 1977, Long, 1977). However, other researches found that they often failed to accomplish the mission assigned to them and the extension services were ineffective in this endeavor (Clemente 1971, Coombs and Ahmed, 1974, Tautho, 1985, Tan, 1984). The majority of the adopter farmers (86%) felt that opportunities and frequency of contacts with extension agents were adequate for effective interactions.Extension Methods and Strategies Used to Disseminate DLS and Their Effectiveness Various extension methods and strategies which are used to disseminate a technology had different effects depending on the clientele and the situation.Table 36 presents the extension methods mostly used and rated according to their effectiveness. All of the farmers indicated that personal visits by extension agents were very useful and effective with a mean weighted average of 3.57. The majority of the farmers said field trips to other farms organized by the extension agents were useful and effective (weighted average: 3.15).Field days ahd farmer training classes were rated as fairly useful. Although 84 of the farmers attended farmer's training classes, the average rating was only 2.0 and was described as fairly useful.The farmers' group discussion as an extension method was rated by farmers as not useful and less effective. The findings suggest that personal visits by extension agents made farmers aware of the DLS and field trips to other farmers' storage got them more interested. Visits to demonstration or the neighbor farmers' storage helped farmers to evaluate DLS in their own situation.Extension agents however viewed field trip as the most effective extension method.Next to field trip is the personal visit to the farms.Appendix Table C shows the ranking of the various extension methods.As discussed in the preceding sections, the role played by the housewife and children in crucial farming operations suggest that they also be considered as vital extension clientele if agricultural information were to be communicated to the farming community.Ironically, extension agents disregarded the housewife and children to a greater extent and focused their .., attention mainly on male farmers.Table 37 illustrates the nature of contacts with other members of the family.Historical and ethnological background of women and children participation in diverse agricultural activities were clearly evident.Thus, by-passing women farmers and children as potential clientele of extension agents would have some degree of influence on the diffusion and adoption of DLS.The negligence of considering women and children in extension activities were also reported by several researchefs (Joof, 1980, FAO, 1984, Sta ud t , 197  The purpose of farmers' interaction with extension agents are given in Table 38.The ranking on the table indicated the incongruency of the perception of extension agents and farmers regarding their motives and needs. The extension agents perceived that providing information on the technical aspect of DLS construction was the most important need but farmers said that information on pest and disease control was the most needed aspect they expected from extension agents.These differences in purpose of interaction and contents were also reported by Lakoh and Akinbode (1981). Whatever the little link they had with research personnel was limited to occasional field visits.Farmers strongly expressed that the opportunities and frequencies of contacts with research personnel was extremely inadequate.Only six farmers said that they had acess to research stations.However, 46 percent of the farmers believed that research personnel could provide expert information on agricultural problems.In the light of the foregoing discussion, there was a minimal link between the farmers and research personnel throughout the DLS development and diffusion processes within the study area.It was considered that this link was an essential linkage that would enhance the adoption process as well as the new technology generation by understanding the farmers' situation and integrating those findings in future research work (Rhoades and Booth, 1982, Chambers and Ghildyal, 1985, Chambers, 1982and IDRC, 1984).The findings of the study revealed that there was a considerable interaction between middle level extension agents and research personnel.However, it was noted that the interactions and communication between the village level extension agents and the research personnel seemed to be exceedingly poor.This was reported by 50 percent (17) of the extension agents.Furthermore, extension agents felt that they had more opportunities to interact with researchers at the research stations and in training sessions but they lack opportunities to meet them in the farmers' field where actual field problems exist. More than 86 percent (24) perceived this.Informal interviews with research personnel involved in onfarm research (adaptive research) revealed that they were burdened with basic research work in the research station and faced with difficulties in finding time to visit the farmers' fields with the extension agents.Furthermore, they considered on-farm research work in the farmers' field as additional work. They would like to concentrate on-station research which have better prospects for recognition and rewards.Similar findings were reported by Chambers (1981).It was found that much of the interactions between extension agents and research personnel who engaged in potato research work were mostly confined to off-farm formal places such as research station, training sessions held in training centers and working group meetings. In some instances, extension agents brought seed storage problems during the encounters and most of the problems were on pests and diseases during storage as well as in the crop. More than 46 percent of the extension agents expressed that research personnel were often unable to give practical solutions to most of the problems presented to them.Extension agents interacted with research personnel at trial stage of adoption process more than any other stage. was revealed by 83 percent of extension agents as encountered more problems during the adoption phase.the This theyThe level of interaction was examined and Table 39 presents the extension agents' contacts with research personnel. These findings would direct to the attention that there is a need for an interaction between researchers and change agents in the farmers' field where the problems are and this may be imposed or institutionalized by research and extention network oparating in the area.As Rhoades (1984) emphasized ther.e is an urgent need for researchers to go beyond the technology designing and followup so that what is happening in the farmers' fields would enable them to understand the farmers' real needs and resource constraints and evaluate how far the offered technologies are addressed to their needs.Thus,lack of farmer-research dialogues in the adoption and diffusion process of DLS technology would impede the rare and valuable opportunity of research personnel to learn from the farmers so that they may be incorporated in future research work in designing acceptable technologies.Interactions with extension agents and research personnel were mainly on the problems encountered by the farmers after the adoption of DLS.At this stage, both extension agents and farmers were learning from each other about the DLS.Thus, extension agents might have filtered the farmers' problems through the fabric of perceptions they held, and interpreted them to the research personnel.Therefore, research personnel isolation from farmers would result to a confusion in communication and perceptions. It would also lead to failure in understanding the farmers' real problem associated with DLS adoption.The analysis of interactions between non-adopter and extension agents, research personnel, farmer adopters showed that there was a considerable contact with extension agents and adopter farmers. It was also revealed that contacts with non-adopters were mostly interpersonal (83%) rather than group contacts (17%).The foregoing discussions revealed that there was a complex network of interactions between and among farmers, extension agents and research personnel in varying degrees at various stages of DLS diffusion and adoption process (Table 41).The initial introduction of DLS, interactions between extension agents and farmers was mainly focused on identifying Subsequent establishment of the field demonstrations in farmers' fields had facilitated more opportunities for extension agents and research personnel to interact with the early adopters of DLS. Some emerging problems were identified by farmers as well as the other personnel who were interested in the dissemination of DLS.At this stage, interaction between local scientists, farmers and international scientists from CIP also took place. These interactions helped those concerned to understand the DLS technology performance and the associated problems under the farmers' conditions.Interestingly, these complex interactions between and among various disciplines helped farmers to generate their own storage technologies using the basic principles of DLS under their agrosocioeconomic environment.These innovations of the farmer adopters guided and influenced the extension agents to a larger extent in disseminating DLS to other farmers.interactions between farmer predominantly face-to-face adopters and in nature, nonthere appeared to be an existing and effective internal informal communication and information exchange network in which DLS technology diffusion occurred.There should be a firm link between farmers and research personnel at all stages of adoption and adaptation of technologies if emerging constraints were to be fedback to technology generation process (Rhoades, 1984d) and to provide a rich variety of opportunities for research personnel (ICRISAT, 1980) to learn from the professional farmers (Chambers, 1985).Ironically, there were only limited opportunities for both farmers and researchers to interact with each other in the case of DLS technology, diffusion adoption and process.Agro-Socioeconomic Impact of DLS This part focuses on the impact of DLS firstly on the farming system and secondly on the socioeconomic system of the farmer adopters.Changes in cropping ~• Table 42 sumamrizes the changes in area planted to potato in terms of land sizes for both Maha and Yala seasons. It clearly showed that all the potato farms planted to potato increased in area.On an overall basis the average of increase in both Yala and Maha seasons for all the land categories were relatively proportional to the respective size of landholdings except for the last two land categories.The minimum average increase in area was 0.18 hectare, while the maximum was 0.76 hectares.The data revealed that all the land size categories were benefited by DLS.Thus, differential access to land was not an impediment to adopt DLS.on land utilization. Table 43 enumerates the strategies used to increase the area for potato cultivation.It was notable that 100 percent of the farmers rented additional land to increase,the ptoato area after adoption of DLS.But there was a decline in area for the growing of other crops such as cabbage beans, tomato, radish, etc. from their cropping system. This trend was observed among 40 farmers. This was probably due to the increasing availability of potato seeds and partly due to scarcity of arable lands.Another strategy used by farmers to increase area for potato cultivation was the use of hitherto un-utilized lands.Only 40 farmers reported this but it was found that there was a downward trend in potato cropping intensity on the highlands and other lands.Thus, this suggested a longer crop rotation in this lands paricularly with potatoes.Changes in potato cropping seguences.Table 44 reflects the increased potato cropping sequence.Usually farmers grow at least two crops of potato per year (Maha and Yala) on different land categories.After the adoption of DLS, it was observed that farmers did not only increase cropping intensity in a particular land category but also increased the number of potato crops grown Perhaps this staggered cultivation of potatoes in different land categories was possible because of continuous availability of seeds.Such alteration in cropping sequence would largely offset the cropping pattern of the farmer adopters.Changes in share cropping.Share cropping still remains a quite prominent practice in the study area especially between land-rich and land-poor farmers.But in the case of potato cultivation the share cropping arrangements were between seed-rich 101 Rank 1 2 3 4 2 and seed-poor farmers.However, only 15 farmers reported• that they started share cropping with seed-poor farmers by using the excess seeds and expanded area cultivated to potato.Changes in potato cultivation practices in the cropping system.Farming system in the study area was a complex and integrated system in which any change in potato cropping system can cause by and large a significant change in the whole farming system.With the adoption of DLS one of the most direct impact that was observed was the availability of more potato seeds in the family farms.Table 44 presents the major direct changes that occurred in the potato production system after the adoption of DLS. Almost all of the farmers (102) changed their potato planting seasons.Prior to DLS adoption there were only two predominant seasons, i.e. Yala and Maha seasons. With the introduction of DLS farmers extended their planting season from June to late September in Yala season and October to late February in the Maha season in contrast prior to the adoption of DLS which was July to August in Yala and late November to early February in Maha season.Another significant change in the cropping system was staggered planting of potatoes.This may be attributed to the seed availability at different planting time which was not experienced before the adoption of DLS. This also facilitated the use of well-sprouted seeds in small quantities with intensive care and use of capital resources judiciously among the farmers.One of the problems faced by the potato farmers in this area was the glut of potatoes at harvest time, especially during the Yala season.Farmers were compelled to dispose of their produce at a low market price. Staggered planting not only eased this critical situation but also sustained and facilitated income generation throughout the season.More than 95 percent of the farmers harvested potato crop regularly for a longer period as compared to the previous of one or two harvests only.Change in Cropping Pattern.Until recently, many farmers in the study area had the impression that only one potato crop can be grown in the paddy fields after rice harvest. Furthermore, they were using paddy varieties which mature in 5 1/2 months under local conditions.Three farmers experimented on two potato'-crops and one rice crop in paddy fields successfully.The specific cropping pattern is given below.Similar trend was reported by Rhoades (1984)  Overall improvement of the potato crop. A comparison of the overall improvement of the potato crop before and after the use of DLS seeds as perceived by the farmer adopters was made. Table 45 summarizes the comparison.It was evident that before the adoption of DLS the general condition of the potato crop was poor (using both own-produced seeds and seeds from outside sources) with regard to emergence, pest and disease conditions, maturity and final yield.Table 45 shows that uneven and late emergence (89), high and medium pest and disease incidence (87), late maturity and low yields (104) as perceived by farmers elaborating the magnitude of the presumed low quality of potato crop before adoption of DLS. In contrast, farmers perceived that after using DLS stored seeds emergence of crop was early (96) incidence of pest and disease was low and medium (89), early maturing crop (87) and higher yields (105).However, it appeared that these results had overestimated the overall impact of DLS seeds as will be seen in Table 46 regarding the income generation after adoption of DLS. Social Impact£!:.~After adoption of DLS several favourable and unfavourable social impact were noticed among the farm families.Table 47 shows the social impact as enumerated by the respondents.There was a significant and positive increase in participation of farmers in agriculture extension programmes (59%) and high level of social participation (69%) (Table 47).It was indicated that farmers were exposed not only in social activities but also in extension activities.This was due to extension agent's contacts and the social recognition given them as seed storage owners in the community.However, 65 percent of the farmers claimed that after adoption of DLS, they were often expected to play additional roles given or assigned by extension agents and government officials, such as staying in the house when other farmers, visitors and government officials visit their DLS storage and acted as resource persons.In some instances, they had to forgo their day-to-day work and devote the time for this kind of involvement.Seemingly social participation was a precondition for the DLS and also a post-consequence for sustenance of the adopted technology.Social prestige and recognition in the community. Table 47 also shows that farmers had the growing recognition as a reliable seed source in the community by other farmers. Some farmer adopters were also faced with the problem of providing assistance to other farmers with respect to seed supply without monetary involvement.Threfore, this was an imposed social obligation to the farming community which sometimes they cannot afford.Expected relief _Q£ drudgery involved in seed handling. Consistently farmers said that they were faced with tedious work when they sorted rotten tubers in traditional storage facilities. As DLS adopters, farmers thought that they had been relieved considerably from the drudgery of seed handling.Because DLS provided ample space to facilitate easy inspection routinely thus, excessive rotting was arrested.More than 43 percent of farmers reported that they were relieved from this tedious work involved in seed handling.Changes in attitudes in potato cultivation.Despite the fact that farmers realized low yields when imported seed potatoes which usually arrived late were used and experienced enormous hardships in purchasing seeds, they had the impression that imported seeds are musts in seed potato production.However, this attitude changed drastically when they knew that higher yields were obtained when they planted localy produced seeds with proper condition and time.The adoption of DLS also changed the attitude in handling seed tubers especially during the storage phase. Careful selection of seeds and recognition of seed tubers as living materials were important attitudes that influenced the farmer in producing good quality seeds.One of the crucial attitude changes in storage was bringing seeds from \"dark\" to \"light\". Farmers stored seeds for more than two decades in the dark places.This practice was advocated by the extension delivery mechanisms at the early stages of the introduction of potato crop in the area. However, it seemed that keeping seeds in diffused light is still undergoing informal evaluation by farmers for justification. Impact .2.!!. the availability of seeds.Previously, farmers encountered enormous hardships in fulfilling their seed requirements from outside seed sources.More than 80 percent of the farmers said that DLS somewhat lessened the tedious hardships involved in acquiring seeds from government and other seed sources.Institutional impact of DLS.One of the broader social impacts on family members' involvement in storage was the relative increased contribution and the cooperation among each family member after the adoption of DLS. More than 32 percent of farmers reported that as a consequence of DLS there had been changes in potato cropping pattern and associated activities which involved family members more intensively. Seed storage was a family affair and it demanded more participation due to changed and increased storage practices and activities throughout the storage period. This perhaps had absorbed the family members' leisure considerably.This had disturbing implications to the farming activities and the emerging constraints might further adaptations on the DLS. time other impose Furthermore, the DLS technology created more opportunities for farmers to improve their relationship with his social environment but also generated new problems for them such as evil eye and insecurity of stored seeds.It was found that the DLS technology dissemination initiated several training and extension activities in training institutions and in extension delivery mechanism, not only on aspect of DLS technology but also related on potato production technologies (Appendix E).By-passing the national agricultural research network at the initial phase of DLS technology, evolved a new set of problems both for farmers and extension delivery system, especially when they encountered storage problems associated with DLS such as pests and diseases, structural designs and modifications. It was a difficult task to convince the existing research system to look into these emerging problems of DLS and integrate them in the research priorities of the research institutions.It was also observed that the use of DLS had increased the seed availability in the farmers' seed system.This led also to alleviate the pressure imposed on the government potato seed distribution system to a certain extent.After the introduction of DLS to the farmers, it appeared that government seed distribution system also became aware of the potato storage problems in the existing storage structures and the improper storage management practices.Recognizing these problems and limitations of existing potato storage, the structure were modified and imiproved using the basic principles of DLS technology.This section attempted to explain some of the economic impacts that were observed after adoption of DLS in family farming systems.It was expected that DLS would diversify the use of resources and would lead to considerable economic gains.Changes in family farm income.Table 46 indicated that after the adoption of DLS the total income of the family had increased considerably.As much as 57 percent of the farmers believed that they were able to increase their total annual income from 21 to 40 percent. Among them eight had a substantial income increase while the rest of the increase was just more than average. Only three farmers revealed that the increase in income was less than 10 percent only.However, all the farmer adopters were able to increase their farm income.Changes in cost of production of potatoes.The cost of production per hectare of potato increased rapidly during the last five years due to rapid increase of prices of inputs and increased use of farm inputs.Table 44 shows the cost of production of potatoes before and after adoption of DLS.It was noted that there was an almost three-fold increase in the cost of seeds per hectare during the time span from 1982 to 1984, before and after the DLS adoption.This drastic increase in seed cost may be a contributing factor to the adoption of DLS.Changes in the Yield. Table 45 showed that 60 percent of the farmer adopters perceived that there was a yield increase after using DLS seeds. Rhoades (1984) study also supported these findings.More than 94 percent of adopter farmers reported that yield increase was due to the use of DLS which was particularly influenced by the a) land holding size, b) land category, c) and the seasons.However, despite these, there was still a difference between the expected and the actual yield.Table 49 shows the difference in yield and the farmer's reason why it is so. The majority of the farmers stated that yield variability was mainly due to unpredictable weather conditions and incorrect planting time.These findings indicated the unexpected consequence of DLS adoption.For instance, seed availability enabled them to plant potatoes continuously throughout the year irrespective of prevailing weather conditions.Changes in Seed Utilization.After adoption of DLS there were significant changes in seed utilization.Table 12 of the preceding section summarized the use of seeds before adoption of DLS and Table 50 shows several combinations of seed utilization among the farmers after adoption of DLS. However, the main purpose of seed storage was presumably for their own use (100%). However, storage for their own use and for sale had increased from 18 farmers to 54 farmers.Fifteen farmers reported that they were able to share their own seed with other farmers. These changes implicitly elaborated the farmer's ability to manipulate the adaptive economic behavior. One of the most spectacular changes observed survey was the farmers' change in entrepreneurship. 12 farmers who operated DLS storage as a commercial for the purpose of selling seeds in the area. Although they were not cultivating a larger area of potatoes, they continuously purchased seeds from farmers from the area or adjoining potato growing district Nuwara Eliya, at harvest time presumably at lower price and stored as seeds for sale.These seeds were stored in the DLS with a combination of traditional storage methods such as the use of old potato crates and spreading on the floor. Of the 12 farmers, four handled more than 30,000 kg of seed potatoes per year.Not only Farmers, coming from around these commercial storage facility but also farmers from far away places purchased sprouted seeds from these sources.Thus, there was a change in seed flow not only from area to area but also from district to district.This finding was similar to the findings of Rhoades (1984).The danger obtained from these free movement of seeds from area to area would be the spread of diseases particularly bacterial wilt as there was no guarantee about the quality of seeds.Reduction in storage losses.It was reported by several researchers that storage losses which occurred before DLS adoption (Albert, 1982, Rhoades, 1984) exceeded even 25 percent of the total stored seeds.Seed potato is a costly item and any loss would result in considerable economic loss to the farmers. It was found that storage losses due to pathological, physical and physiological reasons were reduced to a considerable level after adoption of DLS.Although assessments of quantitative losses attributed to each reason were difficult, it seemed that the relative overall losses due to these reasons were very much less than before the adoption of DLS.Table 51 indicates that 82 percent of the farmers had less than 12 percent storage losses while only 10 percent of the farmers reported that losses were still higher than 15 percent and above after 6-7 months of storage period.The dramatic decline in seed losses was possible due to improved storage practices and the adoption of DLS. The study revealed that there was a significant change in the total labour and time involvement in storage activities after the adoption of DLS. Time and labour involvement in storage activities were reduced as compared to previous storage methods (Table 52). The average land size owned by a farmer was 1.4 ha and all the farmers were classified as small farmers.All the farmer adopters grew one crop of potato per year before adoption of DLS. in the cropping system were cabbage, beans, and radish. Of the total cost of production 51 percent was for seed materials, 22 percent for other inputs, 11 percent for hired labor, while 16 percent was the inputed cost for family labor. Net profit for Yala season per hectare of potato was Rs 27,500.00, 31 percent higher than the Maha season. It was found that potato crop demands the highest capital investment and accrued the highest income as compared to other vegetable crops in the cropping system.The majority of the farmer adopters stored seeds for their own use (88%) even before adoption of DLS.Most widely used traditional storage methods were keeping seeds in old potato crates, spreading on the floor and keeping in attic and under beds.Sixty five percent of farmer adopters reported storage' problems, which were storage losses dur to rotting, weak sprout growth, shorter storage period and tuber moth damage.The seed losses were more than 27 percent of the stored potatoes. Among the seed sources, government farmers were the most commonly preferred seed source.There was a great change in seed storage practices, seed utilization and seed purchase after adoption of DLS. However, 85 percent of the farmer adopters still used the traditional storage practices simultaneously with DLS. The reported purposes of seed storage after adoption of DLS were for own planting (100%) and for sale (33%).All the familv members participated in various seed storage practices.More than 82 percent of the farm family units revealed that the most cumbersome activity among the seed storage practices was sorting of rotten tubers.Only 30 percent of the farmer adopters sorted seeds either once in two weeks or once a week.Adoption Processes of DLS Technology 17.8The average time taken for initial adoption months with a range of 2-51 months. However, decision was farmers who adopted DLS late were more confident in the performance of DLS under their own setting and adopted DLS technology for full use. Three broad adoption processes were identified namely: formal adoption process, in which the five stages of the adoption process (Roger and Shoemaker, 1971) were followed sequentially; iterative adoption process in which five stages of the adoption process were not sequentially followed; and, galloping adoption process in which certain stages were omitted or not followed by farmers.The percentage of farmers who followed the formal, iterative and galloping adoption were 30, 44 and 26 percent, respectively.The predominant factors that motivated farmers to adopt DLS were convenience of the storage, low cost, quality seed production and its suitability to their existing system.Farmers' evaluation of DLS technology during the adoption process had led to numerous modifications of the original structures demonstrated to them.More than 72 percent of the farmers modified their storage after initial adoption.Relative advantage of DLS over traditional •storage was perceived by the farmers as very high.The only highly disadvantageous reason given by farmers was insecurity of stored seeds.During the various stages of adoption process extension agents influenced the farmers considerably and was followed by farmers.Among the reasons given for the non-adoption of DLS were lack of security (60%) and lack of funds to construct DLS (37%). More than 43 percent of these farmers said they had enough space in the house to store seeds in the traditional way.Twenty six percent felt no serious problem in their traditional storage.Farmer adopters attitude towards the present DLS storage showed a 13% of farmers were highly satisfied with it and 40 percent were dissatisfied with the present storage structure.The area was processes. spatial diffusion of DLS technology within analyzed and there were three distinctive the study diffusion Rapid diffusion of DLS among selected group of farmers who were resource-rich and strategically located along the main road was absent and this led to the emergence of \"horizontal selective\" diffusion process.In this process, diffusion of DLS technology was basically from extension agents to farmers.In 1982 out of 37 farmer adopters, 60 percent were found to be under this process.The second predominant diffusion process was \"core to periphery\" in which the diffusion of DLS was from core adopter farmers to neighboring farmers forming a cluster through a voluntary effort of farmers.Apparently, seven clusters of farmers involving 62 followed this type of diffusion process.Lastly there were sporadic diffusion of DLS among isolated farmers and this \"ad-hoc diffusion process\" was by and large initiated by some conservative farmers.More than 20 percent of farmer adopters were involved in this adoption process. However, diffusion of DLS was not enhanced by this process.Interaction among farmers were predominantly interpersonal, face-to-face and informal.All the farmers expressed that they had adequate opportunities to interact with each other and 36 percent of the farmers sought information from farmer adopters.Farmers' communication with village leaders, key informants, officials of the cooperative store and rural development society also provided important information regarding DLS technology.Interaction between farmers and extension agents were interpersonal and group contact and mostly initiated by extension agents (67%, 86%). Farmer adopters felt that opportunities and frequency of contact with extension agents were adequate (86%). The most preferred extension methods by farmers were personal contact and field trips.Interaction between farmers and research personnel was found to be minimal and/or inadequate.However, farmer adopters perceived that research personnel could provide expert information on DLS (45%).Interaction between and among farmers helped both extension agents and farmers in identifying most of the storage problems. It also helped them to improve their storage practices.Lack of attention given to the women and children as potential clients in extension activities was evident.Only 15 percent of the women and 4 percent of grown children were contacted by extension agents in their farm visits.Interactions between extension agents and research personnel mostly took place on off-farm situations and were formal in nature.However, 50 percent of extension agents felt that they lacked opportunities to interact with research personnels.Inservice training and training programs helped extension agents to interact with research personnel.Agro-Socioeconomic Impact of DLS Almost all of the farmers had increased the area planted to potato irrespective of land size.The minimum increase in area was 0.18 hectares while the maximum was 0.76 hectare. Differential access to land was not an impediment to adopt DLS. The farmers increased their area planted to potato by renting (100%), using unutilized lands (40%) and by increasing the cropping sequence (71%).There was a decline in growing other vegetable crops such as cabbage, beans, tomato and radish.The share cropping between seed-rich farmers and seed-poor farmers was increased by 14 percent.In addition, changes in potato cultivation practices such as changes in potato cultivation season (97%), staggered planting (70%) and changes in cropping pattern (40%) were observed. The overall improvement of potato crop in relation to early emergence of the crop (76%), low incidence of pest and diseases, early maturity of crop (60%) and high yields (96%) were also realized after adoption of DLS.With regard to social impact of DLS, there were requirements in social participation (69%), relief from drudgery involved in seed handling (25%), family members involvement on seed storage (43%), changes in attitudes in bringing seed from \"dark\" to \"light\", and reducing the enormous hardship in acquiring seeds from outside sources (80%).One of the predominant economic impacts of DLS was changes in family farm income.More than 57 percent reported they were able to increase family income by 21-40 percent, and only three farmers believed that they were unable to increase their income. However, there was no reduction in cost of production after adoption of DLS. less DLS.Twelve farmers operated DLS as commercial enterprises.More than than 82 percent of the farmers reported that they had 12 percent losses in seed storage after adoption of There was a significant reduction in the total labor use and time alloted for storage activities after adoption of DLS (80%).Although the diffused light potato storage technology seemed advantageous and feasible under the small potato farmers' conditions, only less than 20 percent of the potential farmer adopters used the technology.Therefore, this would imply the need for diagnosis of the relevant constraints that were really responsible for low adoption.Furthermore, the development of strategies for rectifying such constraints is much needed.The recognition of the emergence of horizontal selective diffusion of DLS among resource-rich and more accessible farmers through a skeptical extension activities strongly suggests a reorientiation of extension strategies.This does not imply that resource-rich, roadside farmers should be ignored but more importantly, there is a need to go beyond these farmers and approach the majority of farmers, the resource-poor farmers who reside away from the roadside, who are more often neglected. Moreover, it was found that agriculture extension agents were conducting or organizing mostly extension programmes only for adult male farmers on the seed potato production and storage; but the women and children were the largest contributors on the seed storage activities as compared to the adult male farmers. Therefore, the regrettable ignorance of women and leaving them from the agricultural extension activities by extension agents may cause substantial impediments on the adoption of agricultural technologies which were meant for small family farms. Furthermore, the role of women and children in potato production system as equally important partners in family farming and the underreported women's contribution in storage activities by the household farmers, are significant information as basis for planning and organizing strategies for extension directed towards them.An analysis of the interaction networks between farmers and research personnel revealed the inadequacy of interaction opportunities throughout the process of technology generation to the final diffusion of DLS.This did impede the essential farmer-researcher dialogue to a considerable extent in understanding the farmers' conditions, needs and priorities for farmer-oriented research.There is much potential opportunities for learning from farmers if these interaction links and opportunities could be strengthened by working with them and involving them in on-farm research activities.Although the international agricultural research institution can generate technologies with a broader perspective, it is essential to establish a firm link and collaboration with regional and national research systems in order to develop technologies which are acceptable under heterogenous agrosocioeconomic environments of the farmers.Furthermore, farmers are of ten capable of developing their own technological innovations based on the offered technological principles. Therefore, the challenge is not only to establish a firm link and interaction networks between international, regional and national research institutions but also with the farmers in order to facilitate flow of information in both ways. Introduction of DLS technology through weak and ad-hoc link with the national research and extension network not only caused much of the confusion among the disciplines but also unexpected and not very favorable consequences. Therefore, these interactions are needed to be strengthened along the way of technology generation and dissemination so as to sustain the adopted technology and establish an effective feedback relationship between the various disciplines for productive research utilization.The introduction of DLS and its dissemination among farmers however, had improved the quality of seed potatoes and the yield. Nevertheless, there is a need for the DLS technology to be","tokenCount":"27022"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6b8e6682deebce128edb2dd829dbf295","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9fc3f1dc-8c28-4de5-84be-da6666f75c6e/retrieve","id":"594589533"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ac96a3cc-8093-490f-9b8f-fa68dcc3ed97","pagecount":"96","content":"The training facilitator will introduce the training by following the sequence as stated below-Welcome address: facilitator will welcome the par cipants and explain the objec ves of the training. Self-introduc on: Facilitator will ask the par cipants to state their name, address, primary occupa on, years of experience on milk trading. Expecta on from the training: Facilitator will ask the par cipants to explain their expecta ons from the training. Facilitator will write down the key points in a flipchart/whiteboard/black board in order to revisit the same at the end of the training.Pre-training status evalua on: Facilitator will distribute the pre-training evalua on form among the par cipants. Facilitator will ask them to put ck marks in the appropriate boxes (Agree/ Disagree/Don't know) under the \"Before Training\" column. A er the evalua on, he/she will collect the forms and use the same at the end of the training to compare the differences before and a er the training. Ground rules: Facilitator will ask the par cipants what general behavior (e.g. switching off the mobile during training, coming to the training on me, leaving the training a er comple on, no involvement on side discussion during the me of training delivery etc.) He/She expects to experience in order before and a er the training to run the training smoothly and effec vely. He/ She will list all sugges ons in a flip chart and post the flipchart where it is visible throughout the training. Content: Importance of the Pig Bandhu, his/her roles and responsibili es and business development plan Training materials  Laptop, LCD projector and screen  White board and marker (with mul ple colour)  Flip chart  Pre-training evalua on form  Manual and handouts 1.1 Importance of Pig Bandhu in piggery development  Number of veterinary hospitals and dispensaries are not adequate to meet the growing demand of veterinary services in the state. Farmers in remote rural areas do not get adequate access to veterinary services.  Number of Veterinary Officers (VO) and Veterinary Field Assistants (VFA) are also not adequate to cater to the need of veterinary services of the farmers.  Many small farmers try to treat the animals either by themselves with tradi onal means or by purchasing medicines directly from the pharmacy without consul ng with a veterinarian.  In some of the villages, tradi onal healers /quack treat the animals without having any formal training or technical understanding on the cause of diseases.  Needs a brigade of trained community animal (pig) health and extension worker (under the APART project they are named as Pig Bandhu (PB) created to meet the growing need of minor health and extension services at community level.We are immensely grateful for the guidance and support that we received from the Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) to the Govt. of Assam, Commissioner and secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department (AHVD); State Project Director, ARIAS Society; Director, Nodal Of icer (APART) and other of icials of AHVD and concerned of icials of the ARIAS Society without which this training module would not have been possible to complete.We also owe our deep sense of gratitude to the Veterinary Of icers (VOs) and other concerned of icials who gave important feedback during content development and content inalization of this training module.Our sincere thanks also goes to the pig producers who helped us by supplying the necessary information during Training Need Assessment (TNA) and content development and supported in collecting images of speci ic pig farming activities needed to incorporate in the manual. At last but not the least we express our sincere thanks to all the ILRI's colleagues who drafted the earlier version of this training manual based on which the current comprehensive revised version has been developed to meet the current need of the farming communities. and they will work under the direct supervision and guidance of the department.  Pig Bandhu is not a government job. It is a voluntary but paid community animal service.Although, in ini al year/s, Pig Bandhu will be paid some honorarium/ incen ve by AHVD under the support of APART, subsequently they are to generate revenue by themselves for their sustenance. Pig Bandhu is from the community and for the community. They will be selected by community people under the guidance of AHVD officials.  Pig Bandhu must need to be acceptable and approachable to the community.  Pig Bandhus will work for door step minor service delivery as an extended wing of the AHVD.  Pig Bandhus will carry out vaccina on, deworming, dressing of wound/maggoted wound, minor first aid, ar ficial insemina on and provide extension services to the pig producers in the project villages.  Inform the local veterinary officials under AHVD about the occurrence of disease problems in the project villages and to support in carrying out the subsequent ac vi es in that context.  Assist the local VOs/VFAs in implemen ng the project ac vi es  Necessary records for Management Informa on System (MIS) will be collected and recorded by them using a Tablet. The Big bandhu will be responsible for collec on of informa on related to sick animal observa on, disease and treatment, vaccina on and deworming, and animal feed management whose ac vity checklist/record formats are given in the annexures AII, AIII, AIV and AV Respec vely.  To supervise the ac vi es within the Farmers' Interest Group (FIG) such as introduc on of community boar, assist in organizing the monthly cluster level mee ng, etc.  Crea ng awareness about the project ac vi es  Serves as a key contact person in the project villages  All pig health related work including vaccina on and deworming will be done by Pig Bandhu under the supervision/guidance/direc ve of local VOs/VFAs. The evalua on of performance of a Pig Bandhu will be done by a VO/BVO following a format as shown in Annexure VII  However, Pig Bandhu would not treat any pig (except providing first aid services/AI/ deworming/data collec on for MIS) and would not go against the direc ve of local veterinary officers as far as animal health issue is concerned.  For any unauthorized ac vi es performed by Pig Bandhu may lead to termina on of their contract with the department and may face consequences as per the act of law.  Ac vi es performed each week needs to be reported to the local VO.A Pig Bandhu should have his/her business development aim to prosper in future through increased quality and demand for his services.His/her business aim should include- Increase the quality of services;  Increase the quantum of services (increase in quantum of service may be propor onal to quality);  Increase the revenue generated by him/her;  Increase social recogni on;A Pig Bandhu would render services in the villages where farmers do not get easy access to veterinary and extension services. However, given the livelihood concern of the Pig Bandhu, he/she should have planned vision to expand his number of clients through offering quality services. For that, the Pig Bandhu has to strategize for a planned service delivery by taking care of the following: Assess the requirement of services by pig producers in the area that a Pig Bandhu can offer;  Priori ze the services which are required the most;  Assess producers' level of sa sfac on on their quality of services;  Iden fy the be erment op ons and scope for improvement;  Build up his skill, network and resources to deliver those services with quality on me;  Try to give value for money paid by the pig producers;  Fee should be claimed as decided by the community people in consulta on with the project people and local VO;Based on the compiled informa on and iden fica on of key issues the Pig Bandhu may formulate the plan of ac on. Before formula ng the plan of ac on, he/she should consider the following issues in mind:  Trust on the service: He/she should make every effort to provide the best of his/her service with quality so that farmers trust to call him/her next me.  Development of skill set: Quality of service and thereby gaining trust on him/her may be realized by making con nuous effort to improve the skill of providing services. The basic services that are mandated to be offered by a Pig Bandhu should be improved upon from me to me through discussion with the veterinary officers and occasionally reading the training manual and a ending the refresher training. He/she should also focus on learning through on job training.  Avoid unhealthy compe on: The pig Bandhu should not indulge in unhealthy compe on with the VFA and VO. He/she is mandated to support the VO and the VFA for treatment of diseases.  Fee: Fee charged should be linked to the services provided and that should also be compe vely low so that poor farmers find him/her economical to call next me for basic healthcare services. The various sources of revenue genera on for a Pig Bandhu is given in Annexure AVI.  Prompt and punctual: For on farm services, a pig producer may want the Pig Bandhu as early as possible a er the call. So, the pig Bandhu should respond promptly to the call made by pig producers.  Networking with the veterinary dispensary: Pig Bandhu should be in a constant touch with the veterinary dispensary/hospital, semen sta on and cluster center for the update on supply of vaccines, medicines, semen doses etc. Future prospect: Serve your clients in the way that they are fully sa sfied with the service and you can ensure a be er prospect for yourself in your jurisdic on.  Feedback system: Always maintain a feedback system in your service. Ask for the level of sa sfac on of your customers and record if there is any part in the service where the customer is not sa sfied with. Try to improve your service based on the feedback feedback given by customers.  Courtesy and respect: Always respect your clients. The pig are favourite to their owners and hence always treat them with love and care.  Never argue or figurate with your clients: The customers may have their points of view about the disease. You respect that and if there is any wrong percep on, explain them in a gentle way as what it should be.  Thank your clients: Your clients have chosen you and taken your against the other service providers in the locality. So, gratefully acknowledge it every me you visit them.  Close rapport with clients: You should maintain a close rapport with your clients. Once a sa sfied client makes his/her animal cured.In order to promote for his/her business a Pig Bandhu should inculcate certain good business and behavioral skills as follows. Ac ve listening skill: A Pig Bandhu should possess the skills to listen ac vely to his/her clients. He/she should also be able to read body language as well as verbal communica on. He/she should try to respond according to the clients' opinion.  Keep emo ons under control: A Pig Bandhu should have the ability to keep his/her emo ons under control even when some difficult circumstances are faced.  Clear and effec ve communica on: A Pig Bandhu should communicate to his/her clients the way they understand the most. Pig farmers generally expect simple explana on in the language they speak, while a veterinarian expects an explana on in the widely used terminology. He/she should also try to communicate slowly and clearly without expression of any excitement, anger and emo ons.  Collabora on and teamwork: For effec ve business management and service delivery a Pig Bandhu will need support from many others. To strengthen his/her associa on with others he/she should take all concerned into confidence, communicate transparently, keep commitment, discuss issues on me, give due share/credit for their contribu on and appreciate the contribu on that others have made in making things happen.  Problem solving skills: A Pig Bandhu may confront variety of problems in the field while delivering the services. He/she should try to inculcate good prac ces that may poten ally diffuse the tensions. He/she should avoid sta ng/behaving the way that may aggravate the situa on. He/she is the best person to judge the situa on and behave according to the need.  Decision making ability: When a Pig Bandhu faces a client with par cular problem, he/ she should have the ability to correctly assess the situa on and make a decision which is appropriate under the given circumstance and act accordingly. He/she should always discuss with local VO or VFA before making any commitment/decision.  Maintaining good rela onship: A Pig Bandhu should always try to maintain friendly working rela onship with all concerned for making his/her services be er, mely and more effec ve. The services of Pig Bandhu are cri cal for reaching the unreachable.  Pig Bandhu brigade is an extended wing of AHVD and therefore they should work under direct supervision of local VOs  Pig Bandhu is not authorized to treat any disease, they should inform local VO if they are informed about occurrence of any disease in the area.  Pig Bandhu is not a government job. Ini ally they will get some honorarium/incen ves from the department; subsequently they are to generate revenue by themselves.  Pig Bandhu should have strategic business development plan by improving the quality of their services.  For improved business of Pig Bandhu, they should develop their technical, behavioural, communica on and business management skills   They find it difficult to adjust in Isola on from a group;  They, when removed from/added to a group, will try to re-establish social order;  They spend much of their me in feed-related ac vi es;  They have tendency to chew any object, even ears or tails of each other;  They don't have sweat glands and hence, cannot withstand exposure to hot condi ons;  They try to escape always as a result they may get injured;  They don't like darkness.Handling of pigs becomes much easier if the pig's flight zone and point of balance are understood well. The mid-point of shoulder of a pig is called the point of balance. Pigs can be touched or handled in this point comfortably without causing any panic or fear to the pig.  If we draw an imaginary line along the bodyline towards the tail and another line through the point of balance transverse to the body line, an angle of 90 O will be formed.  If one moves from the shoulder towards the tail to cover 45°, the pig will move forward.  If moved further up to 60 o , the pig will try to stop moving. Again, if one moves further to the tail end of a pig (this point is called blind spot) and stand the pig will express fear/panic to the pig.Pigs need to be restrained (controlled) for different purposes, such as, checkup of general health, administra on of medicines, conduc ng minor surgical opera on, giving iden fica on mark, etc. Pig bandhu must know appropriate techniques of restraining pig for safety of the animal as well as of himself. There are different methods of restraining both pigs and piglets. The most common methods of restraining pigs/ piglets are stated below.A piglet can be restrained by two ways- At first, the piglet is placed in a room or pen where it is to be restrained;  A er cornering the piglet, hold the rear leg with one hand and use the other hand to grasp the front leg on the same side of the pig as shown in Figure ;  Holding the front and rear legs, li the pig completely off the floor and gently but firmly put the pig back on the floor;  Use your knee to put pressure on the side of the pig to retain the control.Restraining piglet for the purpose of performing castra on At first, the piglet is placed into a room or pen where it is to be restrained;  A er cornering the piglet, one should catch the piglet by grasping its hind legs with one or both hands. He/she should quickly adjust his/her grip and hold the pig's back against the front of the handler's legs and its nose to the ground; He/she should li the piglet free off the ground by bringing both of its rear legs up to almost the height of his/her waist.For restraining heavier pigs, following methods are commonly used. A loop is prepared with a rope by a giving a slip knot as shown in the photograph. The strength of the rope must be in propor on to the size of the animal;  One should put the slip knot in to the mouth and over the nose /upper jaw. The handler should make sure that the loop is above the tongue and pulled back into the mouth, and the loop is not around the lower jaw;  He/she needs to pull the other end of the rope as ght as possible;  The rope is then ed off on a post of the shed or a tree. It is best to limit the length of the rope to only a foot or two in order to restrict the movement of the pig;  A er comple on of the intended job, one should loosen the rope from the pig by pulling the slip note and quickly move away.In case of surgery, foot trimming, or other management prac ces, the pig is restrained using a slip knot  A loop is formed at the end of a 15' length rope and is placed around the neck of the pig taking care not to place the knot on top of the neck but on the side of the neck;  One should use the long end of the rope to give another half hitch around the body immediately behind the front legs  Then he/she will take the rope further back along thetop line and place a second half hitch just in front of the rear legs;  The pig can now be laid upon its side by pulling on the end of the rope that extends to the rear beyond the second half hitch (as shown in the illustra on);  As the pig begins to go down in response to the ghtening hitches, it can be guided with the rope and snare to lie on one side or the other;  When the management task is completed, one should loosen the half hitches;  Finally it is to remove the slip knot and observe the pig for a few seconds to see whether it is recovering properly or notThis is one of the commonly used methods in the field condi on for minor procedures like administering medicines, local applica ons, injec ons, ear tagging, etc. This method includes: One should gently approach the pig without making it scared;  Then gently pet over the back to get the animal familiarized;  One should go on pe ng towards the tail and catch hold of the tail on the base with both the hands within a frac on of second and then to li the hind quarter upward;  The pig will be able to show only a limited movement with the forelimbs;  The pig may be restrained by tying its legs with a rope for even be er control.Restraining by tying the fore-legs and hind legs separately  The pig is laid on its side with the help of three or four persons securely applying force;  The fore legs are closely ed with a strong rope;  Same procedure is applied to the hind legs;  A 3-4 feet long rope is passed through the middle of the le and right legs along the body length and above the knots ed already to the legs;  A knot is given with both the open ends of the rope in such a way that all the four legs are closely brought together; One should put some pressure over the shoulder area with the knees;  Then some extra pressure is put over the shoulder area with a bamboo pole being held by two persons if required.Pregnant pigs should not be restrained unless it is of utmost necessity. If it is very essen al, adequate care should be taken so that no harm is caused to the foetus. Never restrain pigs on uneven surface or very hard surface (e.g. rock)  Never restrain pigs under direct sunlight during hot summer.  Never restrain pigs on hot surface like sand during hot summer.  Never restrain pigs in dark. Never beat the pigs during restraining. It is be er to offer some feeds during restraining and handle with care to make it comfortable.  One should gently release the pigs a er restraining to avoid any unintended injury.Improper handling of pig; prior to and during transporta on may result in excessive shrinkage loss, wound, injury, crippling loss, occasional death and dissa sfied customer.Normally for transporta on of pigs/ piglets by road, truck/ mini truck/ auto van/ pulling cart is used depending on the distance and number of pigs to be transported. For long distance travel, train is preferred. During the process of transporta on of pig, following precau ons should be taken: Transporter should clean, disinfect and change the bedding materials (sand, straw etc.).Generally pigs are transported with about 1 inch (2.5 cm) sand, and in winter me straw is placed on top of the sand but not during hot weather. Care should be taken that pigs are properly loaded. Below capacity loading can be just as dangerous as overloading. In the case where truck or train bogie is not fully loaded, one may use par on to keep the pigs closer together; and in very long trucks to keep pigs from crowding from one loca on to another. Provision of halt is the single most important factor for considera on during transporta on. Hal ng me and place should be finalized and organised before star ng the journey in order to avoid any last minute hassles.  Pigs should be fed and watered properly prior to loading. Pig transported should either be fed lightly or to withhold feeding for 12 hours prior to loading depending on distance, temperature and treatment upon arrival.  Pigs that are overfed or watered in excess at the me of loading defecate and urinate excessively. As a result, the floor becomes dirty and slippery and the pigs may feel uncomfortable. Such pigs shrink heavily and present an una rac ve appearance when unloaded.  Efforts should be made to keep the pigs quiet. Hot, excited pigs experience more shrinkage loss and are more prone to injury or death.  Transporter should never lose temper and should avoid hurrying and striking. Pigs should not be beaten with such objects as pipes, s cks, canes or forks; instead a flat, wide canvas slapper or something like broom should be used.  When mixed loads (consis ng pig, ca le, goat, etc.) are placed in the same truck or train bogey, par on each class of pigs separately. Also, boar, sow, piglet, diseased pig should be properly par oned. External body parts of pigThe animal body is cons tuted by millions of cells. Cell is the smallest building block of the whole body. Within the body, there are several systems and each system consists of a number of organs.All the organs within a system work collec vely to carry out some special func ons.  Skeleton is the hard framework of the body which supports the other body structures (muscle, fats etc.).  This is composed of bones, car lage and ligaments (show in human body).Skeleton system- Provides the shape of the body;  Gives flexibility to the body;  Helps in movement of the body;  Provides support to the body structures.Joint is the structures formed by the union of two ends of bones or car lages with the help of certain binding materials, i.e. the ligaments.The joint is responsible for different types of movement of the skeleton and thereby help in locomo on.Muscle is the structures formed by the bundles of muscle cells in the form of fibres and possess the property of contrac on or relaxa on for effec ve body movement. Muscular system is mainly composed of muscles, which performs different func ons in the body like- Movement of the skeleton;  Genera on of body heat;  Circula on of blood etc.The bones and joint of a pig (courtesy: Poperko Peter, 1975)Different muscular structure of a pig (courtesy: Poperko Peter, 1975) 3.2.4 Circulatory system  This system consists of a network of blood vessels (arteries, veins & capillaries) for circula ng the blood.  Heart receives deoxygenated blood from various parts of the body and pump out the oxygenated blood to the different parts of the body. The func on of blood is generally related to transport of nutrients, oxygen, carbon di oxide, waste products, hormones, and immune bodies etc.Blood vessels carrying blood away from the heart are known as artery. Artery carries oxygenated blood. However, pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood.Blood vessels which carrying blood from different body parts to the heart are known as veins.Veins carry deoxygenated blood. However, like pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein also carries oxygenated blood.It acts as a control system of the body. The main cons tuents of nervous system are the nerves and the brain.A bundle of fibers that passes signals to transmit sensory s muli of pain, heat, cold etc. between the brain and other parts of the body. Nerves form a network of pathways for transmi ng informa on throughout the body. It enables the pig to adjust itself or its parts to change in the external or internal s mulus/ environment. The brain is the master control center of the body;  It receives informa on/ sense through the nerves from inside or outside the body;  A er receiving informa on, brain analyzes the informa on and then sends messages to the body that controls its func ons and ac ons.Poperko Peter, 1975)The brain of a pig Respira on is the process by which pigs obtain and use oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide;  The respiratory system consists of the lungs and the air passage leading to them, including the nostrils, nasal cavi es, pharynx, trachea and lung;  Air with oxygen enters into the lung through nostril, nasal cavity and respiratory tract;  Lung absorbs the oxygen from air and passes out the CO 2 .The lungs of a pigThe pig is an omnivorous animal and it can consume both plant and animal sourced of food  The diges ve tract is a hollow tube like structure that extends from mouth to anus;  A er inges on, food pass through the oesophagus and is deposited in the stomach;  Main func on of stomach is to store the ingested food and ini a on of diges on of food stuffs with the help of gastric juices produced in it;  In small intes ne, it is transformed into simpler molecular forms, which is absorbed by the small intes ne. Further, it is absorbed in large intes ne. The undigested food par cles are excreted through anus; Liver of pig helps in detoxifica on, protein synthesis and diges on of fat in the small intes ne. The main organs of the urinary system are kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder and urethra. It is a biological system that removes excess, unnecessary or harmful metabolic waste from the body in the form of urine and maintains the internal stability of the cell; Kidneys are a pair of organs in body that filter out toxic and other waste materials from the blood stream and pass out the unnecessary fluid from the body in the form of urine. Ureters are two tubular structures that carry the urine formed in the kidneys to the urinary bladder. Urinary bladder is a hollow muscular organ that stores urine before releasing it from the body; Urethra starts at the urinary bladder and ends at the p of the penis. It carries urine stored in the urinary bladder to outside the body.Urinary system of a pig 3.2.10 What is reproduc ve system?Reproduc ve func ons of the male involve forma on of sperm and deposi on of these into the female reproduc ve tract. Tes cles are the main part of male genital organ. It produces sperm which is ejaculated through penis. It also secretes male sex hormone testosterone. A er the ma ng, sperm goes from male genital organ and enter into the reproduc ve tract of female, where it fer lizes the ova.The reproduc ve func ons of the female include produc on of ova (egg) and provision of an environment for growth and nutri on of the foetus that develops a er fer liza on of a mature ovum by a spermatozoa. Terminal condi on of the la er func on is to give birth at an appropriate me and to con nue the nutri onal func on through lacta on. Parts of female reproduc ve organs are-ovaries, uterine tube, uterus, vagina, vulva. Ovary is the main component of female reproduc on system. It produces and also releases ova for fer liza on. Pigs have different external and internal body parts and have specific func ons of those  Pigs have different body systems that cons tute skeletal, muscular, diges ve, circulatory, respiratory, urinary, nervous and reproduc ve system.  Each of the pigs body system is composed of different organs suppor ng to carry out the specific func ons.  Reproduc ve func ons of male and female pigs are different.  Pig bandhu should have basic idea about how the different system work.  It is important for them to know what is muscle, artery and vein to administer any medicine intramuscularly.Reproduc ve system of sow (Source: Popesko Peter, 1978) SESSION 4: Germs as Cause of Diseases to Pigs To make the Pig Bandhus familiar with the disease causing agents, such as bacteria, virus, parasites and fungi and their key characteris cs and transmission.  To make the par cipant Pig Bandhus know how germs can cause disease, pre disposing factors for disease condi on, rou ne examina on for health/soundness etc.  To make the Pig Bandhus enable observing the symptoms in body parts, behavior and excreta of pigs to diagnose the disease condi on.Training Methods to be followed  Germs are ny living things that cannot be seen with naked eyes. It is visible only with the help of a microscope. A p of a needle may contain millions of germs;  Germs is found most abundantly almost in all living bodies and their surroundings i.e. soil, air and water especially, if it contains dirt;  Germs can reproduce quickly in suitable substances (media) or inside the body of the host and cause disease but all types of germs are not harmful to the living beings;  Germs are mainly of two types: bacteria and virus; Bacteria are one kind of germs that causes various types of diseases to human and animals;  Bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from round balls to rods and spirals;  Bacteria are the common cause of many diseases;  There are several medicines to treat bacterial diseases (or to kill bacteria). These medicines are called an bio c group of medicine;Virus  A virus (meaning toxin or poison) is a semi-living infec ous agent that is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell.  Virus is much smaller in size than bacteria; most viruses are not even visible with a light microscope.  Virus does not have any specific shape, it varies from very simple helical structure (e.g. coil)to more complex structure. Virus is found in almost all living beings.  Viruses infect all types of living body from animals to plants to bacteria.  An bio cs have no effect on virus. Vaccine is the only way out to prevent viral diseases. Therefore, diseases caused by virus are most difficult to treat. An organism that lives in/on another species (its host) and benefits by taking nutrients from the host species.  They are of two types-i) Ectoparasites (live on outside the body, e.g. lice, cks, etc.) and ii) Endoparasites (live in inside the host's body, e.g. tapeworm, hookworm, ascaris, etc.).  Parasites consume the host's nutri on. This is why the host cannot fully u lize the feed resul ng in deficiency in nutri on. It reduces both produc ve and reproduc ve capacity of the animal and leads to weakness, poor health, loss of blood and also causes skin diseases. To prevent diseases caused by parasites (external and internal), several medicines are available.Round worms in the intes ne of a pig  Closely observe the animals for at least once everyday (par cularly during morning hours while offerring feed).  For any abnormality, if no ced, observe the animal further to iden fy whether the symptom is because of disease or in response to some stress or unfavourable condi on.  If the symptom is because of perceived threat of disease, immediately consult a veterinarian to avoid further deteriora on of the health condi on of the pig.• Separate the diseased animal from the healthy flock (quaran ne). Make separate arrangement for feeding and watering of the diseased pig.  Explain the detailed history of the disease to the veterinarian. Follow the advice of the veterinarian thoroughly.A healthy pigThe following body parts/excreta and behaviour are to be checked regularly to see whether the pig is in good health or not. A healthy pig could be recognized by observing the external behavior as indicated below. Any devia on from these could be considered as unhealthy pigs.The pig producer/ Pig Bandhu should always observe the pigs for following signs to iden fy if a pig is diseased or healthy:  Eyes: the eyes should be bright and alert with no discharge at the corners. Nose: the nose should be clean with no discharge. The muzzle should be moist, not dry.Healthy animals frequently lick their noses with their tongues. Steps involved in measurement of temperature of a pig  Breathing: should be smooth and regular at rest. Remember that movement of the pig and hot weather will increase the rate of breathing. If the pig is res ng in the shade it will be difficult to no ce the chest moving as it breathes. The normal respira on of young piglet is 50/ minute while of aged pig is 13-15/minute  Faeces: Faeces should be firm. Diarrhoea is a sign of ill health. Difficulty in defeca ng is also a sign of bad health.  Urine: urine should be clear and should exhibit no signs of pain or difficulty in urina ng.  Ea ng behavior: The animal should eat and drink normally. Failure to eat is an obvious sign of ill health. If feed is available, the healthy animal will have a full belly. When feed is placed befor pigs they will naturally rush at it, which otherwise is an indica on that something is wrong. Movement of legs: If an animal keeps looking at its flanks or kicks at its belly then there may be pain in the stomach.  Sick animal: If suspected that an animal is sick one should take its temperature. Body temperature showing higher than normal may be a sign of an infec on.  Separa on: Animal kept himself / herself aloof from the group is o en a sign of health problem.The Pig Bandhu will carry out the rou ne health examina on of the pig by following the prescribed format given at Annexure-II Field exercise Instruc on for the resource person: Take the par cipants to a nearby farming household having a diseased and healthy pigs. Ask them to observe both the animals and to record the symptoms/behaviour of both the animals including body temperature. Ask the par cipants to discuss among themselves and to decide which pig is deseased and why they are saying so. Pigs may come into contact with different types of disease causing agents like bacteria, virus, parasites and fungi.  To prevent the spread of the disease causing agents an bio c group of medicines, vaccines, and an fungal and parasi c drugs are available.  Germs are transmi ed through various routes and may cause disease.  Predisposing factors also increase the chances of ge ng the pigs inflicted with diseases.  Rou ne examina on for health/soundness and observing the symptoms in body parts, behavior and excreta may reduce the chances of disease incidence. It is a severe diarrheal disease that primarily affects pigs during the growing-finishing period. Contaminated feed and water;  Affected animals may release the causal organism in urine and faeces and contaminate feed and water. If pigs get those contaminated feed and water may get inflicted;  Organisms remain alive and mul ply in moist soil. Diarrhea and dysentery;  Yellow to gray so faeces;  High Fever 104-105 0 F  Presence of mucus and flecks of blood in the faeces a few days a er the infec on;  Par al inappetence;  Neonatal (new born piglets) diarrhea is quite common; if it occurs, piglets become lethargic, huddled together and dehydrated; An arched back and occasional kicking at the abdomen suggests abdominal pain.  Prolonged diarrhea leads to dehydra on with increased thirst and affected animals become weak, uncoordinated and emaciated. Immediately consult with a veterinarian;  Provide plenty of water adding electrolyte;  In case of emergency, human medicine used for diarrhea may also be used for trea ng small pigs.Preven ve measures to be taken  Separa on of the diseased animal (segrega on) from healthy ones;  Proper sanita on, proper feeding and good care of the sick animals;  Faeces of infected animals should be disposed properly to reduce the chance of infec ons;  Houses and equipment should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Preven ve measure to be taken  Proper vaccina on of the animals at every six months (in the area where it is prevalent);  Separate the diseased animal (segrega on) from the healthy ones;  Proper sanita on, feeding and good care of the sick animals;  Report the outbreak to local veterinary authority as early as possible.It is an acute and highly contagious viral disease affec ng pigs of all ages, characterized by sudden onset, rapid transmission, higher mortality and generalized bleeding. This is the major disease problem in pigs.A pig with CSF symptoms-bluish purple colour and bleeding under the skin Direct contact with the infected pigs; Contaminated feed and water;  Urine, nasal and ocular discharges from infected pig;  Recovered pig may act as carrier;  Feeding raw and uncooked meat from affected pig;  Clothes, vehicles and workers. High rise in temperature (105-107 0 F);  Dullness, depression and loss of appe te;  Vomi ng and/or severe diarrhea; Severe conjunc vi s and nasal discharge;  Purplish discolora on of ear, abdomen, inner side of the legs;  Nervous sign like convulsions, tremor etc. followed by terminal coma;  Abor on may occur in pregnant sow. There is no specific treatment but suppor ve treatment may be given as advised by the local veterinarian Preven on  Vaccinate the pig against Swine Fever disease. 1ml of vaccine to be injected subcutaneously or intramuscular (depending on the instruc on of the manufacturer);  Separate the diseased pig from the healthy ones;  Make separate arrangement for feeding and watering of the diseased pigs. Take utmost care for personal hygiene of the person who is involved in management of the farm to avoid any spread of infec on.  Clean all the utensils thoroughly with an sep c solu on;  Clean the pig sty and surrounding thoroughly and dust/ sprinkle an sep c solu on;  Inform other pig producers in the neighborhood regarding occurrence of the disease and suggest them to adopt hygienic measures.The disease is caused by the swine pox virus. Pigs of all age groups may be affected. However, the disease is more common in the first 4 months of age.  There is no specific treatment against swine pox but suppor ve treatment may be given as advised by the local veterinarian;Preven on  Infected animal should be separated from other healthy animals;  Infected animal should be kept in clean and hygienic condi on;  Pig sty, utensils and surrounding of the sty should be thoroughly cleaned to prevent from fly, lice, ck, mites etc.;  A course of ectoparasi cide drugs may be given to keep the pigs free from lice;FMD is an acute and highly contagious disease of pig and other livestock. Morbidity (occurrence of disease) is very high but mortality (death) is very less. The disease is caused by a virus.The disease is spread at an extremely rapid rate through  Direct contact with the infected animal;  Urine, faeces, saliva of infected animal;  Contaminated feed, water, grass, raw or temporarily cooked garbage containing infected meat or animal products;  Semen of infected animal;  Free living birds may carry the infec on;  Through air;Clinical sign  Vesicular erup on in the buccal cavity (oral mucosa), tongue, feet, hoof, teat and udder;  Profuse s cky, foamy and stringy saliva on;  Lameness (do not want to move);  High rise of temperature (104 0 -106 0 F);  Pregnant animal may abort;  High mortality rate in case of piglets showing the sign of severe gastro enteri s; Difficulty in ea ng and lack of appe te due to painful tongue and mouth lesions;  Severe lesions in the udder in lacta ng sows which may lead to mas s and even, sloughing off of the teats; There is no specific treatment but suppor ve treatment may be given as advised by the local veterinarian;  An sep c or an bio c ointment/ lo on may be applied to control secondary bacterial infec on and facilitate wound healing;  Fly repellent prepara on is very useful to prevent maggot infesta on;  Washing foot and mouth lesions with Potassium Permanganate solu on (1%) is useful;Preven on  Proper vaccina on;  Good sanita on, strict hygiene, clean and dry sheds;  Isola on of the affected animals;  Proper feeding (specially so and liquid food should be given) and good care;  Houses and equipments should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected;  Report the outbreak to local veterinary authority;  Suggest farmers not to slaughter and sale diseased pigs;  Do not allow the animals to roam freely;  No visitors should be allowed to enter the farm;  Farm workers and Pig Bandhu should wash hands and feet thoroughly before and a er every me entering the farms;  Traders shall not be allowed to enter the farms;Mode of transmission  Direct contact,  Indirect contact through contaminated feed, water, garbage, visitors, birds, vehicles, flies etc.  Through so cks infesta on.  Late term abor ons, s llborn or weak piglets and mummified fetuses;  Pre-weaning mortality is high. Nursing pigs may have dyspnea (\"thumping\"). There is no specific treatment but symptoma c treatment may be given as advised by the local veterinarian. Round worm is found in small intes ne and it survives on food taken by pigs. This results in lesser nutrient available for pig's growth and development. Treatment  Deworming drugs should be given at a periodic interval as advised by local VO.Pig is the intermediate host of Taenia solium. The adult worm is found in small intes ne of man and its larvae are found in muscles, brain etc. of pigs which may be transmi ed to human beings by inges on of inadequately cooked pork. Egg of the tapeworm is highly dangerous which human being cannot see by naked eye. Preven on  Deworming drugs.  Liver tonic and/or vitamin supplement should be given to pigs for few days before giving deworming drugs.  Clean and dry sheds with proper sanita on prac ces to be adopted. One should provide deworming drugs to pig at a periodic interval as advised by local VO. Equipments and utensils used in the farm should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected Never to give deworming drugs when the pig is too weak;  Never to give deworming drugs if the pig is suffering from any disease;  Give deworming drugs during cooler hours of day only, especially in the evening;  Do not give dewormer to pregnant animal. In situa on when the deworming drug is very essen al to give, he/she should take advice from local VO before giving.There are five groups of external parasites that include cks, mites, lice, mosquitoes and flies. They are present/contact on the skin and may cause skin diseases resul ng in considerable skin irrita on, loss of blood and poor growth. Some of these parasites can transmit diseases. Flies can mechanically transmit bacteria and viruses from one pig to another, directly in the case of bi ng flies or indirectly by contamina ng feed. Flies can also transmit infec ons from one pig farm to another located within a radius of 3 km. Mosquitoes can transmit the deadly Japanese encephali s virus from pigs to human beings.It is chronic condi on caused by a species of mite called Sarcoptes scabiei, Demodex suis Symptom  It causes itching and constant irrita on leading to restlessness and body scratching, red papules, wrinkled skin, hair loss, rough body coat, thickened skin, etc.;  Ini ally, the mange is seen in the ear as thick asbestos like scab, loosely a ached to the skin and very rich in mites;  In chronic case, they cover the head, neck and other parts of the body; Preven on  Thoroughly clean the pig sty and burn the concrete wall, floor and surrounding with the help of blow lamp;  Wash the pig at least once in a week with Potassium Permanganate . Infected pig may be washed with Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin or Permethrin solu on under the supervision of veterinarian and following the manufacturers' instruc on;  New born or uninfected pigs should be separated from older pigs infected with mange;  Animals with chronic lesions should be iden fied and culled;  Boars should also be treated as frequently as that of sows, as they are likely to remain affected;  Cracks and crevices should be repaired so that the larvae of mites cannot hide themselves there.Symptoms  Itching,  Irrita on,  Anaemia,  Lice visible.Lice are one of the easier condi ons to eliminate from the farm. It is important to treat the whole herd to break the cycle from the sow to the suckling pig.Treat the en re breeding herd in one opera on.Infected pig may be washed with Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin or Permethrin solu on under supervision of Veterinarian and following the manufacturers' instruc ons. Giving two doses in an interval of ten days may totally eradicate lice. All medicines are ineffec ve against the eggs and hence there is the necessity to treat twice.In addi on to infec ous diseases, there are some diseases that are mainly related to reproduc ve system of pigs. Some of the important reproduc ve diseases are men oned in the table below (Table 2) In addi on to infec ous and reproduc ve diseases, there are some diseases caused by noninfec ous agents that are stated below in Table 3.  Every disease has some specific symptoms/ condi on/ lesion that helps in diagnosis of the par cular disease. Some of the diseases with their specific symptoms are stated in Table 4 Table 5A pig with CSF symptoms Bluish purple colour and bleeding under the skinRespiratory symptoms in PRRS Abor on in PRRSTraining Manual for Capacity Building of Pig BandhuA pig infested with mange A pig heavily infested with mange(whole body) There are certain diseases that need to be reported to the Govt. Vaccina on is the most effec ve method of preven ng infec ous diseases. Build up of the immunity due to vaccina on is largely responsible for the eradica on/ restric on of dreaded diseases. The vaccina on schedule of most important pig diseases are presented in Table 6. Note: This schedule is just indica ve. The manufacturers' schedule should primarily be followed.Vaccines are sensi ve biological products that may become less effec ve, or even non effec ve, when exposed to temperatures beyond the recommended range and/or to direct sunlight or fluorescent light. Temperatures falling outside the recommended range require immediate ac on to avoid loss of product.The \"cold chain\" refers to the process used to maintain op mal temperature during transporta on, storage, and handling of vaccines. The chain starts at the manufacturer and ends with the administra on of the vaccine to the targeted animals. The op mum temperature for refrigerated vaccines is between +2°C and +8°C (+35°F and +46°F) (2). For Freeze Dried vaccines, the op mum temperature is -15°C (+5°F) or lower. In addi on, protec on from light is a necessary condi on for some vaccines. Proper storage temperatures must be maintained at every step in the chain and failing to do so may result in vaccine ge ng damaged and/or unsuitable for administra on. The refrigerator must be equipped with con nuous power back up arrangement; otherwise the vaccines will loose its potency. During power failure, the refrigerator must not be opened.Re-vaccina on of animal who have received an ineffec ve vaccine may cause a loss of public confidence on vaccines and/or the health care system as a whole. A situa on of shortage of vaccine supply could be created due to a mass revaccina on in the scenario of rising demand for vaccine.Instruc on for the Resource Person: (i) Take one Thermos flask and one cool box and demonstrate how to use it. Demonstrate that the cap/lid should be ghtly closed, should be away from any source of heat; Close the cap/lid ghtly immediately a er taking out the vial. (ii) Take one vial of vaccine and demonstrate the date of manufacturing to ensure that it has not been expired; demonstrate the temperature range specified for that vaccine by the manufacturer and let them know how to maintain that temperature. (iiI) Take one photograph of a fridge and show the par cipants where to store the vaccine. If the temperature range is ,say, 2-8 0 C, then the vaccine must not be stored in the ice chamber of the fridge and if indicated to be below 0 0, say (-) 15 0 C, then explain how to store in the ice chamber and not in the cooling chamber. Also tell the trainees not to open the fridge door repeatedly. (iv) Demonstrate the procedure of drawing the required amount of vaccine and to inoculate with a separate needle; it should be ensured that the exact route of inocula on as specified by the manufacturer is followed.Immuniza on program may not be effec ve and there may be break down of immunity if the execu on of vaccina on work is not done properly. The following measures should be taken to store the vaccines in cool condi ons:  Store the vaccine in refrigerator at the specified temperature to maintain the potency of the vaccine;  Under no circumstances, vaccines should be allowed to get exposed to normal environmental temperature prior to administra on;  Purchase the good quality vaccines of a reputed brand having excellent track record of providing sufficient immunity;  Procure the required quan ty of vaccine in order to avoid any scarcity or unnecessary surplus as the vaccine has a limited self life;  Use disposable syringe and needle;  Dissolve the vaccine in clean container;  Never use the vaccine that has expired;  Use the exact route and dose as indicated: The route and dose prescribed in vaccine only should be used;  Do not use chlorinated water, boiled water or alcohol to sterilize the syringe and needle.Common reasons for vaccina on failure  Lack of maintenance of cold chain from the me of manufacturing to vaccina ng;,  Poor immune response in weak and improperly fed animals;  Lack of herd immunity due to only a few animals being vaccinated;  Poor quality of vaccine -quality will deteriorate if repeatedly thawed and cooled;  Low efficiency or ineffec ve vaccine -may occur in case of varia on of strains in vaccine and infected animals (e.g. FMD).The Pig Bandhu will make entry of vaccina on record of the pig in the prescribed format given at Annexure-VIReduce transmission of diseases by adop on of improved prac cesSanita on: It is the process of adop ng hygienic measures to reduce the incidence of diseases and create condi ons that secure be er health.Popular proverb \"Preven on is be er than cure\"\"Pigs are o en thought to be dirty, but they actually keep themselves cleaner than most pets. They are seen laying in mud because they do not have sweat glands and constantly need water or mud to cool off.\" -The (U.S.) Na onal Pork Producer's Council) Proper sanita on helps in preven on and control of most of the communicable diseases;  Helps in providing the most unfavourable condi ons for germs;  Prevents economic losses caused by infec on;  Lowers the rate of mortality and increases the longevity of animals;  Helps in minimizing contamina ons and produc on of good quality meat and meat products;Infec ons in farms and various disease condi ons can be prevented if following essen al features of adequate sanita on are adopted:  Proper ven la on of the shed should be ensured;  All dirt in floor, walls, roof/ceiling should be cleaned thoroughly at least once in a month;  Proper disposal of manure, feed wastes and other excreta each day to prevent forming of breeding place for flies;  Construc on of proper drainage system and manure pit to facilitate drainage of liquid excreta;  Watering and feeding utensils should be cleaned thoroughly on every day with disinfectant like potassium permanganate, bleaching powder etc.;  Make arrangement for proper cleaning and keeping floor dry;  In case of earthen floor, occassionally remove 15 cm top soil and replace it by new soil/ sand;  It is important to burn all sweeping and scrapings and if possible expose the floor to sunlight;  Apply heavy coa ng of white wash containing a reliable disinfectant (1/2 kg of lime in one gallon of water and disinfectant) to the floors, walls and par ons, mangers etc.;  Judicious spraying for disinfectants surrounding the pig sty at a regular interval is essen al along with cleaning of garbage;  Dead animal should be disposed properly through burring in a place away from the human habita on; Separate the diseased animals from healthy one to prevent spread of infec on and to keep diseased animals under observa on (quaran ne).  Give cura ve treatment to suspected animals. Cura ve treatment should be provided in isola on un l they are free of infec on.  Thoroughly clean the contaminated premises and utensils using hot water and disinfectant.Pig sty and surrounding may be disinfected with lime, phenol, formalin etc.  Never sell diseased pigs, pigs which are under treatment or who failed to respond to treatment. The farmers and traders should be well informed about the worst outcome of these prac ces. Fresh lime can be sprinkled on the floor, walls and ground for disinfec ng them. Whitewash acts as more effec ve disinfectant when phenol up to 5% is mixed. Lime can also be used for cleaning feed and water troughs. All utensils, mangers, troughs, etc. may be scalded with boiling water adding washing soda.  Phenol can be used for disinfec ng metallic objects, clothing etc.  Skin disinfectants like iodine, iodophore, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, etc. may be used for cleaning the visible wounds of the diseased animal.  Potassium permanganate is used extensively in foot bath.  All waste products including blanket, thrown off materials from sick animals may be infec ve and, therefore, must not be allowed to accumulate, but should be immediately destroyed, buried or rendered harmless. Discharges from nose, mouth, skin, eyes, uterus, dung and urine can be dangerous source of infec on. To prevent the spread of these infec ve discharges, all persons other than a endant of diseased animals to be kept away from infected pens, utensils, clothing, etc.  Dry sweeping or dus ng may also be dangerous, as the organism may remain in the air of buildings and se le again on different places. Therefore, all surfaces should be moistened before sweeping and scrapping.  A er comple ng the disinfec on in every detail, one should disinfect one's hands, arms, booths and other wearing objects.  Animals in good health should be washed or bathed once or twice in a week. Compounds used to kill germs (bacteria, virus and parasites such as lice, mites, cks and fleas) are called disinfectant.  Since causa ve agents of many diseases are extremely small and may remain for indefinite period in dust, cracks, and crevices of buildings, proper disinfec on must be carried out carefully to kill the germs from contaminated premises. -Source: Dr. Neeraj (1998) Every pig farm should follow a quaran ne prac ce before pu ng any newly purchased pig in a farm to prevent the spread of infec on from new animals to the old ones.  This is nothing but keeping the newly purchased pigs in a separate shed, preferably just near the entrance gate, for about 21 days instead of mixing them directly with the old stock.  During the me of keeping the pigs in quaran ne shed they should be fed and watered adequately and also should be kept under close observa ons.  Any abnormality observed in the pigs should be reported to the local veterinarian immediately and they should be treated well.  The person handling the newly introduced pigs kept in the quaran ne shed should not handle the old ones without properly cleaning hands and feet with soap and water. In case of farms having two persons to look a er the animals, one should be exclusively kept engaged in looking a er the new animals.  The utensils used for feeding and watering the old and new animals should be separate. All utensils should be cleaned properly. No visitor should be allowed to enter into the quaran ne shed. Diseased animal in quaran ne shed should be treated properly and should be moved to the main shed only a er one week of complete recovery.While an bio c medicine is used to treat diseases in pigs, part of it excreted through urine, faeces, milk and some part remains in the body. This le over medicine is called residue.The issues concerning an bio c residue are  If the diseased pigs under treatment are slaughtered and sold, an bio c goes to human through consump on of such pork;  This residue may cause produc on of resistant bacteria in human body. This means if the person consumes same an bio c while he/ she suffer from the disease, the an bio c may not work;  This is an important and emerging problem throughout the globe because if human body becomes resistant to number of an bio cs it will be difficult to treat them in future. An bio c should be used only when it is of utmost importance to use;  An bio c is not required to treat all diseases;  An bio c should only be used as per the advice of qualified veterinarian;  It should not be purchased directly from pharmacy without doctor's prescrip on;  An bio c should be used judiciously. Both over use and underuse of an bio c is bad for the animals;  An bio c should be used for the full course (say for 5 days). Should not stop using of an bio c if the animal recovers before the end of the course;  Diseased animals should not be slaughtered and sold while they are under treatment.Pes cide is used for control of pests in crops. While using pes cides risks may be exposed to the animals in the following way: Part of pes cide remains in the crops,  Such crops are used for feeding of pigs,  The residue remains in pork and may go to human body,  Pes cide residue is a risk to human health. Judicious use of pes cides,  Limit the use of pes cides in fodder crops/food feed crops used for feeding of pigs,  Replace chemical pes cide with herbal/organic pes cide.Traceability is a process to verify the history, loca on, etc. of pigs by means of online recorded data. This is done through a customized Management Informa on System (MIS) Apps. The Pig Bandhus will have to take the responsibility of inser ng all the relevant data into the tablets/ smartphone given to them. The data will be centrally processed and necessary informa on/ documents will be supplied to all concerned. The following are the key ac vi es for crea ng good traceability:  Ear tagging of each individual pig/piglet for iden fica on;  Entering the profile of the pig and other relevant informa on into the Apps installed in tablet/smart phone;  Data are made centrally accessible and monitorable;  Follow up ac vi es to be sent back to field level operators i.e. Pig Bandhus.By using traceability, it will be easier to- Sell pigs/piglets based on online informa on provided by traceability so ware,  Take preven ve health care services ( e.g. vaccina on, iron supplementa on, deworming, castra on, etc. ) more mely and without any lapse,  Track back the source of the pork in the event of outbreak of any food born (pork) diseases,  See the availability of stock in different places at different mes. Vaccina on is an effec ve method to prevent diseases which needs following the proper schedule and maintaining cold chain for storage and transporta on.  Sanita on in the farm and cleanliness and disinfec on of farm equipments and quaran ne prac ce are useful for preven ng diseases in pigs.  Following regular and special sanita on programme may help avoid infec on and prevent diseases of pigs.  An microbial and pes cide residues have emerged as an important area of concern.  Traceability so ware can be an important means of tracking diseased pigs. To know about the types of medicines, generic and brand name of medicines, date of manufacture and expiry, storage, shaking/mixing, indica on, dose, rou ne administra on, common routes of use etc.  To know the methods of administering medicines, vaccines iron injec on etc.. Training Methods to be followed  Par cipatory discussion.  Explana on with the help of exercises and ac vi es.Training Materials  Laptop, LCD projector and screen  Photographs and illustra on  Manual and handouts  Flip chart  One vial of injec on, one piece syringe and a needle, co on swab, ncture of iodine.  A vial of a vaccine and a diluents, one disposable syringe, one piece of needle  One thermos flask & Ice box  One bolus, syrup, one injec on, a file of tablet Pig Bandhus should have basic idea about the use and misuse of medicines, do's and don'ts in the use of medicine, transporta on and storage of medicines, expiry of medicines, importance of record keeping etc. before they start using medicine even under direct supervision with local veterinary officer.7.1 Important lessons to be learnt before using any medicineThere are different types of medicines to treat various kinds of diseases. The types of medicines that a Pig Bandhu might need to handle include:  Analgesic: used to treat pain and inflamma on;  An pyre c: used to treat fever;  An diarrhoeal : Used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, loose mo on,etc.;  Vitamin and Miineral mixrtre: used to treat vitamin and mineral defficiency;  Anthelmin c: used to treat/preven on of worms infesta on;  Liver tonic: used to treat liver disease, increase diges on, increase appe te, in gastri s, suppor ve to deworming, etc.;  An bio cs: used to treat infec ons caused by bacteria;  Vaccine: used for preven on of some infec ous diseases (viral /bacterial/parasi c) which are difficult to treat a er occurrence; An sep c solu on/ointment/powder: used for dressing of wound, abrasion, ulcer, etc. to prevent infec on;  Paraci cide: Used to treat and prevent external parasites;Each medicine is composed of certain basic drugs (e.g. Paracetamol, Ampicillin, Albendazole etc.), the name of the drug is called generic name (common name/ general name). Generic name remains same in all the medicines composed of the same drug/s while trade name will vary from company to company. Different manufacturing companies give different names to the same medicine prepared by them (e.g. Albendazole is marketed as Noworm, Albidol, Albomar,etc.) Doctors generally prescribe medicine in trade name (as quality of medicine may vary from company to company).Instruc on for the Resource Person: Explain to the par cipants (i) the difference between a vial of generic medicine and a vial of proprietary medicine; (ii) the difference between bolus, syrup, tablet, injec on etc.Each medicine is manufactured on certain date/ month and that is wri en on the vial/ sachet which is called date of manufacturing (MFG). Again, each medicine has certain life span within which it should be used for treatment. The last date/ month un l which medicine remains effec ve is called Date of Expiry (EXP). Medicines must not be used beyond the date of expiry under any circumstances. Pig Bandhu should always check the date of expiry before purchasing any medicine.Medicines should be stored in cool dry place away from direct sunlight. Medicines should not be kept open; it should be ghtly closed and kept away from the reach of children. Other than vaccine no medicine should be refrigerated.Liquid medicine should be shaken well to mix the content/composi on every me before use.Disease or condi on against which a par cular medicine is used should be known. This is generally wri en on the medicine. If not, Pig Bandhu should consult with an experienced veterinarian.Disease or condi on against which the par cular medicine should not be used.Quan ty/volume of medicine to be administered /used per animal per day/ me for treatment should be known. Doses of medicine to be administered/ used depend on the body weight of theanimal. Smaller the animal smaller is the doseand vice versa. This is generally wri en on the cover of medicine. If not, Pig Bandhu should consult with an experienced veterinarian.The route of administra on varies based on type of medicine Bolus/ Tablet: Generally fed orally Syrup: Generally fed orally Ointment/ lo on/ powder: Generally applied externally on the skin Vial of injec on: Injected through different route i.e. Intramuscular, Intravenous , SubcutaneousRoute of use of different types of medicines are oral, ocular drops, ear drops, intra muscular injec on, local applica ons etc.Pig Bandhu must have knowledge on different methods of administra on of medicines in order to- Provide medicines without much inconvenience and harm to animal;  Make use of drugs properly without wastage/ under-dose/ overdose;  Treat animals properly;  Understand in case of oral medica on, the medicines should be palatable to them;Different methods are:The bolus/ tablets are grinded and mixed with the feed specially molasses, banana etc. The amount of feed should be less so that the animal takes the medicines properly. Molasses/ banana mixed with medicine should be offered to pig during the me when they are hungry, especially before offering normal feed and water.Drenching is a method that is sa sfactory for giving moderate amount of liquids or suspension. This should only be done by an experienced veterinarian.Medicines which act very rapidly or those which cannot be administered orally (because they may become ineffec ve once they come in contact with the diges ve juices or because the diseased animal is too weak) are commonly administered by injec on. Pig Bandhu shall not use injec on as a common method of administra on of medicine. It should be done only under the prescrip on and instruc on of a qualified veterinarian. Sterilize the needle and syringe (if glass syringe is used) with warm water. If disposable (use and through) plas c syringe is used, steriliza on is not required; Check for blood by drawing back on the plunger;  Make sure that the needle is not improperly placed into a vein or artery, and then the content is injected deep into the muscle.Different steps in pushing an Intramuscular injec on  Fluids injected intramuscularly are not absorbed as fast as those given in the veins, but are absorbed faster than those injected under the skin;  Special care must be taken to avoid infec on because deep sores may follow which are painful and difficult to treat;  Expel the air completely from the syringe by pushing the plunger with medicine to the mouth of the needle;  The needle should be thrust quickly through the skin at right angles to it and into the muscle without stopping;  To make sure that needle has not penetrated a blood vessel, pull out the plunger of the syringe a li le bit before injec ng contents. If blood is sucked into the syringe, choose another site;  Ensure that the needle passes the fa y layer of pigs and inserted in the muscle layer;In pig the preferred site for subcutaneous injec on is base of the ear. The method/seps of using subcutaneous injec ons is explained below: Collect the required materials and drugs;  Restrain the animal in proper way;  Draw the required medicine in to the syringe;  Clean the base of the ear by applying ncture iodine;  Pull a fold of the skin at the base of the ear by the index and thumb fingers;  Pierce the needle through the skin in an oblique, thrus ng the needle quickly and firmly;  Push steadily the contents of the syringe;  Take out the needle and gently massage the area to hasten absorp on.The use of injectable compounds to prevent piglet anemia is widespread. Although oral iron products have been shown to prevent anemia, most pork producers and veterinarians s ll rely on injectable iron. The techniques of giving iron injec on are as shown below:  The piglet is held between the le elbow and body, and the right ear is grasped and pulled firmly forward;  The skin is pricked with the needle and pushed upward, and the needle is inserted to the hub;  The injec on is administered, the needle is withdrawn, and the ear is released simultaneously;  Pushing the skin upward prior to injec on prevents leakage;  The best needle for most injectable is 18 gauge and 12 mm, but a 20 gauge needle may be used for thin liquids;  The iron injec on site is preferred over the ham area. There are different types of medicines-each type having specific purpose of treatment.  Trade name of the medicines may change but the generic name remains same.  Before using a medicine Pig Bandhu should know manufacturing and expiry date, storage guidelines, shaking/mixing, indica on and dose, route of administra on, etc.  Methods of administra on of medicines include method of withdrawing medicine from a vial, method used in young pigs and adults, methods applied for subcutaneous injec ons, oral admimistra on, topical applica on , etc.  The Pig Bandhu should clearly know administra on, dose, transporta on and storage norms of vaccines, etc.  Apart from oral iron products, iron injec ons are supplemented to piglets to prevent piglet anaemia Certain minor veterinary prac ces like assistance to sows during farrowing, dressing of fresh would, dressing of maggoted wound, ear tagging, use of local applica on including an microbial/an sep c ointments, fly repellent, etc. are generally done by community people without the support of local veterinarian. To perform these more scien fically Pig Bandhu should be taught about the processes.If the sow shows the signs of farrowing but do not produce a piglet and do pawing with a hind leg, or if 45 minutes pass since the first piglet appears with no sign of the second one, should be helped the sow in farrowing. The assistance can be done in the following way: Sows normally get farrowed at night and therefore, presence of an experienced a endant should be ensured during the me of farrowing.  If any help is required to assist the farrowing the a endant may call a veterinarian or can try to assist by himself.  The person should wash his/her hands and arms with luke-warm water and soap thoroughly.  The region of the vulva of pigs should be washed.  Hands should be soapy or should apply olive or sunflower oil to make sleepy.  The person should put his hand into the vagina and should try to feel for the piglet/ma er causing the blockage and try to remove it.  The person should clear the piglet's mouth and nostrils for any mucous a ached and if it is not breathing. He/she can gently slap it to encourage it to breath. Gently rub the piglets to dry and put its mouth on a teat.First aid is the immediate care of injured animals or those suffering from sudden illness. The aims of first aid are to protect life, reduce pain and suffering and to prevent the deteriora ng situa on to promote recovery. Before a aining first aid, assess the situa on for any health risk to yourself or others.  Injured animals feel pain and may bite. Make sure that the animal is correctly restrained before handling or li ing. You should not put yourself or others at risk while giving first aid.Under the Veterinary Surgeons' Act 1966, no-one is allowed to prac ce veterinary surgery unless they are registered in the VCI or State Veterinary Council.It means removal or dysfunc on of testes in males (or ovaries in female) to prevent breeding. Indiscriminate breeding can be checked by elimina ng undesirable males through castra on;  Castra on makes animals more docile;  Castrated males can be housed along with females;  Meat of castrated male is of superior quality;Castra on of male piglets should be done by a veterinary prac oner or a trained person with surgical interven on.If castra on is done by the owner or any other local person experienced in this ac vity, following measures are should be taken: Never use any locally available material for healing of the wound such as -dust, dung, etc.;  Wash the cut wound with saline water and if not available, clean water should be used by dissolving a pinch of common salt;  Apply some an sep c fly repellent ointment/lo on regularly.;  Keep the wound away from dust, dung, mud, etc. ll the healing is complete;  It is best advisable to perform the procedure by a qualified Vet.Cut wounds generally have even edges and bleeding is some mes profuse. Treat the cut wound under the supervision of an experienced veterinarian. The following are the requirements for dressing of fresh wounds:  The animal should be restrained properly.  For any bleeding (hemorrhage), it should be controlled by applica on of tourniquet (bindings) or by using haemosta cs or by using locally available medica on (which can stop bleeding).  One should clean, clip or shave the edges of the wound and its surroundings;  The area should be washed with lukewarm water or saline solu on;  A Tincture Benzoin co. should be applied to a thin layer of dry co on over the sutured wound edge;  Dressing of the cut wound should be done regularly un l the wound completely heal; The wound should be checked for pus forma on;  The wound area should be prevented from licking by the animal;  Should apply fly repellent to prevent maggot infesta onMaggo ed wound can be detected by the presence of an offensive smell, dribbling of blood mixed exudates and presence of maggots in the wound. One should treat the maggoted wound under the supervision of an experienced veterinarian. Following are the requirements and procedure for dressing of Maggo ed wound: A tourniquet is a piece of rope or cloth which is ed across a blood vessel. It can only be used for wounds in the legs or tail.For general management of wounds, one should- Gently trim and clean the wound area;  Irrigate the wound with lukewarm (li le warm) water or saline solu on to remove debris;  Use homeostasis drugs to stop bleeding (consult with a veterinarian), if required;  Gently handle the ssues and avoid use of irritant materials (eg. salt);  Cover the wound with dressing materials like co on, gauge bandage;  Protect the wound from contamina on and dirt;  Absorb the discharge with dry co on;  Try to prevent any further trauma;  Ensure comfortable stay for the animal in a separate pen from others.The needle teeth/ canine teeth are very sharp in piglets and may cause injury to sow's udder or facial skin of other piglets in the event of figh ng. If the volume of sow's milk is adequate for the number of piglets in the li er, clipping needle teeth is unnecessary. Clip the needle teeth under the supervision of an experienced veterinarian. The procedure may be followed and precau ons may be taken for clipping of needle teeth: The top teeth or both top and bo om teeth may be clipped based on owner's preference and experience;  It is important that only the sharp p of the tooth is cut;  If the tooth is cut too close to the gum, the tooth may be sha ered and gum infec on may occur;  The sharp edges of sha ered teeth may also trauma ze the tongue. During clipping the sow should be ed up or if it is not, separate her from her piglets and place her in another pen. Take care as the sow with a li er can be dangerous.  One should corner the young pigs and keep them together or place them in a box.  The head should be held and the corner of the piglet's mouth should be pressed so that the jaws open.  The clippers should be placed on either side of one pair of teeth to make sure that the tongue is not in the way. One should lt the head so that the pieces of the teeth will fall out of the mouth.  Then the teeth should be cut.  The clippers have to be cleaned before using them on another piglet.  This should be operated on the rest of the li er and when it is finished the piglets have to be put back with their mother immediately. One should take note that the young piglets are kept warm.Instruc on for the Resource Person: Give a demonstra on on how to hold and operate with the clipper. Use the bamboo s cks in place of needle teeth and clip them with the clipper to give a demo on it.Clipping the needle teeth 8.10 Ear tagging for iden fica on: There are several methods of iden fica on. Eartagging is the most commonly used methods applied in pig.Here, tags with different numbers are used to fix in the ear of the pigs so that each has a unique iden ca on number. Tagging is done with the help of an applicator. There are two pieces of round , flat pieces of metalor plas c one piece bearing the unique iden ca on number. In the middle of the tag , one piece is having a pointed screw like structure which, on pressing hard with the applicator, fits into the hole of the other piece making both the piece inseperable from one another.While using ear tag, one should- Fit both the pieces of the tag into both the facets of the applicator in the respec ve slots;  Restrain the pig firmly by a helper/a endant;  Hold the ear, intended to be pierced , by the thumb and the index and middle finger of the le hand;  Hold the applicator in the right hand;  Now, carefully bring thr applicator close to the ear in such a manner that the middle of the ear (the site for piercing to be selected where there is no visible blood vessels) is placed in between the two facets of the applicator;  Press both the levers of the applicator quickly and firmly so that the two pieces of the ear tag are ghtly fixed;  Apply some an sep c spray/ointment;  Record the ID number in the record book;It is a condi on of foot caused mainly by bacterial infec on. The condi on may occur due to unhygienic floor condi on.For dressing of foot rot, one should- Repair or remove cracks or broken floor;  Wash the affected foot with water based an sep c solu on like Potassium permanganate or saturated salt solu on;  Dry the foot with the help of co on or gauge bandage or a clean cloth;  Paint the foot with Tincture Iodine or Povidone Iodine;  A course of an bio c and analgesic may also be given a er consul ng a veterinarian. A Pig Bandhu may perform certain minor veterinary prac ces like first aid in pigs, first aid during farrowing, dressing of wounds, management of breeding, dressing of abscess, etc.  While conduc ng the minor veterinary prac ces, the Pig Bandhu should care for the precau ons and procedures as laid down in the session.  The Pig Bandhu should take note of the requirements prior to conduc ng minor veterinary prac ces.  The Pig Bandhu may also perform clipping of needle teeth of piglets, ear tagging and notching, recording the number of pigs etc.  The session suggests the content of the first aid box that a Pig Bandhu will carry  Pig Bandhu should take precau onary measures for maintaining personnel safety and hygiene while performing their ac vi es. Suggested contents for first aid box  Bandages: Gauze, clean rags, even a sock can be used as bandage material to help control bleeding and keep wounds clean un l they can be treated by the veterinary surgeon.. Nonadhesive vet wrap is also great to have in a pet first aid kit, as it does not s ck to animal fur and is easier to remove.  Sterile saline wash: Sterile saline wash is useful if the animal has debris or smoke in their eyes. Apply liberally and try to flush the eyes un l all debris is removed. You can also use sterile saline to flush out minor wounds.  Water: Water can also be used to flush out minor wounds. It is useful for rehydra ng pet, soothing burns, and washing off toxins, soaking a paw, or cooling an overheated pet. Tape: Micropore tape is useful for securing dressings (and is easy to tear). Alterna vely, duct tape can be useful for holding temporary bandages in place.  Gloves: If you can wear gloves when dealing with an injury it helps to reduce any further contamina on of the injury. It also protects the handler from contamina onfrom the animal  Plas c pouches/bags: Used to cover foot injuries and help keep them clean, fasten with tape. This will help minimise blood spillages on to carpets, furniture and your car. In the field  The VO of the locality will explain the day to day ac vi es for a ending the minor ailments and disease repor ng system  The VO of the locality will give a demo on storage of vaccines and medicines Visit to the local veterinary hospital, explaining the system of day-to-day work in a hospital, repor ng requirement to the local veterinary officer etc. with field exerciseThe facilitator will arrange a few pigs from the locality requiring minor veterinary first aid to prac cally demonstrate to the par cipants.   The local veterinary officer will decide how best the services of the Pig Bandhu to be u lized in light of the learning from the training manual prepared under APART and assigned ac vi es under the same project.Accordingly the local VO would build knowledge and capacity of the Pig Bandhu to provide quality services to the pig rearing community.","tokenCount":"14300"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4821b0d7ed0def6b1d011da3bf3d718c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1b785f0-708e-45a6-abb4-fe8398117529/retrieve","id":"285772152"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eec20ed5-3245-4d92-9e93-444ffbee49d8","pagecount":"58","content":"The rapid value chain assessment study covered two types of enterprises; crop and livestock enterprises. The study focused on the role and functioning of the agribusinesses involved in the purchase, processing and consumption of products generated by these value chains. The main aim of the assessment was to obtain a better understanding of these businesses and how they can play a role in expanding the volume of raw products produced, processed and sold. Three crop and three livestock enterprises were selected.The selection was based on preferences of men, women and youth, the enterprises' commercial orientation or importance and finally, the enterprises that were well preferred for ease of scalability and learning. With respect to this market assessment findings, various reliable interventions have been suggested. A total of 147 actors consisting of 85 crop actors and 62 livestock actors were interviewed using a well-structured questionnaire. Based on the market assessment, participatory community analysis (PCA) and other studies conducted earlier, various interventions have been suggested and ready for implementation.A rapid market assessment was carried on three crops; faba bean, wheat and potato. Also the input system that supports the value chain of the three crops was surveyed. It included seed, fertilizer, farm implement and chemical. To understand the crop value chain, two major actors were interviewed, that is, traders and processors. The traders interviewed involved those who only carried out wholesale or retail business but do not process the product.The wheat value chain in Amhara region seems more established. Wheat grain is used in the preparation of a range of products such as: the traditional spongy flat unleavened bread ('injera'), bread ('dabo'), local beer ('tella'), and several other local food items (i.e. 'dabokolo', 'ganfo', boiled coarse-ground wheat ('kinche'), boiled-whole grain ('nifro'), roasted grain ('kollo')). Besides, wheat straw is commonly used as a roof thatching material, and as a feed for animals. Wheat market involves both retailers and wholesalers who sell wheat grain to collectors, end consumers and processors. Primary cooperatives are key collectors in this region who play a very important role in wheat grain collection from individual farmers. There was a difference in average selling price by traders owning the business and the primary cooperatives. Primary cooperatives sold wheat grains at a lower price of (7.4 Ethiopian birr (ETB) 1 ) compared to both the wholesaler (ETB 7.5) and sole proprietor retailer (ETB 8.00). The primary cooperatives majorly supply wheat grain to the union flour factory.The processor on the other hand buys wheat grain and changes the form by milling flour. Major traded outputs of wheat processor are flour, bread and wheat bran. The flour processors and bakeries are the main actors involved in wheat processing. The flour processing factory is owned by union.Faba bean value chain also involved retailers, wholesalers and processors. Dried faba bean grain is sold mostly in retailing form but also a small number of wholesalers are involved. Wholesalers and retailers sell the grain to individual consumers and processors. The processors transform faba bean grain by roasting, splitting, labelling and selling. Roasting was identified to be a very manual and hard task which calls for better simple efficient methods. In this region production of faba bean is high compared to other sites and processing of faba bean is more developed and organized. Faba bean processors in this district have organized themselves into an association which owns a faba bean processing factory. The cooperative does processing of faba bean as a service with a fee to its members. Although members process collectively, they sell their processed faba bean and byproduct individually. Faba bean processing also involves hotels/restaurants as major processors who utilize faba bean. The hotels use the faba bean to make local dishes; 'full ', 'shiro' and 'wot'. Potato value chain in the district is not fully developed. It is still 'young' and therefore potato utilization is still minimal. Several potato retailers with very small number of wholesalers were identified. Both retailers and wholesalers are involved in potato trading. Retailers not only sell potato but also trade other products. During the market visit, it was observed that retailers trade small amounts of potato with tomato, onions and other vegetables/goods.During the market assessment survey in the sites, very minimal processing was observed. The major potato actors involved in processing are street vendors, hotels and restaurants. The street vendors also prepare French-fries and supply to consumers at dusk. The hotels and restaurants commonly use potato as boiled and as part of traditional dishes or 'wot' (sliced, boiled potato with pepper, onion, salt and oil) or 'Beyaynet' and there is little processing into chips. The few hotels and restaurant processors interviewed during the survey preferred large sized potato for processing.The three value chains are supported by the input system and therefore the market survey also studied the input market. The input system is majorly steered by the government with the private sector players having minimal contribution. In this region fertilizer, seed, farm implement and chemicals are supplied by the research centre, Bureau of Agriculture (BoA), cooperatives and unions. Seed production business, chemical spraying services, farm implement hiring among others, are suggested interventions. Production of seed by producer owned agribusinesses is an entry point towards achieving a sustainable seed supply system in the sites. There is also potential for new enterprises that can be based on provision of chemical spraying and farm mechanisation services, some of which would easily appeal to the youth in the rural areas.The rapid value chain assessment study covered three main livestock value chains i.e. the dairy value chain, the large and small ruminants' value chains.The role of the agribusinesses in the dairy value chain is the most advanced in Basona Worena as compared to the other Africa RISING districts. It is noted that the bulk of the milk produced and sold through the commercial system is in fact 'exported' to the larger Addis Ababa milk shed for further processing. Part of the local demand for fresh milk is met by the dairy businesses, including dairy shops, cafes and hotel/restaurants, however most milk for urban consumers is purchased directly from farmers. Production of fresh butter by the dairy cooperative is significant and reaches 1350 kg/month (equivalent to 27,000 litres of milk) during periods when demand for milk is less. Also, two of the three sampled privately owned dairy cafes produce substantial quantities of butter during the same period (up to 1,500 kg/month). Part of the fresh butter is also destined for the Addis Ababa market. Furthermore, the economics of butter making is enhanced because of the 'ayeb' making from the skimmed milk remaining from the butter processing. It is noted however that the byproduct from 'ayeb' making i.e. whey, is underutilized and it is proposed to stimulate its use for livestock production (especially for raising calves). Besides the fresh butter produced by the businesses, on farm production of lactic butter from soured milk is also significant in the district and a network of traders collects butter from markets in and outside the district with quantities ranging from 80 to 1400 kg/month/trader during peak months. Some traders reported sales outside the district. Quality pricing has been introduced in sampled butter shops in Debre Birhan, with highest prices paid for young-fresh butter. Linkages have also been established between the commercially produced fresh butter system and the butter traders for the sale of fresh butter. An interesting development is the emergence of milk shops and dairy cafes. The former facilitates trade in fluid milk between producer and consumer while the dairy cafes also get involved in serving processed milk products (boiled milk and 'irgo') as well as small scale processing of butter and ayeb. Both businesses can be assisted in expanding their role in selling fresh milk through additional linkages with consumers and producers. The dairy cafes may also consider expanding their product range (e.g. butter milk, ice cream) and introducing food safe 'irgo' through heating. Also new businesses and/or roles of existing businesses could be expanded, in particular the establishment of business models for butter processing in rural areas using new processing methods and churning technologies. Not only could this reduce the labour burden on women but also offer new business opportunities for women. To determine the commercial demand for the various dairy products, it is proposed to conduct a consumer demand study, which may also include testing of new products. To meet such increased demand, formation of marketing groups for butter and milk should be encouraged to reduce individual marketing cost.The role of agribusinesses in large and small ruminants' trade is also significant in Basona Worena in terms of number of animals traded by the traders and purchases by butchery restaurants and hotel restaurants. Both large and small ruminants are purchased and sold inside and outside the district. Considerable seasonal fluctuation was observed in the number of animals traded-on average 63% decline in number of animals per trader between peak and low months-and price paid-on average 33% drop in price per trader. The average age of traded large and small ruminants is rather high indicating a traditional consumption demand through the businesses involved. However a consumer survey is proposed to explore demand by institutional and individual consumers. Such a study should explore possibilities for alternative products (younger animals, fattened animals). Based on the findings, different production cycles should be explored to produce for targeted markets/buyers and periods. Formation of marketing groups of producers should be encouraged to meet specific demands during the year as well as reduce marketing cost per animal through collective sales arrangements.To support the commercialization of all three value chains, some key service and input supply businesses require attention.In general input/services in rural areas for dairy (butter) and large and small ruminants' production are less developed than in the peri-urban areas. While the government aims to improve the public sector veterinary and artificial insemination (AI) services, by developing a more decentralized system, improvements can be made for producers in the rural areas through collective action by groups of producers/primary cooperatives for the bulk purchase of inputs and services.The improvement in genetic resources, in particular for dairy animals is insufficient and the introduction of a more efficient system based on mass insemination supported by mobile teams and hormones has shown some improvements but require study to improve its performance.The district is 'blessed' with an abundance of agricultural by-products (AIB), with the exception of oilcake. The use of commercially available pulse bran produced in the district should be examined further since all pulse bran is 'exported' to producers in Adama. To increase demand for AIB components or mixes, awareness creation and demonstration of the use of AIBs is proposed together with collective (bulk) purchasing of feed by marketing groups and/or primary cooperative.The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises of three research-for-development projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future initiative. Working in collaboration with research and development partners, Africa RISING´s goal is to improve food, nutrition, and income security of smallholder farmers (in particular vulnerable groups such as women and children) through sustainable intensification of farming systems.The three projects are led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (in West Africa and East and Southern Africa) and the International Livestock Research Institute (in the Ethiopian Highlands). International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) leads the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment component of the projects.In Ethiopia, the project (from here onwards 'the project' refers to the Africa RISING project in Ethiopia) is being implemented in, a total of 8 kebeles, 2 from each of the 4 regions of Amhara, Tigray, SNNPR and Oromia regions.The Africa RISING project works with partners from CG centres, local universities, regional research institutions, Woreda agricultural offices and federal research organizations. In consultation with partners, the project identified seven thematic areas for implementation in the coming three years (2014)(2015)(2016), including cross cutting themes one of which is markets and value chainsIn 2013, the Africa RISING project conducted detailed diagnostic analysis in the eight project kebeles. As part of the diagnostics, Participatory Community Analysis (PCA) were conducted in all the project sites to characterize agricultural production and livelihood systems, identify priority farm enterprises, major income sources, farm resources, and farmer-perceived constraints and opportunities for improving income, food security and/or reducing overall risks by intensifying farm enterprises.The value chain assessment study reported here builds on the PCA findings. The PCA identified farmer perceived priority enterprises and also mapped value chains for some crop and livestock enterprises including the constraints and opportunities faced by different chain actors. However, much of the focus in the PCA was at the production stage of the value chain and little attention was paid to other elements of the value chain, particularly the agribusinesses such as input suppliers, traders, processors which are key for the performance of the whole value chain. This study therefore focused on value chain of agribusinesses for the priority crop and livestock enterprises identified in the PCA.The specific objectives of the rapid value chain study were:  To identify and get an understanding of the role/importance of the value chain and input/services agribusinesses in each of the value chains  To get an understanding of market demand and supply of crop and livestock products in and outside the district and suggest potential interventions based on the findings  To identify opportunities for strengthening linkages between value chain actors (input suppliers, producers, traders, processors and end consumers) and including suggestions for improvement in agribusiness performance (the latter will have to be discussed with specialized projects operating in the districts-in particular Agricultural Growth Program and the Livestock Marketing Development Program).Basona Worena district is comprised of 30 kebeles of which Goshe Bado and Gudo Beret have been selected for testing the initial set of production interventions. The total population of the district is 134,600 (2014, Woreda office of Finance and Economic Development report) and almost 100% Orthodox in religion. The district capital, Debre Birhan also serves as the zonal capital for the North Shoa zone and is therefore a major supplier of inputs and services and trading and processing. Part of the district has a well-developed road network-see map with main socio economic characteristics.Most of Basona Worena is classified in Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ) 'moist Dega'. The bulk of the area receives rainfall between 900 and 1050 mm annually and most of the area is between 2250 and 3200masl. Average temperature in most of the district varies between 9-15ºC. The majority of the soils are Cambisols and Vertisols with some Arenosols in the undulating lower parts of the district.Most of the area is cultivated with some grazing areas at mid and high altitude-see compilation of biophysical maps (Figures1 and 2). The market value chain studies used various approaches to gather information on different enterprises. This study built on earlier findings from the Participatory Community Analysis (PCA) and Rapid Telephone Surveys which were conducted in the project in 2013. Basing on these earlier studies, priority enterprises were selected for detailed value chain analysis focusing on agribusinesses related to these enterprises.Building on the previous work on PCA and telephone surveys, the survey team narrowed down the enterprises for value chain analyses to three crop and three livestock enterprises. The criteria used in prioritizing the enterprises were that the enterprises were equally preferred by men, women and youth; the enterprises had a commercial orientation or importance and finally; that the enterprises were well preferred for ease of scalability and learning across the four project areas. Based on these criteria, the selected crop and livestock enterprises are presented in Table 1. This approach was used to identify value chain actors and service providers for the input and output markets for the six selected enterprises. The mapping of the value chains was conducted in all Africa RISING sites. Tools used to carry out the study included: focus group discussions, key informants interviews and platform meetings with value chain actors.The key objectives of using this approach were; To determine the value chain actors and processes for the supply of inputs/services and the processing and marketing of selected marketable livestock and crop commodities.  To determine the main channels used for processing and marketing of the produce by farmers.  To analyse the mapping information to propose some initial (best bet) interventions to improve the efficiency of the input/service supply and processing/marketing system  To use the mapping information to select actors/processes for more detailed assessment/analysis.  To identify the roles and responsibility of key actors on the value chain of crop and livestock enterprises.During the value chain mapping exercise core problems and opportunities were identified that warranted further research by Africa RISING. The strengths, weaknesses and gaps were also noted and these were further analysed in this value chain assessment study.Based on the value chain mapping, actor and service providers were selected for the detailed survey.The market assessment survey took place during the month of February 2014.Questionnaires were used as the key tool to collect data. Field pretesting exercise was carried out across all the sites to assess the relevance of the questions for different value chain actors. By pretesting of the questionnaires, the team was able to validate the findings of value chain mapping which had been conducted earlier and also implemented sample selection of the actors.Actor sampling was based on the potential actors who were identified during the mapping exercise.The sample selected was composed of the team sample of actors and service providers who were significant to work with in implementing the interventions suggested. For crop enterprises the actors sampled for interviews included seed suppliers, seed producers, farm implement suppliers, crop chemical suppliers; wheat, faba bean, potato traders and processors.For livestock enterprises the value chain actors included; large and small butchery/restaurant, dairy agribusiness, dairy restaurants, local butter, livestock feed, large and small ruminant traders, large and small abattoirs and veterinary drugs/services. A total of 85 and 62 actors were interviewed for crop and livestock enterprises value chain survey, respectively (Tables 2 and 3). This value chain/market assessment builds on earlier studies done in the Africa RISING project, specifically the telephone survey and PCA which were conducted in 2013. Following this, a value chain mapping exercise was done by conducting interviews with a few key informed actors, talking with the key informative people in the community, getting information from government data, journals and other secondary data.To verify the findings of the value chain mapping and also understand the six enterprises value chains in detail, a market assessment study was carried out in February 2014 through interviewing input and output market actors. For this detailed market assessment, primary data was collected, analysed and consolidated with the other findings to produce interventions for each research site.Data entry, cleaning and analysis were done in March 2014. Using the SPSS statistical package data was divided into livestock data and crop data which was entered in different data templates. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency tables and ranges were used to analyse the data.After data analysis, the site coordinators and partners met in a writing workshop to interpret the results and came up with this report. The key objective for the writing workshop was: 1) Sharing market value chain results 2) Writing up the value chain report for the Africa RISING project 3) Discussion and documentation of the best bet interventions for the project 4) Developing protocols for the value chains and market work for the project.This chapter presents the findings of the value chain/market assessment study for crop enterprises for potato, faba bean and wheat as well as input supply chain; fertilizer, chemical, seed and farm implement. Value chain actors are classified as those individuals who take ownership of a product, through the exchange of money or equivalent goods or services during the transaction process of moving the product from conception to the end user. Those individuals or firms providing a service without taking ownership of the product are classified as service providers. The primary actors in the value chain are traders and processors. In this study the service providers interviewed were input suppliers for fertilizers, seed, crop chemical and farm implements while the traders include both retailers and wholesalers. Each of these actors adds value in the process of changing product title and form.The main processes of assessed value chains include input supply, processing and trading. Input suppliers involve those that supply fertilizer, crop chemical, seed and farm implements to the farmers. The seed suppliers also comprised the seed producers, government organizations and cooperatives. Trading involves wholesalers and retailers who are in the business of buying and selling the crop products without carrying out any change in the form of the good. The processing activities involved any transformation of the form of the product to a different product. The traders who purchased crop product and carried out any process to change the form before selling the commodity to other traders or end consumers were considered as trader processors. They consist of traders, hotel restaurants, cafeterias and roadside (street) processors.The processes and general actors in the potato value chain in Basona Worena district and the subsequent market outlets along the chain are shown in Figure 3. Potato trading is done mainly by retailers and a few wholesalers in Basona Worena district. The major potato traders interviewed were wholesalers and retailers and most of them were sole proprietors. Most of the wholesale businesses were owned by males who attained secondary level of education while the retailers were women with secondary school education. The wholesaling businesses were started earlier (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009) compared to the retailing (2011)(2012)(2013) according to this study (Table 4). Buying: The potato traders purchase potatoes from large traders, individual farmers, agents/brokers and collectors. About half of the wholesalers' suppliers are from within the district and half from distant districts. All the retailers source potatoes from within the districts in Debre Birhan town while wholesalers buy within the district, neighbouring district and from distant districts (Holeta, Shashemene and Borale).The wholesalers have buying arrangements with potato traders which is not written but rather based on trust. They use mobile phones to call traders outside the region and consequently sell to the retailers in Debre Birhan market. In a week a wholesaler can purchase an average of 5000 kg at a price of ETB 3/kg while retailers purchase about 66 kg at a price of ETB 4.75/kg. The main season of potatoes production is during the period of September to November. In the months of June to November the supply is high while in the months of February to May the supply is low (Table 5).The fluctuations in supply during the year is attributed to inability to store potatoes for a long duration and therefore market supply peaks during the high production months and declines during the low production months. The main buyers for wholesaler are end consumers, retailers and the hotel and restaurants (processors) who are within the districts and also from neighbouring districts. The retailers mostly sell to the end consumers within the district. In a week the wholesalers sell on average 4750 kg at a price of ETB 4.2/kg while the retailers sell 58 kg at a price of ETB 6.2. All wholesalers allow credit and majority of retailers sell on cash basis with one allowing both the cash and credit sale in different situations (Table 6).Storage: Generally, Wholesalers and retailers manage to store potatoes for an average of 5 days. The main challenges faced by the actors include; spoilage through sprouting and rooting, poor storage facilities, poor market place condition and lack of market information, inconsistent and low supply of potato, poor quality potato supplied: some potatoes supplied are affected by pests on the farm and others are of poor varieties which processors are not interested in, weight loss during storage, price fluctuations as well as illegal and unlicensed traders Some of the proposed suggestions to curb the mentioned constraints include strengthening regulation of non-registered enterprises and to support potato production and marketing. Increasing potato product awareness among potential consumers will change food habits of the people and create demand.The main potato processors in Basona Worena district are hotels/restaurants and roadside chips vendors. Most of the potato processing businesses are sole proprietorships and six out of eight sampled processors are owned by women with two owned by men. The reason for female dominance in potato processing in hotels and restaurants as well as the roadside businesses could be because most of the food activities are done by women and they have experience in these businesses. Most of the roadside businesses have just been recently established; between 2013-2014 unlike the hotel and restaurants which were established in between 2003 and 2012. According to the findings of the study, roadside selling was done by women only and this could be because this business needs less start-up capital and therefore women are more likely to take it up (Table 7). Buying: Hotels and restaurants purchase potato from large traders mostly while the roadside processors buy from collectors and large traders. In a week the hotels buy an average of 88 kg of potato at ETB 5/kg while roadside processors buy an average of 33 kg at a price of ETB 6. The place where potato is commonly sourced is Debre Birhan and Addis Ababa. In most cases no vehicle is used to transport the potato because the purchases are in small quantities (Table 8). Processing: Potato is commonly consumed as boiled and as part of traditional dishes or 'wot' (sliced, boiled potato with pepper, onion, salt and oil) and there is little processing into chips. The few hotels and restaurants processors interviewed during the survey preferred large size potato for processing but could not tell the quantity of potato processed as the product is sold mixed with different products like vegetables and other dishes. Hence, it is hardly possible to report on the volume of potato processed in Basona Worena district.The main buyers of the processed potato are end consumers within the district. All the processors interviewed pointed out that they only sell on cash basisThe main months considered to be of high potato supply is from June to November while low supply coincides with high demand which is experienced in the month of March, April and December because of the fasting period.Challenges faced by potato processors were: Poor potato variety/quality for processing, price fluctuation, poor market condition and place, fast spoilage of potato and high cost of processing potato.To curb the mentioned challenges various interventions were proposed: Better harvesting methods to avoid damage of potato tubers during harvesting, enabling good marketing environment, ensure continuous supply of the potato and better variety or quality of potato for processingThe processes and general actors in the faba bean value chain in Basona Worena district and the subsequent market outlets along the chain are shown in Figure 4. Buying: The major suppliers of faba beans include agent/brokers, individual farmers, large traders, and collectors within the district. The retailers purchase on average of 168 kg at a price range of ETB 6.20 to11.0/kg while wholesalers purchases about 3333kg at a constant price of ETB 6.30/kg. This is because of their capacity to purchase during the high supply seasons. The supply of faba bean is high in the months of November to January with low supply faced in the month of June to August. The major sources of faba beans are Debre Birhan, Goshe Bado, Keyit and Kotu (Table 10).Trader processorNeighbouring districtsInput suppliers Selling: Retailers primarily sell to end consumers within the district while the wholesalers sell to retailers, processors and even fellow wholesalers who are within the districts and also beyond the neighbouring districts. The wholesalers sold about 2667 kg at a price range of ETB 6.50 to 6.70/kg while retailers sold an average quantity of 132 kg at a price range of ETB 6.50 to 12.0/kg per week.Most of the transactions were on cash basis as indicated by all the retailers while all the wholesalers made payment in both cash and on credit basis (Table 11). Both cash and credit 0 AllMost of the traders cited lack adequate capital as an impediment for expanding and diversifying their business. It was also pointed out that government charges a high interest rate on credit it offers, and that there is low production of faba bean, marketing conditions are poor arising from the market place that is dusty for traders, price instability and poor storage facilities.Some of suggestions made to solve the constraints include mechanizing processing of faba bean especially roasting, improving storage conditions and the government to ensure fair taxation systems for all value chain actors. A stable seed faba bean seed supply system will also contribute to the improvement in production of faba bean.Hotels/restaurants and trader processors are the major actors involved in faba bean processing.Faba bean trader processors in the district organized themselves into a cooperative for the processing of the faba bean produced inside and outside the district. The trader processor does roasting, splitting, labelling and selling. The trader processors in Basona Worena district are either sole proprietor and there are also other processors who have formed a trader cooperative. The cooperative does processing of faba bean as a service to its members. The processed faba bean and the by-products remain the property of the traders, who sell them. All the processing businesses interviewed were individually owned. Hotels are primarily owned by women while trader processing businesses are owned by male. All the businesses interviewed are licensed.The hotels buy roasted and splitted faba bean from collectors and traders from within the districts, mostly Debre Birhan. The trader processors source the dried grain from the collectors from within the district, mostly Debre Birhan, Chacha and Jiru (Table 12). Processing: The hotels use the faba bean to make 'full' and 'wot' local foods and in a week they us an average of 16 kg. The trader-processors process an average of 3125 kg of splitted and unroasted together with roasted and splitted faba bean grain in a week (Table 13). Selling: Hotels sell to the end consumers within the district while trader processors mostly sell to wholesalers and retailers within and to beyond the neighbouring districts. The demand of faba bean is high during the fasting periods (Months of February, March, September, October and December).Training: Only one of ten interviewed processors was trained on faba bean processing and storage.The major constraints faced by faba bean processors include the following: Difficulties in faba roasting, poor quality of faba bean supplied by traders, price fluctuation and lack of sustainable market linkage between traders and processors. Mechanization of roasting of the faba beans and increasing the supply of faba bean are possible ways to address the constraints. With respect to processing, mechanization can play a vital role in reducing the drudgery associated with processing faba bean. Progressive linkages between different value chain actors will also contribute to improving linkages between processors and traders of faba bean.The processes and general actors in the wheat value chain in Basona Worena district and the subsequent market outlets along the chain are shown in Figure 5. In Basona Worena district, wheat trading is mainly done by cooperatives and individual who are involved in wholesaling. Retailing businesses interviewed were all sole proprietorships mainly owned by men.The wheat grain is supplied by collectors and individual farmers. There are primary cooperatives that buy from individual farmers then sells to the union. There was a difference in average purchase price by traders owning the business and the cooperatives. Consumer cooperative has a contract agreement with the suppliers or customers to supply the wheat grain when it is needed. The major source of wheat supply is Moretina Jiru district which is 65 km from Debre Birhan town. Primary cooperatives offered low purchase price (7.00) compared to both sole proprietor retailer and wholesaler who offered an average price of ETB 7.50 (Table 14). This could be because primary cooperatives buy wheat grains from individual farmers and then sells to the union and therefore they buy at a lower price so that they can earn profit. The wheat grain is sold to end consumers and retailers by the retailers, wholesalers and primary cooperatives. There was a difference in average selling price by traders owning the business and the primary cooperatives. Primary cooperatives sold wheat grains at a lower price (ETB 7.4/Kg) compared to both the wholesaler (ETB 7.5/Kg) and sole proprietor retailer (ETB 8.00) (Table 15).Training: Only one cooperative was trained on storage and post-harvest control in the year 2006. Constraints encountered by wheat traders included: Capital constraints leading to inability to expand their business due to limited access to capital; lack of suitable market linkage between traders and processors, poor storage facilities and conditions, price fluctuations and instability and unstandardized taxation rates and especially in the presence of non-registered traders who may not some of the taxes.There is need for the union to buy on cash from the cooperatives to avoid delayed payments and this will require injection of funds from the credit market. This requires innovation in the way unions operate and closer linkages with financial institutions. In addition, there is need to create a suitable marketing system where buyers and sellers with appropriate standards being made available through support from the government.The main business types involved in wheat processing are bakeries and flour processing factories which were all licensed. The flour processing factory is owned by union while the bakeries are owned by individuals with secondary school education. The flour factory was started in 2001 however most of the bakeries were started between1984 and 2014.The flour processor (union) buys wheat grain from multi-purpose cooperatives while bakery buys from large traders and other processors. The flour processors buy wheat grains at a low price (ETB 6.40) while the bakery owners' buys wheat flour at ETB 9.40 (Table 16). The average quantity purchased per week is average quantity of four bakeries. One bakery was using 129,500 kg of flour to make bread supplied to a university and was not included in calculation of the average sale of (414) in table above.The bakeries mostly sell their wheat products which include bread, biscuits and 'sambusa' to the end users and retailers. Three of bakery owners highlighted that they have adequate market for their product while two said they did not always have a market for their products. The flour processing business owned by union manages to sell about 35000 kg of flour per week to end consumers, retailers and bakeries at a price of averaging ETB 7.96/kg. Wheat flour and its products are sold within the district and in other districts. The demand for wheat flour and other wheat product is high during ceremony seasons, holidays and fasting period (Table 17). The storage capacities of bakeries range between 1,000 to 60,000 kg while the union has a storage capacity of 450,000 kg. Inadequate storage facilities is a major challenge facing processors.Training: Only the union has been trained on wheat storage and processing while none of the bakeries has received training on this.The major constraints highlighted by wheat processors were: Unstable electricity supply, tax increases and poor quality of wheat grain supplied to the flour processors. The bakeries do not get quality wheat flour from the flour factory (union). This is mainly because the factory majorly uses variety ET-13 as raw material, which has poor bread making quality traits like lower grain and flour protein content and its soft grain. The main indications to address the constraint relate to was prevention of rodents and pest attack of the wheat grains during storage. However, it is also important to upgrade wheat quality starting from production to storage management.Input suppliers are very important actors in the value chain and various input suppliers were interviewed including seed, chemical, fertilizer and farm implement suppliers.Potato and wheat seed producers were interviewed in this study. The wheat seed production in Basona Worena district involves research institution, and individual seed producers while potato seed production involves research institutions, primary cooperatives and individual seed producers as the only actors. The research institute which produces basic and pre basic wheat and potato seed in the district was started in 1982. The individual seed producers started seed production between 2006 and 2013. In addition to wheat seed, individual seed producers also produce potato seed. Primary cooperative are licensed while individual farmers are not licensed in the district. Figure 6 shows channels for seeds production in Basona Worena district. In the study areas most of the buyers of the potato seed are individual farmers and primary cooperatives. The primary cooperatives buy from individual seed producers while the research centre sells to individual farmers within the district. The research centre on average sells 100 kg per season while individual seed producers sell 5.12 kg. Selling prices range from ETB 12 to 18/kg.Storage: Most of the stores are made up of wood for individual farmers and cement for primary cooperatives and research centres. The homemade mini Diffused Light Storage (DLS) is the kind of store used for the potato seed storage. The storage capacity among various actors is different and ranges from 700 kg to 30,000 kg. Majority of the seed producers have storage problems which include poor storage facilities which are not modernized hence not efficient, inadequate storage, rodents and pest attack and sprouting identified as key storage problems among various potato seed producers.Training: Half of the sampled individual seed producers have been trained on seed storage with most of the actors trained on seed production.Other services: Only three of six seed producers offer other services apart from producing and supplying seeds. Other services offered by research centre include training on seed production and marketing; and management of cooperatives. Some of the individual seed producers share production information with other farmers.The most used means of communication are mobile phones and face to face communication which are used across all the actors. Internet was identified to be used by only the research centre.For the research centre, inadequate land, budget and irrigation access for potato seed multiplication is a major constraint. The research centre has potential to supply good quantity of seeds if they had adequate land to produce seed. For other seed producers, land under seed production is also small. Inadequate budget allocated to seed production is another challenge for the research centre due to the high costs incurred in the seed production compared to budgeted amounts. The cost of labour was also noted to be high in the district.Poor seed quality supplied was also a major problem for the cooperatives. The potato seeds that they receive from individual farmers are not of good quality standards. In addition, pests and diseases during the seed production are common, such as leaf diseases (blight). Also rats and other rodents attack the seed in storage. Some ways to address the challenges are: Establishment of seed business among the cooperatives and other agribusinesses: For sustainability of the cooperatives and other farmer led agribusinesses which are the main channel to supply seed to individual farmers, they should be supported to establish seed production and supply as a business.  Establishment of a strong research, extension and farmer linkage: The research centre and other seed producers come up with new improved seeds which need to be made known to the farmers and also ensure good seed distribution to the farmers.  Development and use of improved disease resistant varieties  Forging strong sustainable market linkage between seed supplies and grain production  Training on seed production: the individual seed producers showed interest on being trained on land preparation, fertilizer application, and crop seed management.  Diffused light system (DLS) houses and modern storages: Most of the seed producers of potato have poor storage facilities.  Strengthening and establishing the existing and new community based seed multiplication schemes so as to sustain the seed production and supply system in the community mainly for wheat and faba bean.The main seed suppliers in Basona Worena district include the government office of agriculture, union and primary cooperatives. The office of agriculture started in the year 1979 while all of the primary cooperatives and the Union were formed between 1978 and 2001.Buying: The primary cooperatives receive seed from various suppliers that include farmers, government seed enterprise, private company and the union who are within the district and also from other districts around. The office of agriculture is supplied with about 40,000 kg wheat seeds at a price of about ETB 9.00/kg while the cooperatives purchase an average of 3800 kg per season at a price range of ETB 12.71 to 14.61/kg.Among the eight primary cooperatives interviewed only one was supplied by government seed enterprise. This cooperative was supplied with about 12,000 kg of seeds at a buying price of ETB 16.00/kg. The office of agriculture is supplied with seed on average amounting to 6500kg at a cost of ETB 12.00/kg while the cooperative purchased averagely 120 00 kg at a price of ETB 16.00/kg.The amount of potato bought by office of agriculture was 6500 kg at price of ETB 12.00/kg.The office of agriculture is the key supplier of the seeds to all the primary cooperatives who sells directly to individual farmers. The office of agriculture sells about 20000 kg at a price of ETB 13.00 and 3250 kg at a price of ETB 12.50/kg for wheat and faba bean seed respectively. The cooperative sells wheat seed averagely 3800 kg at a price of ETB 14.61/kg while faba bean seed; seasonally it manages to sell at about 6500kgat a price of ETB 16.34/kg. All the seeds purchased are sold within the district. Office of agriculture sold 6500 kg at a price of ETB 12.5/kg.The seed suppliers have various store type; modern Diffused Light Store (DLS, mud stores, wooden made and corrugated iron sheets made stores. The average store capacity is 181,800 kg. Most of the seed suppliers have major challenge in storage which includes; leaking stores, poor storage facilities, inadequate storage capacity and rodent and pest attack.Training: About eight out of ten seed suppliers were trained on seed quality management and storage in the year 2013. Face to face and mobile phone are the main means of communication used. Unavailability of seeds within the district; the office of agriculture has to source seed outside the district  The high seed cost; the office of agriculture and cooperatives have had arguments over increasing prices of seeds in the recent years.  Heavy work load among the cooperative committee members; the committee members have much work to handle despite the voluntary nature of the cooperatives.  Shortage of improved varieties: The supply of the improved seeds is not adequate and in some seasons the cooperatives receive very little quantity to meet the farmers demand.  Cooperative management skills and member participation: Most of the cooperatives pointed out there are conflict between leaders and that has affected their performance.  Engage the local research centres to produce seed at a fair price  Timely Supply of improved seed varieties on time  Provide cheap credit  Reduce the high cost of seeds  Provide incentives to the cooperative workersThe key supplier involved in farm implement business is government office of agriculture, union, primary cooperatives and individual private business (figure 7). The individuals involved in the supply of farm implements sell along the construction material business (i.e. as a side business). Buying: The union and government office of agriculture source the implements from private company in the districts beyond the neighbouring districts but within the country. The primary cooperatives purchases farm implements from the union within the district while the individual shops source from private company and traders who are in the districts beyond neighbouring districts but within the country. The individual shops supply various implements such as sickle, hoe, shovel, ox plough, cart, pipes, and watering can. The union, office of agriculture and primary cooperative mostly supply sickles. About six of the suppliers provide transport services whereas in the case of union the implements are delivered to them by the suppliers.Selling: Individual shops sell to individual farmers and primary cooperative while office of agriculture and cooperative supplies implement to individual farmers only. Different methods are used to determine the selling price for example the office of agriculture uses the market price while the individual farm implements shops, union, and primary cooperatives uses set price plus commission. Face to face communication was mostly used followed by mobile phone. Use of internet is very minimal only four of individual shop interviewed pointed out that they used it.Various challenges are faced by the farm implement actors;  Untimely and inadequate supply of the implements  Low demand; most of the farmers have less know-how on how utilize the available implement to improve their farming techniques. Also the high price of the implements discourages farmers from buying them.  Poor quality implements supplied; Most of the suppliers argued out that the implements that are supplied to them are of low quality standards.Various suggestions were proposed; Establishing agricultural farm implement shops: It was noted that in this region there is no single shop that specialize in selling of farm implements. Most of the implements are sold in construction shop as a side business.  Supply of modern implements: the supply of modern implement like thresher, mixers, combiners and other innovative technological implement is not done within the union or office of agriculture or primary cooperative.The main key actors supplying crop chemicals in Basona Worena district are office of agriculture, union and primary cooperatives. It was noted that there is no private shops selling chemicals in the district. Various types of chemical supplied include pesticides, fungicides and herbicides while insecticides were only supplied by office of agriculture.The key suppliers are private company and union which are in districts beyond neighbouring districts and also others within the district. The office of agriculture and union is supplied by private companies while primary cooperatives are supplied by union.Selling: The office of agriculture and union sells to cooperatives who then sell directly to farmers The main actors involved in fertilizer supply in Basona Worena district are union and primary cooperatives. Urea and DAP fertilizer are the commonly supplied fertilizers to the farmers.The union buys fertilizer from private company in districts beyond the neighbouring districts but within the country. The union then sells to primary cooperatives who sell to individual farmers. In a season, the union is supplied with DAP fertilizer of about 8729200 kg at a price of ETB 13.46/kg while cooperatives receive averagely 41775 kg of urea and 50375 kg DAP which is delivered by the suppliers. The price range of urea was ETB 11.21 to 11.68/kg and for DAP ETB 12.58 to 13.46/kg (depending on the time lags). The union manages to purchase about 10,136,750 kg at a price ETB 11.68/kg.The union sells to primary cooperatives who then sell to individual farmers. Union sells urea 10136750 kg at a price ETB 11.75/kg and DAP 8729200 kg at a price ETB 13.53/kg. The primary cooperatives sells to farmers at a price range of ETB 11.31 to 11.78/kg and ETB 12.68 to 13.56/kg for urea and DAP respectively. It was noted that most of the cooperatives allow credit to farmers. The selling price is determined by the set price plus commission. Storage: Most of the storage facilities are not up to the required standards. The primary cooperatives have various types of stores; mud made and wooden made stores. The union stores the fertilizer for about 60 days and the store has a capacity of 450000 kg. The cooperatives store capacity ranges between 20000and 600000 kg and they store fertilizer for an average of 140 days.Primary cooperativeThere are various storage problems that are faced by the actors in the supply chain which include; inadequate storage, rodents and pest attacks, roof leaking which leads to spoilage of the fertilizer.Union faces challenge on transporting the fertilizer to the primary cooperatives and high prices of fertilizer.Various suggestions were proposed; Private companies to supply inputs on time  Reduce the cost of fertilizers  Give updates on the date of supply: in most cases the cooperatives have no idea when they will be receiving the fertilizer from union.Some of the interventions to support value chain actors in marketing of the outputs include:1. Establishment of warehouse especially for potato which will be an avenue for farmers to store and sell potatoes at a later date when prices are expected to be higher. Furthermore, warehouse will enable consistent supply of produce year round between the producers and traders. 2. Enhance market linkages among the actors in the value chain. Stronger linkages all the way from the input suppliers to the end consumers will lead to a more efficient value chain where inputs will be available to ensure proper production of the necessary products. In addition, demand signals will be clearly communicated to the producers. 3. Supply quality seed suitable for processing. Quality seeds should be supplied to farmers along with knowledge on how to maintain them accordingly. This will be a key step in bridging the yield and quality gap between current and potential production. 4. Improved post-harvest management practices (post harvesting and handling). 5. Seed system (community seed production) and linking it with seed producing cooperatives especially for faba bean. 6. Strengthen Market linkage for producers and primary cooperatives (seed as a business) in wheat production. 7. Establishment of irrigation facilities for the research centre to produce potato seed and improved varieties suitable for the processing. 8. Capacity building intervention for research centre, seed production and marketing cooperatives (SPMS). 9. Training on how to use farm implements, sensitization and linkages with producers plat forms.4 Livestock value chainsMilk is produced by local (23,512) and cross breed cows (6145) in Basona Worena district. Most cross breed cows are kept by farmers in urban and peri-urban areas where they are used to produce fresh milk for urban consumers and the dairy businesses interviewed and described in this section.Local cows are found in rural and peri urban areas. The milk produced from these cows is processed on farm into butter using local churning technologies. Part of the milk from local cows in peri-urban areas is also sold as fresh milk, especially during peak demand periods.In Basona Worena district, dairy agribusiness value chain actors include commercial companies, periurban producers' marketing cooperatives, and small scale urban private or cooperatively owned businesses involved in selling, processing and using dairy products. Furthermore, private traders are involved in butter buying and selling activities.Table 18 shows that female ownership in dairy value chain related businesses is high (>50%). While some businesses were established more than 10 years ago, several new businesses emerged more recently include privately owned dairy cafes and village butter traders-perhaps indicating a growing commercial demand. Most businesses are licensed. Dairy collection and selling businesses are here defined as commercial enterprises involved in the collection, processing and selling of dairy products. Results of these businesses are summarized in Table 19.The (sampled) Angolela dairy cooperative purchases milk from its 259 members (204 male and 55 female), and sells it to commercial companies (Etete PLC-on contract basis). Some milk is processed into fresh butter using a cream separator. The remaining skimmed milk is processed into 'Ayeb' (local cheese). The butter is sold to consumers and traders in and outside the district (Sheno, Addis), while the 'Ayeb' is sold to hotel/restaurants and end consumers. Butter milk (by-product butter processing) and whey (by-product 'Ayeb' making) are not commercially traded.The two sampled commercial dairy companies (Lame and Rute/Hirut PLC) operating in the district have established collection points in urban and peri-urban areas, from where they collect milk from individual farmers and farmers groups. They transport the unprocessed milk to Chacha (Rute and Hirut PLC) and Addis Ababa (Lame) for processing. A third company (Etete PLC) recently also started collecting milk from Angolela cooperative and some farmers groups (not interviewed).In Debre Birhan, cooperatives have been formed who purchase milk from urban farmers and sell the milk to individual consumers (referred to as milk shops). Also, one privately owned dairy business buys milk from urban and peri urban farmers and processes it into mozzarella cheese, which is sold in Addis Ababa.Peak milk supply month are August and September, reportedly because of sufficient feed availability.Months of low supply are January to April, coinciding with the dry season.All businesses purchase evening milk, however it is noted that commercial companies only collect milk in the morning. Farmers who sell morning milk to the companies actually deliver a mixture of morning milk and well preserved evening milk from the previous day. Milk testing is based on lactometer and alcohol test. The lactometer aids in detecting milk dilution with water and the alcohol test aids in detection abnormal milk such as colostrum; milk from animals in late lactation; milk from animals suffering from mastitis and milk in which mineral balance has been disturbed. The cooperative mentions lack of processing equipment as a bottleneck and would like to have access to cheap credit to purchase equipment. One of the companies would like to see a more free market situation with less government interference. The newly established company mentions milk storage as a bottleneck and highlights opportunities for training of farmers and service providers.Lactic butter (from soured milk) produced in Basona Worena is traded by village and district level traders, who buy from farmers and or traders in village markets. Some butter is also purchased from neighbouring districts of (Abichuna Egna, Tarma Ber and Menz). Traders use public transport to visit markets and use smell and visual inspection to determine quality. Supply is low during the dry season (February-April) and peak supply months are August-October when feed is available (see Table 20). District level traders reportedly also purchase some fresh butter produced by the dairy cafes and the Angolela Cooperative. Sale of butter is mostly to end consumer and hotel restaurants in the district and to customers in Addis Ababa. Buyers use their own means of transport to buy/collect butter from traders/shops. During the testing phase, butter shop owners indicated that sales of butter was based on quality with fresh (young) butter sold at ETB 170/kg (used for cosmetic purposes and cooking), medium aged ETB 140/kg (cooking) and very mature at ETB 120/kg (cooking). The latter was purchased by hotels and restaurants.Village level traders complained about lack of market space, unfair taxation, price fluctuation and lack of credit. District traders also mentioned the constraints of lack of quality supply and would encourage training of farmers.Two types of dairy serving businesses are distinguished in Debre Birhan, Basona Worena i) hotel/restaurants and ii) dairy cafesThe hotel restaurants purchase raw milk, butter and 'Ayeb' from various sources within the district, especially farmer (associations), traders and dairy cafes. These products are then used to prepare meals and drinks for their restaurant customers.The dairy cafes/kiosks buy raw milk from various sources including farmer groups and serve boiled milk and 'Irgo' (naturally fermented yoghurt) in their cafes for their customers. The cafes in Basona Worena are also engaged in small scale retail and processing of dairy products to outside customers, including sale of raw milk and processing/sale of fresh butter (with cream separator and 'Ayeb'.Butter is sold to individual consumers, hotel/restaurants and butter traders. 'Ayeb' is sold to individual consumers and hotel/restaurants. The by-products from Ayeb and butter processing are not commercially utilized.Café owners complained about lack of demand during the fasting period (March); hence some process the milk into butter and 'Ayeb'.Hotel/restaurant owners complained about low quality, imbalance between supply and demand, insufficient cooperatives. Training and credit were mentioned as potential solutions/opportunities.Purchase and sale data of the sampled dairy cafes and hotel/restaurants are summarized in Table 21. It is noted that seasonal influences have a significant effect on the quantities of milk and dairy products purchased and sold in the dairy cafes.Bottlenecks mentioned by the sampled traders included presence of illegal traders, limited market space, seasonality resulting in lack of demand. Measures to increase demand were welcomed, including improved processing facilities (export abattoir) and improved animal fattening practices.Debre Birhan town has several hotel/restaurants and butchery restaurants which sell/serve meat.Hotel restaurants purchase small ruminants from various sources and prepare the meat for the customers in their restaurants. Slaughtering can take place in the abattoir and/or hotel. The hotel/restaurants purchase meat of slaughtered large ruminants from butchery/restaurants.The butchery restaurants buy large ruminants from various sources and prepare meat for the customers in their restaurants. Part of the meat of large ruminants is sold to individual outside consumers and hotel/restaurants. Butchery restaurants also purchase small ruminants which are served to their customers inside their restaurants as well as to outside individual clients.Hotels/restaurants reportedly purchase predominantly older sheep (> 33 months), while butcheries buy large ruminants ranging in age from 3.5 to 8.5 years old.Peak supply months of animals are the dry season, when feed is scarce. During the ploughing season, supply of oxen is low.Businesses complain about high cost of animals during peak periods, resulting in low margin, low demand, and unfair taxation. Improving supply and quality trough training is advocated. Four main service providers support the dairy and large and small ruminants' value chain actors i.e. the district abattoir, livestock feed producers/traders, the veterinary services and AI services.The district has one abattoir, which is owned by group of veterinary officers. They slaughter large and small ruminants for butchery restaurants, university and hotel/restaurants. Data on slaughtered animals are summarized in Table 26. As can be seen from the table, both young and older animals are butchered. Agribusinesses involved in the production of agro-industrial by products (AIB) in Basona district include a feed processing Union, a cooperatively owned pulse processing businesses (owned by private traders), and feed traders/shops.Table 27 indicates that cooperatives and private (male) ownership dominate the feed business. Several businesses started in the past 10 years. Pulse traders in the district organized themselves into a cooperative for the processing of the various pulses produced in and outside the district. The cooperative processes the pulses as a service to its members. The processed pulses and the by-products (pulses bran) remains the property of the traders, who sell them.The 5 sampled pulse traders/processors produce on average 688 to 2280 kg of pulse bran/month. All of them sell the pulses bran to traders/fatteners outside the district (Adama). Limited market space and linkages were reported as bottlenecks. Feed processing unionThe Wodera feed processing Union produces dairy and fattening concentrate mixtures from the bran produced in their flour factory. Other ingredients (mainly oilcake and some minerals/salt) are purchased from outside the district. The dairy and fattening mixtures are sold through the cooperative system i.e. either directly to individual members and/or primary cooperatives in and outside the district. They also sell to non-cooperative farmers and government institutions. The Union tests the quality of its products in its own laboratory and labels the feed mixes. Training in processing was arranged by ACDI/VOCA, however they would like to receive more training. The Union proposes to train farmers and traders in the use of concentrates to stimulate demand. Within district Outside the district assisted mass insemination had been introduced. Experts from the zone and other district have participated in the Basona Worena district campaign. The hormone assisted mass insemination was given to 956 cows but there is no record of the number of successful insemination. Besides servicing the kebeles which are normally serviced by the AI system, 5 more remote kebeles were covered by this campaign i.e. Adisgie, Baso Dengora, Mehal Amba, Goshu Ager and Moye Amangolte. The AI materials (liquid nitrogen and semen) and the hormone for mass insemination is channelled/provided by the Zone for the district.The analysis presented in this section is based on a review of the linkages described and the present status/performance of the agribusinesses and their supporting businesses/services. Potential interventions are identified through comparison (gap analysis) of these findings with other districts and projects. Potential interventions are subdivided into those which may contribute to increased demand and those which may contribute to increased supply of the raw product.The number of cross breed cows, which are normally kept for fresh milk production/sale is high i.e. 20% of the total cow population as compared to 7.5 % nationally. The amount of milk produced from a 6154 cross breeds can be estimated at about 8.6 million litres annually by assuming that 50% of cows are lactating during any one year, lactation period is around 200 days and average daily milk yield is 7.0 litres/year (LIVES baseline data). This estimated production is large as compared to all other Africa RISING districts. It is therefore not surprising to see that the involvement of agribusiness in the fresh milk dairy value chain is most advanced in Basona Worena district. This can also be derived from the presence of commercial companies involved in the collection of substantial quantities of milk. Also In the past 10 years, several commercial outlets in the form of shops, dairy cafes and hotel restaurants have emerged, thus contributing to the demand for fresh milk and dairy products.The fresh milk value chain consists of peri-urban producers, milk collectors and processors businesses, dairy shops, cafes and hotel restaurants.Based on the data summarized in the result section, the linkages between the fresh milk agribusinesses in Basona Worena district are summarized in Figure 10.  It may be concluded that the variety of businesses involved and their linkages can serve as an example for other districts, in particular the recently established dairy cafes and shops.  These outlets may stimulate local demand, especially by enlarging their product range, to attract more youth, as business operator or consumer. Possible new products may include ice cream, milk shakes and butter milk 'Arera' produced by the dairy coop.  A consumer demand study is proposed to explore (present and future) local demand for milk by individual consumers, hotel/restaurants, hospitals offices and schools. Such a study may contribute to increasing commercial demand for milk, in part replacing the producerconsumer channel through better quality milk.  Since all Irgo served in the dairy cafes is produced from soured fresh milk, heating the milk to reduce bacterial infection can be tested. Souring of the milk can then be stimulated with the help of pasteurized yoghurt culture.  To facilitate the increased fresh milk supply for the businesses, more producers can be linked to the processors, dairy cafes and hotel restaurants either on individual basis or as groups. As can be seen from the figure, purchase of milk from groups or associations is already practiced and can therefore be introduced or expanded.Input/service providers  Results show that veterinary drugs for peri-urban dairy farmers are available from the public and private sector. It is noted that veterinary services are only delivered (officially) by the public sector. To expand the coverage of such services, it is proposed that private sector drug suppliers include veterinary services, once the necessary licenses have been granted,  Similarly, for the genetic improvement of dairy animals peri-urban dairy farmers are relatively well served with public AI as compared to rural farmers. However it was noted that the attempts to increase the number of AI through hormone assisted mass insemination with mobile teams still requires fine tuning. It is therefore recommend that the present performance of the hormone assisted mass insemination by mobile teams, is studied in order to introduce additional measures to improve effectiveness and efficiency.Agro-industrial by-products for dairy are sold by feed shops and in part produced in the district, including a dairy mix by the Wodera feed processing Union. The linkages between the peri-urban dairy farmers and the feed businesses are shown in the Figure 11.  The figure shows that although pulses bran is produced commercially in the district, no use is made of pulses bran for dairy feed. It is therefore proposed to explore the possibility of mixing pulses bran with other AIBs at village level and/or the feed processing Union. 3 Also the theoretical production of pulses bran from the pulses grown in the district could be as high as 530 t/year (assuming 15% by products from a total pulse grain yield of 3.534 t), if all pulses were processed commercially. A further study is recommended on village level pulses processing and the use of the by-products.  While Basona Worena does produce and sell wheat bran commercially, the total amount seems small as compared to its theoretical potential i.e. 1245 t (assuming 15% by products from 8.3 million tonnes of wheat grains) if all wheat was processed commercially. A further study is recommended on village level wheat processing and the use of the by-products.  Furthermore demand may be stimulated by increased availability through the cooperative structure (not all primary coops sell dairy mix) and linkages between the Unions and the private feed shops (dairy mix).  As compared to other districts, the prices for AIB and the dairy and feed mixtures are about average or below average. However demand is still limited and confined to the season that green feed is not readily available. To stimulate demand and milk production, it is proposed to create awareness/demonstrate the beneficial effects of locally mixed AIB ingredients and commercial feeds.  To increase production of individual farmers, new management interventions for health, genetics and feeding should be introduced. 4The butter value chain in Basona Worena consists of 2 channels i.e. i) butter produced/churned on farms in peri-urban and rural areas, and ii) the butter/Ayeb produced by the dairy coop and dairy cafes from the milk produced by urban/peri-urban farmers.As indicated in the result section, most butter is produced from the local cows which number 23,512 in total. The amount of butter produced from these cows is estimated at 154,297 kg, assuming that half of the cows are lactating, lactation period is 175 days, average daily production is 1.5 litres of milk/day and around 20 litres of milk are used to produce 1 kg of butter. (LIVES baseline survey)The data in the result section indicate that the butter produced by the fluid milk dairy processing businesses is seasonal and relatively small as compared to the butter produced by households in the rural areas. The butter produced by these agribusinesses is an integral part of their strategy to cope with the fluctuating demand for milk during the year i.e. butter and Ayeb are mainly produced during the periods of low demand for fresh milk products. A positive deviant is the recently established dairy business, which purchases raw milk and specializes in the production of mozzarella cheese for the Addis market.The rapid assessment suggests that the traditional butter value chain in Basona Worena district is significant and not only serves the local demand but also serves the Addis market. Debre Birhan also acts as market hub for butter produced in other districts of North Shoa Zone. Traders and butter shops play a key role in the buying and selling of butter within and outside the district. Hotel and restaurants are purchasers of butter from farmers and traders. The existing value chain linkages for fresh and lactic butter agribusinesses are shown in Figure 12.  To increase the profitability of commercially produced butter, attention could be paid to the use of by-products such as whey (from 'Ayeb' or mozzarella production) for animal feeding and the use of skimmed milk (from butter processing) in the dairy cafes and dairy cooperatives). The survey showed that these by products are not commonly used.  Demand for butter produced in rural areas could be increased through production of better quality butter. The data in the result section indicate that better quality butter fetches a higher price (about 40%) than lowest quality butter. It was reported that some traders mix better quality butter with the lower quality in order to get higher prices.  Quality of butter produced in rural areas, may be further improved by introducing small scale advanced churning and processing technologies. The introduction of such technologies can be combined with new business models, especially for women farmers in rural areas.Larger capacity churns may be operated by groups of women and or individual women who either process the soured milk (Irgo) from individual farmers and or the sour cream collected from the individual farmers. The latter will require new methods of souring milk in open containers, rather than in the traditional earthen churns. To reduce bacterial infection of butter produced from raw milk, heating may be introduced, thus producing a more health safe quality butter. Similar as for commercial butter processing, attention should also be paid to the use of by-products from butter and 'Ayeb' making. To define improved butter processing interventions in the rural areas more precisely, a rapid assessment of the present processing technologies and organizational arrangements is proposed.  Since demand for commercially and home produced butter is not known, a consumer study is proposed to assess demand for different types of butter by individual and institutional buyers.The supply of inputs and services for veterinary drugs/services, AI and feed for farmers in rural areas, where the bulk of the butter is produced, is relatively weak as compared to milk and butter produced in peri-urban areas. While government initiatives aim at improving such services in the rural areas, some progress can be made in the short run by creating economics of scale through collective (bulk) purchase of these services and inputs. The data suggest that some of the businesses/organizations already sell to farmer groups and or associations thus reducing market transaction cost for individual buyers.The number of oxen and bulls in the district suggest that there should be a considerable supply of large and small ruminants for consumption. Assuming that oxen/bulls on average will be used for 5 years, the estimated number of animals for consumption would be 11,672 annually. Assuming an average slaughter age of small ruminants of 3 years, the number of sheep and goats for consumption could be estimated at respectively 44,500 sheep and 16,470 goats.The Ethiopian livestock master plan clearly identifies deficits of red meat for the local market at present and even more in the future. It is therefore expected that prices and profit margins in this sector will be high and therefore investments in the development of the small and large ruminants' value chain should be encouraged.Production and sale of ruminants for meat consumptions involves producers, traders, butchery restaurants, hotel/restaurants and consumers, including consumer groups. Based on the data summarized in the result section, the linkages between the small and large ruminants' agribusinesses in Basona Worena district are summarized in Figures 13 and 14. Butcheries and restaurants in the district are major 'consumers' of the animals. Data from these businesses and the abattoir, which provides slaughtering services for large ruminants, suggest that demand is traditional i.e. farmers mainly produce for the cultural and religious holidays periods and the average age of the animals is rather old (large ruminants above 6 years and small ruminants above 2 years). However a huge price variation (over 200%) exists, indicating variation in the type of animals purchased (fattened, lean) by traders, hotel/restaurants and butcheries. Also consumer groups reportedly have demand for specific type of animals. Furthermore, demand for younger animals (small and large ruminants) is increasing (including export market demand).It is therefore proposed to conduct a demand study within the district for the type of small and large ruminants required by the different customers. Such a study should also consider demand for different types of animals during the year. 5 The study would enable the establishment of linkages between producers/fatteners of animals and agribusiness and consumers to produce animals throughout the year based on market demand.5. It is noted that some of these studies are conducted by others including FAO and LMD project.","tokenCount":"11961"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50b29905612b919999fcb4413a2df9ae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5e5c9ab7-e881-4e0d-ab70-b882e0bbaca6/retrieve","id":"830045651"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a67e9d2e-de5f-480c-a816-d2c6fde423b5","pagecount":"160","content":"Mis Padres Jorge Iván Corredor y Gloria Granada por el apoyo y esmero demostrado en mi formación, a mis hermanos Julián Andrés y Juan Pablo por todo su cariño y comprensión, y a mi primo Luis Felipe Betancur Granada a quien le agradezco de corazón por su generosidad, confianza, y a quien gracias hoy soy un Profesional .El autor expresa sus agradecimientos:• A la Doctora Elizabeth Álvarez, Jefe de Programa de Patología de la Yuca en el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), por brindarme la oportunidad de llevar a cabo este trabajo y por su constante motivación.• A los Ingenieros John Bernard Loke, Germán Alberto Llano y Juan Fernando Mejía, al técnico Herney Rengifo y a la secretaria Zulma Lorena Zamora, grupo de trabajo del Programa de Patología de Yuca -CIAT, por su amistad y gran colaboración durante la realización de la investigación.• A la Ingeniera Teresa Sánchez, asistente de investigación del Programa de Mejoramiento de Yuca -CIAT, por su gran amistad y colaboración incondicional.• Al Doctor Gerardo Martínez por su disposición y buenos aportes en el documento final.• Al Doctor Hernán Ceballos, Jefe del Programa de Mejoramiento de Yuca -CIAT, por su colaboración para la realización del proyecto.• Al Ingeniero Jaime Eduardo Muñoz, Universidad Nacional de Palmira, por sus valiosas orientaciones en el diseño estadístico.• A mi tía Aura Granada por el apoyo brindado durante la realización del trabajo de grado. Phytophthora tropicalis. (PRP). Aunque se encontraron evidencias lógicas con los caracteres dureza de la raíz y porcentaje de humedad en la cáscara que podrían explicar la resistencia de la raíz de yuca a P. tropicalis, se concluyó que las características morfológicas: grosor de la cáscara, dureza de la raíz y colores externo de la raíz, de la corteza y de la pulpa, no estuvieron correlacionadas con las evaluaciones por resistencia a PRP y al DFP;igualmente las características bioquímicas: contenidos de humedad, hierro y manganeso, en la cáscara y en el parénquima, se encontraron bajamente relacionadas con las evaluaciones por resistencia. Los porcentajes de escopoletina en raíces expuestas a DFP estuvieron correlacionados con las evaluaciones de deterioro fisiológico con un r = 0,67 para los clones de Jamundí y de 0,76 para los de Rozo. Igualmente, esta correlación se presentó para la escopoletina observada en las evaluaciones de pudrición que determinaron la resistencia de la cáscara, con correlaciones según el valor promedio de las tres secciones de la raíz, con r = 0,65 para los clones de Jamundí y 0,72 para los provenientes de Rozo, constatando que la expresión de la escopoletina se presenta tanto con el deterioro fisiológico como con patológico de la raíz. Se realizó el análisis para el grupo de clones ubicados en Jamundí y en La Dolores, comparando entre los resultados obtenidos, para las evaluaciones de caracteres morfológicos y bioquímicos y de resistencia de la raíz a P. tropicalis. Este análisis permitió determinar diferencias muy marcadas entre las diferentes evaluaciones, relacionadas con las condiciones ambientales propias de cada localidad.Phytophthora y Deterioro fisiológico poscosecha.La yuca es afectada por múltiples problemas, las enfermedades fungosas y bacterianas ocupan un lugar destacable con una distribución e importancia económica que varían considerablemente. Además el rápido deterioro que sufren las raíces de yuca luego de ser cosechadas, proceso llamado Deterioro Fisiológico de Poscosecha (DFP), causa pérdidas económicas considerables y es poco lo que hasta el momento se conoce del mismo.Entre las enfermedades que atacan el cultivo de la yuca, las pudriciones radicales causadas por Phytophthora spp. (PRP) causan pérdidas importantes que pueden llegar hasta el total de la producción en algunas regiones de Brasil, Cuba y Colombia, mientras que la ocurrencia de DFP es un problema presente en todas las zonas productoras de yuca asociado a la variedad del material, a los daños mecánicos que ocurren durante la cosecha y con condiciones ambientales como temperatura y humedad relativa.Las ultimas investigaciones realizadas en CIAT, han manejado un nuevo enfoque, tratando de explicar la resistencia de clones de yuca al PRP y al DFP evaluando las condiciones ambientales que los predisponen, las características morfológicas y bioquímicas de la raíz, realizando técnicas moleculares como el análisis de QTL's para determinar genes asociados a la resistencia de la enfermedad PRP, y a través de evaluaciones de laboratorio exponiendo raíces a PRP y DFP.Los resultados de investigaciones que determinaron la correlación entre algunos caracteres morfológicos y bioquímicos con severidad de PRP (cantidad de lesiones en el parénquima y pudrición del parénquima) fueron validados en esta investigación, en la cual se realizó el análisis de 60 clones cosechados en el municipio de Jamundí y el corregimiento de Rozo -Palmira, ubicados en el Valle del Cauca -Colombia y a los cuales se les evaluaron caracteres morfológicos y bioquímicos de sus raíces, que posiblemente estarían correlacionados con la resistencia al PRP y al DFP.Algunos de los clones evaluados de Jamundí fueron comparados con los resultados de evaluaciones realizadas en el corregimiento de La Dolores-Palmira, para tratar de determinar el efecto ambiental sobre estos clones.Validar la relación de características bioquímicas y morfológicas de la raíz de yuca, con la resistencia a pudrición de raíz causada por Phytophthora tropicalis, y al deterioro fisiológico poscosecha en raíces de 60 clones procedentes de cultivos establecidos en el municipio de Jamundí y el corregimiento de Rozo -Valle del Cauca.1.2.1 Evaluar la resistencia de las raíces de 60 clones de yuca a P. tropicalis, mediante inoculación de la cáscara y el parénquima de la raíz.Estimar la resistencia de las raíces de los 60 clones de yuca al Deterioro fisiológico poscosecha.Evaluar el grosor de la cáscara, colores y dureza de la raíz en los 60 clones de yuca.Calcular los porcentajes de escopoletina de los 60 clones yuca, en raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis y en raíces expuestas a Deterioro fisiológico poscosecha.Determinar los contenidos de humedad, de hierro y manganeso en la cáscara y el parénquima, en raíces de 60 clones de yuca.La yuca es un cultivo muy importante en los trópicos, es la cuarta fuente energética en la alimentación humana después del arroz, el trigo y el maíz, en el componente básico de la dieta de más de 1.000 millones de personas (FAO/FIDA 2000, citados por Ceballos, 2002) y tiene una destacada adaptabilidad a las diferentes condiciones edafoclimáticas, mostrando un buen desarrollo tanto en condiciones adversas de caracter biótico como abiótico (Lozano, 1991b;Ceballos 2002). Se ubica en latitudes menores a los 30°, y altitudes que van desde el nivel del mar hasta los 1800 m. El principal producto económico son sus raíces, pero las hojas de yuca también tiene un excelente potencial pues son utilizadas en Africa y Asia, para la alimentación humana y animal.Los productores de yuca más importantes en el mundo son actualmente Nigeria, Brasil, Tailandia, Indonesia y Congo. El reporte de producción mundial en el año 2003 fue de 187'665.489 toneladas métricas, cifra considerable si se compara con otro producto de mayor consumo como la papa (Solanum tuberosum), el cual tuvo una producción mundial de 311'416.329 toneladas métricas. En Colombia la producción de yuca, 185.000 toneladas métricas, es muy inferior a la de papa, 2'850.000 toneladas métricas (FAO, 2004). Se han reportado aumentos en la producción para consumo humano del 50 % en África y de un 70 % en Asia (Plucknett et. al., 1999).Según Montaldo (1985), la yuca es conocida con diferentes nombres vulgares; según el país: casava (Holanda), cassava (Estados Unidos), caxcamote (Guatemala), mandioca (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay y Brasil) y manioc (Francia y Alemania) (Montaldo 1985).Su clasificación taxonómica es la siguiente:Clase: DycotiledoneaTribu: ManihoteaeFamilia: EuphorbiaceaeEspecie: Manihot esculenta CrantzComo causante de pudriciones radicales en yuca se reportan los patógenos:Rossellinia spp., Sclerotium rolfsii, Fomes lignosus (agente causante de la pudrición algodonosa) y varias especies de Phytophthora (Álvarez y Llano, 2002).Para este ultimo, en un estudio realizado sobre diferentes zonas edafoclimáticas de Colombia, se pudo determinar que existen varias especies altamente patogénicas como causantes de pudriciones de raíz en el Valle, Quindío y Atlántico (Sánchez, 1998), situación que complica aún más el problema de pudriciones radicales.La pudrición de raíces en el cultivo de la yuca es importante en áreas con suelos arcillosos o muy compactos, suelos de color negro, mal drenados o donde ocurren excesivos períodos de lluvia. También donde con frecuencia se siembra yuca y donde se hace uso de material infectado para la siembra (Lozano y Both, 1982;Lopes et al., 1984;Takatsu and Fukuda, 1990;Lozano, 1991b;Johnson y Palaniswami, 1999). Especies del género Phytophthora son un problema en la región Nordeste de Brasil, Centro América y en Colombia, concentrándose en este último, las pérdidas en sitios del Norte del Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Quindío, Bolívar y Amazonía, regiones con alta incidencia de la enfermedad (Loke, 2004;CIAT, 1984).La enfermedad constituye uno de los problemas más comunes en la producción de yuca y para su control se han recomendado tratamientos químicos al material de propagación, selección de suelos con textura franca, bien drenados, cultivo en caballones, rotación de cultivos y la cosecha precoz (Lozano y Booth, 1982).Investigaciones recientes recomiendan la selección de semilla, su tratamiento térmico, control biológico y un programa de fertilización, pues estas prácticas han mostrado buen control de la enfermedad, disminuyendo la incidencia y severidad de pudrición de raíces en un campo infestado naturalmente (CIAT, 2004).Enfermedad \"pudrición de raíz\" causada por Phytophthora spp. La Pudrición de raíz causada por diferentes especies de Phytophthora, es la enfermedad más destructiva en seis micro regiones que comprenden 34 municipios productores de yuca en el Estado de Paraiba, Brasil (Lopes et al., 1984). Lozano (1991a) reporta 300,000 ha de yuca severamente afectadas por pudriciones radicales en el Norte y Nordeste de Brasil, con pérdidas hasta 100%.Esta enfermedad se ha reportado en Africa y en América tropical causando pérdidas en el rendimiento que alcanzaron hasta el 80% de la producción total (Lozano y Booth, 1982). Igualmente, por causa de pudrición de raíz, en Colombia, se ha reducido la producción total de yuca hasta el 80% (Booth, 1976).En 1997 se cuantificaron las pérdidas de pudrición de raíz de yuca causada por P.palmivora en el Distrito de Salem de Tamil Nadu -India; donde la incidencia de la enfermedad llego al 43% (Johnson y Palaniswami, 1999). Una situación similar se reportó en Colombia en el 2003, cuando se evaluó la incidencia de la enfermedad en raíces para un lote ubicado en el corregimiento de Montenegro, Departamento del Quindío, encontrando que el 38% de las raíces cosechadas presentaban pudrición (CIAT, 2004).Phytophthora tiene la siguiente clasificación taxonómica:División: Oomycota (mohos acuáticos)Clase: PhycomycetesOrden: Peronosporales Familia: PythiaceaeAnteriormente los Oomycota fueron clasificados como hongos debido a su crecimiento filamentoso y por alimentarse de materia en descomposición, sin embargo la pared celular de los Oomycota no esta compuesta de quitina, como en un hongo, sino que está formada de una mezcla de compuestos celulósicos y glican. Los núcleos dentro de los filamentos son diploides, con dos juegos de cromosomas, no son haploides como en los hongos (Waggoner, 1995) Las especies de Phytophthora que afectan la yuca tienen un amplio rango de plantas hospederas, atacando desde arbustos hasta árboles, y causándoles diferentes enfermedades. Se han identificado varias especies de Phytophthora como agente causante de la pudrición de raíz en el cultivo de la yuca (Tabla 1)Phytophthora spp. El manejo de enfermedades basado en resistencia varietal, ha estimulado la búsqueda de clones resistentes por ser una medida eficiente para reducir las pérdidas debidas a pudrición de raíz causada en cultivos de yuca, proporcionando de esta manera bajos costos económicos y ambientales (Loke 2004). Existen varios ejemplos de adopción exitosa de clones de yuca resistentes a la enfermedad, uno de estos ocurrió en 1990, cuando la Empresa Brasilera de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA) y el Centro de Pesquisa Agropecuaria del Trópico Umido, liberaron dos clones de yuca resistentes a la pudrición de raíz, Mae Joana (IM-175) y Zolhudinha (IM-158). La adopción de estos clones, junto con la aplicación de prácticas culturales apropiadas, permitió aumentar los rendimientos de raíces en más de un 80% en la Zona de Varzea del Norte de Brasil, Estado de Amazonas (Lozano, 1991a).Uno de los estudios más recientes fue la evaluación de diez clones de yuca (Pao, Branquinha, Paxiubao, Manteiguinha, Manteiguinha Polo Agroflorestal, Agromazon II, Agromazon III, MD-33, MX-26 y MX-2) en Acre, Brasil, en 1999/2000 y 2000/2001 durante cuatro épocas de cosechas (8, 10, 12 y 14 meses después de la siembra). Con los clones MD-33 y Pao se obtuvieron altos rendimientos y resistencia a pudrición de raíz causado por P. drechsleri, la cosecha de raíces 14 meses después de la siembra mostró un mayor rendimiento pero también la incidencia de pudrición de raíz fue más alta y se encontro que los factores determinantes para la incidencia de la enfermedad fueron el clon y la época de cosecha (Mendonca et al., 2003). Utilizando clones suministrados por EMBRAPA y CIAT, comunidades indígenas de Mitú (Vaupés, Colombia) adoptaron clones de yuca con resistencia a Phytophthora spp., mediante investigación participativa (Llano et. al., 2001). cuentan con programas de fitomejoramiento que han permitido aumentar los potenciales productivos de los clones comerciales actuales con respecto a los que tradicionalmente se cultivan.Muchas de las investigaciones de resistencia a Phyophthora spp. se han realizado a nivel de laboratoroio o invernadero, por ser ecologicamente mas acordes con el ambiente, además las inoculaciones artificiales permiten obtener materiales por resistencia gracias a condiciones estándares que limitan las ocasiones de escape, haciendo de esta manera las caracterizaciones más rápidas y confiables (Iwaro et al., 1996).Pese a que Takatsu y Fukuda (1990) concluyen que sin métodos estandarizados de inoculación y evaluación de la resistencia a cada patógeno que causa pudrición de raíz en yuca, no será posible obtener información confiable sobre la genética de esta enfermedad tan compleja, en la Tabla 2 se muestran las investigaciones que se han realizado en los últimos años para determinar resistencia de clones de yuca a Phytophthora spp, encontrando diferencias en cuanto a las metodologías de inoculación que van desde el manejo de plántulas in-vitro, plántulas en invernadero, raíces gruesas y hojas. Sin embargo, las anteriores investigaciones determinaron que las raíces gruesas proporcionan datos más confiables, en contraste con la inoculación de plántulas en casa de malla (López y Lozano, 1992).Tabla 2. Determinación de la resistencia varietal de la yuca a Phytophthora spp.  Ceballos (1997), la fase de penetración de un patógeno como Phytophthora se encuentra determinada por el momento en que se produce el contacto físico entre el inóculo y hospedero, activando los mecanismos de defensa de la planta; inmediatamente a la penetración sigue la infección y colonización de los tejidos que estaría determinando la fase de pospenetración en la cual el patógeno pasa a depender del hospedero, esperando que la reacción de compatibilidad ocurra y persista para la producción de nuevas hifas secundarias que invaden tejidos hasta el momento sanos. Agrios (1996) determina que para la fase de penetración, estos mecanismos de defensa deben actuar en el punto de entrada del patógeno y para la fase de pospenetración deben ser eficaces durante el desarrollo del patógeno dentro del tejido fino del hospedero. En un estudio sobre los componentes que reducen la tasa de desarrollo de la enfermedad, se mencionan tipos de resistencia que expresan las plantas en respuesta a patógenos: resistencia a la infección, resistencia de colonización y resistencia de reproducción (Parlevliet, 1979). Dos de estos tipos de resistencia, se han evaluado por diferentes autores en diferentes cultivos: la resistencia a la infección en este caso determinando la fase de penetración y la resistencia a la colonización que determina la fase de pospenetración (Iwaro 1995;Bajit and Gapasin, 1987). Estas y otras investigaciones se han encaminado a identificar las características que hacen posible la expresión de los mecanismos de defensa. (Bajit and Gapasin, 1987;Iwaro et al., 1997a;Iwaro et al., 1997b;Okey et al., 1996) 2.2.4 Evaluación de la resistencia a Phytophthora spp. en diferentes localidades. En el cultivo de la papa (Solanum tuberosum) se han realizado investigaciones relacionadas con la respuesta de los materiales al daño causado por P. infestans para diferentes localidades. Una de estas investigaciones se realizó en el oriente del Congo (África) en donde se evaluaron siete genotipos en diferentes zonas agro ecológicas, se encontraron diferencias significativas entre los ambientes y los genotipos para las variables de producción, componentes de producción y la incidencia de P. infestans y Ralstonia solanacearum (Mutombo et al., 1998). En Estados Unidos se evaluaron 16 clones en ocho localidades y se buscaron clones resistentes a los nuevos P. infestans que habían aparecido en el cultivo de la papa. (Haynes et al., 1998). Cuatro clones fueron escogidos para cruzamiento, gracias a su estabilidad fenotípica, relacionada con la respuesta a la enfermedad, determinada con el área bajo la curva del progreso de esta, y entre ellos no se encontraron diferencias significativas, indicando una baja interacción genotipo por ambiente.Resistencia varietal a Phytophthora tropicalis. P. tropicalis no ha sido ampliamente descrita en la literatura. El aislamiento utilizado durante este estudio, pertenece a la colección de CIAT (Patología de Yuca), se caracterizó mediante análisis de isoenzimas y es genéticamente similar a P. capsici, especie de Phytophthora que generalmente causa marchitez, pudriciones en la corona del fruto y la raíz del pimentón (Loke, 2004). El aislamiento de P. tropicalis se obtuvo de un cultivo de yuca severamente afectado por pudrición en el corregimiento de Barcelona, municipio de Calarcá en el departamento del Quindío -Colombia. La identificación de la especie fue realizada mediante la secuenciación de la región ITS de la subunidad 5,8 s del ADN ribosomal y observación de las características morfológicas (CIAT, 2000).La resistencia de las raíces de varios clones a P. tropicalis fue evaluada por Loke (2004) en las fases de penetración y post-penetración del patógeno, desarrollando metodologías efectivas para la preparación del inóculo, inoculación y evaluación de los dos tipos de resistencia en raíces y lóbulos de hojas de yuca obtenidos de plantas de campo. Se obtuvo contraste entre clones para la resistencia a pudrición de raíz y correlación con materiales que muestran resistencia en campo como es el caso de la variedad HMC-1. En otra investigación para identificar secuencias genómicas homólogas en yuca, con genes de resistencia a enfermedades de especies diferentes, Llano (2003) evaluó la resistencia de dos familias de yuca a tres especies de Phytophthora, entre ellas incluida P. tropicalis, causantes de pudrición de raíz. Mediante PCR (reacción en cadena de la polimeraza) con cebadores degenerados de ADN se obtuvieron 28 clones, de los cuales cinco mostraron secuencia homóloga con RGAs (genes análogos de resistencia) NBS-LRR y cuatro de ellos mostraron regiones codificables (marco abierto de lectura-ORF) con motivos conservados de la región NBS, por lo que se consideraron como RGAs. Se identificaron tres clases de RGAs diferentes los cuales no mostraron asociación con resistencia a Phytophthora.Loke ( 2004) evaluó la resistencia de los padres y la progenie de la familia K de yuca (MNGA 2 x CM 2177-2) a P. tropicalis, además de los parentales de esta familia, se inocularon raíces frescas y gruesas de 69 individuos de la familia K.Con la evaluación fenotípica y con base en el mapa molecular de M Nga 2, madre de la familia K, se identificaron y mapearon QTLs asociados a la resistencia a P.tropicalis, mediante análisis de marcador simple. Los clones de yuca de la familia K, evaluados durante los años 2000 y 2001 mostraron un porcentaje de área de raíz afectada entre el 22% y 95%. La correlación entre las evaluaciones de los años 2000 y 2001, fue -0,15 y la distribución de la frecuencia de los clones de yuca de la familia K de acuerdo al área de raíz afectada por P. tropicalis, corresponde a una distribución normal, con un clon que presenta resistencia moderada en los dos años de evaluación, 50 clones susceptibles y 17 clones altamente susceptibles. Se identificaron ocho QTLs, dos de los cuales explicaron entre 8,6% y 9% de la varianza fenotípica y se pudo determinar que genes menores estarían controlando la resistencia a P. tropicalis.El cultivo de la yuca ha sido una actividad tradicional de gran importancia para la población rural de muchos países del mundo. En los países en vía de desarrollo, la yuca es uno de los componentes principales de la dieta alimentaria de sus habitantes (Alarcón y Dufour, 1998). El 80% de la producción de yuca es consumida en fresco en los lugares de producción y solamente un 20% es transformado en otros productos industrializados para su consumo interno o exportación (Loke, 2004). El problema principal, por el cual no se pueden comercializar las raíces en zonas distantes al lugar de producción, es el deterioro poscosecha que sufren estas después de 48 horas de extraídas del suelo (Wheatley, 1982).El Deterioro fisiológico poscosecha (DFP) de las raíces de yuca, está directamente asociado a daños mecánicos que ocurren con la cosecha, aunque también depende de la variedad del material vegetal cosechado. Algunas condiciones ambientales como la temperatura y la humedad relativa, incrementan el deterioro fisiológico, especialmente con la presencia de daños mecánicos (Wheatley et al., 1982). Raíces de yuca con daños mecánicos y conservadas en un ambiente de baja humedad (60 -80 %) se deterioran más rápidamente que las conservadas en un ambiente saturado de humedad (100% de humedad relativa), esto debido a que la respiración de los tejidos se mantiene a niveles más altos en un ambiente de baja humedad (Marriot et al., 1979).Se ha señalado que algunas características varietales como la longitud de las raíces y la presencia de pedúnculos largos, y características del suelo como la textura y el grado de compactación (relacionados con las formas de cosecha manual o mecánica); son factores que afectan la incidencia de los daños mecánicos en las raíces (Wheatley et al., 1982).Tratamientos aplicados a las raíces después de la cosecha como: inmersión en agua caliente (Averre, 1967), conservación a bajas temperaturas (Averre 1967;Montaldo, 1973y Zapata, 2001), almacenamiento en aire con bajo nivel de oxígeno o en un ambiente de gas carbónico (CO 2 ) (Booth, 1976;Zapata, 2001) evitan el DFP de las raíces y sugieren la participación de enzimas como las peroxidasas, en el proceso. La actividad total de las peroxidasas se incrementa después de la iniciación del DFP (Marriott et al., 1980) La parte más importante de una raíz de yuca es la pulpa o parénquima que esta constituido básicamente de haces xilógenos (Figura 1), vasos de xilema distribuidos en forma de estrías, en los cuales se concentra el almidón de la raíz.En el centro de la raíz se encuentra el xilógeno fibroso central; mientras que en la periferia de la raíz se localiza la corteza o cáscara constituida por capas superpuestas de tejidos corchosos, fibras esclerenquimatosas, vasos con látex y cambium (Wheatley et al., 1982).Las secciones distal y proximal de la raíz, son las más propensas a sufrir daños mecánicos. La mayor o menor adherencia de la cáscara de la raíz al parénquima, puede igualmente afectar la susceptibilidad a los daños mecánicos durante la cosecha y el transporte posterior de las raíces. Por esta razón los primeros síntomas de DFP de la raíces se presentan normalmente en estas secciones (Wheatley et al., 1982). Los síntomas de DFP de las raíces se manifiestan con cambios de coloración en los tejidos parenquimatosos y los haces de xilema, adquiriendo éstos una coloración azulada para luego pasar a marrón, en forma de estrías vasculares (Montaldo, 1973). Los cambios de coloración se extienden a las células parenquimáticas, las cuales presentan un tinte azulado y también pueden mostrar síntomas de desecación (Wheatley et al., 1982). Las estrías pueden llegar a tener un color negro, causado por el oscurecimiento de las paredes celulares de los haces xilógenos y por la aparición de oclusiones de origen parenquimático dentro de ellas mismas (Richard, 1982).El DFP de las raíces de yuca, es uno de los limitantes más importantes en el mercado y la comercialización. Por lo tanto, es importante evaluar el grado de susceptibilidad de las raíces al DFP (Wheatley et al., 1982). Wheatley (1982), desarrolló un método subjetivo para evaluar la susceptibilidad de las raíces de yuca al DFP, permitiendo determinar el grado de severidad del DFP, estableciendo valores que permiten diferenciar las raíces con mayor o menor susceptibilidad.Estudios citológicos y observaciones con el microscopio electrónico han demostrado que los cambios de coloración en el parénquima constituyen una respuesta de los tejidos de la raíz a daños o heridas que no se quedan localizadas, sino que se extienden rápidamente a lo largo de la raíz. La respuesta inicial se manifiesta como una oclusión de los haces xilógenos y la producción de compuestos fluorescentes en el parénquima y, además fenoles libres, leucoantocianinas y catequinas. Los pigmentos parecen ser taninos condensados derivados de estos compuestos (Rickard, 1982).El compuesto con mayor fluorescencia ha sido identificado como escopoletina, una cumarina (Rickard, 1982;Wheatley, 1982), encontrada en muy bajas concentraciones en las raíces frescas, pero que aumenta considerablemente (de < 1,0 a > 250 μg/g) de materia seca) 24 horas después de la cosecha (Wheatley, 1982). Este drástico incremento permite visualizar la escopoletina en los mismos tejidos bajo luz ultravioleta debido a su fluorescencia. La aplicación de escopoletina en tejidos frescos induce rápidamente los síntomas de DFP. Las raíces resistentes al DFP acumulan menos escopoletina que las raíces susceptibles (Wheatley, 1982).Se han podido identificar los componentes de las causas del deterioro fisiológico y deterioro microbiano, pero es poco lo que se conoce sobre los mecanismos bioquímicos que conducen a la formación de éstos compuestos (Wheatley et. al., 1982).Las plantas están expuestas a un amplio rango de parásitos potenciales. Para restringir el daño de tales parásitos, las plantas emplean diferentes mecanismos de defensa (Agrios, 1996y Sánchez y Prager, 2001). Estos pueden ser clasificados como mecanismos de escape, resistencia y tolerancia. Con el escape, el contacto parasítico se reduce (espinas, olores y sabores desagradables), la resistencia y tolerancia opera después que se ha establecido el contacto parasítico (Parlevliet, 1981b). Generalmente la resistencia es de naturaleza química y en la tolerancia, no existe interferencia con el crecimiento y desarrollo del parásito, pero el daño ocasionado por las actividades del parásito es menor. (Agrios, 1996y Parlevliet, 1981b). Por lo tanto, las plantas contrarrestan el ataque de patógenos ya sea mediante características estructurales que actúan como barreras físicas e impiden que el patógeno penetre y se propague en ellas, o por medio de reacciones bioquímicas que tienen lugar en sus células y tejidos, los cuales producen sustancias tóxicas para el patógeno o crean condiciones que inhiben su desarrollo. (Agrios, 1996).Características morfológicas de las plantas, relacionadas con la resistencia a enfermedades. Las plantas exhiben mecanismos de defensa que son el resultado de presiones ambientales, en algunos casos generadas por los microorganismos patógenos. Las características que aparecen como producto de la interacción entre los organismos que llevan un largo proceso coevolutivo, en el cual han existido situaciones de ataque, defensa, contra-ataque; son las que permiten determinar un tipo de planta ''resistente'' que surge gracias a transformaciones en sus mecanismos de defensa (Sánchez y Prager, 2001).Los mecanismos de defensa que exhiben las plantas a través de barreras que pueden estar y permanecer en ellas antes de que el patógeno llegue, se denominan estructuras de defensa preexistentes: el grosor de la cutícula, la cantidad y calidad de la cera, las paredes gruesas y firmes de las células epidérmicas que imposibilitan la penetración directa de los hongos; y la presencia de células esclerenquimatosas en la pared celular de los tejidos, bloquean en forma eficiente la penetración y propagación de bacterias, hongos y nemátodos (Agrios, 1996).En plantas de arroz el grosor de las células epidérmicas de las hojas y el contenido de materia seca de la planta, son algunas de las características anatómicas o físicas que posiblemente están correlacionadas con la resistencia al hongo causante de la Mancha Marrón o Helmintosporiosis (Bipolaris oryzae) (Guzmán, 1997). En otras investigaciones se ha determinado que el grosor de la cutícula y la frecuencia de estomas son identificados como factores importantes relacionados con la resistencia a la infección causada Sphaceloma batata en patatas dulces (Bajit y Gapasin, 1987). Similares resultados se reportaron para el cultivo del haba con respecto al daño causado por Phoma sorghina, en donde se encontró correlación relacionada con la cera superficial, con el grosor de la cutícula y la frecuencia de estomas (Raj Kumar et al., 1985). En maracuyá (Passiflora edulis f. edulis) se ha determinado que el grosor del epicarpio y las capas cerosas del fruto constituyen estructuras de defensa pre-existentes (Sánchez y Prager, 2001). La resistencia de las variedades de cebolla aCollectotrichum circianans está correlacionada con la pigmentación roja o amarilla de las escamas del bulbo (Morales, 1983).En el cultivo de la papa (Solanum tuberosum) se ha reportado una relación entre la infección por P. infestans con el color de la pulpa del tubérculo, en la cual ocurre más daño cuando esta más oscura (Myts´ko et al., 1994). En el cultivo del cacao (Theobroma cacao) se realizó una investigación en invernadero, que buscó determinar factores que influyen en la susceptibilidad de seis clones a P.palmivora causante de la pudrición de la mazorca en Trinidad, encontrando que para el caso de la dureza de la cáscara, el valor más bajo se encontró en el clon que reportó más susceptibilidad en campo; y para el contenido de humedad fue menor en el clon que se mostró más resistente. En este trabajo se concluyó que ambos factores, dureza y humedad, están altamente correlacionados con la resistencia a la enfermedad (Okey et al., 1996).Posteriormente, también en el cultivo de cacao, Iwaro y colaboradores (1997), evaluaron la influencia de las características morfológicas de la mazorca en la resistencia a Phytophthora, realizando evaluaciones de la frecuencia de estomas, longitud estomática del poro, cera superficial, grosor del exocarpo /endocarpo, dureza del exocarpo/mesocarpo y contenido de humedad; y observaron correlaciones fuertes relacionadas con la resistencia al establecimiento de la lesión (frecuencia de la lesión) y las mediciones de frecuencia estomática y la longitud del poro, mientras que con las demás variables hubo una correlación pobre. Loke (2004) no encontró correlación con los caracteres de grosor y color de la cáscara de raíces de yuca y la respuesta de 22 clones evaluados por resistencia a P. tropicalis mediante dos tipos de inoculación determinados por evaluaciones en la fase de penetración y en la fase de post-penetración del patógeno.Características bioquímicas de las plantas relacionadas con la resistencia a enfermedades. Es conocido que las plantas también contrarrestan el ataque de fitopatógenos mediante reacciones bioquímicas que tienen lugar en sus células y tejidos, produciendo sustancias tóxicas para la plaga o creando condiciones que inhiben su desarrollo (Sánchez y Prager, 2001).Para el caso del desarrollo de la enfermedad del Tizón tardío del cultivo de la papa, el cual depende de varios procesos, se ha estudiado por separado la agresividad del patógeno y la capacidad de respuesta del hospedero. Se encontró que las esporas de todas las razas de P. infestans, germinan con igual eficiencia en las variedades resistentes y susceptibles, con frecuencias equiparables (Gees y Hohl, 1988); la diferencia fundamental se presenta en el tiempo requerido por el hospedero para la síntesis de compuestos inhibitorios al patógeno, como callosa, lignina, fenoles, fitoalexinas, glicoalcaloides e inhibidores de proteinasas. Estos mecanismos en conjunto, juegan un papel determinante en la resistencia al patógeno y ninguno de ellos por separado ha demostrado ser eficiente al respecto.Hay investigadores que sugieren la existencia de una asociación entre la presencia de compuestos tóxicos y la magnitud del crecimiento de los hongos en tejidos vegetales (Morales, 1983). Igualmente existen reportes sobre el aumento de compuestos fenólicos alrededor de las lesiones necróticas resultantes de la infección de arroz por Piricularia orizae y Helminthosporium sp., también se ha observado un fenomeno similar en hojas Paelownia tomentosa infectadas por Gloeosporium kawakanii (Harborne, 1969).En tubérculos de papa infectados con P. infestans la penetración del patógeno implica un movimiento de ácido clorogénico hacia el sitio de infección y se ha informado, que la zonas azules fluorescentes que rodean las áreas infectadas del tubérculo son causadas por un aumento de 10 a 20 veces el contenido de escopolina; igualmente, también se duplica o triplica la concentración de ácido clorogénico en estas mismas áreas. Este aumento de la cantidad de un fenol fluorescente también se reportó para las hojas y cáscaras de manzana infectadas por Venturia inaequalis y Podosphaera leucotricha (Morales, 1983).Como ya se indicó anteriormente, de varios compuestos fluorescentes que aparecen en el parénquima de las raíces de yuca, el de mayor frecuencia fue identificado como escopoletina, una cumarina que se encuentra en muy baja concentración en las raíces frescas, pero aumenta considerablemente después de la cosecha (Ceños, 2001;Rickard, 1982y Wheatley, 1982). En un estudio sobre el mecanismo responsable del DFP de las raíces de la yuca, se demostró que se requiere la presencia de esta cumarina, que al parecer actúa de manera autocatalítica. En raíces de plantas de yuca, cuya parte superior se podó días previos a la cosecha, se observó un menor DFP, comparado con las raíces que recibieron escopoletina exógena. Las raíces almacenadas durante algún tiempo en ausencia de oxígeno (raíces curadas) ya no fueron susceptibles a la aplicación de escopoletina de manera exógena. Metabólicamente, los dos métodos para prevenir el deterioro difieren claramente: la poda puede ser efectiva debido al reducido suministro interno de oxigeno, o a la ausencia de algún factor involucrado en la oxidación primaria. La cura de las raíces puede implicar la pérdida de un precursor con la inactivación del sistema enzimático (Wheatley y Schwabe, 1985).Se ha determinado una relación entre la ausencia de escopoletina evaluada en raíces expuestas a DFP y la resistencia a P. tropicalis en el parénquima de la raíz, para 22 clones de yuca relacionados con la resistencia al patógeno causante de PRP (Loke, 2004).En estudios realizados en variedades de tabaco (Nicotiana tabacum var. samsun y N. xanthi n.c), inoculadas con el virus del mosaico del tabaco (Tobacco mosaic tobamovirus, TMV), se apreció la formación de lesiones necróticas, las cuales implicaron una acumulación de flavonoides, compuestos que se encuentran en cantidades traza en plantas de N. xanthi. La hipersensibilidad en su mayoría fue acompañada por la producción de ferulil 1 -glucosa y escopoletina (Morales, 1983).La escopoletina, al exponerse a la luz ultravioleta produce una fluorescencia similar a la observada en productos contaminados con el componente B1 de las aflatoxinas (Micotoxinas generadas por hongos entre ellos Apergillius flavus) (Figura 2). Para establecer cuál de estos compuestas está presente, Wheatley (1989) logró establecer un método rápido y sencillo para diferenciar entre la fluorescencia debida a la escopoletina y la causada por las aflatoxinas, utilizando yodo sobre muestras de papel filtro impregnadas con escopoletina de trozos de yuca, este método se describe en materiales y métodos.Otra alternativa que se ha venido estudiando para el manejo del ataque de microorganismos, es a partir del estado nutricional de la planta, encontrando variaciones en cuanto a susceptibilidad y resistencia en determinados cultivos y según el elemento estudiado. Se ha reportado que el exceso de fertilización nitrogenada predispone las plantas al ataque de enfermedades fungosas, como el caso de Pyricularia en arroz. En papaya el exceso de fertilización fosforada predispone al ataque de virus, la deficiencia de K provoca acumulación de aminoácidos, que contribuye a la degradación de lo fenoles, retardando la cicatrización de la heridas y favoreciendo la penetración de patógenos (Sánchez y Prager, 2001). En estudios recientes se observó que el contenido de hierro y manganeso en la cáscara de las raíces de 16 clones de yuca está relacionada con la resistencia a P. tropicalis, siendo la relación entre hierro y manganeso la que explicó el 28% de la variación fenotípica de la resistencia a P. tropicalis (Loke, 2004), además se conocen micro elementos que inhiben el crecimiento de Phytophthora lo cual puede ser demostrado con algunos ejemplos: 1, el uso de Mancozeb (Davidse et al., 1981) para el control de enfermedades causadas por Phytophthora; 2, el tratamiento de tubérculos de papa con zinc a 200 ppm reduce la infección causada por Phytophthora infestans (Ivanov y Mertsedin, 1990). Se cosecharon raíces de 34 clones de yuca de un cultivo de 14 meses de edad, ubicado en el corregimiento de Rozo, Palmira (Valle del Cauca, Colombia).También se cosecharon raíces de 26 clones de yuca de 12 meses de edad, en un cultivo ubicado en Jamundí (Valle del Cauca, Colombia). Los clones se seleccionaron por su alto potencial industrial, determinado por los altos rendimientos, la buena calidad del almidon y los ciclos de cultivo determinados (Alarcón y Dufor, 1998), y los resultados en pruebas regionales para seleccionar los que mejor se adaptan a las condiciones edafoclimáticas del norte del Cauca y sur del Valle del Cauca (Zona Interandina de Altitud Intermedia, Colombia), región caracterizada por suelos pesados, la cual requiere materiales con tolerancia a pudricion de raíces (Loke, 2004). Estos clones fueron identificados como \"elites\" después de un continuo seguimiento, en varios ciclos y hasta etapas avanzadas de desarrollo; por esta razón, se han recomendado a los programas nacionales, y puden ser utilizados como parentales en esquemas de hibridaciones (Jaramillo, 2002) o para este caso, en investigaciones que requieren de materiales con una respuesta estable a factores bióticos y abióticos.Corregimiento de Rozo: 76° 23' 21.6'' de longitud oeste y 3° 37' 10'' de latitud norte y Municipio de Jamundí: 76° 32' 1'' de longitud oeste y 3° 16' 8'' de latitud norte.El cultivo de yuca en Jamundí tuvo las siguientes características agronómicas: preparación del terreno: cincel, rastra, caballoneo; herbicida preemergente: Karmex ® (diuron 1,5 kg/ha p.c.); Lazo ® (alaclor 2,5 L/ha p.c.); distancia de siembra: 1m x 1m; sistema de siembra: estaca vertical. El cultivo de Rozo tuvo preparación del terreno: 2 pases de rastrillo pesado y caballoneada a metro entre surco, se utilizaron los mismos herbicidas preemergentes de Jamundí; distancia de siembra: 1m x 1m, sistema de siembra vertical.Para los experimentos de inoculaciones, fue usado el aislamiento No. 44 de la colección de CIAT, identificado como P. tropicalis. El aislamiento se obtuvó de una raíz de yuca infectada naturalmente en el campo en Barcelona, Quindío, Colombia (Sánchez, 1998). La identificación de la especie fue realizada mediante la secuenciación de la región ITS de la subunidad 5,8 s del ADN ribosomal (CIAT, 2001).en lobulos de hojas de yuca inoculadas con el aislamiento No. 44. Se utilizaron dos lóbulos de hojas de yuca de plantas de un mes provenientes de casa de malla (Palmira) por caja de petri, a la cual se le colocó papel toalla humedecido y dos portaobjetos para aislar los lóbulos foliares de la toalla. El de tejido vegetal se desinfecto durante un minuto en etanol al 10% y posteriormente se lavó con agua deionizada.Los lóbulos de las hojas se inocularon con fragmentos de micelio en suspensión, crecidos en caldo nutritivo. Las cajas de petri se incubaron en el laboratorio a una temperatura de 25 a 28°C, alternando 12 h luz y 12 h oscuridad. Se revisó al quinto dia la presencia de esporangios. Después de cosechar los esporangios con una asa y suspenderlos en agua con 0,01% de Tween ® 80, se incubó la suspensión durante 37 min. aproximadamente a 4° C, con el objetivo de liberar las zoosporas y sembrarlas en medio de cultivo V8 agar modificado (Anexo 7.1) y asi mantener la patogenicidad del aislamiento (Figura 3).La patogenicidad del aislamiento de P. tropicalis se recuperó mediante el reaislamiento de raíces inoculadas con un fragmento de cultivo de 5 mm de diámetro, colocado en la perforación realizada con un sacabocado (López y Lozano, 1994).El reaislamiento se realizó cinco días después de la inoculación sembrando tejido afectado en medio V8A modificado con antibióticos y fungicidas (Sánchez, 1998).Los fragmentos de la raíz se desinfestaron en 50% etanol durante 30 ó 60 segundos. El inóculo (hifas) fue obtenido de la margen de colonias en crecimiento en medio de cultivo V8 Agar modificado con antibbioticos y fungicidas (Figura 4).Utilizando un microscopio de marca Leitz, con magnificaciones de 200 y 400, se verificó periódicamente la pureza de los cultivos crecidos en V8 Agar (Agar, 15 g/L, Difco Laboratories, Detroit, EEUU; V-8 jugo vegetal, Campbell Soup Company, Camden, EEUU, 400 mg/L; penicilina-G, Sigma, St. Louis, EEUU, 1,215 unidades por g, 400 μg/μl) e incubados a 23º C en oscuridad o en lóbulos de hojas de yuca Periódicamente se observó la morfología del aislamiento, la forma de los esporangios, hifas y micelio.Para verificar la pureza de los cultivos a contaminaciones por bacterias, se tomaron fragmentos de cada uno de los aislamientos y se sembraron individualmente en tres tubos de vidrio transparente con 10 ml de medio caldo nutritivo (8,0 g/L, Sigma, St. Louis, EEUU). Con el fin de confirmar la pureza del aislamiento 44 se utilizó la tecnica PCR -RFLP, usando como controles positivos ADN de P. tropicalis y P. palmivora, secuenciados y caracterizados previamente (CIAT, 2004). Se confirmo el género realizando la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR) y la especie por medio de la restricción en la longitud de los fragmentos polimórficos (RFLP).Extracción de ácidos nucleicos. Los ácidos nucleicos (ADN) se obtuvieron siguiendo el protocolo reportado por Cooke y Duncan (1997), con algunas modificaciones y a partir de aislamientos crecidos en medio V8A modificado durante 5 y 6 días.Se colocaron 0,1 g de micelio fresco en un tubo Eppendorf estéril de 1,5 mL, se adicionaron 50 mg de arena estéril, 10 mg de polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP) de sigma (catálogo número 81385) y 750 µL del Buffer de extracción (Tabla 3). Se pulverizó la muestra usando homogenizadores plásticos para tubo Eppendorf y se centrifugó a 13.000 r.p.m. durante cinco minutos en una microcentrífuga (IEC/Micromax. International Equipment Company S.A.). Se recuperó la fase acuosa y se precipitó el ADN con 1 mL de isopropanol frió, se dejó a -20 °C y se centrifugó a 13.000 r.p.m. por 10 minutos descartando posteriormente el sobrenadante.El botón de ADN se lavó con 0,5 mL de etanol al 70%, centrifugando a 13.000 r.p.m. por dos minutos, se descartó el etanol y se resuspendió en 20 µL de TE (Tris, HCl, EDTA) mas 1 µL de Rnase (10 mg/mL). Se incubó a 4 °C durante toda la noche.La concentración del ADN total se midió mediante la técnica de intensificación de la fluorescencia del compuesto benzimidazol (Hoechst H 33258) por presencia de ADN en la solución, mediante un fluorómetro (DyNa Quant 200 de la compañía Hoefer Scientific Instruments, San Francisco). Para medir la concentración del ADN, se calibró el fluorómetro, adicionando en la cubeta 2 mL de la solución prueba y 2 µL del ADN estándar (100 ng/µL). Una vez calibrado el fluorómetro se procedió a medir la concentración de cada una de las muestras en ng/µL, utilizando 2 mL de la solución prueba y 2 µL de ADN muestra, cada muestra se ajustó a una concentración final de 5 ng/µL con agua destilada estéril.• Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa (PCR) del ADN ribosomal (rDNA).Las regiones espaciadoras transcritas internas (ITS1 e ITS2) y la subunidad 5,8 S del rDNA se amplificaron usando los cebadores universales ITS4 e ITS6 (20 MER) (Figura 5). En un tubo para PCR se coloco 1,5 µL del ADN total a 5 ng/µL y se le agregó 24 µL del cóctel (Tabla 4). La amplificación del ADN de cada una de las muestras se llevó a cabo en un termociclador modelo PTC-100 (fabricado por M.J.Research Inc., Watertown Mass.) programado con el perfil térmico mostrado en la Tabla 5.• Electroforesis. Los productos amplificados se visualizaron en un gel de agarosa al 1,5 % en TBE 0,5X (0.09 g Trisma-borato, 0,02 M EDTA), con bromuro de etidio 0,02 µL/mL a una concentración de 10 mg/mL. • Electroforesis Los productos amplificados se visualizaron en synergel al 0,7 % y agarosa al 0,5 % en TBE 0,5X (0,09 g Trisma-borato, 0,02 M EDTA), con bromuro de etidio 0,02 µL/mL a una concentración de 10 mg/mL.El synergel y la agarosa se mezclaron y disolvieron en 10 mL de etanol al 99,8 %, adicionados gradualmente hasta que la mezcla se disolvió completamente. Se calentaron 200 mL de buffer 0.5X, en microondas, durante dos minutos. El buffer se adicionó a la mezcla, en volúmenes de 50 mL, calentando minuto y medio cada vez. Se agregó bromuro de etidio (0,02 μL/mL), se agitó y se dejó reposar a 50 ºC.Esta solución se sirvió en la cámara de electroforosis y se dejó polimerizar durante 20 minutos. Posteriormente se adicionó buffer TBE 0,5X, cubriendo el gel completamente. Las muestras de ADN de P. tropicalis y P. palmivora previamente digeridas, se sirvieron en cada pozo del gel; también se sembraron 5 µL de un ADN lambda (0,05 µg/µL), utilizado como marcador de peso molecular de 100 pb.Se aplicó un voltaje constante de 100 voltios durante aproximadamente dos horas.Los productos digeridos se observaron con un transiluminador de luz ultravioleta y se fotografiaron con el equipo Eagle Eye II Stragene.Se inoculó el aislamiento identificado como P. tropicalis, de cinco días de crecimiento en medio de cultivo V8 modificado con antibióticos y fungicidas. Como control negativo se utilizó medio de cultivo sin crecimiento del patógeno.En la investigación se realizó un análisis detallado de la raíz, evaluando separadamente las tres secciones de la raíz: proximal (sección que se encuentra cerca al tallo), sección central y sección distal, correspondiente al punto de crecimiento apical de la raíz (Figura 6). A cada una de estas secciones se le realizaron evaluaciones para determinar el grosor de la cáscara, dureza de la raíz, el daño causado por P. tropicalis y la presencia de escopoletina (Figura 6), ya que en recientes investigaciones, sobre lotes infestados de manera natural, se ha logrado determinar que el 44,9% de las raíces afectadas poseen la infección en el extremo distal mientras que para el 14,1%, la infección comenzó por el extremo proximal (CIAT, 2004). A cinco raíces por clon se les determinó el grosor realizando dos mediciones en cada sección. La medición se realizó con un calibrador de precisión 150 x 0,05 mm (Quality Tools, Vernier Caliper) en raíces frescas provenientes de campo. El diseño experimental fue en Bloque completos al azar con cinco repeticiones, la unidad experimental consistió en una raíz.En cinco raíces de cada clon se determinó la dureza de la raíz, utilizando un penetrómetro (DIK-5560, Daiki Rikakogyo Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japon) que permitió obtener un valor, el cual fue transformado con la tabla de cálculo para valores de resistencia, se utilizó la columna para el resorte blanco. El valor de la resistencia se obtuvo en kg/cm². Por cada raíz se realizaron dos evaluaciones en cada una de las secciones proximal, central y distal de la raíz. Se utilizó un diseño en Bloques completos al azar con cinco repeticiones en donde la unidad experimental fue una raíz.Para determinar el porcentaje de humedad de las raíces se tomaron tres raíces por clon, separándoles la cáscara (cáscara externa más corteza) y el parénquima. Después de fragmentar ambos tejidos en trozos muy pequeños, se colocaron en un horno (THELCO, Precision Scientific, GCA, Chicago, USA) y se secaron las muestras a 60° C durante dos días. Para calcular el porcentaje de humedad se pesaron las muestras en balanza de precisión (CA-8606, Mettler Instrument, AG, Zurich, Suiza) inmediatamente después de fragmentar el tejido e inmediatamente después de sacarlas del horno.Color de la cáscara externa, la corteza y el parénquima. Se tomaron cinco raíces por clon para evaluar el color externo de la raíz, el color de la corteza y el color de la pulpa o parénquima interno de las raíces de los 60 clones, la evaluación se realizó con los descriptores morfológicos determinados por Fukuda y Guevara (1998) (Figura 7).de la presencia de escopoletina. Se evaluó el porcentaje de fluorescencia en los cortes transversales de raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis, sin perforación de la cáscara de cada raíz. Los fragmentos se colocaron en una cabina oscura con luz ultra violeta (365 nm) (Figura 8). Esta evaluación también se realizó para los cinco cortes transversales de raíces expuestas a deterioro fisiológico (Figura 9).Se realizaron dos ajustes para la determinación de la presencia de escopoletina en el parénquima. Uno de estos consistió en la suma del porcentaje de tejido macerado a causa de la inoculación sin perforación de la cáscara, y el porcentaje de tejido fluorescente determinado bajo la luz ultra violeta. Este ajuste se realizó pues donde hubo maceración del parénquima causado por P. tropicalis, la escopoletina ya había aparecido. Otro ajuste consistió en la resta de los valores de fluorescencia leídos en las raíces control y los valores obtenidos de a primera corrección. El diseño experimenta fue Parcelas divididas con 10 repeticiones y dos controles negativos, la unidad experimental consistió en una raíz. • Método para diferenciar la presencia de aflatoxinas de la escopoletina en raíces frescas o procesadas de yuca (Wheatley, 1989). Se tomaron muestra de parénquima de yuca previamente expuesto a deterioro fisiológico y pudrición por P. tropicalis (Figura 10). Se realizó un lavado con agua deionizada durante 5 minutos y luego 1 minuto con agua destilada, después se colocaron las muestras sobre el papel de filtro estéril, previamente depositado en la caja petri estéril. Al cabo de las 24 horas, se tomaron las muestra y el papel filtro y se colocaron en la cabina oscura a la luz ultravioleta.Con la aparición de fluorescencia en el papel, se descartó la muestra. Se tomo el papel filtro y se coloco en una cámara de extracción sobre se yodo vertido en un recipiente, se realizó esta labor con guantes plásticos y la mascarilla para evitar al máximo el contacto directo con el yodo. Dentro de la cámara se dejo la muestra o el papel filtro durante 5 minutos sobre el recipiente con yodo, al cabo de los cuales se observó bajo la luz ultravioleta. Cuando el papel estuvo húmedo fue necesario dejarlo secar antes de exponerlo a la luz.La evaluación se realizó sobre 5 raíces de M Tai 8 sometidas a deterioro filológico, 5 raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis. La presencia de escopoletina se determinó si al momento de observar el papel bajo la luz ultravioleta la fluorescencia desaparece, queriendo decir que la muestra contiene fenoles (escopoletinas); si la fluorescencia azul persistía, la muestra contenía aflatoxinas.interno de la raíz. Para efectuar los ánalisis químicos de los contenidos de hierro y manganeso en la cáscara (cáscara externa y corteza) y el parénquima interno de raíces de yuca; se procesaron tres raices por clon. Se lavaron con agua corriente para eliminar residuos de suelo, se realizaron los cortes con cuchillos de acero inoxidable fragmentando por separado de la cáscara y el parénquima. Una muestra representativa de cada tejido fue tomada y colocada a secar sobre crisoles (cajas petri plásticas) en un horno a 60°C durante 48 horas.La muestra fue pulverizada con nitrógeno líquido, para evitar contaminaciones por hierro que fácilmente se podrian dar con los molinos comunmente utilizados para esta labor. Después de pulverizar la cáscara y la pulpa, se colocó el polvo obtenido de cada clon en un tubo falcon (50 ml) para evitar la humedad y posible contaminación de las muestras. A cada clon se le determinó el contenido de hierro y manganeso mediante espectrofotometría (Unicam Solar 969) de absorción atómica. Estos análisis químicos fueron realizados en el Laboratorio de Servicios Analíticos del CIAT (Palmira, Colombia).Con base a evaluaciones previas realizadas en campo (Loke, 2004), se definieron cuatro categorías de resistencia según el daño observado: resistente, con menos de 10% de área de raíz afectada; moderadamente resistente, entre 10 y 30%;susceptible, entre 30 y 60% (Figura 11); y altamente susceptible, para más de 60% de raíz afectada. Estas categorías se utilizaron para diferenciar los clones de acuerdo a su resistencia al patógeno.Se evaluaron dos tipos de resistencia a P. tropicalis, según Iwaro (1995):Resistencia en la fase de penetración del patógeno, (Resistencia de la cáscara) yResistencia en la fase de pospenetración del patógeno (Resistencia del parénquima interno o pulpa. Las raíces se lavaron después de la cosecha con agua potable, se desinfestaron con hipoclorito de sodio (1% durante 5 minutos) y etanol (50%, 5 minutos) y posteriormente se lavaron con agua deionizada estéril.Se cosecharon 60 clones de los cultivos establecidos en jamundí y Rozo, utilizando 10 raíces para cada tipo de resistencia más dos raíces inoculadas con medio de cultivo sin crecimiento del patógeno como control negativo. La unidad experimental consistió en una raíz con tres puntos de inoculación correspondientes a las secciones: proximal, central y distal.Resistencia genética de la cáscara de la raíz a P. tropicalis en la fase de penetración del patógeno. Las raíces evaluadas se inocularon sin hacer perforación a la cáscara. La inoculación sobre la superficie de la raíz de yuca se 3.4.2 Resistencia genética del parénquima de la raíz a P. tropicalis en la fase de pospenetración del patógeno. Para evaluar la resistencia en la fase de postpenetración, se inocularon raíces con perforación de la cáscara, evaluando cinco días después, mediante un corte transversal sobre cada sección de la raíz y se determinó el porcentaje de área afectada. Igualmente, como en la fase anterior, se tuvó en cuenta el área con fluorescencia bajo luz ultra violeta para determinar con presición el área afectada por el patógeno.Se desinfectaron 10 raíces por clon durante cinco minutos, en una solución de hipoclorito de sodio al 1% y en etanol al 50%. Se eliminaron 2 cm de cada uno de los extremos distal y proximal de las raíces. En el extremo distal se colocó una película plástica de cloruro de polivinilo (PVC) sostenida con una banda de caucho, lo que hace que el deterioro comience desde la parte proximal, permitiendo realizar la evaluación con la escala de deterioro fisiológico (Wheatley, 1985). La evaluación del deterioro se realizó a los 10 días, midiendo el avance del deterioro a través del parénquima, en cinco cortes transversales por raíz, utilizando la escala de 11 valores (Tabla 7 y Figura 12).Con este método la deterioración se inicia desde el extremo proximal y las raíces con mayor susceptibilidad al deterioro fisiológico muestran las estrías características de esta clase de deterioración hasta las selecciones mas alejadas del extremo proximal (Figura 13). Las raíces con menor susceptibilidad al DFP mostraran los síntomas de la deterioración en las secciones cercanas al extremo proximal pero pocos o ningún síntoma en las secciones distantes de dicho extremo. El deterioro máximo posible equivale a un 100% de la superficie o sea valor 10 de la escala para cada sección; el promedio de la suma total de los valores puede por tanto expresarse como porcentaje y esta expresión constituye el porcentaje de deterioración (Wheatley, 1982).En esta investigación se ha realizado una comparación que permitió establecer las diferencias y relaciones entre las evaluaciones por resistencia a P. tropicalis en las fases de penetración y pospenetración de la enfermedad, comparando su repuesta con caracteres morfológicos y bioquímicos de la raíz realizados para clones \"elites\" provenientes de dos pruebas regionales de CIAT ubicadas en el corregimiento de La Dolores Palmira -Valle del Cauca y en la Hacienda Agricol ubicada en el municipio de Jamundí.  Según los porcentajes de área afectada determinados en las diferentes secciones de las raíces de clones de yuca, se realizó la discriminación por categorías de resistencia para los clones de Jamundí (Tabla 8) y para los clones de Rozo (Tabla 9), encontrando una primera evidencia que permite observar como en algunos clones la severidad del daño esta altamente determinada por la sección inoculada con P. tropicalis.   En Jamundí para las evaluaciones de resistencia a P tropicalis, en la fase de penetración del patógeno, se observó que los clones resistentes con un porcentaje de área afectada inferior al 10% en la sección proximal fueron: SM 1871-33, SM 1642-22, SM 1520-18, SM1520-16, M Tai-8, CM 7463-2 (todos con 0% de área afectada), SM 2058-2 (0,5%), SM 1959-1, SM 2211-3 (ambos con 1,0%), y SM 1855-15 (2,5%); para la sección central: SM 1871-33, SM 1520-18, SM 1520-16 (con 0 % de área afectada), SM 2211-3 (1,5%), SM 1855-15 (3,5%), SM 1959-1(5,5%), SM 2141-1 (9,0%), y SM 2085-7 (9,5%); en la sección distal SM 1871-33 (0 %), SM 2211-3, (ambos con 1,5%), SM 2073-1 (2,0%), SM 1855-15 (3%) y SM 1965-1 (4%) y con el valor promedio de las tres secciones, los clones resistentes fueron: SM 1871-33 (0%), SM 2211-3 (1,3%) SM 1855-15 (3,0%) y SM 2141-1 (7%) (Tabla 10).Tabla 10. Resistencia de raíces de 26 clones de yuca a Phytophthora tropicalis en términos de porcentajes de pudrición, lesiones y área con escopoletina, Jamundí 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 Mínimo 6,5 9,5 0,0 10,3 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,0 0,00 En los análisis de porcentaje de lesiones en las diferentes secciones de la raíz (Anexo 7.3), que buscaron determinar la resistencia de la cáscara a P. tropicalis, se encontraron diferencias altamente significativas para los clones de Jamundí y Rozo, aunque para este ultimo, continuaron altos los porcentaje de coeficiente de variación para la sección proximal y central, igualmente que en la evaluación anterior (% de pudrición) también se presentaron valores bajos para la sección distal y el valor promedio. En las tablas 10 y 11 se indican los porcentajes de lesiones en el parénquima para cada sección de la raíz (proximal, central y distal y promedio de las tres). Los clones de Jamundí con menores porcentajes promedio de área con pudrición de parénquima, mostraron la menor cantidad de lesiones promedio (menos del 20% de los puntos de inoculación), a excepción de SM 2141-1 que mostró 76,7% de lesiones en el parénquima. Por lo tanto se podría deducir que ambas evaluaciones ofrecen un valor para la discriminación de clones por resistencia o susceptibilidad muy similar.Entre los clones evaluados en el cultivo de Rozo, se encontraba la población CM 9582, resultante del cruce de M Bra 1045 y M Cr 81, clones con comportamiento de susceptibilidad y resistencia en cuanto a las evaluaciones de porcentaje de pudrición, que determinaron la resistencia de la cáscara (Tabla 9). Esta F 1 (progenie del cruce) mostró una población segregante, típica para este tipo de cruces. De este cruce resultaron clones resistentes (con menos de 10% de área de parénquima afectado) con un porcentaje dentro de la población que osciló entre el 21 y 28% según la sección de la raíz, además la población más representativa estuvo en los clones moderadamente resistentes (Figura 17) característica que muy posiblemente adquirieron del clon parental M Cr 81.Clones que como el CM 9582-32, mostraron diferencias en cuanto a resistencia de la cáscara, dependiendo de la sección de la raíz (Figura 18), indican que el grado de resistencia depende de la sección de la raíz.Figura 17. Categorías de resistencia para la población CM 9582, según las evaluaciones de porcentaje de área con pudrición de parénquima, causado por P.tropicalis, resistencia de la cáscara  Las evaluaciones de los porcentajes de área afecta con maceración de parénquima y de lesiones, evaluadas a los 10 días y obtenidas mediante el método de inoculación sin perforación de la cáscara, sirvieron para determinar la resistencia de la cáscara. Estas evaluaciones al ser relacionadas mostraron para las diferentes secciones de la raíz y su valor promedio en los clones de Rozo y Jamundí correlaciones altas y altamente significativas (Tabla 12). Las correlaciones fueron mas altas en el cultivo de Rozo, pero en ambos cultivos, según se observa en sus cuatro variables (secciones:proximal, central, distal y su promedio) los valores mantuvieron un patrón de correlación similar con oscilaciones para el caso de Rozo de r = 0,77 a 0,87 y para los clones de Jamundí con correlaciones entre 0,63 y 0,66. En este caso la evaluación del porcentaje de maceración para la resistencia de la cáscara es un valor que puede ser utilizado, como de igual forma se ha utilizado para la evaluación de la resistencia del parénquima en la fase de pospenetración de la enfermedad.Para la resistencia de la cáscara, determinada según el porcentaje de área con pudrición de parénquima, se encontraron correlaciones altamente significativas entre las diferentes secciones de la raíz y para los clones de ambos cultivos (Tabla 13). La sección central al parecer es la que se encuentra mejor correlacionada con las otras dos secciones, mostrando correlaciones entre sección central y proximal de r = 0,72 para el caso de Jamundí y de r = 0,53 para los clones de Rozo; y entre la sección central y la distal, las correlaciones son de r = 0,66 y 0,61 para Rozo y Jamundí respectivamente. pudrición y evaluada a los 5 días de inoculada la raíz mediante el método con perforación de la cáscara, mostró correlaciones altas y altamente significativas entre los valores evaluados para las diferentes secciones de la raíz, las correlaciones de las secciones proximal y distal con la sección central fueron las mas altas (Tabla 14), como lo encontrado para la resistencia de la cáscara.Correlaciones entre Resistencia de la cáscara y del parénquima. Se realizó la comparación de estas dos resistencias mediante las evaluaciones de porcentaje de área afecta por maceración de tejido en el parénquima, las correlaciones encontradas entre los dos tipos de resistencia para las diferentes secciones de la raíz (Tabla 15), muestran para el caso de los clones del cultivo de Rozo, valores bajos de correlación altamente significativos (∝ = 5%) para las secciones distal (r = -0,25) y significativos para el valor promedio de las tres secciones (r = 0,02). Para los clones evaluados en el cultivo establecido en Jamundí, una correlación baja y significativa fue encontradas en la sección central (r = 0,18).Para estas evaluaciones según el análisis de varianza se establecieron diferencias significativas y un coeficiente de variación de 107%, valor relativamente alto entre los clones establecidos en Jamundí (Anexo 7.5), que mostraron deterioro fisiológico entre 4,2% y 55,2% y siendo el menos afectado M Tai 8, (Tabla 16).Resultados similares se observaron con los clones de Rozo (Anexo 7.5), en donde con diferencias altamente significativas, se presentaron coeficientes de variación de 298,1%, aunque se identificaron clones resistentes como SM 1555-17 que mostró 9% de deterioro y M Nga 2 con 2% (Tabla 17). 0,03 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,13 0,00 0,00 0,00  (valores de grosor de 1,7 a 1,8mm) (Tabla 17). Las correlaciones realizadas entre las secciones de la raíz por medio de las evaluaciones de grosor de la cáscara, determinaron valores bajos de correlación, que estarían acordes a un desarrollo fisiológico normal de la raíz, ya que la sección distal de esta, por ser la parte más joven, mostró los valores más bajos de grosor con un promedio de 2mm para los clones de ambos cultivos (Tabla 19) 4.5.3 Color de la cáscara externa, la corteza y el parénquima de la raíz. La mayoría de los clones evaluados en Jamundí y Rozo mostraron un color de la cáscara externa marrón claro (categoría 3), el color de la corteza predominante en Rozo fue blanco o crema (categoría 1) y amarillo (categoría 2) para los clones de Jamundí. Para el color del parénquima, en Rozo predominaron los clones con colores blanco y crema (categorías 1 y 2) y en Jamundí los clones con color de parénquima blanco (categoría 1) (Tablas 16 y 17). Las correlaciones determinadas entre los colores de las partes de la raíz, tuvieron baja correlación, indicando que para la expresión de un color en una parte de la raíz no existe influencia de otra parte de la raíz (Tabla 20).4.6.1 Porcentaje de humedad en el parénquima y en la cáscara de la raíz. En general para todos los clones evaluados en los cultivos de Jamundí y Rozo el porcentaje de humedad siempre fue mayor en la cáscara que en el parénquima.El clon M Per, que se repitió en los dos cultivos, reportó porcentajes de humedad parecidos entre cultivos. En Jamundí, M Per 183 reportó en la cáscara un 76,8%de humedad y en el parénquima 67,4% de humedad, mientras que en Rozo reportó en la cáscara 74,2% y en el parénquima 67,1%. Para el caso del clon M Tai-8 sus valores fueron diferentes en ambos cultivos: en Jamundí tuvo en la cáscara un porcentaje de humedad de 73,7% y en el parénquima 61,24% mientras que en Rozo los porcentajes fueron inferiores con 67,6 y 57,1% de humedad respectivamente, esto podría llevar a pensar que el contenido de humedad en la cáscara y parénquima de estos clones puede estar influenciado no solo por las características varietales, sino también por condiciones ambientales. Las correlaciones entre los porcentajes de humedad obtenidos en la cáscara y el parénquima, para los dos cultivos fueron muy similares con valores de 0,66 para el cultivo de Jamundí y 0,62 para el cultivo de Rozo, con lo que se podría deducir que la humedad del parénquima se ve muy influenciada por la humedad de la cáscara.Se realizaron correlaciones entre las evaluaciones de humedad de la cáscara y el parénquima y dureza de la raíz, las correlaciones entre estas evaluaciones mostraron una tendencia lógica, dado que a mayor humedad, se encuentra menos dureza en la raíz, la que al parecer mostró mayores correlaciones con el porcentaje de humedad en la cáscara que con el porcentaje de humedad del parénquima (Tabla 21), lo que indicaría que las evaluaciones de dureza de la raíz se ven altamente influenciadas por la dureza de la cáscara. Se encontró una correlación muy fuerte que favorece aún más la hipótesis, dado que para los clones de Jamundí se encontró una correlación de 0,73 entre el porcentaje de humedad de la cáscara y la dureza de la sección central de la raíz. (Figura 20).y en raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis sin perforación de la cáscara. El porcentaje de fluorescencia como indicador de la presencia de escopoletina fue positivo con la prueba para la diferenciación de aflatoxinas. La fluorescencia observada tanto en tejido expuesto a deterioro fisiológico, como en el tejido circundante a la infección con P. tropicalis fue positiva a escopoletina, oscureciéndose el papel filtro que contenía la escopoletina precipitada de estos tejidos, al momento del contacto con el yodo (Figura 21). Se pudo determinar que la fluorescencia observada fue directamente proporcional a la magnitud del daño observado en las en las raíces expuesta a deterioro y en las raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis, lo que esta de acuerdo con los registros de Wheatley (1982)  En las observaciones realizadas entre los contenidos de los elementos ya sea de la cáscara y el parénquima se observaron una buenas correlaciones entre el contenido de hierro en la cáscara y contenido de manganeso en la cáscara con 0,89 para los clones de Jamundí y 0,57 para los clones de Rozo. Al parecer existe sinergismo entre estos dos elementos, ya que el aumento del hierro en la cáscara, se ve acompañado de un aumento de manganeso.  No se encontró correlación de esta característica con las evaluaciones de porcentaje de lesiones y de pudrición de parénquima, que determinaran la resistencia de la cáscara en los clones de Rozo y Jamundí.Tampoco estuvo relacionada con las evaluaciones de deterioro fisiológico y no estuvo asociada a la característica dureza de la raíz, con la cual una correlación alta y positiva tendría una explicación lógica (Tablas 24 y 25).Color de la cáscara, de la corteza y del parénquima. Los valores obtenidos con la escala de colores para cada uno de los 60 clones no estuvieron correlaciones con las evaluaciones que determinaron la resistencia de la cáscara y del parénquima a P. tropicalis, ni con las evaluaciones de DFP (Tablas 24 y 25).No se encontraron correlaciones altas que puedan explicar la resistencia de los clones de Rozo y Jamundí a P. tropicalis en ninguna de las fases de infección del patógeno (fase de penetración y de pospenetración),Igualmente estas evaluaciones tampoco estuvieron correlacionadas con las del DFP (Tablas 24 y 25). Sin embargo un caso particular ocurrió en los cultivos, pues al parecer se marcaron tendencias en las que la dureza de la raíz estuvo mas correlacionada con la resistencia de la cáscara en los clones de Jamundí, mientras que en los clones de Rozo la evaluación de la dureza estuvo encaminada a explicar la resistencia del parénquima. Al parecer la respuesta de los tejidos por medio de mecanismos de resistencia, esta dada por la condición en la que se encuentra el tejido y en este caso por su dureza.Tabla 24. Correlaciones entre las características morfológicas de las raíces de la yuca y las evaluaciones de resistencia a PRP y DFP, para 26 clones cosechados en el municipio de Jamundí -0,20 -0,24 -0,38 -0,33 -0,05 -0,14 -0,36 -0,23 0,15 0,22 0,14 0,18 -0,23 Proximal -0,17 -0,09 -0,35 -0,25 -0,02 0,12 -0,22 -0,04 -0,18 0,01 -0,08 -0,25 0,13 Central -0,22 -0,06 -0,38 -0,27 0,02 0,10 -0,17 -0,01 -0,05 -0,05 -0,04 -0,27 0,09 Distal -0,28 -0,17 -0,24 -0,27 -0,03 -0,02 -0,21 -0,10 0,12 0,19 0,20 -0,27 -0,03Grosor de la cáscara de raíz (mm) Promedio a -0,26 -0,11 -0,41 -0,32 0,00 0,09 -0,23 -0,05 -0,07 0,02 0,00 -0,32 0,09 Externo -0,07 -0,13 -0,24 -0,12 0,09 -0,19 -0,34 -0,16 0,29 0,39 0,49 0,41 0,35 Corteza -0,07 -0,01 -0,24 -0,13 0,12 0,00 -0,12 0,01 0,41 0,80 0,21 0,34 0,29 ) Promedio a 0,10 0,13 -0,02 0,08 0,13 0,17 0,14 0,16 -0,24 -0,30 -0,33 -0,35 0,33 Proximal 0,19 0,12 0,03 0,13 0,03 0,07 0,02 0,04 -0,09 -0,12 -0,28 -0,21 0,40 Central 0,07 -0,02 -0,03 0,01 -0,02 -0,02 0,02 0,00 -0,04 0,01 -0,18 -0,10 0,14 Distal -0,02 -0,11 -0,06 -0,07 -0,13 -0,05 0,00 -0,07 -0,12 -0,13 -0,25 -0,21 -0,01Grosor de la cáscara de raíz (mm) Promedio a 0,11 0,01 -0,02 0,04 -0,03 0,01 0,01 0,00 -0,10 -0,10 -0,30 -0,21 0,25 Externo -0,19 0,02 0,17 0,00 0,32 0,20 0,12 0,23 0,04 0,09 0,23 0,16 -0,12 Corteza 0,00 0,00 -0,18 -0,07 0,23 0,22 0,18 0,23 -0,05 -0,16 -0,19 -0,17 -0,17Color de las partes de la raíz Parénquima 0,14 0,12 0,14 0,15 -0,46 -0,40 -0,37 -0,44 0,05 0,03 0,09 0,07 0,08 a Son los valores que se obtienen al promediar las tres secciones de la raíz (proximal, central y distal)La sección distal es la que se encuentra menos correlacionada, coincidiendo para ambos cultivos, podría deberse a que la respuesta de esta sección no es muy variable en cuanto a las evaluaciones de deterioro fisiológico, de pudrición de parénquima y de lesiones; determinadas para las raíces de los clones de Jamundí y Rozo (Tabla 26).En la Figura 23, se puede observa la mejor correlación de PRP sin perforación de la cáscara y la dureza de la raíz observada en los clones de Jamundí. Al Tabla 27. Correlaciones entre las características bioquímicas de las raíces de la yuca y las evaluaciones de resistencia a PRP y DFP, para 26 clones cosechados en el municipio de Jamundí Fe parénquima -0,12 -0,21 0,02 -0,12 -0,17 -0,34 -0,06 -0,26 0,13 0,09 0,13 0,13 -0,09Mn cáscara 0,41 0,17 0,23 0,32 0,48 0,15 0,26 0,41 -0,02 -0,04 -0,02 -0,03 0,31Mn parénquima -0,05 0,01 -0,07 -0,04 0,23 0,31 0,01 0,26 -0,12 -0,16 -0,14 -0,15 -0,19Fe/Mn cáscara -0,07 -0,20 -0,07 -0,13 -0,10 -0,27 -0,04 -0,18 -0,05 0,02 0,06 0,01 0,21Fe/mn parénquima -0,04 -0,23 0,04 -0,08 -0,23 -0,43 -0,10 -0,34 0,13 0,11 0,18 0,15 -0,02 -0,10 -0,31 -0,35 -0,29 -0,08 -0,10 -0,05 -0,09 0,14 0,15 0,13 0,16 -0,41 Porcentaje de humedad Parénquima -0,32 -0,45 -0,31 -0,41 -0,28 -0,26 -0,13 -0,24 0,00 -0,12 0,04 -0,03 -0,31Fe cáscara 0,03 0,09 0,16 0,11 0,13 0,01 0,04 0,07 0,08 0,25 0,28 0,26 -0,18Fe parénquima 0,01 0,08 0,20 0,11 -0,20 -0,24 -0,29 -0,26 0,08 0,24 0,21 0,22 0,11Mn cáscara -0,01 0,00 -0,02 -0,01 0,26 0,19 0,21 0,24 -0,08 0,11 0,27 0,14 -0,33Mn parénquima -0,05 -0,03 -0,11 -0,08 0,11 0,15 0,00 0,09 -0,20 -0,17 -0,03 -0,15 0,25Fe/Mn cáscara 0,00 0,09 0,37 0,18 -0,13 -0,32 -0,30 -0,27 0,26 0,40 0,26 0,36 0,13Fe/mn parénquima -0,12 -0,07 0,12 -0,02 -0,04 -0,11 -0,03 -0,06 0,21 0,19 0,28 0,23 -0,07  , 1983;Wheatley, 1982;Agrios, 1978;Harborne, 1969).Los porcentajes de fluorescencia determinados en los cortes transversales sometidos a deterioro fisiológico y en los sometidos a pudrición de parénquima mediante inoculaciones con P. tropicalis sin perforación de la cáscara, están correlacionados con las variables de deterioro fisiológico y de resistencia de la cáscara.La correlación encontrada entre las evaluaciones de deterioro y el porcentaje de fluorescencia como indicador de escopoletina es de 0,67 para los clones de Jamundí (Figura. 26) y de 0,76 para los clones de Rozo (Figura 27).El porcentaje de escopoletina evaluado en raíces inoculadas sin perforación de la cáscara, estuvo correlacionado con el porcentaje de área con pudrición de parénquima en raíces inoculadas con P. tropicalis de manera significativa en cada una de las secciones de la raíz. Las correlaciones entre el valor promedio de las tres secciones muestra correlación de 0,65 para los clones de Jamundí (Figura 28) y de 0,72 para los clones ubicados en Rozo (Figura 29).Figura 24. Correlación entre el porcentaje de humedad en la cáscara y el porcentaje de pudrición promedio, método sin perforación, de las evaluaciones que determinaron la resistencia de la cáscara para 26 clones de yuca cosechados en Jamundí e inoculados con P. tropicalis 4.9.1 Resistencia de la cáscara de la raíz a P. tropicalis. Entre las evaluaciones de porcentaje de lesiones, método sin perforación, no hubo una correlación significativa (r = 0,11), queriendo decir que el efecto del tiempo, y más aún del ambiente influencia drásticamente la respuesta de los clones, pues el promedio de lesiones fue mucho menor en La Dolores (60,0%), comparado con el de Jamundí (76,7%) (Tabla 29).4.9.2 Resistencia del parénquima de la raíz a P. tropicalis. Entre las evaluaciones de porcentaje de área con pudrición de parénquima, método sin perforación, no hubo correlación (r = 0,02), coincidiendo con la correlación anterior (de resistencia de la cáscara) queriendo decir que una vez más el efecto del ambiente influencia drásticamente la respuesta de los clones aunque el porcentaje promedio de enfermedad no fluctuó mucho entre las dos localidades (Tabla 30).4.9.3 Grosor de la cáscara. Esta característica morfológica de la raíz se mostró muy influenciada por el ambiente, pues al comparar las evaluaciones de grosor promedio de la raíz no se encontró correlación, r = 0,04 (Tabla 31). color de la corteza se observó que el clon M Tai 8 paso de tener un color blanco o crema (categoría 1) en La Dolores, a un color amarillo en Jamundí categoría 2; similar condición se presentó en el clon SM 1871-33 para el color de la corteza y en el clon SM 1660-4, para el color externo de raíz, las correlaciones fueron de 0,90 para la corteza y 0,95 para el color externo (Tabla 32).4.9.5 Contenidos de hierro y manganeso y su relación, en la cáscara de la raíz. Los análisis realizados para la determinación del contenido de estos elementos en la cáscara, muestran para las dos localidades diferencias muy marcadas (Tabla 33). La cantidad de estos dos elementos fue mucho mayor para los clones de Jamundí, y los valores mas altos de relación Fe/Mn se presentaron en los clones provenientes de La Dolores, al parecer la condición de relaciones bajas fue la causante de no encontrar correlación (r = 0,26) entre las evaluaciones de resistencia de la cáscara con la relación para los contenidos de Fe y Mn en los clones de Jamundí, contrario a lo encontrado por Loke (2004) en los clones de La Dolores (Figura 30).4.9.6. Porcentaje de escopoletina evaluado en raíces expuestas a DFP.Con la comparación para 18 clones presentes en ambas localidades, no se encontro correlación (r = 0,15), pero si se observaron clones que mantienen esta característica de bajo contenido de escopoletina asociado con la baja deterioración fisiológica de la raíz, en este caso el clon M Tai 8 se mantiene con porcentajes de 21 % de escopoletina en la raíz (Tabla 34).   • Se validó la existencia de diferentes tipos de resistencia en la raíz de yuca, determinados por los mecanismos de resistencia a la penetración y a la pospenetración del patógeno, evaluando la respuesta de la cáscara y el parénquima con inoculaciones de P. tropicalis.• Se determinó que el grado de resistencia o susceptibilidad de la raíz a inoculaciones con P. tropicalis está fuerte influenciado por los puntos de inoculación de la raíz, determinados para las secciones proximal, central y distal.• Las correlaciones observadas para la escopoletina con P. tropicalis inoculada sin perforación y con DFP, muestran que la escopoletina es una expresión del deterioro, ya sea patológico o fisiológico, en la raíz• La investigación permitió mejorar la metodología de inoculación y evaluación de clones de yuca por resistencia a PRP dado que con inoculaciones en el centro de la raíz se obtiene un valor que explicaría el comportamiento de resto de las secciones de la raíz.• Para el caso de las respuestas de los clones por resistencia a PRP y DFP, es claro que el ambiente es determinante en la expresión de estas características, por lo tanto la investigación encaminada a identificar agroecosistemas que permitan la obtención de un equilibrio sería la estrategia a adoptar en futuras investigaciones.   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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"96741f1d27b5e5dce807d6ef8366012f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7061d620-c5c5-4d55-b4c7-f5a8fa1eedc6/content","id":"282649778"},"keywords":["Food security","grain storage","metal silo","storage pest"],"sieverID":"66d6309e-e892-4dfd-9366-b68445bbaf38","pagecount":"9","content":"A treatment effect and ordered logit models were used to evaluate the impact of metal silo storage technology on household food security and factors influencing adoption of metal silo. Farmers' perception of the effectiveness of metal silo against larger grain borer and maize weevil was also analyzed. The most important factor households considered when choosing a storage facility was effectiveness against storage pests followed by security of the stored grain and durability of the storage facility. Metal silo adopters had 1.8 months more of adequate food provisioning than nonadopters. Compared to non-adopting households, metal silo adopters only sold a little portion of their maize initially to meet immediate cash needs and kept the bulk of it until the fifth month after harvest. Consumption was stable throughout the year for the metal silo adopters. Non-adopters sold most of their maize immediately after harvest and consumption was higher than sales. Household size, literacy of the household head and land size increased the likelihood of adopting the metal silo technology. Households with access to financial services (bank account and/or mobile money) were more likely to adopt metal silo. Distance to the nearest passable road reduced odds of adopting metal silo technology. The use of metal silos prevented damage by larger grain borer (LGB) and maize weevil for 98% and 94% of adopters, respectively. This study finds evidence that metal silo technology is effective against main maize storage pests and its adoption can significantly improve food security in rural households.Two-thirds of the people in eastern and southern Africa (ESA) live in rural areas where they make a living from agriculture, often from degraded and marginal lands, with little opportunity to diversify incomes through additional employment in non-farming activities. Addressing rural poverty and food insecurity is therefore central to any efforts to improve human well-being and livelihoods in the region (http://www.undp.org/mdg/, accessed 30 April, 2011). Cereal grains form a major part of crop production in Africa. One of the key constraints to improving food and nutritional security in Africa, however, is the poor post-harvest management that leads to 20-30% loss of grains, with an estimated monetary value of more than US$ 2 billion annually and can reach US$ 4billion (Zorya et al., 2011). Post-harvest losses remove part of the supply from the market contributing to food price spikes as was experienced between 2008 and 2011 by (Rosegrant et al., 2015). Postharvest losses also cause resource wastage because natural resources, human and physical capital are committed to produce, process, handle and transport food that no one consumes.Apart from causing grain weight losses, incidence of pest attack of the stored grains is also linked to mycotoxin contamination and poisoning. In 2004, for example, one of the largest aflatoxicosis outbreaks occurred in rural Kenya, resulting in 317 cases and 125 deaths (Lewis et al., 2005). The main economically important storage insect pests are maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), the larger grain borer (LGB) Prostephanus truncatus Horn (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), angoumois grain moth Sitotroga cereallela, Oliv. (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and the lesser grain weevil Sitophilus oryzae Linne (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) (Markham et al., 1994).Traditional storage practices in Africa countries cannot guarantee protection against major storage pests of staple food crops like maize (FAO, 2008;Gitonga et al., 2013). The lack of suitable storage structures for grain storage and absence of storage management technologies often force the smallholders to sell their produce immediately after harvest. Consequently, farmers receive low market prices for any surplus grain they may produce to avoid post-harvest losses from storage pests and pathogens (Kimenju et al., 2009;Tefera et al., 2011). Farmers also cannot use their harvest as collateral to access credit, (Semple et al., 1988;Tefera et al., 2011). It is therefore, crucial that appropriate, affordable storage technologies are readily available to farmers for them to safely store and maintain quality of their produce (Thamaga-Chitja et al., 2004). Safe storage of maize at the farm level is crucial, as it directly impacts on poverty alleviation, food and income security of the smallholder farmers.Application of chemical insecticides has been recommended in order to protect against insect-pest and pathogen attack during storage (Dales and Golob, 1997). However, insecticides are frequently unavailable or too expensive for subsistence farmers in developing countries. As an alternative strategy to reduce postharvest maize grain losses in Africa, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) implemented an SDC funded project titled \"Effective Grain Storage for Sustainable Livelihood of African Farmers,\". The project successfully introduced the development and fabrication of metal silo technology in Kenya and Malawi (CIMMYT, 2011). A metal silo is a cylindrical structure, constructed from a galvanized iron sheet and hermetically sealed (Figure 1). The metal silo technology has proven to be effective in protecting the harvested grains from attack not only from the storage insects but also from rodent pests (Tefera et al., 2011). The objectives of this paper were to assess the effectiveness of the metal silo storage technology against the main maize storage pests, impact of the metal silo on the length of storage of surplus, consumption and sale of maize.The study used the proportional-odds (Ordered logit) model to estimate the likelihood of a household going without food for a whole day or sleeping hungry. The dependent variables were two food security indicators assessing whether any member of the household went to sleep hungry or went a whole day without food. The responses were recorded and coded as follows: 0 = never; 1 = rarely (1-2 times); 2 = sometimes; 3 = often (>10times).The odds ratio of being food insecure is assumed to be constant for all categories. Where P1 + P2 + … + Pk = 1; β is a vector of coefficients and X is a vector of explanatory variables.Ordered logit model simultaneously estimates multiple equations depending on the number of categories. The number of equations is equal to the number of categories minus one, which are three equations in this current study. The key assumption in ordered logit is the parallel regression, meaning that there is only one set of coefficients for each independent variable. This implies that the coefficients for the variables in the equations estimated simultaneously would not vary significantly if they were estimated separately except that the intercepts would vary. The error term is assumed to be normal with zero mean and unit variance (Greene, 2002).Sampling was conducted in two phases with the first phase targeting households that did not own metal silo (control group) and the second phase households that adopted metal silo for grain storage. Same questionnaire was used to interview the two groups. A baseline survey preceded the metal silo adopters' survey to allow for the comparison of the two groups. A list of sub-locations (Census, 2009) was obtained from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and grouped into six maize production agroecological zones (AEZ). These are dry transitional (DT), dry mid altitude (DMA), moist mid altitude (MM), high tropics (HT) moist transitional (MT) and low tropics (LT). Proportionate to size random sampling was then used to select 120 sub-locations across the six (AEZ) based on the number of households in each zone. Chiefs and assistant chiefs provided a list of all households in each sublocation from which 12 households were randomly selected and interviewed per sub-location, resulting in a sample size of 1344. The household survey of the metal silo storage technology was conducted in 18 districts, distributed in three agro-ecological zones namely moist transitional, moist mid transitional and dry mid altitude.The survey targeted all the farmers who had acquired metal silos either through the project implementation partners or through the artisans in Nyanza and Eastern provinces. A sampling list of 94 households distributed in 12 districts was obtained for the Nyanza region from which 73 households were interviewed. A list containing 51 metal silo owners distributed in 6 districts was obtained from Embu and all were interviewed. This resulted in treatment group of 124 households which was compared with the randomly selected control group.Data collection was preceded by recruiting and training 18 enumerators and three supervisors from diverse cultural backgrounds. After the training the questionnaire was pretested and revised for primary data collection. Three teams were formed, each comprising of a supervisor, six enumerators and a driver. Enumerators were provided with laminated slides clearly showing various storage facilities and main grain storage insect pests as visual aids during the interview. Data was collected between October 2010 and March 2011.Data cleaning was done in SPSS and analysis using stata software. The mean difference on key demographic and social economic variables between the two groups was tested using a student t-test. The dependent variables were two proxies of severe food insecurity (Going the whole day without food or sleeping hungry) were regressed against demographic and social economics factors. A two stage regression was fitted to compare the effect of metal silo use on months of adequate household food provisioning (MAHFP) between the two groups while checking for possible selfselection bias. The likelihood ratio test for the independence of the primary and selection equations indicated no evidence of self selection in adoption of metal silo technology by the adopters. MAHFP is measured by asking the respondents the number of months they did not have enough food to feed their families and using that information in computing the months of adequate food provisioning.Both adopters and non-adopters of metal silo technology were dominated by male headed households (Table 1). The average age of the household head was about 53 years for both groups. Males aged between 15-64 years constituted 52 and 54% of the primary decision maker in maize farming for the non-adopters and adopters, respectively. The proportion of aged male decision makers is significantly higher for the adopters (15%) than for non-adopters (7%). The average household size was seven and six persons for adopters and non-adopters, respectively. Meta silo adopters had 25 years of farming experience compared to 28 years for non-adopters. Adopters also on average had 10 years of formal schooling and 95% were literate compared to 7 years and 83% literacy for non-adopters. More metal silo adopter households (78%) had savings account in a commercial bank than non-adopters (47%). Mobile banking was more popular with 97% of adopter households owning a virtue M-PESA account compared to 74% for non-adopters. Metal silo adopters were more food secure than nonadopters. Households that adopted metal silo were significantly closer to the passable road (1.5 km) than non-adopters who on average were 3.1 km away from the road. Adopters were more endowed in land and cultivate an average of 8 acres annually compared to 5 acres cultivated by non-adopters. Metal silo adopters on average lost 3 kg of grain per season to storage pest while non-adopters lost 75 kg. The amount of grain lost to pest by metal silo adopters was from grain kept aside in bags for consumption to avoid frequently opening the silo.Most non-adopters (60%) used a space in the house and improved granaries (17%) to store their maize (Table 2). Some households stored their maize in the kitchen over smoke. Most metal silo adopters (78%) used metal silo for maize storage. However, they also kept aside some maize in the bag inside the house for regular consumption to avoid opening the silo more frequently. Traditional granaries were less popular probably because they are not secure and prone to attack by storage pests. Security was one of the most important factors farmers considered when choosing a storage facility.When choosing grain storage technologies, farmers considered effectiveness against insect pest as very important criteria, followed effectiveness against rodent, security of the stored grain and the lifespan or durability of the technology (Figure 2). Many farmers did not consider cost of acquiring and maintaining the technology important. This is because if the technology met the conditions farmers considered important to them, they would likely recoup their investments in the technology over time through better prices emanating from delayed sale. Maize stored in metal silos was effectively protected from LGB in 98% and from maize weevil in 92% of the  households that owned silos (Figure 3). Households that did not have metal silo suffered more storage losses of between two and15% from LGB and maize weevil compared to metal silo adopters.Both metal silo adopters and non-adopters sold some of their maize soon after harvest to meet immediate household cash needs. Metal silo users delayed selling their maize only disposing a little in the first month (Figure 4). They sold much of their maize five months after harvest to benefit from better prices. Amount of maize sold declined sharply until the seventh month when the remaining maize was sold off to give room to next harvest. Maize takes between 3 and 4 months to mature in dry regions and 5-6 months in mid and high altitude areas. Consumption was stable and smooth throughout the year for the metal silo adopters (Figure 4). The consumption curve was below the sales curve implying that much of the grain was sold than consumed. Households that adopted metal silo for maize storage were food secure for a whole year. Unlike metal silo adopters, non-adopters sold much of their grains within the first month after harvest. Consumption curve was above the sales curve except for the first two months after harvest. This meant that by the mid of second month, much of the grain had already been sold and whatever little that remained was kept for food. The grain reserves got exhausted by the eleventh month and households had to buy from the market.Households in potential agro-ecological zones like moist mid altitude (MMA), moist transitional (MT) and high tropics were less likely to sleep hungry or go a whole day without food than households in dry mid altitude.An increase in household size by one member increased the chance of sleeping hungry by 5% and going without food the whole day by 17%. Distance from the main road was also associated with likelihood of a household being food insecure. Factors associated with reduced household food insecurity include adoption of metal silo technology, owning a mobile phone virtual account or a bank savings account. Male headed households were more likely to go without food the whole day compared to those headed by females (Table 3).The dependent variable in this model was the number of months a household went without food for a period of one year. The model shows that female headed households were less food insecure than for male headed households. Households with literate heads and larger land parcels were also less food insecure. Interestingly, households that hosted large social events like wedding and burial were less food insecure compared to households that did not host such events. Generally households are food insecure by 3.5 months but this period is reduced by 1.8 months when households adopt metal silo storage technology (Table 4).The household size, literacy of the household head, land size and possession of a savings account in a bank or virtue mobile phone-based account increases the odds of adopting metal silo technology. However, distance to the nearest passable road reduced the odds of metal silo technology adoption. The likelihood ratio test for the independence of the primary and selection equations yield a p-value of 0.5949. We fail to reject the null hypothesis that rho=0 and conclude that there is no evidence of self-selection in adoption of metal silo technology by the adopters.This study demonstrated that 96% reduction in maize grain losses was achieved after acquisition of the metal  (FAO, 2008;Tefera et al., 2011).After adopting the metal silo, farmers delayed selling the bulk of their grains until later in the season to benefit from improved prices. Metal silo adopters were also food secure for 1.8 months longer than non-adopters. Poverty reduction and food security will not be realized if farmers are unable to store grains and sell surplus production at attractive prices. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009). Several people in Africa, however, are food insecure. Despite significant advances in modern food storage methods, many smallholder farmers in developing countries still rely on traditional storage methods for storing grain. Although relatively simple and inexpensive to construct and maintain, traditional storage systems lead to substantial post-harvest losses (Mughogho, 1989). Inadequate post-harvest storage contributes significantly to food insecurity. The metal silo can play an integral part in ensuring domestic food supply, and in stabilizing food supply at the household level by smoothing seasonal food production, as demonstrated by the households that have already adopted the technology. The metal silo is air-tight. As a result, respiration of the biotic components of the grain mass (fungi, insects and grain) increases CO 2 and reduces O 2 concentrations that limit insect development  (Navarro and Donahaye, 2005). Farmers choose storage technology based on its effectiveness against storage insects. The metal silo is a useful food security element in the grain storage and distribution chain. Smallholder farmers with a metal silo could feed their family year round and free to decide when to bring surplus harvest to market. Grains, particularly maize and beans can be stored in the metal silo for up to three years without any problem (SDC, 2008). This helps schools, urban dwellers and smallholder farmers to set aside the reserves needed when changing climate conditions or natural disasters lead to crop failure (FAO, 2008).The metal silo empowers smallholder farmers. The metal silo not only offer the opportunity to smooth hunger between staple crop harvests but farmers also are able to improve farm incomes by storing crops and selling it at premium prices when demand outstrips supply later in the post-harvest period. Quality is an important determination of crop retail prices (Kohl and Uhl, 1998) and effective storage is crucial to improving agricultural incomes and food security for smallholder farmers. Following the introduction of metal silos, adopting farmers have learnt to monitor the market and time their produce sales to coincide with right market conditions for better returns. Farmers use the additional income to improve their living standards. A follow-up visits to adopting farm families showed that and some had ventured in enterprises with higher returns like commercial poultry farming and goat fattening. Even though most household heads were males, metal silos were mainly managed by women. Managing the metal silo amd its content can improve women's status and self-esteem (SDC, 2008).Apart from its effectiveness in mitigating storage losses, engaging in metal silo fabrication and marketing can create jobs for the youth and rural enterprise development (Tefera et al., 2011). For instance, in Latin America, the POSTCOSECHA Programme (Postharvest Program) relied on a large number of local tinsmiths for the production of metal silo (SDC, 2008). In 2007, there were 892 metal silo manufacturers working in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The metal silo manufacturing activity provided an additional source of income for tinsmiths. When they were not working in the fields, they spent their time producing metal silos. From the production of metal silos alone, tinsmiths annually earned a net annual income of about US $ 470 (SDC, 2008). This study has demonstrated that the same can be replicated in Africa with wider promotion and adoption of metal silo technology among millions of smallholder grain producers. This study finds evidence that metal silo technology is effective against main maize storage pests and its adoption can significantly improve food security in rural households.","tokenCount":"3242"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a41dd145f4030aae14d33a873cf75951","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b636a8c5-11c2-4168-9605-bb45de134425/retrieve","id":"202397066"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c6fbdccc-6fd0-49da-ac8a-6403e96b3f83","pagecount":"27","content":"L'atelier avait pour but de réunir les participants dont les personnels des structures techniques et autres intervenants dans le secteur de l'agriculture de :-Définir le public cible et le profil des apprenants auxquels AICCRA accordera la priorité dans ses activités de renforcement de capacité en 2024.-  -Ses partenaires qui sont : Mali-METEO, l'Office du Niger, l'IER et l'ICRAF.A la fin de la communication sur la présentation du projet AICCRA, les participants ont fait des demandes et posé des questions suivantes :- Les travaux de la deuxième journée ont commencé par la présentation du rapport de synthèse de la première journée. Les participants ont apporté des corrections et formulés des recommandations pour l'amélioration dudit rapport. Le rapport, après avoir été révisé prenant en compte les observations, a été accepté et validé sous l'acclamation des participants.Cinq communications suivies d'une discussion générale ont essentiellement marqué les activités de la deuxième journée. Les présentations ont porté sur les communications suivantes : (1) la présentation de la conception globale et contenus (modules) du curriculum, (2) présentation sur la maproom, (3) présentation de l'application RiceAdvice, (4) présentation sur le système intégré riz-poisson (5) et une projection vidéo sur l'état d'avancement de la plateforme de données AgDatahug Mali.  Les travaux de la troisième journée de l'atelier ont commencé par la présentation du rapport de synthèse de la deuxième journée. Les participants ont apporté des corrections et formulés des recommandations pour l'amélioration dudit rapport. Le rapport a été accepté si les commentaires et observations ont été pris en compte.Les activités de la dernière journée ont porté sur l'élaboration d'une feuille de route pour le développement du contenu du curriculum et la mise en oeuvre de la formation.La feuille de route a été élaborée avec les participants en plénière pour mieux définir les périodes appropriées pour le développement et le mise en oeuvre en fonction du support du projet (Cf. Tableau 3 en annexe). En perspective, il est proposé d'organiser un atelier national de validation du rapport des premières consultations des parties prenantes réalisées.","tokenCount":"335"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"797c3d77de820716951f99a5921a6f3c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aeb41220-2548-4868-888c-26814ebbe5ae/retrieve","id":"-639493868"},"keywords":["Agronomic performance","vitamin A rich banana","crop cycle","Burundi","Democratic Republic of Congo"],"sieverID":"e36a78bf-3550-4f72-8660-419f1383c4f4","pagecount":"12","content":"Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major global health issue, contributing to morbidity and mortality. East and Central Africa face VAD prevalence that exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold of 15%. In Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), VAD prevalence is greater than 43% in rural communities. Promoting vitamin A-rich foods (including banana) is an effective and sustainable strategy to address VAD in poor rural communities. Supported principally by HarvestPlus over more than a decade, banana researchers have been evaluating the performance of high provitaminA banana cultivars to address this challenge. This study evaluated the agronomic performance of six provitamin A-rich banana cultivars originally from outside Burundi and Eastern DRC. Growth and yield parameters were collected for the first, second and third crop cycles. Results revealed that growth and yield parameters were significantly affected by the interaction between sites and cultivars (P<0.05). Banana cultivar yield was also influenced by the combined effect of bunch weight and crop cycle duration. The most promising cultivars in terms of yield were 'Apantu-AAB', 'Lahi-AAB', 'Lai-AA', 'Bira-AAB' and 'Pelipita-ABB' across all sites and crop cycles. This indicates that although ecological factors could have influenced their performances over sites, genotype could be the most important influencing factor. These evaluations provide hard evidence of the high potential for adoption of the most promising cultivars by the local community members to boost (pro) vitamin A consumption and effectively eliminate VAD.Hidden hunger, caused by low intake and absorption of micronutrients especially iron, vitamin A, iodine and zinc, is a form of under-nutrition affecting over 2 billion people worldwide (Ekholuenetale et al., 2020). It has far-reaching effects such as poor health, mental and physical impairment, low human productivity and even death (Kennedy et al., 2003). Lack of diet diversification, diseases, and increased micronutrient needs during infancy, pregnancy, and lactation are some of the factors that contribute to hidden hunger in many developing countries (Frison et al., 2011;Thompson and Cohen, 2012). Among these, is vitamin A deficiency (VAD) which significantly affects children under five and women of reproductive age with a prevalence for children of 48% in sub-Saharan Africa, 43% in Burundi and 42% in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (Stevens et al., 2015).To address this, supplementation, fortification, biofortification, dietary diversification and public health and disease-control measures have been implemented (Greiner, 2013;Kennedy et al., 2003;Ruel and Levin, 2001;Thompson and Amoroso, 2014). Food-based approaches that promote production and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods were noted to be sustainable particularly among rural poor communities (Greiner, 2013;Thompson and Amoroso, 2014). The common foods that have been promoted as good sources of vitamin A (pro-vitamin A carotenoids (pVACs)) have been dark green leafy vegetables, red palm oil, yellow and orange fruits, and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (Greiner, 2013;Uusiku et al., 2010). There is currently an increasing interest in using potential staple foods like bananas, maize, cassava, rice, and potatoes that have higher than average levels of pVACs; (Greiner, 2013;Tang et al., 2009). Among the staple foods, bananas are exceptional because the carotenoids in bananas have higher bio-accessibility compared to roots, tubers and some vegetables (Ekesa et al., 2012;Failla et al., 2009).Over 17 million tonnes of bananas are annually produced in East and Central Africa, mostly being East African Highland cooking bananas consumed as a staple (Mbwika, 2009;Ordonez et al., 2015;Tripathi et al., 2009). Regionally, bananas are a major source of livelihood for over 20 million people and play a significant role in households' and pre-school children's diets (Ekesa et al., 2013;Karamura and Gold, 2000). In addition, there are banana cultivars around the world that contain high pVACs levels (up to 61.10 μg) (Davey et al., 2009;Ekesa et al., 2013 ;Englberger et al., 2003;Fungo and Pillay, 2011). Some banana cultivars have been estimated to meet over 50% of the Vitamin A requirements of women when 3-5 fingers are consumed daily (Ekesa et al., 2015;Englberger et al., 2006). These banana cultivars with higher pVACs levels could help address and prevent VAD in East and Central Africa. However, acceptance and adoption of introduced banana cultivars do not rely solely on nutritional importance and familiarity with the crop, but is also greatly influenced by the production characteristics like yield, bunch weight, finger size, disease and pest resistance and sensory attributes (Akankwasa et al., 2013;Barekye et al., 2013;Kikulwe et al., 2011). This study therefore evaluated the agronomic performance of selected pVAC-rich banana cultivars originally from outside the Eastern Africa region to establish their potential for inclusion in the farming systems of Burundi and Eastern DRC.Six sites, one in Burundi, and five in DRC, were purposively selected for the study based on different agroecological zoning with contrasting altitudes, rainfall and soil characteristics. These sites were Cibitoke (Burundi), Butembo, Maboya and Mavivi (North Kivu-DRC), Mulungu and Mushweshwe (South Kivu-DRC) (Table 1).Six pVAC-rich banana cultivars namely 'Apantu'-AAB African plantain originally from Ghana, 'Bira'-AAB Pacific plantain from Papua New Guinea, 'Pelipita'-ABB plantain from the Philippines, 'Lahi'-AAB Pacific plantain from Hawaii, 'Lai'-AAA Dessert banana from Thailand and 'To'o'-AA Dessert banana from Papua New Guinea with Provitamin A carotenoids (pVAC) retinol activity equivalents >333μg/100gdw were selected for fast-tracking. The six cultivars were ordered from Bioversity International's International Transit Centre (ITC) in Leuven, Belgium and sent to Burundi's tissue culture (TC) laboratory, Phytolab for planting material multiplication. The hardening of TC plantlets was done in Phytolab for the Burundi site, at the Catholic University of Graben Butembo for the North Kivu sites, and at the National Institute of Agronomic Studies and Research (INERA) Mulungu for the South Kivu sites. At three months, fifteen plants of each cultivar (in three replicates of five plants) were planted at each experimental site for agronomic evaluation. Plants were spaced at 3x2 m, providing a density of 1,667 plants/ha. The size of the planting hole was 60 x 60 x 60 cm and 10 kg of rotted cow manure was applied toeach planting hole during planting. Weeding was carried out at three-monthly intervals, while de-suckering and de-leafing of dead leaves were conducted as needed. Three stems were kept per mat (mother plant, first sucker and second sucker) except for the third cropping cycle of 'Lahi' in Burundi which was missing due to its genetic degeneration. Mulching was carried out at the beginning of each dry season (once a year). Where necessary, forked wooden sticks were used to support mature plants bearing heavy bunches to prevent toppling.Agronomic data were collected on banana growth at the flowering stage and yield at harvest over the three cropping cycles (C1: mother plant, C2: first sucker and C3: second sucker). Data collected on banana growth included the height of pseudostem (cm), girth of pseudostem at 1m from the base and the number of functional leaves. Banana height and girth are important traits that indicate the potential of resistance of the plant to strong wind (lodging-resistance), whereas functional leaves contribute to the photosynthesis process of the plant for optimal growth and productivity. Plant height was measured from soil level to the point where the leaf petioles of the youngest two leaves intersect, while the total number of functional leaves was determined by counting all the existing green leaves on a plant that had at least 50% green leaf lamina surface area. Data collected on banana yield at harvest were the weight of bunch (kg), number of hands in a bunch, number of fruits in lower row of second lowest hand, and total number of fruits in the bunch. Mature bunches were harvested when the fingers of the second lowest hand had attained a round shape (Ndayitegeye et al., 2017). Bunch weight was measured with a spring balance. Statistical analysis was carried out using Statistics Analysis System (SAS Institute Inc., 2008) (Shim et al., 2014). The General Linear Model procedure was used to analyze the data and Tukey's student range test was used for multiple comparisons. The average annual yield was calculated using the formula: \"Bunch weight/number of days to harvest x 365 x plant density ha -1 \"where 365 are the number of days in a year (Gaidashova et al., 2010). Averages for various growth and yield traits were computed across the three cropping cycles and compared between the three regions.Within cultivars and across sites, the growth performance differed significantly (P<0.05) (Table 2). The tallest cultivar was 'Pelipita' with a height of 346 cm recorded in the Burundi site which had the lowest altitude; followed by 'Lai' in Burundi and in South Kivu, with the heights of 342 cm and 341 cm, respectively. The most robust plant girths at 1 m level were generally recorded in the midaltitude sites (1431 m.a.s.l) of North Kivu, with 71, 66, 65 and 64 cm, for Lai, 'Lahi', 'Pelipita' and 'Bira' respectively (Table 2). In addition, it was noticed that 'Lai' produced plants with bigger girth than other cultivars across sites with averages of between 60 and 71 cm across sites (Table 2).The shortest plants were produced by 'Lahi' in Burundi (925 m.a.s.l), with height averaging 175 cm; whereas 'To'o' generally produced the shortest plants across sites, with 273, 242 and 237 cm in South Kivu, North Kivu and Burundi sites respectively. Furthermore, 'To'o' recorded the least robust plant with a girth averaging 37 to 49 cm across sites (Table 2). The cultivar with the highest number of leaves at flowering stage was 'Lahi' in South Kivu, producing an average of 11 leaves, followed by 'Pelipita' in South Kivu and in Burundi. The lowest number of functional leaves was produced by 'To'o' and 'Apantu' in North Kivu (Table 2).Within crop cycles, the height of the evaluated cultivars differed significantly (P<0.05) (Table 3). In Burundi in cycle 1, the tallest cultivars were 'Bira' (291 cm), 'Lai' (289 cm) and 'Pelipita' (290 cm). 'Lai' was recorded as the tallest cultivar in each of the three crop cycles in Burundi. Pelipita was also identified as one of the tallest cultivars in the 2 nd and 3 rd cycles (364 -386 cm), while the shortest cultivar was 'To'o' in all three cycles. In North Kivu, the tallest cultivars were 'Lai' in cycle 1, 'Bira' and 'Pelipita' in cycle 2 and cycle 3. In cycle 2, the height of 'Lai' was not significantly different from the heights of 'Bira' and 'Pelipita' while in cycle 3, 'Lahi' had almost the same height as 'Pelipita'. The shortest cultivar was 'To'o' in all cycles with the height ranging between 229 cm and 258 cm. In South Kivu, 'Lai' and 'To'o' were recorded to be the tallest and the shortest cultivars for all three crop cycles respectively. There was no significant difference between the height at flowering of 'Lai', 'Bira', 'Lahi',and 'Pelipita' in cycle 3;and between 'Apantu' and 'To'o' in cycle 2 in South Kivu (Table 3).In Burundi, the cultivars with the largest girth (56-69 cm) were 'Lai' in all cycles and 'Pelipita' in cycle 1. In North Kivu, the cultivars with the largest girth (68-75 cm) were 'Lai' in cycle 1 and cycle 2 and 'Lahi' in cycle 3. There were no significant differences between 'Apantu', 'Bira', 'Lahi', 'Lai' and 'Pelipita' in cycle 2; between 'Bira', 'Lai', 'Lahi' and 'Pelipita' in cycle 3. In South Kivu, the cultivars with the largest girth (60-68 cm) were 'Lai' in cycle 1 and cycle 3 and 'Pelipita' in cycle 2. 'To'o' had the thinnest girth in all three cycles in all sites. No significant variations were observed in terms of the number of functional leaves amongst cultivars within crop cycles (at P<0.05) (Table 3).Yield performance of cultivars was assessed in terms of number of hands, number of fingers on the second hand, length of finger, total number of fingers on a bunch, bunch weight and production (tons. ha -1 per year) and showed significant differences (at P<0.05) (Table 4). Sites and cycles combined, the highest average number of hands ( 7) was recorded for 'Lahi'. Other cultivars had 6 hands ('Apantu', 'Bira' and 'Pelipita'), 5 hands ('Lai') and 4 hands ('To'o'). The average number of fingers on a hand ranged between 12 for 'Apantu', 'Bira' and 'Lai,and 11 for 'Lahi','Pelipita' and 'To'o'. 'Apantu' (22cm) had the longest fingers while the shortest (17-18 cm) were for 'Bira', 'Lai' and 'Lahi' (Table 4). Fingers of 'Pelipita' and 'To'o' had a medium length (19 cm). The highest average total number of fingers on a bunch was recorded for 'Lahi' (81) followed by 'Lai' (66), 'Bira' (63), 'Apantu' (60) and 'Pelipita' (50). The highest average bunch weight was recorded for 'Apantu' and 'Lahi' (16kg) followed by 'Lai' and 'Pelipita' (14 kg) and 'Bira' (12 kg) while 'To'o' produced the smallest bunches (4 kg). The production expressed in tons per hectare and per year was highest for 'Apantu' and 'Lahi' (12 t.ha -1) followed by 'Pelipita' (10 t.ha -1 ), 'Lai' and 'Bira' (9 t. ha -1 ). The lowest yield was recorded on 'To'o' (412 t.ha -1 ) (Table 4).Across cultivars and sites, yield performance differed significantly with cropping cycles (P<0.05) (Table 5). Cultivars with the highest yield performance over crop cycles were 'Lahi', 'Apantu', 'Lai' and 'Bira'. 'Lahi' had the highest number of hands (6-9) on the bunch in all sites. The same cultivar 'Lahi' had the highest total number of fingers (111)(112)(113), bunch weight (17-20 kg) and yield (15-23 t/ha/year) in South Kivu and Burundi sites only. 'Apantu' recorded the longest fingers averaging 22 cm in all sites whereas the highest number of fingers on the  second hand ( 12), the highest bunch weight (15 kg) and the highest yield (11t/ha/ year) were only recorded in North Kivu site. 'Lai' produced the highest number of fingers on a hand (13-14) in Burundi and South Kivu whereas 'Bira' recorded the highest total number of fingers (60) in North Kivu. Agronomic results across the three cropping cycles showed that the highest yield of 23.5 t/ha/year was for 'Lahi' and recorded in the lowest altitude in Burundi (cycles 1 and 2). The yield of the same cultivar in the highest altitude was acceptable but 11.5 t/ha/year less compared with that recorded in the lowest altitude. The other cultivars with an acceptable yield of more than10 t/ha/year were 'Apantu' (14-19 kg) in all sites (cycle 1); 'Pelipita' in Burundi (all cycles) and in DRC (cycle 1); 'Bira' in Burundi (cycle 1), North Kivu (cycles 1 and 2) and Lai in all sites (cycle 1) (Table 5).The highest average number of fingers on a bunch (55-58) in North Kivu was recorded from 'Bira' (cycles 1 and 3) and 'Lahi' (cycle 2) and was almost half of the number recorded from the other sites. The least number of fingers on a bunch (22-28) were recorded from 'To'o' in the highest altitude sites of South Kivu (cycles 1 and 2) and mid-altitude sites of North Kivu (cycles 2 and 3). The cultivar with the heaviest bunch (15-20 kg) was 'Apantu' in DRC sites (all cycles) and in  Burundi (cycles 1 and 3). Another cultivar producing the heaviest bunches was 'Lahi' recorded from Burundi (cycles 1 and 2), South Kivu (all cycles) and North Kivu sites (cycle 1). 'Pelipita' also produced the largest bunches at each crop cycle in Burundi, in North Kivu (cycle 2) and South Kivu (cycles 2 and 3) (Table 5). Within sites, yields of cultivars differed significantly (P<0.05) (Table 5). In Burundi, 'Lahi' recorded the highest number of hands ( 9), the highest total number of fingers (112-119), the highest bunch weight (17-18 kg) and the highest yield (23-24 t/ha/year) in comparison to other cultivars. 'Apantu' produced the longest fingers (20-24 cm) in all three cycles and the highest bunch weight (15 kg) in cycle 3; 'Lai' was recorded with the highest number of fingers on a hand (14-15) in all the three cycles and highest total number of fingers recorded in cycle 3 (86). 'Bira' showed the highest number of hands (7) in cycle 3 whereas in the same cycle 'Pelipita' also recorded the highest number of hands (7), as well as the highest yield (11 t/ha/year).In North Kivu, 'Bira' recorded the highest number of hands (6-7) and the highest total number of fingers (53-72) in all cycles while it produced a higher yield in cycle 2 (11t/ha/year). 'Apantu' recorded the highest number of fingers on a hand (12), the highest bunch weight (14-16 kg) and the highest yield (9-14t/ha/year) in the three cycles. 'Lahi' had the equal-highest number of fingers on a hand (12) in cycle1. In South Kivu, 'Lahi' had the highest number of fingers on a hand (8-10), the highest total number of fingers (101-129), the highest bunch weight (17-23 kg) and the highest yield (11-17 t/ha/year) in the three cycles.  'Apantu' had the longest fingers (21-24 cm) in all cycles and the highest number of hands ( 8) in cycle 1. The highest number of fingers on a hand (13-15) was observed for 'To'o' (cycle 1 and 3) and 'Bira' and 'Lahi' (cycle 2).Cultivars' crop cycle duration was assessed in terms of the number of days from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest. Significant variations (P<0.05) were observed amongst cultivars across sites and within crop cycles (Table 6). In Burundi, the cultivars that took the longest time from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest were 'Lai' in cycle1 (474 and  608 days respectively) and in cycle 2 and 'Apantu' (cycle 3), while 'Bira' took the shortest one in cycle 1 (339 days and 410 days) and cycle 3) and 'Lahi' (cycle 2). This indicated that Lai took 135 days and 198 days more compared to Bira in cycle 1. In North Kivu, 'Lai' took the longest time in all cycles with 660 days (flowering) and 780 days (harvest) in cycle 1 whereas 'To'o' (cycle 1 and cycle 2) and Lahi (cycle 3) took the shortest time from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest with 402 days and 485 days for To'oin cycle 1. In South Kivu, the cultivars that took the longest time from planting to harvest were 'Pelipita' in the number of days from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest. Significant variations (P<0.05) were observed amongst cultivars across sites and within crop cycles (Table 6). In Burundi, the cultivars that took the longest time from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest were 'Lai' in cycle1 (474 and 608 days respectively) and in cycle 2 and 'Apantu' (cycle 3), while 'Bira' took the shortest one in cycle 1 (339 days and 410 days) and cycle 3) and 'Lahi' (cycle 2). This indicated that Lai took 135 days and 198 days more compared to Bira in cycle 1.In North Kivu, 'Lai' took the longest time in all cycles with 660 days (flowering) and 780 days (harvest) in cycle 1 whereas 'To'o' (cycle 1 and cycle 2) and Lahi (cycle 3) took the shortest time from planting to flowering and from planting to harvest with 402 days and 485 days for To'oin cycle 1. In South Kivu, the cultivars that took the longest time from planting to harvest were 'Pelipita' in cycle 1 with 575 days and 701 days, Lai (cycle 2 and cycle 3) and 'Lahi' (cycle 3). Similar to other sites, To'o (cycle 1 and cycle 3) and 'Bira' (cycles 1 and 2) took the shortest time. The assessment on crop cycle duration indicated that the average time taken by cultivars to flower and to yield bunch over the three cycles was generally lower in Burundi (the lowest altitude site) than in DRC sites (medium-and highest altitude sites) (Table 6).A significant relationship was observed between altitude and different growth and yield attributes (P<0.05) (Table 7). It was observed that plant height generally increased with increasing altitude across all the cultivars evaluated except for 'Pelipita' (R 2 = -0.15) which showed a significant decrease of plant height with increasing altitude. Generally, cultivar crop-cycle duration also significantly increased with altitude. Cultivars took significantly longer to mature at the high-altitude sites. It was also noted that production (Ton.ha -1 per year) declined with increasing altitude. In addition, the bunch weight of 'Lai' (R 2 = 0.33) was most strongly correlated with altitude while 'Bira' (R 2 = -0.17), 'Pelipita' (R 2 = -0.24) and 'To'o' (R 2 = -0.13) were negatively correlated with altitude; whereas the other cultivars showed no linear association with altitude (Table 7).All cultivars except To'o had promising agronomic results. Growth characteristics and crop cycle duration were correlated with altitude. Based on the growth performance, the evaluated cultivars could be categorized in groups of i) tallest and robust cultivars ('Lai' and 'Pelipita'), ii) cultivars with medium height and girth ('Apantu', 'Bira' and 'Lahi'), and iii) smallest and thinnest cultivars ('To'o'). However, the growth of these cultivars differed across sites and cycles. Some cultivars grew very well with consistent height and girth in all sites ('Bira' and Lai), at higher altitudes ('Lahi', 'Apantu', and 'To'o') and lower altitude ('Pelipita'). In addition, it was observed that some cultivars could degenerate rapidly in unsuitable altitudes. The examples are ''Lahi'' that had only 2 cycles in the lower altitude while it had all 3 cycles in the higher altitude; 'Lai' that decreased in growth at higher altitudes just after the first cycle while it continued growing in the lower altitude. These findings on the growth performance of these cultivars in different agroecological zones could orient researchers or extension-agents to disseminate these cultivars in their favorable areas.The height and girth of some of the assessed banana cultivars such as 'Pelipita' and 'Lai' could be of concern, given the existing crop management and farming systems. Very tall cultivars such as 'Pelipita' (346 cm of height) could be challenging for removing the male bud, a practice recommended to prevent insect vector transmission of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) disease in typical regions according to the observed incidence of BXW.Furthermore, taller bananas may be less resistant to strong winds which may cause their toppling. In addition, very robust plants such as 'Lai' (71cm of girth), may occupy a large area, reducing space for other crops. This is a concern because it is common for smallholders in the East African region to intercrop bananas with different crops (Ouma, 2009).To address these issues, farmers could install shelterbelts such as agroforestry tree species around the banana fields to alleviate the impact of strong winds and use appropriate banana plants spacing to maximize the use of land while intercropping bananas with other crops like legumes, cereals and multipurpose trees (Ouma, 2009). Over the study areas, bananas are generally intercropped with annual crops and there has been an increase in the grower interest in using intercropping, growing two or more crops simultaneously on the same land. For male-bud removal, farmers can use forked sticks long enough to reach the male bud (Ocimati et al., 2013). In the areas where this may not apply, areas that experience strong winds, the alternative could be to promote only short or medium-high cultivars such as 'Bira' and 'Apantu' and promote thinner cultivars in areas where farmers have less land. These alternatives could increase the rate of adoption of the different pVAC-rich cultivars by farmers in the study areas.Yield differed with cultivars and growth performance. All cultivars except 'To'o' produced big bunches (15-20kg) and had good yields (10-23 t/ha/year) with differences in performance most likely due to altitude, in conformity with Turner et al., (2016) who observed altitude having a negative association with bunch weight, particularly when nitrogen, phosphate, potassium (NPK) and organic matter (OM) concentrations are low. 'Apantu', 'Lahi' and 'Pelipita' produced good bunch sizes in all sites while 'Bira' and Lai got bunches of similar sizes only in the medium and highest altitude sites in DRC.Higher yields were observed in the lower altitude sites of Burundi compared to the medium and highest altitude sites. For example, 'Lahi' in the lowest altitude produced almost twice the yield compared to when it was grown at the highest altitude. In addition, a decrease in yield across cycles was been observed within sites with a higher yield in the first cycle compared to the 2 other cycles. The influence of plant growth on yield was observed also by Woomer et al., (1999) who noticed a highly significant relationship between plant mass and production expressed in terms of bunch weight across a range of management practices. In addition to plant growth, altitude significantly affected plant production. The yield of all cultivars except 'Lai' was higher at lower altitudes (Burundi) compared to medium altitudes. This association was also observed in previous findings (Sikyolo et al., 2013;Sivirihauma et al., 2016;Soares, 2012) which concluded that most assimilates could go towards sucker development at high altitude, where a higher frequency of sucker production is observed for most cultivars.Cultivars with the highest and medium growth also produced big bunches and had higher yields compared to the shortest ones. This has been observed for 'Lai', 'Lahi' and 'Pelipita' which had an average of 65cm height, 18 cm girth and each producing 10kg bunches. The yield of these cultivars in different sites was significantly higher than the yield of existing local cultivars. In Burundi, the average annual yield of the 5 cultivars (9 to 23 t/ha) was much higher than the estimated national annual banana yield (7.9t/ha) (FAOSTAT, 2018).This can be further illustrated by the dessert cultivar 'Lai' which produced a 12kg bunch and an average yield of 9 t/ha in comparison with the common local dessert cultivars 'Ikigurube' and 'Kamaramasenge' grown in Burundi which produce bunches of 9.5 kg and 8.0 kg and a yield of 8.1 t/ha and 8.0 t/ha, respectively (Kamira et al., 2013). A similar observation was made in DRC, where the cultivars 'Bira', 'Lahi', 'Lai' and 'Pelipita' generated annual yields (7-15 t/ha) higher than the overall national annual yield of bananas (4.6 t/ha) (Dowiya et al., 2009). In addition, the pVAC-rich dessert cultivar ''Lai'' with an average bunch weight of 17kg in South Kivu, though lower than local cultivar 'Gros Michel' with 32kg, has the potential to increase as seen by the maximum bunch weight of 22kg that was noted in a banana germplasm evaluation study (Kamira et al., 2016).The observed yields and high to medium growth confirmed the previous findings stipulating that larger girths and greater pseudostem strength are important characteristics thatcould positively influence banana bunch weight (Donato et al., 2006;Nyombi et al., 2009). A significant positive relationship between bunch weight and number of fruits per bunch has been previously reported (Soares, 2012). It has been confirmed in this study with 'Lahi' which had the highest bunch weight and yield at the same the highest overall number of hands and fingers on a bunch; likewise, this was observed for Apantu and Pelipita which ranked amongst the high performing cultivars in terms of bunch weight and yield. However, even though bunch weight and number of fingers, can be used to directly express banana productivity, they cannot be considered in isolation when choosing a cultivar (Silva et al., 2002). Therefore, it is vital that the best/ recommended agronomic practices are used in the management of the cultivars to enable them to achieve their optimal production potential. 'To'o', the cultivar with the lowest growth performance also produced the smallest bunch among the studied cultivars and when compared to the local cultivars. This could negatively impact the acceptance of that cultivar within the local communities. However, given the high pVAC level (Ekesa et al., 2015), that cultivar could be used in the improvement of pVACs of existing banana varieties.In addition, across cultivars, it was generally noted that crop cycle duration increased with altitude in conformity with the observation of Sivirihuma et al., (2016) that high altitude and corresponding low temperatures significantly increased crop-cycle duration of banana cultivars.The increase in crop-cycle duration with increasing altitude could be explained by lower temperature characterizing the higher altitude that contributed to lengthen the crop cycle. This conforms with Sikyoloet al.( 2013) who assessed an increase in banana crop cycles with altitude. Farmers can be sensitized to adopt the banana cultivars with short and long cycles to enhance food security as reported for rice (Sall et al., 2000). Growing cultivars with both short and long cycles will increase and sustain the availability of pVAC-rich bananas.In addition to good agronomic performance and high pVAC content, the cultivars selected for promotion should be acceptable to the target communities (Dowiya et al., 2009;Nowakunda and Tushemereirwe, 2004). A series of sensory evaluation exercises conducted within the project sites in Burundi, North Kivu and South Kivu showed that 'Apantu', 'Bira' and 'Lahi' were acceptable especially when boiled, roasted without peel or pan-fried in Burundi and North Kivu, and when roasted with or without peel or pan-fried in South Kivu (Ekesa et al., 2017). Recipes that incorporate the pVAC-rich banana cultivars such as those developed for South Kivu (Nabuuma et al., 2020) and value-added products also have the potential to increase adoption and create demand for these cultivars.We conclude that 'Apantu', 'Lahi', 'Bira', 'Lai', and 'Pelipita' are the most promising pVAC-rich banana cultivars with agronomic performance that shows good potential for adoption by farmers in the study areas. Promotion of these cultivars through multiplication, dissemination of planting material in banana-dependent communities across Burundi and Eastern DRC should consider the influence of altitude as shown by the results of the study. They should also be accompanied by promoting recommended agronomic practices to achieve good yield, and by supplying information on appropriate storage and cooking methods to maintain the pVAC content and improve nutrient quality. Further investigations on the susceptibility of these cultivars to the prevailing banana diseases within the study areas and evaluation of cultivar performance in farmers' fields are recommended.","tokenCount":"4921"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86ccb5d034a399e1279e5aeb4cf09aa4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/298eb52c-9b55-4ff2-b235-3da71119d01c/retrieve","id":"1958925879"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95290f34-daa2-4004-9d37-51ed20e0b48c","pagecount":"7","content":"We will develop Site Integration Plans to bring together the work of CGIAR Centers and programs in key countries, where CGIAR innovations are expected to reach millions of people.• To devise plans for assessing impact, the CRPs will consult with representatives of partners and beneficiary groups in key countries where they aim to deliver outcomes at scale, including governments, NGOs, farmer organizations, processors and others along the value chain, and, ultimately, consumers.• The CRPs will also coordinate with each other to ensure that, in key geographies, their activities are aligned for maximum impact. The CRPs' collective, coordinated commitments in these geographies will be summarized in site integration plans to enable transparent interaction with local stakeholders. The consultation process will be pursued through the GCARD.Moving site integration forward-steps since Science Leaders meeting, June 2015• GCARD3 National Consultations to be carried out in the countries selected for site integration. These will start with National Consultations in 5-6 countries in the final quarter of 2015 and the remaining 15 in the first quarter of 2016. • A process has been undertaken amongst all CRPs and Centers to start initial planning for site integration, including discussing the terminology for the initiative, identifying the countries and nominating leadership (next slides). • From this process a list of 20 countries was identified, with 6 of the countries identified-covering major regions/sub-regions-which will involve more focus and effort on integration amongst CRPs and collaboration with the National actors and stakeholders. These 6 will be the first countries to have National Consultations organised in, taking place in 2015. • CGIAR entities-both Centers and CRPs-are deciding on leadership for site integration in the selected countries and forming steering committees to initiate, plan and implement the necessary activities.• A process has been undertaken amongst all CRPs and Centers to start initial planning for site integration. This process has resulted in the selection of 20 countries based on three criteria:-Criteria 1: Significant CGIAR presence based on significant planned investment (>$1million), staff based in country and major infrastructure in country -Criteria 2: Combined weighting of rating countries as High, Medium orLow in terms of impact potential, government interest, donor focus, and existing coordination mechanisms -Criteria 3: Selection by CGIAR entities of countries they felt important to be included as part of the site integration initiative","tokenCount":"382"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"78027cd992b2ac27033700e46a074992","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b2ba9695-50f5-4ba6-9b96-ea4927e47441/retrieve","id":"-1425154923"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"462ec87d-9420-4d5e-b043-1ab9f4119f23","pagecount":"27","content":"The classic view of inclusive rural transformation (de Janvry) AND efforts to ensure inclusion of poor households, women, indigenous peoples… (IFAD 2016(IFAD , 2019;;FAO 2017) A lot of progress as processes of structural and rural transformation led to Avoiding setting up any implicit hierarchy of issues, approaches and knowledge • Gender equality must not be treated as a subset of poverty reduction, economic growth or rural transformation • Gender is not solely an \"enabling conditions\" or \"enabler\".• Recognize diverse perspectives --women's voices, knowledge, preferences Gender power inequalities and discrimination are embedded even in governance structures and reflected in:• policies, investments, and even data that are collected.Attention to gender equality and women's empowerment can be a 'buzz' word but it can also open important opportunities that benefit and empower women and other marginalized social groupsA narrative review of the literature Across low-and middle-income countries, climate shocks and disasters have a negative effect on the achievement of gender equality, affecting women's economic independence and social rights (Eastin, 2018).  On average, women spend 4.2 hours a day on unpaid domestic and care work… …while men spend 1.9 hours Women's unpaid care and work burden:• limits women's productivity and well-paid off-farm employment opportunities (e.g. Jayachandran, 2021), and• has implications for child nutrition• Agricultural interventions are consistently found to add to women's, men's, and children's time burdens (Johnston et al., 2018).• Successful approaches to address these inequalities:• improved infrastructure (e.g. rural childcare centers);• labor-saving technologies;• gender-transformative approaches that promote more equal sharing of the unpaid domestic work.Women earn less than men in both agriculture and non-agriculture not only because of differences in education and occupation (Benali et al., forthcoming); but also for doing the same activity (de Brauw et al., 2021; Jayachandran, 2015)• A study from New Delhi showed that, compared to men, women chose lower-quality colleges, spent more money on commuting and travelled longer time to feel safer (Borker, 2018).• When women move into sectors traditionally dominated by men, they may experience a higher risk of gender-based violence (Castañeda Carney et al., 2020;Fröcklin et al., 2013).• Legislation is the first step but often not enough because of gaps in implementation • Women are less likely to own land or have secure rights over land (FAO, 2023) • They lag behind men in the adoption of agricultural technologies (Rola-Rubzen et al., 2020) ....• Various• In the process of commercialization and the integration of smallholders in global value chains, it is important to safeguard women's control over assets.Women need resources too 3.• Increased representation of women in national parliaments has been correlatedwith the implementation of more stringent climate change policies (Mavisakalyan & Tarverdi, 2019).• However, women's voices remain underrepresented in climate decision-making spaces at different levels (EIGE, 2021;Pearse, 2017;Picard, 2021).• the participation of women in national delegations to UNFCCC increased from 30% in 2009 to 38% in 2021; women are head of only 13% of delegations (WEDO, 2022).Engaging with fathers, parents-in-law for better nutrition 1. Women's empowerment is consistently found to enhance household food security and children's nutrition, but putting the burden of better nutrition on women is unconscionable 2. Tensions between women's paid employment and their time for resting and child care can have unintended negative consequences for nutrition 3. Benefits of engaging with fathers, parents-in-law and other family members on maternal and young child nutrition and health have been well-documented over the last decades (Martin et al., 2021); yet nutritional interventions mainly target mothers 4. Attention to women's own food security, nutrition and health is important, and not only when they are mothers.Policy and legal frameworks are slow to integrate GEWE Gender was better integrated in employment, resources and policies, followed by services and nutrition (Figure 1).Gender was often overlooked with regards to rural transformation for better lives (including non-farmGender better mainstreamed in the description of the context in the country and sector, the description of the NAIP and its components, and the logframe.Gender poorly mainstreamed sections related to \"budget and financing\", \"governance, implementation and coordination\" and \"alignment and mutual accountability\"Gender integration in the sections of the NAIPs document✔ A disproportionate focus on the \"inclusion of women and girls in existing systems versus the transformation of systems and structures to break cycles of inequality.\" (UN, 2023)✔ \"High strategic orientation at the level of planning national policies and strategies for GEWE, with a lesser orientation at the implementation stage of plans and policies involving crafting and implementing finance and revenue strategies, legislation, and regulations\" (UNDP, 2023).✔ Mainstreaming gender has not yielded appreciative successes. ","tokenCount":"748"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"57dec6712869b79c8f7f3d2257579eb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f074fba8-c4ed-4ecc-becb-035aabe30923/retrieve","id":"1867951070"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a1a11e11-7f08-4832-b6a7-92cb79426aec","pagecount":"21","content":"The Uganda MorePork team led by Ben Lukuyu and Emily Ouma would like to thank the Livestock CRP led by Thomas Randolph for their financial and leadership support in implementing PigSmart work that included this trainer of trainers course. We thank the Single Spark B.V Netherlands team comprising Peter Meijer and Joshua Isiko for their technical support on the FeedCalculator App rolled out during the process to aid farmers in formulating animal feed rations. We thank the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries (Uganda) for their technical and mobilization support to make PigSmart Project and this training a success. We also thank the MorePork Project team, especially Pius Lutakome, who ably coordinated the day-to-day activities between the farmers and partners.We also acknowledge the technical support and other valuable inputs provided by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and all donors and organizations which globally support CGIAR research work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.Supporting the training of trainers (ToTs) was part of the activities for reinforcing the PigSmart: digitalizing the smallscale pig value chain on the More Pork II project in Uganda. The PigSmart platform are aimed at: (i) strengthening digital extension in the small-scale pig value chain, (ii) developing digital extension use cases in the small-scale pig value chain, (iii) helping small-scale pig farmers increase production and income from better access to timely, relevant and actionable information (Kang'ethe 2020). The FeedCalculator application was selected as one of the digital solutions to support farmers and feed producers. The Single Spark B.V. developed FeedCalculator app, which is a mobile app based software, (https://www.feedcalculator.org) and is being promoted by Single Spark Ltd as an independent tool for digitalizing livestock production in various ways such as feed formulation, feed planning, linkages to input suppliers and markets as well as advisory services. The app is freely downloadable from the Google Play store and is free to use.This activity was conducted between November and December 2020 in the Mukono and Masaka districts of Uganda. Fifteen (14 male and 1 female) government and private extension service providers were trained on the use of the FeedCalculator app and feeding practices over a two day training program. The training curriculum included the science of pig feed ingredients, FeedCalculator app-based pig feed formulation, pig feed production, pig feeding practices, pig watering requirements, technology transfer approaches and facilitating farmer field school trainings. After the training, each of the trainees demonstrated the ability to pass on the acquired skills and knowledge to farmers.The objectives of this activity were to:-• back up ToTs in the training of farmers on pig feed formulation and feeding using the FeedCalculator application• assess the ability of ToTs to pass on skills and knowledge on feed formulation and feeding to farmers.3 Activity design and implementation Adherence to COVID-19 standard operating procedure (SOP): The number of trainees was limited to less than 30, use of spacious venues was encouraged, use of masks were mandatory for all participants, social distance seats were organized.Training sessions: The feeds expert/consultant took a back seat among the participants while the trainer took the lead in the training sessions. The trainers used training approaches of their choice to train the participants. The training was conducted in Luganda, but the English language was sometimes used for clarity and communication to participants who could not speak Luganda. The trainers would select a particular topic based on the identified needs of the participants. The trainers used training aides of their choice to make participants acquire the intended skills and knowledge about pig feeding practices. All participants were recorded.The feeds expert gave an introductory remark about the overall project. The feeds expert supplemented the answers to questions in the training to clarify highly technical questions and correct any erroneous information that may have been passed on. The expert filled in a supporting tool (see appendix) during the training and after the training using information gathered through interviews with the trainers. The expert also discussed with the trainers and guided them on how to improve their training skills and abilities.The project staff gave introductory remarks explaining the role of ILRI and Single Spark B.V. in the project for developing the pig value chain in Uganda. They also observed the flow of the training sessions and assessed the performance of trainers.The training run for a maximum of one day and a minimum of one hour. This time was not enough to complete the entire curriculum, however, this training was considered a kick-starting training activity that could be continued in future.After training follow up plan: After the kick-starting training, the trainers were encouraged to organize more training sessions for either the same participants to complete the curriculum or for new participants.Training coverage: Supporting the training sessions were organized in both urban/cities and in rural areas. There were more training sessions organized in the rural areas compared to the urban areas as shown in Figure 1.       The feeds expert guided the trainers to mobilize a group of about 10 pig farmers for each training. However, to cater for farmers who turned down the invitation at the last minute, trainers invited more than 10 farmers. Also, in places where invitations were open and made through local radio announcements, the attendance were more than 10. Based on this observation, training was best when attendance was not more than 20 farmers. This enabled the trainers to engage every participant effectively, call every participant by name, demonstrate the use of FeedCalculator app well and they could also fit well in most types of venues. Figure 8 above shows a farmer acting as a pig to demonstrate live weight estimation as everyone looks in a small attendance training.A case in Kyesiga subcounty, Masaka district where community-based facilitators (CBFs) with smart computer handsets were invited to attend the training revealed that projects such as agricultural cluster development project (ACDP) have supported digitalizing communities by giving smartphones to each of the CBFs in selected districts in Uganda. Also, it was observed that the CBFs were more skilled in using smartphones. ACDP is running in a number of selected districts in Uganda including: Masaka, Amuru, Kalungu, Iganga, Ntungamo, Nebbi, Mpigi, Rakai, Bugiri, Namutumba, Nwoya, Gulu, Kabaale, Bushenyi, Isingiro, Maracha, Arua, Yumbe, Kyotera, Bugweri, Omoro, Bunyangabu, Rukiga, Rubanda and Pakwach (https://www.agriculture.go.ug/agriculture-clusterdevelopment-project-acdp-rolled-out-to-more-districts-across-uganda/). BRAC Uganda gave a woman a smartphone for use in village women lending groups in Kasawo subcounty, Mukono district.Introducing FeedCalculator app: It was observed that the needs of the pig farmers are beyond feeding. Trainers, however, demonstrated the ability to narrow down the training to only pig feeding. After consensus and common understanding by the farmers, it was proposed that formulation of pig feed was critical, hence the trainers introduced the FeedCalculator app as a solution to quality and efficient pig feeding ration formulation. The trainers shared testimonies of their farms and other farmers using the FeedCalculator app. Pig farmers who had smartphones downloaded the FeedCalculator app and signed up. Four android phones, one owned by the host farmer, two by the feed experts and one by the trainer were used for demonstrating the use of the FeedCalculator application to make pig feed recipes to farmers. One phone was used by a small group of 3 to 4 farmers. Figure 9 below one of the smallscale pig farmer (woman) demonstrating how a FeedCalculator app works on her smartphone. Of the pig farmers who had smartphones, 50% downloaded and signed up for the FeedCalculator app. The number of those who downloaded the app would have been more if it were not for the restriction of access to mobile internet. Some farmers who appreciated the relevance of the FeedCalculator app promised to sell one of their pigs to buy a smartphone for formulating pig feeds. Figure 10   In the Kasawo second training session, two trainers teamed up to conduct training sessions in one subcounty shows how trainers valued the curriculum on pig feeding for farmers. In the first training, 12 out of 15 invited farmers attended the training. After 8 days, surprisingly 23 farmers attended the second training while only 15 farmers were invited. The 8 farmers who were not invited learned about the training from fellow farmers who attended the first training session. Also, farmers stayed up to the end of the training. Only 3 out of the total 197 participants left the training before the closing remarks. The fact that farmers got engaged for an average of 3 hours, shows that they must have found the skills and knowledge shared in the training relevant to them. In many of the training, participants demanded a second training on aspects of feeding that were not covered that day. Most important of all, even though more training was conducted in the afternoon, no participant was noticed dozing during the training sessions. Figure 11 below shows small-scale pig farmers after the training held at Nama subcounty in Mukono District.i. A total of 195 small-scale pig producers (72 men and 123 women) were trained in pig feed ration formulation using the FeedCalculator app.ii. A total of 185 farmers ingredient selection guides were distributed to farmers.iii. A total of 15 extension service providers (14 men and 1 woman) were assessed and confirmed to have the ability to transfer skills and knowledge of pig feeding using the FeedCalculator app.iv. Three men extension service providers were trained in pig feeding using the FeedCalculator app.v. Over 20 pig farmers (12 men and 8 women) downloaded and signed up for the FeedCalculator app.vi. One male feed miller was trained in pig feeding and pig feed production using the FeedCalculator app and linked to the pig farmers in the area.vii. One politician was envisioned about the pig feeding technologies especially the FeedCalculator app. Most feed millers and feed ingredients aggregators supplied disappointing quality and reliability of feed to the farmers. This was mentioned as a limitation to the adoption of improved pig feeding practices.Farmers expressed their concern about the limited access to pig input and output products markets. This was raised as a limitation to the development of the pig value chain in Uganda.Pig feed formulation trainers offered the farmers to be active and happy with the practical training and learning activities. This suggests that trainers could deliver better if they are facilitated with training aides for activitybased interactive training for farmers.Using CBFs who are closer to the communities and have smartphones, could enhance the adoption of feed formulation using the FeedCalculator app.Some of the trainers attended the training of colleagues to learn from one another. This suggests that the 15 trainers can mentor their fellow extension service providers in the pilot districts.There are other projects who have given smartphones to community agents like CBFs. This provides an opportunity to leverage on such projects to scale out the use of the FeedCalculator app in communities.Figure 12. Farmers in Kayugi, Masaka District identifying feed ingredients during training.The main challenge for this activity is access to a stable internet connection and the limited use of smartphones partly due to government restrictions due to security concerns. This affected the rate at which small-scale pig producers downloaded the FeedCalculator app during the training.Based on observations and reflections, the following recommendations are made for the upscaling of the impact of using pig feed formulation trainers in Uganda:• Assign groups of selected small-scale pig producers in the pilot districts to trainers. Each of the trainers can train and nurture the farmers until their pig feeding practices are smart enough. There is a need to work out ways for incentives to trainers such as transport and communication allowances.• Facilitate trainers with training aides and material for conducting activity-based training sessions in communities. These may include a sample feed ingredient, weight estimator metre, FeedCalculator banners, farmer ingredients selection guides, among others. Figure 12 above shows farmers in Kayugi, Masaka District identifying feed ingredients during a training session.• Support trainers to set up pig feed formulation demonstrations or reference farms for a mindset change in the communities.• Identify, train, nurture, certify and link nearby feed millers and feed ingredients aggregators to the profiled pig farmers. This will restore the confidence of pig farmers in the quality of feed ingredients and pig feeds sold in the market. It will also avail farmers with reliable nearest sources of quality feed ingredients and pig feed.• Display reliable feed millers, feed ingredients aggregators and trainers in the FeedCalculator app 'Find Input Suppliers' handle would increase the number of beneficiaries of the pig feed formulation. All FeedCalculator app users who are pig farmers will be able to contact either the pig feed formulation extension service provider or the feed miller with good quality feed ingredients or pig feeds. ","tokenCount":"2106"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8e2f5e98e4f582dad997fe62511c10e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e4f5d2cc-283e-4943-9ea8-fabc327bc0ca/retrieve","id":"1022478393"},"keywords":["use good-quality seeds; 'Five Reductions': reduce seed rates","pesticide use","fertilizer inputs","water use","and postharvest losses"],"sieverID":"bbef7718-9cd1-450a-b096-080b39e777ec","pagecount":"33","content":"CGIAR publications contribute important development information to the public arena. Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce material from them in their own publications. As copyright holder CIP requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears. Please send a copy to the Communications Department at the address below.Plantix is an agricultural app developed by a private company based in Germany which offers a diagnosis and advice for more than 30 crops. It has great potential as a new form of extension service complementing a traditional face-to-face extension service. The CGIAR Plant Health Initiative seeks to introduce the app as part of a package of innovations available for integrated pest and disease management to facilitate behavioral change among farmers. Plantix has been widely used in India but has not yet become very common in Vietnam.The aim of this pilot study was to test the usability of Plantix app for progressive rural rice growers in Vinh Thanh District, Can Tho City, Vietnam. A group of 15 farmers (5 woman and 11 men) participated in the training on use of the app and provided feedback after a two-week trial.The results show that the farmers seem to have some trust issues with the app's diagnosis, as it reportedly failed to identify or distinguish early signs of certain pests and diseases on young rice. Nevertheless, the farmers showed interest in using Plantix app and considered it a useful tool once its early detection capacity is improved. The participants were experienced large-scaled rice farmers who were already quite familiar with the symptoms of regular pests and diseases. They agreed with the knowledge provided by Plantix. The farmers appeared to be conscious of the recommended dosage of chemical pesticides as written on product labels, however, the current local practice still involves overusing. This suggests that additional measures might be needed along with the introduction and dissemination of Plantix for a stronger impact on farmers' behaviors. The app can be very useful for farmers when they start growing new crops, when there are new pests and diseases, and when they have difficulties distinguishing one disease from others with similar symptoms. Some of the farmers suggested the need for information about new generation pesticides. They also expressed the need for recommendations of specific \"top-ranked\" pesticide products, to help them navigate the large number of products and brands currently on the market.Considering the gender division of labor and decision-making, the results show that men are usually responsible for pest and disease management, but women are also involved in decision-making to some extent. It will be interesting to observe how women's improved knowledge on pest and disease management obtained through Plantix will lead to change in household decisions on pesticide use.The participating farmers use various sources such as TV, Internet, extension workers, input suppliers and peer farmers as means of accessing information and exchanging knowledge. Male farmers tend to learn new agricultural technologies through social networks within their villages and the Internet more often, while the women do that through the Internet and TV. However, both groups trusted their own experience the most. Therefore, introducing the community's key farmers to new technologies though demonstration and success stories could work as a strategy to ignite behavior change among peer farmers. In addition, communication via the Internet and TV could quickly reach a large number of farmers. Involving input suppliers and extension workers in the introduction of the Plantix app could also be helpful. The Mekong Delta is the most important rice producing region of Vietnam. The total rice planting area of the 13 provinces in this region in 2021 is estimated to be around 3.9 million hectares, accounting for 54% of that of the whole country (GSO, 2021). Traditionally, rice production relied on a single rainfed crop in the winter. Taking the advantages of the fertile soil, water abundance and favorable weather conditions, since 1996, the Vietnamese Government has invested heavily in irrigation systems and production infrastructure to encourage rice intensification in the area. As a result, the 1995-2015 period saw a rapid expansion of double and triple-rice cropping systems throughout the whole region, with the total production doubling over the course of 10 years, from 12.8 million tons in 1995 to 25.6 million tons in 2015 (GSO, 2000(GSO, , 2018)). However, since 2015, due to climate change, the aftermath of extensive chemical fertilizer and pesticide use and other problems, rice production has been dropping (Van Kien et al., 2020;Vu et al., 2022). Rice intensification is being gradually replaced by diversification (Van Kien et al., 2020). Nevertheless, the Mekong Delta is still the most productive rice growing area in Vietnam, with an average yield of 62.4 quintals/hectare and total output of 24.3 million tons in 2021 (GSO, 2021).In recent years, driven by the intensive rice monoculture practices and climate change, outbreaks of pathogens have become more frequent and severe, threatening the livelihoods of rice farmers in the region (Nguyen et al., 2022;Norton et al., 2010;Tran et al., 2022;Yuen et al., 2021). Major pests and diseases include rice blast disease, bacterial leaf blight, sheath blight, brown plant hoppers, rice stem gall midges, small leaf folders, golden apple snails, rats, stem borers, etc. (Braun et al., 2019;Matsumura et al., 2018;Nguyen et al., 2021;PPD, 2022;Yuen et al., 2021). In 2022, the Plant Protection Department (PPD) reported 24 thousand hectares of rice infested with blast diseases nationally (February), 15 thousand hectares infested with plant hoppers, 15.4 thousand hectares infested with small leaf folders, 8.8 thousand hectares infected with leaf blight (September), 10.3 thousand ha infested with golden apple snails and 4.8 thousand ha affected by rats (May), etc., the majority of which occur in the Mekong Delta provinces. Throughout the years, these pests and diseases have been causing significant damage to rice farmers, sometimes affecting more than 50% of the cultivated areas (Berg & Tam, 2018), causing yield losses up to 50% (Heong et al., 2015), or even 64.57% in the case of neck blast disease (Hai et al., 2007).Chemical overuse has become a serious problem in the Mekong Delta as an aftermath of the decadeslong agricultural intensification in the region. The consequences include serious environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity, effects on aquaculture, reduced soil heath and impacts on human health. Various studies have found ubiquitous pesticide contamination in soil and water sources, including drinking water such as harvested rainwater or even purchased bottled water (Chau et al., 2015;Toan et al., 2013). High use of pesticide is also likely to cause negative effects on fish and other aquatic organisms (Stadlinger et al., 2018), resulting in decreased aquaculture yields as reported by the farmers in a study by Berg and Tam (2018). 85% of these farmers (n=80) also experienced health effects due to exposure to pesticide.According to a household survey of rice growers (n=155) in Can Tho in 2013-2014, the average frequency of pesticide application is 11-13 times per season, equivalent to a mean cost of USD 190 per ha (Stuart et al., 2018). This is significantly higher than the numbers found by some previous studies, for example 4-8 times (amounting to 1.13-3.36 kg/ha) according to Chau et al. (2015), and 6-8 times (amounting to 1.9-3.7 kg/ha) according to Toan et al. (2013). Farmers use various types of pesticides including moderately toxic pesticides (WHO class II) (Braun et al., 2019;Chau et al., 2015;Galli et al., 2022). Some studies highlight farmers' inappropriate dosage and handling of pesticides. In one survey, 60-80% of the farmers (N=72) used higher amounts than recommended on the label (Chau et al., 2015). Access to and use of personal protective equipment is generally quite limited, except for face masks and gloves, whereas unsafe pesticide storage and waste disposal were widespread (Chau et al., 2015;Galli et al., 2022). Only a few farmers are concerned about the potential negative effects of pesticide on their health (Chau et al., 2015;Dang & Pham, 2022).However, the aforementioned studies either do not have gender-disaggregated data, or only involve small numbers of female participants (7% of 400 farmers in Galli et al. (2022)   (Connor et al., 2021;GoV, 2018;Horgan et al., 2022;Nguyen, 2018;Stuart et al., 2018). The government also regulates agricultural chemicals through promulgating annual lists of permitted and banned agrochemicals in Vietnam (Hoi et al., 2016), regular inspection, training and guidance, as well as imposing penalties on violations (GoV, 2016;MARD, 2015).However, the adoption of alternative approaches remains very low, with only a small number of innovative farmers trying them. Several studies highlight the lack of awareness and training opportunities for farmers (Galli et al., 2022). On the other hand, farmers choose chemicals or 1 'Three Reductions': reduce seed rates, nitrogen fertilizer and insecticides; 'Three Gains': improve yield, farmers' health and protect application techniques based on their own and their peers' experience and habits rather than on information from experts, retailers and chemical pesticide labels (Berg & Tam, 2018;Chau et al., 2015).It is not clear if providing more information through traditional extension services can change farmers' behaviors.Recently, information and communication technologies (ICT) such as mobile apps are becoming more and more popular as an alternative or complement to traditional face-to-face approaches to circulating new knowledge and practices. The use of ICT in Vietnam is facilitated by the country's well established digital infrastructure, as well as the MARD's support for smart agriculture (Sakata, 2019).With its collective learning systems, ICT has a great potential in reaching populations that might be excluded in traditional extension services. However, in terms of the cost, ease of use, information contents and proposed solutions, the design of agricultural digital tools might not be best suited for low income, less educated and/or women farmers (Coggins et al., 2022;Krell et al., 2021). In Vietnam, according to Hoang and Drysdale (2021), male farmers are more likely to benefit from mobile phone information for their agricultural production and marketing compared to female farmers, despite their more or less equal involvement in both activities.In fact, traditional extension services in Vietnam have the same limitations, as their approaches are more suitable to better-off male farmers (Lovell et al., 2021). Therefore, to be transformative in the aspects of equity and inclusiveness, ICT should not simply follow traditional extension approaches, which otherwise might reinforce existing gaps by disadvantaging marginalized social groups especially women who are in fact the majority of smallholders in the global South (Hargittai, 2018;O'Donnell & Sweetman, 2018;Schelenz & Pawelec, 2022). ICT interventions for women need to consider women's specific needs, interests and capacity.Plantix is a mobile crop doctor app developed by PEAT, an agricultural technology company based in Germany. It offers six services to users: 1) diagnosis and treatment advice; 2) fertilizer calculation; 3) farming tips; 4) disease warnings and prevention; 5) a farmer community and 6) agricultural weather forecasts. Currently, Plantix offers instant diagnosis and treatment advice for 30 major crops, vegetables and fruits. Plantix has been widely used by male farmers in India.In this study, we explore the potential for using Plantix to reduce pesticide use among rural rice farmers in the Mekong Delta. We also use Plantix as a case to study the impact of gender on the perception and adoption of new technologies by farmers. Can Tho City was selected as the study site as it shares many characteristics of the typical rice production in the region. This is the third pilot study in Vietnam, following the first pilot conducted in Gia Lam, Hanoi with small-scale urban vegetable growers (Bui, Nguyen, et al., 2022) and the second pilot in Don Duong, Lam Dong with larger scale vegetable farmers (Bui, Pham, et al., 2022).We test the app in the context of Vietnam with both male and female rice growers. In particular, we aim to establish gender-responsive participatory learning approaches targeting both women and men. This study follows the scaling readiness approach (Sartas et al., 2020). In this first stage, we test the core innovation, seek possible complementary innovations appropriate to a given gender and social context, and identify stakeholders who can potentially facilitate scaling up of the app.The Mekong DeltaIn the Mekong Delta, rice production is most concentrated in the Alluvial Floodplain and surrounding broad depressions (Van Kien et al., 2020). The rice cropping systems here include mostly double-or triple-crop rice of modern high-yield, short-duration varieties (85-105 days) (Minh et al., 2019;Nguyen & Yen, 2021). The triple rice system includes Winter-Spring, Summer-Autumn and Autumn-Winter, located in well-irrigated areas with abundance of fresh water (Diem et al., 2021). Away from the big rivers, within semi-dike systems, farmers may grow 2 rice crops per year, including the main Winter-Spring crop and either of the autumn crops (Minh et al., 2019;Triet et al., 2018). The distribution of rice production in the Mekong Delta is illustrated at Figure 2. Of the three seasons, the Winter-Spring is generally the major crop, making up 40% of the annual rice growing area and contributing 45% of the annual production of the region (GSO, 2021).Single short or medium-term rice combined with other crops such maize, sweet potatoes and vegetables is practiced in some areas where conditions are less favorable. Besides, a small number of farmer communities still keep the tradition of growing one crop of indigenous rice a year, where longduration varieties (200-240 days, some 270 days (VAAS, 2005)) are grown in the wet season. This accounts for only 4% of the total rice farming area, scattered along the coast in Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang provinces (Diem et al., 2021;GSO, 2021;Hoang-Phi et al., 2020;Minh et al., 2019). The crop calendar in the Mekong Delta is heavily influenced by geographic, soil, irrigation and weather conditions, thus varies every year across different provinces, as well as areas within each province (Kontgis et al., 2019;Triet et al., 2018). Typically, the traditional single rice crop starts around June/July until December-January (Minh et al., 2019;Nguyen et al., 2016). Regarding intensive systems, theWinter-Spring crop is planted in the dry season, from November-December to February-March. In the wet months, farmers can grow one or two crops -from March-April to June-July, and from July-August to October-November (Ferrer et al., 2022;Kontgis et al., 2019). The sowing time can differ greatly between shallow-and deep-inundation areas, up to 1-1.5 months earlier in the former (Triet et al., 2018). In addition, farmers can adjust the calendar, especially for the Winter-Spring season, depending on environmental conditions and how well protected the farmlands are against flooding (Ferrer et al., 2022;Triet et al., 2018). For example, in 2016 and 2020 when severe salinity intrusion occurred, a shift of 10-30 days earlier than normal planting was observed in the Mekong Delta (Hoang-Phi et al., 2020).In fact, since 2019, the Plant Protection Department has been recommending early planting of the Winter-Spring crop in coastal areas, including Long An, Kien Giang, and Soc Trang provinces, in response to changes in the climate (Ferrer et al., 2022). In some areas prone to salinity intrusion, due to reduced yield, farmers might, or are advised not to grow the Winter-Spring crop in the following year (Hoang-Phi et al., 2020). An overall rice crop calendar of the Mekong Delta, together with the PPD's 2022 recommendations are shown in Table 1. In recent years, triple rice monoculture is gradually being replaced by diversified rice-based cropping systems, such as rice in combination of upland crops, livestock, and especially aquaculture (Van Kien et al., 2020). The total production of aquaculture of the Mekong Delta increased by 170% between 2010 and 2021, largely contributed by a tremendous increase of 2.4 times in shrimp production, from 347 million tons to 836 million tons (GSO, 2015(GSO, , 2021)).Can Tho City lies in the central part of the Mekong Delta and is one of the major rice producing areas in the region. The city is subdivided into five urban districts and four rural districts. Located entirely within the Alluvial Floodplain, supplied by the rich sediments of the Hau River, a Mekong distributary, Can Tho possesses fertile soil and ample fresh water sources, while buffered against the harsh conditions of the coast. As of 2022, the city has 111,400 hectares of agricultural land (77.4% of the total area), of which 78,000 ha is devoted to rice production. Rice is mostly grown three times a year, producing 1.3-1.4 million tons annually (GSO, 2021;Trung, 2022).The pilot study was conducted in Thanh Quoi commune, Vinh Thanh district in Can Tho City in December 2022. Vinh Thanh District (Figure 3) was selected as it is well-known for rice production.The district consists of 2 townships and 9 communes. Thanh Quoi commune has 7 villages, and we invited farmers from 2 villages from within this commune, and 1 additional female farmer from a nearby village of Thanh Tien commune. Apart from rice, farmers in the study communes also grow chili, mung beans, white radish, cucumber, squash, coconut, guava, yellow Mai flowers and raise livestock. Can Tho City Vinh Thanh DistrictAccording to our observations, as well as information from the literature (Chi et al., 2015;Gallina & Farnworth, 2016;Nhat Lam Duyen et al., 2021), although both men and women are involved in farm activities, rice production in the Mekong Delta is generally considered men's domain, especially in larger scales and in relation to \"heavier\" tasks such as pesticide application. There is a small number of women-managed farms, and women may also, to some extent, be involved in crop protection on male-managed farms. We, therefore, intentionally tried to include women farmers in this pilot study.As in the pilot study in Don Duong, Lam Dong in September 2022, many farmers in the study area use iPhones. This could be a major challenge for introducing Plantix in Vietnam.The research team consulted with the local authority to select participants based on three criteria: 1) farmers who grow rice for sale; 2) farmers who have Android smart phones and access to internet; and 3) farmers who are interested in learning improved methods on pest and disease treatment. We also requested to have a gender balance among the participants and to include young farmers, if available.A total of 15 farmers who were Android users (four woman and eleven men) participated in the training. The small number of female farmers reflect the overall more limited role of women in rice production in the study area. The majority of participants (75%) were middle-aged farmers between 40 and 49. Only four participants were aged between 27-36. Most of the participants had large-scale farms of 3 hectares or more, with the smallest at 1.9 hectares and the largest at 11 hectares. Several additional stakeholders were invited to the training session as they could provide technical input in intervention designs and/or facilitate scaling. These invitees joining the session were two female officers of Vinh Thanh District PPD, and a male extension officer of Thanh Quoi commune.The Plantix training was conducted on 13 December 2022. The training included an introduction to Plantix, downloading the app, a field trial, an initial feedback session and focus group discussions (FGDs) with the men and women to collect background information and household data. These FGDs consisted of four topics: 1) the local crop calendar and seasonal differences in pests and diseases; 2) gender roles in pest and disease management; 3) information sources; and 4) perceptions of pesticide overuse.During the two-week trial on their own farms, we made phone calls to some farmers twice to assist them with solving technical issues, and to monitor their progress with Plantix. In addition, the training participants were connected with a communication message app called \"Zalo\" to facilitate their collective learning and exchange information during the trial. The research team also joined this group to monitor and facilitate the group's communication. After the two-week trial period, focus group discussions were conducted to collect feedback from the participants. Ten male farmers participated, but only two female farmers could attend the feedback session, together with the two female PPD officers.These focus group discussions consisted of three topics: 1) feedback on the content of the Plantix app;2) behavioral change and information sharing; and 3) potential constraints for some farmers in using this app.Photo credit: Trinh Thanh Thao, Van-Schepler Luu, Nozomi KawarazukaA digital extension tool (DET) assessment framework was developed by Coggins et al. (2022), who identified major constraints to using DETs in the global south. They divided the constraints into three categories: 1) access to digital information; 2) the technical content of the tool; and 3) behavioral change. We applied these categories in our analysis with specific consideration of gender-and agebased constraints in this assessment framework (Table 2). In Vietnam in general, and in the study area in particular, smart phones are very common among both women and men. The pilot study confirms that the farmers are familiar with smartphone technologies, and although none of the farmer participants have 3G/4G data plans on their phones, everyone has access to wifi internet at home. Except for two farmers whose Android versions were too old, the rest of the participants successfully installed Plantix on their phones, and quickly learned and enjoyed using the app.Plantix does not provide a service to iPhone users, which is the most significant constraint to disseminating the app.Plantix's website and some illustrations in the app use images of male farmers, mostly from India. We need to request Plantix to include images of women farmers from Southeast Asia that female users in Vietnam can identify with.There are six functions in the app: 1) diagnosis and treatment advice; 2) fertilizer calculation; 3) farming tips; 4) disease warnings and prevention; 5) a farmer community and 6) agricultural weather forecasts. All the participants who could install Plantix on their phones used the diagnosis and treatment advice function. Except for one district PPD officer who looked at the Community Q&A section, none of the other participants used the other functions.Regarding metrics, the participants were comfortable with using \"hectare\" as they all have large farms. However, the local unit of \"công\" is more commonly used in Southern provinces (a small \"công\" equals 1000m 2 , and a large \"công\" equals 1296m 2 ), so it could be helpful to include this local unit in the app.Rice is the main commodity crop in the study areas. Farmers here grow three crops of rice per year, Winter-Spring (November-February), Summer-Autumn (March -late May/early June) and Autumn-Winter (late June/early July -late September/early October). The current rice varieties are mostly short-term and high-yield, including OM18, Dai Thom 8, OM5451, and RVT, a high quality variety. Apart from rice, four of the male farmers also grow yellow Mai flowers, two female farmers grow chili, and one male farmer grows coconut and guava. In addition, other vegetables including beans, white radish, cucumber and different types of squash are also grown in the area by other villagers. Four out of these nine crops are available in the app for diagnosis and treatment advice (Table 3). As shown in Table 3 above, pests and diseases are prevalent in the middle growth stages of most crops, including rice. April-early May, August-early September and late December-January are periods when rice fields are threatened by pathogens, favored by hot and/or rainy weather. As reported by the farmers, the major problems on rice in the area include blast, bacterial blight, midge galls, leafrollers etc. Some of the pests/diseases are called different locally, therefore, the farmers suggested including the local names alongside the scientific names. A more detailed list of pests and diseases can be found at Appendix 2. The farmers practiced taking photos of rice plants during the trial period but did not try it with other vegetables because they themselves hardly grow any crops other than rice. However, a few farmers said they would try Plantix with beans and bananas in the next season, and some requested to include squash in the app.Apart from rice and vegetables, farmers also requested a diagnosis and advice service for yellow Mai flower, which is an important income source.December-January is usually a rice pest and disease season in Can Tho. However, the rice plants are still at a relatively young growth stage during the trial period, and some farmers reported that there had been fewer pests and diseases in the past year. Therefore, although participant farmers took many photos with Plantix during the two-week trial, the rice plants did not show clear symptoms of pathogen infection.One male farmer reported that after the app diagnosed his rice plants with Nitrogen deficiency, he followed the app's recommendation to address the problem. However, none of the remaining farmers took further actions following Plantix advice. There are a number of reasons why they did not change their practice immediately.First, there seems to be some trust issues among both the male and female participants with the app's diagnosis results. Although some male farmers agreed with the app's diagnosis of rice leaf rollers, both the men and women thought that the app's identification of pests/diseases needed to be more accurate. The men reported that the app did not recognize or confused the following problems: damage due to weather, blast, and rice gall midge. One of the female district PPD officers felt that the app's interpretation of dark spots on rice leaves due to alum poisoning or excess phosphorus fertilizers as Zinc deficiency was incorrect, as was the diagnosis of Nitrogen deficiency which was actually due to the natural color change of rice leaves or cold weather. One potential reason for this could be that the rice plants as well as the pest/disease problems were at early stages, therefore did not show symptoms clearly enough to be correctly identified by the app.Second, the targeted farmers are experienced and large-scale farmers who have a high level of knowledge about pests and diseases. Farmers' knowledge agrees with what the app says. However, some male farmers expressed that the descriptions should be more concise, and both the men and women group suggested shortening the names of the recommended products (keeping only the names of active ingredients, e.g., Tricyclazole, and removing the associated concentration and type of products (e.g., 75 WP). Some male farmers also expressed the wish for the app to recommend a list of \"top ranked\" pesticide products, or rank the pesticides by quality, to help them navigate the multitude of products, brands, and sometimes misleading advertising currently on the market. They also said that the inclusion of new generation chemicals would be helpful.Third, the recommendation for the chemicals written in Plantix for the major pests/diseases are similar to what the farmers use in practice, for example, Tricyclazole 75.0 WP for rice blast, and Streptomycin Sulfate 90.0% SP, Tetracycline hydrochloride 10.0% SP for bacterial blight. However, the female district officer pointed out that some chemicals have recently been banned by the Vietnamese government, thus should be removed from the app (e.g., Carbendazim for blast disease). As for the dosage, the participants confirmed that Plantix's recommended dosage was the same as on product labels, which means they were aware of the \"right\" dosage. Nevertheless, the male participants admitted they still preferred to follow the current local practices, which usually involves overusing, sometimes doubling the recommended amounts. This could be explained by the fact that the farmers, both men and women, perceived prevention spraying as a quick and effective method to protect the rice fields from any potential outbreaks, thus economic damage. A male farmer said, \"It helps prevent the spread of pests and diseases right from the beginning, which will minimize the damage later on, as well as reduce the amount of pesticide we have to spray again. If we spray when the problem just starts, it will be controlled right away, with smaller doses of pesticides. Otherwise, once the disease already breaks out, we would have to spray again and again and with higher doses; we will end up using even more pesticides, and it will also affect our health.\" Moreover, the farmers felt concerned over reducing pesticide use. \"If I don't spray mine while other farmers spray their fields, the pests/diseases will come to my rice field,\" \"Our rice production would be more dependent on weather,\" said the male farmers, while a female farmer expressed \"We're afraid of facing more damage due to pests & diseases if we reduce pesticides.\" Regarding the application instructions provided by the app, the district officer commented \"For some chemicals, the app advised to not apply the product if the farmer is harvesting in the next 30 days. However, the farmers won't follow this advice. I suggest shortening this period to 20 days only, so that the farmers will be more willing to comply.\" In the case of fertilizers, some farmers have been using their own formulars, which are adjusted to their own farm's conditions such as soil and rice varieties etc.Fourth, the farmers appear to be quite resistant to change when it comes to chemical use. When asked whether they would follow Plantix recommendation if it was different from their current practice/knowledge, all the men and women preferred to follow their own knowledge and experience. This is related to the second point above -the selected participants are highly knowledgeable and experienced rice farmers, and many of them considered their own experience the most trusted source, as discussed later in Section 3.6 -Information sources. The farmers would only consider trying something new if their current measures were not effective. And this does happen from time to time, as both the men and women confirmed the issue of pesticide resistance. \"We also must change pesticides from time to time when the pests/diseases become resistant. When we need to buy a new pesticide, first we will look up information of the company and the product to see if it's trustworthy or not, and then we will consult with the pesticide sellers when we buy it. We might test it on a small plot first, and if it's effective (usually we will know after 3-4 days), we will apply it on a bigger scale,\" said a male farmer.In terms of attitudes towards technology and innovation in general, the men's group seemed to be more reluctant to change as they did not apply any new technologies in recent years, except for one man who hired drone services for spraying pesticide. The reason is explained by a male participant, \"the current technologies are still good, and we will only adopt new technologies if we have seen someone else having done it successfully.\" Therefore, it may take sometimes to see outcomes of Plantix that some individual farmers change practices following the app's advice, and then other farmers see the success and follow them. Nevertheless, a few male farmers expressed their interest in having more training/experience exchange opportunities, which shows their willingness to learn. Contrary to the men's group, the women seem to be much more open to new technologies. They reported having applied new rice varieties of ST24 and ST25, new fertilizer (Humix -an organic fertilizer) and pesticides (microbial and bio-pesticides), and new automation technologies such as drones for spraying, cluster rice planting machines, and transplanting machines. The female farmers show eagerness in learning new technologies as they are aware of the potential benefits, \"we want to apply new technologies to reduce costs, improve product quality and economic efficiency.\"Regarding the farmers' perception of pesticide overuse, the participants appear to be somewhat conscious of the negative effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on their own health, and said that emergency cases of pesticide poisoning happened once in a while. However, overall, it seems that they did not consider the effects to be serious. Some male farmers said, \"Pesticides affect our health, we feel more tired, but only sometimes.\" Both the male and female farmers considered prevention spraying an effective strategy to control outbreaks quickly and reduce economic damage.On the bright side, the farmers are also equipped with knowledge of alternative solutions such as biopesticides and biocontrol methods. The female district officer confirmed that the app provided good and detailed information, and highly appreciated the inclusion of bio-control measures. She said \"The farmers here don't use much biocontrol on rice. It's good to include this option, so that the farmers can learn in the future.\" Two men said they were already using biopesticides (Abamectin) and/or natural enemies on their farms. The women said that they used biocontrol more on vegetables but less on rice. Both the male and female farmers agreed that this method was safe for human, crops and environment, but less effective against pests and diseases once they already spread. The women rated the efficacy of biopesticides at 60%, versus 80% of chemical ones. Their proposed solution was to use a mix of chemical and biopesticides to achieve better results, while reducing chemical amounts. Some farmers introduced the apps to their family, friends and neighbors. Mr. Quang introduced Plantix to a female and two male farmer friends, and another male participant introduced the app to two male friends; these people have downloaded and tried it out. One man also shared general information about the app and the training with his wife, and another with 4 male farmer friends. One female participant shared it briefly with his father and younger brother, while the female district officer did during her training to local farmers, in which about 30 farmers attended. The participants thought that the app would be of interest to younger farmers between 30-55 years old (since many young people below 30 usually do not work in agriculture) who are directly involved in production, and who already have smartphones and are familiar with mobile apps. Both the men and women agreed that in the study sites, men are more involved in rice production than women. Nevertheless, the participants confirmed that women play certain roles and should also be targeted for training. Mr. Quang suggested that the dissemination could be facilitated by the Farmers Union, who has extensive local networks and good understanding of the local farmers.We formed a group with Zalo to facilitate communications, and the farmers used this tool to interact with one another. Some male participants joined the discussions by posting photos of the diseased plants and Plantix diagnoses to the Zalo group chat. However, overall, the group was not very active. This may be because participant farmers managed to use the app without further instructions or communications. In the study site, the app can work as an individual tool rather than a tool for facilitating collective learning for both women and men.In this pilot study, we explored the gender roles and decision-making of the participants' own households. According to the focus group discussions, men are generally more involved in rice production as decision makers and laborers, while women do \"lighter\" work such as soaking seeds, planting, transplanting, weeding, fertilizing, managing money and arranging rice bags at the time of selling.Regarding the work related to pest and disease management, we asked participants to nominate who in their household makes final decisions about and carries out each respective activity (Table 4).Source: FGDs with Vinh Thanh District male farmers (N=11) and female farmers (N=6) on 13 December 2022 Illustrations of a man and woman: © beelzebub2811@gmail.com Other illustrations: ©n.kawarazuka@cgiar.org There are some differences between the men and the women's opinions.According to the male participants, all the pest and disease management activities are performed and decided exclusively by men, except for one household where the purchase of pesticide is done and decided more often by women.In contrast, most of the female participants reported that they are also involved in the purchase of pesticides, attending training and interation with pesticide company/extension staff to some extent. In two households, the purchase of pesticides is solely decided by women, and one household where the decision of pesticide mixing is the women's exclusive responsibility.The biggest difference can be seen in the task of washing/cleaning chemical pesticide-contaminated clothing. Contrary to what the men said, all the female participants agreed that this task is done more often, or exclusively, by women. This shows that women play certain roles in rice pest and disease management and women's improved access to knowledge through Plantix may have some impact on household decisions on pesticide investment and use.When asked which sources of information they trusted the most, most participants (both men and women) selected \"own experience\". It shows that the farmers have strong confidence in their own knowledge, experience and ability in farming. Interestingly, many of the male participants also place their trust on other male farmers within the same village, who they interact daily for information exchange. Meanwhile, the female participants discuss with both male and female peer farmers for information, but only once a week. Two out of 5 female farmers also said that they trusted extension workers the most, and one farmer considered TV the top source of information. It is also important to note that, as mentioned earlier in section 3.4, the male farmers want to see successful stories before they decide to adopt a new technology. Drawn on the above findings, one strategy to initiate behavior change could be to introduce Plantix or any digital apps to the community's key farmers, both men and women, who are respected as advanced farmers. In addition, it might be useful to utilize media (such as internet and TV) to influence them as a first step. Involving input/pesticide suppliers together with extension workers in introducing Plantix could also work as a useful strategy, as some farmers consult pesticide sellers when they need to change chemical products.This pilot study confirmed that the participating farmers are interested in using the Plantix app as a means to learning better practices to control pests and diseases, and improving the production and quality of their agricultural produce, once the trust issues are resolved.Due to the limited number of female farmers during the feedback session, some opinions of the women might not have been fully captured. However, from our observations and the discussion with the male and female participants, it is important to involve women in the introduction of the Plantix app as joint farm managers and decision makers.Among the 17 items of the assessment checklist, 7 items require adjustments to the local context (Table 6).How will the Plantix app be marketed? Training of community's key farmers can be the entry point to facilitate discussion, learning and behavior change among local peer farmers. TV and Internet can also be effective sources which can reach many farmers easily and quickly. Agricultural input suppliers and extension workers could also serve as important channels. The process of dissemination could be facilitated by the Farmers Union.Can users easily share the app information? Yes, the farmers confirmed the app information is easy to share for both men and women below 50-55 years of age.Who can/can't access required devices? iPhone users (this could be more than 50% of farmers), or users of old versions of Android.Are accessible devices of sufficient quality to use DET (including operating software, durability, screen size, processing speed)? Yes, the farmers confirmed that there are no problems.Can farmers access electricity with limited monetary and travel costs? Yes, electricity is 100% available in all households and affordable.Is the Plantix app appropriate for the mobile network reliability, speed and affordability? Not many farmers have mobile data (4G), so they cannot receive diagnosis and advice on the farm but they can later have Internet access at home, which is common in the area.Do farmers already use various apps in their mobile phones? Yes, the farmers did not need much guidance in downloading and using the app.Is reading or typing required to use the DET? Yes, some reading is required but both the men and women farmers confirmed that they have no problems.Can the Plantix app offer local terms and metrics? Needs to be adjusted (see the results Section 3.2)How long does it take for users to access benefits? They receive some benefit instantly after taking a photo (obtaining new knowledge and information).Hard to interpret Is the content visual (or at least visualizable)? Yes, farmers are more interested in functions with visual content than text-based content.Can the Plantix involve games, stories, humor, visuals or human interaction?No. However, the quick diagnosis and advice attracts farmers to keep using it. Plantix uses male farmers in images. Images of women farmers from various regions need to be included.Insensitive to knowledge Does the Plantix information include (or at least adapt to) users' preexisting knowledge? Some adjustments are required to update the list of permitted chemicals and recommended IPDM practices. Additional information such as topranked and locally available pesticide products and early warning messages may attract more progressive farmers to use the Plantix app.Are the Plantix app priorities (e.g., increased yield, reduced risk) set by users or others? Yes.Does the Plantix provide users with options? Unclear. Plantix seems to be more useful for farmers with limited knowledge. We need to investigate further what options Plantix provides and if the options can cover the diverse needs and interests of farmers in different socio-economic situations.Irrelevant to farm Can the Plantix be adapted to local soils, climates, agronomic practices and crop calendars? Some adjustments are required to include local crops and pests/diseases.Is the Plantix branding familiar and trusted? Some farmers do not fully trust the app's diagnosis. However, regarding pest & disease knowledge such as symptoms, causes, prevention and treatment, the farmers trust most of the information provided by the app. Information on the accuracy rate of diagnosis should be shared with farmers to increase their trust.Based on this pilot study, we request Plantix to make some adjustments for the Vietnam context as follows:• Include female images of farmers from Southeast Asia;• Add local names of pests/diseases;• Include local area units (small \"công\" in Southern Vietnam, which equals 1000m 2 , and large \"công\", which equals 1296m 2 ); • Adapt pesticide recommendations to the Vietnamese market: Remove banned chemicals, and include new-generation active ingredients and chemical products and companies available in Vietnam; • Provide a list of recommended pesticide products by quality ranking This pilot study included limited assessment of some technical issues, such as comparing local practices and the app's advice. This was done for two major rice diseases of blast and bacterial blight, but a not in an exhaustive manner and still lacking other pests and diseases. Another limitation was the lack of assessment of the availability of and access to suggested chemicals in local agricultural input shops. Further research is required to obtain more detailed information on which to base requests to Plantix for technical adjustments. ","tokenCount":"7040"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"05b4d7f14ca076575f88183510161f7f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/082b46b5-a387-4a72-b25e-eb10fcc9595a/content","id":"2104724676"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a822947-8857-4e1e-8104-f453ef5a7902","pagecount":"17","content":"Knowledge of the factors influencing nutrient-limited subtropical maize yield and subsequent prediction is crucial for effective nutrient management, maximizing profitability, ensuring food security, and promoting environmental sustainability. We analyzed data from nutrient omission plot trials (NOPTs) conducted in 324 farmers' fields across ten agroecological zones (AEZs) in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (EIGP) of Bangladesh to explain maize yield variability and identify variables controlling nutrient-limited yields. An additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model was used to explain maize yield variability with nutrient addition. Interpretable machine learning (ML) algorithms in automatic machine learning (AutoML) frameworks were subsequently used to predict attainable yield relative nutrient-limited yield (RY) and to rank variables that control RY. The stack-ensemble model was identified as the best-performing model for predicting RYs of N, P, and Zn. In contrast, deep learning outperformed all base learners for predicting RY K . The best model's square errors (RMSEs) were 0.122, 0.105, 0.123, and 0.104 for RY N , RY P , RY K , and RY Zn , respectively. The permutation-based feature importance technique identified soil pH as the most critical variable controlling RY N and RY P . The RY K showed lower in the eastern longitudinal direction. Soil N and Zn were associated with RY Zn . The predicted median RY of N, P, K, and Zn, representing average soil fertility, was 0.51, 0.84, 0.87, and 0.97, accounting for 44, 54, 54, and 48% upland dry season crop area of Bangladesh, respectively. Efforts are needed to update databases cataloging variability in land type inundation classes, soil characteristics, and INS and combine them with farmers' crop management information to develop more precise nutrient guidelines for maize in the EIGP.Fertilizers play a significant role in agricultural energy consumption (Woods et al., 2010;Martinho, 2021), and their improper use can result in environmental problems over time (Krupnik et al., 2004;Ladha et al., 2005;Tilman et al., 2011;Pampolino et al., 2012a;Islam et al., 2022). This challenge is particularly pronounced in developing nations of South Asia, where the dual goals of preserving natural resources and increasing farm productivity are critical for poverty alleviation (Godfray et al., 2010). Small-scale farmers in this region often apply fertilizers in ways that do not align with crop requirements, resulting in inefficient nutrient use and potential environmental hazards (Sheriff, 2005). Such practices can lead to under-application, which decreases nutrient use efficiency (Peng et al., 2006), and over-application, contributing to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (Ju et al., 2006;Wightman et al., 2015). Therefore, addressing the proper recommendation of fertilizers is crucial for enhancing agricultural productivity and ensuring environmental sustainability, particularly in regions where resource management and poverty reduction are interconnected challenges.The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of South Asia have diverse climates, land and soil types, and agroecological features (Gathala et al., 2020). This diversity influences crop sequences and nutrient management practices (Joshi, 2005;Jat et al., 2013;Gathala et al., 2020), leading to variations in indigenous nutrient supply (INS). In the soil-based approach, INS represents the amount of nutrients in soil that is available to the crop during a cropping cycle when other nutrients are nonlimiting (Dobermann et al., 2003). In the plant-based approach, INS can conversely be calculated from nutrient concentrations in aboveground biomass at harvest in nutrient omission plots (Witt et al., 2006). When all other production factors are optimal, soils with high INS will typically result in a lower response to applied nutrients than those with low INS (Dobermann et al., 2003;Buresh et al., 2010). INS, together with fertilizer recovery efficiencies and attainable yields (AY), determined from field trials or local experts' experience) form the basis of most precision nutrient management approaches emphasizing field-specific nutrient applications (Dobermann and Cassman, 2002;Buresh et al., 2010;Chuan et al., 2013). To establish more precise nutrient management recommendations, INS is first determined, after which the remaining quantities of nutrients to be applied are calculated to meet the deficit between INS and crop requirements for target yields (Chuan et al., 2013). Relative yield (RY), which is the ratio of nutrientlimited yield (GY 0 ) to attainable yield (GY NPK ), represents INS capacity when tissue nutrient concentration data are unavailable (Xu et al., 2014). Innovative approaches based on a quantitative understanding of the relationships between RY and soil, environmental, and management variables are needed in the development of precision nutrient management approaches that emphasize site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) (Buresh and Witt, 2007;Pampolino et al., 2007;Buresh et al., 2010;Banayo et al., 2018). Nevertheless, the complexity of interactions between RY and environmental factors makes it challenging to scale nutrient requirement estimates derived from NOPT trials to a larger area. Importantly, traditional linear models may fail to capture complex interactions and non-linear relationships between RY and environmental or management variables.The increasing availability of data and machine learning (ML) models presents an opportunity to identify the factors associated with nutrient-limiting yield and, therefore, aid in developing more precise and spatially appropriate fertilizer management recommendations (Qin et al., 2018). Stacked generalization or stacking, or super learning, which introduces a meta-learner concept that combines multiple ML models, has been used to improve predictive accuracy (Tajik et al., 2020;Ahmed et al., 2021;Brungard et al., 2021;Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi et al., 2021). However, choosing the most optimal ML model can be challenging (Ho and Pepyne, 2002;Liu et al., 2021) since the performance of an ML model is affected by its hyperparameters (Wadoux et al., 2020). Automated machine learning (AutoML) simplifies the training and tuning of ML models by automating the time-consuming tasks of model development with optimal parameter values (Liu et al., 2021). This algorithm has recently been used for model selection from several ML algorithms to increase predictive performance (Feurer et al., 2015;Liu et al., 2021;D'Orazio and Lin, 2022). Therefore, there is a demand for identifying the ML model under an AutoML framework to model the performance of maize under nutrient-limiting and -sufficient conditions, which are still lacking.Machine learning models can also generate insights about domain relationships contained in data, referred to as the interpretability or explainability of the ML models (Murdoch et al., 2019). Among the various interpretation methods, the Permutation Feature Importance (PFI) approach (Fisher et al., 2019) and Partial Dependence Plots (PDP) (Friedman, 2001) can be used to interpret and visualize the output of complex ML models. Surprisingly, applying interpretability in ML has received little attention in agricultural nutrient management (Qin et al., 2018;Sarijaloo et al., 2021).Bangladesh is situated in the EIGP region. Maize is a relatively new but rapidly expanding crop in this area, mainly grown for poultry and fish feed (Gathala et al., 2020;Erenstein et al., 2022). The average yield is 8.33 tons per hectare, potentially reaching yields of up to 16 tons per hectare (Timsina et al., 2010). However, achieving these higher yields requires careful fertilizer management to bridge yield gaps without increasing soil nutrient extraction. The country's current fertilizer recommendations are based on an agroecological zone (AEZ) basis, like neighboring countries where nutrient or fertilizer rates are at the district or other administrative level (Hossain and Siddique, 2020). Each AEZ encompasses an area with similar climate, landform, and hydrological conditions, theoretically allowing for similar crops and agricultural practices. However, farmers within each AEZ manage their crops while dealing with significant additional environmental variations (Brammer, 2012). Fertilizer recommendations are customized for specific landscapes based on soil testing results and desired yields within general AEZ guidelines (Hossain and Siddique, 2020). Although AEZ-level recommendations are easy to understand and apply for farmers, many other environmental and management factors will likely impact maize yield in farmers' fields. This environmental diversity is often not adequately considered when developing recommendations.Despite the importance of nutrient management, previous studies in South Asia's IGP have insufficiently characterized the factors influencing the maize yield to nutrient limitations or sufficiency (Timsina et al., 2021). Inadequate knowledge of these factors has constrained efforts to develop precision nutrient management recommendations that rationalize input costs, increase yield and profits, and reduce environmental externalities (Qin et al., 2018;Timsina et al., 2021). In response, we analyzed data from maize NOPTs conducted in 324 maize farmers' fields distributed across Bangladesh during the winter 'rabi' (dry) seasons in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Our objectives were to (1) explore the variability of maize yield to applied N, P, K, and Zn across Bangladesh and (2) apply AutoML, and interpretable ML to obtain best-performing ML models and identify important variables controlling N, P, K, and Zn limiting maize yields relative to NPKZn fertilizer applications. Combining these objectives, we ultimately sought to identify and rank environmental and management factors that affect maize yield that could form the basis for improved precision nutrient management strategies.Nutrient omission plot trials (NOPTs) were conducted in farmers' fields across Bangladesh with 146 farmers in eight AEZs during the 2011-2012 dry winter season, spanning November-May, and with 178 farmers in 10 AEZs in the subsequent 2012-2013 season. Trials were researchers guided to ensure those nutrient treatments were appropriately implemented but were managed primarily by farmers. Locations were chosen representing major land and soil types within each AEZ (Table 1). Most were located in AEZ 11, 13, and19 (70.5%) in 2011-2012, andin AEZ 3, 10, 11, 13, 18, and19 (83.7%) in 2012-2013. Eight AEZs were common in both years (Fig. 1). Each farmer constituted an individual randomized complete block replicate with five nutrient treatments (each at least 50 m 2 separated 1 m wide alleys), including sequential nutrient omission − N P, K, and Zn , − P N, K, and Zn − K N, P, and Zn , − Zn N, P, and K , and nutrient sufficiency N, P, K and Zn plots (Table 2).In each treatment, except for the omitted nutrient, all other nutrients were applied sufficiently to overcome any expected nutrient deficiencies and reach target yields, as the Bangladesh Agricultural Z.U. Ahmed, T.J. Krupnik, J. Timsina et al. Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture 13 (2024) 100-116Research Institute (BARI) advised. Participating farmers in AEZs located in the central west (AEZ 10,11,and 19), central north (AEZ 8 and 9), and northwest (AEZ 1 and 3) regions applied N, P, K, and Zn at 250, 45, 160, and 8.6 kg ha −1 , respectively, to achieve yield targets of 9-10 t ha −1 . Because of low pH in the northwest (AEZ 1 and 3), 250 kg dolomite ha −1 was also applied to plots in the NW in AEZs 1,3,10,11,19,and 26. Lower N,P,and K rates (200,35, and 130 kg ha −1 , respectively) were chosen following BARI's recommendation to aim for lower attainable yield targets of 7-8 t ha −1 given the occurrence of soil salinity and waterlogging problems in AEZ 13, 18, and 19. Most sites in all AEZs were irrigated, with farmers applying irrigation 1 to 6 times based on their own decisions to avoid moisture stress. Twenty-seven farmers in AEZ 19 conversely relied on precipitation alone (930 mm) in the 2011-2012 season. N was applied equally in three splits in all irrigated locations: basally, at V6, and V10. N was applied twice in the rainfed sites: basally and at V8. All P and Zn were applied basally. K was also applied in two equal splits (basal and V8 in rainfed and V10 in irrigated sites). Nitrogen, P, K, and Zn were applied as urea, triple super phosphate, muriate of potash, and ZnS0 4 (36% Zn). Basal fertilizers were broadcast before final land preparation. Top-dressed fertilizers were side-banded by hand. Sowing dates ranged from 27 November to 6 February 2011-2012 and 18 November to 28 January 2012-2013. With some exceptions, seeding tended to occur earlier in November and December in the north (AEZ 1 and 3) and southwest (AEZ 10 and 11), with later planting in the central south (AEZ 13 and 18). Sowing dates corresponded roughly with when the preceding rice crop was harvested, fields dried down, and land became trafficable to prepare the seedbed for maize sowing (Krupnik et al., 2004;Krupnik et al., 2015b). In both seasons, maize was sown by hand at 60 cm between rows, with 20 cm between plants. Farmers manually removed all weeds at V6 and V8. Earthing up was also performed at V6. No major incidences of pests and diseases were observed, and farmers' use of pesticides was negligible.At physiological maturity, 10.08 m 2 (three 5.6 m long rows) in the center of each plot were harvested to determine yield (at 15.5% moisture content) after oven drying (70 °C for 72 h). Following harvests, plots were geo-located, and farmers were surveyed and asked if they had previous experience growing maize, the previous rice crops' grain and straw yield, N, P, and K rates, and whether organic matter (crop residues, green manure, poultry or farmyard manure) had been applied before maize.To calculate the yield response (YR) to a nutrient, we subtracted the yield from the nutrient omission plot (i.e., where the nutrient was omitted) from the attainable yield (AY). This difference in yield indicates that the deficient nutrient should be supplied through fertilizers (Pampolino et al., 2012b). Using quantile regression, we estimated the expected yield response (YR) to the applied nutrient. This allowed us to calculate regression slopes between the 25th, 50th (median), and 75th percentile of nutrient-limited yield (\\ \\N,\\ \\P, and\\ \\K) and attainable yield, representing three fertility 'classes' in our data. Relative yield (RY), the ratio of nutrient-limited yield (GY 0 ) to attainable yield (GY NPKZn ), represents the indigenous soil nutrient supplying capacity when data on plant tissue nutrient concentrations are unavailable (Xu et al., 2014). A larger RY generally represents higher INS and soil fertility, and vice versa. The relative yields of N (RY N ), P (RY P ), K (RY K ), and Zn (RY Zn ) are, therefore, the ratios of PK(− N), NK(\\ \\P), NP(\\ \\K), NPK (− Zn) to AY, respectively.    We assembled a comprehensive spatial soil and environmental data set to characterize NOPT sites. We used them to train AutoML models to predict RY yields for maize in the rabi (dry winter season in which all trials were conducted). All raster data sets were processed at 250 × 250 m grid size across Bangladesh's rabi (dry season upland crop) area (Fig. S1). We used Landsat 8 Thematic Mapper Operational Land Imager (OLI) with 30 m spatial resolution acquired in January and March for 2014 to 2016 to map the upland winter season crop (rabi) area in Bangladesh (please see supporting information for details). The covariates data sources are summarized below.Site elevation data were generated from the publicly available Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90 m resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for Bangladesh (Jarvis et al., 2008). These data were re-processed to a 250 m × 250 m grid across the rabi season maize area (Supplementary Materials Fig. S1b). In addition, we recorded the land types for the farmers' fields on which the experiments were conducted by surveying the participating farmers, and then we verified these land types according to the method described by Brammer (Brammer, 2012). In Bangladesh, land type is a standard classification used by physical geographers and agronomists and can be thought of as the relative elevation position of a field. The position is inferred based on understanding the depth of water inundation experienced during the monsoon season in particular fields. Classifications typically follow the system set forth by Brammer (Brammer, 2012) (Fig. 2b), including 'highland'(generally not fully flooded during the monsoon), 'medium-highlands' (which are broken into two categories, including 'medium-highland 1' (0-45 cm depth) and 'medium-highland 2\" (46-90 cm depth)), and 'medium lowlands' (which in our analysis combines 'medium-lowlands' (90-180 cm depth) with 'lowlands' (>180 cm depth) as >90 cm depth. These classifications indirectly affect winter season crops, as lower relative elevation positions tend to drain more slowly than higher ones, affecting farmers' ability to prepare land sow within recommended time windows (Krupnik et al., 2017). Provided they have finer soil textures, lower relative elevation fields may also store water for longer than higher elevation (Krupnik et al., 2015a;Krupnik et al., 2015b).A 31,787-point dataset (Fig. S2) with topsoil (0-20 cm) sampled between 1993 and 2003 years from 430 sub-districts was supplied by Bangladesh's Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI). Soil sample preparation and processing for chemical analysis were carried out as described by SRDI (SRDI, 2014). Data were used to create a 250 m × 250 m raster of pH, SOC, available N, P, K, S, B, and Zn (Fig. 3) using Multi-Gaussian Kriging (Goovaerts et al., 2005) (Please see the supporting information for details). The \"gstat\" (Pebesma, 2004) package in R statistical computing environment (R Core Team, 2021) was used for all geostatistical analysis.Before developing the Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) and machine learning models, we explored spatial autocorrelation of maize yields across all sites. Spatial autocorrelation assessment comprises statistics describing how a variable is autocorrelated through geographical space (Hardy and Vekemans, 1999). We used the Global Moran I (GMI), an inferential statistic, to investigate whether the yield data exhibit significant spatial autocorrelation indicating the degree of dependencies among neighboring sites (Koutsos et al., 2021;Ping et al., 2004). The significance test of the overall Moran's I index was done by using a simulation process to calculate the index with random observation samples. For all treatments, we conducted a randomization with 10,000 permutations (Please see supporting information for details).Quantile regression provides greater flexibility than OLS regression methods to identify differing relationships at different parts of the distribution of the dependent variable (Lê Cook and Manning, 2013). It was therefore used to calculate slopes of regressions between the 25th, 50th (median), and 75th percentile of nutrient-limited yield The Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) model is used to analyze multi-environment trials (METs) that combine analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to partition the total variation into main effects and interactions, allowing for identification of superior genotypes or management practices that perform consistently across multiple environments (Crossa et al., 1990;Gauch Jr, 1992). We used the AMMI model to quantify the relative importance of nutrient omission treatment, AEZ (environment), and their interaction on maize yield. In the first step, a combined ANOVA for grain yield across all AEZs for each year was conducted, considering all nutrient omission and sufficiency plots using a general linear model (GLM). AEZs and nutrient treatments were considered fixed effects, with farmer replicates as the random effect. We partitioned the sum of squares into AEZ, nutrient treatment, and the AEZ × nutrient treatment interaction, after which the relative contribution of each component to total variation was computed. In the second step, we used PCA to decompose the AEZ × nutrient treatment term into several interaction principal component analysis (IPCAs) axes (Crossa et al., 1990;Gauch Jr, 1992;Ahmed et al., 2011). We created two-dimensional AMMI bi-plots of IPCA1 scores versus mean yield of AEZ (environment) or nutrient treatment or visualizing and interpreting the results of the AMMI model.To statistically differentiate the IPCA sum of squares, we randomly selected six sites in 2011-2012 and five sites in 2012-2013 (the minimum site number in any AEZ in each season). We then performed a combined ANOVA using the GLM. PCA was subsequently used to decompose the multiplicative effects (interaction effect) into three IPCAs. This process was run 1000 times to examine the uncertainty of the AMMI model associated with the limited number of sites. Finally, the mean sum of squares of the interaction terms and three IPCAs from1000 AMMI models, followed by the mean relative contribution of each PCA to the total variation resulting from the interaction, were calculated.We applied an automatic machine learning workflow or \"AutoML\" using the \"h2o\" package (Aiello et al., 2016;Ledell et al., 2020) in R (R Core Team, 2021) to identify the best model for explaining relative yield variability from N, P, K, and Zn application. The AutoML approaches have recently been used for model selection from several ML models using a large number of available model parameters to increase model performance (D'Orazio et al.; Thornton et al., 2013;Feurer et al., 2015).The \"AutoML\" model trains and cross-validates three pre-specified extreme gradient boosting machine (XGBoost) models, a fixed grid of generalized linear model (GLMs), a Default Random Forest (DRF), five pre-specified H 2 O gradient boosting machines (GBMs), a near-default Deep Neural Net (DNN), an Extremely Randomized Forest (XRT), a random grid of XGBoost, a random grid of H 2 O GBMs, and a random grid of DNN. In supporting information, brief descriptions of these models are given in Tables S1 and S2.The K-fold (10-fold) cross-validation method was used to determine the optimal hyper-parameters in all possible hyper-parameter value combinations during the training of individual models within the \"AutoML\" run. We defined \"max_runtime_secs\" and \"max_models\" as 0 (no-limit) and default (no-limit) as stopping strategies (time or the number of models) during training. During the parameter tuning process, early stopping values were set to 0.0001 and 2 for \"stopping tolerance\" and \"stopping rounds,\" respectively. The output of the \"AutoML\" object includes several cross-validation model performance metrics from all models. These metrics include mean residual deviance (MRD), mean squared error (MSE), root mean squared error (RMSE), root mean squared logarithmic error (RMSLE), and mean absolute error (MAE). RMSE was used as \"sort_metric\" for ranking the models (Tables S4-S7).The outputs of each base model were then used to train two stack ensemble models that combine the output of multiple models using a meta-model. One ensemble contains all the models, while the other includes only the best-performing model from each algorithm class. The GLM regression model was used as a meta-learner at level 1-space. In brief, stack ensemble consists of three steps: (1) set up a list of base- learners (level-0 space) and a meta-learner (level-1 space), (2) train each of the base-learners and perform K-fold cross-validation predictions for each base learner, and (3) use these predicted values to train the meta-learner and make new predictions. (Please see supporting information for details).We applied model-agnostic approaches (Ribeiro et al., 2016) to interpret the prediction outcomes of the best-performing models identified in AutoML. The model-agnostic is a post-hoc technique explaining ML models' predictions by treating the models as \"black boxes\" and then generating explanations without inspecting the internal model parameters (Ribeiro et al., 2016). Among the different global interpretation methods, we applied the permutation-based feature importance (PFI) approach (Fisher et al., 2019) and partial dependence profile (PDP) plots (Friedman, 2001) to explain and visualize the output of ML models. The PFI approach measures the increase in the prediction error (drop-out loss or RMSE) after permitting a feature, i.e., a variable is considered crucial if the shuffling of its values increases the prediction error. A feature is \"unimportant\" if permuting its values does not affect the prediction error (Liu et al., 2021).A partial dependence plot (PDP) (Friedman, 2001) visualizes and provides insights into how a particular predictor variable affects the model's predictions, independent of the effects of other predictors. This can help to identify non-linear relationships, interactions, and other complex patterns in the data that might be missed by simple linear regression analysis. We used the \"DALEX\" package (Biecek, 2018) in R Statistical Computing Environment (R Core Team, 2021) to create \"explainers\" for PFI, and PDP for the best-performing model.We used the best-performing ML model to predict RYs of N, P, K, and Zn at 250 × 250 m spatial resolution across the upland winter season crop area of Bangladesh.Grain yield across eight AEZs in 2011-2012 spanned from 4.41 t ha −1 in N-omitted to 9.42 t ha −1 in the +NPKZn sufficiency plot, while across ten AEZs in 2012-2013, it ranged from 4.87 t ha −1 in N-omitted to 9.52 t ha −1 in the sufficiency plot (Table 2). Grain yield in the sufficiency plot was highest in AEZ 10 (11.11 t ha −1 ) in 2011-2012 and AEZ 3 (11.49 t ha −1 ) in 2012-2013. Across AEZs, the yield was consistently lower in AEZ 19, ranging from 4.26 t ha −1 in Nomitted to 6.69 t ha −1 in NPKZn plot in 2011-2012 and from 4.55 t ha −1 in N-omitted to 7.95 t ha −1 in NPKZn plot in 2012-2013.The scatter plot for the Univariate Moran's I indicates a positive relationship, showing spatial autocorrelation in maize yield in nutrientlimiting and sufficient conditions across the NOPT sites. The slope of the regression line corresponds to Moran's statistics, with a steeper slope representing a moderate degree of spatial data autocorrelation. These values range from 0.229 in N-omitted to 0.583 in K-omitted treatments with pseudo p-values <0.0001 (Fig. S3).ANOVA showed that maize grain yield was significantly (p < 0.001) affected by AEZ, nutrient treatments, and their interaction (Table 3). Nutrient treatments explained approximately 61% of the variation in grain yield in both years. In contrast, AEZ explained 30.4 and 32.1%, and the AEZ × NOPTs interaction explained only 8.4 and 7.3% of the variation in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, respectively. Partitioning of interactions showed that the first two and the first three IPCA scores in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 were highly significant (Table 4). In both years, the first two IPCA scores captured the major proportion (88-95%) of the variance attributable to the interaction term. In both years, the first IPCA score explained nearly the same variability.Use of the AMMI biplot of IPCA1 scores versus mean grain yield for NOPTs or AEZs simplifies the interpretation of the effects of NOPTs, AEZs, and their interaction (Fig. 4). In these biplots, vertically aligned NOPTs or AEZs have similar mean yields, and those horizontally aligned have similar patterns of interaction. NOPTs or AEZs with large negative or positive IPCA1 scores indicate a high degree of interaction, whereas those with scores close to the x-axis have low interactions. In both years, the relative variability in grain yield arising from either the sufficiency or the omission of nutrients was greater than the variation attributable to AEZ alone. Considering all AEZs, three separations are distinguishable. The first group consisted of AEZ 18 and 19, with the highest positive IPCA1 score and the lowest mean grain yield, aligned close to the N omission plot, indicating a high degree of interaction with this treatment. This separation was, however, more prominent in 2011-2012 (Fig. 4a, b) (Fig. 4a, b) than in 2012-2013 (Fig. 4c, d).The mean yields in these AEZs were much lower than the mean sufficiency (GY NPKZn ) and grand mean yields. The second group was AEZ 8 and 9, with high negative IPCA scores and average yield close to the grand mean yield indicated by the vertical dotted line. Negative IPCA1 scores for -K, − Zn, and sufficiency treatments for AEZ 8 and 9 in both years indicate positive interactions, meaning they had consistently high yields without K and Zn. This result suggests that low K and Zn responses would be expected within these AEZs. The third group was AEZ 3, 10, 11, and 13; their mean yields were close to or higher than the grand mean yield and close to the +NPKZn yield. On the other hand, the IPCA1 score was close to zero, indicating low interaction with the nutrient treatments.Grain yield response (YR) to N, P, K, and Zn fertilization varied within and across AEZs (Fig. 5). In both years, grain yield in all farmers's fields across AEZs had a positive N response (Fig. 5a). In both years, many farmers in AEZ 1, 3, 8, and 9 obtained >5 t ha −1 with N addition. Likewise, in both years, about 13% of fields showed a negative P Table 3 Analysis of variance for the significance of the effect of agro-ecological zones and nutrient omission plot treatments and their interaction on maize grain yield in two dry winter seasons across Bangladesh. ⁎⁎⁎ Represents significance at p < 0.001; NOPT = Nutrient omission plot trials; AEZ = Agro-ecological zone.Mean percent of variation explained by additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) interaction principal component analysis (IPCA) axes of agro-ecological zones (AEZs) and nutrient treatments interaction terms of 1000 iterations of the ANOVA with six randomly selected farmers' fields from each AEZ.Nutrient response, with the highest mean and median P response in AEZ 8 and 9 (Fig. 5b). Mean K response across AEZs ranged from −0.10 (AEZ 26) to 2.40 t ha −1 (AEZ 8 and 9). Approximately 10% of the replicates showed a negative K response in AEZ 3, 11, and 13 in 2011-2012and in AEZ 3, 10, and 26 in 2012-2013. (Fig. 5c). Mean Zn response ranged from −0.40 (AEZ 26) to 1.00 t ha −1 (AEZ 8 and 9), with 236 out of 324 fields showing positive but low YR to Zn (Fig. 5d).Regression results between the 25th, 50th (median), and 75th percentile of nutrient-limited yield (\\ \\N,\\ \\P,\\ \\K, or\\ \\Zn) and attainable yield (yield with N, P, K, and Zn) are shown in Fig. 6. The slopes of the 50th percentile (median) for N, P, K, and Zn were 0.32, 0.71, 0.87 and 0.86, respectively. As such, N, P, K, or Zn limited yield for average INS, IPS, IKS, and IZnS were 3.2, 7.1, 8.7, and 8.6 t ha −1 , respectively, in our dataset. At a 10 t ha −1 yield target under average fertility conditions, the expected YR to N, P, K, and Zn would be 6.8, 2.9, 1.3, and 1.4 t ha −1 , respectively, and at high fertility conditions, these values would be 5.0, 1.4, 1.0 and 0.8 t ha −1 for N, P, K, and Zn, respectively.The relative yield (RY) represents the soil indigenous nutrient supplying capacity when nutrient concentration data are unavailable (Xu et al., 2014). The RY of N, P, K, and Zn varied within and across AEZs (Fig. 7). The average indigenous soil fertility representing the median yield (Pampolino et al., 2012b;Xu et al., 2014) ranged from 0.37 (AEZ 8) to 0.60 (AEZ 19), from 0.64 (AEZ 8) to 0.93 (AEZ 26), from 0.64 (AEZ 19) to 1.0 (AEZ 26), and from 0.88 (AEZ 8) to 1.0 (AEZ 26) for RY N , RY P , RY K, and RY Zn , respectively.Tables S4 to S7 in supplementary information show the root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square logarithmic error (RMSLE) and mean residual deviance (MRD) of K-fold cross-validation of all ML and two stackedensemble models (1560, 1468, 2274, and 3048 models for RYs of N, P, K, and Zn, respectively). The stacked ensemble (the best of the family) and stacked ensemble (all models), deep learning, and stacked ensemble (the best of the family) were identified as the best-performing models for predicting RYs of N, P, K, and Zn, respectively (Table 5). These models' mean residual deviance (MRD) was relatively small and varied from 0.01 to 0.15, lower than the minimum values of observed RY of all nutrients.Figure 8 shows the feature importance (scaled) of the bestperforming model using the permutation-based feature importance technique, which shows the factor by which the error is increased compared to the original model if a certain feature is permuted. For RY N , the top three features in the best models (the best of the family stacked ensemble model) were soil pH, followed by P and soil OC (Fig. 8a). For RY P , however, pH, soil S, and soil K were identified as the most important variables for explaining the variability (Fig. 8b). On the other hand, longitude, soil Zn, and soil P were the important variables for explaining the variability of RY K (Fig. 8c). Finally, soil N, soil and soil S were the top three variables explaining the relative yield variability of Zn (Fig. 8d).Partial dependence plots demonstrate the marginal effect of the first important variable features on expected RYs (Fig. 9). This method isolates the effect of changing the value of one feature of interest on the expected outcome of the other response variables. The marginal effect of the first important variable (i.e., soil pH) shows a strong positive effect on RY N and RY P for a very narrow soil pH range of 5.27 to 5.91 (Fig. 9a, b). For RY K yield, the marginal effect of the first important variable (i.e., longitude) showed the lowest expected RY K observed in the eastern part of the country (Fig. 9c). For RYZ n yield, the marginal effect of the first important variable (i.e, soil N) showed strong effect for a range of 0-30 ppm soil N on RYZ N (Fig. 9d).Figure 10 shows the maps RY across upland winter season cropped (rabi) area predicted by the best-performing ML models. The predicted RY of N showed high spatial variability, which ranged from 0.26 to 0.77 with a mean value of 0.51 (Fig. 10a). About 55% of this area's RY N was lower than the median value of 0.51. This area was located mainly in the country's south-and north-western regions. The high RY N (> 0.55, 75th percentiles) accounted for the 26% area and was primarily located in the northern and central parts of the country. The low RY N of <0.44 (10th percentile) was mainly located in the coastal area of the south and accounted for 7% of the area. The predicted RY P and RY K ranged from 0.63 to 1.00 and 0.53 to 1.00, respectively, and showed similar spatial patterns (Fig. 10b, c). A large part of the area (90 to 93%) had a relative yield of P and K equal to or >0.8, primarily located in the western part of the country. The RY Zn ranged from 0.79 to 1.00, with a median value of 0.92 (Fig. 10d). About 99% of the area RY Zn was >0.90, indicating high Zn fertility.This study was trained and cross-validated by a large selection of ML models through AutoML approaches to find the best-performing model for explaining the variability and predicting the nutrientlimiting yield of maize relative to balanced fertilization in Bangladesh. Subsequently, we applied model-agnostic interpretation methods to open the \"black box\" stacked ML models to interpret how different factors affect the relative yield of maize. This study showed that AutoML and model-agnostic methods explained complex, non-linear relationships among nutrient-limited yield of maize and different predictors.  Fertilizer recommendations in South Asia are typically based on soil nutrient tests but are recommended broadly for administrative districts, regions, or AEZs (Majumdar et al., 2013). In the EIGP of Bangladesh, recommendations are made considering yield targets and potential nutrient requirements on an AEZ basis (BARC, 2018). Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI) of Bangladesh has developed a webbased software named \"Online Fertilizer Recommendation System,\" which can generate location-specific fertilizer recommendations for selected crops by analyzing the national soil database developed by the institute (Hossain and Siddique, 2020). Development initiatives such as Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd. in Bangladesh have also advocated fertilizer recommendations derived from soil test field kit results combined with the use of the software \"Mritika,\" which converts soil test results into fertilizer recommendations (Grameen, 2015).Expected yield response (YR) and farmers' actual yield (Pampolino et al., 2012b), fertilizer effect function equations (Greenwood et al., 2001;Sonar and Babhulkar, 2002), and YR and soil nutrient supplying capacity (Bélanger et al., 2000) are all concepts that have been used to estimate optimum nutrient rates. The expected YR is generally used in decision support tools to estimate fertilizer requirements for a particular field or location according to site characteristics and farmers' commonly obtained yields (Pampolino et al., 2012b). Using quantile regression, we estimated the 6.8, 2.9, 1.3, and 1.4 t ha −1 of the expected YR to N, P, K, and Zn, respectively, under average fertility conditions. Yield response characteristically depends on indigenous nutrient supply (INS); soils with high INS will typically result in a lower response to applied nutrients than those with low INS (Buresh et al., 2010). Relative yield could be represented as INS when nutrient concentration data is unavailable (Xu et al., 2014). A larger RY generally represents higher INS and higher soil fertility, and vice versa. The percentiles of RY are usually used to estimate nutrient-limited yield for a given attainable yield and soil fertility classes (Pampolino et al., 2012b;Xu et al., 2014). The median represents soils with 'average' fertility, and the 25th and 75th percentiles represent 'low' and 'high' fertility, respectively. Across the years, the median RYs of N, P, K, and Zn were respectively 0.507, 0.807, 0.845, and 0.952 t ha −1 . However, these values varied across AEZs due to their internal climatic, physiographic, and hydrological differences.Due to the dynamic properties of tropical soils (Juo et al., 2003), comparative research is warranted to assess what alternative analytical procedures might be most accurate to characterize soil fertility and prescribe nutrient management recommendations. Machine Learningbased feature ranking identified pH as the most important factor controlling RY N and RY P . The longitude and soil N were ranked 1st for the RY K and RY Zn , respectively (Fig. 8c, d). However, the generally poor predictive power of the respective soil properties in this study indicates their limited usefulness as a core component in constructing nutrient management recommendations (Ichami et al., 2019;Tesfahunegn and Gebru, 2020). Kishore et al. (2021) similarly discussed the limited benefits of soil test results in advising more balanced nutrient rates. However, soil test results may nonetheless be useful for calculating nutrient balances and in environmental monitoring. Conversely, precision and site-specific approaches (Dobermann et al., 2002;Buresh et al., 2010;Pasuquin et al., 2014) may be more appropriate given the prevailing diversity in soils, microtopography, physiography, and wide variation in farmers' crop management practices. All these factors influence indigenous soil fertility and soil nutrient-supplying capacity, which in turn exerts a strong influence on YR to fertilizer application. These approaches are based on the principles of the QUEFTS model (Janssen et al., 1990;Witt et al., 1999) and emphasize the adaptive management of field-specific INS based on omission plot yields as an estimate of INS to determine nutrient requirements for yield targets within a given season (Witt et al., 1999;Pasuquin et al., 2014).The variable \"number of days after the first farmer had sown maize\" showed a significant negative correlation with N response (r = −0.26, p < 0.001), implying declining yield potential and response to N fertilizer for late sowing farmers (data not shown). Late-sown maize is at risk of encountering early monsoon season storms, which can cause lodging and a reduction in yield (Ali et al., 2008). Early sowing is consequently important, especially in the coastal region that can receive intense pre-monsoon storms (Yamane et al., 2010). Research is needed to confirm if higher N rates would be beneficial for those farmers who can plant maize early in the coastal region in the south (AEZ-13), as previously demonstrated for farmers sowing earlier in the north of Bangladesh (Ali et al., 2008;Gathala et al., 2015), and in the south for wheat (Krupnik et al., 2015a). Achieving early planting in Bangladesh's coastal region, however, is complicated by late vacating monsoon season within-field flooding and farmers' preferences for long-duration monsoon season rice varieties that mature after the ideal window for dry season sowing opens (Krupnik et al., 2015a). Where farmers can use short or medium-duration rice varieties, maize could benefit. However, research aimed at spatially targeting winter rabi season maize on a higher elevation and well-drained land should also be encouraged, with geographically explicit recommendations developed with extension services. Lastly, we could not address the potential for soil biotic interactions that may moderate N supply, nor the potential long-term benefits of organic matter application on soil quality and INS. These are, therefore, issues that should be addressed in subsequent research. Further studies are also required to validate the hypothesis that attainable yield potential is indeed lower in coastal environments than in other locations in Bangladesh, as this has 9. Partial dependence plots of the 1st important variables for the best machine learning models for predicting the relative yield of N, P, K, and Zn. The dotted lines represent the mean expected response ±95% confidence intervals (CIs).implications for setting target yields and precision nutrient management recommendations.In contrast to Bangladesh's southern coast, the north-western part of the country (AEZ-1 and AEZ-3) is likely to have lower phosphate availability due to lower soil pH (Haynes, 1982;Ch'Ng et al., 2014), which may result in lower RY P . However, the high average RY P (0.90) obtained by the participating farmers in these AEZs was due in part to lime application, as they followed blanket recommendations made by national research and agricultural development programs to bring soils to a more neutral status before nutrient application (Halim et al., 2014).In both years, we observed lower RY N and RY P for char lands in AEZ 8 (Young Brahmaputra and Jamuna Flood Plain) and 9 (Old Brahmaputra Flood Plain). Chars are geologically young islands, riverbanks, or sand bars that develop through silt accretion and sedimentation in Bangladesh's river systems (Kishore et al., 2021). The deposition of organic materials is generally low on char lands, although, over time, older chars can become relatively fertile (Brammer, 2012). Out of 35 sites in these AEZs, the application of 250 kg N ha −1 resulted in >5 t ha −1 grain yield increase. Intermediate levels of SOC (1.00-2.16%) and low levels of total N, P, and K were observed in AEZ 8 and 9. However, a higher P response was observed at low P levels in these AEZs. Our results suggest that P fertilization should be carefully considered while developing fertilizer recommendations for char lands in Bangladesh and West Bengal in the eastern IGP, where the maize area is expanding (Erenstein et al., 2022).Potassium management in maize is crucial because of the high potential for high K extraction by the crop (Timsina et al., 2013) and potentially unbalanced K application to the monsoon season rice crop precedes maize and removal of the rice straw from the field. The longitude of a location plays a critical role in explaining the variability of RY K . This is particularly evident in the higher spatial autocorrelation observed in K-limiting yield. The locations capture broad geographical differences that can affect soil type, management practices, and climate, influencing crop yield. Researchers often combine these geographical features with other predictors to build predictive models (Croci et al., 2023;Xu et al., 2021;Jeong et al., 2016). The highest expected RY K was observed in the western part of the country, and the lowest was observed in the eastern part of the country. These big spatial differences in RY K were largely due to differences in exchangeable-K and soil pH (Fig. 3). No farmers in our study retained crop residues as mulch in their NOPT plots. However, it is important to conduct additional on-farm experiments to study the impact of residue on native potassium supply, potassium balances, and yield response to applied potassium. This will help in developing more accurate potassium fertilizer recommendations for maize in the EIGP.Our study suggests that further research is needed to delineate the most appropriate scale for nutrient recommendations. While previous site-specific frameworks that focus on farmers' individual fields might be most logical from the standpoint of fine-tuning locally explicit recommendations, they are also onerous in terms of the generation of recommendations, the provision and supply of extension information, and use by farmers. In other words, the transaction costs for extension agents tasked with providing individual recommendations for specific farmers and fields are likely excessive if such tools are to be used to reach increasingly larger numbers of maize farmers. An investigation is therefore needed to analyze if and how such precision nutrient management approaches may encounter trade-offs between the spatial scale of recommendations. Resulting yields attained when moving to coarser and more geographically large analytical and advisory scales, for example, at the field block, irrigation scheme, or micro-watershed or basin levels, as opposed to individual fields. Therefore, a thorough understanding of farmers' previous and anticipated crop and soil management practices, agronomic efficiency, and relative yield to applied nutrients are crucial. Research that identifies and clarifies the factors governing relative yield could, therefore, aid in developing more precise and spatially appropriate fertilizer management recommendations.This study draws several conclusions and implications for future research to develop more precise nutrient management recommendations for maize in the EIGP. First, in multi-year, multi-season on-farm experiments conducted across a broad geographical area, as in this study, and where farmers are partially involved in managing their plots (e.g., by choosing irrigation rates and source, weeding frequency and timing, etc.), considerable noise resulting from environmental and management heterogeneity may be expected. This requires appropriate multivariate analytical methods to distill actionable information from the data.Our data suggests that fertilizer recommendations based solely on soil test results may not be suitable for winter-season maize grown after rice in the EIGP. Similarly, using AEZs for fertilizer recommendations may not be appropriate due to wide variability and inconsistent results. We need a more precise and site-specific framework that considers environmental and crop management histories, soil properties.","tokenCount":"7453"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0074cc2d518ba0bdd04e5f138123ed32","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee600770-c928-481e-8f71-3d04ab9554bf/retrieve","id":"-940219844"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31e44a02-259b-4d2e-93d3-d7ab4a2487c4","pagecount":"300","content":"El Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) es una organización científica internacional independiente cuya finalidad es promover la conservación y uso de la diversidad fitogenética para el bienestar de las generaciones presentes y futuras. Es uno de los 15 Centros de Cosecha Futura apoyados por el Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAI), una asociación de organismos públicos y privados que apoya los esfuerzos de la ciencia de avanzada destinados a reducir el hambre y la pobreza, mejorar la salud y nutrición humanas y proteger el medio ambiente. El IPGRI tiene su sede central en Maccarese, cerca de Roma, Italia, con oficinas en más de 20 países en todo el mundo. El Instituto opera a través de tres programas: (i) el Programa de Recursos Fitogenéticos, (ii) el Programa de Apoyo a los Recursos Genéticos del CGIAI y (iii) la Red Internacional para el Mejoramiento del Banano y el Plátano (INIBAP).El status internacional del IPGRI fue establecido por un Acuerdo de Constitución que en enero de 2003 había sido suscrito por los gobiernos de Argelia,El Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung -BMZ), a través de la Cooperación Técnica de Alemania (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit -GTZ) proveyeron generosamente los fondos y el apoyo técnico para las actividades de investigación presentadas en este libro, e hicieron posible su publicación.El Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) reconoce agradecido a los expertos que tanto contribuyeron a la investigación de campo y que prepararon los 13 capítulos del libro. También queremos expresar nuestro aprecio a los coordinadores del proyecto Dr. Leonardo Gallo (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria [INTA], Argentina), Prof. Paulo Kageyama (Escola Superior de Agricultura 'Luiz de Queiroz', Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil [ESALQ-USP]) y Dr. Antonio Higa (Universidade Federal do Paraná [UFPR], Brasil) y a los participantes del proyecto que guiaron las fases iniciales del mismo, en especial el Prof. Dr. Hermann Ellenberg (Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products [BFH], Institute of World Forestry, Alemania), Prof. Dr. Richard Stephan (BFH, Institute for Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Alemania), y al Dr. Rudi A. Seitz (UFPR, Brasil).El IPGRI quiere agradecer en particular a los habitantes de las comunidades locales y organizaciones que participaron en el proyecto, y en especial a las comunidades indígenas mapuches de la provincia de Neuquén (Patagonia septentrional, Argentina), el Consejo de Terrajadores de Caucho de Río Branco (Acre, Brasil), el Movimiento de los Sin Tierra de Pontal (São Paulo, Brasil) y la Comunidad de Antônio en Iraty (Paraná, Brasil).Deseo también expresar mi gratitud personal a los expertos que añadieron tanto a los debates científicos en los diversos talleres del proyecto, y a los miembros del personal del IPGRI que desarrollaron la propuesta de investigación. Un agradecimiento especial va al desaparecido Dr. Abdou Salam Ouédraogo (Científico Superior, Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas), al Dr. Leonardo Petri (Ayudante Científico de Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas apoyado por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Italia), a Jean Marc Boffa (consultor sobre Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas del IPGRI, apoyado por el Ministerio Holandés de Relaciones Exteriores) y a los demás científicos del IPGRI que aportaron valiosas ideas y tiempo a la realización del proyecto, en especial al Dr. Jan Engels (Director del Grupo de Recursos Genéticos, Ciencia y Tecnología), Dr. Pablo Eyzaguirre (Científico Superior, Antropología y Aspectos Socioeconómicos), Paulo van Breugel (Experto Ayudante, Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas) y Walter de Boef (Consultor ETC del IPGRI) que viabilizó la mayor parte de las reuniones del proyecto, desde el comienzo mismo de la iniciativa.Por último un agradecimiento especial a Barbara Vinceti (Ayudante Científica, Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas, apoyada por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Italia), Brien Meilleur (Unité mixte de recherche 5145: Eco-anthropologie et ethnobiologie, CNRS-París) y Michelle Grayson de Green Ink por su trabajo editorial, a Patrizia Tazza por el diseño gráfico y a Paul Philpot de Green Ink por el diseño y la compaginación.Weber Amaral (Coordinador Mundial del Programa de Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas del IPGRI) v Prefacio Pese a que \"en todo el mundo la ejecución de una ordenación sostenible de los bosques ha progresado de manera firme y alentadora\" (FAO 2003) 1 , la preocupación mundial por el destino de los bosques tropicales sigue aumentando. \"El cambio neto anual calculado en las zonas boscosas en todo el mundo desde 1990 a 2000 fue de -9,4 millones de ha (esta cifra representa la diferencia entre la tasa anual de deforestación calculada de 14,6 millones de ha y la tasa anual de aumento de la superficie silvícola calculada de 5,2 millones de ha)\" (FAO 2001) 2 . En los años venideros el crecimiento de la población combinado con el creciente consumo per cápita seguirá produciendo una expansión de la agricultura hacia nuevas tierras, en su mayor parte a expensas de la deforestación. Resultados preliminares de un estudio de la Organización para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) indican que la tierra agrícola se expande en alrededor del 70% de los países, y en las dos terceras partes de esos países las zonas boscosas están disminuyendo (FAO 2003)  1 .Un gran número de especies de los hábitats que están desapareciendo con rapidez requieren medidas de conservación. Sin embargo, nuestro limitado conocimiento de las repercusiones de la deforestación, la explotación no controlada y otras amenazas sobre la diversidad genética de los bosques tropicales es un problema que disminuye la capacidad de las instituciones regionales, nacionales e internacionales para planificar y llevar a cabo actividades apropiadas. Se presentan numerosos e importantes desafíos al desarrollo de estrategias para la conservación y uso sostenible de los ecosistemas silvícolas y sus especies arbóreas. Entre ellos, las dificultades para establecer prioridades de intervención, trasladar los resultados de las investigaciones de las dimensiones locales a escalas más grandes, e incorporar estos resultados en planes regionales de acción; generar mejores prácticas de ordenación de ecosistemas y especies sobre la base de trabajos que se limitan a especies modelo; estimular una toma de conciencia en los programas nacionales que asegure que las recomendaciones y directrices para la conservación y uso sostenible de los bosques entren a formar parte de políticas y prácticas, y -aspecto de la mayor importancia-comprometer a las comunidades locales en las actividades de conservación, asegurando que puedan beneficiarse directamente de la ordenación y uso sostenible de los recursos silvícolas.Es importante notar que en los programas de conservación realizados en el pasado estableciendo zonas protegidas, reservas y parques nacionales, no se ha prestado suficiente atención a la distribución de las especies y a su variación genética infraespecífica, siendo ambos temas capitales para asegurar el mantenimiento de la capacidad de adaptación y el potencial de producción para satisfacer las necesidades actuales y futuras. Por lo tanto se necesitan investigaciones a nivel de ecosistemas, especies e infraespecies que apoyen el desarrollo de estrategias complementarias de conservación y políticas eficaces que concilien las necesidades e intereses de las comunidades locales y de los gobiernos.El Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica crea un marco mundial para la protección de los ecosistemas silvícolas y sus especies arbóreas. Se insta a los países que han ratificado el Convenio para que evalúen y vigilen sus recursos biológicos y desarrollen estrategias eficaces para conservarlos. Estas estrategias y métodos de conservación y uso sostenible de los árboles de los bosques tropicales posibilitarán que los ecosistemas silvícolas contribuyan de manera significativa a la subsistencia de las comunidades locales y a las economías nacionales, al mismo tiempo que aseguran la diversidad genética futura de determinadas especies.En el debate entre los organismos alemanes y el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) durante un taller de 1995 sobre \"Conservación in situ de recursos fitogenéticos para la alimentación y la agricultura en los países en desarrollo\" se llegó a la 1 FAO, 2003. Estado de los bosques del mundo, Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, Roma, Italia. 2 FAO, 2001. Estado de los bosques del mundo, Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, Roma, Italia vi conclusión de que los esfuerzos vinculados con la conservación, la ordenación genética y el uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos silvícolas deberían recibir alta prioridad.Por ello, en estrecha colaboración con dos institutos alemanes de investigación silvícola y organismos especializados de Brasil y Argentina, el IPGRI inició el procedimiento de consultas cuyo resultado final fue que el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) financiara el proyecto titulado \"Conservación, ordenación y uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos silvícolas relativos a Brasil y Argentina\". Este libro presenta las actividades del proyecto emprendido en un marco que integraba aspectos socioeconómicos, políticos, de genética de poblaciones y ecológicos de cuatro ecosistemas silvícolas diferentes distribuidos en América del Sur, con un método de investigación participativo y multidisciplinario. La ejecución del proyecto fue una ocasión de verdadero aprendizaje para todas las partes involucradas. De ella surgieron problemas inesperados, retardos imprevistos, dificultades de comunicación y desafíos para la coordinación y ejecución que convirtieron el proyecto en una experiencia pionera.En vista de lo expuesto, todos nosotros consideramos importante compartir con una comunidad mayor las experiencias de los participantes en el proyecto, a fin de que otras personas puedan aprender de los errores que cometimos y aprovechar los resultados positivos. Desearía por lo tanto resumir un par de experiencias clave de aprendizaje cuyos detalles se encuentran en los capítulos siguientes de esta publicación. De primera y principal importancia resulta el haber involucrado a las partes interesadas clave como socios en paridad, desde los estadios iniciales de la planificación del proyecto hasta la interpretación de los resultados. Sentimos que no podíamos transigir en esto y que la propuesta del proyecto debía reflejarlo adecuadamente en las actividades y en el presupuesto correspondientes a esta fase crítica. Un segundo punto relacionado con el anterior fue la necesidad de otorgar suficiente tiempo a los miembros de la investigación para que comprometieran a las comunidades rurales interesadas en la realización de las actividades que éstas habían aceptado emprender. Esto requirió flexibilidad en la ejecución del proyecto, en ocasiones más de lo que permitían los procedimientos corrientes. En tercer lugar, puesto que el método debía ser realmente \"de abajo hacia arriba\" a fin de fomentar y asegurar el necesario compromiso y la participación real de todos los interesados, fue necesario facilitar esta participación esencial mediante arreglos presupuestarios adecuados. No es suficiente suponer que los interesados tienen la posibilidad de participar \"por sus propios medios\".En nombre del IPGRI quiero aprovechar esta oportunidad para expresar mi más cordial agradecimiento a los estudiosos brasileños y argentinos, a las instituciones y comunidades locales y a las ONG que contribuyeron de tantas maneras diferentes a este proyecto; a los investigadores de Alemania por su asociación; a BMZ como donante, y a la Cooperación Técnica de Alemania (GTZ) como organismo de ejecución. La paciencia y comprensión de todos ellos para con las demoras y cambios necesarios para que este proyecto resultara fructífero han sido enormemente apreciadas. También deseo agradecer a los colegas del IPGRI que dedicaron tanto tiempo y esfuerzo para coordinar la ejecución de este proyecto. Y por último a mi amigo y colega Abdou Salam Ouédraogo, quien por desgracia no puede presenciar cuan significativamente \"su\" proyecto ha contribuido a nuestra finalidad común de conservar y utilizar los menguantes recursos genéticos silvícolas de este mundo, le expreso mi más sincera gratitud. Espero que esta publicación contribuya ulteriormente a ese anhelo. 1La tierra es un recurso valioso pero limitado. De allí la gran presión que existe por cambiar el modo en que se la utiliza, presión que conduce a sostenidas pérdidas y al aislamiento siempre mayor de los hábitats restantes en todo el mundo. El reconocimiento de la urgencia y la magnitud de las pérdidas silvícolas ha generado un creciente número de estudios sobre la conservación y uso sostenible de los bosques. La mayoría de los planificadores de recursos naturales reconocen que la diversidad genética y sus procesos fundamentales son componentes esenciales de la estabilidad, adaptabilidad y conservación de los ecosistemas y las especies, pero en la planificación de la ordenación y en la toma de decisiones raramente se toman medidas explícitas para conservar la diversidad genética.La conservación de la diversidad genética es esencial por muchas razones, entre ellas la adaptación de las poblaciones a los cambios ambientales, los riesgos a corto plazo de la viabilidad de semillas y poblaciones debidos a la reducción por endogamia y la necesidad de mantener los recursos genéticos para posibles usos futuros. Por lo tanto los objetivos de la conservación de la diversidad genética deben incluir el mantenimiento de la variación que afecta al buen estado de los ejemplares, posibilita su adaptación a los cambios ambientales futuros y permite que tengan lugar procesos genéticos corrientes como el flujo de genes y la selección natural, a la vez que se reduce al mínimo la deriva genética (Namkoong 1993)  1 .Debido a la generalización de los procesos de deforestación, la fragmentación del medio natural, la simplificación de los ecosistemas y la consiguiente pérdida de especies, es urgente emprender la tarea de integrar las necesidades de la población humana con la conservación de los procesos esenciales de los ecosistemas. Algunas comunidades que viven en los bosques y/o sus márgenes (indígenas o no) aún dependen en gran medida de los recursos silvícolas para su subsistencia y la generación de ingresos. Sin embargo estas comunidades están siendo separadas en medida creciente de los recursos silvícolas, y sus estrategias económicas han perdido importancia para la conservación de éstos. Por lo tanto es necesario primero examinar el nexo entre los intereses de los usuarios de los recursos y los objetivos de conservación de la biodiversidad, y en segundo lugar analizar de qué manera las actuales pautas de uso afectan al mantenimiento a largo plazo de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS).Este libro presenta los resultados de investigación de estudios de caso que exploraron las relaciones entre las pautas actuales de uso de los bosques y sus efectos sobre los RGS de cuatro ecosistemas silvícolas.El volumen se divide en tres secciones. Los capítulos de la primera sección se refieren a temas comunes a todos los estudios de caso del proyecto: las principales amenazas a los RGS, las relaciones entre las condiciones del bosque y la ordenación silvícola basada en la comunidad, la magnitud de la extracción de productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) y su importancia económica actual, y la elaboración de métodos que apoyen la ordenación de los bosques y en especial de los RGS.Los siete capítulos de la segunda sección subrayan la estructura del proyecto financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) y los resultados generados por los cuatro sitios de investigación en los cuatro años de actividades del proyecto. Estos incluyen descripciones de las primeras reuniones con los interesados locales y los socios de la investigación, la identificación de las especies investigadas, debates sobre las metodologías adoptadas y el uso de los datos obtenidos a fin de elaborar modelos que reflejaran las relaciones entre los dinamismos sociales, la ordenación de los recursos naturales y los procesos genéticos silvícolas.Hay dos capítulos en la tercera y última sección. El primero examina el grado de éxito que tuvo la adopción de un método participativo en la fase de investigación, y las dificultades para lograr una conexión fructífera entre las disciplinas de investigación (socioeconómicas, de ecología de las especies, de biología reproductiva y de temas genéticos). También examina las lecciones prácticas aprendidas en el proyecto y expone consideraciones generales acerca de cómo lograr una mejor participación de los interesados y una investigación verdaderamente interdisciplinaria. El segundo capítulo de esta sección presenta ejemplos de aplicaciones prácticas de la investigación de los RGS a la ordenación de los recursos silvícolas.El proyecto financiado por BMZ e ilustrado en este libro contiene elementos medulares de la investigación sobre RGS que se lleva a cabo en todo el mundo en el marco del programa del Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI). Este programa se orienta a la formulación de mejores prácticas de ordenación de los RGS que mantendrán simultáneamente la salud de los ecosistemas y mejorarán los medios de vida de las comunidades locales, a la vez que prestan marcada atención a las especies sobreexplotadas, amenazadas o que tienen papeles particularmente importantes en las economías locales. La difusión a través de esta publicación de los resultados de las investigaciones del proyecto financiado por BMZ es asimismo parte importante del programa de RGS del IPGRI destinado a acrecentar la conciencia acerca de la necesidad de conservar y usar de manera sostenible los RGS. De este modo unos ecosistemas estables, diversificados y saludables proveerán una amplia gama de productos y servicios tanto a los beneficiarios locales como a todo el mundo por muchos años en el futuro.A continuación se describen brevemente los 13 capítulos del libro.El Capítulo 1 considera diversas repercusiones de intervenciones humanas sobre los RGS, incluidas las consecuencias biológicas de las principales amenazas a los ecosistemas silvícolas y las respectivas especies arbóreas. Una serie de ejemplos ilustra los efectos de diversos tipos de perturbaciones en la diversidad genética y el flujo de genes en especies con diferentes características y en el marco de diferentes ecosistemas. Se examinan criterios e indicadores para el seguimiento de la conservación de la diversidad genética, junto con numerosos modelos de métodos de conservación y utilización de los RGS. Luego el capítulo explora los problemas de la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS prestando especial atención a la biología de las especies, el establecimiento de prioridades de conservación y la asignación de fondos.El Capítulo 2 analiza los principales factores que influyen en el éxito o fracaso de la ordenación comunitaria de los recursos silvícolas en una serie de diferentes contextos de América del Sur. Revisa y resume los resultados de una creciente bibliografía que trata este tema y luego los examina en el ámbito de tres estudios de caso de América del Sur. Se presenta un análisis descriptivo de los métodos del Instituto Internacional de Instituciones y Recursos Silvícolas (IFRI) para documentar las principales características de los bosques de América del Sur, a fin de destacar las oportunidades y desafíos que afrontan los grupos locales de usuarios de los bosques.El Capítulo 3 muestra porqué en muchas partes del mundo los PSNM son cruciales para los medios de vida. Este capítulo trata temas relacionados con la capacidad de los PSNM para generar ingresos tanto en el ámbito local como nacional y mundial. Examina de qué manera el uso y comercialización de los PSNM afectan la sostenibilidad en diferentes regímenes de extracción y estrategias de supervivencia, concentrándose en América del Sur y en especial en Brasil. Se destacan las dificultades para definir exactamente qué son los PSNM y para vigilar su utilización sostenible, haciéndose recomendaciones para investigaciones futuras.El Capítulo 4 muestra cómo pueden ayudarnos los modelos para entender los procesos biológicos y para identificar opciones de ordenación. Describe el creciente uso de modelos en el estudio y ordenación de ecosistemas silvícolas naturales, bosques plantados y bosques perturbados por el ser humano, y presenta una serie de aplicaciones (desde el pronóstico de crecimiento y rendimiento del bosque hasta la evaluación de los efectos de las perturbaciones naturales y las derivadas del hombre sobre los ecosistemas silvícolas). A continuación el capítulo examina en detalle numerosos modelos adoptados en los estudios de RGS para simular el dinamismo genético silvícola a fin de prever los efectos de las intervenciones humanas en los ecosistemas silvícolas.El Capítulo 5 introduce el tema de los RGS y su conservación en América del Sur. Presenta la estructura y objetivos del proyecto de conservación, ordenación y uso sostenible de RGS en Brasil y Argentina, emprendido bajo los auspicios del IPGRI y financiado por BMZ.El Capítulo 6 presenta el primer estudio de caso del proyecto financiado por BMZ, que investigó las amenazas a los recursos genéticos de Araucaria araucana en Argentina. Se examinaron los procesos genéticos en bosques de A. araucana afectados de diversas maneras por las actividades humanas en todo un gradiente ambiental, y luego se analizaron en relación con los dinamismos biológicos y las condiciones socioeconómicas. Se formularon sugerencias sobre el modo de incorporar en las directrices los resultados de las investigaciones para lograr una ordenación adecuada de los RGS de A. araucana.El Capítulo 7 evalúa el estado de conservación de otra especie de araucaria, A. angustifolia, en el Estado de Paraná, Brasil. Este proyecto financiado por BMZ investiga las repercusiones de las políticas de acceso y utilización de los RGS en el estado de conservación de bosques mixtos de A. angustifolia. Esta especie domina uno de los más importantes biomas naturales del sur y sudeste de Brasil, y ha sido sometida a una dramática sobreexplotación.El Capítulo 8 presenta un breve panorama general de la evolución del uso de las tierras y de los regímenes de tenencia en la Amazonia brasileña, ilustrado con ejemplos del Estado de Acre. Se evalúan las características genéticas y ecológicas de cuatro especies de PSNM en dos tipos de colonias rurales: los Proyectos de Colonización (Projetos de Assentamento o PA) y Proyectos de Colonización Extractiva (Projetos de Assentamento Extrativista o PAE). Estos dos tipos de colonias se caracterizan por diferentes regímenes de tenencia y utilización de la tierra, que se supone afectan de diversa manera a los recursos naturales. El capítulo examina los tipos de colonia y de qué manera fueron creadas, y formula luego recomendaciones para mejorar las prácticas de ordenación silvícola sobre la base de los resultados de la investigación.El Capítulo 9 describe la situación actual de los RGS de algunas especies escogidas en consulta con los interesados locales y ubicadas en fragmentos fuertemente degradados de bosque atlántico en el extremo ángulo oriental del Estado de São Paulo (Pontal), Brasil. Los resultados fundamentales y su interpretación están precedidos por una descripción de los acontecimientos que condujeron a la reducción del bosque en la región de Pontal, y a la degradación de lo que una vez fuera un bioma silvícola semideciduo altamente diversificado.El Capítulo 10 presenta los resultados de la aplicación de un modelo en uno de los sitios de investigación de bosques de A. araucana (pehuén o araucaria) en Argentina. El objetivo era comparar la conducta dinámica de los bosques de araucaria sujetos a diferentes regímenes de uso y en última instancia identificar los factores que influyen en los procesos genéticos de los ecosistemas silvícolas. El modelo se aplicó a fin de simular, evaluar y hacer el seguimiento de unos niveles de uso de los RGS sostenibles tanto para la ordenación como para la conservación.El Capítulo 11 presenta los resultados de otros modelos de RGS aplicados a los vulnerables ecosistemas silvícolas de A. araucana de Argentina, modelos que buscaban determinar cómo se distribuía la diversidad genética de todas las variedades de la especie en el ámbito de ese país. Se aplicó la teoría de clinales al análisis de un paisaje bidimensional de pautas de presiones de selección, flujo de genes y distribución de la especie para determinar cuáles son las zonas de alta diversidad genética en las variedades de A. araucana. El estudio ha sido un prometedor primer paso en el desarrollo de herramientas de predicción útiles para la conservación genética de A. araucana y de otras especies, así como una forma novedosa de evaluar los procesos evolutivos en el espacio El Capítulo 12 evalúa los rendimientos del método participativo aplicado al proyecto financiado por BMZ en una variedad de contextos sociales y ambientales de Brasil y Argentina. Se empleó un marco analítico para evaluar el grado de desarrollo de la asociación entre los investigadores y la población local en cuanto a la ordenación de los recursos silvícolas y las políticas de desarrollo. En la última parte del capítulo se subrayan las lecciones que surgen del proyecto financiado por BMZ, destacando tanto la necesidad de reforzar la capacitación de los investigadores cuanto de prever plazos mayores para que la investigación participativa se base en asociaciones eficaces.El Capítulo 13 ilustra las implicaciones prácticas de las investigaciones sobre RGS al tratar temas de ordenación silvícola. Del recientemente concluido proyecto de investigación financiado por BMZ en América del Sur y de otros estudios emprendidos por el IPGRI en colaboración con institutos y centros nacionales de investigación de otros países en desarrollo surge una colección de estudios de caso que ponen de relieve las dificultades halladas al tratar de trasladar a mayor escala los resultados de las investigaciones, extrapolar mejores prácticas a partir de investigaciones que se limitan a especies modelo, o encontrar ambientes sociopolíticos bien dispuestos y capaces de adoptar las soluciones propuestas.Temas relativos a la diversidad genética silvícola Amenazas a los ecosistemas silvícolas y desafíos para la conservación y uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos silvícolas Desafíos y oportunidades de ordenación de bosques comunales en América del Sur Extracción de productos silvícolas no madereros Elaboración de modelos de procesos biológicos: desde los genes hasta los ecosistemas Capítulo 1 Amenazas a los ecosistemas silvícolas y desafíos para la conservación y uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos silvícolas D. Boshier 1 y W. Amaral 2 1 Oxford Forestry Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford, R.U. 2 Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI), Roma, Italia.Por su propia naturaleza la biodiversidad es compleja y multifacética (puesto que se relaciona con los ecosistemas, hábitats, especies, poblaciones y genes). La mayoría de los planificadores de recursos naturales reconoce que la diversidad genética y sus procesos inherentes son componentes esenciales de la estabilidad, adaptabilidad y conservación de ecosistemas y especies, pero en la planificación y toma de decisiones de ordenación rara vez se adoptan medidas explícitas para conservarla. Como muchos aspectos de la diversidad genética no son perceptibles directamente, es fácil pasar por alto su importancia. También la limitación de los recursos puede hacer que se ignore u otorgue menos consideración a la información genética para la conservación y las estrategias de ordenación. De hecho, sigue siendo mucho más frecuente que las decisiones sobre conservación respondan a criterios ecológicos, sociales o económicos, solos o combinados entre sí. Si se pretende lograr metas bien concebidas de ordenación de los recursos y mantener a largo plazo la adaptabilidad evolutiva de especies y ecosistemas, los dasónomos, conservacionistas y genetistas deberán fijar las condiciones para que las consideraciones genéticas se conviertan en elementos integrales de la información preparada para establecer la conservación práctica de las especies y la ordenación de las zonas protegidas.La conservación de la diversidad genética es esencial por numerosas razones. Entre ellas, la adaptación de las poblaciones a los cambios ambientales, los riesgos a corto plazo de la viabilidad de semillas y poblaciones debidos a la caída por endogamia y la necesidad de mantener la diversidad genética para posibles usos futuros. Por lo tanto entre los objetivos de conservación de la diversidad genética se debe incluir el mantenimiento de la variación que afecta al buen estado de los ejemplares, posibilita su adaptación a los cambios ambientales futuros y permite que tengan lugar procesos genéticos corrientes como el flujo de genes y la selección natural, a la vez que reduce al mínimo la deriva genética (Namkoong 1993). Por sus rasgos históricos vitales característicos tales como longevidad, alcance tardío de la madurez reproductiva, mayor posibilidad de acumular mutaciones (Williams y Savolainen 1996) y su diversidad de sistemas de cruzamiento y dispersión, la conservación genética de los árboles silvícolas plantea muchos retos. Por ejemplo los ciclos de vida largos producen el asolapado de las generaciones, que a su vez reduce el tamaño de la población efectiva y en consecuencia implica la necesidad de una mayor superficie mínima para conservarla. Por lo general, los árboles tienen asimismo una pesada carga genética de alelos recesivos deletéreos (Williams y Savolainen 1996) de modo que la endogamia y en particular la autopolinizacion pueden disminuir la fertilidad y provocar una regeneración más escasa, tasas de crecimiento más lentas, limitada tolerancia al medio ambiente y creciente susceptibilidad a plagas y enfermedades (Sim 1984;Griffin 1990). La necesidad de reducir la posible repercusión de la endogamia manteniendo la diversidad genética de los árboles resulta patente, y de hecho puede ser crítica para las colecciones de semillas utilizadas en los programas de mejoramiento de árboles o para la conservación ex situ.En este capítulo se consideran diversas repercusiones que las perturbaciones humanas producen en los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) y se examinan las consecuencias biológicas de las principales amenazas a los ecosistemas silvícolas y a las relativas especies arbóreas. Una serie de ejemplos ilustran los efectos de diversos tipos de perturbaciones en la diversidad genética y el flujo de genes de especies con características diferentes y en diversos ecosistemas. Se revisan criterios e indicadores empleados para vigilar la conservación de la diversidad genética junto con modelos de métodos de uso y conservación de los RGS. El capítulo explora asimismo los desafíos a la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS privilegiando como punto de vista la biología de las especies, el establecimiento de prioridades de conservación y la asignación de recursos.Las actividades humanas afectan a los RGS de diversas maneras. Algunas de las actividades que se considerarán son la conversión de bosques en tierras agrícolas y para otros usos, la fragmentación de los bosques, el aprovechamiento maderero, el uso de los RGS en programas de mejoramiento o domesticación, y la reforestación. Se puede suponer que todas estas actividades influyen en mayor o menor grado en la diversidad genética de los árboles. Por ejemplo la deforestación puede provocar pérdidas de diversidad genética, embotellamientos genéticos, mayor diferenciación entre las poblaciones y aislamiento genético. La fragmentación de los ecosistemas puede alterar las pautas de circulación del polen, produciendo caídas por endogamia o por cruzamiento lejano y un mediocre comportamiento de las semillas en los programas de plantación o de restauración del hábitat. Las características de la perturbación pueden también alterar los ambientes locales, cambiando así las presiones de selección de las poblaciones remanentes. Si se usan para la reforestación especies no nativas o proveniencias externas de especies nativas, se puede producir una hibridación con plantas nativas generando contaminación genética o incluso la eliminación de especies o poblaciones nativas. El aprovechamiento maderero y su respectivo régimen de ordenación puede producir una selección disgénica, mientras que la cosecha excesiva de frutos puede restringir la regeneración (véase el Capítulo 6, Araucaria araucana). La contaminación ambiental y el cambio del clima son perturbaciones más sutiles que no obstante afectarán profundamente la adaptación de las poblaciones arbóreas (ver Schmidtling 1994: Mátyás 1996: Geburek 2000). Comprender la influencia de las intervenciones humanas en la ecología de las poblaciones arbóreas y la relevancia de estos cambios en la conservación de la diversidad genética y de qué manera se las afronta con las estrategias actuales de conservación, son consideraciones importantes para la ordenación sostenible de los RGS.Desde los tiempos en que el ser humano hizo su transición desde la caza y recolección hacia la agricultura, los cambios en el uso de la tierra se han traducido en una firme pérdida de hábitat natural y un creciente aislamiento de los hábitats naturales que quedan en el mundo (Henle et al. 2004). Debido a la actual difusión mundial de la fragmentación de los hábitats es necesario integrar con urgencia la conservación de los procesos esenciales de los ecosistemas con las necesidades de la población humana (Henle et al. 2004). Sin embargo, para que la integración tenga éxito se requiere en primer lugar estudiar numerosos temas de investigación y ordenación. Esto exige el desarrollo de herramientas que sirvan para cuantificar el riesgo y predecir la sensibilidad de las especies a la fragmentación, junto con el desarrollo continuo de teorías y métodos para recomponer los paisajes fragmentados (Melbourne et al. 2004).La fragmentación de los ecosistemas naturales puede tener consecuencias obvias como la eliminación de las especies, pero también producir efectos menos inmediatos en la viabilidad de las especies a largo plazo a causa de la modificación de los procesos ecológicos y genéticos entre y dentro de las poblaciones. Más específicamente se puede considerar que la fragmentación de los bosques tiene tres efectos principales:1. reducción de la cantidad de árboles individuales, 2. reducción del tamaño de la población porque los árboles se encuentran limitados a fragmentos silvícolas más pequeños, y 3. aislamiento espacial de las poblaciones e individuos remanentes en matrices de uso no silvícola de las tierras (Young y Boyle 2000).Las consecuencias genéticas de la fragmentación pueden traducirse en pérdidas de la diversidad a nivel de población y especies, en modificaciones estructurales dentro de las poblaciones y en una mayor endogamia. Estos cambios pueden reflejar efectos de muestreo no aleatorio, efectos genéticos de corto plazo (embotellamientos genéticos y modificación del flujo de genes), o resultados de más largo plazo como la deriva genética. Sin embargo, que tales cambios tengan lugar, y su amplitud, dependerá en gran medida del grado de aleatoriedad de la deforestación, y si la fragmentación física del bosque se refleja en la segregación del bosque remanente en manchas aisladas genéticamente.En contraste con el énfasis histórico en métodos ex situ para la conservación de los recursos genéticos de los cultivos, la conservación de los RGS ha acentuado los métodos in situ. No obstante, si bien en todo el mundo existen parques nacionales y reservas silvícolas, pocos se han establecido teniendo en cuenta los principios genéticos. Su selección y emplazamiento han sido a menudo determinados por criterios no genéticos a nivel de ecosistema, siendo factores políticos, sociales y económicos los que influyeron en el diseño de las reservas y su ordenación. El emplazamiento de numerosas reservas silvícolas en regiones de colinas, zonas de baja fertilidad y sitios de escaso valor económico a menudo perjudicaron su validez para conservar los RGS. Por ejemplo en algunos países la remoción completa de bosques naturales para liberar sitios adecuados para la agricultura ha sido tan grande que hoy se supone que muchas especies arbóreas son características de cursos fluviales o cimas de montañas cuando antes estaban en realidad mucho más dispersas. Grandes poblaciones de árboles y en ocasiones incluso tipos completos de bosques han desaparecido por entero en muchas partes del mundo, reduciendo así la configuración genética de algunas especies únicamente a representaciones limitadas y muy distintas de su antigua diversidad. Como consecuencia, el potencial de conservación de los RGS en las actuales zonas protegidas puede ser limitado (Ledig 1988).Qué parte de la diversidad hay que conservar Neel y Cummings (2003) demostraron que ante la frecuente carencia de datos sobre la diversidad genética de una especie sería necesario conservar del 53 al 100% de las poblaciones para capturar todos sus alelos. Dichos autores afirman que sería necesario conservar del 20 al 64% de las poblaciones para representar de manera confiable la heterocigosidad. No obstante, la variación ecogeográfica de la distribución de las especies arbóreas se vincula por lo general con los alelos 'localmente' comunes (aquellos que exceden 0,1 de frecuencia en una sola o en algunas poblaciones) lo que para numerosas especies arbóreas representa una fracción considerable de sus recursos genéticos. Pese a su baja frecuencia en la gama genética de una especie, estos alelos suelen ser por lo general cruciales para conferir a una especie capacidad de adaptación a los cambios de las condiciones ambientales, y son importantes para lograr un muestreo y conservación eficaces de los RGS (Brown y Hardner 2000).La fragmentación de los bosques disminuye el tamaño de las poblaciones arbóreas y aumenta su aislamiento en el espacio, procesos que influirán en el flujo de genes y la estructura genética del rodal de bosque. En última instancia el aislamiento genético de los rodales afectará de manera negativa la viabilidad de evolución de la población, aumentando los niveles de endogamia y la deriva genética aleatoria a causa del menor flujo de genes entre los fragmentos de bosques (Young et al. 1996). Sin embargo aún se discute el valor que la amplitud de la fractura de conectividad genética entre lotes aislados en el espacio tiene para la conservación (ver Saunders et al. 1991: Heywood y Stuart 1992: Young et al. 1996). El punto de vista pesimista de que los árboles o pequeños fragmentos silvícolas restantes en los agroecosistemas son 'muertos vivientes' (Janzen 1986) con poco o ningún valor para la conservación es rebatido por datos que sugieren mayor optimismo. El considerable flujo de genes entre árboles aislados de muchos taxa merced al transporte de polen por animales o el viento prueba que las manchas remanentes de bosques y árboles siguen siendo eficaces para conservar la diversidad genética (Hamrick 1992).Cierto número de estudios sobre especies arbóreas neotropicales han mostrado que tras la fragmentación de los bosques el desplazamiento del polen de los árboles alcanza distancias de hasta muchos kilómetros (ver Dick 2001;White et al. 2002;Dick et al. 2003). En un estudio de flujo de polen entre bosques continuos versus poblaciones aisladas de la especie autoincompatible Spondias mombin, el bosque continuo (de control) mostró índices de inmigración de polen del 45% a distancias de >100 m, mientras que en las poblaciones aisladas la polinización más eficaz (60-100%) provino de polen originado al menos a 80-1000 m de distancia (Nason y Hamrick 1997). Sin embargo las islas más aisladas presentaban un reducido cuajado de semillas, al parecer debido a la falta de una fertilización cruzada eficaz. En la especie autoincompatible Enterolobium cyclocarpum, un árbol dominante de los bosques xerofíticos estacionales y sus respectivas llanuras en América Central que es polinizado por abejas y orugas esfinge, no se encontraron diferencias en los índices de cruzamiento lejano entre árboles de bosques continuos (t m 1,00; t m = índice de cruzamiento lejano basado en loci múltiples) y los de los pastizales (t m 0,99; Rocha y Aguilar 2001). Se encontró un amplio flujo de polen entre fragmentos situados a 250-500 m de distancia, donde los árboles aislados en las llanuras recibían más polen de donantes que los árboles agrupados (Apsit y Hamrick s/f).Sin embargo, otros estudios de los efectos de la fragmentación en las poblaciones de árboles silvícolas sugieren que un resultado posible es la reducción de la diversidad genética en los pequeños remanentes, por la aparición de embotellamientos genéticos (Young et al. 1993;Prober y Brown 1994). Que una pérdida de alelos más bien veloz debida al tamaño reducido de una población sea seguida por otros efectos genéticos a largo plazo tales como menores niveles de heterocigosidad o deriva genética, dependerá de la amplitud de flujo de polen entre y dentro de los rodales fragmentados (Friedman y Adams 1985;Schnabel y Hamrick 1995;Young et al. 1996). Los estudios de Acer saccharum en Canadá (Foré et al. 1992;Young et al. 1993;Ballal et al. 1994) no detectaron señales de reducción de la variación genética en los rodales restantes comparados con las poblaciones de control, lo que sugería poca deriva genética en los años sucesivos a la fragmentación. Por el contrario, Prober y Brown (1994) encontraron pérdida de alelos y una reducción de la variación genética en pequeños rodales remanentes de Eucalyptus albens en Australia sudoriental, pero solamente allí donde los rodales estaban separados al menos 250 m de las poblaciones más grandes.Las poblaciones pequeñas de algunas especies arbóreas latifolias pueden ser particularmente susceptibles a las pérdidas de alelos de incompatibilidad. Estos alelos controlan los mecanismos que regulan el cruzamiento, introduciendo una \"barrera\" entre la polinización y la fertilización. Esto es explicado como un mecanismo de evolución que impide la autofertilización y promueve la heterocigosidad. La autoincompatibilidad es regulada por uno o más loci que pueden tener 50 o más alelos en las poblaciones grandes. Si el mismo alelo está presente en el grano de polen y en el estigma, ese grano de polen no podrá fertilizar. La carencia de alelos de autoincompatibilidad puede amenazar directamente la viabilidad de una población a causa de la escasa o nula producción de semillas. Un estudio bien documentado de la regeneración en poblaciones pequeñas se ocupó de la margarita Rutidosis leptorhynchoides, especie amenazada de Australia sudoriental. La regeneración fue limitada por el pequeño número de alelos de incompatibilidad que redujo la frecuencia de cruzas compatibles en poblaciones pequeñas y aisladas (Young et al. 2000). Las pequeñas poblaciones de margaritas mostraron también un aumento en la amplitud del cruzamiento correlacionado, de modo que el tamaño efectivo de la población (es decir el número de plantas que contribuyen realmente a la reproducción) y del patrimonio genético fueron reducidos. Un estudio de las pautas de cruzamiento y regeneración del árbol Symphonia globulifera en bosques tropicales fragmentados y continuos de Costa Rica (Aldrich y Hamrick 1998) mostró efectos similares. En este caso, los fragmentos de bosque estudiados eran aparentemente saludables, con mucha mayor densidad de brinzales que la del bosque de control. Sin embargo el 52,5% de los brinzales del fragmento silvícola eran hijos de apenas dos \"super adultos\" de la llanura. Esta dominación reproductiva por parte de un par de árboles reduce el tamaño efectivo de la población, con pérdida de la diversidad genética en las generaciones subsiguientes.Por lo tanto, las consecuencias de la fragmentación en los árboles silvícolas son variadas y complejas. Estudios como los citados más arriba muestran que mientras la reducción del tamaño de las poblaciones remanentes puede erosionar la variación genética por los embotellamientos en el momento de la fragmentación, la polinización es capaz de mantener la variación genética de numerosas especies de árboles fragmentadas, incluso a grandes distancias. Este cuadro contrasta con algunos puntos de vista tradicionales que sostienen que el aislamiento en el espacio y la reducción del tamaño de la población producirán siempre efectos genéticos como el causado por un menor flujo de genes entre los fragmentos, que lleva a la pérdida de diversidad genética (Saunders et al. 1991).Pese a esta otra evaluación más positiva de la fragmentación, siempre habrá distancias más allá de las cuales se producirá el aislamiento genético entre las poblaciones fragmentadas, con los correspondientes problemas de viabilidad y adaptabilidad a largo plazo (Young et al. 1996). Los umbrales de aislamiento genético variarán entre las especies con arreglo a la estructura espacial, la presencia y solidez de los mecanismos de autoincompatibilidad, las características y disponibilidad del agente polinizador y la especificidad de las relaciones entre el árbol y el polinizador.El cambio del ensamblaje de los polinizadores con las poblaciones arbóreas que aún quedan en paisajes fragmentados puede de hecho afectar fuertemente las pautas de flujo de genes y la reproducción, a tal punto que la ordenación del polinizador (es decir, conocer sus requisitos de nidificación y las fuentes alternativas de alimentos para pájaros e insectos) puede ser tan importante como la misma ordenación de los árboles. Por lo tanto hay que abocarse al tema de la creciente preocupación por la disminuida población de polinizadores en los agroecosistemas, y cómo esta disminución puede con el tiempo limitar la reproducción de los árboles (Allen-Wardell et al. 1998). A este respecto, las numerosas especies de árboles que cuentan con un amplio espectro de polinizadores no especializados son probablemente mucho menos susceptibles a las perturbaciones del hábitat que aquellas con series de polinizadores más especializadas o restringidas (véase Dick et al. 2003).El hecho de que un mayor aislamiento físico de ciertas especies arbóreas produzca o no una mayor autopolinización parece depender en gran medida de que dichas especies tengan mecanismos de autoincompatibilidad. Las especies autocompatibles que normalmente presentan algún grado de cruzamiento lejano o que son sólo apenas autoincompatibles, muestran mayores niveles de endogamia a distancias de separación física mucho más cortas de lo que sucede con las especies altamente autoincompatibles (Murawski y Hamrick 1992a). Estas últimas parecen caracterizarse por una distancia física fija más allá de la cual la producción de semillas se reduce de manera sustancial (véase Ghazoul et al. 1998). Las especies locales raras son probablemente las más vulnerables a la deforestación y fragmentación. La reducción de parejas potenciales con las cuales cruzarse conduce a una mayor autopolinización y a una mayor endogamia y fracaso de las semillas.Si bien especies arbóreas con perfiles genéticos, sistemas de cultivo y polinizadores diferentes reaccionarán de diversa manera a la fragmentación y aislamiento del bosque, a la fecha hay evidencia que corrobora la conclusión de que en el diseño de reservas y corredores correspondientes a programas de conservación se deben incluir bosques remanentes y árboles aislados en fincas. El \"aislamiento\" de un árbol o de un fragmento de bosque parece ser más una percepción humana que una realidad biológica, puesto que los bosques y árboles remanentes pueden cumplir de hecho significativas funciones para mantener la diversidad genética de las especies.La repercusión del aprovechamiento maderero en los RGS depende de muchos factores. Como hizo notar Ledig (1992), algunos de los temas más importantes son el tipo de bosque (si es de edades mezcladas u homogéneas, o si es monoespecífico), la porción de población de la especie mejorada que se aprovecha (o sea, si es un aprovechamiento silvícola selectivo o una tala a matarrasa), la fuente de semillas (o de otro elemento) para la subsiguiente regeneración (es decir el banco de semillas o latizales existente, o la fructificación posterior al aprovechamiento maderero), y la ecología de reproducción y perfil genético de la especie aprovechada, y los consiguientes cambios en las pautas de floración, cruzamiento y fructificación. En esta sección se destaca de qué manera los factores asociados con la tipología del bosque, los métodos y extensión de su aprovechamiento y las estrategias de regeneración afectan a los RGS.La repercusión genética del aprovechamiento maderero en la regeneración depende del tamaño de los árboles cuando empiezan a reproducirse y de la proporción de árboles Cantidad de árboles en el rodal Dap mínimo de comienzo de la floración Dap promedio de comienzo de la floración Dap mínimo de corta Dap (cm) Figura 1. Relación entre el tamaño de los árboles en la floración y en el aprovechamiento maderero. Cuando el diámetro a la altura del pecho (dap) para el aprovechamiento es demasiado pequeño, una proporción menor de árboles (e incluso ninguno) alcanzará la talla reproductiva, y se reducirá el tamaño real de la población. reproductivos que quedan después del aprovechamiento. En un extremo están las especies monocárpicas (árboles que florecen y fructifican una vez en sus vidas, como el Tachigali versicolor) en las cuales el aprovechamiento antes de la fructificación tendrá consecuencias desastrosas para la regeneración y en última instancia para la supervivencia de la especie. Más a menudo, cuando el diámetro de los árboles cuyo aprovechamiento se permite es muy pequeño, es decir antes que hayan alcanzado la madurez reproductiva, el tamaño real de la población se reducirá (Figura 1). Datos actuales de Ghana indican que la mayoría de las especies arbóreas de importancia comercial alcanzan su tamaño reproductivo muy por debajo de los 50 cm dap (diámetro a la altura del pecho) de límite de corta permitido (Hawthorne et al. 1999). Sin embargo, respecto de muchas especies arbóreas tropicales hay actualmente escasa información acerca del modo en que el aprovechamiento silvícola altera las pautas de floración y fructificación de los árboles remanentes y el tamaño en el cual los individuos remanentes alcanzan la madurez reproductiva.También el tipo específico de ordenación de los bosques puede afectar la reproducción al alterar las proporciones entre sexos. Un examen de las reservas silvícolas comunitarias del valle de Okavango en Namibia determinó que los aldeanos preferían aprovechar árboles masculinos mientras conservaban los árboles femeninos de las especies que servían para la recolección de frutos (Robinson 1996). Esta estrategia puede alterar la base genética de la especie reduciendo el tamaño efectivo de la población, y en última instancia afectar la producción de frutos si la polinización se convierte en un factor limitador. También el hecho de que los frutos se cosechen para comerlos o para obtener otros productos distintos de la madera puede influir en la capacidad de regeneración de la especie. En muchos lugares del mundo puede ser una prioridad importante de investigación comprobar cuáles sean los niveles sostenibles de cosecha de frutos (ver el Capítulo 3 de este libro).Las prácticas de aprovechamiento maderero en los trópicos son por lo general selectivas en cuanto a la especie, es decir que se talan los árboles más grandes (mayores de un Figura 2. Repercusión de diferentes casos de aprovechamiento maderero en algunos rasgos (p. ej. índice de crecimiento o derechura del tronco) después de una generación. En 2A se muestra que la cosecha de una pequeña proporción de árboles afectará mínimamente la media de la población, mientras que en 2B una corta a matarrasa que deja pocos árboles semilleros pobremente formados afectará en gran medida la media (p. ej. de la derechura del tronco). Los cambios reales dependerán de la heredabilidad del rasgo de que se trata, así como del diferencial de selección. Fuente: tomado de Ledig 1992.A. Cosecha de árboles excepcionales B. Dejando un pequeño número desechado Primera generaciónIndice de crecimiento o derechura del tronco Arboles cosechados dap prefijado) de las especies preferidas. Por lo general los expertos declararán que el aprovechamiento maderero en los trópicos provocará una selección disgénica, es decir conducirá a pérdidas de la diversidad genética y aumentará los casos de endogamia entre los árboles restantes. En qué amplitud el aprovechamiento maderero de los árboles mejor formados conducirá a la erosión genética (selección disgénica) es una cuestión empírica. A fin de responder a esta pregunta es necesario antes esclarecer qué se entiende por selección disgénica: se trata de una selección que va en detrimento de la calidad genética de una población puesto que afecta rasgos fenotípicos tan importantes como la derechura del tronco o el índice de crecimiento. Por ejemplo, cosechar árboles de tronco recto antes de que fructifiquen producirá por lo general una selección disgénica a favor de árboles de tronco poco recto, si la variación fenotípica de la forma es de base fuertemente genética (la heredabilidad por h 2 es alta). (Selección disgénica mostrada en la Figura 2B; el diferencial S de selección es grande, siendo S la diferencia entre la media de individuos seleccionados como progenitores y la media de población total, de manera que S representa la superioridad promedio de los padres seleccionados. La ecuación: R = h 2 S representa el cambio (R) de la media de la población para cada variable entre una generación y la siguiente.)Si se tala solo una pequeña proporción de árboles maduros derechos, el cambio de la población media entre la primera y la segunda generación será insignificante (Figura 2A). Para reducir la repercusión del desaprovechamiento que persiguen actualmente los métodos de aprovechamiento maderero sostenible de los bosques tropicales, el número de árboles aprovechados en una sección irá desde apenas el 2% hasta el 50% según la especie. Dado que el diámetro es por lo general el principal criterio para determinar la corta, no queda muy claro cuánta selección se hace respecto de la derechura de los troncos, en especial si los diferenciales de selección relativos a la derechura del tronco son pequeños. Si el tamaño refleja principalmente la edad en lugar del índice de crecimiento, habrá también poca selección respecto del índice de crecimiento. Tanto la heredabilidad de la derechura del tronco como del índice de crecimiento son notoriamente bajos (o sea <0,1) en las condiciones altamente heterogéneas de los bosques naturales de edades mixtas. Por lo tanto un índice bajo de aprovechamiento no debería producir erosión genética. Solamente cuando una virtual corta a matarrasa cause la regeneración a partir de brinzales provenientes de unos pocos árboles semilleros pobremente formados (Figura 2B) habrá un marcado deterioro de la derechura del tronco en las generaciones siguientes, incluso siendo baja la heredabilidad de la forma (Ledig 1992).Estas consideraciones teóricas sugieren casos en que es posible que se produzca erosión genética. El mayor potencial de erosión genética tiene lugar en los bosques que han sido sobreaprovechados al punto de hacerlos casi desaparecer, dejando solo unos pocos árboles semilleros para asegurar la regeneración. Por ejemplo, en St. Helena el aprovechamiento maderero de casi todos los árboles salvo unos pocos individuos de Trochetiopsis erythroxylon y T. melanoxylon para obtener madera industrial redujo ambas especies a unos malformados árboles tipo arbusto (Rowe y Cronk 1995). Cuando la corta o los incendios elimina una gran proporción de árboles maduros provocando faltantes en las clases de diámetros habrá motivos para preocuparse por el deterioro de la base genética. Pero incluso en esos casos la situación rara vez es sencilla. Mientras la remoción de una generación entera de árboles maduros puede afectar negativamente la regeneración, esa presión de selección puede no ocurrir si después la regeneración proviene de una cohorte de varas y latizales preexistente.Hay relativamente pocos estudios acerca de la repercusión del apovechamiento maderero sobre la diversidad genética y el cruzamiento de los árboles, y los que existen se concentran en las coníferas del hemisferio norte. Lo típico era que en los bosques templados de coníferas predominaran las cortas a matarrasa seguidas de regeneración, pero recientemente ha aumentado la corta selectiva que antes era típica de los bosques tropicales y latifolios por el alto valor de la madera aprovechada. Los bosques templados sujetos a perturbaciones naturales como incendios y/o derribos por el viento tienen por lo general árboles que se adaptan y son relativamente resilientes a las perturbaciones (Wickneswari y Boyle 2000). Por ejemplo, examinando Pinus contorta en Alberta, Canadá, Thomas et al. (1999) no encontraron diferencias significativas de la diversidad genética entre los rodales no cosechados y los árboles regenerados. De igual modo en el Estado de Oregón (EE.UU.) no se encontraron diferencias significativas de variación genética entre rodales de Pseudotsuga mensiezii ordenados en régimen de corta por aclareo sucesivo y los dejados sin cortar como control (Neale 1985).Por el contrario, la comparación entre el caudal genético anterior y posterior a la cosecha en viejos rodales de Pinus strobus en Ontario, Canadá, mostró una pérdida de diversidad genética después de que el 75% de la población mejorada fuera cosechada dejando intactos los árboles semilleros (Buchert et al. 1997). Las reducciones se registraron en el porcentaje de loci polimórficos y el número de alelos, mientras que se mantuvieron los niveles de heterocigosidad. Los alelos \"privados\", o sea únicos de cada rodal, fueron especialmente susceptibles de ser eliminados del caudal genético a causa de la cosecha, con pérdidas del 25% o más. Cuando la cosecha de este tipo de bosques templados de coníferas es tan intensa, es frecuente una pérdida de alelos privados de semejante magnitud, lo que despierta preocupación por la integridad poscosecha del caudal genético localmente adaptado. No obstante es posible que la integridad genética pueda restablecerse en última instancia por la regeneración derivada del amplio flujo de genes típico de estas coníferas.En Australia sudoriental se estudiaron con marcadores de ADN los efectos de prácticas de regeneración como la resiembra aérea o el empleo de árboles semilleros, luego de preparar un sitio mediante quemazón o alteraciones mecánicas (Glaubitz et al. 2003a y b) utilizando la especie comercial Eucalyptus sieberi (fresno plateado) y una especie no comercial rara, E. consideniana. Teniendo en cuenta numerosos indicadores de la diversidad genética (riqueza de alelos, cantidad de alelos, heterocigosidad) Eucalyptus sieberi no mostró diferencias significativas (Glaubitz et al. 2003a). Tampoco hubo evidencia de embotellamientos recientes. Sin embargo, un dendrograma de las relaciones entre las poblaciones muestreadas sugirió que el sistema de árboles semilleros puede promover la deriva genética, mientras que la resiembra aérea después de las cortas a matarrasa con el mismo lote de semillas conduciría a la homogeneización genética. La resiliencia genética aparente de E. sieberi para la regeneración de los bosques nativos se atribuyó a su abundancia local y a las características favorables de su biología de reproducción, dado que la semilla se conserva en las ramas por muchos años y que la semilla preexistente en el sitio da una buena regeneración. La presencia de E. consideniana disminuyó típicamente del 13% antes del aprovechamiento al 5% en las cortas regeneradas. También se comprobó una significativa reducción en la diversidad genética de E. consideniana (riqueza y cantidad de alelos, heterocigosidad) en la corta de árboles semilleros, pero no en las zonas de corta a matarrasa (Glaubitz et al. 2003b), mientras que no hubo evidencia de aumento de la endogamia con ninguno de estos sistemas de ordenación. Eldridge et al. (1993) estimaron que la estructura de la familia de los bosques nativos de eucaliptos determinaba cierta proporción de endogamia (t m 0,7-0,8).Hay relativamente poca evidencia sobre la repercusión del aprovechamiento maderero en los RGS de especies arbóreas silvícolas tropicales y, cuando existe, muestra resultados mixtos. En algunas poblaciones de especies madereras tropicales aprovechadas en Asia sudoriental hubo pérdida de diversidad genética, no así en otras (Wickneswari et al. 1997a y b). En Borneo tanto Shorea leprosula como Dryobalanops aromatica mostraron elevados índices de cruzamiento lejano en los bosques aprovechados y en los no aprovechados (Kitamura et al. 1994). En un estudio de la especie autoincompatible Shorea siamensis (Ghazoul et al. 1998) en Tailandia no se notaron diferencias en el cuajado de semillas luego de un moderado nivel de aprovechamiento (35% cortado), comparado con los bosques no aprovechados (Cuadro 1). Si bien los niveles de polinización de S. siamensis fueron similares antes y después de un aprovechamiento maderero de alta intensidad, el menor nivel de movimiento de polinizadores entre los árboles en un ambiente más abierto luego del aprovechamiento aumentó la frecuencia de la autopolinización, por lo que la cantidad de frutos fue mucho más baja.Investigar cómo varía el cruzamiento según la densidad de árboles y de árboles florecidos en los bosques naturales, y los efectos genéticos de la escasa densidad de árboles en los casos de fragmentación, ayudará a inferir la repercusión genética de las prácticas de aprovechamiento maderero que disminuyen la densidad de las especies de interés.Muchas especies de árboles tropicales tienen diferentes índices de cruzamiento lejano, tanto a lo largo del año como entre individuos, que parece ser correlativo con los cambios en la cantidad de floración y en las pautas de distribución de los árboles florecidos en el espacio (Murawski y Hamrick 1991). Las especies de baja densidad combinan cierto cruzamiento biparental con un flujo de genes a larga distancia, mientras que las especies presentes en densidades más altas muestran un cruzamiento más aleatorio, por lo general a distancias más cortas.Las pautas de cruzamiento de tres especies de árboles tropicales (Calophyllum longifolium, Spondias mombin y Turpinia occidentalis) que aparecen en forma natural en Panamá en bajas densidades, fueron sumamente afectadas por la distribución de los árboles reproductivos en el espacio, si bien las tres especies seguían presentando altos niveles de cruzamiento lejano. Cuando los árboles estaban agrupados la mayoría de los cruzamientos se dio con los vecinos más cercanos, mientras que con árboles espaciados de manera más pareja una gran proporción de cruzamientos tuvo lugar entre árboles separados por distancias de varios cientos de metros, y desde bastante más lejos de los individuos reproductivos más cercanos (Stacy et al. 1996). Por el contrario, Murawski et al. (1990) y Murawski y Hamrick (1992b) demostraron que los índices de cruzamiento lejano en la especie autocompatible Cavanillesia platanifolia disminuyeron a la par del menor nivel de floración de un año a otro (t m 0,57 con 74% de árboles florecidos, 0,35 con 49% y 0,21 con 32%). En años de mayor floración, con profusión de flores disponibles, hubo una mayor tendencia de los polinizadores a desplazarse entre los árboles, lo que dio como resultado más polinización cruzada. En cambio cuando florecieron pocos árboles hubo mayor tendencia a la autopolinización. Estudios sobre Ceiba pentandra en América del Sur mostraron grados variables de autofertilidad, con árboles que presentaban mayores niveles de autopolinización en aislamiento, mientras que otros no pudieron cuajar semillas (Murawski y Hamrick 1992a;Gribel et al. 1999). Por ende los efectos del aprovechamiento maderero en estas especies van de una mayor endogamia a una menor producción de semillas.Alteración grave Alteración moderada Sin alteraciónArboles florecidos/ha 9 62 96 Cantidad de frutos en 1996 (%) 0,7 2,2 2,5Cantidad de frutos en 1997 (%) 1,5 5,5 5,5Flores polinizadas (%) 62 59 79Cuadro 1. Fructificación de Shorea siamensis en Tailandia con diferentes niveles de alteración. Fuente: Ghazoul et al. 1998.La evidencia genética obtenida a partir de los estudios de la fragmentación y aprovechamiento silvícola en el mundo sugieren que el aumento de la endogamia depende especialmente de la presencia y fortaleza de mecanismos de autoincompatibilidad de la especie. La variación genética puede conservarse reduciendo la frecuencia de endogamia en las especies arbóreas de cruzamiento lejano natural, mientras que para conservar especies como Ceiba pentandra, que combina de manera natural el cruzamiento lejano y la endogamia, será una prioridad mantener la flexibilidad del sistema de mejoramiento. Poblaciones de especies autoincompatibles como Shorea siamensis cuya floración es altamente asíncrona pueden ser más susceptibles a que su tamaño se reduzca luego del aprovechamiento maderero, tanto en términos de polinización compatible como de menor diversidad genética (Ghazoul et al. 1998), lo que disminuye su capacidad de regeneración y su potencial de adaptación. Cuando el éxito de la polinización es un factor limitador, las especies arbóreas que tienen polinizadores especializados enfrentan más amenazas derivadas de la menor cantidad de árboles y de polinizadores. Por el contrario, las especies con regímenes de polinización por animales no especializados solo parecen sufrir problemas cuando hay una pérdida generalizada de la fauna polinizadora en las inmediaciones de la zona donde crecen. En el Cuadro 2 se resumen las características posibles de especies que pueden ser genéticamente susceptibles al aprovechamiento maderero selectivo (Jennings et al. 2001).No obstante, es oportuno considerar que en una perspectiva de adaptación a largo plazo un nivel elevado de endogamia puede no ser importante del punto de vista genético, Cuadro 2. Tipos de especies potencialmente amenazadas de erosión genética por un aprovechamiento silvícola selectivo de bajo impacto. Tomado de Jennings et al. 2001 puesto que hay una selección inversa de individuos autopolinizados en las sucesivas etapas de la regeneración. Tratándose de aprovechamiento maderero selectivo, la afirmación de Ledig (1992) de que \"la estructura genética local puede ser alterada por la selección y por cambios en la demografía y en el sistema de cruzamiento, pero con toda probabilidad la diversidad de genes y la estructura geográfica serán poco afectadas\", sugiere que si la regeneración de especies raras o comerciales posterior al aprovechamiento maderero es adecuada, la estructura genética de la población y su diversidad no serán afectadas ni grave ni permanentemente. La variación genética y los sistemas que la mantienen son adaptables por naturaleza, proveyendo cierto grado de amortiguación y adaptación a los cambios, pero esto es verdad solo si los cambios no son demasiado grandes ni demasiado rápidos. Una mayor endogamia parece ser importante tanto genética como ecológicamente si de ella resulta una reducción de la producción de semillas, y por ende de la regeneración, o si se mantiene a lo largo de muchas generaciones.Tratándose de plantaciones de árboles, los niveles de diversidad genética mantenidos dependerán de la especie respectiva y de los métodos de recolección del germoplasma. Plantar árboles puede tener un efecto negativo o positivo en la diversidad genética de la plantación. Cualquier nivel de endogamia o reducción de la diversidad genética en las poblaciones muestreadas puede tener repercusiones críticas para las plantaciones de conservación ex situ o para los programas de mejoramiento de árboles. Fuera de las excepciones ya subrayadas para las especies autocompatibles, cuando se siguen los protocolos habituales de recolección de semillas de poblaciones naturales es posible mantener la diversidad genética de los árboles (Schmidt 2001). Sin embargo, en el mundo real no es raro apartarse de las mejores prácticas. En el caso de especies que producen grandes cantidades de semillas por árbol hay una tendencia a formar colecciones limitadas a una parte de la cima y a un pequeño número de árboles, que se traduce en un muestreo reducido y deformado del patrimonio genético (Boshier et al. 1995). Esto también puede suceder inadvertidamente, en especial cuando el caudal de polen está dominado por unos pocos árboles (Aldrich y Hamrick 1998), y puede reducir los beneficios genéticos que se esperaban incluso cuando se respetan protocolos cuya finalidad es la conservación. También la plantación y el empleo de árboles o especies arbóreas exóticas a expensas de los árboles plantados o regenerados naturalmente puede afectar la conservación genética de las poblaciones locales. Por ejemplo, reemplazar las especies o poblaciones nativas con especies o poblaciones introducidas puede reducir el tamaño de la población nativa, causar su contaminación e incluso eliminarla (Eldridge 1998;Hughes 1998). La hibridación de especies arbóreas introducidas con especies nativas prevalece en particular en ciertos géneros como Leucaena (Hughes 1998) y Prosopis (Carney et al. 2000) y puede tener graves implicaciones para la conservación del caudal genético nativo, en especial cuando se involucran especies amenazadas o en peligro.La cruza entre poblaciones de las mismas especies arbóreas provenientes de diferentes lugares puede conducir a una ruptura de complejos de alelos coadaptados o a la dilución de alelos adaptados, lo que produce un menor crecimiento o fertilidad y la caída del cruzamiento lejano (Ledig 1992). La evidencia obtenida hasta ahora de los pocos estudios realizados acerca de la caída del cruzamiento lejano es contradictoria y no permite sacar conclusiones. Por ejemplo cuando se cruzaron poblaciones de Bombacopsis quinata de Honduras y Colombia el cuajado de semillas fue reducido (Billingham 1999), y asimismo Stacy (1998) encontró fuertes reducciones en la producción de frutos de las especies de Syzygium y Shorea en Sri Lanka sudoccidental luego de cruzas que involucraron a donantes de polen ubicados a unos 12 km de distancia. Sin embargo este autor cree que esa caída en pequeña escala del cruzamiento lejano se debió más probablemente a la heterogeneidad espacial del ambiente de selección que al aislamiento por distancia geográfica, porque la heterogeneidad geográfica de la zona estudiada aparecía más finamente fragmentada que la de muchos otros paisajes silvícolas tropicales. En otros casos, como los descritos por Hardner et al. (1998) que emprendieron experimentos en los que autopolinizaron y cruzaron ejemplares de Eucalyptus globulus ssp. globulus (de distancias de 21 m a 100 km) en Tasmania, no encontraron caída del cruzamiento lejano. Tampoco hubo evidencia en Swietenia humilis cuando se cruzaron poblaciones de América Central a 500 km de distancia (Billingham 1999).Para que las actividades de conservación de los RGS sean eficaces deben ser de amplia gama y complementarias a niveles de genes, población, especie, comunidad y ecosistema, y deben incorporar estrategias in situ y ex situ tanto dentro como fuera de las reservas. Dada la limitación de los recursos se necesitan métodos integrados y simplificados. Por ello, reconociendo la importancia de las consideraciones genéticas para lograr una ordenación sostenible, los administradores de bosques están desarrollando actualmente estrategias que integran la conservación de la diversidad genética con los sistemas de producción (Riggs 1990;Kuusipalo y Kangas 1994). Se admite hoy que para entender los procesos ecológicos y de evolución de las especies y sus asociaciones con las comunidades bióticas es importante conocer las relaciones entre la diversidad genética de una especie, la heterogeneidad de sus hábitats y su escala de adaptación. Este conocimiento también es de fundamental importancia para la conservación de las especies (establecer prioridades para reservas genéticas, muestreo para colecciones ex situ, elección de fuentes de material para usar en restauraciones ecológicas), el éxito de su reproducción y su futura adaptación a condiciones ambientales cambiantes. Por ende, tanto del punto de vista de la conservación como de la utilización es necesario conocer la amplitud de la variación genética de la especie (riqueza de alelos), cómo se distribuye esa variación (regularidad de los alelos) y cuál zona geográfica contiene la variación genética necesaria y suficiente para constituir una población viable a largo plazo.En los últimos 30 años, marcadores genéticos como las aloenzimas y más recientemente una variedad de marcadores del ADN han permitido el estudio directo de la distribución de la diversidad genética en y entre las poblaciones. Por ejemplo, una diferencia en la pauta de herencia de los marcadores moleculares permite comparaciones entre los niveles relativos de flujo de genes que resultan del diferencial de dispersión de polen y semillas; los datos actuales indican mayor diferenciación entre poblaciones de especies arbóreas para los genes heredados por vía materna que para los genes nucleares (El Mousadik y Petit 1996;Hamrick y Nason 1996). También se han desarrollado pruebas que separan a poblaciones sujetas recientemente a embotellamientos, de poblaciones estables (programa EMBOTELLAMIENTO, véase Cornuet y Luikart 1996;Luikart y Cornuet 1998). El pequeño tamaño de una población puede no tener importancia si ésta siempre se caracterizó por ser pequeña, pero en cambio puede ser de fundamental importancia para otra que solo recientemente se ha vuelto pequeña. Si bien los estudios demográficos de largo plazo permiten comprender bien las tendencias a largo plazo, cuando las poblaciones enfrentan amenazas inmediatas se requieren soluciones documentadas y rápidas. Puesto que las propiedades demográficas de las poblaciones influyen en su composición genética, extraer información de los marcadores genéticos va más allá del estudio estricto del marcador de la diversidad, y proporciona estimaciones de los parámetros demográficos que resultan de interés para los biólogos conservacionistas.El análisis genealógico de los datos de una secuencia de ADN puede también emplearse para cuantificar importantes parámetros demográficos (por ejemplo tamaño de la población efectiva, sistema de cruzamiento, índice de migración). Debido a la naturaleza histórica de dicha secuencia de información, un análisis genealógico refleja las propiedades demográficas de largo plazo de la población y es por lo tanto útil para inferir su demografía futura (Milligan y Strand 1996). La comparación de esas estimaciones de largo plazo con las observaciones demográficas actuales puede utilizarse para determinar si y cómo se desvían estas tendencias de las históricas, lo cual proveerá información esencial para la evaluación y ordenación de las especies arbóreas. Actualmente se usan también marcadores moleculares para estudiar las pautas fitogeográficas de variación de los árboles silvícolas a escalas mayores. Un ejemplo es el proyecto CYTOFOR financiado por la UE (http://www.pierroton.inra.fr/Cytofor) que está investigando una cantidad de aspectos genéticos y ecológicos de 22 especies arbóreas deciduas económicamente importantes de Europa mediante estudios fitogeográficos, la historia de las vías de migración posglaciación, la estimación de la hibridación entre las especies y la vinculación entre la ecología y los rasgos genéticos de la población.Esta investigación puede generar información sobre la ubicación de la mayor diversidad genética de estas especies, guiar la política de la UE para intercambiar los materiales silvícolas de reproducción, y ayudar a diseñar estrategias de conservación de la especie basadas en la mejor ciencia ecológica y genética. Además, los resultados de CYTOFOR pueden mejorar la comprensión del verdadero 'origen' de los bosques establecidos con materiales no nativos tanto tiempo atrás que ese tipo de información puede no encontrarse en los registros convencionales. En la mayoría de los casos la conservación in situ de las especies no puede en última instancia tener éxito sin la conservación de los ecosistemas asociados; la investigación simultánea de numerosas especies interactuantes promueve tanto la conservación de los ecosistemas como de las especies individuales. Por otro lado la información sobre la ubicación de las 'unidades evolutivas' más viejas de cada una de las 22 especies arbóreas, combinada con los resultados obtenidos en las pruebas de proveniencia, tiene consecuencias prácticas inmediatas puesto que, si resulta necesario, se pueden formular recomendaciones para restringir el movimiento genético entre esas unidades evolutivas.En el decenio de 1990 se desarrollaron conjuntos de normas, criterios e indicadores internacionales para evaluar y certificar la sostenibilidad de la ordenación silvícola. A menudo estas normas se presentan como listas de verificación con los principios, criterios, indicadores y verificadores ordenados en secuencia lógica y progresiva para que auditores y administradores de campo puedan, de manera relativamente fácil, adoptar decisiones objetivas sobre la calidad de la ordenación del bosque evaluado (por ejemplo, Ghana's Forest Management Certification Standards and Checklist, Anón. 2000).En la actualidad prácticamente todos los conjuntos internacionales de normas relativas a la ordenación silvícola sostenible incluyen criterios e indicadores útiles para administrar y evaluar la conservación de la diversidad genética de los árboles (Recuadro 1, pág. 21). La función de los criterios e indicadores es proveer una herramienta práctica con la que se pueden seguir los cambios que las actividades de ordenación provocan en las condiciones del bosque. Por ello los criterios e indicadores deben definirse y presentarse de modo que sean claros, prácticos y fáciles de usar. También deberán basarse por cuanto sea posible en conocimientos científicos correctos (OIMT 1998).Por desgracia, los requisitos vitales de claridad, simplicidad y practicabilidad no parecen haber sido seriamente considerados en la formulación de muchos de los criterios e indicadores genéticos desarrollados hasta la fecha para la ordenación y seguimiento de los recursos silvícolas. Por ejemplo, los 23 verificadores (demográficos y genéticos) de mantenimiento de la diversidad genética propuestos por Namkoong et al. (2002) requieren prolongados ensayos de campo o el seguimiento detallado de la fenología, estructura de la población, polinización y dispersión de las semillas (Recuadro 2,pág. 22). Algunos requieren incluso sofisticados análisis de laboratorio que son impracticables en la ordenación silvícola diaria. Muchos de los verificadores de Namkoong comprenden la medición de parámetros genéticos que aún están sujetos a debate científico y cuyos valores variarán con arreglo al sistema de medición adoptado. La definición de las líneas de partida desde las cuales se pueden calibrar los valores de cambio y los umbrales críticos es igualmente problemática. En nuestra opinión un método de índole tan excesivamente teórica y técnica no es práctico a nivel de una unidad de ordenación silvícola y ni siquiera a nivel de país cuando los planificadores, debido a la falta de información, enfrentan enormes problemas reales para identificar las especies no aprovechables y establecer otras estrategias de ordenación silvícola sostenible.También en nuestra opinión algunos criterios e indicadores que incorporan parámetros genéticos para medir los niveles de conservación de la diversidad genética y la consiguiente sostenibilidad de las operaciones silvícolas, como los propuestos por CIFOR, no resultan prácticos y de hecho desalentarán a los administradores silvícolas para realizar intentos significativos de mantener la diversidad genética de los bosques en producción (Jennings et al. 2001). En nuestra opinión, la naturaleza no práctica de dichos parámetros explica el hecho de que la Lista de Verificación de Ghana omita mencionar entre sus principios la diversidad genética dentro de la especie, y sólo de manera implícita aborda la conservación de la diversidad genética de la especie en cuanto a la protección de las fibras gruesas. De hecho la Lista de Verificación de Ghana no incluye verificadores genéticos ni en forma de evaluaciones genéticas ni de parámetros demográficos sustitutivos. Si no se desea excluir completamente el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética en mecanismos como la Lista de Verificación de Ghana, hay que desarrollar métodos más pragmáticos o sea basados en el conocimiento de la forma real en que el aprovechamiento maderero afecta a los procesos genéticos. El trabajo coordinado por el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) en colaboración con el Instituto de Población y Ambiente de Amazonas (IMAZON) y el Instituto de Ordenación y Certificación Silvícola y Agrícola del Amazonas brasileño (IMAFLORA) es un intento de obtener conclusiones generales acerca de la factibilidad de emplear información genética en esquemas de certificación partiendo de parcelas silvícolas ya certificadas (IMAFLORA/IMAZON/IPGRI 2004). Para establecer la significatividad de los niveles de diversidad genética y endogamia determinados se necesita información relativa a los datos de partida desde los cuales se observa la desviación de la norma. Los estudios para establecer estos datos de partida se ven a menudo comprometidos por la incapacidad de los investigadores para fijar datos realistas respecto de una población a partir de los cuales sea posible observar los cambios y analizar su significado. También los estudios comparativos de las alteraciones producidas por el hombre se ven obstaculizados por la variedad de diseños experimentales y de marcadores aplicados. Además, el problema de la interpretación de los resultados es agravado tanto por la diversidad de sistemas de ordenación aplicados en todo el mundo como por la variedad de regímenes ecológicos y de reproducción característicos de las especies estudiadas. La mayoría de los estudios observan solamente los efectos sobre la diversidad genética inmediatamente siguientes a las operaciones de aprovechamiento maderero o a una rotación, mientras que normalmente se necesitarán muchas generaciones antes de que la erosión genética comience a ser evidente. El costo y dificultades para llevar a cabo tales estudios de largo plazo requiere adoptar otros métodos. El modelo ECO-GENE se ha desarrollado para estudiar la repercusión de las actividades silvícolas sobre los bosques templados (Degen et al. 1996). Combina la investigación de la genética de la población y sus procesos dinámicos con el uso de modelos de crecimiento silvícola para simular la repercusión de los tipos e intensidades de ordenación sobre la diversidad genética dentro de una especie. La adaptación y validación de estos modelos propios de bosques templados a las condiciones más complejas de los bosques tropicales exige elaborar modelos con muchos datos sobre la ecología reproductiva y la genética de las especies seleccionadas (Degen et al. 2002; véase también el Capítulo 4 de este libro). Conocer la ecología reproductiva de una especie incluyendo la fenología, mecanismos de incompatibilidad, mecanismos de polinización, distribución en el espacio, dispersión de semillas, regeneración de brinzales y dinámica del rodal permite a los investigadores predecir de qué manera la remoción de árboles causada por el aprovechamiento maderero afectará la capacidad de esa especie para regenerarse. La fase de regeneración es crítica no solamente para el mantenimiento del bosque sino también para evaluar las implicaciones genéticas de un mayor nivel de endogamia en la ordenación sostenible. Si bien se dispone de información sobre la ecología de reproducción y las pautas genéticas y de cruzamiento relativas a una cantidad de especies arbóreas tropicales, hay relativamente pocos estudios sobre los efectos de las diferentes estrategias de ordenación en dichos procesos. No es probable que el empleo de datos genéticos tomados de bosques no sujetos a ordenación ni alterados pueda producir modelos comparativos válidos que ayuden a identificar escenarios críticos y permitan elaborar predicciones esmeradas. La validación de modelos y su consiguiente capacidad de predecir adecuadamente las repercusiones de la ordenación sobre la diversidad genética dependerá por lo tanto de la producción de nuevos datos que evalúen el flujo de polen en las poblaciones sometidas a aprovechamiento maderero; luego se podrán formular recomendaciones especie por especie, que ayudarán a los administradores a no traspasar umbrales genéticos subjetivos, estableciendo niveles permisibles de aprovechamiento maderero y pautas para la selección de árboles que minimicen la endogamia en las especies identificadas como problemáticas.Es también importante reconocer que las especies arbóreas han desarrollado una serie de estrategias de reproducción, y que la conservación de estos árboles puede verse afectada adversamente por métodos de ordenación que alteren dramáticamente dichos procesos. Por lo tanto, para conservar las especies arbóreas de cruzamiento lejano natural será importante reducir el nivel de repercusión de la endogamia a la vez que se mantiene su diversidad. También será prioritario mantener la flexibilidad del sistema de cultivo de las especies que combinan naturalmente el cruzamiento lejano y la endogamia. Sin embargo, como muchas especies madereras comerciales entran en las agrupaciones ecológicas de árboles 'colonizadores' o árboles de 'larga vida intolerantes a la sombra', la elección de la especie a la que se aplicará el modelo no debería limitarse a las comerciales sino también tener en cuenta otras comunidades ecológicas con diferentes sistemas de cruzamiento y distribución en el espacio. Por su naturaleza, muchas especies 'colonizadoras' o de 'larga vida intolerantes a la sombra' son hasta cierto punto genéticamente resilientes a las alteraciones. En primer lugar una especie será genéticamente adecuada para la ordenación si: • tiene baja densidad de población; es de crecimiento lento • es intolerante a la sombra • es de cruzamiento lejano pero autocompatible • produce semillas de manera irregular • es de maduración tardía • sometida a alteraciones humanas se regenera escasamente • tiene polinizadores o dispersadores de semillas especializados • se caracteriza por distribuirse en grupos (Jennings et al. 2001).Inevitablemente, este tipo de generalizaciones estarán calificadas por la serie de factores que han mostrado influir sobre la variación genética de los árboles, pero empleando un modelo de validación para identificar los factores que señalan cuáles son las especies genéticamente favorables para ser ordenadas se las podrá reunir en grupos de ordenación y redactar directrices para una serie más amplia de especies. La capacidad de extrapolar los resultados de los modelos y elaborar recomendaciones de ordenación más generales para grupos de especies dependerá de contar con una información esmerada que permita clasificar las especies en tales grupos de ordenación. Se ha intentado elaborar un modelo de toma de decisiones sobre la conservación de especies en un marco de conflictos e incertidumbre (Drechsler 2004) pero se llevó a cabo sin consideraciones genéticas.La limitación de recursos y la falta de información ecológica y genética, junto con la necesidad inmediata de elaborar medidas exigidas para certificar un aprovechamiento maderero sostenible en muchas partes del mundo, ha conducido al método pragmático \"de la mejor suposición\" basada en los conocimientos disponibles. Adoptar reglas silvícolas sencillas antes de permitir la corta ayuda a asegurar que tendrá lugar una regeneración natural adecuada después del aprovechamiento maderero, que a la vez mantendrá al mínimo los efectos de éste sobre la diversidad genética. Una prioridad para los administradores que cuentan con limitados recursos de investigación deberá ser identificar los tipos de especies y las circunstancias (ecológicas, de ordenación u otras) en las cuales no se pueden desarrollar reglas silvícolas sencillas, o bien para las cuales éstas no funcionarán. Esto los obligará a hacer evaluaciones realistas de las especies que parecen estar en riesgo genético de alteración y a desarrollar estrategias de ordenación destinadas a mitigar posibles problemas (Cuadro 2). Por lo tanto, el certificador debe hacer preguntas oportunas al administrador de bosques o a la autoridad silvícola del país, por ejemplo '¿cuáles especies están amenazadas genéticamente por el aprovechamiento maderero?', '¿sobre qué bases las señala?', '¿qué recaudos ha tomado para conservar dichas especies?' De la misma manera, los administradores deberán decidir acerca de los beneficios que un uso alternativo de la tierra tendrán para la conservación. Muchos de los casos analizados aquí son optimistas acerca del valor de conservación de los bosques y árboles remanentes. Cuando amplias extensiones de bosques han dejado de existir, las iniciativas de conservación hacen hincapié en la conectividad de los mosaicos de paisaje. Esos ejemplos muestran una visión más amplia e integrada de la conservación que abarca una serie de mosaicos de uso de la tierra en lugar de bosques intactos solamente. El diseño, ordenación y seguimiento de los bosques y reservas silvícolas comprenderá pues la evaluación de los tipos ordenados de uso de las tierras en términos de cuán bienindividualmente o en combinación-satisfacen los criterios biológicos de conectividad, así como otros requisitos genéticos y ecológicos, y cómo se deberán modificar estos tipos de uso de la tierra para mantener o mejorar la conectividad y la diversidad (Laurance et al. 1997). Sin embargo, evaluaciones de esta naturaleza todavía necesitarán contener elementos específicos del sitio dada la variedad de conectividad, ordenación de especies y objetivos de uso sostenible de la tierra formulados por diferentes individuos y organizaciones, y los diversos grados de resiliencia de los bosques y sus componentes a las alteraciones. En una zona de amplia canopia silvícola, los agroecosistemas pueden ser evaluados principalmente por el flujo de genes, mientras que en un paisaje mucho más deforestado se debe buscar un más completo complemento de los beneficios biológicos de los agroecosistemas con su específica ubicación en el corredor que conecta diferentes zonas de igual importancia con arreglo a las especies que comprende. Por ejemplo, en la altamente deforestada zona de bosque xerofítico de Honduras occidental, el sistema tradicional de barbecho Quezungual que comprende la ordenación de arbustos regenerados en forma natural, árboles frutales y árboles madereros junto con cultivos (Kass et al. 1993), ofrece una variedad de beneficios de conservación genética a una serie de especies arbóreas nativas. Otros sistemas agrícolas complejos, como el tradicional cafeto cultivado bajo abrigo, pueden también aprovechar mucho los beneficios de la conservación genética. En contraste, sistemas más sencillos con solo algunos árboles de llanura pueden ofrecer menos beneficios de conservación genética, y no parece que sean mediadores efectivos de flujo de polen para las especies que no tienen mecanismos de autoincompatibilidad.Por lo tanto, cuando sea apropiado, la ordenación de bosques y especies de árboles debe también tener en cuenta los sistemas de cultivo que se practican en la zona, junto con la densidad de los árboles y su origen y si la regeneración es natural o plantada. Por ejemplo, el mantenimiento de árboles madereros nativos como piso dominante en amplias zonas transformadas en plantaciones de cafeto parece tener efectos genéticos benéficos para el flujo de genes, la cantidad de individuos y la conservación de esas especies arbóreas. En cambio, cuando dicho sistema de ordenación se practica solo en una zona pequeña, la producción de semillas puede mostrar una diversidad genética reducida a causa del cruzamiento biparental o de parientes (Boshier et al. 2004).El análisis de claros, un medio científico para evaluar hasta qué punto las especies animales y vegetales nativas están protegidas, es una herramienta apropiada para integrar este tipo de información y examinar la eficacia de los actuales mosaicos de uso de la tierra para conservar los recursos genéticos de las especies objetivo. Estudios recientes de ocho especies de coníferas nativas del Pacífico noroccidental de los EE.UU. estratificaron la distribución de las especies en unidades de conservación genética y emplearon análisis de claros para identificar las unidades en las cuales los recursos genéticos no estaban bien conservados (es decir donde había menos de 5000 ejemplares reproductivos) en las zonas protegidas (Lipow et al. 2004).Documentar y evaluar el impacto humano en la diversidad genética de los árboles silvícolas es un desafío. La diversidad de la biología y ecología de los genes de las especies arbóreas hace que respondan de diversa manera a los diferentes tipos de alteraciones humanas, y por lo tanto la evaluación de las relaciones causales y las repercusiones directas no se deben generalizar fácilmente. Los restantes capítulos de este libro ofrecen otros ejemplos de los efectos que producen los seres humanos en especies con diferentes características biológicas.Sin embargo los casos examinados en este capítulo ponen en evidencia algunas pautas que como tales tienen implicaciones en las actividades destinadas a conservar los RGS. Esto queda bien ilustrado en el caso de los fragmentos silvícolas remanentes y de los árboles aislados en las fincas. La evidencia resumida en este capítulo sugiere que los árboles existentes en una serie de paisajes y agroecosistemas complejos pueden desempeñar en efecto un papel importante en la viabilidad genética de largo plazo de muchas especies arbóreas nativas. Cumplirán este objetivo facilitando el flujo de genes entre los fragmentos silvícolas, conservando los genotipos que no se encuentran en las reservas o fragmentos, ayudando a mantener un mínimo viable de poblaciones y actuando como intermediarios y huéspedes alternativos para los polinizadores y los dispersadores de semillas (Harvey y Haber 1999); de esta manera funcionarán como corredores biológicos. Así, es importante reconocer el papel complementario que puede desempeñar el mantenimiento de árboles en las fincas para conservar los RGS.A pesar de esta afirmación y no obstante que los árboles mantenidos en los sistemas agrícolas contribuyen indudablemente a la reproducción de los bosques remanentes, los beneficios y efectos son complejos y varían de una especie a otra. Es decir que una representación despareja o excesiva de esos árboles en los caudales de polen puede producir un cruzamiento no aleatorio y la reducción de la diversidad genética en las generaciones subsiguientes. Emplear árboles que crecen en los sistemas agrícolas como fuente de semillas para la restauración ecológica es objeto de debate, especialmente en situaciones donde las fuentes 'locales' de semillas, supuestamente adaptadas a las condiciones locales, pueden presentar problemas de baja diversidad genética y endogamia.Por lo tanto no debemos ni subestimar ni sobreestimar el grado en que los árboles que crecen en los agroecosistemas pueden beneficiar la conservación genética de las especies arbóreas silvícolas. Esto es verdad en especial para muchas de las especias arbóreas que se encuentran en los agroecosistemas y que también están presentes en cantidades adecuadas en los fragmentos silvícolas existentes. Por otro lado, algunas especies amenazadas por su bajo número de ejemplares derivado sea de la deforestación, fragmentación, prácticas de aprovechamiento maderero o rareza natural, no se encontrarán profusamente en los agroecosistemas puesto que las condiciones de esos ambientes domesticados no son favorables para su regeneración. Por lo tanto, la mayor posibilidad de que los árboles desempeñen un papel de conservación en los agroecosistemas se dará en zonas altamente deforestadas donde los fragmentos silvícolas o las reservas son pequeños o no existen, y donde la salvaguarda de esos árboles representa una parte importante del caudal de genes de una población o especie en particular. Bajo estas circunstancias, la conservación de las especies arbóreas en paisajes domesticados, a menudo bajo los auspicios de prácticas tradicionales de ordenación, puede liberar recursos que se destinen a especies arbóreas amenazadas de manera más crítica y que requieren métodos de conservación más convencionales y demandan muchos recursos, incluyendo por lo general métodos in situ. Subestimar la capacidad de muchas especies para persistir en grandes cantidades en dichos agroecosistemas puede desviar la asignación de los limitados recursos de conservación hacia especies que no se encuentran realmente amenazadas (Boshier et al. 2004).Los beneficios de las diferentes prácticas de uso de la tierra para la conservación de los RGS deben ser reconocidos, promovidos y por supuesto evaluados continuamente. El desarrollo y ejecución de estrategias de conservación en zonas sujetas a la perturbación provocada por el hombre requiere un método interdisciplinario que equilibre los requisitos de conservación con las necesidades humanas básicas. Debemos hacer ver a las organizaciones de desarrollo que la regeneración natural puede tener beneficios para la conservación a la vez que proveer los recursos socioeconómicos preferidos por los habitantes locales. También debemos buscar una estrecha consulta con todas las partes involucradas para determinar no solamente el potencial de integración de la conservación y el desarrollo económico, sino también qué especies pueden ser conservadas en estos sistemas, tanto desde la perspectiva biológica como de uso. Esto requerirá que las organizaciones de desarrollo se interesen por la conservación de la biodiversidad y que haya una eficaz comunicación de ida y vuelta entre ambos grupos. Una colaboración de este tipo asegurará los beneficios de la conservación y del desarrollo e incluirá la difusión de germoplasma arbóreo diverso y adaptado localmente para satisfacer los múltiples requisitos de bienes y servicios de la gente.Organization (CSIRO) Publishing, Melbourne, Australia and CAB International, Wallingford, UK. Young, A., T.J. Boyle and T. Brown. 1996 En este capítulo se analizan los principales factores que influyen en el éxito o fracaso de la ordenación de los recursos silvícolas a escala comunal en una serie de contextos de América del Sur. Se revisan y resumen los postulados de la creciente bibliografía que trata este tema y luego se los examina en el contexto de estudios de caso de cinco países de América del Sur. La mayoría de los especialistas que estudian las disposiciones institucionales destinadas a administrar recursos naturales coincide en que los bosques deben ser considerados fuentes de recursos comunes (FRC) puesto que no son bienes públicos ni privados pero comparten elementos de ambos. Esta característica hace que los bosques sean particularmente vulnerables a la degradación y sobreaprovechamiento porque es difícil excluir a la gente de su disfrute (es decir que son recursos \"sustraíbles\"; ver la Sección 2 más adelante), lo que lleva a un consumo excesivo. Para evitar resultados tan negativos y lograr la sostenibilidad silvícola, decimos que las comunidades que administran bosques necesitan instituciones. Estas se definen aquí como conjuntos de reglas acordadas y respetadas por la mayoría de los miembros de la comunidad, que controlan el acceso y regulan la competencia por los recursos silvícolas (Winter 1998;Ostrom et al. 2002).La Sección 2 de este capítulo presenta a los bosques como FRC, describiendo y analizando los principales problemas que enfrentan los grupos de usuarios para administrarlos. Esta sección también examina los principales factores, atributos e indicadores vinculados con la eficacia de la ordenación comunal de los bosques, resumidos como atributos tanto del recurso como de sus usuarios. El estudio se funda principalmente en investigaciones de Ostrom (1998), Gibson et al. (2000) y Agrawal (2001) que resumen los problemas planteados a la ordenación comunitaria de los bosques, y que derivan de los atributos particulares del recurso, en este caso el bosque, y de los usuarios.La Sección 3 presenta un examen histórico de algunos aspectos específicos de la ordenación comunal de los bosques en América del Sur. Comparados con los grupos comunitarios silvícolas formales de regiones en desarrollo de Africa oriental y Asia meridional, los grupos de usuarios de América del Sur tienen acceso a recursos silvícolas relativamente valiosos. Si bien en América del Sur la legislación formal que permite el aprovechamiento comunitario de los bosques es más bien reciente, los problemas de las comunidades rurales para administrarlos no son nuevos. En consecuencia, consideramos que contar en América del Sur con instituciones locales mitigará positivamente los efectos de factores exógenos como las políticas nacionales y las fuerzas de mercado.La Sección 4 de este capítulo presenta tres breves estudios de caso que destacan de qué manera algunas comunidades rurales han modificado sus instituciones locales vinculadas con el sector silvícola o cómo pueden obtener ventajas de las nuevas reglamentaciones gubernamentales y oportunidades de mercado. El Caso 1 proviene de Bolivia, donde las leyes exigen a las comunidades indígenas Yuracaré que documenten el uso histórico de la tierra antes de poder asegurarse la propiedad del bosque. Los yuracaré tienen también que desarrollar un plan de ordenación silvícola aprobado por el servicio silvícola antes de aprovechar los árboles, incluso los que se encuentran en sus propias tierras. Trabajando con un equipo del International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) que incluye a profesionales de ciencias sociales y expertos silvícolas, las comunidades pudieron documentar su historia y desarrollar planes silvícolas para adquirir esos derechos. Como consecuencia, los usos tradicionales de subsistencia de los bosques se ampliaron e incluyen ahora cosechas para el mercado, y los yuracaré tuvieron que desarrollar nuevas instituciones locales para aprovechar las nuevas oportunidades de mercado (Becker y Leon 2000).El Caso 2 proviene de México. Allí un grupo indígena zapoteca tenía instituciones locales para ordenar bosques para su subsistencia, pero de acuerdo con el gobierno se reorganizaron para aprovechar los nuevos derechos a comercializar maderas industriales con el gobierno mexicano. A la fecha la comunidad ha desarrollado planes de ordenación silvícola y recibirá un nuevo certificado silvícola de parte del Programa \"SmartWood\" del Consejo de Administración Silvícola, una organización no gubernamental (ONG) creada para promover la ordenación responsable de los bosques en todo el mundo.El Caso 3 proviene de Honduras, donde nuevas leyes han trasladado la propiedad legal de grandes zonas boscosas del gobierno nacional a las municipalidades. Sin embargo los habitantes del lugar afirman que esto no resuelve muchos de sus problemas, por lo que organizaron cooperativas y federaciones de cooperativas para fortalecer su capacidad para negociar mejores contratos, accesos y mercadeo.En la Sección 5 se presenta un análisis descriptivo de los datos del IFRI acerca de las principales características de los bosques en América del Sur, a fin de hacer resaltar las oportunidades y desafíos que enfrentan allí los grupos de usuarios de los bosques. En esa sección figuran también nuestras expectativas de que allí donde los grupos de usuarios hayan organizado sus actividades colectivas de manera más cohesionada, encontraremos bosques más saludables.También en esa sección se aplicaron estadísticas descriptivas y un análisis sencillo de tabulación cruzada para examinar los datos empíricos sobre los atributos y características de las colonias o aldeas, los grupos de usuarios de bosques y los bosques mismos. Los investigadores del programa de investigación del IFRI recogieron esta información en visitas a 34 sitios de Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras y México entre 1994 y 2002.La información de cada uno de esos lugares se recogió siguiendo los mismos métodos y procedimientos para que los datos pudieran compararse.Las estadísticas descriptivas elaboradas en esos lugares ilustran la variedad de condiciones locales presentes en nuestro ejemplo. El análisis de tabulación cruzada evalúa la relación de las instituciones locales con las condiciones de los bosques de cada uno de los sitios para comprobar si hay alguna asociación estadísticamente significativa entre unas actividades colectivas altamente organizadas y las condiciones relativamente buenas del bosque. Nuestros resultados indican que mientras más fuertes son las instituciones locales para el seguimiento y aprovechamiento del bosque mejores son sus condiciones, pero no podemos afirmar que contar con instituciones locales fuertes sea suficiente para resolver cualquier tipo de dilema colectivo.A medida que crecen la población humana y sus necesidades, los ciudadanos y funcionarios de todo el mundo buscan soluciones para el problema de la degradación de los bosques y la deforestación. Numerosos factores contribuyen a que la ordenación eficaz de los bosques tropiece con muchos desafíos. La mayoría de estos desafíos surgen de las características biofísicas de los recursos silvícolas.Los especialistas en políticas clasifican los recursos en bienes públicos o privados sobre la base de dos características: (i) la facilidad con que los potenciales usuarios externos puedan ser excluidos del acceso a los recursos = la \"excluibilidad\" del bien y (ii) si una vez consumido un recurso queda disponible para el consumo de otros = la \"consunción\" de un bien (Ostrom y Ostrom 1999). La consunción puede ser tanto sustractiva como conjunta; en el primer caso un bien consumido por un hogar deja de estar disponible para otro (por ejemplo, un árbol) y el segundo muestra una situación en la cual un hogar puede gozar los beneficios de un bien sin sustraerlo de la cantidad disponible para otro (por ejemplo el aire puro; Varughese 1999).Por lo tanto, los bienes varían según sus atributos inherentes. Los bienes no excluibles ni sujetos a rivalidad, como los peces de los océanos, se llaman FRC. Los bienes públicos como un clima estable no son excluibles ni sustraíbles y benefician a toda la humanidad, mientras que los bienes privados son tanto excluibles como sustraíbles. Los bienes sujetos a tarifa, como las carreteras con peaje, son excluibles pero no sustraíbles. El Cuadro 1 ilustra la complejidad de los recursos silvícolas, resumiendo sus diferentes atributos biofísicos.La definición de propiedad común varía entre los especialistas. No obstante, la mayoría de las definiciones de derechos de propiedad común incluyen los siguientes elementos: (i) un grupo de copropietarios bien definido, quienes (ii) establecen y adhieren a un régimen de ordenación bien definido que incluye (iii) el acceso proscripto por los propietarios y la exclusión de los no propietarios y (iv) los derechos y deberes de los dueños con respecto a las proporciones de uso del recurso de propiedad común (Feeny et al. 1990;Swaney 1990;Bromley 1991).Todas las FRC son sustraíbles de su ambiente natural con poca excluibilidad, e incluyen recursos como forraje, leña, hierbas, frutos y agua. Pero una vez que han sido sustraídos por un hogar se transforman en bienes privados y por lo tanto son fácilmente excluibles. Los bienes públicos como el aire puro y el agua pura pueden ser consumidos no solo por los hogares que comparten el bosque sino también por otras personas ajenas al mismo. Sin embargo, los bosques también pueden entrar en la categoría de bienes sujetos a tarifa si existen zonas sagradas a las cuales solo pueden ir algunas personas autorizadas, cuando las reglas internas del grupo de usuarios silvícolas excluyen a todos los demás hogares.Se considera que los mecanismos de mercado son las mejores instituciones para gobernar los bienes privados y los sujetos a tarifa, en especial a causa de sus características de fácil excluibilidad. Dada su no sustraibilidad se piensa por lo general que los bienes públicos son mejor ordenados en la esfera de competencia de los gobiernos. Por otro lado las FRC combinan aspectos problemáticos de ambas dimensiones. Puesto que son sustraíbles como los bienes privados, pueden ser sobreutilizados e incluso destruidos, pero dado que suele resultar costoso controlar el acceso a los mismos (= excluibilidad) puede ser difícil restringir el porcentaje de consumo. La mayoría de los recursos naturales por los que todos se preocupan son los de las fuentes de bienes comunes. Entre ellosExclusión DiffícilForraje, leña, hierbas, frutosHábitat de especies vegetales y animales, clima local, protección de la cuenca hidrográfica, extracción de carbón, reservorios de biodiversidadForraje, leña, hierbas, frutos, aguaZonas o productos de significado religioso Cuadro 1. Agrupación de los productos silvícolas sobre la base de dos series de atributos. Fuente: adaptado de Varughese (1999).están los productos silvícolas, el agua para riego y la pesca. Su ordenación eficaz sigue siendo una de las tareas más difíciles que enfrenta la política pública moderna. La mayoría de los ecosistemas silvícolas comparte las principales características de las FRC y, como tales, su gobierno plantea desafíos diferentes y considerablemente más difíciles que los recursos de menor escala, sean estos privados o públicos. Otra complicación del uso de los recursos silvícolas es que ciertos tipos de uso de los bosques pueden producir significativos efectos secundarios o externos (= externalidades). Por ejemplo, el aprovechamiento de árboles en la ladera de una colina puede alterar la composición local de especies, la capacidad de extracción de carbón de un ecosistema silvícola mayor o, a causa del entarquinado, la calidad de los cursos de agua y lagos vecinos. Por ello el gobierno eficaz de los recursos silvícolas debe adoptar un punto de vista más amplio respecto de las externalidades vinculadas con la ordenación a fin de evitar efectos negativos.Por último, la naturaleza espacial y temporal de los bosques y sus externalidades potenciales a menudo no coinciden con las jurisdicciones políticas existentes. Los límites de los bosques rara vez coinciden con las fronteras políticas, lo que da a los administradores locales una comprensión apenas parcial del recurso silvícola total. A menudo se necesitan décadas para que un bosque degradado se regenere, y puede llevar el mismo tiempo comprender el verdadero impacto de las políticas silvícolas. Sin embargo, las instituciones políticas por lo general alientan a los funcionarios para que operen en marcos temporales más breves. Por lo tanto no es raro que quienes elaboran las políticas ignoren algunos de los problemas más serios relacionados con los bosques.En resumen, los bosques presentan muchas características que desafían las soluciones políticas simples. Las FRC, donde resulta difícil la exclusión de los usuarios potenciales, pueden plantear desafíos de ordenación a los responsables de las políticas y a quienes las hacen cumplir. Los bosques plantean importantes externalidades con relación a sus servicios atmosféricos, hidrológicos y biológicos, muchos de los cuales son difíciles de cuantificar y controlar. Los bosques son también complejos en el sentido de que pueden generar una miríada de productos como madera de construcción o combustible, fauna silvestre entrampada o cazada, hojas, frutos, forrajes, semillas, paja, sombra, recreación, piedras y suelo fértil, junto con gran número de otros productos consumidos por la gente. Todos estos productos pueden madurar a diferente velocidad, pueden ser ordenados utilizando tanto métodos consuntivos como no consuntivos y pueden tener características de fuente común, bienes públicos o privados, a la vez que proveen servicios de ecosistemas a las localidades, las regiones o los países.Uno de los motivos más comunes de confusión acerca de la ordenación de las FRC es la dificultad de distinguir sus características del respectivo régimen de derechos de propiedad. Parte de esta confusión parece surgir de la terminología misma. Por ejemplo, el derecho a una FRC como ser un bosque puede pertenecer al público en general (= propiedad estatal), al gobierno (= propiedad gubernamental) a un individuo privado (= propiedad privada individual) o a un grupo de individuos (= propiedad privada de un grupo). De igual manera \"cuando no pertenecen a nadie o, paradójicamente pertenecen a 'todos', son utilizados como recursos abiertos a quienquiera que pueda acceder\" (Ostrom 2003). McKean (2000) afirma que el derecho individual de propiedad privada no suele ser la mejor base para ordenar eficazmente un bosque. Argumenta que la privatización de los bosques conduce a menudo a su fragmentación, lo que puede alterar gravemente el adecuado funcionamiento del ecosistema silvícola. Dados estos inconvenientes, ella considera que los bosques están mejor adaptados para ser ordenados en regímenes de propiedad común que tienen mayores probabilidades de mantener juntas porciones mucho más grandes de bosques contiguos. Estos sistemas también tienden a ser administrados de manera más eficaz.Gobernar los bosques como propiedad privada común puede tener muchas ventajas respecto de tratarlos como propiedad privada individual, pero esto no significa que esté exenta de sus propios problemas. Los usuarios de los bosques pueden tener intereses y finalidades en conflicto con respecto a su uso. Además, los individuos de un mismo grupo de usuarios pueden tener diversos niveles de conocimiento acerca del recurso y diferente acceso a la información, a los recursos económicos y al poder político. Estas asimetrías complican los esfuerzos individuales tendientes a alcanzar un buen resultado conjunto, o sea a definir el modo en que deberían ordenar el bosque de propiedad colectiva. Los especialistas en ciencias sociales dedican considerable atención a los problemas que plantea el gobierno de los bosques como propiedad común. En la siguiente sección se examinan los principales resultados de esta rama de investigación de las ciencias sociales.Los problemas de las actividades colectivas \"surgen cuando los individuos que forman parte de un grupo seleccionan estrategias cuyos resultados no son óptimos desde el punto de vista de todo el grupo\" (Ostrom y Walker 1997). Estos problemas son provocados por falta de información, dificultades de coordinación, obstáculos para lograr la exclusión y rivalidades en la extracción (Poteete y Ostrom 2002). Esto produce asimetrías en la información y entonces surgen los problemas de motivación (Ostrom et al. 1993). Algunos de ellos o todos juntos pueden terminar por deteriorar al(a los) bosque(s) comunitario(s). Ciertas comunidades son capaces de superar estos problemas desarrollando instituciones altamente organizadas para hacerles frente, pero otras no.Sobre la base de una serie de observaciones de campo, Ostrom (1990) afirmó que las comunidades locales pueden organizarse a sí mismas para resolver complejos problemas de actividades colectivas vinculadas con el gobierno de los recursos naturales. En efecto, las comunidades locales han demostrado a menudo que sus esfuerzos autoorganizados para ordenar los recursos silvícolas pueden superar el rendimiento de los programas de gobierno (McCay y Acheson 1990;Ostrom 1990;Feeny et al. 1998).Sin embargo, si la coerción gubernamental podía producir resultados colectivos positivos, no tenía objeto que las instituciones que ordenan con eficacia los bosques se organizaran a sí mismas. En muchos lugares del mundo este fue el método de ordenación silvícola aceptado hasta hace tan poco como 30 años atrás (Arnold 1992(Arnold , 1998;;Wunsch y Olowu 1995). Las políticas basadas en el control coercitivo enfatizan el aprovechamiento 'científico' del bosque en un contexto de ganancias económicas (Richards y Tucker 1988;Scott 1998). Sabemos hoy que ese tipo de método puede no ser eficaz para ordenar bosques, no solo por los costos que involucra sino porque a menudo las comunidades locales sencillamente no confían en los programas estatales centralizados. Por lo general en regiones de escasos recursos donde los productos silvícolas son esenciales para la subsistencia local o donde los bosques están aislados, los agentes del control estatal no pueden garantizar, administrar o proteger los bosques. Este tipo de estrategia de arriba hacia abajo puede generar también efectos colaterales indeseables, por ejemplo las políticas pueden no ser suficientemente flexibles como para tener en cuenta las variaciones ecológicas locales o las necesidades, conocimientos y preferencias de la gente del lugar.En estos últimos 30 años han tenido lugar significativas mutaciones en las normas de gobierno silvícola aceptadas. Uno de los cambios principales fue trasladar a las comunidades los derechos de propiedad de los bosques. Sobre la base de que las comunidades locales viven con los bosques, son las usuarias primarias de los productos silvícolas y a menudo crean reglas de facto que afectan de manera significativa las condiciones de los bosques, los expertos y los responsables de políticas afirman que frecuentemente (si bien no siempre) se pueden alcanzar resultados más equitativos y eficaces transfiriendo los derechos de jure sobre los bosques a las comunidades locales (Perry y Dixon 1986 ;Arnold 1990;Bhatt 1990;Dei 1992;Douglass 1992;Ghai 1993;Raju et al. 1993;Ascher 1995; Clugston y Rogers 1995; para las revisiones véase Wiesner 1990; Baland y Platteau 1996). El postulado clave es que los usuarios locales poseen importantes conocimientos específicos sobre tiempos y lugares que servirán para planificar una ordenación silvícola correcta, y en particular para establecer los arreglos institucionales necesarios para alcanzar el éxito (McCay y Acheson 1987;Berkes 1989;Ostrom 1990Ostrom , 1992a;;Bromley et al. 1992;McKean 1992;Peters 1994;Wade 1994).Desde que el manejo comunitario de los bosques está recibiendo más atención de parte de los responsables de políticas se viene desarrollando una bibliografía empírica relativa a las causas del éxito o fracaso de la ordenación de los recursos naturales basada en la comunidad. En un documento de 1999, Ostrom sugiere que si bien las condiciones necesarias para lograr una ordenación comunal eficaz varían según los contextos y los países, hay algunas que son básicas para el buen gobierno local. Estas condiciones pueden agruparse en dos series de variables: los atributos del recurso y los atributos de los usuarios, como se describe en el Recuadro 1, página siguiente.Si los usuarios tienen los atributos listados en el Recuadro 1 es más posible que quieran invertir tiempo y esfuerzo en la ordenación de sus recursos silvícolas, a menos que perciban que dichos recursos están amenazados de alguna manera y que la competencia por los mismos se ha hecho aguda. A fin de lograr un gobierno silvícola comunal de éxito debe haber una relación positiva entre costos y beneficios. Siempre que haya suficiente información disponible, los bosques en buenas condiciones con suficientes productos disponibles darán a las personas más posibilidades de elegir. En esas condiciones los individuos podrán elaborar prácticas que produzcan y sostengan un sistema autoorganizado de ordenación silvícola.Los atributos de los recursos descritos en el Recuadro 1 ayudan a definir hipótesis en las que la organización de la ordenación comunal reporta beneficios. Pero esto sucederá solo si los productos relacionados con el bosque generan significativos ingresos monetarios o de subsistencia para las poblaciones locales y se minimizan las posibles causas de conflicto, de manera que puedan establecerse acuerdos confiables. Entre los atributos de los bosques, el tamaño es un factor determinante de particular importancia para el éxito de la ordenación comunal. Otro factor contextual importante es la autonomía que permita a los usuarios del bosque elaborar por sí mismos las reglas de la ordenación silvícola, y ponerlas en práctica.Si bien esta lista no intenta de manera alguna agotar todos los factores determinantes posibles que modelan la ordenación autoorganizada de los bosques de propiedad común, abarca un número suficiente de los más relevantes e influyentes. Pero hay que tener en cuenta que para cada situación esta serie dependerá del contexto ambiental y socioeconómico.En esta sección se presenta un breve panorama histórico de algunas características de la ordenación silvícola comunal particular de América del Sur. En comparación con otras regiones en desarrollo como Africa oriental y occidental y Asia meridional (Agrawal y Ribot 2000) los grupos de usuarios de bosques en América del Sur tienen acceso a recursos silvícolas relativamente valiosos. Si bien la legislación que permite la ordenación silvícola comunal en América del Sur es bastante reciente, no es nuevo el reto que representa para las comunidades rurales gobernar sus bosques. Históricamente las actividades silvícolas comunitarias han sido importantes para la supervivencia de la mayor parte de la población rural de América del Sur, aún si el gobierno estatal formal no siempre ha apoyado estas actividades.La mayor parte de las repúblicas independientes de América del Sur conquistaron su libertad durante el siglo XIX. Desde entonces esos países de reciente creación siguieron manteniendo la antigua política de los administradores coloniales de confiscar grandes zonas de tierra a las poblaciones indígenas, permitiéndoles conservar solo pequeñas parcelas de bosques en comparación con las que poseían originalmente. Desde el decenio de 1950 muchos países en desarrollo nacionalizaron este tipo de recursos naturales, como tierras y bosques, para mejorar la ordenación silvícola. Estas zonas pasaron al régimen de propiedad gubernamental de jure, para transformarse más adelante en regímenes de facto de libre acceso (Arnold 1998). Los gobiernos dividieron las FRC en fracciones separadas Recuadro 1. Condiciones para el éxito de la ordenación comunal de los bosquesEl recurso no está ni tan degradado ni tan subutilizado como para que no tenga objeto tratar de organizarlo.Se dispone de información confiable y válida a costos razonables acerca del estado del recurso.Es relativamente fácil predecir el suministro del producto silvícola.El recurso es lo suficientemente pequeño como para que los usuarios, con la tecnología de transporte y comunicaciones disponible, puedan abarcar sus microambientes y conocer dónde están los límites.Una parte importante de la subsistencia o supervivencia de los usuarios depende del recurso.Los usuarios comparten la comprensión del recurso y saben de qué manera sus actividades afectan al recurso y a los demás.Los usuarios atribuyen un valor suficientemente elevado a los beneficios futuros que derivarán del recurso silvícola como para hacer que su ordenación comunitaria resulte atractiva.La ordenación coordinada del recurso afecta a todos los usuarios por igual, independientemente de su poder o grado de bienestar.Los usuarios confían unos en otros para mantener las promesas y establecer relaciones mutuamente beneficiosas.Los usuarios pueden establecer reglas de acceso y aprovechamiento sin que las autoridades externas manden en contrario.Los usuarios han adquirido al menos una capacidad mínima de organización participando en otras asociaciones locales o en grupos vecinos.Fuente : Ostrom 1999. y más adelante esas tierras fueron distribuidas a los miembros de la elite gobernante como propiedad privada y no como concesiones del gobierno, como era en la tradición colonial. Si bien estas \"reformas\" mejoraron la seguridad de la tenencia de los propietarios silvícolas, tuvieron numerosas consecuencias socioeconómicas indeseables, como por ejemplo una distribución no equitativa de los derechos de propiedad silvícola. Estas reformas privatizadoras ofrecieron oportunidades de lucro a los miembros más ricos de la sociedad mientras que los grupos más pobres perdieron acceso a los recursos de los cuales dependía su supervivencia.Para mediados del Siglo XX la mayoría de los países de América del Sur tenía en curso programas gubernamentales que promovían la colonización masiva tanto de los bosques tropicales nunca explotados como de los bosques habitados por poblaciones indígenas. Políticas de este tipo formaban parte integral de las estrategias de gobierno para aliviar la presión sobre tierras agrícolas paulatinamente más escasas en las regiones de mayor densidad poblacional y para estimular el crecimiento de economías agropecuarias orientadas a la exportación.Por esta razón, hasta tan tarde como mediados del siglo XX la conservación de los bosques no era un tema tenido en consideración por los gobiernos de América del Sur, que tampoco se preocupaban por los derechos tradicionales de los pueblos indígenas. Las prácticas y políticas gubernamentales típicas siguieron expulsando poblaciones indígenas de sus tierras o reduciendo fuertemente la extensión geográfica de las tierras tradicionales. Las políticas se destinaron a mejorar las condiciones de operación y propiedad de empresarios privados agrícolas y madereros en gran escala, aunque la adopción de políticas no equitativas condujera a situaciones en que los bosques podían ser de propiedad pública del estado-nación, o propiedad de facto de ciudadanos privados, u otorgados a ciudadanos privados bajo transferencia formal de los derechos de propiedad privada, o permanecer como recursos de libre acceso. La preferencia de las políticas nacionales por la agricultura, junto con conflictos de uso de la tierra entre usuarios con reclamos superpuestos, produjo un alto nivel de inseguridad en cuanto a la tenencia de los bosques. Como resultado, la maximización del provecho a corto plazo dominó la lógica de las prácticas de ordenación silvícola en la región en vez de estimularse la inversión de tiempo y dinero para obtener sistemas de ordenación de largo plazo (Pacheco 1999;Contreras y Vargas 2001;Andersson 2002).A pesar de que la mayoría de los países de América del Sur en algún momento reformó la legislación de tierras y bosques en favor de los derechos privados, han persistido diversas formas de acceso colectivo a los recursos naturales. Ejemplo de ello son las instituciones comunitarias de Bolivia, Ecuador y Perú, los 'ejidos' de México y Guatemala y los territorios indígenas de Bolivia y Colombia. Por ende la mayoría de los cambios recientes de legislación a nivel constitucional no han tenido implicaciones prácticas para la mayoría de la población local, que ya estaba administrando los recursos como si fueran de su propiedad.Para fines del siglo XX la mayor parte de los países de América del Sur introdujo nuevas series de políticas destinadas a fortalecer la conservación del ambiente y restaurar los derechos de los grupos indígenas a las tierras. En algunos países el cambio se realiza a través de un proceso binario en el cual las ONG locales, regionales o internacionales ayudan a los grupos indígenas a articular sus demandas mientras el gobierno central organiza la transferencia de los derechos de arriba hacia abajo (Hernáiz y Pacheco 2001;Urioste y Pacheco 2001).En la actualidad los gobiernos nacionales de la mayoría de los países de América del Sur reconocen públicamente la importancia de las instituciones locales para la ordenación sostenible de los recursos naturales, aunque muchas de ellas deben todavía hacerse efectivas. Si bien algunas políticas recientes han apoyado los derechos de jure de grupos de usuarios silvícolas locales previamente ignorados, así como el reforzamiento de los gobiernos locales (municipales), solamente ahora se está comenzando a traducirlos en una atribución real de derechos a las instituciones de nivel comunitario para que administren el sector silvícola. Es interesante notar que estudios recientes en Bolivia, Colombia y Guatemala muestran que los nuevos gobiernos municipales fuertes que ponen el acento en colaborar con una variedad de actores gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, incluidos los grupos locales de usuarios de bosques, trabajan mucho mejor para apoyar la seguridad de la tenencia del bosque que las municipalidades que siguen el clásico esquema de gobierno de arriba hacia abajo (Gibson y Lehoucq 2003;Andersson 2004).En esta sección presentamos un examen de las oportunidades y desafíos que enfrentan los grupos locales de usuarios silvícolas para administrar sus bosques en América del Sur. Examinamos primero tres estudios de caso de bosques comunitarios en Bolivia, México (de Tucker et al. 1999) y Honduras para ilustrar de qué manera las comunidades pueden organizar el aprovechamiento de sus bosques a fin de beneficiarse de las nuevas oportunidades que aparecen.Los estudios de caso se analizan bajo la premisa de que el desempeño de las instituciones locales es crucial no solo para el éxito de la ordenación comunal del bosque sino también para el desarrollo de prácticas silvícolas sostenibles en general. Examinaremos ulteriormente nuestras hipótesis en relación con datos recogidos en trabajos de campo por los Centros Colaboradores de Investigación (CCI) del IFRI en Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras y México entre 1994 y 2002. Presentamos un conjunto de atributos y características de 34 colonias y 47 grupos de usuarios silvícolas que tienen acceso a zonas boscosas de diverso tamaño, escogidas para reflejar la heterogeneidad de las regiones de América del Sur en cuanto a las relaciones de las comunidades rurales con los bosques.Se define como grupos de usuarios silvícolas a las personas que comparten los mismos derechos y deberes respecto de los productos del(los) bosque(s) (es decir que un grupo puede dedicarse al aprovechamiento de la madera industrial, a la recolección de plantas medicinales o frutos, o a la caza) estén o no formalmente organizados. Una colonia es una jurisdicción local habitada por uno o más grupos de usuarios silvícolas. También se la puede denominar comunidad o aldea rural. No existe una relación uno a uno entre el número de bosques y de colonias puesto que una colonia puede abarcar más de un bosque. Por lo tanto el número de bosques puede ser mayor que el de las colonias, como es el caso en este estudio.Los yuracaré son un grupo indígena de Bolivia. En el pasado los yuracaré se desplazaban bastante por amplios territorios, pero durante el siglo XIX se establecieron en la cuenca hidrográfica del río Chapare. Este territorio está ahora ocupado por once grandes familias yuracaré, cada una de ellas compuesta por 11 a 20 familias nucleares. De acuerdo con el censo de 2001 la población total del grupo era entonces de 2 358 personas.En los últimos 20 años las reglamentaciones silvícolas de Bolivia establecieron las condiciones en que los grupos indígenas pueden aprovechar comercialmente los bosques. Estas normas han impulsado a los yuracaré a organizar asociaciones silvícolas locales dedicadas al aprovechamiento comercial de la madera, y a adecuar su organización social y las prácticas de ordenación silvícola a los objetivos perseguidos por las reglamentaciones. Al igual que otras sociedades indígenas que viven en las tierras bajas de Bolivia, los yuracaré ordenan sus recursos naturales apoyándose en sus instituciones de autogobierno tradicionales.En 1992 los yuracaré crearon una asociación silvícola y recibieron un permiso anual de parte de la dirección silvícola nacional (CDS, Centro para el Desarrollo Silvícola), que autorizaba un aprovechamiento regulado de la madera. En el ámbito de la asociación, cada yuracaré convenía la cantidad de madera que aprovecharía en forma individual con arreglo a su propia experiencia y necesidades. Esta práctica reforzó el conocimiento de cada yuracaré respecto del conjunto del territorio y no comprometió las condiciones ecológicas de los bosques. No había reglas técnicas en términos de tamaño para cortar los árboles; los yuracaré desarrollaron más bien su propio sistema de clasificación del bosque, y el aprovechamiento se relacionó con la madurez. El aprovechamiento fue rotativo dentro del territorio, no porque faltaran recursos sino debido a la decisión de los yuracaré de realizar un 'uso sin agotamiento'. El comportamiento social regulado por normas fue un mecanismo importante que controló la relación entre el uso del bosque, las condiciones ecológicas y el aprovechamiento, y esto permitió a los yuracaré asegurar en el tiempo tanto la sostenibilidad del bosque como la de la asociación.En 1996 nuevas reglamentaciones de la tierra en Bolivia transfirieron la propiedad de alrededor del 20% de las tierras bajas del país (20 millones de hectáreas) a unos 30 grupos indígenas en forma de propiedad común. Las tierras bajas de Bolivia abarcan aproximadamente el 70% del país y allí se encuentra aproximadamente el 80% de los bosques bolivianos. Fueron reconocidos los territorios de los grupos indígenas junto con sus derechos consuetudinarios de propiedad y gobierno de los recursos renovables. En 2000 los yuracaré obtuvieron títulos sobre 240 000 hectáreas.Estas nuevas normas impulsaron un proceso que reforzó el sistema de ordenación silvícola de los yuracaré en el marco de un modelo de producción maderera, pero también requirió reglamentaciones más detalladas como la formulación de un Plan de Ordenación Silvícola para la administración colectiva de los bosques. Puesto que la producción de madera era tradicionalmente una empresa individual, los yuracaré tuvieron ahora que desarrollar nuevas instituciones para aprovechar las oportunidades de la nueva legislación. Iniciaron un proceso de aprendizaje a través de la experiencia. Los yuracaré enfrentan actualmente algunos desafíos importantes, como por ejemplo cómo conciliar la ordenación colectiva con la individual, cómo armonizar las decisiones técnicas y colectivas, y cómo pactar contratos conjuntos de ordenación silvícola con empresas de negocios sin perder la capacidad institucional.En la actualidad los yuracaré controlan toda la cuenca hidrográfica del Chapare, practican agricultura, caza, pesca y recolección de recursos silvícolas, principalmente en un contexto de autoconsumo doméstico. En gran medida la población depende del bosque como fuente principal de alimentos para su supervivencia. Las actividades incluyen agricultura estacional itinerante, caza, recolección de frutos y semillas para alimentación y usos medicinales y el aprovechamiento de materiales para la construcción de viviendas y de productos madereros destinados al mercado. Parte de su economía se basa en los productos silvícolas y por lo tanto está sujeta al dinamismo interno y externo del mercado (Becker y Leon 2000).Se estima que un 80% de los bosques de México pueden dividirse en dos categorías de propiedad común: los ejidos y las tierras de las comunidades indígenas. El ejido es un sistema tradicional de ordenación de la tierra y de los recursos naturales que data de los tiempos precoloniales y establece derechos de propiedad común para los hacendados en pequeña escala y los usufructuarios. Cada ejido abarca un número de hogares de hacendados. Tanto los ejidos como las tierras de las comunidades indígenas son administradas y utilizadas por quienes tienen derechos establecidos por reglas consuetudinarias, lo que significa que la autoorganización no es desconocida en esta parte del mundo.La municipalidad de Capulálpam de Méndez (Capulálpam) es una comunidad indígena de lengua zapoteca del estado de Oaxaca, México. Capulálpam está ubicada en la Sierra Norte, hacia el noreste de Oaxaca de Juárez. Su topografía es compleja: la municipalidad se compone de 315 familias cuyas viviendas están dispersas por un paisaje de laderas cubiertas de pinos y robles, rodeadas de campos cultivados. Los habitantes de la comunidad practican muchas tradiciones zapotecas de vieja data.En el decenio de 1960 se produjo un conflicto entre la comunidad indígena y el gobierno estatal, que había otorgado una concesión silvícola a una gran compañía maderera. Dado que los habitantes de Capulálpam no se beneficiaban de este arreglo comercial, organizaron una gran protesta reclamando derechos sobre la concesión silvícola. La campaña tuvo éxito y en el decenio de 1980 lo que comenzara como un movimiento de protesta se convirtió en UZACHI, una unión zapoteco-chinanteca que abarca a la gente de estas sociedades indígenas mexicanas, con derechos a planificar y vigilar la ordenación y uso de los bosques.En la actualidad la comunidad goza de derechos exclusivos de propiedad sobre los bosques. Ha recibido un certificado silvícola del Consejo de Administración Silvícola y un plan de ordenación silvícola aprobado por el gobierno, que guía su toma de decisiones. De acuerdo con este plan, los bosques han sido divididos en unidades de ordenación de manera que el uso intensivo se limita a zonas específicas por períodos dados de tiempo. El plan de ordenación silvícola es supervisado con ayuda de técnicos de UZACHI. No obstante la asamblea de comuneros, compuesta por todos los miembros adultos de la comunidad, determina la mayor parte de las políticas para la administración y uso de los recursos silvícolas, así como la administración del aserradero comunal.Los ingresos de las ventas de madera se invierten nuevamente en la comunidad, principalmente para mejorar la infraestructura municipal. Los beneficios de la empresa silvícola comunal representan trabajo local y contribuciones adicionales al presupuesto municipal. Si bien los ingresos del aprovechamiento comercial silvícola no son suficientes para satisfacer todas las necesidades básicas de infraestructura de la pequeña municipalidad, representan una fuente de ingresos decisiva y han ayudado a estimular ideas y actividades relativas a la conservación de los bosques locales.El 80% de las tierras de Honduras son pendientes con inclinaciones de más del 15%, es decir que la disponibilidad de zonas para practicar la agricultura está sumamente limitada. Sin embargo Honduras posee muchos bosques, estando aproximadamente el 50% del país cubierto por ellos. Muchas personas que viven en y alrededor de los bosques ven en el aprovechamiento silvícola comunal un medio para mejorar su subsistencia, y se han organizado para aprovechar la nueva legislación que trasladó el control jurídico de vastas zonas silvícolas de las administraciones nacionales a los gobiernos municipales. Honduras es un ejemplo interesante de reforma silvícola institucional apoyada por el gobierno, y de la formación de cooperativas por parte de las poblaciones locales para tratar de hacer frente a los problemas relativos a los bosques.En Honduras hay más de 80 cooperativas formadas en localidades que aprovechan productos silvícolas, la mayoría de las cuales trabaja en el campo de la resinación. Otras cooperativas se ocupan de la producción de madera industrial, incluidas algunas que han progresado de la molienda manual a técnicas más sofisticadas. Por ejemplo, debido a los bajos precios que ofrecen las grandes compañías resinadoras, el control del mercado de resina en el país se ha ido restringiendo progresivamente a tres firmas. Esto limita las oportunidades de los productores locales que no pueden competir con esas compañías. Para superar esta desventaja las cooperativas se han agrupado en federaciones cuyo objeto es ocuparse de manera más eficaz de sus problemas comunes a fin de organizar el transporte y vender la resina en los países vecinos para obtener mejores ganancias.En fecha reciente se reunieron en la pequeña comunidad de Yamaranguila líderes de comunidades locales, administradores de cooperativas vinculadas con los bosques y funcionarios de la Dirección de Aprovechamiento Silvícola Social del Servicio Silvícola Hondureño para analizar temas silvícolas. Algunos de los problemas planteados por los líderes comunitarios en esta reunión fueron la dificultad de conseguir recursos para cubrir los costos de los planes de ordenación (que deben ser elaborados antes de aprovechar la madera) y la carencia de títulos de propiedad de la tierra, que limita el acceso a los bosques. Los líderes comunitarios señalaron los beneficios que aportaría una nueva legislación silvícola que ayudara a poner en claro estos temas.Actualmente, antes de utilizar los bosques ordenados por las municipalidades, sus intendentes tienen que firmar y presentar solicitudes al gobierno nacional. Estos intendentes son elegidos en la localidad pero en muchos casos han sido nombrados por partidos políticos cuyas sedes están en la capital de Honduras, Tegucigalpa, y pasan allí la mayor parte de su tiempo. Mientras algunos líderes comunitarios informaron que sus intendentes fueron de ayuda para preparar y llevar adelante las solicitudes de uso de los bosques, otros informaron que sus intendentes estaban frecuentemente ausentes y no parecían interesados en tramitar la documentación requerida para el acceso local a los recursos o para el transporte de la madera en rollo. Los intendentes que más ayudaban eran los de las municipalidades indígenas de Lenca, que cuenta con movimientos de protección silvícola y ambiental organizados desde hace más de 20 años. Si se otorgara a las cooperativas el acceso a los bosques en calidad de propietarias la papelería burocrática quedaría eliminada.Representantes de cooperativas locales y funcionarios del gobierno están actualmente propiciando reformas legislativas cuyo objeto es aclarar las normas que regulan el acceso local a los bosques. La reforma también pretende incrementar el control local sobre el acceso a los bosques, desarrollar planes de ordenación menos costosos y promover la administración de los recursos silvícolas con la participación de las comunidades locales.El Programa de Investigación del IFRI comprende a muchos países y funciona a través de una red internacional de Centros Colaboradores de Investigación (CCI) en América del Sur, Asia y Africa. El IFRI lleva a cabo investigaciones de campo recogiendo datos comparables acerca de las relaciones entre las comunidades rurales y sus recursos silvícolas (IFRI 2002). Cada CCI se vale de equipos multidisciplinarios y de diez protocolos comunes de investigación para recoger datos sobre las condiciones biofísicas de los bosques en sitios señalados, y sobre sus variables socioeconómicas, demográficas, culturales e institucionales empleando técnicas como la valoración rural participativa, e inspecciones y entrevistas a informantes clave tanto individuales como en reuniones de grupo.El propósito de esta sección es examinar el papel de las instituciones locales en el manejo de los bosques. Dado que los usuarios silvícolas locales rara vez aceptan la legislación silvícola nacional al pie de la letra -por ejemplo, no obedecerán automáticamente las reglas sin considerar sus efectos sobre los intereses individuales y los colectivos -la administración de los bosques por parte de sus usuarios y los efectos sobre las condiciones de los mismos dependen en gran medida de cómo se organizan dichos usuarios a sí mismos. Las reglas e instituciones locales de ordenación silvícola determinan la efectividad de estos esfuerzos de organización, restringiendo o premiando conductas específicas de los miembros del grupo de usuarios. Es decir que las instituciones tienen un papel de mediación en el gobierno de los bosques. En esta sección del capítulo pondremos a prueba la hipótesis de que los esfuerzos de los grupos de usuarios silvícolas locales para organizar de manera colectiva el aprovechamiento silvícola, el mercadeo y el seguimiento se relacionan de manera eficaz con un mejor estado sanitario del bosque.El análisis tiene lugar en dos partes. En la primera proponemos las condiciones bajo las cuales se supone que tendrán lugar las actividades colectivas, observando la variación local de numerosos atributos de los recursos y de los usuarios silvícolas. Nuestro propósito es proporcionar un conjunto de datos contextuales de los 34 sitios que consideramos en el análisis (Cuadro 2, pág. siguiente). Las estadísticas descriptivas que presentamos ilustran la variedad de condiciones locales que figuran en nuestro ejemplo. En la segunda parte analizamos las relaciones entre las instituciones locales y las condiciones del bosque en los sitios seleccionados. Llevamos a cabo un análisis sencillo de doble tabulación para verificar si hay una asociación estadísticamente significativa entre unas instituciones locales fuertes y las buenas condiciones del bosque.Nuestros análisis se basan en los atributos directamente medibles a través de la investigación de campo del IFRI, como ser el tipo de propiedad, grado de deterioro Investigaciones anteriores (Ostrom 1992b;Gibson et al. 2000) mostraron la importancia de los derechos de propiedad para excluir del aprovechamiento del bosque a personas ajenas, y por lo tanto para incentivar a las partes interesadas a aportar mejoras a los bosques. Si bien los regímenes de propiedad y/o derechos sobre los bosques en América del Sur presentan diferencias -y durante el último decenio algunos gobiernos han otorgado a las comunidades locales significativos poderes de control sobre las tierras silvícolas -la mayoría de los países han retenido bajo control gubernamental nacional o local la propiedad de grandes extensiones de recursos silvícolas.La Figura 1 muestra que alrededor del 50% de las tierras silvícolas muestreadas eran de dominio público, propiedad de gobiernos locales y nacionales, y que los gobiernos locales poseían alrededor del 30% del total de tierras. La otra mitad de las tierras silvícolas está en manos privadas: el 42% es mantenido en común como propiedad de una colonia o de un grupo aldeano; el 8% restante es de propiedad privada perteneciente a individuos o a empresas. Tratando de comprender qué condiciones favorecerían la acción colectiva, parece razonable afirmar que las comunidades cuyos miembros tienen derechos silvícolas en común serán más propensas a establecer instituciones para administrar los bosques que aquellas comunidades o individuos que aprovechan bosques y tierras de propiedad del gobierno, puesto que mientras menos seguros sean los derechos de propiedad, menos ciertas las perspectivas de recuperar los recursos administrados o producidos mediante actividades colectivas.El deterioro del bosque es otra variable que ayuda a explicar a los grupos de usuarios silvícolas los motivos de la ordenación de sus bosques. A fin de mostrar mejor de qué manera se puede deteriorar un bosque (o perder su valor) el IFRI seleccionó cuatro atributos silvícolas: densidad de la vegetación; diversidad de especies; valor comercial y valor de subsistencia.La Figura 2 (pág. 47) se basa en las evaluaciones de expertos botánicos y muestra que las condiciones de los bosques de los casos estudiados varían mucho de un ejemplo a otro, y que los valores asociados con las condiciones del bosque se distribuyen más o menos normalmente. La mayoría de las opiniones de los expertos entran en la categoría de 'casi normal'. Los atributos de aproximadamente un quinto de todos los bosques evaluados se consideraron de condiciones pobres (muy ralos o bastante ralos) y una proporción ligeramente mayor fue considerada en buenas condiciones (bastante abundante o muy abundante).Para determinar la densidad de la vegetación y la diversidad de especies los expertos botánicos se basaron en rápidas evaluaciones visuales. Los valores comercial y de subsistencia de los recursos silvícolas se analizaron empleando datos de los principales productos silvícolas (tanto si se usaban para la subsistencia como para el comercio) recogidos con arreglo al protocolo del IFRI. Los asesores clasificaron cada variable con arreglo a las siguientes posibilidades: muy ralo, bastante ralo, más o menos normal para esta zona ecológica, más o menos abundante, muy abundante.Ya esperábamos encontrar mejores condiciones, o sea menos deterioro, en los bosques ordenados por comunidades de usuarios con un mayor nivel de desarrollo institucional, y ello porque las comunidades que han desarrollado modos eficaces de trabajar en común serán por lo general más capaces de controlar el acceso al recurso reduciendo así los efectos adversos de la competencia. Un bosque en buenas condiciones puede ser también un estímulo importante para proseguir con el desarrollo institucional. Quienes no acceden a un bosque en buenas condiciones pueden no tener demasiado interés personal en riesgo (= el que resulta de una evaluación de costos-beneficios) que los motive para autoorganizarse y asumir la responsabilidad de ordenar el recurso.La predecibilidad de los productos silvícolas, esto es su disponibilidad de una estación a otra, es también importante para calcular los costos-beneficios que los usuarios tienen en cuenta cuando deciden emprender actividades colectivas de ordenación. En la Figura 3 (pág. 48) aparece la variabilidad de los recursos en el tiempo, y notamos que se percibe que más de la mitad (53%) de los productos silvícolas no varían de una estación a otra. La disponibilidad de un quince por ciento experimenta poca o moderada variación en el tiempo, y los productos que varían de manera dramática y sustancial llegan al 10% y 8% respectivamente. Para un catorce por ciento de productos silvícolas se carece de datos, y se los considera como casos faltantes.Nuestra expectativa era que las comunidades que experimentaban un mayor nivel de incertidumbre en cuanto a la predecibilidad de los productos tendrían menos motivos para organizarse y establecer reglas relativas a las actividades colectivas requeridas para Figura 2. Evaluación de las condiciones silvícolas de 36 bosques examinados en este estudio (7 casos faltantes) desarrollada por expertos botánicos miembros de los equipos del IFRI. Se emplean seis categorías para definir diversas condiciones de los bosques sobre la base de la evaluación de la densidad de los árboles y la riqueza de flores. ordenar los bosques y sus recursos. Es posible que dicha incertidumbre disminuya la percepción de los beneficios netos que se esperan conseguir de la organización.El tamaño de los bosques es una de las variables contextuales que más influyen en la decisión de las comunidades para autoorganizarse y ordenar un bosque. Hallamos que el 52 % de los bosques muestreados tenían menos de 500 hectáreas; el 28 % entraban en el rango de 501 a 3000 has y el 20 % tenía más de 3000 hectáreas (Figura 4). Los bosques ordenados por grupos de usuarios son relativamente pequeños: el 89% de los bosques tienen menos de 5000 hectáreas No obstante, no hay relación directa entre el tamaño del bosque y su efecto en el desarrollo de la ordenación silvícola comunitaria. Por ejemplo, algunas comunidades con acceso a bosques más grandes pueden tener dificultades para establecer organismos reguladores que limiten el acceso de extraños, vigilen la extracción de productos por parte de extraños y controlen el uso de los recursos silvícolas por parte de los miembros Figura 4. Evaluación del tamaños de los bosques (ha) en los 36 sitios silvícolas incluidos en este estudio. de la comunidad que tienen derecho a ello. Dichas comunidades necesitarán también más tiempo y esfuerzos para desarrollar instituciones y emprender actividades que den como resultado mejores condiciones silvícolas. También tendrá más importancia la capacidad del grupo de usuarios locales para ordenar un bosque cuando este sea más grande. Esto puede estimarse examinando la proporción entre el tamaño del bosque y la cantidad de miembros del grupo de usuarios; por lo general hay un umbral máximo de cuánto bosque puede ordenar eficazmente determinado grupo de usuarios. Para analizar cuál era el rasgo sobresaliente de los productos silvícolas según sus usuarios, preguntamos primero en cuántos hogares del grupo la propia subsistencia dependía significativamente del bosque. La respuesta fue, en promedio, el 63% de los entrevistados. En segundo lugar preguntamos de qué manera los miembros de la comunidad obtenían sus ingresos básicos: las respuestas combinadas mostraron que el 63% de las personas entrevistadas en las colonias obtenían sus medios de vida básicos de la agricultura de subistencia; 9% del cultivo comercial; 9% de trabajo asalariado, mientras que las personas de \"otras categorías\" (18%) obtenían sus ingresos principalmente de la cría de animales y de las artesanías (Figura 5).En ningún caso el aprovechamiento de productos silvícolas fue considerado como la mayor fuente de ingresos. En consecuencia concluimos que las actividades silvícolas son importantes para la subsistencia de la familia pero como fuente complementaria de ingresos, y vienen en segundo lugar respecto de los ingresos de la agricultura y del trabajo manual asalariado. Por lo tanto, la principal fuente de medios de vida de los usuarios silvícolas es una combinación de la agricultura de subsistencia y la destinada a obtener ingresos en efectivo, con la recolección de productos silvícolas y la caza de animales para la subsistencia. Por esa razón el impacto que producen los usuarios en los bosques es complejo: por un lado necesitan cortar bosques de vieja data para dar lugar a la agricultura, pero por otro lado necesitan conservarlos para obtener productos de subsistencia.Los miembros de algunas comunidades no pudieron formular y poner en vigor reglas que contrarrestaran un aprovechamiento excesivo, mientras que otros pudieron crear y aplicar reglas para restringir conductas individualistas que dañan los recursos y/o premiar las conductas favorables a los recursos que contribuyen al bien común (Ostrom 1990). Este éxito o fracaso se relaciona con la cultura de cooperación de la comunidad. Nuestra evaluación (Figura 6, pág. 50) se concentró en reglas habituales más que en normas Figura 5. Evaluación de los medios de vida rurales de 34 colonias (1 registro faltante). Se identifican cuatro categorías. Otros = ingresos obtenidos principalmente de artesanías y cría de ganado. La cultura de cooperación variaba considerablemente entre grupos de usuarios. En nuestro ejemplo, quienes se comprometían en más interacciones de cooperación con los miembros del grupo demostraban mayores deseos de continuar con esta conducta a medida que crecía la confianza y se obtenían frutos. Quienes en cambio no obedecían las reglas tenían menos probabilidades de desarrollar confianza y empeñarse en una conducta de reciprocidad, lo que a su vez afectaba al desarrollo institucional. Esperábamos por lo tanto que los grupos de usuarios que gozaban de mayores niveles de confianza cooperarían también de manera más eficaz cuando se dedicaran a las actividades silvícolas.Cuando examinamos las respuestas promedio combinadas, hallamos que, en bosques de condiciones normales, las comunidades silvícolas se habían desarrollado mejor en varios tipos de regímenes de propiedad de bosques relativamente pequeños y allí donde éstos eran importantes para la subsistencia y existía una mayor cultura de cooperación, y menos en cambio cuando los propósitos eran comerciales y donde a lo largo del tiempo la disponibilidad de productos no registraba cambios significativos. Afrontamos ahora el tema de si los esfuerzos de organización están asociados con un estado sanitario superior del bosque.Si las instituciones influyen en las variables listadas en el Recuadro 1, esperaríamos ver mejores condiciones en los bosques cuyos grupos de usuarios se comprometen en un mayor número de actividades colectivas muy organizadas. Aquí aplicamos observaciones del IFRI en 47 grupos de usuarios de bosques para evaluar la significación de las relaciones entre sus actividades silvícolas colectivas y el estado sanitario del bosque, empleando un examen de contraste ji-cuadrado de asociación entre las variables dicotomizadas, tal como Figura 6. Evaluación de la cultura cooperativa desarrollada para el aprovechamiento de 146 productos silvícolas (4 registros faltantes). Las cinco categorías identificadas indican la frecuencia con que se realizan actividades cooperativas respecto de la recolección de cierto número de productos silvícolas. Frecuencia de las actividades cooperativas se explica más abajo. Escogimos el examen de contraste ji-cuadrado Pearson porque es bien conocido, fácilmente ejecutable con tabulación cruzada y de fácil interpretación.Los protocolos del IFRI inquieren cuándo y cuán a menudo actúan entre sí los individuos de cada grupo de usuarios, clasificando las opciones en: todo el año, estacionalmente, ocasionalmente y nunca. Entre las categorías de interacción especificadas en esta variable ordinal, las más importantes para la ordenación silvícola comunal son el aprovechamiento cooperativo, el mercadeo cooperativo y el seguimiento/sancionamiento. La frecuencia de las interacciones en estas categorías nos permitieron computarizar el grado de actividad colectiva en los 47 grupos de usuarios silvícolas. A fin de simplificar el análisis establecimos dos categorías: 'alto nivel de actividades silvícolas colectivas' y 'bajo nivel de actividades silvícolas colectivas'.Si los grupos interactuaban solo ocasionalmente o bien si nunca interactuaban, les asignamos un nivel 'bajo' de actividad silvícola colectiva, mientras que si interactuaban estacionalmente o a lo largo del año les asignamos un valor 'alto' de actividad silvícola colectiva.Para evaluar el estado sanitario del bosque solicitamos la opinión de los expertos silvícolas locales. En cada sitio pedimos a los expertos que clasificaran el bosque con arreglo a una escala ordinal que iba de 1 (degradado) a 5 (muy bueno). Para simplificar el análisis dicotomizamos esta variable del estado sanitario del bosque en 'bueno' versus 'degradado', reduciendo las categorías identificadas de cinco a apenas dos (ver Figura 2 y Cuadro 3, pág. 52). Un bosque se considera 'degradado' si las condiciones silvícolas relativas a densidad de árboles y diversidad de especies se describen como muy ralas o bastante ralas, mientras que se lo categoriza como 'bueno' si es descrito como normal, más bien abundante o muy abundante.Los resultados del análisis de tabulación cruzada se presentan en el Cuadro 3. Estos resultados indican que el estado sanitario superior de un bosque se asocia con fuertes instituciones locales para el aprovechamiento y seguimiento de los recursos silvícolas. Esta asociación positiva es estadísticamente significativa con un 95% de nivel de confiabilidad (contraste ji-cuadrado = 9,476, gl = 1, P <0,05 para el aprovechamiento colectivo, y contraste ji-cuadrado = 4,102, gl = 1, P <0,05 para el seguimiento colectivo).Nuestros resultados sugieren además que los efectos de las instituciones locales no son los mismos para todos los aspectos de la ordenación silvícola. Por ejemplo, no encontramos relaciones significativas entre las actividades colectivas de mercadeo y un estado sanitario superior del bosque. En consecuencia, no se puede concluir que las instituciones locales sean suficientes para resolver todo tipo de problemas colectivos. Otra limitación de este análisis es que no podemos decir qué es lo que permite que ciertos grupos de usuarios organicen sus actividades silvícolas mientras otros grupos no son capaces de hacerlo. Sin embargo sabemos que el ejemplo incluye una amplia variedad de condiciones locales, y que no da preferencias a las comunidades con una mayor propensión a cooperar (Figura 6).Nuestros resultados son coherentes con las afirmaciones de la bibliografía existente acerca de la importancia de las instituciones como factores de mediación o mitigación en la ordenación silvícola. Por ejemplo, Agrawal y Yadama (1997) afirman que las instituciones pudieron reducir la presión demográfica y socioeconómica sobre los bosques de las aldeas de la región Kuman en la India. Varughese (1999) estudió el papel de las instituciones que mitigaban los dinamismos del cambio de población y el tamaño del grupo en 18 casos de Nepal, y halló que los índices de crecimiento de la población no eran correlativos con la variación de las condiciones de los bosques, pero sí lo era la acción colectiva. Estos mismos autores concluyeron asimismo que la heterogeneidad étnica, social y económica no tenía un efecto determinante ni sobre la probabilidad ni sobre el éxito de la ordenación silvícola colectiva. Gibson et al. (2003) verificaron la importancia de las instituciones en diversas condiciones silvícolas, empleando más de 150 casos IFRI en 12 estados de Africa, Asia y América del Sur. Hallaron que la firmeza en la vigencia de las reglas era más importante que los niveles de actividad silvícola cooperativa para explicar la variación en las condiciones de los recursos silvícolas comunitarios.Los bosques se están degradando en todo el mundo y los expertos silvícolas, encargados del desarrollo rural y ambientalistas buscan modos de revertir esta tendencia y lograr la sostenibilidad del medio ambiente biofísico, la biodiversidad y los medios de vida rurales. Los gobiernos nacionales de muchos países de América del Sur han llegado a la conclusión de que los gobiernos locales, las comunidades y los individuos deben mostrarse más activos en la ordenación de los bosques. Pero ¿qué tipos de disposiciones locales de ordenación son más apropiados en los diversos contextos? Este capítulo muestra que cuando se analizan los sistemas de ordenación silvícola local es importante ver más allá de los bosques y los árboles para considerar las instituciones locales, esto es, las reglas y estrategias que la población local desarrolla para organizar su relación con sus ambientes silvícolas. Nuestro análisis sugiere que existe una clara y positiva correlación entre instituciones locales fuertes, actividades colectivas y buenas condiciones del bosque. Los funcionarios gubernamentales deben apreciar el papel de las instituciones locales en el gobierno de los bosques cuando transfieren la administración y la propiedad de los bosques a las comunidades locales, y asegurar que se proporciona un apoyo apropiado al desarrollo institucional de las comunidades que asumen estas responsabilidades. Los profesionales de las ciencias sociales han desarrollado herramientas útiles para el análisis institucional de los factores que influyen en la eficacia de los grupos de usuarios locales para ordenar los bosques. Sin embargo, la investigación acerca de la ordenación comunal de los bosques debe ser conservadora cuando se generalicen los resultados, puesto que la combinación de recursos y atribuciones de los usuarios varían de una situación a otra. A menudo, limitarse a trasladar las soluciones políticas de un conjunto biofísico, socioeconómico y cultural a otro no funciona. Se necesita un cuidadoso análisis para comprender qué es lo que hace que algunos sistemas institucionales sean más eficaces que otros.La investigación llevada a cabo en el marco del Programa de Investigación del IFRI proporciona un método útil para estudiar las instituciones silvícolas comunitarias, puesto que extrae su información de un conjunto de datos de series temporales amplio, confiable y comparable proveniente de una gran cantidad de bosques administrados por comunidades en todo el mundo. Otro punto fuerte del programa es que proporciona una vía sistemática para estudiar de qué manera interactúa la gente con los bosques, lo que permite medir el impacto que tienen las comunidades en los bosques. Si bien en este estudio empleamos las opiniones de los expertos silvícolas para calibrar las condiciones del bosque, estamos actualmente trabajando con un grupo de ecologistas silvícolas para desarrollar métodos que permitan a los estudiosos del IFRI comparar las condiciones silvícolas sobre la base de datos silvícolas más objetivos y mensurables. Creemos que la colaboración entre las ciencias sociales y las ciencias naturales es clave para lograr una mayor comprensión del papel de las instituciones locales para mejorar el gobierno de los bosques. Los investigadores interdisciplinarios que se ocupan de las interacciones hombre-ecología tienen por delante una enorme cantidad de trabajo estimulante y motivador para estudiar los bosques del mundo y a sus usuarios.Extracción de productos silvícolas no madereros P. Vantomme Oficial de Montes, Organización para la Agricultura y la Alimentación, Roma, ItaliaEn muchos lugares del mundo los productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) son recursos cruciales para la subsistencia. Este capítulo trata temas vinculados con el potencial de los PSNM para generar ingresos a escala local, nacional y mundial. Examina de qué manera el uso y comercio de los PSNM afectan la sostenibilidad de los diversos regímenes de extracción y las estrategias de subsistencia, haciendo hincapié en América del Sur y especialmente en Brasil. Se pone de relieve la dificultad para definir los PSNM y hacer el seguimiento de un uso sostenible, con recomendaciones para posteriores investigaciones.Se han empleado muchos términos para abarcar el amplio espectro de plantas y animales propios del bosque, de los cuales se obtienen bienes y servicios fuera de los rollizos y la madera. Los términos más antiguos son 'productos silvícolas menores', 'productos silvícolas secundarios', 'pertrechos navales' y 'productos silvícolas derivados'. En el decenio de 1970 dichos términos se complementaron con 'productos silvícolas no madereros' y 'productos silvícolas distintos de los rollizos'. Desde el decenio de 1990 han surgido nuevos términos, entre ellos 'productos silvícolas especiales', 'productos silvestres manufacturados', 'productos de la biodiversidad', 'productos naturales', 'bienes y beneficios no madereros' y 'cosecha de árboles'.¿Porqué surgieron estos términos? La deforestación de los trópicos se aceleró a principios del decenio de 1980 y las prácticas de aprovechamiento maderero comenzaron a verse como excesivamente destructivas. Paulatinamente se fue dedicando mayor atención a los intereses de las personas que dependen de los bosques en los países en desarrollo, y a la importancia de los productos silvícolas diversos de los rollizos. Se dedicó más atención, en particular por parte de organismos de conservación de la naturaleza, al uso sostenible de una serie más amplia de especies silvícolas vegetales y animales, como una manera de mitigar la deforestación incrementando al mismo tiempo los ingresos de la gente. Hasta cierto punto los términos se acuñaron para facilitar el paso del hincapié hacia la subsistencia de los pueblos dependientes del bosque y a un uso más 'amigable con el ambiente' para estimular el uso equilibrado de los recursos silvícolas y reducir la degradación y deforestación de los bosques (para una explicación más detallada véase el Recuadro 1, pág. 58).Si bien el énfasis en la promoción de los PSNM afectó en primer lugar a los bosques tropicales y de los países en desarrollo, en la actualidad crece una conciencia similar de la importancia que tienen los mismos para los bosques templados y boreales de los países desarrollados.Por razones de coherencia y claridad, en todo este texto se empleará el término y el acrónimo PSNM.Recuadro 1. 'Extrativismo', un término portugués para los PSNM Desde los tiempos coloniales los portugueses han empleado el término 'extrativismo' para agrupar todos los productos obtenidos de las actividades de recolección y caza en sus vastas reservas silvícolas de Brasil. Estos productos incluyen pieles de animales, frutos, nueces, látex, medicinas, rollizos, leña, carbón y tinturas naturales como la tintura roja extraída de la madera de Caesalpinia echinata. Esta tintura se obtenía calentando la madera encima de un brasero resplandeciente de carbón, llamado en portugués una 'brasa', que dio su nombre al árbol 'palo de Brasil' y posteriormente a todo el país. En la actualidad el término 'extrativismo' se sigue utilizando en el Amazonas y por parte de la Dirección de Estadísticas de Brasil (IBGE) para clasificar la 'produção da extração vegetal', esto es, la cantidad y valor de los productos madereros y no madereros obtenidos del aprovechamiento de los bosques nativos (IBGE, 2003; véase el sitio web: http://www1.ibge.gov.br). Para los productos madereros y no madereros obtenidos de los bosques plantados, en su mayor parte empleando especies exóticas o no autóctonas, el IBGE emplea el término 'produção da silvicultura' que incluye PSNM como resina de pino, hojas de eucalipto o corteza de acacia negra (Acacia mearnsii). De este modo, separando lingüísticamente los productos recogidos en los bosques naturales de aquellos obtenidos en las plantaciones, las estadísticas del IBGE destacan el origen de su producción.En las zonas rurales boscosas los PSNM son de primaria significación para la subsistencia y/o los ingresos en el ámbito de los hogares aldeanos. Las poblaciones que dependen de los bosques son por lo general las que más cuentan con los PSNM, pero mucha más gente depende también estacionalmente de ellos. Entre los ejemplos estacionales figuran el ramoneo del ganado en los bosques durante la estación seca y las poblaciones desplazadas en las épocas de hambruna, inundaciones o guerras. Los PSNM contribuyen a las diversas opciones de supervivencia de la población rural proporcionándole amortiguadores ante las adversidades ambientales y económicas. Los PSNM son también elementos importantes para satisfacer necesidades culturales, religiosas, espirituales y de diversión. Puesto que el uso de los PSNM es principalmente informal, escasean los datos confiables sobre su producción y comercio y sobre la cantidad de personas involucradas, lo que hace difícil evaluar la contribución real de los PSNM a los medios de vida rurales.Además, la mayor parte de la bibliografía que trata de PSNM describe y analiza productos o temas específicos en ámbitos pequeños, utilizados por grupos bien definidos de personas y por períodos cortos de tiempo. Un estudio de este tipo es el de Zitzmann (1999), quien emprende un análisis global de la repercusión de los PSNM en las estrategias económicas locales de Botswana. Al comparar la extracción de PSNM con otras actividades generadoras de ingresos halló que los ingresos derivados de la venta de la oruga Imbrasia belina representaban anualmente el 13% del ingreso total en efectivo del hogar, mientras que la inversión de trabajo asociado al mismo era de sólo el 5,7 % entre las actividades generadoras de ingresos. La venta de Imbrasia belina tenía por lo En este sentido algunos trabajos recientes sobre PSNM tratan de desarrollar marcos de comparación más amplios. El estudio actualmente en curso en el Centro Internacional de Investigación Silvícola-CIFOR (Belcher y Ruiz Pérez 2001;evento lateral sobre PSNM del CMA 2003 [ver Recuadro 6]; Ruiz Pérez et al. 2004) compara la importancia que tienen diversos PSNM para la supervivencia local en una vasta muestra de estudios de caso en los países tropicales en desarrollo. El estudio está elaborando un marco analítico destinado a facilitar análisis comparativos de diferentes regímenes de extracción de diversos productos en una serie de países en desarrollo. El marco trata de ayudar a identificar los parámetros críticos para comprender cómo contribuyen los PSNM a la subsistencia de la gente en el tiempo y el espacio.Por lo tanto, cuando se analiza la supervivencia basada en los PSNM en el ámbito local será siempre preferible examinarla en zonas/poblaciones amplias y a lo largo de extensos arcos de tiempo. Esto será esencial para evaluar los efectos a largo plazo, los temas relativos a la sostenibilidad y las tendencias del mercado, y en especial cuando en las zonas rurales se compare la recolección de PSNM con otras actividades generadoras de ingresos como cultivos agrícolas, pesca, turismo, minería o industria.Si bien la importancia de los PSNM en el ámbito local está siendo mejor documentada, sigue siendo más bien escasa la información sintética en el ámbito del país. Mientras que la información sobre el uso de los PSNM dispersa en el ámbito local forma actualmente la base de muchas elaboraciones de políticas y su correspondiente toma de decisión para los programas de desarrollo rural de gobiernos y organismos internacionales, la información sobre los PSNM sigue siendo incorporada de manera inadecuada a los indicadores macroeconómicos.Por ejemplo, si bien algunas especies proveen cantidades muy importantes de materia prima para el procesamiento industrial en el ámbito nacional, como resina de pino en China, corcho en Portugal, goma arábiga en Sudán, ratén en Filipinas, bambú en Indonesia y plantas medicinales en la India, solo unos pocos países siguen sistemáticamente la producción y comercio de sus más importantes PSNM. También se carece a menudo de datos confiables sobre fuentes de PSNM y cantidades de trabajo involucradas en su extracción y transformación. Cuando estos datos existen suelen estár mezclados con la información sobre la producción agrícola y/o se limitan a los productos del comercio internacional.Se pueden aducir numerosas razones para explicar porqué es difícil obtener datos confiables sobre los PSNM. Entre ellos, el hecho de que comprenden muchos productos -a veces enormes cantidades de ellos -y que por lo general son recogidos por numerosos productores en pequeña escala distribuidos en zonas extensas (y a menudo remotas). Además, el valor relativamente bajo de los PSNM si se lo compara con el de los cultivos agrícolas o los productos silvícolas es un serio desincentivo para formular y mantener programas de calidad destinados a adquirir datos sobre los PSNM. Las dificultades técnicas y el alto costo de examinar y evaluar la adquisición y transformación de los PSNM hace difícil a la mayoría de los países obtener datos confiables acerca de los mismos. de PSNM de Brasil en 2001 ascendía a R$ 445 451 000, mientras que la producción silvícola relacionada con la madera era de R$ 3 726 358 000. Adoptando una tasa promedio de cambio en 2001 de 1,00 $EE.UU = R$ 2,30 el valor de los PSNM de Brasil era aproximadamente de 193 millones de $EE.UU, y el valor de la producción de rollizos era de unos 1 620 millones de $EE.UU. Por lo tanto al comparar los valores informados de producción de madera y de PSNM vemos que estos últimos representan alrededor del 10,6% de la producción silvícola total, mientras que los troncos cuentan por un 89,3%. Observando las tendencias en el tiempo, el Brasil constituye un ejemplo destacable de la significativa disminución de la producción de PSNM a lo largo de los últimos 30 años (Cuadro 3, pág. 61), pese a los esfuerzos de los organismos gubernamentales y no gubernamentales de conservación de la naturaleza para promover la extracción y comercialización de los PSNM. En el mismo período la producción de madera en Brasil aumentó de manera sustancial.Entre las causas de esta disminución de la producción brasileña de PSNM se sugieren: (i) deforestación; (ii) migración de la población rural hacia las zonas urbanas, por lo que menos personas recogen PSNM; (iii) menores precios de los PSNM y (iv) mercados reducidos para algunos productos a medida que se dispone de fuentes alternativas más económicas o de sustitutos (por ejemplo el suministro de látex natural proviene ahora en gran medida de las plantaciones industriales de Hevea brasiliensis fuera de la región del Amazonas).No obstante, las tendencias de la producción brasileña de PSNM informadas por el IBGE en los tres últimos decenios no deberían ser adoptadas como un ejemplo de la tendencia mundial, sino servir de alerta para no alentar expectativas demasiado altas respecto de una significación y contribución permanentes de los PSNM al ingreso nacional en muchos países. Esto explica en parte el poco interés que los responsables de políticas de muchos países ponen en la creación de incentivos para desarrollar el sector de los PSNM o para apoyar programas de recolección de datos relativos a los mismos. El Recuadro 2, página opuesta, presenta más información acerca de los PSNM en América del Sur.Los PSNM han atraído recientemente la atención de los organismos internacionales de desarrollo y de las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) que se ocupan de la conservación, por los servicios ambientales y los beneficios sociales que pueden derivar de ellos. Esto ha despertado expectativas en un gran número de organizaciones de conservación de la naturaleza y ordenación silvícola, en cuanto a que los PSNM y su comercialización podrían llevar a formas de utilización 'benignas' de los bosques creando incluso posibles incentivos para su conservación. Las organizaciones que se ocupan de la conservación se han destacado entre las que abogan por el aprovechamiento de los PSNM, porque los ven como una forma posible de apoyar el desarrollo local y regional sostenible al mismo tiempo que se promueve la conservación del bosque.Algunos PSNM son productos primarios de exportación y tienen importancia en el comercio internacional. La mayoría de estos productos se exportan en estado bruto o semiprocesado. Algunos ejemplos son el ratén, bambú, corcho, nueces (ver el Recuadro 3 en la pág. 64) y setas del bosque, goma arábiga, aceites esenciales y plantas medicinales (Cuadro 4, página 66).El Cuadro 4 presenta una lista de 28 productos primarios que comprenden una serie de los principales PSNM comercializados en el ámbito internacional y para los cuales existen códigos específicos SA. El Sistema Armonizado de Codificación y Descripción de Productos Primarios, habitualmente citado como 'Sistema Armonizado' o simplemente 'SA', es una nomenclatura internacional de productos de propósitos múltiples, elaborada por la Organización Aduanera Mundial (OAM) con sede en Bruselas, Bélgica. Comprende alrededor de 5 000 grupos de productos primarios, cada uno identificado por un código de seis dígitos dispuestos en una estructura jurídica y lógica que se apoya en reglas bien definidas para lograr una clasificación uniforme. El sistema es utilizado por más de 190 Recuadro 2. Los PSNM más importantes de América del Sur Además de la leña y el carbón, los PSNM más importantes de América del Sur son alimentos y bebidas tales como nueces de Brasil, frutas, corazones de palma (palmitos) y vinos de palma, setas y yerba mate, resinas, látex y aceites esenciales, plantas medicinales, fibras, materiales de construcción, piensos, colorantes y taninos.Este recuadro ilustra algunos ejemplos de diferentes usos de PSNM. Los productos comestibles que se conocen mejor en Amazonas son las nueces de Brasil y los palmitos. Ambos pueden hallarse en los mercados nacionales, regionales e internacionales. Las nueces de Brasil se siguen recogiendo casi exclusivamente de fuentes silvestres de Bertholletia excelsa en Bolivia, Brasil y Perú.La producción de palmitos está más difundida, principalmente en las zonas tropicales de Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana y Perú. Los palmitos se extraen de rodales silvestres de Euterpe oleracea y E. precatoria o de especies cultivadas como Bactris gasipaes. Los frutos de estas especies de palmera tienen también un lugar importante como alimentos y bebidas en la región del Amazonas. Otras importantes especies de palmera para la producción de semillas comestibles y aceites industriales, tanto para la subsistencia como para el comercio, son Orbignya phalerata, Mauritia flexuosa y Jessenia bataua.Las especies arbóreas Platonia insignis, Myrciaria dubia, Theobroma grandiflorum y Couepia longipendula producen también frutos y nueces comestibles de importancia local. En Argentina y en Brasil meridional la población consume habitualmente semillas de Araucaria angustifolia, que también sirve para alimentar el ganado, como sucede en Argentina y en Chile con las semillas de Araucaria araucana.En Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay y el Brasil meridional se emplean las hojas de Ilex paraguariensis para cebar mate, una bebida extremadamente popular similar al té. Si bien es especie silvestre de los bosques autóctonos de las regiones del Alto Paraná y Alto Uruguay y el nordeste de Argentina, actualmente se la cultiva en gran escala, en especial en plantaciones de Argentina y Brasil.El látex extraído de la especie nativa de Amazonas Hevea brasiliensis se usa para la producción de caucho natural. Otras exudaciones importantes de los trópicos de América del Sur son la jatobá (Hymenaea courbarii), maçaranduba (Manikara huberi), sorva (Couma spp.), balata (Manilkara bidentata) y bálsamo (Myroxylon balsamum). En la medicina local se utilizan copaíba (Copaifera spp.) y sangre de dragón (Croton draconoides).América del Sur tiene una larga tradición respecto del uso de plantas medicinales. Uno de los mayores legados de las poblaciones de América del Sur es la corteza derivada de las especies Cinchona, la fuente de quinina contra la malaria. La producción mundial de corteza de quinina es de aproximadamente 8 000-10 000 toneladas anuales. Brasil, Bolivia y Colombia son importantes productores de quinina de América del Sur.El Perú es el mayor productor mundial de los frutos del árbol tara (Caesalpinia spinosa) para la extracción de taninos. La producción se obtiene sobre todo de rodales naturales, pero algunos árboles se cultivan en sistemas agrosilvícolas. Los bosques de Caesalpinia son sumamente extensos en Perú, seguidos por Bolivia y en menor extensión por Chile, Ecuador y Colombia. El quebracho colorado (Schinopsis spp.) es otra fuente de tanino en Argentina y Paraguay.Entre los ejemplos de otros usos de PSNM están la extracción de fibras de las siguientes especies: palmeras Carludovica palmata en Panamá y Ecuador, Attalea funifera y Leopoldina piassaba en Brasil. En Venezuela y Colombia se aprovecha L. piassaba en pequeña escala para usos que van desde sombreros hasta escobas.Los bambúes Guadua angustifolia y Chusquea spp. se utilizan ampliamente en construcción, mueblería y manufacturas en Ecuador, Colombia y Venezuela.Fuente: Evaluación de los Recursos Silvícolas 2000 (FAO, 2001a).Bolivia y Brasil dominan la producción y exportaciones mundiales de nueces de Brasil (Cuadro 5). Los Estados Unidos de América son el mayor importador mundial con una participación del 33% del mercado, seguidos por el Reino Unido (19%), Alemania (9%) y los Países Bajos (6%)Los movimientos de precios y demanda de nueces de Brasil tienden a ser estacionales, con una demanda descubierta particularmente elevada durante el período de Navidad. No obstante esta puede variar porque las nueces de Brasil se reemplazan fácilmente con productos similares como almendras, nueces de acajú, macadamias o avellanas. Las fluctuaciones de precios y la demanda de productos similares en los mercados internacionales son los principales factores que influyen en los niveles de cosecha del Amazonas. Como consecuencia la producción anual de nueces de Brasil fluctúa de manera considerable. Por ejemplo, Brasil produjo un nivel récord de 104 487 toneladas en 1970, mientras que en 1998 produjo solo 23 111 toneladas (Cuadro 3). Durante el mismo período crecieron significativamente las cantidades producidas y el valor comercial de las nueces de acajú, almendras, macadamias, pecanos, avellanas y nueces.El árbol de nuez del Brasil (Bertholletia excelsa) o 'castanheira' en portugués es uno de los árboles más grandes del bosque amazónico. A la vez que provee buenas trozas, el árbol produce nueces que la población local recoge en los bosques y vende a los comerciantes para que sean procesadas luego en los centros urbanos. Aproximadamente toda la producción de nueces de Brasil proviene de fuentes silvestres y en su mayoría se destina a la exportación. El total de exportación mundial anual de nueces fluctúa entre 30 000 y 50 000 toneladas, con valores que van de 39,6 millones de $EE.UU. hasta 78,5 millones de $EE.UU. (Cuadro 6). La repercusión del comercio internacional de los PSNM en cuanto a aliviar la pobreza requiere más estudios. Cuando el comercio trasciende los mercados locales y regionales pasa a ser más sofisticado, en el sentido de que requiere inversiones de capital y una amplia serie de capacidades de las que habitualmente no disponen los productores rurales de los países en desarrollo. Si el producto debe comercializarse internacionalmente habrá que realizar una cantidad de operaciones de exportación e importación por las que habrá que pagar. Estos requisitos incluyen el respeto de normas de calidad y de reglamentos fitosanitarios, pago de permisos y tasas, almacenamiento, procesamiento y transporte que involucran a una cantidad de agentes y distribuidores. Todo esto tiene lugar antes que los comerciantes al por menor puedan vender a los consumidores un producto mucho más procesado y a veces completamente transformado. La apreciación de dichos sistemas y el acceso a los mismos puede ser intimidatorio si no imposible de asumir por parte de los productores de PSNM. En realidad el acceso a los mercados internacionales casi siempre requerirá un nivel considerable de organización de los productores a fin de asegurarse de no quedar al margen del proceso. Esto es particularmente cierto para los productos de los países en desarrollo, cosa que se refleja en los valores estancados o en disminución de muchos PSNM, como muestra el Cuadro 4.Sin embargo, a nivel internacional los consumidores están cada vez más interesados en que el comercio sea 'leal' respecto de todos los interesados. Esto puede significar promover condiciones o prácticas que salvaguarden los intereses de los socios menos poderosos -el caso típico de los productores -en la cadena del comercio, o ayudar a que aumente su capacidad de ejercer poder promoviendo asociaciones y redes de productores. 'Comercio leal' es un término común aplicado a los esquemas que favorecen una mayor equidad social en el comercio (http://fairtradefederation.com/) y otros tipos de instrumentos de promoción del comercio como la certificación silvícola, ofrecen a los productores de PSNM oportunidades para intervenir y beneficiarse del comercio internacional (Recuadro 4, pág. 67).Mientras la certificación de los productos agrícolas y madereros está muy avanzada y cuenta con numerosos programas firmemente establecidos (Recuadro 5 en pág. 68), el desarrollo de normas y criterios técnicos para la certificación de los PSNM aún se halla en su infancia. Además, los programas de certificación se establecen por lo general para regular el comercio internacional, mientras que los PSNM aún se comercializan mayormente en el ámbito local y regional. Si bien la cuota de comercio de los productos orgánicos, de comercio leal o certificados de otra manera está aumentando, la contribución de los PSNM es aún muy limitada. Por ejemplo, al consultar los datos del comercio de productos agrícolas orgánicos en 34 países de todo el mundo recogidos por Stiftung Ökologie and Landbau, Alemania (2003), no se encontró ninguna referencia a los PSNM (http://www. soel.de/publikationen/oel/oel_inhalt2003.html).La creciente globalización del comercio favorece a los proveedores más baratos, cualquiera sea su ubicación, y esto puede tener efectos devastadores en las actividades de los productores de PSNM en pequeña escala que están emergiendo. Además, el comercio internacional requiere por lo general un suministro amplio y continuo de productos, que podría no estar al alcance de los productores de PSNM a menos que pudieran de alguna manera expandir su producción más allá de los bosques naturales. Por otro lado muchas especies de interés económico para los productores de PSNM tienen una distribución geográfica limitada, encontrándose a menudo en uno o unos pocos países mientras que sus mercados están en todo el mundo. Recuadro 4. Cómo pueden ayudar los esquemas de certificación del comercio a los productores de PSNM En los países en desarrollo el 'comercio leal', los esquemas de certificación de bosques y el etiquetado como producto orgánico están convirtiéndose en opciones para ayudar a proteger la viabilidad comercial de los negocios basados en los PSNM contra la competencia de productos similares obtenidos mediante cultivos agrícolas o de sustitutos sintéticos. Programas 'correctos' de certificación de la ordenación silvícola junto con programas que certifiquen conductas y procedimientos agrícolas 'apropiados' (por ejemplo prácticas 'correctas' de trabajo, cultivos orgánicos, comercio leal) ofrecen marcos prometedores para el éxito de la comercialización de PSNM certificados. Estos programas pueden ayudar a garantizar mejores precios para los recolectores, equidad social dentro de las cadenas de procesamiento y mercadeo, y asegurar que se presta atención a la sostenibilidad ambiental de los recursos que proveen los PSNM. Los mercados de comercio leal y los productos orgánicos ofrecen mayores ventajas a los productores de PSNM porque las cantidades que se necesitan para abastecer el comercio internacional son pequeñas cuando se las compara con la producción basada en la agricultura, y porque se pueden ofrecer a los productores precios bonificados.Además, los mercados de alimentos de comercio leal y con etiquetado de producto orgánico se ubican entre los sectores comerciales de más rápido crecimiento en el sector de la distribución de alimentos. Numerosos PSNM se ajustan de manera ideal a este tipo de enfoques puntuales, en particular los que tienen un elevado valor por unidad, larga duración útil de almacenaje y son fáciles de procesar, conservar y manipular. Buenos ejemplos de ello son los aceites esenciales, miel, bambú, hierbas y nueces.Existen ya numerosos tipos de programas de certificación que cubren una serie de productos de la agricultura, la pesca y el sector silvícola, pero los PSNM entran solo marginalmente en estos programas. Algunas de las principales dificultades para promover la certificación de los PSNM son:• La naturaleza dispersa de la producción: El seguimiento de la producción de muchos productores de PSNM en pequeña escala dispersos en vastas zonas es un problema. Es difícil poder asegurar que los productos provienen de sitios certificados, lo que puede provocar mayores costos de seguimiento prohibitivos para los productores de PSNM en pequeña escala. • Definición de niveles sostenibles de cosecha: Aún se están desarrollando normas y metodologías apropiadas para definir o verificar las prácticas y niveles sostenibles de cosecha de muchos PSNM. • Conflictos entre los usuarios del recurso: El acceso restringido a los sitios certificados de aprovechamiento de PSNM puede crear conflictos entre y dentro de los grupos de usuarios del bosque. • Potencial de mercado no claro: La demanda real de mercado para los productos PSNM es la fuerza motora de muchas iniciativas de certificación, y es clave para asegurar la viabilidad económica de los programas de producción de PSNM. Sin embargo, respecto de muchos PSNM aún no queda claro si los clientes pagarán precios bonificados por los productos certificados como de comercio leal u orgánicos. Orgánica (FIAO). 5. Programas de 'Certificado de Origen'. Estos se aplican ampliamente para certificar que un producto proviene de una región dada que cuenta con gran prestigio entre los consumidores. El ejemplo se aplica a vinos, miel, setas y bayas.• Insuficiente colaboración/compatibilidad entre los programas existentes de certificación: La proliferación de productos certificados está creando confusión entre los consumidores. • Limitada capacidad de la corriente principal de beneficios de los programas de certificación para cubrir a todos los productores del sector: Por ejemplo la cuota de mercado actual de nueces de Brasil certificadas es solo una fracción de la producción mundial total, de modo que el número de recolectores de nueces de Brasil que pueden beneficiarse de un programa de certificación está limitado por la cuota de mercado del producto certificado. • Barreras comerciales \"no tarifarias\": En las zonas productoras de alimentos y hierbas medicinales las barreras comerciales pueden obstaculizar los esfuerzos de certificación. Por ejemplo, en el año 2003 la Unión Europea decretó una prohibición total de importación de nueces de Brasil desde ese país a causa de sus altos niveles de aflatoxinas. Si bien la producción proveniente de lugares de origen certificados podía tener niveles aceptables de aflatoxinas, los productos certificados quedaron igualmente afectados por la prohibición.El factor de mayor importancia para el éxito y desarrollo sostenible de los PSNM destinados al comercio es la disponibilidad del recurso. En la mayoría de los casos la utilización de los PSNM para la subsistencia no ocasionará un perjuicio grave a la administración del recurso ni lo disminuirá, fuera de algunos casos excepcionales que ocurren durante sequías, inundaciones o conflictos armados. El aprovechamiento comercial de los PSNM es el que conduce a escasez de abastecimiento, cosa que por lo general sucede en el contexto de sistemas de libre acceso donde el recurso se cosecha en cantidades sin límite ni control.Por lo general las especies silvícolas que rinden PSNM son poco frecuentes, en especial en los bosques tropicales, y no parece que puedan convertirse en importantes proveedoras de grandes cantidades comerciales puesto que podrían ser rápidamente sobreaprovechadas. También es cierto que algunas especies de PSNM son comunes, como la palmera açaí (Euterpe spp.) en los bosques de Varzea en la cuenca baja del río Amazonas, o los pinos de los bosques de coníferas de América del Sur, que producen resinas. Setas y orugas pueden a veces ser muy comunes en condiciones climáticas favorables. En estos casos, la penuria de recursos no es un factor importante de limitación para el comercio.A menudo cuando se promueve el aprovechamiento comercial de un PSNM cierta información básica acerca del mismo no se conoce o es en gran medida ignorada, por ejemplo su biología y dinámica de población, o el contexto socioeconómico de su utilización, incluyendo los derechos de los usuarios y los de acceso. Las medidas destinadas a asegurar el suministro de PSNM al comercio consisten por lo general en reglamentaciones de acceso al recurso, el refuerzo de su productividad mediante la ordenación silvícola, la oferta de incentivos económicos, o una combinación de todas ellas.Cuando se produce una escasez de suministros de PSNM, la primera y más sencilla medida que se toma es por lo general la reglamentación, ya sea oficial o informal, del contexto socioeconómico para su aprovechamiento. Quienes forman parte de la cadena de mercado, sean productores, comerciantes, consumidores o gobiernos, tienen papeles decisivos que cumplir. Los comerciantes pueden influir en la producción de materias primas aumentando los precios pagados a los productores. Mediante la concesión de licencias y permisos de recolección los gobiernos pueden crear los marcos legales que regulen el acceso a los bosques públicos y hacer el seguimiento de la cosecha. Los consumidores influyen en el comercio a través de sus preferencias por ciertos productos o procedimientos (por ejemplo productos orgánicos o prácticas de comercio leal), mientras que los productores pueden ampliar o mejorar la intensidad de recolección o cambiar sus sistemas de producción.El ejemplo de fluctuación anual de la producción de nueces de Brasil (Recuadro 3) muestra que el suministro de los PSNM comercializados de estas especies y de otras muchas depende directamente de los precios que se ofrecen a los recolectores. Los precios tienden a ser cíclicos porque dependen sobre todo de factores económicos, sociales o climáticos que están fuera de la región de los productores, o de las fluctuaciones de precio del(de los) sustituto(s) competidor(es). Cuando se ofrecen precios más elevados, los productores intensificarán o ampliarán sus programas de recolección a zonas más grandes proporcionales a sus medios. Cuando los precios son bajos abandonarán incluso la recolección, que podría no compensar el tiempo destinado a la misma respecto de otras opciones para obtener ingresos. También las prohibiciones a la exportación pueden afectar los precios pagados a los productores. Buen ejemplo de ello es la prohibición impuesta a la caña de ratén en bruto de Indonesia en 1979, que produjo una disminución del precio de la caña en bruto pagado a los productores y una caída en la producción de la misma. La prohibición de exportación fue abolida en 1999, a lo que siguió un intenso aumento en la producción y exportación de caña (Purnama et al. 1998;Sastry 2001).Estos ejemplos, al igual que los de las nueces de Brasil y açaí en Amazonas, goma arábiga y nueces karite en el Sahel o el ratén de Indonesia y Malasia se asemejan en cuanto a que las cantidades extraídas de los bosques para su comercialización representan solo una fracción de lo que todavía queda disponible para cosechar. En casos como estos, la fluctuación del precio afectará el suministro mucho más que las reglamentaciones del uso de los bosques o las iniciativas de ordenación del recurso, si bien esto es cierto solamente para las regiones que siguen siendo ricas en bosques o recursos arbóreos que producen PSNM, y cuando las demandas del mercado son todavía relativamente modestas.No obstante el margen de aumento de los precios pagados a los productores es limitado, y los esfuerzos por expandir la extracción abarcando zonas más grandes se vuelven rápidamente demasiado costosos y llevan demasiado tiempo a los recolectores. Unos precios más altos de los materiales de PSNM en bruto en el mercado los hacen menos competitivos que sus sustitutos. Los productores de PSNM venden su producción a los comerciantes intermediarios que son los socios clave en la cadena de mercadeo entre el productor y el consumidor, y cuyas decisiones afectan de manera crítica el comercio de PSNM. Desde el punto de vista del comerciante, cuando el margen de provecho de los PSNM disminuye deben trasladar sus inversiones a otros productos que dejen mejores márgenes.Pagar a los recolectores precios más altos conducirá asimismo a la intensificación de la recolección (cosechar más por unidad de superficie) y a una ampliación de las zonas de recolección (cosechar en zonas más vastas). Sin embargo, cuando la zona de bosque accesible es limitada esto puede llevar a una competencia rígida y a conflictos entre los cosechadores y otros usuarios del bosque (por ejemplo los recolectores de setas silvestres).Cuando aumenta la demanda de PSNM en el mercado o bien cuando disminuye la zona de bosque accesible, los cosechadores, las comunidades locales o los gobiernos pueden establecer marcos formales o informales que regulen el acceso a sus bosques y vigilen la cosecha de PSNM. Esto puede llevarse a cabo mediante licencias o permisos de recolección cuyo objetivo es proteger tanto el ingreso de los recolectores como el abastecimiento del recurso. Aquí los gobiernos pueden cumplir un papel clave porque en muchos países son los mayores propietarios de bosques. Los gobiernos tienen también la obligación social de asegurar una distribución equitativa de los beneficios entre todos los grupos de usuarios del bosque, prestando particular atención a la asistencia de los grupos más débiles de la sociedad, como las comunidades indígenas que dependen de los bosques y son por lo general recolectoras de PSNM.No obstante, el éxito comercial de un PSNM a escala mundial puede producir una demanda de abastecimientos tan elevada que no sea asegurable solo con la producción basada en el bosque y llevada a cabo por la población que depende del mismo. Algunos ejemplos de desarrollo de una escala industrial de producción para satisfacer la demanda son las nueces macadamia en Australia, Hawai (EE.UU.) y Sudáfrica, el arroz silvestre en California y los brotes de bambú en China.Por lo tanto, mayores niveles de demanda de algunos PSNM comercializados a escala internacional exigirán intensificar la producción para aumentar la cantidad y calidad del producto. Una demanda estable y/o creciente a precios justos para los productores proporciona fuertes incentivos a los inversores privados de todos los niveles para que aumenten o mejoren la producción mediante una ordenación más intensa del recurso, suceda esto a través de la silvicultura, el cultivo en explotaciones agrícolas o en programas agrosilvícolas intermedios.Desde el punto de vista de los dasónomos, un mayor abastecimiento del recurso proporcionado por una especie se puede obtener aplicando al bosque intervenciones de silvicultura que aumenten la superficie de crecimiento de la especie seleccionada, o estableciendo reglamentaciones de ordenación del bosque que limiten el acceso o los derechos de los usuarios y especifiquen las responsabilidades de los interesados. No obstante, las reglamentaciones de ordenación silvícola y los sistemas de silvicultura tienen sus límites técnicos, económicos y sociales. Esto es particularmente cierto en bosques donde numerosos grupos de usuarios tienen demandas de uso conflictivas, como extraer madera en rollo, apacentar ganado, recoger PSNM o leña, cazar u ofrecer ecoturismo. A menudo hay por ejemplo significativas diferencias de valor entre los PSNM, la leña y la madera en rollo de muchas especies arbóreas, y esto puede producir conflictos, en especial cuando los beneficios derivados de la madera en rollo y los PSNM van a diferentes grupos de usuarios. Para dar solo algunos ejemplos, Entandophragma utile (sapelli -orugas), Baillonella toxisperma (moabi -frutos), Pterocarpus soyauxii (padouk -resina), Carapa guianensis (andiroba -nueces) y Milicia excelsa (iroko -corteza), tienen tanto un alto valor como madera en rollo en los mercados de todo el mundo como un alto valor para los pueblos nativos que recogen en ellos sus PSNM.Intensificación de la ordenación de las especies de PSNM contrario, casos en que un cultivo pierde popularidad, los agricultores dejan de producirlo y algunas especies vuelven al estado silvestre. Ejemplo de ello es el níspero común (Mespilus germanicus). Originario de los Balcanes, se expandió por toda Europa, donde hasta la tarda Edad Media fue un popular árbol frutal cultivado. Actualmente su cultivo ha sido 'olvidado' en Europa, pero aún crecen ejemplares 'silvestres' en los bosques.Sin embargo la domesticación y cultivo de algunas especies de PSNM no siempre es técnicamente posible, económicamente factible o social y ambientalmente aceptable; funciona bien con algunas especies pero no con otras, como el caso de algunas setas, musgos o líquenes sumamente valiosos que aún no sabemos cómo cultivar. Algunos productos cultivados pueden ser también inferiores en calidad si se los compara con los productos silvestres, como los de algunas plantas medicinales. Además la conveniencia económica de cultivar una especie de PSNM será limitada mientras la que crece en forma natural esté disponible en abundancia y pueda adquirirse a precios más bajos, como las nueces de Brasil de Amazonas.También la dimensión socioeconómica de la domesticación es un factor importante. Puede suceder que la población dependiente del bosque o los grupos socialmente desaventajados que dependen de los PSNM para su subsistencia e ingresos monetarios no tengan acceso a las tierras de cultivo, o no sean capaces de competir con la producción en gran escala de agricultores bien establecidos.El cultivo de PSNM tiene implicaciones ambientales importantes, en el sentido de que puede reducir el incentivo de conservar los ecosistemas en los cuales esas especies de PSNM crecen en forma natural. Por otro lado la conservación de la biodiversidad silvícola es una prioridad porque muchos cultivos tienen todavía parientes silvestres en los bosques, y estos parientes silvestres son una fuente valiosa de genes para los fitomejoradores que investigan la resistencia a las enfermedades o quieren conseguir variedades más productivas de cultivos y animales domesticados.Algunas organizaciones de conservación del medio ambiente consideran que la recolección de PSNM en los bosques es más compatible con la conservación de la biodiversidad que la extracción de madera en rollo. En realidad esta premisa depende mucho del tipo de producto y del modo en que se lo aprovecha. Una extracción de baja densidad de PSNM en los bosques naturales, como es el caso de algunos frutos, hojas o nueces, puede tener un impacto mínimo en la biodiversidad local a nivel de una zona o especie en particular. Pero a medida que aumenta la intensidad de la cosecha y las técnicas se vuelven más destructivas, como cuando se extirpan ejemplares de plantas para cosechar sus productos, el aprovechamiento de PSNM puede resultar tan dañino para la supervivencia a largo plazo de la especie y el ecosistema respectivo como el aprovechamiento maderero. Los sistemas de producción de PSNM de manejo intensivo pueden incluso desplazar completamente a la vegetación natural, como en el caso de la producción de brotes de bambú en China.El efecto a largo plazo de la promoción de la comercialización de PSNM para aliviar la pobreza y conservar la biodiversidad de los bosques requiere ulteriores estudios (ver el Recuadro 6). Si el PSNM promovido tiene éxito en el comercio internacional, la demanda aumentará y a largo plazo su suministro provendrá en medida creciente del cultivo, lo cual beneficiará a los agricultores más que a los recolectores y puede incluso provocar la tala de los bosques para cultivar el PSNM. Además, en el caso de algunos PSNM domesticados como especies de frutos y nueces, sus ejemplares a menudo son más grandes y de mejor calidad y pueden ser abastecidos de manera más regular. Combinados entre ellos, estos atributos 'domesticados' de los PSNM pueden hacer que el comercio pierda completamente su interés por los 'primos del bosque'.Los debates en el Congreso Silvícola Mundial (Recuadro 6) subrayaron la necesidad de elaborar un método multidisciplinario en colaboración para que el desarrollo de estrategias de supervivencia basadas en el uso de PSNM tenga éxito. Se describieron como primeros pasos esenciales establecer la colaboración entre los sectores público y privado, involucrando incluso a participantes de fuera del sector silvícola como la agricultura, la educación, la industria, el comercio, el turismo y la salud pública. Recuadro 6. ¿Pueden ordenarse los bosques de manera sostenible a fin de abastecer el mercado de PSNM?Desde que se celebró la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (UNCED) en Río de Janeiro, Brasil, en 1992, los PSNM son considerados cada vez más como una categoría de vegetales y animales capaces de generar ingresos en beneficio de los habitantes de los bosques, al tiempo que éstos pueden ser incluidos en programas de conservación de la biodiversidad. Por ejemplo, los temas relativos al desarrollo sostenible de PSNM fueron tópicos de debate en el evento lateral del Congreso Silvícola Mundial (WFC) titulado Reforzamiento de la colaboración mundial para mejorar el desarrollo sostenible de los productos silvícolas no madereros celebrado en Québec, Canadá, el 20 de septiembre de 2003 (http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/discussion). Este evento de un día entero fue organizado conjuntamente por la Unión Internacional de Organizaciones de Investigación Silvícola (IUFRO, Grupo 5.11 Productos Silvícolas No Madereros), el Centro de Investigación Silvícola Internacional (CIFOR) y el Programa de Productos Silvícolas No Madereros de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO). La reunión identificó y dio prioridad a temas emergentes para el desarrollo del sector de los PSNM, atrajo la atención del WFC y de los responsables de tomar decisiones que afectan a los recursos silvícolas en cuanto a la necesidad de investigación relativa a los PSNM clave y de elaborar recomendaciones de política para los años venideros, y subrayó la importancia de establecer una colaboración entre los organismos para crear un sector sostenible de PSNM. Las recomendaciones elaboradas en la reunión se completaron con resúmenes de debates y documentos sobre el tema Comercialización: Un freno de la realidad; Uniendo la ordenación de los PSNM con el desarrollo de los medios de vida, y Dimensiones institucionales y de política. Estos textos están disponibles en forma directa en http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu.En la reunión se expuso una amplia serie de casos de ordenación silvícola de PSNM. Algunos estudios mostraban de qué manera la recolección de PSNM mejoró significativamente los medios de vida de los habitantes del bosque sin comprometer la biodiversidad, mientras que otros casos revelaron apenas alguna capacidad para generar ingresos, con elevados riesgos de extinción de la especie aprovechada. En algunos casos resultó particularmente difícil hacer incluso una evaluación de la repercusión del uso de PSNM en la ordenación adecuada del bosque y/o en los medios de vida de las comunidades locales. Esto se debió en parte a las dificultades metodológicas al acometer los inventarios biométricos y las evaluaciones económicas, y a la falta de una terminología común para definir los términos, los productos y los procesos relacionados con la biodiversidad, la sostenibilidad o la equidad social que hubieran permitido una comparabilidad integral de las colecciones de datos y los estudios de caso. La mayoría de los casos examinados en la reunión mostraron que los PSNM eran un ingreso complementario derivado del aprovechamiento maderero, al que no reemplazaban.En esta sección no están comprendidos los PSNM originados en las 'explotaciones agrícolas', puesto que la sostenibilidad de su producción no es un tema significativo. Por el contrario, para los PSNM silvestres que se siguen recogiendo en los bosques subsisten los principales desafíos en cuanto a definir los niveles de uso sostenible y desarrollar metodologías apropiadas de ordenación y aprovechamiento.Se necesita información precisa acerca del crecimiento y capacidad de regeneración de las especies que proveen PSNM (FAO 2001b). Si bien el conocimiento autóctono de las especies de PSNM suele ser considerable, está por lo general vinculado con los usos de subsistencia y por tal motivo es menos aplicable a la administración y mercadeo modernos necesarios para sostener los niveles de producción destinados al comercio. Asimismo es importante reconocer que no todo el conocimiento tradicional es exacto del punto de vista biológico. Existe el concepto de que puesto que un conocimiento es tradicional hay buenas razones para que sea compatible con los datos científicos, aunque sobre muchos PSNM existan escasos conocimientos científicos. De hecho, hasta ahora se han dedicado pocos esfuerzos científicos al rendimiento sostenible de los PSNM. Muy pocas especies proveedoras de PSNM han sido escogidas hasta ahora como destinatarias de programas de investigación, y a menudo falta por completo información básica acerca de su ecología, promedio de crecimiento, silvicultura y respuestas al cultivo.A continuación se detallan las características biológicas, socioeconómicas y culturales clave de los PSNM que representan los principales desafíos para su ordenación sostenible.• Las especies animales y vegetales conocidas como proveedoras de recursos de PSNM son extremadamente diversas (árboles, matorrales, plantas anuales, setas, líquenes, orugas, aves...). • Muchas de estas especies (setas, insectos, lianas…) tienen ciclos de vida y dinamismos de población complejos. • Se pueden usar partes diferentes de un mismo animal o planta, cada una de las cuales requiere técnicas diferentes de aprovechamiento que no deberían afectar el vigor de la planta o su capacidad de reproducción (por ejemplo árboles que proveen leña, piensos, fibras de la corteza, frutos...). • Las técnicas de cosecha y su intensidad dependen del tipo de producto extraído (exudaciones, hojas, flores, brotes, frutos y nueces, remoción de toda la planta...) y de la biología de la especie. • El carácter de estacional de muchas especies de PSNM puede hacer difícil detectarlas, por ejemplo setas, insectos o pequeñas plantas anuales.• Muchas especies de PSNM tienen una distribución geográfica limitada y por lo tanto sus productos solo revisten importancia local. • Se dispone de pocos o ningún dato socioeconómico que cuantifique la importancia de los PSNM para apoyar la política silvícola y la toma de decisiones. • Muchos PSNM se producen en pequeñas cantidades y generan ingresos modestos.Por lo tanto tienen muy poca prioridad para los inversores y administradores profesionales de recursos. • Algunos PSNM son recogidos y utilizados por una serie de grupos de usuarios silvícolas, a menudo con intereses y necesidades en conflicto. • Existen muchas diferencias de escala para evaluar los recursos silvícolas, desde los inventarios de árboles relativamente sencillos a las muy costosas y complejas evaluaciones de la biodiversidad, lo que puede desalentar a los administradores de los recursos silvícolas para incluir los PSNM en sus planes de ordenación silvícola.El tiempo, dinero y personal capacitado necesarios para realizar evaluaciones de PSNM son limitados. • Numerosas disciplinas científicas, organismos de desarrollo y organizaciones conservacionistas incluyen a los PSNM (o temas vinculados con los mismos) en sus programas de investigación aplicada, desarrollo o conservación, a menudo con muy poca coordinación. • Existe una amplia gama de concepciones culturales diferentes acerca del uso de los PSNM en todo el mundo, en especial sobre su utilización como alimentos (comer insectos, por ejemplo).Agrupamos en cuatro conjuntos las prioridades para el desarrollo de la producción de PSNM:1. Mejoramiento de la tecnología para la ordenación de los recursos de PSNM en los bosques. Es necesario crear soluciones tecnológicas de bajo costo para inventariar los recursos, desarrollar técnicas de cosecha sostenible, definir niveles de cosecha y modificar los regímenes de silvicultura para obtener al mismo tiempo madera en rollo, servicios silvícolas y PSNM. La mayoría de los PSNM aún se recogen en los sistemas naturales, de modo que las fuentes in situ dominan todavía el abastecimiento de PSNM. Los tratamientos silvícolas aplicados en los bosques siguen apuntando a la producción de madera en rollo, y hasta ahora se presta poca atención a las necesidades silvícolas de las especies de PSNM. 2. Mejor integración de la producción ex situ e in situ de PSNM. Cómo, dónde y cuándo la domesticación resulta apropiada como estrategia complementaria o sustitutiva de la producción de PSNM es un tema espinoso. Otro es si la domesticación, si y cuando tiene lugar, mejorará los medios de vida de los habitantes del bosque. La producción de PSNM en la agricultura (producción ex situ o en la finca agrícola) es una creciente solución impulsada por la demanda de mercado, pero sus beneficiarios no son necesariamente los recolectores. Si bien la domesticación de las especies de PSNM puede ser una respuesta válida a los déficit de abastecimiento, aún se necesita una profunda investigación para resolver temas técnicos relativos a la misma, y para identificar las circunstancias en que estos programas de domesticación pueden producir resultados beneficiosos para los habitantes del bosque.PSNM en un mundo 'globalizado'. ¿De qué manera pueden los bosques resultar más equitativos socialmente, en particular para las comunidades rurales que más dependen de los recursos no madereros de los bosques? Otros desafíos son cómo conciliar los objetivos de diversos grupos de usuarios silvícolas que aprovechan la madera en rollo o los recursos silvícolas no madereros, cómo resolver los conflictos entre los usuarios y cómo hacer que la propiedad intelectual y otros derechos de los productores de PSNM sean adecuadamente reconocidos y recompensados por el comercio mundial. Por ejemplo, el paso del uso de subsistencia al comercio mundial de algunos PSNM se produce directamente sobre la base del conocimiento autóctono de dichos productos y su utilización tradicional de larga data. Las comunidades locales deben beneficiarse por su papel a menudo muy activo en la conservación de los recursos silvícolas, y por toda contribución que hagan al desarrollo de productos de interés comercial. ¿Cuál es la repercusión de la creciente globalización del comercio sobre los productores de PSNM? ¿Cómo se pueden fomentar las asociaciones de emprendedores y las pequeñas empresas en las comunidades silvícolas que siguen operando en el contexto del mercado local o de la aldea? El papel y la repercusión de los instrumentos no tarifarios vinculados con el comercio, como los programas de certificación y los códigos de mejores prácticas necesitan ulterior aclaración. Se deben mejorar los métodos actualmente aplicados para evaluar la importancia socioeconómica del sector de los PSNM en los ámbitos internacional, nacional y local a fin de resolver los temas mencionados más arriba. 4. Reforzamiento del apoyo institucional al sector de los PSNM. Si bien en algunos casos puede haber disposiciones informales bien firmes para la cosecha, utilización y comercio de PSNM, por lo general hay pocas disposiciones formales establecidas para vigilar y regular el flujo de los PSNM de los productores a los consumidores. Se necesitan disposiciones institucionales formales basadas en métodos coordinados entre muchos organismos, referidas a la ordenación y conservación de los PSNM, y ello porque en muchos países los ministerios de silvicultura, de agricultura, de medio ambiente y/o de salud se vinculan con diferentes aspectos de los PSNM. Por ejemplo, los temas socioeconómicos de la producción de PSNM pueden entrar en la competencia de ministerios u organismos dedicados al comercio, la industria, la educación o la investigación. Los ministerios relacionados con temas sociales como la regulación del acceso a los bosques pueden también tratar temas relativos a la reforma agraria o al desarrollo rural, e incluir los PSNM. Esta fragmentación de competencias puede provocar ineficacia en la administración debido a la poca comunicación y a actividades poco coordinadas. Por lo tanto se deben mejorar sustancialmente las comunicaciones entre instituciones dentro de los países, y la sinergía entre los socios internacionales. Las políticas originadas fuera del sector silvícola pueden ser tan importantes como las políticas de PSNM en el ámbito de los sectores silvícolas, y esto debe incluirse en la elaboración de las disposiciones institucionales aplicadas a los PSNM.Los PSNM son significativos en el ámbito local sobre todo para la subsistencia y, cuando se los comercializa, en el ámbito del mercado de la aldea. Es difícil evaluar su importancia comercial en el ámbito nacional e internacional, pero en los programas actuales de información se los subestima. La terminología vinculada con los PSNM es ambigua e incluye una amplia serie de términos de diferente contenido y objetivo, cosa que hace difícil el intercambio de informaciones y comunicaciones. La contribución de los PSNM para el alivio de la pobreza necesita ser ulteriormente investigada. El comercio en el ámbito nacional e internacional requiere grandes inversiones de capital y organización social que por lo general los grupos de productores de PSNM no poseen, y por ello pueden fácilmente ser dejados al margen de las operaciones comerciales en gran escala.Se conoce poco la repercusión de la recolección de PSNM sobre la diversidad biológica de las especies silvícolas, si bien en la mayoría de los casos el uso de PSNM para la subsistencia no provocará la disminución del recurso. Aunque los expertos silvícolas consideran que el aprovechamiento de PSNM suele ser menos destructivo para los bosques que el aprovechamiento maderero, por lo general el aprovechamiento comercial de los PSNM para el comercio (inter)nacional se realiza mediante sistemas de acceso abierto que involucran cantidades no controladas que pueden ser insostenibles.Para la comercialización de los PSNM en los mercados internacionales el abastecimiento de recursos proviene en medida creciente del cultivo en fincas agrícolas. Pero la domesticación de los PSNM aparece como más beneficiosa para los agricultores que para los recolectores, aunque también puede reducir la presión de recolección sobre las fuentes silvestres de especies de PSNM. Aunque esto beneficia la conservación de los ecosistemas silvícolas, puede también disminuir el valor de las especies silvestres de PSNM para los usuarios locales.Sigue habiendo numerosos desafíos para definir niveles sostenibles de uso y prácticas razonables de ordenación, cosecha y comercialización de los PSNM. Si el mejoramiento de la subsistencia es el objetivo, resulta esencial un método multidisciplinario basado en la colaboración entre los interesados en los PSNM y los organismos del sector silvícola y ajenos al mismo. 1. Introducción: ¿cómo pueden ayudarnos los modelos a entender los procesos biológicos y a identificar opciones de ordenación?En los últimos tres decenios los modelos de simulación han sido utilizados para estudiar los ecosistemas silvícolas (Johnsen et al. 2001;Porté y Bartelink 2002). Actualmente los modelos se han convertido en importantes herramientas de investigación y ordenación porque: (i) los árboles se caracterizan por tener tiempos prolongados de generación que limitan la observación empírica de sus ciclos de vida; (ii) utilizando los análisis de sistemas se puede estudiar ventajosamente la complejidad de los ecosistemas silvícolas (Berg y Kuhlmann 1993); (iii) a medida que crece la presión sobre los bosques, se necesita mayor capacidad de predicción para tomar decisiones de política y ordenación silvícolas y (iv) el desempeño de la computación y sus programas ha alcanzado un nivel tal de sofisticación que se puede confiar en los resultados de la ordenación simulada de los bosques. Los modelos se han aplicado a ecosistemas silvícolas naturales, a plantaciones de árboles y a bosques alterados por los seres humanos. Se han utilizado modelos para predecir el crecimiento y rendimiento de los bosques y para administrar y comprender sus procesos demográficos, dinámicos y de sucesión. Se los ha utilizado para predecir y analizar la circulación y adjudicación de materiales relativos a los bosques, de energía e información genética y para definir nuevos experimentos, y se los ha empleado para estimar los efectos de las alteraciones naturales o provocadas por el hombre tales como incendios, plagas, tormentas, contaminación del aire, aprovechamiento y cambios del clima, en los ecosistemas silvícolas.Los modelos relacionados con los bosques se han clasificado de diferentes maneras. Una clasificación muy utilizada distingue los modelos \"empíricos\" de los \"mecanicistas\". Los modelos se definen como empíricos cuando las ecuaciones se ajustan estadísticamente a los datos. En cambio los modelos mecanicistas buscan integrar el conocimiento causal de los procesos físicos, biológicos y mecánicos, es decir tratan de establecer relaciones funcionales entre los distintos elementos de los sistemas modelados. Otro modo de clasificar los modelos se basa en escalas espaciales, típicamente divididas a nivel de 'rodal', 'claro' o 'árbol'. En los modelos de rodal no se describen los árboles individuales, y la canopia está representada por capas homogéneas horizontales de hojas. Los modelos de claro definen y rastrean cada árbol que crece y compite en espacios delimitados llamados 'claros', cuya escala en la mayoría de los modelos silvícolas va de 10m x 10m a 100m x 100m. Otros tipos de modelos se construyen de acuerdo con la estructura y la complejidad de la flora del bosque respectivo, por ejemplo \"bosque monoespecie y de edad homogénea\" o \"bosque mixto y de edades diversas\", o bien según el modo determinado de posición en el espacio y de competición de los árboles, como modelo \"dependiente de la distancia\" versus \"independiente de la distancia\" (los modelos dependientes de la distancia analizan determinado vecindario para estimar la competencia de cada árbol respecto de la cantidad y tamaño de los otros árboles ubicados a cierta distancia). Por último, algunos modelos se desarrollaron solamente con propósitos de investigación científica o principalmente para la administración del bosque.La tendencia actual del desarrollo de modelos es hacia los modelos mecanicistas con elevada resolución espacial (modelos árbol o claro) que integran procesos provenientes de diferentes disciplinas. Un ejemplo será un modelo que vincule los datos de suelo y clima con los procesos ecofisiológicos de los árboles (Lindner et al. 2002). Sin embargo en general se siguen utilizando modelos empíricos como los que se aplican tradicionalmente al crecimiento y rendimiento de los bosques. Suponiendo que las condiciones del sitio permanecen constantes, dichos modelos predicen el crecimiento futuro a partir de mediciones reales de crecimiento histórico. Puesto que ignoran los cambios potenciales del ambiente y los tratamientos genéticos y silvícolas que pueden tener lugar en la rotación del bosque (Johnsen et al. 2001) por lo general no serían aplicables a otras regiones sin una reparametrización (un parámetro es una cantidad numérica que representa el promedio de las relaciones entre las variables de un modelo). No obstante, ofrecen predicciones confiables cuando las condiciones del sitio permanecen sin cambios desde el momento en que se parametrizó el modelo. Por otro lado los modelos mecanicistas tienen la ventaja de ser aplicables a una amplia gama de bosques, pero sus predicciones (p. ej. de crecimiento y rendimiento) son menos precisas, y la cantidad de datos necesarios para que funcionen bien es mayor que para los modelos empíricos, cosa que los hace menos apropiados para la ordenación de los bosques. Actualmente la mayoría de los modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas son \"híbridos\" que contienen tanto elementos mecanicistas como empíricos.2. Aplicación de modelos a nivel de paisaje: ecosistemas silvícolasUno de los usos más antiguos y comunes de modelos en los bosques es el desarrollo y aplicación de cuadros de rendimiento y modelos de crecimiento. En su historia, que se extiende a más de 250 años en el pasado, los cuadros de rendimiento evolucionaron desde versiones elementales que utilizaban conjuntos de datos limitados para rodales de bosques monoespecíficos y de edad homogénea, hasta los sofisticados modelos actuales de simulación por computadora que predicen el dinamismo de bosques mixtos de edades diversas (Pretzsch 2000). Estos modelos buscan principalmente predecir el crecimiento y rendimiento del bosque, estimar los efectos del aclareo y el aprovechamiento maderero y desarrollar directrices para la ordenación de bosques pluriespecies. A título de ilustración describiremos brevemente dos ejemplos de este tipo de modelo. Ambos son modelos empíricos dependientes de la distancia de los árboles. El modelo SILVA fue desarrollado para los bosques templados de Alemania (Pretzsch et al. 2002) y el modelo SYMFOR para los bosques tropicales de Asia y América del Sur (Phillips et al. 2003;Phillips et al. 2004a).SILVA es un modelo empírico de crecimiento silvícola dependiente de la distancia de cada árbol. El modelo simula la competición, mortalidad, crecimiento, aclareo y cosecha. Los resultados proveen la clásica información sobre árboles y rodales que sirve para administrar los bosques, información sobre la clasificación de los rollizos y el rendimiento monetario y estadísticas sobre la biodiversidad y estructura del bosque. SILVA se ha aplicado a la planificación operativa y estratégica de ordenación de bosques, y ha ayudado a desarrollar directrices de ordenación para algunas especies en particular o para tipos de rodales en sitios de determinadas condiciones. Una aplicación típica es comparar diferentes métodos relativos al aclareo de los bosques con los de la producción de rollizos y el rendimiento económico (Figura 1). Las ecuaciones fundamentales de SILVA fueron extraídas de más de 155 000 observaciones de árboles hechas en parcelas permanentes de experimentación en Alemania, que incluyen pino de Noruega (Picea abies (L.) Karst), abeto plateado (Abies alba Mill.), pino silvestre (Pinus sylvestris L.), haya común (Fagus sylvatica L.) y roble de invierno (Quercus petraea [Mattuschka] Liebl.). Para poder comenzar las simulaciones con los modelos se necesitan los datos de posición espacial, diámetro, altura y especie de todos los árboles del rodal. El modelo también incorpora diferencias de sitio utilizando parámetros de temperatura, capacidad de retención hídrica del suelo, precipitaciones, suministro de nutrientes del suelo y concentración de NO x y CO 2 .Como es típico de los modelos empíricos, las predicciones siguen siendo válidas hasta tanto las condiciones futuras del sitio permanezcan dentro del margen de las que se encontraron en los rodales de ejemplo permanente utilizados para parametrizar el modelo.SYMFOR es un marco de simulación que combina modelos de ecología de bosques tropicales naturales con modelos que describen elementos importantes de tratamientos de aprovechamiento maderero selectivo recomendados comúnmente para los bosques tropicales. La parte del modelo SYMFOR relativa a la ecología de bosque natural describe el crecimiento, mortalidad e incorporación de brinzales de cada árbol por encima de un diámetro mínimo. Este tipo de modelo es de base individual, o sea que se consideran por separado las condiciones únicas de cada árbol y su entorno, que pueden hacerse extensivas en el espacio. En las simulaciones de SYMFOR extendidas en el espacio se utiliza información sobre la posición de cada árbol para calcular la competencia analizando su vecindad. Las tareas de ordenación del bosque, por ejemplo la construcción de pistas de deslizamiento (senderos temporarios empleados para lanzar rollizos y árboles fuera del bosque), son dimensiones espaciales dadas (conocidas como polígonos), de modo que se puede computarizar el daño sufrido por los árboles cuyas posiciones en el espacio Figura 1. Resultados obtenidos con el modelo de simulación SILVA. Aumento anual de volumen (izquierda) y valor total neto de producción (derecha) simulados de diferentes rodales de pino de Noruega en Alemania meridional. Concepto de árbol futuro: el modelo realiza una selección. Recomienda dejar un total de 250 árboles en torno a los cuales se quitan 2-3 ejemplares competidores (un promedio de 2,5 competidores por árbol), a alturas de copas del rodal de 10, 14, 18 y 22 m. Fuente: Pretzsch et al. 2002. se conocen. SYMFOR simula las condiciones que determinan el estado del bosque más bien que el estado del mismo, de manera que es posible simular numerosos escenarios de ordenación que no figuraban en los datos iniciales utilizados para calibrar el modelo. SYMFOR se ha aplicado a bosques tropicales de Indonesia, Guyana y el Amazonas oriental de Brasil. La versión brasileña de SYMFOR se basa en la medición de todos los árboles con un diámetro de 5 cm o más, ubicados en rodales experimentales del Bosque Jarí y del Bosque Nacional Tapajós (Estado de Pará, Brasil) por un período de 16 años.Como sucede con la mayoría de los modelos de crecimiento tropicales, las especies de árboles se agrupan de acuerdo con su incorporación, crecimiento y mortalidad. En la versión amazónica de SYMFOR se utilizaron diez grupos de especies para describir los procesos naturales que afectan al comportamiento de los árboles. Para cada grupo de especies se calculó el porcentaje de crecimiento utilizando el diámetro del árbol y un índice de competencia. El índice de competencia es un valor numérico que indica la presión de la competencia sobre un árbol determinado. Para calcular este valor en los modelos de crecimiento silvícola se aplican diferentes ecuaciones con información sobre la cantidad y tamaño de los árboles competidores en una vecindad dada alrededor del árbol, o la relación del tamaño de un determinado árbol en comparación con el área de distribución de todos los árboles. La mortalidad y la incorporación se simulan como procesos estocásticos. La probabilidad de incorporación se basa en el porcentaje de crecimiento previsto para un árbol hipotético. Se incluyen opciones para hacer variar la interacción del hombre con el bosque de manera que queden reflejadas las posibles decisiones de ordenación silvícola (Figura 2). El modelo SYMFOR se aplicó en el Amazonas brasileño para simular las prácticas de ordenación silvícola actuales, basadas en una extracción de madera de 40 m 3 /ha con un ciclo de corta de 30 años. Los resultados mostraron que el rendimiento podría sostenerse por tres cosechas luego del primer aprovechamiento del bosque primario, pero la composición de la madera se desplazaría progresivamente hacia especies de maderas blandas más bien que hacia las de maderas duras (Phillips et al. 2004a).Figura 2. Arboles restantes (puntos pequeños), derribo predicho (rombos), daños por arrastre y deslizamiento (líneas gruesas y círculos abiertos) después de una operación simulada de aprovechamiento silvícola aplicando SYMFOR en el Amazonas brasileño.Se han desarrollado numerosos modelos mecanicistas para comprender cómo reaccionan los ecosistemas silvícolas al estrés. Schwalm y Ek (2001) examinaron 12 simuladores mecanicistas de crecimiento de ejemplares arbóreos elaborados para estudiar los cambios climáticos y la contaminación del aire. Opinaron que estos modelos deben incluir una serie específica de características del sitio. Se define a un 'sitio' como la totalidad de factores abióticos y bióticos que afectan el crecimiento de un árbol. Los tipos de modelo examinados iban de modelos a 'nivel rodal, monoespecie, edad pareja' (Landsberg y Waring 1997), a modelos 'nivel árbol, multiespecies, edad despareja' (Nikolov y Fox 1994).Los modelos mecanicistas comprenden varios submodelos que simulan los procesos que tienen lugar debajo del suelo, como los ciclos de nutrientes y agua, y encima del suelo como las interacciones con la atmósfera y otros procesos fisiológicos. En estos modelos la temperatura, precipitación y velocidad del viento se integran como variables externas que influyen en la conductancia estomática, la fotosíntesis y la hidrología. La duración de los períodos simulados para las variables puede fluctuar de modelo a modelo. Pese a su importancia en el cambio climático, solo algunos modelos incluyen las concentraciones de dióxido de carbono y su repercusión en la fotosíntesis (Chen et al. 1998). Se entiende menos la repercusión directa de las deposiciones atmosféricas en los árboles que sus efectos indirectos en las condiciones del suelo y en la circulación de los nutrientes silvícolas. Esto significa que los modelos mecanicistas son más exactos para simular los procesos que tienen lugar debajo del suelo. Por ejemplo muchos modelos adaptan los datos atmosféricos a combinaciones de nutrientes con grados variables de exigencia en cuanto a detalles y datos, y los modelos mecanicistas TREEDYN3 (Bossel 1996) y FORSANA (Grote y Erhard 1999) emplean modificadores para reducir la fotosíntesis. Otros modelos tienen solamente en cuenta el NO x y lo consideran como añadido a la combinación de nutrientes de la planta. Con el modelo ACIDIC (Kareinen et al. 1998) se pueden obtener simulaciones más sofisticadas de la repercusión de los contaminantes. Este modelo incluye un submodelo de la química del suelo que puede establecer en una columna multicapas de suelo la deposición atmosférica y sus efectos sobre los ciclos del nitrógeno, la disolución del dióxido de carbono, la acomplejación del aluminio y otros numerosos procesos químicos del suelo.Otros aspectos que incluyen los modelos mecanicistas son la temperatura del suelo, estado de humedad, actividad microbiana, disponibilidad de nutrientes, fotosíntesis, geometría de la copa y mecanismos de intercepción de la luz.En los modelos multiespecies se dan los valores promedio totales específicos relativos a parámetros importantes de las especies, como el porcentaje de crecimiento y de fotosíntesis. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas mecanicistas orientados al proceso no incluyen las variaciones genéticas dentro de las especies. Una excepción es la integración de la variación fenológica para diferentes proveniencias de árboles hecha por Berninger (1997). Una rama de la genética silvícola se especializa en los llamados \"ensayos de proveniencia\". Estos son experimentos de campo o bajo condiciones controladas (p. ej. en invernaderos) que estudian las bases genéticas de la variación fenotípica (por ejemplo, el crecimiento, los parámetros ecofisiológicos, la fenología, la resistencia a las plagas) de árboles de diversos orígenes geográficos (ver la Sección 3.3).2.3 Contribución de los sistemas de información geográfica (GIS, sigla en inglés) y de las aplicaciones de detección a distancia a la elaboración de modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas Muchos de los modelos mencionados hasta ahora incluyen componentes espaciales, es decir reconocen que las especies silvícolas y sus hábitats ni son homogéneos ni están distribuidos de forma pareja en el medio natural. La distribución espacial y la disposición de los árboles tienen papeles importantes en los procesos de los ecosistemas, y la distribución y densidad de las especies arbóreas en los bosques varía a menudo según el tipo de suelo, régimen hídrico, disponibilidad de luz y clima. La variación espacial de los aspectos relacionados con los bosques tiene lugar en diversas escalas desde el nivel micro al macro, y esta variabilidad puede influir de manera fundamental para determinar la naturaleza y magnitud de ciertos procesos de los sistemas ecológicos. A continuación se presenta una breve reseña de algunas aplicaciones de GIS y de detección a distancia a la elaboración de modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas.Los datos obtenidos a distancia, como imágenes satelitales o fotos aéreas de los bosques, o los conjuntos de datos GIS de variables ambientales asociadas como clima, topografía o suelo, pueden dotar a los modelos de abundante información sobre la disposición espacial de importantes aspectos de los bosques. Asimismo cumplen un papel sustancial en la elaboración y calibrado de los modelos. Además, la información de este tipo y en especial la que deriva de las imágenes detectadas a distancia puede servir para corroborar los resultados del modelo. Los datos detectados a distancia pueden también reducir el costo de prolongadas mediciones sobre el terreno, proveyendo al mismo tiempo conjuntos exhaustivos de datos que cubren zonas muy amplias.Puesto que los aspectos espaciales del bosque son tan omnipresentes e importantes en su estructura y funcionamiento, las tecnologías de GIS y de detección a distancia tienen actualmente un importante papel en la elaboración de modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas, sea en los programas utilizados para modelar los procesos espaciales como en el suministro de datos asociados con el espacio. Las existencias comerciales de GIS y los paquetes de detección a distancia como ESRI, ArcGIS o ERDAS's Imagine no fueron elaborados específicamente para la modelación espacio-temporal, y apuntan más bien a la manipulación de datos genéricos y al análisis espacial. Otros paquetes de programas como ArcInfo (también de ESRI) o el lenguaje de modelación ambiental PCRaster (de la Universidad de Utrecht, Países Bajos), dan mejores resultados y son más flexibles para la modelación espacio-temporal de los bosques al combinar análisis avanzados de pautas espaciales con procesos temporales.Un bosque de canopia sencilla es el tipo más simple que se puede seguir mediante la detección a distancia. Los satélites Landsat se han utilizado en particular para el seguimiento de los cambios en la canopia silvícola (Skole y Tucker 1993;Helmer et al. 2000;Pax-Lenney et al. 2001). Por ejemplo, cuando se corta un bosque se notan los cambios en las bandas de reflectancia de Landsat porque el suelo desnudo refleja bastante más luz. El sensor del Radiómetro Avanzado de Muy Alta Definición (AVHRR, sigla en inglés) montado en un satélite ha proporcionado abundantes datos sobre el uso de tierras en todo el mundo a escala de 1 km de resolución. A menudo este sensor es capaz de distinguir entre tipos de bosques que van de perennes a caducos y de latifolios a coníferas, así como la densidad de la canopia (Belward 1996; Evaluación de los Recursos Silvícolas 2000). El sensor SPOT montado en un satélite también proporcionó datos sobre el uso de tierras a escala de 1 km (Cubierta Silvícola Mundial 2000; http://www.gvm.jrc. it/glc2000). Foody y Hill (1996) introdujeron un método para clasificar 12 tipos de bosque tropical empleando los datos Landsat.Los estudios que requieren escalas más exactas dentro del mismo rodal de bosque o canopia, pueden también emplear la detección a distancia para obtener datos sobre los aspectos estructurales y ecológicos de los bosques. Woodcock et al. (2001) elaboraron métodos para seguir los cambios en los bosques a lo largo del tiempo empleando imágenes Landsat. Pudieron identificar operaciones de aprovechamiento silvícola y los daños de defoliación causados por insectos en un bosque templado. Del mismo modo Michalek et al. (2000) utilizaron imágenes Landsat para identificar la gravedad de los incendios y la densidad de los rodales en un bosque de abetos en Alaska. Numerosos estudios pudieron identificar ciclos fenológicos mediante datos detectados a distancia (Everitt y Judd 1989), a menudo empleando distintas pautas fenológicas a lo largo del tiempo para distinguir entre las especies arbóreas (Thomasson et al. 1994;Wolter et al. 1995;Key et al. 2001). En los ambientes templados la comunidad interesada en los bosques también ha utilizado inspecciones aéreas para seguir la posición de los árboles y para administrar las plantaciones. Pouliot et al. (2002) fueron pioneros en adoptar un método para detectar la copa de cada árbol utilizando imágenes aéreas de alta resolución de bosques de coníferas, con lo cual hicieron posible calcular parámetros estructurales de cada árbol en escalas más amplias y seguir su crecimiento a lo largo del tiempo. Wasseige y Defourny (2002) emplean múltiples imágenes SPOT de bosques tropicales para establecer parámetros estructurales tales como la no uniformidad de la cubierta silvícola o la presencia de claros, utilizando análisis de reflectancia bidireccional. También se han seguido mediante imágenes satelitales el estadio sucesional y/o la sucesión a lo largo del tiempo tanto en los bosques tropicales (Helmer et al. 2000) como en los templados (Fiorella y Ripple 1993). Con el advenimiento de imágenes espaciales y espectrales de resolución más elevada, dentro de un tiempo se podrán cuantificar detalladamente los parámetros estructurales de los árboles (Asner et al. 2002).En esta reseña hemos presentado numerosos ejemplos de tecnología de detección a distancia, y cómo se los ha aplicado para el seguimiento de ecosistemas silvícolas y la elaboración de modelos de los mismos. Como hemos visto entre otras numerosas aplicaciones las imágenes satelitales se han utilizado para seguir la canopia silvícola y la estructura y procesos de sucesión de los bosques. El principal beneficio de integrar los datos detectados a distancia en los modelos silvícolas es que se pueden generar grandes conjuntos de datos relativos a vastas zonas utilizando métodos no destructivos y comparativamente veloces. en los estadios ontogénicos resultantes que van desde las semillas hasta los árboles reproductivos. Los ambientes bióticos y no-bióticos influyen mucho en estos procesos al igual que las actividades humanas, como por ejemplo cuando se introducen semillas. El aprovechamiento y ordenación del bosque pueden también cambiar la estructura genética de las poblaciones de árboles (Hosius 1993;Aldrich y Hamrick 1998;Rajora 1999;Takahashi et al. 2000). Las consecuencias de la actividad humana como la contaminación del aire (Scholz et al. 1989), pueden influir indirectamente en los procesos genéticos de las poblaciones al afectar las condiciones ambientales a las que el bosque debe adaptarse. Puesto que se sabe que los principales cambios en las pautas genéticas tuvieron lugar en las poblaciones arbóreas templadas y tropicales como consecuencia de la extinción y recolonización durante y después de los períodos glaciales (Petit et al. 1997;Caron et al. 2000), se pueden esperar efectos similares producidos por los actuales cambios climáticos (Giannini y Magnani 1994;Kremer 2000).Los métodos de análisis de sistemas que se valen de modelos de simulación ayudan a analizar el dinamismo temporal y espacial de sistemas complejos (Berg y Kuhlmann 1993). En genética silvícola se han aplicado modelos de simulación para estimar o predecir los parámetros de los procesos genéticos de determinadas poblaciones. Por ejemplo, el modelo de cruzamiento mixto diseñado por Ritland y Jain (1981) fue aplicado para estimar la proporción de autopolinización, cruzamiento lejano y endogamia biparental en numerosas especies (Friedman y Adams 1985;Murawski y Hamrick 1991;Bacilieri et al. 1996;Burczyk et al. 1996;Rossi et al. 1996;Doligez y Joly 1997;Collevatti et al. 2001). Hardy y Vekemans (1999) desarrollaron un modelo que evalúa los parámetros de flujo de los genes a partir de las estructuras genéticas de poblaciones arbóreas en el espacio. El \"método de dos generaciones\" compara la composición genética de las semillas de diferentes árboles. Luego se utiliza la información de los genotipos de los árboles madre a fin de separar los haplotipos de semillas provenientes del árbol madre de aquellos que provienen de los suministradores de polen (árboles padre). Un fuerte flujo genético del polen da una composición genética uniforme en las nubes de polen eficaces, mientras que un flujo genético limitado se relaciona con una mayor diferenciación de las nubes de polen eficaces de la progenie de cada árbol. La diferenciación genética observada se ajusta a los valores teóricos esperados para poder estimar una función de dispersión del polen. Recientemente se desarrollaron modelos de \"método de dos generaciones\" a partir de datos de diferenciación genética entre nubes de polen de progenies arbóreas distintas a fin de estimar la dispersión del polen y las densidades eficaces de árboles reproductivos (Austerlitz y Smouse 2001;Smouse et al. 2001;Austerlitz y Smouse 2002;Dick et al. 2003;Degen et al. 2004).Se ha puesto mucho empeño en desarrollar y aplicar modelos de simulación al dinamismo de los patrones genéticos espaciales entre y dentro de las poblaciones arbóreas. Doligez et al. (1998) analizaron los factores que influyen en la estructura genética espacial y el nivel de endogamia de una población arbórea, empleando un \"modelo de aislamiento-pordistancia\" (en el \"aislamiento-por-distancia\" el flujo de genes se produce entre vecindarios locales en una población distribuida con continuidad). En esta simulación se incluyeron la densidad arbórea, distancias de dispersión de polen y semillas, superposición de generaciones y selección en un locus de herencia biparental con dos alelos. Se determinó que el agrupamiento de los árboles en el espacio y el índice de cruzamiento lejano tiene un efecto importante en la estructura genética en el espacio y en el nivel individual de endogamia de los árboles. A nivel de las poblaciones, el grado de endogamia fue en su mayor parte predicho por el grado de asolapado entre generaciones.Muy pocos modelos demográficos pudieron estimar de una manera más sofisticada la repercusión de la actividad humana sobre las poblaciones arbóreas (Alvarez-Buylla et al. 1996). No obstante, Gömöry (1995) desarrolló un conjunto de modelos elaborados para hacer mejores simulaciones de los sistemas de cruzamiento y de flujo de genes de las generaciones arbóreas. Si bien estos modelos responden adecuadamente a diferentes niveles de diversidad de alelos y estructura espacial y sirven para simular diferentes modos de dispersión de polen y semillas, no se incluyeron importantes procesos genéticos y demográficos ni características como el asolapado de generaciones, la fenología de floración y el crecimiento de los árboles.Con el modelo de simulación Metapop se efectuaron sofisticadas simulaciones en gran escala del dinamismo de población de los árboles; el modelo fue diseñado para estudiar la evolución genética de una población subdividida de una especie diploidea en condiciones de selección natural. Este modelo combina la genética poblacional, la genética cuantitativa y el dinamismo poblacional. Aplicando Metapop, Le Corre et al. (1997) trataron de reconstruir la recolonización posglacial de robles en Europa a partir de diversos refugios en una región de 100 x 300 km, utilizando simulaciones de un \"modelo escalonado de dos dimensiones\" (2D), en el cual cada población recibe migrantes de las poblaciones vecinas. Las simulaciones afectaron a un conjunto de poblaciones conectadas por migraciones de semillas por largos períodos (muchas generaciones). Los autores simularon la distribución y pauta espacial de haplotipos cloroplásticos heredados por vía materna, y los compararon con datos experimentales. Hallaron que una distribución de bellotas restringida en el espacio, combinada con pocos episodios de dispersión de semillas a gran distancia (varias decenas de km) explicaban mejor la velocidad de la recolonización observada y la diferenciación genética entre las poblaciones.En otra aplicación de Metapop, Le Corre y Kremer (2003) estudiaron la variabilidad genética de una población arbórea subdividida con arreglo a una selección estabilizadora y diversificadora empleando tres indicadores: marcadores neutrales, loci de rasgos cuantitativos (QTL, sigla en inglés), y el rasgo en sí mismo. El objetivo de esta simulación fue explicar las diferencias de los rasgos cuantitativos y genéticos entre poblaciones arbóreas experimentales (Jaramillo-Correa et al. 2001). Los loci de rasgos cuantitativos son regiones de un gen o genes vinculados con un rasgo en particular. Se los ha estudiado en los árboles para conocer rasgos como el crecimiento, características físicas y químicas de la madera, cuajado de yemas y otros caracteres morfológicos y fenológicos. Se usó un modelo cuantitativo con efectos añadidos para vincular genotipos con fenotipos. Empleando un método analítico, los autores compararon la diversidad fenotípica en un demo (H S ) -una población intermejorada localmente-con la variancia genética en un demo (V W ) evaluada mediante la diferenciación de un marcador neutral (F ST ) y la diferenciación cuantitativa (Q ST ) para el rasgo. Se demostró que la diferencia entre los resultados F ST y Q ST depende de las cantidades respectivas de covariancia entre los QTL dentro y entre los demos. Se emplearon simulaciones para estudiar el efecto de la intensidad de selección, variancia de óptima entre demos y el índice de migración tanto para especies alógamas como para especies predominantemente autopolinizadas. Al contrastar la variabilidad genética con marcadores neutrales, QTL y el rasgo, se observó que eran funciones del nivel de flujo de genes en condiciones de selección diversificadora. Las mayores discrepancias entre los tres indicadores tuvieron lugar en condiciones de selección altamente diversificadora y elevado flujo de genes. Por ende, el estudio revela que la condición de selección diversificadora puede provocar una sustancial heterogeneidad entre los QTL, puesto que solo algunos de ellos muestran diferenciación de alelos, mientras que la mayoría se comporta como marcadores neutros. Austerlitz et al. (2000) desarrollaron un modelo para estudiar la repercusión del ciclo de vida de los árboles silvícolas, en particular la duración de su fase juvenil, sobre la diversidad y diferenciación genética durante el último período glacial en Europa y el siguiente período de colonización. Su modelo bidimensional escalonado incluía la estructura demográfica (modelo matriz), mutaciones, dispersión de polen y semillas y la fertilidad dependiente de la densidad (Figura 3). El motivo del estudio de simulación fue que se observó que las especies arbóreas tienen gran diversidad dentro de la población, y poca diferenciación de los genes nucleares entre las poblaciones. Esto contrasta con las plantas anuales que muestran mucha más diferenciación de los genes nucleares pero mucha menos diversidad general (Nybom 2004). La explicación habitual para esta diferencia es que la circulación de polen y por ende el flujo de genes es mucho mayor para los árboles (Liepelt et al. 2002;White et al. 2002). Sin embargo esta explicación es problemática porque los árboles han vuelto a colonizar muy recientemente las zonas templadas y tuvieron muchos episodios de fundación que habitualmente reducen la diversidad dentro de la población y aumentan la diferenciación entre las poblaciones (Scotti et al. 2000;Kremer et al. 2002). Solo niveles extremadamente elevados de flujo de genes pudieron contrabalancear los efectos de estas fundaciones sucesivas. Austerlitz et al. (2000) mostraron con su modelo que se necesitaban tanto un nivel razonablemente elevado de circulación de polen como cierta distribución demográfica de árboles para explicar la escasa diferenciación genética de la mayoría de las poblaciones arbóreas europeas. Con ayuda de simulaciones, la retardada reproducción de los árboles durante la recolonización explicó el efecto debilitador de las fundaciones. Cuando los primeros árboles de la frontera de colonización alcanzan la edad reproductiva, una parte no deleznable del espacio está ya ocupado por juveniles provenientes de semillas que llegaron antes y fueron almacenados en el banco de semillas del suelo. También mostraron que el flujo de genes y el ciclo de vida repercuten en los genes citoplasmáticos heredados por vía materna. Tanto en los árboles como en las especies anuales estos se caracterizan por tener mucha menos diversidad y mucha más diferenciación que los genes nucleares. Otra categoría de modelos de simulación aplicada en los estudios de genética silvícola trata de estimar la adaptabilidad genética de las poblaciones arbóreas al cambio mundial del clima. En la mayoría de los casos las predicciones se basan en datos genéticos cuantitativos de ensayos de proveniencia, experimentos de viveros comunes o datos de viveros fenológicos internacionales que emplean clones (Beuker 1994;Kramer 1994;Matyas 1994;Liesebach et al. 1999;Chuine et al. 2000). En los experimentos de vivero común, plantas de diferente origen (materiales genéticamente diferentes) se cultivan bajo las mismas condiciones ambientales controladas. Estos experimentos ayudan a los dasónomos a comprender las bases genéticas de la variación en los rasgos estudiados (por ejemplo el índice de crecimiento anual, la fotosíntesis, la resistencia a las heladas y la resistencia a los insectos). Estimulados por una recomendación de la OMM (Organización Meteorológica Mundial), muchos países europeos establecieron en 1957 a través de sus Servicios Nacionales Hidrometeorológicos (NMHS, sigla en inglés) una red de Viveros Fenológicos Internacionales. La idea fundamental para establecer esta red fue observar el comportamiento de plantas clonadas en diferentes condiciones climáticas en toda Europa (desde Finlandia hasta Grecia y desde Irlanda hasta Rusia).En el modelo SICA (Modelo de Canopia Sencilla, sigla en inglés) basado en el proceso, Berninger (1997) incluyó la variación determinada genéticamente en Pinus sylvestris. El modelo se aplicó a un transecto geográfico de seis estaciones meteorológicas de Europa. Simulaba la fotosíntesis y transpiración a nivel de la superficie de la hoja, e incluía respiración y balance hídrico del suelo como función de las propiedades de la canopia y del medio ambiente. El modelo tenía en cuenta posibles adaptaciones genéticas de la fenología de la fotosíntesis al clima local y a la disminución del intercambio de gases debida a la sequía. Las simulaciones que añaden la adaptación genética de la fenología al clima local difieren hasta en un 20% en cuanto a fotosíntesis, duración de la estación de crecimiento y productividad primaria bruta (GPP, sigla en inglés), respecto de las simulaciones que no la tienen en cuenta.Con el objeto de analizar los cambios potenciales provocados por el calentamiento global sobre la diversidad arbórea inter e intraespecífica, Takenaka (2001) desarrolló un modelo de bosque de base individual caracterizado por la estructura espacial y el flujo de genes. El bosque se representó como un reticulado (o malla) bidimensional de 'celdas' (1000 x 100), en cada una de las cuales había un árbol como máximo. Se ubicó un gradiente de régimen de temperatura en el lado largo del reticulado. Se consideraron tres grupos de especies arbóreas, cada uno con cinco especies. Los tres grupos diferían en sus regímenes de temperatura adecuada, y puesto que las condiciones de temperatura afectan la fecundidad de los árboles, también diferían en la cantidad de semillas y polen producidos. Mientras mayor era la diferencia entre la temperatura óptima supuesta para el árbol y la temperatura de la celda que ocupaba, menor era la fecundidad. Cada árbol tiene un par de alelos (genes) que determinan la temperatura óptima del mismo. El nuevo árbol hereda estos alelos de los árboles padres que mueren estocásticamente. La celda vacante es entonces ocupada por un nuevo árbol brotado de una semilla elegida aleatoriamente entre las dispersadas por los árboles maduros vecinos (≥25 años de edad). Las densidades de semillas y polen dispersados por un árbol maduro seguían una función exponencial. Utilizando este modelo, Takenaka investigó las posibles consecuencias del cambio de clima sobre los tres grupos de árboles, y advirtió que la nueva distribución de los árboles tras el cambio de clima era afectado por la similitud con el del hábitat ideal. El modelo mostró que mientras más similares era la serie de hábitats de los árboles, menos probable era que cambiara la pauta de distribución de éstos. Usando el modelo, Takenaka también halló que la diversidad de especies se reducía por el efecto de fundación, cuando las especies dominantes cercanas a la línea de frontera entran a dominar también la nueva zona. Liesebach (2002) empleó el modelo SILVA de crecimiento silvícola descrito más arriba para estudiar los posibles efectos del aumento de la temperatura media anual y la disminución de la precipitación sobre la estructura genética de los árboles. Se emplearon inventarios de seis loci de genes de isoenzimas en ensayos de proveniencia de pino de Noruega (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) para estimar la variación y diferenciación genética de poblaciones de pinos. Los datos fueron tomados de un ensayo de pinos de Noruega de 25 años de edad ubicado en Alemania. Con estos datos se generó un rodal virtual de pino de Noruega para simular su crecimiento durante un período de 75 años en siete condiciones ambientales distintas, a cada una de las cuales se atribuyeron dos escenarios de mortalidad: uno en el que las pérdidas se debían a muerte natural a través de la competición, y el otro caracterizado por la mortalidad natural combinada con el aclareo por lo alto (los árboles se aclarean desde la porción media y superior de la serie de clases de copa y diámetro).Se determinaron las frecuencias de alelos y genotipos de los árboles en 100 años. Sobre la base de los datos de las isoenzimas, para cada condición ambiental simulada se determinaron varios parámetros como la diversidad genética y la heterocigosidad, empleando proyecciones de los datos de las isoenzimas. No se encontraron diferencias sustanciales en los parámetros genéticos. En cambio la mayor diferenciación se halló entre los parámetros de crecimiento de los árboles, que parecía tener poca relación con los marcadores de las isoenzimas. Se concluyó que los cambios de la estructura genética a lo largo del tiempo eran más probablemente causados por la deriva genética asociada con la disminución del tamaño de la población que por el calentamiento mundial.Son raros los estudios que simulan la repercusión del aprovechamiento y otras prácticas silvícolas y la fragmentación silvícola sobre la diversidad genética de las poblaciones arbóreas, y los que existen por lo general representan de manera excesivamente simplificada los procesos biológicos. Glaubitz et al. (2003) utilizaron la simulación Monte Carlo en Australia para investigar si las diferencias entre dos rodales de eucaliptos con historias silvícolas diversas podían explicarse por la deriva genética. En otros estudios de conservación genética se estimaron poblaciones mínimas viables combinando modelos de genética de la población con los índices estimados en los que surgen las mutaciones (Alvarez-Buylla et al. 1996). En estos modelos se supone que dos factores amenazan la supervivencia de la población arbórea: (i) pérdida del potencial de variación genética adaptativa debida a la deriva genética, y (ii) mayor caída por endogamia debida a la autofecundación y al cruzamiento entre parientes. Dos desventajas de estos modelos son que incluyen considerables generalizaciones a menudo no vinculadas con los datos experimentales, y que no tienen en cuenta específicamente las operaciones de ordenación de los bosques.El modelo de simulación ECO-GENE fue desarrollado por Degen et al. (1996) en el Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH) de Alemania a fin de estudiar el dinamismo temporal y espacial de las estructuras genéticas de poblaciones arbóreas de ecosistemas silvícolas templados. Es un modelo dependiente de la distancia de cada árbol que combina elementos de genética, dinamismo y crecimiento, con modelos de ordenación de las poblaciones silvícolas. Se pueden crear generaciones asolapadas o separadas y simular diferentes procesos como flujo de genes, sistemas de cruzamiento, fenología de floración, selección, deriva aleatoria y competencia (Figura 4, página 92). El modelo ECO-GENE se utilizó para estudiar las repercusiones de diversas prácticas silvícolas y de la contaminación del aire sobre la estructura genética de poblaciones arbóreas de los bosques templados de Europa (Alemania, Francia y Austria) y Asia (Japón) (Degen y Scholz 1996;Degen et al. 1997;Geburek y Mengel 1998;Degen et al. 1999a;Takahashi et al. 2000;Degen et al. 2002). Desde 1998 se viene trabajando para adaptar ECO-GENE y aplicarlo a las especies arbóreas tropicales, y recientemente se añadieron módulos de dispersión de polen y semillas transportados por animales y de la fenología de floración (Degen y Roubik 2004). La integración reciente del modelo de simulación silvícola SYMFOR con ECO-GENE ofrece la posibilidad de modelar mejor los procesos de crecimiento y repercusión de la ordenación en los bosques tropicales de América del Sur (Phillips et al. 2004b).El modelo ECO-GENE y el nuevo modelo ECO-GENE+SYMFOR están siendo actualmente utilizados para estimar los efectos de las operaciones silvícolas sobre la diversidad genética de poblaciones arbóreas en numerosos proyectos de bosques tropicales y templados. Entre estos el proyecto 'Dendrogene' de Brasil (http://www.cpatu. embrapa.br/dendro/index.htm), el proyecto EU INCO 'Geneotropico' en numerosos países de América del Sur (http://www.nbu.ac.uk/geneo) y el proyecto 'Oakflow' (http://www. pierroton.inra.fr/Oakflow) de la Unión Europea.Para ser inicializado el modelo ECO-GENE requiere información sobre la posición espacial, el diámetro y el genotipo de todos los árboles comprendidos en un rodal o población. Para recoger estos datos se establecieron numerosas parcelas en bosques tropicales y templados. En Alemania septentrional se inventariaron la posición y diámetro y se analizaron los genotipos empleando aloenzimas y microsatélites nucleares en dos rodales mixtos de robles y hayas (Figura 5, pág. 93) (Scholz y Degen 1999). En una parcela de 500 ha en el Bosque Nacional de Tapajós en el Brasil, establecida en el marco del proyecto Dendrogene, se recopilaron datos para la inicialización y la parametrización de las simulaciones con ECO-GENE (Kanashiro et al. 2002). Dendrogene está colaborando con el proyecto de 'Ordenación Silvícola Sostenible para la Producción de Madera' del Instituto Brasileño de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales Renovables (IBAMA) y la Organización Internacional de Maderas Tropicales (OIMT). En Tapajós se llevaron a cabo estudios genéticos, ecológicos y de biología reproductiva sobre siete especies madereras, antes y después del aprovechamiento silvícola.Para la parametrización de los diferentes procesos (Figura 4, pág. 92) ECO-GENE necesita información sobre la dispersión de polen y semillas, fenología de la especie, variación de la fertilidad, crecimiento, mortalidad, selección y autoincompatibilidad. Esta información se elabora a partir de datos recogidos en parcelas estudiadas intensamente (PEI) o se la encuentra en la bibliografía especializada. Para inicializar las simulaciones los datos incompletos pueden completarse con un generador de datos. El generador de datos utiliza información agregada, como frecuencia de alelos y densidades arbóreas por clases de diámetros, y crea poblaciones arbóreas artificiales utilizadas para comenzar las simulaciones. Para convalidar los resultados de la simulación de la PEI se compararon las frecuencias de alelos simuladas y las reales de cada progenie arbórea.En muchos países europeos se regeneran artificialmente grandes segmentos de rodales de bosques. A los fines de la regeneración, las semillas suelen cosecharse en rodales certificados. La composición genética de las semillas cosechadas está determinada por diferentes factores, por ejemplo el número y distribución espacial de los árboles semilleros aprovechados, variación en la fenología de floración y fertilidad de todos los árboles de reproducción, dispersión del polen, sistema de cruzamiento y la estructura espacial y demográfica del rodal. Desde un punto de vista genético, una buena cosecha de semilla es aquella cuya composición genética es idéntica o al menos muy similar a la de la población adulta original, o cuando la variación genética de las semillas cosechadas es igual o mayor que la de los adultos.Para asegurar el control de calidad de la regeneración de dichos bosques se efectuó un análisis de sensibilidad con ECO-GENE en el Institute for Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding de Grosshandsdorf, Alemania. Los objetivos del análisis fueron: (i) determinar la importancia relativa de los factores antes mencionados sobre la composición genética de las semillas cosechadas, (ii) estimar el riesgo de erosión genética debido al procedimiento de cosecha y (iii) identificar los umbrales de diferencias genéticas tolerables entre la población adulta y las semillas cosechadas. La simulación se inicializó con un conjunto de datos de robles de la parcela de Behlendorf (Figura 5 pág. 93). La información recogida de 229 árboles Quercus robur comprendía los dap de ≥20 cm así como la posición espacial y los genotipos utilizando siete loci de aloenzimas y tres microsatélites. Se efectuaron mil simulaciones con diferentes configuraciones de parámetros seleccionados de manera aleatoria de entre una serie dada, por ejemplo el número de semillas arbóreas cosechadas (10-40), el coeficiente de variación de la fertilidad (50<CV%<300), la desviación estándar de fecha de comienzo de la floración (2-7 días) y el exponente de dispersión del polen (0,001-0,05). En cada simulación se obtuvo una muestra de 1000 semillas para los árboles semilleros seleccionados, y se determinó que la variable de respuesta entre todos los árboles adultos y las semillas muestreadas era la distancia genética (Gregorius 1978). Por último se verificó la sensibilidad del parámetro de respuesta a la variación de los parámetros ingresados mediante un análisis regresivo gradual múltiple utilizando valores transformados según la posición (Nathan et al. 2001). Los resultados figuran en el Cuadro 1Las simulaciones mostraron que la distancia genética entre los adultos y las semillas simuladas variaron de 0,048 a 0,243. Empleando los mismos marcadores de genes, la distancia entre el rodal de Quercus robur de Behlendorf y otro rodal en la misma región era de 0,077 (Degen et al. 1999b). Este valor y el intervalo de confiabilidad de las simulaciones (95%≤0,147) pueden adoptarse para estimar las distancias genéticas tolerables entre el rodal original y las semillas cosechadas para estos mismos marcadores de genes. En los análisis de sensibilidad, el parámetro más importante aportado fue la cantidad de árboles de semilla (R 2 = 0,32), y se estableció que se correlacionaba de manera negativa con la distancia genética. Esto significa que a medida que el número de árboles semilleros aumenta, la diferencia genética entre la población adulta y las semillas será progresivamente más baja (Figura 6). El segundo parámetro en importancia fue la variación de fertilidad, y mejoró la variación explicada del modelo hasta R 2 = 0,43; al aumentar la variación de la fertilidad se daba mayor distancia genética entre las semillas y los adultos. Los parámetros de dispersión del polen y fenología de la floración probados tuvieron apenas una influencia menor en la distancia genética entre adultos y semillas. Cruzamiento lejano y/o endogamia Estos parámetros mejoraron la variación explicada en apenas el 2% (R 2 = 0,49). Los resultados de las simulaciones tienen diversas implicaciones prácticas. Pueden emplearse para determinar los umbrales críticos para la cosecha de semillas identificando un número mínimo de árboles semilleros, evaluando la repercusión de la variación en las pautas de floración, o poniendo a disposición valores de referencia sobre distancias genéticas entre adultos y semillas cosechadas. Las simulaciones también permiten realizar análisis de sensibilidad que ayudan a orientar la investigación hacia procesos y parámetros importantes.Un problema significativo de los programas tendientes a integrar la variación genética y su dinamismo en los modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas es el escaso vínculo entre la variación genética detectada por los marcadores de genes y la variación genética Figura 5. Una PEI (parcela estudiada intensamente) de 5,5 ha establecida en Behlendorf (Alemania septentrional) para aplicar simulaciones ECO-GENE a poblaciones de robles (Quercus robur) y hayas (Fagus sylvatica). Se midieron todos los árboles con un diámetro a la altura del pecho (dap) de 20 cm. Se inventariaron sus dap, posiciones y genotipos empleando aloenzimas y microsatélites. Cuadro 1. Resultados de un análisis de sensibilidad ECO-GENE. Regresión gradual múltiple de la distancia genética comparada con los principales parámetros aportados por el escenario de cosecha de semillas, empleando la serie de datos de los robles de Behlendorf.R 2 = fracción acumulativa de la variancia tenida en cuenta en el modelo, ajustada por el número de variables independientes -la \"importancia\" del parámetro; β = coeficiente de regresión estandarizado -la correlación entre la variable y el parámetro; P = probabilidad; t = estadísticas-t.que determina las diferencias en los rasgos de adaptación. Hasta ahora los modelos de ecosistemas han integrado la variación genética como fuente de variancia de los resultados del modelo, sin conocer los genes fundamentales y su herencia (Berninger 1997). Además, el dinamismo de la variación genética seleccionada por los marcadores de genes se ha incorporado en los modelos genéticos sin contar con información relativa a su significación de adaptación (Liesebach 2002). Para comprender los vínculos entre la variación genética y su significación de adaptación es necesario identificar marcadores de PNI (polifmorfismo nucleótido individual) en regiones codificadoras de QTL y efectuar un análisis de genotipo x la interacción del medio ambiente para cada PNI. Actualmente se está llevando a cabo este tipo de estudio para especies de importancia económica (Neale et al. 2002) y se espera que a la brevedad ciertos rasgos de adaptación podrán vincularse con los genotipos. No obstante, es cada vez más necesario mejorar la integración de datos genéticos cuantitativos obtenidos en experimentos de proveniencia y en viveros comunes, en los modelos de ecosistemas silvícolas basados en el proceso (Berninger 1997).Se han estudiado numerosas especies vegetales empleando tanto marcadores moleculares como bioquímicos para evaluar la estructura genética de la población, la diferenciación genética entre las poblaciones y los parámetros de procesos genéticos como dispersión del polen y semillas, nivel de endogamia y estructura genética en el espacio. Estos estudios han dado resultados diversos según el tipo de marcador de gen empleado. Esto puede deberse tanto a haber usado demasiado pocos loci de genes o individuos para ejemplificar, o a la variación natural de los procesos genéticos de las diferentes poblaciones de especies estudiadas. Hay ahora cada vez más marcadores moleculares de genes disponibles para los estudios de genética de poblaciones arbóreas. Los inventarios genéticos realizados con AFLPs (polimorfismos amplificados de largo de fragmento, sigla en inglés) ofrecen la posibilidad de estudiar más de un centenar de loci (Vos et al. 1995), y el nivel de variación que se puede seleccionar con nuevos marcadores como los microsatélites nucleares es hoy suficientemente elevado como para permitir el estudio del flujo de genes y la estructura en el espacio. En consecuencia, en el próximo futuro los problemas planteados por los marcadores serán menos frecuentes y menos Figura 6. Correlación entre el número de árboles semilleros cosechados y la distancia genética entre adultos y semillas en 1000 simulaciones de análisis de sensibilidad en un robledal europeo, empleando el modelo ECO-GENE. 95 limitadores. En el pasado las recomendaciones sobre estrategias de muestreo para realizar inventarios genéticos se elaboraron empleando modelos analíticos y numéricos (Gregorius 1980;Krusche y Geburek 1991), y el diseño de tales estrategias sigue siendo un importante campo para la aplicación futura de modelos. Es esencial conocer la variación natural de los procesos genéticos de la población a fin de ordenar los recursos genéticos silvícolas y parametrizar los modelos. Con este propósito será útil establecer una red de PEI donde se pueda hacer el seguimiento de estos procesos a lo largo de muchos años.Los actuales estudios de genética silvícola que adoptan modelos de simulación permiten obtener mejores estimaciones de las pérdidas potenciales de variación genética debidas al aprovechamiento silvícola, el aclareo y la cosecha de semillas que los del pasado. Sin embargo un tema abierto es identificar niveles críticos de variación genética que no comprometan la supervivencia de la población. ¿Cuál es el umbral mínimo de diversidad genética que debe tener una población para evitar la extinción? La misma pregunta se ha planteado al estudiar la relación entre la diversidad de especies y la estabilidad de los ecosistemas (Schwartz et al. 2000). La mayoría de los estudios empíricos y los modelos de predicción presentan una saturación del funcionamiento y estabilidad del ecosistema, con una apenas limitada muestra de la variación de las especies locales. Esta observación apoya la conclusión de que la mayoría de las comunidades vegetales se caracterizan por el fuerte predominio de unas pocas especies que representan la mayor parte de su biomasa. Muchos inventarios genéticos han resaltado la existencia de los así llamados \"polimorfismos menores\" que se caracterizan por poblaciones que tienen un alelo muy frecuente y algunos otros más raros. Esto condujo a distinguir entre el potencial de adaptación activo y el letal, suponiendo que los alelos frecuentes son importantes para el buen estado del árbol en las condiciones ambientales actuales, y que los alelos raros pueden ser importantes para la adaptación futura (Gregorius y Bergmann 1995). La importancia de los alelos escasos para la adaptación de una población es aún materia de debate (Bush et al. 1992). La relevancia adaptativa de diferentes marcadores de genes y las relaciones entre los niveles de diversidad genética, la adaptación y la adaptabilidad son algunos de los más importantes interrogantes todavía sin respuesta en la fitogenética. La elaboración de modelos puede ser una herramienta importante para responder a dichos interrogantes. Este capítulo analiza los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) y temas relativos en América del Sur. Se refiere en especial al proyecto financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) sobre conservación, ordenación y uso sostenible de los RGS en Brasil y Argentina emprendido recientemente bajo los auspicios del Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI).Los bosques cumplen funciones básicas de asistencia a la vida, como la protección de cuencas hídricas, conservación del suelo, regulación del clima, aprovechamiento del carbón, conservación de la biodiversidad y lucha contra las plagas (Salati et al. 1999). Proveen también a las comunidades locales y a las economías nacionales una variedad de bienes como alimentos, piensos, gomas, resinas, leña, rollizos de madera y productos medicinales. Por ello en muchos lugares del mundo tienen papeles de suma importancia tanto para la subsistencia como para el desarrollo socioeconómico moderno. Los bosques contribuyen también al bienestar cultural de innumerables sociedades.Debido a su interdependencia dentro de la jerarquía de las organizaciones biológicas, los ecosistemas, especies y genes son los principales objetivos de conservación de la biodiversidad. En último análisis la capacidad de las plantas para adaptarse a las condiciones ambientales cambiantes y la evolución continua dependen de su variación genética intraespecífica. La variación genética constituye asimismo el cimiento de los programas de mejoramiento tendientes a satisfacer las necesidades sociales siempre mudables. Los RGS, definidos en este trabajo como 'el valor actual y potencial de los materiales heredables contenidos en y entre las especies silvícolas', se ubican entre los más valiosos activos sociales de sostenibilidad. Sin embargo en los dos últimos decenios las amenazas a los RGS de los trópicos aumentaron de manera dramática. En todo el mundo tiene lugar actualmente una grave y continua disminución de la superficie de bosque tropical, como resultado de la extracción no sostenible de rollizos de madera, otros tipos de degradación del hábitat silvícola y la transformación de los bosques a otros usos de las tierras.Estos cambios afectaron directamente la cantidad y las pautas de la diversidad genética de los árboles silvícolas. Se han perdido muchas poblaciones y especies dotadas de propiedades únicas y útiles, a veces sin siquiera haber sido identificadas y estudiadas científicamente (Mittermeier et al. 1999). Si bien los ecosistemas degradados pueden a veces rehabilitarse -a menudo con dificultades y grandes costos -la extinción de especies o la pérdida de diversidad genética única dentro de las especies es permanente. Esto puede tener efectos significativos en los usos y desarrollo futuros. En consecuencia la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS se ha transformado en una exigencia urgente y vital para todas las partes interesadas locales, regionales, nacionales e internacionales en materia de bosques (Ouédraogo 1997;Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica 2004). El problema entre manos se complica por el hecho de que las estrategias de conservación no pueden aspirar a conservar el aspecto genético de las especies silvícolas como existen hoy día -adaptadas a las condiciones ambientales actuales -sino que deben diseñarse para que se mantengan los procesos evolutivos que permitan a las especies adaptarse a las condiciones futuras (Namkoong 1986;Eriksson et al. 1993). Por ello un tema central de la conservación de los RGS es definir la cantidad y pautas de variación genética que debe mantenerse para que las especies silvícolas satisfagan estos requisitos (Palmberg 1999). De igual importancia es elaborar, por cuanto posible, programas de conservación genética para prevenir o reducir la extinción de las especies, la erosión genética y los fuertes cambios direccionales de la composición genética de las poblaciones conservadas (FAO 1993).Los científicos silvícolas y la amplia comunidad de conservacionistas e investigadores se ocupan actualmente de programas en marcha que desarrollan estrategias de conservación y uso sostenible de la biodiversidad. La conservación se puede lograr tanto a través de programas in situ como ex situ (Ledig 1986), pero cuando quiera que sea necesario y posible ambos tipos deben tener lugar de manera complementaria. Sin embargo la estrategia preferida es a menudo la conservación in situ de los RGS, es decir su conservación en los ambientes originales/naturales, cosa que tiene numerosas ventajas (Frankel 1976). La conservación in situ de los RGS permite mantener los procesos evolutivos básicos y brinda a los mejoradores una fuente dinámica de variación. La conservación in situ es especialmente recomendada para las especies que no pueden establecerse fuera de sus hábitats naturales o requieren la interacción de complejos ecosistemas para subsistir, y para aquellas que producen semillas recalcitrantes. Además los programas de conservación in situ diseñados específicamente para especies silvícolas pueden a menudo proteger también muchas otras especies vegetales y animales e incluso los ecosistemas donde aparecen estas especies. Por último, si se la practica correctamente, la conservación in situ permite utilizar los RGS al mismo tiempo que se los mantiene. Por lo tanto al planificar la conservación se debe incluir como factor que los interesados puedan usar los recursos de manera sostenible, mejorando así potencialmente la eficiencia de costos y el apoyo político a la conservación.Vale la pena insistir en que la conservación y el uso sostenible de los RGS no es solo un problema del futuro. Afecta ya a millones de personas. Por esto la conservación no puede ser vista de manera separada del desarrollo, o sea de las necesidades y demandas humanas, y este es quizá el mayor desafío de la conservación in situ de los RGS. Conciliar las actividades de conservación con las necesidades humanas inmediatas reconociendo la importancia del papel que tienen las diversas partes interesadas en el mantenimiento y ordenación de la diversidad genética, y reducir las tensiones entre los objetivos biológicos y socioeconómicos son y serán aspectos a los que deberán abocarse los administradores e investigadores. La producción de bienes y servicios ambientales derivados de los bosques requerirá incorporar directrices silvícolas y genéticas básicas en las ordenanzas e intervenciones de administración (Kemp 1992). La conservación de los recursos genéticos silvícolas mediante la ordenación sostenible es especialmente importante para la gran mayoría de especies arbóreas silvícolas que no crecen en plantaciones o programas de domesticación (Consejo Nacional de Investigación, Dirección de Agricultura 1991).Sin embargo si bien los métodos de conservación ex situ están bastante bien desarrollados de un punto de vista técnico y se aplican extensamente en todo el mundo, hay relativamente muy poca conservación in situ, en especial en lo que se refiere a la conservación de la diversidad infraespecífica. Esto puede deberse en parte a que se otorga preferente atención a los métodos ex situ, o a la aún escasa cooperación entre mejoradores, dasónomos y conservacionistas. Además los primeros esfuerzos de conservación in situ se orientaron a la protección de especies amenazadas y ecosistemas intactos, con mucha menos insistencia en la diversidad dentro de las especies (FAO 1989). Sin embargo en los últimos 20 años se advierte siempre más que una eficaz conservación in situ, ordenación y uso sostenible de las especies vegetales y animales debe valerse de estrategias que incluyan información sobre las dinámicas de variación infraespecífica. Pese a tales progresos generales en la filosofía de la conservación y uso sostenible, los avances en la teoría y métodos in situ aplicables a los programas reales de RGS tardan en aparecer. Esto se debe sobre todo a los limitados conocimientos sobre la dimensión de la diversidad genética de los árboles silvícolas, su organización en el tiempo y el espacio, los procesos genéticos de los árboles y la repercusión de las actividades humanas en los RGS. A este último respecto la investigación del papel de las comunidades locales en la regeneración selectiva, diseminación y plantación de germoplasma silvícola es una prioridad principal.Los recursos genéticos se refieren a toda la variación genética contenida en y entre las especies silvícolas. En la práctica un gran número de especies herbáceas y leñosas que representan importantes recursos económicos están comprendidas en el término 'recursos genéticos silvícolas'. Mientras la investigación ha mostrado que las especies arbóreas silvícolas tropicales poseen altos niveles de diversidad genética, tienen gran variación genética en y entre las poblaciones y son predominantemente de cruzamiento lejano y con altos niveles de flujo de genes (Janzen 1971;Bawa et al. 1985) a los fines de la conservación de los RGS se necesitan con urgencia investigaciones en otras dos áreas. Se necesita conocer mucho más acerca de la relación entre las actividades humanas y la biodiversidad silvícola, y en el mismo contexto, acerca de la amplitud, distribución y estructura de la diversidad genética infraespecífica de los árboles afectados por las actividades humanas. Los llamados bosques húmedos tropicales de tierras bajas contienen el mayor número de especies y su destrucción tendría las más graves consecuencias mundiales (Whitmore y Sayer 1992;Alvarez-Buylla et al. 1996). Por lo tanto la conservación de los bosques tropicales es una de las tareas más urgentes y retadoras para los dasónomos, biólogos, expertos en ciencias sociales, administradores ambientales, empresarios, organizaciones sin fines de lucro y administradores públicos. Los aspectos problemáticos son la gran cantidad de especies, su nivel de amenaza, la presencia de numerosas especies no comerciales, las dificultades para regenerar las especies objetivo, la fragilidad del suelo y los temas relativos al acceso.La conservación in situ de los RGS ha sido más lenta en los trópicos en comparación con las áreas templadas a causa de las siguientes limitaciones y desafíos (Bawa 1997;Ouédraogo 1997):• El gran número de especies que existe en los bosques tropicales. Esto ha creado problemas para establecer prioridades de investigación y de conservación y, en consecuencia, para obtener fondos destinados a estas tareas;• La a menudo modesta infraestructura de las instituciones locales. La falta de personal capacitado de investigación y conservación y los altos costos para capacitarlo contribuyeron a la lenta generación de conocimientos sobre la taxonomía, biología y genética de las especies silvícolas tropicales y el desarrollo de programas de ordenación eficaces;• Las diferentes características biológicas de los árboles silvícolas tropicales y sus complejas relaciones ecológicas. Temas relacionados con los árboles silvícolas tropicales como los sofisticados requisitos e interacciones de los polinizadores, las muy variables densidades y distribución en el espacio de las especies, los sistemas mixtos de cruzamiento y diversas pautas fenológicas a menudo requieren que los métodos de conservación se ajusten a cada una de las especies;• La naturaleza longeva de los árboles puede dar la ilusión de buena salud del bosque. Puesto que los bosques tropicales pueden permanecer por mucho tiempo sin regenerarse a sí mismos, puede tenerse la impresión de su persistencia cuando en realidad la población se está erosionando genéticamente o incluso va hacia su extinción (los 'muertos vivientes' de Janzen 1986);• Solo respecto de algunas especies se han emprendido evaluaciones y comparaciones de características morfológicas y de heredabilidad. Las herramientas y tecnologías para evaluar la diversidad genética de los árboles tropicales recién se están desarrollando. Los marcadores genéticos son limitados;• Pocas opciones de las comunidades que dependen de los bosques para generar ingresos. Las limitadas opciones de empleo o generación de ingresos han llevado a muchas comunidades que viven en los bosques a adoptar perspectivas de ordenación del bosque de corto plazo o incluso a prácticas abusivas. El desarrollo de asociaciones eficaces de ordenación de bosques entre las comunidades locales, las poblaciones indígenas, autoridades gubernamentales y otros interesados es un desafío en marcha que a menudo requiere capacidades especializadas;• A menudo se carece de políticas nacionales y marcos jurídicos tendientes a la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS. Con frecuencia es difícil superar las complicaciones que derivan de los diversos intereses de los actores y las diferencias entre las leyes tradicionales, locales y nacionales. Muchas especies arbóreas que están desapareciendo rápidamente de los hábitats de bosques tropicales requieren medidas de conservación inmediatas. Estas deben basarse en una comprensión de los factores que permita la conservación in situ de la diversidad genética de las poblaciones arbóreas silvícolas a largo plazo. También hay que conocer el tipo y niveles de variación genética necesarios para capturar los diversos tipos de adaptabilidad. A nivel de ecosistema serán de fundamental importancia los conocimientos del proceso que afecta a la diversidad genética y en particular los efectos genéticos de las actividades humanas, a fin de desarrollar estrategias complementarias de conservación. Se necesita este mismo tipo de conocimientos para desarrollar políticas eficaces que puedan satisfacer las diversas necesidades e intereses de las comunidades locales y de las autoridades (Cossalter et al. 1993;FAO 1993;Kageyama 1997;Palmberg-Lerche 1997).Para que funcione, la conservación de los RGS se debe integrar en un marco general de ordenación silvícola sostenible. Los métodos del pasado para conservar zonas protegidas como los parques o las reservas nacionales no prestaron suficiente atención a la distribución y variación infraespecífica de las especies. La información de ambas áreas es esencial para asegurar el mantenimiento de la capacidad de adaptación y el potencial productivo de los árboles para satisfacer las necesidades presentes y futuras (Kemp 1992;FAO 1993;McNeely 1993;Bawa 1997;BMZ 1997).Desde el punto de vista técnico es necesario llevar a cabo urgentemente estudios que demuestren la compatibilidad de la conservación genética con el uso ordenado de los recursos silvícolas a nivel nacional, regional y local, y los resultados deben difundirse con la mayor amplitud. Del punto de vista de la administrción es también necesario desarrollar estrategias integradas para la conservación y uso de los RGS. Por ende se debe dar prioridad tanto a las necesidades de investigación para identificar las pautas de la variación genética como a los cambios evolutivos fundamentales de los ecosistemas silvícolas, y al desarrollo de procedimientos prácticos de conservación. Las estrategias de conservación deben incorporar suficiente flexibilidad como para permitir cambios en las estrategias de ordenación a medida que se disponga de nuevos conocimientos (Ouédraogo 1997). Además se necesitan acciones concertadas para reforzar la capacidad local, regional y nacional de conservación de los bosques mediante transferencias de información y tecnología, y a través del trabajo en red y la colaboración entre los países y las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG). El IPGRI está activamente comprometido en la investigación de los bosques tropicales y en el fortalecimiento consiguiente del desarrollo de capacidades en todo el mundo. En el Capítulo 12 se presenta una descripción más detallada de algunos de los proyectos de investigación del IPGRI y sus aplicaciones prácticas.El IPGRI trabaja mediante asociaciones y complementa los recursos de sus socios proveyendo métodos de investigación y conservación en colaboración muy eficaces en cuanto a costos. El ahorro aumenta al compartir elementos como personal, instalaciones de campo y laboratorios, y tecnología de información. Además se transfiere tecnología e información a los socios de pocos recursos. El IPGRI opera de manera directa o como catalizador en prácticamente todas las áreas de investigación y desarrollo relacionadas con la conservación y uso de los recursos fitogenéticos (RFG). Junto con sus socios el IPGRI identifica entre las prioridades reconocidas de investigación y conservación los puntos en los cuales su compromiso dará el máximo beneficio. De esta manera el IPGRI y sus socios optimizan el aprovechamiento de los recursos invertidos en verdaderos programas en colaboración. Al asumir sus programas de investigación y conservación el IPGRI da preferencia en particular al trabajo en red, puesto que las redes ayudan a asegurar que éste se lleve a cabo economizando costos, y que los materiales, métodos, reultados e información se difundan con la mayor amplitud. El IPGRI también apoya la investigación emprendida por los socios, pues ésta asegura que los proyectos estén bien diseñados y que se disponga de instalaciones locales, recursos humanos y la voluntad para emprender actividades de investigación a fin de ejecutarlos. No obstante siempre habrá que enfrentar desafíos y restricciones en la investigación y conservación in situ de los RFG. En este libro se ilustran muchos ejemplos de investigación y conservación in situ de los RFG.El IPGRI forma parte del Grupo Consultivo de Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAI), una alianza estratégica de países, organizaciones regionales e internacionales y fundaciones privadas que apoyan a 15 centros internacionales de agricultura. Estos centros trabajan conjuntamente con instituciones y organismos de investigación agrícola nacionales, organizaciones de la sociedad civil y el sector privado, movilizando las ciencias agrícolas para reducir la pobreza, fomentar el bienestar humano, promover el crecimiento de la agricultura y proteger el medio ambiente. En el Recuadro 1 se describe el modo de trabajar del IPGRI.La investigación del IPGRI incluye un programa sobre RGS con numerosas prioridades:• estudiar las pautas y amenazas a la diversidad genética de las especies arbóreas silvícolas;• investigar los procesos biológicos que regulan la diversidad genética;• examinar los efectos de las actividades humanas en los procesos genéticos;• documentar el uso de los recursos locales y analizar las consecuencias de las pérdidas de RGS sobre los medios de vida de la población rural. El programa de RGS del IPGRI también:• establece directrices para la conservación, restauración y uso sostenible de los RGS;• analiza temas socioeconómicos y de políticas vinculados con la conservación y uso de los RGS;• traza programas participativos de conservación de los RGS;• crea o selecciona métodos que ayuden al IPGRI a determinar las especies y poblaciones prioritarias para la investigación y conservación. Puesto que la conservación in situ de los RGS involucra sistemas genéticos, ecológicos y sociales, requiere un método multidisciplinario que integre estrategias y disciplinas científicas biológicas y sociales. Se necesitan conocimientos científicos y técnicos, colaboración regional, políticas apropiadas, conciencia pública y compromiso a nivel local, regional, nacional e internacional para crear programas eficaces de conservación in situ que también promuevan unos medios de vida sostenibles.5.1 Antecedentes y diseño del proyecto de investigación sobre RGS del IPGRI financiado por BMZ en América del Sur El Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica da un marco para la protección de los ecoistemas silvícolas y sus especies arbóreas (ver el programa de trabajo ampliado sobre diversidad biológica silvícola adoptado en el año 2002 por la Conferencia de Partes en su sexta reunión, en el anexo a la decisión VI/22). Se solicita a los países que ratifican el Convenio que evalúen y hagan el seguimiento de sus recursos biológicos y desarrollen estrategias eficaces para conservarlos. De esta manera la conservación y uso sostenible de los bosques ha pasado a ser prioritario en muchas programas silvícolas regionales, nacionales e internacionales. Pero el escaso conocimiento actual acerca del impacto del aprovechamiento no controlado, la deforestación y otras amenazas a la diversidad silvícola limitan seriamente la capacidad de los organismos e instituciones para planificar y llevar a cabo actividades apropiadas. El desarrollo de estrategias para la conservación y uso sostenible de los bosques debe asegurar una distribución equitativa de los recursos que constituyen el medio de vida de las comunidades locales y proporcionan un aporte a las economías nacionales, y a la vez proteger la diversidad genética de las especies objetivo para el futuro. Esta fórmula tiene particular importancia en las regiones y países cuyas poblaciones rurales y urbanas dependen en gran medida de los bosques (CIFOR/IPGRI 1997).El IPGRI ha llevado a cabo investigaciones en América del Sur desde el comienzo mismo de su programa de RGS lanzado en 1993. Desde entonces el trabajo ha progresado firmemente en la región, en su mayor parte en sinergía con la oficina regional del IPGRI en Cali, Colombia. Esta oficina tiene un alto nivel de capacidad de investigación de campo, que se concentra sobre todo en los efectos de las actividades antropogénicas sobre la diversidad genética silvícola.El proyecto sobre RGS financiado por BMZ se concibió en respuesta a una demanda de estrategias apropiadas para la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS en América del Sur, y el IPGRI planificó con sus socios una serie de actividades de investigación sobre ecosistemas silvícolas y las llevó a cabo en la región. Los objetivos del proyecto fueron generar conocimientos científicos y desarrollar procedimientos prácticos que pudieran ayudar a comprender mejor la ordenación sostenible de los bosques, asistir a los profesionales silvícolas en todos los niveles y mejorar el bienestar de las comunidades de usuarios (IPGRI 1998). Mejorando la comprensión del impacto de las actividades humanas en la diversidad genética y los procesos ecológicos de ecosistemas silvícolas seleccionados se pueden desarrollar directrices y herramientas que ayuden a los responsables de tomar decisiones y a los administradores silvícolas tanto a desarrollar políticas silvícolas como a ejecutarlas.El proyecto de investigación se diseñó para promover métodos de programas nacionales en colaboración entre Brasil y Argentina, instituciones de investigación y universidades de Alemania y los centros del CGIAI. Se trabajó sobre la base de la colaboración ya existente entre estos países y las instituciones y se establecieron nuevas asociaciones, en especial con las comunidades locales. Se adoptó un método multidisciplinario.La asociación consistió en formar un equipo interdisciplinario de investigación integrado por expertos en ciencias sociales, ecologistas, entomólogos y genetistas. El proyecto buscó la participación activa de grupos locales de usuarios silvícolas de Brasil y Argentina, cuyas poblaciones tanto rurales como urbanas dependen fuertemente de bosques en rápida disminución de los que obtienen una multitud de bienes y servicios. En el Recuadro 2 se da más información acerca del diseño del proyecto. En el Cuadro 1 se enumeran las instituciones y organizaciones que colaboraron de manera formal e informal y tomaron parte en este proyecto. En el Cuadro 2 (en pág. 111) se resume la lista de los principales científicos y sus áreas generales de investigación. La Figura 1 es la foto de algunos participantes del proyecto.Recuadro 2. Principios fundamentales del diseño del proyecto sobre RGS financiado por BMZ• Las partes interesadas nacionales e internacionales deberán adoptar métodos participativos, es decir que en el desarrollo, ejecución y resultados del proyecto se debe involucrar a las comunidades dependientes de los bosques • Se debe adoptar una perspectiva multidisciplinaria que vincule la conservación y uso de los RGS en contextos socioeconómicos • Para poder hacer comparaciones se deben seleccionar para el estudio ecosistemas diversos e incluso contrastantes (por ejemplo de simples a complejos; perturbados a menos perturbados a intactos) • La investigación se debe llevar a cabo a nivel local, y deberá abocarse a los problemas de conservación y uso de relevancia mundial • Se deberán buscar como especies objetivo aquellas que tengan historias de vida y estrategias de reproducción contrastantes, a fin de compararlas entre sí • Los estudios deben organizarse para obtener conocimientos acerca de las pautas de variación genética y los procesos que pueden afectar la diversidad genética. • Se deben desarrollar métodos y estrategias flexibles que puedan modificarse cuando sea necesario • Se deben desarrollar herramientas y procedimientos prácticos sobre conservación y ordenación silvícola sostenible, teniendo como objetivo su más amplia aplicación El proyecto se dividió en tres componentes temáticos: uno exploró los temas y políticas socioeconómicos, otro estudió la ecología de especies 'modelo' con características variables en ecosistemas silvícolas cercanos a colonias que presentan diferentes condiciones socioeconómicas, y el tercero exploró el aspecto genético de las especies seleccionadas. Mediante reuniones previas de planificación se acordaron los métodos de investigación (por ejemplo tamaño de las muestras, parámetros genéticos, estructura de los relevamientos socioeconómicos, etc.). Los socios clave del proyecto acordaron las hipótesis de investigación y las especies y ecosistemas objetivo, así como los componentes del proyecto que tenían la mayor prioridad. Puesto que la estructura del proyecto era particularmente compleja y comprendía diferentes tipos de pericias y métodos de investigación, se adoptó el método de planificación de proyectos ZOPP (Zielorientierte Projektplanung, en alemán, o Goal Oriented Project Planning [Planificación de Proyecto Orientada al Objetivo] -GOPP -como se la conoce en inglés; para mayor información ver en la red el sitio: http://www.worldbank.org/ sourcebook/sba102.htm). La ZOPP produce una matriz de planificación -el marco lógico del proyecto -que resume y estructura los principales elementos de un proyecto y destaca los vínculos lógicos entre los aportes previstos, las actividades planificadas y los resultados que se esperan. Esta herramienta se adoptó durante la segunda reunión de planificación a fin de facilitar la selección de objetivos bien fundamentados, especies apropiadas, actividades que debían realizarse y técnicas de investigación utilizadas para alcanzar los objetivos del proyecto (GTZ 1988).El primer componente del proyecto (el socioeconómico) comprendió temas de políticas y desarrollo de recursos humanos para la conservación, y en especial se concentró en los siguientes objetivos; (i) documentar la contribución de la producción de madera y de productos silvícolas no madereros en relación con los medios de vida domésticos y con otras fuentes de ingresos de la explotación agrícola y fuera de ella; (ii) identificar las especies arbóreas de importancia económica y documentar las pautas de intensidad y cambios de uso de las tierras, incluyendo en especial el aprovechamiento silvícola, apacentamiento de ganado, recolección de productos silvícolas no madereros y aprovechamiento del caucho; (iii) examinar las alteraciones en los medios de vida hogareños provocadas por • Instituto internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI),• Centro Internacional de Investigación Silvícola (CIFOR)Institución nacional Alemania• Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH)• Institute for Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding • Grupo Forestal, INTA-EEA Montecarlo, Misiones • Administración Parque Nacional, Delegación Técnica Regional Patagonia. Parque Nacional Lanín• Centro de Investigación y Extensión Forestal Andino-Patagónico (CIEFAP)• Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, El Dorado ONG regional• Conselho Nacional dos Seringueiros, Acre, Rio Branco,• Instituto de Projetos e Pesquisas Ecologicas (IPE), Brasil los recientes cambios sociales y económicos, y sus consecuencias en cuanto al uso de RGS; (iv) evaluar el impacto del uso de las tierras y las políticas silvícolas actuales en la ordenación de la producción de rollizos y de productos silvícolas no madereros y (v) proponer opciones que favorezcan un uso sostenible. El segundo componente del proyecto (ecológico) examinó el estado de conservación de rodales de bosque y especies arbóreas seleccionadas e investigó la estructura demográfica de poblaciones seleccionadas de dichas especies. El trabajo tenía como fin determinar específicamente el efecto de las actividades humanas sobre los árboles seleccionados en cuanto a su ecología y biología de reproducción, fenología, conducta del polinizador conductor, dispersión de semillas, desarrollo del banco de semillas, depredación de semillas y brinzales y otras dinámicas de regeneración.El tercer componente del proyecto (genético) analizó las pautas de variación genética de las especies arbóreas seleccionadas y examinó los efectos de actividades humanas como el aprovechamiento silvícola y la recolección sobre la diversidad y estructura genéticas de dichas especies, incluidas las que dan productos silvícolas no madereros. El proyecto incluía actividades que hacían hincapié en la transferencia de conocimientos entre equipos de investigación de diferentes países. También buscaba promover el intercambio de opiniones e informaciones entre los científicos, los responsables locales de políticas y los grupos de usuarios silvícolas, concentrándose en particular en las estrategias y métodos de conservación y uso de los RGS.Las hipótesis de trabajo que debían verificarse eran; 1. Los tipos e intensidades de uso de los recursos silvícolas por parte de las comunidades locales dependerán de factores socioeconómicos tales como acceso a los mercados y disponibilidad de empleo alternativo (local o urbano). 2. El valor atribuido por las comunidades locales a los bosques, derivado de las condiciones económicas y los antecedentes culturales, determinará el grado en que el bosque sea ordenado de manera sostenible. 3. Unos mayores niveles de uso de los bosques afectarán tanto la magnitud como la distribución de la diversidad infraespecífica de las especies arbóreas. 4. El impacto del uso de los bosques en la diversidad genética de las especies arbóreas dependerá del tipo y de la intensidad de uso del bosque y de la ecología de las especies. 5. Es posible identificar relaciones ampliamente previsibles entre pautas de uso, ecología de las especies y cambios en la diversidad genética. 6. Un factor biológico clave que interviene en el impacto del uso en la diversidad genética de las especies es su ecología de reproducción, que incluye sistemas de cruzamiento y polinización e incorporación de brinzales. 7. Para generar opciones de ordenación sostenible en el futuro es importante contar con información sobre las cambiantes condiciones socioeconómicas y las relativas actividades humanas, y sus efectos sobre los recursos genéticos. Para comprobar estas hipótesis se seleccionaron tres ecosistemas silvícolas y conglomerados de especies arbóreas principales (listados en el Cuadro 3, pág. 113):• Los ecosistemas silvícolas de Araucaria spp. amenazados en Brasil meridional y en la Argentina nordoriental y sudoccidental (1% de bosque original restante)• Ecosistemas silvícolas amenazados de Brasil sobre el Atlántico (7% de bosque original restante)• Ecosistemas silvícolas tropicales sumamente diversos y relativamente intactos del Amazonas brasileño, en áreas con una activa industria de aserradero y operaciones de aprovechamiento silvícola recientemente establecidas. Los principales resultados del proyecto se ilustran en el resto de la Parte 2 de este libro. Los Capítulos 6 y 7 se concentran en dos tipos de ecosistemas silvícolas de araucaria en Argentina y Brasil. El estudio de caso presentado en el Capítulo 6 examina el impacto de las pautas actuales de uso del bosque por parte de las comunidades indígenas locales en el estado de conservación de los RGS de Araucaria araucana dentro de un área protegida en el norte de Patagonia (Argentina) y en sus zonas inmediatamente vecinas. El Capítulo 7 muestra las conclusiones de la evaluación del estado de conservación de otra especie de Cuadro 3. Ecosistemas silvícolas objetivo, ubicaciones y especies escogidas para la investigación multidisciplinaria financiada por BMZ. araucaria, A. angustifolia, en el Estado de Paraná, Brasil. La investigación efectuada en el subproyecto de A. angustifolia analizaba principalmente las repercusiones de diferentes marcos de políticas que reglamentaban el acceso y uso de los RGS en el estado de conservación de dicha especie. En el Capítulo 8 se comparan diferentes regímenes de aprovechamiento de productos silvícolas no madereros derivados de especies seleccionadas en el ecosistema silvícola del Amazonas, respecto de su influencia en los procesos genéticos. El Capítulo 9 presenta un caso extremo de degradación silvícola en la zona sudoriental del Estado de São Paulo (Brasil) causado por una rápida y fuerte fragmentación, y analiza las condiciones de los RGS de especies prioritarias dentro de fragmentos de diferente tamaño y con diferentes historiales de uso.Por último, en los Capítulos 10 y 11 se ilustran dos ejemplos de aplicación de modelos a ecosistemas de bosques de A. araucana. El primero proporciona una visión a escala de paisaje de los procesos dinámicos que afectan a los RGS de araucaria, describiendo los vínculos y mecanismos de reacción entre (i) el estado de conservación de los RGS de araucaria dentro del área protegida; (ii) las dinámicas socioeconómicas de las comunidades indígenas locales que dependen parcialmente de los productos silvícolas no madereros y de los servicios silvícolas y (iii) diversas actividades productivas llevadas a cabo por las comunidades locales que afectan a los recursos genéticos de araucaria. En el Capítulo 11 se aplica un modelo para explicar y predecir las pautas de la estructura genética de araucaria en el espacio, sobre la base del análisis de las presiones de selección, y las pautas de flujo de genes y de distribución de la especie.Los recursos genéticos silvícolas de Araucaria araucana en Argentina L. Gallo 1 , F. Izquierdo 1 , L.J. Sanguinetti En este capítulo se investigan las amenazas que sufren los recursos genéticos de Araucaria araucana examinados en el marco del proyecto financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) en un sitio de Argentina. Se examinaron los procesos genéticos de bosques de A. araucana que crecen en un gradiente ambiental y están afectados de diversas maneras por actividades humanas. Estos procesos fueron luego analizados en relación con los dinamismos biológicos y las condiciones socioeconómicas. Se sugieren maneras de incorporar los resultados de la investigación a la elaboración de directrices bien fundamentadas de ordenación de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) de A. araucana.A. araucana (cuyo nombre común es araucaria o pehuén en idioma mapuche) es una conífera de copa de larga vida, con una gran copa típica en forma de sombrilla cuando está madura. Pertenece a la más antigua familia de plantas de semilla existente, las Araucariaceae (Tomlinson 2002) y se ha informado de especímenes de hasta 1300 años de edad (Montaldo 1974). Los árboles pueden alcanzar alturas de más de 50 m y un diámetro de 2,5 m (Veblen y Delmastro 1976). La especie es endémica en las regiones septentrionales de los bosques templados subantárticos de Chile y Argentina. La Figura 1 (al dorso) muestra su distribución regional en Argentina (Patagonia septentrional) y la ubicación de los sitios de estudio. La conservación de la araucaria es un tema de gran preocupación por su restringida distribución, lento crecimiento y escasa capacidad de regeneración, lo que la hace particularmente susceptible al impacto del hombre.La especie también es importante por su alto valor económico y cultural para el pueblo mapuche, antiguos habitantes de Chile y Argentina meridionales (Recuadro 1 en pág. 117). Las principales actividades en las que se basa la economía de las tribus mapuches son el apacentamiento de ganado, el aprovechamiento de leña y la recolección de semillas de araucaria. La semilla de araucaria (el piñón) es un recurso importante para las comunidades mapuches que la usan para su consumo y para alimentar el ganado, destinando el excedente a la venta en los mercados. Las comunidades mapuches practican la trashumancia o pastoreo estacional, que implica el traslado de las personas junto con los animales apacentados. Durante la mayor parte del año el pueblo vive en la estepa, un medio ambiente seco formado principalmente por montecillos de hierbas y  La araucaria o pehuén tiene significación tanto religiosa como económica para las 60 000 personas del pueblo mapuche (mapu = tierra, che = gente) que viven en las montañas meridionales de los Andes, y ha dado su nombre a una de las tribus mapuches, los Pehuenches. Los medios de vida de los indígenas derivan de la cría de ganado, la agricultura, la producción de artesanías de madera tallada y de tejidos sumados a otros tipos de ingresos no agrícolas como subsidios del gobierno, salarios y pensiones. De los bosques de pehuén la gente obtiene leña, materiales de construcción para sus hogares y para el abrigo del ganado, resinas medicinales y piñones para la alimentación. El consumo de piñones varía en cada hogar, empleado como alimento, pienso para el ganado o vendido como excedente.En algunas comunidades mapuche las semillas de pehuén representan del 10% al 15% de la dieta durante el período de recolección (febrero-mayo) y durante el largo invierno (junio-setiembre) cuando son la fuente principal de hidratos de carbono. Cada año se recogen toneladas de semillas como alimento, y en el pasado se exportaba una parte. Sin embargo en el año 2002 la araucaria fue incluida en el Apéndice 1 del Convenio Internacional de Comercio de Especies Amenazadas de Fauna y Flora Silvestres (CITES) y se prohibió la comercialización internacional de semillas provenientes de Argentina y Chile. Dentro del Parque Nacional Lanín en Argentina la población indígena está autorizada a utilizar la madera caída como leña y para tallas, y a recoger hasta 300 kg de semillas anuales por familia. Para algunas familias, en especial en Chile, la venta de semillas de araucaria en los mercados local y nacional representa un importante ingreso anual.En el marco de este proyecto ejecutado conjuntamente por el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) y BMZ se examinaron la utilización y ordenación de los recursos genéticos de araucaria y los efectos que las actividades humanas y el medio ambiente tienen sobre la diversidad genética de la especie. Para documentar las pautas de uso corriente de los RGS de araucaria se efectuaron estudios socioeconómicos en dos comunidades mapuches de Argentina. Se investigó la diversidad genética de la serie de especies naturales de araucaria de Argentina y también a nivel local en la porción meridional de su zona de difusión en los territorios de dos comunidades indígenas vecinas al Parque Nacional Lanín (Figuras 1 y 8), así como en dos rodales silvícolas, Rucachoroi y Tromen, este último solo parcialmente ubicado dentro del Parque Nacional Lanín. Se emprendieron estudios de productividad de semillas y depredación que sirvieran de base para interpretar posteriormente las pautas de regeneración observadas. Los resultados de la investigación se tradujeron en recomendaciones prácticas para la ordenación de los recursos naturales en las áreas estudiadas, incluida la conservación de los RGS de araucaria.Nuestro proyecto se concentró sobre todo en las comunidades mapuches de Chiuquilihuin, donde el uso de los bosques de araucaria era moderado, y Aucapan (Figura 3) en donde era intenso. Estas comunidades se encuentran en la provincia de Neuquén, Argentina, en la Patagonia andina, aproximadamente entre los 39º 35' 30\" S, 71º 13' 30\" O y 39º 39' 30\" S, 71º 0' 0\" O, e incluyen rodales de araucaria ubicados en la parte más meridional del área natural de difusión de A. araucana en la Argentina.Estas comunidades están rodeadas por el Parque Nacional Lanín al norte y oeste y por haciendas privadas al sur y al este (ver Figura 8 en pág. 130). La topografía se caracteriza por colinas y montañas que van de 750 a 2000 m sobre el nivel del mar (m snm), con un promedio anual de precipitaciones de 1800 a 2000 mm del oeste al este.Se estudió una tercera área (Tromen) comprendida parcialmente en los límites del Parque Nacional Lanín y definida en parte como reserva forestal bajo un régimen de ordenación diferente. Se adoptó como control la parte de Tromen ubicada dentro del paque nacional porque está menos afectada por el uso humano. Por último el estudio incluye también rodales de araucaria de un cuarto sitio con precipitaciones más elevadas ubicado en la cuenca del Rucachoroi al norte de las comunidades de Chiuquilihuin y Aucapan (39º14'0\" S, 71º10'0\" O), donde se registran signos de uso intenso de los bosques de araucaria. Allí las precipitaciones anuales promedio van de 2200 a 1800 mm de oeste a este, con altitudes que varían de 1350 a 2300 m snm. Todas las cuencas estudiadas tienen una orientación prevalente de oeste a este.En los territorios de ambas comunidades era característica la asociación de bosques de araucaria y especies de Nothofagus. En el Recuadro 2 (pág. 120) se explican las principales características de los bosques andinos y de las asociaciones de especies arbóreas que se encontraron en los sitios de estudio (ver también la Sección 4.1 de este capítulo).Tras la colonización europea se talaron grandes zonas, provocando una drástica reducción del ámbito de difusión de los bosques de araucaria. En Argentina el establecimiento de la Administración del Parque Nacional en 1937 representó el primer paso dado en favor de la conservación de los bosques nativos.Las comunidades mapuches utilizan los bosques para recoger semillas y leña y para pastorear sus animales domésticos con diverso grado de intensidad. Los bosques se degradan por el sobrepastoreo, en especial en las estepas más orientales que ocupan el extremo más seco del gradiente de precipitaciones pluviales cubierto por rodales de araucaria.Figura 3. Miembro de la comunidad mapuche de Aucapan conduciendo ovejas a la pradera (foto: A. Pinna). Los bosques andinos de la Patagonia se extienden entre los 35º y los 55º S a ambos lados de la cordillera de los Andes. Se definen como 'bosques templados' por su ubicación y porque las principales especies leñosas que los componen toleran las bajas temperaturas del invierno. Hacia el este bordean la estepa patagónica, al sur limitan con el Océano Atlántico, al oeste con el Pacífico y al norte con el desierto de Atacama. Por ende forman un bioma silvícola relativamente aislado y una isla biogeográfica en la parte meridional de América del Sur (Armesto et al. 1995).Dominan el bosque andino patagónico especies latifolias asociadas con algunas coníferas como Araucaria araucana, Fitzroya cupressoides y Austrocedrus chilensis, y se caracterizan por tener una mayor diversidad de especies y un más elevado endemismo de las mismas que los bosques de zonas climáticas equivalentes del hemisferio septentrional, lo que indica un origen diferente de la flora meridional (llamada Gondwana; Arroyo et al. 1995). De las especies latifolias diez pertenecen al género Nothofagus y estas especies constituyen el componente más importante del bosque andino patagónico. Se las encuentra en una vasta serie de hábitats, lo que denota gran plasticidad fenotípica y diferenciación genética en toda el área natural de difusión (Donoso 1987). A. araucana se encuentra mezclada con esa y otras especies a lo largo del gradiente de altura. Las tres asociaciones más frecuentes son:(i) A. araucana y Nothofagus pumilio (llamada 'lenga' en lengua mapuche). Esta asociación se presenta por lo general en las zonas occidentales y más húmedas del área de araucaria, a mayores alturas (1100-1800 m snm) y en las laderas que dan al sur. Este tipo de bosques han sido aprovechados comercialmente.(ii) A. araucana y Nothofagus antarctica de forma arbustiva (llamado 'ñire' en lengua mapuche). Esta asociación se encuentra en los valles que corren de este a oeste cerca del límite superior del bosque. La canopia de araucaria emerge de una capa arbustiva procumbente de ñire. Por lo general este tipo de bosque es una importante fuente de leña para las comunidades mapuches, y resulta afectado por el pastoreo y por incendios naturales o provocados por el hombre.(iii) Se encuentran rodales puros de A. araucana cerca del límite superior de los bosques en suelos más pobres pero también a menores alturas en el ambiente de la estepa. Los bosquecillos aislados de araucaria en la estepa están fuertemente perturbados. La vegetación de esta ecoregión de estepa es xerofítica y muy adaptada para protegerse de la sequía, los vientos y los herbívoros. Los tipos más comunes de vegetación de la ecoregión son arbustos enanos y almohadillados. Existen tres tipos principales de comunidades vegetales: de semidesierto (un 45%), estepa-arbustiva (30%) y estepa herbácea (20%). También hay áreas desérticas con poca o ninguna cubierta vegetal así como áreas de praderas húmedas cuya cubierta es de alrededor del 100%.Los bosques andinos de la Patagonia han sido intensamente aprovechados en el pasado, en especial en Chile.Las comunidades de Chiuquilihuin y Aucapan tienen derechos jurídicos oficiales sobre los bosques y las tierras vecinas. Los hogares se distribuyen en los territorios de la comunidad pero la mayoría se concentra en la estepa más seca. Las zonas de pastoreo no están demarcadas claramente. Las comunidades tienen sus propios estatutos y cuerpos representativos como las Comisiones Directivas que son elegidas por votación secreta cada dos años. Las comisiones son presididas por un 'cacique' o 'lonko' que a menudo es un conductor espiritual de la comunidad. En las reuniones comunitarias se deciden temas importantes.Las dos comunidades examinadas, Aucapan y Chiuquilihuin mostraron diferentes niveles de compromiso en el proyecto. Algunas experiencias previas negativas de colaboración en proyectos de investigación hicieron difícil y lento el proceso de elaboración de confianza, especialmente con la comunidad de Aucapan, donde los datos que pudieron recogerse al fin fueron mucho menos completos.No obstante estos problemas, los estudios socioeconómicos se realizaron con un método participativo. Los conocimientos y experiencia del pueblo indígena pronto se revelaron cruciales para la reconstrucción de las prácticas del pasado y para identificar opciones de uso de la tierra. El estudio de las comunidades indígenas incluyó: (i) análisis demográficos; (ii) actualización de mapas de uso de las tierras y (iii) documentación y análisis de las actividades económicas.Se llevaron a cabo estudios demográficos de ambas comunidades (Cuadro 1). Se definió como grupo familiar a las personas que viven en un mismo hogar y comparten los gastos. En Chiuquilihuin el estudio comenzó con una lista de familias proporcionada por el programa de ayuda alimentaria de la provincia de Neuquén. Esta información se verificó con los miembros de las Comisiones Directivas y otros miembros de la comunidad, y también se consultaron fuentes oficiales. Para la comunidad de Aucapan la institución gubernamental Artesanías Neuquinas, que capacita a las comunidades indígenas de la provincia de Neuquén para comercializar sus artesanías y les brinda otros servicios, proporcionó de manera informal datos menos detallados. Se obtuvieron otros datos de Aucapan a partir de un censo parcial efectuado en marzo del año 2000 por una organización no gubernamental (ONG) local, Cruzada Patagónica.Se analizó la distribución por sexos de ambas comunidades. En el proyecto BMZ los datos provenientes de fuentes oficiales no fueron verificados con los miembros de la comunidad, pero se llevó a cabo un nuevo censo en enero de 2002 a fin de calibrar las tendencias de crecimiento. Estos datos, aunque limitados, revelan un crecimiento sustancial en los últimos 15 años.Se actualizaron los mapas de uso de las tierras de ambas comunidades para ubicar los hogares en las tierras controladas por cada comunidad. La información suministrada por la gente del lugar y la obtenida de mapas satelitales recientes nos permitió crear mapas actualizados corroborados por sistemas de información geográfica (GIS, sigla en inglés) enviados a las Comisiones Directivas de cada comunidad. En Chiuquilihuin los hogares se concentraban sobre todo a lo largo del río Chiuquilihuin en una zona geográfica limitada, mientras que los hogares de Aucapan estaban distribuidos de manera más uniforme en todo el territorio de la comunidad (Figura 4, pág. opuesta). Se evaluó la amplitud y grado de fragmentación de los rodales de bosques de araucaria dentro de los territorios comunitarios.El estudio socioeconómico de Chiuquilihuin nos permitió identificar diferentes categorías de agricultores sobre la base de la estructura de sus ingresos (Figura 5, pág. opuesta). Incluyendo niños y ancianos el estudio reveló que alrededor del 40% de los miembros de esta comunidad (que representan alrededor del 90% de todos los hogares) recibe ingresos de fuera de la explotación agrícola. Si bien hombres y mujeres tienen iguales oportunidades de obtener subsidios, los hombres se ven favorecidos al buscar empleo, por lo general como pastores de las granjas particulares de las zonas vecinas.Las autoridades silvícolas provinciales dan también subsidios a los agricultores para que planten árboles en sus tierras, y en el año 2002 el gobierno de la provincia de Neuquén otorgó un subsidio de 0,27 $EE.UU. por animal y por año para promover el pastoreo en las zonas rurales.En ambas comunidades mapuches el sobrepastoreo del ganado es una causa principal de la erosión del suelo y un factor que impide la regeneración de los árboles. Por lo tanto se emprendió un estudio del ganado a fin de determinar la cantidad de animales de propiedad de la comunidad y la distribución de la propiedad de los animales entre los miembros de la comunidad. Para compaginar estos datos se emplearon diferentes fuentes como se muestra en el Cuadro 2 (en pág. 124). Comparamos nuestras observaciones de campo de febrero de 2002 con censos previos y esto nos llevó a concluir que dichos censos estaban seriamente subestimados.Esta información nos permitió evaluar la presión general del pastoreo de animales tanto en las praderas como en la zona de bosque herbáceo de ambos territorios comunitarios (ver la Sección 4.4 de este capítulo). Con arreglo al tamaño de sus rebaños, los agricultores de Chiuquilihuin pudieron ser divididos en cuatro grupos de propietarios de ganado como muestra la Figura 6 (pág. 124). La mayoría de los miembros de la comunidad poseía unos pocos animales. Los agricultores de gran escala poseían con más probabilidad vacas, mientras que los agricultores de mediana y pequeña escala tenían más probablemente ovejas y cabras.Para llevar a cabo el estudio socioeconómico empleamos un método participativo, como analizamos más adelante en el Capítulo 12. No obstante los problemas relativos a lo que resultó un laborioso y lento proceso de construcción de confianza entre los investigadores y las comunidades locales, nos fue posible recoger gran cantidad de información acerca del uso de los recursos silvícolas, la ordenación del ganado y otras actividades económicas de los indígenas. Estos datos resultaron de crucial importancia para abocarnos a algunos de los temas prácticos expuestos por las comunidades mapuches que participaron en el subproyecto BMZ (ver la Sección 6 de este capítulo).4.1 Tipos, distribución y dinamismo de los bosques Los rodales de bosque que estudiamos cerca de Tromen y Rucachoroi están ubicados ambos dentro del Parque Nacional Lanín, pero difieren entre sí por su composición, densidad, estructura e intensidad de uso por parte de la gente (Cuadros 3 y 4, pág. 125), siendo el sitio de Rucachoroi el que muestra más signos de actividad humana. En la Figura 1 aparece la ubicación de los rodales de bosque examinados. Los cálculos de la 123 Figura 5. Composición y monto del ingreso no agrícola para diferentes categorías de familias identificadas en Chiuquilihuin.  100 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,8 0,7 2,0 1,8 110 0,0 0,0 4,3 3,5 1,7 1,7 6,0 6,2 120 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 130 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,8 1,2 2,0 3,0 140 2,7 4,4 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,0  densidad de los árboles y el área basimétrica nos sirvieron para identificar las condiciones estructurales y los estadios de desarrollo de diferentes rodales dentro de los bosques de Tromen y Rucachoroi (Cuadro 3). En Tromen existe una significativa diferencia entre los rodales occidentales y los orientales. Los rodales occidentales se hallaban en un estadio de desarrollo más avanzado, mientras que los orientales mostraban una pauta bimodal, lo que indica probables perturbaciones a causa de incendios o actividades humanas en los últimos 200 años. El nivel de regeneración de ambos rodales era sustancialmente diferente. En los rodales occidentales se encontraron más de 24 000 brinzales/ha, mientras que en los orientales había menos de 1700 brinzales/ha.Para tener en cuenta la más amplia gama de tipos de bosques de Rucachoroi dividimos los rodales de bosque en cuatro tipos con arreglo a su ubicación, composición y estructura (Cuadro 4): rodales densos de araucaria (Aa) en el este; Aa en el oeste, rodales abiertos mixtos de araucaria + Nothofagus pumilio (Np), y araucaria + Nothofagus antarctica (Na). El nivel de regeneración de los cuatro tipos de rodales de Rucachoroi era bajo (<1700 brinzales/ha), muy probablemente a causa de sobrepastoreo histórico de ganado (Rechene 2000). En los rodales densos se encontraron mayores proporciones (24-57%) de árboles con copas en forma de sombrilla. Por el contrario en los rodales abiertos había una mayor proporción de árboles con copas de forma cónica (47-82%), típicas de los árboles que han crecido sin ejemplares competidores cercanos.En el año 2000 se estudió la producción de semillas de araucaria en los distintos ambientes del Parque Nacional Lanín. Se escogieron seis rodales sobre la base de la estructura del bosque y su posición en el gradiente de precipitaciones. Los rodales se eligieron utilizando un diseño de muestreo estratificado basado en el trabajo realizado por Burns (1991) y en fotografías aéreas (escala 1:28 000). Los rodales se caracterizaron respecto de su densidad arbórea general, densidad de árboles semilleros, tamaño del árbol (silueta, altura y dap) e información del sexo, empleando métodos de parcela (método de cuartos unidos en el centro) aplicados a transectos lineales de diferente orientación geográfica (Mateucci y Colma 1982;Sutherland 1996). Los puntos de muestreo se ubicaron a cada 40 m en el bosque denso y a 60 m en el bosque abierto.La evaluación de la producción de semillas durante los años 2000, 2001 y 2002 se realizó observando con binoculares y contando las piñas de los árboles semilleros muestreados de manera aleatoria en clases definidas por tamaño. La producción bruta de semillas de araucaria en las cuencas del Tromen y el Rucachoroi (partes occidentales y orientales) se estimaron suponiendo una producción similar entre los sitios muestreados y los sitios aparentemente idénticos no muestreados. En Rucachoroi comparamos las evaluaciones de producción de semillas con los datos oficiales de extracción de semillas por hectárea, y llegamos a la conclusión de que cuando la producción de semillas es alta también aumenta la recolección de semillas por parte de la población local. La cosecha de semillas es más fácil en los años productivos porque la gente demora menos en encontrar lugares adecuados para la recolección. Por lo tanto para evaluar la periodicidad histórica de una gran producción de semillas empleamos los datos de recolección por parte de la gente entre 1987 y 2000 en Rucachoroi y en muchos otros sitios de la provincia de Neuquén a unos 150 km al noreste de allí. Durante tres años se siguió la producción total de semillas en los seis rodales muestreados (Cuadro 5).Por lo general los bosques densos de araucaria del Parque Nacional Lanín eran más productivos que los abiertos, con excepción de los bosques densos y abiertos de los rodales occidentales de Tromen, donde la pauta se invertía (Cuadro 5). En el rodal muy denso de Tromen (ver Cuadro 4) la competición entre los árboles semilleros crecidos uno junto a otro con típicas copas más pequeñas en forma de sombrilla, provocó una menor productividad de semillas por hectárea.La producción de piñas de araucaria por árbol semillero varía mucho de un año a otro. Nosotros calculamos que los bosques de la zona examinada producían buenas cantidades de semillas cada tres años aproximadamente. Después de un año de mucha producción Cuadro 5. Serie de promedios de la producción de semillas en rodales examinados en el Parque Nacional Lanín durante tres años (2000)(2001)(2002).el árbol semillero necesita por lo menos dos años para recuperarse, durante los cuales la producción de semillas disminuye. En las ubicaciones orientales más secas, la producción de semillas tiene menos fluctuaciones anuales según las precipitaciones, mientras que en las ubicaciones occidentales más húmedas la producción de semillas cae fuertemente en los años de muchas precipitaciones. Esto puede deberse a la limitada dispersión de polen por el viento durante los años de fuertes lluvias, que reduce la producción de semillas en especial en los bosques de las áreas más húmedas ubicadas en los sitios occidentales (Donoso 1998;Sanguinetti et al. 2000). Esta información sugiere que el estado del tiempo influye decididamente en la producción de semillas de araucaria en los sitios examinados y en toda el área de difusión de la araucaria en general.El pueblo mapuche recoge semillas para su consumo, para alimentar el ganado y ocasionalmente para venderlas a los comerciantes, pero la mayor presión sobre la regeneración de la araucaria proviene de la depredación de semillas por parte del ganado y los animales silvestres en el otoño, el ramoneo de los brinzales por estos mismos animales en la primavera y por el pisoteo de brinzales y latizales durante ambas estaciones. Investigamos la proporción de semillas de araucaria en la dieta de los herbívoros empleando análisis microhistológicos de muestras de heces preparadas y analizadas con el procedimiento de Holechek y Gross (1982). Se recogieron muestras fecales de caballos, vacas, ovejas, cabras, ciervos y jabalíes en las tierras de pastoreo invernal (invernadas) y en las de verano (veranadas) en bosques continuos y fragmentados ubicados en los territorios de las comunidades de Aucapan y Chiuquilihuin y en Rucachoroi y Tromen en la primavera tardía (diciembre) de 2000 y en otoño (abril) de 2001. Encierros cercados y trampas colocadas en los bosques de Rucachoroi y Tromen nos permitieron seguir los efectos del pastoreo y el consumo de semillas tanto del ganado como de las especies silvestres, incluidas aves y roedores.No obstante la alta digestibilidad de las semillas de araucaria detectamos residuos tisulares de semillas en la mayor parte de las heces de mamíferos herbívoros domesticados y silvestres exóticos examinadas. La dieta de cada herbívoro variaba con arreglo a los hábitos de pastoreo de las diversas especies y del área examinada (Figura 7). Las semillas de araucaria forman una parte sustancial de la dieta de dos herbívoros silvestres exóticos (ciervo rojo y jabalí) y de los bovinos.El pueblo mapuche recoge en promedio alrededor del 14% de la producción total de semillas (calculando un promedio entre los años de mucha y poca producción de semillas), lo que afecta la regeneración de la araucaria (Sanguinetti et al. 2002), pero el consumo animal de semillas es por regla general mucho más elevado. Tan solo los animales silvestres exóticos consumen alrededor del 22% del total de semillas producidas.Nuestros resultados muestran la necesidad de ejercer un mayor control sobre el acceso de ganado y animales silvestres a los rodales de bosque donde la regeneración de la araucaria está amenazada por la depredación y el pisoteo de brinzales y latizales.Emprendimos un estudio para determinar las concentraciones sostenibles de animales apacentados en los diferentes tipos de praderas que se encuentran en las comunidades mapuches de Chiuquilihuin y Aucapan para determinar si las zonas de pastoreo podían proveer suficientes alimentos para los animales sin la contribución de semillas de araucaria. El objetivo del análisis era evaluar la posibilidad de formular estrategias de ordenación del pastoreo que pudieran optimizar la producción de piensos y satisfacer la demanda de alimentos para el ganado y los animales silvestres reduciendo a la vez la presión sobre la regeneración de la araucaria.Distinguimos los tipos de pastizales por la calidad y cantidad de pienso producido por cada uno, empleando mapas 1:60 000 derivados de imágenes del Landsat 7 TM de 1999, imágenes que fueron interpretadas por el Laboratorio GIS del INTA en Bariloche, Argentina. De la superficie total del área examinada en ambas comunidades (14 114 ha), el 63% era adecuado para el pastoreo. En el Cuadro 6 se describen los diferentes tipos de pasturas identificadas, sobre la base de diversas combinaciones de plantas.Para cada tipo de pastizal identificado en el Cuadro 6 determinamos el ganado efectivo y el recomendado en Unidades de Ganado Ovino (UGO) por ha, empleando como norma una oveja merino de 40 kg alimentada con 365 kg de materia seca/año. Esta  Cuadro 6. Principales tipos de praderas apropiadas para el apacentamiento, identificadas por investigadores del INTA sobre la base de combinaciones de plantas, con indicación de las condiciones del ambiente y el grado de degradación.determinación se basó en el pienso producido por cada tipo de pastizal, su extensión total, accesibilidad por parte del ganado y un coeficiente que denominamos 'factor de uso' (Stoddart et al. 1975) vinculado con el índice de degradación de la vegetación y el suelo. El examen de los hogares mostró que el número de animales de propiedad de las comunidades de Chiuquilihuin y Aucapan y la densidad de apacentamiento en los pastizales eran en promedio cinco veces mayores que la densidad recomendada por nosotros. Además, solo pocas familias poseían los pastizales más productivos, lo que impedía su aprovechamiento óptimo durante el verano.Sobre la base de nuestro análisis de los piensos disponibles en los diferentes pastizales, el tamaño actual del área pastoreada y el sistema de rotación empleado en la actualidad, hicimos recomendaciones para mejorar la reglamentación de acceso a los pastizales y las propusimos a los responsables de las políticas y a las comunidades indígenas locales.Las sugerencias para mejorar las prácticas de ordenación del ganado se basaron en el cambio del número de animales apacentados en los pastizales de verano, combinado con la identificación de nuevas zonas para cosechar piensos y un aumento del área de piensos de invierno cosechada. Sin embargo existen serias dificultades para aplicar cualquiera de estas soluciones, siendo la más importante el hecho de que reducir el número de ganado de propiedad de la comunidad tendría un impacto negativo en una tradicional fuente fundamental de ingresos. No obstante, tan solo algunas familias tienen grandes cantidades de animales, por lo que podría introducirse una reducción de ganado (debidamente compensada) que afectaría solo a pocas personas.Teniendo en cuenta la presión debida a la fragmentación, la degradación del suelo y la falta de regeneración de los recursos genéticos de araucaria en Argentina, uno de los objetivos de nuestro proyecto era examinar tanto los aspectos ecológicos como genéticos de la misma a nivel de medio natural, a fin de recomendar las mejores prácticas para la conservación y uso de los recursos genéticos de esta especie. Nos preocupaba en especial el estado de los rodales de araucaria más fragmentados ubicados en las partes más orientales y secas de su ámbito de dispersión en Argentina. Nuestro estudio incluía tanto los rodales frecuentados como los no utilizados por las comunidades indígenas mapuches en el Parque Nacional Lanín y las zonas vecinas (ver Figura 8).Para seguir la diversidad genética, describir la variación genética y estudiar los procesos genéticos se necesitan marcadores genéticos bien definidos. Para esta especie se identificaron marcadores de isoenzimas y se iniciaron ensayos de progenie y proveniencia de la misma. También iniciamos exámenes de diversidad y diferenciación genética de esta especie en su ámbito natural de difusión en Argentina (Figura 9). Para los estudios genéticos de las poblaciones se prefirieron los marcadores de isoenzimas porque entre otras ventajas su manifestación de co-dominancia es de especial importancia. Puesto que el tejido del endosperma lleva la información de dos gametos, a través del análisis de los mega-gametofitos se pueden observar directamente las pautas de segregación. Además las isoenzimas funcionan como marcadores de la adaptación (Bergmann y Hattemer 1998), cosa que las hace útiles para el análisis del proceso de selección.Nuestro estudio genético de los bosques de A. araucana en Argentina abarcó dos escalas espaciales. La investigación a nivel local analizó la distribución natural meridional de la especie en Argentina. El objetivo era describir la conectividad genética entre las poblaciones vecinas fragmentadas y continuas de araucaria y el efecto del uso humano sobre la diversidad genética de la especie. A nivel regional tuvo lugar un segundo estudio en todo el ámbito de difusión natural de araucaria en Argentina. El objetivo fue describir la pauta general de variación de la especie en ese país.Se ensayaron trece isoenzimas empleando los protocolos de laboratorio de Cheliak y Pitel (1985) levemente modificados para la araucaria. El muestreo de árboles tuvo lugar en cuatro fragmentos silvícolas de A. araucana ubicados en la estepa más oriental y seca, donde los árboles están sumamente separados y las semillas del suelo pueden asignarse de manera confiable a árboles específicos. Examinando nueve semillas elegidas aleatoriamente por árbol se detectaron los individuos heterocigotas putativos. Las semillas de los árboles heterocigotas se emplearon para verificar la segregación observada con la teoría mendeliana 1:1 de herencia (contraste ji-cuadrado α = 0,05) expresada por la ley de segregación (cada característica hereditaria está controlada por dos alelos que segregan y pasan a células separadas del germen) y con la ley de la distribución independiente (los pares de alelos se segregan independientemente uno del otro cuando forman las células del germen). Esto nos permitió identificar los marcadores de genes.Por dos años consecutivos (marzo-abril de 2000 y 2001) se emprendieron recolecciones a granel en rodales y por árbol individual para recoger semillas de 22 poblaciones que cubren el ámbito natural de difusión de la especie en Argentina. Los ejemplos se tomaron en la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin (uso moderado de araucaria) y en el bosque de Tromen (área de control ubicada en el Parque Nacional Lanín).Las poblaciones seleccionadas correspondían a los tres tipos de bosques de araucaria más comunes: Np, Na y Aa (del Cuadro 4). Estas asociaciones se integran unas con otras en el orden en que aparecen en el gradiente decreciente de precipitaciones oeste-este. Continuando hacia el este, los bosques desaparecen progresivamente y son reemplazados por estepas no boscosas.Se llevó a cabo un análisis de variación local de numerosas progenies originadas en cinco poblaciones orientales de araucaria fragmentadas pero puras (Figura 10) y otras nueve poblaciones de rodales occidentales mixtos de araucaria + Nothofagus spp. Un análisis regional de variación de araucaria incluyó 11 poblaciones que cubren la serie natural de la especie en Argentina, incluidas tres examinadas en el análisis a nivel local.En Argentina se estimaron la diversidad (variación dentro de las poblaciones) y la diferenciación (variación entre las poblaciones) genéticas de poblaciones de araucaria. Para ello se analizaron electroforésicamente 100 embriones de semillas provenientes de varias poblaciones diseminadas en el ámbito de difusión de la araucaria. Este tamaño de muestreo garantiza la inclusión de alelos con un valor de frecuencia de 3,2% y un nivel de Figura 10. Ejemplos de poblaciones densas y fragmentadas de A. araucana de los sitios de estudio (foto: B. Vinceti). probabilidad de 0,95 (Gregorius 1980). Para analizar la diversidad genética se midieron los parámetros indicados a continuación:• Número promedio de alelos por locus (A) • Diversidad del caudal genético (v) equivalente al número efectivo de alelos (n e )• Heterocigosidad observada (H o )• Heterocigosidad esperada (H e )• Indice de fijación (f), una medida de la deficiencia o exceso del heterocigota (Wright   1978). Para la diferenciación genética los parámetros medidos fueron:• Prueba G de homogeneidad (diferencias significativas de estructura entre poblaciones) • Distancia genética absoluta (d o ; Gregorius 1974)  • Diferenciación del caudal genético de una población o demo (Dj; Gregorius y Roberds 1986)• Diferenciación del caudal genético (δ; Gregorius y Roberds 1986).La significación de la distancia genética se infirió en términos de probabilidades (mediante la matriz de probabilidades α = 0,05). F ST es la medida de diferenciación genética más difundida y describe la proporción de variancia en una especie debida a la subdivisión de la población (Wright 1978). Se aplicó un análisis de conglomerados sobre la base de la distancia genética propuesta por Gregorius (1974).Para obtener una estimación indirecta del número histórico de migrantes por generación (N m ; Wright 1951) se empleó F ST .Para el análisis genético de la segregación fenotípica observada (que en los zimogramas aparece en forma de bandas) se emplearon 16 árboles heterocigotas putativos. El análisis genético probó que la variación observada en cuatro loci polimórficos (Idh, Pgm-A, Pgm-B y Got-C) era controlada genéticamente. En el Cuadro 7 (página 134) se presentan los resultados del examen de contraste ji-cuadrado de segregación por cada locus. Los valores de probabilidad indican que no hay diferencias significativas entre los segregados observados y los esperados. Por lo tanto pudimos determinar estadísticamente nueve marcadores de genes para esta especie, distribuidos en cuatro loci marcadores de genes. En los estudios genéticos de población no se incluyeron otras variantes de segregación genética observadas pero no verificadas estadísticamente.En el Cuadro 8 (pág. 136) se resumen la mayor parte de los parámetros genéticos estimados para las poblaciones regionales y locales de araucaria de Argentina. Para todas las poblaciones el número promedio de alelos por locus (A/l) fue 2,5 (se detectaron todas las posibles variantes de alelos para cada población). La diversidad media del caudal genético (v) en el análisis local fue 1,820, un valor significativamente más alto que la media de diversidad del caudal genético del análisis regional cuya cifra es 1,694. La muestra EA, tomada de una población marginal de árboles aislados en la estepa de Aucapan sumamente aprovechada presentaba la media más alta de diversidad del caudal genético: 1,998. El valor más bajo correspondió a RO, una población del oeste de Rucachoroi apenas al norte de las comunidades de Aucapan y Chiuquilihuin en un valle de las inmediaciones con una historia de uso de las tierras e incendios silvícolas.La heterocigosidad observada (H o ) se basa en los genotipos observados y por lo tanto expresa mejor una condición real de la variación genotípica versus una variación potencial (heterocigosidad esperada H e ) y resultaba similar en los análisis local y regional. H e es el nivel de heterocigosidad esperada si la población se hallara en el equilibrio Hardy-Weinberg (H-W) (Nei 1973), que define las frecuencias genotípicas esperadas cuando no tiene lugar la deriva genética, el cruzamiento es aleatorio, se produce la selección natural y no hay migraciones ni mutaciones. Las diferencias observadas a partir de estas condiciones parcialmente irreales explican cómo la segregación mendeliana influye en las frecuencias genotípicas y de alelos de una población.En muchas poblaciones de los cuatro loci analizados se observaron significativas desviaciones de H-W esperadas (como se muestra en el Cuadro 7). En la mayoría de los casos esto se debió a un exceso de homocigotas asociado con la endogamia.Esta pauta predominaba sobre todo en las poblaciones continuas occidentales cuyas precipitaciones más intensas restringían probablemente el fujo de genes anemófilo (por el viento) y contribuían a generar una marcada estructura espacial. En poblaciones fragmentadas atribuimos la endogamia al hecho de que la dispersión de semillas tiene lugar por gravedad.Se halló que la diferenciación genética entre las poblaciones era moderada con F ST igual a 0,10 (Hartl y Clark 1997). Un valor de δ Gregorius de 0,143 entre las poblaciones es tres veces más alto que en otras especies nativas de la Patagonia (por ejemplo Austrocedrus chilensis: δ = 0,043, Pastorino et al. en prensa; Nothofagus nervosa: δ = 0,047, Marchelli y Gallo 2001). El nivel medio de los valores locales era ligeramente menor que el de nivel regional (F ST = 0,095; δ = 0,143).En la Figura 11 (pág. 137) se presenta de manera gráfica la diferenciación del caudal genético de cada población en el así llamado 'caracol de diferenciación' (Gregorius y Roberds 1986). La longitud del radio de cada 'porción de pastel' denota la diferenciación de la población respecto del resto de las poblaciones (Dj), sus ángulos representan los tamaños de las poblaciones ponderadas (cj, que en este análisis se considera igual) y el radio del círculo es la diferenciación del caudal genético (δ = 0,143). La población RO era la más diferenciada (Dj = 0,23), con el más bajo valor de diversidad genética (0,1453) y H o (0,174) y menor polimorfismo en los cuatro loci analizados. Por otro lado, TE es la población que representaba mejor la constitución general del caudal genético de la especie en la Argentina.Puesto que se encontraron significativas diferencias genéticas entre las estructuras de las poblaciones, se calcularon las distancias del caudal genético (Gregorius 1974) que se muestran en un análisis de conglomerado en la Figura 12 (pág. 137). La significación de Cuadro 7. Análisis genético de la segregación fenotípica de isoenzimas observada vs. 1:1 esperada, en cuatro loci de genes putativos de A. araucana. El valor del contraste jicuadrado para las dos clases con α = 0,05, es de 2,84. Código de árboles: EA = Estepa de Aucapan; LA = Lenga de Aucapan; ET = Estepa de Tromen; NMA = Nahuel mapi abajo.las distancias del caudad genético entre las poblaciones se demostró luego empleando una matriz de probabilidades. La mayor parte de las distancias del caudal genético eran significativamente diferentes de las de una población amalgamada sin subdivisiones. El análisis de conglomerados formó tres grupos de araucaria bien definidos. El primero consistía de poblaciones mixtas de araucaria con Nothofagus pumilio, como CP y TO ubicadas en Tromen en rodales de baja intensidad de uso. También en este conglomerado genético estaban CHO, ubicada dentro del territorio de la comunidad Chiuquilihuin y también con baja intensidad de uso, y RO y RE ubicadas en la cuenca del Rucachoroi al norte de Chiuquilihuin y Aucapan y con elevada intensidad de uso. En este primer conglomerado también entraba ALN, dentro del territorio de la comunidad de Aucapan y sujeta a intenso uso.El segundo conglomerado estaba compuesto por numerosas poblaciones fragmentadas, CHE, ET, NMA y EA, ubicadas por lo general en zonas marginales al sitio de estudio, en los límites meridional y oriental del área de difusión de araucaria y en climas más áridos. Estas poblaciones estaban sumamente afectadas por la presencia humana actual y del pasado y presentaban una regeneración limitada.El último conglomerado eran cuatro poblaciones continuas ubicadas en las comunidades mapuches de Aucapan y Chiuquilihuin: APR, TRL, MAU y TRN. Estas poblaciones se caracterizaban por un moderado uso humano en el pasado (aprovechamiento maderero, extracción de leña, recolección de semillas y apacentamiento de ganado) y en la actualidad mostraban diferentes niveles de regeneración natural.Se calcularon estimaciones indirectas del número efectivo de inmigrantes por generación (Wright 1951;Nei 1973) para caracterizar el flujo de genes tomando en cuenta todas las poblaciones, lo que dio como resultado un número más bien bajo: N m = 2,22. Este valor era menor del esperado para las gimnospermas comparado con los resultados de investigaciones efectuadas en otros lugares sobre 89 especies (N m = 3,17, Hamrick et al. 1992) y más bajas que los valores del flujo de genes de algunas especies de Nothofagus (por ejemplo Premoli 1997; Cuadro 9).El bajo valor de flujo de genes (N m = 2,22) encontrado puede deberse a la limitada dispersión de las semillas y el polen de araucaria. Además el viento predominante que sopla del oeste al este durante el período de polinización puede ser uno de los factores responsables del limitado flujo de genes observado, teniendo las poblaciones occidentales menos probabilidades de recibir polen de fuera.El flujo de genes era ligeramente más alto (N m = 2,39) en la parte meridional del área de difusión natural de araucaria, donde se estudió un número más grande de poblaciones. Sin embargo las diferencias más pronunciadas en los valores del flujo de genes de la especie se hallaron al comparar las muestras de poblaciones de los transectos oeste-este a latitudes similares dentro de una misma cuenca fluvial. Se hallaron pautas similares en las cuencas vecinas, en apoyo a la teoría de un fuerte efecto unidireccional del viento que induce la dispersión del polen del oeste al este. En todos los casos las estimaciones del flujo de genes fueron hasta 12 veces más altas en los rodales orientales. La diversidad genética de la mayoría de las poblaciones orientales también era elevada (Figura 13).Los análisis de flujo de genes replicados a nivel regional confirmaron la pauta hallada a nivel local y muestran que el flujo de genes de las poblaciones orientales es el doble del de las occidentales (Gallo 2003). Esperábamos ver más variación genética en los años en que se producían más semillas, lo que implicaría mayores contribuciones genéticas. Para la especie Nothofagus nervosa se han comunicado variaciones temporales del sistema de cruzamiento en relación con variaciones anuales de la productividad de semillas (Marchelli y Gallo 1999) pero en nuestro estudio de la araucaria no notamos esa tendencia.   La información obtenida en el proyecto financiado por BMZ se empleó para organizar un proyecto de desarrollo rural de tres años llamado 'Pehuenche', que comenzó en mayo de 2003 con ayuda financiera del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del gobierno de Italia y fue coordinado por Angela Pinna de la ONG italiana Ricerca e Cooperazione, en colaboración con el Departamento de Desarrollo Rural del INTA, Bariloche. Esta iniciativa se concibió a pedido de las comunidades mapuches involucradas en el proyecto financiado por BMZ (Figura 14).El subproyecto financiado por BMZ que describimos aquí nos permitió recoger datos basimétricos que apoyaron el trabajo emprendido en el proyecto Pehuenche, destinado a alcanzar los siguientes objetivos: (i) aumentar los ingresos familiares mediante un uso racional de los recursos naturales y la diversificación de las actividades económicas, (ii) resolver los problemas técnicos de ordenación de las aguas y (iii) reforzar la capacidad de las comunidades indígenas para ordenar sus propios recursos de manera sostenible. El proyecto Pehuenche considera a las comunidades mapuches como participantes activas en todas las decisiones de ordenación de los recursos naturales.Además de ser crucial para la promoción de iniciativas locales de desarrollo sostenible, el proyecto Pehuenche es también un modelo promisorio del que se pueden extraer lecciones de gran aplicabilidad y cuyas soluciones potenciales pueden ser exportadas a otras zonas de la región donde los pueblos indígenas mantienen derechos comunales de tenencia de tierras dentro de las reservas. En efecto las dos colonias mapuches involucradas en el proyecto Pehuenche ejemplifican el tipo de tensiones que surgen entre los regímenes tradicionales de ordenación de los recursos naturales y las necesidades de los gobiernos nacional y provincial que buscan tierras para poblaciones crecientes y tienen que enfrentarse también con las limitaciones de uso de los recursos naturales impuestas por la proximidad del parque nacional. Este tipo de tensiones socioeconómicas se encuentran muy difundidas en otras regiones rurales de Argentina y de los países de América del Sur en general.Esta investigación nos permitió comprender las pautas de uso de los recursos silvícolas por parte de numerosas comunidades indígenas mapuches ubicadas dentro de los límites del Parque Nacional Lanín. Nuestro estudio demostró la importancia de los bosques de araucaria para el pueblo mapuche que utiliza las semillas para la alimentación humana y como pienso animal y ocasionalmente las vende en el mercado, y apacienta ganado en algunos rodales de bosques de araucaria. El tamaño de las dos comunidades examinadas, Aucapan y Chiuquilihuin, es diferente y los rodales de bosque incluidos en sus límites están sujetos a diferentes intensidades de uso. El ganado es un recurso fundamental para los mapuches, a quienes el gobierno provincial de Neuquén estimula mediante subsidios para que críen más ovinos a fin de promover el apacentamiento en las zonas rurales.Sin embargo nuestro examen indicó que el suelo de los bosques de araucaria sufría una grave erosión provocada por el sobrepastoreo de ganado, y que los bosques experimentaban una falta de regeneración muy probablemente debida a depredación de semillas, pisoteo de brinzales y latizales por parte del ganado y a la consiguiente erosión. Se estableció que los ovinos y jabalíes eran los mayores consumidores de semillas entre las especies investigadas. Si no se produce algún tipo de cambio la situación actual empeorará a medida que crezca la población mapuche.Dado este escenario más bien sombrío creemos que se necesitan medidas urgentes para mejorar o mantener la producción de piensos mediante el ajuste de la cantidad de ganado y la ordenación de las tierras de pastoreo. Las praderas utilizadas por las comunidades mapuches se dividieron en tipos de categorías con arreglo a su productividad de piensos y características ecológicas, lo que nos permitió evaluar las densidades óptimas de ganado para los diferentes tipos de sitios de pastoreo, y esto debería utilizarse como base para mejorar las prácticas actuales de ordenación ganadera.La mayor parte de las soluciones que previmos para mejorar la ordenación del ganado implican una reducción de las existencias actuales. Comprobamos que la distribución de la propiedad de ganado en Chiuquilihuin era sumamente desigual, y que dos agricultores eran propietarios de la mayor parte de los animales. Por lo tanto una significativa reducción del número de animales mantenidos afectaría solo a un muy pequeño número de personas. Sin embargo si se toma esta medida se deberán ofrecer incentivos puntuales a los miembros de estas comunidades para compensarlos por la pérdida de ingresos derivados de la cría de ganado, y deberán interrumpirse los subsidios que promueven el pastoreo en las zonas rurales, reemplazándolos por otros tipos de aportes (como piensos suministrados en períodos de escasez, por ejemplo durante el invierno).El examen del bosque mostró que los rodales orientales de araucaria estaban mucho más fragmentados que los occidentales y presentaban coeficientes de fijación genética ligeramente más altos que los rodales continuos. Esto puede deberse a una mayor endogamia o a una reducción del tamaño efectivo de la población que provocaría deriva genética y mayor homocigosidad. No obstante, comparadas con las poblaciones occidentales las poblaciones orientales más fragmentadas de araucaria no mostraron procesos preocupantes de erosión genética (Gallo 2003). Pero en la mayor parte de las poblaciones fragmentadas de A. araucana examinadas no había regeneración, o bien la reproducción era sobre todo vegetativa. Por lo tanto con toda probabilidad las futuras generaciones adultas de estas poblaciones fragmentadas mostrarán estructuras genéticas muy diferentes de las que se observan en la actualidad. Muy probablemente el futuro de los rodales fragmentados ubicados en las zonas más áridas del ámbito de difusión se caracterizará por una seria reducción de la diversidad genética.No se encontraron claras tendencias de diversidad o diferenciación de las poblaciones de A. araucana respecto de las condiciones del medio ambiente (por ejemplo en relación con el gradiente de precipitaciones oeste-este) o de las pautas de uso humano de las tierras. Los valores de diversidad genética estimados entre las poblaciones fragmentadas fueron erráticos, y nuestras hipótesis de pérdida de alelos por la deriva genética, aumento de la homocigosidad por una alta endogamia o fuerte diferenciación de subpoblaciones debida a un restringido flujo de genes en las poblaciones marginales no pudieron ser confirmadas.Inesperadamente nuestra investigación reveló cierto grado de endogamia en poblaciones occidentales ubicadas en partes densas, húmedas y menos pertubadas del ámbito de difusión de la araucaria. Una posible explicación de esto puede ser el efecto negativo de precipitaciones intensas en el movimiento del polen en los años de mucha lluvia. Además, e inesperadamente, el flujo de genes era más elevado en las poblaciones orientales más fragmentadas, que según anticipamos obedecería al efecto de los vientos predominantes oeste-este y al consiguiente movimiento del polen.La alta variación dentro de la población verificada en nuestro estudio destaca la necesidad de tenerla en cuenta en el diseño y ejecución de medidas de restauración, especialmente en las poblaciones orientales erosionadas y fragmentadas. Nuestra investigación mostró también que la mayor variación genética de las semillas aparece durante los años de gran producción, y este hallazgo tiene implicaciones muy importantes para planificar la cosecha de semillas destinadas a la restauración de los bosques y al mejoramiento de los árboles.Por último nuestra investigación mostró que las prácticas de ordenación silvícola en gran escala deben responder a las inquietudes sobre la sostenibilidad. También es importante contemplar tanto los efectos directos como indirectos de las actividades humanas en los procesos biológicos y, más en particular, sobre el dinamismo genético que caracteriza a los procesos macro y microevolutivos de los bosques de araucaria. Se deben arbitrar soluciones que conduzcan al uso sostenible de los bosques tomando en cuenta la amplia gama de actividades económicas de los usuarios locales de los bosques y al desarrollo de opciones para mejorar la ordenación de otros recursos (cultivos, ganadería, etc.) que aportan medios de vida a las comunidades locales.Además cualquier solución potencial para mejorar la ordenación y el uso de las praderas y los bosques de araucaria en las zonas que rodean a las comunidades mapuches estudiadas debe analizarse en amplias consultas que involucren a las comunidades indígenas, a los administradores de tierras y a los funcionarios gubernamentales.Conservación, ordenación y uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos de Araucaria angustifolia en Brasil En este capítulo se evalúa el estado de conservación de otra especie de araucaria, Araucaria angustifolia en el Estado de Paraná, Brasil. El proyecto investiga principalmente las repercusiones de los marcos de política que reglamentan el acceso y el uso de los recursos genéticos silvícolas de A. angustifolia. El bosque mixto de A. angustifolia es uno de los biomas más importantes que aparecen de manera natural en el Brasil meridional y sudoriental. Se extiende entre las latitudes 19º 30' S y 31º 30' S y las longitudes 41º 30 O y 54º 30' O e incluye una pequeña zona de la provincia de Misiones en Argentina. El bosque original de A. angustifolia cubría un área estimada en 200 000 km 2 (Maack 1950;Maack 1981), pero el alto valor de la madera produjo una dramática reducción de la cantidad y tamaño de las poblaciones del Brasil meridional. La especie está actualmente clasificada como vulnerable en la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas 2000 de la Unión Mundial de Conservación (IUCN) (Hilton-Taylor 2000). La mayor extensión de A. angustifolia en Brasil se encuentra en el Estado de Paraná donde ocupaba originalmente 7 378 000 hectáreas (Maack 1981) lo que corresponde al 37% de la superficie total de dicho estado.A. angustifolia (Bertoloni) O. Kuntze es una especie subtropical de la familia de las Araucariaceae, orden Coniferales. En Brasil se la conoce como araucaria, pino de paraná, pinheiro-do-paraná o pinheiro-brasileiro. Los árboles pueden alcanzar de 35 a 60 m de altura y 0,8 a 2 m de dap (diámetro a la altura del pecho) (Klein 1960). La araucaria es habitualmente dioica, raramente monoica, con 2n (número de cromosomas diploides) = 26 (Bandel y Gurgel 1967). Al igual que otras coníferas la araucaria es polinizada a través del viento, y en el Brasil la maduración del polen y la polinización tienen lugar de agosto a octubre. Las piñas semilleras comienzan a madurar dos años después de la polinización y el ciclo completo desde el carpelo hasta la semilla insume cuatro años (Shimoya 1962). Los árboles jóvenes comienzan a depositar semillas entre los 12 y 15 años de edad. Las semillas se dispersan de mayo a agosto (Carvalho 1994).El bosque primario de araucaria en Brasil está compuesto de especies mixtas y se caracteriza habitualmente por tener tres canopias. La canopia superior está formada por las copas de los árboles más viejos de araucaria que permiten la penetración de una considerable cantidad de luz. La canopia media está formada en su mayor parte por especies Lauraceae y la inferior por especies Mirtaceae y por Ilex paraguariensis (Aquifoliaceae) llamada yerba mate.Las respuestas de fotosíntesis y crecimiento de los árboles de araucaria bajo diferentes condiciones de luz (Inoue et al. 1979;Einig et al. 1999) mostraron que A. angustifolia se adaptaba bien a una sombra moderada. Sin embargo, dado que hay poca información sobre el comportamiento de la especie en condiciones de luz natural, la observación de que no había brinzales en algunos ambientes silvestres sombreados motivó la creencia común de que la araucaria era una especie colonizadora que necesitaba de sol y no se regeneraría en el sotobosque silvícola.Hasta fines del decenio de 1970 el aprovechamiento comercial de la madera de araucaria era una de las actividades económicas más importantes en el Brasil meridional (Guerra et al. 2002). La madera de araucaria era uno de los recursos principales del desarrollo social y económico de esta región y proveía madera de gran calidad para la construcción y la fabricación de muebles, y fibra leñosa larga para las industrias de la pasta y el papel (Carvalho 1994). El árbol de araucaria también proporciona numerosos productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM): brotes y protuberancias (nudos en el tronco del árbol) empleados en la medicina popular (Marquesini 1995) y las artesanías, y semillas consumidas como alimento por la gente y usadas como pienso por su alto valor nutritivo (Carvalho 1994) (Figura 1).El aprovechamiento del bosque de araucaria aumentó después de 1934 cuando comenzaron los proyectos de construcción vial y se establecieron las industrias silvícolas en los Estados de Paraná y Santa Catarina. Este período coincidió también con el aumento de la demanda de tierras para la agricultura y la ganadería provocado por el crecimiento de la población del Brasil. Entre 1958 y 1987 se exportaron más de 15 millones de m 3 de rollizos de araucaria, y hasta el decenio de 1970 este tipo de madera fue el producto silvícola más importante del Brasil (Reitz y Klein 1966, citado por Guerra et al. 2002). Hacia 1978 el área cubierta de bosques de araucaria se había reducido al 8% de su extensión original (FUPEF 1978). En la actualidad queda menos del 3% de la canopia silvícola original de araucaria y solo el 0,7% aparece en forma de bosque primario (FUPEF 2001).Figura 1. Indígenas de Mangueirinha (Paraná) preparando sus artesanías tradicionales con productos silvícolas no madereros (Foto: J.V. Bittencourt).Según Laboriau y Matos Filho (1948, citado por Guerra et al. 2002) la mayor parte de las tierras silvícolas de araucaria se explotaron en tres fases: en primer lugar se cosecharon los árboles de mayor valor comercial; luego de entre los árboles que quedaron después de esa fase se aprovecharon aquellos cuya madera era de mejor calidad, y por último se quemaron las tierras para crear praderas y zonas aptas para la agricultura.Desde el comienzo las prácticas adoptadas para el aprovechamiento comercial de la araucaria no se inspiraron en una filosofía de uso sostenible, y como resultado se produjo un dramático cambio en la apariencia de los recursos silvícolas de araucaria. Los relevamientos llevados a cabo en este proyecto de bosques secundarios de araucaria cosechados más de 50 años atrás, mostraron que no había la cantidad de árboles juveniles y adultos de araucaria originados por regeneración natural que se esperaba encontrar. Solo cuando se emplearon semillas controladas y las condiciones de luz para la regeneración se manipularon mediante tratamientos silvícolas, los árboles nuevos prosperaron bien.En 1993 el gobierno del Brasil introdujo una nueva legislación (Decreto-lei nº 750) que establecía normas para la ordenación sostenible de los bosques de araucaria. Con arreglo a las normas adoptadas en el Estado de Paraná solo se podían cosechar árboles con un dap mayor de 40 cm, y se debían dejar al menos diez árboles madre de esta clase de diámetro por hectárea. En 2001 se prohibió por ley la cosecha de araucaria cuando los exámenes mostraron que quedaba menos del 3% de la cubierta original de bosque de araucaria en forma de tierras silvícolas fragmentadas (FUPEF 2001).La transformación de la mayor parte de los bosques nativos de araucaria en tierras agrícolas y pastizales provocó la remoción de muchas poblaciones naturales. Antes de que se adoptaran regímenes de ordenación sostenible, la selección disgénica que tuvo lugar en las poblaciones aprovechadas había contribuido a reducir su variabilidad genética a niveles tan bajos que comprometían su uso con fines de conservación y mejoramiento. Por ello se necesitan urgentemente programas de conservación y mejoramiento que se basen en una comprensión de las estructuras genéticas de las poblaciones restantes.En Brasil está creciendo la conciencia de que A. angustifolia es vulnerable a la erosión genética. Si bien aún no está en peligro de extinción, ya se han perdido numerosas poblaciones geográficas. Muchas áreas antes ocupadas por araucarias son usadas actualmente para apacentar ganado o para plantar árboles exóticos de rápido crecimiento. Hasta la fecha los programas de reforestación han sido limitados tanto en número como en éxito, y esto puede relacionarse con la escasa información disponible acerca de muchas características ecológicas y fisiológicas importantes de esta especie.El gobierno del Brasil está promoviendo actualmente muchas iniciativas para proteger los recursos genéticos de araucaria. Por ejemplo la cosecha de los árboles de araucaria regenerados de manera natural está ahora prohibida por ley (PN-COMANA -Programa Nacional del Consejo Ambiental Nacional -278, 18 de julio de 2001). Más recientemente el gobierno federal seleccionó cinco regiones del Estado de Paraná donde la conservación genética de los bosques de araucaria es hoy una prioridad (PN MMA -Programa nacional del Ministerio del Ambiente 507, 20 de diciembre de 2002). Con arreglo a esta legislación para cualquier ampliación de las áreas de plantación silvícola se debe utilizar araucaria u otras especies nativas. Sin embargo, las restricciones financieras han limitado la capacidad del gobierno brasileño para adquirir propiedades a fin de establecer unidades de conservación como parques nacionales o reservas.El gobierno del Estado de Paraná se ha comprometido en este programa mediante el establecimiento de 'corredores de biodiversidad' a cargo de organismos del estado. Esta es una iniciativa multinstitucional destinada a aumentar la conectividad entre los fragmentos de bosques de araucaria (Figura 2, al dorso) que son de interés para la conservación genética. Este proyecto es apoyado por Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), Conservation International (CI), Global Environment Facility (GEF), el gobierno del Japón, la Fundación MacArthur y el Banco Mundial. El proyecto forma parte de un programa destinado a salvaguardar los puntos críticos de biodiversidad mundial amenazados en los países en desarrollo.La pobre condición actual de los bosques naturales de araucaria en Brasil es una consecuencia de que no exista un modelo adecuado de ordenación de los bosques naturales que combine factores ecológicos, genéticos, sociales y económicos. Como las plantaciones de araucaria son menos provechosas que otras opciones de uso de las tierras -como las plantaciones de pinos o los cultivos agrícolas-esa condición resulta quizá de que la mayoría de los brasileños ve a los bosques como una simple fuente de rollizos.La experiencia local nos ha llevado a concluir que hay dos métodos viables para lograr la conservación de los recursos genéticos de araucaria. Ambas opciones requerirán conocimientos científicos que se obtendrán al estudiar la diversidad genética de las poblaciones remanentes de araucaria:(i) Establecer nuevas plantaciones de araucaria a cargo de los agricultores y compañías silvícolas privadas en los bosques residuales de araucaria. Esta opción requerirá semillas genéticamente mejoradas y técnicas agrosilvícolas eficaces para incrementar el provecho de las plantaciones de araucaria.(ii) Iniciativas gubernamentales o privadas para establecer programas de conservación de araucaria in situ y ex situ. Estas iniciativas requerirán recursos financieros considerables para adquirir, establecer y mantener áreas de conservación. La creación de reservas naturales privadas protegidas (RNPP) en áreas de bosques de araucaria, sobre todo por cuenta de propietarios voluntarios, puede dar buenos resultados. Pero las partes interesadas locales querrán ver que el gobierno comparte la responsabilidad por estos emprendimientos con incentivos y subsidios. Los propietarios locales han opinado que el gobierno debería adquirir las tierras para establecer las zonas de conservación o bien proveer subsidios a los interesados locales para que mantengan intacta la canopia silvícola actual de araucaria hasta que se definan y adopten prácticas de ordenación silvícola Figura 2. Restos de rodales silvícolas de A. angustifolia (foto: J.V. Bittencourt). sostenibles y de base científica. Dado que esta posición ha provocado demoras, todavía tienen que ser protegidos numerosos fragmentos silvícolas de araucaria extremadamente valiosos para la conservación de los recursos genéticos de la especie.Hay también otro método de ordenación de los bosques de araucaria que creemos deba ser considerado. Proviene del sistema tradicional de ordenación del recurso natural basado en la comunidad que emplean los agricultores en pequeña escala del bosque de Paraná, llamado 'faxinal' (fachinal) (Recuadro 1). Históricamente, la zona rural de Paraná se organizó en comunidades que conservaban las tierras agrícolas para uso individual y las silvícolas para uso común. El sistema se sigue practicando en algunas partes del Estado de Paraná. Sin embargo aunque muchos fragmentos de bosques de araucaria se encuentran dentro de estas unidades de ordenación comunal de la tierra, el sistema no es ahora sostenible a largo plazo para la especie porque el bosque está siendo usado para apacentamiento y esto afecta de manera negativa la regeneración natural de los árboles de araucaria.Creemos que modificando el sistema tradicional de fachinal la conservación y uso sostenible de araucaria a largo plazo tendrá buenas posibilidades de éxito.El Estado de Paraná cubre 19,5 millones de hectáreas que representan el 2,3% del campo del Brasil. De su población de 9,5 millones de personas, el 82% reside en zonas urbanas mientras el 18% vive en la campaña. La producción agrícola del Estado de Paraná es la más alta del Brasil y representa el 23% de la del país. Alrededor de 370 000 propiedades Recuadro 1. El fachinal: un sistema agrosilvícola tradicional de la región de bosques de A. angustifolia en Brasil Algunas comunidades rurales del Estado de Paraná siguen practicando un sistema agrosilvícola tradicional llamado fachinal, introducido por inmigrantes ucranios en el siglo XIX. En este sistema, la comunidad usa las tierras silvícolas para obtener rollizos, PSNM y para apacentar animales domésticos (principalmente ganado mayor, caballos y cerdos). El sistema está diseñado en torno al uso colectivo de la tierra para la producción pecuaria y se asocia con una baja extracción de productos silvícolas cuyo resultado es un flujo regular de ingresos para las comunidades. Las especies arbóreas no madereras como Ilex paraguariensis, cuyas hojas se utilizan para elaborar un té llamado mate, tienen un papel importante en este sistema. Ilex paraguariensis aparece de manera natural en los bosques de araucaria y su supervivencia depende de la conservación de éstos.Las familias de las comunidades de fachinal tienen cultivos anuales como maíz, porotos negros y mandioca fuera de la tierra silvícola nativa que está rodeada por vallas a fin de mantener a los animales dentro y lejos de las áreas cultivadas. En las huertas familiares se cultivan algunas plantas medicinales.El sistema de fachinal ha contribuido a la conservación de muchos bosques de araucaria remanentes. No obstante sus ventajas ecológicas, sociales y culturales hay actualmente cada vez menos fachinales, sobre todo a causa de que las prácticas tradicionales le hacen difícil competir con los sistemas agrícolas de gran tecnología de las zonas vecinas.Si bien el fachinal es un sistema de subsistencia con mucha menos producción agrícola y ganadera que las explotaciones agrícolas modernas, el mejoramiento de la ordenación de los recursos naturales comunales pueden ayudar a las familias de pequeños propietarios a permanecer en sus tierras tradicionales, mejorar sus condiciones de vida y al mismo tiempo asegurar la conservación de los bosques naturales de araucaria remanentes.rurales están diseminadas por el territorio del Estado. El Cuadro 1 muestra una imagen sintética de los tamaños de las propiedades privadas y su distribución en el estado (Turra 2003).El ámbito natural de bosques de araucaria en el Brasil está en la parte meridional del país. La pauta de vegetación natural de la región de la araucaria es una matriz de manchas de bosque húmedo subtropical interrumpidas por praderas a menudo extensas (Klein 1963). A. angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze representa más del 40% de los árboles de este tipo de bosque (Longhi 1980;Oliveira y Rotta 1982). Es la única especie de este género en el Brasil y, junto con Podocarpus lambertii Klotz (pinheiro bravo) y Podocarpus sellowii (pinheiro bravo da folha larga) es una de las únicas coníferas nativas del Brasil.En el año 2002, junto con este subproyecto BMZ/IPGRI/FUPEF (Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania/Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos/Fundación para la Investigación Silvícola en Paraná) se estuvieron desarrollando otras actividades de investigación en el marco del proyecto FUPEF/PROBIO (Proyecto Nacional de Biodiversidad) que se concentró en la investigación y desarrollo de proyectos de demostración y evaluaciones de la conservación y uso sostenible de la biodiversidad en los biomas brasileños. La investigación emprendida en el marco del PROBIO ayudó a ubicar los fragmentos remanentes de bosques de araucaria en el Estado de Paraná (Figura 3) y a seleccionar parcelas de muestra para el subproyecto BMZ/IPGRI/ FUPEF. Los fragmentos silvícolas se identificaron empleando imágenes satelitales (sistema de información geográfica -Landsat 1998/99). Se condujo un examen de campo de 304 puntos seleccionados aleatoriamente en las diferentes regiones ecológicas de bosques de araucaria a fin de trazar un mapa de la distribución de los fragmentos y evaluar sus características fitosociológicas. Se emprendió un rápido examen ecológico usando las características del suelo y la vegetación para detectar la presencia de perturbaciones debidas al hombre, y para controlar la calidad de dichos remanentes.El grupo de investigación de FUPEF/PROBIO identificó 66 109 ha de bosque primario de araucaria (0,8% del área original en el Estado de Paraná), 1,2 millones de ha (14,5%) de bosque secundario y 1,2 millones de ha (14%) de bosque en una fase temprana de regeneración (PROBIO/FUPEF 2002). Los bosques dominados por A. angustifolia cubrían 75 783 ha (o sea el 0,91% del Estado de Paraná), y el grupo produjo 53 mapas (1:100 000) de la bioregión silvícola de araucaria en el Estado de Paraná. Se constató que la distribución natural de araucaria era 12,4% mayor que el área previamente determinada por Maack (1981). Sin embargo el bosque de araucaria está sumamente fragmentado y la mayor parte de los fragmentos se concentra en la parte sud-central del estado. Esta es una zona montañosa dominada por tierras agrícolas (60%), praderas (18%) y bosques (4%). Actualmente comprende 112 000 propiedades pequeñas y medianas, de las cuales el 86% tiene menos de 100 ha. Históricamente la mayor parte de estas propiedades se organizaron con el sistema agrosilvícola de fachinal. Utilizando marcadores no adaptativos, numerosos investigadores han identificado la variación genética en la serie natural de especies. Por ejemplo Reitz y Klein (1966) describieron nueve variedades botánicas de A. angustifolia sobre la base del tiempo de maduración y el color de la semilla, y después Mattos (1994) identificó una variedad más. Reitz y Klein (1966) y Kageyama y Jacob (1980) detectaron variación genética en y entre poblaciones arbóreas naturales, y algunos ejemplares de A. angustifolia recogidos en cinco estados brasileños mostraron estadísticamente significativas diferencias en la producción de madera cuando se midieron sus rasgos cuantitativos (Monteiro y Speltz 1980). Algunos estudios de araucaria con marcadores bioquímicos y moleculares han tratado de determinar la diversidad genética de la serie natural de la especie (Mazza 1997;Schlögl 2000;Shimizu et al. 2000). Se halló que las menores similitudes genéticas entre las poblaciones de araucaria se relacionaban con las mayores distancias geográficas.Desde principios del siglo pasado se reconocía en el Brasil la necesidad de conservar las características genéticas de los bosques de araucaria. Sin embargo se emprendieron pocas iniciativas gubernamentales para establecer áreas de conservación (como Reservas o Parques Nacionales) en el hábitat natural de la araucaria, si bien se plantaron algunos campos de ensayo entre los decenios de 1950 y 1980. Hasta 1979 solo se habían establecido en Brasil alrededor de 90 000 ha de plantaciones (Shimizu y Oliveira 1980). Se piensa que las razones de este limitado interés por la plantación de araucaria son: (i) falta de conocimientos acerca de los factores abióticos más favorables (suelo y clima) para la producción de madera; (ii) dificultades para obtener semillas de sitios seleccionados; (iii) falta de disponibilidad de semillas genéticamente mejoradas; (iv) carencia de técnicas silvícolas específicas y (v) bajo índice de crecimiento de esta especie si se la compara con las especies Pinus o Eucalyptus (Shimizu y Oliveira 1980).Los procedimientos de ordenación de los bosques de araucaria adoptados en Brasil en los siglos XIX y XX permitían la tala de árboles de 40 cm de dap o más. Se pensaba que los árboles restantes retendrían la variabilidad del caudal genético de la población y producirían las semillas necesarias para la regeneración natural. Sin embargo, la evaluación de este método de ordenación realizada por el IBAMA (Instituto Brasileño del Medio Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales) mostró que esto producía índices de regeneración Figura 3. Fragmentos de bosque de araucaria en el Estado de Paraná, Brasil. El mapa más pequeño muestra los límites del Estado de Paraná y, dentro de él en gris oscuro, el ámbito de A. angustifolia, ampliado en el mapa más grande. En el mapa pequeño el blanco indica las zonas sin canopia silvícola. En el mapa grande los puntos negros indican la distribución de las poblaciones de araucaria (adaptado de PROBIO/FUPEF 2002). natural menores que los esperados. Como resultado, se cambió la legislación en 1990 (O.S. IBAMA-PR 024/90) exigiendo que no se talara al menos el 35% de los árboles por encima de los 40 cm de dap. Pero se siguieron aprovechando fragmentos de bosques de araucaria hasta el año 2001, cuando se aprobó una nueva ley (PN CONAMA 278) que prohíbe el aprovechamiento de los árboles de araucaria de cualquier población natural del Brasil. Esta ley introdujo significativos cambios en la ordenación del bosque de araucaria, y la extracción de PSNM pasó a ser la principal opción alternativa para obtener ingresos en efectivo de los bosques de araucaria. La extracción de PSNM requiere un método diferente de aprovechamiento silvícola, considerándose crucial la participación de la población local a fin de establecer estrategias de ordenación viables y útiles.Se llevó a cabo una evaluación preliminar de las características ecológicas de los bosques fragmentados de araucaria. Creemos que los datos obtenidos en esta evaluación serán de mucha importancia para la elaboración de toda estrategia de conservación in situ de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) que deba luego adoptarse. Se establecieron y evaluaron parcelas representativas de 20 x 20 m en cuatro fragmentos sujetos a diferentes regímenes de ordenación. Las parcelas estaban ubicadas en Campina da Alegria en el Estado de Santa Catarina (26º 52' 07\" S de latitud y 52º 08' 01\" O de longitud, altitud 880 m snm).   También se emprendió una evaluación de la diversidad genética en y entre numerosas poblaciones remanentes clave de araucaria en fragmentos silvícolas, a fin de obtener datos que esperamos utilizar en la planificación y ejecución de estrategias de conservación genética de la especie. Se escogieron sitios de muestreo en el Estado de Paraná en Turvo, Candói, Mangueirinha y Palmas. Cada sitio de estudio se caracterizaba por tener un tipo diferente de ordenación silvícola (Figura 4 y Cuadro 2, ambos en pág. 152). Se emplearon marcadores RAPD (amplificaciones polimórficas aleatorias del ADN) para evaluar la diversidad genética en y entre las poblaciones de araucaria.También se examinó el marco de legislación relativa a las políticas en cuanto a sus repercusiones posibles en el estado de los RGS de araucaria. La ley introducida en 1990 exigía que se dejara en su lugar el 35% de los árboles de araucaria por encima de 40 cm de dap, y creímos probable que este cambio afectaría la estructura genética de la población de los rodales de araucaria. A fin de evaluar los efectos de esa ley comparamos la variación genética de tres poblaciones de araucaria en Campina da Alegria. La primera ( = pobl 1) era una población natural poco perturbada por el hombre; la segunda ( = pobl 2), una población ordenada y la tercera ( = pobl 3) era un ensayo de campo de progenie establecido recientemente empleando semillas recogidas de árboles aprovechados y plantados hace 20 años. La intensidad de muestreo de las semillas para la prueba de campo de progenie fue de un árbol progenitor por cada 2,4 ha de bosque. Se seleccionaron veintinueve primeres (cebadores) RAPD para el estudio de la distancia genética entre estas tres poblaciones.Una cuarta actividad de investigación se concentró en la identificación de marcadores moleculares que pudieran utilizarse para determinar el sexo de plantas juveniles de araucaria. Puesto que la proporción entre árboles masculinos y femeninos en una población natural es de 1:1 (Bandel y Gurgel 1967), estimamos que a los fines de la producción de semillas sería útil poder determinar el sexo de los brinzales a fin de guiar a los pequeños agricultores en sus planes de restauración, y porque creímos que la regeneración de la especie podría beneficiarse con el mantenimiento de una proporción adecuada entre los individuos masculinos y femeninos. Se reunió una cantidad a granel de árboles femeninos y masculinos y se llevó a cabo un análisis de ADN (empleando primeres de Operon Tech, Alameda, California, EE.UU.) buscando marcadores específicos de sexo del ADN extraído de una muestra de diez plantas femeninas y diez masculinas (Figura 5).Figura 5. Piña femenina de A. angustifolia (foto: J.V. Bittencourt).Dada la importancia económica de la araucaria, en el decenio de 1950 numerosas instituciones de investigación silvícola del Brasil comenzaron a trabajar sobre esta especie, si bien luego ha habido muy poco seguimiento de esos ensayos de población (FUPEF 1978). Uno de los objetivos de nuestro subproyecto financiado por BMZ fue recuperar la información sobre el desempeño del crecimiento de la araucaria en esos tempranos ensayos de campo ex situ establecidos con semillas de diversos sitios y progenies.En el campo de la investigación de las ciencias sociales realizamos un examen del uso tradicional de los recursos silvícolas por parte de una comunidad local organizada previamente como fachinal. Recogimos información de los conocimientos de la población local acerca de la ordenación y el uso de los bosques de araucaria (Figura 6), y tratamos de evaluar cómo percibían los temas de la conservación. Elegimos la comunidad que íbamos a estudiar sobre la base de sus conocimientos acerca de los productos silvícolas que aún seguían teniendo importancia para ganarse la vida. Las principales fuentes de ingresos de la comunidad eran la agricultura, la ganadería y más recientemente la recolección de plantas medicinales en los bosques de araucaria. Recogimos pues datos acerca de los usos actuales de los productos silvícolas de araucaria, y obtuvimos información sobre los sentimientos de la población local acerca de la conservación de la araucaria y sobre la repercusión en sus medios de vida de la prohibición del año 2001 de aprovechar la madera de esa especie.En el Cuadro 3 (pág. 155) se resumen las características ecológicas de parcelas silvícolas secundarias de araucaria en Campina da Alegria. La mayor parte de los árboles jóvenes de Figura 6. Miembro de una comunidad indígena que vive en la reserva de Mangueirinha (Paraná), mostrando una piña femenina de A. angustifolia (foto: J.V. Bittencourt). araucaria (ejemplares de menos de 3 m de altura) crecían debajo de especies de árboles de maderas duras, principalmente de la familia Laureaceae, y solo unos pocos crecían debajo de árboles maduros de araucaria, lo que parece indicar mejor regeneración de la araucaria debajo de una canopia de otras especies. No se encontraron brinzales ni en la sombra profunda ni a plena luz, lo que indicaría que la luz es un factor importante para la regeneración natural y el crecimiento de la araucaria cuando es joven. También observamos que muchos de los árboles jóvenes que crecían debajo de las copas de maderas duras tenían troncos y copas de poca calidad. Llegamos a la conclusión de que se necesitaban ulteriores estudios a fin de determinar un régimen de ordenación de la luz adecuado para que los brinzales de araucaria lleguen a la edad adulta. Esto fue importante porque corroboraba nuestra idea preliminar sobre las condiciones de luz que se necesitarían para establecer brinzales de araucaria en programas de recuperación y en plantaciones.El nivel de variabilidad genética encontrado en los cuatro sitios investigados en el Estado de Paraná (Turvo, Candói, Mangueirinha y Palmas) era del 15% entre las poblaciones y del 85% dentro de las poblaciones. Las poblaciones de Turvo y Mangueirinha mostraban el mayor porcentaje de loci polimórficos (81,97% y 77,05% respectivamente) seguidos por las poblaciones de Palmas (74,29%) y Candói (68,80%). Sobre la base de estos resultados, Cuadro 3. Evaluación de los árboles de araucaria en las cuatro parcelas de bosque secundario de Campina da Alegria en el Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil.las estrategias de conservación in situ deberían dar prioridad a las poblaciones de Turvo y Mangueirinha. Al evaluar el impacto de la ordenación de los RGS practicada antes de 1990 en las poblaciones arbóreas de araucaria de Campina da Alegria, hallamos entre ellas una segregación genética que puede relacionarse de alguna manera con las intervenciones humanas (Figura 7). Cuando comparamos la población natural (pobl 1) y la ordenada (pobl 2), hallamos una reducción del 11,58% de loci polimórficos. La diferencia aumentaba al 27,43% cuando comparamos la población natural (pobl 1) con la del ensayo de progenie (pobl 3), lo que muestra una clara segregación del ensayo de progenie tanto respecto de la población natural como de la ordenada.Sobre la base de este resultado parecería que el régimen de ordenación adoptado en el decenio de 1990 (dejar el 35% de árboles maduros de araucaria) era sostenible del punto de vista genético, puesto que no reducía significativamente la variabilidad genética de las nuevas poblaciones del bosque secundario establecidas después del aprovechamiento maderero. Sin embargo, para que estos hallazgos sean concluyentes y útiles a fin de desarrollar directrices para los programas de conservación genética in situ, necesitarán ser corroborados por estudios más abarcadores basados en muestras más amplias de árboles padre. Lo ideal para los estudios de conservación ex situ sería recoger el material vegetal cosechando árboles en una muestra mayor que un árbol madre cada 2,4 hectáreas o cada 50 árboles.Para la selección destinada a identificar las bandas polimórficas de reconocimiento de las diferencias de sexo utilizamos 600 primeres RAPD. Los marcadores moleculares identificados no resultaron vinculados con los genes de determinación del sexo, y por lo tanto el objetivo propuesto no pudo ser alcanzado en el marco temporal del proyecto.En el Cuadro 4 se resume la información que recogimos sobre ensayos de campo y bancos de genes de araucaria en el Brasil. Algunos de estos ensayos comprendían pruebas de crecimiento de poblaciones naturales, y otros los combinaban con ensayos de crecimiento de progenie. Esta iniciativa generó datos sobre la composición genética de diferentes poblaciones vegetales naturales de diversas regiones del Brasil en el pasado, y como tal será muy útil si y cuando se ejecuten programas de recuperación.Solo se han publicado los resultados de algunos de estos ensayos de campo. Por ejemplo Shimizu e Higa (1980) publicaron los resultados de un ensayo de campo de seis años con plantas provenientes de 12 poblaciones naturales establecidas en Itapeva, São Paulo. Los ensayos revelaron la existencia de una variación genética significativa entre las regiones, y que las poblaciones de una misma región eran más similares entre ellas que Figura 7. Dendrograma que representa la distancia genética (Nei 1978). Pobl 1 = población natural con poca intervención humana; pobl 2 = una población secundaria ordenada; pobl 3 = ensayo de campo de progenie establecido con semillas recogidas de árboles aprovechados (adaptado de Medri et al. 2003). Distancia genética de Nei (1978) a las poblaciones de regiones distantes. Estos hallazgos apoyan la hipótesis de Gurgel y Gurgel Filho (1973) sobre la existencia de ecotipos o razas geográficas de A. angustifolia, si bien algunos árboles crecidos de semillas recogidas cerca de las zonas plantadas no mostraban un índice de supervivencia o crecimiento mayor. En general, y con un par de excepciones, las poblaciones del Brasil meridional más pluvioso mostraban el mejor crecimiento y las de la región septentrional más seca el menor crecimiento. No obstante se halló una fuerte correlación entre la altura de la planta y la latitud, con individuos de un par de proveniencias septentrionales que tendían a crecer incluso mejor en Itapeva, en el sur, que los individuos de las poblaciones meridionales (Cuadro 5, pág. 159), lo que indica una considerable plasticidad de la pauta de crecimiento de esta especie.Si bien trabajos como el de Shimizu e Higa (1980) sobre la araucaria son prometedores, se necesitan muchos más estudios de este tipo para sacar provecho de estos tempranos ensayos de campo. Esta información sería de gran utilidad para ayudarnos a desarrollar estrategias de mejoramiento aplicables a diferentes partes del país.Mientras investigábamos los temas socioeconómicos encontramos que, a causa de la legislación vigente que limita el aprovechamiento silvícola de araucaria, el foco de la atención económica de la población local se ha desplazado de los bosques de araucaria a los PSNM. En ciertos hogares la recolección de semillas de araucaria para la alimentación o la producción de brinzales es una excelente alternativa económica respecto del aprovechamiento maderero, a pesar de que el período de producción de semillas se limita a los meses de abril, mayo y junio. Se ha estimado que una hectárea de bosque de araucaria produce un promedio de 180 kg de semillas por año. Considerando un precio de mercado de 0,60 $EE.UU. por kg esto equivale a un ingreso bruto anual de 108 $EE. UU./ha para la semilla de araucaria solamente.Si bien esta sigue siendo una modesta actividad generadora de ingresos, el examen de la comunidad reveló también que los agricultores locales utilizan otras 70 especies de arbustos y plantas herbáceas solamente con propósitos medicinales (Bittencourt e Higa 2004). Aunque nuestro proyecto se concentraba en el uso de las plantas medicinales tradicionales, en su vida diaria la población local utiliza muchos otros PSNM. Por lo tanto el mantenimiento de ecosistemas silvícolas saludables de A. angustifolia asegura muchos otros beneficios críticos para el bienestar de la comunidad local. Aunque es difícil cuantificar estos beneficios en términos monetarios, no deben ser dejados de lado al determinar el valor de conservación de los recursos genéticos silvícolas de araucaria.Este estudio reveló que la actual legislación silvícola de Brasil no es adecuada para asegurar el mantenimiento de los bosques de A. angustifolia. En efecto, la ley de 2001 parece haber tenido un efecto negativo en la canopia silvícola. Muchos pobladores locales ya no plantan la especie porque están preocupados de que sus árboles pasen a ser intocables debido a la prohibición actual de aprovechamiento maderero.La investigación llevada a cabo en el contexto del proyecto FUPEF/PROBIO (2001) confirmó la evidencia anterior de una pronunciada diferenciación geográfica de la especie en el aspecto genético. Se identificaron regiones con mayor diversidad genética, que deberán convertirse en áreas prioritarias de conservación. De las poblaciones examinadas en nuestra investigación, dos en particular (Turvo y Mangueirinha) resultaban las más adecuadas para programas de conservación genética in situ en el Estado de Paraná.Recomendamos que las actividades de conservación in situ y de recolección de semillas para actividades y programas de restauración ex situ tengan alta prioridad en las restantes 66 000 ha de bosques maduros de araucaria y en las 76 000 ha de bosques mixtos de araucaria del Estado de Paraná.En los sitios más degradados se deberían adoptar prácticas de ordenación sostenible porque la araucaria responde bien a la silvicultura, y se está conociendo más acerca de su reacción flexible a diferentes condiciones de luz. La ordenación de la araucaria debería concentrarse en los actuales 2,4 millones de ha de bosques secundarios de esa especie, e incluir no solo el aumento de A. angustifolia sino también de Ocotea porosa e Cuadro 5. Plantas de araucaria de diferentes poblaciones que crecen en Itapeva, Brasil.Distancia del origen (km) = distancia entre los sitios de donde son originarias las poblaciones y el sitio donde se plantaron las semillas de esas poblaciones (Itapeva). * = semillas recogidas en plantaciones. SP = Estado de São Paulo; PR = Paraná, SC = Santa Catarina; RS = Rio Grande do Sul; RJ = Río de Janeiro. Fuente: Shimizu e Higa (1980).Ilex paraguariensis. También debería incluirse el control de especies competidoras como Bambusa sp. y Dicksonia sp. Se deberían establecer corredores de biodiversidad para conectar los fragmentos silvícolas de araucaria del Estado de Paraná. En el pasado se han emprendido ensayos de campo solo parcialmente completados con árboles de araucaria de poblaciones adaptadas a condiciones ambientales variables. Se deberían realizar más investigaciones sobre los resultados de crecimiento de las poblaciones muestreadas para disponer de material vegetal apropiado para la reforestación y recuperación de los bosques. Para las plantaciones comerciales se deberían preferir las proveniencias septentrionales cuyo crecimiento parece ser mejor.La presente investigación contó con el activo apoyo, el compromiso y la contribución de las comunidades locales cuyos medios de vida dependen de muchos PSNM obtenidos en los bosques de araucaria que rodean sus aldeas y ciudades. Se encontraron numerosas plantas medicinales importantes creciendo debajo de la canopia de araucaria. La ordenación sostenible de los fragmentos silvícolas de araucaria a cargo de pequeños propietarios para extraer sus PSNM puede ser una opción económica viable para la población local.Aspectos genéticos y ecológicos del aprovechamiento de los productos silvícolas no madereros en dos colonias del Amazonas occidental P. Kageyama 1 , D. Este capítulo presenta un panorama de la evolución de los regímenes de uso y tenencia de la tierra en el Amazonas brasileño, ilustrado con ejemplos del Estado de Acre. Evalúa luego las características genéticas y ecológicas de cuatro especies que dan productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) en dos tipos de colonias rurales: los Proyectos de Colonias (Projetos de Assentamento o PA) y los Proyectos de Colonias de Extracción (Projetos de Assentamento Extrativista o PAE), como los define el INCRA (Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária o Instituto Nacional de Colonización y Reforma Agraria). Se escogieron estos dos tipos de colonias porque comprenden diferentes regímenes de uso y tenencia de las tierras, y pueden por lo tanto mostrar diferentes pautas de impacto en los recursos silvícolas.También examinamos los tipos de colonias y la razón de su creación, e hicimos recomendaciones para lograr prácticas mejoradas de ordenación silvícola basadas en los resultados de nuestra investigación.A fines del decenio de 1870, obligados por sequías recurrentes y alentados por el gobierno, alrededor de 250 000 habitantes del nordeste brasileño (en especial del Estado de Ceará) emigraron a la región del Amazonas para trabajar en la naciente industria del caucho. En particular el estado amazónico de Acre (unos 150 000 km 2 ) registró significativos índices de inmigración. A principios de 1900 la inmigración cayó, luego del colapso de las actividades caucheras. No obstante durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial recomenzó el flujo de inmigrantes del nordeste de Brasil como consecuencia del aumento de la demanda de caucho.A partir del decenio de 1970 el gobierno federal del Brasil lanzó una serie de programas de desarrollo regional e iniciativas de reforma agraria. Entre ellos el Programa Nacional de Integración (Programa de Integração Nacional o PIN) de 1970 y el Programa de Redistribución de Tierras y Estímulo de la Agroindustria del Norte y Nordeste (Programa de Redistribuição de Terras e de Estímulo à Agroindústria do Norte e Nordeste o PROTERRA) en 1971 recibieron los mayores recursos y atención. Con la meta de ocupar la zona del Amazonas a lo largo de la Autopista Transamazónica, el PIN creó colonias agropecuarias (Proyectos de Colonización o PC) destinados a \"integrar a las personas sin tierras del nordeste con las tierras sin personas de la Amazonia\".Desde fines del decenio de 1960, estimulados por el incentivo de la cría de ganado, la minería y el aprovechamiento maderero, las empresas y los particulares del Brasil meridional comenzaron a mudarse a Acre. Hasta principios del decenio de 1970 la extracción de caucho había sido la principal industria de Acre, donde se la practicaba a través de los así llamados 'barrações de aviamento' en los cuales los propietarios de las tierras silvícolas cambiaban el caucho por bienes y servicios. Para el decenio de 1970 la cría de ganado se había extendido por el Brasil causando tensiones entre los usuarios tradicionales de las tierras (comunidades, poblaciones y agricultores) y los nuevos colonos con regímenes de tenencia y acceso diferentes.Entre 1970 y 1975 alrededor del 80% del territorio del estado se vendió a nuevos inversores provenientes del sur (Brandford y Glock 1985) provocando una disminución de alrededor del 65% del área dedicada a las actividades de 'extracción' (extracción de caucho y recolección de nueces de Brasil). No obstante aumentó la cantidad de hogares rurales que declaraban que la extracción era su principal actividad económica, como resultado del crecido número de recientes terrajadores de caucho autónomos que se habían quedado en el bosque tras el colapso de las fincas caucheras tradicionales (Schwartzman 1992). En el decenio de 1980, liderados por Chico Mendes, los derechos de los terrajadores de caucho fueron defendidos ante una creciente y poderosa oposición de fincas agrícolas nuevas y ampliadas.En 1985 se creó el Consejo Nacional de Terrajadores de Caucho (Conselho Nacional dos Seringueros -CNS) que inició una lucha para que se otorgaran concesiones en forma de 'seringais' (propiedades señaladas para la extracción de caucho) a las comunidades activamente comprometidas en la extracción de productos silvícolas en Acre.Más o menos en ese tiempo se lanzó en el Brasil el Plan Nacional de Reforma Agraria, que creó además otros tipos de colonias por los resultados considerados no satisfactorios obtenidos de los anteriores PC (llamados después Projetos de Assentamento -PA o Proyectos de Colonización). Por lo tanto en 1987 la Dirección Federal de Reforma Agraria (INCRA) estableció Proyectos de Colonias de Extracción (Projetos de Assentamento Extrativista o PAE) y tras un decreto presidencial de 1990, el Instituto Brasileño del Medio Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales Renovables (IBAMA), con el apoyo del CNS, creó Reservas de Extracción (Reservas Extrativistas -RESEX; ver el Recuadro 1). El RESEX surgió como un tipo de uso de la tierra dispuesto para legitimar los derechos de uso de los recursos silvícolas por parte de familias que vivían tradicionalmente en las zonas silvícolas. De esta manera se creó en Brasil un nuevo tipo de Unidad de Conservación (UC) bajo la forma de zonas designadas especialmente y adjudicadas a personas del lugar para el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales tanto para el consumo interno como para el comercio.Pese a tener a veces programas en conflicto, dos organismos federales, uno (INCRA) tradicionalmente empeñado en abrir los bosques a las colonias humanas y al desarrollo agrícola y el otro (IBAMA) que trata de proteger los ecosistemas silvícolas y sus recursos biológicos, se convirtieron en organismos conjuntamente responsables de la supervisión de las actividades de extracción en los bosques de Brasil (Smith et al. 1995).En el año 2000, aproximadamente el 17% (o sea 2 598 886 ha) del Estado de Acre estaba ocupado por PAE y RESEX, estimándose que unas 4500 familias vivían en esas tierras. Aproximadamente el 72% de esas familias vivían en RESEX (IBGE 2000). En el Cuadro 1 (pág. 166) figura una lista de PAE y RESEX en el año 2002.Las RESEX son zonas protegidas destinadas a alcanzar la autosuficiencia económica mediante el uso sostenible de los recursos naturales renovables por parte de personas que practican sistemas tradicionales de extracción. El régimen de extracción está regulado por un contrato de concesión acompañado por un plan de ordenación aprobado por IBAMA (Allegretti 1992).Las reservas de extracción se caracterizan por tener una compleja distribución de derechos individuales y comunitarios, típicamente impuesta por las pautas de distribución de los recursos en el espacio, en oposición a las pautas de uso estandarizadas en otros regímenes de tenencia. Han sido definidas por Allegretti (1990) como \"tierras públicas señaladas con el propósito específico de lograr un uso sostenible de los productos silvícolas, cuyos derechos de propiedad se establecen con arreglo a las pautas tradicionales de uso de la tierra en lugar de importar modelos de ocupación\".El 'seringal' es un sector de árboles de caucho o de bosque que entra completa o parcialmente en la reserva y se divide en unidades de ordenación más pequeñas ('colocações'). Cada propiedad es ocupada por una familia y contiene pistas para el caucho o 'estradas de seringa' propias. Una familia promedio administra por lo general tres pistas, cada una de las cuales puede tener hasta 150 árboles de caucho. El tamaño de la 'colocação' se define actualmente por el número de árboles adultos de Hevea brasiliensis incluidos en la misma (CNS 1993). Este sistema de adjudicación de tierras es por lo tanto muy diferente de otros tipos cuyas parcelas tienen una extensión geográfica menos flexible.Los derechos a los recursos en los RESEX se definen pues inicialmente por la ubicación de los árboles de caucho y luego por las pistas que los vinculan. Los 'seringueros' permiten que otras personas pasen libremente por su 'colocação' pero las zonas donde se ubican las pistas se consideran como relativamente exclusivas. Además, cada familia tiene una zona desmontada donde vive, cuida algunos cultivos de subsistencia y cría pequeños animales (Murrieta y Rueda 1995). Las nueces de Brasil son el segundo producto de extracción más importante, y por lo general se considera a los árboles como propiedad de una 'colocação' en particular. Los seringueros tienen también derechos de caza en zonas señaladas de bosque.Las familias comprendidas primero en los PC y en los posteriores PA eran habitualmente agricultores que reemplazaban los bosques por cultivos y aseguraban así al mismo tiempo sus derechos de tenencia. Por el contrario los nuevos PAE eran administrados por colonos que ya habían estado en la zona durante algún tiempo y mostraban mayor sensibilidad respecto de la conservación de los recursos. Otra diferencia significativa entre los PA y los PAE era el tamaño de las parcelas adjudicadas a las familias, y esto tenía implicaciones en cuanto a la deforestación y la degradación del medio natural. Las parcelas PAE eran por lo general de unas 300 ha, mientras que las parcelas PC y PA eran de entre 25 y 80 ha (ver Cuadro 1). En los PC y PA el cultivo tenía lugar habitualmente por lapsos de uno a tres años después de remover el bosque. Se plantaban cultivos anuales en el primer año después de la corta y quema, para reemplazarlos con cultivos perennes o praderas en los años sucesivos. En los PAE, las zonas cultivadas eran mucho más pequeñas y a menudo volvían a ser bosques secundarios una vez abandonadas. En los PA, como las talas silvícolas eran relativamente mayores que las de los PAE y dado que eran utilizadas para el apacentamiento de ganado, también era más probable que resultaran gravemente degradadas. Debido a estas diferencias intrínsecas, el impacto de los programas de PC y PA en los rodales silvícolas es considerablemente mayor que el de los PAE.Cuadro 1. Reservas de Extracción (RESEX) y Proyectos de Colonias de Extracción (PAE, sigla en portugués) en la Amazonia, presentados en el orden cronológico de su establecimiento. En el Estado de Acre se producían conflictos por el uso de los recursos naturales en las zonas donde los PA colindaban con los PAE y donde los agricultores de PA ejercían una presión firme y creciente sobre los recursos silvícolas que rodeaban sus colonias por la caza y la recolección de PSNM. Pese a estos conflictos, Acre tiene el más bajo índice de deforestación entre los estados amazónicos de Brasil (Lorentzen y Amaral 2002) lo que se interpreta como una evidencia de que los marcos que reglamentan el acceso y el uso de los recursos naturales crean buenas condiciones para la conservación de los ecosistemas silvícolas.En 1999 se introdujo en el Estado de Acre una nueva política de ordenación de los recursos naturales elaborada para mejorar los niveles locales de vida. Con arreglo a esta política el gobierno estatal (llamado Governo da Floresta o Gobierno del Bosque) alienta la extracción certificada de rollizos y PSNM y al mismo tiempo apoya la agricultura tradicional. Bajo las nuevas directrices, la explotación silvícola está regulada por contratos y acuerdos específicos entre el estado y las terceras partes, sean estas firmas privadas, organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), asociaciones de poblaciones tradicionales o instituciones representativas como el Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Sostenible de las Poblaciones Tradicionales (Centro Nacional de Desenvolvimento Sustentado das Populações Tradicionais -CNPT) u otras.Escogimos sitios de estudio en el estado brasileño de Acre (Figura 1), en la municipalidad de Porto Acre. Oficialmente establecida en 1992, esta municipalidad cubre 2923 km 2 y tiene una población de 9749 personas, el 88% de las cuales vive en las zonas rurales. En estos sitios investigamos un PA (Porto Alonso) y un PAE (Caquetá).Para nuestro estudio seleccionamos cuatro especies arbóreas: Bertholletia excelsa, Hevea brasiliensis, Carapa guianensis y Euterpe precatoria, por su importancia para los medios de vida locales, fuera esto debido a su valor comercial o para el consumo. Estas especies tienen características ecológicas y distribuciones en el espacio diferentes y por lo tanto permiten una buena evaluación del impacto de las diversas formas de ordenación silvícola. Las principales características de estas especies se presentan en el Cuadro 2 (al dorso).  Si bien los rodales silvícolas estudiados estaban sujetos a extracción de PSNM, no había signos visibles de talas rasas. En el tipo PA podían resultar parcialmente perturbados por su proximidad con zonas donde los bosques habían sido talados o fragmentados para convertirlos a la agricultura. Pese a que no había deforestación reciente, en los transectos establecidos en el PA Porto Alonso se encontró evidencia de remoción de árboles, especialmente de C. guianensis y E. precatoria. Debido al tamaño muy pequeño de la población de B. excelsa hallada en el PAE Caquetá, el muestreo de esta especie se extendió a otra zona llamada Colocação Rio de Janeiro, parte de la reserva de extracción Chico Mendes (una RESEX), la más grande de Brasil (alrededor de 970 000 ha) ubicada en el rincón sudoriental del Estado de Acre y que abarca cinco municipalidades.Concentrando la atención especialmente en las pautas de extracción de PSNM y los niveles de ingresos derivados de los mismos, en las dos comunidades de PA Porto Alonso y PAE Caquetá se realizaron estudios de hogares a fin de conocer las pautas actuales y pasadas del aprovechamiento de los recursos silvícolas y así ayudar a interpretar los resultados de los análisis ecológicos y genéticos de las cuatro especies seleccionadas. El estudio nos permitió también identificar a los principales interesados y grupos de usuarios silvícolas.Se establecieron dos series de parcelas para investigar el diámetro y la distribución de las cuatro especies en el espacio: (i) se establecieron cinco transectos de 1 ha cada uno en Colocação Limoeiro I, dentro de Caquetá (PAE); (ii) se crearon tres transectos de 0,8 ha cada uno en Colônia Santa Luzia, dentro de Porto Alonso (PA). Se muestrearon árboles adultos (>30 cm dap) y jóvenes (para E. precatoria solo se muestrearon adultos). Los brinzales y latizales se agruparon en tres categorías de tamaño: juvenil I (individuos entre 0,5 -1,0 m de altura); juvenil II (entre 1,0 -2,0 m de altura) y juvenil III (por encima de 2,0 m de altura pero aún no maduros). Se trazaron mapas de la distribución en el espacio de los árboles adultos de B. excelsa, C. guianensis y E. precatoria; en Caquetá (PAE) se trazó el mapa de H. brasiliensis a lo largo de las pistas abiertas por los terrajadores de caucho. En el Cuadro 3 se presenta el número de individuos muestreados en cada especie. Cuadro 4. Primeres SSR empleados para cada especie, número de alelos, gama de alelos* y fuente de información.* Los loci microsatélites se caracterizan por la repetición de un motivo fundamental que comprende una breve secuencia de nucleótidos. Los alelos de un locus microsatélite difieren en el número de repeticiones de su motivo fundamental, llamado número de repetición o tamaño del alelo. Los números mínimo y máximo de repeticiones representan la gama de alelos. Este valor es un parámetro clave que debe estimarse adecuadamente a fin de proceder con los cálculos de los tiempos de divergencia en los estudios filogenéticos y a investigar mejor la variabilidad en y entre las poblaciones.Debido al tamaño variable de las muestras se estudiaron diversos parámetros para cada especie, como sigue:Para los análisis genéticos se emplearon técnicas de microsatélite y de análisis de amplificación polimórfica aleatoria del ADN (RAPD, sigla en inglés) y se las eligió por la disponibilidad de protocolos y marcadores de estudios anteriores. Se utilizaron microsatélites para E. precatoria, C. guianensis y H. brasiliensis (ver el Cuadro 4) y para B. excelsa se empleó RAPD porque no se disponía de repeticiones de secuencia simple (SSR) o de microsatélites. La extracción del ADN se realizó con arreglo al protocolo de bromuro de cetiltrimetilamonio (CTAB, sigla en inglés) (Ferreira y Grattapaglia 1995).En los juveniles y adultos se evaluó la diversidad genética utilizando los siguientes parámetros:• riqueza de alelos o número medio de alelos por loci (A),• número efectivo de alelos por loci (n e = 1/∑p i 2 donde p i es la frecuencia del iº alelo),La deficiencia de heterocigosidad se evaluó calculando el índice de fijación (f = 1 -H o / H e ). La diversidad genética entre los sitios y las clases de tamaño se estimaron mediante enlaces (bootstrapping) entre los loci utilizando los programas de ordenador GDA Lewis y Zaykin 2000) y GenAIEx (Peakall y Smouse 2001, http://www.anu.edu.au/ BoZo/GenAlEx).La estructura genética se determinó utilizando la estadística F y se calculó empleando la fórmula desarrollada por Weir y Cockerham (1984) que identifica una estructura genética distribuyendo la variación en un análisis de variancia. Los parámetros estimados fueron:• coeficiente medio de endogamia en las poblaciones (f),• coeficiente medio total de endogamia de la especie, o coeficiente de Wright (F) y • coeficiente medio coancestral que indica la deriva genética entre las subpoblaciones (θ p ) Se estimaron los intervalos de confiabilidad con una probabilidad del 99% mediante el enlace de loci, empleando 10 000 réplicas. La estructura en el espacio se analizó mediante el análisis de autocorrelación de multialelos en el espacio aplicado a poblaciones adultas en Colocação Limoeiro I (Smouse y Peakall 1999) con el programa GenAIEx.El Programa de Sistema de Cruzamiento Multilocus (MLTR, sigla en inglés) desarrollado por Ritland (1996) se empleó para estimar el índice de cruzamiento lejano de H. brasiliensis sobre la base de: loci múltiples (t m ); el índice de cruzamiento lejano para cada locus individual obteniendo estimaciones medias para cada población (t s ); el coeficiente Wright de endogamia (F); la correlación entre pares de semillas (r t ) y la correlación entre los granos de polen de los pares de semillas de cruzamiento lejano (r p ).En C. guianensis, E. precatoria y H. brasiliensis se analizó el flujo de genes (N m ), y se lo calculó indirectamente por los valores estimados de F ST (diversidad genética entre las poblaciones) con arreglo al siguiente modelo:La distribución de las clases de tamaño de B. excelsa y C. guianensis en los dos sitios de estudio era similar, pero había una diferencia estadísticamente significativa del número de individuos de E. precatoria y H. brasiliensis en cada clase de tamaño (Figura 2). Solamente H. brasiliensis mostraba una típica distribución de diámetros 'J' invertida, en la que el número de individuos disminuye progresivamente con el aumento del tamaño, lo que es esperado normalmente cuando existe una regeneración continua de una especie. Había un número limitado de juveniles de mediano y gran tamaño de C. guianensis, y la densidad de B. excelsa era demasiado baja como para permitirnos detectar algún tipo de estructura de tamaño en los transectos investigados. Pese a que tenía una densidad muy alta de individuos, E. precatoria carecía de juveniles de tamaño pequeño e intermedio, lo que indicaba dificultades para la regeneración de la especie.Se analizaron y compararon dos poblaciones: Colocação Limoeiro I (PAE Caquetá) y Colônia Santa Luzia (PA Porto Alonso). La muestra de PA Porto Alonso era mucho más pequeña y por ello los juveniles muestreados allí se englobaron en una sola clase de tamaño. En el Cuadro 5 se presentan los resultados de microsatélites de ambos loci. En Colocação Limoeiro I se identificaron 24 alelos (12 alelos por locus). Los resultados mostraron que el número de alelos por locus, o riqueza de alelos, no difería significativamente entre las clases de tamaño. Se constató que la riqueza de alelos (A) estimada era coherente con los resultados de otros estudios de la misma especie en Costa Rica (Dayanandan et al. 1999). Las estimaciones del número efectivo de alelos por locus (n e ) eran siempre más bajas   que los valores de la riqueza de alelos (A). En nuestra opinión esto indica una distribución desigual de las frecuencias de alelos, lo que hace más probable que muchos alelos de baja frecuencia se pierdan si se producen procesos de embotellamiento o deriva genética. Los valores de heterocigosidad esperada (H e ) eran altos y no diferían significativamente entre las clases de tamaño, lo que muestra que se mantiene una alta diversidad de genes a través de las generaciones.Encontramos que la población de C. guianensis de Colônia Santa Luzia (PA Porto Alonso) que había sido mucho más aprovechada, seguía manteniendo valores de riqueza de alelos similares a la población menos aprovechada del PAE Caquetá, mientras la población examinada en el PA Porto Alonso mostraba mayores signos de endogamia (Cuadro 6). Esta endogamia podía deberse a la autofertilización o al pequeño número de árboles maduros que contribuían al cruzamiento. Pero es difícil probar las suposiciones de los efectos de la biología de reproducción sobre los parámetros genéticos de C. guianensis porque se conoce muy poco de su sistema de cruzamiento. Si bien ese alto nivel de endogamia era un episodio reciente, constituye de todas maneras un riesgo para el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética a largo plazo.Los valores medios de endogamia causados por el sistema de cruzamiento (f) eran similares a los de la endogamia total (F). Esto parece indicar que la mayor parte de la endogamia es causada por el sistema de cruzamiento y no por la divergencia genética entre las poblaciones. Las estimaciones de θ p eran muy bajas, mostrando que la mayor parte de la diversidad genética se encuentra entre las poblaciones y que el flujo de genes contrarresta los efectos de la deriva genética.Los valores de esos parámetros en los juveniles eran similares a los encontrados en los adultos (Cuadro 6).En el Cuadro 7 se presentan los resultados del análisis genético realizado en H. brasiliensis en ambos sitios. Los niveles de H e hallados en ambos sitios eran muy altos y comparables a los datos de la especie obtenidos en Acre empleando otros marcadores (H e = 0,45 empleando marcadores del polimorfismo restringido del largo del fragmento RFLP, sigla en inglés, Besse et al. [1994] y H e = 0,60 empleando isoenzimas, Chevallier [1988] citado en Besse et al. [1994]).En ambos sitios se detectaron bajos niveles de endogamia (f) en H. brasiliensis. Inesperadamente el índice de fijación estimado para los juveniles en el sitio de Colônia Santa Luzia, más perturbado, es menor que el de Colocação Limoeiro I. La divergencia genética entre las poblaciones de adultos debida a la fragmentación silvícola (θ p = 0,026) no era significativa (Cuadro 8, pág. 174), lo que sugería que el flujo de genes entre las poblaciones amortiguaba la deriva genética. Cuadro 8. Parámetros de la estructura genética de cuatro poblaciones (dos adultas y dos juveniles) de H. brasiliensis de Colocação Limoeiro I (PAE Caquetá) y Colônia Santa Luzia (PA Porto Alonso). Se obtuvo un intervalo de confiabilidad de 99% mediante 10 000 enlaces entre los loci.Un t m estimado de 0,98 indica que esta especie prefiere el cruzamiento lejano (Cuadro 9). Una diferencia entre t m y t s de 0,13 sugiere que es común la endogamia biparental. El valor de r p era 0,531 y el valor r t 0,390, e incluso si el índice de cruzamiento lejano era alto, estos resultados indican una gran probabilidad de que haya descendientes del mismo padre y madre en una familia (r p ). Estos valores eran mayores que los esperados para poblaciones con poliniziación libre, lo que indica que la presencia de descendientes del mismo padre en familias maternas es relativamente común. También se observó autofertilización en algunas familias.En ambos sitios se analizaron ciento setenta árboles de E. precatoria (Cuadro 10). La diversidad genética (H e ) variaba de 0,41 a 0,58. La riqueza de alelos no difería significativamente entre las clases de tamaño, sea dentro de las poblaciones como entre  (Gaiotto 2001;Souza 2002). Los índices de fijación parecen indicar que las poblaciones examinadas tienen características genotípicas cercanas a las esperadas en la condición de equilibrio Hardy-Weinberg, cuando el cruzamiento es aleatorio y no hay migración ni mutación.Los valores de endogamia total (F) y de endogamia relacionada con el sistema de cruzamiento (f) eran cercanos a cero (Cuadro 11). La endogamia total (F) en los adultos era menor que la de generaciones más jóvenes. Si bien las poblaciones juveniles aún mantenían altos valores de riqueza de alelos, el flujo de genes entre las poblaciones no era suficiente para amortiguar la deriva genética. Cuadro 11. Parámetros de la estructura genética de cuatro poblaciones (dos adultas y dos juveniles) de E. precatoria de Colocação Limoeiro I (PAE Caquetá) y Colônia Santa Luzia (PA Porto Alonso). Se obtuvo un intervalo de confiabilidad de 99% mediante 10 000 enlaces entre los loci.Se usaron RAPD para analizar la distribución en el espacio de la diversidad genética de una población de B. excelsa sujeta a diferentes regímenes de uso en Colocação Limoeiro I (PAE Caquetá) y en Colocação Rio de Janeiro (RESEX Chico Mendes, Xapuri; Cuadro 3) a fin de comparar los resultados con los obtenidos en las otras especies. Se usaron siete primeres para amplificar 39 marcadores. Entre estos, el 82% eran polimórficos en árboles de ambas ubicaciones, lo que indicaba una alta variabilidad genética para la especie (Cuadro 12). Se encontró un mayor polimorfismo en la población menos perturbada de Rio de Janeiro, pero la diferencia no era significativa. El polimorfismo registrado en nuestro estudio era mayor que el encontrado en otros estudios genéticos de la especie en Acre. Por ejemplo Pardo (2001) y Buckley et al. (1988) encontraron el 40% y 54,3% de loci de aloenzimas polimórficas respectivamente. Sin embargo, esto puede ser explicado parcialmente por el tipo de marcadores usado, porque los marcadores RAPD tienden a desviarse hacia valores más bajos de heterocigosidad esperada y una mayor diferenciación entre las poblaciones (Isabel et al. 1995). Por lo tanto esta comparación con los datos de estudios anteriores tiene solamente un valor indicativo.No había signos de que las especies investigadas aquí hubieran sufrido episodios genéticos adversos, pese a que normalmente se hubiera esperado que la reducción verificada en el tamaño de las poblaciones causara fuertes pérdidas de diversidad genética. Esto ocurre porque aún no hubo una fragmentación silvícola grave en las zonas examinadas en este estudio. No obstante se constató que la remoción reciente de algunos árboles había dejado trazas genéticas en la zona del PA Porto Alonso. Se detectaron niveles de endogamia de C. guianensis en el PA Porto Alonso y de H. brasiliensis en ambos sitios. Además se encontró endogamia tanto en los individuos adultos como en los jóvenes de ambas especies, lo que indica que ambas son sensibles a las perturbaciones silvícolas debidas a la fragmentación y a la extracción de PSNM.Los altos niveles de endogamia se pueden vincular con dificultades en el flujo de genes. Los vectores del flujo de genes son factores ecológicos esenciales que pueden determinar la estructura genética de la población de una especie. Por ejemplo, en algunas especies de árboles tropicales el flujo de polen contribuye más al flujo total de genes que la dispersión de semillas cuando ésta es limitada (Hamrick et al. 1993;Boshier et al. 1995) y esto se traduce en un aspecto diferente de la estructura genética de la especie en el espacio. Bawa (1974) mostró que las especies arbóreas tropicales son polinizadas sobre todo por animales. Puesto que la deforestación y otras perturbaciones de los bosques pueden causar una alteración en la conducta de los agentes de polinización inducida por una menor densidad de árboles florecidos, puede reducirse el movimiento de polen entre las poblaciones (Aizen y Feinsinger 1994). Las perturbaciones silvícolas pueden también hacer disminuir la abundancia de agentes polinizadores, provocando una reducción del número de frutos y semillas (Aizen y Feinsinger 1994) y menores índices de cruzamiento lejano (Kearns et al. 1998).Las características ecológicas y de reproducción de las cuatro especies estudiadas eran diferentes, y estas diferencias explican en parte la variación de las respuestas genéticas a las perturbaciones silvícolas que tuvieron lugar. Debido a las características diferentes de flujo de sus genes, las especies que registran densidades muy bajas (por ejemplo <1 individuo/ha) responden a la fragmentación de otra manera que las especies comunes. E. precatoria y C. guianensis presentan densidades elevadas (100 árboles adultos/ha) o moderadas (20 árboles adultos/ha) (Vasconcellos Gama et al. 2003), mientras que las densidades de población de H. brasiliensis y B. excelsa son bajas y pueden ser genéticamente más susceptibles a la fragmentación.Los estudios genéticos han mostrado que habitualmente las especies arbóreas tropicales raras tienen menos diversidad genética que las comunes (Billington 1991). Nuestro estudio mostró que la especie de alta densidad E . precatoria también exhibía una divergencia genética más pronunciada entre juveniles y adultos. Sin embargo en nuestro estudio no se observó la diferencia esperada de diversidad genética entre las especies arbóreas raras y comunes. Mientras las cuatro especies aún presentan una elevada riqueza de alelos y diversidad genética tanto en los adultos como en los juveniles, los niveles de endogamia detectados en este estudio y la divergencia genética notada entre las poblaciones pueden eventualmente llevar a niveles de heterocigosidad más bajos y por lo tanto a una futura pérdida de alelos.A corto plazo, la pérdida de heterocigosidad puede reducir el buen estado de los individuos disminuyendo la viabilidad de las poblaciones remanentes. A largo plazo, la reducción de la riqueza de alelos puede limitar la capacidad de la especie para responder a los cambios de la presión de selección (Saunders et al. 1991;Frankel et al. 1995;Young et al. 1996) y llevarla por último a la extinción.La supervivencia de las poblaciones fragmentadas de especies arbóreas a largo plazo depende de la existencia de estrategias adecuadas para la ordenación de los bosques remanentes, apoyadas por el análisis de la distribución espacial de la diversidad y el seguimiento de los cambios en los procesos genéticos. Una más profunda comprensión de los procesos biológicos y genéticos de algunas especies modelo como las presentadas aquí es fundamental para nuestra capacidad de entender el potencial evolutivo de los árboles silvícolas y las necesidades de conservar los ecosistemas silvícolas.La creación de un mercado para especies arbóreas importantes y sus productos puede generar ingresos y también estimular su conservación. Un relevamiento socioeconómico de las comunidades que viven en los sitios de nuestro estudio examinó la posibilidad de comercializar productos silvícolas tradicionalmente fuera del comercio. Encontramos que la expotación de los PSNM causa menos destrucción a los recursos silvícolas que el aprovechamiento maderero o la creación de praderas, si bien la extracción de rollizos y la cría de ganado todavía parecen ser más remunerativos y por tanto aún hay riesgo de que la gente pase de actividades de extracción menos dañinas a la tala de los bosques.La creación de mercados para nuevos PSNM de C. guianensis y E. precatoria que complementen los ya existentes de H. brasiliensis y B. excelsa puede ser una solución para la continua deforestación. Sin embargo, estas actividades requieren inversiones para mantener la canopia silvícola asegurada para los sistemas de extracción del caucho y de nueces de Brasil, lo que contrasta con la considerable tala que se sigue practicando en muchas colonias rurales. La explotación de especies como C. guianensis y E. precatoria, que proveen PSNM no tradicionales, debe ser apoyada por estudios genéticos que permitan definir umbrales de explotación sostenibles a largo plazo. En este capítulo se describe la situación actual de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) de cuatro especies arbóreas que se encuentran en fragmentos de bosque atlántico en la zona sudoccidental del Estado de São Paulo (Pontal), Brasil, y que forman actualmente parte de un medio agrícola sumamente degradado. Las cuatro especies se seleccionaron en consulta con las partes interesadas locales, y la evaluación genética se complementó con estudios ecológicos y socioeconómicos de las pautas actuales de uso de los RGS por parte de los agricultores. La primera parte del capítulo presenta el modo en que los acontecimientos históricos fueron llevando a que se redujera la canopia silvícola de Pontal hasta el estado actual y a la grave degradación de lo que era antes un bioma silvícola semideciduo sumamente diversificado. También se describen las especies seleccionadas que representan diversos grupos de plantas con características diferentes, junto con detalles de los estudios genéticos y ecológicos. Se llevó a cabo un examen socioeconómico para identificar a los principales usuarios silvícolas y partes interesadas y posibilitar la interpretación de los hallazgos ecológicos y genéticos que se presentan en la segunda parte del capítulo.La zona estudiada se ubica en la región de Pontal do Paranapanema al oeste del Estado de São Paulo (Figura 1, al dorso) en lo que era una vez el bosque continuo de Mata Atlântica. Cuando en 1920 llegó a la región el sistema de ferrocarriles, se talaron grandes porciones de este bosque. Las plantaciones (por ejemplo de café y algodón) y la cría de ganado se expandieron rápidamente siguiendo a la deforestación, pues estas actividades atraían a nuevos colonos. Esta población en constante crecimiento generó una gran presión sobre los fragmentos silvícolas remanentes.Nuestra zona de estudio se superpone a la región antiguamente conocida como la 'Gran Reserva de Pontal do Paranapanema', una zona creada en 1942 por el gobernador del Estado de São Paulo (Ferrari-Leite 1998) para proteger la flora y fauna nativas (Valladares-Pádua 1987). Pontal do Paranapanema es una de las zonas más recientemente ocupadas del Estado de São Paulo, cuya deforestación se produjo después que en los otros estados. Hasta el decenio de 1950 la región estaba cubierta en gran parte por bosques estacionales semideciduos (297 000 ha). Pero incluso cuando en 1942 ya se le había acordado protección jurídica, siguió siendo reducida por la extracción ilegal de rollizos y por la tala de árboles para establecer plantaciones de café y algodón y crear praderas para apacentar ganado.En el decenio de 1950 el gobernador del estado, Ademar de Barros, otorgó tierras a sus amigos y socios políticos. La canopia silvícola fue ulteriormente reducida porque la mayor parte de la tierra se unificó en manos de unos pocos agricultores y en la actualidad el 8% de los terratenientes controlan el 75% de las 246 840 ha de la Gran Reserva de Pontal (ITESP 2002).En el decenio de 1960 Pontal se había convertido en una de las regiones más degradadas del Estado de São Paulo. Durante el decenio de 1970 la construcción de diques y plantas de energía hidroeléctrica creó empleo temporario y llegaron más colonos de otras partes del país. La población desplazada de las zonas inundadas por los diques ocupó nuevas tierras, y se inició el cultivo de caña de azúcar en gran escala.A principios del decenio de 1990 los trabajadores rurales se organizaron en asociaciones y comenzaron a ocupar y explotar tierras en la región (Beduschi 2003). Avanzado el decenio de 1990 el Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra -MST (Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales sin Tierra) comenzó a oponerse a la distribución injusta de la tierra y fomentó la 'colonización' de la región por parte de trabajadores sin tierras. Se establecieron colonias alrededor del Parque Estatal Morro do Diabo (Figura 1) y en algunos fragmentos silvícolas. Esto tuvo un ulterior efecto negativo sobre los pocos fragmentos silvícolas remanentes puesto que la gente recogía leña, cazaba y provocaba incendios para liberar tierras de cultivo (Cullen 1998).Hoy día Pontal sigue siendo una región más bien escasamente poblada, ocupada por fincas agrícolas extensas establecidas de manera ilegal en los decenios pasados. La principal actividad actual de la economía predominantemente agrícola de Pontal es la cría de ganado, y entre 1996 y 2000 las praderas para apacentamiento aumentaron de 21 197 ha a 51 844 ha, lo que provocó una progresiva pérdida de la fertilidad del suelo. Los datos oficiales revelan que actualmente las praderas han reemplazado en gran medida la canopia silvícola y representan hoy alrededor del 60-70% de la región de Pontal (ITESP 2002).La canopia silvícola original de Pontal formaba parte del bioma de la Mata Atlântica (bosque atlántico) (Joly et al. 1999) entremezclada con parches de 'cerrado', vegetación de sabana boscosa, y representaba el segundo mayor bioma del Brasil. El uso actual de la tierra en la región se divide en: (i) zonas silvícolas, principalmente en el Parque Estatal Morro do Diabo (PEMD) (35 000 ha) y también fragmentos en manos públicas y privadas (15 000 ha) por un total de aproximadamente el 1,85% del bosque original; (ii) grandes explotaciones agrícolas de propiedad de unos pocos individuos privados (240 000 ha) y (iii) colonias establecidas por el gobierno para reubicar a la población que inmigró a Pontal proveniente de otras regiones del país (105 000 ha; Dean 1996). En 2000 se adjudicaron otras 14 600 ha aproximadamente para la conservación silvícola, incluidas Zonas Permanentes de Protección y Reservas Silvícolas Legales.Las principales amenazas a los bosques remanentes son los incendios, la caza y el aprovechamiento maderero ilegal. Puesto que siguen llegando inmigrantes que ejercen presión sobre los recursos silvícolas, se deben implementar medidas de conservación en la región.Se sabe que la fragmentación del hábitat causa reducciones del tamaño de las poblaciones vegetales y una consiguiente pérdida de alelos del caudal de genes original (no fragmentado) (Frankel y Soulé 1981). Debido al aislamiento y al pequeño tamaño, las poblaciones remanentes seguirán perdiendo alelos por la deriva genética (Ellstrand y Elam 1993). Las repercusiones genéticas de la fragmentación del hábitat -una pérdida de la diversidad genética de la población -pueden verificarse tanto inmediatamente después de una perturbación como en lapsos más prolongados (Young et al. 1996). La reducción del hábitat natural y el consiguiente aislamiento de las poblaciones en el espacio tienen también consecuencias en el éxito de la reproducción y el flujo de genes de las especies arbóreas (Templeton et al. 1990;Young et al. 1996;Nason y Hamrick 1997).La supervivencia a largo plazo de las poblaciones fragmentadas de especies arbóreas silvícolas depende de la ejecución de estrategias adecuadas de ordenación. Para que esto sea efectivo es necesario primero comprender y cuantificar el impacto principal de la fragmentación en las pautas de distribución y en la estructura de la diversidad genética. Estos factores causan más daños a las especies de bajas densidades, pues se necesitará mantener áreas más extensas a fin de asegurar cantidades suficientes de ejemplares para la regeneración y para evitar la endogamia. Estas especies pueden utilizarse como modelo para inferir los efectos ecológicos y genéticos que experimentarán otras especies, y para ayudar a desarrollar medidas de conservación que preserven la diversidad y complejidad de los bosques remanentes. A fin de explorar la serie de respuestas al aislamiento provocado por la fragmentación escogimos para nuestro estudio especies arbóreas silvícolas de valor comercial y caracterizadas por tener diferentes rasgos biológicos.La investigación se concentró principalmente en identificar los efectos actuales de las actividades humanas en la diversidad genética de cuatro especies arbóreas de algunos fragmentos silvícolas y el PEMD.Los sitios de estudio se emplazaron en colonias recientes, Madre Cristina y Tucano, que incluyen fragmentos silvícolas. Se estableció un sitio de control dentro del PEMD.Creado en 1942, el PEMD cubre un área de aproximadamente 35 000 ha (Figura 2, al dorso). En el decenio de 1940 algunos 'posseiros' (trabajadores agrícolas invasores) abrieron claros dentro del parque, aunque fueron luego desalojados. El parque está atravesado por carreteras principales y por un ramal del sistema ferroviario del Estado de São Paulo, y en 1986 la Compañía de Energía Eléctrica de São Paulo (CESP) taló alrededor del 8% del parque para construir el dique hidroeléctrico Rosana. También tuvo lugar entonces cierto aprovechamiento maderero selectivo de especies comerciales. No obstante grandes zonas del parque siguen conservándose aún y representan un buen ejemplo de la canopia silvícola original de Pontal. La colonia de Madre Cristina se estableció en 1998. La población había acampado por tres años a lo largo de la carretera antes de que se reconociera oficialmente la colonia. Cada una de las 104 familias de colonos posee ahora entre 8 y 11 ha de tierra. Algunas familias viven todavía en refugios precarios pero la situación está mejorando. El principal cultivo es la caña de azúcar, y los colonos recogen también madera de construcción y leña y cazan en los fragmentos silvícolas.Una carretera separa el PEMD del fragmento silvícola más grande de alrededor de 436 ha en Madre Cristina. Este fragmento silvícola es diverso en estructura y especies. El examen que llevamos a cabo en el año 2000 no reveló signos evidentes de aprovechamiento maderero reciente, pero había una vieja carretera de extracción que cortaba en dos el fragmento y eran visibles trazas de aprovechamiento maderero selectivo de unos 15 años de antigüedad.Establecida en 1991, Tucano es la colonia más antigua del lugar. Con la llegada de los colonos el bosque fue talado para establecer cultivos y criar ganado. Las parcelas de unas 36 familias tienen en promedio entre 15 y 20 ha. Las condiciones de vida son relativamente buenas, con acceso a la energía eléctrica y agua pura. Las casas son de madera y están rodeadas de árboles frutales y ornamentales. Se cultiva maíz, algodón y frijoles, pero la actividad económica más importante es la cría de ganado mayor.Para el estudio se seleccionaron en consulta con colonos y organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) cuatro especies sobre la base de su importancia ecológica y económica. Estas eran Cedrela fissilis, Hymenaea courbaril, Peltophorum dubium y Copaifera langsdorffii. En el Cuadro 1 (pág. 186) se resume la información relevante acerca de estas especies. Los estudios se ejecutaron en tres zonas de estudio (PEMD, Madre Cristina y Tucano). Para las cuatro especies de cada sitio de estudio trazamos mapas de distribución de los individuos de más de 10 cm de diámetro a la altura del pecho (dap) y registramos su densidad dentro de los transectos georeferenciados de 10 ha (20 x 5000 m). A fin de aumentar al máximo las probabilidades de detectar los efectos de la fragmentación más bien que las consecuencias del uso actual del recurso silvícola los transectos se ubicaron en bosques que parecían menos perturbados por la actividad humana.Las cuatro especies estaban bien representadas en los tres sitios, y se muestrearon individuos de conglomerados de al menos 30 ejemplares adultos contiguos dentro de cada parcela. Además, se estudió la densidad de juveniles en parcelas de 1600 m 2 que rodeaban inmediatamente a diez árboles adultos. Los juveniles se agruparon en tres clases: clase 1 (JI) de entre 0,5-1,00 m de altura; clase 2 (JII) entre 1,0-2,0 m de altura y clase 3 (JIII) por encima de 2,0 m de altura pero aún no en edad reproductiva (ver Figuras 3a y 3b, en pág. 190).Identificamos a los actores sociales y partes interesadas en los tres sitios de estudio. Determinamos los derechos, responsabilidades e ingresos de cada grupo de interesados y las relaciones entre ellos, en el marco de la 'Metodología de las Cuatro R' (de sus siglas en inglés) (Dubois y Lowore 2000). La información de los miembros y líderes de las comunidades de Madre Cristina y Tucano se obtuvieron mediante entrevistas informales con cinco familias y líderes de COCAMP (Cooperativa dos Assentados de Reforma Agrária do Pontal -Cooperativa de Colonos de la Reforma Agraria en Pontal) y el MST.Llevamos a cabo un estudio genético del bosque para comprender la correlación entre el tamaño de los fragmentos silvícolas y las condiciones de sus RGS. Estudiamos la distribución de la diversidad genética, procesos de endogamia, flujo de genes actual y distancia genética entre las poblaciones de distintos fragmentos. La interpretación de los datos genéticos fue corroborada con la información disponible sobre el uso de los productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) y por los datos del tamaño de la estructura de la población de especies investigadas.En cada uno de los tres sitios de estudio (PEMD, Madre Cristina y Tucano) se establecieron cuatro transectos de exploración. En los transectos se identificaron subparcelas donde había por lo menos 30 individuos de más de 30 cm de dap de las cuatro especies, y se recogieron muestras. Se analizó la estructura genética de la población muestreando juveniles en estas subparcelas. Los tamaños muestreados figuran en el Cuadro 2 (pág. 188).Se recogieron muestras de hojas de Hymenaea courbaril, Cedrela fissilis y Copaifera langsdorffii para la extracción de ADN con el protocolo CTAB (bromuro de cetiltrimetilamonio) (Ferreira y Grattapaglia 1995). En el Cuadro 3 figuran los loci SSR seleccionados (repeticiones de secuencia simple o microsatélites) para cada especie y sus fuentes. Se definió un protocolo para los marcadores de aloenzimas de Peltophorum dubium. Se probaron cuatro sistemas amortiguadores gel/electrodo combinados con 32 sistemas de enzimas para cada muestra tisular de hojas de adultos y juveniles.  En cada sitio se examinaron las pautas de diversidad de alelos de adultos y juveniles. Los parámetros estimados para evaluar la estructura genética dentro de la población fueron:• Riqueza de alelos o número medio de alelos por loci (A)• Número efectivo (n e ) de alelos por locus (n e = 1/∑ p i donde p i es la frecuencia del iº alelo) • Heterocigosidad esperada (H e ) como medida de la diversidad genética • Heterocigosidad observada (H o ).Las evaluaciones de la diversidad genética de los estadios de vida y los sitios de estudio se obtuvieron con enlaces entre los loci, utilizando los programas de ordenador GDA (Lewis y Zaykin 2000) y GenAIEx (Peakall y Smouse 2001). Las estadísticas F se calcularon empleando la fórmula de Weir y Cockerham (1984) que mide la estructura genética distribuyendo la variación en un análisis de variancia. Los parámetros evaluados fueron:• Coeficiente medio de endogamia en las poblaciones (f) • Coeficiente total de endogamia de la especie (F) • Coeficiente coancestral entre las subpoblaciones o deriva genética entre las subpoblaciones (θ p ). Se evaluaron los intervalos de confiabilidad con una probabilidad del 99% con enlaces entre loci, empleando 10 000 réplicas. El flujo de genes (N m ) se calculó indirectamente a través de los valores evaluados de F ST (diversidad genética entre las poblaciones) con arreglo al siguiente modelo:N m = (1 -F ST ) / 4 F ST Las distancias genéticas entre las poblaciones, tanto de adultos como de juveniles, se evaluaron con la medida de la distancia genética de Nei (Nei 1973) utilizando el programa de ordenador GDA.  Identificamos a las partes interesadas y luego analizamos sus relaciones con los recursos naturales del PEMD y los fragmentos silvícolas de los dos sitios de estudio. Se examinaron cuarenta y dos hogares en las diversas colonias que rodean el PEDM para comprender el papel de los PSNM en sus medios de vida. Constatamos que los colonos recogen PSNM sobre todo para su consumo interno y que esta actividad no contribuye de manera sustancial a sus ingresos. En el Cuadro 4 figuran las principales actividades que producen ingresos monetarios para los colonos. La cría de ganado practicada en praderas extensas era la fuente de ingresos más importante. Las áreas destinadas al apacentamiento del ganado tienen un promedio de entre 3,5 y 7 ha por agricultor. En cada colonia muchas familias tienen cultivos y árboles frutales para su consumo interno y/o el comercio. Si bien la mayor parte de la producción agrícola no se comerciaba,   en el mercado local se vendían pequeñas cantidades de mandioca, maíz, café, caña de azúcar y habas.El análisis de la estructura de la población de las cuatro especies reveló diferencias entre las especies y las parcelas (Figuras 3a y 3b, pág. 190) si bien no surgieron pautas claras. Nuestros relevamientos mostraron que en los tres sitios aún existen grandes poblaciones de las cuatro especies, lo que indica que a corto plazo las mismas no están amenazadas por la fragmentación. De hecho la regeneración de Hymenaea courbaril y Cedrela fissilis parece ser mayor en los fragmentos silvícolas que en el PEMD, si bien se debe moderar la significatividad de esto por el hecho de que la fragmentación ha tenido lugar recientemente.Se analizaron los datos de 202 individuos de C. fissilis en las tres poblaciones (87 adultos y 115 juveniles) (Cuadro 5).Si bien no se detectó una pérdida de alelos significativa en Cedrela fissilis, había endogamia y esto puede llevar a la pérdida de alelos en las generaciones futuras. En efecto, los juveniles muestran mucha más endogamia que los adultos, como lo indica el alto valor de N m (ver Cuadro 6,pág. 192).No obstante, la fragmentación no parece haber afectado mucho al flujo de genes, quizá debido al carácter móvil de los polinizadores (abejas) y a la distribución más bien cercana de los fragmentos en el paisaje. El análisis de la estructura de la población de C. fissilis (Cuadro 6) revela que la endogamia en los árboles adultos resulta tanto de la contribución del sistema de cruzamiento (f = 0,163) como de la fragmentación de las poblaciones (θ p = 0,067). Comparando la edad presunta de los individuos adultos muestreados con el tiempo en que comenzaron en Pontal las perturbaciones y la fragmentación, parece que la endogamia ya tenía lugar antes de que se produjera el aislamiento de los fragmentos. El fragmento de Tucano es una excepción porque el bosque ha sido afectado no solamente por la fragmentación sino también por la reducción de la densidad de individuos debida al aprovechamiento maderero selectivo del pasado reciente. La evaluación indirecta de N m indicó que el flujo de genes hacía más lento el efecto de la deriva genética en las poblaciones muestreadas, si bien se halló alguna diferenciación genética. La evaluación de la estructura genética de los juveniles sugirió una menor diferenciación que entre los adultos, y resultó haber un mayor flujo de genes.El principal polinizador de esta especie son las abejas, y las semillas son dispersadas por el viento. Por lo tanto una matriz de praderas abiertas entre los fragmentos puede facilitar más flujo de genes del que tendría lugar normalmente en las especies arbóreas polinizadas por el viento (Young et al. 1993).Entre los fragmentos silvícolas el flujo de genes difería según lo indica la distancia genética de Nei.En el PEMD las poblaciones de juveniles y adultos eran genéticamente distantes de las poblaciones de Tucano y Madre Cristina, habiéndose encontrado la mayor distancia entre las poblaciones adultas del parque y las de Madre Cristina (Cuadro 7). Cuadro 6. Parámetros de la estructura genética obtenida de tres poblaciones adultas y tres juveniles de C. fissilis. El intervalo de confiabilidad del 99% se obtuvo mediante 10 000 enlaces entre los loci.Se muestrearon ciento ochenta individuos de Hymenaea courbaril (87 adultos y 93 juveniles) de las tres poblaciones (PEMD, Tucano, Madre Cristina). El número promedio de alelos por locus (A) era mayor en los adultos que en los juveniles (Cuadro 8,pág. 194), pero la diferencia no era estadísticamente significativa. Las evaluaciones de la diversidad genética eran similares en las tres poblaciones arbóreas adultas, pero se detectaron considerables diferencias en la heterocigosidad observada (Cuadro 8). En el PEMD los adultos mostraban un valor mayor de heterocigosidad observada que de heterocigosidad esperada, lo que revelaba altos índices de cruzamiento lejano. En Tucano los adultos mostraban un alto nivel de endogamia, probablemente debido a que después de la fragmentación había tenido lugar un aprovechamiento maderero selectivo.En los tres sitios el nivel de endogamia fue en promedio mayor en los juveniles que en los adultos. Sin embargo, la fragmentación no parece haber hecho disminuir el flujo de genes en las tres poblaciones, o causado alteraciones en la estructura genética, puesto que el valor del flujo de genes en los juveniles y los adultos no era significativamente diferente (Cuadro 9,pág. 194). Esto puede estar vinculado con la abundancia de los principales agentes de dispersión (roedores y animales ungulados grandes) que todavía se encuentran en gran número en las zonas de estudio. La regeneración de esta especie parece haber sido favorecida por ser bosque del borde, que implica condiciones más perturbadas, diferente calidad y mayor intensidad de luz y un microclima diferente del del bosque interior.Las distancias genéticas de Nei entre las poblaciones de Madre Cristina y Tucano fueron mayores en los juveniles que en los adultos (Cuadro 10,pág. 194). Esto sugiere mayor endogamia en los fragmentos debida al más pronunciado aislamiento de los individuos. Las distancias genéticas mostraron que la intensidad del flujo de genes no era similar en las tres poblaciones. La mayor distancia se encontró entre adultos del PEMD y el fragmento de Madre Cristina.Se analizaron los datos de 201 árboles de copaíba (90 adultos y 111 juveniles). Como en el caso de Hymenaea courbaril y Cedrela fissilis, las tres poblaciones de C. langsdorffii mostraron altos niveles de diversidad genética (Cuadro 11,pág. 195).El número promedio de alelos por locus (A) y la diversidad genética eran más altos en los árboles adultos de las tres poblaciones. El número efectivo de alelos por locus (n e ) era mucho más bajo que la riqueza de alelos (A), lo que indicaba menos frecuencia de alelos, y en consecuencia sugería que la deriva genética no era fuerte. Sin embargo el índice de fijación (f) era alto en las tres poblaciones. Como en el caso de Cedrela fissilis e Hymenaea courbaril, la población de C. langsdorffii de PEMD mostraba los menores índices de endogamia (Cuadro 12,pág. 195).El análisis de la diversidad genética entre las poblaciones de C. langsdorffii mostraba que la mayor parte de la variación de alelos existente está dentro de las poblaciones (Cuadro 12). El principal contribuyente a la endogamia total ( F = 0,360) parece haber sido el sistema de cruzamiento de esta especie (f = 0,341) y no la fragmentación. El menor valor de f en comparación con F, la baja estimación de θ p y la estimación del flujo aparente de genes, todo ello parece sugerir que las poblaciones de los tres sitios no estaban experimentando un proceso significativo de diferenciación. Los parámetros de la estructura genética de C. langsdorffii concordaban con los esperados sobre la base de su biología de reproducción; la especie se distribuye en pequeños conglomerados de baja densidad, y el polen viaja a largas distancias transportado por las abejas. La dispersión de semillas la hacen las aves que, en general, regurgitan la semillas cerca de la planta madre.Las evaluaciones de la estructura genética obtenidas para los juveniles muestran índices más pequeños de endogamia en esta clase comparada con los adultos (Cuadro 12). Sin embargo, cuando se observan los intervalos de confiabilidad, las diferencias de los índices de endogamia entre los juveniles y los adultos son escasas. La fragmentación silvícola ha provocado un flujo de genes restringido entre las poblaciones de C. langsdorffii. El florecimiento parcialmente asíncrono e infrecuente de la especie (Pedroni et al. 2002) puede amplificar los efectos de la fragmentación. Si bien había mucha endogamia, la diversidad genética en poblaciones con diferentes períodos de florecimiento era alto. Este fenómeno también fue observado en la especie arbórea tropical Pithcellobium elegans (Hall et al. 1996).Las distancias genéticas entre las poblaciones adultas eran menores que en las otras especies en todos los pares posibles (Cuadro 13, al dorso), lo que indicaba que el flujo de genes tiene lugar en intensidades similares en las tres poblaciones y que la deriva genética y la selección no causaron diferenciación entre las poblaciones. Los datos indican también que el flujo de genes estaba restringido sobre todo entre las poblaciones ubicadas más lejanas entre sí (PEMD y el fragmento de Tucano). Los individuos adultos de Peltophorum dubium mostraron una alta diversidad genética en los tres sitios silvícolas (Cuadro 14). El número promedio de alelos por locus (A) y los valores de heteocigosidad (H e y H o ) eran menores que los obtenidos para las otras tres especies. Esto se debe a la menor capacidad de la electroforesis de las aloenzimas (con marcadores codominantes) para detectar los polimorfismos cuando se la compara con los microsatélites. La diversidad genética era alta para los juveniles de P. dubium (H e = 0,463) y los adultos (H e = 0,451) y no se detectaron diferencias entre las tres poblaciones para H e ni H o . La población estudiada presentaba un índice de fijación prácticamente nulo.En contraste con lo observado para las otras especies, la evaluación de la endogamia total de P. dubium no difería significativamente de cero (Cuadro 15,pág. 197) Cuadro 15. Evaluaciones de la estructura genética obtenidas como promedios de los loci para poblaciones de adultos y juveniles de P. dubium. El intervalo de confiabilidad del 95% se evaluó mediante 10 000 enlaces entre los loci.probablemente que P. dubium ha desarrollado un eficiente sistema de polinización típico de las especies que se reproducen mediante fertilización cruzada. Se observó una baja divergencia entre las poblaciones (θ p = 0,027) y se halló un equilibrio entre el flujo de genes y la deriva genética. La divergencia genética entre juveniles era cercana a cero (Cuadro 15).Los cambios del uso de las tierras que han tenido lugar en Pontal desde el decenio de 1950 han provocado la casi completa remoción del bosque natural que ha sido reemplazado ahora sobre todo por praderas. Actualmente la cría de ganado es la actividad económica más importante en la zona sudoccidental del Estado de São Paulo. No solo sufrió el bosque importantes reducciones en el pasado reciente sino que los pocos fragmentos que permanecen siguen siendo amenazados por el aprovechamiento maderero ilegal, la recolección de leña y las perturbaciones vinculadas con la caza. La investigación de la diversidad genética indicó que la fragmentación silvícola todavía no ha provocado una pérdida significativa de alelos en las poblaciones adultas de las cuatro especies seleccionadas. En efecto, si bien dos de las poblaciones estudiadas estaban ubicadas en fragmentos, estos eran grandes fragmentos y la pérdida de árboles adultos no era tan drástica como para causar una inmediata y significativa pérdida de divesidad genética; la diversidad genética también permanecía alta en los juveniles. En efecto, las poblaciones de las cuatro especies mostraban altos niveles de diversidad genética, contrariamente a lo que se ha observado para especies silvícolas raras en otras partes (Hamrick y Murawski 1991). Sin embargo se debe hacer hincapié en que solo recientemente se han utilizado microsatélites marcadores para estudiar las especies arbóreas tropicales. Por lo tanto, la evaluación de los parámetros genéticos obtenidos aquí probablemente es mayor que la que podría haberse obtenido con otros métodos, debido a su mayor capacidad para detectar polimorfismos.Dada la fragmentación esperábamos encontrar una estructura espacial en las pautas de los genes. Sin embargo, observamos poca organización espacial en las poblaciones adultas de Cedrela fissilis, Peltophorum dubium y Copaifera langsdorffii (mientras había una distancia genética más pronunciada entre las poblaciones de Hymenaea courbaril). La baja diferenciación genética encontrada entre las poblaciones en este estudio coincide con los altos índices de cruzamiento lejano que muestran habitualmente las especies arbóreas tropicales (Hall et al. 1996). Considerando las diferencias de las características ecológicas y de reproducción de las especies estudiadas, los índices de cruzamiento lejano no son suficientes por sí mismos para predecir el grado y el tipo de diferenciación notado en estas poblaciones. Por ejemplo, las especies que aparecen naturalmente en estructuras meta-población probablemente no tendrán demasiado modificada su estructura genética luego de producirse la fragmentación (England et al. 2002).Con todo, la toma de conciencia ambiental está aumentando en la región de Pontal, y la plantación de bosques y otros programas de recuperación han comenzado a tener éxito. La legislación y las políticas se dirigen en medida creciente hacia la conservación de los bosques remanentes restringiendo el aprovechamiento tanto de rollizos como de PSNM. La puesta en vigencia de la legislación existente también está mejorando, si bien lentamente. Además, las organizaciones campesinas como COCAMP y MST han incorporado consideraciones ambientales a sus principios y prácticas. Algunos agricultores han comenzado a adoptar programas agrosilvícolas utilizando especies nativas en zonas que bordean los fragmentos silvícolas, incluyento la adopción de sistemas silvopastorales.Estudio de caso para elaborar un modelo: opciones de ordenación de los RGS en ecosistemas de Araucaria araucana1 Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina 2 Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI), Roma, ItaliaUno de los principales objetivos de este proyecto sobre recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) fue desarrollar y aplicar un modelo general que mejorara nuestra comprensión del dinamismo de los RGS en los bosques utilizados por las comunidades locales. Nuestra finalidad era poder usar ese modelo para comparar el comportamiento de diferentes ecosistemas silvícolas y en última instancia identificar los factores que influyen en sus procesos genéticos. Creemos que este método nos ayudará a determinar y seguir unos niveles sostenibles de RGS, tanto para ordenarlos como para conservarlos. En este capítulo presentamos los resultados de nuestra tarea de elaboración de un modelo para los bosques de Araucaria araucana (pehuén o araucaria) en la Argentina.Más o menos en los últimos 30 años el campo de la genética para la conservación silvícola se ha concentrado sobre todo en identificar concentraciones de diversidad genética de especies arbóreas y en investigar procesos genéticos alterados que de alguna manera amenazan la conservación de los RGS (Young et al. 2000). Pero en términos de aplicabilidad al mundo real, esta tarea ha olvidado un componente fundamental de la conservación y uso de los RGS al no haber tenido en cuenta a los actores más importantes de la conservación: las personas.Combinada con perturbaciones naturales como incendios, vulcanismo y tormentas de viento, la actividad humana ha modelado también las características de los bosques de Araucaria araucana a lo largo del tiempo. Como vimos en el Capítulo 6, la deforestación redujo significativamente la extensión de los bosques de araucaria en Argentina (Veblen et al. 1999;Rechene 2000). Estas perturbaciones importantes han afectado la estabilidad de los ecosistemas de araucaria y la supervivencia de sus especies. Han modificado los hábitats silvícolas y cambiado la composición de su flora y sus características genéticas, pero con una intensidad que varía en el ámbito de difusión de la especie. Los bosques de araucaria siguen cambiando bajo la influencia del uso humano. El aprovechamiento maderero selectivo y la recolección de semillas (piñones) están hoy afectando fuertemente a los ecosistemas de araucaria y sus procesos genéticos, y esto es especialmente cierto en las poblaciones orientales fragmentadas de la especie que en la actualidad se regeneran sobre todo por medios vegetativos. Por lo tanto al estudiar la genética del pehuén y el dinamismo silvícola es esencial añadir el elemento humano y sus diversos contextos socioeconómicos, aunque esto aumente las tareas de análisis e investigación.La complejidad de este tipo de sistemas modificados por el hombre no es fácilmente desentrañada mediante un pensamiento lineal o con herramientas analíticas estrictamente deterministas. Las interdependencias dinámicas entre los muchos parámetros y variables que se deben considerar cuando se elaboran modelos de este tipo de sistemas significa que se debe aplicar un método holístico (Haraldsson 2000). Pensar por sistemas, y pensar en uno de sus componentes, el dinamismo del sistema, aumenta nuestra capacidad para entender las relaciones dinámicas mutuas (Richmond 1993) y estas son por lo tanto herramientas apropiadas para elaborar conceptos y analizar entidades como los bosques que esperamos conservar a la vez que aprovechamos sus recursos (= sistemas de 'conservación a través del uso').Mediante un modelo que aplica métodos de investigación de sistemas, tratamos de describir los bosques de pehuén en Argentina cuya especie dominante es Araucaria araucana y donde habita el pueblo indígena mapuche. Los elementos más importantes integrados en nuestro modelo son:• Extensión del ecosistema silvícola que se debe modelar y los cambios que resultan de las actividades humanas (= límites del sistema) • Productividad de semillas de diferentes bosques • Consumo de semillas por parte de animales domésticos y silvestres • Recolección de semillas por parte de los mapuches • Diversidad genética silvícola • Condición de las praderas (productividad y carga cinegética) • Cantidad y distribución del bienestar entre las comunidades mapuches, e • Ingresos per cápita de los mapuches provenientes de fuentes ajenas a la explotación agrícola.En este capítulo llamamos a nuestro modelo de bosque de araucaria el Modelo Pehuén.Lo hemos creado teniendo en cuenta dos objetivos: • Representar la estructura y dinamismo de los bosques de araucaria con un modelo descriptivo conceptual que identifique los vínculos y reacciones entre las variables y procesos genético, ecológico y socioeconómico, y • Predecir el comportamiento futuro del sistema introduciendo como factores del modelo las prácticas actuales de ordenación y unas alternativas más sostenibles, lo que nos permite evaluar los resultados de diferentes regímenes de ordenación en el tiempo.La especie clave del ecosistema silvícola para la que elaboramos el modelo es Araucaria araucana. Este gran árbol es nativo de Argentina y Chile, crece sobre todo a alturas de entre 900 y 1800 metros sobre el nivel del mar (m snm), con apariciones esporádicas a alturas de unos 600 m snm (Armesto et al. 1997). La araucaria crece sobre todo en suelos derivados de depósitos de ceniza volcánica recientes, si bien también se la puede hallar en suelos más profundos derivados de rocas metamórficas y sedimentarias (Armesto et al. 1997). La distribución natural de la araucaria cubre un gradiente de precipitaciones que va de 900 a 2500 mm de lluvia por año en Argentina, recibiendo en algunos sitios de Chile hasta 4000 mm por año. La Araucaria araucana se mezcla con otras especies arbóreas en los gradientes de precipitaciones y de latitud, pero por lo general aparece asociada con Nothofagus spp. y Austrocedrus chilensis. Las asociaciones silvícolas más comunes son:• Araucaria araucana con Nothofagus pumilio (llamada 'lenga' en lengua mapuche). Esta asociación se presenta por lo general en las zonas más occidentales y húmedas del ámbito natural de difusión de la araucaria a mayores alturas (1100-1800 m snm) en las laderas que dan al sur. Este tipo de bosque ha sido aprovechado comercialmente. • Araucaria araucana y Nothofagus antarctica en forma de arbustos (llamada 'ñire' en lengua mapuche). Esta asociación se encuentra en los valles que corren de este a oeste y cerca del límite superior del bosque. La canopia de araucaria emerge de un manto procumbente de ñire. En la actualidad este tipo de bosque es una fuente importante de leña para las comunidades mapuches y está afectado por el apacentamiento de ganado y por incendios naturales o provocados por el hombre.Figura 1. Ejemplo de diagrama de rizo causal (DRC) que muestra las reacciones positivas (nacimientos) y negativas (muertes) de una población de ganado. • Cerca del límite superior del bosque o en suelos más pobres se encuentran rodales puros de Araucaria araucana, también a alturas menores, entremezclados en un medio ambiente de estepa. Los fragmentos silvícolas de la estepa aparecen en bosquecillos aislados fuertemente perturbados por actividades humanas (como la recolección de semillas, apacentamiento de ganado, etc.).El Modelo Pehuén fue diseñado para responder a una pregunta específica: ¿es posible aumentar la capacidad de regeneración de un bosque y al mismo tiempo mejorar también los medios de vida de la población local que depende del mismo? El modelo diseñado siguió cuatro etapas, según lo subrayado por Randers (1980): elaboración del concepto, formulación, prueba y ejecución. Durante el Paso 1, elaboración del concepto, se define el propósito del modelo y sus límites y se identifican las variables clave. El comportamiento de un modelo de sistema depende de su estructura y de los elementos incluidos. Por ello el establecimiento de los límites del sistema precede a la identificación de las variables y procesos clave que se incluyen también en el modelo (Haraldsson 2000). El modelo debe incluir todos los elementos que actúan mutuamente para hacerlo dinámico (Cover 1996). Si las causas del fenómeno o proceso de un sistema tal como se lo describe actualmente en el modelo se encuentran fuera del mismo, es entonces necesario ampliar los límites originales para abarcarlas. Es también necesario describir unidades comprensibles de las variables clave y definir las relaciones causales dentro del sistema, representadas mediante circuitos de reacción.En el Paso 2, formulación, se elaboran los diagramas que describen de manera visiva la reacción y se los convierte en ecuaciones de nivel y de índice. En el Paso 3, prueba, se establecen los valores de los parámetros y se prueba el modelo empleando simulaciones basadas en las condiciones actuales del sistema, pero proyectadas a un período definido futuro. Por último en el Paso 4, se ejecuta el modelo para simular las respuestas del sistema a las alternativas de ordenación.Las reacciones dentro del sistema se describen empleando diagramas de rizo causal (DRC). Cada componente de un sistema actúa como una causa o un efecto de los procesos relativos (Haraldsson 2000). Los DRC son mapas que representan este comportamiento ilustrando las relaciones entre y dentro de los componentes de un sistema. Una reacción representa un proceso en cascada en el cual un acontecimiento inicial reverbera a través de una cadena causal que termina por afectarlo (Martin 1997). Existen dos clases de reacciones: positiva y negativa. Una reacción positiva ocurre cuando procesos complejos, reforzados o amplificados, producen un comportamiento exponencial. Una reacción negativa hace que sistemas equilibrados o estabilizados tengan comportamientos asintóticos o bien oscilatorios (Haraldsson 2000). En la Figura 1 se presenta un ejemplo de diagrama de rizo causal con reacciones positiva y negativa. Figura 2. Relaciones del DRC de la Figura 1 presentadas en un STELLA que representa el ganado y los flujos. Las flechas llenas (incorporación y mortalidad y sus índices respectivos) fluyen dentro y fuera del recuadro rectangular, que representa el tamaño de la población de ganado. Las flechas de rayas indican las reacciones de las existencias de ganado en los flujos.Los niveles, flujos e índices del sistema se determinan de manera tal que con el ordenador puedan llevarse a cabo las simulaciones. Los niveles son cantidades que se acumulan con el tiempo, los flujos son movimientos dentro y fuera de los niveles, y los índices controlan el cambio de los niveles por unidad de tiempo. Por ejemplo, la población de ganado es un nivel, y la incorporación y mortalidad del ganado son flujos regulados por índices que modifican el número de cabezas de ganado en el sistema. Los mecanismos de reacción del Modelo Pehuén, como se muestra en la Figura 1, fueron introducidos en el modelo de medio ambiente STELLA (Pensamiento Estructural, Laboratorio de Aprendizaje Experimental con Animación, sigla en inglés; Richmond 1994) para llevar a cabo una simulación en el ordenador. En STELLA, los niveles y cambios de niveles se expresan mediante símbolos de existencias (recuadros rectangulares) y flujo (flechas) (Figura 2). Un índice de cambio puede ser concebido como un grifo que controla el flujo de agua en una bañera (Roberts 2001).El primer paso del diseño de un modelo es la elaboración del concepto (Albin 1997). Incluye los siguientes pasos: (i) definición de los objetivos del modelo y sus límites; (ii) identificación de las variables clave; (iii) descripción del comportamiento de las variables y (iv) descripción de los principales mecanismos o rizos de reacción del sistema. El propósito del Modelo Pehuén era identificar y analizar las relaciones entre los diferentes elementos, procesos y factores que interactúan en el ecosistema silvícola de la araucaria y, más específicamente, incorporar el impacto de las comunidades indígenas en el bosque y en especial en los RGS. Por ello se incluyeron en el sistema variables ecológicas y socioeconómicas clave que nos ayudaron a profundizar nuestra comprensión del dinamismo actual de los RGS de araucaria y a predecir la evolución del bosque en las condiciones futuras.Los límites del sistema corresponden a los de la comunidad mapuche de Chiuquilihuin (para mayores detalles sobre este sitio de estudio ver el Capítulo 6). La zona habitada por los mapuches de Chiuquilihuin se identificó como la más adecuada para el estudio porque sus dinamismos socioeconómicos, ecológicos y de genética silvícola eran representativos de los que se encuentran en otras comunidades mapuches. El tamaño del territorio de la Figura 3. Un ejemplar aislado de Araucaria araucana en la estepa cerca de la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin (foto: A. Jarvis). comunidad es de aproximadamente 5000 hectáreas, ubicada en los Andes meridionales de la provincia de Neuquén en Argentina, aproximadamente entre 39º 35' 30\" S y 39º 39' 30\" S y 71º 13' 30\" O y 71º 0' 0\" O. Al norte y oeste bordea el Parque Nacional Lanín y en el sur y este bordea otras comunidades mapuches y haciendas privadas. El medio natural es de colinas y montañoso y va de 750 m a 2000 m snm. Las precipitaciones disminuyen de 1800 mm a 1200 mm por año a lo largo de un gradiente oeste-este. Se encuentran habitualmente asociaciones de Nothofagus spp. y Araucaria araucana a alturas mayores, que en las zonas occidentales más húmedas constituyen bosques densos. En la parte oriental de la zona modelada se encuentran numerosos rodales fragmentados pero puros de A. araucana, dispersos en un ambiente de estepa (800-1000 m snm) degradado por el sobrepastoreo (Figura 3). Se halló poca o ninguna regeneración sexual dentro de los bosquecillos de araucaria en la estepa.Se identificaron tres subsistemas principales que influyen en el sistema de araucaria en el territorio de Chiuquilihuin: (i) medios de vida de la comunidad; (ii) disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración sexual del bosque y (iii) ganado. El subsistema de disponibilidad de semillas se dividió en dos componentes porque existían datos para describirlo en forma separada (ver Capítulo 6): producción de semillas, que se basa en la capacidad de reproducción de los árboles maduros, y consumo de semillas, que incluye la depredación de semillas por parte de los animales y la recolección de semillas hecha por la gente con diversos propósitos. El diagrama DRC de la Figura 4 describe las principales variables y mecanismos de reacción identificados.Caracterizamos la genética de los rodales silvícolas utilizados para realizar el modelo y estudiamos su flujo de genes. El flujo de genes se desplazaba desde el oeste hacia los fragmentos orientales de la zona de estudio, con información genética transportada por el polen proveniente de los rodales silvícolas continuos occidentales de A. araucana y Nothofagus spp. Sin embargo había indicaciones de que en un futuro no muy lejano comenzaría la diferenciación por erosión genética en los rodales orientales de araucaria, puros pero fragmentados y formados por árboles crecidos de años, ahora degradados por el sobrepastoreo. Esto resultaría sobre todo por la falta de regeneración sexual y malograría la diversidad genética relativamente alta que todavía se encuentra en las existencias de semillas de estos fragmentos. Los probables efectos de la escasa o nula regeneración sexual, la restringida dispersión de semillas por roedores debida a las perturbaciones causadas por el continuo aprovechamiento de leña, y la eventual remoción de algunos individuos maduros, aparecen descritos en el DRC de la Figura 4 (pág. 207) en relación con los procesos genéticos de la (presunta) endogamia y migración.Los resultados obtenidos en la investigación respecto de la disponibilidad de semillas nos permitieron producir diagramas de rizo causal de la producción de semillas en relación con las precipitaciones para los diversos rodales silvícolas de araucaria incluidos en el estudio. Encontramos que la precipitación es el principal factor que controla la producción de semillas en todos los ecosistemas silvícolas investigados (ver la simulación de las pautas de la producción de semillas a lo largo de 50 años en la Figura 9, pág. 213). En efecto, la cantidad de semillas producidas en un año dado estaba determinada por el promedio anual de precipitaciones que tuvieron lugar dos años antes. Esto puede relacionarse con los efectos de las precipitaciones en el momento de la polinización (Sanguinetti et al. 2001).Al investigar el componente de consumo de semillas en el subsistema de disponibilidad de semillas encontramos que éstas eran retiradas del sistema por animales domésticos como ovejas, cabras, vacas y caballos, por animales silvestres exóticos como ciervo rojo y jabalí, por roedores nativos y pericos y por las actividades de recolección de los mapuches de Chiuquilihuin. Algunos depredadores de semillas también participaban en la migración de genes porque contribuían a la dispersión de las semillas y esto se reflejaba también en nuestro modelo conceptual. Puesto que la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin utilizaba las semillas de araucaria como pienso para el ganado, también las decisiones sobre la ordenación del ganado afectan la disponibilidad de semillas y tratamos de incorporar este hecho en el subsistema de disponibilidad de semillas de nuestro modelo.Identificamos los mecanismos a través de los cuales las variables de los tres subsistemas principales afectan la diversidad genética, aprovechando la teoría existente y los conocimientos experimentales sobre la genética de la población adaptados a las características del sistema pehuén. Por ejemplo, supusimos que la fragmentación de los bosques de araucaria tendría una influencia indirecta en la diversidad genética al afectar la migración de genes. En el bosque oriental de araucaria la fragmentación aumenta la distancia que el polen debe atravesar y/o disminuye la disponibilidad de hábitats para los dispersadores. Por lo menos en el momento de nuestra investigación la diversidad genética de las poblaciones fragmentadas de araucaria era comparable a la de los rodales silvícolas más densos del oeste, sin que hubiera evidencia de un aumento de la endogamia y/o fijación o pérdida de alelos. Muy probablemente esto se debió al sostenido flujo de genes que se producía en el eje oeste-este de bosques de araucaria.La erosión es otra variable importante del sistema que tiene serias repercusiones ecológicas, genéticas y socioeconómicas. Dentro de la zona de estudio se ha ido produciendo pérdida de hábitat como resultado de los diversos grados de intensidad de la erosión del suelo, y esta pérdida se incluyó como factor en nuestro modelo. La erosión más dramática tuvo lugar en los rodales fragmentados y aislados orientales de araucaria rodeados por praderas. El modelo refleja nuestra conclusión de que la erosión afecta la regeneración e induce una regeneración vegetativa. Dejamos esto señalado como tema para investigaciones ecológicas futuras.El subsistema de los medios de vida de la comunidad (o socioeconómico) estaba representado en nuestro modelo por los siguientes componentes del proceso: ordenación del ganado, consumo de semillas, aprovechamiento de la madera, ingresos derivados de las semillas, ingresos de la ganadería e ingresos de actividades ajenas a la agricultura. Figura 4. Diagrama de rizo causal (DRC) que muestra las mayores reacciones en los principales subsistemas del Modelo Pehuén.   Consumo de semillas Ganado Productividad de semillas Disponibilidad de piensos Medios de vida de la comunidad Se analizaron estos componentes y sus variables fueron cuantificadas. A fin de evaluar la sostenibilidad de las prácticas actuales de ordenación del ganado se emprendió un análisis de la carga cinegética de las diferentes praderas distribuidas alrededor de los bosques de araucaria y de su papel en el sistema pehuén, en colaboración con expertos en praderas herbosas y utilizando herramientas del sistema geográfico de información (GIS) del Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) de Bariloche, Argentina.La cantidad de semilla disponible para la regeneración sexual natural de los árboles de araucaria se identificó como la variable clave para la estabilidad del sistema pehuén a largo plazo. La disponibilidad de semillas se correlacionó fuertemente con el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética y, en consecuencia, con el potencial de evolución a largo plazo de los bosques de araucaria. Se determinó que para la sostenibilidad genética el umbral mínimo de producción de semillas por hectárea era de 18 000 semillas. Este valor se obtuvo combinando las evaluaciones de la capacidad promedio de germinación (70%) de semillas producidas por muchas poblaciones de A. araucana en la zona de estudio junto con la observación de la densidad natural de regeneración de los rodales no afectados por la recolección humana de semillas o por el consumo de semillas por el ganado o animales silvestres exóticos. En condiciones ideales, un índice anual de germinación por semilla del 70% proveería 12 600 brinzales/ha. Se supone que esta cantidad aseguraría la regeneración de araucaria y por lo tanto la sostenibilidad genética de los procesos de evolución de dichos bosques.Se constató que el indicador de la sostenibilidad ecológica de los ecosistemas de araucaria era la productividad de piensos en las praderas húmedas, uno de los muchos tipos de praderas hallados en la zona de estudio (ver Cuadro 6, Capítulo 6). Las praderas húmedas son el tipo más productivo y también más resiliente a la presión del apacentamiento (ver Sección 3 más adelante). Se estableció que cuando la productividad de piensos en relación con la productividad máxima disminuía en un 20% o más, las praderas húmedas estaban gravemente degradadas y en consecuencia se reducía su carga cinegética. Ese valor representa el umbral de sostenibilidad ecológica.Se identificó un ingreso anual promedio per cápita de 500 $EE.UU. (equivalente a 1500 pesos argentinos/año) como el principal indicador de sostenibilidad del subsistema socioeconómico. Cualquier cambio hacia abajo en el ingreso promedio se considera no sostenible.Los tres subsistemas identificados más arriba se adaptaron a un modelo de tipo STELLA que permite predecir las condiciones futuras a través de la simulación (Figura 5). La disponibilidad de piensos para el ganado se modeló separadamente pues se disponía de datos para representar los dinamismos de las praderas. Los subistemas modelados se describen más abajo.Este subsistema simula el comportamiento del ganado (ovejas, cabras, vacas y caballos; ver Figura 6 en pág. 210) en el Modelo Pehuén. El trazado del modelo puede ser refinado describiendo mejor los procesos de regeneración y la degradación de las praderas, pero este es el primer tentativo de describir los dinamismos del ganado y se necesita más investigación para recoger información más detallada. Como norma para representar las densidades de apacentamiento y los requisitos de alimentos de los animales, se adoptó una unidad de conversión en ganado ovino (UGO) (un UGO es una medida estándar que se usa para homogeneizar las cantidades de ganado por área de superficie) a fin de hacer posibles las comparaciones. Un UGO es el equivalente de 1 oveja que pesa 40 kg y consume 365 kg de pienso seco por año (Siffredi et al. 2002). La conversión utilizada era 1 oveja o cabra = 1 UGO, 1 vaca = 7,5 ovejas o cabras (o 7,5 UGO) y 1 caballo = 10 ovejas o cabras (10 UGO). Se hizo depender el número de UGO apacentadas en la zona de estudio de la variación anual de los índices de nacimiento y mortalidad y del número de UGO carneadas anualmente. La mortalidad del ganado se describió en el modelo como controlada en parte por la carga cinegética del sistema, que corresponde a la razón entre la cantidad de comida disponible en promedio cada año y la cantidad de alimento consumida por una UGO. La cantidad de comida disponible se calcula convirtiendo la producción anual total de todas las praderas en disponibilidad anual de pienso seco, combinada con la disponibilidad de semillas de pehuén. Este último valor se calcula como la diferencia entre la producción de semillas de un año dado y la cantidad de semillas retiradas del sistema para consumo de los depredadores fuera del uso como comida para el ganado. Sobre la base de sus valores nutricionales, Sanguinetti et al. (2001) convirtieron las semillas de araucaria en unidades equivalentes de pienso seco con un índice de 1 kg de semillas equivalente a 2,5 kg de pienso seco.El tamaño de los rebaños del sistema pehuén en cada momento dado depende de variables tales como las prácticas de ordenación del ganado, cantidad de carne consumida localmente, oportunidades de comercializar la carne, proporción de hembras reproductivas en relación con los rebaños y cantidad de pienso disponible para el ganado, siendo esta última variable el factor limitador. Observamos que el ganado del sistema pehuén consume por año un promedio de 82% de pienso seco (de las praderas) y 18% de semilla de araucaria (de los bosques de araucaria). Cuando se limitaba el pienso seco, las cantidades de semillas consumidas aumentaban y esto tenía efectos negativos en la regeneración natural de los rodales de araucaria y en última instancia en la diversidad genética de dichos bosques. Esta relación demuestra cómo la diversidad genética de la araucaria depende indirectamente de las prácticas de ordenación del ganado de la comunidad mapuche.Determinamos la productividad de pienso de los cinco tipos de praderas y la cantidad de semillas que se podrían cosechar de manera sostenible en los bosques de araucaria (ver Capítulo 6). Esto nos permitió establecer la carga cinegética del sistema pehuén, así como un umbral de densidad de ganado por encima del cual tendría lugar el sobrepastoreo. También calculamos una nueva variable que llamamos 'carga cinegética aumentada' que incluye alimentos para ganado provenientes de fuentes ajenas al sistema pehuén, en particular piensos de campos de verano en las zonas vecinas fuera de los límites del modelo, y heno abastecido periódicamente.Las praderas más productivas de pienso eran las praderas húmedas. Estas son zonas donde el agua cubre el suelo o está presente en o muy cerca de la superficie del suelo durante todo el año, o por períodos variables de tiempo a lo largo del año. La máxima producción de pienso recogida en el sistema pehuén resultó comprendida entre 3000-5000 kg/ha de pienso seco para la praderas húmedas, y 20-50 kg/ha de pienso seco para el tipo de pradera esteparia más seca (Figura 7). Se determinó que la proporción anual de producción consumida por el ganado (= factor de uso) para estos dos tipos extremos de praderas era de 65% y 40% respectivamente (ver Anexo 1; Siffredi et al. 2002).La cantidad de animales domésticos (= carga cinegética) que puede soportar el sistema pehuén se definió como el número de UGO que se pueden alimentar de manera sostenible con el abastecimiento combinado de piensos de los cinco tipos de praderas y las semillas de araucaria. En nuestro modelo, la disponibilidad de pienso se vincula con la carga cinegética por un mecanismo de reacción. Cuando se produce el sobrepastoreo, la disponibilidad de piensos (pienso de la pradera y semillas del bosque como pienso) disminuye junto con la carga cinegética. Las ecuaciones que describen la relación entre el grado de sobrepastoreo y la disminución de la productividad de piensos se formularon con el asesoramiento de expertos del INTA.Se eligió el ingreso anual per cápita de Chiuquilihuin como la variable que debía seguirse para evaluar la sostenibilidad socioeconómica del sistema pehuén. Para inicializar las simulaciones STELLA (Anexo 1) se utilizó el tamaño de la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin (306 personas) y su índice de crecimiento neto del 2% (incluidos nacimientos, fallecimientos, emigración e inmigración; Pinna 2002).En el modelo se incluyeron cuatro fuentes de ingresos: venta de ganado, venta de semillas de araucaria, subsidios del gobierno y salarios. Los subsidios y salarios se definieron como fuentes ajenas a la explotación agrícola. El ingreso anual per cápita proveniente de la ganadería se determinó calculando el volumen de la venta de ganado de los miembros de la comunidad en un año (al precio corriente de 70 pesos o 25 $EE.UU./UGO) dividido por el número de miembros de la comunidad. El ingreso anual per cápita proveniente de semillas se determinó calculando la cantidad de semillas de araucaria vendida a 1,5 pesos o 0,50 $EE.UU./kg dividida por el número de miembros de la comunidad. La cantidad de semillas recolectadas en un año determinado se fijó en función tanto de la disponibilidad de semillas como de la motivación para recogerla, asumiendo que esta última variable se relacionaba con los índices de consumo doméstico tradicional y las fluctuaciones de los precios de mercado. La cantidad de semilla vendida se calculó como una fracción variable del total de semillas recogidas por la comunidad local.Los ingresos ajenos a la explotación agrícola provenientes de subsidios se fijaron en función de la proporción de miembros adultos de la comunidad con derecho a recibir subsidios del gobierno: el 30% de la población son adultos, de los cuales el 75% reciben subsidios (Pinna 2002). Los ingresos de salarios se fijaron en función del número de adultos con trabajos temporarios (el 25% de los miembros adultos de la comunidad, que trabajan un promedio de 7,2 meses/año) y del salario mensual promedio de 350 pesos o 120 $EE.UU. (Pinna 2002). Determinamos que el ingreso anual promedio per cápita es aproximadamente de 500 $EE.UU., unos 1500 pesos argentinos/año.Se diseñó un subsistema para describir las fluctuaciones de la cantidad de semillas disponibles para la regeneración de la araucaria. Este valor se definió como la diferencia entre la cantidad anual promedio de semillas producidas por los rodales silvícolas de araucaria y la cantidad promedio anual de semillas consumidas, que variaba en relación con la depredación animal (Figura 8, pág. 213) y las cantidades recogidas por los mapuches de Chiuquilihuin.La cantidad anual promedio de semillas producidas está determinada por la cantidad de árboles maduros/ha y las precipitaciones anuales de los dos años precedentes, que es el tiempo que les lleva a las semillas alcanzar la madurez. Las cantidades de lluvia medidas en los cuatro años de la investigación de campo se utilizaron para extrapolar la tendencia de las precipitaciones en un período más prolongado. El número de piñas/árbol fue correlacionado inversamente respecto de las lluvias anuales porque creemos que las altas precipitaciones tienen un efecto negativo en la polinización (Sanguinetti et al. 2002). En nuestro modelo la evaluación del número de árboles semilleros/ha varía con arreglo a las características de bosque de pehuén abierto versus cerrado. También supusimos que los efectos negativos de fuertes precipitaciones sobre la polinización no deberían sentirse tanto en los bosques más abiertos y secos como en los bosques más densos y húmedos (nuestro modelo utilizó 17 árboles/ha para representar un sitio abierto y seco, y 55 árboles/ha para sitios densos y húmedos; Sanguinetti et al. 2002).Sobre la base de las observaciones de campo se estimó que la proporción expuesta a la acción del ganado que incluye consumo de semillas, pastoreo y pisoteo de brinzales con la consiguiente erosión era un 30% del total de la superficie de bosques del modelo. También se atribuyeron diferentes índices de consumo de semillas a los ciervos rojos y jabalíes ('animales silvestres exóticos') del territorio de Chiuquilihuin y a los animales silvestres nativos (roedores y pericos). Se asignaron diferentes valores de tiempo y comportamiento a los consumidores de semillas. Por ejemplo, se supuso que los animales silvestres eran los primeros en consumir las semillas disponibles, seguidos por las personas que al recoger semillas para su consumo reducían la disponibilidad de las mismas, y por último el ganado que consumiría la cantidad restante tanto en el apacentamiento directo como recibiéndolo de los mapuches como pienso.La cantidad de semillas consumidas por los animales silvestres (nativos y exóticos) depende del tamaño de sus poblaciones, o de los índices de consumo por cada animal, y de si se trataba de una zona donde se apacentaba el ganado. La cantidad de semillas recogidas por la población local o consumida por el ganado y los animales silvestres dependía también de las fluctuaciones de la producción de semillas. Figura 9. Cantidad de semillas disponibles para la regeneración en el período de simulación de 50 años. La línea horizontal superior indica el umbral mínimo de disponibilidad de semillas suficiente para permitir que se produzcan adecuados episodios de regeneración. La fluctuación simulada de producción de semillas se correlaciona fuertemente con la variación de las precipitaciones anuales en los dos años anteriores. Umbral mínimo de disponibilidad de semillas para lograr una adecuada regeneración de araucariaSe determinó que la densidad de animales silvestres era de 50/ha para los nativos y de 2/ha para los exóticos (Sanguinetti et al. 2001). En el subsistema de 'medios de vida de la comunidad', que se concentra en las actividades económicas, se describen los índices de consumo humano de semillas.Se atribuyeron valores de inicialización a 27 parámetros incorporados en el Modelo Pehuén (Anexo 1). Los parámetros se definen también como 'constantes de variable' o coeficientes, o sea que son cantidades que se conocen y que el responsable del modelo puede modificar, pero a las que se debe asignar un valor para comenzar un modelo de simulación. Se formularon las ecuaciones que definen las relaciones entre las más de 120 variables (Figura 5, pág. 208). A continuación se probó el comportamiento del Modelo Pehuén en las actuales condiciones de ordenación. Se hicieron simulaciones por un período de 50 años, que parecía ser un tiempo razonable para la planificación de la ordenación silvícola a largo plazo. Este período corresponde también al que le lleva a los árboles de araucaria alcanzar la madurez reproductiva.Las simulaciones revelaron que las prácticas actuales de ordenación de los recursos naturales del sistema pehuén no eran sostenibles, tanto si se las consideraba de los puntos de vista genético como ecológico o socioeconómico.Se estableció que la capacidad de carga cinegética anual del sistema variaba fuertemente en relación con la producción anual de semillas, que a su vez mostraba una significativa correlación negativa con el nivel de precipitaciones en los dos años anteriores al año de la simulación. La producción de piensos en las praderas del territorio de Chiuquilihuin para contribuir a las necesidades de alimentos para el ganado era menos importante que la disponibilidad de semillas.Con las prácticas actuales de ordenación la simulación predijo que en 50 años la productividad de piensos de las praderas húmedas disminuiría continuamente hasta el 60% de su valor inicial, mostrando que las actuales condiciones son insostenibles del punto de vista ecológico.En las condiciones actuales la simulación mostró también que se hallarían aproximadamente 19 000 brinzales/ha en los bosques densos de araucaria no afectados por los seres humanos, mientras que en los bosques abiertos sujetos a presiones antropogénicas y pastoreo habría solamente alrededor de 500 brinzales/ha. En la Figura 9 se simulan en un período proyectado de 50 años los picos cíclicos de disponibilidad de semillas de araucaria, lo que llamamos 'episodios potenciales de regeneración natural'. Los picos de la producción de semillas se producen a intervalos de 3-5 años, reflejando bajos valores de precipitaciones anuales en los dos años anteriores, pero nunca alcanzan la producción anual mínima de unas 18 000 semillas que se necesitan para asegurar densidades apropiadas para la regeneración. Interpretamos que esto significa que no se dispondrá de semillas suficientes para asegurar una regeneración natural adecuada de araucaria en el sistema pehuén en los próximos 50 años si las prácticas de ordenación permanecen sin cambios.Se realizó una simulación final para estimar la variación de los ingresos anuales per cápita en el período de los próximos 50 años. En ese tiempo, con arreglo al índice actual de crecimiento de la población, se espera que la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin crezca hasta tres veces su tamaño actual (Figura 10). Este crecimiento debería en consecuencia aumentar el consumo de semillas de araucaria y, asumiendo una cantidad constante de UGO en la comunidad, reducir el ingreso anual per cápita en alrededor del 30%, de 500 $EE.UU. a 330 $EE.UU. (Figura 11, pág. 216). En el mismo período la degradación de Figura 10. Niñas mapuches (foto: A. Pinna). las praderas a causa del sobrepastoreo llevaría a una reducción del pienso disponible (sobre todo debido a la reducción de la producción de piensos en las praderas húmedas; Figura 12, pág. 217), lo que afectaría negativamente a los medios de vida al aumentar la mortalidad del ganado y disminuir los ingresos producidos por el mismo.Por lo tanto, si no se produce algún tipo de cambio significativo, como intervenciones del gobierno dirigidas a obtener una ordenacion sostenible y/o a adoptar principios de conservación, las condiciones de vida de las comunidades locales se deteriorarán y el medio ambiente se volverá altamente degradado, con una pérdida muy grave de diversidad genética de la araucaria.Se realizó un análisis de sensibilidad para probar hasta qué punto respondía el modelo a los cambios de los valores de ciertos parámetros. El análisis de sensibilidad ayuda a identificar las variables que afectan de manera desproporcionada al comportamiento de los sistemas y, a los fines de la elaboración de modelos, los valores de estas variables no debieran ser estimados sino derivados -siempre que sea posible -de observaciones empíricas (Breierova y Choudhari 1996). No obstante en el presente modelo dinámico algunas variables fueron difíciles de medir en el campo y fue difícil predecir algunas relaciones, por ejemplo, las respuestas de la recolección de semillas de araucaria en relación con los cambios del precio de las semillas. Por lo tanto el valor de algunos parámetros y algunos coeficientes de conversión se basaron en las mejores estimaciones.Se probó la sensibilidad de los tres indicadores principales de la sostenibilidad genética, ecológica y socioeconómica (disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración, 20 30 40 50Figura 11. Simulación del aumento de la población en el período de 50 años, sobre la base del índice actual de crecimiento de la población, y el comportamiento consiguiente del ingreso anual per cápita. La cantidad de unidades de ganado ovino (UGO) no aumenta porque está limitada por la disponibilidad de pienso (la cantidad máxima de UGO abastecida por el sistema ya ha sido alcanzada) y por lo tanto tampoco aumentarán en el tiempo los ingresos asociados con la ganadería. Los ingresos provenientes de las semillas de araucaria aumentarán ligeramente debido al aumento de la recolección de semillas. En general el ingreso anual per cápita (combinando todas las fuentes) disminuirá a lo largo del período de la simulación. El análisis proporcionó tanto resultados predecibles como impredecibles. Por ejemplo, la sostenibilidad genética (disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración) del sistema pehuén estaba fuertemente correlacionada con la producción y consumo de semillas, como se había destacado previamente en el diagrama del modelo (Figura 4, pág. 207).Figura 12. Simulación de la disminución progresiva de la disponibilidad de piensos provenientes de las praderas húmedas debida a la prolongación del sobrepastoreo (es decir, manteniendo los índices actuales de aprovechamiento de las praderas) a lo largo del período de simulación de 50 años. Las praderas húmedas representan una fracción muy pequeña del total de praderas utilizadas por la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin, pero son extremadamente productivas y contribuyen a la mayor parte de la disponibilidad de pienso (su productividad de pienso es 30 veces mayor que la de la estepa). La cantidad total de unidades de ganado ovino (UGO) abastecidas con los alimentos disponibles en el sistema modelado fluctúan en fuerte correlación con la cadencia de la producción de semillas. 1. Producción anual de pienso proveniente de las praderas húmedas (kg/ha) 2. Contribución anual de las semillas para alimentar al ganado (UGO/ha) 3. Cantidad total de UGO abastecidas por la disponibilidad general de alimentos del sistema (piensos y semillas)Si el apacentamiento de ganado pudiese desplazarse en parte a los bosques más densos de araucaria más allá de las aldeas de Chiuquilihuin, la cantidad de semillas disponibles para la regeneración en los bosques cercanos a las aldeas aumentaría porque el apacentamiento se distribuiría más equitativamente en todo el sistema pehuén. Si bien este cambio daría como resultado un aumento del régimen de pastoreo extensivo, el hecho de que los nuevos bosques que se están aprovechando actualmente tienen una mayor productividad de semillas y están apartados de las aldeas significa que los bosques más cercanos a las aldeas estarán sujetos a menor presión de apacentamiento, reducción del consumo de semillas y por lo tanto tendrán una mayor regeneración.Sin embargo la misma respuesta puede resultar de cualquier variación en el sistema que pueda reducir el consumo de semillas, por ejemplo un aumento de la proporción de pastos en la dieta del ganado o un aumento de la eficiencia nutricional de las semillas, o ambas cosas. Por el contrario un aumento de las operaciones de recolección de semillas motivada por ejemplo por un aumento de los precios de las semillas o un aumento del número de UGO en el sistema, tendría un fuerte efecto negativo en la disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración natural (indicador de la sostenibilidad genética).Es interesante notar que el análisis de sensibilidad mostró que el sistema no sería afectado por un aumento del precio del ganado. Esto podría ser explicado al menos en parte por las limitaciones de la ordenación. La mayoría de las familias de Chiuquilihuin posee un promedio de unas 40 UGO y este número parece representar el límite superior de animales que las familias promedio pueden administrar para sus propias necesidades con arreglo a sus situaciones específicas de propiedad de la tierra.Por último, aumentar el número de animales en la comunidad afectaría negativamente la regeneración natural de araucaria al reducir la disponibilidad de semillas. Esto conduciría también a una caída de la productividad de piensos en las praderas húmedas debida al sobrepastoreo. Por el contrario, si tan solo se quitara el 20% de las actuales 6500 UGO, se obtendrían beneficios sustanciales para la sostenibilidad genética.Sobre la base de los resultados del análisis de sensibilidad y los conocimientos obtenidos a través de la investigación de campo, simulamos numerosas alternativas hipotéticas de ordenación y seguimos sus resultados por un período de 50 años en términos de la sostenibilidad genética, ecológica y socioeconómica. Las alternativas evaluadas fueron: 1a. Ajustar la cantidad de ganado a la carga cinegética de las praderas, o aumentar los aportes de piensos 1b. Reducir la presión de pastoreo (total de UGO) 2. Aumentar los precios de las semillas de araucaria 3. Aumentar los ingresos ajenos a la explotación agrícola. Indice neto de crecimiento de la población humana -20% +10,2% 0,0% 0,5% +20% -10,7% 0,0% -0,5% Indice de mortalidad del ganado -20% -9,2% -0,6% 0,2% +20% 9,2% 0,3% -0,2%Factor de conversión (semillas en pienso) -20% -9,3% -0,3% -0,1% +20% +8,5% 0,0% 0,1% Precio de la semilla de pehuén -20% 4,7% 0,0% -1,0% +20% -8,8% 0,0% 1,2%Operaciones de recolección de semillas -20% 5,5% 0,0% -0,2% +20% -5,4% 0,0% 0,2% Salario mensual (pesos) -20% 0,0% 0,0% -5,6% +20% 0,0% 0,0% +5,6%Fracción de personas con salarios -20% 0,0% 0,0% -5,6% +20% 0,0% 0,0% +5,6%Fracción de adultos en la población -20% 0,0% 0,0% -18,4% +20% 0,0% 0,0% +18,4%Fracción de la población adulta que recibe subsidios -20% 0,0% 0,0% -12,8% +20% 0,0% 0,0% +12,8%Indice de nacimientos de ganado -20% 0,0% 0,0% -0,8% +20% 0,0% 0,0% 0,8% Precio de una UGO -20% 0,0% 0,0% -0,6% +20% 0,0% 0,0% 0,6%Cuadro 1. Resultados del análisis de sensibilidad de 15 variables del Modelo Pehuén. Los valores iniciales de las variables se modificaron en un ±20%, produciendo cambios en los valores de los tres indicadores de sostenibilidad. Los valores iniciales de las principales variables del Modelo Pehuén se presentan en el Anexo I. máxima de la pradera se restauraba más o menos al final del período simulado de 50 años. Las repercusiones positivas de la presión reducida de pastoreo a este índice y magnitud también podían verse en cadencias de regeneración más frecuentes, porque la disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración natural superaba ahora con más frecuencia el umbral mínimo de sostenibilidad. Si bien este escenario parece alcanzar la sostenibilidad genética y ecológica del sistema pehuén, no es económicamente verosímil en el período simulado, tanto por el crecimiento actual de la población como porque la reducción de los ingresos derivada de una menor cantidad de ganado resultaría presumiblemente inaceptable para la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin.No obstante existen otras opciones que podrían mantener la cantidad actual de UGO sin provocar una menor productividad de las praderas como, por ejemplo: (i) ampliar las zonas de pastoreo a otras praderas que actualmente no se usan, ubicadas fuera de las tierras comunitarias, (ii) aumentar el suministro de heno por parte del gobierno provincial en los tiempos difíciles, (iii) realizar prácticas más intensivas de ordenación en las praderas, en particular en las praderas húmedas, empleando vallados para regular el pastoreo o (iv) tratar de reestructurar el uso de las praderas húmedas que son propiedad de unas pocas familias, para hacerlas de algún modo más accesibles a los demás miembros de la comunidad (Siffredi et al. 2002). Por ejemplo, dejando sin modificar todas las otras variables, las simulaciones mostraron que duplicando los aportes de piensos ajenos a las granjas a 3 millones de kg de pienso seco por año, la productividad de las praderas húmedas se recuperaría en un período de 12 años. Sin embargo este escenario no dio resultados en la regeneración natural de la araucaria ni aumentó el ingreso per cápita a lo largo del tiempo. Además algunas de las alternativas de ordenación simuladas tienen limitaciones prácticas por el hecho de que están en conflicto con prácticas tradicionales, como es el caso de utilizar vallados, así como respecto de las pautas actuales de propiedad. Llegamos a la conclusión de que el mejoramiento de la ordenación de las praderas no debería ser considerado de manera aislada sino más bien conjuntamente con otras soluciones.Por más de 400 años los mapuches de la Patagonia septentrional han practicado la ganadería trashumante, adaptándose al modo de vida pastoral (Lanari et al. 2003). En el proyecto financiado por BMZ encontramos que el ganado no se distribuía de manera equitativa entre las familias mapuches (Pinna 2002), pero que la mayoría de ellas tenía un promedio de 40 UGO. Llamamos a esto las \"existencias culturales\" porque correspondían a la cantidad óptima de animales que la mayoría de las familias elegía criar. Solo dos agricultores poseían más de 200 animales, mientras que nueve agricultores poseían entre 51 y 150 animales (Pinna 2002). En el escenario simulado la cifra promedio de las existencias culturales se multiplicó por el número de familias de Chiuquilihuin, reduciendo de este modo el total de ganado de propiedad de la comunidad a 2520 UGO, que representan aproximadamente un tercio de las 6500 UGO que tiene actualmente la comunidad. Este cálculo refleja una condición hipotética en la cual todos los agricultores son dueños de un número igual de animales. Cuando el número de UGO es reducido de esta manera, la presión de pastoreo disminuye y esto dispara una veloz recuperación de la productividad de la pradera húmeda. Al mismo tiempo la frecuencia de episodios de regeneración de la araucaria (semillas disponibles por encima del umbral de regeneración) aumenta. Sin embargo, la reducción del número de UGO induce una inmediata reducción del 30% del ingreso anual per cápita y disminuye a la mitad el ingreso anual per cápita después de 50 años. Por lo tanto esta alternativa no resultaba sostenible del punto de vista económico.Las opciones de ordenación propuestas hasta aquí han mostrado que cambiando la ordenación de las praderas y reduciendo la presión del pastoreo se puede alcanzar la sostenibilidad ecológica y genética. Sin embargo no se puede alcanzar la sostenibilidad socioeconómica a causa de las pérdidas de ingresos debidas al menos número de UGO combinado con el crecimiento proyectado de la población. Por lo tanto simulamos alternativas que aumentaran los ingresos utilizando otros productos y fuentes de ingresos. Comenzamos una simulación que mantenía en 2520 las UGO mientras duplicaba los ingresos provenientes de las semillas de araucaria y dejaba sin cambios los ingresos ajenos a la granja. La simulación mostró que este cambio era sostenible al inicio en términos genéticos, ecológicos y socioeconómicos, pero que a largo plazo los precios más elevados de las semillas en combinación con el crecimiento de la población local llevaba a índices de cosecha de semillas que hacían caer rápidamente la regeneración de la araucaria. Después de diez años, y de allí en adelante, la disponibilidad de semillas para la regeneración natural nunca alcanzaba el umbral mínimo para la sostenibilidad genética. Además, el aumento temporal de ingresos generado por los mayores precios de las semillas no se equilibraba con la pérdida de ingresos derivada de la reducción de las UGO. Por lo tanto se consideró que un aumento de los precios de las semillas no produciría ingresos sostenibles a largo plazo.Hicimos una simulación utilizando otra vez una cifra de ganado comunitario de 2520 UGO, pero ahora con un promedio anual de ingresos ajenos a la granja aumentado de 350 pesos (120 $EE.UU.) a 500 pesos (160 $EE.UU.). Asumimos que cada familia se beneficiaría de al menos un salario en el curso del año. Por lo tanto nuestra 'fracción de habitantes con salario' original por familia (ver Anexo 1) pasó del valor original de 0,25 a 0,68, y el 'período con empleo durante el año' expresado como fracción de un año, aumentó de 0,6 a 1. Estos cambios relativamente pequeños y razonables generaron un aumento inmediato del 30% en el ingreso anual per cápita. Combinado con la sostenibilidad genética y ecológica alcanzada a través de la reducción de la presión de pastoreo (Figura 13, al dorso), este cambio socioeconómico podría asegurar la estabilidad del sistema pehuén a largo plazo. Pero dado el crecimiento de la población proyectado, los ingresos ajenos a la granja deberían elevarse en el tiempo a fin de mantener los beneficios socioeconómicos, genéticos y ecológicos a largo plazo.Un pensamiento lineal o unas herramientas de análisis estrictamente deterministas no permiten entender la complejidad de los ecosistemas modificados por el hombre como los que se encuentran en los bosques de araucaria de la Patagonia septentrional. En este estudio resultó muy útil valerse de un método de sistemas para poder representar las interdependencias dinámicas entre los muchos parámetros y variables necesarios para elaborar un modelo del funcionamiento de los bosques de araucaria en la zona examinada.Nuestra simulación reveló comportamientos esperados e inesperados de los dinamismos y puso de relieve la necesidad de llevar a cabo estudios más detallados de los vínculos entre los aspectos genéticos, ecológicos y socioeconómicos del sistema pehuén. En el futuro necesitaremos en particular llenar las lagunas de los datos y mejorar nuestra comprensión de los numerosos mecanismos de reacción que presenta el sistema. No obstante empleando los datos y tendencias actuales para extrapolar las condiciones de los próximos 50 años, nuestra simulación mostró que el sistema pehuén puede ser cada vez menos sostenible en términos genéticos, ecológicos y socioeconómicos. En efecto, según nuestra simulación de un período de 50 años empleando las pautas actuales de uso de los recursos naturales, se producirá una ulterior degradación de las praderas y habrá cada vez menos regeneración. Este escenario futuro combinado con el crecimiento proyectado de la población mapuche despierta gran preocupación acerca de las perspectivas futuras del sistema pehuén.El análisis de sensibilidad y las alternativas de ordenación simuladas permiten identificar cuatro variables como las de mayor importancia para lograr que el sistema pehuén sea sostenible:• Cantidad de UGO Figura 13. Simulación de la productividad de pienso de las praderas húmedas después de un aumento de los aportes ajenos a la granja. La productividad de pienso de las praderas húmedas muestra pequeñas fluctuaciones y no disminuye de manera dramática en el tiempo como se proyectó en las condiciones actuales de ordenación del ganado. La cantidad total de unidades de ganado ovino (UGO) que puede ser abastecida por la disponibilidad general de alimentos del sistema se vincula estrechamente con la cadencia de la disponibilidad de semillas en el tiempo, pero periódicamente alcanza valores más altos que bajo las actuales condiciones (por ejemplo, sin un aumento de los ingresos ajenos a la granja). 1. Producción anual de pienso de las praderas húmedas (kg/ha) 2. Contribución anual de las semillas a la alimentación del ganado (UGO/ha) 3. Cantidad total de UGO abastecidas por la disponibilidad general de alimentos en el sistema (piensos y semillas)• Producción de semillas de los bosques de araucaria • Indice de crecimiento de la población de la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin • Ingresos ajenos a la granja. El factor que ejerce mayor presión en la regeneración sexual de los bosques de araucaria y en consecuencia, indirectamente, en la diversidad genética de los mismos, es el apacentamiento del ganado, y la mayoría de los escenarios que modelamos muestran que reduciendo la cantidad de UGO se solucionaba este problema. Pero si bien reducir la presión de apacentamiento llevaba a una sostenibilidad genética y ecológica, el crecimiento proyectado de la población y la pérdida de ingresos debida a la menor cantidad de UGO haría que no se alcanzara la sostenibilidad socioeconómica. De hecho, si no había algún tipo de compensación significativa por la pérdida de ingresos, reducir el tamaño de los rebaños resultaría inaceptable para la comunidad de Chiuquilihuin. El ganado no solamente es un recurso clave sino también una parte tradicional del modo de vida mapuche.Nuestras simulaciones mostraron que el ingreso anual per cápita debe ser mantenido y aumentado progresivamente al mismo tiempo que se procede a solucionar la sostenibilidad genética y ecológica. El modo más verosímil de conseguir esto es aumentando los ingresos provenientes de fuera de la granja.Sin embargo incluso si se pudiera lograr una más eficaz ordenación del ganado complementada con aportes económicos alternativos y sin reducir la cantidad de UGO, esto no garantizaría la sostenibilidad genética, ecológica y económica a largo plazo. Esta situación indica que se necesitan decisiones políticas para alcanzar los dos objetivos intervinculados de mejorar las condiciones socioeconómicas de los mapuches al mismo tiempo que se mantiene el potencial de evolución de los bosques de pehuén. Las medidas que se adopten deben ser aplicadas en un marco que respete la cultura local mapuche y las tradiciones de la comunidad. Recomendamos que el gobierno provea salarios por tareas de seguimiento y protección en compensación por el papel que las familias locales desempeñaron tanto históricamente como en la actualidad en la conservación de los ecosistemas de araucaria, y que compense a las comunidades locales por la pérdida de ingresos que resultará de la reducción recomendada de la cantidad de UGO.Se podría incorporar oficialmente al menos un miembro de cada familia de Chiuquilihuin para trabajar en proyectos de restauración y de protección del medio ambiente basados en la comunidad. Esto contribuiría a la vez a fomentar la toma de conciencia acerca de los temas de la conservación. Para este tipo de inversiones en la protección ambiental y el desarrollo de las comunidades indígenas, el gobierno podría obtener recursos que provengan de sectores económicos florecientes como son el turismo, la extracción de gas y de petróleo, el cultivo de frutales y la minería. Para esta región se deben planificar también inversiones en tecnología y en instituciones.La heterogeneidad ambiental da forma a la diversidad genética de los ecosistemas silvícolas de Araucaria araucana en Argentina a través del flujo de genes S. Yeaman 1,2 y A. Jarvis 1,2Se presentan los resultados de un modelo espacial elaborado para uno de los sitios del proyecto financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) sobre conservación, ordenación y uso sostenible de los recursos genéticos silvícolas. El modelo se elaboró para determinar de qué manera se distribuye en el espacio la diversidad genética de la serie de especies del vulnerable pino Araucaria araucana en Argentina. Esta información es de primordial interés tanto para los biólogos de la conservación (Escudero et al. 2003) como para los de la evolución (Manel et al. 2003). Las fuerzas evolutivas de selección, flujo de genes, deriva y mutación se combinan para modelar las pautas de la diversidad genética presentes en la naturaleza. Elaborar modelos de esas fuerzas puede ayudarnos a predecir las pautas de la estructura genética en el espacio (Manel et al. 2003).Si bien se dispone de muchos modelos para analizar la estructura genética en clinales de selección unidimensionales (Barton 1999;Bekessy et al. 2002), éstos son de limitada aplicabilidad a las poblaciones naturales porque la mayor parte de la especie habita en ambientes selectivos complejos y no lineales. En este caso aplicamos la teoría de clinales para analizar un panorama bidimensional de presiones de selección, flujo de genes y pautas de la distribución de la especie para predecir las zonas de alta diversidad genética de A. araucana (Molina). En ocho poblaciones de la especie A. araucana encontramos una alta correlación entre los niveles observados de la diversidad del rasgo de adaptación y las predicciones basadas en el grado de heterogeneidad ambiental en las zonas vecinas desde las cuales dichas poblaciones podían recibir alelos a través del flujo de genes. Este estudio representa un promisorio primer paso a fin de desarrollar herramientas de predicción útiles para la conservación genética de A. araucana y de otras especies, y también un medio novedoso para evaluar los procesos de evolución en el espacio.Por lo general se considera que la heterogeneidad ambiental actúa como una fuerza diversificadora porque produce muchas presiones de selección a las que se debe adaptar la especie (Hedrick et al. 1976;Linhart y Grant 1996;Nevo 2001). Por ende se podría esperar que las zonas de mayor heterogeneidad tenderán a albergar los más altos niveles de diversidad genética de una especie (Figura 1, al dorso, área A). Si bien esta relación ha quedado a menudo demostrada, lo ha sido de manera típica para especies principalmente autopolinizadas (Hamrick y Holden 1979) o asexuales (Bell 1997) cuyos niveles de flujo de genes son bajos.Figura 1. Estructuración genética teórica en un medio natural variable. Las barras sombreadas representan la fuerza de la presión de selección de cada nicho, mientras que los árboles con distinto sombreado representan la adaptación genética simple a la presión de selección. En ausencia de flujo de genes (izquierda) la estructura genética se correlaciona con la presión de selección local y la diversidad en la zona heterogénea (A) es alta; en la zona homogénea (B) es baja, y es baja dentro de los nichos. En presencia de flujo de genes (derecha) la estructura genética se redistribuye dando como resultado mayores niveles de flujo de genes tanto en los nichos como en la zona homogénea (B).Esta relación teórica es más complicada para las especies con altos niveles de flujo de genes porque las pautas de la estructura genética pueden redistribuirse en el espacio, lo que da como resultado una mayor diversidad en zonas relativamente homogéneas (Slatkin 1973(Slatkin , 1978; Figura 1, panel de la derecha, área B). Por lo tanto, cuando se estudia de qué manera el flujo de genes modela la estructura genética en un determinado medio natural es necesario concentrar el análisis en las pautas de los nichos homogéneos.Con arreglo al grado de variabilidad ambiental, una población distribuida de manera continua puede extenderse por muchos nichos. Al considerar la estructura genética de estos nichos concentramos nuestro análisis en las subpoblaciones delineadas por las presiones de selección más bien que por la distribución demográfica y geográfica. Pero puesto que la presión de selección es uniforme dentro de estos nichos homogéneos, toda diversidad local es el resultado del flujo de genes que llega desde las regiones vecinas adaptadas de manera diferencial (suponiendo que no hay deriva ni mutación). En este contexto podemos esperar que la diversidad de los alelos que llegan sea proporcional a la variabilidad de las presiones de selección que afectan a las subpoblaciones donantes. Por lo tanto nuestra hipótesis es que el nivel de diversidad genética de una subpoblación que habita en un nicho homogéneo debería ser correlativa con la heterogeneidad de los ambientes de cualquier vecindario genéticamente conectado (llamamos a esto 'heterogeneidad efectiva' en contraposición con la 'heterogeneidad simple' que se mide dentro de la misma escala de diversidad).Puesto que en la naturaleza las poblaciones se distribuyen en dos dimensiones del espacio (a diferencia del modelo simple presentado en la Figura 1), hemos empleado mapas de presiones de selección y modelos de flujo de genes para representar los clinales bidimensionales (Figura 2).Las mediciones de la diversidad genética dentro de las poblaciones fueron tomadas de un estudio de Bekessy y colegas ( 2003) que evalúa los niveles de variancia de δ 13 C y la razón de la masa de raíces respecto de la masa total de la planta. En este estudio las mediciones Clinal bidimensional de selección de migración en una población de distribución continua. Aqui medimos la probabilidad relativa de flujo de genes desde cada celda individual de la subpoblación a la celda central (A) y calculamos la heterogeneidad efectiva en (A) sobre la base de la diversidad de valores ambientales de la región ponderados por la probabilidad de transferencia genética de cada uno. Suponiendo que el flujo de genes en este ejemplo depende de la distancia, el ambiente de (B) dará una mayor contribución al cálculo de la heterogeneidad que el ambiente de (C), puesto que está más cerca de (A). En efecto, cada flecha es aproximadamente un clinal unidimensional.B A C se tomaron de brinzales que crecen en un vivero común, para controlar la plasticidad fenotípica. El conjunto de datos de los marcadores RAPD (amplificación polimórfica aleatoria del ADN, sigla en inglés) proviene de otro estudio de Bekessy y colegas (2002), para el análisis del cual se tomaron in situ muestras de hojas de árboles maduros.Preparamos mapas cuadriculados espaciales que representan las variables ambientales empleando conjuntos de datos (Jones 1991) y sistemas de información geográfica (GIS -ArcInfo de ESRI), en los que cada celda representa una zona de 100 x 100 m. Calculamos tres mapas de variables ambientales: estrés por sequía (DRT, sigla en inglés) partiendo de la cantidad de períodos cuatrimestrales con menos de 25 mm de precipitaciones; estrés por frío (CLD, sigla en inglés) partiendo de la temperatura mínima anual, y diez panoramas generados al azar (RND, sigla en inglés) que se crearon aplicando una interpolación de distancia inversa ponderada a partir de 100 puntos generados al azar.Para cada uno de los mapas de variables ambientales medimos la heterogeneidad simple y la efectiva aplicando el índice de Simpson, una medida de la diversidad en una escala de 0 -sin diversidad -a 1 (Simpson 1949). Para cada celda del mapa se calcula la heterogeneidad efectiva, que es una medida de la variación regional de una variable dada para las zonas que rodean a la celda. Para medir la heterogeneidad efectiva se incluyen todas las celdas dentro de una zona de 20,1 x 20,1 km, ponderándose la contribución de cada celda por la probabilidad de flujo de genes de dicha celda a la celda central del cálculo.Puesto que A. araucana tiene índices muy bajos de movimiento de semillas (Bekessy et al. 2002), la probabilidad de distribución aplicada para representar el flujo de genes se basó solamente en modelos de transporte de polen (Tufto et al. 1997) combinando efectos de distancia con media distribución de Cauchy con una cola (Shaw 1995):donde b es la distancia media de transporte y r la distancia desde el origen. Los efectos direccionales se representaron con una probabilidad promedio basada en los datos de la 'rosa de los vientos' de tres estaciones meteorológicas locales (Fuerza Aérea Argentina 1975). Las rosas de los vientos son conjuntos de datos coordinados en el polo que muestran la frecuencia y velocidad del viento en 360 grados. Establecimos la distancia media de transporte de polen b en los 200 m determinados para Quercus spp. (Streiff et al. 1999) que en general debería resultar representativa para A. araucana puesto que ambas son polinizadas por el viento. Tuvimos en cuenta la densidad de la población eliminando de los cálculos todas las zonas no habitadas por A. araucana, derivando los datos de un mapa de distribución de la especie que creamos reclasificando las imágenes satelitales de las sendas 232 y 233, filas 86, 87 y 88 (Global Land Cover Facility 2003, http://www.glcfapp.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/glcf/esdi). Estas sendas y filas corresponden a las zonas habitadas por A. araucana y por sobre las cuales pasa el satélite Landsat.Calculamos la heterogeneidad simple del mismo modo que se explica más arriba, pero empleando probabilidades de distribución y heterogeneidad no ponderadas medidas dentro de un radio de cinco celdas alrededor de cada celda central (puesto que Bekessy y colegas [2002] muestrearon 20 ejemplares a intervalos de 100 m en un radio de cinco celdas [500 m] para que fuera lo bastante amplia como para abarcar a todos los ejemplares de cada subpoblación).Calculamos la correlación r 2 de Pearson entre la diversidad de la subpoblación y la heterogeneidad efectiva para cada variable y para cada celda geográficamente correspondiente. Calculamos los niveles de significación del valor P mediante enlaces (bootstrapping) de correlaciones de r 2 con 1000 repeticiones (Bekessy et al. 2003). Calculamos el mapa de correlaciones aplicando el comando CORRELATION de ArcInfo.Para probar las hipótesis descritas más arriba comparamos los conjuntos de datos existentes de variancia de un rasgo fisiológico que soporta la sequía (δ 13 C) en ocho subpoblaciones de A. araucana (Bekessy et al. 2003) con las mediciones relativas de heterogeneidad del conjunto de datos de un mapa espacial que representa el estrés por sequía (DRT). Si bien es difícil evaluar si las subpoblaciones muestreadas por Bekessy y colegas ocupaban nichos homogéneos, todos los ejemplares fueron muestreados en pequeñas zonas (ver más arriba) con niveles muy bajos de variación ambiental local (la gama máxima de variabilidad de precipitaciones en la zona ocupada por cualquiera de las subpoblaciones fue <5% del valor medio de dicha zona). Medimos la heterogeneidad tanto dentro de la zona ocupada por las subpoblaciones (heterogeneidad simple, ∼1 km 2 ) como en la zona más grande desde donde se suponía que recibían el polen (heterogeneidad efectiva, ∼400 km 2 ). Hallamos una correlación elevada y estadísticamente significativa entre la diversidad del rasgo de adaptación y la heterogeneidad efectiva en el estrés por sequía (r 2 = 0,828, P = 0,002, n = 8; Figura 3) y una correlación baja y no significativa en el caso de la heterogeneidad simple en el estrés por sequía (r 2 = 0,030, P > 0,100, n = 8).Si bien obtenido a partir de ocho ejemplos solamente, el alto grado de significación de las correlaciones anteriores sugiere una fuerte relación entre la diversidad del rasgo adaptativo de precisión y la heterogeneidad efectiva a través de la presión de selección. Probar la heterogeneidad ambiental simple permite confirmar ulteriormente que las Figura 3. Relación entre la heterogeneidad efectiva en el estrés por sequía y la variancia en el rasgo adaptativo para la tolerancia a la sequía (DRT), δ 13 C. diferentes presiones de selección en las subpoblaciones no moldean los niveles de diversidad, lo que corrobora las afirmaciones anteriores de que están efectivamente ocupando nichos homogéneos. También comprobamos la correlación entre la diversidad de δ 13 C y la heterogeneidad efectiva de una variable de control aleatorio (RND) y de una variable que representa el estrés por frío (CLD). Correlaciones bajas y no significativas con la heterogeneidad efectiva de RND (r 2 = 0,259, P = > 0,100, n = 8) y de CLD (r 2 = 0,463, P = 0,074, n = 8) indican que las correlaciones verificadas de la heterogeneidad efectiva al estrés por sequía son efectos que no surgen ni del proceso de modelación ni de la heterogeneidad específica de un medio natural no seco. Las correlaciones más altas comprobadas de CLD parecen resultar de alguna similitud entre las distribuciones espaciales del estrés por frío y por sequía (hallamos correlaciones medias en un mapa entre estas variables, r 2 = 0,317). De modo similar la diversidad de precisión parece depender de la densidad puesto que las correlaciones con la heterogeneidad calculada sin ser modificada por la densidad (ver más arriba) eran menores y no significativas en todas las variables (r 2 DRT = 0,376; r 2 CLD = 0,001; r 2 RND = 0,017; n = 8). Estos resultados tomados en conjunto muestran que los niveles de precisión de la diversidad δ 13 C de A. araucana (Bekessy et al. 2003) no son un producto de la variación ambiental local (porque las subpoblaciones habitan en ambientes localmente homogéneos) sino que dependen del flujo de genes que llega de otras subpoblaciones adaptadas diferencialmente, en apoyo al modelo de la Figura 1. Si bien en términos macroevolutivos lo típico es ver el flujo de genes como una fuerza de homogeneización que se opone a la adaptación local (Lenormand 2002), estos resultados apoyan la teoría de Slatkin (Slatkin 1978) de que puede tener también efectos de diversificación local a través de la redistribución, lo que depende de la heterogeneidad efectiva.No obstante no se espera que esta relación resulte cierta para los rasgos neutrales o que solo experimentan una débil presión de selección, puesto que otros factores como la deriva genética, la mutación y el 'viaje de polizón' con otros genes más fuertemente seleccionados (Ohta y Gillespie 1996;Gillespie 2000) afectarán con mayor fuerza su distribución espacial. Dado que una carga de migración pesada (Lenormand 2002) puede sofocar la adaptación local, y que la fuerza de este efecto depende de la presión de selección (May et al. 1975) los rasgos débilmente seleccionados podrían no experimentar suficiente presión como para adaptarse localmente. No se debería esperar que las pautas de la estructura genética correspondieran a la heterogeneidad efectiva en ausencia de adaptación local. Las correlaciones entre la heterogeneidad efectiva del estrés por sequía y la diversidad en los otros dos sistemas de rasgos medidos por Bekessy y colegas (2002) eran pequeñas y no significativas, probablemente a causa de su neutralidad (en el caso de RAPD) o por la amplia función de adaptación (en el caso de la razón de la masa de raíces respecto de la masa total [Bekessy et al. 2003]) que sería débilmente seleccionada.Si bien estas pruebas de heterogeneidad simple y heterogeneidad efectiva muestran que el flujo de polen de las regiones vecinas conlleva una diversidad de precisión, no podemos estar seguros de que el modelo represente de manera precisa las distancias efectivas desde las cuales está migrando el polen. No hubo manera de comprobar si los vecinos de diferentes distancias estaban contribuyendo efectivamente a la diversidad a través del flujo de genes. Probablemente esta serie efectiva está determinada por factores como la fuerza de selección direccional que elimina los alelos no adaptados localmente, y la fragmentación de la distribución de la especie que puede impedir el flujo de genes de muchas generaciones a larga distancia.Si bien los métodos que utilizamos requieren ulterior comprobación de otros rasgos y especies a fin de aumentar su confiabilidad, los resultados tienen implicaciones significativas tanto para la biología de la evolución como para la de la conservación. Si estos resultados describen un proceso fundamental aplicable a todas las especies, la heterogeneidad efectiva de la presión de selección debería estar muy correlacionada con los respectivos niveles de diversidad genética de cualquier rasgo fuertemente seleccionado. Los métodos descritos deberían por lo tanto ser aplicables a las pautas de predicción espacial de los respectivos niveles de diversidad de rasgos que experimentan selección por estrés y pueden representarse en mapas espaciales. De este modo los métodos podrían ayudar a dar prioridad a las zonas de donde se recoge germoplasma para la conservación ex situ, y la identificación de zonas genéticamente homogéneas puede ser importante para asegurar que las semillas destinadas a replantación estén uniformemente adaptadas a las zonas de las cuales se las recoge. Además, identificar regiones efectivamente heterogéneas podría ayudar a diseñar zonas de conservación para proteger la diversidad genética. Sin embargo estas recomendaciones serán de poca utilidad hasta que pueda cuantificarse la región en la cual el flujo de genes contribuye efectivamente a la diversidad local. Puesto que estos métodos utilizan medidas relativas, las zonas más diversas no son necesariamente representativas de la variabilidad total de un rasgo determinado, de modo que se podría requerir que las prioridades de conservación establecidas fueran también válidas para la entera gama de diversidad genética de la especie. Además, como las pautas de heterogeneidad tenderán a diferir de una presión de selección a otra (como se ve en el caso de DRT y CLD) las pautas de diversidad requerirán estudios rasgo por rasgo.Muchos otros métodos analíticos desarrollados para evaluar las pautas espaciales de la estructura genética (por ejemplo la autocorrelación espacial y las pruebas de Manel revisadas por Escudero et al. 2003y Manel et al. 2003) son de limitada aplicabilidad para estudiar los rasgos de adaptación puesto que se concentran en el efecto de las distancias geográficas más que en las presiones de selección. Si bien ha habido algún debate acerca de la fuerza de correlación entre la diversidad de adaptación y la diversidad neutral (Merilä y Crnokrak 2001;Reed y Frankham 2001;McKay y Latta 2002), la evidencia parece estar a favor de una correlación escasa. Puesto que la diversidad de adaptación es importante para la supervivencia, los métodos que solo se aplican a los marcadores neutrales pueden ser poco útiles para planificar la conservación. Además allí donde se han aplicado métodos espaciales para generar predicciones basadas en mapas (Hoffman et al. 2003), se han necesitado conjuntos de datos genéticos ya existentes para generar predicciones de diversidad en nuevas zonas.Si bien la redistribución de alelos en los clinales de migración-selección ha sido objeto de una considerable investigación (Felsenstein 1976;Barton 1999), los estudios experimentales han tendido a concentrarse en descripciones de la fuerza de selección, amplitud del flujo de genes o aspecto de los clinales sobre la base de las pautas de la frecuencia de alelos observadas, y se han limitado a examinarlos en especies cuya distribución se extiende sobre clinales aproximadamente lineales en términos de presión de selección (Mallet et al. 1990;Lenormand et al. 1999). Nosotros hemos enfocado la relación desde la dirección opuesta, prediciendo las pautas de diversidad genética a partir de mapas de conjuntos de datos de presiones de selección y modelos de flujo de genes y luego comprobando las predicciones respecto de las pautas de diversidad observadas. Al utilizar mapas de conjuntos de datos espaciales para representar presiones de selección en medios naturales sumamente complicados, los métodos empleados aportan un modo novedoso de analizar clinales no lineales bidimensionales. En cuanto tales, son aplicables a la gran mayoría de las poblaciones naturales que no habitan en ambientes tan simples. Además, puesto que este método no requiere delinear lo que suelen ser señalaciones a priori arbitrarias o desviadas de poblaciones (Manel et al. 2003), es aplicable tanto a la distribución de especies continuas como fragmentadas. Si bien se requieren comprobaciones y precisiones ulteriores, la elaboración de modelos espaciales de la heterogeneidad ambiental y del flujo de genes es un método importante para entender la evolución de medios naturales complejos y para predecir las pautas de la diversidad de los rasgos de adaptación a fin de planificar la conservación. Los métodos clásicos de conservación solían considerar a la gente como una amenaza para la preservación de los ecosistemas naturales. Incluso hasta el decenio de 1970, cuando ya se habían establecido muchas zonas protegidas en todo el mundo, los planes de ordenación de las mismas ignoraban a las comunidades locales cuyos medios de vida dependían de los productos silvícolas, o bien se diseñaban con el propósito de excluir a la población local y a sus actividades, consideradas perjudiciales. Por eso se reconoce hoy que muchas zonas que fueron entonces consideradas de interés para asegurar la conservación a largo plazo a favor de la comunidad mundial se establecieron a costa del desplazamiento social y económico de las comunidades locales (Barrance 1996;Guha 1997). Solo recientemente se ha llegado a entender que las zonas protegidas pueden ser tanto conservadas como aprovechadas de manera sostenible, evitando de esta manera el conflicto de intereses. En efecto, los recursos silvícolas que incluyen tanto la madera industrial como los productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) pueden actualmente contribuir a la conservación proveyendo a la población local incentivos para proteger los bosques, a la vez que ofrecen alternativas a la deforestación atractivas del punto de vista económico. Además, esas alternativas pueden reforzar la resistencia de la comunidad a las presiones externas que persiguen el aprovechamiento de los bosques o la destinación de las tierras boscosas a otros usos.Esta pauta tiene una notable similitud con el modo en que se han conservado y ordenado los recursos fitogenéticos (RFG). Hasta principios del decenio de 1990 la conservación de los RFG se concentraba en métodos ex situ que excluían en su mayor parte a las comunidades indígenas o campesinas que habían seleccionado, conservado y utilizado estos mismos RFG por generaciones. Desde entonces la participación de las comunidades locales ha sido cada vez más aceptada como una variable importante para lograr el éxito de la conservación y el desarrollo, y en la actualidad se aplican ampliamente métodos participativos (MP) no sólo para la conservación de los RFG sino también en los programas que se concentran en el uso y ordenación de los RFG (Almekinders y de Boef 2000). En verdad, se considera actualmente que en el ámbito comunitario el reforzamiento de la ordenación de los RFG es esencial para hacer efectiva la conservación in situ de los recursos genéticos de los cultivos y para garantizar que la comunidad (y sus miembros) comparte(n) los beneficios que derivan de la utilización de estos recursos. Las comunidades campesinas desempeñan también papeles importantes en el mejoramiento de los RFG para la alimentación y la agricultura (FAO 1996) y los MP que comprenden la asociación entre profesionales de la conservación y la población rural para el fitomejoramiento y el desarrollo de suministros locales de semillas son hoy elementos comunes de los programas in situ de RFG en todo el mundo (Ghimire y Pimbert 1997; Almekinders y de Boef 2000; Friis-Hansen y Sthapit 2000). Una creciente bibliografía sobre desarrollo rural y conservación de los recursos naturales da testimonio de esta evolución (Buchy et al. 2000).El proyecto en el que participamos, financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) descrito en este volumen, adoptó un método participativo para estudiar la conservación y ordenación del recurso genético silvícola (RGS) en una serie de contextos sociales y ambientales de Brasil y Argentina. Describimos el marco adoptado para evaluar el desempeño de métodos participativos y luego lo utilizamos como punto de referencia para analizar la eficacia del método tal como se aplicó en los cuatro sitios del proyecto. Esta perspectiva nos ayudó a evaluar el grado en que se desarrollaron asociaciones entre los investigadores y la población local en cuanto a ordenación del recurso silvícola y desarrollo de políticas. Concluimos el capítulo con un debate acerca de las lecciones aprendidas, destacando tanto la necesidad de fomentar la formación de los investigadores como de contar con marcos temporales más prolongados a fin de organizar la investigación participativa y desarrollar asociaciones efectivas.En los últimos 15 años se han desarrollado numerosos MP con el objeto de involucrar a la población local en la investigación sobre agricultura, ordenación de los recursos y medios de vida rurales. No es posible formular una definición sencilla y fácil de la investigación participativa, pues esta debe ser diseñada y evaluada en el contexto en que tiene lugar. Es mejor entender por investigación participativa un conjunto de métodos que permite a los participantes desarrollar su propia comprensión y control sobre los procesos y acontecimientos investigados (Ashby 2003).Por ende, la aplicación de los MP a la investigación sobre RFG y el desarrollo agrícola, incluida la conservación, es específica en cuanto a contexto y tiempo. La adaptación de un marco participativo general a tiempos y lugares diferentes requiere flexibilidad y por ello se han desarrollado variantes de los métodos aplicados (Halwart y Haylor 2001). Waisbord (2001) describe una diferencia conceptual fundamental entre MP: un tipo de método involucra a las comunidades locales en la investigación y desarrollo solo 'como un medio para un fin' mientras que el otro considera el compromiso local 'como un fin en sí mismo'.En el primer método la participación de las comunidades locales es vista como un modo de aumentar la eficacia y repercusión del proyecto; corresponde a lo que Oltheten (1995) llama un método orientado a un objetivo. Los objetivos de los proyectos se definen como los resultados que grupos específicos de participantes deben rendir a 'profesionales externos' y la participación consiste en que la gente acepte asumir y contribuir a actividades identificadas en forma conjunta.En el segundo método, también llamado método orientado al proceso (Oltheten 1995), los objetivos del proyecto se alcanzan cuando las comunidades locales eligen participar en el proceso de desarrollo (Buchy et al. 2000). La participación es considerada como 'fin' en un proceso donde tiene lugar la liberación (política) y el fortalecimiento de los participantes (IPAP 1997). Como tal, reconoce explícitamente el proceso de reversión del papel y el poder asociados con la participación. En este segundo método, la participación significa que el pueblo mismo asume la propiedad y responsabilidad de las actividades del proyecto, que ellos han identificado y desarrollado por sí mismos con el apoyo de los 'profesionales externos' (Oltheten 1995) y que comprende las respuestas locales aprendidas respecto de los cambios de la sociedad, la economía y la ecología (Röling y Wagemakers 1998).Los dos métodos requieren diferentes estrategias de diseño y ejecución. Cada uno sigue una pauta distinta para determinar los papeles de los participantes que muy a menudo son investigadores u otro tipo de profesionales, y la población rural (Buchy et al. 2000). Cuando los participantes tienen diferentes expectativas acerca de la naturaleza del proceso y los objetivos del proyecto, pueden surgir problemas. Sin embargo las dos perspectivas no son incompatibles, y en la práctica sus diferencias conceptuales no son tan netas. Por lo tanto la participación puede ser vista como verificándose en un continuum en el cual el compromiso y movilización de la comunidad puede comenzar como un medio hacia un fin que más adelante se transforme a sí mismo en un fortalecimiento de la comunidad, un cambio estructural y el aprendizaje de actividades independientes. Del mismo modo los proyectos pueden seguir un método ubicado en un punto intermedio entre los métodos orientados a un objetivo o al proceso. Como veremos más adelante en este capítulo, el proyecto financiado por BMZ comenzó más bien orientado al objetivo ('medio para un fin') pero pasó a estar cada vez más orientado al proceso en muchos de los sitios de estudio ('fin en sí mismo').En la bibliografía abundan ejemplos que describen los resultados positivos y negativos de la aplicación de MP a los proyectos de desarrollo. Una característica obviamente positiva es que por lo general los MP mejoran la comprensión de los investigadores acerca de las condiciones, problemas y temas afrontados por las comunidades objetivo. De este modo los MP contribuyen a que los investigadores se aboquen a los problemas y necesidades reales de los beneficiarios del proyecto. Comprometiendo directamente a las comunidades objetivo y desarrollando con ellas metas políticamente deseables, legitiman los proyectos y refuerzan la aceptación de sus resultados y productos tanto en las comunidades locales como en públicos más amplios (IPAP 1997;Shannon 2002).Sobre la base de lecciones extraídas de estudios de caso conducidos en Africa, Asia y América del Sur sobre planificación participativa en proyectos silvícolas comunitarios, Oltheten (1995) concluyó que los MP pueden también incrementar el poder local, en especial creando oportunidades para los grupos desaventajados a fin de que accedan a recursos externos tales como capacitación o crédito, o para movilizar sus propios recursos en forma de organización local, conocimientos y habilidades. Resultados positivos como estos refuerzan la capacidad de la población local para emprender acciones en defensa de sus propios intereses. Otra ventaja descrita por Oltheten es que los MP pueden integrar el conocimiento local en la planificación y ejecución de un proyecto, contribuyendo así a que el mismo tenga mayores probabilidades de éxito. En efecto, es justo reconocer que la planificación participativa da como resultado un aprendizaje de ida y vuelta y un proceso de retroalimentación entre las comunidades locales y los investigadores que mejora las probabilidades de ajustar oportunamente los servicios de apoyo del proyecto a los cambios de la realidad local. Además, la participación de las comunidades locales en la investigación y desarrollo de los programas refuerza su capacidad para identificar y movilizar los recursos externos y locales y emprender actividades sostenidas para lograr un cambio positivo. El éxito de la planificación participativa puede reforzar el compromiso político y el apoyo institucional a la planificación local en muchos niveles, fomentando un entendimiento común entre los grupos locales y las instituciones regionales, nacionales e internacionales.Pero por otro lado los proyectos que adoptan el MP requieren por lo general más tiempo, esfuerzo y recursos para ser desarrollados, fomentar la confianza y tomar decisiones que en el caso típico de los programas de desarrollo elaborados desde lo alto. Además, en estos proyectos los resultados pueden ser menos previsibles, y puede ser necesario revisar los plazos para completarlos e incluso modificar los objetivos de los mismos. Suele resultar difícil conciliar estos cambios en el marco de estructuras de programa y mecanismos de financiación definidos de manera rígida o limitados en el tiempo (Martin y Sherington 1997). Por lo tanto la participación puede ser una buena estrategia en el largo plazo, pero no si se aplica en contextos de corto plazo o cuando los temas deben ser abordados con urgencia (Waisbord 2001). No obstante, los beneficios Grupo de disciplina Objetivos del proyecto Investigación socioeconómica • Cuantificar las contribuciones de la madera industrial y los PSNM a los ingresos del hogar y en relación con otras fuentes de ingresos• Describir y cuantificar los efectos del uso de la tierra (en especial apacentamiento de ganado, aprovechamiento de madera industrial y recolección de PSNM) sobre los ecosistemas y los recursos genéticos de especies arbóreas clave• Examinar los cambios en los medios de vida que resultan del cambio social y económico, incluidas las consecuencias de la utilización continua de RGS• Evaluar la repercusión del uso actual de la tierra y las políticas silvícolas en el uso de madera industrial y PSNM, y proponer opciones que favorezcan el uso sostenible Investigación genética • Examinar los efectos de las actividades humanas como cultivos vegetales, madereo y otras presiones antropogénicas sobre la diversidad genética y la estructura genética de especies silvícolas seleccionadas, incluidos los PSNM. Esto requiere comprender las pautas de variación genética de especies escogidas Investigación ecológica • Investigar el efecto de las actividades humanas sobre la biología y ecología de la reproducción, incluida la fenología, comportamiento del polinizador forrajero, dispersión de semillas, desarrollo del banco de semillas, depredación de semillas y brinzales y otras dinámicas de regeneración en las especies arbóreas escogidas Aplicaciones de desarrollo • Desarrollar opciones locales de ordenación y uso sostenible de árboles seleccionados y PSNM en condiciones de cambio social y económico, y ubicar estas opciones dentro de un marco racional de toma de decisiones para los administradores y responsables de políticas cuando estos consideren los cambios en las políticas y prácticas de uso de la tierra Capacitación, educación y difusión de la información • Fortalecer la planificación y ejecución de programas de conservación genética silvícola en el ámbito nacional proveyendo oportunidades de capacitación a científicos y representantes de los grupos de interesados de los países participantes, y ulterior capacitación, educación e información sobre las disciplinas del proyecto Cuadro 1. Objetivos del proyecto y repercusiones previstas. de los MP pueden ser grandes y por lo general superarán a las desventajas (Sección 2.3 de este capítulo). Como mínimo los MP ayudan de manera sustancial a las comunidades locales a entender más acerca del proceso nacional e internacional de toma de decisiones que puede afectar a las regiones y beneficiarios del proyecto, y tan solo esto tendrá por lo general un efecto positivo y duradero en todos los involucrados.Lecciones aprendidas en el proyecto financiado por BMZ: objetivos de la aplicación de un método participativoAl adoptar un MP, la finalidad del proyecto financiado por BMZ fue contribuir simultáneamente al desarrollo sostenible y a la conservación del bosque mediante una comprensión más profunda de los efectos de las actividades humanas sobre los RGS, en particular sobre la diversidad genética de especies arbóreas escogidas como objetivo. Los resultados del proyecto MP fueron obtener información y promover una toma de conciencia acerca de la conservación, ecología y genética del bosque que ofrezca a los participantes locales alternativas para ordenar sus bosques de manera sostenible, y que pueda guiar las decisiones políticas relativas a iniciativas nacionales y regionales. En el Cuadro 1 (pág. 240) figura una lista de objetivos del proyecto y de posibles repercusiones. La meta del proyecto era alcanzar el uso sostenible y la conservación de los RGS y ayudar a los participantes locales para que contribuyeran a ese objetivo. Al alcanzar los objetivos del proyecto, y en particular el quinto objetivo -capacitación, educación y difusión de la información -creemos que los participantes estarán mejor equipados para adoptar elecciones mejor informadas y de esta manera reforzar su capacidad para asumir el control total de la ordenación y uso futuro de sus RGS.Inicialmente el proyecto trató de seguir un método mayormente orientado al objetivo recogiendo datos que mejorarían nuestra comprensión de la ordenación y el uso de los recursos locales. Este trabajo debía ser emprendido por el componente socioeconómico del proyecto. El compromiso de los participantes locales en las actividades de investigación genética y ecológica debía ser limitado. Sin embargo, las reuniones de consulta en la fase inicial del proyecto llevaron a aumentar en forma sustancial el papel de varios participantes del proyecto a través de un diálogo continuo entre ellos y los investigadores. Estas reuniones dieron como resultado un cambio gradual de las prioridades del proyecto, incluidas la incorporación de actividades más ajustadas a las necesidades de los participantes locales. Como debatiremos más adelante con mayor detalle, esta consulta mejorada condujo a una aceptación más amplia del proyecto y a un mayor compromiso de algunos participantes. Por ende, más o menos desde el inicio del proyecto comenzamos a experimentar el paso de un proyecto de investigación orientado al objetivo a un método más orientado al proceso.En los campos de la ciencia agronómica aplicada y el desarrollo de agrotecnología, y en especial en la investigación orientada al desarrollo, es esencial la participación de la población rural para alcanzar la sostenibilidad (Reijntjes et al. 1992;Pretty 1995). Los campesinos pueden ayudar a los científicos a adaptar la agrotecnología a las disposiciones agrícolas y ambientales específicas, y también a aplicar los aportes externos de manera más eficaz llamando la atención de los mismos sobre las decisiones y actividades diarias relativas a dichos aportes (van Veldhuijzen et al. 1997). Al mismo tiempo, los científicos pueden modelar las actividades de investigación a fin de satisfacer las necesidades de los campesinos, y elaborar mejores prácticas que incorporen innovaciones generadas localmente (Reij y Waters-Bayer 2001).En la bibliografía se han descrito tres tipos de desarrollo agrotecnológico (van Veldhuijzen et al. 1997). El primer tipo aparece en lo que Braidwood (1967) llamó 'una atmósfera de experimentación'. Los agricultores han practicado esta forma de innovación agrícola desde los tiempos neolíticos hasta hoy, y actualmente aún sigue siendo practicada en aquellas partes del mundo que no están muy influidas por los programas nacionales de desarrollo agrícola. Este tipo de desarrollo agrotecnológico también es llamado 'desarrollo tecnológico indígena'. En los tiempos modernos y comenzando especialmente en la última parte del siglo XIX, los gobiernos nacionales crearon organismos que se especializaron en investigación agrícola y en la difusión de sus resultados a través de programas formales dirigidos al público. Estos organismos operaban con arreglo a un modelo en el que las tecnologías agrícolas eran desarrolladas en instituciones gubernamentales de investigación y luego transferidas a los agricultores mediante programas de extensión. Este segundo tipo de desarrollo agrotecnológico se llama a menudo 'transferencia de tecnología' (TdT) y en el último siglo dominó el desarrollo agrotecnológico en los países avanzados en agricultura y en sus políticas para ofrecer asistencia agrícola a los países menos desarrollados.Sin embargo en los países en desarrollo los programas de TdT no alcanzaron el éxito que se esperaba, y en respuesta a las críticas continuas al método de TdT se diseñaron los métodos participativos de desarrollo agrotecnológico (Merrill-Sands 1986). Este tercer tipo de desarrollo agrotecnológico llamado actualmente 'desarrollo tecnológico participativo', enfatiza la importancia combinada de los agricultores tradicionales y los científicos en la innovación y cambio agrícolas. Cuando éstos se asocian a fin de alcanzar objetivos comunes, el desarrollo tecnológico participativo es visto como un método complementario de la investigación y la extensión formal. El Cuadro 2 resume las principales características de los tres tipos de desarrollo agrotecnológico.Sin desdeñar sus ventajas, no siempre es fácil ejecutar MP en la investigación agrotecnológica dados lo que pueden ser miríadas de aportes y demandas provenientes de una multitud de participantes. Mientras las ventajas de los MP son fáciles de entender en los proyectos de investigación socioeconómica, algunos científicos biológicos pueden ser reacios a adoptar un MP en, por ejemplo, un estudio de base sobre el dinamismo genético de una población porque la afectación \"directa\" de la población rural en este tipo de estudio puede resultarles difícil de imaginar (Sección 2.4 de este capítulo). Es innegable que ciertas formas de investigación básica se llevan mejor a cabo de manera no participativa, a menos que se tenga mucho cuidado al trasladar los métodos y metas del proyecto a términos accesibles para todas las partes (Halwart y Haylor 2001). No obstante en los proyectos de investigación que cubren diferentes campos como los que se describen en este libro, los MP pueden ser más eficaces si los aplican equipos interdisciplinarios de investigadores y no científicos individuales en sus campos específicos de investigación.Más aún, incluso si las comunidades locales pueden no ser capaces de participar en la fase de ejecución de todas las actividades de investigación, sus aportes a la planificación y asignación de prioridades en las actividades de investigación pueden mejorar la relevancia de la investigación, lo que es útil tanto para los investigadores como para las comunidades al momento de trasladar los resultados a la práctica. El compromiso positivo del público casi siempre mejorará las probabilidades de aceptación y adopción de las recomendaciones derivadas de las actividades de investigación.Se pueden identificar diferentes fases en el desplegamiento de un MP 'ideal' para un proyecto de investigación: 1) análisis participativo de la situación -comprensión de los problemas y oportunidades; 2) identificación de los participantes; 3) consulta y negociaciones sobre la definición de problemas y colaboración en el proyecto; 4) establecimiento de estrategias de investigación, objetivos, responsabilidades, papeles y asociaciones transparentes y de común acuerdo; 5) experimentación -recolección de datos; 6) experimentación -análisis de los datos; 7) compartimiento de los resultados y su traslación a productos apropiados; 8) difusión de los resultados y 9) sostenimiento del proceso (Jiggens y de Zeeuw 1992;van Veldhuijzen et al. 1997). En todos los estadios de la investigación se deben establecer mecanismos de seguimiento y evaluación y comprometer a los participantes relevantes. La Figura 1 (pág. 246) ilustra las fases de un proyecto participativo de investigación y desarrollo ideal. Se presentan los posibles caminos reiterativos de las fases iniciales, y luego a medida que llega cada fase subsiguiente, adhieren más -u otros -participantes y/o se consiguen otros acuerdos.La participación de los interesados en las iniciativas de investigación puede tener lugar en diferentes fases de la ejecución de un proyecto y con diferente amplitud. En el Cuadro 3 se describen las fases y episodios del proyecto financiado por BMZ que fueron críticos para identificar a los participantes y para la consulta sobre la toma de decisiones que tuvo lugar durante la ejecución local e internacional de las actividades de investigación. En el desarrollo efectivo de la propuesta de proyecto intervino un número limitado de los eventuales participantes, y de hecho los beneficiarios previstos del proyecto no fueron interpelados durante esta fase. Si bien el Cuadro 3 muestra una amplia intervención de los participantes en especial en los talleres de planeamiento, en realidad fuera de las reuniones locales de avance los principales participantes eran el personal de las instituciones nacionales e internacionales de investigación.Se adoptó un método por etapas para identificar y alcanzar a más participantes a través de una serie de reuniones de planeamiento y consulta que tuvieron lugar después de que comenzara el proyecto. Los participantes identificados durante una reunión fueron invitados a concurrir a las siguientes ruedas de consulta. En las reuniones subsiguientes se volvieron a debatir los objetivos y actividades propuestas en el proyecto. Esta pauta es paralela al proceso reiterativo descrito en la Figura 1.El concepto del proyecto se generó en primer lugar cuando el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) y numerosas instituciones de investigación silvícola en Alemania reconocieron el problema de la continua deforestación y erosión genética de los RGS en todo el mundo pero en particular en Brasil y en Argentina, y se presentó la oportunidad de trabajar junto con los participantes de esos países para contribuir a resolverlo. A este punto algunos apremios financieros y de tiempo obstaculizaron la realización de un análisis pormenorizado de los participantes (como sucede frecuentemente en el caso del planeamiento de proyectos de investigación sobre la conservación y uso sostenible de los recursos naturales, silvícolas y agrícolas). La propuesta sometida al donante contenía una evaluación general del problema sobre la base de consultas limitadas entre las instituciones internacionales y los socios nacionales de investigación de Brasil y Argentina.Creemos que si bien lo ideal hubiera sido una consulta local precoz y completa, una alternativa válida puede ser un proceso por etapas que involucre paulatinamente a más participantes locales a medida que comienzan las actividades de investigación. Habiendo adoptado esa estrategia nos esforzamos para asegurar que los procedimientos formales del proyecto fueran suficientemente flexibles como para permitir cambios considerables del plan original de trabajo a medida que la consulta con las comunidades locales y otros participantes produjera sus aportes y pusiera de manifiesto sus preocupaciones acerca del proyecto.Un paso esencial al adoptar un MP es identificar a los participantes. En términos generales los participantes son aquellas personas, grupos u organizaciones que tienen interés en un tema. Todas las personas que influyen o pueden influir en una decisión o bien ser afectados por ella están potencialmente interesadas (Cumbre de la Tierra 2002). Por esta razón personas intermediarias y que no tienen un interés directo propio pueden también ser participantes (Brown 1998).Como hicieron notar Enters (2000) y Cramb et al. (2000) se necesita examinar cuidadosamente las suposiciones acerca de si la comunidad es estable u homogénea y acerca del interés, compromiso, conocimientos y habilidades que posee la población rural. Por lo general raramente las comunidades son grupos armoniosos con programas similares acerca de los distintos temas, por ejemplo el desarrollo, sino más bien grupos de participantes con necesidades, prioridades y capacidades diferentes (Leach et al. 1997). Puede ser difícil identificar estos grupos y sus programas. Un desafío igualmente importante es determinar quién (puede) representa(r) a una comunidad. Las comunidades pueden tener varios líderes que representan una variedad de facciones comunitarias, o líderes con diferentes roles y responsabilidades. Aún más, una organización puede sostener que representa a una comunidad, pero un examen más cercano puede mostrar que el liderazgo de esa organización resulta inaceptable para la (entera) comunidad. Se pueden hacer observaciones similares respecto de otros grupos de participantes como 'el gobierno' o los 'grupos ambientalistas' o los 'científicos'. Por ejemplo incluso si los objetivos de las organizaciones ambientalistas son similares, pueden sostener puntos de vista conflictivos en el modo de enfocar un problema. Y cuando tiene lugar la competencia por los fondos, los factores que determinan las relaciones y la distribución de poder entre y dentro de los grupos participantes pueden perturbar aún más el progreso.Más aún, los representantes de los participantes pueden no querer o no poder mantener una comunicación efectiva de ida y vuelta o de múltiples vías con sus representados acerca del proceso participativo. Si aparecen brechas entre las expectativas de los participantes y las posturas asumidas por sus representantes, esto puede producir como resultado decisiones que carecen del respaldo de los participantes, con los consiguientes problemas cuando tenga lugar la ejecución (Buchy et al. 2000).Los grados de compromiso de los participantes en un proyecto pueden diferir considerablemente. El modo más obvio de apreciar el éxito de un MP adoptado en cualquier proyecto dado es evaluar los niveles y tipos de participación de los beneficiarios locales (propuestos), las organizaciones comprometidas en la ejecución del proyecto y aquellas organizaciones o beneficiarios que se presentan para obtener beneficios de los resultados. Con arreglo a la tipología de participación desarrollada por Pretty (1994;1995) se pueden distinguir dos formas primarias de participación (Cuadro 4,pág. 248). El primer tipo de participación y uno de los encontrados más a menudo en los MP orientados al objetivo es relativamente pasivo, en donde la gente participa escuchando lo que está teniendo lugar. Aquí el típico intercambio es en un solo sentido, destinado a informar al público acerca de las actividades o resultados, y a veces a aleccionarlo y de esta manera dar legitimidad al proyecto para lograr la mayor aceptación de sus resultados.El segundo tipo de participación, y el que habitualmente se halla en los MP orientados al proceso, puede ser llamado 'participación interactiva'. Aquí el público participa de manera activa en el análisis conjunto y en las decisiones que conducen a planes de acción formulados en el ámbito local, y donde se destaca la capacidad de aprendizaje conjunto. La típica comunicación es aquí de dos sentidos, con significativos debates con los participantes, enseñándoles los temas y la recolección de datos en los que se incluyen los conocimientos de los participantes, y desarrollando junto con los expertos y demás interesados las mejores opciones. En este tipo de MP los participantes están comprometidos en un intercambio continuo y sus ideas se incorporan en la mayor medida posible en el diseño del proyecto y en sus resultados.Entre los dos tipos de participación de Pretty existe una serie de posibilidades de compartir el poder (Buchy et al. 2000) que no son excluyentes entre sí. Además el nivel y forma de participación pueden cambiar con el tiempo y diferir con arreglo a la actividad en la cual participa la gente o al tema que se debate. Esto puede suscitar diferentes tipos de participación que se siguen uno a otro en un ciclo de proyecto. Por ejemplo, cuando un proyecto entra en la fase de ejecución (por ejemplo de la experimentación a la recolección de datos) los participantes y sus diversas relaciones pueden cambiar a medida que se agregan nuevos socios al proyecto y se emplean diferentes MP.La participación activa de los interesados directos en los estadios tempranos de la definición de un problema y el establecimiento de las prioridades de investigación tiene importantes ventajas para el desarrollo de proyectos de RFG y RGS. Los beneficios incluyen Figura 1. Fases de proyectos 'ideales' de investigación y desarrollo participativo, con posibles caminos reiterativos en las fases iniciales del proyecto. la definición temprana de cuáles tecnologías o cambios de comportamiento parecen ser aceptables para los usuarios, así como la oportunidad de adaptar de entrada prototipos de tecnologías en el proyecto de manera que satisfagan las necesidades y preferencias tanto de los beneficiarios como de los expertos externos (Programa Sistemático Amplio de Investigación Participativa y Análisis por Géneros 1997).Como se debatió más arriba en algunos proyectos de investigación o fases del proyecto como las que comprenden evaluaciones sumamente técnicas de la diversidad genética, la participación local puede no ser útil o necesaria. En este tipo de proyectos la participación de la comunidad local será habitualmente pasiva y/o limitada al trabajo de campo remunerado, con una comunicación de sentido único que tendrá lugar en forma de consultas. No obstante, es deseable un continuo intercambio de información porque incluso cuando los participantes no puedan aportar elementos efectivos se necesitará su interés continuo en el proyecto a fin de asegurar que seguirán apoyándolo.Numerosos participantes se comprometieron en el proyecto multidisciplinario y de múltiples ubicaciones financiado por BMZ. Por esto sentimos la necesidad de distinguir entre la participación y la asociación. Establecimos que una institución o grupo de personas eran socios cuando tenían responsabilidades en el proyecto e influían de diversa manera en los elementos o procesos del proyecto. Determinamos que la gente o las instituciones eran participantes cuando se comprometían a usar u ordenar los recursos silvícolas y por lo tanto interactuaban con los investigadores profesionales. Así, establecimos que los beneficiarios previstos del proyecto eran principalmente los participantes que tuvieron una parte importante en el resultado. Mientras Buchy et al. (2000) señalaron que la participación es todo en las asociaciones, hay tipos de participación que no influyen ni son responsables de la ejecución del proyecto, sino que más bien reciben información y otros productos (Cuadro 4, pág. 248). En este sentido, la colaboración entre los participantes se basa sobre todo en relaciones de poder. Cuando las decisiones se toman sin los beneficiarios, a quienes se asigna meramente el papel de ejecutar y evaluar los resultados, se mantiene o incluso se refuerza la desigualdad de poder entre los participantes y los socios (Waisbord 2001). Para entender las interacciones de los interesados en la investigación participativa examinamos las asociaciones y participaciones en este proyecto, incluida la división de responsabilidades, el mecanismo de toma de decisiones, la relación entre y dentro de los grupos de participantes, y la amplitud en que los beneficiarios designados estuvieron incluidos y se beneficiaron del proyecto.Como las actividades del proyecto se propusieron en cuatro sitios de los dos países, la identificación de los participantes fue iniciada a través de instituciones nacionales de investigación (Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo -ESALQ; Universidade Federal do Paraná -UFPR; Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria -INTA) que pasaron entonces a ser responsables de buscar y facilitar el compromiso comunitario en toda la fase de investigación del proyecto. Las organizaciones nacionales desarrollaron relaciones con los grupos locales de participantes y los asistieron para que se comprometieran en la organización y ejecución del trabajo de campo. A su vez, los participantes locales facilitaron el acceso de los investigadores de las organizaciones nacionales a los sitios de campo.En Pontal, Acre y Paraná (Brasil) los participantes eran importantes grupos de interés u organizaciones que representaban a profesiones como el Movimiento Nacional de Terrajadores de Caucho (CNS, sigla en portugués), la Cooperativa del Movimiento de los Sin Tierra de Pontal (MST), la cooperativa de colonos COCAMP (Cooperativa de Comercialização e Prestação de Serviços dos Assentados de Reforma Agrária do Pontal do Paranapanema) y los sindicatos rurales de Paraná. Estos cuerpos actuaron como intermediarios entre los proyectos y los representantes de las comunidades locales. En el sitio del proyecto en Argentina este papel fue desempeñado por la sección de desarrollo rural del INTA.Este método por etapas para desarrollar las relaciones parecía funcionar bien. Afrontamos la tarea de organizar proyectos en los dos países y en muchos sitios involucrando numerosas disciplinas científicas y una miríada de comunidades rurales y grupos locales de interés, y todo esto tuvo que ser llevado a cabo en distintos contextos ambientales y socioeconómicos.Desde el comienzo el proyecto BMZ tenía una decidida orientación hacia la investigación. Las comunidades indígenas de Acre (Brasil) y Argentina ya habían colaborado con otros proyectos de investigación y declaraban haber visto pocos resultados tangibles (ETC, ESALQ e IPGRI en 2002, y ETC, INTA e IPGRI en 2002). Por lo tanto se incluyeron pequeñas iniciativas de desarrollo en los proyectos en tres de los cuatro sitios (Argentina, Pontal y Paraná). Esto disparó ulteriores programas de desarrollo en dos sitios, con financiación adicional obtenida más adelante de otras fuentes para continuar con estas actividades.Una apropiada representación de los participantes locales es un tema fundamental en los proyectos que adoptan MP, y es importante que existan mecanismos que aseguren la identificación de todos los participantes relevantes, seguida de la selección de los socios y de sus respectivos representantes. En la práctica, el contacto inicial se suele hacer con instituciones u organizaciones bien conocidas por la comunidad rural, pero los miembros de la comunidad que no están alineados con esas organizaciones pueden ser fácilmente dejados de lado simplemente porque no están al corriente del proyecto durante la fase de planeamiento o incluso si saben de él no pueden expresar su interés por el mismo. Las políticas comunitarias son dinámicas y puede también darse el caso de que subgrupos y líderes formales e informales tengan diferentes puntos de vista, incluso dentro de la misma organización. Por lo tanto la selección de los miembros representativos de las comunidades rurales pasa a ser un compromiso importante que requiere considerable cuidado y discernimiento.En Pontal, la COCAMP tuvo un fuerte papel de intermediaria entre el proyecto y las comunidades rurales. Si bien los dirigentes de COCAMP no eran reconocidos por todos los campesinos, el proyecto consiguió interactuar con una fracción relativamente amplia de las comunidades e incluso con aquellas no afectadas directamente por el proyecto. Esto facilitó la difusión y aplicación de los resultados de la investigación a otras comunidades. Lo mismo sucedió en uno de los sitios de campo de Acre donde una gran parte de la comunidad de terrajadores de caucho quedó involucrada en el proyecto a través de los programas del CNS y la asociación local de terrajadores de caucho. Por el contrario la falta de una clara estructura de liderazgo en las colonias agrícolas de Acre entorpeció el establecimiento de buenos canales de comunicación con los colonos locales.En la práctica en todos los sitios la mayor colaboración se dio entre un pequeño número de individuos, familias o representantes designados por la dirigencia local y los coordinadores locales de campo y los representantes de las instituciones y organizaciones nacionales e internacionales. El proyecto trató a las comunidades como a grupos más o menos homogéneos, asumiendo que los participantes locales difundirían la información e ideas al resto de sus comunidades, directamente o a través del cuerpo u organización representada por ellos. No hubo evaluaciones sustanciales de los procesos participativos y, en consecuencia, no podemos decir si se alcanzó a todos los participantes y/o miembros relevantes de la comunidad, en especial a los grupos marginales.El proyecto financiado por BMZ empleó herramientas participativas para recoger información sobre los usos de los RGS y su lugar en las economías locales y los medios de vida. En esta fase de la investigación la participación de la población local fue principalmente pasiva, y no influyó ni en la definición o análisis de los problemas ni en la identificación de las posibles soluciones. Una evaluación realizada en el taller de síntesis en Pontal acerca de la calidad de las asociaciones establecidas durante el proyecto confirmó que los investigadores de las instituciones nacionales desempeñaron un papel dominante en la organización y conducción de las actividades de investigación, y que el intercambio de información con los beneficiarios estuvo más cerca de lo que más arriba llamamos 'transferencia de tecnología' (Cuadro 2, p. 243). Si bien la meta del proyecto eran aumentar la comprensión del papel de las poblaciones rurales en la ordenación y uso de los bosques, el proyecto no estuvo suficientemente orientado a la incorporación de conocimientos y perspectivas indígenas en el diseño de sus actividades, ni en los resultados finales.También se adoptaron procesos participativos para introducir flexibilidad en el plan de trabajo del proyecto. El Cuadro 3 (p. 247) ilustra las amplias consultas que tuvieron lugar durante la ejecución del proyecto, a fin de examinar los objetivos y establecer prioridades para las actividades. Las consultas tuvieron lugar en reuniones generales y locales de planeamiento; estas últimas se revelaron especialmente importantes para estimular la intervención de los participantes locales en la toma de decisiones. Aún así los coordinadores nacionales de investigación y sus asociados mantuvieron los papeles líderes en toda la duración del proyecto. En numerosas ocasiones los socios nacionales de investigación y los participantes locales propusieron cambios significativos al plan de trabajo original. No obstante, y debido a que había una tendencia dominante a tratar de satisfacer las expectativas del donante y evitar cambios sustanciales de los planes de trabajo, solo se introdujeron ligeras modificaciones. Esto está en desacuerdo con lo que Davis (1996) identificó como un elemento fundamental de un método verdaderamente participativo, donde \"los resultados de la consulta no deben estar determinados de antemano\". No obstante, como señalaremos más detalladamente luego, a pedido de los participantes en los talleres locales organizados en cada sitio de estudio introdujimos en el curso de la ejecución del proyecto numerosas actividades orientadas al desarrollo.Aunque no nos propusimos alcanzar un método completamente participativo, los talleres locales ayudaron a establecer un tipo de compromiso de consulta e interacciones entre los investigadores y los participantes locales. El hecho de que la participación siguiera siendo sobre todo de consulta fue de alguna manera sorprendente, puesto que algunos socios locales como el CNS y COCAMP tratan normalmente de establecer tan solo asociaciones interactivas o automovilizadoras (Cuadro 4, p. 248). Su papel más pasivo en el proyecto refleja una separación entre los intereses científicos de los investigadores y la perspectiva de desarrollo de estas organizaciones locales.En el sitio de investigación de Paraná se estableció una red interactiva entre las organizaciones de investigación interesadas, pero hubo poca participación de las comunidades locales. Por el contrario en Argentina se estableció una relación de consulta entre los investigadores y la población local que condujo a cierto grado de apropiación del proyecto por parte de las comunidades indígenas.Para el diseño del proyecto fue importante presuponer que los investigadores podrían facilitar y conducir por sí mismos una investigación participativa. Pero la realidad de las interacciones con los participantes y los resultados del proyecto indican que esta parte del proyecto debía ser reforzada. Por ejemplo, los talleres locales de planeamiento condujeron a una muy limitada participación de consulta y/o colaboración con las comunidades locales en las fases de ejecución del proyecto. En consecuencia, el compromiso de las comunidades locales y de otros participantes locales en la investigación y en otros resultados fue débil.A este respecto es importante considerar que los socios de investigación fueron identificados sobre la base de su capacidad de conducir investigaciones sobre los RGS y no sobre su potencial para trabajar de manera participativa. El diseño y ejecución del MP requiere una cuidadosa preparación, y esto no forma parte de los antecedentes de la mayoría de los biólogos. En consecuencia aprendimos que cuando los socios de un proyecto de investigación aceptan aplicar un MP se debe evaluar de antemano su capacidad para conducir la investigación en estos términos. Y tener esta capacidad, o estar dispuesto a adquirirla, deberían ser condiciones para aceptar a nuevos socios. Nos damos cuenta ahora de que la capacidad para elaborar un MP debió haber sido incorporada en el diseño total del proyecto.Una intervención significativa de los participantes en el lanzamiento de un proyecto no garantiza el compromiso de los mismos en fases sucesivas, ni su falta de compromiso inicial impide que más tarde adhieran activamente al mismo. Ambas circunstancias dependen, al menos en parte, de la capacidad de los participantes para expresar sus puntos de vista y para influir en el curso de un proyecto. En cada uno de los sitios del proyecto financiado por BMZ se organizaron en diferentes ocasiones reuniones de proyecto para asegurar un compromiso continuo de los participantes locales, con el propósito de compartir y debatir los progresos y hallazgos de la investigación. Estas reuniones no produjeron cambios significativos en el plan de trabajo ni provocaron la adhesión de nuevos participantes. Sin embargo, estimularon las actividades de seguimiento en Argentina y en Pontal (Brasil).Durante julio y agosto de 2002 se organizaron en cada sitio del proyecto talleres de síntesis. La primera parte de estos talleres se dedicó a intercambiar los resultados de la investigación y a tratar de reunir los resultados en un marco común. En la segunda parte los participantes se unieron a las reuniones y se les presentaron los hallazgos de la investigación genética, ecológica y socioeconómica, junto con recomendaciones destinadas a guiar la ejecución de estrategias de conservación de los RGS. La meta de los participantes en esta segunda parte fue debatir los resultados de la investigación, trasladarlos a recomendaciones prácticas y ponerse de acuerdo sobre los próximos pasos.En todos los sitios excepto uno surgieron dificultades para crear un marco en el cual se pudieran integrar los hallazgos de la investigación provenientes de numerosas disciplinas. La excepción fue el taller del proyecto en Argentina, gracias a la aplicación de un método de sistema que permitió que los datos de diferentes disciplinas se combinaran en un único modelo (descrito en el Capítulo 10). A su vez esto permitió trasladar los resultados de la investigación a estrategias de conservación, prácticas de ordenación y políticas públicas. En este contexto es justo admitir que hallamos que los MP no desempeñaban un papel esencial para crear este método interdisciplinario o de sistemas. Este fue en cambio el resultado de iniciativas propias de los investigadores.Un difícil desafío solo parcialmente satisfecho fue poder construir sólidos lazos y un intercambio continuo de información entre los sitios del proyecto. En última instancia el proyecto funcionó más bien como una 'colección de estudios de caso' que como una red integrada de sitios de investigación de campo. Durante el taller final de síntesis se destacaron los resultados que contribuyeron a alcanzar los objetivos generales del proyecto (IPGRI 2003) y no se estructuró de un modo que permitiera una participación amplia. A estas reuniones fueron invitados los coordinadores, algunos socios investigadores y personas conocedoras, pero no los participantes locales. En consecuencia la naturaleza consultiva de la reunión inicial del proyecto no fue acompañada por una condivisión final de los resultados en la conclusión del proyecto. Esta elección fue impuesta en gran parte por las limitaciones de fondos, y esto ilustra la importancia de contar con un presupuesto adecuado para que los participantes intervengan en todas las fases de un proyecto de esta naturaleza.Una de las críticas formuladas por los socios locales de la investigación durante el planeamiento y las reuniones de avance, así como en los talleres de síntesis, fue la falta de resultados tangibles que pudieran beneficiar a los participantes locales. Esta es una crítica común de los proyectos que tienen principalmente fines de investigación y se desarrollan en comunidades locales porque los participantes locales pueden esperar respuestas concretas para sus problemas inmediatos que en muchos casos no serán proporcionadas por los resultados de la investigación. Resolver problemas locales inmediatos no fue el objetivo principal del proyecto financiado por BMZ ni esto era posible de un punto de vista realista. Los investigadores deben ser muy claros a este respecto, o será aún menos probable que los participantes locales acepten el proyecto. Si se espera que proyectos de este tipo respondan a las demandas de los participantes locales y de otras personas, se necesitará mucha más flexibilidad operativa junto con recursos financieros que permitan la inclusión de estas actividades adicionales. Adoptando un método más oportunista en la planificación y ejecución del proyecto, en el cual también se puedan financiar actividades de mayor interés para la población local, se obtendrá apoyo para los proyectos de mediano y largo plazo a la vez que aumentarán las probabilidades de resolver algunos problemas locales urgentes relacionados con la sostenibilidad de los recursos.Hasta cierto punto el proyecto financiado por BMZ adoptó un método más flexible siguiendo las demandas de los participantes locales en las reuniones de planeamiento. Entre los resultados más visibles estuvieron las oportunidades de capacitación para los participantes locales, organizadas en tres de los sitios de proyecto en Pontal, Paraná (Brasil) y Argentina. Por ejemplo en Pontal se añadió un experimento agrosilvícola con parcelas demostrativas, como sugirieron los miembros de la comunidad local durante el Figura 2. Triángulo de ecosistema adaptativo de ordenación. La ordenación afecta a los participantes que administran recursos de diversa manera, usan recursos y servicios de los ecosistemas y se benefician económicamente con estas actividades. Las organizaciones de política crean marcos institucionales en los cuales operan las organizaciones de administración. Los ciudadanos son los participantes (locales) que dependen de los recursos naturales, son afectados por las decisiones de políticas y de ordenación relativas a los recursos, y/o las afectan a través de sus propias actividades. La investigación proporciona mecanismos de retroalimentación y aprendizaje. Fuente: de Boef 2000. taller regional. El sitio y las especies para este ensayo agrosilvícola fueron seleccionados localmente a través de reuniones participativas con representantes de 12 comunidades y con el activo compromiso de COCAMP, que más adelante se comprometió como socio líder en la planificación y preparación de una nueva propuesta de proyecto que incorporó los resultados de esta iniciativa.En Paraná, una ONG local en colaboración con una comunidad rural desarrolló un herbario de plantas medicinales para satisfacer demandas locales. Esta iniciativa concentró en el proyecto financiado por BMZ la atención de una comunidad que solo marginalmente había sido afectada por el plan original del proyecto.De igual manera en Argentina las comunidades indígenas mapuches pidieron que en el plan de trabajo se incluyeran actividades más orientadas al desarrollo, y más adelante se incluyó un modesto vivero de árboles. Si bien este proyecto solo pudo ejecutarse parcialmente debido a las dificultades financieras, pasó a ser un elemento importante en la construcción de colaboración entre las comunidades locales y los administradores del proyecto, y unas reuniones regulares entre los investigadores y los representantes de la comunidad llevaron luego a un diálogo mucho más constructivo.En conclusión, las colaboraciones de mayor éxito, especialmente las de Argentina y Pontal, tuvieron lugar en contextos en los que las relaciones comenzaron siendo de consulta entre el personal del proyecto y los participantes locales, pero se ampliaron cuando se desarrollaron actividades que tenían beneficios más visibles e inmediatos para las comunidades locales.La participación de la población local debe ser vista como una manera de vincular la investigación biológica académica con la investigación sobre la ordenación de los Política Investigación Ecosistema Ordenación Ciudadanos recursos locales y las prácticas de uso, así como de facilitar la incorporación de las necesidades y perspectivas de los participantes locales en las actividades mismas de investigación con el objeto de desarrollar mejores políticas y prácticas de ordenación. Se llama 'ordenación adaptativa' a una perspectiva nueva que hace hincapié en el uso de MP en la ordenación de los ecosistemas y en el desarrollo de políticas en un contexto que involucre a la población. La ordenación adaptativa es un concepto que en los tres últimos decenios han venido desarrollando los ecologistas comprometidos en la ordenación de grandes ecosistemas como cuencas hídricas, lagos o bosques y una serie de recursos naturales como aguas, bosques, pastizales o peces (por ejemplo Holling 1986;1995;Lee 1993). En esta perspectiva, la ordenación de los recursos naturales y las políticas de conservación se consideran efectivas solo cuando se planifican y ejecutan en el marco de asociaciones. Los vínculos entre política, ordenación y participantes locales ocupan el centro de estas asociaciones (Gunderson et al. 1995;Berkes et al. 1998). Mediante estos vínculos y mecanismos apropiados de retroalimentación, los participantes pueden aprender de las experiencias mutuas.El papel de la investigación en la ordenación adaptativa es generar y reforzar la retroalimentación y el aprendizaje entre las políticas, la gestión y la población local (Figura 2). La investigación proporciona la capacidad para seguir las prácticas de ordenación, estimar los efectos de las políticas, evaluar el compromiso de los participantes locales, generar información esencial acerca de los procesos ecológicos y sociales y trasladar los nuevos conocimientos a opciones de ordenación nuevas o revisadas. La investigación también permite que las organizaciones de políticas y de ordenación respondan mejor a las variables socioeconómicas y al cambio ecológico (Gunderson et al. 1995;de Boef 2000).En la sección siguiente se adopta una perspectiva de ordenación adaptativa para analizar aquellas partes del proyecto financiado por BMZ en las cuales la política, la gestión y la población local fueron vinculadas mediante la investigación. Deseábamos particularmente evaluar el grado en que el MP del proyecto financiado por BMZ produjo una participación entre la población local y las organizaciones de investigación, de política y de gestión, y facilitó la construcción de capacidad para compartir el aprendizaje. Consideraremos específicamente las siguientes preguntas:• ¿Consiguió el proyecto la participación de la población local y de otros usuarios finales previstos? • ¿Fue la población local considerada como participante clave con su propias contribuciones a la conservación y se le otorgó una legítima consideración en el marco de una perspectiva de ordenación adaptativa? • ¿De qué manera proporcionó la investigación aportes a los responsables de las políticas, las instituciones de ordenación y la población local? • ¿Contribuyó la investigación a que los participantes unieran sus fuerzas en acciones y aprendizajes comunes? • ¿Condujo el proyecto a nuevas iniciativas de los grupos objetivo, o de alguna manera estimuló a los grupos objetivo a querer continuar todas las partes del proyecto?Tanto si las describimos como comunidades rurales u organizaciones de residentes locales, como en Paraná, Acre y Argentina, o bien como organizaciones civiles locales tales como MST/COCAMP en Pontal o CNS en Acre, en todos los sitios de investigación la población local fue considerada por el proyecto financiado por BMZ como la protagonista clave para la conservación y ordenación de los RGS. No obstante, en términos prácticos su grado de conservación y uso de los RGS variaba en gran medida. Por ejemplo los terrajadores de caucho eran sumamente dependientes de los productos silvícolas, mientras que los habitantes de bosques de Pontal dependían principalmente de la agricultura y la cría de ganado. En consecuencia, en sus esfuerzos para involucrarlos en el proyecto financiado por BMZ los investigadores se dirigieron de diferentes maneras a la población y a las organizaciones locales. Más abajo describimos las contribuciones locales a la investigación en los cuatro sitios de estudio principales. También evaluamos la amplitud en que las actividades de investigación pudieron vincular la formación de asociaciones con la ordenación y las políticas, y si la investigación ofreció resultados que condujeran a una ordenación adaptativa de los RGS.El proyecto de Argentina (Capítulos 6 y 10) se concentró en la ordenación y utilización de los bosques de araucaria por parte del pueblo mapuche. El examen de análisis de sistemas demostró el papel fundamental de los mapuches en el uso y ordenación de la araucaria. Llegamos a la conclusión de que cualquier recomendación de políticas y ordenación que quisiéramos formular debería aplicarse tanto a las poblaciones silvícolas de araucaria como a la manera en que estas eran ordenadas por las comunidades indígenas. Sin embargo la participación de los mapuches en el proyecto se limitó en gran medida a los talleres de planeamiento y a diversas reuniones locales entre los socios investigadores y los líderes comunitarios. Los relevamientos socioeconómicos realizados entre los mapuches con el empleo de herramientas participativas suministraron valiosas percepciones de su papel en la ordenación de la araucaria, y cuando en las reuniones se debatió este aspecto del uso y ordenación silvícola los miembros de la comunidad mostraron un interés activo, del mismo modo que durante los debates sobre viveros de árboles. Este método de consulta dio por resultado el lanzamiento de un proyecto de desarrollo rural cuyas principales actividades fueron determinadas por los miembros de las dos comunidades mapuches que de esta manera desempeñaron un papel activo en esta fase del ciclo del proyecto, desde la identificación del problema hasta la ejecución del proyecto. Desde el comienzo el proyecto de Argentina tuvo a los organismos regionales de ordenación y responsables de políticas como participantes clave. Incluso antes de que comenzara el proyecto, los participantes regionales ya se habían organizado como una red informal que comprendía la conservación de la araucaria. Como resultado del proyecto financiado por BMZ el personal de la administración del Parque Nacional Lanín descentralizó funciones administrativas y aumentó la cantidad de personal local asignado a la conservación. La administración del parque y las autoridades provinciales de Neuquén también acordaron coordinar su respectivo trabajo dentro del parque nacional y ocuparse conjuntamente de los problemas ambientales y sociales de la comunidad indígena Aigo (mapuche) que vive en esa zona. Más aún, la comunidad Aigo decidió enviar un representante para trabajar con el equipo de coordinación parque/provincia. De esta manera el proyecto contribuyó a la formación de una red de participantes con socios nacionales y locales comprometidos en la toma de decisiones sobre políticas, ordenación y uso. Durante la ejecución de ese proyecto fue creada una red de ordenación adaptativa (IPGRI 2003).Mientras los proyectos en los demás sitios estudiados se concentraban en las interacciones entre las comunidades locales y las especies y ecosistemas objetivo, el proyecto de Paraná enfocó solamente la ordenación del ecosistema de la araucaria (Capítulo 7). El acontecimiento inicial fue una reunión temprana de consulta organizada por los socios investigadores locales. Representantes de instituciones de investigación y organismos responsables de políticas y ejecución del ámbito estatal y del sector privado (silvícola y agrícola) debatieron problemas vinculados con la conservación y uso de la araucaria. Ni en esta ni en otras reuniones participaron las comunidades locales. Los participantes fueron los responsables de políticas, los organismos de ejecución y el sector silvícola privado, y los representantes de estas organizaciones operaron como una red que incluyó a varios socios investigadores estatales y federales.Este marco de investigación produjo considerables resultados científicos que se trasladaron a directrices concretas para la conservación y el uso sostenible. También se hicieron recomendaciones en las áreas de cambio de políticas e investigación de seguimiento. Si bien el proyecto no proveía específicamente mecanismos que fomentaran la adopción de directrices y recomendaciones, consideramos que las asociaciones creadas durante el proyecto eran un buen augurio para la ejecución de algunas recomendaciones cuando el proyecto se concluyera. Por el contrario, si bien se realizaron algunas actividades con las comunidades locales, hubo poco o ningún compromiso de éstas a medida que se desarrollaba el proyecto. Por ello el proyecto de Paraná alcanzó solo parcialmente la condición de ordenación adaptativa de la araucaria. Al haberse concentrado en la conservación, ordenación y uso de la araucaria el proyecto involucraba principalmente a representantes de organismos e industrias.La participación local en el proyecto financiado por BMZ en Pontal tuvo lugar sobre todo a través de la organización COCAMP. Por lo tanto esperábamos un significativo compromiso de la población rural y sus organizaciones comunitarias en la ordenación y conservación de los RGS. Las comunidades de colonos fueron interpeladas desde el comienzo como potenciales actores clave para la conservación y uso de los productos silvícolas. Representantes de estas comunidades y en especial de COCAMP hicieron suyas las nociones de conservación y uso sostenible invocadas por los investigadores y mostraron un interés especial por el método agrosilvícola. A diferencia del pueblo mapuche de la Argentina y los terrajadores de caucho de Acre, los colonos de Pontal no dependían directamente del bosque y de sus productos para la subsistencia.Debido a su orientación genética y ecológica el proyecto de investigación suministró información científica importante para la conservación de los RGS y destacó la función crítica de la conservación de fragmentos silvícolas en las zonas habitadas por los colonos. Sin embargo, la participación de los representantes de la comunidad en la investigación local fue limitada, aunque hubo alguna a través de contratos o de participación pasiva. La intervención de participantes locales ajenos a COCAMP fue de consulta en las reuniones de planeamiento en la fase inicial, y se volvió más pasiva en los talleres de planeamiento y síntesis.Una consecuencia de este método fue que los colonos y sus organizaciones locales manifestaron solo una modesta apropiación de los resultados del proyecto. Los productos tangibles y constructivos para las comunidades locales fueron limitados, y es discutible si el proyecto contribuyó a mejorar la ordenación local de los RGS. Sin embargo si bien la aplicación de directivas de conservación y la participación en las actividades de investigación fueron limitadas, las actividades agrosilvícolas experimentales involucraron a mucha población local en forma participativa. Por eso tanto COCAMP como otros miembros de la comunidad manifestaron mucho más interés por el uso sostenible de los RGS. Esto condujo más adelante al desarrollo de nuevas y numerosas iniciativas y propuestas de proyectos para fomentar el cultivo y uso de plantas medicinales y el desarrollo de sistemas silvopastorales. COCAMP tomó el liderazgo de una de esas inciativas con la contribución de ESALQ y numerosos organismos de elaboración y ejecución de políticas.Por lo tanto, si bien la participación de las comunidades rurales en las actividades mismas de investigación fue limitada, la introducción de un componente de proyecto que correspondía a las necesidades e intereses locales contribuyó a una mayor aceptación del proyecto y, esperamos, de sus resultados. Gracias al clima político positivo desarrollado entre los actores clave de la región y en especial de COCAMP, de las autoridades estatales del parque y del organismo estatal de ordenación de la tierra, el proyecto ayudó a crear una actitud más comprometida de los participantes locales hacia los temas de conservación y uso sostenible. El proyecto contribuyó así a crear y modelar las asociaciones locales para la toma de decisiones y la acción, y al hacerlo impulsó fuertemente a Pontal en pos de una más eficaz ordenación adaptativa del parque y de los fragmentos silvícolas de sus inmediaciones.En el sitio de estudio de Acre el proyecto trabajó con dos comunidades -los terrajadores de caucho y los colonos agrícolas -y sus respectivos tipos de uso de la tierra. Los vínculos entre los RGS y los terrajadores de caucho fueron más evidentes en Acre que en cualquier otro de los sitios del proyecto porque sus ingresos dependían en gran medida de los productos silvícolas (como el caucho y las nueces de Pará). Los vínculos entre los colonos agrícolas y el bosque eran similares a los de los colonos de Pontal donde, fuera de la fase inicial de la colonia cuando el bosque proveía caza y materiales de construcción, los usos directos fueron pocos. Desde el comienzo el grado de organización de las comunidades de terrajadores de caucho era considerable. Sus líderes comunitarios participaron activamente en los debates del proyecto y contribuyeron a la investigación en el campo, si bien a menudo a través de contratos. La organización de los colonos agrícolas era mucho más débil, tal vez porque las colonias eran recientes. La participación de los colonos se limitó en gran medida a una familia.Las diferentes estrategias económicas de los terrajadores de caucho y de los colonos recién establecidos fueron los principales temas abordados por la investigación socioeconómica, que se mantuvo concentrada en los diversos efectos de las actividades de subsistencia y generadoras de ingresos en la conservación a largo plazo de los RGS. El método de la investigación socioeconómica era descriptivo más bien que resolutor de problemas. Esta circunstancia y el limitado uso de herramientas participativas en la investigación y en las interacciones contractuales y de consulta entre los investigadores y los miembros de ambas comunidades, dieron lugar a un compromiso más bien pasivo de las dos comunidades en el proyecto. Por esta razón, en los estudios socioeconómicos, genéticos y ecológicos el proyecto solo hizo limitadas contribuciones referidas a los conflictos de uso de los recursos detectados entre los terrajadores de caucho y los colonos.No se produjo la asociación que esperábamos se desarrollaría entre los participantes comprometidos en la investigación (Universidad Federal de Acre, EMBRAPA -Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Acre) y la política y ordenación (Organismo Estatal para la Ordenación del Medio Ambiente). Esto se debió principalmente a que la organización externa de investigación (ESALQ) coordinó y realizó la investigación a través de un grupo pequeño de líderes comunitarios y personas interesadas. Esto contribuyó en parte a la exclusión de otras instituciones e impidió la formación de asociaciones con otros participantes importantes. En consecuencia, las buenas posibilidades que pensábamos tener en Acre para formar asociaciones y obtener la ordenación adaptativa de los RGS no se concretaron. Al considerar que la ordenación silvícola y el 'extractivismo' son preocupaciones políticas clave en el Estado de Acre, tuvimos forzosamente que concluir que el proyecto sólo aportó allí modestas contribuciones.Al extraer conclusiones del sitio de proyecto de Acre debemos aclarar que muchas de las organizaciones que se unieron al proyecto financiado por BMZ también estaban involucradas en otros proyectos y actividades de conservación y ordenación silvícola en Brasil. El subproyecto financiado por BMZ en Acre era pequeño en comparación con muchos otros proyectos continuos de Brasil que abordan temas similares, y esto puede haber limitado el interés de los responsables locales de elaborar políticas y de las instituciones de investigación respecto de esta iniciativa de investigación. Por esta razón el subproyecto de Acre tuvo menos éxito en desarrollar asociaciones de ordenación de los RGS en un contexto de tipo adaptativo.Hemos visto que se motivó a los investigadores del proyecto para que comprometieran a la población local en sus actividades. Sin embargo supusimos incorrectamente que los investigadores tenían ya la capacidad de lograr la participación de los interesados, incluso en los casos en que la gente del lugar estuviera interesada en integrarse al proyecto. También llegamos a la conclusión de que el hecho de incluir investigación socioeconómica no garantiza el éxito de un método participativo (MP).Teniendo en cuenta que uno de los principios guía del proyecto fue el empleo de MP y que la población local fue considerada como participante con su propia contribución importante en pos de la conservación y la ordenación sostenibles, hallamos una llamativa brecha entre el desempeño real de los grupos de investigación sobre RGS y lo que esperábamos fuesen capaces de producir a través del MP. Por ende, uno de los descuidos del diseño del proyecto fue que los investigadores ecológicos, genéticos y socioeconómicos, si bien altamente calificados en sus respectivas disciplinas científicas, debieron haber sido también capacitados para conducir investigaciones participativas, o bien que desde el principio debiera haberse incluido en los equipos de investigación a expertos en métodos participativos. Esta es una lección importante para los donantes y las organizaciones internacionales que apoyen e inicien proyectos como el descrito en este libro. Un proyecto participativo es inadecuado a menos que los investigadores involucrados tengan la capacidad y el apoyo que necesitan para comprometerse en una investigación participativa.La primera fase del proyecto financiado por BMZ incluyó un amplio esfuerzo para identificar y consultar a los posibles participantes. Sin embargo, muchas de las personas, organizaciones e instituciones identificadas terminaron por desempeñar pequeños -o ninguno -papeles en las fases de ejecución. Esto era ya esperado, puesto que el interés, la capacidad y los recursos (financieros y técnicos) determinarán por lo general quienes van a participar al final. No obstante debemos también reconocer la importancia de las relaciones de poder. Durante las muchas reuniones celebradas en distintos lugares se escuchó una misma queja relacionada con el dinero y las responsabilidades y en especial que ambos no estaban equitativamente distribuidos entre los socios. Un tema claramente planteado fueron las relaciones diferenciales de poder. También a nivel de los sitios de estudio el poder, en términos de investigación y responsabilidad financiera, estaba distribuido de manera desigual. En todos los sitios la supervisión de la investigación y la adjudicación de los recursos estuvieron estrictamente coordinados por el socio nacional líder de la investigación (en Brasil ESALQ en Pontal y Acre y UFP en Paraná; en Argentina, INTA) y esto limitó la capacidad de maniobra de los investigadores subordinados destacados en los sitios, los socios investigadores y los representantes de la comunidad que apoyaban las actividades de investigación. Esta estructura contribuyó poco a promover la apropiación del proyecto por parte de los otros participantes, y promovió un asociacionismo apenas modesto, condiciones ambas que se requieren en cambio para el aprendizaje colectivo y la ordenación adaptativa de los RGS.Las relaciones de poder también influyeron en quienes podían o querían representar a las comunidades indígenas y de colonos y a las organizaciones profesionales. Vimos que la participación de la población local estuvo por lo general limitada a unos pocos individuos, a menudo a través de organizaciones de sociedades civiles (Pontal, Acre) u organismos comunitarios (Argentina, Paraná). El proyecto no proveyó mecanismos para facilitar o evaluar el flujo de información y consultas entre estos individuos y las comunidades de proveniencia o a las que representaban. Implícitamente consideramos que los individuos que provenían o representaban a las comunidades reflejarían las necesidades y opiniones de dichas comunidades, incluidos los grupos marginales. Ahora creemos que esta suposición no estaba justificada, visto lo que sabemos acerca de la complejidad de la comunidad y de las relaciones comunidad-ambiente. El hecho de que no podamos decir cuáles miembros de la comunidad se benefician de los diversos proyectos acentúa la importancia de seguir y evaluar las relaciones de poder y la interacción entre los miembros de la comunidad y sus representantes. Esto nos hubiera ayudado a evaluar el éxito del MP y por ende a extraer lecciones para proyectos futuros. De igual importancia, nos hubiera permitido aportar oportunamente ajustes al diseño del proyecto y a ejecutarlos en la fase de corrección.Una observación hecha frecuentemente por los coordinadores locales del proyecto era la dificultad de completarlos dentro de los plazos establecidos. El informe de uno de los cuatro talleres regionales finales llevados a cabo en cada sitio de proyecto (ETC et al. 2002) lo decía así: \"El período de estos tipos de proyectos de investigación participativa es demasiado corto para alcanzar un compromiso y participación reales de las comunidades. Es necesario que el pueblo pueda entender la importancia de la investigación social y del ambiente natural. Este es un proceso complejo que por lo general dura decenios.\"Puesto que el interés inicial del proyecto estuvo en la investigación participativa destinada a obtener información específica ecológica, genética y socioeconómica, el plazo temporal planificado de tres años debería haber sido suficiente. Dado este interés de la investigación y los limitados resultados efectivos que se obtuvieron, no es sorprendente que las contribuciones a la ordenación local de los RGS fuesen cuando mucho parciales. Puesto que la participación local fue por lo general baja, se iniciaron actividades más específicamente diseñadas para las necesidades inmediatas de las comunidades locales. Este cambio de programa demostró ser un paso esencial para ganar apoyo o, en algunos casos, un cambio de actitud hacia el proyecto. En Pontal y en Argentina, el proyecto BMZ ayudó a iniciar actividades comunitarias desarrolladas por participantes locales.El proyecto completado ahora puede ser visto como la fase de investigación de un compromiso mayor (Figura 1, pág. 246) y puede considerarse que su repercusión se reforzará enormemente si se inicia pronto un programa complementario de desarrollo que aproveche sus logros. Este programa podría hacer mucho más posible que el proyecto BMZ condujera a cambios duraderos en la ordenación y utilización de los RGS en los sitios respectivos de investigación. Esta suposición subraya la importancia de la investigación participativa en la planificación y los programas de desarrollo que también se abocan a las metas de mediano y largo plazo vinculadas con los primeros pasos esenciales de recoger y analizar la información mediante la investigación. Sin embargo esta conclusión no debe llevarnos a subestimar los proyectos con plazos y metas limitados pues, como vimos, si están bien concebidos pueden también desempeñar papeles importantes para ganar la confianza y el apoyo de la población local.Los límites de los sitios de estudio del proyecto financiado por BMZ se definieron aplicando criterios geográficos, biológicos, políticos y socioeconómicos. Durante las reuniones de consulta se identificaron los sitios, las especies y los socios de investigación y desarrollo, y por lo tanto en cierto modo fueron 'construidos' en ese momento. Hasta cierto punto estos sitios han conducido ahora a la formación de ulteriores asociaciones para la ordenación de sus RGS. Una toma de conciencia compartida de que la conservación y el uso sostenible son propiedades emergentes e importantes de estos sitios ha comenzado ahora a enlazar a algunos participantes con los socios de otros proyectos.Puesto que operaba en una serie de sitios y de establecimientos y adoptó numerosas estrategias para lograr la participación, el proyecto financiado por BMZ contribuyó a la formación de asociaciones entre los investigadores y las organizaciones rurales con el objetivo común de mejorar la ordenación de los RGS y las políticas relacionadas con los mismos. En este contexto se necesitará más guía y capacitación de los científicos biológicos acerca de la investigación participativa y el diseño del desarrollo a fin de crear o modelar asociaciones futuras para el uso y ordenación sostenibles de los RGS que involucren a la población rural. Solo cuando los resultados del desarrollo se vinculen con una mejora de los medios de vida rurales se conseguirá un progreso verdadero que vaya más allá de la investigación genética, ecológica y socioeconómica.Implicaciones prácticas de los resultados obtenidos en los estudios de genética silvícola R. Vinceti 1 , P. van Breugel 2 y W. Amaral 1 1 Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI), Roma, Italia 2 Consultor, Nairobi, Kenya (ex Experto Asociado de IPGRI, Piracicaba, Brasil) Trasladar los resultados de la investigación genética silvícola a la práctica es una necesidad fundamental para el éxito de la conservación, si bien plantea muchos desafíos. Estos desafíos tienen que ver con temas tales como extender los resultados de investigaciones hechas en una escala geográfica limitada a especies y colonias diferentes de las estudiadas, y detectar o crear el ambiente sociopolítico que favorezca la adopción de las soluciones propuestas.En este capítulo figuran las implicaciones prácticas de los estudios genéticos silvícolas. Presentamos una colección de preguntas frecuentes acerca de la ordenación formuladas por diferentes grupos de usuarios del bosque a quienes los estudios de genética silvícola pueden ofrecer respuestas. La mayor parte de los ejemplos que se presentan provienen de estudios de caso emprendidos por el Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI) en colaboración con otros institutos o centros de investigación de los países en desarrollo. Algunos de estos ejemplos destacan las dificultades que se enfrentan cuando se trata de unir los hallazgos de la investigación con las decisiones políticas y las actividades prácticas.La preocupación por los bosques ha impulsado el diseño y ejecución de numerosas iniciativas para promover la conservación de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS) del mundo. Pero para lograr esta meta hay que comprender y abocarse a muchas consideraciones prácticas como la necesidad de comprometer a los grupos locales en la conservación y uso sostenible de las especies que son al mismo tiempo recursos locales, regionales y mundiales; la necesidad de que los administradores reconozcan cuándo y bajo qué circunstancias están amenazadas las especies y poblaciones, y la necesidad de identificar soluciones adecuadas que sean a la vez fáciles de ejecutar y efectivas en cuanto a costos.Hay muchos (otros) factores sociales, políticos y económicos como el crecimiento de la población, la distribución no equitativa de las tierras y el bienestar y/o las políticas gubernamentales, que pueden plantear conflictos incluso mayores que los derivados de deficiencias técnicas o biológicas (Ledig 1986) a la ejecución de estrategias de conservación de los recursos genéticos, pero este capítulo no se refiere a los mismos.Aquí presentamos cuestiones de investigación biológica asociadas con las diversas estrategias de conservación (in situ y ex situ) y el uso de los RGS que reflejan la visión de muchos tipos de usuarios de los recursos silvícolas: individuos o grupos dentro de las comunidades locales, administradores de bosques, compañías madereras, responsables de políticas, organismos de conservación u organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) y otros tipos de organizaciones interesadas en la conservación y el uso de los recursos silvícolas.• ¿Qué posibilidad hay de que especies de importancia económica prioritaria se adapten al cambio climático? La pérdida de variación de las características adaptativas reducirá por lo general el margen en que las especies pueden evolucionar para responder a los cambios del ambiente, aumentando en consecuencia su riesgo de extinción. Los estudios genéticos silvícolas contribuyen a comprender los mecanismos de adaptación de las especies arbóreas y apoyan formas 'activas' de ordenación de los genes, preparándose para responder a los rápidos cambios ambientales y climáticos. • ¿Qué especies son más sensibles a las amenazas? La vulnerabilidad de las especies depende de sus características biológicas y de las presiones de selección a que están expuestas. La diversidad genética es de particular relevancia para la evolución a largo plazo de las especies. Los mapas o índices de vulnerabilidad a la erosión genética son herramientas útiles para ayudar a identificar aquellas especies que requieren medidas prioritarias de conservación. • ¿ Debemos establecer zonas de conservación in situ para ecosistemas más o menos intactos que albergan especies prioritarias?¿Cuál es su tamaño óptimo? Estas preguntas, que son particularmente importantes para los responsables de políticas y las organizaciones de conservación de los recursos naturales, pueden ser en parte respondidas emprendiendo un conjunto de actividades de investigación tendientes a definir las ubicaciones y tamaños mínimos de las zonas que se conservarán. • Cuando los ecosistemas naturales han sido gravemente fragmentados, ¿qué tamaño y forma deben tener los fragmentos a fin de mantener una mínima diversidad adecuada de las especies objetivo, y cuál es el grado de conectividad ecológica que permitirá un flujo de genes adecuado? Las especies responden de diferente manera a la fragmentación del bosque y al aislamiento, con arreglo a sus características ecológicas y reproductivas y a sus interacciones con los polinizadores y dispersadores de semillas, que también son afectados por la fragmentación. Los estudios genéticos pueden determinar el nivel de erosión genética que resulta directa o indirectamente de un flujo de genes reducido. También son útiles para evaluar la eficacia genética (flujo de genes) de los corredores silvícolas.• ¿Cuáles proveniencias se necesitan para recuperar las especies arbóreas objetivo? La traslocación de organismos durante la restauración de ecosistemas nativos ha generado una miríada de cuestiones acerca de protocolos de muestreo e hibridación infraespecífica entre los genotipos adaptados localmente y los trasplantados. El IPGRI y otros investigadores están actualmente llevando a cabo estudios para determinar tanto la amplitud de la adaptación genética local como los riesgos potenciales que derivan de introducir genotipos externos, incluidos los efectos de fundación, el empantanamiento genético y la depresión exogénica. Además se están empleando marcadores moleculares nuevos para predecir las consecuencias genéticas de la traslocación en una población; combinados, estos marcadores son de gran utilidad para determinar las zonas apropiadas para la transferencia de semillas al planificar la restauración de poblaciones vegetales nativas. • ¿Dónde, cómo y cuándo debemos recoger material para la conservación ex situ? En algunos casos la conservación ex situ puede ser la única opción para salvaguardar especies prioritarias durante períodos breves, antes de que pueda producirse el aumento o reintroducción en ambientes naturales o que la especie se utilice en programas de plantación. Los profesionales y administradores silvícolas necesitan acceder a fuentes de semillas de origen conocido adecuadamente caracterizadas del punto de vista genético. Además, se deben aplicar protocolos básicos para la recolección, manipulación, almacenamiento, germinación y acopio de semillas, y donde no existan deberán ser elaborados.• ¿Cuáles son los niveles sostenibles de aprovechamiento de los productos silvícolas madereros y no madereros (PSNM) de las especies objetivo? La cosecha de rollizos y la extracción de PSNM de los bosques contribuyen a los medios de vida de las comunidades que viven en los bosques. No obstante el uso de los recursos silvícolas afecta la diversidad genética de numerosas especies. Cosechar después de la tala las partes reproductivas de los árboles para destinarlas a alimento o medicinas tendría la más significativa repercusión sobre la diversidad genética, en especial si las cosechas son considerables, amplias y no reglamentadas. La investigación acerca de los procesos genéticos de los árboles de los que se cosechan los PSNM ayudaría a alcanzar un equilibrio entre las necesidades de las poblaciones dependientes del bosque y la integridad genética del recurso.Durante el último decenio la contaminación genética causada por la dispersión de polen y/o la hibridación se ha convertido en una preocupación mayor de los conservadores y administradores silvícolas. El riesgo de fuga de transgenes provenientes de organismos modificados genéticamente ha concentrado la atención pública en la contaminación genética del caudal nativo de genes con especies exóticas, proveniencias no locales y genotipos modificados genéticamente o altamente seleccionados. Se necesitan más estudios sobre contaminación genética para dar bases científicas a los marcos normativos que controlen el movimiento del material genético dentro y fuera de las fronteras nacionales. En las siguientes secciones se debatirán con más detalle los temas de investigación subrayados más arriba. Empleamos estudios de casos del IPGRI y en particular los resultados de este proyecto financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo de Alemania (BMZ) como fondo.3. Ejemplos de aplicaciones prácticas de estudios genéticos de los RGSEn todo el mundo el objetivo general de la conservación de los RGS es mantener la diversidad genética de las miles de especies arbóreas de importancia socioeconómica y ambiental conocida o potencial. Puesto que se supone que el nivel y distribución de la variación genética de cualquier especie está en un proceso de constante cambio natural que resulta de las principales fuerzas de la evolución, la preocupación por la conservación debe ser preservar los procesos evolutivos que promueven y mantienen la diversidad genética, y no solo tratar de conservar la distribución actual de la variación como un fin en sí mismo (Namkoong et al. 1997;Namkoong 2001). Así, la conservación in situ es la estrategia habitual de la mayoría de las especies vegetales silvestres, incluidos los parientes silvestres de cultivos domésticos, puesto que su naturaleza dinámica favorece la evolución continua. Esto no solo permite que las poblaciones de interés sigan expuestas al proceso evolutivo, sino que también implica normalmente que se evite una rápida erosión genética y un fuerte cambio de dirección de la composición genética.Los genes que afectan a la manifestación de características adaptativas influyen de manera fundamental en la capacidad de los organismos individuales para sobrevivir y reproducirse, y el mantenimiento de la variabilidad de la característica adaptativa del caudal genético de las especies animales y vegetales está convirtiéndose en un objetivo primario de la conservación de la biodiversidad (Franklin 1980;Gregorius 1991;Eriksson et al. 1993). Esto es particularmente importante por los cambios ambientales y climáticos que actualmente imponen considerables presiones a los mecanismos vegetales de adaptación, sobre todo en las especies arbóreas silvícolas.Por lo tanto la variabilidad de las características adaptativas ha pasado a ser una prioridad de investigación y conservación en la ordenación de la biodiversidad silvícola (Ennos et al. 1998). No obstante es difícil identificar las porciones de genoma que contienen la variación genética significativa para la adaptabilidad (Smith y Wayne 1996;Lynch et al. 1999). Los administradores silvícolas deben también afrontar los cambios genéticos de las plagas y los patógenos, cambios que pueden intensificarse con el creciente cambio climático (Dale et al. 2001;Scherm 2004). Por lo tanto los genetistas silvícolas deben identificar los mecanismos de control genético de la resistencia, mientras aseguran que en las poblaciones cultivadas se mantiene una adecuada variación genética que suministre esa resistencia.Por lo general las características adaptativas son cuantitativas, controladas por determinadores multigénicos y su manifestación y variabilidad han sido afectadas por la selección natural a través de las interacciones ambientales (Falconer y Mackay 1996). Sin embargo ni los genetistas ni los administradores silvícolas pueden seguir y ordenar todos los loci relevantes para la conservación por tres razones principales (Sherwin y Moritz 2000): (i) no es probable que un mismo conjunto de loci sea enteramente responsable de las características adaptativas de interés en todas las condiciones; (ii) si bien la asociación entre la diversidad y la idoneidad genética sea a menudo significativa y positiva, la serie de valores del componente mismo de idoneidad es a menudo reducida, de modo que no es probable que un locus particular tenga un efecto identificable sobre la idoneidad y (iii) en experimentos de corto plazo es difícil distinguir entre los efectos de heterocigosidad en loci individuales y la heterocigosidad en loci vinculados en el mismo segmento de cromosoma. Incluso es difícil estimar las características adaptativas de una especie porque se necesita observar los rasgos adaptativos de un gran número de poblaciones en una serie de ambientes. Esto es costoso en términos de dinero y de tiempo, y no es práctico en el caso de muchas especies arbóreas.Por ende, ¿qué podemos seguir y ordenar en una población individual para conservar su variación genética adaptativa (tanto en un solo locus como en muchos)? Es habitual emplear la variación molecular observada mediante métodos genéticos como un sustituto de la variación adaptativa (Lynch et al. 1999). Otro sustituto utilizado frecuentemente es el mantenimiento de una población de gran tamaño, sobre la base de una correlación generalmente positiva entre el tamaño de la población y la diversidad genética (Frankham 1996). Pero este método se debe usar con precaución dadas las excepciones de correlación mencionados más arriba (Leberg 1993), la dificultad de calcular el tamaño efectivo de la población a partir de censos y datos demográficos (Luikart y England 1999) y los problemas relacionados con la determinación del tamaño efectivo de la población (Franklin 1980;Lande 1995). En relación con la distribución espacial de la diversidad genética intraespecífica, la teoría actual sugiere que por lo menos algunos componentes de la diversidad adaptativa de una especie pueden ser retenidos manteniendo poblaciones viables en toda la serie de ambientes que ocupa, llamadas unidades evolutivamente significativas (UES) y de preferencia dentro de medios naturales conectados y heterogéneos. Lesica y Allendorf (1995) llegaron a la conclusión de que la conservación de poblaciones periféricas es de particular importancia para mantener el potencial evolutivo.Estudios de avanzada han tratado de comparar la diversidad genética molecular con la variación adaptativa a nivel interno de la especie (Kremer 1994;Lynch 1995). Escasos como son, se dispone de datos sobre las características adaptativas de algunas especies de importancia económica cuyas poblaciones han sido observadas empleando diseños experimentales rigurosos y en muchos ambientes (por ejemplo Pederick 1979;Alia et al. 1997).Al estudiar la adaptación al cambio climático se han empleado datos climáticos y de distribución espacial de la diversidad biológica a fin de generar modelos para predecir la repercusión del clima sobre la distribución geográfica y la diversidad genética de algunas especies arbóreas silvícolas (Enquist 2002). El estudio de respuestas anteriores de las especies a las perturbaciones también ayudó a entender los efectos de los cambios ambientales actuales y a diseñar estrategias de conservación (McLachlan y Clark 2004).Trabajos de este tipo han sido emprendidos por el IPGRI en colaboración con el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). La información sobre la distribución espacial de la diversidad genética fue acoplada con modelos climáticos que emplean la herramienta FloraMap de elaboración de modelos basada en el sistema de información geográfica (GIS). Esto permitió a los investigadores predecir desplazamientos en las 18 especies importantes de maní (Arachis spp.) cultivadas y silvestres de América del Sur (Hijmans et al. 2001), así como la extinción de distintas poblaciones provocada por pérdidas de hábitat como consecuencia del cambio climático. El escenario descrito por estos autores señalaba un futuro precario para la mayoría de las 18 especies analizadas. Sin embargo se están ejecutando programas para desarrollar estrategias de conservación para muchas especies silvestres de Arachis en Bolivia, consideradas el origen de la planta doméstica de Arachis (Stalker y Simpson 1995).Este tipo de herramientas de predicción permiten ahora identificar las poblaciones amenazadas, fragmentadas o marginales de importantes especies arbóreas silvícolas, recolectar en bancos de genes material para preservarlas y, por último, utilizarlas en programas de acrecentamiento o recuperación.Dada la situación urgente y los escasos recursos disponibles, los conservacionistas deben elegir dónde concentrar su atención. Además la biodiversidad no está distribuida de manera uniforme y algunos biotas y ecosistemas son más complejos, distintivos o amenazados que otros. Por estas razones, para desarrollar estrategias de conservación eficaces es crucial identificar zonas y/o especies prioritarias y las respectivas actividades de conservación.Los estudios de las extinciones actuales y del pasado describen con frecuencia las pautas no casuales de pérdidas de especies entre los taxa (Raup 1994;McKinney 1997;Russell et al. 1998;Purvis et al. 2000) mientras que los estudios de poblaciones y especies existentes han identificado factores asociados con la vulnerabilidad a la extinción (Laurance 1991;Gaston 1994;Woodroffe y Ginsberg 1998;Foufopoulos e Ives 1999). Es bien sabido que los principales procesos que conducen a la extinción son el 'cuarteto del mal' (pérdida del hábitat, sobreaprovechamiento, especies introducidas y cadenas de extinción; Diamond 1984). Pero las pruebas estadísticas de diferencias entre las especies en términos de vulnerabilidad a la extinción han demostrado ser difíciles. Los problemas hallados incluyen información incompleta sobre la biología, estado de conservación y filogénesis de las especies, y sobre las interrelaciones entre las posibles variables de predicción (McKinney 1997;Woodroffe y Ginsberg 1998).La pérdida de hábitat conduce inevitablemente a una reducción del tamaño de la población; desde hace más de 150 años se sabe que las poblaciones animales y vegetales pequeñas enfrentan un mayor riesgo de extinción que las grandes (Darwin 1985). A veces los factores genéticos pueden contribuir al fracaso de la supervivencia de una población pequeña, tanto por la falta de una apropiada diversidad genética como por la acumulación de mutaciones deletéreas que reducen el promedio de los índices de reproducción de las poblaciones (Barret y Kohn 1991;Sherwin y Moritz 2000), si bien la falta de diversidad genética en poblaciones pequeñas es el síntoma de que está en peligro más que la causa (Holsinger y Vitt 1997).Sin embargo desde los trabajos de Lande (1988) ha habido un repensamiento del papel de los procesos y datos genéticos en la ordenación de especies raras. Por ejemplo, muchos conservacionistas formulan ahora preguntas como '¿cuán oneroso es obtener los datos genéticos?' y '¿cuál es la relación entre la estructura genética de una población y sus procesos demográficos?' En respuesta diremos que la ventaja de un modelo que tiene en cuenta la variación genética es que nos fuerza a ser explícitos acerca de los efectos de la endogamia, la depresión por cruzamiento lejano, la fusión mutacional y una serie Recuadro 1. Establecimiento de prioridades para la conservación de RGS en Africa Los bosques tienen un valor incalculable para el ambiente así como para obtener alimentos, medicinas, energía y para satisfacer otras necesidades humanas. Su preservación es un desafío mundial. En 1998 el IPGRI inició el Programa de Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas del Africa Sub-Sahariana (SAFORGEN) para asegurar que los RGS de esta parte del mundo reciben la atención de conservación e investigación que necesitan.Los países comprendidos por SAFORGEN establecen una red de prioridades en términos de especies y actividades; determinan las actividades nacionales y en colaboración, y difunden los resultados de las actividades entre los miembros de la red. Hasta ahora los países miembros han propuesto señalar especies prioritarias en cuatro subredes piloto: especies arbóreas para alimentos; especies arbóreas para madera y fibra, especies arbóreas medicinales y especies arbóreas para forraje. Patrocinados por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente (PNUMA) y el IPGRI, se han emprendido estudios de campo sobre la diversidad genética y la repercusión de las actividades humanas en dos especies arbóreas forrajeras de Benin, dos especies para alimentos en Kenya y dos especies arbóreas medicinales en Togo. Se han organizado actividades regionales de capacitación sobre conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS en toda la red. de interacciones plausibles entre los atributos demográficos y la composición genética (Frankham 1995).Establecer prioridades de conservación de especies sobre la base del nivel de amenaza que enfrentan y su importancia es una operación común que debe preceder a la actividad de conservación, y diferentes organizaciones han adoptado muchos criterios que las ayudan a establecer las prioridades en términos de objetivos, métodos y escalas de intervención (Redford et al. 2003). Para guiar el establecimiento de prioridades en las actividades de conservación se han definido categorías que identifican diferentes niveles de amenazas y vulnerabilidad; se han compilado listas de especies (por ejemplo Unión Mundial de Conservación [IUCN], http://www.redlist.org) y se han identificado especies clave (es decir especies que tienen la capacidad de influir de manera significativa en la estabilidad del ecosistema). Además, Henle et al. (2004) condujeron estudios para identificar los predictores de la sensibilidad de especies arbóreas a las amenazas, como la fragmentación, sobre la base de un conjunto de características demográficas, historiales de vida, características de comunidad y biogeográficas. Los predictores también ayudan a entender la predisposición de una especie a la extinción y por ende pueden ayudar a identificar las especies que más necesitan ser conservadas.El IPGRI ha estado profundamente comprometido en amplias consultas regionales destinadas a identificar especies prioritarias para la conservación de los RGS transfronterizos. En efecto, en la 13ª sesión del Comité de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Bosques (COFO) de la Organización para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) y la décima y subsiguientes sesiones del Cuadro de Expertos sobre Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas de la FAO, se ha recomendado que la FAO en colaboración con socios como el IPGRI ayuden a los países a convocar talleres regionales y subregionales para apoyar el desarrollo de planes de acción para la conservación y el uso sostenible de los RGS. Uno de los temas destacados de los talleres regionales mantenidos hasta ahora ha sido la necesidad de desarrollar métodos comunes para establecer prioridades, y en especial para las especies que se beneficiarán de la ordenación genética. Se ha recomendado también que se establezcan mecanismos para asegurar que se consideran debidamente las necesidades y aspiraciones de las comunidades locales (Ouédraogo y Boffa 1999; Palmberg-Lerche y Hald 1999). En el Recuadro 1 se presenta un ejemplo del trabajo del IPGRI sobre selección de especies arbóreas prioritarias para la investigación y conservación.El estado de la biodiversidad silvícola se determina a nivel de la comunidad (como ecosistemas y hábitats) y a varios niveles de sus partes constitutivas (p. ej., poblaciones de especies o genomas). Sin embargo la conservación silvícola a menudo ha sido indirecta y unidimensional, como resultado del establecimiento de parques nacionales, que habitualmente han sido creados para proteger la megafauna, los panoramas espectaculares o los ecosistemas raros, prestando poca atención a la jerarquía de la organización biológica o al dinamismo de los procesos biológicos en el espacio y en el tiempo. Además los criterios para seleccionar las zonas de conservación difieren con arreglo a sus objetivos, y las zonas seleccionadas para conservar ecosistemas, especies o genes pueden no coincidir unas con otras. Mientras aumenta la toma de conciencia de que hay un aspecto genético en la conservación silvícola, el nivel de comprensión de los principios que subyacen a estos temas y las implicaciones genéticas de la conservación y ordenación son limitados.Algunos expertos ven la investigación genética como un modo de seguir el 'contenido de información' de la biodiversidad (Crozier 1997). La tesis de Crozier es que la preservación de las especies arbóreas sobre una base utilitaria, como opuesta a una base moral o estética, depende del contenido de su información, más concretamente de la identificación de genes que pueden tener importancia para la gente. La genética puede ser utilizada para evaluar este 'contenido de información' de la especie arbórea y por ende, por extensión, puede también ayudar a identificar la ubicación de los puntos álgidos de la biodiversidad. Una base objetiva para comparar el contenido de la información de conjuntos de taxa reside en distintas medidas que evalúen su 'diversidad fitogenética'. Petit et al. (1997) notaron sin embargo que las prioridades de conservación deben considerar la unicidad tanto como la diversidad. Estos autores sugieren que una medición de la 'riqueza de alelos' analizada con técnicas de rarefacción proporciona una evaluación no desviada de la diversidad y unicidad en diferentes tamaños de muestras y de taxa arbóreas.Otra de las aplicaciones de la genética a la selección de ubicaciones para establecer reservas consiste en delinear zonas biogeográficas que sean centros de endemismo. Estudios sobre la filogenia y las estructuras genéticas de la población de algunos géneros y familias bien escogidos pueden proporcionar pautas de diferenciación cuyos datos se extrapolan para proteger a otras especies. Por eso ya se han realizado tentativas de maximizar la captura de diversidad filogenética en la selección de zonas de conservación (Rodrigues y Gaston 2002) y para determinar si la diversidad genética y/o la riqueza taxonómica pueden ser sustituidas por la diversidad filogenética (Polansky et al. 2001). Si bien hay una relación positiva entre la filogenética y la diversidad genética, estos estudios muestran que usando solo la riqueza taxonómica como criterio para la selección de reservas, ésta puede desviarse hacia sitios que tienen muchas especies íntimamente relacionadas, mientras que la selección basada en la diversidad filogenética tenderá a seleccionar sitios con taxa monofilética. Por desgracia los datos sobre las relaciones filogenéticas entre las especies arbóreas pueden ser escasos y/o incompletos, y esto puede impedir que este método encuentre amplia aplicación en la planificación de reservas (Polansky et al. 2001).En el Recuadro 2 (pág. 270) se presentan los estudios filogenéticos del IPGRI en colaboración con el Instituto Smithsoniano de Investigación Tropical sobre especies arbóreas silvícolas neotropicales.Los análisis de la distribución espacial de la diversidad genética silvícola son importantes para las decisiones sobre la ubicación de la conservación in situ, puesto que la meta última de la conservación silvícola in situ es mantener una amplia diversidad genética de modo que las especies arbóreas retengan la capacidad de adaptarse al cambio ambiental. Esto significa que los métodos dinámicos de conservación de la diversidad genética son por lo general mucho más útiles a este respecto que los que se concentran en la conservación estática de genotipos individuales. Por lo tanto para que un programa de conservación de genes in situ tenga éxito debe llenar tres requisitos básicos (Koski et al. 1997): (i) la regeneración de las poblaciones arbóreas objetivo debe ser asegurada por la nueva generación que resulte predominantemente del cruzamiento entre las poblaciones conservadas; (ii) el número de genotipos de las poblaciones conservadas debe ser suficientemente amplio como para incluir la mayoría de los alelos comunes y (iii) los rodales de conservación deben estar distribuidos de tal manera que cubran la variación genética espacial presente en la especie. En cada sitio donde se encuentra una especie se deben considerar los factores genéticos, demográficos y ecológicos para elaborar la estrategia de conservación in situ más apropiada.Para evaluar los niveles de diversidad genética de las especies arbóreas se están empleando cada vez más la genética molecular y otras herramientas biotecnológicas (Boshier 2000) y esto tiene implicaciones para determinar las ubicaciones de conservación silvícola.Un ejemplo de investigación emprendida para identificar las zonas más adecuadas para la conservación silvícola in situ en Europa es el marco de trabajo del Programa Europeo de Recursos Genéticos Silvícolas, EUFORGEN (http://www.euforgen.org). Es un mecanismo de colaboración entre países europeos para promover la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS coordinado por el IPGRI en colaboración técnica con la FAO. La Figura 1 (pág. 271) presenta un diagrama de procedimiento con el examen general de las condiciones para seleccionar la estrategia de conservación in situ más apropiada para el álamo negro europeo (Populus nigra). El examen se basa en el trabajo llevado a cabo por la Red Europea de Populus nigra.En la mayoría de los países tropicales la fragmentación silvícola derivada de la conversión de los bosques a otro tipo de uso de la tierra es una realidad en aumento y en la actualidad es un tema crítico de la investigación genética silvícola. Desde hace tiempo se sabe que la variación genética de la mayoría de las especies arbóreas tropicales es alta y que dicha variación es mayor dentro de las poblaciones que entre ellas, lo que indica un amplio flujo de genes dentro de la especie (Hamrick y Loveless 1989). Hoy día es Recuadro 2. Estudios filogenéticos de una especie arbórea silvícola neotropical La historia biogeográfica contribuye a las pautas de la diversidad de especies arbóreas en los ecosistemas silvícolas, influyendo en las diferencias regionales de especiación, extinción e inmigración (Ricklefs y Schluter 1993). Las contribuciones históricas pueden ser evaluadas con métodos paleontológicos o filogenéticos. Este segundo método fue adoptado por los investigadores del Instituto Smithsoniano de Investigación Tropical para relevar la diferenciación en un árbol tropical de amplia difusión, Symphonia globulifera L. f. (Clusiaceae), en el período terciaro (Dick et al. 2003). A fin de iniciar el análisis histórico de un árbol tropical tan extendido, se secuenció la región transcripta del espaciador ribosomal nuclear interno (ITS, sigla en inglés) en poblaciones de esa especie ubicados en los neotrópicos y en Africa Occidental. El desarrollo y aplicación de un reloj molecular ITS permitió a los investigadores evaluar también el momento en el cual divergieron las poblaciones. Estos hallazgos apoyaron la evidencia ya obtenida de datos paleontológicos que indicaban tres episodios de dispersión marina de esta especie que condujeron a la colonización en Mesoamérica, la cuenca del Amazonas y las Indias Occidentales. Se encontró una fuerte estructura filogeográfica entre las poblaciones trasandinas de S. globulifera, mientras que la variación nucleótida ITS no aparecía en la cuenca del Amazonas, lo que sugería marcadas diferencias regionales en la historia demográfica de esta especie silvícola del bosque húmedo. una preocupación general de los administradores e investigadores silvícolas el hecho de que la fragmentación silvícola está produciendo un flujo reducido de genes y una mayor deriva genética en las especies arbóreas silvícolas, lo que potencialmente provoca una pérdida permanente de diversidad genética (Gilpin y Soulé 1986). Sin embargo también se verificó que la fragmentación provoca mayores niveles de flujo de genes entre algunas poblaciones fragmentadas y, por lo tanto, mantiene o incluso aumenta la diversidad genética dentro de estas poblaciones (Hamrick 1992;Young et al. 1996). Por ende se necesita más investigación genética sobre las respuestas de diferentes grupos de especies arbóreas silvícolas a la fragmentación y el aislamiento para poder obtener generalizaciones significativas que permitan elaborar directrices de conservación.También se sabe que la fragmentación del hábitat puede afectar indirectamente la diversidad genética silvícola al fracturar mecanismos mutuos como la polinización y la dispersión (Levin y Kerster 1974;Aizen y Feinsinger 1994). Esto puede llevar al aislamiento genético de las poblaciones y también a una reducción del tamaño y la diversidad genética de las poblaciones (Young et al. 1996) añadiendo así a los efectos directos de la pérdida de hábitat, efectos genéticos negativos menos obvios. Para formular estrategias de ordenación silvícola a fin de conservar las especies arbóreas es necesario comprender las consecuencias de la fragmentación en el nivel y distribución espacial de la diversidad genética y en la amplitud de la conectividad entre rodales para el flujo de genes.Nuestra comprensión de la repercusión de las actividades humanas en los sistemas de cruzamiento, flujo de genes y diversidad genética depende también del continuo descubrimiento y desarrollo de marcadores genéticos que permitan a los investigadores evaluar el flujo de genes y el tamaño efectivo de la población arbórea. El desarrollo de marcadores microsatelitales altamente variables y un mayor reconocimiento de su importancia para determinar las consecuencias genéticas de la fragmentación han inducido más investigaciones en este campo (Chase et al. 1996;Dawson et al. 1997;Aldrich y Hamrick 1998;Nason et al. 1998;Dayanandan et al. 1999).La investigación del IPGRI en colaboración con las universidades de Costa Rica y de Massachusetts (Estados Unidos de América) se ha abocado a estos temas incluyendo la caracterización de nuevos marcadores genéticos para los árboles y la repercusión de la fragmentación silvícola sobre la reproducción y el flujo de genes en las especies de los bosques tropicales secos empleadas para el aprovechamiento silvícola en Costa Rica (Recuadro 3, pág. opuesta).Muestreo de la distribución de la diversidad genética silvícola para la conservación ex situ La destrucción del hábitat silvícola está teniendo lugar en proporciones alarmantes en todo el planeta. Se conocen poco las pautas de las amenazas y la erosión genética a nivel de ecosistemas, especies e infraespecíficos, pero con toda probabilidad la supervivencia de miles de especies arbóreas dependerá en última instancia de su conservación fuera de las zonas naturales, por ejemplo en bosques ordenados, medios naturales agrícolas, jardines botánicos y arboretos y en bancos de semillas o bancos genéticos de campo. En nuestros conocimientos existen grandes lagunas acerca de la distribución de la variación genética de los árboles silvícolas. Con la colección y almacenamiento de semillas estándar mediante técnicas de temperatura y humedad reducidas, conservación criogénica de tejidos y semillas recalcitrantes y el cultivo de tejidos a temperatura controlada, la conservación ex situ ha probado ser un complemento flexible de la conservación in situ. Es también un medio eficaz para capturar los alelos raros que son el componente más vulnerable de la diversidad.A fin de que la conservación ex situ tenga unos niveles mínimos adecuados de diversidad genética de los árboles se necesitan estrategias de muestreo cuidadosamente concebidas. Por lo tanto antes de implementar estrategias de conservación ex situ se deben seleccionar los recursos genéticos sobre la base del conocimiento de las pautas Recuadro 3. Repercusión de la fragmentación en los RGS de los bosques de Costa Rica La repercusión de la fragmentación en la biología reproductiva de Enterolobium cyclocarpum en el Parque Nacional Guanacaste de Costa Rica fue tema de un proyecto de investigación coordinado por el IPGRI. El estudio comparó las características reproductivas de árboles E. cyclocarpum que crecen en bosques continuos y en pastizales. Los investigadores hipotizaron que una reducción del hábitat continuo iría acompañada de menores índices de visitas de los polinizadores a las flores y esto verosímilmente haría declinar la polinización, el conjunto de frutos obtenidos y la producción de semillas por fruto. Sin embargo, se determinó que en los bosques fragmentados la cantidad de flores con polen en el estigma y la cantidad de granos de polen depositados era similar a la de los bosques continuos. No obstante en los bosques fragmentados solo una limitada fracción de árboles con flores polinizadas producían después frutos maduros. Esto sugería que además de la polinización otros factores provocan una menor maduración de frutos. Puesto que las plantas pueden regular la calidad de su progenie, los investigadores hipotizaron que la competencia entre los frutos en desarrollo y/o las interacciones genotípicas entre los progenitores paterno y materno fueron responsables del diferencial de semillas malogradas. Como el vigor procreativo de los brinzales de árboles en los pastizales fue significativamente menor que el de los brinzales de bosques continuos, se supuso que la fragmentación del hábitat fracturaba los mecanismos que regulan el vigor y la calidad procreativa, o que el vigor y calidad procreativos eran afectados por la endogamia. Pero la investigación reveló también que la fragmentación no afectó los índices de cruzamiento lejano.Además el estudio demostró cuán importantes son los árboles aislados en panoramas fragmentados para el movimiento de los polinizadores y para el flujo de genes mientras, por otro lado, también mostró que las semillas de fuentes fragmentadas son inferiores a las de los bosques continuos para el establecimiento de plantaciones comerciales (Rocha y Aguilar 2001).En el Parque Nacional Guanacaste se emprendió otro estudio para identificar y caracterizar loci de repetición de secuencia simple (SSR) de Carapa guianensis que podían emplearse luego para detectar polimorfismos en las especies vinculadas. Empleando estos marcadores, el estudio probó los efectos de la fragmentación en el flujo de genes y la diferenciación genética dentro de las poblaciones silvícolas fragmentadas y continuas, comparando los individuos de cohortes adultas antes de la fragmentación con individuos de cohortes de brinzales después de la fragmentación. Las distancias genéticas entre los adultos y los brinzales fueron mayores en las poblaciones de bosques fragmentados que en las de los bosques continuos. En el caso de los sitios sujetos a pastoreo de ganado y aprovechamiento silvícola selectivo, la riqueza promedio de alelos de las cohortes de brinzales fue más baja que la de la población adulta, mientras que se verificó lo opuesto en el caso de las poblaciones silvícolas continuas sin pastoreo ni aprovechamiento silvícola selectivo. Más aún, la mayor distancia genética entre todas las cohortes comparadas con las cohortes adultas fue atribuible sobre todo a los árboles jóvenes y, más específicamente, a la diferenciación sustancial que existe entre las plantas juveniles de las poblaciones fragmentadas y las de las poblaciones continuas. El proyecto indicó que por lo general la fragmentación disminuye el flujo de genes y aumenta la diferenciación de alelos entre las poblaciones. de variación en el espacio. Una vez que se conocen y se actúa sobre las diversas partes del proceso de conservación, el paso final del programa de conservación es regenerar el recurso (Finkeldey y Hattemer 1993;Hattemer 1995).La bibliografía relativa a la teoría y la fundamentación de las estrategias de muestreo óptimo para la conservación ex situ es muy rica (por ejemplo Allard 1970;Marshall y Brown 1975;Namkoong 1988;Crossa 1989;Krusche y Geburek 1991;Lawrence et al. 1995).Por lo general se reconoce que la proveniencia de la semilla es la unidad clave del recurso genético cuando tiene lugar la recolección (Matyas 1996;Brown y Hardner 2000). Numerosos estudios han puesto de relieve que existe divergencia genética entre proveniencias de una misma especie (por ejemplo Stern y Roche 1974;Mikola 1982). Brown y Hardner (2000) afirman que la región o zona donde aparece la especie silvícola debe ser dividida en zonas ecogeográficas definidas, y que éstas proveen las directrices acerca de la cantidad de poblaciones -y la cantidad de individuos en cada población -de las cuales se deben recoger semillas al azar.En las especies arbóreas se han empleado los microsatélites para investigar la distribución espacial de la diversidad genética en los ambientes naturales a fin de identificar las zonas más adecuadas de recolección para la conservación ex situ. Se han desarrollado herramientas de elaboración de modelos para determinar las estrategias de muestreo más eficaces una vez identificados los sitios para la recolección.Las limitaciones físicas y financieras de la mayor parte de los métodos de conservación ex situ determinarán qué tipo y cantidad de variación genética se puede muestrear y en consecuencia conservar. Si bien es siempre deseable capturar tanta variación genética como sea posible, la cantidad total de árboles muestreados debe ser manejable.El programa de RGS del IPGRI está investigando la cantidad y organización espacial de la variación genética de las especies arbóreas con modalidades contrastantes de distribución, dispersión, polinización y dispersión de semillas. Para las especies raras y amenazadas, los estudios genéticos se integran con investigación demográfica y ecológica a fin de desarrollar planes de ordenación y restablecimiento.Ejemplo de esta tarea es la investigación emprendida por el IPGRI en el Cercano Oriente, las tierras firmes del sudeste asiático y el Africa subsahariana, señaladas para localizar la diversidad genética de especies silvícolas madereras y no madereras de importancia económica o de especies amenazadas de extinción (Recuadro 4, pág. 275). Esta investigación identificó el alcance de la distribución de las especies seleccionadas, aclaró su taxonomía e investigó su modalidad de polinización y dispersión de semillas.El IPGRI también se ocupó de los problemas de almacenamiento ex situ de los árboles silvícolas que no toleran el desecado (Recuadro 5, pág. 276).Brown y Lugo (1994) definen el restablecimiento silvícola destinado a la conservación como la alteración deliberada de las pautas y procesos ecológicos con el propósito de recrear el conjunto de presuntas condiciones anteriores a la perturbación del ecosistema. Los bosques restablecidos deben ser similares en estructura, funcionamiento y composición a los bosques históricos de la región anteriores a la perturbación provocada por los seres humanos (Lamb et al. 1997). Algunos factores ecológicos relevantes para establecer las condiciones silvícolas del bosque como eran en diversas escalas temporales y espaciales son: (i) empleo de especies indígenas; (ii) incorporación de dinamismos naturales de sucesión; (iii) consideración de las relaciones ecológicas y (iv) consideración de los efectos de las pautas ecológicas de las especies en los procesos del ecosistema.El grado de aislamiento de un sitio de restablecimiento respecto de una fuente de semillas es el principal factor que limita su dispersión natural en el sitio. De manera ideal las intervenciones de restablecimiento deberían producirse en zonas vecinas a una fuente de semillas silvícolas nativas. Si esto no es posible se debe prestar atención al desarrollo de corredores silvícolas plantados mediante los cuales los dispersadores de semillas que habitan en el bosque puedan viajar hacia el sitio de restablecimiento. Existen también ejemplos de plantaciones silvícolas establecidas en sitios degradados muy deudores de la canopia nativa que ha actuado como catalizadora de la sucesión, es decir que ha facilitado la recolonización de la flora nativa por su influencia en el microlima y la fertilidad Recuadro 4. Examen ecogeográfico, socioeconómico y genético de especies arbóreas de Asia central y occidental y de Africa septentrional (CWANA) El IPGRI, en colaboración con socios locales de investigación (Líbano: Universidad Americana de Beirut, Universidad Saint Joseph, Beirut, y Dirección de Desarrollo Rural y Recursos Naturales del Ministerio de Agricultura; Siria: Universidad de Tishreen -Lattakia; Centro Arabe para el Estudio de Zonas Aridas y Tierras Secas y Ministerio de Agricultura y Reforma Agraria) llevó a cabo inspecciones ecogeográficas de numerosas especies arbóreas de importancia para las economías locales de la región CWANA. Se examinaron series de especies del país, o si era posible series naturales, investigando a continuación la diversidad genética infraespecífica con el empleo de marcadores genéticos. Las estrategias de muestreo para estos últimos estudios se basaron en los resultados de exámenes ecogeográficos. Más adelante se describen las especies estudiadas y las actividades emprendidas.En Siria se llevaron a cabo exhaustivos exámenes ecogeográficos, socioeconómicos y de diversidad genética relativos al pistacho (Pistacia vera), un cultivo arbóreo importante en la región CWANA. Puesto que muchos de sus parientes silvestres son fuente de genes que dan al pistacho cultivado resistencia a las enfermedades y plagas, se han conservado numerosas zonas naturales que contienen pistachos silvestres, en especial en zonas de suelos pobres o sujetas a sequía. Los exámenes permitieron comprender la diversidad de variedades de pistacho cultivadas en Siria y también de uno de sus parientes silvestres más comunes, Pistacia atlantica. El proyecto produjo mapas de distribución de la diversidad genética del pistacho en el país y una evaluación de las amenazas contra las dos especies. También se determinaron las características agrobotánicas de Pistacia vera.En Asia central el IPGRI apoya los programas nacionales de RGS de Kazajstán, Kirguizia, Tayikistán, Turkmenia y Uzbekistán puesto que estos países examinan, recogen, estudian y rescatan las poblaciones silvestres remanentes de pistacho. Hasta la actualidad la población local ha usado estos árboles sobre todo como fuente de almendras y leña. Ahora las poblaciones silvestres de pistacho se emplearán también para desarrollar variedades nuevas y de mejor rendimiento para las zonas rurales de Asia central.Se investigó la distribución de poblaciones de algarrobo (Ceratonia siliqua L.) y su variabilidad genética en Siria y Líbano. El algarrobo es una especie importante de múltiples propósitos nativa de la cuenca del Mediterráneo. No se disponía de datos precisos sobre la distribución y diversidad genética del algarrobo en Líbano y Siria, lo que hacía difícil evaluar su estado de conservación. Durante centurias se han seleccionado y cultivado árboles de algarrobo por el elevado contenido de pulpa de las vainas que se emplean para la alimentación humana y animal. En la actualidad la industria, sobre todo las compañías farmacéuticas y de cosméticos, muestran un gran interés por el algarrobo. El árbol también es valioso por su resistencia al fuego que lo hace atractivo para emplearlo en corredores de vegetación de la mancha mediterránea propensa a los incendios. Puesto que por lo general se los encuentra en zonas seminaturales cerca de los huertos en Líbano, era dificil distinguir entre el algarrobo cultivado y el silvestre. Por el contrario, virtualmente todas las poblaciones de algarrobo de Siria parecían naturales. Pero en este país todos los sitios investigados estaban sumamente fragmentados y amenazados por la conversión del hábitat. Se analizaron muestras de hojas de los árboles examinados empleando marcadores moleculares para evaluar la diversidad genética entre y dentro de las poblaciones en ambos países. del suelo del sotobosque, la eliminación de pastos dominantes y la provisión de hábitat para los animales dispersadores de semillas (Parrotta 1995). A los fines ya mencionados se deben identificar proveniencias adecuadamente seleccionadas y debidamente adaptadas a las condiciones ambientales locales. Antes de comenzar las intervenciones de restablecimiento se debe realizar una cuidadosa determinación de la variación genética y de la distribución de los RGS.Una parte fundamental del proceso de restablecimiento silvícola es la selección apropiada de sitios de los cuales se recogerá el material de regeneración. Esto es así porque cuando las semillas se plantan lejos de su ambiente nativo los brinzales y árboles pueden sufrir una mala adaptación que facilita el ataque de plagas, da una producción lenta y/o malformación. Los sistemas de registro de rodales semilleros son un medio sencillo para minimizar la mala adaptación, clasificando las regiones administrativas en 'zonas semilleras' ecológicamente similares, y desalentando la transferencia de lotes semilleros entre la zonas (Conkle 1997). Los proyectos de reforestación presentan a menudo una reducida diversidad genética que puede comprometer su estabilidad y resiliencia por la falta de directrices que especifiquen mínimamente las cantidades adecuadas de árboles y proveniencias de las que deberían recolectarse las semillas (O'Neill et al. 2001).Por el contrario cuando los bosques son rehabilitados con propósitos comerciales, tanto utilizando especies arbóreas nativas como especies exóticas, la meta de la ordenación no es recrear el ecosistema silvícola original (a menudo más complejo). La finalidad de esta rehabilitación silvícola es ordenar y utilizar el bosque rehabilitado para satisfacer diversas necesidades humanas (Lamb 1994).Los estudios de rehabilitación de los bosques degradados, como la investigación para el restablecimiento, deben también tratar de comprender los factores clave que determinan los índices de crecimiento de plantaciones en pequeña escala, desarrollar directrices para seleccionar las especies y adquirir información genética sobre las mismas, y mejorar las tecnologías para la ordenación del sitio. Todo esto elevará la producción y aumentará las probabilidades de sostenibilidad de las plantaciones en sitios degradados y de bajo potencial.Recuadro 5. Análisis del comportamiento de semillas de especies arbóreas silvícolas El empleo de numerosas especies silvícolas tropicales de gran valor en los programas de conservación y plantación de árboles es obstaculizado por los problemas de manipulación y almacenamiento de las semillas. En efecto, los conocimientos de la fisiología de las semillas de la mayoría de las especies arbóreas son escasos o inexistentes. Las semillas de muchas especies arbóreas, en especial las de los trópicos húmedos, son difíciles de manipular a causa de su sensibilidad a la condición seca y otros problemas fisiológicos. Mucho se ha dicho acerca de que son recalcitrantes o intermedias, lo que significa que son difíciles de almacenar incluso por cortos períodos de tiempo.Un proyecto iniciado en 1996 y recientemente completado seleccionó 61 de estas especies arbóreas en 18 países. Fue coordinado por el IPGRI y el Centro de Semillas Silvícolas (DFSC, sigla en inglés) de la Agencia Danesa Internacional de Desarrollo (DANIDA) con fondos del DANIDA. Los resultados arrojaron luz sobre la biología del almacenamiento de especies arbóreas de importancia económica, así como sobre las técnicas que permiten ahora a los expertos silvícolas y a los viveros acceder a cantidades mucho mayores de especies arbóreas. Más aún, muchas especies producían semillas que no eran recalcitrantes como se creía. Las semillas de casi la mitad de las especies examinadas pudieron almacenarse durante cierto tiempo bajo razonables condiciones de humedad y temperatura controladas (http://www.dfsc.dk/IPGRIproject.htm).Igualmente se necesitan datos para delinear las 'zonas de transferencia de semillas'. Estas son regiones dentro de las cuales se pueden trasladar los árboles con pocas o ninguna consecuencia para obtener una población idónea (Hufford y Mazer 2003).El restablecimiento y la rehabilitación incluyen una serie de objetivos, marcos conceptuales y técnicas, y a la vez requieren una ordenación razonable de los RGS para la sostenibilidad del recurso a largo plazo. Sean sus objetivos el restablecimiento o la rehabilitación, los sistemas nacionales de registro de semillas arbóreas deben adoptar un mínimo de normas para la recolección de semillas que especifiquen: (i) la cantidad de árboles progenitores que se necesitan para cada parcela semillera, así como los métodos de acopio de semillas (Marshall y Brown 1975); (ii) una distancia genética entre los árboles progenitores que minimice el parentesco (Dawson y Were 1997); (iii) el rendimiento y las cualidades fisiológicas de las semillas cosechadas; (iv) la salud de los árboles madre y (v) los datos de ubicación. Normas estrictas que documenten las ubicaciones de recogida asegurarán que los recolectores puedan volver a las poblaciones que se desarrollan bien en ambientes particulares con propósitos particulares, a la vez que se evitan las poblaciones de poco provecho.En la mayoría de los países la principal forma de perturbación de los bosques es la cosecha comercial de madera mediante el aprovechamiento silvícola. Sin embargo también otras formas de perturbación de los bosques, como la extracción de PSNM, los incendios o la corta de madera para leña de consumo local pueden amenazar a las especies arbóreas, si bien el nivel de amenaza de estas perturbaciones variará según las 'estrategias de la historia de vida' y los sistemas de cruzamiento de la especie (Noss 1983). Como los ecosistemas silvícolas naturales se componen de árboles indígenas de larga vida, las poblaciones locales pueden servir como indicadores del estrés antropogénico. La variabilidad genética dentro de las poblaciones arbóreas es potencialmente un gran indicador de la estabilidad y permanencia del ecosistema silvícola porque es un factor principal para determinar el potencial de adaptación de las poblaciones arbóreas y su capacidad de supervivencia ante diversas hipótesis de estrés (Kim y Hattemer 1994;Baradat et al. 1995). Por esa razón se han realizado numerosos estudios para identificar los criterios e indicadores (C&I) para una ordenación silvícola sostenible, muchos de ellos en el marco de la certificación silvícola. Los C&I son herramientas de evaluación neutras para seguir las tendencias silvícolas que comprenden los medios para medir, evaluar, seguir y mostrar los avances en el logro de la sostenibilidad silvícola en el tiempo. Las iniciativas de C&I para la ordenación silvícola sostenible han sido revisadas (Castañeda 2000;Castañeda et al. 2001;McKinnell 2002) y actualmente el Centro de Investigación Silvícola Internacional (CIFOR) está elaborando C&I silvícolas en el contexto de la serie de su Instrumental de Criterios e Indicadores.En el último decenio la certificación independiente ha cobrado impulso como mecanismo efectivo para mejorar y promover la ordenación sostenible de los bosques (Pierce y Ervin 1999). Un elemento común de los organismos o programas de certificación es que operan dentro de marcos de principios, criterios e indicadores claramente establecidos. Puesto que los C&I son esenciales para definir o reconocer una 'ordenación silvícola sostenible' (Johnson y Cabarle 1993;Funston 1995), ofrecen soluciones de ordenación silvícola tangibles destacando las condiciones que se deben satisfacer para que la misma sea considerada sostenible, en lugar de tratar de alguna manera de cuantificar la aceptabilidad de una ordenación silvícola dada (Boyle 2000).Una queja que se escucha habitualmente es que el conocimiento de la genética y ecología de la mayor parte de las especies arbóreas de los bosques tropicales sigue siendo en gran medida incompleto, y se han realizado intentos de incluir información genética y ecológica en los C&I. Los C&I genéticos y ecológicos considerados hasta ahora han hecho hincapié en métodos que visualizan o caracterizan la variación genética y los procesos ecológicos, métodos que detectan los cambios temporales y tendencias en los parámetros ecológicos y genéticos, la elección de umbrales o valores críticos para aplicar, y de qué manera combinar la información de indicadores múltiples (Boyle 2000).Actualmente las investigaciones del IPGRI acerca de los PSNM se concentran en comprender cómo las pautas del uso de éstos afectan a los RGS, con el objeto de incluir umbrales de extracción sostenible de PSNM en las directrices de ordenación silvícola. Un buen ejemplo de ello es el trabajo acerca del bambú y ratén en Asia, el Pacífico y Oceanía (Rao y Ramanatha Rao 1999 a y b). El IPGRI también coordinó las actividades de C&I en colaboración con IMAZON (Instituto do Homen e Meio Ambiente de Amazônia) e IMAFLORA (Instituto de Manejo e Certificação Florestal e Agrícola; Recuadro 6) y participó en las actividades del Comité Directivo del Proyecto Dendrogene financiado por DFID (Departamento de Desarrollo Internacional del Reino Unido) y emprendido por EMBRAPA (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária) en Brasil.Las limitaciones para aplicar C&I a la ordenación silvícola residen en la a veces escasa calidad de los datos recogidos y en la inevitable restricción del enfoque a un reducido número de especies. Y una cuestión importante sigue siendo cómo incorporar los C&I específicos para evaluar la diversidad genética a las evaluaciones generales de las prácticas de ordenación.Los desafíos incluyen crear directrices de ordenación de C&I claras, prácticas y fáciles de usar, y que se basen tanto como sea posible en adecuados conocimientos científicos (OIMT 1998). Además, puesto que los costos (tanto financieros como de tiempo) deben ser siempre contenidos y los estudios genéticos pueden requerir procedimientos y laboratorios sofisticados y costosos (Boyle 2000;Jennings et al. 2001) otro desafío es determinar los indicadores genéticos mínimos adecuados de la manera más eficiente posible. Por ejemplo ¿deberían estos indicadores basarse en mediciones directas empleando investigación molecular, o hay suficiente información disponible como para permitir reemplazar los índices genéticos por índices demográficos como el tamaño de la población, el aislamiento físico, la dispersión de semillas y la cantidad de individuos maduros? Por desgracia los procesos ecológicos que tienen lugar en escalas espaciales y temporales amplias son también difíciles de seguir y esta información puede no estar inmediatamente disponible.A diferencia de ciertos C&I económicos y ecológicos, habitualmente es más difícil 'traducir' los índices genéticos en una forma práctica y fácil de usar. No obstante algunos C&I científicamente adecuados han sido propuestos por Stork et al. (1997), Boyle (2000), Brown et al. (2000) y Namkoong et al. (2002), pero son complicados y difíciles de aplicar en la práctica (Jennings et al. 2001).Recientemente se han desarrollado métodos mejorados de huellas genéticas que pueden identificar la madera comercial y su origen geográfico a fin de rastrear la madera en rollizos extraída ilegalmente. Estos nuevos métodos son avances técnicos importantes para la industria silvícola, para los procedimientos de certificación fitosanitaria y para la conservación de los árboles silvícolas porque permiten seguir la cadena de custodia asegurando por lo tanto la posibilidad de certificar la madera procedente de bosques ordenados de manera sostenible. Actualmente existen nutridos conjuntos de datos de clasificación genética relativos a numerosas especies arbóreas silvícolas no tropicales. Ahora se puede usar un mapa detallado de referencia de la variación del ADN cloroplástico del roble blanco europeo en toda la serie de dicha especie (Deguilloux et al. 2003). Estos autores desarrollaron marcadores cloroplásticos del ADN para caracterizar la composición del haplotipo de ADN del roble blanco degradado obtenido de muestras de madera. Esta técnica confirma la correspondencia entre el genotipo obtenido de cogollos vivos y el de la madera recogida del mismo árbol de roble. Se empleó un procedimiento estadístico para probar si el haplotipo de numerosas muestras de madera era consistente con su origen geográfico presunto. Aunque el estudio mostró que la técnica no podía Recuadro 6. C&I para una ordenación silvícola sostenible (OSS) en la cuenca del Amazonas Para crear planes de OSS en los complejos ecosistemas silvícolas tropicales se necesita información de base sobre la biología de las especies arbóreas silvícolas, pero ésta a menudo falta, no está adecuadamente organizada en sistemas de información, o es difícil de trasladar a prácticas de ordenación silvícola. Aunque ya se dispone de datos acerca de las especies silvícolas más importantes éstos no son siempre fácilmente accesibles (Martini et al. 1994;Hammond et al. 1996;Guariguata y Pinard 1998;Pinard et al. 1999;Sheil 1999;Jennings et al. 2001).Una investigación llevada a cabo de 2002 a 2004 por dos de las mayores ONG de Brasil (IMAFLORA e IMAZON) en colaboración con el IPGRI, se concentró en la generación de una base de datos capaz de apoyar la toma de decisiones de ordenación silvícola. La base de datos se diseñó para incluir C&I genéticos para el uso sostenible de los recursos silvícolas en Amazonas. Los objetivos del proyecto eran: (i) superar el tema de la dispersión de datos recogiendo y organizando la información existente sobre las especies arbóreas silvícolas de Amazonas; (ii) identificar ulteriores necesidades de investigación y en especial evitar la duplicación de esfuerzos y (iii) crear una fuente de información sobre las especies arbóreas a la que pudieran acceder fácilmente los investigadores, organismos de gobierno, compañías madereras, estudiantes, organizaciones de certificación y otros usuarios. La base de datos se diseñó para ayudar a desarrollar directrices prácticas para la ordenación silvícola comercial y para la conservación.A fin de agrupar los datos sobre distribución regional de especies madereras importantes se utilizó información del proyecto RadamBrasil. Realizado en el decenio de 1970, es un gran inventario de recursos silvícolas que se encuentran en la región de Amazonas de la Autopista Transamazónica. Se preparó un mapa con referencias geográficas de los sitios muestreados por RadamBrasil y se lo vinculó con los datos de las especies. La base de datos final fue explayada en el espacio, lo que permitió producir mapas de la distribución y densidad de las especies arbóreas en todo el Amazonas, vinculándolos con otros mapas con referencias geográficas de suelo, lluvias, tipo de bosque, topografía y temperatura.Cinco compañías madereras proveyeron también datos sobre 40 especies arbóreas comerciales. En el marco de los esquemas de certificación se requiere a las compañías madereras realizar inventarios antes de la cosecha. De este modo se han preparado inventarios silvícolas completos sobre alrededor de 70 000 a 100 000 hectáreas en la zona de Amazonas. Este trabajo fue posible gracias a la colaboración de las compañías de aprovechamiento maderero certificado Cikel Brasil Verde, Precious Woods Amazon e Pará, Gethal S.A. y Madereira Juruá, así como a las organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales Embrapa Amazonia oriental/Projeto Dendrogene, Instituto Nacional Pesquisa da Amazônia (INPA), Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Superintendência de Desenvolvimento da Amazônia (SUDAM), Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia (UFRA) y la Fundación Overbrook.La base de datos se está desarrollando aún, pero proveerá la más completa imagen de las poblaciones de especies madereras y del potencial de ordenación disponible en el Amazonas brasileño. Sobre la base de la información y las herramientas generadas por este proyecto se trazarán recomendaciones y prioridades de investigación para mejorar la ordenación silvícola y la conservación de las especies madereras de la región. identificar sin ambigüedad alguna productos madereros de origen desconocido, podía en cambio vincular la composición genética de muestras de madera con la región de origen supuesta.La invasión de plantas provenientes de la agricultura, los bosques y la horticultura ha capturado actualmente la atención de la mayor parte de los organismos nacionales de conservación, así como la de las ONG internacionales silvícolas, agrícolas y de conservación (Higgins y Richardson 1998). La proliferación de 'brinzales silvestres' de plantaciones de especies exóticas es un hecho bien conocido (Raybould y Gray 1994), y la bibliografía referida a los conceptos y preocupaciones vinculadas con las 'invasiones exóticas' es ahora abundante (Rhymer y Simberloff 1996;Daniels y Sheil 1999). Si ya se sabe que la introducción de poblaciones exóticas puede llevar a una exclusión competitiva (desplazamiento) de la población nativa, en cambio se conoce menos la contaminación genética producida a través de la hibridación (Huxel 1999).La contaminación genética tiene lugar cuando la diversidad del caudal genético de la población o especie nativa se reduce y/o se 'daña' como consecuencia de una hibridación producida de un modo que causa preocupaciones acerca del carácter distintivo o la adecuación futuras de dicho caudal. Si bien se reconoce que la mezcla de los patrimonios genéticos de poblaciones (y, a veces, de especies) a través de la hibridación y la consiguiente introgresión es un proceso evolutivo natural de los árboles silvícolas y de los vegetales y animales en general (Arnold 1992), el término 'contaminación genética' indica habitualmente una situación en la que la hibridación ha sido iniciada o ha sufrido la influencia significativa de las actividades humanas.En el último decenio la contaminación genética producida a través de la dispersión de polen y/o la hibridación ha sido reconocida como una preocupación principal de la biología de conservación. El riesgo de fuga de transgenes a partir de organismos modificados genéticamente contribuyó a llamar la atención del público hacia los efectos de la hibridación y la introgresión de especies exóticas, proveniencias no locales y genotipos altamente seleccionados en el caudal genético nativo.Se ha informado contaminación genética de especies arbóreas silvícolas de nogal negro de California (Juglans hindsii) del cual se sabe que ha sido hibridado con muchos congéneres importados con fines comerciales (Rhymer y Simberloff 1996). Otro ejemplo bien conocido es el álamo negro (Populus nigra L.) nativo de Europa, antes extendido por doquier y actualmente extirpado de grandes zonas de Europa occidental. Su hábitat está reduciéndose y su caudal genético se ve amenazado por la presencia en gran escala de híbridos cultivados. Otro ejemplo es el sicomoro de California (Platanus racemosa), cuya serie nativa está desapareciendo en la actualidad a causa de la introgresión con el plátano de Londres (Platanus x acerifolia; Rhymer y Simberloff 1996). En el Recuadro 7 se describe la investigación realizada en Australia con motivo de la contaminación genética del caudal genético nativo de Eucalyptus spp.En la mayoría de los casos la conservación de los RGS es un aspecto de una meta de ordenación más compleja, vinculada con la ordenación silvícola sostenible; un concepto cuyos solos objetivos pueden ser difíciles de determinar, mucho menos evaluar y medir. En este capítulo hemos presentado el más breve panorama de la utilidad práctica y las aplicaciones de la investigación genética destinada a la conservación y ordenación de los RGS.La colección de ejemplos presentada muestra de qué manera la investigación genética trata de abocarse a algunos temas muy urgentes de conservación y ordenación silvícola. Tal como lo vemos, desarrollar lo que creemos podría ser la solución de miríadas de problemas acuciantes, aplicarlas y luego seguir sus efectos son desafíos muy significativos para la comunidad de investigación sobre genética silvícola. Esto sucede en parte porque habitualmente es costoso y lleva tiempo tan solo adquirir datos genéticos confiables, interpretarlos y desarrollar recomendaciones para la conservación y el desarrollo sostenible de los árboles, sus poblaciones y sus ecosistemas; y esto asumiendo en primer lugar que hemos formulado las preguntas correctas y en segundo lugar que hay encargados de tomar decisiones preparados para aplicar nuestras recomendaciones. Hasta cierto punto los genetistas silvícolas presuponen que todo lo que se necesita para conservar y manejar los RGS de manera eficaz son los datos genéticos. Pero los factores ecológicos, socioeconómicos e incluso políticos (y otros) desempeñan papeles tan importantes, si no a veces mucho más importantes que los genéticos para el éxito de la conservación y ordenación de los RGS (por ejemplo, comprender las causas del colapso de los polinizadores, establecer umbrales para la extracción de recursos, controlar el acceso, etc.).Por ejemplo cuando se trata de desarrollar directrices de ordenación de los PSNM se debe considerar que en muchas instancias los temas socioeconómicos son tan significativos como los genéticos y ecológicos. Cuando la cantidad de población humana es baja, el acceso es restringido y el recurso que se extrae es abundante y se reproduce bien, los PSNM aprovechados para la subsistencia en el marco de un régimen tradicional de uso pueden ser cosechados de manera indefinida y sostenible. Sin embargo cuando la recolección pasa a ser más agresiva para abastecer una demanda de mercado, la base de recolectores se amplía, caen las reglamentaciones tradicionales de cosecha y se vuelven mucho más urgentes problemas que no son los genéticos. Además, en este examen no se ha dicho nada acerca de muchos lugares del mundo donde bosques completos están siendo eliminados o ya han sido eliminados para extraer madera y convertir el suelo a Recuadro 7. Contaminación genética de eucaliptos en Australia Virtualmente todas las más o menos 800 especies de eucaliptos (incluidas en los géneros Angophora, Corymbia y Eucalyptus, Hopper 1997) son endémicas en Australia y las islas vecinas, y Australia ha reconocido que tiene la obligación internacional de asegurar la ordenación a largo plazo de este recurso genético nativo. Entre los indicadores de Australia para la ordenación silvícola sostenible se encuentra el desarrollo de estrategias nacionales para manejar los patrimonios genéticos de las principales plantaciones de especies y minimizar la repercusión de la contaminación genética (Consejo Ministerial Silvícola 1997).Un proyecto financiado por el Programa Agrosilvícola de la Asociación Temporal de Empresas Australiana (JVAP, sigla en inglés) y apoyado por tres empresas de investigación y desarrollo (I&D) -Rural Industries, Land and Water Australia y Forest and Wood Products -ha editado un informe que abarca a toda la nación sobre los riesgos y efectos potenciales de la contaminación genética de Eucalyptus no locales y de híbridos sobre las especies y poblaciones locales de eucaliptos. El informe presenta un marco de evaluación de riesgos e identifica temas clave de investigación que deben ser tratados para lograr el éxito de la ordenación genética del eucalipto. El informe forma parte de un programa de I&D Agrosilvícola y de Aprovechamiento Silvícola en Fincas, y aspira a integrar un aprovechamiento agrosilvícola sostenible y productivo en los sistemas de aprovechamiento agrícola de Australia. Los principales temas de investigación identificados son:• Distancia y nivel de dispersión del polen • Compatibilidad de las especies plantadas con las poblaciones nativas locales • Posibilidad de selección de las características de la sostenibilidad • Pautas espaciales de variación genética dentro de los patrimonios genéticos nativos de las plantaciones de especies más importantes • Línea de partida genética molecular para el seguimiento de la introgresión a largo plazo • Repercusión de las plantaciones en la diversidad local (Potts et al. 2001) otros usos, y donde los genetistas silvícolas han tenido poca oportunidad de intervenir. Es difícil desarrollar una estrategia de conservación de los RGS basada en consideraciones genéticas cuando no se ha dejado nada para conservar. En efecto hay evidencia empírica de que pocos recursos silvestres pueden ser aprovechados comercialmente de manera no regulada sin enfrentar en última instancia su extinción (Wilkie y Godoy 1996).Los RGS en forma de diversidad genética son también mucho menos visibles que los bosques y árboles mismos, y es por lo tanto a menudo muy difícil capturar la imaginación de los responsables de políticas cuando se recomiendan estrategias de conservación de los RGS. Incluso cuando la mayoría de los planificadores de recursos naturales reconocerán a los procesos genéticos como componentes esenciales de la estabilidad y adaptabilidad de un ecosistema de especies y poblaciones, es a menudo una suposición implícita mucho más difícil de traducir en decisiones con un objetivo, en planeamiento de intervenciones y en programas de aplicación. Con frecuencia unas políticas inconsistentes, demasiado sencillas y/o simplemente llanas mal podrán ser un medio para satisfacer a grupos de intereses dominantes o competidores, y esto puede plantear desafíos adicionales al logro de los objetivos de conservación de los RGS.Todos los elementos mencionados hasta aquí concurren a demostrar que la ordenación sostenible de los RGS a largo plazo será un desafío para la comunidad de investigadores de la genética silvícola. Parece haber acuerdo en cuanto a la necesidad de seguir recogiendo una esmerada información genética de base relativa a una gran serie de especies arbóreas silvícolas para extrapolar datos de las especies del modelo a otras especies a fin de desarrollar recomendaciones de ordenación basadas en la información genética, integrar las recomendaciones sobre la conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS en marcos de trabajo socioeconómicos aceptables, despertar la conciencia pública y establecer un diálogo efectivo con los responsables de las políticas.Conservación de la biodiversidad y estrategias para reducir la pobreza La cuestión de si la reducción de la pobreza puede combinarse con la conservación de la biodiversidad es parte de un debate familiar para los conservacionistas (Adams et al. 2004): conservación del ambiente versus desarrollo económico. Durante el Siglo XX el enfoque dominante del desarrollo era impulsar el crecimiento económico y estimar que los problemas ambientales y la justicia social podían resolverse más tarde. Sin embargo, tomando a Ghana como ejemplo Brashares et al. (2004) demostraron recientemente que los programas destinados a promover el desarrollo económico, la seguridad alimentaria y la conservación de la biodiversidad pueden dar resultados interrelacionados positivos. A medida que la demanda de bienes y servicios silvícolas siga creciendo y se solicite cada vez más a los administradores silvícolas y a los responsables de políticas y planificadores del uso de la tierra tomar complejas decisiones acerca del uso y acceso a los bosques, será cada vez más necesario abocarse al tema de la equidad. En la mayoría de los casos será inevitable la negociación (Rose y Chapman 2002).Mientras que el valor de los bosques para la seguridad alimentaria ha sido ampliamente documentado (Pimentel et al. 1997) la relación entre la diversidad genética silvícola y la subsistencia es más difícil de estudiar y de medir. En efecto, aunque muchas organizaciones nacionales e internacionales incluyen la conservación y uso sostenible de los bosques tropicales entre sus principales prioridades ambientales y de desarrollo, tenemos de hecho solo limitados conocimientos acerca de los efectos de la deforestación, fragmentación y aprovechamiento incontrolado de los recursos genéticos silvícolas (RGS). Además, nuestra comprensión de las prácticas más apropiadas de conservación in situ y ex situ de las especies arbóreas silvícolas tropicales es cuando mucho solo parcial. Se necesita mucha más investigación para documentar y comprender los niveles de diversidad requeridos para asegurar el desarrollo económico sostenible de las comunidades que viven en los bosques y dependen de los recursos silvícolas.La complejidad de la biodiversidad y de su uso sostenible Preservar, estudiar y usar la diversidad silvícola tropical son desafíos para las perspectivas utilitarias de conservación e investigación porque los ecosistemas silvícolas naturales intactos se están perdiendo rápidamente. Esta pérdida no se limita solo a los bosques tropicales porque también están afectados los bosques templados y boreales, si bien la deforestación y la fragmentación silvícola están reduciendo la biodiversidad de los bosques tropicales en índices sin precedentes.Algunos autores afirman que los seres humanos no pueden hacer uso de la biodiversidad sin causarle daño (Redford y Richter 1999) y está en curso el debate acerca del papel de los seres humanos en la naturaleza, sea integrados o separados (McNeely y Watchel 1998;Visser 1992). Sin embargo actualmente hay aceptación general de que la conservación de la biodiversidad silvícola no puede ser alcanzada solamente dentro de las zonas protegidas (Kemp 1992). En las definiciones emergentes de ordenación silvícola sostenible se está prestando mayor atención a los valores de conservación, a criterios e indicadores para seguir sus logros y a métodos participativos, todo lo cual apunta a aumentar las oportunidades para reforzar la conservación de la biodiversidad en los bosques tropicales que están siendo usados para la producción.Sin embargo la biodiversidad es compleja y tiene lugar en niveles que van desde los genes hasta las especies, las poblaciones, los ecosistemas y los medios naturales, cada uno con una estructura, composición y papel funcional asociados para sostenerse y reproducirse a sí mismos. Esto implica que cualquier aplicación de la pauta de biodiversidad que elijamos explorar tendrá un conjunto de relaciones y efectos en cascada en los otros niveles. Estas relaciones no serán fáciles de cuantificar o evaluar a través de una sola disciplina, ni serán las solas disciplinas capaces de abarcar las dimensiones espaciales y temporales dentro de las cuales opera y cambia constantemente la biodiversidad.En el proyecto presentado en este volumen financiado por el Ministerio Federal de Cooperación y Desarrollo Económico de Alemania (BMZ) hemos tratado de establecer un marco interdisciplinario y participativo que pueda simultáneamente ocuparse de los temas genéticos, ecológicos y socioeconómicos del uso de los bosques en Argentina y Brasil. En última instancia el objetivo fue trazar métodos y estrategias de conservación y uso sostenible de los RGS que garanticen la contribución actualmente en curso del sector silvícola a la subsistencia de las comunidades locales y a las economías nacionales.Por ello analizamos los efectos de las actividades humanas como la extracción de productos silvícolas no madereros (PSNM) sobre los RGS, con el objeto de identificar directrices de ordenación que se puedan aplicar localmente y en cierto momento, esperamos, más ampliamente. En efecto, los datos obtenidos en los sitios de nuestra investigación indican que el uso sostenible de los PSNM puede desempeñar un papel para reducir los promedios de deforestación y por ende las pérdidas de biodiversidad. También comprobamos que la tenencia del uso de los recursos, la atribución de poderes a las comunidades locales y un buen gobierno fueron temas clave que espolearon el mantenimiento de la canopia silvícola en ambos países (Capítulos 6 y 8).Las estrategias nativas de ordenación tienden a producir un uso sostenible de los PSNM en el caso en que una sola comunidad cohesionada tenga acceso exclusivo al recurso (Silva Matos y Bovi 2001). Sin embargo, fuimos estimulados por el hecho de que en situaciones socioeconómicas más complejas la acción colectiva, la fuerte organización social, el buen gobierno y la tenencia segura contribuyeron a alcanzar esta meta, como mostraron las comunidades de terrajadores de caucho en Brasil (Capítulo 8) y los mapuches en Argentina (Capítulo 6) respectivamente. No obstante en estos casos se requerirán estrictas penalidades y seguimiento para controlar los niveles de aprovechamiento y comercialización (Silva Matos y Bovi 2001).Sin embargo el ampliamente sostenido argumento de que el 'aprovechamiento silvícola sostenible' es la opción preferida para la ordenación de los bosques tropicales ha sido recientemente criticado por personas que argumentan que no es necesariamente ni provechoso ni preferible del punto de vista ambiental al madereo convencional (Pearce et al. 2002). Sostienen que el foco del aprovechamiento silvícola sostenible debe desplazarse de la madera hacia valores no mercantiles, como los servicios ambientales, pero que el provecho de éstos debe superar al producido por los usos alternativos de la tierra y el costo de la ordenación, incluido el costo de impedir la entrada de colonos. Este argumento demuestra que hasta que no se atribuya el valor correcto a la biodiversidad silvícola y sus recursos genéticos fundamentales y se reconozca la importancia que tienen los RGS para los habitantes de los bosques, tanto los medios de vida de estas comunidades como la posibilidad de que usen los RGS seguirán siendo amenazados.Por lo tanto apoyamos la idea de que las políticas de ordenación y uso sostenible de los bosques deben incluir provechos monetarios y no monetarios apropiados para las comunidades que viven en los bosques, que se deben seguir identificando los PSNM y estudiando su potencial económico y que los participantes involucrados en la ordenación y uso de los bosques deben estar completamente comprometidos en el proceso de toma de decisiones relevantes. También pensamos que para que esto sea eficaz la conservación de los RGS debe integrarse en el marco general de la ordenación silvícola sostenible.Sin embargo en muchos países en desarrollo las condiciones mínimas que se necesitan para que esto ocurra han sido difíciles de coordinar, lo que significa que en el breve plazo la ordenación sostenible de los bosques parece tener menos probabilidades de constituirse en una opción viable de uso de la tierra (Hyde 1999). En efecto, en algunos casos el diseño y ejecución de sistemas regulatorios operativos parece ser prácticamente utópico, especialmente en países que carecen de los marcos políticos, administrativos y cohercitivos en los cuales dichas políticas puedan ser desarrolladas y ejecutadas. Por lo tanto alentamos a la comunidad de donantes y las instituciones relevantes de investigación para que continúen uniéndose para pensar de manera estratégica acerca de cómo podemos colectivamente comprometer y dar una voz a las comunidades de habitantes de los bosques basada en sus verdaderas necesidades. De igual importancia, necesitamos hallar modos de aumentar la probabilidad de que los responsables de políticas de los países de menores recursos puedan afrontar la conservación y el uso sostenible de los RGS en sus países.Antes de que los esfuerzos regionales de conservación y uso sostenible puedan tener significación real se deben poner en acto programas nacionales de RGS apoyados por los responsables de políticas. El compromiso de éstos con la conservación de la diversidad genética silvícola solo puede aumentarse si tienen conciencia del potencial de los RGS para el desarrollo. El aumento del uso de los RGS en el marco de un uso sostenible conducirá a la conservación de los RGS, mejorará la estabilidad y predecibilidad en el uso de los recursos locales, logrará una mejor colaboración regional y acciones comunes de conservación para las especies prioritarias.La importancia de estos temas debe ser mantenida a la vista de la opinión pública, y esa fue la razón para producir este libro.","tokenCount":"107983"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e331e0b02ac41bff96877a43b7e2d6bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5266ab6d-d51c-4277-a208-a47844a93fb3/retrieve","id":"132540289"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5c4e80a7-6dc9-4f92-ad5d-207a3eaef97c","pagecount":"14","content":"Three thrilling years have passed and we are now into the last year of the AfricanBioServices project.Most of us enjoyed the third consortium meeting in Karatu during the last week of August, where our European Union (EU) project coordinator Christophe Coudon and his immediate superior Arnoldas Milukas were our guests. The feedback from both EU delegates as well as from the Scientific Advisory Committee (Norman Owen-Smith, Robin Reid and William Mwakilema) was positive. It is my hope that the consortium members will continue their hard work and produce many high-impact scientific publications over the next 12 months; this will prove that the investment in us has been a success.Over the next six weeks, we will all be busy with the second periodic report to the EU (deadline is 31 October 2018). It is important that everybody follow and respect the instructions given by the coordinator and respond before the given deadlines. One deadline was 31 August 2018, by which 10 important deliverables were to be submitted to the EU Participant Portal. Unfortunately, some of them did not meet the quality requirements set by the EU. One of the main reasons for the low quality was that we were too late and therefore had no time for an internal quality check. However, our view is that we have to continue improving the quality to meet those requirements, particularly by setting an earlier internal deadline to enable review of the deliverables before submission to the EU. The quality of all our deliverables as well as the second periodic report must be of the same standard as any scientific paper; this means we have to put the same effort into the writing of such reports as we would if they were scientific papers. I unquestionably believe we all agree and will make the necessary effort to reach such standards during our last 12 months.All publications, dissertations, seminars and workshops where AfricanBioServices participants are reporting results should be immediately submitted to the coordinator and the communication Work Package leader. Furthermore, everybody should check the 'Participant List' link in the e-room for contact details as well as publications. All of us are responsible for reporting our own activities as this is highly relevant for our success as a consortium.Finally, over the next weeks we plan to produce YouTube videos of our activities so please assist us when we approach some of you to disseminate your results through this popular online communication channel. The EU requested us to produce these videos which they will use to showcase the AfricanBioServices project and the EU's investment in scientific consortiums.I wish you all good luck with the coming disseminations and publications. The coordinator's team is here to assist in case you have questions.lower likelihood of similar risk aversion between the two experiments and higher likelihood of being more risk-averse in milk production than maize production. In Ngorongoro, Tanzania where the inhabitants are primarily pastoralists, households were unlikely to be more risk-averse in maize production than milk production.Overall, the findings imply that different experimental designs may be needed, even within a relatively restricted ecosystem such as the greater Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, to encompass different contexts and livelihood strategies. However, different experimental designs will likely provide inconsistent risk attitude measures. Hence, we suggest choosing and defining risk attitude experiments in terms of the best available common livelihood strategy component, which in this case is milk production (as did the World Bank), possibly because all households have some experience with dairy cows but not maize production.We appreciate assistance from the International Livestock Research Institute and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute in implementing the experiment surveys in Kenya and Tanzania. Several wildlife management areas, including Burunge in northwestern Tanzania, have experienced conflicts between the central government, district councils and democratically elected village governments over the allocation and use of benefits accruing from wildlife management areas.Nevertheless, Burunge Wildlife Management Area is flaunted as one of the best managed and among the most successful because it generates the highest revenues of all wildlife management areas in Tanzania. Information on its institutional performance is, however, limited. Therefore, Rose Kicheleri and colleagues in Work Package 5 conducted a study to examine the local reality in Burunge Wildlife Management Area compared with the expected and officially intended outcome of decentralised wildlife management in Tanzania.Through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, a questionnaire survey and literature review, we found that the participation of local people in the establishment and management of the wildlife management areas was limited and rife with conflicts. Lacking institutional legitimacy during the process of instituting Burunge Wildlife Management Area seems to explain this outcome.Legitimacy means that a decision is to some degree voluntarily accepted by those concerned and institutional legitimacy is when input and output legitimacy are high. Input legitimacy is characterized by the full participation of the local constituency, high representation, accountability and transparency of elected representatives while output legitimacy is characterized by justice and high voluntary rule compliance by local communities. These characteristics of high input and output legitimacy are largely absent in Burunge Wildlife Management Area.The supposedly downwardly accountable authorized association, which holds rule-making and ruleenforcing authority within the wildlife management area, was mostly accountable to the central government; transparency was low such that access to information was curtailed and rules lacked local support.While benefits such as buildings and clinics have materialized at communal level, local people saw neither value nor benefit of the wildlife management area for their livelihoods. Specifically, the wildlife management area has circumscribed the local people's access to natural resources while external ecotourism investors and the central government have gained financially.Furthermore, the different laws governing local resources were overlapping and conflicting, thus posing a threat to current and future sustainable management of Burunge and other wildlife management areas. The relevant laws include the Wildlife Conservation Act, the Village Land Act, the Land Act, the Local Government District Authorities Act and the Law of Contract Act.Contrary to the livelihood enhancing community-based wildlife management rhetoric, top-down institutional choices have in fact sidelined democratically elected village governments, and successive legislative adjustments have further re-centralized, disenfranchised and dispossessed village governments and their constituencies. We conclude that village governments should demand that their legal rights to resources on their village lands be recognised and accepted until the wildlife management area approach to conservation and development is democratized.Background to the study. Humans derive many ecological services from natural ecosystems and their associated biodiversity. Most ecosystems are coming under increasing pressure as human population size and activities increase within and around their borders. The increasing human populations require increasingly more natural resources to sustain their livelihoods. Human population growth therefore acts both as an indirect and direct driver of ecosystem change by increasing the demand for and exploitation of natural resources. The changes alter and degrade ecosystem services. Notably, land use and cover changes can have significant and adverse ecological consequences for both flora and fauna.Habitat alteration resulting from land use and cover changes favours some small mammal species, particularly pests, promoting their population growth. However, land use change can negatively affect opportunistic small mammal species. Livestock overgrazing can alter the relative abundance of different plant species and hence small mammal species composition and diversity. In contrast, crop farming removes natural vegetation cover and reduces habitat heterogeneity for small mammals.Small mammals provide important ecosystem services but some species such as rodents can cause considerable damage to crops and electric and other installations, or act as reservoirs or vectors of infectious diseases. Small mammal population abundance and species diversity influence the ecosystem services they provide. Several factors determine the population abundance and species diversity of small mammals, including altitude, vegetation structure, composition, cover and thickness, cultivation and grazing patterns.Objectives of the study. Here, we quantify the impacts of protection, livestock pastoralism and crop cultivation on small mammals in the Serengeti ecosystem. Specifically, we assess (a) spatio-temporal variation in small mammal abundance and diversity in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem in relation to land use (pastoralism, agriculture and protection), (b) identify and characterize factors underpinning habitat selection by small mammals, (c) quantify the population demography and dynamics of small mammals in relation to land use type and season and d) how body size, sex and age of small mammals influence parasite load.Design and execution of the study. Field work was done in the wet and dry seasons of 2017 and the wet season of 2018 and is currently underway for the dry season of 2018. We collected data in the Serengeti National Park, adjacent livestock grazing lands and croplands. We used road transects following the Mto wa Mbu-Musoma road in Ngorongoro and Serengeti Districts. We established 12 permanent plots along the road transects. We then laid out live traps -Sherman, bucket pitfall and migono/wire mesh traps -in each of the 12 plots. In total, 564 traps consisting of 400 Sherman, 120 wire mesh and 44 bucket pitfall traps were consistently set in each landscape (two plots were set at a time due to limited resources). Small mammals were trapped in each of the 12 permanent plots in the wet season (April and May) and in the dry season (August and September) in 2017 and 2018. We set a total of 141 Sherman, migono/wire mesh and bucket pitfall traps in each of the 12 plots. In each plot, we laid out the traps on a 100 m × 100 m trap grid spaced 10 m apart. Trapping was carried out for five consecutive days in one plot before transferring traps to the next plot. Bucket pitfall traps with 11 buckets spaced 5 m apart and connected with a drift fence were set at one side of the plot in a straight line. Trapping started on the pastoral landscape (eastern part of the Serengeti ecosystem) followed by the protected area and finally by the cultivated landscape (western part of the ecosystem) because the eastern part of the ecosystem receives relatively low rainfall and so gets drier early compared to the western part. The same pattern was followed except for one season (wet season 2018) when the Tanzania National Park permit was issued later than anticipated. This forced us to set traps in the protected area after the agricultural landscape.Traps were baited with a mixture of roasted silverfish (silver cyprinid) and coconut coated with peanut butter. All traps were checked twice a day: in the morning (0600-0800 hours) and evening (1600-1830 hours). We identified trapped animals to genus or species level, took their morphometric (external shape and dimensions) measurements and collected parasites. We marked trapped animals by toe clipping them using a unique number sequence and released them at the points of capture.The bait ingredients consisting of coconuts, silverfish and peanut butter. A gas stove used to prepare a mixture of the ingredients.In addition, we measured vegetation characteristics in each plot at and around each trapping station on the trap grid. Height and cover of trees, shrubs, herbs and grass were measured within a 5 m radius from each trapping station. These measurements will be used to explain variation in small mammal abundance and diversity.Maize and beans cropland at Maaloni village (post-harvest) in the dry season of 2018. This is one of the landscapes where the study was done.","tokenCount":"1866"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9eb533d04f76df9a0f74154caac0f755","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/36312f23-9d19-414a-8f44-6111f260d527/content","id":"1745572759"},"keywords":["7_6_ l~f'",",1L247/L~F'_ostc1Seq","C3-"],"sieverID":"cbf40a36-f360-4d8d-a795-d3203d5dc04f","pagecount":"128","content":"Experiment and Results.Inbred Line Development, Nurseries and Seed Increases.Four types of nurseries were planted in Poza Rica Station in 1999A&B.Consisted of 100 elite x elite F 2 pedigree populations ( 60 white endosperm and 40 yellow endosperm). Every F 2 population was planted in 20 rows bulk in low ( 42,000 plants/hectare) and high density (84,000 plants/hectare). Self pollinations are executed only in high density, only plants with good ASI are selected, while low density are left without glassine bags and are inoculated with B. maydis and Fusarium stalk rots. Information on husk cover and response to disease is collected in low density before harvest time and used at harvest to eliminate bad populations or lines. The selection criteria in high density includes the selection of plants with good ASI and good roots (good standability).More than 10,000 S2 to Ss lines were planted in the same faction explained before. Selection criteria includes resistance to B. maydis, Fusarium ear/stalk rot, standability and yield and response to high density, root and stalk quality. Selection pressure is 10 to 20%.Near 1000 lines are planed including late, early, white and yellow. Selection criteria includes resistance to B. maydis, Fusarium ear/stalk rot, standability and yield and response to high density, root and stalk quality. Selection pressure is 10 to 20%.This nursery includes the elite lines that have been selected on the basis of the response to GCA and SCA in crosses for yield, ear rot and other biotic and abiotic stresses and are candidates to CML's.Ten ears of each selected line are harvested from the advanced line nursery and are planted ear to row at 66,666 plants/hectare. This nursery is intended to increase seed to be used (Genetic -1) as original seed.Additional information such as pollen shedding interval, tassel size, tassel structure, yield, stalk quality is collected from this nursery to provide collaboration with the preliminary information for the potential use as male or female in hybrid combinations.Early and advanced generation testcrosses and hybrids were produced in both cycles in Poza Rica and Cycle A in Tlaltizapan, using inbred and advanced lines crossed to two testers. 32 synthetics OPV were advanced to F 2 and tested in 40 locations in 1999.Population Improvement.Our program was handling 12 populations until 1998. Ten of them were being improved under Reciprocal Recurrent Selection schemes. In P21 (Tuxpefio-1) and P32 (ETO Blanco) the method used is modified half sib reciprocal recurrent selection (MRRS-HS).Population 22 (Mezcla Tropical Blanca) and P43 (La Posta), P23 (Blanco Cristalino-1) and P49 (Blanco Dentado-2), P24 (Antigua-Veracruz 181) and P27 (Amarillo Cristalino-1), and P28 (Amarillo Dentado) and P36 (Cogollero), are being improved in a modified full sib reciprocal recurrent selection scheme (MRRS-FS). The other three populations, P25 (Blanco Cristalino-3), P30 (Blanco Cristalino-2), and P31 (Amarillo Cristalino-2) are being improved using FS recurrent selection. In all populations, S 2 progenies are generated to produce FS or HS families to be evaluated in the International Progeny Testing Trials (IPTTs). As with the gene pools, these breeding schemes allow an integral breeding system linking germplasm development and population improvement with hybrid research; the best S2 families are further advanced in inbreeding. In 1999 we introduced important changes to the population improvement activities.All populations being improved by FSRRS were shifted to MRRS-HS.We paired Pop. 21 with Pop. 25 (Pop. 32 was put in the shelf).In Pops. 30 and 31 scheme of selection was changed to S 2 x tester method, some of the important reasons for the change are: In the FS scheme only one S 2 plant represents the orientation of a family with a random selection, in the HS scheme, every family is represented by a minimum of 10 plants.In the FS there is practically no tester involved, because individual plants are crossed to individual plants of the opposite population, in the HS all families are crossed to the same tester of the opposite population. Plant height of all populations has grown to the sky, probably because of lack of control, in HS it is easier to control plant height.In 1999 we formed the S 1 and S2 lines in each population and in 2000A we formed the testcrosses and 12 IPPT's (S2 x tester) progenies are being internationally tested in key sites in 2000. Our goal is to complete one cycle of S 2 recurrent selection in two years and we are in or way to accomplish the task with the collaboration of our colleagues in outreach: Colombia, Turipana, Guatemala, Cuyuta and La Maquina and Thailand, Suwan Farm and Tak Fa.Hybrid Development and Testing.Development of lines exhibiting superior characteristics continues to be an important activity in the LL T sub-program. Lines are derived from gene pools and populations as part of the on-going breeding schemes, and from F2 pedigree populations formed after crossing elite lines with good agronomic characteristics and excellent GCA, i.e. recycling superior lines belonging to the same population. High yielding single hybrids involving lines from different heterotic groups are also subjected to selfing. In the process of inbreeding, lines are evaluated for different biotic and abiotic stresses, and top crossed to testers at early and advanced inbreeding stages, to determine the GCA and One hundred tropical white inbred lines developed from diverse source populations with origin in the tropical lowland Entomology and Pathology units, HQ, Thailand and Kenya were tested across four locations in Mexico, Colombia and Thailand. 10 lines outyielded the best checks across key sites and showed better ear rot resistance than the check. Six lines yielded from 1.5 to 2.0 tons more yield than the best RE CML247 and doubled the yield of CML254 that yielded 4 and 3 ton/ha respectively. Entries 76, 73, 9 and 1 yielded 6.3, 5.9, 5.8 and 5.4 respectively (Table 3) and showed good stability at individual and across locations (Tables All to Al5).Superior lines are participating in SC and TWC hybrid combinations and synthetics are being tested internationally in 2000B.54 tropical late yellow inbred lines were tested across four key sites in Mexico, Colombia and Thailand. Lines were provided by the ARMP and HQ but included lines resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. The 8 best performing inbred lines entries 51, 28 and 26 yielded 4.2, 3.6 and 3.3 tons/ha while the best check yielded 3.4 t/ha (Table 4). The best 3 lines also showed good resistance to ear rot and root lodging. Best performing lines across locations are resistant to Downy Mildew, Low N, Drought, SCB, FAW, tar spot and other foliar diseases.Tables Al 6 to A20 include the performance of all lines at individual and across locations. This set of four trials evaluation of inbred lines per se in key sites was planned by GP2 members in January 1999, reporting week contribution of ARMP (Vasal), Kenya (Diallo) and Tropical Lowland, Pathology and Entomology units HQ. This work exposed the best inbred materials to the interested breeders and maize scientists in the maize program. For the TLL gave us the opportunity to select in the superior inbred materials for new hybrid combinations. Synthetics formation and formation of elite x elite F2 pedigree populations. Same trials were planted under biotic and abiotic stresses and will be discussed in Chapter 111-4.Evaluation of tropical early white single crosses. TSCW99A01.28 single crosses among 8 early white elite inbred lines, crossed in a diallel mating design and two checks were included in 5x6 alpha lattice design with 2 replications, and tested in four locations in Mexico. 3 early single crosses outyielded H-512 the best hybrid late maturity CL04938 x CL04930 topped the trial with 8.7 t/ha and showed resistance to ear rot and. root lodging (Table 5).CL04038 x CL04030 showed the largest and significant SCA effects that can be exploited in the formation of three way cross (TWC) hybrids using CML420 as male that presented the best GCA value (Table 6).Early germplasm is of outmost value because it is very scarce and can help farmers in developing countries to increase the maize productivity by planting two crops in relay or multi-crop planting. Early three way cross hybrids are in the process of formation and will be tested internationally in 2001.The performance of all 30 single crosses at individual and across locations is included in Tables A21 to A25.Evaluation of tropical early white single crosses resistant to Downy Mildew. TSCW99A02.This trial includes the evaluation of a diallel among tropical white early inbred lines resistant to DM classified as Heterotic Group \"B\". The fifteen single crosses plus a check were tested at four locations in Mexico. Table 7 shows the performance of the best 6 single crosses that yielded from six to seven tons/hectare similar to the best local check but more resistant to ear rot and root lodging.GCA estimates for lines P4 and P5 were positive and statistically significant (Table 8). These lines .can be used as male parents in TWC hybrid combination with crosses Heterotic Group \"A\" described in 2.5. Synthetics formed with these lines were internationally tested in 1999.Single cross hybrids are being tested in CHTTEW 2000.Entry 12 tof ped the trial across locations but also performed well at individual locations ranking 2n , 3rd, 3rd and 2nd at Poza Rica 99A, Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan 99A and Cotaxtla 99B respectively. Entry 9 ranked 5th, 1st, 2nd and 3rd at the same location and 2nd across locations (Tables A26 to A30). This performance shows the yield stability of the new single cross hybrids.  x P5 G SPE-1-3-3-8-B 6.64 7.02 69 70 232 146 0.63 1.5 2.0 2.7 2.9 3.0 60 5.3 21.9 10 P3 EW-DMR G Cl HS190-2-B-1-B-B-B-B x PS G SPE-1-3-3-8-B 6.62 7.39 68 69 232 135 0.58 7.4 1.2 2.9 3.0 21.6 60 10.5 24.4 13 PS G SPE-1-3-3-8-8x PSCML-419 6.34 6.77 65 67 216 121 0.56 9.5 0. 14 TEW-G-69-2-#1-1-#1-#-#3-8-8-88x CML-420 RE 5.58 6.30 63 64 190 93 0.49 3.9 0.7 3.2 2.4 2.9 47 11.5 18.9 15 CL-04933x CML-420 6.36 6.67 66 67 206 110 0.53 33.5 1.0 2.7 3.1 4.9 49 4.6 22.2 16 LOCAL CHECK 6.83 7.31 67 69 213 105 0.49 5.7 2.2 2.9 2.9 22.9 51 6.6 24.2 LSD0.05 0.89 3.3 2.8 15.0 13.7 0.0 25.8 12.8 0.6 2.9 17.8 6.0 4.6 3.4 CV% 7.04 1.5 1.7 3.5 6.7 5.3 6.1 10.0 9.8 65.9 10.6 7.1 6.1 5.3 CORRELATION WITH Yd2 0.14 -0.22 0.72 -0.30 0.57 0.31 -0.04 0.07 0.66 0.06 0.03 -0.14 0.45  3g single cross combinations among tropical early white inbred lines Heterotic Groups A and B, plus 2 checks were included in 5xg alpha lattice design with 2 replications and tested at four locations in Mexico..Five single crosses outyielded the best checks and showed ear rot resistance while the check suffered g% ear rot damage that reduced the yield.CL493g x G-SPE-4-2-3-B yielded g3 tons per hectare across four locations (Table 9). Information of response of single cross hybrids at individual and across sites locations presented in Tables A31 to A35.Yield performance and combining ability of 10 tropical early white inbred lines Heterotic Groups A & B and resistant to DM and SR.A diallel among 10 tropical early white lines ( 6 Heterotic Group A and 4 Heterotic Group B) was formed and the 45 possible single crosses evaluated under an alpha lattice design with one check. Trials were planted at four locations with two replication/sites.Five crosses topped the yield trials yielding more than the best check.P5 x pg and P4 x PIO yielded g.4 tons/hectare showing resistance to ear rot and root lodging and good stalk quality and flowered 4 days earlier than the best late maturing check, ear placement for both hybrids was 0.41 and the best local check 0.51, securing good standability to the new hybrid combination (Table IO). Pl x PIO topped the yield trial with g_6 tons per hectare and showed the highest SCA estimates. pg and PIO presented the best GCA estimates (Table 11).Pl x PIO = Downy mildew resistant x streak resistant combination can effectively be used as female in TWC hybrid combination using pg (with good general combining ability) as male. The TWC early hybrid combination possessing resistance to DM. and SR could play an important role in increasing maize productivity in Southern and Eastern Africa. Synthetic varieties formed using the lines tested in this experiment were formed and tested in EVT-14B in 1999. P2 x PIO showed excellent yield stability at individual locations ranking 1st, 4th, 2nd and 1st at Poza Rica 99A, Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan 99A and Cotaxtla 99B respectively. Same hybrid topped the trial across four locations (Tables A36 to A40).The early elite synthetic, lines and hybrid combination suggested and selected in the last 4 projects could play an important role in maize research in Eastern Africa.2.9 Yield performance of tropical early white single crosses.   x PB 04g2g - x PB 04g29 7.72 7.99 65 67 180 76 0.43 3.9 1.0 3.0 2.9 2.7 3.4 24.3     7.75 7.93 66 66 204 97 0.47 14.8 0.0 2.4 2.8 0.8 52 52 2.3 10 P2 G16C20MH44-#-3-5-3-B'5x P6 04934 7.66 7.77 65 66 195 97 0.50 10.8 0.0 2.8 2.6 14.7 54 52 1.5 11 P2 G16C20MH44-#-3-5-3-8'5x P7 (PRB549-1-1xP23C2-1-1)-5- x P7 (PRB549-1-1xP23C2-1-1)-5-1-3-B'5 7.04 7.37 70 71 197 79 0.40 16.6 0.0 2.7 2.6 1.3 51 51 4.6 12 P2 G16C20MH44-#-3-5-3-B'5x PB CML-419 7.01 7.32 65 65 198 101 0.51 12.7 0.0 2.8 2.9 3.0 51 50 4.3x CML-420 RE 2.11 TSCY99A06.42 single crosses were evaluated in this trial. Table 13 shows the performance of the superior yellow early single crosses identified in the experiments, yield across location was 6.8 to 7.4 ton/ha. Two single crosses yielded 10% more than the best local checks, were similru: in maturity and presented less percentage rotten ears and resistance to lodging. The potential of superior single crosses to be used as female in TWC combination permits attractive seed production purposes and the resistance to ear rot predicts good quality seed. The lines included in these experiments are mostly Heterotic Group \"B\". Three lines showed positive general combining ability (P 3 , P1 and P 9 ), but P 7 and P9 showed two and three times the value of the SE for GCA confirming their value in general performance. P9 participated in the formation of the best four single crosses (Table 14). The cross performance of P1xP9=7.6 tons/ha topped the trial (Table 13).The single cross (P1 x P9) can effectively be used as female parent in TWC combination with early lines Heterotic Group \"A''. Parents P 7 and P 9 can serve as male parents in TWC combination with single crosses Heterotic Group \"A\". In some countries the flint type is more attractive for farmers, in this case (P3 x Ps)P9, (P3 x Ps)P1 and (P 5 x P1)P9 could play an important role in tailoring hybrids with resistance to D. mildew, for these special circumstances. The suggested TWC are in the process of formation and will be tested in international CHTTEY in 2001. The best 8 lines formed synthetic tropical early yellow Heterotic Group \"B\" (flint). Tables A46 to A50 showed the performance of all crosses at individual and across locations.      This diallel included 11 lines, six Heterotic Group \"A\" and five Heterotic Group \"B\" (sister lines were eliminated from the synthetics). The 55 single crosses and four checks were tested in four locations mentioned in the introduction.The top performing 8 yellow single crosses are presented in Table 15. P2 x P9, yielded 8.5 tons/ha, showed resistance to ear rot and root lodging while the local best check yielded 7 .6 tons/ha, showed bad standability and matured one week later, days to silk were 64 because winter evaluation was included, in summer sites the days to flower were 49 (see Table A54). Lines P1 and P11 showed the best GCA (0.97 and 0.8 ton/ha respectively) estimates belonging to Heterotic Group \"B\" but from different populations.The best performing cross P2 x P 9 is AxB and could be used as the female parent in hybrid (P 2 x P 9 ) x P 7 , P1 is the line with the best GCA, the TWC combination will posses also resistance to D. mildew and tar spot (P9 and P1) respectively. P 7 x P 10 (BxB) second performing hybrid could play an important role as female parent in TWC (P 7 x P 10 ) P 6 . P 6 is line Heterotic Group \"A\" and posses good GCA and still maintains 66% flint pedigree and tolerance to D. mildew. Additional possible TWC combinations include (P2 x P9) x P11, semi-flint MDR; (P1 x Pio) P11 flint MDR. (P 9 x P 11 )P 7 flint, DMR, TSR, best single crosses with lines with good GCA, all female parents will have good yield potential, one of the most important attributes for early hybrid formation, all selected males posses good general combining ability and good hybrid performance can be predicted (Tables 15 and 16).The synthetic A&B formed include the best 8 lines with good general combining ability.Tables A51 to A55 include the performance of hybrid combination at individual sites and across locations.Evaluation of 36 yellow early single crosses across 3 locations. The results of this project were not very encouraging but the best performing 8 single crosses are shown in Table 17. Tables A56 to A59 present the performance of all crosses at individual and across locations.This project includes the evaluation of 21 single crosses among seven lines Heterotic Group \"B\" resistant to D. mildew and tar spot.The best performing single cross hybrid P1 x P1 yielded 7.5 t/ha 450 kg/ha more than the best local check. Eight single crosses were similar in yield than the local check four days later (Table 18). P 1 showed the best GCA, estimated 2.5 times the SE for GCA (Table 19). Tables A60 to A64 demonstrates the performance of all single crosses at each site and across sites. Possible TWC combination (P4x P 6 ) x P 1 (AxB).          7? 0 \"\" 1\"\" oi:: ., n 77 ,.., AC LSD 0.05 0.44 0.9 0.9 7.3 83 0.  RL SL EA BH t/ha t/ha days cm cm % %  x P3 CML-421 6.82 7.27 65 195 94 0.99 7.3 1.6 2.9 23.96.78 7.20 67 210 103 0.93 3.4 0.6 2.4 18.8 1 P1 G1704 G17TSRMH5-2-4-#-1-1-888-B-8x P2 G1706 G17C22MH111#-1-4-3-3-88B-B-8 6.77 7.03 64 189 88 0.98 13.0 3.7 3.1 16.6 5 P1 G1704 G17TSRMH5-2-4-#-1-1-888-8-8x P6 G1805 G18C19MH100#-4-1-1-1-8B-#-88888 6.73 6.98 64 192 96 0.98 9.5 4.7 2.5 3.9 13 P3 CML-421x P6 G1805 G18C19MH100#-4-1-1-   ### Lines selected as male for TWC hybrids in these projects are:8. G1805 All three way cross early yellow tropical combination identified from these projects are being formed at Tumbadero and will be tested internationally in 2001 in CHTTEY. Synthetics were tested in 1999. The TWC and synthetics produced from this project could definitively help to increase maize productivity in marginal drought prone areas in tropical mega-environment if extensively tested.The activities conducted in these subprojects are oriented toward one of the most important goals of Global Project 2, Subproject 3 \"Development of late maturing, highyielding, stress tolerant, and stable performing hybrids and OPVs for subsistence and commercial farmers in the tropical lowlands\". The yield potential in maize growing areas of Latin America, Africa and some countries in Asia such as India, Indonesia, Philippines among others in the tropical lowland mega-environment is high, however, the actual mean yield is low. The genetic diversity of the inbred lines tested in this subproject could give original germplasm (synthetics and hybrids) suitable for marginal environments due to several stresses applied in the selection processes of the inbred lines included in this study. All products developed from this subproject should be tested under biotic and abiotic stresses in Mexico and further, the superior germplasm tested through the projects in AMS in eastern Africa and southern Africa.Six different diallels including tropical white late elite inbred lines Heterotic Groups A&B. Experiments TSCW99Al0 to TSCW99Al5 were tested at four locations in Mexico, Poza Rica and Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan and Cotaxtla 99B. The objectives of these experiments were: 1. To estimate the combining ability of the inbred lines to further utilize them in hybrid combinations according to their response. 2. Identify single cross combination AxA and BxB to be used as female in TWC combination. 3. Identify superior single cross combination for testing in CHTTW internationally in 2001. 4. Confirm the heterotic grouping of the lines and 5. Identify superior combinations for synthetics.A diallel was formed with 8 elite lines initially identified as Heterotic Group \"A\", at the same time a synthetic was formed and the F 1 was advanced to F2 and internationally tested in 1999B.The 28 possible single crosses plus 2 checks were included under a ex: lattice design 5x6 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations.Table 20 shows the top performing 8 single crosses with a maximum yield of 9.75 ton/ha in CML407 x CML254 one ton more yield than the reference entry CML24 7 x CML254 and 2 tons per hectare more than the best check of the seed industry Pioneer P3001 W. Seven additional single crosses outyielded the seed industry check and showed resistance to ear rot and root lodging while P3001Wpresented28% root lodging and 7% rotten ears.Four elite inbred lines P 5 , P6, P 7 and Ps showed positive and significant GCA estimates 0.69, 0.59, 0.99 and 0.59 t/ha respectively. The GCA estimate for P 7 was almost three times S.E. for GCA. Confirming its excellency for GCA. The highest SCA ability estimated was demonstrated by P3 x Ps = 1.059 ton/ha. It showed across performance of 9.0 tons/ha. P3 x P 7 also showed high SCA estimated of 0.87. The best performing single cross hybrid jncluded the parents with the highest GCA estimates (Table 21). P 7 participated in 4 of the best 8 top yielding single crosses and showed the highest GCA estimates, that excellent performing ability makes P1 a perfect male parent in TWC combination using the single cross P s x P 6 as female parent. This will make the perfect combination because P1 combines well with P 5 and P6, such combination ranked 2nd and 3rd in the trial. Other TWC combination could be (Ps x Ps) x P1 and (P3 x Ps) P1 with the female single crosses yielding 9.6, 9.4 and 9.0 tons per hectare respectively. Ps, P6, P1 and Ps can also be used as male parents in combination with single crosses Heterotic Group \"B\". Single cross P 6 x P1 can be used as dent single cross per se because it yielded 9.6 tons per hectare (Table 20) and P6 = P43LPSC 3 -S 2 -1-3-B*S is good seed yielder. The best 3 single crosses will be tested in international trial CHTTW in 2001.All the objectives established in this project were exceedingly achieved.Tables A65 to A69 show the performance of all possible single crosses at individual and across locations. P1 x Ps ranked first, second, third and second at Poza Rica 99A, Cotaxtla 99 and Tlaltizapan and Cotaxtla 99 respectively.The results obtained indicate that high yielding single crosses can be obtained within heterotic groups and can be used effectively in TWC combination to develop hybrids with dent endosperm that are preferred in several countries in the developing world, using a line with good general combining ability as male that will guarantee the delivering of superior products to farmers.   A diallel was formed with 7 elite lines initially identified as heterotic Group B, at the same time a synthetic was formed and the F 1 was advanced to F 2 and internationally tested in 1999B.The 21 possible single crosses plus 3 checks were included under a oc lattice design 4x6 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations.Table 22 shows the best 3 single crosses that topped the trial and yielded 7.5 tons/ha outyielding the seed industry check but not CML247 x CML254. The 3 single crosses are Heterotic Group \"B\" (flint) and can be used as female parent in TWC combinations with the 4 lines selected in Project 2.15 as male parents. P 3 , P 4 and P 6 showed positive combining ability (Table 23). Performance of all 21 single crosses at individual and across locations are shown in Tables A70 to A74.A diallel was formed with 9 elite lines, five initially identified as Heterotic Group \"A\", and four Heterotic Group \"B\" at the same time a synthetic was formed and the F 1 was advanced to F 2 and internationally tested in l 999B.The 36 possible single crosses plus 4 checks were included under a oc lattice design 5x8 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations.P43C 10 HC169-B*8 x CML407 yielded 10.0 tons per hectare superior to the seed industry check in 3 tons per hectare and 25% more yield than the RE CML247 x CML254. The best single cross showed also excellent standability and ear rot resistance while the seed industry check presented 22% root lodging and 7% rotten ears. Four crosses outyielded the seed industry check with 1.8 to 3 tons per hectare and resistance to root lodging and ear rot. CML407 was parent in five of the best eight single crosses that topped the trial (Table 24) while this trial included combinations amongst lines Heterotic Groups A&B, the best 3 single crosses were combinations AxA and combining ability played an important role in the heterotic response. Lines P2, P 3 , P 4 and P 5 showed positive and highly significant GCA estimates up to 5 times the SE for GCA. All lines Heterotic Group \"B\" (P6, P1, Ps, P9) showed negative GCA (  A75 to A79).Lines selected from this subproject are P2, P 3 , P 4 , P 5 • Single crosses for international testing: P2 x P4, P3 x P4, P4x Ps and P1 x P3.The 28 possible single crosses plus 2 checks were included under a oc lattice design 5x6 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations. 4.5 12 P3 (G19TSR 16°20TSR20)-1-2-B-1-2-BBB-3-B-#-B 0 6 x P4 G 23 C26 HS170-1-1-1-1-BBB 7.13 7.57 72 74 219 110 0.51 15.9 2.6 3.2 23.3 44 5.9 14 P3 (G19TSR16°20TSR20)-1-2-B-1-2-BBB-3-B-#-B 0 6 x P6 G 23 C26 HS235-7-1-1-5-B 6.96 7.43 73 75 203 109 0.53 6.4 0.7 3.5 16.5 48 6.3 15 P3(G19TSR16'20TSR20)-1-2-B-1-2-BBB-3-B-#-B'6 x P7 CML-247 6. 90   2 P1 P22TSRC4-1 S8-2-7-B-B-2-BBB x P3 P43 POSTA SEQ C3-S2-1-3-B•6 8.64 9.10 77 79 1.9 253 136 0.55 0.95 3.7 3.8 2.3 6.  The 8 lines included in this diallel were 5 Heterotic Group \"A\" and 3 Heterotic Group \"B\".The top yielding hybrid in this experiment was CML407 x CL02510 (A&B) with 9.50 tons per hectare, 31 % more than Pioneer W3001 W best seed industry check and 15 more than our RE: CML247 x CML 254. Eight single crosses significantly outyielded the best hybrid checks (Table 26). The best 3 single crosses selected in this trial are crosses AxB, that can be used as females in TWC combination with male inbred lines with excellent GCA selected in 2.16.The only 3 Ilnes with GCA positive estimates were CML407, CML 254 and CL02182 (Table 27).Tables A80 to A84 present all hybrids evaluated at individual and across locations.The 18 single crosses plus 2 checks were included under a ex: lattice design 4x5 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations.Best hybrid selected CML 264 x CML269 yielded 9.2 tons per hectare, one ton more than P-3001 Wand similar to RE: CML 247 x 254 (Table 28).Only CML 398 and CML269 showed positive GCA estimates 0.66 ton/ha and 0.53 ton/ha respectively, CML264 x CML269 showed the highest SCA estimate (1.15 ton/ha) (Table 29).Tables A85 to A89 present all hybrids evaluated at individual and across locations.28 single crosses plus 2 checks were included under a ex: lattice design 5x6 with 2 replications, 2 rows 5 meters long per plot and evaluated in four locations.Table 30 shows the top 8 single crosses identified in this experiment, only two crosses more than the RE. Table 31 shows the GCA and SCA estimates in this trial, combinations among sister lines were eliminated from these trials.Tables A90 to A94 present all hybrids evaluated at individual and across locations.  C5HC21 S-2-3-B-f-6#-BBBB-2-####-B'7 x P3 04332 (AC7643'P43}-2-3-4-2-BBB-1-B-#-B*S 8.85 9.23 76 76 237 137 0.57 2.2 0.6 3.1 9.1 4.1 6 P1 CML9x P7 CML36 P32C4HC20-  u.,,..,,.   x P5CM.-254 8.71 9.00 n n -0.1 Z!) 118 0.51 1.01 1.7 0.3 26 1.9 26 52 52 3.3 24 P5CM.-254x P8 CM..-247 ~ 8.54 8.61 76 76 0.3 204 110 0.55 0.99 0.9 0.6 24 1.3 4.3 51 52 0.8 23 P5CM.-254 x P7 SINT .Ero.T~-7-3-1-2-3-IB##-Ell 8.49 8.66 76 n 0.7 212 118 0.55 0.99 3.9 32 26 1.9 12 51 52 1.9 LSOO.Cl!' 1.02 1.8 20 1.1 14.8 11.4 0.1 0.1 92 5.4 0.5 0.9 6.7 3.8 22 3.4 CV% 6.66 1.1 1.3 32 4.0 6.7 5.5 5.0 8.1 5.1 9.8 21.7 7.0 5. More than 20 million hectares are planted yearly with maize yellow germplasm in Asia and Latin America in the tropical mega-environment, Nevertheless more than 50% of this area is still planted to local varieties with low yield potential and susceptibility to foliar diseases. Tropical Lowland Subprogram has oriented activities toward the formation of new hybrids and synthetic varieties with good yield potential and characteristics that attract the farmers for adoption and increase productivity.These activities are included in GP2 Subproject 3 \"Development of late maturing, highyielding, stress tolerant, and stable performing hybrids and OPV s for subsistence and commercial farmers in the tropical lowlands\" and involved the evaluation of six diallels (TSCY99Al6 to TSCY99A21) amongst lines Heterotic Groups \"A\" and \"B\" and combination of groups of lines. The grouping permits a more efficient use of the potential of the lines. Each experiment was tested in four locations in Mexico. The objectives of these experiments were to: 1st Estimate the combining ability of the lines and crosses, to identify superior inbreds A or B with good GCA to be used as males in TWC combination and synthetic formation and specific single crosses AxA or BxB to utilize as female parents in seed production. 2\"d Identify superior AxB single cross with good yield potential to include in international hybrid trials, CHTTY 2001.A diallel among eight inbred yellow lines Heterotic Group \"A\" was formed and the 28 single crosses and two checks were evaluated under an alpha lattice design with 2 replications by location and one row per plot. The yield is reported in tons per hectare at 15% moisture and other important agronomic traits such as ear rot and root lodging in percentage of the constraint.Table 32 shows the information collected for the top high yielding entries in this experiment. Three single crosses AxA yielded similar to the RE: CML287 x CML4 l 3 AxB. P 4 x P 7 , P 7 x P 8 and P 6 x P1 respectively. They also showed better standability than CML287 x CML413. The 3 single crosses can effectively be used as female parents for yellow late TWC formation using lines Heterotic Group \"B\" as male parent. Four linesand CML 287 showed the highest and significant GCA estimates and can be used as male parents of AxB single cross to form high yielding single crosses (Table 33). Tables A95 to A99show the performance at individual and across sites.Included the• evaluation of a diallel among 3 lines Heterotic Group \"B\" and 4 sister lines of CML 413 also Heterotic Group \"B\". 3 single crosses BxB: Ps x P1, P6 x P1 and P4 x P1 yielded similar to RE287 x 413 (AxB), they can be used as female to form TWC combinations with males Heterotic Group \"B\" identified in the experiment 2.21. Single crosses among sister lines Heterotic Group \"B\" do not express the necessary yield potential to consider in the modified single cross hybrids (Table 34). Two lines with excellent GCA were identified to be used as males with the single crosses AxB identified in 2.21 (Table 35). Performance of all crosses are shown in Tables AlOO to Al03. x F7~2-3-2.S 8.45 8.62 79 81 ZZ3 129 0.57 7.4 2.9 2.7 3.8 49 51 2.0 28 F7~2-3-2.Sx R!CM.-287 8.Z2 8.41 79 00 Z36 1Z2 0.00 2i3 0.5 2.5 3.7 51 S2 2. 22) RlP24STEC2-~x F7~2-3-2.S 8.19 8.5! 78 79 Z21 112 0.52 13.9 1.9 2.8 5.1 Ef) 53 4.6x F7~2-3-2.S 7.ffl 8.17 77 78 211 119 0.57 1.1 5.7 2.5 0.4 51 51 3.7 18 PJ P24STEC1f-C21-3-1-2-1-1.a:B-1-#' 4-8\"5x R!CM.-287 7.136 8.0'2 82 83 Z22 1Z2 0.54 14.9 3.0 2.7 6.3 49 S) 2.0 3 P1 a...-02442 P24STEC11-C1S.1-33-1-2.a:B-1-#' 4-8\"7 x P402.@ 7.75 8.01 78 81 194 118 0.57 9.9 1.5 2.7 0.0 49 51 3.3 25 10.48 1.8 0.9 5.2 5.4 6.5 8.6 6.9 13.8 6.5 8.9 3.0 9.5CORRELAllO'J VIATH Yrf'.-0.95 o.oo -0.92 -0.7 -0.54 0.18 0.12 -0.43-0.23 -0.34 -0.re -02   A diallel among 10 parents yellow inbred lines, five Heterotic Group \"A\" and five Heterotic Group \"B\" were formed and the 45 single crosses evaluated in alpha lattice design 5x9, with 2 replications and 1 row per plot, two single crosses outyielded the RE: CML287 x CML413 but not the local check that yielded 9.3 ton/ha (Table 36).Nevertheless regular TWC can be formed using P2 x Ps x Ps = AxBxC, Ps as the male line with the best GCA estimates. Other lines with good GCA selected are CL02410 and P 1 and P 4 (Table 37). Tables A104 to Al08 show the performance of all single crosses at individual and across locations.Included the evaluation of 16 single crosses among yellow lines Heterotic Groups \"A\"&\"B\" under a 4x4 alpha lattice design with 2 replications, 1 row per plot in four locations. CL2410 x CML287 and CML287 x CL00356 outyielded the RE: CML287 x CML413 with 8.4 tons/hectare (Table 38). Complete information of the performance of the 16 single crosses is provided in Tables A109 to Al 13.This experiment includes the evaluation of a diallel formed amongst 8 yellow inbred lines, seven Heterotic Group \"A\" and one Heterotic Group \"B\", only two single crosses yielded similar to the RE: CML287 x CML413, CML27 (Heterotic Group \"B\"), participated in four of the 8 top single crosses (Table 39), the two single crosses can be used as female parents. TWC formation with CML27 as male posses the highest GCA estimate (Table 40). A synthetic was formed using the 7 lines Heterotic Group \"A\". Tables Al 14 to Al 18 show the information at individual locations.A diallel among 9 yellow late tropical inbred lines (seven Heterotic Group \"A\" and two Heterotic Group \"B\") were formed and the 36 possible single crosses were tested under 6x6 alpha lattice design with 2 replications per site and 1 row per plot. The top 8 single crosses across four locations are presented in Table (41). CL024HC17 x CML294, AxB cross outyielded the RE: CML287 x CML413 and showed tolerance to RL and ear rot while the RE yielded one ton less and showed susceptibility to both traits.Table 42 presents the estimates for GCA, parents P6, P 7 and P 8 and showed positive GCA estimates. Performance of all single crosses are shown in Tables Al 19 to A123.Group \"A\" -TSCW99A22.23 lines derived from a synthetic resistant to Exerohilum turcicum (Et) were crossed to 2 testers TEW-69-2-#1-1-#1-##3-8*4, Heterotic Group \"A\" and CML20 Heterotic Group \"B\". The 46 testcrosses plus 3 checks were tested in four locations in Mexico: Poza Rica and Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan and Cotaxtla 99B, in a 7x7 alpha lattice design with 2 replications per location. Pm\"' Rir\"' Cotaxtla. Tlaltiz<11n!ln• MPxjro 1999 A    '\" B: M\"xilYI 199'J. 26 F5 (P24STE-16\"24STE-17}-EHB###ml x F6 P.m!EC11-W2-2-2-1-1-EB#'4-1-B 6.67 7.04 E9 E9 :m 103 0.-E 0.91 4.2 1.9 3.1 14.1 5.2 18.7 29 F5 (P24STE-16\"24STE-17}-EHB#ll#-BEB x F9CM.-lll 6.56 7.44 71 73 241 123 0.52 0.95 4.0 1.6 29 44.4 11.9 182.41 6.70 E9 70 184 101 0.00 0.94 14.0 6.0 3.0 5.7 4.3 18.0 7 P1 CM.-2ffi x RICM.-294 6.29 6.74 73 74 Z35 118 0.50 1.11 6.4 4.0 3.0 25.6 6.6 19.1x RICM.-294 6.19 6.6'2 72. 73 219 96 0.45 0.95 5.8 24 3.3 252 6.5 2>2 ZT F5 (P24STE-16\"24STE-17}-EHB#ll#-BEB x P7CM.-282 6.18 6.00 70 72. 231 103 0.45 0.95 7.5 1.6 29 92 9.   The objectives of this study were to identify lines with intermediate maturity, resistant to Et and excellent GCA that can serve as parent in three way cross combinations to form a tropical intermediate synthetic with the lines with best GCA and resistant to Northern Leaf Blight.Ten testcrosses were statistically superior in yield, standability and ear rot resistance than the local checks and the cross among the two testers. S94P49ET-Fi-108-4-1-2-B x TEW-69-2-#1-1-#l-##3-B*4, yielded 8.60 tons per hectare while the cross T 1 x T 2 yielded 6.6 tons/hectare (Table 43). Surprisingly only one testcross with CML420 tester \"B\" was among the top 10 crosses, the majority of the lines testcross performance superiority was with tester \"A\" that posses excellent GCA, 8 lines with positive good to excellent GCA, estimates for yield were selected (Table 44) and will be used as parent in TWC combination. A synthetic is being formed and will be advanced to F 2 in 2001A, and further on tested under low N and drought together with the superior TWC formed at HQ and further on at AMS in Eastern Africa. Superior hybrids will be tested in CHTTEW and the synthetic in EVTl 4B with the new synthetics from Alpha.Tables Al24 toA128 demonstrates the performance of all crosses at individual and across locations.Heterotic Groups \"A\" and \"B\" -TSCW99B06.This experiment includes the evaluation of 275 single crosses between selected tropical late white lines Heterotic Group \"A\" and lines Heterotic Group \"B\". Lines \"A\" were crossed to lines \"B\".The 275 AxB single crosses and five checks were evaluated under a 14x20 alpha lattice design with two replications in four locations. The objectives of this experiment were:1) Identify superior single cross hybrids for international testing.2) Identify potential single cross combinations to use as female parents. Three way cross hybrids. Identify superior lines to form synthetic varieties and the potential of lines for future testers.The across analysis was performed with 3 locations because Turipana, Colombia has several plots missing.  x TEWG$2411-1411-##>EHE 8.12 8.36 72 72 0.1 181 85 0.<15 1.00 6.8 0.5 2.9 1.9 3.5 2.9 25. x G15TSRl-C15-1-2-1-BBB-1-BEB3 7JJ2. 8.21 71 72 0.5 187 96 0.52 1.01 7.8 1.0 2.9 2.1 0.9 3.6 23.2 S94P4!ET .f2-<18-J. x TEWG$2411-1411-##>EHE 1.es 8.:!l 69 69 0.0 178 75 0.43 1.01 8.2 0.6 3.4 2.2 18. 1 8.4 21.3 TEWGm.2411-14114#4f3.8B313 x CM..G 5.93 6.ffi 65 65 0.4 171 81 0.48 0.9:1 5.5 1.1 3.9 2.8 7.6 9.7 18.   These three hybrids outyielded the RE: CML247 x CML254 by 1.5 t/ha and the seed industry checks P30F94, Asgrow x M7754, Dekalb 9820 with 2 to 3.3 tons per hectare. The seed industry checks showed from 15 to 30% ear rot damage reducing the economic yield considerably after the reduction of the kernel damage by ear rot, considering the negative correlation with yield (Table 45). Some hybrids showed good yield stability at individual locations (Tables Al29 to Al33).The 3 entries mentioned above and the best two entries at individual locations will be tested in international trials in 2001, to give NAR's and seed industry the opportunity to select new hybrid combinations to enhance hybrid seed production in developing countries.Single cross combinations such as CL02181 x CL04353, CL02199 x CL02157 and CL04353 x CL02131 can be used as female parents with lines Heterotic Group 11 B 11 or good CGA as male parents. Lines 11 A 11 and lines 11 B 11 were selected to form new synthetics. Lines CL02199 11 A 11 and CL02306 11 B 11 have potential for becoming testers because of the high heterotic response.In order to effectively use the information collected from this trial two groups of lines were formed: Group I includes lines Heterotic Group 11 A 11 crossed to 3 testers of Heterotic Group 11 B 11 and Group 2, lines Heterotic Group 11 B 11 crossed to testers of Heterotic Group 11 A 11 • 11 lines Heterotic Group \"A 11 showed positive GCA estimates of 0.13 to 1.11 t/ha grain yield and 8 lines Heterotic Group \"B 11 showed positive GCA estimates 0.11 to 0.78 t/ha grain yield (Table 46).2. 29 Combining ability and cross performance of tropical late yellow inbred lines heterotic Groups \"A\" and \"B\" -TSCY99B07.In TL99A, 13 tropical yellow lines Heterotic Group A and IO Heterotic Group B were crossed among groups in NCH mating design, all crosses plus 3 checks were evaluated under a 12xl2 alpha lattice design, •one row, five meters long, plot with 2 replications across eight locations: Poza Rica, Cotaxtla and Uxmal in Mexico; Cuyuta, Guatemala; Turipana, Colombia; El Ejido, Panama; Bani, Dominican Republic; and Suwan Farm, Thailand.The objectives of this trial were:Ident~fy superior lines with good GCA and SCA in in-crosses.Evaluate the cross performance of the lines across locations.Identify superior single cross hybrids for international testing. 4.Identify potential new candidates for testers.The best performing single cross P8 x P37 yielded 8.3 t/ha across seven locations, outperformed the best local seed industry check, across locations with 3 tons/ha. This yellow hybrid also showed resistance to ear rot, stalk lodge and excellent standability (Table 47). Yield stability was confirmed by examining its performance at individual    Turipana and Bani, Dominican Republic and at Suwan Farm, Thailand respectively (Tables Al34 to A142). With the exception of Bani, Dominican Republic, at least 10 entries outyielded the RE: CML287 x CML413 with 1 to 3 tons/ha and the local seed industry checks with 2 to 4 tons/ha. The yield drops below the mean and shows susceptibility to ear rot at this location, PIO x P32 (TLL line x ARMP line) yielded 8.2 tons/ha and showed resistance to ear rot. At Suwan Farm PIO x P30 and P20 x P30 also showed excellent performance, yielding 7.7 t/ha and very resistant to ear rot. These three entries outyielded the best seed industry check, Pioneer P3013 that yielded 5.7 tons/ha and 25% ear rot damage (Table Al39). P16 x P37, P9 x P30 and P16 x P24 also showed good performance at individual and across locations (Tables 47 and 142). These hybrids will be internationally tested in CHTTY in year 2001.Combination of lines from the TLL program with ARMP can effectively enhance national programs in Asia and provide new germplasm with heterotic responses to increase maize productivity. Lines P4, P8, P9 and P16 Heterotic Group \"A\" and P24, P28, P30 and P37, Heterotic Group \"B\" showed GCA estimates for yield four to six times the standard error for GCA (Table 48), confirming the good GCA. This group of lines Heterotic Groups A&B will form new yellow late synthetics S99TL Y A-B.The superior lines will also be crossed to single crosses AxA and BxB to form new threeway cross hybrids. It is strongly suggested that breeders at ARMP, SAM and PRM use the results of these experiments to effectively assist national programs with new hybrid focus.Heterotic Groups \"A\" and \"B\" -TSCW99B08.Twenty tropical late white elite lines were crossed to four elite line testers: CML254 (Heterotic Group \"A\") and CML247 (Heterotic Group \"B\") tropical and CML311 (Heterotic Group \"A\") and CML384 (Heterotic Group \"B\") subtropical.The 80 testcrosses plus 8 checks were evaluated under an 8xl 1 alpha lattice design with 2 replications, in five locations in the tropical mega-environments of Poza Rica and Cotaxtla, Veracruz and Tapacula, Chiapas in Mexico, Turipana, Colombia, and Cuyuta, Guatemala. Two environments in the subtropical environment will be planted in 2000B.Objectives:1.Identify new single cross combination tropical x tropical and tropical x subtropical and yield stability.Identify single cross combination within Heterotic Groups AxA and BxB for practical use as female parent in three-way cross combination.Identify four lines with good GCA to be used as Heterotic Group \"C\" or male parents in three-way cross combinations.Evaluate the heterotic response of testers.   Table 49 shows the performance of the best 8 single crosses. The superior 3 entries CLG2419 x CML384, CL03218 x CML384 and CL2181 x CML384 were a combination of tropical x subtropical and yielded one ton/hectare, more than the next best tropical x tropical single cross confirming the heterotic response of tropical x subtropical. CLG24 l 9 x CML384 yielded 10 tons/hectare across five locations and showed resistance to root lodging and tolerance to ear rot (12%). The mean for ear rot incidence in this experiment was 22% and mean yield 7.4 t/ha, largely affected by the location in Tapachula, Chiapas, that presented ear rot mean of 4 7%, showing highly negative correlation with yield (r = -0.67) (Table 148). CL03218 x CML384 and CL02181 x CML 384 yielded 9 and 9.2 tons/ha respectively and showed 12% ear rot damage.The best tropical x tropical CLG24 l 9 x CML254 yielded 9 .1 tons/ha and 11 % ear rot damage and 9% root lodging.The superior tropical x subtropical single cross (CLG2419 x CML384) outyielded the RE: CML247 x CML254 by 25% (2 tons/ha) and the seed industry checks by 47%, that presented 19% of ears damaged by ear rot, reducing yield to 5.5 tons/ha, while in the best hybrids the yield reduction was only 12% giving 8.8 tons/ha of clean yield (Table 49). Best four hybrids will be internationally tested CHTTW in 2001.Tropical x subtropical also contributed to yield stability, entry 80, CLG2419 x CML384 topped the trial across locations and ranked 1st at Poza Rica (12.6 tons/ha) 2nd at Cotaxtla (10.2 t/ha), 3rd at Turipana (8.8 t/ha), 2nd at Tapachula and 2nd at Las Vegas, Guatemala. Entries 52, 4 and 78 also showed good stability. Ear rot affects more tropical x subtropical at more humid tropic environments such as Tapachula, Mexico and Las Vegas, Guatemala (Tables Al43 to Al48). Single cross entries 52, 68 and 44, Heterotic Group \"B\" tropical x subtropical and entries 78 and 74, Heterotic Group \"A\", can effectively be used as female parent in three-way cross hybrid combinations, using lines with good general combining ability as male parents.The male parents should be tropical lines in the case of hybrids for the humid tropic and subtropical for the subtropic environment. The final decision should be taken after harvesting the trial planted at Tlaltizapan and Guanajuato, subtropical environments. Lines 20, 1, 19 and 4 showed the highest estimates of GCA for yield three to ten times SE for GCA and highest mean cross performance. Lines 2, 11, 8 and 13 showed positive GCA (Table 50). The 8 lines should be used to form synthetic varieties and lines 1, 3, 15 and 16 should be used as male parents in three-way hybrid combinations with adaptation to both tropical and subtropical environments.Tester Tl showed the highest heterotic response for yield with Line 11, Ll2 x Tl (SCA=0.89), Ll l x T4 and Ll6 x T4 presented significant SCA estimates (Table 50).GCA effects for ear rot were also estimated, the lowest negative values for ear rot do not coincide with the best GCA lines for yield but intermediate values.Testers CML 254 and CML 384 showed the lowest negative estimate for ear rot among testers (Table 50). ~\"'\"\"\"'\"' ~ 1 o~~o r.>;,.,_ r~t-o~t-Jo 1\\ 6 ' \" T \"'\"', • 23 tropical late white elite lines were crossed to three elite line testers: CML254 (Heterotic Group \"A\") tropical and CML311 (Heterotic Group \"A\") and CML3 84 (Heterotic Group \"B \") subtropical.The 69 testcrosses plus 8 checks were evaluated under a 7xl 1 alpha lattice design with 2 replications, in five locations in the tropical mega-environments of Poza Rica and Cotaxtla, Veracruz and Tapacula, Chiapas in Mexico, Turipana, Colombia, and Cuyuta, Guatemala.Objectives:1. Identify new single cross combination tropical x tropical and tropical x subtropical and yield stability.2. Identify single cross combination within Heterotic Groups AxA and BxB for practical use as female parent in three-way cross combination.3. Identify four lines with good GCA to be used as Heterotic Group \"C\" or male parents in three-way cross combinations.4. Evaluate the heterotic response of testers.Table 51 shows the performance of the best 8 single crosses. The best entry CL023 07 x CML3 l 1, was a combination, tropical x subtropical.CL02307 x CML311 yielded 9 tons/hectare across four locations and showed resistance to root lodging and tolerance to ear rot.The best tropical x tropical CLG2309 x CML254 yielded 9 tons/ha and showed 12% ear rot damage.The superior tropical x subtropical single cross (CL02307 x CML311) yielded similar to the RE: CML247 x CML254 outyielding the seed industry checks by 20%, that showed 18% of ears damaged by ear rot, reducing yield to 6.5 tons/ha, while in the best hybrids the yield reduction was only 8% giving 8.3 tons/ha of clean yield (Table 51 ). Best four hybrids will be internationally tested CHTTW in 2001.Lines CL02307, CL02510, CL04355, and CL04580 showed the highest GCA estimates for yield (Table 52).Tables A149 to A155 include the information at individual and across locations.Combining ability of yellow tropical late inbred lines crossed to three testers TSCY99B10. 25 tropical yellow lines Heterotic Groups A and B were crossed to 3 testers, all crosses plus 6 checks were evaluated under a 9x9 alpha lattice design, one row, five meters long, plot with 2 replications across six locations: Poza Rica, Cotaxtla and Uxmal in Mexico; Las Vegas, Guatemala; Turipana, Colombia; El Ejido, Panama; and Suwan Farm, Thailand.   The objectives of this trial were:1. Identify superior lines with good GCA and SCA in in-crosses.2. Evaluate the cross performance of the lines across testers.3. Identify superior single cross hybrids for international testing.The best performing single cross CL02455 x CML226 yielded 8.2 t/ha across five locations, outperformed the best local seed industry check, across locations with 3 tons/ha. This yellow hybrid also showed resistance to ear rot, stalk lodge and excellent standability (Table 53). This single cross also showed good yield stability at individual locations (Tables A156 to A163).The yield drops below the mean and shows susceptibility to ear rot at Suwan Farm, CL02455 x CML226, yielded 6.2 tons/ha and showed resistance to ear rot. At Suwan Farm CL03613 x CML226 also showed excellent performance, yielding 8.3 t/ha and very resistant to ear rot. These entries outyielded the best seed industry check, Pioneer P3013 that yielded 4.4 tons/ha and 26% ear rot damage (Table A161).Lines CL02410, CL02456, CL02442 and CL02441 Heterotic Group \"A\" showed excellent GCA (Table 54).Also the superior lines will be crossed to single crosses BxB to form new three-way cross hybrids. It is strongly suggested that breeders at ARMP, SAM and PRM use the results of these experiments to effectively assist national programs with new hybrid focus.43 tropical late white elite lines were crossed to two elite line tropical testers: CML254 (HG\"A\") and CML247 (HG\"B\").The 86 testcrosses plus 4 checks were evaluated under a 9xl0 alpha lattice design with 2 replications, in four locations in the tropical mega-environments of Poza Rica and Cotaxtla, Veracruz and Tapacula, Chiapas in Mexico, and Las Vegas, Guatemala.Objectives:1. Identify new single cross combinations.2. Identify single cross combination within Heterotic Groups AxA and BxB for practical use as female parent in three-way cross combination.3. Identify lines with good GCA to be used as Heterotic Group \"C\" or male parents in three-way cross combinations. Table 55 shows the performance of the best 8 single crosses. The superior 3 entries CLRCW30 x CML254, CLRCW31 x CML254 and CL03219 x CML254 yielded 9.5 to 10 t/ha, 1.5 t/ha more than the seed industry check that showed 20% ear rot damage. CLRCW30 x CML254 yielded 10 tons/hectare across four locations and showed resistance to Toot lodging and to ear rot. CLRCW31 x CML254 and yielded 9.2 tons/ha and showed resistance to ear rot damage. The superior tropical single cross CLRCW30 x CML254 outyielded the RE: CML24 7 x CML254 and seed industry checks by 2 tons/ha. RE and seed industry checks presented 17 and 19% of ears damaged by ear rot, reducing yield to 6.5 tons/ha, while in the best hybrids the yield reduction was only 6% giving 9.5 tons/ha of clean yield (Table 55). Best four hybrids will be internationally tested CHTTW in 2001. Lines CL023 and CLTHCAOOl showed highest estimates of GCA for yield and highest mean cross performance (Table 56). The 8 lines in Table 56 should be used to form synthetic varieties and lines, should be used as male parents in three-way hybrid combinations.Information at individual locations Tables Al64 to Al68.in the tropical mega-environment -TSCW99B12.Table 57 shows the best performing TWC hybrids across five locations. Yield response similar to the best seed industry checks (Tables Al69 to Al 75).2.35 Evaluation of 20 tropical late yellow singl~ crosses across six locations in the tropical mega-environment -SCY99B13.This experiment includes the evaluation of 16 tropical yellow late single crosses formed by crossing a group of lines Heterotic Group \"A\" with CML 413 and another group Heterotic Group \"B\" with CML287. 16 single crosses plus four checks were included in a 4x5 alpha lattice design with 2 replications and tested in six locations, Poza Rica, Cotaxtla, Uxmal in Mexico; Cuyuta, Guatemala; El Ejido, Panama and Turipana, Colombia (Tables Al 76 to Al83).Table 58 shows the performance of the 8 top yielding entries similar to the reference entry CML287 x CML413 but outyielded the seed industry checks by 1.5 t/ha and resistance to ear rot and root lodging.2.36 Cross performance and combining ability of tropical yellow late inbred lines with two testers -TSCY99B14.Twenty-six tropical yellow late inbred lines were test crossed to two testers CML413 and CML287 Heterotic Group \"B\" and \"A\" respectively. The 52 advanced test crosses plus two checks were included in an alpha lattice design 6x9 with two replications and tested in seven locations in the tropical mega-environment Poza Rica, Cotaxtla, Uxmal in Mexico; Las Vegas, Guatemala; El Ejido, Panama; Turipana, Colombia and Suwan Farm, Thailand. The across location analysis was performed with five locations excluding S. Farm and Turipana because of low yield in the testcrosses probably due to DM susceptibility. No score for DM was taken unfortunately. In Turipana low stand was responsible for the low yields.  Cross L21 x Tl and L3 x T2 showed the highest heterotic responses (SCA= 0.83 and 0.86 respectively). L3 could effectively substitute CML287 as tester (Table 60).Evaluation of early generation testcrosses among tropical white late lines and two testers -TSCW99B15, TSCW99B16 and TSCW99Bl 7.Experiment TSCW99B 15 includes the evaluation of 224 early generation testcrosses among 112 S3 tropical white late lines and testers CML247 and CML254. The S3 lines were derived from different F 2 pedigree breeding populations between Elite x Elite, Heterotic Group \"A\" and \"B\" lines.The 224 testcrosses plus 6 checks were included in an alpha lattice design 1 Ox23 with 2 replications.Experiment TSCW99B16 includes the evaluation of 120 early generation testcrosses among 120 TLW S3 lines and CML247. The 120 testcrosses plus 5 checks were included in a 5x25 alpha lattice design with 2 replications.Experiment TSCW99B 17 includes the evaluation of 138 early generation testcrosses among 138, S 3 TL W lines and CML254. The 138 testcrosses plus 6 checks were included in a 12x12 alpha lattice design with 2 replications per location. Plot size for all three experiments was only five meters long rows.All three experiments were planted in three locations: Poza Rica, Cotaxtla and Uxmal, Mexico.The 370 S3 TLW lines included the three experiments were derived from F2 pedigree population parents in the Elite x Elite population and were selected within and between Heterotic Groups, good GCA and disease resistance.Objectives:1.Identify the 20% superior lines with good GCA to move to advanced generation.Separate lines according to their response to Heterotic Groups.Identify superior crosses to follow up to advance generation. The best 20 lines with good GCA estimates are shown in Table 62. Note that the estimates rank from 0.72 to 1.5 t/ha. This confirms our hypothesis that our efforts in breeding against biotic and abiotic constraints is helping us to increase the frequency of good lines in our F 2 population by the effective selection of inbred parents for Elite x Elite combination. These 20 lines will be advanced to S6 for advanced generation testing. Lines 94, 77, 85, 95, 81, 83 are aligned to Heterotic Group \"B\" lines 107, 91 to Heterotic Group \"A\" and 75, 80 have good general combining ability (Table 63).Entries 170, 188, 201, 219, 190 and 162 will be recorded in advanced generation to confirm the effectiveness of early generation testing and to develop new hybrids. Seed will be increased to test in second stage trials (Tables Al 92 to Al 95).The majority of F 2 populations were the lines derived from Heterotic Group \"A\", therefore we used only CML247 as tester.Superior entries in these experiments are 76, 38, 79, 23, 37, 99, 81, 82, 71 and 92 that yielded 9.74 t/ha to 8.7 t/ha (Table 63).(CML254* CML271)-B-12-2 x CML247 and (CML277 x CML36)-B-13-2 x CML242 yielded 9.7 and 9.5 t/ha respectively and outyielded the RE: CML247 x CML254 and the seed industry D.9820.The best 15 lines Heterotic Group \"A\" that combined well with CML247 will be advanced to 86 for advanced test crosses and hybrid formation. Tables (Al 96 to Al 99), present the information at individual locations.This trial included S3 lines derived from F2 populations Heterotic Group \"B\", therefore only CML254 was used as tester.Table 64 shows the best 10 entries in this experiment across locations 135, 116, 103, 88, 112, 105, 92, 93, 95 and 86. Yield from 10.5 to 9.29 t/ha outyielded RE: CML247 x CML254 and the best seed industry check D.9820 yielded 15% to 33%. Superior hybrids also showed root lodging and ear rot resistance.Entries 135, 116 and 103 topped the trial across locations at individual locations yielding 12.4, 11.7 and 11.6 t/ha respectively at Poza Rica. 10.0, 8.96 and 10.2 t/ha respectively • at Cotaxtla and 9.5, 8.7 and 7.8 t/ha respectively at Uxmal (Tables A200 to A203). This performance shows again the yield stability and the increased frequency of good lines derived from recycling F2 pedigree populations.Yield performance and combining ability of early generation testcrosses among tropical late•yellow 83 lines and testers.These experiments include the evaluation of the following projects: TSCY99B18 35 S 3 tropical yellow late lines, derived from recycling F2 Elite x Elite yellow lines selected within and between Heterotic Groups were test crossed to tester CML 287  (Heterotic Group \"A\") and tester CML413 (Heterotic Group \"B\"). The 70 early generation of testcrosses were included in an 8x9 alpha lattice design with 2 replications.41 S3 tropical yellow late lines, derived from recycling F2 populations were testcrossed to CML 287. The 41 S 3 x tester testcrossed plus 4 checks were included in a 5x9 alpha lattice design with 2 replications. TSCY99B20 70 S 3 tropical yellow late lines, derived from recycling F2, Elite x Elite pedigree populations were testcrossed to CML413. The 70 plus two checks, S3 x Tester early generation testcrosses were included in an 8x9 alpha lattice design with two replications, plot size was I row Sm long.All three experiments were tested in Cotaxtla, Poza Rica and Uxmal, Mexico.Objectives:1. Identify the 20% superior lines with good GCA to move to advanced generation.2. Separate lines according to their response to Heterotic Groups.3. Identify superior crosses to follow up to advance generation.Table 65 shows the performance of the best entries across three locations, entries 11, 27, 3, 33, 31, 29, 2 and 3 yielded: 8.0 to 9.6 t/ha: (CML285* CL02410)-5-4-l x CML287 and (CL2410 x CL2808)-B-39-1 x CML287 yielded 9.6 and 9.1 t/ha respectively, both testcrosses outyielded the RE CML287 x CML413 by 27 and 12% respectively.The eight superior testcrosses outyielded Pioneer P3018, with yields from 33 to 60%. New testcrosses also showed resistance to ear rot while the check presented 16% rotten ears.Yield stability was demonstrated by the performance across and at individual sites, entries 11, 27 and 33 ranked ls\\ 2nd and 3rd across locations, lst, 2nd and 3rd at Uxmal; 2nd, 3rd and 1st, at Cotaxtla and 4th and 2nd at Poza Rica, respectively.The best entry (47) at Poza Rica, yielded 10.l t/ha, at Cotaxtla (33) 9.7 t/ha and at Uxmal (11) = 10.0 t/ha (Tables 204 to 207).S3 lines 6, 16, 12, 2, 9, 5, 14, 3, showed high and positive GCA effects (1.39 to 0.38). They will be used for synthetic formation.The best 15 lines with good GCA will be advanced to S 6 -S 8 and tested under: ear rot, B. maydis, drought and low N -testcross (CML285* CML283)-B-39-3 x CML287 (AxA) showed the highest SCA = 0.94 estimate. (CML285* CML283)-B-15-1 x CML413, (AxB); (CML285 x CL2410)-B-4-1 x CML287 (AxA) also presented high and positive SCA=0.60 estimate, we will follow up their performance in hybrid combination in advance generations (Table 66).   -1.25 1.25 57 58 273 148 0.54 14.0 2.3 12.9 25 7.9 0.16 -0.16 56 56 272 143 0.53 1.3 7.7 15.8 24 8.1 -0.18 0.18 57 57 265 150 0.57 17.4 3.0 14.4 23 4.2 -0.18 0.18 56 57 275 151 0.55 2.5 7.5 28.9 24 5.4Table 67 shows the mean hybrids and agronomic traits of the superior 8 entries across locations. Eptries 9, 7, 40 yielded 8.6 t/ha and outyielded RE: CML287 x CML413 and Pioneer 3018 by 18% and 46% yield respectively. Entries 9 and 7 ranked 1st and 2nd across locations, 4th and 3rd at Poza Rica; 2nd and 6th at Cotaxtla and 2nd, 3rd at Uxmal. Entry 38 yielded 8.3 t/ha at Uxmal. Entry14 yielded 9.6 t/ha at Cotaxtla and Entry 27 yielded 10.4 t/ha at Poza Rica (Tables A208 to A211).The best 15 lines Heterotic Group A and A showing the best SCA with CML286 will be advanced to S6-Ss for advanced testcrosses and hybrid combination.Table 68 presents the mean yields and agronomic traits of the best 8 entries: 64, 68, 31, 8, 32, 22, 41, 65 (CL02410* CML287)-B-6-3 x CML413 (AxB); (CL02410* CML287)-B-18-2 x CML413) (AxB); (CML226 x CML295)-73-3-3 x 413 (BxB) and (CL02410* CML287)-B-9-1 x CML413 yielded similar to CML287 x CML413 and outyielded Pioneer 3018 by 41% to 48% yield. New superior testcrosses also presented good resistance to RL, SL and ER while hybrid check showed 22% ear rot damage, reducing the clean yield to 4.3 t/ha (Table 68). Some entries showed good yield stability across locations and individual sites (Tables 212 to 215). Best 14 lines Heterotic Group \"A\" showing good SCA estimates with CML413 will be advanced to S6 for advanced testcrosses with new testers and selection of superior hybrid combinations.33 S3 lines derived by recycling F2 (AxB) Elite x Elite early maturing tropical white inbred lines were test crossed to CL04935. The 33 S 3 x Tester progenies plus 3 checks were evaluated under alpha lattice design 6x6 with 2 replications, preliminary information from two locations, Poza Rica and Cotaxtla is presented here (Tables A2 l 6 to A218). The S3 lines with good SCA estimate with CL04935 will be advanced to S 6 -S 8 , the advanced testcrosses with new testers and new hybrid formation.32 S 3 tropical early maturing yellow lines derived by recycling F 2 pedigree population between Elite x Elite Heterotic Groups A&B, early maturity yellow inbred lines were testcrossed to tester CML423 and CML422. The 32 testcrosses and 4 checks were evaluated under a 6x6 alpha lattice design with 2 replications in two locations.Table 70 summarizes the performance of the best performing testcrosses entries 2, 3, 11, 1, 20, 67, 19 (CLG21102* CL03105)-B-6-3 x CML323 and (CL-621102* CL3105) -B-24-1 x CML323 (AxB) yielded 9.5 t/ha superior to CML423 x CML422 by 30% yield and they also showed resistance to root and stalk lodging and ear rot. Days to silk 50. Tables A219 to A221 show the performance of all crosses at individual and across locations. These hybrids could be harvested in 90 to 100 days making the use of the land cost effective for farmers planting maize in relay with other crops such as wheat in India or rice in Vietnam.Early yellow lines will be advanced to S 4 and make hybrid combination with other lines of the opposite heterotic group. The two entries mentioned above will be used as female parents in TWC combination to enhance the possibilities of adoption by farmers reducing the cost of seed.For the first time in the LL tropics the process of recycling in pedigree breeding has been very well documented from early generation to advanced generation and will help breeders in regional programs R2-R5 and NARS to use effectively the germplasm derived from these activities.It's highly recommended that colleagues in the regional programs ARMP, SAM and PRM take the superior 10% of lines at S 3 level, evaluate in their conditions and cross in advanced generations with their origin tester and NARS in order to build on the adaptation to local conditions. This advantage will help to produce superior hybrids and to yield stabiFty.For the last two years the advanced testcross has demonstrated superiority to the RE entries CML247 x CML254 and CML287 x CML413 and seed industry hybrid checks.It is recommended that colleagues in ARMP, SAM and PRM to effectively use the best performing hybrid and lines that showed good yield potential under their conditions: in Thailand, Colombia and Guatemala and across locations, examples of the good use are clearly moving in Venezuela, Colombia and Central America.The TLL subprogram would like to express our appreciation to our colleagues in the ARMP, SAM and PRM for their continued support and conducting our trials in their r~gion and extend this to NAR's in Thailand, Colombia and Guatemala. Twenty-four F 2 (13 white and 11 yellow) and 123 F 1 (21 QPM-white x QPM-white, 41 QPMwhite x NORMAL-white, 9 QPM-yellow x QPM-white, 52 QPM-white x NORMAL-yellow) QPM populations with low ear placement were grown at Poza Rica 1999 A and B, respectively with the purpose of developing new QPM white and yellow germplasm with low ear placement and to enhance the frequency of extracting new lines with favorable alleles for grain yield and quality protein.3.2. QPM -Pedigree breeding.In the continued procces of developing and recycling new QPM lines, 700 (S 1 -S 2 ) and 1318 (S 2 -S 3 ) early generation lines white and yellow were planted at Poza Rica station during 1999 A and B season, respectively.Two tropical white normal endosperm inbred lines (CML264 and CML273) were chosen to convert QPM genetic background, using CML176 subtropical QPM as donor line. In 1999 A, 810 five meters rows were planted with the backcross BC 1 F 1 for advanced BC 1 F 2 • Meanwhile in 1999 B, the BC 1 F 2 was planted and BC 2 F 1 .completed.Development of inbred lines with superior agronomic characteristics continues as an important activity in the lowland QPM project. 1010 and 549 five meters rows of CML's and advanced inbred lines white and yellow, were grown at Poza Rica station during 1999 A and B season, respectively. Hybrid research also is another important activity in the QPM project, therefore 4948 (Poza Rica) and 1664 (Cotaxtla) five meter rows were planted in isolation blocks with the objective to form several QPM hybrids and produce seed foundation to accelarate the use of this type of germplasm. In 1999 B, 246 rows were planted to increase seed of the best QPM hybrids, however we lost these cross formations due to excessive rains that caused severe flooding.3.5. Announcement of QPM maize inbred lines.Seven tropical white QPM elite inbred lines were identified from combining ability data trials for their potential to use in new hybrids and for their future release as parents of superior hybrid combinations. These inbred lines are in seed increase process plot to obtain seed to distibute to the cooperators.3.6. QPM -Combining ability trials.During 1998 B and 1999 A, several advanced inbred lines derived from various CIMMYT QPM maize populations were crossed at Tlaltizapan and Poza Rica stations with the principal objective of evaluating combining ability and identifying superior hybrids simultaneously.At Tlaltizapan, 8 white flint and dent QPM lines from populations 62 and 63 were crossed in a diallel mating system; other 11 white flint QPM lines from population 62 (heterotic group B) and 6 white dent QPM lines from population 63 (heterotic group A) were crossed in a design-II mating system. At Poza Rica, 24 white flint and dent QPM lines were crossed with two testers; 9 yellow flint and dent QPM lines were crossed with three and four testers; and 10 yellow flint and dent QPM lines were crossed in a diallel mating system. Also various elite CML' s white and yellow QPM inbred lines were crosses for seed increase of superior hybrids. The crosses developed were grouped in different trials depending upon whether a line was crossed. The results of several hybrids trials conducted during 1999 A and B are discussed below.3.7. Evaluation of tropical late white endosperm QPM single crosses -TSCWQ-9901.Germplasm: 8 white flint and dent advanced QPM lines from population 62, 63 and pool G24 were crossed in a diallel mating system.Experimental design: 4x8 Alpha Lattice; 2 reps; two 5-m row.Planting density: 66,667 plts/ha.Locations: Poza Rica 99A, Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan 99A, El Salvador 99A, Poza Rica 99B, Cotaxtla 99B, Cardel 99B, Cuyuta 99B (Guatemala), Turipana 99B (Colombia) and Suwan Farm 99B (Thailand).Tables: 75 to 77 and A222 to A232.Parent Line Parent LineThe average grain yield across locations in A and B plantings seasons was 7.73 t/ha and 5.65 t/ha, respectively. While the rank of grain yield was 6.08 t/ha to 10.44 t/ha in A season and 3.93 t/ha to 8.57 t/ha in B season. The average ear rot across locations in A and B seasons was 3.8 % and 7.3 %, respectively. The rank of ear rot in A season was 0.7 % to 8.0 % and 2.6 % to 12.4 % in B season (Fig. 1). Cotaxtla registered the lowest and highest ear rot value in both season. Three QPM hybrids were the top yielding hybrids across locations similar in yield to (CML247xCML254) which is the best reference entry with normal endosperm (Table 75 and A232). Entries 9, 18, 10 and 8 yielded more than (CML144xCML159) QPM hybrid used as reference entry. The best QPM hybrids in each location and across locations yielded 0.5 to 1.5 t/ha more than the best seed industry normal endosperm check and showed up to 4% protein and double amount oftryptophan than the normal checks (Table 75). These hybrids also showed less ear rot and low ear placement, which is more attractive to the farmers (Fig. 2). • P2 and P3 were the only parents with positive and significative GCA values in each of the eight locations (Table 76), the cross between P2xP3 had good yield and ranked fifth across locations and performed well in each location. The cross P 1 xP4 had the highest SCA effect (0.665 t/ha) and ranked ten for grain yield. While the reference entry P2xP6 had (0.477 t/ha) for SCA effect and ranked sixth for grain yield (Table 77).    Germplasm: 11 white flint advanced lines from population 62 (heterotic group B) and 6 white dent inbred lines from population 63 (heterotic group A), were crossed in a design-II mating design.Experimental design: 7xl0 Alpha Lattice; 2 reps; two 5-m row.Planting density: 66,667 plts/ha.Locations: Poza Rica 99A, Cotaxtla 99A, Tlaltizapan 99A, El Salvador 99A, Poza Rica 99B, Cotaxtla 99B, Cardel 99B, Cuyuta 99B (Guatemala), Turipana 9B (Colombia) and Suwan Farm 99B (Thailand).Tables: 78 to 80 and A233 to A243.The average grain yield across locations in A and B planting season was 7.00 t/ha and 5.00 t/ha, respectively. While the rank of grain yield was 5.63 t/ha to 9.17 t/ha in season A and 3.98 t/ha to 7.07 t/ha in season B. The average ear rot across locations in A and B seasons was 6.7 % and 10.9 %, respectively. The rank of ear rot in A season was 1.7 % to 11.5 % and 1.8 % to 18.9 % in B season (Fig. 3). Cotaxtla registered the lowest and highest ear rot value in both seasons. Pl l x Pl4, Pl l x Pl6, Pl x Pl2 and Pl x Pl6 and the normal RE (CML247xCML254) were the top yielders across locations (Table 78 and A243). Entries 63, 65, 1, 5, 66, 61 and 64 yielded more than entry 2, (CML144 x CML159) QPM hybrid used as reference entry.The best QPM hybrids in each location and across locations yielded 0.5 to 1.5 t/ha more than the best commercial normal endosperm check, protein and tryptophan content in the best QPM hybrids was greater than normal checks, 3 to 4% more protein and twice tryptophan content (Table 78). These hybrids also showed less ear rot and low ear placement (Fig. 4). Line Pl, P5, P8 and Pl 1 had positive GCA values in the heterotic group B. Line P12, P13 and Pl 7 had positive GCA values in the heterotic group A (Table 79). The cross (PllxP13) which involves the best GCA line from heterotic group B and A ranked ten for grain yield in their cross. The cross (P3xP16) had the highest SCA effect (0.76 t/ha) and ranked sixteen for grain yield. While the reference entry (PlxP13) had negative value for SCA effect and was ninth for grain yield (Table 80).Flint Parent Lines (Heterotic Group B)Dent Parent Lines (Heterotic Group A)    3.9 Top cross evaluation of tropical late white endosperm QPM lines -. TSCWQ-9903.Germplasm: 25 white flint and dent advanced lines from population 62 and 63 were crossed with two testers.Testers:Experimenta~ design: 7x7 Alpha Lattice; 2 reps; one 5-m row.Planting density: 66,667 pits/ha.Locations: Poza Rica 99B, Cotaxtla 99B, Cuyuta 99B (Guatemala), Turipana 99B (Colombia)Tables: 81, 82 and A244 to A248.The average grain yield and ear rot across locations was 6.40 tiha and 12.7 %, respectively. The highest and lowest grain yield mean were observed in Poza Rica (8.11 t/ha) and Colombia (1.93 t/ha), respectively. While, the highest and lowest ear rot values were observed in Cotaxtla (17.5%) and Colombia (9.3 %), respectively (Fig. 5). Table 81 shows the performance of the top 10 yielding entries across locations L7xCML159, L14xCML144 and L8xCML144 yielded from 8.5 to 8.9 t/ha similar to the normal RE check CML247xCML254 and CML144xCML159 QPM RE. In seven of the best ten top yielding hybrids in.volved tester 1 (CML144) as one comon parent (Table 82 and A248).The best QPM hybrids in each location and across locations yielded 1.5 t/ha more than the best commercial normal endosperm check, these hybrids also showed less ear rot. Only one cross (L 7xT2) yielded 160 kg/ha more than the cross between testers TlxT2. The mean cross performance of inbred lines with Tester I (CML144) yielded 1.4 t/ha more than the crosses of Tester 2 (CML159), also the Tester 1 crosses showed (11.7 %) less ear rot than the Tester 2 crosses (Fig. 7). Sixteen of twenty-five lines had positive GCA effect values. Tester Tl showed positive GCA effect and tester T2 negative GCA (Table 82). Line L 7 had the highest  Germplasm: 9 yellow flint and dent advanced lines from population 65 and 66 were crossed with three and four testers.Testers:Experimental design: 5x6 Alpha Lattice; 2 reps; one 5-m row.Planting den~ity: 66,667 pits/ha.Locations: Poza Rica 99B, Cotaxtla 99B, Guatemala 99B, Republica Dominicana 99B.Tables: 83, 84 and A249 to A254.The average grain yield and ear rot across locations was 5.49 t/ha and 12.0 %, respectively.The highest and lowest grain yield mean were observed in Poza Rica (7.54 t/ha) and Colombia (::i.82 t/ha), respectively. While, the highest and lowest ear rot values were observed in R. Dominicana (15.7%) and Colombia (1.9 %), respectively (Fig. 8). The highest yielding hybrid was entry 21 that yielded more than the cross between TlxT2 and T3xT4. Tester Tl(CML161) and T4(CML172), were involved as one common parent in five and four times of the top yielding hybrids, respectively (Table 83 and A254 ). Entry 21 had better yield than the entries 28 and 27 which were used as best reference entry check with QPM and normal endosperm. The best QPM hybrids in each location and across locations yielded 1.3 t/ha more than the best commercial normal endosperm check, these hybrids also showed 7% less ear rot (Fig. 9). The cross (L8 x Tl) yielded 1.50 t/ha more than the cross between testers TlxT2 which was used as reference entry and ten hybrids yielded more than the cross between testers T3xT4. The crosses of inbred lines with Tester 1 (CML161) yielded 1.0 t/ha more than the crosses with Tester 2 (CML165), and Tester 1 crosses showed (2.7%) less ear rot than Tester 2 crosses. Crosses of inbred lines with Tester 3 (CML169) yielded 0.450 t/ha more than the crosses with Tester 4 (CMLl 72), but Tester 3 crosses showed (2.3 %) more ear rot than Tester 4 crosses (Fig. 10). Five of nine lines had positive GCA effect values. In case of the testers, only testers Tl and T3 had positive GCA effect (Table 84). Line L8 had the highest GCA effect (1.20 t/ha) followed by lines L6, L2 and L4. Lines L8 and L6 showed also the highest yield in crosses with testers Tl and T2, respectively. Lines L6 and L8 should be crossed to get a superior hybrid because they belong to two different heterotic patterns. The highest SCA effect was registered by cross L3xTl (1.12 t/ha) and ranked fourth for grain yield, while the cross TlxT2 had (0.74 t/ha) for SCA effect and ranked third for grain yield (Table 84).    ,,.,,.,.    ™ iVE.2W 1.58 93 1.6 6.48 1.6 5.6 1.4 :5.6.9 :5.6.7 3.4 3.2 1.00 19.2 49 G18El(3.74-1-3-1-1-EHE(0£:K.      15 SRN:N-~:;B-     resistance to diseases than the best reference entry (CML247), while CML254 has susceptibility to diseases and has low performance. Twenty-one lines were superior than the best lines as check. The best resistant line was entry 85, followed by entries 87, 7, 26 and 45.Tropical late maturity white inbred lines were also tested at six locations. Some of the top 1 O lines across locations also yielded good under stresses. Entries 15, 75, 71 and 74 performed well to both stresses drought and low-N. Entry 36 yielded 4.2 tons/ha. Line derived from La Posta Sequia outyielded the best check CML339 (P 5 ) and CML399 (P 21 ), they produced 1.8 and 1. 7 ton/ha. CML254 RE yielded 2.4 tons/ha. Entry 36 also responded well to foliar diseases inoculation same as entry 7. Entries 45 and 98 performed well under low-N and foliar diseases and FAW inoculations and infestations. Entry 85 showed resistance to B. maydis and FAW (Tables 99  to 102).Evaluation of tropical late maturity yellow endosperm inbred lines under a biotic and biotic stresses. LET(L Y) 9904.Germplasm: 54 S6 to S 16 inbred lines from P24, P27, P28, G26 and FAW Experimental design: 6 x 9 alpha lattice; 2 reps; one 2.5-m row Planting density: 82,666 plts/ha Location: Poza Rica (Mexico) Tables: 103 to 106.The mean grain yield was 1.04 t/ha, the lowest among the lowland tropical trials, while DT A was 65 days after sowing. Most traits showed significant differences except root lodging, stem lodging and ears per plant. Thirteen entries were better than the two checks. The top yielding line was entry 52 (2.21 t/ha), but had 25.0% root lodging, this line is the reference entry. The best line was entry 13 (2 .18 t/ha) showed also resistance to lodging and ear rot. All the lines in this trial had 20 cm more plant height than the checks.The ranking mean for FAW was 6.1 and for SCB was 6.3. Three lines were superior than the resistant check. Entry 33 was the best line resistant for both FAW and SCB. Other promising lines were entries 31, 34 and 35.The average mean of B.m and P.p were 2.1 and 1.7, respectively. Seventeen lines were superior than the best reference entry. The two reference entries 51 and 52 showed more suceptibility to diseases than most of the lines evaluated here. Fourty lines were more resistant to diseases than the best inbred lines as check. The best resistant line was entry 43, followed by entries 37, 1, 18 and 38.The best 10 tropical late maturing yellow endosperm lines, top performed lines under four stresses are presented in Tables 103 to 106. Four lines: Entries 5, 21, 36 and 42 were selected among the best 10 lines under both low-N and drought: Entries 37 and 17 yielded well under low-N and showed resistance to foliar diseases. Entries 3, 31 and 51 showed resistance to rust and B. Maydis and tolerance to FAW. Some of the 10 superior lines under all stresses also yielded good across six locations in Mexico, Thailand, Guatamala and Colombia.Talie lo.l IEl{LY) ~ l\\hn data of the~ lilEl uRler drought at 11altUapm. 2(XX) A3.00 2 107 -1.1 Qffi Q9 2.2 3.9 1.0 34.7 41.5 2.5 o.£6 1ao 42 GH:ECF135-3-3-1-1-1-2-B3    The average grain yield in this location was 5.94 t/ha, most of the crosses tested here showed good resistance to ear rot. Fourteen hybrids were superior than the best yielding check, also these hybrids were superior than the best reference entry (CML287 x CML413) which involve two testers lines. The top yielding stunt hybrid was entry 12 (7.19 t/ha), followed by entry 27 (7.10 t/ha) and entry 6 (7.05 t/ha). Other promising hybrids with high grain yield and low ear position were entries 8 and 16 (Table 108). The average grain yield in this location was 7 .18 t/ha, most of the crosses tested here showed good resistance for ear rot and com stunt disease. Fifteen hybrids were superior than the best yielding check, also these hybrids were superior than the best reference entry (CML287 x CML285) which involve two tester lines. The top yielding stunt hybrid was entry 17 (8.68 t/ha), followed by entry 15 (8.63 t/ha) and entry 5 (8.51 t/ha). Nine hybrids had more than 8.0 t/ha showed their high yielding potential for use in future hybrid combinations. However, most of the hybrids evaluated here showed highest ear placement, such characteristic is undesirable (Table 109).  A273 to A279).The trial was also evaluated at Poza Rica, Mexico, infested and non-infested, showed good diferential response to CSD (  Evaluation and selection of lines under stress environments constitutes one key element in the breeding process in line development. It has helped CIMMYT Maize Program to build yield stability in the tropical germplasm and to include broader adaptation to our products, hybrids, synthetics and OPV's. These activities are an integral part of sub-projects 2 and 3 in Global Project-2 (G2).The lines selected from each trial will be crossed in NC-II mating designs depending on the Heterotic Groups to form new hybrids and synthetic varieties resistant or tolerant to stress environments.It is recommended that CIMMYT Outreach staff in R2 and R5 test the best performing lines at their location to make efficient use of the germplasm identified in this project.l08International Performance TrialsEvaluation of CIMMYT tropical white hybrids. CHTTW.Twenty-eight tropical white single cross hybrids and two local checks were evaluated under a 5x6 alpha lattice design, two rows, five meters long plots and three replications per location. Trials were shipped to 40 locations in Latin America and Asia. This report presents information from 20 locations. Highly significant differences were found for genotypes and G x E interaction for yield, days to pollen and moisture.CMS973023, CMS973059, CMS973063, CMS973007, CMS973049 and CMS973025 outyielded the best seed industry hybrid check across locations with half a ton/per hectare. They showed more resistance to ear rot, root and stalk lodging than the checks. Same hybrids outyielded the reference check CML24 7 x CML254 by 10% more yield (Table 71).Best hybrids selected for Brazil are: CMS973059 and CMS973049. For Colombia: CMS973023, CMS973059, CMS973049, CMS973007, CMS973035, CMS973003, and CMS973025. Venezuela: CMS973023, CMS973059, CMS973063, CMS973025, CMS973029: and CMS973003. Guatemala: CMS973035, CMS973029, CMS973023 and CMS973059. Honduras: CMS973023, CMS973063, CMS973035, CMS973025 and CMS973029. Mexico: CMS973063, CMS973007, CMS973029, CMS973057. India: CMS973023, CMS973059, CMS0973063 and CMS973041. Philippines: CMS973023, CMS973059, CMS973063, CMS973007, CMS973025 and CMS973037 (Table 72).18 tropical yellow single cross hybrids plus two local checks were evaluated under an alpha lattice design 4x5, plot size 2 rows, five meters long, 3 replications per site. The trials were shipped to 41 sites in the tropical mega-environment. Information presented here was collected from 20 locations in Latin America and Asia. Highly significant differences for the response of genotypes were found for yield and the majority of agronomic traits G x E was significant only for yield. CMS973038, CMS973028, CMS973026, CMS973018 and CMS973030 outyielded the best checks from the seed industry across locations.The superior hybrids also showed resistance to ear rot while the checks more susceptibility. Root lodging of the top yielding hybrids was similar to the checks.Best performing hybrids for each country and individual location are presented in (Table 73 and 74). Five hybrids outyielded CML287 x CML413.It is highly recommended to the coordinators and breeders of Projects R2 and RS to use the information to assist national programs in selecting the best hybrid combination to enhance yield productivity in the regions. T09     16).Research in swine feeding conducted in September 1999 and January 2000 in El Salvador and in Guatemala is very promising and very similar to the earlier studies conducted in the 1970's and in 1994. In both cases, pigs fed with QPM gained 600 g/day while the ones fed with normal maize gained only 300 g/day.In collaboration with R5 and SAMP in Venezuela, FONAIAP tested tropical and CIMMYT Cali hybrids in seven locations in the State of Portuguesa. Results across several locations indicate that the CIMMYT hybrid CL02198 x CML274 yielded 10.5 t/ha and the best check 8.5 t/ha, while the Pioneer hybrid yielded 6.5 t/ha. QPM results in Venezuela are also very exciting. The hybrid (CML142 x CML15) x CMLl 76 topped the trial at Guarico with 6.5 t/ha, 15% more than the seed industry check. The best selected hybrid will be tested in strip tests in 2000.In Peru tropical yellow hybrids yielded up to 14 t/ha up to two tons more than the best checks. Superior hybrids identified will be evaluated in strip tests in 2000.In Colombia yellow QPM hybrid CML161 x CML165 and white endosperm (CML144 x CML159) QPM hybrids outyielded the best seed industry check G-5324 and Cargill C-343 respectively, by more than 1 t/ha with double lysine and triptophan content. QPM hybrids are being proposed for release in 2001.We have shipped 12 trials including QPM hybrids to Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia for the purpose of testing in multi-location trials in 2000.In Thailand G2 in collaboration with R2 and ARMP, tested six different trials at the Suwan Farm site. In each trial at least two entries outyielded the best seed industry check by 1-2 t/ha. Even allowing for heavy residual herbicide damage, CIMMYT tropical hybrids demonstrated superiority for yield potential and resistance to ear rot and P. polysora.G2 in collaboration with F4 identified 8 new white endosperm elite QPMs with good GCA for immediate release. The lines were identified from the results of advanced test crosses conducted in 10 locations during 1999/A and B cycles. New F 2 pedigree breeding population using elite QPM lines and normal white and yellow elite coded inbred lines have been developed and pedigree selection will be continued in 2000.A very important alliance emerged between the CIMMYT Maize Program and Grupo Maseca-Central America Andean Region. Grupo Maseca visited the CIMMYT Maize Program in early February and expressed their desire to join forces with CIMMYT in promoting QPM hybrid maize in Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) and South America (Colombia, Venezuela) through promoting and recommending our hybrids released by National Programs in \"El Club del Maiz de Maseca\", using the most advanced agronomic technologies and the best QPM hybrids available. We had a meeting with the Directors also in Guatemala during the release of HB-Proticta. They are prepared to purchase the hybrid seed from small private companies in each country and distribute to farmers, eliminating the intermediaries.Our collaboration with SG2000 was enhanced during the meeting held at CIMMYT in November 199~. We presented a progress report on QPM development and transfer that was regarded as impressive by most of the members. An enhanced collaboration emerged from 1T8 that meeting with the promise of more interaction for the promotion of our products to farmers.1999 was very positive scenario for the relationship between CIMMYT's Maize Program and NARS in Mexico. A true partnership between INIF AP and CIMMYT was also established, with INIF AP providing 200 kg. of basic seed that was sent to Guatemala, for hybrid seed production. There also has been mutual public recognition of QPM development. Fundaci6n Mexicana para la lnvestigaci6n Agricola also recognized our effort by granting 100,000 to CIMMYT to continue research on QPM.CIMMYT and Texas A&M have initiated a partnership by identifying areas of common interest and developing a joint proposal with emphasis on tolerance to drought and heat, aflatoxins and breeding for QPM hybrid development.In association with QPM germplasm improvement, assistance from the University of Arizona has allowed CIMMYT to produce antibodies that react with the maize elongation factor 1 a, that is highly correlated to lysine content of the endosperm. Antibodies were produced and provided to NARs with germplasm improvement programs for QPM maize. Serological tests will help in the selection process needed to develop QPM maize, using the ELISA technique. ","tokenCount":"14894"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"982c0f9c7c976843aadcbb615bc840c2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad8d3bb9-c200-48b4-9a97-eb89669227c7/retrieve","id":"277646169"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fcabf61d-296f-4cf1-8276-3d81a3397685","pagecount":"5","content":"n Success in gender mainstreaming in CSVs work requires: (i) a capacity building of implementation team and partners in participatory gender research, (ii) an involvement of women through development and implementation of gender responsive projects, and (iii) an empowerment of women groups around CSA activities.n Women and men have similar perceptions of climate variability and change in Ghana and Mali CSV sites. However their perceptions on adaptation strategies are different.n Women and men have different access and use of CSA technologies and practices including climate information services because of gender gap in agriculture across the assets and resources (access to phone, access to education, and access to trainings).Majority of women in developing countries are involved in agriculture. In Africa, about 40-62% of women are said to be employed by agriculture. However, the limited access of women to agricultural inputs and other farm resources, constrain their quest for improved food security and livelihood security. With livelihoods of women mostly linked to agriculture, any negative impacts of climate change are likely to impose more burden and lead to catastrophic consequences.Developing gender-responsive climate proofing agriculture is therefore imperative to improve women's adaptive capacity to climate change. To achieve this, the identification, design and implementation of climate-smart technologies must mainstream gender by considering the roles of women. In view of this, the CGIAR Research program on Climate change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) developed a gender strategy to strengthen its development impacts on agriculture through the integration of gender into its research activities. In West Africa, CCAFS has given due consideration to the integration of gender and social inclusion into the design and implementation of research activities through Participatory Action Research (PAR) within the Climate-Smart Villages.This Info Note aims to present a summary of results from gender-related activities at the CSVs in West Africa. The gender mainstreaming included the capacity building of implementation team, the empowerment of women with gender sensitive activities and the understanding of gender perception on climate change and adaptation strategies.Gender was maintained in all the steps of the participatory action research within the CSVs in West Africa.During the CCAFS village baseline study, focus group discussions (FDG) (involving men and women) were used to analyze a community's resources, the organizational landscape and the information network in order to define the vision for the future of communities in the five CSV sites of West Africa (located in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal).Diagnostic studies using FDG (involving men and women) were also conducted during the implementation of the Flagship led projects in CSV including BRASPAR project and RPL led activities in West Africa.Based on the results of the gendered diagnostic studies, gender specific activities were identified and implemented in the CSVs. In Senegal, income diversification activities including poultry, seasoning gardening, Non-timber forest products processing (e.g. baobab fruit powder), and tree domestication were experimented with women. In Niger, the planting of Cassia tora was promoted for women while Moringa oleifera and baobab tree planting were promoted in Burkina Faso and Mali for women. In Ghana, Gender Climate-Smart Groups were created and their members capitated in soybeans production and approaches in reducing post-harvest losses.In addition some specific studies used intra-household surveys approach to analyze the gendered perception of climate variability and change, the gendered access and use of CSA technologies and practices including climate information, to identify the gendered constraints and potentiality for CSA work within the CSVs.A mis-mainstreaming of gender into projects is sometime due to the poor skills in gender research. To deal with this, CCAFS West Africa organized a one-week training in Dakar (Senegal), to enhance the capacity of partners to be able to mainstream gender and social differentiation in climate change adaptation research and development activities.The training was participated by 15 CCAFS partners (including 10 National Agricultural Research scientists and 5 agents from NGOs involved in PAR activities) from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Participants were trained in participatory gender research (including gender mainstreaming in PAR activities, gender research tools, approaches, concepts, etc.)Based on the skills acquired from this training, the participants developed five proposals for gender research to fill the gaps of knowledge in term of gender and climate change in West Africa. Three gender projects were implemented with success in 2014 and 2015 including: (i) Understanding male and female farmers' access and use of climate information for managing climate risks in Lawra and Jirapa districts of Ghana; (ii) Valorizing non-timber forest products for increased resilience and food security of vulnerable people in Daga-Birame (Sénégal) and (iii) assessing the performance of Cassia tora and cowpea under improved zaï techniques for increased resilience of vulnerable famers in Kampa-Zarma (Niger).Most of farmers in West Africa farmers were aware of climate change and its implications for their agriculture and other livelihood activities. Studies conducted in the CSVs sites of West Africa showed that men and women had similar perceptions about climate change. In Lawra-Jirapa district, the climate change perceived by the majority of farmers were increased strong winds, higher temperatures, increased frequency of drought, increased rainfall variability and increased flooding. In Cinzana CSVs of Mali, the analysis of farmer's perception of climate change (regarding different patterns such as rainy season, temperature, extreme phenomena) using a five Likert scale did not highlight any significant difference between men and women.However the perception of climate adaptation strategies differ with the gender. A participatory prioritization of CSA options in Lawra-Jirapa showed a difference in term of ranking for the top ten CSA option between men and women in Ghana. Among the top ten CSA options, four (including (i) drought-tolerant/short cycle variety, (ii) improved seed, (iii) composting and (iv) weather information) had the same rank for both men and women. Farmer managed natural regeneration of trees (FMNR) was ranked by men only and earth-bund by women only among their top ten CSA technologies and practices in Lawra-Jirapa.Two studies highlighted the differentiated access and or use of climate information in CCAFS CSV site of Ghana. Etwire et al., (2017) showed that being female decreased the probability of a farmer utilizing information on the Esoko platform by about 9%. Men are better networked economically when compared to their female counterparts.They are often the natural targets of most development interventions since they serve as opinion leaders of the communities and families. This tends to put males at an advantage when it comes to information dissemination and technology adoption. Further, males are mostly household head and breadwinners; they are therefore more likely to be able to afford placing a call to the Esoko platform. The chances of a farmer utilizing information on the Esoko platform increases by about 13% if the farmer lives below the poverty line (has a per capita income of less than US$1.25). Poor farmers are more likely to seek and utilise any information that has the potential of improving their livelihood (see photo).Partey et al, (2018) showed that men were particularly responsive in adopting CIS use for climate risk mitigation. This was attributed to their ability to easily access and use telephone devices compared with women. The study revealed that unlike women, men were able to access more financial resources and had control of household income which allowed them to purchase mobile phones. Women generally accessed their husbands' mobile phones. Despite differences in access to CIS, the study showed both men and women found it beneficial for strategic farm decision-making such as when to begin land preparation, when to plant, and which crop to select. In addition, both men and women were found to face similar constrains (such as poor network connectivity and limited of training), to accessing and using CIS through the Esoko platform.CCAFS project created an opportunity for gender recognition and involvement of women in its major objectives in addressing food insecurity in Lawra-Jirapa. This contributes to the formation and registration of women groups in CCAFS sites called CSA Women groups. From 2011 to 2017, seven groups have been formed in Doggoh and Bompari. These groups are areas where women share information on CSA, assist each other on farming, meet regularly, benefit from trainings organized by CCAFS and benefit from susu loans facility put in place.Some of the research activities carried out by these women groups has not been different from their male counterparts. However, the ability of the women to work on bigger plot and also undertaking many interventions unlike their male counterparts has being a challenge. Research activities undertaking by some individual women or and groups include: n Intergraded inoculants -fertilizer demonstration on soya beans n Fertilizer effect on crop production n Integration of soil fertilizer management practices for crop production n Integrating Jathropha in the existing cropping system.n Zero tillage effect on soybean and maize n Earth bounding and fertilizer effect on crop production. n Promotion of drought tolerance crop varieties n Zaï effect on maize yieldThrough these activities women were able to lobby for fertilizer, expand and improve their cropping areas by applying compost prepared by themselves and introducing tie ridging. This contributed to increase their crop yield from 0.8 to 2 metric tons per hectare. They have been trained in how to process and store vegetables all year round, how to produce recipes with soybean and how to raise seedling of different types and grape for transplanting. This contributed to improve the food security status of their family. Women CSA group helped women to foster unity among themselves, improved upon their financial and economic activities. Women were empowered and free and willing to contribute to personal and community development issues.Using Market Analysis and Development (MA&D) approach, this activity selected the most promising forest product (baobab fruit powder) and created a women micro enterprise for its processing. Women were capacitated in baobab fruit powder processing and financial management of enterprise. During the first year of activity (2015), 29 kg of baobab powder was produced and sold generating 171 Euro of income for the women association. In 2016 and 2017 about 92 à 200 Kg baobab powder was produced and sold generating 700 and 1526 Euros respectively. The money generated has been deposited in the common village savings and could be used to invest in resilience sustaining activities. In order to sustain the availability of raw material for baobab, the community has been organized to protect baobab trees in the village. This activity showed that women have access to farm assets but do not control them. They have easily access to poor and degraded lands, which need restoration. As a result, improvement of degraded land productivity through zaï techniques contributed to empowered women in Kampa-Zarma. The leaves of Cassio tora were used for human consumption and contribute to reduce the food shortage faced by vulnerable farmers during the months of June, July and August in Niger. This activity contributed to revitalize the participation of women in community resources management.The insights provided by this synthesis suggest particular aspects that could contribute to an effective mainstreaming of gender and social issue within CSVs' activities to benefit from women in West Africa. These aspects includes: ","tokenCount":"1833"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"16d81bffd915503c9b9c37fbbf91d1ca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H041018.pdf","id":"1395405634"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0759d588-031e-4f85-be91-34e1e975d1a2","pagecount":"44","content":"List of Tables Table 2- This report has been produced as part of the Wastewater Agriculture and Sanitation for Poverty Alleviation in Asia (WASPA Asia) project, funded by the European Commission under its Asia Pro Eco II Program. The objective of the project is to improve the livelihoods of urban and peri-urban farmers who are using wastewater in agriculture; and the communities who are responsible for producing the wastewater or consuming the agricultural produce. To do this a holistic approach and sustainable solutions are required along the whole chain of wastewater production and use; from improved sanitation to contaminant reduction, waste treatment, disposal, safe use in agriculture and promotion of hygiene behavior. At the same time a change of practice is required to integrate wastewater planning into urban water resource management, simultaneously applying technical solutions for wastewater treatment and disposal, and a range of preventive measures to mitigate health risks in the short term.Before any such changes can be proposed or implemented it is necessary to have an understanding of the current conditions prevailing in the urban and peri-urban area of the two project research cities, Rajshahi in Bangladesh and Kurunegala in Sri Lanka. These include:wastewater production including its quantity and source; the quality of wastewater being utilized for agriculture; the impact of that use on agriculture and potential risks to health; and the sanitation conditions. To achieve this, a number of related studies have been undertakenunder the WASPA Asia project, the results of which have been presented in a series of reports. This report presents the findings for the baseline water quality assessment conducted in Rajshahi in February 2007. It will be followed by further reports on water quality as a series of samples are taken over the project period. The findings of this study will also be combined with the findings of the agriculture, sanitation and stakeholder analysis to produce a more comprehensive report for Rajshahi City.The main objective of the WASPA Asia project is to work with relevant stakeholders to develop participatory action plans to address issues relating to wastewater agriculture in Rajshahi and Kurunegala, and to learn lessons for other similar cities across Asia. This water quality analysis report will provide important information for the development of those participatory action plans. It will also provide a baseline against which to monitor the impacts of project interventions or other changes that may take place in the city during the project period.There are three main objectives for the water quality monitoring component of the project. These are:• To monitor the quality of water in drainage canals from the city to facilitate consideration of the possible health and environmental risks posed to the communities that live around the project area;• To investigate the suitability of the water for use in agriculture, particularly in relation to the levels of nutrients or substances (such as heavy metals or salinity) that may damage crops; and• To monitor the impacts of project interventions in terms of improved water quality (this will be assessed at the end of the project and is not covered in this report).A number of storm water drains (10) flow from the south of Rajshahi through the city to the north, either terminating in beels or in the Baranai River, some 15 km away. An initial assessment of the city was conducted at the beginning of the study and two project locations were identified where wastewater is being used in agriculture (see Clemett et al. 2006). These sites are situated along two of the city drains: Circuit House Drain, also known as The Dargapara Drain starts from Natore Road in Ward 9. It flows through Ward 10, Ward 14, and Ward 16, passing by Rajshahi Medical College, a women's hostel, Sadar (Main) Hospital, the Passport Office, the Fisheries Office and the Cantonment Area, as well as some densly populated residential areas. In Ward 16 a second drain joins the Dargapara Drain, bringing untreated industrial effluent from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industry Corporation (BSCIC) area and any residences also located there. The water from Dargapara Drain is used in Ward 14 (before the industrial wastewater enters the system) and Ward 16 where some areas are likely to be using wastewater containing industrial waste.In Ward 17, in an area known as Terokhadia, the Circuit House Drain and the Dargapara Drain meet. The drain flows on and is continuously used for agricultural purposes, finally meeting the Baranai River approximately 11-12 Kilometers away from the place where both the drains meet (GIS map of Institute of Water Modeling).Nine drain water sampling points were identified along these two drains both in more residential an in agricultural areas, where the wastewater is the only source of irrigation water.In addition two ground water sample sites were selected near the Basuar Beel (Figure 2.1) to investigate the effect of seepage from the unlined drains on ground water, as this is the main source of drinking water in Bangladesh. In Rajshahi, ground water is usually obtained from deep tube wells, which is the case near Bashuar Beel, therefore, the selected ground water sites are deep tube wells and the possibility of leaching from the drains is low but it required investigation never the less. The sites selected are listed in   The sites were selected based on drainage maps provided by the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) and Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA), and on physical observations in the site.It was intended that points A to C would be a continuous system and show the changes from within the city and across the low income area marked on the map (Figure 2.1), and on through the beel to the agricultural area. Unfortunately, due to the extensive drainage system running under the roads, the points A and B actually sampled did not connect with point C. This is a significant problem and has since been addressed so that future samples will be taken on a continuous drain. However, for the purpose of the baseline survey the existing samples are adequate as they still show:• Wastewater quality within the city (A, B, G and H);• Wastewater quality in the agricultural areas (E, I and J); and• Changes in water quality across the beel (C, D and E).The locations where the baseline samples were taken were established with respect to GPS (Garmin GPS III® Plus) (Annex I). The other permanent features available in the area were also noted and photographed. The photographs are given in (Annex II).The exact sampling sites were selected considering the point sources and the suitability for measuring discharge: locations next to a confluence or point sources of contamination were avoided; straight and uniform channels free of eddies, slack water and excessive turbulence were selected.The single vertical at centroid-of-flow (VCF) method was used for sampling. Discrete samples were collected from each location in the VCF for chemical and microbiological analysis because of well mixed conditions and shallow flows. Composite samples were collected for parasitological analysis. The parameters for which the water was sampled are provided in Annex III along with the method of collection, preservation and holding times. The samples were delivered to Dhaka (which is five hours by road from the sample site) on the day of sampling. The analyses were conducted by the Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology (BUET) and the NGO Forum laboratory in Dhaka. The analyses were performed with strict quality control and quality assurance using the internationally accepted methods of analysis given in Annex IV.Measurements of temperature, pH and conductivity were conducted in-situ by the Bangladesh Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) staff. The samples collected to test for dissolved oxygen (DO) were fixed in the field and analysed on the following day at NGO Forum laboratory. Flow velocity measurements were also made.Water samples from three sample locations A, B, and E were tested for nematode eggs. To do this 10 litre samples were collected from each and the analysis was performed at the Department of Parasitology, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease control and Research, Mohakali, Dhaka. A modified method of Ayers and Mara (1996) was used. The sediment was allowed to settle overnight and a 50 µl drop was examined after centrifugation. This was a preliminary assessment to observe parasite positivity. The rest of the sample was preserved for further analysis.Drainage channel flow rates were measured using floats and a stop watch no current meter was available. The discharge was calculated using the cross section of the canals. Efforts will be made in the future monitoring programs to measure flow with a current meter.This chapter presents a summary of the surface water quality analysis data and implications for wastewater agriculture. It is divided by type of parameter and each type or individual parameter is discussed in relation to irrigation requirements and potential health risks, as appropriate and where possible. The full set of results and field measurements can be found in Annex V. Standards for irrigation water quality recommendations, Bangladesh standards for inland surface water, Bangladesh discharge standards and are given in Annex VI; Annex VII; Annex VIII and Annex IX.The irrigation water quality recommendations provided by Ayres and Westcot (1985) which are quoted throughout this discussion, and given in Annex VI, require a short explanation as they include a number of assumptions. A basic assumption is that \"restricted use\" does not mean that the water is unsuitable for use but that there may be limitations on production and therefore special management may be required. Furthermore the divisions are somewhat arbitrary as there is not an absolute cut-off between \"no restriction\", \"slight restriction\" and \"severe restriction\", therefore a change of up to 20% above or below a guideline value will have little significance if considered in proper perspective with other factors affecting yield.Guideline values also assume certain irrigation practices appropriate for the crop.To understand the water quality results obtained for some of the locations it may be necessary to refer to the flow rates. Low flows may for example explain high concentrations, and increased flows at a certain point may suggest the addition of new sources of water which may increase pollution loads or provide some dilution. The flow data is given here for reference.The flow increased from A to B suggesting that new sources of wastewater enter between these locations. The flow at C was too low to measure. After point C the drain enters Bashuar Beel. A beel is usually described as a seasonal lake but Bashuar Beel does not dry up due to the constant supply of drainage water from the city, its extent does however fluctuate in accordance with rainfall (Table 3-1). The flow at location E was approximately half that within the city at B but similar to A.On the other canal the discharge was fairly uniform between point G and H but increased by an order of magnitude from H to I: what causes this increased flow needs to be investigated.The discharge increased further at location J when the flow from the BSCIC area is added. concentration in the water making oxygen less available for respiration. Temperature also affects chemical reactions and reaction rates within the wastewater, thereby influencing its suitability for irrigation (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). The temperature of the wastewater sampled in Rajshahi ranged from 23 to 27 o C. This is within the range for biological activity and is normal for water temperature in the area. It also suggests that there is limited industrial waste entering the system as this tends to increase the water temperature. The highest recorded temperature (27 o C) was in the beel and there was no peak observed in the industrial channel.The hydrogen-ion concentration is an important quality parameter of both natural waters and wastewater. The usual means of expressing this is as pH, which is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydrogen-ion concentration. The pH range suitable for the existence of most biological life is quite narrow and critical, and is typically 6-9 (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). The normal range for irrigation water is pH 6.5-8.5 (Pescod 1992). High pH above 8.5 is often caused by high bicarbonate (HCO 3 -) and carbonate (CO 3 2-) concentrations; high carbonates cause calcium and magnesium ions to form insoluble minerals leaving sodium as the dominant ion in solution (Bauder et al. 2004). This alkaline water could intensify sodic soil conditions, which is detrimental to agriculture, but this does not appear to be a problem in the project area where the samples from all locations were within the range pH 5.5 -7.01 (mildly acidic to neutral) (Annex V).Electrical conductivity (EC) is a measure of the ions present in water, as the conductivity increases with the number of ions: it is also effectively a surrogate for total dissolved solids (TDS) (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). The EC of irrigation water is important because it is a measure of the salinity of the water. The conductivity test does not identify the dissolved salts, or the effects they may have on crop or soil, but it does indicate whether a salinity problem is likely to occur. Dissolved salts increase the osmotic potential of soil water which results in plants expending more energy to take up the water, which leads to increased respiration and a progressive decline in plant yield as the osmotic pressure increases (Pescod 1992). Usually, crop yield is independent of salt concentration when salinity is below some threshold level then yield gradually decreases to zero as the salt concentration increases to the level which cannot be tolerated by a given crop.The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has developed guidelines for the evaluation of water quality for irrigation and suggests that there need be: no restrictions on the use of irrigation water with an EC of 0.7 dS m -1 (700 µS cm -1 ) or a TDS concentration of less than 450 mg l -1; slight to moderate restrictions if concentrations are in the range 0.7 -3.0 dS m -1 or a TDS concentration of 450 -2000 mg l -1; and severe restrictions for irrigation water with an EC of greater than 3.0 dS m -1 or a TDS concentration of more than 2000 mg l -1 (Ayres and Westcot 1985).Table 3-2 The samples taken of the wastewater used for irrigation in the project area were all within the range at which slight to moderate restrictions are advised (Figure 3.1). Wastewater can also be defined as \"strong\", \"medium\" and \"weak\"; in the case of TDS the values for these are 850 mg l -1 , 500 mg l -1 and 250 mg l -1 , implying that the drainage water in the canals can all be classified as strong wastewater; but they are also within the usual range for irrigation water, which is an EC of 0-3 dS m -1 and TDS 0-2000 mg l -1 (UN Department of Technical Cooperation for Development 1985; cited in Pescod 1992).As the crops grown in Rajshahi vary (see Jayakody and Amin 2007) the threshold level for each will be different and some crops may be more suitable to grow in the area than others.Of the main crops grown wheat and papaya are moderately tolerant; rice, sugarcane, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and potato are moderately sensitive; and none are in the sensitive category (Ayres and Westcot 1985).There are also other considerations in addition to the direct effect of salinity on osmotic pressure. These are;• Specific ion toxicity (sodium, boron and chloride);• Interference with up-take of essential nutrients (potassium and nitrate) due to antagonism with sodium, chloride and sulfates; and • It may have long term impacts on the soil structure (WHO 2006).The last point is discussed further below.Not only is the total salt concentration in irrigation water extremely important for agriculture but so too is the relative proportion of sodium to other cations, because sodium has a unique effect on soils. When present in its exchangeable form sodium changes the physico-chemical properties of the soil and has the ability to disperse soil particles when above a certain threshold value, relative to the concentration of total dissolved salts. This dispersion results in reduced air and water infiltration to the soil and the formation of a hard crust when the soil is dry (Pescod 1992).This index quantifies the proportion of sodium ion (Na + ) to calcium ions (Ca 2+ ) and magnesium ions (Mg 2+ ) in a sample using either of the equations presented in Table 3-3. where ionic concentrations of each are in mmol/lThis ratio is important because calcium and sodium have different effects on the soil: calcium will flocculate (hold together), while sodium disperses (pushes apart) soil particles.Water with low salinity content (<0.5 dS m -1) leaches the soluble minerals and salts. If calcium is leached, soil structure can be destabilized and fine soil particles become dispersed and clog the pour spaces, leading to reduced water infiltration, soil crusting and crop emergence problems (Ayres and Westcot 1985;cited in WHO 2006).In summary, high salinity water will increase infiltration, whereas low salinity water or water with a high sodium to calcium ratio will decrease infiltration: both factors may also operate at the same time, therefore it is important to consider both EC and SAR, and for this reason guidelines for potential irrigation problems relating to infiltration include both (Table 3-4). The reported SAR values for the locations sampled in Rajshahi were between 13.5 and 14.8.The FAO guidelines suggest severe restrictions for irrigation water with an EC <1.3 within this range of SAR, which were recorded for locations D and E. The EC values for all locations on the Dargapara Drain were >1.3 and the FAO guidelines therefore suggest moderate restrictions (Table 3-5). Nitrogen is a necessary primary macronutrient for plants that stimulates plant growth. It may be added as a fertilizer but can also be found in wastewater as nitrate, ammonia, organic nitrogen or nitrite (FAO 2006). Wastewater with a total nitrogen concentration of 80 mg l -1 is considered strong, 40 mg l -1 medium and 20 mg l -1 weak; and the usual total nitrogen concentration in wastewater treated in a conventional treatment plant is 50 mg l -1 (Pescod 1992).The most important factor for plants is the total amount of nitrogen (N) regardless of whether it is in the form of nitrate-nitrogen (NO 3 -N), ammonium-nitrogen (NH 4 -N) or organic-nitrogen (Org-N) and by reporting in the form of total nitrogen, comparisons can be made (Ayres and Westcot 1985). Most plants absorb only nitrates, but normally the other forms are transformed into nitrates in the soil. During this transformation several mechanisms such as volatilization result in the loss of some of the nitrogen so that only 50% of the ammonia and 30% of organic nitrogen are ultimately assimilated by the plants (WHO 2006).If excess nitrogen is applied to a crop it can result in over-stimulation and excessive growth which increase susceptibility to pest and disease attacks, delayed maturity, failure to ripen, reduced crop quality and yield loss (Pescod 1992). The concentration of nitrogen required varies according to the crop with more sensitive crops being affected by nitrogen concentrations above 5 mg l -1 , whilst most other crops are relatively unaffected until nitrogen exceeds 30 mg l -1 . The sensitivity of crops also varies with the growth stage. High nitrogen levels may be beneficial during early growth stages but may cause yield losses during the later flowering and fruiting stages. This means that water containing high nitrogen levels, including domestic wastewater, can be used as a fertilizer early in the season but should ideally be reduced or blended with other sources of water later in the growth cycle (Ayres and Westcot 1985).The usual range for nitrate-nitrogen in irrigation water is 0 -10 mg l -1 and for ammoniumnitrogen is 0 -5 mg l -1 (ibid). The total-nitrogen and ammonium-nitrogen levels were high in all locations and were well above the usual range for irrigation water but the nitrate concentration was very low in all samples and ammonia-N was the predominant form of nitrogen in the wastewater (Figure 3.2). This is due to the anaerobic conditions in the wastewater caused by the low dissolved oxygen. In the Circuit House Drain the ammonia and total-N concentrations increased from A to B as did the flow, which suggests new sources of wastewater are entering the system between these two points, as is likely to be happening in the residential area. Point C had a high concentration of total and ammonium-N but this may relate to the low flow (see limitations section). The concentrations declined in the beel and are even lower in the beel effluent; this may be due to natural treatment processes taking place or dilution. The effluent from the beel still had substantially higher nitrogen concentrations than normal irrigation water but it was just below the value at which most crops are negatively affected.The concentrations of ammomium-nitrogen and total nitrogen were higher on average in the Dargapara Drain than the Circuit House Drain. It is notable that the concentrations are fairly stable except for a peak in total nitrogen at point H. It is not clear why this peak exists and further analysis is required to determine this but it could be contributed by an in-flowing drain between location G and H. What factors cause the attenuation of this peak before location J is also not clear but since this water is used in agriculture between H and J it is possible that this is the cause; although the unexplained increase in flow between H and J may also contribute in some way. Notably the confluence with the industry drain did not show an increase in nitrogen, which is supported by the study on the types of industries in the area and that all of them have septic tanks for toilet waste (Sandoval, Ara and Clemett, 2007).Phosphorus is also a primary macronutrient essential to the growth of plants and other biological organisms; however, excess phosphorus can lead to noxious algal blooms in water bodies. Municipal wastewaters may contain between 4 and 16 mg l -1 of phosphorus as P and a typical value for wastewater treated in a conventional wastewater treatment plants is 10 mg l -1 (Metcalf and Eddy 2003; Pescod 1992). The usual range for phosphate-phosphorus (PO 4 -P) in irrigation water is 0 -2 mg l -1 (Ayres and Westcot 1985).The orthophosphate concentrations were high compared to the total P, which indicates that the particulate phosphorous is low and the phosphorous is readily available for plants. In the Circuit House Drain both the total-P and PO 4 -P concentrations decreased from C to D, possibly due to dilution but the further decline from D to E suggests that natural processes taking place in Bashuar Beel maybe contributing to its attenuation (Figure 3.3).In the Dargapara Drain the total-P levels increase from H to J, the opposite of the observed trend for nitrogen (Figure 3.3 and Figure 3.2). The new sources of phosphorus entering the drain may be: more domestic waste; detergents from the industrial area (contributing to the concentration at J); and leaching of phosphorous from the agricultural area, especially if phosphate fertilizer is over applied (see Jayakody and Amin 2007 for a discussion of fertilizer application rates). None of this has serious implications for agriculture except in as much as the application of phosphate fertilzers could potentially be reduced. The agricultural study undertaken by the WASPA Project team found that farmers tended to apply more than the recommended quantity of triple super phosphate (TSP) (Jayakody and Amin, 2007). It may however have implications for the environment down stream as phosphate is the main cause of eutrophication, therefore agricultural use of wastewater combined with reduced TSP application could be a generally beneficial option.Potassium (K) is not an integral part of any major plant component but it does play a key role in a vast array of physiological processes vital to plant growth, from protein synthesis to maintenance of plant water balance. Potassium is a macronutrient that is present in high concentrations in soils but is not bio-available since it is bound to other compounds.Generally irrigation water contains low potassium concentrations, insufficient to cover the plant's theoretical demand, and fertilizer application is almost always necessary as approximately 185 kg ha -1 is required. The use of wastewater in agriculture does not normally cause negative environmental impacts associated with potassium (Mikklesen and Camberato 1995;cited in WHO 2006).The normal concentration of K in treated wastewaters is 30 mg l -1 and is 0-2 mg l -1 in irrigation water (Pescod 1992;Ayres and Westcot 1985). The reported K values for the Rajshahi drains are in the range of 21.4 to 35.7mg l -1 and the highest reported value is for the most downstream location on the Dargapara Drain. Potassium is likely to originate from the sewage and urine discharged into the drains, as human faeces has 1.6% and urine has 3.7%(of dry weight) potassium (Annex X and Annex XIII). The agriculture survey also found that many of the farmers were applying muriate of potash (MOP) at quantities in excess of those recommended by the government; considering the high concentrations in the wastewater it may be possible to reduce this and thereby provide a saving to the farmers (Jayakody and Amin 2007).Trace quantities of many metals can be found in wastewaters, particularly industrial waste but also arising from domestic waste, for example form household cleaning products. Many of these metals are necessary for growth of biological life but only in trace concentrations; if the required concentrations are exceeded they can become toxic and thus interfere with the potential beneficial uses of wastewater (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). It is important to note however, that metals will only be absorbed by plants once a threshold concentration has been reached in the soil and the metal is in a mobile phase, hence the concentration in irrigation water is not a direct reflection of the uptake of crops. Metals are bound to soils with pH above 6.5 or with high organic matter content. Below this pH, adsorption sites are saturated and metals become mobile (WHO 2006).All the samples except A, B and C were analyzed for a selection of metals that were either likely to cause damage to crops or impact on human health, these included: calcium (as Ca 2+ ); magnesium (as Mg 2+ ); potassium (as K + ); sodium (as Na + ); iron (as Fe); nickel (as Ni); copper (as Cu); cadmium (as Cd); chromium (as Cr); arsenic (as As); lead (as Pb); mercury (as Hg); and boron (as B). Of these, potassium is a primary macronutrient; and calcium and magnesium are secondary macronutrients (see preceding discussion). Iron, boron and copper are micronutrients which help plant growth and development but can be detrimental if threshold levels are exceeded. The others variously affect plant growth and development.Excessive iron can reduce the phosphorous component in water by precipitating the dissolved phosphate. Therefore, phosphorous might not be readily available for plant uptake in the presence of excessive iron. The concentration of iron ranged from just 0.8 mg l -1 to 5.27 mg l -1 in the drainage water (Figure 3.4). The recommended maximum concentration of iron for crop production is 5 mg l -1 and sample E has exceeded this level (Figure 3.4). Location E also exhibits the lowest orthophosphate concentration but in general iron appears not to be of concern in these samples (Figure 3.3). Boron is an essential element for plant growth but in relatively small amounts. For example, for some plants 0.2 mg l -1 in irrigation water is essential but 1-2 mg l -1 may be toxic. There is however a wide range of tolerance between crops and most crop toxicity symptoms occur after concentrations in leaf blades exceed 250 mg kg -1 dry weight. Typical symptoms are a yellowing of leaves, spotting or drying of leaf tissue (Ayres and Westcot 1985). There is no guideline value for B in Bangladesh but FAO recommend slight restriction from 0.7-3.0 mg l -1 and severe restrictions for concentrations exceeding 3.0 mg l -1 (ibid). The concentrations in the samples ranged from 0.1 to 0.3 mg l -1 .The WHO (2006) recommended maximum concentration of Cr for crop production is 0.1mg/l and sample J has exceed this value. Location J is after the industrial wastewater drain that discharges into the cantonment drain, so the Cr could originate from the industrial area, although no specific industry has been identified as being the source of this contamination.Further investigations into the possible contamination of soil and plant material, and identification of the potential source of the metal are advisable. The Ni, Cu and Hg levels are below the recommended maximum concentration of WHO for crop production (WHO 2006).Given the low values and the very limited evidence for direct health impacts from chemical exposure associated with the use of wastewater in agriculture, chemicals are unlikely to be the main cause for concern in the project site. It has been shown that for most chemicals their concentrations in wastewater and wastewater produce will never be enough to result in acute health effects, and chronic health effects, such as cancer, are only likely after many years of exposure (ibid).The DO values ranged from 0 to 2 mg l -1 . Dissolved oxygen is important for aquatic life, and whilst aquatic life is not expected to exist in the drains it gives an indication of the likely impact on receiving water bodies, principally Baranai River. The optimal DO concentration for fish health is 5 mg l -1 and most species become distressed when levels drop to 4-2 mg l -1 (Francis-Floyd 2003).Dissolved oxygen is also important for the microbial breakdown of waste in the water and for chemical reactions. The low levels of DO in the samples indicate high levels of pollution and are below the GoB (1997) standards for water usable for irrigation, recreation and fisheries of 5 mg l -1 or less (Annex VIII). The results also suggest some oxygenation in Bashuar Beel (Figure 3.5). The variability along Dargapara Drain is not easily explained and needs further observations in the field as well as more water quality analyses. The most widely used parameter to measure water quality and used in the design of effluent treatment plants is 5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD 5 ). The determination of BOD 5 involves the measurement of the DO used by microorganisms in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). In the Rajshahi samples the BOD 5 values were found to be in the range 22-112mg l -1 which is at the low end of the typical range for domestic wastewater described as 110-400 mg l -1 per day by Crites and Tchobanoglous (1998). The lowest reported value was in Basuar Beel at 22 mg l -1 , while all other locations had a BOD 5 of greater than 50mg l -1 (Figure 3.6). According to WHO (2006) municipal wastewater with BOD 5 concentration in the range of 110-400 mg l -1 can increase crop productivity and condition the soil if it is used for irrigation, and they report no negative effects until the BOD 5 reaches 500 mg l -1 . However the Bangladesh standard for water usable for irrigation is a BOD of 10 mg l -1 or less GoB 1997. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is often measured in addition to or instead of BOD 5 as it has the advantage that it can be measured in a couple of hours and in many \"known\" waters (e.g. fresh water or municipal wastewater) can be used to roughly calculate the BOD. The COD test is used to measure the oxygen equivalent of the organic material in wastewater that can be oxidized chemically using dichromate in acid solution (Metcalf and Eddy 2003).The COD values in the samples tested ranged from 83 to 241mg l -1 , which is again low, given that Crites and Tchobanoglous (1998) quote a range of 250-1000 mg l -1 for domestic wastewater. The COD to BOD ratio was between 2:1 and 4:1 which is typical of untreated municipal wastewater (ibid). As with BOD, COD is substantially lower in the beel than in the drains (Figure 3.6).The biological characteristics of water and wastewater are of fundamental importance to human health, in controlling diseases caused by pathogenic organisms of human origin, and because of the role that they play in the decomposition of waste (Metcalf and Eddy 2003).Untreated wastewater that includes faecal waste contains a variety of excreted organisms including pathogens at very high concentrations. Microbial evidence can therefore be used to indicate that a hazard to human health exists in the environment. There is not however a perfect indicator organism for wastewater as excreted organisms range from bacteria to helminthes, protozoa and viruses (WHO 2006) The WHO 1989 guidelines for wastewater used in agriculture had a maximum Faecal Coliform of less than 1000 thermotolerant coli/100 ml for root crops likely to be eaten uncooked, and 10,000 thermotolerant coli/100 ml for leaf crops likely to be eaten uncooked, but no standard for irrigation of cereal crops (WHO 2006). The current guidelines do not have specific values but require a pathogen reduction target to be met through treatment, die-off, washing and irrigation method that results in similar levels to those set in the 1989 standards.These are a 7 log unit pathogen reduction for root crops likely to be eaten uncooked and a 6 long unit pathogen reduction for leaf crops likely to be eaten uncooked (WHO 2006).The results for Total and Faecal Coliform in all tested drain water samples did not comply with the WHO guidelines for use of wastewater in agriculture (WHO 2006). The highest contamination level was in sample J (Dargapara Drain after joining with the Industrial waste canal) which is the most downstream location sampled in the study (Table 3-6). Therefore, it is likely the farmers are exposed to high levels of excreted organisms.The water in the Basuar Beel Drain also had a high level of Total and Faecal Coliform. The people use this water for other purposes as well as agriculture, such as jute processing and washing kitchen utensils and clothes, and they are in primary contact with the wastewater.The water does not satisfy WHO guidelines for primary contact (Guideline for Safe Recreational Water Environments) and Bangladesh standards for recreational waters (WHO 2006;GoB 1997;Annex VIII). Therefore, it is likely that it is not only the farmers but also the residents around Basuar Beel who are exposed to high levels of excreted organisms, such as those listed in Annex XIII. Sites A and B give an idea of the types of parasites present in the city area. Parasitic protozoa, hook worms, round worms and cestodes were found in the samples, indicating feacal contamination. The fluke eggs could be of animal origin, as they are not reported from humans in Bangladesh. Some of the round worm and cestode species could also be of animal origin and further examination is required for clarification (Table 3-7). but no hook worms were reported from this site. The high number of flukes could be from cattle as there is an animal shed adjacent to the beel. It was observed that hanging latrines and the latrine overflow tubes were connected to the Basuar Beel as well as the Basuar BeelDrain. The high counts of parasites in sample E could account for this. Further analysis of the preserved samples will give a better picture of the parasite species distribution and the host origin.The quantity of water available for irrigation will be a major factor for farmers in determining the type of crops that can be grown and what type of irrigation techniques can be used. It will also influence the level of pollutants being transferred to the soil, and potentially the crop, during irrigation events.The discharge data was used in conjunction with the water quality data to calculate the overall pollutant loads for some of the key parameters and the potential load to an irrigated field. The discharge data, which ranged from 2.72x10 3 to 4.65x10 4 m 3 day -1 is presented in Table 3-1.Ideally measurements are taken across the cross-section of a stream and the load of each pollutant is calculated using the formula:Where t = time in seconds c(t) = Concentration at time (t) in mg l -1Load =k t ∫c(t) q(t) dt q(t) = Water discharge at time (t) in m 3 s -1 However, it is common practice for a single set of field-measurement data to be used to represent an entire stream cross-section and given the uniformity of the drains being studied the following equation was used (www.water.usgs.gov):The nutrients nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are available in the water in significant amounts (Table 3-8) but how farmers utilize these incoming nutrients is yet to be understood.To do this it is necessary to review the agricultural survey data and to calculate the load based on the quantity of irrigation water pumped from the drain. The values calculated above do not represent the spatial and temporal variation hence more frequent analysis are necessary along the canals and even within the farmers fields as behavior of these NPK in the field are highly complex.In addition to the main nutrients, the loads of TSS and BOD 5 which are design parameters for wastewater treatment were also estimated.The ground water quality in the area is considered separately because of the different use of this water source compared to the drain water. Ground water is not used for irrigation in this area but it is used for bathing, washing household items and most importantly drinking. This section reviews some of the key parameters for drinking water quality that were observed in the two well samples. The reported ammonia concentrations in the ground water samples were 1.15 mg l -1 and 1.90 mg l -1 which means that they are above the natural level in ground water of 0.2 mg l -1 (WHO 2003). This may be due to the proximity of the wells to the beel or to anaerobic conditions as anaerobic ground water may contain up to 3 mg l -1 (WHO 2003). The drinking water standard in Bangladesh is 0.5 mg l -1, which is exceeded by the water in both wells, and one well exceeds the WHO guideline of 1.5 mg l -1 . Ammonia in drinking water is not of immediate health relevance but it could cause ordour problems at concentrations above 1.5 mg l -1. The main cause for concern in drinking water is nitrate, which can interfere with the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood and can have serious implications for infants.Fortunately nitrogen is not present in the ground water in this form at any significant level and at 0.4 and 0.2 mg l -1 is well below the Bangladesh and WHO standards of 10 and 50 mg l -1respectively. The total nitrogen concentration of the ground water is however above the Bangladesh standard of 1 mg l -1 (Table 4-1); FAO gives no guideline for this.Of the metals analyzed, iron, arsenic, chromium, lead and nickel where near or exceeded either the Bangladesh or WHO guideline values in one or more wells (Table 4-1). However, the source of this contamination is not known and since only one sample has been collected it is very important not to draw too many inferences from this data. What is most important about these results is that they provide guidance on what should be monitored in future sampling events and enable the team to consider whether there are any possible sources of contamination if future sampling shows that there really is a problem.The arsenic levels in the wells were close to the permissible limits for drinking water but did not exceed them. Arsenic has been a major problem in ground water in Bangladesh andRajshahi is no exception (see Clemett et al. 2006).The cadmium concentration in sample X was at the guideline level for WHO but did not exceed the Bangladesh guidelines; the sample from location Y exceeded both. In the shortterm Cd can cause: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, liver injury and renal failure; and can in the long-term lead to kidney, liver, bone and blood damage, therefore it is important to monitor the level of Cd in the drinking water. It occurs naturally in many ores and is very often contributed to drinking water through the corrosion of galvanized pipes. There are also industrial sources of Cd including metal refineries, paints and waste batteries, which means that leaching from landfills or rubbish dumps may contribute (USEPA 2007). None of these sources have as yet been identified in Rajshahi but they should be considered by the project team and Learning Alliance members.The chromium levels in the ground water sampled were double both the Bangladesh and WHO drinking water quality guidelines. Chromium can cause skin irritation and liver and kidney damage in the long-term. The main sources of Cr are usually steel and pulp mills or erosion of natural deposits; Cr is widely found in soils and plants. There is no obvious industrial source of Cr in the project area, therefore the soils may be the source, especially as Cr compounds bind to soil and are not likely to migrate from the surface to ground water (ibid).Lead levels were very high at 10 times the Bangladesh guidelines and 50 times the WHO guidelines (Annex XII). Lead is known to impair the mental development of children and can cause kidney problems in adults. The most common source of Pb in many countries is corrosion of household plumbing, although erosion of natural deposits is also common (ibid).The iron concentrations in the ground water samples were much higher than the Bangladesh drinking water standards at 4.49 and 6.95 mg l -1 (Table 4-1). This is typical of ground water across Bangladesh where iron concentrations are much higher than the WHO and national recommended limits, but there are no known human health implications (UNEP 2001). Iron is therefore more of a nuisance than a health problem as it causes the water to taste unpleasant and stains laundry at levels above 0.3 mg l -1 ; but concentrations of 1-3 mg l -1 can be acceptable for people drinking anaerobic well water (WHO 2003). At the levels recorded there may be a risk of iron being stored in the body (WHO 2003).The groundwater samples showed Coliform contamination, which means that they do not conform to the Bangladesh and WHO guidelines of 0 CFU/100 ml; however they did not show any faecal contamination despite the fact that across Bangladesh 54 per cent of hand pumped tube wells were found to have fecal contamination, due to poor wellhead design, faulty construction and management, even though the aquifers themselves were not polluted (Hoque, 1998;cited in UNEP 2001). The tube wells analyzed under the WASPA project are both deep tube wells and are unlikely to be contaminated with Coliforms leaching from the Basuar Beel, the drains or even septic tanks.The results show that the main potential health risk to farmers using wastewater in agriculture is microbial and parasitalogical contamination. This is also of concern for people residing near the drains and the beel as they have been observed to use the water for other activities such as bathing, washing household items and even rinsing meat and vegetables.No other parameters are shown in the baselines survey to be a major risk to health from wastewater irrigation but chromium was above the WHO (2006) recommendations at location J and this should be monitored.In terms of impacts on crops EC, TDS and SAR are of concern and based on the FAO (1985) guidelines, slight to moderate restrictions are advised in all locations, with severe restrictions advised for crops irrigated with wastewater from locations D and E.Nutrients, N, P and K, were all high and the N levels could impact on crop yield or increase pest attacks. However, if correctly managed these nutrients could reduce the quantity of fertilizer applied and reduce costs for farmers.The water quality in the beel appears to be better than in other locations possibly due to dilution or natural treatment processes such as sedimentation and microbial breakdown.The water sampled in the tube wells exceeds WHO and Bangladesh drinking water standards for many parameters including both metals and Coliforms. The metals may be of long-term concern but the Coliforms may be of more immediate health significance. More tests are needed to confirm the observed levels of pollutants and further research is required to determine the sources of contamination.As this is the first sampling event, further tests need to be undertaken. These results should be used to guide certain Learning Alliance members to monitor water quality, for example the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) who are responsible for drinking water quality, and the Department of Environment who are mandated to monitor industrial effluent.The results should be combined with the other studies and further research in order to identify sources of contamination and possible remediation strategies.The nutrient values should be discussed with the Department of Agriculture Extension and the farmers. This could lead to recommendations to reduce fertilizer inputs, thereby reducing the costs to farmers and downstream pollution.The effect of Bashuar Beel on water quality should be investigated further and the possible means of enhancing the processes discussed with Learning Alliance members.As discussed in the methodology the sampling locations were not ideal and will be relocated for subsequent sampling events. Locations A and C will be on the Circuit House Drain and will capture the quality of water from within the city and at the exit from the city. Consequently, although the new sample points can not be compared absolutely with the baseline points A and C, it is expected that the results should be similar. Ideally a new baseline survey should have been undertaken but given the financial limitations for water quality sampling in the project and the need to sample during the agricultural season, when the water quality is more relevant for the purposes of this study, it was decided that the next sampling event would be postponed until this time. Sample point B will be excluded in future events as it is felt that locations A and C are sufficient to capture the wastewater quality in the city.In Bangladesh there are standards for the concentration of oil and grease that can be discharged to inland surface waters (10 mg l -1), public sewers with secondary treatment plant (20 mg l -1 ) and irrigated land (10 mg l -1 ) (Annex IX). Unfortunately this was not tested in Rajshahi because the team could not find suitable testing facilities.The term oil and grease is commonly used and often included in environmental or wastewater quality standards and includes fats, oils, waxes and other related constituents of wastewater.Oils and greases are compounds (esters) of alcohol or glycerol (glycerin) with fatty acids (Metcalf and Eddy 2003). They can arise from many sources including meats and meat processing, butter, margarine, cooking oil and vehicle oils. They can interfere with biological life at the water surface and also cause unsightly films. It is intended that, provided facilities can be identified, oil and grease will be analyzed in the next sampling event as it was identified by farmers as a problem.The microbiological analysis was carried out with strict quality control but samples were incubated within 24 hours of sample collection because of the distance between the project site and the NGO Forum laboratory. As a result the 6 hour holding time specified by the American Public Health Association (2001)  2.0 Toxic to many plants at widely varying concentrations; reduced toxicity at pH > 6.0 and in fine textured or organic soils. 1 Threshold levels of trace elements for crop production 2 WHO Recommended maximum concentration for crop production The maximum concentration is based on a water application rate which is consistent with good irrigation practices (10000 m 3 ha -1 per year). If the water application rate greatly exceeds this, the maximum concentrations should be adjusted downward accordingly. No adjustment should be made for application rates less than 10000 m 3 ha -1 per year. The values given are for water used on a continuous basis at one site. Source: Adapted from National Academy of Sciences (1972) andPratt (1972) ","tokenCount":"8046"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f35bff72c7923a775a04fdba0de3707b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1704edeb-1a4e-4f6f-8888-3b68a0387e13/retrieve","id":"2029640227"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"773d9d4b-b53b-49bb-b453-91e314a8e148","pagecount":"48","content":"For more information, contact:The Project Team Leader, Nestlé Cassava Starch Project PMB. 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan. Tel: +234 2 2412626 ext. 2285 Email: iita-icp@cgiar.org About IITA Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and people's lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award-winning research for development (R4D) is based on focused, authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an international non-profit R4D organization established in 1967 and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.\"The authors would like to thank our investors, Nestle Nigeria Plc, for providing the funds to catalyze cassava production among smallholder farmers in selected States in Nigeria and a readily available market for the roots of farmers at harvest. This will increase cassava production, create more jobs, generate more income and improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers. We are grateful for the role played by each stakeholder (especially the farmers and the processors) in the value chain and their patience in accommodating us while administering the survey questionnaire.Allow organic manure to cure 34 weeks before applying  ","tokenCount":"212"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9745a5f501d5f2a8ca00a0222244697","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/044490ea-4431-40d6-a3d6-9dfb3e6403d5/retrieve","id":"741756881"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c0c34c07-dbdd-4465-93d3-f0d92cec9464","pagecount":"12","content":"Key message Sparse testing using genomic prediction can be efficiently used to increase the number of testing environments while maintaining selection intensity in the early yield testing stage without increasing the breeding budget. Abstract Sparse testing using genomic prediction enables expanded use of selection environments in early-stage yield testing without increasing phenotyping cost. We evaluated different sparse testing strategies in the yield testing stage of a CIMMYT spring wheat breeding pipeline characterized by multiple populations each with small family sizes of 1-9 individuals. Our results indicated that a substantial overlap between lines across environments should be used to achieve optimal prediction accuracy. As sparse testing leverages information generated within and across environments, the genetic correlations between environments and genomic relationships of lines across environments were the main drivers of prediction accuracy in multienvironment yield trials. Including information from previous evaluation years did not consistently improve the prediction performance. Genomic best linear unbiased prediction was found to be the best predictor of true breeding value, and therefore, we propose that it should be used as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages. We also propose it as a proxy for assessing prediction performance to mirror breeder's advancement decisions in a breeding program so that it can be readily applied for advancement decisions by breeding programs.Communicated by Huihui Li.Genomic prediction (GP) is a statistical method to predict the genetic potential of unobserved lines based on genomic information. It has been identified as a viable tool to accelerate genetic gain and to reduce phenotyping costs in plant breeding programs, particularly as genotyping costs become cheaper than phenotyping costs (Crossa et al. 2010;Juliana et al. 2019;Santantonio et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021a). GP is a flexible approach that can be implemented at different stages in a breeding program and for different purposes, depending on the objectives and overall breeding strategy.The CIMMYT global spring wheat breeding program uses two yield testing stages to identify parents for the next breeding cycle and promising candidates to advance based on high and stable yield across managed selection environments (SEs) (Suppl. Figure 1). These candidates are then tested internationally through collaborative trials with partners selecting elite lines for use as parents in national breeding programs and/or for variety release. The SEs are defined by varying sowing time and management conditions in a single location (Ciudad Obregon, Mexico). Although the SEs were defined within a single location, they are constructed to predict the performance in global target populations of environments (Crespo-Herrera et al. 2021). In the initial yield testing stage (denoted PYT, or stage 1), lines with desirable agronomic and grain traits, and resistance to diseases, especially rusts, are evaluated for yield potential in an optimal five irrigations bed planting environment to discard low yielding lines while maintaining a range of maturity. Accurately capturing genotype x environment (GxE) interaction is critical in identifying promising lines with the greatest potential to perform in international trials (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Cooper et al. 1995;Mohammadi and Amri 2011). Therefore, selected lines from stage 1 are further evaluated in a subsequent Elite Yield Trial (denoted EYT, or stage 2) in six SEs. This two-stage process of identifying superior performing lines is time consuming and costly, requiring two consecutive cycles of yield testing. Therefore, a key objective of the CIMMYT spring wheat program is shortening the selection cycle by advancing lines directly to multi-environment trials in year 1 using GP to discard lines with low genomic best linear unbiased predictions (GBLUPs) for grain yield and other relevant traits (Suppl. Figure 1).Sparse testing, in which the phenotyping of lines is split across environments, is a robust strategy to help achieve two objectives, specifically (1) increased number of lines tested across multiple, diverse environments and (2) increased number of testing environments while maintaining the same selection intensity (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021b). The latter is the proposed usage of GP in CIMMYT spring wheat breeding where phenotypic data across SEs serve as a calibration model to predict GBLUPs to make earlier selection of promising lines for international trials (Suppl. Figure 1).The size of the full-sib family in the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program in the early yield testing stage is relatively small. Therefore, the dataset used in this study, individuals within a family were likely to be absent across environments (contrary to Atanda et al. (2021b)), and the size of the calibration set is relatively small in each environment. Both factors are likely to influence the prediction accuracy when applying sparse testing in the early yield testing stage. Good prediction accuracies have been reported within bi-parental populations and lower prediction accuracies across populations due to inconsistent quantitative trait loci (QTL)-marker linkage phase across populations (Clark et al. 2012;Lehermeier et al. 2014;Brandariz and Bernardo 2019;Atanda et al. 2021a). However, in a scenario where the prediction and calibration set are heterogeneous, the effect of changes in LD-marker phase across populations on prediction accuracy might be minimal. Consequently, we evaluated the efficiency of sparse testing with GP when the prediction and calibration set are heterogeneous using different sparse testing strategies defined by the proportion of overlapping lines across SEs to identify an optimal strategy without sacrificing selection accuracy. The sparse testing is implemented in stage 1 (where current stage 2 will become stage 1), and thus the dataset used here mimics the data architecture expected in direct stage 2 by skipping stage 1 when GBLUP will be used to select promising lines for further testing (Suppl. Figure 1). In addition, past breeding lines with genotypic and phenotypic data in relevant environments constitute a resource to increase the size of the calibration set (Mangin et al. 2019;Brandariz and Bernardo 2019;Auinger et al. 2021;Atanda et al. 2021a). Here, we also evaluate the merit of using past breeding information to increase the size of training set without increasing costs for sparse testing using GP.In most plant breeding programs, the genetic value of genotypes is estimated through adjusted best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Santantonio et al. 2020;Bernardo 2020;Lell et al. 2021). Theoretically, breeding value is a predictor of selection candidate potential to produce superior progenies in the next generation. However, true breeding value is unknown; thus, the efficiency of the advancement decision depends on a selection metric that is predictive of the true breeding value. In animal breeding, GBLUP estimated from phenotypic information of an individual and relatives using a marker or pedigree relationship matrix in mixed model equations is widely used as a selection metric for candidates (Zhang et al. 2011;Junjie and Shengjie 2019). Recently, adoption of GBLUP as a selection decision metric is gaining traction in plant breeding (Bernardo 2020; Lell et al. 2021), Therefore, we propose and test the use of GBLUP as an advancement decision metric for low to medium traits heritability, especially in the early yield testing stages in order to improve selection accuracy.Prediction accuracy is often assessed as Pearson correlation between predicted GBLUP and the BLUE (Crossa et al. 2014;Zhang et al. 2019). However, this more closely reflects predictive ability rather than accuracy, and a proxy for prediction accuracy is needed to reflect the breeding program advancement decision strategy. Therefore, we assessed the prediction performance of sparse testing aided GP as the proportion of lines that overlap between select top 20% lines using the Smith Hazel selection index (Smith 1936;Hazel 1943) with GBLUP from the prediction model and GBLUP estimated from full data across the SEs.Using breeding data from the CIMMYT spring wheat program the overall objective of this study was to test sparse testing strategies using GP via a number of approaches, namely: (1) highlighting selection accuracy using GBLUP as a selection metric for line advancement decisions in direct stage 2 skipping stage 1 testing; (2) determining the optimal sparse testing aided GP strategy in direct stage 2 trials; (3) determining the contribution of historical data to increasing the calibration set size and improving prediction accuracy of untested lines across SEs without increasing cost; and (4) determining the appropriate method for evaluating prediction accuracy to closely mirror breeder advancement decisions.The genetic material used in this study consisted of F4:8 (stage 1) and F4:9 (stage 2) CIMMYT spring wheat breeding lines. The genetic material was classified into three datasets (denoted DS1, DS2 and DS3). DS1 consisted of 1260 stage 1 lines grouped into 45 trials, each with 28 entries and two checks, evaluated for grain yield (GY) and other agronomic traits in an optimal five irrigation bed planting SE (B5IR). Each trial was planted in an alpha-lattice incomplete block design with two replicates in the 2019-2020 crop season at Norman E. Borlaug research station, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (27° 29′ N, 109° 56′ W). DS2 consisted of the 280 stage 2 lines advanced from the DS1 1260 lines based on GY performance, agronomic, disease, grain zinc and processing quality traits. They were evaluated in six SEs at the same location in the 2020-2021 season. In each SE, the lines were grouped into five trials, each with 56 entries and 4 checks, and the trials were planted in an alpha-lattice incomplete block design with two replicates.The SEs were defined by a combination of factors including planting date, irrigation, and planting condition (flat or bed) as follows:1. Optimal planting date and five irrigations bed planting (B5IR). Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. Optimal planting date implies planting during the third week of November to first week of December. 2. Optimal planting date and five irrigations flat planting (F5IR), with the same total amount of water applied as B5IR, through drip irrigation. 3. Optimal planting date and two irrigations bed planting (B2IR). Approximately 250 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. 4. Optimal planting date and drought stress flat planting (FDRIP). Approximately 180 mm of water applied through drip irrigation. 5. Early heat stress bed planting (BEHT). Lines were planted about 3 weeks earlier (1 st week of November) than the optimal planting date with the aim of evaluating the lines for heat tolerance during the early growth stage.Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation. 6. Late heat stress bed planting (BLHT). Contrary to BEHT, lines were sown 90 days after optimal planting date to evaluate the lines for heat tolerance during the flowering and grain filling stages of the plant. Approximately 500 mm of water was applied through flood irrigation.DS3 consisted of the stage 2 lines advanced from 2018-2019 stage 1 (data not used) and consisted of 253 lines evaluated in six SEs at the same location in the 2019-2020 season.To account for spatial variation in the field, the trials were sown as a grid of (6, 8, 6) rows and (15, 15, 15) columns for DS1, DS2 and DS3 data, respectively.DS2 advanced lines from DS1, and DS3 lines were genotyped using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) and 93,349 SNP markers were generated. After removing SNPs with more than 20% missing values and with a minor allele frequency less than 5%, 20,985 SNPs remained and were used for the analysis. Missing SNPs imputed with Beagle 5.1 (Browning et al. 2018).We evaluated the efficiency of two sparse testing GP scenarios based on the approach reported by Jarquin et al. ( 2020):1. Phenotyping a different set of lines in each SE, i.e. lines were not repeated across SEs. In this scenario, the 280 lines in DS2 were divided into six unique sets with some SEs having 46 lines, while others had 47 lines in the calibration set (Fig. 1). Therefore, the prediction set in each SE consisted of 234 lines where 46 lines were considered tested, and 233 lines when 47 lines were considered tested in the SE. Splitting of lines across the SEs was repeated 30 times. 2. A subset of lines overlapping across the SEs to allow borrowing of information across SEs while varying the number of lines that serve as connectivity across the SEs. We considered the following sets of lines as overlapping across SEs: 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the DS2 (n = 280) (Fig. 1B and Suppl. Figure 2:3). When 10% of the total lines overlapped across the SEs, the remaining 252 lines were divided into six unique sets. Thus, in total 70 lines were used as a calibration set in each SE to predict the genetic value of the prediction set (210 lines) in each SE. For 20, 30, 40 and 50% of the total DS2 lines, 58, 88, 112 and 142, respectively, overlapped across the SEs. The calibration sets for each SE for the four different overlapping sizes were 95, 120, 140 and 165 lines, respectively. The prediction sets in each SE for the four overlapping scenarios were 185, 160, 140 and 115 lines, respectively. Again, the process of line allocation across the SEs was repeated 30 times for each overlapping size scenario.For all the cross-validation schemes, DS1 and DS3 were used separately to increase the size of the calibration set. The contribution to accuracy of prediction in each SE was then evaluated independently for both DS1 and DS3.We report two measures of the prediction accuracy: firstly, the Pearson correlation of the predicted GBLUP or PBLUP and the best linear unbiased estimates (BLUE) calculated using all observed records of tested and untested lines in each SE. Secondly, we used a Smith-Hazel (SH) selection index (Smith 1936;Hazel 1943) to define the top 20% of candidates based on GBLUP of the lines estimated from full data and GBLUP (estimated and predicted) of lines in the six SEs obtained from the prediction model. Accuracy was estimated as the proportion of lines that intersected between individuals selected using the GBLUP estimates of the lines from full data and the GBLUP obtained from the prediction model. To calculate the SH index, we used the genetic (from Eqs. 1 and 2) and phenotypic variance-covariance matrices and vector of economic weight (0.25, 0.1, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, 0.05) that optimized the ability to select promising candidates across the SEs, thus maximizing genetic gain. The latter method was used to reflect the advancement decision strategy in the early yield testing stages in the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program (Suppl. Figure 1).To assess the accuracy of GBLUP as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages, we estimate the BLUE and GBLUP of the 1260 DS1 lines and the 280 DS2 advanced lines using the full data set. Given that the 1260 DS1 lines were only evaluated in a single SE (B5IR), only information from this SE was used for this analysis. We calculated the Pearson correlation of the GBLUP obtained for the complete 280 DS2 lines as well as BLUEs in the two stages of yield testing. We also measured accuracy as percentage of lines that intersect between select top (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) lines in the two testing stages to account for possible selection intensity in the early yield testing stage.We fitted a multi-environment linear mixed model in ASREML (Gilmour 1999) for the sparse testing aided GP analysis using DS2, combined DS1 and DS2 as well as combined DS2 and DS3 as follows:For single-environment analysis, to evaluate the efficiency of GBLUP as a selection decision metric in the early yield testing stages we fitted a linear mixed model as follows:where y (n × 1) is the vector of phenotypes of the lines measured in the environments (1…k), μ is the overall mean and n (n × 1) is a of vector ones, b 1 is a fixed effect of replication, u 1 is a random effect of SE, u 1.1 is the random effect of the genomic effect of g-th line, u 2 is the random effect of the interaction between the genomic effect of g-th line and k-th SE, u 2.1 is the random effect of replication nested within trial, u 3 is the random effect of the trial, u 4 is the random effect of replication nested within SE and trial, u 4.1 is the random effect of replication nested within SE, trial and year for the multi-year dataset, u 4.2 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication and trial, u 5 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication, trial and SE, u 5.1 is the random effects of incomplete block nested within replication, trial, SE and year for the multi-year dataset. The number of fixed and random effects are represented as n and p, while X n and Z p are incidence matrices for fixed and random effects, respectively. The variance of the random effects u 2 , u 2.1 , u 3 , u 4 , u 4.1 , u 4.2 , u 5 and u 5.1 was assumed to be distributed as:where I p and 2 up are the identity matrix and variance of the p-th random effect expect u 2.1 where I is either genomic (G) or pedigree (A) relationship matrix. In Eqs. 1 and 2, the random GEI effect u 2 is defined as the Kronecker product (1)( ⊗ ) between G or A relationship matrix with dimension g × g and the k × k variance-covariance matrix of the genomic effect of lines in and between SEs ( G o ). For combined DS1 and DS2 analysis, the G or A relationship matrix is a block diagonal matrix such that only 280 lines that overlap across the two datasets were used in the analysis as the remaining 980 lines do not have marker information.The covariance of the genomic effect of the line u 2 in multi-environment model can be represented as:where G o G o G o represents the k × k variance-covariance matrix of the genomic effect of lines in the SEs. The diagonal of the G o matrix is the additive genetic variance σ 2 g k within the k-th SE. The off-diagonal ( g 1k ) elements represent the genetic covariance between SEs.The factor analytic (FA) model which is a parsimonious approach for fitting GEI and complex covariance structure among environments (Piepho 1998;Smith et al. 2001;Crossa et al. 2004;Oakey et al. 2016;Smith and Cullis 2018) was used in this study. We use the extended FA (XFA) model that allows a non-full rank variance matrix for the GEI effects; therefore, the mixed model equation is sparser, resulting in reduced computational requirements compared to the standard FA model, as reported in Thompson et al. (2003) and Meyer (2009). In general, FA identifies one or few factors underlying the correlation among environments by their relationship to unobservable latent variables. Thus, GEI is modeled as an interaction between the genomic effect of the g-th line and one or few factors underlying the environmental influences on the line (Piepho 1998;Smith et al. 2001;Crossa et al. 2004;Kelly et al. 2007).FA model for Cov(u g , u ′ g ) is expressed as:where Λ is a k × m matrix of loading factors and the columns of Λ are associated with the environmental loadings for the m-th latent factor. Ψ is a k × k heterogeneous diagonal matrix with specific environment genetic variances k on the diagonal and zero covariance between environments.The residual variance for Eqs. 1, 2 and 3 can be specified as:(5)where R is a block diagonal matrix with the error variances within SEs expect for Eq. 3. To allow separate spatial covariance structure within SEs, R for each SE was defines as: 2 k is the spatial residual variance in k-th SE and 1 p ⊗ 1 p r is the Kronecker product of firstorder autoregressive processes across columns and rows, respectively.Plot-level heritability for k-th SE was derived from the variance components obtained from the model as: Best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) for the lines were computed using Eqs. 1-3 while allowing u 2 and u 2.1 to be fixed instead of random. The BLUEs were used as reference genotypic value to compare the PBLUP or GBLUP models.As expected, GBLUP was found to be a more effective metric for line advancement from stage 1 (DS1) to stage 2 (DS2). The GBLUP correlation between the two yield testing stages was 0.45 compared to 0.35 when BLUEs were used as the advancement decision metric (Fig. 2). GBLUP consistently improved selection accuracy compared to BLUE as the selection decision metric based on the proportion of lines that overlap between the two testing stages for the select top (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) of lines (Suppl. Figure 4).The plot-level heritability for SEs in DS2 (stage 2) ranged from moderate to high except BEHT which had a low plotlevel heritability value of 0.18 (Fig. 3). Similar were obtained in the analyses when DS1 or DS3 were used to augment the calibration set in DS2 (Suppl. Figures 5 and  6). The genetic correlation between SEs in DS2 ranged from − 0.04 to 0.67. Furthermore, when SEs were defined acrossyears (B5IR, F5IR, B2IR, FDRIP, BEHT, BLHT and B5IR*; with B5IR* representing the B5IR SE in DS1 (stage 1)), the genetic correlation between SEs ranged from − 0.05 to 0.85 (Suppl. Figure 5). The genetic correlation between B5IR* and B5IR was high and positive (0.80), whereas that between B5IR* and B2IR, and FDRIP was negative (− 0.11 and − 0.05, respectively). In the analysis where DS3 was used to increase the size of calibration set in DS2, most of the SEs in DS3 denoted by (**) suffix have moderate to high genetic correlation with SEs in DS2 (Suppl. Figure 6).Predictive ability increased with higher heritability and genetic correlation between SEs. The BEHT SE had the lowest plot-level heritability (0.18) and had consistently low predictive ability irrespective of the sparse testing strategy and prediction model used (Fig. 4). Higher predictive ability was generally observed in each SE with increased number of genotypes overlapping across SEs. For instance, using only the DS2 the predictive ability increased by 42, 111, 59, 64, 989 and 67%, respectively, when 50% of the genotypes overlapped across the SEs (B5IR, F5IR, B2IR, FDRIP, BEHT, BLHT) compared to non-overlap of genotypes across the SEs. However, the predictive ability did not increase linearly with expansion in the number of lines that connected the SEs. The augmentation of the calibration set with DS1 or DS3 improved predictive ability of untested lines for some SEs, especially with DS1 using only the 280 lines evaluated in the B5IR SE. For example, when lines were not repeated across SEs, the predictive ability of the 234 lines in F5IR SE increased by 21 and 1% using DS1 and DS3, respectively, to augment the calibration set. While it increased by 5 and 8% in FDRIP SE using DS1 and DS2, respectively, to increase the size of the calibration set. In general, the use of DS1 to augment the calibration set improved predictive ability in each SE compared to DS3. However, the result of the population structure of the datasets assessed by spectral decomposition of the genomic relationship matrix of the lines in DS2 and DS3 shows significant overlap across the datasets (Suppl. Figure 7). This possibly indicates that genetic correlation between environments influences predictive ability in multi-environment genomic prediction.The prediction performance of the PBLUP model was similar to the GBLUP model which is not surprising as DS2 consisted of multiple populations with family sizes that ranged from 1 to 9 (Suppl. Figure 8). However, the predictive ability was lowest when DS3 was combined with the calibration set in each SE. For example, with no overlapping lines across SEs, using the DS3 to increase the calibration set size resulted in a predictive ability obtained from the PBLUP model across the SEs ranging from 4 to 31%, while the prediction ability obtained from the GBLUP model ranged from 9 to 46% across the SEs.The prediction performance improved with increasing size of the calibration set, further corroborating the importance of genetic connectivity across SEs/environments in sparse testing (Fig. 5). Contrary to the prediction performance in each SE, prediction accuracy was higher using DS3 to increase the size of the calibration set compared to DS1 which suggests the relevance of including information from all SEs. In general, the addition of DS1 or DS3 to increase the size of the calibration set did not consistently improve prediction accuracy. This prediction accuracy method reflects the advancement decision strategy in early yield testing stage of the CIMMYT spring wheat breeding program utilizing GBLUP and selection indices to select parent for the next breeding cycle and candidates for further testing. Genomic prediction is a powerful tool to reduce selection cycle time and increase selection intensity (Meuwissen et al. 2001;Burgueño et al. 2012;Jacobson et al. 2014;Oakey et al. 2016;Crossa et al. 2017;Santantonio et al. 2020). This study aimed to examine sparse testing using GP for increasing first-year yield trial testing across SEs with lines advanced based on GBLUP without increasing breeding costs. Sparse testing using GP in which new lines are evaluated in different but genetically correlated environments relies on utilization of information from closely related individuals within and across environments using multienvironment models (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020;Atanda et al. 2021b).The multiple populations with small family size ranging in our study from 1 to 9 individuals imply individuals within a family are likely to be absent across environments and this might suggest low predictive ability observed when non-overlapping lines were randomly distributed in different SEs. In this scenario, genetic correlation between pairs of SEs was estimated through replication of alleles across SEs. Generally, increases in genetic connectivity across SEs improved modeling of the genotype by environment interaction. This gave more efficient correlation estimates and consequently better use of information from related lines tested in correlated SEs. Therefore, the improved predictive ability with increased number of lines connecting the SEs suggests that the efficiency of sparse testing aided GP relies on leveraging information within and across environments (Burgueño et al. 2012;Jarquin et al. 2020). Jarquin et al. (2020) reported improved predictive ability by increasing the number of lines that overlapped across three environments. Due to the data structure, our study did not exclusively investigate factors that might contribute to the proportion of lines that should overlap across the SEs to obtain optimal predictive ability, and this is acknowledged as a key limitation of the study. We hypothesize factors such as population size, the number of crosses per parent, number of half-sib families, yield testing stage and expected predictive ability might largely influence the proportion of lines that overlapped across SEs. Further studies are required to examine the magnitude of each individual factor and their combinations on the fraction of lines that overlap across environments. This will enable optimal/desired predictive ability when implementing sparse testing using GP in breeding.Given the multiple populations that constitute the datasets used in this study, we suspect differences in QTL-marker linkage phase across the populations might affect the predictive ability. The observed predictive ability might be due to the number of QTLs segregating across the population limiting the influence of QTL-marker linkage phase. Although this assumption was not evaluated here, it was previously reported by Schopp et al. (2017). The authors reported improved predictive ability obtained for half-sib families compared to un-related families due to higher segregation of QTLs among half-sib families rather than consistency of QTL-marker linkage phases across the families. Theoretically, predictive ability improves with increased size of the calibration set. Previous studies (Habier et al. 2007; Clark et al. 2012;Riedelsheimer et al. 2013;Lee et al. 2017;Campos et al. 2013;Atanda et al. 2021a;Lopez-Cruz et al. 2021) have emphasized the influence of size of the calibration set and the influence of degree of relatedness between calibration and prediction set on predictive ability. Considering the degree of genetic variation in the prediction set, there is minimal possibility of improvement by applying genetic optimization criteria accounting for relatedness between prediction set and the individuals in DS3 in our study. This is because it is unlikely to have the same QTL segregating across all the populations in the prediction set. In Atanda et al. (2021a) and Brandariz and Bernardo (2019), historical data were optimized around each bi-parental population. The optimized individuals from historical data were assumed to be in the same QTL-marker LD phase with fullsibs in the prediction population resulting in improved predictive ability. However, in the current study the prediction set comprised several populations with few progenies per cross; therefore, relatedness between individuals in DS3 and the prediction set was ambiguous and did not consistently improve predictive performance.Unsurprisingly, the predictive performance of the PBLUP model was similar to the GBLUP model. For across population predictions and based on the architecture of the dataset used in this study, the predictive ability depends largely on the variation in genomic and pedigree relationship between families. Therefore, the PBLUP model was able to track segregating QTLs across the families and thus explained a large proportion of the genetic variance among the families. This result agreed with previous studies (Crossa et al. 2010;Albrecht et al. 2011;Schopp et al. 2017;Basnet et al. 2019;Calleja-Rodriguez et al. 2020).In a breeding program, accurate estimate of selection candidates' breeding value is critical as a predictor of genetic potential and the ability to generate superior progenies in the subsequent generation (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Gall and Bakar 2002;Zhang et al. 2011;Crossa et al. 2021). In practice, programs are unlikely to have an estimate of true breeding value of genotypes; however, GBLUP can be used as a surrogate of true breeding value. This is especially true for traits with inherent low to medium heritability such as grain yield (Henderson 1975;Gall and Bakar 2002;Zhang et al. 2011;Lell et al. 2021) particularly in the early yield testing stages where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments. According to Lell et al. (2021), the use of GBLUP or BLUE as selection criteria will be influenced by the reliability of the available information (evaluation stage) as well as whether the assumption of genotype independence can be valid in the evaluation stage. As a result, GBLUP superiority over BLUE or BLUE superiority over GBLUP cannot be generalized across evaluation stages. The model underlying BLUE assumes all lines were independent, while GBLUP model incorporates genomic relationship between lines allowing use of the phenotypic information from individual lines and relatives (Henderson 1975;Lell et al. 2021). In the early yield testing stage where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments, our results indicate GBLUP improved selection accuracy compared to BLUE as selection decision metric. Other factors that contribute to phenotypic expression such as environmental variables can also be adjusted for in the GBLUP model to achieve estimation of genetic merit of lines that is potentially close to the true breeding value of the lines (Jarquín et al. 2014;Monteverde et al. 2019;Costa-Neto et al. 2021;Crossa et al. 2021).The results from our study show that GBLUP should be used as an advancement decision metric and parental selection criteria in the early yield testing stages, where genetic merit of lines is evaluated in few environments. For programs implementing sparse testing GP for multi-environment yield trials, consideration should be given to the proportion of lines that overlap across environments in the early yield testing stages to increase the size of the SE or selection intensity. Our study suggests including a substantial number of common lines across environments to ensure precise estimation of genetic correlation between environments and to enable improved modeling of GxE interaction effects. In general, sparse testing using GP is a promising strategy for increasing genetic gain in a breeding program by optimizing testing across SE while keeping the breeding costs constant.","tokenCount":"5239"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e60c3cb4f82da499be4c5bf8a5ebd9f2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/assessment/FILES/pdf/publications/ResearchReports/CARR4.pdf","id":"562250600"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4a742ab8-0f1c-4416-99f1-857ebb9fb333","pagecount":"41","content":"gives examples for the Middle East. Earle and Hurton (2003)  explore trade as water management option for Southern Africa. Nakayama (2003) suggests a key role for virtual water in the Aral Sea and Mekong Basin. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (paragraph 92) implies that trade agreements under WTO should be evaluated on social and environmental impacts. Water use reduction through trade fits in this context.v water use is modest. In 1995, all importers combined, imported 215 million tons of grain for which they would have otherwise depleted 433 km 3  of crop water and 178 km 3 of irrigation water. Because of crop productivity differences between importers and exporters, cereal trade reduces global water use by 164 km 3 of crop water (effective rainfall or rainfall plus irrigation) and 112 km 3 of irrigation water depletion. This implies that without trade, global crop water use in cereal production would have been higher by 6 percent and irrigation depletion by 11 percent. Trade and associated savings will most likely increase in the coming decades.Although the potential of trade to reduce water use may seem large-on paper-one should be careful when concluding that trade plays-or will play-an important role in global water scarcity mitigation. Occurring because of reasons unrelated to water, most trade takes place-and will continue to take place-between water abundant countries. Further, not all water \"savings\" can be reallocated to other beneficial uses. Furthermore, reductions in global water use relate to productivity differences between importers and exporters rather than water scarcity. Finally, political and economic considerations-often outweighing water scarcity concerns-limit the potential of trade as a policy tool to mitigate water scarcity.Virtual water refers to the volume of water used to produce agricultural commodities. When these commodities enter the world market, trade in virtual water takes place. Countries importing agricultural commodities essentially purchase water resources from exporting countries, thereby saving water they would otherwise have required.Virtual water trade potentially reduces water use at two levels: national and global. Because it takes between 500 and 4,000 liters of crop water to produce one kilo of cereal, a nation reduces water use substantially by importing food instead of producing it on their own soil. At the global level, water savings through trade occur if production by the exporter is more water efficient than by the importer. Trade saves irrigation water when the exporting country cultivates under rainfed conditions, while the importing country would have relied on irrigated agriculture.A growing number of researchers propose international food trade as an active policy instrument to mitigate local and regional water scarcity. In their view, water short countries should import food from water abundant countries to save scarce water resources for \"higher\" uses, such as domestic purposes, industry and environment. This report, analyzing the impact of international cereal trade on the global water use, argues that the role of virtual water trade in global Introduction fed conditions, while the importing country would have relied on irrigated agriculture.A growing number of researchers propose international food trade as an active policy instrument to mitigate local and regional water scarcity. 2 In their view, water-short countries should import food from water-abundant countries to save scarce water resources for \"higher\" uses, such as domestic purposes, industry and environment (Lant 2003). Others, however, point to political barriers and the possible adverse effects of imports on national rural economies and food security, especially in poor countries vulnerable to fluctuations in world market prices (Biswas 1999;Seckler et al. 2000;Wichelns 2001;Merret 2003).Several studies quantify virtual water flows to underline the importance of water in international trade. Estimates vary between 10 and 15 percent of the global crop water depletion (Zimmer and Renault 2003;Hoekstra and Hung 2003;Oki et al. 2003). The analysis in this paper differs from previous studies in three aspects. First, the First introduced by Allan (1998 and2001), the concept \"virtual water\" has since steadily gained in popularity. 1 Virtual water refers to the volume of water used in producing agricultural commodities. When these commodities enter the world market, importing countries essentially purchase water resources from exporting countries, thereby saving water they would otherwise have required. Thus, through the trade of agricultural commodities, a transfer in embedded water takes place, commonly referred to as virtual water trade (Allan 1998;Hoekstra and Hung 2003).Virtual water trade potentially reduces water use at two levels: national and international. Because it takes between 500 and 4,000 liters of crop water to produce one kilo of cereal, a nation reduces water use substantially by importing food instead of producing it on their own soil. At the global level, water savings through trade occur if production by the exporter is more water efficient than by the importer. Trade saves irrigation water when the exporting country cultivates under rain-impact of virtual water trade on global water use is measured by the difference in water use between importer and exporter. 3 Second, this analysis explicitly differentiates between rain-fed and irrigated agriculture and considers rainfall and irrigation water separately. Third, it distinguishes between food trade and water scarcity induced food trade.Assessing past, present and future cereal trade, this report argues that the role of virtual water trade in global water use should not be overestimated. At present, 9 percent of total crop water depletion used for producing cereals is devoted to export. In the coming 25 years this may increase to 11 percent. Because major exporters are more efficient with water than importers, cereal trade reduces global crop water depletion by 6 percent. And, because main cereal exporters produce under rain-fed conditions and many importers would have relied on irrigation, trade reduces global irrigation water by 112 km 3 , corresponding to 11 percent of the total irrigated depleted in cereal production. Though trade has water-saving potential, its role in mitigating global water scarcity may not be as important as it seems at first sight. Occurring because of reasons unrelated to water, most trade takes place-and will continue to take place-between water abundant countries. Further, not all water \"savings\" can be reallocated to other beneficial uses. Moreover, political and economic considerations-often outweighing water scarcity concerns-limit the potential of trade as a policy tool to mitigate water scarcity.The set-up of this report is as follows: section two gives definitions and describes the methodology. Data and data sources are listed in section three. Section four analyzes the present, past and future role of virtual water trade and associated water savings. Lastly, section five gives conclusions and discussion.Virtual water can be expressed as the volume of water used by the exporter to produce the traded amount of food or as the volume of water the importer would have used otherwise. The difference between the two is the net impact of trade on global water use. A further distinction is possible between crop and irrigation water depletion. Depletion is defined as a use or removal of water from a basin that renders it unavailable for further use (Molden et al. 2001). Crop water depletion includes crop evapotranspiration and losses because of reservoir evaporation, percolation to saline aquifers and pollution.3 (3) 4 ET crop originating from effective precipitation is also referred to as \"green water\" or \"soil water.\" The part of crop water requirements met by irrigation water is called \"blue water.\" Virtual water flows can be expressed as the volume of water depletion incurred by the exporting country (equation 1) and as the amount that the importing country would have required otherwise (equation 2):ETim i,j = X i,j .CW j (2) where ETex i,j = crop water depletion used by the exporting country (m 3 ) ETim i,j = crop water depletion the importer would have used (m 3 ) X i,j= net cereal trade from exporter i to importer j (kg) CW = crop water depletion per unit crop (m 3 /kg) i = exporting country j = importing countryThe volume of crop water depletion per unit crop is a function of climate (evapotranspiration) and crop yield (determined by, among others, farm inputs, soil characteristics and management, on-farm water). Expressed in cubic meter water per kilogram, it indicates how much water is needed to produce one unit of food. It is estimated from (equation 3):The factor 10 is included to match units: 1 mm on one hectare corresponds with 10 m 3 of water. DP crop includes crop evapotranspiration coming from precipitation and irrigation water. 4 It is computed from:where Peff = effective precipitation (mm) NET = net irrigation requirements (mm) EE = effective efficiency (%)with:whereEffective efficiency of irrigation water, defined as the depletion beneficially used by crops divided by total depletion (Keller and Keller 1995;Cai and Rosegrant 2002), shows how efficiently irrigation water is managed. The crop factor k c and methods to estimate ET 0 can be found in FAO Irrigation and Drainage paper no.56. 5 Equations ( 4) and (5) implicitly assume that, under irrigated conditions, all irrigation requirements are met. This assumption, needed because reliable estimates on deficit irrigation are lacking, may lead to an overestimation of irrigation water savings, especially in water scarce areas where deficit irrigation is common. In rain-fed areas, NET is zero and crop evapotranspiration is met exclusively by effective precipitation. IRdif i,j = IRim i,j -IRex i,j = X i,j .(IW j -IW i )6 Available from website http://apps.fao.org.Analog to the crop water computations, irrigation water depletion can be expressed as the amount that the exporter used and the importer would have used: The factor 10 is needed to match units from mm per hectare to m 3 .The impact of trade on the global crop water use is quantified as the difference of crop water depletion in the exporting country and the crop water \"saved\" in the importing country:where ETdif i,j = difference in crop water depletion between importer and exporter because of trade (m 3 )The impact of cereal imports on global water use into country j is given summing all bilateral flows:At global level the impact is:A positive value of ETdif signifies that water \"savings\" because of trade occur as the exporter is more water efficient than the importing country. A negative value suggests that global crop water depletion increases because of trade since the exporter uses more water than the importer would have.Similarly, the impact of international cereal imports on irrigation water depletion is quantified by: at national level: and at global level:Data on bilateral cereal trade flows are available from databases such as FAOstat. But they are not always consistent. For example, the sum of bilateral flows reported in the FAOstat database \"export of cereals by source and destinations\" do not add up to the total import and export flows reported in the FAOstat database \"agriculture and food trade.\"6 It is reasonable to assume that data on total imports and exports are more reliable than bilateral flows, because totals are easier to monitor than individual flows and reported bilateral flows may be incomplete. The question then is how to reconcile the inconsistencies between both data sources while optimally using the available information.(11)Trade forecasts are provided by global water and food forecast models. But, the outputs from these models are usually given in an aggregated form, for example, the total export from or total import to a certain geographical unit. To be useful for this exercise, forecasted trade flows for the year 2025 need to be disaggregated into bilateral trade flows to compute the amount of water traded between countries. Because information is not enough for a unique solution, there are infinite ways to disaggregate the totals into bilateral flows.To reconcile inconsistencies in data from different sources and disaggregate forecasted trade volumes into bilateral flows, this analysis uses the Bayesian statistical technique \"Minimum Cross Entropy.\" It uses reportedbut incomplete-bilateral flows and aggregated forecasted flows as prior information. Minimum Cross Entropy chooses a solution that is consistent with the totals and is \"closest\"in a statistical sense-to the bilateral flows known from data for the present or previous years. Technical details and mathematical formulations are given in the annex. The model equations are coded in GAMS and solved using the Conopt3 solver (Brooke et.al. 1988).Though they only constitute about half of all traded food stuffs (table 1), cereals are used as an indicator of the impact of trade on global water use for two reasons. First and most importantly, reliable data on actual and future bilateral trade flows only include cereal crops. Second, the bulk of the cereal trade occurs from the United States, Canada and the European Union, where grains are grown under highly productive rain-fed conditions, to countries that would have relied on irrigation-at least partly. So, the potential of cereal trade to save irrigation water is substantial. In brackets percentage of total production.Global trade in agricultural commodities in million tons.7 Website: http://apps.fao.org/page/collections?subset=agriculture under headings \"export of cereals by source and destinations\" and \"agriculture and food trade.\" Last accessed, July 2003.8 Website: http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/WAtlas/atlas.htm 9 IMPACT-WATER is a water-and-food forecast model developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (Rosegrant et al. 2002). PODIUM is a global scenario tool developed by the International Water Management Institute (Seckler et al. 2000;Fraiture et al. 2001).evapotranspiration, resulting in high crop water productivity. On the other hand, some importing countries (Saudi Arabia, sub-Saharan Africa) combine relatively low yields with high evapotranspiration and thus exhibit low \"cropper-drop.\" The wide ranges in yields, climate variables and efficiencies explain the large variation in estimated crop and irrigation water productivity. Tables 2 and 3 present water productivity values for major exporting and importing countries, as estimated by using equations ( 3), ( 4), ( 5) and ( 6).The results and conclusions of the analysis presented in this report are sensitive to the values of crop water productivity. Yet, there is a lot of uncertainty in crop water productivity estimates. Though detailed GIS coverage of climate variables is available, several factors hamper the reliability of water productivity estimates. First, comprehensive and reliable information on cropping patterns-i.e., planting and harvesting dates-is hard to find at a global scale. A second problem occurs because of the difference between potential evapotranspiration estimates derived from climate variables and actual evapotranspiration. Information on actual values being scarce, most studies use potential values, thus overestimating water use. A third problem arises from the lack of production data disaggregated into irrigated and rain-fed agriculture. Lastly, reported data on irrigation water use are often inconsistent, incomplete and outdated. The analysis in this report uses estimates on yields and irrigation water use derived from the IMPACT-WATER model (Rosegrant et al. 2002).The data for this analysis come from several sources. Bilateral trade flows and total imports/ exports for different cereals for the years 1981 to 2000 are taken from the FAOstat database.Information required for estimating crop and irrigation water productivity is taken from the IWMI \"World Water and Climate Atlas\" 8 and data used in the IMPACT-WATER model (Rosegrant et al. 2002). This model uses 0.5 by 0.5 degree GIS coverage of climate variables and irrigated areas developed by Kassel University. It provides estimates on effective efficiency, information on cropping patterns and crop productivity based on FAO data (Cai and Rosegrant 2002). Projected cereal trade for the year 2025 is taken from the IMPACT-WATER model projections, disaggregated into smaller geographical units using PODIUM.9Water productivity is a function of climate variables, water use efficiency and crop yields. Crop yields depend on agronomic factors such as agro-inputs, seed quality, soil characteristics and on-farm water management. Average cereal yields among major importers and exporters vary by a factor of 7, from 1.0 tons per hectare in sub-Saharan Africa to 6.9 tons per hectare in France. Crop water requirements vary from 350 to 800 mm per season. Net irrigation requirements range from close to zero (Canada) to 100 percent of total crop water (Egypt), while estimated effective efficiencies range from 85 percent (Israel) to 55 percent (India). Most major exporters (USA, Canada and France) combine high cereal yields with relatively lowLocal studies, illustrating the wide variation of water productivity in irrigated agriculture, provide some kind of verification of the values used in this study. Though country averages are generally lower, case studies provide an idea of the order of magnitude. Comparing 40 irrigation schemes in 12 countries over the world, Sakthivadivel et al. (2001) find water  The quantification of global virtual water flows is conducted at three time scales. First, a detailed analysis is presented for the year 1995 (the base year). Second, to avoid misleading conclusions based on one point in time, a time series analysis for the period 1981-2000 is presented.Because of data limitations, the level of detail in the time series analysis is less than for the base year. Third, to gauge possible changes in the coming decades, a projection is made for the year 2025, based on the trade forecasts resulting from the IMPACT-WATER model (Rosegrant et al. 2002).Virtual water flows can be expressed in several ways. First, virtual water can be measured in crop water depletion or in irrigation water depletion. Crop water depletion comes from effective precipitation (i.e., soil water or \"green\" water) and irrigation (i.e., \"blue\" water). Irrigation water depletion consists the volume of \"blue\" water depleted in crop production and is, by definition, smaller or equal to crop water depletion. Second, a distinction can be made between the water used by the exporter and the volume saved by the importer. The difference between the two is the net impact of trade on global water use. If the exporter is more productive per unit crop water than the importer, trade reduces global water use (\"savings through trade\"). Conversely, if the amount used by the exporter is bigger than what the importer would have used, trade increases global water use (\"losses through trade\"). This section first describes cereal trade patterns and related virtual water trade maps. It proceeds with quantifying the volume of water used by exporters, as compared to total global water use. It then analyzes the impact of trade in terms of reduction of water use at national and global level. It concludes with a discussion on the role of water scarcity in cereal trade.Global cereal production in the year 1995 amounted to 1,724 million tons of which 12 percent was traded. Accounting for about half of the global cereal exports, the USA is by far the biggest exporter. Five regions-the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia and the European Union-where cereals crops are mainly grown under rain-fed conditions, make up for 80 percent of all cereal exports. Importers are more diverse: around 25 countries in Asia, the Middle East and In view of recent studies warning of increasing global water scarcity, the debate on water productivity will gain in importance. Because reliable estimates are essential, this topic deserves a separate study, beyond the scope of this report.Africa account for 80 percent of all imports. China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico and Iran figure among the top 10 importers. Bilateral cereal trade flows between major exporting and importing countries for 1995 are presented in table 4.The global map in figure 1 shows net virtual water flows in 1995 expressed in crop water depletion. The quantity of virtual water leaving exporting countries, depicted in green, is measured as the amount depleted by the exporter. Virtual water coming into net importing countries, depicted in red, is expressed as the volume they would have used otherwise. For example, the USA, exporting some 104 million tons of grain for which 83 km 3 of crop water was depleted, is depicted in dark green. Japan, importing 27 million tons of grain in 1995, would have required 37 km 3 of crop water to grow the equivalent of cereal imports on its own soil and is thus shown in dark red. Following the same convention, figure 2 shows the virtual flows expressed in irrigation water depletion. For example, in 1995 the European Union, depicted in light green, exported 22 million tons of grain, for which it used 1.2 km 3 of irrigation water (most crop water is met by precipitation). Egypt, depicted in red, imported some 8 million tons of grain for which it would have required 10 km 3 of irrigation water.10The pattern emerging from the maps follows the cereal trade pattern observed in 1995, with the USA, the European Union, Australia and Argentina exporting large quantities of virtual water, and Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran and Saudi Arabia importing large volumes of virtual water.India and China deserve special attention. In 1995, India was one of the larger virtual water exporters, while China fell in the category of major importers. But expressed in percentage of domestic consumption, both countries were close to self-sufficiency in grains. In the years 2000 and 2002, China was a net exporter of grains. Over the last decade grain imports/exports in both countries fluctuated around zero percent of total consumption. Because of the size of grain consumption and production in India and China, imports or exports fall in the extreme categories. This illustrates the importance of Chinese and Indian food production and consumption in global water use estimates. Because the maps in figures 1 and 2 are based on one year (1995), they should be interpreted with care. Section 4.2 describes the results of a time series analysis.Strikingly, sub-Saharan African countries do not feature in the maps as major importers, despite low agricultural production. There are two reasons: first, because diets in these countries are based on tuber crops, as staple food and cereals are not always adequate indicators of food imports. Second, calorie intakes of these countries feature among the lowest in the world according to data from the FAOstat database. Although crop production falls short compared to an adequate consumption level from a nutritional view, these countries do not have the resources to import. Imports averaged around 10 percent of the total food supplies in the late 1990s. The food aid share of imports peaked in the late1980s at approximately 40 percent. In more recent years, that share has averaged less than 20 percent of imports (USDA 2001).In 1995, it took 2,875 km 3    Virtual water flows due to cereal trade in 1995, expressed in crop water depletion.water depletion, about 9 percent was traded. This difference is explained by the differences in crop water productivity between importers and exporters. On a global average, it takes 1.70 m  (1999) who put it at two thirds.2) In producing cereals for export, less than a quarter of the required crop evapotranspiration comes from irrigation water because major exporters produce under rain-fed conditions and most requirements are met by precipitation.At the national level, an importer \"saves\" water it would have otherwise required. For example, in 1995, Egypt imported 7.9 million tons of grain, mainly from the USA and the European Union, thereby \"saving\" some 9.9 km 3 of irrigation water not estimated negligible it would have required to produce this domestically. Japan imported about 27 million tons of grain from the USA, Canada and Australia, for which it would have needed some 37 km 3 of water (rain plus irrigation) to produce on its own soil. All importers combined imported 214 million tons of grain for which they would otherwise have required 433 km 3 of crop water and 179 km 3 of irrigation water depletion.At the global level, reductions in global water use occur if production by the exporter is more water efficient than by the importer. For example, the USA exported the equivalent of 16.6 km 3 of crop evaporation to Japan for which Japan would have needed 28.1 km 3 . By importing from the USA, Japan reduces global water use by 28.1 -16.6 = 11.5 km 3 .In case the importer is more water efficient than the exporter, trade increases water use. For example, Indonesia imported 2.3 million tons of grain from India, for which it would have required 16.7 km 3 . To produce this cereal, India depleted 17.4 km 3 , thus increasing global water use by 0.7 km 3 . Another example, Sudan imported grain from South Africa, the Russian Federation and others, thereby reducing global crop water depletion by 1.1 km 3 . But the globe \"loses\" 0.2 km 3 of irrigation water depletion because Sudan would have produced under rain-fed condition, while exporters partly relied on irrigation. Tables 5 and 6 compare the amount of water \"saved\" by importers and depleted by exporters. The columns list the main importers and the rows correspond to the major exporters. The top number in each cell represents the amount of water that the importer would have needed to produce the cereals domestically, as computed Virtual water flows due to cereal trade in 1995, expressed in irrigation water depletion.by equation ( 2) and ( 8). The numbers in brackets reflect the amount that the exporter used for its production, computed by equation ( 1) and ( 7).The difference is the impact of trade on global water use (equation 10 and 13). Table 5 shows the bilateral virtual water flows measured in crop water depletion; table 6 shows the same, measured in irrigation water depletion.Overall, exporters are more water efficient than importers and cereal trade \"saves\" water. Without trade, crop water depletion would have been higher by 163 km 3 -corresponding with 6 percent of the total cereal crop water depletion.The impact of cereal trade on global irrigation water depletion is more pronounced. In 1995, cereal trade reduced global irrigation water depletion used in cereal production by 11 percent (112 km 3 ).The role of water scarcity in shaping virtual water trade flows is limited. Occurring for reasons unrelated to water, most trade takes place between water abundant countries. Yang and Zehnder (2002) assess that 20 percent of the cereal trade is water scarcity induced. Japan, the largest importer, requires the \"virtual land\" embedded in the cereals, as opposed to the \"virtual water\" content (Oki et al 2003). Other countries may import because of the comparative advantage in other sectors, labor constraints or political reasons. To assess the role of water scarcity in trade, this analysis relates observed trade flows to the water scarcity indicator used by Seckler et al. (2000). It is assumed that all importing countries considered water scarce import because of water scarcity related reasons.According to this guideline, 23 percent of all cereal trade in 1995 occurs from water abundant to water scarce areas. Hence, only 2 percent of cereal crop water depletion is devoted to produce cereals for water scarcity induced trade (figures 3 and 4).Looking at these numbers, it is clear that at present water scarcity plays a minor role in shaping global cereal trade flows. For individual countries this may be different. Water depletion used in global cereal production (km 3 ) 1995.  Note: Numbers without brackets reflect the amount that would be needed by the importing countries to produce the imported grains within their own territory. Numbers in brackets reflect the amount of water that the exporting country actually used to produce exported grain. The difference is the impact of trade on global water use. A positive number indicates that water use is reduced because of trade. A negative number implies an increase in water use because of trade. There is no linear relation between water scarcity, water productivity and water savings through trade (table 7). Major importers like Japan, Korea, Brazil and Indonesia are not water scarce. Some importers, such as Egypt, combine water scarcity and high water productivity. Here the lack of water resources in their territories may have played and will continue to play an important role in food imports, and thus global water savings. Importers that combine water scarcity with a low water productivity (such as Algeria, Pakistan and Iran) will increasingly face the choice between growing imports or the pressure to use water more productively.Most major exporters \"save\" water because they export to countries that show a low water productivity relative to theirs. Australia forms an illustrative case. Although it uses irrigation to produce cereals for export, it still decreases global irrigation use because it uses irrigation water more efficiently than the countries to which it exports. Conversely, global water use is increased by exports from India to countries exhibiting a higher water productivity. These two cases illustrate the overriding importance of relative water productivity among importers and exporters, in assessing the water saving potential of trade. They provide evidence that water \"savings\" through trade are correlated more strongly to water productivity than to water scarcity.In sum, the reduction in global water use occurs as an unintended by-product of cereal trade, occurring because most exporters are more water efficient than importers and produce under highly productive rain-fed conditions while importers would have relied on irrigation-at least partly. Water scarcity plays a minor role in shaping cereal trade flows, except for a few extremely water-short countries.An analysis based on one year may paint a misleading picture for some countries. For example, in the year 1995, China was a major importer of grains but in 2000 it exported 3 million tons. If the year 2000 had been chosen as a baseline year, the virtual map would have  ** Water productivity relative to world's average. \"+\" means higher; \"-\" means lower; and \"=\" means more or less equal to world's average.*** Water scarcity: \"-\"no water scarcity, \"+\" partly, water scarce \"+++\" high water scarcity.looked different. An analysis of trends over the past 20 years adds interesting insights. The resulting 21 maps (one for each year) are not reproduced here but will be incorporated in IWMI's Water and Climate Atlas.12 Because of data limitations, the time series analysis is not as detailed as in the base year. Except for the base year, no information is available on irrigation water use and effective precipitation. Because of the lack of time series data, crop evapotranspiration over the period 1980-2000 is approximated by the long-term average. Furthermore, no distinction could be made between irrigated and rain-fed production modes.While global cereal trade increased from 180 million tons in the early 80s to 240 million tons in 2000, the general export pattern remains more or less equal, with the USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Europe as major exporters. The import pattern fluctuates from year to year and by country. China, India, Pakistan and South Africa are importers in some years and exporters in others. Although large in absolute quantities, India's and China's imports and exports consist of only a small percentage of domestic cereal production and consumption. In the period 1996-2000 China's net trade is less than one percent of total cereal production.The volume of crop water that the exporters depleted to produce exported grains remained more or less stable at around 270 km 3 . The amount of water that the importers would have used otherwise fluctuated between 400 and 550 km 3 . Consequently, the reduction of water use because of trade varied from 150 to 250 km 3 ,showing a slight upwards trend (figure 5). Since the trade pattern did not change, the observed trends are mostly explained by relative water productivity differences between importers and exporters. On average, water productivity improved steadily over the past 20 years, but in exporting countries at a higher rate than in importing countries, thus widening the productivity gap (figure 6). Despite growth in cereal exports, the amount of crop water depleted remains stable, because the growth is offset by productivity improvement in exporting countries. This time series analysis shows that an increase in cereal trade volume does not necessarily translate in an increase in virtual water flows. Over the past 20 years cereal trade volume grew by one third, while the volume of virtual water trade remained at the same level and \"savings\" through trade increased only slightly. The major factor here is the relative difference in water productivities between importers and exporters.Are the current patterns and the importance of virtual water in global water use likely to change? To gauge the future role of cereal trade in global water use, an estimate is made for the year 2025, based on the projections by the IMPACT-WATER model. The model and underlying assumptions are described in Rosegrant et al. (2002). Compared to other forecasts, the model foresees a substantial increase in global cereal trade according to its Business-as-Usual scenario. In the period 1995-2025, the cereal trade volume will increase by nearly 60 percent to from 214 to 345 million tons in 2025 (figure 7). The overall trading pattern-i.e., major importers and exporters -will remain similar to the base year, with the USA, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Argentina as major exporters, mainly producing under rain-fed conditions. China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico and Iran still figure among the top 10 importers as in the base year, but are now joined by India (table 8). Rosegrant et al. (2002) foresee that in 2025 the world will produce 2,615 million tons of grains, for which 2,981 km 3 of crop water will be depleted (corresponding to 0.88 kg/m 3 ). The cereal export will rise to 343 million tons for which the exporters will deplete 336 km 3 , corresponding to 1.02 m 3 per kg, an improvement of 24 percent compared to 1995.Although trade volume is forecasted to grow by 60 percent, crop water depletion by exporters, being offset by productivity growth, will increase by only 20 percent to 336 km 3 (11% of total).Despite the growth in traded volume, irrigation water depletion for exported cereals remains more or less the same at 65 km 3 (6% of total), because of predicted productivity improvements in irrigated agriculture. Global crop water \"savings\" through trade more than doubles from 164 to 359 km 3 while the irrigation water \"savings\" rise by 70 percent from 111 to 191 km 3 (tables 9 and 10). The latter implies that, in 2025, without trade irrigation, depletion would be 19 percent higher than with trade. \"Savings\" are FIGURE 6.Water productivities of exporters and importers, 1980-2000. Global cereal trade, observed and forecasted, in million tons.higher than in 1995 because the trade volume increases and the water productivity in exporting countries is forecasted to grow at a higher pace than in importing countries.In view of increasing global scarcity (Seckler et al.1998), the role of water scarcity in trade is likely to increase. Following the method described earlier about 38 percent of the cereal trade in 2025 may be water scarcity related. The major part of the cereal trade volume is-and will continue to beunrelated to water scarcity issues.It is important to stress that this analysis is based on one of the many possible trade scenarios. Other predictions may differ in trade volumes and patterns. For example, China's wheat production may be affected by the rapid decline of the groundwater table in many of the wheat growing areas. Because China is the world's largest wheat producer, this may affect world market prices and trade flows. To what extent water scarcity will affect China's ability to sustain its agricultural production, is subject to debate. Nevertheless, compared to other forecasts (such as by Seckler et al. 1998 and2000) the IMPACT-WATER Business-as-Usual scenario foresees a substantial growth in trade. It is thus safe to conclude that, even with substantial increases in trade, the role of water scarcity in virtual water trade is likely to remain relatively small in the coming decades.Source: Observed data are taken from FAOstat database forecasts by IMPACT-WATER model (Rosegrant et al. 2002). Note: Numbers without brackets reflect the amount that would be needed by the importing countries to produce the imported grains within their own territory. Numbers in brackets reflect the amount of water that the exporting country actually used to produce exported grain. The difference is the impact of trade on global water use. Note: Numbers without brackets reflect the amount that would be needed by the importing countries to produce the imported grains within their own territory. Numbers in brackets reflect the amount of water that the exporting country actually used to produce exported grain. The difference is the impact of trade on global water use. depleted for producing cereal domestically. At the global level, cereal trade reduced water use by 164 km 3 of crop water and 112 km 3 of irrigation water depletion. In other words, without trade, crop and irrigation water depletion for cereals would have been higher by 6 percent and 11 percent, respectively. And, as trade volumes are expected to grow, it is likely that these amounts will increase during the coming decades. Based on trade forecasts by Rosegrant et al. (2002), by the year 2025 cereal trade may reduce irrigation water depletion by 191 km 3 . In other words, without trade, irrigation water depletion in 2025 may be 19 percent higher. These numbers, summarized in table 11, suggest that cereal trade \"saves\" large quantities of water at country and global level and probably will continue to do so. But the conclusion that trade plays a prominent role in global water conservation may be misleading.Virtual water trade potentially reduces water use at two levels: national and global. Because it takes between 500 and 4,000 liters of crop water to produce one kilo of cereal, a nation reduces water use substantially by importing food instead of producing it on its own soil. At the global level, water savings through trade occur if production by the exporter is more water efficient than by the importer. Trade reduces irrigation water use when the exporting country cultivates under rainfed conditions, while the importing country would have relied on irrigated agriculture.At first sight, the potential of trade to \"save\" water-at national and global level-is substantial. At the national level, all importers combined \"saved\" 433 km 3 of crop water and 178 km 3 of irrigation water by importing cereal-which quantity of water would otherwise have beenThe positive impact of trade on the global water use (or \"savings\") occurs due to two reasons: 1) major exporters produce more efficiently with water than major importers, and 2) major exporters produce under highly productive rain-fed conditions, while most importers would have relied-at least partlyon irrigation.Though trade has the potential to reduce global water use, it is incorrect to equate \"virtual\" flows to \"real\" water savings. The following nuances should be kept in mind:1. Reductions in global water use because of trade relate to productivity differences between importers and exporters rather than water scarcity issues. They are an unintended by-product, or positive externality, of international trade in agricultural commodities.2. Most trade occurs and will continue to occur for reasons unrelated to water. At present, less than a quarter of the cereal trade volume occurs from water-abundant to watershort areas. Despite increasing global water shortages in the coming 30 years (Rosegrant et al.2002), the analysis in this report suggests that in 2025 more than 60 percent of cereal trade will occur for reasons unrelated to water. A growing number of researchers suggest that international food trade can be used as an active policy instrument to mitigate local and regional water scarcity. Rather than striving for food selfsufficiency, water-short countries should import food from water-abundant countries. Trade in virtual water as an answer to water shortages and further environmental degradation is appealing. Allan (2001) refers to virtual water trade as an \"economically invisible and politically silent\" tool to reduce water scarcity. But there are several factors that need to be considered. As the recent WTO talks in Cancun illustrate, the economical and political interests associated with agricultural trade are enormous. Is it realistic to assume that countries will change trade policies because of emerging global water scarcity issues? Will possible adverse affects of imports on national rural economies and food security, especially in poor countries vulnerable to fluctuations in world market prices, be outweighed by the benefits of reduced pressure on water resources? These questions are still wide open.Extreme water-short countries in the Middle East have no option other than to import food. Others, facing the tradeoff between increased pressure on water resources and imports, are often wary of depending on imports to meet basic food needs. For countries such as China and India-with large, growing populations and increasing water problems-food self-sufficiency is still a national priority. Moreover, the question remains whether the countries that will be hardest hit by water scarcity will be able to afford to import \"virtual water.\"Although it is unlikely that water scarcity concerns will shape global trade flows, virtual water may gain in importance during the coming decades. Article 92 of the declaration issued by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development states that agreements under the WTO should be evaluated on social and environmental impacts. In view of the adverse effects of intensive irrigated agriculture on nature, monitoring virtual water flows associated with agricultural trade will be an essential part of such an evaluation.The results and conclusions of the analysis presented in this report are sensitive to the values of crop water productivity. Yet, estimates on water productivity and efficiency measures vary considerably by source, and datasets often lack consistency. For this study, estimates on yields and values of effective efficiency, precipitation and crop evapotranspiration are taken from Rosegrant et al. (2002) and IWMI's Water and Climate Atlas. Because reliable estimates are essential for the discussion on virtual water and global water use, the estimation of water productivity deserves a separate study, beyond the scope of this report.The present analysis is based on cereals because reliable data on bilateral trade flow available from FAOstat do not include other crops. Cereals may be an adequate indicator of food production and trade in the Asian region, but it is not representative for the African region where roots and tubers provide a large part of the staple food. Furthermore, because the analysis is based on cereals, some countries may be depicted as virtual water importers, while in fact, they are net water exporters. For example, Brazil is a major importer of cereals, but the quantity of soybean exports exceeds cereal imports. Taking soybean production into the water use equation, Brazil would be a net exporter of water. When a consistent and recent global dataset on bilateral trade flows of all agricultural commodities becomes available, it is worthwhile to extend the study accordingly.Finally, because no reliable and consistent information on bilateral trade flows is available, this study makes use of Minimum Cross Entropy (MCE) principles. Although this method has proven to give good results in other applications, uncertainty remains on the accuracy of the MCE estimates.Data on actual bilateral cereal trade flows are available from existing databases, such as FAOstat. However, they are not always consistent. For example, the sum of bilateral flows reported in the FAOstat database \"export of cereals by source and destinations\" do not add up to the total import and export flows reported in the FAOstat database \"agriculture and food trade.\"13 It is reasonable to assume that data on total imports and exports are more reliable than bilateral flows, because totals are easier to monitor than individual flows and reported bilateral flows may be incomplete. The question then is how to reconcile the inconsistencies between both data sources while making optimal use of the available information. This analysis makes use of the Bayesian statistical technique called Minimum Cross Entropy. Entropy optimization is based on the Probability and Information Theory developed by Shannon (1948a and1948b). Jaynes (1978) and Golan et al. (1996) generalized these principles for use in parameter estimation. Entropy-based estimation methods are now used in a wide range of applications in physics, biology, topography, engineering, communication, operation research, economics, pattern recognition and image reconstruction (Kapur and Kesavan 1992). They are particularly useful when data are incomplete, aggregated or inconsistent (Golan et al. 1996).The two most important entropy optimization principles, relevant to parameter estimation, are Maximum Entropy (Jaynes 1957a and1957b) and Minimum Cross Entropy. The Minimum Cross Entropy (MinxEnt) formalism, first developed by Kullback and Leibner in 1951, minimizes the \"probabilistic distance\" between the data and the prior information, while consistent with the constraints posed by the actual observations. The objective of MinxEnt is to find, out of all the distributions of probabilities satisfying the constraints, the one closest to the prior information (Golan et al. 1996) where I = cross entropy (or probabilistic distance) to be minimized p = parameters values to be estimated q = prior informationThe analysis in this report uses incomplete and inconsistent data on bilateral trade flows as prior information. The reliable observations on total trade from and into countries are reflected in the constraints.(1)(2) 30 14The model assumes that global exports and imports balance out and Ti , j > 0. Based on the general formulation by Kapur and Kesavan (1992), the following Minimum Cross Entropy model is employed:Prior information on bilateral and total trade flows in a particular year is given by: where T i, j = bilateral trade from country i to j T0 = total of all export flows.14 Totals of trade flows from and into a certain geographical unit and projected global totals are given by: with X i, j = unknown bilateral trade flow from country i to j EXP i = observed or forecasted total export from country i EX = observed or forecasted total projected global exports T i, j is given by FAOstat database as \"cereal trade by destination.\" This data is considered incomplete and not consistent with the totals. EX i is given by FAOstat as \"agricultural commodity trade\" for 1995 and by the results of IMPACT/PODIUM for 2025. This data is considered as reliable. Because information on future bilateral flows is not available, forecasts for 2025 use bilateral flow information of the year 2000 as prior information.The unknown bilateral trade flows, X i, j , is found by minimizing cross entropy:subject to (3), ( 4), ( 5)The objective function given by equation 6 implies that all countries exporting did so in the previous years also. To avoid this problem and allow for changes in trading patterns, Kapur and Kesavan (1992, p. 191) suggest the following measure: where c is an arbitrary positive number. In this analysis equation 7 is used subject to (3), ( 4) and ( 5).","tokenCount":"7671"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1c6eb1c2349e6d9ff7ae415b14536522","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d7369244-6767-4b1a-adf9-a34cec8182c0/retrieve","id":"-1084476373"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"89594ef3-1d41-432a-8a87-72ec2a9bfce2","pagecount":"16","content":"Ghana experienced rapid economic growth with an annual GDP growth rate of 6.6 percent between 2009and 2019(GSS 2023)). Restrictive COVID-19 policy measures in 2020 caused a slowdown in growth (Amewu et al. 2020), with the rate falling to just 0.5 percent in that year (World Bank 2023a). Economic growth rebounded to 5.4 percent in 2021, but this growth was fueled by excessive government borrowing to finance an ambitious public infrastructure campaign and ushered in a severe financial crisis in Ghana. By 2022, the fiscal deficit had reached almost 10 percent of GDP and the total debt-to-GDP ratio had skyrocketed to 90 percent, resulting in rampant inflation (32 percent year-onyear), a doubling of interest rates (from 14 to 28 percent), and a sharp currency depreciation (40 percent) (World Bank 2023b;Naadi 2023). Economic growth slowed to 3.2 percent in 2022 and is projected to decline further to 1.6 percent in 2023 (World Bank 2023a). Although President Akuffo-Addo blamed \"malevolent forces\" (Financial Times 2023)-including the global commodity market shock caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which by some accounts had only a minimal effect on Ghana's economy (Arndt et al. 2023;Diao and Thurlow 2023)-the economic situation eventually forced the government to agree to an IMF bailout of US$3 billion in 2023. This will be in force for three years.Ghana's agriculture sector grew at 3.3 percent annually during the 2009 to 2019 period, much more slowly than the overall economy. As a lower-middle-income country, Ghana's agriculture sector has become less important, accounting for only 18.5 percent of GDP and 29.2 percent of employment. The cocoa subsector, however, accounts for around two-fifths of export earnings and is considered strategically important. The broader agrifood system (AFS), which includes agroprocessing and food-related trade, transport, and other services, is much larger, accounting for 33.6 percent of GDP and 45.9 percent of employment. However, the AFS also did not perform well between 2009 and 2019, growing at only 3.4 percent annually. This suggests that transformation in Ghana's AFS was limited in terms of productivity growth and expansion of the off-farm components of the AFS. In this brief, we examine the historical and projected economic growth trajectory further to better understand the role of agriculture as well as the broader agrifood system in the performance and transformation of Ghana's economy.The AFS is a complex network of actors who are connected by their roles in supplying, consuming, and governing agrifood products and jobs. Just as an economy undergoes transformation as a country develops, agrifood systems are also expected to evolve (Diao, Hazell, and Thurlow 2010;Timmer 1988). Subsistence farming typically dominates agriculture during the earliest stages of development; as agricultural productivity rises, however, farmers start to supply surplus production to markets, thus creating job opportunities for workers in the nonfarm economy both within and outside the agrifood sectors (Haggblade, Hazell, and Dorosh 2007). Rising rural incomes generate demand for more diverse products; this leads to more nonfarm activities such as processing, packaging, transporting, and trading. In the early stages of transformation, the agriculture sector serves as an engine of rural and even national economic growth. Eventually, urbanization, the nonfarm economy, and nonagricultural incomes play more dominant roles in propelling agrifood system development, with urban and rural nonfarm consumers creating most of the demand for agricultural outputs via value chains that connect rural areas to towns and cities (Dorosh and Thurlow 2013). The exact nature of this transformation process varies across countries because of the diverse structure of their economies and the unique growth trajectories of their various agrifood and nonfood subsectors. This brief describes the current and changing structure of Ghana's AFS and evaluates the potential contribution of different value chains to the acceleration of agricultural transformation and inclusiveness. We start by offering a simple conceptual framework of the AFS and then compare Ghana's AFS with that of other countries at different stages of development. We go on to disaggregate Ghana's AFS across agricultural value chains, taking into consideration their different market structures and historical contribution to economic growth and transformation. Finally, we use a forward-looking economywide model to assess the diverse contributions that specific value chains can make to each of a set of broad development outcomes. We conclude by summarizing our main findings.A country's AFS is a complex network of actors who are connected by their roles in supplying, using, and governing agrifood products (see Fanzo et al. 2020 for a detailed conceptual description of the AFS). In this brief, rather than examining all components of Ghana's AFS, we employ a narrower focus. First, we measure its size, structure, and historical contribution to economic growth and transformation through a data-driven exercise; second, we use the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model (IFPRI 2023a) to assess the effectiveness of AFS growth (led by productivity gains in different agricultural value chains) in promoting multiple development outcomes in Ghana. Our measurement of the AFS is done from a supply-side perspective; that is, we use national accounts and employment statistics to either track or simulate growth and employment changes over time. By disaggregating the AFS into several value chain groups, this analysis offers a unique and useful perspective on the drivers of AFS growth and transformation. Figure 1 provides a simple conceptual framework of the AFS, made up of five components, A to E (see Thurlow et al. 2023). Primary agriculture (A) comprises the supply and demand of all agricultural products, including crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry products. Agroprocessing (B) is part of the manufacturing sector and includes those subsectors that process agriculture-related food or nonfood products. Trade and transport services (C) includes those services associated with the transporting, wholesaling, and retailing of agrifood products between farms, firms, and final points of sale. Food services (D) includes services, such as meals prepared at restaurants, food stalls, or hotels. Finally, input supply (E) is the portion of domestically produced intermediate inputs that is used directly in agricultural and agroprocessing production, such as fertilizers and financial services.Using this conceptual framework, it is possible to measure the size and structure of Ghana's AFS from a supply-side perspective. Following the definitions of Thurlow et al. (2023), AFS GDP (or AgGDP+) is the sum of the GDP contributions of the five components (A to E), while AFS employment (or AgEMP+) is the total number of jobs across those components. As the economy grows and transforms over time, there will be changes in the relative contributions of the various on-farm and off-farm components of the AFS to total AgGDP+ or AgEMP+. A transforming economy, for example, will typically be characterized by more rapid growth in the off-farm components of the AFS; there will be thus an increased contribution by off-farm components to AgGDP+ and AgEMP+ and a relative decline in the contribution of primary agriculture. By disaggregating AgGDP+ and AgEMP+ by specific agricultural value chains, we can further assess the contribution of each of those value chains to AFS growth and transformation.Table 1 presents the structure of Ghana's AFS in 2019 based on official national accounts data and sectoral employment statistics (GSS 2023; ILO 2020), as compiled in a 2019 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Ghana (IFPRI 2023b). National estimates are broken down into estimates for the AFS (that is, AgGDP+ and AgEMP+) and the rest of the economy. The AFS is further broken down into its onfarm (primary agriculture) and off-farm components. The estimates for manufacturing and services (including the trade and transport services subsector) at the bottom of the table include activities in both the AFS and non-AFS sectors; they thus provide a perspective on the relative size of the off-farm AFS components within the overall manufacturing and services sectors. Source: Authors' calculation based on the 2019 Social Accounting Matrix for Ghana (IFPRI 2023b).A to E correspond to the five agrifood system (AFS) components from Figure 1.As shown in Table 1 and mentioned in the introduction, the AFS accounted for 33.6 percent of Ghana's national GDP and 45.9 percent of employment in 2019. Primary agriculture alone contributed less than one-fifth of GDP and close to 30 percent of employment, while the four off-farm components of the AFS contributed 15.1 percent to GDP and 16.7 percent to employment. Off-farm components of the AFS therefore accounted for roughly 45 percent of AgGDP+ and 37 percent of AgEMP+. Both the whole AFS and primary agriculture are no longer the largest components of the entire economy. The service sector has become the largest in terms of both GDP and total employment, but comparison of its GDP and employment shares shows that its labor productivity is not high. For the AFS, however, comparing on-and off-farm GDP and employment shares shows that labor productivity in off-farm components is significantly higher than on-farm productivity. The movement of farm workers into these off-farm components-a natural process of agricultural transformation-may thus be beneficial to household incomes and broad economic transformation.The structure and economic contribution of a country's AFS varies at different development stages. Evidence of this is provided in Figure 2, which compares the 2019 AFS structures of low-income (LIC), lower-middle-income (LMIC), upper-middle-income (UMIC), and high-income countries (HIC). Ghana is an LMIC, while both the on-and off-farm components of Ghana's AFS and its overall contribution to national GDP are larger than those of its LMIC peers (Panel A). Within the four off-farm components of the AFS, Ghana's agroprocessing is relatively smaller than in other LMICs, while the food service component is much larger (Panel B).Source: IFPRI's Agrifood System Database (Thurlow et al. 2023) and the 2019 Social Accounting Matrix for Ghana (IFPRI 2023b).Note: LIC = low-income country; LMIC = lower-middle-income country; UMIC = upper-middle-income country; and HIC = high-income country; AFS = agrifood system.In Figure 3, the structure of Ghana's AFS from the supply side, as measured by AgGDP+ (Panel A), is compared to the structure of the AFS from the demand side, as measured by household consumption of agrifood products (Panel B). While 55.1 percent of AgGDP+ is from primary agriculture, primary agricultural commodities account for only 44.8 percent of household demand. In contrast, household demand for processed agrifood products accounts for 37.5 percent of total agrifood demand, even though the associated sector accounts for only 12.1 percent of AgGDP+. The bias toward processed agrifood products is mirrored in the high share of agrifood imports accounted for by processed products; that is, 71.0 percent of agrifood commodity exports are primary agricultural commodities (Panel C), but 65.3 percent of imports are processed goods (Panel D). Ghana has a deficit in its total agrifood trade balance driven by a substantial deficit in processed agrifood trade-the value of Ghana's processed agrifood imports is more than three times the value of its processed agrifood exports. For a more detailed assessment of structural and historical growth patterns within the AFS, we group Ghana's agrifood system into 14 value chain groups (see Table A1 in the Appendix for details on how individual value chains or subsectors are mapped to value chain groups). The 14 value chain groups are further categorized into three subgroups on the basis of their trade orientation. Exportable and importable value chains are defined, respectively, as those value chains with export-output and importconsumption ratios above the national average. Trade in both primary and processed agrifood products is considered in the calculation of these trade ratios. The remaining value chains are classified as lesstraded value chains.Table 2 shows the 14 value chain groups, categorized into exportable, importable, and less-traded value chains. The table also reports the contribution of each value chain group to AgGDP+, primary agricultural GDP, and GDP in off-farm components of the AFS. Consistent with Figure 3, Table 2 shows that Ghana has a deficit in total agrifood trade, with an import-consumption ratio of 10.2 percent; this is higher than the export-output ratio of 7.0 percent. Of the 14 value chains, only 2 are classified as exportable value chains because their export-output ratios exceed the national average for AFS value chains. While cocoa remains a large exportable sector, horticultural products (the other exportable sector) accounts for a larger share of total AgGDP+. Both cocoa and horticultural products require additional processing and more trade and transport services for exports, while the forestry products are mainly exported as primary products. Thus for the exportable sectors together, the off-farm AFS GDP share (24.6 percent) is similar to their primary agricultural GDP share (23.4 percent). Interestingly, some exportable value chains also have high import-consumption ratios. This may reflect urbanization and growing nonfarm income-generating opportunities in rural areas, which lead to an increase in demand for processed agrifood products, many of which are imported. In those value chains that have both high export-output and import-consumption ratios, it is often the case that exports are predominantly primary or less-processed agricultural products, while imports into that value chain are highly processed products. Six of the 14 value chains are classified as importable value chains with their import-consumption ratios higher than the AFS average, while 5 of the 14 fall in the less-traded group of value chains. The importable and less-traded value chain groups are of similar size in terms of shares of AgGDP+, 34.6 and 38.2 percent respectively. However, many importable value chains require more processing, while many of the less-traded value chains have relatively small off-farm components. Importable value chains thus contribute a relatively large share to off-farm AFS GDP (50.3 percent) compared to their primary agricultural GDP contribution (21.9 percent), while less-traded value chains contribute a relatively large share to primary agricultural GDP (54.7 percent) compared to their off-farm AFS GDP (17.9 percent). Expansion of the importable value chains could thus effectively drive agricultural transformation by boosting overall value addition and off-farm employment in the value chain.The previous sections have provided a snapshot of the current structure of Ghana's AFS, the disaggregation of the AFS across the 14 value chain groups, and the trade orientation of those value chains. We have demonstrated that Ghana has a deficit in total agrifood trade driven by processed agrifood imports far exceeding their exports. While importable value chains are large in terms of their contribution to farm AFS GDP, the less-traded value chains are dominant in terms of their contribution to primary agricultural GDP, because less-traded value chains are generally less oriented toward value addition in their off-farm components. Prioritizing growth in tradable value chains could therefore be an effective strategy for expanding off-farm value addition and jobs, which would contribute positively to AFS transformation.In this section, we assess the performance and structural transformation of Ghana's AFS in recent years. Labor productivity is typically lowest in primary agriculture, and higher in off-farm activities, such as agrifood processing and food services, and in sectors outside of the AFS. Economic growth and urbanization are associated with relatively faster growth in these nonagricultural sectors, which can help create higher-paying jobs for both rural and urban households. As such, even smallholder farm households with family members who obtain off-farm employment may benefit from structural transformation.   Table 3 evaluates the growth performance across AFS value chains over the 2009 to 2019 period. As before, value chains are grouped according to their trade status, that is, exportable, importable, and less traded. Overall, Ghana's AFS grew modestly, with an average annual AgGDP+ growth rate of 3.4 percent. The off-farm component of the AFS grew slightly faster (3.4 percent) than primary agriculture (3.3 percent), with agrifood processing (a subcomponent of the off-farm component of the AFS) growing particularly fast, at 6.5 percent per year.Among the 14 value chains, 11 achieved above-average growth during the 2009 to 2019 period, that is, more than 3.4 percent per year (these are marked with an asterisk in Table 3). Among these 11 value chains that achieved above-average growth, 5 of them-rice, pluses, groundnuts, small ruminants, and other livestock-grew at or more than 6 percent per year. These five value chains are driving forces of the broad AFS growth. In some of them, growth of the off-farm components was faster than growth of their primary agricultural component, while in others, primary agricultural GDP grew more rapidly. However, in all these value chains that achieved above-average growth-and also in a few slower-growing value chains-the processing components of value chains grew rapidly. This is consistent with the broader patterns of growth and structural change in Ghana's AFS; that is, growth in the on-and off-farm components of the AFS was similar, but more rapid in the processing component of AFS GDP.Figure 5 summarizes the key growth trends from Table 3. On average, less-traded (4.3 percent) and importable (3.4 percent) value chains grew faster than or at a similar rate as the national AgGDP+ (3.4 percent) (Panel A). With similar initial shares of the AFS (36.0 percent for the less-traded and 35.8 percent for the importable groups), the less-traded and importable groups of value chains contributed the most to growth, 48.3 and 35.6 percent, respectively (Panel B).  Assessing Growth Outcomes Using IFPRI's RIAPA Model IFPRI's Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model is a tool for conducting forward-looking, economywide country-level analysis (IFPRI 2023a). RIAPA has been used in a wide variety of contexts to simulate the impacts of policies, investments, and economic shocks. Here we employ RIAPA to assess the effectiveness of productivity-led growth in Ghana's agricultural value chain groups to promote multiple development outcomes. The analysis was carried out for 10 value chain groups, which were selected from the original list of 14; other crops, other livestock, fish, and forestry were excluded. We considered five development outcomes: A poverty-growth elasticity that measures the percentage-point change in the poverty headcount rate per unit of agricultural GDP growth generated within the targeted value chain;  A growth multiplier that measures the change in GDP per unit of increase in agricultural GDP in the targeted value chain;  An employment multiplier that measures the change in the number of jobs created per unit of increase in agricultural GDP in the targeted value chain;  A diet-quality indicator that measures the percentage change in a diet quality index per unit of agricultural GDP growth generated within the targeted value chain; and  A hunger-growth elasticity that measures the percentage-point change in the rate of undernourishment per unit of agricultural GDP growth generated within the targeted value chain.The simulations entail increasing on-farm productivity separately in each targeted value chain and comparing development outcomes across the value chains. While this exogenous productivity shock is imposed only in the primary agriculture component of each value chain, there are spillover effects into that value chain's off-farm components as well as into other agricultural value chains or sectors outside the AFS. These spillovers are captured by the economywide model and provide an indication of the transformation effect that agricultural productivity growth in the value chain has within the AFS and in the broader economy. There are also structural differences across value chains. For example, value chains have unique links to other sectors as suppliers or users of intermediate inputs, or they have unique links to rural or urban households in different income groups because of the types of workers they employ or the consumption preferences of households for the agrifood products produced by those value chains.As such, each value chain growth scenario is expected to have a unique impact on development outcomes; moreover, not all value chains will be equally effective at improving outcomes. In some cases, there may even be trade-offs due to competition for resources across value chains. With the aid of the RIAPA model, these complex effects can be unpacked, thus providing information to governments or development partners that can be used to prioritize across different value chains; this is subject, of course, to the development outcomes they value most highly.Figure 6 shows the scores each value chain achieves across the five development outcome indicators. We arbitrarily rank the value chains by their poverty score. Value chains clearly differ significantly in terms of their effectiveness in improving different development outcomes. The horticultural products value chain, for example, has strong poverty effects and is most effective at improving diet quality, but it is much less effective in reducing hunger or increasing jobs. The rice value chain, in contrast, has a growth multiplier of 2.69, which is the highest of all the value chains. This means that for every US$1.00 increase in GDP in the rice value chain driven by rising productivity, an additional US$2.69 is generated in total GDP; that is, US$1.69 is generated either in the off-farm components of the rice value chain or in other value chains or sectors of the economy. The rice value chain, however, ranks much lower in the other four outcomes.These results highlight the possible trade-offs that may emerge when prioritizing individual value chains-there is no single value chain that is the most effective at achieving every development objective. Promoting a few value chains jointly will not only diversify agricultural growth; it can also help to simultaneously achieve multiple development objectives.A composite score across different outcome indicators is created in order to narrow down the number of value chains that might be prioritized. Because of a high correlation between poverty and hunger impacts across value chains, the hunger score is omitted from the composite score. Also, since the different outcome indicators have different underlying units, the individual outcomes are normalized so that they are comparable while still retaining their ranking within the outcome category. Normalization entails assigning a score of 1 to the value chain that is most effective within an outcome category and score 0 to the least effective value chain. All value chains with adverse effects on an outcome are also assigned a score of 0. This includes value chains with a growth multiplier of less than one (pulses, cocoa). The remaining value chains receive a score between 1 and 0 that is proportionate to their original scores relative to the highest-ranked value chain. The individual normalized scores for the outcomes are then combined into a composite score for each value chain. The default approach assumes that each of the four outcome indicators is equally important, so an equal weight is assigned to each score; however, if policymakers consider a particular development outcome to be more or less important than the other outcomes, the weights assigned to each particular outcome score can be adjusted accordingly.Figure 7 presents the composite scores using equal weights across the four development outcome indicators (that is, excluding hunger). Each component in the bars shows the relative contribution of a particular outcome indicator in the final score. The maize, horticultural products, and pulses value chains are ranked highest. For maize and horticulture, the two highest-ranked value chains, not all the four outcome components make important contributions to the composite score. Maize-led growth would not contribute to diet quality improvement, while horticulture-led growth would not contribute to job creation, and its contribution to GDP growth is also minimal, though productivity growth in maize or horticulture could have important impacts on the other development outcome areas. While a ranking of value chain impacts on multiple development outcomes on the basis of composite scores allows us to identify and prioritize among them, trade-offs clearly exist as to which outcomes are most significantly affected by productivity-led growth in each value chain.  Growth in the group of importable value chains was similar to the AFS average and its significant contribution to overall AFS growth can be explained by its relatively large size in the entire AFS.The RIAPA model-based comparison of future sources of growth shows that there is no single value chain group that is the most effective in achieving all desired development outcomes, that is, declining poverty, declining hunger, economic growth, job growth, and improved diets. The maize, horticultural products, and pulses value chains rank highly in their composite outcome scores. However, the highest-ranked value chains-maize and horticulture-could not contribute to all the development outcomes. Maize-led growth has no impact on diet quality improvement, while horticulture-led growth would not contribute to job creation, and its contribution to GDP growth is minimal, though productivity growth for maize and horticulture could have important impacts on the other development outcome areas. Promoting multiple value chains together, thus, offers an effective and broad-based way to achieve these development outcomes. ","tokenCount":"4030"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b944626213d5c259041c9fe150a9d7e4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3f8eaaed-eb03-4b61-b510-e3770c66a9ac/retrieve","id":"145631566"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dd9f1547-6127-49b8-b08b-93a75fb114eb","pagecount":"38","content":"To better understand t he agricultural development of Venezuela , we will briefly review how the country's economy has evolved and the set of global policies that have shaped it, so that later we can concentra te on the set of specific policies that affect the agricultural sector.By 1985 Venezuela hada population of 17.4 million people, (81.3% urban) a per capita GDP of US$2,451 (in 1984 dollars), international reserves of US$12.5 billion, a total disbursed external debt of US$30 billion, exports of goods and services of US$14.3 billion, and imports for US$6 . 7 billion for a positive balance of US$ 7 . 6 billion in current accounts (Table 1).Greatly increased oil revenues in the 1970s catapulted the country from the status of a developing country into the ranks of a middle-income nation. Oil constitutes the basis of the economy accounting for about 75% of government revenues and over 90% of export earnings.Recent growth of the Venezuelan economy can be divided in three periods : 1958 to 1973, 1973 to 1978, and 1978 to present. The first period started with the installation of the democratic regime of Romulo Betancourt. The new policy of import substitution was formulated, following Prebish's theories on the subject. Real GDP grew annually at 5 . 5% during the 1958-73 period while agriculture had a similarly strong growth of 4.3% . The livestock sector was especially dynamic growing at 6.6% per year while crops grew 2.7% annually (Table 2).In 1973 , oil prices boomed and the economy's pace was accelerated with real GDP growing at 6.3% per year from 1973 to 1978. The livestock sector continued its remarkable expansion at 7.3% while crops grew at 5 . 0% (Table 2).After 1978 the country entered a recession that was characterized by a sharp fall in oil export income, combined with an inability to continue borrowing abroad , an expanded foreign debt burden, an overvalued currency, and massive capital flight. A financial and foreign exchange crisis occurred in early 1983. Foreign r eserves went from US$19 billion in 1981 to less than US$7 billion in 1983. Exchange controls, devaluation, and austerity measures brought the country 's external accounts into balance.In 1978-85 , real GDP decreased atan annual rate of -1. 5% while agriculture as a whole grew annually at 1. 7%. The crop value of production had no significant trend (0 . 3% annually) while livestock continued to outpace most of the activities at 3 .1% per year (Table 2) .Agriculture in Venezuela has been affected by wha t is known as the \"Dutch Disease.\" The large influx of foreign exchange r esulting from a   spectacular rise in oil prices (from around US$5.00 per barrel in 1972 to near US$40 in 1979) brought about a spending effect which raised the demand for both tradeables and nontradeables and increased the prices of the latter with a consequent appreciat ion in the exchange rate (Valdes,p. 170) . In addition, resources have been sucked into the booming sector, moving labor from agriculture to t he services and government sectors. Urbanization has occur red a t an accelerated pace since the 1930s (Table 3).At the same time a rising demand for food products emerged .Under those circumstances , government actions to redirect resource allocation become crucial to stimu late growth in the non-oil sectors of the economy and particularly in agriculture, which is directly affected by the rural-urban migration .The major policy tools devised by the government have to do with the administrat ion of oil-related activities. Extractive industries have been nationalized. A special fund (Venezuelan Investment Fund) was created primarily for investment abroad in order to avoid internal fluctuations related with changing conditions i n the oil market, and as a regulatory fund.To compensate for the disequilibriums brought about by the oil sector, the government has operated a vast set of complementary tools ranging from exchange rat e policy, t o price controls, fiscal incentives, credit research and extension, and commercialization, all designed to stimulate industry and agriculture.Exchange rate policy has been characterized by fixed rates with the U.S . dollar throughout most of the past three decades . Two exceptional cases occurred . In 1960, shortly after the democratic regime of Be tancourt carne to power, exchange rate controls were necessary to avoid capital outflows. By 1964 the controls were eliminated and the Bolívar had been devaluated from Bs3.35/US$1.00 to Bs4.50/US$1.00.In 1983 the financial and economic crisis that followed the sharp reductions in oil incomes and the rise in international interes t rates made government intervention in the exchange market imperative . A progressive devaluation of the bolívar (within a multiple-rate system) and sharp restrictions of imports through import and foreign exchange control were established .The agricultural sector in Venezuela contributes 7 .4% to the GDP , and occupies 18% of t he labor force. By subsectors, livestock contributes 3.4%, crops 3 . 3%, fisheries 0.2% and the rest of the agricultural sect or has a 0.3% share of GDP. In addition, 45% of the manufacturing sector is composed of the food indus try ; this implies a n additional 9 . 4% contribution to the GDP by the food and fiber sector of the country.Urbanization took place at a rapid pace going from 26% of the total population in 1920 to 81.3% in 1985 . Traditionally, the country has been a food importer. In 1950 nearly 30% of the agricultural supply was imported while in 19 85 this increased to SO%. In the 1920s, Venezuela was heavily dependent upon agriculture (36% of GDP) and 95% of exports and 75% of the population lived in the rural sector. In the 1930s, the country's economy shifted to the mining sector, with special emphasis given to oil-and steel-based activities (Table 3).In the 1950s, the country saw an important influx of immigrants . The military regime resettled about 400,000 Europeans and40,000 Colombians in 1950-58 through IAN (Wright, 1982). These immigrants were respons ible for a dynamic real growth of the sector during the period (annual rate of 6.0%) while total GDP grew at an annual rate of 8.4% also in real terms. One-half of the growth in agriculture was made up by the livestock sector (dairy, cattle, and poultry) (World Bank, 1961). By 1944, Protinal, the largest animal-feed firm had been founded. In a welcome environment, multinational firms established and expanded subsidiaries which had formerly had a market for their products as imports in Venezuela: milk, milling, feed, and processed food firms (Wright, 1982).In 1958, under the democratic rule of Betancourt, the new policy of import substitution, Prebish-style, was formulated. The basic idea was that the new, reliable processing sector could enlarge the market for agricultura! raw materials that could be produced internally. In turn, the agricultura! sector provided food for a rapidly growing urban population, making income available for the agricultura! sector to purchase the products of new industries and allowing savings to be transferred to the industrial sector.Cordiplan, (an agency at the level of presidential secretary), was created to implement planning on a national basis. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1960 was implemented. About 74% of all land redistributed was publicly owned (5.6 million hectares) as compared with 1.9 million ha of private-property redistribution between 1960 and 1970. Therefore there was no change in the land tenancy structure. Policies benefited mostly farmers with holdings of 500 to 2,499 ha (Wright, 1982), through directed subsidized credit, extension, and insurance programs. The land title situation was unclear in about one-third of the cases, disallowing those farmers to obtain access to main policies of credit and extension.The process of food industry integration and diversification was also accompanied by an increased market-power concentration in that sector. Throughout the past two decades, three firms have controlled 80% to 95% of the market for feed and another three firms 85% of the market for wheat flour . Inputs for these industries were based on crops grown in temperate climates. Little research was done concerning the substitution of other crops suitable for local conditions previous to 1968, and little use of available evidence has been made to incorporate cassava or rice into their technology (Wright, 1982).Agricultura! production responded well to the incentives. Its value grew in an accelerated fashion and was followed by a reduction in agricultura! imports. The percentage of agricultura! imports in total consumption in 1958 was 45 %, in 1960 this decreased to 32.7%, and again in 1970 to 25.2%.Tremendous growth took place in products used as inputs to the food processing industry (rice, sesame, cotton, sugar cane and tobacco) also , in those destined to urban consumption (livestock products and vegetobles) .The seventies witnessed a reversal in food import trends. Real crop production declined in 1970-73 by 1.1% per year but the decline was partially compensated for by a 4.2% growth in the livestock subsector. Although food production was reactivated after 1974 in response to the extraordinary increases in investments coming from t he booming oil prices , demand outpaced production and agricultural imports increased dramatically (Table 4).This process was curtailed by the sharp reduction in oil prices and rapid growth in the cost of funds in international money markets initiated in 1979 . The economic and financial crisis that followed led to a control on foreign exchange and the establishment of a multiple-exchange rate system. The multiple rate system enforced had a free market rate for dollar transactions with the Banco Central de Venezuela and two preferential rates. The preferential rate for agricultural imports (both products and inputs) and debt payments was at Bs4.30 per U.S. dollar. For other imports, which were severely regulated by prohibitions, prior licensing, and quotas, a preferential rate of Bs6 . 00 per U.S. dollar was set.To avoid inflation, and given the large import component in the diets, particularly by the least-favored sectors of the economy, a system of administered prices was imposed. Finally, external debt payments were restructured.Signs of improvement have already been recorded. Imports, that reached US$13 . 6 million by 1982 were US$6.6 million in 1985. Agricultural production grew fast spurred by area that increased from 1.5 million ha in 1983 to 1.8 million ha in 1985. Inflation has remained low (6% for 1985), but unemployment is high at around 13% (up from 9.5% in 1982).The main goals of agricultural policy still are to substitute imports and foster domestic food production, to expand the agricultural frontier, and improve productivit y and profitability in the sector . Specific instruments used, along with the exchange rate system described, are price controls and commercialization, credit policies, and research and extension.Price controls. Given the importance that imported foods have on the diets of the Venezuelans and the high concentration they have in the processing industry, the government has felt the need to implement controlled consumer prices for several food items over the past three decades. Dairy, wheat, maize, rice, and livestock meats and their processed products have been the target items. Recent price controls have not s timulat ed consumption of locally produced foods (rice, beef, roots and t ubers, etc.) in favor of t he imported ones (mainly wheat and coarse grains) by shifting consumpt i on to the latter group and contracting t he dema nd for those produced locally (Tables S and 6).A look a t price evolution shows an increase for agricultura! commodities with respect to other items in the r es t of the economy . This shows the great effort given t o promete food production by creating a profitable env ironment.In the 1968-83 period the wholesale price index s howed: This list shows t hat agricultura ! inputs have lagged in price increases making agriculture more profitable. Also, given that 45% of the manufactured output comes f rom food process ing, the subsidy s tructure seems to have neutralized the higher input costs t o this industry, in favor of consumers .Two cases are quite relevant. Whi t e rice (S% broken grains) had a consumer price increase of 55% in 1980-84 to reach Bs8 . 50/kg while whe a t flour had a 20% increased to reach Bs3 . 50/kg, and pasta had no increase to remain at Bs7 .00/kg. A contradictory situation emerges when the government intends to stimulate local production through high prices and also wants to keep the price of food low to the urban consumer. The higher the national component in the processed foods, the higher the cost to the manufacturer. As a result, there will be inflationary pressures or direct subsidies will have to increase (Table 7) .In 1984, the preferential exchange rate system cost the government Bs3,000 million (US$230 million) (Hernandez).Commercialization policies also changed drastically with the elimination in 1985 of the Corporación de Mercadeo Agrícola (CMA) which had been created in 1971 to ensure adequate supplies of food to consumers at affordable prices by importing food to cover domestic shortages; buy local production at mínimum set prices and provide cleaning, drying, and storage . Three products were mos t-favored by this institution: maize, sorghum, and rice. In the seventies, CMA increased its market participation by buying up to 75% of rice, 70% of sorghum, and 65% of maize production.From its creation CMA absorbed nearly US$8,500 million, which could be accounted for by direct subsidy transfers, red tape costs, and plain inefficiency .The elimination of CMA implies that ｾ ｾ ｃ ＠ handles import licenses and grains are imported directly by users. The Corporation directly handled imports until 1979 at which time the prívate sector took over, previous license approval from CMA.A concerted price policy, to reduce the inflationary impact on the consumer while local production reacts favorably to the stimulus created, is in effect . A mixed body, including the ministers of agriculture, finance, and the treasury, along with processors and producers, tackle prices and problems making \"changes without decrees\" (Latín America Weekly Report, Sept. 1985).Starting in 1983, the government decided to completely eliminate the direct price subsidies even for basic food items. The last one to go was the dairy subsidy, in mid-1984. Other subsidies eliminated were thos e protecting rice, maize flour, vegetable oils, and feed grains.To compensa te for this direct subsidy elimination, important reductions in input costs were established . Therefore, interest rates, the rediscount rate for agricultura! loans, were reduced and a 50% subsidy on fertilizers was approved. Fertilizer subsidy had been eliminated in 1981 but after a tripling of its price, the subsidy was reinstated.A package of special credit, extension, and crop insurance policies have been designed to cover priority items in an effort to reactivate their local production in the mid-term. The most relevant are cereals (rice, maize, sorghum), oilseeds , pulses, livestock products, and the traditional export crops (coffee, cocoa, and sugar cane).Credit policies. Traditionally, this t ool has concentrated its efforts in supplying cheap, abundant credit to large producers and food  (Wright, 1982) . I n 1975, Banco Agrícola y Pecuario (BAP) was redesigned in an effort to give better coverage to small and larger farmers. Two ins titutions took over its functions: ｉ ｃ ｐ ｾ Ｌ ＠ basically oriented to sma ll and medium farmers and BANDAGRO, created in 1969, dedicat ed to larger producers and food processors.In 1974, FCA (Fondo de Credito Agropecuario) was created to s upply infrastructure and farro machinery credit f or the agricultura! s ector under MAC. I t does not grant direct credits; rather, they are channeled through other institutions .Presently, commercial banks are obliged t o place 22 .5% of their portfolios in farro loans, 17 % t o growers, and 5.5% t o the agroindustry.In 1984 , the government reformed t he banking laws, lifting the repaymen t limit from 5 to 10 years, with 3 years grace. Interest rat es for farmers were reduced from 11.7% to 8.5% at Bandagro. They have been a t 3% for I CAP loans.Credit recovery has a lways been a problem. With the new measures taken, repayment has improved substanti ally to about 90% for commercial growers and 75% for campes inos. Regiona l managers of ICAP offices are now evaluated, among other criteria, on the basis of credit recovery . This brought as a consequence a reduction of l oan s granted to risky crops (such as cassava) and in favor of secure ones (grains). For ｧ ｲ ｡ ｩ ｾ ｳ Ｌ ＠ loans can be recovered at sales time, given the nature of the commerc ializa tion process . For cassava, marketing i s not centrali z ed a t storage points and there is no defined harvesting time . So, the practice of discounting the value of the loan is not viable . Therefore, lenders have absolute ly no control over cassava sales.Even the system to provide credit to small farmers con s titutes a tool to divert Venezuelan agriculture away from its traditiona l crops a nd into the new (ecologically ma l adapted) f ood and feedstuffs.The t otal amount of c r edit directed t o agriculture reached its peak in 197 7 t o drop by almost Bs2,000 million pe r year therea f ter (Table 8) . At the same time , fiscal outlays for agriculture went f r om 8.7% of the total in 19 74 -78 to 6 . 0% in 1979-83 , reflecting changes in priorities tha t coincided with a usterity policies and monetary r estra int.In 1984, major revita lization a ctions for agriculture inc luded : payment of government agricultura! deb t to producers; expanding the availab ility of preferential prívate a nd public bank credit; 50% subsidy on fe rtilizer prices ; increased output prices for a selected set of agricultura! items (cereals, pulses, lives t ock products); andan import-quota syst em t o ensure purchases of domestic production by the food-and feed-processing industry .Crop ins urance i s an added pol icy element designed to attract inves tment into agriculture. In 1980 , Congress creat ed AGROSEGURO with the shareholders being FCA a nd I AN. The insurance covers total or partial losses in r ice , maize , sorghum, cot ton , and peanuts , when they are due to The political and economic forces behind the present import substitution strategy are quite complex. Food processors, which are, for the most, direct i mporters of their own raw material, exhibit a good deal of market power concentration. Th ey exert effecti ve pressures on policy makers to protect their own interests. This has probably been the reason behind an increasing specialization, both in terms of production and consumption, of a few imported items tha t are used as inputs for the local processing firms. Jaffe and Rothman (1977) concluded the fo llowing : \"In general, the terms of interchange are heavily biased in favour of industry, creating a distorted economic s tructure with an increasing economic and technological dependence upon indus trialized countries . The changes in food consumption pattern are clearly part of this comp lex and , therefore, part of the distorted economic structure, which in the final analysis is the basis of underdevelopment.Sorne of the elements defining this implicit food policy, which emerge froro our analysis, are:The change towards high-import content and ecologically maladapt ed foods.The tendency towards manufactured foods incorporating a high degree of industrial processing, e.g., the change from husked maize to pre-cooked maize flour.The trend t owa rds high-cost nutrients, as shown by the increase in meat consumption and the growth of the animal feeds industry, amongst others\" (Jaffe, Rothman) .Cassava production has stagnated in t he country a t about 330 , 000 t ons per year since 1960 and with yields of 8 t /ha in 40 , 000 hectares (Table 9) .Production is highest in the eastern part of the country (Table 10) , and its s ha re has grown within the 1960-85 period due to gains in production in the state of Bolí var and s t able production in the other s tates (BCV, 1974), Consumption of \" casabe\" (a kind of bread made f r om cassava flour) i s quite i mport ant in this regi on .Our survey of 50 producers conducted in Monagas in May 1986 r evealed t hat about one-hal f of the farmer s s urveyed did not u se machinery , one-half of them used intercropping with maize , and fe rtilizer use was mos tly associated with t he presence of maize as we ll as use of o t her chemicals (T able 11). Among the 50 farmers surveyed , the average farm was 23 . 5 hec t a r es and 2.2 hect a res were under cassava . Yields fluctuat e widely from a round 5 t / ha t o over 20 t /ha depending on t echnology and crop managemen t . Analysis of the s urvey is under way now.Except for t he highly mechanized farners , use of purchased inputs in cassava is quite limited . Most farmers plant bitt e r varieties for sale to \" casaberas\" or t o process their own casabe , and they also plant a par cel (up t o one-ha l f a h ect are) of sweet varieties for home consump tion and occasional sales.The s t a t e that produces the most cassava is Zulia, in t he west , with 15 % of t ot al production . This area , as well as the rest of the c ountry , produces sweet varieties as opposed to the eastern section of the country \\.;he re bit ter varie ties are predominant.The Andean states a re also ímp ortant producer s of the r oo t accounting for 31% of the t otal . However , per capita production here is lower due t o l a r ger population conce ntra tion .With r espect to consumption, the re a r e no recent estimat es of cassava use in the country. A 1974 study condu c ted by BCV revealed that about 38% of all cassava i s de s tined t o animal feed , 40% is consumed in fresh forro by humans, 12% i s consumed in the forro of casabe , and the rest, 9% , goes to starch production (Table 12).In the 1965-84 peri od analyzed , per capit a consumption of cassava decreased at an annual rate of 3 . 1%--the shar pest fall among carbohydrate foods . This reduction was accompanied by a 3 . 8% annual increase in its real r etail price--the highest price increase among carbohydrates (Tables 13 and 14) . For Ca racas , the INN 198 1 nutrition s urvey , revealed that cassava is mostly consumed by lower income groups (IV and V) , with an annual per capita consump tion of 8 . 1 kg for the lowest income group (V) , 6 . 2 kg for t he middle-l ow (IV) group and only 3 . 6 kg for the upper-income groups . A miscalculated effort was made in the late seventies t o incorporate cassava into the main stream of agroindustry in Venezuela. The amount of research done with the crop is quite impressive, both at the agronomic level (FONAIAP, UEV, UDO, LUZ, UNELLEZ FUNDATEC, etc.), and at the utilization end (UEV, UDO, Protinal, etc.).In the late seventies cassava was seen as an important alternative in the government import substitution policies. Eleven drying plants were created throughout the country in 1975-80 at a cost of about US$25 million. They were closed as of 1986. Most of them never got off the ground. Careful analysis revealed that soft credit lines were formula ted by the same institutions that sold the machinery, without considering the economic feasibility of success of those plants in terms of location, market expansion, social impact, labor needs, etc. Total installed c apacity for these cassava plants was 250,000 tons or 75% of actual production.Econometric analysis of the demand for fresh cassava. Data from the INN only refers to quantities of products consumed. There is no expenditure information. Therefore, only time-series data were used to calculate the effects of changes in incomes, prices, and urbanization trends on per capita consumption of cassava. The period of analysis chosen covers the years 1965-84.Urban population grew faster than total population at 4.2% per year. Urbanization has a negative implication on cassava demand that goes beyond the effect of causing higher consumer prices due to the obvious increase in marketing costs. Because the root is highly perishable, urbanization presents special difficulties in market access. Effective barriers of entry emerge with the subsequent reduction in competitiveness in the market place. The lower degree of competition converge lower volumes o f trade than would have taken place under a more competitive environment.The model proposed to estímate per capita demand for cassava includes its own real retail price, real retail prices of other carbohydrates, per capita real incomes and total urban population as independent variables.Parameter estimates show that urbanization has had a ma rked negative impact on consumption of fresh cassava in the country. Income did not have a significant effect on its consumption at the aggregate leve! most likely because it is a significant variable at lower income levels (as is the case in Colombia, Indonesia and Brazil, for example) and not significant or even negative at high income levels. So, in the aggregate the income elasticíty is very low, 0.08 (and not signifícantly different from zero, Tables 15 and   16).Per capita consumption of cassava is also quite responsive to prices. The marked growth in íts own príce (at 3.8% per year) had a contractionary effect on íts demand of 0.38% per year (own príce elastícity of 0.10). Substitutíon away from cassava consumption was also caused by wheat and rice prices (cross príce elastícitíes of 0.13 and 0.18). These results confirm that cassava has been discríminated against not only at the supply level, where policies encourage production of ímported food items, but also at the demand level wíth díscríminatory consumer price policies that have affected consumption of this root in favor of an impo rted cereal such as wheat .As we have seen, cassava has been left out of t he main stream of import substitution and agroindustria l policies that have characterized the past three decades of Venezuelan agricultura! development . But cassava 's excellent agroecological adaptation to the different environments of the country make the root an obvious candidat e in the l ong t erm to substitute for i mported, food energy sources in bo th the food-and t he feed-processing indus tries.The obvious impediment at pr esent i s the complex set of polit ical economic forces t hat propitiated a nd maintain the actual state of things . The oligopolies existing in wheat milling and feed manufacturing are a l so heavily involved in the gr a in import business. These interes t groups play a vital r ole in the price and produc tion policy decision-making pr ocess .There are encouraging signs in bot h industries with respect t o utilization of local food items in their processing technologies. The wheat mille rs have experimented with cassava and rice f lour. They will have to use, by l aw , 15% to 20% of rice flour in production of pasta.Wi th respect to feed, Protinal, the largest feed and poultry producer in the country (with 30% of the feed market) has been actively involved in dried cassava r esearch for anima l feed. Fo r the last four years, they have been operating a 100 ha plantation in Mo nagas (eastern part o f the c ountry) where exper iments with mz chanized planting and harvesting are progressing satisfa ctorily . A 250-m drying floor and a Thailand-type chipper , following CIAT's s pecifications , were built t o keep abreast of t he possibilíties in this a rea. The same firm has conduct ed experiment s in a \"Central Yuquero 11 in the eastern part of the country, where artificial drying experiments are being conducted.Protinal thinks that the drying floors have a bright future in t hat regí an of Venezuela where abundant ma rgina l but mechanizable land exists, drying conditions a re excellent (four months of d ry season), and there is a cassava tradit ion tha t goes back several decades. Casabe prices have increased relative to wheat products; it is now more expensive than pasta and bread at around BslO/kg and its consump tion has declined . Dry ing cassava offers an alternative ma r ket for farmers in t hat region .Purina , the second l arges t feed manufacturer has also shown i n terest in dried cassava, following the e xample of its sist e r company in Colombia which has been a ma jor u ser of dried cassava chips produced on the Atlant ic Coast of that neighbor country .Fresh cassava offers also new possibilities to reduce the nega tive i mpact associated wit h t he h igh perishability of the roo t in a rapidly urba nizi ng soci ety . The new technology t o s t ore fresh cassava in pl astic bags and treat it with thiabendazol could have a tremendous impact on r educing r e t ail prices and expanding volumes sent into major urban zones .By 1986, farmers' prices of fresh cassava were around Bs0.75 / kg to Bsl.10/kg while its retail price in Caracas was Bs5.95/kg.The marketing margin seems excessive in a city with excellent roads and with an appropriate wholesale market (Los Coches). Reducing perishability will enable farmers from more distant places to enter the market. Retailers will see their losses cut and they will also be able to négotiate larger volumes at wholesale outlets.Increased market access and lower commercialization losses due to use of the plastic-bag technology should result in sharp reductions in retail prices and markedly higher volumes of cassava being traded in the cities. In a country of high incomes, where food marketing usually conveys a high value-added to the final product, this type of technological innovation has a high chance for success.We turn now to analyze the prospects for cassava demand both as a food itero that competes with other carbohydrates and as a feed source.Carbohydrate foods. Venezuela continues to be dependent on imports for over 50% of basic agricultura! commodities (and perhaps 30% of total food consumption). Food imports (mostly cereals, oilseeds, dairy and their products) boomed after 1973, following the rapid oil price increase (Table 4). In the 1965-84 period of analysis, the highest gains in per capita consumption went to rice at 2.2% per year. Actually, per capita consumption of rice in the 1965-80 period grew atan annual 3.1% accompanied by an equally impressive retail price reduction (in real terms) of 2.1% per year. In the eighties, white rice prices increased rapidly in real terms from Bs1.05/kg to Bs1.45/kg in 1985 (5% broken grains). Accordingly, per capita consumption of rice (paddy equivalent) ｾ Ｑ ･ ｮ ｴ ＠ from 40.0 kg in 1980 to 25.7 kg in 1985.Per capita consumption of all major carbohydrates decreased during the period of recession, 1978-85, except that of wheat, for which a favor able price policy for bread and pasta meant a rapid real retail-price reduction . (Tables 14 and 17).Reductions in the price of rice during the 1965-84 period are the result of the rapid adoption of improved, high-yielding varieties, (HYRV), a process that started in 1959. By 1982 it was estimated that out of 227,000 hectares cultivated with rice, about 200,000 used HYRV (mainly Araure 1) of which 30% was irrigated (M.J. Rosero in Dalrymple). By 1985 area harvested was 148,000 hectares of which 40,000 were irrigated. government credit for nonirrigated rice has been declining. Yields have been increasing in the eighties due to a higher proportion of irrigated rice. They were of 3.2 t/ha in 1985 (USDA Grain and Feed Annual Report).Venezuela has been self-sufficient in rice since the early sixties and sorne exports have been registered of small amounts. Mechanized upland a nd a more intensive irrigated system are the predoroinant methods of cultivation.Industrialization is predoroinant for roilling. Of the 35% resultin g froro roilling, 23% goes to nonfeeding uses at poultry farms, a nd 12% goes Corn consumption is per ca pita terms showed no s igni f icant trend over the 1965-84 period, while the real retail price of ma ize flour increased at 3.3% per year. About 75% of domestic availability goes to the flour-processing industry . The rest goes into feed manufacturing. Apparent per capita disappearance in 1985 was about 30 kg. Corn consumption increases as income level decreases (Hernandez, lESA) . It is a basic staple at low income levels. The maize-processing industry has a high degree of ma r ket-power concentration.Wheat is almost exclusively imported and constitutes a basic dietary source with 21% of the total protein need and 40% of vegetable needs being supplied by it (He rnandez Doc . #1.). Venezuela i mports much , high-priced wheat mostly f r om the United States (UCV Economía). About 90% of the wheat rea ches a second milling phase. Of t his , 59 % goes into bread and pastry , 25% into pasta , 5.5% into cookies, and 10% into domes tic use of wheat flour . Milling i s highly concentrated while pasta and bread processing have lower degrees of market-power concentration.Per capita availability of wheat was around 56 kg in 1985 . Bread consumption increases with income level while pasta shows the opposite trend (Rernandez , lESA).Per capita consumption of fresh carbohydrates shows no significant trend for potatoes and plantains and shows a decrease fo r cassava. Prices of these three items increased in rea l terms . Should present trends continue, the die ts of the Venezuelans will contain even mo re imported wheat, with rice and ma ize having a chance to maintain their s ha res, given the strong government support to producers. Potatoes, cassava, a nd planta i ns will continue t o be replaced due to the consumer pricing policies favoring wheat. Mea t s. The livest ock sector has been ver y dynamic over the past two decades. Its contribution t o GDP has increased , spurred by a fast-growing poultry indus try although pork, beef , and dairy have made i mport ant gains .Per capita consumption of poultry grew in 1965-84 a t an annual 5.9%, pork a t 23%, and beef a t 1. 3% . The faster gr owth for poultry was accompanied by a continued reduction i n its real reta il price a t 2.4% per year, the res ult of the rapid adoption of modern technol ogies (Table 13) .In per capita t e r ms, beef has been surpassed by poultry (16.7 kg ver sus 19.6 kg) and pork i s a distant t hird with 6.2 kg.A rather conservative scenario has been assumed. Per capita real incomes in 1985-2000 will increase at an annual 1. 0%, population will grow at 2.8% per year, and the real retail price of cassava will decrease at an annual 1. 0% while other real prices remain constant.The price fall is based upon the assumption that plastic bags will be gradually adopted. With this t echnology, consumers will pay less, farmers will receive more (Janssen and Wheatley ) because of a significant reduction in waste and marketing costs, and by the formation of stronger markets.Therefore the assumption of a reduction in the cassava retail price rests initially on the implementation of the new storage technology . In such a case the rate of reduction in price could be much higher than the one proposed for this exercise. An additional assumption for projections is that with this technology, commercialization losses of cassava will be reduced from an estimated present level of 25% to 15 % in the fresh market. If there is a parallel development in the drying industry , losses will be reduced to 5% since the additional 10% of cassava that is not suitable f or the fresh market dueto quality problems (small size or broken), and that is currently left on the field, could be utilized by this industry. Therefore, the final effect on additional production requirements will be 20% less due to better crop use .Fresh cassava . The 1984 per capita consumption level of 18.6 kg will increase to 19.1 kg by the year 2000 . The increase in per capita consumption is the result of the own-price decrease (Table 18).Under those circumstances, i mplied cassava production will reach 541,000 tons (over the 331,000 tons produced in 19 84). Again, a 10% waste-reduction equivalent (around US$4 million) is assumed to be associated with the new storage technology. Therefore increments in production for the year 2000 will amount to 156,800 tons, or 15,68 0 additional hectares of production assuming a y ield of 10 t/ha (Table 18).Dry cassava competes with locally produced sorghum, but not with i mported sorghum at t he preferentia l exchange rate (Tables 19 and 20) .Against local sorghum, cassava drying is a profitable alternative for feed manufacturers, entering in the optimal least-cost solutions at 80% of the price of sorghum. Sorghum has a higher protein content and, f or tha t reas on, cas sava must cost less .Therefore, the viability of its production remains subject to policy decisions .Whether cassava is incorporated into the main s tream of import subs titution and feed proces sing will be a political decision depending upon both industry and government willingness to stimulate this promising root. From our time-series demand estimation of pork and poultry in Venezuela (Sanint et al.) we translated those elasticities for projected consumption of those two types of meat for the year 2000 (Table 16).It was assumed that the present ratio of feed going into broilers and layers remains constant (i.e., there will be an equally dynamic demand for eggs, which appears quite reasonable) and that pork and poultry feed will continue to represent 85% of that market (dairy and other u ses will also show important growth; again, a proposition likely occur).For the year 2000 , the model predicted per capita consumption of poultry at 25.2 kg (up from 16.9 kg in 1984), that of pork at 7.9 kg (up from 6.4 kg in 1984) and feed use at 5.7 million tons (from 3 million in 1984) (Table 18).Substituting only 10% of dry-cassava chips into feed formulas for the year 2000, 575,700 tons of dried cassava will be required (that will substitute about US$57 million of coarse grain imports). Ata 2.5 conversion rate of dry to fresh cassava, 1.4 million tons of fresh cassava will be required to meet this requirement and 137,996 additional hectares will have to be cultivated (assuming yields of 10 t/ha, which is rather conservative). The exercise also assumes that 10% of what is produced for fresh cassava consumption can be incorporated into dried cassava, since that proportion is usually left in the ground at harvest time because it will not meet market standards. But those remainings (\"colas\") are perfectly acceptable for drying.Total needs for additional cassava (in both the fresh and feed markets) by the year 2000 will reach 1.5 million tons, using 153,676 additional hectares, and with 34,546 new jobs generated in the process.Venezuela has made considerable efforts to substitute food imports and reduce its level of dependence on foreign suppliers. The food-processing ability of the country has expanded very rapidly but the raw materials demanded contain a high proportion of imports. Wheat is almost one hundre d percent imported, whil e 60% of coars e grains used in feed production are imported. This is in spite of the massive subsidies and price incentives given to farmers of those crops, and the rapid growth in corn and sorghum production.In terms of potential, cassava has much to offer. It is the cheapes t source of energy in the tropics. That undeniable evidence should be put to work. The crop ' s ability to grow under a very wide range of ecosystems and the present low yields, indicate that Venezuela could use many of its unproductive lands to cultivate cassava and achieve substantial productivity gains.The present dilemma of substituting expensive local grains for cheap imported ones and at the same time provide cheap, abundant food to the urban consumer mu s t be broken by means of productivity, rather than area expansion, in arder to keep prices of local products low and competitive.Increasing sorghum and maize yields far beyond their present levels (which are based on heavy use of subsidized fertilizers) is unlikely, but with cassava, it is a different story . Present average country yields of 8 . 0 t /ha are very low. Protinal, under field conditions, obtains 15-20 t/ha. At those levels, cassava becomes a much better alternative than coarse grains in Venezuela.The case of f resh cassava also merits attention. With the introduction of cassava-bagging techniques impressive results can be achieved , as the Colombian experience (Bucaramanga pilot-project) demonstrates.The political and economic forces behind the present import substitution stragety are quite complex. Food processors, which are, for the most, direct importers of their own raw material, exhibit a good deal of market-power concentrtion. They exert effective pressures on policy makers to protect their own interests . This has probably been the reason behind an increasing specialization, both in terms of production and consumption, on a few imported items that are used as inputs for the local processing firms.As sorne of these firms (Protinal , Purina) turn their attention to cassava, the future of this root may be bright in Venezuela .","tokenCount":"6973"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ff9465a88ddb70770d20fdef129f30d2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/067edd23-9306-45bb-b097-6dbc5e4dec97/retrieve","id":"422335754"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d146762-5d48-4c87-bf5f-e9e63678c9df","pagecount":"2","content":"Research conducted on diverse sweetpotato germplasm showed that some genotypes form their roots at the same time, that are of the same maturity (discontinuous storage root formation and bulking) and other continue to form roots over time (continuous root forming), which aligns with the traditional practice of piecemeal harvesting.• The genetic control of these two types is different and their cross combination permitted transgressive segregant progenies, which may form the basis for developing superior varieties.• Molecular markers, as well as putative genes for the two types of growth have been discovered and will serve as foundation knowledge for accelerating breeding for the traits through marker-assisted selection.Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) is an important crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where breeding research is being undertaken to improve varietal adaptation to different environmental conditions, yield and storage root nutritional quality. The ability to continually form storage roots during the course of the growing season and bulking, referred to as continuous storage root formation and bulking (CSRFAB) is a potentially useful aid to breeding, as it aligns with the traditional practice of piecemeal harvesting. Farmers practicing piecemeal harvesting remove the larger roots as they mature, leaving more space behind from the smaller roots to continue to enlarge. Piecemeal harvesting is a practice suited to CSRFAB varieties (Fig. 1) and is recognized as important in SSA. Smit (1997) found that the total yield and undamaged yield for the piecemeal harvesting treatments were comparable to the yields at the optimum harvest times for once-over harvesting at 6-7.5 months after planting. Furthermore, her results indicated that piecemeal harvesting is a practice with a positive controlling effect on weevil infestation.However, due to the manner in which sweetpotato breeding has developed, focused on collecting yield data at a single time harvest, the recognition that this might bias against selecting clones exhibiting CRSFAB has received little attention. This lack of attention to piecemeal harvesting may have led to the release of newly bred sweetpotato varieties that are not widely adopted and/or the continued use low yielding local varieties just because they possess the continuous root formation trait. Furthermore, the genetics underlying CSRFAB traits make them amenable to breeding for sustainable integration of such \"perennials\" into annual-based systems, with complementary parallel breeding and complementary parallel management.Yield is a complex characteristic, yet it is typically the most important breeding objective for all crop types. The desired yield increase, as well as stability, are closely linked to many other breeding objectives, such as cultivation properties, resistance or nutrient efficiency. A desired yield can therefore be achieved in different ways, however, minimizing crop loss while maximizing crop yield are driving key goals. Thus, the specific objectives were: I. to estimate the genetic variability of CSRFAB in sweetpotato cultivars in Uganda;II. to discover genetic markers and associated putative functional genes for CSRFAB trait to speed up sweetpotato improvement; III. to determine the general and specific combining ability of parents, heritability and the components of heterosis of CSRFAB in sweetpotato.Where are we working?We are working at key mega-environments in Uganda with the expectation that our findings, germplasm, and methods will serve not only Uganda, but other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Our breeding efforts (Fig. 2), have been mainly carried out at the National Crops Resources Research","tokenCount":"541"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bf11c6b924ca5091e5e3dd9b05ed0896","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/881af033-75c0-4aca-8249-bf242846cfc0/retrieve","id":"498922598"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b88e446a-27d0-4a59-a198-67c7a970a3ab","pagecount":"8","content":"Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) forman parte de CGIAR, una alianza mundial de investigación para la seguridad alimentaria en el futuro.Bioversity International es el nombre operativo del Instituto Internacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos (IPGRI, sus siglas en inglés).Un nuevo hogar para la conservación de los cultivos más importantes de la humanidad en la Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) |Para lograrlo, la Alianza está construyendo un banco de germoplasma de última tecnología, específicamente diseñado para conservar y distribuir colecciones de cultivos vitales, como frijol, yuca, forrajes y sus parientes silvestres e identificar en ellos cualidades únicas, y a menudo aún desconocidas, relacionadas con la resiliencia al clima y la nutrición.• Conservarán y distribuirán colecciones de cultivos vitales.• Desarrollarán variedades mejoradas para las poblaciones más vulnerables del mundo.• Educarán al público sobre la importancia de la diversidad de los cultivos en nuestras vidas y fortalecerán la capacidad científica para la conservación. Los cultivos de los que depende la sobrevivencia actual de la humanidad provienen de una gran diversidad de plantas silvestres y variedades de cultivos que han evolucionado a lo largo de miles de años y han sido cruzadas por la naturaleza, agricultores y científicos. Dicha diversidad es un reservorio invaluable que puede ayudarnos a adaptar los cultivos actuales a los desafíos que presenta el cambio climático, la degradación ambiental y las demandas de alimento para una población mundial que crece rápidamente.Sin embargo, solo en el siglo pasado, las prácticas agrarias, la deforestación y la contaminación destruyeron muchos de los hábitats de dichos cultivos silvestres. La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) estima que entre los años 1900 y 2000, se perdió el 75 % de la diversidad de los cultivos y un tercio de la diversidad actual se encuentra en riesgo de desaparecer para el año 2050. 1 Asimismo, se encontró que más del 90 % de las variedades de los cultivos han desaparecido de los campos de los agricultores durante el siglo pasado. 2Puesto que la diversidad está disminuyendo a un ritmo acelerado, la necesidad de recolectar, preservar y compartir los fundamentos biológicos de nuestro suministro alimentario mundial es imprescindible, si queremos garantizar un futuro resiliente al clima y la seguridad alimentaria de las próximas generaciones.Un edificio con un diseño icónico y eficiencia energética, con radiación solar, energía solar, control térmico, ventilación natural y cosecha de agua de lluvia para que el edificio en sí transmita un firme mensaje al público sobre la importancia vital de la sostenibilidad ambiental.Conservación de ejemplares en bóvedas de almacenamiento a muy bajas temperaturas, con capacidad para preservar alrededor de 250.000 semillas.Distribución de semillas tanto de las colecciones físicas como de colecciones genéticas digitales que almacenan la diversidad genética de manera más completa y permiten a la Alianza compartir información con todo el mundo. El actual banco de germoplasma de la Alianza, que se encuentra en Cali, Colombia, salvaguarda la colección más grande del mundo de frijol (37.937 ejemplares), yuca (6643 ejemplares) y forrajes tropicales (23.140 ejemplares), muchos de los cuales ya no se encuentran en los campos de los agricultores ni en la naturaleza.Estas instalaciones tienen más de 45 años y originalmente se construyeron como una planta de procesamiento de carne. Si queremos alcanzar nuestros objetivos de conservar la biodiversidad y asegurar que nuestras variedades de cultivos se preserven y se encuentren disponibles para fitomejoradores y agricultores de todo el mundo, debemos invertir en nuevas instalaciones específicamente diseñadas para dicho propósito.El huracán Mitch fue el peor desastre natural que afectara Centroamérica en el siglo pasado y el sector agropecuario de Honduras y Nicaragua soportaron las peores consecuencias de la tormenta. Los expertos estiman que el huracán destruyó hasta un 70 por ciento de los cultivos alimenticios básicos de los países.Tras el desastre, el banco de germoplasma de la Alianza en Palmira fue fundamental en la provisión de reservas de semillas de variedades locales de frijol que se perdieron con el huracán a agricultores de Honduras y Nicaragua, ayudando a recuperar la producción y garantizar la seguridad alimentaria interna, además de reestablecer la diversidad de los cultivos.Con el fin de cumplir con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), en particular el Objetivo 2, de \"poner fin al hambre, lograr la seguridad alimentaria y la mejora de la nutrición y promover la agricultura sostenible\", la Meta 2.5 requiere 4 :La lucha por acabar con el hambre es uno de los mayores retos que enfrenta el mundo en estos momentos. Miles de especies interconectadas forman una red vital de biodiversidad dentro de los ecosistemas de los que depende la producción mundial de alimentos. La pérdida de la diversidad de los cultivos se traduce en que la humanidad se basa en un reducido número de cultivos clave y, en consecuencia, se encuentra más expuesta a la pérdida de las cosechas debido a plagas, enfermedades y fenómenos meteorológicos extremos.Los pronósticos de la reducción de los rendimientos de cultivos básicos indica que el cambio climático ejercerá una presión sin precedentes sobre nuestra capacidad de cultivar los alimentos que necesitamos. Por tanto, es esencial adaptar la agricultura a estas condiciones futuras. El desarrollo de variedades de cultivos que puedan hacer frente a mayores temperaturas, sequías e inundaciones, así como a plagas y enfermedades, bien puede ser el paso más importante que podemos dar para adaptarnos al cambio climático.The loss of biodiversity is one of today's most serious environmental concerns. Among the threatened species are the wild relatives of our crops -species that could help us breed future crop varieties with less impact on the environment. For example, new forage grasses bred at the Alliance for more sustainable livestock production offer tremendous possibilities to reduce nitrous oxide emissions and the leaching of polluting nitrates into water supplies, while also raising crop yields through more efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer.Semillas del Futuro: protegiendo el alimento del mundo ¿Por qué la Alianza?La Alianza de Bioversity International y CIAT brinda soluciones científicas que aprovechan la biodiversidad agrícola y transforman los sistemas alimentarios de manera sostenible para mejorar la vida de las personas ante una crisis climática.La Alianza se centra en el nexo entre agricultura, medio ambiente y nutrición. Trabajamos con socios locales, nacionales y multinacionales en África, Asia, América Latina y el Caribe, con el sector público y privado y con la sociedad civil. Con nuevas colaboraciones, la Alianza genera evidencia e incorpora innovaciones para transformar los sistemas alimentarios y los paisajes, para el sustento del planeta, impulsar la prosperidad y nutrir a las personas.La Alianza forma parte de CGIAR, la mayor alianza mundial de investigación agrícola e innovación para la seguridad alimentaria futura, dedicada a reducir la pobreza, fomentar la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición y mejorar los recursos naturales.La construcción está completa en un 88% (fotos tomadas en abril 2021).El banco de germoplasma en Colombia ha distribuido más de 200.000 ejemplares a más de 135 países.El costo total de las instalaciones es de US$17.2 millones. La Alianza ha recibido generosos aportes del Gobierno de Colombia y del Gobierno del Reino Unido, así como de socios nacionales e internacionales, y además ha aportado recursos propios.La Alianza busca otras fuentes de financiamiento para hacer realidad nuestra visión de un nuevo hogar para la biodiversidad en Colombia.Por favor, únase a nosotros en la culminación de la construcción de Semillas del Futuro y salvaguardar la diversidad de los cultivos del mundo para asegurar un futuro resiliente al clima y la seguridad alimentaria de las próximas generaciones.","tokenCount":"1246"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7176133393.json b/data/part_2/7176133393.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"30df79774ae1aa0f96ac11045a21ea5c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5090c5af-b80f-4ef8-8974-e175b21dbe17/retrieve","id":"-1503659289"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f3914443-d9e9-435f-9ed1-16cfda0f5b23","pagecount":"20","content":"The term laboratory (lab) refers to both: a place dedicated to work (labor in Latin), to manufacture something and a place dedicated to scientific experimentation. Thus, the expression \"learning lab\" refers to both practice (to create something) and research (to experiment something) about learning. Within this context, a learning lab can be understood in its broad sense as a location of multi-stakeholder engagement created within a geographical area to test the context-specific innovation bundles.Climate change has major implications for food security and the livelihood of smallholder farmers, especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is so in spite of the technical and technological innovations in agri-food systems over the past few decades which not only aimed to boost productivity but also be more climate smart. Evidence also suggests that the impact of climate change is not gender neutral (UN Women 2022). Recent studies reveal that many sustainable agricultural technologies remain out of the reach of women, especially those from most marginalized communities, not only due to prevalent gendered social norms but also because women are not considered a 'target group' while designing these technologies (Nelson and Huyer 2016;Terefe and Williams 2021). Therefore, women in the global south seem to have a lower uptake of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies. Barret et al. (2022) argue that all innovations have to be combinatorial bundles of technical, technological and other social and behavioral innovations in order to be transformative. However, while the authors appreciate the need for a careful understanding of the context for bundling social and technical innovations, they do not dwell on gender and social equity aspects. This shows the lack of relevant methods and tools that could help design gender-responsive Socio-Technical Innovative Bundles (STIBs) for more equitable and sustainable impacts.The CGIAR's Gender Equality initiative (HER+: Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agri-food Systems) aims to achieve climate resilience by strengthening gender equality and social inclusion in food systems of the Global South. Together with partners, the initiative envisages to support women to increase their agency, and acquire and gain control over resources, which would facilitate their path towards empowerment and help them adapt to climate change-related shocks and stresses in the future.The initiative works in four areas of gender inequalities in the agri-food system: access to resources, women's agency, social norms and policies and governance. The work on these four areas is further divided into four work packages. The Work Package titled 'Empower' specifically focuses on co-creating gender-responsive, context-specific bundles of social, technical, technological, economic and policy innovations that enable women farmers to become more resilient in the face of climate change and gain agency. These bundles will be piloted through multistakeholder learning labs 1 in India, Ethiopia and Kenya.A two-day stakeholder consultation workshop on 'Bundling socio-technical innovations to empower women as partners and drivers of climate change solutions' was held in Kolkata, West Bengal, 18-19 July 2023. A collaborative endeavor between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), it aimed to understand the context, challenges women face in their small ruminant and poultry enterprises and to identify innovations that would enhance the resilience of their enterprises and livelihoods. This was a prelude to setting up learning laboratories in two locations in West Bengal, focusing on women livestock rearers, especially small livestock. The labs will build on IVRI's current activities that support farmers through technological and technical inputs as mandated by the Indian Government's schemes, Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP).HER+ aims to bundle some ongoing interventions with social innovations to understand if such a combinatorial exercise contributes to increased empowerment and resilience of women livestock keepers, especially within the context of climate change. Small livestock are important for poor farmers in their pathways out of poverty (IFAD, 2020). They also specifically contribute to women's empowerment, especially the most marginalized ones (IFAD, 2020) To gain preliminary insights into the socio-cultural and economic context of the learning labs locations, the team conducted field visits in the districts of South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas. These sites were selected by key partners because of the strong presence of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes. The field visits provided a better understanding of the region and its people, the SCSP and TSP schemes of the Government of India and how they benefit farmers. Further, it helped identify stakeholders who could play a crucial role in providing context-relevant insights in designing STIBs for the learning labs to be set up.The main objectives of the workshop were:• To identify social and technical innovations (including indigenous knowledge, skills and technologies) to be implemented at the learning lab locations. were invited to the workshop. Women farmers from the two districts also participated in the workshop. A list of participants is provided in Annex 1.The two-day workshop started with an introductory note from Dr. Triveni Dutt, Director, ICAR-IVRI, who underlined the need to delve into issues of gender disparity while trying to reduce economic inequality among farmers, especially in the livestock sector.Following this, Dr. Ranjitha Puskur, Lead, Work Package 'Empower', explained the rationale and proposed activities of the work package. She elaborated on the unique challenges that women in agri-food systems face due to limited access to resources and opportunities, which are a consequence of deeply entrenched gendered social norms, especially in the context of rapid climate change.Plate 1: Dr. Ranjitha Puskur introducing the participants to the CGIAR's Gender Equality (HER+) Initiative and the Work Package 'Empower'.Dr. Puskur spoke about the low uptake of climate smart agricultural technology innovations by women due mostly to the lack of access, and also pointed out that there were very few impact or outcome assessments of these technologies and evidence on whether they benefit women. Warning against viewing technology as a magic bullet, she proposed that they should instead be Plate 2: Dr. Mahesh Chander providing opening remarks.This was followed by a note from Dr. P. Banerjee, Station in charge of the Eastern Regional Station (ERS), ICAR-IVRI, on the extension activities being carried out by the station as part of SCSP, TSP and the farmer's first project that target resource-poor and marginalized farmers. He explained how extension workers in West Bengal try to reach out to women of the targetedcommunities since they are the ones doubly marginalized, and that the CGIAR's Gender Equality initiative was well positioned within the existing projects.A detailed agenda of the workshop is provided in Annex 2. Outlining the challenges and prioritizing solutionsA series of brainstorming activities followed the opening session. Participants were split into two groups to jointly reflect on the challenges encountered in livestock farming, especially with a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) lens. Five groups were constituted --two each of farmers and researchers and another of NGO practitioners to discuss their day-to-day experiences in the livestock sector.Following are the key highlights from the plenary presentations and discussions.Sharing their concerns, the women farmers from Balarampur village in Sonarpur block of South 24 Parganas district revealed their inability to increase poultry holdings due to the acute space crunch on the homestead. Women in this location mostly belong to families with very limited agricultural land; hence they try to supplement the family's income through backyard poultry.The men mostly work as daily wage labour in the informal sector in Kolkata and its outskirts.However, they described how poultry rearing had helped them gain financial independence, albeit with limited options to diversify the variety of birds within their present holding. The high cost of buying poultry feed also forces them to restrict the number of birds that they can maintain. They also revealed how their flood-prone village needs elevated spaces to be constructed for poultry to be kept during such disasters.The women farmers acknowledged the support from extension staff affiliated with the IVRI, in the form of receiving inputs like chickens, ducks and turkey They have also been trained to vaccinate their own birds by the IVRI extension staff and many women now do it on their own. That they are open to innovations was demonstrated by the fact that they have made their own bird feed from leftover food, which has in turn helped reduce their dependence on market-procured feed.The discussions highlighted how women aspire to increase their poultry holdings to improve their economic condition. They specifically expressed the desire to expand their turkey enterprise, which they felt would be remunerative and help increase their household income. The women also reflected on how poultry rearing had increased their agency within the household, and felt that greater participation in training and capacity building programs would build their self confidence and open up better opportunities for them. The second group of women farmers from Berabaria village in Aamdanga block of North 24 Parganas spoke of a different set of challenges. Here, women mostly belong to families with access to small pieces of agricultural land, growing jute. However, with jute production becoming increasingly difficult due to unpredictable rainfall and high pest infestation, many families are investing more in rearing livestock (cows, goats and poultry), depending on their economic status and the size of their homestead.The women in this group mostly spoke about the challenges faced with rearing goats due to diminishing grazing land. They cited incidents of predator attacks on goats in open grazing. Goat keeping is becoming a costly enterprise, since they have to stall feed them but do not get a good price for the meat or milk. They shared their experiences from early 2023, when high temperatures impacted stock health and finding proper medical treatment for them was a challenge.Women did maintain that some of the villagers were being supported by ICAR-Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibres (CRIJAF) through training on poultry rearing and making value-added products from jute. However, they were keen on getting trained in vaccinating their animals in order to reduce the dependence on government-appointed Prani-Mitras (friends of animals) who only visit the village when there are a substantial number of animals to be vaccinated. ii. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)Participants representing NGOs working in the region spoke primarily about the problems they witness while working with women livestock rearers, especially those who maintain goats. They observed an increasing trend of male outmigration, increasing the work burden of women. One of the major hindrances to successful goat farming mentioned related to decreasing grazing land, which reduces the availability of fodder as well as increases the chances of in-breeding.The group also pointed out how women living near forests could continue grazing their goats in open areas, which was not the case for those living in the periphery of the city. Hence, many farmers now have to depend on stall feeders, leading to a high investment cost.The group also mentioned that farmers medicate their ruminants based on informal knowledge gained from local shopkeepers, which has harmful impacts on animal health resulting in a high mortality rate. The lack of a cold chain that led to animals often receiving expired vaccines was also mentioned as a major problem. This not only increases the chances of health complications but also results in high vaccine hesitancy among farmers.The group of researchers representing a range of ICAR and non-ICAR institutes spoke about the challenges women experience while rearing livestock, including how climate change is increasing the occurrence of epidemic-like outbreaks of diseases among livestock. In small ruminants, the challenges related to a decline in grazing area, improper understanding of vaccination cycles and the conservation of good breeds. The non-availability of good quality backyard poultry germplasm, resulting in low productivity, was mentioned as a hurdle in poultry rearing. While acknowledging the multiplier effect of backyard poultry, the researchers agreed that most often women lack technical knowledge about maintaining the birds, leading to the birds catching disease fast and a very high mortality rate. This often makes poultry rearing a non-viable primary livelihood option for women farmers.This group activity paved the way for discussing possible solutions. To facilitate this discussion, the two farmer groups were asked to choose one livestock species each based on their interest, and brainstorm possible solutions to the problems raised. The group from South 24 Parganas chose poultry with a focus on turkey rearing, while the one from North 24 Parganas picked poultry and goats. The researcher's group and the NGO workers then followed these preferences and highlighted some specific solutions to mitigate these challenges. Highlights of the discussions from this group activity are summarized in Table 1.Table 1: Challenges in small livestock rearing and possible solutions.Lack of access to markets and an unclear understanding of the demand for the commodity (in the case of turkeys)• Increase meat storage and processing capabilities among local women • Form women's groups specific to these commodities to improve collective bargaining power and bring in economies of scale in marketing • Reduce the dependence on middlemen as far as possible to increase margins for the producers • Research on demand and markets for turkey and tap less explored markets Climate change-specific challenges (extreme weather, unexpected rains, etc)• Real time forecasting and forewarning systems needed From the discussions, it was clear that the solutions provided were a mix of technical, technological and social in nature. The discussions served as an interesting transition to the second day's conversation on prioritizing and bundling innovations.The women farmers could not stay for day 2 of the workshop and had to head back to their villages. The other participants were split into two groups based on their geographical familiarity with South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas. They were tasked with discussing the specific location for the learning lab in the district, potential set of interventions that could be bundled and a list of stakeholders whose participation is essential to implement activities in the learning labs.The group discussion was followed by a plenary of feedback presentations.Balarampur in Sonarpur block in South 24 Parganas was considered to be an appropriate location for the learning lab given the strong presence of IVRI extension activity in the area. The learning lab will be unique since farmers here are primarily landless and have access to no other agricultural livelihood options. Further, the women mostly belong to the socially marginalized Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.The group unanimously decided that poultry should be the focus of the learning lab. There was considerable discussion on whether and how turkey rearing could become a viable livelihood option for the women of Balarampur, since they had shown great interest in it. The economic benefit that accrued from raising turkeys in a single season served as an incentive for them to gain more out of the enterprise. However, since not much research seems to have been done around the market demand for turkeys, the group underlined the need to understand the turkey value chain in West Bengal. The group highlighted the need to create a low-cost feed mill in the village to reduce the cost of buying feed. This should be accompanied by training on how to use it.There was also a suggestion to link women to markets through digital means, and to tap into the Bangladesh market in due course.The group identified key stakeholders who should be part of the learning lab, including the state livestock department, financial institutions and local NGOs (see Table 2 for details).In North 24 Parganas, Farmania-Makaltala village in Habra I block was chosen as a location for the learning lab. Scheduled Tribes (ST) constitute most of the population in the twin villages and the focus commodities identified were pigs and poultry.The group identified a distinct set of social and technical innovations. They highlighted the need to form women's collectives around livestock rearing and to build on the already established Self-help groups (SHGs) in the village. This would help women farmers increase their agency and bargaining capacity in accessing resources and the market. The training of lead women farmers, establishing a 'community information hub' led by them and documenting local coping mechanisms to climate change were also mooted. They further highlighted the need of involving male members of the household to be allies and partners in this process.Technical innovations like providing access to improved breeds of pigs and poultry and feed, along with technical training on vaccination and disease management are critical (see Stakeholder mappingIn the following session, representatives of various organizations presented their work and how they could contribute to the project. The highlights are provided in Table 3.Table 3: Stakeholders and potential collaborations.• Sattva provides consultancy services to non-profits and helps execute their projects efficiently through research-driven advisory services, including the setting up of monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the impact of development projects. • Sattva will be the Concurrent Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (CMEL) partner for this initiative.Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN)• PRADAN has pioneered the model of organizing women into self-help groups and enabling them to gain access to the market. It has also been in the forefront of creating goat and backyard poultry models. • PRADAN does not work directly in the region, but offered support.• SEVA is a not-for-profit organization that has been working for community development with a focus on health, sanitation, sustainable agriculture, education and women's empowerment over the last three decades. • The NGO has considerable presence in the village in North 24 Parganas district identified for setting up the learning lab.• Some of the university faculty members have experience in conducting social network analysis (SNA) in villages around the Sundarbans region of South 24 Parganas district. • This expertise can be useful to identify women farmers of influence in the learning lab sites, who can then be trained to become lead farmers in the learning lab sites.• Digital Green is a not-for-profit helping rural farmers gain better access to the digital space.The organization has created 'digital solutions' for rural communities across the world. Over 75% of the farmers they have reached are women. • Though Digital Green is not currently in West Bengal, they can provide digital solutions to local NGO partners working in the field.Bharatiya Jana Seba Mission The way forwardThe workshop ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Puskur, who highlighted the key steps that would follow.• The list of interventions suggested by the stakeholders will be used to narrow down the best-suited bundles for each learning lab. • Key stakeholders will be identified to play a pivotal role in setting up the multistakeholder learning labs. • A comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning system will be set up with the help of the Sattva team.The workshop shed light on the real life experiences of women raising small livestock in two of the most climate vulnerable regions of West Bengal. The interactive sessions brought together researchers, NGO workers and farmers on the same platform and reinforced the need for greater interactions between them rather than operating in silos. Setting up learning labs could be a great way to operationalize this as it would provide an opportunity for diverse stakeholders to come together and learn from each other.The key takeaways from the workshop can be summarized as follows:• Bringing women farmers to the centre stage and hearing their voices is integral to the co-designing of STIBs • Bundling of innovations would be a reflexive process, with scope for new interventions and collaborations as it evolves over time • Farmer's livelihood systems are complex and cannot be restricted to one commodity or species. The initiative should be mindful of this while bundling innovations. • The learning labs would need close collaboration with both state and central government institutions to facilitate their smooth functioning.Annex 1: List of participants. ","tokenCount":"3255"}
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' 1;>1':S'ca~ty):a'~m~e.nlto.sPS~jii};.ie;u$J~¡iro~ll: cción.agric9Ia ; .de. .la r' ~r)r.Q9~iliyiélá de..)os'&cÍl;so~ qu;. aU~ • sim!#1á e. ,!I~e.nt~ la,¡; yre.s¡one.s ov'\"\",\",o y de.fInérf aé;!Q l~pues fá s alas~e.cólegías l!liÍs frágile.s. . -o 001 en~~tátllo, se deben considerar las in ,elaCIones que existen un.á'U¡.:an diversidad de elemen -.J' Ilve es igualmente variados. :....~ntreellos se cuentan genes que<goDlernan las caracterfBtiC88 de los __ -~Cultivos; las relacio es de las plantas con el suelo que las nutre y con las plagas ue las atacan; las interacciones entre los diferentes cultivos y las parcelas )\\ tierras de una finea; la relación entre diversas áreas un ecosistema; las interrelaciones económicas que su¡gencen as fmeas, en los países, y también en el mundo; y finalmente los m .,.,., '; políticos, y decisorios en que se desenvuelven los elementos . sostenibilidad de las estructuras y fun o• \" en nivelea puede depender d lo qut: ocurra e Una División que Investiga el Manejo de los RecursosEn su afán por mejorar el uso de los recursos agrícolas de la América tropical, el CIAT estableció una División de Investigación del Manejo de los Recursos, la cual se ocupa de armonizar la producción agrícola con la preservación duradera de los recursos básicos.L/1 labor de esta nueva División consiste en .;aracterizar agroecologías; en analizar estrategias para el uso de las tierras; en investigar las relaciones entre los suelos, el agua y la nutrición de las plantas; en generar tecnologías agro-silvopastoriles para integrarlas a sistemas de producci6n y -ie uso de las tierras; y en analizar las relaciones que surgen entre las políticas y las decisiones de los agricultores.El principal producto de esta División son opciones para el uso de las tierras del trópico americano. Tales opciones permitirán que la agricultura dé, en diversas circunstancias, beneficios óptimos para la sociedad toda, y que concilie las fuerzas contendientes orientadas por el interés de aumentar, por un lado, la producción agrícola, y de conservar, por el otro, los recursos naturales.• .Un Programa que Investiga el Uso de las Tierras, y Tres Programas AgroecológicosLa División de Investigación del Manejo de los Recursos consta de cuatro programas: tres agroecológicos y uno sobre el uso de las tierras.Los programas agroecológicos concentran sus esfuerzos en los márgenes de bosques del trópico húmedo, en las laderas tropicales de altitud media, y en las sabanas de suelos ácidos. Estos programas investigan los procesos físicos y biológicos que sustentan la perdurabilidad de la producción agropecuaria, en niveles de estudio que abarcan desde las interacciones suelo-planta, hasta los sistemas agropecuarios y las cuencas hidrográficas. Tamblén estudian la respuesta de los agricult\",'e8 a las fuerzas del mercado, a las presiones sociales, y a las políticas. Asimismo, con la participación continua de los agricultores, diseñan o adaptan tecnologías de producción que sean socialmente, ecológicamente y económicamente viables.El programa sobre el uso de las tierras inves\\.'e\\'\" las relaciones que existen entre las políticas y las estrategias adoptadas para el uso de las tierras, así como los efectos de las primeras sobre la producción agrícola, los recursos y el ambiente.Los conocimientos generados en los cuatro programas convergen en el diseño de sistemas de uso de las tierras, que armonizarán los tres objetivos-potencialmente en conflicto-de lograr crecimiento económico con equidad social y preservando los recursos y el ambiente.El desarrollo del gennoplasma de frijol y habichuela, de yuca, de arroz, y de forrajeras tropicales-es decir, la actividad más tradicional del CIAT-tomó un rumbo nuevo. En efecto, profundiza en la caracterización y transfonnación de la estructura genética de estas plantas y cultivos a nivel molecular, y desentraña la regulación y la expresión de los mecanismos de resistencia a las enfermedades o de la adaptación a los suelos infértHns y a la sequía.Estas investigaciones están vinculadas estrechamente con las del manejo de los recursos. A esta área suministran, por un lado, el gennoplasma y la experiencia acumulada en más de 20 años de trabajo, y reciben de ella, por el otro, infonnación sobre el desempeño del gennoplasma y sobre la necesidad de desarrollar nuevos materiales genéticos 'sobre medida\", que se ajusten a sistemas de uso de las tierras a la vez productivos y ambientalmente sanos.Dada la complejidad de la investigación que se requiere para llegar a una agricultura sostenible-especialmente por la diversidad de niveles dentro de los sistemas agroecológicos (nivel de planta, de cultivo, de finca, de cuenca, agroecológico, político, etc.), que deben estudiarse e integrarse en ella-ninguna institución podrá, por si sola, abarcar un conjunto tan vasto. Por el contrario, se requiere la conjunción de muchas instituciones, mutuamente complementarias, para llevar a cabo las ambiciosas pero ineludibles tareas que cor al desarrollo agrfcc aüstenible.Se necesitan, por tanto, mecanismos que promuevan la colaboración, en pos de objetivos comunes, entre organizaciones de investigación avanzada; centros y organismos nacionales, regionales e internacionales de investigación agricola; la empresa privada; organizaciones no gubernamentales; instituciones que manejan los recursos; y organizaciones de agricultores.Para atender estas necesidades, el CIAT, con voluntad de agente convocador, catalizador y facilitador, decidió ofrecerse como una base para la convergencia internacional; en ella podrán confluir los esfuerzos interinstitucionales de investigación para organizarse como redes, consorcios o proyectos colaborativos.La investigación del manejo de los recurSos naturales debe circunscribirse necesariamente a regiones agroecológicas específicas; por ello, las actividades del CIAT en este campo se concentran en América tropical.La investigación estratégica orientada al desarrollo del germoplasma, en cambio, no está limitada por peculiaridades ecológicas regionales. Consecuentemente, la responsabilidad que tiene el CIA T de desarrollar el germoplasma del frijol y de la yuca, así como el de los forrajes tropicales, al¡arca el mundo entero.Por razones prácticas, sin embargo, las actividades de desarrollo del germop)ssffia en ciertas regiones se delegan en otros centros internacionales. Asi, el apoyo que da el CIAT en Mrica al mejoramiento de la yuca y de las forrajeras .Agricultura Tropical (lITA) y el Centro Internacional de Ganaderia para Mrica OLCA). En forma similar, el desarrollo del germoplasma de arroz que se hace en el CIAT para América Latina es coordinado por este Centro y por el Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre el Arroz (IRRIl. el cual tiene la responsabilidad mundial de esta actividad. ","tokenCount":"1037"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"93cb1411b10c13914374780a614b4796","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc824b5d-7791-4351-ae69-cc307a3be44c/retrieve","id":"-1774480552"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"430b5d6b-138d-457a-a8ee-bf01bacf1095","pagecount":"27","content":"First and foremost I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisors; Assistant professor Dr. ir. Jeroen Groot of Farming System Ecology, Wageningen University and Birthe Paul PhD fellow researcher at CIAT-Kenya and Wageningen University. Jeroen, thank you so much for facilitating the possibility of having this internship with CIAT and your support to complete this internship. Birthe, thank you for guiding me through all the work and advice during the whole internship period. I would also like to give special thanks to Stephanie a post-doctoral researcher and Carl a graduate assistant at Farming System Ecology group (FSE), Wageningen University and Celine a consultant at CIAT-Kenya thank you so much for all professional supports and cooperation to make all this possible. Thank you all.vThis is an academic report that was written in fulfilment of the academic requirements pertaining to guidelines for an internship in the Farming Systems Ecology at Wageningen University and Research Center, The Netherlands. This internship was carried out in the Farming Systems Ecology Group using an Africa RISING (AR) dataset for Babati, Tanzania. It was a four-month full-time internship (November 2014to March 2015).The aim of the internship was to generate a feed based farm typology and to model selected farms to evaluate the potential impacts of improved livestock feeding scenarios on whole farm performance. Tasks performed during the internship include: Farm typology generation using multivariate analysis of the rapid characterization survey AR Babati dataset. Selection of farms representing the identified feed based farm types from nine detailed characterised farms and the entire AR dataset  Configure the current situation of three farms and implement improved livestock feeding scenarios. Model-based evaluation and impact analysis of improved livestock feeding scenarios.A large variation among the smallholder farmers in farm size, livestock feeding and management and feed resource availability was observed in Babati, Tanzania. The farms were grouped into six feed based farm types: (Type 1) Small farm with small livestock herd, (Type 2) Small farm with medium livestock herd and high inputs, (Type 3) Intermediate farm with large livestock herd, (Type 4) Small farm specialized in small ruminants, (Type 5) Intermediate farm specialized in dairy, and (Type 6) Large farm with large livestock herd. The cluster analysis was made on the basis of household resource endowment and livestock feeding management: (i) household wealth indicators and feed resource availability (livestock size, farmland area, and crop residue (cereal, legume and other residue) allocation); (ii) poultry ownership and livestock grazing time (number of poultry and time the animal spent on grazing); (iii) improved cattle and poultry ownership (number of improved cattle and poultry), (iv) small ruminant ownership and supplementation (number of small ruminant and amount of purchased concentrate supplement), and (v) labour hours and supplementation (labour hour spent on the animal and the amount of purchased concentrate supplement).The bio-economic model FarmDESIGN was used to analyse the current farm configurations and two improved livestock feeding scenarios for the three selected farms representing the common farm types: Type 1, 3 and 4 constituting 38, 41 and 9% of total farms, respectively. Improved forage (Napier Grass and Desmodium) and purchased concentrate supplement based improved livestock feeding scenarios were implemented for each farm. In the model based entry point identification and evaluation we have only tried to give insight on the potential impacts of the new feed components included into the farming system with regards to: soil organic matter balance, soil nitrogen availability, and feed value and greenhouse gas emission. The evaluation showed potential improvement: increased organic matter balance, amount of nitrogen available to the crop and animals and decreased N in soil losses (in the second scenario). However, minor increase in greenhouse gas emission intensity per litter of milk has been observed, which is due to the low milk yield considered in all the scenarios with the improved feed value, that the same level of milk production is considered in all the scenarios and the base line. Thus with improved milk yield greenhouse gas emission intensity per litter of milk vi will potentially decrease. From this analysis, further detailed analysis and multi-objective optimization modelling would be suggested considering crop and livestock exploration.Crop-livestock mixed farming systems are the mainstay of smallholder agriculture in Tanzania. Babati in Tanzania represents agro-ecologies and crop-livestock systems that represent diverse environments in the region. Smallholders are diverse in their farm resource endowment and allocation; crop and livestock management; farmers' production objectives, long-term aspirations and risk attitudes (Tittonell et al. 2007). Farm typologies aim at meaningful groupings of farms into subsets, homogenous according to specific criteria (Anderson et al., 2007) which can be used for technology targeting. Creating feed based typologies attempts for a meaningful compromise between analysing every single farm and assuming broad categories such as smallholders in general. The feed based farm typology is aimed to consider smallholders diversity in livestock feeding strategies which could be a base in developing feeding scenarios.Farm typologies can be structural (related to household wealth categories) and functional typologies that attempt to simplify household strategies based on livelihoods, resources, and production objectives. Different approaches can be used to construct farm typologies, such as qualitative, participatory, expert based and quantitative typologies (Alvarez et al., 2014). However, the quantitative approach is used in this study. The quantitative approach is complemented with the expert knowledge-based approach contributing to the scientific standards (accuracy, reproducibility) and considering interests and perceptions of the stakeholders. Quantitative typologies are constructed based on surveys and multivariate statistics and cluster analysis, whereas the expert knowledge typologies are defined by stakeholders (Giller et al., 2011).In Babati livestock is kept on farmlands and is fed different crop residues from cereals, (maize, rice and sorghum), legumes (bean, pigeon pea and lablab) and sunflower. Off-farm grazing and cut and carry system were also practiced by some farmers in the area. There are variability's in availability and allocation of feed resource and livestock feeding management practice among smallholder farmers in the Babati district. Consequently, this study aims to understand the feed based farm diversity and implement and evaluate the impacts of improved livestock feeding options.The study was designed with two main objectives; 1) to generate a feed-based farm typology for Babati that will assist in a) selection of representative farms for ex-ante impact assessment of technologies; b) targeting of livestock feeding interventions to appropriate farming systems; c) determining the scaling out potential for dissemination of technologies at larger scales; 2) to analyse the impact of improved livestock feeding at whole farm level to assist the implementation of improved livestock feeding scenarios.1. Is there feed based diversity among smallholder farming systems in Babati, Tanzania? The relative use of different feed resources determines the type of feeding system in place;2. Do the farm types correspond to the particular intensification level? Which factors describe each type and intensification level regarding inputs and resource allocation? Each farm type corresponds to a certain technology package in terms of livestock husbandry; 3. What are the impacts of improved livestock feeding scenarios at the whole farm level?  The different improved livestock feeding scenarios has impacted the whole farm differently;4.1.The potential multi-dimensional impacts analysis of improved livestock feeding scenario analysis worked in the following framework (Figure 4.1.1), the activity started with a functional typology construction from the dataset gathered through rapid characterization exercise. This was followed by a more detailed farming system description, allowing complete farming system diagnosis of selected farms. The information will be then synthesized and analysed towards the implementation and trade off-analysis of improved feeding scenarios Babati district in Tanzania was selected as site representing diverse agro-ecologies and crop-livestock systems. During April 2013, eight local enumerators and staff of Farming System Ecology Group, Wageningen University were involved in completing the survey of 160 households in the Babati and Kongwa & Kiteto districts in Tanzania, of which 96 households of the Babati district were surveyed. The rapid characterisation survey was focused in assessing farm resource, management strategies, farm productivity and household economy. The data was collected through rapid characterization survey as first phase of farming systems analysis within the Africa RISING (AR) program. The rapid characterization survey was focused on the characterization of farming systems and identification of initial entry points for sustainable intensification in Tanzania, which was conducted from April to December 2013 (Timler et al., 2014).The Babati district dataset from the AR project were used to understand the feed based characteristic of smallholders in Babati district. From the dataset presented in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets data on household socioeconomic conditions, livestock size and feeding management and labour data was extracted to understand the feed based diversity among smallholders. Farm household resource endowment indicators (farm size, family size, presence or absence of livestock) were used to categorise farms into different wealth categories, and then farms were chosen from Babati district for further detailed characterization to be used in FarmDESIGN model (Timler et al., 2014).Quantitative variables on structural characteristics of farms (household size, farm land area, livestock size), livestock management indicators (number of improved cattle, number of small ruminants, number of poultry, labour hours spent on the animal), grazing system (time the animal spent on grazing, feeding on crop residue (amount of cereal, legume and other crops (sunflower) residue allocated as feed)), supplementation (amount of purchased concentrate supplement) were used to run the PCA (Table 4.3.1). More data from the dataset were checked to include as a variable; however, due to lack of the information other data's were not included in the analysis. Matrix of X-Y plots was used to check correlations between the variables and select non-correlated variables. Accordingly, number of local cattle owned by the farmers was excluded from the analysis, which showed strong correlation (r 2 =0. 93) with tropical livestock unit (Figure 4.3.1). These show that increase in number of local cattle result increase in tropical livestock unit as well, which is nondiscriminating (Pengelly et al., 2001). These are attributed to the dependence of the farmers on local cattle. Multivariate and cluster analysis were used to identify explanatory variables (discriminating variables) and to group farms in homogeneous types. Multivariate statistics, principal component analysis was used to reduce the number of variables and preserve the maximum of the total variability of the sample. R statistical software package was used to perform the multivariate and cluster analysis.Useful tools describing and explaining the outcomes of the current configuration of selected farms as well as for exploring alternative farm configuration was used.FarmDESIGN is a bio-economic, static modelling tool, assessing structural as well as functional farm characteristics. New version of the model which will also quantify greenhouse gas emission was used. Information on climate, soil, labour balance, crops, livestock, inputs, exports, and greenhouse gas component indicators and assets will be entered into the model. Synergy between farm components (crop, soil, livestock, manure, household, forages) can be captured through this model, identifying ranges of possible variables for the single factors, setting constraints as well as desired outcomes, the interplay of farm components can be illustrated and manipulated, in order to explore and evaluate options for the (re-) design of the whole farming system (Groot et al., 2012). https://sites.google.com/site/farmdesignmodel/home .Initially we wanted to select representative farms for each type of the detailed characterization dataset. However we could not find representative farms for the six types among the nine farms of the detailed characterization whose farm selection was solely based on resource endowment representing three different farm typologies. Unfortunately not all six farm-types were represented in the original set of detailed characterised farms. From the nine detailed characterised farms; one farm (Seloto 2) belonged to farm type 1, four farms (Matufa 11, Hallu 5, Seloto 16 and Shaurimoyo 12) belonged to farm type 3 and two farm (Sabilo 13 and 14) belonged to farm type 4. However, none of the detailed characterised farms represented farm type 2, 5 and 6, while two farms (Long 2 and Shaurimoyo 5) did not belong to any type since they were identified as outlier farm during clustering. Thus, we decided to select representative farms from the entire dataset used to build farm typologies.To select representative farms from the dataset a PAM (Partitioning Around Medoids) R package was used to select the most representative farms from each typology. PAM is a robust method that operates on the dissimilarity matrix of the entire dataset by minimizing the sum of dissimilarities. A medoid (centre of the cluster) will enable us to select the representative farm, whose average dissimilarity to all the farms in the cluster is minimal (Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 1990).Accordingly, Hallu 4, Seleto 8, Hallu 16, Matufa 13, Sabilo 6 and Hallu 8 were selected representing farm type 1-6 respectively. These farms which are selected from the entire dataset would be used for further detailed characterisation and in FarmDESIGN. The descriptive statistics table with their divergence value from the typology means are presented in Appendix 2.From the detailed characterised farms: Seloto 2, Hallu 5 and Sabilo 13 were selected representing farm type 1, 3 and 4, respectively. The selection of these farms was made by comparing the divergence value computed for each farm from the respective typology means. Selecting representative farms from the group may have also some subjectivity; however it is always common when the typology is built based on other criteria. The divergence value indicates in green shows relatively smaller deviation from the typology means, while values indicate in orange and dark red shows intermediate and the largest deviation respectively. Therefore, three farms (Seloto 2, Hallu 5 and Sabilo 13) were selected representing farm type 1, 3 and 4 respectively for FarmDESIGN.The descriptive statistics table with their divergence value of all variables from their respective typology means for detailed characterisation dataset for the nine detailed characterised farms were computed and presented in Appendix 3.Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on selected variables for 80 farmers. Five principal components (PC) with eigenvalue above one were included for the cluster analysis, based on the Kaiser criterion, as suggested in the typology construction general guideline for the Humid tropics project (Alvarez et al., 2014). The five PCs explained 71.7% of the total variation and characterized as follows.(i) Household wealth indicator and feed resource availability (livestock size, farmland area, and crop residue (cereal, legume and other residue) allocation explained 30.1% of the total variation). (ii)Poultry ownership and grazing time (number of poultry and time the animal spent on grazing explained 12.3% of the variation). (iii)Improved cattle and poultry ownership (number of improved cattle and poultry, 10.8%). (iv)Small ruminant ownership and supplementation (number of small ruminant and amount of purchased concentrate supplement -9.5%).Labour hour and supplementation (labour hour spent on the animal and the amount of purchased concentrate supplement -9.1%). The hierarchical cluster was applied to the five principal components listed in (Table 5.1); the cluster identified six groups of farms (Figure 5.1).The largest household and livestock size (TLU), farm land area (ha) and amount of crop residue allocated as the feed was on average found on farms of larger size (Type 6). The amount of crop residue allocated as feed increased with increasing farmland area, whereas the livestock size (TLU) increased except for farm in small farmland area (1.6±0.2) and more livestock size (10.1±1.4) (Type 4) (appendix 1). Labour hour spent on animal management (hr per day) and the grazing time spent by the animal decreased with increasing farmland area, livestock and household size (Figure 5.3). The largest number of small ruminants and poultry with the largest amount of legume residue were on average found on farms of the relatively larger size (Type 5 and 4) (Figure 5.3d). The amount of purchased concentrate supplements decrease with increasing farmland area (Figure 5.2).  The six identified feed based typology of the smallholders in Babati (Appendix 1):1. Type 1 -Small farm with small livestock herd: small family size, land constrained, smaller livestock size, less improved cattle -small ruminant-poultry, semi-zero grazing, low supplementation and relatively less labour hour on animal, represented 37.3% of farms in the dataset. 2. Type 2 -Small farm with medium livestock herd and high inputs: land constrained, extended grazing, high supplementation, no improved cattle, small ruminant-poultry, 3.75% of the farms; 3. Type 3 -Intermediate farm with large livestock herd: more labour hour on animal, smaller livestock size, less improved cattle-small ruminant-poultry, very low supplements, land constrained, and 41.25%. 4. Type 4 -Small farm specialized in small ruminants: more small ruminants, larger livestock size, land constrained, low input, average labour hour on animal, 8.75%. 5. Type 5 -Intermediate farm specialized in dairy: more improved cattle and poultry, large family size, semi-zero grazing, supplementation, higher labour hour, 3.75%. 6. Type 6 -Large farm with large livestock herd: more family and livestock size, larger farmland area, semi-zero grazing, residue based grazing, low supplementation, improved cattle-small ruminant -fewer poultry, 5%.The model-based analysis of the configuration of the current farm situation and evaluation of entry points for improving animal nutrition has been performed for three farms selected to represent the most common three farms among the six feed based farm typologies from the detailed characterized farms in Babati, Tanzania. The farms were chosen from the feed based typology based on information from the rapid characterization, but configured on the model using raw data from the detailed characterization. For each type the farms were chosen based on the feed resource (different crop residues allocation, purchased feed supplement), grazing time, and farm area and livestock size. These farms were chosen to represent the most common farm types: 1, 3 and 4.The configuration of the current farms as shown in Table 5.2.2 enables us to evaluate the impact of the improved livestock feeding scenarios and compare with the original farm situation 'Sabilo 13' represents Type 4 farms, is an intermediate farm with a relatively larger farm area (2.4 ha) and relatively large livestock size (9.5 TLU), and the greatest diversity in animals. The farm makes the most operating profit 5273035 Tsh and adds the most organic matter (4086 kg/ha/year) to the farms, which is attributed to import of substantial amounts of manure (840 kg DM/year) into the farm, while the farm shows -2051 kg/ha organic matter balance.'Hallu 5' represents Type 3, is an intermediate farm with large farm area (4 ha) and relatively large livestock size (7.7 TLU). They add the smallest organic matter 1580 kg/ha/year and shows the highest deficiency of organic matter balance -3845 kg/ha/year, which is attributed to the low livestock density (1.9 TLU/ha) to produce sufficient amount of manure to fertilize the farm from own manure. The farm makes the most operating profit (almost 5043164 TSH).'Seloto 2' represents Type 1, is a small farm with the smallest farm area (0.8 ha) and livestock size (4.4 TLU) with the largest number of poultry. The farm makes the smallest operating profit (3855839 TSH) compared to the other two farms, which might have resulted from the small farm size. The farm adds the most 3863 kg/ha/yr organic matter showing the lowest deficient in organic matter balance -828 kg/ha/year, which is due to high livestock density per ha (5.4 TLU) than the other farms.In the current farm configuration and each scenario we assume import of substantial amounts of grazing grass and concentrate supplements to balance dry matter intake, energy and protein requirement of the animals (Table 5.2.2). Dual-purpose legume crops such as lablab, cowpea, and chickpea have been identified as a food crop, that the proportion used in feeding livestock is very negligible from this study. Supplementary feeds like maize bran, sunflower seed cake and maclik were used by some farms, where only about 33% of the total farm use maize bran, sunflower seed cake and maclik. On average 132 kg of purchased concentrate supplements (maize bran, sunflower seed cake and maclik) is used per farm per annum.Integration of improved forages crops of the whole farm in the rotation or intercropping was expected to contribute to improve animal performance, soil conservation, profit maximization, risk minimization, pest control (push-pull) and whole farm performance, thus potentially addressing a number of constraints and critical points facing farmers (Timler et al, 2014). Introduction of high yielding fodder for cutting like Napier grass and Desmodium were considered as promising innovations.Napier grass is a perennial tropical grass native to the African grasslands (Farrell, et al., 2002). It has low water and nutrient requirements, and therefore can make use of uncultivated lands (Strezov, et al., 2008). With the decreasing farm land size emphasis on high yielding fodder for cutting like Napier grass is of great importance due to its wide ecological range, high biomass production, ease of propagation and management and potentials to grow in mixture with legumes like Desmodium species and others http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/newpub/napier/napier_kenya.htm. In addition, in the recent years, it has been incorporated into a pest management strategy (push-pull) and contributes to soil management (soil fertility and erosion control in arid land) (http://dbpedia.org/page/Pennisetum_purpureum). The plant has high biomass production, at about 40 tons/ha/year (Strezov, et al., 2008), yielding an average of 10 tons /ha/year without or under low input in Africa and can be harvested 4-6 times per year (Farrell, et al., 2002).Silver leaf Desmodium is a N-fixing legume that improves the soil N status and can provide nitrogen to neighboring crops. Average biomass yield of Desmodium uncinatum of 7 tons/ha/ year DM with increases of 90 and 150 kg/ha in soil nitrogen when sown in mixed Desmodium/grass stands and in pure stand, respectively http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Desmodium_uncinatum.htmThe potential impacts of improved livestock feeding scenarios for the three farms (Hallu 5, Seloto 2 and Sabilo 13) are presented in Table 5.2.3. Considering the potentials of improved forage crops and purchased concentrate supplements to improve livestock and whole farm performance and greenhouse gas mitigation through implementations of improved livestock feeding scenarios, new feed components (improved forage crops and purchased concentrate supplement), were included in the model. The model based entry point evaluation shows the potential of improved livestock feeding at whole farm level.Decision variables: crop areas, forage crop area, grazing grass import and purchased concentrate supplements were allocated upper and lower limits specific to each farm. Constraints were set on the feeding of the animals such that the model did not under or over feed the animals, and on the areas of the fields, such that it is not possible for the model to allocate more land than that which is available. The scenarios all used two objectives, namely to maximize organic matter balance per ha and to minimize the greenhouse gas emission.The entry point evaluation result of all the scenarios has been presented in Table 5.2.3. Comparing all the scenarios for each farm type, almost all solutions generated were an improvement from the current farm situation, except the farm operating profit, which shows loss by 1.5 to 4.2% in the scenario purchased concentrate fed to the animals, which is attributed to feeding cost, whereas relatively higher decrease by 8.7 to 19.6% has been observed in the scenario improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals. This is attributed to the allocation of some portion of crop land into a forage area 10, 17 and 25% for Hallu 5, Sabilo 13 and Seloto 2, respectively, which subsequently resulted decrease in gross margin from crops. The decrease in farm profitability also explained by not increased milk production as result of improved feed value while the feed cost increased in all the scenarios. The result shows potential improvement in soil organic matter balance in all the scenarios by 0 to 0.9% and 0.2 to 1.7% in the scenario of purchased concentrate fed to the animals and improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals, respectively. This is attributed to increase in the amount of organic matter added to the soil by 0.4 to 1.3% and 2.4 to 6.1% in the scenario, purchased concentrate fed to the animals and improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals, respectively. The observed improvement in organic matter balance in all the scenarios shows the potential impacts of improved forage and purchased concentrate supplements, which will improve nutrient available to the animals and the soil as well.Examining the nitrogen balance, in the scenario, purchased concentrate supplement fed to the animals, the amount of nitrogen fixed and crop nitrogen uptake did not show improvement except for farm Seloto 2 that shows decreased amount of crop nitrogen uptake by 5.8%. However, in the scenario, improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals the amount of nitrogen fixed by the crop increased by 20.0, 76.5 and 172.7% for farm Hallu 5, Sabilo 13 and Seloto 2, respectively, and improved the amount of crop nitrogen uptake by 35.3, 23.1 and 40.7% for farm Hallu 5, Sabilo 13 and Seloto 2, respectively (Table 5.2.3). This is due to potential impacts of improved forage Desmodium and Napier grass and imported concentrate supplement fed to the animals. The amount of nitrogen in the imported crop product increased by 15.8, 3.7 and 11.0% for farm Hallu 5, Sabilo 13 and Seloto 2, respectively. This is attributed to the import of substantial amounts of purchased concentrate in the scenario, purchased concentrate supplement fed to the animals. Whereas the amount of nitrogen in the imported crop product decreased by 24.6, 14.9 and 29.1% for farm Hallu 5, Sabilo 13 and Seloto 2, respectively, which is attributed to the potential decrease in crop product import in this scenario as a feed for the animals. The amount of nitrogen supplied to animals increased by 12.5, 3.6 and 8.6% and 26.6, 11.9 and 20.7% in the scenario purchased concentrate fed to animals and improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals, respectively. The improved availability of nitrogen to the animals, similarly resulted improvement in the amount of nitrogen in manure to soil in all the scenarios, in the scenario purchased concentrate fed to animals by 4 to 12.2% and 11.7 to 24.5% in the scenario improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals. The high import of concentrate supplement and increased availability of nitrogen from improved forage crops resulted increase in nitrogen volatilization in all the scenarios from 8 to 28.6% and 24 to 60% in the scenario purchased concentrate fed to animals and improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals, respectively. However, the amount of nitrogen in soil losses decreased by 5.1 to 100% in scenario improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals, which is attributed to the potential impact of improved forage to decrease the negative environmental impact at the whole farm level while improving soil nutrient availability. Whereas the nitrogen in soil losses increased by 6.4 to 116.7% in the scenario purchased concentrate supplement fed to the animals, which is attributed to the import of more concentrate supplement.From this analysis the overall nitrogen use efficiency in all the scenarios have been decreased by 4.1 to 14.9% except for farm Hallu 5 which increased by 0.9% in the scenario, improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals. This is attributed to the limited improvement in the crop and animal output; that the same level of crop and animal productivity have been considered, where the nitrogen input has been improved in each scenario.Greenhouse gas emission intensity as expressed by CO2-eq (Mg/litter of milk) shows minor increase by 0 to 2% in the scenario, purchased concentrate fed to the animals and 1.6 to 6.3% in the scenario, improved forage and purchased concentrate fed to the animals. The observed increase in greenhouse gas emission intensity in all the scenarios might have resulted from not increased milk productivity, that the same level of milk yield 0.84 kg/day/cow have been considered in all the scenarios. However, with better feed it is expected that milk production will also improve, which is not considered in this analysis. Thus with improved milk yield greenhouse gas emission intensity per litter of milk will potentially decrease. Large variation among the smallholder farmers with regards to farm size, livestock feeding and management and feed resource availability were observed. The model-based improved livestock feeding entry point evaluation showed that the improved livestock feeding options generated new insights into the possible improvement that farmers would take towards improved livestock and whole farm performance. The entry points identified in this analysis showed potential improvement at whole farm level with regards to soil organic matter balance, soil nitrogen availability, feed value and reducing the negative environmental impacts. However, multi-objective optimization modelling will be required, using the entry points presented, as there is a need to work further on crop and livestock productivity through the use of improved varieties of crop and graded animal types. These will help to increase farm operating profit from increased crop and livestock productivity. Moreover, with improved milk yield greenhouse gas emission intensity per litter of milk will potentially decrease.The potential entry points generated by FarmDESIGN should give insight to implement the improved livestock feeding scenarios towards sustainable intensification of crop-livestock systems, where further detailed analysis will be required. Objectives and willingness of the farmers needs to be considered to adopt the improved livestock feeding options. Involvement of local farmers is very important in the process of developing and adapting feed intensification options as this will have financial and land use implication for smallholder farmers.","tokenCount":"4841"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fb3432b17ae239794533866ea427d767","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ed8ab054-b27f-4fab-8f54-a46d1179a0ee/retrieve","id":"1922811857"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bfa8f88c-509c-43fb-9483-d5493591cd56","pagecount":"5","content":". Risk assessment of 3-MCPD esters and glycidyl esters from the formulas for infants and young children up to 36 months of age.• https://nifc.gov.vn/tin-tuc-khoa-hoc/ngo-doc-thuc-pham-do-doc-to-botulinum-typ-e-vaphuong-phap-phat-hien-doc-to-post1997.html • https://nifc.gov.vn/ky-thuat-chuyen-mon/phong-chong-ngo-doc-thuong-luc-post1981.html • https://nifc.gov.vn/ky-thuat-chuyen-mon/canh-bao-nguy-co-ngo-doc-thuc-pham-trongmua-he-post1976.html • https://nifc.gov.vn/ky-thuat-chuyen-mon/chat-cam-trong-nuoi-trong-thuy-san-post1963.html • https://nifc.gov.vn/ky-thuat-chuyen-mon/phong-ngua-ngo-doc-nam-post1955.html • https://nifc.gov.vn/ky-thuat-chuyen-mon/phong-chong-ngo-doc-qua-hong-trau-post1939.html• Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) Southeast Asia 2nd annual conference will be organized in HCMC from 1-2 August 2023. https://aoac-sea.org/meetings-and-events/annualmeeting/ • Food Safety Technical Working Group launching, late August or early September 2023Compiled by Chi Nguyen, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) ","tokenCount":"76"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cea63ff9762847391765c576d7454ee5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/369877f8-808e-4f60-a106-903d0a241af1/retrieve","id":"-1285870108"},"keywords":["interdisciplinary research","agricultural productivity","yields","climate change","adaptation","climate-smart technology"],"sieverID":"1f3a9247-ce7f-40bb-97e1-4edbbae900ef","pagecount":"84","content":"established in 1975, provides evidence-based policy solutions to sustainably end hunger and malnutrition and reduce poverty. The Institute conducts research, communicates results, optimizes partnerships, and builds capacity to ensure sustainable food production, promote healthy food systems, improve markets and trade, transform agriculture, build resilience, and strengthen institutions and governance. Gender is considered in all of the Institute's work. IFPRI collaborates with partners around the world, including development implementers, public institutions, the private sector, and farmers' organizations, to ensure that local, national, regional, and global food policies are based on evidence. IFPRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.3.1 Countries whose adoption of alternative maize varieties is simulated in this analysis 3.2 Countries whose adoption of alternative wheat varieties is simulated in this analysis 3.3 Global rice production by production system (percentage of total cultivated area)3.4 Countries whose adoption of an alternative rice variety is simulated in this analysis 3.5 Countries whose adoption of alternative potato varieties is simulated in this analysis 3.6 Countries whose adoption of an alternative sorghum variety is simulated in this analysis 3.7 Countries whose adoption of alternative groundnut varieties is simulated in this analysis 3.8 Countries whose adoption of alternative pest management practices for cassava is simulated in this analysis The goal of achieving and maintaining global food security is challenged by a number of stresses directly stemming from population and income growth, climate change, and other factors. The agriculture sector is confronted with increasing demand, competition for natural resources, and climate impacts, both abiotic (for example, changes in temperature and precipitation, and extreme weather events) and biotic (for example, damages from pests and diseases). Complicating the challenge, these impacts are characterized by large geographic and temporal variability and uncertainty.A recent study, using crop simulation models to examine the effects of abiotic stresses, estimated that the long-term changes in temperature and rainfall due to climate change could reduce global maize, rice, and wheat yields in 2050 by as much as 25 percent compared with 2010 yields in the absence of technological change and market effects (Rosegrant et al. 2014). 1 Clearly, new technologies will be developed and economic agents will respond to changes in prices over time due to changes in population, income, and climate. Nevertheless, significant increases in prices may occur. Higher prices would particularly hurt marginalized populations, as well as those who spend a large share of their income on food. The authors found that a range of technology improvements could help reduce some of these adverse impacts. Other recent work has examined the impact of climate change on crop yields, production, and prices in 2050 relative to a baseline without climate change. Drawing on multiple climate, crop, and economic models, Nelson and others (2013) estimated that yields of four major crops (maize, rice, wheat, and soybeans) in 2050 would be around 11 percent lower due to the effects of climate change once economic responses were considered. Together, these studies indicate the importance of improved modeling to disentangle the complex interactions between multiple drivers of change. Improved understanding of emerging technologies must be used to explore alternative strategies to achieve and sustain increases in agricultural productivity and food security.Basic and applied research in agronomy, soil science, ecology, and entomology has generated a wealth of technologies and practices to increase the resilience of agroecosystems to both abiotic and biotic stresses, and ultimately to protect and increase productivity. However, in order to inform prioritization of research and investments in agriculture, more work needs to be done to explore the potential of the various options, for specific crops and under specific local soil and climatic conditions. Meeting the challenge of feeding a growing population requires analysis of how to better allocate scarce resources, both financial and natural. To this goal, empirical analysis and modeling efforts are useful to assess the potential of different technologies and practices to increase agricultural productivity and alleviate poverty and hunger, while also using limited resources more efficiently. This analysis needs to be performed at various levels of aggregation, from global to national to subnational scales.The goal of the CGIAR Global Futures and Strategic Foresight (GFSF) program is to support increases in agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability in developing countries by evaluating potential long-run impacts of promising technologies, investments, and policy reforms. 2 The present study focuses on the evaluation of selected promising and alternative technologies for crops, specifically drought-and heat-tolerant varieties not currently available at large scale but needed to adapt to climatic change, and also analysis of the effects of crop protection measures, with a focus on the mealybug pest on cassava. The assessment relies on the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) family of crop models; 3 hydrology and water supply-demand models; and a multimarket economic model, the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT). These models are linked in order to estimate future production, consumption, and trade of key agricultural commodities, following different scenarios of climate change, water availability, and population and income growth (among other factors). The result is a powerful simulation tool to assess the potential impact of selected promising technologies on some of the world's most important agricultural commodities.The current analysis improves on previous research by incorporating detailed location-specific data; climate, soil type, crop variety, and other critical variables; detailed models of crop, hydrology, and water supply and demand; improved measurement of effects on human welfare; and the impact of potential agricultural investments on economic growth, incomes, and poverty alleviation.Ex ante analysis of technologies and markets several decades into the future requires a flexible scenariobased approach, which involves assessment of the impacts of long-run drivers (such as changes in population, incomes, and climate) whose nature is still uncertain and of technologies (such as droughtand heat-tolerant crop varieties) that are still being developed. To do this, we rely on a suite of linked crop, water, and economic simulation models to analyze the performance of new crop varieties with desirable traits that are currently being developed but not yet widely available. The models provide a framework for analyzing alternative scenarios about how population, income, climate, and technologies may change over time. The projections in the various scenarios are not \"predictions\" or \"forecasts\" but instead are simulated scenarios conditional on different sets of assumptions regarding potential drivers of change.In view of the climate change challenges discussed in the introduction, GFSF team members in four participating CGIAR centers-the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)-identified drought and heat tolerance traits as priorities to be simulated for maize, wheat, rice, potatoes, sorghum, and groundnut. Table 2.1 summarizes the traits and regions that the GFSF participating centers prioritized. Each center also identified target areas where varieties with these traits are expected to be adopted. CIMMYT targeted Africa south of the Sahara for drought-tolerant (DT) maize and South Asia for the heat-tolerant (HT) technology. For wheat, the DT variety was targeted for adoption in western Asia, the HT variety in South Asia, and the drought-and heat-tolerant (DTHT) variety in Argentina and South Africa. Because South and Southeast Asia are major rice-producing regions, a DT variety was targeted in both regions. CIP targeted DT, HT, and DTHT potato varieties in South Asia, central Asia, and parts of Southeast Asia. ICRISAT focused on a DT sorghum variety to be adopted in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa. DT, HT, and DTHT groundnut varieties were targeted for adoption across 11 countries spanning Asia and Africa.Cassava is a resilient crop, well adapted to potential future abiotic stresses (temperature and precipitation). Therefore, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) focused on modeling the effects of an expansion in pest damages and then in pest management practices. For this scenario, the introduction of a mealybug pest was simulated in the Southeast Asia region and three different management scenarios were tested. These promising crops or management practices will be described further in Section 3. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed a suite of linked economic, water, and crop simulation models to do long-run scenario analysis. The economic multimarket model of global agriculture, IMPACT, integrates information from climate models (general circulation models, or GCMs), crop simulation models (DSSAT), and water models in a consistent equilibrium framework that supports long-run scenario analysis. The IMPACT model simulates the operation of national and international markets, solving for production, demand, and prices that equate supply and demand across the globe. Some of the model communication is one-way, with no feedback links (for example, GCM scenarios to hydrology models to crop models), while other links require capturing feedback loops (for example, water demand from the economic model and water supply from the water models must be reconciled to estimate water stress impacts on crop yields). Figure 2.1 describes the links between the different models that constitute the IMPACT network of models.This flexible framework of models supports integrated analysis of the implications of physical, biophysical, and socioeconomic trends and phenomena, allowing for varied and in-depth analysis on a variety of key issues of interest to policymakers. As a flexible policy analysis tool, IMPACT has been used to research linkages between agriculture production and food security at the national 4 and regional 5 levels. IMPACT has also been used in commodity-level 6 analyses, and has contributed to thematic and interdisciplinary scenario-based projects. 7 Additional details on DSSAT, IMPACT, and the linkages between the two models are provided in Appendix A.To analyze the impacts of introducing new climate-resilient crop varieties, we incorporate both the new technologies and climate change effects in the IMPACT model. The impacts of new crop varieties are first simulated using DSSAT. These process-based models provide a purely biophysical assessment of yield changes, which can then be used as inputs to the economic model. The crop models use weather data to simulate plant growth, providing the entry point for climate change scenarios to be added to the models. The characteristics of particular varieties or cultivars are encoded in genetic parameters within the crop models, providing a way to create new alternative cultivars that reflect potentially desirable traits. Management specifications (for example, planting dates, irrigation plans, tillage regimes, and so on) open the possibility of representing further technology options. Once these are defined, the crop model can be run on a gridded basis across the relevant geographic regions, treating each pixel as an individual field. A final yield map is constructed by determining where the alternative cultivar could be beneficial. The particular parameters defining the cultivars are obtained from known values in the literature, calibrated based on raw experimental data, or deduced by modifying previously calibrated varieties to reflect known characteristics in the absence of quality trial data. Each cultivar may have specific details concerning planting densities, spacing, time to harvest, and so on. Additionally, rules must be developed to allocate the desired total fertilizer application throughout the growing season (for example, all at the beginning or in split applications). Irrigation also needs to be specified. For use in IMPACT, the irrigation cases are meant to reflect a minimum water stress situation. Any constraints on water availability and the associated yield penalties are included in the water allocation and stress model that is part of the IMPACT suite of models.Once the pixel-level yields are generated, they are aggregated to the regional level for use in IMPACT. Using maps of existing production areas by crop and water source, we compute the areaweighted average yield typical of each subnational unit. From these yields, yield growth rates are calculated and applied into the IMPACT model as biophysical \"shifters,\" which include the effects of climate and specific promising technologies. These biophysical shifters are combined in IMPACT with other productivity shifters, called intrinsic productivity growth rates (IPRs), which summarize general trends on improvements in crop yields due to new technologies and management practices (discussed further below).For this report, the crops modeled on a global grid are rice, wheat, maize, groundnut, soybeans, potatoes, and sorghum. Three alternative varieties of the crops have been modeled. A drought tolerance mechanism involving deeper and more efficient roots has been applied to all of the crops except soybeans (not part of the original set of mandated crops in CGIAR). Heat tolerance has been modeled for wheat, maize, and potatoes. Drought tolerance was combined with heat tolerance for wheat, maize, and potatoes. Finally, the combination of drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and a high-yielding variation has been modeled for groundnut and sorghum.The IMPACT model was developed at IFPRI at the beginning of the 1990s to address a lack of long-term vision and consensus among policymakers and researchers about the actions that are necessary to feed the world in the future, reduce poverty, and protect the natural resource base. Over time, this economic model has been expanded and improved, and IMPACT is now a network of linked economic, water, and crop models. At IMPACT's core is the original partial equilibrium multimarket model of global production, demand, and trade, which is linked to a suite of water models. The multimarket model focuses on national and global markets, including those of 159 countries. 8 Agricultural production is specified by models of land supply, allocation of land (irrigated and rainfed) to crops, and determination of yields (which is described in more detail below). Production is modeled at a subnational level, including 320 regions called \"food production units\" or FPUs. The FPUs are defined to link to the water models and correspond to river basins within national boundaries-154 basins and 159 countries.The multimarket model simulates 62 agricultural commodity markets, which represent the bulk of food and cash crops. The multimarket model is integrated with the IMPACT water models, which simulate the availability of water for irrigation and the effects of changes in water availability on agricultural production. Similar to the global multimarket model, the water models operate at disaggregated scales. However, the regions of interest for the water models are hydrological basins (Nile, Amazon, Mississippi, and so on), of which there are 154. To allow communication between the multimarket and water models, the IMPACT suite of models operates on a subnational unit, focusing on the 320 FPUs created by the intersection of the 159 geopolitical and 154 hydrological regions.The IMPACT core is additionally connected to a series of modules integrating information from climate models (GCMs), crop simulation models, population and demographic models, and economic growth models. These models are not dynamically linked in the way the water and multimarket models are, but instead their results operate only in one direction, serving as IMPACT scenario inputs. Figure 2.1 describes the links between the different models that constitute the IMPACT system of models. All models except the climate models are run by IFPRI.The climate and economic scenarios used in IMPACT draw on work developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) (IPCC 2013). The climate model results used are the trend-preserving bias-corrected projections developed for the First Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP) (Hempel et al. 2013) based on the climate models experiment run for the Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) (Taylor, Stouffer, and Meehl 2012). The current GCMs used for IMPACT are HadGEM2-ES (Jones et al. 2011), IPSL-CM5A-LR (Dufresne et al. 2013), MIROC-ESM-CHEM (Watanabe et al. 2011), and GFDL-ESM2M (Dunne et al. 2012).Economic scenarios used in IMPACT are based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) (O'Neill et al. 2014) developed for AR5. We use the projections of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) for population and those of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for gross domestic production (GDP) (Chateau et al. 2012).Overall we compare a no-climate-change scenario (which is noted as the baseline below) and a climate change scenario that is expected to cause significant changes to the agricultural system. The SSP2 is a middle-of-the-road projection and is used in all of the scenarios included in this report. For climate change projections, we use a scenario that results from the GFDL-ESM2M climate model (noted as climate change scenario below) under an RCP of 8.5 (Meinshausen et al. 2011;Riahi et al 2011). This climate scenario was chosen for this analysis because it appeared to be on average across the globe the driest of the four GCMs considered.Figures 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 describe changes in temperature, precipitation, and evapotranspiration in 2050 under the climate change scenario compared with an unchanged 2005 climate. As shown in Figure 2.2, the temperature increase is between 1.5 and 2.5 degrees for most major agricultural areas of the world, with some areas showing even stronger increases, especially in the northern latitudes and Australia. Precipitation changes vary significantly by region, as seen in Figure 2.3. Regions with large declines in annual precipitation include the Mediterranean region, South America, northern India, and Australia, whereas North America and much of eastern and central Asia would expect greater precipitation. Figure 2.4 shows the change in potential evapotranspiration (PET) for the climate change scenario as calculated by the IMPACT Global Hydrology Model (IGHM). As expected, the map resembles the temperature change map (Figure 2.2), with PET increasing by 3 to 5 percent annually in most areas.       Climate shocks consist of two different components, temperature stress and water stress. We run DSSAT under two management assumptions (irrigated and rainfed), which allows us to isolate the temperature stress and water stress globally. Figure 2.5 illustrates the yield stress to rainfed wheat globally. It should be noted that climate change may not always be negative. Temperature increases in higher latitudes may lengthen the growing season and lead to higher yields.The IMPACT Crop Water Allocation and Stress Model (ICWASM) calculates the crop-specific water stress for both irrigated and rainfed crops, which determines the water stress-induced shock (Figure 2.6). For rainfed wheat under climate change, the patterns are heterogeneous but follow loosely the patterns of precipitation change. These two shocks are multiplied to create an overall climate shock applied to the base yield of the crop (Figure 2.7). Under the climate change scenario, rainfed wheat sees its yield decrease in Latin America, the Mediterranean basin, southern Africa, India, central China, and Australia (among others) but increase in North America, northern Europe, and Siberia. These patterns are specific to the GFDL model and denote the particular representation of climate change at the time of the year when rainfed wheat is grown. Other models and other crops would show different patterns.We used DSSAT to simulate improved varieties of maize, rice, wheat, sorghum, and groundnut, as well as changes in yields following the adoption of these varieties in specific geographical areas of the world before market effects are considered (refer to Table 2.1). As mentioned in the methodology section, the DSSAT simulations were performed under the GDFL climate change scenario and, through the changes in yields, they capture the interaction of the improved varieties with biophysical conditions, specifically soil type and climate conditions. Results of these scenarios are described in Section 4.Maize is the major food, feed, and industrial crop globally, and the leading staple food crop in many developing countries. The area coverage, production, and yield of maize have increased over the last 50 years, and much of the increase was recorded in the developing world. Despite these improvements, demand for maize has been outpacing production, partly due to growing demand (for food, feed, and energy and other industry). The demand for maize is expected to double by 2050, which signals the need to drastically increase productivity. Yet maize production and productivity is constrained by several biotic and abiotic factors whose magnitudes are expected to increase under climate change. The major abiotic constraints are recurrent drought, low soil fertility, high soil acidity, soil erosion, heat stress, and waterlogging. Climate change is exacerbating the existing problems and posing new challenges (Pingali and Pandey 2000;Shiferaw et al. 2011;Cairns et al. 2012). Insect pests, diseases, and weeds are the most common biotic challenges.Most farmers in Africa rely on rainfall to grow maize; hence, production is very vulnerable to climate shocks, and dry conditions can have disastrous consequences. In 2011, more than 12.5 million people were affected by drought that ravaged the Horn of Africa. Through the Drought-Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) initiative, CIMMYT, IITA (the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture), and their partners have developed DT varieties adapted to the various ecologies of Africa. The DT maize varieties (both hybrids and open-pollinated varieties) provide insurance against climate risks and are currently being deployed across 13 African countries (Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) (Shiferaw et al. 2014). It has been estimated that DT maize varieties have 30 to 40 percent better yield under severe stress than commercial varieties. Additionally, under optimal rainfall conditions, these varieties match or exceed the yields of popular commercial varieties. In 2010 DT maize occupied close to 1.5 million hectares in Africa (Prasanna et al. 2012).In recent years, evidence has emerged demonstrating the negative effect of high temperatures on the performance of maize. Research in Africa south of the Sahara has shown that a decrease in rainfall by 20 percent is less detrimental to maize yields than a 2-degree Celsius increase in temperatures (Lobell and Burke 2010). Elevated temperatures impact maize yields by shortening the life cycle, reducing light interception, and increasing sterility (Stone 2001;Cairns et al. 2012). Heat stress under future climate is also expected to affect large maize-growing areas in South Asia. In 2013, CIMMYT and its partners launched the Heat-Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) initiative. The goal is to use conventional breeding to develop maize germplasm with tolerance to heat stress, specifically for the South Asia region.Using the CERES (Crop Environment Resource Synthesis) maize model embedded in DSSAT, CIMMYT assessed the potential yield benefits of incorporating DT and HT traits. These traits were modeled by identifying characteristics that are suspected to provide improved performance. For example, root mass is thought to be an important indicator for drought tolerance; consequently, the DT variety was implemented in DSSAT by simulating an increase in the share of root mass within a unit volume of soil and making the plant better able to extract water from the soil.The countries targeted by the DTMA initiative are the same used in this study to assess the -ex ante impact of DT maize across African countries (Figure 3.1). We assume all the targeted countries begin adoption of DT maize varieties in 2013, with slower adoption in the early years than in the later years, reaching 30 percent of maize area adopting DT varieties by 2050.The countries targeted by the HTMA initiative and used in this study to assess the impact from adoption of HT maize varieties are Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. Adoption in all four countries is expected to reach a maximum of 30 percent of maize area in 2032, with adoption starting in 2017. Similar to the DT technology adoption, adoption of HT varieties is expected to be slower in earlier years. Wheat is one of the most important staple foods across the globe; it provides 20 percent of total calories and proteins consumed by humans globally (Braun, Atlin, and Payne 2010;Curtis, Rajaram, and Gómez Macpherson 2002, 602;Shiferaw et al. 2011). Fifteen countries accounted for 80 percent of global wheat production between 2007 and 2011; and over the same period 28 countries consumed 80 percent of wheat.Wheat is an important food and cash crop for populations in the developing world. Today, 72 percent of wheat produced is consumed in the developing world. Developing countries, however, produce only 48 percent of global wheat production, meaning that many developing countries must rely on global trade to satisfy their total wheat demand. The major wheat-producing regions in the developing world are central and western Asia and North Africa, East and Southeast Asia, and South Asia.Wheat production across the developing world faces various challenges, including stagnating yields, distorted national agricultural policies that hinder the adoption of improved wheat technologies by farmers, increased water scarcity, and increasing fertilizer prices. In addition, climate change is projected to bring about new abiotic and biotic stresses. Rising temperatures negatively affect wheat production and, in low-latitude countries, wheat production losses from global climate change are expected to be higher than for any other staple crop (CIMMYT and ICARDA 2011, 189). Climate change might also lead to new or more virulent races of wheat pests and diseases. The incidence of Ug99 (a race of wheat stem rust) demonstrates the importance of such threats to global wheat production (Singh et al. 2011).Various studies have shown that international wheat breeding conducted by CIMMYT and its partners has contributed substantially to increasing wheat production in the developing world in the face of various stresses (Heisey, Lantican, and Dubin 2002, 73;Lantican, Dubin, and Morris 2005, 54). Some of the knowledge and tools needed to address the new challenges brought by climate change include the following:1. Characterization of wheat-growing regions affected by the stresses brought by climate change 2. Identification and propagation of the trait or combination of traits most needed to address the new or augmented stresses (both abiotic and biotic) 3. Making available genetic resources to allow selection of the proper traits from a wider pool of mechanisms for adaptation to stress (these resources can be used for strategic crossing/breeding) 4. Development of tools to facilitate yield dissection in terms of both genetic and physiological elements Some of the promising wheat technologies being developed through international wheat breeding include wheat tolerant to drought stress, heat stress, and combined heat and drought stress. The CSM-CERES wheat model was used to assess the potential yield benefits of DT, HT, and DTHT wheat varieties. In this study, targeted regions for these three technologies were chosen among the developing countries that stand to be most vulnerable to the abiotic stresses due to climate change (see Figures 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7). More specifically, DT wheat is targeted for Turkey and Iran, HT wheat is targeted for India and Pakistan, and DTHT wheat is targeted for Argentina and South Africa (Figure 3.2).Source: Authors. Note: Medium gray = drought tolerance; dark gray = heat tolerance; light gray = drought and heat tolerance.Adoption of the promising wheat technologies in the targeted countries is expected to start in 2015 for DT wheat, 2020 for HT wheat, and 2022 for DTHT wheat. For all technologies, adoption is expected to be quicker in the initial years. The maximum adoption rate of the promising technologies is 35 percent of wheat area for DT wheat and 30 percent for each of the other technologies.Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population. Approximately 3.3 billion people depend on rice for more than 20 percent for their daily caloric intake. Rice is a critical economic crop with nearly 1 billion people depending on rice for their livelihood. Global rice production is one of the great success stories of the Green Revolution, having more than doubled since 1965 (from 256 million to 680 million tons by 2008, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, (2012). Nevertheless, rice productivity is facing a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses that threaten these gains. Climate change further threatens rice productivity mostly from water shortages, low water quality, thermal stress, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events. To meet the demand of a growing global population, 25 percent more rice may be needed by 2050 compared with today. Therefore, increasing rice yields while using less water, chemicals, land, and labor is a critical challenge.Rice is produced under a variety of agromanagement systems (see Figure 3.3), and while irrigated rice is the more productive, rainfed production systems are very important, and are the most at risk to climate change. It is these rainfed production systems that were targeted with the modeling of DT rice varieties. More than 90 percent of rice is produced and consumed in Asia, and rainfed rice is important economically and for food security in South and Southeast Asia, which is where IRRI focused on modeling the DT rice varieties (Figure 3.4).  developing countries has steadily increased, reflecting a shift in production away from developed countries. The total harvested area was almost 20 million hectares in 2009, of which more than half was in developing countries. This growth in area in developing countries involves a greater diversity of agroecological zones and a greater number of varieties adapted to these conditions. The growth of production in developing countries also reflects the fact that potatoes are the one commodity in the developing world with consistent increases in quantities consumed per capita (Bruinsma 2003).By providing income generation opportunities as a cash crop, potatoes contribute to alleviating poverty. Further, potatoes represent an important source of energy, with a high delivery of energy per unit of land, water, and time, and are a valuable source of minerals and vitamins for the diet (Anderson et al. 2010).During the food price crisis in 2007/2008, potato prices were significantly less affected by the price increases in international markets than were prices of other crops (FAO 2008), highlighting the contribution of the crop to a more stable world food system in regions with high incidences of poverty, malnutrition, and food insecurity, such as the tropical highlands of Africa, the Andes of South America, or the Indo-Gangetic basin of southern Asia (Thiele et al. 2010).A broad range of factors affect potato productivity. The potential yield level is determined by a variety's genetic characteristics, including its growth, tuberization, and partitioning response to prevailing environmental conditions such as day length, temperature, soil fertility, and availability of water. Actual productivity and yield stability are influenced by abiotic factors, such as drought and heat, as well as biotic factors, including diseases such as late blight (the most important biotic constraint to potato production in the world), and a number of important viruses that can affect yields directly or by reducing seed quality (Lutaladio et al. 2009). Drought is the major abiotic factor affecting potato productivity. Depending on the genotype and the timing and extent of drought, water stress might accelerate or delay flowering and tuberization, or slow down canopy growth and tuber fill or bulking. A second important abiotic factor affecting both total potato yield and yield variability is temperature. High temperature affects the rates of photosynthesis and respiration, with the former being reduced and the latter increased. Increases in either day or night temperature above optimal levels (18 to 20 degrees Celsius) reduce tuber yields, with high night temperature being deleterious to tuber bulking and dry matter accumulation. High temperatures also cause physiological disorders such as irregular shape, premature sprouting, cracking, and elevated concentrations of glycoalkaloids in tubers, leading to bitter tubers that can be toxic (Gastelo, Kleinwechter, and Bonierbale 2014;Levy and Veilleux 2007).One of the flagship technologies defined by CIP and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas is the \"agile\" potato, a variety with short growth cycles of 70 to 90/100 days to be incorporated into the rice-and wheat-based cropping systems of central and South Asia and parts of China. Adopted by poor and vulnerable rural households, it is expected to contribute to the sustainable intensification of cereal-based cropping systems and thereby to improve farm revenues, reduce vulnerability, improve diets, and bring income opportunities from on-and off-farm employment through emerging markets for fresh potatoes and in processing industries (CIP 2013). While the shorter growth cycle is the defining characteristic of this product, this variety is also characterized by heat and drought tolerance and virus resistance. Given the current capabilities of the crop modeling framework, the current assessment focuses on the elementary traits of heat and drought tolerance and a combination of these.For central Asia, the baseline cultivar used for the assessment is Atlantic. The improved cultivar is expected to be introduced into wheat-based irrigated systems of the temperate lowlands and the main cropping season of the temperate highlands of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. In South and Southeast Asia, traits of tolerance to heat, drought, or both are expected to be a component of improved potato varieties to be introduced into rice-based systems of Bangladesh, East India, the plains of Nepal, and North Vietnam; into wheat-based systems in North and West India and Pakistan; and into potatopotato systems of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The crop agroecology can be described as a subtropical lowland environment. The baseline cultivar for that region is Kufri Bahar. In China, four provinces in Southwest and central China are the target region for the improved varieties. The provinces under consideration are Yunnan, Guangxi, Gansu, and Qinghai. The baseline cultivar for the Chinese provinces is Tacna.In all regions, heat tolerance, drought tolerance, and a combination of the two is modeled in the DSSAT-SUBSTOR potato model (Figure 3.5). Crop model coefficients for the three technologies were calibrated based on a set of yield trial data obtained from CIP breeders. Heat tolerance is modeled by adjusting the genetic coefficient that governs the heat response of the plant for the three baseline cultivars (Atlantic, Kufri Bahar, Tacna) by +2 degrees. Drought tolerance was modeled by increasing the root density and the plant's capacity to absorb water from the soil. Adoption estimates were taken from the ex ante assessment in Fuglie (2007) for similar technology. Where data were not available, adoption estimates for virus-resistant varieties were used as a proxy.Source: Authors. Note: Gray = drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and drought and heat tolerance adoption.More than half a billion people in the world rely on sorghum as a dietary mainstay and, given its diversity of uses, as an important source of income. The grain is used mainly for food by many poor people, and the stalks are a vital source of fodder for livestock. Sorghum is also used for a wide range of industrial purposes. Sorghum grain is nutritious and contains relatively high levels of iron and zinc. This cereal grows over a wide range of temperatures and elevations. Given that sorghum requires less water, it is usually grown instead of maize in the hotter and drier areas of Africa, South Asia, and Central America. This hardy crop is now grown on some 42 million hectares in countries spread across Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. In India, it is grown on 8.02 million hectares with an average productivity of 920 kilograms per hectare. In West Africa, Nigeria is the largest producer of sorghum, followed by Burkina Faso and Mali. In Mali, it is grown on 1.06 million hectares with an average productivity of 1,020 kilograms per hectare (mean of 2006(mean of -2010(mean of production data, FAO 2012)).Major biotic constraints for sorghum production include shoot fly, stem borer, head bug, and aphid insect pests, as well as grain mold, anthracnose diseases, leaf blight, weed competition, and (in Africa) the parasitic plant Striga spp. (ICRISAT 2004). Major abiotic stresses are drought, high temperatures, acid soils, and low soil fertility. As droughts and temperature hikes intensify with projected climate changes, they are expected to have even more negative effects on productivity, especially in the arid and semiarid regions (Sultan 2012). In the semiarid tropics, where sorghum is currently grown during the rainy season, the mean crop-season temperatures are already close to or above these optimum temperatures. Based on a metadata analysis, Knox and colleagues (2012) assessed the impact of projected climate change by the 2050s on sorghum productivity for both Africa and South Asia. They reported a 15 percent decrease in sorghum yield across Africa and 11 percent across South Asia. Changes in rainfall coupled with a rise in temperature may reduce the length of the growing period as determined by the duration of soil water availability. Therefore, in order to achieve higher and more stable yields, it will be critical to breed varieties that not only can better withstand drought conditions, but also can reach maturity within the period of water availability. For the Global Futures study, ICRISAT has worked to simulate the traits of a DT sorghum cultivar across Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania (Figure 3.6).Source: Authors. Note: Gray = drought tolerance adoption.Using the CSM-CERES sorghum model and the alternative cultivar approach, ICRISAT assessed the potential benefits of altering crop life cycle, enhancing yield potential traits, and incorporating drought and heat tolerance in the commonly grown cultivar types at two sites each in India (cv. CSV 15 at both Akola and Indore) and Mali (cv. CSM 335 at Samanko and cv. CSM 63E at Cinzana) (Singh, Nedumaran, Traore, et al. 2014). Decreasing the crop life-cycle duration of cultivars by 10 percent decreased yields at all the sites under both current and future climates. In contrast, increasing the crop life-cycle duration by 10 percent increased yields by up to 12 percent at Akola, 9 percent at Indore, 8 percent at Samanko, and 33 percent at Cinzana. Enhancing yield potential traits (radiation use efficiency, relative leaf size, and partitioning of assimilates to the panicle each increased by 10 percent) in the longer-cycle cultivars increased the yields by 11 to 18 percent at Akola, 17 to 19 percent at Indore, 10 to 12 percent at Samanko, and 14 to 25 percent at Cinzana under the current and future climates of the sites. Except for the Samanko site, yield gains were larger with incorporated drought tolerance than with heat tolerance under the current climate. However, under future climates, yield gains were increased by incorporating heat tolerance at Akola, Samanko, and Cinzana, but not at Indore. Net benefit of incorporating both drought and heat tolerance in alternative cultivars was an increase in yield of up to 17 percent at Akola, 9 percent at Indore, 7 percent at Samanko, and 16 percent at Cinzana under climate change. The study concluded that different combinations of traits will be needed to increase and sustain productivity of sorghum in current and future climates at these target sites in India and West Africa.Rich in protein and edible oil, groundnut is central to the financial and nutritional well-being of hundreds of millions of farmers and consumers across the semiarid tropics. Besides protein and oil, groundnut seeds are a rich source of minerals, vitamins, and dietary fiber. The groundnut haulms are used as fodder for livestock. Groundnut is currently grown on about 21.8 million hectares worldwide. Global production totaled 38.6 million tons, 95 percent of which occurred in developing countries (FAO 201). Major producers include China, India, Myanmar, Nigeria, and the United States. Production is concentrated in Asia (50 percent of global area and 68 percent of global production) and Africa (46 percent of global area and 24 percent of global production). In India, groundnut is mostly grown in rainfed conditions (83 percent of total groundnut area), during the main rainy season; the remaining 17 percent of area is irrigated, especially after the end of the rainy season. While India has the largest area under groundnut (6.36 million hectares) in the world, its production (6.5 million tons) and productivity (1,022 kilograms per hectare) have remained low, the latter being well below the world average (Birthal et al. 2010, 92). In West Africa, Nigeria and Senegal are the largest producers of groundnut, and Mali and Niger are also important producers. In Mali, groundnut is grown on 0.29 million hectares with an average production and productivity of 0.26 million tons and 880 kilograms per hectare, respectively. In Niger, groundnut is grown over a larger area (0.44 million hectares) than in Mali, but with greater fluctuation in production due to the variable climate. Average production and productivity of groundnut in Niger are 0.21 million tons and 480 kilograms per hectare, respectively (mean of 2001 to 2010 production data reported in FAO 2012).There are many region-specific abiotic and biotic stresses that limit groundnut productivity in Asia and Africa. The major diseases are early and late leaf spot, rust, and bacterial wilt (Nigam et al. 2006). The crop is highly susceptible to an aflatoxin caused by the fungus Aspergillus flavus (Nigam et al. 2006). Aflatoxins are extremely hazardous to human health and especially harmful to the physical and mental development of young children. Other major biotic stresses are sucking insect pests (aphids, thrips, and jassids) and foliar-feeding insect pests (groundnut leaf miner, red hairy caterpillar, and pod borers) (Nigam et al. 2006). Major abiotic stresses include drought, high temperature, and soil nutrient deficiencies. In both Asia and Africa, average temperature during the groundnut growing season is already close to or above the upper limit of the optimum temperature range (20 to 30 degrees Celsius) for groundnut growth. As climate change accelerates, increasing temperatures may affect growth and development of crops, thus impacting potential yields. A critical variable is the number of days a crop is exposed to supra-optimal temperatures at critical growth stages, that is, flowering, pollination, or grain filling (Prasad et al. 2003). In the semiarid tropical regions, the changes in rainfall coupled with a rise in temperature may reduce the length of the growing period and intensify droughts. Therefore, it will be important to breed DT cultivars and to match their maturity durations to the period of soil water availability for higher and more stable yields. For the Global Futures study, ICRISAT has worked to simulate the traits of DT groundnut cultivars, HT groundnut cultivars, and a drought-and heat-tolerant high-yielding cultivar (DHTY) across Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Malawi, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam (Figure 3.7).Using the CROPGRO groundnut model, ICRISAT assessed the potential benefits of incorporating DT, HT, and yield-enhancing traits into the commonly grown cultivar types at two sites each in India (Anantapur and Junagadh) and West Africa (Samanko, Mali; and Sadore, Niger) (Singh, Nedumaran, Ntare, et al. 2014). Increasing crop maturity by 10 percent increased yields by up to 14 percent at Anantapur and 19 percent at Samanko, and sustained the yields at Sadore. However, at Junagadh, the current maturity of the cultivar holds well under future climate. Increasing yield potential of the crop by increasing its leaf photosynthesis rate, partitioning to pods, and seed-filling duration each by 10 percent increased pod yield by 9 to 14 percent over the baseline yields across the four sites. Under the current climates of Anantapur, Junagadh, and Sadore, the yield gains were larger with drought tolerance than heat tolerance. Under climate change, the yield gains from incorporating both drought and heat tolerance increased to 13 percent at Anantapur, 12 percent at Junagadh, and 31 percent at Sadore. At the Samanko site, the yield gains from drought or heat tolerance were negligible. Therefore, a combination of site-specific technologies will be needed to enhance and sustain groundnut productivity in the groundnut-growing regions in West Africa and South Asia.Source: Authors. Note: Gray = drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and drought and heat tolerance plus high-yielding variety adoption.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a woody shrub native to the American tropics that produces a starchy tuberous root. It is the third most important staple crop in the tropics after rice and maize. Global production in 2010 was 240 million tons, with the five largest producers of cassava (Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) accounting for more than 50 percent of total production (FAO 2012). Cassava's successful introduction to Africa in the 16th century was followed by its introduction to the Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Cassava has traditionally been a crop of choice for poorer farmers on marginal lands, where its hardiness allows it to grow in soils with low fertility and moisture.Biotic stresses are the cause of major losses in cassava production. The biggest reported losses due to plagues in Latin America and the Caribbean correspond to those caused by cassava bacterial blight. Both cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) are present in most African countries and parts of Asia. CMD is the most severe and widespread, limiting production of the crop in Africa south of the Sahara. CMD produces a variety of foliar symptoms that include mosaic, mottling, misshapen and twisted leaflets, and an overall reduction in size of leaves and plants. CBSD is a damaging disease of cassava plants, and is especially troublesome in East Africa.Cassava crops throughout the world are under attack by arthropod pests, causing huge losses to farmers in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Major pests reported in cassava-producing countries include cassava green mites and white flies. The specific characteristics of cassava fuel the expansion of pests: vegetative reproduction, drought resistance, long life cycle, staggered planting dates, intercropping, and more recently, the lack of genetic diversity due to intensification, among others (Bellotti, Campo, and Hyman 2012). In Asia the most important pest is the mealybug (P. manihoti). Of the more than 15 varieties of mealybug attacking cassava in tropical countries, Phenacoccus manihoti and P. herreni are what have caused major losses in cassava production. In particular, P. manihoti began to spread through Africa in the 1970s, causing severe damage, threatening cassava cultivation in Africa.In a combined effort of IITA, CIAT, and the CIBC (Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control), in 1980 scientists found in Paraguay a parasitoid of P. manihoti: A. lopezi. The A. lopezi is a tiny wasp that lays its eggs on the mealybug. As they grow inside the mealybug, the wasp larvae feed on the mealybug, killing it. This parasitoid has attacked and effectively controlled populations of mealybug in South America for centuries. It was successfully introduced in Africa along with three coccinellid predators. This strategy succeeded in reducing the mealybug losses from 80 percent down to 5 to 10 percent (Belloti, Campo, and Hyman 2012), while in controlled simulations the coccinellid predators reduced losses by 25 percent (Neuenschwander 2001). Recently, A. lopezi was introduced successfully in Thailand to contain the mealybug pest. The previous sections focused on the impact of promising new technologies that can help farmers adapt to the abiotic stresses of climate change; however, technologies that counteract the negative impact of biotic stresses such as pests and diseases are also very important. Cassava and the mealybug infestation is a particularly good example of a case where we can focus on the effects of biotic stresses and management practices. The pest management scenarios designed by CIAT use historical data on the effects of the appearance of mealybug in Africa, and the subsequent introduction of the A. lopezi wasp to South and Southeast Asian cassava production. The cassava-mealybug scenarios were framed with an initial scenario representing an untreated infestation of the mealybug in the entire target area (this scenario is simply referred to as \"mealybug\"). Three biological control scenarios were then specified, which reflect each country's capacity to reduce damages and approach baseline yields (Figure 3.8):1. CBIOL1: Thailand, being the world leader in cassava production technology, is assumed to aggressively treat the infestation in the first treatment scenario. China also follows Thailand's adoption of the biological controls. 2. CBIOL2: The remaining countries in the region begin to adopt the control treatment but with less efficacy than Thailand and China. 3. CBIOL3: All targeted countries implement the biological controls effectively and approach the preinfestation baseline yields.The yield changes simulated through the crop models (as described in Section 3) represent the biophysical productivity-enhancing potential of the new varieties under specific conditions of soil and climate. In reality, a host of other factors influence actual yields. By aggregating the biophysical yield changes from the pixel to the food production unit (FPU) level, and using these data as an input into the IMPACT model, we are able to simulate impacts that reflect the combination of biophysical effects as well as interactions with prices and other economic variables.The links between results from the crop models (biophysical) and the IMPACT multimarket model (economic) involve four different mechanisms. First, the IMPACT model assumes underlying improvements in yields over time. These trends are based initially on historical productivity growth rates (see Figure 4.1) and are adjusted to reflect expert opinion on future changes in input levels, investments in agriculture, and biological limits. These long-run trends, or intrinsic productivity growth rates (IPRs), represent the effects of expected increases in inputs, as well as improvements in management practices. These IPRs are exogenous to the IMPACT model and are treated as part of its input data (that is, they are not solved within the IMPACT multimarket model). Second, the IMPACT model includes the simulation of potential adoption of specific new technologies (for example, agricultural practices) or new varieties such as those described in Section 3. The biophysical yield changes calculated through crop models can be used as \"shifters\" on top of the IPRs. Where positive impacts on production systems are seen, we can estimate the potential pool of adopters of the new technology in each FPU. The adoption of the technology in IMPACT is further specified by an adoption pathway, which is represented as a logistic function, determining the rate of adoption.Third, given these adoption functions, the effect of the new technologies on average FPU yields will be affected by climate shocks that vary over time. These climate shocks change both temperature and water availability. The new crop varieties will vary in their yield reactions to these changes. IMPACT captures the effect of changes in water availability through the linked water models (water basin management and water stress models). DSSAT provides estimates on the effects of temperature changes on yields. These two inputs are combined, resulting in the total impact of climate change and adoption of new crop varieties on average yields by crop and region, which are then passed to the IMPACT multimarket model. Fourth, the IMPACT multimarket model includes an endogenous link between yields and changes in output prices. The underlying assumption is that farmers will respond to changes in prices by varying the use of inputs, such as fertilizer, chemicals, and labor, which will in turn change yields. If the price of a crop falls, there is less incentive to allocate resources to that crop, and its yield will fall as a result. The first three mechanisms involve technology and climate, and are essentially independent of prices. We will denote these as \"climate and technology\" effects below. The fourth mechanism involves markets and prices, and we will denote it as \"market\" effects.Table 4.1 shows climate and technology effects and market effects that change productivity in 2050 compared with 2005, without climate change (NoCC) and under a dry climate scenario (CC). 9 Columns 1 and 2 show climate and technology increases that reflect only the effects of IPRs (that is, the contribution of new technology adoption is not included). They also do not include the effect of prices, which would be expected to change as production rises. Changes in productivity range across the selected crops and regions of adoption from 15 percent to 224 percent in the absence of climate change and from -2.7 percent to 177 percent under the climate change scenario (both relative to 2005 yields). Increases are largest in the case of DT sorghum and wheat, and smallest for the region where HT wheat is simulated (South Asia). Interpreting the impact of climate and changing technologies should be done with care because in some cases, especially for wheat in temperate regions, the modeling shows that climate change may actually be beneficial in terms of yields compared with a no-climate-change scenario. As yields rise, we expect that prices will change, and that this in turn will influence farmers' incentives to increase input use or improve management practices. Other things being equal, increased production would be expected to lead to lower prices, which would in turn reduce incentives and consequently market impacts relative to the climate and technology effects alone. Analyzing this combination of effects is a key contribution that the Global Futures project makes by linking biophysical and economic impacts on yield changes. The climate and technology impacts and the market impacts on yields are presented in columns 3 and 4, respectively, of Table 4.1. They range across the selected crops from -0.75 percent to 197 percent in the absence of climate change and from -14.7 percent to 164 percent under the climate change scenario (both relative to 2005 yields). Gains are more modest relative to the exogenous case, but still double or more relative to 2005 in the case of wheat and sorghum, while increasing more slowly or even declining in the region where HT wheat is tested (South Asia).In this study we are interested in the impact of promising new technologies that would help farmers adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts by improving the drought tolerance and heat tolerance of selected crops, as well as technologies to counteract the negative impact of pests, such as mealybug on cassava. The scenarios involve adoption of new technologies only in targeted regions, as identified in Table 2.1. Table 4.2 shows the global shares of production for all the crops in the targeted regions, across the various simulated technologies, in 2005 and 2050, under NoCC and CC. The simulated crops/regions represent 20 to 40 percent of global production in most cases, but less than 10 percent in the case of maize. This means that while the new technologies may have significant effects on yields in areas where they are adopted, their impact on global prices is expected to be modest.The tables in the following sections include the results of the technology scenarios described in Section 3. All scenarios were run under the same dry climate scenario modeled using GFDL-ESM2M and RCP 8.5. The scenario results have been aggregated at the regional level (see Table 2.1 for reference). Appendixes D and E present all of the country-level results. This section explores the results of adoption of the agriculture technologies described in Section 3. First we examine yields changes resulting from the adoption of the new crop varieties (DT, HT, DTHT, and DHTY), followed by the yield effects of the biological control scenarios for cassava. All of the exogenous yields presented in this section include climate change shocks and IPRs. The complete list of adoption rates for each crop in each country and for each technology is in Appendix C.Table 4.3 shows the exogenous yield effects for the different promising varieties. The numbers reflect the percent difference in yields between the scenario in which the new variety is adopted and the baseline in 2050 before market effects are considered (that is, column 2 in Table 4.1). The values are aggregated at the regional level (that is, at the level of each region included in the simulations; the regions of interest differ crop by crop). Detailed results by country are presented in Appendix D. In general, the HT varieties outperform the DT varieties. This is unsurprising due to the high increases in temperature that are expected more uniformly globally under the climate change scenario, compared with the greater variation in regional precipitation. It should also be noted that the benefits of both traits are underestimated by excluding extreme events. Extreme water stress and heat stress is important not only in terms of general trends (greater temperatures, less rainfall), but also in the timing of extreme weather events (extreme temperatures during flowering, or drought during filling stages). This exclusion likely underestimates the benefits of drought tolerance even more than heat tolerance, because we can observe large and uniform temperature increases from the climate model but are unable to observe the interannual variation of precipitation that would occur under a drought. Therefore, we are testing the DT trait under general water scarcity instead of under drought conditions. (See Appendix A for more detailed description of methodology used in this study.) Nevertheless, in regions where the precipitation under climate change decreases significantly, the DT varieties begin to increase yields similarly to HT varieties, especially under rainfed conditions. For example, in Turkey and Iran, which would experience substantial rainfall decreases (Figure 2.3), and where DT wheat was implemented, the yield increases for rainfed wheat are nearly 6 percent, comparable to the gains the HT wheat made in irrigated areas of South Asia.Where combined-trait varieties were tested, these technologies demonstrated significant improvements over the adoption of single-trait varieties, which suggests that the benefits of these traits are additive if not multiplicative when combined. Potatoes are a particularly good example of this stacking of traits, because both DT and HT were implemented in the same region individually, before being combined. In the case of rainfed potatoes we observe gains of more than 6 percent for DT and less than 4 percent for HT, with nearly a 10 percent gain when DT and HT traits are combined. When water constraints are further reduced through irrigation, the gains of these combined traits are even more impressive-almost 3 times greater than for HT alone and nearly 10 times greater than for DT alone.Groundnut further illustrates the benefits of stacking beneficial traits, with the DHTY variety not only improving drought and heat tolerance but also enhancing yields. The improvements observed using this variety more than double to quadruple the improvements observed from only DT and HT varieties.The cassava biological control scenarios were designed differently from the new varieties scenarios, in that the objective of this technology is not to increase the yield potential of cassava, but instead to reduce the negative effect of the infestation scenario (\"Mealybug\"). The question isn't so much the effectiveness of the technology, which has been proven, but the level of adoption. The greater the level of adoption, the closer the yield reductions are to zero, or to pre-infestation levels (Table 4.4). In general, these technologies show significant adaptive capabilities, with many of the adopting regions mitigating or counteracting the negative climate effects observed. For example, in Table 4.5, the M2 region suffers significant yield declines (greater than 20 percent) due to climate but is able to more than overcome these negative effects with the adoption of the HT maize variety (yield increases of 40+ and 110+ percent). Of the technologies tested, only the sorghum and rice technologies failed to significantly bridge the productivity gap created by climate change.It is important to note that the regional results can hide a large degree of variability at the country level (see Appendixes D and E for complete country results). For example, the benefits of DT rice are fairly insignificant in many of the countries within the region of adoption, with most of the productivity gains in the region being observed in Sri Lanka and India, where rice yields improve by 3.5 and 1 percent, respectively. DT sorghum is another technology that shows significant variation of benefits across countries, with much larger improvements observed in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and India than those observed in Tanzania. In the case of cassava, the largest decrease in exogenous cassava yields due to mealybug occurs in Vietnam under irrigated conditions, which are almost double the negative effects observed in the rest of the region. The effect on exogenous yields after adoption of the different improved varieties can be significant in some countries, and the added productivity from improved varieties leads to price decreases compared with the baseline scenario. Because adoption of the new technologies is simulated only in target regions, however, the impacts on global prices are moderate (Table 4.6). The largest impact is observed when a DHTY groundnut variety is adopted, which is not surprising considering the significant increases in productivity of this variety (Table 4.3) and the large share of global production (more than 30 percent) of the region of adoption (Table 4.2). We expect that cassava yield changes (exemplified by the exogenous changes in Table 4.4) will also trigger price changes that will in turn influence farmers' decisions to adopt new technologies or management practices. The pest infestation scenario (\"Mealybug\" scenario) shows a strong effect on global cassava prices, with price increases greater than 3 percent compared with the baseline (Table 4.7). The first treatment scenario (CBIOL1) significantly reduces the price increase, demonstrating the importance of Thailand to the cassava world market. Each of the final two treatment scenarios decreases the previous price increases by about 50 percent, such that in the last scenario (CBIOL3) the price is only 0.4 percent higher than the base price, which indicates that the treatment sequence has brought the mealybug pest to a level of control very close to the preinfestation baseline scenario.  The IMPACT model is a dynamic multimarket model in which supply and demand respond to world prices. The price changes shown in Tables 4.6 and 4.7 have endogenous effects on yields because they affect the choices (for example regarding inputs such as fertilizer) made by farmers, as well as consumers. Importantly, these price changes affect both farmers who adopt the new technologies and those who do not. Tables 4.8 and 4.9 show the changes in final IMPACT yields (or endogenous yields), including the market effects embodied by the price changes in Tables 4.6 and 4.7.The effects of prices serve to reduce the effects of the climate and technology (or exogenous) yield improvements. By reducing the adverse impacts of climate change, the new technologies increase production and thus reduce prices relative to what would otherwise have been realized. Lower prices in turn dampen incentives to farmers. Farmers who adopt the new technologies still benefit from doing so, but less than they would have done if prices had not declined. Farmers who do not adopt the new technologies typically suffer because prices fall, but without the mitigating improvement in crop yields. Results for HT rainfed wheat and irrigated cassava under CBIOL1 illustrate this point. In areas where the new technology or management practices were not implemented, farmers face lower prices (due to increased productivity elsewhere) without any offsetting exogenous improvements on yield (from new technology), ending with lower final endogenous yields.  The general story illustrated in the previous section continues to hold, with HT varieties generally outperforming DT varieties, and combined-trait varieties demonstrating greater impacts, not only on prices but also on endogenous yields. The scale of the dampening effects of prices is largely based on the size of the price decreases (Table 4.6). The largest difference between endogenous yield increases (13 to 16 percent, Table 4.8) and exogenous yield increases (26 to 27 percent, Table 4.6) occurs for DHTY groundnut, where prices decline by nearly 5 percent due to technology adoption. DT sorghum, where the second largest price decline is observed (greater than 3 percent), similarly has a large difference between exogenous and endogenous yield gains.The biological control scenarios show the dampening effects in the opposite direction. Diminished production due to mealybug infestation leads to higher prices, incentivizing farmers to apply more inputs into their production, thereby mitigating somewhat the negative exogenous yields seen in Table 4.4.As was the case in Section 4.3, the regional results can hide significant variation at the country level. The observed variation in endogenous yields at the country level are primarily driven by the variation in the exogenous yield benefits observed in Section 4.3 and the country-level adoption pathways (Appendix C). For example, DT maize is adopted in 12 countries under rainfed conditions, whereas it is only adopted in 4 countries under irrigated conditions. Therefore, much of the change observed between Table 4.3 and Table 4.8 for irrigated DT maize is driven by Ethiopia, the largest irrigated maize producer in the region. The endogenous yields in Table 4.8 illustrate the aggregate market responses to world prices in the targeted regions.Crop production in IMPACT is determined by the interaction of crop areas and their respective productivity. Farmers respond to price changes not only by changing the inputs they apply to their crops but also by selecting what crops they choose the cultivate. Where productivity grows, there is a reduced incentive to expand agricultural production to new areas; hence increased endogenous yields for, say, DT rice and HT wheat result in a reduction, albeit modest, of the area cultivated under either of these two crops in 2050 (compared with a base in which the new varieties are not adopted). On the other hand, an increase in prices provides farmers with an incentive to expand harvested area, as would happen in the cassava biological control scenarios. On balance, these modeled scenarios show that the overall incentive is to reduce harvested area given the impacts of climate change and alternative technologies. Table 4.10 illustrates the changes in crop areas due to the adoption of new varieties. The largest declines in harvested area occur where the largest price declines are observed (DHTY groundnut and DT sorghum). With the relatively small changes in harvested area observed above, it is unsurprising that changes in crop production (shown in Table 4.11) mirror the scenario results for endogenous yields observed in Table 4.8, with slightly smaller changes in production reflecting the changes in cropped area.In the case of cassava, decreasing productivity and increasing prices give farmers an incentive to expand cultivated area. Table 4.12 illustrates this relationship clearly, with the greatest area expansion occurring in the full infestation scenario, where the greatest price increases and yield declines are observed.Increased production is not automatically consumed locally; countries can and do export. Understanding how changes in production affect a county's relationship to global markets is valuable in determining their vulnerability to global price shocks. Ultimately adoption of new technologies should make adopting countries more competitive globally, allowing for greater involvement in world markets and potentially reducing reliance on imports.  Figures 4.2 and 4.3 summarize changes in the ratio of net trade over national production in the targeted regions. This ratio is a useful way of analyzing changes in commodity trade for a couple of reasons. First, it allows us to identify when countries or regions change from being importers (negative net trade) to being exporters (positive net trade). DHTY groundnut is an example of a technology whose adoption causes a region to switch from being an importing region to being an exporting region. Second, this ratio allows us to observe changes in trade while controlling for changes in production. If demand increases at the same rate as production, we would expect to see no change in the ratio, and we could say that all additional production is being consumed in the region. If, on the other hand, the ratio increases, it means that the additional production displaces imports or is exported, which contributes to improved terms of trade. 10  In all cases, the adoption of new varieties has a positive effect on the ratio of trade over production. As should be expected, the technologies with the largest effects on production have the largest effects on trade. As mentioned previously, the DHTY groundnut scenario actually causes the region to go from being a small importing region (importing an additional 2 percent of its production to satisfy regional demand) to being a slight exporter (exporting an excess 4 percent of production). Regions highly dependent on imports of staple crops, like both maize regions (M1 and M2), reduce their vulnerability to global price shocks by reducing their imports as a share of production. The M2 region, for example, goes from importing almost twice its regional production to importing less than 1.5 times its production. Regions that are already exporting the targeted crops, such as DT wheat in W1, DTHT wheat in W2, and DT potatoes in P1, see an increase in their exports even as their production increases due to the adoption of new technologies.The trade ratio for the cassava scenarios demonstrates a story similar to that of the previous sections. The uncontrolled infestation has a drastic effect, nearly doubling the share of imports with respect to production, with each increase in adoption of the mealybug control more closely approximating preinfestation levels. Climate change is already reducing crop yields in some parts of the world through changes in average temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods (Knox et al. 2012;Porter et al. 2014). Without adaptation, these impacts are projected to worsen with time. In this context, the long-term goal of the CGIAR Global Futures and Strategic Foresight (GFSF) program is to support decisionmaking in the agricultural sector by evaluating promising agricultural technologies and practices that support agricultural adaptation through improvements in productivity. At its core, the program evaluates technologies and practices through a system of linked economic, water, and crop simulation models.In this study, the IMPACT system of models was used to assess the productivity-enhancing potential of new technologies selected by CGIAR centers for their high adaptive value. GFSF team members at CIMMYT, CIP, ICRISAT, and IRRI identified drought-and heat-tolerance traits in maize, wheat, potatoes, groundnut, sorghum, and rice as priorities. CIAT identified biotic stresses as the priority for cassava, focusing on mealybug control in Southeast Asia.In all cases analyzed in this report, the technologies led to improved production under both the NoCC and GFDL climate scenarios. In general the HT traits performed better than the DT traits, although in regions under greater water scarcity the DT traits approached the yield gains from the HT varieties. In the analyzed scenarios, the combined-trait varieties clearly performed better than the single-trait varieties. Given that climate change scenarios generally increase both water and heat stress, these results suggest that more work should be focused on integrating these traits to ensure more robust adaptation.Productivity gains from adopting the analyzed technologies were relatively small when compared with the overall effects of socioeconomic change and general productivity improvements (IPRs) over the entire projection period (column 1, Table 4.1). Nevertheless, they were comparable in scale to the effects of climate observed under the GFDL RCP 8.5 climate scenario (Table 4.5). Additionally, the productivity gains observed in all of the technologies improved the regions' terms of trade (Figures 4.2 and 4.3). For importing regions, the share of imports compared with production declined, making the domestic supply of these commodities less reliant on global supply. For exporting regions, increased productivity led primarily to greater exports, making the agriculture sector relatively more competitive in global markets. These changes suggest that all of the adopting regions would be less vulnerable to global price shocks under these scenarios.IMPACT is a global multimarket model, in which changes in domestic yields and areas respond to changes in aggregate global production and demand through equilibrium world prices. Scenarios with limited changes in world prices will see limited changes in areas, yields, trade, and food security. The global consequences of the different technology scenarios vary by crop and technology, in large part due to the total share of global production and the rate of adoption in the region. For example, the potato technologies analyzed show beneficial yield effects but have limited global impacts (world prices decrease by .04 to .22 percent) due to low adoption rates at the national level (Appendix D) despite the P1 region's producing a significant share of global production (Table 4.2). This is in contrast to the groundnut technologies, which caused world groundnut prices to decline by 1 to 5 percent due to the G1 region's relatively higher adoption rates coupled with its significant share of global production. It should be noted that scenarios with larger world price changes like the groundnut scenario will have more diffused benefits, whereas the benefits of a technology with limited price effects will likely be captured primarily by the adopting producers.Due to the uncertain nature of projecting economic, social, political, and physical changes over many decades, it is necessary to test potential policies and alternative technologies across a wide set of climatic and economic conditions. The current study has chosen a relatively limited set of conditions to verify the response of the potential technologies to a drier and hotter global climate (SSP2 under two climates: NoCC and GFDL RCP 8.5). In the future, this methodology of linked models should be used to test the robustness of potential technologies by performing long-run analyses of scenarios that combine a range of different climatic and economic characteristics (for example, how do DT varieties perform under wetter conditions?).As mentioned earlier, the current representation of climate change fails to capture interannual variability, which does not allow testing of the technologies under the extreme climate events that they are designed to mitigate. This lack of variability limits the potential of this methodology to assess the effects of any technology that is primarily risk reducing as opposed to yield enhancing. Future research should look at ways of adapting the current methodology to include climate variability, not only by increasing the number of climate scenarios (represented by RCPs and GCMs), but also by developing methods to represent the effects of weather variability at more refined time scales; the timing of extreme events is important because weather sensitivity varies across different stages of plant development.The current methodology relies greatly on crop models to capture changes in crop productivity. These tools are powerful, and they allow the development of highly localized and specific scenarios that better capture the local effects of climate and soils. However, these models have weaknesses, which may limit the scenarios and technologies that can be easily tested. The highly detailed nature of these models requires detailed inputs as well as assumptions describing cultivar characteristics, management practices, and soil properties. Crop models do not incorporate economic drivers and therefore require assumptions on how the initial conditions could change over time. In many cases, these assumptions (nitrogen application, for example) may have larger effects than the technologies we are analyzing. Additionally, crop models currently do not capture changes in quality (appearance, taste, and so on) or nutritional composition. To test quality-enhancing technologies, we would need greater nutritional composition information out of the crop models as well as a more detailed food demand system in the multimarket model.The global benefits of the potential technologies are sensitive to assumptions on adoption rates. Therefore it will also be necessary to test the technologies under a broader range of adoption pathways. This type of sensitivity testing has already been done to a limited extent in the cassava scenarios, but it would need to be extended to include greater variation in maximum adoptions, speed of adoption, and starting and ending dates of adoption for all of the technologies studied. 11  There is a natural inclination to try to identify the technologies that provide the largest benefit. This methodology can be a potential tool in doing this type of analysis and research priority setting. However, scenario design will play a critical role in how satisfactorily these technologies can be compared and assessed in terms of their benefit. How we compare the benefits of a technology adopted in one region and crop under different adoption assumptions with its adoption in another region and crop is not straightforward. To facilitate this type of analysis it is necessary to control scenario design to limit the number of differences across the dimensions we are interested in. This is important because we need not only to quantify the differences in the scenario results but also to understand the root drivers of these differences. Trying to prioritize research across the range of regions and crops that this study has examined, for example, would be very difficult. The scenarios have greatly varying assumptions on adoption rates, with the regions selected often varying significantly in terms of expected climate effects (wheat in Argentina versus India for example) as well as economic conditions. Additionally, detailed analysis of the potential costs of developing, diffusing, and implementing the agricultural technologies would be needed. The current study has focused only on the benefit side of potential technologies, and comparable work on technology costs and how they relate to adoption would be necessary for any prioritization of investments.Experts agree that sustainable food security is a broad goal; to achieve it will require a combination of increases in agricultural productivity, reduction of waste and losses, more sustainable consumption patterns, and better food distribution worldwide (Garnett et al. 2013;Smith 2013). Productivity scenarios like the ones analyzed in this study can be useful policy tools to identify technologies that would impact global food production. The methodology developed for the Global Futures program provides a flexible framework to test and compare different production technologies in crop models as well as economic models. Additional traits can be identified and tested, such as C4 rice or crop varieties that have longer or shorter maturation periods, in addition to those examined here.As our understanding of the possible adverse and positive impacts of climate change improves over time, scientists have started to better understand and address resulting changes in biotic stresses on crops. However, the magnitude of what we still do not know is troubling. We expect that a changing climate will affect the geographical range and distribution of pests, diseases, and weeds (Gornall et al. 2010;Paulson et al 2009;Deutsch et al 2008). New pests can emerge as a result of changes in complex ecological conditions: climate may affect crops' natural defenses, the interaction between these defenses and pests' life cycles, and the interaction between those and specific agricultural practices and technologies. Biotic stresses will need to be taken into consideration in the design of alternative climatic futures, to allow the testing of policy interventions that would make sense in response to changes in pests' prevalence or composition. These types of questions may be better approached, at least initially, in a more stylized way without the direct use of crop models, in much the same manner as was done for the cassava mealybug scenarios.Improving productivity is only one area that needs to be examined. There may be large benefits from technologies and policies that do not focus exclusively on production, but instead consider access to and consumption of quality food. Scenarios that examine shifts in diet as a result of changes in sociodemographics, policy, and consumer preferences are also an important component of achieving food security globally. Scenarios focusing on questions revolving around food demand and utilization should extend beyond \"overconsumption\" in rich countries and should address complementary investments in infrastructure, education, and improved trade.Continued improvement of the modeling system for long-term scenario analysis is a key component of the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight program. The current study has done much to advance the integration of crop, water, and economic models. The continued and strengthened involvement of experts and colleagues across the CGIAR network (and beyond) will be needed to ensure that the selected scenarios capture the most pressing concerns and questions, and the most promising solutions.The multimarket trade model is a system of equations offering a methodology for analyzing baseline and alternative scenarios for global food demand, supply, trade, income, and population. The multimarket submodule encompasses 159 geopolitical regions and 154 hydrological basins in the world. The intersection of these two geographical layers creates 320 food production units (FPUs). IMPACT models 62 main agricultural commodities produced in the world. Within each region, supply, demand, and prices for agricultural commodities are determined. All regions are linked through trade. Supply and demand functions incorporate elasticities to approximate the underlying production and demand. World agricultural commodity prices are determined annually at levels that clear international markets.Domestic crop production at the FPU level is determined by area and yield response functions separately for irrigated and rainfed cultivation. Harvested area is specified as a response to the crop's own price, the prices of other competing crops, the projected rate of exogenous (nonprice) growth trends in harvested area, and the climate stress. The projected exogenous trend in harvested area captures changes in area resulting from factors other than direct crop price effects, such as expansion through population pressure and contraction from soil degradation or conversion of land to nonagricultural uses. Assumptions for exogenous trends are determined by a combination of historical changes in land use and expert judgment on potential future regional dynamics.Commodity yield is a function of the commodity prices, the prices of inputs, climate stress, and a projected nonprice exogenous trend factor. The trend factors, also called intrinsic productivity growth rates (IPRs), reflect productivity growth driven by technology improvements, including crop management research, conventional plant breeding, wide-crossing and hybridization breeding, and biotechnology and transgenic breeding. Other sources of growth considered include private-sector agricultural research and development, agricultural extension and education, markets, infrastructure, and irrigation. Annual production of a commodity in a country is then estimated as the product of its area and yield (Rosegrant and IMPACT Development Team 2012). The IPRs are specified as exogenous in the IMPACT model. We assume that these underlying trends vary by crop and region, and that they will decline somewhat over the next 50 years as the pace of technological improvements in developed countries slows, and as developing countries \"catch up\" to yields in developed countries.Supply elasticities are broken out by area and yield elasticities. Crop area elasticities simulate the supply response to changes in own-commodity and competing-commodity prices. Own-price area elasticities of supply for most products in developing countries are approximately two-thirds of those in the developed countries, reflecting the difficulties that producers in developing countries face in access to markets, information, and technology. Crop yield elasticities simulate the supply response of cropping intensity with respect to changes in crop prices, the cost of labor, and the cost of inputs. The absolute values of yield elasticities with respect to own price, capital, and labor add up to the crop price elasticity.Domestic demand for a commodity is the sum of its demand for food, feed, biofuels, crush, and other uses. Food demand is a function of the price of the commodity and the prices of other competing commodities, per capita income, and total population. Per capita income and population increase annually according to region-specific population and income growth rates. Population statistics and growth rates are drawn from IIASA projections. Regional income growth is based on the OECD projections. Feed demand is a derived demand determined by the changes in livestock production, feed ratios, and own-and cross-price effects of feed. The equation also incorporates a technology parameter that indicates improvements in feeding efficiencies. Demand for feedstock for biofuels production is derived from the implied demand among various alternatives for the development of ethanol and biodiesel. The crush demand for oilseeds for processing into oils is derived from the prices of the oil and meal by-product, the oilseed commodity, and the oil-and meal-processing ratios. The demand for other uses is estimated as a proportion of food and feed demand.The IMPACT demand elasticities are originally based on USDA elasticities and adjusted to represent a synthesis of average, aggregate elasticities for each region, given the income level and distribution of urban and rural population (USDA 1998). Over time the elasticities are adjusted to accommodate the gradual shift in demand from staples to high-value commodities like meat, especially in developing countries, based on expert opinion. This assumption is based on expected economic growth, increased urbanization, and continued commercialization of the agricultural sector.Prices are endogenous in the system of equations for food, and are calibrated to year 2005 commodity prices (OECD-AMAD 2010). Domestic prices are a function of world prices, adjusted by the effect of price policies and expressed in terms of the producer subsidy equivalent (PSE), the consumer subsidy equivalent (CSE), and the marketing margin (MI). PSEs and CSEs measure the implicit level of taxation or subsidy borne by producers or consumers relative to world prices and account for the wedge between domestic and world prices. PSEs and CSEs are based on OECD estimates and are adjusted by expert judgment to reflect regional trade dynamics (OECD 2000). MI reflects other factors such as transport and marketing costs of getting goods to market and is based on expert opinion on the quality and availability of transportation, communication, and market infrastructure. In the model, PSEs, CSEs, and MIs are expressed as percentages of the world price. To calculate producer prices, the world price is reduced by the MI value and increased by the PSE value. Consumer prices are obtained by adding the MI value to the world price and reducing it by the CSE. The MI of the intermediate prices is smaller because wholesale instead of retail prices are used, but intermediate prices (reflecting feed prices) are otherwise calculated in the same way as consumer prices.Regional production and demand are linked to world markets through trade. Commodity trade by region is a function of domestic production, domestic demand, and stock change. Regions with positive trade are net exporters, while those with negative values are net importers. This specification does not permit a separate identification of both importing and exporting regions of a particular commodity.The systems of equations for IMPACT are written in the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) programming language (GAMS Development Corporation 2012). The solution of these equations is achieved by the PathNLP solver. This procedure minimizes the sum of net trade at the international level and seeks a world market price for a commodity that satisfies the market-clearing condition.The world price (PW) of a commodity is the equilibrating mechanism such that when an exogenous shock is introduced in the model, PW will adjust and each adjustment is passed back to the effective producer (PS) and consumer (PD) prices via the price transmission equations.Changes in domestic prices subsequently affect commodity supply and demand, necessitating their iterative readjustments until world supply and demand balance and world net trade again equals zero.As described in the schematic of  The most important climatic drivers for water availability are precipitation and evaporative demand determined by net radiation at ground level, atmospheric humidity, wind speed, and temperature. In IGHM, the Priestley-Taylor equation (Priestley and Taylor 1972) is used to calculate potential evapotranspiration (PET). Soil moisture balance is simulated for each grid cell using a single-layer water bucket. To represent subgrid variability of soil water-holding capacity, we assume it spatially varies within each grid cell, following a parabolic distribution function.Actual evapotranspiration is determined jointly by the PET and the relative soil moisture state in a grid cell. The generated runoff is divided into a surface runoff component and a deep percolation component using a partitioning factor. The base flow is linearly related to storage of the groundwater reservoir. The total runoff to the streams in a month is the sum of surface runoff and base flow.The water demand module calculates water demand for crops, industry, households, and livestock at the FPU level. Irrigation water demand is assessed as the portion of crop water requirement not satisfied by precipitation or soil moisture based on hydrologic and agronomic characteristics. Crop demand is calculated for each crop using evapotranspiration and effective rainfall from IGHM. It relies on the FAO crop coefficient approach (Allen et al. 1998) to calculate actual water demand for each crop for every month. The IMPACT model solves for the allocation of land to different crops, depending on output and input prices and agricultural technology. Total irrigation demand in the FPU is calculated given this cropping pattern and after taking into account the basin efficiency of the irrigation system.Industrial water demand is modeled as a nonlinear function of GDP per capita and technology change. Future domestic water demands are based on projections of population and income growth. In each region or basin, income elasticities of demand for domestic water use are synthesized based on the literature and available estimates (de Fraiture 2007). These elasticities of demand measure the propensity to consume water with respect to increases in per capita income. The elasticities also capture both direct income effects and conservation of domestic water use through technological and management change. Livestock water demand is proportional to the number of animals raised as calculated by the multimarket model.The IMPACT Water Basin Simulation Model (IWSM) is a water basin management model. For FPUs where there is water storage capacity (for example, dams), the model specifies a single reservoir that summarizes all water storage capacity and then manages that reservoir to maximize the ratio of water available to total water demand. IWSM uses the runoff calculated by IGHM, climatic data, and the water demands presented above to allocate available water to different uses. The schematic in Figure A.2 provides an overview of the model. In each FPU, IWSM solves for a balance between the change in the amount of water stored in the reservoirs, the entering water flows (runoff from precipitation, water from nontraditional sources like desalination, and inflows from FPUs situated upstream), the exiting water flows (groundwater recharge from the stream, evaporation from the reservoirs, outflows to the FPU downstream or the ocean), and the water withdrawn for human use (surface water depletion). Surface water depletion, added to the pumped groundwater (which is limited by the monthly capacity of tube wells and other pumps) is used to meet the various water demands. The model solves by maximizing the ratio of water supplied to water demanded over a year in all FPUs. Solving for water demand and supply in all FPUs simultaneously, IWSM assumes that linked water basins are operated cooperatively, optimally allocating water between upstream and downstream demanders (qualified by imposing constraints on water delivery to downstream demanders). The model is parameterized to use available storage to smooth the distribution of water over months in order to avoid dramatic swings in monthly water delivery, if possible.Following standard practice, IWSM incorporates the basic rule that nonagricultural water demands have priority over agricultural water demands. Any shortage in water supply is absorbed by agriculture first. If the shortage is larger than irrigation water demand, then livestock, domestic, and industrial supplies are reduced proportionally.The Water Allocation and Stress module (ICWASM) then allocates water among crops in an area, given the economic value of the crop. We use the FAO Ky approach (Doorenbos, Kassam, and Bentvelsen 1979) to measure water stress using a monthly approach to include seasonality of water stress. Because optimizing total value of production given fixed prices leads to a tendency for specializing in high-value crops, we include a measure of risk aversion for farmers in the objective function, which preserves a diversified production structure even in case of a drought. The stress model produces a measure of yield stress for every crop-both irrigated and rainfed-in each of the FPUs where that crop is grown. The yield stress for the base year is recorded and the model defines the yield shock for subsequent years as the ratio of that year's yield stress to the base-year yield stress. This method allows for a consistent modeling framework while making sure that the base-year yields from the multimarket model dataset are preserved.The IMPACT model is solved dynamically (refer to Figure 2.1 in the main text of the report). First, the IMPACT multimarket model is solved for the current year assuming exogenous trends on various parameters, yielding projected production, prices, and allocation of land to crops. For this first run, expected water stress is set to the average of the previous four years, which sets harvest expectations for the allocation of land to different crops.The water demand module then calculates water demand for crops, industry, households, and livestock. Agricultural and nonagricultural water demands are then calculated as outlined above. IWSM (Figure A.2) uses these water demands, along with river flows provided by IGHM (Figure A.1), to provide the monthly repartition of water among FPUs given the objective function described above.ICWASM then allocates water among crops in an area, given the economic value of the crop. The stress model produces a measure of water stress on yield for every crop-both irrigated and rainfed-in each of the FPUs, which is then multiplied by the temperature stress obtained from DSSAT.Finally, the new yield shocks are calculated and applied to the IMPACT multimarket model, which is solved a second time for the final equilibrium, but now assuming that the allocation of land to crops is fixed, since farmers cannot change their decisions after planting. This solution yields all economic variables, including quantities and prices of outputs and inputs, and all trade flows. The model then moves to the next year, updates various parameters on trend, and starts the process again.Climate data must ultimately drive the crop models. Monthly means were obtained at 0.5-arc-degree spatial resolution for four climate models through ISI-MIP for two time periods representing an interval around 2005 and 2055. These were used to apply a delta-method approach to the baseline/historical data from the FutureClim dataset (Jones, Thornton, and Heinke 2010), resulting in an internally consistent set of future conditions that are directly comparable to a common baseline. Daily weather realizations for 40 years were generated based on those monthly means.Because crops must be planted at a particular time, rules were developed to identify reasonably appropriate planting months under climate change conditions. Within the designated planting month, the crop model is run for the 40 years of simulated weather with the planting date being on the first of the month, and another 40 times using the same weather but planting in the middle of the month. The resulting 80 yields are pooled to determine the overall average yields. This was done to reflect the observation that even in very similar locations, not all planting takes place simultaneously. Since no rule is going to be perfect, this process is repeated for the month prior to and the month after the target planting month. The final yield is taken as the highest of those three individual monthly average yields.The remaining parameters can be thought of as two types: those likely to be different in each location and those defined once and applied in the same way in every location. We have already encountered the first example of site-specific data in the climate, weather, and planting month bundle. The soil type will also be different from location to location. We follow a generic soil profile approach known as HC27 (HarvestChoice 2010), whereby 27 soil profiles are generated ({sandy, loamy, clay} × {shallow, medium, deep} × {low, medium, high organic carbon}). Applying some simple rules to the Harmonized World Soil Data allowed us to choose which profile is most appropriate for each location. Another important spatially distributed input is the fertilizer application rate. In practice, this is defined at the country level with different values for rainfed and irrigated situations.Process-based crop simulation models can be used to explore the effect of various technologies/practices and climates on the mechanics of crop production. For instance, the models can simulate how yields may respond to varietal choice, soil management practices (for example residue retention, tillage depth), and length of growth period. The next level of assessment performed in this study is to consider these biophysical processes in conjunction with economic factors. Process-based crop models can simulate accurately the growth of particular crops, but provide no insight into the availability of a variety or technology and how farmers respond to medium-to long-term incentives. They are mechanical biophysical models containing no economic factors or inputs. The challenge is then to take both management and climate change effects simulated in crop models and incorporate them into economic models alongside price effects, general technological progress, and assumptions on adaptive behavior on the part of producers. The approach we use at IFPRI is to feed into IMPACT the responses of selected crops to climate, soil, and nutrients simulated by DSSAT. The yield simulations in DSSAT are performed on a geographic grid, whereas IMPACT operates on a regional basis (FPUs). Therefore, the first challenge is to transform the detailed gridded crop modeling results into a form compatible with that of the economic model. This transformation is accomplished using area-weighted average yields. The relative importance of each pixel is judged by the physical area allocated to the crop of interest by the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM) (You, Wood, and Wood-Sichra 2006;You et al. 2014). The SPAM areas are summed in the FPU to determine a total crop area. Next, the SPAM areas are multiplied (pixel by pixel) by the DSSAT simulated yields, providing pixel-level production information. These are summed in the FPU to obtain the total simulated production. Based on these, the area-weighted average yield is just total production divided by total area. These yields are computed for all combinations of cases. These yields are then transferred to IMPACT and used to construct the \"shifters\" that are used in the simulations to reflect the climate change shock and the effects of technology adoption. All crop model results are applied in IMPACT using a delta method, meaning the changes in yields (deltas) observed in the crop models' simulated yields are applied to the IMPACT yields.We use this approach because it allows us to capture the direction and magnitude of change due to technologies (or climate change) seen in the crop models while maintaining the observed agricultural productivity reported in the FAOSTAT database. Modeling technology adoption adds complexity to the traditional delta method used for climate change in that it adds choice. Farmers can't choose whether or not climate change will happen; however, they can choose whether they will implement a new technology. This choice is influenced by biophysical (whether the new technology is better in a given farmer's field), economic (access to technology, cost of adoption, and so on), and individual (level of risk aversion) factors. To try to capture some of this complexity in the technology scenarios, we divide each FPU into two parts based on the biophysical potential of the new technology:1. Nonadopters: The share of the FPU where no new technology adoption occurs (new technology does not improve crop yields), and the baseline technology continues to be used 12 2. Potential adopters: The share of the FPU where adopting the new technology could be beneficial due to increased crop yields 13 From DSSAT, we get the crop yields for nonadopters (baseline technology only) and for potential adopters (under the baseline and under the new technology). Even when the technology is beneficial compared with the baseline, not all potential adopters will adopt a new technology, because of economic and individual factors. Using the technology adoption curves in IMPACT, which represent the economic and individual preferences, we can calculate what share of the potential area of adoption is actually implementing the new technology at a given time t. The nonadopters have no additional effect from the technology because they remain with the baseline technology, whereas the potential adopters who adopt gain the benefit of the new technology, which is calculated as \uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47ℎ\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 \uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 = \uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47ℎ\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 \uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C \uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 , where t is the time period. This delta is applied as a yield multiplier in IMPACT in the following way:where YieldInt represents the intrinsic productivity growth rates (IPRs), CCShock is the climate shocks from the DSSAT model, WaterModelShock comes from the Water Model portion of IMPACT, and PriceEffect is the endogenous price effect simulated in IMPACT on the basis of the exogenous yields (the exogenous yields can be represented with the same equation, without the price effect component).Climate change effects on crop production enter into IMPACT by altering both crop area and yield. Yields are altered through the intrinsic yield growth as well as the water availability coefficient for irrigated crops. The effects of climate change on productivity are obtained by calculating location-specific yields for each of the crops modeled with DSSAT for the climate scenarios in 2000 and 2050 (as described above). They are then converted to growth rates at the FPU level, which are used to shift the yield portion of the supply relationships for that FPU.Implementation of the chosen improved varieties in DSSAT results in pixels with both lower and higher yields. We assume that farmers implement the alternative varieties over many years only if yields are higher than under the \"older\" varieties. Thus, we include adoption of improved varieties only if the yield change from the reference case is positive. Otherwise, the baseline yields are used. This is why, as explained above, an FPU may have a share of adopters and one of nonadopters.The IMPACT model includes four ways for changes in yields to be achieved. At its base, the model assumes underlying improvements in yields over time that continue trends observed over the past 50-60 years (refer to Figure 4.1 in the main text). These long-run trends, or IPRs, are intended to reflect the expected increases in inputs as well as improvements in management practices, particularly in developing 12 See also the section \"Positive-Only Impacts for Adoption Scenarios,\" below. 13 \uD835\uDC4A\uD835\uDC4A\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40\uD835\uDC40 \uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37 \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC39 \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC37\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC4C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC35\uD835\uDC35 = \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34 \uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C \uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43 \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43 \uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC47\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC5C\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC43\uD835\uDC43 \uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34\uD835\uDC34 . countries, where there is considerable scope to narrow the gap in yields compared with developed countries. These IPRs are exogenous to the model because they are part of the input data that go into the model, not a solution of the model itself. The IPRs are specified as exogenous in the IMPACT model. We assume that these underlying trends vary by crop and region, and that they will decline somewhat over the next 50 years as the pace of technological improvements in developed countries slows, and as developing countries \"catch up\" to yields in developed countries.Second, the IMPACT model also includes a short-run (annual), endogenous response of yields to changes in output prices. These yield response functions specify the change in yield as a constant elasticity function of the change in output price, with elasticity parameters that can vary by crop and region. The underlying assumption is that farmers will respond to changes in prices by varying the use of inputs, including inputs such as fertilizer, chemicals, and labor that will, in turn, change yields.Third, the IMPACT model includes the possibility of introducing new technologies such as varieties that are tolerant of drought, heat, or both. These are included as new crop-and region-specific \"activities\" in the model. We discussed the nature of these alternative crop varieties in Section 3 above; their impacts are described in more detail below. We assume (as part of the technology adoption scenarios) that the share of production that originates from using the new activities increases over time, following a logistic adoption function. Given these adoption functions, the effect of the new activities on average yields is exogenous in the multimarket model, but yields will be affected by climate shocks that vary over time (that is, different crop varieties will vary in their yield reaction to climate shocks).Fourth, climate change is assumed to affect yields through two mechanisms. The first mechanism is through the effects of changes in temperature and \"weather\" due to climate change on the yields of rainfed and irrigated crops, as calculated from the solution of a crop simulation model (DSSAT) for different climate change scenarios. These crop simulations vary by crop type and include different treatments of new alternative crops. The DSSAT model is run with detailed time, geographic, and crop disaggregation for different climate change scenarios that are \"downscaled\" to include weather variation over small geographic areas. This analysis generates changes in average yields due to climate change, which are then averaged to generate yield shocks by crop and region (FPU) in the IMPACT model. These long-run climate scenario yield shocks are assumed to follow simple trends over time.The second mechanism by which climate change affects yields is through variation in water availability for agriculture from year to year under different climate scenarios. This mechanism is modeled through the use of the IMPACT water models, which include a global hydrology model that determines runoff to the river basins (FPUs) included in the IMPACT model, and water basin management models for each FPU that allocate available water to competing uses, including irrigation. The water available for irrigation is then allocated to crops and, when water supply is less than demanded by crop, a \"water stress\" model computes the impact of the water shortage on crop yields (accounting for differences in impacts on alternative versus existing varieties). These yield shocks are then passed to the IMPACT model, affecting year-to-year crop yields.     ","tokenCount":"17244"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"09048b3115e7349f957f550f666262fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3779900d-e292-4738-bcd0-25776aa1b1fc/retrieve","id":"-660148273"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"59c07be7-f4f8-4440-91d6-b667e99b8862","pagecount":"21","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.It works to strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs) in Kenya, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Honduras and Indonesia in their role as advocates and lobbyists. CSOs represent the interests of crucial groups such as pastoralists, female entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers. Together with the International Food Policy Research institute, Washington, it aims to support these organizations to foster collaboration among relevant stakeholders, influence agenda-setting and hold the government and private sector accountable for their promises and actions. We will tackle four issues -food and nutrition security, resilience, renewable energy, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) -by also addressing gender balance and climate change mitigation.The \"MoreMilk\" project is led by ILRI and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with co-funding from the CGIAR Research Program Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (led by IFPRI) and the CGIAR Research Program Livestock (led by ILRI).The overall objective of the project is to improve child health and nutrition through milk consumption. It will evaluate the potential of milk markets and milk development interventions to contribute to health and nutrition outcomes. It will do this by a) assessing how markets and policies influence the quantity and safety of milk consumed in urban settings; b) assessing the health and nutrition benefits of a successfully piloted informal dairy sector intervention (trader-intervention), through a randomized control trial (RCT) in Nairobi; c) assessing the potential reach of the trader-intervention as well as bridges and barriers to scale and sustainability through surveys in Kenya, Assam (India) and Tanzania; d) assessing the drivers of milk consumption in urban and rural Kenya and Tanzania and developing a Social Behaviour Change Communication strategy for milk consumption; e) scoping priority areas for food safety investments with a focus on Ethiopia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso. ","tokenCount":"330"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e35f4b2c49fed1cc87969bb3793ea829","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/176ab9ec-0564-4e16-a419-26b518d9cc08/retrieve","id":"2086286598"},"keywords":["Effi cient regeneration and transformation systems improving resistance to weevils in Ugandan sweetpotato cultivars. Makerere University. Rukarwa","Runyararo. Enhancing sweetpotato resistance through transgenic breeding. Makerere University. Wamalwa","Lidia. Genetic transformation of sweetpotato against weevils. Kenyatta University"],"sieverID":"b99fe1ed-c29b-4082-9401-12dd63401991","pagecount":"3","content":"The 1st Science and Communication Workshop on Biotech Sweetpotato for Africa course, held in Nairobi from August 9th-12th, 2010), was organized to impart skills and knowledge in communication of genetically modifi ed (GM) crops to farmers, policy makers, stakeholders and sweetpotato team members. During this workshop, Dr. William Moar and Judith Rylott, both experts from large corporations which lead GM crop commercialization, provided useful guidance on research experiments which could be included into a regulatory dossier. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (DDPSC) in the US and its Biosafety Resource Network invited members of the SASHA Weevil team to a Crop Biotechnology Product Capacity Building in the Sweetpotato Weevil Resistance Research Component The development of transgenic sweetpotato with gene(s) for resistance to the African sweetpotato weevils Cylas puncticollis and C. brunneus involves generation, testing and promotion of the new sweetpotato varieties and requires the active participation of scientists, opinion-and decision-makers in the country where these varieties are developed. Our vision is to build capacity so that there is the ability to adapt and develop technologies in the country where it will be adopted. Introduction of this technology has involved the establishment of facilities in Kenya and Uganda where the work was to be carried out, building practical knowledge and communication skills of the personnel involved and the development of the new varieties. Three doctoral students have been trained under this program.Development Workshop in Kampala, Uganda on August 16th-18th, 2010. This workshop covered all aspects of deregulating a crop biotechnology product to be released. DDPSC is in charge of the development of the regulatory dossier of the weevil resistant sweetpotato (WRSP) products.Two pamphlets on the benefi ts and safety of the new sweetpotato varieties have been produced after fi nal review by CIP. Various copies have been shared in Kenya and Uganda in a number of workshops; over 250 were distributed to scientists on the African Crop Science Society Conference in Mozambique that was held in October 10-13, 2011.In Kenya, the Biosciences east and central Africa (BecA) Hub, a biosafety level II facility where the research work is taking place was offi cially launched on November 5, 2010 as a world class research facility by the president of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki. Noteworthy, the president had the occasion to see and be introduced to the research project focusing on the development of weevil resistant sweetpotato variety. As part of the project, an operating manual with standard operating procedures for this facility has been developed and reviewed by the CIP team. Buff et and Rockefeller Foundations, and CIP). The biosafety level II screenhouse was constructed and the facility accredited for the research work by the biosafety authority in Uganda. Similarly a large confi ned fi eld trial site (about 5 hectares in size) was constructed. In addition, the NaCRRI biotechnology laboratory construction was completed and equipped where transformation work at Kawanda was later transferred to. Two air conditioners were procured during the reporting period and were installed and are functioning well.Runyararo Rukarwa, a PhD student in Uganda enrolled at Ghent University for the postgraduate course Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology for the academic year 2009-2010. The course is an e-distance learning course combined with hands-on practical training during two on-campus sessions at Ghent University. The course is delivered in a modular format covering the entire range of disciplines related to biosafety: an introductory section on plant biotechnology and its applications for agriculture and industry (module 1 and 2); the basics of biological risk assessment (module 3); the components and procedures for food and feed safety assessment (module 4); environmental safety assessment (module 5); an overview of national and international regulatory systems is included (module 6); and risk perception and communication (module 7). During the second on-campus training, students were evaluated by performing written and/or oral examinations for each module. Students handed in a fi nal assignment by preparing a GM assessment dossier on a relevant crop for the respective country, as well as a socio-economic data. Runyararo Rukarwa successfully passed the course and received an accredited postgraduate certifi cate from Ghent University.The sweetpotato senior breeder from NaCRRI in Uganda, Dr. Gorrettie Ssemakula, enrolled at Ghent University for the postgraduate course Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology for the academic year 2010-2011. The course started November 2010 and ended in August 2011. Gorrettie participated online in all module tutorials and discussion platforms which cover the entire range of disciplines related to biosafety and prepared specifi c training assignments for each module. Gorrettie had already attended two on campus sessions organized at Ghent University for practical training and tailoring of the content to specifi c regional or national needs and to be evaluated by means of examinations, a written dissertation and oral defense of this dissertation. The proclamation and deliberation took place July 7, 2011. Gorrettie Ssemakula obtained the postgraduate certifi cate from Ghent University on Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology. The examination period at Ghent University was immediately followed by a short on campus session at the Marche Polytechnic University of Ancona (Ancona, Italy) that took place the 4th and the 5th of July 2011 during which the students attended a workshop on risk assessment in cooperation with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and a biosafety symposium organized by the Marche Polytechnic University of Ancona and Ghent University. The on-campus session in Ancona had a total of 41 participants comprising trainees with diverse backgrounds, an international faculty member and regulatory scientists. Trainees benefi tted not only from the hands-on training, but also from the opportunity to interact with their fellow students, the faculty and regulatory scientists. In this way they were able to share and learn from various national experiences on the implementation of biosafety regulations. The fi rst day lectures covered the work and procedures of EFSA related to GMO's, while the second day handled the experience of diff erent international institutions in defi nitions, applications and management of GM crops and related biosafety issues.The sweetpotato research team at NaCRRI underwent a training workshop on 4th -5th November 2010 with a main objective of imparting knowledge and skills on biosafety compliance procedures for research involving use of modern biotechnology tools. A regulatory handbook for genetically modifi ed sweetpotato has been developed.A GMO Detection Workshop was held on 24-25 October 2011 at the Namulonge biotechnology laboratory (NaCRRI Uganda). The training was conducted through an interactive and semi-informal approach using PowerPoint presentations and open discussions. However, most of the focus went to the practical sessions in which (a) a quantitative detection of roundup-ready soybean was performed and (b) a detection of the transgenic sweet potato events generated by SASHA. Although GMO detection per se is not a component of this program and not a requirement of local biosafety regulation, it was a good opportunity to expose the Ugandan scientists to the technical challenges and certifi cation issues posed by such regulation.The studies of modern breeding for sweetpotato were presented. In addition to the theoretical lectures, the participants had hands-on practical training both on molecular marker analysis and the use of the software CloneSelector. In addition, there were fi eld visits to a potato processing company and a food processing pilot (Agristo and ILVO FOOD Pilot Plant) as well as to seed and biotech companies (Devgen, Cropdesign) and the GM potato fi eld trial testing a potato resistant to Phytophthora infestans.From October 28th to November 8th, 2013 Runyararo Rukarwa was trained in particle gun bombardment at the Ghent University in Belgium. Ghent organized a practical training in particle gun bombardment and discussed the set-up of the experiments. Diff erent aspects of particle gun bombardment which include: preparation of the gold, coating of the gold with plasmid DNA, diff erent parts of the particle gun device, performing a bombardment and analysis of the samples (ELISA), input and demonstration were covered during the training. Consequently, Runyararo repeated all steps 3 times to get acquainted with the protocol and the handling of the machine. In addition, some biolistic materials were supplied in order for her to do a fi rst test of 15 bombardments upon return in Uganda which she did.The last two years have been particularly important for the development of scientifi c articles needed for the submission of PhD thesis of our three PhD students on the WRSP team. Seven were already published whereas four are under preparation. One student, Abel Sefasi, graduated in 2013; Runyararo Rukarwa graduated in August 2014, and Lidia Wamalwa will graduate before the end of 2014.","tokenCount":"1411"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7226083018.json b/data/part_2/7226083018.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..db163373bfa2404902608ee8aea18173561d3b65
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7226083018.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86e0f0dc72170ccf689edbc08b311ed8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e17c3f76-3982-4dca-aa36-1c30a7b467d7/retrieve","id":"451019103"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ceaa8239-3302-4500-af19-0c24a1d4b233","pagecount":"2","content":"• Retail prices of maize increased by 23 percent in October 2022.• ADMARC sales were reported in 4 out of 26 markets monitored by IFPRI.• No ADMARC purchases were reported in any of the markets monitored by IFPRI.• Retail prices in Malawi were higher than in Zambia and on SAFEX.As of the end of October, maize retail prices averaged around MWK 412/kg, 23 percent higher than at the end of September (Figure 1 and Table 1). Across the markets, Mwanza recorded the highest price increase (41 percent) while Chitipa recorded the lowest price increase (4 percent). Within the month, weekly average maize retail prices were highest in Liwonde (MWK 470/kg) and lowest in Jenda (MWK 288/kg).Figure 1 shows a trend in prices in the 12 months ending in October 2022 and, for comparison, in the 12 months ending in October 2021. At the beginning of May, we start reporting prices of newly harvested maize, which has a higher moisture content than maize from the previous harvest. High moisture content makes maize unsuitable for storage or milling. During drying, it loses about 20 percent of its weight. Solid and dashed lines in Figure 1 represent observed maize prices. Dotted lines represent prices adjusted for moisture content and thus the true price trend.Maize continues to sell the highest in the South. However, prices were unstable with an increasing trend throughout the month (Figure 2). As of the end of October, prices averaged MWK 406/kg in the South, MWK 367/kg in the Center, and MWK 341/kg in the North.The Monthly Maize Market Report was developed by researchers at IFPRI Malawi with the goal of providing clear and accurate information on the variation of maize prices in selected markets throughout Malawi. The reports are intended as a resource for those interested in maize markets in Malawi, namely producers, traders, consumers, policy makers, and other agricultural stakeholders. To learn more about our work, visit www.massp.ifpri.info or follow us on Twitter (@IFPRIMalawi).As of the end of October, retail prices of maize in Malawian markets were lower than in selected regional markets in eastern Africa and Mozambique. However, prices in Malawian markets were higher than on SAFEX Zambia's national average for the month of October 2022. (Figure 3).ADMARC sales were reported in 4 (Bangula, Chikwawa, Ngabu, and Nsanje) out of 26 markets monitored by IFPRI.IFPRI Malawi has been monitoring retail maize prices and ADMARC activities in selected markets since October 2016. Currently, data is collected from 26 markets across the country, with monitoring occurring six days per week, excluding Sundays. At least three monitors report data from each of these markets. Data is collected by means of automated short message service (SMS) with follow-ups made by telephone if necessary. Regional prices reported in Figure 3 are sourced from Food and Agriculture Organization's Global Information and Early Warning System (FAO-GIEWS), IFPRI Malawi, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and the Kenya Agricultural Management Information System (KAMIS).  ","tokenCount":"487"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7228984194.json b/data/part_2/7228984194.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0fa4934e151d18389b84c798260bf4bad2f8c4df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7228984194.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a8440c9599cbace394662f9fc18f0ace","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/12698f68-4e3d-4d02-b20d-d527a3547762/retrieve","id":"-830285892"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8e3be92e-a35e-44ae-b042-058570ae2575","pagecount":"1","content":"IPTA utilized multiple strategies to engage chain actors, supporters and policy makers in order to harness market opportunities. This was aided by CIP, NARIs and other IPTA members with marketing expertise, who acted as 'innovation brokers'. In the process, several champions emerged who promoted chain linkages and complemented the brokerage function. Growth of the processed products markets is anticipated to drive development of the root and vine chains. Innovation platforms are indeed a novel approach to upgrading value chains. The ability of the platform to perform however depends greatly on its leadership, membership, harmonization of roles and responsibilities and focused vision. Large Vine Mul plier -Lira, Uganda Sor ng roots for sale -Kenya Weighing roots for sale to processor Sales Point -Uganda OFSP Processed products on the market -Rwanda and KenyaTable 1: Area and Varie es Under OFSP Mul plica onThe Dissemination of New Technologies in Africa (DONATA) was a five year project funded by FARA/ASARECA and managed by CIP in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. DONATA employed a multi-stakeholder approach where 21 Innovation Platforms for Technology Adoption (IPTAs) were formed to promote learning and innovations along Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) chains. IPTAs comprised of Research Institutes, extension providers, NGOs, chain actors, and the private sector. Initially, IPTAs addressed seed related challenges, root production and processing.With increased production, a new challenge of markets for the products surfaced. CIP hence undertook a study to identify market opportunities and strategies to harness them.Participatory action research was employed. Approaches used included interviews with key informants, workshops with traders, farmers and IPTA members; and focus group discussions. Data were collected on the following themes: (i) main products and market outlets, (ii) chain organization, actors and functions, (iii) chain support functions (iv) market opportunities. 185 respondents were interviewed comprising of 3 District officials, 51 IPTA members, 8 processors, 19 vine producers, 84 root producers, and 18 traders.Vines chains:IPTAs had established a three tiered seed system in a quest to improve availability of quality vines to farmers and buyers (Table 1). Challenges identified included (i) inability to gauge vine demand (ii) low willingness to pay (iii) lack of a certification system and (iv) high maintenance costs. Market opportunities included: (i) high demand by development institutions (ii) demand by producers in drier areas.(iii) demand by root producers who supplied processors.3 supply chains were identified. Challenges included bulkiness, perishability, limited acceptability, and low awareness of the nutritious attributes of OSP. Market opportunities identified included (i) dry season sales (ii) demand by large processors (iii) demand by non-farming communities' e.g. fisher-folk (iii) existence of school feeding programs.Larger processors facilitated forward and backward linkages in the chain, aimed at improving root supply. Challenges observed included inadequate roots, high assembly costs, poor quality roots, cash flow constraints and quality certification. Smaller processors experienced challenges of standardizing products, and maintaining market presence. Opportunities identified included: (i) High demand for flour and chips and (ii) demand for OFSP based snacks.Rapid market assessment to ascertain market prospects, production and marketing plans to align demand and supply; and linkage to Business Development Services providers. Others were awareness creation and promotion, formation of production clusters, establishment of selling points, and research-trader-commercial farmer linkages; among others. IPTAs employed the strategies resulting in 10 successful contracts valued at $500,000. Vine producers in Kenya and Uganda sold over $50,000 worth of vines to large buyers. Sales of processed products doubled in Rwanda. A new factory in Tanzania led to increased demand for flour. ","tokenCount":"576"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7229333932.json b/data/part_2/7229333932.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c785430a80f280035d61ffe85d951c548627651f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7229333932.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"558b3b10d4b5806d21f9216b36071f3d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b46dc2f8-9594-4232-9b20-93832c646774/retrieve","id":"-1876498979"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f037bc01-3a54-4303-9c1c-876eda2a38e4","pagecount":"5","content":"The Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR) has changed the way of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information through its members. Perú, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Chile, and Argentina countries have changed the way of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information. FLAR has developed the https://riceobservatory.org/ for LAM as the first digital platform of rice for LAM, in this platform tools developed by the D-CSA team are used to make more D-CSA decisions in more than 2.000.000 hectares.Sub-IDOs:• Enhanced individual capacity in partner research organizations through training and exchange • Agricultural systems diversified and intensified in ways that protect soils and water • Closed yield gaps through improved agronomic and animal husbandry practices Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: <Not Defined> Geographic scope: • LAM: Latin America Contributing external partners:• FLAR -Fondo Latinoamericano para Arroz de RiegoBearing in mind the importance of data reporting, FLAR integrated into its web page a module that reports rice principal data at the country level. This development calls Rice observatory -2020 (https://riceobservatory.org/) A second application was developed, this was more intended to pursuit a tool for data agronomic practice collection. Currently, the tool is at the testing step. But it shows how they have changed from collecting data from surveys on paper to a digital tool. This is called ODK FLAR collect -2020 (https://flar.org/herramientas/)FLAR is a public-private partnership contributing to rice competitiveness and sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, this alliance integrates more than 30 organizations from 17 countries. Through such partnership, FLAR generates and disseminates knowledge, technologies, and innovations (mostly germplasm and technology transfer and training on agronomy) that contribute to the competitiveness and sustainability of rice in LAM. Thanks to FLAR rice production in LAM has tripled over the past six decades, based on more production per area unit.Since 2015 CIAT scientists working on digital agriculture have enhanced the capacity of FLAR to collect, analyze and deliver information to its countries, technicians, and farmers (1-3).In countries like Perú, Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Argentina they moved from collect information through paper-based surveys to using FLAR collect (2) and other digital tools co-designed with CIAT`s team (4-7).In Perú, Uruguay, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Argentina FLAR moved from using traditional statistics to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) . Agronomic problems that used to be interpreted through the unifactorial lens are now much more accurately interpreted by research and technicians who now make CSA decisions based on the interactions of the multi factors associated with crop production. The algorithms help them to identify CSA options (see current and previous reports of outcome 50 site-specific targeted CSA options) (1,2,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). More than 7000 cropping events have been analyzed by approximately 2000 farmers.In Colombia technicians that were trained on the use of AI algorithms to make more D-CSA decisions, once they validated the D-CSA options in the field, they use the algorithms as well to prove that farmers have made the right CSA decision s (1,2,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12).It is noteworthy that FLAR`s has an influence in 2.000.000 hectares of rice in LAM. So by making more D-CSA decisions rice in LAM is not increasing rice production and choosing the best technologies suited for a better adaptation to climate change but reducing significantly CO2 emissions of rice in LAM","tokenCount":"548"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7259267403.json b/data/part_2/7259267403.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7a6768222e02760625d3decf10ef297a8df0f299
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7259267403.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8cc28860093c13e88807050b3aea4108","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4e68f03d-5a72-4250-b8ff-f375a88d5822/retrieve","id":"-180485436"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31a56f8f-79ee-4711-ad92-32dd8219604c","pagecount":"4","content":"A key characteristic of milk production in Kenya is the existence of distinct milk surplus and milk deficit areas. Unfortunately, such factors as poor road infrastructure and lack of means of preservation hinder the smooth flow of milk from the surplus to the deficit areas, and spoilage is a major source of lost income. It is estimated that Kenya loses about 67 million litres of milk annually due to waste and spoilage, which is equivalent to some US$ 18 million.While cooling is the preferred method of bulk milk preservation, it is sometimes not feasible due to cost or irregular or absent power supply. In such areas an alternative method of preservation using the internationally approved lactoperoxidase system (LPS) is possible for groups of farmers linked to dairy processors. 1 This policy brief presents a spatial analysis of milk surplus and deficit areas in central and western Kenya and considers the feasibility of use of LPS compared to the present method of cooling.To determine where interventions might help improve market accessibility and reduce milk spoilage it is necessary to take into account two main factors: the current milk surplus or deficit, and market access. Available data were used, as described in box 1, to construct a map showing the spatial interaction of these factors in highland Kenya (figure 1). The areas of primary concern are those where a high milk surplus occurs in areas of low or medium market access. In these areas improvement of road infrastructure or dissemination of appropriate milk preservation technologies would increase marketing possibilities and reduce loss through spoilage. In Kenya, the movement of milk along the marketing chain is often hindered by such factors as lack of or dysfunctional milk cooling facilities, poor road infrastructure and irregular electricity supply.As a result, milk spoilage is a major cause of loss of income for milk marketing agents and farmers.The use of the lactoperoxidase system (LPS) offers a means by which milk collectors can preserve milk quality for a longer period, and salvage spoilage losses incurred.Use of LPS could be considered as an option for milk quality preservation where a cold chain is not feasible or economical. This would allow farmers in such circumstances to sell more milk and increase their incomes.To determine milk surplus and deficit areas, estimates of potential milk production were projected using available data on cattle numbers from the MoLFD and on milk yields from surveys by SDP. Milk demand was computed using human population data and milk consumption indexes from a study by SDP of selected urban and rural areas.For the comparison of costs of cooling and use of LPS, data were obtained from four milk cooling centres (three largescale and one small-scale). The relationship between potential and utilized capacity and cost of cooling in the plants is shown in table 1.Data on benefits and costs of LPS were collected during trials with two milk collection groups (Olbutyo and Gelegele) in Bomet District and two private milk collection agents (denoted NY-02 and NY-03) in Nyandarua District. Both districts have a high milk surplus but poor infrastructure hinders distribution. Before the trials the groups in Bomet did not sell their evening milk as they lacked means of preventing spoilage. The trial agents in Nyandarua sold both morning and evening milk but reported routinely adding hydrogen peroxide to the milk to prevent spoilage.In addition, data on location and capacity of available milk coolers, both functional and dysfunctional, were collected and mapped.Box 1.A comparative study was made of milk cooling and LPS technologies. 2 The study used data obtained from four milk cooling centres, and from LPS trials using milk collection agents. Data for the cooling centres (table 1) show costs per litre of milk cooling ranging from about KSh (Kenya shillings) 1.10-1.30 per litre in the larger centres (A, B and C) to KSh 1.77 in the smallscale plant (D). In comparison, the cost of preservation using LPS was in the range KSh 1.02-1.10 per litre. For the cooling centres, costs decreased with higher levels of utilized capacity (table 1); the plants studied were all operating at levels below their potential capacity (25-71%), with fluctuations according to seasonal availability of milk.The operators of milk cooling centres identified several key constraints, including the high costs of equipment and electricity; lack of a chilled milk price premium from dairy processors to offset these costs; and difficulty of transporting milk to the processors under chilled conditions. Milk losses due to spoilage accounted for 26% of the variable cost of cooling in the small-scale centre (D) compared to zero in the larger centres. Spoilage in centre D was due to power interruptions, and lack of milk testing equipment. Table 2 shows the results of a benefit-cost analysis of use of LPS by the four milk collection bodies. An increase in sales was expected among the trial groups, particularly due to the preservation of evening milk for collection the next morning. However, certain constraints hampered this new sales opportunity:■ Reduced milk supply during the dry season due to poor productivity of animals.A preference by some farmers to keep the evening milk for home consumption.Reluctance by women to pass control of the evening milk to their husbands for sale through milk marketing groups.Lack of milk market during the wet season due to milk intake quotas instituted by dairy processors.It was found, however, that LPS could boost profitability when used strategically on morning milk; that is, only when there was risk of spoilage.On the other hand, the milk collection agents in Nyandarua (NY-02 and NY-03) found that  However, some concerns were expressed by the milk collection agents:■ LPS was more costly and less readily available than hydrogen peroxide, and market limitations made it difficult to defray the expense.Addition of LPS involved an increased workload, and was ineffective in poor quality milk.Cultural norms were opposed to additives in milk.","tokenCount":"975"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7263880369.json b/data/part_2/7263880369.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..63032251b6da16410d9252c2c9e057b720705382
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7263880369.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7016cd44fd72a7919a504c473cbba0c6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fb7c3f83-200e-449e-8a38-f847dea05d4c/retrieve","id":"-591330149"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"853353a6-39ff-4ad6-a63f-fc06711e33ec","pagecount":"1","content":"• Early Generation Seed (EGS) is the planting material produced in tissue culture laboratories (e.g., in-vitro plantlets, micro tubers) or under protective structures, such as screenhouses (e.g., cuttings, minitubers) by specialized entities. • Seed multipliers use EGS to produce certified or quality declared seed for farm use.• Potato, like other vegetatively propagated crops, is susceptible to a variety of diseases that lower yields and tuber quality. • Pathogens accumulate in successive multiplication of tubers and in the soil.• Sustainable potato production, therefore, depends on a constantly-renewed supply of disease-free planting material.Multiplication techniques in the lab:• In the laboratory, multiplication can be done with tissue culture or micropropagation.• This work is carried out in a controlled environment under aseptic conditions and follows two steps:• Virus elimination using sprouts from infected tubers through meristem culture; and • Rapid multiplication of virus-free plantlets through nodal culture to produce large stocks of material. In-vitro multiplication via nodal cuttings","tokenCount":"154"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7266828773.json b/data/part_2/7266828773.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d9c48d0d30745af6fcc601ed9b59abd195c7ce1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/part_2/7266828773.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1479881e26fbb1bac153463647262fc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/009ae82a-d26e-46ae-b86c-29570fc73e2f/retrieve","id":"-707711082"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78b2e330-7184-4fd4-a2b9-2b8b28f12adb","pagecount":"173","content":"Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.Mr Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen -I would like to welcome you all to this workshop, for which the goal is to improve awareness among scientists of their mutual problems and of the possible approaches to solving them, as well as strengthening international cooperation on bambara groundnut. I would like to extend my welcome to those participants from various African and European countries, and from international organizations. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), the Department of Research and Specialist Services for organizing this workshop, and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, who sponsored the event.The specific objectives of the workshop are to: (i) exchange information on conservation and utilization of genetic resources on bambara groundnuts; (ii) identify gaps and constraints in the conservation and use of this crop; (iii) foster collaborative activities among scientists and to consider the establishment of a network, and (iv) develop an African plan of action for the conservation, use and research of bambara groundnut. Bambara groundnut, locally known as 'nyimo' (Shona) or 'indlubu' (Ndebele), is an indigenous African crop that has been cultivated in Africa for centuries. It is a highly nutritious plant, which plays a crucial role in people's diets. The crop is now grown in the continent from Senegal to Kenya, and from the Sahara to South Africa and Madagascar. However, bambara groundnut remains one of the crops that is most neglected by the scientific community. It is commonly referred to as a 'poor man's crop', and the plant has never been allocated a large-scale research programme. Yet empirical evidence and the results of specific research programmes indicate that bambara groundnut is a crop with considerable promise. As one of the two most drought-tolerant legumes, it deserves greater attention than it has received to date. Indeed, efforts should be intensified to conserve, improve and utilize genetic resources in general in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa in a sustainable manner.It has been shown that farm yields are in the region of 500 kg/ha, yet under research conditions, this figure can be raised to 4000 kg/ha. The difference, Mr Chairman, lies in selecting high-yielding varieties and using well-researched agronomic practices. The challenge, therefore, is to narrow this gap and improve food security at household level. It is acknowledged that bambara groundnut can be used for relish and stock fodder. It can also be used as a soil conditioner, owing to its ability to fix much-needed nitrogen in the soil. Unconfirmed observations indicate that the crop can suppress Striga species, a parasitic weed found in sandy soils. The great majority of humans are now living off a maximum of 12 plant species, compared with 100 000 edible plant species during the primitive ages. This is because of the introduction of modern farm machinery and transport methods, which have led farmers to concentrate on a few crops. A small group of usually very high-yielding cereal and legume crops have replaced most of the heterogeneous local landraces. World food production has been boosted by modern farming methods, but at a considerable price, which may even be greater in the future. Many heterogeneous local varieties of crop species have been lost forever. The loss of local species or landraces means an irreversible loss of invaluable genetic diversity, including the traits for local adaptation to the site where the species or variety evolved.In our attempts to increase production, we are consciously reducing the biodiversity that took millions of years to achieve. This process of genetic erosion has depleted the genepool available for natural selection processes. If it is unchecked, genetic erosion reduces genetic resistance and at the same time increases the vulnerability of agricultural crops to sudden and abrupt changes in climate or weather, or to the appearance of new pests and diseases. Underlying the devastating potato famine which ravaged Ireland in the 19th century and caused some 2 million Irish people to starve to death is the extremely narrow genetic base of the potato cultivated at that time in Europe, as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has reported.It is my view that if we are not careful, history will repeat itself. Ways must be found to control the genetic erosion currently occurring in our agricultural systems.To achieve this, we need to maintain collections of representative samples of local landraces of bambara groundnut for possible future use. The crop could also be improved by replacing natural with artificial selection. Such strategies involve altering the genetic composition of a plant, so that they become more ergonomically productive, and easier to harvest and process. Scientists could improve crop yield by increasing the harvest index. Yields of cereals such as wheat, maize and rice have been increased primarily by raising the weight of grain relative to the straw.Another improvement strategy involves grain quality. In theory each crop could be improved in different ways, such as by the enhancement of nutritional composition and cooking quality. An improved crop should resist waterlogging, drought, pests and diseases too, and these problems also need to be addressed by researchers and breeders.The ability of plants to symbiotically fix atmospheric nitrogen is another aspect of their cultivation which deserves the attention of crop breeders. A rigorous breeding programme could be embarked on with a view to improving the nitrogenfixation capacity of the existing varieties of bambara groundnut, on which subject few studies have been recorded to date. As nitrogen fixation is increased, soils will become more productive. This will in turn increase food production, particularly on African soils, which have a low inherent fertility compared with European soils.In summary, while crop improvement strategies are desirable to increase productivity and hence food security at the household level, there is an even greater need to conserve genetic diversity. Bambara groundnut is one example of a crop where the farmer still maintains some diversity. The onus is therefore on the scientific community to increase research on bambara groundnut and to facilitate conservation of such diversity.But what precise role can researchers play to achieve this objective? A starting point might be the collecting, characterization, classification and storage of germplasm in genebanks. Members of the Southern African Development A.E. Goli IPGRI, Cotonou, Benin It is my pleasure on this occasion to say a few words on behalf of Dr Geoffrey Hawtin, Director General of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), and also on behalf of Dr Franck Attere, IPGRI Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa.IBPGR (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources), IPGRI's predecessor, was established in 1974 as a CGIAR centre, and operated under the administration of FAO. Its major activity was originally the collecting and conservation of crop germplasm for future use. With the increasing degradation of the environment, however, IBPGR progressively expanded its role. It became a fully independent institute in 1994, and was renamed IPGRI. The structure of the institute comprises three thematic groups (Germplasm Maintenance and Use; Genetic Diversity; Documentation, Information and Technology), based at headquarters in Rome, and five regional groups across the continents (America; Asia, the Pacific and Oceania; Europe; Western Asia and Northern Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa). The regional office for Sub-Saharan Africa is based in Nairobi, with a local office for West Africa in Niamey, Niger [Ed. note: now in Cotonou, Benin].IPGRI has four principal objectives in its mandate: (i) to assist countries, particularly developing nations, to assess and meet their needs for conservation of plant genetic resources, and to strengthen links with their users; (ii) to strengthen and contribute to further international collaboration in the conservation and use of plant genetic resources; (iii) to develop and promote improved strategies and technologies for plant genetic resource conservation, and (iv) to provide an international information service on plant genetic resources. Distinguished participants, it will be apparent to you that the present gathering falls within the second objective of IPGRI, i.e. the development of international collaboration on the conservation and use of bambara groundnut genetic resources. It is well known that bambara groundnut is an indigenous crop to this continent, and is widely grown by rural communities in many African countries. Yet at the same time, bambara groundnut is a crop that is neglected by our research centres.A substantial effort to improve bambara groundnut has not been made, and yet our countries possess all the genetic diversity needed for the improvement for this crop, of importance to Africa's future. It is precisely because action needs to be taken in this regard that we are assembled here this morning.Once again, on behalf of IPGRI's Director General and the Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, I wish you every success with this timely workshop on bambara groundnut.Bambara groundnut is a popular crop in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Its cultivation seems to have preceded the introduction of the common groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), of American origin. In many traditional farming systems, it is found intercropped with cereals and root and tuber crops. Bambara groundnut is reported to have been carried as far as India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, New Caledonia and South America, particularly Brazil (Rassel 1960), but it seems that the present degree of cultivation outside Africa is negligible.Bambara groundnut belongs to the family Leguminosae, subfamily Papilionoideae, although further refinement of its taxonomy has been subject to some controversy. The crop is first mentioned in the 17th-century literature (Marcgrav de Liebstad 1648), where it is referred to as 'mandubi d'Angola'. In 1763, Linnaeus described it in Species Plantarum, and named it Glycine subterranea, in accordance with his system of nomenclature. Du Petit-Thouars (1806) found the crop in Madagascar, under the vernacular name 'voanjo', subsequently written as 'voandzou' in French. He then proposed the name Voandzeia subterranea (L.) Thouars, which was widely used by subsequent researchers for over a century. Recently, detailed botanical studies were undertaken by Maréchal et al. (1978), who found great similarities between bambara groundnut and plant species of the genus Vigna. This confirmed studies done by Verdcourt, who seized the opportunity in 1980 to propose the current name Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.Investigators interested in the origin of bambara groundnut (Dalziel 1937;Jacques-Felix 1946;Rassel 1960;Hepper 1963;Begemann 1988a) all agreed that the crop originated from the African continent. The common name actually appears to be derived from a tribe, the Bambara, who now live mainly in Mali. The exact area of origin of the crop in Africa has been a matter of debate, however. No spontaneous or wild forms of the crop have been found in Mali, although Guillemin et al. (1832) reported the probable occurrence of wild forms in nearby Senegal. Bambara groundnut was found by Dalziel in its genuinely wild state in 1901, in the North Yola province of Nigeria. He reported that Ledermann also found the wild plant the same year, near Garoua in northern Cameroon. Dalziel's finding was confirmed by Hepper in 1957. The distribution of wild bambara groundnut is now known to extend from Jos Plateau and Yola in Nigeria, to Garoua in Cameroon, and probably beyond.As further confirmation, Begemann (1988a) carried out detailed analyses of the seed-pattern diversity within the large collection of bambara groundnut at IITA. He found that samples collected less than 200 km from the putative centre of origin, between Yola and Garoua, consistently showed a greater seed-pattern diversity. Diversity indices for the number of days to maturity, pod length, number of stems per plant and internode length, were comparatively higher for accessions from Nigeria and Cameroon. His conclusion confirmed the hypothesis that the centre of origin of bambara groundnut is in the region of northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon.Bambara groundnut is a herbaceous, intermediate, annual plant, with creeping stems at ground level (Fig. 1a). Differences in the length of internodes result in bunched, intermediate (semi-bunched) and spreading types. The general appearance of the plant is bunched leaves arising from branched stems which form a crown on the soil surface. Stem branching begins very early, about 1 week after germination, and as many as 20 branches may be produced. Each branch is made up of internodes, and those near the base are shorter than the more distant ones. The plant has a welldeveloped tap root with profuse geotropic lateral roots. The roots form nodules for nitrogen fixation, in association with appropriate rhizobia. Leaf and flower buds arise alternately at each node. Leaves are pinnately trifoliate, glabrous with erect petiole, thickened at the base. Two stipels subtend the terminal leaflet, while only one is assigned to each of the two lateral leaflets. The oval leaflets are attached to the rachis with marked pulvini. The terminal leaflet is slightly larger than the lateral leaflets, with an average length of 6 cm and an average width of 3 cm.The flowers are borne on hairy peduncles, which arise from the nodes of the stems. Usually, two flowers are attached to the peduncle by pedicels. A good knowledge of the flower structure is essential for breeding the crop. Important observations have been reported by Doku and Karikari (1971a). The flowers are typically papilionaceous (Fig. 1b). The peduncles reach their maximum length at the initiation of pod formation, but their pedicels reach theirs at the time of anthesis. The interval between the opening of successive flowers in a raceme varies from 24 to 48 hours; that of flowers on the same peduncle does not exceed 24 hours, but rarely do they open at the same time. When flowers open during the early hours of the morning, they are yellowish-white, but towards the evening, the colour changes through various shades of yellow to brown. Flowers that are produced towards the end of the plant's life are usually light brown.The flower has a pair of hairy epicalyces. The calyx consists of five hairy sepals (four on the upper side and one on the lower side). The four upper sepals are almost completely joined, while the lower sepal is largely free. The epicalyx and calyx completely enclose the corolla in the early budding stage. The epicalyx drops off during the course of entry of the fertilized flower into the soil, but the calyx persists on the developing pod. The standard encloses the wing and keel until the flower opens. When the standard petal opens, it is bent over to about half its length. There is a hollow at the tip of the keel, through which ants occasionally enter both the unopened and open flowers (Doku and Karikari 1971b). The stamens are diadelphous, nine with partly fused filaments, and one isolated vexillary stamen. Upon pollination and fertilization, the peduncle elongates to bring the ovaries to or just below ground level.Apparently, reproductive development is not completely inhibited by light. The pod grows first, and reaches its mature size about 30 days after fertilization. The seed develops in the following 10 days. Mean temperature during the seasons influences the time taken to achieve physiological maturity. Bunch types tend to mature earlier than spreading types. Fruit development has been reported to be influenced by photoperiod (Linnemann and Azam-Ali 1993). Long photoperiods delay or even prevent fruit set in some cultivars. Flowering is considered day-neutral, but continuous light was shown to delay flowering by 6-11 days in a few genotypes (Nishitani et al. 1988).The pods usually develop underground, and may reach up to 3.7 cm, depending on the number of seeds they contain. Most varieties have single-seeded pods, but pods with three seeds were frequently found in ecotypes collected in Congo (Fig. 1c) (Goli and Ng 1988). Mature pods are indehiscent, often wrinkled, ranging from a yellowish to a reddish dark brown colour. Seed colour also varies, from white to creamy, yellow, brown, purple, red or black. Various testa patterns are found, including mottled, blotched or striped, in addition to the predominantly uniformly coloured seeds (Fig. 1d).Bambara groundnut is essentially grown for human consumption. The seed makes a complete food, as it contains sufficient quantities of protein, carbohydrate and fat. Several workers have examined the biochemical composition of the seed (Owusu-Domfeh et al. 1970;Oluyemi et al. 1976;Oliveira 1976;Linnemann 1987). On average, the seeds were found to contain 63% carbohydrate, 19% protein and 6.5% oil. Despite the relatively low oil content, some tribes in Congo reportedly roasted the seeds and pounded them for oil extraction (Karikari 1971). The gross energy value of bambara groundnut seed is greater than that of other common pulses such as cowpea, lentil and pigeonpea (FAO 1982).Bambara groundnut seeds are consumed in many ways. They can be eaten fresh, or grilled while still immature. At maturity, they become very hard, and therefore require boiling before any specific preparation. In many West African countries, the fresh pods are boiled with salt and pepper, and eaten as a snack. In Côte d'Ivoire, the seed is used to make flour, which makes it more digestible. In East Africa, the beans are roasted, then pulverized, and used to make a soup, with or without condiments. Bread made from bambara groundnut flour has been reported in Zambia (Linnemann 1990).Seeds can also be pounded into flour and used to make a stiff porridge, which is often kept for a long period (Holm and Marloth 1940). Roasted seeds can be boiled, crushed and eaten as a relish. Another common use of bambara groundnut is to make a paste out of the dried seeds, which is then used in the preparation of various fried or steamed products, such as 'akara' and 'moin-moin' in Nigeria (Obizoba 1983). Another favorite Nigerian dish is 'okpa', which is a doughy paste that is wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. In Ghana, the beans used to be canned in gravy at GIHOC cannery in Nsawam. The product was thus available throughout the year, and over 40 000 cans of various sizes were produced annually (Doku and Karikari 1971a;Begemann 1986a).Recently, a trial of bambara groundnut milk was carried out which compared its flavour and composition with those of milks prepared from cowpea, pigeonpea and soybean (Brough et al. 1993). Bambara groundnut was ranked first, and while all milks were found to be acceptable, the lighter colour of the bambara groundnut milk was preferred. Bambara groundnut has long been used as an animal feed, and the seeds have been successfully used to feed chicks (Oluyemi et al. 1976). The haulm was found to be palatable (Doku and Karikari 1971a), and the leaves were reported to be rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, and therefore suitable for animal grazing (Rassel 1960). Bambara groundnut germplasm is abundant in Sub-Saharan Africa, as the crop is grown in every tropical region of the continent. So far, wild relatives of cultivated bambara groundnut have only been found in northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon. It is believed that the crop originated from this part of the continent. Electrophoretic studies conducted by Howell (1990) did not reveal a significant difference between the cultivated genotypes and the supposedly wild forms, and it was concluded that the wild plant might simply be an escape from the cultivated ecotype. Successful intraspecific hybridization has not yet been reported in bambara groundnut, despite growing interest in the crop. This could limit full exploitation of the available diversity.The major germplasm collection held by IITA has been characterized and evaluated, and the results are presented in this section. A few other countries such as Zambia have also characterized their germplasm. Countries or institutions holding important and reliable collections of bambara groundnut are listed in Table 1.The large collection of IITA has been gathered from countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. The provenance of the various accessions is indicated in Table 2.Bambara groundnut seeds are orthodox, and can be stored at temperatures below 0°C. IITA maintains its base collection in a cold room at -20°C, while the collection for distribution is kept in another cold room operating at 5°C and 30% RH. Most national programmes maintain their collections for medium-term conservation at temperatures above 0°C. Deep freezers are successfully used for conservation of the base collection in a number of countries. Examples are Ghana, Niger and Zambia. Problems reported in some countries are frequent and prolonged power failures, or breakdowns of the refrigerating systems. Efforts have to be made by those countries to provide standby generators and qualified technicians for maintenance of the a b c dequipment. Although the collection may not be entirely characterized in some national programmes, the accessions, as well as their passport data, are readily available in the countries or institutions listed in Table 1. Part of the main collections (i.e. IITA and Zambia) are compiled in the International Bambara Groundnut Database (available on the Internet via http://www.dainet.de/genres/bambara/ bambara.htm).The collections of bambara groundnut available in most national programmes may not reflect all the diversity existing in the respective countries. The crop germplasm is often collected in an opportunistic manner. Plant collectors use a collecting mission for a major crop to include sampling of bambara groundnut. For example, scientists at IITA have usually collected bambara groundnut samples during collecting missions for cowpea or rice. Collecting missions primarily devoted to bambara groundnut need to be organized in many countries producing the crop. Where no research programme on the crop exists, an expedition organized by the International Bambara Groundnut Network should be organized to save those ecotypes that are in the process of extinction. Begemann (1988a) emphasized that the existing germplasm collections hold insufficient population samples from Chad, Ethiopia, Niger and Sudan.  Breeding Doku and Karikari (1971c) studied the evolution of bambara groundnut as a species. These authors' observations of 27 genotypes in Ghana led them to conclude that the cultivated bambara groundnut originated from Vigna subterranea var. spontanea and evolved through a series of gradual changes. Those include switching from open to bunched growth habit, from outbreeding to inbreeding, and a reduction in shell thickness. From the cytological point of view, all that is known is that the species has a chromosome number of 2n=22, like many other grain legumes.Reports on critical genetics and the breeding of bambara groundnut are limited. Through many years of successive cultivations, farmers have selected genotypes with desirable traits, such as high yields and bunched habit (Smartt 1985). Plants with a bunched growth habit are easier to harvest than the spreading types. Even in agricultural research, to date, breeding of bambara groundnut has focused on selection between and within population samples, for yield performance, disease resistance and drought tolerance. During characterization of the bambara groundnut collection at IITA, single plants or entire accessions were selected on the basis of their vigour, resistance to fungal diseases and seed yield. A total of 25 promising accessions were retained for further yield trials at two locations in Nigeria and one location in Burkina Faso. Yields varied from one year to another, with a strong location effect being observed. Nonetheless, accessions such as TVSU 751, 879, 922, 1034 and 1231 (Goli and Ng 1988) and TVSU 395, 401, 501, 674, 942 and 1162(Begemann 1988a) performed reasonably well.A useful tool in plant breeding for selecting delicate traits is the analysis of correlations among measurable characters, done using the results of the collection characterization at IITA. Highly significant correlations between pairs of traits can be exploited. Bambara groundnut's geotropic pod development makes breeding through artificial hybridization difficult, and such breeding has yet to be carried out. Strategies involving crosses between different ecotypes could be used to increase the yield potential, or to incorporate valuable genes into desirable cultivars. Unfortunately, no reports on such experiments are available. An attempt was made at IITA to intercross genotypes differing in seed coat and petiole colour; hand-pollination was carried out at different times in the day, but without success (Goli et al. 1991;Begemann, pers. comm.).Yet, Doku and Karikari (1971b) indicated that pollen maturity and stigma receptivity both occur just before or soon after the standard and wing petals open. Doku (pers. comm.) used boric acid in an unsuccessful attempt at making hand-crosses.Cultivation of bambara groundnut on a large scale and in pure stand is not very common. The crop is mostly grown by women, intercropped with major commodities such as maize, millet, sorghum, cassava, yam, peanut and cowpea. Grown in rotation, bambara groundnut improves the nitrogen status of the soil (Mukurumbira 1985).Bambara groundnut thrives better in deep, well-drained soils with a light, friable seedbed (Johnson 1968). Many farmers grow the crop on a flat seedbed, but the use of ridges or mounds is also common in a few countries. Planting density is usually low in farmers' fields, especially when crops are not in rows. In experimental plots, recommended plant density ranged from 6 to 29 plants/m 2 (Rassel 1960). Farmers do not normally apply chemical fertilizers to bambara groundnut fields. The nitrogen requirement is met by natural N 2 fixation, as indicated by several nodulation studies (Doku 1969a;Somasegaran et al. 1990). Yield increase as a result of phosphate or potassium application has not always been confirmed (Johnson 1968;Nnadi et al. 1981).Bambara groundnut has a reputation for resisting pests, and compares favourably with other legumes such as groundnut or cowpea in this regard. In humid environments, however, fungal diseases such as Cercospora leafspot, Fusarium wilt and Sclerotium rot are common (Billington 1970;Begemann 1986bBegemann , 1988a)). In such circumstances, spraying with the fungicide benlate (1 kg/ha) has proved beneficial.Viral diseases are widespread in most environments, especially in areas where other grain legumes such as cowpea are grown. Common diseases are cowpea mottle virus (CMeV) and cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (AbMV) (Ng et al. 1985). A combination of unusually heavy virus attack and Cercospora leaf spot on one particular accession (TVSU 218) resulted in zero yield during a trial at Kaboinse, Burkina Faso (Goli et al. 1991).Harvesting of bambara groundnut is done by pulling or lifting the plant. For the bunched-habit type, most pods remain attached to the root crown. Detached pods left in the ground are collected manually. In a dry environment, harvesting takes place when the entire foliage dries up. In humid ecosystems, however, pod-rotting or early seed germination (in the pod) may take place while the leaves are still partially green. Harvesting is then recommended before full foliage drying.Harvested pods are air-dried for several days before threshing. The raw product is sold at markets, as pods or seeds. In dry areas, materials for planting the following season are usually kept by farmers as pods. This reduces or eliminates attacks by insects.Bambara groundnut is a promising commodity which needs more publicity, both as a crop and as a food. Even in tropical Africa, few people in the forest zones are aware of its existence. It should be emphasized that it is a low-cost, dependable crop that grows in harsh environments where many other crops fail. Its high nutritive value should also be made known to the general public, and, in particular, to the rural poor. However, to ensure the wider adoption of bambara groundnut, the general mode of consumption of the crop needs improving. Modern processing methods would enable distribution of bambara groundnut to non-producing areas.The Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country covering 582 000 km², located between latitudes 17 and 27ºS and longitude 20ºE. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Zimbabwe to the east, Angola and Zambia to the north, and Namibia to the west (Fig. 1). The average rainfall varies from a maximum of over 650 mm in the Kasane area (the Chobe enclave), located to the extreme northeast of the country, to a minimum of just under 250 mm in the Kgalagadi district, lying to the extreme southwest. The main rainy season is from November to March, with October and April as spring transition months, respectively. Almost all the rainfall occurs between October and April, with very little rainfall recorded during the winter months (May-September). Drought is a recurrent element of the climate of Botswana. Rainfall is erratic, and occurs mainly during the summer months, when evapotranspiration rates are high.The climate of Botswana has important consequences for arable agriculture. Frequent low soil moisture levels, often below those necessary to sustain continuous crop growth, commonly result in crop failures. Consequently, dryland crop farming is limited to short-season cereals and legumes that also have inherent drought tolerance.One of the crops which features prominently in Botswana's farming systems is bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) (called 'ditloo' in the local language, Setswana). In the Ministry of Agriculture statistics (Ministry of Agriculture 1993), bambara groundnut is grouped with pulses, and it is therefore difficult to obtain accurate production figures. According to von Rudloff (1993), however, the crop is grown over an estimated area of 1500 ha, from which a total yield of about 400 t of seed is obtained annually. Bambara groundnut has the third highest production of the grain legumes, coming after cowpea and groundnut, and is more common in markets than mung bean (Vigna radiata) and tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) (Karikari, private survey).Throughout the country, bambara groundnut is often cultivated in mixed/intercropping systems. However, production is more concentrated in the northern and eastern parts of the country, along the railway, where population densities are relatively high and land availability limits farm size. Sorghum, millet and maize are the principal crops, grown mainly for subsistence, and these are intercropped with cowpea, bambara groundnut, melons and vegetables. In the Tutume, Francistown and Tati districts, where millet is the main cereal staple, it is usually intercropped with bambara groundnut. It is in these areas, therefore, that bambara groundnut production is most concentrated (Chaba 1994). In Botswana, bambara groundnut is predominantly grown for human consumption. Consumers often prefer the immature seeds, which are boiled in the pod, salted, and consumed, either on their own or mixed with maize seeds. When the seeds are ripe and dry, they are pounded into a flour and used to make a variety of cakes, or are mixed with cereals and used to prepare several types of porridge. Livestock, especially goats, are very fond of the haulm, which they are allowed to graze on at the end of the season, after the pods have been harvested. The seeds of the mature black landrace are used in traditional medicine.The first collecting and evaluation of bambara groundnut germplasm was carried out before 1947 (Ministry of Agriculture 1947). This report mentions that bambara groundnut was grown throughout what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate, where it was never grown as a cash crop on a large scale, but was consumed chiefly as a dietary supplement and as a delicacy. The report also mentions the drought tolerance of bambara groundnut, which meant that it tended to do better on sandier soils and in the drier areas of the country.The first trial to evaluate the yield of seven landraces was planted at the Ministry of Agriculture Research Station at Sebele in December 1958, and was harvested in April 1959. The varieties were collected from native crops and classified by seed characteristics, including colour of the testa, seed size and eye pattern. The total rainfall during the crop's growing period was 494 mm, and yields ranged from 0.163 to 0.197 t/ha. It is interesting to note that the yield of the bambara groundnut was about twice that of groundnut planted in a variety trial in an adjacent field.The next germplasm collection was made in April 1985. The two-man collecting team consisted of a plant geneticist and an IBPGR consultant. The trip, which was funded by IBPGR, was mainly aimed at collecting groundnut, bambara groundnut and finger millet germplasm. Collecting was done in the northeastern, Tutume and Kgatleng districts, and the members of the team observed that there were three distinct types of bambara groundnut in Botswana. These were chiefly based on pericarp colour, and comprised the white, amber and black pericarp types. Bambara groundnut was found being grown on ridges, in small patches in sorghum and pearl millet fields. One-seeded types were common but two-seeded types were also found. Under severe moisture stress, where groundnut did not produce kernels, bambara groundnut produced small filled pods, revealing its drought tolerance (Mazhani and Appa-Rao 1985).The germplasm collected (Table 1) was characterized and conserved by Mazhani.The material collected by Mazhani (Department of Agricultural Research (DAR) collection) has been widely distributed. However, none of these varieties is known to have been officially released by the DAR.The Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) collection is only a recent one, and was created to obtain more materials for evaluation work, and also for the European Union-funded International Bambara Groundnut Research Project (see Dr Sarah Collinson's paper, this volume). A total of 26 landraces have been collected to date, and have been characterized using the IBPGR Descriptors List (IBPGR/IITA/GTZ 1987).The classification criteria are as follows: • location -area of Botswana where the seeds were collected, or where they originated (Botswana, Gaborone, Diphiri, Tshesebe, Zimbabwe, etc.)• base colour of testa and pattern -red, black, cream, white, specked, mottled, etc.• growth habit -bunch, semibunch, spreading • individual collector -OM 1, OM 2, etc.• peculiar features -short stemmed, long stemmed, leaf arrangement, venation, etc. The following landraces have been described and evaluated over four seasons , on the basis of the above characteristics. Other landraces not listed here are in the process of being evaluated.The source of this seed is the National Tested Seed of Zimbabwe, and it was obtained in 1991, for the experiments contained in the EU project described in Collinson's paper. The seeds are large (100-seed weight is 53 g). Seeds are oval shaped, and have a mean length and width of 10.8 and 9.1 mm respectively, with a white hilum, but no peculiar eye characteristics. The seeds are quite uniform in colour, with very little segregation into different colours, although different shades of red do appear.The Botswana Red landrace was obtained from the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board 1 (BAMB). The colour of the seeds, light reddish brown, is similar to that of the Zimbabwe Red, but the seeds are smaller. It also does not have peculiar eye characteristics. Over three evaluation seasons, it has shown less seed colour segregation.All the red-seeded varieties obtained from three markets in Gaborone (the main mall, Broadhurst mall and the railway station markets) have been classified as Gaborone Red (GabR 1 , GabR 2 and GabR 3 , respectively).A cream-seeded landrace obtained from the same markets in Gaborone (the main mall, Broadhurst mall and the railway station), and classified as GabC 1 , GabC 2 and GabC 3 , respectively.The only landrace obtained from the southern district. This has the characteristic uniform cream colour, and has also been classified into two varieties: black eye (DipC 1 ) and brown eye (DipC 2 ).Tshesebe is in the heart of the bambara groundnut growing area of the northern part of the country, where the cream colour predominates. This landrace is cream with no eye pattern. Over the years, this landrace has segregated, with two white landraces identifiable from the original TshC; these have been named Tshesebe White 1 (TshW 1 ) and Tshesebe White 2 (TshW 2 ).Although the black-seeded landrace is not very popular with local consumers, it is more expensive than other landraces, owing to its use in traditional medicine (when eaten, it is reputed to act as a strong male aphrodisiac). It has a characteristic shiny black colour with white eyes. It segregates into other colours, especially brown, and the occurrence of both black and brown seeds in one single pod is common.The landraces OM1 and OM2 were named after the collector O. Motswasele (now deceased). The seeds of both are light brown in colour, and have characteristic specks of black on the seed. In OM1, the specks are concentrated around the hilum, but in OM2 they are uniformly distributed on the seed, and are described as entire specks. OM6 also has light brown seeds, but without the characteristic specks observed in OM1 and OM2.The seeds of the landraces are all oval-shaped, and the mean seed length is 10.8 (±0.1 mm). The physical characteristics of all the seeds were measured as part of a project to design a commercial planter for large-scale cultivation of the crop (Nape 1995), and Zimbabwe Red (NTSR) was found to have the largest seeds. However, it has not been established that seed size is genetic, as under severe moisture stress, OM6 produced the largest seed.The chemical composition of the landraces has been determined: protein content varied from 8.2 to 16.6%; carbohydrate from 51.2 to 57.0%; fat from 5.5 to 6.8%; fibre from 5.5 to 6.4% and ash from 3.2 to 4.0%. The different landraces were also high in mineral content (mg/100 g), with the following ranges: Ca 95.8-99; Fe 5.1-9.9; K 1144.7-1435.5 and Na 2.9-10.6. The dark-seeded landraces (red and black) tended to have higher nutrient and mineral contents than the light-seeded ones (cream and white) (Gibbons 1994). Local people are unaware of this fact, however, and tend to prefer the light-coloured seeds for consumption, perhaps owing to their shorter cooking time and superior flavour.Two growth habits occur in the landraces in Botswana: bunch and spreading. The local red and black landraces are spreading types, but the cream and white landraces are all of the bunch type. Under various spacing and irrigation conditions, Zimbabwe Red (NTSR) had a semibunch growth habit. The spreading types were also found to produce a few tillers. In actual field measurements, the spreading types could attain a canopy spread of 120 cm or more, but at average spacing of 30 x 30 cm, the bunch types did not form close canopies.Days to first flowering took 44-60 days after sowing, and generally within 80 days, 50% of plants had flowered. It took 120-155 days for pods to mature. The cream landrace produced more flowers and also matured earlier than the red landrace. OM6 had a tendency to germinate in the pod, if not harvested soon after maturity.The terminal leaflet shape was characteristic for the landraces. We observed that the red and black landraces had broad leaves, and the cream and white had narrow-tolanceolate leaves. It was difficult to distinguish the varieties by leaf colour, but in general, the primary leaf colour at maturity was deep green for the black and the red landraces, and light green for the cream varieties (Kebadumetse 1994).Yields were very variable: the highest yield obtained was 1.7 t/ha for Zimbabwe Red. All other red-seeded landraces had low yields. Lower yields have always been recorded for the cream-seeded landraces, and on some occasions, no yields were obtained from these landraces at all. Shelling percentage ranged from 18 to 22%, and shell thickness from 0.35 to 0.47 mm. The cream and white-seeded landraces had thinner shells and seed coats.The repository for all germplasm in Botswana is the Department of Agricultural Research of the Ministry of Agriculture, which has a Plant Genetic Resources Unit. All germplasm activities are coordinated by a National Plant Genetic Resources Committee (NPGRC), based at Sebele. Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) is a member of this committee. The DAR implements all the Committee's activities, and employs a full-time curator, whose office must be liaised with on all matters relating to germplasm collecting. However, where institutions involved in research (such as BCA) have the capacity, some germplasm is maintained in ex situ collections. Owing to a lack of proper long-term storage facilities, the BCA collections are maintained both on-farm and under short-term ex situ storage conditions. Records of accessions are kept at the NPGRC centre.No breeding work on bambara groundnut has been done in Botswana, although selection based on a number of agronomic characters has always been practised. For example, within each landrace, early maturing lines, bunch habit and higher number of leaves, stems, flowers, pegs and pods have been favoured. Large seed size and pods with thicker shells, as well as those containing more than one seed, were also favoured.A number of agronomic studies of the landraces have been carried out. In a series of sowing-date experiments, it was established that early sowing produced higher yields than late sowing, and also that irrigation was helpful, as irrigated crops yielded twice as much as rain-fed ones. In Botswana, however, growing bambara groundnut under irrigation does not seem feasible for a long time to come. Studies involving intercropping with cereals indicated that bambara groundnut did not withstand intercropping with maize and sorghum as it did with millet. Furthermore, the landraces responded differently; the semi-spreading ones, such as Zimbabwe Red (NTSR), did not suffer a decline in yields under intercropping with millet, whereas Tshesebe Cream (a bunch type) did (Chaba 1994).The major diseases affecting bambara groundnut are Fusarium wilt, which attacks the young seedlings of all landraces in wet weather, particularly under waterlogged conditions, and Cercospora leaf spot, which also has been observed on crops under irrigation. In dry weather, pod attacks by termites also have been consistently observed, and in one particular year, 1994-95, a particularly severe attack resulted in the loss of an entire crop. Root knot nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) also attacked the roots of the plant in sandy soils. In storage, shelled bambara groundnut seeds were extremely susceptible to attack by bruchids (Callosobruchus maculatus). All landraces were attacked by this pest, but the black-seeded landrace was affected less severely. The unshelled seed was extremely resistant to bruchid attack.Groundnut germplasm collection in Botswana is far from being completed, and existing collections are quite limited in terms of both genetic diversity and geographic representation. At the recent Botswana International Trade Fair, held in August 1995, farmers exhibited a wide array of seeds, some of which were varieties not collected during our mission. There is therefore a need for a further exploratory collecting mission to other areas of the country not covered by the previous expedition. These areas would include the Chobe enclave, Ngamiland and the central Kalahari. Germplasm would continue to be made available to farmers and other interested parties within the country and outside.The Botswana landraces have already been distributed among all the collaborating partners in the European Union bambara project, including Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, Njala University College, Sierra Leone, Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands, and the University of Nottingham, UK. Efforts made to import germplasm from outside Botswana have yielded accessions from Malawi (16 varieties), Zambia (6 varieties) and Tanzania (2 varieties). These should be evaluated alongside the local germplasm. All the landraces we have collected within Botswana seem to tolerate long dry periods, which makes them ideal for such areas of low, erratic rainfall. On several occasions, the crop has succeeded in yielding on residual moisture, after cessation of rain, and under conditions where even sorghum failed.The characteristics of bambara groundnut are highly variable, particularly its yield. The poor average seed yields throughout our four evaluation seasons point to an important limitation of the crop -a lack of broad adaptation of the species and its landraces.Even where moisture deficit was irrelevant, instability was still characteristic of our bambara groundnut yields. Undoubtedly, there is genetic variation owing to factors limiting bambara groundnut's response to the environment. The Zimbabwe Red and all the cream-coloured landraces showed more stability in their seed yields than the local red and black landraces. It therefore appears that, through judicious selection and breeding, it ought to be possible to develop cultivars possessing greater flexibility or broad adaptation to specific environmental niches.Initial attempts should be made to identify those characteristics of bambara groundnut which would be required to meet the particular economic circumstances created by large-scale mechanized farming on one hand, and by small-scale cultivation by peasant farmers on the other.-QTVSZMRK XLI KIRIXMG TSXIRXMEP SJ FEQFEVE KVSYRHRYX The cultivation of bambara groundnut in Botswana suggests two ideotypes, namely:• a bunch ideotype, for large-scale mechanized farming, where a very high plant population would be aimed at for maximum yield, and • a spreading ideotype, to be grown exclusively as a subsistence crop by smallholders in a cereal-based farming system. The important research priority would be to develop appropriate agronomic and nutritional packages. It appears that, for this purpose, the cream-to-white landraces would serve as a genebank for the commercial production of bambara groundut, while the red and black landraces could provide a genebank for the ideotype required for the rain-fed, cereal-based subsistence farming system. Researchers at the Botswana College of Agriculture are currently working towards achieving these objectives.Given the rapid rate at which the world's population is currently increasing in relation to agricultural production, the goal of agronomic research must be to improve the productivity not only of our main crops, but also of certain crops that have hitherto been neglected. Among the latter group of crops, particular attention should be focused on the bambara groundnut, Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc., which flourished before the introduction of the peanut, Arachis hypogaea (Goli et al. 1991).Between 1982 and 1985, an attempt was made to improve bambara groundnut in Burkina Faso. This initiative followed the collection of local cultivars in 1981, and involved the participation of plant breeders in the Grain Legumes Programme. In the adaptation trials we conducted, bambara groundnut was severely affected by leaf spot and viral diseases (Sérémé 1989), and the preliminary work undertaken led us to decide that it would be necessary to include a plant pathologist in the research team, before continuing our bambara groundnut research (Drabo 1987). With the arrival of two plant geneticists, the research work was carried out in 1986, and a number of significant results have been obtained to date.Since 1989, collections of local varieties of the bambara groundnut have been undertaken several times in Burkina Faso. Local varieties from other countries in the subregion (Mali, Nigeria, Niger, etc.) have also been introduced into our collection. This paper reviews current knowledge of bambara groundnut germplasm and the state of research on this crop in Burkina Faso.In Africa, the bambara groundnut is generally cultivated by women on small plots. Production is primarily at subsistence level, and only the surplus is sold. In 1982, world bambara groundnut production was around 330 000 t (Linnemann 1994). A total of 150 000-160 000 t, or 45-50% of world production of the crop, came from West Africa (Kiwallo 1991).The bambara groundnut is grown in all regions of Burkina Faso (Table 1). In 1989, the country produced an estimated 20 000 t, making it the third largest grain legume crop, after peanut (160 000 t) and cowpea (74 000 t) (Kiwallo 1991). Like cowpea, bambara groundnut is produced according to traditional methods, and is intercropped with cereals (sorghum, millet and maize), although in poorer soil, it is mainly grown in monoculture.The bambara groundnut is primarily consumed by its producers, during the period before the cereals are harvested. Along with the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), it constitutes the main source of vegetable protein for the rural populations of Burkina Faso. Its leaves, which are rich in protein and phosphorus, are used as fodder for livestock. In  1; the overall distribution is presented in Annex A. In 1993, a collecting programme was carried out in the southeastern, eastern and northern regions of Burkina Faso. A total of 33 samples was obtained (see Annex B). Currently, 143 local varieties of bambara groundnut are available in Burkina Faso, at the Kamboinse Research and Training Station. The seeds of each accession are preserved in polyethylene containers with a capacity of 300 g of seed. All the containers are stored in a climate-controlled room. To maintain the viability of accessions, they are planted every 2 or 3 years.The collection of local ecotypes in Burkina Faso is incomplete because the sampling has been very irregular. A more intensive project needs to be undertaken, to collect all existing genetic variation. In our programme, the germplasm of the bambara groundnut was not described as such, but there are some preliminary data on yield, 50% flowering (30-36 days) and the reaction to leaf and viral disease of many accessions (Kiwallo 1991;Sérémé 1992Sérémé , 1993)). Research on the cultivation of the bambara groundnut in Burkina Faso has been very limited, compared with that on the cowpea, and did not really begin until 1986. The following results have been obtained.The seeds of 110 bambara groundnut cultivars (88 indigenous and 22 exotic varieties) were analyzed according to the ISTA method, and planted in fields at the Kamboinse and Farakoba research stations. This made it possible to identify the presence of several major pathogens responsible for the leaf diseases of bambara groundnut that are known in Burkina Faso, such as Phoma sorghina, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phomopsis sojae, Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani. The role of P. sorghina and P. sojae in the etiology of leaf spot disease was established by testing for pathogenesis. Tests showed that 4-week-old plants, and doses of 10 5 or 10 6 spores/ml of water, constituted ideal conditions when screening for resistant varieties (Sérémé et al. 1991).The influence of planting date on the development of leaf diseases was examined for 20 varieties of bambara groundnut in the central region of Burkina Faso, in a multilocation (Kamboinse, Gampéla) and 2-year trial (1991, 1992). In the first year, results showed a low level of grain production (23-369 kg/ha) of these varieties, and a decrease in the severity of the disease, with early planting. This did not affect the yield, however (Sérémé et al. 1991).In 1992, using a wider range of planting dates, seven relatively productive varieties were identified for at least one planting date, from 24 June to 9 July in Kamboinse or Gampéla, with yields from 552 to 1027 kg/ha. The Benlate T20 used to treat the seeds totally eliminated all the bambara groundnut seed pathogens. Field treatments made it possible to gain a better understanding of the low productivity of bambara groundnut plants resulting from leaf diseases, and to estimate the yield loss at 83% (Sérémé 1993).The use of current technologies made it possible to identify several viruses transmitted by seeds of 17 bambara groundnut samples (Sérémé 1989). Viruses associated with cowpea aphid-borne mosaic (CAMV), blackeye cowpea mosaic virus (BLCMV) and peanut mottle virus (PMV) were observed. We were not able to identify all the viruses, even if all the ones we observed were potyviruses. These results suggest that there may be a complex of several bambara groundnut viruses in Burkina Faso, transmitted by seed. The effect on the biomass of virus-infected bambara groundnut plants caused was measured. In some cases, the biomass was reduced by 63%; this demonstrates the significant extent to which these parasites contribute to reducing the productivity of the bambara groundnut.)RXSQSPSK] The traditional method of preserving the bambara groundnut in Burkina Faso consists of putting small quantities of seed in terracotta pots and mixing them with ashes. Although bambara groundnut has been described as a healthy crop, resistant to insects (Duke et al. 1977) in Burkina Faso, the most severe damage to this crop has been chiefly in storage by the bruchid Callosobruchus subinotatus. The cowpea bruchid, Callosobruchus maculatus, causes less damage. These two species of bruchids are the main insects which attack stored bambara groundnut in West Africa (Begemannn 1986b). However, the bambara groundnut is much less susceptible than the cowpea to bruchids. The first collections in the southwestern area of the country carried out in 1981 were all screened for resistance to bruchids, and no resistant variety was identified (Dabire, unpublished).Since 1994, the plant breeders in the Grain Legume Programme have conducted adaptation trials, in order to identify the varieties of bambara groundnut with high yield potential. Seeds are planted on flat-topped ridges, following a treatment of NPK (14-24-14) at the rate of 100 kg/ha. Rows are planted 40 cm apart, with 15 cm between seed holes. The 1994 and 1995 trial results are given below. This trial in Kamboinse consisted of 20 entries, originating from national germplasm. Differences in yield between the entries were significant. The difference between the varieties was not significant for leafspot diseases or flowering. With respect to yield, the varieties to be retained were: CVS/BF 066 (799 kg/ha), CVS/BF 065 (697 kg/ha), CVS/BF 003 (600 kg/ha), CVS BF 038 (592 kg/ha) Yalgo local-1 (532 kg/ha), CVS/BF 004 (517 kg/ha), Douna-3 (515 kg/ha) and Dassanga (497 kg/ha). This trial, which comprised the nine best ecotypes for 1994, was conducted in Kamboinse on two dates (26 June and 9 July) recommended for planting in the Central region of Burkina Faso. The average yield obtained is presented in Table 2. Statistical analysis shows no significant difference between the planting dates and the ecotypes. Given the high coefficient of variation (33.2%), the trial is inconclusive. However, the low yields obtained may be explained by periods of drought during plant growth, and the high incidence of leaf diseases and viruses. The varieties CVS/BF 066, CVS/BF 065 and CVS/BF 003, which ranked first in 1994, reconfirmed their superior performance in 1995. The various collecting missions for local varieties of bambara groundnut conducted in Burkina Faso have made it possible to gather 143 ecotypes. Collecting was not exhaustive, and projects to collect bambara groundnut in all regions of the country must be planned in the short term in order to preserve the genetic variability of this crop. Research on the resistance of the bambara groundnut revealed a complex of pathogens that severely affect its productivity, particularly Phoma spp., Phomopsis sojae and viruses. Methods of resisting leaf spot disease were developed by combining the best planting dates (late June/early July) with treatments of Benlate T20. Considering the weak purchasing power of Burkina Faso's producers, our research programme on the bambara groundnut aims at the genetic enhancement of the most productive local varieties, by introducing genes resistant to Phoma spp., P. sojae, to viruses and, if possible, to bruchids. This requires the availability of a wide range of appropriate scientific equipment and of local varieties (indigenous and exotic), which will be screened by plant pathologists and entomologists to identify resistant components. Cameroon covers an area of 474 442 km², and contains exceptionally diverse physical environments. The country extends from latitudes 2º to 13°N, its altitudinal range from sea level to over 4000 m, and spreads from coastal mangrove swamp to the remote continental interior. Above latitude 6°N, rainfall varies from 800 to 1700 mm annually, and the mean temperature is 28°C, with an annual amplitude of 10-15°C depending on latitude, and a daily amplitude of 20°C. Below latitude 6°N, annual rainfall ranges even more widely, from 1900 to 4000 mm, and the mean temperature is around 25°C, with an annual amplitude of 3°C and a daily amplitude of 5-10°C.Bambara groundnut is successfully grown above and below latitude 6°N, which reveals its great adaptability to a wide range of environmental conditions. It is a staple food for the population of part of the central, littoral and the most northern provinces.Predictably, bambara groundnut is one of the crops that is most neglected by researchers in the Cameroon, and as far as is known, it has not yet been studied by any of the country's agricultural research institutes. The crop's advantages have been reported (National Academy of Sciences 1979), and dishes prepared with bambara groundnut are highly valued in the author's tribe. She began her research on the crop mainly in the littoral and western provinces in March 1989, and divided it into a number of phases, described below. So far, phases 1 and 2 have been carried out.1. Survey, collecting and characterization of local cultivars.2. Tests for yield potential and yield variability among the cultivars collected.3. Biochemical analysis, and screening for superior cultivars, on the basis of yielding ability and nutritional value. 4. Investigation of the physiological parameters that could account for yield variability. 5. Improvement of the crop's management in the traditional farming systems of Cameroon.In the areas surveyed, bambara groundnut is mainly cultivated by women, on small farms, and is primarily destined for home consumption. Part of the harvest, however, is given away as presents to relatives and friends living in urban areas. Some may also be sold to obtain cash. As is mentioned elsewhere in this book, statistics on bambara groundnut production do not exist. The crop is mainly consumed fresh. The whole pods are boiled, and the seeds are eaten as a snack. Fresh testa-free seeds are cooked with seasoning and eaten as a complete meal, or they are ground to make a pudding (traditional cake), to which taro leaves are sometimes added.Bambara groundnut is often mixed with the other crops, including peanut, maize, cassava, cocoyam, common bean and yams. It is sown on ridges or mounds. Ridges are 30-40 cm apart and 2-3 seeds are sown per hole, 20-25 cm apart. Mounds vary greatly in size, depending on the farmer. The average mound is 40 cm wide (diameter) and 30 cm high. They are approximately 50 cm apart. Each mound contains one hole, which receives 2-4 seeds at sowing.Large and hole-free seeds (which should be undamaged) are chosen from the sowing.No fertilizer or any other chemical treatment is applied. Weeding and earthing-up are carried out simultaneously, 2-3 times before harvesting. Whole pods are sun-dried and kept in bags for the next cropping season. Occasionally, the pods are shelled, and the dry seeds are carefully wrapped in calabashes, with or without wood ashes.No major diseases of bambara groundnut have been identified to date, owing to the lack of research carried out on the crop. Although no farmer has complained of a serious reduction in production caused by diseases or pest attacks, it was obvious from the author's survey that all parts of the plant (leaves, roots and pods) were attacked.In the rare instances where bambara groundnut is grown by men, the crop is cultivated in pure stand, and is usually destined for commercialization. Cultivation is carried out on ridges or beds, with an average plant spacing of 30 x 25 cm.Cultivars were collected from farmers and local markets. The following testa colours have been identified: black, cream, dark brown, light brown, dark red, light red, brownish red, dotted brown and dotted cream. In the environmental conditions prevailing in Dschang (West Province), plants emerged 7-10 days after planting (DAP). Flowering occurred 57-69 DAP, with an average of 64 DAP. Cultivars exhibited different growth habits: spreading, bunch and semi-bunch type. Seed weight varied from 380 to 470 mg/seed, with an average of 430 mg/seed.A mathematical equation relating the estimated leaf area (ELA, length x width of leaflets) to the actual leaf area (ALA) was found:This equation is useful to researchers who lack adequate tools for determining leaf area. The leaf area index, the ratio of the leaf area of a group of plants to the area occupied by those plants, is an important parameter in growth analysis, and appears to be a useful criterion in the search for high yielding ability (as are other physiological features in crop selection). Total crop growth rate ranged from 0.44 to 1.27 g•plant -1•day -1 , and averaged 0.72 g•plant -1 •day -1 , while pod growth rate varied from 0.52 to 0.72 g, with an average of 0.61 g. Partitioning coefficients ranged from 104 to 130% for most cultivars (only brown cultivars had partitioning coefficients of less than 50%, approximately 48%). previous harvest for sowing. In some areas, bambara groundnut can be sown twice a year, in February-April and in August. Harvesting is done by hand, 3-5 months after Harvest index, expressed as the ratio of pods to the whole plant, ranged from 0.42 to 0.49 and averaged 0.45. Shelling percentage was highly variable, ranging from about 17 to 55%, with an average of 35%. Yield on a plant basis varied from 13.40 to 47.16 g/plant and averaged 28.89 g/plant. Considering the plant spacing used in the trial (40 x 25 cm), this would give a yield range of 130-470 kg/ha, with an average of 290 kg/ha. These values fall into the range indicated in bambara groundnut literature for African yields.Subject to the availability of funds, the author intends to:• extend the survey in the northern regions of the country, where bambara groundnut seems to be important, as it is grown in pure stand and apparently receives fertilizers • continue collecting accessions (having found cultivars with different testa colours)• continue investigations of the crop through the implementation of phases 3, 4 and 5 of the research programme described above, leading to: (i) evaluation of the nutritional value of different cultivars (ii) assessment of the nature and extent of the relationships between leaf area index, harvest index, partitioning coefficient, grain/pod-filling period and yields (iii) determination of the optimal harvest period, in order to minimize losses due to overmaturity (where pods will rot), or immaturity, as harvesting cannot be done gradually, owing to underground fruiting (iv) improvement of cropping techniques (optimal plant density in sole and multiple cropping; the best species in the association; plant arrangement in intercropping; the use of fertilizers, including type, dose and application period; type of sowing beds, i.e. ridges, mounds or flat). In collaboration with colleagues in the Plant Protection Department, pathological and entomological aspects will be addressed, as the author has noticed leaf, root and pod damage in the field. The author hopes to publish her research on bambara groundnut in a PhD thesis, and wishes to exchange information on the crop, through the Bambara Groundnut Research Network.University of Ghana, Accra, GhanaAccording to the 1970 Ghana Agricultural census, there were 28 700 ha of bambara groundnut under cultivation in the Upper Region, and only 2800 ha in the rest of the country. In recent years, a number of factors have contributed to a decline in the importance of the crop in Ghana. These include inadequate research and funding to improve existing varieties and cropping systems, and, most significantly, the introduction of soybean. Although it is not as drought-tolerant as bambara groundnut, soybean appears to be much easier to cultivate, and the yields of improved varieties are much higher. Soybean has also received such considerable material and financial support that in about 5-10 years, it is likely to be the leading food legume crop in Ghana. Statistics are not available on the area under cultivation, the average yield, and total national production of bambara groundnut, all of which have decreased. Nonetheless, bambara groundnut still remains the third most important food legume crop in Ghana, after cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea).Although the crop has not received government or international support in Ghana, work on bambara groundnut in the late 1960s and early 1970s gained international recognition. The University of Ghana believed that IITA had been mandated to work on the crop, and passed our germplasm collection to it, in the hope that our research workers and students would have the opportunity of working on the crop at IITA. As is well known, IITA's mandate for the crop was very short-lived. In the interim our germplasm collection disappeared, so we are now having to build it up from scratch.Bambara groundnut is cultivated in the drier Sudan, Guinea and coastal savanna zones of Ghana, where the annual rainfall ranges from 800 to 1200 mm. In the Guinea savanna zone, the crop is usually grown during the minor season (September-November), when the rainfall is reliable. In the Sudan savanna zone, it is usually cultivated towards the end of the single long rainy season.There are very few bambara groundnut cropping systems, and these have changed little. In southeastern Ghana (the eastern Greater Accra and southern Volta regions), and also in northern Ghana, the crop is always grown at high densities, in pure stand and in rotation with cereals, etc. Recently, however, some farmers in the southern regions have started growing mixed stands of bambara and peanuts, the seeds being mixed before broadcasting. In the other growing areas of northern Ghana, it is usually grown as a mixed crop, with sorghum and millet. There is also a trend towards mixed cropping with yams, the bambara groundnut being planted on yam mounds that would otherwise have remained bare (except for the straw cap or mulch) for a long period. The bambara crop protects the mounds from erosion, conserves moisture and creates fewer temperature fluctuations in the mound. There are no yield or crop performance data for the various cropping systems. However, farmers' yields are believed to be very low, ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 t/ha. In the absence of improved varieties and cropping systems, yields are likely to decline.The high carbohydrate (65%) and relatively high protein (18%) content of bambara groundnut make it a complete food. In northern Ghana, the fresh immature beans are boiled and consumed after adding a little salt. The dry beans are also boiled, crushed and made into cakes or balls, which are then fried and used to prepare stews. In southern Ghana, the beans are usually soaked overnight, after which they are boiled until soft, to produce a kind of porridge/blancmange. Capsicum pepper and salt may be added during the boiling process. This preparation, called 'aboboi', is served with 'gari' (roasted, grated cassava) or with mashed, fried, ripe plantain. In the early 1960s, bambara groundnut was canned in Ghana, in tomato sauce with pieces of meat, in brine, or as 'aboboi'. Canned bambara groundnut was very popular, and competed favourably with Heinz baked beans, but the state-owned cannery has now collapsed.Local germplasm collecting and foreign introductions began in the early 1960s. The local materials were from the principal growing areas, and the foreign introductions came from northern Nigeria, East Africa and Zimbabwe. Accessions are normally kept in cold storage in bottles or polythene bags. Institutions holding germplasm collections in Ghana are: the Crop Science Department, University of Ghana (80 accessions); the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) (formerly Nyankpala Agricultural Experimental Station) (NAES, 90 accessions) and the Plant Genetic Resources Centre (PGRC, 166 accessions). Both SARI and PGRC are institutions under the aegis of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).Primary evaluation of collections is carried out for yield, maturity period, pest and disease resistance, and characters by which they can be readily identified. These include seed coat and eye colour, growth habit (bunch or spreading), colour of stem, petiole length and leaflet size. The findings of research completed at the Crop Science Department, University of Ghana, on some 70 local and exotic accessions, indicated a three-fold categorization of characters with respect to their variation:(i) plant base spread and petiole length (the most variable) (ii) number of branches/plant (moderately variable) (iii) canopy spread, leaflet length and width (the least variable).It was suggested that the characters in category (i) could be most usefully employed in a primary grouping, and those in categories (ii) and (iii), in secondary and tertiary groupings, respectively. However, preliminary visual grouping into open, bunch and intermediate types indicated quite clearly that, taken by themselves, the numerical values representing the character did not match the observed form. For example, some visually observed open types had similar values to the intermediate and bunch types for canopy and plant base spread, as well as for petiole length. Further examination of the data revealed that the ratio of plant canopy spread to base spread was the only parameter that could accurately represent the observed forms, without any overlap between the groups. Group A cultivars (open type) had canopy: base ratios of from 1:1-1.4:1, Group B cultivars (intermediate), from 1.9:1-3.5:1, and Group C cultivars (bunch), of 4:1 and above.Very little work is being done on the bambara groundnut crop at present, and the main research efforts are concentrated on variety characterization, and testing to assess yield potential, components and yield-related characters. Some work is in progress on Bradyrhizobium relationships and nitrogen fixation (Samasegaram et al. 1993;Kumaga et al. 1994). Research is also being carried out to ascertain the relationships between growth habit and breeding system, and to confirm an earlier finding (Doku 1969a) that open and semi-bunch cultivars depended more on the help of ants for effective pollination, fertilization and pod formation than the bunch types.The flower stalk is very brittle (and there appear to be no varietal differences in this character), and so flower handling for emasculation is not possible, as flowers drop very readily. Boric acid (H 3 BO 4 ) application to the flower buds (0.1 ml of 200 ppm) prevented pollen sac dehiscence and pollen tube germination with subsequent flower dropping. The task now facing researchers is to find boric acid concentrations (150-180 ppm) that will induce male sterility, without immediate flower dropping, to permit pollination and fertilization by nearby plants with the aid of ants. This information is needed before any meaningful hybridization work can start.The crop is relatively pest-and disease-free. Apart from weevil attack during storage, there are no serious field pests. Diseases affecting bambara groundnut include leaf spot (Sclerotium rolfsii, Phyllosticta spp.) and late blight (Corticium solani). Cowpea mild mottle virus has recently been confirmed on bambara groundnut (P. Lamptey, pers. comm.).The Republic of Kenya covers an area of 587 900 km 2 , of which 576 700 km 2 (about 98% of the total area) is land surface, while the remaining area of 11 200 km 2 is inland waters, mostly Lake Turkana and part of Lake Victoria (about 2% of the total area). About 80% of the land surface (461 400 km 2) is arid and semi-arid land (ASAL). The remaining 20% (115 300 km2 ) of the total area (which includes inland water) is of medium to high agricultural potential.About 80% of Kenya's population, which stands at around 24 million people, lives on land of high agricultural potential (20%). Land is considered the most valuable resource in Kenya, where a recent report described the situation as follows:\"The demands on the available land for various uses are many, and often create tremendous pressures and conflicts. Sustainable land-use planning becomes crucial, as it enables the available land to be used in such a way that it brings optimal benefits to the users, while having minimal negative impact on the environment.\" (Page 116 in Kenya National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) Report, June, 1994, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Nairobi.) The ASALs are thinly populated, and mainly support pastoral communities. Kenya's population is made of about 60 ethnic groups and subgroups, and the majority of Kenyans live in the medium-to high-potential areas, where crop growing is the main economic activity. Population pressure in these higherpotential areas has resulted in migrations to the ASAL areas, which are suitable for livestock keeping. Mixed farming is predominant in most of the areas that can support agriculture. Diverse farming systems have been developed by the various ethnic groups, who possess a high level of indigenous agricultural knowledge.An average of 6.5% of the rural population migrates to urban centres annually. This has resulted in a large city-dwelling population, which presently stands at over 5 million (5.2 million in 1992, 22% of the country's population). The production, marketing and use of traditional crops have been affected by the urban population's tendency to adopt exotic feeding habits, leading to loss of traditional knowledge on food preparation.Kenya can be divided into seven climatic zones, based on rainfall and potential evaporation, and nine temperature zones, ranging from the cold highlands of the interior to the hot coastal and desert regions (Tables 1 and 2, Fig. 1). Reliable rainfall, adequate for cultivation, can only be expected over 15% of Kenya. Rainfall is greatest at the coast, in the west of the country, near Lake Victoria and in the highlands. The extensive plains below 1200 m asl are arid or semi-arid, however. In the region of Lake Victoria, and in the highlands west of the Rift Valley, rain falls in one long rainy season. East of the Rift Valley, there are two distinct seasons: the long rains (March-May) and the short rains (September-October).The Kenyan soils can be divided into 10 groups, on the basis of various properties related to crop production and soil management (Table 3).  Maize is the most important cereal cultivated, followed by sorghum. Other cereals grown include rice, wheat (in the highlands), pearl millet and finger millet. Beans are the most important pulses, followed by cowpea, lablab, green gram and pigeon peas (in the eastern lowlands). Crop distribution is influenced not only by climate and soil type, but also by cultural factors. Different communities tend to grow and eat specific foods, and adaptation to other foods has been slow or non-existent.  Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is a minor crop in Kenya. It is used as a traditional food by the Luhya, by the Giriama and Kambe at the coast, and to a lesser extent by the Luos (who probably borrowed bambara groundnut's name and its culinary and other uses from the Luhya). The crop can usually be grown in relatively poor soils, and is found in hot, low-lying regions, often with sandy to loam soils. It can be intercropped with maize, sorghum or millet, and is mainly grown at altitudes ranging from 0 to 1550 m. Ethnobotanical surveys have shown that bambara groundnut used to be produced in abundant quantities. Although it is still considered a delicacy by the communities who use it in Kenya, current levels of production are lower than those of the past.Considering that bambara groundnut has its origin in West Africa, and taking into account that the Bantu (within which larger group the Luhya, the Kambe and the Giriama fall) originated from West Africa, it is the author's opinion that the crop migrated with them. The Bantu peoples migrated into Kenya via two routes:1. Through Uganda (as in the case of the Luhya). According to an Elder that the author interviewed, when the Luhya encountered those migrating southwards from Sudan (e.g. the Luo, who are not Bantu), conflicts would usually take place between them, with the victorious tribe appropriating the possessions of the defeated tribe, including its seeds. It seems probable that bambara groundnut passed into the Luo culture in this way. That the Luo name for bambara groundnut appears to be borrowed from the Luhya would support this hypothesis, as would the fact that the crop is not as widespread among the Luo as it is among the Luhya culture. It is also interesting to note that those Luo who settled at greater distances from the Luhya recall that although bambara groundnut is no longer grown in their areas, it was in the past. 2. To the coast and interior, via Tanzania (the migratory route of the coastal and central Bantu, for the most part). This group may have brought seeds with them, including those of the bambara groundnut, but the crop's distribution was probably affected by the environment in the places the various groups settled in. This may explain the fact that bambara groundnut is only found among a few Bantu peoples of the coast, notably the Giriama and the Kambe. There is also a possibility that the crop was introduced there from the western parts of Kenya, owing to their vicinity to the coastal towns of Mombasa and Malindi. The majority of people interviewed by the author who came from the central regions of Kenya claimed not to know bambara groundnut. The few who did know the crop recognized it from the Swahili name, and some said they had only seen it at the coast. The Kambe the author talked to said that they only eat bambara groundnut when other vegetables are scarce. These reports would seem to support the crop's introduction to the coast from the western areas of Kenya. According to one Luo man the author interviewed, his tribe brought bambara groundnut with them when they migrated to Kenya from Sudan (that such a migration occurred is supported by research findings). The same man emphasized, however, that different tribes followed the same migratory routes, and cultural interchange and exchange of seeds may well have occurred in the process. According to Christopher Ehret (1985), the introduction of crops that were often of considerable economic importance, represented one aspect of the gradual changes that occurred in Kenya in the 19th century. He observes that: \"...if naming data, for instance, imply an introduction from a plant earlier from one direction and oral evidence, its introduction from a second direction at a later period, the normal inference would be that linguistic data reflect first bare knowledge of the plant, and oral data, the beginning of cultivation of the crop in significant quantities\". Ehret (1985) also observes that terms used to name the American peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) raise additional historical inferences from word distribution. Several different names are applied in different areas of East Africa to bambara groundnut, in keeping with expectations that things develop a variety of names in different languages, having been around through many years of language change. But contrary to this, only two terms for the peanut, both probably being of Swahili provenance and adopted from names of indigenous plants, developed, i.e. 'njugu karanga'. 'Njugu' is probably the early Coastal Bantu name for bambara groundnut (but in Upland Bantu the name of pigeon pea instead), and 'karanga' was probably the name for the wild plant Desmodium abscendans, which today is called 'karanga mwitu' to distinguish it from the peanut. It is thus possible that the Swahili name for bambara groundnut was later changed to describe its characteristics ('njugu mawe': 'njugu' meaning hard, 'mawe' meaning stone), and to distinguish it from the now adopted plant of similar characteristics -peanut ('njugu karanga').Bambara groundnut is chiefly grown in the western parts of Kenya, and to a limited extent, in the coastal provinces. In western Kenya, it is mainly found throughout the Western Province, i.e. the Bungoma, Kakamega, Busia and Vihiga districts. It is also found in parts of the Siaya district, especially in Gem, in Masiro in East Ugenya and in Usonga in Alego. In South Nyanza, it is found in Nthiwa, Kologi, Homabay, Migori, Macalder and Miuru. At the coast, it is mainly found in the Kilifi district, especially in Bahari, Kaloleni and Malindi (Fig. 2).Bambara groundnut is generally found in agroclimatic-temperature zones I-3, I-4, II-3, II-4, III-1, III-3 and IV-3, and in IV-1, VI-1, V-1 and VII-1 at the coast (Tables 1  and 2, Fig. 1), and in areas where rainfall pattern is bimodal. Rainfall at the coast is generally low, but there is high humidity from the ocean, which probably favours the growth of bambara groundnut. The soils in which it is found are generally welldrained, deep to moderately deep, and reddish to brown, sandy clay loam to clay. At the coast, however, it is found in well-drained, deep fine to very fine, sandy to sandy loamy soils, ranging in colour from yellow brown to reddish brown (Table 3). The natural fertility status is high, moderate and low in the western parts of Kenya, and moderate at the coast.Swahili 'njugu mawe' Luo 'bande' Luhya (Wanga/Kisa/Maragoli) 'tsimbande' Luhya (Bukusu) 'chimbande' Luhya (Tiriki) 'simbande', 'zimbande' Giriama 'nzugu mawe' Kambe 'tendegwa' +IRIVEP GYPMREV] YWIW Each community has its own way of preparing bambara groundnut. Among communities from western Kenya, for example, seeds are cooked with maize (occasionally after overnight soaking), or on their own, then mashed, fried and made into a stew. Stomach ache can result from eating this stew in large quantities, although it is reported to be less upsetting to the digestion than beans. It is claimed by some that bambara groundnut requires careful preparation, as it has a rather bitter taste.'YPMREV] YWIW F] XLI /EQFI+MVMEQE Among the Kambe and Giriama peoples of the Coast Province, bambara groundnut is normally cooked or used when vegetables are in short supply.• When the seeds are dry, they are pounded in a 'kinu' (mortar) to remove the seed coat (they do not break), winnowed and boiled until they are cooked. They are then pounded using a 'kipawa' (serving spoon made from the coconut shell) or 'mwiko' (wooden spoon), and 'tui' (coconut juice) is added. The mixture is boiled until cooked, and stirred with a wooden stirrer ('lufidzo') until smooth. It is then served with rice or 'ugali' (a stiff maize meal porridge). • When the seeds are still green, the seed coat is peeled off by hand and the seeds are then prepared in the same way as the dry ones (described above).The Luhya consume bambara groundnut in the following ways:• Cooked fresh in its pods (green pods are washed and boiled in salted water, which is said to penetrate the pods). This is reported to be the tastiest snack among the many that are made from bambara groundnut, and is rated even more highly than the peanut.• The dry seeds are salted while roasting (the seeds may be washed before roasting). Owing to the hardness of the seeds, this dish is not a favourite, especially with children. Sometimes, a small number of seeds is reportedly roasted with a greater proportion of peanuts, to reduce the hardness effect.• Dry seeds can either be pounded or ground and the resultant meal made into some stew (or sauce). The stew/sauce is then added to the traditionally prepared leafy vegetables, particularly 'sikhubi'/'elikhubi' (cowpea) and cooked. This may be served with 'ugali' or potatoes.• Boiled with maize and beans and served as a snack, especially with tea.• Fried (like peanuts), usually with sesame seeds.• Boiled, then mixed with boiled sweet potatoes and mashed (a popular children's dish). It is also consumed plain, after being boiled and mashed.• Unshelled pods are boiled, fried and served with potatoes, bananas or 'ugali'.Bambara groundnut is also prepared in a number of ways by the Luo:• Used in the same way as kidney beans, to make 'nyoyo' (a mixture of beans and maize boiled together), or plain boiled. This is served with tea, 'nyuka' (porridge), or on its own. • Dried, ground using a 'pong' (grinding stone), or pounded in a 'pany' (mortar), then cooked in the same way as greengrams, in a sauce traditionally known as 'ogira'. This is served with other foods, such as potatoes. Traditionally it was eaten using a 'sare' (bivalve shell from lake Victoria).• Roasted like the peanut. This is not common, because the seeds remain hard after roasting. Peanuts are normally added, probably to reduce the effect of hardness.• Water from the boiled maize and pulse mixture is drunk to treat diarrhoea.• The leaves are pounded with those of Lantana trifolia L. ('nyabend winyo', 'nyamrithi'), then water is added to make a solution used to wash livestock as a preventative against ticks. This solution is used as a pesticide on vegetables too.• The leaves can be combined with those of 'nyajagra' (mexican marigold) and L. trifolia, pounded, and water added. This mixture can also be used as an insecticide. When applying the solution to vegetables, care needs to be taken to apply it to the ground, and not to pour it on the leaves, as it is reported to burn them.• When dry, the leaves are pounded with traditional salt ('mbala', harvested at Sindo and Homalime), and fed to cattle infected with 'tuoolao' (a type of mouth disease). The leaves cauterize and heal the animals' wounds.1MWGIPPERISYW YWIW Among the Luhya, bambara groundnut is said to be mainly cooked for consumption at ceremonies such as weddings, or by dignitaries. The leaves are used for animal fodder. Also of interest are some studies undertaken by the Kenya Energy and Environment Non Governmental Organisation (KENGO) of the bambara groundnut as a substitute ingredient for peanut in weaning foods. Researchers worked on traditional recipes provided by several collaborating women's groups, and developed four new recipes. Nutritional analysis of the new recipes was carried out, but no palatability tests were done (Table 4). Bambara groundnut is planted in rows, or randomly. In western Kenya, the crop is normally planted in March and harvested in August. If intercropped, it does not do well unless the other crop (usually maize) is quite scattered (i.e. there are few plants). It takes 5-6 months to mature, at which stage the leaves turn brown and fall off. Harvesting is usually done by uprooting or digging out the entire plant and picking the individual pods. The yield is said to be low during the short rains. Unlike the peanut, however, the plants are said not to be destroyed by hailstorms.It has been reported that if the seeds remain underground for a long period, they are eaten by termites, but that, unlike peanuts, insects do not attack them during the growth period. If stored when shelled, they are said to be attacked by the common bean weevil. Some of the seeds brought to the National Museums of Kenya were infested with insects which were identified as the cowpea bruchid (Callosobruchus sp. probably maculutus; identification by P. Kamau of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museums of Kenya). Some pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth) seeds, which were also affected by this pest, were mixed with the bambara groundnut seeds and may have infested them. This corroborates an earlier report by Hepper (1963) on bambara seeds found to be infested with bruchid beetle, which were identified as Callosobruchus subinnotatus Pic.The pods, which are produced underground, are pressed by hand, or more often sun-dried, threshed and winnowed to obtain the seeds. These are then sun-dried and stored. Traditionally, the seeds were left in the pods, which would then be stored in a pot, and would only be shelled when they were needed for cooking. This storage method is still used by some people, especially in Bungoma district.Table 5 gives production figures per district for bambara groundnut. Surveys undertaken in Nairobi indicated that bambara groundnut is more expensive than other pulses in the city. It is mainly found in three markets in Nairobi: Gikomba, on the outskirts of the city, Nyamakima, near the city centre, and at Kawangware, in the suburbs. In the Nyamakima market, the crop is sold at Ksh. 80/kg, and for Ksh. 120/kg at Kawangware (the average price of beans in most parts of Nairobi is Ksh. 28/kg.) The demand for bambara groundnut in Nairobi is quite low, and for this reason, few stallholders stock it. At Gikomba market, which is the largest of these, only one woman (from the Kakamega district) sells the crop. At the Kawangware market, it is only sold by one stallholder (also from Kakamega), who seemingly buys his stock from the stallholder at the Gikomba market. Bambara groundnut is also sold in other urban centres, such as Kakamega, Bungoma, Kisumu (at the Mbero and Kibuya markets), Homabay, Nthiwa, Mirogi, Ratang'a, Aorachuotho, Macalder and Migori.Most of the germplasm found in Kenya can be classified as traditional landraces or local cultivars. No major work has been done on bambara groundnut in Kenya, and for this reason, no modern varieties have been developed. The country's germplasm-holding institutions and their accessions are described in Table 6. The germplasm held at the National Genebank of Kenya has not been characterized. There are 6 accessions at the Genebank, 1 from Nigeria, 1 from England, 1 from Australia and 3 from Kenya. The Kenyan accessions are the following: (i) a primitive cultivar/landrace from Busia (South Teso Kwangamor), collected at 1290 m asl (ii) a wild landrace from Siaya (South Sakwa bar Kowino sublocation) (iii) a primitive cultivar/landrace from Kilifi (Chasimba sublocation). According to G.O. Rachier (pers. comm.), however, at the Kakamega Regional Research Centre of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), under whose aegis groundnut research falls, local farmers hold seeds belonging to traditional landraces/local cultivars, of the following size and colour: medium-sized brown and purple, and large brown tinted.A number of seeds held at the National Museums of Kenya were purchased from the Kawangware and Nyamakima markets, while others were personal donations to the institution. The lot from Kawangware is a mixture of more than 10 varieties, differentiated on the basis of size and colour, which ranges from cream/white, through orange, brown, red, dark red/maroon and black, to cream-, brown-and red-speckled. The lot from Nyamakima is homogenous, containing dark brown/red large seeds. The seeds of one sample given to the museum are black (some very tiny, and others medium sized). The range of diversity in the collections is not presently known, as no survey has been carried out. Both Dr J.K. Kimei of the National Genebank and G.O. Rachier of Kakamega RRC admit that the existing collections are highly incomplete, both in terms of genetic diversity and geographic representation. At the NMK, ethnobotanical information on bambara groundnut is inadequate. The bambara groundnut accessions at the National Genebank are placed in longterm cold storage at -20ºC. Seeds for the base collection are dried until their moisture content is 3-7%. This is done with a cool-drying system, using a dehumidifier running at -20ºC and 15% relative humidity, until the correct moisture content is achieved. The seeds are then hermetically sealed in aluminium foil containers. Seed viability testing is carried out after drying, just before storage, to determine the viability of the seeds before final storage. The recommended viability standard is 85% and above. Subsamples for regeneration/multiplication, distribution, characterization and monitoring viability are kept at 5ºC and/or -20ºC. At Kakamega RRC, short-term conservation at 5ºC is used. Materials are stored in the form of seeds and unshelled pods.The following problems have been reported in bambara groundnut (G.O. Rachier, pers. comm.): 1. Agronomic • individual cultivars are not very adaptable, although the crop is found in vastly different environments • careful cultivation is needed, as the flower stalks are much weaker in comparison to those of groundnuts, and cannot penetrate hard soil crusts.• Fusarium with leaf spot, root rot nematodes and virus are known to attack bambara groundnuts. No information exists on the use of germplasm in research/breeding/crop improvement and selection procedures, because no work has been undertaken on bambara groundnut by the Kenyan research centres in particular. Nor are any individual research findings available.Ethnobotanical research indicated that bambara groundnut production is declining. One of the reasons for the decline to which attention was drawn, is the cost of purchasing the seeds, which farmers find a strain on their finances. The price of seeds is determined by the level of production of the crop: the lower the quantity produced, the higher the cost. This also affects utilization of the crop, as consumers buy what they can afford. In the rural areas, the cost of a glass (about 200 ml) of bambara groundnut is Ksh. 20, while that of beans is Ksh. 10-15/kg (most people indicated that beans were quite affordable, and preferred to buy them). Despite its prohibitive cost, bambara groundnut is still considered a delicacy by the communities which eat it and they would like something to be done to promote its production and use.One clear cause for concern is the high level of genetic as well as cultural erosion occurring in bambara groundnut, a situation that requires swift action to be taken. Cultural erosion of a crop increases genetic erosion, as it promotes nonusage, which causes production to decrease. It also contributes to non-utilization of the crop by other communities, owing to its unavailability, and a lack of indigenous knowledge pertaining to its use, and thus to its various methods of preparation. Over the last 30 years, bambara groundnut has declined significantly in importance. The majority of those who confirmed that production of the crop is falling are young people, who said that while it was grown abundantly in their youth, it is now cultivated in few areas. One clear cause for concern is the high level of genetic as well as cultural erosion occurring in bambara groundnut, a situation that requires swift action to be taken. There is an urgent need for:• collecting bambara groundnut germplasm to fill the gaps in the existing collections described above • intensification of ethnobotanical research, to help fill these gaps • the use of newly collected germplasm in research, breeding and crop improvement, to help increase bambara groundnut production • collecting and documenting the indigenous knowledge (IK) pertaining to bambara groundnut before it disappears, and incorporating this into selection and breeding procedures • research to determine which of the various varieties of bambara groundnut is nutritionally superior • encouragement of germplasm exchange, to help improve the local varieties, and to make the improved varieties available to farmers.Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is believed to originate in several areas of Nigeria, notably that between Jos and Yolas (Hepper 1970). The crop is presently grown throughout the country, with the exception of the riverine and swampy areas. It is grown by subsistence farmers, on small patches of land, and is frequently intercropped with cowpea, sorghum and cotton, among other crops.The research activities of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University cover the savanna ecological zone of Nigeria (latitudes 7-13ºN) (Fig. 1). Rainfall there varies from less than 500 mm in the Sahel and Sudan zones to 1200 mm in the southern Guinea zone, and is spread over periods that range from 3 to 7 months. The climate during the remaining months of the year is characterized by dry weather, with Harmattan winds lowering night temperatures to 18-20ºC between October and February.It is difficult to obtain accurate production and yield figures for the bambara groundnut crop in Nigeria. However, Rachie and Roberts (1974) estimated that the country produces about 100 000 t of the crop annually. The area under bambara groundnut cultivation in the Sahel and Sudan savanna zones of Nigeria has declined over the past two decades. Farmers in these areas estimated that the present area is about 5-20% of that of 20 years ago. They attributed this decline to drought. On the other hand, the area under bambara groundnut cultivation has increased during the same period in the southern Guinea and forest zones of Nigeria. The increase in the amount of the crop produced in these areas is thought to be due to the fact that the crop fetches higher prices now than it did previously.The majority of the farmers cultivate the crop primarily for food; however, they may sell part of it when they produce a surplus, or when they need money to pay taxes, loans or school fees (Linnemann 1988). The shift in cultivation of bambara groundnut from the drier to the wetter parts of the country has reduced overall production of the crop, for the following reasons: (i) there are fewer farmers producing the crop in the wetter areas; (ii) land clearing is difficult and costly; (iii) the soils in the wetter areas are more difficult to cultivate, as they are heavier and more prone to weeds, and (iv) more disease problems are encountered in the wetter areas because of the prevalent high humidity.In Nigeria, most of the bambara groundnut produced is consumed locally. No industrial use of the crop has been reported. The haulm is used for livestock feed, while the fresh pods are boiled and eaten as a snack. Seeds are often crushed into flour, to prepare the following dishes: 'alele', 'alelen ganye', 'danwake', 'gauda', 'kosai', 'kunu', 'tuwo' and 'waina' (Linnemann 1988). The fresh immature seeds are also eaten raw. Nigeria is believed to be one of the centres of origin of this crop, and possesses extensive bambara groundnut genetic resources. This can be observed from the wide range of differences in the seed coat colour, seed sizes, pigmentation around the eye, pod shape, growth habit and other characters. In April 1984, a collecting mission was organized by the Institute to various parts of the country. About 80 accessions were collected, multiplied and maintained, and the most promising ones were subjected to yield evaluation trials. Foreign accessions have not yet been received, although requests for seeds have been sent to various researchers outside Nigeria. Some seeds were collected from northern Namibia, but were lost in transit. Because of inadequate modern storage facilities at the Institute of Agricultural Research, Samaru (IAR, see below), collections were sent to Dr A.R. Linnemann, and some to IITA for conservation.Bambara groundnut is self-pollinating. The small, yellowish flowers are borne on the plant's short, creeping stems, and are fertilized before opening. After fertilization, a peduncle grows positively geotropic, and the fruits develop and ripen underground (Sands 1931). The breeder's aim is to combine desirable traits from all available genetic resources into a single new variety. The starting point for any breeding programme is therefore to establish a germplasm collection containing the widest possible range of the genetic variability available within the species. Such a genetic resource will play a key role in crop improvement and its protection against drought, pests and disease, etc.A bambara groundnut breeding programme was begun in 1984 at IAR, with the aim of collecting and preserving local germplasm, and developing superior varieties through selection and hybridization. Evaluation trials were carried out to establish the potential of local germplasm as source material for future crop improvement. A number of different bambara groundnut accessions collected from various parts of the northern states of Nigeria were evaluated at Samaru. The phenotypic and genotypic performance of these accessions is presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. A wide range of genotypic and phenotypic variation was observed in a number of characters, such as seed yield, 100-seed weight and shelling percentage (Tanimu et al. 1990). The variation observed, especially for seed yield and 100 seed-weight, was then used as the basis for selection and genetic improvement of the crop.As a self-pollinating crop, any population of bambara groundnut may consist of numerous homozygous pure lines. For this reason, the selection method used was single plant selection, where individual plants manifesting desirable traits were selected and grown separately, to produce several parallel pure lines. Rogueing is also used to maintain the standard of any chosen line; plants showing undesirable characteristics are generally removed from the selected population, leaving the more typical plants to grow and produce seed.Most of the varieties are local, and are thus limited in their genetic potential. Both haulm and seed yields are therefore invariably low. Until very recently, there were no recommended sowing dates, optimum plant density values, or fertilizer rates. There is also inadequate information on the type and intensity of mixture with other crop types in the farming systems practised by local farmers. Pod-shedding is also a problem with certain varieties, or the crop may fail to set pods, owing either to the wrong timing of agronomic practices, or to crop injury during weed removal.Because bambara groundnut is grown during the rainy season, a period of high temperatures and humidity, it is highly susceptible to fungal diseases, which are common during this period. Attacks of rust and leaf blight, caused by Puccinia sp. and Colletotrichum sp., respectively, have been reported in the crop when grown on station. Isolated cases of rosette disease also have been reported in bambara groundnut.)RXSQSPSKMGEP Bambara groundnut is relatively free of the insect pests that plague other legumes, such as the cowpea and peanut. On the whole, pesticides are hardly used by farmers when cultivating bambara groundnut. However, the presence of some viral diseases transmitted by insects suggests simultaneous infestation of the crop by hemipterans, such as aphids, mealy bugs and scale insects. Local farmers store the bambara groundnut seeds with various substances, including tobacco, peppers and sand (Linnemann 1988), to protect them from storage pests (which represent a major problem). At the Institute for Agricultural Research in Samaru, seeds are packed with phostoxin tablets in sealed drums, to control Callosobruchus sp.  The alternating wet and dry seasons (the latter characterized by intense heat) cause a rapid decomposition of soil organic matter in the savanna, which is the major bambara groundnut production area (Owonubi and Yayock 1987). Indiscriminate burning of fallow and crop residues by farmers also reduces the accumulation of soil organic matter. Thus, under continuous cultivation, the soils rapidly lose their fertility and productivity (Jones 1971). Because soil organic matter is low, native soil nitrogen and phosphorus are also very low (Jones 1971). Phosphorus and sulphur deficiencies are thus widespread (Goldsworthy and Heathcote 1963).Bambara groundnut has a low priority on the agenda of the Ahmadu Bello University's Institute for Agricultural Research, and is therefore receiving less attention than many crops whose research is funded externally. The poor viability of bambara seeds, especially when they are stored for a long period of time, is a frequent complaint of farmers. Storage is normally at room temperature, without the application of any techniques to enhance the shelf-life and longevity of the seed.Research may be needed to determine optimum storage conditions/structures and methods of enhancing seed viability, but our Institute lacks the cold-storage facilities which the seeds require. Research is also hampered by the scant availability and high cost of equipment for tissue and soil analysis. 2 These and other constraints make it impossible to conduct adequate research on this crop.(VSYKLX Prolonged dry spells during the wet season, and the abrupt cessation of the rains prior to full crop maturity, are perennial problems in the savanna ecological zone. Either the crop fails, or growth is retarded, resulting in low yields. The solution to this problem may require the development of a day-neutral crop that could be grown under irrigation during the dry season.Presently, bambara groundnut is not being utilized for industrial purposes, hence the degree of neglect it suffers, compared with other legumes such as the peanut. Biochemical analysis of the crop may yield useful information on its industrial potential.2 Post-graduate agronomic researchers have only been able to perform tissue analysis of bambara groundnut thanks to the assistance of Dr A.R. Linnemann.Despite possessing considerable commercial (including export) potential, bambara groundnut or 'njugo' is a neglected crop in South Africa. It was brought to the country by the migrating peoples from Central Africa, and is chiefly grown in the northern and eastern regions of the country, where it is most popular. The crop is mostly cultivated by small farmers in an intercropped system, or in family gardens, although a lack of statistics makes overall production of bambara groundnut in South Africa difficult to estimate. Owing to the crop's labour-intensive harvesting process, farmers have shown little interest in the crop and its commercial production, although this situation is now changing. Because it is cultivated on a small scale, there is a constant shortage of the fresh vegetable for consumption. Expansion of bambara groundnut production in South Africa is hampered by these shortages, and also by a lack of good varieties of the species.In the Northern and Eastern Transvaal, bambara groundnut is grown extensively in the Letaba and Louis Trichardt districts, and fairly extensively in the Baberton, Pietersburg, Pilgrims Rest and Potgietersrust districts. In KwaZulu-Natal, it is grown in the Greytown, Msinga, Nkadla, Nguthu, Makhatini and Kosibaai areas. It is also grown on a minor scale in the Tugela Ferry, Izopo and Maphumulo areas. Somewhat unsuccessful attempts have been made by agricultural cooperatives to grow bambara groundnut for local consumption and for export.The following culinary uses of the crop have been reported.• 'Sekome' (Sesutho), 'tihove' (Shangaan) or 'tshidzimba' (Venda) is prepared by adding 'njugo' beans and peanuts, or just one of the two, to maize or millet-meal and boiling the mixture until it forms a stiff dough. This is salted and pounded into a ball, and will often keep fresh for several days.• Bambara groundnuts are boiled and then stirred, to make a thin porridge, which is known as 'tshipupu' (Venda ). Like maize, they may also be added to 'lupida', a porridge made from peanuts.• 'Njugo' beans are often eaten when still immature, simply boiled until soft, and shelled. When quite dry and hard, they are generally shelled, and then boiled to make a stiff porridge.• Bambara groundnut can be cooked with maize and pounded into a thick, sticky dough known as 'dithaku' (in Sesutho). The only use of bambara groundnut observed among the local white population was of the dried beans, to make a soup.In the past, a number of superstitions and taboos existed regarding the bambara groundnut, which probably extended to other crops whose fruits develop and ripen underground. For example, when a chieftain died, or when drought was predicted, planting of the crop was prohibited for periods varying from one to five seasons. Bambara groundnut might not be planted before the maize crop had germinated, and was pulled up if the rains were late. Males were forbidden to walk through 'njugo' fields, as it was believed that bad yields would result.Furthermore, land belonging to males was only planted with bambara groundnut every other year, for fear that the male landowners might otherwise die, or some evil come to them or their families. Land belonging to women, however, was allowed to be planted annually with the crop. Young people were not permitted to eat the fruit of unmounded bambara groundnut, as it was believed that permanent or temporary sterility would result if this rule was not observed. Planting of the crop in virgin soil was also forbidden.It is not known to what extent these traditional beliefs persist, but the Venda still consider that bambara groundnut should not be planted before the maize crop. It is likely that many of these beliefs have a practical explanation. For example, the taboo against young people crossing bambara groundnut fields probably had the useful function of protecting the small, intensively cultivated plots. It seems likely, on the other hand, that the taboo against eating unmounded bambara groundnut fruit served to ensure that women cultivated the crop properly.Chewing and swallowing raw bambara groundnut beans is alleged to check nausea and vomiting (also for years afterwards), a remedy that is often used to treat morning sickness in pregnant women.The three bambara groundnut collections in South Africa (see Appendix D for their addresses), are all frequently regenerated. They are situated at the following locations:1. Potchefstroom (Oil and Protein Seed Centre of the Institute for Grain Crops). Most of the accessions are landraces, which have been acquired over the past 10 years, from the Seed Control division of the Department of Agriculture, local markets, seed firms and local farmers. No specific South African cultivar is available, and seeds of mixed colours and sizes are usually planted. The collection contains a total of 198 lines, but it is believed that duplicates exist. It is being regenerated in 1995-96. The whole collection will be planted out, and the major features described, to eliminate most of the obvious duplicates. The seed colour and hilums are recorded, but no other features. 2. White River (Department of Agriculture, Mpumalanga). This recent collection (with 20 accessions in total) contains a number of landraces, and also material obtained from Potchefstroom. 3. Roodeplat (Institute for Veld and Forage Utilization). This holds 117 lines, a number of which have been fully or partly described. These collections possess a wide range of variation in leaf colour and shape, growth habit, pod colour and shape, seed size, seed colour, eye colour and testa pattern. Photoperiodical requirements have not been determined. Accessions in the three collections are in the process of being described, and information on all of these should be available in the next few seasons. It is not currently possible to specify gaps in the existing collections.Tanzania is a tropical country occupying an area of 943 000 km², with a population of about 28.5 million. It comprises 20 administrative regions on the mainland, and five in Zanzibar and Pemba. The country extends from about latitudes 1º30' to 11º45'S and from about longitudes 29º21' to 40º45'E. Elevation starts from sea level on the eastern coast, rising to 5895 m above Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanzania's natural vegetation comprises coastal forests, open woodlands, dense mountain forests, wetland vegetation, and scrub and bushland.Tanzania has various climatic conditions, ranging from very hot and humid at the coast, to very hot and dry in central regions, and very humid and cool in highland areas. Mean annual rainfall varies widely, from 320 to 2400 mm. Most of the country has a unimodal rainfall distribution, which is generally restricted to the period between November and May. A bimodal rainfall distribution pattern is characteristic of the area around Lake Victoria, and of the northeast part of the country. Mean monthly temperatures are generally above 10ºC and rarely exceed 30ºC, and temperature is closely correlated with altitude. This diverse climate allows a range of crops to be grown. Food crops include maize, paddy, wheat, sorghum, millet, beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, Irish potatoes, bananas, cucurbits, pigeon peas, cowpeas, bambara groundnut, cocoyams, yams and various vegetables. Cash crops include coffee, cotton, sisal, cashew, tea, tobacco, pyrethrum, sugarcane and coconuts. Bambara groundnut (among other crops) is not one of the research priorities of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) (see Table 1). It can therefore be categorized as a neglected crop in Tanzania.A study by the International Trade Centre (Coudert 1982) estimates annual global production of bambara groundnut at 330 000 t, of which about half is produced in West Africa. The exact date of bambara groundnut's introduction into East Africa is unknown. The production of bambara groundnut in Tanzania is associated with traditional peasant farming systems, in which it is mixed with other crops, and grown in small patches in monoculture (Smyth 1968). The crop is mainly intercropped with cereals such as millet, sorghum or maize, root and tuber crops, and other legumes.Bambara groundnut production areas are indicated in Figure 1. Yields per plant are fairly high, but since bambara groundnut is mostly grown as a mixed crop at wide spacing, yields per unit area are usually low. It is difficult to obtain accurate production figures for Tanzania, as the crop is cultivated and consumed by families, and very little finds its way to urban markets. Results from Ukiriguru Agricultural Research Institute indicate that under good management, yields of up to 2.6 t/ha have been achieved (Akonaay and Mazige 1982). Recently, Sibuga et al. (1994) reported that Dodoma Red (DodR94), a local cultivar from Dodoma can produce pods yielding up to 3 t/ha. The crop yield reported in Tanzania also compares well with that reported by Johnson (1968) in Central Africa, which was 2 t/ha of shelled seeds. Smyth (1968) reported that in the Western Lake regions in Tanzania, bambara groundnut is grown on highly infertile Rweya grassland soils every 7 years, in rotation with the grass.In semi-arid parts of the country, bambara groundnut is considered as an insurance or a security crop. It is therefore eaten in a variety of ways, ranging from the freshly cooked pods to the cooked dry grains. The crop is incorporated into main dishes, such as cooked plantains and cereals. Kinyawa (1969) indicated that Ukiriguru bambara groundnut cultivars constitute a well-balanced food source; he found that the composition of 100 g of bambara groundnut contains water, protein, fat, carbohydrates and minerals, in the proportions given in Table 2. The vegetative parts of the plant, and sometimes the haulms, are used to feed livestock. The crop is also useful in crop rotations, as it contributes nitrogen to the soils, which benefits subsequent crops.  Owing to its broad geographic distribution in Tanzania, a wide range of bambara groundnut cultivars (landraces) exists. Most of the current cultivars have arisen by random selection during the course of cultivation, and during migrations of various peoples, and are very local in their distribution. Farmers distinguish them by the size and shape of the leaves, and also by seed colour. In Tanzania, initial selection of landraces was based on colours of the testa, eye colour and collection site (Smyth 1968). Some of the landraces grown in Tanzania, such as the red-coloured BA/48/1, the cream-coloured, red-eyed Mwanza, the black-coloured Shinyanga, the creamcoloured, speckled or mottled Singida, the black-patched Dodoma, the creamcoloured, brown-patched Tabora, the cream non-eyed BA/2 and the cream, blackeyed Mpwapwa, were identified at Ukiriguru in the l968/69 season. Very little research work has been done in the past to improve the crop's yield performance (Smyth l968).A collection of over 400 accessions was held at Ukiriguru between 1967 and 1971, but because of priority and staff changes, coupled with a lack of proper storage facilities, these accessions have since been lost (Marandu and Ntundu 1995). Recent multi-crop collecting missions by the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) have gathered 22 accessions of bambara groundnut. These are stored according to genebank standards. Bambara groundnut is also threatened by competition from other legumes such as beans, which are available in almost all markets in the country.Changing farming systems have gradually resulted in individual farmers cultivating fewer crops, which has contributed to bambara groundnut's further marginalization. Furthermore, in southern Tanzania, the crop is being threatened by the recent use of elemental sulphur to save the cashew crop from powdery mildew devastation. The consequence of this chemical treatment seems to be an increase in soil acidity, which may reduce production of most legumes in the affected areas.Although the Bambara groundnut is an important food crop in Tanzania, very little research has been done on it to improve the crop. Neither improved varieties nor agronomic recommendations exist for Tanzania. Research on the production of bambara groundnut was initiated at Ukiriguru in 1967-68, when a total of 62 cultivars, some local (from Tabora, Mwanza, Musoma, Singida, Rungwe and Kagera), and others foreign (from Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Sudan and Dahomey), were evaluated for yield and other important characteristics, including insect pest and disease resistance. Preliminary results indicated that there was scope for selection for high yield within local cultivars. The main results of breeding work carried out between 1967 and 1971 at Ukiriguru are summarized below.• Varieties collected both from within and outside the country differed greatly in terms of yield and other important characteristics.• Selection within the varieties themselves showed that many of the local cultivars and several of the introductions were genetically variable.• Three purple-coloured cultivars -70/1, BA 48/1 and BA/48/2 -showed good resistance to Fusarium wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum.Bambara groundnut appears to be quite adaptable to different environments, except that cultivars from wetter areas such as Bukoba were less promising under drier conditions. Of the 23 cultivars which were evaluated for yield, 9 were identified as the best yielders. Their yields ranged from 888 to 2600 kg/ha.Agronomic research was done at Ukiriguru on the time of planting and on spacing, and comparisons were made between planting on ridges and on flat land. It was reported that bambara groundnut sown after December suffered more heavily from early attack by Cercospora leaf spot, virus rosette diseases and powdery mildew, which reduced yield significantly. Research results indicated that there was no significant difference in yield from bambara groundnut grown on ridges and flat land.Local and exotic collections were assessed for resistance to the most common diseases, such as Cercospora leaf spot, virus rosette disease and powdery mildew. Leaf spot caused by Cercospora canescens, producing severe premature defoliation, was the most serious disease affecting bambara groundnut. Two races of virus which had been found to be latent in peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) were shown to have a rosetting effect on bambara nuts. One variety from Bukoba (BA/30) and another from Mwanza (BA/25) had high resistance to both Cercospora leaf spot and virus rosette diseases. Kindale, a local variety from Ukiriguru, was among the most resistant to rosetting. Powdery mildew, although widespread, was reported to be a late-season disease and was found to be economically unimportant. This initial interest in bambara groundnut research in Tanzania decreased during the 1970s, but the crop has remained an important food for the rural poor, especially in semi-arid areas.In 1992, the Sokoine University of Agriculture at Morogoro, and Nottingham University, UK, initiated a multilateral project on bambara groundnut improvement. Other collaborating institutions in the project include Njala University College, Sierra Leone, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands, and Botswana College of Agriculture, Botswana. The project's objectives are to:• evaluate local genotypes (landraces) grown under rain-fed and irrigated conditions • study the growth and development of these genotypes • identify suitable agronomic practices for the cultivation of bambara groundnut in Tanzania and other collaborating countries. Two local cultivars, Dodoma Red (DodR94) and Dodoma Cream (DodC94), purchased from a farmer in Dodoma, are being used in this study. The cultivars are being evaluated both in Dodoma and at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro.Generally, the project's findings, as reported by Sibuga et al. (1994), indicated severe leaf damage caused by mildew and Cercospora leaf spot at Morogoro, under irrigated sowings. However, the results at both sites revealed a general decline in leaf and flower number and dry weights with later sowing. This was reflected in pod yields, with a decline from approximately 6 g per plant, when sown in January, to less than 1 g per plant, when sown after May. Furthermore, DodR94 was reported to produce 3 t/ha of pods under rain-fed conditions in Dodoma.• Systematic country-wide collecting of bambara groundnut germplasm has been planned for April-May 1996, initially in southern Tanzania, and subsequently in other parts of the country, as the initial phase in an improvement programme.• Characterization of all collected accessions of bambara groundnuts, to provide necessary information for breeding purposes.• Evaluation for yield and other important characteristics, including insect pest and disease resistance in multilocational trials.• Studies of antinutritional factors, to promote utilization of the crop, and collaborative studies on various aspects of bambara groundnut improvement.Although bambara groundnut is an important crop in Tanzania, especially in parts which are more arid and marginal for other legumes, little work has been done to improve its yield and utilization. The species could be developed into a major crop, and research efforts made to improve existing germplasm in the country, for:• high yield • agronomic purposes • improved disease and pest resistance • utilization as a food crop • possible use as a rotation crop in areas which are marginal for other legume crops.The author of this report thanks the Director of the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute and the curator of the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre of Tanzania, for facilitating this publication. Grateful thanks is also extended to the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy and the Department of Research and Specialist Services, Harare, Zimbabwe, for inviting Tanzania to participate in the bambara groundnut workshop.INCV, Lomé, TogoIn Togo, two different types of climate prevail: a Guinean climate in the southern part of the country, with two rainy and two dry seasons; in the northern half of the country, one rainy and one very dry season. Togo is a predominantly agricultural country where all the tropical and subtropical crops of the subregion can be grown. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is a grain legume that is rich in protein. The crop is known and cultivated in Togo, but to a much lesser extent than other vegetables such as cowpea, peanut and soyabean. Despite its high protein content, bambara groundnut has yet to become an integral part of the diet of the Togolese populations. It is considered a 'poor man's crop', and is traditionally cultivated in home gardens and in farmers' fields, which may explain its marginal status. Bambara groundnut is cultivated sporadically throughout Togo, and produces low yields of 0.25-0.6 t/ha. The crop is mainly found in the Savannah, Kara and Central regions of the country, and in small quantities in the Plateaux and Maritime regions.Togo's Grain Legume Programme does not contain a programme of specific activities relating to bambara groundnut, but collecting has been done, and preliminary characterization was initiated in 1985 by the National Food Crops Institute (NFCI).The crop is usually grown on ploughed ridges 20 cm high and on mounds. It has been observed that planting density varies from area to area, as do the soil preparation techniques and the tools farmers use. Planting density is either 80 x 20 cm, 75 x 10 cm, or 75 x 20 cm. Bambara groundnut is planted in July, one grain being planted per hole, and has a vegetative cycle of 4 months. Farmers use local varieties and the preceding crop may be maize, sorghum millet, or other vegetables, if they are not affected by the same pests or diseases. Farming techniques are traditional: the use of fertilizers and peticides is almost nonexistent. Average yields are usually about 0.5 t/ha, and throughout Togo, the crop is largely cultivated by women.Figures from the Direction des Enquêtes et Statistiques Agricoles of Togo (Office of Agricultural Investigations and Statistics) between 1982 and 1994 (Table 1) show that acreages as well as production fluctuate, owing to the socioeconomic conditions peculiar to this crop. Total acreages can be seen to have risen from 6800 ha in 1982 to 10 400 ha in 1985. From 1986 until 1988, a downward trend is apparent. From 1988 to 1993, total acreage averaged 3728 ha. As can also be seen from Table 1, the highest production of bambara groundnut of 6527 t was recorded in 1986, while between 1988 and 1993, production averaged 2059 t.Table 2 lists local varieties of bambara groundnut. Despite its status as a marginal crop, bambara groundnut is much appreciated by Togolese consumers throughout the national territory, and sells briskly at local markets and those in urban centres, usually at a higher price than beans. The greater part of the crop produced (80%) is consumed by the local producers themselves, and markets are generally undersupplied Consumers prefer the ivory-cream coloured grains, of 6-8 mm diameter; small grains and black-coloured varieties are not particularly popular. Bambara groundnut is a complete food, which is more palatable when fresh, semi-dry, or not fully mature, as it becomes tough when dry. It can be consumed boiled or fried, and fried or boiled puddings may be prepared with a dough/paste made from bambara groundnut flour, which may also be used as a base for many other dishes.Since 1977, 12 collaborative collecting missions have been undertaken by Togolese and foreign institutions, with the financial support of such institutions as the University of Maryland, USA, and the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). These missions, which each involved different crops, aimed to meet the objectives of the Plant Genetic Resources Programme of the National Food Crops Institute. Between 1983 and1985, 326 different accessions of bambara groundnut were collected on missions participated in by the University of Maryland and NFCI (the former Office of Agronomic Research). These collecting missions were undertaken across the whole of Togo. By 1992, introductions from other countries (Cameroon and Ghana) had increased the number of different bambara groundnut accessions to 420.Since 1988, many working descriptors have been recorded for a total of 249 bambara groundnut accessions. These have been used to describe plants during their vegetative state, and their fruits and grain crops 2 months after harvesting.For 15 sampled plants, the number of days from planting to germination was observed to vary from 8 to 9 days.-RMXMEP PIEJ GSPSYV EX KIVQMREXMSR It has been observed that the young shoots of bambara groundnut are of a green or violet colour, depending on the dominant colour of the seeds. Often, the deep redviolet colour of the seeds gives the leaves a violet colour at germination, while the young leaves of white, grey or white-grey seeds are green. It is observed that 77% of the plants sampled have green leaves, and 23% have violet leaves at germination.Observations 10 weeks after planting show that 0.43% of leaflets are round, 93.8% are oval and 5.75% are lanceolated. A total of 38% of plants sampled have a bushy, 18.1% have a semi-bushy and 43%, a creeping growth habit.The number varies from 37 to 45 days, with the first flowers appearing 1 week earlier.The shape of the pod is characterized by the existence or absence of a beak: 66% of the samples are beak-free and 34% are beak-shaped. None of the samples described has two beaks.At 2 months after harvesting, 25% of grains are observed to be brown to yellowish, while 75% are mid-brown.At 2 months after harvesting, 57.2% of pods are observed to be wrinkled, 20.3% to be folded, 6.3% to be smooth and 15.3% to have small wrinkles. The average thickness of 10 pods is observed to vary from 0.2 to 0.59 mm. Pod length varies from 14.4 to 19.5 mm, and width from 10.2 to 16.5 mm. Percentage of grains at threshing varies from 60.5 to 85.8%.All the characters are recorded 2 months after harvesting. Colours are specified according to the Munsell Colour Charts. The texture of the testa, as well as its underlying and secondary colours, and the eye type, main colours and pigmentation have been describedExchanges of germplasm have taken place between NFCI and the University of Maryland, and with Cameroon and Ghana.Treated grains are stored in sealed polythene bags, which are placed in sealed plastified aluminium bags. Bags are stored in a drawer of a 24 m³ cold room, at a temperature of 9-10°C. For each variety, three bags are packaged, of which two are put in the cold room and one into a 650-L capacity freezer at -18°C.Because of the lack of a programme for improvement of varieties of bambara groundnut, not all of the samples characterized morphologically have been used in research.Selection work has not taken place, owing to the lack of an improvement programme for bambara groundnut.Generally speaking, the bambara groundnut plant withstands drought and diseases, with the exception of Fusarium, which hardens pods and grains. Cercospora disease is also sometimes observed on bambara groundnut leaves.It is the hope of the National Food Crops Institute (NFCI) that this workshop will lead to the creation of a solid programme for the improvement of bambara groundnut varieties in this country. New collecting and characterization work is anticipated, which will replace material lost as a consequence of the social and political unrest in Togo over the past 3 years. It is to be expected, however, that monitoring and improvement of plant genetic resources conservation will be required for the success of any bambara groundnut programme.Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is one of the minor grain legumes in Zambia, together with cowpea, pigeon pea, chickpea, mungbean, lentils and adzuki beans. Its advantages include a balanced nutritional composition, adaptability to marginal land, and relatively high tolerance to diseases and pests. The crop is cultivated on a small scale, and is concentrated in the western, southern and eastern provinces, where the greatest diversity is exhibited. Average yields reported are 300-400 kg/ha. The dietary and soil amelioration potential of the crop in farming systems is yet to be fully exploited. The crop fares rather poorly in terms of research interest, although this is increasing. Numerous studies have been carried out on various aspects of the crop, but most of these have been exploratory in nature, with few conclusions being drawn.Although it is rated as a minor legume crop, the need to conserve bambara groundnut germplasm was recognized in the 1980s, and collecting missions were carried out (see below). Unfortunately, characterization and evaluation of the collections has been slow. There is a need to exploit the diversity and potential of the crop, through focused plant genetic management, breeding, plant protection and agronomic strategies. This paper outlines the status of the crop in Zambia, with respect to its genetic resources and breeding, and the major agronomic, pathological and entomological problems that have been experienced.Bambara groundnut is grown in all provinces of Zambia, cutting across a wide range of agro-ecological zones 3 and farming systems. The crop is most important in the farming systems of marginal areas, from the point of view of moisture availability and soil conditions. As it is grown by farmers on a small scale, the crop does not enter the formal marketing system, and aggregate production figures are not available. However, given that there are estimated to be approximately 600 000 smallholders in the country, each cultivating less than 0.25 ha of bambara groundnut, total production can be estimated to be very low. Bambara groundnut is usually intercropped, with a small proportion grown as a sole crop. Planting is done flat, or on ridges, between November and December in agro-ecological region III, and in January, in regions I and II. Fertilizer and manure are never applied.No detailed studies have been carried out to estimate the yields obtained at farm level, but empirical evidence and exploratory studies involving a wide range of landraces in the country have shown that yields rarely exceed 500 kg/ha. This is a problem that researchers face when multiplying seed. All seed for planting is from local landraces, and differs in size and colour. Farmers usually keep their seed for planting. There is no commercial variety of bambara groundnut in Zambia.Bambara groundnut is mainly used as a relish for food. The fresh or dry legume is a very common snack, although in some parts of the country it is eaten as a main meal.Almost all the material grown by the farmers are traditional landraces that have been selected and maintained by local communities over a long period. A number of these landraces are maintained as uniform lines with distinct characteristics, e.g. seed colour. Others, however, are kept as mixtures. Farmers are not in possession of modern and improved varieties suitable for the climatic conditions in Zambia.There appears to be significant genetic variation across the country in the bambara groundnut germplasm collected. Purseglove (1968) indicated that Zambia and Togo had the greatest variety of cultivars. In Zambia, the western and southern provinces have the most varied landraces. Recent collections, however, have revealed substantial variation in some parts of Northern province.Much of the variation found in local landraces is in seed colour, eye pattern and seed size. Variation in growth habit and yield is also found. Although a number of seed colours exist, the most dominant and common is white or cream ground colour with black and white eye. Seed size does not show much variation, with most seeds being medium sized.Bambara groundnut germplasm held in the local collections has been obtained from within Zambia and from other countries. Accessions of traditional landraces occurrring in different parts of the country have been collected through internationally and locally organized missions. Quite a number of accessions were collected through IBPGR/FAO sponsored missions, which began in the early 1980s. Locally organized missions, such as the University of Zambia's SACCAR 5 -funded mission, and that funded by the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) at Mount Makulu Research Centre, have also contributed to the collections. Their foreign accessions came mainly from West Africa, as IITA collections, and from Zimbabwe.Bambara groundnut germplasm is being held at two institutions. The major collection, with 463 accessions, of which 146 are locally collected and the rest are foreign, is held by the University of Zambia. The other collections are held at the National Plant Genetic Resource Centre (NPGRC) 6 at Mount Makulu Research Centre. A total of 152 accessions from the collections held at the Crop Science Department has been characterized, and some preliminary evaluation has been done on these. The characterization of material held at the NPGRC is planned for the 1995/96 season. Some germplasm from outside the country continues to come in through the Food Legume Improvement Programme, mainly for the purposes of screening for possible adaptation and yield assessment studies.The diversity of the Zambian collections was found to be less than in other West African collections (Begemann 1990a). In particular, the collection at the University of Zambia was the least diverse with respect to quantitative characters. For a more accurate picture of Zambia's current collections, however, diversity studies need to be carried out.Characterization of the Zambian collections is in progress, but needs to be accelerated, as its slowness has delayed the utilization of germplasm in breeding and crop improvement programmes. Accessions are lacking from certain parts of the country, such as the Central and Copperbelt provinces. The collections seem to include much of the existing variation, however.Both at the University of Zambia and the NPGRC, bambara groundnut germplasm is being conserved through seed storage in deep freezers operating at -20 o C. The seed samples are dried to below 10% moisture content, and are then packed in aluminium foil packets, which are hermetically sealed before being placed into the deep freezers.The use of the current collections in crop breeding and improvement activities has been limited, due to the slow characterization and evaluation of the germplasm. However, important information, on which use could be based, is gradually being accumulated. At the University of Zambia, efforts to develop selection protocols are underway.No full-scale breeding work has been done on bambara groundnut in Zambia. Some preliminary work has nonetheless been done by the Food Legumes Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Scarce funding and staff (time) are the main constraints to more breeding work being done on the crop. At the University of Zambia, genetic studies have been carried out to get a deep understanding of the heritability of important bambara groundnut characters. Analysis of the components' genetic variance has revealed a large environmental influence. The highest estimate of heritability was for 100-seed weight (0.22-0.25). Table 1 shows the range of heritability estimates for traits found to be important for seed yield in bambara groundnut. Other studies that looked at the associations among the important characters for yield have confirmed the importance of 100-seed weight and pods per plant. It is planned to initiate a single plant selection in some of the accessions characterized and evaluated at the University of Zambia in the 1995/96 season. The little research being carried out at present on bambara groundnut is attributable to:• a lower allocation of resources to the crop, compared with other (major) legumes • a lack of economic and nutritional information on the crop, at both producer and consumer levels. Bambara groundnut is unfortunately considered a smallholder's crop, of marginal importance. This is a misguided perception, and promotion of the crop is needed to change it.The current state of bambara groundnut is encouraging, and attempts have been made to address various aspects of the crop. These now need to focus on producing concrete results in exploiting the potential of the crop. The realization of the Bambara Improvement Programme, which was conceived in 1990, would be an important first step towards this goal. Undoubtedly, the formation of a local, regional and international network will be necessary if all the objectives for the crop are to be met.The bambara groundnut is one of the most important local crops in Zimbabwe, where it is known as 'nyimo' (Shona) or 'indlubu' (Ndebele). It is used both as a food and a fodder crop. The plant is an indeterminate, annual herb, growing to a height of up to 30 cm, with prostrate, highly branched, leafy lateral stems just above ground level (Linneman and Azam-Ali 1993). In 1981, the area under bambara groundnut cultivation on resettlement farms was estimated to be around 4000 ha, with an annual production of 2200 t, while the area under bambara groundnut cultivation by small farmers was estimated to be 1300 ha, with annual production of about 750 t of unshelled nuts (Central Statistical Office 1993, unpublished data). Although the 1993 figures are not yet available for the rural sector, it is widely believed that more than 50% of bambara groundnut annual production comes from the sector. A total of 91% of the rural areas are situated in Natural Regions III, IV and V, which receive low rainfall (800 mm or less) in relatively short seasons, making them unfavourable for intensive dryland cropping (Vincent and Thomas 1961). In addition, the rural area soils are generally coarse-textured sands derived from granite, largely deficient in organic matter. Commercial farmers produce very little of the crop.The aim of this survey was to increase the amount of information available on production, agronomic practices, utilization of the crop and the limitations upon it.The survey was conducted during the growing season of 1989. It covered all aspects of bambara groundnut production in rural areas, agronomic practices and constraints, marketing, and socioeconomic factors affecting production of the crop. The survey involved interviews with farmers, using a questionnaire, and also observations. Certain measurements such as row spacings, plant densities and nodule count were conducted in the field. Variables such as the cropped area per farmer, bambara groundnut hectarage and yield were estimated. Between 20 and 23 farmers were interviewed in each province. The survey was conducted in all eight provinces of the country, in the districts shown in Table 1. The total cropped land per farmer varied considerably from one district to another. Generally, the three districts of Mashonaland province included in the survey (Zvimba, Mutoko and Rushinga) had higher cropped areas than those in the southern provinces. However, the average area under bambara groundnut cultivation was extremely low throughout the country, reaching a maximum of 2400 m 2 in Zaka, and a minimum of 400 m 2 in Zvimba. The average area planted with bambara groundnut was only 0.135 ha per farm. On average, the area cropped with the legume, expressed as a percentage of the total cropped area, was 7%, which is rather low. About 50% of the farmers interviewed indicated that they planned to decrease the area cropped with bambara, owing to land scarcity, shortage of seed and other factors; 7% had no plans to change their hectarage; 43% said they would increase the bambara groundnut cropped area because the crop fetches higher prices now than it did previously.Farmers identified land shortage as a major contributing factor in their plans to reduce production, and stated that there was not enough land available to allocate to the various crops they would like to grow. As maize is the main staple food crop, and has now become an important cash crop, more and more land is being allocated to maize at the expense of the other crops. Some farmers also leave a sizeable percentage of land fallow each season, for a number of reasons, which include labour and draught power shortages.A decline in soil fertility was the major reason for the decrease in bambara groundnut yield. Rural area soils are generally coarse-textured sands, derived from granite, and largely deficient in nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur (Grant 1988). They are low in soil organic matter and have low water-holding capacity. Farmers said they used to grow the crop on virgin land with high nutrient levels (which is no longer available). The practice of leaving some land fallow, to improve fertility, is also fast disappearing, owing to shortages of land. Farmers' inability to buy mineral fertilizer worsens the nutrient status of the soil, and the decline in the number of farm animals per household also resulted in reduced amounts of manure. The decreasing soil fertility represents a major challenge, to farmers and to all those involved in local agriculture.7IIH ZMEFMPMX] ERH ZEVMIXMIW Shortage of seed, lack of improved varieties and the planting of seed retained by farmers (which usually has germination and viability problems) are other important factors contributing to low production and yield. It should, however, be noted that there are virtually no improved varieties commercially available, and farmers have little choice in those that they plant. About 24% of the farmers interviewed rated the germination of the crop as fair to poor. Most of the farmers who rated the germination as poor were from the Ntabazinduna and Marange North districts.There are no varieties of bambara groundnut, sensu stricto, but farmers distinguish different seedlots by their appearance (Linneman and Azam-Ali 1993). Seed colours observed during the survey varied from white, black, red and brown, through to cream, with different eye colours. Various combinations of these colours were observed, as well as speckled, mottled and mosaic testa patterns. The distribution of these varieties varied from region to region. For example, in Matabeleland, the black as well as the cream and red-seeded varieties were dominant, and in Mashonaland, the cream and red-seeded varieties. The cream-seeded type of bambara groundnut was the most widely grown in the country.On average, 75% of the farmers interviewed plant the crop in rows. The remainder grow it in a scattered pattern, but they do not broadcast. Planting dates ranged from late October to early January, but more than 80% of farmers plant the crop between mid-November and mid-December. The highest number -12 plants/m 2 -was obtained in the Zvimba district. The Rushinga district had an average of 11 plants/m 2 ; planting densities in the other districts were between 8 and 10 plants/m 2 . The drought occurring over the past few years, especially in Masvingo and Matabeleland, reduced germination and other processes. The consequences of this have been reduced yield and even reduced seed supply.On average, only 18% of the farmers apply fertilizer directly to bambara groundnut, and it is this group who registered yield increases in some years. They apply fertilizer in the form of organic manure, compound D and ammonium nitrate. Most farmers lack knowledge of the appropriate fertilizers, and most of them indicated that even if they knew which fertilizers to apply, they could not afford to buy them. Another group of farmers stated that since they apply fertilizers to maize, the subsequent bambara groundnut crop benefits from the residual fertility. It is important to note, however, that the fertilizer applied to maize is sometimes not adequate. Partly due to a lack of nutrients, about 60% of the bambara groundnut crop had yellowish green leaves. Only 17% of the crop appeared dark green in colour (indicating adequate nutrition) and 23% of the crop was green.The average number of nodules per plant in Zimbabwe was only 11. This seems to be lower than that recorded in countries such as Ghana, where the number of nodules per plant ranged from 92 to 318 (Thompson and Dennis 1977;Mafongoya 1988). The lowest number of nodules per plant was at Zaka, and the highest at Esgodini. There was no relationship between the number of nodules per plant and the plant density (number of plants/m 2 ). One reason for the low nodule number is the fact that most farmers do not inoculate seed with Bradyrhizobium at planting.In only two out of the eight districts is the crop weeded at 2 weeks after planting. In the remaining six districts, weeding takes place at 3 weeks after planting. Farmers expressed concern over the critical labour shortage, especially during weeding, earthing-up and harvesting.The incidence of pests and diseases in bambara groundnut has increased in recent years, and this causes substantial production losses. Aphids represent 65% of the insect pests on the crop. The aphid problem is encouraged by late planting, and by periods of heavy rainfall, followed by days of sunshine. Extension staff attribute the aphid problem to low plant populations. Ants and termites constitute another 15% of bambara groundnut pests, and the remaining 20% are accounted for by such pests as cutworms, nematodes and weeds. Current bambara groundnut diseases of note are die-back, rosette and a virus disease, spread by aphids. These pests and diseases are not considered very serious problems on the crop, however. Only 5% of the farmers interviewed chemically control the pests and diseases. Others are not familiar with control methods and cannot afford to buy the chemicals. However, 94-100% of the farmers practise rotation of bambara groundnut with other crops (both legumes and non-legumes), which is one way of controlling some of the pests.Yield is one of the most important aspects to be considered in efforts to improve the level of production. Current yields are generally low, ranging from 400 kg/ha to just under 1400 kg/ha of unshelled seed. In the survey, the highest yields were obtained in the Esgodini district and the lowest in the Mutoko district. Some of the recorded yields, especially at Mutoko, are inaccurate, however, because farmers harvest a great part of the crop for consumption at immature stages. Farmers expressed different opinions on whether the total production and yield of bambara groundnut are increasing, although more farmers stated that yields were decreasing, due to a number of constraining factors, mentioned above.The crop has distinct advantage over many other crops, because it is easy to prepare for consumption and has many culinary uses. The beans are prepared in various ways. The seeds can be boiled and eaten as a soft porridge. At maturity, the dry seeds are eaten after being boiled, either on their own or mixed with maize grain. Many farmers also preserve bambara groundnut as a relish, mainly for consumption during the dry season. Alternatively, some farmers eat it roasted as a snack. Other farmers leave the dry leaves in the field so that livestock can feed on them.The survey revealed some areas to be targeted, to increase production and improve the marketing of bambara groundnut.• Immediate attention must be given to improving production and distribution of seed, to overcome the present seed shortage.• The extremely low current yields need to be improved through breeding programmes, and also through developing better crop husbandry techniques (these include: identification of the best fertilizers to be used, and appropriate levels and methods of application; economic methods of pest and disease control, and improved plant populations).• The development of a better marketing strategy to exploit any increased production of the crop.The authors thank Mrs D. Hikwa and Mrs R. Madamba for their comments during the preparation of this paper, and Mr E. Hungwe for helping in the collection and analysis of the data.In terms of both production and consumption, bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is the most important food legume in Africa after cowpea (Doku and Karikari 1970), and has numerous agronomic and nutritional attributes which make it an excellent legume crop to develop. This legume is adapted to both the poor and the fertile soils of the entire continent, and produces seeds that are high in protein (14-24%) and carbohydrate (60%) content (NAS 1979). Bambara groundnut seed protein is richer in the essential amino acid, methionine, than most other grain legumes. Kersting's bean (Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréch. et Baud.), a related, similarly geocarpic species, also has a seed protein content of 21.5% and high levels of the sulphur-containing essential amino acids -lysine (6.2%) and methionine (1.4%). Thus, from a nutritional point of view, these two legumes are unique in providing the essential dietary amino acids that are lacking in most food legumes. From an agronomic standpoint, both are disease-free, exhibit considerable tolerance and grow in soils with varied nutrient fertility, including low and high NO 3 levels. They produce yields in poor soils where no other crops can survive.Despite their nutritional and agronomic attributes, very little work has been done on improving the yields of these legumes. The aim of this paper is to examine the relative physiological improvements of these crops, with respect to the dependence of each on symbiosis vs. soil sources for their N nutrition.Bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean are both tropical legumes that nodulate with cowpea-type bradyrhizobia. An earlier study by Doku (1969b) demonstrated the ability of bambara groundnut in particular to cross-nodulate with isolates from different tropical legumes, which indicates that the species is less selective in its bacterial requirements. However, because these legumes grow over a wide range of soil factors (low fertility, low moisture, vs. high fertility, high moisture, or low temperature vs. high temperature), their symbioses with root-nodule bacteria are bound to differ from one locality to another within Africa. The bradyrhizobia strains nodulating these legumes will not only differ between dry and well-moistured soils, but also between low and high NO 3 soils, and low and high temperature conditions.Studies of cowpea (Ahmad et al. 1981) have shown that bradyrhizobia nodulating this host plant in the much drier, hotter and infertile Maradi soils of Niger are serologically and morphologically different from those occurring in Ibadan soils, which are wetter, humid and more fertile. Colonies of Maradi strains are 'dry' (colonies <2 mm, circular and convex, with an entire margin), and serologically very reactive, while those of Ibadan strains are 'wet' (colonies >2 mm, irregular margins, and confluent growth, with abundant extracellular polysaccharide production (EPS) and antigenically less reactive. This wet/dry colony characteristic, together with differences in EPS production, could possibly account for the ability of bradyrhizobia nodulating African legumes such as bambara groundnut, Kersting's bean and cowpea to survive in soils with the highly differing moisture, temperature and pH levels found in Africa.Whether these features affect bacterial strain survival and persistence in soil as a saprophyte has not been examined. However, the historically marked variation in farm yields (600-3000 kg/ha) of bambara groundnut in Africa (Rachie and Silvestre 1977), and the fact that high-yielding cultivars from one country can perform poorly in another (NAS 1979), suggest considerable differences in the symbiotic efficacy of native bradyrhizobia which nodulate this species. It is therefore not surprising that recent interest in increasing bambara groundnut production in Africa has targeted symbiotic effectiveness as a way to yield improvements.Although it has been suggested that bambara groundnut does not require inoculation (Johnson 1968), growing evidence indicates the need for inoculation with an effective Bradyrhizobium, especially where newly cultivated fields are involved (Stanton et al. 1966). It has been demonstrated in Togo that inoculating bambara groundnut with suitable strains of Bradyrhizobium can significantly increase yields (Dadson et al. 1988). The increase in symbiotic performance and grain yields was higher when cultivars were inoculated with indigenous bradyrhizobia, rather than with foreign strains (Table 1). Similar data have recently been reported in Senegal (Gueye 1990). These findings clearly indicate the potential for increasing yields in bambara groundnut through enhancement of symbiotic N 2 fixation.Thus, programmes which select for effectiveness in Bradyrhizobium/bambara groundnut symbioses are indirectly selecting for high grain yields. Programmes initiated in Togo (Dadson et al. 1988), Senegal (Gueye and Bordeleau 1988;Gueye 1990) and Nigeria (Mulongoy and Goli 1990) have already started to select for effective symbioses as a way of increasing bambara grain yields. Unlike bambara groundnut, which has started to attract research interest, virtually no data exist on Kersting's bean.  Dadson et al. (1988) and Gueye (1990).Although both bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean nodulate freely with bradyrhizobia, little is known about the amounts of N fixed by these symbioses and their relative dependence on fixation for N nutrition. In a recent study by Dakora et al. (1992), the separate contributions of NO 3 and fixed N to total plant N were assessed, for both bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean. Our findings showed that nodulated plants of both species depend largely on symbiotic N for their N nutrition, even when free NO 3 is available for uptake by roots (Table 2). In general, N 2 -fixing legumes require 16 moles of ATP per unit NH 3 produced, compared with 14 moles of ATP per unit NO 3 absorbed, indicating a greater energy cost, if bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean are to depend on Bradyrhizobium for their N requirements. The preference for symbiotic N utilization shown by these species therefore clearly suggests that their symbioses evolved in N-rich soils. This would account for their ability to grow in soils with different N fertility.  8) 95( 5) 91(9) 5 96( 4) 79( 21) 91( 9) 80(20) 15 95( 5) 50( 50) 80( 20) 52( 48) † Days after planting. ‡ Proportional dependence by plants on mineral N supplied as NO 3 .Adapted from Dakora et al. (1992).,SWXTPERX HITIRHIRGI SR QMRIVEP 2 Some legumes prefer NO 3 to NH 4 , and vice versa. Preference shown for these N types was tested using Macrotyloma geocarpum supplied with 2 mM NO 3 , 2 mM NH 4 and 2 mM NH 4 NO 3 . Nitrogenase activity remained unaltered relative to control within 6 hours after applying treatments (Table 3). However, nodule functioning declined by 39% within 3 days in the 2 mM NH 4 plants, 56% in those at 2 mM NH 4 NO 3 , and increased by 13% in 2 mM NO 3 plants. By 8 days, nitrogenase activity had decreased to 77% of control for NO 3 -treated plants, 35% for NH 4 and 14% for plants in 2 mM NH 4 NO 3 . These findings suggest that NO 3 is the likely source of N uptake by nodulated V. subterranea and M. geocarpum plants grown in soil.The use of 15 NO 3 in the study by Dakora et al. (1992) permitted a measure of NO 3 uptake by both V. subterranea and M. geocarpum plants. Except during the first sampling period (up to 28 days after planting), when V. subterranea took up considerably less NO 3 than M. geocarpum, the amount of plant N derived from NO 3 in the two species was similar (Table 3). In each case, increasing external NO 3 resulted in progressively more NO 3 being translocated in xylem (Table 4). Furthermore, the concentrations of NO 3 in xylem exudate, at comparable levels in the nutrient solution, were similar for the two species (Table 4), indicating that the distribution of assimilation sites between roots and shoots was not likely to be greatly different for the two legumes.  (Dakora, unpublished).  Dakora et al. (1992).Assays for nitrate reductase activity (NRA) in M. geocarpum, made using an in vivo method with intact tissue from all component organs of the plant, showed a progressive increase in total activity, as the NO 3 level in the medium was raised (Fig. 1). As has been found for other species belonging to the tribe Phaseoleae (Andrews et al. 1990), M. geocarpum, and particularly the leaves, contained significant constitutive NRA and it was the activity in leaves which was substrate-induced (Fig. 1). This pattern of induction of NRA is similar to that found previously for cowpea, and is consistent with an increasingly shoot-based reduction of incoming NO 3 (Atkins et al. 1980), as the level of NO 3 in the transpiration stream increases (Table 4). In these respects, both legumes were similar to other members of the Phaseoleae (Atkins et al. 1980;Pate and Atkins 1983;Andrews et al. 1990).Estimates of N 2 -fixing rates in V. subterranea and M. geocarpum show large differences in symbiotic effectiveness in the presence of NO 3 (Dakora et al. 1992). Providing mineral N to nodulated bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean can initially stimulate N 2 fixation in both species. However, with a prolonged supply of external N, fixation in bambara groundnut is severely reduced, a common observation in many legume/Rhizobium, or Bradyrhizobium, symbioses. With Kersting's bean, on the other hand, continued NO 3 supply for up to 4 weeks did not alter N 2 fixation, compared with purely symbiotic plants. Even at 15 mM NO 3 , plants still showed N 2fixing rates higher than plants depending solely on symbiotic N nutrition.In many ways, the degree of NO 3 tolerance exhibited by Kersting's bean is rather intriguing. In a recent study, we have shown that the difference in inhibition of nitrogenase activity exhibited by these two species is not due to different intensities of NO 3 uptake, or patterns of distribution and assimilation of NO 3 , but rather to some specific effect of NO 3 on nodule functioning in Kersting's bean. The mechanism involved in NO 3 inhibition of nitrogenase activity has not been clearly defined. Most hypotheses are based either on direct toxicity of NO 2 from NRA on nitrogenase and leghemoglobin (Rigaud and Puppo 1977), NO 2 conversion of leghemoglobin to nitrosylleghemoglobin (Kanayama and Yamamoto 1990), or on an indirect effect of NO 3 assimilation elsewhere in the plant, which results in reduced photosynthate supply to nodules (Harper and Gibson 1984;Oghoghorie and Pate 1971).Macrotyloma geocarpum plant supplied with NO 3 from 18 to 30 DAP (L = leaves, S = stems, R = roots, N = nodules) (Dakora, unpublished).Although one or the other of these have been regarded as more relevant in particular symbioses (Wasfi and Prioul 1986), recent studies indicate that NO 3 treatment results in increased resistance of nodules to gaseous diffusion, with consequent limitation of O 2 supply to bacteroids (Minchin et al. 1986;Vessey et al. 1988a). Vessey et al. (1988b) have further shown that NO 3 treatment reduces phloem supply to nodules which, although possibly restricting the supply of assimilates for nitrogenase, also results in a lowered supply of water for export of the products of N 2 fixation (Walsh et al. 1989). Where and how in such a scenario M. geocarpum differs from bambara groundnut, or other nodulated legumes, remains to be determined. However, the degree of tolerance shown by the species to NO 3 provides a useful experimental basis with which to test the components of these hypotheses, and to examine the possibility of exploiting such traits to improve the tolerance of other legumes to combined N. Traditional farming in Africa is based largely on mixed cropping, a system which does not easily permit N fertilizer application to associated, N-starved cereal and vegetable crops. Identifying naturally occurring NO 3 -tolerant legumes would be an added advantage to mixed cropping systems.Data from another study (Muofhe and Dakora, unpublished) have shown that adequate boron supply is important for effective symbiosis in bambara groundnut. Insufficient boron supply causes a marked decrease in nodule formation in this species. Nodules formed by boron-deficient plants are smaller in size, and paler in colour, with an expected reduced dry weight, compared with those formed under boron-sufficient treatment. As a consequence of the reduced nodulation, N 2 fixation in such boron-deprived plants decreases by almost 50%.Removal of cotyledons from seedlings of bambara groundnut resulted in marked reduction in photosynthetic leaf area, an effect likely to decrease photosynthate supply for nodule formation and nodule functioning.This reduction in photosynthetic area was about twice as great when boron was deficient in the rooting medium. Cotyledon removal also inhibited nodulation, particularly in borondeficient bambara groundnut plants. The physiological response of Kersting's bean to both boron and cotyledon removal has still to be determined.Inoculating bambara groundnut with suitable strains of Bradyrhizobium can markedly increase yields of this crop. So, any programme aimed at promoting bambara groundnut production must consider cultivar selection for effective symbiosis, preferably with native bradyrhizobial strains. A continent-wide programme on collecting germplasm of both bambara groundnut and Kersting's bean, followed by testing of bradyrhizobial strains on various cultivars, needs to be initiated. The relative NO 3 tolerance observed in the symbiosis of both species is also an important trait worth re-evaluating with native strains. No doubt, more research needs to be done, especially on the physiology of N 2 fixation in these nutritionally important geocarpic species.Department of Science and Maths Education, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, ZimbabweThe bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is one of the indigenous African crops currently receiving interest from researchers, owing to its high yield and resistance to diseases (Hepper 1970), as well as its adaptability to poor soils and low rainfall. During a survey carried out by agronomists in 1989 to establish the current bambara groundnut production practices and constraints on the crop in Zimbabwe, the incidence of pests and diseases was found to be high. Since bambara groundnut is not a major crop in Zimbabwe, very little work has been done so far to establish the extent of damage caused by pests and diseases on this crop. The information given in this paper is based solely on advisory records from the Plant Protection Research Institute, and from the findings of the 1989 survey.Diseases which have been recorded on bambara groundnuts in Zimbabwe include leaf spot (Cercospora canescens), powdery mildew (Erysiphe sp.), leaf spot (Phyllosticta voandzeia), wilt (Fusarium sp.), leaf blotch (Phomopsis sp.) and Sclerotium rolfsii (Pathology advisory notes, unpublished). Leaf spot caused by C. canescens was recorded in Zimbabwe by Rothwell in 1983.  7 This disease was also recorded at Gwebi in 1986, and by the Crop Breeding Institute in 1994. Symptoms of isolated brown spots appear on the leaflets, and a severe attack can cause defoliation. Pod size can be reduced significantly if infestation occurs before flowering. Wilting and yellowing of bambara groundnut, caused by Fusarium sp., is another disease of bambara groundnut, recorded in Zimbabwe by the Crop Breeding Institute in 1994. Characteristically stunted plants with vascular discolouring appear about 50 days after sowing. Symptomatic yellowing, necrosis and wilting will occur, and the affected plant eventually dies. Fusarium wilt has also been reported from Kenya (Cook 1978), and in Tanzania it has been described as Fusarium oxysporum (Ebbels and Billington 1972).Powdery mildew, which is caused by the fungus Erysiphe pisi, was also recorded by Rothwell on bambara groundnut in 1983. Symptoms of a whitish powder are visible on both sides of the leaflets, but it is more frequent on the abaxial side. Infected leaves dry out and die prematurely. Powdery mildew is a widespread disease in Madagascar, and has been named Sphaerotheca voandzeia (Bouriquet 1946).Phyllosticta voandzeia causes leaf spots on bambara groundnuts. In Zimbabwe, it was recorded at three sites in 1986: Gwebi, Chiduku and Muzarabani. The disease is recognized by the characteristically ill-defined, irregular, circular, brownish purple spots that are visible on the leaves.Bambara stem rot caused by S. rolfsii is another disease of bambara groundnut that was recorded at Kadoma in Zimbabwe, in 1986. The initial symptoms of rot, at 7 Rothwell, A. 1983. A revised list of plant diseases occurring in Zimbabwe (unpublished).the base of the stem, are followed by the production of black sclerotia on infected tissue. The rot, which begins below soil level, spreads into the crown of the plant, and in severe cases, to the pods, and downwards into the root system. Sclerotia can survive in the soil between crops.The bambara groundnut leaf blotch caused by Phomopsis sp. has been recorded at only one site in Zimbabwe, and it is not as widespread as the other diseases that have been mentioned.Bambara groundnuts were found to be susceptible to rosette during the 1989 survey. This is a virus disease, which is spread by aphids. The two main strains of rosette disease are chlorotic rosette and green rosette. The symptoms of chlorotic rosette are a mosaic pattern of dark green banding on light green leaflets, or alternatively, the leaves may be completely necrotic. In the latter case, leaves are slightly reduced in size, and usually have distorted leaflets. The most common symptoms of green rosette are a dark green foliage mottle on a light green background, and a marked reduction in leaflet size.Insect pests which have been recorded on bambara groundnut in Zimbabwe include aphids (Aphis sp.), bruchids (Callosobruchus sp.), leafhoppers (Hilda patruelis) and termites (Entomology advisory notes, PPRI). In the field, pests feed on leaves and sap, thereby disrupting photosynthesis and causing low yields. Other pests feed on the seed, reducing its quality and viability. From the 1989 survey, it was found that aphids (Aphis sp.) represented 65% of the insect pest problem on bambara groundnut in Zimbabwe.8 Aphids feed on young shoots, causing leaves to curl and growth to be stunted. Sap loss from feeding by aphids leads to stress during dry periods. Aphis sp. is an important bambara groundnut pest because it transmits the rosette virus.The sap-sucking leafhopper, Hilda patruelis, was recorded on bambara groundnut in Manicaland in 1983. Leafhoppers attack the underground parts of the plant. Plants wilt and collapse, due to sap sucking by the leafhoppers. These insects coexist with black ants, which also protect them.Termite damage to bambara groundnut in Zimbabwe was recorded during the 1989 survey. Two basic forms of termite damage to bambara groundnuts have been noted, namely scarification of the pods by Odontotermes, and penetration and hollowing of the tap root by Microtermes. Scarification of the pods weakens them, resulting in shattering or cracking during harvest. Hollowing of the tap root causes wilting of the plants.The bambara groundnut seed is liable to attack by bruchids, Callosobruchus sp. This weevil, which was recorded by the Agronomy Institute in 1987, causes loss of quality, quantity and seed viability. Bruchid infestations start in the field, and in most cases, continue in storage. In a few cases, field infestations soon terminate under storage conditions. Damage to the embryo by the feeding bruchids impairs germination. Poor grain quality will also result from reduction in the amount of carbohydrates and proteins.The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica has been found to seriously infect bambara groundnut in Zimbabwe (Martin 1959). These nematodes were also recorded during a survey carried out by the Plant Protection Research Institute in 1989. Meloidogyne larvae invade the roots and feed in the vascular system of the bambara groundnut, causing formation of giant cells. In severe cases, the roots of infested plants are completely covered with swellings caused by hypertrophy of the cortical cells. Damage to roots impairs the normal growth of the bambara groundnut, causing stunted growth, yellowing and wilting. Reduced dry matter accumulation, and more frequent flower abortion, has been observed.None.Since very little work has been done on the pests and diseases of bambara groundnut, there is a need to carry out a country-wide survey, to make an inventory of all the pests and diseases of this crop, and to establish which ones cause serious damage, and hence yield loss. Field research work on yield loss assessment is also important. Since bambara groudnut is said to be resistant to diseases, work needs to be done on screening different varieties for resistance/tolerance to pests and diseases, and this must be collaborative work between breeders and plant protectionists. Bambara groundnut is only grown as a supplementary food crop in Zimbabwe, and it is not economical to chemically control pests and diseases. Therefore, research on cultural and biological control methods also needs to be done.In 1992 the European Union initiated funding for a 3-year programme of research to evaluate the yield potential and ecological requirements of bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.). Controlled environment studies have been carried out at Nottingham University in the UK and Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands, and combined with field experiments in Botswana, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. The development of a crop growth simulation model at Nottingham University serves to integrate data from controlled environment work and field studies, and to highlight gaps in understanding in the growth and development of the crop.The specific objectives of the EU project are to: 1. Identify suitable agro-ecological regions and seasons for the cultivation of bambara groundnut in Tanzania, Botswana and Sierra Leone. 2. Produce a validated model of bambara groundnut for predicting the total biomass and pod yield of different genotypes in contrasting soils and atmospheric environments. 3. Identify the physiological attributes associated with the ability to produce yields under semi-arid conditions. 4. Recommend suitable management practices to stabilize the yields of bambara groundnut under rain-fed conditions. 5. Outline a methodology for applying a similar approach to rapidly assess the potential of other underutilized species in tropical environments. This project not only assesses the potential for bambara groundnut but also appraises an innovative approach which could be applied to any under-researched species. Research within the International Agricultural Research Centres focuses almost exclusively on the major crop species and agroclimatic regions, and funds are rarely directed towards those crops considered to be of secondary importance. Limited, piecemeal research has been carried out on crops such as bambara groundnut at various African universities and National Research Institutes, but as yet there has been no major funding provided for these minor crop species. It is envisaged that through the integration of controlled environment and field experiments a more comprehensive understanding of the physiology and agronomic requirements of the crop can be established.The three African partners within this project are Botswana College of Agriculture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, and Njala University College in Sierra Leone. These three locations encompass much of the rainfall environments and latitudes of the major bambara groundnut growing regions in Africa, and hence are ideally placed for conducting research on the crop. Within each partner country experiments have been focused on two local landraces usually grown at two field sites. A primary concern has been the effect of sowing date on growth, development and yield, due to the photoperiodic control of pod-filling.Experiments at Botswana College of Agriculture began in the 1992/93 cropping season when two landraces (Gaborone Cream and Zimbabwe Red) were sown at three dates and under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions at the main site at Sebele (24°33'S, 25°54'E, 994 m). At the secondary site at Tshesebe (21°11'S, 27°32'E, 300 m) three sowings of the same two landraces were carried out under rain-fed conditions. At Sebele five plant populations were sown at the second sowing date, from 5 to 66 plants/m 2 . However, plant population at final harvest varied from only 5 to 22 plants/m 2 , and there were no consistent trends in dry matter production in response to plant population. Delaying sowing at both sites resulted in a reduction in total dry matter and pod yields. However, pod yields were poor across all sowings with a maximum yield of 18 g/m 2 . During the following season, five sowings were carried out at Sebele and Tshesebe from October 1993 to February 1994. The landraces grown were the progeny of those grown in the previous season. At both sites later sowings resulted in fewer leaves and flowers than the earlier sowings. The last two sowings at Sebele resulted in no pod yields, perhaps due to the lower temperatures experienced during May to July. The maximum pod yield was achieved by Gaborone Cream seed sown at the end of November, resulting in a pod yield of about 120 g/m 2 . A comparison of yields from both seasons indicates that the highest yields would be achieved by sowing before the end of December (e.g. Tshesebe, Fig. 1).In Tanzania the first experiment was carried out under irrigation in the dry season at the main site, Morogoro (6°49'S, 37°40'E, 300 m), and a secondary site, Miwaleni (3°21'S, 37°19'E, 700 m). Two landraces, one cream-seeded and one redseeded, were obtained from a farmer in the Dodoma region. Three sowings were carried out between 30 June and 30 August. In general, pod production declined with later sowings. However, pod yields at Morogoro were low (a maximum yield of 10 g/m2 ) compared with those at Miwaleni (up to 80 g/m 2 ). Three irrigated sowings were carried out at Morogoro between February and April 1994, and five rain-fed sowings between January and May 1994. The second site was moved to Dodoma (5°54'S, 35°57'E), which was thought to be more representative of the bambara groundnut growing regions in Tanzania. At this second site three sowings were carried out under rain-fed conditions from January to March 1994. Unfortunately the irrigated treatments at Morogoro had to be abandoned because of leaf damage by mildew and Cercospora leaf spot. For the rain-fed treatments, pod yields declined with later sowings: combining pod yields for 1993 and 1994 at Morogoro indicates a clear decline in pod yields per plant with delayed sowings (Fig. 2).At Dodoma the first sowing produced higher total dry matter and pod yields than the two later sowings (Fig. 3), with DodR94 producing a yield of 300 g/m 2 . The failure of the second two sowings was probably due to the short rainy season at Dodoma as there was little rain from April onwards.In Sierra Leone two landraces were obtained from farmers in the Kabala (KabC93) and Lunghi (LunT93) regions. These were sown on five occasions from April to August 1993 at two sites: Njala (8°1'N, 12°8'W, 51 m) and Kabala (9°5'N, 11°6'W, 464 m). At both sites later sowings resulted in reduced total dry matter production. Pod production was poor in both landraces, with a maximum yield of 17 g/m 2 produced by LunT94. There were problems with fungal diseases causing leaf damage, especially at the Njala site where total dry matter production reached a maximum of 120 g/m 2 , compared with 340 g/m 2 at Kabala. The trials were sown on flat land at high densities in contrast to the practice of local farmers, who sow on ridged land. Therefore in 1994 an experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of plant population and raised/flat beds on growth and development, at both Njala and Kabala. Increasing plant population (from P1, 2.8 plants/m 2 to P5, 44 plants/m2 ) resulted in fewer leaves and flowers per plant (Fig. 4) at both sites. Dry matter production was much higher at the Kabala site.At final harvest, plants sown at the highest populations produced higher pod yields per unit area. Pod yields were higher than in the previous year, with a maximum of 60 g/m 2 produced by LunT93. This may be attributed to a reduced incidence of fungal attack due to a more open canopy, and better drainage from the raised beds.    The two European partners in the project have a history of research on bambara groundnut: at Wageningen Agricultural University the focus has been on the effects of daylength and temperature on the rates of phenological development. In 1993, experiments showed that Gaborone Cream was slightly sensitive to daylength with respect to the time to flowering, and both Gaborone Cream and Zimbabwe Red were sensitive to daylength with regards to pod filling. In long daylengths, assimilates continue to be partitioned to the leaves, resulting in a greater leaf area than under short daylengths. In 1994, experiments showed that the rate of progress to flowering could be modelled as a linear function of temperature in three landraces. In two of these landraces (GabC92 and NTSC92) the rate of progress to podding could be modelled as a function of temperature and daylength (Fig. 5). Experiments investigating the timing of photoperiod sensitivity found that the inductive period started around 71 DAS for GabC92, and 43 DAS for NTSC92 and NTSR94.In 1995 an experiment was carried out in the Tropical Crops Research Unit (TCRU) glasshouses at the University of Nottingham to examine the growth, development and yield of one landrace from each partner country. Two irrigation treatments were imposed: one treatment was irrigated to 90% field capacity on a weekly basis (irrigated); the second treatment was maintained at 50% field capacity until 27 DAS after which there was no further irrigation (stored). Preliminary results indicate that all three landraces produced small pod yields under the stored moisture treatment, and yields in the irrigated treatment ranged from 2.1 to 4.4 t/ha. There were small differences in landraces in terms of resource use, and subtle differences in stomatal number accounting for higher transpiration rates from the landrace from Sierra Leone. A preliminary version of the model was based on controlled environment work carried out at Nottingham University prior to the start of the EU project. This has been upgraded using data from Wageningen to simulate the rate of progress to flowering and podding, and data from the TCRU experiment in 1995. The model is based on the PARCH model (Predicting Arable Resource Capture in Hostile Environments) which incorporates a soil profile divided into layers, coupled with a crop growth module (Fig. 6). As this acronym suggests, this model has been developed primarily for harsh environments where water availability is scarce. On each day, light and water are intercepted and converted into dry matter.If water is non-limiting then growth is equal to the amount of radiation intercepted multiplied by the conversion coefficient for intercepted radiation. If water is limiting, growth equals the amount of water transpired multiplied by the transpiration equivalent (g dry matter produced per kg water transpired). An index of crop stress is derived from the ratio of light-limited to water-limited growth, depending on the availability of these resources and the crop's ability to intercept them.Partitioning of dry matter between plant organs depends on the developmental stage and the level of stress -increased stress results in increased partitioning to roots and reduced partitioning to pods. Initially most assimilates are partitioned to the leaves, increasing the leaf area and enabling more light to be intercepted. When podding occurs there is a gradual decline in partitioning to leaves and stems as assimilates are preferentially partitioned to pods instead. The brief summary of field and controlled environment experiments above indicates the immense effort which has been made at each partner institute involved in this project. Data have been collected on leaf and flower numbers, and dry matter production over a wide range of sites, sowing dates and management practices. However, model development has been slow owing to a lack of detailed physiological measurements in the field. For example, Sokoine University has the mandate for crop physiology, and yet until recently there was no equipment in place to carry out detailed physiological measurements. A neutron probe for estimating soil moisture content and an AccuPAR ceptometer for measuring light interception have recently been shipped to Tanzania, and so these measurements will be made in the 1995/96 experimental season. The model is therefore based on data from controlled environments, and will need careful validation against field data if it is to predict field performance accurately.Although the literature states that bambara groundnut is resistant to pests and diseases, our experience is that in high moisture environments, for example in Sierra Leone, and even in Morogoro, Tanzania, fungal diseases have been a problem. The most prevalent appear to be Cercospora leaf spot, Rhizoctonia solani and downy mildew. In some cases whole experiments have been wiped out, and in others it is difficult to estimate how much damage was caused by disease, as although leaves were damaged the crop did not fail completely. We must conclude that bambara groundnut is not as resistant to pests and diseases as was previously reported, and future research efforts need to consider this aspect.Pod yields in many of the field experiments have been poor, with a notable exception being Dodoma where yields up to 3 t/ha were recorded. The reasons behind these poor yields are not known, but possibilities include: management factors, such as earthing-up and growing on ridges; disease problems; nutrient deficiencies, and poor seed quality, although most landraces (from the same seed source) grown in controlled environments have produced high yields. With the benefit of hindsight, it may have been more appropriate to carry out a survey of bambara groundnut growers within each partner country prior to establishing field experiments. This would have highlighted the problems facing bambara groundnut farmers before field experiments were initiated. Ideally, research on minor crop species should be directed by problems identified by those growing the crop, as they are ultimately the targets for any improvements which can be made in managing the crop, or through breeding improved cultivars. A farm survey was carried out in Botswana in February 1995, and some of the findings will be incorporated into the final project report.One problem in working on an underutilized crop has been the seed supply. Initially, seed was supplied by National Tested Seeds in Zimbabwe, but for the most part seed has been bought from farmers. Hence there is concern over the seed quality due to poor storage conditions and lack of seed treatments available to subsistence farmers. With major crop species a named cultivar can be obtained commercially, and the genetic variability within that cultivar will have been reduced or removed through plant breeding over the years. However, bambara groundnut landraces are an unknown entity, with no local cultivar names and large variation within a so-called landrace. Although seeds can be sorted according to size, colour and eye pattern/colour, this does not eliminate the genetic diversity within a landrace. Therefore across all experiments there has been large variation between plants within the same landrace and under the same treatment, which has sometimes masked treatment differences. The question remains whether the laws which have been learnt from major crop species can be applicable to such nonuniform landraces. For example, can a 'mean' and 'standard error' be applied to a population containing extremely heterogeneous material? As yet there are no alternative ways of describing populations, but a group at the Scottish Crops Research Institute, led by Dr Geoff Squires, is investigating ways of quantifying the variability within bambara groundnut landraces.An important part of the project is to communicate research findings to other bambara groundnut researchers, through a series of reports and publications in the international literature. A workshop will be held at the University of Nottingham in July 1996, where it is hoped a wider audience will learn in more detail of our findings during this project. During the final year there will be field experiments in Tanzania and Botswana, and further model development based on information from field and controlled environment work and the farm survey. Ideally, information from other sources such as indigenous knowledge, and experience from other researchers will be incorporated into the model. An essential component will be the development of a strategy, based on the learning experience gained by all project scientists, to identify the potential of any other underutilized crop.Although this project will end in September 1996 it is hoped that our research on bambara groundnut will be of benefit to those working on the crop in Africa. The bambara groundnut simulation model will be a potentially powerful tool, for example in predicting yield under a set of well-defined conditions, or in defining responses to sowing date at specific locations. At a broader level extrapolation of results from the model could help in setting research priorities, and in agricultural planning for a specific region. It is envisaged that model development will continue after the end of the project, with the development of parameters for other types of bambara groundnut, and further validation across agro-ecological zones. Application of the model could also be made in breeding programmes for improved bambara groundnut types, by defining the most suitable ideotype for a specific environment.During the past 10 years, health, nutrition, education and other key indicators of social development have deteriorated in Zambia, causing hardship for the majority of people. Zambia is facing a severe food security problem, at both household and national levels. Sufficient calories and protein are not provided by traditional starchy foods, and high-protein foods are not available at affordable prices and in sufficient quantities to the majority of the population throughout the year. Zambian agriculture is predominantly rain-fed, and drought has occurred frequently in the past decade. Agricultural activity is dominated by small farmers, who comprise over 90% of the farming population. Crop production is the main agricultural output, even though livestock, wildlife, fisheries and forestry are also important. Zambia's agro-ecology permits a wide variety of farming systems and crops. In spite of this, in the past, little was done to diversify production.Subsidies and other counterproductive policies contributed to a decline in agricultural yields. Maize production was overemphasized, at the expense of farming systems' productivity and sustainability. Extension activities did not adequately cater for all growers, especially for female farmers. Morever, the lack of an integrated approach to crop development has contributed to research results not being fully utilized by farmers.Food legumes are important crops: they possess the highest protein content of all plant foods, and their amino acids complement those of cereals. Peanut is popular with women farmers, and is grown by housewives, mainly to supplement the dietary needs of rural families. Food legumes also enrich the soil, by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and resulting in reduced fertilizer requirements for subsequent crops. Since these crops are adapted to produce some yield, with little input, they are the ideal crops for the multitude of resource-poor smallholder farmers.Availability of the marketable surplus of peanut, beans, cowpeas and bambara groundnut to small farmers depends on stable and higher yields, which affect national food security. Furthermore, peanut, cowpea, pigeonpea and chickpea have very high export potential, and can contribute to the country's foreign exchange earnings. Principal constraints in the production of food legumes include insect pests, diseases, poor adaptability to abiotic and environmental stresses such as moisture, soil acidity, temperature, poor agronomic practices and the unavailability of improved seed.The increase in the national production of food legumes requires an increase in the area under these crops and/or the enhancement of productivity in the existing cultivation area. The scope for increasing food legume hectarage is limited by the smallholder farming system, where the families must grow other crops, such as maize, to meet their financial and dietary needs. Competition for land to use for other purposes or crops also affects the commercial production of food legumes. To increase productivity, the smallholder needs improved technology packages. Most of those currently available are for improving peanut varieties. The extension services will be able to contribute to such increased productivity, only after the research team has developed appropriate technology packages, suitable for the different cropping systems in which food legumes are grown. Continuing research is, therefore, the only real means of achieving increased national production, leading to Zambian self-sufficiency in food legume grains.The Food Legumes Research Team (FLRT) 9 is charged with conducting research on all major food legume crops in the country. Most of the research efforts are concentrated on peanut, bean and cowpea. A limited amount of research is also conducted on three minor legume crops: bambara groundnut, pigeonpea and chickpea.In 1978, with UNDP/FAO assistance (under the NODP), intensive research work was begun on legume improvement for peanut breeding. In 1982, such agronomic research was begun on beans and cowpea, as well as peanut, with IBRD/IFAD loan assistance, as an integral part of the Eastern Province Agricultural Development Project (EPADP), based at Msekera Regional Research Station. In 1986, the peanut breeding component was also taken up by the EPAD Project, whose funding terminated in June 1988.The Integrated Crop Management/Food Legume Project (ICP/FL) was formulated to address the problem of food security, and to improve the process of transferring to farmers the food legume technologies that have been developed hitherto. Unlike the previous UNDP-funded Maize and Food Legume Project, which confined itself to funding food legume crop research, the ICP/FL was designed to support research, extension and training, seed multiplication and the utilization of food legumes.The project, which became operational in March 1993, is funded by the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) is reponsible for its implementation, assisted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The aim of the project is to improve the productivity and sustainability of the smallholder farming systems in the three agro-ecological zones of Zambia. This is to be done through emphasis on increased production, on-farm storage, home utilization, and when possible, the export of food legume crops.The project strategy involves working through the GRZ extension services, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector, and concentrates on smallholder farmers in 30 (out of 57) districts in the three agro-ecological zones.The development objectives of the project are to improve the agricultural productivity and sustainability of the smallholder farming systems, and to improve the country's nutritional status by increasing the production and utilization of food legume crops. The immediate objectives of the project are to:• increase national food legume improvement capabilities, with farmers and extension agents playing leading participatory and diagnostic roles in the formulation of production packages • increase national food legume production capabilities, by disseminating environmentally sound production packages among smallholder farmers, focusing on the needs of female farmers • contribute to the enhancement of food security in the country and to improved health, especially among the children and mothers, by promoting home utilization of food legumes, and methods of preventing HIV/AIDS.The major activities to achieve the project's objectives are:• the establishment of an economic database on food legume crops The project encourages farmers to participate and play a leading role in the development of crop production packages, where an integrated crop development approach has been adopted. The project focuses on the needs of the small/ medium-scale farmers. The agro-ecological region approach to development has been followed for all the project activities.All the field work is production-oriented. The project collaborates with the government agencies, NGOs and the interested cooperatives, as well as with the private sector. The project activities are directed by a steering committee, whose members are drawn from these and from gender and development groups. Cooperative activities with other groups involved in similar work are also designed to enhance the effectiveness of the project. Gender-sensitive personnel are involved in developing its extension activities, to ensure that equal attention is given to the needs of female and male farmers. Mobile training courses held in the villages, and demonstration plots, form part of the strategy to achieve the project's objective of reaching more women farmers.Research in bambara groundnut began in 1971, when a series of agronomic trials were conducted in the Western and Southern Provinces. The results showed considerable variation in yield within varieties, with an extremely high coefficient of variation. The mean yields of some varieties were unexpectedly high, and the local varieties outyielded introductions so convincingly that the latter were excluded from future work. More agronomic trials on fertilizer use, ridging and spacing were conducted from 1972 to 1975. No significant results could be obtained from this series of trials, as the variation was too great.The most significant activity undertaken by the Food Legume Research Team on this crop was the collection of a large number of local landraces in a collecting mission undertaken with FAO/IBPGR. The germplasm was evaluated for yield potential and tolerance to disease and insect pests. Results from the few variety trials have been too varied to be useful.Responsibility for bambara groundnut research in the country currently lies with the University of Zambia, which has continued with germplasm augmentation.Other research activities undertaken include germplasm conservation, multiplication, characterization and evaluation. In 1989/90, a start was made in establishing a breeding programme, with the first single-plant selections. Multiplication and adaptability trials have also been conducted. From the multilocational trials, three local landraces (ZVS 544, ZVS 545 and ZVS 546) have been found to be promising. Efforts are now being made to multiply these three lines for testing in on-farm trials.In the 1994/95 season, 43 accessions obtained from South Africa were tested in an observation trial in Msekera. A total of 21 accessions recorded higher grain yields than the three local landraces. The seed of the promising accessions will be multiplied for testing in adaptation and yield trials.In addition to the research efforts, the project has identified and contracted three farmers to multiply popular local landraces of bambara groundnut. Once multiplied, the seed will be distributed to other farmers, through NGOs.Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is an indigenous African leguminous crop. Its common English name is derived from the Bambara, a tribe of agriculturists who now live mainly in Mali. The crop is called 'nyimo' in the Shona language and 'indlubu' in Ndebele. Bambara groundnut has been cultivated in the tropical regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and in Madagascar for many centuries (Linnemann and Azam-Ali 1992). In Zimbabwe, small-scale communal farmers grow the crop mainly on a subsistence level, although surpluses are often sold in urban centres. Bambara groundnut is traditionally grown as an intercrop, with millet, sorghum, maize, or even vegetables such as okra or pumpkin (Doku 1967;Doku and Karikari 1971a;Ezueh 1977;Haque 1980;Linnemann 1990). The crop may also be grown as a sole crop (Stanton et al. 1966). Bambara groundnut is useful in crop rotations, because it can improve the nitrogen status of the soil (Mukurumbira 1985). In many dry, hostile environments, bambara groundnut is able to produce some yield, where groundnut and other drought-tolerant legumes may fail completely (Nyamudedza 1989;Lewitt 1990).Bambara groundnut is predominantly grown for human consumption, although it also has the potential for use as an animal feed. The seeds of bambara groundnut are often described as a complete food, as they contain protein, carbohydrate and fat in sufficient proportions to provide a nutritious food (Poulter and Caygill 1980). Seeds can be boiled in the immature, green state, either shelled or unshelled, until quite soft. Dry shelled nuts can be pounded to flour and then boiled to a stiff porridge. An alternative is to roast, boil, crush and eat the seeds as a relish with the maize-meal porridge, 'sadza'.The empirical evidence, and limited research, indicate that bambara groundnut is a promising crop, which has been largely neglected by national and international agricultural researchers. Previous research work on the physiology and agronomy of bambara groundnut has been carried out on a short-term, trial-and-error basis, mainly owing to the limited funds available for research on underutilized crop species (Linnemann and Azam-Ali 1992). The development of improved genetic material should be pursued in conjunction with the search for optimal management practices for commercial and subsistence production.There is a dearth of reported data on bambara groundnut seed quality tests. In 1992, The International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) stipulated the optimum conditions for the germination of bambara groundnut. 10 In Zimbabwe, the minimum gazetted germination for a bambara groundnut seed crop is 75%. Sowing seed that does not have the capacity to produce an abundant crop of the required cultivar is one of the greatest hazards in crop production (Mupamba, pers. comm.). Large bambara 10 Section 5.9 of the ISTA rule states that when reporting the result of a germination test, the following items should be entered in the analysis certificate: (i) duration of test; (ii) percentage of normal seedlings, abnormal seedlings, hard seeds and dead seeds. If the result for any of these categories is found to be nil, it is entered as '0'. groundnut seeds reportedly produce more vigorous seedlings (Karikari 1969). Zulu (1989) reported that small seeds emerge at a faster rate. Maximum fractional germination, i.e. an emerged radicle of 10 mm length, occurs at 22-36ºC in contrasting genotypes (Zulu 1989). The highest levels of final germination of two bambara groundnut landraces from Zimbabwe were obtained at 30-35ºC (Mabika 1991).Assessing the germination of different genotypes under controlled environments and seedling emergence in the field is a useful rapid screening technique, which can facilitate the selection of germplasm with good early vigour for moisture-stressed edaphic conditions (Perry 1981). Indeed, seeds of high germination and vigour are highly desirable in the establishment of most crops.Concomitantly, the effect of the duration of storage on germination is an important determinant of the physiological quality of a seedlot. Prolonged storage for 18 months of bambara groundnut seeds reportedly reduced germinability, delayed germination, reduced root and epicotyl growth, and increased the number of stunted seedlings (Sreeramula 1983).This paper examines the germination of three contrasting bambara groundnut genotypes, from different seedlots, grown on two inert media or substrates (sand and between paper (BP)), and seed vigour under field conditions.Germination tests were conducted on six seedlots from three bambara groundnut genotypes. The test media used for the controlled environment evaluation were sand and paper. A field test to record seedling emergence/early vigour was also done at The National Tested Seeds Research Station, Sigaro. The seeds of the bambara groundnut genotypes were originally from seed grown and bulked at Sigaro during the 1991/92 season. After each harvest, the seed was hand-shelled, treated with Natsan (a.i. -Captan, 76%; Pirimiphos-methyl, 1.60%), bagged and stored under ambient temperature and humidity. This process was repeated for subsequent crops. Because there are no local improved bambara groundnut varieties, sensu strictu, we used three genotypes or landraces, distinguished by their testa colour: red, cream and black were used. The final number of test entries was 6, randomly drawn from pure seedlots harvested from the 1992/93 and 1994/95 crops. Thus the test entries were: Black 92, Cream 92, Red 92, and Black 94, Cream 94 and Red 94, respectively. The genotypes with a 92 suffix had been stored for 20 months.)\\TIVMQIRX River sand was sieved through a 0.08 cm diameter sieve and then washed and sterilized before use. Fifty seeds per entry, arranged in eight replicates, were planted on a level layer of moist sand, in plastic trays measuring 24.5 x 20 x 3.5 cm. The seeds were then covered with 2.5 cm of uncompressed sand. The sand was kept moistened to about field capacity for the duration of the test. Trays were placed in an airconditioned germination laboratory, at a constant temperature of 20ºC. After 10 days, the germination evaluation was done according to the ISTA rule, section 5.9. The result of the germination test was calculated as the average of eight 50-seed replicates, and expressed as a percentage by number of normal seedlings. Normal seedlings were those which showed the potential for continued development into satisfactory plants when grown in good quality soil, and under favourable moisture, temperature and light conditions.The number of seeds per test entry and the number of replicates were as described above. The seeds were placed with three papers below and one paper on top. The newsprints were 50 x 25 cm. The papers were carefully rolled, and then put into a transparent polythene bag. Each bag was secured with an elastic band and placed in an upright position in a cabinet germinator, where relative humidity was maintained near saturation. Day and night temperatures were kept at 30 and 25ºC, respectively. At 10 days after sowing, the germination percentage was determined, as in Experiment 1.)\\TIVMQIRX As the optimum conditions provided in the germination test rarely, if, ever, occur in the field, a simplified vigour test was conducted to identify genotypes/seedlots with rapid synchronous emergence, or those which produce large robust seedlings under field conditions (Perry 1981). Randomly selected pure seed samples of the same six entries as in Experiment 1 and 2 were planted in a complete randomized block design, four replicates, with 50 seeds per replicate. Seeds were sown to a depth of 2.5 cm.The soil at the trial site is a reddish brown, medium-grained, sandy-clay with a pH of 6.2. The soil was analyzed, and had the following nutrients, prior to sowing: nitrogen, initial and after incubation, 26 and 50 parts per million (ppm), respectively; available phosphorus, 47 ppm; potassium, 0.25 mg/100 g. The trial was irrigated daily, to field capacity, for 10 days. At the end of the test period, replicates were examined, and actual counts were made of emerged seedlings and converted to percentage seedling emergence. Results from the three experiments were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), using a software database for plant breeders.Results of the three germination experiments and vigour tests are summarized in Table 1. The highest mean germination, 83.13%, was obtained between paper, followed by in sand (77.17%). Only 45% of the bambara groundnut seeds germinated and produced robust seedlings in the field. The low emergence could have been due to low temperatures; more time (>14 days) would have been needed to assess emergence. This trend was observed across genotypes and seedlots, which were stored for varying periods. The genotype with the black seed coat consistently performed well across the three media.Results from Experiment 1 show that there are significant differences between the bambara groundnut genotypes regarding germinability (P=0.05). The germination percentage for the three genotypes was over and above the 75% minimum germination stipulated by the Seed Certifying Authority of Zimbabwe, for a bambara groundnut seedlot to be fit for commercial sale. However, for reasons which are unknown, the red-seeded genotype from the 94 seedlot gave a low germination (only 54.5%). Statistically, the results show that sand gives a more precise indication of the germinability of the different genotypes, as shown by the low coefficient of variation and the lowest %E among the three media. The germination on sand suggests that seed storage did not adversely influence viability and germinability, as reported by Sreeramulu (1983). Brook et al. (1977) reported that shelled seeds deteriorate at ambient temperature, and seeds should be shelled as near to their planting as possible, in order to maximize their viability. Our findings did not confirm this observation, but our experimental data agree with observations made at the University of Nottingham. These showed that there was no loss of germinability in red seeds stored at ambient temperatures for 2 years (Mabika, pers. comm.). 6.84 9.66 6.69 † Stored for 20 months. ‡ %V is the ratio of the variance among entries to the total phenotypic variance being calculated on an entry mean basis. %V is equal to heritability, when the entries are a random set of lines from some reference population. The range of %V is from 0 to 100. A high %V indicates (1) that there is variability among the entries in the test, and (2) that the differences among the entries is repeatable from replicate to replicate and from environment to environment. § %E is the ratio of the plot-to-plot error variance (pooled over environments) to the total phenotypic variance. It is an estimate of the precision of the measurements for the trait of interest. %E will usually decrease with increasing number of replicates and environments.Results from Experiment 2 indicate that between paper (BP) is probably the most ideal inert media, as is shown by the generally high percentage germinations. Compared with sand, BP recorded 7% more normal seedlings than the number noted across the bambara groundnut genotypes. Differences in germination percentages among the genotypes were significant (P<0.05). The black seeds gave the highest germination percentage, compared with the cream and red seeds from the 92 seedlots. The enhanced germination capacity of the black-seeded genotype could have resulted from operational selection, among other factors, which has hitherto focused on genotypes which facilitate harvesting and have faster and more uniform germination (Hepper 1970).Of interest is the significant difference between the Black 94 and Black 92. The seed, which had been under storage for 20 months, gave a higher germination than fresh seed, perhaps as a result of the seed dormancy of the black-seeded landrace. This observation contradicts data from other investigators (Sreeramula 1983;Mabika 1991). Based on LSD analysis, the differences between the Black 92 and Black 94 seedlots were significant (P=0.05). This observation was not reflected in the red and cream-seeded genotypes. Germination of the black-seeded genotype originating from the 1994/95 crop was below 75%. Thus, the 1994/95 crop would have been rejected for seed production.Predictably, the proportion of seeds that produced robust seedlings in soil under field conditions was less than the germination obtained in sand and BP. The overall reduction in germination/emergence between the two inert media on one hand, and in soil on the other, was 34%. However, there were discernible differences among the genotypes regarding the numbers of seedlings recorded. Hence, genotypes and seeds from different seedlots could be broadly categorized into (i) seeds that performed well/high-vigour seeds, and (ii) those that performed poorly/low-vigour seeds.In the former category, the black-seeded genotype (94) produced the highest number of robust seedlings, equivalent to 64% field emergence. Cream 94 gave 55% field emergence. The worst performer in the category of low-vigour seeds was Cream 92, which had a field emergence of 19%. Statistical differences in percentage field emergence among the bambara groundnut genotypes were significant (P<0.001). Generally, on inert media, field emergence was positively correlated to germination capacity. Perry (1981) stated that the causes of variations in vigour are several. Among these, genetic constitution was highlighted as being crucial. Table 1 shows that %V (91.85) for field emergence was high. This indicated high heritability for vigour, and that the differences between the entries could be repeated in other edaphic environments.Overall, experimental data across the three media indicate that there is variability among the test entries, as shown by the high %V. The high %V also shows that germination and early seedling vigour in bambara groundnuts have high heritabilities. Thus genetic enhancement of these two traits would be a feasible breeding objective. Testa colour is not always a reliable descriptor for a genotype; several instances of re-segregating populations have been recorded (Mittelholzer 1969;Linnemann 1990). Additional criteria, besides the use of the appearance of the seed coat as a means of genotypic identification, could facilitate the implementation of an integrated programme to assess and improve the genetic potential of bambara groundnut in the future.The authors wish to thank Godfree Chigeza and Lameck Chatyoka for their valuable contributions to the research project. Many thanks to Fungai Simbi for his helpful comments and Gilbert Mutseyekwa for his help with the statistical analysis.Chivi lies in the semi-arid southern part of Zimbabwe. Rainfall is low, variable and unpredictable. An annual average range of rainfall of 400-600 mm falls between October and May. Various soil types are found in Chivi, ranging from heavy clays to sandy soils. Generally, soils are of poor-to-medium fertility, with low levels of organic matter, and have low pH values, ranging from 4.2 to 4.8.The Farming Systems Research Unit (FSRU) was initiated in Zimbabwe after independence, and was mandated to study mixed crop and livestock production systems in order to identify opportunities for, and major constraints to, improved crop production. Two representative sites, Chivi and Mangwende, were chosen for carrying out the study. Mangwende is a high-potential area in the northern part of Zimbabwe. Just after the formation of the Farming Systems Research Unit in 1984, surveys were conducted to identify constraints in crop production. These were identified as low soil fertility, unreliable rainfall, lack of established market outlets and lack of adequate cash.Bambara groundnut did not emerge as a priority crop for production. The probable reasons for this are (i) farmers give priority to satisfying food requirements first, and (ii) the perception of bambara groundnut as a less important 'woman's crop'. The total hectarage of bambara groundnut is very low, compared with crops such as maize, peanut and sorghum. A recent monitoring survey carried out by the FSRU revealed that as long ago as 1990-91, the average area under bambara groundnut cultivation was 2-5% of arable land. Female-headed households allocated a high percentage of arable land to bambara groundnut, i.e. 4%, while male-headed households allocated about 1%.Bambara groundnut is usually grown on sandy soils, either as a single crop or in mixed stand with other crops, notably maize, but also groundnut, cotton or sorghum. Harvesting of bambara groundnut is very labour-intensive. Historically, bambara groundnut was grown in once-fallow land; however, with an increasing population, the average land-holding per household is currently 2 ha, making it difficult to leave fallow land that could be planted with the crop. Although bambara groundnut is cultivated on the poorest soils, no fertilizers are added.Bambara groundnut has always been traded informally, which probably explains the low hectarage put to the crop. In Chivi, particularly during the 1994/95 season, there was a great change in the marketing of bambara. Traders from all over the country and abroad have been buying the crop at Ngundu, at an average price of US$ 0.50/kg. The reasons for this lie in the 1994/95 drought, which increased the importance of the bambara groundnut crop in the area, owing to its higher yields compared with such crops as maize.For many years, there was no research on bambara groundnut by FSRU in the area. Research efforts were concentrated on crops such as maize, peanuts, pearl millet and sorghum. Bambara research only began after participatory rural appraisals in 1993/94, when two groups of farmers, mainly composed of women, drew attention to the need to carry out soil fertility studies on bambara groundnut on sandy soils. This has created gender awareness, particularly in the cultivation of crops such as bambara groundnut. Farmers experiencing problems with the production of bambara on sandy soils grouped together to discuss with researchers ways of enhancing soil fertility. Local varieties, which included a mixture of red and cream lines, were planted in 45-cm rows, spaced 10 cm apart. The treatments applied (Table 1) included leaf litter (7.13 t/ha), ant-heap soils (12.1 t/ha), gypsum (200 kg/ha) and a combination of gypsum and single superphosphate (200 kg/ha each). As can be seen from Table 1, it appears that ant-heap soils improve bambara groundnut yield. Although labour requirements are high when these soils are used, farmers opt for these less costly treatments. Compared with maize, the hectarage put to bambara groundnut is so low that rotation would only be feasible on small areas. Some farmers in Chivi have reported that bambara 'kills soil', or damages the field. It is believed to produce little organic matter, and only a few of its leaves can be incorporated in the soil for nutrient cycling.While the potential of bambara in cereal/legume rotation has been scientifically proven, some farmers remain unconvinced. Mukurumbira (1985) reported that higher yields were obtained when a maize crop succeeded a bambara groundnut crop on station than when it succeeded peanut, maize and fallow. Nitrogen uptake was also highest in maize succeeding a bambara crop, which was attributed to the ease of mineralization of the bambara leaves, compared with those of groundnut and maize. Researchers should test this hypothesis, together with farmers, so that both gain confidence in the role of bambara groundnut in soil fertility improvement on-farm.The various types of germplasm available in the area are little known to researchers, and appear to include the cream, red and black-seeded varieties. Characterization of such germplasm in terms of days to physiological maturity, shelling percentage, yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance and biomass production has not been carried out. If farmers were to characterize such attributes as the taste and suitability for cooking of the varieties they grow, this might form a practical basis for bambara breeding.If diversity of bambara groundnut germplasm exists in the Chivi area, how might scientists and farmers maintain this diversity? The experience of working with groups of farmers, particularly those growing bambara groundnut, showed that more women than men participated in the trials. Women possess a high level of indigenous knowledge of the characteristics of bambara groundnut and its storage (it is stored in its shells and kept in jute sacks, and only when the rainy season starts is it shelled; seed selection is carried out after shelling, on the basis of size, colour and condition). Future research on bambara groundnut, therefore, should make use of women's valuable knowledge of the crop.For a long time, bambara has received little attention from the Farming Systems Research Unit in the Chivi Area. Farmer assessment of trials does not depend on yield alone, but also on such economic aspects as labour and cost.The contribution of bambara to soil fertility, particularly in sandy soils, is a grey area for some farmers. Further research on such aspects are recommended. There is considerable potential to improve bambara groundnut breeding in the country, by using farmer groups, particularly women, to assess germplasm.Bambara groundnut hectarage is quite low in Chivi, ranging from 2 to 5% of arable land. Given the crop's high potential in dry years, efforts should be made to promote its cultivation in the Communal areas.Bambara groundnut is an important food legume in Africa, which has a long tradition of cultivation in the continent. However, no significant research has been undertaken to improve the crop. The availability of germplasm materials is vital to crop breeding. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) made a commendable effort to gather nearly 2000 accessions of the crop from most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to a GTZ-funded special project at IITA, this important bambara groundnut collection was effectively characterized, evaluated and documented, and its data made available to all potential users around the world.Field characterization and evaluation of the accessions mainly took place at the IITA research station, located in Nigeria. A total of 1384 accessions were planted for characterization and evaluation in 1985 and 1986. Planting took place on ridges, spaced 100 cm apart. Intra-ridge spacing was about 20 cm. Each accession occupied a single row, the length of which varied from 1.5 to 6 m, depending on the quantity of seeds available. Pesticides and irrigation were applied whenever it was necessary.The accessions were evaluated for 38 characters, according to the internal bambara groundnut descriptor list (IBPGR, IITA and GTZ 1987), which is presently under revision, and measured, both in the field during vegetative growth, and after harvesting.Table 1 provides a summary of the basic statistics for the quantitative characters. For most characters, including the qualitative ones not listed in Table 1, the high-and low-scoring accessions are listed. It is worth noting that the results for most quantitative traits were environment-specific. The humid ecology of Ikenne somewhat depressed the growth and productivity of the plants. The frequency distributions of the accessions are indicated in Figures 1-23 for each continuously varying character.(E]W XS QEXYVMX] Accessions maturing within 100 days: • TVSU 459, 460, 604, 606, 607, 610, 614, 615, 616, 618, 620, 622, 623, 624, 626, 662, 1154, 1155. Accessions maturing after 160 days: • TVSU 30, 123, 557, 701, 956, 957, 961, 964, 971, 1060, 1116, 1215. :MKSYV MRHI\\ Accessions rated 9 for vigour index:• TVSU 726, 1071, 1299, 1341.This character was visually rated, 11 weeks after planting, taking into consideration both the spreading of the plants and the internode length. The scale used was: 1 = plants in a bunch conformation; leaves in a cluster as a result of short internodes 2 = plants have a semi-bunch conformation; in general, internodes moderately elongated 3 = plants with spreading or trailing stem system; internodes usually long. It was observed that plants of poor vigour tended to have a bunch conformation. Distribution of the accessions over the three growth-habit groups was 45, 47 and 8%, for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Accessions with plant height equal to or greater than 35 cm: • TVSU 747, 1254, 1279, 1280, 1281, 1366, 1376. Accessions with plant height equal to 10 cm: • TVSU 44,90,101,110,166,168,201,241,245,302,306,420,425,528,964. 'ERST] [MHXL Accessions with canopy width equal to 90 cm: • TVSU 1277• TVSU , 1344• TVSU , 1351• TVSU , 1356• TVSU , 1357• TVSU , 1359• TVSU , 1361• TVSU , 1362• TVSU , 1366• TVSU , 1374• TVSU , 1377. . Accessions with canopy width less than 20 cm: • TVSU 30, 90, 110, 166, 168, 241, 306, 525, 528, 623, 629, 701, 846, 964, 1057• TVSU 30, 90, 110, 166, 168, 241, 306, 525, 528, 623, 629, 701, 846, 964, , 1095• TVSU 30, 90, 110, 166, 168, 241, 306, 525, 528, 623, 629, 701, 846, 964, , 1199• TVSU 30, 90, 110, 166, 168, 241, 306, 525, 528, 623, 629, 701, 846, 964, , 1209. . 2YQFIV SJ PIEZIW TIV TPERX Accessions with more than 300 leaves per plant: TVSU 1157TVSU , 1170TVSU , 1174TVSU , 1208TVSU , 1235TVSU , 1244TVSU , 1338TVSU , 1340TVSU , 1351TVSU , 1358. . Accessions with less than 20 leaves per plant: TVSU 30, 162, 285, 388, 394, 525, 528, 701, 1057.A visual rating of the shape of the medium leaflet took place 11 weeks after planting, according to the following scale: 1 = narrow leaflet 2 = oval shape 3 = broad, roundish leaflet. The distribution of the accessions over the three groups of leaflet-shape patterns was 8, 78 and 14% for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Accessions with median leaflet length equal or greater than 90 mm: • TVSU 227, 318, 1046• TVSU 227, 318, ,1289• TVSU 227, 318, , 1291• TVSU 227, 318, , 1292• TVSU 227, 318, , 1299• TVSU 227, 318, , 1303• TVSU 227, 318, , 1304• TVSU 227, 318, , 1331• TVSU 227, 318, , 1341• TVSU 227, 318, , 1344• TVSU 227, 318, , 1351• TVSU 227, 318, , 1354• TVSU 227, 318, , 1356• TVSU 227, 318, , 1357• TVSU 227, 318, , 1359• TVSU 227, 318, , 1360• TVSU 227, 318, , 1362• TVSU 227, 318, , 1367• TVSU 227, 318, , 1373. . Accessions with median leaflet length less than 35 mm: TVSU 17, 90, 166, 168, 205, 263, 325, 326, 425, 525, 528, 701, 838, 1057TVSU 17, 90, 166, 168, 205, 263, 325, 326, 425, 525, 528, 701, 838, , 1199TVSU 17, 90, 166, 168, 205, 263, 325, 326, 425, 525, 528, 701, 838, , 1334. . 8IVQMREP PIEJPIX [MHXL Accessions with median leaflet width equal to or greater than 50 mm: TVSU 194, 295, 579, 672, 703, 1360. Accessions with median leaflet width equal to or less than 12 mm: TVSU 90,101,211,212,525,528,701.Accessions with petiole length equal to or greater than 27 cm: TVSU 1309TVSU , 1334TVSU , 1341TVSU , 1351TVSU , 1356TVSU , 1357TVSU , 1359TVSU , 1361TVSU , 1362TVSU , 1368TVSU , 1372TVSU , 1374TVSU , 1376TVSU , 1377. . Accessions with petiole length less than 6 cm: TVSU 90, 261, 425, 428, 1057TVSU 90, 261, 425, 428, , 1078.The petiole and veins of the leaves were either green or reddish. These two colourations were assigned the indexes 1 and 2, respectively. Out of 1307 accessions observed, only 14 were assigned the index 2. In other words, almost 99% of the accessions had a green petiole and veins.Accessions with more than 14 stems per plant: • TVSU 104, 114, 218, 226, 737, 742, 743, 879, 880, 896, 941, 946, 951, 985, 1089• TVSU 104, 114, 218, 226, 737, 742, 743, 879, 880, 896, 941, 946, 951, 985, , 1223• TVSU 104, 114, 218, 226, 737, 742, 743, 879, 880, 896, 941, 946, 951, 985, , 1231• TVSU 104, 114, 218, 226, 737, 742, 743, 879, 880, 896, 941, 946, 951, 985, , 1246• TVSU 104, 114, 218, 226, 737, 742, 743, 879, 880, 896, 941, 946, 951, 985, , 1249. . Accessions with less than 4 stems per plant: • TVSU 30, 47, 591, 702, 858, 1060. 2YQFIV SJ FVERGLIW TIV WXIQ Accessions with more than 7 branches per stem: TVSU 29, 256, 258, 276, 369, 376, 638, 732, 742, 743, 880, 951, 985, 1089TVSU 29, 256, 258, 276, 369, 376, 638, 732, 742, 743, 880, 951, 985, , 1223TVSU 29, 256, 258, 276, 369, 376, 638, 732, 742, 743, 880, 951, 985, , 1231TVSU 29, 256, 258, 276, 369, 376, 638, 732, 742, 743, 880, 951, 985, , 1246TVSU 29, 256, 258, 276, 369, 376, 638, 732, 742, 743, 880, 951, 985, , 1248. . 2YQFIV SJ RSHIW TIV WXIQ Accessions with more than 22 nodes per stem:• TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, 1015TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1089TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1141TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1176TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1223TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1231TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1246TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1304TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1341TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1359TVSU 116, 136, 376, 571, 687, 732, 951, , 1367. . -RXIVRSHI PIRKXL Accessions with internodes longer than 18 mm: • TVSU 29, 92, 225, 234, 235, 490, 537, 574, 635, 637, 1057• TVSU 29, 92, 225, 234, 235, 490, 537, 574, 635, 637, , 1113• TVSU 29, 92, 225, 234, 235, 490, 537, 574, 635, 637, , 1223• TVSU 29, 92, 225, 234, 235, 490, 537, 574, 635, 637, , 1283• TVSU 29, 92, 225, 234, 235, 490, 537, 574, 635, 637, , 1309. . Accessions with internodes shorter than 6 mm: • TVSU 90, 174, 302, 425, 428, 487, 509, 525, 787. • TVSU 613, 804, 809, 823, 931, 1200, 1269. 7IIH PIRKXL Accessions with seed length greater than 16 mm: • TVSU 22, 1076• TVSU 22, , 1124• TVSU 22, , 1133• TVSU 22, , 1144• TVSU 22, , 1220• TVSU 22, , 1225. . Accessions with seed length less than 4 mm: • TVSU 1050, 1233, 1237, 1251.Accessions with seed width equal to or greater than 12 mm: • TVSU 561, 1143, 1220, 1240.Accessions with seed width less than 7 mm: • TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, 1050• TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, , 1232• TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, , 1429• TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, , 1251• TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, , 1252• TVSU 123, 239, 249, 676, 969, 978, 985, , 1255. . 7IIH WLETI Seed shape was rated using the following index: 1 = round 2 = oval 3 = flat at one end. Distribution of the accessions over the three types of seed shape was 30, 60 and 10% for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively.Nine testa patterns were observed in the collection. These patterns contained in the bambara groundnut descriptors are shown in Fig. 24. Frequency distribution for testa pattern is shown in Fig. 18.)]I TEXXIVR In total, eight eye patterns were identified in the collection, reported in the bambara groundnut descriptors booklet, as shown in Fig. 25. Frequency distribution for eye pattern is shown in Fig. 19.The colour of the seed testa and eye was assessed using the Munsell colour charts. Subsequently, the range of colours was subdivided into 19 groups. This grouping is presented in detail in the bambara groundnut descriptors. About 55% of the accessions had a creamy seed coat, while up to 86% had a dark brown eye.About 47% of the accessions had pigmentation around the seed eye, while the remaining 53% did not. These two groups were designated by the symbols '+' and '0', respectively.Accessions with 100 pods/plant or more: • TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, 1057• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1086• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1108• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1223• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1231• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1244• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1254• TVSU 173, 372, 380, 855, 935, 938, 963, , 1316. . 2YQFIV SJ WIIHW TIV TSH Accessions with 1.81 to 2 seeds per pod:• TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, 1065TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1128TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1189TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1193TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1196TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1283TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1284TVSU 142, 253, 260, 714, 993, , 1449. . ;IMKLX SJ WIIHW Accessions with a 100-seed weight higher than 85 g: • TVSU 1, 22, 36, 176, 366, 572, 613, 864, 916, 1076, 1201, 1327, 1337, 1341, 1346, 1351. Accessions with a 100-seed weight less than 10 g: • TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, 1082• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1253• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1301• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1303• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1311• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1329• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1334• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1368• TVSU 49, 81, 185, 194, 219, 270, 440, 472, 799, , 1378.Accessions with seed yield equal to or higher than 60 g/plant:• TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, 1023TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1034TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1061TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1231TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1244TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1254TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1279TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1347TVSU 119, 173, 515, 613, 688, 702, 840, 870, 879, 880, 922, 924, 938, 949, , 1378.As can be seen from Fig. 26, about 11% of the accessions were assigned the index 1.Nearly 27% of the accessions had very little, or no, leaf spots (see Fig. 27).The correlation matrix in Annex A helps to determine pairs of characters that vary in the same or opposite directions. It is a useful guide, especially for plant breeders who may want to associate a set of traits in their selection programmes. Correlations between pairs of characters are reliably significant, when the absolute values of the coefficient are greater than 0.20. Some of the relationships discovered are discussed below.The characters most strongly correlated with yield per plant (YLD) were the number of pods per plant (POD), shell thickness (SHL), number of leaves per plant (LPP), and weight of 100 seeds (SWT). The correlations were all positive, and these traits were obviously also positively correlated with each other.Plants with more stems, branches or nodes matured later. This is indicated by the positive correlation between days to maturity (DMT), and the number of stems, branches or nodes. In fact the latter three characters are highly positively correlated. The negative correlations between DMT and Cercospora or virus indexes provided evidence that diseased plants matured earlier. A negative correlation was also revealed between DMT and SWT, indicating that small-seeded plants matured later.The number of days to 50% flowering was only positively correlated with MAT. The number of seeds per pod (SPP) could be an important character to consider, but it was not significantly associated with most of the selected traits. Plants with short petioles tended to have more seeds per pod.The characterization and evaluation of the bambara groundnut collection at IITA revealed an enormous agromorphological diversity, which can be used for crop improvement. Nevertheless, the agromorphological diversity should be confirmed by molecular and genetic studies. The germplasm materials as well as all related data are available to all potential users at the Genetic Resources Unit of the Institute. It is hoped that national agricultural research services in Africa will build upon this initial work on bambara groundnut to develop strategies for the crop's adoption, improvement and use.                         Cameroon lies on the edge of the Guinea Gulf, between West and Central Africa, and crosses both Guinean and Sudanian phytogeographical areas. All along this south-north axis, there is a continuous contrast between lowland and highland areas. Cameroon is the home of numerous ethnic groups, belonging to three different linguistic phyla, and material cultural traits are well conserved. These factors make Cameroon a valuable resource for ethnobotanic studies (Figs. 1, 2 and 3).The ORSTOM-MESIRES project, 'Agrosystems and cultivated plant diffusion' was initiated and coordinated by Christian Seignobos. Within this project, a study of pulses was undertaken by the authors. Results on cowpea have been published (Pasquet and Fotso 1994) and results on Phaseolus beans are in preparation.  A slight correlation between population density and density of localities sampled was observed. In highly settled areas -the northern Mandara mountains (densely surveyed because of the high variability encountered), southern Diamaré, and west Cameroon highlands -collecting density was high. On the other hand, poorly settled areas such as the southeastern forest areas and the savannas south of Adamaoua had a markedly lower collecting density.Condition and size of the bambara groundnut collectionThe collection presently includes approximately 1200 cultivated accessions (Table 1) from 702 localities (Fig. 4). However, many accessions are a mix of several different cultivars, which are not yet divided. When the mixed accessions are separated, the collection is expected to exceed 2000. The collection also includes 60 wild and weedy accessions from 29 localities (Fig. 5). The map shows many more localities with wild and weedy bambara groundnut than previously known through herbarium specimens from K, P and YA herbaria. Wild bambara groundnut seems to be widely distributed, although rare, between 7°N and 11°N. According to seed colour, colour pattern, seed size and number of seeds per pod, accessions were assigned to approximately 30 different cultivars. Most cultivars are traditional landraces, but some large-seeded cultivars have been introduced during the last 20 years. No bred varieties seem to have been distributed by agricultural services, either before or after the independence of Cameroon.A collection of 1-50 seeds per accession is now housed at ORSTOM, Montpellier (France) in a cold room at 5°C and 20% humidity.A total of 50 accessions, including two weedy and one wild, were morphologically characterized. Analysis of the data produced the following results (see Table 2). As expected, the wild and weedy accessions show smaller leaves, smaller seeds (unfortunately, seed size was not accurately recorded), very long internodes and a spreading growth habit. Most interestingly, cultivated accessions could be split into two distinct groups: a northern group, characterized by 1-seeded pods, and a southern group, characterized by 2-4 seeded pods, as those reported by Rassell (1960), a slightly less bushy habit, and more robust plants. This latter group does not seem to have been studied by Begemann (1988a).  The border between the area of cultivation of these groups follows a line south of Adamaoua, which separates the two main areas of Cameroon: the northern (sorghum) area, where only one crop per year is viable, and the southern (maize) area, where two crops may be grown annually. A similar phenomenon is observed with cowpea. To the north of this line, the cultigroups Biflora and Melanophthalma (which display low ovule numbers) are found, and to the south, the cultigroup Unguiculata (which displays high ovule numbers) (Pasquet and Fotso 1994). As cultigroups Biflora and Melanophthalma are photosensitive, and Unguiculata is photoindependent, it seems reasonable to suppose that the bambara groundnut cultigroups in the northern localities may be photosensitive and those in the south, photo-independent. This frontier is also a cultural boundary between the Chadic and Adamawa linguistic groups of the north, and the Bantoid and Bantu linguistic groups of the south (Fig. 2). The ethnobotanical and linguistic data gathered suggest that bambara groundnut is associated with Adamawa, Bantoid and Bantu language speakers, and cowpea with the Chadic language speakers (Pasquet and Fotso 1991).It is also interesting to note the three areas which are more or less devoid of bambara groundnut. There is no bambara groundnut in the flooded plains which surround Lake Chad. In precolonial times, bambara groundnut was imported for consumption, primarily from the Mandara mountains. Bambara groundnut was not cultivated and used by the ethnic groups from southwest Cameroon, perhaps because some of these groups were yam bean cultivators, and other groups relied on hunting for their protein needs. Bambara groundnut was not cultivated by the Béti, who expressed a preference for, and were proud of possessing, peanut. In this area, bambara groundnut cultivation is restricted to the former Bassa area, which was conquered by the Béti a few decades before the colonial period. Legumes are traditionally cultivated by women, and as the Béti kept the Bassa women, the existence of bambara groundnut in this region continues as remnant of the Bassa culture. Bambara groundnut is found throughout the Lophira alata forest area, which formed part of the once much more extensive Bassa region (Letouzey 1968).We would like to thank Mr Audebert and Njigi Fouda (SODECAO), Mr Gaudard and Mambou (SODECOTON), Mr Custers, Dewaele and Meurillon (NEBBP), Mr Asah and Parkinson (MIDENO), Mr Piedjou and Mr Simon (UCCAO), who allowed us to carry out the surveys.The characterizations of bambara groundnut were done within the SODECAO-CCCE 'Nyong et Mfoumou' project. We thank Mr Simon (CCCE), Mr Audebert (Directeur des Opérations Agricoles, SODECAO), Mr Paul Mbida (Directeur de la station de Mengang) and Mr Bernatin Mvondo Nkoe.We also thank S. Bahuchet, D. Barreteau, M. Dieu, E. Dounias, J.G. Gauthier and Ch. Seignobos for the seed samples they kindly provided.A first attempt was made to provide comprehensive information on bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.), previously known as Voandzeia subterranea (L.) Thou. ex DC.), when the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) published the first bibliography with abstracts of world literature from 1900 to 1978 (IITA 1978). A total of 260 entries were listed, and grouped according to their relevance in (a) general and reference works, (b) agronomy, (c) physiology, growth and development, (d) chemical composition, (e) botany, taxonomy and geographical distribution, (f) genetics and plant breeding, (g) insect pests and control, (h) plant pathology, (i) nutritional studies and (j) other uses.In addition, IITA provided some specific background information in the areas of crop production, plant breeding, and crop protection, utilization and economics (Begemann 1986a,b;Ng et al. 1985). IITA´s bibliography was subsequently updated by A. Linnemann (1992). Her revised and updated bibliography comprises some 500 references, mostly annotated, and covers the period up to the year 1992. No regular updating of bambara groundnut bibliographic information has yet been established.For many years, additional information on the origin of genetic resources collections, and the qualitative and quantitative properties of numerous landraces, has been recorded at numerous research institutions. These records, however, are scattered, and difficult to trace and interpret, partly due to a lack of appropriate communication tools, and partly, to the lack of standardization of the format and content of collections. It was for this reason that central crop databases and standard descriptor lists have been established for many crops (Hazekamp 1995;Knüpffer 1995).In the mid 1980s, F. Begemann and N. Q. Ng proposed standard descriptors. These were accepted and published by IBPGR, IITA and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) (1987), to facilitate the exchange of data and comparison of research results between different germplasm collections. They were structured according to the recommendations of IBPGR, who had by then adopted the following definitions in genetic resources documentation:(i) passport (the recording by collectors of accession identifiers and information) (ii) characterization (the recording of those characters which are highly heritable, can be easily seen by the eye, and are expressed in all environments) (iii) preliminary evaluation (the recording of a limited number of additional traits thought desirable by a consensus of users of the particular crop). Hence, the bambara groundnut descriptors included passport, characterization and preliminary evaluation, as well as further characterization and evaluation data.Along these lines, a revised descriptor list has been drafted and circulated among selected experts of the crop.As the information contained in the International Bambara Groundnut Database is highly relevant to any improvement programme for this crop, it is recommended that the database be maintained, further developed and freely distributed. ZADI is currently offering to develop the database, with the support of all members of the IBGN, and to maintain and distribute it on-line via Internet, and on diskette (Foxpro with distribution kit, or other software). Recently, ZADI has also established the Bambara Groundnut Online Database, which provides for qualified and flexible online searches directly.In order to increase the efficiency of future research activities, it is recommended that up-to-date information on projects and literature be provided. These activities should be seen to be connected to the future development of the International Bambara Groundnut Database. New developments on Internet, which may provide tools for this undertaking, should be investigated.  In the communal and resettlement areas of Zimbabwe, bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is the third most important grain legume after peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp). The crop is grown in diverse agro-ecological regions. The regions vary in temperature, rainfall and soil types (Vincent and Thomas 1961). It is principally grown by the communal farmers located in the country's dry natural regions -IV, V and part of region III. These regions are characterized by very low rainfall (less than 400 mm/year), which is unreliable and poorly distributed. The growing seasons are short, usually less than 4 months. Communal farmers grow bambara groundnut mainly for subsistence purposes, and use little or no fertilizer, pesticides or irrigation. Commercial farmers have recently begun to show interest in bambara groundnut and, unlike communal farmers, they grow the crop using these inputs.Bambara groundnut is grown in both pure and mixed stands. Current production figures of bambara groundnut in the country are quite low. For example, in 1993, a total of 1491 tonnes of unshelled nuts were produced by the large and small-scale commercial farmers, and the resettlement area farmers, with a national average yield of 530 kg/ha. Production figures for the communal area farmers are not yet available, but are likely to be higher than this (CSO 1994).Bambara groundnut production is limited by shortage of seed and the use of unimproved local races, which are inherently low yielding. Droughts, improper crop management (including delayed planting, low plant populations and poor earthing practices) and pests such as wild animals and aphids also limit production.Apart from some exploratory work done on bambara groundnut in the early 1920s, the crop was neglected by researchers, as it was considered a 'poor man's crop', of little economic importance (Smartt 1959). Mundy (1932) described bambara groundnut as a pulse of the African native, which despite being a good drought resister, had low yields and hence was uninteresting to European farmers.In the early 1980s, the Zimbabwean government acknowledged the role played by indigenous crops, especially in the improvement of human nutrition in the marginal areas of the country. Some agronomic research on bambara groundnut was begun in the mid-1980s and a bambara groundnut breeding programme was launched in 1989. Its major objectives are to collect germplasm and to develop high-yielding and welladapted bambara groundnut varieties for Zimbabwean farmers.A germplasm collecting mission was launched in 1990, aimed at local germplasm in the rural areas of Zimbabwe, through agricultural extension workers located in all of the country's eight provinces. To date, a total of 129 active bambara groundnut germplasm accessions have been gathered. This year, more germplasm was collected from Mbare Musika, a fruit and vegetable market in Harare. Foreign germplasm has been provided by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania and Wageningen Agricultural University. About 80% of the germplasm held is from local collections. Germplasm for medium-term storage is stored in folding envelopes in a cold room at temperatures below 10ºC, while the active germplasm is stored at room temperature. Lack of proper long-term storage facilities has hindered progress in germplasm conservation. However, construction of a plant genetic resources unit at Harare Research Station is currently underway, which should solve this problem.Characterization of the collected bambara groundnut germplasm for different traits has been done, to assess the range of genetic variation. Accessions or lines with desirable traits are also used in the hybridization programme. Lines have been found to differ in growth habit, flower colour, seed shape, seed colour, eye colour and pattern, seed weight, days to 50% flowering and days to 95% physiological maturity (an example is given in Table 1).Varieties are developed through a modified pure-line breeding method, and through hybridization. Introductions from other countries also add to the germplasm. A schematic diagram showing bambara groundnut germplasm flow is shown in Fig. 1.Individual parental lines for crossing are planted in such a way that their flowering periods coincide. These are grown in asbestos pots at the greenhouse site. As bambara groundnut is a self-pollinating plant, the female parent is made by emasculation. A flower bud is selected and all the neighbouring buds are removed. The selected bud should be big enough to be handled by a pair of forceps, but should not be well developed, because bambara groundnut is cleistogamous (i.e. pollen is shed before the flower opens). A pair of forceps is used to open the bud carefully, and the anthers bearing undeveloped pollen grains are then removed. Maximum care should be taken not to damage the stigma. A fully bloomed flower is used as a source of pollen.On opening of the fully bloomed flower, a white substance, which is the pollen, can be seen with the naked eye. The style of the flower bearing the pollen grains is carefully removed by a pair of forceps, and the pollen grains are squeezed onto the emasculated female flower. Attempted cross-pollinated buds are identified by a thin copper wire, which is folded around the peg. Earthing is done at 2 days after pollination.Segregating populations are advanced from F 1 to F 5 through a modified singleseed descent method. Single plant selection is done at F 5 generation, when a high degree of homogeneity is believed to have been achieved. Selection of plants is based on maturity, yield (pods per plant), seed colour and seed size. ,ERHPMRK PSGEP KIVQTPEWQ The local landraces are so heterogeneous that more than 10 different types of bambara groundnut can be found in a single crop. True breeding varieties are developed from the local landraces, through a modified pure-line breeding method. The locally collected seed is initially sorted by seed colour and is then grown in different plots in the field. Within a plot, plants with similar morphological features are selected and grouped to form progenies. These progenies are then grown at Harare Research Station for multiplication purposes. Although diseases are not a major constraint to bambara groundnut production, progenies showing disease symptoms are instantly discarded. Introduced exotic lines and those developed through hybridization are initially evaluated in the same way, in progeny-row plots in the field.Agronomically superior lines from the progenies enter into several stages of testing, conducted at sites located in all the agro-ecological regions of Zimbabwe. These trials are conducted to assess the range of adaptation of the developed varieties. The selected lines from the progenies are first evaluated for yield and other agronomic characteristics, in unreplicated double-row observation plots. They are tested at a high-potential site (Harare Research Station), and a marginal dryland area (Matopos Research Station). Varieties with good agronomic performance in at least one of the two environments progress into the Preliminary Variety Trials (PVT). The PVTs are conducted in 4-row plots, 3 m long. The intra-row spacing is 15 cm; inter-row spacing is 45 cm. The design is a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), replicated twice. The PVTs are conducted on at least two sites. At this stage, selection is based both on reaction to disease, and on the yield potential of the varieties at the two different sites.The selected lines from PVTs progress to Intermediate Variety Trials (IVT). These are conducted at 4-5 sites, using a RCBD replicated three times. This trial consists of 4 rows per plot, 4.5 m long. Agronomically superior varieties in the IVTs progress into the Advanced Variety Trials (AVT), which are conducted at 5-8 sites. The sites used are chosen to represent all the agro-ecological regions of Zimbabwe. The plots contain 6 rows, with each row being 4.5 m long in a RCBD, with four replications. A few selected varieties (3-5) from the AVTs are tested on-farm. At all testing sites, except Gwebi Variety Testing Centre (GVTC), the trials are conducted under strictly rain-fed conditions. Supplementary irrigation is applied at GVTC, to assess the varieties' full genetic potential. This information is also important to the large-scale commercial farmers, who produce bambara groundnut with many inputs.In the 1993/94 summer season, a total of 100 progenies made from the local germplasm were evaluated for yield, and some of them were quite promising. A hybridization programme was initiated in the 1994 summer season, and five different crosses were made among six promising bambara groundnut varieties with different seed colour: SA 37 and ZVS-564; BGM 1B and ZVS-564; Variety 10 and ANKPA 4; ZVS-564 and SA 37, and Variety 5 and ANKPA 4.The crosses yielded poorly, probably owing to the use of clay soil, which compacted and hindered pod development when irrigated. In future, sandy soils will be tried. Ten bambara groundnut lines, including a local variety, were tested in the preliminary variety trial. Two lines, ANKPA 4 and TALI LOCAL, significantly (P<0.05) outyielded the local Variety 10, while the varieties ZVS-580 and CHIPATA 1 compared very favourably with it.Also in the 1993/94 summer season, 18 experimental varieties, including both foreign and locally developed ones, were evaluated for their yield performance under various environmental conditions in the AVTs. The two sites -Makoholi and Mlezuare located in low-potential areas, whereas Kadoma, Harare and GVTC are highpotential sites.In the AVTs, significant differences (P<0.05) were found in the grain yields of the varieties at four sites (Table 2). At Makoholi and Mlezu testing sites, which are marginal rainfall areas, lower mean site yields (<400 kg/ha) were recorded. In these areas, some of the varieties yielded only <200 kg/ha. However, some varieties attained reasonable yields at these sites. For example, the variety ZVS-564 yieldedBambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) belongs to the family Leguminosae, subfamily Papilionoideae. Recent electrophoretic studies by Howell (1990) confirmed the close relationship between bambara groundnut and several species of the genus Vigna. According to Linnemann (1992), the nature and extent of the genepools in cultigens of the genera Phaseolus and Vigna were reviewed by Smartt (1981), as indicated by studies of experimental interspecific hybridization. In all cases, a primary genepool exists which has evolved distinct wild and cultivated subgenepools. For bambara groundnut, no secondary or tertiary genepools had been identified.Many authors (Begemann 1988a;Goli et al. 1991;IITA 1978;Linnemann 1992) have reported bambara groundnut to be adapted to poor and sandy soils and low precipitation. Hence, bambara groundnut is a crop well suited for the semi-arid areas, such as the savanna regions. Generally, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) seems to require a more humid environment and richer soils than bambara groundnut. Besides, bambara groundnut has been reported to be less susceptible to pest and diseases than cowpea (IITA 1978).Cowpea is the most widely grown legume in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, bambara groundnut, despite having been marginalized by farmers in recent years, is still of great value to local farming communities. It therefore seems worthwhile to investigate whether or not some valuable characters, i.e. resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses of both crops, could be exchanged. To do so, it was necessary to perform a crossing experiment to determine whether bambara groundnut and cowpea partly belong to the same genepool and could be crossed easily.Between 1985 and 1987, an experiment was carried out at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in the glasshouse at the Ibadan campus, to attempt to cross bambara groundnut and cowpea. The accessions used in the experiment were TVU-13677 (cowpea) and TVSU-501 (bambara groundnut); TVU-13677 served as the female plant, and pollen was taken from TVSU-501. The pollination was carried out by hand, without additional inputs.The experiment showed that the pollinated flower of the TVU-13677 plant produced an abnormally short pod (approx. 1 cm), with only one seed per pod, while all other flowers of the same plant which had not been pollinated with bambara groundnut pollen produced pods of normal length (approx. 10 cm) (see Fig. 1). Figure 2 shows the pod and harvested seed of the TVU-13677 x TVSU-501 experiment, as well as a long pod with 14 seeds, as produced by the TVU-13677 plant with no bambara groundnut pollination. The seed of the supposed cross shows similar seed colour and pattern as the normal TVU-13677 seeds. After harvest, the F 1 seed (TVU-13677 x TVSU-501) was planted to test its fertility. It developed a fertile plant which looked very similar to the original TVU-13677. The only agromorphological difference noted was its time to maturity. While TVU-13677 is a 60-day variety, the supposed F 1 cross did not reach maturity at 80 days. Figure 3 shows the still immature plant on the 81st day. The pods and seeds which were later harvested from this attempted F 1 cross looked very similar to those of the TVU-13677, as indicated in Figure 4. The experiment had to be interrupted at this point because of time and financial constraints, although the trial indicated that crossing of bambara groundnut and cowpea may be feasible, provided that cowpea is used as the female partner and the pollen is taken from bambara groundnut. It was not possible to establish from this experiment whether the cross was successful, however, although the shape and size of the F 1 pod and F 1 seed, as well as the extended time to maturity of the resulting plant, strongly indicated this was the case.However, using bambara groundnut as the female plant to be pollinated with cowpea pollen, as was attempted by A. Goli in 1986 (pers. comm.), seems to be much more problematic. Part of the difficulty arises from the physical conditions of such an experiment, as the flowers of bambara groundnut are very difficult to trace underground, and are hard to earmark because of their very short internodes, with even more than one flower per node. The results of the trial were in agreement with earlier reports, which had stated a very close relationship between bambara groundnut and other species of the genus Vigna. It is nonetheless very surprising that the two crops belong to the same genepool.If the findings of this trial could be confirmed by other experiments, this would be extremely useful for improvement programmes of the bambara groundnut and the cowpea crops. It is therefore strongly recommended that such an experiment be repeated. The F 2 seeds also could be tested for their viability and used for molecular studies. As the electrophoretic study findings published so far seem insufficient to reveal the genetic diversity of the entire bambara groundnut genepool, some molecular investigations should be undertaken to identify the diversity required for further crosses of the species with cowpea.If these future crosses are successful, the new possibilities they imply for the improvement programmes of both crops should then be exploited. Doing so would require an analysis of the specific characters of one crop which would be beneficial for the other, e.g. resistances to biotic and abiotic stresses. Furthermore, the possibility of using bambara groundnut as the female plant to be pollinated with cowpea pollen should be further investigated.Since the late 1960s, the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa have been struggling against severe food shortages and the crisis appears to be worsening. A number of factors account for the continent's growing inability to feed its rapidly expanding population. One of these is the erosion of the genetic resources of indigenous African crops, including bambara groundnut. Owing to the recurring droughts in Africa, food insecurity and starvation are constant threats. Researchers have discovered that hunger, malnutrition and household food insecurity are to a large extent caused by poverty, which results from scarce agricultural resources, including agricultural knowledge and its application. This paper discusses the part that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can play to make these resources available to needy farmers in general.The paper will specifically discuss the role of NGOs in promoting the conservation and use of crops such as cowpea and bambara groundnut, which are widely grown but largely ignored by most extensionists, researchers, national seed programmes and seed companies. It has been suggested (Diana Callear, pers. comm.) that the best strategy to combat famine is to assist the great majority of the farmers to increase their levels of production and their incomes, as this would increase household food security. It may be easier, and perhaps more lucrative, to identify a famine and provide relief than to address the underlying cause of famine and poverty.Famine relief also has immediate short-term effects: lives are saved for today, at least (what happens tomorrow is another issue). In most cases, countries that are said to be food sufficient, e.g. India, have high levels of malnutrition. The reasons are that national food availability does not necessarily lead to household food security. The lack of crop diversity in a household might lead to food availability, but an unbalanced diet for the family. The incorporation of grain legumes in the cropping programme of the rural farmers will diversify their protein source.One of the most crucial factors in crop production is the availability of the appropriate crops and seed when needed. Many reports on individual seed projects and programmes have pointed out the enormous difficulties faced in getting a formal national seed system to provide an effective service to small farmers in marginal, variable environments. Recent studies by Cromwell et al. (1992) have confirmed this picture on a wide scale, in developing countries.The formal sector finds it most profitable to produce hybrid seed, especially vegetable crops. It also concentrates on the seed of crops with high sowing rates (meaning that large quantities will be bought) and high multiplication rate (i.e. more can be produced quickly). The sector, therefore, tends to ignore certain crops that are important to small farmers, such as self-pollinated varieties of cereals and legumes. These tend to be less profitable for seed companies and face stiff competition from farm-saved seed. This situation is aggravated by the methods and orientation of plant breeding and researchers within the formal agricultural research system. Thus, with regard to both the product required and the distribution system, the formal sector often cannot provide an effective seed service in the marginal, variable environments of developing countries, except for certain 'niche' markets.The formal seed supply systems, the formal research organizations and the extensionists have all contributed, through the Green Revolution, to the extinction of the more adaptable, drought-tolerant crops, a group which includes millet, sorghum, cowpea, bambara groundnut, chickpea and pigeon pea.Because of the very limited and erratic nature of rainfall in the semi-arid regions, the high costs of external crop inputs, the unreliability of the agribusiness and the unsustaining nature of alien farming systems in these areas, it is imperative for farmers to develop a low-input-cost farming system that is sustainable. Bambara groundnut is a ubiquitous grain legume, indigenous to Africa. It is primarily grown by peasant farmers, for consumption of the grain. It has an enviable reputation as a hardy crop, owing to its drought tolerance and reasonable yields when grown on poor soil, and therefore has good potential in the semi-arid regions. Both improved and indigenous varieties of bambara groundnut will be adopted and cultivated by smallholders, if the crop is well promoted to them.Farmers in our country easily adapt to new technologies if they perceive their advantages.Good cases in point are provided by the hybrid maize and 'Moneymaker' tomatoes, planting in rows, planting Eucalyptus and the cultivation of burley tobacco, all of which have been introduced in Zimbabwe. If improved varieties of bambara groundnut are advantageous, famers usually grow them. If, on the other hand, the traditional farmer-managed bambara groundnut varieties are good enough, cultivation of the crop benefits from a viable seed-exchange programme.Despite existing knowledge of the crop, prudence is called for in its cultivation. If small farmers produce more bambara groundnut than they can consume, and if there is no viable market for this surplus, farmers will be discouraged from cultivating the crop in the future. Such a situation currently exists regarding the adoption of drought-tolerant small grains in Zimbabwe. Any strategy for promoting bambara groundnut needs to address the issue of diverse utilization of the crop.The number of development NGOs has increased dramatically during the last decade, and now there are many based in developing countries. An NGO is defined as \"any organization that is operationally distinct from government\" (ODI 1988). They vary in their historical origins and in their size and significance, compared with other agencies, and the strength of the link with these other agencies. Farrington and Biggs (1990) grouped NGOs in the following categories:• Service provision, ranging from short-term relief to long-term development.• Organization-building and local empowerment, working with communities to identify their problems and solve them locally. • Support and advocacy, including lobbying national and international policymakers, and providing back-up services, such as research and policy analysis, and information exchange for smaller organizations.• Volunteer agencies, which are primarily geared to providing volunteer technical assistance to other projects and programmes.Most NGOs specialized in agriculture base their activities on three premises: (i) The existing indigenous knowledge systems of farmers are critical for the success of any initiative. (ii) Farmers have the right to be part of the decision-making process in all matters which affect them. (iii) Agriculture is but one aspect of development, and it is a means to the end of individuals' development.ENDA-ZW (Environment and Development Activities in Zimbabwe), as a member of rural development NGOs that specialize in agriculture, adopted an integrated approach to the development of the organizational and individual capacities of the rural people it serves. Its mission statement reads as follows: \"ENDA strives to promote and develop opportunities for wealth creation for the rural and urban poor, through sustainable natural resource utilization and the capacity development of Zimbabwean human and institutional resources\" (ENDA-ZW 1994). The three most critical issues are sustainability, wealth creation and community participation. The two agricultural projects which have shown that NGOs can promote the adoption of a technology are ENDA's Seeds Action Project and its Sustainable Agriculture Project. The Seeds Action Project promotes germplasm conservation, both in situ and ex situ, and seed production by small-scale farmers. The project was started 10 years ago, and its achievements to date are as follows:• Increased production of local and improved varieties of millets and sorghums in the project areas. • Small-scale farmers have proved beyond reasonable doubt that they can produce good-quality seed, despite their shared arable areas.• Farmers can effectively participate and contribute to on-farm characterization.• Farmers have a defined selection method, which they use when harvesting farm-saved seed.• Prototype dehullers have been introduced to small-scale farmers, making it easy to process sorghum and millets. This has led to increased use of sorghum and millet products.• Value-added diverse products of small grains after processing. The Sustainable Agriculture Project, which is in its third year, promotes soil and moisture conservation techniques and sustainable low-input agricultural practices. On-farm trials are carried out and demonstration plots are established annually. The strength of both projects lies in farmer training, and result and method demonstrations.ENDA programmes emphasize farmer participation, and stress is therefore placed on a dialogue with farmers. Information is exchanged and assessed, attitudes concerning the introduced or modified technology are noted and misunderstandings that occur during the exchange are quickly identified and rectified. Thus relationships of mutual respect are built up between farmers and extension agents. ENDA bases its activities on good channels of communication between farmers and its officers, and disseminates information to farmers through:• Group meetings. These may be divided into (i) information meetings to communicate a specific piece of new information (ii) planning meetings to review a particular problem, suggest a number of solutions, and decide upon a course of action (iii) special-interest meetings to present topics of specific interest to a particular group of people (iv) general meetings, where all general topics affecting the community are discussed. • Individual visits, usually made as follow-up to group meetings or training sessions to assess the acceptability of issues discussed, and the adoption rate.• Demonstrations: farmers like to see how a new idea works, and also what effects it can have on increasing their crop production. Both result and method demonstrations are carried out by ENDA officers.• Field days, to introduce a new idea and/or a new crop, and to stimulate the maximum interest among farmers. These are usually opportunities to hold result and/or method demonstrations.• Tours: farmers visit farms in other areas to see how the introduced technology works, or to learn of that community's experience of a newly introduced crop.In the author's opinion, with effective communication between researchers and extensionists, quite a number of agriculturally oriented or food-security-conscious NGOs would be glad to include any local cultivars or improved varieties of bambara groundnut in their programmes. If a commercial use of bambara can be developed, this would create a reliable and perhaps a viable market for the crop.Similarities in the uses made of bambara groundnut and cowpea in Africa are well known. Results from a survey on production and utilization of cowpea, conducted in Zimbabwe, suggest that it has the brighter future of the two crops. The survey revealed that, from a total of 145 farming families from 13 districts of six provinces, almost 90% grew and used cowpea.Bambara groundnut was ranked among the top four most important legumes in SADCC by the grain legume feasibility study (SADCC 1984). However, utilization of grain legumes may be constrained by their limited supply.Compared with formal sector agricultural research and extension institutions, NGOs possess advantages in working together for rural development with small farmers in marginal areas. They are able to respond quickly to local needs, work mainly with the most disadvantaged groups, and are often more participatory than the formal sector. They are independent, and can be flexible in their choice of project, information sources, communication methods, clientele and organizational structure. Furthermore, they can adopt an integrated approach to programmes, which includes attention to the institutional and economic context, as well as to technical factors. In this respect, NGOs play an important role as bridging organizations, bringing together diverse agents in the development process.Nonetheless, a number of problems are beginning to emerge. It is becoming clear that the diverse demands placed on NGOs by different clients present almost impossible managerial challenges. It is also unclear whether all NGOs have the time and resources to develop the necessary technical capabilities and links with the sources of innovation. Cooperation with other NGOs and with the formal sector is often weak.The evaluation of improved varieties of bambara groundnut, the dissemination of local cultivars, and the promotion of released varieties can be done with the help of NGOs, which provide an outlet through which the government and other sources of innovation can sell their newly developed technologies. Conservation and utilization of bambara groundnut can also be promoted through the collection of local varieties, and the facilitation of an exchange programme of these materials between rural communities, operating through the different NGOs working with them. It is recommended that all the interested parties form a network, share innovations and jointly develop a strategy for bambara groundnut. This will avoid duplication of efforts, and ensure conservation, production and utilization of this protein-rich legume.There is a need to revise the 'Bambara groundnut descriptors ', published in 1987. An ad hoc 'Committee to revise the descriptor list' was formed, consisting of F. Begemann, E. Doku, N. Ng (to be invited) and C. Swanevelder, which is to produce a first draft.A bambara groundnut newsletter will be published once per year. The first issue will be produced by IPGRI, as soon as possible.To create public awareness on bambara groundnut, announcements of the establishment of the IBGN will be published in IPGRI's SSA Newsletter, and in Spore and Monitor, etc. ","tokenCount":"43571"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"123c1706aa1e8cc261cbb3f2173e23a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43f5c77e-43bb-4086-91aa-3f2fb7862771/retrieve","id":"133183923"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"02a51d38-1561-458b-900c-d0aa0abcb800","pagecount":"4","content":"Gender mainstreaming in REDD+ and PES requires not only a policy on gender equity, but also political will and sufficient capacity in government agencies at various levels of governance.Vietnam was the first country in Asia to initiate the national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) and is one of the countries under UN-REDD and the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). Gender equity is supported by most natiwonal laws and strategies, including the national REDD+ program and Forest Protection and Development Law 2014. The Constitution of Vietnam emphasizes the principle of gender equality and specifically prohibits the violation of women's rights. However, in 2013, women accounted for only 10-12 percent of registrations of agricultural land-use certificates and often have limited awareness of their rights to access land and practice traditional customs. Despite the political vision and commitment, mainstreaming gender into REDD+ and PES in Vietnam has not been successful to date, and continues to pose a challenge for policy makers. 1 This brief synthesizes major challenges that are occurring at different government levels in an attempt to translate political commitment on gender equitable REDD+ into reality. Many policies emphasize the need for gender equity and the importance of mainstreaming gender into REDD+ and PES, but limited guidance is given on how gender should be addressed in forestry policies.Gender equity and the role of women in forest protection and development has been acknowledged in numerous legal frameworks and policies such as the Law on Gender Equality, the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2011-2020), the national REDD+ strategy, the Land Law, Law on Forest Protection and Development, the National Strategy and Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women and the Vietnam MDGs, and the gender strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Yet, the country still faces many challenges to implementation. All local authorities and donors interviewed argued that the major barriers to mainstreaming gender in PES and REDD+ are the lack of guidance from the central government on how to translate and implement them. An interviewee from provincial government stated: \"As much as we [want]  to mainstream gender into PES and REDD+, we do not know how to translate these concepts on the ground. We need more clear guidance\".National REDD+ Steering Committee, they need to take a more active role in order to influence policy outcomes.In 2012, only 2 of the 15 members of the national REDD+ steering committee were women; by 2015, this had risen to 50 percent. But there is doubt about whether this will lead to increased participation by -and influence of -women on final outcomes. Most of the women participating in REDD+ discussions reported that they focused on representing the their organizational interests and as such do not have a gender mandate. They do not see themselves as gender champions, do not promote gender topics in policy debates, nor do they prioritize gender mainstreaming.A total of 52 organizations are identified as influential actors in shaping REDD+ and PES policy, but only 30 percent of those actors are women. Among these, 95 percent come from local civil society organizations (CSOs) and international NGOs and only 5 percent are from government agencies. 2 This indicates there is limited scope for women to influence policy outcomes, especially since the most influential actor in Vietnam is the government .3,4There are many political commitments to mainstreaming gender in REDD+ and PES, but there is little evidence that these commitments are being translated into policy and concrete actions.Findings show that the interest, knowledge and willingness to mainstream gender into REDD+ and PES is weaker among local governing bodies compared with national agencies. Of the provincial government actors who were interviewed, only one indicated a willingness to mainstream gender into the socioeconomic development plan and provincial REDD+ action plan. One provincial government interviewee explained: \"The central government requested us to mainstreaming gender into REDD+ but it is unclear how this mainstreaming should be done. … Moreover, gender has to come at second place as we have more important issues to take care of such as MRV, improve legal framework on institutional setting. \"Although several leadership positions are open to women, few are eligible to apply for these positions.In many provinces, the provincial government has set up a target of more than 30 percent representation by female provincial leaders. However, only 5-10 percent of such positions are currently filled by women. This low figure, according to many interviewees, is mainly due to three key factors: lack of political will to include women in the management group; biased recruitment and promotion protocol which prefers men to women, and; the lack of confidence amongst women candidates. According to our interviewees, the poor representation of women also holds for central government such as MARD. By November 2011, women held only 24.4 percent of seats in national parliament; thus the target of 30 percent set out in the National Strategy for the Advancement of Vietnamese Women to 2010 was not met. Women's representation at lower levels of government, such as in People's Councils or at the provincial or district level, reaches 20-24 percent, but women comprise only 1-4 percent of leadership positions.In our village study site, women have a stronger motivation and willingness to participate in PES and REDD+. For example, in Nghe An district, men often migrate to big cities or overseas for higher incomes and hence are not engaged in PES and REDD+ schemes, which in comparison offer very limited benefits. Women -on the other hand -remain in the village and show a strong motivation to participate in PES and REDD+. Key factors motivating women to participate are increased household food security, the opportunity for additional income, and access to social network such as women's unions and farmers' associations to obtain loans and technical support. However, insufficient efforts have been made by local governments to involve women in PES and REDD+ schemes.Our researching findings highlight that women and men have different perceptions and preferences with respect to benefit sharing mechanisms. For example, while men prefer PES and REDD+ cash payments, women prefer inkind payments such as rice and tree seedlings, as well as technical support and training on financial management and market access. However, the current proposed benefit-sharing mechanism under both existing REDD+ pilot projects and national PES program adopts a uniform approach for both men and women, and also ignores differences in preferences within the two gender groups due to the different ethnic backgrounds. For example, in the delta where infrastructure and market access are often already established, women's key interest in PES schemes is access to loans and further market development, while for women in more remote areas the main motivation is to cover basic food security needs. As a result, women are not able to enjoy the benefits derived from PES payments, which are mostly in the form of cash and often managed by men, in turn leading to lower willingness to participate the scheme over time. There have been attempts to tackle those issues in the first trial of Free Prior and Informed Consent in Lam Dong province. However, under this design, women are still treated as a homogenous group.However, women are often not able to access many of those channels.Our research findings indicated that there are six major channels through which local people can obtain information and market information on PES and REDD+: from friends outside villages, through government agencies (e.g. extension officers, national parks), mass organizations (e.g. farmers' associations, youth's unions), local NGOs working in the areas, traders and middle men. However, women's mobility in the study area was restricted due to patriarchal traditions and family responsibilities. Women often only speak local languages, while most of the information on REDD+ and PES was available only in Kinh (the language of the dominant ethnic group). Channels available for women to access information on PES and REDD+ were therefore restricted; the only accessible information channel was through mass organizations such as women's unions, farmers' associations and youth unions.Many social organizations are mandated to represent women's interest and voice in decision making in both social economic development and environmental protection policies at all levels, but they do not perform this role efficiently.Our research findings show that at village and commune level, the Women's Union is formally recognized to act on behalf of women's interest, to bring women's voice to political and social discussions, and support women to access to social programs and microcredit programs. However, these unions tend to also have a political mandate to support government policies and less so to identify and tackle shortcomings in existing policies and governance structures with regard to gender. Therefore, most of the women interviewed in our study see the need to improve the representation of women's interests in REDD+ and PES policy design and implementation.• Detailed guidance on how gender mainstreaming should be carried out at provincial, district and commune level, coupled with clear indicators for monitoring the implementation of government commitments to the increased participation of women in decision-making positions, is essential. 5 At national and provincial levels, increasing the target number for women's representation in leadership roles and on management boards is a good start, but policies and measures as well as incentives structures inside the institutions should be in place to encourage the true participation of women. 3,6 Local CSOs and international NGOs that already have women champions and play an active role in influencing REDD+ and PES debates can catalyze these changes.At the village and commune levels, REDD+ and PES programs need to: consider women's preferences and interests in participating in PES and REDD+; tailor benefit-sharing mechanisms, access to information and resources, and governance structure to address those preferences and interests; and strengthen women's willingness to provide environmental services. 7 ","tokenCount":"1623"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d1d0f811df5baec25fb0bc5d6863f7db","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/49ba71e8-04e1-4de1-8f41-28dc52bb614f/retrieve","id":"-1299707906"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73debc1c-46e2-42c0-98d1-6b2bf3a1f7d5","pagecount":"4","content":"Le commerce du bétail est plus compétitif et fonctionne mieux au sein des pays (partie nationale du circuit) qu'entre les pays (partie transfrontalière du circuit). Cela s'explique principalement par des frais d'établissement élevés, l'indisponibilité de crédits, et le niveau de risque plus élevé de perdre des animaux lors du transfert transfrontalier du bétail.• Les frais de transport et de manutention constituent le composant le plus important des coûts de commercialisation et peuvent être réduits en réduisant les tarifs sur les nouveaux camions et les pièces de rechange, ainsi qu'en réduisant les taxes officielles, y compris celles sur les carburants. L'élimination de la taxation routière illégale pourrait aussi améliorer les performances de marché.• La transformation à valeur ajoutée rendra inutile les frais de manutention occasionnés pendant le transport transfrontalier.• La production de viande de boeuf et la valeur du commerce du bétail peuvent être considérablement accrues par le biais des programmes d'embouche, grâce à la prime payée par les commerçants exportateurs pour du boeuf de qualité supérieure. Cela devrait également permettre à la région de réaliser un surplus exportable et de rapporter des devises étrangères.• Les niveaux d'intégration du marché sont faibles. Pour remédier à ce problème, il faudrait concevoir des systèmes d'information sur le marché du bétail et les mettre efficacement en place aux niveaux national et régional.• Les institutions du marché, telles que les associations des commerçants et les intermédiaires, aussi bien au niveau local que national (les sociétés de convoyage), ont fait leur apparition pour jouer les rôles qui devraient normalement être assurés par le secteur public. Ces rôles visent à réduire les coûts des transactions et à faciliter le commerce du bétail et l'intégration régionale.• Les associations des commerçants en bétail, surtout la Coopérative des Marchands de bétail de Sikasso (COBAS) du Mali et l'Union nationale des associations de commerçants et exportateurs de bétail du Burkina Faso (UNACEB), semblent disposer des connaissances et aptitudes à la gestion requises pour administrer convenablement des crédits et offrir des facilités de transport aux membres dans le besoin, mais ils ne bénéficient pas de la couverture financière qui leur permettrait d'atteindre pleinement ces objectifs. Leurs méthodes d'administration de crédits méritent d'être examinées plus en profondeur parce qu'elles pourraient renfermer la solution permettant de surmonter les contraintes posées par le manque de crédits en faveur des commerçants en bétail. Dans le cadre du projet financé par CFC intitulé «Amélioration de la commercialisation et du commerce intra-régional du bétail en Afrique de l'Ouest», l'Institut international de recherche sur lʹélevage (ILRI 1 ) a procédé à une étude en 1999 visant à identifier les principales barrières économiques, institutionnelles et politiques limitant la réalisation des bénéfices complets et des potentialités du commerce du bétail. Les conclusions majeures de cette étude sont présentées dans la présente synthèse.La production du bétail, basée sur les systèmes pastoraux du Sahel, se fait au prix mondial compétitif de 1.500 $US par tonne en comparaison du prix mondial de 1.900 $US en 2001 et, respectivement, de 2.500 $US et de 3.100 $US par tonne pour les Etats-Unis d'Amérique et l'Union européenne, (Boutonnet et al. 2000 Le transport et la manutention à eux seuls comptent pour presque la moitié des coûts de commercialisation (Figure 2).Les frais de transport et de manutention demeurent élevés pour de nombreuses raisons comprenant : le nombre insuffisant de camions, les taxes élevées sur les carburants, la taxation routière illégale, les activités des sociétés de convoyage (voir les institutions du marché du bétail ci-dessous), les frais de manutention et l'infrastructure des transports inadéquate ou en déclin (voir la synthèse 3).La promotion d'une commercialisation efficace du bétail et du commerce intrarégional nécessitera la suppression des postes de contrôle illégaux, la réforme des sociétés de convoyage ; ainsi que la réduction des taxes sur les carburants. Ces actions politiques pourraient réduire les frais de transport de 37%, soit 5.250 FCFA par bovin par rapport à l'actuel montant de 13.650 FCFA par tête (voir la synthèse 3). La transformation à valeur ajoutée, à moyen et à long terme, réduira encore davantage les coûts dans la partie transfrontalière du circuit en rendant inutile les frais relatifs aux conducteurs de bestiaux qui conduisent les troupeaux d'animaux vers les marchés puisque le commerce serait alors principalement basé sur la viande plutôt que sur les animaux vivants.Les analyses de facteurs qui déterminent les prix du bétail ont montré que les acheteurs payaient une prime pour les zébus castrés bien bâtis et en excellent état physique (voir la synthèse 2). Tous les bovins vendus ont été évalués sur base de leur état physique et 14% seulement des bovins pesés étaient en excellent état physique (Tableau 1).Les tests relatifs à l'équivalence des moyennes montrent que les prix différaient au seuil de significativité de 0,01 entre les différents niveaux de qualité diale 2001). Cependant, les problèmes de commercialisation dans la région affaiblissent cette compétitivité et continuent en réalité à empêcher le bétail sahélien et les pays producteurs de boeuf de participer pleinement au marché mondial, lucratif et en pleine expansion de la viande rouge. La question de la compétitivité demeure problématique pour diverses raisons dont beaucoup sont évoquées dans la présente synthèse.La partie nationale du circuit de distribution du bétail débute à la ferme et sur les marchés collecteurs villageois ; et se termine sur les marchés frontaliers -des marchés qui se situent à la frontière des pays limitrophes dans le but de faciliter le commerce transfrontalier. Cette partie est prise en charge par des commerçants de petite et moyenne envergures qui disposent d'un fonds de roulement allant de 0,5 à 2,5 millions de FCFA 2 . Elle s'est avérée être très compétitive avec des marges de commercialisation oscillant entre 2,7% et 5,5% du prix final des bovins. Le principal facteur distinctif entre les gros commerçants en bétail (exportateurs) et les commerçants locaux était la disponibilité du capital requis, environ 4,4 millions de FCFA, pour commercialiser l'équivalent d'une cargaison de camion de bovins à partir des pays exportateurs vers les pays importateurs. Le nombre de commerçants opérant dans la partie transfrontalière du circuit est demeuré restreint dû à des frais d'établissement plus élevés.Cela a atténué la nécessité d'adopter une attitude compétitive puisque les commerçants exportateurs étaient en mesure de s'assurer des marges de commercialisation 2 à 5 fois plus élevées que celles obtenues dans la partie nationale du circuit (Figure 1). Cela peut représenter jusqu'à 6,52 milliards de FCFA par an pour les exportations de bovins provenant uniquement du Burkina Faso et du Mali. Les marges plus élevées compensent partiellement les risques et les coûts des transactions plus élevés (y compris la perte d'animaux et la taxation illégale) qu'engendre le commerce transfrontalier. Toutefois, les résultats indiquent qu'il est possible d'améliorer la performance de marché du circuit de distribution complet du bétail en mettant des crédits à disposition des commerçants en bétail dans le but d'accroître le nombre de participants; d'élever le niveau de la concurrence dans la partie transfrontalière du circuit ; ainsi que de réduire les risques associés au commerce transfrontalier du bétail.2 Lors de la rédaction de cette synthèse, 1 $US = 550 FCFA.  Le prix du kilo vivant de bovin variait de 289 FCFA pour des bovins très maigres à 413 FCFA pour des bovins en excellent état physique. Le fait d'améliorer l'état physique des bovins en vente jusqu'à ce qu'il soit excellent entraînerait une hausse de production du boeuf de 34% ; ce qui correspondrait à une hausse de 39% en termes de valeur. En termes réels, la valeur du commerce intra-régional des bovins en 2000 aurait pu atteindre 208 millions d'$US au lieu des 150 millions d'$US réalisés si les agriculteurs avaient systématiquement produits des zébus en excellent état physique.La comparaison des prix des bovins sur les marchés de Bittou et de Niangoloko ainsi que sur leurs marchés d'approvisionnement respectifs montre que, au cours du temps, les prix du bétail ont tendance à évoluer dans le même sens à court terme par paire de marchés frontaliers et d'approvisionnement. Cependant, les prix sur les marchés frontaliers ne réagissent pas du tout aux changements de l'offre de la part des agriculteurs (Bittou) ou de façon imparfaite (Niangoloko). Cela indique que les prix sont imposés par les commerçants, surtout dans le cas de Bittou, où tous les bovins destinés à l'exportation ont été achetés sur le marché frontalier. En revanche, à Niangoloko, les commerçants exportateurs ont effectué 69% de leurs achats sur les marchés collecteurs en amont et à la sortie des exploitations agricoles. Ce niveau supérieur d'activité en amont a probablement contribué à un meilleur degré de communication des prix; ce qui explique un niveau plus élevé de réactions des prix enregistré à Niangoloko.Les faibles niveaux d'intégration du marché et de communication des prix du bétail soulignent la nécessité de mettre en place des systèmes efficaces d'information sur le marché de l'élevage en tant qu'option politique visant à améliorer l'établissement des prix qui profiterait aux producteurs de bétail de l'Afrique de l'Ouest.Les informations sur les prix et les offres en bétail, ainsi que les normes objectives d'achat et de vente d'animaux, n'étaient pas disponibles sur les marchés étudiés. L'absence de ces facilités a des répercussions négatives sur le commerce parce qu'il faut plus de temps aux acheteurs pour trouver des animaux aux qualités attrayantes, ainsi que pour procéder aux négociations, au paiement et au transfert de propriété qui s'ensuivent. Il arrive que ces coûts de transaction soient tellement élevés qu'aucun échange commercial n'a lieu. Cela a mené à l'apparition des institutions de marché dont le but est de réduire les coûts et d'encourager les échanges commerciaux.Les institutions les plus importantes sont les associations de commerçants et les intermédiaires. Ces derniers existent sous la forme d'individus (commissionnaires) et d'entité plus organisée comme les sociétés de convoyage.Les intermédiaires individuels agissent ex ante et ex post afin d'avoir un impact sur les coûts des transactions sur le marché du bétail (voir l'encadré 1). Leurs rôles ont souvent pour effet de réduire les coûts des transactions et d'accroître le nombre de négociations réussies, bien que les marges de commercialisation des vendeurs puissent également diminuer en cours de processus. Pour chaque transaction de bovin effectuée, l'acheteur paie un montant fixe de 500 FCFA à l'intermédiaire. Les commerçants exportateurs utilisent plus souvent les intermédiaires dans le cadre de la revente (jusqu'à 97% du temps) pour éviter de vendre à crédit ; et seulement à 6% du temps pour les achats. Ils désirent probablement contrôler directement les paiements en espèces.Les sociétés de convoyage en tant qu'intermédiaires organisés Les comptes des commerçants montrent que le transport des bovins par camion du Sahel vers le littoral entraîne des paiements illégaux au profit d'agents du service public s'élevant en moyenne à 150.000 FCFA par cargaison de 35 bovins. Les commerçants doivent effectuer ces paiements parce que souvent ils ne remplissent pas toutes les conditions requises, par exemple la vaccination des animaux et un permis de commerce à jour. Les sociétés de convoyage ont alors fait leur apparition pour faciliter le commerce et aider les commerçants illettrés à remplir leurs obligations, y compris les démarches administratives, et ce pour un montant, en moyenne, de 35.000 FCFA par trajet en 2000 mais qui a augmenté jusqu'à 80.000 FCFA en 2001. Pour les commerçants qui supportent ces frais, les autres paiements illégaux ont été réduits à la somme « symbolique » de 1.000 FCFA par poste de contrôle. Initialement, les commerçants étaient satisfaits de cet arrangement parce que cela leur permettait de gagner du temps et de l'argent étant donné la prolifération des postes de contrôle, surtout en Côte d'Ivoire (voir la synthèse 3). Toutefois, l'augmentation des frais demandés par ces compagnies a réduit à néant leur intérêt du fait de l'augmentation des coûts pour les commerçants, réduisant la compétitivité du boeuf sahélien sur les marchés côtiers.La Coopérative des Marchands de bétail de Sikasso (COBAS) du Mali et l'Union nationale des associations de commerçants et exportateurs de bétail du Burkina Faso (UNACEB) sont les deux associations de commerçants en bétail les plus importantes sur les marchés frontaliers. Les cotisations d'adhésion varient de 3.500 à 5.000 FCFA et les cotisations annuelles s'élèvent à environ 1.500 FCFA. i. Le capital limité et l'accès difficile aux crédits ; ii. Trop de formalités, de droits et de taxes (légales ou illégales) payées pendant les voyages ; iii. Le nombre insuffisant de camions sur les marchés frontaliers pour transporter les animaux vers les marchés de destination finale ; iv. Le manque de routes du bétail -routes spécialement conçues pour faciliter le mouvement des animaux le long des zones cultivées pour empêcher les dégâts causés aux cultures et aux propriétés -pour conduire les animaux sur pied vers les marchés frontaliers ; v. Le manque de nourriture pour le bétail sur les marchés frontaliers ; vi. Le système de vente à crédit aux acheteurs qui prolonge la durée du recouvrement des frais d'établissement ; vii. Le manque de formation des commerçants quant à divers aspects de la commercialisation du bétail ; viii. Le nombre limité de points de vente dans d'autres pays ; ix. Le soutien insuffisant de la part des associations de commerçants en bétail ; x. Le manque de sécurité (risque de perdre des animaux ou de l'argent au long des routes commerciales).Conformément aux travaux antérieurs, cette étude montre que des opportunités existent pour améliorer la commercialisation du bétail et le commerce régionale en Afrique de l'Ouest: Selon 90% des commerçants interviewés à Bittou et à Niangoloko, l'UNACEB à joué un rôle important au niveau de l'obtention de crédits auprès des banques et de la rétrocession des fonds empruntés par ces membres à des taux d'intérêt qui sont inférieurs de 5 à 10% par rapport aux taux du marché (allant de 25 à 32%). Environ 50% des commerçants ont adhéré à l'association afin de constituer un capital social ; 19% l'ont fait pour avoir accès aux informations relatives au marché et 16% ont pris cette décision en vue d'être en mesure de contrôler et de fixer les prix du bétail.La COBAS et l'UNACEB semblent avoir en grande partie réussi à organiser le transport pour leurs membres et à leur procurer des facilités de crédit. De la sorte, ils ont démontré qu'ils disposaient de suffisamment de connaissances et de compétences pour pouvoir gérer les facilités de transport et de financement au profit de leurs membres. Le fait d'établir un réseau d'associations du marché compétentes, ainsi que celui d'étendre et de renforcer leurs capacités pourrait donc porter ses fruits quant à la résolution de certaines contraintes au commerce du bétail. A cet égard, il conviendrait d'examiner les moyens d'établir un lien entre les différentes associations compétentes, mais aussi avec les institutions financières, afin de permettre aux associations de jouer les intermédiaires entre les commerçants en bétail et les institutions financières. De plus, il faudrait évaluer la capacité des associations du marché à acheter et à louer des camions à leurs membres.En plus des questions économiques et institutionnelles déjà évoquées, les questions de politique commerciale ont un impact sur le commerce intra-régional du bétail. Par exemple, les réformes essentielles en terme de politiques commerciales telles que la libéralisation et la facilitation des échanges commerciaux ; les systèmes d'échange et de paiement ; ainsi que la facilitation des investissements ; se font différemment et à des rythmes variés par les différents pays de la région (voir la synthèse 1). Le manque d'engagement relatif au traitement de ces questions pourrait augmenter les coûts du commerce du bétail et continuer à promouvoir la taxation illégale au détriment du commerce régional.Cette publication est issue du rapport final du projet «Amélioration de la commercialisation et du commerce intra-régional du bétail», financé par le Fonds commun pour les produits de base (CFC). Les opinions énoncées dans ce document ne sont toutefois pas nécessairement celles du CFC ou CILSS. ","tokenCount":"2626"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9c388eca64b74a98863b06927ae02297","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/567df7bc-5cb9-4b37-a484-94bf8117238a/retrieve","id":"-393250951"},"keywords":["Cover photo: R. Chase/Bioversity International -CARBAP","Cameroon. Part A: A. Vézina/Bioversity International -Nairobi","Kenya. Part B: R. Chase/Bioversity International -CIRAD","Guadeloupe. Part C: J. Dongmo/Bioversity International -CARBAP","Cameroon. Part D: J. Sardos/Bioversity International -Market in India. Back left cover: J. Daniells/DAF","Australia. Back right cover: P. Lepoint/Bioversity International SECTION 4.2 TAXONOMY -WHERE WE WANT TO GO 4.2.1 Wild bananas 4.2.2 Edible bananas Musa Taxonomy","Characterization and documenting Musa diversity. Morphotaxonomy","genotyping"],"sieverID":"a33092d6-94f1-4199-9eee-f53719e9adea","pagecount":"226","content":"MusaNet is the Global Network for Musa Genetic Resources, coordinated by Bioversity International, with member representatives from various banana research institutes and organizations that support Musa research. MusaNet aims to optimize the conservation and use of Musa genetic resources by coordinating and strengthening such conservation and related research efforts of a worldwide network of public and private sector stakeholders. www.musanet.org Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization envisioning agricultural biodiversity nourishing people and sustaining the planet. It delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. Bioversity International works with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation. www.bioversityinternational.org Bioversity International is a CGIAR Research Centre -a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. It is carried out by the 15 Centres who are members of the CGIAR Consortium in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector. www.cgiar.org While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information reported in this publication, MusaNet, Bioversity International and any contributing authors cannot accept any responsibility for the consequences of the use of this information.. This version of the Global Strategy is therefore the fruit of the efforts of many Musa scientists, and conservation and use practitioners, and will be discussed regularly at regional and MusaNet Expert Committee meetings. MusaNet encourages international, regional and national public research organizations, development agencies, NGOs and the private sector to use the priorities set out herein to guide their activities and investment decisions.The Global Strategy is intended to be used as a roadmap for the Musa genetic resources community and proposes a collaborative framework for proposed activities on the conservation and use of Musa genetic resources.A first Global Conservation Strategy for Musa was first developed in [2004][2005][2006], in consultation with a large number of individuals (INIBAP 2006). In 2011, the Expert Group that established MusaNet recommended reviewing and updating the 2006 Global Strategy. A new survey of the status of ex situ collections was then conducted during 2012-15 (see Annex D -MusaNet Global Survey of ex situ collections -2012-2015). Over 50 collections participated in updating the information on the status of Musa collections worldwide (see Annex D -Table D.1 Collections that replied to the Global Musa Survey). During the period from 2012-2013, each of the five MusaNet Thematic Groups 1 developed a workplan with priority actions.The document is divided into five main sections consisting of 12 chapters. This first section introduces the context of Musa genetic resources conservation and use, followed by the main body of four sections on the diversity, identification, management and use of Musa germplasm. The document concludes with a section summarizing actions to be taken, and then a series of annexes of important complementary information. Throughout the document, each section introduces current status (where we are now) and then proposes where and how the Musa community would like to proceed (where we want to go, and how we will get there).After introducing the Strategy structure, the introduction offers a general background for global banana production. It then outlines breeding programmes and genetic improvement, key advances in research and development, and major constraints and risks affecting the current global system. It goes on to articulate the Strategy objectives and expected outputs, and describe networking and partnerships that are critical for both developing and implementing the Strategy.1 The five MusaNet thematic groups are diversity; conservation; evaluation; information and genomics.A review of the current knowledge on banana diversity (Part A -Plant Diversity) reveals several gaps in the identification of many wild species and cultivars. The gaps are tackled by rigorous instruments for reliable identification of the taxa (Part B -Identification). The progressively acquired taxonomic knowledge is the major input for efficient management of the germplasm, via appropriate collections of correctly characterized taxa (Part C -Management). Although the exact identity of plant material is an evident prerequisite for all users, data about both agronomic performance, such as productivity and resistance to pests and diseases, and quality, such as fruit flavour and processing characteristics are critical in the selection of desired cultivars. The Strategy should thus meet these requirements of correct identity and of agronomic and quality values for any taxon (Part D -Use).This document aims to provide a clear framework and roadmap to be used by the Musa community for the efficient and effective conservation of the globally important collections of Musa and strengthening the utilization of the genetic resources. It includes recommendations and priorities indicated in several consultation processes following the 2006 Strategy and particularly the expertise and key groups represented including the Regional Research Networks such as BAPNET 2 , BARNESA 3 , InnovatePlantain, MusaLAC 4 , and global networks such as ProMusa.Figure 1.1 reflects the desired optimal situation as a logical flow of operations. The Strategy is cyclic in nature, because knowledge exchanged among its parts should help in adjusting further operations. In 2013, more than 145 million metric tonnes of bananas and plantains were produced in over 130 countries on more than 11 million hectares of land. The top producers are India, with around 27 million metric tonnes (19% of total production), and China with 12 million metric tonnes (8% of total production). Uganda is the third-largest producer with around 9.5 million metric tonnes (cooking and beer bananas -making up 7% of total production), followed by the Philippines (8.6 million metric tonnes, 6% of production) and Brazil (6.9 million metric tonnes, 5 % of total production). (FAO 2013).The fragility of the bananaThe productivity of cultivated banana varieties (cultivars) is more exposed to environmental accidents than that of most other food crops.Banana cultivars, being vegetatively propagated, are clones of which all the individual plants possess exactly the same genotype. Any upcoming serious stress in a region potentially menaces all the plants of the cultivar wherever it is grown in the world. Moreover, somatic mutations occurred during the centurieslong propagation of the presumed original clone, generating wide phenotypic variations with apparently still the same basic genotype, called a 'subgroup'. This means that an entire subgroup suffers from the stress.Nearly half of global banana production relies on a limited number of genetic combinations represented by a single clone (Cavendish), with another major clonal group, Plantains, representing a further 16%. Such a lack of cultivated genetic diversity leaves the crop highly vulnerable to pests and diseases and other risks (Calberto et al. 2015).Banana plants need nine months to two years from planting to produce the first fruit crop, a longer time than for most other vegetatively propagated food crops. Susceptible cultivars are sometimes replaced by more resistant ones, but this is a cumbersome and lengthy process. In several regions, it obliges traditional consumers to accept fruits with different qualities and flavour, and farmers and merchants to change harvesting, packaging, ripening and processing procedures. Sadly, consumers often accept such changes only after a disease has almost completely erased the popular subgroup, as in the case of the Pacific islands with the Maoli-Popoulu subgroup -a very poor alternative.Finally, on account of their often triploid or hybrid nature, many banana cultivars are sterile so that even occasional seed production in a banana field does not occur, in contrast to several other vegetatively propagated food crops -such as cassava, potato, sweet potato -where spontaneous seedlings can broaden the genotype, thus creating new genetic populations and offering chances of finding superior, more resilient individuals.Consequently, the concept of selection among the existing diversity that would combine all the required criteria is rarely an efficient mode for productivity improvement. Genetic improvement, or the construction of new germplasm (artificial hybrids), is the only viable alternative.To certain degree, each of the above deficiencies can be found in other food crops, but it is their overwhelming accumulation in a single crop that makes the banana extraordinary fragile.In the 20th century, the large fields of the dessert cultivar Gros Michel became devastated by Fusarium wilt, caused by a Fusarium oxysporum var. cubense (Foc) race 1. Another subgroup, the Cavendish bananas, appeared to be resistant to that race and to produce fruits with the exquisite taste of Gros Michel. Cavendish has since become the worldwide alternative in the dessert banana market. Meanwhile the genetic improvement of Gros Michel was started by British breeders in Trinidad. One of the motivations was that a new Foc race could in the future equally wipe out the Cavendish fields, a concern which has indeed become a reality in recent years with the invasion by Foc race 4, beginning in Taiwan and spreading now over Southeast Asia and into the African continent. But until now, no satisfactory new hybrid could be selected for acceptable replacement on the market, neither for Gros Michel nor more recently for Cavendish.However, during the second part of the 20th century, several other diseases and pests began to attack the traditionally cultivated starchy bananas, in many regions, mainly due to the rapidly growing intensity of human contacts. Abiotic stresses became also important in some regions due to climate change effects. This prompted several institutes to embark on genetic improvement of the traditional subgroups.Because the local market for food bananas is much more relaxed on the quality of the fruit compared to the commercial dessert market with its strict criteria, it was expected that selected new hybrids would relatively soon meet various stress problems.However, based on sources of biotic and abiotic stress-resistance from wild and edible diploid genotypes, these hybrids have yet to meet even the more flexible criteria, such as widely-acceptable fruit-pulp quality. The reason appears to be that only a fraction of the genetic diversity in diploid Musa is being used, leading to limited sources of desired characteristics. Yet variation among wild and edible Musa species offers a wide spectrum of fruit and bunch qualities.Taxonomists, breeders and researchers attribute under-utilization of such material to inadequate information. Many Musa collections have not been systematically documented; only limited characterization/identification and evaluation data are available, and information may be scattered among several institutes. Limited information is preventing users from identifying the most appropriate accessions.The recent impressive progress in the elucidation of the molecular basis of plant diversity has brought the hope that it will considerably boost the breeding efforts. Indeed and for example, the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of the Musa DNA should allow characterization of crops that would be further used to tag germplasm and to locate particular DNA sequences of interest, including those controlling some important traits. Indeed whole genome NGS approaches are currently adopted for Musa, such as Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) and RADseq in addition to re-sequencing of wild diploids' genomes. Such developments in molecular biology should have an important impact on the role of genebanks and the use of genetic resources. However, it appears that the potential contribution of genomics to the improvement of the banana is only starting to be understood (since the sequencing of the whole Musa A genome in 2012), hence as yet weakly integrated in the Musa improvement programs, in contrast with other crops such as wheat and maize.However, results in one area are not always applicable to other areas or regions, partly due to confusion in the identity of the concerned cultivars. Lack of correct cultivar classification and abundant synonyms of cultivars in many regions has led to frequently misunderstood cultivar information, resulting in inadequate practices.While interested organisations rely on local scientific expertise, they are frequently not able to propose more promising cultivars. Numerous national collections are functioning sub-optimally, particularly those which are hosted by poorly-resourced organizations. In several cases accessions are diseased and under threat, germplasm exchange mechanisms are inadequate and the user community is not as well served as it might be. In most collections, there are no quality control mechanisms to ensure that collections are fully accessible and material is safely exchanged. There is insufficient skilled staff to meet the long-term conservation needs. Curators are often working in isolation with little training. Most of the collections require additional human resources for the general collection management and particularly technical support in classification.Thus banana production remains precarious despite many serious, but rather disparate efforts to enhance productivity. The situation is partly due to the fragile nature of the plant and suboptimal coordination of efforts in both genetic improvement and optimizing field maintenance. This Global Strategy document attempts to meet the constraints in the exploitation of the Musa diversity by providing the information that should facilitate regular consultation on a global scale, including but not limited to the response to various stresses on the banana crop.The aim of this Global Strategy is to provide a framework for the efficient and effective conservation of globally important Musa genetic resources and strengthening their use. The Strategy can stimulate partnerships that increase the impact of research and adoption of technological innovations. MusaNet therefore encourages international, regional and national public research organizations, development agencies, NGOs and the private sector to use the priorities set out herein to guide their activities and investment decisions. The Global Strategy provides a clear framework to secure funding for the most urgent needs, to ensure that Musa diversity is conserved and used, and provides direct benefits to the hundreds of millions of small-scale banana farmers around the world.The conservation and use of a wide range of genetic diversity of Musa for future breeding depend on effective collaboration and the identification of clear common objectives with an action plan where all stakeholders play a role.• A world in which Musa genetic diversity is secured, valued and used to support livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers through sustainable production and improved food and nutrition security.The Strategy builds upon existing strengths in the national, regional and global collections by bringing people together to optimize the effort to conserve, add value and promote the use and safe distribution of a wide range of Musa genetic diversity as the foundation for further breeding and in some cases, direct use by farmers.The EXPECTED OUTPUTS are:• The Musa genetic diversity is assessed and comprehensively characterized, the taxonomy is harmonized and gaps in diversity are identified and filled in ex situ collections.• The entire Musa gene pool is conserved in perpetuity by a network of well-managed and rationalized collections.• The global system for the safe exchange of Musa germplasm is strengthened through appropriate diagnostics, screening, quarantine and exchange protocols etc.• The use of Musa genetic diversity is maximized through user-oriented germplasm evaluation.• Information on all aspects of Musa germplasm is well documented and easily accessible to all users in user-friendly and efficient systems.• Sufficient numbers of stakeholders are trained, and able to apply their training on the subjects of Musa Diversity, Conservation, Information, Evaluation and Genomics.Furthermore, the conservation of Musa diversity contributes to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets for 2030, namely Target 15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss), with implications for Target 2 (End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture) (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org).The Global Strategy offers opportunities for greater and stronger collaboration in all aspects of conservation and use of Musa genetic resources, spelt out in the Section 2 -Where we want to go and Section 3 -How we will get there of each chapter.Global collaboration for an efficient and effective system requires the full support and participation from all key partners. At the heart of the Global Strategy are the institutes managing Musa diversity and the custodians and users of these resources.There is a need to create a vibrant community sharing more and better information and knowledge, working together on agreed priorities. The main incentives for participants in developing and implementing the Global Strategy are: 1) greater access to information and germplasm, 2) acknowledgment of data sources particularly in publications, 3) benefits from training, 4) opportunities to participate in research projects and, 5) developing and sharing a common methodology and standards, thereby facilitating collaboration.There is a need for more awareness and discussions between partners including donors, and to stimulate interest in genetic resources collecting, characterization, conservation, evaluation and utilization.A number of networks and global initiatives are directly supporting the implementation of the Global Strategy and are described in Annex A, including: MusaNet, the Regional Banana Research and Development Networks, ProMusa, the CGIAR research program -Roots, Tubers and Bananas (CRP-RTB), CRP-Genebanks, the International Treaty for Plant genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the National, Regional and International Institutes managing Musa genetic diversity.A collaborative platform such as MusaNet is the ideal instrument for coordinating the implementation of a strong and focused Global Strategy with clearly defined goals and roles, including those complementary roles of national collections, regional collections and the International Transit Centre (ITC). The genus belongs to the family Musaceae, which also comprises some seven species of Ensete and possibly a third, monospecific genus, Musella, which is related to Musa. The Musa genus is divided into four sections: Eumusa, Rhodochlamys, Callimusa and Australimusa. The geographic origins of the sections are shown in Figure 1.2. All species are diploid, with a basic chromosome number n=11 (Eumusa, Rhodochlamys) or n=10 (Australimusa, Callimusa), with the uncertain placement of M. beccarii n=9 and M. ingens n=7. M. acuminata displays a large variation, mainly in inflorescences, and is divided into several subspecies (see Figure 1.3).The species contributes what is called the 'A' genome to the edible bananas, and its subspecies banksii is believed to be at the origin of the domestication process. The much less variable M. balbisiana contributed the 'B' genome to several banana cultivar subgroups and all plantains.Banana cultivars commonly contain one or more A or B genomes, or both, as diploids (AA and AB), as triploids (AAA, AAB, ABB), and as some rare tetraploids (AAAA, AAAB etc.).A third species, M. schizocarpa has contributed to the formation of diploid cultivars (AS) and a few triploid hybrids in New Guinea. Wild and cultivated diversity of Musa is at its richest in the Asia and Pacific region.An additional group of edible bananas, known as Fe'i bananas, are confined to the Pacific. Their genetic origin is obscure, but taxonomic studies suggest ancestral links either with the wild species M. maclayi or M. lolodensis, which belong to the Section Australimusa. When, where and how did the edible character arise, namely, a fruit being acceptably non-seeded and with sufficient pulp? The key point of banana domestication for fruit edibility is the establishment of spontaneous parthenocarpy associating abundant pulp development and partial or total sterility. These two characters are linked by a parallel selection but their evolutionary process is not necessarily the same. The simplest explanation is a temporal sequence of partial parthenocarpy, followed by inter-subspecies hybridization in the M. acuminata area and a resulting partial sterility. The evolution to partial parthenocarpy can still be observed in at least three regions: in Ethiopia among Ensete populations, in northern India among populations of M. balbisiana, and in the Pacific among the Fe'i bananas. In the three cases, the plants are vegetatively propagated and produce more or less soft, edible seeds surrounded by pulp.Hence it is assumed that the same process initially took place about 8,000 years ago with the M. acuminata subspecies banksii in the New Guinea region, thus producing the first edible AA diploids. Human interaction would subsequently bring these edible AA in contact with other (wild) acuminata subspecies. Spontaneous crosses would then have generated partial sterility in new edible AA, principally in the Indonesian and Philippines regions. Millennia-long cloning of the attractive hybrids eventually led to the large spectrum of current edible AA, producing fully parthenocarpic and seedless fruits, but with a moderate maintenance of viable pollen production in some cultivars.The last step of domestication is the emergence of triploid cultivars that constitute the majority of popular cultivars currently grown in the tropical world. Triploid cultivars are a direct consequence of the perturbed fertility of edible diploids, where diplogametes combined with regular n-gametes allowed the emergence of triploid genotypes, monospecific (AAA) or interspecific (AAB, ABB). Figure 1.4 shows the migrations of the triploid subgroups. The plain arrows in Figure 1.4 indicate long-term prehistoric migrations of triploid cultivars to Africa and Pacific islands. Grey dotted arrows indicate: (1) the migrations of Mlali AAcv subgroup, which is not found in island Southeast Asia today, to mainland South East Asia where it contributed to AAA Cavendish then to India where it met M. balbisiana to give AAB Pome; (2) migrations of the Mlali subgroup to the East African coast. The black dotted arrows indicate the route of M. balbisiana from South China to New Guinea over Taiwan and the Philippines, as carried by ancestors of the Austronesian speakers or perhaps sooner (Perrier et al. 2011).By virtue of their natural variation, wild Musa species are an essential source of desired traits in genetic improvement programmes. The parents M. acuminata and M. balbisiana are used in breeding schemes, both directly to produce improved cultivars and indirectly to improve parental genetic stocks. Other species are potential sources of traits but complicate the breeding schemes due to their genetic distance.Host-pathogen interactions differ among the subspecies of M. acuminata. For example the subspecies (ssp) burmannica is resistant to black leaf streak disease while the ssp. banksii is rather susceptible. But variations in reaction to diseases are supposed to exist even within the ssp. banksii, and similar variations may exist in the other subspecies. Subspecies differ also in their habitat, with e.g. ssp. truncata and burmannica-siamea typical for higher altitudes. But again, specimens of such subspecies have been observed at lower altitudes. Being fully inter-fertile and naturally out-crossing, it is most likely that M. acuminata subspecies consist of populations of genetically close individuals. M. balbisiana cultivars are vigorous and tolerant to several diseases, but may differ in the degree of these qualities, and this has not been sufficiently studied. Moreover, while new wild species and cultivars continue to be described, they are inadequately represented in ex situ collections.In summary, the variation among both species and subspecies is still poorly known and there is a need to organise the progressive collection of the complete genetic diversity of wild species. However, some wild banana accessions are threatened in ex situ collections because they may not be grown in optimum conditions similar to their specific habitat. The idea of satellite collections in the appropriate environments is interesting but practically hardly applicable. The best solution is in situ conservation of such taxa, with due recording of locations with GPS positions. This calls for a coordinated effort involving national parks and reserves playing a crucial role (see Chapter 8 -in situ and on farm conservation). SECTION 1.3 WILD RELATIVES AND DOMESTICATION -HOW WE WILL GET THEREThe following priority areas for collecting Musa are also discussed in detail in Section 4.3.1 -Exploration and Collecting Missions. 1.3.1.1 Indonesia MusaNet, through funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (CRP-RTB) and the Belgian Government, coordinated two collecting missions in Eastern Indonesia in October 2012 and in February-March 2013 where both wild and edible Musa had previously been only minimally explored. The missions were led by scientists of the Indonesian Tropical Fruit Research Institute (ITFRI), the Indonesian Centre for Horticulture Research and Development (ICHORD) and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF, Queensland, Australia).The first mission took place in North Sulawesi at the area of Gunung Ambang and Bogani Nani National Park and collected 29 accessions including 11 wild species (M. acuminata and M. lolodensis) and 18 cultivars. The second mission took place in Ambon and Seram Islands (Masohi, Manusela, Wahai and Kairatu) and collected 21 accessions including 11 wild M. acuminata and 10 cultivars. Fresh cigar leaf samples were sent to the Musa Genotyping Centre (MGC) in the Czech Republic for ploidy analysis and genotyping. The description of the found taxa complemented with molecular marking (simple sequence repeats-SSRs) showed the results to be congruent with field observations. Regarding wild resources, the rich harvest includes several unrecorded cultivars of M. acuminata -revealing a much more complex subspecies situation, and of M. lolodensis (section Australimusa). Mission members stressed that the brief exploration was insufficient to detect the diversity in sufficient detail and that efforts to that end should best be organised at national/provincial level. The next step would be to co-organize more local-level detailed explorations.With the exception of the M. acuminata ssp burmannica, no wild taxa have been duly recorded in this large country. Yet, in its northern region several species are supposed to be sympatric, with local variations or even intermediary taxa as the likely consequence. It may also offer the taxonomic link between M. acuminata and M. flaviflora (known only from identification in extreme North East India, and currently absent in the field collections). The indications of the political situation becoming settled seem to open the prospects for planning an organised exploration in the near future.Results of the recent Triangle exploration in Eastern Indonesia indicate that cultivars of M. acuminata, found in Maluku and not resembling the subspecies banksii or microcarpa, exist in Irian Jaya as well. They may have played a role in the generation of edible AA. Because the knowledge of wild taxa in Indonesian New Guinea relies on incidental observations in rather coastal areas, a systematic exploration mission is needed to assess the ill-defined diversity. 1.3.1.4 East Africa Surprisingly, seedy M. acuminata populations had been found already in the 1940s on the island of Pemba. They could not be firmly classified and duplicates did not survive at the old collection in Trinidad. Recently, similar populations were detected in Madagascar which most probably represent naturalised M. acuminata remnants of ancient introduction(s). A more systematic investigation of the populations in Pemba and Madagascar is thus needed.Edible diploids are of fundamental importance for genetic improvement. Many of them still produce more or less fertile pollen and/or when artificially pollinated, can produce hybrids with parthenocarpic fruits. While the diversity of edible diploids is subject to the same constraints as that of the triploids (see Section 3.1.2), these diploid derivatives of wild taxa have the potential to introduce the desired traits (e.g. abiotic and biotic stress resistance in wild sources) into new hybrids as well as qualities linked to edibility and agronomic performance. Breeding schemes are using this advantage in different combinations for the eventual production of improved triploids.The number of existing edible M. acuminata diploids (AAs) cultivars is uncertain, but the great majority has apparently been collected and conserved. Papua New Guinea is the only place where AA cultivars are truly abundant (Ploetz et al. 2007;Arnaud and Horry 1997). More than 100 edible AAs have been collected in Papua New Guinea alone and produce starchy fruits. A large assembly of edible AAs is grown in East Africa and coastal islands (Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mayotte Madagascar and Tanzania,). The rest, cultivated in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, mainland Southeast Asia, and a few in South India), have generally a sweet taste and are consumed as desert bananas.While most of these edible AAs have at least one A-genome of the New Guinean ssp. banksii, the molecular evidence shows that the 'sweet' pulp of the 'western' AA cultivar derives from Southeast Asian acuminata subspecies, several of which produce minimal, sweet-tasting pulp (see also Section 1.1.2). The cultivar Sucrier (Pisang Mas) has a delicate sweet pulp, making it internationally popular. Many cultivars such as Pisang Jari Buaya and Pisang Lilin are used in breeding schemes.Consequently, edible AAs offer a wide spectrum of genotypes among which the breeding programmes can select the most appropriate cultivars. Unfortunately, these many diverse edible AAs have as yet not been completely classified. The results of genetic marker techniques (SSR, DArT) on almost all collected edible AAs clearly reveal several clusters (see Figure 2.1). However, the morphological counterpart of such a cluster-concept has yet to be systematically assessed. There are surprisingly few other edible diploids. A few variants of two AB hybrids (Kunnan and Ney Poovan) are grown in South India, and one AB (Auko) was recorded in New Guinea. However, the latter shows all the characteristics of M. balbisiana and genetic marker research should assess its real genome composition. Research is also required for the solution of a lasting problem about supposed edible BB diploids, apparently found in mainland Southeast Asia and the Philippines: their diploidy needs be duly confirmed and the type of parthenocarpy be studied (oral reports attest of pulp with soft, comestible seeds). The Indian ABs are used in the CIRAD breeding programme (see Section 12.1.4.2 -Breeding at CIRAD).Part A -Plant Diversity: Chapter 2 Edible diploids SECTION 2.2 EDIBLE DIPLOIDS -WHERE WE WANT TO GO 2.2.1 The Taxonomy of the edible diploid diversity needs to be settledThe Taxonomic Advisory Group (TAG) 2008 meeting proposed initiating a project to identify edible AA clusters using all available characterization data. The collections with the most AAs are: the collection at the Indonesian Tropical Fruit Research Institute (ITFRI), the Laloki collection in Papua New Guinea, the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute (FAVRI) collection in Vietnam, the collection in Malaysia at the Malaysian Agriculture and Development Institute (MARDI), and at the Bureau of Plant Industries (BPI) in the Philippines. Data will be compiled and analysed and compared with the results of molecular characterization.Edible AAs and even 'wild' M. acuminata populations have been incidentally discovered in Coastal East Africa, Madagascar and islands in Indian Ocean. In and around the Comoros (and even on the African continent) edible AAs have been collected and genetically studied. Some of them were classified as the subgroup 'Mlali' which turns out to be the major ancestor of the commercial AAA 'Cavendish' subgroup, and probably Gros Michel as well (Raboin et al. 2005). All are unique in the sense that no similar cultivars are known in the region from where they supposedly originated (Indonesia, Philippines, and New Guinea). Genetic links with the seedy M. acuminatas on coastal East African islands cannot be excluded.The even more complex situation of presumed edible BB found in mainland Southeast Asia and the Philippines must be elucidated. If these edible BB are confirmed, they would be a most practical building block for the construction of new AAB and ABB hybrids.Due to the lack of an orderly morphological classification of the numerous edible AAs as mentioned earlier, the strategy is (1) to use standard and reliable molecular marker techniques for revealing all possible genetic differences (including clusters of same genotypes), and subsequently (2) to compare this differentiation with the observed cultivars in order to sort out subgroups and possible singletons.An ongoing RTB-supported Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) project is focused on the edible AA accessions as well as a spectrum of wild AA taxa and has produced many SNPs. The lengthy work to identify and categorize the allele polymorphisms and to link these to cultivar descriptor-states will require sufficient partners and financial support. GBS will thus significantly improve the results from previous SSR and DArT techniques.The DNA from leaf samples of the collected specimens will be analysed via advanced molecular marker techniques. Particularly important is the clarification of the 'Mlali' subgroup, which contains widely different morphotypes, while these have been previously clustered together via former analyses using molecular techniques such as SSR.Of any presumed edible BB accession, leaf samples should be sent to the MGC for ploidy verification. Duplicates of confirmed BB diploids should then be sent to ITC for conservation but also to facilitate all further relevant research. Triploids are today cultivated throughout the world. They are classified according to their genome constitution as AAA, AAB, ABB, which are called 'groups'. Each group consists of a number of subgroups with different plant appearances and different genetically proven genotypes. A subgroup is defined as representing the cultivars generated from a common ancestor as caused by variations during centuries-long cloning.Because of the popularity of some triploid genotypes since their generation, clonal propagation over centuries has created more or less large subgroups. Whether this genetic or epigenetic variation, or a combination of both, is still a matter of speculation. It is expected that the GBS technique will help clarify this situation.Each subgroup has received the name of its best known member, which has become its representative cultivar (Table 3.1). It is commonly accepted that triploids have been generated by spontaneous hybridisations of edible AA with various sources of the additional A or B-genome (other edible AA or wild AA, and M. balbisiana). Indeed, the female gamete production in edible AA displays many irregularities, including the entire restitution of the diploid genome during meiosis, as reported in the 1940s (Dodds and Simmonds 1946). When pollinated by A or B genome pollen, the thus fertilized egg cells would -rather exceptionally -simply contain the addition of AA+A versus AA+B and thus form AAA or AAB hybrids. The generation of ABB is still a matter of conjecture because the production of unreduced AB gametes may have been very rare as edible AB cultivars are so rare. Hence the suggestion that backcrosses played a more important role than previously assumed (De Langhe et al. 2010). The backcross hypothesis could also explain why some AAB or ABB cultivars show morphologies much closer to M. acuminata or M. balbisiana than the A/B ratio would dictate, opening the possibility of A/B allele exchanges 'underway'. Totally different direct triploidy formation is also likely in several cases. For example, dessert type ABB cultivars such as Peyan and Pisang Awak have a B cytoplasmic DNA strongly suggesting a BB x AB origin (a BAB constitution (Carreel et al, 2002).The success of triploids, such as the AAA subgroup Cavendish, is due to their high vigour and fruit growth rate, as well as gametic sterility. For AAB or ABB, the M. balbisiana genome is long since known to add characters like tolerance to abiotic or even biotic stresses (Cheesman 1948). These favourable characteristics led to an extension far beyond the primary centre of diversity (Figure 3.1).Figure 3.1. Geographical distribution of where the edible AA and the main triploid banana cultivar groups/subgroups dominate. (Source: De Langhe et al. 2009).Since almost all triploids are sterile, their traditional presence and diversification in such distant regions is necessarily due to human interaction in the past. Elucidating the nature and period(s) of this interaction is the task of multidisciplinary research, of which the results could explain local preferences for one or other subgroup. East AfricaAlthough banana triploids are relatively vigorous plants, the subgroups are more or less exposed to particular pests and/or diseases, depending on their genotype. This is certainly the case over recent times because of increased worldwide migration, where migrants act as carriers of contaminants.The soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) race 1 decimated the commercial AAA Gros Michel plantations in the Americas during the first half of the 20th century, while the AAA Cavendish subgroup appeared to be resistant in the same regions. However, the current Cavendish plantations are now seriously menaced by another -possibly more recently generated -Foc tropical race 4. The fungal leaf spot disease caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis is seriously compromising the productivity of the AAB plantain subgroups. More devastating is the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), which eventually can kill entire subgroups in some areas, such as AAB Prata in India, AAB plantains in Africa and the Pacific.In many cases, the effect of the disease is amplified by a growing pressure from specific pests such as the nematode Radopholus and Pratylenchus species, or specific borer-weevils, which considerably weaken the defensive capacity of the host plant.In the end, it can be assumed that any subgroup could be menaced in the future by bacteria, fungi, viruses, or other pests. The hardy ABB subgroups may show tolerance, in that the symptoms of the attack are less visible for a long time, but they eventually can succumb as well.Climate change can lead to longer dry periods, to which AAA subgroups are particularly susceptible. Sustained dry periods have thus led farmers in East Africa to replace the Highland AAA cooking subgroup by hardier ABB subgroups in the most exposed areas, with the result that beer-making from these ABB bananas is progressing, because of their durable productivity.Among other possible impacts of climate change, a predictable effect is an increase incidence of pests and diseases.In summary, as an effective means to combat many of the above threats, the genetic improvement of bananas should be directed towards the sustainability of production, allowing the adoption of new cultivars with acceptable agronomic performance, pest and disease resistance and fruit quality required by the market.The improvement of the triploid cultivars calls for an exhaustive assessment of their taxonomy.The total number of existing triploid cultivars in the traditional context is roughly estimated at around 1,000. Given that the cultivars are members of subgroups with different genotypes, genetic improvement of threatened cultivars is concentrated on one or a few 'popular' members of their subgroup. While the new hybrids do not display the diversity of the subgroup, they are readily accepted by the farmers for their resistance to pests and diseases. Besides, much of that subgroup diversity concerns various plant/fruit colours and fruit forms, characteristics that are of rather minor importance on the local market. The fruit form of the export bananas is the exception.However, the taxonomic situation of numerous cultivars is far from clear. A standardized description of the representative cultivar per subgroup does not exist. This limitation has created the paradoxical situation that numerous cultivars have been individually described according to the standardized Descriptor List published by IPGRI-INIBAP and CIRAD in 1996 (see Chapter 5 -Characterization), but these could not be systematically linked to the subgroups. Too much still depends on the pragmatic insight of experienced taxonomists specialised in one or other particular subgroups and/or in its presumed wild and edible AA ancestors. The result is that current breeding programmes are still relying on a few, rather incidentally 'known' sources, and do not harness the total diversity spectrum when selecting convenient material (see Chapter 12 -Genetic Improvement).The strategy for achieving a completely satisfactory taxonomy of the triploids is developed in Section 3.3 below and further in Chapter 4 -Taxonomy and Chapter 5 -Characterization.Currently the most important tasks concerning triploids are the following:1. Achieve the standardized description of all triploid subgroups.2. Systematically classify the numerous cultivars per subgroup via their available descriptions.An important side result of this undertaking will be the correct classification of several 'floating' triploid cultivars, mostly collected in New Guinea and S.E. Asia, which have not yet been assigned to a subgroup.The Taxonomic Reference Collection Project and its follow-up: a long-term programmeThe highest priority is attached to the above tasks ( 1) and ( 2). To this end, a long-term programme will progressively cover the entire range of Musa germplasm, with the representative cultivars of the triploid subgroup in a first project, the \"Taxonomic Reference Collection (TRC) Project\" (see more details in Sections 4.3.2.1 -Subgroup determination -the Taxonomic Reference Collection Project and 5.3.1 -The Taxonomic Reference Collection (TRC) Project).With this solid base, the programme will be extended to include the intra-subgroup diversity in a second project. In a third project, the standardization effort will embrace the edible diploids and wild ancestor subspecies/cultivars. It is expected that the programme should eventually also be able to classify ill-defined cultivars, subgroups and edible AA clusters.Part B covers Musa plant identity in two chapters. Chapter 4 focuses on taxonomy of both wild and edible bananas, including sections on explorations and collecting missions and cultivar identification down to the infra-subgroup level. Chapter 5 covers morphological and molecular characterization, down to the subgroup level, featuring different tools and their use, improvement of the descriptor lists, and using ethnogeographical information to guide cultivar identification.In whatever research or development enterprise throughout the world, any potential user searching for a suitable Musa cultivar needs complete documentation of its exact identity and if possible, its performance. The subject of performance and documentation is developed in Part D -Use (Chapter 9 -Information Management and Chapter 11 -Evaluation of Germplasm).The identity of a cultivated or a wild taxon consists of its internationally adopted name (nomenclature), its description and its classification. Morphological description should be complemented with molecularmarker data, and both types of description are commonly called 'characterization'. The combination of Musa characterization and classification allows for the identification of any plant across the diverse Musa genus. The usual term \"taxonomy\" covers all these components as well as the implied research thereof. The term \"systematics\" is used to describe the search for phylogenetic relations within the Musa diversity.This chapter identifies the many cases where characterization plays a key role in Musa taxonomy, while Chapter 5 reports the characterization methodologies.Musa taxonomy has been a subject of research since the 19th century, at first overlapping with the significant period of botanical investigation of tropical flora and collections in botanic gardens, and later increasingly in agronomic research stations. By the mid-20th century, a fairly comprehensive knowledge base of both the wild and the cultivated diversity existed (Simmonds 1955 and1962). However, it was admitted that the detailed diversity of wild and cultivated Musa germplasm had not sufficiently been explored, particularly for the subspecies and cultivars of M. acuminata and for the hundreds of cultivars grown in (sub-) tropical villages. In 1988, a state-of-the-art review of Musa taxonomy was presented during an international workshop at Los Baños, Philippines, leading to the identification of the major constraints facing Musa taxonomists and recommendations to overcome them (INIBAP 1990).The most important wild ancestor of edible bananas, Musa acuminata, has been extensively studied. While the species has been clearly defined, it displays an exceptional intra-specific variability, which causes classification problems. Since Simmonds (1956), the major variation has been classified as 'subspecies' with the adopted definition that they are \"morphologically distinct populations that occupy distinct geographical areas and breed mainly with themselves; that is, they are species in the genetic though not in the formal taxonomic sense\" (Simmonds 1962). They are not species in the classical sense since they have been proved to be inter-fertile, and since hybrids have been observed at the boundaries of their respective domains. Figure 1.3 in Chapter 1 (Natural distribution of the M. acuminata subspecies and of the species M. balbisiana (Perrier et al. 2011)), shows the geographical aspect of the subspecies concept.However, the variation within each subspecies has hardly been searched for and systematically studied and is thus nearly absent in the ex situ collections. Yet, some of the incidentally in situ observed plants of several subspecies produced more impressive bunches than the currently used specimens in breeding programmes. The primary question of whether such stature is of genetic origin rather than due to favourable growth conditions has never been investigated.Moreover, the lack of insight on intra-subspecific variation causes difficulties in the interpretation of observed surprises regarding the geographical boundaries of the subspecies. This can be illustrated with two examples:a. The results of a series of seven reconnaissance missions across Thailand carried out by De Langhe, Volkaert andWatchanachaingcharung during the 1990s (INIBAP 2008), revealed that: (1) plants of the subspecies truncata were observed on lowland in the extreme south, while the habitat for this subspecies in Peninsular Malaysia is a typical highland one; (2) populations of an unrecorded malaccensis cultivar were found in valleys of the western mountains, far remote from Peninsular Malaysia where the subspecies dominates in lowlands; and (3) it appeared impossible to clearly distinguish the subspecies burmannica (western mountains) from siamea (north, northeast and east Thailand) because of overlapping infra-subspecific variations in bunch and male-bud shapes.b. During a recent Musa exploration in Eastern Indonesia (Sutanto et al. 2015) plants resembling the subspecies microcarpa were observed in the Maluku province, with large fingers on bunches of up to 17 hands, a feature which has never been recorded in Borneo where the subspecies largely dominates. Part of the observed morphological variation of this 'microcarpa' seems to overlap with variation in the more eastern subspecies banksii (which dominates in the New Guinea region), to the point that one can presume a coherent set of closely related M. acuminata cultivars extending from Borneo to New Guinea.It can be concluded that the infra-specific variation of Musa acuminata: (1) is far more complex than is understood from its subspecies classification, and (2) can provide more promising parent forms/cultivars for breeding than have been exploited until now.Musa balbisiana, the wild co-ancestor of many edible banana subgroups, displays a rather restricted variation, and mainly in the generative parts. Nonetheless, some forms in South East Asia, such as cultivars Pacol and Butuhan in the Philippines (Valmayor et al. 2002) have apparently not been recorded in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), a fact which points to subspecies existence. Efforts for assembling and studying the wild BBs in the Philippines have not delivered the desired clarification. Yet, these 'eastern' BBs may be at the origin of ABB subgroups that are distinct from the globally-spread Indian ABBs (Figure 1.4 -Origins and migrations of the main triploid subgroups). One also cannot yet exclude that genomes of these 'eastern' BBs may have contributed to the formation of the AAB plantains subgroup which spread in Africa and of the AAB 'Maoli-Popoulu' and 'Iholena' subgroups in the Pacific. In an exhaustive molecular genotyping using 22 SSR loci across 561 Musa accessions (Hippolyte et al. 2012), it was found that \"the balbisiana diversity provided by the interspecific cultivars seemed larger than the BB diploid diversity present in our BB samples …, suggesting an under-representation of the whole balbisiana diversity in collections or extinction of the BB parents of the current hybrids.\" Only coordinated molecular genotyping of all recorded and collected balbisiana forms could allow for the exact identification of the B-origins in the numerous AAB and ABB subgroups.The taxonomy of the many other Musa species may seem of rather academic interest, but some aspects of it have quite a practical significance. A robust classification of wild Musa taxa was established in the mid-20th century by Cheesman (1948), Simmonds (1956) and Argent (1976) which has not been significantly modified since (see Figure 1.2 -Distribution of the four sections of the genus Musa). However, based on molecular findings, a simplification has been proposed in that Eumusa and Rhodochlamys would form one Section and Callimusa and Australimusa another (Wong et al. 2002;Christelová et al. 2011;Hřibová et al. 2011;Häkkinen, M. 2013). While the first 'new section' reflects an already common acceptance, the second new section concept may be debatable, mainly because of the unique seed form in Callimusa. In any case, the genetic distance of Callimusa-Australimusa vis-à-vis Eumusa-Rhodochlamys has convincingly been confirmed by molecular analyses mobilizing many species, especially members of the two distant sections, as is shown in Lin-Feng Li et al. (2010) and Janssens et al. (2016).New classification uncertainties have emerged after several new specimens were recently found and described, principally in mainland South East Asia and in Indonesia. The taxonomic status of these new taxa is not clear, whether species, subspecies or botanical varieties. The proposed solution for better classification of wild germplasm is to revisit the section status, to complete the assessment of species/ subspecies and to verify new wild accessions.Indeed, this relative state of confusion hampers studies of the phylogenetic relations between the perhaps more than 50 Musa species and their subdivisions. Yet a clear understanding of the evolution of all these taxa could be of great help for genetic improvement when it comes to detecting useful traits and their alleles that are lacking or non-expressed in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana.Taxonomists estimate that there may be around 1,000 different Musa cultivars (INIBAP 2006). The names of these cultivars are not useful for classification; indeed, it can be stated that there exist as many distinct local names for a same cultivar as there are tribes or village communities (with their own language or dialect) that grow them. This largely unresolved synonymy problem means that field and in vitro banana collections are likely maintaining several replicates (synonyms) of many accessions. Sorting out these multiple synonymies can only be effective when the taxonomic situation of the corresponding cultivars has been definitively settled.For the meaning of the terms 'Group' and 'Subgroup', see Annex H -Glossary and Section 3.1.1 -Triploid bananas as we know them. Because of their widespread acceptance in the tropics over recent centuries, the most popular AAA, AAB, ABB cultivars had been fairly well classified and typified by their salient characteristics (Simmonds 1955). Since then, their respective morphologic variants have been classified as subgroups (see Table 3.1). An attempt at cultivar classification at subgroup level has been published by Stover, R.H. and Simmonds, N.W. in 1987 but is far from covering the entire diversity in subgroups, hence risking wrong identification. However, molecular genotyping has confirmed the genetic reality of the subgroup concept (see Figure 4.1). The afore-mentioned exhaustive SSR analysis by Hippolyte et al. (2012) has even added practical guidelines for correct attribution of a cultivar to some particular subgroups. Uncertainties remain on the classification of a number of cultivars. For example, among the AAA, some cultivars are clearly different from the well-known subgroups Cavendish, Gros Michel, Red, Ibota (Yangambi Km5), and they seem to form one or more supplementary subgroups. It is expected that molecular genotyping, in combination with due plant description will eventually solve such uncertainties.However, the molecular techniques that have been used so far (SSR, DArTs) have not been able to differentiate the cultivars within the subgroups. The subgroup ramifications in the derived cladograms (Figure 4.1) do not reveal morphological differences, and this also means that synonyms cannot be detected. As is suggested in Hippolyte et al. (2012, p13): \"… the low number and in most cases the absence of genetic differences between the accessions of a subgroup cannot explain the huge phenotypic diversity observed within these subgroups… Therefore other possibilities, such as epigenetic regulation, need to be explored.\"Morphological taxonomy of the intra-subgroup diversity is therefore of the utmost importance. This is especially the case for the large and very ramified subgoups such as the AAA 'Cavendish', 'Gros Michel' and 'East-African Highland bananas', the AAB 'Plantain' and 'Maoli-Popoulu' and 'Iholena', the ABB 'Bluggoe', 'Monthan', 'Pisang Awak', and ABB/BBB 'Saba', which together represent the vast majority of cultivated bananas in the tropical and subtropical world. In each of these subgroups, the variants are of different nature. The AAA Cavendish types are connected to the dwarfism expression; the AAB 'Maoli-Popoulu' types deal with the fruit form; the types of AAA East-African Highland bananas are marked by several bunch and fruit traitsThe most complex case is the AAB plantain subgroup, with probably more than 150 different cultivars. The subgroup consists of three widely different morphotypes: \"French plantains\" with a completely developed male inflorescence, \"False Horn plantains\" with a much reduced male inflorescence and much longer fruits, and \"Horn plantains\" with no male inflorescence at all and with the largest fruits of the entire Musa genus (see Figure 4.2). While the French plantain type displays a wide variation in bunch structure, fruit forms, pseudostem and fruit colours, in all sorts of combinations, the variation exists partly in the two other types as well. But molecular genotyping (using SSR and DarT markers) cannot distinguish among these three major types, which suggests their all belonging to one subgroup.The concept of 'clone sets', centred on the most representative/popular cultivar per type is handy for an initial intra-subgroup classification. Numerical morpho-taxonomy results on the AAB plantains and the AAA East-African Highland bananas display 'clusters' of cultivars that correspond fairly well with such clone sets (Karamura 1999, De Langhe et al. 2005, and Karamura et al. 2012). The intriguing question of whether clone sets have a different genetic background or a purely epigenetic one has not been elucidated by any current molecular studies. Indeed, they could be the derivatives of different siblings from one or more crosses between the same two parents of each subgroup, with slightly different allele sequence-combinations as a result, stemming from different meiosis configurations in the gamete formation. Different clone sets could also originate from a single sibling and in this case would have subsequently evolved in 'different directions' through somaclonal mutation and/or epigenetic variation.Nevertheless, by definition, the members of a subgroup do share a large number of characteristics and descriptors. The latter being typical of the subgroup, the ideal identification of each cultivar should at the onset refer to the description of the subgroup to which it belongs, and then deal with the remaining descriptors for differentiating the cultivars, via clone-set description or directly (for small subgroups).However, no description per subgroup is yet available. While the popular representative cultivars of many subgroups have been fairly well described for a long time, their variants are only documented in the form of the many individual complete descriptions of the corresponding subgroup cultivars, without any link to thatof the representative (in other words, as if each cultivar is a separate entity of the entire triploid population). Synonymy detection remains problematic or impossible on the base of such disorderly documentation.A number of triploid cultivars in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines have a striking resemblance to the wild BB and have been proposed to form one or more BBB subgroups. The question whether they are actual BBB or ABB is still open. This is important because: (1) BBB existence would imply the seedless/parthenocarpy potential in B genome as well as in the A-genome, with interesting new prospects for banana improvement; and (2) these cultivars could be the product of complex backcrossings leading to \"ABB\" with very few remaining A chromosomes or alleles in the A-genome, the rest being replaced by B chromosomes or alleles. Unfortunately, an elaborate morphological description of the supposed BBB cultivars has not yet been officially reported, but a catalogue of the Saba cultivars found in the Philippines combining morphological descriptors and descriptive pictures is currently being compiled. In contrast with the triploids, these clusters cannot be considered as 'subgroups' because they may contain a mixture of somatic variants, synonyms and actually different genotypes. Hence the provisional name of \"clusters\". Efforts for a firmer classification of the edible AA are hampered by a combination of two causes: (1) their genetic background and ( 2) the poor progress made in a standardized morphological characterization of the cultivars. Because edible diploids have maintained a higher fertility than triploids, inter-cultivar crosses would have allowed for several further recombinations and hence a larger diversification through sexual recombination. While in triploids the diversification is rather restricted to somatic variation via century-long vegetative propagation.However, the detected edible AA clusters have as yet not been morphologically described in a systematic way, so that a coherent classification is still lacking. The description is insufficient and/or heterogeneous all over the region where the AAs are grown. The description of the more than 100 AA accessions from Papua New Guinea is limited to the most striking features (Arnaud and Horry 1997). The many AA cultivars in Indonesia have been described for their essential characteristics, but the data were published in Malay only (Sutanto and Edison 2005). The Philippine AA cultivars have been described to the same degree by Valmayor et al. (2002). Many of them are grown in island and mainland South East Asia under various names. A very useful initial synonymy table has been published (Valmayor et al. 2000) but it can only be consolidated and expanded after all these cultivars are described and sufficiently illustrated by using a standardized system.An effort has recently been launched by ProMusa in 2013 to address the synonyms issue in general. The banana cultivar checklist (http://www.promusa.org/Banana+cultivar+checklist) aims at compiling all known names, in any language, for a given cultivar. But extensive work still remains to be achieved in this area.A progressive improvement of the description system will allow for systematic comparison of the morphotype and the genotype per AA cultivar and should eventually lead to the construction of an adapted but reliable classification, which would optimize the use of edible AA, whether directly or via genetic improvement.As already mentioned (Section 2.1 -Edible Diploids -where we are), these cultivars are very rare and their recorded presence is confined to South India (two subgroups at the most) and Southeast Asia-New Guinea (a couple of described cultivars at the most). This led to the assumption that their role in the formation of AAB and ABB triploids might have been minimal.However, four edible diploids with mixed A-and B-genome characteristics have recently been found in Eastern Indonesia (Sutanto et al. 2014). SSR analysis positioned them in a same clade as the Indian AB cultivars. These AB cultivars, together with the Auko of Papua New Guinea and at least one presumed AB in the Philippines may thus have been instrumental in the generation of some hybrid AxB triploids in this region.SECTION 4.2 TAXONOMY -WHERE WE WANT TO GO a. For M. acuminata, the subspecies concept needs to be revisited. The primary question of whether intra-specific variation is of genetic origin rather than due to favourable growth conditions has never been investigated and, in the (molecular) genetically proved cases, botanical varieties should be clearly defined. The underexplored regions are being or will be systematically revisited: South East Indonesia, Myanmar, extreme Northeast India, as well as intriguing M. acuminata outliers in islands near East-Africa (Pemba, Madagascar) and Oceania (Samoa) (see Section 4.3 -Taxonomy -How to Get There). The thus completed documentation on wild M. acuminata will eventually solve the structure of its diversity and phylogeny.b. For M. balbisiana, a systematic collection and/or identification of specimens, especially in altitudinal Southeast Asia and the Philippines is still needed. A coordinated/standardized molecular marking of all recorded and collected balbisiana forms, in agreement with their morphological differentiation, is necessary for correct classification. This should lead to a reliable phylogeny of the many AAB and ABB subgroups and the use of proper balbisiana parents in breeding programmes.2. The second priority is the solution of the 'Section problem', the first-level classification of all the Musa species (see Section 1.1 -Wild Relatives and domestication -Where We Are). Should the combined approach \"morphology x molecular analysis x phylogeny\" consolidate the term in some way, or should one search for an alternative? Several wild populations have recently been studied in South China for Eumusa and in Borneo for Callimusa (e.g. Häkkinen M. and C. Meekiong 2005;Häkkinen M. and Wang, H. 2007). They can be of great help in solving the question, provided their nomenclature and classification is internationally agreed.The evident priority is the correct morphological classification of any of the perhaps 1,000 existing cultivars. Indeed, the molecular investigation of cultivar genotypes can only produce reliable results when the identity of each involved cultivar is unequivocal and correctly named.A. The triploids: The effort consists of four steps:i. Standardize the characterization of the representative cultivar of each subgroup, by both morphological and molecular means.ii. Standardize the morphological description of all the supposed member-cultivars of each subgroup.iii. Per subgroup, to extract from the step 'b' above the descriptors that are common to all its cultivars, thus allowing the complete description of the subgroup.iv. The remaining descriptors should differentiate any member-cultivar. Cultivars that apparently do not fit may belong to another subgroup or could be singletons.B. The AA diploids: The priority is to sort out what part of the 'clusters' identified by molecular marker techniques could be actual subgroups, and then to decide on the nomenclature of the taxonomy for the entire group. The undertaking consists of following steps:i. Standardized morphological description of all the members of each cluster found by molecular means. Verification of the many presumed synonyms by planting and comparing the concerned accessions in a same collection.ii. When members of such cluster are morphologically different and therefore cultivars (somatic variants) in the same sense as those in triploid subgroups, they would constitute an actual subgroup and should enter the classification process as for triploids.C. Other diploids: Since the ascertained and presumed AB cultivars have been collected from widely dispersed places (India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea) an across ex situ collection survey (descriptions and photos) should produce a more coherent view on the group. This work should be complemented by analysing their diversity via molecular markers and comparing the results with the morphological descriptions.The results of all these activities will enable the progressive identification of the duplicates and synonyms in field collections and at the ITC (see more in Part C -Management, Chapter 6 -Musa collections around the world and Chapter 7 -The ITC Global Musa Collection), In addition, it will allow the identification of the existing different AB and potential edible BB.D. Verifying the possible existence of BBB triploids: The morphologically most convincing subgroup of the 'Saba' cultivars in the Philippines should be molecularly screened for any presence of specific A alleles or A contribution to the genome (genotyping, in situ hybridization, etc.).E. Hierarchical identification of any cultivar: This is the ultimate goal of the above activities. The most logical and parsimonious cultivar identification should proceed along the hierarchical sequence of \"Group to Subgroup to Cultivar\", certainly for the triploids. A supplementary level may become necessary for the more complex edible AA (see Section 4.1.2.2 -Taxonomy of the edible AA cultivars) once their taxonomy has been settled.i. Identifying the Group (AA, AB, AAA, AAB, ABB; and BB, BBB if their existence is confirmed):Locating any cultivar in one of the groups on morphological grounds has its pitfalls. The ploidy level should be ascertained or adjusted by flow cytometry, as the morphological signal of erect leaves in diploids is not always reliable, and some diploids can even look like the vigorous triploids under favourable growth conditions. Furthermore, molecular markers can reveal the presence of an unexpected A or B genome (or at least one or several such alleles and even chromosomes) in triploids, thus pointing to a more complex generation than the expected genome-proportions from morphological observation. For example, a few triploids with 34 chromosomes, due to unbalanced chromosome restitution during meiosis (23 chromosomes instead of 22 given by one parent) may have arisen from possible backcrosses. Therefore, a more exact chromosome counting by the MGC can be necessary for assessing such cases. The classical group identification is based on the scoring system of Simmonds and Shepherd, which used 15 morphological descriptors, each in states 1 to 5, with 1 = pure acuminata and 5 = pure balbisiana . But their goal was to demonstrate the existence of the different genome-balances in AA/AAA, AB, AAB, ABB, and not for the location of any cultivar in one of the groups. When it comes to locating any cultivar in a group, one can immediately perceive the risk of the intermediary scores, since the choice between states 2, 3 and 4 (respectively rather like acuminata, just between acuminata and balbisiana, rather like balbisiana) relies too much on the subjective judgement of the observer. Such morphological identification process needs more than 15 descriptors, and current efforts are trying to find the reliable groupdifferentiating ones.ii. Identifying the Subgroup: Once the subgroups are identified and characterized for triploids and edible diploids, a Determination Key should be constructed for facilitating the identification of the subgroup to which an observed cultivar belongs (for example, develop/identify sets of descriptors that could be used to assign accessions to subgroups) .iii. Identifying the Cultivar: Once cultivars are differentiated, as stated above in Step A (iv), an intrasubgroup determination key can be constructed for exact cultivar identification in each triploid subgroup. For large subgroups, the key could have to use an intermediary 'clone set' concept. The remaining descriptors should differentiate any member-cultivar. Cultivars that apparently do not fit may belong to another subgroup or could be singletons.SECTION 4.3 TAXONOMY -HOW WE WILL GET THEREThe following collecting/exploration missions have either been achieved or are planned or recommended.A team of Musa taxonomy specialists searched for unrecorded wild and edible bananas in the triangle Sulawesi-Maluku-Lesser Sunda. It confirmed the existence of an acuminata subspecies in Sulawesi, which had been previously named 'cultivar tomentosa' (Nasution 1991) and of which several characteristics are also found in ssp. banksii. It found several wild acuminata populations in Maluku that slightly resembled either the subspecies microcarpa or banksii, but no 'new' subspecies. The results thus suggest a distinct and very complex diversity with the probable extremes in Borneo (typical microcarpa) to the west, in the Philippines (errans) to the North and in New Guinea (banksii) to the East. The complex seems morphologically strikingly different from all other acuminata subspecies in western Indonesia and up to Thailand (except perhaps for the ssp. truncata in highland Peninsular Malaysia, and the ssp. sumatrana, both of which slightly resemble microcarpa). All recorded specimens are presently growing in the collection at the Indonesian Tropical Fruit Research Institute (ITPRI). DNA obtained from leaf samples was investigated. The exploration mission also collected a number of unrecorded edible diploids and triploids. Ploidy assessment by flow cytometry proved that some assumed triploid plants (including 'plantain-like' cultivars) are in fact diploid. The findings are reported in a contribution to the 2014 ISHS ProMusa symposium (Sutanto et al. 2015). However, the authors insist on the need for subsequent local explorations which should find several other unreported taxa in that region.The exploration in Myanmar is planned and is pending agreement from the national authorities. While no great surprises are expected concerning edible bananas, the configuration of several Eumusa species within this country, including little-known acuminata-like taxa (e.g. M. flaviflora) makes it a key region for elucidating the Eumusa diversity.The extreme north east of India could not be regularly explored during previous expeditions (Uma et al, 2005) because of political unrest. Its interest is similar to that of Myanmar, but it is also said to host a number of presumed edible BB and BBB. The exploration calls for a coordinated planning with the Indian authorities and specialists.This province of Indonesia has merely been subject to incidental observations and collections, mostly along the coastal areas. Because of the intermediate position between the well-known diversity in PNG and the recently recorded diversity in Eastern Indonesia (above item 1), a rather modest exploration project would solve the following questions:a. Are there unique cultivars of AA subspecies banksii?b. Is there introgression of banksii with the acuminata subspecies complex of Eastern Indonesia and/or Philippines and its genetic significance? c. Confirmation of the western limit of M.schizocarpa? According to the taxonomist Jeff Daniells (pers. comm.), a large population exists between Jayapura and the PNG border but no trace was found around southern Timika. The species could already be absent in the province of West Papua (hence with no ad hoc edible acuminata x schizocarpa hybrids as result).d. Are there region specific edible AA and various triploids?Seed-bearing M. acuminata has been reported in Madagascar and Tanzania (island of Pemba). There are questions linked to the origin of the seeded plants, if they were introduced by human, and how they may link to the cultivated diploid 'Mlali' accessions. It is also worth noting that in northwest Malawi and the area between northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania there are some edible diploids of Musa acuminata which need to be collected and characterized. Another objective is to discover the nearest wild diploids to the East African Highland bananas for the crop improvement programme in East Africa.6. Near Oceania: Papua New Guinea -Solomon Islands The region of Papua New Guinea hosts 8 to 9 wild Musa species unique to the New Guinea and underrepresented in genebanks. In addition, unique Fe'i cultivars remain uncollected both in the mainland and east islands including the Solomon Islands. Finally, not all the diversity of cultivated bananas has been collected in the mainland and some islands of the Bismark archipelago and of the Solomon Islands need to be explored.As explained in Section 4.2.2 -Edible bananas, key to achieving the determination of subgroups is the standardized characterization of the representative cultivar of each subgroup (by both morphological and molecular means). To this end, 34 accessions, representing all popular edible subgroups, including both diploids and triploids, plus wild diploid taxa (see Table 4.1), were selected from the ITC to constitute the Taxonomic Reference Collection (TRC), and were distributed to a number of collaborating institutes with field collections (Table 4.2). The selection of this set of 34 accessions was based on the following criteria:• Representativeness of morpho-taxonomic variation within the subgroup.• Available for distribution from the ITC collection (virus-indexed negative).• Declared true-to-type during field verification, cytogenetic and molecular studies.Standardized morphological description and photography are carried out on the TRC according to the rules explained in Chapter 5 -Characterization. The set of four wild taxa is a taxonomic framework for controlling some difficult descriptions.The results are compared with those of molecular marker techniques at the MGC for substantiation/ reconciliation. Analysis on datasets obtained from the morphological characterization of this unique set of accessions in the different collections of the project is expected to begin in 2016. It is expected to allow i) improving the quality and understanding of the descriptors by multi-testing the whole set of descriptors, ii) identifying those of the descriptors that are stable or not across environments and iii) producing and releasing a set of accessions multi-described and multi-documented to be used world-wide as a reference for taxonomic and training purposes.The TRC project is thus the backbone operation for the classification of the entire edible banana spectrum (except the taxonomically very distant Fe'i), and a large part of Chapter 5 -Characterization deals with this. The adopted strategy is to run the project in combination with the cultivar numerous descriptions (details in the next section).Conforming to the goals stated in Section 4.2.2 -Edible bananas, this rather long-term activity relies on the collaboration in the Regions where the different subgroups dominate.The AAB Plantains in West and Central Africa.• In DR Congo, a large collaborative effort is ongoing between the Universities of Kisangani, Butembo, Bioversity, and the Katolieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven) via several projects. The effort aims at covering the entire Congo-Basin, including the middle altitudes in Kivu province. At present about 100 plantain cultivars have been collected and described, most of them having many synonyms. Despite the existence of the widely different classical 'clone sets' French, False Horn, and Horn, a general description of the subgroup has been constructed (Adheka 2014).• CARBAP in Cameroon is developing a network of national plantain collections in West Africa with support from the European Union. The programme has the same objectives of further collecting, standardized description and synonymy clarification of the many cultivars.• The planned coordination of the two above undertakings will allow for the total coverage of the entire plantain diversity in Africa.• On the molecular side, since neither SSR nor DArT are able to differentiate infra-subgroup cultivars, it is hoped that the next generation techniques such as GBS and RADseq produce more convenient data (see Section 5.3.3).The AAA-EA East-African Highland AAA bananas (also named \"EAHB) This is a collective name for at least two subgroups, Mutika-Lujugira and Ilalyi. The latter subgroup produces rather 'cucumber-like' fruits with an unusual rounded apex, and some of its members are quite reminiscent of AAA cultivars recorded in PNG. The very large Mutika-Lujugira subgroup of about 60 cultivars has been extensively studied (Karamura 1999;Karamura and Pickersgill 1999;Pickersgill and Karamura 1999) and has since been subdivided in five 'clone sets': Mfuka, Nkabululu, Nakitembe, Musakala, beer bananas. Molecular markers (SSR, DArT) tend to put all these cultivars in one cluster.The concept of the fifth set of beer bananas has now been abandoned (Kitavi et al. 2016). Indeed these cultivars do belong to one or more of the other clone sets.AAB subgroups 'Maoli/Popoulu' and 'Iholena' in New Guinea and the Pacific These subgroups have until recently been underexplored, but current widespread and systematic cultivar exploration/collection/description is progressively clarifying their constitution. The existence of two clone sets in the first subgroup (resp. Maoli and Popoulu) has been confirmed and also that of 'intermediary' cultivars, thus showing a complex pattern with some cultivars as candidate 'relicts' of a common ancestor. These could deliver the basic descriptors of the subgroup determination. The Iholena subgroup seems elusive in that it contains many \"Iholena-like\" cultivars for which molecular markers produce more than one cluster. Determination of this subgroup thus requires a (more) coordinated programme and support.ABB Bluggoe-Monthan-Bontha complex in South Asia.More than 200 cultivar names in India belong to this morphological complex, in which intermediary forms make the subgroup determination quite difficult. While ABB-focused molecular studies have as yet not been reported, general genotyping through SSR and DArTs do not clearly differentiate the complex. The better performing SNP markers could be of considerable help in searching for a solution.ABB/BBB/BB in mainland and island Southeast Asia.While it will not be difficult to construct the determination of the popular and ubiquitous 'ABB Pisang Awak' subgroup, all other cultivars of this large B-genome dominated cultivar assembly -including the supposed existence of edible BB and of BBB cultivars -are in an uncertain taxonomical situation. This is the remaining large gap in the assessment of edible banana diversity. Yet its potential is undeniable given that these cultivars are likely to contain unexploited B-genomes or alleles. A coordinated programme at regional scale with appropriate support should address this serious deficiency.Edible AA in Island Southeast Asia and the New Guinea region.As explained in Section 4.1.2.3, the interpretation of clusters produced by molecular marker techniques is seriously hampered by the lack of a satisfactory morphological classification of the perhaps 200 edible AA. Again, only a regionally coordinated programme can solve this problem, along the steps as suggested in Section 4.2.2.The table below summarizes the future objectives activities described in this chapter. Characterization is the basic tool for the classification of any cultivar. Both characterization and classification constitute its identity (see introduction of Chapter 4 -Taxonomy).Morphological characterization is the precise qualitative description of the plant when growing in optimal conditions whereby its characteristics are maximally expressed. Qualitative description is confined to those descriptors that are minimally or not at all influenced by geographical variation in climate and soils, i.e. highly heritable. The different possible states of each descriptor are morphological markers. Moreover, in the case of cultivated bananas, which are clonally propagated, the markers never change over time, except for somatic variants. In addition, these may include a limited number of additional [quantitative] traits thought desirable by a consensus of users of the crop.Descriptors for Banana (Musa spp.) was published in 1996 by Bioversity (then IPGRI and INIBAP) jointly with CIRAD, in consultation with several Musa taxonomists, to allow for a standardized terminology to be used for description during explorations in situ) or ex situ as the accessions is entered in field collections (IPGRI-INIBAP, CIRAD, 1996).The list contains descriptors for the standard recording of passport data, collecting, management, and environment and site descriptors. These are followed by 121 characterization descriptors with their different possible states. For example, with the descriptor 6.3.20 \"colour of midrib dorsal surface\" (of the third, fully unfolded leaf counting from the top of the plant), the f ollowing states are distinguished: yellow (1), light green (2), green (3), pink-purple (4), redpurple (5), purple to blue (6), other (7), with explanation by the observer). The list also contains 35 evaluation descriptors (susceptible to environmental differences) and 11 descriptors for markers and cytological characteristics.This descriptor system has been adopted by the curators of field collections. But since many descriptors deal with colours or forms with sometimes delicate gradation (e.g. 'light green' versus 'green') there is a risk of different interpretations by different observers, that effectively can lead to 'artificial' differences between described cultivars or accessions. Some definitions of descriptor-states may also have to be made more explicit or more adapted to infra-subgroup diversity, and would benefit from specific illustrations. This is still seriously hampering the correct documentation. The measures to overcome the problem are explained in Section 5.2.2.Molecular characterization proceeds by finding those DNA sequences of which the variation (polymorphism) reveals differences between cultivars. However, because detected variations can occur within non-coding regions and because the genomic role of the Musa sequences found with common marker techniques is as yet not known for the most part, it would be erroneous to consider these markers as reflecting the morphological ones. Molecular characterization correlates to some extent with taxonomy based on morphology, but is also a complementary tool for complete characterization.The molecular marker techniques currently used for Musa description are the SSR, the DArT, and the SNP, which are explained in the glossary.A GBS (genotype-by-sequencing) project for the sequencing of very large number of plantain and plantain-like accessions has been launched and may enable in the future progress in the conciliation of morphological and molecular characterization data at the intra-subgroup level.Another technique, the RADseq (Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing), allowing the genotyping of more SNPs sites has been recently used for a widest diversity analysis with a focus on the diploids.Meanwhile, SSR markers are most useful because of their reliability and transferability between laboratories. Currently a set of 22 SSR markers are widely used for banana molecular characterization (e.g. Hippolyte et al. 2012;Christoleva et al. 2011;Irish et al. 2014) and allow distinguishing subgroups and subspecies.DArT markers are handy for genome-wide analyses (see Figure 4.1 -Neighbour-Joining tree of 93 triploids with 836 DArT markers, as an example). Despite the dominant nature of DArTs, they can be used to compare different genomes at a large number of loci in a single assay. DArT markers are able to spot accessions which are not grouping with what was expected. In many cases DArT analysis allowed to complement a classification (e.g. the subgroup of a poorly-identified accession can be identified).Both SSR and DArT have largely confirmed the morphological classification down to the subgroup level, and proved to be very helpful in solving remaining classification problems. But they are generally not adequate for infra-subgroup differentiation of cultivars and are thus of no help for completing their characterization.SNP marker techniques are becoming cheaper but are cumbersome in analysis. However, the analysis of a large number of SNPs may be of considerable help in elucidating the intra-subgroup differentiation problem when the nature of the differentiation is genetic.Both morphological and molecular characterization methodologies are progressively moving towards a single harmonious system adapted to the special nature of edible banana diversity. Indeed, it should be re-emphasized that the clonal nature of the estimated 1,000 banana cultivars prevents the taxonomist from simply adopting the methods and organisation developed for seed-propagated crops where the cultivated races are selected genetically-moving populations.Characterization as a toolbox for classification of taxa should be markedly improved and developed in order to assess the entire Musa diversity.For the morphological characterization, an iterative process is proposed that allows for simultaneous progress in (1) characterization of the subgroups and of their cultivars and (2) optimal performance of the descriptor lists, including their adaptation to the cultivar differentiation within the different subgroups.For the molecular characterization, stress is put on (1) optimal marker performances for cultivar differentiation within subgroups and (2) complete conciliation between the found cultivar-sample differences and the corresponding morphotypes.The expected result will be the reliable characterization of Musa taxa at all diversity levels.The Taxonomic Reference Collection Project (see Sections 4.3.2.1 and 5.3.1) should produce the firm base for the morphological characterization of all edible bananas, i.e. the standardized description of the representative cultivar per classically known subgroup. The simultaneous description of the cultivars in each subgroup will allow the determination of its variation-limits, hence a clear and coherent inter-subgroup differentiation. The synthesis of all these results should be the Hierarchical classification of any cultivar, thus simplifying its identification via determination keys, such as Musa.ID, which is described in Chapter 9 -Information Management.The use of the Descriptors booklet (IPGRI-INIBAP, CIRAD 1996) in several collections has produced in many cases contradictory descriptions for a same cultivar distributed by the same source such as the ITC. This constraint considerably hampers the documentation of the accessions and data exchange through the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) (see Chapter 9 -Information Management) and hence their proper use. The system can only be improved if the causes of these differences are identified and addressed. Photos enable users to revisit each description. A major part of the solution is constructing welldefined and user-friendly descriptor lists, as well as the exchange of description results among curators to help clarify differences in interpretation.Classifications of cultivars via morphological descriptions should agree with the findings via molecular techniques for the same cultivars. The results of SSR and DArT techniques should be widely diffused among all interested collections for due interpretation by the curators who perform the morphological descriptions. Their comments should be subject of a regular dialogue with the molecular specialists, in order to reach complete agreement on any cultivar characterization.However, it should be recognized that the available clonal germplasm, which has now been repetitively analysed, represents only a portion of the genepool. While the ITC -the standard source for these techniques -contains a sufficient diversity in clonal accessions, it still lacks some of the wild sources, especially on the level of taxonomic varieties and of populations in M. acuminata and M. balbisiana, which should be anchor points for comparative genotype interpretation.Hence the absolute need for collecting these wild sources, as explained in Chapter 1.An ongoing project based on SNPs, the \"Genotype-By-Sequencing (GBS)\" project (see also Section 5.3), focuses on the large AAB Plantain subgroup. Project data are being analysed and will hopefully reveal ability to detect polymorphism that could be linked to morphological traits. If not, lack of sequence-polymorphism at the intra-subgroup level would point to epigenetic origins of variation, and in that case invite posttranscriptional research.The Genomics Thematic Group (GTG) of MusaNet has also proposed to investigate Musa germplasm genetic diversity through resequencing. Such data may potentially reveal chromosomal structural variations, copy number variation and enable identification of the dispensable genome/pangenome.Local people use names in their own language for plant taxa with which they are familiar with, and certainly for their traditional banana cultivars. These names are primarily based on distinct features so that the local nomenclature can reveal discriminative descriptors. The names can also refer to the way people use the fruit or other parts of the plant and this aspect is of interest to ethno-botanists. Comparing the local taxon with taxa from the region can frequently point to its initial origin and hence help in the reconstruction of its history. That knowledge can have interesting genetic implications such as from where and how the cultivar originated, thus underlining the practical value of multidisciplinary research.SECTION 5.3 CHARACTERIZATION -HOW WE WILL GET THERE Recognizing that a standardized subgroup determination is the backbone for the entire edible banana classification, the Musa taxonomy community embarked several years ago on the TRC Project, which is focused on the description of the representative cultivar for each of 29 classical subgroups (i.e. 34 accessions in total including 5 accompanying 'control' accessions, see Table 4.1).The (Musa) Taxonomy Advisory Group (TAG), at its 2006 meeting in Cameroon, recommended that a Taxonomic Reference Collection of the cultivars representing as much as possible the entire spectrum of edible banana diversity be established in field collections in the different regions, as a tool to help resolve some taxonomic issues and improve the usability of the morphological characterization descriptors.Objectives of the TRC project:1. To test the robustness of the standardized descriptors on the selected accessions across the participating field collections.2. To identify environmental factors that may influence the plant morphology.3. To promote the full and satisfactory characterized accessions of the TRC as reference and standards for all other cultivars in every participating field collection.These objectives will contribute towards the goal of improving the usability of the descriptors. The preparation of this enterprise on a worldwide scale took quite some time. All the corresponding accessions were to be delivered by the ITC in order to guarantee the strict homogeneity of the material (thus preventing many equivocal situations). Meanwhile, curators were duly informed on the purpose of the operation and the incentive for them and their institutes for responsible collaboration.Eventually, a TRC list was adopted at the subsequent TAG meeting in 2008 in India, and an initial number of curators confirmed their participation. Thereafter, the TRC project entered its operational phase, coordinated by Bioversity. Over the following years, other curators joined the TRC, and ITC started the multiplication in vitro and the preparation of hundreds of plantlets. These were progressively sent in several batches per participating collection, and grown in the fields via nurseries.The TRC project is presently in the phase of analysis of the first results (1st Cycle).Technical guidelines for the multi-location characterization of the 34 TRC accessions listed in Table 4.1 were distributed to ensure that the description is done uniformly at all sites (see www.musanet.org). Field collections in 12 institutes participate in the TRC project and they are listed in Table 4.2.The guidelines make recommendations on the agronomic practices, the planting layout, density and distance and data to be recorded for the first and second cycles including environmental data from the weather station nearest the trial site.Rooted plantlets (4 per accession) were sent by the ITC in several batches and grown in nurseries before planting on the field. The set of each accession is observed for at least two vegetative cycles, at appropriate growth phases. The descriptions from the first cycle along with the appropriate pictures are compiled by Bioversity.The description for the second cycle is the definitive one, should no longer be exposed to misunderstandings, and should produce the final characterization data for the accession. Once all the data are compiled by Bioversity, the appropriate statistical analysis will be undertaken to identify which of the descriptors are robust across the different environments of the project. From these results, a consensus characterization of the TRC should also arise. All the characterization and documentation data produced within this project will be available online through the MGIS. Such results will further allow a collective deliberation on the adapted description of all possible members of the respective subgroups.To date, the TRC project has passed the 1st cycle in most of the partner collections and the minimum descriptors are now being compiled.In December 2013 MusaNet organised a workshop to address the most urgent needs of Musa collection curators vis à vis the management of germplasm and its associated information. It included ensuring the correct description of the most difficult characters of the TRC. The workshop took place in the field collection of the CIRAD in Guadeloupe, French West Indies, where more than 300 different accessions are growing under optimal conditions.The TRC project field exercise was focused on the above mentioned reason (1), \"interpretation\", i.e. the choice between the descriptor states as explained and illustrated in the Minimum Descriptor List of descriptor states, and this for 20 difficult descriptors. Two days were spent to the strictly individual description of 4 accessions by 13 observers, and to an extensive discussion of the results. The exercise undeniably revealed major interpretation contradictions for several descriptor states. A striking example was the descriptor 6.3.1, Blotches at petiole base (Figure 5.1) The demonstration proved that descriptor interpretation is the dominant cause of the contradictions, which would occur even in the ideal situation of uniform management across the collections.The results of the Guadeloupe workshop led to a first updating/improvement of the Minimum List of Descriptors for Musa. Knowledge sharing sessions were also held on field management, data management and documentation. A prototype hand-held tablet was introduced to facilitate data collection in the field, and feedback was collected toward its development.A follow up workshop of the TRC partners was held in December 2014 workshop at Trichy, India, at the National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB), where a wide range of Musa diversity is maintained. One of the primary outputs of the workshop was an agreement on the revised Minimum List of Descriptors for Musa, i.e. that they are interpreted and recorded in the same way by all curators. Recommendations were made on the next steps of the TRC project and on regional workshops to fine-tune the description of Musa subgroups. However, the genotyping service is provided to any researcher of the Musa research community wishing to have their material genotyped (the service is provided on a cost recovery basis; see http://olomouc.ueb. cas.cz/musa-genotyping-centre for more info). As the same SSR genotyping platform (Christelová et al. 2011) is used for all samples, this approach enables direct and precise comparisons of various accessions. Moreover, the precision of genotyping continues to increase with increasing number of accessions genotyped, as the representation of individual subgroups in the dataset is enlarged and strengthened. Compared to genotyping using high-throughput next-generation sequencing-based methods, the strength of SSR genotyping lies in its capability of systematic and long-term sample processing. New accessions can be analyzed and added to the already existing database of SSR profiles, while the optimized and not demanding methodology assures comparability of results gathered at different time points, and at reasonable cost.The Triangle exploration in Southeast Indonesia (see Section 4.3.1) has combined morphological characterization of the in situ observed taxa with systematic leaf sampling for ploidy assessment and SSR analysis at the MGC. While the SSR findings consolidated the tentative classification on morphological base for many wild specimens, several supposed edible triploids appeared to be diploid or the reverse, thus correcting their classification. By this procedure, the fully-fledged observations of the corresponding introductions in the ex situ collections are presently integrated into a rational framework, rather than being applied at random.The combined in situ method is essential for wild taxa that are not thriving ex situ because they are accustomed to particular habitats (high altitudes, monsoon climate, and specific soils) which are not reproducible in the usual field collections. The most practical alternative is then the observation in National Parks where most of these wild taxa can be found, so that a simple GPS can locate them for any later observation.5.3.3. Highly performing molecular techniques for cultivar differentiation within subgroups.Two high-throughput genotyping techniques are currently in use for studying Musa diversity: Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS) and Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing (RADseq).In addition to a set of accessions representing the Musa diversity, the GBS technique has been applied to a set of selected Plantains in the framework of a project involving Bioversity, CIRAD and the J. Craig Venture Institute (JCVI), and funded by USAID. The aim was to produce unique DNA fingerprints for each of the accessions and to better understand the processes that are involved in the diversification of this subgroup.The preliminary analysis of the thousands of SNP markers produced showed that molecularly differentiating the different Plantains is not straightforward, even when using the new technologies. Nevertheless, a full exploitation of such data's potential will require new tools, new methods and new approaches adapted to the problems linked to clonal diversification. These methods are currently under development.RADseq applied to banana produced more SNP markers, allowing for a better coverage of the genome, but the differentiation within subgroups has not been thoroughly investigated yet. Bioversity International is producing such data for hundreds of banana accessions. The data should be analyzed in 2016.Through the African Plant Breeding Academy launched in December 2013, the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) will genetically sequence, assemble and annotate the genomes of 100 traditional African food crops, including banana. Among the 200 accessions of bananas that will be sequenced, 50 should be Plantains and related AAB cultivars. This huge effort in terms of production of data aims at guiding and speeding up the development of more robust production with higher nutritional content. However, the availability of the full genomic sequences of different cultivars of Plantains will also constitute a high-value resource to i) understand the diversification within subgroups and ii) develop specific, accurate markers to discriminate clones within subgroups.In 2016, members of the GTG of MusaNet published an improved reference genome sequence for M. acuminata DH Pahang (D'Hont et al. 2012). Priorities in terms of genome sequencing include the development of reference sequences for additional species and subspecies, with a longer term objective of characterizing the pan and core Musa genome, together with nomenclature that enables genes to be distinguished according to (sub)species and accession origin.For any observed cultivar/accession, the passport data should not only include the village and GPS where it was first found, but also (1) the ethnic group and its language, (2) the carefully spelled local name and its significance, provided by the informer/interpreter. Linguists specialized in the local languages should be consulted for verifying these data and comments, which should enable the reconstruction of the history of the cultivar (e.g. loanwords indicate introduction from a nearby or even more remote areas). The comparative analysis of the assembled data for a subgroup in each area can be of considerable help in reconstructing its history in the region and beyond, thus providing hints on the genetic background.The table below summarizes the proposed future activities discussed in this section. The majority of the Musa germplasm is maintained in vivo, i.e. in the many field collections around the world in the centre of origin and in the main production areas and secondary diversity regions. The field collections are important for taxonomic characterization, evaluation, training and breeding purposes. The institutes maintaining field collections are therefore an essential part of a global system for the conservation and use of Musa diversity as they form the network of key partnerships. Field collections however are highly vulnerable to pests, diseases and natural disasters and need regular replanting (regeneration). They also need to be safely-duplicated, preferably in a different country/region. If ex situ conservation is to completely cover the entire existing Musa diversity, including all explored and collected germplasm as well as the germplasm yet to be discovered, there is a need to correctly identify and eventually fill the possible gaps across all collections. Adequate gap identification requires that accessions be duly characterized and documented, preferably at the site of their origin, before the material is introduced into collections. Not only is the initial data vital for further studies, but without proper documentation, collections run the risk of maintaining duplicates of what is already conserved elsewhere.Correct characterization entails more than just description. Researchers must frequently compare the observed and analysed taxa with several other taxa for final assessment. Consequently, the ex situ collections need to contain representative taxa across the range of diversity. This work has been carried out through the Musa Taxonomic Reference Collection (TRC) Project -for more information see Chapter 5 -Characterization.The management of Musa germplasm ex situ collections consists of the following activities:1. Conservation of acquired accessions (medium and long-term conservation, including safety duplication) -field, in vitro, cryopreservation. • Collecting, acquisition of new materials and gap filling -Chapters 1-3• Characterization for identity and distinguishing accessions -Chapter 4-5• Information management of Musa genetic resources -Chapter 9• Distribution and safe exchange of germplasm -Chapter 10• Evaluation for traits of potential interest for improvement -Chapter 11 SECTION 6.  -2012-2015). It also includes feedback obtained during a number of MusaNet consultations. Over 60 collections were contacted with the support of the Regional Musa Research Networks and MusaNet coordination to provide updated information on the following: The results are provided here and commented per activity as proposed in the above Introduction.The locations of the surveyed collections are shown on the map in Figure 6.1 below.  • Eastern Africa: 10 collections• Western Africa: 7 collections• Asia and the Pacific: 27 collections• Latin America and the Caribbean: 9 collections• Global collections: 2 collections (ITC-Belgium and IITA-Nigeria)Of the 56 collections, 19 were established in the 1990s, probably corresponding to the push of countries to safeguard their own national resources stimulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted in 1992. And a further 18 were established since 2000, with the most recent being IRAF in Gabon, established in 2013.The survey collected information the responsibilities of the institutes in maintaining Musa collections such as: ownership of the collection, government mandate, research and funding.The large majority of the institutes (92%) stated that they own the materials in their Musa collection.And four collections stated that they do not own the germplasm, including the ITC, SPC, NBPGR and CORPOICA. The ownership of the germplasm is a complex issue in some cases and it can be argued that no single institute owns the germplasm that is maintained the public domain collections but is the legal guardian. This is particularly the case with the ITC collection, which belongs to the global community, and may be the case for the SPC, where the material is maintained on behalf of several countries in the region.Most of the collections (77%) are officially mandated by their national government for the conservation of Musa and 93% to conduct research on Musa.Of those with a mandate for conservation, most collections are for conservation at the national level. The following collections indicated also having also a mandate at the regional level: A few collections have indicated having an international mandate which may be interpreted as the materials being available for international distribution. The collections in the CGIAR maintained at Bioversity (ITC) and IITA are under the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).The main priorities indicated by the survey respondents for the collections are:• genetic resources conservation -88%• support to breeding programmes -49%• characterization and genetic studies -43%• dissemination and distribution -38%Most of the collections (89%) are managed by publically funded institutes (government institute, university, etc.) and 83% of these are parties to the ITPGRFA. This would mean that in theory, if a collection is publically funded in a contracting party country, the material should be available to any bona fide user, although this is not currently the case. The constraints in the current system for the safe exchange of germplasm are discussed in Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.According to the survey, the 56 responding institutes conserve over 9,051 accessions of Musa germplasm in field, 4,507 in in vitro collections, 898 accessions in greenhouses and 926 accessions in cryopreservation.The majority of the materials in the collections are described as cultivars (71%) and a smaller proportion of wild taxa (13%) and breeding lines (9%) (see Table 6.2). More details for each institute are available in Table D.4 in Annex D. The survey collected information on the species and sub-species for the wild taxa conserved and 30 institutes provided lists of accessions. But in the absence of a complete list of accessions and details associated with each accession, it is not possible to draw any conclusion as to the identity of the materials conserved, nor to the amount of duplication that may exist within and among collections.The survey also collected information on what makes the collection important or unique (from the collection curators' perspectives). The most frequent answer was related to Musa wild species and other more specific examples were: plantains, East Africa Highland bananas, indigenous cultivars, and accessions resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, accessions from local or regional collecting missions that are found nowhere else and collections that represent a wide range of diversity within particular groups (e.g. sections or clone sets). Table D.9 in Annex D provides specific descriptions of germplasm from 41 collections.More than 35 field collections each keep more than 100 living accessions, which is an expensive activity. In situ conservation of the cultivars has therefore been advanced as a partial alternative. Indeed, safeguarding the cultural heritage in traditional communities (from erosion caused by rapid economic development) should include the conservation of the banana cultivars in the villages, a form of in situ conservation. But farmers tend to reduce their cultivar stock in favour of (alien) more hardy or more productive cultivars, with the exception perhaps of the most remote populations. Furthermore, management differs by cultivar, with some cultivars surviving and thriving with minimal inputs, while others do not (referred to in Solomon Islands as 'long-term' and 'short-term' bananas). Therefore, the monitoring of cultivars grown on farms and in home gardens would be useful. However such an activity may be costly and difficult. This is further discussed in Chapter 8 -In situ and On-farm Conservation.Some wild germplasm accessions disappear from ex situ collections because field collections do not always provide the suitable ecology. This is frequently the case for species of the Australimusa and even Callimusa sections and for those Eumusa species restricted to mountainous climates. Furthermore, wild species are sometimes better at seed propagation than vegetative propagation. This may be partly related to pests and diseases and access to a wider selection of genes, rather than one or two collected genotypes within the population.The idea of wild sub-collections in appropriate environments is interesting but difficult to implement. The best alternative is in situ conservation of wild taxa, with geo-referenced passport data. This calls for a coordinated organization whereby the collectors and other parties (e.g. National Parks) play a crucial role (see Chapter 8 -In situ and On-farm Conservation).The survey suggests that an estimated 7,224 accessions have been acquired since 2002 and that 854 accessions have been removed from collections as duplicates or synonyms. But the information on the origin of the acquisition is not reliable enough to draw conclusions on the proportion of accessions coming from other countries or regions. It appears that the smaller collections have mainly acquired their materials from local farmers and in some cases from the country's wild areas (see Table 6.3). The larger collections have a greater proportion of materials coming from their breeding programme and introduced (i.e. not native to the country).Information from 52 collections on 8,545 accessions shows the following: Introduced (not native) 48%Coming from local farmers 32%Collected from the country's wild areas 13%Coming from the national breeding program 5%Origin unknown 2%The issue on acquisition illustrated above is directly linked to the question of facilitating access to the material for other collections in the region, or for ensuring a duplicate is safely conserved at the global collection at ITC and available for use by all bona fide users. Accessing materials that have been introduced into the country should not be controversial and mainly be a question of having the mandate, and the technical and financial support to send out healthy materials upon request, since this material was introduced in the first place. Issues are more complicated when accessing materials from local farmers and/ or from the wild. This is further discussed on Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.The survey also enquired about accessions lost during the past 10 years or removed due to the change in the institutes' priorities but the data is not sufficiently standardised to be analysed conclusively. Information provided by several respondents highlighted some of the reasons for the loss or removal of accessions: i) because the material was introduced from another collection and is still available from that original collection and particularly the ITC; ii) they were known duplicates or synonyms, iii) they are common cultivars, or iv) the germplasm is available locally. Other reasons relate to damage such as pest and disease infected materials, particularly viruses, nematodes and weevils; floods and cyclones; drought, and physical damage to the genebank due to wars. Some losses were due to failure in the growth of the accession in the field or in vitro, acclimatization problems or lack of irrigation and low input levels. In some cases, the quarantine restrictions required the eradication of banana streak virus (BSV)-affected accessions or those related to completed projects researching topics such as disease resistance and evaluation.Field genebanks provide easy access to plant genetic resources, for characterization, evaluation or utilization, while the same material conserved in vitro or in cryo must be regenerated and grown before it can be evaluated. Materials grown in the field are also important for conserving vegetatively propagated genotypes that commonly produce variants (genetic variation), since these can be more easily identified in the field than in vitro.Out of the 56 collections surveyed, 52 are field collections conserving a total of 9,051 accessions (see Table D.2 in Annex D).The Global Musa survey aimed to assess the current practices of the ex situ collections. It collected information on the size and planting spacing of the field collections and specifically on the following:• Number of plants per accession• Space between each plant of the same accession (in metres)• Total size of field collection (in hectares)• Space between 2 different accessions (in metres)The total number of hectares of 47 collections who provided data is estimated at 68 hectares, with the average collections being of 1.5 hectares.Out of 50 field collections, 28 institutes (56%) mentioned having an operation manual containing standard procedures and protocols for the management activities of the collections.Data from 33 collections maintaining more than 100 accessions showed the following practices illustrated by Figures 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4 below. The survey collected information on plant maintenance using agrochemicals, de-suckering, manual weed eradication, cover-cropping, mulching, fertilizers, compost and irrigation. The frequency of these management practices is detailed in Table 6.4 below, based on data from 49 collections. Most of the field collections are replanted over periods of more than 2 years with 34% of collections transplanting less than 10% of their collection each year. Percentages of responses are in Table 6.5 below. Transplanting less than 10% of the collection 34% 13% 53%Transplanting between than 10-50% of the collection 7% 36% 57%Transplanting more than 50% of the collection 3% 10% 88%According to the survey the most damaging biotic factors affecting the field collections are the following: Fusarium wilt, banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV), banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), banana streak virus (BSV), cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), bacterial wilt, black leaf streak (BLS), other Mycosphaerella leaf spots, nematodes and weevils.Abiotic factors such as drought, floods, extreme temperatures, high winds and poor soil conditions are mentioned as having a major effect in many cases. The details of collections experiencing major and minor effects of biotic and abiotic conditions are found in Table D.6 in Annex D.The impact of pests and diseases affecting the safe distribution of materials in the collections is further discussed in Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.Best management practices for maintaining a field collection varies across the type of Musa germplasm, environments and factors such as pests and diseases present. Efficient management also depends on the expertise. Therefore capacity building is important, particularly the sharing of knowledge and expertise with new staff and documenting the recommended practices for a specific collection.In 2008, CARBAP developed a set of regeneration guidelines (found at http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/) and it was suggested to include recommendations on additional practices such as de-suckering, management of grasses, cover crops and naked soils, and of diseases such as Black and Yellow Sigatoka.In vitro collections are used mainly for the safety duplication of the field collections and for rapid multiplication and safe movement of disease-free planting material. It is also referred to as slow-growth conservation and requires regular sub-culturing. In vitro conservation in controlled growth conditions avoids infestation of the germplasm by pests and diseases, as well as climate shocks, which may affect field collections. Planting material for distribution can be obtained faster than from field plants and due to aseptic growth conditions, the health status, once determined, can be guaranteed. One drawback of in vitro conservation is that the material might be subject to somaclonal variation through spontaneous genetic mutation. Therefore, rejuvenation and verification of the trueness-to-type of the conserved germplasm has to be performed periodically. Furthermore, the problem of in vitro conservation of plantains and the presence of the banana streak virus (BSV) integrated into the B-genome may require the need for alternative approaches about their conservation.Recommendations for BSV-affected germplasm and distribution are discussed in Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.The principles and guidelines for banana in vitro conservation are provided in Benson et al. 2011.Out of the 56 collections from the Global Musa Survey, 32 institutes maintain an in vitro collection varying from a few accessions to the largest collection at ITC of 1,479 accessions. A total estimated 4,507 accessions are conserved in vitro. Table 6.6 below lists the collection with more than 100 accessions conserved in vitro. In vitro collection -No of accessions The survey collected information on the existing in vitro collections, specifically on the following:• Number of replicates per accession• Storage duration between subcultures (months)• Material stored under normal or slow growth conditions• Storage temperature (°C)• Light conditions, i.e. light regime for the photoperiod• Constraints regarding the facilities and the plant materials Out of the 31 collections, 18 (58%) mentioned having an operation manual containing standard procedures and protocols for the management activities of the in vitro collection.Information provided by 22 of the in vitro collections shows that the average number of replicates per accession varies greatly from 2 to 24 plants with an overall average of 10 replicates per accession (see Figure 6.8). The storage duration between sub-cultures also varies greatly from collection to collection from less than one month to 22 months with an overall average of 6 months. The variation in duration is due to the various purposes of multiplication -fewer sub-cultures are needed for conservation purposes while distribution requires more frequent multiplication.The average storage temperature of in vitro collections is 22.5°C. See Figure 6.9 below. Out of 21 collections that provided details, 11 confirmed that the material is stored under normal growth conditions, 8 under slow growth conditions and 1 under both. There were no correlations with the size of the collections in the type of growth conditions, i.e. large or small collections are using both conditions. Lower temperatures are more appropriate for medium storage conditions, while higher temperatures are more for micropropagation and distribution and a higher scale.The most important constraint mentioned regarding in vitro plant materials is contamination including from endogenous bacterial infection, requiring frequent sub-culturing. Some accessions or genotypes may be difficult to micro-propagate (mainly ornamentals) and more research and staff is needed to optimize protocols. It was also mentioned that exudate of polyphenol in some accessions led to their low survival rates.Another major constraint mentioned by 13 out of 20 in vitro collections was the lack of continuous power supply and back-up such as a power generator. Limited space available and in many cases no separate storage for Musa for the genebanks conserving several other crops was mentioned as a constraint. In addition, there is generally a lack of adequate funding for equipment and skilled staff.Cryopreservation is used for the long-term conservation of in vitro collections, with minimal probabilities of deteriorating and losses of germplasm. The material is generally not distributed in this form. Two cryopreservation protocols are currently available for a range of banana cultivar groups.The principles and guidelines for cryopreservation are explained in Panis, B. 2009.The following 3 institutes maintain germplasm in cryopreservation:• ITC collection with 938 accessions (76% cultivars, 14 % wild taxa and 9% breeding lines)• India -NBPGR with 50 accessions• USDA -Puerto Rico with 10 accessions And the following additional institutes reported having access to cryopreservation facilities:1. Australia-DAFF-Mar The objective of the cryobank at the ITC is the safe and long-term storage as a back-up to the in vitro collection under medium-term storage. The current number of accessions stored in the cryotank is 873 and the target number of accessions by end of 2016 is 1,313, consisting of present and future accessions in the in vitro collection. For more details of cryopreservation of Musa, see Section 7.1.2.3.The feasibility of conserving the wider Musa wild diversity through seeds and embryos is being explored. Given the current technologies and available knowledge of the seed biology, seed conservation needs to be researched. Seed-and embryo-cryopreservation offer prospects, but also needs to be tested more widely. Seed storage behaviour is studied as germination of Musa seeds in soil is still very unpredictable, takes a long time and germination rate can be very low. Embryo rescue protocols are being used to maximize the regeneration potential.Priority for conservation would go to the ancestors of the edible bananas for genetic improvement purposes, but in a global collection non-related species could also be considered to serve future needs.Through RTB CRP, an international collaborative programme particularly involving partners in Asia and the Pacific will be set up to investigate the feasibility of seed conservation.A project for the establishment of a Global Musa Seed Bank is included in the Section 6.2 -Where we want to go.The long-term safety of genetic diversity is much more likely to be ensured when in situ and on-farm conservation is backed up in an ex situ collection and when at least two copies of the same accession are conserved in different collections located apart and preferably in different countries and regions, away from threats.According to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, safety duplication is \"the duplication of a genetically identical sub-sample of the accession to mitigate the risk of its partial or total loss caused by natural or man-made catastrophes\". Safety duplication is generally under a 'black-box' agreement, i.e. the germplasm is not touched without permission from the depositor and is returned on request. The repository genebank agrees to ensure the long-term conservation and to monitor the viability of the materials.Any safety duplication arrangement requires a clear signed legal agreement between the depositor and the recipient of the safety duplicate that sets out the responsibilities of the parties and terms and conditions under which the material is maintained. Material sent as in vitro or cryo plant cultures may require disease indexing before shipping so that only certified disease-free germplasm is exported, following guidelines on the safe movement of germplasm. A proposed depositor's agreement that can be customized to meet the individual needs is available from the Crop Genebank Knowledge Base of the CGIAR (CGKB) base at: http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/images/file/forage_grasses/standard_safety_deposit_agreement%20 2009.pdf Field genebanks should be duplicated in more than one site and ideally in an in vitro genebank as a safety backup. Furthermore, accessions available in other collections may require fewer duplicates in the field.Despite the over 50 ex situ collections worldwide and a global in vitro collection at the ITC freely available to any bona fide users, there is no robust knowledge of the level of duplicates between and within collections which could inform the need to safety duplicate the most threatened and unique Musa material. The picture is complicated by the fact that collections have been lost and later reconstituted more than once, with the high risk of progressive loss in accessions. When collections have more than 50% of their accessions safety duplicated, on average their material is located in the following (including combinations of cases):• in vitro elsewhere in their own country -38%• field collection elsewhere in their own country -35%• field collection elsewhere in another country -36%• in vitro elsewhere in another country, not including ITC -28%Of these, 14 institutes have an agreement with another institute for keeping a safety duplication of another Musa collection in their field genebank and 13 institutes have a similar agreement in an in vitro collection.It was not specified if the institutes managing the safety duplications were located inside or outside of the countries.In the cases where less than half of the collection is safely duplicated, the main reasons are the following: related to general constraints of funding (for example for BBTV testing), equipment, space such as lab facilities to put accessions in vitro prior to safety-duplication and skilled staff. Some mentioned constraints such as i) the necessity to acquire legal permits for germplasm movement, ii) especially to other countries the lack of clear government regulation about duplication of collections outside the country or no national plan for banana, iii) little interest in conservation and collecting of wild species and fertile cultivars for breeding and iv) lack of trust and uncertainties about getting the material back. Some collections have the majority of their materials already coming from another collection or of exotic origin and some collections will only aim at safety-duplicating the national materials of their collections, hence not 100%. Phytosanitary risks have been mentioned. Some accessions may be difficult to conserve through in vitro, such as the wild M. balbisiana collections. And in some cases, work is needed on characterization and identification before confirming conservation and duplication.A number of institutes and organizations provide key services to the global system of Musa conservation and use, such as molecular characterization, pre-indexing, virus indexing, quarantine services, taxonomic research and breeding programmes, listed in Table 6.8 below. Molecular characterizationVirus indexing and quarantine servicesMajor breeding programmes• Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA), Honduras• IITA, Nigeria and Uganda • NRCB, IndiaThe Global Musa Survey aimed to obtain an inventory of the main institutes involved in the conservation of Musa diversity as a first step. As an immediate follow-up to the survey, Bioversity is contacting the respondents to discuss the possibilities of including information of each accession on MGIS, by signing a Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) to ensure that the ownership, attribution and responsibility for the data remains with the data provider. The DSA spells out clear terms and conditions for the use of the data. It would allow for an update of old accessions lists in MGIS and for specific diversity analyses to be carried out.Therefore the survey did not allow for a complete identification of the material conserved in each of the genebanks as this can only be assessed by analysing the full list of accessions, passport and characterization data.The key constraints in understanding the total Musa diversity for collecting and gap filling, according to the MusaNet Diversity Thematic Group, are the following:• Adapted characterization for wild specimens• Insufficient morphological characterization in many cases• Insufficient molecular characterization in most cases• Wild specimens recalcitrant for ex situ conservation• Unreliable in situ conservation of cultivars• Lack of ex situ collections: wild accessions, cultivar subgroups, typical Indian and Philippines germplasm and Fe'i bananaThe curators however provided feedback on the gaps to fill in their own collections to fulfil their objectives (species, geographic area, traits). In some cases, gaps in germplasm with potential for resistance or tolerance to specific pest and diseases of national or regional importance were mentioned. Gaps in diversity within the regions of the collections were also mentioned (e.g. gaps in plantain diversity from West Africa). Some institutes also identified gaps of specific types of accessions, including wild species, plantains, diploids, disease resistant cultivars, etc. and provided details of the poorly represented diversity and where further collecting is needed.Furthermore, some large collections of regional significance lack a representative spectrum of wild taxa.Many of these taxa are also still missing in the ITC. This seriously hampers comparative taxonomic research as well as the search for potentially promising traits (e.g. for breeding). A representative set should be selected, and at least introduced into regional collections. In the regions where taxa are growing in the wild, their duplicates should be maintained in the national collections.Regarding the ITC, the main gap in cultivars is of Indian germplasm (edible and BB Musa). The germplasm has been collected but is not represented in the ITC and therefore not yet available for wider distribution and use. This is further discussed in Chapter 7 -The ITC Global Musa Collection.In many cases, cultivars subgroups are collected nationally but not adequately classified. In other cases, they have not yet been internationally assessed. In national genebanks, at least 25 individuals of each M. acuminata subspecies from a wide geographic range are needed.The MusaNet/Trust Bogor meeting in 2012 also acknowledged that the diversity maintained in ex situ collections is not fully representing the diversity maintained on-farm and in the wild in most countries. This is mainly due to:• Lack of ecologically stratified collecting missions• The purpose of most collections is research and support to breeding and not specifically the conservation of diversity• Absence of complete national lists of existing cultivars and wild species• Lack of systematic prospection and of collecting missions exploring remote areas as collecting missions tend in general to take place in areas accessible by roads.A description of recent collecting activities was provided by 32 collections and is detailed in Table D.5 in Annex D.MusaNet raised funds to organise two collecting missions in Indonesia in 2012 and 2013. The first mission took place in North Sulawesi at the area of Gunung Ambang and Bogani Nani National Park. Twenty-six accessions have been characterized including 11 wild species (Musa acuminata and Musa lolodensis) and 15 cultivars. The second mission took place in Ambon and Seram Island (Masohi, Manusela, Wahai and Kairatu). Thirteen accessions have been characterized including five wild Musa acuminata and eight cultivars. Fresh cigar leaves have been sent to the MGC for ploidy and molecular analysis (see Section 1.3.1.1 for more details).Germplasm collected during past missions is being GIS mapped. This exercise highlights two important issues to be resolved. The first issue is the quality of the data collected along with the germplasm: exact collecting locations are not always well-documented and status of accessions, i.e. wild or cultivated, is not always adequately identified. Additionally, the use of the term \"wild\" is sometimes erroneous as quite often seeded cultivated accessions are registered as \"wild\" even when collected within home gardens. The second issue is the traceability of accessions from the collecting missions to ex situ collections.The Global Crop Diversity Trust is partnering with Bioversity International and the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) to identify gaps in collections of major crops worldwide, including Musa, focusing on wild species. The goal is to develop a methodology to identify collecting priorities using priority maps, databases and other information. The proposed methodology has been published for a number of seed crops using Phaseolus bean as a model. Analyses for cultivars of Musa are also under development by CIAT researchers and others.One of the objectives of this Strategy is to conserve the entire Musa genepool in perpetuity by a network of well-managed efficient and effective ex situ collections and make available the resources for research and improvement. This can be achieved by the following specific outputs:1. Comprehensive assessment of the content of Musa ex situ collections towards understanding the gaps and priorities.2. Improved effective management of ex situ collections and enhancement of services leading to costeffective conservation of the genepool.3. Identification and setting up of a global network of partners with specific responsibilities for conservation of the Musa genepool including the safety duplication.4. Increased access and targeted use of the ITC collection in partnership with regional and national collections.The feedback from the Global Musa Survey suggests that funding and capacity building are the most urgent needs for improving the current situation in the collections, particularly for ensuring the collecting of threatened materials and for research on the germplasm. See details in Table 6.9 below. The need for adequate and continuous financial support has been mentioned by 89% of the curators and the following priorities were specified:Assessment of the Diversity and Gap Filling:• Characterization and evaluation of germplasm; new germplasm collecting; routine germplasm management operations; research on seed conservation (of wild accessions).Effective Management:• Long-term maintenance of field, greenhouse and in vitro conservation; frequent regeneration; safety duplication of the collection; dealing with new emerging diseases and climate change.Distribution of germplasm:• Mass multiplication including replanting of cultivars after natural disasters; creation of awareness both locally and at international levels; research on germplasm to increase use. This is discussed further in Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.All these can be strengthened by solid partnerships at the regional and global level and are discussed in more details the sections below.• A comprehensive assessment of the content of Musa ex situ collections towards understanding the gaps and priorities would entail the following activities and steps:• Surveying all ex situ collections to obtain a complete list of the specific accessions conserved with taxonomic identification and origin to create an inventory of what is currently in ex situ conservation. This should be led by MGIS.• Analysing of the collated information serving as a basis for the identification of gaps and redundancy and recommendations for improving the conservation and use of collections.• Making the inventory available to the Musa community through MGIS.• Analysing the priorities for filling in the gaps in diversity and making recommendations for developing targeted collecting missions and seeking funding.• Considering hot spots of Musa diversity for in situ conservation.The assessment of the complete diversity will require that all ex situ collections participate in the completion of MGIS by providing passport, characterization and evaluation data available on all germplasm currently maintained ex situ. This includes the harmonization of databases and training of curators on data and database management. It will facilitate the exchange of knowledge on the conservation of Musa, the possibility to develop catalogues and raising public awareness on the current conservation and the threats to Musa diversity.Technical guidelines for documentation of collections are available and the three recent MusaNet workshops (Guadeloupe 2013, Trichy 2014and Cameroon 2015) provided guidance on all the documentation aspects including taking photos. In addition, the regional workshop carried out at Cameroon in May 2015 included training on tools such as a mobile device to facilitate the field recording and characterization of Musa germplasm. This is discussed in more detail in Chapter 9 -Information Management.A number of recommendations have been formulated from the survey as well as during the MusaNet consultations, including the workshop in Bogor in 2012. It was stressed that national and international research institutes need to work together to ensure the long-term safe conservation of Musa genetic resources.The 2012 Bogor meeting suggested that the geographic structuring of genetic diversity should be studied to fill in the gaps of knowledge on the most valued diversity for breeding. Molecular approaches for resolving taxonomic issues needs to be combined with classical morphological studies, as molecular markers have limitations. For example, they can assign accessions to a group and/or subgroup but cannot resolve the redundancy problem of identification, as differences between phenotypes may not show up in genotypes.It was suggested that all wild species be conserved in the national collections of the country of origin when they exist or regional collections, preferably in the field to avoid somaclonal variations. A representative of all wild species should also be made available for exchange through the ITC.However, one issue that should be carefully addressed is the safe movement of wild species from where they naturally occur to other parts of the world as they may become weeds in a new environment with significant negative ecological impacts and potentially proliferate banana pests and diseases. This also can make banana disease eradication more complicated because of the difficulties in eradicating the host, necessitating repeat visits over many years to exhaust the seed reserve in soil.A short-term strategy for capturing the Musa wild species diversity of particular value for breeding would focus on M. acuminata and M. balbisiana with special attention for pest and disease resistance and for favourable agronomic features. A long-term strategy would include species other that M. acuminata and M. balbisiana in the Eumusa and Rhodochlamys sections and beyond (e.g. sections Australimusa and Callimusa). The materials should be screened for disease resistance along with parthenocarpy and sterility alleles.As the vast majority of edible diploids and triploids have been explored, the accessions should also be revisited for fruit quality and good agronomic traits, such as disease resistance or higher yield. Available passport data and local knowledge should be examined.Collecting priorities for non-explored diversity, i.e. subspecies and cultivars not currently in any ex situ collections, would include collecting in the wild and in villages. These areas may contain cultivars as well as wild (endogenous or naturalized) germplasm. This is further discussed in Sections 4.2.1 and 4.2.2.The case of the Fe'i group is important to mention here as it is a special case. In the Pacific, great progress has recently been made in the collection of numerous cultivars belonging to the subgroups Maoli-Popo'ulu and Iholena, and to the Fe'i group. The Fe'i banana, a group of Australimusa cultivated derivatives, was until recently, disappearing. Recent efforts have succeeded in safeguarding several cultivars, and the diversity of this group is for the first time the subject of concerted taxonomic investigation. Further collecting in the Lousiade Archipelago in the Pacific and nearby areas would be fruitful. While several islands seem to have been sufficiently explored, others may contain more cultivars, especially in the more remote parts (e.g. mountainous areas). This operation is ongoing, but it currently depends on ad hoc financial support, and therefore concerted planning of further explorations would be useful.There is also a great need to eliminate BBTV in several Pacific Island nations. There are a few unusual Maoli-Popo'ulu-like cultivars in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, that need collecting and assessing. Tongan Maoli /Popoulu diversity needs collecting and freeing of Bunchy Top (Jeff Daniells pers. com.). A joint project with the SPC was developed in 2007 to address this issue but was not successfully funded.It is suggested that creating national registries of farmers' cultivars and wild species would be a first step to understanding what is conserved and what gaps may need to be filled. But dealing with homonyms and synonyms is likely to be extremely complex in the case of farmers' cultivars and therefore difficult to apply in many countries.Increasing collaboration through MusaNet will help in assessing what is conserved and accessible for use and priorities for collecting.From the Global Musa Survey, 37 collections provided a description of their future collecting plans.Recommendations from the MusaNet/Trust Bogor meeting for the collecting methodology for wild species and cultivated materials are the following:WILD SPECIES• Ensure that seeds are collected in addition to suckers.• Between 2,000 and 10,000 seeds per genotype/accession should be collected.• Seeds should be sampled from the whole population rather than from a small amount of individuals.• Suckers should be sampled within a given population by either random sampling or sampling of selected individuals exhibiting interesting characteristics.• Leaf sampling for DNA extraction is required with systematic grid sampling of populations for population genetics analysis.• Herbarium specimens should be collected.• Passport data should be documented.• Photos of specific characters should be taken.• Common names of wild specimens should be recorded along with the associated local knowledge.• Collected materials should be deposited in the most relevant national collections and in the ITC for global distribution. A sample could also be provided to botanic gardens.• Seeds should be conserved as a complementary strategy to conserving the clones.• Genebank experts from other species should be consulted to design strategies to adequately represent genepools in target collection areas.• If collecting for breeding, the traits to focus on are low height, bunch shape, number of fruits, resistance to diseases and diploidy.• If collecting for conservation purposes, the methodology should focus within each village for systematic leaf-sampling for DNA extraction and rationalized sucker-sampling for conservation.• Photos should be used to describe the plant since it might be difficult to obtain plants at the right stage of development.• Collected materials should also be deposited in a national collection and in the ITC for global distribution.• A short socio-economic description of the village should be provided (e.g. accessibility or distance from important roads and urban centres).• A discussion with the farmers should provide additional information and genders should be differentiated for interviews, such as:-How long has the cultivar been there?-What is special about the cultivar?-What parts of the plants are used and how (in addition to the fruits)?-What is the frequency of planting, e.g. common, rare or marginally planted in the village?The knowledge necessary for collecting and conserving priority materials is the following:• Genetic structure• Distribution areas (per taxon)• Populations density within their distribution areas• Population dynamics and ecology• Threats (e.g. habitat loss, climate change)Developing an electronic collecting form linked to MGIS has been proposed to directly rationalize the sampling and avoid redundancy in collections. It has also been suggested that taxonomy experts in the local Musa community be part of the collecting team.Collecting of wild species should not focus on identifying traits as this occurs later during the characterization and evaluation of the ex situ collections. All new wild resources need to be duly observed in the field so that this information can be submitted to taxonomy experts and curators for the final assessment, description and determination of botanical status. Only then can the accessions be virus indexed and made publicly available from the ITC.The effective management of ex situ collections and enhancement of services leading to cost-effective conservation of the genepool should include the following activities:• Develop and update quality standards for Musa genetic resources conservation management• Create a platform for effective information exchange and sharing of methods, techniques and experiences between collection managers• Train and build capacity in the use of methodologies, standards and best practices that contribute to improved management of the collectionsThe MusaNet workshop in 2013 discussed the main gaps in bringing up the capacity of the collection management and what is needed at the local/national, regional and global level. There is a need for specific guidelines to be developed for:• Field management including specific information on topics such as wild species management and ecological regions• Collecting and acquiring new materials on missions in a collection• Seed bank management• Data management and use of the descriptorsField genebanks generally require more labour, inputs and space (land) than other methods of conservation. They are also faced with higher levels of risk from natural disasters and adverse environmental conditions like drought, floods or attacks from pests and diseases. When field genebank conservation is the only viable alternative, careful planning and field management can help to mitigate the risks. Field genebanks should be duplicated in more than one site or in an in vitro genebank or cryobank as a safety backup.MusaNet organized two workshops with the objective of discussing the most urgent needs of Musa collection curators vis à vis the management of the germplasm and its associated information. They involved the 13 partners of the TRC who also manage some of the most important national and regional collections. The first workshop was in Guadeloupe hosted by CIRAD in December 2013 and the second one was in India hosted by NRCB in December 2014. They focused on discussion and making recommendations for ensuring the correct identification of the materials conserved and making this information available to all users. But they also included discussions on the field management of the accessions and best practices for the conservation and documentation of Musa germplasm, including the safe-movement of materials.A similar, but regional, MusaNet workshop for West and Central Africa was held in 2015 at the CARBAP field collection in Cameroon. During this workshop, field management was discussed during a field session and classroom session. Topics covered include optimal environmental conditions, planting preparation and methods, fertilization, and weed and disease control. Another regional MusaNet workshop will be held late 2016 in Uganda, focusing on characterization of the EAHB subgroup.The MusaNet workshops recommended that the 2008 Regeneration Guidelines be updated and a new set of technical guidelines be developed for the full range of activities in field management including tissue culture establishment. This will be coordinated by the MusaNet Conservation Thematic Group.Musa-specific field management guidelines should be developed and cover all the following practices: planting plan; planting material; climatic/environmental hazards; cover crop management practices; pest and disease management; monitoring; regeneration; tissue culture and establishment in field; health testing; back up of the collection; data recording and management; financial and human resources; logistics; and vandalism control.The information on health testing should include the following: efficient virus cleaning protocol to produce clean germplasm; maintaining field collections free of viruses; spread of diseases like BBrMV; adequate measures or actions to reduce abiotic and biotic stresses particularly for the viral diseases are extremely needed; biotic and abiotic factors are major threats; in vitro conservation to save accessions from various diseases; need for guidelines and research of uniform plants within a single cultivar; and more regular screening of accessions of the deadly viruses (BWX, BBTV etc.) should be carried out.It is important that revised guidelines include practices that ensure the objective of the field collection management and that these are clearly identified. The field sites need to be planned including initial trials to test treatments and management requirements. The initial trial plan can be circulated for input from experts, supervisors, and others with relevant knowledge. The MusaNet networks of curators can be used for review.Most importantly, all activities should be accompanied by documentation of the changes made, providing a valuable record supplemented with photos. The funds need to be adequate to meet the objectives.There is a need to develop safety duplication options. It is proposed that each field genebank should be working very closely with and be backed up by an in vitro collection.A Global Musa Seed Bank proposal is being developed and would aim to conserve and distribute seeds under the International Treaty on Plant Genetics Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).The first step before seeds are collected is to assess the diversity within/between populations, to make decisions on how many seeds to collect so that they can be conserved and distributed. The proposal is to first analyze seed lots of M. acuminata and M. balbisiana growing in a clearly delineated distribution range such as islands. DNA will be extracted from seeds as well as from the mother plants to determine the genetic variation within a population.It is proposed that priority should be given to M. acuminata (10 -20 accessions per subspecies), with fewer accessions for other Musa spp (of which more than 10 species should be collected in Indonesia, Malaysia, N. Burma, Bhutan, or SW China and Vietnam in the framework of the Crop Wild Relative Project (CWR) of the GCDT). Agreements will be made with the various contacts via MusaNet.Germination of Musa seeds in soil is still unpredictable, takes a long time and germination rates are often very low. To partially solve this problem, embryo rescue protocols were developed by Bioversity/ KU Leuven. When linked to chemical viability test (tetrazolium chloride TTC) it was observed that embryo rescue increases the regeneration potential. However soil germination needs to be further investigated.Germination could be tested in Meise Botanic Gardens in Belgium, where some wild bananas (preferably M. acuminata and M. balbisiana but not exclusively) could be grown in the greenhouses under controlled conditions and seed harvested at different times.Currently storage behaviour at room temperature, 5°C, -20°C and -196°C is tested. While clear conclusions on population genetics are reached, recommended storage and germination methods should be followed and seeds should preferably be produced in a disease-free environment. Research is also needed on the transmission of viruses in seed.Ensuring that adequate skills and equipment including infrastructure are available for the range of germplasm conservation activities has been mentioned as a priority by 51% of the collection managers in the Global Musa Survey. Particularly important is the need for full time curators and stable teams including breeders to ensure continuity of the collections. Equipment is needed, in particular for in vitro and cryopreservation labs, as well the maintenance of screenhouses to back up field collections.It is important to strengthen the regional networks by organising national and regional workshops and stimulating academic exchange among national, regional and international centres and genebanks. It would also be helpful to develop academic training in plant genetic resources management and increase capacity building for virus indexing and molecular characterization.It would be beneficial to improve information technology capacity (software and hardware) and ensure the completeness of MGIS with data on all available germplasm. It is imperative that the Musa 1996 descriptor book be updated. This subject is discussed in Chapter 5 on Characterization and Chapter 9 on Information Management.Actions are needed to address BSV and its constraints for germplasm exchange and policies need to be strengthened for Fusarium quarantine restrictions -see Chapter 10 on Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.A global network of partners with specific responsibilities for conservation of the Musa genepool including the safety duplication needs to be optimised and strengthened. This would entail the following activities:• Establish global partnerships and collaboration in conservation of collections.• Improving the documentation of collection through standard data gathering and verification of passport data, phenotypic, cytological, and genotypic characterization.• Field verification and morpho-taxonomic characterization, flow cytometric ploidy determination and SSR characterization of the ITC collection.• Identify and eliminate duplicates and redundancy in and across collections based on the improved documentation of accessions.• Introduce missing diversity to ensure full coverage of priority genepools at the national, regional and global level.• Increase the safety duplication of unique accessions in genebanks by using at least two conservation methods (e.g. in field, in vitro, cryopreservation) and at least in two different locations.• Develop priority lists of accessions (core sets) for specific collections (national, regional, global) for longterm conservation.• Identify candidate accessions for the global core collection at ITC.• Establish partnership agreements with regional and national field collections for complementary responsibility sharing to preserve global core accessions.• Duplicate the global core accessions in vitro and in cryopreservation at the ITC.• Ensure the continued safety back up of the ITC cryopreserved collection.There is an urgent need to set up more locations of international field planting or in vitro culture conservation, which will be safer for germplasm duplication and more effective for Musa distribution. All national germplasm collections should be safely duplicated at the global level.It is essential to ensure the maximum possible availability of the materials at the ITC for sharing as promising cultivars are identified.The improved characterization (phenotyping and genotyping) of germplasm in all collections will provide information to allow curators to make more informed and effective decisions on the rationalization of their own accessions. At the national, regional and global level, this will also provide the means to identify core sets of accessions for long-term conservation, which will embody the entirety of Musa diversity. At the global level, the data from the field verification and molecular characterization of ITC accessions will provide morphological and molecular references, which collections worldwide will be able to apply to their own accessions and studies. From this, ways to reduce duplication of material in collections needs to be developed, core collections created and further collecting priorities defined. The regeneration and field verification project can be used as starting point for further research on maintaining genetic integrity and avoiding 'off-types' in in vitro collections.The contexts in which collections in banana-producing regions function are very different. The Latin America and Caribbean region is remarkable for large historical collections predominantly used for breeding and the absence of significant indigenous diversity. Sub-Saharan Africa represents a secondary centre of diversity with very few adequately-resourced national collections but four important regional collections: NARO and IRAZ in East Africa and CARBAP and IITA in West Africa. There are numerous national collections in Asia and the Pacific which conserve unique indigenous diversity.While no single model of national and international collections can be superimposed on all of the regions, the broad roles of collections at national, regional, international and global levels are broadly described below (from INIBAP 2006).Role of National collections:• Collecting and conserving diversity at national level • International dissemination of germplasm especially to collections, researchers and breeders• Expertise and capacity building in conservation technologies and germplasm management Some institutes provide additional key services such as:• Virus pre-indexingThe establishment of a global reference field collection integrating subsets that represent specific parts of the diversity and are held by different collections is strongly recommended. This concept should stimulate collaboration amongst collections within and across regions and will require the sharing of conservation responsibilities with the commitment to function as (partial) safety back-up of the global core set. In this respect, it is crucial that participating field collections receive the necessary support in the long term, that through partnerships they actively contribute and benefit from:• shared quality standards (implementation of the field genebank guidelines),• information exchange on holdings (through the creation of a platform for information exchange between collections), and• training and assistance in conservation technologies and germplasm management, particularly on pest and disease management.In order to motivate collections, research and service partners to take up their role in the global system, a clear need was expressed by MusaNet members for creating incentives for participation.The major benefit that is expected to be generated in a well-functioning system is a greater access to information and materials. Material and information providers should be also able to benefit from training and capacity building, be priority partners in projects and wherever possible, be duly acknowledged, particularly in publications.Data provision should be made part of projects in order to ensure that it is actually done.As common methodology and quality standards tighten the network, this would form a more favourable basis for attracting funds and government commitment to support conservation activities.Incentives may also include increased resource sharing, such as sharing of health testing and molecular characterization services in support of conservation and exchange activities.The aim of the global system for ex situ conservation is to conserve the entire Musa genepool in perpetuity and promote the safe exchange and use of a wide range of diverse germplasm by a network of wellmanaged rationalized collections. Many of the proposed actions below are also found in other chapters of the Strategy. • Survey all ex situ collections for a complete list of accessions conserved with taxonomic identification and origin  • Revisit edible diploids and triploids accessions for fruit quality and good agronomic traits, such as disease resistance or higher yield • Strengthen regional networks by organising national and regional workshops and stimulating academic exchange among national, regional and international centres and genebanks • Strengthen the global network of partners with specific responsibilities for conservation of the Musa genepool including the safety duplication• Improve characterization (phenotyping and genotyping) of germplasm in all collections to allow curators to make decisions on rationalization of accessions• Introduce missing diversity to ensure full coverage at national, regional and global level • Identify core sets of accessions for long-term conservation, which will embody the entirety of• Field verification and morpho-taxonomical characterization, flow cytometric ploidy determination and SSR characterization of the ITC collection  The objectives of the ITC are the following:• Providing long-term and sustainable conservation of Musa genetic resources.• Maintaining a source of genetic diversity and related information in the public domain.• Contributing to understanding Musa diversity through characterization.• Providing a service for the safe movement of germplasm and related information.• Developing and transferring ex situ conservation technologies.At the global level, the ITC collection functions effectively in assuring medium and long-term conservation of the broadest range of Musa diversity. Strongly linked with MusaNet, the ITC operates via a network of field collections, exchanging germplasm and providing a back-up service. ITC has strong relationships with regional collections in Asia, Africa and Latin America and with several national collections providing an essential support role to the long-term conservation of the global collection. The ITC is closely linked with these partner collections and cooperates in terms of research and capacity building in conservation methods.Many research institutes are partnering with the ITC in the areas of health testing (DAFF/University of Queensland in Australia, University of Liège at Gembloux in Belgium and CIRAD), and characterization of the collection (IEB, CIRAD), cryopreservation research (KULeuven) and several additional national collections are involved in field verification of the identity of the ITC accessions (see Section 7.1.2 -Management of the Collection at the ITC). The ITC collaborates closely with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in Montpellier, France, for safety duplication of its accessions.The ITC has a key role as provider of samples of the widest available range of Musa diversity that is guaranteed clean of pests and diseases to researchers, collections and breeders.The ITC is actively developing best practices in genebank management such as germplasm acquisition, health testing, medium-term conservation, cryopreservation for long-term storage, lyophilized leaves and DNA banking, data management, monitoring genetic integrity, distributing germplasm, and sharing this expertise with collection curators and researchers around the world.The ITC is funded by the Genebanks CRP and the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), which provide security in the core operations of the genebanks and work towards improving individual performance standards and strengthening quality and risk management systems. The CGIAR sets performance targets for all genebanks which cover topics such as germplasm acquisition, availability, security, QMS and cost efficiency.A review of the ITC was conducted in 2010 to assess the performance of the ITC in terms of the conservation and distribution of Musa germplasm and included an evaluation of the service by users. Furthermore, the ITC was externally reviewed in 2013 by two reviewers designated by the GCDT, within the framework of the Genebanks CRP. The resulting Recommended Action Plan included improvements to be made, which are included in this chapter.Over the years, Musa genetic resources have been acquired by the ITC from 52 donor sources in 37 countries, including major field collections, collecting missions in the crop centres of origin and diversity, and from banana breeding programmes worldwide (see Table 7.1 below).The ITC collection is comprised mainly of cultivated bananas (75%), and to a lesser extent of wild Musa species (16%), and of improved cultivars (9%). Of the entire collection, 9 accessions are of Musa textilis and Ensete spp., both not included in Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA but available to all bona fide users as they are included in its article 15b concerning the materials in the international collections of the CGIAR.In recent years, the representation of the Musa genepool in the ITC collection has improved with the acquisition of 250 accessions from priority collections supported by the GCDT. The ITC collection has a good overall representation of cultivated bananas including plantains. However some specific cultivated groups and subgroups from some geographical areas as well as wild species are still under-or unrepresented in the collection. Future acquisition should focus on obtaining unique representatives of these species and cultivated groups.There are still an estimated 300 to 400 cultivars and wild specimens known to be missing in the collection (Rony Swennen, pers. comm.) and the TAG meeting in 2008 discussed the potential sources of germplasm to fill the gaps at the ITC (see Table 7.2).From a utilization perspective, interesting materials with potential or known breeding and research value should also be prioritized for acquisition: tolerance to abiotic stresses (e.g. drought, salinity) or disease resistance traits (e.g. BBTV, BXW, Foc TR4). Some specific cultivars with direct users' interest (e.g. Budless Kepok and Dwarf Pisang Awak, Dwarf Silk, Lowgate, and Lakatan and Saba from the Philippines) have also been targeted for acquisition by the ITC. Recently, the transfer to ITC of some 20 East African diploids and triploids collected in Kenya, 30 cultivars and wild specimens collected in Indonesia in 2012, and a range of Dwarf-type plantains collected in DRC is being agreed with the national collections in the respective countries.The ITC has approximately 1,500 Musa accessions, all maintained in vitro as tissue-culture plants under minimal growth conditions, achieved by a reduction of the ambient temperature (to 16°C) and light intensity (to 25µM.m-2.s-1, 24h/24h) in the storage room. Accessions stored under these conditions require sub-culturing every 4-22 months depending on their genotype, with a mean of 11 months across all genotypes. Accessions in medium-term storage (MTS), or active collection, are maintained under the form of proliferating shoot cultures grown on one single type of semi-solid MTS-based culture medium.It is imperative that 12-20 replicate cultures per accession are maintained in MTS in order to assure safe preservation as well as to meet requests for samples within a reasonable time span. The MTS collection forms the active collection, keeping the total diversity present in the genebank available for international distribution and use. In addition, for accessions that are not yet preserved in liquid nitrogen this collection currently also serves as base collection, assuring permanent preservation for those accessions.The objective of the base collection (cryopreserved material) is to assure the preservation of a representative sample of the overall known and collected diversity of the genus Musa for an unlimited period of time. The materials are kept permanently in storage for the long-term and are not accessible for use. Materials in the base collection should only be regenerated if samples from the active collection are lost and need to be replaced.Maintaining the material as shoot cultures in MTS is labour intensive and involves the risk of losing valuable germplasm through accidental contamination, accumulation of bacterial endophytes in cultures or the loss of the culture's morphogenetic potential. Another impediment of tissue cultures is that somaclonal variations can occur over the years, resulting in loss of genetic integrity of the genotype stored. A routine monitoring, called Field Verification (FV), has been established to ensure the viability and quality of the stored germplasm.To secure the quality of the conserved germplasm, tissue cultures are renewed (rejuvenated) from greenhouse plants, and regenerated in the field every 10 years. This regeneration process takes place in partnership with institutes that maintain field collections and aims to validate the genetic integrity and trueness-to-type of the MTS collection using both molecular and morphological evidence.ITC's FV activity aims to validate the genetic integrity and trueness-to-type of the MTS collection using both molecular and morphological evidence. The process allows the ITC to identify the problem accessions, remove them from distribution and replace them where possible. In order to do this, ploidy, SSR and DArT fingerprinting data (produced by the MGC and DArT Australia) are combined with morphological characterization data and photos produced by field partners (previous partners are BPI, Philippines; NARO, Uganda; CIRAD, Guadeloupe; FHIA, Honduras; CARBAP, Cameroon, and the USDA, Puerto Rico). The compiled datasets are analyzed by a panel of Musa taxonomists (the Taxonomic Advisory Group) in charge of validating the accessions' genetic integrity. This workflow provides quality control for the germplasm and also adds value to the content of the ITC by producing standardized characterization data that is available to users in MGIS.During the first decade of the FV activity (2004-2014), 420 accessions have been validated out of the 855 currently available for distribution. Seventy percent of the validated accessions have been confirmed as genetically stable. However the MTS collection could be further improved by minimizing accessions that are mislabelled (6% of the 420 accessions), misclassified (6%) or off-types (2%). Many of the accessions (16%) need to be re-evaluated due to lack of robust data. The FV activity is time consuming due to the multiple datasets, partners and steps involved. Efforts are currently being made to improve the process.The active collection serves as source material for worldwide distribution of germplasm by the ITC.Imperative for this activity is that the distributed samples are virus-free (see section Distribution of germplasm). Germplasm health management includes initial health screening, therapy if needed and full virus indexing of the MTS materials by an expert virology lab acting as a Bioversity Virus Indexing Centre (VIC) at University of Liege, Belgium or University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.In 2004 the ITC also initiated establishing a tissue collection that holds lyophilized leaf samples of 883 accessions (data 2014). The lyophilized leaf collection is a utilization collection and has no conservation objective per se. The aim is to make a wide range of diversity readily available at low cost to molecular scientists who are using the DNA for their studies.From a management perspective, the leaf tissue collection is for the ITC also a cost-effective way to preserve the molecular materials and representative information from each species and cultivar in the ITC, serving as a future reference for the identification of accessions in the active and base collection.To ensure the secure and cost-effective long-term preservation of the collection, a long-term storage (LTS), or base collection, using cryopreservation has been established. Freeze-preservation research at KULeuven was carried out during the 90s and resulted in the development of three cryopreservation protocols for banana meristematic tissues that are widely applicable to the different banana groups and species. As part of the ITC Musa genetic resources management strategy, three replicate sets of frozen meristems are stored, each with a 95% probability that at least one plant can be regenerated.The criteria for inclusion of accessions in the cryo-collection at ITC are that the in vitro material is: i) rejuvenated; ii) characterized in the field; iii) determined as healthy, and iv) free from viruses except for BSV in case of accessions containing the B-genome.For an accession to be considered safely cryopreserved, at least three successful repetitions should be performed (i.e. 95% chance that at least one full plant can be regenerated from the material stored in liquid nitrogen) and each repetition is represented by at least 3 tubes each containing 10 meristems or meristem clumps (i.e. at least 30 in total). For extra safety reasons, one out of the three repetitions is sent with a dry shipper to the Institut pour la recherche en développement (IRD), Montpellier, where they are stored in a 'black box' under identical conditions as the ones at the ITC. So far ITC has cryopreserved 938 accessions. A replicate set of cryopreserved material is held at the IRD in Montpellier, France, with 801 accessions to date. This provides an off-site, back-up as a further safety measure under the afore-mentioned 'black-box' arrangement.Cryopreservation requires large investments to set up a facility and to process the germplasm for storage in liquid nitrogen. However, once cryopreserved, maintenance cost is very low. A study on the costs of the ITC banana genebank showed that the costs of cryostorage in perpetuity per accession are much lower than for active storage. The time period that the cumulative costs of medium-term storage and long-term storage become equal is 15 years (Garming et al. 2010). Therefore the cryopreserved base collection at ITC serves as a safety back-up that is accessed only when the accession material in medium-term storage is lost. Thanks to funds received from donors such as the World Bank, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Belgian Direction Générale Coopération au développement et aide humanitaire (DGD), the CGIAR through the Genebanks CRP managed by the GCDT, 64 % of the accessions are now safely stored, making the ITC collection one of the in vitro collections in the world having the largest proportion of its germplasm preserved in liquid nitrogen. In a recent report entitled CGIAR Genebanks Option Paper for the Fund Council (FC) 13 (GCDT 2015), it was stipulated that if Bioversity International with the ITC banana collection reaches the performance targets listed in Table 7.3 below, by end of 2019, the full cost of the ITC core operations will be eligible for long-term funding from the GCDT. Indicators Targets1 Availability: % of the collection which is free from pathogens of quarantine risk, viable, and in sufficient quantity to be immediately available for international distribution from medium-term storage 90% of the accessions 2 Security:• Seed crops: % of the collection held in long-term storage in two locations and also in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.• Clonal crops, % of the collection held in cryopreservation at two locations; % of the collection held in slow growth conditions in vitro at two locations Seed crops:• 90% accessions in seed collectionsClonal crop:• long-term target 50% accessions in cryopreservation;• The ITC collection is documented in two complementary database systems: the Musa Genebank Management System (MGBMS) and Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS).MGBMS is a system developed with/for in-house that facilitates the day-to-day management of the collection. Data related to practically all of the genebank operations, and processes are captured by the system and tracked by using accession barcodes and software that runs on mobile devices. Over the years, the system has become increasingly efficient and comprehensive, meeting the needs of the genebank staff to more effectively manage genebank data. Recently integrated new features include: the management and processing of germplasm requests, an inventory of the cryopreserved collection and leaf bank, basic characterization data and field verification data.Accession-level information managed in this database is made publicly accessible to end users through MGIS, which holds passport and characterization data and to some extent evaluation data on the ITC accessions. MGIS also facilitates requesting germplasm from the ITC, through its on-line germplasm requesting tool. For more detail on both systems, see Chapter 9 -Information Management.The target groups directly affected by the conservation and safe exchange issues addressed here are the genebank community, the governmental and non-governmental collections, botanical gardens, conservation scientists, managers and service providers who are responsible for the sustainable conservation of Musa genetic resources.Key users of the ITC are the banana research community and networks that need access to biologically well-defined material as a tool for generating new knowledge; and the banana breeders who needs sources of genes, pre-bred material and associated information to develop superior cultivars.A survey of the direct users of the ITC and interviews with key informants was carried out as part of the 2010 ITC impact study (Garming et al. 2010). The main user groups of the ITC collection are scientists in the NARIs (40%), Agricultural Research Institutes (ARIs) and universities (30%), the CGIAR (11%), the private sector (8%), regional organizations (5%) and non-affiliated individuals (2%).Banana farmer communities, and associated production and processing industry stakeholders and consumers ultimately benefit from improved productivity, as a result of using the conserved Musa genetic resources.According to the 2010 ITC impact study (Garming et al. 2010), nearly two-thirds of germplasm requests were for the cultivated forms, mainly of local importance, and cultivars that are widely grown and demanded for trait evaluation. The most requested key traits were tolerance to biotic stress (30%), adaptation to specific local conditions and/or consumer acceptability (24%), yield characteristics (15%), tolerance to abiotic stress (13%) and pre-breeding evaluation studies (5%). Improved cultivars from breeding activities were requested for their superior yield and disease resistance characteristics and accounted for 20% of the distributed materials. Only 17% of the disseminated germplasm were wild relatives, serving as a source of potential valuable genes in breeding activities and for fundamental taxonomic/phylogenetic studies. However as mentioned above, this could be because the ITC only has 16% of wild species. Feedback on future trends anticipated an increasing demand for wild species and improved cultivars.When the ITPGRFA came into force in 2004 and Musa was included in its list of Annex 1 crops, the ITC collection also became part of the Multilateral System (MLS) of Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS), along with all the international collections, as part of the Article 15. The exchange of germplasm occurs under the terms and conditions of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), for the distribution of germplasm free of charge for research, breeding or conservation purposes. The objective of the SMTA is to facilitate the process of safely exchanging and tracking use of germplasm and to encourage users to share any benefits from the use of the germplasm or resulting research products.In some cases the acquisition of Musa germplasm by the ITC has been constrained by legal and policy issues mainly related to the ITPGRFA not yet being fully implemented in some countries. Acquisition may be difficult when countries are not a contracted party to the ITPGRFA, preventing unrestricted access to the materials and related information for use or safe duplication elsewhere. However, the main challenge is where certain parties have not yet put certain materials in the public domain. This could be linked to the lack of clear communication on incentives to provide materials.The fact that the ITC is located in a country that does not produce bananas has benefits in facilitating the acquisition of germplasm from, and its distribution to, all parts of the globe without restrictive quarantine procedures.For the distribution service, two management activities are essential: health and documentation management (described in the above section and also in Chapter 9 -Information Management and Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm).For the health management of the ITC collection, a procedure has been established that involves virus screening of all incoming plant materials, the application of virus therapy, if needed, and subsequently the full virus indexing of the accession material stored in the collection. This work is carried out by contracted specialized laboratories following the MusaNet publication Technical Guidelines for Safe Movement of Musa Germplasm (3rd edition) (Thomas 2015). The guidelines, describe technical procedures that minimize the risk of pest introductions due to the movement of germplasm for research, crop improvement, plant breeding, exploration or conservation. The guidelines were revised and published and are further described in Chapter 10 -Distribution and Safe Exchange of Germplasm.The ITC collection is widely recognized as the safest source of Musa germplasm. Therefore, the international distribution of germplasm is mainly from the ITC because of its comparative advantage that tissue culture samples of the most comprehensive set of Musa diversity can be obtained from a single source and the health status is guaranteed. However, only small sample-sizes of five plants per requested accession can be provided.In the Asia-Pacific area, national repository and dissemination centres have been established in 13 countries to support of the distribution activity of the ITC. The Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC), in Fiji, also acts as a regional distribution centre for the Pacific region. Even so, this additional capacity is insufficient to meet all users' needs. To some extent this is addressed by referring users to local in vitro labs where the material can be multiplied, however the capacity is also limited.Few other collections are a reliable source of disease-free material and in many cases germplasm dissemination poses risks of introducing viruses or other diseases, and can be constrained by other quality issues.However, the major issue impeding germplasm distribution from the ITC is related to BSV which can be integrated in the B-genome of banana, and can be activated to cause episomal viral infections under some circumstances. In vitro conditions are a factor that increases the probability of the virus to be expressed.The episomal form of the virus may cause damage in terms of yield losses when infected plants are cultivated in the field. Presently, no therapeutic techniques are available to clean tissue cultures from the integrated form. However for genotypes with exclusively the A-genome, effective remediation is possible since viral sequences related to BSV, although integrated in the A genome, are fragmented and unable to liberate the episomal form of the virus.In August 2014, a workshop at the ISHS/ProMusa Symposium addressed these concerns, and a task force was formed to discuss possible solutions to the problem of BSV limiting distribution. In May 2015, the BSV Task Force developed a position paper on strategies to enable the distribution of BSV-infected Musa germplasm that was evaluated by the Musa community via MusaNet and ProMusa and posted on the MusaNet web site (MusaNet 2015b). The implementation of this strategy, planned for late 2016, will allow users to have access to 90% of the material maintained at the ITC, which is one of the performance targets listed in   1 The utilization ratio is calculated as the number of distributed accessions per year divided by the number of accessions present in the collection (red line) or the number of accessions available for distribution (blue line) in that year. Before 1993, when no virus indexing techniques were available, all accessions in the collection were available for distribution.  1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009  • The introduction of the Musa Online Ordering System (MOOS), allowing users to order germplasm from ITC more easily.• Major proportion of the collection available in the form of lyophilized leaves.The distribution of guaranteed healthy germplasm has enabled and facilitated a large body of research and played an important role in the implementation of banana-related development projects.The most important areas where impacts from increased distribution have been created are:• Supply of a broad genetic diversity to the breeding of superior banana germplasm.• Fundamental research carried out with materials from the ITC .• Research on resistance/tolerance to economically important banana pests and diseases.• Dissemination of superior germplasm to small-scale farmers with expected positive effects on their productivity.SECTION 7.2 THE ITC GLOBAL MUSA COLLECTION -WHERE WE WANT TO GOAs stated elsewhere, the five objectives of the ITC are: i) provide long-term and sustainable conservation of Musa genetic resources; ii) maintain a source of genetic diversity and related information in the public domain; iii) contribute to understanding Musa diversity through characterization; iv) provide a service for the safe movement of germplasm and related information, and v) develop and transfer ex situ conservation technologies. As mentioned above, all material in the ITC is preserved in vitro with 64% of the accessions backed up in liquid nitrogen, and although the ITC maintains strong links with the field collections, the sustainable field conservation component needs to be formally developed, particularly as some accessions are permanently represented within in vitro collections only. Linked to the first objective, a 'core' collection of accessions, representing the total Musa diversity, will be identified and maintained in both field genebanks and at the ITC. Establishing this global core of representative Musa diversity across several designated sites for conservation in perpetuity will be achieved in the long-term. The core collection will also be a useful tool providing evidence of gaps in the collection and thus contribute to the improvement of conservation. Through targeted collecting and duplication of unique accessions from national collections, the collection will be further expanded to increase its coverage of Musa diversity.A constraint for the ITC is the high initial cost of applying cryopreservation. Costing studies have confirmed that cryo-conserving Musa germplasm is initially expensive, largely due to high labour requirements to process the plant material in liquid nitrogen. Although the ITC genebank has assured financial support for the long-term through the GCDT, 40 % of the collection has not been safely backed-up in liquid nitrogen with funding being the limiting factor. Recognizing the important role of the ITC in the global conservation effort for Musa, it is critically important that cryopreservation of the entire collection is achieved in the foreseeable future.Viruses, especially BSV, are the major constraint for distributing in vitro germplasm internationally. Plant health testing methods are evolving rapidly, as new diseases (virus and phytoplasma) emerge. Up-to-date knowledge and technologies also need to be transferred to regional laboratories to increase awareness and maximize the health status of collections and facilitate safe exchange of germplasm at the regional and national level. BSV is a major impediment to the international transfer of valuable germplasm from the ITC. Today 25% of the ITC germplasm cannot be moved because of BSV. The GCDT commissioned a review of the ITC in 2013, and recognized the need for an informed and inclusive discussion on the relative risks and advantages of distributing this material, and seek a consensus among stakeholders (for more information, see the position paper prepared by the BSV Task force and published on www.musanet.org).As the first round of the Field Verification activity is nearly complete, a review of the procedures, as recommended by the GCDT, will be undertaken. In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the activity, decisions need to be taken on the optimal length of time accessions remain in medium term storage before being field verified, which involves a close review of the first round results, especially in terms of possible mutation due to somaclonal variation. Also required is a review of the overall process, including field partners and TAG expert members that contribute to the exercise. Streamlining documentation of FV is also a priority, and one effort currently underway is to optimize the input process through use of a MGIS dashboard where TAG members can easily access data and photos.The greater part of genetic diversity in Musa lies within its wild species, the majority of which are not kept safely in ex situ collections. Users of the ITC indicated that there is an interest in this wider diversity which is still under-represented in the collection and not often accessible from other collections. These wild species could serve as sources of alleles for specific traits (e.g. BLS or Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 resistance; drought stress tolerance; superior nutritional value) meeting the needs for current or future banana improvement. In order to capture and secure the diversity present within wild populations and to broaden its accessibility for breeding, habitat restoration, and scientific research, seed conservation needs to be explored as a complementary conservation approach.Banana seeds could be distributed using an SMTA and link to the Bioversity ITC collection/database through the Musa On-line Ordering System, MOOS. Requests for seeds will go through MGIS-MOOS.A constraint to using Musa genetic resources in collections, including that of the ITC, is that accession documentation is incomplete. Efforts are underway through the FV activity, to characterize the ITC accessions systematically using morpho-taxonomic descriptors complemented by molecular analysis.In addition, it was recommended that ITC take a more proactive approach to collect evaluation data. The collected data will not only add value to the diversity conserved but lead to an increased and more efficient use of the collection based on better knowledge about specific traits of accessions. A better documentation of the collection will also allow the identification of several smaller collection 'subsets' expressing certain desirable traits for study, which will be particularly beneficial to increase the efficiency of germplasm use in evaluation and breeding. Such subsets will assist the ITC in providing user groups with a manageable, standardized set of accessions to undertake particular studies as well as to generate standardized information. Over the years, three 'subsets' have been identified and developed from the ITC collection: i) the Taxonomic Reference Collection consisting of 34 accessions (see the TRC project in Chapter 4 -Taxonomy and Chapter 5 -Characterization); ii) the International Musa testing Programme (IMTP) 'reference' sets, established for evaluating disease resistance/tolerance in different agro-ecological environments; and iii) a 'mini-core' of 52 accessions, developed in the framework of the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP) for genomic studies. The diversity in the collection will be documented in MGIS, offering users access to more complete characterization data and trait evaluation data. Identification and setting up of a global core collection of Musa diversity in several designated sites for in-perpetuity conservation will involve a step-wise process of identifying the materials to enter the core. In the interests of long-term conservation, and as a result of collaborative characterization efforts initiated by the TRC project, priority lists of core accessions will be drafted for specific national, regional and global collections, and candidate accessions for the global core collection will be identified.The commitment of several partner collections to participate in this global initiative will be required. The effective conservation of maximum Musa diversity will be assured in a permanent manner through a functional network of collections that are actively contributing and benefitting from shared standards, technical capacity, and germplasm and information exchange. Partnership agreements will need to be established with regional and national field collections, to share complementary responsibility for preserving global core accessions. The ITC will hold the responsibility to duplicate the global core accessions in vitro and in cryopreservation. A safety back-up will be maintained off-site.The ITC collection will also be strategically expanded by filling the gaps in conserved diversity, especially with respect to wild species through targeted collecting. Following a comprehensive gap assessment, a gap-filling strategy will be developed for collecting new diversity and sharing missing diversity from existing collections in the ITC collection. The gap analysis and collecting under the GCDT-coordinated Crop Wild Relatives Project will contribute significantly to this task.To meet the objective ensuring the safe long-term conservation of the global collection, about 500 more accessions need to be processed. Samples from the in vitro collection are actually being cryopreserved at a rate of 40 accessions per year. The Genebanks CRP contributes funding for the cryopreservation of 25 accessions per year and in addition 120 backlog accessions will be processed by the end of 2016 within the framework of Genebanks CRP-funded project. To ensure the safe long-term preservation of the entire ITC collection, still more than 300 accessions will need to be cryopreserved from 2017 to 2020 and backing up the cryopreserved collection at an off-site location (IRD, France) will be pursued.To comply with latest standards, the 1996 Technical Guidelines for Safe Movement of Germplasm for Musa have recently been revised (Thomas 2015). This was a MusaNet initiative, conceived at the launch meeting in 2011, and was carried out in partnership with plant health laboratories and specialist pathologists in order to increase ownership and acceptance of these standards among stakeholders.In order to minimize the risk of transferring virus-infected material to ITC, it is also important that the field collections have regional access to appropriate indexing expertise. Where necessary, training in indexing methodologies should be given. An accreditation system for indexing laboratories would allow more confidence in the regional movement of germplasm.Health testing is also a costly and lengthy procedure for the ITC and other collections. Options need to be explored to enhance the cost-efficiency of the indexing process.The moratorium on the distribution of BSV infected accessions is being reconsidered. In this respect, a taskforce of banana virologists and stakeholders was set up to advise the ITC on the management of virus infected materials. A strategy to minimize the risks associated with the distribution of B-genome germplasm containing banana streak virus, while ensuring that the recipient country and users are fully aware of the potential issues, was developed. Its acceptance by the banana community opens up the possibility to release 300 B-genome accessions for distribution. An intensification of the sanitation activity for other viruses than BSV, present in these accessions, will result in an increase of the percentage of the ITC collection availability for distribution from 60% to 90% in the coming years.Optimization of the use of the collection will be achieved if substantial investments in characterization (morphological and molecular) and evaluation are made. The ITC field verification protocol will be reviewed and links with partners will be reinforced (in collaboration with USDA, Puerto Rico) to collect standard characterization data. The entire ITC collection will be characterised by SSR by end of 2016. The analysis of the results will help detect duplicates in the collection and identify genetic clusters.The formation of several smaller collection 'subsets' expressing certain desirable traits for study, will be beneficial to increase efficiency of germplasm evaluation and enhance knowledge of the diversity the collection.Access to germplasm and associated information will be increased through better links between ITC and MGIS, providing regular updates on availability of new germplasm or new information on ITC accessions.The system should also integrate a feedback mechanism (e.g. conducting of user surveys) for information on distribution of ITC germplasm and monitoring the use, including the collection of evaluation data. This will allow ITC to create proactively new subsets with traits of interest for potential user groups.Use of the collection will be promoted through the new MGIS website, offering user-friendly functions for online ordering of accessions and trait specific accession subsets.Exploring the feasibility of seed conservation for preserving the wider wild diversity as complementary approach will be an important activity. It has been demonstrated that seed cryopreservation combined with embryo rescue works for a number of species, and offers potential as conservation method, but it needs to be tested more widely. Investigations should also focus on aspects of the seed physiology to improve the understanding of germination requirements, seed storage behaviour, and the genetic structure of populations of wild Musa species in order to develop an appropriate sampling strategy for seed banking.Through the RTB-CRP, an international collaborative programme, particularly involving strategic partners in Asia and the Pacific, should be set up to investigate the feasibility of seed banking. Currently, a study on population genetics of banana is being undertaken by Bioversity, the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Gardens, UK, and Meise Botanical Gardens, Belgium.A summary of the proposed actions concerning the ITC collection is set out below in Table 7.4. Identification and setting up of a global core collection of Musa biodiversity in several designated sites for in perpetuity conservation• Developing priority lists of accessions (core sets) for specific collections (national, regional, global) for long-term conservation• Identification of candidate accessions to enter the global core collection • Establish partnership agreements with regional and national field collections for complementary responsibility sharing to preserve global core accessions Increase access and targeted use of the ITC collection• Developing priority lists of accessions (core sets) for specific collections (national, regional, global) for long-term conservation• Identification of candidate accessions to enter the global core collection • Establish partnership agreements with regional and national field collections for complementary responsibility sharing to preserve global core accessions The conservation of Musa genetic diversity is carried out by the following three complementary methods:• In situ conservation, i.e. in the wild natural habitats where specific species evolved and continue to do so• On-farm conservation, i.e. in farmers' fields where continuous cultivation, adaptation and improvement of cultivars is often carried out by small-scale farmers cultivating traditional local cultivars (including home gardens)• Ex situ conservation, in a field research station, in vitro genebank (medium-term) and/or in cryopreservation (long-term).The conservation in ex situ collections is to ensure long-term safeguard and accessibility of representative samples of the entire Musa genetic diversity, whether threatened today or to be in the future and this is discussed in Chapter 6 -Musa collections around the world. This chapter focuses on the complementary methods of conservation: in situ and on farm.The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines in situ conservation as \"the conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats and the maintenance and recovery of viable populations of species in their natural surroundings and, in the case of domesticated or cultivated species, in the surroundings where they have developed their distinctive properties\" (CBD 1992). On-farm conservation is therefore often regarded as a form of in situ conservation but in many cases, the reasons why farmers continue to grow traditional cultivars may have little to do with conservation and much more to do with traditions and preferences, risk avoidance, local adaptation, niche market opportunities or simply the lack of better alternatives (FAO 2010). On-farm conservation therefore provides new challenges in that there is need to understand the social, economic and cultural aspects of the traditional farming systems, seed supply system as well as farmer-based breeding and experimentation (Hodgkin et al. 1993). There are two distinct activities that are considered to be on-farm conservation. One is when the focus is on the conservation of genetic diversity of the crop, within a particular farming system, and the other is when the focus is on the conservation of the traditional farming system, irrespective of what happens to the genetic diversity of landraces within the farming system (Altieri and Merrick 1987).In this document, in situ conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) will mainly refer to the conservation of wild species in protected areas and in habitat management outside of protected areas. On-farm conservation will refer to the conservation of cultivars in production systems.The CBD recognized the continued maintenance of traditional crop cultivars on farms by different farming communities as an essential component for sustainable development. Furthermore, the Global Plan of Action (GPA) has recommended the compilation of inventories of all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; increased support for on farm management and improvement of these resources; and assistance to farmers in disaster situations to restore agricultural systems and promote on-farm conservation of crop landraces, wild crop relatives and wild plants for food (FAO 1996).The great advantage of in situ and on-farm conservation is that the evolutionary processes of the wild species and traditional cultivars are maintained in a dynamic way. The key variables in this dynamic process are the following (Brown 2000):• Genetic diversity within populations, which is the essential raw material for evolution• Breeding system variation (such as changes in the out-crossing rate)• Variation in resistance in space and time, related to pest pressure and diversity, and• The dynamics of seed systems, persistence and migrationThe wild species and traditional cultivars thus need to be conserved if they are to be effectively utilized in breeding programmes. While wild taxa can be traced and conserved in forests, their primary centres of diversity, landraces or traditional cultivars very often can be traced to farms, which act as secondary centres of diversity. These on-farm crops contain less genetic diversity than their wild ancestors, but they contain more variation within the field populations than modern cultivars, (Pickersgill 1994) such as Cavendish.Relative to ex situ, the conservation of Musa genetic resources in situ and on farm is less studied, as they are often influenced by complex social, political and biological factors. In addition, there is a threat to the continuity of habitat for Musa growing in the wild.In The authors stressed that the most powerful reason for the increasing awareness of in situ and on-farm conservation is their potential use in crop improvement and that wild species maintained in situ and traditional cultivars maintained on farm are potential gene donors for breeding programmes. The report also suggested that expected changes in climate will require modifications in production systems and adaptation of cultivars to extreme and fluctuating environmental conditions and it is likely that most of the desired traits required for breeding are already contained in wild species and traditional cultivars. Furthermore, diversity conservation in agricultural landscapes augments the resilience of these areas and therefore, increases possibility of adaptation to climate changes.Wild Musa species naturally occur in South-East Asia, including eastern India, Papua New Guinea and the northeastern Australia. The commonly accepted boundaries for their distribution are presented in Figure 1.2 -Distribution of the four sections of the genus Musa. The wild Musa taxa represent up to 70 different species, subspecies and varieties (list from Häkkinen 2013), some of the species, such as M. acuminata, being subdivided into a number of subspecies. However, quite few specimens of these taxa are conserved in ex situ collections where, for example, 12% of the accessions in the field collections are of wild taxa, and 15% in in vitro collections (see Table 6.The under-representation of wild Musa species in ex situ collections is also coupled with the underrepresentation conserved in terms of number of different accessions per taxon. For example, some sub-species of M. acuminata are only represented by a single clone, such as microcarpa, truncata and sumatrana. Of the 15 \"botanical varieties\" of M. acuminata in Indonesia described by Nasution (1991), several correspond to more generally recognized sub-species, and many are not represented in the ITC. This aspect highlights the fact that the within-species component of the diversity is very often neglected in ex situ collections probably due to insufficient sampling or poor sampling strategy during collecting.In addition, wild Musa species are indeed more difficult to conserve ex situ since seeds conservation techniques are still under development (see Chapter 6). However, this pattern can also be explained by additional factors. In view of an increasing reluctance to provide access to wild resources from many countries due to the lack of or unclear policy and legal frameworks for these species, in situ conservation within countries has become a priority to ensure their safe conservation.In situ conservation involves the protection and management of the areas, ecosystems and habitats in which the plants have developed their distinctive characteristics, and is facilitated through legislative and policy measures as well as the use of incentives.In situ conservation has clear potential for species conservation, as it supports the processes that allow the species to adapt and evolve. The potential of wild Musa species for breeding purposes and for the development of improved cultivars has increased the awareness of the need to protect Musa crop wild relatives (CWR). Very little is known about wild Musa species being conserved in protected areas and for those of Musa CWR that were reported growing inside such areas, no specific management plans exist and populations are not actively monitored. Most wild Musa genetic resources are located outside protected areas, in ecosystems such as riversides, mountains and forests, and many of these species survive in human-made habitats, such as on roadsides and on the edges of cleared land. Several wild species are distributed in restricted areas and are suffering genetic erosion due to habitat destruction, stochastic events and possible impacts of climate change (Maxted and Kell 2009). As planters in Indonesia and Malaysia say, banana is only the worst weed in new plantations for the first three years, after which it's no longer much of a problem (i.e. the seedbank and corresponding genepool are gone). No in situ conservation projects for wild Musa could be found in the 2014 Bioversity literature review (Bioversity International 2014). Based on the little data available, the general in-situ conservation status of wild Musa is thus worrying and needs urgent attention.A significant amount of Musa diversity continues to be maintained in farmers' fields. Many farmers are already practicing de facto on-farm conservation through the continued cultivation of landraces or traditional cultivars of bananas and plantains. Such cultivars will be conserved as long as they have productive potential or cultural interest and continue to be cultivated by farmers. It is, in effect, conservation through use. The conservation of such traditional cultivars by farmers differs in some important aspects from the in situ conservation of wild material. In the case of Musa, cultivars are most often sterile and do not reproduce sexually, so there is no exchange of genetic material between individuals or within populations.Whereas the conservation of wild species is focused on conserving diversity at the population level, conservation of cultivars focuses on individual genotypes in which some changes may occur as a result of clonal diversification mechanisms (e.g. accumulation of mutations).Traditional cultivars have generally been selected by humans to suit the environment in which they are cultivated and the particular needs of the grower. They are the result of domestication, followed by constant diversification through farmer selection. Traditional cultivars do not however remain static; they continue to evolve and develop. In the case of Musa, new, beneficial mutations occur from time to time. These are recognized by the farmer who consciously selects such individuals and then continues to maintain them.In India, an impressive diversity of cultivars with specific uses has been maintained in small rural areas. As reported during the TAG meeting in 2006, more than 90% of small villages are estimated to have stopped growing these traditional cultivars and very few have been commercialized and cultivated on a larger scale. Some species and cultivars, including those recently discovered, can no longer be found in their original collecting sites, for instance in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Fe'I, Maoli-Popo'ulu and Iholena subgroups are similarly poorly collected and conserved.Through the 2014 Bioversity literature review, only four on-farm management projects for Musa landraces were identified, and these were implemented in Uganda, Tanzania, India and Ecuador (see Table 8.1). Other projects certainly exist but were difficult to identify due to lack of published information on them.Home gardens are reservoirs of Musa landrace diversity. There are many projects with the main objective of improving farmers´ livelihoods, through a focus on banana cropping systems and on helping farmers overcome the constraints that are limiting their production. Although the aim of these projects is not the conservation of diversity, they are implemented in areas with high diversity, and are likely to be affecting it. On-farm conservation values have already been identified as an integral component of the culture of most banana growing communities. Additionally, some conservation initiatives include other forms of biodiversity in Musa-based systems, which contribute importantly to soil and human health. This situation calls for a holistic approach that requires a number of players, in order to implement in situ and on-farm conservation.The purpose of this chapter is to propose an action plan to guide conservation initiatives and to provide a way to sustainability once implementation is to be achieved. The first requirement for success is the participation of the widest possible range of actors who should define issues and identify possible actions, including beneficiaries and implementers.The action plan (in situ and on-farm methodology) should include the following items:• Site selection• Means of monitoring the strategy's implementation• Main processes and activities in implementing the strategy• Emphasizing the complementary aspects of ex situ and in situ• Measuring and assessing diversity (understand the status of diversity in selected sites)• Monitoring diversity• Locating diversity and custodians• Integration of on in situ and on farm methodologies into national programmes• Link with national/regional seed system• Different roles of the different stakeholders indicating an effective coordination of activities• Policy advice and recommendations that are necessary and sufficient to solve the problems identified as well sustainability of the conservation processTo ensure the sustainability of in situ and on-farm conservation, it is critical that effective utilization remains part of the long-term strategy to strengthen diversity conservation objectives. This statement is true considering on farm conservation in smallholder systems where resources (land, funds) are very limiting, farmers will have to make critical decisions based on basic needs. During the on farm studies (Karamura et al. 2004) it was observed that farmers selected and conserved those varieties that met their food income and cultural needs to fit them in the 0.5-3.0 acres they owned. In addition, the overall knowledge concerning the different conservation methodologies and their practical use should be integrated into national conservation programmes.There is a lack of appropriate and complete information about Musa diversity that would allow the development accurate and effective in situ conservation initiatives. For example, ex situ collection data is used to build distribution and diversity maps, but these data only demonstrate the presence of the species at a given place and at a specific time, and do not give any information about the conservation status.Collecting and characterizing new genetic resources should be done to prevent resources from being lost from their natural environments (see Sections 6.1.10 and 6.2.2.2 on gaps in collections). Indigenous knowledge of wild species is important to maintain as it provides valuable perspectives on the potential use and value of wild species. However, TAG 2006 suggested that many Musa species that are being used may be loosely qualified as \"wild\" as they may have been selected and domesticated at some extent for other traits than the fruit (e.g. for ornamental purposes). There is therefore a particular objective in identifying and focusing specific conservation efforts on purely wild populations to represent genetic diversity in the evolving natural system.In practice, strategic alliances should be developed with various initiatives such as national forest reserves, wildlife refuges and private reserves. Partnership between government agencies, scientific research institutions, NGOs, farmer communities and possibly the private sector should be fostered. Collaboration with botanic gardens is also particularly important to tap into their taxonomic and conservation expertise of wild species. For example, Forest Research Institute in Malaysia is building A collection of wild banana species and collections is also held in Chinese and Hawaiian botanic gardens. Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), an international organization that supports the development and implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) at the global, regional, national and local levels 2 , also links very closely to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their development of a red list of threatened species.NRCB India took the lead in providing details of threatened Musa species for the Indian Red Data Book.As recommended by TAG 2006, a global red list should be produced to identify priorities and further monitor genetic erosion of wild Musa species. It will require a global effort to identify and locate wild Musa resources. Such an effort could be achieved through a crowd-sourcing approach 3 that would help gather the required information from local people. It will also demand that those collecting germplasm ensure that appropriate levels of details are gathered on geographical locations (using a global positioning system), environments, habitats and population status information.Although numerous activities and projects have been implemented within banana cropping systems, the focus has been on introduction of improved cultivars, improvement of banana production and control of pests and diseases. The attention paid to the management of diversity has been limited.In reality, Musa diversity is still conserved in small-scale and poor farmers' fields. However, there is little information about which landraces are grown by farmers, which farmers are growing these landraces, and why and what are the main constraints they face to keep growing them.Efforts to conserve diversity on farm need also to take into account the dynamic system in which banana diversity is being maintained from production to consumption. Farmers make the ultimate decisions about the conservation and use of particular cultivars in their community. It is therefore critical to understand the socio-economic determinants that influence their decisions. Traditional cultivars often have lower yield but can also be important sources of resistance to pests and diseases. On-farm conservation can be strengthened through activities in the farming community, such as participatory cultivar selection, breeding and farmer field schools. Therefore, a major in situ and on-farm component of the Global Strategy should focus on the generation and management of pertinent socio-economic and biological information on this precious resource.To increase efficiency, conventional conservation efforts need to be coordinated with national seed systems.The experience from the existing on-farm conservation initiatives provides important learning that should be shared among the wider community. One of the major concerns of on-farm conservation projects is their sustainability. Conservation has to be linked to income generation (Sharrock and Frison 2004) and organized with communities that already have strong, diverse production systems. Experiences and expertise in this area should be shared with the wider Musa community.The distribution of all taxa should be mapped at a fine-scale with the boundaries of existing protected areas and the threatened status of each taxon should be determined. There is also a need for a red list threatened Musa CWR.Traditional knowledge and uses linked to all wild Musa should also be recorded, mapped, stored and made accessible. According to the \"crossed maps\", development of new protection measures could be proposed on a case-by-case basis.For highly endangered taxa, specific agreements should be developed between concerned countries and international institutions to allow the efficient and permanent safeguarding of these resources. International banana research networks should work with national or regional research institutes to carry out a complete and up to date compilation of biodiversity distribution and conservation status.Regional databases of Musa landraces should be developed (with characterization and evaluation data, indigenous knowledge, digital photo databases, and geo-referenced locations). From this data, distribution maps of landraces of geographic patterns for analysis can be made.Identification of geographic specific traits should be carried out, i.e. which traits are specific to given areas (and their environmental constraints). Also, as with in situ, a red list should be made to allow the development of actions for their safeguarding landraces.Efforts should be made to promote the on-farm cultivation of Musa diversity to face climate and other changes through agricultural resilience. There is a need for micro-evolution studies and to correlate natural and human selections to identify genes of interest, emphasizing criteria of selection by farmers and reasons for long term cultivation. Along with this is the need to identify and promote the cultural value of local landraces.International banana research networks should work together with national or regional research institutes at enhancing the local capacity for biodiversity information gathering and analysis.From the 2014 Bioversity literature review: The need for a sustainable on-farm conservation programme requires the following actions:• It is recommended that efforts for on-farm management are first of all made in Southeast Asia. One of the countries with the most information available is India. An on-farm management project could be developed in different areas of the country, where Musa cultivars and wild species are both used by communities. The report also suggests that attention must also be placed in other countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea• Explore the policy and procedural changes required at different levels to encourage the conservation and management of on-farm landrace diversity• Promote access to planting materials of cultivars and establishment of farmers' networks to facilitate propagule exchange• Identify characters and qualities of landraces seen by farmers and consumers as inadequate• Increase access to markets or create new preferential markets for landraces• Promote agro-ecotourism to raise awareness of the benefits of growing locally adapted landraces.For these actions to take place, the following areas are proposed for further research:• Study through geographical information systems (GIS) where different cultivars are grown on-farm and how they have changed overtime so that genetic erosion is monitored and a tool can be developed for territorial monitoring of on-farm diversity• Apply GIS studies to understand and map the conservation status of different populations of Musa landraces in secondary centres of diversity and to allow research on rare cultivars• Study the social, economic and cultural aspects of traditional Musa farming systems to understand why, how and when farmers grow landraces so that they can be supported in conservation strategies.Currently, few links exist between ex situ conservation and on-farm conservation activities and information on traditional knowledge and uses linked to landraces conserved ex situ is often missing. The result of such a situation is that the germplasm conserved ex situ is likely to be largely under-exploited, and doesn't answer the particular needs of farmers' communities.On-farm conservation of landraces often meets the needs of local farmers and thus may serve as a critical and cost-effective conservation tool within a large-scale conservation and use strategy. The approach is low cost but not safe. A better understanding of the constraints and opportunities of on-farm conservation is important to underpin its value in this strategy and thus further study is recommended.In addition to the above recommendations, the Bioversity 2014 literature review presented a methodology proposal for future on-farm management projects. The methodology harmonizes the peculiarities of the genus Musa with the available literature on general methodologies for on-farm projects. It highlights:• The key role played by farmers in any on-farm management project• The importance of supportive policies to guarantee the sustainability of the project• The central role played by women in conservation of Musa landraces and as keepers of indigenous knowledge• The importance of carefully adapting all the interventions to the specific context• The importance of impact assessment once the activities have been implemented. The project should not finish when the interventions have been completed, but with the long-term evaluation of the success of the activities at household, community and regional level.The section below summarizes the four phases of the proposed on-farm management methodology.As stated in the 2014 Bioversity literature review, all the phases must be adapted to local characteristics. The methodology must be implemented in different countries for testing and refining and also to check how local characteristics influence the development of the project. Finally, monitoring and impact assessment are essential to assess the real effect of the project on Musa diversity. • Track progress to guarantee meeting milestones and targets (i.e. ultimate objective).Phase 4: Impact assessment and dissemination• Evaluation of changes inside and outside sites/communities• Crop diversity maintained or increased• Public benefits -maintain and generate evolutionary services• Private benefits -improve well-being.Part C -Management: Chapter 8 In situ and on-farm conservation Table 8.2 below summarizes the proposed actions concerning in situ and on farm conservation practices discussed in this section. • Establish and map the distribution of all taxa at all scales• Determine the threatened status of each taxon and red listing of highly endangered CWRs• Collecting and sharing traditional knowledge and uses linked to all wild Musa species.• Build regional databases of Musa landraces (with characterization and evaluation data, indigenous knowledge, digital photo databases, and georeferenced locations)• Develop distribution maps of landraces for analysis of geographic patterns• Identify geographic specific traits, i.e. traits which are specific to given areas (and their environmental constraints)• Establish and map the distribution of Musa landraces and farmers varieties • Develop a territorial monitoring tool for CWR diversity conservation.• Develop national and International Agreements to allow for efficient and permanent safeguard of landraces in primary and secondary centres• Facilitate national, regional and international networks to enhance local capacity for biodiversity information gathering and analysis• Develop a territorial monitoring tool for landrace on farm diversity conservation.Promote farm conservation and utilization of landraces under changing climatic conditions.• Identify and promote the cultural value of local landraces• Facilitate national and international agreements on the conservation and use of landraces.Collect and establish DNA/RNA bank for all major landraces• Carry out studies on genomics and associated trait characterization Despite all efforts and progress realized in past years, there is still a need for more quality information on taxonomy, characterization, evaluation, health status, availability, performance and usefulness, which is well captured at source, i.e. in the field genebanks or with new accessions acquired from another collection.Complete passport data are essential to verify the identity of the materials. Without this, conservation and use is pointless, as the value of the material cannot be known and the information cannot be accessed or shared. Similarly, without clear records on the use of the material, it is impossible to monitor and evaluate the usefulness of a collection and thus, to justify the considerable costs incurred and investments made in its management.Therefore, documentation of germplasm is essential and should be a core activity of all genebanks. Individual collections need local germplasm management systems documenting each step of the conservation process, from acquisition to distribution, including regeneration and health testing. Guidelines and tools for documentation are important to facilitate the management of collections and to provide a common language for exchange of germplasm information. At the same time, a dedicated crop registry stimulating research and community curation is required to select material based on relevant data ideally from all the existing collections.In order to monitor current practices in Musa germplasm documentation and better understand the needs and constraints relating to information management activities, the Global Musa Survey carried between 2012-2016, with replies from 56 genebanks curators, serves as a baseline for this strategy document.Monitoring of the different conservation activities such as acquisition, maintenance, rejuvenation, distribution and health testing is critical for the local management of any collection. The use of data management systems in collections has increased over the years but much still needs to be done to improve their use and potential. Collections maintain valuable materials but efficient ways of accessing information and the material are often lacking. Data associated with passport information, characterization, evaluation, management, shipment and photos is recorded using a variety of tools ranging from database systems, spreadsheets, paper such a log books or combinations of these. Using electronic documentation tools ensures that the data is stored electronically and therefore can be easily secured and exchanged.According to the survey, most of the data capture is done using spreadsheets (e.g. MS Excel) and some captured using paper only to record germplasm information. Relatively few collections have adopted a database system to handle all information, with the majority using a combination of electronic tools. The proportion of data available in electronic format however varies across data types (Table 9.1). Passport data (e.g. accession name, country of origin) is documented in a database and/or spreadsheet in 60% of genebanks. In 17% of cases, it is available on paper only, and 4% do not collect this data at all. Management data (date of acquisition, health of material, regeneration status etc.) is documented using databases and spreadsheets in 33% of genebanks and using paper only in 35% of cases. Regarding characterization data, it is documented using databases and spreadsheets in 55% of collections and paper only in 24%. Similarly but in a slightly higher proportion, evaluation data is documented using databases and spreadsheets in 62% of genebanks and paper only in 17%. This may reflect the fact that evaluation data is often recorded for specific projects where it is mainly recorded using a spreadsheet (47%). Furthermore, information on distribution and shipment is not collected at all in 35% of collections. This may be due to a low rate of distribution of the material, which is alarming, and/or to the lack of tracking requests and use of the material for potential feedback. Regarding access and availability of the information related to germplasm, according to the survey, in most cases, the data is publicly available to all (33%), as published catalogues (31%) or upon request as electronic downloads (47%). In 24% of collections, data is available on institutional websites at all times. In some cases, if the data is not publicly available, it is still available upon request or through project reports.The survey also highlighted the lack of effective technology to document and manage collection information digitally and the pressing need to support the deployment of a user-friendly genebank documentation system in many Musa collections. The survey identified a list of tools currently in place in some collections such as at ITC (i.e. MGBMS -Musa genebank management system), IITA, CNRA, INIVIT, CRB, BARS, SPC and NARO. However only a few of these are specifically designed to manage genebank collections and others are adapted but have limited functionality. Several collections are seeking new or upgraded data management systems. With this objective in mind, the GCDT joined forces with USDA/ARS and Bioversity to propose GRIN-Global, a new scalable version of the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN) used by the USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System and suitable for use by any interested genebank. The database is deployable on local stand-alone computers at sites with limited computational capabilities, as well as at networked sites. This approach enables GRIN-Global to serve either centralized or decentralized genebank networks and to share data with third parties.Since 1997, the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS: http://www.crop-diversity.org/mgis/) has been developed, with the objective of collecting and sharing publicly available information for all Musa collections worldwide. It contains key information, including passport data, botanical classification, morpho-taxonomic descriptors, ploidy, somatic chromosome number, plant photographs, geo-referenced information and genetic studies based on molecular markers. The main target users are: 1) germplasm curators requiring a global system for data sharing, comparison and sometimes to manage data pertaining to their own collection; 2) researchers, breeders and direct users of the germplasm selecting the most documented material for various types of experiments and other uses, and 3) general users looking for reference information on cultivars and a summary of their characteristics and uses. Overall, MGIS helps users build customized queries, facilitates data upload and quality control, locates alternative sources of banana germplasm and identifies the most appropriate accessions with particular traits of interest (Figure 9.1). MGIS started as a CD-based tool until the release of the first online version in 2003, followed by two major updates in 2009 and 2014. MGIS has been designed for managing accession-level information using commonly agreed descriptors for characterization and agronomic evaluation. In order to facilitate and standardize the description, banana accessions were documented using standards such as the MultiCrop Passport Data (MCPD) and the Musa Descriptors published as a comprehensive booklet in 1996 (IPGRI 1996). Shorter descriptor lists, extracted from the 1996 booklet, provided an initial strategic set of characterization and evaluation descriptors to facilitate access to and utilization of banana accessions held in genebanks (see Chapter 5 -Characterization). Furthermore, an electronic collecting form linked to MGIS has been developed to rationalize the data upload and avoid redundancy in collections.As of January 2016, MGIS maintains information on 3,630 accessions from 11 collections (plus 3,091 historical accessions from 16 collections conserved as archives). The number of collections and data volume are both expected to grow steadily with the signing of Data Sharing Agreements (DSA) with partners' collections (Table 9.2). The partnerships and collaborations are indeed at the heart of the MGIS modus operandi for collecting and exchanging data. The collaboration ratified by co-signing the DSA, whereby both parties commit to deliver the most accurate information available of Musa germplasm. The MGIS DSA is found in Annex E.The DSA specifies the responsibilities of the recipient (i.e. Bioversity) responsible for its management and of the data providers as the owners of the data.The data providers (i.e. ex situ collections) agree to:1. provide the data in an agreed format for Bioversity to upload to MGIS 2. obtain all permissions and licences from third parties, including in relation to copyright and database rights, to allow the data to be made publicly available on MGIS 3. provide Bioversity only non-confidential data that is not subject to any restrictions 4. update their data at least once a year Bioversity, as MGIS manager agrees to:1. provide public access to MGIS via a website, and maintain this website and its user interfaces 2. not alter or modify the data, except for resizing of photos 3. acknowledge the source of the data and not claim any copyright or other intellectual property rights 4. pass on the same restrictions to the users in the form of a Terms of Use Agreement 5. make the data available to global information systems including GENESYS, the Global Information System for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (as per Article 17 of the International Treaty on PGRFA) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and ensure that the data providers are appropriately acknowledgedAs specified in the DSA, MGIS provides quality data to GENESYS, reflecting the work done by curators and experts within the framework of MusaNet to ensure a better, more relevant and valuable Musa documentation. In order to support the core activities of collections, they should have access to appropriate solutions for efficient management of their routine operations. Therefore, it is essential to increase data quality, data completeness and facilitate data capture with modern tools and appropriate standards. This could be done by i) making available a set of tools that will facilitate an increase in data of the conserved genepool by providing a global view of the conserved genetic diversity and ii) focusing on a subset of accessions and providing a catalogue of accessions well-documented for agronomic traits and in different environments and genetic background; thus promoting distribution and use. In this way, MGIS, as a global crop portal, can be used as a pivotal and reliable information management system for Musa genetic resources.Feedback on MGIS has been provided during a number of consultation meetings regarding users' expectations, improvements on data ownership, on usability and data quality. Below are the main areas of improvement:• Many users require more information than just accession-level information. For example, users often need general taxonomic information to be able to search accessions. Information on specific cultivars can be obtained in Musapedia, which can easily be linked to MGIS• MGIS should extend information on all Musa and include data from more collections• MGIS needs to bridge the gap between molecular data and related analysis tools• Data quality, reliability and validation should be improved by using tools such as the ones developed for the Musa Crop Registry to help identify cross-referenced accessions between MGIS collections• The number of high quality photos with proper ownership credits should be increased• Access to publications and references should be improved for verification of data in MGIS• Incentives for collection curators to provide data could be promoted such as collaborative projects (e.g. the Taxonomic Reference Collection project)• Acknowledgement and recognition of contributions is crucial. The data ownership could be improved by creating functional links between all collections, curators and MGIS to encourage the provision of clean data (both for data providers and for MGIS), including clear data attribution and recognition• MGIS can help in networking all collections' databases. Regular contacts and communication between MGIS and the collection curators should be strengthened to motivate data providers and improve data quality in a sustainable way• Feedback to and from MGIS should still be through personal contacts with MGIS and the collections managers and not through automatic systems. Users need to know the person behind the system and the source of information to interact more actively• MGIS must facilitate access to evaluation data.The overall objective is to ensure that the data collected through MGIS and linked Musa databases are reliable enough, freely accessible and downloadable, thus becoming the main source of information for Musa genetic resources. An effort should be carried out to simplify the flow of data being shared and to facilitate the exchange of data between collections. MGIS should also facilitate importing/exporting data from/into electronic spreadsheets and printing summary information on accessions (similar to cultivar cards in the Musalogue catalogue (Daniells et al. 2001).Special attention and efforts are required to ensure that collection curators receive support, in a timely and effectively manner, to ensure a better documentation of their collection. As an example, training sessions were organized for such purpose during three recent MusaNet workshops (at CIRAD, Guadeloupe in 2013, at NRCB, Trichy in 2014, and at CARBAP, Cameroon in 2015). Training material for MGIS and Grin-Global needs to be disseminated including on-line help and video demonstrations. Finally, increased visibility and acknowledgement of curators and data providers is critical for encouraging data sharing and research collaboration. National and regional networks are important and can assist in stimulating dialogue to convince heads of national research institutions to share data on Musa germplasm.Data quality and completion can be greatly enhanced by training and supporting collections with tools and standards. The release of a new version of MGIS desktop application supporting the exchange of data combined with development of user-friendly mobile applications for data capture can help reach this objective. Moreover, image search recognition technology will be investigated for computer-assisted identification as well as the use of ontologies to ensure annotation of agronomic data in a standardized way. Finally, comprehensive documentation will be reached by integrating several layers of scientific knowledge generated in advanced labs, greenhouses and in fields by genebank curators, molecular biologists and breeders. Dealing with the wealth of molecular and phenotyping data and enabling interoperability between information systems will offer a platform of reference for the documentation of banana genetic resources.Efforts are continuously made to improve data quality in MGIS and MusaNet members are collectively working to improve the quality of the data at the collection level. As an illustration, workshops have been organized to train curators on the use of MGIS and to share experience on characterization and germplasm management. MGIS has undergone a number of revisions to respond to the feedback gathered during these workshops. MGIS was recently expanded to include representative sets of pictures for the characterization of the accessions. It will facilitate and encourage the use of MGIS data and photos by allowing the online creation of Musalogue-like cards (Arnaud and Horry 1997).It is therefore important to ensure that curators receive appropriate guidelines, tools and training. As a first step, MusaNet published guidelines for taking the minimum set of photos (TAG 2010). This approach requires a closer relationship and collaboration between curators and information system managers to ensure that high quality data is provided. It is important to acknowledge that a mechanism to improve quality of the data in MGIS will rely on curators, who play a crucial role in achieving improved documentation. Also, increasing the amount of collection data in MGIS should lead to an improved, effective, and user-friendly information system with cross-references, as exists for rice and wheat (Hazekamp et al. 2014).Indeed, MGIS can support rationalization, gaps analyses and identification of potential inconsistencies in passport data (e.g. misclassification). This has never been achieved, mainly because of lack of input from experts who required appropriate data, in particular a set of quality pictures. There is a need for a group of experts to provide oversight not only for the taxonomic information but also for the development of the content of the database. Addressing the information needs of germplasm users requires strategic thinking in terms of data gathering, quality control, analysis and provision. Data quality scrutiny of the MGIS database content should be regularly performed and facilitated by standardized workflows. Accessions with limited data should be particularly analysed to identify additional information that could be included (e.g. presence of seeds in a bunch). There is also a need to confirm certain accessions, especially those only known by local name as discussed in the ITC impact review (Garming et al. 2010).As a result, germplasm datasets will be updated and cleaned following published literature on improving and managing the quality of passport data maintained in databases (van Hintum et al. 2011) and in partnership with curators of the collections. Additionally, the completion of passport data from individual collections will be scrutinized prior to inclusion into the MGIS database to improve the Passport Data Complexion Index (PDCI) and the same will apply for characterization and evaluation data. MGIS will provide more information on the geographical sites of the collections and facilitate the exchange of information between collection curators. It can promote the use of germplasm from specific collections if it contains information on its availability. This standardized detailed examination will allow the Musa community to feel confident about the credibility of the data included in MGIS for any subsequent analyses.Apart from guidelines, one way to support data quality is to promote the use of mobile devices (e.g. field books) for gathering characterization information in an electronic format, which should facilitate the efficient collection, management and the publication of data. MusaNet's Diversity Thematic Group will support the development of such tools to better document Musa spp. genetic resources. A final version of the mobile device application, MusaTab, tested at recent MusaNet workshops, will be freely available in 2016. The further development of such devices is strongly recommended as it not only facilitates the data recording but provides integrated tools such as a camera to take photos associated to specific descriptors as well as training videos on how to interpret specific character descriptors.A potential application of this approach would be cultivar recognition and identification based on digital images collected during field verification evaluations of ITC accessions or germplasm descriptors. Another potential application could be the ability to perform GIS analysis on geo-referenced Musa spp., with their corresponding characterization information using raw data downloaded from the MGIS database. Synergies can be established with international initiatives like Pl@ntNet (Joly et al. 2014), who are developing software to compare botanical pictures against a database in order to help in the identification process. In 2011, Pl@ ntNet developed a prototype with a set of pictures extracted from MGIS representing the different states of seven descriptors. It raised the need for more and better quality photos which is currently being addressed with the guidelines and development of the mobile application. Based on the updated descriptors list for banana and datasets, a revitalized version of Musa.ID (Perrier and Tézenas Du Montcel 1990) is proposed to support taxonomical identification with probabilistic models. The release of the new version is planned for May 2016 and will be available for download from MGIS.The ITC code (the number that identifies an accessions in the ITC global collection) is widely used and it should become standard practice to quote it for any germplasm under research and related publications. The accession code from the original collection should also be quoted, especially when the material is not present in the ITC collection. This is a pre-requisite for fostering interoperability between diverse resources on banana genetic resources.Breeders need information related to fertility, post-harvest qualities and use of cultivars elsewhere, which is not available in MGIS. The taxonomic reference set of cultivars may provide a starting point for gathering complementary data on quantitative traits, uses, etc. For instance, it has been proposed to provide information on the importance and value of the cultivar, including commercial and indigenous knowledge, post-harvest fruit quality, pests and diseases and other agronomic characteristics and performance. For that purpose, MGIS should be linked to other information resources such as Musapedia (http://www. promusa.org/Musapedia) and the Musa Literature database, MusaLit (http://www.musalit.org/).As for many other crops, insufficient genetic information is available about the holdings in genebanks. However, large-scale genetic and phenotypic characterization of germplasm collections has great potential to change the way scientists deal with genetic resources (McCouch et al. 2012). Massive amounts of sequence data are also being generated in banana (Hueber et al. 2015) and users of genebanks should be in a position to select germplasm material based on a combination of passport, genotypic and phenotypic information from the global genepool. A new generation of information systems needs to be designed to efficiently handle this information and link it to external resources such as genome databases (Guignon et al. 2015). The latest version of MGIS includes genetic studies based on genotyping with microsatellite markers and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from Genotyping-By-Sequencing (GBS) on several hundred accessions. Taking advantage of those datasets, we can strengthen interoperability between genetic resources and the genomic context available (D'Hont et al. 2012;Davey et al. 2013;Martin et al. 2016) and managed in the Banana Genome Hub (Droc et al. 2013), as illustrated in Figure 9.2. The Banana Genome Hub contains the Musa acuminata genome of reference as well as related datasets such as geneexpression data coming from various publications related to biotic or abiotic stress and fruit quality (e.g. Li et al. 2012;Bai et al. 2013;Jourda et al. 2014;Lee et al. 2015;Zorrilla-Fontanesi et al. 2016). It will pave the way to identify chromosome regions or genes involved in important agricultural traits (e.g. genomewide association studies (GWAS)) to better understand mosaic genome structure, structural variations and functional gene diversity between accessions. Further options will be explored in consultation with the MusaNet Genomics Thematic Group (GTG). Evaluation trials are often performed through specific projects beyond a genebank's remit, but very often the germplasm used in these trials comes from the genebank, and therefore it is beneficial for the collection to connect these data to accessions held in the collection. This linkage ensures a better and more exhaustive documentation oriented to the use of germplasm. Until now, evaluation data has been stored in MGIS as observations made by curators in their collections but not explicitly linked to the accessions. A first attempt was made with IMTP data that were stored in the Global Agricultural Trial Repository (http://www. agtrials.org), but it unfortunately has limitations for interoperability.With an increasing amount of phenotypic information available, one of the key limiting factors in their use is the lack of standard nomenclature used to describe crop development and agronomic traits. Plant breeders measure several traits to understand the phenotype, based on genotype and environment variations. In order to facilitate access to data held in a range of databases and facilitate the harmonization of the data, we will use a crop ontology portal that provides access to multi-crop passport data, anatomy, development stages, and agronomic traits (Shrestha et al. 2010;2012). The ontology is a harmonized and structured list of traits, names, methods and scales of measurement that can be used in databases like MGIS to handle evaluation data (Van den Bergh et al. 2014). Ontologies can easily be uploaded or created online, which encourages partnerships for the cross-referencing of terms. However, ontologies for Musa are still in their infancy and will require further support from the MusaNet ETG. This relates to the integration of phenotypic, genotypic and environmental data associated with a given trait. The main source of Musa germplasm available for distribution internationally is the ITC, which holds the most comprehensive set of diversity that can be obtained from a single source and for which the health status is guaranteed (see Chapter 7 -The ITC Global Musa Collection). However, only small sample sizes can be provided by the ITC. National repository and dissemination centres are therefore necessary to meet the demand for germplasm. For example, in the Asia-Pacific area, 13 national centres and one regional distribution centre were established (at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), in Fiji), but this additional capacity is still insufficient to meet users' needs.The stakeholders directly affected by the distribution and safe exchange issues addressed here are the genebanking community, the governmental and non-governmental collections, botanical gardens, conservation scientists, managers and service providers who are responsible for the sustainable conservation of Musa genetic resources. Key users are the banana research community and networks (universities, NARS, IARCs, private sector) that need access to biologically well-defined material as a tool for generating new knowledge; and the banana breeders who need sources of genes, pre-bred material and associated information to develop superior cultivars. The ultimate beneficiaries, thanks to improved agricultural productivity, are the farming communities, production and processing industry and consumers.Other stakeholders in the system are policy makers and authorities regulating access to and exchange of genetic resources in accordance with treaty obligations and local, national and international phytosanitary legislation.An important constraint to germplasm use is the difficulty faced by many scientists in obtaining materials from national collections from other countries. Policy and legal restrictions on access create bottlenecks and hinder efforts to ensure that genetic diversity contributes to improving cultivars in order to strengthen food security for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on them. Furthermore, every country is dependent on genetic resources from other countries for their own needs.To address the fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of crop genetic resources, the ITPGRFA came into force in 2004 with currently 146 countries as contracting parties and signatories. The objectives of the ITPGRFA are the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security. The ITPGRFA promotes international cooperation and open exchange of genetic resources, essential for food security. Through the ITPGRFA, countries agree to establish an efficient, effective and transparent Multilateral System (MLS) to facilitate access and share the benefits arising out of their use in a fair and equitable way. The MLS includes 64 crops and forages (referred to as Annex 1 crops). All Musa species except Musa textilis are included in the Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA. In addition, all collections maintained by the CGIAR including the ITC at Bioversity and IITA are included in the ITPGRFA under the Article 15b.The Governing Body of the ITPGRFA has set out the conditions for access and benefit-sharing in a Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA). The SMTA should be signed for each Musa sample that is sent from collections in the public domain of countries signatory to the ITPGRFA and received by any users. The SMTA facilitates the tracking of germplasm use, it ensures that the material remains in the public domain and indicates the rights and obligations linked to the reception of germplasm. The main benefits of sharing germplasm are the enhancement of improvement programmes, the sharing of information and technologies, and capacity building.Most requests for germplasm from national collections require a formal approval from the institute's administration and the signing of a material transfer agreement (MTA) (an SMTA if the material falls under the ITPGRFA). In addition to an MTA, users may also have to obtain import permits and phytosanitary certificates to obtain germplasm. In many countries, the process for approving a request may involve high levels of government, which can create delays in responding to and fulfilling the request.Out of the 56 Musa collections surveyed in the Global Musa Survey, 67% confirmed that their material is available for distribution outside of the country, whereas 33% of collections maintain germplasm that is not available for distribution outside the country. Only 25 of the 56 institutes use an SMTA for distribution and 4 institutes use an MTA developed by their institute for bilateral agreements. For the ITC collection, all accessions are part of the ITPGRFA and therefore exchange of germplasm occurs upon acceptance of the terms and conditions of the SMTA by the requestor. Only germplasm that is tested virus-negative is available for distribution.Musa germplasm can be distributed in the form of suckers, corms or in vitro plantlets as clonal propagation material. Information on the average number of accessions distributed per year was provided in the Global Musa Survey by about 35 collections. However, the data are difficult to analyse as some collections may have interpreted accessions and number of plants as the same and therefore numbers vary greatly, from 0 to 10,500 per year. But several points are salient:• A number of collections indicated that their annual distribution of materials to local users as well as users outside the region was very low and zero in many cases• Few collections provided exact figures, most provided an estimate and many (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) did not provide any data• A few mentioned that material is distributed for project-specific research and in these cases, many accessions are targeted.   The most frequent groups of external users of the Musa germplasm surveyed, in order, are researchers (rated as frequent by 80% of respondents), farmers (60%), the public sector (53%) and breeders (47%).The lower percentage use (based on requests) of the material by breeders can be due to the fact that globally there are very few Musa breeders. This was also reflected in the main purposes for the use of the disseminated materials mentioned, which are research activities (85% of respondents rated this as a frequent use), evaluation (75%), characterization (60%) and distribution to growers (67%), leaving prebreeding and breeding to be rated a frequent use by only 30% of respondents.The main purpose for the use of the disseminated materials, as reported by ex situ collections is for research activities (85%), evaluation (70%), distribution to growers (67%) and characterization (60%). The material is used for pre-breeding and breeding in 30% of the cases and for biotechnological research in 36% of cases.The most important factors limiting the distribution and use of materials mentioned by the surveyed collections was the limited quantity of material available, material that is not certified disease free and lack of facilities/expertise to index the health status of germplasm. It is surprising to observe that documentation is not perceived by collection curators as a major limiting factor when this is regularly mentioned by users. See details in Table 10.1 below.Other factors mentioned as major problems in the distribution and use of germplasm:• In vitro activation of integrated BSV in B-genome accessions (see Section 10.1.2 below)• Importation into some countries such as Australia can take two years to process before release Only virus indexed tissue culture plants can be legally moved across Australia• Limited resources especially the human resources capacity in many countries• Not enough researchers and financial support• The complexity of the SMTA to receive ITC materials• No request for some of the materials• Not all accessions are of economic importance for adoption as cultivars. For the conserved material to be exchanged, it first needs to be free of pests and pathogens including fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects. Accessions need to be carefully monitored during storage. Specific methods for detecting pathogens vary by organism and host, and protocols are required for accurate identification of most pathogens.Viruses pose the major risk in the transfer of in vitro germplasm. The Technical Guidelines for Safe Movement of Musa Germplasm 3 rd edition (Thomas 2015) describe technical procedures that minimize the risk of pest introductions due to the movement of germplasm for research, crop improvement, plant breeding, exploration or conservation. They are intended to provide the best possible phytosanitary information to institutions involved in small-scale plant germplasm exchange for research purposes. These guidelines are available online at www.musanet.org.The safe movement of Musa germplasm requires adequate virus-indexing procedures. The currently recommended method is for a subset of tissue culture plantlets of an accession to be grown in post-entry quarantine for six months. Visual examination, molecular testing and electron microscopy is carried out at three and six months. Specific tests are undertaken for known viruses and non-specific tests for unknown viruses, and only plants indexed virus-negative are available for distribution.The Global Musa Survey collected information on the following most damaging biotic agents affecting the ex situ field collections:1. Fusarium wilt There are currently three Musa virus-indexing centres in Australia (University of Queensland), Belgium (University of Liège), and Nigeria (IITA), linked to regional collections. The role of a global virus-indexing centre is to test all germplasm deposited into a collection such as the ITC so that it can be distributed safely following the technical guidelines. The virus-indexing system through which all existing ITC accessions have passed (and new accessions will continue to be passed) provides a comprehensive mechanism to ensure that germplasm is, as far as possible, free of all viruses. At this time, about 60% of the ITC collection is virus negative and available for international distribution. For cost-effectiveness, a pre-indexing process that functions in concert with the formal virus-indexing centres is being undertaken at the University of Liège in Belgium.Regional centres can also play an important role in facilitating regional exchanges. At the moment, however, procedures are not uniform across all regional centres and although there are acceptable alternative protocols, they must be approved and validated before being implemented.One major issue impeding the distribution of Musa germplasm, particularly from the ITC, is the presence of infective, endogenous banana streak viruses (BSV), which are integrated in the banana B genome, and can be activated to cause episomal virus infections under some circumstances. In vitro culture and hybridization are two common factors which can trigger activation and subsequent field disease.Interestingly, after the thorough characterization of eBSV from the three main BSV species (Obino l'Ewai virus -BSOLV; Goldfinger virus -BSGFV; Imové virus -BSIMV) unearthed in the seedy M. balbisiana diploid Pisang Klutuk Wulung (PKW), the CIRAD team named \"Biodiversity of endogenous and exogenous Badnaviruses\" has developed specific PCR and derived Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequence (dCAPS) molecular markers enabling the genotyping of infective and non-infective eBSV alleles of these three BSV species (Gayral et al. 2008, Chabannes et al. 2013). They also demonstrated that these alleles were strongly conserved among the Musa diversity (Duroy et al. 2016). These tools are and will be crucial to screen germplasm collection, genitors and segregating populations during breeding programs by markers assisted selection (MAS). Those markers have already been fruitfully used at CIRAD to generate, by self-pollination or duplication of chromosomes sets from haploid lines, some M. balbisiana disinfected of any infective eBSV sequences (Umber et al. 2016). More recently and in collaboration with the CARBAP, CIRAD has produced eBSV-free AAB triploid offspring (i.e. free from both infective and non-infective eBSV) in mimicking the conventional plantain breeding programme 4x/2x (Noumbissié et al. 2016). Finally, the molecular markers have been used to genotype all B-containing genotypes from the ITC germplasm collection pointing out that the biggest majority (>95%) of the accessions harbours at least one of the three infective eBSVs.In this context, and through MusaNet, a small task force of specialists has devised a strategy to minimize the risks associated with the distribution of endogenous BSV-containing germplasm, while ensuring that recipients are fully aware of the potential issues. A position paper outlining this proposal (MusaNet 2015b) was drafted by the task force and circulated for public comment in July 2015 and presented to the GCDT in October 2015. This strategy will, by the end of 2016, open a large quantity of B genome material for distribution. In particular, a further 300 accessions conserved at the ITC would be available, raising the percentage of the ITC collection available for distribution from 60% to 90%.A long-term goal of the Musa research community is that the effective conservation of maximum diversity will be permanently assured through a functional network of collections that actively contribute to and benefit from shared standards, strengthened technical capacity, and effective germplasm and information exchange. Through intensive characterization, collections will be rationalized and a core collection of accessions, embodying the total available Musa diversity, will be identified and held at the ITC and in 2-3 field collections. Plant health testing methods will be continually improved and updated, and the technology will be transferred to regional laboratories to maximize the health status of collections and facilitate free and safe exchange of germplasm.An important step towards increased accessibility is that contracting parties of the ITPGRFA indicate the collections that are under their control and in the public domain and make them available to all users through the use of a material transfer agreement. Crucial in this process is the provision of information on the legal frameworks and convincing stakeholders that the unrestricted flow of genetic resources is in the interest of all. In this respect, it would be very useful, through educational and public awareness programmes targeting the broadest range of stakeholders, to increase awareness of the importance of Musa genetic resources diversity and its access for conservation and use.Assured access and distribution of Musa germplasm will result in benefits such as increased use of diversity in breeding programmes, increased knowledge of available traits, increased sharing of information, technologies and capacity building, reduced duplication of conservation efforts, and increased safety for the long-term preservation of material. If held only in national field collections or even in vivo in the wild, it could be under threat by pests and disease, or deforestation.Access to wild and local diversity particularly should be further stimulated and incentives found, such as increased visibility for national collections for sharing the materials and duplicating them in the ITC.It was recommended during the 2011 MusaNet meeting that more collaborative conservation initiatives between collections should be set up. For example, the Trust-supported project on conserving banana diversity for use in perpetuity aimed to increase the access and exchange of a wider diversity from a number of countries, through creating mutual benefits such as the upgrading of their collections, backingup for health testing and cooperation in cryopreservation. Despite limited resources in many collections, around 150 accessions were duplicated at the ITC in vitro storage, and 132 accessions were cryopreserved at the ITC. New characterization data was entered into MGIS from several collections. The project also strengthened the virus-indexing capacity of the SPC in French Polynesia.In general, better interaction with germplasm users and with the research community will help collections ensure that quality material is provided, thereby enhancing the exchange of germplasm.It is also recommended that more functional partnerships are established for increased exchange, for better characterized materials and improved evaluation in a range of environments. Considering the high number of users carrying out evaluation trials with ITC germplasm, a strategy could be set up to encourage feedback of research results from users in order to better capture these evaluation data in public databases like MGIS.At the global level, access to germplasm and associated information will be increased through better links between the ITC and the data providers from national collections into MGIS, providing regular updates on availability of new germplasm or new information on ITC accessions. An on-line ordering tool has been developed in MGIS to facilitate selection of the most appropriate germplasm from the ITC and linking accessions to an automatically generated SMTA. The system should also integrate a feedback system for information on distribution and monitoring use of germplasm from partner collections. See Chapter 7 -the ITC Global Musa Collection and Chapter 9 on Information Management for more information.As of 2015, over 800 accessions from the ITC have also been made available to users in the form of lyophilized leaf samples. Although leaf samples are only used for DNA studies (plants cannot be regenerated from leaves), the leaf bank is a cost effective way to preserve the molecular materials and representative information from each species and cultivar in the collection, serving as a future reference and facilitating the exchange of genetic materials among molecular scientists. Compared with living plant materials, distribution of dried leaf samples offers the advantages of less to no quarantine and SMTA concerns, lower transportation costs, minimal risk of deterioration in transit and significantly reduced delivery time.The revised Technical Guidelines for Safe Movement of Musa Germplasm (Thomas 2015) brings up to date information concerning virus indexing to determine the phytosanitary status of the germplasm for research, conservation and basic plant breeding purposes (including plant biotechnology). It is also important that the field collections have access to the necessary indexing expertise in regions to minimize the risk of transferring virus-infected material. Where necessary, training in approved indexing methodologies should be given. An accreditation system for indexing laboratories would allow more confidence in the regional movement of germplasm. A ring test developed via the Regeneration project could be extended to more collections having the facilities and skills to perform virus indexing using ELISA and PCR methods. This could serve as a pre-indexing and thus improve overall cost efficiency.BSVs are a major impediment to the international transfer of valuable germplasm. Determination of which B genome accessions are at risk of endogenous BSV activation is a priority, as this knowledge would assist in the selection of infected cultivars for virus elimination and potential distribution. There was an informed discussion on the relative risks and advantages of distributing this material, and a consensus was reached among stakeholders following the publication of the MusaNet position paper in October 2015 (www. musanet.org). The agreed proposal includes a relaxation of the rules by fully informing the recipients of the risks of endogenous BSV and allowing the importing country to make the ultimate decision on receiving germplasm which contains infective endogenous BSV which may be activated at some stage. This will open up hundreds of accessions to the research community as well as allow the ITC to achieve its performance goal of making 90% of the collection available for distribution.Also concerning the BSV problem, continued research into viruses and virus therapy is required. The main needs are to shorten virus indexing time, keep indexing protocols up to date and efficiently manage BSVinfected accessions.One of the main recommendations to facilitate the exchange of germplasm is to focus on what scientists can do to ensure that research results are published and publicly available. The spirit of the ITPGRFA is to benefit all and not just one or few countries. A network such as MusaNet can help in facilitating partnerships for increased exchange of well-characterized material and improved evaluation in a range of environments. The incentives for national collections are the assurance that their collections are safely backed up and documented by sharing their materials with the ITC and to also putting more focus on the value and use of their collections' diversity.There is a need for more exchange of disease-free material between countries within regions. Working toward this goal, regional networks will work to strengthen their virus-indexing capacity, by building up in vitro collections, optimizing plant conservation and multiplication strategies or equipping collections with virusindexing kits customized to detect predominant diseases within the region (e.g. banana bunchy top virus). Such mechanisms should be developed in consultation with national authorities, regional agricultural research-anddevelopment fora, and relevant organizations and statutory bodies, such as the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) with the secretariat at FAO and regional and national plant protection organizations.Given the various users' feedback outlined in this section, the recommendations of the Global Strategy concerning distribution and safe exchange are to:• Increase the distribution of germplasm (B genome) with infectious endogenous BSV• Clarify the legal status of germplasm in some national collections• Help in overcoming legal and practical barriers to free exchange by consulting with stakeholders on critical issues (e.g. phytopathologists, curators, and plant protection organisations)• Increase the involvement of farmers, seed systems and multiplication centres in consultation processes• Increase public awareness of the importance of Musa genetic resource diversity at the global level but also at local level via involving schools (the leaders of tomorrow)• Ensure quality control mechanisms support national collections in being fully and safely accessible by establishing Quality Management Systems (QMS) in genebanks (See Chapter 7 on the ITC)• Better identify the users and their needs through follow up surveys sent by genebanks (eg ITC) to recipients of germplasm• Focus on the needs of breeders and phytopathologists through increased consultation and collaboration among breeders, researchers, national collections and genebanks.The ultimate aim of the global system for ex situ conservation is to conserve the entire Musa genepool in perpetuity and promote the safe exchange of a wide range of diverse Musa germplasm. The distribution and safe exchange work plan is as follows:Major factor1. Increased awareness of the need for high health status germplasm• Update and extend the disease Factsheets (http://www. promusa.org/Pests+and+diseases+portal) following the recently updated the Technical Guidelines for Safe Movement of Musa Germplasm (Thomas 2015)2. Continue to improve the efficiency of virus indexing protocols• Review current indexing protocols to highlight deficiencies and inefficiencies• Assess potentially useful alternative virus-indexing methods and adopt those found to be superior 3. Increase the capacity for virus indexing in national and regional centres• Survey to determine links between collections and diagnostic facilities, and the resources and expertise available at these facilities• Determine key laboratories in a position to assist strategically important collections• Extend the use of a ring test to more collections having the facilities and skills to perform virus indexing using ELISA and PCR methods. According to the FAO 2nd State of the World Report on PGRFA (FAO 2010), one of the most significant constraints to the use of plant genetic resources is the lack of publicly available evaluation data for most accessions -even on standard agronomic and physiological traits-and the capacity to manage such data.Breeders and other researchers require readily available and comprehensive datasets to select germplasm for further studies, for use in breeding programs or for testing and promotion to farmers and other endusers. Data on agronomic traits, host reaction to pests and diseases and abiotic constraints, post-harvest characteristics and quality (and an integration of the available knowledge) are crucial to help scientists and potential end-users select the right materials.There are different stages and levels of germplasm evaluation, including:1. In situ assessment of genetic resources and compilation of indigenous traditional knowledge, to guide early selection and acquisition of new accessions with relevant traits into collections 2. Preliminary evaluation of accessions in ex situ collections, recording relevant observations on basic traits, such as general performance in the specific environment or fruit quality 3. Targeted screening of a wide range of germplasm for specific traits of interest through phenotyping and genotyping, including high-throughput mass-screening under controlled conditions 4. Evaluation in early stages of selection and preliminary yield trials to assess the performance of accessions for specific traits under field conditions 5. Advanced yield trials in multiple locations to fully assess the influence of the environment and growing conditions on the performance of promising accessions 6. Farmers' participatory trials in target end-user environments to select end-user-preferred accessions for cultivar release and wide-scale adoption.These stages are not always clearly delineated, nor do they always take place in a linear (sequential) way.It is estimated that there could be as many as 1,000 different banana cultivars (INIBAP 2006) and possibly up to 70 wild species (Häkkinen and Väre 2008). According to the MusaNet survey of Musa collections, 56 institutes conserve over 15,000 accessions (see Table D.2 -Institutes managing Musa genetic diversity in Annex D) that are thus potentially available for use by breeders, researchers, farmers or consumers. Below, we attempt to give an assessment of past and current evaluation activities of this banana diversity, and the main lessons learnt.Besides information on the taxonomic status of collected genetic resources and general information on the collection site, the Descriptors for Banana (Musa spp) (IPGRI-INIBAP, CIRAD 1996) also recommends collecting information on the use of the fruit and other plant parts, and on environmental conditions at the collection site. These can give a first indication of the value of the material and its host reaction to the prevailing biotic and/or abiotic constraints. The local name(s) given to banana genetic resources also often reveal useful information about the characteristics of the material. In addition, the so-called collector's notes, which capture relevant observations by the collector or local knowledge on traits of interest, are particularly informative and show that there is a wealth of knowledge to be captured at the time of collection.In the Global Musa Survey, between 48 and 50 collections provided information on the characterization, evaluation and breeding activities carried out with the germplasm from their collections. Half (50%) of the collections regularly carry out evaluation of other important traits, in addition to host reaction to pests and diseases (35%), and a quarter (26%) carry out hybrid or clonal trials on a routine basis. See Table 11.1 above for detailed results.It thus seems that a significant number of accessions in collections are still not evaluated. In addition, for those accessions that have been evaluated, it is often hard to get access to the data. For example, only about one fourth of the 3,630 accessions recorded in MGIS have evaluation data, and only for a limited set of agronomic traits. These data most likely underestimate the real percentage of accessions evaluated and many more data for a range of traits may exist that are not necessarily available through MGIS.A quick review of publications in Musalit (www.musalit.org) dealing with germplasm evaluation indicate that most of these report on agronomic performance or host reaction to pests and diseases. Data on response to abiotic constraints and fruit quality traits appear to be less available. This is not surprising given that the principal traits sought by plant breeders are related to yield and its components (FAO 2010), and pest and disease resistance. We see the same trend in banana, with formal cultivar selection and crop improvement programs mostly focusing on a limited number of economically important traits, such as yield or disease resistance.Despite this focus, there are still a number of important diseases for which no or very few natural sources of resistance have been identified. For instance, alarmingly few sources of resistance have been identified to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), which is already a major constraint to banana production in Asia and is spreading to other parts of the world. TR4 could potentially affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people dependent on bananas if no resistant cultivars with good consumer acceptance and market potential are available and adopted.Drought is another serious constraint to banana production, for which there is little knowledge about tolerant cultivars. Some progress has been made in recent years to investigate the mechanisms underpinning drought tolerance, but more systematic, reliable field studies to screen the genepool for tolerance to drought is needed. With drought incidence expected to worsen in the near future, there is an urgent need to identify cultivars that are appropriate for drought-prone areas.The International Musa Testing Programme (IMTP -http://www.promusa.org/IMTP) was established in 1989 by INIBAP in response to the needs of national programmes to provide famers with banana cultivars resistant to the major diseases affecting production. It was set up as a collaborative effort coordinated by Bioversity International to evaluate elite banana cultivars in multiple sites worldwide, using agreed evaluation protocols (Carlier et al. 2002;2003).There have been three phases of IMTP (starting in 1989IMTP (starting in , 1996IMTP (starting in and 2005)). In phase I, seven tetraploid hybrids developed by the banana breeding programme of FHIA in Honduras were tested for resistance to black leaf streak in six countries. Four years later, the recommendation was made to release three clones for distribution (Jones and Tézenas du Montcel 1994): FHIA-01 and FHIA-02, both dessert banana cultivars with outstanding agronomic performance and high resistance to black leaf streak, and FHIA-03, a cooking banana that also performed well. These three clones have since been distributed to more than 50 countries worldwide. In phase II, four programmes (FHIA in Honduras; EMBRAPA in Brazil; the Instituto de Investigaciones en Viandas Tropicales (INIVIT) in Cuba; and the Taiwan Banana Research Institute (TBRI) in Taiwan contributed germplasm, and the number of testing sites increased from 6 to 37. The results (Orjeda 2000) suggested that, among the different materials tested, FHIA-23 and SH-3436-9 were the most tolerant to black leaf streak. The improved hybrid with the best overall performance was FHIA-23. An improved cultivar that deserves special mention is GCTCV-119, which had the lowest discoloration score for both Foc races and good yields under good management.Eighteen countries participated in phase III to which five breeding programmes contributed germplasm (FHIA in Honduras; IITA in Uganda and Nigeria; TBRI in Taiwan; CARBAP in Cameroon; and the CIRAD in Guadeloupe). For the first time, some partners carried out in-depth studies that involved epidemiological and ecological research, while the others undertook simplified performance trials against specific diseases. A standard procedure for data management and statistical analysis was also developed. 'FHIA-25', an AABB cooking type, had the highest average annual yield, followed by 'FHIA-17', an AAAA Gros Michel type dessert banana (Crichton and Van den Bergh 2016).The IMTP allowed for new materials coming out of breeding and selection programmes to be evaluated in a range of environments and to become more widely known to next users. The IMTP also stimulated further local testing of a subset of new materials with beneficial traits for the specific country or location. The materials included in the different phases of the IMTP have all been shared with the ITC and are available for distribution to interested parties. Trial sites, mainly geared to assessing resistance to Fusarium wilt, black leaf streak and later also nematodes, were increasingly also used for other evaluations (e.g. fruit micronutrient content) or to answer key questions about pathogen, disease and host interactions. The IMTP also sought to strengthen the capacity of national institutes to evaluate improved materials and to carry out research on banana for local consumption.Adoption and impact on local communities of new banana cultivars has often been slow and lower than expected. This may be at least partly explained by the fact that evaluation programs often focus on a few economically important traits and that farmers are mostly involved only at the very end of the testing pipeline. This approach fails to take into account other potentially important traits for which the economic value may be more difficult to assess, such as traits related to consumers' taste preferences, local recipes, cultural values, or the relative role of men and women in production, processing and marketing. Working in close collaboration with farmers during the whole evaluation process allows the quantification of the suitability of each cultivar to local farming conditions, while sensory evaluations with consumers provide feedback on taste and other organoleptic features, as well as processing potential.While having shown its value in the evaluation and adoption of other crops, such as rice and potato, true participatory varietal selection is still relatively unexplored in banana. Only a handful of publications in Musalit specifically mention a participatory evaluation approach in their title, though it is believed that more participatory trials are actually being conducted.SECTION 11.2 EVALUATION -WHERE WE WANT TO GO 11.2.1 Banana types and uses around the world For cultivars to be used and adopted, they need to respond to the real needs and preferences of the target end-users, and this needs to be taken into account throughout the evaluation process. As highlighted above, evaluation programs often focus on a limited number of economically important traits, thus failing to take into account other potentially important traits for which the economic value may be more difficult to assess, such as traits related to consumers preferences (taste, flavour, processing ability, satiety feeling), cultural values, or the relative role of men and women in production, processing and marketing.Banana cultivars, and the traits they are selected for, differ significantly between regions, and between locations within regions. Globally, different types of cultivars are grown for a variety of uses, and pest and disease constraints have different importance depending on the region, as environmental conditions are often complex and highly variable.In Asia and the Pacific, the most important banana group is the Cavendish (AAA) type accounting for 59% of regional production, either for export (China, Taiwan, India, and Philippines) or for local use (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia and Thailand). Gros Michel (AAA) and other dessert bananas make up a further 16% of production (Philippines, Indonesia, India and Malaysia). The remaining 25% of production are cooking bananas, that are of medium to high importance in some countries, comprising AAB 'Maoli-Popo'ulu and Iholena', ABB Pisang Awak, Bluggoe, and Saba.In West and Central Africa, plantains (AAB) are of major importance and account for 69% of the production, mainly for local consumption. Dessert banana (e.g. Cavendish, Gros Michel) are of medium importance (24% of production), both for export and local markets. In East and Southern Africa, highland bananas (AAA) and other cooking types (ABB) make up 76% of the total production and are of major importance for different uses. Plantains are of lower significance (7% of production) than in West and Central Africa and dessert types account for 17% of production in the region.The bulk of production in Latin America and the Caribbean is of the Cavendish type, followed by plantains, other dessert types and other cooking types. The region is a major exporter of banana, accounting for 66% of global Cavendish exports, and also produces 72% of plantains traded on international markets. Nevertheless, 62% of banana production in the region is consumed locally, which indicates the high importance of the crop in local diets and food security throughout the region. Important cultivar groups for local consumption are Prata (AAB) in Brazil, Silk (AAB) in all Latin American countries, Gros Michel (AAA) in Central and South America in intercropping with forest trees, coffee and cacao, Bluggoe and Pisang Awak (ABB) in Nicaragua, Mexico and Cuba, and finally the important group of the Plantains (AAB).If adoption of cultivars by end-users is the final goal, the trait preferences of the different stakeholders along the value chain -including producers, processors, traders, consumers-need to be taken into account throughout the evaluation process.11.2.2 Traits to be evaluatedAt the MusaNet meeting in March 2011, the following traits were identified by the Evaluation Thematic Group (ETG) as being of global importance: resistance to Fusarium wilt, banana bunchy top and black leaf streak, drought tolerance, shelf life, dry matter content, vitamins and minerals content, height, yield and finger drop resistance.In 2012, participants to the MusaNet/Trust meeting in Bogor, Indonesia confirmed the importance of the three major diseases previously identified, namely Fusarium wilt, BBTV and black leaf streak, and the main abiotic constraints, namely drought (Figure 11.1 below). They also discussed the expected impact of climate change on Musa breeding objectives, and the need to evaluate more materials for more traits that could be of economic importance in the future. It was suggested that breeding programmes should focus efforts on the following traits in preparation for climate change: wind tolerance (shorter plants and strong root system for a better anchorage), drought tolerance (also including shorter cycles/early fruiting to avoid dry periods), salt tolerance, and plasticity regarding variation in rainfalls and succession of drought/flooding. The 2013 RTB online research priority setting survey 1 of Musa experts eliciting the most important constraints to banana yields and farmers' income also saw that main production constraints varied significantly from region to region (see Table 11.2), but in all regions, and across the CGIAR, banana pests and diseases ranked highest, although there was little significant difference between most of these. They also varied according to cultivar group. In terms of diseases, black leaf streak 2 (BLS, or black Sigatoka) Mycosphaerella fijiensis ranked the most serious constraint, followed by Fusarium wilt 3 caused by the soilborne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), then banana bunchy top virus 4 (BBTV), and banana Xanthomonas (bacterial) wilt 5 (BXW). The two pests, banana weevil 6 (Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar)) and burrowing nematode 7 (Radopholus similis) are considered slightly more threatening than BXW or BBTV.Other traits are more of regional importance. Meetings held by the four banana networks (BAPNET, BARNESA, MUSALAC, Innovate Plantain 8 ) are critical in identifying regional priorities. The networks are represented in MusaNet and thus contribute to MusaNet's objectives and activities. See Annex A on networks and partnerships for more information.The most recent BAPNET consultation (2014) brought to the fore the need for the collection of new varieties and evaluation of accessions already held in regional genebanks for traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance. Another priority is establishing a framework for investigating what diversity is being used in the region so that breeders as well as farmers can easily access what is already available.MUSALAC, which meets every couple of years, has recently focused on Fusarium wilt tolerance, soil health and suppressiveness and climate change and adaptation. Screening Asian cultivars for TR4 tolerance is a current concern. They also proposed that information resulting from evaluation trials needs to be made available to the public through a searchable database in order to facilitate priority setting.BARNESA priorities have included investigation into disease resistance, particularly Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) and work on in situ and on farm conservation practices.Innovate Plantain priority activities have focused on better management of pests and diseases, access to clean planting material and discovery and use of traits to mitigate the effects of climatic change.During the initial MusaNet meeting and subsequent follow-up interactions, the ETG identified, for different types of bananas in different regions, the major traits that need evaluation (see Table 11.2). The 2013 RTB online research priority setting survey also saw that main production constraints varied significantly from region to region (see Figure 11.2 below). They also varied according to cultivar group. BLS is hugely important in Latin America); while Fusarium wilt is more important in the Asia Pacific region (although the virulent tropical TR4 has now also entered Africa). BBTV is much less important in Latin America than elsewhere, and BXW is much more important in Africa than the other two regions. The two pests, Banana Weevil (Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar)) and burrowing nematode (Radopholus similis) are more or less equally important in the different regions. One recent iniative that will contribute to a better understanding of regional diversity is the inventory of the top 10 Musa varieties in each country. This is being carried out in several regions: in Latin America and Caribbean, collections are being surveyed in 2016 about their usage of ITC material and their most successful cultivars, while in West and Central Africa, a discussion on the top varieties took place at the regional MusaNet workshop in Cameroon in 2015. One of MusaNet's objectives is to expand this inventory to all regions and make the results available to collection curators and breeders, so that they can select and test varieties that have been successful in other countries/regions.However, for effective adoption to take place, evaluation programs will also need to take into account enduser preferences at a much more local scale. Breeders and other researchers require information on enduser needs and preferences, and need to link these to traits that can be objectively measured. The overall goal of the MusaNet ETG is to enhance the value of Musa genetic resources for different end users (including farmers, curators, breeders, and researchers) and thus encourage their use to improve the sustainability of banana productions systems and farmers' livelihoods.Musa genetic resources (including wild species, landraces, cultivar selections and improved materials) need to be evaluated for traits of interest, such as agronomic performance, host reaction to pests and diseases and post-harvest characteristics, under diverse environmental conditions through a user-oriented network. This process is expected to result in a better understanding of the Musa genepool and of the interactions between Musa, its major pathogens and the environment, and will eventually lead to an increased efficiency of banana breeding programmes and the development of more robust farmer recommendations. The resulting information and knowledge needs to be compiled and made available, and important traits highlighted to potential users.As part of a global network, the ETG will focus on traits of global relevance where cross-regional collaboration and learning is important and on traits of special importance in regions where high food insecurity and poverty incidence coincides with high importance of banana for food security or income generation. To still capture locally important traits, gender-sensitive participatory rural appraisal tools can be used to document the needs and preferences of the different actors along the banana production and value chains, to achieve a better understanding of underlying factors that determine the value that farmers and consumers attribute to different traits, and the criteria that they use for adoption or rejection of cultivars. Special attention should be given to the different roles, needs and preferences of men and women.The three main user groups identified are: breeders, the research community and farmers. The members of the ETG will have to work in close collaboration with researchers from different disciplines (agronomy, plant pathology, post-harvest, crop physiology, etc.), members from the other MusaNet Thematic Groups, curators of collections and many others.The four regional networks need to play an essential role in terms of regional coordination of activities, and ensuring the link with the end-users (farmers and consumers). They should continue to share their priorities with the ETG for future planning of activities within MusaNet. There also needs to be close collaboration with the ProMusa community, especially in the area of knowledge management.In order to allow comparison of evaluation data for specific traits between different environments and over time, there is need to develop and agree on a set of standard \"best-practice\" protocols for priority traits, as well as a standard set of reference cultivars. The ETG can play a role in the development of such guidelines.Despite the positive results of the previous phases of the program, the IMTP has also received some critical feedback, with the most important one probably being the fact that the adoption of the new cultivars has in general remained low. In addition, a real analysis of the interaction between the performance of the different genotypes and the environment (GxE analysis) was often not possible. Also, the trials were expensive, and most trials were carried out at the partner's own expense.Therefore, the format of future trials is changing to maximize chances for adoption of the new cultivars. Trial groups will be organized around certain banana types and targeted to relevant end-user environments. A variety of participatory rural appraisal tools will be used to identify, prioritize and document the needs and preferences of the different actors along the banana production and value chain.Two types of trials will be run consecutively: on-station trials to gain accurate data on cultivar performance, and on-farm participatory selection trials to facilitate access to and testing of the new material by end users (known as 'mother-baby' trials). The experimental design of the on-station trials has been optimized to include better characterization of the abiotic environment, simplification of the variables to be measured, and the grouping of variables into core and additional modules. Farmers are being invited to visit the on-station trials and select a subset of cultivars for testing in their own fields. The on-farm trials are fully managed by the farmers, who will rate the performance of the new cultivars in comparison with their local checks. Through farmers' group discussions, household-level surveys and stakeholders' interviews, and linking socio-cultural traits and taste preferences with morphological and physicochemical fruit properties, a better understanding will be achieved of underlying factors that determine how farmers and consumers make choices, the value they attribute to different traits in their local context, and the criteria they use for adoption or rejection of cultivars. Special attention will be given to the different roles, needs and preferences of men and women.It is hoped that the new format will enable a more efficient mechanism for the evaluation of banana cultivars, and lead to faster adoption and greater impact on the lives of banana-dependent populations.The MusaNet ETG will help coordinate banana evaluation activities globally, by bringing together experts in the field, reviewing currently available information, standardizing evaluation protocols to allow comparison of performance between locations and over time, establishing a framework for data compilation and analysis, and communicating the results and available knowledge to relevant end-users.More details on each of these activities are given in Table 11.3 below. 1. Comprehensive assessment of currently available evaluation data• Review of literature on evaluation of Musa genetic resources • Review of currently available phenotypic and genotypic evaluation data information in MGIS and other collection databases• Identify major gaps in knowledge in terms of traits and accessions• Review currently available phenotyping/genotyping methodologies for evaluation of priority traits• Identify gaps in evaluation methodologies; identify for which traits and/or types of evaluation good protocols are not available• Develop and agree on a set of standard \"best-practice\" protocols for priority traits, and enter standardized traits/methods in Trait Ontology• Agree on a set of standard check genotypes for all trials • Identify a set of well characterized (climate, soil conditions, etc.) reference trial sites 3. Set up framework for data compilation and analysis • Make available a database search tool for information on different varieties that are being screened, such as agronomic, climatic and quality characteristics, in order to help priority setting in the regions.CHAPTER 12. GENETIC IMPROVEMENT SECTION 12.1 GENETIC IMPROVEMENT -WHERE WE ARE NOW Genetic improvement presents a potentially cost-effective mechanism to address current constraints in smallholder and commercial production by providing high-performing cultivars adaptable to diverse environments.Productivity, resilience and sustainability may be enhanced by integrating inter-and/or intra-crop diversity within production systems. Experiences with rice and other cereals, being extended to banana, suggest that the risks of losses from epidemic diseases can be mitigated by planting mixed genotypes in place of extensive monocrops of a single cultivar. A demand for increased diversity of cultivars, as well as improved cultivars, exists among smallholder farmers and formal market systems, as well as within the research and breeding community. Supplying producers with a wider range of diversity can potentially enable more livelihood options to be adopted and family nutrition to be similarly diversified.This chapter does not intend to review banana breeding. For exhaustive recent reviews, the reader can refer to Ortiz et al. 1995, Bakry et al. 2009, Tenkouano et al. 2011, Ortiz 2013, and Ortiz and Swennen 2013.Banana breeding began in the early 1920s, when all the large commercial plantations of banana for export in Central America were decimated by the Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense.In response the first breeding program was initiated in Trinidad and Jamaica by the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), paving the way for the implementation of several national programs some 40 years later. Meanwhile, the fungus spread around the world and reached all plantations of AAA Gros Michel, the then-predominant cultivar, so that banana export in the 1950s was at risk of disappearing. Fortunately, explorations of existing genetic resources showed the AAA 'Cavendish' cultivars to be resistant to the disease and suitable for export. These cultivars subsequently substituted 'Gros Michel' in all commercial export plantations worldwide and remain the predominant subgroup produced at the global level, both for export and domestic markets. Obviously, a production system based on such a narrow genetic base is extremely vulnerable to existing and emerging pests and diseases.Until the 1970s, banana breeding strongly focused on export bananas, mainly led by ICTA and the United Fruit Company, who established the FHIA breeding program in Honduras. During the second half of the 20th century, several diseases and pests increasingly affected various banana types, thus menacing the production at the farm level as well: Sigatoka leaf diseases (yellow Sigatoka, followed by the more damaging black leaf streak), nematodes and weevil borers. More recently, the emergence and rapid spread of Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 in Asia, to which the Cavendish is susceptible, became an additional priority.Consequently, from its initial focus on dessert export bananas, banana breeding expanded gradually to plantain and non-export dessert bananas in the 1970s, considering their importance as major staple foods and sources of income for millions of people in tropical and subtropical countries. National and international programs were established to address national, regional or global needs: IITA and CARBAP in Central and East-Africa, EMBRAPA in Brazil, CIRAD in the Caribbean, NRCB in India, etc. Despite the importance of bananas and plantains in food security, there are still only a small number of breeding programs. A major step towards a solution for such a critical situation was the establishment in 1985 of the International Network for Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), now Bioversity International, in order to coordinate and stimulate collaboration within the banana research community, to facilitate the exchange of genetic resources and knowledge and to foster international cooperation.Improvement for pest and disease resistance or tolerance is the primary objective of banana breeding, but the simple release of new resistant cultivars is insufficient for actual adoption by producers. Hybrids must respond to a wide number of criteria according to their specific cropping and socio-economic contexts.For export banana, breeding aims at cultivars that maintain or improve the productivity and the fruit quality (including post-harvest and transportation and conservation qualities) of Cavendish clones. For local consumption and domestic markets, most criteria are the same, even if post-harvest criteria are less constraining. Secondary objectives are linked to the diversity of cultivar growing environments, and include tolerance to cold, to drought stresses, short plant size and strong root system to avoid wind damage and optimise nutritional uptake, etc.As stated by Ortiz (2013), \"emphasis for banana genetic enhancement should be given to pre-emptive breeding -particularly through broadening approaches -to deal with new strains of major pathogens and pests, as well as other emerging constraints\".Most cultivated bananas are triploid (2n=3x=33), originating mostly from the two diploid species M. acuminata and M. balbisiana (2n=2x=22). Banana breeding faces a paradox: considerable amount of seeds are required to produce large progenies, but hybrids selected from these populations must not contain any seeds.Wild species display few reproductive barriers: the male flowers have plenty of viable pollen and the fruits are full of seeds. One thousand to over 10,000 seeds per bunch can be found in wild acuminata or balbisiana species. Actually, breeding progress is hampered by the specific biology of cultivated bananas, i.e. low reproductive fertility of cultivars. Fruit sterility and parthenocarpy have been selected by growers at the diploid level throughout the long domestication history of this crop. At the diploid level, infertility is partly associated with structural heterozygosity, present in most cultivars, leading to aneuploid gametes bearing from 12 to 16 chromosomes. Fertility is zero in AB diploid cultivars because of the partial homeology between the acuminata and balbisiana chromosomes, whereas AA diploid cultivars show a wide range of male or female fertility. Although still rather low, their overall fertility is often higher than triploids: occurrence of aneuploid gametes and formation of diploid to tetraploid gametes are frequently reported at the triploid level. This results in little or no fertility in triploid cultivars, mainly due to the uneven number of chromosomes.Even a profusely hand-pollinated bunch of a triploid cultivar rarely contains more than 1 to 5 good seeds, making the production of a significant offspring a great challenge. Beyond scarcity, seeds in cultivated clones are often abnormal, indeed, with the absence of embryo or endosperm, sometimes both, and fail to develop into seedlings. Greenhouse germination rates are rarely over 20%, and most banana breeders systematically resort to embryo rescue using tissue culture to increase the germination rate up to 85%.For most banana breeders, the main strategy for genetic improvement of banana is to breed resistant triploid hybrids as final products. Triploid cultivars were proved to give a selective advantage over other ploidy levels: diploid cultivars are usually less productive and less vigorous although some diploid clones, like AAcv Pisang Mas of ABcv Kunnan are of some significant value but produced for small or niche markets with high added value. Tetraploid hybrids were the first resistant cultivars bred, and may actually be satisfying in terms of yield, bunch and fruit sizes. However, tetraploids occasionally contain seeds and their poorer fruit quality has never met the requirements for large scale adoption by markets and consumers.Basically, two breeding philosophies have been elaborated by banana breeders. The first one has been called \"Evolutionary breeding\" (Tenkouano et al. 2011) and relies on the improvement of the triploid cultivars crossed with diploid cultivars. Since the method is not reproducing the evolution towards triploids via edible diploids (see Chapters 2 and 3), this document prefers to adopt the name \"Pragmatic breeding\". The second approach, \"Reconstructive breeding\", is built on the use of diploid germplasm to create triploid hybrids, thus trying to mimic the spontaneous development of the current triploid cultivars from their diploid ancestors in the past.12. 1.3.1 The « Pragmatic breeding » approach The origin of this approach is at the dawn of banana breeding, when breeders tried to develop 'Gros Michel' hybrids resistant to Fusarium wilt. Triploid cultivars show a residual fertility and when crossed with diploid cultivars, may produce a few seeds. The primary products issued from these crosses show a considerable genotypic (and phenotypic) variation, ranging from diploid to highly polyploid hybrids. Among them, tetraploid hybrids, arising from unreduced triploid egg cells (2n=3x=33) were selected. The value of these hybrids is that the genes from the mother plant do not segregate and their main characteristics are maintained in the tetraploid, while the haploid genome added from the diploid confers disease resistance.This strategy was taken up for other dessert and cooking bananas to confer resistance to black leaf streak and to nematodes. Dessert tetraploid hybrids were developed at FHIA from crosses between dwarf mutants of Gros Michel and Prata with improved diploids resistant to Sigatoka diseases and nematodes. Cooking bananas were developed from crosses between plantains and resistant diploids at IITA, CARBAP and FHIA to confer resistance to black leaf streak. Some outstanding hybrids were obtained by this strategy. FHIA21, a cooking tetraploid hybrid released by FHIA, is now being cultivated for local markets in some countries in West Africa, in Central and South America and in the Caribbean, as a substitute to black leaf streak susceptible plantains. A major outbreak of this approach is the discovery of endogenous integrated sequences of the endogenous banana streak virus (eBSV) in the plantain genome, releasing infectious viral particle in the progenies issued from crosses. However, these viral sequences have been shown to behave as pseudo-genes and can in some cases segregate as heterozygous locus (Gayral et al. 2008), paving the way for the elimination of infectious eBSV sequences.Tetraploid hybrids, AAAB, AAAA and AABB (primary tetraploid hybrids) are often much more fertile than the triploid parent, and can produce seeds when crossed with a diploid accession. The descendants obtained from these 4x x 2x crosses are predominantly triploids (secondary triploid hybrids). Thanks to redistributions and recombinations between A and B chromosome during meiosis, triploid hybrids free from infectious eBSV can be obtained from theses crosses.As mentioned above, the initial 3x x 2x cross also produces diploid hybrids, whose genetic background comes from the triploid mother plant. These primary diploid hybrids are eventually used in the 4x x 2x cross to bring additional mother-plant background to the secondary triploid hybrids.In this breeding scheme, selected resistant primary tetraploid hybrids can be either released as new improved cultivars or subsequently crossed with other improved diploid selections to obtain secondary triploid hybrids. In this approach, the genetic diversity used on the triploid side is very limited, due to the low fertility of triploid cultivars. The choice of the diploid parents to be crossed in the first or second step is therefore crucial. Considering that the unreduced triploid eggs of the maternal parent are genetically homogenous, the breeding effort is only based on the improvement of the diploid parent. Within the great diversity of the diploid pool, wild and edible diploids have been selected to introgress pest and disease resistance in triploid cultivars. However, wild relatives are highly fertile but have very few of the outward appearances of cultivated bananas, while edible diploids, even if they are more attractive in terms of bunch appearance and fruit qualities, are at most moderately fertile and often not resistant to diseases. Consequently, pre-breeding at the diploid level appears as a preliminary step. Some elite diploids have been developed and used, the most notables are the AA hybrid M53 (resistant to Sigatoka diseases and to Fusarium wilt), bred in the 1950s by the breeding programme of the former Jamaican Banana Board, and several outstanding diploids created at FHIA, some of which have multiple resistance (to Sigatoka diseases, nematodes and Fusarium wilt) and a huge number of hands. 12. 1.3.2 The « Reconstructive breeding » approach Several years ago, an original breeding approach was developed at CIRAD relying on the use of the diploid genetic stocks to create triploid hybrids. Its rationale was corroborated by the recent discovery from genomic studies of the most likely ancestors of the popular triploid cultivars 'Gros Michel' and the Cavendish subgroup. This now guides the precise choice of the most relevant parents (the putative ancestors or their close derivatives) to create de novo improved variants of the triploid cultivars.The breeding scheme is also based on a search of the best specific combining abilities between two diploids of which one is the donor of diplo-gametes. Based on complementarities, this approach aims to associate the favourable traits brought by both parents and to maximize the heterozygosity in the triploid progenies. However, since the production of 2n gametes is uncontrolled and fairly rare in diploid clones, a more regular production of 2n gametes is achieved by the use of colchicine to induce tetraploidisation of one of the diploid parents prior to crossing with the other diploid parent, donor of the complementary n-gamete.Diploid candidates, wild or edible, are selected according to the type of banana to be developed (cooking or dessert), their agronomic and fruit quality characteristics, their behaviour with respect to diseases and their paternal and/or maternal fertility, and their parentage with triploid cultivars. New diploid hybrids that express high resistance to various diseases can also be included in the breeding scheme. Following a primary phase evaluating pest and diseases resistance, agronomic and quality features and fertility, diploids are selected and treated in vitro with colchicine for chromosome doubling to form auto-or allotetraploids, whether they are AA or AB cultivars. The ability to set progeny is strongly linked to gamete fertility, which is highly variable from one to another clone. The gamete fertility of the doubled AA diploids is rather unpredictable: some clones are fertile at both diploid and tetraploid levels. Others are completely sterile at the tetraploid level. Conversely, all interspecific AB clones studied are sterile at the diploid level but have been shown to be systematically male and female fertile at the tetraploid level. These last results confirm previous studies of cytogenetics stating that gamete sterility in AB clones is probably due to incomplete chromosome pairing at meiosis.An intensive programme of hybridization combining various parents and a larger number of doubled genotypes have strongly indicated that the studied doubled-diploid clones are almost exclusively producing polyploid gametes containing, for a major part, exactly 22 chromosomes. Then, the progenies obtained from doubled-diploids x diploids are essentially triploid, which is the expected objective. These first outcomes validate the original pathways of banana improvement developed by CIRAD.The advantages of this approach are manifold: the genetic combinations selected at the diploid level are totally or partially preserved through the doubles-diploid. Triploidy confers a high level of sterility. Moreover, breeders can use the wide diversity of the diploid genetic pool, including the very fertile wild parents that enable production of large triploid progenies in which it is easier to make an effective selection. Theoretically, it allows the introduction of new selection criteria at any stage (by using new parents) to respond quickly either to the appearance of new races of pathogenic fungi or to meet other selection objectives.12. 1.4 The Current Major Breeding ProgrammesThis section is intended to provide a brief status of the major breeding programmes on the following 4 questions:1 The table below describes the hybrids produced at CARBAP to date, including information on the purpose they were produced, where they are used, how they are used and prospect for further breeding. 12. 1.4.2 Breeding at CIRAD (Guadeloupe, France) (the following section was provided by J.P. Horry, CIRAD)The original \"reconstructive breeding\" strategy developed by CIRAD has been applied to develop triploid hybrids of dessert bananas, both mono (AAA) and interspecific (AAB and ABB). Reconstructive breeding aims to identify good specific combining abilities between diploids and doubled-diploids as donors of diplogametes. In addition, it aims to maximize heterosis in the triploid progenies. Parental lines are selected according to their agronomic and fruits characteristics (linked to the type of banana -cooking or dessert, to be developed), their behaviour with respect to diseases and pests, and their male and female fertility at diploid and tetraploid level. Furthermore, the in-depth knowledge of the available genetic resources and the understanding of the relationships between ancestral and cultivated varieties allow selecting the pools of parent lines according to the desired results.Breeding for dessert bananas is conducted in Guadeloupe at CIRAD's research station in partnership with the French West Indies growers association and its technical institute. Around one thousand hybrids are produced and evaluated annually. Objectives are to develop pest and disease-resistant or -tolerant banana hybrids for the export market to Europe and for domestic markets. Beside resistance to Sigatoka leaf diseases, Fusarium wilt and nematodes, selected hybrids must combine agronomic performance and fruit qualities. Moreover, a strong emphasis is put on fruit quality and postharvest behaviour regarding the heavy constraints required for the export market.At CIRAD, where the \"reconstructive breeding\" approach has been prioritized for several years, progress has been made in developing AAA dessert bananas. Several hybrids recently obtained have been released for large-scale evaluation to banana growers in the Caribbean (Dominique, St Vincent, St Lucia, Cuba) and in Australia to supply domestic markets, and two of them (CIRAD 916 and CIRAD 918) are under evaluation in IMTP trials. Four of these hybrids have been evaluated in French Guyana and two of them, CIRAD 916 and 918, have already been adopted by farmers.CIRAD 925 is to date the most promising hybrid created, combining nearly all the qualities to respond to the export industry requirements. The elite hybrid is presently under large scale evaluation in grower's fields in Guadeloupe and Martinique to validate its adaptation within the different steps of the export industry sector.The understanding of the relationships between ancestral and cultivated varieties, allows now more relevant choices of parental combinations. In recent years, focus at CIRAD has been on the use of Mlali type AAcv accessions, putative ancestors of Cavendish and Gros Michel groups. Selected Mlali diploids were tested after chromosome doubling in crosses with AA accessions of the Khai cluster (the other ancestor of these groups). Among the progenies, one individual was obtained, and despite its predictable susceptibility to Yellow Sigatoka, it looks incredibly like Lacatan, the giant and original form of Cavendish, both in terms of plant stature than in fruit quality, thus providing the proof-of-concept for this novel breeding approach.The drawback of this approach is the lack of resistances within the Mlali group, and their scarcity in the Khai cluster, combined with low gamete fertility of AAcvrs. Therefore, CIRAD engaged in a pre-breeding program to develop fertile improved progenitors containing various sources of diseases resistant genes derived from crosses between edible diploid clones and wild relatives, linked with in-depth studies of the genetic determinism of major traits, combining segregating population analysis, GWAS and QTLs development.Breeding programs for interspecific hybrids (AAB Silk and Pome, ABB Pisang Awak) aim at the development of new cultivars with Fusarium wilt-and Sigatoka diseases-resistance that retain the organoleptic qualities and productivity of the traditional landraces. The \"reconstructive approach\" was applied to interspecific breeding at CIRAD, and triploid hybrids were derived from the Kunnan landrace (ABcv), its genomic constitution suggesting that it would come from a cross between a malaccensis-derived edible diploid and a balbisiana wild relative. Moreover, 'Kunnan' has been proved free from infectious eBSV, allowing its use in crosses. Natural AB clones are sterile but their AABB neo-allotetraploid counterparts obtained through colchicine treatment are both male and female fertile. Tetraploid 'Kunnan' was crossed with AA and BB accessions to generate a triploid. All crosses taken together, 70 hybrids have been field-tested, 61 of which involved wild diploids, Musa acuminata or Musa balbisiana. It is noteworthy that most of these hybrids bear parthenocarpic (edible) fruit, despite their wild parentage. A common feature within the progenies evaluated is the positive heterosis effect observed. For most characters, mean values observed are significantly superior to the average values of the parents, and in some cases exceed the value of the best parent.In crosses with wild and edible disease resistant malaccensis derivatives, several AAB hybrids were obtained ranging from Silk-like to Mysore-like cultivars and with resistance to Fusarium wilt and Sigatoka leaf streak diseases. On the other side, in crosses with balbisiana accessions, several ABB hybrids developed were very similar to 'Pisang Awak' natural clones. The best selected hybrids are presently under evaluation in Guadeloupe.Within a limited number of hybrids, it has been possible to select some outstanding hybrids from each cross: the AAB '2006-22/III9' with a Mysore morphology, the sweet-acid AAB banana hybrid '2005/25-L9', the Pisang Awak-like '2008/12-I6' and some other weighted bunches ABB hybrids. These promising hybrids need further physiological and physicochemical but might be in in the short term candidates for IMTP trials.Breeding for cooking bananas follows the \"pragmatic\" approach and aims at the development of secondary triploid hybrids. CIRAD breeding for cooking-types is conducted in partnership with CARBAP, the ownership of the selected hybrids being shared between the two institutes.The presence of endogenous integrated sequences of the BSV in the plantain genome and the release of infectious viral particles in the progenies following crosses has long been an obstacle to plantain breeding. However, these viral sequences behave as pseudo-genes and can segregate as heterozygous loci.Recombination between A and B chromosomes during meiosis allowed the development at CARBAP of triploid hybrids that are free from infectious eBSV, obtained from AAAB (primary tetraploids) x AA (primary diploids) crosses. Marker-assisted selection developed by CIRAD (PCR, southern blot) is now exploited to release new cooking hybrids free from any infectious eBSV. 'CARBAP K74' is the first elite plantain-like hybrid obtained at CARBAP in 2012.12. 1.4.3 Breeding at EMBRAPA (Brazil) (the following section was provided by E. Perito Amorim, EMBRAPA)Brazilian banana production differs from other global contexts since its main cultivars belong to the AAB Pome/Prata subgroup, in particular, Prata-Anã. Also, especially in the north and northeastern regions of the country, Pacovan and plantain cultivars are also present in Brazilian plantations. These two cultivars, together, make up approximately 80% of the banana cultivated area in Brazil (500,000 ha EMBRAPA uses three main strategies of conventional breeding:1. Crosses between wild diploids to develop improved diploids resistant to main pests and diseases and good agronomic characteristics: EMBRAPA has a collection with 30 improved diploids, all resistant to Fusarium wilt and yellow Sigatoka, and most of them, also resistant to black leaf streak 2. Crosses between improved diploids and commercial triploid cultivars (Prata type, Silk and Cavendish) to develop tetraploid hybrids 3. Crosses between improved diploids and tetraploid hybrids to develop triploid cultivars: This strategy is the main current focus and hundreds of genotypes are being evaluated in the many experimental areas of EMBRAPA.As far as biotechnological tools are concerned, EMBRAPA has many different strategies which support the conventional breeding program:1. Plant x biotic factors interaction studies (Mycosphaerella musicola / Mycosphaerella fijiensis / Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense): Potential candidate genes associated to resistance to these three diseases have been identified via NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) -RNA-seq techniques. These genes are being validated through RT-qPCR for further use in cisgenics and marker-assisted selection (MAS).In the case of cisgenics, EMBRAPA has identified tissue-specific promoters (leaf and root). New interactions, however, are also being planned (nematodes and borer weevil)2. Musa x abiotic factors interaction studies, especially concerning drought tolerance and post-harvest are ongoing using a proteomics approach. Many candidate genes have been identified as being associated in metabolic networks as hub proteins involved in drought tolerance and will be sought out for use in MAS. Similar work is being carried out for fruit ripening and finger drop, especially for Prata type cultivars 3. Diversity and genetic structure of Mycosphaerella musicola, Mycosphaerella fijiensis, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense, Meloidogyne incognita (root-knot nematode) and M. javanica populations with the objective of creating a detailed map of the distribution of these pests and diseases in main banana producing areas in Brazil. This work will be followed by the identification of most aggressive or virulent populations for use in inoculations aiming for the early selection of resistant or tolerant genotypes. Protocols for early selection were developed by EMBRAPA and are being applied 4. Duplication of chromosomes from wild and improved diploids: Many diploids were duplicated and the number of chromosomes confirmed by flow cytometry and cytogenetics. These auto-tetraploids were characterized for a series of agronomic characteristics and identified as promising, which were then crossed with diploids for the development of secondary triploids and are now under evaluation in the experimental areas of EMBRAPA 5. Somatic embryogenesis and cell suspensions: EMBRAPA has developed protocols for generating cellsuspensions and plant regeneration. Work with molecular markers show that these suspensions give rise to genetically stable plants 6. Induction of mutation using gamma rays and anti-mitotic agents: The focus here is to identify short stature plants and recently induce mutants with resistance to Fusarium wilt and to yellow Sigatoka and black leaf streak. Results so far seem promising.Preventive breeding is also an objective of EMBRAPA, especially regarding Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense Tropical race 4. EMBRAPA will send its elite germplasm for testing at PRI / Plant Research International -University of Wageningen -The Netherlands -and the Department of Agriculture, Fishery and Forest in Australia (DAFF), which are our main partners in this task.EMBRAPA also has a partnership with the BGPI research unit (Biology and Genetics of Plant-Pathogen Interactions) of CIRAD-Montpellier, France, in activities to identify BSV species in the banana germplasm collection at EMBRAPA and also main banana producing areas in Brazil, since this data is practically unknown and necessary for main germplasm exchange activities.Since EMBRAPA´s breeding program is one of the oldest, with great history and knowledge acquired/ generated, EMBRAPA is in the forefront of banana breeding and has great potential to collaborate with international partners focusing on developing cultivars resistant to main pests and diseases possessing sensorial characteristics aligned with producers and consumers demands.It is worth mentioning that since Brazil is a continental country, it has a wide range of edaphoclimatic conditions which allows for the evaluation and selection of genotypes in the many different environments.EMBRAPA has a broad network of partners and its own bases able to test new hybrids from regions with elevated pluviometric indices to dry areas, environments with temperate climate to tropical climate, areas from sea level to high altitudes, areas with bananas as monoculture or in consortium, among many other contrasts. 12. 1.4.5 Breeding at IITA (Nigeria/Uganda) (the following section was provided by R. Swennen, IITA) Table 12.4 below describes the hybrids produced at IITA to date, including information on the purpose they were produced, where they are used, how they are used and prospect for further breeding. Countries that received the material in 2014-2015 are listed. It is still too early to speak of use, as material has only been delivered for testing. Only in IITA are some of the hybrids that are being used by farmers.  4; 5; 6; 7; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 17; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25 In a comprehensive overview, Ortiz and Swennen reviewed the recent advances in biotechnology and their actual and future applications in banana breeding (Ortiz and Swennen 2013). This section is limited to the biotechnological tools that are routinely used in most banana breeding programs.12.1.5.1 Tissue culture In vitro micropropagation of banana is now widely used for germplasm exchange and also to supply clean planting materials to farmers and intensive cropping systems. Even if tissue propagules are more expensive than traditional suckers, the yield increase may compensate for the investment. Applied in most breeding programs, in vitro embryo rescue assists in enhancing germination of banana seeds resulting from controlled pollination involving cultivars, often containing abnormal embryos or absent endosperm.12. 1.5.2 Cytogenetics Cytogenetics research in Musa has been developed since the early 1920s to elucidate the genetic structure of the polyploid complex, from chromosome numbering to the study of chromosome pairing during meiosis. The development of in situ hybridisation (FISH and GISH) allows for a precise deciphering of the chromosome rearrangements and pairing between the homologous A and B genomes. In a recent study, Jeridi showed that gamete sterility in AB clones is probably due to incomplete chromosome pairing at meiosis: the authors distinguished two subgroups of pairing chromosome behaviour, one of eight chromosome sets displaying high (but not complete) pairing affinity, suggesting a high degree of homology between A and B chromosomes, and a second of three chromosome sets presenting low pairing affinity, indicating a lower degree of homology (Jeridi et al. 2012). This result also supports the hypothesis that recombination does occur between A and B genomes for at least eight chromosomes of eleven. Flow cytometry is routinely used to characterize genetic resources in genebanks of parents and progenies in most breeding programs.12. 1.5.3 DNA markers In recent decades, several genomic tools have been successfully used to decipher the complexity of the Musa genepool. Molecular markers have not only proven to be effective to distinguish between genotypes, but moreover have provided a clear understanding of the history of the domestication of the crop, from the ancestor wild species to the present day cultivars. The acquired knowledge of the probable diploid ancestors of most triploid cultivars allows us to build breeding schemes that mimic the sequence of crossings and selections that occurred over several millennia. DNA markers (SSR, DArTs) are now routinely used to characterize genebank materials, and are used in breeding program to check the conformity of breeding materials.12. 1.5.4 Genomics Recent advances in Musa genomics, from the first complete sequence of the Musa genome published in 2012 to the ongoing re-sequencing of hundreds of genotypes will increase the efficiency of banana breeding. The Musa genome can now be deeply explored for the characterization of desirable genes involved in important agricultural traits as a prelude to their use in marker assisted selection. Priorities for the GTG of MusaNet in this area include improved gene annotation and elucidation of gene function through analysis of gene expression in specific conditions, mutation/tilling, GM approaches, proteomics and metabolomics. The very fine structure of the genome, the arrangement of the chromosomes and of the DNA sequences can now be studied with an unprecedented precision, adding to the characterization of the genetic complex and the understanding of the evolutionary pathways. For banana improvement, this approach is particularly important in a biological context of gamete sterility (and difficulties to get large quantities of seeds) for which use of recombination and implementation of introgression strategies remain the greatest challenge.12. 1.5.5 Marker assisted selection (MAS) Marker assisted selection is only just beginning in banana breeding. From the recent and future advances in genomics, MAS will eventually enhance and accelerate genetic improvement in banana. However, presently, its main application relates to the early selection of non-infectious eBSV alleles in interspecific crosses involving balbisiana-derived material.12. 1.5.6 Genetic engineering Genetic engineering of bananas began 20 years ago, with expectations to accelerate banana breeding by directly improving sterile cultivars that appear untreatable through cross-breeding. The main objectives are to increase the micronutrient content to alleviate malnutrition in East African countries and to incorporate traits that are lacking in the Musa genepool. Among the latter are the genes for resistance to viruses and Xanthomonas wilt, for which no reliable resistance source seems to exist. Moreover, strategies for the acquisition of resistance to other diseases by genetic transformation are now available, like the use of protease inhibitors and Bacillus thuringiensis genes to develop resistance to weevils and nematodes, or the identification of resistant genes such as chitinases, antifungal proteins, etc., against Sigatoka diseases and Fusarium wilts.The goal is to incorporate in the genome relevant DNA-sequences that should express a desired improvement. While the incorporation of genes has been proven to be quite feasible, its desired expression depends on the extraordinary complex dynamics in the transciptome and proteome. Progress has recently been made in that domain for model plants such as Arabidopsis, and it can be expected that genetic engineering of bananas will in the coming years integrate the necessary precise mechanisms for the desired expression of genetically modified cultivars.Recent developments of genome editing with engineered nucleases, such as CRISPR technology, which does not involve taking genes from one organism and implanting them in another, appears to be a promising approach for banana breeding in the near future. In this respect, an interesting outlook will be that such genetically modified diploids could enter the breeding schemes at appropriate phases.12. 1.5.7 Induced mutation techniques Work has also been carried out using mutation to expand the range of Musa diversity available for breeding. Spontaneous somatic mutations have long played an essential role in the speciation and domestication of bananas. In an effort to mimic this natural occurring process, mutagenic agents such as radiation and certain chemicals have been used to induce mutations at a higher frequency and generate genetic variation from which desired mutants may be selected. Several variants and putative mutants have been identified at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Austria for release or further confirmation trials. One example is a the variety Klue Hom Thong KU1 from Thailand, which was obtained by treating tissue cultures with gamma rays at 2.5 krad (25 Gy), and was selected for its larger bunch size and cylindrical shape.Even though the traditional shoot-tip mutation-induction techniques applied to genetic improvement has produced some useful mutants, there are some limitations, e.g. treated shoot tips show a high degree of chimerism and because of the random nature of mutation induction, many plants need to be screened, which can be expensive, laborious and site-specific. But now we know that to overcome chimerism, embryogenic cell suspension (ECS) is the material of choice (as embryos are formed from single cells). Early mass screening techniques (in vitro or in greenhouse) are being used to increase efficiency before validating results under field conditions (Roux, 2004). Thanks to recently developed next generation sequencing techniques, there is an increased interest in collecting mutants to understand Musa gene structure and function.The products of existing improvement programmes, drawing on sources of biotic and abiotic stress resistance from wild and edible genotypes, are still not meeting important criteria, such as (1) adaptation to recurring extreme weather-conditions, such as drought and cold, mainly in peripheral areas of the banana biotope, and (2) widely and/or regionally acceptable fruit quality.Variation among wild and edible Musa species offers a wide spectrum of promising phenotypes. For instance, the ecology of various wild species suggests that sources of resistance to abiotic stresses exist in Eumusa along the northern altitudinal periphery of its distribution, including mechanisms for tolerance to cold (M. sikkimensis, M. basjoo, M. thomsonii), water-logging (M. itinerans), and drought (M. balbisiana, M. nagensium). The physiological and genetic background of the quite diverse ex-section Rhodochlamys members, adapted to monsoon conditions, should also be investigated. Recent collecting expeditions in northern India, Malaysia and Indonesia suggest that other poorly known or unexplored areas of diversity (such as cultivars in the species M. balbisiana or in the acuminata subspecies) are likely to harbour other interesting agronomic characteristics. Unfortunately, many such underexplored specimens (with the remarkable exception of M. balbisiana) are hardly expressing their phenotypic potential outside their usual habitat, as is the case in the common lowland banana collections, or they even disappear after a few years. And inter-specific F1 progeny derived from crossing such specimens with common wild AA/BB parents would not be fertile in most cases. In situ extraction of DNA in view of further analyses and eventual integration in genetic improvement may be a more promising prospect.Breeders are well aware of this potential, but there is the need for a programme and funding of such special operations.A remarkable exception is the adaptation of some triploid groups such as Cavendish, grown under a large range of latitudes and ecologies, an adaptability that is retrieved in the edible acuminata cultivars of East Africa and neighbouring islands. Genetic diversity in these diploids is very low, suggesting a very narrow genetic base; however, they are cultivated from sea level to the slopes of Mount Kenya, at more than 1000 m above sea level. This suggests that genetic resources adapted to extremely different ecologies are available for the breeders, even within the acuminata genetic stocks.Although there are now many hybrids that have been developed to address issues such as pests and diseases, fruit quality has often been neglected. Consequently, the products are generally not meeting the fruit quality to which the diverse local consumers are accustomed. Each region and each country will have specific needs and requirements.The term \"fruit quality\" should be considered in its broadest sense, thereby not only meaning \"organoleptic quality\" but also the entire chain from farm to market. For example, the truck transport of bunches over relatively long stretches of local roads means that only physically resistant fruits are convenient on the markets. Early ripening and premature fruit dehiscence are also rejected. Fruit post-harvest qualities are even more constraining for exportation, where fruits must resist several weeks of shipment.Consequently, the construction of synthetic diploids in breeding programs should not only catch the sources of disease/pest resistance, but also include fruit quality in its broadest sense. Such range of qualities apparently exists among the numerous edible AA but has been poorly explored from a genetic perspective. Characterization of fruit quality in the diploid genetic pool and the elucidation of the genetic basis are the priorities to address and monitor these traits in breeding programs.Yet only a fraction of the genetic diversity in the genus Musa is being used, even within balbisiana and acuminata species. Breeding programmes need to broaden their genetic base to address the numerous challenges of banana breeding, considering both pests and diseases, fruit quality (organoleptic and postharvest) and agronomic features (e.g. yield, adaptation to miscellaneous and changing environments).SECTION 12.3 GENETIC IMPROVEMENT -HOW WE WILL GET THEREA fully concerted banana genetic improvement programme on global scale cannot be realized. Such a programme would imply that the participants constantly share their detailed operational strategy for each end-product at which they are aiming: the satisfactory hybrid. The programmes would probably not have problems in the ideal situation of an assured abundant financing, but that is far from the case for the banana crop. Banana improvement programmes therefore operate in a competitive configuration which obliges them to protect their precise methodology in the hope that 'their' product, when successful, would produce a return to finance the continuation of their efforts. One can use the term \"property rights\" in this case.Nevertheless, two phases of the improvement open the prospect for sharing at global scale:• The pre-breeding phase, with a common sharing of the basic plant material (and its performance) such as selected edible diploids and even partially improved diploids• The post-breeding phase, with the testing of hybrids in different environmental and cultural conditions. The IMTP principle could be used as a convenient instrument.Both phases could be facilitated via coordination at global scale.12.3.2 The Douala Workshop on Musa Breeding, 28-30 October 2013For the first time in the history of banana research, a representative group of scientists involved in genetic improvement came to an agreement on collaborative activities during the workshop \"Multi-centre Planning on Banana / Plantain Improvement\" in October 2013 at Doula, Cameroon.The workshop was co-organized by CARBAP, Bioversity and IITA and financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BGMF) and the CRP-RTB. The major actors were the leading Musa research and breeding programmes and experts from allied crops and disciplines.Quoting from the workshop report, \"the primary objective of the workshop was to establish a consensus opinion on the long-term strategy (and key priorities) for \"accelerated\" banana crossbreeding focused on outputs for Africa that would also have relevance for other regions. In addition, the workshop aimed to define the respective roles of various interested parties, and establish the framework for a concept note (focusing on breeding plantain-like hybrid cultivars)\".The Concept Note, entitled \"Program for improved plantain for Sub-Saharan Africa (PIP-SSA), a global breeding partnership\", covers all the aspects of such an undertaking at a global scale. The pre-and post-breeding tasks, which call for advanced sharing of material and results were particularly developed. Collaboration for the breeding activities was outlined as far as possible and the means for sharing the rapidly growing knowledge on molecular genetics (omics datasets, genetic information on genes-traits correlation, etc.) for their integration in breeding programmes were systematically proposed.While it is mainly focused on the important subgroup of AAB Plantain in Africa, the Concept Note can indeed be used as a model for similar collaborative programs in all other regions.The table below summarizes the future objectives within the breeding programmes.  • Improve characterization (phenotyping and genotyping) of germplasm in all collections to allow curators to make decisions on rationalization of accessions.• Introduce missing diversity to ensure full coverage at national, regional and global level.• Set up more locations of international field planting or in vitro culture conservation, safer for germplasm duplication and effective for Musa distribution.• Rationalisation of national collections based on improved characterization (phenotyping and genotyping) of germplasm.Identify and set up a global core collection of Musa biodiversity in several designated sites for in perpetuity conservation• Establishment of a global reference field collection (TRC) integrating subsets that represent specific parts of the diversity held by different collections.• Establish partnership agreements with regional and national field collections for complementary responsibility sharing to preserve global core accessions• Global core accessions duplicated in vitro and in cryopreservation at the ITC.• Targeted collecting and duplication of unique accessions from national collections, increasing the coverage of the known Musa diversity in the ITC collection Increase access and targeted use of the ITC collection• Link between ITC and MGIS database to create feedback mechanism for information on the ITC collection germplasm exchange and use• Promote the use of the on-line ordering tool running on MGIS for the global ITC collection. There is a new MGIS website with more user friendly functions for ordering accessions.• Field verification, morphotaxonomical characterization , flow cytometric ploidy determination and genotyping of the ITC collection to ensure the genetic integrity and improve the documentation status of conserved accessions • Explore the feasibility of seed conservation for preserving the wider wild diversity as complementary approach• Assess the diversity within/between populations, to make decisions on how many seeds to collect so that they can be conserved and distributed.• Develop a Global Musa Seed Bank to conserve and distribute seeds under the ITPGRFA The objectives of MusaNet are therefore in line with the strategy and are to:• Ensure the secured conservation of the entire Musa genepool by assessing the diversity conserved and filling gaps, with an emphasis on threatened material• Strengthen the capacity of partners for the cost-effective long-term conservation and management of germplasm collections and facilitate access to useful Musa genetic resources in improvement programmes and by other users• Enhance the value of Musa genetic resources for breeding, through effective collaborative characterization, evaluation and pre-breeding efforts• Raise awareness with key partners on the importance of Musa genetic resources conservation, documentation, exchange and sharing the benefits arising from their use• Set priorities for research, breeding, and use of Musa genetic resources, ensuring critical links with the regional networks.MusaNet members are from a wide range of Musa genetic resources interests. Membership is on an expertise basis and not on institutional or country representation basis. The networking structure of MusaNet consists of a Coordinating Secretariat, an Expert Committee and five Thematic Groups (Conservation, Diversity, Evaluation, Information and Genomics) in which experts discuss and propose solutions on critical thematic areas of Musa genetic resources. Critical links with the 4 Regional Research Networks and other key initiatives such as ProMusa are ensured with representation in the Expert Committee.For more information: www.musanet.orgRegional banana research and development networks are important regional platforms for national programmes to agree on regional collaboration for Musa research and development and identify priorities to develop and implement projects.There are currently 4 regional banana research networks:• BAPNET -Banana Asia-Pacific Network These networks are made up of national research organizations from all major banana-producing countries and provide coordination and support for regional research and development initiatives, including conservation efforts. The list of member countries for each network is given in Table 1. Banana-producing countries have been represented in these networks to exchange perspectives, to propose regional research priorities and to mobilize resources around key activities. They function under the auspices of regional agricultural research fora and are coordinated by regionally-posted Bioversity scientists. Each network has a steering committee made up of a representative from every member country. Bioversity coordinators act mainly as facilitators and moderators for the networks. The steering committees have annual meetings hosted by participating countries. The network members collaborate through a suite of ongoing projects, workshops and training courses in the conservation, research and development of banana genetic resources in each region (including an in situ conservation project in East Africa). Over a period of 20 years, the networks' modus operandi has evolved considerably. They have become more objective-oriented, and they have broadened their area of action, from an early focus on production constraints (which nevertheless remain an important part of the agenda) to a broader concern with marketoriented development of the banana sector.The regional networks play a crucial role in the implementation of the Strategy. To ensure full participation of regional networks in MusaNet, a member of each regional network is represented in the MusaNet EC and is present at the regional network steering committee meetings. Members of regional networks are also encouraged to participate in thematic groups based on expertise and to ensure a good regional coverage and representation.For more information:• MUSALAC: http://banana-networks.org/musalac/  4) delivering the outputs to various user groups.The main activity is to promote and facilitate exchange of information, knowledge and know-how through the following:• biennial scientific symposium (reported in proceedings)• electronic newsletter• online compendium of banana knowledge• access to images, bibliographic information, and field/lab protocols and tools• online discussion forum• platform for community engagement RTB is now restructuring for its second phase due to begin in January 2017. The purpose of RTB is to tap the underutilized potential of root, tuber, and banana crops to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods. This programme has a component on conserving and accessing genetic resources and one on enhancing impact through partnerships with critical links to the Global Musa Strategy. The objectives of the CRP-RTB are to:• Ensure that the ex situ conservation of RTB crops is efficient, relevant, and cost effective• Strengthen and better understand in situ conservation and on-farm management towards resilient livelihoods.• Improve the coverage of in-trust collections• Stimulate the use of RTB germplasm through characterization, description of agronomic features, reaction to pests and diseases, abiotic stresses, nutritional and technological traits• Promote the use of germplasm by facilitating access to information• Strengthen the global system for the safe exchange of germplasm• Proactively provide advocacy for the value of genetic resources to policy makers and donors.CRP-RTB is considered to be vital to the implementation of a Global Strategy, both as a means for sharing the multidisciplinary characterization and for reaching consensus on joint actions to expand the coverage of collections or rationalize them. A key element in understanding the diversity held in collections, managing them efficiently and making the diversity available for use by breeders and other clients, is an efficient genetic resources information system. It draws on the strength of CGIAR centres and existing partnerships within a coherent programmatic framework and links genetic resources into a CRP-wide use framework. It also allows for cross-crop synergies, learning and linkages to regional research for development platforms.For more information: www.rtb.cgiar.orgThe CGIAR Research Program on Genebanks is a partnership between the members of CGIAR Consortium and the GCDT. It is a programme for the management, as well as the secure and sustainable funding of plant genetic resource collections held by the 11 international genebanks members of the CGIAR Consortium. The objective is to conserve the diversity of plant genetic resources in CGIAR-held collections and to make this diversity available to breeders and researchers in a manner that meets high international scientific standards, is cost efficient, is secure, reliable and sustainable over the long-term and is supportive of and consistent with the ITPGRFA. CGIAR centres manage many of the largest and most important collections of crop diversity in the world. Centre collections serve as the foundation for their breeding and research and as the major source of genetic resources worldwide for plant breeders, as well as for researchers engaged in more basic biological research. CGIAR genebanks are major suppliers of material for (non-breeding) scientific research to CGIAR and other scientists. Such research, dependent upon the genebank collections, contributes to crop improvement and use and underpins considerable basic scientific research. Without reliable funding, even the best genebanks face a chronic inability to plan, to invest rationally, and to manage optimally.For more information: http://www.cgiar.org/our-research/cgiar-research-programs/cgiar-research-programfor-managing-and-sustaining-crop-collections/In 2005, the newly established GCDT initiated a consultation process leading to the development of over 30 global crop and regional strategies for the ex situ conservation and utilization of crop diversity. The 2006 Musa Strategy was one of them. The strategies contribute to decision-making on the GCDT's allocation of resources. These strategies represent a major undertaking in the field of plant genetic resources, mobilizing experts to collaboratively plan for the more efficient and effective conservation and use of crop diversity. The process brought together collection managers, researchers, and other experts on plant genetic resources from developing and developed countries. The strategies focused on 8 main themes: regeneration, crop wild relatives, collecting, crop descriptors, information systems, user priorities, new technologies and research, and challenges to building a strategy for rational conservation. The priorities of the GCDT are for ex situ collections of the ITPGRFA and its Annex 1 crops, selected on the basis of their contribution to food security. Musa is an Annex 1 crop and one of the 22 priority crops for the Trust.vThe strategies, although commissioned by the GCDT, were developed independently by the different communities involved, and will evolve as the situation of collections around the world changes.For more information: www.croptrust.orgAs a key component of the ITPGRFA, the Multilateral System of access and benefit sharing (MLS) and its instrument, the Standard Material Agreement (SMTA) provide a common set of rules specified in a contractual format. This focuses on the facilitated access rules applying to individual transfers of those samples for certain purposes, namely utilization and conservation for research, breeding and training for food and agriculture. The SMTA recognises the need for international collective action to manage a common resource, PGRFA, in a manner that is more beneficial and efficient to everyone than any individual action would be. There are many non-monetary benefits from implementing the Treaty such as facilitated access to genetic resources as the major benefit, safeguarding, exchange of information, access to and transfer of technology, capacity-building, and also the sharing of monetary and other benefits of commercialization such as the social and environmental benefits. Facilitated access to these PGRFA is in itself the major benefit, making it possible for farmers and plant breeders to access the widest possible range of resources crucial for world food security. The principle aim of the benefit-sharing arrangements is to improve the conservation of, and the potential to sustainably use, plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, particularly for the benefit of farmers in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Through the realization of those mechanisms, the Treaty could potentially contribute to rebalancing the ex situ conservation focus towards use and in situ conservation.From a technical point of view, implementing the MLS at the national level requires the following actions: Identifying material under State control and management and in the public domain, using associated SMTAs, and defining signatory responsibilities. Other measures include creating a legal space for the Treaty in national access and benefit sharing (ABS) legislation and encouraging legal and natural persons to include material in the MLS. Some of the constraints impacting on the implementation of the treaty include the lack of appreciation of national dependence on foreign germplasm, negative perceptions about germplasm exchange because of claims of biopiracy and that the MLS would not benefit the country because lack of capacity for utilizing the resources. There are uncertainties concerning the concepts of ABS mechanisms among the scientific community, so the benefits involved in the MLS are not clearly perceived. There are misconceptions in relation to monetary benefits and a lack of clarity regarding both how benefits will accrue to farmers as custodians of agro-biodiversity and what links can be made with IPRs policies. The main political (collective action) challenges are: (1) coordination of different governance levels, (2) management of diverging interests and expectations within the PGRFA community, and (3) hierarchy between several global challenges such as genetic erosion and biodiversity loss; food security; rural poverty of small-holder farmers; crop adaptation to climate change; and bottom-up approach to development policy in agriculture.The main contributions from a crop network such as MusaNet to the MLS are the following:• Conservation: representativeness/completeness, security, efficiency of resource use, sustainability and responsiveness to global or regional threats• Availability: proportion of conserved material available, extent to which available to all users, completeness of information system and accessibility of information to users and exchange of information organized the hosting of discussions for Sub-Saharan Africa and for Asia and the Pacific, respectively, at regional network steering committee meetings. Regional network steering committee members contributed valuably to discussions. For the Asia and the Pacific region Jeff Daniells, Sathiamoorthy (NRCB, India), Suzanne Sharrock (BGCI, United Kingdom) and Percy Sajise (Bioversity-Malaysia) took part in an evaluation committee which involved analysing information and the evaluations of the collections and providing their considered opinions on which collections should be priority for support.The staff of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Universiteitsbibliotheek Leuven, hosted the exhibition on banana diversity 'No end to the banana', which provided the venue for launching the Global Conservation Strategy for Musa; Rony Swennen, Kodjo Tomekpe (CARBAP, Cameroon), Edmond de Langhe, Richard Markham (INIBAP and Bioversity -France) and Cary Fowler (Trust, Italy) gave presentations or speeches in support of the Strategy at this event.Ana Beretta and Campbell Davidson coordinated the attendance of Elizabeth Arnaud (INIBAP) in the meeting of the Regional Strategy for the Americas.Charlotte Lusty (INIBAP) coordinated the collecting of input and feedback from stakeholders and took the lead in drafting this strategy document.Finally, Brigitte Laliberté and Jane Toll of the Global Crop Diversity Trust have both been generous with their time in providing feedback on the strategy and helping to align it with the Trust's thinking.In 2006, a first Global Strategy for the Conservation of Musa Genetic Resources was developed based on feedback from several collection curators and many other scientists working in this area. The strategy facilitated the submission of several projects on improving the conservation and use of Musa. It also stimulated the establishment of MusaNet, the Global Musa Genetic Resources Network. Now 9 years later, MusaNet is updating the Global Strategy and the information on the key Musa collections around the world to increase support and funding to crucial collaborative actions.As a curator of a Musa germplasm collection, we kindly request you to support this effort by completing/ updating this questionnaire. We are particularly interested in any updated information on the following:• Section A: Information on the Institute and Curator of collection The survey has 49 questions and will take you approximately 30 minutes to finish. The feedback received will contribute to updating the MusaNet Global Strategy for the Conservation and Utilization of Musa Genetic Resources. Please note that if your institute no longer maintains a collection of Musa sp, please kindly send us an email to inform us. We would be grateful for this important information and update our database.Your participation in the development of this initiative is highly valued. By fill in this survey you will contribute to the updating of the Global Strategy. If you are interested in taking part in its review before it is finalized, please let us know (see question 49) and we will make sure you receive a draft copy for your feedback. Section A: Information on the Institute and Curator Regional (for conservation, and distribution at the regional level, e.g. Americas, Asia, Africa etc)Global (mainly for international conservation, distribution and use)Other: please specify (eg. only for the use of a specific institute`s breeding programme)7. If you have answered \"no\" to the second sub-question of question 5, please specify, when there is one, the responsible institute for Musa germplasm conservation in your country (providing contact details if possible):8. Please specify the responsibility of the institute vis a vis the management of the Musa collections.Yes, our institute coordinates the management of several Musa collections in the country.No, our institute is only responsible for the specific collection mentioned in no 1.Other, please specify:If YES, please list the stations that are included in this survey:9. Indicate the year the collection was established:Please include any useful comment regarding the establishment of the collection. Fiji SPC In collaboration with Bioversity International and the Trust, SPC is coordinating a regional banana project which involves the collection of unique bananas from the Pacific countries have them virus tested, and send for establishment at French Polynesia, host of the Pacific banana collection. This collection will be characterised, evaluated and DNA fingerprinted. A core collection will be duplicated, distributed and conserved at international centres.French Polynesia SDR-PRFC Promoting countries to duplicate cultivar in the regional collection through SPC.  Indonesia IIS-RCB Wild species Wild collection of Musa acuminata is used for parents in pre-breeding program Kenya KARI-KISII GT -this is an AAAB genome dessert banana obtained from a farmer who got a seed from AAB Sukari Ndiizi fruit and planted the seed. The plant from the seed was later found to be tetraploid AAAB closely related to Sukari Ndiizi. The accession was then named Geraldine Tucker (GT) after the farmer. The collection also has several AAB accessions including the Silk, Mysore, Prata and Sukari Ndiizi AAB groups of dessert bananas. Other accessions in the collection are East African cooking, south east Asia cooking, beer, plantain and AAA dessert bananas.Kenya KARI-Thika More attention is given to indigenous cultivar which is endangered mainly due to their lack of commercial appeal. We have diploid which perhaps can be used in Breeding purposes. A cultivar locally known as Muraru cannot be found anywhere elseThe ones with red / purple skinned fruits Malaysia MARDI Mostly the collections are from Malaysia and each state will be represented by at least 3 local cultivars with different traits either for fresh or process consumption Mauritius AREU 1. Cavendish banana (Petite Naine, Grande Naine, Cav901, Williams, Ollier. 2. \"Silk\" and \"Sucrier\". 1. is the main species grown on a commercial scale. Its conservation assists in regular comparative studies and serves as a source of mother plants for mass multiplication. 2. These accessions are regularly introduced and evaluated because there is an increasing demand for that type of dessert banana which is very popular in Mauritius.In Mexico approximately 90 % of our collection can only be found at this germplasm bank. The first (babies) and last (elders) food a Mexican eats is a banana or plátano macho, so we believe that with more work of the scientific society, we can help developing programs to reduce the 7.2 million people affected by food poverty living in urban areas (cities with 15,000 or more inhabitants), and 12.2 million residing in rural areas of the country. In rural areas smallholders make use of bananas and plantains as part of their family diet and extra income using the banana leaves. That's why new germplasm with better nutritional qualities and better biotic an abiotic stress resistance are so important for us, just as the Zea mays from Mexico to the world has been since...until now.Nigeria IITA-NI AAB -plantain group. Contain west-African plantain diversity, and IITA improved diploids and tetraploids with black Sigatoka resistance and good combining ability ; high yielding BLS-resistant triploids of potential value as future cultivars Papua New Guinea NARI Some accessions with yellow/orange flesh that have been analysed and showed high levels of carotenoids. Few accessions show tolerance to dry, water logging and salinity conditions.Philippines UPLB Wild Musa balbisiana collections since they have been there in the field genebank for more than a decade but they were still uninfected with BBTV. Potential source of resistance gene for future breeding works. However, some 90% of the accession have been infected with other viruses like BBrMV and CMV. Other cooking types are also important because of their potential for processing industry. • Bioversity undertakes, encourages and supports research aimed at enhancing the sustainable use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity to the world's most vulnerable communities through better nutrition, sustainable farming practices and conservation and use• Bioversity is responsible for the development and management of the Musa Germplasm Information System (also referred to simply as \"MGIS\"). The purpose of MGIS is to collect and share accession level information, from Musa spp. collections worldwide, such as passport data, characterization and preevaluation data as well as photos• This agreement concerns the collaboration between Bioversity and the Data Provider for exchange of Data from the 'Data Provider' to Bioversity during the period [Month] [Year] to [Month] [Year] (and any Data that may be provided after the date of this agreement) and its publication on the MGIS web site• MGIS is a publicly available online database that provides information about Musa spp. germplasm accessions at specific genebanks to facilitate and improve their use. MGIS also has functionality to build customized queries http://www.crop-diversity.org/banana• Targeted end users of MGIS include genebank managers, plant breeders, taxonomists, policy makers, educators, students, as well as the broader scientific community and addition to wide array of general users• Any germplasm data supplied by the Data Provider to MGIS will be made available publicly• MGIS will serve as a platform for publication of data provided by the Data Provider. MGIS will also offer tools for facilitating upload and data quality control. MGIS is managed in accordance with the principle that it only contains data that is publicly available.In this agreement the following words and expressions have the following meanings:Photos and passport, characterization, evaluation information concerning Musa spp. and any associated information including environmental information that can be derived for accessions that include collection site geo-references; ITC International transit Centre;xxxviii Metadata Information concerning when, where, how and by whom Data were collected to facilitate the use and to track for improvement of accuracy of data;The Musa Germplasm Information System through which Bioversity makes available to end users the Musa spp. Data released and provided by the Data Provider under the terms of this Agreement.Bioversity agrees to:1. include in MGIS the Data already provided by the Data Provider up December 31, 20122. provide software tools, together with appropriate support, to enable the Data Provider to subsequently upload and manage their own data on MGIS after December 31, 20123. provide public access to MGIS via a website, and maintain this website and its user interfaces 4. manage the legal basis for access to MGIS and use of Data (disclaimers, copyright notifications, 'MGIS Portal Terms and Conditions of Use') and prominently display on the MGIS website the terms of use of the Data 5. Not alter, modify, or otherwise change the Data, except for resizing of photos. If Bioversity believes that the Data needs to be updated or/and corrected to meet set quality standards, it will inform the Data Provider so they can make the required correction(s). Bioversity may only add environmental data relating to the geo-references included in the passport information of the Data released and Metadata 6. not express any opinion on Data when making it publicly available on MGIS 7. acknowledge the source of the Data 8. require any users of data, through a notice on the 'Terms of Use' of MGIS, to give appropriate acknowledgement of the source of the Data 9. effect and maintain at its own expense, such insurance as a prudent and responsible entity would effect in relation to the MGIS and Bioversity's business 10. Release and indemnify the Data Provider from and against any loss suffered or incurred by the Data Provider as a result of a breach of this agreement by Bioversity or gross negligence.The Data Provider agrees in relation to any Data provided by the Data Provider after the date of this agreement to:1. provide the Data to Bioversity in a format agreed by both Bioversity and the Data Provider, for Bioversity to upload to MGIS 2. upload and manage subsequent Data provided on MGIS, using utilities provided by Bioversity 3. provide MGIS with current contact details, including an email address, where requests created through MGIS, for material maintained by the Data Provider, may be forwarded 4. obtain all necessary permissions and licences from third parties, including in relation to copyright and database rights, to allow the Data to be made publicly available on MGIS 5. provide Bioversity only non-confidential data that is not subject to any restrictions for incorporation into MGIS and be responsible for any liability incurred if the Data has been provided to Bioversity in breach of such confidentiality obligations, with or without the Data Provider's knowledge 6. indemnify Bioversity against legal actions that may be brought by third parties with respect to the Data provided to Bioversity by the Data Provider for inclusion in MGIS, except to the extent that any legal action is caused or contributed to by an act or omission of Bioversity.Bioversity agrees that it shall not claim any copyright or other intellectual property rights or other proprietary interest in any Data provided by the Data Provider. Bioversity agrees that it shall pass on the same restriction against claiming intellectual property or other proprietary interests over Data in the form of a 'Terms of Use' agreement to be posted on MGIS.1. The Data Provider warrants that it has obtained all necessary licenses and authorizations to consent the transfer of such Data to MGIS and will assist in resolving any disputes which might arise from these issues. The assurance will be provided in writing, to Bioversity, if requested 2. The Data Provider and Bioversity will not provide any warranties for Data content, accuracy or the use of the Data and disclaim all responsibility and liability in this regard.1. Bioversity will make the passport, characterization and evaluation Data available to other information systems and/or portals, including GENESYS, the Global Information System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as anticipated in Article 17 of the International Treaty on PGRFA (when it is created), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and ensure that the proper acknowledgements are given to the provider (see 2.1.7 and 2.1.8)2. At any time the Data Provider has the right to request Bioversity to remove, within one (1) month of the Data Provider's request, Data that it previously supplied for the purpose of publication on MGIS. Such requests shall be made to Bioversity in writing 3. The Data Provider may make available, use or publish the Data elsewhere and for any purpose, without limitation.1. This agreement shall be in full execution from the date the last party has signed the agreement and until terminated in accordance with clause 7.2  ","tokenCount":"56473"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50bc0402ad048f666d8150928303fdca","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/476e44da-c41c-461f-94d0-5417238d0c55/content","id":"-1378317726"},"keywords":["AATF, African Agricultural Technology Foundation","AEZ, agroecological zone","FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization","LRS, Long rainy season","RCBD, Randomized Incomplete Block Design","R4D, Research-for-Development","SRS, short rainy season","SSA, sub-Saharan Africa","WEMA, water efficient maize for Africa. on-FArM reseArch"],"sieverID":"6ef4997e-ecd0-4836-be2d-f70186170713","pagecount":"15","content":"Maize (Zea mays L.) productivity in the sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by biotic and abiotic stresses that reduce yield. In the region, one of the most serious abiotic factor is frequent intermittent droughts, which has been attributed to climate change. The purpose of this paper was to use on-farm demonstration studies and farmer field days to demonstrate new drought mitigation technology and provide information on how small farmers can reduce yield losses. A total of 4814 demonstration plots of 39 DroughtTEGO maize hybrids and 19 commercial check hybrids were established in 17 counties across the low-to-midaltitude maize-growing agroecologies of Kenya between 2015 and 2017. A total of 246 field-day workshops were conducted. Combined analyses across years and locations showed that top five DroughtTEGO hybrids increased maize yields 33 to 54% (5.5-6.3 Mg ha -1 ) relative to conventional hybrids. The highest yield advantage of DroughtTEGO hybrids over commercial checks was observed in the drier lower eastern region in Kenya. Farmers particularly women, preferred the DroughtTEGO hybrids because of the stay-green character, whiteness of flour (milling quality), root lodging resistance, drought-tolerance and shelling percentage. Results from this study suggested that smallholder farmers can reduce the impact of drought by seeding drought-tolerant maize hybrids.• High yields and farmer-preferred traits determine adoption of new varieties. • Conducting on-farm demonstrations can overcome adoption barriers. • Planting of drought-tolerant hybrids mitigates drought stress for smallholder-farmers.eclining agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been attributed to frequent drought events and floods caused by climate change (Mendelsohn, 2008;Chavas et al., 2009;Schlenker and Lobell, 2010;Muller et al., 2011;Gohari et al.,2013;Dao et al., 2015). These climatic conditions adversely impact food availability, commodity prices, and farmer livelihoods (Ngingi, 2009;Ringler et al., 2010;Ibrahim et al., 2014).Maize is a staple food crop in many developing countries (Shiferaw et al., 2011;De Groote et al., 2013) and a major staple and cash crop for more than 300 million smallholder farmers in SSA (Mathenge et al., 2014). Although maize is widely adapted to a wide range of climatic conditions (Ureta et al., 2013), yields in SSA range from 1.1 to 1.7 Mg ha -1 (Smale et al., 2011) which is much lower than the global average of 4.5 Mg ha -1 (Khonje et al., 2015;Whitfield et al., 2015). These low yields are attributed to biotic and abiotic stresses (Vivek et al., 2010;Aylward et al., 2015).Maize cultivation in the developing world relies heavily on rainfall (Jones and Thornton, 2003;Shiferaw et al., 2011;Papanastassiou, 2012;Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, 2017). Drought and heat stresses suppress maize productivity (Jaleel et al., 2009;Tai et al., 2011;Aslam et al., 2015) and can reduce yields up to 100% (Jones and Thornton, 2003). Other constraints limiting yields include pests and diseases (Shiferaw et al., 2011;Abera et al., 2013, Ndwiga et al., 2013;Nyaligwa et al., 2016); growing old hybrid varieties/landraces; poor agronomic practices (Shiferaw et al., 2011Abera et al., 2013;Nyaligwa et al., 2016;Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, 2017); and low soil fertility (Papanastassiou, 2012;Wambugu et al., 2012). Development of varieties that are resilient to biotic and abiotic stresses is a key strategy to mitigate constraints to maize production (Jones and Thornton, 2003;Shiferaw et al., 2011) and reduce the pressure to conversion of non-cultivated areas to annual crops (Jones and Thornton, 2003).In Kenya, maize is a staple food crop with more than 90% of the population relying on it daily (Nyameino et al., 2003;Kirimi et al., 2011;USDA, 2016). About 1.6 million hectares are cultivated annually by smallholder farmers who contribute 75% of the total maize production (Guantai and Seward, 2010). Kenya's average national annual maize yield is relatively low and ranges from 1.5 to 1.8 Mg ha -1 (FAOSTAT, 2018). Kenya's low yields are produced in spite of large investments in breeding new hybrids. The reasons for low adoption rates of new hybrids were discussed by Wekesa et al. (2003) and Smale andOlwande (2011, 2014).Maize production in Kenya is concentrated in the low-to medium-altitude maize-growing zones which account for approximately 1.11 million hectares, with an average productivity of 1.1 Mg ha -1 (Government of Kenya, 2010). Several DroughtTEGO hybrids were developed and released for low-to medium-altitude (1000-1600 m above sea level) geographies in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project (Oikeh et al., 2014;Beyene et al., 2016;2017;Edge et al., 2018). As part of the WEMA Project, The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) introduced DroughtTEGO hybrids for commercialization in Kenya. Abate et al. (2017) reported that despite the release of several new maize varieties in SSA, the average age of the oldest released variety was 20 yr, while the newest was 7 yr. The lack of adoption of the new cultivars is attributed to lack of performance data under farmers' conditions and the lack of demand for the new hybrids. Incorporating farmer-desired traits in the breeding pipeline could assist in wider adoption of new maize hybrids. The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate on-farm performance of DroughtTEGO maize hybrids developed by WEMA Project in low-to mid-altitude maize-growing agroecologies in Kenya and to document the farmers perceptions to the hybrids.Drought-tolerant maize hybrids developed by the WEMA Project and released for the low-to mid-altitude agroecologies in Kenya were used in this study (Table 1). The hybrids have been bred for drought tolerance (good yield under moderate water stress), with maturity rates between 120 and 145 d and tolerance to northern corn leaf blight, maize streak virus, and gray leaf spot. A total of 58 varieties (39 DroughtTEGO hybrids and 19 commercial checks) were grown in 4814 demonstration sites in 17 maize-growing counties in the low-to mid-altitude agroecologies of Kenya (Table 1, Fig. 1).Kenya has seven major agroecological zones (AEZs) including Low Tropics (Zone I); Dry Mid-altitudes (Zone II); Dry Transitional (Zone III); Moist Mid-altitudes (Zone IV); Highland Tropical (Zone V); Moist Transitional (Zone VI); and other areas accounting for <5% maize production (Fig. 1). Maize is grown in all the seven agroecological zones, but its production is concentrated in zones IV, V, and VI. The present study focused on the low-to medium-altitude AEZs spread across 17 counties (Fig. 1). The rainfall pattern in the study areas is bi-modal with the first peak in April during the long rainy season (LRS) and November during the short rainy season (SRS) (Fig. 2 and 3).The hybrids were planted during the LRS (season A) and SRS (season B) of 2015 and 2016 and LRS of 2017. Farmers were randomly selected for inclusion in this study (Fig. 1). The DroughtTEGO hybrids and most popular commercial checks were planted in a partially balanced randomized incomplete block design (RCBD). Each hybrid was planted in a 10 by 10 m plot at a spacing of 75 by 25 cm with one plant per hill to give a final population of 53,333 plants ha -1 . Each farmer's field was considered as a replication. Analysis of variance was done to test the effects of county, variety, season, and interactions between variety and season on grain yield. At planting, diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer was applied at rate of 123 kg ha -1 ; and calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) was applied at three to five leaf stage at a rate of 123 kg ha -1 . Stemborer pests were controlled using an appropriate  chemical applied at knee height crop stage. Weeds were controlled by hand weeding throughout the growing season. The demo plots were managed by farmers with the guidance of a research-for-development (R4D) team.Farmer field-day workshops were conducted at 246 selected sites; 76 in western Kenya, 57 in Mt. Kenya and upper eastern, 47 in the South Rift, 28 in the lower eastern, and 38 in Nyanza. Farmer groups were invited to view DroughtTEGO hybrids and compare them with the performance of the popular commercial varieties. More than 61,000 farmers (57.3% women and 42.7% men) participated in the field day workshops. Five demonstration-host farmers in each agroecology were selected, trained, and determined general disease expression, plant height, root lodging, drought tolerance, maturity period (earliness), stay green character, ease of shelling, shelling percentage, grain type (flint or dent), grain yield, taste-ugali (local maize meal), and flour whiteness on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 was poor and 5 was best score). Grain type was scored (1-5; 1 being flint and 5 was dent).At physiological maturity, ears were harvested from each plot. The fresh weight of the harvested ears was recorded. Diseased ears were excluded, and weight of useable ears recorded. Shelling percentage was determined on 12 randomly selected ears. Their fresh weight and grain weight were recorded. The shelling percentage was used to determine grain yield for each plot after correcting for unuseable ears (diseased ears). Grain moisture content was measured from three random grain samples using a DICKEY-john multi-grain moisture tester (Dickey-John Corporation, Auburn, IL). Grain yield was calculated in Mg ha -1 using the formulae below (Carangal et al.,1971). where FEW = fresh weight of the ears at harvest; MC = percent moisture content in grains at harvest; SP. = shelling co-efficient; 13.5 = desired moisture content in maize grains at storage and; 10,000 m 2 = 1 ha.A t test was used to compare the DroughtTEGO hybrids with the commercial checks varieties for each trait based on an assumption of unequal variances. Combined analysis of variance and means over season/years were computed using GenStat Release 18.2 (PC/Windows 8) for the maize varieties with respect to grain yield. The mean values were compared using least significant difference (LSD) procedure as laid down according to Bliss et al. (1973).Data collected on grain yield was subjected to statistical analysis using the linear statistical model as described by Fehr (1987):where Y ijk = the observation made in the ith genotypes on the jth replication, in the kth season; µ = the overall mean of the character; β j = the effect of the j th replication; λ k = the effect of the kth season; (GE) ij = sum of interaction terms of the genotypes and season, and ε ijk = the residual effects. Estimates of heritability and variance components (genotypic and phenotypic components) were calculated from the ANOVA by using the following formula genotypic variance (VG) = (GMS -EMS) ⁄ r; environmental variance (VE) = EMS; phenotypic variance (VP) = VG + VE; Plot mean basis (h 2 BS) = VG ⁄ VG + VE; genetic advance (GA) = I × √VP × h 2 , where i at 20% = 1.40 (Fehr, 1987).Evaluation of DroughtTEGO hybrids against the commercial checks showed that DroughtTEGO hybrids rated better on 8 out of the 12 traits scored (Fig. 4, Table 2). The hybrids scored better on stay green character after physiological maturity, flour color (whiteness), root lodging, drought tolerance, shelling percentage, grain yield, plant height, and taste of ugali (local maize meal (Fig. 4). However, the DroughtTEGO hybrids were similar in rating to commercial checks for general disease reaction in the field, maturity period, ease of shelling, and grain type (flint or dent).The promotion of DroughtTEGO hybrids through on-farm demonstrations and farmer field-day workshops increased awareness of the hybrids to farmers. The reception of farmers and other stakeholders on the suitability of DroughtTEGO hybrids for cultivation was very positive. Eagerness to learn more about the hybrids by their willingness to host demonstration plots and participation in field-day workshops by both men and women farmers indicated that these hybrids could increase their farm productivity and livelihoods.  In this study, it was observed that more women (57%), than male farmers participated in farming activities including hosting the demonstration plots and participation in the field days for exchange of knowledge. It was noted that women were more engaged in farming activities than men because of their desire to ensure food security for their families. They were also easier to mobilize to form farmer groups. An interview with Doris Anjawa, Field Coordinator at the Rural Outreach Program-Africa in western Kenya, during the field day workshops reported that low involvements of male farmers were attributed to many men's belief that farming is women's work. Men were most interested in grain marketing and sharing the income.The farmers were more interested in stay-green, white flour (milling quality), root lodging resistance, drought tolerance, and shelling percentage (Fig. 4). Stay-green character after physiological maturity of the DroughtTEGO hybrids, associated with drought tolerance, is important for farmers who keep livestock because after harvest, the green stalks serve as animal feed. Similar observation was reported for the wide adoption in the West African savanna of open-pollinated, TZB-SR variety with flinty grains that were suitable for storage and possess high milling quality preferred by farmers (Oikeh et al., 1998). Shelling percentage was appreciated by most farmers, one of whom (the late Omari Majoni in Mumias, personal communication, 2015) reported up to 2.5 tea cups of grain from one ear of WE1101 DroughtTEGO hybrid, compared with 1.5 from the previous hybrid he was planting. Plant height, grain yield, and taste of maize meal were also rated better for DroughtTEGO hybrids (Table 2). Other studies have reported that farmers rated high grain yield, disease resistances, good grain milling quality, and drought tolerance to be the most important traits in adoption of new maize hybrids (Wang et al., 2017;Nyaligwa et al., 2016;Afriyie-Debrah et al., 2018).Increased awareness of the benefits of new seed varieties are critical for increasing farm productivity in eastern and southern Africa (Langyintuo et al., 2008). This has been a slow process; however adoption barriers are being overcome by conducting on-farm demonstration studies and linking farmers to seed companies through field days (Langyintuo et al., 2008). Farmers' perceptions about a new variety plays a vital role in the adoption process (Witcombe et al., 2003;vom Brocke et al., 2010;Trouche et al., 2012). However, it is important to note that although most farmers obtain information on improved maize hybrids, only a few adopt these new technologies (Wambugu et al., 2012).One hybrid WE1101 showed consistently high yields that generally ranged from 5 to 6 Mg ha -1 since its release in 2013. This hybrid has a medium maturity period (120 d) in most of the agroecologies across Kenya. Muinga et al. (2019) reported  that the adoption rate of DroughtTEGO hybrids was 26%, after only 3 yr of introduction to smallholder farmers in Kenya. In addition, the study showed that 62% of the farmers interviewed were aware of at least one DroughtTEGO hybrid and that 42% of them were considering purchasing WE1101 DroughtTEGO hybrid seed for planting. Farmers in some parts of western Kenya were attracted to DroughtTEGO hybrids because of drought tolerance, earliness, and high yields when compared to late-maturing hybrids like H614 and H6213 grown in the region. They could also plant two-season crops of DroughtTEGO hybrids in a year, for food security and income from surplus grain.Analysis of variance for the on-farm data showed significant interaction between variety and season as well (P ≤ 0.001) and yield differences among counties, varieties, and seasons (P < 0.001). Table 3 shows that the varieties perform significantly different in different counties and seasons.Combined analysis across the agroecologies over the five seasons showed that DroughtTEGO hybrids had higher productivity compared with commercial checks in Kenya (Fig. 5). The DroughtTEGO hybrids had mean yield of 4.9 Mg ha -1 compared with 3.2 Mg ha -1 for commercial checks over the five seasons. This is a 53% yield advantage over commercial checks and 188% yield advantage over the Kenya national average maize yield during the evaluation period, 2015 to 2017.The best 10 DroughtTEGO hybrids had mean yields of 5.3 to 6.3 Mg ha -1 compared with 4.1 Mg ha -1 for the best commercial check hybrid across all locations and years (Table 4). This represents a yield advantage of 29 to 54% (Table 4). Out of the 39 DroughtTEGO hybrids planted, 20 hybrids had a greater than 20% yield advantage over the best commercial check hybrid, and a greater than 50% yield advantage over mean of checks. DroughtTEGO hybrids have potential yield of 4.2 Mg ha -1 under managed drought and up to 9.1 Mg ha -1 under optimum-moisture (well-watered) conditions (https:// www.kephis.org/images/Uploads/UPNVLIST.pdf), compared to 4.3 to 7.8 Mg/ha -1 (https://www.infonet-biovision.org/ PlantHealth/Crops/Maize).   3 shows that the varieties performed significantly different in different counties and seasons. The 2015 LRS had the highest yield, while 2016 SRS showed the least (Fig. 6). These differences may be attributed to differences in rainfall amount and duration (Fig. 2 and 3). During the LRSs (2015A, 2016A, 2017A) the DroughtTEGO hybrids had 43 to 59% mean yield advantage over the commercial checks, while in the SRSs (2015B and 2016B), DroughtTEGO hybrids had 53 to 73% yield advantage over the commercial checks . These findings suggest that the DroughtTEGO hybrids were superior in LRS and SRSs. Climate data showed that the highest rainfall totals were observed in April to May and October to November (Fig. 1). However, Mt. Kenya and lower eastern regions had significantly lower rainfall totals when compared to the other agroecologies. In these regions, DroughtTEGO hybrids provided higher and more stable yields when compared with the commercial checks. Rainfall data (Fig. 2) indicated that 2016 received less rainfall both in LRS and SRSs when compared to 2015 and 2017. In 2016 SRS, prolonged drought was experienced in Kenya leading to high moisture stress but DroughtTEGO hybrids showed the highest (70%) yield advantage over commercial checks.There was a significant yield difference between DroughtTEGO and commercial checks; and the varieties performed significantly different in the different counties and seasons (Tables 5 and 6). The highest hybrid yields were observed in Kakamega, Nakuru, Meru, Embu, and Muranga, and the lowest yields were observed in the lower eastern counties of Machakos and Makueni. It was also observed that different hybrids performed better in some counties than others; while some hybrids were among the best hybrids across the counties.Western Kenya falls within the moist mid-altitude agroecological zone (Fig. 1). In the four counties of Kakamega, Vihiga, Busia, and Bungoma in western Kenya, DroughtTEGO hybrids yields ranged from 4.2 to 4.9 Mg ha -1 (Table 5). These yields were 27 to 36% higher than that of commercial check hybrids. The individual mean yield of best 10 DroughtTEGO hybrids ranged from 4.4 to 6.7 Mg ha -1 across the counties, which were higher than that of commercial checks, that ranged from 2.9 to 4.0 Mg ha -1 (Table 7). There were 10 DroughtTEGO hybrids (WE4207, WE4208, WE1101, WE2107, WE2108, WE3104, WE3105, WE3106, WE3210, and WE1254) that were among the top 10 hybrids in more than one county (Table 7). Most of the DroughtTEGO hybrids performed very well in western Kenya that had high and well distributed rainfall when compared to other agroecologies (Fig. 2 and 3).Nyanza region falls within the moist mid-altitude AEZ (Fig. 1). DroughtTEGO hybrids yields ranged from 4.4 to 4.7 Mg ha -1 while commercial checks yields ranged from 2.5 to 3.0 Mg ha -1 in Siaya, Homa Bay, and Migori Counties    (2015)(2016)(2017). the less amount of rainfall received, DroughtTEGO hybrids had some of the highest yields in this agroecology; with yield advantage of 83 to 153% over commercial checks. Most of the commercial checks were severely impacted by drought stress, while DroughtTEGO hybrids were resilient to the stress.South Rift agroecology falls within the moist-transitional and highland tropical agroecologies in Kenya (Fig. 1). This study focused on the moist-transitional part of the counties, excluding the highlands. In this agroecology, DroughtTEGO hybrids yields ranged from 3.7 to 5.3 Mg ha -1 ; higher than that of commercial checks that ranged from 3.3 to 3.8 Mg ha -1 in Narok, Bomet, and Nakuru Counties in South Rift Valley (Table 5). The individual mean yield of the best 10 hybrids ranged from 3.7 to 6.1 Mg ha -1 . These yields were higher than that of commercial checks that ranged from 3.1 to 5.2 Mg ha -1 (Table 11). Six DroughtTEGO hybrids (WE1101, WE2101, WE2104, WE2106, WE2108, and WE2110) were ranked among the top 10 common hybrids across the three counties.The low yield advantage (17-19%) of DroughtTEGO hybrids compared with the potential of these hybrids, could be attributed to the incidence of maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease that is prevalent in this agroecology. The DroughtTEGO hybrids used in this study are susceptible to MLN disease. However, from the yields reported, DroughtTEGO hybrids out-performed the commercial checks and were well adapted to this agroecology.The drought-tolerant hybrids were developed for high and stable yield under water stressed environments to help farmers mitigate drought stress in maize farming (Beyene et al., 2016;2017). The variable responses of the hybrids in different agroecologies and counties across seasons showed that different hybrids are better suited for different agroecologies and that rainfall patterns affected hybrid performance. The interaction between the different genotypes and environment (either dry or moist) was key yield determinant for the hybrids. The top 10 DroughtTEGO hybrids produced the highest grain yields that ranged from 4.4 to 6.7 Mg ha -1 in the counties of Kakamega, Meru, Embu, Murang'a and Kirinyaga, while lower yields that ranged from 3.6 to 4.9 Mg ha -1 (top 10 hybrids) were obtained in Makueni and Machakos counties. However, the magnitude of the impact of DroughtTEGO hybrids were greater in the low potential areas (63-89%) than in the high potential areas (35-68%) when compared with commercial hybrids. This is because the DroughtTEGO hybrids were developed for agroecologies that generally have limited amounts of rainfall (Fig. 2 and 3).Intermittent drought spells were experienced during active growth period of the hybrids in the five seasons (Fig. 3). The longest drought spell was in 2016 SRS when the yields for both sets of DroughtTEGO hybrids and commercial hybrids were significantly lower when compared with the other seasons. According to Uhe et al. (2017), there was severe drought in most parts of Kenya during October to December 2016 into early 2017. During the period, most farmers lost their maize crop to drought; and some farmers had zero yield. However, DroughtTEGO hybrids braced the drought with good performance and yield advantage of up to 70% compared with commercial checks. On average, across the maize-growing counties in Kenya, the top five best hybrids were WE5213, WE4207, WE5205, WE4208, and WE2108 (Table 4). These hybrids yields ranged from 5.5 to 6.3 Mg ha -1 ; 33 to 54% greater than the best commercial check and could be generally recommended to farmers. However, WE1101 ranked among the top 10 in all the agroecologies while WE3105 ranked among top 10 in almost all agroecologies, except lower eastern Kenya; and thus, both hybrids are more specifically adapted to these agroecologies. WE1101 was also the most preferred hybrid based on famers' rating in terms of whiteness of flour, stay green character after physiological maturity, milling quality, and good taste of ugali or roasted as green maize. These are important traits to consider in future maize improvement programs. These improved highyielding and climate-smart DroughtTEGO hybrids identified in this study, should be promoted in Kenya to increase maize productivity and farmer livelihoods. concLusIons Maize remains a very important staple crop in SSA particularly in Kenya and its consumption will continue to increase due to population increase. Therefore, mitigation of maize productivity constraints using viable approaches in R4D cannot be overemphasized. Interventions through breeding of varieties resilient to drought is key to overcoming the constraint during water stress in the field to protect yields and ensure better livelihoods among smallholder farmers. DroughtTEGO hybrids improved for drought tolerance have shown the potential to help farmers to mitigate the effects of drought with yield advantage ranging from 17 to 19% in the South Rift Valley region to as high as 83 to 153% in Mt. Kenya region compared with the commercial hybrids popular in Kenya.It is also important that the development of new improved varieties factor in farmers' preferred traits for successful adoption. Creation of awareness on the new hybrids by promotion and marketing through conducting large number of on-farm demonstration trials with field days as proven in this study, is key to driving adoption of new varieties. Adoption of highyielding improved drought stress-tolerant maize hybrids by smallholder farmers can contribute to increased maize productivity and production in Kenya and other parts of SSA. Therefore, the adoption and scaling up of DroughtTEGO hybrids through deployment and commercialization in Kenya and other countries in SSA was recommended to mitigate drought in maize farming for better and stable yields. ","tokenCount":"4051"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21a17b0f988098015e4bbd21f9b3e054","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/963b1d60-a8c1-4439-b7ed-8252daf1fcbe/retrieve","id":"639137914"},"keywords":["meteorological","pear trees","shortwave infrared (SWIR)","stomatal conductance","water stress"],"sieverID":"06d10e81-6878-4c09-8b42-d5a2e1e60a86","pagecount":"17","content":"In situ measurements consisting of stomatal conductance, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit and the spectral reflectance in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) regions of thirty \"Conference\" pear trees (Pyrus communis L.) were repeatedly measured for eighty-six days. The SWIR was segmented into eight regions between 1550 and 2365 nm, where distances ranged from 40-200 nm. Each of the regions was used to describe the change in canopy water status over a period of approximately three months. Stomatal conductance of the water stress treatment was first determined to be significantly different from the control group nine days after stress initiation. The most suitable SWIR region for this study had wavelengths between 1550 and 1750 nm, where the first significant difference was also measured nine days after stress was initiated. After the period of water stress ended, forty-seven days after stress was initiated, all of the trees received full irrigation, where theWater stress is considered the most important abiotic limitation for plant growth and development in arid and semi-arid zones and is increasingly found in temperate zones [1]. Water stress for this study is defined as the lack of adequate precipitation combined with high atmospheric moisture demand needed for normal plant growth and development in order to maximize potential yield [2]. Water stress in this context may reduce yield, but seldom results in catastrophic loss [3].Pear trees are not drought resistant; therefore, areas of pear cultivation having dry seasons are dependent on irrigation. Two stages exist in the reproductive growth of pear trees, which are based on fruit growth. Stage I occur for a period of approximately two months after bloom, when vegetative growth is the strongest [4]. This period ends at approximately the end of May in Belgium. Stage II begins approximately in June in Belgium, where fruit growth becomes stronger and ends in Belgium approximately at the end of August, although the exact timing of Stage I and II is dependent on meteorological conditions. Moderate water stress induced at Stage I has been shown to reduce shoot growth, but also increased fruit drop and reduced production. At Stage II, moderate water stress resulted in smaller fruit size and weight and decreased production [5][6][7][8][9]. Severe water stress at either Stage I or II may trigger biennial bearing: an event that occurs when fruit production is large during one year, followed by a smaller production the following year [10].In virtually all plants, one of the first responses to water stress is stomatal closure to avoid water loss through transpiration [11]. Plant growth, photosynthesis and stomatal aperture are limited under water deficit, which is regulated by environmental factors, such as CO2, vapor pressure deficit (VPD), leaf water status, solar irradiance and abscisic acid (ABA) from the roots [12]. It has been shown that for some plants, as little as half of their maximum photosynthetic capacity is restored one day after irrigation [13], while maximum photosynthesis was not realized for up to two months for severely stressed orange trees (Citrus sinensis L. Valencia), thereby slowing CO2 assimilation [14]. Ni and Pallardy [15] demonstrated that for black walnut (Juglans nigra L.), the limitations of mesophyll conductance are most responsible for the decreased photosynthesis during water stress and slow recovery after re-watering.The use of solid state leaf porometers has allowed measurements of stomatal conductance under field conditions. However, stomata are extremely sensitive to blue and red light and will react to shadowing almost instantly. Therefore, care must be taken not to shade the leaf when using a leaf porometer. Environmental conditions are not the only limitations for leaf porometers. The position and age of the leaf within the canopy determines their ability to optimize dry matter production by balancing photosynthesis and transpiration [16]. Consequently, a more efficient methodology of monitoring water stress in fruit orchards is needed.Curran [17] described three dominate canopy features, each having specific spectral regions: pigmentation in the visible (VIS, 400-700 nm), cell structure in the near infrared (NIR, 700-1350 nm) and water content in the short wave infrared (SWIR, 1350-2500 nm). Vegetation indices, such as the Normal Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), have been developed to detect water stress based on the unique reflectance signature within and a combination of the aforementioned spectral regions [18][19][20][21]. However, thirty-five years ago, simulated reflectance and atmospheric transmission properties determined that the SWIR region was most sensitive to leaf water content [22]. Recent advancements in remote sensing have resulted in the development of a new generation of sensors having continuous narrow spectral regions of the electromagnetic spectrum [23]. Recently, two remote sensing satellites have become operational; Landsat 8 and WorldView-3, each having bands with the sensing capability in the SWIR regions, as stated by Tucker [22]. The Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager has SWIR wavelengths between 1570 and 1650 nm at a spatial resolution of 30 m, and the WorldView-3 has SWIR wavelengths segmented into eight regions from 1195-2365 nm at a spatial resolution of 4.1 m [24,25].The responses of canopy water status to the SWIR region have been mixed. The shortwave infrared water stress index (SIWSI) was able to successfully measure canopy water status in the grasslands of the Ferlo region in Senegal [26]. On the other hand, apple trees (Malus domestica Borkh, cv. Gala) that were irrigated to 100%, 75% and 50% of evapotranspiration showed no significant differences between treatments and canopy water status [27]. Plausible explanations for the inconsistency in the results of these vegetation indices is that the physiological response to water stress is species specific, the water stress is detectable over a small region of the electromagnetic spectrum and the sensors may not have been suitable to detect changes in water content. More research in improving the spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions would provide the foundation to significantly advance the characterization of water stress.In this study, Conference pear trees (Pyrus communis L.) were managed in a controlled environment in order to regulate water input, to eliminate competition for water and nutrients, to reduce within-field variability and to allow for precise repeated measurements. A soil water deficit was imposed for 47 days to separate the control group from the stress treatment followed by irrigation to the soil medium's water holding capacity (i.e., recovery from water stress). Because stomatal conductance has been shown to be an early indicator of water stress, leaf porometer data were used as a reference for comparison purposes. The overall goal of this study was to develop non-destructive methods using hyperspectral remote sensing in the SWIR region to measure the pear trees' response to stomatal conductance. The three specific objectives of this study are: (1) to analyze the stomatal conductance and SWIR response for the stress treatment and the control group at each time point over a period of 86 days; (2) to construct a multivariate analysis of time difference variables for stomatal conductance and SWIR regions corrected for meteorological factors; and (3) to estimate the average rate of change in stomatal conductance and the spectral response in the SWIR region between the stress treatment and the control group.The experimental design was completely randomized consisting of 30 3-year old Conference pear tree canopies that were planted in individual containers (24 cm diameter × 29 cm height) at KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (50°51′ N, 4°40′ E; 60 m above sea level). The stress treatment contained 18 canopies, and the control group consisted of 12 canopies. The experiment was laid out with 5 rows containing 6 canopies each with a spacing of 1.3 m × 3.0 m. A border row surrounded the experiment in order to minimize border effects. The growing medium was a greenhouse mixture containing 40% peat moss, 30% perlite and 30% vermiculite. The containers were covered with a solid waterproof material and each tree sealed between the trunk and the solid waterproof material with a flexible, waterproof substance to prevent rainfall from influencing the experiment and to minimize water evaporation from the growing medium. A black cloth was attached to the top of the waterproof material to minimize the effects of the underlying reflectance. Trees were managed in accordance to the standards used by commercial orchards for nutrients and the control of insects and diseases.On 20 March 2012, an irrigation system was installed with three emitters per container, and all containers received water and nutrients to the growing mediums water holding capacity until 10 June 2012. Beginning 10 June, the containers of the stress treatment were limited to one emitter, while three emitters remained in each of the containers of the control group. The irrigation system was computer controlled and coupled to a weather station, where the timing of applied water and nutrients was determined by solar radiation from 07:00-17:00 beginning 10 June 2012 until 27 July 2012 (i.e., stressed), 47 days after stress began. During the second period beginning 28 July 2012, through 4 September 2012 (i.e., recovery), all containers had 3 emitters, and additional water was applied 3 times per day, i.e., early morning, noon and late afternoon local time, by manually overriding the irrigation program until excess water appeared from the drainage holes at the bottom of all of the containers. The study had a maximum of 12 irrigation periods per day and a maximum water supply of 2 liters per hour for each emitter.Twenty-one stomatal conductance and hyperspectral measurements were taken only on days where cloud cover was between 0% and approximately 10%.Meteorological data were obtained from a weather station located 25 m from the study area. Measurements included relative humidity (RH) and ambient temperature (°C), which were recorded every 5 min. From these measurements, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was calculated as shown in Equation ( 1), as VPD is a better indicator of atmospheric water demand than RH, in accordance to Anderson [28].where es is the saturation vapor pressure in millibars, 6.11 is the saturation vapor pressure above a water body, L is the latent heat of vaporization of 2.5 × 10 6 J•kg −1 , Rv is the gas constant for water vapor (461 J/kg), 273 is the temperature (°K), T is the temperature (°C) and RH is the measured percent relative humidity.= × 100 − 100Stomatal conductance (mmol m −2 •s −1 ) was measured using a leaf porometer (model SC-1, Decagon Devices, Inc., Pullman, WA, USA) with an accuracy of ±10%. Instrument calibration was done prior to each set of measurements according to the manufacturer's guidelines. Six leaves, 3 sunlit and 3 shaded, were randomly chosen in the upper one-third of the canopy, and these leaves were marked on the underside to ensure the same clusters were used for each measurement period. The time required to measure 6 leaves was approximately 5 min per canopy. Limiting the number of leaves on which to measure stomatal conductance was done to allow all other measurements to be completed within two and a half hours, thereby minimizing the variability in stomatal conductance due to meteorological factors.Canopy reflectance was measured for all 30 canopies using an ASD FieldSpec Pro spectroradiometer (Analytical Spectral Devices Inc., Boulder, CO, USA) that is capable of detecting reflectance in the 350-2500-nm spectral regions. The spectroradiometer has a spectral resolution of 3 nm (full-width-at-half-maximum, FWHM) and a 1.4-nm sampling distance between the 350-and 1050-nm spectral ranges. The FWHM and sampling interval for the 1051-2500-nm spectral range are 30 nm and 2 nm, respectively. The spectroradiometer was optimized every fifteen minutes using a white Spectralon background (Labsphere Inc. Ltd, North Sutton, NH, USA) in order to minimize errors due to changes in illumination conditions. The spectroradiometer was positioned at a height of 1.3 m above a canopy at nadir using a fiber optic cable with a field of view of 25°, attached to a mechanical lift and placed into a fixed position. This enabled the performance of repeated measures with a positional accuracy of 5 mm.Unique leaf morphology and chemistry provide specific reflectance and absorption features in the SWIR regions, allowing spectral measurements of water status. Hence, eight regions of the electromagnetic spectrum were selected, seven of which were based on the WorldView-3 satellite: 1550-1590, 1640-1680, 1710-1750, 2145-2185, 2185-2225, 2235-2285 and 2295-2365; and the eighth region was between 1550 and 1750 nm, as shown in Figure 1. Each SWIR region was quantified by utilizing the area under the curve by means of Simpson's rule to measure the difference of adjacent wavelengths by the amplitude of the signal over the region of interest [29]. As the study is longitudinal in nature with continuous outcomes, a repeated measures model was applied. More specifically, a polynomial model with a complex covariance structure to correct for the association between measurements of the same subject was applied and used for analyzing the data, as suggested by Verbeke and Molenberghs [30]. In order to model the coefficients, a second degree polynomial, constructed on the number of days after stress, was used. This polynomial also contains the terms that specify the difference between the treatments (stress/control). In order to correct for possible differences between treatment groups in daily VPD or air temperature, the latter were included as covariates. The specified covariance structure takes into account that measurements taken close to each other are often more strongly correlated than those taken further apart. Additionally, an extra assumption was made such that a covariance structure can be different between treatment groups. The fitting of the model was done by maximizing the likelihood. The analysis was performed in proc mixed, SAS ® software Version 9.3 [31].Meteorological data for the twenty-one days on which measurements were taken are presented in Figure 2. During the stress period, there was a general increase in VPD and temperature, while the recovery period demonstrated greater variability. The lowest VPD was −0.7 kPa during the stress period, nine days after stress, and the highest was −3.8 kPa during the recovery period, sixty-nine days after stress, with a median of 0.9 kPa and a range of 3.1 kPa throughout the study; Figure 2a. The lowest temperature was 18 °C during the stress period, thirty-two days after stress, and the highest temperature was 36 °C during the recovery period, sixty-nine days after stress, with a median temperature throughout the study of 26 °C, having a range of 18 °C; Figure 2b. The stomatal conductance measured using a leaf porometer over time for the stress treatment and control group is presented in Figure 3. At the start, beginning 13 days prior to stress initiation (i.e., −13), both the stress treatment and control group boxes overlap, and both medians lie within the inner quartile ranges, having a difference of approximately 3 mmol•m −2 •s −1 . Hence, there was no significant difference between the stress treatment and the control group. Nine days after stress was initiated, the median stomatal conductance of the stress treatment was lower than the control group. During the water stress period, stomatal conductance for the stress treatment decreased at a faster rate than the control group. The inner quartile ranges for the stress treatment and control group were approximately 21 and 26 mmol•m −2 •s −1 , respectively, and the medians were approximately 72 and 105 mmol•m −2 •s −1 . During the recovery period, stomatal conductance for the stress treatment lagged behind the control group. As the trees matured, stomatal conductance and stomatal oscillation increased for both the stress treatment and control group. The inner quartile ranges for the stress treatment and control group were approximately 66 and 41 m −2 •s −1 , and the medians were approximately 107 and 118 mmol•m −2 •s −1 . The average and standard deviation of the area under the curve for the four SWIR regions between 1550 and 1750 nm are shown in Figure 4. Beginning −13 days after stress, both the stress treatment's and control group's average areas under the curve are similar for each of the four SWIR regions. The three SWIR regions of 1550-1590, 1710-1750 and 1550-1750 nm showed that for the stress treatment and the control group, the average and standard deviation generally increased with each consecutive time point measurement beginning 9-47 days after stress. The recovery period began after the last measurement was collected 47 days after stress, where the stress treatment and control group means began to converge until 78 days after stress, where the averages and standard deviations are comparable. The SWIR region between 1640 and 1680 nm shows that the mean and standard deviation of the stress treatment and the control group are significantly different during the stress period beginning 9-42 days after stress. In spite of this, from 43-62 days after stress, the stress treatment and the control group show similar averages and standard deviations. Therefore, this region may not be suitable for detecting water stress due to stomatal oscillation. The average and standard deviation of the area under the curve for the four SWIR regions between 2145 and 2365 nm are shown in Figure 5. Beginning −13 days after stress, both the stress treatment's and the control group's average areas under the curve are similar for each of the four SWIR regions. With each consecutive time point measurement until 47 days after stress, the average and standard deviations between the stress treatment and the control group were highly variable, each showing a difference in variability. The recovery period began 48 days after stress, where the stress treatment and the control group means and standard deviations demonstrated a difference in their respective ability to measure canopy water status. Based on the model described in Section 2.6, tests for significance of the differences at every time point for stomatal conductance between the stress treatment and the control group were performed. No statistically-significant differences in stomatal conductance between the stress treatment and the control group were estimated −13 days after stress. Stomatal conductance showed a significant difference between the stress treatment and control group for every time point beginning the second measurement, nine days after water stress was initiated through the eighteenth measurement, 70 days after stress. The nineteenth measurement, 78 days after water stress, was initiated, and 30 days after the water stress period ended, stomatal conductance measurements for the stress treatment and control group are not statistically different, as shown in Figure 6. It was anticipated that the difference in stomatal conductance would continue to increase for each measurement throughout the stress period. Instead, for the last six measurements (i.e., Days 41-47), the difference between the stress treatment and the control group decreased by 10 mmol•m −2 •s −1 . This is reasonable, as the VPD increased by 1.1 kPa from 42-45 days after stress, while air temperature increased by 7 °C for the last six measurement days; the consequence of which caused a decrease in stomatal conductance for both the stress treatment and the control group.A second order derivative was used to compare the difference in the average rate of change for stomatal conductance and the area under the curve [32]. This resulted in the average response throughout the study for stomatal conductance of 0.0412 mmol•m −2 •s −1 per day after stress. Note that the results are adjusted for the multiple group comparison using Bonferroni correction (dividing the overall significance level by the number of comparisons): α = 0.05/21 = 0.002. The model used for the analysis of stomatal conductance and the SWIR regions can be written as Equation ( 2).whereby Yij is stomatal conductance or SWIR region, trt is a group variable with levels \"stress\" or \"control\", # days the number of days after stress, VPD is the vapor pressure deficit, temp is the air temperature and ε ~ 0, Σ . The covariance structure for Σ is defined as a spatial power:where dij is the distance between two measurements (the further away, the larger the distance). Similar to stomatal conductance, tests for significance of the differences at every time point for eight SWIR regions between the stress treatment and control group were performed as described in Section 2.5. The SWIR regions of 1550-1590, 1640-1680, 1710-1750 and 1550-1750 nm all showed no statistically-significant differences in the area under the curve between the stress treatment and control group −13 days after stress. Each of the four regions was consistent in characterizing significant differences beginning nine days after stress through 70 days after stress. The estimated differences between the stress treatment and control group for the four SWIR regions from 1550-1750 for the area under the curve are shown in Figure 7. The average rate of change in the area under the curve of the four SWIR regions between 1550 and 1750 nm was; −0.0016, −0.0018, −0.0014 and −0.0064, respectively. Although each of the four regions, 1550-1590, 1640-1680, 1710-1750 and 1550-1750 nm, was sensitive to canopy water status due to stomatal oscillation, the average rate of change of the area under the curve for the region 1550-1750 nm was most similar to that of stomatal conductance, with a difference in magnitude. The four SWIR regions of 2145-2185, 2185-2225, 2235-2285 and 2295-2365 nm revealed no statistically-significant differences in the area under the curve between the stress treatment and control group −13 days after stress, as shown in Figure 8. On the other hand, significant differences exist in their ability to distinguish between the stress treatment and the control group once water stress was initiated. The four SWIR regions from 2145-2365 were inconsistent in their response to canopy water status. The SWIR region of 2145-2185 nm showed statistically-significant differences beginning 9-70 days after stress; 2185-2225 nm beginning 9-70 days after stress; 2235-2285 nm beginning 18-68 days after stress; and 2295-2365 nm beginning 18-52 days after stress. The average rate of change in the area under the curve of the four SWIR regions in Figure 6 was between −0.0001 and −0.0004. These four SWIR regions demonstrated less confidence to correctly characterize changes in stomatal conductance than those shown in Figure 7, whose average rate of change was between −0.0064 and −0.0014. Additionally, the p-values were only marginally significant for the regions of 2235-2285 nm and 2295-2365 nm, with a p-value of 0.04. Consequently, these two of the four regions did not present strong evidence that they are suitable for measuring changes in stomatal conductance, as did the other regions. However, there were time points where they were able to determine significant differences in canopy water status, generally during the stress period. Therefore, they should not be completely ignored for detecting changes in canopy water status despite stomatal oscillation. In all instances, stomatal conductance changed at a faster rate than the SWIR regions. However, for an orchard, it would be impossible to measure stomatal conductance using a leaf porometer for every tree in one day. The use of hyperspectral remote sensing in the SWIR region of 1550-1750 nm was able to repeatedly measure the consequences of stomatal oscillation for all trees and to estimate canopy water status. The stress treatment and control group were both affected by VPD and air temperature, even though during the stress period, the control treatment had three irrigation emitters, while the stress treatment had one emitter. When the last measurement was collected 47 days after stress, all trees received irrigation, plus additional water was applied three times per day to the capacity of the medium through 86 days after stress. We had expected the stress treatment to recover from water stress faster than 30 days.Figure 9 shows the approximate rate and timing of fruit growth for pear trees in Belgium. The lag of 30 days in the stress treatments' canopy water status is compared to the control group occurred during Stage II, the period of rapid fruit filling. The expected consequences may affect production, not only during the current growing season, but also up to two years, due to the decrease in reserve carbohydrates in roots and branches and when severe water stress occurs, which may increase the mortality of branches. Additionally, fruit quality may be affected, including fruit size, firmness, color, sugars and dry matter concentration [33]. The goal of this study was to model stomatal oscillation and the resulting changes in canopy reflectance using the shortwave infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum over time. After re-watering, stomatal conductance for the stress treatment recovered 30 days later than the control group. The most suitable SWIR region had wavelengths between 1550 and 1750 nm, where the first significant difference was measured nine days after stress was initiated. The results demonstrated that the integration of the short wave infrared region between 1550 and 1750 nm is most suitable for the early detection of water stress due to stomatal oscillation in Conference pear trees, while the SWIR regions between 2145 and 2365 are less suitable, as they demonstrated considerable variability. The repeated measure models allowed us to describe the time lag between measurements as mathematical functions by defining the covariance structure. Meteorological sensors provided continuous measurements and were used as covariates in describing the variability over time. Because all trees experienced the same growth and development periods and meteorological variables, the control group showed similar variability in both stomatal conductance and reflectance values as the stress treatment, although at different magnitudes.Shortwave infrared measurements were able to integrate information associated with stomatal oscillation from the whole canopy in a matter of seconds, as opposed to in situ measurements of stomatal conductance for six leaves, taking an average of 5 min per canopy. The ability of hyperspectral remote sensing to quickly detect water stress due to stomatal oscillation is an important element in monitoring fruit orchards. Because of the dynamic nature of vegetation, a single image is not able to provide the necessary information to support management of fruit orchards. A time sequence of images is able to determine not only the onset, but also the recovery from water stress, thereby aiding fruit growers in their management decisions.The use of meteorological variables and statistical analysis in this study may be considered as a framework for hyperspectral remote sensing systems, supporting the collection of detailed information quickly and non-destructively throughout the plants life cycle. Recently, two new remote sensing satellites have become operational: WorldView-3 and Landsat 8. Both of these satellites have the same or similar wavelengths in the shortwave infrared region used in this study. Their effectiveness in detecting water stress is dependent on the scale, species and ecosystem being monitored. WorldView-3, with a revisit period of one day, would be suitable for monitoring vegetation at the landscape scale, whereas Landsat 8, with a revisit period of 16 days, is likely suitable for vegetation monitoring at a regional or continental scale.In order to strengthen our understanding of the climate-vegetation interaction and the long-term impact on agricultural production, a remote sensing study should be designed that continues for multiple years with many different genotypes. This would provide valuable information on how plants adapt to the environmental changes and support the global initiative of providing a safe and secure food supply.","tokenCount":"4478"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b91e0e5626bd954d1dd7efb89b2ab3f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d4b8f9ff-b1f7-4d3e-aa97-5092a04c9f15/retrieve","id":"-499933377"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"98d37600-b08a-4ee0-87f0-594261649561","pagecount":"1","content":"Read the submission hereWith almost 4,000 delegates from around the globe, these sessions are a vital platform for advancing climate action. The discussions at the conference will cover key topics essential for shaping effective climate policies and strategies.CGIAR is actively involved through various side events and by following several negotiation tracks, including the Global Goals on Adaptation, Agriculture and Food Security, Gender, Non-Market Measures, Loss and Damage, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance and Just Transitions (to food systems). As an observer organization and prior to negotiations, CGIAR Centers and global teams jointly developed several important submissions that will help guide these negotiations:Non-Market Approaches: CGIAR made a submission concerning the work programme under the framework for non-market approaches regarding (a) Themes for spin-off groups; and (b) Existing non-market approaches under the initial focus areas of the work programme activities.In partnership with the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, CGIAR made a joint submission in response to Decision 2/CMA.5, Paragraph 41 regarding the two-year UAE-Belem work programme on indicators to inform the process of identifying and defining future metrics for assessing adaptation progress.New Collective Quantified Goal on Finance (NCQG)-(TED 9): CGIAR submitted its views on the TED9 -the first of at least three that will be held in 2024 and the first meeting under the ad hoc work programme on the NCQG.Building on the discussions that took place at TED9 CGIAR submitted its views on the TED10 2nd meeting under the ad hoc work programme on the NCQG, particularly around the issues of sources, structure, timeframe and sub-goals..The CGIAR Gender Climate Platform supported Kenya's submission on the progress, challenges, gaps and priorities in implementing the gender action plan to inform the review of the implementation of the enhanced lima work programme on gender and its gender action plan We would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.To learn more about this Initiative, please visit this webpage.To learn more about this and other Initiatives in the CGIAR Research Portfolio, please visit www.cgiar.org/cgiar-portfolio. .","tokenCount":"343"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f39e106f2b14c4556bdbc2618d41cf40","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16827a23-6861-4343-b4fd-3cf08663f52c/retrieve","id":"1018154767"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"16a4d1d4-2feb-431a-855f-c0828a43fa7a","pagecount":"37","content":"Nutritious feeding of animals is essential for improved productivity of livestock in the Sahel and elsewhere. Livestock play multiple roles in household livelihoods in West African agricultural land use systems (risk avoidance, manure provision, wealth saving, food provision, traction, etc.) (Powell et al. 2004). Ruminant nutrition in this region depends largely on naturally growing pastures as the main feed resources which fluctuate both quantitatively and qualitatively with the season. Besides natural pastures, many livestock farmers in the region depend on crop residues, which are important feed resources during the dry season. Associated with the seasonal fluctuation in quantity and quality of feed resources is poor nutrition of animals, which is a major constraint to livestock production in the West African Sahel (Fernández-Rivera et al. 2005). Hence, the cyclic curve of weight gain in the wet season and weight loss in the dry season is a common feature of livestock production in the Sahel.In developing good and sustainable technological interventions to address the problem of feed shortage, it is necessary to assess existing and potential feed resources, use, costs and gaps with respect to ruminant production to meet the requirements of livestock. These evaluations will guide the development of effective strategies to improve nutrition and livestock productivity based on locally available feed resources. Decision support tools have the potential to play an important role. For example, the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) 1 is an example of a decision support tool that presents an evolving methodology for conducting rapid appraisals of livestock feed issues in smallholder livestock systems. FEAST is a systematic method for assessing local feed resource availability and use with a view to optimize feed utilization and animal production.Previous reports have reported on feed resources and intervention strategies in various parts of West Africa (Amole and Ayantunde 2016; Umutoni et al. 2015). Uptake of agricultural technology and livestock feeding interventions are strongly affected by gender relations and this is a neglected area in assessing feed resources and proposing intervention strategies. Gender is important since women and men farmers in a community face different constraints related to livestock feeding. Women play major roles in livestock production in the care of animals, grazing, fodder collection, processing milk and sales. Despite their considerable involvement and contribution, the challenges of women in livestock production and targeted intervention are masked in most studies since gender disaggregated data is usually not collected and gender issues are not directly considered. The aim of this study using G-FEAST was to provide in-depth information on intra-household dynamics and decision-making processes that could have important implications for women with regards to livestock feeding issues. The hope is that this will inform livestock feed intervention strategies which lead to more equitable gender outcomes.Burkina Faso is a Sahelian warm tropical country with three broad climatic zones. The dry Sahelian north, the North Sudan zone and the more humid South Sudan region. The Sahelian north has mean annual rainfall of 300-600 mm and a dry season of 7-9 months (October-June). The North Sudan zone in central Burkina Faso has mean annual rainfall of 600-900 mm, with a 4-5 months rainy season (June-October). The South Sudan region in the south has mean annual rainfall of 900-1200 mm and a rainy season lasting 6-7 months (May-October) (Beal et al. 2015).Falagountou is a town located in Yatenga province between the Sudano-Sahelian and the Sahelian climate zones. Falagountou lies within 14°21'41.9\"N 0°10'59.5\"E (https://goo.gl/maps/MtRvvpJWSYx36VGCA) The climate is characterized by an extended dry season from November-May. The average annual rainfall in the province for the period 1963-2003 was reported as 617 mm, with the ranges from 358 mm in the North of the province to 836 mm in the South (Douxchamps et al. 2015). Livestock production is extensive involving cattle, sheep, goats and poultry, although there are households that practice sedentary livestock production systems which often involve lactating cows and animal fattening. Under this sedentary system, animals are confined and are stall fed.Samorangouan is a town in Houet province in the west of Burkina Faso within 11°23'32.9\"N 4°56'16.2\"W (https://goo.gl/ maps/RMPmrk2PS1F9s1CQ7) the South Sudanian climatic zone, with an average rainfall of 1200 mm per year (Guinko 1984). This agricultural zone is characterized by perennial cultivation (mangoes, citrus fruits, common cashew, etc.) cotton, yam and cereals (sorghum, millet and maize). It is also a reception zone for transhumance livestock during the dry season and violent conflicts between agriculturalists and pastoralists are common. The surveys were conducted between June and July 2019 using the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) (Duncan et al. 2012). In this study, we used the gendered version of the FEAST tool (G-FEAST) (Lukuyu et al. 2019). The gendered FEAST adds value to the existing FEAST by identifying which aspects of gender relations in households affect animal feeding practices and the uptake of feeding interventions. The approach also identifies differences in opportunities and constraints in animal feeding between different household types. FEAST consists of a focus group discussion (FGD) and an individual household survey. For the FGDs in this study, men and women farmers formed separate groups, while for the individual questionnaire both male and female respondents were interviewed using standard FEAST questions. Respondents were also asked specific gender-related questions outlined in G-FEAST.In Falagountou, 12 male and 12 female farmers were involved in focus group discussions (FGD) to assess the constraints and opportunities for improving livestock feeding systems, participatory diagnosis of livestock production systems and availability of feed resources. In Samorangouan, the male FGD involved 12 farmers and the female FGD involve 17 farmers. Based on the FGDs, the average land holding was determined in each community and this was used to categorize the farmers into three wealth groups. Three farmers from each of the three wealth categories undertook the household questionnaire in each community. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather specific gender-disaggregated information from farmers on feed resources and feeding practices, household income, decision-making on livestock production and income from livestock and its products. A total of 36 farmers (9 male and 9 females in each village) were interviewed. Samples of available feed resources offered to animals were collected and analyzed for nitrogen and ash content, fibre components (NDF, ADF and ADL) and in vitro organic matter digestibility using the Near Infra-red Spectroscopy (NIRS).The quantitative data collected from individual key informant farmers were entered into the FEAST application (www.ilri. org/feast) to generate standard graphical outputs.Overview of the farming systemThe results of the survey showed that households by landholding can be categorized into small, medium and large farms in Falagountou and Samorangouan (Figure 2). Farmers in Falagountou ranked medium farms (60%) as the most prominent category, while in Samorangouan small scale farmers were ranked as most prominent. Data on land ownership shows considerable variation across sites. As we understood from the interview, land in Falagountou is owned individually by men and women, as well as jointly owned. In Samorangouan, land is mostly individually owned by men or women; joint ownership is rare. In Falagountou, land is mostly jointly owned while in Samorogouan male ownership dominates (Figure 3). The major crops grown in Falagountou are millet (finger and pearl), sorghum, maize and cowpea which are planted during the rainy season, and vegetables and eggplant which are planted in the dry season (Figure 4). Finger millet is the dominant crop (up to one hectare) while cowpea is dominant among the leguminous crops. The major crops grown in Samorangouan are cotton, maize, sorghum, finger millet, groundnut, cowpea and vegetables which are planted mostly for household consumption (Figure 4). Cropping patterns are similar among men and women in Falagountou although female-headed households cultivate less land (0.1 hectare) than male-headed household (Figure 5). On the contrary, female-headed household do not cultivate land in Samorangouan. Responses from the focus group discussion revealed that water sources in Falagountou were wells drilled with mechanical pump and shallow wells which are located 2 km-4 km away from the village. Year-round unavailability of water from these sources constitutes a major constraint to both crop and livestock production. With regards to livestock, only 20% of the household have access to water for their livestock from the water source. Many animals trek long distances in search of water sources about 7 km away from the site. According to farmers, only 35% of the households have access to irrigation making it difficult to practice irrigated farming. This limits the productive capacity of farmers in the dry season. In Samorangouan, major sources of water were dug wells, bore holes, shallow wells and ponds. According to both male and female respondents, water for livestock is available for every household. Despite the several sources of water in the area, only 15% of households engage in irrigation. The methods of irrigation are manual with the use of buckets and mechanical using motor pumps.In Falagountou, farmers use both family and hired labor for most farming activities. According to both male and female farmers, hired labour is readily available in the area in all seasons. The average cost of labour varies between CFA2000 and CFA3000 per day (USD3 and 5) 2 . According to the farmers, an average of 16% of people in every household migrate for better employment and trading. Of the migrants, 10% are women and 5% are youth while the rest were reported to be men. According to respondents in Samonrangouan, labour is needed for all cropping activities including ploughing, planting and weeding at an average cost of CFA2500 per, especially during the off season. Labour is also required during the wet season for similar activities and costs CFA2300 per day. According to the farmers, an average of 10% of tpeople in every household migrate for educational purposes, better employment and trading. More than 50% of the migrants are youth. Some migrate to Cote d'Ivoire to work as laborers on plantations while others migrate through marriage.Credit services by the government micro finance institute (Cassie populaire) is available in Falagountou. Both male and female respondents confirmed that due to several factors, only 20% of the farmers have accessed the service. Within this limited number, 80% are male while only 20% are female. This shows that the problem of inaccessibility of credit mostly affects women. However, savings and loans associations, where members make contributions to the pool and can also borrow, have been a successful practice for credit facilities among women. All the farmers confirmed that financial credit is mostly required for the fattening enterprise. Similarly, credit services are provided by the government micro finance institute in Samorangouan. The most limiting factor in accessing formal credit is the demand for high collateral and a guarantor. Both male and female respondents confirmed that male farmers have more access to credit facilities than female farmers. Farmer cooperative credit and loan groups that provide informal credit services also exist in the community.According to respondents in Falagountou, inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds and tractor services by both government and private providers are readily available but the cost of these services are generally high. According to the male and female focus groups in Samorangouan, besides the inputs mentioned above, livestock feed, veterinary inputs and irrigation materials are readily available at the local market near the community.Relative contribution of major sources of incomeIn Falagountou, the largest contribution (54 %) of household income is the cumulative income from all livestock related activities (dairying, fattening and poultry). The major source of women's income in Falagountou is from crop farming as an aggregate of cash (38%) and food crops (11%) (Figure 6). Sheep and goat fattening and poultry rearing contribute more to overall household income than their contribution specifically to women's income. Other off-farm businesses contribute to household income but not to women's income particularly. In contrast to the results from Falagountou, the major source of household income in Samorangouan is crop farming (cash and food crops). The contribution from all livestock and livestock products is lower than the contribution from cash crops alone in Samorangouan (Figure 6). Generally, livestock contribute more to women's income than to the household income in Samorangouan. The survey showed that women in Samorangouan engage in other off-farm activities such as charcoal making, which contributes to 10% of their income (Figure 6).  We recorded that major household income in Falagountou comes from crop and livestock as well as non-agricultural sources. However, the results revealed that decisions on income from sheep and goat fattening are mostly made by women while utilization of the proceeds from the sales of milk is jointly made. The result also showed that the decision on income from poultry is mostly done by men (Figure 7). Similarly, decisions on the proceeds from cash crops, food crops and poultry meat are predominantly made by men in Samorangouan (Figure 7). The results showed that women took the lead in deciding on income from fattening of cattle, sheep and goats. Livestock production systems (livestock assets, roles and management)Livestock form an integral part of agriculture and almost every farming household keeps ruminants and/or indigenous chicken. Different livestock species are kept for various purposes. Livestock species in Falagountou include local breeds of cattle, sheep, goat, poultry and donkey with no improved breeds. As a matter of importance, 60% of the households keep local dairy cattle for milk production both for household consumption and for income (Figure 8). 30% of households fatten goats and 20% keep sheep. At least one draught ox is kept in the household for farm work.In Samorangouan, livestock species include local cattle (dairy and fattening), improved dairy cattle, sheep, goat, pig, poultry and donkey. Every household in Samorangouan rears at least 10 local chickens which are sold as the need arises and also slaughtered for consumption during festivals or ceremonies, and occasionally for food. According to the farmers, about 70% of households have goats with an average number of five per household. There are few improved breeds of livestock in Samorangouan. According to the farmers, these are crosses of exotic breeds and local breeds. The results on dominant species by household head type showed that male-headed households had more livestock than female-headed household in Falagountou (Figure 9). Local dairy cattle are dominant among all female-headed households.Similarly, in Samorangouan, livestock are mostly kept by men. It was observed that female-headed household in Samorangouan were engaged in livestock production more than those in Falagountou (Figure 9). Livestock management systems generally practiced in Falagountou were both extensive and intensive system. Animals are kept on grazing for most of the year. However, during the rainy season, farmers reported that all animals are kept at home in the sheds. This was done to keep the animals from destroying the planted crops. At this time, animals are fed harvested natural pastures and crop residues which were either purchased or from the farm. Fattened animals are kept in the shed and provided with feed and water. Feeds are supplied directly without any form of processing. A few farmers practice feed mixing without any specific mix ratio.Animals are kept in an enclosure with a mini fence in Samorangouan. This serves as confinement or housing overnight. However, lactating and sick animals are separately housed. According to the farmers, 80% of households provide wooden feeding troughs for animals. Farmers reported that fattened bulls are kept within the animal enclosure and are stall fed, although occasional grazing is allowed. Sheep and goats are permanently on grazing. From the respondents, 40% of the households process the feed before serving the animals. The processing entails chopping of crop residues and feed ration mixing using maize bran and locust bean powder (Parkia biglobossa).Fever and diarrhea are the major livestock diseases mentioned in Falagountou although the precise nature of the disease was unclear. Farmers reported that government veterinary services are located 20 km away from the village and are available at the cost CFA2000 for a major treatment per animal and are accessible to both male and female farmers. Farmers said that artificial insemination (AI) services were not available in the study sites.Skin disease (lesions), foot and mouth disease and respiratory diseases were reported to be the major livestock diseases in Samorangouan. The respondents also mentioned incidence of trypanosomiasis. All the farmers confirmed the use of traditional veterinary medicine sourced from tree leaves and twigs. When the traditional remedies fail farmers resort to veterinarians which charged up to CFA1500 for treatment per animal. The AI service was introduced to Samorangouan during a funded project (by unnamed agency and the government of Burkina Faso) and the cost of two inseminations was CFA35000. After the project ended, private service providers are still available at same cost.Results of the survey from both sites showed that the predominant livestock feeds are cereal and legume crop residues, concentrates and green forage in natural pastures. The available feedstuff varies depending on rainfall pattern throughout the year and at the different study sites (Figure 10). During the rainy season in Falagountou (July-December), animals depend largely on green forage in natural pastures. Similarly, in Samorangouan, green forage from natural pastures is the major feed resource during the rainy season (July-September) (Figure 10). Crop residues are the main feed resources in the dry season in Falagountou starting in November until harvest time in June, and from October to harvest time in June in Samorangouan. Legume crop residues are more commonly used in Samorangouan than in Falagountou (Figure 10). The interview showed the types, quantities and prices of purchased feed to augment available feed resources particularly in the dry season and throughout the year for households who engaged in fattening (Figure 11). The survey showed the feed type frequently purchased by all the farmers (both male and female) in Falagountou was whole cotton seed cake. Results obtained from men indicated other feed types such as cowpea and sorghum residue were also purchased, while residues of pearl millet and maize were the least purchased feed types.Farmers through their indigenous knowledge noted that cotton seed cake contained higher nutrient concentrations than other feed resources, justifying its purchase. Similarly, the survey results from Samorangouan showed that the feed type frequently purchased by the farmers (both male and female) was whole cotton seed cake (Figure 11). According to the male focus group, maize, green fodder and whole grain were the next most frequently purchased feeds next to whole cotton seed cake. However, women reported that concentrate feed and maize gluten with bran were next to cotton whole seed cake. Contribution of various feedstuff to the dry matter (DM), metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) contents of total dietThe contributions of feed resources to total livestock diet based on their quality are presented in figure 12 below. In Falagountou, purchased feeds contributed most in terms of DM, ME and CP. The contribution from crop residues to the DM, ME and CP content of the diet was lower that 3% indicating the low quantity and nutrient value of the available crop residues in Falagountou. The results of the contributions of feed resources to total livestock diet based on their quality showed that grazing contributed most (>70%) to DM, ME and CP of the total diets in Samorangouan. It contributes between 58-79% to each of the livestock feedstuff contents. The results also showed that crop residues contributed next to grazing as it contribution to DM, ME and CP was 20%, 19% and 14%, respectively. Gendered decision-making on sale of livestock and milk Decisions on livestock, including but not limited to what livestock to raise and when to buy or sell livestock, are either made alone by men and women or jointly made. In Falagountou, results showed that decisions on large ruminants, small ruminants (sheep and goats) and poultry are decided jointly or by men. (Figure 13). Decisions on sale of milk are mostly taken by women.The results in Samorangouan indicated that decisions on large ruminants are mainly made by men while decisions on small ruminants and poultry are mostly made jointly (Figure 13).  Gender division of labour in feed production, harvesting and feedingThe results from Falagountou showed that every member of the household contributes to livestock production with regards to feed (Figure 14). Sole responsibility of the men is the purchase of livestock feeds while they also contribute to other required labour. According to the results, storage of feeds and forages, and mixing of feed were mostly children and women's responsibilities, respectively. The results from Samorangouan showed that most activities are carried out by men except watering, harvesting of crop residues and weeding (Figure 14). Land preparation and purchase of feeds are the sole responsibility of men while weeding, watering of animals and mixing of feeds are done mostly by children and youth. Problems, issues and opportunitiesIn this study the major problems observed and identified by both groups of male and female farmers are similar except in their order of importance. In Falagountou, the major problems mentioned by male farmers regarding livestock production were shortage of feed, scarcity of water, problem of disease and irregular veterinary service. Problems mentioned by female farmers were scarcity of water first and then shortage of feed as mentioned in Table 1. These results underscore the importance of collecting gender disaggregated data showing different priorities for livestock management interventions.From the response of farmers in Samonrangouan, feed shortage was the top ranked livestock problem by the male farmers followed by water scarcity (Table 2). Similar to the response of female farmers in Falagountou, water scarcity was ranked as the major livestock problem, followed by feed scarcity, contrary to the ranking by male farmers in Samonrangouan.Several solutions suggested by the farmers are listed in Table 2 and 3 along with the stated problems. All farmers in Falagountou requested for technical training on livestock production to build on their indigenous knowledge. It should be noted that female farmers rated the need for training higher than male farmers. Farming systems in our study sites are characterized as extensive, low external input and mixed crop-livestock systems of a subsistence nature. A diversity of farming types exists within the specific system with relative importance of livestock being largely determined by rainfall, following a north-south gradient (Callo-Concha et al. 2013). The humid regions in the south are dominated by cereals (maize, sorghum and millet), legumes (groundnut and cowpea) and cotton as principal cash crops.Moving northwards where rainfall decreases to 600 mm/year at the limit of the Sudan savanna, sorghum, millet, groundnut and cowpea are the main crops. Omae et al. (2014) reported that crops grown are used as a means of income generation whereas residues from cereal and leguminous crops are either used to feed livestock or sold as livestock feed.Percentage migration of the of rural population in Falagountou was higher than in Samorangouan but with more youth migrating from Samorangouan than in Falagountou. Barry et al. (2005) reported similar migration from the Southern Burkina Faso to Cote d'Ivoire and to a lesser extent to Ghana especially by the young age group. The departure of these members of the working population depopulates the villages and deprives them of the workforce required to implement both crop and livestock labour intensive initiatives. Male outmigration creates demographic imbalances in key age-groups, which results in increasing demand for women's agricultural labor (Boyer and Deubel 2016).Our results on household sources of income is similar to that of a study conducted in Burkina Faso, where household income sources across the Sudano-Sahelian regions were dominated by rainfed crop production and livestock (Nielsen and Zorom 2010). In general, the combination of all income from livestock and livestock products forms a major contribution to household income in Falagountou. Besides the income from cash crops and livestock, off-farm activities, mainly handicrafts and remittances, are pursued both to generate regular cash income and to reduce the risk of a failed rainy season. The diversification of income into non-crop production has been identified as a critical livelihood strategy for rural households, particularly in Africa (Barrett et al. 2001).Livestock are thought to be one of the most important assets for women as they are productive and can easily be owned by women as they are not bound by complex property rights compared to, for example, land. In the case of Falagountou, although women are involved in the production of livestock up until marketing, the income from livestock does not fall directly under the control of women. Our results indicated that livestock in Falagountou are entirely owned by men and are a mainstay of household income. The access and control of income from livestock is entirely in the male domain. While women's participation in livestock production, management and marketing may be viewed as an important way to improve the welfare of women and their families, it is also important that women are able to make decisions about which products and animals are sold and what is done with the proceeds of the sale. Otherwise, participation alone may not benefit women (Kristjanson et al. 2010). According to a report written by Ayantunde et al. (2017) found that while women actively participate in most activities along the fodder value chain, proceeds from the biomass produced were unequally distributed.Options for increasing probability of women owning livestock and access to income from livestock is essential. In Samorangouan located within the South Sudanian zone, women derived more income from livestock when compared with overall household income. Benefits of women's managed income has been reported as providing a fallback position in the event of a divorce and strengthening their ability to deal with threats and domestic violence (Sen 1985). Most importantly, women's management of income has been associated with improved child nutritional status (Njuki and Potential interventions derived from solutions suggested by farmers and existing opportunitiesBased on the problems existing in the area, taking potential interventions as required is crucial for revitalizing the livestock production and productivity of the study area. However, we noted that potential interventions must be tailored to specific opportunities and constraints of male and female farmers.Farmers reported that lack of information on various feed resources was the predisposing factor for not exploiting the potential of the livestock sector to the fullest. Hence, training on available feed sources would be instrumental to enhance knowledge base and attitude/behaviour change of the farmers and livestock extension workers. Access to new technology, information and training related to livestock production should be gendered as most initiatives are currently targeted at men.It is important to improve the quantity and utilization of crop residues. Farmers depend largely on crop residues generated from their farms which are not enough to feed all of the animals they keep. Dual purpose varieties of pearl millet and sorghum could be introduced to the farmers to increase the quantity of crop residues without limiting the grain yield. In addition, poor storage facilities and strategies limit the utilization of feed resources. Training on improved conservation to retain the quality of crop residues and crop residue treatment to improve intake and quality will be one of the proposed interventions for livestock production in both villages.General health management and disease prevention are the most important factors that affect ruminant production in tropical environments. Losses because of ill health and diseases have not been quantified in economic terms. Therefore, intervention must include proper animal healthcare. Provision of a veterinary centres around these two villages is essential.Better management of existing water resources should be promoted through rainwater collection for dry periods, usage of existing limited water sources by making water reservoirs or ponds and extraction of ground water with the assistance of government and nongovernment organizations.Farmer-herder conflicts are increasing as access paths to local (transhumance) pastures are obstructed and traditional grazing areas are converted to crop land. There is a need for conflict resolution efforts to mediate between the two groups. Interventions should target both crop improvement and livestock feeds in a complementary approach.6. Integrated crop farming with shade tolerant forage grass and legumes planted in tree plantations, particularly in Samorangouan, could encourage the effective utilization of same land resources where the tree biomass helps to enrich the soil and the animal dungs as well. Planting of fodder shrubs and trees as edge rows in arable crop lands in form of alley cropping will also restore nitrogen to the top layer of soil so that farmers can use the same piece of land year after year to grow their forage crops.Development of herbaceous forage legumes and fodder tree species which can mitigate the constraints of feed scarcity can provide an important source of feed and have considerable potential for increased use, especially to maintain green leaf into the dry season and use as supplementation for low-quality crop residue. Introduction and strengthening of agro-silvo-pastoral systems particularly in Samonrangouan where the rainfall is > 800 mm could provide stability and productivity of livestock production, which is the major source of livelihood and income in arid and semi-arid African zones.We could conclude from this study that feed resources for livestock production are diverse and vary markedly across agroecological zones in West African Sahel and across seasons in terms of type, availability, quantity and quality. Feed resources were mainly crop residues harvested from the farmers' fields, or purchased feed and natural pasture. Cotton seed cake and cowpea were the major purchased feeds. Livestock are mostly owned by men, but their management, particularly the feeding and watering are mostly done by women. This should be considered when promoting interventions.In addition, the results showed that livestock contribute to rural income in both Falagountou and Samorangouan. Increase in productivity or profitability of livestock are likely to be a direct pathway out of poverty for most households. Since the major livestock limitation is lack of quality feed (according to men) and water (according to women), target interventions should include a combination of feed and water solutions.","tokenCount":"4933"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6578458151ebd314a9b38dbe25739815","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ee043d2a-ba3f-4c5c-8f07-46e694e24a0e/retrieve","id":"-130193624"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"08a3512b-43f4-4fa7-9769-31a84dbf8bcd","pagecount":"16","content":"Facilidad~s en los campos e~perimentale5 de la EEA. y l'Ionagas. Por parte del CIAT: Costos de coabustible y mantenimiento del vehlculo. ! Funcionario CIAl por 122 dias. 1300 kg Semilla discriminadas aS!1Pedro Argel y M.V. Silvlo Buzmánl nos trasladamos a Venezuela el lB de Junio de 1989 con el objeto de discutir y poner en marcha junto con funcionarios de FONAIAP un plan de trabajo consistente en el establecimiento de asociaciones de gramineas y leguminosas forrajeras en fincas de los Llanos Venezolanos.El objetivo fundamental de Iste trabajo era, validar tecnologla de pastos en fincas particulares bajo condiciones de pastoreo y medir la contribución de las nuevas especies a la producción animal.Definidas las bases del trabajo con el coordinador nacional del Programa de Pastos de FONAIAP se iniciaron las actividades en la localidad de El Tigre Estado Anzoategui el dla 29 de Junio de 1989.El plan de trabajo comprendió 3 aspecto principales: a)Identificación de fincas para futuros establecimientos de pasturas solas y asociadas en los Estados de Monagas, Anzoátegui, Suarico y Bolivar. Se seleccionaron 17 fincas de las cuales en 12 se establecieron areas de 10 a 30 ha y en las 5 restantes se establecieron pruebas demostrativas para pequeños productores en áreas no menores de I ha en asocio con PRODETEC ¡Programa de desarrollo tecnológico).Programación conjunta de trabajos de establecimiento de asociaciones con funcionarios de PROOETEC y FOMAIAP para capacitación en validación y establecimiento de pasturas.Programación de ó conferencias en diferentes localidades para ofrecer información sobre el proyecto que FONAIAP-CIAT estaban j idel and~'do., \"Para la ejecución del trabajo se cont6 con el apoyo por parte de Debido a la poca disponibilidad de tiempo para la preparación de tierra 51 iniciaron los trabajos en forma simultánea en varios lugares y esto co~dujo a la sobrepreparación del terrino en algunas flncis.El trabajo se realizó en 3 tipos de sabanas:... .J.., Sab'l'n. no disturbada o sabana virgen -Sabana disturbada en donde se habían establecido pastos que se encóñtraban muy degradados COIIIO Pangol •• Sabana disturbada en donde se habían establecido tul ti vos anteriormente (50r90, lIIani).La fertilización de mantenlmientó se hizo teniendo en cuenta lo anterior y la formula .és usada fue 12-24-12 ante la elCizes de fuentes de P, en la mayoría de las fincas Ilmbradas le utilizaron 24 kg de P20~ y en los CllOS en donde se trabaj6 con sabana con historia de cultivas se usaron 12 kg de P20S ~Irl evitar el r'pido crecimiento de liS male.as. La aplicación del resto de los fertilizantes 5e hará p05t siembra a criterio del coordinador de pastos de FONAIAP. Sólo en dos fincas I I us6 inoculante COlO una prueba de observaci6n.Las siembras se iniciaron en Julio 27 y finalizaron en Octubre 12 de 1989 y le hicieron en foraa directa no asociadas con cultivas.En algunos casal el perlado de siembra se alargó como consecuencia de la fuerte sequía que afectó la lona de los Llanos Venezolanos y que origin6 germinación dispareja en la mayorla de los lotes sembrados.En total se sembraron 534/ha de las cuales 329 fUllran asociadas (!lramlnea/leguminosa) y 205 fueron gramlneas solas.Teniendo en cuenta 101 problemas que se presentaran con la sequía prolongada, se puede decir que la germinación de las especies enviadas por el Programa de Pastos Tropicales de CIAT fue buena a nivel de establecilllientos comerciales, coincidiendo con los buenos resultados obtenidos en los laboratorios de FONAIAP, en la EEA y en las pruebas de campo que se hicieron en la misma estación.En general el estada de desarrollo de los diferentes establecimientos can alQunas dificultades avanza en forma satisfactoria y es muy temprano para emitir una opinión sobre porcentaje de perdida al estableci.lento. Uso y manejo de fertilizantes en pasturas. Plagas y enfermedades.Apoyo en producción de semi 11 as. Este probablemente es punto mas importante dentro de las limitaciones que tiene avance de 1 a nueva tecnolog,a dEl pasturas de acuerdo a el el las nuevas realidades de Venezuela, por 11) tanto se hace necesario el apoya a empresas prOductoras de productores que quieren hacerlo.semilla y a a50ciacionfs de Elte apoyo debe darse a través de suministro de sesllla b~sica y de dirección técnica para lograr buenos rendimientos.Los trabajos Iniciado en 1988 por el Dr. P. Argel y el paso dado por el Programa de Pastos Tropicales de CIAT en 1989 abren un gran espacio de trabajo en Venezuela, si se tiene en cuenta que a partir de Febrero de 1989 con la aplicación del nuevo paquete económico, el pais sufre un profundo cambio en la política de precios especialmente de los insumos agrícolas, esto hace que los productores del sector agropecuario reaccionen en busca de alternativas más económicas de producción.Es aquí donde cobra importancia la oferta tecnológica del Programa de Pastos Tropicales que ha mantenido y demostrado el uso de nUEva tecnologia de pisturas a base de germoplasma adaptado a condiciones de suelos ácidos y de baja fErtilidad natural con el uso de mínimos insumas. Es justo destacar también qUE la coordinación del Programa de : Pastos de FDNAIAP ha mantenido y estimulado la investigación de especies que el CIAT ha trabajado en otras latitudes, por lo que merece apoyo y reconocimiento.En contraste con lo ocurrido en Colombia en donde se trabajó el .odela de transferencia desde dentro de CIAT para luego formar equipos de trabajo en la institución nacional, en Venezuela se cuenta con varios grupos organizados de transferencia de tecnologia ejercerlan una labor importante en la respuesta que bien orientados tecnológica a corto plazo para 105 productores de la regi6n de sabanas, estos grupos sonlPor ultimo merecen mi agradecimiento las directivas de FONAIAP en Maracay por l. forma generosa como atendieron el desarrollo y las necesidades que demandó el trabajo y nuestra presencia en Yenezuela.Nota: A cada finca incluida en el trabajo de validación 51 le abrió un archivo en la SeccíOn de Sistemas de ProducciOn de Banado, CIAT.   ","tokenCount":"976"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1c1c919dd9e5b714b91175107577bfa6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/923eb548-2275-43a6-b196-109d089bdcbd/retrieve","id":"-1260302857"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ec2789c0-1b73-4754-b020-f81923af183e","pagecount":"101","content":"Este Agrodok fornece um vasto leque de informação útil de como ultrapassar os principais constrangimentos na produção avícola de pequena escala e trata de ameaças como sejam predadores e doenças infecciosas. É um manual prático com capítulos sobre incubação, habitação, nutrição e cuidados sanitários. Espero sinceramente que o conhecimento, ferramentas e experiências que aqui são oferecidas constituam um recurso valioso para os criadores de galinhas. Acima de tudo espero que inspire os leitores a gerarem novas ideias através das suas próprias experiências com a aplicação das ideias que aqui são dadas.As galinhas merecem ser bem tratadas e de modo profissional. Verá que as aves mostrarão a sua gratidão, melhorando o seu desempenho. Desejo-vos que tenham um bando de aves saudáveis e sucesso para a vossa empresa!A criação de galinhas nos sistemas de produção extensivos e semiintensivos de aves de capoeira representa mais de 75% de toda a criação de aves de capoeira no Sul. A nível mundial estas aves são criadas por pequenos produtores familiares nas áreas rurais, fornecendo segurança alimentar e rendimentos familiares e desempenhando um papel importante em eventos socioculturais. As galinhas são uma importante espécie da exploração agrícola em muitas áreas de quase todos os países no mundo.Figura 1: Um criador de galinhas tem que reflectir sobre muitos assuntosAs aves de capoeira constituem uma fonte inevitável de proteína animal de alto valor biológico e podem ser criadas sob condições de alimentação e recursos de habitação limitados. As galinhas são \"conversores de resíduos\": ao digerirem \"convertem\" os resíduos, base da fonte alimentar, em proteína animal. Por isso é de longe a espécie mais importante para gerar rendimentos para os agregados familiares rurais.Embora a criação de galinhas seja uma prática mundial que se desenvolve segundo circunstâncias bem diversas, o objectivo principal é praticamente o mesmo: produzir o máximo com os custos mais baixo possíveis, evitando-se riscos.Podem-se distinguir duas formas principais de avicultura de pequena escala: avicultura de subsistência e aviários comerciais. Se a criação de galinhas se destina, essencialmente, a auto-consumo, podem manter-se os custos e o trabalho dispensado a um mínimo necessário para um consumo próprio de ovos e, possivelmente, também de carne. Para que uma empresa avícola possa ser bem sucedida é necessário que disponha de um mercado fiável para o seus produtos e que conte com um aprovisionamento regular de rações de qualidade, por um preço aceitável. É importante que se possa contar localmente com uma disponibilidade de rações.Este Agrodok trata essencialmente de avicultura semi-intensiva e tem como objectivo ajudar tanto os avicultores principiantes como os experientes a solucionarem os problemas deparados. Centramos a nossa atenção na criação de galinhas poedeiras. A criação de galinhas para carne (ou frangas de corte) apresenta problemas diversos e é, geralmente, muito mais especializada. Contudo, mesmo assim abordaremos a criação e engorda de frangos.Nesta publicação serão tratados os seguintes aspectos relacionados com a criação de galinhas: habitação, alimentação das galinhas, incubação natural e criação de pintos, cuidados sanitários e administração.Existem mundialmente mais de 300 raças de espécies de galinhas domésticas (Gallus domesticus). Podem distinguir-se três categorias principais de raças de galinhas: raças puras para fins comerciais, raças híbridas que resultam de cruzamentos e raças locais ou nacionais.De uma maneira empírica podemos dividir as raças para fins comerciais de acordo com o seu principal objectivo de produção: ? Postura de ovos, principalmente as raças de galinhas leves, que põem ovos ou poedeiras ? Produção de carne, principalmente pelas raças mais pesadas ou de frangos de corte ? As galinhas que são criadas tanto para porem ovos como pela produção de carne e que são as chamadas raças de duplo objectivo.As galinhas poedeiras, os frangos de carne/corte e as de duplo objectivo distinguem-se pela sua conformação corporal. Ver figura 2. Uma raça bem conhecida de galinhas poedeiras leves são as galinhas brancas ou Leghorn Brancas. São conhecidas por porem uma grande quantidade de ovos brancos. Necessitam de menos ração, devido ao seu pequeno porte. As Leghorn Brancas (figura 3) são poedeiras muito eficientes. No entanto, no fim do período de postura dão relativamente pouca carne.Algumas raças mais pesadas de poedeiras têm mais carne (são mais robustas) e também põem muitos ovos. Daí que sejam adequadas para uma produção de objectivo duplo. Estas galinhas põem ovos castanhos e, geralmente, também têm penas castanhas podendo os tons variar consoante a raça. Estão neste caso as galinhas de penas castanhas Rhode Island Vermelha (figura 4) e as New Hampshire (figura 5) de cor castanho-claro. Estas são criadas tanto para produção de carne como dos ovos, podendo, portanto, ser categorizadas como raças de objectivo duplo. As raças de objectivo duplo mais pesadas são muito apropriadas para uma criação de galinhas de pequena escala nas regiões tropicais. Normalmente são mais robustas do que as raças claras.As raças de galinhas pesadas e médias são criadas para a produção de carne. Os galos de raças com peso médio também podem ser criados para o abate. As raças como Cornish Branca e Plymouth Rock Branca são raças que produzem muita carne e por isso mais adequadas como raças puras de produção de carne.Estas aves mais pesadas têm mais músculo. Crescem mais depressa e podem atingir um elevado peso de abate. Para tal é necessário ração de alta qualidade e pode ser difícil manter um bom aprovisionamento de rações de alta qualidade. É por isso que a criação de galinhas para o consumo de carne requer um trabalho especializado.As raças híbridas ou cruzadas são o resultado da combinação de diferentes linhagens ou estirpes de galinhas, criadas para este fim, por exemplo, uma raça local. As raças híbridas são mais produtivas. Nos países do Sul, é vulgar o cruzamento entre raças puras, como seja, por exemplo, as galinhas Leghorn Branca com galinhas Rhode Island Vermelha. Actualmente as raças híbridas são muito comuns.Se se pretende criar uma raça própria de galinhas, não se podem utilizar as raças híbridas, visto que a sua produtividade decrescerá. As raças híbridas apenas garantirão uma produção elevada caso se comprem regularmente novas galinhas. Por esta razão é aconselhável usar raças locais, que têm a vantagem de serem muito mais baratas Uma outra vantagem das raças locais reside no facto de estarem melhor adaptadas às condições locais e serem menos susceptíveis às doenças do que as raças híbridas, mais frágeis.As raças locais são, normalmente, mais leves e os seus ovos mais pequenos do que os das raças híbridas. As raças locais podem distinguirse pela sua aparência. Ver figura 6.Figura 6: Tipos de raças locais: galinha de penas frisadas, pescoço pelado e anã ou cocó (fonte: Poultry Network)Contudo, as raças locais são de longe menos produtivas em termos de número de ovos. Nas áreas rurais, as galinhas locais podem pôr cerca de 50 ovos por ano, enquanto as raças híbridas modernas, sob condições favoráveis, podem pôr entre 250-270 ovos por ano. Por outro lado, as raças locais utilizam melhor o material residual que as raças híbridas, o que faz que sejam mais adaptadas para serem criadas em liberdade, em redor da habitação da família, onde encontram vários alimentos de acordo com a sua preferência.Este Agrodok discute vários factores e métodos adequados para melhorar a produção de ovos das raças locais, com o objectivo de se poder alcançar níveis de produção médios e elevados.Os factores importantes para a escolha da melhor raça de galinhas atendendo ao seu caso específico são os seguintes: preço, situação do mercado, experiência, boa gestão da empresa, preferências locais e disponibilidade.O preço determinará a escolha. As raças híbridas modernas são mais caras e exigem cuidados especiais, rações de elevada qualidade e bem balanceadas para que produzam bem e eficientemente. As raças locais são mais baratas e estão melhor adaptadas às condições locais. Caso sejam bem cuidadas a sua produção é razoável. Porém se quiser criar galinhas a uma escala maior e decidir comprar rações balanceadas é melhor escolher raças híbridas, mais caras. A avicultura em maior escala é cara porque obriga à compra de raças híbridas e de rações equilibradas.A situação local do mercado é um factor importante a considerar. Se houver uma boa situação de mercado para os ovos e para a carne e se for possível obter um fornecimento regular de rações balanceadas de boa qualidade, podem escolher-se raças híbridas de peso médio. Caso pretenda concentrar-se na venda dos ovos, a escolha deve recair em poedeiras mais pequenas, de penas brancas. Em todos os outros casos é preferível escolher raças mais pesadas, normalmente de cor castanha. Se habitar longe do mercado e pretender, essencialmente, produzir para auto-consumo, vendendo o excedente de ovos e de carne apenas na feira local, a melhor escolha será as raças locais.Caso não possua qualquer experiência de avicultura, é melhor começar com uma raça local, mais barata. Uma boa gestão da exploração avícola permite optar pela compra de raças híbridas que, embora mais dispendiosas, são mais rentáveis. Nalguns países preferem-se os ovos castanhos. Visto que as raças híbridas nem sempre se podem obter localmente, ficará portanto dependente do que pode encontrar na sua área.Podem discernir-se três formas de explorações avícolas para criação de galinhas: ? extensiva ? intensiva ? semi-intensiva.Neste Agrodok tratamos essencialmente das formas de avicultura extensiva e semi-intensiva. A avicultura intensiva com, por exemplo, gaiolas de bateria, ultrapassa o âmbito desta publicação.Quando as galinhas são criadas em liberdade (criação em regime divagante) e podem deambular e debicar/esgravatar à volta da casa à procura de comida, fala-se de avicultura extensiva. O nível de investimento de capital e de mão de obra é baixo e a habitação não é importante.Estima-se que em África a percentagem de utilização dos sistemas intensivos, desenvolvidos para raças especializadas, é de cerca de 30% da população de aves domésticas. Estas encontram-se sobretudo nas zonas urbanas e peri-urbanas, onde existem bons mercados para os ovos e a carne de galinha. As explorações que se dedicam à avicultura intensiva requerem maiores investimentos tanto de capital como de mão de obra, por exemplo, galinheiros especiais com espaços para as galinhas andarem à vontade, deambulando. O tamanho dos bandos de aves no sistema de produção intensiva normalmente situa-se nos milhares. Tal foi alcançado através dos avanços na investigação sobre incubação artificial, necessidades nutricionais e controlo das doenças.No sistema de produção avícola semi-intensivo também conhecido como produção de pátio/quintal, o número de aves por bando varia entre 50 a 200. Há uma série de técnicas e de conhecimentos desenvolvidos nos sistemas intensivos que podem ser aplicados nos siste-mas semi-intensivos de criação de aves domésticas, adaptados à escala adequada.A habitação é muito importante para se obter níveis óptimos de produção, em ambos os sistemas de produção: semi-intensivo e intensivo. Ver secções 3.2 e 3.3.No sistema tradicional de criação de galinhas em liberdade ou avicultura divagante, as aves podem deambular em volta da casa, à procura de comida. Os ovos são postos fora, em ninhos simples e são usados principalmente para manter o número de galinhas a um determinado nível. Em muitos casos, até 75% dos ovos produzidos têm que ser chocados porque a taxa de mortalidade entre os pintainhos recémnascidos é elevada. Deste modo são poucos os ovos que restam para consumo e as galinhas também não dão muita carne.As vantagens deste sistema são que se necessita de muito pouca mão de obra e que se podem aproveitar eficientemente as sobras da comida. Assim, os custos muito baixos deste sistema compensam os baixos níveis de produção, podendo mesmo ser lucrativo criar galinhas à solta, desde que se introduzam alguns melhoramentos.Este sistema é o mais adaptado caso se disponha de um grande terreno, de preferência com capim. Durante a noite as galinhas podem ser postas em qualquer tipo de abrigo, desde que seja espaçoso, arejado e limpo. Deste modo pode minimizar-se a perda de galinhas devido a doenças ou roubo. Caso se disponha de espaço suficiente para manter as galinhas soltas, a solução mais adequada é construir um galinheiro móvel, do género da apresentada na figura 7. Pode-se evitar que as galinhas sejam (re)infectadas pelos parasitas existentes nos seus excrementos, caso sejam mantidas durante a noite num abrigo levantado acima do solo e com chão aberto, feito de rede de capoeira, ripas de madeira ou de canas de bambu, espaçados entre si 5 cm. Neste tipo de abrigo as galinhas também se encontram protegidas contra animais predadores. Se desejar recolher o maior número possível de ovos, devem-se treinar as galinhas adultas para utilizarem ninhos no abrigo, logo no início do período de postura. Coloque os ninhos no galinheiro antes do início da postura e mantenha as galinhas presas até um pouco mais tarde, de manhã. Não esquecer de dar-lhes água para beber. Num sistema de criação em liberdade, torna-se necessário tomar uma série de medidas para proteger a mãe galinha de predadores, de ladrões e da chuva, de modo a limitar a mortalidade dos pintainhos recém-nascidos. Ponha-os num alpendre/galpão simples, separado, espaçoso e arejado que se pode fechar e ser seguro, pois as correntes de ar frio e temperaturas baixas nos primeiros dias constituem perigo para a vida dos pintainhos recém-nascidos. Embora um recinto onde as aves podem andar livremente apresente vantagens, também tem inconvenientes, como a possibilidade dos pequenos pintos poderem apanhar infecções parasitárias. É importante fazer regularmente uma rotação deste recinto, especialmente quando chove.Um tipo bastante adequado de galinheiro móvel para pintos é o constituído por criadeiras, unidades fechadas, tipo gaiola (figura 8 e figura 9). Estas gaiolas podem abrigar 20 frangos jovens e estão apetrechadas com comedouros, bebedouros e um poleiro. É óbvio que se necessitará de espaço suficiente para mudar regularmente o lugar destas gaiolas.Em áreas em que cães ou predadores constituem um problema, aconselha-se construir este abrigo acima do nível do chão (por exemplo, a uma altura de 1,20 m). Em volta das estacas de suporte (pernas) podem colocar-se golas de metal para manter afastados os ratos e outros animais de pequeno porte (figura 7 e figura 10). Este dispositivo deve ajustar-se perfeitamente em torno das estacas de suporte, de modo a impedir que mesmos os ratinhos mais pequenos subam entre esta \"gola\" e a estaca.  ? A comida, se bem que não seja bem balanceada, apresenta poucos problemas. ? Caso se disponha de um espaço grande, o perigo de (re)infecção parasitária é mínimo. ? Exige pouco trabalho. ? As galinhas ajudam a limitar a quantidade de restos de alimentos dum modo produtivo. ? Os custos directos do sistema são baixos.Inconvenientes do sistema de criação em liberdade ? As galinhas soltas são difíceis de controlar. ? As galinhas e especialmente os pintos, constituem presas fáceis para os predadores. ? Quando procuram comida, as galinhas também comem os grãos semeados. ? Pode-se perder uma grande quantidade de ovos se as poedeiras não estiverem habituadas aos ninhos de postura. ? As taxas de mortalidade normalmente são altas.Em ambos os sistemas de produção, o intensivo e o semi-intensivo a habitação constitui um aspecto muito importante para o melhoramento das condições de trabalho e para a minimização dos riscos. Uma habitação adequada facilita a alimentação e a postura dos ovos, constituindo, pois, uma condição primária para se atingirem níveis de produção óptimos.Caso decidir criar as galinhas em aviário, deverá considerar o seguinte: ? Os custos incorridos serão mais elevados ? Certifique-se se os materiais necessários estão disponíveis localmente ? O galinheiro será aberto ou fechado? Se optar por um aviário com um espaço aberto veja se há espaço suficiente para mudar de posição regularmente. ? Decida se irá continuar a criar a sua própria raça ou irá comprar uma raça nova. No caso de decidir criar a sua própria raça será necessário construir mais galinheiros para separar os frangos de idades diferentes. O telhado do galinheiro pode ser de chapa ondulada mas se estiver situado num lugar ao sol o galinheiro ficará muito quente. Neste caso cubra o telhado com folhas ou outro material que crie um ambiente mais fresco. Um inconveniente é que os roedores, tal como ratazanas e ratos, podem fazer os seus ninhos nessa cobertura. Não mantenha muitas galinhas no galinheiro. Se houver muitas galinhas o galinheiro ficará muito quente o que favorece a propagação de infecções parasitárias. Nos galinheiros com piso duro não deve haver mais de 3 galinhas por metro quadrado. Nos galinheiros com piso de arame ou com chão com ripas, é possível manter um maior número de galinhas.Para terminar, de forma a estimular a alimentação num ambiente mais fresco, ilumine o galinheiro antes do nascer do sol e depois do pôr do sol (entre o pôr e o nascer do sol). Isto também ajuda a manter um nível estável de produção de ovos.Para se construir um galinheiro não é apenas a questão climática que é importante. Também é importante assegurar que a habitação seja fácil de limpar e de desinfectar, devendo, por isso, ter um piso de cimento. Uma condição importante para um alojamento permanente, em galinheiro fechado, é que as galinhas disponham, permanentemente, de alimentação. Um abastecimento constante de água potável, fresca, também é essencial.Se o galinheiro se destina a abrigar um grande número de galinhas é necessário prever um espaço separado de trabalho, em frente do galinheiro. Aí se pode armazenar as rações e guardar, temporariamente, os ovos. Para prevenir que os ovos se estraguem, não devem ser guardados durante mais de uma semana. O melhor é guardar os ovos num lugar fresco a uma temperatura de cerca de 20°C. Este armazém deve ter um número mínimo de janelas e será arejado apenas à noite quando a temperatura for mais fresca.Para além dos sistemas extensivos de criação em liberdade total, existem três tipos principais de habitação para galinhas em sistemas de criação extensivos e semi-intensivos: ? galinheiro com um recinto/espaço aberto ? galinheiro com cama, sem espaço aberto ? galinheiro fechado com chão de ripas.Figura 11: Um galinheiro com uma cama funda, com telhado de chapa ondulada e rede metálica soldada.Nos sistemas semi-intensivos as galinhas encontram-se confinadas a um espaço aberto vedado com arame. Existe um pequeno galinheiro onde se podem fechar as galinhas à noite. O criador das galinhas fornece praticamente toda (ou mesmo toda) a comida, a água e outras necessidades.A função principal da cama é de prevenir a lixiviação de minerais a partir do estrume, fornecendo material orgânico no qual se podem desenvolver microorganismos que absorvem os minerais. A cama também pode secar o estrume e proporcionar as galinhas com algo no qual podem esgravatar. Na figura 11 está ilustrado um galinheiro com uma cama funda.O número de galinhas que podem ser criadas por categoria é determinado pelo tipo de piso. Ver o quadro 1. Num galinheiro deste tipo, as galinhas permanecem fechadas de dia e de noite. O piso é coberto com cama de modo a absorver a humidade dos excrementos das galinhas. A condição mais importante para o sucesso deste tipo de habitação é que a cama permaneça seca. A cama húmida produz demasiado amoníaco o que é prejudicial à saúde das aves e favorece o desenvolvimento de todos os tipos de parasitas.Para se manter a cama seca, utilize material que absorve humidade nas suas partículas. O melhor é usar aparas de madeira (serradura) e se não as poder obter, palha cortada, folhas secas e outros materiais orgânicos também são adequados. Evite entornar água no piso. É melhor colocar os bebedouros numa pequena plataforma cobertos com ripas de madeira ou com rede de capoeira. A cama deve ser virada regularmente e substituída uma vez por semana. A ventilação do galinheiro é muito importante.Vantagens da habitação com cama ? Há um inteiro controlo das galinhas : das rações, dos ovos, etc. ? As aves estão bem protegidas contra predadores.Inconvenientes da habitação com cama ? É mais caro do que criar galinhas à solta ou em espaços limitados. ? O risco de infecção é maior. ? Está-se dependente da quantidade e tipo de cama que se pode obter localmente. ? A cama deve ser guardada num lugar seco.Galinheiro com chão de ripas, sem espaço aberto Em muitos países de clima temperado e húmido uma grande parte do piso é coberto com ripas o que diminui o risco da cama ficar húmida e de ser foco de infecções parasitárias. A densidade de população neste tipo de habitação pode, assim, ser mais elevada, por exemplo 7 aves por metro quadrado, em vez de 4. As ripas podem ser de madeira ou de bambu. O espaço entre as ripas deve ser suficientemente grande para deixarem passar os excrementos das galinhas, mas não tão grandes que dificultem o movimento das aves. Se as ripas forem finas manter-se-ão mais limpas do que ripas largas. Recomendamos a utilização de ripas com uma largura de 1,5 cm por 4 cm de altura e distanciadas entre si 2,5 cm. Estas ripas formam geralmente estrados de 120 cm por 120 cm.Em vez de chão de ripas também se pode utilizar rede de capoeira, cujas medidas são, normalmente de 2,5 cm por 7,5 cm e se coloca em secções de 250 cm por 200 cm. A espessura do arame deve ser de cerca de 3 mm. Os poleiros são fixados por cima da rede de modo a que as aves se possam mover confortavelmente e tenham um lugar para dormir à noite.De modo a se recolher o mais possível os excrementos que caem no piso aberto, os bebedouros e os comedouros deverão ser colocados sobre as ripas ou a rede. Não cobrir todo o piso com ripas ou com rede mas, mais ou menos, entre um terço a metade da sua superfície. Quando o piso está inteiramente coberto com ripas ou com arame provoca grandes perdas de ovos e causa ferimentos nas patas das galinhas. Para facilitar a remoção regular dos excrementos, coloque o arame ou as ripas nos lados da habitação.Vantagens dos galinheiros com chão de rede ou de ripas: ? As galinhas têm menos contacto com os seus excrementos, o que diminui a possibilidade de infecções parasitárias. ? A densidade da população da habitação (aves por metro quadrado) pode ser aumentada. ? As despesas com as camas são menores.Inconvenientes dos galinheiros com chão de rede ou de ripas: ? Este tipo de habitação exige um investimento financeiro mais elevado do que nos galinheiros com cama ? A limpeza é mais trabalhosa. ? Existe um maior risco das galinhas ferirem as patas.Em todos os tipos de habitação para galinhas poedeiras é necessário instalar-se bebedouros, comedouros, poleiros e ninhos. Eventualmente também se pode instalar iluminação e um sistema de recolha de estrume.Quando se criam galinhas em liberdade/à solta, em teoria não é necessário dispor de comedouros, visto que as aves encontram elas próprias a sua comida. Contudo, poderá ser útil dar alimentação suplementar em comedouros, de forma a aumentar a produção, principalmente em períodos em que é escassa a comida que as aves podem encontrar. A existência de comedouros é essencial para todos os outros sistemas de criação de galinhas.Se a comida for deitada no chão sempre haverá perdas. No caso do número de galinhas ser pequeno, o melhor será usar comedouros que se podem encher à mão. Existem vários modelos de comedouros. As figura 12 e figura 13 ilustram dois exemplos de comedouros rectangulares de madeira ou bamboo, assentes sobre plataformas. Certifique-se de que existe um número suficiente de comedouros. Se se utilizarem \"pratos\" rectangulares ou comedouros ou compridos, cada poedeira necessita de minimamente um espaço de 12 cm ao longo dum lado do \"prato\". Ver o quadro 2. Par se evitar que se desperdice comida, um comedouro nunca deve estar mais de um 1/3 cheio. Construa rebordos nas orlas dos comedouros, para que a comida que caia não se desperdice, tal como se mostra na figura 12. Para reduzir a quantidade de comida desperdiçada, ponha pequenas quantidades de comida de cada vez em cada comedouro e alimente as galinhas várias vezes ao dia. Tal também pode aumentar a quantidade de comida que as galinhas ingerem, que nos climas quentes muitas das vezes não é muito elevada. Por esta razão o melhor será não alimentar durante as horas mais quentes do dia. Embora pareça que as galinhas gostam de comida húmida é melhor não a dar em climas tropicais na medida em que se deteriora muito rapidamente.Coloque uma vara giratória (ver a figura 12) por cima do comedouro para impedir que as aves se empoleirem nele e que sujem a comida. Coloque os comedouros em vários locais do galinheiro, ainda que não devem estar distanciados mais de 5 m uns dos outros, de modo que seja fácil para a ave encontrar o seu \"prato\". Nos galinheiros Figura 13: Comedouro de bambu com chão de rede ou de ripas, a maioria dos comedouros, senão todos, deverá ser colocada sobre a rede ou as ripas.Quando há muitas galinhas, podem usar-se comedouros de distribuição automática.Estes comedouros estão equipados com um espaço extra para a armazenagem de modo que não se torna necessário alimentar as galinhas diariamente.A figura 14 apresenta um exemplo de um comedouro rectangular de madeira. Por vezes também se utilizam comedouros suspensos: figura 15.Figura 15: Comedouro suspenso em metal. 1. arame para pendurar 2. tampa cónica de chapa metálica 3. tabuleiro de chapa metálica Figura 14: Comedouro rectangular em madeiraNas regiões tropicais é muito importante dar bastante água fria, limpa e fresca às galinhas. Para tal, pode-se proceder de várias maneiras. Se as galinhas forem em pequeno número pode-se utilizar um método simples e barato: basta inverter uma garrafa (figura 16). A garrafa poderá fixar-se a uma parede ou numa tábua por meio de uma tira de couro ou de metal.Uma outra possibilidade é comprar-se tigelas simples de metal ou de plástico.A vantagem dum bebedouro com um reservatório é que a água está disponível durante um período de tempo mais longo e há menos probabilidades de ficar suja.Quando instalar os bebedouros certifique-se que há sempre água disponível. A água deve estar sempre limpa e ser o mais fresca possível.Os bebedouros devem ser lavados todos os dias. O espaço para beber também é importante (ver quadro 3). Assegure-se que o espaço é suficiente. Um bebedouro metálico com um tabuleiro de 40 cm de diâmetro dá para 10 poedeiras adultas.Nas gaiolas com cama, coloque os bebedouros numa pequena plataforma de rede de capoeira para evitar que a água que se derrama molhe as camas. Caso não se instale uma plataforma devem-se mudar os bebedouros todos os dias de lugar. Em todos os outros tipos de habitação é melhor colocar os bebedouros sobre arame ou ripas.Os bebedouros devem ser colocados em diferentes lugares do galinheiro mas não devem estar distanciados mais de 3 a 5 m. As galinhas gostam de passar a noite empoleiradas, em lugares altos (ver figura 17). Durante o dia as aves mais medrosas também se podem refugiar aí. É preciso deixar um espaço suficiente por baixo dos poleiros para os excrementos. Desta forma, a cama não ficará demasiado húmida e a recolha das fezes também é mais fácil.Os poleiros são feitos de ripas finas, normalmente de madeira, e têm uma largura de 5 cm por 35 cm de comprimento. Devem colocar-se distanciados cerca de 5-7 cm uns dos outros. Cada galinha necessita de um espaço de, aproximadamente, 15 cm (ou até mais) para sentarse, dependendo do seu tamanho. Embora os poleiros sejam indispensáveis em todos os tipos de galinheiros, podem variar consoante o tipo e a localização escolhidos.Nos galinheiros com cama é prático colocar-se um estrado (tábua) de madeira por debaixo do poleiro, que reterá a maior parte dos excrementos. Este estrado tem que ser limpo todos os dias e o estrume reti- rado regularmente, de preferência uma vez por semana. Este estrado é colocado normalmente a cerca de 75 a 80 cm do chão, e os poleiros a uma altura de 1 metro acima do chão. Para impedir que as galinhas entrem em contacto com os seus excrementos, feche o espaço que se encontra em frente, entre o estrado e o poleiro.Nos ninhos de postura colectivos tanto a parte da frente como a de trás deve estar aberta por motivos de ventilação.Nos galinheiros com chão de ripas de madeira, não há necessidade de poleiros. No entanto, os mesmos devem ser instalados se o chão for feito de rede para possibilitar que as galinhas se dispersem regularmente durante a noite.Nesta secção trataremos tanto dos ninhos de postura individuais como dos colectivos.As galinhas normalmente preferem pôr os ovos em ninhos protegidos, em vez de simplesmente os pôr no chão do galinheiro. Existem dois tipos de ninhos de postura: os ninhos individuais e os colectivos. Em todos os galinheiros à excepção das galinhas criadas em sistema de baterias de gaiolas, os ovos são recolhidos à mão quer dos ninhos individuais, quer dos colectivos. Aconselha-se a instalação de um telhado inclinado sobre os ninhos de forma a impedir que as galinhas se sentem nos ninhos e os sujem.Os ninhos de postura são normalmente colocados a uma altura de 0,6 a 1 m do chão. Coloque um poleiro em frente dos ninhos. Para manter a cama no ninho, faça um pequeno rebordo de 10-15 cm na parte dianteira dos ninhos. Durante a noite feche o ninho com tábuas.As figura 19 e figura 20 mostram ninhos colectivos de postura.Os ninhos colectivos, que podem ser usados até um número de 10 galinhas simultaneamente, não são muito apropriados para condições tropicais porque as galinhas podem sofrer mais com o calor. É essencial que se utilize rede de capoeira nos lados ou se deixe aberto na parte de trás e de diante, para que se dê o arejamento necessário.Os ninhos individuais podem ser agrupados em blocos ao longo de uma ou mais paredes do galinheiro (ver as figura 21 e figura 22). Contudo, nos galinheiros abertos recomendamos que se coloquem os ninhos em diagonal, para evitar correntes de ar. Os ninhos individuais devem ter cerca de 30 cm de profundidade, 35 cm de comprimento e 40 cm de altura. Podem ser feitos de madeira ou de outros materiais disponíveis localmente, como seja o bambu ou tipos de capim duro. No seu interior deve-se colocar uma cama espessa para impedir que os ovos se partam.Os ovos postos no chão constituem muitas vezes um grande problema nos galinheiros com camas ou com chão de ripas ou de rede. Esses ovos normalmente ficam sujos e requerem mais trabalho. Durante as primeiras semanas do período de postura, a percentagem de ovos postos no chão pode atingir um máximo de 5-10%, mas diminui geralmente até 1 ou 2%.  Na figura 23 mostra-se um ninho com piso inclinado para fazer deslizar os ovos para fora (roll-away). Trata-se de um método muito conveniente para recolher rapidamente os ovos. No entanto não constitui um ninho apropriado para um sistema semi-intensivo de criação de galinhas visto que não é conveniente para as galinhas aí ficarem durante a noite.Existem duas maneiras de tentar aumentar a produção das galinhas utilizando iluminação artificial.? Iluminando o galinheiro durante as horas mais frescas antes do nascer e depois do pôr do sol. As galinhas comerão mais. ? Prolongando a duração do dia, utilizando iluminação artificial. As galinhas poedeiras são estimuladas a pôr mais ovos.O prolongamento da duração do dia só deve efectuado exactamente antes das galinhas jovens começarem a sua postura. De outro modo tal pode levar a uma postura prematura. É melhor começar a criação dos pintos quando os dias se tornam mais curtos. Caso necessite de iniciar a criação quando os dias são mais compridos, tente assegurar artificialmente que os dias tenham uma duração constante. Mesmo antes de se iniciar o período de postura, aumente a duração dos dias uma hora por semana até que haja 14 horas de luz por dia. Depois que as taxas de produção atinjam o seu máximo, aumente a luz mais uma hora por dia até se atingir as 16 horas.Uma vez que a duração do dia tenha sido aumentada de 12 para 14 horas, será necessário fornecer luz artificial depois do pôr do sol para manter esta duração do dia. Caso não se proceda desta maneira, a produção diminuirá. Se criar as poedeiras durante o período do ano em que os dia se tornam mais longos, não será necessário fornecer iluminação adicional para estimular a produção de ovos. No entanto, as galinhas comerão mais se o galinheiro estiver iluminado durante os períodos mais frescos do dia.Independentemente do tipo de iluminação utilizado, necessitar-se-á, sempre, de uma luz suficientemente intensa. No caso de utilizar candeeiros a petróleo estes devem ser numerosos e devem estar localizados no centro do galinheiro, e envoltos em rede ou ripas finas ou tela metálica, mesmo quando estão suspensos. Se houver energia eléctrica, instale no galinheiro várias lâmpadas normais. As lâmpadas de 40 Watt devem estar separadas 3 m umas das outras e as de 60 Watt cerca de 5 m.Este capítulo descreve as necessidades nutricionais, os métodos de alimentação e a composição da alimentação/rações. A água também é tratada como um nutriente visto que é necessária à vida. No quadro 4 e na figura 24 são apresentadas as necessidades nutricionais das galinhas. O corpo de uma ave é constituído por 70% de água e os ovos são compostos aproximadamente de 65% de água. Os galináceos devem ter um abastecimento constante de água fresca e limpa, de modo a que os nutrientes possam ser absorvidos e os materiais tóxicos eliminados do corpo. Tal é especialmente importante no caso dos pintainhos. Uma falta de água reduzirá a ingestão/consumo alimentar, provocando um grave retardamento do crescimento e comprometendo a produção de ovos. Tal se aplica principalmente aos climas quentes em que a sua privação pode conduzir rapidamente à morte.A água também é essencial para as aves controlarem a temperatura dos seus corpos nos climas quentes. As aves necessitam muito mais água com temperaturas elevadas que com temperaturas baixas. E a falta de água leva rapidamente a morte devido a sobreaquecimento.Não se deve restringir a quantidade de água tomada pela ave, particularmente nas regiões tropicais. Até mesmo uma restrição de 10% na quantidade de água disponível pode reduzir a taxa de crescimento e a eficiência da conversão alimentar (quantidade de alimentação necessária por kg de crescimento) dos frangos para carne. Com as poedeiras o efeito ainda é mais devastador. Períodos curtos de privação podem resultar em muda das penas e na cessação da produção de ovos.O consumo ou ingestão de energia é as calorias que são ingeridas pela galinha com a sua comida. Ver figura 25. A quantidade de energia contida nos alimentos é normalmente expressa em unidades de energia metabolizável (ME) por unidade de peso. A energia metabolizável refere-se à energia dos alimentos que se encontra disponível na ave visando a manutenção das funções vitais e a produção de carne e de ovos. Encontra-se expressa em calorias por gramas (cal/g) ou quilocalorias por kg (kcal/kg). 1 kcal equivale a 4,2 kJ. As necessidades de energia das galinhas pode ser expressa em termos de energia metabolizável por dia (kcal/d).Figura 25: Exemplo da ingestão, perdas e utilização diárias de uma galinha (fonte: PTC + )A energia dietética provém principalmente dos hidratos de carbono mas também de gordura e proteína. Normalmente as galinhas têm acesso livre à comida e é-lhes é permitido consumir tanto quanto queiram. Habitualmente elas consomem apenas a quantidade suficiente de comida para satisfazer as suas necessidades de nutrientes. Este controlo de ingestão baseia-se acima de tudo na quantidade de energia presente na dieta. As aves comem para satisfazer as suas necessidades de energia. Assim, o aumento da concentração de energia na sua dieta resultará num decréscimo de ingestão e, vice versa, caso a ingestão não seja limitada por problemas de matéria orgânica indigestível, textura, inacessibilidade e palatabilidade. Por isso, os níveis de nutrientes numa dieta são muitas vezes expressos em termos de teor de energia.Os níveis de energia recomendados nas dietas dos galináceos são de, aproximadamente, 2.800 kcal/kg para as poedeiras e de cerca de 3.000 kcal/kg para os frangos de carne (ver apêndice 2). Quando as galinhas reduzem a sua ingestão devido ao stress provocado pelo calor, recomenda-se que se utilizem dietas mais concentradas, para que consigam obter nutrientes suficientes, apesar da ingestão ser baixa.As proteínas são formadas por aminoácidos e as aves obtêm estes aminoácidos dos seus alimentos para construir a suas próprias proteínas no corpo. A prioridade é sempre colocada na manutenção e todos os excedentes são utilizados para o crescimento ou para a produção de ovos. Os alimentos com um elevado teor de proteínas são caros e por isso rações com muitas proteína constituem um desperdício. A proteína em excesso é decomposta e usada como fonte de energia e o excesso de azoto (nitrogénio) é excretado como ácido úrico. A síntese de proteína nos tecidos do corpo requer um fornecimento adequado nas proporções correctas de cerca de vinte aminoácidos diferentes. Dez destes não podem ser sintetizados pelo metabolismo das aves, tendo, pois, que ser fornecidos pela dieta. Estes são chamados aminoácidos essenciais (limitantes), sendo os principais a lisina e a metionina. A carência de aminoácidos essenciais limitará a produção. Ver quadro 5. A qualidade das proteínas alimentares pode ser descrita em termos dos aminoácidos que fornece. Contudo, é útil especificar as necessidades totais de proteína bruta para além das necessidades nos principais aminoácidos essenciais. Deve haver proteína bruta suficiente para fornecer as quantidades necessárias destes aminoácidos. Na maior parte das tabelas de necessidades em nutrientes, apenas se refere as percentagens de lisina e metionina e estas percentagens devem ser encaradas como uma indicação de que também há uma quantidade suficiente dos outros aminoácidos essenciais.As vitaminas desempenham um papel importante nos sistemas enzimáticos e da resistência natural das aves de capoeira. Ver Apêndice 2, quadro 17. Só se necessita delas em quantidades muito pequenas, mas são vitais para o sustentáculo da vida. Uma deficiência em vitaminas pode levar a perturbações fisiológicas graves. Nas plantas jovens e verdes, nas sementes e nos insectos podem-se encontrar vitaminas naturais. Quando as galinhas estão confinadas em galinheiros, encontram-se inteiramente dependentes das vitaminas presentes na ração. Pode-se comprar todas as vitaminas numa forma sintética a um preço comercial, podendo ser acrescentadas como um pré-preparado à ração já preparada. Sem vitaminas suplementares as rações podem não ser suficientemente balanceadas para suster uma produtividade elevada.Os minerais, especialmente o cálcio (Ca) e o fósforo (P), são essenciais para os ossos. Os sistemas enzimáticos também se encontram muitas vezes dependentes dos elementos traço de certos minerais como sejam o ferro, cobre, zinco e iodina. No Apêndice 2, quadro 18 descrevem-se estes outros minerais essenciais.A função tanto do cálcio como do fósforo é melhorar a estrutura e manutenção dos ossos das galinhas. O esqueleto conta com cerca de 99% de cálcio e 80% de fósforo no corpo. Estes dois minerais interagem um sobre o outro, tanto antes como depois da sua absorção pelo tracto digestivo. Um fornecimento em excesso dum destes minerais pode interferir com a utilização do outro.Durante a produção de ovos as necessidades de cálcio são mais que o dobro das normais. As necessidades de cálcio e fósforo das galinhas/aves de capoeira são influenciadas pela quantidade de vitamina D presente na dieta, aumentando à medida que o nível de vitamina D diminui e vice-versa. Para as aves em crescimento, a razão de Ca : P deve ser entre 1:1 e 2:1. Contudo as aves poedeiras necessitam de uma razão de até 6:1, e necessitam de cerca de 4,0 g de cálcio diário para a formação da casca do ovo.Acrescentam-se suplementos como farinha de ossos à dieta dos pintos e os frangos em crescimento de forma a proporcionar cálcio e fósforo adicionais. No caso das poedeiras as necessidades adicionais de cálcio são proporcionadas por cascas de ostra trituradas, que são dadas separadamente da ração ou por farinha de calcário que é adicionada à dieta. Os critérios principais para determinar as necessidades de cálcio e fósforo são a produção de ovos e a espessura da casca dos mesmos. As necessidades de cálcio devem ser especificadas em termos de quantidade diária de cálcio em vez da percentagem na dieta. Tal reveste-se de particular importância nas regiões tropicais, pois como a quantidade de comida ingerida é menor, devido ao calor, tal pode ter como resultado um consumo diário de cálcio demasiado baixo.As necessidades em minerais das galinhas são definidas em termos dos elementos minerais separados, embora os minerais sejam adicionados às dietas alimentares sempre na forma de compostos. É útil conhecer a proporção de cada elemento nestes compostos, para que se possa acrescentar a quantidade correcta deste elemento à dieta. Ver quadro 6. Até aqui considerámos a energia, os aminoácidos, as vitaminas e o teor de minerais da dieta das galinhas. Pode-se adicionar vitaminas e minerais às dietas alimentares das galinhas poedeiras e frangos de carne na forma de pré-preparados. Outros ingredientes a serem considerados incluem os coccidiostáticos como medicamento preventivo e os antioxidantes como preservativos. As rações comerciais preparadas também podem conter um antioxidante, principalmente quando a ração contém gordura adicional.Deve-se juntar uma dose profiláxica dum coccidiostático à ração alimentar de cada frango de carne, seguindo as instruções do fabricante.A dose pode ser retirada quase no fim do período de engorda. Na medida que se pode manifestar coccidiose num bando tratado com um coccidiostático a nível profilático, recomenda-se ter à mão um coccidiostático concentrado para medicar a água a nível curativo.Este capítulo discute as consequências do sistema de habitação para as escolhas de alimentação. Tal ajuda a calcular racionalmente, passo-a passo, dietas para vários fins e com uma vasta gama de vários ingredientesGalinhas em liberdade Se um criador de galinhas as cria à solta, não poderá fazer muito para influenciar sobre o que elas se alimentam, mas confia, certamente, que elas comem o que necessitam. Por outro lado, as galinhas apenas podem ter uma boa dieta caso encontrem todos os nutrientes de que precisam. Em muitos casos de galinhas criadas em liberdade, é evidente que não conseguirão encontrar tudo o que necessitam, ao longo do ano, para uma dieta equilibrada.Durante a época da colheita ou em outros períodos em que podem obter muitos grãos de cereais, as galinhas normalmente conseguem obter energia suficiente. Contudo, nesses períodos a proteína necessária ao seu crescimento e para a postura de ovos é muito reduzida. É, portanto, importante que as galinhas possam obter proteína adicional, que pode ser proteína animal, como sejam minhocas ou caracóis, ou suplementos ricos em proteínas, como grãos de soja, bagaço de oleaginosas, farinha de peixe, etc. Nos períodos secos pode-se registar rapidamente uma deficiência em vitaminas. Ao se acrescentar forragem verde à dieta das galinhas isso fornece-lhes os minerais e vitaminas que elas necessitam.Os criadores que criam galinhas em galinheiros têm que lhes fornecer toda a alimentação que elas necessitam. No caso das galinhas disporem de um espaço livre pequeno, podem encontrar, por elas próprias, uma parte dos minerais e das vitaminas de que necessitam, no caso da vegetação existente nesses espaços ser suficiente. Também têm que mudar de espaço regularmente, por exemplo cada duas semanas, de forma a se reduzir o risco de infecções parasitárias.No caso de produção para fins comerciais existem à venda no mercado vários tipos de alimentos para galinhas, adequados às várias categorias etárias. De um modo geral, utilizam-se dois tipos de alimentos para o período de criação de 0 a 18 semanas, quando a galinha entra na fase adulta e pode começar a pôr: uma ração de alta qualidade para os pintos (até 6 semanas) e uma ração para as aves em crescimento, de 6 a 18 semanas.Durante o período de postura, normalmente só existe um tipo de ração para galinhas poedeiras mas é possível usar uma ração para prépoedeiras durante algumas semanas. O ingrediente mais importante é o cálcio para que se produzam boas cascas de ovos. Se a ração contém menos de 3% Ca, dever-se-á dar conchas ou areia grossa adicional às poedeiras.Os frangos de carne para fins comerciais podem crescer muito rapidamente (1,5 -2 kg em 6 semanas), mas apenas se o maneio for muito bom e receberem uma ração especial, altamente concentrada para frangos de carne. Pode-se dar a mesma ração aos frangos em crescimento que às poedeiras, mas desse modo o seu crescimento será mais lento. De um modo geral, os frangos de carne recebem a \"ração inicial\" apenas para as primeiras 2 semanas, e depois a \"ração final\": que tem uma composição mais alta de energia e um pouco mais baixa de proteínas. Visto que os frangos jovens são muito sensíveis à coccidiose, um parasita intestinal, deve-se acrescentar à comida uma dose suplementar de coccidiostático. Alguns dias antes do seu abate, deve-se deixar de administrar este medicamento na ração, para se estar seguro que não haverá resíduos na carne do frango.Os alimentos somente podem ser armazenados por pouco tempo. Se forem guardados durante muito tempo, a sua qualidade baixará, principalmente no que concerne ao teor de vitaminas. Certifique-se que compra alimentos frescos. No caso de ter que armazená-los tente fazêlo num lugar seco e fresco. Mantenha os alimentos fora do alcance de ratazanas, baratas, etc. e não guarde os alimentos por um período longo, quer dizer, superior a duas semanas.Recomendamos vigorosamente controlar, o mais possível, a quantidade que é consumida pelas galinhas. Qualquer desvio do consumo normal de comida pode indicar uma mudança no nível de produção e/ou no estado de saúde.A ingestão voluntária de comida é a quantidade de alimentos que uma ave consome quando tem um acesso ilimitado à dieta. A monitorização deste consumo é importante porque se um bando consome menos que o esperado a produção também será inferior à prevista e pode ser que as aves careçam de alguns nutrientes. Uma redução do consumo de alimentos também pode constituir um aviso útil sobre erros de maneio, como seja uma insuficiência de água potável ou a erupção de uma doença. No caso da ingestão ser acima do nível previsto, pode ser que alguns tipos de aves se tornem demasiado gordas ou, ainda mais provável, que se tenha verificado derramamento da comida ou perdas devido a roedores.Os factores mais importantes que afectam a ingestão da comida são: 1 peso do corpo 2 taxa de crescimento 3 produção de ovos 4 qualidade das rações 5 situação ambientalAs aves pesadas consomem mais alimentos que as aves leves. Para manter o corpo e todas as suas funções básicas, as necessidades básicas de alimento são de 70 gramas por dia para um peso de 2 kg. Para cada 50 gramas acima dos 2 kg, é necessária uma grama extra, e para cada 50 gramas abaixo dos 2 kg, é necessária uma gramas a menos.As aves que estão a crescer necessitam de mais comida. Para cada grama de peso ganha, necessitam, aproximadamente, de 1,5 gramas de alimentação, além do que necessitam para a sua manutenção. Um crescimento mais rápido significa uma melhor conversão alimentar, especialmente no caso dos frangos de carne visto que faz que uma maior parte da ração esteja disponível para a produção. Com um determinado peso, as aves não adultas das variedades de frangos para carne possuem uma capacidade de ingestão alimentar muito mais elevada que as aves de variedades de galinhas poedeiras.A ingestão/consumo da energia dietética das galinhas poedeiras está relacionada com a taxa da sua produção de ovos. Se a produção de ovos aumenta é necessário mais alimentação. De uma maneira geral para cada grama de produção de ovos é necessária uma grama adicional de ração/alimentação, acima do nível de manutenção da ingestão. Para se efectuar este cálculo, multiplica-se a percentagem de postura pelo peso médio do ovo.O factor dietético mais importante que afecta a ingestão de alimentos é a concentração de energia na dieta. Um aumento de energia dietética resulta num decréscimo de ingestão de alimentos. A concentração de nutrientes que não sejam energia não influenciam o apetite, sempre que permaneçam dentro do limites duma saúde e produção normais. O nível de padrão de energia para as poedeiras é de 2800 kcal por kg de alimentos/ração (ver Apêndice 2).A ingestão de granulados pode ser até 8% mais que a ingestão da mesma alimentação na forma normal. Isto porque os granulados já se encontram parcialmente cozinhados e em parte porque são mais fáceis de comer. Nas aves jovens, esta ingestão mais alta é desejável visto que aumenta a taxa de crescimento, mas nas aves adultas pode levar a um consumo em excesso e a obesidade.A questão principal é de como as aves são mantidas. Numa gaiola, as aves movimentam-se menos e, por isso, necessitam de menos energia e isso poupa umas 5 gramas de ração diária, por ave.Em segundo lugar, a temperatura também tem uma grande influência na ingestão dos alimentos. As temperaturas baixas estimulam a ingestão dos alimentos, ma a questão realmente é que as temperaturas elevadas (> 28˚C) limitam a ingestão voluntária de comida. Nos climas quentes é difícil para as aves comerem suficiente de modo a se manter um alto nível de produção. A ventilação e o arrefecimento devem ajudar mas uma outra solução é dar às aves mais alimentos concentrados.A intensidade da luz e a duração do dia também têm um efeito na ingestão voluntária de alimentos. No caso das poedeiras, tal deve-se ao efeito de duração do dia sobre a produção de ovos. Dias mais longos estimulam a produção de ovos e, por esta razão, incentivam as galinhas a consumirem mais comida. No caso dos pintos, a luz tem um efeito mais directo sobre a ingestão de alimentos através da regulação de padrões de comportamento e de expansão da actividade e consumo alimentar. Obtém-se uma ingestão de alimentos e uma taxa de crescimento máximas quando os pintos são criados continuamente na luz. Contudo, no caso dos frangos de carne demasiadas horas de luz (>20 horas) podem aumentar a actividade e, portanto, reduzir a eficiência da utilização dos alimentos pois uma actividade extra também requer alimentos adicionais. Por esta razão, têm sido desenvolvidos esquemas de luz intermitente destinados a sistemas intensivos de produção.A restrição da ingestão de alimentos tem um efeito distinto consoante se trate de variedades de galinhas poedeiras ou de frangos de carne.Variedades de frangas para produção de ovos Não é normal restringir a ingestão de alimentos das galinhas em crescimento que são criadas para produção de ovos. Também não é normal restringir o seu consumo de alimentos durante o período de postura pois para uma boa produção de ovos é necessário um óptimo desenvolvimento físico.Variedades de frangas para a produção de carne Não se permite, normalmente, que os frangos de uma estirpe mais pesada (multiplicação de frangos de carne) tenham acesso ilimitado a alimentação durante o período de crescimento. O seu consumo de alimentos é restringido para reduzir o ganho de peso vivo e, em particular, limitar a quantidade de gordura do corpo no início da produção de ovos. O grau de restrição depende da raça. Podem ser usados vários métodos de restrição do consumo de alimentos, dos quais fazem parte saltar a alimentação durante um dia, dietas de baixas proteínas, dietas com elevado teor de fibras e dietas com baixo teor de lisina.O método de saltar a comida durante um dia é, provavelmente, o mais fácil. Com este sistema deve-se dar às aves uma ração de 70% da sua ingestão voluntária de alimentos, quer dizer que serão alimentadas em 140% do seu consumo diário, de dois em dois dias. Esta técnica assegura que cada ave, incluindo as que se situam nos últimos lugares da hierarquia da \"ordem da bicada\", possa obter uma cota justa de comida. Se se lhes der 70% da sua ingestão de alimentação todos os dias, as aves que se situam no topo da hierarquia da \"ordem da bicada\" conseguirão ter 100% do consumo desejado, enquanto as aves que se situam nos últimos lugares da hierarquia da \"ordem da bicada\" se calhar só poderão consumir menos de 50%.Deve se aplicar uma restrição ainda mais severa às aves de variedades modernas de frangos de carne (até menos de 50% do que naturalmente comeriam) do que no caso das aves para produção de ovos suficientes. O melhor conselho para qualquer criador de raças modernas de frangos de carne é de seguir o conselho do fornecedor dos pintainhos.Embora o avicultor não decida sobre a composição da ração que ele compra para as suas galinhas, poderá controlar se contém todos os nutrientes que as galinhas necessitam, nas proporções correctas. Na tabela 17, no Apêndice 2 é apresentado um sumário geral das necessidades em nutrientes.As rações alimentares representam 60 -70% do custo de produção de galinhas poedeiras ou de frangos para carne. Desta maneira se se pouparem os custos da alimentação, tal ajudará muito a manter baixos os custos de produção. É por isso que é importante utilizar a comida mais barata disponível, na razão corecta e saber quais os alimentos que se podem obter e como devem ser usados.No capítulo 5 já tratámos das fontes dos nutrientes essenciais. Para fins de cálculo da dieta e da rações, classificamos os alimentos para as dietas das aves de capoeira em cinco classes amplas: ? cereais ou subprodutos dos cereais, principalmente para o amido e proteína ? outros alimentos energéticos como sejam raízes ou oleaginosas ? alimentos vegetais ricos em proteínas ? proteínas animais ? suplementos minerais.As dietas das galinhas podem ser calculadas através do chamado quadrado de Pearson (figura 26). O quadro 7 mostra o cálculo da dieta para uma galinha poedeira, utilizando 4 alimentos diferentes para criar uma mistura contendo 16,5% de proteína.Os vários alimentos são classificados em dois grupos: ricos em proteína e pobres em proteína. Dentro de cada grupo eles podem substituirse um ao outro de modo que o preço decidirá qual o que será mais utilizado. Desta maneira poderá calcular-se as médias para cada grupo de acordo com as quantidades de cada ingrediente usado. Supondo que o milho é mais barato e mais abundante que a mapira (sorgo) e que a farinha de soja é mais barata que a farinha de peixe, se os 4 ingredientes forem incluídos fará que o alimento seja mais fiável, na medida em que os ingredientes se complementam. Numa ração de mistura uma composição de 5 -8 ingredientes pode ser óptima. No nosso exemplo pode-se fazer uma mistura de cereais com duas partes de milho (8% de proteína bruta) e uma parte de mapira/sorgo (10% de proteína bruta) dum grupo a ser combinada com uma mistura rica em proteínas de 3 partes de farinha de soja (44% de proteína bruta) e uma parte de farinha de peixe (65% de proteína bruta):Cereais -média ponderada * milho 2 x 8% = 16% * mapira (sorgo) 1 x 10% = 10% Média ponderada para os cereais 26% / 3 = 8,7% proteínaAlimentos proteicos -média ponderada: * farinha de soja 3 x 44% = 132% * farinha de peixe 1 x 65% = 65% Média ponderada para os alimentos proteicos 197 % / 4 = 49,3% proteína As médias ponderadas para os cereais e para os alimentos proteicos devem ser colocadas no lado esquerdo do quadrado de Pearson (ver 0), para se encontrar qual é a combinação da dose que irá resultar na percentagem necessária de proteína -16,5%. O nível de proteína requerido na dieta completa é colocado no centro do quadrado e a percentagem do teor de proteína em cada ração nos dois cantos esquerdos do quadrado. Para se calcular a proporção de cada alimento que é necessário, subtraia o número mais baixo do mais alto, diagonalmente sobre o quadrado tal como é mostrado mais adiante. Os números resultantes no lado direito do quadrado indicam a proporção de cada mistura necessária para se poder obter uma dieta que contenha 16,5% de proteína. Neste caso, será necessário uma razão de 32,8 partes da mistura de cereal para 7,8 partes de alimentos proteicos (3 farinha de soja : 1 farinha de peixe).Expressa em percentagens da mistura total, a dieta será composta do seguinte: O teor de energia de 3.205 kcal/kg excede o mínimo de 2.800, o nível de proteínas é bom e a fibra bruta não excede os 7%. Apenas a percentagem de cálcio é demasiada baixa para as poedeiras, que deveria ser entre 2,5 e 3,5 %. É necessário acrescentar um pouco de calcário e de farinha de ossos de forma a fornecer cerca de 4,0 g de cálcio por dia e satisfazer as necessidades em cálcio e em fósforo (à razão de 6 : 1). Como alternativa também se pode dar grãos de areia ou cascas partidas separadamente da comida, para ingestão voluntária. Ver as necessidades em minerais no apêndice 5. A proporção dos vários ingredientes na ração é mais importante que a quantidade que é fornecida. As aves não comerão mais, logo que a sua necessidade em energia tenha sido satisfeita.Para que a produtividade e rentabilidade sejam boas, devem-se manter as galinhas o mais saudável possível. As galinhas doentes não produzem e perder-se-ão os lucros obtidos caso seja necessário comprar medicamentos ou se as aves morrerem. Prevenir é melhor que remediar, tente, pois, proporcionar uma boa habitação, nutrição e cuidados sanitários para as suas galinhas e observe-as diariamente para detectar alguma anomalia e sintomas de doença. Algumas doenças podem propagar-se rapidamente num bando de aves de capoeira, portanto as aves que aparentam estar doentes devem ser mantidas separadas das outras e devem ser cuidadas com mais atenção. Contacte o seu veterinário ou um agente extensionista para obter informação sobre doenças comuns das aves de capoeira na sua área e a disponibilidade de vacinas para as galinhas.Figura 27: Galinhas saudáveis e galinhas doentes (fonte: Poultry Network)As doenças dos galináceos podem ocorrer em todas as idades e raças. Quando as aves parecem doentes e/ou se comportam de modo estranho (ver a figura 27), são muitas as possíveis causas. Uma galinha saudável é activa, tem olhos brilhantes e esgravata para conseguir co-mida. As aves que estão doentes são menos activas, têm olhos baços e penas enriçadas.Por vezes é possível notar dificuldades respiratórias (tosse, olhos inchados), uma digestão anormal (diarreia aquosa ou sanguinolenta, penas sujas) ou anomalias de locomoção (paralisia/coxeamento).Por vezes poderá notar que as galinhas estão a pôr menos ovos ou estes são anormais. Algumas doenças podem resultar em altas taxas de mortalidade (figura 28).As infecções são causadas por germes. Estes micróbios actuam como agentes patogénicos, quer dizer que causam doenças: ? vírus, que causam, p.ex. a doença de Newcastle, a gripe das galinhas ou gripe aviária, a varíola avária e a doença de Gumboro. ? bactérias, que causam, p. ex., a cólera aviária, o tifo aviário e o tifo aviário e a pulorose (Salmonella pullorum) ? fungos, que causam, p.ex. a Aspergilose ou pneumonia. Os parasitas também causam doenças ou atraso do crescimento: internamente (ascarídeos, ténias e coccidiose) ou externamente (pulgas, carraças, piolhos).De todos os micróbios, apenas alguns parasitas são visíveis a olho nu. Todos os outros germes apenas podem ser vistos com o uso de microscópios especiais. Os fungos ou bolores podem produzir substân- cias tóxicas chamadas micotoxinas. Se as aves comem rações com micotoxinas, a sua resistência pode diminuir. Por esta razão as rações devem ser armazenadas de forma adequada para evitar o desenvolvimento de fungos.O objectivo deste capítulo não é descrever as doenças. Na realidade cabe ao veterinário estabelecer a diagnose correcta. Portanto mantenha sempre contacto com um veterinário, se possível por intermédio de um assistente do veterinário ou um trabalhador do sector da saúde animal na sua aldeia ou na comunidade.No Apêndice 1, doenças infecciosas, estão listados os sintomas, as causas e o tratamento e vacinação das doenças mais comuns. Mas trata-se, apenas, de um apanhado geral, em caso de dúvida sobre uma doença aviária, esta informação nunca pode substituir uma diagnose profissional e o conselho de um veterinário! Também chamamos a sua atenção para o Agrodok Cuidados sanitários das aves de capoeira, que em breve será publicado.Os agentes patogénicos podem multiplicar-se rapidamente num bando de galinhas e passar de ave para ave através de várias maneiras: ver a figura 29. Podem passar de ave para ave por intermédio da saliva, dos excrementos ou de ovos contaminados. Também podem ser propagados através dos seres humanos ou animais (ratos, pássaros, moscas), em barcos, sacos de rações, equipamento, pneus de bicicleta ou de carro. Alguns vírus até podem ser disseminados através do ar, pelo vento ou a poeira. Outras aves de capoeira como sejam patos, gansos, perus, galinhas da Guiné (ou galinha de Angola, galinha do mato, pintada) pode ser portadoras de agentes patogénicos sem que evidenciem sinais de doença e podem passá-los para as galinhas. Tal é mais notório no caso da gripe aviária. As aves mais velhas e mais resistentes também podem ser portadoras de agentes patogénicos e podem contaminar as mais jovens e fracas. Os mercados/feiras com animais vivos fornecem as oportunidades ideais para a propagação de muitos micróbios. Comprar animais vivos no mercado pode ter consequências fatais para o seu bando de aves. Por esta razão, mantenha os animais recém comprados num local separado, em quarentena (ver figura 30) durante vários dias e observe o seu comportamento e possíveis sinais de doença.Alguns agentes patogénicos das aves de capoeira podem causar doenças e até mesmo a morte também nos seres humanos (e.g. gripe aviária, bactéria Salmonella). Tome cuidado quando manusear os animais, tanto vivos como mortos, os produtos aviários e os excrementos. Os ovos, carne e sangue de todas as aves de capoeira devem ser bem cozidos ou fervidos para se matar os germes.Muitas vezes podem-se prevenir as doenças das galinhas se: ? Fornecer água limpa, uma boa alimentação, habitação e cuidados. Ver Capítulo 5 e 6 sobre nutrição para como evitar doenças e deficiências nutricionais ? Aplicar medidas de higiene e de biosegurança (ver mais adiante) ? Vacinar contra as doenças virais presentes na área (ver mais adiante).As doenças virais não podem ser curadas com medicamentos. No caso das doenças bacteriológicas ou parasitárias, existem medicamentos tais como antibióticos, coccidiostáticos, desparasitantes, ervas etc. Os ectoparasitas podem ser tratados através da aplicação de petróleo, querosene ou de pesticidas. É importante que se estabeleça a diagnose correcta, para que se possa escolher o tratamento conveniente. No caso das galinhas serem tratadas com medicamentos, pode ser que, durante algum tempo, possam ser encontrados resíduos destes medicamentos na carne e/ou nos ovos. Não consuma estes produtos.O objectivo da higiene e da biosegurança é prevenir as doenças infecciosas e a mortalidade e perdas financeiras por elas causadas. Para tal deve-se: ? Reduzir o número de micróbios nos galinheiros e nos espaços livres onde as galinhas deambulam e em seu redor, limpando e desinfectando bem os galinheiros e o seu equipamento; ? Tomar medidas de biosegurança para manter os agentes patogénicos afastados das criações de galinhas e dos galinheiros e dos espaços para as galinhas.Quantas mais aves possuir, tanto mais atenção deverá prestar à higiene e biosegurança, visto que as perdas por doenças infecciosas podem ser muito elevadas. De notar que, embora a maioria dos micróbios possa ser morta/eliminada com desinfectantes, como sejam pintura de cal ou virkon, estas substâncias não se destinam a ser utilizadas em animais, quer externa, quer internamente. Ver figura 31: higiene, observação dos animais, informação sobre as doenças e manter-se em contacto com o veterinário são os elementos principais de uma biosegurança prudente na sua exploração avícola!As seguintes medidas podem ser aplicadas, tanto por avicultores comerciais como por pequenos criadores de galinhas no quintal.Quando se inicia uma criação de aves de capoeira, mantenha uma certa distância de outras criações/aviários ou de galinheiros. Observe de que direcção vem o vento. Tenha cuidado com as aves compradas em mercados/feiras e mantenha sempre as aves recém adquiridas separadas do seu bando durante 2 semanas, para estar seguro que não são portadoras de doenças. Mantenha as galinhas ou patos criados em li-berdade separados das aves para fins comerciais, na medida que podem introduzir novos germes. Assegure-se que os galinheiros, espaço de armazenamento para as rações e os tanques de água são à prova de pássaros.Não permita visitantes nos galinheiros. Os seres humanos, aves selvagens ou vermes, todos eles também visitam outros lugares. Os veterinários são especialmente perigosos! Certifique-se que as pessoas que entram nos galinheiros mudam de calçado.Tenha cuidado com os cartões velhos de ovos. Por vezes não se sabe de onde vêm. Venda as galinhas, ovos ou as camas velhas fora da sua exploração agrícola ou à entrada da mesma. Mantenha separadamente as diferentes espécies de aves. Mantenha separadamente as aves de idades diferentes, à excepção das galinhas com os pintainhos recém saídos do ovo. Numa criação com aves de idades diferentes comece sempre dos mais novos para os mais velhos e nunca ao contrário.Nos grandes aviários para fins comerciais, apenas mantenha aves de uma única idade, num determinado período. Depois de cada \"lote\", limpe e desinfecte todas os galinheiros. Este é o princípio \"todos dentro -todos fora\".Mantenhas os galinheiros ou alpendres/galpões das galinhas secos e limpos; também mantenha limpa a área em redor dos galinheiros, pois a sujidade atrai os ratos/ratazanas, pássaros selvagens e os germes que eles são portadores. Limpe regularmente os bebedouros e comedouros e controle-os para que não transbordem. Bebedouros com água a mais devem ser colocados em cima de ripas ou de tijolos. Forneça água potável que não provenha dum lago/lagoa, para prevenir erupções de doenças com sua origem na água, como seja a cólera aviária.Não deixe que as aves entrem em contacto com os seus excrementos, que podem ser recolhidos em baixo dos chão de ripas ou dos poleiros (ver capítulo 4). Renove regularmente as camas e nunca guarde as camas velhas perto dos galinheiros. Tenha em conta a direcção do vento. Mantenha baixa a densidade do bando pois os animais infectados excretam muitos micróbios e as doenças podem propagar-se rapidamente.Isole do bando as aves doentes e mate-as caso não possam ser tratadas. Abata as aves fracas pois a sua resistência é baixa. Queime ou enterre as aves mortas, o mais rapidamente possível (figura 32 e 33).Figura 32: Queime imediatamente todas as aves mortas (FAO)Visto que alguns vírus podem ser propagados através do ar, as medidas de higiene e biosegurança, não são suficientes, só por si, para prevenir a infecção. Portanto é muito importante proceder à vacinação das aves de modo a se prevenir doenças infecciosas, especialmente doenças virais como a gripe aviária ou a doença de Newcastle. As vacinas são compostas de agentes patogénicos fracos ou mortos e apenas devem ser administradas em aves saudáveis. Depois da vacinação as aves podem desenvolver uma resistência à doença e podem estar protegidas contra esta doença durante algum tempo. As vacinas vivas (enfraquecidas) podem ser administradas de muitas formas, tal como seja através da água para beber, abrindo-se o bico das aves, na forma de gotas oftalmológicas, spray, etc. (ver figura 34). Estas vacinas fornecem uma protecção rápida, que surte efeito depois de pouco tempo.Um inconveniente das vacinas vivas é que são muito sensíveis à temperatura, assim que nunca devem ser guardadas sem ser no frigorífico. Uma vez dissolvidas devem ser usadas dentro de algumas horas. As vacinas vivas nunca devem ser preparadas pelos próprios criadores. A vacinação que é aplicada na água de beber é menos fiável que a vacinação aplicada na forma de gotas oftalmológicas, pois as aves são todas vacinadas individualmente. As vacinas mortas ou inactivas são geralmente mais baratas que as vacinas vivas. Apenas podem ser administradas na forma de injecção e levam várias semanas a surtir efeito. Contudo, oferecem protecção por um período mais longo que as vacinas vivas. As vacinas mortas também são menos sensíveis à temperatura e podem ser usadas durante vários dias.Em alguns países em desenvolvimento podem-se obter vacinas vivas termoestáveis ou resistentes à temperatura, o que é muito prático para uso nas zonas rurais. Os laboratórios ACIAR da Austrália têm vindo a desenvolver vacinas contra a doença de Newcastle. Ver a secção \"Endereços Úteis\" no fim deste Agrodok.Vermes/minhocas Vermes (ascarídeos ou ténias) são vulgares nas galinhas, tanto em criações de pequena escala como em avicultura comercial, criadas em sistemas em que se utilizam camas. Estes parasitas podem causar raquitismo, diarreia e baixa de produção. Deve-se desparasitar todas as galinhas duas vezes por ano. Tal pode ser combinado com a vacinação regular contra a doença de Newcastle.Os parasitas externos como as pulgas, os piolhos, as carraças e os ácaros (figura 35) podem causar muito desconforto às galinhas pois estes parasitas sugam-lhes o sangue e provocam danos na sua pele e nas penas. Podese tratar as galinhas com pesticidas e pode-se juntar cinza ou enxofre ao banho de areia. Folhas de tabaco colocadas nos ninhos também actuam como repelente de insectos. As pernas escamosas (crostas nas pernas causadas pelos ácaros) podem ser tratadas mergulhando-as em querosene ou esfregando-as com gordura, óleo ou manteiga de karité.As bicadas de penas são um comportamento anormal (ver a figura 36).Muitas das vezes nos aviários comerciais pode-se ver que as galinhas se encontram debaixo de stress devido a erros efectuados quanto à sua criação, habitação ou maneio. Este comportamento, bicada de penas, não se vê numa criação tradicional de galináceos, cujos pintainhos aprendem das suas mães que têm que esgaravatar o solo à procura de comida e não picar-se umas às outras. Contudo, as aves que são criadas em confinamento podem começar a dar bicadas umas nas outras devido a aborrecimento e frustação, devido a: ? elevada densidade do bando ? espaço para comer e beber demasiado pequeno ? insuficiência de ninhos de postura ? falta de camas ou de grãos espalhado no solo ? falta de poleiros onde descansar ? falta de areia para tomar um banho. As pulgas, piolhos, e carraças também podem estimular as aves a bicarem-se uma às outras. Demasiada luz, especialmente nos ninhos de postura, também pode levar a bicadas e ao canibalismo. Algumas aves podem ser as \"iniciadoras\" da bicada das penas num bando de galinhas. Remova estas aves antes que as outras comecem a imitá-las. Ensine os pintos a esgravatar e debicar o solo desde a sua primeira semana de idade, espalhando alguns grãos na cama. A partir da idade de 3-4 semanas devem aprender a utilizar os poleiros durante a noite e quando querem descansar. As galinhas que descansam nos poleiros (ver a figura 37); não dão bicadas !Quando se criam galinhas principalmente para auto-consumo, a incubação dos ovos far-se-á quase sempre utilizando galinhas chocas. Nas explorações com objectivos mais comerciais faz-se a incubação artificial, fazendo-se uso, o mais possível, de incubadoras. Tal dependerá, principalmente, de quantos ovos se pretende chocar ao mesmo tempo, pois para se estar seguro que um empreendimento com muitos galináceos será bem sucedido é importante que todos os pintainhos tenham a mesma idade. Tal é muito difícil com a incubação natural pois não é possível ter um grande número de galinhas chocas, simultaneamente. Será uma boa ideia comprar uma pequena incubadora. Talvez seja possível comprá-la juntamente com outros criadores de galinhas.Uma galinha choca pode incubar 8 a 10 ovos ao mesmo tempo. Se cerca de 70% dos ovos incubados eclodirem, tal significa que cada galinha choca terá 6 a 7 pintainhos. Contudo, a taxa de mortalidade entre os pintainhos recém-nascidos pode ser muito elevada. A experiência adquirida e até que ponto se poderá minimizar o número de perdas de pintainhos determina, portanto, o número de galinhas necessárias para o choco dos ovos.Os seguintes critérios devem ser seguidos ao escolher os ovos para incubação: ? Os ovos seleccionados devem estar \"galados\" ou fertilizados. Caso haja um galo no galinheiro tal não constitui, praticamente, um problema. Em média, é necessário um galo para cada 10 galinhas. Caso o galo seja mantido separado das galinhas, deve ser posto com elas duas semanas antes de começar o período do choco. ? Utilize ovos com cascas inteiras, limpos e que não estejam danificados e que não sejam nem demasiado pequenos, nem demasiado grandes. Os melhores resultados são obtidos com ovos de tamanho médio e provenientes de galinhas boas poedeiras. ? Recolher os ovos regularmente, p.ex. três vezes ao dia. Deixe os ovos arrefecerem o mais rapidamente possível. ? Caso necessário os ovos poderão ser guardados durante alguns dias, mas nunca por um período superior a uma semana. No caso de se guardarem os ovos durante uma semana, devem ser armazenados a uma temperatura entre os 14 e os 16 °C. Não é aconselhável armazenar os ovos a uma temperatura inferior a 12 -14 °C. Se não for possível manter as temperaturas recomendadas, então será necessário um período de armazenagem mais curto. A uma temperatura de 20°C os ovos só se conservam durante três dias. Escreva no ovo, a lápis, a data em que foi recolhido. Assim saberá, exactamente, quanto tempo poderá ser guardado.Se a galinha manifestar durante dois dias um comportamento de choco, poderá ser usada para incubação. As galinhas chocas devem ser saudáveis e não ser demasiado pequenas. Uma galinha choca pode ser reconhecida através dos seguintes sinais: ? produção de um som característico de choco ? uma crista enrugada ? recusa em abandonar o ninho ? tentativa de acumular o maior número possível de ovos no seu ninho.Antes que a galinha comece a incubar os ovos é bom tratá-la com um insecticida contra moscas e piolhos. Se os insectos não forem eliminados, repita o tratamento 10 dias mais tarde. No início o choco é irregular até que possa cobrir de 6 a 12 ovos. É melhor que não cubra ovos seleccionados durante este período. Somente quando o choco for regular os ovos podem ser substituídos por ovos seleccionados. As galinhas grandes podem chocar até 14 ovos, mas às galinhas mais pequenas, de raças locais, não se lhes deve dar mais de 8 ovos para chocar. Para a incubação dos ovos utilize uma caixa/cesta limpa e desinfectada. A caixa deve ter, aproximadamente, 35 x 35 cm, por 40 cm de altura. O ninho deve ser feito de palha, feno ou folhas secas e ter cerca de 25 cm de largura (diâmetro). Para estimular o processo de incubação, a caixa deve ser colocada num lugar escuro e fresco ou parcialmente coberta. O local do choco não deve ser acessível a outras galinhas e deve estar protegido contra os cães, os ratos, as cobras e outros animais. É uma boa ideia que junto da caixa incubadora haja um pequeno espaço. Coloque alimentos de boa qualidade e água fresca limpa perto da galinha que está no choco.Quando se pretende chocar um maior número de ovos ao mesmo tempo é aconselhável comprar uma pequena incubadora. Também é possível fabricar um tal aparelho, utilizando materiais relativamente simples. Consulte, a este propósito, o Agrodok 34: A incubação de ovos por galinhas e na incubadora\", que descreve como construir uma incubadora com capacidade para incubar 50 ovos ao mesmo tempo.Os requisitos mais importantes da incubação artificial são: ? Deverá poder regular-se a temperatura que é necessária, que deverá ser de, aproximadamente, 38°C (100 F). Apenas se necessita de uma fonte de calor simples. A temperatura deve ser mantida o mais constante possível. ? A humidade relativa do ar deve ser bastante elevada, cerca de 55-60%. No fim do período de incubação, isto é, depois do 18º dia, deverá ser aumentada até 75%. Para tal deverão colocar-se tinas de água na incubadora, as quais devem ser enchidas regularmente. ? O ar fresco deve circular livremente na incubadora. ? Os ovos devem ser virados diversas vezes (preferivelmente 2 ou 3 vezes ao dia). Para virar o ovo dever-se-á rodá-lo 180° segundo o seu eixo mais longo.Caso os esforços e cuidados prestados forem os adequados podem-se atingir quase os mesmo resultados com incubação artificial ou incubação natural. Mesmo assim normalmente é melhor contar-se com uma taxa de sucesso ligeiramente inferior, p.ex. 65-70% em vez de 75-80%. Deve-se programar o período de incubação de modo a que os pintainhos ecludam na estação seca.Os pintainhos nascem após 21 dias de incubação. Se os ovos foram chocados por uma galinha, esta ocupar-se-á de imediato dos pintainhos. Deve manter-se a galinha e os seus pintos numa caixa separada durante as primeiras semanas. A primeira coisa que os pintainhos necessitam é de água fresca, portanto, esta nunca deve faltar. Apenas no decorrer do segundo dia necessitarão de comida. Caso não seja possível obter rações já preparadas, tente fazer você mesmo uma ração o mais equilibrada possível, misturando os seguintes ingredientes: milho ou mexoeira (painço) partidos aos quais se adicionam uma fonte de proteínas (por exemplo, ovos cozidos, durante os primeiros dias), restos de comida, miúdos da galinha e outros resíduos provenientes do abate e verduras como sejam folhas, capim, etc. As vitaminas necessárias provêm, principalmente, das forragens verdes.Se os ovos foram incubados artificialmente, deverá, você mesmo, tomar conta deles desde que eclodiram. Coloque os pintainhos num local extremamente limpo e assegure-se que a temperatura é correcta durante as primeiras semanas. Após quarto semanas normalmente não é necessário fornecer aquecimento adicional, excepto, talvez, durante a noite. O quadro 9 mostra as temperaturas necessárias durante as primeiras semanas. Pode-se usar um candeeiro a óleo ou a petróleo ou uma lâmpada de iluminação para aquecer uma determinada área. Estas fontes de calor podem ser utilizadas de diferentes maneiras. Os pintos são postos numa caixa criadeira onde se coloca um candeeiro a petróleo protegi-do com arame, para que os pintos não recebam demasiado calor. A parte de cima da caixa também é coberta com arame para proteger os pintos contra ratazanas, cães e gatos. A melhor maneira de se ver se a temperatura na caixa é a adequada para os pintos é observar o seu comportamento. Caso esteja demasiado frio, os pintainhos ficam amontoados e se for muito quente ficarão o mais afastado possível da fonte de calor. Se a temperatura for a adequada, usarão todo o espaço disponível.As caixas para a criação de pintos podem ter um fundo de rede capoeira. Nas primeiras semanas o arame deve ser tapado com papel de jornal ou com outro material e deverá ser trocado todos os dias. Quando os pintos já puderem caminhar em cima do arame, deixa de ser necessário cobri-lo. Desta maneira minimizam-se os riscos de infecções parasitárias, na medida em que os pintos não pisam as suas fezes.Assegure-se de que os pintainhos recebem luz suficiente durante os primeiros dias, de modo a que possam encontrar a comida e a água. Depois de estarem acostumados ao lugar, deixa de ter importância a intensidade da luz. De facto demasiada luminosidade pode ser nefasta pois pode estimular os pintainhos a bicarem se uns aos outros.Quando têm entre quarto a cinco meses, e dependendo do seu potencial genético e do meio em que habitam, as primeiras galinhas começarão a pôr ovos. Actualmente as aves híbridas atingem a idade da postura cada vez mais cedo: com 20 semanas ou até antes. Tal como já mencionámos no capítulo 4, pode-se estimular as galinhas para apressar a idade de postura, aumentando artificialmente a duração dos dias durante o seu período de crescimento. Contudo, não é bom estimular as galinhas a porem ovos demasiado cedo, e por isso deve-se evitar fornecer iluminação adicional durante este período. Caso seja necessário fazer com que as galinhas comam mais, forneça-lhe luz de tal maneira que à medida que as galinhas fiquem mais velhas o período de dia tenha a mesma duração. Caso não disponha de iluminação artificial, é melhor criar as galinhas durante o período do ano em que os dias são mais curtos. Isso fará com que as galinhas comecem a pôr quando os dias se tornam maiores, o que estimula a produção de ovos.As galinhas locais normalmente não são animais de raça pura (bem definida), mas sim o produto de anos de cruzamentos. Devido a um longo processo de adaptação, são mais resistentes a temperaturas altas e, provavelmente, também se encontram mais adaptadas a circunstâncias mais difíceis. No entanto, as galinhas nas regiões tropicais têm um peso de corpo baixo e por isso põem ovos mais pequenos. E a sua produção também é pequena: cerca de 50 ovos por dia. É por isso que muitas das pequenas explorações avícolas usam a maioria dos ovos para manter a população de galináceos.A produção de galinhas de raças locais pode ser melhorada de duas maneiras:? substituindo os galos de raça local por galos de raças mais produtivas ? seleccionando, muitas vezes por meio de abate, as aves improdutivas. Tais medidas devem ser tomadas a par de outras medidas visando o melhoramento das condições da criação.Os programas de troca de galos têm sido realizados com sucesso em vários países. Em tais programas todos os galos de raças locais são trocados por outros. Estas substituições podem ser com galos de uma raça estrangeira, como seja a Rhode Island Vermelha ou galos híbridos. Em alguns lugares em que se realiza um programa de cruzamentos, podem encontrar-se galos de raça pura. Normalmente um tal programa tenta disseminar os pintainhos híbridos para as pequenas explorações que se dedicam à criação de galinhas. Dependendo da gestão da exploração avícola, a primeira geração de galinhas, imediatamente depois de se fazer a troca dos galos, produzirá mais. Deve-se repetir um tal programa de troca de galos de tempos a tempos, p. ex. cada cinco anos. Durante este período também é aconselhável trocar os seus galos pelos dum vizinho ou outra pessoa para se evitar um cruzamento consanguíneo.A selecção é usada para eliminar de imediato as galinhas improdutivas e doentes da população de galináceos durante o período de produção. Desta maneira aumenta-se a eficiência da produção porque não se desperdiça alimentação em galinhas não saudáveis ou improdutivas. A selecção poderá ser realizada logo durante o período de crescimento. Várias semanas antes das galinhas começarem a pôr, poderá fazer-se uma primeira selecção, removendo as galinhas que são muito leves, de crista pálida ou raquíticas. Pode desfazer-se, de imediato, destas aves, mas muitas das vezes é melhor separar estas aves que não crescem muito rápido e pô-las num lugar separado, dando-lhes a oportunidade de recuperarem o seu crescimento. Então poderá continuar com o processo de selecção durante o período de produção. A diferença entre boas poedeiras e más poedeiras pode ser estabelecida à luz das características que a seguir mencionamos (quadro 10). Os resíduos provenientes do abate das aves produzidas na exploração avícola constitui um suplemento de rações caso seja moído e secado. Deve-se esterilizar os resíduos pois de outro modo há o grande risco de transmitirem doenças. Também é muito importante que se removam, o mais rapidamente possível, as carcaças de aves que morrem durante o período de produção, que devem ser enterradas ou queimadas.Se a exploração avícola prospera é aconselhável gastar algum tempo a melhorar a administração. Isto quer dizer que se devem registar os dados de produção mais importantes. Deste modo poderá identificar os pontos mais fracos da empresa e poderá lidar melhor com os problemas surgidos. Para que tal se realize, é necessário conhecer os dados mais importantes de uma criação de galinhas poedeiras.Para que uma administração seja fiável deve ser actualizada diariamente. Para tal é necessário tempo e dinheiro mas é a única maneira de fazer com que o seu negócio seja dirigido de forma eficiente.Os dados mais importantes que devem ser registados são: ? percentagem de postura e duração do período de postura ? peso dos ovos ? consumo de rações ? perda de galinhas.Percentagem da postura e duração do período de postura Nos países em que a indústria avícola está muito desenvolvida, as galinhas começam a pôr quando têm mais ou menos 20 semanas. A produção média de todo o bando de galinhas aumenta então rapidamente até atingir um pico depois de mais 8 semanas. Nessa altura a maior parte das galinhas põe quase um ovo por dia. Assim, o número diário de ovos postos é praticamente o mesmo do número das galinhas. A razão/proporção entre o número de galinhas e os ovos recolhidos por dia é a chamada \"percentagem de postura\". Quando se atinge o pico de produção, p. ex., quando as galinhas têm 28 semanas, a percentagem de postura pode atingir os 90%.As aves de capoeira produtivas caracterizam-se por um aumento rápido da produção, que atinge o seu pico, que é elevado e se mantém regular durante algum tempo, começando lentamente a decrescer. Isto significa que se assiste a uma média elevada de percentagem de postura durante todo esse período. O período de postura numa exploração avícola próspera dura entre 12 e 14 meses, dependendo do nível de produção, do preço dos ovos e do número de galinhas não produtivas no final do período de postura. Depois deste período as galinhas são vendidas ou abatidas. Estes dados devem ser registados numa chamada curva de produção. Em vez de desfazer-se das galinhas no fim do período de postura, pode dar-se-lhes um período de repouso, que lhes permita mudar as penas. Depois disso elas podem entrar num segundo período de postura, e mesmo até num terceiro. Nas regiões tropicais sabe-se que as galinhas começam naturalmente a muda depois de um ano de postura, especialmente na estação em que os dias são mais curtos. A muda pode ser estimulada utilizando iluminação artificial suplementar. Também é possível induzir de modo artificial as galinhas a entrarem artificialmente na muda. Para isso limite o primeiro período de postura a, apenas, 8-10 meses. Depois disso force-as a mudarem de penas dandolhes menos ração e de menor qualidade. Depois da muda, a produção aumentará de novo e a qualidade das cascas dos ovos também será melhor. Provocar a muda pode ser útil se: ? o preço de compra das galinhas for alto ? o preço dos ovos for baixo nessa altura ? o preço recebido pelas galinhas velhas também for baixo ? se uma melhor qualidade das cascas dos ovos fizer subir o preço dos ovos.Nas regiões tropicais, de um modo geral, o preço das galinhas velhas que já não põem ovos é elevado. Visto que é difícil e arriscado conseguir que todas as galinhas entrem simultaneamente na muda, provavelmente será preferível não ficar com as galinhas poedeiras apenas durante um período de postura.Em muitos países os ovos são vendidos consoante o seu peso, por isso este aspecto também se reveste de importância. Os primeiros ovos, no início do período de postura, são pequenos. O peso dos ovos aumenta até ao final do período de postura. O peso dos ovos depende, parcialmente, da raça da ave. Também pode ser influenciado pela alimentação e pelo ambiente, em especial a temperatura. Os ovos devem ser pesados de tempos a tempos, para controlo.O custo das rações constitui, de um modo geral, a despesa mais elevada de uma exploração avícola. Deste modo, é importante ter uma ideia sobre a quantidade de comida que é consumida, especialmente a quantidade necessária por ovo ou por kg de ovos ou de carne. Este cálculo é chamado \"conversão alimentar\".Numa empresa avícola que utiliza preparados de rações para galinhas comprados, o consumos das rações por galinha, por dia é de 100 a 120 g. Isto depende do tipo de galinha (média ou leve), a qualidade das rações e a temperatura do ar. Se a comida que se dá às galinhas é caseira, o consumo pode ser mais elevado, especialmente no caso da ração conter um alto teor de fibras brutas, como por exemplo, farelo (sêmeas).Durante o período de postura há sempre alguns animais que morrem. Uma exploração avícola próspera tem perdas de cerca de 6-8% ao ano, o que corresponde a uma perda mensal da ordem dos 0,5%. Se a percentagem for mais elevada, é importante investigar rapidamente a possível causa dessa situação.Existem muitas maneiras de manter em dia a sua administração. É importante calcular o preço de custo dos ovos produzidos para evitar vendê-los por um preço inferior aos custos da sua produção. Faça uma distinção entre as despesas gerais (fixas) e as despesas incidentais (unitárias). Apresentamos, em seguida, um exemplo de como organizar a administração.Também é possível fazer os cálculos sem incluir os custos de mão-deobra. Nesse caso se subtrair o total dos custos líquidos (à excepção dos custos de mão de obra) das receitas proporcionadas pelos ovos, terá que calcular a quantia que ganhou com o seu trabalho (receita proveniente do trabalho).Apêndice 1: Doenças infecciosas No cas de todas as doenças infecciosas para além da vacinação é necessário proteger as suas aves da infecção tomando medidas de higiene e de biosegurança (ver também o capítulo 7).As dietas são constituídas por vários ingredientes. Por exemplo, caso se possa obter milho moído, pode-se escolher as dietas 2 ou 3. Na dieta 4, é dada forragem verde (Barseem trif. Alexandrium) entre as farinhas.Quadro 16: Alguns exemplos de fórmulas de rações para pintos Este cereal tem grãos muito pequenos e assemelha-se ao milho quanto à sua composição e valor nutricional mas os valores proteicos são consideravelmente mais elevados. Tem um valor alimentar similar ao da cevada e, tal como esse cereal, promove a produção de gordura branca devido ao seu baixo teor de pigmentos. Este cereal é muito susceptível à infecção pelo fungo esporão do centeio (Claviceps purpurea) na estação seca, que pode produzir toxinas que são perigosas tanto para os seres humanos, como para as aves de capoeira.Este grão tem a vantagem que não se esmiuça caso a cultura não seja colhida, depois das chuvas. Tem um teor mais baixo de proteínas mas um teor ligeiramente mais alto de fibra do que a mexoeira. Pode ser utilizado nas dietas alimentares tanto do frango em crescimento como da galinha poedeira.O trigo é principalmente usado para consumo dos seres humanos, particularmente para dele se fazer pão. Tem um teor de energia ligeiramente mais baixo que o do milho. O trigo duro tem um teor médio de proteína entre os 13 e os 15% enquanto que o trigo macio tem um teor médio mais baixo (cerca de 10%).O nível de proteínas da cevada é de 10% e o seu teor de fibra é de 5%, o que a faz menos adequada para ser incluída nas dietas para galinhas poedeiras e frangos de carne altamente produtivos, especialmente nos climas quentes. Pode ser útil na dieta dos frangos de carne caso se pretenda reduzir a ingestão de alimentos.Arroz (Oryza sativa) O arroz debulhado tem uma casca fibrosa grossa que contém até 20% de sílica, e sob esta forma não tem bom sabor para as galinhas. A casca/película exterior pode ser facilmente removida, ficando assim o produto com um gosto muito mais agradável, o arroz integral. Este alimento, é rico em amido e pobre em óleo e é muito precioso para a alimentação dos galináceos. As cascas de arroz são muitas vezes utilizadas para as camas dos galinheiros.Farelo (sêmeas) de arroz É um subproduto da moagem do arroz. Contém um teor elevado de fibra e de óleo. O óleo pode causar problemas de ranço nas rações durante a sua armazenagem. Provavelmente não deve(ria) ser acrescentado à dieta das aves de capoeira a níveis superiores a 20% da totalidade da ração.Consiste na película exterior do grão de milho. Contém 15% de fibra e tem um teor baixo em energia metabolizável. Não constitui um ingrediente apropriado para ser incluído na dieta de frangos de carne ou de galinhas poedeiras muito produtivas.Borra de cerveja Normalmente é um subproduto da cevada, mas os que provêm da mapira têm uma composição muito similar. O teor de proteínas situa-se ao redor de 20% e o teor de fibra em 14%. Este teor elevado de fibra significa que o seu valor para as aves de capoeira é muito limitado.Levedura seca de cerveja É produzida pela secagem de resíduos de levedura das fábricas de cerveja. Não contém praticamente nenhuma fibra ou óleo e é uma boa fonte de fósforo. Também contém 40-45% de proteína de um elevado valor biológico. É muito rica em vitaminas.Não se recomenda usar mandioca fresca para alimentar as aves de capoeira devido ao seu baixo teor de material seco e à presença de glicosídeos cianogenéticos. Os tubérculos intactos de mandioca contém pouco cianido livre mas qualquer corte ou pisadura desprende cianido livre. Caso se corte os tubérculos em fatias finas e se as puser ao sol para secar até que o seu teor de humidade seja inferior a 14%, o teor de cianido reduz-se (de 65%) para um nível aceitável. A mandioca seca pode ser moída e dada como alimento às galinhas.O problema principal é que tem um baixo teor de proteínas e as proporções de aminoácidos não se adequam à alimentação dos galináceos. Na África ocidental alguns tipos de mandioca não contêm quaisquer proteínas. Esta falta de proteínas pode causar problemas nutricionais graves nas aves se não se acrescentar à dieta ingredientes suficientes com alto teor de proteína.São o resíduo que fica quando o açúcar em bruto foi extraído do sumo clarificado da cana de açúcar. Contém açúcares e 10-12% de matéria mineral solúvel. Não se apropria muito para alimentar as aves de capoeira pois pode provocar diarreia e excrementos molhados e também se pega às penas das galinhas. Contudo, se se juntar uma pequena porção na ração (2-5%) faz com que esta tenha melhor sabor e reduz a poeira.Semente de girassol A semente de girassol contém cerca de 25 % de óleo, de maneira que o seu uso como alimentação para aves de capoeira é limitado. O teor de óleo é responsável pelo seu valor de energia metabolizável ser excepcionalmente elevado.Farinha de óleo de girassol Depois de se obter o óleo das sementes (por prensagem ou por extracção que resultará, respectivamente, em bagaço de óleo ou em farinha de óleo), o que resta é um alimento com um teor elevado e proteína. A quantidade de fibra bruta depende se as sementes de girassol são descascadas. Se elas não estão descascadas, o teor de fibra limita o seu uso para as galinhas aproximadamente até um máximo de 10 % .Outras sementes de oleaginosas, tal como a semente do algodão, podem ser usadas como boas fontes de proteínas para as aves de capoeira, mas as sementes de algodão contêm uma substância química chamada \"gossipol\" que dará uma cor azulada à gema dos ovos. Por esta razão não se deve incluir nas rações mais de 5 % .Farinha de sementes de linhaça (sementes de flax) A proteína que se encontra na farinha de semente de linhaça (flax) não suplementa eficazmente a proteína que se encontra no milho ou em outros grãos, não sendo, desse modo, adequada como componente principal das rações de aves de capoeira. A semente de linhaça tem um teor razoável de cálcio, com uma média de 0,37 % e é rica em fósforo (em média 0,86 %.)De um modo geral, as proteínas animais são mais digeríveis e têm uma melhor composição de aminoácidos do que a proteína vegetal, à excepção da farinha de penas de galinha.Farinha de penas de galinha Os avicultores de frangos de carne/corte em grande escala podem usar as penas para fazerem farinha de penas. Tal obtém-se cozendo as penas ao vapor e depois moendo-as. A farinha das penas constitui uma fonte rica de proteínas, com alto teor de leucina e cisteína, mas deficiente em lisina, triptofano e metionina. No entanto, se não for convenientemente preparada, a farinha de penas pode ser um portador da bactéria Salmonella.Outras proteínas de origem animal Uma outra proteína animal que pode ser dada como ração às aves de capoeira é a farinha de sangue. Tanto este como outros produtos de proteína animal têm que ser cuidadosamente esterilizados (fervidos) antes de serem misturados na ração para se evitar a difusão de doenças.O PTC + é um instituto de formação internacional que se debruça sobre todos os aspectos da cadeia de produção de produtos de origem vegetal e animal, as tecnologias agrícolas e alimentares e protecção e desenvolvimento da natureza. Os programas de formação são orientados para a prática e combinam aulas teóricas com aulas práticas. O PTC + oferece programas de acesso livre, programas \"sob medida\" e consultoria. Os programas são oferecidos na Holanda e/ou localmente. A política do PTC + consiste em procurar parcerias e programas de cooperação com instituições nacionais e internacionais no estrangeiro. ","tokenCount":"15907"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8d4aadd17ba69bc1657b3ffb4194cbd6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0c06a338-9702-4743-b16f-2304eb013819/retrieve","id":"-161466692"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e09efe9b-6272-4180-adc7-6e0e391065e1","pagecount":"2","content":"Name of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: CIAT (Alliance) -Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT -Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)• SAG -Secretaría de Agricultura y Ganadería (Honduras)• National/state level decision-makers are being supported in developing CSA investment portfolios for international climate finance providers that meet funding requirements and are informed by CCAFS science; decision-makers being made aware of 'good enough' enabling policy elements required and barriers to be reduced to support CSA at scale (linked to CoA 1.3 activities)• Training materials are developed and workshops held to strengthen national/state capacities for scenario-based strategic planning, as well as targeted materials for other partner organisations (e.g. NGOs) developed (linked to CoA 1.2)• 35 -Enabled environment for climate resilience • 29 -Enhanced adaptive capacity to climate risks (More sustainably managed agro-ecosystems)1 This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:49 (GMT+0)","tokenCount":"141"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"46bb328a7d713e0b805c40bb48c52fa7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8c10d553-718b-4e17-8f86-16c7ce01c8ee/retrieve","id":"554477774"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"722799e7-64a1-4afc-a3b5-e6a6d4ee6adc","pagecount":"8","content":"Assessment of genetic diversity within and between indigenous domesticated animal populations has of late become the subject of intense research. Information on the inherent genetic diversity is important in the design of breeding improvement programmes, making rational decisions on sustainable utilization and conservation of Animal Genetic Resources. The loss of genetic diversity is irreplaceable and thus there is need to conserve it. This is evident especially for indigenous breeds in developing countries, which are being replaced at a faster rate, by exotic high producing breeds in spite of their excellent adaptation to prevailing stressful environmental conditions. This poses the danger of losing valuable genes for adaptation to extreme environments and diseases, which may be of value in the near future.Several techniques for assessing genetic diversity exist (1). With the discovery of DNA based markers, traditional techniques such as protein polymorphism have been ignored on the argument that they are less informative. This study was designed to assess the efficiency of blood protein polymorphism as a rapid tool for assessing genetic diversity using the case study of indigenous sheep populations in Kenya that have not been characterized.The study was carried out using two types of indigenous sheep populations in Kenya: fat-tailed (from Kwale, Makueni, Siaya, Kakamega and Kajiado Districts) and fat-rumped hair sheep (from Isiolo District). The Merino sheep was included in the study as the reference breed. A total of 497 (fat-tailed = 351, fat-rumped = 106 and Merino = 40) genetically unrelated animals were sampled from village flocks. Peripheral blood was collected from each animal into 10 ml EDTA vacutainer tubes and processed within a period of 24 hours after collection by centrifuging at 2 3000 rpm for 20 minutes. The plasma and red blood cells were each pipetted into separate clearly labeled two (2) ml vials and stored at -20 o C until electrophoresis.Seven-blood protein coding Loci (Transferrin (Tf), Albumin (Al), Esterase A (EsA), Esterase C (EsC), Haemoglobin (Hb), Carbonic anhydrase (Ca) and X-Protein (X)) were analysed, using polyacrylamide gel for Tf and starch gel electrophoresis for the other loci. Known standards were included on each gel to ensure consistency of genotype scoring. A detailed description of the analytical technique is published elsewhere (2). Exact significance probabilities (3) were used to determine allele frequency deviations from the expected Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.Allele diversity and expected heterozygosity were computed as measures of genetic variability while Wright (4) F-Statistic was used to analyze genetic differentiation. The minimum (Dm) and arc (Dc) genetic distances of Nei ( 5) and Cavalli -Sforza and Edwards (6) were computed as measures of genetic relationships and were used for phylogenetic analysis. All computations were done using the BIOSYS -1 computer program (7).Five loci (Tf, Al, Hb, EsA & EsC) out of seven gave interpretable results. The resolution of Ca and X could not be resolved. This may be attributed to the long period between sample collection and analysis (2 years), which may have affected the quality of the samples. Braend and Khanna (8) observed weaker Tf zones for samples kept at room temperature for several days than for corresponding zones in fresh or freshly frozen samples. Additionally, most proteins even the most stable such as Lactate dehydrogenase begin to degrade in activity and resolvability after prolonged storage under even the lowest temperatures (9). These observations demonstrate one clear disadvantage of protein markers; stringent requirement for fresh tissue samples and storage conditions. This may be major drawback when sampling populations in remote places.The five interpretable markers showed low levels of polymorphism in allele numbers and heterozygosity (Table 1) as compared to those observed using microsatellites (10)  (11).However, blood protein polymorphisms have been used extensively to evaluate genetic diversity in sheep (12)  (13), goats (14) and cattle (15). Protein electrophoresis does not distinguish all the genetic variability at a given structural gene locus (9) due to the low levels of variation in the coding sequences relative to the other regions of the genome (10). Routine electrophoresis detects only the amino acid substitutions that result in differences in the net charge of proteins (16). This represents only a third of all the amino acid substitutions, as only approximately 30% of all amino acid substitutions on the exterior of the molecule results in a charge shift (9).Additionally, only the variability in the coding portions of the genome (which constitutes about 10% of the total eukaryotic genome) can be sampled using protein electrophoresis.The significant multilocus F ST value indicated that 8.3% of the total genetic variation was explained by population differences indicating a relatively low degree of gene flow between the populations analysed (Table 1). The F ST value observed compares favorably to those observed in sheep (11) and cattle (15) studied using microsatellite markers.The genetic distance estimates showed the indigenous sheep populations to be closely genetically related (Table 2). However, the topology of the dendrogram showed a poor consistency with the morphological classification based on the localization of fat deposits (Fig 1). Blood proteins have been used successfully to differentiate between the indigenous African Bos taurus (Muturu and Ndama) breeds and Zebu breeds (8) and between other sheep populations (17) (18). A comparison of the average genetic distances obtained between the indigenous sheep populations in Kenya with those obtained from previous studies of recognized local breeds of sheep (13) (18) (19) reveal that the genetic differentiation of indigenous sheep populations in Kenya is of the same order of magnitude as that among well recognized and established breeds of sheep. However, higher estimates of genetic distances have been obtained in other breeds of sheep using microsatellite markers (11). To improve the accuracy of using protein polymorphism in population genetic studies, a minimum of 30 individuals in each population should be surveyed for approximately 30 loci (20). This is because the number of loci used in this type of study can represent less than one thousandth of the structural genes of an individuals genome (21).The value of protein polymorphism lies on its emphasis on DNA sequences that are expressed phenotypically and when the protein coding loci are sufficiently variable to distinguish the population genetic structure. It offers a rapid, cheap, easy, expedient, reliable and legally 4 compelling means of investigating simultaneously, genetic variation of several functional genes in the same individual. Its equipment demands are modest and personnel can be trained quickly, although the interpretation of gel patterns requires considerable experience. The loci under study are unambiguously named and the functions of their products are known. Their use in population genetics is strengthened by the fact that they are inherited as Mendelian dominant characters and attempts have been made to associate them with quantitative traits (22)  (23) and as aids to selection (24). DNA markers give larger genetic distances and higher heterozygosity values and thus are of value when analyzing closely related breeds or species. However, for populations whose genetic status is unknown, protein polymorphism may be used first to verify the degree of genetic relationship and to prioritize breeds to be analysed using microsatellites.  Cophenetic correlation coefficient = 0.948 Figure 1. UPGMA tree constructed using Da genetic distance matrix","tokenCount":"1177"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73815f051c33bbcc34106056f9062854","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f8df9edd-639d-49f4-ba3f-f9a8692b5635/retrieve","id":"916517350"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b49c6612-c029-44d3-8237-c873d7e8e4db","pagecount":"5","content":"Bactericera cockerelli es el vector de la bacteria que causa la papa manchada (\"zebra chip\", Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum), al cual ha cobrado una elevada importancia económica en diversos países, afectando papa, tomate y otros cultivos hortícolas. B. cockerelli también puede ser vector de fitoplasmas que causan la punta morada de la papa. B. cockerelli es considerada una plaga cuarentenaria.• Frutos de solanáceas hospedantes [tomate, ají, berenjena, tamarillo (tomate de árbol), uchuva (aguaymanto o uvilla)], especialmente cuando están asociados con partes vegetales verdes.• Material vegetativo para plantar. No se incluye semilla sexual. Ningún estadio del ciclo de vida del insecto está asociado a los tubérculos de papa o al suelo.Los adultos de B. cockerelli pueden volar y también ser dispersados por el viento a distancias largas, especialmente cuando se presentan vientos y temperaturas altas. La tasa de reproducción del psílido aumenta con la temperatura, por lo que el cambio climático está causando un incremento en las poblaciones del insecto y una mayor capacidad de adaptación a nuevas zonas. Los huevos y las ninfas están presentes en diferentes partes de la planta y se pueden dispersar fácilmente, sin ser notados, con el material vegetal.La identificación de B. cockerelli se hace a través de observaciones de la fase adulta, en particular de las terminalia masculina y femenina, así como las ninfas, utilizando el protocolo preparado por SPHDS (2017). En este protocolo se describe la preparación de montajes para identificación de adultos, la descripción de cada estadio ninfal y se presentan claves taxonómicas que ayudan en la identificación del psílido. Los huevos son diminutos: menores a 0,5 mm de longitud y de 0,15 mm de ancho. Son de forma ovoide y de color amarillo claro al inicio, y se tornan amarillo oscuro o naranja con el trascurrir de los días. Usualmente, los huevos son depositados individualmente en el envés y/o borde de las hojas y los tallos. Están adheridos a las hojas y/o tallos por un corto pedicelo de aproximadamente 0,5 mm de longitud (Foto 1). Los huevos eclosionan entre 3 a 7 días después de la oviposición.La longitud del cuerpo de las ninfas es de 0,4 mm y el ancho es menor a 1,6 mm variando según los diferentes estadios. Las ninfas son elípticas cuando se ven desde arriba, pero tienen un perfil plano, similar a queresas aplanadas (Foto 2). Inicialmente las ninfas son de color naranja, pero llegan a tener un color verde amarillento y luego, cuando maduran, son de color verde. Las ninfas maduras tienen el cuerpo cubierto de filamentos cerosos y presentan primordios alares visibles. El desarrollo del estadio ninfal dura hasta 24 días y depende de la temperatura y del hospedante que afecta. Los adultos se parecen a pequeñas chicharras aladas y son del tamaño de un pulgón, midiendo menos de 3 mm de longitud (Foto 3). Los adultos jóvenes, recién emergidos, son de color verde amarillento, posteriormente se tornan de color oscuro con bandas características en la cabeza, tórax y abdomen (Foto 4). En el primer segmento abdominal hay una banda blanca horizontal, otra transversal a lo largo del abdomen y una V invertida en el último segmento abdominal.Las alas son transparentes y cuando están en reposo se mantienen sobre el cuerpo, a manera de techo a dos aguas. Los adultos y ninfas son activas y se mueven. La longevidad de los adultos varía de 20 a 60 días.B. cockerelli ocasiona amarillamiento y reducción del crecimiento de la parte apical de las plantas; amarillamiento o enrojecimiento de los márgenes de las hojas (Foto 5); enrollamiento hacia arriba de las hojas (Foto 6); y marchitez severa de las plantas cuando hay alta infestación del insecto. Estos síntomas son similares a los causados por Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum y fitoplasmas.Si ve estos sintomas en campo, notifique a los encargados de los programas de sanidad vegetal de su pais.El CIP agradece a los donantes y organizaciones que apoyan globalmente su trabajo a través de sus contribuciones al Fondo Fiduciario del CGIAR. www.cgiar.org/fundersRecientemente se ha reportado en Ecuador la presencia de dos plagas cuarentenarias: Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (bacteria causante de la papa manchada o \"zebra chip\") y Bactericera cockerelli (psílido de la papa), además de varios fitoplasmas (16SrI, 16SrII, 16SrVI, 16SrXII, 16SrXVIII, causantes de la punta morada de la papa y síntomas relacionados). La propagacion de estas plagas a los paises vecinos, como ha sucedido con el psílido de la papa en Colombia en abril del 2021, puede generar impactos económicos significativos en los diversos agentes de la cadena productiva de solanáceas (papa, tomate, etc.), como ha ocurrido en Norte y Centro América y Nueva Zelanda. Dada la situación de riesgo para los cultivadores de papa, el Comité Técnico Regional para la Prevención y Control de Plagas Emergentes en Papa −conformado por varias instituciones nacionales e internacionales de Latinoamérica− ha preparado una serie de materiales de capacitación que servirán en las actividades de vigilancia preventiva, así como para el monitoreo del insecto y de la enfermedad donde sean reportados.La serie consta de tres cartillas, cada una con un propósito:Describir información general y las principales características morfológicas que permitan la detección del psílido de la papa.Describir los principales síntomas de la enfermedad conocida como papa manchada (\"zebra chip\") que permitan la toma de muestras para su posterior diagnóstico en laboratorio y realizar acciones de contención.Describir los principales síntomas de la enfermedad conocida como punta morada de la papa que permitan su identificación y vigilancia preventiva. ","tokenCount":"901"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1d226813b7e4db36a60683e4693d8211","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88548fdf-6157-4a4a-829f-2e914d1898ed/retrieve","id":"-1807393574"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b6b11916-dc3c-456b-9c3c-5a4edc1651db","pagecount":"12","content":"From 2014 until the end of 2016, WLE implemented an innovative set of projects in response to a call for more demand-driven and locally led initiatives in support of agricultural intensification at a regional scale. Researchers partnered with local actors to co-design projects that used an ecosystem-based approach to influence investment and decision making in support of more equitable management of natural resources. In total, 33 projects were implemented in 18 countries with 175 partner organizations in four regions:Rockström, J.; Williams, J.; Daily, G.; Noble, A.; Matthews, N.; Gordon, L.; Wetterstrand, H.; DeClerck, F.; Shah, M.; Steduto, P.; de Fraiture, C.; Hatibu, N.; Unver, O.; Bird, J.; Sibanda, L.; Smith, J. 2017. Sustainable intensification of agriculture for human prosperity and global sustainability. Ambio 46(1): 4-17.Raising global food production is essential to eradicate hunger and achieve food and nutrition security. But agriculture has become the world's single largest driver of environmental degradation, and it is pushing Earth beyond its natural boundaries. Sustainably feeding future generations requires a fundamental shift in global agriculture.Since its inception in 2012, the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) has developed scientific evidence and solutions for sustainably intensifying agriculture. For WLE, sustainable intensification means more than minimizing agriculture's environmental footprint; it means making sure that agriculture adds value to the environment, while it supplies global populations with sufficient food, nutrition and income.More than 500 million smallholders worldwide stand to benefit from sustainable intensification of agriculture. Historic commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement further highlights the need for investing in sustainable and resilient agriculture.But achieving sustainable, healthy food systems requires identifying incentives for sustainable farming. Likewise, it hinges on social and institutional innovations to mitigate trade-offs and achieve synergies, and enable equitable access to knowledge and resources. Not least, integrated solutions that work across sectors, disciplines and scales will be essential to realizing such a fundamental shift. Such innovations are what WLE has worked to develop. The Program's findings are summarized in this series of briefs, titled Towards sustainable intensification: Insights and solutions.Large river basins are dynamic and complex systems. Investments and other interventions in the upper reaches of such basins naturally impact livelihoods and ecosystem services downstream.First, investments in infrastructure are often made with too little attention to their potential impacts locally or elsewhere. For example, dams and mines in the upper portions or headwaters of river basins have profound consequences, both for downstream ecosystems and people, and for those displaced locally. A hydroelectric dam may provide low-cost energy to distant cities, while people in the vicinity of the dam have no access to electricity. The reservoir may also flood cultivated fields or forests and wetlands providing important ecological services, leaving local people with diminished livelihood opportunities. Even if they have received some cash reimbursement, there are often no opportunities to use it to establish a new business.Second, inter-sectoral interactions introduce additional complexity. Energy policies affect water resource availability and food supply -hence the renewed attention to the 'water-energy-food nexus'.A third level of complexity concerns trade, and more generally, agricultural input and output pricing policies, which may provide disincentives to farm sustainably, but can also be designed to promote positive change. Failure to examine potential interventions systematically in a nexus perspective, the lack of attention to the potential use of trade policies to encourage sustainable use of ecosystem services, and the all too common practice of paying only lip service to local people's concerns often lead to drastically reduced benefits and even avoidable harm.Based on a highly competitive process, WLE in 2013 selected and funded several innovative research projects led by a diverse set of institutions. Some of these projects are located in the upper watersheds of the Ganges, Mekong, Red, and Nile river basins. They have examined the impacts of upper watershed interventions and explored the potential to improve ecosystem services and livelihoods, both locally and downstream. The projects in the Ganges and Nile basins were completed by the end of 2016; those in Southeast Asia are continuing, but have already produced interesting results.In large river basins, policy decisions are often made within single sectors, based on a specific agency's mandate and objectives. Integrating river management, agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, land use change and livelihood issues into crosssectoral negotiations when designing development interventions is rare. Although single-sector objectives might be achieved, adverse and unforeseen social, ecological and economic consequences can emerge for other sectors. Failure to treat individual sectors as part of a coupled social and ecological system compromises the overall system performance.WLE projects in the Ganges, Mekong and Red rivers have documented the damage done by interventions that do not pay adequate attention to local people and the ecosystem services on which they depend. However, the same studies have also demonstrated that effective involvement of local and external stakeholders, and building on local knowledge and experience, can result in win-win outcomes. Using such approaches can enhance rather than undermine local livelihoods and potentially achieve some degree of gender equity.As is true for other large rivers, the headwaters of the Ganges River offer tremendous potential for hydroelectric projects. Run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects (Fig. 1) are seen by many policy makers as less environmentally, socially and economically damaging than large reservoir-based hydroelectric projects. However, a detailed study of the impacts of three run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects in the Indian state of Uttarkhand on the Bhilangana tributary to the Ganges River demonstrated that these schemes also have significant, even devastating, local social and environmental impacts. But the study also identified strategies to use hydropower projects to safeguard, and possibly enhance, the livelihoods of women, youth and men and maintain critical ecosystem services (Buechler et al. 2016).The project team, spearheaded by the People's Science Institute, facilitated a series of sciencepolicy dialogues with decision makers, hydropower developers, community representatives, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and allied researchers. In these fora, it was recognized that there are important benefits to run-of-the-river projects; however, there are also trade-offs: multiple stakeholders have divergent interests, and currently there is no effective institutional mechanism to support negotiations aimed at balancing these interests. Powerful urban interests prevail and reap most of the benefits. Local water-dependent livelihoods differentiated by gender include farming, fishing, livestock rearing and fodder collection. Construction of the infrastructure and expropriation of river water means rural villagers are often the losers. This has led to widespread protests and demands for more transparent and equitable compensation and benefit sharing. Since women are the primary farmers in this area, due to high rates of male and youth outmigration to cities, concerted initiatives are needed to include their concerns and ensure their participation as leaders.The study found that there were mixed opinions regarding hydroelectric projects by various social groups in rural Uttarakhand; all, however, insisted on the importance of local control over power generation and water allocations, including decisions regarding irrigation and benefit sharing. The study concludes by advocating participatory governance and establishing clear legally enforceable guidelines and mechanisms for benefit sharing, pointing to the example of Nepal, which does mandate sharing benefits with the local communities (Box 1; Buechler et al. 2016;WLE 2017b). Local benefits include a share of the profits that can be used to fund local development needs. AHP began operations in 1991 and was recently modernized and upgraded. It is managed by the Bhutwal Power Company (BPC) under the aegis of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). Since 1995, the irrigation scheme has been operated by the local water users' association, which negotiated a formal water-sharing agreement with BPC. UMN had assisted the water users' association to allocate land and water rights equitably; the association is supported financially by both the users and BPC. Focus group discussions with local residents confirmed that the project has brought transformative benefits: farmers can now grow three major crops annually and, using a road constructed by the project, sell their produce in a nearby market town. This hydropower-water nexus case indicates how a nexus approach can result in benefits and reasonable trade-offs among water, energy and food. Well-designed multi-purpose run-of-theriver projects that focus on local benefits, like AHP, and explicitly account for farmer-managed irrigation, could be the best option for water, energy and food security. A recently completed WLE project, led by the Mekong Region Futures Institute, has demonstrated that intersectoral coordination framed by the water-energyfood nexus, combined with systems thinking, can lead to unexpected positive results. This project was being implemented in the Nam Xong catchment, a Mekong tributary in Lao PDR. The researchers gathered data from over 1,000 households on how they thought various development paths would affect their lives. They then used a simulation model to estimate the effects of various development scenarios in the Nam Xong region. The model links biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics, and considers spatial impacts, such as livelihood adaptations, deforestation, hydrological flows, water quality and human migration (Smajgl et al. 2016).The results were shared with government decision makers from various sectors and levels. Contrary to the widely held assumption that expanding mining in the upper catchments would bring prosperity, the study showed that mines would contribute little to the local economy and could even generate less local income than current land and other resources do. Downstream, flood peaks would likely increase and generate more out-migration. Two issues emerged as being key to understanding development trade-offs: migration as well as the links between livelihoods and ecosystem services. These potential results of mining expansion were acknowledged by the participants, who proposed to place greater controls on the approval and monitoring of mining ventures and to develop strategies for improving land use planning processes and their enforcement.Project data also showed that current tourism levels are having a negative effect on river health, oxygen levels specifically, due to untreated water, sewage and other waste from hotels and resorts. Given these and other findings, the participants resolved to develop actions that could regulate developments in not only mining, but also tourism and agriculture and thus protect the future of the communities in the area (Lao News Agency 2016).This WLE project is thus facilitating a participatory process to coordinate development investments framed by the water-food-energy nexus and has laid a robust foundation for decisions that address genderspecific livelihood, ecological and economic trade-offs arising from proposed water and land development investments.The Nam Xong catchment project is an example of the use of participatory methodologies to bridge science and policy, and bridge gaps between competing sectors (Smajgl and Ward 2013). Two other WLE projects demonstrate the potential for combining formal science with citizen science following a participatory approach.In the Red River Basin, another WLE project, led by Delft University of Technology, is demonstrating an approach to monitoring ecosystem services that combines the use of remote sensing, citizen science and on-the-ground observation (Figs. 2 and 3) (WLE 2017a). The project has been working for two years with decision makers, researchers and communities in the Red River Basin to increase the understanding of water resources and the threats they face, and to devise practical and sustainable ways of safeguarding ecosystem services. The partners include Vietnamese research institutions, universities, an NGO and government departments, supported by international expertise. Polluted waterways, lack of water for households and industry, flooding and saline intrusion are some of the issues addressed by the project.Working with local communities, the project has helped identify a range of scenarios for future socioeconomic development at local level, and modeled how these scenarios would affect water resources, and how to preserve water resources and the services they provide. For example, the project worked with the residents of three villages to develop scenarios to address the impacts of industrial wastes flowing through their land, saltwater intrusion, periodic flooding and lack of electricity.Researchers worked with community members to devise scenarios to improve flood protection and increase both water and electricity supply, while governing flows from upstream and downstream. The costs and associated risks of these scenarios were presented and discussed until the villagers selected a development path they agreed was feasible. Efforts to implement this course of action are currently being undertaken by the community, with government assistance.Reviving springs in the mid-hills of Nepal Springs are the main source of water for millions of people in the mid-hills of the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH). Both rural and urban communities depend on springs to meet their drinking, domestic and agricultural water needs. But springs are drying up, or their discharge is reducing, throughout the HKH, creating serious water stress. The exact extent and hydrogeology of this problem is not well understood. Springs are also part of complex sociotechnical and informal governance systems with pronounced gender and equity dimensions. These systems are also not well understood, leading to inappropriate policies and interventions. Climate change and changes in land use and vegetation are widely implicated for drying of springs, but there is little systematic knowledge to effectively link climate change, vegetation change and spring discharge.An innovative WLE project has developed and pilot-tested an eight-step participatory integrated methodology for reviving springs and for better management of springsheds (Fig. 4). The methodology combines advanced hydrology methods with community engagement -including citizen scientists, referred to as 'barefoot hydrologists' (Shrestha et al. 2016). 1  Using this methodology, specific interventions such as spring recharge are designed and implemented.  The institution leading this project, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), and its partners are expanding the use of the methodology. There are an estimated four to five million springs in the entire HKH region. An average of 10 to 100 households depend on each spring. Mapping, understanding and reviving them could have a tremendous impact on the livelihoods of the people in the mid-hills. This tool is applicable in a wide variety of settings beyond the HKH region.The potential for trade policies to affect the sustainability of ecosystem services is a neglected topic. An innovative WLE project, headed by Kilimo Trust, addressed this gap in the East African Community (EAC), whose members are in the upper watersheds of the Nile. The project investigated how policies, investments and practices in the EAC countries can prioritize trade-based approaches to achieve (i) resilient food and nutrition security; (ii) sustained provision of ecosystem services; and (iii) equitable access to ecosystem benefits.The project mapped selected agroecologies based on their suitability for cultivating three staple crops (maize, beans and rice), and estimated the mismatch between the mapped suitability and actual use for production of these crops. A high level of mismatch was found, which is a result of cultural preferences, national policies and weaknesses in regional trade. The study concluded that more sustainable, productive and profitable agriculture and other ecosystem services can be achieved through the effective use of agroecological comparative advantages; but achieving this would require major changes in national and regional trade policies (WLE 2016).The study also recommended assigning a monetary value to the full range of ecosystem services in national and regional policies, for example, by using taxes to provide incentives for ecologically desirable products; adopting policies to promote the participation of women and youth in trade; and emphasizing measures to support equitable access to land and other productive resources. These measures would boost profitability for cultivators while reducing costs of food for consumers, improve regional food security, enhance gender equity and contribute to long-term sustainability of natural resources (WLE 2016).Large-scale investments in upper watersheds, such as hydroelectric dams and mines, are nearly always made without fully considering the impacts on local communities and ecosystem services. Even run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects can have significant, negative local impacts. The total cost of such disruptions to local ecosystem services and livelihoods may even exceed the value of the downstream benefits.A major insight emerging from these studies is the critical importance of examining upper watershed investments from integrated ecosystem services and inter-sectoral perspectives, such as the waterenergy-food security nexus. A second major insight is that effectively involving local communities from the beginning in planning such projects, and designing them to prioritize benefiting local communities over downstream interests, is not only feasible but likely to lead to greater benefits overall, and will reduce protests and resistance that can delay investments and raise their costs.Attempts to mobilize and involve communities in development projects often run up against the weakness of local institutions, the inherent inequities UPPER RIVER BASIN WATERSHEDS: SUSTAINABLE, EQUITABLE AND PROFITABLE INTERVENTIONS built into local institutional arrangements, and a high degree of skepticism regarding advice from outsiders. These issues emerged in the work on reviving springs in the mid-hills of the Himalayas; the studies of runof-the-river hydroelectric projects; and the study of potential impacts of mining, rubber plantations and tourism in upper watersheds of the Mekong River. Unfortunately, there is no easy panacea to address these problems. However, the projects demonstrated that facilitating collaboration among communities, local NGOs, research institutions and government agencies can make a large difference. Providing training to local community members in basic science and on how to measure and monitor resources such as water flows can help overcome skepticism and empower communities to take more responsibility for managing local resources.Another important insight is the potentially critical role of policies regarding regional trade and marketing. The project implemented in the EAC countries demonstrated the connections between sustainable intensification of agriculture, other ecosystem services, food security and trade. We recommend adoption of a policy reform package to leverage trade policies to achieve two goals: (1) encourage profitable and sustainable intensification of agriculture; and (2) promote more equitable access to land and trade opportunities for women and youth.The studies described here demonstrate that escaping from the confines of narrow sectoral investments-thinking out of the box; using systems analytical approaches; combining advanced modern science with citizen science; following an integrated ecosystems approach; and encouraging local communities' active participation-can lead to more sustainable, profitable and equitable use of upper watershed landscapes.","tokenCount":"2960"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ed4f6b80494da9663e8e313f58ffed80","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/655c1695-506d-484f-acb5-23a85499d31b/content","id":"579226014"},"keywords":["Enfermedades de las plantas","Zea mays","enfermedades bacterianas","virus","enfermedades fúngicas","mildiús","área foliar","Fusarium","tizones","pudriciones","Penicillium","carbón","Nigrospora","Cephalosporium","grano","Botryodiplodia","enanismo","necrosis. Códigos de categorías AGRIS: H20 Plagas F01 Cultivos Clasificación decimal Dewey: 633.15 Impreso en México"],"sieverID":"3fe934cb-6279-4dbc-86d1-5313587750ab","pagecount":"123","content":"CIMMYT®) (www.cimmyt.org) es un organismo internacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigación científica y la capacitación relacionadas con el maíz y el trigo en los países en desarrollo. Basados en la solidez de nuestra ciencia y en nuestras asociaciones colaborativas, generamos, compartimos y aplicamos conocimientos y tecnologías con el objeto de incrementar la seguridad alimentaria, mejorar la productividad y la rentabilidad de los sistemas de producción agrícola, y conservar los recursos naturales. El CIMMYT recibe fondos para su agenda de investigación de varias fuentes, entre ellas, del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org), gobiernos nacionales, fundaciones, bancos de desarrollo e instituciones públicas y privadas.© Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) 2004. Derechos reservados. Las designaciones empleadas en la presentación de los materiales incluidos en esta publicación de ninguna manera expresan la opinión del CIMMYT o de sus patrocinadores respecto al estado legal de cualquier país, territorio, ciudad o zona, o de las autoridades de éstos, o respecto a la delimitación de sus fronteras. El CIMMYT autoriza el uso razonable de este material, siempre y cuando se cite la fuente.Este conocido folleto, que hoy llega a su cuarta edición, está destinado a servir de guía rápida para la identificación de las enfermedades del maíz. Basada en ediciones anteriores de la obra de Carlos De León, patólogo de maíz del CIMMYT, esta guía se actualizó con las contribuciones de su homólogo Dan Jeffers. En virtud de que está dirigida a los técnicos agrícolas y los productores de maíz, se consideró que era suficiente emplear las denominaciones taxonómicas latinas de los patógenos, aunque en el caso de los patógenos fúngicos, se incluyen tanto los nombres sexuales (teleomorfos) como asexuales (anamorfos) de los hongos. Desde la tercera edición, publicada en 1984, se han efectuado varias modificaciones de la nomenclatura. En la mayoría de los casos se utiliza la nomenclatura de A.J. Ullstrup (1985. Plant Disease 69:658-659) para asignar los nombres comunes de las enfermedades. En este documento se proporciona una descripción breve de las enfermedades comunes del maíz, de sus agentes causantes y de los síntomas, así como los nombres de nuevas enfermedades y datos actualizados, basados en los avances científicos logrados desde que apareció la tercera edición de esta guía. Se incluyen asimismo numerosas fotos a color de plantas enfermas. Aparece, al final, en forma de apéndice, una clave para el diagnóstico. El texto está dividido conforme a los cuatro principales agentes causantes de las enfermedades del maíz: hongos, bacterias, virus y mollicutes. Las enfermedades fúngicas se presentan en el siguiente orden: enfermedades foliares, pudriciones de tallo, carbones y pudriciones de mazorca. La mayoría de estas enfermedades son de importancia económica, mientras que otras, aunque no lo son, tienen la probabilidad de llegar a serlo.Agradecemos enormemente el trabajo editorial en inglés de Mike Listman, redactor científico del CIMMYT, así como la producción y diseño de Wenceslao Almazán, en esta nueva edición. La traducción al español estuvo a cargo de Ma. Concepción Castro y la edición de la misma la realizó Alma McNab. Primera edición: 1974Segunda edición 1978Tercera edición: 1984Cuarta edición: 2004 Mancha café (peca)Esta enfermedad ocurre normalmente en áreas de precipitación pluvial abundante y altas temperaturas. Ataca las hojas, las vainas, los tallos y, en ocasiones, incluso las brácteas externas.Los primeros síntomas aparecen en la lámina foliar y consisten en pequeñas manchas cloróticas dispuestas en forma de bandas alternas de tejido sano y enfermo (foto 1). Las manchas en la nervadura central son circulares, de color café oscuro, en tanto que las lesiones en las láminas son sólo manchas cloróticas. Los nudos y los entrenudos muestran también lesiones de color café. En infecciones graves las manchas se fusionan y ocasionan la pudrición del tallo y acame (foto 2). Existen varias especies de los géneros Peronosclerospora, Sclerospora y Sclerophthora causantes de los mildiús vellosos:Punta loca, marchitez amarilla del arroz Sclerophthora macrosporaSclerophthora rayssiae var. zeae (foto 3)Mildiú Java del maíz Peronosclerospora maydis (foto 4)Peronosclerospora philippinensis (foto 5)Peronosclerospora sacchari (foto 6)Peronosclerospora sorghi (fotos 7, 8, 9)Estas enfermedades constituyen un problema serio para los productores de maíz de varios países de Asia, África y el Continente Americano. La expresión de los síntomas depende en gran medida de la edad de la planta, la especie del patógeno y el medio ambiente. Generalmente se observa un bandeado clorótico o síntomas parciales en las hojas y las vainas, y enanismo. El mildiú velloso se vuelve más conspicuo cuando aparece un crecimiento velloso (cenicilla) sobre o bajo la superficie de las hojas. Esta condición es el resultado de la formación de conidios, lo cual ocurre por lo general en las primeras horas de la mañana.La enfermedad es más común en regiones cálidas y húmedas. Algunas especies que causan el mildiú velloso inducen también malformaciones de la espiga (panoja), lo cual obstruye la producción de polen y la formación de mazorcas. Las hojas pueden ser angostas, gruesas o anormalmente erectas. Las tres royas del maíz son: roya común, roya por polysora y roya tropical.Esta enfermedad está ampliamente distribuida por todo el mundo, en climas subtropicales y templados y en tierras altas donde hay bastante humedad.La roya común es más conspicua cuando las plantas se acercan a la floración. Se le puede reconocer por las pústulas pequeñas y pulverulentas, tanto en el haz como en el envés de las hojas (foto 10). Las pústulas son de color café claro en las etapas iniciales de la infección; más adelante la epidermis se rompe y las lesiones se vuelven negras a medida que la planta madura. Las plantas del hospedante alterno (Oxalis spp.) son infectadas frecuentemente con pústulas color anaranjado claro (foto 11). Esta es simplemente otra fase del mismo hongo.Comparadas con las pústulas producidas por P. sorghi, las de P. polysora son más pequeñas, de color más claro (anaranjado claro) y más circulares (foto 12). Aunque también se las encuentra en ambas caras de las hojas, la epidermis permanece intacta por más tiempo que cuando se trata de P. sorghi. Las pústulas se tornan de color café oscuro a medida que las plantas se acercan a la madurez. No se conoce al hospedante alterno de este hongo. La roya sureña, como también se llama esta roya, es común en los climas cálidos y húmedos de las tierras bajas del trópico.Los brotes de esta enfermedad son esporádicos y restringidos a las regiones tropicales del Continente Americano.La forma de las pústulas varía de circular a ovalada; son pequeñas y se las encuentra debajo de la epidermis. En el centro de la pústula la lesión es de color blanco a amarillo claro y presenta un orificio (foto 13). La pústula está a veces rodeada de un borde de color negro, pero su centro continúa siendo claro.No se conoce hospedante alterno de este hongo.12 13Marasmiellus paspali var. americanus, M. paspali var. paspali, M. paspali sensu lato Los síntomas en las hojas son muy similares a los que produce la mancha bandeada de la hoja y la vaina (MBHV; véase la página 15). Esta enfermedad se ha reportado en maíz en tierras bajas tropicales de clima cálido y húmedo. Sin embargo, no causa daños económicos.Comienzan a producirse lesiones alargadas y concéntricas de dos colores en los bordes de las hojas (foto 14) cuando las plantas se acercan a la floración, aunque en este periodo no parece haber síntomas de hongos en las lesiones. Más adelante se forman fructificaciones pequeñas, parecidas a los esclerocios del agente causante de la MBHV. Sin embargo, si se lleva a cabo una inspección más detallada se observa que las estructuras son fructificaciones agaricoides (basidiomata) del hongo (foto 15). La alta humedad relativa y las abundantes precipitaciones pluviales favorecen el desarrollo de estas estructuras efímeras.Las tres especies mencionadas se han detectado en cultivos de maíz en las regiones tropicales del Continente Americano, el este y el sureste de Asia, y en países de África Occidental, respectivamente.Esta enfermedad se presenta en zonas relativamente frescas y húmedas de los trópicos, similares a aquellas en las que es común el tizón de la hoja causado por Turcicum. Primeramente se producen manchas brillantes y ligeramente abultadas, de color negro (foto 16). En una etapa posterior se desarrollan áreas necróticas en el tejido foliar.En varios países del Continente Americano se ha descubierto que otro patógeno, Monographella maydis, y Phyllachora maydis forman el \"complejo mancha de asfalto\". Este complejo propicia el desarrollo de tejido necrótico alrededor de la mancha de asfalto (foto 17). Las lesiones necróticas pueden llegar a fusionarse y provocar la quemadura completa del follaje. Las lesiones causadas solo por Monographella maydis son circulares y miden entre 5 y 6 cm de diámetro (foto 18).Las lesiones que producen los dos patógenos que causan el complejo comienzan a desarrollarse en las hojas inferiores antes de la floración y, si el ambiente es propicio, la infección continúa hacia arriba afectando incluso las hojas más jóvenes. Esta enfermedad es más común en zonas húmedas, de temperaturas moderadas.Las cinco razas conocidas del hongo producen síntomas diferentes en las hojas. Por ejemplo, la raza 1 produce lesiones ovaladas, zonadas y de color pardusco en toda la planta, incluidas las mazorcas, las cuales se pudren y se ennegrecen. Las lesiones de la raza 2 son alargadas, delgadas y de color pardo, principalmente en las hojas más bajas; puede también causar pudrición de las mazorcas (foto 23). La raza 3 produce lesiones angostas, grisáceas, con bordes cloróticos. Las lesiones de la raza 4 son similares a las que produce la raza 2, pero con frecuencia muestran estructuras concéntricas. La raza 5 produce únicamente pequeños puntos necróticos en las hojas inmaduras.Los síntomas de pudrición de la mazorca producidos por las razas 1 y 2 son muy parecidos.Anamorfo: Colletotrichum graminicola (Teleomorfo: Glomerella graminicola)Esta enfermedad está distribuida por todo el mundo, en climas cálidos y húmedos. Se manifiesta en dos fases: primero infecta las hojas y luego pudre el tallo.No se ha reportado que la infección foliar ocasione daños económicos significativos en el maíz. El daño más grave lo causa la pudrición del tallo. La infección foliar puede ocurrir en diferentes etapas del desarrollo de la planta. En la etapa de la plántula, las lesiones en las hojas son irregulares, de forma ovalada a elíptica, con márgenes de color amarillo a café rojizo (foto 24). En las etapas posteriores, se pueden observar lesiones similares en las hojas superiores de las plantas infectadas, principalmente en aquellas en que ya se advierten síntomas de pudrición del tallo. Anamorfo: Phyllosticta maydis (Teleomorfo: Mycosphaerella zeae-maydis)En 1970 a esta enfermedad se le asoció a la presencia de androesterilidad de Texas en materiales susceptibles, y varios científicos la relacionaron con las pérdidas de rendimiento y el aumento en el acame. La humedad y el calor favorecen su desarrollo.Los síntomas en plantas jóvenes enfermas son similares a los de la deficiencia de nitrógeno. En plantas maduras las lesiones son angostas, necróticas y paralelas a las nervaduras, aunque éstas no restringen su crecimiento (fotos 25 y 26). Más tarde las lesiones se fusionan y producen una necrosis característica cerca del ápice de la hoja.Anamorfo: Rhizoctonia solani f. sp. sasakii (Teleomorfo: Corticium sasakii, sin. Thanatephorus cucumeris)Como su nombre lo indica, esta enfermedad se desarrolla en las hojas y las vainas. Los síntomas consisten en manchas concéntricas características que cubren extensas áreas de las hojas y las brácteas infectadas (fotos 27 y 28).En los trópicos húmedos, el principal daño consiste en una pudrición pardusca de las mazorcas, que presenta un moho algodonoso de color café claro con esclerocios pequeños, redondos y negros. Esta enfermedad ha sido detectada en las zonas altas y húmedas de los Himalaya. En otras regiones del mundo se conocen otras especies de Leptosphaeria que producen síntomas diferentes en las hojas de maíz.Los síntomas consisten en lesiones pequeñas que, al ir aumentando de tamaño, se vuelven concéntricas y cubren grandes porciones de las hojas (foto 29).Es más conspicua en las hojas inferiores en la etapa de floración.Esta enfermedad se encuentra presente en Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, el norte de la India, el este y el sur de África, los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica y México, regiones en las que también está generalizado Exserohilum turcicum. Las condiciones de mucha humedad y las temperaturas nocturnas relativamente bajas favorecen su desarrollo. Las lesiones aparecen como áreas pequeñas de color verde claro, que más tarde se tornan cloróticas y, finalmente, necróticas, y están rodeadas de márgenes café oscuro (foto 30). Las manchas en las hojas son circulares o ligeramente alargadas.Anamorfo: Hyalothyridium maydis (Teleomorfo: Leptosphaerulina sp.)Esta enfermedad foliar se ha detectado en Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador y México. Puede causar pérdidas cuantiosas en siembras comerciales en clima cálido y húmedo con noches frías. Las lesiones comienzan en las hojas inferiores, en forma de pecas redondas, cuando las plantas alcanzan más o menos un metro de altura. Tres semanas después de la floración las lesiones son redondas, oscuras y necróticas; llegan a medir entre 3 y 4 cm de diámetro y presentan círculos concéntricos rodeados de tejido clorótico (fotos 31 y 32).En Colombia se ha asociado la fase teleomorfa de Leptosphaerulina sp. a la mancha foliar en las etapas posteriores de la infección. Estos hongos producen manchas pequeñas necróticas o cloróticas con una aureola de color claro (foto 33). El diámetro de las lesiones, cuando están completamente desarrolladas, es de aproximadamente 0.5 cm. La enfermedad está generalizada en las zonas maiceras cálidas y húmedas, donde puede causar daños considerables a los cultivos.Cercospora zeae-maydis, C. sorghi var. maydis Esta enfermedad, conocida también como mancha gris de la hoja, puede ocurrir en zonas templadas o subtropicales de clima húmedo. Las lesiones comienzan como manchas necróticas pequeñas, regulares y alargadas, de color café grisáceo, que crecen paralelas a las nervaduras (foto 34). A veces pueden llegar a medir 3.0 x 0.3 cm. Se cree que existe una relación entre las prácticas de labranza mínima y el aumento de su incidencia.Esta enfermedad constituye un problema en América del Sur y en el este y sur de África. Los prolongados periodos de humedad foliar y los nublados favorecen su desarrollo. Puede causar senescencia foliar grave después de la floración, o un llenado de grano deficiente.La mancha zonada se encuentra más frecuentemente en las plantas de sorgo que de maíz.Esta enfermedad se caracteriza por lesiones necróticas pequeñas que luego se extienden y producen grandes anillos concéntricos y necróticos (foto 35). Las lesiones pueden llegar a medir entre 5 y 6 cm de diámetro y se las encuentra principalmente en las hojas más viejas.Esta enfermedad afecta principalmente el maíz en climas frescos y húmedos. Pythium aphanidermatum, Pythium spp.Las especies Pythium causan pudrición del tallo y de la semilla, y tizones en las plántulas. Esta enfermedad ocurre en algunas zonas subtropicales o tropicales cálidas y húmedas, y en regiones templadas.Generalmente, los entrenudos inferiores se suavizan y se oscurecen tomando un aspecto acuoso y causando el acame de las plantas. Los entrenudos dañados se tuercen antes de que las plantas se acamen. Las plantas enfermas pueden permanecer vivas hasta que el tejido vascular se destruye (foto 42).Es necesario hacer aislamientos en medios de cultivo para distinguir entre las pudriciones del tallo por Pythium y por Erwinia.Esta enfermedad puede afectar las plantas antes de la floración.Fusarium moniliforme sin. Fusarium verticillioides (Teleomorfo: Gibberella fujikuroi)Gibberella zeae (Anamorfo: Fusarium graminearum) Dos especies de Fusarium causan pudriciones del tallo en el maíz:Fusarium moniliforme es más común en climas secos y cálidos. Es particularmente dañina si comienza antes de la floración (foto 43).Gibberella zeae es más común en regiones frías. Es uno de los agentes causantes de pudrición del tallo más perjudiciales (foto 44).Los síntomas producidos por estos patógenos semejan aquellos causados por Stenocarpella o Cephalosporium, y no se les puede distinguir hasta que son visibles las estructuras que producen las esporas. Las plantas marchitas permanecen erectas cuando se secan y aparecen lesiones pequeñas de color café oscuro en los entrenudos inferiores. Al partirlos verticalmente, se observa que el floema de los tallos infectados es café oscuro y que hay un oscurecimiento conspicuo general de los tejidos.En las etapas finales de la infección, la médula es destruida y los tejidos adyacentes pierden su color. 43 44El carbón de la espiga puede ocasionar daños económicos significativos en zonas maiceras tanto secas y cálidas como de altitud intermedia y clima templado.La infección es sistémica, lo cual significa que el hongo penetra las plántulas y se desarrolla dentro de las plantas sin que éstas muestren síntomas, hasta que llegan a la floración y la emisión de estigmas.Los síntomas más conspicuos son: a) el desarrollo anormal de las espigas (panojas), que se deforman y crecen excesivamente (foto 45); b) la formación de masas negras de esporas en algunas florecillas macho, y; c) el desarrollo de masas negras de esporas en lugar de mazorcas, que dejan al descubierto los haces vasculares desgarrados (foto 46).El falso carbón de la espiga se presenta muy raramente en condiciones húmedas, secas y cálidas, y por lo general el hongo afecta más bien las inflorescencias del arroz que las del maíz.Los síntomas difieren de aquellos causados por otros carbones del maíz. El falso carbón de la espiga no produce malformación de la espiga ni infecta la mazorca, como lo hace el verdadero carbón de la espiga (Sphacelotheca reiliana); sólo unas pocas florecillas macho en la espiga muestran masas de esporas de color verde oscuro (soros; foto 47). Anamorfo: Colletotrichum graminicola (Teleomorfo: Glomerella graminicola)El hongo Colletotrichum graminicola causa pudrición del tallo y tizón de la hoja. La pudrición del tallo se ha reportado principalmente en zonas cálidas y húmedas en todo el mundo. Los síntomas de la infección se manifiestan claramente en forma de lesiones oscuras, alargadas y angostas (primero cafés y luego negras) a lo largo de la superficie del tallo; aparecen cuando las plantas se acercan a la floración (foto 50). En las plantas infectadas se observan marchitamiento prematuro (causado por la destrucción total del tejido de la médula) y desgarramiento de los haces vasculares, que adquieren una coloración café oscura (foto 51). Dado que éste y otros hongos sobreviven al invierno en los tejidos infectados del maíz, se ha reportado que las prácticas de agricultura de conservación, en las que se aplican coberturas orgánicas (mantillo), aumentan la incidencia de la enfermedad.( Igual que la pudrición carbonosa del tallo (véase la página 57), esta enfermedad se desarrolla en regiones calientes y húmedas, con periodos secos, principalmente durante la floración. En el momento de la cosecha las mazorcas están disecadas y los granos están flojos, son de color amarillo claro y tienen rayas oscuras debajo del pericarpio. Los granos son fácilmente removidos del olote (raquis) y muestran esclerocios superficiales negros, pequeños y redondos, como del tamaño de un alfiler (fotos 65-67).Las plantas afectadas por la pudrición carbonosa del tallo no siempre desarrollan pudrición de la mazorca transmitida por el mismo patógeno.Anamorfo: Nigrospora oryzae (Teleomorfo: Khuskia oryzae)Esta enfermedad está ampliamente distribuida y el hongo causante sobrevive generalmente en los residuos de las plantas que quedan en el campo.Las mazorcas están disecadas (momificadas) y no pesan. Además, los granos están manchados y se desprenden fácilmente del olote. Un examen cuidadoso de los tejidos del olote y de las puntas de los granos mostrará pequeñas masas negras de esporas (fotos 68, 69).Physalospora zeae (sin. Botryosphaeria zeae) (Anamorfo: Macrophoma zeae)Si, después de la floración, llega a presentarse un periodo de varias semanas de mucho calor o humedad, esto favorecerá la pudrición de la mazorca.Los primeros síntomas son muy similares a aquellos de Stenocarpella: aparece un moho blanco-grisáceo que crece entre los granos y las brácteas, que luego se decoloran y se aglutinan. En las etapas posteriores de la infección, los dos hongos se pueden identificar con facilidad.(a) Pudrición gris de mazorca. La mazorca tiene un marcado color negro; el moho es también oscuro y produce pequeños esclerocios o puntos negros dispersos en la mazorca (foto 70 cortesía del Dr. A.J. Ullstrup). (b) Pudrición de mazorca por Stenocarpella (véase la página 83). La mazorca es de color gris-pardusco y el moho, blanco con picnidios negros que cubren el olote y los granos.El carbón común ocurre en todas las regiones productoras de maíz, pero puede ser más grave en climas húmedos y templados que en las tierras bajas tropicales con clima caluroso y húmedo.El hongo ataca las mazorcas, los tallos, las hojas y las espigas (fotos 71-73). Unas agallas blancas cerradas muy conspicuas sustituyen a los granos individuales. Con el tiempo las agallas se rompen y liberan masas negras de esporas que infectarán las plantas de maíz del siguiente ciclo de cultivo. La enfermedad causa daños más graves en plantas jóvenes en estado activo de crecimiento y puede producirles enanismo o matarlas.El carbón común se distingue fácilmente del carbón de la espiga por la ausencia de tejidos vasculares que aparecen en forma de fibras en las mazorcas infectadas por este patógeno. Esta enfermedad ha sido reportada en la India, Nigeria, Pakistán y Tailandia y, en menor grado, en el Continente Americano. El mismo hongo puede producir pudrición del tallo de una coloración oscura conspicua, en climas húmedos y cálidos (véase la página 58).Las mazorcas infectadas producen granos brillantes de color negro oscuro (fotos 74, 75); algunas veces las brácteas también se oscurecen y se desgarran.No se han reportado pérdidas económicas causadas por esta enfermedad.Acremonium strictum (sin. Cephalosporium acremonium)Esta enfermedad es común en tierras bajas y cálidas del trópico y el subtrópico. Los granos infectados tienen rayas blancas en el pericarpio (foto 76) y los síntomas son similares a los que causa Fusarium moniliforme.Hormodendrum cladosporoides (sin. Cladosporium cladosporoides), C. herbarumNo se han reportado pérdidas económicas causadas por esta enfermedad.Comienzan a formarse rayas de color café oscuro o verde en la base del olote y de los granos. Cuando el daño es total, las mazorcas tienen un tono oscuro y son muy ligeras (foto 77). Algunas veces, el hongo logra penetrar la mazorca por lesiones físicas en las puntas del grano. 76 77Stenocarpella maydis, sin. Diploidia maydis, S. macrospora, sin. D. macrospora La pudrición de mazorca por Stenocarpella se encuentra con más frecuencia en las zonas productoras de maíz cálidas y húmedas.Las mazorcas presentan un crecimiento característico de áreas necróticas irregulares en las brácteas; estas áreas se ensanchan y secan completamente las brácteas, aun cuando la planta esté verde todavía. Si se desprenden las brácteas, las mazorcas están disecadas y blanquecinas, con moho blanco algodonoso entre los granos (foto 78). Después se forma un gran número de pequeños picnidios negros entre los granos y los tejidos de la superficie del olote (foto 79). Los picnidios sirven como fuente de inóculo para el siguiente ciclo de cultivo. Sólo mediante una observación microscópica de las esporas se puede saber qué patógeno se encuentra presente.Las mazorcas con infecciones graves son muy ligeras. La infección se produce con mayor frecuencia a través del pedúnculo de la mazorca y se extiende desde el olote hacia los granos. Las lesiones causadas por los barrenadores del tallo a la mazorca a menudo aumentan la incidencia de la enfermedad. Stenocarpella maydis produce la micotoxina conocida como diplodiatoxina y S. macrospora produce diplodiol. Ambas sustancias son tóxicas para las aves.Erwinia chrysanthemi pv. zeae, sin. Erwinia carotovora f. sp. zeaeEste patógeno se encuentra en climas con temperaturas altas y bastante humedad. Se propaga rápidamente en la planta hospedante y la destruye.Las plantas infectadas son de color oscuro, tienen un aspecto acuoso en la base del tallo (fotos 80, 81), se acaman y mueren poco después de la floración.La descomposición bacteriana produce un olor característico desagradable.Erwinia stewartii, sin. Pantoea stewartii Se sabe que el patógeno es transmitido por coleópteros (Chaetocnema pulicaria) del maíz y en contadas ocasiones también por medio de la semilla. Cuando comienza la infección, las lesiones son alargadas y acuosas, y adquieren un color amarillo claro, con márgenes irregulares a lo largo de las hojas (foto 82). La infección puede llegar al tallo y provocar achaparramiento, marchitez y muerte de la planta. Las plantas gravemente infectadas que forman semilla producen mazorcas pequeñas con poco grano. Una infección al final del ciclo de cultivo puede causar necrosis foliar grave pero no marchitez (foto 83).Las heridas causadas por los insectos vectores al alimentarse sirven como puntos de entrada para el patógeno, que es transportado de un ciclo de cultivo a otro por los coleópteros.Pseudomonas rubrilineans, sin. P. avenae, Acidvorax avenae subsp. avenae Si bien no se han reportado daños graves causados por esta enfermedad, se le puede considerar un problema en ciertas zonas cálidas y húmedas donde se utiliza germoplasma susceptible.El rayado causado por bacterias afecta a las plantas de maíz susceptibles desde sus primeras fases de desarrollo (plántula) hasta después de la floración. Las hojas desarrollan varias lesiones pequeñas de color verde claro. En condiciones climáticas óptimas, las lesiones se extienden a lo largo de las nervaduras y producen un rayado conspicuo, principalmente en las hojas más jóvenes. Más tarde, las rayas se secan y se oscurecen (foto 84); a menudo el tejido foliar infectado presenta desgarramiento. El grave daño causado a las hojas superiores provoca la pudrición de la espiga, cuando las hojas muertas envuelven la espiga (foto 85). Las plantas infectadas muestran inicialmente pequeñas manchas cloróticas que más tarde desarrollan una clorosis general en las hojas del cogollo (verticilo) (foto 86). Las plantas no se desarrollan totalmente por el acortamiento de los entrenudos, y las hojas pueden adquirir una coloración rojiza después de la floración, parecida a los síntomas de enrojecimiento causados por el achaparramiento y el enanismo arbustivo del maíz. Los transmisores de esta enfermedad son las chicharritas Graminella nigrifrons y G. sonora, que, al alimentarse de una planta infectada, propagan el virus durante largos periodos. El zacate (grama) Johnson sirve como hospedante alterno del virus y del vector cuando no hay maíz. Hasta el momento, esta enfermedad solo se ha encontrado en la parte continental de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, pero es probable que tenga una distribución más amplia.(Maize chlorotic mottle virus, MCMV)En las primeras etapas de la infección, las hojas más jóvenes muestran pequeñas manchas cloróticas que se fusionan y forman bandas cloróticas anchas a lo largo de las nervaduras. Las bandas cloróticas contrastan con el tejido verde oscuro normal cuando se observan contra la luz (fotos 87, 88). Las hojas con clorosis finalmente mueren. Las plantas infectadas presentan enanismo a causa del acortamiento de los entrenudos y producen un menor número de mazorcas pequeñas. En la mayoría de los casos la espiga se deforma.El virus es transmitido principalmente por varios coleópteros crisomélidos, como Chaetocnema pulicaria y Diabrótica spp., durante un breve periodo. Los datos disponibles sobre el virus indican que su transmisión por medio de la semilla ocurre muy pocas veces.Cuando el virus aparece junto con el mosaico del enanismo del maíz (MDMV) o con el mosaico rayado del trigo (WSMV), provoca una reacción aguda conocida como necrosis letal del maíz (MLN) (véase la página 96). Sugarcane mosaic virus, SCMV)Estos virus son transmitidos por varios géneros y especies de pulgones (por ejemplo, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch)) y rara vez por medio de la semilla (foto 89). Al alimentarse de una planta enferma, los pulgones adquieren el virus y de inmediato comienzan a propagarlo. Este tipo de patógenos puede afectar a otros hospedantes, incluidos pastos y cereales como el sorgo, el zacate Johnson y la caña de azúcar, pero no atacan a las especies de hoja ancha. Las plantas infectadas desarrollan un mosaico característico (irregularidades en la distribución del color verde normal) en la base de las hojas más jóvenes (foto 90). Algunas veces la apariencia del mosaico se intensifica por las rayas cloróticas angostas que se forman a lo largo de las nervaduras.Posteriormente, las hojas más jóvenes muestran una clorosis general y las rayas son más grandes y abundantes (foto 91). A medida que las plantas se aproximan a la madurez, el follaje adquiere una coloración purpúrea o rojiza. Dependiendo de la etapa de desarrollo de la planta en que haya ocurrido la infección, podría presentarse un elevado grado de enanismo. Las plantas infectadas durante las primeras etapas producen mazorcas muy pequeñas o son totalmente estériles.Se ha reportado que en China la SCMV ha causado daños graves a la producción de maíz. (Maize rayado fino virus, MRFV)El \"rayado fino\" es causado por un virus transmitido por la chicharrita Dalbulus maidis, que al alimentarse de una planta enferma adquiere el virus y propaga la infección hasta que muere. Dalbulus maidis es también un vector del espiroplasma del enanismo del maíz y del fitoplasma del enanismo arbustivo. Este virus se encuentra desde el sur de América del Norte hasta América del Sur, incluido el Caribe, y se ha observado que en varios países centroamericanos reduce el rendimiento hasta en un 43%.Las chicharritas pueden ser portadoras de más de uno de estos patógenos a la vez y por eso son comunes las infecciones mixtas. Los síntomas se manifiestan unas dos semanas después de que las plantas han sido inoculadas. Las pequeñas manchas cloróticas y aisladas se pueden ver fácilmente colocando las hojas contra la luz (foto 101). Más tarde, las manchas se vuelven más numerosas y se fusionan, formando rayas de 5 a 10 cm a lo largo de las nervaduras (foto 102). Si la infección se produce en la época de floración, es posible que las plantas no muestren síntomas, pero si ocurre en la etapa de plántula, los granos no se forman bien y su llenado es deficiente. Enanismo; acortamiento de Achaparramiento del maíz los entrenudos; desarrollo de yema axilar; ramificación excesiva de la raíz; enrojecimiento de las hojas y/o amarillamiento de los márgenes, rayas cloróticas en la base de las hojas.Retorcimiento; entrenudos oscuros; Pudrición de tallo por Pythium aspecto suave y acuoso; acame.Pudrición de tallo bacteriana en la base del tallo; olor desagradable; acame.Mildiús vellosos (cenicillas) y envés de la hoja, rayado, síntoma parcial de la hoja o clorosis general; hojas angostas y anormalmente erectas.Mancha foliar por Curvularia de unos 2 mm de diámetro.Mancha foliar por Cercospora manchas necróticas pequeñas, concéntricas y regulares de color pardusco que crecen paralelas a las nervaduras.Mancha foliar por Septoria producen manchado intenso y necrosis.Tizón foliar por turcicum necróticas; pueden fusionarse y provocar la quemadura de la planta.Lesiones ovaladas, necróticas, Rayado foliar por macrospora con márgenes estrechos y amarillos a lo largo de las nervaduras.Lesiones ovaladas, necróticas que Amarillamiento por tizón foliar crecen paralelas a las nervaduras. y más tarde infectan las hojas.Mancha foliar por carbonum y parduscas o cafés, delgadas y alargadas.Rayado foliar bacteriano las nervaduras, que se convierten en rayas y, posteriormente, en desgarramiento de color blanco-grisáceo a café.Mancha foliar por Kabatiella que desarrollan centros de color crema y anillos que varían de negro a púrpura, circundados por una aureola amarilla.Lesiones pequeñas, necróticas, Mancha foliar por que se fusionan y se convierten en Leptosphaeria manchas concéntricas y necróticas.Lesiones pequeñas, de color café Tizón foliar por maydis claro que se extienden a lo largo de las nervaduras secundarias y que con frecuencia se fusionan. Lesiones de aspecto acuoso, con Marchitez de Stewart un margen irregular a lo largo de las nervaduras; a menudo se tornan amarillas y se extienden hacia el tallo.Enfermedad Página","tokenCount":"5160"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7401e6e26c4d7e28309867360ec2b621","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5bd975c6-1a27-419e-aea2-d72dd1283531/retrieve","id":"-490075339"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5847bac4-9433-4bb5-958b-174952ba5ac7","pagecount":"3","content":"1. Strengthening governance in both origin and destination countries, through a comprehensive approach recognizing the interconnectedness of climate change, human (im)mobility, conflict and fragility.2. Empowering youth, women and minorities to contribute actively to local community development and expedite climate action, peace, and stability.3. Leveraging migrants' remittances to finance climate adaptation plans and entrepreneurial activities.Streamlining remittance flows, reducing transfer costs, and developing an effective mass payment system coordinated by both origin and hosting countries is also important.4. Supporting rural livelihoods in the origin countries to reduce involuntary migration. Interventions may include supporting pastoralism systems, developing value-added crops, engaging with local cooperatives and market chains, emphasizing skills development and opportunities for the youth, and promoting economic inclusion for refugees in camp settings.5. Developing an efficient customary justice system for a more equitable resource sharing and peaceful cohabitation. Access to justice, transparency, reflexive dialogue approaches and digitalization of registration processes can enhance the effective implementation of laws, particularly in relation to women's rights and land tenure. ","tokenCount":"163"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ffcff10d1a1933c8bb8020ad14b4dfde","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75f845ac-6273-4ba7-abae-5f3d1441bb4b/retrieve","id":"1027893493"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"494b9764-489e-42cb-849b-4747f079397a","pagecount":"18","content":"DIRECT APPLICATION of ground phosphate rock to crops grown on acid soil is a simple and low-cost method of substituting refined phosphates, especially if the rock is locally available. The relative agronomic and economic effectiveness of phosphate rocks has been examined using data from the literature and from ILCA trials in the Ethiopian highlands.In general, phosphate rocks gave lower agronomic responses than refined phosphates, but the yields were well above the control. Although the residual effects of phosphate rocks improved yields in 70% of cases, they were rarely large enough to make the use of rock more profitable than that of refined phosphates. The economic effectiveness of phosphate rocks could be improved by using more concentrated rock, which would reduce transportation and other related costs.Increased demand for costly phosphatic fertilizers to improve crop yields necessitated the identification of different phosphate sources as alternatives to refined phosphate (RP) in eastern Africa. One of the first steps was to exploit the large deposits of a primary phosphate (francolite) in Uganda, near the Kenya border. Research on phosphate rock (PR) began in the region in the 1940s (cf EAAJ, 1949;EAAFRO, 1948EAAFRO, , 1950EAAFRO, , 1951)). Some results suggested that direct application of ground phosphate rock could replace refined phosphate on acid soils, especially if the rock is locally available. Haque and Jutzi (1985) came to the same conclusion in Ethiopia.The vast reserves of phosphate in Uganda were expected to yield fine-grained francolite with an average of 25% phosphoric oxide. Some trials indicated that only about half as much of 'early available' phosphate was released from URP, compared with other commercially worked phosphate rocks, and \"it became apparent that Uganda phosphate was not suitable for application by itself to annual crops\" (Jones, cited by Duthie and Keen, 1953). Subsequent work was on calcination of URP--which contained about 25% total P 2 O 5 of which 2-4% was citric acid soluble (c.a.s.)--with crude sodium carbonate to make phosphate more rapidly available. Doughty (cited by Duthie and Keen, 1953) reported that studies of cereals carried out between 1947 and 1951 on laterised and deeply dissected granite and ancient sediment soils in Tanzania showed URP to be effective. In most experiments, the benefits from its use were apparent only after application for two or three seasons. On lighter-textured upland soils with variable rainfall, triple superphosphate (TSP) was more effective than SOP with 23% total and 19% c.a.s. P 2 O 5 , which in turn was more effective than URP.Holme and Sherwood (cited by Duthie and Keen, 1953) experimented with URP, SOP and superphosphates (SP) on wheat grown in Kenya during 1948-50. URP at 290 kg ha -1 and 580 kg ha -1 gave negligible responses except in one experiment, and even there it was much less effective than the two other phosphate sources. Only in one area were the effects of double superphosphate (DSP) and SOP equal. In the others, the quantity of the c.a.s. P 2 O 5 of SOP had to be 20-45% larger in order to give a similar wheat yield per hectare as SP. Similar experiments with maize showed that URP had no appreciable effect in the first year.Pot experiments on cereals in Kenya showed that although URP had a low early availability, it promised a good response if applied heavily and in a sufficiently fine form (Bellis, cited by Duthie and Keen, 1953).Sodaphosphate was as effective as an equivalent dressing of SP on tobacco, pyrethrum and wheat planted in Tanzania on granite soils deficient in P; however, high transportation costs made it essential to supply concentrated phosphate (Gunn, cited by Duthie and Keen, 1953). Duthie and Keen, 1953) argued that low responses to phosphate in most of the early cereal trials in Uganda were due to the low levels of its application. He reported on experiments comparing the direct effects on maize and the residual effects on cotton of two P 2 O 5 levels of URP, SP and SOP. At one site with red Latosols, URP and SOP tended to be more beneficial than SP on maize in an abnormally wet year. In trials at another site with similar soil and rainfall conditions, neither URP, SOP or single superphosphate (SSP) increased maize yields significantly, although there was a residual P effect of about an 18% yield increase for all three fertilizers on cotton. At a third site where a yellow Latosol had been fallow under grass for 3 years and then grazed, there was no direct effect on maize and no residual effect on cotton. Birch (1948) conducted a literature review of soil phosphates. He found that while acidity favoured PR use, fluorine concentration in the rock did not, and that the variable results with PR were, in part, explained by these conflicting tendencies. Large applications of PR, sometimes larger than 2400 kg ha -1 , may in time approach the effectiveness of SP. He also found that the phosphate sorption capacity of the soil is satisfied only by a large quantity of phosphate rock which changes into a more soluble form only after a long period of time. Therefore, in the short run, RP should be expected to give a greater response. He made no specific mention of PR use with forages.ILCA's library database provided 75 references related to fertilizer and 49 to phosphate use in eastern Africa. From the 124 references, only eight were studies on PR, of which one (Haque and Jutzi, 1985) was done in Ethiopia, while the remaining seven were undertaken in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Further searches provided no references with detailed data. In addition to the literature referred to, many results were inaccessible, such as several reports of the East African Agricultural and Forestry Research Organisation (EAAFRO).In \"Some notes on the soil status\" (Anon., s.d., a) it was stated that in a sample of 22 Ethiopian soils, of which 19% were 1700 m above sea level, only 8% were not deficient in P. It was concluded that 40% of the soils in the Ethiopian highlands were acid and had a high P fixation capacity. Haque and Jutzi (1985) reported on the effects of TSP and Egyptian rock phosphate (ERP) on a native Ethiopian clover (Trifolium steudneri). The ERP contained 29.4% total P 2 O 5 of which 12.8% was elemental P. Fertilizers were broadcast on P-deficient Vertisols (1 mg P kg -1 ) with a pH of 6.0. T. steudneri was harvested after 96 days.Egyptian rock phosphate was most effective below 45 kg P 2 O 5 ha -l ; at 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 it gave 25% and 18% more DM in 1984 and 1985 respectively than TSP (895 kg DM ha -l and 2485 kg DM ha -1 ) (Table 2). In terms of cumulative effect, TSP was significantly more effective at 45 and 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 , giving 39% and 25% more DM respectively. Overall, the agronomic responses to both sources of P were much higher than the control.  (1985). Gosnell and Weiss (1965) tested the response of Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) to different P sources on grey-brown clay soils with a pH of 5.6, which were deficient in N and P (8 mg P kg -1 in the top layer). Phosphates were applied at planting and, with the exception of N which was not applied in the first year, they were reapplied annually. An experiment with different rates of TSP showed that 81 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 applied annually increased the total yield of green matter (GM) over 4 years by about 41% compared to a control yield of 28 t GM ha -1 .A second experiment (Table 3) compared the responses to different forms of P and N. The main treatments were TSP, SOP, Minjingu rock phosphate (MRP) with about 30% total and 15% c.a.s. P 2 O 5 , and neutralised rock phosphate (NRP) with 25% total and 11.5% c.a.s. P 2 O 5 . The fertilizers were applied at 45 and 90 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 in the furrow at planting and not reapplied thereafter. Nitrogen was used as a single dressing of 224 kg ha -1 during the second and third years.  Gosnell and Weiss (1965) and Birch (1959) reported AR results in green matter and Anderson (1965) and Jones and Robinson (1965) in dry matter (DM). d n.a. = not available.The effects of fertilizers were marked in the cuts taken during the rains, but there were no significant differences in the dry-season cuts. These affected the annual totals and reduced some results to a non-significant level. Overall, yields were higher at the higher application rate.Though TSP gave the best results for the first and second years, all phosphates gave similar responses in the third year. The P effect lasted 3 years and was still very significant at the fifth cut.While stimulating yields, phosphate lowered the protein content of the fodder, especially at higher application rates. However, the 3-year mean showed that SOP gave the best protein yields, followed by TSP, MRP and NRP, and all results were well above the protein yield of the control. Gosnell and Weiss (1965) concluded that the less soluble phosphates (SOP and MRP) gave total GM yields not much lower than TSP, and better protein yields. There was no marked difference between SOP and MRP at equivalent levels of P 2 O 5 , and phosphate did not have to be reapplied for at least the first 2 years after the first application since residual effects were important. Birch (1959) reported that high levels of P 2 O 5 (212 kg ha -1 ) doubled ryegrass yields on very weedy, old arable land (pH 5.3). A second experiment compared the effects of TSP and basic slag (BSG), which had about 18.1% total and 14.5% c.a.s. P 2 O 5 , on Trifolium tembense grown on a soil with a pH of 5.0. There was a log-linear effect of TSP, which was greater than that of the slag. The effect of BSG declined at a higher rate of application. The response of the legume to phosphate was in general significantly higher than the control.A third experiment involved subterranean clover and Lampton oats on a soil of pH 5.1; the oats were sown in the second year of the trial after the clover had been harvested (Table 3). Kenaf no. 1 (KF1), TSP and BSG at 0, 188 and 282 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 , and URP at 75 and 110 P 2 O 5 kg ha -1 , were compared. Two bare fallowed plots, one with the higher rate of TSP and one without phosphate, were also compared. Three cuts were taken. Although URP did not stimulate clover yields much, the protein content of the URP-fertilized clover was only slightly lower than that of the TSP fertilized clover.Uganda phosphate gave significantly lower oat yields than did soluble chemical phosphates.The fallowed plot with TSP (282 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 ) outyielded all other oats plots. The protein content of oats was less with TSP than with the other phosphates.Jones and Robinson (1965) evaluated three types of phosphate applied to Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) on red loam soils (Table 3). Napier was planted during the short rains of 1953, after a harvest of a maize silage crop in the previous season. DSP, North African rock phosphate (NAP) with 29% c.a.s. P 2 O 5 and BSG were compared, the last two with and without ammonium sulphate. DSP and BSG significantly raised yields but not significantly more than ammonium sulphate alone which gave a DM response of 1730 kg ha -1 . The NAP plots showed the least response, both with and without ammonium sulphate, and a similar lower residual effect. The authors concluded that consistent yield increases were obtainable with DSP and BSG at 47 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 .Anderson (1965) compared the effects of MRP and DSP on grass at three sites representing major soil types in Tanzania. Three treatments were applied to each of the sites in 1960: DSP, MRP and MRP with muriate of potash. In 1961, the plots were trimmed and all treatments reapplied. The means of all site yields (Table 3) for 1961-63 showed no marked differences between treatments, but all treatments were significantly better than the control. Response to MRP was lower than that to DSP. The low direct response suggests that MRP was inferior to DSP on annual crops, but not on permanent pastures because of the residual effects.On poor red soils, 125 kg DSP ha -1 or 375 kg MRP ha -1 -an equivalent of 53 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1could increase the stocking rate by 50% for at least 2 years. Economic analysis at one site showed a return of 45 kg DM per shilling invested in DSP, in the presence of adequate N. At another site, the return was 13 kg DM per shilling invested. Overall, MRP gave only about 75% of the agronomic response of DSP, but should be cheaper to use because it is locally obtainable.The Mlingano and Naliendele Agricultural Research Institutes of Tanzania undertook 6-year comparative fertilizer trials (Anon., s.d., b and c). PR, TSP and a TSP/PR mixture were applied periodically to cereals on a rhodic Ferralsol and luvic Arenosol with respectively 6.7 and 5.0 pH and 4.7 and 5.1 mg P kg -1 . The trials were completed in 1986 after all plots had received a total of 180 kg P 2 O 5 ha t.Phosphate rock applied at the rate of 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 every season over the 6 years gave a total maize response much higher than did TSP at the same rate. However, when fertilizers were applied at 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 every second season or 90 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 every third season, the maize response to PR was significantly lower than that to TSP. With only an initial application of 180 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 , response to PR was 17% more than the total maize response to TSP over the 6 years (3770 kg ha -1 ). Fertilizer mixture was more efficient when PR and TSP were used at the rates of 60 and 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 rather than the reverse. Response to PR was, in most cases, relatively lower in the first year.Similar trials showed that the response of sorghum to PR was at least 30% lower than that to TSP at all rates considered. The trials with the TSP/PR mixture gave almost the same results as those with maize which at the best rate yielded an average of 800 kg ha -1 year -1 over the control.For both sorghum and maize, the return per shilling invested in fertilizer was higher for PR because the cost of TSP was almost three times more than that of PR, assuming that the fertilizer prices are farm gate prices and that all other costs are equal for both phosphate sources. However, price and yield variations over the 6 years might affect this result.Tables 2 and 4 show average response (AR) and relative agronomic effectiveness (RAE), calculated from the Ethiopian data. Average response is the mean change in yield over the control as a result of fertilization. Relative agronomic effectiveness is the percentage representation of AR to phosphate fertilizers in the AR to RP at the same rate. The RAE of PR is for example computed as: RAE pr = (AR pr /AR rp ) × 100where: pr = phosphate rock, and rp = refined phosphate (SPs).Accordingly, the RAE of SP is at any given rate equal to 100. RAE is estimated at equivalent rates of fertilizer application.Table 2 shows that in 1984, the RAE of ERP on Trifolium steudneri was 117 and 125% at 15 and 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 respectively, but was only 61 % at 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha I . Much better RAEs were obtained in 1985 at the rates of 15 and 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 .Results with T. quartinianum show that the RAEs of ERP are below 70% in all cases (Table 4). The performance of Togo rock phosphate (TRP), which has 36.7% total P 2 O 5 and 16% elemental P, was even less. Lucerne response to ERP and TRP gave RAEs less than 85%, although the RAEs of ERP were usually higher than those of TRP. Only in one case did ERP (at 160 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 ) give a better RAE (122%).  (1985).Mixtures of TSP and ERP were applied to Desmodium sanduicense and T. quartinianum (Table 4). Comparable TSP/TRP mixtures were also used on T. quartinianum. On desmodium, there was no significant difference between TSP/ERP applications of 37.5/12.5 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 and 12.5/37.5 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 . On trifolium, the highest fraction of TSP in the TSP/TRP mixtures and an equal proportion of TSP/ ERP gave better results. The higher the proportion of TSP in the TSP/TRP mixture, the better were the RAEs.Table 3 shows analyses from the literature review in Kenya and Tanzania. There is some difficulty in comparing results because of the use of different crops and materials. Nonetheless, it appears that PRs were generally inferior to RPs, while their yields were often superior to controls.Because phosphate rocks release P more slowly than refined phosphates, the profitability of using rock sources should be higher if residual effects are included. In Tables 2 and 3, residual effects are examined by comparing the cumulative RAE to the direct RAEif the cumulative RAE is greater, then including residual effects improves the value of phosphate rock.Using TSP as a reference, only four residual values are available for ERP in Table 2; two are greater than the direct RAE, therefore rock values are not improved by including residual effects. In Table 3, nine out of 12 values are greater than the direct effects, so it is possible to conclude that residuals improve the agronomic efficiency of phosphate rocks. This is also supported by most results of the 6-year trials with cereals in Tanzania.In general, phosphates did not improve the protein content of fodder except in clover response to ERP and URP. Although phosphate rocks were not as quick stimulants of response as refined phosphates, they gave better or comparable protein content. It is possible to conclude that adjusting DM results for protein content might favour phosphate rock use, and that both rock and refined phosphates would raise the yield of protein per hectare.Phosphate rock was tried on cereals. Apart from very few applications on maize, rock gave lower responses than did refined phosphates, although detailed trial results were not always available. In the 6-year comparative trials in Tanzania, PR was agronomically less efficient on sorghum than TSP. The tendency for rock to be inferior on cereals suggests that PRs would be more effective in long-term fodder production, because of residual effects.The economics of phosphate rocks depend mainly on phosphate prices, on the RAE value, and on the concentration of P 2 O 5 in each source. Because of rock's lower concentration, transportation costs will favour refined phosphates. Because TSP sources of P 2 O 5 are 12-40% more expensive than PR, rock can be that much less agronomically efficient than TSP and still be competitive. If the prices of rock and refined phosphates per kg of nutrient were equal, the REE would be equal to the RAE for any comparison. If rock phosphate has an REE greater than 100, it is more profitable than refined phosphate at the specified rate. This approach assumes that application, handling and other costs are equal for all phosphate sources.Table 5 shows that phosphate rocks are economically less efficient on T. quartinianum and lucerne, except at one rate on lucerne. ERP was generally more efficient at 30 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 or less on T.steudneri. On desmodium only a 1:1 mixture of P 2 O 5 from TSP and ERP and ERP alone were less effective. This is partly due to the lower agronomic efficiency of phosphate rock compared to that of refined phosphate, and partly to the higher price of P 2 O 5 kg -1 because of the higher transportation costs for rock. With T. steudneri, inclusion of residual effects improved the results only at the rates of 15 and 60 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 .  (1985).Table 6 shows the REEs of various rock and refined phosphates on forage crops in Kenya and Tanzania. URP, MRP, NRP and NAP seem to be clearly less efficient, except in one instance on grass in Tanzania where MRP was used with muriate of potash (Anderson, 1965). Inclusion of residual effects did not change the results. Sensitivity analysis of the REEs to changes in fertilizer cost showed that a decline as large as 50% in PR price or in the transportation costs of product did not affect most of the results. Possible reasons for the poor agronomic performance of phosphate rocks literature suggests that PRs gave poorer agronomic performances because of low solubility and P release. As few trials were undertaken with more than two PR rates, it is also possible that fertilizers were used below or above the appropriate rates, thereby affecting the yield. In most cases, residual effects were not tested for longer than 2 years. Because the trials were done under different conditions-using different plants, sites, methods and times of application-it is difficult to estimate the effects of other factors. For example, Anderson (1965) reported that when the same trial was done in three sites, the responses to MRP differed markedly although the comparison with refined phosphate did not differ as much.All studies confirmed a phosphate response. The response was probably greater on acidic soils, and was found in cereals, forages and tree crops. Overall, phosphate rocks gave poorer responses than refined phosphates. Only T. steudneri in Ethiopia and pyrethrum (genus Chrysanthemum) in Kenya gave better agronomic responses to PR than to RP in the year of application.It has generally been suggested that residual effects will be greater for phosphate rocks. Few experiments measured such effects: those outside Ethiopia confirmed that residual effects favoured rock application, although the residuals were never large enough to effect any significant changes in the economic efficiency of rock relative to that of refined phosphate.The poorer agronomic response to phosphate rocks makes the economics of using them marginal. There were some clear instances where it would be profitable to use phosphate rocks, but identification of such cases depends on the type of crop, rock, soil and other factors. Whatever the physical responses to phosphate rock, it will still be necessary to use more concentrated rocks in order to reduce the burden of transportation and other related costs, especially if the rock is not locally available. In addition, if rock is more difficult to apply than refined phosphate, then application costs should be considered in any further economic analysis.","tokenCount":"3867"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"76f8fe6073b00fe923c970f747ef8c09","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3e38a1a3-8480-41e7-a30d-84e268144b39/retrieve","id":"-767393457"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b32a1493-3270-4f70-b99c-7a5d2e623529","pagecount":"7","content":"The fact that Kenya has a youthful population, with a median age of just 19 is well known. Lesser known is that smallshare farmers in the country (who produce 88% of the food in the country) have a median age of 60 and an average life expectancy of just 65 yrs. Shamba Showdown has focussed on the labour shortage this will create from the younger generation not returning to the farm. However, there is a second vector that is potentially even more devastating: The Knowledge Gap. As the older generation dies off, they take with them all of the institutional knowledge, wisdom and experience that typically has an intergenerational transfer from their parents to them, and then from them to their children. Due to the unique youth demographic bulge in Africa, this generation will lose much of that knowledge transfer.Leveraging the latest AI Technology of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG's) we can train virtual elders to be experts in specific fields such as conservation agriculture, beekeeping, sustainable fishing, cooking, etc. These AI experts are then embodied in a relatable elder wise grandparent avatar. Mzee.ai will be a standalone Android App that youth can consult whenever they have a specific question that they would normally ask a parent or community elder. In this way we are taking a unique African approach to blend the age old concepts of Ubuntu and \"it takes a village\" with contemporary AI tools to create a \"virtual village\" preserving knowledge while improving practices.Project Status BEFORE This Amendment: This is the first phase of this project, and so prior to this, all we had was a concept and some very rough tests. That being said, the project has moved incredibly quickly from concept to first working prototype. The rest of the time in this phase will be used refining the interactions and improving the quality of the responses.Creating a multilingual, expert trained AI avatar to looks and sounds like an African elder involves some bleeding edge technology. We propose a staged iterative approach, proving one step at a time, and then expanding from there.Below are all of the activities that were committed to in the initial contract, and their current status:Activity 1: Corpora of Knowledge STATUS• Design structure of knowledge to be gathered and organized ","tokenCount":"377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b2afca09426f9e3003d61ec442ac905","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a02bcbef-040d-498b-b796-2bd31eb0dac8/retrieve","id":"1674178760"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b3a6919d-f14e-43c1-b778-26f2b17e8308","pagecount":"2","content":"What was the problem?Sweetpotato is grown mainly in small plots by women and is often characterized as a poor person's food crop. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato delivering nutritional benefits to pregnant women and under five children has been introduced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) project. One of the principal challenges faced by breeding sweetpotato breeders, is the obligate out-crossing and polyploidy nature of the crop -sweetpotato actually has 6 copies of its genome present in its nucleus -making the prediction and stacking of useful traits exceptionally difficult. Currently, there is an explosion of interest in sweetpotato and polyploid genomics. However, the critical issue of how to interpret the molecular data remains problematic, starting with the assignment of marker dosage, a.k.a. \"genotype calling\" and the development of new quantitative genetic algorithms to predict phenotypic performance in different environments. In addition, data collection from breeding trials has used paper-based excel forms followed by double data entry into a relational database. Although well established, this method is timeconsuming and error-prone. Therefore, new data collection tools and processing methods have to be developed to facilitate crop improvement.The GT4SP project established a multidisciplinary team of breeders, molecular geneticists, quantitative geneticists, bioinformatics specialists and database management/internet technology experts to achieve these goals: Where and with whom did we work? • We developed genomic and genetic resources for sweetpotato improvement, including genome sequencing and annotation of two diploid relatives, to be used as reference genomes for cultivated sweetpotato.• We developed a sequence-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping platform, with supporting bioinformatics and analytical tools to facilitate marker-assisted breeding. We additionally developed a database for data storage, analysis and sharing.• We carried out multi-location phenotyping of populations and marker-trait association, quantitative trait loci (QTL), and causal gene validation studies, as well as genomic selection trials.• We enhanced capacity for genomic-assisted breeding in African sweetpotato research programs through workshops, webinars, short and long-term training opportunities. What did we achieve?1. We published two high quality diploid reference genomes https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06983-8, that are annotated and available to the sweetpotato breeding community at http://sweetpotato.plantbiology.msu.edu/. 2. We optimized a sequence-based SNP genotyping platform for sweetpotato that enables high quality genotype calls for hexaploid sweetpotato, as described in https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111789/pdf/fpls-09-01166.pdf. 3. We developed an integrated database for sweetpotato breeding that is available for research teams upon registration and incorporates analytical programs to enhance faster analyses and decision making by breeders https:// sweetpotatobase.org/. 4. We developed new linkage mapping methods that have increased our understanding of the inheritance of parental alleles in progeny using high density multi-locus data https:// www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/689638v1.full. 5. We developed new methods for analyzing the genomic regions responsible for traits of interest in our breeding programs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/622951v1. 6. We have generated and analyzed transcriptome sequencing data that allows us to identify candidate genes for important abiotic and biotic stresses https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ full/10.1002/pld3.92. 7. Applying the new genomic tools and combining different data sets, we have started to dissect the genetic basis of important traits in sweetpotato breeding for SSA. 8. We generated ≥ 30 genomic, transcriptomic and phenomic data sets that are still being analyzed to answer some of the most important questions towards genomics-assisted breeding in sweetpotato. 9. We supervised three PhD students -two at NC State and one at WACCI -and supported another from Makerere University contributing to the development of nextgeneration breeders. 10.We supported six sweetpotato breeders from SSA to participate in the African Biosciences Challenge Fund and hosted them for short-term and long-term periods at the Bioscience east and central Africa (BecA) hub in Kenya, to introduce them to genomics-assisted breeding. 11.Last, we joined hands and became part of a very vibrant sweetpotato SpeedBreeders and genomics community of practice supported by the SASHA and GT4SP projects.Were there any key challenges or lessons learned?Many of the achievements listed above represent sweetpotato firsts. While we have learned much during the GT4SP project, there is still much to do if we are to realize the goal of genomic-assisted breeding in sweetpotato. While we believe the GT4SP project has succeeded in developing the core genetic and genomic resources required to conduct next generation breeding, we have yet to fully implement these tools in our breeding programs to further demonstrate their potential. The reality is that this technology is still quite new to sweetpotato and working in the data-intensive world of genomics will require significant coordination and, in some cases, totally new skill sets for our breeders. Thus, the learning process is complex, time-consuming and expensive. But we share a common vision and our team members are eager to work together to bring sweetpotato breeding to a higher level.We are convinced that sweetpotatoes can contribute significantly to the alleviation of poverty and hunger in rural poor households in SSA, and that plant breeding has a significant role for sweetpotato improvement. Not only can sweetpotato address the needs of only of the poorest of the poor--it can contribute to economic empowerment in small-to medium-sized and even larger farms through the development of improved varieties and seed systems and the increased production and sale of sweetpotatoes, either as typical food items in the marketplace, or via the development of a wide range of value-added products using sweetpotatoes as a key ingredient. New cultivars will undoubtedly play an important role in this upward trending crop that continues to increase in popularity and importance around the globe. We are currently working on a follow-on project in collaboration with the BMGF and USAID, and we are always interested in working with new partners in the future.","tokenCount":"924"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"872803f7fd5531c35ab90d7b7815c075","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/956ce01e-88ff-40d9-a852-a398ca15dee4/retrieve","id":"-1940951849"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5ee709d7-d740-421e-bc95-a6a9e11bd54e","pagecount":"26","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used. Editing, design and layout-The Arid and Semi-arid areas of the Greater Horn of Africa are among the areas in Eastern Africa frequently affected by natural and man-made disasters. These areas are therefore vulnerable to recurrent drought and other emergencies such as outbreak of infectious diseases. They are characterized by inadequate access to basic services, inadequate infrastructure, and increased competition for resources. The HEAL project is based on the assertion that, despite the huge challenges that have hit the Horn of Africa in recent years, its people, livestock and natural resource base provides a firm foundation upon which to improve livelihoods and increase resilience. Pastoralist communities depend on the close interlinkages between rangeland, livestock and human health. This insight and understanding provide an ideal basis to apply a One Health approach to tackle one of the key bottlenecks for pastoralists which is access to necessary services and inputs.The HEAL project is building on this foundation by supporting a bottom-up approach that is participatory, context-specific, coordinated and integrated to reshape service delivery in the form of One Health Units (OHUs). These units will facilitate a combination of services from different disciplines in a meaningful way and will thus facilitate interactions and coordination between governmental departments, private service providers and communities. Their aim is to sustainably strengthen human, livestock and rangeland health services and support communities to develop sustainable strategies to cope with changing environments and threats related to climate change.The HEAL project focuses on selected pastoral areas of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, which share some common characteristics in terms of climate, culture, population dynamics and challenges related to these. These countries have strong cross-border dynamics and are also linked in their historical context.• Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse (VSF-Suisse) : Lead • Comitato Collaborazione Medica (CCM) • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)Ethiopia | Kenya | Somalia CCM Sites:• Filtu woreda (Ethiopia),• Marsabit and Isiolo counties (Kenya) VSF-Suisse Sites:• Moyale woreda of the Somali Region (Ethiopia) • Miyo and Moyale woredas of Oromia Region (Ethiopia) • Beled Xaawo and Dollow districts of Gedo Region (Somalia). ILRI: in all project sites in the three countries One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals, and Livelihoods (OH4 HEAL) project is based on the assertion that despite the huge challenges that have hit the Horn of Africa in recent years, its people, livestock, and natural resource base provide a firm foundation upon which to improve livelihoods and increase resilience. Pastoralist communities depend on the close interlinkages between rangeland, livestock, and human health. This insight and understanding provide an ideal basis to apply a One Health approach to tackle one of the key bottlenecks for pastoralists, which is access to necessary services and inputs.The integration of environmental health is a key component and objective of the One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals, and Livelihoods (HEAL) project, which has the goal of fielding operational One Health Units (OHUs) on the ground that provide integrative rural services on all three aspects of One Health: people, animals, and the environment, in pastoralist rangelands of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. The main roles of OHU staff working on rangeland health are to know the local management system and how to support producers to improve it, and how to actively restore degraded rangelands and support producers to conduct it. Management planning and restoration actions taken by pastoralists can achieve stronger One Health outcomes in terms of the health of people, their livestock, and the land and ecosystems, through the development of synthetic land-livestock strategies (Sircely and Eba 2021). Their aim is to sustainably strengthen human, livestock, and rangeland health services and support communities to develop sustainable strategies to cope with changing environments and threats related to climate change.This report provides findings on the status of existing rangeland management institutions within HEAL project sites. We collected data from people knowledgeable in the areas and using the Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) (Flintan and Cullis 2010) toolkit scanning and appraisal tool (Robinson et al. 2021). These were people from local rangeland management institutions and other relevant stakeholders. This data was used as the initial phase of fact-finding undertaken under the HEAL project. This report provides useful information to guide on the next steps of PRM for each community identified during the focus group discussions according to their needs and gaps.PRM like traditional pastoralists' governance systems, involves planning and decision-making at different levels. The PRM approach typically works through a community organization made up of representatives of all the people within a specified rangeland unit with activities for planning and management at larger and smaller scales (landscapes and neighbourhoods, respectively). A rangeland management institution represents and works on behalf of the community to manage resources within the whole rangeland unit. There are different organizational forms that the rangeland institution may take; for example, a group ranch, a community conservancy, or a territory defined according to some customary criteria such as a 'dedha' (local elders council) committee.In Isiolo, the three project sites include Garbatulla Ward in Garbatulla Sub-county, and Chari and Cherab Wards in Merti Sub-county. For each ward, the project (Amref) selected villages/centres for One Health Units (OHUs) and Multi-Stakeholder Innovation Platforms (MSIPs). In Garbatulla, Gafarsa was selected as the OHU location, while Mogore and Bulampya villages were selected as MSIPs. In Chari Ward, Bisan Biliqo was selected as the OHU location, and Dima Ado was selected as the MSIP. In Cherab Ward, Malkagalla was selected as the OHU, while Laffe and Badana Raro were selected as MSIPs.Within these project sites, we identified the existing local rangeland management institution. In Garbatulla Ward, the Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha Grazing Committee was identified as the traditional grazing institution that makes key management decisions for Gafarsa, Belgesh, Bula Mpya, Kombolla and Muchuro areas of Garbatulla Ward. Since these sub-units of Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha each have their own smaller-scale grazing committees, assessments were conducted in each. For Mogore (which is in Sericho Ward), we targeted the nearest local institution in Garbatulla Ward, and identified Kombolla and Muchuro area grazing committees. In Chari Ward, the OHU is located at Bisan Biliqo and MSIP site at Dima Ado, therefore, Chari Grazing Management Committee was identified as the \"umbrella\" local rangeland management institution covering the whole of Chari Ward and overseeing Biliqo-Bulesa Community Conservancy, a member of the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) network of conservancies. In Cherab Ward, the OHU is located at Malkagalla center, and the MSIP sites at Laffe and Badana Raro. Malkagalla Dedha Grazing Committee was identified as the local institution that makes key management decisions for Badana Raro, Malkagalla and Laffe areas-in other words, nearly all of southern and eastern Cherab Ward.Focus group discussions (FGDs) with the identified local rangeland management institutions were carried out for each project site using the PRM toolkit scanning and appraisal tool. Additional information was obtained from previous stakeholder mapping carried out within Isiolo. Partners who were identified as carrying out activities under natural resource management/PRM within Isiolo included Merit Integrated Development Programme (MID-P), Nutrition in ASALs Within Integrated Resilience Institutions (NAWIRI), VSF-Suisse, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United States Agency for International Development-Livestock Market Systems (USAID-LMS), Action Aid, Cesvi and the Isiolo County Livestock Department.Using the scanning and appraisal tool, a total of five FGDs were held with groups in Garbatulla, Chari and Cherab wards, and various discussions with partners working within the area supporting PRM. The scanning and appraisal tool is the first step of PRM, and it is used to build on the systems that communities already have, without assuming that there are no rangeland management activities taking place. This tool is meant to scan rangeland activities and processes that are already taking place and to appraise the level of organization and capacity of community organizations that are engaged in rangeland management. These may have been supported by earlier projects and programs or they may be traditional management systems. This tool is based on a series of questions organized according to the 'Four Legs' of PRM. The tool contains a checklist to help summarize findings: Early stages: getting the community standing on four legs, and Later stages: building capacity and strengthening the four legs. The answers from the discussions with the community members who are knowledgeable in the area as well as with government staff and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the areas, will give guidance on the kind of interventions to undertake within the community.For the early stages: getting the community standing on four 'legs', Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha Grazing Management Committee is relatively representative. It is composed of 23 members from both Belgesh and Gafarsa areas, including 8 women and 3 youths. The community members within the areas are aware of grazing plans and follow a seasonal grazing system. The community has set aside dry season grazing areas and wet grazing season area; however, these plans have not been documented. The rangeland unit has also been defined by the community and the neighbouring communities within Isiolo County are aware. Neighbours from outside the county are not aware and no rangeland agreements are in place. The local administration i.e., chiefs and assistant chiefs, and other relevant departments i.e., the livestock/rangeland departments within the county government are aware of the committee and its roles. In addition, the chiefs and assistant chiefs are part of the committee as ex-official members. Traditional Borana elders are also aware of the committee and its roles.For the later stages: building capacity and strengthening the four legs, the committee is weak. It is not effective in carrying out its management and governance responsibilities, the committee does not carry out regular meetings, has never held an annual general meeting with the community, or developed an annual work plan or put in place informal systems of accountability.The committee proactively addresses problems of encroachments from neighbours or other conflict issues as they arise. Enforcement and implementation are currently weak due to the ongoing drought and animals are moved to wherever water and pasture are available without following the set grazing patterns. The committee relationship with immediate neighbours is constructive, but poor with neighbours outside Isiolo County. The committee is also not formally recognized by the government as a rangeland management institution.Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha has also received support from other partners within Isiolo in terms of capacity building. The NAWIRI project funded ILRI/HEAL project support to the committee with training on the roles and responsibilities of the grazing management committee and an introduction to the 'Four Legs' of PRM concept. VSF-Suisse also supported the committee in developing a sketch of the community resource map of the area in 2018, but the committee has no documentation of the map.Some of the challenges faced by the committee include no fundraising strategy, which hinders monitoring and scouting exercises around the rangeland unit; the committee has low capacity on PRM; poor and weak relations with neighbours outside Isiolo County; and lack of formal recognition from the county government. Other issues include animal diseases and high salinity of water in boreholes within Gafarsa.Under the early stages: getting the community standing on four 'legs', Muchuro Grazing Management Committee falls under Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha, and has low representation of women and youth, with a total of 13 members including 1 woman, 2 youths, and 1 chief as an ex-official. Committee members when asked why the committee has only one female, said that the work is not favourable for women since it involves a lot of movement to areas that are unsafe and far from homesteads. When asked about the youth representation, and why only two youth are in the committee, they said that youths are poor at resolving conflicts and often engage in violent activities. They added that elders are calmer and better suited to dealing with conflicts from other communities. The Muchuro community follows a seasonal grazing system with wet season grazing areas and dry season grazing areas. The grazing plans are known and well understood by the committee and community but are not documented. The rangeland unit has been defined and agreed upon with immediate neighbours. However, neighbours living outside Isiolo County are not aware of this. Under Leg 4, the relevant offices within the Isiolo County Government (i.e., the livestock production office), and local administration (i.e., the chief) are aware of the committee and its role in managing resources within Muchuro.Later stages: Building capacity and strengthening the four 'legs'. The committee does not carry out its management responsibilities effectively due to various challenges such as lack of funds for rangeland monitoring and scouting and lack of planning. As a result, the regular meetings are not held and the committee only meets when emergencies occur. The committee has never held an annual general meeting with the community and has no annual workplan. However, the committee is proactively addressing issues arising from conflicts or encroachments from neighbours although there are no formal systems of accountability in place. The committee is currently facing many challenges in the enforcement and implementation of plans due to the ongoing drought, where some community members accept to follow the grazing plans while others do not adhere to the set grazing plans. Also, the area is experiencing a lot of livestock influx from neighbouring communities making it difficult to enforce and implement existing grazing plans. Under Leg 3, the committee has managed to establish constructive relations with their immediate neighbours within Isiolo County but has no relations with neighbours outside the county. Lastly, the committee has not been formally recognized by the government.The committee has been supported by other partners within Isiolo most recently by the NAWIRI project which trained the group on the roles and responsibilities of the committee and did a brief introduction of the Four Legs of PRM. The committee has also received support from partners in developing a community map where they took part in drawing a community resource map 10 years ago, a sketch map that was not digitized and neither did the committee receive a copy of the sketch map. Some of the current challenges faced by the committee include but are not limited to; low capacity of the committee on PRM concepts, livestock influx, encroachment from other neighbouring communities, natural resource-based conflicts, and cattle raiding that is currently occurring between Muchuro and their neighbours from Lagdera.Opportunities identified by the committee despite their current challenges included pasture establishment, an existing pasture hay store constructed by VSF-Suisse, the committee was trained in pasture production, and existence of the three sub-area committees within the Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha area, i.e., Kombolla, Muchuro, and Gafarsa-Belgesh provides an opportunity to harmonize plans and carry out rangeland management at a landscape level.Early stages: getting the community standing on four legs: The Kombolla Grazing Management Committee falls under Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha, and is relatively representative. It consists of 12 group members, all from the same village and includes 2 women and 2 youths. The community follows a seasonal grazing system with dry and wet season grazing areas. The grazing plan is such that during the rainy seasons, the committee moves livestock 15 km away from settlements and moves them back closer to the settlements during the dry seasons. Kombolla has defined their rangeland unit and agreed on rules with immediate neighbouring communities but not with those outside Isiolo County. Also, relevant offices within Isiolo County Government and local administration i.e., chiefs within the area are aware of the roles of the committee within the rangeland unit.For the later stages, building capacity and strengthening the four legs, the committee is weak and shows a low capacity to carry out its roles and responsibilities as a grazing management committee, there are no regular meetings held due to challenges of little to no community funds to support committee activities, and the committee has never organized an annual general meeting with the community. The committee was recently formed with support from VSF-Suisse, but no annual work plans have been prepared and neither have formal systems been set up to provide accountability of the committee to the community. Currently, no grazing plans or management interventions are being implemented or enforced due to the ongoing drought. The committee proactively addresses conflict issues that arise within Kombolla. The community has established constructive relations with the neighbouring communities but has no relations with neighbours outside Isiolo County. The committee has also not been formally recognized by the Isiolo County government. The committee has also never created a community resource map of the area. Some of the major challenges faced by Kombolla Grazing Management Committee include lack of funds for rangeland monitoring and scouting and other rangeland activities, low capacity on PRM, no planning for regular meetings of the committee, and issues of conflicts with neighbouring communities leading to the loss of herds and lives.Malkagalla Dedha Grazing Committee is representative and is made up of 25 members from 3 villages: Badana Raro (9 members), Malkagalla (13 members), and Laffe (3 members). The committee has 5 women and 20 men, including 3 youths. It has set aside areas for wet and dry season grazing which are known by the community but the main challenge is that some communities do not follow the set grazing plans. There is a need for sensitization to emphasise to community members the importance of following grazing plans. The rangeland unit for Malkagalla has been defined and agreed upon by the community and their immediate neighbours are aware but those outside Isiolo County are not aware. The local administration i.e., the chiefs are aware of the committee and the area chief is an ex-official member of the committee. The County Livestock Department is also aware of the committee and its responsibilities within the area.For the later stages of the scanning and appraisal tool, building capacity and strengthening the four legs, Leg 1 of the Malkagalla Dedha Grazing Management Committee is weak in carrying out its management and governance responsibilities and has been further weakened by the ongoing droughts. The committee does not meet regularly because a majority of the members are pastoralists who move to other regions in search of pasture and water for their animals. The grazing management committee has also never held an annual general meeting with the community, and since the committee was recently formed with the help of VSF-Suisse, it has not yet developed annual work plans. But it is proactively involved in addressing arising conflict issues, such as a recent one where camels were stolen from Somalis and the committee has been active in resolving the matter. Other challenges include livestock encroachments from neighbours and a lack of formal systems of accountability in place. Leg 2, grazing plans are not being enforced and implemented due to ongoing droughts and conflicts with neighbours from Samburu and Wajir, and currently, animals are in both dry and wet seasons grazing areas. Leg 3, the committee has constructive relations with immediate neighbours but with recent increasing conflicts, interactions with neighbours are violent leading to raiding, loss of human lives and herds. Leg 4, the committee is not formally recognized by Isiolo County government but is registered as a group. The committee also has no documentation of grazing plans or community resource maps.VSF-Suisse supported the community in forming a more representative committee within Malkagalla and the Merti Integrated Development partners (MID-P)/LMS supported them to develop a community resource map for the whole Cherab Ward. Representatives from the committee attended the workshop to develop the community resource map in Merti, and the validation workshop of the digitized map which was carried out in Isiolo town by MID-P. The committee has held numerous planning meetings with NAWIRI but has not carried out any activities yet with the project. The committee has not undergone any training on PRM and are not familiar with the PRM concepts. The Malkagalla committee faces challenges of little to no funds for rangeland monitoring and other activities such as holding regular meetings. Other challenges include water scarcity and the current livestock influx, encroachment from neighbouring communities and increased conflicts over camels stolen from the Somali communities. The committee are involved in recent talks of plans to create an umbrella committee within Cherab Ward for better planning and management of the resources at a landscape level.The committee is relatively representative, made up of 14 members from 6 villages/centres within Chari Ward: Biliqo Marara, Dima Ado, Bisan Biliqo, Bulesa, Godha, Awarsitu, and consists of 3 women and 11 men, including 2 youths. There is a seasonal grazing system with a wet season grazing area, and a dry season grazing area, but this is not currently being enforced due to ongoing conflicts with neighbouring Samburu communities. The rangeland unit has been defined but neighbouring communities are not aware of the work carried out by the committee. However, the local administration i.e., local chiefs and relevant offices such as the County Livestock Department are aware of the committee and its role. In addition, the committee is registered and is largely recognized by government authorities due to its relationship with NRT and its legal registration as Biliqo-Bulesa Community Conservancy.Under the later stages: Building capacity and strengthening the four legs, the committee holds regular monthly meetings and annual/general meetings with the community, usually two seasonal meetings with the community within towns and those in remote areas separately. There are no formal systems of accountability in place and the committee has no annual work plan. The committee is, however, proactively addressing any conflicts arise, such as issues of cattle raiding, and other ongoing conflicts with the Samburu community. Currently, no grazing plans and other rangeland management interventions are being implemented partly due to ongoing conflicts, but normally enforcement and implementation of grazing plans in the committee is relatively good. The ongoing conflicts have weakened the implementation and enforcement of grazing plans and animals have been forced to move across the Ewaso Nyiro river into Garbatulla. Conflicts have also affected the operations of the road from Gotu through Chari to Merti, both public and private transport services have rerouted to safer roads to Merti town. The committee has not established constructive relations with the neighbouring community and interactions are violent. This has led to numerous losses of human lives and loss of herds. Lastly, the committee has no formal recognition by the government, however, the grazing management committee is under NRT-Bisan Biliqo Conservancy and is largely recognized for its relationship with NRT.The committee has received support from other partners within Isiolo, with major support from NRT and other partners such as VSF-Suisse, and NAWIRI project. VSF-Suisse has trained the committee on holistic management as an intervention to reclaim degraded areas and on clearing of invasive species and the benefits and process of harvesting non-timber products. The committee has also been supported in the development of community maps by MID-P, but the chair of the committee has no records of any existing maps. The Chari Grazing Committee was relatively new and the elders from the focus group discussion (FGD) mentioned that the previous committee was dissolved by NRT without their knowledge and a new committee formed. This occurred in a watering point (Quro) and the members were chosen among those who were present at the time. One participant from the elders said that he was unaware that he was no longer a grazing management committee member.During the initial phase of fact finding mission within Isiolo, discussions were carried out with various stakeholders and partners involved in PRM/ natural resource management (NRM) within Isiolo, particularly within the HEAL project sites. The partners involved include the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), VSF-Suisse, MID-P), NAWIRI project, Action Aid, Livestock Marketing Systems (LMS), World Food Programme (WFP), CESVI-Sampak, and the Isiolo County Government.The findings from linkages with some of the partners were as follows: MID-P is currently implementing the strengthening community resilience (SCORE) project that looks to build climate-resilient communities and empower local institutions in Isiolo County. The project is currently being implemented in six rural wards -Oldonyiro, Chari, Cherab, Sericho, Garbatulla, and Kinna. The committees involved in the project include dedha committees, ward planning committees, peace committees, and disaster risk reduction committees. The project engages 18 community champions within the six wards whose main role is reporting on what happens at the grassroots and other roles include community mobilization, dissemination of weather and climate information, and reporting. MID-P under the SCORE project also supports the champions with monthly stipends and by providing mobile tablets to record and disseminate data and information.Champions also share weekly meteorological reports with the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD) and through local radio stations. MID-P has supported the dedha/ grazing management committees within the areas by: Facilitating development of community resource maps for Chari and Cherab wards.Facilitating regular/ monthly/ on need basis committee meetings at either sub-county or ward levels.Facilitating learning visits to areas where dedha committees are strong such as Kulamawe.Supporting the formulation of the Isiolo rangeland bill and the climate change adaptation policy.From other discussions with VSF-Suisse, findings were that the Building Drought Resilience in Isiolo County (DRIC) project has played a major role in strengthening and developing grazing institutions within various locations in Isiolo. The project has supported grazing management committees within Garbatulla, Chari, Cherab and Oldonyiro wards by strengthening their capacity to carry out their roles and responsibilities in managing natural resources. Other forms of support include exposure/learning tours where committee members are taken to other areas where grazing plans have been successful to learn from them. The DRIC project also supports hay production and harvesting systems for both natural and cultivated hay and has constructed a hay store for various groups within project sites. Capacity building has been done for groups interested in fodder production.The NAWIRI project that is also implemented in Isiolo County, has a rangeland management component. The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) consortium, through the NAWIRI project, is tasked with the rangeland management component within six wards of Isiolo which include Cherab, Chari and Garbatulla. The project has supported various grazing management committees within the project sites in strengthening their capacity and in defining the roles of rangeland management institutions. It has plans to train the groups on group dynamics, PRM, conservation and climate change. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with NAWIRI project has undertaken training of technical county staff from different departments on PRM, and NAWIRI continues to disseminate the PRM knowledge further through these trained staff. In addition, the project recently carried out a capacity needs assessment among the grazing management committees within six wards, which included Garbatulla, Cherab and Chari, to identify gaps and areas of interventions for the existing rangeland management institutions.The scanning and appraisal assessment showed the five grazing management committees (dedha) within the HEAL project sites are strong for the early stages of getting the community standing on four 'legs' and minimal interventions are required on this. For the later stages there is need for interventions aimed at strengthening all the four 'legs' for all the grazing management committees.Interventions to strengthen the four 'legs' can either be short term or long term, for example the short-term interventions include supporting regular meetings to strengthen the community institutions, holding one annual general meeting with the community for each committee, supporting the committees in creating annual work plans, assessing the informal or formal accountability mechanisms, and community rangeland resource mapping. Long-term interventions can include support to improve relations with neighbours outside Isiolo County, large-scale rangeland restorations, drought reserve planning, and registration under the Community Land Act, 2016.Some partners carrying out PRM/NRM activities within the area such as MID-P have no knowledge of the PRM-approach, thus there is need for capacity building among partners supporting PRM within the HEAL project sites to strengthen the uptake of the PRM approach. Also, there is potential for integration of activities in project areas where partners are implementing similar activities to avoid duplication of work and ensure larger coverage and maximum benefits for the communities.Scanning and appraisal with the Gafarsa-Belgesh Dedha Grazing Management Committee -Garbatulla WardEarly stages: getting the community standing on four 'legs' 1 st 'leg': Is there a representative community rangeland management institution in place?The committee is representative from 2 villages (Gafarsa and Belgesh). 12 members from Belgesh and 11 members from Gafarsa.The committee has a total of 23 members including 8 are women and 3 are youths.2 nd 'leg': Is there a system of planned grazing, zoning, or other forms of rangeland management that is understood by the community?Committee and community members are aware and understand areas set aside for grazing during wet and dry seasons.Grazing plans are not documented.3 ","tokenCount":"4777"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d74512f50d07eb938322665459c5017d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d05f1bff-bd66-4aae-b5bc-2f01020d5d4c/content","id":"-1782270829"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6c749450-fb86-44e7-aba8-c2c84f7e17d7","pagecount":"14","content":"Analysis rice yield gaps is needed to better understand how to sustainably increase rice production across Southeast Asia. • Rice yield gaps (Yg) for four countries in Southeast Asia were decomposed into efficiency, resource, and technology Ygs. • Ygs were mainly attributed to resource and technology Yg in Myanmar, and to efficiency and technology Yg in Indonesia. • Yg closure requires increased N in Myanmar, reduced N in Indonesia, and fine-tuning N management in Thailand and Vietnam. • This novel approach identified opportunities for sustainable intensification of rice production in Southeast Asia.Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the main staple food for more than half of the world's population, many of whom live in developing countries (Pandey et al., 2010). Meeting the global rice demand in the future must be achieved through sustainable increases in rice production in the main rice growing areas of Southeast Asia to avoid further conversion of land to agriculture and to reduce the environmental and health impacts of intensive production (Godfray et al., 2010;McKenzie and Williams, 2015). Other grand challenges facing agricultural systems worldwide include the adverse effects of climate change, urban and industrial encroachment, biodiversity loss and associated loss of ecosystem services and soil degradation (Silva and Giller, 2021;Bouman et al., 2007;Rosegrant and Cai, 2002). Against this background, sustainable intensification was proposed as a strategy to increase crop productivity, through yield gap closure on existing agricultural land, while improving resource-use efficiencies and reducing environmental externalities (Cassman and Grassini, 2020;Tilman et al., 2011).Assessing the potential for sustainable intensification is particularly important in many Asian countries where rice is the staple food and irrigated lowland rice occupies a large proportion of the total agricultural land (GRiSP, 2013). Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar are responsible for nearly 85% of the annual rice production in Southeast Asia (FAOSTAT, n.d.). Indonesia is the 3rd world's largest rice producer and has been able to achieve near self-sufficiency in recent years (Agus et al., 2019). However, some of the country's most productive agricultural areas, such as in Java, are being lost as land is converted to residential, commercial, or other purposes (Rumanti et al., 2018). Vietnam has become one of the world's largest rice exporters, and the Mekong delta produces nearly 60% of Vietnam's total rice output (Tong, 2017). However, the rapid intensification of rice production in Southern Vietnam from the late 1990s resulted in an overreliance on agrochemicals that are becoming increasingly expensive (Stuart et al., 2018a), which makes it important to consider improvements in resource-use efficiency and profitability in addition to increases in rice yield. The same is true in Thailand, one of the world's largest rice producers and exporters. About half of the total annual rice produced in Thailand comes from the Chao Phraya river basin (Stuart et al., 2018b), where rising rural wages and input costs have magnified the focus on increasing the profitability of rice production. Lastly, Myanmar is the fourth largest rice producer in Southeast Asia, with over 55% of the rice area located in the Ayeyarwady delta (Thwe et al., 2019). Here, rice productivity is significantly lower than in neighboring countries mostly due to low input use, limited training, and poor infrastructure. However, the government recently set targets to double agricultural productivity and farmers' incomes in a little over 10 years (Dubois et al., 2019).Strategies to increase food production and meet the future food demand must reconcile environmental and socio-economic factors with narrowing (or maintaining) the existing yield gap between the potential yield (Yp) for irrigated crops and the actual yield (Ya) observed in farmers' fields (van Ittersum et al., 2013). Yield gap analysis plays a key role in sustainable intensification research as it identifies the contribution of biophysical and management factors, and their interactions, to actual yields (van Ittersum and Rabbinge, 1997;Evans and Fischer, 1999;van Ittersum et al., 2013). Yet, to increase crop yields sustainably, it is also important to understand the broader socio-economic context in which farmers operate to prioritize the 'sustainability' and 'intensification' pathways most suitable for a given farming system (Laborte et al., 2012;Stuart et al., 2016;Struik and Kuyper, 2017;Silva et al., 2021). Comparative studies, building upon common frameworks and methods, of farming systems in different stages of intensification or affected by different structural transformation of national economies are particularly useful in this regard.Recent studies on yield gap analysis for rice in Southeast Asia revealed different levels of intensification across the main 'rice bowls' in the region (e.g., Laborte et al., 2012;Stuart et al., 2016;Silva et al., 2017aSilva et al., , 2017b;;Radanielson et al., 2019). Such diversity provides opportunities for identifying the key biophysical and management drivers of rice yield gaps in a comparative way and, hence, to explore opportunities to narrow yield gaps and increase resource-use efficiencies. This study revisits the analysis of Stuart et al. (2016) and expands it with a field-specific yield gap decomposition for two growing seasons, representing one annual cropping cycle, across four main irrigated lowland rice areas in Southeast Asia. By doing so, best-bet crop management practices and pathways for sustainable intensification attuned to local conditions can be identified and used to inform policy. The objective of the present study was two-fold: 1) to decompose rice yield gaps while identifying the key biophysical and management constraints to rice yield, and 2) to explore pathways for sustainable intensification across four irrigated lowland rice areas in Southeast Asia in a comparative way. To do so, crop growth modelling was applied to simulate Yp under different management scenarios and stochastic frontier analysis was used to decompose yield gaps across a sample of rice fields in each of the irrigated lowland sites studied.Yield potential (Yp) is defined as the yield of a crop cultivar in a given cropping season when grown with water and nutrients nonlimiting and biotic stresses effectively controlled (Evans, 1993;van Ittersum and Rabbinge, 1997). Three variants of Yp are defined in this study to consider the impact of the main factors controlled by farmers driving Yp variability namely sowing dates and variety characteristics (Fig. 1).Yp a refers to the potential yield simulated with a crop growth model for the highest yielding variety and for the optimum sowing date of the cropping season within a given site. Yp a is thus an indicator of the potential yield of a given site for a given season using the optimum sowing date and the highest yielding variety available to farmers. The optimum sowing date of the growing season was defined as the date with the highest Yp within a three-month sowing window around the mean sowing date observed in farmer's field data for a particular season (i.e., mean sowing date ± 6 weeks).Yp b refers to the potential yield simulated with a crop growth model for the highest yielding variety and for the field-specific sowing dates observed in a given site. The highest yielding variety used as a benchmark for Yp a and Yp b was the variety with the highest average Yp, among the varieties used by farmers, in a given growing season. Yp b informs about the potential yield for the sowing date reported in an individual field and considering the highest yielding variety available. Yp a and Yp b are then indicators of yield potential for the highest yielding variety available at each site when it is grown in the optimum sowing date and in the farmer reported sowing date, respectively.Yp c refers to the potential yield simulated with a crop growth model considering both varieties and sowing dates as observed in farmers' fields. Thus, Yp c refers to the actual variety used by the farmer on its actual sowing date. As defined here, the difference between Yp b and Yp c does not consider genotype x sowing date interactions, which are known to influence resource use efficiencies at crop (Evans and Fischer, 1999) and cropping systems levels (Guilpart et al., 2017). Yp b and Yp c consider observed sowing dates and the results must be interpreted accordingly, as explained by the variety used.Two additional yield levels are defined to capture crop productivity under actual farm conditions (Fig. 1). First, the technical efficient yield (Y TEx ) refers to the highest possible yield obtained given observed levels of inputs in a well-defined biophysical environment (Silva et al., 2017a(Silva et al., , 2017b)). Y TEx can be estimated with methods of frontier analysis (Farrell, 1957) applied to individual farmer field data containing detailed information on crop yield, input use, management practices, and biophysical conditions. Second, the actual yield (Ya) refers to the yield observed in farmers' fields as requested in e.g., farm surveys.Four major yield gaps can be estimated based on the five yield levels previously introduced (Fig. 1). The total yield gap refers to the difference between Yp a and Ya, which can also be expressed by the ratio between Ya and Yp a defined as yield gap closure. The total yield gap can be further decomposed into technology, resource, and efficiency yield gaps (see Silva et al., 2017aSilva et al., , 2017b) ) for a visual illustration of these concepts).The technology yield gap is quantified here as the difference between Yp a and Yp c , which indicates the yield gap due to sub-optimal sowing date and variety choice from a production perspective. The use of Yp c in the calculation of the technology yield gap, instead of the highest farmers' yields (Y HF , i.e., the average Ya for the fields above the 90th percentile of Ya) as in Silva et al. (2017aSilva et al. ( , 2017b)), implies that the technology yield gap estimated here is only explained by sowing practices and crop varieties differing between Yp a and Yp c . When the technology yield gap is defined as the difference between Yp a and Y HF , as in Silva et al. (2017aSilva et al. ( , 2017b)), then its magnitude can be attributed to resource yield gaps of specific inputs (i.e., partial shifts of the production frontier) or to the adoption of precision agriculture practices, new varieties, or manipulation of sowing practices (i.e., total shifts of the production frontier; Silva et al., 2017aSilva et al., , 2017b)). Conversely, when the technology yield gap is defined as the difference between Yp a and Yp c , as done in this study, then it can only be attributed to the latter factors. In this way, the technology yield gap can be further disaggregated into a 'sowing date yield gap' (the difference between Yp a and Yp b ) and a 'genetic yield gap' (the difference between Yp b and Yp c ; Fig. 1). The sowing date yield gap is explained by sub-optimal sowing dates and hence, considers yield response to environmental conditions during the growing season (Jing et al., 2008;Rattalino Edreira et al., 2017;Radanielson et al., 2019). The genetic yield gap is attributed to lower performing varieties from a production perspective as also introduced by Senapati and Semenov (2020).The resource yield gap is quantified here as the difference between Yp c and Y TEx , hence it indicates the yield gap associated with insufficient amounts of inputs applied in farmers' fields, which limits the capacity to achieve Yp c . The use of Yp c to estimate the resource yield gap is comparable to the concept of 'feasible yield ' (Yf;van Dijk et al., 2017) and to Fig. 1. Concepts and definitions of the yield levels and yield gaps used in this study for decomposing rice yield gaps across irrigated lowland areas in Southeast Asia. Abbreviations: Yp a, simulated potential yield for optimum sowing date and the highest yielding variety; Yp b , simulated potential yield for farmers' sowing dates and highest yielding variety; Yp c, simulated potential yield for farmers' sowing dates and variety used; Y TEx , technical efficient yield estimated with stochastic frontier analysis; Ya, actual yield observed in farmers' fields. Please refer to Section 2 for further information about these yield levels.the concept of 'highest-farmers' yield' (Y HF ) in high-yielding cropping systems (Silva et al., 2017a(Silva et al., , 2017b). Yet, Yp c assumes optimal resourceuse efficiencies from an agronomic perspective, whereas Yf and Y HF consider the maximum resource-use efficiencies realized in farmers' fields.Finally, the efficiency yield gap is quantified as the difference between Y TEx and Ya and hence captures the contribution of different techniques in the use of the technology and resources to actual yields, translating into sub-optimal time, space, and form of the inputs applied. Crop management in relation to a) 'time' refers to the timing of application of the different inputs used by farmers, b) 'space' refers to the spatial variability of input requirement and application, the variability in soil types and their effects on input use efficiency and, c) 'form' refers to the type of inputs used by farmers.The study area includes four sites in irrigated lowland rice areas of Southeast Asia (Fig. 2), namely Bago (Ayeyarwady delta, Myanmar), Can Tho (Mekong delta, Vietnam), Nakhon Sawan (Chao Phraya river basin, Central Thailand) and Yogyakarta (Java, Indonesia). In each site, four different administrative units (village or commune) were purposely selected as possible intervention sites for the Closing Rice Yield Gaps in Asia with Reduced Environmental Footprint (CORIGAP) project. Each of the sites represents irrigated lowland rice production, with at least two rice crops grown each year. Within each country, villages were selected based on similar farm size and demographic characteristics and were located within a 25 km radius of each other. In Bago, Can Tho and Yogyakarta, survey respondents were randomly selected from a list of rice farmers from each administrative unit, whereas in Nakhon Sawan, interviews were conducted with all the farmers from a community rice center within each administrative unit. The farm surveys were conducted between 2012 and 2015, depending on the site. Farmers were interviewed using a standard structured questionnaire across all sites requesting information for the largest rice parcel in each farm on inputs used, crop management practices, actual rice production, and field area for the previous two cropping seasons, as well as a set of farm and household characteristics. A total of 100, 180, 180 and 84 farms were interviewed in Bago (2012), Can Tho (2015), Yogyakarta (2014), andNakhon Sawan (2013), respectively. A subset of the data from the same survey were reported by Stuart et al. (2016; for the wet season only) and Devkota et al. (2019). Additional data on the socio-economic characteristics, rice variety duration, sowing window, and herbicide use are included in this study.The actual yield (adjusted to 14% moisture content) was calculated as the ratio between actual rice production and field area. Individual cases where Ya was greater than Yp c plus 0.5 t ha − 1 were removed from the analysis (i.e., Myanmar, n = 0; Vietnam, n = 5; Thailand, n = 1; Indonesia, n = 21, where n stands for the number of observations excluded from the analysis in each site). Possible reasons for these extreme values are: 1) misidentification of the rice variety sown, 2) underestimation of field size, and/or 3) overestimation of actual rice production. Descriptive statistics of selected agronomic and socioeconomic factors in each site are presented in Table 1.Bago, Myanmar, has two major growing seasons per year: the summer season or dry season (DS) from November to May and the monsoon season or wet season (WS) from June to January. In Can Tho, Vietnam, double rice cropping is also dominant, with a winter-spring or DS crop from November to March and a summer-autumn or WS crop from April to July. Farmers in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, typically grow two rice crops per year: a DS crop from January to May and a WS crop from June to October. In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, rice is grown up to three times a year in some areas: a WS crop from November to March, an early DS crop from April to July, and a late DS crop from July to October. Farmers that do not have sufficient water to grow a second DS crop, typically grow a non-rice dryland crop (i.e., \"palawija\", such as maize, mung bean, or groundnut).The crop model ORYZA v3 (Li et al., 2017) was used to simulate the three variants of Yp considered in this study (Fig. 1). These Yp variants were simulated for each surveyed field in each site where the farm surveys were conducted. The ORYZA v3 model, and its earlier versions, has been extensively calibrated and evaluated to simulate Yp for rice in the main irrigated rice areas of Southeast Asia (Jing et al., 2008;Laborte et al., 2012;Li et al., 2016;Stuart et al., 2016;Radanielson et al., 2019). The model represents rice crop development and growth in response to genotypic, environmental and management factors, and their interactions, considering mechanistic and empirical relationships that are described in Bouman et al. (2001) and Li et al. (2017).The factors considered in the simulation of Yp included daily weather data for each site where the farm surveys were conducted (Table 1) as well as field-specific farmers' reported rice varieties, crop establishment method and sowing dates (Table 2). For each farmers' field surveyed, daily weather data were obtained from the NASA POWER database (http://power.larc.nasa.gov). These data included daily minimum and maximum temperatures, solar radiation, and rainfall (Suppl. Fig. 1). The varieties simulated in each site were IR50 (Shwe Thwe Yin), IR138 (Mestizo) and IR154 (NSIC Rc222) in Myanmar, Jasmine 85 and OM5451 in Vietnam, RD31 in Thailand, and Ciherang, IR64 and Inpari 6 in Indonesia (Table 2). The main differences between these calibrated varieties in ORYZA v3 are the thermal times controlling crop development and some of the parameters controlling leaf growth and biomass production. Further details about the calibration of the different varieties in ORYZA v3 are reported elsewhere (Boling et al., 2004;Boling et al., 2010;Stuart et al., 2016;Radanielson et al., 2018;Radanielson et al., 2019) and the calibrated crop files for each variety can be found at https://github.com/andomariot/inputs_cropfile_oryza/f ind/main. If the variety reported by the farmer was not identified among the previously mentioned varieties, then the variety used in the crop model simulations was the most reported variety among the farmers surveyed in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, respectively. This allows maintaining consistency in Yp c and reducing uncertainties in Yp estimates associated with farmer's variety as the most used varieties are known to be available for farmers in the respective site and are likely to be used and representative of the variety used by a given farmer. In Myanmar, none of the varieties previously calibrated in ORYZA v3 were used by the surveyed farmers, thus the calibrated variety with the most similar crop growth duration in relation to the variety reported by farmers was used in the crop model simulations. The calibrated varieties used in the simulations were IR50 for short-duration varieties, IR38 for medium-duration varieties, and IR154 for long-duration varieties. Farmers reporting varieties with more than 130 days, that were not defined with photoperiod sensitivity, were classified as long-duration varieties. Similarly to previous studies (e.g., van Oort et al., 2011;Li et al., 2015), the calibration of a specific variety may increase uncertainties in Yp c due to limited information from the farm survey on the characteristics of the variety and the inherent uncertainties in yield and crop phenology reported. Furthermore, most varieties recommended at the respective study sites were referred to by their growth duration class in addition to their name.Over 95% of the surveyed farmers in Vietnam and Thailand used direct-seeding as their crop establishment method, whereas in Indonesia all farmers used transplanting. Thus, in the aforementioned sites, the dominant crop establishment method reported in the farm survey was used in the crop model simulations (Table 2). Conversely, 53% and 90% of the farmers in Myanmar used transplanting in the DS and WS, respectively, thus the crop establishment method reported by the farmers was used in the crop model simulations.Stochastic frontier analysis is a parametric method of frontier analysis that separates the effects of statistical noise and technical inefficiency in the production process (Aigner et al., 1977;Meeusen and Van Den Broeck, 1977). Stochastic frontier analysis was used to estimate the technical efficient yield (Y TEx ) and the efficiency yield gap (i.e., difference between Y TEx and Ya). The approach considers the effects of biophysical control variables and production factors on crop yields while estimating two random errors, v i and u i . The former (v i ) captures random shocks and noise in the response variable (i.e., crop yield), whereas the latter (u i ) captures the contribution of sub-optimal crop management in relation to the time, space and form of the inputs used (Silva et al., 2017a(Silva et al., , 2017b)). The two random errors are thus important to isolate possible inaccuracies in the reported Ya from inefficient crop management practices. Y TEx was estimated from a stochastic frontier model assuming a Cobb-Douglas functional form (i.e., considering firstorder terms only) and accounting for inefficiency effects as follows: 1 Sowing week refers to the number of weeks deviated from the optimum sowing date identified with crop modelling (cf. Table 2). 2 The category of rice variety is based on the duration of the growing season as follows. short = 95 days or less, medium-short = 96-120 days, medium-long = 121-140 days, and long = greater than 140 days.3 Ratio of rice income (%) denotes the share of 'a' rice income over annual farm income.where y i is the actual yield (t ha − 1 ) of farmer i, and x i is a vector of inputs and agronomic practices used by farmer i. The error term v i is assumed to be independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) following a normal distribution with mean 0 and variance σ v 2 . The error term u i is also assumed to be i.i.d. but with a truncated-normal distribution with meanδ j z ji and variance σ u,where z i represents a vector of agronomic and socioeconomic variables explaining the efficiency yield gap. β and δ are season-specific parameters to be estimated with maximum likelihood as described in Wang and Schmidt (2002). A log-likelihood ratio test was used to determine the appropriate specification between a Cobb-Douglas (Eq. ( 1)) and a specification for the production frontier including interactions between the continuous variables. The result of the log-likelihood ratio test indicated that a Cobb-Douglas functional form was more appropriate than the specification with interaction terms for both seasons in Myanmar and Indonesia (data not shown). Thus, the parameter estimates of the Cobb-Douglas functional form are presented in the main manuscript (Table 3) and the parameter estimates of the specification with interaction terms are presented in Suppl. Table S2.The parameters of the production function (Eq. ( 1)) and the inefficiency effects (Eq. ( 3)) were estimated simultaneously with the sfcross() function from the Stata package sfcross (Belotti et al., 2013) and with the dependent and independent variables log-transformed. Y TEx was calculated based on the error term u i following Eq. ( 4).The stochastic frontier models were fitted for each site x season combination. The only exception was the DS data in Thailand for which the small sample size did not allow for reliable estimation of the production frontier. The vector of inputs x i included six variables defined according to principles of production ecology (van Ittersum and Rabbinge, 1997). The variables referring to growth-defining factors included in the model were the sowing date (defined as the deviation expressed in number of weeks from the optimum sowing date identified with the crop model simulations) and type of rice variety grown (short-, medium-, and long-duration varieties, considering the latter as the reference category). The amounts of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) applied were included in the model to capture the effects of growth-limiting factors on crop yields. Herbicide use (yes or no) was the only variable included in the model to capture the effects of growthreducing factors on crop yields. Variables capturing the management of pests and diseases, or their incidence, in the surveyed fields, were not considered due to lack of data. The effects of climatic conditions on rice yields were assumed to be partly captured by the sowing date variable and no other control variables for variation in soil types were included in the analysis given the flat topography of the sites and the proximity of the fields surveyed (see Section 3.1).The variability in the efficiency yield gap was explained using a second-stage regression in the production frontier (Eq. ( 3)). The drivers of the efficiency yield gap, z i , included in the analysis were the number of fertilizer splits (#), the years of farming experience of the household head (# years), and the share of rice income in a given season to total annual income (%, see Section 3.4 for a definition of total annual income). It is hypothesized that efficiency yield gaps decrease with increases in farming experience and increases in the share of rice income to total annual income as such conditions may contribute to better crop management in terms of time, space, and form of the inputs applied. A positive sign on an estimated coefficient in the production frontier (Eq. ( 1)) indicates a productivity increasing factor, while a negative coefficient in the inefficiency estimation (Eq. ( 3)) indicates a reduction of the efficiency yield gap.Input data and assumptions used in the ORYZA v3 crop model to simulate the three variants of the potential yield (Yp) defined in this study (cf. Fig. 1) for the farmer's fields surveyed across four lowland rice irrigated rice areas in Southeast Asia. 1 The optimum sowing date was estimated on a three-month window around the average actual sowing date, as the survey data showed a large range of sowing dates. 2 In Myanmar the crop establishment method was set individually for each farmer. 3 In Myanmar there was a wide range of varieties sown by the farmers, and none of them was calibrated in ORYZA v3, so the actual varieties were classified according to their duration. Yp for varieties with growth duration lower than 95 days was simulated using the variety IR38. Yp for varieties with medium duration ranging from 95 to 110 days was simulated using IR50. Yp for long duration varieties with more than 110 days was simulated using NSIC Rc222. 4 Boling et al. ( 2010). 5 Radanielson et al. (2019). 6 Stuart et al. (2016).Variability in farm size (ha) and share of rice income to total annual income (%) across sites was analyzed using boxplots. Total annual income is the sum of annual rice income and annual non-rice income, with the latter including income from a salary earner at private firms with regular pay, a salary earner at public facilities, a casual wage earner, wages from farm labor and, selling farm products other than rice. Rice yield response to N applied was assessed using quantile regression fitted to the 90th percentile of the pooled data with the smf() function of the statsmodels library in Python (Seabold and Perktold, 2010). A logistic functional form (y = a + b × x + c × 0.99 x ) was assumed for this relationship, where y refers to actual yield (in t ha − 1 ) or yield gap closure (% of Yp a ) and x refers to the total amount of N applied with mineral fertilizers in each field.During 2012 DS, Yp a in Bago was on average 10.8 t ha − 1 , Ya was 2.7 t ha − 1 and the respective yield gap between Yp a and Ya was 8.1 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3A; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap was mainly attributed to the resource yield gap (47% of Yp a ) and to the technology yield gap (25% of Yp a ; Fig. 3A). During the DS, the technology yield gap was mostly explained by the sowing date yield gap (20% of Yp a , Fig. 3A). There was a large sowing window (November to April; Fig. 4A) in the DS resulting in a large variability of Yp b with risk of high temperature, leading to yield loss associated with spikelet sterility (Suppl. Fig. 2). Indeed, rice crops sown between mid-December and mid-January had on average a 25% lower Yp b than crops sown between late January and early February (Fig. 4A; Suppl. Fig. 2).During 2012 WS, the Yp a in Bago was on average 9.8 t ha − 1 , Ya was 2.5 t ha − 1 and the yield gap between Yp a and Ya was 7.3 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3B; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap was mainly attributed to the resource yield gap (55% of Yp a ) and to the technology yield gap (16% of Yp a ; Fig. 3B). The sowing window during the WS was narrower than during the DS (between June and September), thereby lowering the contribution of the sowing date yield gap to 12% of Yp a (Fig. 3B). The genetic yield gap was small in both seasons accounting for less than 8% of Yp a (Fig. 3A and B). A total of 12 and 10 rice varieties were grown in the DS and WS, respectively, with the most used varieties, Manaw Thukka and Hmaw Be, sown by 41% and 35% of respondents, respectively (data not shown).The major driver for rice yield variability in Bago was the use of herbicides in the DS and the amount of N applied in the WS (Table 3). During the DS, fields where herbicides were used yielded ca. 30% more than fields where no herbicides were used (Table 3). N applied had a statistically significant positive effect on rice yield in the WS only, but the effect was small. Indeed, no clear yield response to N applied was observed within the sample for Myanmar (Fig. 5). The small effect of N applied on rice yield in this site can be explained by the low N application rates observed in all surveyed fields, which ranged between nil and 50 kg N ha − 1 in both seasons (Fig. 5), and possibly by other factors associated with poor crop management. This range of N application rate was the lowest observed across the four sites. Although there was no Table 3 Parameter estimates of the stochastic frontier models estimated for dry season (DS) and wet season (WS) rice across four lowland irrigated rice areas in Southeast Asia. The effect of interactions between variables are presented in Supplementary Table S2 Significance is indicated by the following codes: * P < 0.10, ** P < 0.05, and *** P < 0.01; Parenthesis show standard error of estimated coefficients. Skewed variables (i.e., mean < 0.05 or mean > 0.95 for binary variables), were not include in the analysis; Reference codes for variety types were as follows: Myanmar = long-duration, Vietnam = medium-short duration, Thailand = long-duration, Indonesia = medium-short duration.statistically significant effect of the proportion of rice income to total farm income on the efficiency yield gap (Table 3), increasing rice production in Bago is likely to improve farm profitability because ca. 80% of the total annual income was derived from rice farming alone and most households had access to at least ca. 2 ha of land (Fig. 6).During 2015 DS, the mean Yp a in Can Tho was 11.8 t ha − 1 , Ya was 7.8 t ha − 1 and the respective yield gap between Yp a and Ya was 4.0 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3C; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap was mostly explained by the resource yield gap, which accounted for 26% of Yp a , while the efficiency and technology yield gaps were small, 4% and 3% of Yp a , respectively (Fig. 3C). Differences between Yp a , Yp b , and Yp c during the DS were negligible (Fig. 3C). The small sowing date and genetic yield gaps in the DS are the result of a relatively stable Yp b between October 10 and December 17 (Fig. 4B), and to the fact that 82% of farmers used the same variety, c.v. Jasmine 85 (data not shown).During the 2015 WS, the mean Yp a in Can Tho was 10.1 t ha − 1 , Ya was 4.9 t ha − 1 and the yield gap between Yp a and Ya was 5.2 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3D; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap was mostly explained by the technology and efficiency yield gaps, which were 27% and 18% of Yp a , respectively, while the resource yield gap was 6% of Yp a (Fig. 3D). The technology yield gap in the WS was equally explained by the sowing date and the genetic yield gaps, which accounted for 15% of Yp a each (Fig. 3D). The relatively large technology yield gap in the WS was the result of a sowing window spanning over 3 months, between March and May (Fig. 4B), and of eight rice varieties being used, with the most used variety, OM 5451, being sown by 61% of the surveyed farmers (data not shown).N applied was the main driver of rice yield in Can Tho in both seasons, but there was also a positive effect of K applied on rice yield during the WS (Table 3). For instance, increasing N by 1% increased rice yield by 0.09 and 0.38% in the DS and WS, respectively (Table 3). N application rates ranged between 30 and 150 kg N ha − 1 in the WS and between 70 and 150 kg N ha − 1 in the DS (Fig. 5). This range of N application rates corresponded to the steep slope of the curve characterizing the yield response to N applied for the pooled data across the four sites (Fig. 5). There was also a negative effect of P applied on rice yield in the WS and rice yield was 17% greater for short-duration varieties than for long-duration varieties. None of the factors considered in the analysis had a significant effect on the efficiency yield gap during the DS, whereas farmers reporting a greater number of years of farming experience exhibited greater efficiency yield gaps during the WS (Table 3). Farmers in Can Tho managed farms with an average of 2 ha and no larger than 5 ha (Fig. 6A) and rice income accounted for ca. 50% of the total annual income for about half of the farmers surveyed (Fig. 6B).Yp a during the 2013 DS in Nakhon Sawan was on average 9.2 t ha − 1 and Ya was on average 4.6 t ha − 1 , which translated in a yield gap of 4.6 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3E; Suppl. Table S1). The small sample size during the DS did not allow to disentangle efficiency and resource yield gaps, yet the yield gap between Yp c and Ya accounted for 35% of Yp a and the technology yield gap accounted for 15% of Yp a (Fig. 3E). There was a wide sowing window during the DS spanning between November and January, with considerable decreases in Yp b after December (Fig. 4C). High temperatures, leading to heat stress, occurred during March and negatively affected the Yp b of rice crops sown between January and February (Suppl. Figs. S1 and S3).During the 2013 WS, Yp a and Ya in Nakhon Sawan had an average value of 8.6 and 4.8 t ha − 1 respectively, corresponding to a yield gap of 3.8 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3F; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap during the WS explained by the efficiency, resource, and technology yield gaps accounted for 12, 21, and 12% of Yp a , respectively (Fig. 3F). The length of the sowing window in the WS was comparable to the DS, yet there was much less variation in Yp b during the WS than in the DS (Fig. 4C). It was not possible to decompose the technology yield gap further for this site as only one rice variety was calibrated in ORYZA v3 (cf. Table 1). Yet, all varieties used by farmers had a growth duration of 110-120 days (data not shown).The drivers of rice yield variability in Nakhon Sawan were the use of herbicides and the difference in sowing date relative to the optimum sowing date identified with crop modelling (Table 3). Similarly to Bago, fields where herbicides were used yielded 25% more than fields where  no herbicides were used but the latter accounted only to ca. 5% of the sampled fields (cf. Table 1). Moreover, one week deviation from the optimal sowing date resulted in a 10% decrease in rice yield. There was no statistically significant effect of N applied on rice yield in Nakhon Sawan, which confirms the visual observations presented in Fig. 5 for this site. Similarly to Can Tho, N application rates in the WS and in the DS ranged between 40 and 150 kg N ha − 1 , which can be considered optimal for most fields (Fig. 5). None of the inefficiency effects considered in the stochastic frontier analysis were identified as determinants of the efficiency yield gap in this site (Table 3). Farmers in Nakhon Sawan had larger farm sizes than farmers at the other sites (Fig. 6A), with an average farm size of ca. 5 ha and about half of the farmers surveyed reporting farm sizes above 4 ha. Similar to Can Tho, rice income accounted for ca. 60% of the total annual income (Fig. 6B).During 2014 DS, Yp a in Yogyakarta was on average 11.1 t ha − 1 , Ya was 4.5 t ha − 1 and the respective yield gap between Yp a and Ya was 6.6 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3G; Suppl. Table S1). Most of the yield gap in the DS was attributed to the technology yield gap (34% of Yp a ) and to the efficiency yield gap (25% of Yp a ; Fig. 3G). The technology yield gap was mostly attributed to the sowing date yield gap in the DS with the genetic yield gap contributing to less than 5% of Yp a (Fig. 3G). Rice was sown across a five-month period during the DS (between March and August; Fig. 4D), with the sowing date yield gap representing 32% of Yp a (Fig. 3G). Farmers who planted between June and August were likely to be those with irrigation available all year, who either planted late or planted a second DS rice crop that was not differentiated in this analysis from the early DS crop, as this was not clarified during the farm survey.In the 2014 WS, slightly smaller yields and yield gaps were observed in Yogyakarta than in the DS: Yp a and Ya were on average 10.4 and 4.8 t ha − 1 , respectively, corresponding to a yield gap of 5.6 t ha − 1 (Fig. 3H; Suppl. Table S1). The yield gap was mostly explained by the resource yield gap (19% of Yp a ) and by the efficiency yield gap (11% of Yp a ; Fig. 23H). The technology yield gap in the WS was also mostly attributed to the sowing date yield gap (Fig. 2H). During the WS, rice was sown between October and January (Fig. 4D) and the sowing date yield gap explained about 10% of Yp a (Fig. 3H).N applied had a significant positive effect on rice yield, with a 1% increase in N applied resulting in ca. 0.10% increase in rice yield during both seasons, respectively (Table 3). There was also a positive effect of P applied on rice yield during the DS (Table 3). Across the four sites, N application rates were greatest in Yogyakarta, ranging between 75 and 350 kg N ha − 1 (Fig. 5). N application rates beyond 180-200 kg N ha − 1 translated into marginal, or even negative, rice yield response to N applied when considering the pooled data (Fig. 5). Such negative yield response to N applied were not captured in the stochastic frontier analysis (Table 3) most likely because squared terms and interactions between variables were not considered in the fitted models. The efficiency yield gap decreased with increasing share of rice income to total annual income (Table 3), meaning that inputs applied were better managed in farms relying more on rice as a source of income. Indeed, rice income accounted for ca. 70% of the total annual income in Yogyakarta (Fig. 6B), despite the extremely small farm sizes at this site (Fig. 6A).Crop modelling was combined with the analysis of farm survey data to estimate and decompose rice yield gaps across four sites in Southeast Asia (Fig. 2). The rice yield gap was largest in Bago (75% of Yp a ), followed by Yogyakarta (57% of Yp a ), Nakhon Sawan (47% of Yp a ) and Can Tho (44% of Yp a ; Figs. 2 and 5). Building upon the study by Stuart et al. (2016), these results refer to both wet and dry season rice crops and consider field-specific yield potentials, reflecting the highest yielding varieties available to farmers and the optimal sowing dates within the range of sowing dates reported by farmers.Most of the yield gap for rice in Bago, Myanmar, was attributed to the resource yield gap, followed by the technology (sowing date) yield gap (Fig. 3A and B). Increasing input use, namely fertilizers, and proper weed control is thus necessary if yield gaps are to be narrowed in Bago (Figs. 3A, B and 5;Thwe et al., 2019;Radanielson et al., 2019). N application rates in Bago were well below 60 kg N ha − 1 in most fields, confirming the low amounts of inputs used and the low level of yield gap closure in this site (Fig. 5). Despite the small amount of N applied, other factors (e.g., pests, diseases and weeds, balanced fertilization, or timing of N application) may also be reducing or limiting rice yield. Improvements in pest, disease, and nutrient management are likely to be needed, in tandem with increases in N applied, for intensifying rice production in this site. The levels of fertilizer use and rice yield observed in Bago are comparable to those observed in the 1970s for rice crops in Central Luzon, the Philippines (Kajisa and Payongayong, 2011;Laborte et al., 2012). Moreover, narrowing the sowing date yield gap through early sowing in the DS or late sowing in the WS within the three-month sowing window also offers opportunities to increase rice yield (Fig. 4A). The sowing date yield gap estimated in Bago also indicates high climatic risk for rice cropping in the region within the sowing window reported by the farmers.Rice yield gaps in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, were mostly attributed to efficiency and technology (sowing date) yield gaps (Fig. 3G and H). Resource yield gaps were negligible in this site during the DS, where indeed excessive N application rates were observed in both DS and WS (Fig. 5). Such large N application rates are a typical feature of highyielding cropping systems (Nayak et al., 2022;Cui et al., 2018;Silva et al., 2017aSilva et al., , 2017b)). The fairly large resource yield gap observed in the WS was surprising given the excessive N rates observed in farmers' fields (Fig. 5), most likely due to limitations in the stochastic frontier analysis (see Section 5.3). Yet, farmers reported yield losses due to blast and bacterial leaf light during this WS, possibly due to excessive use of N, which might explain why Y TEx was smaller than Yp c (Figs. 3H). Thus, further increases in rice yield in this site must be derived through a combination of reductions in applied N (Fig. 5) and increases in resource-use efficiency via better timing, space, and form of the inputs applied (Fig. 3G and H), and adaptive seasonal management such as shifting of sowing dates (Fig. 4D). The sowing window in the DS was wide (Fig. 4D) as farmers were sowing following the irrigation schedule established by the national irrigation authority. Optimization of sowing dates in the DS is only feasible then if the irrigation water scheduling can be adapted accordingly. Late DS sowing and early WS sowing also presented a risk of heavy rainfall at harvest which has a significant effect in securing timely harvesting and grain quality. Future studies accounting for the impact of climatic risk on harvest time and grain quality are needed to formulate adapted recommendations contributing to reduce the sowing date yield gap in Yogyakarta. Moreover, intensification using three crops per year in Yogyakarta is limited by water availability during the latter half of the dry season.The efficiency, resource, and technology (sowing date) yield gap contributed equally to the rice yield gap in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, during the WS (Fig. 3F). The relative contribution of the intermediate yield gaps is comparable to that observed for rice farming in Central Luzon, Philippines (Silva et al., 2017a(Silva et al., , 2017b)), as too the level of yield gap closure (ca. 50% of Yp a ). Efficiency and resource yield gaps had a similar magnitude in Nakhon Sawan (Fig. 3E and F), and herbicide use was an important factor associated with narrowing the resource yield gap (Table 3). Earlier sowing is also likely to increase rice yields, particularly during the DS (Fig. 4C). Indeed, long-term analysis of rice yield response to temperature indicated that late sowing of DS rice during the months of January-March resulted in greater risks of spikelet sterility due to temperature stress (Suppl. Fig. S3). Increasing rice productivity in the DS, the high yielding season of the year, thus requires adaptive management to climate variability such as the use of varieties with adapted growth duration and improved high temperature stress tolerance.In Can Tho, Vietnam, yield gaps for DS rice were mostly attributed to the resource yield gap while for WS rice both efficiency and technology yield gaps contributed similarly to the total yield gap (Fig. 3C and D). Yet, it is questionable whether yield gaps should be narrowed further in this site as yield gap closure for most fields in the DS and for some fields in the WS was close to 80% of Yp a (Fig. 5), which is often cited as the attainable yield target. Yield gap closure beyond 80% substantially reduces economic gains and increases risk of pests, disease, and lodging (van Ittersum et al., 2013;Stuart et al., 2016). Indeed, the sowing date yield gap was small in Can Tho despite the wide sowing window observed in the DS and WS. Yp b presented a steady trend within each cropping season with almost few or no fluctuations compared to the other sites (Fig. 4B). This lower Yp b variability indicates that sowing date was not a key factor driving rice productivity particularly in the DS. Furthermore, the resource yield gap for DS rice crops in Can Tho reported here may be overestimated, and consequently the efficiency yield gap underestimated, due to the small sample size available to estimate Y TEx , hence results need to be interpreted with caution. Current N application rates are likely to be nearly optimal for this site (Pampolino et al., 2007), but a few fields appear to have excessive N rates above 150 kg N ha − 1 (Fig. 5). Results of on-farm trials in Can Tho during the DS showed low yield gain from the application of best management practices (Stuart et al., 2018a), and seasonal increases in rice yield by farmers practicing site-specific nutrient management in Southern Vietnam were also reported to be only 0.2 t ha − 1 (Pampolino et al., 2007). During the WS, there is scope to increase rice yield through the combined adoption of high yielding varieties, timely sowing, and improved crop management in relation to the time, space and form of the inputs applied (Fig. 3D). Yet, highest-yielding fields during the WS already applied recommended N rates (Stuart et al., 2016). This confirms the findings of Huan et al. (2008) who also recommended limited and efficient use of N fertilizers in the Mekong delta as a means to reduce yield losses from pests and diseases during the WS.Rice production systems in Southeast Asia exhibit different stages of intensification, hence the scope to prioritize 'sustainability' and 'intensification' is site-specific (Silva et al., 2021;Struik and Kuyper, 2017;Stuart et al., 2016). Based on the level of yield gap closure and N application rate during the survey periods, intensification of rice production in Bago through increases in fertilizer use should be prioritized (Stuart et al., 2016;Thwe et al., 2019), whereas in Nakhon Sawan and Can Tho further increases in rice yield must be accompanied by increases in nutrient-use efficiency (Dobermann et al., 2002;Witt et al., 1999;Cassman et al., 1996) and in Yogyakarta by reductions in fertilizer use, particularly of N fertilizers (Fig. 5).Socio-economic considerations are also important to delineate the scope for sustainable intensification at local level (Takahashi and Otsuka, 2009;Silva et al., 2018;Flor et al., 2021). For instance, intensive use of fertilizers (Fig. 5), low levels of mechanization (Agus et al., 2019), and the preference for transplanting as a crop establishment method (Table 1) may be related to the small farm sizes observed in Yogyakarta (Fig. 6A). Conversely, the relatively large farm sizes might have triggered the adoption of direct-seeding as a crop establishment method and allowed for the mechanization and intensive rice cultivation in Can Tho (Stuart et al., 2018a) and Nakhon Sawan (Stuart et al., 2018b). Small farm sizes were essential for the Green Revolution in Asia (Larson et al., 2016), yet they also hinder economies of scale. The 'Small Farms, Large Fields' (SFLF) model developed in Vietnam is a possible solution to support smallholders within large production areas by creating favorable conditions for the coordinated application of improved technologies and standardized practices for economies of scale and stabilizing output markets (Thang et al., 2017;Flor et al., 2021). The model is recognized as a solution to the constraints faced by smallholders for mechanization and it offers them a bargaining power in both input and output markets (Mohanty et al., 2017(Mohanty et al., , 2018)).The share of annual income derived from rice farming also helps contextualize the contribution of rice to the economic performance of small-scale rice farms. Narrowing yield gaps in Bago and Yogyakarta will most likely translate into income increases for farmers under current conditions as ca. 80% of total annual income in these sites was derived from rice alone (Fig. 6B). The results also indicate that farms with a greater share of rice income in Yogyakarta have smaller efficiency yield gaps (Table 3), implying these farms prioritize crop management for rice in terms of the time, space, and form of inputs applied better than farms with a smaller share of rice income. Further research is required to better understand the linkages between income from rice and rice crop management, also considering off-farm income and job opportunities beyond farming.Crop modelling is useful to define upper ceilings and benchmarks for actual yields in farmers' fields and to disentangle sowing date yield gaps from genetic yield gaps (Fig. 2). Yet, the approach followed here entails limitations that require attention in future studies. First, the varieties reported by farmers were mostly characterized by growth duration which makes it hard to capture the full variability in yield potential between the different varieties. As a result, estimates of yield potential incur uncertainties and the contribution of the genetic yield gap to the technology yield gap might be underestimated in this study (Fig. 3). Second, variety by sowing date interactions were not explored and hence, it remains unclear whether some varieties perform better when sown in different periods of the wide sowing windows observed in most sites (Fig. 4). Third, optimal sowing dates were identified at crop level based on a single growing season rather than at cropping systems level based on long-term weather patterns and risks associated with water and temperature stresses. For instance, the optimum sowing date of the DS in Bago was observed to be mid-February when considering historical weather data (Radanielson et al., 2019), whilst within the cropping season surveyed in this study, the optimum sowing date was at the end of January, a period with higher risk of temperature stress (Suppl. Fig. 2). Recommendations for shifting sowing dates are thus season dependent. The optimum sowing dates identified are for maximum yield in a given season and would still allow the establishment of the concurrent crop of the year (Fig. 4). Optimizing sowing dates for the two or three crops a year to maximize annual rice production would most likely result in different optimum sowing dates, a topic that merits future research.The stochastic frontier analysis presented here has a number of limitations. First, the effects of pests and diseases could not be considered due to lack of data meaning that efficiency yield gaps may be overestimated in sites or seasons affected by these factors. This is particularly important in the analysis for Indonesia where positive effects of N on rice yield were identified (Table 3), despite the negative or small yield response to N applied identified visually (Fig. 5). The latter might be the result of lodging or pressure from pests and diseases (i.e., neck blast and bacterial leaf blight) at high N application levels. Second, socio-economic proxies associated with the efficiency yield gap were included in the analysis and future studies should better understand the effects of time, space, and form of inputs on the efficiency yield gap. Third, the lack of consideration of squared terms in the stochastic frontier models means that non-linear effects could not be accounted in the analysis. Second-order terms would be needed to capture a potential negative yield response to N applied in Indonesia, as identified in the quantile regressions fitted to the pooled data (Fig. 5). Interactions between the variables included in the production frontier were tested (Supplementary Table S2) but yielded inconclusive results possibly due to the small sample size. Finally, the farmer field data used in this study were collected between 2012 and 2015 and it is possible that since then several innovations and technological changes could have occurred in the sites studied. Analysis of more recent and independent data are needed to validate the findings presented here.Overcoming some of the limitations described requires long-term assessments at cropping systems level (Guilpart et al., 2017;Silva et al., 2017aSilva et al., , 2017b)). The sequence of crops within the cropping system determines the sowing and harvest dates for each single crop and the overall performance of the cropping sequence depends on the performance of each individual crop. The farm survey failed to differentiate between the early DS and the second late DS rice crop in Yogyakarta, which biases the optimum sowing date estimated for the DS in this site (Fig. 4D). Future studies also need to pay more attention to the role of reducing factors, particularly pests and diseases, on rice yield (e.g., Buresh et al., 2021). Finally, it is important to broaden the yield gap analysis presented here with a sustainability assessment considering profitability, resource-use efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions as well as synergies and tradeoffs between the different indicators (Devkota et al., 2019;Silva et al., 2018).Rice yield gaps across four sites in Southeast Asia were decomposed into efficiency, resource, and technology yield gaps using a combination of stochastic frontier analysis and crop growth modelling applied to farm survey data. Yield gaps were greatest in Bago, Myanmar (75% of Yp), and mostly attributed to resource and technology yield gaps. Yield gaps were intermediate in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (54% of Yp) and in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand (47% of Yp). In Yogyakarta, yield gaps were mostly attributed to efficiency and technology yield gaps whereas in Nakhon Sawan yield gaps were equally attributed to the three intermediate yield gaps. Yield gaps were smallest in Can Tho, Vietnam (44% of Yp) and mostly attributed to the technology yield gap in both seasons. The efficiency yield gap was also important to explain rice yield gaps in Can Tho during the WS, and the same is likely to be true in the DS as the small sample size might lead to overestimation of the resource yield gap (and hence, underestimation of the efficiency yield gap) estimated here. The current level of yield gap closure and N application rates indicate there is a large scope to increase rice production in Bago (Myanmar) through increases in fertilizer inputs, whereas in Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Nakhon Sawan (Thailand) and Can Tho (Vietnam) increases in rice production must be accompanied by increases in nutrient-use efficiency. Increasing nutrient-use efficiency in Nakhon Sawan (Thailand) and Can Tho (Vietnam) requires fine-tuning fertilizer management in relation to the timing, space, and/or form of the inputs applied. Conversely, increasing nutrient-use efficiency in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) requires reductions in the amounts of N applied in addition to fine-tuning fertilizer management practices. Separating efficiency and resource yield gaps helped identifying sites where site-specific nutrient management technologies should be targeted and where fine-tuning fertilizer application rates can contribute to increase nutrient-use efficiency, respectively. Future studies should investigate the role of yieldreducing factors, particularly pests and diseases, on rice yield gaps and to broaden the assessment presented here to other economic and environmental indicators, including the synergies and tradeoffs between them at crop and at cropping system levels. A better understanding of socio-economic factors affecting sowing dates is also needed, such as timely access to irrigation water, machinery, and labor. In conclusion, the major rice areas in Southeast Asia exhibit different stages of agricultural intensification that require different approaches to ensure sustainable rice production in the future. By breaking down the yield gap into different components, context-specific opportunities to narrow yield gaps were identified, providing valuable insight to target sustainable intensification of rice production in the region.","tokenCount":"9611"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b3caa01747bfdfdb08375c03ea93a9ee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8ea09793-14ea-4781-887a-ffa4f8c6afc9/retrieve","id":"-1005508315"},"keywords":["Human Rights","climate change","conflict","food security","health"],"sieverID":"0790a192-39b4-45ce-8e74-a3a65d60d9d1","pagecount":"35","content":"Titles in this series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.Climate change is described as the defining challenge of our generation (Wang and Horton 2015). It poses direct and indirect threats to food security (Campbell et al. 2016), human security (Nordstrøm 2010) and global health (Bowles et al. 2015). It has also been described as a threat multiplier that can intensify and prolong conflicts (ibid.). Climate change involves increased temperatures, changes in precipitation, hazards, extreme weather events and sea level rise which impacts human rights through multiple pathways (Mason and Rigg 2019).Human rights are understood as moral standards that are held by all people, they can also be formalised as legal rights (Bell 2013). Its widely accepted that the rights to subsistence and food, life and security and health are basic human rights (ibid.).To understand the full impact of climate change on human rights, it is crucial to realise their interconnected nature (Limon 2009), a violation of one right leads to the violation of others.This paper examines the link between climate change and the rights to food, security and health in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Africa is described as the most climate vulnerable continent (Quirico and Boumghar 2015). Von Uexkull (2016) finds that SSA will be hit most severely by regional warming, resulting in increased food insecurity, resource scarcity, extreme weather and conflicts. Climate change will also exacerbate existing socioeconomic risks and vulnerabilities (Field et al. 2014). There is significant research on how climate change impacts health (ibid.) and hunger (Myers et al. 2017) and only recently on conflict (Barnett and Adger 2007;OBrien et al. 2010). This study explores how food security, conflict and health are impacted by climate change by analysing data for correlation. In particular, this paper focuses on the security outcomes of climate change as well as the interplay between climate, food security, conflict and health.Further, this paper examines the legal protections that exist to protect people against climate change by exploring how these rights are expressed in international and African human rights instruments. This also acts as a reference to examine climate change through a rights based approach (Humphreys 2013). This review explores climate change through a Rights lens and looks at how it impacts food security, conflict and health.There are many ways to think about climate change and human rights. Human rights can be ethical, political or legal in nature (Bell 2013), and represent shared norms and values (Cohen et al. 2013). Unlike, legal rights, ethical and political rights can be justified since they are granted to all \"solely in virtue of their humanity\" (Bell 2013:161). Legal rights contain rules and obligations that are enforceable (Marks 2014). They are recognised through laws, treaties or declarations (ibid.). Uvin (2007) argues that \"Human rights, once set down on paper, never die\" (Uvin 2007:597). A primary source of legal rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its legally-binging treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (Marks 2014). Legal rights can be labelled as positive or negative; the former requires action to protect while the latter needs actions to be avoided (Humphreys 2009). The right to security is a civil and political right in UDHR that relates to physical integrity (Marks 2014). So it's a first generation right (Quirico and Boumghar 2015).The right to health and food are economic, social and cultural rights in UDHR that refer to social protections (Marks 2014) and are second generation rights (Quirico and Boumghar 2015). So, food, security and health are basic rights since they each contain the duty to avoid depriving, duty to protect from deprivation and the duty to help the deprived (Bell 2013).They are found in international agreements (Cohen et al. 2013).Viewing climate change through a rights based lens provides a common frame of reference (Uvin 2007). It also creates duties to address the effects of climate change (Humphreys 2009). A key benefit of this approach to climate change is how it recentres the focus onto the vulnerable persons who are impacted (Limon 2009). It prioritises harms to people and creates a framework that can be translated into legal obligations (Humphreys 2013). This is useful since climate change is a multidimensional challenge that increases vulnerability (Dryzek 2005). Vulnerability refers \"to the likelihood of experiencing harm from exposure to socioenvironmental stress and from insufficient capacity to adapt to change\" (Mason and Rigg 2019:11). It acts as a measure for the rate of climate change and a systems adaptive capacity (Busby et al. 2013). While vulnerable people will be impacted most by climate change, no one is immune (Watts et al. 2019).Climate change threatens food security through multiple pathways (Watts et al. 2019). Food security (or the right to food) refers broadly to food availability, accessibility, sustainability, nutrition and equity to meet dietary requirements for a healthy life (Swinburn et al. 2019). Climate change's main impact is through the reduction of agricultural and fishery yields (Bowles et al. 2015). The linkages also include social mediating factors like government capacity (Watts et al. 2019).Importantly, weather variables significantly determine crop yields and in turn crop yields determine the quantity and the nutritional quality of food (ibid.). Africa is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, as drought can deplete water resources and desertification can decrease agricultural productivity (Quirico and Boumghar 2015). As climate change is expected to increase the intensity and how often extreme weather events occur, food security will suffer (ibid.). To compound this, higher food prices from reduced yields will also negatively affect global food security (Bowles et al. 2015;Cohen et al. 2013).Food insecurity is especially harmful to vulnerable communities, particularly those based in food-insecure regions like SSA (McMichael et al. 2012). The importance of food security is contextualised when it is described as a determinant of overall health (McMichael et al. 2012). The challenge of food insecurity often prompts people to relocate to other more food secure regions (ibid.). This shows how climate change amplifies existing environmental stresses and creates new ones (Fetzek and Mazo 2014).Climate change has been described as a security threat which can increase risks of violent conflict (Barnett and Adger 2007) and violate the right to security. While there is no agreed definition of security, (Powell 2019) it describes a right to safety and protections from environmental or physical threats (ibid.). How climate change relates to conflict is not a simple causal relationship; Von Uexkull (2016) notes that there are indirect linkages that are influenced by political and economic contexts. Most studies describe the relationship between climate change and conflict by examining specific aspects of climate variabilities (Bretthauer 2016). However, explainations of the link between climate change and conflict are not all consistent since different studies focus on different types of conflict and different aspects of climate change (ibid.). Contributors to conflict include \"poverty, environmental degradation, governance challenges, resource stresses, ethnic divisions and demographic pressures\" (Fetzek and Mazo 2014:152). SSA contains many fragile states which are especially vulnerable, making them hotspots for conflict (Bowles et al. 2015). Von Uexkull (2016) explains how it is \"particularly important to identify the effect of climate variability on organized violence in sub-Saharan Africa, as future climate change will likely enhance the salience of this link\" (von Uexkull 2016:12).Other causes of conflict include food insecurity, resource scarcity, migration and shocks such as natural disasters or rising food prices (Barnett and Adger 2007;Breisinger et al. 2015). In SSA, these factors overlap and are exacerbated by climate change (Myers et al. 2017). Nordstrøm (2010) defines climate change as a mechanism that affects conflict: as a threat multiplier, a channel or a trigger for violence. It acts as a multiplier when it interacts with socio-political factors, it can also act as a channel when it is used to promote violence.Finally, it can act as a trigger if it causes sudden change that leads to conflict (Nordstrøm 2010).The notion of climate conflict is relevant to explore as it has been adopted by various actors (ibid.). Bretthauer (2016) argues: \"climate change leads to human insecurity as it reduces the resources people need to sustain their livelihoods […] This scarcity of livelihood resources results in increased competition over resources, which in turn leads to violent conflict\" (Bretthauer 2016:2). In sub-Sahran Africa, higher tempertures are associated with increases in civil war which stem from poor argicultural yields (ibid.). How climate change relates to security is not always that simple however as there are several interconnected factors that influence conflict (Field et al. 2014). Busby (2018) builds on this, stating while the link is complex, \"merely saying climate forces are threat multipliers is not especially helpful\" (Busby 2018:342).Climate change poses a serious threat to global health (Bowles et al. 2015). By situating climate change as a health issue, Wang and Horton (2015) argue that it makes more real what sometimes appears as a distant issue. Climate change affects health directly and indirectly. Field et al. ( 2014) describe three ways; directly from extreme conditions, indirectly from changes in the environment or ecosystem and lastly, indirect impacts mediated through societal systems. While the first two refer to floods or shifting patterns of disease carrying pests, the final refers to more complex health impacts such as undernutrition and mental illness (Field et al. 2014). The right to health creates a sense of responsibility for states to protect and provide access to preventative health and health care services (Swinburn et al. 2019).Climate change's impact on health has been explored in depth and there is agreement that it exacerbates mental illness, undernutrition, allergies, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases (Watts et al. 2019). Heat-related illnesses from rising temperatures are also relevant (Mason and Rigg 2019) . Africa is especially vulnerable to risks to health security since access to sufficient food, clean water and health services are not guaranteed for many (Quirico and Boumghar 2015). Climate Change also has the ability to magnify and exacerbate existing chronic diseases as in SSA where the high prevalence of HIV multiplies the health risks of climate change (Field et al. 2014). 2019) explains, most climate-related health impacts are mediated through complex environmental and social systems. This is expected since changes in climate result in disruptions in environmental and social systems which in turn will impact human health via multiple pathways (McMichael et al. 2012). Field et al. (2014) find that these impacts are particularly deadly for those with the least capacity to adapt and poor health systems.Based on this review, it is important to recognise to what extent these impacts are interrelated and mediated. This is an area this paper aims to contribute to.Considering that \"climate change is primarily a catalyst which will likely intensify tensions in vulnerable parts of the world\" (Nordstrøm 2010:11), it makes sense to map the impacts of climate change on food security, security and health. Especially in SSA where the effects of climate change are mediated through asymmetries of access (von Uexkull 2016). Breisinger et al. (2015) find that food insecurity becomes concentrated in conflict affected countries.But in the same way conflict acts as risk multiplier that threatens food security , food insecurity can contribute to conflict (von Uexkull 2016). The health implications of food insecurity are vast (Swinburn et al. 2019), as are the health consequences of conflict which operate at two dimensions: directly through violence and the indirectly through the conditions it creates (Bowles et al. 2015). Conflict contributes to increased transmission of infectious diseases, food insecurity, mass migration and poor sanitation (ibid.). Campbell et al. (2016) map the pathways between climate, health and food security as being interconnected. As explored in the literature review, health pathways will affect peoples' nutrition which will in turn compromise their ability to adapt to future climate change risks (Campbell et al. 2016). Based on this, climate change acts as an exacerbator for pre-existing socioenvironmental vulnerabilities that will threaten people globally. Von Uexkull (2016) links exposure to climate variability, a reduction in livelihoods to an increased risk of violence as a one-way relationship. While Busby et al.'s (2013) diagram for vulnerability includes hazard exposure, resilience and governance, it does so as unconnected nodes. It does not recognise linkages. Others recognise the interplay better ut do so in a limited scope.Importantly, peoples capacity to adapt is threatened by their exposure to climate change and how it negatively impacts their rights (Mason and Rigg 2019). Systems contain interrelated connections that change and reinforce causes and effects which result in cycles that reduce abilities to adapt to long-term climate change (Fetzek and Mazo 2014). So, understanding the dynamics and feedback loops that occur between climate change, food security, security and health is crucial to identifying solutions. This paper does this by mapping the impacts (Figure 1). This figure builds on existing diagrams to create a comprehensive map to understand relationships within a broader framework. Each component is described in Table 2 in the Methodology. This paper uses a Positivist approach as it focuses on causality between climate change, food security, conflict and health. Positivism helps uncover the link between phenomena through fact-based investigations (Bryman 2016). A multi-method design combined qualitative and quantitative data by using 11 international and 9 African human rights instruments and 8 indicators sourced from INFORM Risk Index. Data was sourced through online research and secondary literature.This analysis aims to understand how the rights to food, security and health are formalised and explain the extent food security, conflict and health are interrelated. Human right instruments include Declarations, Treaties and Conventions. So, the textual data varies in format since some instruments are non-binding. Data was sampled purposively (ibid.) The document list is in Appendix 1.The textual data was examined using exploratory analysis coding on NVivo12 to help visualise trends and compare the occurrence (ibid.) of the three rights. By quantifying the occurrence of the rights within articles in the instruments it is possible to assume its importance.The data required for this study was from INFORM Risk Index, a database that compiles data from over 50 databases on hazard & exposure, vulnerability and lack of coping capacity (DRMKC 2020). The data covered 2010-2019. Excel was used to combine years to get an average for each indicator. To evaluate the relationships, both a global and SSA analysis was done. The former has the advantage of a large sample size (countries), but the disadvantage of diverse conditions across the globe. Variables were selected based on their relevance for the pathways presented in the Conceptual Framework (Table 1). To analyse the data, SPSS Statistics was used. Descriptive statistics were done to check the data for normality so that parametric statistics could be used. Only Current Conflicts was heavily skewed. To overcome the limitation of the Natural Hazard variable, a subset of the global data was created (\"Global climate change subset\"), excluding countries above the upper quartile for the tsunamis and earthquakes indicators.To understand the relationships among variables, correlation coefficients were calculated (ibid.). The parametric Pearson's correlation coefficient was used in most cases but where Conflict was the variable, the nonparametric Spearman's correlation coefficient was used (Meyers et al. 2013). Four sets of correlation analyses were conducted: the first to understand how food security, conflict and health are related, the others to understand how climate change impacts food security, conflict and health and to what extent governance, inequality and poverty also play a part.To understand how climate change and other impacting variables can predict conflict , the Current Conflict indicator (not normally distributed) was converted to a binomial variable 0 (no conflicts) and 1 (conflicts), so a binary logistic regression could be conducted (ibid.)using Conflict as dependent variable.To what extent are food security, conflict, and health interrelated?Table 2 summarises the document analysis for the occurrence of rights. A more detailed summary of each human rights instrument is in Appendix 2. The right to food is stated as a right that needs to be protected. It is understood as being free from hunger (FAO 2020). The Protocol to African Charter on Rights of Women in Africa provides a comprehensive overview by granting \"the right to nutritious and adequate food… [and] adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security.\" In this way it captures all three essential dimensions of food security from its utilisation, access and availability (ibid.) and presents the right to food as positive (Humphreys 2009). The Pretoria Declaration underlines this by stating a benchmark of access \"to ensure freedom from hunger to everyone and to prevent malnutrition.\" This direct framing allocates responsibility to states and suggests a protection against the adverse effects of climate change. Swinburn et al. (2019) finds that the health effects of climate change will worsen malnutrition (ibid.).ICESCR includes the right to food as a part of the broader right to an adequate standard of living. Humphreys (2009) agrees; food is a precondition to the realisation of other basic rights.International instruments like the Rome Declaration strengthen regional commitments by listing the causes of food insecurity as including factors like poverty, conflict, corruption and environmental degradation. It emphasises the role of conflict by stating how \"a peaceful and stable environment […] is a fundamental condition for the attainment of sustainable food security.\" This recognition of the complex pathways that affect the right to food capture the impact of climate change (Campbell et al. 2016). The Universal Declaration on Eradication of Food further situates the right to food by clearly linking hunger to crises and inequalities.The right to security is described differently in the instruments. Powell (2019) also finds that security is a multifaceted concept that takes on new meanings depending on its context. The most common understanding of it can be found in UDHR; \"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person\". The notion of security of person is echoed in three other international instruments. The African Charter on Human Rights (ACHPR) expands to add that all people have the right to national and international peace and security. While the specific protections it entails are not explained, it captures the multiple levels security operates at. Quirico and Boumghar (2015) note that ACHPR also includes the 'right to This suggests that security is intrinsically linked to a right to life. It is clear that changes in the climate have negative impacts on peoples well-being, health and life (Wang and Horton 2015).ICESCR grants \"the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health\", this general framing is echoed in an African context by the ACHPR and The African Charter on the Rights of Child. The latter adds spiritual health.Generally, health is spoken about as a service that must be provided and ensured access to.So it is regarded as a positive right (Bell 2013). The attempt to encompass all health needs within the right to health is a challenge that makes it difficult to protect (Limon 2009) since it is also linked to other rights like food in UDHR. Swinburn et al. (2019) agree, finding that the right to health extends to include other concerns such as food insecurity, water accessibility and the adverse effects of climate change. The Pretoria Declaration on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Africa recognises this too.Besides health care access, the right to health also relates to the environment in ICESCR.African instruments like ACHR are more explicit, stating that \"All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development.\" By describing health within an environmental framework, it recognises it's impact on health. The Kigali Declaration further clarifies this by listing useful measures to take.Kigali Declaration states that \"all human rights are universal, indivisible, inter-dependent and inter-related\". A statement like this is a powerful tool to protect people against climate change. Notably, Soft law instruments like declarations do not impose binding obligations, so contain language that is more ambitious. Similarly, Grand Bay Declaration lists the causes of human rights violations as conflict, environmental degradation and disease. So, accounts for climate change's impact on rights. Environmental protections occupy a third generation of rights (Bell 2013) which African instruments are shifting to account (Quirico and Boumghar.For both global full data set and climate change subset (Table 3), Food Security and Health are highly correlated, while Conflict is somewhat less correlated with Health. Food Security and Conflict are least correlated. In the case of SSA, the strongest correlation is between Conflict and Health and the weakest and not significant is Current Conflict and Food Security.These results support the idea that food security, conflict and health and by extension the rights to food, security and health are highly interrelated.While climate change is significantly correlated with Food Security, other variables are more highly correlated (Table 4). For the global data sets, the most significant determining factors are Human Development Index, followed closely by Inequality and Governance. Watts et al.(2019) comes to similar conclusions, stating that poverty and the capacity of governments determine how risks can be managed. Natural Hazards are still significantly correlated with Food Security but with a smaller correlation coefficient. Interestingly, the Global subset (without tsunamis and earthquakes) has a higher relationship between Natural Hazards and Food Security. So, climate change is a significant determining factor for Food Security.Mason and Rigg (2019) find that climate change is expected to have a \"significant negative net impact on global food security […] By 2050, this is projected to result in global net reductions in crop yields by up to 45% for maize, 50% for wheat, 30% for rice, and 60% for soybean\" (Mason and Rigg 2019:185). For SSA, Governance is the most important determining factor, but the other variables follow closely behind. This is line with the understanding that food insecurity is caused by interlinked agricultural, environmental,  To what extent can climate change and other impacting variables predict conflict outcomes?Considering that climate change has been much discussed as a health and food challenge before, while climate change and security have received much less attention, it is useful to see how multiple variables contribute to conflict (Table 7). For all the datasets, climate change is a significant determinant for conflict, but Governance is the main driver for conflict. The regression equations explain more than 70% of the variation in Conflict. The predictions of Conflict from the equations were compared to the actual data. Six countries in SSA were predicted to have no conflict but had in fact conflict.Three of these have experienced ethnic conflict or conflicts over resources, which are not variables I had in the database. Fetzek and Mazo (2014) describe ethnic divisions and resource stresses as additional stressors for violent conflict. In Cameroon, there was violence from separatists (Rustad et al. 2020). While in Kenya, resource based conflict broke out (Relief Web 2020). For Uganda, migration from South Sudan led to conflict (Okiror 2020). For the other 3 cases that were incorrectly predicted to have no conflict, their causes are political. Burundi, Cote d'Ivore and Uganda's most recent conflict in 2020 was related to political elections (ibid.; Rustad et al. 2020). These cases show how \"the root causes of conflict vary greatly with each case and are often the consequence of a combination of political, institutional, economic, and social stresses\" (Breisinger et al. 2015:53).Interestingly, the regression model also predicted conflict in six countries that did not have any. Of these, Mozambique is actually an accurate prediction (Bowker 2020). Beside this one case, the other mispredictions prompt questions on how states remain peaceful.Data showed that climate change is correlated with the rights to food, security and health but is not the most significant determinant. The results also reveal interrelations between the rights, with health and food security having the strongest correlation. This is key since recognising the link between all rights is the first step for instruments to adapt to climate change (Humphreys 2009). As for conflict outcomes, climate change was the second most significant determinant. The methods were effective at addressing the question, and whileINFORMs database had sufficient data it would be interesting to see if other indexes had similar results. An additional tool that would help visualise the impacts and highlight vulnerable sites in SSA is mapping (Busby et al. 2013).In a similar study of climate change and human rights, Bell (2013) asks \"How might we defend the claim that the impacts of climate change violate moral human rights?\" (ibid.:163), she suggests two arguments. While the first asks that the right to adequate environment is expanded to include climate change, the second defends climate change as \"a 'new threat' to 'old' human rights\" (ibid.). In this study, climate change is considered a new threat to human rights. Bowles et al.'s (2015) study on climate change, health and conflict also frames climate change as \"a 'peace inhibiter' as well as a 'threat multiplier'\" (Bowles et al. 2015:392). An investigation by Busby (2018) also accounts for the many pathways climate change operates at to impact security. Contributions like these help understand direct correlations, yet there are still areas that need to be unpacked like how migration plays into this relationship (Mason and Rigg 2019). Another is to understand how climate change leads to humanitarian crises, since they are \"the most likely and persistent security threats practitioners have to prepare for\" (Busby 2018:342).This study used a rights-based approach, yet it is not the only framework used to examine climate change. Some use a cost-benefit analysis (Humphreys 2009) which views climate policy as \"one that allows some to suffer very great harms if, in aggregate, others benefit more\" (Bell 2013:159). While a rights based approach overcomes this, it is limited since the impacts of climate change can only be linked indirectly to it (Humphreys 2009). Rights are also hard to protect due to a lack of strong enforcement institutions and accountability measures (Limon 2009). The rights climate change impacts, lie within categories of rights that have weak protections (Humphreys 2013). Marks (2014) notes how human rights are usually enforced through implementation and monitoring measures for accountability.This study's focus on climate change allowed for the whole spectrum of rights -from first generation to third generation to be examined. The correlations between climate change and these rights showed that for SSA, climate change's impact on the right to security was most significant and least significant for the right to food. Although variable, there's still correlations between the rights themselves, which raises questions to the validity of  CCAFS research is supported by: CCAFS is led by:","tokenCount":"4418"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"72a80f0e0350ee3b2ba0facb7fa031c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/38ceecf0-4881-4d86-8570-06cbb6d27dbf/retrieve","id":"-1512542563"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6dd2fe43-9a55-440c-a184-297717298798","pagecount":"2","content":"Republic of Korea, the feed and forage development program at ILRI and its partners have been focusing on molecular dissection of drought-tolerance traits in some of the most important tropical forage grasses.Cenchrus is a genus of plants in the grass (Poaceae) family which includes species that are native to many countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Napier grass or elephant grass, scientifically known as Cenchrus purpureus, is a tall perennial tropical grass that becomes coarse as it matures. This grass is fast growing, producing up to 70 tons dry matter (DM)/ha/yr across a wide range of conditions and systems (Negawo et al. 2017).Its production is optimal where annual rainfall exceeds 1,000 mm, for smallholder or large-scale agricultural systems. Napier grass is popular across the global tropics, notably in cut-and-carry systems. In addition to Napier grass, ILRI scientists also work on an equally important warm-seasoned perennial, particularly for the semi-arid areas, known as buffe lgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris). This species is known for its climate resilience and is one of the most drought and high temperature stress tolerant grasses, producing nearly 24 tons DM/ha/year of good quality forage. ILRI scientists have been developing genomic tools to address drought stress in forages and a number of key milestones have been achieved. These include developing molecular capabilities to explore the diversity of Napier grass (Muktar et al. 2019) and the 'never thirsty' buffel grass (Negawo et al. 2020), generating more than 135,000 and 234,000 molecular markers respectively which, together with the core collections and subsets identified, will enable plant breeders to accelerate the selection of improved water use efficiency traits that will support the development of more drought tolerant forage varieties. In addition, the forage performance of the• Forage genebank at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) maintains large collections of Buffel and Napier grasses.• Assessment of forage performance and feed quality on the collections revealed that there are significant opportunities to improve these species through plant breeding.• Molecular marker technologies were developed by ILRI scientists to enable plant breeders to accelerate the selection of varieties improved for economically important traits, including water use efficiency.buffel grass collection has been assessed (Sánchez Gutiérrez et al. 2017 and2020) and exhibited high variability in all the different characteristics measured, which presents an opportunity to improve this species through a breeding program. A similar study underway for Napier grass (Habte et al. 2020;Muktar et al. 2021).Information generated through molecular analysis could be used to select diverse genotypes for further evaluation in multi-location trials and conduct further genomic studies linked to drought tolerance. Therefore, donor investment in genomic selection and genome-wide association studies promises to increase genetic gains and benefit for a food secure future through improved livestock productivity (Simeão et al. 2021).","tokenCount":"455"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e1ece1722bd58ae3beafd1aaffdd88dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2530c173-74b8-49be-879e-449cb395c3c1/retrieve","id":"-1367287946"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"76aee171-e303-4945-a607-bff42030470c","pagecount":"8","content":"Livestock is an important source of income for millions of smallholder farmers, including women, in Senegal (Habanabakize, Ba, et al., 2022;Habanabakize, Diasse, et al., 2022). But drought, heat waves and extreme wet events, exacerbated by climate change, threaten food security, animal health and the livelihoods of many pastoral communities in the country. With the increased variability of the growing season, natural pasture and water availability, undernourished cattle must 1 https://www.ais.unwater.org/ais/pluginfile.php/629/mod_page/content/6/Senegal_EN.pdf travel longer and longer distances. 1 In order to reduce uncertainty and to protect their livelihoods and assets, herders utilise various adaptation strategies, including: (1) destocking by selling livestock at often low prices prior to and during to drought; (2) transhumance, which entails a higher risk of animal loss; (3) purchase of feeds which can be costly; (4) utilisation of residues from croplands which may lead to conflict with farmers. In this context, extension services, developed on knowledge and innovations sourced from localnational-international research, can play a vital role in building the capacity of livestock farmers to improve their productivity and profit (Pousga et al., 2022).Indeed, the increased vulnerability to a rapidly changing climate have resulted in growing interest in Senegal and elsewhere to engage in the provision of climate information services (CIS) to farmers as a means to enhance climate adaptation and reduce risks in the agricultural sector (Diouf et al., 2019(Diouf et al., , 2020;;Ouedraogo et al., 2018). CIS are being developed worldwide for policymakers and decision-makers within the agricultural sector to enable rural society, especially the most vulnerable, to better manage risks and opportunities arising from changing climate and weather (Hansen et al., 2022, Hansen et al., 2019;Vaughan et al., 2019). -These shocks lead to livestock losses or the deterioration in the quality of products.-Smallholder pastoralists make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and climate related risk adding complexity to decision-making.-Provision of climate information services may play a significant role in planning for uncertainty in the agricultural sector.-  (Selvaraju et al., 2013). Such a service should also catalyse community participation and enhance two-way feedback by including end-users in the codevelopment (Selvaraju et al., 2013). To fill the gap of providing localized climate informed advisory services to build the resilience of livestock farmers in Senegal, AICCRA-Senegal initiated a Community of Practice (CoP) for climate-informed advisory services to pastoralists and agro-pastoralists.Based on the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) prioritization for livestock sector undertaken by Houessionon et al., (2022) The CoP comprises representatives from ten ( 10 Starting in February 2023, monthly meetings were held to assess and prioritize the needs for livestock farmers in term of information and advisories based on CIS (see annex). Overall, five monthly meetings have culminated the co-development of a climate informed advisory services (Figure 1).The CoP brought together the different institutions under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that stipulates the role and responsibility of each institution (see annex). The detailed content of the MoU was validated by 5 institutions making the CoP formal. The MoU establishes the formal engagements of institutions in the CoP regarding their roles, responsibilities and respect of rules and policies on data sharing. To facilitate CoP members providing consistent data following the same format, Jokalante, a private agritech social enterprise, developed a framework for two bulletins, which was validated by all CoP members. The bulletins are centered around two themes (pastoral resources and animal health) and ultimately guide the formulation of advice by the experts from each institution. In addition, Jokalante provided training for all the members of the CoP on how each institution should provide advice on the basis of its expertise. Based on the framewok, the content of the first bulletins of climate informed advisory services was validated with all members of CoP.. A needs assessment of existing gaps, the key actors and their roles, dissemination mechanisms and key CIS was used for the co-development of climate informed advisory services that respond to climaterelated risks. This assessment was carried out together with different categories of stakeholders engaged in the CoP and provided: a.An inventory of the existing CIS partnerships and mechanisms that could be useful for developing climate informed advisory services for livestock; b.Alignment with the inventoried and prioritized climate-smart practices and technologies to support livestock value chains in Senegal (Houessionon et al., 2022), of which one was agro-advisories guided by climate information, integrating the management of rangelands, water ponds and improved forage species. c.The identification of dissemination channels, key players and their roles in sharing costs and benefits.The localized climate informed advisory services to livestock farmers are defined and bundled around two themes (Table 1). These components are defined based on the needs assessment for livestock farming under climate uncertainty. This is also to make the information useful at the local level and to ensure data collection and synthesis on local weather, climate, pasture and water resources, market price of cattle meat and cow milk, and feed. Since climate information can be used to inform advisories on all the aforementioned data points, it plays a significant role in the co-development of different advice by the members of CoP. The climate information provided by ANACIM is central in the co-development of climate-informed advisory services. Ultimately, the process follows an approach that can be broken down as follows in Figure 2. The knowledge production and codevelopment of climate-informed advisory services are built from the interaction between the institutions engaged in the CoP. The meetings help each participant understand their role and how to provide the required data for developing advisories to livestock farmers. Then, this follows with the CoP turning these into weekly advisories on the dedicated platform based on climate information provided by ANACIM. The different advisories provided are synthesized into key messages and adapted locally, and then disseminated to livestock farmers.To summarize: a.A bulletin based on the weather forecast is produced directly in the platform by the members of the CoP. b.An expert panel, checks and summarises the advice provided by the CoP members into key messages. c.The first communication channel: Jokolante, an agritech company specializing in disseminating advisories to farmers, transforms the key message into a voice message and sends it to registered end users.A second communication channel: URAC, develops broadcasts for community radio stations, provides a wider reach to livestock farmers. e.Monitoring is conducted with feedback from livestock farmers, which improves the design, development, content and dissemination of the advisories.The dissemination channels used are Jokolate and are community radio through the partnership with URAC. These channels were chosen by the members of the CoP as most appropriate to reach livestock farmers in the rural areas given the mobile nature of livestock farming in pastoral communities in Senegal, as most herders have a radio to listen to while conducting their herds to pasture or a phone for communication.Jokalante serves as a link between these different institutions to facilitate access to reliable information for targeted livestock farmers in the project area. The web platform of Jokalante (Figure 3) enables the dissemination of advisories to livestock farmers. The same platform also allow experts to exchange information and comment on relevant advisories. The platform groups advisories by thematics, relevance to each value chain node, geographical zones and period of validity and relevance.  The provision of CIS in agriculture has largely focused on crop-based farming, leaving behind pastoral communities. Senegal in particular has had many initiatives contributing to scaling the production, dissemination and adoption of CIS by crop-farming communities. The lack of timely and accurate climate information and advisory services for livestock farmers for decision-making on fodder production, harvesting, storage, feed regime, access to water points etc. has led to inefficiencies in the use of dwindling resources. This makes it difficult for livestock to survive the long dry season, which in turn can affect the income and well-being of farmers in Senegal.The CoP on climate informed advisory brings together different institutions in livestock and climate change to provide livestock producers and value chain actors with appropriate advisory services based on weather patterns. This is expected to guide their decisions and use of limited resources to overcome and reduce the gap in resource availability during the dry season.It is essential as well to build the capacity of endusers and sensitise them on the application of climate informed advisory services provided through the CoP. The project continues with baseline and endline surveys to assess the impact of climate informed advisory services for improving dairy and meat production. The feedback will also guide the future design and content of advisories, training needs for an effective integrated CIS to inform livestock management strategies. ","tokenCount":"1416"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6bef6ac018afe246198815bc5afff740","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/2937aa17-82a7-40ff-bec7-14c3f1079de1/content","id":"-1166203453"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15de079a-9561-41db-ac44-5f09ec22046e","pagecount":"14","content":"Climate change is becoming more and more remarkable which has an obvious impact on crop yields all over the world. Future climate scenario data was simulated by 5 climate models recommended by ISI-MIP under 4 RCP scenarios, in which the approximate scenarios with global warming by 1.5 °C and 2 °C were selected. Applying DSSAT and GTAP models, the per unit yield changes of maize in the world under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C were analyzed and the market prices of maize at national and global levels were simulated. The results showed that, the risk of maize yield reduction under 2.0 °C scenario was much more serious than 1.5 °C scenario; the ratios of yield changes were separately 0.18% and − 10.8% under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C scenarios. The reduction trend of total maize production is obvious in the top five countries and the main producing regions of the world, especially under the 2.0 °C scenario. The market price of maize would increase by around 0.7% and 3.4% under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C scenarios. With the quickly increasing population in the world, it is urgent for all countries to pay enough attention to the risk of maize yield and take actions of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.In the past hundred years, the global climate has experienced great changes [1][2][3][4] . According to the sixth assessment report of IPCC, the global average surface temperature increased by 1.09 °C between 1850 and 2020, and almost all regions in the world experienced surface warming 5 . Due to global warming, the extreme climate events become more and more frequent, and the ecological environment problems caused by climate change are more and more serious, which restrict the sustainable development of human society and health [6][7][8][9][10] . Global warming has gradually changed from a scientific issue to a major social issue of common concern to governments and people of all countries [11][12][13] . In 2016, nearly 200 parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change reached the Paris Agreement at the climate change conference in Paris 14 . Paris Agreement has indicated that it is urgent to hold the increase in global average temperature well below 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.Faced with climate change, agriculture is the most vulnerable sector, which will experience the largest negative impacts from climatic change and lead to more serious food security in the whole world [15][16][17][18][19][20] . Meanwhile, global production losses might lead to price shocks and trigger export restrictions [21][22][23][24] ; an increasingly interconnected global food system 25,26 and the projected fragility of the global food production system due to climatic change further exacerbate the threats to food security in the worldwide [27][28][29] . So, the impacts of climate changes on crop yields and prices have been of highly concerned. Numerous studies have revealed that the warming trend has negative impact on crop yields and global trade in most regions all over the world [30][31][32] . There are three main methods for impacts assessment of climate change on crops, including environment-controlled experiments, statistical regression analysis and model simulations 17,33 . Environment-controlled experiments are designed to observe the influence of climate factors on crops, such as drought, flood, heat stress, cold damage, elevated CO 2 concentration, through which the impact mechanism of climate change on crops would be revealed and established 23,34,35 . Crop models and trade models are applied to simulate the response of crop yield and market price under climate change, based on process-based crop growth in daily time steps, either in selected field sites or in selected regions [36][37][38][39] . The statistical regression analysis usually explores the relationship between historical crop yields and meteorological records in different sites or counties to establish regression functions for crop responses predictions [40][41][42][43] . These researches have documented that crop yield and price would be threatened much more seriously by global warming, especially due to the increasing trend of frequency and intensity of climate extreme events in the future.Although, so far there are plenty of research on the impacts of global warming by 1.5 °C temperature, including the impacts comparison of global warming by 1.5 °C versus 2.0 °C44 . It is necessary to do more quantitative impacts assessments of global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C on crops yield and market price to address research gaps and support the requirement of the scientific community and governments. In this paper, the future climate situations were selected and analyzed which are the approximate scenarios with global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C, based on the simulation results from 5 climate models recommended by ISI-MIP under 4 RCP scenarios. Then the per unit yield changes of maize all over the world under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C were analyzed and the spatial distributions of changes in maize yield were revealed relative to the baseline from 1985 to 2006, applying crop model DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer). Next, we examine the effects of the resulting maize production shocks in different countries; the market price of maize is simulated using GTAP to reveal the impacts of climate change on global crop trade. Finally, the future trend of maize yield and market price in the main breadbasket is assessed and the adaptation suggestions are put forward for maize cultivation.Data processing. In this study, historical daily weather data (1986-2005) are from the AgMERRA dataset.AgMERRA is a post-processing of the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data. The dataset is proved to be suitable for agricultural modelling and features consistent, daily time-series data 45 .For future (2020-2099), the original climate scenario data (Table 1) were extracted from output archives of five ESMs (including GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC-ESM-CHEM and NorESM1-M) under four RCPs (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, RCP8.5) retrieved from the CMIP website. The climate scenario data was interpolated into 0.5° × 0.5° horizontal resolution and bias-corrected with respect to historical observations to remove systematic errors 46 . The data of maize-planting regions are from the gridded global dataset in 2000 by combining two data products 47,48 .Simulation of climate scenarios with global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. In this study, climate data of global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C are determined according to the results of global climate models driven by typical concentration paths (RCPs) of greenhouse gas emissions. Eligible data are selected from a total of 20 sets of data under four RCP scenarios of five ESMs (including GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC-ESM-CHEM and NorESM1-M), which estimate the temperature, precipitation and sunshine hours (Fig. 1).  Firstly, the period of 1986-2005 is defined as the baseline, of which the simulated average value is recognized as 0.61 °C above pre-industrial (the period of 1850-1900) levels; the baseline is selected according to the accessibility and operability of data, which is used for the determination of the periods with global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C and the comparison of maize yield between different periods. Secondly, the simulated values of global mean temperature in the future years are subtracted from the simulated average value of 1986-2005; then the values should be plus with 0.61 °C, which are the global warming results above pre-industrial levels; then 20 years moving average of the above results are calculated. Thirdly, the climate data of global warming by 1.5 °C is defined according to the principles provided in the fifth IPCC Assessment Report, for which it should be within 1.5-2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels at the end of the twenty-first century; the climate data of global warming by 2.0 °C is defined according to the principles provided in the fifth IPCC Assessment Report, for which it should be within 2.0-2.5 °C above pre-industrial levels at the end of the twenty-first century and the period of global warming by 2.0 °C should not be earlier than 2050. Finally, the climate models, scenarios and periods of global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C are separately confirmed; the data of global warming by 1. Simulation of maize yield using DSSAT. According to the data of global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C selected above, we simulated global maize yield changes compared with the average yield during 1986-2005 on grid level using CERES-Maize, which is part of DSSAT version 4.6 49 .The inputs for DSSAT simulation include daily weather data, soil parameters, crop calendar data and management information. All the inputs are formatted at a 0.5° × 0.5° grid resolution which are computed by highperformance computers. Weather data is from the AgMERRA dataset, including maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, total radiation and humidity. Crop calendar data were from the Center for Sustainability and Global Environment (SAGE), in which the existing observations of crop planting and harvesting dates are gridded formatted at a resolution of 5 min 50 . For management information, fertilizer applications, irrigation and other management practices are required. A crop-specific gridded dataset of nitrogen fertilizer application for the world was developed by integrating national and subnational fertilizer application data from a variety of sources, which is used to set up current fertilizer application rates for maize in each grid cell. Soil parameters are from the International Soil Profile Dataset (WISE), including soil texture, bulk density, pH, organic carbon content and fraction of calcium carbonate for each of five 20 cm thick soil layers 51 . All the soil data is allocated to be in accordance with the request of DSSAT simulation; the missing soil parameters for organic soils were adopted from FAO soil dataset.First maize yields across the world during the historical period 1986-2005 were simulated at the 0.5° × 0.5° grid scale with two main production systems, including Spring maize and Summer maize. Historical national maize production is aggregated from simulated gridded yield and weighted by grid cell maize areas in 2000 from the gridded global dataset by combining two data products 47 . Second, genetic parameters of specific cultivars of maize from previous works were adopted for the initial parameters; model parameters related to crop genotype characteristics were calibrated and tuned following the method in Xiong et al. 52 , in which the simulated yields from 1986-2005 were comparable to the statistical data. Third, maize yields across the world were simulated under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. Finally, global and national maize yields were aggregated from gridded values; changes in national and global yields under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C were calculated, comparing maize yield average for 1986-2005.Simulation of market price using GTAP. The yield changes for maize from the DSSAT models under 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C temperature increase are used to carry out simulations using competitive market for changes in production, market price, and self-sufficiency ratio of maize at national and global levels 53,54 . For this study, we use a comparative static analysis approach to simulate the impact of climate changes on the prices and trade of the major food crops under current economic conditions. Utilizing current economic conditions has the advantage of minimizing assumptions and model uncertainties related to future economic conditions 55,56 .The original GTAP database doesn't include maize as a separate sector, rather it is combined with other coarse grains to form an \"other coarse grain\" sector. For this study, we updated the GTAP database by splitting maize from the original sector in the database, design an appropriate sectoral and regional aggregation scheme to the original database. The detailed method is given as follows:First, we improved the database by splitting maize from the existing sector \"other coarse grain\", following similar work using GTAP [57][58][59] based on the routines from the Splitcom method 60 . In this procedure, the old flows of data both at national and trade levels are allocated between the new flows using weights. The national weights include the division of each unsplit user's use of the original split commodity among the new commodities; the division of unsplit inputs to the original industry between the new industries; the splitting of new industry's use of each new commodity. Maize use is mainly shared between feed, food, processing and others (seed, waste, etc.).Trade shares allocate the original slice of the split commodity into the new commodity for all elements of basic price value, tax, and margin. Finally, we used the RAS method for balancing the newly created database. The values for the national shares matrix were obtained from FAOSTAT. The trade shares matrix was calculated based on the data from UN Comtrade Database.Second, our sectoral aggregation scheme for GTAP ensures that all the competing and complimenting sectors for maize are present in the most disaggregated form. For example, for maize, other crops compete for inputs of production and both livestock and households are major users of maize. For regional aggregation, we kept the details for all the main producing, consuming, and trading regions, for maize.www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Third, yield shocks for maize were incorporated into the GTAP model via changes in land efficiency for the production of the respective in each region.Climate change under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. There are apparent change trends of temperature and precipitation relative to the baseline (1986-2005) under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. The most remarkable characteristics is the rising of mean temperature in the worldwide (Fig. 2a, b); meanwhile, the rainfall would increase in most regions of the world. The distributions of temperature changes under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C are similar (Fig. 2c, d). There are few regions in which the temperature would go down under the two scenarios; the temperature goes up more seriously in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern regions; especially in the high-latitude area the temperature rises more quickly than the other regions. Under global warming by 1.5 °C the area is 54.4% in whole world in which the temperature would go up between 1.0 and 1.5 °C than the baseline, located in the middle and low latitude regions; the area is 29.2% of the whole world in which the temperature would go up more than 1.5 °C, most located in the high latitude regions of Northern Hemisphere; the area is 16.4% of the whole world in which the temperature would go up between 0 and 1.0 °C , mostly located in the Southern Hemisphere and the low latitude regions of Northern Hemisphere. Under global warming by 2.0 °C the area is 12.3% in which the temperature would go up between 1.0 and 1.5 °C than the baseline, located in the middle and low latitude regions; the area is 69.8% in which the temperature would go up between 1.5 and 3.0 °C than the baseline, located in the middle and high latitude regions; the area 2 and Natural Earth-Free vector and raster map data @ https:// natur alear thdata. com. is 16.9% in which the temperature would go up more than 3.0 °C, most located in the high latitude regions of Northern Hemisphere; the area is rarely in which the temperature would go up between 0 and 1.0 °C.There are apparent trends of humidification in most regions under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C; but the drought risk also should be taken seriously in the other regions. Under global warming by 1.5 °C the area is 73.6% of the whole world in which the precipitation would increase, most located in the Northern Hemisphere; the area is 53.7% of the whole world in which the precipitation would increase by less than 50 mm; however, the area is 26.4% of whole world in which the rainfall would decrease, mainly located in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle regions of Northern Hemisphere. The distribution of precipitation under global warming by 2.0 °C is similar with the situation under global warming by 1.5 °C. The drought-threatened area would increase by 28.5% under global warming by 2.0 °C, especially in the middle and low latitude of the Northern Hemisphere; the area would expand to 26%, in which the precipitation increases more than 50 mm. In other words, the extreme rainfall events (such as drought, rainstorm) under global warming by 2.0 °C would be more serious than those under global warming by 1.5 °C, which is what we should be pay more attention to.Yield change of maize under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. Maize production is affected by climate change apparently. According to the simulation results of CERES-maize, the yield of maize would decrease in the worldwide relative to 1986-2005 under global warming by 2.0 °C; it would increase little under global warming by 1.5 °C. The distributions of maize yield loss under the two scenarios are similar to each other, mostly located in the middle and low latitude, which are the main regions for maize planting in the world. The loss risk of maize under global warming by 2.0 °C is much more serious than that under global warming of 1.5 °C. However, there are increasing potentials of maize yield in many regions, nearly half of the whole maize planting area in the world, in which the climate situation would become more proper for maize under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C. So, there are apparent challenges and opportunities for maize production in the whole world under climate change. We should grasp the opportunities and expand the yield increasing potentials; meanwhile, the threat of maize yield loss should be controlled and compressed to the minimum in the high-risk regions.From the results simulated by IPSL-CM5A-LR model under RCP 2.6 scenario, the gross yield of maize in the world between 2020 and 2039 would decrease by 6.8% relative to 1986-2005. The area is 37.7% of the whole maize planting regions in the world, in which the yield loss would be less than 50%, mainly located in the low and middle latitude of South America and Asia, and the middle latitude of Africa and North America. The area is 16.4% of the whole maize planting regions, in which the yield loss would be more than 50%, mainly located in the low latitude of South America and the middle latitude of Asia and Europe. The area is 45.8% of the whole maize planting regions, in which the yield would increase, mainly located in the low latitude of Africa, Asia and North America, the high latitude of Europe. From the results simulated by the GFDL-ESM2M model under RCP 4.5 scenario, the gross yield of maize in the world between 2041 and 2060 would increase by 7.2% relative to 1986-2005. There are opposite trends of maize yield under global warming by 1.5 °C, which are simulated by different global climate models. However, the spatial distributions of maize yield change are similar to each other. The difference is that the regions of high yield loss rate are decreasing, and the regions of yield increasing are going up. In a comprehensive perspective, under global warming by 1.5 °C, maize yield in the whole world would increase 0.18% relative to 1986-2005 (Fig. 3). According to Paris Agreement, all countries should do their best to limit the global warming by 1.5 °C until the end of 21 century. If that objective could be accomplished, gross maize production of the whole world would not be influenced so much by climate change, but the food security of the whole world would still be attacked violently. There are huge differences among the continents; South America, Asia and the Middle East are threatened seriously by yield loss seriously under global warming by 1.5 °C. The changes in maize yield in different regions would influence the maize price and food trades. So, it should be cautious to cope with the maize changes under global warming by 1.5 °C.From the results of simulated by the NorESM1-M model under RCP 4.5 scenario, the gross yield of maize in the world between 2060 and 2079 would decrease by 18.7% relative to 1986-2005. The area is 41.7% of the whole maize planting regions in the world, in which the yield loss would be less than 50%. The area is 15.6% of the whole maize planting regions, in which the yield loss would be more than 50%. The area is 42.7% of the whole maize planting regions, in which the yield would increase. The distribution of maize yield change is similar to that under global warming by 1.5 °C. From the results simulated by the GFDL-ESM2M model under RCP 6.0 scenario, the gross yield of maize in the world between 2065 and 2084 would decrease by 3% relative to 1986-2005. Comparing to the results of the NorESM1-M model, the regions of high yield loss rate are increasing, and the regions of yield increases are going down; but the per unit area yields are increasing quickly in the regions of yield increasing. So, the gross maize yield in the whole world simulated by the GFDL-ESM2M model is more than the NorESM1-M model. In a comprehensive perspective, under global warming by 2.0 °C, maize yield in the whole world would decrease 10.8% relative to 1986-2005 (Fig. 4). Compared to the results under global warming by 1.5 °C, the risk of yield loss is much higher. According to the new results from the Emission Gap Report in 2019, the target of global warming by 1.5 °C would not be implemented according to the reality of mitigation actions; the chance become much bigger for all countries in the world, who will be facing the severe challenge of global temperature rise of 2.0 °C or even higher (3.0 °C or 4.0 °C) in the future. So it is critical to cope with the serious condition that maize yield would decrease severely. For the whole world more mitigation and adaptation actions should be taken from now on. Food security would be a significant challenge in this century.There are huge differences in impacts on maize yield under climate change, which would influence the food crisis in different regions. There are 159 countries in the whole world which plant maize. The gross yield of maize the top 20 countries accounts for more than 90% of the total yield in the 159 countries. So, the changes in the top 20 countries under future scenarios would influence the food security of the whole world (Fig. 5). From the results of simulated by CRESE-maize under global warming by 1.5 °C, there would be 75 countries facing with yield loss of maize; the mean yield loss rate would become 33.5%. There would be 84 countries experiencing yield increases. Overall, the global maize yield would slightly increase. Under global warming by 2.0 °C, there would be 82 countries facing with yield loss of maize, for which the mean yield loss rate is approximate to that under global warming by 1.5 °C. There would be 77 countries experiencing yield increase; however, the mean yield increase is apparently smaller than that under global warming by 1.5 °C. Generally, the global maize yield would decrease. The results show that the adverse effect of warming up 2.0 °C on global maize production is far greater than warming up 1.5 °C. It is important to take actions to develop forward-looking adaptation measures to cope with future climate change.According to statistics in 2018, the gross maize yield in the top 5 countries is almost 80% of the total maize yield of the whole world. The United States accounts for more than 32%; China accounts for about 24%; Brazil, Argentina and Mexico account for about 23%. The fluctuation of maize production in these five top countries will have a significant impact on the global maize trade. Based on the simulation results, comparing to 1986-2005, the maize yield in China, Brazil and Argentina would decrease under global warming by 1.5 °C; the yield loss rate would reach more than 20% in Brazil; Argentina would decrease by 14.7%; China would decrease by 3.7%. However, there would be increasing trends in the United States and Mexico; the change in the United States would not be significant and the maize yield would increase by 0.5%; the yield increasing rate would exceed 50% in Mexico. Overall, the gross maize yield in the top 5 countries would decrease by 2% under global warming in Brazil; the United States would decrease by 13.3%; China would decrease by 11.5%. However, there would be increasing trends in Argentina and Mexico; the maize yield would increase by 16.8% in Argentina; the yield increasing rate would exceed 40% in Mexico. Overall, the gross maize yield in the top 5 countries would decrease by 11.4% under global warming by 2.0 °C. By comparing the maize production in different countries, it can be found that the reduction trend of total maize production in the top five countries is more obvious, especially under the scenario of global warming by 2.0 °C, the global food trade and food security may face greater risks.From the view of continents, there are different trends of maize yield changes in the 6 continents (except Antarctica) under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C (Fig. 6). From the results of simulated by CRESE-maize under global warming by 1.5 °C, the maize yield in 3 continents would decline apparently, including South America, Europe and Oceania; the average yield loss rates are respectively − 15.6%, − 12.4%, − 36.4%; in the other 3 continents the average maize yield would go up, especially in Africa more than 30%; the increasing trends are slight in Asia and North America, in which the yield increasing rates are separately 0.7% and 0.4%. However, the yield change trends simulated by IPSL-CM5A-LR and GFDL-ESM2M models are different in 2 continents, including Asia and North America. From the results of simulated by CRESE-maize under global warming by 2.0 °C, the maize yield in 5 continents would decline apparently, except Africa; the average yield loss rates are respectively − 7.9% (Asia), − 14.1% (North America), − 9.3% (South America), − 22.5% (Europe), − 25.5% (Oceania); only in Africa the average maize yield would go up also more than 30%; meanwhile the yield change trends simulated by IPSL-CM5A-LR and GFDL-ESM2M models are the same in each continent. Comparing the two global warming scenarios, there would be apparent variations in maize yield in Asia and North America, in which the annual maize yield accounts for a great proportion of the whole world, leading to a much more serious yield loss under global warming by 2.0 °C than that under global warming by 1.5 °C. There would be an obvious crisis of food supply under global warming by 2.0 °C with the increasing population in the future. So, it is important to make full preparation for adaptation to climate change in the whole world. Market price of maize in main countries. In this study, we elaborate on the endogenous response of our economic models. This response can be theoretically elaborated as: due to the effect of climate change on yield reduction (improvement), the supply curve moves leftward (rightward), reducing (increasing) production and raising (lowering) prices. In response, the consumers decrease (increase) their consumption of more expensive (cheaper) crops and shifting to other (increase the use of the same) crops. Producers, at the same time, respond by changing farm-level management practices and increasing (decreasing) the amount of acreage under these crops. At a global scale, the reallocation of production and consumption through international trade further alters climate change impacts on global agriculture. This also alters the self-sufficiency ratios of each country/ region due to climate change.In response to production changes, the price of each commodity changes under both scenarios. At the global level, the market price for maize would increase by 0.7% and 3.4% under 1.5 °C scenario and 2.0 °C scenario, respectively, which would vary quite largely among different countries and regions under both climate change scenarios (Fig. 7). Particularly, the market price would increase by around 22% and 27% in Iran under 2.0 °C scenario and 1.5 °C scenario, respectively. Iran is also the region where the highest yield reduction is observed due to climate change. Market prices for maize in India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the Rest of Africa would decrease significantly under both scenarios, as their yields improve due to climate effects. Along with the domestic production, the climate change will also induce changes in international trade of maize, resulting in changing levels of self-sufficiency ratios (SSR) for each country/region. By SSR, we mean the ratio of domestically produced commodity, to the sum of net imports and domestic production. In our scenario analysis, generally, the countries that face positive effects on yields and/or are relatively less dependent on imports, are positively (less negatively) affected by climate change. For example, maize SSR for Ukraine, India, Russia and Mexico would improve under both scenarios (Fig. 8). Whereas the self-sufficiency ratios of maize for Southeast Asia, Bangladesh and Iran will worsen under both scenarios. China's SSR for maize stays almost similar to the level as the baseline.Discussion. Our analysis highlights the effects of climate change on global-and regional-specific maize yields and the associated economic consequences in 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C -warming scenarios. We find that the reduction risk of maize yield under global warming by 2.0 °C is much more serious than that under global warming by 1.5 °C. On the one hand, the larger the temperature rise, the greater the evapotranspiration would be. Although the precipitation is also increasing, the evapotranspiration would become more intense. The limitation of water supply for maize growth leads to the decline of yield. On the other hand, relative to global warming by 1.5 °C, maize production would be faced with more serious and frequent extreme climate events, such as drought and heat waves, which would increase the risk of corn yield reduction under global warming by 2.0 °C. In the meantime, the huge differences in yield changes in different regions provide a small chance for the world, especially under global warming by 1.5 °C. In the near future, if the global temperature can be effectively controlled under 1.5 °C warming scenario, there would be an increase in the potential for maize yield in the worldwide. All regions and countries should take actions to reduce the yield loss risk. For the yield-increasing regions, the potentials of climate resources should be fully utilized to guarantee maize yield under future scenarios; for the yield-reducing regions, the targeted adaptation actions should be taken in advance under global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C.Meanwhile, the risk of price fluctuations caused by global corn trade due to future climate change should be paid more attention to, especially for developing and undeveloped countries. In the view of supply and demand, the population would go up quickly in the next 30 years; the demand for maize would increase hugely; however, the supply of maize would go down in the future, especially under global warming by 2.0 °C; it would intensify the contradiction between supply and demand, which would threaten the food security and sustainable development in the whole world.In this study, 5 climate models are selected, which are recommended by ISI-MIP (The Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project); compared with other climate models, the five models could more effectively support impact assessment in different sectors and provide more reliable results. Based on the simulation results  from 5 climate models under 4 RCP scenarios, the future climate situations were selected which are the approximate scenarios with global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C at the end of 21 century relative to pre-industrial levels; it could minimize the uncertainties of future climate data. The inputs for DSSAT simulation include soil parameters, crop calendar data and management information are coped with carefully to improve the effectiveness and reliability of maize yield simulation. There are also several uncertainties and limitations. Firstly, there is no unified understanding of how to calculate the temperature rise of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C relative to pre-industrial levels in the worldwide. At present the research on climate prediction and impact assessment under global warming 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C usually adopts multi-mode ensemble average methods 61,62 , which could obtain the warming response under the condition of instantaneous change, rather than the warming process under the stable state expected by the long-term goal. If we expect to obtain the accurate results, the model prediction test should be estimated to form proprietary scenarios for global warming by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C63,64 , which could support for the impacts assessment on different sectors. Some institutions are carrying out climate change predictions under the lower emission scenarios (global warming 1.5 °C or 2.0 °C). At the same time, in order to achieve the goal of controlling temperature by 1.5 °C at the end of the twenty-first century, it is urgent to take actions to reduce emissions and develop along the track of low energy consumption 65,66 ; but it is a great challenge for human society to achieve this goal.Secondly, our methodological approach in this study also has some important limitations, including our use of a single crop model to estimate maize yields. There are some limitations for the DSSAT model to simulate yield loss caused by climate extreme events 67 , in which the impacts of pests and diseases are also ignored 68 . However, the DSSAT model has been applied in a lot of researches to simulate historical maize yield [69][70][71] , in which the results are reliable and credible 72 . The results of this research could be an important reference to the other studies which simulate global maize yield in the future, applying crop models such as APSIM, WOFOST, ORYZA and so on.Thirdly, there are relatively more researches on the prediction of climate change trend under the background of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C; but the research on the impact assessment of the main grain crops including global trade in worldwide is few. In the meantime, we do not assess the effect of future changes on agriculture, such as increases in farm productivity due to new technology. The maize planting area in the future is assumed to be the same as the current situation of maize cultivation in the world.According to the simulation results, the yield of maize under global warming by 2.0 °C would decrease between 3.0 and 18.7% in the worldwide relative to 1986-2005; the maize yield would fluctuate between − 6.8 and 7.2% under global warming by 1.5 °C. From the spatial distribution, the gross maize yield in the top 5 high-yield countries (including the United States, China, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico) would decrease by 2% under global warming by 1.5 °C and 11.4% under global warming by 2.0 °C. At the global level, the market price for maize would increase by 0.7% and 3.4% under 1.5 °C scenario and 2.0 °C scenario, respectively, which would vary quite largely among different countries and regions. So, it is urgent for all countries to pay enough attention to the loss risk of maize yield and take actions of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The time left for changing our minds and actions is becoming less and less.","tokenCount":"5857"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"14c8663cb473d1418ade29088d0c4390","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ef9e4203-1d34-46a5-9ff9-58e202717e91/retrieve","id":"873447549"},"keywords":["Agriculture","climate risks","livelihoods","vulnerabilities","coping strategies"],"sieverID":"080dda89-c47a-4b65-ba58-6e6fbbf918fc","pagecount":"43","content":"Smallholder farmers in Uganda face a wide range of agricultural production risks, with climate change and variability presenting new risks and vulnerabilities. Climate related risks such as prolonged dry seasons have become more frequent and intense with negative impacts on agricultural livelihoods and food security. This paper assesses farmers' perceptions of climate change and variability and analyses historical trends in temperature and rainfall in two rural districts of Uganda in order to determine the major climate-related risks affecting crop and livestock production and to identify existing innovative strategies for coping with and adapting to climate-related risks, with potential for up-scaling in rural districts. The traditional coping strategies that have been developed by these communities overtime provide a foundation for designing effective adaptation strategies.Drought, disease and pest epidemics, decreasing water sources, lack of pasture, bush fires, hailstorms, changes in crop flowering and fruiting times were the major climate-related risks reported across the two districts. Farmers use a wide range of agricultural technologies and strategies to cope with climate change and climate variability. Mulching, intercropping and planting of food security crops were among the most common practices used. Other strategies included water harvesting for domestic consumption, other soil and water conservation technologies and on-farm diversification. Farmers often use a combination of these technologies and practices to enhance agricultural productivity. The average maximum temperatures increased across the two districts. Trends in average annual rainfall showed mixed results with a general decline in one district and a relatively stable trend in the other district. Perceived changes in climate included erratic rainfall onset and cessation, which were either early or late, poor seasonal distribution of rainfall and little rainfall. Farmers also reported variations in temperatures. Farmers' perception of changing rainfall characteristics and increasing temperatures were consistent with the observed historical climatic trends from meteorological data.Farming communities in East Africa face a wide range of agricultural production risks. For smallholder farmers in Uganda, climate change and variability presents new risks and vulnerabilities, including extended droughts and floods. Temperatures for the region during the 1990s were higher than they were earlier in the century and are currently between 0.2 and 0.3°C warmer than the 1961-90 average. While the Regional Climate Models (RCMs) agree that the region will become warmer, the degree of warming predicted is quite variable. The projected increase in rainfall in the region, extending into the Horn of Africa, is robust across RCMs, with 18 of 21 models projecting an increase in the core of this region, east of the Great Lakes (Christensen et al. 2007).The anticipated impacts of climate change in East Africa include an increase in frequency and severity of droughts leading to severe water shortages, floods in some areas, increased incidence of pests and diseases, and decline in crop yields. Other expected impacts are increased risks of food shortage and famine, and changes in planting dates of annual crops, and decline in biodiversity. The severe drought in 2010-2011 in the Greater Horn of Africa, for example, affected nearly nine million people mainly in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia (WFP 2011). The impacts of climate change and variability in East Africa are compounded by existing development challenges of high population growth rates, high and increasing poverty levels, low per capita incomes, high levels of inequality and declining GDP growth rates.In Uganda, a large proportion of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, with agriculture contributing up to 22% of the GDP and supporting 66% of the working population (UBOS 2013, NEMA 2008, GOU 2007). Agricultural production in Uganda is almost entirely rain-fed (GOU 2007, Komutunga andMusiitwa 2001) and therefore marked by seasonality and negatively affected by extreme weather conditions. The farming systems are diverse, ranging from livestock based systems in semi-arid regions to crop-livestock mixed farming systems in temperate and humid regions. While the immediate impacts of climate change on overall agricultural production in Uganda are likely to be less severe than in other countries in East Africa, the local impacts are likely to vary by farming system (van de Steeg et al. 2009).Farming communities in Uganda as elsewhere in East Africa are increasingly facing a wide range of agricultural production risks and these can sometimes differ from climate-related risks. For instance, low productivity can be attributed to non-climatic factors such as limited use of external inputs, nutrient mining and soil erosion, as well as climate-related droughts, and pests and disease factors. In recent years, weather patterns have become more erratic impacting negatively on soil moisture content leading to either reduced yields or total crop failure (Mubiru et al. 2012, Mubiru et al. 2009). These events are closely associated with climate change and variability. Rainfall patterns are highly variable, both within and between seasons. The erratic onset and cessation of rains makes it difficult for farmers to take advantage of timely planting of crops. Instances of frequent crop failures are increasingly becoming eminent (GOU 2007). Climate change and variability pose adverse impacts on food security and livelihoods, especially of the rural poor (GOU 2007).Farming communities and households in rural Uganda have developed several adaptation options overtime to cope with current climate variability (DanChurchAid 2010, Anderson and Robinson 2009). For example, traditional methods of grain storage are widely used to cope with periods of hunger and to secure seed for successive crops following severe droughts. But such methods were less effective during periods of disease and pest attack and sometimes resulted in whole losses of food and seed. In Uganda, communities and households are continuously learning to adjust to changing conditions by adapting to new practices to control grain and seed borne pests and diseases. However, some of these changes to local practices are marginal rather than transformational in nature. Kristjanson et al. (2012) find little uptake of improved soil, water and land management practices, even when these were often cited to have great potential to contribute to improved food security (www.actionaid.org, Majaliwa et al. 2009). Moreover, these strategies may only be useful in the short term and not sufficient to address future changes in climate (Boko et al. 2007, Orindi andMurray 2005). The capacity of indigenous knowledge and traditional coping practices in adapting to climate variability is likely to be surpassed by the magnitude of changes expected from increased risk exposure.In order to develop effective strategies for managing and coping with extreme weather and climate variability, there is need for farmers to differentiate climate-related risks from other agricultural production risks. We hypothesize that a better understanding of climate-related risks, as well as their impacts on crop and livestock production is the basis for continuous This study uses data collected from two rural districts of Rakai and Hoima in Uganda (Figure 1). These districts represent diverse agro-ecological, production, social and institutional settings and are representative of East African farming systems (perennial, annual and pastoral farming systems). Majority of the population across the two districts depend on rainfed agriculture for their livelihoods, with over 85% of the people engaged in subsistence crop (maize, beans, banana) and livestock (cattle, goat, sheep, chicken) production. While the overall poverty levels, measured as the percentage of individuals estimated to be living below the poverty line, have significantly declined in Uganda over the last five years, poverty incidence in the rural areas remain high at 27.2% (UNHS 2010). In the two rural districts, poverty levels have declined over the years but still remain high ranging from 11.2% in Rakai to 25.3% in Hoima compared to the national average of 24.5% (UNHS 2010).Rakai District is located in the south central region of Uganda, west of Lake Victoria. The district covers an area of 4,909 km 2 with an estimated population of 484,400 (UBOS 2013).The rainfall pattern is bimodal, spread over two growing seasons: March -May and September -December. Average annual rainfall ranges from 915 to 1,021 mm, while the temperature ranges from 12.5 to 30 o C (GOU 2004). The district also experiences severe dry spells in the periods June -August and January -February.Hoima District is located in western Uganda, east of Lake Albert. The district lies within an altitude range of 621 and 1,158 m above sea level, and is one of the lowest and hottest areas in the country. The district occupies an area of 5,933 km 2 , with an estimated population of 548,800 (UBOS 2013). In contrast to Rakai, about 38% of the total area is occupied by water bodies (mostly Lake Albert) and 21% is forested. Average annual rainfall is about 1,270 mm with high spatial variability, ranging from about 800 to 1,400 mm (GOU 2004). Rainfall distribution is bimodal. The main rainy season is from August -November and the secondary season is from March -May (GOU 2004). Temperatures are usually high ranging from 15 to 30 o C.To better understand climate-related risks and their impacts on crop and livestock production in the two rural districts, we used household surveys and historical climate data, and information from focus group discussions. The household surveys build on initial baseline surveys conducted by CCAFS in 2010 (Mubiru andKristjanson 2012, Kyazze andKristjanson 2011). In each district, the household surveys were carried out in three villages, purposively selected to represent the CCAFS blocks. In each village, households were randomly selected from a complete list of all households in the village which had been generated earlier and used in the CCAFS baseline surveys. Data were collected from 120 households in total (60 from each district). The survey collected information on demographic characteristics, wealth indicators, livelihood, and land-use patterns.The historical climatic data on rainfall and temperature from 1938 to 2012 were from weather stations close to the two sites (Kyotera and Kibanda in Rakai, and Bulindi in Hoima). The focus group discussions with mixed groups of men and women (42% men and 58% women)were used to triangulate the historical and survey data. Other secondary data sources used included Kristjanson et al (2012), Mubiru and Kristjanson (2012), Kyazze and Kristjanson (2011), Jost (2011) and UBOS (2009). Different statistical programs were used to analyse the annual and seasonal trends in rainfall and temperature and the household survey data.The demographic characteristics of the respondents and households in the study sites are summarized in Table 1. Households had varying demographic characteristics. Majority of the respondents across the two rural districts were male (56.7% in Hoima and 65% in Rakai).Similarly, more than three-quarters of the households across the two districts were headed by men. In Uganda, men are responsible for making decisions regarding livelihood activities, so a larger fraction of males indicates their dominance in farm-level decision making across the two districts. Nearly 80% of the household heads had attained primary level of education, with very few household heads having attained tertiary education. Most of the household heads were middle-aged with a mean age of 44 years for Rakai and 47 for Hoima. Average family size ranged from seven persons in Hoima to eight persons in Rakai.     3 shows how farmers allocate land to different crop and livestock enterprises. There were similarities in the types of crops grown across the two districts. A large proportion of land, more than half, is allocated to crop production compared to livestock production (Figure 2).Banana and coffee were the most important crops in Rakai, allocated the largest acreage of approximately one acre. These two crops are usually intercropped and farmers attach a lot of social and economic value to them. In contrast, maize; potatoes; and coffee were the most important crops in Hoima. The three crops were allocated the largest acreage, attributed to their economic and food security values in the district. There was increased allocation of land to seasonal crops such as beans, cassava and sweet potatoes in both districts. Beans and sweet potatoes are early maturing crops whereas cassava is more drought-tolerant and performs well in times of reduced rainfall as has been the case due to climate variability and change. This implies that farmers have adapted to climate change by spreading the risk through planting early maturing crops e.g. beans and sweet potatoes and drought-tolerant crops like cassava.  In order to prevent these losses there will be need to introduce alternative crop varieties and crop substitution, as well as a change in livestock feeding practices.Livestock production is also an important source of livelihood. Cattle, goats, pigs and poultry were among the livestock species kept by the household (Table 4), with no differences observed in average livestock holdings across the two sites. This section looks at the rainfall and temperature trends, including variability in Rakai and Hoima districts over the period 1938-2012.Average monthly rainfall data shows that both districts experience a bi-modal distribution within the year (Figures 3 and 4). Peak rainfall seasons in Hoima are between March-May and August-November. Rainfall patterns for Rakai are similar to Hoima though with a slight difference, where peak rainfall seasons are between March-May and October-December.January, February and December are fairly dry months in Hoima, while in Rakai, February, June, July and August are also fairly dry months. The sharp peak in the March-May rainy season at both sites means that rains are more likely to come and disappear quickly while there is a more even distribution in the second season. The length of the growing period seems to be longer in the second season across the two sites.     (Schneider et al. 2007). Increase in temperature may influence the length of the growing season, especially in temperate regions. Higher temperatures also increase the atmospheric demand for moisture, or potential evapotranspiration (PET). In areas where average annual maximum temperature will increase from under 30°C to over 30°C, rice and maize yields and other staple crop yields will suffer (Ziervogel and Ericksen 2010). Grazing resources, food safety and disease transmission patterns are also likely to be affected.In this section, we explore farmers' perceptions of climate change and the major climaterelated risks over the past 30 years and how these perceptions relate to the observed trends in rainfall and temperature discussed in the previous section. Global weather and climate patterns have changed and continue to change. How are these changes perceived, interpreted and expressed by local farmers in Uganda?Respondents were asked whether they had noted any changes in weather patterns over the last 5 to 30 years.  normal, more in first season, more in second season, mid-season droughts, and variable (Figure 15). Majority of respondents, on average 45% reported variable distribution of rainfall, that is, either normal, more in first or second season. This was followed by midseason droughts, averaging 24.2%. A smaller proportion reported a normal rainfall pattern. The onset and cessation of rainfall also influences perceived characterization of the amount of rainfall received. Over 85% of the respondents across the two districts reported changes in the rainfall amount that is either, less, high or variable (Figure 16). There were, however, differences in the perceived changes across the districts. While majority of respondents in Hoima (51.7%) reported that the rainfall was variable, in Rakai the majority of respondents (56.7%) reported that the rainfall amount was less. Apparently, from the farmers' perceptions, the two sites receive quite different amounts of rainfall, with Hoima receiving relatively more rainfall than Rakai. As mentioned previously, Rakai is characterized by low rainfall and low Similarly, the farmers reported variations in temperatures. Farmers' perceptions of changes in temperature were grouped into four categories: lower, moderate, higher, and variable (Figure 17). A clear difference in perception across the two sites is evident, with majority of respondents in Rakai (78.3%) reporting an increase in temperature. In Hoima, the proportion of respondents (43.3%) reporting moderate and higher temperatures was equal. These findings on perceived changes in temperature are consistent with those of Okonya et al. (2013) where majority of the farmers (39%) across six agro-ecological zones in Uganda reported an increase in temperature over the last 10 years. However, while perceptions in temperature changes across the two sites slightly differ, average maximum temperature at both sites is 30 o C (GOU 2004). The differences in perceptions of temperature changes across the two sites could be explained by the differences between evaporation and rainfall during the dry months. In Rakai, evaporation exceeds rainfall by a factor of six during the dry months, whereas in Hoima it is by a factor of only five (GOU 2004). Overall, the farmers' perceptions of changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures across the two sites are consistent with the observed historical trends from historical climate data discussed in section 3.3. The declining trends of monthly rainfall amount and rainy days are manifested in the farmers' perceptions of abnormal rainfall onset, amount and cessation, and the increasing mid-season droughts. These findings are also consistent with a similar study in Tanzania, where the local perceptions by farmers of changes in temperature and increasing rainfall variability were closely related with empirical analysis of rainfall and temperature trends using meteorological data (Mary and Majule 2009).Farmers in Hoima and Rakai districts have experienced major climate-related risks that threaten current and future agricultural production. The various risks and their level of importance or prevalence (proportion of households reporting the risk) are summarized in  Drought was reported by 90% of the respondents in both districts, while disease and pests were reported by 65% in Hoima and 56.7% in Rakai. Drought hazard and vulnerability are present risks in Africa and are likely to be the most damaging of all impacts of climate change (Downing et al.1997). However, one should not underestimate the potential of the lesser important climate related-risks (e.g. lightening, floods and invasive weeds) to escalate into more pronounced and severe risks, if not addressed early enough. Climate-related risks can have devastating impacts on crop and livestock production. Urgent practical action is therefore required to reduce the large-scale risks and their adverse impacts.Table 5 summarizes the adverse effects that may result from the different risks. Crop failure and damage, pest infestation and disease prevalence were the most severe climate related impacts on crop production reported. Crop failure had the greatest impact on crop production among farmers in Rakai (reported by 93.3%) and Hoima (76.3%) districts. Other impacts of climate change such as crop damage, pest infestation and disease prevalence were each reported by more than 45% of respondents in both districts. Similarly, the impacts of climate change on livestock production included lack of feeds, water shortage, low milk production, and vector prevalence. Over 80% of the farmers in Rakai reported lack of feeds as one of the major impacts of climate change on livestock production compared to 78% in Hoima. Disease prevalence was also commonly reported in the two districts (Table 5).  Other impacts of climate related risks from the focus group discussions are summarized in Box 1. Drying of water sources -reducing number of water source points.  Poor or low yields due to water stress resulting from extended droughts. Farmers have encountered reduction in yields of major crops like maize, beans, groundnuts, coffee, and bananas. Seeds dry in soil due to variable rainfall on-set periods. Increased poverty levels leading to poor standards of living, low education levels and ill-health. People walk long distances and take more time to access water, including buying water for domestic use. Loss of houses, and animal deaths from hailstorm. Rampant food insecurity, consequently leading to malnutrition. Reduced water infiltration capacities resulting from soil hardening in dry conditions. Increased farm losses due to uncertainties in planting timerotting of crops, drying of crops. Emergence of new diseases and pests for some crop varieties. These include small snails that are common in mulched banana plantations, they also attack beans and eat away flowers and leaves; cassava disease; coffee wilt disease; and banana bacterial wilt.Box 1. Other impacts of climate-related risksLocal farmers in East Africa have developed a number of local coping strategies that have enabled them reduce vulnerability to climate variability and change. Over the years, farmers are increasing their resilience and adaptive potential through indigenous knowledge to cope with the climate-related risks. Traditional coping strategies do provide important lessons on how local communities can better prepare and adapt to climate change in the long-term.However, the increasing climate variability, frequency and more severe shocks are likely to surpass traditional coping strategies. Moreover, some of these local coping strategies can only assist families in the short-term. There is a need to understand, document and strengthen these existing coping strategies. Local coping strategies to shocks such as drought and floods differ among households and communities depending on the farming system or agro-ecological system, resources available and social capacity.Farmers use a wide range of agricultural technologies and strategies to cope with climate variability and adapt to climate change. Moreover, adaptation has the potential to contribute to reductions in negative impacts from changes in climatic conditions as well as other changing socio-economic conditions (Adger et al. 2003). Table 6 summarizes the different  According to (Kandlinkar and Risbey 2000), crop diversification is one of the important adaptation options in agriculture. Crop diversification can serve as an insurance (risk management strategy) against rainfall variability as different crops are affected differently (Mary andMajule 2009, Bradshaw et al. 2004). The uptake of crop diversification as a risk management and adaptation strategy across the study sites has been enhanced due to their efficiency on limited land holdings, improvement of soil fertility and boosting crop yields, among other factors.Poor post-harvest handling of agricultural produce is a major constraint in Uganda, and often results in substantial loss of produce during harvesting, processing, and storage. Poor postharvest handling also affects the quality of farm produce. In addition, the available marketing schemes do not offer farmers reasonable revenue for their produce. Due to post-harvest handling problems farmers often sell their produce just after harvesting when the supply is much higher than the demand. As a result, the prices are usually low and exploitative, whereas if they could afford to wait for a couple of months the prices could even go up three to five times (Mubiru et al. 2009). With increasing changes in climatic conditions and climate variability there is need to minimize the post-harvest losses. Climate change brings challenges such as low yields, unfavourable conditions for post-harvest handling and storage (Mubiru et al. 2009). Incentives for adoption of food storage technologies included the ability of farmers to store the crops for a longer period; ability to sell at a later date and obtain better prices which improved household incomes; and also increased food security.Finally, local innovative adaptation strategies included kitchen gardens especially for vegetable growing, rainwater harvesting, micro-irrigation and use of organic pesticide concoctions. The water harvesting techniques were adopted because they offer households clean water for domestic use. The disincentives that impeded uptake of the various techniques discussed above were cross-cutting and included high costs associated with implementation of the technologies, labour requirements and intensity associated with adoption, lack of capital and inputs to implement the technologies in accordance with the scientific recommendations, inadequate technical know-how of using the technologies and uncertainty of rainfall which would impede use of the techniques. ","tokenCount":"3816"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2f19f266fc46f8f1d78487eae89e0612","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dec8aad5-704e-4ef3-8d68-a66fae24aa98/content","id":"-1347375560"},"keywords":["AACC, American Association of Cereal Chemists","ALVPL, Alveograph ratio of height (P) to length (L) of the curve (tenacity/extensibility) (P/L)","ALVW, dough strength, Alveograph work value under the curve","FLRPRO, flour protein","FLRSDS, flour sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation","GAUSS, Gaussian kernel","GRNHRD, grain hardness","GRNPRO, grain protein","GS, genomic selection","LOFVOL, bread loaf volume","MIXTIM, Mixograph mix time","MP, Mixograph percentage torque","NIRS, near-infrared spectroscopy","PLSR, partial least squares regression","RRBLUP, ridge regression best linear unbiased predictor","SDS, sodium dodecyl sulfate","SNP, single-nucleotide polymorphism","TESTWT, test weight","TKW, 1000-kernel weight"],"sieverID":"e12ab3f4-760e-49da-9851-8bc18ee89bc9","pagecount":"12","content":"Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars must possess suitable enduse quality for release and consumer acceptability. However, breeding for quality traits is often considered a secondary target relative to yield largely because of amount of seed needed and expense. Without testing and selection, many undesirable materials are advanced, expending additional resources. Here, we develop and validate whole-genome prediction models for end-use quality phenotypes in the CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program. Model accuracy was tested using forward prediction on breeding lines (n = 5520) tested in unbalanced yield trials from 2009 to 2015 at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. Quality parameters included test weight, 1000-kernel weight, hardness, grain and flour protein, flour yield, sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation, Mixograph and Alveograph performance, and loaf volume. In general, prediction accuracy substantially increased over time as more data was available to train the model. Reflecting practical implementation of genomic selection (GS) in the breeding program, forward prediction accuracies (r) for quality parameters were assessed in 2015 and ranged from 0.32 (grain hardness) to 0.62 (mixing time). Increased selection intensity was possible with GS since more entries can be genotyped than phenotyped and expected genetic gain was 1.4 to 2.7 times higher across all traits than phenotypic selection. Given the limitations in measuring many lines for quality, we conclude that GS is a powerful tool to facilitate early generation selection for end-use quality in wheat, leaving larger populations for selection on yield during advanced testing and leading to better gain for both quality and yield in bread wheat breeding programs.T he hum an popul ation is growing exponentially, with current projections predicting a population of >9 billion by 2050 (Gerland et al., 2014). An intersection of improved agronomic practices and improved crop varieties will be imperative to ensure food security in the coming decades. While overall production must increase, there is also growing demand to produce higher-quality, more nutritious food. Bread wheat is a staple of many diets, with milled flour used for a variety of products including leavened and unleavened breads, noodles, cookies, cakes, and pastries. Each of these products demands wheat with a specific best-fit quality profile specifically considering the protein concentration, grain hardness, and gluten strength (Peña, 2002;Peña et al., 2002).Processing and end-use quality for wheat is a combination of many defined parameters. Multiple phenotypic traits of the grain, flour, dough, and final products must be assessed to determine an overall quality and best end-use product. Typically, hard grain with high protein and strong and extensible gluten is acceptable for making leavened breads and industrial pan bread, hard or medium hard grain with intermediate levels of protein and good dough extensibility make good flat breads, and soft grain with low protein and weak and extensible gluten is used for cookies, cakes, and pastries (Peña, 2002;Peña et al., 2002). Many laboratory tests must be considered to ensure that candidate wheat varieties meet the quality profile for a given end-use product. Some of these tests are direct targets of selection with defined thresholds, whereas other should be interpreted collectively or are used to inform for further stages of testing. CIM-MYT uses grain hardness, grain protein, Alveograph W (dough strength) and P/L (tenacity vs. extensibility) values, along with final loaf volume collectively to approximate the product for which a wheat line would be best suited (R.J. Peña, unpublished data, 2011).Wheat grain is assessed for premilling characteristics, which impact marketing. These tests include kernel weight, weight per volume, color, hardness, vitreousness of the kernel, and total protein content. Many of these characteristics are strongly correlated with grain yield with varying levels of heritability. Grain weight was found to have increased in CIMMYT bread wheats over time and was significantly correlated with yield (Aisawi et al., 2015). In contrast, grain protein content is often negatively correlated with yield and is highly impacted by environment and agronomic management (Terman et al., 1969).Wheat endosperm texture also plays an important role in milling and end-use targets. Hard and soft wheat differ in the strength of which starch granules are attached to the protein matrix. Hard wheat has much stronger attachment, thus requiring more energy expenditure during milling and damaging more starch than in soft endosperm wheat (Giroux and Morris, 1997). Higher damaged starch increases the amount of water that is absorbed by the dough, which is favored in baking leavened breads compared with making cookies and pastries. The majority of genetic variation for hardness controlled by Ha hardness genes located on the short arm of chromosome 5D, but is also impacted by other small-effect loci (Pasha et al., 2010). In industrial markets, kernel size, volume, and protein tests are often used for bulk purchasing and allow the wheat to be sorted into marketing classes (e.g., hard white, hard red winter, soft white, etc.). This segregation to market classes has a large impact for milling and flour mixing by millers to ensure consistent end-use products over time. In local markets in the developing world, the visual characteristics of a cultivar are extremely important, as much of this wheat will be purchased as grain then milled and used at home.The next stage of testing focuses on milling extraction, protein concentration, and moisture of the flour. Increase in flour yield is profitable for millers, but it is important to note that optimal flour yield is attained when mill rollers and sieves are set appropriately for the common shape and size of a specific wheat line. As such, experimental test mills cannot be reset for each genotype and commercial mills mill a mixture of all different varieties. Protein and moisture tests of the flour are often used for estimating water absorption in the dough.Wheat dough is special among cereals for its viscoelastic ability to rise and extend while still retaining shape and connectivity. The viscoelastic properties of wheat are primarily conditioned by the storage proteins, glutenins, and gliadins (Delcour and Hoseney, 2010;Garg et al., 2006;Payne et al., 1987;Zheng et al., 2009). Glutenins are responsible for the elasticity and resistance to extension properties of wheat dough, whereas gliadins are responsible for the cohesive properties of wheat dough, which allow it to rise and retain gas (Delcour and Hoseney, 2010). Additionally, other constituents of the wheat kernel, such as nonstarch polysaccharides, enzymes, oligosaccharides, and damaged starch may also have impacts on dough rheology and end-use quality (Delcour and Hoseney, 2010). Dough rheology and enduse tests involve mixing flour to dough to determine the viscoelastic properties of strength, elasticity, tolerance, and final outcomes of wheat when optimally mixed. These tests are time consuming, costly, and require large quantities of flour to conduct. However, each of these tests are collectively necessary to determine the quality profile and a suitable end-use product for a specific wheat line (Peña, 2002;Peña et al., 2002).Historically, the primary focus of wheat breeding is grain yield combined with visual selection for lines with improved agronomic performance and disease resistance. In many breeding programs, quality traits are evaluated as a final performance test because the tests are expensive and usually cannot occur until later in the breeding program because of the large amount of grain necessary. This often results in promising wheat cultivars that cannot be released because of poor quality. In addition, there is limitation for developing any wheat cultivars with good and specialized end-use traits. Accurate processing and end-use quality prediction models would allow breeding programs to cull unacceptable lines or target specific lines earlier in the pipeline before time and resources are invested in lines that will not pass the final test.In the scope of breeding for quantitative traits, marker-assisted selection with previously identified significant markers has limited prediction power for complex traits (Heffner et al., 2011b). Genomic selection models, however, use high-density genotype data sets and simultaneously model all additive genetic variance. These models use entries with known phenotype and genotype to train an algorithm, cross-validate the prediction, and then predict traits in materials with only genotype information available. This approach was first introduced into animal breeding by Meuwissen et al. (2001) demonstrating that ridge regression and Bayesian approaches could be used to model the total additive variance and predict breeding values. Their claim that attaining genome-wide marker profiles would become cheaper than phenotyping each individual is becoming a reality (Poland and Rife, 2012). Taking all this into consideration, GS could serve as a way to predict processing and end-use quality phenotypes earlier in the pipeline before breeders have enough seed for testing and allow predictions of more individuals than would be possible to phenotype.Genomic selection has been evaluated many times for wheat yield and disease resistance (Arruda et al., 2015;Crossa et al., 2010Crossa et al., , 2014;;Dawson et al., 2013;Heffner et al., 2009;Poland et al., 2012b;Rutkoski et al., 2010Rutkoski et al., , 2012Rutkoski et al., , 2014) ) but not thoroughly for wheat processing and end-use quality. Genomic selection was tested in soft wheat for end-use quality in a biparental population and a small breeding population (Heffner et al., 2009(Heffner et al., , 2011a)). These studies relied on cross-validation, rather than forward prediction approaches, to assess the prediction accuracy of the GS models. They did find processing and end-use quality traits to be more highly predictive than grain yield.Here we conducted forward prediction in the breeding program with GS models on all important processing and end-use quality traits that are regularly assessed by the CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program. The objective of this study was to determine prediction accuracy of several GS models for these complex processing and enduse quality traits, assess the accuracy of forward prediction into the next year, and introduce GS for end-use quality to the CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program.Wheat lines used in training and testing the GS models were from F 5 -derived F 7 lines in first-year yield trials grown in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, and advanced to quality testing in the CIMMYT spring bread wheat breeding program. In concordance with the selection and advancement of material in the program, a given line was only evaluated for quality in 1 yr. Materials were planted in lattice designs with 28 entries to every two checks in two replications. Only those selected for superior yield or other agronomic performance were advanced to processing and end-use quality testing. A single sample from one replication was used to measure grain, flour, dough, and end-use quality phenotypes for each selected wheat line.Processing and end-use quality phenotypes were assessed from first-year yield trials in the CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program. Thus, as noted below, some methods have been altered from American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) standards to increase throughput, decrease sample size, or increase variance present among samples for breeding selection. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) data were also used to train the GS models, since this was the data made available on large sample sizes in the breeding program.Grain morphological characteristics were evaluated with the digital image system SeedCount SC5000 (Next Instruments) and weighed to obtain 1000-kernel weight (TKW [g]), which has high correlation between hand-counted and image-analyzed TKW (R 2 > 0.95; C. Guzmán, unpublished data, 2016). A 37.81-mL sample was weighed to obtain test weight (TESTWT, kg hL −1 ), which has high correlation between small-scale and full-scale TESTWT (R 2 > 0.95; C. Guzmán, unpublished data, 2016). Grain protein (GRNPRO), hardness (GRNHRD) based on particle size index (R 2 0.8-0.9; C. Guzmán, unpublished data, 2016), and moisture content were determined by NIRS using NIR System 6500 (Foss) by the official methods AACC 39-10, 39-70A, and 39-00, respectively (AACC, 2000). The GRNPRO was reported at 12.5% moisture basis. Grain samples were optimally tempered to 13 to 16.5%, depending on grain hardness, and milled using Brabender Quadrumat Jr. (C. W. Brabender OHG). Flour protein (FLRPRO) and moisture content were estimated by NIRS using the Antaris II FT-NIR analyzer (Thermo). Both NIRS instruments were calibrated for particle size index (AACC Method 55-30), moisture (AACC Method 44-15A), and protein (AACC Method 46-11A). Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sedimentation (FLRSDS) was conducted as in Peña et al. (1990). Dough rheology was assessed using the Swanson and Working Mixograph (National Mfg. Co.) according to AACC method 54-40A (AACC, 2000), and the Chopin Alveograph (Tripette & Renaud), AACC method 54-30A (AACC, 2000). These methods were adjusted to allow for unified optimal water absorption based on solvent retention capacity instead of the AACC standard method based on protein concentration of the sample (Guzmán et al., 2015). Optimal mix time (MIXTIM) and torque (MP) were measured by Mixograph. Dough strength, work value under the curve (ALVW), and tenacity vs. extensibility, the ratio of height to length of the curve (P/L), were measured using Alveograph. Alveograph P/L values (ALVPL) were log transformed prior to analysis for normalization then untransformed for data presentation. To assess end-use quality for yeast-leavened bread, pup loaves were baked as pan bread with AACC method 10-09 (AACC, 2000) using the Guzmán et al. (2015) adjustment for optimal water absorption. Bread loaf volume (LOFVOL) was measured by rapeseed displacement in accordance with AACC method 10-05.01 (AACC, 2000).Leaf tissue was collected and bulked from five plants per line and DNA was extracted using a modified CTAB protocol (Saghai-Maroof et al., 1984). For genotyping-bysequencing, DNA was quantified, normalized to 10 μL at 10 ng μL −1 , digested with two-enzymes PstI and MspI, ligated with barcoded adapters, amplified, and then sequenced following the protocol of Poland et al. (2012a). Sequences were trimmed to 64 bp, unique sequence tags were aligned, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were recoded numerically as (−1, 0, 1) using TAS-SEL 5 v2 (Bradbury et al., 2007). The SNPs were aligned with pseudo-positions of the wheat genome using POPSEQ (Chapman et al., 2015;International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, 2014). The SNPs were investigated for percentage missing and heterozygosity. Markers with >20% missing data or >20% heterozygous calls were discarded. Individuals with >80% missing data were also removed from further analysis. Remaining missing SNPs were imputed using mean imputation based on marker frequency using R (R Development Core Team, 2014) package rrBLUP (Endelman, 2011).Genomic selection models were developed using packages in R (R Development Core Team, 2014). Ridge regression best linear unbiased predictor (RRBLUP) and reproducing kernel Hilbert space, here referred to as Gaussian kernel (GAUSS), models were conducted using the package rrBLUP, as described in Endelman (2011). Partial least squares regression (PLSR), elastic net, and random forest were tested using R packages pls (Mevik and Wehrens, 2007), glmnet (Friedman et al., 2009), and randomForest (Liaw and Wiener, 2002), respectively. The PLSR, elastic net, and random forest required model training or specification before implementation. We used a 10-fold crossvalidation to train the PLSR model for optimal number of components to be used in the prediction algorithm. Elastic net was also trained using a 10-fold cross-validation in training data to tune the alpha, mixing, and lambda regularization parameters. The random forest predictions were made using 1000 trees. These models were combined by Gaynor (2015) into R package GSwGBS. Correlations for all phenotypes were estimated across years in JMP Genomics 7.1 (SAS Institute Inc., 2013). Models were tested using cross-validation and temporal forward predictions. Cross-validation predictions were conducted on all data across all years with 20% random masked, which was replicated 10 times. Prediction correlations were assessed between predicted phenotypes and empirical phenotypes, and accuracies were determined by dividing the correlation coefficient by the square root of heritability. Forward predictions were conducted using data as it would have historically become available to predict the following year (i.e., 2009 predicts 2010 and 2009 and 2010 predict 2011, etc.).Heritability could not be calculated by traditional ANOVA methods because of lack of replication. The RRBLUP model's additive genetic variance (Endelman, 2011) and the error variance of this model (V e ) were calculated. We assume that error variance included dominance and epistatic genetic variance along with all environmental and measurement error. Additive genetic variance was estimated by subtracting RRBLUP error variance from phenotypic variance (V p ). Following this, a standard calculation of heritability, additive genetic variance divided by phenotypic variance, was performed (Falconer and Mackay, 1996):We calculated the relative gain from indirect selection using the genotype data, as possible, with GS compared with direct selection on the quality phenotypes. In the CIMMYT program, it is currently possible to genotype the entire set of up to 10,000 lines in first-year yield testing.Less than 2000 of these lines are advanced for quality testing. A set of ~1000 lines are advanced for second-year replicated testing in multiple environments. Based on these population sizes for selection and quality testing, we have a conservative estimate of 10% selection intensity using GS (i = 1.755) and a maximum selection intensity of 50% possible for phenotypic selection (i = 0.798).From Falconer and Mackay (1996) relative gain from indirect selection was then calculated as the ratio of CR X to R X based on the following:where CR is the correlated response to indirect selection, R is the response to direct selection, i designates the selection intensity for direct selection on X and indirect selection on Y, h is the square root of heritability, and r A is the additive genetic correlation. The phenotypic correlation between two traits can be noted as a function of the additive genetic correlation and the environmental correlation (Falconer and Mackay, 1996):As we are predicting to new environments, we assume no environmental correlation between the GEBVs and phenotypic observations leaving the following:Substituting to Eq. [2] gives an estimate of relative gain based on phenotypic correlation:Using this equation, we calculated the relative gain of GS for each quality trait using increased selection intensity.Phenotypic assessment was conducted on 7858 lines in first-year yield trials between 2009 and 2015 for processing and end-use quality. In the first year of the project, 2009, only individuals promoted to advanced testing were genotyped, whereas for other years, all individuals in the first-year yield test were genotyped. This resulted in many fewer individuals present in the first year. Filtering for large amounts of missing genotypic data per individual resulted in 5520 individuals with high-quality genotype and phenotype for GS (Table 1). Originally, 20,833 SNPs were found using the TASSEL 5 v2 pipeline.Since no significant differences were found in model accuracy as marker number increased, SNPs were then restricted to no more than 20% missing to ensure higher accuracy through reduced reliance on imputation. This resulted in 3075 SNPs that were used in the GS models. Markers were used as nonpositioned de novo markers, though A and B chromosomes were more densely covered than D chromosomes.Phenotype distributions of all traits within all years followed an approximately normal distribution (Supplemental Fig. S1, S2), except Alveograph P/L (Supplemental Fig. S2), which was log transformed for subsequent analysis (Box and Cox, 1964). Phenotype mean and standard errors are presented by year (Table 2). Heritability estimates made from RRBLUP error and phenotypic variances were moderate, ranging between 0.41 and 0.68 (Table 2). Previous reports have also estimated the heritability of most processing and end-use quality traits as intermediate (Breseghello and Sorrells, 2006;Kuchel et al., 2006). Protein assessments were highly correlated (Table 3) as could be expected, since the majority of the protein in the wheat kernel is stored in the endosperm (Delcour and Hoseney, 2010). Most dough rheology traits evaluated here were highly correlated with the exception of Alveograph P/L (Table 3). Phenotypic correlations in this study again demonstrate that no single quality test is a substitute for end-use testing, as the correlations from all other parameters are present but not strongly correlated to final pup loaf volume (Table 3). This further supports classification systems for end use as a function of several quality phenotypes (Peña, 2002).Reflecting the power of large training populations, GS prediction accuracy in forward prediction increased over time as more lines and environments were added to the models. Cross-validation accuracy was, on average, 31.8% greater than all models in all years and 19% more accurate, on average, than 2015 forward predictions. This higher accuracy varied across traits, where ALVPL demonstrated <1% change in accuracy between cross-validation and forward prediction in contrast with a 44% difference for the TESTWT predictions. This demonstrates that forward prediction is much more difficult, and cross-validations likely overinflate results breeders may expect with implementation of GS. With unbalanced data from breeding programs and confounded cohorts of full-sib and closely related lines being evaluated under common environments (years), the crossvalidation approach of genotype-only models are likely overestimating the predictive ability for GS.Genomic selection models used in this study produced very similar results in forward prediction, with the exception of random forest having lower prediction accuracy (Fig. 1, 2). It is known that models have differing performance with varying genetic architecture of traits. The GAUSS was the best prediction model for all traits in cross-validation (Fig. 3). However, GAUSS did not have the same significant advantage in forward predictions (Fig. 1, 2). This indicates that GAUSS could be benefitting from the full siblings present within year but not across year as is common in breeding programs. The full-sib testing within a year would have confounded environment with cross-validation that would benefit from weighting of kinship in the GAUSS models, but this model would not predict as well into new years (environments) with more distantly related breeding lines.Response to selection using GS as a correlated trait indicated that for all traits, GS has increased response to selection than phenotypic selection. Increases in section response ranged from 35 (TESTWT) to 147% (ALVPL) over phenotypic selection (Table 4). For CIMMYT wheat quality screening, 10% selection intensity (i = 1.755) was used for GS, and 50% selection intensity (i = 0.798) was used for a phenotypic selection value. These increases in response to selection from GS largely are due to the increased selection intensity, where the full yield trial may be genotyped, rather than phenotyping only those individuals passing the yield test.For the kernel traits, data for TKW was only available starting in 2012 (Table 2). Prediction correlations for TKW increased from 0.40 to 0.49 over time (Table 5). Random forest performed worst for this trait (Fig. 1). The TESTWT predictions also increased with time from 0.1 in the first year to 0.34 in 2015 (Table 5; Fig. 1). Initially, there was no predictive ability for GRNHRD in 2011. As with TESTWT, a larger training set over time increased this prediction to 0.32 correlation between the observed and predicted in 2015 (Table 5; Fig. 1). The GRNHRD also had one of the lowest predictive accuracies in crossvalidation (Fig. 4). Though hardness is under the control of major-effect loci, within a given breeding program, lines are generally fixed for the major alleles, leaving minimal genetic variance and low heritability. The results observed here corroborate with Heffner et al. (2011a) who found that softness had lower prediction accuracy than other quality traits. Although there was a normally distributed phenotypic range for GRNHRD (Supplemental Fig. S1), most materials in this data set are still classified as hard or semihard with few soft lines present. A high proportion of the CIMMYT historical and breeding lines previously tested had the haplotype Pina-D1b and Pinb-D1a alleles for the hardness (Ha) genes on the short arm of chromosome 5D (Lillemo et al., 2006). Protein concentration, where more protein leads to harder grain, may be one of the factors responsible for some of the smaller differences found within hardness class (Pasha et al., 2010). With the milling traits, FLRYLD data was first available in 2011 for prediction in 2012 (Table 2, 3). This was the only trait that did not show a marked increase in prediction accuracy over time. The predictions for FLRYLD were highest in the first year of testing and dropped slightly in the following years (Table 5; Fig. 1). Grain and flour protein are very highly correlated phenotypes (Table 3) and follow very closely to one another in predictive ability for GS (Table 5; Fig. 1). In these traits, we have seen a general increase over time. The FLRSDS, which is correlated to both protein and dough rheology traits (Table 3), has intermediate prediction accuracy (Fig. 2, 3) but may have come to a forward accuracy plateau of between 0.5 and 0.6 (Fig. 2; Table 5).  ); GRNHRD, grain hardness (PSI); GRNPRO, grain protein (at 12.5% moisture basis); FLRYLD, flour yield from milling (percentage recovered); FLRPRO, flour protein (at 14% moisture basis); FLRSDS, flour sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation volume (mL); MIXTIM, optimum mix time (min); MP, torque at the integral of the midline peak; ALVW, work value from Alveograph curve (J); ALVPL, Alveograph P (tenacity) divided by L (extensibility) (mm mm -1 ); LOFVOL, pup loaf volume (cm 3 ).  Dough rheology traits are the foundation of determining gluten type classification at CIMMYT (R.J. Peña, unpublished data, 2011), which is part of their assessment for best-suited end-use quality type. For example, strong gluten is typically favored in pan breads; medium strength gluten is better for flat breads and noodles; weak gluten is best for cakes, cookies, and pastries; and tenacious gluten is only acceptable as wheat for animal feed (Peña, 2002). For these traits, MIXTIM, MP, and ALVW were all highly correlated (Table 3). The Mixograph percentage torque and ALVW are measures of gluten strength, while ALVPL is a better indication of the balance of dough tenacity and extensibility. The Mixograph mix time, MP, and ALVW had good prediction accuracy with forward (Fig. 2; Table 5) and cross-validation (Fig. 3; Table 5). As ALVPL was not normally distributed, we employed log transformation, which lead to ~5% increase in prediction accuracy for this trait (data not shown). Still, ALVPL prediction correlations were lower than other dough rheology traits (Fig. 2, 3; Table 5), likely a result of this trait being a ratio of two independent measures. Unfortunately, data were not recorded separately as P and L values over the years, so this comparison could not be made. The ALVPL forward prediction correlations increased from 0.24 to 0.52 in 2015 with the addition of data over time (Fig. 2).Baking a pup loaf is the final end-use quality test to determine appropriateness of a wheat line for industrial pan bread. This test gives quantitative and qualitative results not only of the loaf size but also how the loaf and crumb structure appear and can then also be used in staling studies. Here we demonstrate that forward prediction accuracy of LOFVOL was 0.49 in 2015 (Fig. 2; Table 5).Prediction accuracy of whole-genome models was lower in forward prediction than cross-validation for all traits (Fig. 4; Table 5). This likely is due to cross-validation models using training and testing data containing all years thus better accounting for environmental variation in the test set. Another reason could be due to the possibility of full siblings being randomly assigned to Fig. 3. Genomic selection cross-validation correlations for all methods. TKW, 1000-kernel weight (g); TESTWT, test weight (kg hL −1 ); GRNHRD, grain hardness (PSI); GRNPRO, grain protein (at 12.5% moisture basis); FLRYLD, flour yield from milling (percentage recovered); FLRPRO, flour protein (at 14% moisture basis); FLRSDS, flour sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation volume (mL); MIXTIM, optimum mix time (min); MP, torque at the integral of the midline peak; ALVW, work value from Alveograph curve (J); ALVPL, Alveograph P (tenacity) divided by L (extensibility) (mm mm -1 ); LOFVOL, pup loaf volume (cm 3 ). Method: ELNET, elastic net; GAUSS, Gaussian kernel; PLSR, partial least squares regression; RF, random forest; RRBLUP, ridge regression best linear unbiased predictor.training and testing sets in cross-validation. The selection procedure in the breeding program keeps all good material, regardless of their relationship, and sometimes favors advancement of large groups of full siblings. In the full yield trial of 2014 (n = 7672), there was an average of 5.3 entries per cross with a maximum of 51 full siblings for one specific cross (data not shown). Thus, we assume cross-validation represents an overinflation compared with forward predictions not accounting for genotypeby-environment interactions and leveraging more information from relatives than would be available for prediction and selection into new crosses and generations of the breeding program.Wheat quality is typically not the primary breeding objective; it is often secondary to yield, agronomic performance, and disease resistance. Though quality traits are important selection criteria, the population sizes that can be assessed for quality are generally much smaller, often unreplicated, and testing occurs at a later stage in the breeding pipeline because of cost and quantity of seed needed. However, with the implementation of GS for wheat quality, predictions that are available in earlier generations can enable better selection for quality and even targeting of wheat lines to potential areas of specific end use. The models here demonstrate that GS for processing and end-use quality has sufficient accuracy for implementation in the breeding program. In addition, prediction correlations and accuracies increased over time, likely a result of increasing training population size and the incorporation of data from additional environments into the training model. Finally, GS is heavily favored as a selection tool having high response to selection because of the increase in selection intensity that can occur when screening all available materials.There are known genes of large effect in wheat for milling and baking quality leading to potential for marker-assisted selection. However, there are also impacts on these traits by more quantitative sources as well. Furthermore, many of the large-effect loci for quality will be fixed within a given breeding program. Indeed, the Pin alleles are essentially fixed in this material, removing variance from this large effect locus for grain hardness (data not shown). In the CIMMYT bread wheat program, marker-assisted selection is not conducted for quality except for SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for high-and low-molecular weight glutenins on parental lines. Currently, SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is more expensive than genotyping-by-sequencing and is conducted on far fewer selected entries. A comparison could be made between these marker systems, but it would severely reduce the population size and bias the training and testing populations, since the parental materials have already been selected for quality.The CIMMYT bread wheat breeding program does not breed solely for one end-use quality product such as industrial leavened bread. Rather the focus is on wheat lines suitable to different wheat products found around the world. Therefore, the program strives to increase processing and end-use quality but does not necessarily cull materials for not fitting into industrial wheat bread-making standards. Following these ideas, we did not use a selection index for wheat quality specified to target a specific end-use product. Instead, all phenotypes were predicted with an indication of performance relative to standard checks and the mean of the predicted set for each trait, where one and two standard deviations from predicted mean were noted. The greatest advantage of predicted values was that they are available at harvest time on all materials in the yield trial, enabling selection for quality along with agronomic traits and yield in the progression of the breeding cycle. As quality testing can only be started after completing harvest, phenotypic data is typically not available in time for selection decisions for the next field nursery season. Additionally, traditionally, only those that were selected on yield performance were phenotyped, whereas with GS, all materials were screened.Phenotyping for all wheat processing and end-use quality for the traits included in this study requires at least 700 g of seed and represents a considerable cost beyond that of yield testing. Wheat breeding programs may screen lines for traits that can be assessed in small samples, such as protein, SDS sedimentation, solvent retention capacity, or Mixograph, in early generations but typically do not have enough seed for most quality tests until after preliminary yield tests with a full yield plot. Genotyping a wheat line can be conducted immediately following line derivation in a nondestructive manner. This genomic profile gives potential for prediction of these quality traits years earlier than phenotyping as well as predicting many other traits. Still, we do not consider GS a replacement for phenotypic selection, but GS can be used to make more informed selection decisions for material advancement between harvest and planting of the next cycle and for prioritizing what is evaluated in the quality labs.There is a distinct advantage for implementing GS for selection on quality, as considerably larger population sizes can be evaluated through genotyping than by phenotypic assessment of milling and baking. Reflecting this, the expected gain from selection is 1.4 to 2.7 times greater for GS when increasing the number of selection candidates from 2000 to 10,000. When comparing different breeding schemes, it is important to make a cost analysis to estimate an equal operating budget for each different breeding approach (Heffner et al., 2010;Lorenz, 2013). However, as selection for yield will be the primary driver of adoption of GS in breeding programs, the cost of genotyping will be largely offset by reduced or optimized yield testing, leaving a marginal indirect cost for predicting other traits. As the genotypes can be used to predict any trait, there is no additional cost for predicting quality phenotypes on top of the predictions for yield. Regardless, the actual cost associated with phenotyping 1000 breeding lines for quality at $100 to $200 per sample is roughly equivalent to genotyping 10,000 lines at $10 to $20 per sample.Genomic selection for processing and end-use quality at CIMMYT has now been in development since 2012. In 2014, predictions for end-use and processing quality were available in the fall before phenotype assessments were completed. In 2015, quality phenotypes were predicted in the spring at the time of harvest for 9100 lines in first-year yield trials. These predicted phenotypes, with correlations and accuracies from the 2014 cycle, were used in the breeding program for selection decisions and line advancement. It is expected that predictive information regarding end-use quality earlier in the breeding program ; GRNHRD, grain hardness (PSI); GRN-PRO, grain protein (at 12.5% moisture basis); FLRYLD, flour yield from milling (percentage recovered); FLRPRO, flour protein (at 14% moisture basis); FLRSDS, flour sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation volume (mL); MIXTIM, optimum mix time (min); MP, torque at the integral of the midline peak; ALVW, work value from Alveograph curve (J); ALVPL, Alveograph P (tenacity) divided by L (extensibility) (mm mm -1 ); LOFVOL, pup loaf volume (cm 3 ). ‡ r P , correlation between forward-predicted and empirical value in 2015. § CR/R, response to selection of correlated trait.work represents contribution number 16-037-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. in maize and wheat improvement.\" Support for phenotyping of quality traits was provided by CGIAR CRP WHEAT, Durable Rust Resistance Project, and Fondo Sectorial SAGARPA-CONACYT (No. 146788-\"Sistema de mejoramiento genético para generar variedades resistentes a royas, de alto rendimiento y alta calidad para una producción sustentable en México de trigo\") of the Mexican government. The computing for this project was performed on the Beocat Research Cluster at Kansas State University, which is funded in part by NSF grants CNS-1006860, EPS-1006860, and EPS-0919443. This Table 5. Genomic selection (GS) prediction correlations and accuracies of forward and cross-validation. Forward predictive models trained on all prior data, whereas cross-validation trained on a random 80% of the data to predict the remaining masked 20%. Cross-validation through 2014 was replicated 10 times. Both strategies used GAUSS GS model. ; GRNHRD, grain hardness (PSI); GRNPRO, grain protein (at 12.5% moisture basis); FLRYLD, flour yield from milling (percentage recovered); FLRPRO, flour protein (at 14% moisture basis); FLRSDS, flour sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation volume (mL); MIXTIM, optimum mix time (min); MP, torque at the integral of the midline peak; ALVW, work value from Alveograph curve (J); ALVPL, Alveograph P (tenacity) divided by L (extensibility) (mm mm -1 ); LOFVOL, pup loaf volume (cm 3 ). ‡ r, forward prediction accuracy.","tokenCount":"5928"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd5a2751755bf04279160c820534af72","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/be6885c2-aaeb-4f86-8f77-369315babe41/retrieve","id":"1422002953"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0ad2ccad-c4f4-4704-bc26-a3e647b9d474","pagecount":"1","content":"Cattle farming is one of the main agricultural activities in Colombia and the main source of income for many farmers. In order to make the cattle sector more productive and resilient to, there exists a need to explore new forage options responding to adverse and changing climates in the warm regions of the country and more general in the Latin American tropics.With the aim to evaluate the agronomic adaptation and response of a collection of Cenchrus ciliaris during the establishment phase and production, plots of 9 m 2 were planted under a randomized complete block design, with four replications, and using for control commercial materials previously evaluated in the region (e.g. B. brizantha cv. Toledo). The research was carried out in the Patía Municipality of the Cauca Department, an inter-Andean valley located in the south of Colombia at an altitude of 608 m asl, characterised by tropical dry forests with soils of medium fertility and long dry periods.Once the collection of 20 accessions was established, the agronomic evaluation was started using the methodology of the International Network for the Evaluation of Tropical Pastures (RIEPT), which takes into account variables such as vigor, coverage, height, incidence of pests and diseases, flowering, green forage and dry matter production.The evaluations were carried out in two years during periods of maximum and minimum precipitation, which allowed to observe the performance of the materials and to pre-select the following ones according to the dry matter production when compared with the best control materials: B. brizantha cv. Toledo had a yield of 43.3 t ha -1 year -1 ; B. hybrid cv. Cayman 40.31, and Panicum maximum cv. Mombasa 31.98, respectively. The genotypes evaluated with best yields were the accessions 6642, 15687 and 13299, with an average production of 39.59, 37.33 and 36.50 t ha -1 year -1 , respectively. These results show that, despite of having a lower forage production than the control materials of Brachiaria and Panicum, the evaluated materials can be an excellent alternative for the potential adaptation to the evaluated agro ecological conditions.","tokenCount":"341"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b53b4b9e440e0200f7581f5434a783d1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24082985-1b30-4ae3-b2f2-a9b26153a661/retrieve","id":"-2050794641"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4bf2e245-6d31-42cf-b0f8-b9f982640426","pagecount":"1","content":"La seguridad alimentaria no solamente implica la disponibilidad de alimentos para la población, también incluye que dichos alimentos estén acorde a la cultura, hábitos de consumo y utilización biológica en las comunidades. Las papas nativas son un valioso recurso genético, adaptado a los diversos ambientes de clima frío del país, representa una riqueza aún desconocida y con posibilidades de incrementar los ingresos de los agricultores de papa en la zona cundiboyacense, y que además puede contribuir a procesos de mejoramiento debido a sus características nutricionales y agronómicas [1]. Desde el 2012 el Centro Internacional de la Papa, desarrolla en Perú, Bolivia y Ecuador, el proyecto denominado Innovación para Seguridad y Soberanía Alimentaria en los Andes -Issandes-cuyo principal objetivo es contribuir a mejorar las condiciones de seguridad alimentaria de la población rural vulnerable y de los sectores más empobrecidos de la región andina, mediante el fortalecimiento de la innovación agrícola a favor de los pobres en respuesta a las necesidades de los grupos rurales más vulnerables [2].Con fin de establecer las actividades del proyecto Issandes en Colombia, se determinaron tres acciones: el acercamiento de tecnologías innovadoras para los agricultores mediante la incorporación de semillas producidas bajo aeroponía, el establecimiento de parcelas demostrativas con realización de talleres para la producción de semilla de calidad de papas nativas y la caracterización nutricional de los materiales producidos.Se realizó la selección de municipios (Soracá, Siachoque y Ventaquemada en Boyacá) basados en la producción de papa comparados con altos índices de pobreza. Se visitaron varias fincas y se escogieron teniendo en cuenta el estrato socioeconómico, número de hijos y edades, tipo de lotes, disponibilidad y aceptación. Se establecieron seis parcelas demostrativas con la siembra de cuatro materiales de papas nativas provenientes de aeroponía: Colombiana 1445, Argentina 2357, Palinegra 1665 y Arbolona rosada 1263. El seguimiento de las parcelas se realizó semanalmente, tomando datos de desarrollo y manejo. Durante el desarrollo del cultivo se realizaron talleres con los agricultores en temáticas como fertilización, manejo de suelos, manejo de plagas y enfermedades, nutrición y alimentación humana. En la cosecha se tomaron muestras para la determinación de macronutrientes (proteína cruda, azucares solubles, FDN, almidón total) y micronutrientes (Polifenoles totales, antocianinas totales, ácido clorogénico, carotenoides totales, ácido ascórbico, α-solanina) y la cuantificación de minerales (Fe, Zn, Mg, Ca) en los materiales crudos y cocidos. Los análisis fueron realizados siguiendo las metodologías propuestas por el proyecto Issandes, con protocolos desarrollados por los laboratorios del CIP [3,4], el laboratorio de Nutrición Animal y Lissalab de Corpoica.Se vincularon seis familias, dos en Siachoque, dos en Soraca y dos en Ventaquemada. Se realizaron tres reuniones de socialización del proyecto, dos talleres de línea base productiva, tres talleres de semillas y selección positiva y/o negativa de semilla, dos talleres de identificación y manejo de las enfermedades del cultivo de la papa y un taller de nutrición y alimentación humana. Después de la cosecha, se conservó material para la siembra del 2014 y el resto fue vendida con ayuda de los agricultores. Las muestras evaluadas por macro y micronutrientes presentaron contenidos superiores a los reportados para materiales mejorados en almidón, antioxidantes, ácido ascórbico, hierro y zinc. Estos resultados confirman la posibilidad de uso de estos materiales para ser incluidos en dietas nutricionales y el valor agregado que puede ser aprovechado por los productores de las zonas de estudio.","tokenCount":"552"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47ac8ab0c8d8648bf5a11a702672adec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c0dd5323-197b-4b7a-b60f-4d31dd881cd9/content","id":"1486665309"},"keywords":["Trítícum aestiuum","Resistencia a la sequla","Fitomejoramiento","Relaciones planta agualTríticum aestivum","Drought reslstance","Plant breeding","Plant water relatlons. Categorlas AGIDS/AGRIS category codes: F30","F60 Clasificación Decimal Dewey/ Trigo: junio-julio","Soja: nov-dic","Maíz: sep-oct. Fechas floración: Trigo: la semana octubre","Soja: febrero","Maíz: fin de didembre Fechas cosecha: Trigo: fin de noviembre","Soja: abril-mayo","Maíz: marzo. Densidad de siembra: Trigo: 300pl/m 2","Soja: 35PL/m 2","Maíz: 55.000 pl/ha Profundidad de siembra: Trigo: 5-8 cm","Soja: 5-7 cm","Maíz: 5-8 cm. Espaciamiento entre surcos: Trigo: 15-17.5 cm","Soja: 70 cm.","Maíz: 70 cm Laminar ligeira. Vegetação Primária: Horesta tropical subperenif6lia. Uso Atual: Soja","trigo","milho","café","banana e feijão"],"sieverID":"8f9f60d0-bfd8-4d21-a360-269f0c874669","pagecount":"248","content":"CIMMYl) es una organización internacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigación clentifica y la capacitación. Tiene su sede en México y lleva a cabo programas de investigación a nivel mundial sobre el malz, el trigo y el triticale, orientado a mejorar la productividad de los recursos agricolas en los paises en desarrollo. El CIMMYT es uno de los 13 centros Internacionales sin fines de lucro que realizan Investigaciones agricolas y capacitación con el apoyo del Grupo Consultivo sobre la Investigación Agricola Internacional (CGIAR, Consultatiue Group on lntemational Agricultural Research), que a su vez cuenta con el patrocinio de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), el Banco Internacional de Reconstrucción y Fomento (Banco Mundial) y el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). El CGIAR está compuesto por un grupo de 40 donadores, entre los que figuran paises, organismos tanto Internacionales como regionales y fundaciones privadas.A través del CGIAR, el CIMMYT recibe fondos para su presupuesto básico de varias fuentes, entre ellas, los organismos de ayuda internacional de Alemania,La agricultura de secano en todo el mundo invariablemente padece irregularidades en la precipitación pluvial de un año a otro. La sequía, que causa síntomas de estrés hidrico, es un factor Iimitante del rendimiento en muchos cultivos. Importantes regiones productoras de trigo, como el Subcontinente Indio, el Medio Oriente, el Norte y el Oeste de Africa, partes de Norteamérica y el Cono Sur de América del Sur, presentan niveles variables de sequla casi todos los años.Los programas nacionales de inveStigación de trigo en estas reglones y el CIMMYT han Identificado la sequía como un importante factor Iimitante y han estado trabajando en desarrollar germoplasma que manifieste un comportamiento superior en condiciones de estrés. El CIMMYT ha identificado cuatro tipos principales de estrés hídrico en el trigo:• El estrés del Subcontinente Indio, donde el cultivo utiliza la humedad almacenada en el suelo.• El estrés del Cono Sur, donde el cultivo padece estrés hídríco a mediados del ciclo de cultivo.• El estrés del Mediterráneo, donde el cultivo padece estrés durante el llenado de grano.• El estrés por riego reducido, donde el cultivo recibe una cantidad reducida de agua debido a la poca disponibilidad.La variabilidad entre y dentro de estos tipos de estrés y su relación con otros factores climáticos como la temperatura dificultan aún más el desarrollo de germoplasma. No obstante, se han logrado algunos avances y se ha identificado germoplasma sobresaliente para cada tipo de estrés mediante un método indirecto de selección, es decir, el comportamiento de rendimiento en condiciones de sequía.Los programas de trigo conjuntos en los países de América del Sur apoyados por el Programa de Investigación Conjunta del Cono Sur (PROCISUR) y el CIMMYT, permiten un intercambio ágil de germoplasma e información entre los países participantes.En vista de la enorme importancia del mejoramiento para lograr la tolerancia a la sequla en el Cono Sur, se celebró este taller del 28 al 30 de ago.sto de 1989 en Marcos Juárez, Argentina, con los siguientes objetivos:• Recopilar información meteorológica de las distintas partes de la región donde hay sequla durante el ciclo de trigo con el fin de entender la variabilidad o complejidad del fenómeno.• Recopilar información sobre el trabajo que se está realizando en la región, Incluido el tipo de germoplasma disponible y las caracteristicas y metodologlas fitotécnicas que se utilizan.• Entender cómo manejar de manera más eficaz el mejoramiento para lograr la tolerancia a la sequía.Esperamos que esta memoria les sea útil a mejoradores y fisiólogos en el establecimiento de estrategias y metodologías que definan mejor las áreas de investigación para lograr la tolerancia a la sequia.Rainfed agriculture around the world invariably suffers from precipitation irregularlties from year to year. Drought, causing water-stress related symptoms, is an Important yleld lImltlng factor In many crops. Important wheat growing regions of the world such as the Indlan Subeontlnent, the Mlddle East, North and East Afriea, parts of North America, and the Southern Cone region of South America suffer from drought to varying degrees almost every year.The national wheat researeh programs of these regions and CIMMYf have identified drought as an important constraint and have been working toward developing germplasm that has superior performance under water stress conditions. CIMMYf has identifled four major types of water stress in wheat:• Indian Subcontinent stress, where the crop uses reserve moisture from the soil.• Southern Cone stress, where the erop suffers water stress durlng the mlddle of the erop cycle.• Mediterranean stress, where the erop suffers stress during the grain filling periodo • Reduced irrigation stress, where the crop gets a limlted amount of water due to reduced availability.The variability among these and within each drought type and their relatlonships with other dimatie faetors such as temperature make germplasm development aJl the more dlffieult. Yet, sorne advances have been made and superior germplasm has been Identified for eaeh type of stress based on an indirect method of selection, Le., yield performance under stress eondltions.The eooperative wheat programs among the eountries of South Ameriea supported by the Cooperative Researeh Program of the Southern Cone (PROCISUR) and CIMMYf allow rapid exehange of germplasm and information among the participants.Considering the tremendous importance of breeding for drought reslstanee In the Southern Cone region of South Ameriea, this workshop was held August 28-30, 1989, in Marcos Júarez, Argentina, with the following objectives:• To colleet dimatie information from different parts of the reglon suffering drought durlng the wheat crop cycle in order to understand the variability or eomplexity of the phenomenon.• To bring together information on what is being done In the reglon, includlng the type of germplasm available and eharacters and breeding methodologies being used.• To increase the understaoding of how to haodle drought resistanee breeding lo an effieient manner.I hope that these proeeedings will be of help to breeders and physiologlsts as they define strategies and methodologies for streamlining areas of research in drought resistanee.En Argentina el cultivo de trigo se realiza en condiciones de secano y el déficit hídrlco es el principal factor limltante de la producción. AsI, el 60% del área triguera está afectada frecuentemente por sequía, mientras que el resto también puede presentar déficits hídricos importantes en algún momento del desarrollo del cultivo.En Marcos Juárez (32  0 5, 62 0 0) el clima es templado continental subhúmedo, con un promedio de lluvia anual de 898 mm. Las precipitaciones están concentradas en primavera y otoño con un marcado déficit Invernal.Las características necesarias para los trigos en el área de Influencia de Marcos Juárez son: ciclo Intermedio, 145 días, y madurez de corta duración, 40 días para dlsmlnuír el efecto de las altas temperaturas y además permitir la siembra del cultivo de soja, sucesor más frecuente en el área.Para esto, el Programa de Mejoramiento de Trigo en la E.E.A. Marcos Juárez desarrolla etapas de: a) Creación de variabilidad genética a trávez de cruzamientos, b) Selección de material segregante en distintos ambientes y c) Evaluación de las líneas establlízadas en diferentes ambientes.La selección simultanea en poblaciones F3 efectuadas sobre campo experimental en condiciones óptimas en cuanto a humedad y fertilidad y sobre rastrojo de soja con deficit de humedad en el suelo, mostró especificidad de algunas cruzas para el ambiente sobre soja.Cultivares como Cruz Alta INTA, PROINTA Isla Verde y Don Ernesto INTA, difundidos por la EEA Marcos Juárez, se destacan por su estabilidad de rendimiento en diferentes ambientes de Argentina y otros países del Cono Sur.El efecto de este factor limitante puede ser atenuado mediante la utilización de germoplasma con tolerancia a defidt hidrico, que junto a un adecuado manejo del cultivo conduzca a un mejor aprovechamiento de la humedad, permitiendo expresar el máximo potencial de rendimiento. De esta manera, es posible obtener en estas áreas una mayor estabilidad en los rendimientos a través de los años, sin aumentar significativamente los costos.El trigo, uno de los cereales más importantes en la alimentación humana, se cultiva en aproximadamente 230 millones de hectáreas. La mayor parte de esta superficie se siembra en condiciones de secano y alrededor del 40% presenta problemas de déficit de humedad que limita con variada Intensidad los rendimientos. En estas regiones este problema reviste particular importancia si se tienen en cuenta dos aspectos. Uno de ellos es la elevada frecuencia con que este factor limitante de la producción se presenta y otro es el momento de ocurrencia respecto a periodos criticos durante el ciclo de cultivo.En Sudamérlca algunos palses del Cono Sur presentan esta limitante para el cultivo de trigo. Entre ellos se destaca por la superficie afectada la Argentina, con aproximadamente 3 millones de ha., Brasil con un área de 1 millón de ha. y Chile 150,000 Ha. Otros paises como Paraguay y Bolivia también están afectados por esta adversidad (Figura 2).En la Argentina el cultivo de trigo se realiza en condiciones de secano, siendo el déficit hldrlco el principal factor Iimltante de la producción. Sobre una superficie sembrada de aproximadamente 5.500.000 ha., el 60o,.ú está afectada frecuentemente por sequia. Debe señalarse que el resto del área también puede presentar déficit hídrico importante en algún momento del desarrollo del cultivo.Por la gran extensión de la región considerada y por las distintas condiciones de ambiente ha sido necesaria su división en 5 subregiones ecológicas; dos de ellas subdivididas en zonas norte y sur.Las mismas son las siguientes: Subregión 1, Subregión UN, Subregión nS, Subregión In, Subregión IV, Subregión V N y Subregión V S.El régimen de precipitaciones se caracteriza por presentar un gradiente de este a oeste con tendencia decreciente desde 900 mm anual en las subreglones I1I, Us y IV hasta 400 mm en las subreglones V N YV S. Generalmente,la mitad de esta cantidad ocurre durante el ciclo de cultivo de trigo, pero la variabilidad entre años es muy elevada.En cuanto a la textura de los suelos presentan una variación desde franco-arcilloso al este, francolimoso en la parte central y franco-arenoso a arenoso al oeste. Estas caracteristicas, sumadas a la amplitud térmica y una marcada variabilidad climática entre años, provocan frecuentes balances hIdricos negativos en etapas criticas del cultivo afectando los rendimientos, principalmente en el área oeste de la región triguera argentina. En esta área el INTA desarrolla tareas de mejoramiento genético y de manejo del suelo y del cultivo de trigo en las estaciones experimentales de Bordenave, R.Saénz Peña y Marcos Juárez.El clima, subhúmedo con modalidad de templado-continental, se caracteriza fundamentalmente por la variabilidad de precipitaciones entre años, no solo en la cantidad, sino también en su distribución especialmente durante el ciclo de cultivo de trigo (Figura 3). Se observan los valores de temperaturas medias mensuales, eva potranspiración potencial y real, medias mensuales y precipitaciones medias mensuales.El Programa Trigo dellNTA posee objetivos generales tales como rendimientos elevados y estables, junto a una calidad acorde a los mercados internos y de exportación. También existen objetivos regionales o especificas debidos a la diversidad de ambientes y de sistemas de producción en el área triguera argentina. Entre los objetivos especificas que son importantes para lograr estabilidad en los rendimientos se considera la resistencia a enfermedades y la tolerancia a déficit hidrlco. Esto último reviste especial importancia si se tiene en cuenta que aproximadamente 7 de cada 10 años se presenta este problema en Marcos Juárez.Los cultivares obtenidos en la EEA Marcos Juárez se difunden fundamentalmente en las subregiones trigueras nN y V N presentando adaptación a los sistemas de producción agrlcola-ganaderos de la zona.Las caracterlsticas que deben presentar los trigos son las siguientes: ciclo intermedio de aproximadamente 145 dias de germinación a madurez para siembras en el mes de junio con la finalidad de aprovechar la humedad superficial. El periodo de germinación a esplgazón debe ser de In Marcos Juarez (320 5, 62 0 ), the elimate is temperate with low humidity and has an average annual rainfall of 898 mm, whích is eoneentrated in spring and fall eausing a large moisture defícit during the winter.The essential requirements for wheat at Marcos Juarez are: an intermediate cyele (145 days) and a short grain lilling period (40 days) to reduce the effeet of high temperatures during this period and to permit the timely sowing of the soybean erop.The breeding methodology ineludes: a) establishing genetic uariabílity through erossing, b) seleetion of segregating materials in different environments, and e) evaluation 01 the fixed lines in different environments.The simultaneous seleetion 01 F3 populations under high moisture and lertlllty eonditions and drought stress eonditions demonstrates the specility 01 some germplasm Jor drought stress. Cuadro 1. Selección de material segregante en distintas secuencias de cultivo. Sel. Indlv. caract. agron6mlcas, sanitarias y grano. EEA Marcos Juárez.Sel masal dirigida caract. agr6nomlcas, sanitarias, adv. climáticas y grano en Sáenz Pena (Chaco). Evaluacl6n Rápida de calidad.Sel. masal dirigida por P. gramlnls trltlcl en el vivero de verano de Balcarce.Sel. Indlv. por caract. agron6mlcas, sao nltarlas y de grano. EEA. Marcos Juárez.   La siembra de trigo en el noreste argentino (Chaco, Formosa y norte de Santa Fe) se hace en las rotaciones agrícolas siguiendo al girasol, soja, algodon, sorgo y algunas veces despues de pasturas permanentes.La producción presenta fluctuaciones a través de los años debido principalmente a déficits hrdricos en perfodos de máximos requerimientos durante el ciclo de cultivo. Los resultados de la producción están en función del agua acumulada en el suelo en presiembra y de las precipitaciones que se registran en el ciclo del cultivo.Los trabajos de Mejoramiento de Trigo que se conducen en la E.E.A. Sáenz Peña comprenden dos aspectos:• Vivero de selección de poblaciones de F3 del Programa Cooperativo de Trigo para resistencia de Puccinia graminis, P. recondita y Helminthosporium sp. y tolerancia a déficit hfdrico y elevadas temperaturas en madurez.• Obtención de cultivares adaptadas a la región del Chaco y Formosa.Para lograr estos objetivos se efectúan selecciones desde generaciones tempranas (F2) en Sáenz Peña y se avanzan generaciones en el vivero de verano BaJcarce, efectuándose las evaluaciones del material estabilizado en Sáenz Peña.Como logros del Programa de Mejoramiento de Sáenz Peña, debemos mencionar el cultivar \"Ghaqueño INTA\", de ciclo largo, que logró amplia difusión en la región del NEA. En 1989 se ha recomendado el cultivar PROINTA Oasis, que fue seleccionado y evaluado en Sáenz Peña y Marcos Juárez. Esta variedad tiene alto potencial de rendimiento de grano y resistencia a P. graminis, P. recondita y Septoria trltici.La siembra de trigo en la región del Noreste Argentino (NEA) abarca las provincias de Chaco, Formosa y norte de Santa Fe (Figura 1), mientras que en Corrientes y Misiones el cultivo tiene superficies reducidas, sin mayor importancia económica.En las provincias de Chaco y Formosa el cultivo de trigo comenzó a expandirse a partir de 1962 con aproximadamente 2.000 ha hasta llegar a un máximo de 82.000 ha en 1968; esto fue coincidente con la mayor crisis económica del principal cultivo de la región, el algodón. Como consecuencia de este problema, se hizo necesario la diversificación de la producción, y entre otros cultivos se incorporó el trigo.Observando la figura 2 de balance hidrico de Sáenz Peña, existe un periodo de acumulación de agua entre los meses de marzo y abril. A partir de mayo comienza un déficit hidrlco que se prolonga durante el ciclo del cultivo de trigo desde mayo hasta noviembre. En consecuencia, los resultados de la producción están en función del agua acumulada en el suelo en pre-siembra y de las precipitaciones que se registren durante el ciclo de cultivo.Los trabajos de mejoramiento de trigo que se conducen en la EEA Sáenz Peña, comprenden dos aspectos:• Vivero de selección de poblaciones de F3 del Programa Cooperativo de Trigo para resistencia a enfermedades y tolerancia a déficit hidrlco y elevadas temperaturas en madurez.• Obtención de cultivares adaptados a la región del Chaco y Formosa.En cuanto a la obtención de cultivares para la región del NEA, está orientado hacia la obtención de cultivares con elevado rendimiento y estabilidad. Para alcanzar este último objetivo se da énfasis a la resistencia a las enfermedades de mayor incidencia tales como Puccínia graminis, P. recondita, Helmintosporiosis. Asimismo, se tiene en cuenta la tolerancia sequla y las elevadas temperaturas en madurez.Para lograr estos objetivos se desarrollan las siguientes acciones:• Selección individual de poblaciones F2 provenientes de la EEA Marcos Juárez y CIMMYT.EEA Sáenz Peña: selección individual en poblaciones provenientes de la EEA Marcos Juárez y CIMMYT en F2 y F3. En F4 se seleccionará masalmente en el Vivero de Verano de Balcarce para resistencia a P. graminis y avanzar una generación.The plantlng 01 wheat in northeastern Argentina lollows sunllower, soybean, cotton, sorghum, and, in some cases, permanent pastures.Over the years, the production Iluctuations have primari/y been related to drought stress during the critical periods 01 crop growth. Production is limited by the amount 01 water present in the soil belore seeding and the precipitation during the crop cycle.The wheat breeding at Saenz Peña Experiment Station involves two activities:• Selection 01 the cooperative program's F3 populations lor resistance to stem and leal rust and spot blotch and tolerance to drought and high temperature.• Identi/ication 01 varieties adapted to the Chaco and Formosa regions.To reach these objectives, early generation (F2) selections are done in Saenz Peña and advanced to other nurseries at Balcarce. Fixed material is evaluated at Saenz Peña.The achievements 01 the program have been the release 01 the variety \"Chaqueño INTA\", which has a long cycle and is well adapted to the NEA region. In 1989 another variety, \"PROINTA Oasis\", was selected and evaluated at Saenz Peña and Marcos Juarez. This variety is resistant to the rusts and septoria leal blotch and has very high yleld potential.Cuadro 1. El cultivo de trigo en la Provincia del Chaco-Superficie sembrada y cosechada, producción y rendimiento de granos por año y promedio. Girasol(Enero), Algodón (Marzo-Abril) Densidad de siembra: Trigo (300 pl/m 2 ), Girasol (55,000 pl/ha), Algodón (60,000 pl/ha) Profundidad de siembra: Trigo (5-8 cm), Girasol (5-8 cm), Algodón (5-8 cm) Espaciamiento entre surcos: Trigo (15-17 cm), Girasol (80 cm), Algodón (1 mt)1\\;)<.v La reglón semiárida pampeana se halla ubicada al sur de la provincia de Córdoba, este de San Luis, noroeste de La Pampa y sudoeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires con una superficie aproximadamente 24.000.000 ha.El trigo es el principal cultivo, representando en superficie y producción la zona mas importante del pals (38% y 35%, respectivamente).Las precipitaciones oscilan entre 700 mm al oeste y 300 mm al sudoeste, sufriendo anualmente grandes variaciones que se manifestan en sequfas o perIodos húmedos. Es frecuente observar fracasos de cosecha, seguidos de excelentes rendimientos.La zona de influencia de la EEA Bordenave, es una región en que predomina el sistema mixto ganadero-agrfcola en rotación, siendo el trigo la principal actividad agrfcola con una superficie cercana 011.000.000 de hectáreas.Se trata de un área de marcado déficit hldrico que alcanza a los 153 mm/año. Los meses invernales muestran un \"equi/ibrio inestable\", sin sequla manifiesta, pero dificultando a veces la posibilidad de siembra.Agosto resulta ser un mes crItico para los cultivos invernales, pues reaparece el déficit hfdrlco; los meses de septiembre y octubre producen una nueva recarga del suelo. Las posibilidades de cosecha dependen mucho del comportamiento hfdrlco de dichos meses y del mes de noviembre que es deficitario.La siembra del trigo cumple generalmente en condiciones adecuadas de humedad edáfica, pero en la encañzón-fecundación puede ser afectado por \"stress\" hfdrico. La magnitud y alcance de esta sequfa estacional, decide en forma sustantiva el volumen de la cosecha.La gran variabilidad de régimen climático de un año a otro, hace necesario pensar en un ideotipo de planta que sea suficientemente estable, capaz de aprovechar en buena medida la condición más favorable y no se deprima en su performance ante situaciones de stress.El método utilizado en forma preponderante ha sido efectuar la selección por resistencia a sequfa Indirectamente por rendimiento, desarrollo de grano y peso hectolftrico, observando el comportamiento y estabilidad del material en una serie de años de condiciones ambientales diferentes. También se han utilizado las pruebas multilocacionales y la correlación de observaciones empfricas como indicadoras del grado de resistencia a sequfa, tales como: senecencia de las hojas, viabilidad y supervlvenciade macollos, pubescencia y cerosidad, crecimiento y lozanfa de la planta en condiciones de stress, enrollamiento foliar en condición de stress hfdrico, desarrollo y llenado de grano, buen desarrollo radicular al seleccionar plantas por arranque.Esta metodología básicamente empírica ha permitido individualizar un conjunto de Hneas y cultivares de buen comportamiento a sequía.La región semiárida pampeana se halla ubicada al sur de la provincia de Córdoba, este de San Luis, noroeste de La Pampa y sudoeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires (Rgura 1). La superficie total es de aproximadamente 24.000.000 has. de las cuales los cereales (5.233.800) y la ganaderia (12.966.200) ocupan la mayor superficie con 18.200.000 hectáreas.El trigo es el principal cultivo, representando en superficie y producción la zona mas importante del pais con algo más del 38% y 35%, respectivamente. En cambio, los rendimientos se pueden considerar bajos, 1280 kg/ha., con respecto al promedio general del pais.Los suelos de la región se caracterizan por su gran heterogeneidad constitutiva debido a la gran influencia que ejerció sobre ellos el clima y la vegetación. La mayor parte de los suelos se consideran jóvenes y que han evolucionado sobre materiales depositados por procesos de erosión eólica e hIdrica. Los suelos predominantes son de textura mediana a gruesa de buena permeabilidad y de variable profundidad, Umitado por un horizonte petrocá\\clco (tosca). En términos generales el clima que domina esta región es el semiárldo templado. Dada su extensión los factores cUmátlcos difieren notablemente de norte a sur, modificando debido a su influencia la aptitud y modalidad de producción.Las precipitaciones oscilan hacia el este de la región semiárida en 700 mm y disminuyen progresivamente a 300 mm en el limite oeste.Las precipitaciones sufren anualmente grandes oscilaciones que se manifiestan en sequias o periodos húmedos, con resultados para los cultivos, muy diferentes. Es frecuente observar fracasos de cosecha, seguidos de excelentes rendimientos. Debido a las caracteristlcas de los suelos son de escaso contenido de materia orgánica y elementos nutritivos. La deficiencia de nitrógeno se ha generalizado en la región y se manifiesta en bajos rendimientos y calidad de los granos. El 50% de los suelos presentan deficiencia de fósforo y tan solo el 25% muestran valores de buena disponibilidad.La producción de granos expresada en kg/ha son bajos y erráticos, utilizándose para ello los sistemas convencionales de producción supeditados en gran medida a la variación climática regional. Los efectos sobre el suelo son muy conocidos a nivel zonal, como la degradación fisica y la pérdida de fertilidad.El área de influencia de la EEA Bordenave está ubicada totalmente dentro de este Región Semiárida Pampeana, comprendiendo partidos del SO de la Provincia de Buenos Aires y Este de La Pampa.Está representada esta región por una dilatada planicie suavemente ondulada e interrumpida solamente por las sierras del sistema de la Ventana.El trigo tiene gran importancia en esta zona de influencia de la E.E.A. Bordenave, siendo la principal actividad agrkola con una superficie cercana a 1.000.000 de hectáreas. Constituye aproximadamente un 50o\"f> de la ocupada con trigo en la subregión triguera V Sur, la mas importante del pais en superficie sembrada y producción.Los principales factores que revisten capital importancia son el suelo y el agua, que Inciden directamente sobre la econonúa de la explotación regional.Siendo el suelo la base económica de la agricultura y ganaderla, no se le brinda el cuidado necesario para su conservación y productividad.Estimada la productividad del suelo a través de los rendimientos logrados por los cerelaes de invierno, y receptividad ganadera de los campos de pastoreo, se observa una constante fluctuación que se agrava en años criticos, de baja humedad.En la reglón citada, las precipitaciones no se producen de manera uniforme a través del tiempo, ni en las estaciones anuales. Esta desunlformidad trae aparejado frecuentes periodos de escasez de agua. Ultimamente las lluvias son más abundantes, observándose visibles signos de erosión hidrlca, por exceso de escurrimiento.El déficit de agua, en periodos de sequia afecta no sólo a los cultivos de cereales, sino también a las praderas naturales, fuentes de alimentación de la ganaderia. Por tal motivo ambas explotaciones, sufren profundos periodos de crisis.Mediante repetidas labores de suelo previo a la siembra, se destruyen los terrones de mayor tamafio y malezas. Se completa el desterronado y emparejamiento de la superficie del suelo, mediante el uso repetido de las rastras de discos y dientes.La siembra se realiza con sembradoras comunes, o convencionales a las que se agrega como norma, cadenas o pequefios cuerpos de rastra de dientes. El rolado es práctica común en primaveras secas, posterior a la germinación del trigo.Bajo tales condiciones, el peligro de la erosión por planchado, voladuras, o corrimiento de las lluvias, subsiste hasta entrada la primavera, o sea hasta cuando el cereal comienza a macollar y a cubrir la superficie del suelo.La producción de trigo bajo el manejo común, no brinda un excelente recurso económico, debido a los bajos rendimientos y fracasos de cosecha.La temperatura media anual es de 15 0 C. La media en el mes de enero varia entre 19 0 y 25 0 yen el mes de julio de 70 a 90C.Las temperaturas máximas extremas superan los 400C en el verano y las mInimas extremas llegan a valores por debajo de -15oC. Por altitud las temperaturas mas bajas se registran en los partidos de Tornquist, Saavedra, Sodoeste de Coronel Suárez y Puán. La humedad relativa media varia del 70% en el este al 60% hacia el sudoeste.En lo que se refiere al periodo de heladas, en general se observa en toda la regi6n una frecuencia media de 245 dlas, aumentando a 275 dias (Pigue-Bordenave) a medida que se superan los 200 m sobre el nivel del mar y disminuyendo cuando se reduce la altitud.El balance hfdrico de la regi6n semiárida pampeana es negativo, siendo la evapotranspiraci6n potencial mayor que la cantidad anual de lluvia. El déficit resultante de agua durante el afio, surge de comparar las sumas anuales de evapotranspiraci6n potencial y las sumas anuales de precipltaci6n. Esto :nuestra que en la regi6n semiárida faltan anualmente entre 100 y 400 mm de agua.Para Bordenave, utilizando la técnica de Thornthwaits y en base a los datos de precipitaciones del periodo 1928/1988 y de temperaturas para 1952/1988, se efectu6 el cálculo respectivo para cada mes, confeccionándose el balance hfdrico medio (Cuadro 1).Sintéticamente se concluye que se trata de un área con marcado déficit hldrico, que alcanza a 153 mm./afio; los meses de verano, particularmente enero, febrero, diciembre y noviembre (en ese orden), son deficitarios. Ello explica el hecho comunmente observado del frecuente fracaso de 105 cultivos de verano en la zona.Acciones de mejoramiento para tolerancia a sequia en la EEA BordenaveEn el análisis previo de caracterización del área y del régimen climático, quedó marcada la gran variabilidad que puede presentarse de un año a otro, con una alternancia de un régimen subhúmedo al arídlco como extremos. Esta situación, hace necesario pensar en un ideotipo de planta que sea lo suficientemente estable, capaz de aprovechar en buena medida la condición mas favorable y no se deprima en su performance ante situaciones de stress.SI bien las sequías estacionales son uno de los factores de mayor incidencia asociadas íntimamente con el manejo del cultivo, sobre la estabilidad y seguridad en la producción de trigo del área, la labor de mejoramiento para considerar este factor. hasta el presente, se ha basado casi exclusivamente en lineamientos empíricos.El método utlUzado en forma preponderante ha sido efectuar la selección por reslstencla a sequía Indirectamente por rendimiento, desarrollo de grano y peso hectolltrlco, observando el comportamiento y estabilidad del material en una serie de años de condiciones ambientales diferentes.Otro criterio que se utiliza es la prueba en diversas localidades de la subregión de lineas estabilizadas, con un rango mas amplio de suelo y clima. En el material segregante, estabilizado y colección de germoplasma, en los años que se presenta incidencia de stress hídrico, se efectúan observaciones empíricas que se correlacionan con resistencia a sequía, estableciendo una escala de buen comportamiento utilizándolo como criterio de selección. Los indicadores considerados son los siguientes:• Senecencia de las hojas,• viabilidad y supervivencia de macollos,• pubescencia y cerosidad,• crecimiento y lozanía de la planta en condiciones de stress,• enrollamiento foliar en condición de stress hídrlco • desarrollo y llenado del grano • buen desarrollo radicular al seleccionar plantas por arranque.Esta metodología básicamente empírica ha permitido Individualizar un conjunto de lineas y cultivares que hemos catalogado como de buen comportamiento a sequía que se detallan en el Cuadro 3.A partir de 1986 se establece contacto con un grupo de fisiólogos y fitomejoradores de la Universidad Nacional de La Pampa Interesados en desarrollar y ajustar métodos de evaluación y selección para resistencia al stress hidrico. En cooperación con esta Inquietud, la EEA Bordenave proporciona el material que empíricamente se ha identificado con diverso grado de tolerancia a la sequía, realizando el grupo de la U. de La Pampa el estudio y ajuste de metodologías. Anualmente se comentan los resultados obtenidos y se selecciona el material a evaluar en el próximo ciclo. Los test evaluados confirman o no las presunciones emp[ricas, pero permiten ir desarrollando metodologías prácticas e idóneas, que permiten al fitomejorador una mayor solidez en sus criterios de selección contra esta adversidad, procurando la mayor rapidez y econom1a del método.  Bordenave (1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988).  La resistencía a los diferentes estréses ambientales siempre ha sido muy difkll de ser manejada por los fltome]oradores. El rol de fisio/ogfa en desarrollo de resistencia al estrés hfdrico está discutido. Los importantes conocimientos básicos aportados por los /isió/ogos y bioqufmicos deben ayudar en la elaboración de metodo/ogfas de prueba para determinar el nivel de resistencia a la sequfa eficientemente.Estas lineas están dirigidas a todos los profesionales de las ciencias agroeconómlcas pero dedicados especialmente a los fltomejoradores, y tienden a superar toda una historia divergente entre estos y los fisiólogos vegetales. Y esto no constituye una particularidad de los especialistas de nuestro pals, en casi todo el mundo ambas disciplinas han evolucionado separadamente en lo que respecta a la resistencia al estrés. Tal situación tiende a cambiar en otros paises, como veremos mas adelante. El cambio obedece a diferentes factores pero fundamentalmente a la advertencia de algunos investigadores de que el proceso de mejoramiento clásico está arribando a un \"plateau\" en el impresionante y constante aumento de rendimiento de los principales cultivos que caracterizó muchas decadas de la historia agronómica mundial.Durante mucho tiempo la tarea de mejoramiento fue un hecho casi artesanal, dicho esto sin ningún ánimo peyorativo, reconociendo que el fltomejorador esta armado de una sólida teoria y de Importantes bases cientificas. Sin embargo, los auxiliares mas Importantes de su labor han sido: el ojo cllnico, una Intuición exacerbada y sobre todo mucha perseverancia y aplicación al trabajo como para conducir de manera rutinaria ciento a miles de ascenclones hasta coronar su tarea con algún acierto ¿Cuántos fracasos quedan en el camino?, ¿Cuantos aFlos de labor? ¿Es posible introducir alguna modlficadlón metodológica? Mucho depende de otras disciplinas. El fltomejorador necesita referencias, señales que le marquen una senda por donde pueda transcurrir su marcha hacia la formación de una nueva variedad mejorada, cuyo rendimiento, estabilidad, resistencia a adversidades climáticas, plagas y enfermedades, marquen un progreso neto sobre cultivares en uso. Además es importante que las caracterlsticas señaladas puedan expresarse en diferentes ambientes. ¿Es posible crear un sistema de referencia o es una utopia? Los fisiólogos consideramos que es posible, y que dicho sistema deberla tener una raigambre importante en esta disciplina.Especlficamente, en lo que se refiere a la resistencia al estrés hldrico, que está dentro de nuestra esfera de mayor interés, es mucho lo que la fisiología puede brindar al fitomejoramiento. Los parrafos que siguen constituyen una sintesis de las ideas de un fisiólogo (Blum 1983).La metodologia que desarrollaron los fisiólogos, basada fundamentalmente en la segurldad, resulta Imposible de utilizar en los programas de selección vegetal.La rutina de la selección está fundada primordialmente en la rapidez, la facilidad, e Incluso en criterios económicos como el costo de determinada labor.En e8te caso la seguridad no constituye un valor fundamental. Mientras el trabajo del fisiólogo requiere seguridad y se basa en criterios absolutos, el trabajo del seleccionador está relacionado con las probabilidades. El fitomejorador tiene sumo interés en reducir el tamaño de las poblaciones que él maneja aún a costa de un margen de error que podría ser inaceptable para un fisiólogo.Dicho margen podria compensarse por repetición de la prueba de subsecuentes generaciones.Por otra parte, existe muy poca Información sobre las relaciones entre una caracteristica adaptativa determinada en relación a la sequia y el rendimiento económico de una variedad dada en ambientes no sometidos a sequia. En la actualidad es muy dificil formular el ideotipo de una planta, en términos de la respuesta fisiológica de esta, en ambientes sin limitaciones hldrlcas y en aquellos sometidos a déficit. Es decir, un ideotipo que pudiere rendir en los niveles máximos de su potencialidad cuando no existan limitaciones de humedad y produzca satisfactoriamente en condiones de estrés hldrico. Lamentablemente, muchas de las caracteristlcas favorables en relación a la resistencia al estrés hldrlco tienen efectos negativos sobre el rendimiento en granos.A pesar de estas restricciones, Blum (1983) expresa que: \"Existe variación génica en los siguientes atributos de resistencia a la sequia, mantenimiento de un potencial hldrlco relativamente elevado (dehydrataclon avoldance) bajo condiciones de estrés hidrlco, ajuste osmótico, continuidad de crecimiento de la planta o de algún órgano en particular, recuperación de la planta después de un periodo de sequia, tolerancia del sistema fotosintético o de sus componentes, estabilidad de las membranas celulares, acumulación de prolina, desarrollo del sistema radical, y atributos morfológicos tales como: tamaño de la hoja, área foliar por planta, orientación de las hojas, sobrevivencia de macollos, contenido de ceras eplcuticulares y pubescencia foliar\".El comportamiento estomático como caracteristica a tener en cuenta en un programa de selección relacionado con la resistencia a la sequia, ha sido materia de controversias puesto que en algunos casos pudo observarse que altas resistencias estomáticas se hallan correlacionadas positivamente con resistencia a sequia, mientras que en otras ocasiones no se verificó tal comportamiento. Por otra parte, existen autores que consideran que una resistencia estomática elevada puede estar correlacionada negativamente con la tasa fotosintética.El enrollamiento foliar y la senescencia son rásgos fácilmente observables a campo. Otros dos rasgos que pueden tener relevancia en programas de selección relacionados con la resistencia a la sequia son: el ajuste apropiado del proceso de maduración y, en el caso de especies que poseen cultivares aristados y no aristados (p.e. trigo), la presencia de aristas.Tal vez la clave para producir la ansiada asociación entre el fisiólogo y el fitomejorador consista en que el primero ponga a disposición del segundo una serie de test rápidos y de fácil ejecución. Entre los muchos test existentes podríamos citar:• El enrollamiento foliar en condiciones de estrés hldrico.• La temperatura de la canopia medida con termómetro infrarrojo. Se considera que la temperatura foliar está correlacionada negativamente con el potencial hldrico de dicho órgano.• La tasa de muerte de hojas bajo condiciones de estrés.• En el caso de la tolerancia a estrés en post-antesis, debe destacarse que el llenado del grano depende parcialmente de los fotosintatos producidos durante dicho proceso y que otra porción de los fotoasimilados se encuentran almacenados en órganos vegetativos y son translocados hacia los granos. Existe una marcada variación genotlplca en relación a la participación relativa de ambas porciones en el llenado del grano y dicha variación permite el desarrollo de un test para estimar la capacidad de un genotipo dado para llenar el grano por medio de la transJocación a partir de órganos de reserva, proceso menos sensible al estrés hldrlco que a la fotosintesis. El test está basado en la cuantificacIón del llenado del grano con fotosintatos translocables a partir del tallo. Para ello, se tratan los lotes con L1n desecante como el clorato de magnesio. El peso final de los órganos cosechados se compara con el planta testigo.• Las membranas celulares son estructuras fundamentales para numeroslslmos eventos flslóloglcos. Dichas estructuras pueden ser muy afectadas por el estrés. Existe un método muy sencillo para cuantificar In vitro la tolerancia de las membranas celulares a la deshidratación, basado en la medida de tasa de flujo (hacia el agua desionizada) de iones provenientes de discos foliares previamente incubados en un producto osmótico como el politilengllcol.• Existe actualmente otro método de evaluación de la resistencia membranarla. En este caso la estructura evaluada son las membranas de los c1oroplástldos relacionados con el fotoslstema nde la fotosintesls. El metado utilizado es el de la fluorescencia c!oroíllica.• El crecimiento de la planta es otra caracterlstica importante a tener en cuenta en un proceso de selección de resistencia a la sequia. Puede medirse la producción total de materia seca, en condiciones de estrés, o bien el crecimiento llnear de algun órgano.También el angulo foUar de plantas sometidas a estrés muestra variaciones que son hereditarias y relacionadas con el grado de estrés.La propuesta práctica que realiza Blum (1983), a quien consideramos el autor que mas avanzó en la formulación de una metodologla para asociar los procedimientos fisiológicos con los del mejoramiento vegetal, consiste en: Utilizar procedimientos simples y rápidos para testar material resistente a sequia. Blum utiliza en el caso del trigo, termometria de Infrarrojo, y la determinación del rendimiento en granos luego de la desecación pos-antésls. Las ](neas resistentes a la sequia seleccionadas son combinadas con las testadas por su alto rendImiento seleccionadas mediantes bs metodos f1totécnlcos clásicos a nivel de F 5 para obtener posteriormente las variedades mejoradas de alto rendImiento y resistentes a sequla.Consideramos que el camino del fitomejoramlento para resistencia al estrés reclen comienza desbrozarse. Existe un substrato importante de conocimientos básicos aportados por los fisiólogos y bloquimlcos; sobre esta base deberlan elaborarse metodologIas de prueba cada vez mas confiables, simples y rápidas.Desde el punto de vista de la colaboración fisiológo-genetlca, debe avanzarse en la relación de estudios básicos sobre la herencia de algunas caracterlsticas de resistencia a sequla, existe al respecto alguna enzimas que podrlan actuar como marcadoras.Por último, debe tenerse en cuenta que el sindrome de la resistencia a la sequía de las plantas, es muy completo y todo avance importante en la selección estará relacionado, no sólo con la necesaria colaboración fislólogo-fitomejorador, sino con la posibilidad de construir equipos disclpUnarlos en los cuales lntervengan además de los profesionales antes mencionados, bioqu1micos, ingenieros genéticos y agrónomos.A.D. Golberg l , R. El concepto de estrés biológico fue definido por Levitt (1972) tomando como referencia el concepto fisico según el cual el ESTRES es una fuerza aplicada a un cuerpo. Por otra parte la DEFORMACION (strain) es definida como un cambio en las dimensiones del objeto causdo por el estrés.Por analogia, el ESTRES BIOLOGICO es un cambio en las condiciones del medio ambiente que produce efectos adversos en los organismos. La DEFüRMACIüN BIOLOGICA, es un cambio en el crecimiento y desarrollo del organismo ocasionado por el estrés.La deformación biológica puede ser dividida en dos partes: una llamada elástica en la cual las funciones del organismo retornan a sus niveles anteriores cuando el estrés cesa; y una plástica, en la cual las funciones no retornan a su estado original. La relación entre la deformación y el estrés es presentada en la Figura 1.La capacidad de la planta para resistir a un factor desfavorable es conocida como resistencia al estrés. Las distintas estrategias de resistencia fueron definidas por Levitt (1972).La evasión consiste en cumplir todo el ciclo fuera del periodo de sequia. El otro grupo de respuesta es conocida como resistencia ya que la planta desarrolla alguna estrategia para hacer frente al estrés. El esquive se refiere a la capacidad de mantener un potencial hidrico elevado en condiciones de sequia. La planta responde de manera de evitar el impacto, utilizando ya sea la estrategia de conservar el agua (cierre de los estomas, etc.), o aumentando la permeabilidad de las ralces.La tolerancia es definida como la capacidad de vivir con un potencial hídrico bajo. Dentro de la tolerancia, el mecanismo de mayor interés agron6mico es la estrategia de evitar la deshldratacl6n a través del ajustamiento osm6tico. La resistencia a ala sequía desde el punto de vista agron6mico es mejor definida como la habilidad de la planta para minimizar las pérdidas en el rendimiento ocasionadas por una escasa disponibilidad de agua en el suelo (Sojka et al. 1981). De acuerdo a este concepto la variedad más resistente al estrés no será necesariamente la más productiva en condiciones de sequía, sino la que disminuye en menor proporción el rendimiento respecto del testigo.De esta manera, la producción en granos es independiente a la resistencia al estrés.Las respuestas de las plantas al estrés hídrico dependen en gran medida de la fase fenológica en la cual se produce el deficit hídrico. En general durante la fase generativa los efectos del estrés son mayores para el caso de los cereales, ya que en gran medida reduce la producción en granos.En el trigo no existe una estretegia fisiológica en respuesta al estrés hídrico; por el contrario se observa una amplia variación genética de los componentes fisiológicos de resistencia al estrés (Blum 1983).Una de las maneras de analizar la resistencia a la sequía es la de considerar la eficiencia en el uso del agua. Las tres variedades de trigo representadas en la Figura 2 ejemplifican tres comportamientos típicos en relación a este parámetro (Blum 1983).Cajeme es una variedad muy productiva en buenas condiciones hídricas, pero muy susceptible al estrés. Miriam es más resistente al estrés pero la menos productiva en buenas condiciones. Por el contrario 676, representa una variedad con ambas características; resistencia a la sequía y alto potencial productivo en buenas condiciones, dos atributos deseables en un programa de selección.Los periodos de sequía que ocurren durante la floración son los más perjudiciales desde el punto de vista del rendimiento en granos. En concordancia con lo expuesto Fagioli y Bono (1984) encuentra que en el periodo encañaz6n--espigazón es donde se observan los valores más altos en el uso consuntivo del agua.Una mayor precisión del período de mayor sensibilidad de las plantas de trigo al estrés hidrlco es obtenido del trabajo de Hochman (1982), esquematizado en el Cuadro 1.Estas líneas están dirigidas a todos los profesionales de las ciencias agronómicas pero dedicadas especialmente a los fitomejoradores, y tienden a superar toda una historia divergente entre e:.tos y los fisiólogos vegetales.Durante mucho tiempo la tarea de mejoramiento fue un hecho casi artesanal. Los auxiliares más importantes de su labor han sido: el ojo clínico, una intuición exacerbada y sobre todo mucha perseverancia y aplicación al trabajo como para conducir de manera rutinaria cientos o miles de ascenciones hasta coronar su tarea con algún acierto.Es posible introducir alguna modificación metodológica? Los fisiólogos concideramos que es posible. Específicamente, en lo que se refiere a la resistencia al estrés hldrico, es mucho lo que la fisiologia puede brindar al fitomejoramiento.La metodologia que desarrollaron los fisiólogos, basada fundamentalmente en la seguridad, resulta imposible de utilizar en los programas de selección vegetal. La rutina de la selección está fundada primordialmente en la rapidez, la facilidad, e incluso en criterios económicos como el costo de determinada labor. En este caso la seguridad no constituye un valor fundamental. Mientras el trabajo del fisiólogo requiere seguridad y se basa en criterios absolutos, el trabajo del seleccionador está relacionado con las probabilidades. El fitomejorador tiene sumo interés en reducir el tamaño de las poblaciones que el maneja aún a costa de un margen de error que podria ser inaceptable para un fisiólogo. Dicho margen podria compensarse por la repetición de la prueba en subsecuentes generaciones.Tal vez la clave para producir la ansiada asociación entre el fisiólogo y el fitomejorador consista en que el primero ponga a disposición del segundo una serie de test rápidos y de fácil ejecución. Entre los muchos test existentes podrlamos citar: (1) El enrollamiento foliar en condiciones de estrés hidrico, (2) La temperatura de la canopia medida con termómetro Infrarrojo, (3) La tasa de muerte de hojas bajo condiciones de estrés, (4) Tolerancia a estrés en post-antesis basada en la cuantificación del llenado del grano con fotosintatos translocables a partir del tallo, ( 5) Estabilidad de las m2mbranas celulares, ( 6) Evaluación de la resistencia membranaria relacionada con el fotosistemaII a través de la fluorescencia c1orofilica, ( 7) El crecimiento de la planta medido como la producción total de la materia seca en condiciones de estrés, el crecimiento linear de algún órgano, o el ángulo foliar de plantas sometidas a estrés.Consideramos que el cambio del fitomejoramiento para resistencia al estrés recién comienza a desbrozarse. Debe tenerse en cuenta que el síndrome de la resistencia a la sequla de las plantas es muy complejo y todo avance importante en la selección estará relacionado, no solo con la necesaria colaboración fisiólogo-fitomejorador, sino con la posibilidad de construir equipos pluridlslplinarlos en los cuales intervengan además de los profesionales antes mencionados, bioqulmicos, ingenieros genéticos y agrónomos.La Provincia de la Pampa, algunas características ecológicasTemperatura (Figura 3)-EI clima de la provincia es templado, con una temperatura medial anual que varía entre 140 y 16oC. Existe una gran amplitud térmica (16oC) que está ligada a las características continentales del clima. La temperatura media del mes más frlo (Julio) es de 80C al Norte y 60C al Oeste, y la del mes más cálido (enero) es de 240C en el N-NE y 220C en el S-SW. El período libre de heladas varía entre 140 y 160 días.Precipitaciones (Figura 3)-EI valor de las isoietas que caracteriza el régimen de lluvias de la provincia aumenta desde el Oeste (200 mm) al NE (700 mm). La distribución de las precipitaciones durante el año, muestra un máximo en la primavera y el verano (octubre-marzo), mientras que la estación más seca es el invierno Gulio-agosto).Vientos--Los vientos son un problema suplementario para la agricultura de la región pampeana. La velocidad promedio anual oscila entre 10 y 15 km/h.Las velocidades más elevadas se registran en primavera, en coincidencia con el periodo de crecimiento de la planta de trigo y el final del período de menor precipitación. Los vientos aumentan la evaporación y acrecientan los riesgos de la erosión eólica, que es ya muy importante en los suelos ligeros.Sobre la base del sistema de clasificación americana, los tipos de suelos que se encuentran en esta región soh los siguientes:Molisoles: (al este de la provincia) Son suelos de poca estructura sin acumulación de arcillas. Los molisoles constituyen el grupo de suelos más importantes desde el punto de vista agrleola.Entisoles: Tienen en general un perfil poco evolucionado. Se pueden encontrar diferentes tipos de entisoles según ocupen áreas de dunas, de pendientes muy pronunciadas o de planicies aluviales, etc. Los entisoles ocupan una basta región situada en el centro y el oeste de la provincia.Aridisoles: Son aquellos suelos que se desarrollan en condiciones muy áridas; son muy arenosos, delgados, y de poca evolución, normalmente desarrollados sobre capas calcáreas. Se encuentran en dos áreas separadas del territorio, en la extremidad Nor-Este y en el Centro-Sud en las mesetas calcáreas de Cuchillo-Co.La superficie sembrada alcanzÓ las 491,000 ha en el año 1987. El rendimiento de 1054 Kg/ha•• está afectado por una gran variabilidad (Cv. 25%).Los rendimientos en la provincia son inferiores a la media nacional (1620 kg/ha•).Uno de los problemas más importantes para el cultivo de trigo es el déficit hldrlco como factor determinante de los bajos rendimientos y de la falta de estabilidad de los mismos.Torraba Gentilini (1983) expresa que en lo que concierne a los rendimientos la repartición de las precipitaciones es más importante que la precipitaci6n total anual registrada. Son las precipitaciones que ocurren durante el período de floración (octubre y principios de noviembre) las determinantes en la producción de trigo.Se ha observado el comportamiento de cuatro cultivares comerciales de trigo bajo condiciones de campo en relación con su resistencia a la sequía.Los cultivares estudiados son: Bordenave Puán, Trigal 800, Buck Pucará y Chaslcó INTA. Se determinaron parámetros de condición hídrica en el sistema suelo-planta-atmósfera.Las lluvias previas a la siembra y las que ocurrieron durante el mes de Junio, sumadas a la baja evapotranspiración invernal determinaron que al iniciarse el ensayo el suelo se encontrara con una buena disponibilidad de agua.En el período de macollaje se produjo escasa o nula recarga hldrica del suelo. Durante encaflazón y floración inclusive se produjeron lluvias ligeras a principios de septiembre y octubre. Estas causaron aumentos del contenido hídrico del suelo en la capa superficial, que no alcanzaron a reflejarse en las capas más profundas; las cuales probablemente eran exploradas por las ralees (Figura 4).Paralelamente durante el mes de octubre se produjo un aumento en el déficit de saturación de la atmósfera. En este contexto edafo-climático el potencial agua foliar comenzó a disminuir (Figura 6) en consonancia con el aumento del déficit de saturación atomosférico y la disminución del contenido hidrico del suelo en las capas más profundas. Esta tendencia de decrecimiento del potencial agua foliar se mantuvo hasta finalizar el ciclo del cultivo. El potencial osmótico foliar presentó un comportamiento similar (Figura 5). En ninguno de los casos se observaron diferencias significativas entre los cultivares.Por otro lado, la correlación entre el potencial agua foliar y el potencial osmótico foliar, durante los meses de octubre y noviembre, mostró ser significativa sólo para los cultivares Chasicó INTA y Bordenave Puán. En ese mismo periodo la temperatura foliar y la conductancia estomática (Figura 7), no presentaron diferencias significativas entre cultivares. Tampoco se encontró correlación significativa entre estos dos últimos parámetros.A lo largo del periodo de medición no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre cultivares para los parámetros analizados; sin embargo como era dable de esperar, el potencial osmótico, el potencial agua y la temperatura foliar, presentaron diferencias altamente significativas en el tiempo.El cuadro 2 detalla los rendimiento, tanto de grano como de materia seca, y ellndice de cosecha correspondiente a los cultivares analizados no se observaron diferencias estadisticas significativas entre los rendimientos de grano, pero si en el rendimiento de biomasa aerea; ello se tradujo en indices de cosecha diferentes.El cuadro 3 describe los componentes del rendimiento; solo se hallaron diferencias en el número de granGS por espiguilla en Trigal 800 y Buck Pucará.Algunos parámetros de crecimiento La evolución del indice de area foliar representado en la Figura 8 muestra que los cuatro cultivares alcanzaron un máximo en la primera quincena de octubre (110 dias despué de la siembra Posteriormente la disminución fue constante °e igual para todos los cultivares.Finalmente se analizó la evolución en el tiempo del número de macollos (Figura 11). El número de macollos aumentó desde el comienzo del cultivo, hasta alcanzar los valores máximos a mediados de septiembre. A partir de ese momento el número de macollos se reduce notablemente y al final del ciclo del cultivo los valores medios alcanzan aproximadamente a un macollo por planta.Ensayo en condiciones de invernáculo Análisis de los parámetros hídricos••Se estableció un periodo de estrés determinado por la interrupción del riego. Se realizaron medidas del potencial hidrico y el contenido relativo en aguaEn la Figura 12 se observa la evolución del potencial hídrico en plantas que crecieron bajo sequia y los correspondientes testigos de los tres cultivares de trigo ensayados (Trigal 800, Buck Pucará y Chasicó INTA). Al cabo de 18 días de suspensión del riego las diferencias con los testigos era de alrededor de -0.1 MPa. La disminución del potencial hídrico fue acentuándose en los dos dias subsiguientes, y al cabo de la primera semana de iniciadas las determinaciones (25 dias después de la interrupción del riego) se registraron los valores más bajos del potencial agua. Fue sólo en este dla que pudo apreciarse que uno de los cultivares (Trigal 800) se diferenciaba de los otros dos exhibiendo valores más elevados (-0.87 MPa Trigal 800 y -1.12 los otros dos cultivares). Al reanudarse la irrigación, Trigal 800 mostró una recuperación del potencial agua notablemente rápida en relación con los otros dos cultivares, mostrando el primer día de recuperación valores aún superiores a los iniciales. Ya en la siguiente fecha Chasicó INTA habla igualado los valores mientras que en Buck Pucará la recuperación fue menos notable.El CRA (Figura 13) presentó al cabo de 18 días de suspensión del riego una diferencia de alrededor del 10% en relación a los testigos; en el lapso de 7 días de determinaciones efectuadas durante el período de sequía, los tres cultivares disminuyeron su CRA en un 20%.La recuperación del CRA fue rápida una vez reanudado el riego, alcanzándose los valores del inicio.Los parámetros hídricos de manera similar en las tres variedades, corroborando los resultados de campo.Evolución de. los componentes del rendimiento-Los resultados obtenidos están representados en el Cuadro 4. El cultivar más afectado por el estrés fue Trigal 800. De manera general puede estimarse que tanto en Buck Pucará, como Chasicó INTA el componente que Intervino en la reducción del rendimiento fue el peso de 1.000 granos es decir la translocaclón de fotoslntatos hacia el grano.En Trigal 800 el número de granos por espiguilla fue el componente más afectado y secundariamente la cantidad de espigas por plantas (este último factor guarda relación con el hecho de que en el momento del corte del riego Trigal presentaba un desarrollo menor). Otras diferencias con respecto a los otros dos cultivares fueron: la reducción de espiguillas por espiga, la cual fue también importante, probablemente por haberse reducido de manera dramática la cantidad de locus hacia donde movilizar los fotosintatos, el peso de 1.000 granos no resultó afectado.La actividad fotosintética se ve reducida en condiciones de sequia; esta reducción se relaciona con el cierre de los estomas, que impide el ingreso del C02 a la planta, y/o con los daf'los causados por la sequía en el aparato fotosintético.El análisis de la fotosíntesis neta, a diferencia del método de la fluorescencia integra los efectos estomáticos y no estomático del estrés hídrico.Las medidas del potencial hídrico se obtuvieron con la bomba de presión mientras que las de las fotosíntesis se realizaron por medio del método IRGA (analizador de gas infrarrojo).Las medidas de fotosíntesis están representadas en la Figura 15. Se observa que a 7 dias del corte del riego las diferencias entre los tratamientos son altamente significativas, evidenciándose en ese momento diferencias entre cultivares; el cultivar Bordenave Puán era el más afectado.El potencial hídrico medido en los días 4 y 7 a partir del corte del riego presentó un comportamiento similar al de la fotosíntesis neta (Figura 14). En este caso también Bordenave Puán era el más afectado y por otra parte Trigal 800 presentaba los valores más altos del potencial hídrico.Al reanudarse el riego, desaparecen en el término de dos días las diferencias observadas entre el tratamiento y cultivares en el caso del potencial hídrico. MIentras que la fotosintesis neta siguió siendo diferente para los tratamientos, si bien se observó una recuperación notable en el caso de las plantas sometidas a sequía. Esta recuperación fue similar para los cuatro cultivares no evidenciándose diferencias en ese momento.Los bajos valores de fotosíntesis neta obtenidos en plantas que sufrieron sequía (día 7, Figura 14) se debieron sobre todo a la componente estomática. Por el contrario las medidas del día 11 (dos días después del riego) estarían en relación con los efectos no estomáticos del estrés hidrico.Al comparar los cultivares se observa que todos resultaron altamente afectados por la sequía. En el período de máximo estrés Bordenave Puán resultó más afectado siendo Trigal 800 el que mostró un mejor comportamiento. Pero la recuperación fue más rápida y similar en los cuatro cultivares.Angulo Foliar-Se analizó la evolución de ángulos foliares y del potencial agua de plantas que crecieron en dos niveles de estrés. Para provocar un nivel de estrés controlado las plantas fueron tratadas con Polietilenglicol 6.000, que fue agregado al suelo de las macetas, en dos concentraciones: 25% y 35%.Se tomó el ángulo que forma la base de la lámina de la hoja con el pseudotallo, considerando que el eje vertical corresponde a un ángulo foliar Igual a cero. Los valores obtenidos para el potencial hidrico y el ángulo foliar luego de 11 días de aplicado el producto se presenta en el Cuadro 5.La aplicación del producto osmótico produjo una disminución significativa en el potencial hidrico y en los valores del ángulo foliar.El ángulo foliar fue más sensible que el potencial hidrico para detectar los dos niveles de estrés.Los cultivares ensayados presentaron un comportamiento similar.Se obtuvieron medidas del largo de las hojas de plantas de trigo que crecieron en macetas pequeñas que contenían un alto porcentaje de arena como sustrato, lo que permitió la aplicación de un periodo de sequía controlado ya que la desecación del suelo una vez cortado el riego, ocurría rápidamente.El riego fue cortado cuando la punta de la hoja número 4 estuvo visible. Por efecto de la sequía el largo de la hoja 4 fue menor en comparación con el testigo (Figura 16). Este efecto se manifestó a partir del quinto día del corte del riego, y consecuentemente el largo final de la hoja 4 fue significativamente menor en el tratamiento de sequía.Desde la aparición de la hoja 5 (primer dial las diferencias entre tratamientos fueron significativas (Figura 17). Al tercer día de evolución de la hoja 5 se reanudó el riego; y si bien a partir de ese momento se observa una aparente recuperación del crecimiento, las diferencias entre los tratamientos se mantienen significativas durante todo el periodo de desarrollo de dicha hoja.No se manifestaron diferencias entre cultivares en cuanto a su comportamiento en condiciones de sequía. (Las Interacciones variedad-tratamiento no fueron significativas)Se ha comprobado que la estabilidad de las membranas biológicas puede ser alterada cuando la planta sufre periodos de sequía (Bewley 1979). El efecto sobre las membranas puede ser medido de manera indirecta por medio de la pérdida de electrolitos de la célula (Sullivan 1972).El porcentaje de preservación de Sullívan se obtiene de la siguiente manera:Porcentaje de preservación = 100 -porcentaje de daño Los valores obtenidos se presentan en el Cuadro 6Trigal 800 fue el cultivar cuyos porcentajes de preservación fueron los que menos difirieron del testigo, mostrando por consiguiente una mayor estabilidad de las estructuras.Por otra parte, en los tres cultivares una vez reiniciados los riegos (dla 26), los porcentajes de preservación se elevan nuevamente hasta valores similares a los respectivos testigos, evidenciando probablemente un reestablecimiento de las estructuras afectadas por el estrés.Se realizaron medidas de la fluorescencia clorofilica en plantas de cuatro cultivares de trigo: Bordenave Puan, Trigal 800, Buck Pucará, Chasicó INTA, que crecieron en condiclonesde rIego y en condiciones de sequla. Las medidas fueron realizadas con el fluorlmetro modulado PAM (pulso de amplitud modeulada) descrito por Schreiber et al. (1986).Los parámetros obtenidos luego de las mediciones fueron: Quenching fotoquímico (Qq) el cual es la medida de la caída de la fluorescencia debida a la reducción del aceptor Q.Quenching electroqulmico (Qe) es la calda de la fluorescencia debida a procesos no fotoqufmicos, entre los cuales el más importante es la energización de las membranas de los tIIacoides.Fmax-Fp/Fmax: esta relación entre la fluorescencia máxima y la fluorescencia mfnlma de una medida del estado fisiológico del fotosistema 11.El estrés hídrico afectó la fotosíntesis a nivel de la reoxidación del aceptor Q, mientras que el estado fisiológico del fotosistemall y las membrana tilacoideas no resultaron afectadas desde el punto de vista fotoquímico.Por otra parte, la reducción de la fluorescencia fue similar en los cuatro cultivares ensayados.Los resultados obtenidos no muestran diferencias de comportamiento frente a la deficiencia hidrica en los cultivares comparados.A partir de estos resultados se podría elaborar una hipótesis a verificar en otros trabajos, en el sentido de que no hay diferencias de comportamiento en relación al estrés hidrlco en los cultivares estudiados, dado que si no se incluyó previamente en el proceso de mejoramiento vegetal un programa de resistencia a la sequla resultaria casual constatar tal comportamiento.La sensibilidad de los test usados en relación al estrés hidrico y la facilidad y rapidez de los métodos permiten la evaluación de gran cantidad de material, lo que los hace apropiados para el apoyo a las tareas de selección varietal.              El ciclo de ensayos iniciado en 1988 fue programado teniendo en cuenta los resultados obtenidos precedentemente, en los cuales las variedades comparadas no mostraron diferencias de comportamiento con respecto a la evolución de los parámetros hidricos considerados. La hipótesis que se elaboró tenia en cuenta la posibilidad de una escasa variabilidad del material utilizado comercialmente con respecto a su comportamiento frente al déficit hldrico.La verificación de esta hipótesis hubiera significado la prosecución de los ensayos con otros cultivares durante un lapso prolongado, con la posibilidad de que si nuestra hipótesis era acertada, nuestro aporte al mejoramiento de la resistencia a la sequla hubiera sido nulo. En 1988 decidimos mantener en lo esencial la linea de trabajo establecida en 1986 pero comenzar a trabajar con material en proceso de selección, proporcionado por los fitomejoradores Interesados en nuestra óptica de trabajo. Es asl que durante el último año se ensayaron 11 lineas de trigo y una de triticale proporcionadas por los grupos de fitomejoramiento de trigo de las E.E.A. INTA Bordenave y Marcos Juarez.Los objetivos de esta nueva etapa son los siguientes.• Contribuir al proceso de fitomejoramiento del trigo en relación a la resistencia a la sequla, suministrándole el fitotecnista información sobre el comportamiento de los diferentes genotipos en curso de selección.• Evaluar en diferentes condiciones de crecimiento (a campo, en Invernáculo, en cámara de crecimiento) distintos parámetros que puedan ser utilizados para verificar la \"performance\" del material vegetal, otorgándole preeminencia a aquellos de fácil y rápida determinación.• Realizar aportes al conocimiento del comportamiento de los genotipos argentinos en relación al estrés hidrico.Desde el punto de vista metodológico debieron realizarse ajustes. Algunos parámetros que se midieron precedentemente com la conductancla estomática (Gs), constituye una medida cuya determinación es relativamente lenta y que varia considerablemente en el tiempo. La variación de dicho parámetro (Gs) no hubiera permitido realizar mediciones comparables debido al número de observaciones que deblan realizarse. En este ensayo se incorporaron dos nuevos test: largo de hoja y ángulo follar, los cuales hablan sido previamente evaluados en cámara de crecimiento (Peinettl 1987), determinándose también la termperatura foliar, parámetro medido en 1986, pero en 1988 la medida fue expresada como diferencia entre la temperatura del aire (Ta) y la temperatura follar (Tí). La medida de temperatura foliar, o de la canopia ha mostrado ser una herramienta útil en el proceso de selección de genotipos resistentes a la sequia (Blum et al. 1982).La pequeña superficie de las parcelas en el diseño experimental adoptado este año, Impidió la determinación de la evolución del contenido de humedad edáfico. Solamente se consignan como una forma de Inferir los desbalances entre la precipitación y la evapotransplraclón, los datos de lluvias caldas durante el periodo de ensayo y la evapotranspiración calculada a partir de la evaporación del tanque tipo A (Doorembos et al 1986). Las tres lineas que aparecen subrayadas, si bien fueron enviadas por Bordenave, pertenecen a la colección del CIMMYT.La siembra se efectuó el 29 de junio de 1988 en parcelas de 0.90 por 2.25 m, con un distanciamiento entre plantas de 15 cm. El diseño experimental adoptado fue el de bloques completos al azar con tres repeticiones.Separado por una calle de 10 m se ubicó un diseño similar, el cual fue irrigado semanalmente y hasta dos veces por semana durante los meses de Octubre y Noviembre. El riego fue realizado por medio de dos aspersores ARI, los que producian un caudal de 625 L/h a una presión de 2,5 kg/cm 2 . La dosis de riego aplicada semanalmente fue estimada en base al dato de deficiencia hidrica calculada como la diferencia entre la precipitación y la evapotranspiración potencial determinada a partir de la evaporación del tanque tipo A, de acuerdo a la metodologla desarrollada por Doorembos et al (1986).El 1 de setiembre cuando la quinta hoja se encontraba plenamente expandida en el macollo principal, se inició el ciclo de mediciones:• Largo total de la hoja (LE): Se midió una planta por parcela (3 por genotipo en cada tratamiento) tomándose en todos los casos la hoja de rango superior plenamente expandida, sobre el macollo.• Angulo foliar (Af): Las mediciones del ángulo se realizaron empleando un transportador, sobre las mismas plantas utilizadas para la medición del largo foliar. El ángulo medido fue el que formaba la última hoja plenamente expandida con el pseudotallo.• Temperatura foliar (Tf): Se determinó con dos repeticiones por parcela midiéndose sobre la última hoja plenamente expandida a una distancia de 5 cm. Las mediciones se efectuaron al mediodla y se utilizó un termómetro Infrarrojo Bernes Instatherm. Simultáneamente con las medidad de Tfse determinaba la temperatura del aire (Ta) utilizándose en este caso el termómetro de bulbo seco del psicrómetro ventilado Assman.• Potencial hidrico foliar ('I'f): Las medidas se efectuaron al mediodla, sobre la última hoja plenamente expandida de una planta por parcela, por medio de la prensa de membrana.• Indlce de preservación de Sullivan (1972): Fue determinado mediante la metodologla señalada por Blum y Ebercon (1982), tomándose segmentos foliares de 2cm por 1cm del tratamiento riego. La muestra estuvo compuesta por tres segmentos foliares tomados de la última hoja plenamente expandida. La determinación se realizó cuando los diferentes genotipos estaban en antesls.• Rendimiento y componentes del rendimiento: Se determinó el rendimiento por planta, cosechándose de cada parcela las espigas provenientes de 5 plantas tomadas al azar. Sobre las mismas plantas se determinó el número total de macollos y espigas.• Análisis estadlsticos: Los datos de Lf; Af; Ta-Tf Y 'Vf se analizaron en cada dla de medición por medio de ANOVA en un esquema' factorial. La separación de medias se realizó por medio del test de Tuckey. Los casos en que se verificó significancia de la interacción genotipo X tratamiento, fueron tratados por medio de análisis de grupos de experimentos (Pimentel Gomez, 1978).La slgnificancia estadlstlca de los porcentajes de preservación en Sullivan fue también analizada mediante ANOVA.Los datos de rendimiento, número de macollos y número de espigas también fueron analizados mediante ANOVA, Tuckey y análisis de grupos de experimentos cuando las Interacciones genotipo X tratamiento fueron significativas.Solamente se registraron dos lluvias importantes en dicho ciclo. Podrla inferirse que las plantas del tratamiento secano crecieron bajo limitaciones hldricas.La lluvia de principios de noviembre, que alcanzó al cultivo en estado de antesls permitió la conclusión de las fases reproductivas sin que la producción de granos fuera reducida.El Cuadro 1 sintetiza los análisis estadlsticos de la longitud follar realizados en diferentes dlas de medición. Puede observarse que se han registrado diferencias significativas (al nivel de 5%) entre el tratamiento riego y el de secano los dlas 7IX y 14IX. En el CUADRO 2 se representan las medias de los genotipos que difirieron significativamente entre riego y secano, en las fechas en que la Interación tratamiento (riego-secano) por genotipo fue significativa. Puede apreciarse que de los 12 genotipos ensayados sólo muestran diferencias significativas en el largo promedio de la hoja el 7171, 9906, 9925, y 12066, correspondiendo este último a la linea de trIticale ensayada. El 9906 muestra diferencias significativas en dos fechas de medición. Las fechas en que pudieron verificarse interacción significativa, posiblemente correspondan a los periodo en que la deficiencia hldrica fue más marcada, tal como indicada por el importante aumento de ETP.El ángulo foliar fue una medida cuya realización a campo presentó considerables dificultades, los fuertes vientos registrados durante los dlas de medición obligaron muchas veces a tomar la hoja con la mano para que esta no se moviera, y esta acción pudo alterar en varios grados la exactitud de la medida; la cual se efectuaba simultáneamente con la de la iongitud foliar.De las 12 fechas en que se midió el ángulo foliar, sólo se verificó diferencias significativas entre las plantas regadas y las de secano el 1/9 Riego 31,9 0 ; Secano 28,1 0 . El 7/9 el análisis estadlstico mostró una interacción genotipo x tratamiento significativa para la linea de triticale (12066) Riego 410y Secano 17,4 0 .La temperatura foliar (CUADRO 3) en ningún caso fue superior a la del aire, podrla Inferirse a partir de esta observación que el efecto de enfriamiento producido por la transpiración estuvo presente y que por lo tanto al menos durante los perlodos de medición. no existieron limitaciones Importantes de la conductancla estomática. E127/X y el31/XI (Ta-Tf) de riego fue significativamente mayor que en sequla, en la última fecha estas diferencias fueron muy Importantes.En el CUADRO 4 se consignan los datos de Ta-Tf de los diferentes genotipos que mostraron diferencias significativas en la interacción genotipo por tratamiento. Puede observarse que de los 12 genotipos solo 2 (lineas 12102 y LAJ 2955) no mostraron diferencias significativas entre riego y secano.Los valores del \",f (CUADRO 5) fueron en aumento conforme aumentaba la demanda hidrlca de la atmósfera, lo cual puede inferirse de la Rgura 1. Las lluvias de setiembre y noviembre aparentemente no alcanzaron a compensar la evapotranspiración de un Invierno muy seco y el fuerte aumento de la demanda evaporativa de la primavera. Los riegos efectuados en noviembre no alcanzaron a elevar significativamente los potenciales hidricos de las plantas con respecto a las de secano.En el CUADRO 6 pueden observarse los valores \",f de los diferentes genotipos cuyos potenciales difirieron significativamente entre riego y secano cuando el análisis de grupos de experimentos mostró significancia de la interacción tratamiento por genotipo.La estabilidad de las estructuras membranarias inferida por medio de los porcentajes de preservación de Sullivan (1972) no mostraron'diferencias significativas en los diferentes genotipos analizados estadlsticamente.Sin embargo, si se colocan dichos porcentajes en forma decreciente ( CUADRO 7). puede observarse que entre los cuatro primeros genotipos cuyos valores fueron cercanos al 100% y los cuatro últimos existen diferencias considerables.El número total de macollos (CUADRO 8) no mostró diferencias significativas en los distintos genotipos cuando se compara el tratamiento de riego y el de secano. El suministro de riego tampoco tuvo diferencias significativas frente al de secano cuando se analizó en forma global. El número promedio de macollos en el tratamiento de riego fue de 8.0 (C.v. 1001Ó) y el de secano 7.3En el CUADRO 10 se sintetiza el análisis global tratando conjuntamente los tratamientos de riego y secano; las medias se han ordenado de manera descendente. Puede observarse que solamente la linea 12102 tuvo un rendimiento significativamente menor que el resto de los genotipos; probablemente la Importante variabilidad de la media enmascaró la expresión de las diferencias entre las lineas 7216 que tuvo una producción de 8.63 g/planta y 7171 con 3.34 g/planta existió una diferencia del 39010.El número promedio de espigas por planta fue de 6.6 (C.V. 15%) para el tratamiento riego y de 6.0 (C.V. 15%) en las plantas cultivadas en secano las diferencias no fueron significativas. La interacción tratamiento por genotipo fue significativa; en el CUADRO 11 puede observarse que las lineas 7221 y 9908, cultivadas en secano tenian un número de espigas/plantas significativamente menor que bajo riego.El peso promedio de 1000 granos analizado globalmente mostró diferencias significativas entre los tratamiento de riego 26.75 g Yde sequla 31.63 g.Probablemente existieron otros componentes del rendimiento que compensaron estas diferencias evitando que se expresen en los rindes. En este caso no existió significancia de la Interacción tratamiento por genotipo.Las plantas que crecian en las parcelas de riego tenlan una relación granos/biomasa vegetativa significativamente inferior al tratamiento de secano: riego 0.59, secano 0.68. Puesto que los rendimientos en los tratamientos riego/secano no difirieron significativamente, la diferencia observada en el indice de cosecha muestra que las plantas bajo riego produjeron mayor blomasa vegetativa en relación a las de secano.El CUADRO 12 trata de sintetizar las principales observaciones realizadas con respecto al comportamiento de los genotipos, ordenándolos de manera descendente en relación a su sensibilidad. La linea 9908 mostró diferencias significativas entre riego y secano en los parámetros hldricos y también en el número de espigas por planta yen el rendimiento. La 7216 tuvo diferencias significativas en los parámetros hidricos y en el rendimiento, mientras que en la 7221 las diferencias se dieron en los parámetros hldricos y en el número de espigas por planta. Luego se observaron las lineas 9906, 12066, 7171, y 9925 cuyo diferente comportamiento entre riego.y secano de algún parámetro hldrico puede asociarse con el largo de la hoja.Las lineas LAJ 2852, 12094, LAJ 2955 Y LAJ 2965 sólo muestran diferencias en ambos o en uno de los dos parámetros hidricos determinados. Rnalmente en la linea 12012 no existió ninguna diferencia en su comportamiento en riego y secano.Debe destacarse que la linea 12012, que mostró la menor sensibilidad a la deficiencia hldrica, fue la que mostró el menor rendimiento de todos los genotipos ensayados. Este es un hecho ya muy conocido. Las plantas resistentes al déficit hidrico no son por lo general las más rendidoras cuando crecen sin limitaciones hldricas. Por tal razón Blum (1983) recomienda en el proceso de fitomejoramiento del trigo una metodologia en la cual se seleccionaran separadamente hasta el nivel de F5 los genotipos reistentes a sequla y los de alto rendimiento, estos últimos siguiendo los procesos tradicionales de los fitomejoradores; recién a nivel de F6 se tratarla de reunir las caracteristicas de alto rendimiento y de resistencia.Desde el punto de vista metodológico es posible hacer las siguientes apreciaciones: las mediciones seriadas como se realizaron en este ensayo demandan un tiempo considerable y producen un cúmulo de datos que luego no muestran relevancia. La realización de mediciones de diferentes parámetros en distintas fechas impide la realización de correlaciones que muchas veces tienen gran conveniente concentrar las medidas en periodos significativos (estrés y posteriormente a una lluvia) y realizar todas las mediciones de manera simultánea.La medición del ángulo foliar, parámetro muy dificil de medir a campo no es de mucha utilidad. La determinación de la longitud foliar (Lf) podr[a cambiarse por el incremento en longitud, midiendo la longitud de una hoja determinada varias veces al día; el test probablemente ganaria sensibilidad. The stabi/ity of wheat production in the semi-arid Pampa region is low because of the drought that affects the crop in different stages of the growth cyc1e. A collaboration between breeder and physiologist is considered necessary to produce uarieties with high-yield and drought resístance.In a field trial, the performance of eleven wheats and one triticale with regard to water parameters and grain yíeld was evaluated under irrigated and dryland conditions. Foliar length, leaf angle, leaf temperature, water potential, yield and yield components, and harvest índex were determined. The stability of the membrane structures was analyzed using Sullivan's preservation indexoBased on the performance of these 12 genotypes with regard to the above mentioned parameters, atable on relative sensitivity to drought was designed.Cuadro 1. Longitud foliar (cm) del trigo cultivado bajo riego y secano en diferentes fechas de medición. Se estudió en hojas de cultivares de maíz y trigo resistentes y sensibles a la sequía, el comportamiento del sistema antioxidante constituido por las enzimas superóxido dismutasa, catalasa, ascorbato peroxidasa y glutatión reductasa y de otros parámetros.Los resultados muestran que los cultivares resistentes al estrés hídrico poseen un sistema de defensa antioxidante más eficiente que los cultivares sensibles. Ello a juzgar por el mejor nivel de las relaciones superóxido dismutasa/catalasa y superóxido dismutasa/ascorbato peroxidasa que permiten mantener bajos los niveles de H202. Asimismo, por el comportamiento de otros indicadores como el nivel de grupos -SH proteicos y carotenos. En ambos casos, el aumento temprano de la permeabilidad de las membranas se asocia a la mayor susceptibilidad al estrés hídrlco.En trabajos previos pudo establecerse que el efecto senescente del estrés hldrlco sobre las hojas de avena se manifiesta con un aumento de oxidaciones celulares reflejadas en un aumento de malondlaldehido y disminución de clorofilas. Dichos parámetros conocidos como Indicadores del desarrollo de la senescencia también evolucionan bajo los efectos de la presión de 02 por encima de 0,5% bajo condiciones de luz y se manifiestan como un aumento de la permeabilidad y una disminución de nucleótldos (frippl et al., 1989). Los resultados permiten suponer que el contenido de agua de los tejidos actúa como defensa contra las oxidaciones debido a la poca solubiUdad de 02 en agua. Por lo tanto, la falta de agua en el tejido permitirla el fácil acceso del 02 a la célula provocando oxidaciones que deterioran la funcionalidad celular. Esta idea nos llevó a probar nuestra hipótesis de trabajo en cultivares resistentes y.senslbles de malz y trigo considerando particularmente lo que puede llamarse el sistema antioxidante de las células.Bajo condiciones normales de funcionamiento en las hojas se forman div~rsas especies desde el 02 conocidas por su alta reactividad y toxicidad. Estas son el oxigeno singulete (102), el anión superóxido (02), el peróxido de hidrógeno (H202) y el radical hidroxilo (OH.). Todas las especies pueden provocar la oxidación de lipidos constituyentes de las membranas, particularmente actuando sobre los ácidos grasos insaturados como linoleico (18:2) y linolénlco (18:3). También pueden provocar la degradación de protelnas, ácidos nucleicos y nucleótldos.El 102 se genera por la interacción triplete-triplete entre clorofilas excitadas y el 02 ; el anión superóxido, cuando desde la ferredoxina u otro sistema se mueve un electrón hacia el 02; el H202 por dismutación del anión superóxldo (02 -H202) Yel radical hidroxilo (OH.) a partir del H202 con Interacción de Fe++ asociado a membranas, reacción conocida como reacción de Haber-Welss (Figura 1).La producción de dichos derivados tóxicos del 02, se Incrementa bajo condiciones de estrés y el tejido foliar se defiende contra su acción mediante su sistema antioxidante.El sistema de defensa consiste de un grupo de sustancias capaces de reaccionar prioritariamente con las especies activas del 02 y de un grupo de enzimas que tienden a degradar particularmente el H202 del tejido ya mantener el sistema reducido. La Inactlvaclón del oxigeno slngulete (102) se produce fundamentalmente con la participación de carotenoldes los que disipan el exceso de energ!a como calor, y el a.-tocoferol. Este último también puede reaccionar con anión superóxido inactlvándolo. Por lo que concierne al radical hidroxilo, las pollaminas, putresclna y cadaverina son prioritarias para reaccionar con dicho radical.La generación del peróxido de hidrógeno en general tiene lugar por dlsmutaclón espontánea o catalizada por la enzima superóxido dismutasa (SOD) del anión superóxldo. En efecto, la enzima SOD puede considerarse como Indispensable para la adaptación de los organismos a condiciones ricas en 02, o ambientes aeróbicos bajo los cuales se general el anión superóxldo. La formación del H202 no significa un modo de prevenir las oxidaciones celulares, por cuanto esta sustancia es también un oxidante fuerte. Sin embargo, la alta difusibilidad de la sustancia, permite que otros sistemas enzimáticos controlen sus niveles endógenos. La enzima catalasa (CAT) ubicada en los peroxisomas degrada el H202 -H202 + 02 y las enzimas glutatión peroxldasa y ascorbato peroxldasa (ASe. PEROX.) ubicadas en cloroplastos hacen similar trabajo usando glutatlón reducido y ácido ascórbico, respectivamente. El glutatión oxidado, producto de la reacción catallzada por la peroxidasa, es reducido nuevamente por la participación de la enzima glutatlón reductasa utilizando poder reductor del NADPH2. Asimismo, a partir del glutatión reducido puede regenerarse el ácido ascórbico a partir del dehidroascórbico con participación de la enzima dehidroascorbato reductasa (DHRE). La importancia de los grupos -SH en el sistema antioxidante resulta no sólo de su participación en el sistema de degradación del H202, sino también por ser parte constitutiva de enzimas como la nitrato reductasa, ATPasa, etc. cuya actividad depende del estado oxidado (G-SS-G) o reducido del grupo -SH (G-SH).En virtud que el nivel de H202 es probablemente el factor de daño oxldatlvo más común, la relación de la actividad SOD/CAT y SOD/ASC. PEROX. son los Indices que mejor revelan la eficiencia del sistema enzimático antioxidante. A ello pueden sumarse los niveles en grupos -SH y la actividad glutatlón reductasa.Los estudios en malz se realizaron sobre plántulas de 7 d!as de donde se extrajeron discos foliares los que fueron sometidos a tratamientos por 48 horas. Las condiciones fueron de 5% y 100% de 02 flotando en agua destilada y sometidos a estrés ósmotico de manitol 0,5 M. Los cultivares comparados fueron el resistente a sequ!a UZA y el sensible a sequla LG11.En trigo el material experimental consistió de fragmentos foliares de 3 cm, previo despuntado de 0,5 cm, tomados de la primera hoja de plantas de 7 dias de edad. Los cultivares comparados fueron Cruz Alta de excelente comportamiento bajo sequia y Leones considerado sensible al estrés hidrico. Ambos cultivares cedidos por la Estación Experimental de Marcos Juárez, Córdoba, Argentina.El análisis de los resultados muestra que el cultivar Cruz Alta de buen comportamiento bajo sequia, posee un sistema antioxidante más eficiente que el cultivar LEONES. Ello se evidencia en el mejor mantenimiento de la relación SOD/CAT y SOD/ASC. PEROX. responsable del control de los niveles endógenos de H202. Asimismo, en lo que se refiere a la actividad glutatión reductasa ya los contenidos de grupos -SH particularmente en la fracción proteica, ambos muestran mejores niveles en Cruz Alta que en Leones cuando son sometidos a condiciones de estrés (Rgura 3, CuadroPor lo que concierne a los parámetros de senescencia aunque no se han establecido diferencias significativas para los contenidos en clorofilas, carotenos y malondialdehido, los resultados muestran en conjunto valores que denotan una mejor preservación en el cv. Cruz Alta de buen comportamiento bajo condiciones de estrés.Si bien la resistencia a condiciones de estrés hidrlco puede resultar de caracteres morfológicos como fisiológicos o combinados, la estabilidad del sistema antioxidante resulta de alguna manera el camino común por el que se dañan las células cuando se produce un déficit hidrico en el tejido. Esto es sostenido por el efecto de la falta de agua en la evolución de diversos parámetros de senescencia como el indice de oxidaciones (malondialdehido), el contenido en clorofilas y la permeabilidad de las membranas.Teniendo en cuenta que las oxidaciones generan cambios en la permeabilidad de las membranas en dos instancias a saber: 1) por oxidación directa de las membranas y 2) por alterar el metabolismo energético (Trlppi et al. 1987), resulta promisoria la medición de las relaciones SOD/CAT y SOD/ASC. PEROX. como control del sistema antioxidante y de la permeabilidad de las membranas como medida del daño efectivo a las células, como sistema simple en los trabajos de selección de plantas resistentes al estrés hídrico. Ello sin contar que son necesarios más estudios con el objeto de determinar la validez de la hipótesis en forma definitiva.The performance of leaues of both drought-resistant and drought-susceptible maize and wheat cultiuars was studied uti/izing an enzyme-constituted anti-oxidant defense system and other parameters. The results demonstrate that the drought-resistant cultiuars possess a more efficient anti-oxidant defense system than susceptible cultiuars. The drought-resistant cultiuars haue a better balance between super-oxide dismutase/catalise and super-oxide dismutase/ascorbate peroxidase, which permits maintenance of low H202 leuels. Also studied were the performances of other indicators such as -SH protein and carotene groups. In both cases, ear/y onset of membrane permeabi/ity is assocíated with high susceptibility to water stress.Cuadro 1. '-----\"\"  o estado de Mato Grosso do Sul está situado entre los paralelos 17 y 24 0 5 y entre meridianos 51 y 5800. De acuerdo a los datas de precipitaci6n de EMBRAPA, la menor cantídad de lIuvías ocurren en el sur de estado en las bajadas de Paraguay y valle de Río Paraná; con una sequía muy marcada en los meses de invierno. EI cultivo de trígo es prácticamente la única alternativa durante el ínvierno en estas regiones y su siembra ha aumentado de 56105000 Ha en 1971 a 432,287 Ha en 1987. AI mísmo tiempo en rendímiento ha aumentado de 878 kglha a 1547 kglha. No estado do Mato Grosso do Sul as altitudes variam desde 83 a 1.000 m. A localidade de menor altitude está situada no município de Corumbá, na vasta planicie do pantanal. As maiores altitudes são encontradas em alguns maciços emergentes nas serras de Urucum e Bodoquena.De acordo com a Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (1975), no Centro-Oeste (Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul e Goiás), a quantidade média anual de chuvas varia entre 1.020 e 2.025 mm. Sua distribução durante o ano constitui a principal caracteristica do clima da maior parte da região, com estação seca muito acentuada no inverno e chuvas concentradas nos meses de verão. As menores quantidades de chuvas ocorrem nas zonas de mais baixas altitudes como a baixada do Paraguai e no vale do Rio Paraná, enquanto que as maiores quantidades ocorrem nos chapadoes e maciços isolados. Baseados na classificação climática de K6ppen, os autores acima, relatam os seguintes climas na região: Am, Aw, Cwa e Cfa.De acordo com Antunes (1986) o Am caracteriza-se por ser quente e úmido, por apresentar precipitação elevada, cujo total anual compensa a existência de una estação seca pouco pronunciada permitindo ainda a existência de formaçoes florestais equatoriais (perenifólias). A precipitação do mes mais seco é normalmente inferior a 60 mm. A ocorrencia desse clima dá-se no extremo norte do Estado de Mato Grosso, nas bacias dos rios Jurema e Alto Xingú. ao Predominando na região, o clima Aw é caracteristicamente quente com estação chuvosa no verão e seca bem acentuada no período de inverno. Possuindo um regime pluviométrico continental tlpico. Abrange a maior parte do Mato Grosso e Mato Grosso do Sul. Sob esse tipo climático, predominam os campos-cerrados cortados por matas-galerias de fundo de vale. O clima Cwa, mesotérmico, de veroes quentes e com estação chuvosa no verão, é clima tropical de altitude que vigora a Sudeste de Mato Grosso. O Cfa, mesotérmico com veroes quentes e sem estação seca, vigora no extremo Sul do Mato Grosso do Sul e nos alti-planos da Serra de Maracaju.Nas tabelas a seguir encontram-se dados meteorológicos de localidades do estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, esses três pontos, podem representar as diferentes condiçoes climáticas do Estado. Na tabela 1 encontram-se os dados de Campo Grande, onde as temperaturas são altas nos meses de janeiro, fevereiro e março, começam a cair em abril, atingindo os menores valores em maio, junho, julho e agosto. Nos últimos meses do ano, setembro, outubro, novembro e dezembro as temperaturas são novamente altas.A precipitação, umidade relativa e nebulosidade têm o mesmo comportamento das temperaturas, sendo os meses mais secos junho, julho e agosto, onde encontram-se as menores precipitaçoes e as maiores evaporaçoes.Na Tabela 2 os dados de Dourados mostram a mesma tendência dos dados de Campo Grande, com algunas diferenças em alguns valores, as temperaturas de Dourados, são menores em 1 a 2 0 C nos meses mais frios. As temperaturas máximas de Dourados são mais altas nos meses mais quentes do ano. Essas diferenças observadas nos valores de temperaturas, provavelmente estejam associadas à velocidade do vento maior em Campo Grande, o que evita que as temperaturas atingem valores mais baixos na época mais quente do ano.No período mais seco do ano as precipitaçoes são maiores em Dourados, enquanto que a evaporação é menor, mostrando que á medida que aproxima-se do Norte do Estado a situação de seca é mais acentuada.Na Tabela 3 encontram-se os dados de Ponta Pora, localizada na região de fronteira com o Paraguai, apresenta em geral os menores valores das temperaturas, onde o período com temperaturas mais amenas é bem maior do que nos outros, mostrando assim condiçoes climáticas mais favoráveis ao cultivo do trigo.Vários tipos de vegetação foram identificadas na região, da floresta equatorial de ocorrencia ao Norte de Mato Grosso, até os campos limpos que predominam no Mato Grosso do Sul, há gradação de paisagens, função de fatores como pluviosidade, latitude, altitude, relevo, solos e mesmo palco-climas.A floresta equatorial ocupa uma área relativamente pequena no Norte do estado do Mato Grosso. Possui características semelhantes ás da floresta equatorial da Amazônia, da qual vai diferindo á medida que se torna mais seca ou subperenifólia, visto que em direção ao sul, o clima de equatorial passa a ser tropical.Envolvendo como um cinto a equatorial úmida surge a floresta mesófila que embora tenha muitas características da equatorial é nitidamente mais seca, tendo, como marca principal, a maior ou menor perda de folhas na estação seca, que lhe confere o caráter subcaducifólio. Ocorrem na região centro-norte do Mato Grosso e ao Norte do Pantanal.O cerradão ou floresta xeromorfa, formação mais seca que as florestas anteriores, ocorre no centro de Mato Grosso. Sendo uma versão mais evoluída do cerrado, apresenta as mesmas espécies mas com alguns indivlduos chegando a atingir de 10 a 12 metros de altura, possuindo copas bem desenvolvidas que chegam a se tocar sem impedir a penetração da luz.Grande parte do estado de Mato Grosso do Sul se encontra recoberto pelo cerrado, nos seus diversos aspectos fisionômicos, desde o cerrado falo ao cerradão. Em alguns locais como na serra da Bodoquena, no pantanal e nos campos de vacaria da região de Dourados e Ponta Pora, torna-se muito diflcil estabelecer os limites entre o cerrado, a mata, o campo limpo e a vegetação chaquenha. Por outro lado, sua estrutura é inconfundível nas áreas em que ocorde de maneira mais continua, revestindo grandes superflcies tabulares características do relevo da região.A fisionomia do cerrado, também denominado de savana pelos fitogeógrafos, é muito variável, surgindo com espécies arbóreas de 8 e mesmo de 12 metros, bem próximas umas das outras, com aspecto florestal, ao mesmo tempo que em outras áreas apresentam árvores de 2 a 3 metros de altura, compondo extrato bastante esparso. Entre estas duas variaçoes extremas, observa-se uma gama variada de organizaçoes quanto a parte e densidade. Apesar das variaçoes flsionômicas, o cerrado tem como característica própria a existência de espécies individualizadas comuns a todas as organizaçoes. Possui também características de formação subcaducifó1ia e em alguns casos, caducifólia. Algumas das espécies comuns no estrato arbóreo e no arbustivo: lixeira (Curatella americana); pau-terra (Qualea spp.); pau-santo (Kielmeyera coriacea); barbatimão (Stry phnodendron barba timão); pequi (Caryocar brasiliense). No cerrado é comum a existência de um estrato herbáclo, dominado por gramlneas variadas, das quais sobressaem o capim-flexa (Tristachya leiostachya) capim-flexinha (T. chrysotryx) e várias outras.No cerradão predominam os individuas componentes dos estratos superiores tlpicos do cerrado, podendo ocorrer também espécies comuns ás florestas tropicais, com a sucupira-da-mata (Bowdichia sp.), o jatobá (Hymenaea sp.) e o angico (Piptadenia sp.).As formaçoes campestres são tipicamente herbáceas, as vezes com feiçoes de estepes, com plantas Isoladas ou em tufos, sob a forma de pradarias, quando as plantas revestem densamente o terreno.Ao Sudoeste do Planalto Sulmatogrossense ocorre uma mancha contínua que constitui os \"campos de vacaria\" que caracterizam-se por uma vegetação herbácea ora densa ora rala.As campinas de várzeas são formaçoes herbáceas que ocupam em geral as baixadas aluviais nos vales de muitos rios do Mato Grosso do Sul.Complexo do Pantanal é uma expressão utilizada para caracterizar a cobertura vegetal heterogênea e de variaçoes bruscas de diferentes tipos de vegetação que ocorrem na extensa baixada do Pantanal. Três grandes unidades de vegetação na área: as florestas, os cerrados e os campos. As primeiras, com caracteristicas semelhantes ás das florestas equatoriais, apresentam-se sob a forma de florestas galerias, ocupando as planícies de inundação e os aluvioes dos rios Paraguai e Culabá. Os cerrados, que ocupam cerca de 70% do Pantanal, apresentam-se nos seus diferentes graus: cerradão, cerrado, campo cerrado e campos (limpos ou sujos). Ao Sul, próximo a Porto Esperança, há uma região de transição, onde a vegetação é dominada pelo carandá (Copernicia austrialis) e pelo paratudo (Tecoma aurea). Ao Norte do Pantanal, há uma zona periférica cuja caracteristica é a presença frequente de babaçuais.Ao Sul do Pantanal, numa faixa estreita e pouco extensa ao longo do Rio Paraguai, ocorre uma formação semelhante ás caatingas, denominadas de \"bosques chaquenhos onde a vegetação tem caráter xerófjlo, parte arbário ou arbustivo-arbáreo, com perdas quase total de folhas na estação seca.O estado do Mato Grosso do Sul, com uma área de 350.548 krn 2 , possui cerca de 10,8% desta área caracterizada pela formação de floresta subúmida. A maior predominância é da área originalmente coberta pela vegetação de cerrado (51,0%), seguida do Complexo do pantanal (28,5%) e finalmente os campos limpos constituem a vegetação original da menor extensão territorial do Mato Grosso do Sul (9,7%).Os solos da região Oeste (Mato Grosso do Sul e Mato Grosso) são originários de diversas formaçoes geológicas e constituem-se nas seguintes classes: Os solos hidromórficos referem-se ãos desenvolvidos sob grande influência do lençol freático próximo ou mesmo á superfície, pelo menos durante um período do ano, evidenciando, seja através da acumulação de materia orgánica nas camadas superficiais, seja pela presença de cores cinzentas características de processo de gleyzação. Os solos gleysporico húmicos, gleys húmicos e orgânicos ocupam juntos cerca de 5,4% do Mato Grosso e aproximadamente 5,2% do Mato Grosso do Sul.Dentre os solos pouco desenvolvidos os que apresentam maior importância pela extensão de área que ocupam são os vertisolos cuja ocorrência atinge cerca de 1,6% do Mato Grosso e 5,2% do Mato Grosso do Sul e os Iitólicos distrófícos que estão em 4% do Mato Grosso. Os primeiros estão nas depressoes e áreas mais baixas, sofrendo a atuação do lençol freático e outros problemas de drenagem. Os Iitossolos ocorrem sob relevo fortemente ondulado e, quando originados de rochas alcalinas podem ser eutróficos.As areias quartzosas álicas são solos profundos, não hidromórficos de textura arenosa, fortemente e excessivamente drenados, derivados de material arenoso com ausência comFleta de minerais primários facilmente decomponíveis, ocupam uma extensão de 153.489 km que corresponde a 17,42% da área do Mato Grosso e uma extensão de 68.960 km 2 ou cerca de 19,7 do Mato Grosso do Sul.No Mato Grosso do Sul, o trigo é praticamente a única alternativa para ocupação dos solos durante o inverno. Outra alternativa, embora de pequena expressão é a aveia. Essas duas espécies são cultivadas quase que exclusivamente em Latossolos vermelho-escuro distrófico (fase campo e cerrado) e nos Latossolos Roxos distrófícos (fase campo) e eutrófico (solo de mata) de alta fertilidade e sem a presença de alumínio trocável.Os Latossolos vermelho-escuro distrófico e roxo distrófico representam as maiores possibilidades de expansão da cultura do trigo, apresentando porém baixa fertilidade natural e fortemente ácidos. Os trabalhos realizados visando determinar as melhores épocas de semeadura têm mostrado que, de uma maneira geral, medida que se avançamalém do mês de abril os rendimentos tendem a reduzir em todas as regioes do Estado. De acordo com os resultados alcançados, a pesquisa indicou quatro epocas de semeadura para o Mato Grosso do Sul: de 20 de março a 30 de abril para a região A; de 01 de abril a 15 de maio para região B; de 20 de março a 30 de abril para a região C e de 20 de março a 15 de abril para a região D. Nessa última região as chuvas são interrompidas mais cedo, portando deve-se dar preferência plantar rigorosamente dentro da época recomendada, se possível no inicio da mesma.O espaçamento normalmente usado para o trigo é de 17 cm entre linhas. A densidade recomendada, é de 350 a 450 sementes viáveis por metro quadrado. A profundidade de semeadura deve ficar em torno de 2 a 5 cm. O fato da existência de solos com e solos sem presença de alumínio t6xico, obriga as lnstituiçoes de Pesquisa a realizar melhoramento genético nos dois tipos de solos, pois nem sempre os gen6tipos que tem bom comportamento em solos sem alumínio se comportam bem em solos com, e viceversa.O objetivo tem sido, a média e longo prazo, conseguir gen6tipos com alto potencial de rendimento de grãos em ambos os solos. Actualmente, as cultivares que apresentam tolerância ao aluminio não têm apresentado alto potencial de rendimento, em comparação com as cultivares semeadas em solos sem a presença de alumlnio, as quais por sua vez não apresentam tolerância ao alumlnio.Ainda com relação aos fatores de naturaleza climática, mais especificamente precipltaçoes pluviométricas, foi mencionado que em determinados estádios da cultura do trigo, principalmente nos estádios compreendidos entre a floração e a maturação, a média anual das precipitaçoes são menos intensas, sem no entanto caracterizar, necessariamente, deficiências hldricas. Mesmo em determinados anos nos quais a atlsencia de precipitaçoes pluviométricas é mais acentuada, o que constata-se é que as posslveis deficlencias hldricas variam de agricultor para agricultor, que é o resultado direto do tipo de manejo dado à cultura.o que se têm observado é que no Estado do Paraná. a maioria dos agricultores têm, ano após ano, utilizado largamente a sucessão trigo e soja. A conseqUência desta sucessão, que além de utilizar praticamente a mesma quantidade de macronutrientes, ainda proporciona uma intensa mecanização. Por sua vez, a maioria dos agricultores, antes da implantação de cada cultura, utilizam largamente uma gradagem pesada para incorporação da palha e não raramente duas ou três gradagens leves para nivelar o terreno.Este preparo intensivo e inadequado do solo tem provocado uma camada compactada a 20 centimetros de profundidade, comumente chamada de \"pé de grade\", a qual evita a infiltração natural da água. Esta compactação associada à topografia e às chuvas torrenciais em curto espaço de tempo, principalmente quando o solo está preparado para plantio e sem cobertura vegetal, tem provocado, ao longo os anos, um intenso processo erosivo devido ao escorrimento do solo.Este processo erosivo também tem provocado uma perda acentuada de materia organlca, o que acentua ainda mais a compactação e a desestruturação do solo, evitando assim una maior manutenção de água, necessaria para os perlodos de baixas precipitaçoes pluviométricas.Pelo que foi exposto, acredita-se que o problema de falta de água para a cultura de trigo não precisa, necessariamente ser resolvido pela obtenção, através do melhoramento genético, de cultivares mais resistentes à seca, mais sim de um manejo mais adequado do solo e das culturas.No entanto, segundo RIEDE (comunicação pessoal), a Região Norte apesar da similaridade com a Região Oeste, apresenta em determinados anos baixas precipitaçoes pluviométricas nos estádios iniciais do desenvolvimento da cultura do trigo, que corresponde ao mes de abril e à primeira quinzena de maio. Igualmente, estas baixas precipitaçoes não caracterizam, necessariamente, deficiências hldrlcas. Acredita-se também, que para este caso, um manejo mais adequado do solo e das culturas possa manter umidade suficiente para a cultura do trigo em épocas de baixas precipitaçoes pluviométricas.By the end of the 1960s, an expansion in wheat cultivation started that paraUe/ed the expansion of soybean area in the state of Paran6. Given the high fertility of soils in northwestern Paran6, it was possib/e to obtain high yields with wheat varieties derived fram CIMMYT germplasm. The high productivity and government incentives caused rapid expansion of the crap.Average wheat yie/ds have fluctuated considerably from one year to the next caused main/y by differences in temperature, rainfall, re/ative humidity. These fluctuations have not only been responsib/e for drought during the crap cycle, but also for the incidence of funga/ and bacteria/ diseases. ln some years and in certain growth stages of the crop, the rainfaU is low but does not necessarily cause water deficiency. Normally, these water deficiencies are a resu/t of direct crop and soil management. Therefore, breeding for drought resistance will not necessari/y solve the prob/em and will have to be combined with adequate crop and soil management.   Altitude: 300 m.Longitude: 24 0 17'5Longitude: 53 0 50W.Clima: Cfb--Subtropical Umido, Mesotérmico, veroes quentes, geadas menos freqUentes, tendência de concentração das chuvas nos meses de verão acima do paralelo 24 0 S. Sem estação seca definida.Solo:• Latossolo Roxo Eutrófico. A moderado textura argilosa fase floresta tropica perenifólia relevo suave ondulado e praticamente plano.• Solos desenvolvidos a partir de produtos provenientes da intemperização de rochas eruptivas básicas.• Clima Cfa e 200 a 600 metros.• Florestas remanescentes são do tipo tropical perenifólia, formadas por árvores de grande porte.• Solos profundos e de grande potencial agricola. Excelente retenção de água (natural).Fertilidade natural bastante favorável, sendo deficiente em fósforo. Solo:• Latossolo Roxo dlstr6f1co. A moderado textura argilosa fase floresta subtropical perenlf6lia relevo suave ondulado e ondulado.• Solos desenvolvidos a partir de productos provenientes da Intemperizaçlo de rochas eruptivas básicas.• Clima Cfb e 500 a 800 metros.• Rorestas remanescentes -árvores de grande porte, tais como pinheiro, Imbula, cedro, cerejeira, etc.• Solos profundos, sem problemas de drenagem e com excelentes condiçoes de aeraçlO, permeabilidade e retençlo de água em estado natural. : : : : : I:' :: : . t :\\ : :: .I :. : : \".:.t. .•i.: \" : : i. : ; , .50.0 -'--'r>y':j----j\\'!\"'''1/:-----:---:------:  . O-L--,...-.......,-\"\"\"\"'I\"-\"\"\"T'\"-\"\"T\"'\"-\"\"\"--\"\"-\"\"\"\"-\"\"\"'-\"\"\"T'\"-\"'T\"'\"-'T\"\"\"---!   Em ambas as épocas de semeadura, durante o crescimento e desenvolvimento da cultura, ocorreu um periodo sem precipatação pluviométrica de 82 dias. No inicio desse periodo, os genótipos de primeira época de semeadura se encontravam no inicio da fase reprodutiva e os da segunda no inicio do perfilhamento. O controle da necessidade de irrigação suplementar foi realizado através de tensiômetros. A primeira irrigação foi realizada 17 dias após o inicio do periodo de estresse hidrico.Quando do reinicio das chuvas, os materiais da primeira época se encontravam no estádio de maturação e os da segunda no estádio de cera mole a cera dura, para área irrigada e sem irrigação suplementar, respectivamente.Na primeira época de semeadura verificou-se redução média de 30,1% no rendimento de grãos, de 7,1% no número de espigas por metro quadrado, 1,9010 no número de grãos por espiga, 18,6% no peso de 1000 grãos e 20,8% no peso de grãos por espiga, considerando a área irrigada e a área sem irrigação suplementar (Tabela 2). Em ambas as condiçoes de água no solo, as cultivares e linhagens IAC5, IAPAR3, IAPAR18, IAPAR21, IAPAR29, IAPAR30 E LD 8552 presentaram melhores caracteristicas de rendimento de grãos e de componentes de rendimiento de grãos.Na segunda época de semeadura verificou-se maior efeito mais acentuado do estresse hldrico sobre o rendimento de grãos e componentes de produção (Tabela 3). A percentagem de redução, considerando a área irrigada em relação à área sem irrigação suplementar, foi de 60,90A> no rendimento de grãos, 29,3% no número de espigas por metro quadrado, 29,7% no número de grãos por espiga, 22,4% no peso de 1000 grãos e 42,90A> no peso de grãos por espiga. Snb \"S\"/Tan \"5\" RI 6010/4\"lnia/lVee#5Genealogia o melhoramento genético para resistência a seca deve ser implementado a partir de um conhecimento sobre as condiçoes edafoclimáticas do local onde o trabalho é desenvolvido.A principal caracteristica climática, com ampla variabilidade no ano e entre anos é a precipitação pluviométrica. Deficiências hidricas provocando veranicos são comuns na região de Londrina, principalmente nos periodos da semeadura ao espigamento da cultura do trigo.A estratégia básica do melhoramento genético, tem sido a seleção indireta para re~istência a seca, através do rendimento e enchimento de grãos. A partir de 1987, trabalhos em fisiologia vegetal, visando identificar caracteristicas ligadas a resistência a seca e seleção de progenitores vieram dar suporte ao projeto.De acordo com a Carta de Classificação Climática do Paraná, segundo W. Koeppen, Londrina encontra-se inserida no tipo de clima Cfa predominante do Norte-Oeste e parte do Sudoeste, apresentando uma forte tendéncia a uma transição para o tipo Cwa, cuja principal caracteristica é o \"inverno seco\", com geadas severas, menos frequentes. Apresenta, portanto, condiçoes de temperatura favorável ao cultivo das espécies invernais. Seriam pouco frequentes os anos com perdas totais causadas por geadas destrutivas, em troca porém, estariamos constantemente enfrentando problemas de estiagem nos momentos mais criticos das culturas. Mesmo assim, permanece a possibilidade de, em alguns anos, enfrentarmos graves problemas por excesso de umidade. o Balanço Hídrico para Londrina, no período de 1958 a 1975, indica deficiência hídrica nos meses de abril e agosto que representam épocas de semeadura e maturação da cultura do trigo na região (Figura 3).A frequência de períodos de 10 dias consecutivos com deficiência hídrica denominados \"veranicos\", são apresentados para Londrina, na Figura 4. Considerando-se que a época prPÍerencíal de semeadura de trigo para a região é o mês de abril (tAPAR, 1989), verifica-se neste caso um risco elevado de frustação das safras na fase de estabelecimento da cultura, na qual a boa disponibilidade hídrica é fundamental para proporcionar \"stand\" e perfilhamento adequados. A semeadura no final da época preferencial, embora possa ser vantajosa na fase de estabelecimento da cultura, ocasionará o espigamento de grãos durante o mês de julho, época em que os períodos de deficiéncia hídrica ocorrem com maior frequência. A prática do plantio direto de trigo deve ser implementada, como forma de minimizar a deficiência de água no solo, particularmente durante a fase de estabelecimento da cultura. Além disso, estudos de tolerância a seca e resposta a irrigação suplementar também precisam ser objeto de investigação (Caramori e Faria, 1987).No Quadro 2 estão apresentados os dados de precipitação pluviométrica, nos diferentes estágios de desenvolvimento de cultura do trigo, bem como informaçoes de rendimento na região de Londrina, para os anos de 1976 a 1988. Grande variabilidade ano a ano é medida pelo elevado desvio padrão. O estudo de correlação entre precipitação em diferentes estágios de desenvolvimento do trigo e o rendimento final apresentou correlação positiva (r = 0,62) para chuvas da germinação ao perfilhamento e correlação negativa (r = -0,54) para chuvas do espigamento a maturação (Quadro 3).Os dados de temperatura média para os diferentes estágios de desenvolvimento indicam ocorrer excesso de temperatura média, nos subperíodos semeadura a germinação e germinação ao perfilhamento, causando um reduzido número de perfilhos produzidos pela cultura, nestas condiçoes (Quadro 4). A variação ano a ano é baixa, Indicado pelo baixo desvio padráo.A descrição do perfil de solo do campo esperimental de trigo na sede do IAPAR é apresentada a seguir, de acordo com EMBRAPA/IAPAR, 1984 (Quadro 5). Embora os solos, sejam de boa profundidade, sua capacidade de retenção de água tem sido bastante diminuida, pelo mal manejo por ocasião da implantação das lavouras de inverno e verão.O melhoramento para resistência á seca no IAPAR tem sido realizado empiricamente, onde seleção indireta para esta característica, via rendimento e enchimento de grãos, tem sido praticada nas populaçoes segregantes. Coleçoes de genótipos como o Drought Screening Nursery do CJMMYT, Mexíco, têm sido semeadas tardiamente em Londrina, visando submeter o material a um estresse de seca e calor, visando desta maneira, selecionar genótipos possuidores de caracterJsticas ligadas a resistência á seca, os quais possam ser utilizados em cruzamentos com germoplasma adaptado, visando sua transferéncia ou incorporação.Aproximadamente 500 cruzamentos são feitos a cada ano, incluindo simples, triplos e retrocruzamentos. O método genealógico modificado é usado no manejo das populaçoes segregantes, no qual, seleção individual de plantas é realizada em F2 e F5, seleção de espigas formando bulk em F3 e F4 e seleção massal a partir da geração F6. Unhas avançadas são avaliadas através de desenho aumentado em dois locais, visando promoção ãos ensaios preliminares e cooperativos de recomendação e cultivares.A partir de 1987, trabalhos em fisiologia vegetal envolvendo resistência á seca foram incorporados ao projeto de melhoramento, visando basicamente avaliar potenciais progenitores e identificar caracterlsticas morfológicas e fisiológicas ligadas a resistência á seca.As condiçoes climáticas, especialmente a precipitação pluviométrica local nas Estaçoes Experimentais que trabalham com melhoramento genético para resistência á seca deve ser conhecida e bem caracterizada, com objetivo de selecionar-se eficientemente plantas segregantes e/ou linhas fixas do material genético.A presença de veranicos na região de Londrina, indica a possibilidade de déficit hldrico desde a época de semeadura da cultura do trigo no mês de abril até a colheita, em agosto/setembro. Não existe, portanto, período seco definido.A falta de repetitividade do fenômeno da seca na mesma época, tem dificultado a seleção e avaliação genética.Os avanços no melhoramento empírico, considerando o rendimento e enchimento de grãos como produtos finais do comportamento da planta perante estresse hídrico ambiental tem sido a principal estratégia. Unhas avançadas provenientes de coleçoes específicas para seleção visando resistência ao estresse ambiental, têm sido semeadas tardiamente em Londrina, conseguindo-se assim que os genótipos estejam mais sujeitos a sofrerem os efeitos estressantes de ambiente local.Diferentes autores (Clarke e Townley-Smith, 1984 e Keim e Kronstad, 1981) sugerem que ambas as características do evite e tolerância são importantes para a resistência á seca dos genótipos, embora o escape através da maturação precoce e plasticidade de desenvolvimento possua importância bastante grande para as diferentes espécies de cultivo.Aparentemente parece haver um forte consenso de que o melhoramento para resistência á seca deveria incluir rendimento e estabilidade de produção. Cultivares de ampla adaptação, com alto rendimento em todas ou na maioria das condiçoes ambientais são preferíveis a cultivares especificamente adaptadas, particularmente quando o tempo e o grau de estresse variam de ano a ano (Hurd, 1969;Blum, 1979).A inclusão de trabalhos fisiológicos de resistência á seca junto ao projeto de melhoramento de trigo do IAPAR, deverá trazer contribuição, na identificação de características morfológicas e fisiológicas, permitindo assim o desenvolvimento de um ideotipo adaptado e seleção mais apropriada de progenitores.Desta maneira, além de seleção indireta para resistência á seca via rendimento de grãos, será possível praticar-se seleção direta para os mecanismos ligados a resistência á seca.   Ano 1976Ano 1977Ano 1978Ano 1979Ano 1980Ano 1981Ano 1982Ano 1983Ano 1984Ano 1985Ano 1986Ano 1987Ano 1988 Media Des.P.Semeadura-Germinacão (Abril) Ap: 0-18 cm, vermelho-escuro-acinzentado (l YR 3/3, úmido e seco); muito argiloso; moderada média pequena granular; duro, friável, muito plástico e pegajoso; transição clara e plana.A3: 18-30 cm, vermelho-escura-acinzentado (l YR 3/3 úmido e seco); muito argiloso; fraca média prismática e fraca pequena média blocos subangulares; muito duro, friável, plástico e pegajoso; transição clara e plana.B1:30-60 cm, vermelho-escura-acinzentado (l YR 3/4) muito argiloso; fraca pequena blocos subangulares e forte ultrapequena granular; ligeiramente duro, muito friável, plástico e pegajoso; transição difusa e plana.B21: 60-150 cm. vermelho-escura-acinzentado (l YR 3/5); muito argiloso; forte ultrapequena granular ligeiramente coerente com aspecto de maciça porosa no local; macio, muito friável, plástico e pegajoso; transição difusa e plana.B22: 150-235 cm, vermelho-escura-acinzentado (1 YR 3/5); muito argiloso; fraca pequena blocos subangulares ligeiramente coerente com aspecto de maciça porosa no local; ligeiramente duro, muito friável, plástico e pegajoso; transição difusa e plana.B23: 235-275 cm. vermelho-escura-acinzentado (l YR 3/6); muito argiloso; ligeiramente plástico a plástico pegajoso.B3/C: 275-325 cm, vermelho-escuro-acinzentado (1 YR 3/6), mosqueado pouco, pequeno e proeminente, bruno-forte (7,5 YR 5/6). Horizonte constituido por material semelhante ão B23, misturado com fragmentos de rocha básica.C: 325-345 cm+, bruno-forte (7,5 YR 5/8)   ,.w ~ 2.. .  El trigo es el cultivo anual de mayor importancia en Chile. (Cuadros 1 y 2). Se cultiva en condiciones de riego y secano y, en general bajo un regimen de clima mediterráneo. Las lluvias se concentran en Invierno, principalmente en las zonas trigueras del norte del pais, por lo que en estas áreas se'encuentran las mayores superficies bajo riego.El clima chileno está determinado por la presencia del anticiclón del Pacifico, la topografia y el mar, en especial la corriente marina fria de Humbolt.El anticiclón del Pacifico es en gran medida el responsable del régimen hldrico del pais pues evita el paso de frentes polares hacia el norte. En invierno su influencia no permite el paso de frentes más allá de la latitud 290S y, en verano no más allá de la latitud 400S. Por ello tenemos un clima desértico, todos los meses secos, de la latitud 290S al norte; mediterráneo, con lluvias de invierno, de la latitud 290S a la 40 0 S, y marino, sin meses secos, de la latitud 400S al sur (Figuras 1-6). Por su parte la topografia produce una variación transversal de oeste a este, en las lluvias. Estas son más• Zona Sur: Estación Experimental CariHanca, Temuco Subestación Experimental La Pampa, Osorno Cada centro principal opera además una red de Ensayos Regionales en su área de Influencia.En la zona Centro-Norte, la E.E. La Platina realiza Investigaciones principalmente en trigos de primavera tanto de pan, como candeales (durum) para pastas; también se realizan trabajos de mejoramiento con materiales alternativos para la zona del secano costero húmedo de esta Reglón. Las Ests. Exps. Quilamapu y CariJIanca, en las zonas Centro-Sur y Sur llevan lineas de Investigación en materiales de invierno, alternativos y primaverales de trigos de pan.• Elevado potencial genético para rendimiento.• Capacidad para expresar potencial mediante empleo de nutrimentos adecuados en el momento apropiado.• Estabilidad de rendimiento a través de los años.• Coincidencia entre ciclo de desarrollo del cultivo y condiciones climáticas especificas de una reglón determinada.• Coincidencia con las prácticas culturales acostumbradas y con la nueva tecnologla de producción en desarrollo.• Adecuación a manejos culturales excepcionales y toler;,ncia a tratamientos qufmicos, herbicidas, insecticidas, etc.• Formulación de paquetes tecnológicos.• Formulación de sistemas de producción.Se considera prioritarios en el desarrollo de variedades mejoradas los aspectos siguientes:• Trabajos en royas: P. gramrnrs, P. strrrformis, y P. recondrta • Septoriosis: S. triticl y S. nodorum • Pudriciones radiculares: G. graminís, Fusarium sp.• Virosis y Midas: VEAC y acción del complejo Midas-virus Mejoramiento de calidad: Selección para alto peso de hectó1itro, especialmente en trigos Invernales y alternativos; aumento en contenido de protelna del grano; mejor calidad panadera.Integración con investigaciones en manejo del cultivo, para diseñar paquetes tecnólogicos y formulación de sistemas de producción.Divulgación eficiente de los resultados de la investigación y producción.No se han considerado de prioridad lineas de investigación especificas sobre fltomejoramiento para sequla ya que las condiciones climáticas de las principales regiones trlticolas--pluviometrla suficlente--o el cultivo en sistemas de riego, permite normalmente superar situaciones de déficit hldrico graves. Sin embargo, se ha tratado de mantener una adecuada presión de selección para \"adaptación\" en el material genético avanzado mediante un sistema de \"ensayos regionales\". Estos experimentos, se colocan todos los años en las distintas zonas agroclimátlcas.Para aquellas áreas de secano situadas en las zonas agroclimáticas Mediterránea-semiárida y Mediterránea-seca, con escasa pluviometria (250-350 mm), muy concentrada en los meses de invierno, se ha tratado de seleccionar genotipos de trigo primaveral de ciclo corto, entre 90 y 120 dias desde siembra a fecha de espigadura--floraci6n. Han sido estas caractensticas de precocidad las variables consideradas principalmente en la selecci6n de trigos que puedan \"escapar\" de las condiciones de sequia en primavera que se producen en las zonas mencionadas.No se han utilizado métodos o procedimientos de seleccl6n especifica para sequia en material segregante. La selecci6n por precocidad se hace generalmente en las generaciones avanzadas ya sea a nivel de campo experimental o en los Ensayos Regionales.Actualmente existe bastante interés en el Programa Fitomejoramiento en utilizar los datos que está obteniendo y tabulando el Programa de Agrometeorologia y Producci6n de INIA a través de su red de Estaciones Meteorol6glcas. El objetivo es afinar y optimizar la seleccl6n de variedades mejoradas de trigo en relaci6n a los sistemas de producci6n más eficiente que se diseñen a futuro para cada zona agroclimática.Anexos a este trabajo se presentan las fichas de datos agroclimáticas, los c\\imodiagramas y mapas agroclimáticos de algunas zonas trigueras del pals, a manera de i1ustraci6n de la Informaci6n agroc\\imática disponible en INIA.    .....    11. El área triguera de Chile se extiende entre los 290 y 410 de latitud sur y en ella las precipitaciones aumentan de norte a sur, en tanto que las temperaturas siguen una tendencia opuesta (Cuadro 1)En la zona centro sur (350 a 380 lato sur), se siembra aproximadamente el 40% del trigo nacional, y en ella es posible distinguir cuatro áreas agroecológicas: secano costero, secano interior, llano central y secano de precordillera. Analizando los climodiagramas para estas cuatro áreas, se puede establecer los perlodos en los cuales el agua de lluvia es suficiente o insuficiente para cubrlr la demanda evaporativa de la atmósfera. Esta última, expresada como evaporación de bandeja, seria una buena aproximación de lo que gasta un cultivo como el trigo.Tomando como criterio el punto anterior, en la Figura 1 puede observarse que en la región costera la humedad del suelo es adecuada hasta inicios de octubre, y que las temperaturas son moderadas durante toda la estación de crecimiento del trigo, debido a la influencia marina.En el secano de precordi/lera, ubicado entre los 300 y 600 m de altitud, los suelos son en su mayoria de origen volcánico y poseen abundante materia orgánica. En esta área las lluvias son las más abundantes y las temperaturas las más bajas de la zona centro sur, por lo cual la humedad del suelo generalmente no es limitante para el cultivo del trigo (Rgura 4). Esta afirmación fue corroborada, en seis ensayos de campo efectuados por el Programa de Riego de la Estación Experimental Quilamapu, durante 1981 y 1982. En ellos se determinó que la aplicación artificial de agua incrementó significativamente el rendimiento de grano de trigo en los ensayos del secano interior y en el llano central, pero no en el secano de precordillera (Rgura 5).De acuerdo al análisis anterior el déficit hidrico se presenta como una llmitante productiva, solamente en el secano interior. Esta restricción hidrica es variable en su duración y en su aparición estacional. A veces interfiere con el establecimiento de las sementeras en otoño, y casi siempre limita el crecimiento y desarrollo en la primavera.Aunque no existen datos oficiales sobre rendimiento y superficie sembrada con trigo en estas cuatro áreas, a juicio del autor, las cifras serian las Indicadas en el Cuadro 2.De acuerdo a los datos del Cuadro 2, se deduce que en la región Centro Sur de Chile, un 28% de la superficie sembrada anualmente con trigo estaría sometida a déficit hidrico (secano interior). En esta área la superficie de trigo está distribuida en una cantidad muy grande de pequeños productores, que necesitan un sistema productivo que minimice el efecto negativo de la restricción hidrica, y la erosión del suelo. Por esta razón el Programa de Trigo de la Estación Experimental Quilamapu, permanentemente ha dedicado una parte de su investigación a resolver este problema a través del mejoramiento varietal.En el secano interior donde normalmente ocurre déficit hidrico, se han encontrado marcadas diferencias en el comportamiento de variedades de distinto periodo vegetativo, y ello ha permitido realizar una especie de mejoramiento por eficiencia en el uso del agua. Esta selección por eficiencia, trata a través de un mecanismo de escape, de seleccionar genotipos con un ciclo vegetativo tal que maximicen el rendimiento en función del agua disponible en los períodos más críticos, especialmente entre la esplgadura y grano acuoso.A continuación se entregarán resultados de ensayos efectuados en suelos con y sin déficit hidrico. a) En 1979 se efectuó un ensayo en condiciones de riego y secano, en el cual se compararon cinco cereales de diferente ciclo vegetativo. Los datos presentados en la Rgura 6, indican que el centeno Tetra, de largo periodo vegetativo, aunque fue el cereal con mayor producción en condiciones de riego (54 qqm/ha), presentó el menor rendimiento en el secano (15 qqm/ha), es decir, se trata de una variedad muy inestable. La situación opuesta se observó con el Triticale de primavera \"Yoco\", el cual en riego rindió 42 qqm/ha y en el secano solo bajó a 35 qqm/ha, es decir, este cereal habria tenido un buen sincronismo entre las exigencias de agua en sus etapas criticas, y la disponibílidad de humedad del suelo.b) En una red de ensayos efectuados durante los años 1985-1986, en el secano Interior de la Séptima Reglón, se comprobó el mejor rendimiento y mayor establlldd de los trigos precoces de primavera en comparación a los de mayor ciclo vegetativo, en condiciones de restricción de humedad (FIgura 7). En estos ensayos el rendimiento medio de las variedades de primavera semienanas fue de 38 qqm/ha, y durante todos los años de estudio, superaron a las variedades tardias, mostrando además una mayor estabilidad.Debido a que la madurez tardia de las variedades aparece como una caracteristica Indeseable en los secanos semláridos, una comparación de las fechas de espigadura es una excelente Información como valor predictivo de la capacidad de rendimiento. Al respecto se ha determinado que en el secano interior, la fecha óptima de siembra es a Inicios de mayo. En estas condiciones, la espigadura se produce a mediados de setiembre en la~ variedades de primavera, en tanto que los trigos tardios dilatan este proceso hasta el mes de octubre.c) En una serie de ensayos regionales efectuados en el secano interior y llano central de ñuble (Lat. 360 Sur), se compararon grupos de 25 variedades de trigos de primavera semienanos, durante 1981 a 1988. La Figura 8, indica que el rendimiento promedio de las 25 variedades en los ensayos con restricción hidrica solo alcanzó 33 qqm/ha, lo cual fue equivalente a la mitad de lo obtenido con las mismas variedades en condiciones derlego. Esta diferencia puede ser explicada tomando el concepto de Justus von L1ebig (1803-1873), referido al principio de los \"factores limitantes\", el cual señala: \"el nivel de producción de un cultivo no puede ser mayor que el permitido por el más limitante de los factores esenciales de crecimiento\". Este factor lImitante en el secano interior es el agua. En este sentido, la dificultad de elevar el rendimiento más allá de los 30 qqm/ha, en el secano Interior, no se deberla a la falta de genes, conducentes a mayor productividad, sino más bien, a que se llega a un umbral fisiológico impuesto por el déficit hídrlco.En la figura lO, se aprecia que el desarrollo de estos cereales transcurrió en condiciones de humedad del suelo inferiores a Capacidad de Campo, con un déficit h¡drico muy marcado durante la espigadura, y llegando a Punto de Marchitez Permanente cuando el grano estaba en estado lechoso (11.2 de la Escala de Feekes), es decir en una etapa de intensa acumulación de materia seca en el grano.Bajo la suposición que en condiciones de manejo óptimo los cuatro grupos de cereales tendrian un rendimiento de grano similar, entonces los datos del ensayo permitirian establecer que los trigos duros fueron los más afectados por el déficit hidrico, correspondiendo a los Tritlcales Completos el rendimiento promedio más elevado (Figura 11). En términos porcentuales, si el rendimiento promedio de los 15 trigos duros se toma como base 100% (2518 kg/ha), los trigos harineros alcanzaron a 124%, los Triticales Incompletos a 144% y los Trlticales Completos a 165%. Si se consideran los rendimientos máximos de cada cereal estas diferencias porcentuales se mantienen para los trigos harineros y los Triticales Completos, pero no para los Triticales Incompletos.Al analizar el comportamiento de las variedades dentro de cada grupo de cereales, se determinaron diferencias geneticas en rendimiento de grano y biomasa (Cuadros 3,4, 5 Y6). Es interesante destacar que en los cuatro cereales, la producción de grano estuvo correlacionada positivamente con la producción de biomasa. De esto se deduce que el rendimiento de grano se mantuvo proporcional a la producción de paja, a pesar de las condiciones de déficit hidrlco que persistieron durante gran parte del ciclo del cultivo. Algunos indice.s promedios para los quince genotipos de cada cereal se Indican en el Cuadro 7.En el Cuadro 8 se Indican las correlaciones entre rendimiento de grano y algunas de las caracteristicas consideradas en este estudio. Lo más destacado es la correlación positiva entre rendimiento de grano y biomasa. Llama la atención que el Indice de Cosecha estuviese correlacionado con rendimiento solamente en los trigos harineros. Considerando que esta correlación implica una eficiente distribución de materia seca, entre grano y paja, a favor del grano, es posible concluir que dentro del grupo de los quince trigos harineros seria posible seleccionar para rendimiento de grano, considerando el Indice de Cosecha.Este ensayo de cereales permitió establecer que existen diferencias, entre' los cereales estudiados, asi como entre variedades de un mismo cereal, respecto a producción de grano y blomasa, cuando ellos se cultivan en un ambiente con restricción hldrica.Teniendo presente que en condiciones de campo, la época, duración e intensidad de la sequla son especificas para un año y por lo tanto raramente repetibles, es posible que los mejores genotipos dentro de cada grupo de cereales, no tengan igual comportamiento en otra temporada.Existen diferencias entre cereales respecto a su capacidad para utilizar eficientemente la humedad del suelo cuando ésta es escasa.Los ensayos regionales efectuados por el Programa de Trigo, han permitido seleccionar genotipos con habilidad para producir satisfactoriamente en un rango amplio de ambientes con y sin restricción hidrica, lo cual es importante desde el punto de vista de una mayor estabilidad fenotlpica.Los trigos precoces, semienanos tienen mejor adaptación que los trigos tardios en suelos con problemas de sequia, ya que sincronizan mejor su desarrollo con las disponibilidades de agua del suelo.   Mientras continuamos explorando la posibilidad de incrementar la productividad agrfcola en las tierras actualmente cultivadas, también trabajamos en la utilización de zonas marginales para la agricultura mediante una mejor adaptación genética de las plantas a factores ambientales extremos. Entre las variables ambientales que afectan el crecimiento y el desarrollo de las plantas, la sequía es una de las más Importantes. El término \"tolerancia a la sequía\" se vincula con un medio de escasa humedad e implica la capacidad de un genotipo de ser más productivo que otro con una determinada cantidad de humedad en el suelo. El estudio de la tolerancia a la sequía exige una definición objetiva de ese factor, pero hasta el momento no se ha formulado una universalmente aceptable. Cuatro patrones principales de sequía en relación con el trigo estan:• En el Mediterráneo: la mayor parte de la precipitación se produce en invierno antes de la antesis y la carencia de agua aumenta durante el llenado de los granos.• En el Cono Sur: los cereales de grano pequeño sembrados en el invierno sufren un período moderadamente seco antes de la antesis y el llenado de los granos se produce durante un período de lluvias crecientes.• En el subcontinente de la India: los cereales de grano pequeño utilizan la reserva de agua del suelo después de los monzones y sobreviven gracias a la humedad almacenada, las lluvias ocasionales y la irrigación complementaria.• En zonas con irrigación reducida: los cereales reciben una irrigación limitada a causa de la disminución de la cantidad de agua almacenada en las presas..En los últimos 19 años, el CIMMYT ha efectuado sistemáticamente cruzamientos entre los diversos complejos de germoplasma de trigos de invierno y de primavera. Hay pruebas de que los derivados de los cruzamientos de primavera x invierno y las [(neos avanzadas han presentado una mayor tolerancia a la sequía, como lo indica el alto grado de aceptación de ese germoplasma en las regiones semiáridas. En general se piensa que aún es grande la variabilidad y que es preciso usarla como una fuente primaria de recursos genéticos para obtener esa característica. Los productos de los cruzamientos amplios derivados de géneros afines y parientes lejanos del trigo ofrecen una gran oportunidad para enriquecer esa variabilidad. Algunas metodologías de la biotecnología, como el cultivo de tejidos, posiblemente permitan adquirir esos genes y combinarlos con los de variedades estables y muy productivas.Tradicionalmente los agricultores han usado un método de ensayo y error para seleccionar los cultivos que producen, es decir, eligen determinados cultivos porque se desempeñan bien en las condiciones de campo y climatológicas locales. Los fitomejoradores han dedicado un esfuerzo considerable a la creación de variedades de alto rendimiento adaptadas a medios relativamente óptimos. No obstante, a medida que aumenta la demanda de alimentos y fibra, crece la importancia del efecto de los medios fluctuantes. En muchas zonas del mundo, el medio es marginal o totalmente Inadecuado para la producción económica de cultivos. Incluso en las zonas normalmente aptas para esos cultivos, la sensibilidad a factores ambientales desfavorables que ocurren esporádicamente durante los periodos criticos del desarrollo del cultivo puede provocar pérdidas del rendimiento. Aunque el alto potencial de rendimiento sin duda continuará siendo un objetivo fundamental de las actividades fitotécnicas, crece la importancia de la estabilidad del rendimiento en distintos regimenes ambientales.Mientras continuamos explorando la posibilidad de incrementar la productividad agricola en las tierras actualmente cultivadas, también trabajamos en la utilización de zonas marginales para la agricultura mediante una mejor adaptación genética de las plantas a factores ambientales extremos. Además de las plagas y los factores adversos creados por el hombre como la contaminación atmosférica, los problemas de la producción de alimentos son ( 1) la disponibilidad de suelos productivos y ( 2) los climas que favorecen el desarrollo de los cultivos. El primero de estos elementos es en general una condición estática, mientras que el segundo es una variable incontrolable. Las principales variables climatológicas que influyen en la productividad son la temp~ratura y la disponibilidad de agua. Se ha estimado que el 60-80% de la variación estacional de la productividad de los cultivos obedece a fluctuaciones del clima (3,33), entre ellas, las temperaturas extremas y la disponibilidad de agua.Se ha señalado que ya se ha alcanzado un tope en los rendimientos de varios de los cultivos principales y que será escaso el aumento de la producción mediante un mayor uso de fertilizantes, agua y plaguicldas. Frey ( 13) pronostica que, en el futuro, gran parte de la producción agricola tendrá que provenir de tierras que ahora se consideran marginales. La expansión de los cultivos hacia esas zonas estará sujeta a numerosos factores desfavorables que restringen la producción económica.Entre las variables ambientales que afectan el crecimiento y el desarrollo de las plantas, la sequia es una de las más importantes. Sólo la precipitación pluvial o el riego puede aliviar por completo los efectos de la sequia sobre el rendimiento de los cultivos. En la actualidad no existe un método confiable para aumentar la precipitación durante los periodos de sequia. SI no se dispone de agua para la Irrigación, las únicas soluciones posibles son prácticas de cultivo que aumenten la disponibilidad del agua almacenada en el suelo o la generación de variedades o hibrldos que puedan evitar o tolerar en forma más eficiente la sequla.Para el f1tomejorador, el término \"tolerancia a la sequia\" se vincula con un medio de escasa humedad e implica la capacidad de un genotipo de ser más productivo que otro con una determinada cantidad de humedad en el suelo (25). El fitomejorador se ocupa principalmente de la variabilidad que existe dentro de una misma especie, más que de la variabilidad entre especies diferentes. El mejoramiento de trigo realizado en el CIMMYf para obtener tolerancia a la sequia ha evolucionado en los últimos 15 años. He participado en la formulación de la metodologia y de los conceptos básicos desde el comienzo (7, 21, 22, 26, 35). Si bien se han producido algunas modificaciones de la metodología, no ha cambiado la base conceptual de esa labor. Las opiniones expresadas en este trabajo son las mlas y no representan necesariamente los criterios del CIMMYr.Antes de intentar generar variedades mejor adaptadas, es preciso conocer los factores ambientales en los que se sembrará un determinado cultivo. Los factores climatológicos básicos más importantes son la cantidad y la variabilidad de la precipitación anual, el patrón previsto de la distribución estacional de la precipitación, la humedad relativa, la temperatura media y el tipo y la profundidad de los suelos (25). En general, la precipitación anual media no es un factor significativo a causa de la gran variación que se produce de un año a otro en la mayoria de las regiones semiárldas. La distribución estacional de la precipitación es a menudo una medición más constante. Algunas regiones semiáridas presentan humedades relativas bajas que causan un rápido enfriamiento después de ponerse el sol. En otras zonas, temperaturas medias relativamente bajas durante la temporada de cultivo interactúan con el déficit de humedad en el suelo para moderar el efecto de la sequia mediante la disminución del crecimiento y de la evapotranspiración. La respuesta de las plantas a la falta de humedad depende en cierta medida del tipo y la profundidad del suelo.El estudio de la tolerancia a la sequia exige una definición objetiva de ese factor, pero hasta el momento no se ha formulado una universalmente aceptable. Un informe de la Organización Meteorológica Mundial ( 14) sobre las definiciones de la sequia incluye 14 basadas en la precipitación, 13 en la precipitación y las temperaturas medias, 11 en indices climatológicos y estimaciones de la evapotranspiración, y 15 en parámetros relacionados con la humedad del suelo y los cultivos. Algunos de los criterios comunes usados fueron la precipitación, la temperatura ambiente, la humedad relativa, la evaporación de una superficie de agua libre, la transpiración de la planta, el viento, el flujo del aire, la humedad del suelo y las condiciones de la planta. Para los propósitos de este trabajo, se definirá como sequia todo período durante el cual las carencias de humedad de la planta y/o del suelo afecten el crecimiento y el desarrollo de los cultivos.Edmeades et al. (7) enumeran cuatro patrones principales de sequla en relación con el trigo:• En el Mediterráneo: la mayor parte de la precipitación se produce en invierno antes de la antesis y la carencia de agua aumenta durante el llenado de los granos.• En el Cono Sur: los cereales de grano pequeño sembrados en el invierno sufren un periodo moderadamente seco antes de la antesis y el llenado de los granos se produce durante un periodo de lluvias crecientes.• En el subcontlnente de la India: los cereales de grano pequeño utilizan la reserva de agua del suelo después de los monzones y sobreviven gracias a la humedad almacenada, las lluvias ocasionales y la Irrigación complementaria.• En zonas con irrigación reducida: los cereales reciben una irrigación limitada a causa de la disminución de la eantldad de agua almacenada en las presas. Este tipo de sequla es frecuente en la mayoria de las zonas irrigadas.Estos patrones parecen describir medios bien definidos. No obstante, una caracteristlca común de los medios tropicales más secos es la gran vatlabilidad de las lluvias estacionales y de su distribución en la temporada (11).A pesar de que las respuestas de las plantas y su adaptación a la sequia han recibido una atención creciente por parte de los fisiólogos (19,20,34), no es muy clara la relación entre la información fisiológica presentada y el desempeño de los cultivos en el campo (17). Si bien existe una gran cantidad de literatura sobre el tema, no hay una base generalmente aceptada en cuanto a la tolerancia de los cultivos a un determinado factor desfavorable. Mi método aborda expUcitamente la integración de estrategias fitotécnicas para mejorar el comportamiento en el campo en un medio dado. Se investigan sólo superficialmente los procesos fisiólogicos que parecen ser fundamentales para la productividad del cultivo y se dedica particular atención a diferencias genéticamente determinadas en las respuestas de las plantas a la sequia, con el fin de establecer estrategias para mejorar al máximo el comportamiento de los cultivos cuando existen factores desfavorables limitantes.El daño causado por la sequla se manifiesta comúnmente en las plantas mediante una secuencia de alteraciones fisiológicas y morfológicas, que pueden incluir una menor tasa de crecimiento, el rizado de las hojas, la clorosis, la senescencia, la abscisión de las hojas inferiores, la marchitez, la reducción de la fotosintesls, la alteración de la respiración, la pérdida de la integridad celular, la necrosis localizada y, por último, la muerte de la planta (17).El conocimiento de los mecanismos que confieren la adaptación a medios desfavorables tiene un considerable valor teórico y práctico. Las adaptaciones de las plantas pueden expresarse en cuatro niveles generales: el desarrollo, la morfologia, la fisiologia y el metabolismo (17). La evaluación de las caracteristlcas de las plantas en esos cuatro niveles para determinar su Importancia en la adaptación a limitantes ambientales es un objetivo general de las investigaciones sobre la tolerancia a factores desfavorables. La identificación de las caracteristicas de adaptación tiene gran trascendencia porque esas caracteristicas podrian aprovecharse en las actividades fitogenéticas.Diversas caracteristicas fisiológicas y morfológicas contribuyen a la tolerancia a la sequia, entre ellas, la defoliación, las alteraciones de los ángulos de inserción de las hojas, una mayor proporción de raices/vástago, cutícula cerosa gruesa, mantenimiento de la turgencia, estomas cerrados, capacidad de continuar la translocación fotosintética y la distribución de asimilados, y menor acumulación de prolina.Los métodos fitogenéticos tradicionales, si bien son muy eficaces en algunos casos, toman mucho tiempo y requieren un trabajo intenso. Antes de realizar un programa de mejoramiento, hay que tener en cuenta tres aspectos ( 17):• ¿Existen estrategias alternativas de cultivo? Un cultivo diferente puede superar la productividad del cultivo originalmente programado para el mejoramiento de la tolerancia a la sequia. Las modificaciones de las técnicas de manejo del cultivo también pueden mejorar el desempeño de éste más de lo que se podria lograr mediante el fitomejoramiento.• ¿Cuáles son los requisitos fisiológicos para que la planta se desempeñe mejor en condiciones de sequia? La evaluación cuidadosa de las necesidades energéticas y de asimilación para el desarrollo con diversos grados de sequia puede indicar si es fisiológicamente viable esperar un aumento de la productividad en medios con sequfa.• ¿Existe un potencial genético adecuado del cultivo en condiciones desfavorables? Es preciso efectuar análisis para determinar la existencia de variabilidad genética en relación con las respuestas a la sequia de una variedad cultivada, una variedad criolla o especies emparentadas.Se ha señalado en repetidas ocasiones que no se puede usar un indice único de selección para la tolerancia a la sequia (1,30). Un programa fitotécnlco eficaz debe incluir la integración de varios criterios en un solo indice de selección. Se puede encontrar un ejemplo notable en la labor de Ascher et al. ( 9), quienes lograron un considerable progreso en la selección recurrente de materiales Tuxpeño de maiz usando un fndice de selección que incluia la termometria de rayos infrarrojos, el crecimiento en condiciones desfavorables, el quemado de las hojas y la floración sincrónica. Los resultados Indican que el mayor diferencial de selección y la mejor asociación con el rendimiento en condiciones desfavorables se obtuvieron con las temperaturas del follaje.Las condiciones Indicadas por Jones y Qualset ( 17) en relación con la variabilidad genética para la tolerancia a la sequla se comprueban ampliamente en muchos cultivos, entre ellos el trigo (2). En muchos estudios, se ha usado la supervivencia como criterio para medir la tolerancia a la sequla. Sin embargo, la supervivencia y la productividad, en el sentido tradicional, no son sinónimos. Los mecanismos de supervivencia, si bien están determinados genéticamente, pueden en muchos casos ser la caracteristica más importante en una situación desfavorable.Es poco realista esperar que se podrán generar cultivos adaptados a un medio desfavorable que germinen, crezcan, se desarrollen y se reproduzcan en condiciones extremas de sequIa y produzcan rendimientos comparables a las variedades actuales en condiciones casi óptimas. Es muy probable que los rendimientos se reduzcan considerablemente en condiciones desfavorables extremas. No obstante, se puede lograr cierta productividad en medios donde no existe ninguna en la actualidad. Es en esta gama de condiciones desfavorables intermedias que los fitomejoradores pueden adaptar con éxito los cultivos sensibles. Una mayor estabilidad del rendimiento en condiciones desfavorables moderadas parece ser un objetivo realista (17).Se ha señalado que las variedades seleccionadas para alto rendimiento en condiciones de humedad casi óptimas no tienen necesariamente un rendimiento elevado cuando se les cultiva en condiciones de sequia (15,16); en consecuencia, si se quiere generar una variedad superior para un medio afectado por la sequia, es preciso seleccionar y evaluarla en ese tipo de medios. El análisis de las Interacciones cruzadas entre el genotipo y el medio (Rgura 1) permite descubrir variedades con caracteristicas excepcionales de adaptación a medios de bajo rendimiento (7).Según los recursos disponibles para el mejoramiento, esto puede Indicar la necesidad de contar con programas separados de mejoramiento para la adaptación especifica a medios con alto y bajo rendimiento. Cuando son regulares el patrón y la intensidad de la sequla en el medio en cuestión y existen interacciones cruzadas entre el genotipo y el grado de sequla en medios con y sin sequla (5,32), la selección para mejorar el comportamiento en la sequla se debe efectuar en esas condiciones. Sin embargo, es poco probable que la intensidad de la sequla varle con regularidad en un medio dado.Reltz ( 28) expresa en forma muy sencilla uno de los principales corolarios del f1tomejoramiento: \"Las variedades se clasifican en tres categorlas: (1) las que tienen una superioridad uniforme en todos los medios, (2) las que son relativamente mejores en medios desfavorables y (3) las que son relativamente mejores en medios favorables\". En otro trabajo ( 29), Reitz señala que seleccionar para lograr adaptabilidad amplia equivale a seleccionar para la mediocridad o, incluso, el bajo rendimiento. Los logros del ClMMYT en el fitomejoramiento contradicen esto, ya que las variedades de trigo derivadas del germoplasma de adaptación amplia del CIMMYT han tenido una considerable aceptación en medios semiáridos de todo el mundo (2,4).El CIMMYT y los organismos que lo precedieron, la Fundación Rockefeller y la Oficina de Estudios Especiales de México, emplearon un programa de mejoramiento alternado en ese pals, efectuado en Ciudad Obregón, Sonora (a 27 2 de latitud N y 39 m sobre el nivel del mar), y el valle de Toluca (a 19 2 de latitud N y 2,649 m sobre el nivel del mar). Estos dos sitios presentan caracterlsticas bien definidas en cuanto al tipo de suelo, la radiación, el régimen de la temperatura, el fotoperlodo, la cantidad de humedad y los patrones de enfermedades. La metodologla de mejoramiento usada por el CIMMYT (27) se ha analizado en otro trabajo.Tanto en el valle de Toluca como en Ciudad Obregón existen condiciones óptimas de humedad y de aplicación de nutrimentos. Las variedades surgidas de este proyecto de mejoramiento alternado poseen un elevado potencial de rendimiento, adaptabilidad amplia y un buen nivel de estabilidad. Estas variedades en general son insensibles al foto periodo y poseen los genes Rhtl o Rht2 del enanismo, derivados de la variedad japonesa Norin 10. A fines del decenio de 1960 y comienzos del de 1970, se hizo muy evidente que estas variedades estaban adaptadas a medios casi óptimos y, por otra parte, eran aceptadas cada vez más en regiones semiáridas. Entre los ejemplos tlpicos figuran las variedades 8156, Anza y Marcos Juárez INTA y, más tarde en el decenio de 1980, Veery 'S', Pavón 76 y Nacozari 76. Como resultado de la aceptabilidad de las variedades de adaptación amplia en las reglones semiárldas, el criterio del CIMMYT en el mejoramiento para obtener tolerancia a la sequla ha consistido sencillamente en identificar las lineas con rendimiento elevado tanto en medios óptimos como desfavorables. Aún no están claros los mecanismos responsables del excelente rendimiento de estas variedades en condiciones semiáridas; sin embargo, no se puede negar su adaptabilidad en esos medios. Los ensayos para determinar el potencial de rendimiento efectuados en el valle del Yaqul en Sonora, México, indican que el potencial de rendimiento en si puede ser un útil criterio de selección en condiciones de sequla. Un mayor rendimiento en medios áridos puede considerarse un efecto \"residual\" del alto potencial de rendimiento (2).Varios análisis del rendimiento a nivel mundial del material del CIMMYT han confirmado que el germoplasma de adaptación amplia y alto rendimiento generado en condiciones óptimas tiene también un excelente comportamiento en medios semiáridos (18,23,35). Recientemente los clentlficos del CIMMYT (24), usando un esquema de gradientes de riego (riego por aspersión), compararon una gran cantidad de lineas avanzadas de trigos harineros generadas en un medio óptimo o en una combinación de condiciones óptimas y de sequla para determinar su rendimIento en ambos tipos de medios. Los resultados demuestran claramente que las lineas avanzadas generadas en las condiciones óptimas del programa de mejoramiento alternado efectuado en Ciudad Obregón y Toluca, tuvieron un rendimiento mucho mayor que el de las otras lineas, en condiciones tanto óptimas como de sequla.Otra prueba de la tolerancia a la sequla de los trigos semienanos del CIMMYT es su adopción muy difundida (8). A mediados del decenio de 1980, la superficie sembrada con trigos semienanos derIvados del material del CIMYYT era del 91% en las zonas bien Irrigadas, del 45% en las zonas con una precipitación anual de 300-500 mm y del 21% en las reglones con una precIpitación anual inferior a los 300 mm (6). Aun asl, la tasa más baja de adopción en las regiones semiáridas contrasta con la adopción casi nula que exIstla a comienzos del decenIo de 1970.A pesar de que una proporción considerable del germoplasma del CIMMYT produjo un alto rendimiento en medios definidamente distintos (Rgura 2), algunos critlcos consideraron que la metodologla no era adecuada para generar trigos para las regiones semIáridas, que el CIMMYT descuidaba el mejoramiento para zonas marginales y que se podla lograr un mayor progreso modificando la metodologla de mejoramiento para obtener tolerancia a la sequla. En el decenio de 1970, el personal del Programa de Trigo del CIMMYT dedicó mucho tiempo a demostrar que la metodologla usada era suficientemente amplia para ayudar a los agricultores de las zonas marginales. No obstante, muchos crltlcos aún no estaban convencidos.A causa de esas circunstancias, en 1974-1975 la administración del Programa de Trigo del CIMMYT autorizó el mejoramiento y la experimentación para obtener tolerancia a la sequla. La metodologla fltotécnica original Inclula pruebas de todas las generaciones, ya fuera con Irrigación reducida o en condiciones de temporal en México.Para 1981, se dispuso de datos sobre el rendimiento a nivel Internacional de Veery 'S' (Rgura 2) y se hizo evidente que este germoplasma tiene un rendimiento elevado en la mayorla de los medios Incluidos en las pruebas. Gran parte de los 73 medios donde se efectuó el 15 11 Ensayo Internacional de Rendimiento de Trigo Harinero de Primavera (I5WYN) estaba en reglones semláridas. Las variedades anteriores 8156, Anza y Pavón, también hablan mostrado este patrón de adaptación. Teniendo en cuenta esta insólita adaptabilidad y combinación de caracteres, se modificó el programa del CIMMYT de mejoramiento para la tolerancia a la sequla con el fin de Incluir experimentación destinada a generar germoplasma del tipo mostrado en la Figura 2.En sintesis, nuestros conceptos y objetivos al mejorar trigos para medios semiáridos deben incluir metodologias que contribuyan a producir germoplasma con un potencial de rendimiento aceptable en condiciones semláridas, combinado con un potencial de rendimiento elevado en medios óptimos. Este criterio se basa en el hecho de que en la mayoria de las zonas semiáridas existe una provisión variable de agua. El germoplasma descrito en la Figura 2 proporcionará buenos rendimientos en medios carentes de humedad y responderá también a una mayor cantidad de agua e insumos.Desde 1981, este criterio ha orientado el programa de mejoramiento del CIMMYT para obtener tolerancia a la sequia. A continuación se proporcionan los detalles de la metodologia.• Progenitores: Por lo menos uno de los progenitores tiene un elevado potencial de rendimiento y adaptación amplia; el otro progenitor tiene una comprobada adaptación a condiciones semiáridas o se sabe que posee tolerancia a la sequia.• Generación F1: Se cultiva generalmente en condiciones óptimas y se descartan las plantas que muestran un alto grado de sensibilidad a factores bióticos desfavorables y tipo agrónomico deficiente.• Generación F2: Se efectuó la siembra espaciada de plantas Individuales en condiciones óptimas de humedad y nutrimentos. Esta situación permite seleccionar para obtener resistencia a las enfermedades y capacidad de macollamiento. Las plantas se seleccionan y se trillan Individualmente; se descarta la semilla de los tipos que presentan granos de calidad deficiente o arrugados.• Generación F3: Se siembra en melgas la progenie de las plantas Individuales F2 en condiciones de riego reducido. La selección se basa en el comportamiento de las lineas, que revela su competitividad en cuanto al establecimiento rápido del cultivo, el crecimiento, la biomasa, la supervivencia y el llenado adecuado de los granos. Las espigas se cosechan en masa.• Generación F4: Se aplica el mismo procedimiento usado con la F3. Como resultado de la cosecha en masa de la F3, en la F4 se dispone de una gran cantidad de semilla. Se recomienda efectuar ensayos en localidades múltiples Incluyendo medios fuera de México, especialmente en Argentina, Paraguay y el norte de Africa.• Generación F5: La semilla se siembra en masa en un medio óptimo. Se seleccionan espigas individuales de las Uneas que muestran resisten,cla a factores blóticos desfavorables, semienanismo y buen tipo agronómico. Las espigas se trillan por separado.• Generación F6: Se siembra la semilla de cada espiga en un medio óptimo. Se realiza la cosecha en masa de las lineas que muestran buen comportamiento.• Generación F7 en masa: Se evalúan las lineas de observación en condiciones de riego reducido y completo. Las lineas que muestran un comportamiento aceptable en ambas condiciones se retienen para los ensayos del rendimiento.• Ensayos de rendimiento: Se efectúan ensayos de rendimiento con repeticiones, tanto con riego reducido como completo. En el futuro, los ensayos se realizarán con tres niveles de irrigación (óptima, reducida e intermedia). Las Uneas pasan también a la Sección de Agronomia del Programa de Trigo donde se estudia su comportamiento con gradientes de riego (riego por aspersión). Además, se realizan ensayos Internacionales con diversos conjuntos de estas lineas, especialmente en regiones semiáridas.• El SAWSN (Vivero de Selección de Trigo para Reglones Semiárldas): Se incluyen en el SAWSN las lineas avanzadas de mejor comportamiento y se distribuyen a los programas nacionales. Se reúne información sobre la adaptabilidad, el rendimiento, la resistencia a factores bióticos y abióticos desfavorables y el tipo agronómico. Se escogen las mejores lineas como progenitores para los cruzamientos.El esquema anterior tiene el propósito de combinar un elevado potencial de rendimiento y la tolerancia a la sequia en el mismo germoplasma. En teoria, esto será posible siempre que el potencial de rendimiento y la tolerancia a la sequia sean caracteristicas independientes, y no hay razón para pensar que no es as\\. Datos provenientes de otras fuentes (31) demuestran que seria posible producir genotipos que tuvieran un elevado potencial de rendimiento en todos los medios excepto aquellos donde existen limitaciones extremas de la producción.Siempre que se logre un control razonable, es muy conveniente hacer la selección en el campo. Sin embargo, los medios semiáridos naturales para los que se efectúa el mejoramiento para obtener tolerancia a la sequia son, paradójicamente, imperfectos para la labor de selección (2). Un medio con escasa precipitación pluvial (generalmente entre 200 y 500 mm) se caracteriza por las grandes variaciones de la frecuencia y cantidad total de lluvia a través de los años. En esas condiciones, es probable que cada generación esté sometida a un patrón distinto de sequia y tal vez ninguno de esos patrones sea representativo del patrón a largo plazo. Si se realiza el trabajo de mejoramiento a un sitio con muy poca lluvia (por ejemplo, 100 mm), se pueden programar muy bien las condiciones de sequia y optimarlas mediante el empleo de riego complementarlo. Esta opción permite reproducir las condiciones de sequia de una generación a la siguiente. De este modo, aunque el sitio experimental esté fuera de la zona de producción del cultivo, e\"l realidad constituye un laboratorio de campo que permite ejercer un control razonable sobre las c0ndiciones de humedad. En Ciudad Obregón se dispone de esa oportunidad para efectuar el mejoramiento para la tolerancia a la sequia.Quiero hacer hincapié en que, con el fin de lograr la máxima eficiencia en la selección, el diseño experimental en condiciones de sequia debe ser tal que el efecto de los bordos de la parcela sean minimos. Se deben sembrar los viveros de manera que cada linea esté representada por un minlmo de tres hileras, en lugar de las dos tradicionalmente usadas en muchos programas fltotécnlcos. Se observará el comportamiento de la hilera central para evaluar el tipo agronómico y el indice de tolerancia a la sequla y se seleccionarán las lineas más promisorias.Se poelrla lograr un progreso considerable examinando las respuestas de las plantas durante etapas definibles del desarrollo. Se facilitará asi la identificación de la variación genotipica durante esos periodos y la subsiguiente evaluación de su contribución a la productividad de las plantas.Es preciso examinar sistemáticamente caracteristicas importantes como la germinación de la semilla, la emergencia, el crecimiento temprano y el vigor en las poblaciones segregantes, para evaluar su calidad como progenitores. Un coleoptilo largo constituye una caracteristica muy Importante que facilita la emergencia en los medios semiáridos, donde se debe sembrar a mayor profundidad para aprovechar la humedad disponible en el suelo.La evaluación empirica de la biomasa en las poblaciones segregantes (la F3 y la F4 en condiciones de sequia) es un criterio significativo para seleccionar las líneas de alto rendimiento (Cuadro 1). Las lineas que presentan una mayor biomasa son aquellas en las que sobreviven muchos macollos y que tienen una apariencia vigorosa y un gran número de espigas. Las evaluaciones empirlcas (en una escala del 1 al lOen la que este último representa la biomasa más elevada) podrian servir para este fin, ya que las evaluaciones cuantitativas son costosas, toman mucho tiempo y muchas veces es imposible efectuarlas cuando se incluyen miles de lineas.Se ha encontrado que la senescencia (muerte prematura) de las hojas es una caracteristica útil en el mejoramiento para obtener tolerancia a la sequia. También se puede evaluar esta caracteristica en una escala del 1 al 10 (ellO representa la mayor senescencia). Se ha observado una variación genotipica en relación con esta caracteristica, especialmente en las lIneas con la translocación lB/IR que muestran una mayor duración de la superficie follar. Es preciso tener cuidado de no confundir los efectos de la madurez tardla con la senescencia de las hojas.El peso hectolitrico y el peso de 1,000 granos son otras caracteristicas cuantificables y mensurables que pueden constituir útiles criterios para la selección en el mejoramiento para medios semiáridos.El llenado adecuado y el arrugamiento de Jos granos se pueden observar fácilmente y, usando métodos empiricos, es posible clasificar un gran número de poblaciones. Siempre que sea posible, se debe medir el peso hectolitrico en mezclas de semilla de la F4 y la FS.Los indices de estabilidad del rendimiento son mediciones importantes de las respuestas de los genotipos a la sequla (17). Se pueden calcular esos indices usando la regresión lineal. El método más sencillo es la regresión de los rendimientos medios de las entradas individuales sobre la media de todas las entradas (como en la Figura 2). El parámetro de la pendiente (es decir, el indice de estabilidad) permite entonces una comparación relativa entre las entradas (12). Un análisis de ese tipo puede ser útil al definir la tolerancia a la sequia en términos del rendimiento, siempre que el componente principal de la variación del indice ambiental usado en esos análisis sea atribuible a la sequia. El potencial de rendimiento está altamente relacionado con la pendiente en el análisis de regresión; en consecuencia, el problema de distinguir los efectos de la tolerancia a la sequIa de los del potencial de rendimiento en el comportamiento de un genotipo en condiciones de sequIa constituye una dificultad considerable. Para superarla, se puede sustituir el rendimiento absoluto por el rendimiento relativo, o bien incluir en el análisis un indice calculado de la susceptibilidad (10). De este modo se facilita la interpretación del análisis de regresión, en particular cuando la estabilidad del rendimiento es el criterio fundamental de selección (17). Los viveros internacionales del CIMMYT proporcionan una gran cantidad de datos de múltiples localidades provenientes de muchos medios semiáridos y el análisis de estos datos es muy útil en la Identificación de genotipos para usarlos como progenitores. No obstante, existe cierta duda sobre la utilización de esos datos reunidos en medios de distintos paises para el análisis de regresión (2).La cantidad de variabilidad genética (en sentido estricto, la variación genética aditiva), llamada heredabilidad, que existe en relación con la variabilidad ambiental, es un elemento fundamental para diseñar un programa fitogenético eficaz. Los parámetros de un programa de mejoramiento -como el tamaño de la población, la intensidad de la selección, la unidad de selección (plantas o familias) y los criterios de medición-deben ser considerados en relación con los recursos económicos disponibles.El probable avance genético en el mejoramiento para obtener tolerancia a la sequla dependerá de las fuentes disponibles de vari~bilidad en cuanto a esta caracteristlca. En general, se ha encontrado que las variedades criollas son tolerantes a la sequla; sin embargo, su empleo en los programas de mejoramiento reducirla considerablemente el potencial genético de rendimiento de la población. El premejoramiento es una solución para este problema siempre que se haya identificado y cuantificado una respuesta especifica de tolerancia a la sequia en la variedad criolla. No debe ser dificil mejorar algunas caracteristicas, como altura o floración adecuada, de una variedad criolla; no obstante, este método no ofrece una solución razonable cuando hay que combinar el potencial de rendimiento y la tolerancia a la sequIa.En los últimos 19 años, el CIMMYr ha efectuado sistemáticamente cruzamientos entre los diversos complejos de germoplasma de trigos de invierno y de primavera. Hay pruebas de que los derivados de los cruzamientos de primavera x invierno y las lineas avanzadas han presentado una mayor tolerancia a la sequia, como lo indica el alto grado de aceptación de ese germoplasma en las regiones semiáridas. En general se piensa que aún es grande la variabllldad y que es preciso usarla como una fuente primaria de recursos genéticos para obtener esa caracteristica. Los productos de los cruzamientos amplios derivados de géneros afines y parientes lejanos del trigo ofrecen una gran oportunidad para enriquecer esa variabl1ldad. Algunas metodologias de la biotecnologia, como el cultivo de tejidos, posiblemente permitan adquirir esos genes y combinarlos con los de variedades estables y muy productivas.As we continue to explore the possibility 01 increasing agricultural productivity on currently cultivated land, we are also looking at adapting marginal land areas to agrieulture through improved genetic adaptation 01 plants to environmental extremes. Among the envíronmental variables afleeting plant growth and development, drought stress is one 01 the most important. The term \"drought toleranee\" is related to a moisture stress environment and means the ability 01 one genotype to be more produetive with a given amount 01 soil moisture than another genotype. Study 01 drought toleranee requires an objectlve delínltlon 01 drought, but to date no uníversally acceptable one has been developed. Four major drought patterns /or wheat are:• Medíterranean: most raínlall ín winter be/ore anthesís, wíth stress ínereaslng in severlty throughout graln II/Iing. • Southern Cone o/ South Ameríca: small graln cereals sown In the wlnter experlence a moderately dry period be/ore anthesis and /111 graln durlng a perlod o/ lncreasing rain/a11.• Indían Subcontínent: small grain eereals utíllze reserve sol1 moísture a/ter Monsoon and survive on stored moisture and oecasíonal raíns and supplemental írrlgatíon. • Redueed Irrígation: cereals survive on límíted irrígatíons due to reduced amount o/ water supply in dams.CIMMYf has systematically crossed the diverse gene pools o/ spríng and wínter habít wheats lor the last 19 years. There is c1rcumstantíal evidence that the derívatíves o/ spríng x wínter crosses and advanced línes have gíven enhaneed drought tolerance as índícated by the hígh degree o/ acceptance 01 this germplasm ín semiarid envíronments. It ís generally belleved that the varíabilíty ís stilllarge, and should be used as a prímary source o/ genetlc resource /or thís character. Wíde cross products deríved Irom related genera and dístant relatíves o/ wheat ofler a great opportuníty to enrích thís varíabílíty. Some bíotechnology methodologies, such as tíssue culture, may ofler opportunítíes to acquíre these genes and combíne them wíth híghly productíve, stable varíetíes. Cuadro 1. Coeficiente de relación entre rendimiento de grano, componentes de rendimiento, índice de cosecha (IC), biomasa y algunas características agronómicas obtenidas en condiciones de riego reducido (2) Y 86-87.  Ambientes (l/ha) Figura 2.Llnea de regresión del rendimiento de Veery 'S' y los rendimientos medios de 73 localidades en el 1SS' ISWYN.Direccion de investigación Asunción, ParaguayLas condiciones ecológicas prevalentes en Paraguay han sido tradicionalmente consideradas como marginales para el cultivo del trigo. Entre las principales componentes del estrés ablótlco se destaca la presencia frecuente de períodos de sequía, generalmente asociada con temperaturas elevadas, en cualquier etapa del cultivo, aunque las probabilidades de ocurrencia son mayores a mitad del ciclo. Los períodos de déficit hfdrico se registran, a pesar de la elevada pluviometría, como consecuencia de la distribución irregular de precipitaciones y las características edáflcas de las zonas productoras del cereal. La topografía ondulada y la degradación del suelo asociada a la labranza convencional determinan altos niveles de pérdida de agua por escurrimiento. El programa de mejoramiento genético no incluye el desarrollo específico de germoplasma resistente o tolerante a sequía, aunque el material expuesto a frecuentes períodos de déficit de humedad. En el último quinquenio, se instala un vivero de [(neas avanzadas en la zona semiárida del Chaco, habiéndose identificado material de mejor adaptación y tolerancia a sequía. En el programa de mejoramiento multllocal conducido en asociación con el CIMMYf, una generación es sembrada bajo regadío en Mexlco y otra en Paraguay bajo temporal, en búsqueda de genotipos mejorados de alto rendimiento y tolerancia a daños causados por sequía a mitad de ciclo.La producción nacional de trigo del Paraguay ha experimentado un sostenido aumento, especialmente en los últimos años, habiéndose sobrepasado la meta del autoabasteclmlento del cereal, estimado en alrededor de 325.000 Tm/año en 1988. Entre los principales factores que permitieron el progreso registrado se destaca el rol de la experimentación y mejoramiento genético en la Identificación y difusión de mejores materiales. En efecto, el trabajo de selección de germoplasma más adaptado a las condiciones ambientales, blótlcas y ablóticas, prevalentes en el pals se Intensificó en las décadas del 70 y 80. La totalidad del trigo es producida en condiciones de temporal o secano. En ese contexto, uno de los principales factores ablóticos para la selección de germoplasma es la presencia frecuente de periodos variables de sequla, generalmente asociada con calor, en cualquiera de las etapas del ciclo vegetativo y/o reproductivo. Aunque el programa no conduce un proyecto especifico de mejoramiento por resistencia a sequia, es Indudable que este factor ha constituido una componente Impllclta del screenlng realizado en la mayoria de los años.El Paraguay posee un clima tropical a subtroplcal; continental debido a su medlterraneldad. El rio Paraguay divide al pais en dos reglones muy diferentes en suelo y clima, la Región Occidental o Chaco con un clima semlárldo a subhúmedo megatermal, y la Región Oriental húmeda mesoterma1. El trigo es producido casi totalmente en esta última, especialmente en la frontera este y sureste.Si bien no existe una marcada diferencia estacional se pueden distinguir las cuatro estaciones, especialmente en el sur de la Reglón Oriental (Itapúa). El pals posee una variabilidad climática geográfica más pronunciada de lo que se esperarla al considerar su territorio relativamente pequeflo (406.752 km 2 ). Dicha varlabllldad tiene como principal causa a la distribución Irregular de precipitaciones, más que a la variación de temperatura, dada la escasa diferencia en latitud (19-27 grados S) y altitud (80-500 m.s.n.m.). .La temperatura media anual varia desde 21C grados en el extremo sureste (ltapúa), donde se produce alrededor de la mitad del trigo, hasta 250C grados en el centro norte del Chaco Paraguayo (Agura 1). La Información correspondiente a los valores promedios por mes y reglón se presentan en las Cuadros 1 a14.En relación a la variación estacional de la temperatura, se observa que tanto la máxima media como la mlnlma media registran una diferencia de aproximadamente 110C grados entre el Invierno y el verano. En cuanto a la variación geográfica, la máxima media varia en un rango desde 320C (Caacupé) hasta 30.60C (Cap. Miranda), mientras que la mInima media fluctúa entre 11.2 y 9.70C para las mismas localidades, respectivamente. La temperatura máxima absoluta registra desde 390C en Canindeyú y Alto Paraná norte hasta 440C en la frontera noroeste, con Bolivia (Figura 2). La temperatura mInlma absoluta alcanzó valores inferiores a -60C en el extremo sureste (Itapúa).Sin embargo, a pesar de que estos valores promedios describen la variación estacional y regional de las temperaturas, es la variación registrada durante el ciclo de trigo la que es comparativamente más pronunciada, y caracteriza adecuadamente el estrés sometido al cultivo. Es frecuente la alternancia de periodos breves de altas y bajas temperaturas durante todo el ciclo del cultivo, pudiendo registrarse temperaturas extremas Inferiores a OoC y superiores a 300C en pocos dlas. Se registra asimismo una elevada diferencia nocturna/diurna de 100C.La mayor parte de las precipitaciones del pals son de tipo con':ectivo producidos por tormentas aisladas o por lineas de turbonada más frecuentes desde la primavera hasta el otoño. La cantidad total y distribución de precipitaciones también presenta gran variabilidad estacional y geográfica.La precipitación anual media en milimetros se presenta en la Agura 3. AsI, la cuenca del rio Paraná registra los valores máximos (1700 mm), decreciendo progresivamente en dirección noroeste hasta la frontera con Bolivia (400 mm).La variación geográfica mencionada se explica en parte por la distribución estacional de las lluvias. En efecto, el nivel de precipitaciones registrado en la época Invernal es el principal factor de variación. Este presenta un rango desde la ausencia de déficit de humedad en Itapúa, hasta la presencia de un periodo seco Ounio a setiembre), inclusive en el extremo noroeste del pals.Considerando que en la actualidad alrededor del 90% de la producción nacional de trigo se concentra en los Departamentos de Itapúa, Alto Paraná, Canlndeyú, se presentan las Aguras 4 y 5 con la distribución mensual de lluvias del CRIA, Capitán Miranda (Itapúa), Ciudad del Este (AltoAntecedentes El trabajo de mejoramiento genético de trigo es conducido por la Dirección de Investigación y Extensión Agropecuaria y Forestal (DlEAF), en los dos centros experimentales más antiguos del pais, el Instituto Agronómico Nacional (IAN) y el Centro Regional de Investigación Agrlcola (CRIA), realizados en Caacupé y Capitán Miranda, respectivamente.El programa estuvo basado desde sus inicios, en la introducción de material genético fijado foráneo. La casi inexistencia de producción de trigo hasta los años 50 motivaron la introducción de materiales de muy diversa procedencia para su evaluación local. Los principales viveros introducidos provinieron del USDA, EMBRAPA, FECOTRIGO, OCEPAR, CIMMYT y otros. A partir del año 1972 se inicia un programa local de cruzamientos de selecciónes del mejor material introducido en años anteriores, algunos de los cuales fueron multiplicados como variedades comerciales.Posteriormente se inició la introducción de poblaciones de diversos programas del exterior, especialmente del CIMMYT.A partir del año 1985 se inició un programa de selección multilocal de generaciones segregantes (Shuttle breeding) en cooperación con el CIMMYT con el objetivo de desarrollar germoplasma mejor adaptado a las condiciones ambientales, bióticas y abióticas, prevalentes en Paraguay y regiones similares.precocidad. Se espera disponer de poblaciones para ser distribuidas a los paises participantes a partir de 1990.El mejor material seleccionado localmente ha ingresado a un vivero de sequia regional el cual ha sido al INTA de Marcos Juarez (Argentina), CJAT de Santa Cruz (Bolivia), OCEPAR-Palotina, Paraná (Brasil), además del JAN Y Filadelfia, Chaco Paraguayo.Las mejores lineas y variedades en cuanto a su comportamiento en condiciones de sequia incluyen a: JAN 5, Cordillera 3, Seri 82, Galvez 87, Chilero'S', Myna/Vul y Vee/Myna. En base a resultados de los últimos años, se piensa expandir este trabajo con mejores lineas de otros paises incluidos en el vivero.Las cruzas simples son realizadas en el JAN durante el ciclo del cultivo. La generación Fl resultante es enviada al CJANO/CIMMYT (México) para ser seleccionada por tipo agronómico y reacción a royas durante el verano del Cono Sur. El programa multilocal (\"Shuttle Breeding\") implica la siembra de dos generaciones por año, correspondiendo la temporada estival a México, en las generaciones más tempranas (F3, F5), y a Chile en las finales (F5, F7). Las generaciones pares son sembradas en condiciones de temporal en el JAN. Caacupé. En el presente esquema es seleccionado alternativamente bajo condiciones óptimas (Mexico, Chile, JAN), con el objetivo de seleccionar material de alto rendimiento, amplia adaptación y mayor tolerancia al estrés ablótico.En cuanto al futuro desarrollo del programa, se deberla considerar el estudio del uso de nuevas metodologlas e instrumentos para la selección más efectiva e inequIvoca de material genético superior en cuanto al comportamiento frente al estrés hldrlco, de modo a permitir un avance genético más acelerado y eficiente.Traditionally, the ecological conditions prevalent in Paraguay have been considered marginal for wheat production. Among the principal components of abiotic stresses, the presence of frequent drought associated with high temperatures during the crop cycle is a common occurrence. In spite of high annual rainfall, drought during winter months exists due to the irregular rainfall distribution in the wheat growing regions. The rolllng topography and soil degradation associated with conventional tillage practices are responsible for high levels of water runoff. The breeding program does not include specific germplasm for reslstance or tolerance to drought, although material is exposed to frequent drought stress. During the last 5 years, a nursery composed of advanced lines has been seeded in the semi-arid region of Chaco so that material with better adaptation and tolerance to drought can be selected. In the multi-Iocation breeding program conducted jointly with CIMMYf, one generation is seeded under irrigated conditions in Mexico and the next under dryland conditions in Paraguay. This permits the identification of better genotypes for high yield and tolerance to drought in the middle of the crop cycle.   LLUVIA mm.  ------------------, Areas of low rainfall associated with low temperature Approximately 7.3 million hectares, or 43% of the total wheat grown in WANA, is planted in these environments. This production zone includes the continental areas of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey and Syria. It is characterized by being highly variable and unpredictable in terms of moisture availability and temperature regimes.In these areas bread wheat is grown and harvested under significant temperature fluctuations. Typically, bread wheat is sown In the fall where early growth and development occur during the coolest months and grain ripening occurs during the warmest months. Extreme cold and heat are common abiotic stresses encountered during the crop season and frequently a complex Interaction between them and moisture deficits develops. Biotic stresses such as common bunt, loose smut, Hessian fly, sawfly and sunni bug are also important constraints to wheat production. Crop management is frequently poor and yields are low (less than 1 t/ha).Areas of moderate rainfall with moderate to high temperatures Approximately 5.7 million hectares, representing 34% of the total bread wheat grown in the region is planted In this production zone. These areas are represented by the costal-Mediterranean environments of the region as found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey and Syria. Beside foliar diseases, other seed-born diseases such as common bunt and loose smut, affect yield, and stability of yield. Insect pests such as Hessian fly, sawfly and aphids Infest the crop, and with high temperatures, jointly affect wheat near the end of the season. In these areas, the lack of good agronomic practices such as weed control, seed density, seed treatment, fertilizer use and seeding time are the main management factors reducing yield. Grain yields are between 1 and 2 t/ha.Irrigation covers 3.9 million hectares, or approximately 23% ()f the total wheat In the region.Countries possessing this type of environment include Egypt, Sudan, Yemen PDR, Yemen AR, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and a few other countries in the region. Foliar diseases, especially yellow rust and septoria are by far the most important biotic constraints-in these areas. Insect pests such as aphids can reduce yields by up to 20 percent and there are no tolerant varieties yet available. Heat stress, both at the early stages of plant growth and at the reproductive stage, Is the most Important abiotic factor redUcing grain yield. Although good, high yielding bread wheat varieties have been developed and released In these areas, Improved agronomic practices have not been widely adopted. This serious problem can be solved only by a sustained effort by national governments within the region to improve wheat production practices and to breed high yielding, disease and insect-resistant varieties.In order to more precisely characterize these environments, a multivariate analysis of environmental main effects from the Regional Bread Wheat Yield Trial (RWYT) 1983-84 and 1984-85 results was performed using the stepwise discriminant procedure of the BMDP statistical software package. The most commonly reported variables, also being plant response indicators for temperature, moisture, and agronomic factors, were chosen. They were: grain yield (kg/ha), days to heading, days to maturity, and plant height. Complete results from 53 sites were available, and were classified as semi-arid (less than 400 mm rainfall) or adequate moisture (more than 400 mm rainfall) prior to the analysis. From Table 2 it is evident that the semi-arid sites are characterized, on average, by longer maturity duration, shorter plant height, and possibly lower grain yield when compared to the adequate moisture sites. The approximate F-test statistic, using Wilk's Lambda criterion for a simultaneous multivariate test of the four variables was 27.74, and highly significant (P-O.OO, 1 and 51 d£). All differences for the variables were significant, except for yield with a nonsignificant difference of 563 kg/ha.The discriminant analysis resulted in discriminant functions using only days to maturity and plant height. The other variables were excluded due to low F-ratio tolerance. A canonical variable was then estimated, and its histogram for the semi-arid and adequate moisture sites appears in Rgure 1.The canonical group means for semi-arid and adequate moisture sites were 0.806 and -1.228, respectively. From Figure 1, it is apparent that (1) a semi-arid vs. adequate moisture classification Is statistically possible given the multivariate data from the RWYT test sites (2) adequate moisture sites are more similar, whereas semi-arid sites are more variable and dissimilar (3) some semi-arid sites behave more like adequate moisture sites. The greater standard deviation for days to maturity and plant height from the semi-arid sites (Table 2), and larger spread on the canonical axis (Agure 1), are both a reflection of the greater variability In temperature and moisture avallablhty among the semi-arid vs. and adequate moisture sites. Variability In plant height Is greatly affected by variability in rainfall and temperature, and variability in maturity duration is greatly affected by fluctuations in winter temperatures.Examples of different, yet successful, breeding programs can be found In the literature to support either one of the two following plant breeding philosophies: 1) those aiming to develop genotypes for relatively specific adaptation (1,2,3,6,7,12) and 2) those aiming to develop genotypes with wide adaptation across different environments (8,10,11,13).The long-term objectives of the CIMMYr/ICARDA bread wheat Improvement program continues to be the development of germplasm that has the following attributes:1) Increased and stable yield under varied amount and distribution of rainfall.2) Stress tolerance: drought, cold, heat, and salt.3) Resistance to diseases: the three rusts, septoria, bunt, etc. 4) Resistance to insect pests: sawfly, Hessian fly, Suni bug, aphids, etc. 5) Acceptable nutritional and industrial grain quality.6) The development of improved agronomic practices with national programs in the region. 7) Training.High yield and yield stability over years in the rainfed environments, Important characteristics needed In the region, are derived through application of the following strategies:1) Continuous evaluation of potential parents.2) Targeted crosses.3) Multilocation selection and testing.. 4) Targeted distribution of improved germplasm to national programs In the region.These strategies are visualized in Rgure 2 where the overall breeding system of the CIMMYr/ICARDA bread wheat improvement program is presented. The philosophy behind this approach reflects the program's interest in Improving yield stability by developing cultivars that perform well across diverse environments. Of course, within this breeding context, the program emphasizes site-specific breeding activities. The orientation of these special efforts, however, Is always towards overcoming one or more limiting environmental factors by Incorporating Into widely adapted germplasm the specific genetic traits needed to improve performance in certain locations, i.e. drought tolerance, disease resistance, insect pest tolerance, etc.National crop improvement programs in the region, which grow and evaluate CIMMYr/ICARDA international nurseries, provide vital information on germplasm performance. Through this system, the CIMMYr/ICARDA program identifies promising material carrying desirable genes for specific stresses found in the rainfed areas of the region. Similarly, genetic material, is also received from national programs. This material received in the form of collections, includes local varieties and land races which carry desirable genes for resistance to different stresses. After evaluation, outstanding lines are included in the crossing block for parental usage and recycling. Since 1980, an average of approximately 21% of incoming materials has been evaluated and used by this program. This germplasm provides additional genetic variability needed in the program to meet the demands of the harsh environments found in West Asia and North Africa.Targeted crosses Targeted F1's, simple and top crosses, are designed to recombine high yield and stability with important traits needed in the region. Evaluation of international screening nurseries, international yield trials and F2 nurseries are made in approximately 75 locations in W. Asia and N. Africa. Data from these nurseries help gUide future crosses. Every year, approximately 1000 crosses are made and special emphasis is placed in the incorporation of specific traits such as yellow rust, bunt and septoria resistance as well as tolerance to insect pests such as sawfly, Hessian fly and aphids. Particular attention is placed in the combination of drought and cold tolerance with high yield under rainfed conditions.Multilocation selection and testing Multilocation testing, the program's most important strategy for selection and Identification of material tolerant to different stresses, is done at two different levels: 1) International multilocatlon testing, In which data from 50 to 75 locations in the region is obtained through the CIMMYT/lCARDA international nurseries system and 2) regional multilocation testing, consisting of five different environments in Syria and Lebanon. The latter constitutes the hub of the screening program in which segregating populations and advanced lines are selected and tested under different moisture, and temperature conditions.These five environments, with the average range of moisture, temperature and grain yield, are presented in Figure 3. Breda and terbol represent the extremes in environmental conditions In terms of moisture availability and soil fertility, while the three simulated environments at Tel Hadya help to screen germplasm under different moisture and temperature regimes. Figure 4 represents these simulated environments at Tel Hadya. By shifting planting dates of segregating population and advanced lines, the germplasm is exposed to low or high temperatures during critical stages of plant development.The combination of early planting supplementary irrigation and high fertility is done to Induce better selection for frost tolerance, enhanced disease development and more efficient selection for earliness. The late planting environment under low rainfall conditions helps to identify germplasm with heat tolerance and earliness, tolerance to premature desiccation and better translocation of stem assimilates to grain.By selecting and testing germplasm under these gradients of stresses we are assuming the following:a) The environment Tel Hadya normal planting rainfed (TH-NP-RF) alone Is not correlated with all the diverse environments of West Asia and North Africa.b) The environments TH-EP-SIR and Breda-RF are more representative of the low rainfall, cool winter environments of the region.c) The environment TH-LP-RF and Terbol-IRR are more representative of the moderate rainfall and high to moderate temperature areas in the region.Preliminary research, using multivariate cluster analysis and other procedures used to characterize the environments in W. Asia and N. Africa, tend to indicate the validity of these assumptions.Further research and analysis is under way to establish the genetic, and other correlations between these environments. Such results will also be utilized to more objectively divide the target region Into groups of relatively similar environments and subsequently develop more specific nurseries.However, the value of selecting in contrasting environments, when the targeted environments are so diverse in terms of rainfall and temperature. can be seen in Table 3. Using four years of Regional Wheat Yield Trial data, the bread wheat germplasm has been well adapted to the target region.Use of modified bulk In addition to pedigree--The Program places special emphasis on multilocation testing of early segregating material. This is done by using a Modified Bulk method (MB) of selection in the F2 generation. It consists of performing individual plant selection In each of the most desirable F2 crosses and bulking the selected plants within each cross. The F3 Bulk families, formed using this procedure, are evaluated for disease resistance and overall agronomic performance in five \"hot spot\" locations in the region and beyond. These environments represent different soil conditions, diseases, as well as moisture and temperature stresses. The assumption in this breeding approach is that if a population performs well at many sites, it must comprise a higher frequency of desirable genotypes. The idea is to discard, early in the segregating phase, undesirable families/plants. F3 families, performing well across locations are selected in Bulk. Segregating populations F4 to Fa are handled using the Bulk and Pedigree methods.This strategy of using a Modified Bulk method of selection In F2 crosses has been used by the program for the last six years. Results of the comparison of this method with the pedigree method of selection indicate that the Modified Bulk is an efficient and effective selection method to enhance disease resistance and stability in rainfed wheat (9). This method of selection has also been adopted by national programs in the region such as Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, and Syria.Targeted distribution of improved gennplasm to national programs in the region Table 4 summarizes the breeding methodology used to select and identify genetic material suitable to the variable environments of W. Asia and N. Africa. Promising advanced lines identified using this procedure are further distributed to national programs In the region through the CIMMYT/lCARDA international nursery system. The distribution of these nurseries Is carefully planned and targeted to those areas for which the final product is intended.Figure 5 shows the trend in stability of bread wheat germplasm in 21 countries in W. Asia and N. Africa. The locations in which this germplasm was grown represent a wide range of environments in terms of moisture, temperature and other biotic stresses. From nine years of Regional Wheat Yield Trail data, the number of lines selected by national programs, based on the grain yield statistical superiority of the line over the national check, has increased. It Is interesting to note that the number of locations over years has remai!1ed almost constant and that the yield gap between the best improved line and the national check has widened to approximately 1 t/ha dUring the last four years.Bread wheat is an important crop in West Asia and North Africa where approximately 7 to a million hectares are grown under less than 400 mm rainfall.The rainfed-wheat growing environments of WANA are characterized by being highly variable and unpredictable in terms of rainfall (amount and distribution), temperature, and biotic stresses.The current breeding strategy of the CIMMYT/lCARDA bread wheat improvement program is based on the principle that germplasm for specific stresses is difficult to Identify unless the material under selection is exposed to those stresses.Multilocation selection/testing and targeting of germplasm have been valuable breeding strategies to increase the adaptation and stability of bread wheat germplasm in WANA region.  1983-1984 and 1984-1985. •• Significant difference between rainfed and adequate moisture sites (P< .01).  (1985)(1986)(1987)(1988).  Lines 175Water stress may be conveniently defined as the soil water level at which crop evapotranspiration falls below its maximum value. Two major processes are involved, water supply and demand. The first is essentially controlled by soil physical properties and soil root interactions while the second is mainly a function of net radiation at the crop surface and vapor pressure deficit of the atmosphere surrounding the crop.Water deficit is a common phenomenon in plants and crops. It is accentuated when drought or lack of sufficient water in the rizosphere occurs and when the evaporative demand of the atmosphere is high. Drought may occur in any type of agriculture, including irrigated and rainfed and may have special characteristics associated to the prevalent farming system and environment.The occurrence of drought induced plant water stress in irrigated agriculture can be controlled through proper irrigation schemes and farm irrigation practices. It is common, however, that water distribution systems may not cope with water needs during peak periods of demand imposed by the cropping systems. The result is water shortage at the farm level and hence drought.A more difficult drought problem occurs in rainfed agriculture. This is due to the largely unpredictable nature of weather, particularly rainfall, within most climatic environments. Figure 1 summarizes rainfall patterns during four seasons in Northern Syria.Crop evapotranspiration and more precisely crop transpiration are linearly and positively related to yield in C3 and C4 plants. Water stress inevitably decreases yield. This fact of nature has prompted agronomists, breeders, physiologist and physlcal scientists to study the nature of drought, the effects of water stress on plant growth, development and yield, management practices that would alleviate drought and the search for \"drought resistant\" genotypes. The common aim is to minimize the effects of drought on yield in cropping systems, and at the extreme, avoid crop failures.Three major points need to be emphaSized: a) drought is a complex problem, b) several disciplines are dealing with it, and c) the problem should be looked at with a system perspective. Improving the drought resistance of genotypes is one way to contribute to alleviate drought effects, I.e. yield losses due to sub-optimal water supply.It Is important to distinguish the nature of drought in rainfed agriculture because it bears directly on the strategy adopted to cope with it. Two broad situations can be recognized (Richards, 1982): a) when a crop grows under current rainfall, I.e. the soil profile undergoes recharge and discharge of water dUring the growing season; and b) when the crop grows essentially on soll moisture stored prior to sowing. The first case is typical, but not exclusive, of autumn sown cereals in Mediterranean environments. The second case is common to cereals grown after the major rainfall period in monsoon areas or in areas with summer rainfall. In both cases year to year variability of rainfall is high and so is the risk of drought. In general the risk increases as seasonal rainfall decreases (Dennett et al. 1984;Virmani, 1982;Watts and EI Mourid, 1988). The critical differences between these two extreme cases is that in case a, rainfall use efficient has to be maximized at a moment in which rainfall Is occurring, while in case b, a strategy should be adopted that would allow finishing the crop cycle with an already existing and relatively fixed (and known) amount of water in the soil profile.The stressful environments are often characterized by the occurrence of more than one physical stress at the same time or through the growing cycle. This complicates improvement either by breeding or crop management. In Mediterranean environments drought spells dUring winter may be associated to low temperatures (many times freeZing temperatures) and sub-optimal radiation levels, while terminal drought is generally associated to above optimal temperatures and excess radiation (depending on latitude). Where irrigation is practiced drought and salinity are stresses commonly associated. The soil may impose additional constraints, such as high or low pH, indUcing phosphorus and micronutrient deficiencies or toxicities (e.g. manganese and aluminum toxicity at low pH).Breeders are familiar with this simultaneous occurrence of stresses and have developed methods to test genotypes across sites and years, exposing the breeding material to various stresses. Agronomists recognize that management practices have a high degree of specificity according to locations. This integrative view, however, breaks down when the effects of stresses are considered at the physiological or biochemical level.It is tempting while working at different levels of integration in plant hierarchy to extrapolate to higher or lower levels. The number of interactions involved. however, have shown that these extrapolations and inferences may not produce expected practical results for breeding purposes (Passioura, 1981). This is an important aspect to keep in mind when examining ways for improving yield under drought, particularly when plant and crop physiology are called to playa part in the improvement process.Plant growth and yield under drought have been the subject of numerous research efforts. Morphological, physiological and anatomical characteristics have been identified which enable plants to grow and survive in doughty environments (Srivastava, Porceddu, Acevedo and Varma, 1987;Turner and Kramer, 1980;Schultze, 1988;Ludlow and Muchow, 1988;Taylor, Jordan and Sinclair, 1983). Usually a complex of attributes are present in cereal species that grow and yield under severe drought. Table 1 from Acevedo and Ceccarelli (1989)   1 what confers adaptation to stress environments and better drought resistance to the 2-row landraces as compared to the improved 2-row genotypes.In low rainfall Mediterranean environments the crops grow essentially under current rainfall. With appropriate management the best yielding entries attain yields under stress, as expected, much lower than in higher input, less stressed environments. They usually show high crop ground cover during late autumn and winter, when water availability and crop water use efficiency is at a maximum (Cooper et al. 1987;Acevedo and Ceccarelli, 1989;Acevedo et al. 1989). Early flowering and fast grain filling period increase yield significantly. The attributes of Table 1 also illcrease the stability of production (decrease of crop failure in time). Other traits not Included In Table 1 may be of Importance to cope with it;ltermittent drought or to temporarily alleviate Its effects. These may include osmoregulation (Morgan, Hare and Fletcher, 1986;Blum, 1989), accumulation of proline and glycine-betaine (Grummet, Albretchsen and Hanson, 1987), glaucousness (Richards, 1983) and others.The traits conferring adaptation to dry environments are under genetic control but other than growing cycle they appear, individually, to have relatively small effects in improving productivity, drought resistance and yield (Fischer andWood, 1979, Acevedo et ai, 1989). It appears that no singular drought-adaptive trait is predictive of plant response to stress and that multiple physiological selection criteria are reqUired (Blum, 1979;Nass andSterling, 1981, Acevedo andCeccarelli, 1989).Drought resistance is usually equated to yield under stress. There are, however, physiological mechanisms and agronomical practices that may result In a higher yield or stability of yield under stress without being necessarily associated to a true resistance to water stress of a genotype. Tables 2 and 3 show the effect of row spacing and planting date on the number of fertile spikes and yield across three varieties of durum wheat of almost identical phenology grown in dry environments. It is clear that these simple management practices may have an important effect on durum wheat yield grown under severe stress. Fertilizer use, particularly phosphorous may also be extremely important (Cooper et aI, 1987).Yield under stress is dependent, among other factors, on yield without stress (yield potential) and phenology of a genotype (Table 4). A genotype with a high yield potential will decrease its yield if submitted to water stress but it may still yield more than a genotype with a lower yield potential (e.g. Osmanzai et al. 1987), Rgure 2. Semidwarf wheat genotypes produce more grain due to increased earliness (photoperiod insensitivity and low vernalization reqUirement) and higher harvest index when compared to tall wheats (Laing and Fischer, 1977). This may not necessarily imply that semidwarfs tolerate intensive (yields below ca. It/ha) water stress better (Richards, 1982). Conversely, a genotype with a relatively long growing cycle may have drought tolerance traits but yield very poorly in a stressed short season environment.Yield potential and phenology are major contributors to yield under stress. Levitt (1972) distingUished between drought escape, dehydration avoidance and dehydration tolerance as included in the concept of drought resistance. Only the last two qualify in my view as true resistance physiological mechanisms. It is obvious that the best way of avoiding the effects of stress is to prevent the stress itself (escape).From the previous paragraphs it is clear that yield under stress may not be the best definition of drought resistance for the purpose of improving genotypic stress resistance. The contribution made by phenology and yield potential need to be accounted for (Fischer and Wood, 1979;Bidinger et al. 1987aBidinger et al. , 1987b;;Acevedo and Ceccarelli, 1989). Phenology implies sensitivity to temperature, vernalization and photoperiod.Ideally, since water stress is a phenomenon experienced by the plants at various stages of growth, a plant index of stress should be used. The plant water relations literature is abundant in this topic (e.g. Turner and Kramer, 1980;Taylor, Jordan and Sinclair, 1983). Indices considering the fraction of maximum evapotranspiration which is realized, or plant water parameters such as leaf water potential, or relative water content, together with drought susceptibility at various stages of the growth cycle have been proposed. The accumulation of intermediary metabolites such us proline, glycine-betaine and most recently malonyl-aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid (MACC), as well as indices derived from them (e.g. Pearson et al. .1987) have been studied with the aim of tracing or quantifying water stress. It is unfortunate that none of the indices fulfills the basic requirement of being \"integrative\" through the growing cycle. They can be integrated if continuous measurements are done but this is usually impractical and many times impossible.The most integrative parameter of plant stresses, (they usually occur in combination in a growing cycle) is biomass production. Roots are difficult to measure, therefore assessments of biomass production are generally limited to above ground biomass, and in the case of wheat mostly to grain production. It would seem therefore practical to agronomically define stress resistance (avoidance plus tolerance) in terms of grain yield, after accounting for the effects of yield potential and phenology. A convenient term as indicator of phenology is the number of days from emergence to fifty percent heading (spikes fully emerged from the boot). In a linear regression model, stress resistance would be eqUivalent to residual yield under stress after accounting for experimental error (Bidinger et al. 1987(Bidinger et al. a, 1987b)). The value may be positive or negative and indicates the relative performance of a genotype with respect to the nursery under evaluation after the yield potential and days to heading effects (known to affect yield under stress) have been removed. This definition of stress resistance would have the advantage of being free of two major contributors to the genotype X environment interaction on yield, and at the same time is integrative (through the growing cycle) of various environmental stresses. If drought is the prevalent stress under consideration, the index may be considered to be a drought response index. Morphological and physiological parameters could be assessed by the strength of the correlation with the index. Other yield derived Indexes have been proposed and widely used, such as the drought susceptibility Index (S) of Ascher and Maureer (1978) and the intercept of the joint regression analysis of genotype yield on site mean yield (e.g. Rnlay and Wilkinson, 1963;Blum 1983Blum , 1988)). It would be expected, however, that the yield derived stress indexes may have similar drawbacks than yield for quantifying drought resistance in stressful environments, I.e. a relatively high genotype index X environment interaction.In the joint regression analysis part of the G x E is taken care by the linear component, but the intercept is highly dependent on yield potential (Fig. 3). Furthermore, highly phenologically unadapted genotypes may present a low regression slope and a high intercept without necessarily implying a high level of stress resistance.The drought response index does present a high G x E as shown in Table 5, in spite of the fact that the index Is free of the effects of yield potential and phenology as indicated by days to flowering at the wetter site (highly correlated with days to flowering at the drier sites, r -0.7 to 0.9, P < 0.01).A similar problem (data not shown) is presented by S calculated after adjustment of variety yield for days to flowering (Fischer and Wood, 1979). The drought susceptibility index by the way it Is defined accounts for yield potential (see below).A quantification of stress resistance independent of yield is badly needed at present. Such quantification should allow the assessment of morphological and physiological traits free of the yield potential of the genotypes, their phenology and it should have a low interaction with the environment. A promising, independent indicator of yield in dry environments has emerged In the last few years. In wheat yield trials it has been reported that C-13 discrimination (C-13 D) was positively correlated with grain yield (Condon, Richards and Farquhar, 1987). The correlation between barley grain yield and C-13 D has also been found to be strong and positive (r -0.84 P < 0.01) in dry Mediterranean environments (Craufurd, Austin and Acevedo, unpublished data). The carbon-13 discrimination is linearly related to the ratio of intercellular carbon dioxide In the assimilating organs of the plant to that in the surrounding atmosphere (Pi/pa). This ratio Is determined by the balance of stomatal conductance and assimilatory capacity and hence measures gas exchange (Farquhar et al 1982).The C-13 D would be a better Indicator of stress resistance than yield, the trial sampling errors associated with its estimation have been found to be lower than those for the measurement of yield, the parameter measures the response of the plgnt averaged over its life cycle, Its measurement. is non-<iestructive, a large number of plants can be tested and It appears to have a low G x E interaction in stressed environments. A drawback at present is that the analysis is expensive. Furthermore, much more research is needed before it is fully established as an independent stress indicator, particularly since conflicting results about its relations to wheat yield under stress have been reported (Turner, 1989) contrasting with recently obtained highly encouraging results with beans (Ehleringer, 1989). It is clear that research efforts to understand better the physiological significance of this index are warranted. In the interim yield and yiekl-derived indexes for the quantification of stress resistance have to be used, but cautiously, in the assessment of morphophysiological traits in a breeding program.If yield or yield derived indexes are utilized in the quantification of stress resistance the results obtained are relative to the nursery under study. This relative nature of the results is explicit In the drought susceptibility index of Rscher and Maureer. In this index the relative yield of a genotype is compared to the relative yield of the nursery. The drought susceptibility index is defined by the following equation:where Y D is the yield under stress of a genotype, Yp is the yield of the genotype without stress, 5 is the stress susceptibility index and D is a stress intensity factor defined as:where YD is the average yield under stress of all the genotypes considered and Yp is the average yield of the genotypes without stress.Replacement of equation 2 in 1 provides an explicit definition of 5,5 ----------1 -YD/YP For valid comparisons across genotypes and/or sites the yields have to be adjusted to a common flowering date by covariance (Rscher and Wood, 1979). If in a range of stress environments the average yield potential for the nursery is fixed, the denominator of equation 3 (D) is an environmental index with a value of zero for the potential yield environment and a value of 1.0 for an environment where all the genotypes of the nursery fail to yield. The numerator will vary according to the genotype, reaching a value of zero at the potential yield environment of the particular genotype. Provided that D is not equal to zero, i.e. the environment is below the potential for at least one genotype of the nursery, a zero value of 5 will show the environment at yield potential of a particular genotype when 5 is plotted against lID.In such a plot a negative slope across environments indicates that the numerator of equation 3 decreases faster than the denominator with improvement of the environment, I.e the genotype approaches the environment for yield potential faster than the average of the nursery because its yield potential is below the average yield potential of the nursery. If the yield potential of a genotype is above the yield potential of the nursery, S has to increase with the amelioration of the environment, the slope of S vs. lID being in this case positive. A genotype with YD/YP equal to the average of the nursery across environments will have S equal to one for all values of lID (Figure 4)The regression of S on lID would remove the linear component of 5 X environment Interaction, would provide an indication of the potential environment for a genotype, Its yield potential and stress susceptibility at a given stress intensity (D). The sole regression of the numerator of equation 3 on the denominator (D) would provide a value of S free of the linear component of 5 x environment interaction. Similarly a regression of DRI on D should have similar effects on DRI for a genotype. Table 6 shows the intercepts of (1 -YD/YP) and DRl's on D for a bread wheat nursery.The intercepts of these two variables are not significantly correlated but a strong correlation (P < 0.01) between S and the joint linear regression intercept is observed for the bread wheat data used In the calculations.Selection for stress resistance, using yield or a yield derived index as stress Indicator, implies an increased vertical stability of yield of a genotype, i.e. a decreased rate at which the genotype decreases yield per unit increase in stress intensity. The variability of stresses across years within location is such that their incidence may be considered random and therefore each year for a given site is an environment (Blum, 1988). The assessment of vertical stabillty comprises a range of environments with a mean of increasing (or decreasing) yield as a result of the major stress(es) under consideration. Test environments within gradients of stresses are reqUired. The gradient should consideration. Test environments within gradients of stresses are required. The gradient should cover the expected variation In stress occurrence and intensity for the target area of the breeding program.From physiological considerations it Is expected that stress resistance traits would have a better expression under the incidence of a high intensity of the stresses, therefore sites of this nature should be included in the testing scheme even at the risk of crop failures. Since yield potential is necessary for quantifying stress resistance, as it plays a role in yield under stress [fable 4), Ideally the nursery under study should be replicated under irrigation at the drier sites. If this is not possible the yield at the wettest site of the range, located within an acceptable range of photo-thennal plant responses, could be used as the yield potential site.The most Important consideration for choosing the site(s) for selections Is the relevance that they have with respect to the environment where the varieties are Intended to be grown. Rgure 5 shows a cross over of wheat genotypes in the relation of cultlvar yield vs. site mean yield, therefore If the sites for selection fall outside of the expected mean yields of the area, the selections may be Irrelevant for that area. The basic assumption that the yield of a variety Is linearly related to the stress intensity of the environment seems to hold when drought Is the major source of variation In environmental stress (Rg. 5,6).If a variety yields better than the population mean in the range of environments tested It Is said to have horizontal stability or wide adaptation. Yield potential and stress resistance may be combined In such varieties. The question often arises as to how wide Is the horizontal stability of a variety across environments. If the range of environments is extended, say to cover all possible environments one may question the existence of a variety with such horizontal stability. Many times a trade-off between yield potential and vertical stability has be~ '1 postulated as shown In Rg. 5. This has been demonstrated by Ceccarelli and Grando (1989) for barley. They observed a decrease In yield potential across cycles of selection of barley at a dry site associated to an Increased yield under stress and vice-versa when selections were done under favorable conditions. This trade-off would have the effect of limiting the range of environments in which the horizontal stability associated to superior yield could be found. Ceccarelli (1989) made a thorough analysis of wide adaptability showing contrasting behavior of genotypes under stress environments and the need to include stress testing sites in the Improvement for stress resistance. Furthermore, the efficiency of empirical selection (selection for grain yield) for stress environment done under stress was 6.9% higher for conventional germplasm and 32.4% higher with locally adapted germplasm when compared to, selections done under favorable environments C (Ceccarelli and Grando, 1989).The breeder is interested in the discriminating power of the environment(s) where he does the selections. Brown et al (1983) proposed a genotypic index regression method to Identify sites that are consistently able to discriminate genotypes. The method basically consists in the reverse of the joint regression analysis, such that the variety performance within sites (Y axis) is regressed on variety mean perfonnance across sites (X axis). In such analysis an environment that discriminates well among varieties will have a high regression slope. An environment that consistently predicts the performance of the varieties at other sites will have a high coefficient of determination (r 2 ).According to the authors an optimum selection environment should have high values for both statistics. Table 7 show these parameters calculated for the bread wheat nursery of 20 varieties for eight environments, utilizing grain yield as a measure of variety performance. The varieties are discriminated best in the higher rainfall environments. Tel Hadya, on the average, the highest input, less stressed environment has a higher r 2 and hence would predict the perfonnance of the varieties at other sites better. Breda and particularly Bouider, the lowest input environments discriminate poorly among the genotypes as far as grain yield is concerned and do not have a predictive capacity of the performance of the varieties at other sites (low r 2 ). In other words, selecting at Breda and Bouider would Imply selecting for specific adaptation to stressed environments. Ceccarelli et at. (1987) examined breeding strategies for improving cereal yield and stability under drought. The analysis included barley, durum wheat and bread wheat across environments ranging from 178 to 380 mm of seasonal rainfall for barley and 227 to 600 mm for wheat in Northern Syria. A high and negative correlation coefficient was found between the drought susceptibility index and grain yield at the driest sites for the three crops, whereas at the wettest sites the correlation coefficient were lower and some times positive. This was interpreted as an indication that segregating populations and lines with the largest grain yield under favorable conditions are more drought susceptible than those with the largest grain yield under drought, perhaps due to the existence of certain traits which are desirable under drought but undesirable under favorable conditions. What was clear was that selections under non stress conditions would not provide material adapted to stress environments. From the results of table 7 it appears that when a breeder is selecting based on grain yield for stress environments, he has to pay a price in terms of discriminating power of the environment, furthermore, selection only in stress environments would result in varieties with narrow adaptation. One possible way to alter this general pattern would be to identify stress resistance traits and conduct selections for yield plus those traits. If the traits are constitutive (always present), selections could be made in environments with high discriminating power for yield. If the traits are largely adaptive (present only under stress conditions) selection under stress would be mandatory. The work by Ceccarelli (1989) and CeccareJJi and Grando (1989) mentioned above has shown beyond doubt that stress environments are required when breeding for stress. The open question is the extent to which a price in terms of narrow adaptation is being paid. But Ceccarelli et al (1987) also presented data indicating that genotypes selected at stressed sites would respond to better environments, particularly in durum wheat. The reverse however was not supported by the data, I.e. it did not appear possible to produce a stress resistant genotype selecting in high input environments only.A clear understanding of the growth pattern of the crop and stress incidence in the target area is essential to postulate sensible traits for stress resistance. This is so because stress resistance includes tolerance and avoidance mechanisms. Traits associated to stress avoidance would appear to be easier to identify. The definition of the physiological fitness of a genotype and traits associated with it is the obvious first step to be taken. As an example, growth should be maximized at times when evapotranspiration demand is at a minimum in Mediterranean type of environments. This may imply selecting for high winter ground cover, growth at low temperature and selecting for winter frost resistance. By so doing the radiation interception by the crop may be increased at critical times when radiation is lowest and consequently photosynthesis per unit ground area may be Increased. Direct water evaporation from the soil surface may decrease, improving soil water infiltration or recharge and evapotranspiration efficiency. Table 8 from Acevedo and Ceccarelli, 1989 iUustrate this point by comparing the winter ground covers of wheat and barley and their effect on Increasing the ratio of transpiration over evapotranspiration.A conceptual model of crop functioning, as the one developed by Fischer (1979Fischer ( , 1981) ) for wheat grown In Mediterranean environments is useful for postulating traits or developing agronomic practices which are relevant to the physiology of the crop. Other than relevant the postulated traits should comply with breeders' requirements. They should be stable in time and amenable to screening In a simple, fast and rellable way. They should not be too far from yield In the hierarchy of plant organization (Passioura, 1986) such that they can be related to yield and to stress resistance. The traits leading to improved yield and stability of yield under stress should aid in selection for stress environments. In essence the idea is to have a selection procedure based on yield but assisted by morphological and physiological criteria.When drought is the major stress under consideration it may be useful to describe yield In terms of an identity that considers water as a central parameter (Passioura 1977). The Identity has been used widely for trait identification. In the context of an environment or set of similar environments, grain yield Is looked at as the product of three terms suggested by Passloura to be largely Independent between themselves: evapotranspiration, evapotranspiration efficiency and harvest Index. Manipulation of these terms or their components may lead to a plant ideotype that would optimize the use of water for maximum yield. For example, evapotranspiration is made out of two terms, crop transpiration and direct soil evaporation. Any trait or agronomlcal practice that decreases direct soil evaporation will tend to Increase the amount of dry matter produced per unit rainfall or water stored In the soil profile, d. Tables 3 and 8. Maximizing photosynthesis per unit ground area will increase the dry matter produced per unit water evapotranspired at the crop level. Similarly and according to the environment the water use through the season can be at least partially manipulated using morphological (Passioura, 1972), physiological traits and agronomic practices such that the harvest Index Is least affected (Richards and Townley-Smith, 1987).Using these tools It Is possible to derive an ideotype or working hypothesis for stress resistance traits. This is shown in Table 9 from Acevedo and Ceccarelll (1989). For an excellent discussion on the subject the reader is referred to Richards (1987).The Identity of Passioura (1977) also applies when transpiration minstead of evapotranspiration (En and transpiration efficiency (TE) instead of evapotranspiration efficiency (WUE) are used. In this case, however there may be strong Interactions between the terms of the Identity. Figure 7, from a recent greenhouse experiment where soil evaporation was completely suppressed, shows that for a group of barley genotypes, as the seasonal water transpired increased, TE decreased linearly. Figure 8 indicates that increased total biomass production (including roots) was generally associated with a decreased TE. A notable exception is shown in Figure 8, Tadmor, a pure line Isolated from landraces that has consistently outyielded the local barley check for dry areas In on farm trials during the last few seasons in Northern Syria, combines high total dry matter production with high TE.The interaction between the terms of the identity complicates its use when physiological attributes such as gas exchange are considered in an ideotype. In general it appears that increased net carbon assimilation is the major parameter of concern when dealing with autumn sown barley In Mediterranean environments. It has an associated cost of lowered TE due to Increased water transpired. But the research results show that exceptions may occur such that high TE and high dry matter production may be associated.The long debate about the existence of measurable differences In TE within a species, across genotypes (Fischer and Turner, 1978) has been resolved and data Is available, among others, from Farquhar and Richards (1984) for wheat, for beans (Ehlerigner, 1989) and our own results for barley (Table 10) showing such differences. This Is an Important parameter to be considered In an ideotype. It is integrative and can be assessed through the C-13 discrimination technique. Positive associations between C-13 0 and yield can be easily Interpreted in the light of the results of Figure 8. Of major importance in the adaptation of winter grown cereals under stress Is the carbon gain at periods when the major stress (drought) is at the lowest level of Incidence. In barley, from the results of Fig. 8 it can be concluded that the negative association between C-13 0 and TE predicted by theory (Farquhar et al 1982) and the positive association between C-13 0 and yield (Condon et al 1987) are compatible.Once the Ideotype is developed, the next step Is to assess the worth of the traits. Needless to say, a nursery has to be assembled representing variability In each of the postulated traits.A dose participation of breeders and physiologists is essential at this point. The results of several years of work will depend on the nursery assembled. It Is convenient that Initially, adapted and unadapted entries be present in the nursery. The size of the nursery (number of genotypes) should be big enough and balanced regarding the postulated traits such that valid comparisons can be done and conclusions can be drawn. When growing the nursery every effort should be made to keep the material as free of pests and diseases as possible through the spray of appropriate agrochernlcals.One way to proceed to assess the worth of the postulated traits is to observe the correlation of the traits between themselves and with a measure of stress resistance. Those traits that are correlated with stress resistance are selected for further work. Table 11 shows some identified traits for bread wheat.The correlation analysis does not necessarily imply cause effect relations. It Is necessary therefore to verify the traits. The verification of the value of single traits has been done In many Instances by using the near-Isogonic line approach. Unes differing essentially in one trait under study are produced and tested. The yield advantage conferred by the trait is determined in field trials. The technique is clean In giving confirmation to the worth of a trait In a given genetic background. Severallsogenic pares representing various genetic backgrounds should be used to verify the trait under consideration. This is so because In the actual breeding practice the breeder Is utilizing a multitude of genetic backgrounds and stress resistance is not the result of a single trait. On the contrary, and particularly when dealing with stress avoidance, It appears that an architecture of traits is acting. It may also be possible that different architectures of traits may lead to similar results.A more pragmatic approach to trait verification has been proposed by Acevedo and Ceccarelli (1989). They suggest to cross genotypes diverging In four or five traits already assessed as Important in drought resistance by their correlation to a stress resistance Index, harvest Individual F2 plants and grow the F3 seed in plots using a modified augmented design with the parents as checks. The F3 families are scored for the traits under study. Divergent selection for yield and for the studied traits is practiced. Contrasts are made for single traits in all possible combination of the other traits, similarly for two or more traits. The traits are considered to be valuable, alone or In combination, if they increase the selection efficiency when compared to yield alone as a selection criterion. By regressing the values of F4 on the F3 families, estimates of realized heritabilities are produced. This procedure is being implemented with barley at ICARDA. Anal yield testing Is done in F5 using contrasting environments.Physiologists and breeders have been continuously confronted with the need of generating screening tests to identify drought resistance traits to aid in selections. Few of the many screenlng tests proposed have been adopted by breeders. This Is probably to be expected since most screening tests discriminate a single attribute at a single time. As indicated, variation in stress resistance is likely to be due to the effects of many attributes and their interaction, most of them with small effects. The expression of the attributes is likely to vary with the degree and combination of stresses, age of the plant and tissue, and with the environment.For screening purposes the traits must satisfy certain criteria: they should have a greater heritablUty than yield, they' should be correlated with yield under stress or a yield based stress resistance Index, ideally they should be causally related to yield and they should be easy and rapid to assess. Broad sense heritabilities for rapidly assessed traits detected Ih bread wheat and that comply with the other requirements listed are provided in Table 11.In several drought adaptive attributes of wheat: maintenance of relatively higher leaf potential under conditions of soil moisture stress, osmotic adjustment, tolerance In plant or organ growth rate, plant recovery upon rehydration, tolerance in the photosynthetic system or its components, tolerance In enzyme activities, tolerance in translocation, stability of the cellular membranes, proline accumulation, root growth and plant developmental or morphological attributes such as leaf size, leaf area per plant, leaf orientation, tiller survival, eplcutlcular wax content, and organ pubescence. Most of this information will be of Iirnlted value to breeding work unless routine screening techniques for large number of genotypes are available and unless the relationship between physiological drought and adaptive traits is clearly established.Traits of dehydration avoidance and dehydration tolerance, have been found positively associated with yield under stress across genotypes of wheat (Keirn and Kronstad, 1981;Sojka et al. 1981) and barley (Acevedo and Ceccarelli, 1989;Acevedo et al. 1989).Dehydration avoidance is interpreted as the ability of genotypes to maintain a higher leaf water potential when grown under conditions of soil water stress. Several traits contribute to dehydration avoidance, all those contributing to a better water balance of the crop should be included, such as leaf rolling, best adapted root systems, increased pubescence of the aerial organs, increased reflectance of the incoming solar radiation, increased dissipation of heat through decreased boundary layer resistance at the organ level (narrow leaves, presence of awns), etc. In nature, a better water balance is associated with a higher proportion of energy dissipated as latent heat and hence a lower canopy temperature. This has prompted scientists to develop methods for fast crop temperature assessment (Blum et al 1978, Blum et ai, 1982) and the method is being used in breeding programs such as in wheat (ICARDA, 1988;BLUM, 1988), maize (Bolanos et al. 1989), and others. The reader is referred to specific works (Idso et ai, 1981;Jackson et ai, 1981;O'Toole and Tomar, 1982;O'Toole and Hatfield, 1983;O'Toole et ai, 1984;O'Toole and Real, 1984), for details on the technique.An important form of drought stress tolerance is the tolerance to post-anthesis stress. In wheat, as in other cereals, grain filling depends partly on actual photosynthesis during this period and partly on stored carbohydrates during the pre-anthesis period and translocated from the vegetative plant parts. Under conditions of terminal drought (and heat) stress, net photosynthesis decreases significantly in wheat (e.g. Acevedo, 1989) and the proportion of translocation of stored soluble carbohydrates as a source for grain filling becomes larger (Austin et aI., 1977(Austin et aI., , 1980;;Richards and Townley-Smith, 1987). Values of 40 to 60% of final grain weight originating from stored preanthesis assimilates have been reported by these authors. It appears to exist genetic variation within cereal crop species in the plant's ability to sustain kernel growth by plant mobilization of reserves (Austin et al. 1977 Acevedo andCeccarelli, 1989). Blum et al. (1983) developed a technique to screen for this trait in wheat. They sprayed well watered wheat plants with magnesium chlorate at the initial part of the linear phase of kernel growth (approximately 14 days after anthesis in wheat), when the kernel is complete with respect to its final cell number. The desiccant kills all photosynthetic tissue including leaves, leaf sheaths, glumes and awns. The final kernel weight of treated plots is compared with kernel weight of non treated, control plots. The technique is being applied successfully in Australia using potassium iodide as a desiccant (Turner and Nicholas, 1987;N.C. Turner, personal communication).Dehydration tolerance is related to cellular and subcellular processes. The stability of cell membrane under stress is central to cell performance. Measurements of membrane stability can be easily done with the electrolyte leakage test (Sullivan and Eastin, 1974) after submitting plant tissue to stress. It is difficult, however to relate this type of test to plant production.In spite of considerable progress, the improvement of winter cereals for drought prone Mediterranean environments continues to face important problems. Only a qualitative understanding of the stress environments is at hand. The occurrence of simultaneous stresses associated to drought in the dry areas and the temporal variability of these stresses are factors that have hinder quantification of the stress environments. Yield, either grain or total above ground biomass continues to be the most reliable stress indicator. The quantification of stress resistance, therefore, has to be based on yield or on yield derived indexes which carry with them the natural genotype X environment interaction. An assessment of stress resistance independent of yield is needed but not yet available.Major effects of environmental fitness of a genotype such as growing cycle and yield potential can be easily shown with traditional techniques but stress resistance appears to be a combination of small effects of various morphological and physiological traits. The identification and assessment of these effects and the understanding of their interactions becomes a difficult task unless material with a wide genetic base and with wide difference in the postulated traits is included in the nurseries under study. Furthermore, the nurseries need to be grown across a gradient which includes stressed sites.In the process of identification and assessment of stress resistance traits, conceptual models of crop functioning for particular environments are extremely useful as they provide a lead to the traits to look for. A further step is necessary which is the verification of the worth of a trait or combination of traits. Selection experiments are necessary in this step and they also provide fundamental genetic information.At present, selection for stress resistant genotypes has to be done at stressed sites. It is anticipated that as our knowledge of stress resistance traits increases selections could be done in environments with higher discriminating power for yield. It is essential, however, that the steps of trait identification, assessment and verification be strictly followed. After Acevedo and Ceccarelli (1989).  • Rffilres in parentheses are variance accounted for by traits when considered as independent variables.  Method of Brown et al. (1983). See text for details.  (1983).After Acevedo and Ceccarelli (1989).    The topic asslgned to us for dlscussion In this Symposlum has been dlrectly or Indirectly In the agenda of plant physiology meetings for decades. It reflects the awareness on the subject, and proposes a team approach in a breedlng program for drought resistance, merglng physlologlcal and breeding concepts. The implicit assumptions of this are: 1) that Improvement in the drought resistance and yleld of cultivated plants can be made through breedlng, 2) that tradltlonal breedlng tools are not as efflclent In drought stressed environment as In relatively favorable ones, and 3) that knowle<lge of mechanisms operating in plants growing In drought prone areas could be used In breeding for those areas. Today there are controversles about all three assumptions.Efficient use of water is the major goal of aH dryland systems. However, not too long ago, L.P. Reltz (1974) posed a fundamental questlon. Is breeding for more efficient water use real or a mlrage? He referred to drought tolerance \"as part of that elusive thing called adaptatlon\". At the same time Moss et al. (1974) concluded that the inforrnation to guide plant breeders in developing higher ylelding varietles by selecting for specific physiological tralts controlling the efficiency of water use was not available. They recommended close cooperation between physiologists, physlcal scientists and plant breeders in definlng yleld lImiting water use traits, in dlscovering genetic varlability for these tralts and in Incorporatlng deslrable tralts Into new varleties. A book was publlshed at the time with the above and other papers which we conslder a benchmark (Stone 1975).Later Boyer (1982), considered plant adaptatlon to environments. He observed that 71% of the indemniflcation made to U.S. farmers for crop losses was due to drought, excesslve water and cold. He made a plea to make selectlons under the adverse condltions likely to be encountered so that genotypes capable of explolting Iirnited resources could be Identified.At the Internatlonal Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), improvlng cereals for low Input and variable envlronments Is the major objective. In this paper we define the problem and present our strategy to approach it. The implementation has been golng on for only three years, a very short time in an improvement program and even shorter in a crop Improvement program for low input and variable environments, but where appropriate we willlllustrate with our information. Our discussions will be essentially on barley but we will use wheat for pertinent comparisons.The breeders' problem has been and is to increase the precision of Identifying the genotype through the observation of the phenotype. The degree of precision decreases with increased complexity of the character, and becomes very low for highly complex characters such as yield. Breeders try to find the combination of attributes which bred into a genotype would maximize productivity and/or stability of yield. In the context of this Symposium the two concepts, productivity and stability, may be equated to water use efficiency and drought resistance. The former being the ability to convert water into harvestable material and the second the capacity to escape, survive or endure damage from water stress (Reitz, 1974;Hsiao and Acevedo, 1974). The breeder defines drought resistance as the ability of a crop to grow and yield satisfactorily in areas prone to water deficits. Both drought resistance and water use efficiency are involved in this definition.Stability of yield, defined here as decreased number of crop failures in time, Is a major concern to barley Improvement at ICARDA. Barley is the only cereal crop that grows In the more marginal lower rainfall environments (200-300 mm/year), where the variability of rainfall within and between years is the highest (Dennet et al. 1984). We use the premise that natural and farmers' selection have operated In such a way that drought resistance traits are more likely to be found In the naturally adapted barley population (Iandraces) as well as in its wild progenitor Hordeum spontaneum (Ceccarelli, 1984). We will present Information which seems to indicate that this working assumption is not unrealistic.The word \"trait\" invokes several considerations. One is the level of integration or hierarchy of plant organization one should address. Generally breeders do not face the problem of chosing between levels of integration because the final product (the variety) demands only work at crop level. However, a physiologist continuously faces a choice between levels of integration. The reasoning of Passioura (1981) Is appealing In this context. He argued rightfully that breeding Is judged In farmers' fields while physiology Is judged primarily on how enlightening It Is, and secondarily on whether It provides leads or tools for crop improvement. We believe that in a breeder-physiologist team a common level of integration has to be clearly set.We have chosen to work for the time being at the plant level and look to the organ and crop levels of organization for explanations. In this way we are hoping to avoid the formidable transductional problems of bridging with lower hierarchical levels such as cellular or molecular. Our approach is pragmatic and we are motivated by the fact that essential tasks such as the identification of useful physiological traits and their verification are yet to be completed.A practical approach to physiological breeding geared to improving drought resistance or yield under stress is forced to start from yield and move towards underlying processes. This is a consequence of the fact that at present a quantitative definition of total drought resistance Is not possible in physiological terms. Rscher (1981) named this strategy the \"black box\" and contrasted It to the \"Ideotype\" strategy which attempts to predict yield from an understanding of processes. We are using a combination of the two strategies, defining drought resistance based on yield and deriving traits based on an Ideotype for our environments. As a team, we are probably midway between the traditional and analytical approaches to breeding (Richards, 1982).Our plan for merging physiology and breeding for cereal improvement in dry areas considers four aspects:• Selection of ideotypic traits which could act on drought resistance and water use efficiency and could be easily screened. Preliminary assessment of the worth of the trait Is made by the strength of Its correlation with a yield based drought resistance Index.• Assessment of the variability of the traits within a physiology nursery which Includes a wide range of genotypes.• Verification of the traits through multitrait indirect and divergent selection experiments.• Incorporation of the trait(s) into welI adapted genetic background.The joint definition of the ideotype by the physiologist and the breeder alerts the breeder In the selection of parents for potential traits In the crossing program. In the selection process due consideration Is given to the traits. The assessment of the varlablilty of some traits Is therefore done at a much wider scale than In the physiology nursery. The end result In that traits are used as selection criteria by the breeder at the same time that the physiologist performs a rigorous verification. This is a highly desirable result of the interaction of the two disciplines.In discussing drought resistance it is essential that means should be available to quantify the dryness of the environment and the drought resistance of the genotypes. Interannual and intraseasonal variability of rains is high and therefore rainfall probabilities should ideally be used. This requires long term climatic data which we do not have at hand for the stations In which we are working. Furthermore, drought, though dominant, Is usually associated with temperature stresses.  1 gives climatic data averaged for two growing seasons (86 and 87) at the two more contrasting sites. The drought intensity relative to Tel Hadya based on relative yield (YdIYp), on a grain yield basis has been 0.46 and 0.22 for Breda and Bouider and 0.49 and 0.33 when total above ground biomass is used as indicator.At present grain yield is generally used to quantify drought resistance. Rscher and Maureer (1978) defined a drought susceptibility index (OSI) to relate to drought resistance traits. The Index, however, did not consider time to flowering, associated to drought escape, and a correction had to be made for differences in anthesis date. Yield under drought is often negatively correlated to anthesis date (Fischer and Wood, 1979;Bidinger et aI., 1987a;Craufurd et aI., 1988;Acevedo et aL, 1988). Furthermore, the OSI was found to be positively related to yield potential (Fischer and Wood, 1979;Ceccarelli, 1987), therefore it may not be a true Indicator of drought resistance. Blum (1982) advocated the use of stability analysis (Rnlay and Wilkinson, 1963;Eberhart and Russell, 1966) to define stress resistance in terms of yield, provided that the major component of variation in the environmental index could be attributed to the water regime. The stress resistance would be given by the intercept of cultivar yield regressed on the environmental index (mean site yield). This approach does not consider the confounding effects of flowering time on yield nor the effects of yield potential on the slope of the regression and hence on the intercept and drought resistance. Bidinger et al. (1987b) proposed a drought resistance index (ORO based on the residual variation In grain yield, adjusted for experimental error. The ORI accounts for yield potential and days to flowering. We calculated this Index considering the grain yield at the wetter site as yield potential along with days to heading at the same site. The index was positively associated with yield under drought and Independent of yield potential and time to flowering. We consider It to be a good criterion for assessment of drought resistance traits which will be manipulated as Independent genetic characters. These traits should be free, as far as we can assess, from the confounding effects of other traits. Table 2 (Acevedo et al. 1988) shows that yield potential and particularly time to flowering explain a substantial fraction of yield under drought of three cereal crops.The process of postulating desirable traits is strongly geared to the barley breeding objectives. For Icarda low rainfall rainfed areas the number of crop failures must be reduced. Breeding for survival to ensure a minimum yield In the bad years Is necessary but a cultlvar response In better years should be maintained. The conceptual framework of cereal growth in Mediterranean environments elaborated by Fischer (1979Fischer ( ,1981) ) Is being used. The identity disclosed by Passloura (1977) considering grain yield under drought as the product of transpiration, water use efficiency and harvest index provided a conceptual model at the appropriate level of integration for derivation of traits in breeding work. Passioura (1986) and Richards (1987) have argued convincingly that the possible worth of many drought resistant characters needs assessment on their influence to Improve the crop's capability to extract water from the soil, produce dry matter given a limited water supply and convert dry matter Into grain. Regardless of the assumption of Independence of components, the proposal is useful as a conceptual tool. Acevedo (1987) hypothesized traits on these basis which are summarized in Table 3.The second step In the identification of traits was to assemble what we refer to a \"physiology nursery\". This step was taken with the awareness that the Identification of traits for any purpose Is highly dependent on the nursery under study and this In turn is the result of a hypothesized ideotype for a target environment.In our experience assembling a wide nursery (72 genotypes), including naturally adapted and Improved barley cultivars differing in days to flowering and maturity, growth habit and winter vigor, plant height, grain yield, yield potential and stability of yield, as well as other characters has proven valuable as a starting point. The diversity of the material, though it Introduces complexity to the analysis, avoids bias associated which the nursery or the working hypothesis (ideotype).Comparisons between two row landraces and two row improved genotypes have provided clues to adaptive features (Table 4). Comparisons between cereal species occupying specific niches of Increasing rainfall consistently indicate that barley has a higher evapotranspiration efficiency and transpiration efficiency than wheat at the crop level and at the leaf level (Table 5)It is necessary to emphasize that our target environments receive less than 300 mm rainfall per year as winter rainfall. Earliness is perhaps the most important attribute of cereals grown In the low rainfall (rainfed) Mediterranean environments. The pattern reverses as drought is relieved (Craufurd et aI., 1988). To Investigate other traits a ORI, calculated from the mean grain yield across dry sites for 86 and 87 seasons, was correlated to various phenological, morphological and physiological attribute (Table 6). All the attributes which correlated significantly with ORI at the drier environments are better expressed in the naturally adapted genotypes (compare tables 6 and 4), validating the breeder's hypothesis that this material provides a source of drought resistance and its utilization is therefore advisable in breeding for these purposes.The DRI used correlated extremely well with DRI's calculated for each dry site at each year. The mean correlation coefficient was 0.82 (p<0.001), with a range between 0.74 and 0.93. We are confident that the index is providing a good measure of drought resistance (yield potential and days to flowering excluded) for the period under analysis. In 1987/88 when there was above average rainfall (400 mm at Breda and 388 mm at Bouider), the index used (86 and 87) was not correlated with the seasonal indices. This finding supports the validity of the index for drought trait assessment and indicates that drought resistance traits are unlikely to be identified in high rainfall environments.The three attributes postulated to maximize T as a fraction of ET in Table 3 appeared correlated with the drought resistance index (Table 6). On the grounds of the physical principles governing soil evaporation and crop evapotranspiration the correlation was expected. The traits need, however, experimental verification. There are difficulties associated with the measurement of transpiration under field conditions. We have used indirect ways to evaluate these traits. We have compared similar crops (wheat and barley), differing in canopy structure in the early (winter) stages of growth, such that the errors in estimating transpiration are lower than the actual differences between the crops. The assumption is that genotypes differing in canopy structure in a similar way to the crops would behave similarly. Another way of testing the traits has been to use agronomic experiments in which a given genotype is grown at various row spacings with a fixed sowing rate. The experiment creates various crop architectures which are expressed in different ground covers.Table 7 shows a comparison between barley and wheat in ground cover as well as the ratio of crop transpiration over evapotranspiration dUring the second and third month after emergence (January and February), time at which increasing the ratio is most critical. Barley had better early growth and a prostrate growth habit which was reflected in an increased ground cover. The higher leaf area index and ground cover of barley was transduced into a substantial increase of transpiration as a fraction of evapotranspiration. This resulted in a more efficient water use by barley than wheat during the winter months. Similar trends may be expected within species between genotypes differing in these attributes. Visual scores of growth habit and growth vigor of barley genotypes at the five leaf stage have been found to be positively correlated (P<0.01) to the dry matter accumulated at that stage (Acevedo and van Oosterom unpublished).Other evidence supporting that fast initial ground cover and prostrate growth habit are desirable traits for drought resistance comes from our row spacing studies. In the dry Mediterranean environments of northern Syria we have consistently found that decreasing row spacing (to 10 cm) increased ground cover and induced a more prostrate growth habit in the early stages of growth. Dry matter production at harvest and grain yield increased by 20 to 30% in the closer spacing. Admittedly, associated to the changes in crop geometry there are other factors related to competition which affect yield. Notwithstanding, the confounding effects, increased winter ground cover increased yield and evapotranspiration efficiency (Table 8). These effects are similar to those resulting from fertilizer use reported by Cooper (1983).Prostrate growth habit and associated horizontal leaf posture in the early stages of growth is usually associated with some degree of vernalization requirement. This is so in pure lines isolated from Syrian landraces. Fortunately this linkage can be broken (Ceccarelli, unpublished) and material with prostrate characteristics and no vernalization requirement can be produced for Mediterranean environments with mild winter climates.To maximize seasonal water use efficiency (Table 3) it is necessary to match the genotypes to the environment, such that they are grown during the period of the year when water availabillty is at the maximum and the evaporation demand at the lowest possible value. Attributes that maximize transpiration as a fraction of evapotranspiration will improve the water use efficiency of the crop (fable 3) because they increase the solar radiation interception by the canopy, increasing photosynthesis per unit land area. Also, more water is available to the crop due to reduced direct soil evaporation (fable 7). There are, however, other considerations which become apparent when the drought effects on net photosynthesis (NP) are analyzed. Figure 1 shows NP-Ci curves obtained from eight barley genotypes at flag leaf-I, between heading and anthesis. The measurements were taken across four sites in northern Syria. The seasonal rainfall ranged from 340 to 185 mm. The two wettest sites had the same demand function for C02. Net photosynthesis for these two sites, was decreased via partial stomatal closure. As the water stress increased there was further stomatal closure but a concomitant increase in the calculated internal C02 concentration, indicating a decrease in carboxylation efficiency (slope of the demand curve in the NP-Ci plot). Non-stomatal effects on photosynthesis under drought are therefore important. If stomatal closure was the sole cause of a decrease in photosynthesis, a decrease in the ratio of internal to external C02 concentration would be expe-cted, with a concomitant increase in transpiration efficiency (Farquhar and Richards, 1984). However, if non-stomatal effects become important, a decrease in TE would be expected to be due to decreased net photosynthesis. The net photosynthesis data from the rainfall gradient show the two patterns. Rgure 2 indicates that leaf TE increased with drought intensity from relatively non stressed environment (NP... 18 Ilmol C02m-2s-1) up to a stress level which decreased NP to about 7 Ilmol C02 m-2 s-1 . Within this range the carboxylation efficiency was not affected and the decrease in NP was due to decreased stomatal conductance. (from 0.5 to 0.15 mol m-2 s-1 ). As the drought stress increased there was an almost linear decrease in TE with decreasing NP. Thus, for the drought intensity levels at which we are working, the maintenance of NP at low stomatal conductances, (I.e. the maintenance of carboxylation efficiency via low nonstomatal effects on photosynthesis) would appear to be an important genotypic attribute to maximize TE under drought. We have observed similar patterns in our barley and wheat nurseries.A wide range has been found in Ci (from 160 to 300 Ill/L) when gas exchange measurements are done under drought. The range is much narrower (from 200 to 240 Ill/L) under relatively wetter environments.The gas exchange information was produced using a portable infrared gas analyzer. The instrument, even though extremely valuable in a breeding program for the identification of traits in drought prone environments, is not the most appropriate screening tool for breeding purposes. Table 4 shows that the discrimination of C-13 (C-13 D) by the plants was associated with the drought resistance index for genotypes grown in dry environments. In fact the C-13 D explained about 44% of the variation in the index in a subsample of 20 barleys. We have undertaken these studies in collaboration with Dr. R. B. Austin of the PSIR, Cambridge and noted that the C-13 discrimination measured in the grain is highly positively correlated with grain yield under the dry environments of Breda, Bouider and a drought trial under rainout shelters at Cambridge. The correlation has been nonsignificant at Tel Hadya and negative in irrigated trials grown at Cambridge. The discrimination was also found to be significantly higher in the naturally adapted pure lines than in the improved two row genotypes at our driest sites. Work is in progress to clarify this point. The C-13 technique would be an excellent screening tool under dry environments. The C-13 value provides an average value for the gas exchange through the season. Data shown in Rgure 3 indicate that C-13 measured in the straw at harvest had a relatively strong linear relation with the NP measured between ear emergence and heading. Admittedly, the relation may be circumstantial due to the point nature of the NP measurement. The accuracy and precision of the C-13 measurements make it possible to differentiate genotypes easily and it appears that the genotype x environment interactions are low for drought stressed plants. A drawback is that the analyses are expensive at the moment.The hypothesized stomatal adjustment or low stomatal sensitivity to drought (Acevedo, 1987 and Table 5) has been found to be a consistent characteristic of barley. Values averaged over two seasons of NP, leaf conductance to C02 and TE for the barley and wheat nurseries have shown that at the wetter site barley consistently had a lower stomatal conductance and lower NP. At the drier sites the results were reversed with a much lower leaf conductance and photosynthesis in wheat. The TE of barley has been consistently higher across sites (Acevedo, 1988). Since the measurements have been taken at the same time in the barley and wheat nurseries, this behavior may indicate a drought resistance trait. So far, however, we have not found a clear relation to the drought resistance index, something to be expected due to the point nature of the gas exchange measurements. Nonetheless this trait, being essential for carbon assimilation under drought, merits additional study. We are investigating the possibility of screening for it using infrared thermometry.A dark leaf color early in the season, through Zadoks score 24, followed by a change to a pale green color is a characteristic of the local naturally adapted barley genotypes. Measurements of total chlorophyll and chlorophyll alb ratio done by Dr. W. Watanabe at IPSR, Cambridge Laboratory, In a subset of genotypes indicated that light green genotypes consistently had a higher chlorophyll alb ratio than dark green ones but there was no consistent difference between groups in their chlorophyll content per unit leaf area (Dr. R.B. Austin, personal communication). The observed difference in the alb ratio was similar to that between high photosynthesis diploid wheat species and bread wheat. In diploid wheat, the high alb ratio is associated with a smaller ratio of chlorophyll in the antenna to that in the core complex of photosystem II and with a higher capacity for photosynthetic electron transport, particularly at light saturation. These associations are being investigated in barley. As indicated in Table 4, a light leaf color around anthesis in barley Is correlated with DRI.During the initial part of the season, solar radiation is limiting in northern Syria  increasing to values around 20 MJ m-2 d-1 at stem extension and 26 MJ m-2 d-1 after heading, during grain filling (Table 1). If the hypothesis of our IPSR , Cambridge colleagues is proven, leaf color would be an interesting adaptive feature of the local barleys. They woukl be adjusting their light capturing system to prevalent solar radiation and terminal drought and heat stresses.Experiments are being conducted to test this hypothesis.The realization of a high harvest index (HI) depends on the grain number and grain weight at harvest. The terminal drought of Mediterranean environments affects these two grain yield components. We have shown (Acevedo et aI., 1988) that the harvest index of two row barleys Is the least affected by drought. One possible reason for the lower effect of terminal drought on the HI of two row barleys is their lower stature under drought and high biomass at anthesis. Particularly in the naturally adapted genotypes, the last internode length is drastically shortened under drought and competition for growth between the stem and spike consequently may be reduced. The other point in this context (Table 3) is the translocation of pre-anthesis assimilates to the ear. We have studied the ability of two row barleys to translocate assimilates to the ear using the desiccation technique of Blum et al. (1983) as modified by Turner and Nicholas (1987) by fully wetting plants (ears included) with a solution of 4% potassium iodide ten days after anthesis. At the 5th day after the treatment leaf photosynthesis (flag leaf-I) was reduced by 40 to 50% from controls but stomatal conductance only by 8.5%. The ears were highly sensitive to the treatment showing almost complete chlorophyll loss few days after the treatment. Final kernel weight of treated genotypes decreased from 0 to 29% from the controls giving clear scope for selection for this trait. We are repeating this experiment for a second season.In summary, we have evidence that aU the traits which were hypothesized in the conceptual model (Table 3) are contributing to drought resistance in the breeders' definition of the concept. Furthermore enough variability exists in each trait to warrant selection and practical screening tools are available.In the process of identification of traits and of the assessment of their variability it became evident that the environment plays an important role in both steps (Figure 2, and Acevedo, 1988).The choice of the environmental conditions which maximize the precision with which a genotype can be recognized through the phenotype Is also basic to the breeder. In the context of breeding for drought resistance, the question is whether the precision of genotype classification for performance under drought stress is higher in the presence or in the absence of stress. The question Is still largely controversial (Gallais, 1984;Blum, 1985;Ceccarelli, 1987). The controversy centers on the relative magnitude of genetic differences(compared with environmental differences) which are expected to be greater under relatively wet conditions than under dry conditions. Since response to selection, and hence breeding progress, strongly depends on the ratio between genetic differences and environmental differences, it follows that selection is expected to be easier and more effective under relatively wet than under dry conditions. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that varieties with high yield potential will express this character wherever they are grown. When the conditions are so adverse that the high yield potential Is no longer expressed, this Is considered to be the extreme of breeding possibilities, and increased productivity is assumed to be expected only by the Introduction of agronomic practices.It has been argued, however, that it is not the magnitude of genetic differences in a given environment, but their consistency in different environments, that plays a key role In deciding on the optimum environment for selection (Ceccarelli, 1989). This argument Is supported by the results of the simultaneous evaluation of the same genotypes (ranging from a minimum of 300 to a maximum of 800) in contrasting environments (Tel Hadya considered as nonstress, and Bouider considered as stressed environment). The comparison of the top yielding lines In each of the two environments (Table 9) indicates that differences in yield in absence of stress are to a large extent irrelevant under stress conditions regardless of how inheritable they are.The poor yields under stress of the lines with the largest yields in relatively wet conditions Indicate that selection has to be conducted under drought.Results from two cycles of selection conducted in the presence and absence of stress (CeccarelU, 1989) indicate that this conclusion depends on the definition of stress. As shown in Figure 4 If we define as unfavorable those environments where the average yield is about 3.0 t/ha, It is evident that the optimum environment for selection Is the more favorable one with grain yield of 6.0 t/ha where differences are high and relevant. Ho~ever, when the unfavorable environments we are breeding for have yields of about 1.0 t/ha, materials selected in the favorable environment are not expected to perform better than the local cultivars, and are expected to yield less than materials specifically selected for these environments. The environmental conditions conducive to yield levels of 3.0 t/ha or more, have a probability of occurrence of about lin 30 years.The major implication is that the optimum environment to select for stress conditions can be different for different crops and/or for different countries, depending on the maximum level of stress to which a given crop is likely to be exposed. From a physiological standpoint, attributes like C-13 discrimination, gas exchange parameters, growth vigor, leaf color, and stomatal adjustment have been identified as important under stress conditions. The lack of correlation of the stress indices between wet and dry years is also indicative of using the right selection environment.The Inclusion in the physiology nursery of lines derive through pure-line selection from locally adapted barley landraces was a critical factor in the process of trait identification and assessment.• The 190 families will be evaluated for the four traits and for yield both under dry and relatively wet conditions;• The analysis of the data will be based on contrasts between groups of lines which differ for the expression of one trait (for example prostrate versus erect growth habit) but with all possible combinations of the other three traits. The same analysis will be used for combinations of two, three, and four characters;• The efficiency of each selection criterion will be measured by the ratio between the yield difference associated with a given contrast and the yield difference between the two groups selected for high grain yield and low grain yield.• The experiment will permit a measure of realized heritability of the four characters both when selection and testing are done in the same environment and when selection and testing are done In contrasting environments. The realized heritability is defined as: h2 -R/S; where R (response to selection) will be measured against the random group and S Is the selection differential.• By comparing the relative efficiency of different selection criteria at Bouider and Tel Hadya It should be possible to validate conclusions on the expressions and combinations of characters which maximize yield in a stress and non-stress environment.We have launched a second type of selection experiment to verify the efficiency of using C-13 D as a selection criterion. The principles are the same as described above. We have made crosses between four parents with high C-13 D and two parents with low C-13 D, all of them being adapted lines. Within segregating populations resulting from these crosses we will select both for high and low C-13 D and for high and low yield. Direct and correlated responses to selection will be measured as well as correlations with traits such as those being verified In the other selection experiment.We need to reiterate that although selection for C-13 D will be based on single measurements this cannot be considered as single trait selection because of the integrative nature of C-13 D.We have attempted to discuss the role of a physiologist and a breeder In a breeding program for drought resistance. To meet this end, we presented our experience of three years work as a team in northern Syria.We hope that through the presentation the role of each discipline became clear. The discussion is biased by our backgrounds, experiences and expectations. Furthermore, we have chosen to present our data, which is limited, to illustrate the various points related to a physiology-breeding programOur work Is at the crop, plant and organ levels of organization. So far we have not attempted to go beyond this point. We see drought resistance more In a breeding context than in a physiological one. We are trying to understand adaptation to drought and verify identified traits through indirect selection experiments. We have chosen simple, easily screened traits with major relation to yield in dry Mediterranean environments.Comparisons between cereal species, particularly wheat and barley, as well as within species, naturally adapted versus improved genotypes, have provided essential clues to direct our work. The approach is helping to understand adaptation, to which drought resistance belongs.We miss in our team a physical scientist who should provide a better definition of the environments, because while we talk about drought resistance, we are in reality addressing several physical stresses associated to rainfed agriculture. The stresses are highly variable in time and space and we would like to have their probability of occurrence.The level of organization at which we have chosen to work is dictated by immediate and practical needs. This does not preclude us from using techniques developed at other levels, should they show their worth and relevance to our work. We are looking closely to biotechnological developments to speed our work. Another culture and bulbosum techniques have already been launched at ICARDA. Others like the use of RFLP, because of the possibilities offered to manipulate and map quantitative characters (Beckmann and Soller, 1986), have exciting perspectives.We are cautious with the single trait approach in physiology-breeding program. The evidence is that drought resistance is a multitrait phenomenon and we do not know a given trait would operate in different genetic backgrounds. One thing is clear for us: the progress made in breeding for drought resistance using naturally adapted material is order of magnitude higher than that achieved with regular improved germplasm. We have shown that several traits contribute to yield under drought and stability of yield in the naturally adapted genotypes.New \"integrative\" physiological screening techniques are becoming available such as C-13 discrimination, crop temperature, leaf desiccation. They have solid physiological bases. We see a promising future for physiology-breeding for dry environments.• •         '\"    ","tokenCount":"42576"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8b2ceae6481eacf427df54210324bf3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9a1df875-22f2-49e2-afa6-8d77a8b10786/retrieve","id":"980131697"},"keywords":["Zafar, S.A.","Arif, M.H.","Uzair, M.","Rashid, U.","Naeem, M.K.","Rehman, O.U.","Rehman, N.","Zaid, I.U.","Farooq, M.S.","Zahra, N.","et al green super rice","heat stress","pollen fertility","association","grain yield"],"sieverID":"9f722c09-a9d8-4cb3-b475-9ed876187030","pagecount":"17","content":"Optimum growing temperature is necessary for maximum yield-potential in any crop. The global atmospheric temperature is changing more rapidly and irregularly every year. High temperature at the flowering/reproductive stage in rice causes partial to complete pollen sterility, resulting in significant reduction in grain yield. Green Super Rice (GSR) is an effort to develop an elite rice type that can withstand multiple environmental stresses and maintain yield in different agroecological zones. The current study was performed to assess the effect of heat stress on agronomic and physiological attributes of GSR at flowering stage. Twenty-two GSR lines and four local checks were evaluated under normal and heat-stress conditions for different agro-physiological parameters, including plant height (PH), tillers per plant (TPP), grain yield per plant (GY), straw yield per plant (SY), harvest index (HI), 1000-grain weight (GW), grain length (GL), cell membrane stability (CMS), normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI), and pollen fertility percentage (PFP). Genotypes showed high significant variations for all the studied parameters except NDVI. Association and principal component analysis (PCA) explained the genetic diversity of the genotypes, and relationship between the particular parameters and grain yield. We found that GY, along with other agronomic traits, such as TPP, SY, HI, and CMS, were greatly affected by heat stress in most of the genotypes, while PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI were affected only in a few genotypes. Outperforming NGSR-16 and NGSR-18 in heat stress could be utilized as a parent for the development of heat-tolerant rice. Moreover, these findings will be helpful in the prevention and management of heat stress in rice.Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is considered as one of the most essential food crops around the world, especially Asia, Latin America, and Africa [1,2]. It constitutes nearly 20% of overall calorie intake worldwide [2], with up to 80% of calorie ingestion in Asia [3]. Global rice production is direly needed to increase at a growth rate of 1.0-1.2% and grain yield must increase by 0.6-0.9% annually to feed the rapidly growing population, comprising a projected increase of nearly 2 billion people up to the 2050s [4,5]. Agricultural crops are more prone to abiotic stresses due to irregular and unsteady climatic changes [6][7][8][9]. Atmospheric temperature is one of the most critical variables determining the seasonal temperature incidence on flowering impacts the growth, yield, and quality of rice. The acquired research knowledge will be the basis for sustainable GSR production systems and the breeding of novel rice genotypes in order to optimize the net grain yield and nutritional quality, ultimately moving towards human health by decreasing poverty in densely-populated rice regions.Healthy seeds of 22 green super rice (GSR) varieties and four local controls (IR-6, Kisan Basmati, Kashmir Basmati, and NIAB-B-2016) were obtained from CAAS, China, and NIGAB, Pakistan, respectively. Previously, Kashmir Basmati was reported as a heattolerant genotype, while the NIAB-B-2016 as a susceptible variant [23]. All four controls are normally high-yielding rice varieties grown in Pakistan. The seeds were sown at National Institute for Genomics and Advanced Biotechnology (NIGAB), National Agricultural Research Center (33.684 • N and 73.048 • E), Islamabad, Pakistan. During the rice growing season of 2020, the seeds of selected lines were placed in trays containing 128 wells filled with a mixture of soil, sand, and peat moss, all containing essential nutrients. The transplantation of the 35-days-old seedlings was carried out on 20 July 2020. For this purpose, randomized complete block design (split plot) with three replicates was followed. Two sets of 26 genotypes were transplanted in the field (one for control and one for heat). Each plot consisted of five rows with 10 plants each. Row-to-row and plant-to-plant distance were kept at 30 cm [4]. Recommended agronomic practices were followed.At the flowering stage (pre-anthesis), a tunnel was prepared to cover the plants with a polythene sheet and high temperature was maintained (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45) • C) to apply heat stress from 10:00 a.m. to 03:00 p.m. After 03:00 pm, polythene sheets were removed daily to reduce the temperature (25-35 • C). Morpho-physiological parameters were recorded at maturity from the central five randomly-selected plants in order to remove the border effect [47]. After heat exposure, a pollen fertility test was performed for all genotypes to screen out heat-susceptible genotypes. All fresh leaf samples were collected and stored at −80 • C for further analysis.In the last week of the heat stress, the flag leaf samples from control and stressed plants were collected in pre-labeled 20 mL glass tubes. The leaf segments were treated with distilled water used for conductivity measurements. Cell membrane thermostability was measured by following the method of [48] and following formula:where T and C refer to stressed and control plants, respectively. T1 and T2 are electrode conductance measurements before and after autoclave, while C1 and C2 are electrode conductivity measurements before and after autoclave.A pollen fertility test was performed for all 26 genotypes following the method of [4] using light microscope (Nikon digital sight DS-Fi2). Spikelets were collected from the heat-treated plants on the following day in the morning before anthesis and preserved in formaldehyde solution (FAA). FAA was prepared with 1:1:18 ratio of formaldehyde, acetic acid, and ethanol, respectively. Anthers were placed on slide and pollens were extracted by crushing the anthers with the help of forceps. Then 50 µL of 1% potassium iodide (I 2 -KI) solution was added to the slide and covered with cover slip for visualization under compound microscope. Pollens that stained black with a circular shape were counted as fertile, while the irregular red-orange pollens were considered sterile [31]. At the end, pollen fertility percentage (PFP) was calculated as followed:No. of fertile pollens Total No. of pollens × 100 2.4. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index)NDVI is a spectral calculation of the density of the green vegetations on a specific area. For NDVI, data was recorded from the three replicates, where a GreenSeeker TM Handheld Optical Sensor Unit (NTech Industries, Inc., Ukiah, CA, USA) was used, kept one meter above the plants during measurement [49].At the maturity stage, following agronomics parameters; plant height (PH, cm), number of tillers per plant (TPP), grain yield per plant (GY, g), straw yield per plant (SY, g), harvest index (HI) calculated by GY/total biomass, 1000-grain weight (GW, g), grain length (GL, mm), and normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) were recorded. The heat susceptibility index (HSI) was measured for grain yield by using the formula:where Y is the grain yield under heat stress genotypes and Y p is the grain yield of genotypes under normal conditions. D is the stress intensity, which is measured by the formula:where X is the mean of the grain yield of heat stress genotypes and X p is the mean of grain yield of genotypes under normal conditions [24].Recorded morpho-physiological data were analyzed with the help of Excel 2019. Analysis of variance and heritability were calculated in R. Packages \"corrplot\", \"Ggally\" and \"factoextra\" were used for correlation and principal component analysis.Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to study the genetic differences among the genotypes, and trait-genotype biplots were constructed from data recorded under control and heat stress (Figure 1). Under control conditions, PC1 and PC2 captured the 31.7% and 26.8% of the total variations (Figure 1A). Our results explained that GY, HI, GW, and NDVI showed opposite response to GL, PH, TPP, and SY. The GSR lines were more conserved because they were clustered near the origin, while the check varieties Kisan Basmati, Kashmir Basmati, NIAB-B-2016, and IR-6 showed more genetic variability because they spread far away from the center of origin (Figure 1A). Similarly, under heat stress, PC1 and PC2 showed 34.8% and 21.7% variations, respectively (Figure 1B). PFP, NDVI, HI, and GY were in opposite direction to the rest of the studied parameters (TPP, PH, SY, GL, GW, and HSI). In contrast to control conditions, both the GSR and check varieties fall away from the origin, which suggests that genotypes were more responsive to heat stress compared to the control (Figure 1B). Importantly, NGSR-3, NGSR-13, Kashmir Basmati and IR-6 were found near the apex of the biplot under heat stress, suggesting that these genotypes have the distinct genetic potential of the best tolerance to heat stress compared to others (Figure 1B). NDVI, HI, and GY were in opposite direction to the rest of the studied parameters (TPP, PH, SY, GL, GW, and HSI). In contrast to control conditions, both the GSR and check varieties fall away from the origin, which suggests that genotypes were more responsive to heat stress compared to the control (Figure 1B). Importantly, NGSR-3, NGSR-13, Kashmir Basmati and IR-6 were found near the apex of the biplot under heat stress, suggesting that these genotypes have the distinct genetic potential of the best tolerance to heat stress compared to others (Figure 1B).  To study the significant differences between the genotypes and heat treatment, the morpho-physiological data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results showed highly significant variations (p < 0.001) among the genotypes for all the studied parameters except NDVI (Table 1). Heat stress also showed a highly significant effect on the studied parameters except GW and NDVI. The interactions of genotypes × treatment were also highly significant (p < 0.001) for PH, SY, HI, and PFP. GY varied significantly (p < 0.05), while TPP, GW, GL, and NDVI were non-significant (Table 1). It is important to note that ANOVA showed significant effects of heat stress on most traits; however, heat stress affected PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI in only a few genotypes and did not show a considerable effect overall (Figures 2-5).         Heat stress significantly reduced the GY and affected other yield-contributing agronomic traits, namely TPP, SY, HI, and CMS, in most of the studied GSR and local genotypes (Figures 2-5). However, the traits PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI were not affected in most of the studied genotypes and probably do not play a role in grain yield variations (Figures 2-5). Regarding the PH, we did not observe a very strong effect of heat stress on the tested genotypes (Figure 2A). Although it decreased overall, PH was considerably decreased in NGSR-1, NGSR-19, IR-6, and Kashmir Basmati under heat stress (Figure 2A). TPP and GY were decreased significantly under heat stress in most of the genotypes, except for Kashmir Basmati (Figure 2B,C). Overall reduction in the TPP was more obvious in GSR lines as compared to controls and Kashmir Basmati was the genotype with maximum (42.33) TPP (Figure 2B). For the GY, we observed a 5.68-86.52% decrease under heat  , C). Data was mean ± SE of three replicates. Tuckey's test was used for statistical differences. Different letters above the column varied significantly at p < 0.05.Heat stress significantly reduced the GY and affected other yield-contributing agronomic traits, namely TPP, SY, HI, and CMS, in most of the studied GSR and local genotypes (Figures 2-5). However, the traits PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI were not affected in most of the studied genotypes and probably do not play a role in grain yield variations (Figures 2-5). Regarding the PH, we did not observe a very strong effect of heat stress on the tested genotypes (Figure 2A). Although it decreased overall, PH was considerably decreased in NGSR-1, NGSR-19, IR-6, and Kashmir Basmati under heat stress (Figure 2A). TPP and GY were decreased significantly under heat stress in most of the genotypes, except for Kashmir Basmati (Figure 2B,C). Overall reduction in the TPP was more obvious in GSR lines as compared to controls and Kashmir Basmati was the genotype with maximum (42.33) TPP (Figure 2B). For the GY, we observed a 5.68-86.52% decrease under heat stress. Interestingly, NGSR-16 and Kashmir Basmati showed no or little reduction in GY under heat stress and proved to be relatively heat-tolerant genotypes. Of all the genotypes, type IR-6 (11.83 g) was the worst performer and showed the maximum reduction (81.86%) under heat stress.SY is another important agronomic trait that determines the overall plant biomass. We observed a sharp increase in SY in most genotypes under heat stress compared to the normal conditions (Figure 2D). The GSR lines NGSR-13 (197.17 g), NGSR-14 (178.5 g), and NGSR-16 (169.67 g) were the highest SY producers and showed a 39.84%, 46.47%, and 41.42% increase in SY, respectively (Figure 2D). The increase in SY suggest that plants have increased their vegetative growth and reduced their reproductive growth, which could be an avoidance mechanism.HI is an important indicator of genotype performance, and a significant reduction in the HI was observed in all the studied genotypes except Kashmir Basmati (Figure 3A). It reduced from 0.40 to 0.07 but an overall less reduction was observed in GSR lines as compared to non-GSR checks (Figure 3A). The GSR lines NGSR-21 (0.40), NGSR-19 (0.34), NGSR-4 (0.33), and NGSR-2 (0.33) were the best performers. Highest reduction was observed in our high-temperature sensitive checks IR-6 (0.07), followed by Kisan Basmati (0.14) and NIAB-B-2016 (0.18).Previously, drought-and heat-susceptibility indices have been widely used for the identification of tolerant genotypes, and genotypes with low values are considered tolerant ones [4,24,50]. Based on the heat susceptibility index (HSI), the GSR lines NGSR-16 and NGSR-18 showed the minimum HSI values 0.38 and 0.65, respectively, showing their maximum heat tolerance level. While the control variant Kashmir Basmati showed the minimum (0.11) HSI (Figure 3D). In contrast, the highest HSI was observed for NGSR-13 (1.72) and IR-6 (1.63), indicating the least heat tolerance in these genotypes. Overall, GSR lines performed well as compared to studied controls.Pollen fertility has been used as an important indicator for the identification of heattolerant genotypes because it influences the seed setting and, ultimately, the grain yield. However, we observed the significant effect of heat stress on pollen fertility in only NIAB-B-2016, while all the remaining genotypes showed a higher fertility under heat stress. Most of the GSR genotypes were completely fertile under heat stress, and maximum sterility was observed in NGSR-1 (10.66%) and NGSR-13 (9.07%) (Figures 4 and 5A). These results suggest that these genotypes used some tolerance mechanism to avoid the deleterious effect of heat stress on PFP, and there were some other factors responsible for the reduction in grain yield under heat stress.To monitor the health of a plant, remote sensing is widely used, and data collected from NDVI can be utilized in the identification of tolerance. In this study, we observed that there was no significant reduction in GSR lines as well as controls. The genotypes NGSR-2, NGSR-11, and the control variants IR-6 and Kissan Basmati showed the maximum (>0.7) value of NDVI. Minimum NDVI was observed in NGSR-3 and NGSR-13, while the NIAB-B-2016 showed the minimum NDVI among the control variants (Figure 5B). These results indicate that the GSR lines have the ability to maintain the growth rate under heat stress.CMS is used to assess the stress tolerance ability of plant cells under abiotic stresses. We observed that most of the GSR lines showed higher CMS% than the controls except NGSR-5, NGSR-14, NGSR-15, NGSR-21, and NGSR-22. Highest CMS% was observed in NGSR-3, followed by NGSR-9, NGSR-13, and NGSR-16, while Kashmir Basmati showed the maximum CMS% of the control variants (Figure 5C).Knowledge of association among the yield, yield-related, and other agronomic parameters is very important because it provide the basic information regarding the selection of certain parameters, which can be utilized as marker of grain yield improvement. In control conditions (Figure 6A), PH showed positive highly significant association with TPP (r = 0.62 ***) and a negative but significant association with GY (r = −0.40 *) and HI (r = −0.65 ***). TPP negatively associated with HI (r = −0.50 *) and NDVI (r = −0.43 *). GY showed highly positive association (r = 0.65 ***) with HI. SY showed a negative but significant association with NDVI (r = −0.42 *) and HI (r = −0.49 *). There was a highly significant association between GL and GW (r = 0.65 ***).Similarly, under heat stress, PH showed a positive association with TPP (r = 0.63 ***), SY (r = 0.51 **), and GL (r = 0.40 *). PH also showed a negative but significant association with HI (r = −0.39 *) and NDVI (r = −0.44 *, Figure 6B). GY showed a highly significant association with HI (r = 0.89 ***) and a negative but highly significant association with HSI (r = −0.88 ***). HI and SY also showed a negative but significant association (r = −0.74 ***). Similarly, HI showed a negative association with HSI (r = −0.72 ***).Knowledge of association among the yield, yield-related, and other agronomic p rameters is very important because it provide the basic information regarding the sel tion of certain parameters, which can be utilized as marker of grain yield improveme In control conditions (Figure 6A), PH showed positive highly significant association w TPP (r = 0.62 ***) and a negative but significant association with GY (r = -0.40 *) and H = -0.65 ***). TPP negatively associated with HI (r = -0.50 *) and NDVI (r = -0.43 *). G showed highly positive association (r = 0.65 ***) with HI. SY showed a negative but sign icant association with NDVI (r = -0.42 *) and HI (r = -0.49 *). There was a highly significa association between GL and GW (r = 0.65 ***).Similarly, under heat stress, PH showed a positive association with TPP (r = 0.63 ** SY (r = 0.51 **), and GL (r = 0.40 *). PH also showed a negative but significant associati with HI (r = -0.39 *) and NDVI (r = -0.44 *, Figure 6B). GY showed a highly significa association with HI (r = 0.89 ***) and a negative but highly significant association with H (r = -0.88 ***). HI and SY also showed a negative but significant association (r = -0.74 ** Similarly, HI showed a negative association with HSI (r = -0.72 ***).  Rice is a very important cereal crop for majority of the world's population [51]. P viously, it had been reported that the origin of rice varieties was not related to the deg of heat tolerance [52]. In general, the different growth stages of rice behave differen towards heat stress, but the flowering stage is a particularly sensitive stage [53]. Previo studies showed that rice production was optimum at 32-36 °C and a reduction in yi was observed at higher temperatures beyond that level [32,53,54]. The global climate changing rapidly, and during the 21st century the expected increase in the earth's temp ature will be 2 to 4.5 °C [55]. Climate is intrinsically connected with agriculture and increase in temperature will significantly reduce crop production [11,56]. It is report that with every 1°C increase in temperature, rice production will decrease by 2.6% [5 The population of the world is also increasing day by day and is expected to reach 9 billi by 2050. Keeping in mind the increasing temperature and population and its deman green super rice (GSR) was developed through the utilization of the world's b germplasm material (Figure 7). GSR has the potential to cope different environmen Rice is a very important cereal crop for majority of the world's population [51]. Previously, it had been reported that the origin of rice varieties was not related to the degree of heat tolerance [52]. In general, the different growth stages of rice behave differently towards heat stress, but the flowering stage is a particularly sensitive stage [53]. Previous studies showed that rice production was optimum at 32-36 • C and a reduction in yield was observed at higher temperatures beyond that level [32,53,54]. The global climate is changing rapidly, and during the 21st century the expected increase in the earth's temperature will be 2 to 4.5 • C [55]. Climate is intrinsically connected with agriculture and an increase in temperature will significantly reduce crop production [11,56]. It is reported that with every 1 • C increase in temperature, rice production will decrease by 2.6% [57]. The population of the world is also increasing day by day and is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050. Keeping in mind the increasing temperature and population and its demand, green super rice (GSR) was developed through the utilization of the world's best germplasm material (Figure 7). GSR has the potential to cope different environmental stresses and maintain an overall grain yield [44]. Furthermore, to our knowledge, GSR lines have never been evaluated for heat stress. In this study, twenty-two GSR lines, along with four local Pakistani varieties (controls), were studied under normal and heat stress conditions for grain yield and morphophysiological parameters. Several morpho-physiological parameters collectively contribute to the grain yield [5,24,58]. In this study, we observed a significant reduction in TPP, SY, HI, CMS, and, ultimately, the GY, for most of the genotypes under heat stress. However, certain traits, including PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI, were less affected under heat stress and probably contributed towards overall heat tolerance. In general, the GSR lines were less affected as compared to local varieties for several traits, showing their potential for breeding heat-tolerant rice cultivars. This was possibly due to GSR having more photosynthates than the control varieties because they might absorb more resources or nutrients in a short period of time [59,60].Heat stress at the flowering or anthesis stage caused pollen sterility, which may lead to the failure of fertilization and ultimately reduction in yield [11]. Pollen sterility, in most cases, is a major reason for reduced grain production in rice under heat stress [24]. Surprisingly, we did not observe a considerable loss of PFP under heat stress, showing that reduced pollen fertility is not a reason for reduced GY (Figure 4). Compatible with this finding, we observed an increase in SY under heat stress in most of the genotypes, suggesting that plants increased their vegetative growth and slowed down their reproductive growth, which is an important avoidance mechanism for heat tolerance. Heat stress causes cell injury, which leads to the leakage of ions in the susceptible genotypes [61]. The genotypes which show better cell membrane stability under heat stress are generally considered to be heat tolerant [24,62]. However, we did not observe a very straightforward trend In this study, twenty-two GSR lines, along with four local Pakistani varieties (controls), were studied under normal and heat stress conditions for grain yield and morphophysiological parameters. Several morpho-physiological parameters collectively contribute to the grain yield [5,24,58]. In this study, we observed a significant reduction in TPP, SY, HI, CMS, and, ultimately, the GY, for most of the genotypes under heat stress. However, certain traits, including PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI, were less affected under heat stress and probably contributed towards overall heat tolerance. In general, the GSR lines were less affected as compared to local varieties for several traits, showing their potential for breeding heat-tolerant rice cultivars. This was possibly due to GSR having more photosynthates than the control varieties because they might absorb more resources or nutrients in a short period of time [59,60].Heat stress at the flowering or anthesis stage caused pollen sterility, which may lead to the failure of fertilization and ultimately reduction in yield [11]. Pollen sterility, in most cases, is a major reason for reduced grain production in rice under heat stress [24]. Surprisingly, we did not observe a considerable loss of PFP under heat stress, showing that reduced pollen fertility is not a reason for reduced GY (Figure 4). Compatible with this finding, we observed an increase in SY under heat stress in most of the genotypes, suggesting that plants increased their vegetative growth and slowed down their reproductive growth, which is an important avoidance mechanism for heat tolerance. Heat stress causes cell injury, which leads to the leakage of ions in the susceptible genotypes [61]. The genotypes which show better cell membrane stability under heat stress are generally considered to be heat tolerant [24,62]. However, we did not observe a very straightforward trend of CMS with GY, suggesting that it may not be very reliable to screen tolerant genotypes only based on CMS. In addition, prolonged multi-generational heat stress at the flowering stage may cause the accumulation of mutations that enable the plants to become acclimated under heat stress conditions [63]. In the current study, we found NGSR-16 to be the most heat-tolerant GSR line as it showed a minimum or no reduction in the GY, TPP, HI, TGW, and CMS compared to rest of the GSR lines. Among the local variants and overall, Kashmir Basmati outperformed in all the traits with the least reduction in GY under heat stress compared to the control, suggesting a better source of breeding heat-tolerant cultivars. Kashmir Basmati has previously been identified as a heat-tolerant cultivar in a separate study in Pakistan [23]. It is interesting to note that Kashmir Basmati was originally bred in Pakistan as a cold-tolerant rice cultivar for the Kashmir region, where it tolerates cold stress by producing heat shock proteins [64]. This suggests that there could be a common mechanism for cold-and heat-tolerance, possibly involving heat shock proteins, which needs to be further studied to understand the biochemical mechanism of heat tolerance in GSR.Stress breeding programs depend on the reliable selection indices to screen good germplasm. Thus, it is important to evaluate the association between the final yield and other agronomic indices. We used correlation and PCA analyses to study the association of GY with other traits. Results showed that the GY had a significant positive association with HI but a negative correlation with GW and GL, suggesting that increasing the GW and GL may decrease the final GY probably via decreasing the total number of grains. Thus, an optimum GW and GL would be required for an optimum GY, which involves a sophisticated balance of source-sink translocation.This study was conducted to evaluate the heat tolerance potential of 22 elite GSR lines in comparison with local varieties as controls in Pakistan. We observed a significant variation among the studied germplasm for heat tolerance and identified several heattolerant GSR lines that could be used as a genetic resource for breeding programs. We found that GY, along with other morpho-physiological traits, such as TPP, SY, HI, and CMS, were seriously affected by heat stress in most of the genotypes, while PH, GW, GL, PFP, and NDVI were affected only in a few genotypes. Future studies are required to explore the underlying molecular and physiological mechanisms of heat tolerance in the selected tolerant genotypes. ","tokenCount":"4390"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22f880de29dbaec89b6caf9fdf5775f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d3381ed-d52b-416e-a320-654db8627053/retrieve","id":"-2125282554"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5a6f1136-a140-4cf9-ab83-09692ae0a971","pagecount":"21","content":"1. Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in sub-Saharan Africa constituting about 31% of the ruminant livestock (camels, cattle, sheep and goats) of East Africa (FAO Production Yearbook, 1988). Needless to say, livestock play significant roles in the national economy of Ethiopia. In aggregate, the livestock sector accounts for about 15% of the total GDP and 33% of the agricultural GDP without taking account of the value of draft power and manure (Jahnke, 1982). In contrast, only about 5% of the total GDP and 18% of the agricultural GDP in sub-Saharan Africa is accounted for by this sector (Anteneh et al, 1988).2. In Ethiopia, next to coffee, livestock exports (live animals and livestock products) constitute a major source of foreign exchange. In 1986, exports of livestock accounted for 17% and 18% of the gross value of the total merchandise (US$ 399 million, 1981-1986 average) and agricultural exports (US$ 368 million, 1981(US$ 368 million, -1986 average) average) respectively. Excluding coffee, livestock exports alone represent 68% of the value of agricultural exports, 87% of this being accounted for by exports of hides and skins (FAO Trade Yearbook, 1987). In comparison, livestock exports accounted for 2% of all sub-Saharan Africa's merchandise exports in the mid-1980s (Anteneh et al, 1988).3. In the highlands, livestock provide about 53% of the value of the total farm output (again excluding the value of draft power) and more than 80% of farmer's cash income (Gryseels and Getachew A., 1985). In the lowlands, pastoralists derive well over 90% of their cash income from livestock (Anteneh, 1989). Draft power, notably in the central highlands, is a critical input, worth a great deal of value and playing a pivotal role in the prevailing traditional mixed farming system.4. Following the radical Rural Land Reform Decree of 1975, the Ethiopian Government has made vigorous attempts to organize the rural population into peasant associations (PAs), service cooperatives (SCs) and producers' cooperatives (PCs). The wide spectrum of related objectives and goals include the transformation of the subsistence farming into a well developed commercial agriculture which can take full advantage of improved technology and economies of scale.5. As regards livestock development, particularly dairying, the government's intention has been to promote medium-and large-scale operations through the producers cooperatives and parastatals. To this end, most of the private commercial dairy farms on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and other big cities were nationalized. However, the nationalization effort has not generally resulted in great economic advantage. Livestock enterprises taken over by the parastatals or managed by cooperatives have shown no visible success over the last 15 years or so.6. The paper generally discusses policy and institutional issues related to the topic in postrevolution Ethiopia. In this connection, there seem to be at least two specific questions to be addressed: (1) whether cooperative organizations present a threat to or an opportunity for fostering livestock development in the peasant sector; (2) whether livestock investment provided to the peasant sector is adequate or in conformity with the interests and objectives of the participating farmers. Within this context, the paper attempts to present a brief firsthand account (based largely on personal observations and field visits by the author) of the prevailing situation, with a particular focus on the central highlands. It also considers alternative development options in an effort to stimulate discussion and induce a more in-depth research on the subject.7. The first part of the paper summarizes the physical resource base and the farming systems of the central highlands. Part two highlights the performance of the livestock sector and provides a very brief picture of the institutions involved in livestock development. Also this part examines the situation of livestock development in these institutions with particular reference to the dairy sector. The third part surveys livestock investments made available by government, non-government organizations and formal credit institutions. The strategic policy issues in livestock development in the peasant sector are discussed in the fourth part. Part five explores the future prospects and the options available for developing the sector. Finally, the paper presents the conclusions and policy implications.The physical resource base and the farming system of the central highlands 8. Ethiopia alone accounts for about 50% of the total highland zone in tropical Africa. The highlands zone represents 40% of the total land mass of the country where well over 80% of the human and 75% of the total livestock population are found. The central highlands on which this paper focuses constitute about 26% of the total highland area in the country. The central highlands are characterized by an altitude ranging from 1800-2700 m.a.s.l. and an annual precipitation of 700-1200 mm with an estimated growing period of 150-300 days, and a mean temperature of 13-19°C. Vertisols and cambisols are the most pervasive soil types in the region. Mixed farming is the dominant production system in these areas. (Assefa, 1989, drawing from various sources).9. The major grain and livestock producing regions of the country -Arsi, Gojjam and Shoamake up nearly 50% of the central highlands. Approximately 64% of the total area of Arsi, 54% of Gojjam and 38% of Shoa are regarded as high potential mixed farming areas. In these regions, about 85% of the rural population is engaged in traditional mixed farming, while only 13.6% and 1.4% are estimated to specialize in crop and livestock production respectively. (PPD/MOA, 1984).10. In general, the performance of Ethiopia's livestock sector is disturbingly poor. It does not even compare favourably with the average performances of East Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative data on the total output level and growth rates of selected commodities are provided in Table 1. Source: Anteneh (1989).11. The significant share of Ethiopia in East Africa's total output is certainly attributable mainly to the size of the livestock population rather than productivity as will be observed below. The growth rates, particularly of beef and cow milk, vis-à-vis the average human population growth rate of 2.9% becomes a major cause for concern in Ethiopia.12. Similarly, as Table 2 shows, the yield levels for meat and milk are much lower in Ethiopia than the average figures for East Africa and SSA. Peasant Associations (PAs)16. Peasant associations (PAs) by definition are mass rural organizations (at grassroots level) with an average 280 household members and a total landholding of about 800 hectares per PA. In peasant associations where PCs have not been formed and also where smallholders have not had any livestock credit services, the manner of grazing land allocation and utilization and the mode of production and livestock keeping in general have remained the same as in the pre-land reform period. In these circumstances, private as well as communal grazing land continue to be the main sources of feed. The traditional extensive management system still prevails. Where smallholders receive credit through SCs, AIDE obtains assurance that adequate pasture land, ranging from 1.5-2 ha. per adult animal, would be allocated for each participating farmer. It has, however, proved very difficult for the bank to verify this landholding on the spot. 17. In contrast, in PAs where PCs have been formed it is not uncommon to reserve extensive grazing land of relatively good quality for use exclusively by PCs. As a direct consequence, non-PC members' animals are restricted to grazing small and marginal private as well as communal grazing lands. In these situations severe soil erosion and land degradation resulting from overstocking constitute a major concern.18. As will be noted in subsequent discussions, some individual smallholders who are members of PAs have been participating, in dairy, beef fattening and draft oxen loans for some time now. Generally, however, government policy has given low priority to the promotion of individual-ownership small-holder dairy enterprises in the peasant sector. It is only recently that the government started supporting such programs on an extended scale in the postrevolution period -e.g. the Government of Finland supported Selale Peasant Dairy Development Project.Service Cooperatives (SCs)19. Service cooperatives (SCs) representing an affiliation of 3 to 10 PAs, are established to facilitate the bulk purchase and supply of inputs and farm implements, and to provide, in the main, produce marketing, milling as well as shopping services to member PAs. Apart from providing these essential services, a large number of SCs in various regions have in the past been actively involved in dairy farming using hired management. While their direct participation in production activities had been questioned from the outset, their extremely poor standard of management has additionally precipitated the fast closure of most of the SCs' dairy farms. Service cooperatives are now in principle barred from direct participation in dairy production.Producer Cooperatives (PCs) 20. Producer cooperatives (PCs), whose nuclei start in PAs, are institutions where the means of production are collectively owned and utilized. PCs can be formed with a minimum of 3 households and become legal entities with a membership size of at least 30 households, provided other preconditions for economic viability are fulfilled. In full-fledged PCs, where all members of the PAs have become members there can be no privately owned grazing land. This means, all privately owned animals would have to be kept on communal grazing land outside the PC holding. Some cooperatives have altogether abandoned individual ownership of animals due to the critical shortage of pasture land.21. Invariably, PCs' oxen and improved dairy animals have priority over privately owned animals in the allocation of pasture land (0.5 ha/ox and 1-2 ha/cow and its followers, on average). Consequently, as pointed out earlier, privately owned animals are destined to poorly managed and marginal lands. This special attention given to PC-owned animals has in fact aggravated the overstocking of communal grazing land. For this reason, PC managed livestock activities are generally resented by non-PC members as well as PC members.22. Cultivated fodder production to supplement natural pasture is not wide-spread, and even where it has been introduced the scale of operation is limited to 1-3 ha. Also concentrate feeding is not generally encouraged on grounds of its cost implications, though it is not part of government policy to discourage concentrate feed use.23. In some PCs, inadequate pasture and shortage of water have seriously hampered livestock activities. In others, where dairying has not been started and where cooperative activity is confined to crop production, livestock development has been relegated to mere oxen keeping. In some localities where improved sheep raising has been started, a rule-of-thumb pasture land allocation of 0.2 ha/adult sheep is followed, but with increasing pressure this does not seem to be sustainable in the future.24. PC operated farms are in general also more intensively cultivated with virtually no fallow land, and they do not follow strict crop rotation systems either. As a consequence, especially in areas where livestock density is considerably high even the dairy animals are reduced to a scavenging status along with sheep, goats and poultry. Due to the existing demarcation of landholding between PAs, the free movement of animals for grazing from one locality (PA) to another has become almost impossible.25. All in all, PC dairy farms have not performed well even where the resource endowment is considered adequate. The productivity of cross-bred cows (F 1 ) in PCs is limited to a maximum of about 1500 Its/lactation on average, while 2000-2500 lts/per lactation is the expected yield level under reasonably good management. However, more worrisome at the moment is the sudden disruption of PC-managed dairy activities in the face of the unexpected dissolution of a large number of such cooperatives across the country.Parastatals 26. The existing state-run dairy enterprises (15 in total) on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and other big cities, with the exception of 2 or 3, are ones which were taken over from private operators. Among the first nationalized dairy farms, some 3 were closed down, some have been consolidated and rehabilitated, and some have been restructured. Only 2 or at most 3 new state-run dairy farms have been established during the post-revolution period.27. All the major dairy processing plants including the Shola Milk Processing Plant in Addis Ababa are state owned and operated by the Dairy Development Enterprise (DDE). In 1987 and1988, the state farms supplied on average about 36% of the total annual fresh milk throughput of the Shola Milk Processing Plant. In the same period, the supply by smallholders (through collection centers) and private commercial dairy farmers accounted for 32% and 6% respectively. Imported milk powder (including food aid) used to reconstitute milk accounted for the remaining 26%.Private Commercial Farms 28. Some of the privately owned small and medium size commercial dairy farms have been seriously disrupted to the point of bankruptcy, and far worse, some have been altogetherabandoned. Due to the critical feed shortage, ascribed mainly to the land tenure system, and other technical and non-technical constraints, only some six private commercial dairy farms have been considered viable enough for bank financing in the post-revolution period.  3 shows, out of the total agricultural loans disbursed during this period, the share of the state farms was about 79%, while that of the peasant sector (cooperatives and smallholders combined) was only 21%. The proportion of the total credit going to livestock development as a whole has remained low and on average accounted for only 3% of total agricultural loans. Again the parastatals took the major share with 73% of the total value of loans disbursed to the livestock sector. The peasant sector and private commercial livestock activities constituted 25% and 2% respectively. Close to 94% of livestock development loans to the peasant sector were loans disbursed for the purchase of oxen as shown in Table 4. Within the peasant sector, where individual operators contribute most to agricultural output including livestock, producer cooperatives take almost two-thirds of AIDB livestock production loans (i.e. excluding oxen loans). Two important premises underpinned government policy to support greater investment in the state sector and producer cooperatives compared to individual smallholder or the private commercial sector. These are that the state sector and producer cooperatives will have greater capacity to utilize more \"modern\" technologies as well as demonstrate greater efficiency deriving from positive economies of scale. There is as yet no verifiable evidence that this is borne out by the performance of these organizations over the past 15 years or so.Cooperatives and Mixed Farming 38. The importance of mixed farming has been steadily declining in producer cooperative farms. From among the existing producer cooperatives, only some 29% practice traditional mixed farming, maintaining the crop and livestock associations under one management unit and the horizontal integration between the two enterprises through the use of draft oxen. About 70% are engaged exclusively in crop production, but maintain the horizontal integration of crop and livestock productions. The remaining 1% operate specialized livestock enterprises. Draft oxen alone account for about 87% of the livestock population in producer cooperative farms (PPD/MOA, 1984). The large oxen population reflects the prevailing strong emphasis on crop production resulting in the negligence of conventional livestock development activities such as dairy, sheep, etc. In view of this, it will not be an exaggeration to generalize that livestock development in PCs (with some exceptions) has been reduced to oxen keeping. Even oxen have been losing their multiple function in terms of transport and threshing services. In addition, the widespread mismanagement of crop residues and non-use of manure for fertilizer, probably due to cost considerations in collection and distribution, have impeded the crop-livestock integration effort.39. Development finance institutions should also help more in furthering the idea of feasible integration. For example, in some cooperatives where crop and livestock enterprises are promoted side by side, their financial viabilities are evaluated independent of each other without proper account of their economic interaction (complementary and/or supplementary relationships) within the context of a mixed farming concept.40. There is a general impression that mixed farming can be more easily reinforced at smallholders level, in comparison to cooperatives, for several reasons: animal power can provide at least triple functions -traction, threshing and transport. At the same time, proper utilization of crop residues, rotation with fodder crops and fallowing will substantially reduce the burden on the natural pasture. Additionally, effective use of manuring would reduce the demand for fertilizer. All these in general have not been promoted in producer cooperatives probably due to the relative ease with which alternatives (e.g. tractors motorized transport, fertilizer etc.) are made available to them as a matter of government policy.Cooperatives and Pasture Land Availability 41. Crop production has been and will probably remain the primary activity of PCs for a long time to come. Crop land allotment of about 2.5 ha. per household member is more or less a standard in PCs so long as arable land is available. In contrast, no pasture land is allocated to individual members. The common practice is, as indicated earlier, that pasture land adequate enough to support PC owned animals is first set aside to the cooperatives and the rest is left for communal grazing for non-PC members. Measurement of pasture land is a rare practice and hence very few cooperatives know precisely the size of their holdings. This is further compounded by the absence of livestock inventory. Consequently, determination of the optimal carrying capacity of the available pasture land is becoming increasingly difficult. In these circumstances, both physical and financial plans in this sector have been mostly based on intelligent guesses. In other respects, service cooperatives (SCs) often claim to have abundant grazing land in their PAs in order to obtain livestock credit. Appraisals of loan requests should consider that individual farmers tend to maximize their benefit from the communally held grazing land without being much concerned about its conservation.42. In recent years, some effort has been made in the genetic improvement of the local dairy animals through cross breeding. However, there has, hitherto been no concrete and binding breeding policy with regard to the choice of the exotic breed types to be crossed with the indigenous animals and the corresponding exotic blood level of the crosses. A study proposal by the Ministry of Agriculture regarding such policy has been submitted for decision by government but has yet to receive formal approval.43. The study proposes Friesian and Jersey crosses with local Zebu (Borana, Arsi, Horro, Barka, Fogera) with exotic blood levels, of 50-75% to smallholders. The choice of the Friesian and Jersey breeds will be contingent upon, among other factors, feed availability and the potential market for liquid milk. Jersey crosses will be the choice where these constraints appear insurmountable at least in the short-run. (AFRD, 1986).44. So far Friesian crosses with Borana and Arsi are the foundation stocks in cooperative dairy farms. The Arsi crosses are less popular in regions other than Arsi mainly due to their poor productivity (on average 3 Its/day) and bad temper, though some experts argue that their low feed requirement offer a great advantage. The partial supply of Arsi crosses in the IFAD supported cooperative dairy farms and in the Finnish supported smallholder dairy farms (both in Shoa region) has already resulted in a mounting dissatisfaction. As part of the promotional effort, in-calf heifers (Borana x Friesian and Arsi x Friesian) supplied to cooperatives are highly subsidized; unfortunately, availability of heifers has proved to be a major constraint.45. There has been some but much less strict and direct government interventions in the marketing and pricing of live animals and livestock products of the peasant and private commercial sectors. The prevailing primary market government price for cattle is Birr 1.40-1.50 per kg liveweight. Cooperatives and smallholders within a 100 km radius of Addis Ababa are expected to deliver their milk to the collection centers of the Dairy Development Enterprise (DDE) at Birr 0.50/lt. In the face of far better open market prices (up to Birr 0.85/lt.), and most importantly, the alternative of getting into the high-priced cooking butter market, the government's fixed milk price can hardly be expected to continue to attract many smallholders and private commercial dairy farmers to deliver to the DDE. The present average daily throughput of the Shola milk processing plant in Addis Ababa is in the region of 25-30,000 Its/day as against a theoretical capacity of 60,000 Its/day. Given the idle capacity of the plant and the concurrent unsatisfied demand for milk in Addis Ababa, a review of milk marketing and pricing policy appears imperative. (i) most obviously, government intervention is based on a top-down development approach which has led to the imposition of ideas, frequent coercion and virtual control. The participation at the grassroots level has hardly been more than a token gesture;(ii) PCs are as a rule organized on a large scale (e.g. in 1986 there were 1021 members in the Yetnora Producers Cooperative in Gojjam region) and communications and decision-making have become too bureaucratised, creating serious management problems;(iii) lack of incentives: the remuneration system based on labour points accumulated does not induce higher labour productivity and as a result the enthusiasm for active participation is very low;(iv) fixed grain prices and the mandatory quota system have inhibited committed participation;(v) insecure landholding rights have above all contributed to the generally apathetic attitude which the members of most cooperatives have adopted;(vi) financial irregularities and misappropriations which seem to be widespread undermine the confidence of the members in their cooperatives.47. In this context, cooperative dairy enterprises have presented particular and specific problems in farmer participation. Generally, since the collectively managed enterprises in this case have been imposed rather than based on farmer demand, may tend to regard them as government managed projects rather than their own. Farmers also have a perception that the dairy farms create increased competition for scarce crop land while net returns are not sufficiently attractive in terms of the higher risk they face with the greater susceptibility of cross-breds to diseases and the uncertainty of adequate supplies of concentrate feed. In many instances producer cooperative members think that dairying can better be operated under individual smallholder management even where the natural feed resource base and health care are on a more modest scale.48. A recent study (Assefa, 1989) dealing with a resource allocation problem of cooperative farming in the central highland regions of Ethiopia revealed that specialization in crop production does not provide the opportunity for optimal allocation and efficient utilization of the physical, human and financial resources. The study has established that an optimal mixed farming, consisting of a few major crops, dairy (20-50 lactating cows) and sheep (100-300 ewes), would substantially improve the productivity of PCs. On this basis the model projected that individual members' farm income would grow by at least three-fold. This model presupposes better management and availability of adequate credit for securing an optimum mix of technology including draft oxen and tractorization. It also assumes that farmers will continue to commit freely their resources to the PCs' production needs.49. Taking the economic benefits as the sole criteria, the optimal organization of PCs on such a scale looks very attractive. However, in the face of the problems currently facing cooperative farming systems, the question is whether this development approach would be convincing to farmers to participate voluntarily. As it has been witnessed in Arsi region and elsewhere some cooperatives have been dissolved and the land has been redistributed to the members leading to a restoration of individual smallholder farming.50. Livestock keeping under the traditional individual smallholder management system may be supported from the social and cultural viewpoints. Where economies of scale deriving from larger sized operations are considered important in the introduction and adoption of improved livestock technology in production, processing and marketing, reverting to small individual holdings would not offer a unique and optimal solution to the development of a viable livestock production system in the peasant sector. On the other hand, as indicated earlier, farmers are unlikely to be persuaded to join groups based on collectively owned and managed resources.The following options are indicated for future consideration.A group farming system based on individual ownership of the means of production (land, animals, etc.) and individual freedom in the appropriations of farm income, but cooperatively organised farm operations would facilitate the absorption of improved technology and management system with economies of scale advantages.52. In order to avoid past problems, group farming initiatives should be guided by farmer participation being truly voluntary. Individual smallholder operations need not be disrupted until the farmers themselves fully appreciate and recognize the benefits of group undertakings. The size of the group should as well be determined by the farmers themselves with some assistance and/or advice from extension and credit officers. Some guidelines on the economic and social characteristics of farmers which form particular groups would help establish desirable homogeneity. By and large, such group farming would adopt extensive management system at least in its initial phase of development.53. As far as livestock development (particularly dairying) is concerned, the group farming effort would start with selected local cows to be integrated with crop production. Subsequently, when this proves viable, cross dairy animals along with the associated technology would be introduced. Though the emphasis so far has been on dairying, the meat production component is equally important. Considerable effort should be made to strike a balance between the two commodities, i.e. between milk and meat. Oxen loans aimed at only increasing crop production need to be carefully re-examined in terms of incorporating a commercial beef fattening scheme.54. To facilitate the marketing of fresh milk in particular, several small milk-collecting centers within the proximity of the producing farmers need to be established. These centers need to be integrated with the primary SCs to be established at the PA level. In turn, these primary SCs would be integrated with secondary SCs to be established at the next higher level serving, say, up to 10 PAs. From there on, there could be a chain of advanced SCs (with more facilities) at district or provincial-level depending on the proximity of the terminal markets.Under the circumstances where this marketing structure would not be effective or where transportation of liquid milk is cumbersome, small-scale processing technology should be considered as an alternative.55. In developing group farming systems, careful study of the experience of other countries in group production, processing and marketing would be very useful. In this connection, adequate lessons from other countries and organizations should be drawn e.g. the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, the rural banking system in Ghana, group farming in Nigeria, the group credit schemes in Malawi, the Small Farm Credit Programme in Zimbabwe, 'Operation Flood' dairy development in India and the Kenyan Cooperative Creameries (KCC). In fact, before embarking on large-scale implementation of group farming in rural Ethiopia, pilot trials will be essential to assess the proper entry points into the existing farming system with due attention to the prevailing political, social and economic environments. These pilot programs would provide basic information on such matters as an optimum economic unit, patterns of resource allocation credit and marketing systems, and effective approaches to the provision of extension and technical services.Where the feed resources are adequate and economic infrastructure are better developed, the promotion of individual smallholder dairy enterprise systems and/or small-scale fattening schemes, appears to be feasible as another option. Intensive management in resource utilization would seem proper in the framework of this option. In the immediate future, however, as smallholder are not organized and ready to undertake either group or individual ventures, private commercial dairy farmers around major urban cities should be encouraged.In fact, their success would have an impact on the rapid progress and promotion of rural dairy farms through the supply of improved foundation stock and other dairy and livestock-related technologies.57. Government investment policy in the livestock sector has put great emphasis on development through producers cooperatives and parastatals. A central point in this policy has been that these organisations would facilitate \"modern\" technology adoption and achieve higher productivity in operations with greater economies of scale. However, there is little evidence to support that this strategy has been successful in improving livestock production in Ethiopia. There is an imminent need to examine alternative approaches to livestock development in the peasant sector.58. From the foregoing discussions it can be concluded that successful financing of livestock development in the peasant sector as a whole is in the main contingent upon policy measures dealing with technical (feed supply and breed type) and non-technical (pricing and institutional) constraints facing the sub-sector. The major policy issues singled out for discussion are: mixed farming systems, pasture land allocation, animal breeding, credit services, pricing, and farmers' participation.59. Mixed farming at the smallholders' level is still widely practiced in its traditional form without any policy guideline. It needs to be developed further in the stricter sense of the concept. It is grossly neglected at cooperatives level however; mixed farming systems do not end with the keeping of draft oxen. Despite the fact that livestock generate the greater proportion of farmers' cash income, development policy is unduly skewed in favour of crop production.60. It is necessary to reverse this trend and to strike a balance between crop and livestock development. A policy which promotes and supports mixed farming development should be adopted as a strategy in the highland regions in general and central highlands in particular. Credit services should also be orientated to a mixed farming concept. The optimal allocation and efficient utilization of scarce resources would be better achieved through such a policy.61. The vast number of animals presently depending on communal grazing land are almost on a starvation diet. The absence of conscious pasture land allocation as well as its improper management have resulted in overstocking and the eventual exposure of the communal grazing land to erosion and degradation cannot be overemphasized. To mitigate and subsequently avoid this situation a policy to guide the composition and size of individual livestock holding and the corresponding management system (extensive and/or intensive as the case may be) should be elaborated. Destocking of communal grazing land (may be through levying prohibitive fees on surplus animals) would hopefully coax farmers to be quality conscious.62. Government services promoting livestock development should seriously re-examine the present ad hoc policy of introducing exotic breeds particularly for dairy purposes. Spontaneous and arbitrary distribution of low potential cross-bred dairy animals such as Arsi crosses, which have become notorious for their low productivity and adaptability problems in other regions, would have grave consequences in improving the productivity of the national dairy herd. Hence, a well defined breeding policy to be enforced by law should be considered as soon as possible. Indeed, it should be a priority task in developing the subsector.63. The introduction of livestock technology in the peasant sector should as much as possible be compatible with the farmers' level of management and debt absorbing capacity.Concurrently, its sustainable supply as well as availability of credit to facilitate its acquisition by farmers needs to be accorded close attention. Along with this consideration, the operation needs to be market-oriented so that the cost of technology could be recouped within an acceptable period of time.64. Financing of improved livestock enterprises, notably dairy, is mostly handicapped by, among other constraints, the supply of foundation stock and feed, as well as market outlets. Therefore, credit services should first focus on linkage projects such as heifer supplying ranches, feed supplying enterprises, milk processing technology, and the like.. In order to attract potential entrepreneurs, adequate price incentives should be given to smallholder livestock producers. In general, the price ratios between grain and livestock commodities need to be carefully re-examined. But, most urgently, the current milk price offered by the Addis Ababa dairy industry will have to be revised. With the present price it is highly likely that the industry would ultimately not be able to attract most of its smallholder clients. If this happens, there would be no choice except resorting to reconstituted milk which would in fact defeat the import substitution and export promotion goals of the government.66. Producer cooperatives have shown very little or no measurable success primarily due to the undesirably high degree of government intervention. In the future farmers should be allowed to exercise their freedom to participate at grassroots level in generating project ideas, designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This, however, should not necessarily imply that government support is not desirable, but it means that the government should have more of a facilitative role than one which involves it in major direct production activities.67. In order to develop a viable and sustainable, as well as a replicable group farming system, priority should be placed on applied research that would serve as a basis for formulating appropriate policies. More specifically, the research should focus on systems of production, processing, marketing and credit. In the light of the recently declared \"Mixed Economy\" policy, the author strongly feels that a new livestock development strategy is desirable for a meaningful intervention. Concerted efforts of the MOA, AIDB, International Livestock Center for Africa (ILCA), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and IFAD can be expected to help generate a workable system.","tokenCount":"5469"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f118b141ef0b1b97adc8b3cc90f2d891","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e2acb0af-4d66-422d-afe3-2737d3242206/retrieve","id":"809324272"},"keywords":["CGIAR","WWF","FAO","Cimate Focus","BMZ","UAE Presidency","NDC Partneship","Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MALFO)","ICD-MARD (International cooperation department","Vietnam)","UNEP AIIB","Govt of Tajikistan","IWMI/CGIAR","OECD","Islamic Dev Bank"],"sieverID":"deb2cfb3-8804-4d8a-9c64-a7ab2fcb2dac","pagecount":"18","content":"Most of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) still lack a holistic approach to agriculture and food systems transformation. A food systems approach -which includes considering food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal -to NDCs could unlock the potential to deliver at least 20% of emission reduction. Countries require tangible guidance on how to go about the transformation at the national level. In particular, the 2025 NDCs update will be an opportunity for Parties to agree on concrete steps on mitigation and adaptation in their agriculture and food systems. This high-level event presented the new NDC Guidance Tool on agriculture and food systems from CGIAR. The tool offers guidance to policy makers and practitioners to support the implementation of policies, governance, and on the ground measures that enable systematic shifts in agriculture and food systems to meet NDC targets and enhance mitigation of GHG in the food sector.Ismahane Elouafi, executive managing director at CGIAR, said the launch of the guidance tool is \"an important step\". She elaborated: \"The way we produce, process, and consume food is becoming part of our climate solutions. But there is still much to be done. With the support of research, science, and evidence-based solutions, we can understand both how the agricultural sector is contributing to emissions and how it could become a game changer as a carbon sequestrator. Agriculture could be part of the solution, but we need to work together, we need donors and the support of countries. CGIAR stands ready to collaborate.\"Martina Fleckenstein, of the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), added, \"The tool is useful but needs global reach now. That's where member states need to inspire others and endure proper financial support.\"Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Kaveh Zahedi noted that \"our food systems are still leaving people suffering from hunger. So the real challenge is: how do we ensure food for all respecting the commitment of 1.5°C? We must reduce emissions from the agri-food sector while simultaneously building its resilience and adaptative capacity to climate change.\"• As both a cause and a victim of climate change, our food systems must undergo rapid, farreaching, and lasting transformation, taking a systems approach involving all stakeholders. • Most countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) lack a holistic approach to agriculture and food systems transformation. • The new NDC Guidance Tool on agriculture and food systems will help guide policy makers and practitioners to support the implementation of policies, governance, and on the ground measures to enable systematic shifts in agriculture and food systems.The days here at COP seem to get busier and busier. There's so much to see and so many people to talk toand, more importantly, listen to.Today's themes include energy, just transitions, and indigenous peoples. Listening is important for all of these themes.With respect to indigenous peoples, as researchers who are interested in solutions for adaptation and mitigation, it's important for us to pay attention to the knowledge that has accumulated within indigenous communities over the years. It would be to the detriment of the entire planet for us to ignore the value in the accumulated knowledge and how we can advance it with science With respect to energy, we need to listen to experiences where community members and other stakeholders have innovated in their own way to address problems that are holding back progress. An example is how M-pesa in Kenya has revolutionized mobile money transactions even using simple analogue phone lack of availability and accessibility to banking services was a big challenge and not an option for many. Such solutions may not be complicated but appropriate easily scaled. Similarly, in Africa, we have an energy challenge. I ask -can we address this the same way we did with our highly successful solutions to mobile money challenges? What is possible with renewables like solar?With respect to just transitions, I was in two sessions and a meeting today on this subject, with specific regard to livestock and the challenge of transitioning to greater sustainability while meeting the need for greater dietary diversity and nutrition. The question of the day was, what is a just transition for livestock in lowand middle-income settings?We need to define this in a contextual way -it will mean different things in different settings. And beyond livestock, a question for us all is: How do we deploy science to make use of what communities are trying to do? Can our research help to enhance these efforts and build on them for accelerated progress?To achieve climate goals, a series of 'earthshots' and visionary climate tech innovations are needed, according to this session at the Bahamas Pavilion earlier today. Panelists told delegates that this involves creating scalable climate tech companies and accelerating commercial projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and promote clean energy.The transition to net zero relies on rapidly scaling up climate-related infrastructure, but growth-stage companies face challenges in skills, tools, and financing. Training innovative leaders with diverse skillsets is crucial for speedy progress, attendees were told. The panel explored creating visionary tech companies and accelerating first-of-a-kind projects for transformative impact on the commercial landscape. To do this, companies must implement mission-oriented, purpose-driven strategies, break down departmental siloes, and foster partnerships with actors across all sectors of society.\"What happens when a research project ends?\" asked Gianpiero Menza, senior manager of the Partnerships and Innovative Finance division at the Alliance Bioversity International -CIAT and CGIAR. \"Scientists will often jump to another project. What about the public funds spent on that research? The Accelerate for Impact Platform works to turn research output into market-viable products by bridging science and entrepreneurship: we close the commercialization gap and liberate numerous solutions that are dormant, either in the concept or conceptual stage.\" Barbara Diehl, chief partnership officer at SPRIND (Germany's federal agency for disruptive innovation), added, \"Technology alone will never win. We need to pair this with the appropriate mindset ready and willing to change the world. That takes time to develop, which is why I find the Venture Science Doctorate such a game changer.\"Panelists agreed that the successful scale-up of new climate technologies demands primarily two factors: 1) the resilience and empathy of founders, and 2) their ability to create ecosystems of off-takers, policy champions and sometimes civil society organizations to accelerate the commercialization. Benjamina Bollag, founder and CEO of Uncommon Bio, summarized the session: \"There is a huge amount of work for governments to understand earthshots, particularly in Europe, and it is important for the ecosystem to bring them along the way.\"• The session highlighted the importance of patient capital, storytelling, understanding consumer behavior, and supporting politically independent programs. • The goal is to move from linear to disruptive innovation, triggering bold change with consideration of potential spillover effects and long-term impacts. Recognizing the spillover effect is crucial for a comprehensive evaluation process, which must be dynamic and reflexive to accommodate new information. This allows for a more nuanced understanding of the broader impact and influences the innovation has, offering a holistic perspective beyond traditional metrics.Water, food security and nutrition in a climateconstrained world: enabling research, innovations and learnings for resilient food systemsThis session discussed the linkages between climate, water and food and nutrition security. Panelists described the cause for growing water safety challenges, highlighting the vulnerabilities of water along food supply chains -from farm to fork -in the midst of the climate crisis.Speakers highlighted the importance of taking a resource nexus approach to agriculture, considering the interconnectedness of soil, water, energy, climate, and biodiversity. The session advocated for innovations like nature-based solutions and urban agriculture to enhance sustainability.There was also a focus on crops that are resilient to dry conditions, such as sorghum, millet, and pulses. These can reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition while offering better nutrition than calorie-dense traditional alternatives.• Promotion of goat dairy as a sustainable alternative to cow dairy is gaining attention. Goats require less water and carbon resources, contributing to more sustainable farming practices and resilience in the face of climate change. • Small-scale smart irrigation technologies and regenerative landscape approaches show promise in significantly boosting crop productivity and income, while flood water spreading weirs help recharge water tables, demonstrating effective adaptation strategies in water-stressed environments. • Addressing the gendered impacts of water scarcity and the additional burden on women is crucial. Innovations in agriculture should build agency for women and capture context-specific complexities to support societal transformations toward more equitable food systems.Regions we currently serve Key Take Away By investing in adaptive water planning and management, countries can build climate-resilient societies. However, many countries formulate their water resource management policies without a comprehensive grasp of water use across sectors, requirements, and shortfalls. River basin organizations sometimes rely on limited flow data, as the number of stations within hydro-monitoring networks has decreased in recent years.Earth observation can fill part of the gap at an affordable cost and over wide spatial extents. African governments can harness these innovations -public-domain tools and services -including those provided by the International Water Management Institute and Digital Earth Africa.\"Water data is the backbone of water resource management,\" Habtamu Itefa Geleta, Minister of Water and Energy for Ethiopia, told delegates. He emphasized the need for both quantity and quality data.Abdulkarim Seid, the country representative for Ethiopia at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), added: \"Through these tools, IWMI can capture, generate and visualize water data at different levels: from the entire continent and transboundary basins, to the country, state and district levels. Water availability tells part of the picture -but we must also know how water is being used. And these new tools allow us to get insights into that, for proper water accounting and management.\"Regenerative agriculture focuses on the restoration of soil health. More than 30% of agricultural land is degraded and, if current trends continue, that figure could surpass 90% by 2050.Regenerative agriculture is one approach that, if broadly adopted, could change this trend. It includes several practices that help maintain and improve soil health, including reduced tilling, recycling of organic waste from farming and returning it to the soil, and using cover crops and trees to help replenish soil nutrients.\"We cannot tackle the climate crisis without simultaneously addressing the crises of biodiversity, food and nutrition, and water,\" Carlo Fadda, the lead for CGIAR's Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, told delegates at the event. \"We need a holistic approach to dealing with these in a unified manner.\"The benefits of improved soil health are many, Fadda and fellow panellists noted. For smallholder farms, this can mean increases in climate resilience, agrobiodiversity, food and nutritional security, and income generation.There is no one-size-fits-all approach and attention needs to be given to local climates, soil types, ecosystem and farmer community practices. And the transition would be costly. But the cost of not implementing sustainable agricultural practices will be much higher for people and nature.This event was organized by CropLife International, and featured speakers from the International Potato Center (CIP), the World Farmers' Organisation, EY-Parthenon and Bayer Crop Science.Food and Agriculture PavilionDespite growing interest and the imperative for agricultural innovation in the face of the growing climate crisis, challenges persist in scaling low-emission solutions for resilient agriculture due to limited incentives and investments.In this session, panellists established that agriculture holds untapped potential in voluntary carbon markets (VCM), and could provide socio-economic benefits. Carbon payments drive transformative change, especially for smallholders, amid rising demand from compliance policies and corporate sustainability goals.\"Agriculture offers an opportunity to tell a story that encompasses Sustainable Development Goals benefits and carbon removal, making it a compelling and attractive prospect,\" Lini Wollenberg, Climate Action Project Lead at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, told delegates.This side event unveiled the first global stocktake of carbon payments and VCM in agriculture. Expert panellists shared experiences, fostering dialogue on financing large-scale transformative solutions at the country level. Speakers evaluated existing institutional and technical challenges in developing these markets and explored potential solutions. They concluded that \"finance is a critical lever to make the necessary changes\", noting that \"it is evident that current levels of climate finance are far too inadequate, with the latest IPCC report revealing a financial flow falling three to six times short to limit global warming below 2°C [above preindustrial levels].\"\"We cannot just have single point investments [in agricultural voluntary carbon markets] -it is about changing landscapes. It really depends on the cooperation between governments, the private sector and local communities,\" added Charlotte Streck, director of international advisory company Climate Focus. Martial Bernoux, Senior Natural Resources Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), also urged attendees: \"We have no way but to utilize every available solution within our reach to meet IPCC standards; our path forward necessitates investment in all conceivable solutions.\"• The urgency of climate action in agriculture is underscored by the critical need for increased financial support, with current levels falling significantly short, prompting initiatives like the FAO Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transition Initiative (FAST) to redirect funds for agrifood system transformation. • Agriculture's participation in voluntary carbon markets (VCM) reveals a modest engagement, with US$9 million in transactions and 20 million credits issued between 2003-2022, representing only 1% of VCM credits. Challenges include a lack of projects in low-income countries, highlighting untapped potential and ongoing efforts to connect with smallholders. • Success in VCM for agriculture and food systems hinges on addressing challenges in project integrity, fostering cooperation between governments, the private sector, and local communities, and ensuring benefits for smallholders through eligibility criteria, the role of cooperatives, and prioritizing projects with strong community benefits.In this session, panellists discussed how to advance ocean-climate solutions that are rooted in inclusivity, equity, and local knowledge, laying the foundation for a more equitable and climate-resilient future for people and nature. The event spotlighted efforts made in this space, emphasizing the essential synergy between rigorous, long-term data and community leadership as drivers for lasting change.Speakers underscored the pivotal importance of interdisciplinary collaborations and a comprehensive, all-ofsociety approach to tackling the climate crisis.Rumana Peerzadi Hossain, a climate change research scientist at WorldFish and CGIAR, told attendees, \"Communities at the forefront of climate impact, particularly fishers and small-scale farmers, are adapting to climate change through specific measures tailored to their unique challenges. They are not only bolstering their resilience but also actively shaping policy through scientific engagement.\"Coral Pasisi, the director of Climate Change and Sustainability at The Pacific Community, talked delegates through work from her organization: \"By establishing a marine conservation credit system, we're quantifying the cost of safeguarding our marine environments for future generations. This allows anyone to contribute to the preservation of our oceans and supports the sustainable livelihoods of our children.\"• Innovative economic instruments, such as ocean conservation credits, are being developed to provide funding for marine protection while also ensuring the economic sustainability of future generations. • Coastal communities are engaging in context-specific adaptation strategies, such as integrated aquaculture and agriculture, to combat the diverse impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events and changes in salinity.• Small-scale fisheries management and the introduction of integrated farming techniques are vital for maintaining food security and the livelihoods of vulnerable communities affected by climate variability.\"Communities at the forefront of climate impact, particularly fishers and small-scale farmers, are adapting to climate change through specific measures tailored to their unique challenges. They are not only bolstering their resilience but also actively shaping policy through scientific engagement.\"The world is currently experiencing a food crisis. Currently, no country is on track to eliminate malnutrition and food insecurity. Malnutrition is degrading the health of individuals and communities, as well as hindering development, economic stability and wellness. People need foods rich in protein, fatty acids and vitamins for a healthy diet. As Namukolo Covic of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) put it, \"There's hidden hunger in the micronutrient deficit in the African continent.\"Against this backdrop, human-caused climate change is exacerbating issues of food security. Food systems are both contributors and casualties of the climate crisis, responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and suffering from the adverse impacts of global heating.While consuming animals is typically viewed as an opponent to tackling climate change, terrestrial animalsourced foods can serve as a crucial means of fulfilling nutritional needs. This session discussed how animalsourced foods can sustainably meet nutritional needs, featuring expert opinion from the International Dairy Federation (IDF) and the European Dairy Association (EDA).Covic cautioned delegates: \"Don't think of livestock as an isolated agricultural entity; we need livestock as part of a regenerative landscape.\"• Livestock needs to be part of the solution to climate change and the regenerative landscape. • When farmers' climate resilience increases, often so does their yield and their income.Central Asian countries are facing severe water stress, which will likely worsen with continued climate change and socioeconomic growth. This panel explored the varying needs of countries in Central Asia concerning inefficiency in water resource management. Through an examination of the support available for enhanced water usage, discussants established that both state and non-state actors can and should contribute to increased water resilience in the region.It is currently estimated that 30-60% of water allocated for irrigated agriculture is lost before reaching the fields in Central Asia. In the water supply and utility sector, non-revenue water losses range from 20-60%. These losses, resulting from both technical issues (such as leaks in outdated or underfunded infrastructure) and non-technical factors, greatly impede the ability of important water supply services to manage both short-term and long-term water shortages. Given the region's economic dependence on water-intensive activities, escalating investment in water efficiency is crucial to mitigate long-term water stress and support regional development.As part of this event, panellists evaluated the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)'s Climate Action Plan, launched last year at COP27. Twelve months on, speakers emphasized the need for investment, highlighting priority areas where funds are needed to realize stated actions and boost water resilience in Central Asia. Presenters also identified barriers to investment, as well as noted innovative investment instruments needed to overcome them.• Central Asian countries are facing severe water stress, which is exacerbated by climate change and socioeconomic growth. • The region is confronted with significant inefficiency challenges in terms of water usage.• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is interested in the work the CGIAR is undertaking to tackle water insecurity more generally across Asia, such as its \"From Fragility to Resilience (F2R) in Central and West Asia and North Africa\" initiative. Launched in Uzbekistan in June 2022, this is based on the following locally-defined priority areas: the institutional arrangement of water management and use; the assessment of water, energy, land and food fragility at the watershed level; and the benchmarking of irrigation performance in the Karshi Region using dynamic highresolution remote sensing-based layers.Livestock products are not only essential for meeting nutritional needs, but they are also vital for the livelihoods of some one billion people worldwide, particularly in low-and middle-income countries. However, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from livestock is imperative for reaching global climate targets.This session was dedicated to both exploring innovations to reduce livestock emissions and focused on ways of supporting smallholder farmers in adapting to the impacts of climate change.Panelists came from a diverse set of backgrounds: attendees heard from a sustainable rancher from the USA, a policy maker from Uruguay, a livestock development expert from India, a One Health scientist from Kenya, and a youth pastoralist from Tanzania. Discussions covered opportunities to generate policy support and the adoption of innovative, climate-resilient practices in animal health, breeding, land restoration, and the development of robust systems. These strategies are intended to help livestock farmers adapt and flourish amidst the challenges posed by climate change.\"Pastoralist youth are aware of the challenges of livestock on climate -deforestation, overgrazing and methane emissions -and they have started to implement more sustainable practices, such as rotational grazing in pastoral communities and planting pasture to produce silage [for feed],\" said East Africa Pastoralism Youth Initiative representative Josephat Masanja. \"We are also advocating for greater land rights, calling for more financial resources from the government to be directed to pastoralism.\"Gonzalo Becoña, the Minister for Agriculture in Uruguay, told delegates: \"We need to balance international pressure to reduce emissions with the vulnerability of farmers. We need policies that are practical and don't leave anyone behind. Farmers need access to technologies, together with capacity building measures and incentives to help them adopt and shift their behaviors.\"\"We need action, investment, and innovation, now more than ever\". In her closing remarks, Jyostina Puri of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) stressed the importance of advancing innovations, particularly in areas like feed management, animal husbandry, and health, to help smallholder livestock farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change while reducing emissions in the sector. She called for more concrete evidence to assess the effectiveness and scalability of these methods, given that livestock accounts for 35% of global protein consumption. Clear evidence is needed to determine the success and potential of new technologies in this sector.• Globally, the most effective strategy for mitigating livestock emissions involves climate-smart livestock production, which enhances productivity and resilience while reducing greenhouse gases. • A just transition to sustainable livestock systems requires investment in both adaptation and mitigation, with multistakeholder partnerships to innovate and scale-up solutions, and a One Health approach to understand the interconnected impacts on ecosystems, human, and animal health.In the contact group, co-chaired by Alison Campbell (UK) and Joseph Teo (Singapore), parties shared their views on the new iteration of the draft \"tool.\" All countries welcomed the text, said there were some further options to be included, and expressed the desire to get it ready for ministerial engagement during the second week of the conference.The US, the AFRICAN GROUP, CANADA, and the LMDCs suggested restrained, surgical insertions during an informal consultation. KYRGYZSTAN suggested adding mountains in the adaptation section, and BOLIVIA called for greater balance between Articles 6.2, 6.4, and 6.8, and inclusion of Article 5 (forests).AILAC, the LDCs, the AFRICAN GROUP, EIG, the EU, and AOSIS, noted with concern that the section on guidance on the way forward was still only bullet points and suggested prioritizing discussions on this section.Teo welcomed parties' engagement on this section, noting that the bullet points contain many ideas presented at this session for the first time.Parties agreed to hold further informal consultations to suggest additions to the text, then to meet in informal informal consultations to discuss guidance on the way forward. . On loss and damage, this morning at COP28, Climate Action International and Lisa Goeldner held a press conference with which included information on a new report from Greenpeace. Speaking to the report, Lisa made clear the Loss and Damage implications: \"The combined 2022 emissions of nine oil and gas companies could cause an estimated 360 thousand temperature related premature deaths before the end of the century \"and that to avoid as much future Loss and Damage as possible must we phase out FossilFuels: \"Every metric ton of carbon emitted today ignites a time bomb of future fatalities.The G77 and China stressed the need for a more balanced text and provided some specific examples where this is needed, including the need to adhere to the mandate from and alignment with Article 9 of the ParisAgreement. In its intervention China said, \"We're here because we understand the responsibility and obligation of developed countries. If we use 2.1 C in this document, we can all just go home.\"China was crystal clear that it would not support \"anything related\" to 2.1 C and that the decision must stick to the mandate from Article 9. Parties also stressed the importance of getting the NCQG work program \"right\" next year.Most Parties and groups agreed on the need to streamline the text but there was no agreement on moving into informal informals with Egypt calling this \"a last resort\". The co-chairs proposed developing a new text with options to be ready tonight and asked Parties to be ready to engage on the options. This afternoon Parties met to discuss the new text on the GST released.The consensus was that the text is a basis to work on though many Parties noted that the section on the way forward which is currently in bullets needs further elaboration. After an initial round of interventions, the co-chairs suspended the meeting until 19:00 for an \"hour or two\" of informals focused on \"surgical and restrained\" interventions after which Parties will move into informal informals for further discussions on refining the text. The objective is to provide ministers with as clean a text as possible for their deliberations on the outcome. The co-chair noted that there are currently 29 proposals on the way forward in the text and Parties need to decide which will be taken forward to ministers.Text was released yesterday, based on15 submissions and over 90 pages of text received. However, the text was released only 2 hours before the informal consultation with parties, which meant that several parties and groups did not have time to review it properly or consult with each other. Many parties (including developed and developing countries) noted that the text did not include their suggestions and submissions. G77 + China, and several other groups rejected the text feeling that their perspectives were not included.Other issues raised were that the structure proposed was confusing as it combined the purpose, overarching layer and thematic targets together without clear context. Furthermore, concerns were raised that the language around means of implementation was vague and did not include any targets regarding support. The co-facilitators will draft a new text reflecting all options presented through submissions, though they could not give a timeline for that text. They also cautioned that this would result in a long and complicated text to negotiate. is an informal consultation at 18:15 today to discuss further.Thematic targets are viewed by developing countries as central to driving action and tracking progress.The other big issue is means implementation which developing countries are pushing to be includedhaving heard many talks about an empty framework if it lacks these. For GGA advocates in Dubai, there will be a strategy meeting/ briefing tomorrow at 08.30 at the cafe outside meeting room 10 in B1 Developing countries see as not appropriate to mention a possible achievement of the 100bln goal. They underline that the figures and data are a just projection, and highlight the need to base any achievement on hard facts. (Most active countries in this debate were: Saudi Arabia, G77, India, Brasil). Also, on this first half of the document, several developed countries underscored how the text is not in line with the language of the Convention and Brasil noted how some points actually pre-judge the outcomes of the NCQGs. Several developing countries also underline inconsistency in the text, calling for balance.Streamlining and Clarification: There was a unanimous call for further streamlining and clarification of the text, emphasizing the need for a clearer understanding of the various options and processes to facilitate more effective engagement.Role of Co-Chairs and Process Focus: Parties expressed strong support for the continuation of the current co-chairs for consistency and praised their efforts. There was a notable emphasis on the importance of establishing the right process, with some parties advocating for prioritizing procedural discussions before delving into substantive issues.Inclusive Engagement and Transparency: A common theme was the necessity for transparency and inclusivity in the process, with a specific call for ensuring that all stakeholders, including observers, are wellinformed and able to participate effectively in the discussions.Developing countries are not accepting prescriptive and intrusive use of the language in the text, underlining that the language in the paragraphs must respect the Convention's articles, as these meetings are not under the Standing Committee on Finance. Pakistan says that developing countries do not have the physical space for implementation, and that adaptation is a priority for them and all developing countries. In general, developing countries flag the need for a more balanced text, that doesn't celebrate achievements from the Global N without data, and that reflects the views of G77 countries, China, Saudi Arabia and others, through a language that follows the Convention's articles.Developed countries instead think that the lack of a proper definition on methodologies and a definition of climate finance should be captured in the context of the SCF, and not addressed here. They say that acknowledging the efforts made by them (para 6) is essential to maintain the balance and should not be deleted. The USA recognize that a grant-equivalency lens is not the best tool to use in order to quantify the many and different sources of finance recognized by the 100bln Goal and proposes to change the term from \"landscape\" to \"architecture\" when discussing climate finance, the global N agrees. Developed countries also flag the need for balance: they acknowledge the need to do more, but don't agree with the \"frustrating\" (CH) approach of developing countries, which \"throw in the trash\" (CH) their transparency efforts. Also, developing countries reiterate a previous objection to discussing burden-sharing arrangements, emphasizing that the goal is a collective one, not a compilation of individual party goals. They agree to discuss ways to coordinate efforts among developed countries but reject any prescriptive language on this. Finally, developed countries claim the focus on financial loss and damage deviates from the $100 billion goal's mandate.Global S wants to delate/rephrase the 1 st part of the text and keep the last paragraphs. Global N wants to keep the first part of the text and delate/rephrase the last one.Start: (1;2) use of language from previous years, (3;4) report data on progress (4-13) forward looking paragraphs, (13-17) contributions and notes including the welcoming of the new funds (17-23) access to finance (20-23) adaptation finance (23-26) previous language on enabling environment and effectiveness on impact and ambition (27-28) needs for finance projects (29) next year's SCF report.There is a need for further clarity and streamlining in a document related to finance. The importance of transparency and engagement with various stakeholders was emphasized. There is a preference for option one, which involves the existing co-chairs continuing their work. The speaker mentions the challenges of gaps and divergences in discussions, suggesting the need for further efforts to streamline the text. The intervention concludes with an agreement to review and adjust certain paragraphs while maintaining open options for negotiation in the next session.The speaker highlights the imperative for enhanced clarity and streamlining in a document pertaining to financial matters. Emphasis is placed on transparency and engaging various stakeholders, with a preference for option one-continuation of existing co-chairs. Challenges such as gaps and divergences in discussions are acknowledged, prompting a call for additional efforts to streamline the text. The intervention concludes with a commitment to review and adjust specific paragraphs, maintaining open negotiation options in subsequent sessions.The discussion revolves around Financial Reports and Targets, underlining the commitment to achieving 100 billion reports and assessing progress. There is a significant focus on contextual references, pointing to specific articles, with an emphasis on the importance of recalling and understanding these references. Concerns are voiced about transparency, particularly in the treatment of external assessments, highlighting frustrations, especially in the efforts of developing countries. Specific support is expressed for certain paragraphs, like paragraph 20, but there is a suggestion for rephrasing or modifying to enhance clarity.The sequencing of ambition and implementation is debated, with the assertion that providing and mobilizing funds should not be a prerequisite for ambition. Positive incentives are deemed crucial in this context. There is clarification about the Green Climate Fund as an operational entity of the financial mechanism, and opposition to the removal of paragraph 16. The next steps involve the need for a mandated research document for further consideration at the next meeting, and parties are encouraged to engage in discussions among themselves Procedures for consultation are outlined, including keeping the consultation open unless a party leaves the meeting. Participants are reminded of the availability of documents on the website and encouraged to check for updates and announcements. A final reminder is given about the formal consultation process for the Adaptation Fund, with the option to keep the information consultation open unless a party leaves the meeting.The discussion highlights the time constraints faced by participants, acknowledging limited time for reviewing the text due to overlapping schedules. Some participants express the need to postpone the session for a more comprehensive review. Participants request additional time for an overnight review before making final decisions, and there is a suggestion to allocate time tomorrow for further discussion, considering the need for more thorough review.While there is appreciation for efforts in streamlining the text, concerns are raised about the meaningfulness and redundancy of certain phrases and expressions. A proposal is suggested to either agree on the current text with amendments or reject/delegate specific paragraphs for further discussion.Differences between CMA and CMP decisions are pointed out, specifically regarding the recall of a paragraph from CMP decision 5. There is an emphasis on the importance of financial contributions to the adaptation fund, with a request for clarity on its inclusion in the context.The Adaptation Fund is acknowledged as a pivotal element in the climate change architecture, and there is a dedicated commitment to earnestly reviewing its associated text. Participants stress the need for ample time to review the document, emphasizing the crucial role of the Adaptation Fund within the climate change community.There is a request for clarity regarding certain details, including the rationale behind using the entire alphabet, and a desire to streamline the information for conciseness and effectiveness. The document mentions an opportunity for student learning, and a suggestion is made to enhance the clarity and relevance of this aspect.The participant expresses a commitment to providing constructive feedback and engaging in a thoughtful review process, underscoring the importance of accurately reflecting the significance of the Adaptation Fund in the document. Overall, the participants advocate for a careful and thorough review to contribute meaningfully to the discourse on climate change.","tokenCount":"5661"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9557ec3508ac2dd74d0c45938f504394","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/996217c7-5d91-46f6-9f1a-4d285369a616/retrieve","id":"687347210"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7c908e16-8369-4741-9d1d-c6270d6392cc","pagecount":"46","content":"We acknowledge Excellence in Agronomy (EiA), a CGIAR Initiative to improve agronomic practices with the goal of increase productivity and quality of food of smallholders of farms, for funding this work.As part of CGIAR, the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) is an Initiative that focusses to generate impact on poverty reduction as a primary impact area, followed by Nutrition, health and food security, Gender equality, Climate adaptation and mitigation, and Environmental health and biodiversity as related impact areas. With an estimate of 80% of smallholding in the world's farms (CGIAR, 2023), the improvement of agronomic practices represents an opportunity to increase productivity and quality of food for many farming households. Research organizations involved in core partnership with Excellence in Agronomy Initiative are AfricaRice, Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, IRRI, IWMI, World Agroforestry and National Agricultural Research System of Ethiopia and World Agroforestry. www.eia.cgiar.orgWe acknowledge Alliance Bioversity -CIAT and ICRISAT for implementing and the enumerators on field for conducting the survey.CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. www.cgiar.orgWe acknowledge Thomas Delaune and all the colleagues from Plant Production Systems chair group for their support in the initial stage of the data analysis.Complexity of agro-ecological, socio-economic and resource endowment conditions is a major challenge for the characterization of farming systems. Temporal and spatial variability in smallholder communities is normally driven by opportunities and constraints that are linked to the diversity of landscape, culture, market, resources, agricultural and off-farm activities, land access, among others (Alvarez et al., 2018).The construction of typologies is a process that summarizes variability of the existing households and farming systems. The process involves the selection, classification, description, comparison and interpretation of variables. However, the outcomes depend on the research questions and main purpose of the typology such as: identification of diversity and its underlying causes; analyse agricultural trajectories; or support development (selection of representative farms), implementation (scale-out appropriate interventions) and monitoring (scale-up of impact assessment) of agricultural projects (Alvarez et al., 2014;Kuivanen et al., 2016). Furthermore, farm typologies can be analysed at landscape, field or household level (e.g. resource endowment), leading to different approaches and methodologies to construct the typology (Alvarez et al., 2014;Kuivanen et al., 2016).The EiA Initiative aims to generate actionable insights into farm diversity that can be used to increase impact potential of the Use Cases through a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), by informing the (re-) design and/or the scaling strategy of the MVP (EiA Standard Operating Procedure for farmer segmentation). The MVP for the Ethiopia Use Cases is described as a digital advisory tool, currently under construction, able to deliver agronomic advice on fertilizer application for wheat, teff and sorghum to end users such as farmers, extension agents and agro-dealers. The agronomic advice is focused on fertilizer applications relevant for farmers' biophysical and socio-economic context. Hassall et al. (2023) illustrates the applications of structural and functional typologies. The first includes understanding farm differences based on their components, such as household composition, land, resources and capital assets. The second covers more nuances, understanding differences, for example, in household dynamics, livelihood strategies, attitudes, agricultural income and diversity between regions. Identification of farm types based on household opportunities and constraints, targeting agricultural interventions and innovations, are some of the outcomes when structural and functional typologies are combined (Hassall et al., 2023).Given the fact that the MVP is being developed, the construction of farm segmentation (combining structural and functional typologies) at landscape and farming system scale will be of a great support for the Use Cases to develop and scale the described innovation. Although all the Use Cases are aligned to the main goal of the EiA Initiative, it is important to note that each Use Case has specific MVPs, objectives and contexts. Thus, the participation of the Use Cases in defining the specific objective of the farm typology and the selection of variables has been crucial for the farmer segmentation in this report. This process has been guided by a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for farmer segmentation in EiA that was developed by a team of experts in EiA and made available to the Use Cases (EiA Standard Operating Procedure for farmer segmentation).The objective of this report is to provide a methodological approach to construct the Farm Typology analysis for Ethiopia, based on the interests and specific hypothesis of two Use Cases (Digital Green and Fertilizer Ethiopia).In parallel with the construction of the typology, we aim to illustrate the process of statistical analysis of continuous and categorical variables as part of the typology.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemThe data used in the typology construction was collected by the Fertilizer Ethiopia and Digital Green Use Case in Ethiopia as part of the Excellence in Agronomy Initiative of CGIAR. Each Use Case collected information via a standardized and modular household survey tool based on the RHoMIS survey (EiA Standard Operating Procedure for farmer segmentation). Data has been collected using the ODK Collect app, and the ONA data management platform. Consequently, two datasets were generated, differing in the number of surveyed households and districts, but sharing the same set of questions. The two datasets were combined to get household data of 889 households from Goba, Kewet, Lemo, Siyadebirnawayu and West Belessa districts. The survey was focused on the three most important crops in these regions: wheat, teff and/or sorghum. The survey was conducted in 2023 (2015 for Ethiopian calendar)including modules that are at farm and plot level.The wide application of typology constructions goes along with a pallet of different methods, depending on their objectives, the type of available data and size of the sample (Alvarez et al., 2018). Therefore, the results of the typology are largely influenced by the data collection, selection of variables, and methods for dimension reduction and clustering.EiA has developed a Standard Operating procedure (SOP) for farmer segmentation (EiA Standard Operating Procedure for farmer segmentation) where the starting point is the \"Use Case MVP\", followed by \"objective of farmer segmentation-selection of variables\", \"data collection-survey\", \"typology construction\" to finally \"redefine the MVP scaling strategies\". The Use Cases defined their specific objectives before implementing the EiA household survey. They provided a list of desirable variables to tailor the design of the survey based on the selection of modules defined by EiA. During the exercise of this study the selection of variables for typology construction was performed after the data collection, following the objectives of the Use Cases. Within the scope of this report, and the SOP provided by EiA, we translated the purpose of the typology to the implementation of the Use Case, i.e. to scale-out appropriate and tailored interventions.Through interactive breakout sessions and consultations with Ethiopian Use Cases, we selected variables and developed objectives and hypothesis, providing results for two typologies:Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemFirst typology (T1): The objective was to classify farming households at the farm production system level, in order to support the development of the Use Case MVP. The hypothesis was that agricultural households can be grouped according to their crop production system such as wheat, teff and/or sorghum.After feedback from the Use Cases, the first typology was too general for implementation of the MVP. Hence, a second objective was set to explore the data further.Second typology (T2): The objective was to differentiate farming households at the cropping system level (integrating the results from T1), in order to support the implementation of the Use Case MVP based on their resources, production orientation and use of agricultural inputs. The hypothesis was that farming households can be classified according to their resource endowment (TLU, farm size, access to technology) and production orientation.The above-mentioned objectives align with EiA's SOP for farmer segmentation, which states: \"The objective of conducting farmer segmentation in EiA Use Cases is to generate actionable insights into farm diversity that can be used to increase the impact potential of the Use Cases' MVP's and realise inclusive impact across different types of farmers\".The surveyed households are distributed across 5 districts, which are located in either highland or lowland agro-ecologies. The characteristics of each district are linked to the attributes of the agro-ecologies but also to the socioeconomic conditions. Therefore, the district variable was considered only for farm description in both typologies (T1 and T2).Data on household, labour, livestock, income, production, agricultural inputs and access to technology was cleaned, processed and transformed for statistical analysis (Table 1).The raw dataset consisted of nested variables across the plot level and farm level. Farm size was calculated as the sum of plot sizes for each household. As the questionnaire was designed to collect information on ten plots only, farm sizes of households having more than ten plots is underestimated in the final calculation. The number of farm households with ten plots was inflated in the dataset suspecting that number 10 was entered in the ODK even though farmers had more plots (supplementary material). Tropical livestock unit (TLU) was calculated using the method by Jahnke (1982): cattle was assumed to be equivalent to 0.7 TLU, horses 0.8 TU, donkey and mules 0.7 TLU, goat and sheep 0.2 TLU, and chicken 0.01 TLU. Cattle ratio and small ruminant ratio (goat and sheep)Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system was the ratio of their respective TLU and total household TLU. As the survey was focused on three crops, wheat, teff and sorghum, total production of only these three crops was considered. The number adults in the household (age 15 and above) was considered as a proxy for household labour availability. Household head education was a categorical variable with multiple levels (no education, adult education, primary, secondary, post-secondary). This variable was converted to binary where low education was primary and below primary level, and high education was above primary level. Other categorical variables were binary and used as they were in the dataset (Table 1).Crop area proportions were calculated based on the area of plots under a specific crop for a farming household. In few cases, there were multiple crops per plots, thus such households were left out during this calculation. As most of the households were not geo tagged (no coordinates), district (woreda) names were used to assess their spatial distribution in Ethiopia. As the district name was a text input in the ODK, many typing errors during the data collection resulted in over 50 unique names. Each name was assessed based on the spelling errors and the cleaning resulted in five unique districts in three different regions in Ethiopia. Land slope profile per plot was a categorical variable at plot level with three levels (flat, slope and steep slope). To transform the variable to farm level, proportion of plot area under three levels of slope (flat, slope, steep slope) was calculated, hence, we got three variables corresponding to the three levels of slope. Agricultural training was a nested variable where answers were on three levels, i) training received 1 year ago, ii) training received 5 years ago, iii) never received training. This variable was transformed to binary where 1 was training received (either 1 year ago or 5 years ago) and 0 was never received training.In this report we mostly worked on the modules that provided information at farm level, identifying more than 90 variables. A total of 28 variables were used in the typology analysis and 34 were used for the description of the farms. The reasons for excluding the rest of the variables from both typology and farm description were: no variation, incorrect units, had many NAs due to incomplete data collection or they were not relevant to the hypothesis (supplementary material). The type of data was mostly categorical, representing 83% of the variables, while continuous data represented 17% of the variables. In the dataset, some households lacked plot level information for farm characteristics. Thus, before the PCA and FAMD, the dataset was filtered for household with plot level information which resulted in 848 households from 889. Further, the dataset was filtered for NA in at least one of the selected variables for each household and the final number of households for analysis was 758.Analysis consisted of four steps, i) Data exploration, outlier handling and transformation, ii) Correlation analysis and variable selection, iii) Multivariate analysis (PCA and FAMD), and iv) Clustering and farm description (Alvarez et al., 2014(Alvarez et al., , 2018;;Barba-Escoto, 2019;Shukla et al., 2019). All the statistical analysis and graphical output were obtained using R software (version 4.3.1) with RStudio usingFarm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system various packages (see below). Some limited amount of data handling was done using Microsoft Excel.As distribution of the data is important for PCA, continuous variables were checked for normal distribution. Log and square root transformation was used to get the variables close to normal distribution as all the variables were skewed. Further, boxplots were created to check for outliers in the variables after transformation. Farm size, herd size and number of crops had few outliers for which the corresponding HHs were filtered out.A correlation matrix was calculated for all the continuous variables using cor function from 'stats' package using Pearson's method.Variables with a correlation coefficient above 0.9 and variables without any significant correlation with any other variable were removed from the analysis (figures and tables in supplementary material). This step is necessary for dimension reduction as highly correlated or uncorrelated variables can create higher weightage or unnecessary noise (in terms of additional dimension) in the data respectively. For binary variables, percentages of the values (1,0) were calculated and variables with 90% of either 1 or 0 were removed from the analysis. This type of filtering of categorical variables improves the quality of the dataset by removing the variables with low variation. This prevents unnecessary noise in the dataset during analysis. Steps till now were repeated for all the typologies.For the first typology, principal component analysis (PCA) was used as only continuous variables were selected. We used dudi.pca from 'ade4' package for PCA. For the second typology, we used a combined method with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) called Factor Analysis for Mixed Data (FAMD) (Husson et al., 2008). This method allows using categorical variables along with continuous variables in their original format. For both the typologies, axes with eigenvalue more than one (as per the Kaiser criterion) were retained for clustering.Hierarchical clustering was performed using Ward's method with a distance matrix generated in PCA and FAMD. Further, 'Nbclust' package was used to derive the optimal number of clusters using \"ward.D2\" and \"kmeans\" methods. This package provides a summary of 23 indices, and the cluster with the maximum number of indices was selected. If the highest number of indices indicates 3 clusters, then that specific number of clusters was chosen. This was further checked with subjective inspection of the dendrogram after which the number of clusters was finalised. After farm types were derived, Kruskal Walis method was used to analyse the variance among farm types in continuous variables. Categorical variables were analysed for variation using percentages and heat map.Table 1. List of variables used in typologies (T1 and T2) for two Use Cases in Ethiopia. Typology 1 resulted in three different farm types (HIW, MIF, LIS) that were subsequently used in T2. Continuous variables from T1 were retained for T2. *Note: HIW (High intensified Wheat), MIF (Medium intensified farms), LIS (Low intensified Sorghum) farm types were identified in T1. Selection of variables in T2 included all the already selected variables in T1, with exception of \"number of crops\". NPS-Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur; NPSB-Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Boron.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system 3. RESULTSFarm types were defined using PCA results in which 66% of the variability is explained by three principal components (Figure 1). The first dimension was related to the production of main crops (wheat and sorghum) and the fertilizer input rates, the second dimension was related to the characteristics of the farm (size of the farm, TLU), and the third dimension was related to the household (size of the household, number of adults). Teff production showed a lower variability among the dimensions than the other main crops,indicating that this crop is present in all types of farms but in variable proportions. Highly Intensified Wheat (HIW) farms have high fertilizer input rates followed by MIF and LIS. Farms that are HIW have a higher proportion of highly educated household heads compared to MIF and LIS farms. HIW farm type has low proportion of farmers applying manure (13%) mainly due to focus on fertilizers. MIF farm type has 31% and LIS farm type has 63% farmers applying manure where higher number in LIS correlates with larger herd sizes and thus higher manure availability in this farm type.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemIn the entire dataset, all farmers apply fertilizers to their crops. In HIW, 97% apply to wheat followed by 61% to teff. For MIF and LIS, more proportion of farmers apply fertilizers on teff than sorghum. Compound fertilizers like NPS (19%N, 38% P 2 O 5 and 7% S) and NPSB (18.9 % N, 37.7 % P 2 O 5 , 6.95 % S, and 0.1 % boron) are common in HIW, but in MIF and LIS only NPSB. Urea is common in all farm types. Around 30% of farmers in each farm type have off-farm income sources and the proportion of off-farm income to total income is around 13%. Thus, selling farming products is the main income source for all the farmers in all farm types. Area proportion of crops other than wheat, sorghum and teff is significant (around 40%) and important in all the farm types, especially in MIF and LIS where wheat is less predominant (Table 3). Thus, even though the survey was designed for the three main crops, the farms are in general very diverse.Recalling the hypothesis of this first typology (which suggest that agricultural households can be grouped according to their production system such as wheat, teff and/or sorghum), we confirm the clear definition of three farm types determined by agroecologies (e.g. highland, lowland) and production systems. This confirmation will greatly contributes in the improvement of the UseCase MVP, specifically focusing on the cropping systems. However, no variation among the farm types was observed in variables other than mentioned above which were selected for the farm description. This implies that the current grouping is very general, prompting the need for a more detailed typology within these farm types, hence the objective 2.The general outcomes of the initial typology demonstrates the collaboration of two distinct Use Cases operating in overlapping locations and farming systems. To further identify farm types that effectively support the implementation of the Use Case MVP, a second typology was executed. Typology 2 was performed using farm types identified in typology 1 and by adding more continuous variables related to the hypothesis of objective 2 and categorical variables for better detailed farm description (Table 1). Typology 2 was divided into 3 sections, corresponding to the already identified farm types of typology 1: i) Farm type 1 (HIW): high intensified wheat farms in highlands, ii) Farm type 2 (MIF): medium intensified sorghum farms in mixed altitudes, iii) Farm type 3 (LIS): low intensified sorghum farms in lowlands.Based on the objectives, the farms in typology 2 were described based on resource endowment (RE) and production orientation.Farm size, herd size and oxen-pair ownership were considered for resource endowment. The thresholds for the levels of resource endowment are calculated through an iterative process with the local teams, in our case the Use Case leaders and studying the average and dispersion of the variables (Tittonell et al., 2010). The thresholds for the levels of resource endowment (low, medium and high) were calculated using three quantiles for each of the variables. For instance, 33% and 67% quantile was calculated for farm size in the whole dataset, and farmers below 33% were Low Resource Endowment (LRE), between 33% and 67% were MediumResource Endowment (MRE) and above 67% were High Resource Endowment (HRE). These quantiles are assumptions prior to the typology construction, validation of the boundaries is requested from the Use cases.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemCrop use (sold or consumed), land tenure status (renting-in land) and fertilisation was considered in production orientation. Based on production orientation, farmers were categorised into three types: Market oriented, mixed oriented and subsistence oriented.Farm types were considered market oriented when they had relatively high proportion of crop sold in markets, a high proportion of land rented in, and high fertilisation rates, which is the case for some HIW farms. Mixed oriented farm types were farms who were mostly subsistence oriented but exhibited some market-oriented characteristics, as seen in farms like MIF and LIS situated in the West Belessa district, which cultivate sorghum and teff.  All continuous variables used in T1 were retained in this typology except sorghum production as the majority of the farmers were predominantly wheat and teff farmers. The selection of categorical variables was done based on the 10% variation rule mentioned above in the methods. For instance, over ~90% of household heads were male, did not use manure and compost, used urea and fertilized wheat with a type of fertilizer. Thus, categorical variables HH head gender, manure use, compost use, urea use and chemical fertilizer used on wheat were not included in the FAMD. The FAMD resulted in 7 dimensions explaining 65.9% of the data of whichFarm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system first two are represented in the Figure 3. Within FAMD, there are two analysis, one PCA for continuous variables and other MCA for the categorical variables. For PCA, first dimension was related to teff-production and second dimension related to farm size and TLU.For MCA, first dimension was related to fertilizer type applied and second dimension was related hybrid seeds and pesticides use.The clustering resulted in three farm types.Type 1 (HIW-F1): High resource endowed, market oriented, wheat dominant farms (n=101)This farm type is mostly present in Goba district. Features: The fertilizer type use is NPS rather than NPSB, high percentage of hybrid seed users, high percentage of memberships in social groups, 15% land rented-in, high proportion of wheat sold, households with high proportion of plots on slope have high fertilizer application rates compared to other farm types, similar pattern was observed by Desta et al. (2023). In terms of dissemination of information preferences, most of the farm types prefer through government and relatives but HIW-F1and HIW-F3 have other preferences like radio, TV (Supplementary material). All continuous variables used in T1 were retained in this typology except wheat production as majority of the farmers were predominantly sorghum and teff farmers. The FAMD resulted in 8 dimensions explaining 62% of the variation (Figure 4). The first dimension was related to sorghum production and membership, and the second dimension was related to household size, HH labour availability, manure use and home garden ownership. Most of the sorghum and teff (60-70%) produced by these farms is consumed at home.Type 1 (MIF-F1): Medium resource endowed and mixed oriented sorghum-teff farms (n=207)This type of farms is mostly located in West Belessa and Kewet district. Features: High proportion of farms rent in land, have low fertilizer input rates but most apply manure and pesticides, over 75% of the farmers have memberships in social groups.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemType 2 (MIF-F2): Medium resource endowed and mixed oriented sorghum farms (n=75)This type of farms is mostly found in Kewet. Features: Low proportion of farms rent in land, have high fertilizer application rates, high proportion of farmers have oxen pair, low manure application, 50% farmers have memberships.Type 3 (MIF-F3): Low resource endowed and self-subsistence teff farms (n=56)This type of farms is mostly located in Lemo district. Features: Low fertilizer application rates, 30% area under teff and rest on other crops, higher proportion of households have homegarden, low membership, low manure use.Even though MIF-F2 and MIF-F3 have significantly smaller farm sizes than MIF-F1, they have higher fertilisation rates. This suggests that the former types apply more fertilizer to overcome land constraints compared to the latter type. Overall, 50% of the households face food shortage where MIF-F3 which is LRE and subsistence-oriented have 64% farmers who face food shortage. Farms with high percentage of plots on slopes have low fertilizer application rates (MIF-F1), unlike what was observed in previous farm type such as HIW-F3. Most of the farmers did not use hybrid seeds in this group. Memberships in these farm types are in social welfare groups and social credit groups but very few in cooperatives and water committee. For digital access, around 25-40% farmers in all the farm types have smart phones and 60-70% have cell phones.In terms of dissemination of information, 80% of farmers in MIF-F1 and MIF-F3 prefer through government whereas 60% in MIF-F2.40-50% farmers prefer through relatives in MIF-F1 and MIF-F2, whereas 22% in MIF-F3 (Supplementary material). Other modes are preferred by less than 10% of the farmers and thus, the preference for other modes is low. All continuous variables used in T1 were retained in this typology except wheat production as majority of the farmers were predominantly sorghum and teff farmers. The FAMD resulted in 7 dimensions explaining 62% variation in the data (Figure 5). The first dimension is related to TLU, fertilizer application rates and second dimension is related to manure use, membership and sorghum production. Almost all the farm types are in West Belesa district.Type 1 (LIS-F1): High resource endowed farms (HRE), self-subsistence sorghum-teff farms (n=85)Features: High manure application rates, high proportion of farmers with memberships, 38% of farmers have homegarden, 60% farmers with hybrid seeds, low percentage of farms rented-in land and low proportion of produce sold in markets. They are HRE because of large farm size and herd size but self-subsistence because of low fertilizer application rates, low land renting-in and low proportion of crop produce sold in markets.  Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemHypothesis based statistical farm typology is often used to segment farmers in a region based on their structural and functional characteristics (Alvarez et al., 2018). The variable selection depends on the scale of analysis, objective and the hypothesis of the local experts, in our case the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA), Ethiopia Use Cases. Usually, the survey questionnaire during data collection is designed based on the objective and the hypothesis of the typology. In this study, it was partially the case as the surveys were conducted in wheat, sorghum and teff growing regions, which were the Use Case locations, based on common objectives regarding farmer segmentation in the two Use Cases generalized. The data collection was generalized across various farm characteristics with a mix of structural and functional variables of continuous and categorical nature. To dive into the specific objectives of the Use Cases, exploratory analysis and segmentation of dataset was necessary to generate a meaningful typology of the system. Thus, two typologies were constructed, first on the entire dataset, at regional level, to slice the dataset into multiple sub-datasets and second typology for each of the sliced portions of datasets separately based on the farm types generated in typology 1.Previous studies handled region level datasets by performing typologies by districts (Alvarez et al., 2018;Tittonell et al., 2010). In our case, the sample sizes per district were low to include all the relevant variables for the analysis and the agroecological difference was mostly on altitude differences (high and low), thus the district (woreda) variable was left out. The continuous structural and functional variables in the dataset were used to segment farms at regional level. Despite the exclusion of districts from the analysis, a distinct segmentation of farms based on agroecology was evident. Three distinct farm types were identified, aligning with three groups characterized by agroecological factors typical for their altitudinal location.The categorical structural and functional variables provided a detailed description of farm characteristics. Using them initially along with the continuous variables in the first typology caused \"masking\" of the variation, and hence they were left out. Once the dataset was segmented based on the general variation among the continuous variables in typology 1, categorical variables proved vital to reveal the \"hidden\" differences among the farm types in typology 2.The first typology segmented the farms in two cropping systems, wheat dominant and sorghum dominant, and further segmented sorghum dominant systems in two groups: medium and low intensified based on fertilisation as wheat dominant system were high intensified due to highest fertilizer application rates. The association between resource endowment and cropping systems was not observed, as farmers engaged in both wheat and sorghum cultivation exhibited varying levels of resource endowment. Production orientation was associated to cropping systems as wheat farmers were either market oriented or mixed oriented (self-subsistence and market oriented). For wheat farmers, market and mixed orientation was mostly associated to high fertilizer application and high share of produce sold in market. For sorghum farmers, mixed orientation was mostly associated to farmers renting-in land, which canFarm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system be seen as a strategy to expand production (Berre et al., 2019). Sorghum farmers exhibited low levels of market-oriented behaviour, as indicated by the minimal share of their products sold in the market and the low application of fertilizers.The validation of these farm characterizations involved examining a subset of continuous and categorical variables. Home gardens play a crucial role in Ethiopian farms, contributing significantly to household food security. According to Motbainor et al. (2022) households with home gardens prioritise food security more than those without. Farm types categorized as mixed-oriented or selfsubsistence-oriented exhibited a higher percentage of home gardens compared to market-oriented farm types. Notably, farmers exhibiting both medium-low resource endowment (RE) and predominantly self-subsistence orientation, as well as those who own home gardens within the same group, experience food shortage. Contrastingly, a lower proportion of farmers in farm types with market orientation and HRE experience food shortage with few exceptions like LIS-F1 and LIS-F3. Even though these are HRE farms, their low intensified system might be a main driver for their food insecurity. Overall, wheat dominant farms are more food secure than sorghum dominant farms. Memberships can be an indicator of social status. Similar patterns like in food shortage is observed for membership where HRE and market-oriented farms have high participation in social groups.Engaging in off-farm activities implies that the household relies on income beyond what is generated from their farm produce (Berre et al., 2019). In the case of high intensified wheat (HIW), a greater proportion of mixed-oriented farmers had off-farm income compared to market-oriented farmers. Similarly, for high intensified wheat (HIW), greater proportion of farmers with market orientation used hybrid seeds compared to mixed oriented farmers. This pattern was not consistent for MIF and LIS as most of the farmers had self-subsistence orientation. Ownership of devices like smartphones and cell phones are also indicators of resource endowment (van den Brand, 2011) In this study, there was no variation in ownership of devices among any of the farm types. Households with self-subsistence and mixed orientation had higher number of crops on the farm compared to farmers with market orientation. Mutyasira (2020) observed this crop diversification in low resource endowed farmers. In this study, this phenomenon is more associated with production orientation rather than resource endowment.Farmers in Goba and Siyadebirnawayu are similar in terms of resource endowment with farmers in West Belesa. Due to different cropping system and production orientations, the former types are highly intensified and the latter are low intensified but have high potential of intensification.There are two farm types in Lemo district, HIW-F2 and MIF-F3. These two farm types are both diversified and the proportion of crops other than wheat, and teff was high. Even though they are in the same district, there are striking differences in these two farm types. HIW-F2 are medium resource endowed with wheat as a main crop whereas MIF-F3 are low resource endowed farms with teff as their main crops. HIW-F2 has significantly higher fertilizer application than MIF-F3 and are mixed oriented as opposed to self-MIF-F3 being subsistence. This suggests that wheat farmers are more market oriented and their farms are intensified compared to sorghum farmers. In this case, production orientation is a driver of wealth, as found earlier in Malawi (Franke et al., 2014). This suggest that market-oriented farmers are more likely to adopt new production enhancing technologies compared to those oriented towards self-subsistence.There are two farm types in Kewet district, sorghum-teff (MIF-F1) and sorghum dominant farms (MIF-F2). Both these farm types are medium resource endowed, where most of the farmers have oxen-pair, whose ownerships is associated with capital availability (Silva et al., 2019(Silva et al., , 2021)). Both these farm types are categorised as mixed oriented yet they have different strategies for production.Sorghum-teff farms are larger (1.5 ha) compared to sorghum dominant farms (0.9 ha) and increase production by renting-in land and mostly rely on manure from the cattle as inputs on farm. On the other hand, sorghum dominant farms apply more fertilizer rather than renting-in land and use less manure even though they have similar cattle numbers as the sorghum-teff farmers. Thus, sorghum dominant have high intensified production and sorghum-teff have high extensified production strategy. Previous studies report farming households facing land pressure tend to allocate their land to income-generating crops and increase intensification (Berre et al., 2019;Boere et al., 2016). At Kewet, technologies for sustainable intensification of these two farm types could include crop-livestock integration (fertilizers and manure management) to address production and land pressure.West Belesa is distinguished from the other districts by having the largest farm size and TLU, despite maintaining the lowest rate of fertilizer input (Table 3). Variations between farm types in West Belessa mainly revolve around crop selection and production orientation. Those exclusively producing teff show significantly lower input rates and a higher proportion of home gardens compared to sorghum-teff producers. Furthermore, the degree of production orientation (from self-subsistence to market) is linked to the need to rent additional land for cultivation, as highlighted by Mutyasira (2020). These findings suggest a high production capacity and potential for intensification, particularly encouraging synergies between crop and livestock production across all farm types in West Belessa.The details on exclusion and limitations in variable selection are in the supplementary material, few examples are discussed here.Notably, the variable of labour utilization and hired human power (measured in human-hours per day or week) essential for assessing production orientation and resource endowment was absent in the dataset. However, the data on labour use for each management practice can be found in Part III of the survey tool which is at plot level. We therefore used a proxy variable for labour, such as the presence of adults in the household. However, this proxy failed to provide a comprehensive depiction of the labour category in the typology as it highly correlated with household size.Position of the plots in the landscape was an important variable for the Use Cases in the study. It was collected at three levels (flat, slope, steep), which was inconsistent with how it was measured in the past (valley bottom, lower slope, middle slope, upper slope, plateau) in the same study regions (Desta et al., 2023). Further, fertilizer application was measured at farm level for the Farmer Segmentation (Part I & II). The plot level measurements of fertilizer application rates are collected under Part III. This caused loss of information in estimating the differences in fertilizer application by slope type and also crop type. When the slope information was included in the current form, the variables did not correlate significantly with any other variables in the dataset and hence were not included in the typology analysis but were used for farm description.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming systemIn this study, two typologies at different scales were used to identify farm types to customize MVP advisory in three regions of Ethiopia. Our method showed that typology using only continuous variables explaining general farm characteristics in the farming system may lead to blanket recommendations due to over generalization of the typology. Combined use of both continuous variables defining broad trends in the system and categorical variables at multiple scales is necessary for detailed farm characterization. In the region level typology, farm types were segmented primarily based on cropping system and fertilization intensity. In the farming system level typology, farms were segmented based on resource endowment and production orientation. Drawing upon the second typology hypothesis, which states that farming households can be categorized based on their resource endowment (measured by TLU and farm size) and production orientation, we affirm that three distinct farm types were derived within each initially segregated farms identified in typology 1. The nine farm types identified in five districts of Ethiopia differed in cropping system, land size and tenure status, capital availability based on livestock ownership and production orientation, all of which has an influence on their farm management and type of intervention/solutions necessary for intensification. We conclude that the wheat farmers mostly have high resource endowment and are market oriented with high social standing and high food security. Wealthy sorghum farmers are also similar to wealthy wheat farmers except production orientation is self-subsistence, thus have a high potential of intensification through targeted interventions. Dissemination through government and relatives is highly preferred by all the farm types irrespective of resource endowment and production orientation. Digital access was not correlated with resource endowment.• The Use Cases need to have interactive discussions with the demand partners to validate the typologies generated and tailor their MVPs for each Farm Types for effective scaling.• There is a need to identify specific strategies to disseminate MVPs based on the requirement of each Farm Type identified.• Further analysis can be carried out to identify specific farm typologies based on the need of Use Cases.• Expand the network of partners for strategic dissemination and implementation of the MVP.Farm typology for Ethiopia Use Cases: Analysis at region and farming system 8. APPENDIX   Cattle ratio 0.7 (0.3) b 0.9 (0.2) a 0.9 (0.2) a 0.8 (0.3) Small ruminant ratio 0.2 (0.3) a 0.1 (0.      ","tokenCount":"6385"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ceae3691ad4a27986663a3b907382580","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6ca587c3-680c-414a-9152-30a7fe7c72df/retrieve","id":"-943744780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4fd2203-b2aa-4f38-991b-25ac984d7408","pagecount":"24","content":"Tropical (CIAT) brinda soluciones científicas que aprovechan la biodiversidad agrícola y transforman los sistemas alimentarios de manera sostenible para mejorar la vida de las personas. Las soluciones de la Alianza abordan las crisis mundiales de malnutrición, cambio climático, pérdida de la biodiversidad y degradación ambiental.La Alianza es parte de CGIAR, un consorcio mundial de investigación para un futuro sin hambre. www.bioversityinternational.org www.ciat.cgiar.org www.cgiar.org ADVANTA SEEDS es una empresa multinacional de semillas, que aplica las más avanzadas técnicas de mejoramiento vegetal a una amplia base de germoplasma propio para obtener híbridos de alto potencial, ofreciendo semillas de alta calidad, con el fin de mejorar la vida de los agricultores a través del desarrollo sostenible de nuestros productos. Para la región Latinoamérica Norte, se resalta nuestra genética de maíz de origen tailandés, obteniendo híbridos con el mejor perfil tropical, de alto rendimiento, buena estabilidad, amplia capacidad de adaptación y excelente calidad de grano. Asimismo, nuestra cercanía a los agricultores a través de nuestra fuerza técnica, nos ha permitido entender mejor las necesidades de la agricultura a través de la región, llevando nuestra tecnología en la semilla que desarrollamos a todos los agricultores que la necesitan.A Advanta Seeds, por apoyar la divulgación de información de importancia para el sector maicero de la región.Al equipo de investigación del grupo de Artrópodos del Suelo, del Área de Investigación en Cultivos para la Alimentación y la Salud de la Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).Especial agradecimiento a Oscar Hernando Yela, por su valiosa colaboración en la estructuración de este material.La hembra pone alrededor de 132 huevos durante su vida y deposita de 4 hasta 19 uno a uno, en hileras de 8 (Fig. A) (Cuadra y Maes, 1990).El huevo es muy pequeño y de forma ovalada (Fig.Recién puesto es incoloro y una semana después toma una coloración blanca.Etapa: HuevoEn este estado, la ninfa alcanza una longitud de 1.06 mm. Es de color hialino, con los ojos de color rojo visible, característica que desaparece al cambiar de instar.Las ninfas en este estado miden aproximadamente entre 1.58 y 2.12 mm de longitud. Son de color crema y las setas son mas visibles ( Etapa: Ninfa IIIEn este estado, la ninfa mide alrededor de 2.87 a 2.95 mm. Se evidencian vestigios de las alas a la altura del primer y segundo segmento abdominal (Fig. A). Las alas se extienden hasta el borde del tercer segmento (Fig. B).Etapa: Ninfa IVLa hembra mide alrededor de 4.9 mm, es de color crema y presenta dos manchas oscuras características en la cabeza ( A B","tokenCount":"428"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"37456f1e98f757660e46a48551f122f1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/446c642c-8665-4222-a958-20156f0019a0/content","id":"-966474132"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fc4a169b-0e35-42db-84a0-8a40d0fa5459","pagecount":"8","content":"Maize is a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa, but yields remain sub-optimal. Improved breeding and seed systems are vital to increase productivity. We describe a hybrid seed production technology that will benefit seed companies and farmers. This technology improves efficiency and integrity of seed production by removing the need for detasseling. The resulting hybrids segregate 1:1 for pollen production, conserving resources for grain production and conferring a 200 kg ha −1 benefit across a range of yield levels. This represents a 10% increase for farmers operating at national average yield levels in sub-Saharan Africa. The yield benefit provided by fifty-percent non-pollen producing hybrids is the first example of a single gene technology in maize conferring a yield increase of this magnitude under low-input smallholder farmer conditions and across an array of hybrid backgrounds. Benefits to seed companies will provide incentives to improve smallholder farmer access to higher quality seed. Demonstrated farmer preference for these hybrids will help drive their adoption.ncreasing the productivity of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is an important step toward improving livelihoods and reducing risk 1 . Maize yields in SSA remain the lowest in the world, and historical production increases are associated with an unsustainable increase in maize area. At current yield levels, the area under maize cultivation must increase by 184% to meet future food security needs 2 . Obsolete varieties that were developed for climate conditions that have subsequently changed are still widely grown. Rapid-cycle breeding and faster varietal replacement are essential to increasing yields under changing climates 3 .Progress in SSA has been made through modernizing breeding programs, engagement with seed companies, and the development and delivery of elite, stress-tolerant varieties 4 . Improved maize production in Ethiopia, through improved maize genetics and other agronomic inputs 5 , has helped lift an estimated 788,000 people out of poverty annually 6 . There is an increasing focus on improving the efficiency of public sector maize breeding 7 but seed production remains a key bottleneck in SSA 8 .Hybrids are maize varieties in which the seed is produced by crossing two different parent lines, increasing the yield through heterosis. Detasseling in hybrid seed production in SSA is manual, unlike in other regions of the world, leading to higher cost of the seed and issues with quality 9,10 . Most commercially available hybrids in SSA are three-way hybrids which are formed by crossing two lines together to form a single cross female parent and then crossing the single cross female to a third inbred to produce commercial seed. Three-way cross hybrids are common in SSA, even if yields are lower since the cost of goods sold (COGS) is lower due to the higher seed yield of single cross females compared with inbred lines. Technologies to reduce both COGS and the complexity of producing high-quality hybrids would offer smaller seed companies greater opportunities to provide new hybrids to smallholder farmers 11 . Seed production technology (SPT) is a process previously used by Corteva Agriscience to produce commercial hybrid maize seeds in the United States. The original SPT system was based on a recessive male sterility gene, ms45, and it utilized a transgenic maintainer cassette containing the dominant Ms45 allele to restore fertility to ms45 homozygous plants, an α-amylase gene to render transgenic pollen non-viable, and a seed color marker gene 12 . SPT enables the production of homozygous male sterile non-transgenic seed.Subsequent development of an SPT system based on the dominant male sterility gene, Ms44, enables seed increase of homozygous dominant non-pollen producing (NPP) inbred and heterozygous NPP female single-cross parent plants 13 . The Ms44-SPT system is well suited for three-way hybrid production as it eliminates the need for detasseling maize hybrid production fields during both hybridization steps. Three-way hybrids produced using heterozygous NPP female parents segregate 1:1 pollenproducing (PP) and NPP and have been shown to increase yield by 8.5% under ultra-low nitrogen managed stress field testing in the US 13 . Such hybrids are designated 50% non-pollen-producing (FNP). An alternative dominant male sterility (DMS) system has subsequently been developed using the PHD-finger transcription factor ZmMs7 together with a transgenic restoration system 14 . This system is hypothesized to deliver a similar yield benefit to the Ms44-based system in an FNP hybrid form although field validation has not yet been reported.Biotechnology has had mixed success from a scaling perspective 15 . Translating results under controlled stress environments in experimental research stations to on-farm, with a repeatable yield advantage across a range of environments and multiple genetic backgrounds, has proved complex even in high-yielding, uniform environments 16 . The transfer of genetic technologies developed under controlled environments in the USA to low-yielding conditions in SSA has had limited success 15 . In SSA, maize is primarily grown in challenging environments, with high spatial variation even within a single smallholder farm 17 . Technology development centered in experimental research stations may lead to products that fail to perform in the target environment. Recognizing this and the need to co-develop technological solutions with farmers is leading to an increased interest to move testing on farm 18,19 . Although FNP hybrids have demonstrated yield benefits in limited testing in the US, yield levels of these trials (6.3-8.1 Mg ha −1 ) were 3-4 times higher than those typically found in farmers' fields in SSA. The impact of the FNP trait on yield needs to be measured robustly across diverse on-farm sites, environments, and genetic backgrounds in order to assess the potential for FNP hybrids in SSA. Low fertilizer use (<17 kg ha −1 ) is a major factor contributing to the yield gap in SSA 20 , particularly in female-managed plots 21 , and is exacerbated by low and variable returns on investment 22 .Here we investigate the potential of FNP hybrids to increase maize yields under a range of conditions including low input and droughtstressed conditions commonly encountered by smallholder farmers in SSA. Agricultural research often involves only researchers, without any participation from farmers 23 . Working with the primary beneficiaries is essential to ensure an understanding of what the user needs or wants in order to facilitate adoption 10 . For this reason, trials were conducted largely on-farm with primary beneficiaries and farmer perceptions of FNP hybrids were evaluated. The primary objectives of this study were to quantify the yield difference of FNP hybrids in on-farm conditions with smallholder farmers in Africa and to assess farmer perceptions of FNP hybrids to determine the likelihood that an FNP hybrid would be accepted in the market by the primary intended beneficiaries. Additionally, we investigate changes in agronomic traits and yield components associated with the FNP trait.FNP hybrids have increased yield relative to PP hybrids. Multiple hybrid pairs (FNP and PP versions) were grown in both onstation trials (OST) and on-farm field trials (OFT) across Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, from 2016 to 2019 (Supplementary Fig. 1). The FNP trait was evaluated in 26 different hybrid backgrounds. Trials were conducted in 112 locations (Supplementary Table 1). FNP hybrids demonstrate a 202 kg ha −1 advantage over PP hybrids with equivalent grain moisture (Table 1). FNP hybrids increase yield over a broad range of environments. When averaged across all hybrids within a location, the grain yield of FNP hybrids, relative to their PP controls, was consistently higher across yield levels (Fig. 1a). FNP hybrids significantly out-yielded the PP controls in 75% of the locations tested, with an overall average yield increase of 202 kg ha −1 . Absolute yield improvement was consistent across yield levels (Fig. 1a). Predicted yield improvement is 192 kg ha −1 (9.6%) in highly stressful, low-potential environments (2000 kg ha −1 ) and 229 kg ha −1 (2.4%) in high-potential conditions (8000 kg ha −1 ) (Fig. 1b).The yield benefit of FNP was consistent across 19 hybrid backgrounds with more than 22 locations of data (Fig. 2). Seven hybrids were not included as they were grown in 12 or fewer locations. From these 19 hybrids, the average yield advantage of FNP in single cross hybrids was 178 kg ha −1 and for three-way crosses the benefit was 264 kg ha −1 .In these same trials, photos of all the ears harvested from NPP and PP plants were taken at harvest, and image analysis was used to estimate ear parameters 24 . Table 1 indicates that NPP plants had a significant 5.9% increase in the number of kernels per plant and a small but significant increase in 100 kernel weight of 0.9%. Ear length was increased significantly (4.9%), reflecting the larger number of kernels for NPP plants.Farmer participatory evaluation. In Kenya, 2697 farmers (62% women) visited the trials to evaluate the FNP technology at eight different sites in 2017 and 2018 (Supplementary Table 2). When participants were first asked to score the importance of the different criteria on a scale of 0 (not important) to 3 (very important), they gave high scores to most of the criteria. During the mid-season evaluation, the criteria with the highest scores were yield, early maturity, ear size, and the number of ears, which all received an average score between 2.5 and 2.7. When farmers were asked if tassel formation was important during the midseason evaluation, they scored the trait very high (2.68) second only to yield (2.69) (out of a maximum of 3). Similarly, the amount of pollen shed received an importance score of 2.6. During the mid-season evaluation in 2017, farmers scored the conventional PP hybrids significantly higher for tassel formation and pollen shed than the FNP hybrids, indicating they can clearly distinguish the two types (Table 2). In the mid-season, both the yield score and the overall score of the FNP hybrids were significantly higher than that of the conventional, PP hybrids. Otherwise, there were few differences between the scores for the individual criteria. At the end-season (harvest) evaluation, there was no difference between scores for tassel formation of PP and FNP hybrids, indicating that participants could no longer tell the difference. At harvest, FNP hybrids generally scored better on several criteria, including significant differences in ear size and yield, and for the overall evaluation. At the mid-season evaluation in 2018, scores for the amount of pollen shed were similar between PP and FNP hybrids, the latter even getting slightly higher scores for tassel formation. During group discussions after the (individual) evaluations, farmers explained they now understood the trait and did not give FNP hybrids lower scores, even though they recognized the morphological differences. The results at harvest in 2018 were similar to those in 2017: there was no difference between the two hybrid types for tassel formation, but FNP hybrids scored higher on yield and overall evaluation compared to conventional hybrids. The results indicate that 13.2 ± 0.18 13.9 ± 0.18 0.64 4.9 <0.0001 469Grain yield and grain moisture were measured in on-farm and on-station trials. Ear and plant height, grain weight, number of tassel branches, and tassel weight were measured on individual non-pollen producing (NPP) or PP plants tagged within an FNP hybrid plot on a subset of on-station locations. Kernel number, grain weight, 100 kernel weight, and ear length were estimated from image analysis of NPP and PP ears taken from tagged plants within an FNP hybrid plot on a subset of on-station locations.Fig. 1 Yield benefit of 50% non-pollen producing (FNP) hybrids over conventional (PP) hybrids. Yield (kg ha −1 ) of 50% non-pollen producing (FNP) hybrids compared with conventional PP hybrids grown across multiple locations and years as shown in Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Fig. 1. a FNP hybrids yield (kg ha −1 ) (y-axis) plotted against the yield of pollen-producing (PP) conventional hybrids (x-axis). Each point represents the mean of four to nine hybrid backgrounds for on-farm trials (OFT) (blue diamond) and 4-15 hybrid backgrounds for on-station trial (OST) (yellow square). The solid black line represents the 1:1 relationship and the fitted regression line is shown (blue dotted). b Percent yield increase predicted by growing FNP hybrids (yaxis) plotted against location mean yield (x-axis). Yield increase was projected using the fitted linear regression in a to predict the yield of FNP hybrids.farmers can distinguish FNP from PP hybrids and identify them as higher yielding and better overall (Table 2).Impact assessment. At this stage, technology adoption rates are unknown but based on preliminary discussions with seed companies two scenarios can be considered. An adoption rate of FNP of 10% of the current area in maize hybrids seems a reasonable low-end scenario, while 25% would be an optimistic scenario.Based on FAO statistics and the adoption literature, the maize area in the top 25 maize-producing countries in Africa is estimated at 36.6 Mha, of which 34.2% or 12.6 Mha is planted to hybrids. The total seed needed for the low scenario (10% adoption by hybrid users) is calculated at 31,390 tonnes, and 78,000 tonnes for the high scenario (25% adoption). At an adoption rate of 10%, only 11 countries have a demand of more than 1000 tonnes (17 have a demand of >100 tonnes). The total demand for FNP seed for these 11 countries adds up to 27,906 tonnes, 93% of the total (Supplementary Table 4). To compare the benefits to the cost, we use net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) 25 (Supplementary Table 5).Based on the current cost of the development of the technology, from 1 to 1.6 million $ yr −1 , the discounted cost comes to $28.9 million. For the benefits, we assume the technology to be on the market in 2023, and to take 10 years to reach the target 10% adoption (market penetration of FNP hybrids as a percentage of hybrid seed), keeping maize production constant. Under this basic scenario, maize production is expected to increase by 244,204 tonnes per year at the target adoption rate, valued at $40 million. The discounted benefits, up to 2040, are estimated at 180 M$. The NPV is calculated at 152 M$, the BCR at 6.25, and the IRR at 24%. Under the optimistic scenario, the adoption rate of FNP reaches 25% of total hybrid use, and the extra production is estimated at 610,511 tonnes annually, valued at $100 million. Under this scenario, the discounted benefits up to 2040 are estimated at $452 million, the NPV at $423 million, the BCR at 16, and the IRR at 32%.A key objective of this study was to move the evaluation of the FNP trait from US germplasm tested in managed field conditions to African germplasm tested in farmers' fields in SSA. In farmers' fields across hybrid backgrounds in Africa, we demonstrate that FNP hybrids, segregating for Ms44, increase yield by ~200 kg ha −1 at current SSA yield levels. There is an urgent need to increase genetic gain for yield under low fertility conditions; observed rates of genetic gain under drought are 23-32 kg ha −1 yr −1 and low nitrogen 21 kg ha −1 yr −1 26 . The yield benefit of FNP hybrids under stress conditions represents at least 6 years of progress in plant breeding. This study demonstrates the ability of FNP hybrids to deliver 10-20% yield increase under extremely stressful growing conditions faced by millions of smallholder maize farmers. The stability of the yield benefit across genetic backgrounds indicates that FNP can be successfully deployed across an array of hybrids to meet the needs of farmers in various agroecological zones throughout SSA. On-farm trials are being increasingly scrutinized due to high input and yield levels that are not representative of the actual realities of the farmers testing the technologies 27,28 . Our aim was to evaluate yield benefits at close to national average yield levels by targeting farmer-managed on-farm trials with minimal nitrogen inputs, typical of many smallholder farmers. Participatory research was a key component given the visual differences of FNP hybrids compared to conventional hybrids. Kenyan farmers interviewed during the participatory evaluation of these trials could observe the differences in tassel and pollen formation but favored FNP hybrids overall due to the improved ear size and increased yield. As the technology broadens to other African countries it will be important to continue to seek farmer feedback on FNP hybrids. Yield improvement was correlated with reduced tassel size prior to anthesis and lack of production of pollen, as the formation of tassel structure and pollen competes for resources with grain production. Reducing this competition also reduces anthesis silking interval (ASI) under stress 29 . Reduced ASI has also occurred during selection for yield in SSA 26 . In FNP hybrids, 50% of the plants do not produce pollen, and partitioning of resources within the plant early on in development is shifted from the tassel in favor of the ear, leading to earlier silk protrusion and reducing ASI under stress. This change in partitioning results in more efficient use of nitrogen, a scarce resource for many smallholder farmers. Therefore, an added benefit of FNP hybrids is that they do not increase total N uptake but improve nitrogen utilization efficiency by reducing partitioning from the tassel in favor of the ear, increasing kernels per ear and kernel weight 13 . The adoption of modern FNP hybrids and the realization of associated yield benefits will still require nutrient inputs, given that current production largely relies on mining of nutrients which is unsustainable 30,31 .Widespread acceptance of FNP hybrids will be dependent on adoption by both farmers and seed companies. In this paper, we have described yield benefits to the farmer (about 200 kg ha −1 ) and highlighted farmer acceptance, indicating the hybrids are likely to be adopted quickly. Under the conservative scenario (adoption of FNP in 10% of current maize hybrid area), we estimate that FNP would increase maize production in Africa by 0.245 Mt per year, valued at $40M. While this increase is relatively modest, for example when compared to the potential benefits of Bt maize 32 , the benefits would still outweigh the cost by more than 6:1, indicating a good return to the research investment.Apart from benefits to farmers, the technology also provides benefits to seed companies. These include: a reduction in detasseling costs, as the NPP females will not require detasseling during seed production; improved seed purity, as there is no self-pollination of female plants during seed production; and increased kernel numbers, leading to reduced seed production costs. Kernel number was increased by 6% in NPP plants under low N in these studies but was not measured under favorable conditions more typical of seed production. In US trials, kernel number was increased by 9.6% in plants with NPP tassels compared with wild-type controls under optimum conditions 13 . This will be evaluated in African germplasm under seed production practices in SSA, but the expected increase in seed production of about 10% is an additional anticipated benefit to seed companies. The benefits to seed companies are also expected to help catalyze a shift towards more modern hybrids, improving the selection and purity of climate-smart hybrids available to smallholder farmers by providing incentives for seed companies to replace older, lower-yielding varieties with more recent higher-yielding ones. The replacement of older hybrids in the market will have added benefits for farmers, on top of those predicted from the ~200 kg ha −1 benefit of growing FNP hybrids. We plan to collect additional data on the average age of hybrids that will be replaced, but assuming the average age of replacement is 10 years, this would reflect an additional 275 kg ha −1 benefit to the farmer using conservative estimates of genetic gain. Therefore, the adoption of FNP hybrids would benefit farmers growing at the 2 Mg ha −1 yield level by almost 25%, or 0.5 Mg ha −1 , approximately $76 ha −1 in added income.The development and use of dominant male sterile technology across crops such as maize, rice, and wheat have been demonstrated but not yet widely applied, showing promise in delivering improved seed production and yield 33 . The Ms44-SPT system provides a unique opportunity to transform the maize hybrid seed industry in Africa, providing recognizable benefits to both seed companies and farmers. The FNP trait delivered using the Ms44-SPT system can deliver economic benefit in the form of improved input use efficiency to smallholder maize farmers faced both with limited ability to purchase recommended quantity of fertilizer and the uncertainty of drought stress.Germplasm and incorporation of Ms44. The dominant male-sterile allele Ms44 was introgressed into five inbred maize lines. For the first year of trials, four of these inbreds were used, one had been backcrossed six times (BC 6 ) and three had been backcrossed four times (BC 4 ) to the respective recurrent parents. For each line conversion, four to five ear sources were selected for increase upon heterozygous marker calls for the donor allele and minimum introgression segment size. For subsequent trials, all five inbreds utilized had been backcrossed five or more times. As a dominant male-sterile allele, Ms44 must be maintained in the heterozygous condition during increase by placing pollen from male-fertile plants onto silks of male-sterile plants. At each generation, the progeny rows segregate 1:1 for malesterility. The five converted Ms44 inbred lines were used as female parents and crossed with 3-4 male inbred parental lines each to produce 18 unique single cross hybrid pairs. Female rows were segregated for pollen-producing (PP) and nonpollen producing (NPP) plants and these were classified and tagged separately at flowering. Ears were harvested separately for PP and NPP plants. The F1 hybrid seed harvested from NPP plants segregated 1:1 for pollen-producing (PP) and nonpollen producing (NPP) are referred to as 50% non-pollen-producing (FNP) hybrids. The F1 hybrid seed harvested from PP female plants produced 100% PP near-isogenic control hybrids. Eight three-way cross hybrids were produced by planting F1 seed harvested from NPP plants and crossing these to inbred PP males, resulting in three-way crosses segregating 1:1 PP and NPP plus the 100% PP controls.Yield testing. From 2017 to 2019, yield trials were planted both on-station (OST) and researcher-managed on-farm (OFT) in Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 1). Trials at experimental stations were conducted under optimal, low-N, heat, and drought stress. Optimal, heat, and drought stress sites were optimally fertilized based on local recommendations and received recommended weed and insect control measures. Optimal trials were planted during the main maize growing seasons, irrigated twice at planting and emergence, and supplemental irrigation was applied as needed to avoid drought stress. Managed drought trials were planted in the dry season and irrigation was withheld approximately 2 weeks prior to mid-anthesis. Delayed planting in the dry season allowed for high temperatures at the reproductive stage for heat stress trials. In low-N, fields had been depleted of nitrogen for at least 4-seasons. Rescue irrigation was only applied to avoid total crop loss when required. Depletion was achieved by applying no N fertilizer to plots and removing stover from the field after the grain was harvested.Experiments were in a randomized complete block with a split-plot restriction, where the hybrid background was the main plot treatment and trait (PP or FNP) was the sub-plot treatment. Different hybrid combinations were grown in different years and locations depending on seed availability. On-station trials were 2-4 row plots of 5 m length and 0.75 cm between rows. There were 4-6 reps per location and usually more hybrid pedigrees planted across fewer locations. At selected OST locations, plants in the middle two rows were tagged at flowering according to phenotype: NPP for non-pollen-producing and PP for pollen-producing. When all PP plants were shed, the tassels from two PP and two NPP tagged plants in each plot were removed and the number of tassel branches was recorded. The tassel was cut at one inch above the flag leaf, oven dried to zero moisture and dry weight recorded. At 2-3 weeks after flowering, ear height (from the ground surface to the highest ear node) and plant height (to the tip of the tassel) were recorded for 4 PP and 4 NPP plants per plot. At OST locations in Zimbabwe, ear photos were taken and images analyzed 24 to estimate ear length, kernel number, 100 kernel weight, and grain weight per plant. Photos were taken using a tripod with the camera fixed at least 50 cm above the ears. Dehusked ears were placed on a black background, with 15-20 ears per photo. A 30 cm ruler was placed in the same orientation as the ears to be used as a reference.For on-farm trials, smallholder farmers were identified by agricultural extension agents in each country. Extension agents were given a small monetary amount to cover all expenses related to trials. In Zimbabwe, additional seeds and inputs were given as compensation to farmers. On-farm trials were 2-4 row plots, 5 m rows with 0.75 m between rows. Plots were double planted and thinned, leaving an intra- Farmer evaluations of pollen-producing (PP) and 50% non-pollen producing (FNP) hybrids in 2017 and 2018, on a 5-point hedonic scale (1 = dislike very much, 2 = like, 3 = neither like nor dislike, 4 = like, 5 = like very much) in mid-season and end-season for different criteria and overall. Values presented are mean ± s.e., N (number of data points) and P-values using pairwise t-tests. The number and description of participants in the questionnaires are shown in Supplementary Table 2.row spacing of 25 cm. There were 2 reps per location and multiple locations per year. In each country, project partners worked alongside extension agents and directly with farmers. Researcher-managed trials implemented by farmers are often higher yielding than farmers' own fields 27 , thus farmers were asked to use appropriate pest and weed management, but not to apply N fertiliser. Target yields were less than 4 t ha −1 , based on the average yield of target farmers. Harvesting was conducted by hand, ears were shelled and grain weight and moisture were recorded. The yield on an area basis was calculated and adjusted to 155 g kg −1 moisture. Analysis was conducted using ASREML (VSN International Ltd). In the analysis for grain yield, the main effect of trait is considered as fixed effects and hybrid background and interaction between trait and hybrid background are treated as random effects. Location and interaction between location and trait are considered fixed. The blocking factors such as replicates are considered random. Yield for trait within hybrid was predicted using best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP), as the hybrid effect was treated as random. Yield for trait across hybrids was predicted using best linear unbiased estimates (BLUE), trait is considered a fixed effect. Differences between the 100% PP and the FNP trait were assessed by a two-sided t-test using the standard error of difference (SED) from the linear mixed model and were considered significant at the 5% confidence level.Farmer evaluations. Farmer evaluations were organized in eight trial sites in Kenya in the main season of 2017 and 2018. The original sites were randomly selected from the trial sites in 2017. In 2018, two of the sites were dropped from the trials, so for farmer evaluations, they were replaced by nearby suitable sites. The evaluations were conducted twice in each year/season, mid-season (June-July) and end season (July-August). While breeders observed yield and other traits in the field, social scientists invited farmers to come and evaluate the entries in a subset of trials. The evaluations were double-blind: plots were identified by number and neither farmers nor facilitators/enumerators knew the treatments. For the participatory evaluations in 2017, 8 OFT sites were randomly selected from the trial sites, 4 in Central Kenya and 4 in Western Kenya. In 2018, 2 sites in Central Kenya were replaced, and the other 6 were maintained.At each site, neighboring farmers were identified through farmer groups, local administration, and extension officers, and invited to evaluate the trials. In Kenya, women often tend to the farms while men are more likely to look for employment elsewhere, and it is common to have more female farmers participate 34 . The participants, 2697 in total, of which 62% were women, were adults of all ages (from 17 to 88) (Supplementary Table 2). Most participants were experienced farmers, with an average of 17 years of farming experience. Most had also finished primary education, with on average eight years of formal education. Most participants owned their farm, with an average size of almost 1 ha (0.85), more than half of which (0.5 ha) was planted in maize. Most participants practice a mixed crop/ livestock system, with about two-thirds owning cattle and a quarter of oxen. The average cash income over the previous year was KES 92,617 (almost $1000), of which about half came from agriculture.Ethical compliance. We have complied with all relevant ethical regulations regarding human research participants. The study protocols were approved by the Social Economics and Global Maize Programs of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Participation of local partner organizations on the ethics review committee had not been implemented at the time the study was reviewed. Risk management plans for the health, safety and security of researchers were overseen by KALRO, ARC, and CIMMYT. Health and safety standards met or exceeded local requirements. Security measures followed guidance from the United Nations concerning staff residing and operating locally. Informed consent was obtained from all farmer participants in the preference survey conduct.Farmers' evaluation of new technologies, including varieties, is a two-step procedure, where first the selection criteria or traits important to farmers are identified, followed by an evaluation of the new technologies or varieties on those criteria. Criteria during the first year were set and, based on discussions with farmers, four more criteria were added in 2018 (Supplementary Table 3) 35 . To confirm the importance of these criteria to the participants of this study, we asked them, individually, to give these a score for importance (0 = not important, 1 = somewhat important, 2 = important, 3 = very important) (Supplementary Table 3).Participants were asked to evaluate the different entries on these criteria. In 2017, they evaluated the eight entries and two reps, so all 16 plots in total. In 2018 there were 16 entries and the participants only evaluated one of the two reps each, randomly assigned. To score the entries, they used a 5-point hedonic scale, following previous experience 36 . Experience has shown that using numbers for the scores can be confusing, as \"1\" can indicate both a very good or a very poor score. Therefore, letter scores were used, which correspond to the Kenyan school system and hence are easy for farmers to understand. The options were A (like very much), B (like), C (neither like nor dislike), D (dislike), and E (dislike very much) 34 . In 2017, farmers were randomly assigned to the control (without evaluations of tassel or pollen), treatment 1 (including the criterion \"good tassel formation\"), or treatment 2 (including both the tassel criterion and the criterion \"amount of pollen shed\"). As the results of 2017 indicated treatments 1 and 2 were very similar, they were merged in 2018, with only one treatment group, whose members evaluated the entries on tassel and pollen. All criteria were expressed in both English and Kiswahili on the questionnaire, the national languages in Kenya. In the different counties, depending on the situation, the criteria were translated into local languages.To analyze the scores, the alphabetical scores were converted to numerical scores (from A = 5 to E = 1), mean scores were calculated for all criteria and the mean scores for FNP and PP hybrids compared through pairwise t-test. Impact assessment. To estimate maize area and production in SSA we used the FAOSTAT data from 2018 which includes 50 countries) with an area of 37.55 Mha a production of 70.51 Mtonnes and an average yield of 1.92 t ha −1 37 . For levels of adoption of improved maize varieties and hybrids we searched the literature and found data from the top 25 countries [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] . These 25 countries, including all countries with a maize area of more than 100 kha (except for Burundi and South Sudan) (Supplementary Table 4) plant 36.6 Mha (97.4% of maize area in SSA) with a production of 70.4 Mt. Multiplying adoption rates of improved maize varieties by country with their 2018 maize area, resulting in an estimated total area in improved maize varieties of 19.3 Mha (52.6%). Similarly, multiplying the % of hybrids for each country by the maize area led to an estimated area planted in hybrids in these countries at 12.6 Mha (34%). The yield benefit for each country was estimated using the regression from Fig. 1 (Δy = 0.006x + 180.2). The weighted average (for the 25 countries with adoption figures, and area in hybrids used as weight) comes to 193 kg ha −1 .To compare the benefits to the cost, we use the following project performance parameters: net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) 25 (Supplementary Table 5). The cost of the development of the technology is estimated by the annual cost of the FNP project, US$ 1 million per year from 2010 to 2016 and US$1.6 million from 2017 to 2020. For the future, we expect the further development cost to be about $1.25 million per year from 2021 to 2024, after which the cost will gradually reduce from $0.8 million in 2025 to 0.1 in 2028. For the benefits, we assume the technology to be on the market in 2023, and to take 10 years to reach the target 10% adoption (market penetration of FNP hybrids as a percentage of hybrid seed), keeping maize production constant.Statistics and reproducibility. OST was run in 11 locations across three countries between 2016 and 2019, on replicated plots for 26 genotypes on a total of 2784 plots. OFT was run in 79 farmer fields for 3 years, on replicated plots for 19 genotypes on 1851 plots. Farmer evaluations were conducted on a total of 2697 farmers in eight farmer fields in 2017 and six farmer fields in 2018. Field data was analyzed using ASREML. Charts were produced in Excel and using packages ggplot2.Inclusion. Research herein reported was designed and implemented with the full partnership of local researchers from KALRO, ARC, and CIMMYT. Five of the nine authors are local scientists. Data ownership and intellectual property rights are guided by the research collaboration agreement between the four implementing institutions. Research is locally relevant as determined in collaboration with local partners. Roles and responsibilities were co-developed and agreed upon prior to each season with extensive input and guidance from local partners. Capacity development was a critical component of both the SPTA project and the predecessor project Improved Maize for African Soils. Participation of international scientists supported by these projects in regional training events hosted by CIM-MYT occurs annually. Four local scientists have participated in the projects as part of their dissertation research.","tokenCount":"5817"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b60df6130676d5ba2878af37c999b5bc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c771d0cb-6ed1-46ec-b2e8-37f6953ae138/content","id":"-694113174"},"keywords":["gender","maize","communal areas","soil fertility","technology","Zimbabwe Soil Fert Net Research Results Working Paper 8: Chihota Baseline Survey"],"sieverID":"1cdc9a9c-bd69-4afa-b035-ff4b9b696749","pagecount":"56","content":"This report presents the results of a baseline survey that was carried out in nine wards of Chihota communal area, Zimbabwe. This survey is part of the Chihota Soil Fertility project which is a pilot study to expose farmers in this area to a range of 'best-bet' soil fertility improvement technologies and to get their assessment of these technologies in their own terms. The aims of this survey are twofold: to enhance our understanding of farmers' problems and perceptions and to serve as a control against which the impact of the Chihota Soil Fertility project will be compared. The survey covers the following aspects: household characteristics, landholdings, crops grown, soil fertility practices, field characteristics and management, history of use of soil fertility practices, and knowledge about these practices. The unit of analysis used here was the household. Households were classified into three categories: a) male-headed households, female -headed households with male adults (males 18 years and older), female -headed households without male adults (no males above 18 years old). The results show that the farming systems in Chihota are maize-based, even though garden production and non-agricultural labour are important sources of income and subsistence. These systems do not seem to have changed dramatically in the last twenty years. There are some important gender differences among households in terms of the assets they control and the agricultural management they implement. Farming households use a range of soil fertility improvement practices, both organic and inorganic. Some of these are traditional while others have been introduced in the last two decades. Even though most farmers in this area have been in contact with extension, and they have good knowledge about certain soil improvement practices, there seem to be many knowledge gaps in the use of others, including some traditional organic ones. There are opportunities to improve farmers' knowledge with technical information that is relevant and easy to use.Soil infertility is a major constraint to food production in Southern Africa (see Kumwenda et al. 1996). Soils can be very poor, and inorganic fertilisers have become expensive. Furthermore, the low fertility of the soils diminishes the effectiveness of fertility inputs. The development and adoption of new technologies to enhance soil fertility are important components of improving food security in the region, particularly among smallholders. Research and extension organisations in the region, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have tried to help smallholder farmers to improve soil fertility through the development and diffusion of new technological options. As part of these efforts, the Chihota Soil Fertility project is a pilot study to expose farmers in Chihota Communal Area, Zimbabwe to a range of 'best-bet' soil fertility improvement technologies and to get their assessment of these technologies in their own terms. Based on this assessment, to identify the potential and constraints for their adoption, and the modifications required in the technologies or the institutional conditions (i.e. market circumstances, policies) in order to decrease or eliminate these constraints. These technologies have been developed by a network of agricultural scientists in Zimbabwe and Malawi (the Soil Fertility Management and Policy Network for Maize-Based Farming Systems, Soil Fert Net). This project is being carried out by AGRITEX in partnership with government research and CIMMYT-Zimbabwe since 1998.An important component of this study is to document the impact of the project on farmers and their households. In order to do so, a baseline survey with a random and representative sample of 258 households was carried out in all wards of Chihota during the months of September and October 1999. The survey was designed specifically to address many of the issues that were identified in a participatory diagnosis (described below), particularly the type and amount of knowledge that farmers have regarding soil improvement practices. The aims of this survey are twofold: to enhance our understanding of farmers' problems and perceptions and to serve as a control to compare our results with, so that we can perform an impact assessment later. This document reports on the results of this survey.The report is divided into six sections. First a participatory diagnosis, that was the basis of this survey, is explained. The second and third sections describe the field site and the methods used respectively. The fourth part gives the results, followed by the discussion. Finally the conclusions are presented.The first field activity of the project was a participatory diagnosis of the soil fertility practices and constraints of farmers in Chihota (Bellon et al. 1999). The results of this diagnosis were used to design the survey that is the basis of this baseline report. The aim of the diagnosis was to elicit farmers' knowledge and perceptions in an open but systematic way to illuminate the problems and opportunities they have regarding improving their soil conditions. Four wards were selected for the diagnosis; soil fertility research had been conducted only in two of them. In each ward, focus group discussions were organised with farmers working closely with Agritex. The group discussions were used to elicit the local soil taxonomy, local classification of farmers, and local classification of climate. These classifications were used as a framework for discussing and identifying the technological options available to improve soil conditions and the constraints to their use (eliciting constraints on using a technology). Research collected a minimum set of socioeconomic indicators from all participants to gain an idea of who the participants were.The results of diagnosis showed that there is great consistency between the themes that emerged from the classification of farmers and the constraints they face in applying soil improvement practices. For example, the ownership of assets (such as cattle and draught power), access to cash to pay for labour and inputs, and possession of knowledge of improved agricultural practices are important factors in the classification of farmers. And farmers perceived that these factors allow or constrain the use of most soil improvement practices.The farmer soil taxonomy recognised ten soil classes, although two classes did not have any agricultural use. The classification is mainly based on soil texture, and colour. Additional soil characteristics used include appropriateness for agricultural use, ease of cultivation, water-holding capacity, inherent soil fertility, response to fertilisers and manure, and proneness to waterlogging. The practices that farmers identified as improving the soil fertility associated with these soils included: the application to the soil of fertilisers, animal manure, termite mound soil, compost, or lime, the use of rotations, leaving the land fallow, early planting, dry planting, early ploughing, deep ploughing, the use of soil analysis to add the correct amount of fertilisers, the use of contours, drainage of excessive water, the use of raised beds and the timeliness of operations.The perceived constraints for using these practices for improving soil fertility reflected two main themes:• scarcity of, and access to inputs -both local, such as manure and termite mound soil, and purchased, such as fertilizers and lime; • labour scarcity for the application of inputs, due to the labour intensiveness of the operations or simply the lack of available labour or cash to hire it.Another theme that emerged was the priority given to alternative uses for the inputs; for instance, the preference for applying manure to gardens rather than arable fields, or the low priority given to improving some soil classes. The lack of implements and power were also cited as limitations, although these relate to the specific practices of deep ploughing and the application of termite mound soil. Also mentioned was lack of land, which limits the frequency and duration of fallows. Several farmer groups mentioned lack of knowledge about application rates for fertiliser and about the use of lime as a constraint.An important result of the diagnosis is that many of the factors that constrain the use of soil improvement practices cannot be eliminated through the efforts of extension officers or scientists. These include access to draught animals or farming implements. Nevertheless, these constraints should be taken into account in the identification, design, assessment, and promotion of improved soil fertility technologies. The technologies must be compatible with farmer circumstances and interests and, where possible, should improve the efficiency of resource use. One constraint that extension officers and scientists can help overcome is the closing of knowledge gaps. By providing better information on the timing of application, quantity, and long-term management of lime and fertilisers, they can help farmers to glean the full benefits offered by these inputs. Addressing knowledge gaps requires further work to identify the gaps, as well as the design of a program explicitly aimed at closing them.The results of the diagnosis served as the basis for the survey reported here. For example, we have paid particular attention to diagnose the level of knowledge farmers have about soil improvement practices, the local soil taxonomy has been used to characterise their fields and all data has been collected in a gender disaggregated way.This study was carried out in Chihota, a sub-humid (650-800 mm rainfall, Natural Region lIb) communal area in northern Zimbabwe where soil infertility is a major biophysical constraint to agricultural production. Chihota (18 0 20'5 310l5'E for Mahusekwa Growth Point) is located in Marondera district, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe. It has nine wards, each with five to six villages. Chihota is relatively close (50-80 km) to the capital city of Harare, therefore farmers have• important farm and off-farm opportunities. Maize continues to be the most important crop in the region, however, the production of vegetables in gardens, off-farm labour, and remittances are important sources of income. From a strategic perspective, these conditions make this area an interesting place to conduct research because its soil fertility problems and management options interact with the non agricultural sector of the economy. If we assume that in the future as the economy develops, more farmers in Zimbabwe will have access to these opportunities, our results will illuminate the potentials and constraints of these technologies under these changing conditions.Most of the soils in this area are sands of granite origin and many show a catenary association. They vary in texture from sands to sandy loams on upper and midslopes to sandy clay loams in the lowest dambo or vlei areas. Soil depth ranges from moderately shallow (>50 cm) to moderately deep. Average crop yields in the area are well below the potential. Low pH is an important constraint in these soils (Dhliwayo et aI., 1998:217). Furthermore, considerable research on soil improvement methods, including liming, use of inorganic NPK, legume rotations, and green manures, has been carried out in the area (Waddington et al., 1998).The survey was carried out with a random sample of households in Chihota communal area. The data collected was then analysed by household type.There are nine wards and approximately 12197 households in Chihota. Each ward is composed of between 5 and 8 villages. It was decided to use the ward as the sampling unit since for Agritex this is the minimum area of work. At least in theory, there is one Agritex Extension Worker per ward. It was decided to sample 30 households per ward, for a total sample size of 270 households, given the resources available. Since this survey was designed to provide an accurate picture of the wards, the farming households in them, and their soil management practices in general, and not for a particular crop, we did not weight the sample by maize or any other crop area planted, but simply by number of households. Almost all households engaged in agriculture. Households that do not engage in agriculture were excluded. Since there is a different number of households per ward, the probability of a household to be included in the sample differs from one ward to the other. The probability was calculated by dividing 30 households per ward (to be included in the sample) by the number of households in each ward. To get the number of households to be included from each of the villages in the ward, we multiplied the number of households per village by the probability of selection by ward and rounded off the nearest whole number. This means that within a ward all households have the same probability of selection.The survey was divided into three parts. The first dealt with socio-economic variables, such as household composition, education of members, labour resources, ownership of animals, agricultural implements and household goods. Farmers were asked to rate seven different productive activities in terms of their importance to cash income and to subsistence as very important, somewhat important or not important to assess their perception of the contribution of each to their livelihoods. This section also elicited information on the type of house construction in the family compound and the granary, access to services such as electricity and sources of drinking water. Finally, respondents were queried on their sources of agricultural technical information.The second part of the survey dealt with agriculture. Information was collected by field. Respondents were asked to draw a map of all the fields they controlled 1 • A field was defined as a continuous piece of land managed by a particular person within the household. Within a field several agricultural or horticultural products could be planted, or it could include fallow areas as well. Using the map as a reference for each of the fields, information on each one was elicited. To the extent possible, we tried to get the information from the person who managed the field during the 1998/99 season. The information obtained per field included the soil type according to the local taxonomy, the topography and ownership, distance from the house, years of use, and yields observed. For three different seasons (1996/97,1997/98, and 1998/99) detailed data was elicited on crops planted, area for each, management (method and timing of ploughing, weeding, input application), inputs used, use of hired labour, sources of finance. These data should be interpreted with care, particularly regarding field management. It is an approximation to reality, not an exact measurement of farmers' practices. However, it provides a good idea about the management patterns employed by these households.The third section dealt with the knowledge that respondents had of the different soil fertility improvement technologies available, as well as information on their past use. These included both traditional ones, as well as the ones being disseminated by Agritex. To elicit the knowledge, for each technology, the agronomist in the team developed between three to five questions. The idea was not to subject the participants to a \"test,\" but rather to get a rough idea of the knowledge they had. The aim of the questions was that they serve as an \"indicator\" of key knowledge needed to apply the technology successfully in the case of introduced technologies, and to gain an idea of the knowledge used to apply traditional technologies. To elicit information on the past use of a technology, farmers were asked whether they had used the technology before, if so, for how many years, and if they had stopped using it, why.The unit of analysis in this paper is the household. Individual households are the unit of management for farming and particularly for soil fertility managementnotwithstanding intra-household structure and dynamics that also may influence these management decisions. While some household members may have a larger say than others and there may be different interests and goals, agricultural resources, such as land and labour, are associated with households. Households are not homogenous, therefore a typology had to be developed. The most common typology is that of men-headed versus women headed households. Many studies have shown I At the time this survey was designed, it was expected that by getting an inventory of all fields managed by a household we would get information on the gardens. As the analysis of the data progressed we realised that we did not capture this information very well since we should have asked about gardens specifically, hence we mainly got data on field crops. This is a limitation of this study. The area in gardens is relatively small, however they are an important component of the livelihoods of these households. This was at least partially captured by the rating of the contribution of different activities to household income and subsistence (Table 5).that this categorisation is very rough, since there are many differences within these types (Doss, 1999).In this study, we decided to use three categories: a) male-headed households (MH), female -headed households with male adults (males 18 years and older) (FHAM), female -headed households without male adults (no males above 18 years old) (FHNM). The reason to use both types of female-headed households is that access to male labour and resources available only through men gives female-headed households that contain men different opportunities than those that do not. Clearly a female-headed household consisting of a widow with small children is not the same as one consisting among others of several young adult males living with their mother-who consider her as the head. The composition of the household has implications for its functioning and the resources it can command. Clearly, the presence of males increases the labour available, particularly for tasks that require special physical strength, such as ploughing. In the context of the communal areas of Zimbabwe, males have easier access to land within the traditional system of land allocation. In the context of this survey, the respondents defined who they considered was the household head. In many cases, the respondents did not consider themselves as the head.To compare households in terms of labour allocation it is not appropriate just to use the number of household members. It is important to recognise age differences. To take these differences into account, we used a set of weights to convert the household members of different ages -and therefore with different capacities to work-into a standard unit we called an Adult Equivalent, presented in Table 1. These weights have been used in other studies in Zimbabwe, and it is important to point out that they do not recognised gender differences, only age differentials (Reneth Mano, personal communication).The most common type of household was the male-headed (MH), which accounted for almost half of all households, followed by the female-headed without adult males (FHNA), and the female-headed with adult males (FHA) (Table 2). Not surprisingly, in terms of household size, on average the FHNA had a smaller number of members compared with the other two types. In terms of education of their members, the number of years of education seems high for a rural area. This reflects the investment in education that followed Independence and proximity to Harare where education needs and opportunities were many. However, there seems to be gender differences, since males have, on average, one more year of education than females. In terms of household types, interestingly males seem to do better in female-headed households than in male-headed ones compared to females.Differences among household types are found also in terms of family labour availability and allocation. All the data on labour has being weighted and expressed as adult equivalents to facilitate comparisons. Furthermore, one has to be cautious to interpret these results. The data refers to whether a family member did or did not engaged in the activity. It does not take into account the actual extent that she/he did it.The potential labour is simply the weighted number of family members expressed as adult equivalents. In terms of family labour allocation in agriculture, there are two measures, the number of members who actually farm -they are in charge of agricultural decisions and operations -and the number of members, beside those that farm, that help in agriculture. In all cases, on average more than one member per household is in charge of farming, helped by two other members. In terms of off farm labour allocation, there is a substantial reduction in the number of members involved compared to agriculture, with about half of one member per household on average. Clearly, family labour allocation seems to be mainly associated with agricultural activities, and less so with off farm ones. This is also evident if we look at the percentage of members who participated in each type of activity relative to the potential labour. While more than half helped in the fields, and two fifths were responsible for agriculture, not even 12% engaged in off farm activities. There is variation in these patterns among household types. Not surprisingly, the FHNA households are different than the other two types, with a smaller number of farmers participating in these activities, particularly in off farm labour. In off farm labour their participation is substantially lower than the other two types, both in absolute and relative terms. These households seem to depend heavily on agriculture. For example, the percentage of members in charge of agriculture is the highest, however the percentage of members who help is the lowest.The average age of the household is statistically similar across household types, although FHNA are slightly younger. The heads have farmed almost half of their life, and almost of all of their adult life. Surprisingly, the education of FHA household heads is substantially lower than the other two types. This may be because in many of these types of households, the II grandmother\" is considered the head.In terms of ownership of animals (Table 3)/ half of the households own oxen, and for those that own them the average number of oxen per household seems adequate for agricultural operations, such as ploughing. However, there are important differences across household types. There is a statistical significant association between household type and ownership of oxen. A substantially lower percentage of FHNA households own oxen, compared to the other two types. About two thirds of households own some type of cattle, cows being the most common and bulls the least.For most types of cattle there is no statistically significant association between them and household type, except in the case of heifers and bulls, where a higher percentage of MH households own these animals compared to the other two types. In terms of overall ownership of cattle, about two thirds of the households own some cattle and there is no association between cattle ownership and household type. Goats are owned by less than half of the households, while poultry are owned by most. Clearly, a good percentage of households do not own animals -except for poultry. Given the importance of animals as a source of draught power, manure, a form of savings, this means that many households are in a precarious situation. However, in general MH households seem to be in a better position than the other two types because they are the most likely to own animals. For all types of animals, the average number per household for those that own them is similar across household types.In terms of ownership and access to key agricultural implements (Table 4), the most commonly owned is the hoe followed by the shovel, the plough and the wheelbarrow, all of which are owned by more than half the households. The cart and the cultivator are owned by about two fifths, the harrow by about a third, while the sprayer is owned by very few. Households that do not own these implements can get access to them by borrowing or renting them. While neither is common, the former is the most frequent of the two, and renting is rare. But an important point is many households do not have any access to many of these implements. This is particularly important in the case of the plough, the cart and the wheelbarrow. The plough is important for soil preparation, while the cart and the wheelbarrow, among other uses, are important to transport inputs to the field. These results suggest that many households in Chihota face important difficulties in carrying out agricultural production. Particularly, the lack of access to implements seems more acute for the FHNM households. These households have the lowest rate of ownership and the highest lack of access to them across household types.The ratings of different productive activities by their contribution to household income indicate that maize is the most important followed by garden production and non farm income (Table 5). These activities were rated as very important or somewhat important-hence they are perceived to make a contribution to household incomeby more than 60% of the respondents. The least important activity seems to be off farm labour, followed by remittances and animal production. This pattern is similar across household types, except for the FHAM households, where remittances and the production of other crops seem to be more important relative to the other activities compared to the other two household types. Except for remittances, there are no statistical associations between the rating of the activity and household type. Any of these activities was important for at least a third of the households.In terms of the contribution of these activities to household subsistence, maize was rated as important by more than 80% of the households, followed by the garden, animal production and finally production of other crops. However, the differences are large across activities, since animal production was rated as important by about half of the households and the production of other field crops by about a quarter. The same pattern was observed across household types. Clearly, these households depend to a large extent on multiple activities for their livelihoods, however, there seems to be more diversification in the sources of income than in the sources of subsistence. In spite of this diversification, maize seems to be a fundamental component of the livelihood of these households, regardless of their type, both as a source of income and of subsistence.The type of house construction material used by these households include (in increasing order of expense), pole and dagga, walls of brick under a thatch roof, brick walls under an asbestos or corrugated roof, and brick walls under a tile roof. The most common type of house is the one made of brick walls under a thatch roof, followed by similar walls under an asbestos or corrugated roof (Table 6). These two types account for 90% of the houses. There is no statistical association between the house construction and the household type. Historically, people from this area have had sources of off farm income employment from Harare, and house construction is a prime use of those funds. More than half the households own a granary, made mainly from construction material or brick walls under a thatched roof. There is no statistically significant association between the type of household and granary ownership. While this indicates that many households can store their food, it also shows that about a third cannot and provides a rough indication of food vulnerability among these households.In terms of access to services, very few households have access to electricity (Table 7) (although some have solar panels, see below). The main sources of drinking water are deep wells and to a much lesser extent, boreholes. Very few have access to tap water. Most households have a latrine.The two most common consumer goods owned by these households, are a radio and a stove (Table 8). About half own a radio and a third a stove, although there are some differences across household types. The FHNM households have the lowest rate of ownership. The ownership of other consumer goods is very restricted, with less than 15 %of the households owning them. The lack of electricity restricts the value of some of these items -what is the point of owning a television set or a refrigerator, if there is no electricity to plug into? Even a radio, which may be relatively cheap and can be run on batteries, seems to be beyond the reach of an important number of households, which indicates their limited purchasing power.An important percentage of households, about two thirds, currently receive extension information, and a few had in the past (Table 9). Still about a third do not have and have never had access to extension services. Clearly, Chihota is an area well serviced by extension, at least in coverage. There is an association between the type of household and access to agricultural extension, with the FHAM households having the lowest rate of access, compared to the other two types that have similar rates. This type of household has a very high rate of previous access to extension compared to the others, which suggests that they\"abandoned\" their relationship with extension The reasons for this pattern are not clear. In any case, these results indicate that there does not seem to be a bias in access against the FHNM households, which one could have expected given that they are exclusively female. In terms of who is providing the extension services, Agritex is the dominant source of agricultural information, with a very small contribution by other institutions, such as private seed companies, traders, the University of Zimbabwe and NGOs. MH households are the most likely to get information from sources other than Agritex, particularly private seed companies. Still these alternative sources of extension seem to playa very small role in Chihota.The amount of land owned by the different household types is presented in Table 10. This table reports both the total area as well as the planted area. There are statistically significant differences between household types in all of the years studied. MH households have the largest landholdings and area planted, and the FHNM households have the lowest in both counts. Although three years is a short period to assess a trend, there seems to be an increase in area planted during the period by all households. Obviously, the area planted is smaller than the land owned, the difference is land in fallow. FHAM households have the lowest area of land in fallow, and hence seem to be using their land more intensively. The distribution of landholdings is presented in Figure 1 for 1999 (it is similar for the other two years).The distribution of both landholdings and area planted is skewed. Although there are a few cases with relatively large landholdings (>9 ha), 50% of the households own less than 1.6 ha and farm less than 1.5 ha. These numbers are typical of communal areas in sub-humid zones of northern Zimbabwe.Households in Chihota plant about eight main field crops, besides the horticultural crops in their gardens (Table 11). Maize is by far the most important in terms of number of households planting it and the average area planted per household. Groundnut is the second most important in terms of number of farmers that plant it, followed by bambara nut, rapoko (finger millet), cowpea, field bean, sunflower, and sorghum is the least planted. There is no'association between the relative number of farmers planting a crop and the household type for any crop during the period reported. Leguminous crops seem an important component of these farming systems and are usually planted simultaneously with maize (but mostly as sole crops). For example, for households planting maize, the vast majority in any year, 69.9%, 72.3%, and 74.6% planted at least one leguminous crop as well in 1997, 1998 and 1999 respectively.The area planted to those crops-for those households that plant the crop-is similar, approximately between a quarter and a third of a hectare. Except for maize, rapoko, and bambara nut, there are no statistical differences in the average area planted by household. For maize, rapoko and bambara nut (Table 12) there are differences mainly between the FHNA households and the other two for most years. These households planted on average a smaller area of those crops, particularly compared to the MH households.Although three years is a short time to say anything meaningful about trends, there seems to be an increase in the number of households planting most of these crops between 1997 and 1999. There is variation in the average area planted to each of the crops, and there is no consistent trend; some increased and others decreased.These households plant several crops simultaneously, on average approximately three crops each year during the period reported here (Table 13). This pattern is similar among the three household types, since there are no statistical significant differences among them on the average number of crops planted. As pointed out before, most farmers combine maize with at least one leguminous crop. These data also point to the importance of diversification for these farmers, as the data on sources of income and subsistence indicated before. Furthermore, these data also confirm the importance of maize for the livelihood of these households.Households in Chihota use different inputs to improve soil fertility. These inputs are fundamental for agricultural production in this area given that most soils there are very poor and with a long history of use. The inputs used are mixtures of inorganic (mineral) and organic fertilisers (Table 14). Some are produced locally, even on farm and others have to be brought from the outside. In terms of number of farmers, the most common input used is Ammonium Nitrate followed in decreasing order by Compound D, manure, compost, termitaria, gypsum, lime, and very rarely single superphosphate (SSP) and muriate of potash (MOP). Inorganic fertilisers are more commonly used than organic ones, however, manure and compost are also widely used, although at very different rates. Termitaria is used by a smaller number of farmers than the other two organic inputs, however at rates commensurate to those of manure. It is not clear about the actual nutrient content of these three organic inputs and therefore their contribution to the nutrient balance of the soil. Gypsum, which is used mainly for groundnut production, is used by a much smaller percentage of households relative to the ones that plant groundnut. Ten to fifteen years ago groundnut farmers would use some gypsum, which they got easily thru credit schemes. They now rarely use it since there is no more credit available. It is surprising that few households apply lime to their fields, given that this is an input that has been promoted by extension in Chihota in the past, may be very useful to improve soil acidity, a condition that is common in this area, and that most farmers have contacts with extension. However, it is a bulky input that may not be stocked in the local stores, and it is difficult to transport. There is no statistical association between the use of any of these inputs and the household type. There are no statistical differences with respect to average rates applied of the input either, except for gypsum. In this case FHNA households applied a lower rate than the other two household types in all of the three years studied.The data presented in Table 14 includes percentages of both the households who used an input in any of their fields, as well as of the fields planted to a crop where the input was used. There are differences between these two numbers indicating that households use the inputs in only a fraction of the fields they plant. It is also important to point out that the rates reported here seem high. These rates are reported per field and they may overestimate the actual amount used. While farmers were asked about the amount of bags (carts, wheelbarrow, etc.) that they applied and to what area they did, these data were converted to kg (carts, wheelbarrows) per hectare, tending to give an inflated impression of the actual use. They may have applied that quantity, but only to fractions of their fields. Because of this problem, these amounts provide only a rough estimate of the patterns of input use rates.These households apply different inputs simultaneously to their fields, about an average of three per household and more than two per field (a household will usually have more than one field)2 during the period reported here (Table 15). These households are making decisions on how to allocate different inputs. To explore this issue, the partial correlations among the quantities applied of the six most commonly used inputs were calculated (combining data from all three years, but controlling for year) (Table 16). The correlations show that Compound D and Ammonium Nitrate are highly correlated, as well as manure and termitaria, and manure and compost. Furthermore, there is a smaller correlation between manure and Compound D, and manure and Ammonium Nitrate. Gypsum was only slightly correlated with Compound D. These correlations suggest that these inputs are applied together in the same field in quantities that follow similar trends among households, i.e. if a household applies a higher quantity of one input, it applies also a higher one of another. Furthermore, the high correlations occur within inorganic inputs or within organic inputs, which suggests that when a household uses one kind of input, it is likely to use another of the same type. It is important to understand further how farmers are combining different inputs and what are the implications for soil fertility and input use of their combinations. Is it that a farmer who understands the importance of using one input is more likely to understand that using others as well will be beneficial? Or is it that a farmer who can access one input is also more likely to be able to access others too?In terms of the timing, most organic inputs are applied before planting, while all inorganic inputs are applied after planting. Manure is the earliest input applied, about 5 to 7 weeks before planting, followed by termitaria about 4 to 5 weeks, and lime about three weeks before planting. After planting, Compound D is the earliest applied, about two weeks after planting, followed by gypsum, about 4 weeks, compost close to five weeks, and finally Ammonium Nitrate around 6 weeks after planting. There are no statistically Significant differences among households regarding the timing of input application.In Chihota, households classify their soils into eight categories (Table 17). The dominant soil types are Shapa and Jecha, occupying 51 % and 32.1 % respectively of the area. Each of the other six soil types occupies a small area. These soil types are distributed in three parts of the toposequence: topland, vlei margin, and vlei. In terms of toposequence, the most common part is the vlei margin (52.2%), followed by the topland (37.2%). The vlei occupies a small area. Certain soils are not present in parts of the toposequence, e.g. Rondo an Chidhaka in the topland, Rebani in the vlei margin, and Ruzekete and Chidongo in the vlei.In terms of the distribution of fields by soil types within the toposequence by household type (Table 18), the MH households have the highest diversity, followed by FHNM and FHAM households. However, for the three household types, Shapa and Jecha are dominant, with the other soil types occupying a small percentage of the fields. There is no association between these two soil types and the toposequence for any of the household types.These households control between one and eight fields with an average of 1.8 fields per household (Table 19). There are statistically significant differences among household types, with the FHNA households controlling on average a smaller number of fields than the MH households. In terms of area per field, the largest field may be more than seven ha and the smallest barely 0.1 ha, however on average a field is about 1.3 ha and this average is similar across household types. On average, fields are located about half a kilometre from the dwelling. This varies between the field being next to the dwelling to up to seven km away. There is no difference in the average distance among household types. In terms of use, these fields have been used for a long time, on average more than twenty years, but up to sixty. There are no statistical differences among household types in this respect. This history of long use and the fact that most soils are sandy reinforce the idea that these soils have fertility problems.Many maize varieties are planted in Chihota, most are from seed companies based in Zimbabwe. The most widely planted were the hybrids R201, SC 501 and R215 (Table 20) over the study period. Most of the seed was purchased (Table 21), with only a small amount being retained from the previous harvest. This does not mean however, that the seed is not recycled since even if purchased it could have been purchased from other farmers who recycled it. Unfortunately, we did not ask about the specific sources of seed. SR52 has not been available since the early nineties. Therefore seed from this variety should be recycled. R201 and R215 were both still available in 1996-7, but discontinued soon after.Farmers were asked to provide a subjective estimate of the maximum, minimum, and modal yields for each field they planted with maize, based on their experience with it (Table 22). With this information, subjective yield distributions were calculated (Anderson & Dillon, 1992;Hardaker, Huirne & Anderson, 1997), particularly the expected yield, standard deviation and coefficient of variation of maize. This information provides an idea of the productivity and variability of maize farming systems in Chihota. Given that on average a household plants approximately 1.4 ha to maize, this suggests that the expected production per household is 1.473 (± 0.416) t of maize per year. Since the average household size is about 5 persons and if we assume an annual per capita consumption of 100 kg, this means a household requirement of 0.5 tfyear. Since there may be storage losses, let us assume of 20%, then a family would have to keep 0.6 t of its production for self-consumption. This means that on average a household has a surplus of 0.873 t, to pay for other expenses, particularly finance their next crop. This may seem a good surplus, however given the standard deviation it may be reduced to less than 0.5 t some years. This suggests that while these households may not be food insecure, they may not generate big surpluses either, and particularly may have problems financing their crop production in certain years.In terms of field management operations, ploughing was mostly done with a team of oxen, just a few fields were ploughed with a hand hoe or alternatively with a tractor. Only a few used zero tillage (Table 23). Most fields were ploughed in spring and less than a third in winter, with about less than a fifth at both times. These patterns were stable over the period studied, and there were no differences among household types for either the method or the type of ploughing. However, for the timing of ploughing there were differences among household types. MH households ploughed their fields closer to planting than FHAM households, but not than FHNM. This pattern was similar throughout the three years covered in the data. On average, ploughing took place two weeks before planting. There were differences among household types in terms of the way they got access to traction for ploughing. Most households used their own oxen, followed by those who rented them. Very few households used tractors. There is a trend in the use of owned oxen across household types. MH households had the higher rate of use, followed by FHAM, while FHNM had the lowest. Conversely the trend for use of rented oxen increased. These trends were similar across the study period.Planting was mostly done using a hoe and a row planting marker, followed by planting in the opening of the furrow done with the plough, and planting behind the plough (Table 24). Very few fields were planted with a planter. There were differences among household types however in terms of the rates of use of these methods. A lower percentage of fields managed by MH households were planted with the hoe and row planting maker, but a substantially higher percentage of fields planted in an open furrow and behind the plough compared to the other two types of households. These patterns are similar throughout the study period. In terms of timing there were no differences across years, and even within any particular year among household types. On average all households planted about one and a third weeks after the rains started. We know from previous studies that commonly some outfields get planted much later (say mid to late December, when first fields are planted early November on first rains) and that some of these fields are deliberately late planted.The first weeding was carried out mainly using a hoe and to a lesser extent combining the hoe with an animal-drawn tine cultivator (Table 25). Usually the tine cultivator is used between rows and the hoe on the row. Few fields were exclusively weeded using mechanical means. Herbicides were rarely used and only in 1998 and 1999. There were differences in the weeding method used across household types. A lower percentage of fields managed by MH households were weeded exclusively with a hoe, and a higher percentage was with a combination of hoe and mechanical weeding.Even the use of mechanical weeding, although not common, is higher among these households. The other two household types relied more on the hoe exclusively to weed their fields. In the case of the exclusive use of mechanical weeding, a much lower percentage of fields managed by FHNM households were weeded with this method compared to the other households. In general female-headed households seem to rely more on hoe weeding than male-headed ones, and particularly those with no adult males. These patterns are similar across the study period. In terms of timing, there were no differences across years, and even within any particular year among household types. On average all fields received the first weeding almost three weeks after emergence.Most maize fields received a second weeding, and mostly using the hoe and to a lesser extent a combination of hoe and mechanical weeding, the use of herbicide was very rare (Table 26). There were no differences across years, and even within any particular year among household types. A similar pattern was observed in the timing of the second weeding, i.e. no differences across years or household types within a year. On average all fields received the second weeding about six weeks after emergence.The use of hired labour varied among the different farming operations (Table 27).Weeding was the operation with the highest rate of use of hired labour, followed by ploughing, harvesting, planting and finally the activity with the least use was fertility management. In some of these operations there was no statistical association between household type and use of hired labour such as for weeding and harvesting during the study period. For activities such as ploughing and fertility management, however there was a statistical association for the three years analysed. In the case of ploughing, MH households used hired labour in a substantially lower percentage of their fields compared to the other two household types, particularly in 1999. FHAM households had a very high use of hired labour. In the case of fertility management, FHNM households used hired labour in a substantially lower percentage of their fields compared to the other two household types in any of the three years analysed. Hence, for this operation, these households seem to rely more heavily on family labour than the others. Planting was an operation where in two of the three years analysed there was no association between household type and use of hired labour, however this was different in 1998, when there was one. Even if there was no association, FHNA households seem to have used less hired labour in their fields than the other households. In general, except for ploughing, FHNA households tend to use less hired labour in their fields in all operations compared to the others.The removal of stover was the most widely used practice in the fields planted to maize in Chihota either directly through actual removal or indirectly through grazing by cattle (Table 28). In relatively few fields, the stover was burnt. Stover is also used as bedding in the kraal, where it mixes with dung, improving the quality of manure. Later this may be applied in the field. These patterns are similar across the study period. There was a statistically significant association between household type and stover management for two of the three years studied (1998 and 1999). The fields managed by FHNM households were more likely to be grazed in situ and less likely for the stover to be removed than the other household types. Whether the cattle grazed belong or not to the owner of the field has implications for the nutrient balances in the field. If somebody else's cattle graze the field, the nutrients are removed and supplied to a different field, generating a net transfer of nutrients out of the field. If the cattle belong to the field owner, it is likely that nutrients would be recycled. However, the data available does not allow us to address this issue.In terms of financing the cash expenses incurred to produce maize, the most important source of cash was own resources followed by remittances, and credit was use rarely (Table 29). These patterns are similar across the study period. In all three years there was a statistical significant association between household type and the source of funds. A higher percentage of fields managed by FHAM, and to a lesser extent FHNM, were financed with remittances than with the MH households. For the few fields that were financed with credit, the most important source was relatives, followed by the Agricultural Finance Corporation (which is now Agribank). Banks and NGOs were not a widely used source of credit. These patterns were similar across the study period and there was no association between the source of credit and the household type in any year. Clearly, almost all cash expenses are covered by the extended family, directly, through remittances or credit.The history of use of soil fertility practices show that there is a gradient in farmers' experience with them (Table 30). The use of fertilisers has been the most Widespread and has the longest average number of years of use. The use of fertilisers has had the lowest rate of abandonment. The main reason for abandoning it was lack of cash. It is worth noting than for all practices a larger number of farmers provided reasons for abandoning than the ones that actually said they had abandoned the practice. This suggests that farmers interpreted the question in broader terms than was intended by the researchers. It seems that they are referring to constraints to their use, even if they have not actually abandoned the practice.The use of animal manure follows fertilisers in terms of farmers who have used it and the number of years of use. With regards to the percentage of farmers, the drop is substantial and the rate of abandonment has also been much higher. The main reasons for abandoning were lack of cattle and not having enough labour to manage it. The use of compost has been slightly lower than that of animal manure and for slightly less time. It has had a low rate of abandonment. There were many reasons for abandoning it, but the most important were lack of materials and labour intensity required for making it. Rotations have also been Widely used and with the third longest amount of time of use. They also have had relatively low rates of abandonment. There were several reasons given for abandoning them, but the dominant ones were lack of seed (for the legumes) and shortage of land.It is surprising that there is a longer history of use of fertilisers compare to manure since some of the organic practices were conducted by farmers well before mineral fertilisers were introduced into Zimbabwe. Mineral fertilisers have been used widely in communal areas since the early to mid 1970s. Given the number of years in farming of the respondents (-25), it is likely that these farmers have been using fertilisers for most of their professional life and that with the introduction of inorganic inputs there was a high rate of abandonment of organic practices, since fertilisers were subsidised and easier to use. Hence while these farmers have had a long experience with fertilisers, they may have had a more limited one with organic practices. Although historically, organic practices have been in use for a longer time that fertilisers, in the specific context of the professional experience of the respondents organic practices may not have been used as much.There was an important drop in the percentage of farmers who had used intercropping compared to the previous practices, although intercropping also has been used on average for a relatively long period of time. As with rotations, the lack of seed was the most important reason for abandoning this practice, followed by a lack of interest and labour intensity. The use of termite mound soil follows the use of intercropping in terms of number of farmers that have use it, but with a much shorter average number of years of use. It had a high rate of abandonment compared to those who said they have used it and the other practices. The most important reasons for discarding this practice were that it is labour intensive and farmers lack the means to transport it from the source to the fields.Liming and green manures were the least used practices. Liming was the second to last in terms of number of farmers who have used it, with a substantial reduction in them compared to the use of termite mound soil and intercropping. Also the average number of years of use is the second lowest, with a high rate of abandonment. Almost half of the farmers who said they have tried it said they have abandoned it and the lack of cash and knowledge were the dominant reasons. Green manures had the most limited and shortest average number of years of use, with a high rate of abandonment for a variety of reasons, but the dominant one was lack of knowledge.Except for the use of fertilisers, the most widely used soil fertility practices are associated with locally produced organic inputs. Lack of knowledge, lack of access to an input, either directly (e.g. lack of cattle or materials for compost) or indirectly (lack of cash to purchase fertilisers) and to a lesser extent labour intensity, are the key constraints that may force farmers to stop using a practice. Particularly concerning non-traditional practices, such as liming and the use of green manures, lack of knowledge about their use is an important constraint. The constraints identified here are very similar to the ones expressed by farmers during the participatory diagnostic survey that was undertaken at the onset of the project. This is an interesting result because the farmers in the participatory diagnostic exercise were a biased sample selected by Agritex from farmers working with them, while the results present here come from a representative random sample. The results presented here show that even that biased sample was able to identify constraints that are relevant to all farmers in Chihota.One of the key constraints to the use of many soil fertility improvement practices identified during the diagnosis was the lack of farmer knowledge on certain aspects of these practices. Therefore the agronomist in the team developed a series of key questions for each technology. Their aim was to be an \"indicator\" of key knowledge needed to apply the technology successfully in the case of introduced technologies, and to gain an idea of the knowledge used to apply traditional technologies.For liming, most farmers responded to the three questions related to it (Table 31). A relatively high percentage of them said that they did not know the answer to the questions. This was the second most common answer for the three questions. The answers to the first question show that farmers have received information about liming. The most common answer was that lime improves soil structure. While this is true for heavy soils because it flocculates the bigger aggregates, this does not apply to most soils in Chihota, which are sandy. The fact that some farmers said that lime corrects soil structure indicates that they have been exposed to messages on soil acidity and liming received from research and extension. The answers suggest that farmers have received abstract information, but no indication of knowledge from experience.Regarding .the second question, the most common answer is consistent with the research and extension recommendation-to apply lime during winter ploughing (beginning of the dry season). However, about a fifth answered that it should be applied during the spring ploughing, which is not the standard recommendation, but is the most practical time for application. The answers provide some evidence that farmers have been exposed to the message on lime, but that this may not have been very effective.The answers to the third question in general reflect standard information, since lime should be applied to poor lands, however it is too general to make an efficient use of the input. Not all poor lands would necessarily benefit from lime, only the ones with a low pH -something that indeed was mentioned by a few farmers.An even higher percentage of farmers responded to the three questions related to the use of fertilisers (Table 32). Unlike the previous case, only for one question did some farmers answer that they did not know, and even in this case they were a low percentage. An overwhelming majority of farmers provided the ' correct' answer to the first questions. This is not surprising given that the application of fertiliser to maize was the most widely used of all soil fertility improvement practices.Concerning the second question, the most common answer is correct. Gypsum improves pegging, improving podding and yield. Surprisingly only one farmer mentioned SSP, which is also an important fertiliser for groundnut. The other answers are partially correct to the extent that they include gypsum and Compound D, which also has phosphorous, an important nutrient for groundnut. The answers to the third question are correct since one would expect the best response to fertiliser under conditions of neither excessively high nor low rainfall.Although the use of cattle manure is a traditional and Widespread soil fertility improvement practice, a slightly smaller percentage of farmers provided answers to the four questions that were posed (Table 33). Almost all of the respondents considered cattle manure as a substitute for the initial application of compound fertiliser, which is only a partially correct answer. The cattle manure used by communal farmers usually is of very poor quality, low in Nitrogen (usually 0.5-1.4 % N). Nitrogen is required to decompose the manure in the early parts of the cropping season, reducing the availability of this nutrient to the crop when it is required for crop growth, and hence it is not a good substitute. The farmers' explanations are logical and correct answers.The answers to the third question reflect the simplest level of management of manure.According to the respondents, the most common ways to apply manure are by heaping, or by leaving the manure to rot. Ideally, one would put the manure in a pit early in the season and cover it with soil to allow the manure to decompose anaerobically to increase the N content per unit of biomass, however this decreases the total amount of manure. It is better quality but there is less quantity of it. Almost all farmers in Zimbabwe allow the manure to decompose aerobically in an open heap, which gives low quality manure (less N concentration), which if applied at low rates may lead to no crop growth benefits. The answers to the fourth question suggest that the farmers may not have understood the question or think that what they already do is the best they can do. The methods described to improve the effectiveness of the manure are not the best that can be used. Ideally one would double the N content through better preparation of the manure, giving much greater and more consistent effects on the crop. These answers suggest that there seems to be a knowledge gap among the farmers regarding the most effective way of managing cattle manure. Most management of cattle manure has developed from farmer experience and practice rather than come from research or extension. Agritex have had little to say on this.The use of termite mound soil is another traditional soil fertility improvement practice, however an even smaller percentage of farmers responded to the questions about its use (Table 34). The answers reflect very specific local knowledge about the criteria the farmers use to select termite mound soil for use. They discriminate among different types and qualities of termite mound soil, since most respondents to the second question answered that there are different qualities of termite mound soil. Colour (dark colour) seems to be the most important indicator of quality to the farmers. According to the respondents most of the termite mound soil is applied to sandy or infertile soils, and very few said that they applied to vegetable gardens. This is a surprising result since one would have expected that they apply this input, which is not abundant to their most valuable lands, i.e. the gardens. Maybe transporting distance is a factor -termite mounds are usually on the toplands and gardens in vleis.Surprisingly nobody answered the question about which crops they would place in a rotation (Table 35). This suggests that the concept of a formal rotation is missing with most farmers, and no concept of sequencing of different crops as a management tool. While farmers may change crops in their fields, this may not be perceived as an integrated process. There were answers however about the benefits of a rotation, which is even more puzzling since the concept seems to be missing, but most of the respondents said that rotations improve soil fertility, and a few mentioned lower incidence of pest and disease. It is likely that farmers have heard about 'rotations' in theory, but that they have not connected the concept to their field practices. Again, the idea of rotations has featured strongly in Agritex messages over the years, and it may be that farmers are recalling some of the points made without connecting it to their farm practices. Most of the respondents did not think that there were drawbacks to rotations, although a few gave strange answers such as rotations contributing to waterlogging or increasing the incidence of pests and diseases, contradicting the research and extension perception that rotations may reduce these problems.The use of compost is also a traditional practice that relies on local materials. Most respondents said that they make compost in pits, and a few on the surface. A few did not know about compost or had not made it (Table 36). These are logical answers, and the most common answer is correct. Almost all respondents agreed with the statement that compost is a substitute for compound fertiliser, which is a partly correct answer. The reasons given by respondents to justify their previous answer are in general very spe.cific and correct. Given that these soils are N deficient, it would be beneficial to supplement the compost with some N.The use of green manures is the least commonly used practice and few farmers know about it (Table 28). Not surprisingly most respondents did not know which plants are used as green manure, although a few named leguminous plants that are, such as velvet bean and sunnhemp (Table 37). Most respondents do not know what green manures provide to the soil, although several said that they provide nutrients or improve soil structure. These answers are right but are not very specific in terms of what nutrients are supplied. Even though few farmers know about green manures, several responded that they are worth using, and only few said the opposite. For those that considered green manures worth using, a majority explained their answer in terms of green manures mainly rotting fast. In general all these respondents said that they improve the soil. For those that did not consider them worth using few said that green manures were a waste of money and time. It seems that the respondents have patchy information about green manures. Again, this reflects little promotion of green manures by Agritex in the area.In terms of intercropping, most respondents intercrop maize with cowpea, bean or groundnut, although some said they do not intercrop (Table 38). The legumes that intercrop best with maize not surprisingly are bean, cowpea, and groundnut, although some mentioned crops that are not legumes. The reasons given for intercropping include that these crops do not shade maize, they add nutrients, improve profitability and are able to get seed every year. However, the drawbacks are competition between crops and problems with weeding. Many did not have an opinion. The answers reflect a good experience with this practice.The farming systems in Chihota are maize-based. Even though garden production and non-agricultural activities are important sources of income and subsistence, maize continues to playa fundamental role in the livelihoods of the farming households in this communal area. These farming systems have not changed much in the last twenty years. They continue to rely on animal and human power, the landholdings and areas planted are relatively small. Cattle and other traditional organic sources of nutrients, such as compost and termitaria are important components of maintaining soil fertility. Inorganic fertilisers are also very important, but they have been a significant part of the system since the 1980s. Farming households in this area still face an important challenge in dealing with soil infertility.The crops planted are similar, and the agricultural implements are still the same. For example, there has not been any mechanisation, use of herbicides or major shifts in the crops grown, nor production problems faced 3 .There are some important gender 4 differences among households in terms of the assets they control and the agricultural management they implement. In general these differences are between male-headed and female-headed households, although there are variations, depending on whether adult males are present or not in the femaleheaded households. We found differences in labour availability, ownership of animals, especially oxen (which are the basis of draught power), heifers, and bulls (important to control animal reproduction), ownership and access to implements such as ploughs, carts and wheelbarrows. The latter implements are very important for transporting inputs to the field, and products back to the house. Lack of them is an important constraint for the use of termitaria and compost. There are also differences in land holdings and area planted to certain crops, particularly maize. In terms of field operations and management, there were differences in the methods use for planting and the first weeding, as well as in the timing of both ploughing, planting and first weeding. Female headed tend to use more hired labour in ploughing, but much less in planting and fertility management. In general male-households are in a more advantageous position that female-headed ones, but as noted above, this depends on the presence or absence adult males in the female-headed households. In most cases FHNM households seem to be in a worse position than the FHAM ones, but this is not always the case. For example, FHAM households had the lowest level of interaction with Agritex, not the FHNM ones. However, it is surprising that these disparities do not translate into differences in either input use or knowledge. It is possible that other constraints are more Widespread and important across household types and hence dominate the decisions regarding input use, e.g. lack of cash. There may be a poverty gender interaction that may be obscured with the way the data was analysed here.Clearly, there are important gender dimensions not only in terms of assets control but also in terms of management practices that merit further study, and should be taken into account in technology testing and development. For example, it may important to be sure to involve MH, FHAM, and FHNA in activities aimed at testing or diffusion new agricultural technologies.Although on average these households may not be the poorest in the communal areas of Zimbabwe, since they have non-farm labour opportunities and sell horticultural crops to urban areas, many of them still face difficult conditions. Although there is no universally agreed definition of poverty, there is a consensus that it is related to a lack of well being. Since well being is multidimensional, so is poverty. The lack of access to essential goods and services and a low endowment of assets are common characteristics of the poor. Assets can be classified into natural, human, physical, financial and social. Although in this survey we did not collect traditional measurements of poverty, such as consumption expenditures or carried out a wealth ranking exercise, we did collect data on the availability and control of many different assets by these households. For example for natural assets we have information on soils, landholdings, and topography; for human assets, we have data on education for the different members of the household, experience in farming and access to agricultural extension. About physical assets we know of the ownership of agricultural implements, the ownership of a granary, the construction materials of the house. For financial assets we have information on access to credit, sources of financing for agricultural production, importance of different sources of income, particularly non farm income. The only asset class where we lack information is on social assets.Although we have not developed an index that combines these resource endowments to classify Chihota households by different poverty levels, we have presented data on access or lack of access to all of the assets mentioned above (Appendix 1 summarises these data from the tables throughout this study). Even if Chihota households may not be the poorest, an important percentage of them do not own or have access to one or several of these assets. For example, many do not own or have access to key agricultural implements, draught power, a granary, or even traditional soil fertility enhancing inputs such as manure, termitaria or compost. Credit is almost non existent, and even though some have access to remittances, most have to rely on their own to finance their agricultural production. Given the relative low yields they receive and their variability, generating enough surpluses to finance agricultural production may be difficult. Performing a thorough analysis of the relationship between poverty and soil fertility practices, although feasible with the data we collected, is beyond the scope of this study and is left for future ones.Even though most farmers in this area have been in contact with extension, there seem to be many knowledge gaps in the use of introduced soil improvement technologies, and even regarding traditional organic ones. For lime, farmers seem to have received abstract information, but there is no indication of knowledge from experience. While they have been exposed to the message on lime, this may not have been very effective. In contrast, for fertilisers, they have good knowledge, which is not surprising since they are the most widely used of all soil fertility improvement practices. In the case of cattle manure, they also have good knowledge, however knowledge about its management suggests that the manure in use is of low quality. There seems to be a knowledge gap that may lead to a lower efficiency in its use. The knowledge that farmers have comes more from practice rather than from extension. In any case, Agritex have had little advice to give on this. Termite mound soil is a traditional practice where farmers show a sophisticated knowledge. In terms of rotations, farmers' knowledge or lack of it suggest that that the concept of a rotation is missing with most farmers, and there is no concept of sequencing of different crops as a management tool. It is likely that farmers have heard about 'rotations' in theory, but that they have not connected the concept to their field practices. There is a good knowledge of composting, however its effectiveness could be improve if compost was supplemented with N. Green manures are the least known of these technologies. Even for those farmers that know something about them, the information they have is patchy. About intercropping there is a good knowledge that reflects a long experience with this practice.In general, for most soil fertility improvement practices although farmers have knowledge about them, this is only partial. For the most widespread practices, there seems to be good knowledge. Even for some traditional practices, although there is sophisticate knowledge, farmers could benefit from additional technical information.In some cases, farmers have theoretical knowledge about the technology, but lack knowledge from practical experience. In other cases, they have good practical knowledge that could be enhanced by additional technical information. Clearly, there are opportunities to improve their knowledge with technical information that is relevant and easy to put to use. Furthermore, new technical information should be made available in a practical way, not too theoretical.An interesting outcome is that some key results of this survey are consistent with those of the participatory diagnosis performed earlier. Although one would hope this relationship to be so, it does not necessarily have to be this way. Particularly because the participatory diagnosis was performed with a series of focus groups that one would expect to be a biased sample of the population of farmers in Chihota. These participants were mainly farmers involved with Agritex, although as pointed out most farmers in Chihota are in contact with Agritex. In any case there was consistency in some key results. For example, in both cases eight local soil types were identified. Although the names were not exactly the same, at least six were. Of more interest is the fact that many of the constraints for applying some of the soil fertility improvement technologies were very similar. For example, for the use of termitaria, the survey and the participatory diagnosis identified its intensive labour requirements, the lack of transport and lack of materials as constraints, while for lime they recognised lack of cash and knowledge. For fertilisers and animal manure they pinpointed lack of cash and lack of cattle respectively. The survey also confirms the existence of important knowledge gaps in the use of soil improvement inputs and practices identified by the diagnosis.Focus group discussions like the ones used in the participatory diagnosis, which deal with inventories of key components of household livelihoods are excellent to provide contextual information about the system of study. They provide the parameters and boundaries within which the system operates. They are also good to spot general patterns and to generate hypotheses about how the system operates in the area of interest. However, they are not good for an in-depth analysis or for hypotheses testing because the data they provide are too aggregate and cannot be related to specific circumstances. Therefore, there is a need for survey instruments applied to a sample of households. These instruments allow a more in-depth analytical understanding of the system, and the possibility to carry out more rigorous hypothesis testing. In any case the information generated with the use of focus group discussions and of random surveys is highly complementary.This report presented the results of a baseline survey that was carried out in nine wards of Chihota communal area, Zimbabwe. The results show that the farming systems in Chihota are maize-based. Even though garden production and nonagricultural activities are important sources of income and subsistence, maize continues to playa fundamental role in the livelihoods of the farming households in this communal area. These systems do not seem to have changed dramatically in the last twenty years. There are some important gender differences among households in terms of the assets they control and the agricultural management they implement. Farming households use a range of soil fertility improvement practices, both organic and inorganic. Some of these are traditional while others have been introduced in the last two decades. Even though most farmers in this area have been in contact with extension, and they have good knowledge about certain soil improvement practices, there seem to be many knowledge gaps in the use of others, including some traditional organic ones. There are opportunities to improve farmers' knowledge with technical information that is relevant and easy to put in use. Although on average these households may not be the poorest in the communal areas of Zimbabwe, many of them still face difficult conditions. An important percentage of them do not own or have access to one or several important assets. While performing a thorough analysis of the relationship between poverty and soil fertility practices was beyond the scope of this report, the data collected with this survey should allow us to explore this relationship more in-depth, a topic for further studies. 1Statistically significant association between household type and ownership of type of animal at below 0.05 level, Chi-square of test of association 2 There were no statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.05 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year. 3Total cattle is the sum of cows, steers, heifers, bulls and calves.  There was no statistically significant association between household type and whether or not the crop had been planted in any of the three years. 2There were statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.05 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for at least one of the years. See Table 11 for data disaggregated by household type and year. 3 There were no statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.05 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year. 4 There were too few cases to carry any statistical test. 1There was no statistically significant association between household type and whether or not the input was used in any of the three years.2 There were no statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.05 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year.3 There were too few cases to carry any statistical test.  There was no statistically significant association between household type and the ploughing method used any of the three years. 2 There was no statistically significant association between household type and the type of ploughing used in any of the three years. 3 There were statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.1 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for 1999. Different letters indicate these differences. 4 There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.05 level) between access to traction and household type 5 There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between access to traction and household type. 1.37 1.35 1There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.05 level) between planting method and household type 2There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between planting method and household type 3There were no statistically Significant differences (at least at the 0.1 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year. 2.8 2.8 1There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between method of first weeding and household type 2There were no statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.1 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year. 6.2 6.2 6.2 1There was no a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between method of second weeding and household type 2There were no statistically significant differences (at least at the 0.1 level) for pairwise comparisons among means by household types (either Bonferroni or Tamhane tests depending on whether the variances were equal or not respectively) for any year. 21.1 1There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between the use of hired labour and the operation 2There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.05 level) between the use of hired labour and the operation 3There was no statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between the use of hired  IThere was no statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between method of stover management and household type 2There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between method of stover management and household type for any year.  10.0 1There was as a statistical significant association (at below the 0.05 level) between the source of funds and household type •. 2There was no statistical significant association (at below the 0.10 level) between the source of funds and household type for any year.      1.22 2.20 3.17  ","tokenCount":"13475"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"37bcc12ec75b598a7de34295d5286181","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8fc30b81-8fd7-411c-9dbe-1a872cbc087a/retrieve","id":"-1431929309"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f2e50092-260d-4bd9-9086-baa78df1e555","pagecount":"7","content":"Building Livelihoods and Resilience to Climate Change in East and West Africa: Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) for large-scale implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture Building Livelihoods and Resilience to Climate Change in East and West Africa: Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) for large-scale implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture learnt to support future cycles of activity planning. 11. What efforts are undertaken in your project in terms of upscaling? -Section X Answer: This is done through partnerships with other institutions like CORAF and SNV. 12. Which types of partnerships have been established by your project (Governments, NGOs, Academic institutions, etc.)? -Section XI Answer: Academic for student field work and thesis writing and NGOs for training and scaling up. 13. How does your project contribute to EC visibility? (please attach documentation/links to videos/articles) -Section XII Answer:Acknowledgements of its contribution to the realization of some of the activities like in the report of the seminar held in December 2020 in Matourkou school of Burkina Faso.Partnerships for Scaling Climate-Smart Agriculture (P4S)Project related output/ activity(ies)Output 3: Enhanced climate information services and big data solutions to enhance smallholder production for value chains in West Africa / Activity 3.1 Building capacity for innovative public-private joint venture (Boulet 3.1.1: Identify market and primary entry points through PICSA, extended to include the participation of corporate partners alongside civil society, smallholder farmers and research institutions)Contacts with SNV and CORAF were made with the aim to seek ways of collaboration for the SADI (Systeme d'Approvisionement Durable en Intrants) system under the responsibility of Mr Mahamadou BADIEL, Deputy Country Director of SNV Burkina Faso and Sector Lead for Agriculture and Seeds promotion project of Dr Hippolyte Affognon of CORAF, PAIRED project Manager, respectively. A document of 5 pages about \"How PICSA training can be integrated to the development of value chains?\" was produced by the team and shared with CORAF and SNV for discussions. A virtual meeting was held with CORAF team on 4 September 2020 to agree on activities. The PAIRED team is waiting for their budget approbation to allow the start of the activities.With SNV, we were waiting for the activities to resume in 2021 to plan a virtual meeting with the project leaders of that institution willing to collaborate with us.Output  The second proposal has passed the first step, prefeasibility document produced, and a letter of no-objection obtained from the National Designated Authority of Benin on 30 November 2020. These Adaptation Benefits Mechanism proposals will be jointly funded by AfDB and GCF. The piloting will try to operationalize the ABM as financial mechanism for mobilizing public and private sector finance for enhanced adaptation action.Milestone 2: 3 strategic public-private partnership established in East and West Africa for wide scale adoptionOur team has signed in December 2020 a MoU with VIAMO to use their platform for technical agronomic and climate information messages. Wanji game script and map have been jointly developed by VIAMO and ICRAF. This product is being reviewing by our team before approval and released on the platform.Milestone 4: Peer-reviewed journal articles on incentive framework and mechanism for scaling-out of CSA interventions and services validated at village and sub-national level. Action points in 4.2.4 will cover this.A questionnaire was developed and sent to the people who have been trained on PICSA to find out how the knowledge acquired has been useful for their work. Data have been collected through this questionnaire and will be soon analyzed to produce a peer-reviewed paper. ","tokenCount":"570"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ac7cd20303c2450800498a7c7ba9c0c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b99c999-3c15-4c83-b0fe-a43dee5d58c6/retrieve","id":"1050167277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28c9309a-0076-4687-94e1-80bbdd92dacf","pagecount":"14","content":"Para una mejor prodUCCIón anImal en las sabanas de la marge'! derecha del r!o Met!l (Departamento del Meta y Comlsarfa del V,chada) es necesar.o adop' ar JT'a se-rlC de prácticas mejoradas de maneJo, mcluyendo una que es de pnmorchal 'mportan-Cla el establecImIento de pastos mejorados Entre las gramíneas que se han mostrado de valor para su uso E''! los L.anos están el pas:o Gordura o Chapín (Mehms mmutlflora), el pasto Puntero o Yaraguá ®parrhema. rufa) y el pasto BrachIana (Brachlarla decumbens) Ha~e algunos aftas, el lCA empez6 la expenmentaCl6n con ellos y marcó las pautas para su InstalaCI6n y maneJo, medIante pruebas regIOnales en alguna<; fmcas de la zona Sin embargo, queda'l. por aclarar algunos aspectos relatIvos a su maneJo, SIendo éstos, parte de los muchos flIles que se han propuesto en conjunto el lCA y el Centro InternaClonal de AgrIcultura TroplCal (CIAT), allUlClar las experImentacIOnes en la Granja Canmagua, ubloada en la JurIsd1cCI6n de San Pedro de Anmena en el Departamento del Meta POR QUE PASTOS MEJORADOS? SI bIen no se puede pensar en camblar extensas zonas a praderas meJoradas, de-bIdo aé costo, SI se puede sembrar un área mímma que permita cubrIr las neceSIdades del hato y ob•ener una mayor productIvIdad Esa lirea mfuma comprel'lde pasto para las madres pr6XImas, para los ammales destetos y para los anunaies a cebar La expenen,na HldIca que las fallas nutr' cIonales blisIcas e'l los Llan;)\". que hacer, del ga-'lado nativo un ammal pequeño y de mal comportamIento, suceden en dichas e:apas y ha~la. ellas se debe enfocar la mayor atenCIónLa mala ahmenta'~lón de las futuras madres, Instaladas en ¡;lT'!i.deras de baJa cal1dad. como son las de pastos naturales en los Llanos Orlen:aws, es una de las causas del baJO porcentaje de naCImIentos y de terneros pequefíos, a SI.. vez, la bala producc-.ón de leche debIda a esa mala ahmentac-16n, va a ocasl0l'ar una st.b\"l'¡~J: lCIllo del ternero con sus secuelas correspondientesComo el destete ocaSIOna un camblo br.lsco en la dle,a del ter\"lero, es 1l'dlSpensable poseer una buena pradera de pastos mejorados, ado'lde mantenerlos flor algO!' hempo, con el propósIto de que soporten ese cambIO y a su vez obtengan JO buen desarrollo, luego se pasarían graduahnente a la sabana, donde permanecelán h«s::a empelilar la cebaComo se sabe, es pd,ctlCamente 1lllposlble cebar en las praderas naturales, sIendo esta la raz6n para que el ganadero del llano venda sus 00\\11.1108 o toretes, m §.s o menos a los tres años de edad, a los cebadores del pledemonte llanero, qUienes por 8 a 10 meses de ceba, VIenen a obtener una gananCIa slmllar a la que ha obtemdo el CrIador en tres años Por todo lo anterIOr, se piensa que uno de los prmclpales objetivos de la mtroducClón de pastos mejorados a los Llanos es permitir otra alternativa para el ganadero del Llano, es deCIr la de llevar directamente el ganado de la explotacl6n al matadero, evüando los mter-memarlOs y no perdiendo las ventajas económicas de la ceba El viaje en cambIO de los ammales cebados, desde las fmeas a los centros de consumo, 16glCamente ocaSIOna pérdidas de peso pero no son tan grandes como se creen, siendo eqUiparables a las pérdidas prodUCidas en el transporte de otras reglOnes de Colombia, con mejores vfas de acceso En un futuro cuando haya aumentado el nl1mero de cabezas de ganado y se mtenslflquen la ceba y el comerclO, se JustIficarfa la construccHin de mataderos en zonas claves yaprovechar las magnfflcas condiCIones que para el transporte aéreo ofrece esta parte de los Llanos, con el fm de sacar las canales a VIllaVlcenclO o Bogot §' o al1n directamente al extenor, atenu §.ndose las pérdidas de transporte A medida que avancen las carreteras en la regIón, también se podrfa pensar en el transporte de las canales en camIOnes refrIgerados y SI somos un poco optImlstas, esperemos que alglin dra lleguen los ferrocarriles naCIOnales, para los cuales la topograffa ta.'llb1l3n se prestaEn este artículo, se tratar §. específIcamente de la slembra del pasto Gordura o Chopm (Mehms mmutIflora) ya que hasta el momento se ha mostrado como el mM promlSorlo y se ha obtemdo la mayor experienCia, tanto en Carlmagua como en otras fmcas de la zona PREPARACION DEL TERRENO Escoger un lote, en terrenos que no sean hOmedos (baJos) Y que estén ubicados en una parte central y de fácIl acceso, adonde se puedan llevar y sacar flimlmente los arumales Hay que aprovechar los lfmltes naturales caños, matas de monte, etc que permitan allorrar dmero en la construcCl6n de cercas Evitar que quede flicll el acceso de las llamas, por alguno de los lados, durante las frecuentes quemas de las sabanas naturales, hacer unas buenas 'rondas\" con arado o rastrIllo, por lo menos de tres metros de ancho y repasarlas perl6dlCameate, ehmlnando todo el lllaterIal seco que Sirva como conductor del fuego Todas las pre-caUClOnes que se tomen en este sentIdo no sobran, pues es conOCIda la faClhdad con que el Gordura es presa de las llamas, debido a que la cera que lo caracterlZa, Slrve como combustible -3-Algunas veces el Gordura rebrota después de una quema, pero lo hace muy des-pacIO, quedando Improductivo el potrero por largo nempo. ese rebrote se puede atn-bUlr a la semIlla que la planta ha dejado caer al suelo, SI el pasto no ha semlllado todavra cuando ocurra la quema, lo más seguro es que no haya nuevo naClmiento SelecCiOnado el lote, se empIeza la labor de SIembra, SI la paja natural está demaslado alta, se debe quemar unos qUlllce dras antes al paso del implemento, para evüar que los dlscos se \"emboten\", es declr que la paja y la berra formen una masa entre los discos e lffipldan que estos remuevan blen la tierra Normalmente la mejor época para la labor con maqumarla mcluye los dos pnmeros y los dos liltlmos meses de InVIernO, o sea, cuando dlcha estaC16n se hace menos fuerte En el Llano corresponderían a los meses de abril, mayo, nOVIembre y dIClembre, en los meses de verano fuerte, el suelo se endurece demasIado y no permlte que entren los dlscos yen el InVIernO fuerte, el suelo se reblandece y se hace muy lIso para poder efectuar la labor, por ello se debe procurar hacer el máXImo de la tarea en los meses señalados Hemos probado dos slstemas para IalIlr-epar.aCl.6n del suelo, uno, arando primero co!eo'ará la semIlla en cada ocaSlón que el pasto la produzca, lo que sucede en el Llano en ,,1 mes de nOVlembre Como caso curlOSO, se anota que en el prlm6r añ::> de bembrado el Gordura, no hay produccIón de semllla L .. pano~a o espIga del pasto, se debe cortar cuando tenga un color marrO::! (.tI (>onllenzo tlene un color morado), para recolectarla se debe escoger un día soleadv, lüego de cortada se coloca en haces o monrones al sol y después de unos pocos días s:? oO'le1'e la semIlla sacudiendo la espIga SI se va a 'Jomprar senulla, se deben hacer senclllas pruebas de germlllac16n, la ::nllS usada por los ganaderos es regar unas semIllas en el suelo y cubrIrlas Gon , r costa! hl1medo, a los dos o tres días se encuelltran algunas semlllas que han gernunado y eUo es sUÍlC1ente TambIén, se puede hacer uua ml\"zcla de arena y tIerra \\ a par:\"s 19üales, contar 100 selmhas, dlstrlbulrlas en la superflCle de la mezcla, ma\"l~~'lerlas con una humedad apropIada y a los tres o cuatro dfas contar las germI-~adas, dando así el porcentaje Hay que tener en cuenta, que los porceI'tajss de ger-nLr;.ao6'l para las senullas de la mayoría de nuestros pastos son ba]fsilllos y e!' el caso del Gordura apenas llegan al6''O '1 por CIento E¡,a baja germinacl6n se podrra explIcar por defectos en la recolecCIón, por e-¡empb, cuando se coge antes del tlempo indIcado o cuando no se seca lo sufiCIente, ya qU(? al ser empacada así, se malogra con el calor y se dICe entonces que la senu-'h estli \"quemada\" Como toda la semIlla ya se encuentra empacada en el momento de ctmpr..rla, es conveniente \"chuzar\" las pacas con una varllla htimeda y observar SI a eLa salen adherIdos granos de areua o SI tropIeza con otros objetos, p;.es hay re ... dectorols que para darle más peso, agregan areUll. piedras y basura Todo 10 a'lterIormente expuesto, hace ver la necesIdad de una ceI'flÍIcac\"ón de se-IDll!as d8 pastos, ya que son muchas las ocaSIones en que se plerde la preparacIón de ,In terre'lo, a alto costo, por falta de germma.c16n de las semlllas En la fmca se deben CO'lServar los buIros, resguardados del sol y de la bumedad } a pestU' de que la semIlla UlL'\"a un largo tiempo VIable en condICIones ópt.mas, en chma calIente, SIn embargo, no conVlene tenerla almacenada m!l.s, de SCIS meses despl~s de la cosecha Otra observacIÓn de 6rden prlictlCo, es que al momento de la SIembra es deseable usar semIlla mezclada de dúerentes pacas, porque es pOSIble que a pl'sar de todas nuestras precaUCIOnes aparezcan bultos de mala cabdad ABONAMIENTO El fosfero es uno de los elementos mlis hmItantes en los suelos de los Llanos y el pas~1 Gordura sembrado en terrenos fertilIzados con aquel se podrli aprovechar mlis rli'9Idamel'te después de sembrado Cuando el Chapín es sembrado en tierras abcnadas -5-':'0':1 f5sfoT:>, se p'olede pastor\"ar a los 3 -4 meses de sembrado, mleu'ras que SI no se fe uhza el suelo, debe agu!il'darse mfnlmo un afio antes de usarlo, además se supone q\"e el ferbhzado quedará mejor Implantado, responderá mejor al pasz.nec, \\,endla ll'l l.alOr nUlTltlvo m §.<¡ aIto y podrfa soportar más ammales pvr hectll1'ea/ai!n. (1) El aoono fosfóTlcO mlis económiCO produCIdo en Colombia, es el conc:Jcldo ::;omo Esoof ~as Thomas o Esconas de defosforaClón (2) Es un polvo gnóáceo, muy pi'sad:> v reSUlta di\" la fabrIcacIón del acero, de donde hay que ehmmar (;1 f6¡;foro par\" q le ;quel no resulte qllebradIzo, ta denOmI'laCIÓn Thomas pronene de tillO de 'os m~ rodos \";.lsadas en el proceso Las EscorIas contienen P205----15-18 por CIento, CaO----30-35 por cIento, FeO----8-12 por CIento, MgO----2-3 por mento, de modo que conV1snen perfecta-IDEr>te a JOS suelos !lCldos porque aporta sImultáneamente cal y f6sforo, lOS fosfatos <¡ae _\"s conforman son suÍlClentemente solubles en los suelos II.cldos de ,o~ L,anos Eo Canmagua, hemos apucado 500 kIlos de Esconas por hectárea, 10 q.le equ,vale a 75 kg de P205 y se hace al momento de efect1..ar la SIembra, la tonelada ~lene \"Un COSvO de $280 en Bogctá (3), cantldad a la que se debe sumar el va_or de: transporle, $300 la tonelada SIEMB,RA L&. váchca ru~m!ilXla de sle'Ilbra despulls de arregrado el terreno, e\" dejar C'l.er \"tl ~r.lmO de tres llUVIas fuertes q.le compacten un poco el suelo y asf se ev.:;;' que 1 .. se::,'ULa 2€-prof.~ndlce de~asIado, pudrIéndose La Ilpoca aconseJada para la slemo:a, es aquetÍa que perml~a que el pasto estlllo sUÍlClentemente desarro!lado pa..ra qt....r ~s18ta el verano La p ¡;:~tlGa común es regar la semIlla con costales \"ralos\", en ll:1!:1. cap!ldad de l'l~3 e me\"1..)s dos !il'robas pJr hectárea. los hombres van sacudiendo rfcmna'nente & IS cost,,)es, g-.ll.1'1dose por la huella de 2 metros de ancho que deJ6 el rastrl'lo Esle S15 e111á nene lllconveme\"ltes, como son el cansanclO del trabaJador, lo qüe hace t;&\" ff' s'l:~da bler. el costal, quedando SltIOS SlU sembr<ir o que lo agll.e fuerremeñ' e, ,!l.~ 9éC:l r demM\"ada semula en ur¡ 811.10, además es lento, pl..I9S cada hombre se hace _y :n'L-....mo de tres hectáreas al día S e T _ll. Lnea hay 'In tra~tor y un remolque se puede ensayar lu slgule,,.'\"e, que a,\"n~u.e nc hace más ráplda la SIembra, SI eVIta el cansanClO de tos obreros, perIDI-L8r>d'J qv.e la seml .. a qYFde mejor dIstrIbUIda Se e'Jloca transv~rsal al rem:nqu6 e~ ~¡:~. de l;)s extremos, un tablón de unos 5 meiros de largo y se asegura bIen, se , \"1'\"'Y .a11 2 hombres pn 10 que corresponde al remolque (2 metros) y oiros dos, uno, il. oad\", ¡.,.do e --~-----------------~ (~) A:Ju,,'111ente en expenmentaClón en la GranJa Carnnagua \\2) Ace! f.~s Paz d(' Rfo produce anualmente 60 000 zoneladas de Esconas(3) 1371 -6las partes que sobresalen del tabl6n De esta manera se abarcan C4atro metros, de a metro para cada hombre y el ritmo de la sacudlda de los costales se acompasa a la velocidad del tractor para dlstrlbUlr la cantldad de semilla adecuada, de esta marera se hacen de 12 a 15 hectáreas en 8 horas de trabajo El sIstema que parece ser m:l.s efwlCnte, pues se mcluyen dos labores la regada del abono y la dIstnbuCl6n de la semIlla en una sola, es el que a cont.nuaCl6n descrlb::remos ConsIste en hacer una mezcla del abono (500 kIlos/ha) con la semIlla (15 kdos/ha) (1) y aprovechar una abonadora voleadora (marca Supenor) (2) de las utihzadas para regar granulados, a la cual se le ha cambIado el revolvedor de espIral por otro pequeño, en forma de aspas de héhce, que empuja los componentes al exterlOr, de donde son despedldos en un radIO de 2 metros A la abonadora generalmente se le pone la m:l.Xlma abertura o sea de 30 a 40, aunque eso depende del grado de humedad de la mezcla y de la cantldad de tallos de pasto que tenga la seffillla LA MEZCLA Se hace de una manera sIffillar a la combmaclón de arena y cemento, pero usando semI!las y abono fosfórico, se le afiade de un 3 a 6 por CIento de agua para lograr una couslstel1Cla que favorece la buena regada y para eVItar un poco el polvo al mezclar y al botarlo con la abonadora Después de que se haya revuelto sUÍlClentemente, se carga la abonadora, SIendo necesariO colocar un ayudante que vaya en el tractor obsenando la salida de la mezcla, para que cuando se trata de obstrulr, la destrabe y adem:l.s para que mantenga abmentado el orIfICIO de sabda y por COnSlglllente se haga una regada umforme Un tractor Ford 5000 de 77 H P necesItará ser condUCido en 5a a 1 800 r p m con el fm de regar la cantIdad deseada, la abonadora esparce la mezcla en un ancho de dos metros y la aphcll.món se debe hacer cog:¡encto lotes de regular tamaño .' Y en vueltas concéntricas, cancelando así, el efecto del VIento Con este método y SI tenemos en cuepta que son dos trabajos en .Ino, se efectO.an 10 hectáreas en 8 horas, con un gasto aprOlamadc de 6 galones de ACPM para la m:l.qumaA las tres semanas, ya podemos observar algunas plántulas de Chopm, en ocaSIOnes el creClmlento es muy dlspareJo, naCIendo pnmero los que han cardo en terrenos apretados (huellas del tractor) y demorándose mucho los que han caico en terreno suelto y se han profundIzado Es tal la desumformldad, quc se puede pensar que no nacI6 el pasto, pero luego de 5 a 6 semanas se apreCla el cubr¡mIento del suelo por las plan-(1) Aqur s'olo se usan 15 kilos de seffillla, por hectárea, contra 25 KIlos del Sistema ordlnarlO, o sea un aborro de 10 kIlos/ha (2) Todas las abonadoras no funclOnan Igual para este trabajO -7-tlCas y normalmente de los 3 a 4 meses el Gordura sembrado con abono estlí. heto para pastorear. sIendo notorlos su vigor y enraIzamlento PLAGAS En Canmagua. al mes o mes y medlo de sembrado el pasto. hubo un ataque por el gusano Spodoptera frugIperda que por ser abundante hace notable el daño de las hOJas, no obstante. por control bIOIOgJ.co natural, la plaga cedlO a las dos o tres semanas de aparIclón La hormiga arrIera. tan copIOsa en el Llano, no lo afecta mayormente. pues segt1n parece no es de su agrado, es rugno de notar que en la herra provemente de hormlgueros, el pasto nace y luce en muy buen estado QuerIendo saber la causa se hICIeron los SIguIentes anlí.hsIs de suelos Antes de hacer el estudIO del suelo se pensaba que el desarrollo era mejor por mlí.s potasIo y otros nutnentes, pero como se ve en el anlí.hsIs, los componentes son slIDIlares en los dos suelos Las 11mcas dlÍerencIas son una dlsmmUCl6n del aluml-Ola y una capaCIdad de mtercambIO catI6mco m!Í.s baja en el suelo de hormIguero COSTOS (Los detalles se encuentran en el aplinruce) Con maqumarla propIa, el costo para la Instalac16n de una hecl!i.rea en pasto Gordura es de $630, (1) lo cual SI lo comparamos con el preCIO de la hect!i.rea de tierra en la zona, aproxImadamente $50, puede parecer exceSIVO, pero SI se hene en cuenta la valorIzaClón de la herra con esta clase de mejoras y además los benefICIos econO-mICOS que trae una ganaderra bIen manejada, se ver!Í. que es perfectamente rentable Con maqUinaria alqUilada, de acuerdo a los costos de la zona, el gasto por hectárea, puede llegar a $900(1) 1971 7,6 -8-RESUMEN El pasto Gordura o Chopfn (Mehms mmutlflora) se ha mostrado como una de las gramfneas promlsorlas para los Llanos Orientales, espeCIalmente en la margen derecha del río Meta (Departamento del Meta y ComIsaría del VlChada) Este trabajo fue reahzado en la Granja ExperImental \"CarImagua\" de propIedad del ICA, localIzada en la JurIsdiccIón de San Pedro de Anmena (Departamento del Meta), en el se mdIcan las ventajas de usar el pasto Chopfn en algunas de las etapas de la V1da del ammal (crra, destete, ceba), en relaClón a la práctica co-mlÍn del mantemmlento contmuo de las reses en las sabanas naturales de mala cahdad Se descrIben además, las experIenCIas obtemdas en la preparacl6n del terreno, utlltzaCI6n de abono fosf6nco, compra y manejO de la senlllla y fmalmente sé-comparan los métodos de SIembra usuales, con el SIstema empleado por los autores DlCho SIstema conslste en hacer una mezcla de 500 kilos de Esconas Thomas bono fosf6nco) con 15 kIlos de semIlla, lo cual es suflClente para una hectárea La mezcla se esparce, medIante una abonadora de las utIlIzadas para regar 11rea, a la cual se le ha cambIado el revolvedor en espIral por otro en forma de hélIce Con el fm de dIstrIbUlr la canhdad apropIada de abono y semllla, se debe adecuar la velocIdad del tractor a la velocIdad con que sale la mezcla de la abonadora El costo de la mstalac16n de una hect!írea con pasto Chopín, en la regl6n, es de aprOXimadamente $630, mcluyendo dos rastrllladas, 500 kllos de abono fosf6nco, 15 kllos de semIlla y la sembrada El pasto sembrado de esta manera y en la época apropIada, se puede empezar a pastorear a los 3-4 meses de edad, a dI-ferenCla del sembrado sm abono, que demora un afio para ser utlhzado   ","tokenCount":"3092"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ed39fddba5c9575ad13cff54b77b825","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/510b4902-51d5-4b93-ab57-dc53eaf426f9/retrieve","id":"-707426700"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"66ec3222-043a-4920-a239-8f470b0eff8d","pagecount":"19","content":"Dietary aflatoxin exposure is a widespread problem in the developing world and causes severe negative health consequences to humans and livestock animals. A new biological control product, called Aflasafe, has been introduced in Nigeria to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of maize in the field and in storage. No known prior work has estimated how much African agribusinesses using maize for animal feed will pay for aflatoxin-safe maize. This study measured the levels of Aflasafe awareness, surveyed current aflatoxin management practices, and estimated, using choice experiments, willingness to pay (WTP) for aflatoxin-safe maize by Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers. Data was gathered from 272 orally administered surveys, which included discrete choice experiments examining maize purchasing decisions. Results suggest that the proportion of enterprises that were aware of aflatoxin was found to vary across states. Two latent classes of Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers were identified that were willing to pay average premiums of 4.9% and 30.9%, respectively for maize with 10 parts per billion (ppb) aflatoxin concentration relative to maize with 20 ppb aflatoxin concentration. Both latent classes were, on average, willing to pay larger premiums for maize with 4 ppb aflatoxin concentration.. Despite a positive mean WTP for aflatoxin-safe maize, WTP differed between geographical regions and aflatoxin knowledge. De Groote et al. (2016) found that consumers in the driest geographic regions of their sample in Kenya, where aflatoxicosis outbreaks were most common, were willing to pay the largest premium for tested, aflatoxin-safe maize relative to clean maize from the market. De Groote et al.(2016) also found that Kenyan consumers who knew that aflatoxin was toxic were not statistically willing to pay more for tested, aflatoxin-safe maize than consumers without prior knowledge. However, consumers who knew that aflatoxin was toxic had lower WTPs for untested market maize than consumers who did not previously have that knowledge. De Groote et al. (2016) provided an information treatment to half of the consumers, explaining that consuming large quantities of aflatoxin can cause death and that chronic aflatoxin exposure can lead to liver cancer. De Groote et al. (2016) found the effects of providing an aflatoxin information treatment to be similar to the effects of knowledge of whether aflatoxin was toxic. Consumers that received the treatment were not willing to pay more for tested maize than consumers who did not receive the treatment. But consumers that received the information treatment had lower WTPs for untested maize than consumers who did not receive the treatment. The combined Nigerian agribusiness and Kenyan consumer results may suggest that when individuals become knowledgeable of aflatoxin, they respond by discounting unverified maize in addition to or rather than by offering premiums for verified aflatoxin-safe maize.Building on the consumer work, this analysis sought to estimate how much of a price premium Nigerian poultry producers and feed millers (collectively referred to in this article as \"agribusiness enterprises\") will pay for aflatoxin-safe maize. Specifically, the objectives of this paper were (a) to quantify the levels of awareness about aflatoxin and Aflasafe and the levels of understanding of aflatoxin management among poultry producers and feed millers in Nigeria in the fall of 2016; and (b) to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of Nigerian agribusiness enterprises for aflatoxin-safe maize.Most countries set food and feed limits for the combined levels of the four forms of aflatoxin: B 1 , B 2 , G 1 , and G 2 (Food & Agriculture Organization [FAO], 2004). Regulations for permissible levels of aflatoxin in human food vary across countries. The European Union's (EU's) limit for cereals, groundnuts, oilseeds, almonds, and pistachios used for human consumption is 4 ppb (European Commission, 2016). The United States (US) has a less-stringent standard for total aflatoxin concentration of 20 ppb for any raw food products for human consumption (Mitchell, Bowers, Hurburgh, & Wu, 2016). Other countries establish standards that fall between the EU and the US. For example, Ghana and Kenya have limits of 15 and 10 ppb, respectively (Gajate-Garrido, Hoffmann, Magnan, & Opoku, 2016). Nigeria's standard is 10 ppb (Adetuniji et al., 2014).When regulations are well enforced, as in most developed countries, aflatoxin problems are generally well controlled (Bandyopadhyay, Kumar, & Leslie, 2007). However, the cost of complying with regulation is substantial (Xiong & Begin, 2012). Furthermore, enforcement is often weak or difficult in developing countries. De Groote et al.(2016) conducted a welfare analysis on the costs and benefits of mandatory testing of all maize in Kenya. They found that aflatoxin testing increased economic surplus if the cost of testing was reasonable, if administrative costs were minimal, and if only small amounts of maize were discarded for testing high in aflatoxin concentrations.The AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe pilot project was launched in 2013 to help overcome barriers to widespread market adoption of Aflasafe (AgResults Initiative, 2017). The pilot project works with private farm-based businesses, called implementers that purchase and distribute Aflasafe to their constituent farmers and aggregate the resulting production of aflatoxin-safe maize (AgResults Initiative, 2017). The pilot project makes an incentive payment of US $18.75 for every metric ton of high-Aflasafe maize (i.e., at least 70% of Aspergillus strains in the grain should belong to one of the four constituent strains of Aflasafe) that the implementers aggregate for sale (AgResults Initiative, 2017). In the typical range of market prices of US $250-375 per ton of maize and average yield of 2.6 tons maize grains per ha, this incentive payment constitutes an effective premium of 5-13%, the long-term project benefit of aflatoxin-safe maize over the maize currently offered in the market (AgResults Initiative, 2017). The pilot project does not take possession of the maize; it only makes the US $18.75 incentive payment for the maize tonnage categorized as high-Aflasafe maize. The implementers retain possession of the maize for sale in the open market. As of December 2016, the implementers with verified low-aflatoxin maize were receiving a premium even higher than US $18.75 per metric ton in private transactions in the market (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2016).The premium in private transactions may be from buyers channeling maize toward either human consumption or animal feed. Recent analyses in Kenya have estimated that consumers will pay premiums of 7.4-24% for verified aflatoxin-safe maize compared with maize that is clean but had not been tested for aflatoxin (De Groote et al., 2016;Hoffmann & Gatobu, 2014). This paper on Nigerian agribusinesses builds on the literature by examining the WTP of maize buyers who are expected to channel the maize toward farm animal, rather than human, consumption.Researchers developed a survey, which incorporated choice experiment methods, to collect primary data for this analysis. Survey enumerators were trained during September 28-29, 2016, in Abuja, Nigeria. All 15 enumerators held a bachelor's degree, and some had more advanced degrees. The surveys were conducted during October and November of 2016 in six Nigerian states, with precise survey locations identified in Figure 1. The survey received an Internal Review Board approval from the affiliated institutions. Enumerators explained (verbally) to respondents that participation was voluntary and received verbal consent before proceeding with surveys.Responses to questions were recorded in CSPro 6.3. After collecting responses to the discrete choice experiment, respondents were asked 21 questions about the characteristics of their enterprises. The agribusiness survey, including the choice experiment, is provided as part of the supplementary information in an online appendix.Each agribusiness participant was presented with one of two blocks of seven trinary choice sets. Two of the alternatives in each choice set involved the agribusiness purchasing maize with a verified level of aflatoxin; the third alternative was always an \"Optout,\" where the agribusiness could choose to not purchase either aflatoxintested maize option provided (and instead purchase regular maize with an unknown concentration of aflatoxin contamination at the current market price). Non-opt out alternatives presented information about two attributes of interest in this analysis, including the level of aflatoxin concentration in the maize and the percentage premium the agribusiness must pay over the regular market price. While two is a smaller number of attributes compared with many choice experiments, the small number offers the advantage of reduced decision complexity. Parameter estimates in choice experiments have been shown to be sensitive to the complexity of choice tasks (DeShazo & Fermo, 2002;Swait & Adamowicz, 2001).There were three possible levels of aflatoxin concentration in maize (20, 10, and 4 ppb), which corresponded to the maximum US, Nigerian, and European thresholds for using maize to produce human food. There were six possible price premiums for the maize within the choice experiment, namely 0%, 1-10%, 11-20%, 21-30%, 31-40%, and 41-50%.Choice sets were generated by the OPTEX procedure in SAS to be orthogonal and optimize D-efficiency.Econometric estimation used in this analysis is based on random utility theory. According to Lancaster (1966), consumers derive utility not directly from the goods they consume but rather from the specific attributes of the goods they consume. Hence, consumer i's utility (U ij ) from consuming product j is defined in Equation (1). Product j must be selected from a finite choice set. V ij is the contribution to utility of all observed factors, including the pertinent attributes of product j (Hensher, Rose, & Greene, 2005). ε ij is the contribution to utility of all unobserved factors and is assumed to be independent of and additive to V ij (Hensher et al., 2005).(1)Consumers are assumed to maximize utility. Thus, when consumer i is presented with j = 1, …, J alternatives, he/she is assumed to choose the alternative with the greatest utility (U ij ). Because the ε ij portion of U ij is unobserved, it is not possible to deterministically identify the greatest U ij before a choice is made. However, it is possible to estimate the probability with which a consumer will choose each given alternative from only the observed information (V ij ). Hensher et al. (2005, pp. 82) explain, \"the probability of an individual choosing alternative l is equal to the probability that the utility of alternative l is greater than (or equal to) the utility associated with alternative j after evaluating each and every alternative in the choice set of j = 1, … l, … J alternatives.\" This statement is expressed as follows, where Prob il is the probability that consumer i chooses alternative l..(2) Train (2009) shows that if ε ij from Equation ( 1) is treated as random and assumed to be independently and identically distributed extreme value, then Prob il can be rewritten in Equation (3).Equation ( 3) is the specification for the multinomial logit model (MNL), which allows for an estimation of consumer i's decision based only on the observed information.Utility is most often assumed to be linear in parameters (Jones, Alexander, Widmar, Ricker-Gilbert, & Lowenberg-DeBoer, 2016. This allows V ij to be further specified in Equation ( 4). Where X ij is a vector of observable information of product attributes and β is a vector of parameters to be estimated.\"Premium\" is the percentage difference between the maize price for a given alternative and the price of regular market maize. It was measured at the midpoints of each range presented at the end of Section 3.2. \"OptOut\" is a binary variable indicating whether the third option in a choice set was selected. \"10 ppb\" is an effects-coded trinary variable taking value 1 for maize verified with 10 ppb aflatoxin, value −1 for maize with 4 or 20 ppb aflatoxin, and value 0 for the OptOut. \"4 ppb\" is effects-coded in a similar manner, taking value 1 for maize verified with 4 ppb aflatoxin. The effects-coded variable \"20 ppb\" was omitted from the model to avoid the dummy variable trap. Effects coding prevents a variable's effects from being confounded with the \"OptOut\" effects (Tonsor, Olynk, & Wolf, 2009).Utility maximization within consumer theory is presented here because it is the foundation on which WTP literature is typically built (Olynk, Wolf, & Tonsor, 2012). Notwithstanding, Lusk and Hudson (2004) showed that the concept can easily be extended to profit maximization within the theory of the firm by demonstration that a producer's WTP for a new technology is equal to the difference in the producer's profit before and after adopting the technology. Multiple authors have applied this framework and methodology to US agricultural production practices of crops (Norwood, Luter, & Massey, 2005), swine (Davis & Gillespie, 2007;Roe, Sporleder, & Belleville, 2004), beef (Norwood, Winn, Chung, & Ward, 2006), and dairy (Olynk et al., 2012;Schulz & Tonsor, 2010).The most critical shortcoming of the MNL model is that it treats individuals' preferences as being homogeneous across respondents (note the lack of an i subscript on the β in Equation (4); Hensher et al., 2005). One approach to account for heterogeneity is latent class (LC) modeling, which segments a sample into \"classes,\" and generates separate parameter estimates for each class. LC models allow for heterogeneity between classes but assume homogeneity within each class. A key advantage of this approach is that it can reveal the size and tastes of different segments within a market (Louviere, Hensher, & Swait, 2000).Equations ( 5) and ( 6) extend Equation (3) to show how to estimate the probability that individual i selects alternative l under an LC model (Louviere et al., 2000). Individuals are divided into S classes and the probability of individual i falling into class s is given by W is . It is impossible to simultaneously estimate the λ s scale factors and β s coefficients for each class (Louviere et al., 2000). This analysis makes the typical assumption that every λ s is equal to one (Lusk, Roosen, & Fox, 2003).Given the assumption of linearity, the β parameters are the marginal utilities of the product attributes in X ij .Incremental changes in utility do not map to incremental changes in behavior, because utility is an ordinal measure.However, if one of the product attributes in X ij is price, then price's marginal utility can serve as a basis for estimating the monetary value of the other variables, referred to as WTP. Equation ( 7) shows the standard way of estimating WTP for a given product attribute, k (Hensher et al., 2005).For this analysis, the subscripts on the β coefficients in Equation ( 7) correspond to the subscripts in Equation (4). Effects coding was used for the 10 ppb and 4 ppb variables in Equation ( 4), necessitating the WTP estimates for these two variables from Equation ( 7) to be scaled-up by a factor of 2 (Lusk et al., 2003).As described by Lusk and Hudson (2004), producers are indifferent between using two input bundles that provide the same level of profit. The ratio of marginal utilities in Equation ( 7) is the number of currency units the producer can give up in exchange for one unit of k and maintain the same level of profit. Hence, the ratio measures the amount of currency at which the producer is indifferent to between the currency and one unit of k. This analysis estimates mean WTP values and confidence intervals using the Krinsky-Robb method (1986).Summary statistics for the sample group are presented in Table 1. The sample was not representative of the full national population of Nigerian \"agribusiness enterprises\" (i.e., poultry farmers and feed millers). Enterprises were classified in mutually exclusive categories based on the types of products produced: poultry only, feeds only, or poultry and feeds.Furthermore, enterprises were divided into three mutually exclusive scale classes based on the annual volume of maize used. Small-scale operations used less than 10 tons of maize per year and constituted 60% of the agribusinesses in the sample. Medium scale operations used between 10 and 100 tons per year and represented 30% of the agribusinesses.Large-scale operations used over 100 tons of maize per year and made up 10% of the agribusinesses. In addition to questions about production and scale, respondents were also asked a series of questions about the demographic characteristics of the head of the enterprise and about the attributes of the business.The mean number of years in business for the sample of agribusinesses studied was approximately 9 years, while the median of the sample was 7 years. Enterprises were registered with local or state governments at a much higher rate (61%) than with NAFDAC (8%). Approximately one-quarter of enterprises had access to microcredit and 82% of the enterprises were organized as sole proprietorships.Twenty-one enterprises (7.7% of sample) were an implementer with the AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe pilot project at the time that they participated in the survey. Sixteen of these 21 operations were in Oyo, Kwara, or Kaduna States where the pilot project was most active as of October 2015 (AgResults Initiative, 2015). Four enterprises reported doing business with an implementer with the pilot project, suggesting that they use the implementer as a supplier of maize grain.The awareness of aflatoxin and Aflasafe among the respondents and about their enterprise's current aflatoxin management strategies are reported in Table 2. There is clear variation in the level of aflatoxin awareness among states in this sample. The southwestern states of Oyo and Kwara had awareness levels statistically and substantially higher than any of the other states.Forty-two percent of respondents had heard of aflatoxin, which is less than the percentage of poultry farmers who were reportedly aware of aflatoxin in 2005 in Benin (65.9%) and Ghana (81.6%; James et al., 2007). In an analogous survey administered to Nigerian maize farmers concurrently with this survey, 72% of respondents had heard of aflatoxin (Johnson et al., 2018). Fewer agribusiness respondents had heard of Aflasafe (12.9%) compared with 67% of maize farmers in a farmer sample that had heard of Aflasafe on the analogous survey (Johnson et al., 2018).Enterprises that produced feed and poultry had a higher level of aflatoxin awareness than enterprises that produced only poultry. Enterprises that produced only feed had a higher level of aflatoxin awareness than enterprises that produce both feed and poultry. Enterprises that were registered either with local or state government had higher levels of aflatoxin awareness in this sample than enterprises not registered. Similarly, enterprises that were members of poultry associations had higher levels of awareness than enterprises that were not members.The relative patterns of aflatoxin awareness generally corresponded to whether enterprises control for aflatoxin or not and to whether enterprises had heard of Aflasafe or not. For example, enterprises in states with the highest levels of aflatoxin awareness also controlled aflatoxin in their feed supply at higher rates than other states.It is worth noting that almost three-quarters of enterprises that were aware of aflatoxin also controlled for it.Only 10 enterprises (3.7% of sample) tested the level of aflatoxin in their maize supply at the time of the survey.However, 86 enterprises (31.6% per Table 2) made an effort to control aflatoxin contamination. The most frequently cited method of \"controlling for aflatoxin\" was adding a toxin binder to the feed ration, which was used by 65 enterprises (24.9% of the sample). Certain clay minerals will chemically bind to aflatoxin and reduce the amount of aflatoxin absorption by the gastrointestinal system (Wielogórska, MacDonald, & Elliot, 2016). Sixty-one of the 65 enterprises used toxin binder alone. Four of the 65 enterprises used toxic binder and an additional control strategy, such as other feed additives or drying maize.While efforts were made to analyze various enterprise types, the relatively small number of feed only enterprises makes modeling WTP by enterprise type infeasible. Thus, analysis of the choice experiment was conducted for the data set as a T A B L E 2 Detailed decomposition of the percent of agribusinesses with or without awareness of aflatoxin and Aflasafe, and using or not using aflatoxin and management practices whole. Results of the multinomial logit and LC models are presented in Table 3 and were conducted in NLOGIT 5.0.Multinomial parameter estimates are based on Equations (3) and LC parameter estimates are based on Equation (5).Coefficient estimates have little direct interpretive value; however, the ratios of the coefficient are useful for estimating WTP (Olynk, Tonsor, & Wolf, 2010). The variables \"Premium,\" \"OptOut,\" \"10 ppb,\" and \"4 ppb\" estimates are the β coefficients from Equation (4). Recalling that the case of maize with an aflatoxin concentration of 20 ppb is omitted from the model, the estimates for \"10 ppb\" and \"4 ppb\" are relative to maize with 20 ppb aflatoxin concentration.The sample is divided into two latent classes, with associated class probabilities of 81.8% and 18.2% (Table 3).The two-class model was selected over models with more latent classes through combined analysis of Akaike information criteria and class size. The makeup of latent classes in terms of individuals is unknown and membership in any once class can only be interpreted probabilistically. Variables can be included in the LC model to help characterize the latent classes by providing information regarding whether that variable increases or decreases the probability of class membership (Widmar, Byrd, Wolf, & Acharya, 2016). The AtoxHear and Southwest dummy variables were statistically significant covariates for characterizing class membership. Covariates that were tested to characterize class make-up but not found significant included: (a) whether an enterprise was a member of the AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe pilot project, (b) scale of enterprise, (c) type of product produced, (d) ownership structure, (e) registration status with local or state government, (f) membership in professional poultry associations, (g) years of education of respondent, and (h) number of years the enterprise had been operating.WTP estimates were calculated using parameter estimates in Table 4. WTP confidence intervals were determined using 1,000 bootstrap draws as defined by Krinsky and Robb (1986). Enterprises in both latent classes were willing to pay a bigger premium for maize with 10 ppb aflatoxin concentrations compared with maize with 20 ppb concentrations. This conclusion is based on that fact that in both latent classes the 95% confidence intervals for \"10 ppb\" do not cross zero. Furthermore, enterprises in both latent classes were willing to pay a higher premium for maize with 4 ppb aflatoxin concentration than maize with 10 ppb concentration. For Class 1, the 95% confidence intervals for \"4 ppb\" and \"10 ppb\" do not overlap. While the confidence intervals do overlap for Class 2, the conclusion of statistical differences in means at the 5% level is noted in footnote (a) of Table 4. 1 The negative WTP's for opting-out in both latent classes indicate that enterprises have a preference for having aflatoxin-reduced maize in their choice set.The confidence interval for 10 ppb in Class 1 does not overlap the confidence interval for 10 ppb in Class 2. Likewise, the confidence intervals for 4 ppb do not overlap. Therefore, enterprises in Class 1 were willing to pay higher premiums than enterprises in Class 2. Furthermore, enterprises in Class 1 were harmed more by deferring to regular market maize than enterprises in Class 2, as shown by the lower and negative mean \"OptOut\" estimate for Class 1.The specific make up of individual classes within any latent class model cannot be determined due to the nature of the model/classes. However the probability that each respondent belongs to a particular latent class can be estimated at the individual respondent level with the specifications of the model. For each individual, the sum of the probabilities that he or she is in each latent class is one. For Table 5, individual respondents were placed into the latent class to which they had the highest estimated probability of belonging. Although not an exact measure of class membership, which is not possible, using the probability of membership is useful for more clearly understanding how the market of agribusinesses purchasing aflatoxin-reduced maize is segmented. By this method, 81.25% (221 of 272) of respondents were placed in Class 1 and 18.75% (51 of 272) were placed in Class 2. While not exact, these proportions are approximately equal to the more accurate class probabilities, 81.8% for Class 1 and 18.2% for Class 2, in Tables 3 and 4.As shown by the proportions of enterprises in each class in Means and confidence intervals identified using 1,000 Krinsky-Robb (1986) bootstrap draws.**Significance at the 5% level.a Even though the \"10 and 4 ppb\" confidence intervals overlap for Class 2, the difference between \"4 and 10 ppb\" in Class 2 was statistically >0 at the 95% confidence level.Less than half of agribusiness enterprise representatives (42.4%) had heard of aflatoxin, and only 13% of enterprise representatives had heard of Aflasafe. Awareness is the first step in the consumer adoption process (Littler, 2015).A decision maker needs to know about a product before he or she can do anything with it. More information about aflatoxin and Aflasafe needs to be disseminated to the maize processing stage of the value chain.Enterprises in some states were relatively more aware of aflatoxin than in other states. At the high end, 92.2% of respondents in Oyo State had heard of aflatoxin, while only 10.6% of respondents in Kaduna State had heard of aflatoxin.It is noteworthy that Kaduna State had the lowest level of aflatoxin awareness even though implementers in Kaduna State were actively enrolled in the AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe pilot project in October of 2015 (AgResults Initiative, 2015).Agribusiness awareness levels across states do not seem to be following the rollout of the pilot project. AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe pilot project creates market linkages through innovation platforms for both the agricultural enterprises that produce the aflatoxin-reduced maize under the project and the feed and food industries that are interested in the quality maize. Most of the food and feed industries that use the maize are concentrated in the southern part of Nigeria. Few feed and food industries from the northern part of Nigeria participated in the Innovation Platform. Note: Within each decomposition, a and b are statistically different (p < .01); Latent class membership is estimated probabilistically, not deterministically. For the purposes of this table, individuals were assigned to the latent class to which they had the highest probability of belonging; Geography and aflatoxin awareness were found to be statistically significant covariates for explaining latent class membership. Controlling for aflatoxin was not found to be a statistically significant covariate.Differences across states in regard to sophistication in controlling for aflatoxin seemed to parallel differences across states in having heard of aflatoxin. For example, in the southwestern states of Oyo and Kwara, 92.2% and 46.0% of enterprises, respectively controlled for aflatoxin in maize supplies at the time of the survey, the highest rates of any states.These are the same two states with the highest percentages of respondents who had heard of aflatoxin. In Nasarawa and Kaduna States (states with low relative rates of having heard of aflatoxin), just over 2% of the enterprises controlled for aflatoxin. Overall, just under one-third of enterprises controlled for aflatoxin in maize supplies, typically using toxin binder.A smaller percentage of poultry only enterprises heard of and controlled for aflatoxin than feed only enterprises, although it should be noted that only 17 respondents indicated that they produced only feed.Given differences observed in aflatoxin awareness between states and the types of products enterprises were making, there may be opportunities to target education to specific geographic regions. Furthermore, efforts to promote awareness of aflatoxin may benefit from targeting managers of poultry only enterprises, since they heard of aflatoxin at a lower rate than feed only enterprises and enterprises producing poultry and feed in the sample collected.The levels of aflatoxin and Aflasafe awareness were higher among enterprises registered with local or state governments than enterprises not registered. Furthermore, enterprises that were members of a professional poultry association had higher awareness levels than enterprises that were not members. While not conclusive, this data could suggest that these associations are helping to disseminate information about aflatoxin. Obidike (2011) describes state and local government agencies in Nigeria, like ADP, as important providers of information to farmers. Thuo et al. (2014) showed that social network factors, especially weak ties with external support groups such as researchers and extension agents, positively influenced the spread of information about new technology among Ugandan and Kenyan groundnut farmers.Only 4% of enterprises tested the level of aflatoxin in their maize supply. A cultural change will be needed to get to the point where agribusiness enterprises are controlling for aflatoxin (which is needed for improved health).Testing will be one of the first steps. Testing must be simple, economical, and accessible as a first step for reaping the benefits from aflatoxin control (De Groote et al., 2016).The WTP results provide evidence that Nigerian feed millers and poultry farmers benefit from purchasing aflatoxin-reduced maize, even at a price premium. Enterprises in both latent classes were willing to pay premiums for verified aflatoxin-reduced maize. Strong agribusiness WTP could have beneficial spillover effects on other parts of the Nigerian maize value chain, especially farmers that may be able to receive higher prices for their maize production. As identified by De Groote et al. ( 2016) cost-effective testing of the aflatoxin levels in maize will be needed for a market for aflatoxin-safe maize to function efficiently.Geography was found to statistically contribute to latent class WTP membership. Respondents in the southwestern states of Oyo and Kwara (where agribusiness awareness levels of aflatoxin were highest) had a higher probability of being in Class 2 with the lower mean WTPs than respondents from other states. This result was robust to including aflatoxin awareness as another covariate for characterizing latent class membership.Furthermore, being registered with local or state government, being a member of a professional poultry association, and numerous other firm-specific characteristics listed previously were also not statistically significant covariates for characterizing latent class membership. The lack of significance of these firm-specific covariates suggests that there was something systematically different between the southwestern states and the other states.Previous observations in the literature suggest a possible inverse relationship between average precipitation and WTP for aflatoxin reduction of maize. Marechera and Ndwiga (2015) estimated that Kenyan maize farmers in the driest county sampled were more likely to pay for Aflasafe, if it was commercially available than farmers in the wettest county. However, the county with the highest likelihood of adoption in their study was not the driest county. Oyo and Kwara States are wetter than Bauchi, Benue, Kaduna, and Nasarawa States. Hence, the result that enterprises in Bauchi, Benue, Kaduna, and Nasarawa had a higher probability of having higher mean WTP for verified aflatoxin-reduced maize than farmers in Oyo and Kwara States reinforces the loose trend of higher WTP in regions with lower rainfall.Geographic differences could stem from differences in culture or agricultural markets. Most of the sampled areas of Oyo and Kwara States are, being predominately Yoruba, distinct ethnically and linguistically from the other states (Uchendu, 2010). It may be that poultry farmers simply are not as concerned about aflatoxin contamination in Oyo and Kwara States as in other states. The southwestern states have a good reputation as poultry farmers and most of Nigeria's large feed manufacturers are located there. Poultry farmers in Oyo and Kwara States may perceive that many agribusinesses control for aflatoxin (Table 2), believe that those control mechanisms are effective, and-therefore-do not have as strong of a price response to aflatoxin contamination levels. It also could be that poultry farmers in Oyo and Kwara States may have more alternative grain sources to domestically-produced maize for feeding animals. However, the data in this study was not structured to provide insight into the merits of any of these explanations. Identifying the precise factors driving differences in agribusiness enterprise probability of latent class membership among these states is a promising area for future study. It is very interesting to compare this result to the result of the maize farmer survey that maize farmers in Oyo State were less likely to persist in using Aflasafe than maize farmers in Kaduna State (Johnson et al., 2018).It is interesting that enterprises aware of aflatoxin had a higher probability of being in Latent Class 2, which has lower mean WTP's for verified aflatoxin-safe maize, than enterprises who were not aware. There are three possible explanations of this effect. (a) Enterprise managers who are aware of the damage aflatoxin causes respond not by offering a price premium for aflatoxin-safe maize but by discounting regular, untested market maize. Such an explanation would be paralleled by De Groote et al.'s findings for Kenyan consumers presented in Section 1. (b)Respondents who were aware of aflatoxin provided less biased survey results. (c) Respondents who were aware of aflatoxin assumed that their current strategies for controlling it were adequate.It may be that enterprises with aflatoxin awareness had more accurate understandings of the economic benefits of aflatoxin-safe maize than enterprises with no aflatoxin awareness. Su, Adam, Lusk, and Arthur (2011) suggested that choice experiment respondents with more experience using a product had more stable WTP estimates when different elicitation methods (i.e., choice experiments and experiment auctions) were used. Along a similar line of logic, it may also be that novel threats elicit stronger responses than new threats. This all might suggest that respondents with experience produce less biased results, which would further suggest that the Class 2 estimates may be a better reference for forming long-run WTP estimations than Class 1.Alternatively, managers that had heard of aflatoxin may have assumed that their management strategies sufficiently mitigated the problems of aflatoxin contamination. As illustrated in the third data column of Table 2, nearly 75% of enterprises whose survey respondents had heard of aflatoxin also took steps to control for aflatoxin, typically by using toxin binder. When mixed with animal feed, clay minerals can bind to aflatoxin and reduce or prevent aflatoxin from being absorbed by animals' bodies (Phillips, Afriyie-Gyawu, Wang, Williams., & Huebner, 2006). However, Hell et al. (2008, p. 226) note that these clay binders \"act more as prophylactics than as curative remedies.\" If this hypothesis is correct, merely informing more Nigerian agribusiness managers about aflatoxin would only be a starting point for aflatoxin education efforts. Such efforts would specifically need to highlight the virtues of purchasing verified aflatoxin-safe maize relative to using toxin binder.In this analysis it was discovered that less than half of agribusiness enterprise representatives (42.4%) had heard of aflatoxin and only 13% of enterprise representatives had heard of Aflasafe. Geography was determined to be a major factor related to aflatoxin awareness and mitigation. Differences across states in regard to sophistication in controlling for aflatoxin seemed to parallel differences across states in having heard of aflatoxin. For example, in the southwestern states of Oyo and Kwara, 92.2% and 46.0% of enterprises, respectively, controlled for aflatoxin in maize supplies at the time of the survey, the highest rates of any states. These are the same two states with the highest percentages of respondents who had heard of aflatoxin. Geographic differences could stem from differences in culture or agricultural markets. Thus, implications of Aflasafe availability for agribusinesses and end consumers (and thus impacts on human health) are also likely to vary throughout the supply chain and across geographies.A cultural change will be needed to get to the point where agribusiness enterprises are controlling for aflatoxin (which is needed for improved health). Testing will be one of the first steps. While testing may seem a rather obvious solution to contaminated maize, implications of testing are expected to vary depending on the cost, reliability, and accessibility of such testing. Where toxin binders are commonly used, for example, the results of implementing testing may be harder to measure and discern, at least in the short run because consumers are already being buffered from the negative effects of aflatoxin. Culturally, within the agribusiness community, those areas in which agribusinesses are employing toxin binders may see little reason to adopt widespread testing. Thus, the implications for businesses are largely dependent on the starting point for aflatoxin detection and/or related risk mitigation in that agribusiness itself, within the associated supply chain, and culturally in the region.If testing develops without Aflasafe usage, feed millers will face the dilemma of what to do with maize with high aflatoxin concentrations. They will either have to discard the maize at high private and social cost or treat the maize with toxin binder. Because toxin binder does not completely mitigate the effect of aflatoxin, the latter approach would result in continued human and livestock aflatoxin exposure. Aflatoxin education efforts targeted at agribusiness managers could emphasize the merits of purchasing verified aflatoxin-reduced maize over managers' current practices for controlling aflatoxin contamination and over using toxin binder. At the same time, widespread Aflasafe usage likely cannot develop without testing, because grain buyers can only offer a premium for maize growth with Aflasafe if they have a way of verifying the aflatoxin and Aflasafe content of the maize. Aflatoxin testing and Aflasafe usage by maize farmers need to develop in tandem to generate the greatest benefit for Nigerian poultry farmers, feed millers, and consumers.","tokenCount":"6102"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5accd0e5446f33805eeba5fbe626db42","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.iita.org/dataset/7c29503c-6150-4deb-a564-8bac50014e9f/resource/0b5f9fdf-0a88-46fa-80f9-0f57c5a774e9/download/iita-cowpea-sop02-land-preparation_and_planting_validated.pdf","id":"-540815788"},"keywords":["Crop","Cowpea Function","Land preparation & planting SOP # IITA-CP-SOP02 Revision #1 IITA-CP-SOP02-01"],"sieverID":"0895fe1f-3549-4d2c-916c-9da1c0c055f3","pagecount":"6","content":"Land preparation and planting are very important in the successful establishment of a trial. A poorly prepared land can affect seed germination, increase weed pressure, increase insect and disease pressures, and may affect other mechanized operations like planters. Likewise, planting requires attention to avoid planting entries in the wrong plots or the wrong order and to ensure uniform germination and plant stands. This document describes standard operating procedures (SOPs) for preparing cowpea experimental land and the planting procedures. This living document will continuously be updated to reflect the most current advances in the cowpea breeding program. The purpose of this document is to outline the roles, responsibilities, and guidelines for preparing cowpea experimental land and the key considerations during planting the trials.This document contains outlines of steps involved in land preparation and planting cowpea experiments. It covers land preparation procedures, planting field trials, and planting segregating and breeding lines. Considerations for both manual and mechanized planting are described.Land preparation: Activity that consists of (1) the removal of shrubs, crop residues, wood, or any debris on the surface of the land and (2) the creation of good soil conditions (aeration, drainage for easy growth, and development of roots). Plowing, harrowing, ridging, and mulching are key operations for land preparation.Planting: Activity that consists of putting plants, plant cuttings, or seeds into the ground so that they will grow. Generally, it is synonymous with sowing, which is putting seed into the ground so that plants will grow. Three methods of direct seeding are mentioned: broadcast, hill, and drill.All staff involved in implementing breeding activities in the cowpea improvement program at IITA must use the land preparation and planting SOP. No alteration should be made to the procedures unless approved exceptionally by the program leaders. The individuals responsible for each section of the SOP are listed below.Crop Lead breeder Responsible for the overall management of the breeding program and for delegating team responsibilities. He is also responsible for availing the funds required to procure land preparation materials. The crop lead also cross-checks the planting list to ensure what will be planted matches what was planned for the season.Associate scientists (AS): Support the CLB with follow up and implementation of land preparation activities. Step1: Key considerations for land preparation • Apply appropriate herbicide (e.g. glyphosate (Round-up) at the rate of 4 L/ha) immediately after the last harvest or during fallow. This is important for effective weed control and for enriching the soil.For a completely new site, start with bush clearing about 6 weeks before the expected planting time. This should then be followed by ploughing.In preparation for ploughing, irrigate the field a day before if there is no rain. Generally ploughing should be done after the first rain if there is no irrigation facility.At about 4 weeks before planting, conduct initial disc ploughing to \"till\" or dig-up, mix, and overturn the soil.After two weeks, perform disc harrowing to break the soil clods into smaller masses and incorporate plant residues. In some cases, a second harrowing may be needed if there are a lot of plant residues in the plot.For manual planting, make straight ridges, following the trial design and plot orientations.For mechanized planting, no ridges should be made but an additional field levelling is required to ensure uniform plots and ease of planter operation. • Prior to planting, barcode plot tags must be designed, similar to the labels used on the seed packets. The barcode printer must be adjusted for proper printing of the tags.Planting should be performed when the rain is well established. Generally, planting dates depend on the length of the raining season and the maturity of the lines, as one should avoid having matured plants when it is still raining.• Have the planter ready, well-cleaned, and calibrated to plant 4 meters.The tractor driver must be coached on the expectations and requirements for planting. He must be aware that seed packets will be changed after every 4 meters of a plot. The alleys should have been clearly marked during field layout and mapping.Take the planter to the field • Consult the field map, determine the starting plot, and position the tractor in the right place.One person should be designated to sit up and feed the seeds into the hoppers, while another person on the ground would hold the planting order and frequently check to be sure the right plots are being planted.Once planting has begun, there must be a warning sound to alert the seed feeders so that they can change the seed packet for the next plot. This is aided by planting cable that have designed Knots that auto generate sound after every 4 meters to facilitate plot to plot planting without pausing the tractor run.Planting will continue column-by-column, each column having 4 rows.At the end of each column, the diver must raise the planter, make a U-turn, re-align the planter at the correct spacing and at the correct starting point, bring the planter down, and begin the planting. NOTE: Alley marks must be clearly visible.One person should also be designated to always deliver the right seed tray for the next column planting.After planting, barcode tags should be placed on iron or wooden pegs in each plot. • Record planting date. Step3: Planting progenies from segregating populations • We normally plant several generations in the field ranging from F2 to F5, all of which are under generation advancement and line fixing. • For F2s, the target is to have a maximum of 500 F2 plants per cross and these will be advanced to successive generations using single seed descent (SSD), with slight modification to guard against complete loss of a single seed. • F2s are planted in 10-meter plots of five rows, spaced 20 cm apart. • For F3s, each of the 500 F2s will be represented by one short F3 row. Therefore, plant a plot of 1 meter by 1 row for all F3s. This implies that, for a single cross, you will have about 500 short rows planted with F3 plants and only one healthy looking plant will be harvested from each row to form seeds for F4 generation.Seeds for F4 should be planted in 2 meters by 1 row plots, and these will be harvested in bulk to obtain enough seeds for some initial observations at F5. • For F5s, the lines are now fairly fixed, and some data can be recorded. Therefore, these should be planted in 2 rows of 4 meters. Where possible, this should be planted in a special design (particularly augmented design) with repeated checks.","tokenCount":"1090"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3745d25a54cf501e3e2aba2559ad61f4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c8c3f099-d4ea-4c6a-b170-18d4706d1021/content","id":"680023602"},"keywords":["Wheat improvement","Local germplasm","GBS","DArTseq markers","SNP","Genetic diversity","Population structure"],"sieverID":"8c9574c8-41fa-440a-9c58-75cae7009536","pagecount":"17","content":"Background: One of the main goals of the plant breeding in the twenty-first century is the development of crop cultivars that can maintain current yields in unfavorable environments. Landraces that have been grown under varying local conditions include genetic diversity that will be essential to achieve this objective. The Center of Plant Genetic Resources of the Spanish Institute for Agriculture Research maintains a broad collection of wheat landraces. These accessions, which are locally adapted to diverse eco-climatic conditions, represent highly valuable materials for breeding. However, their efficient use requires an exhaustive genetic characterization. The overall aim of this study was to assess the diversity and population structure of a selected set of 380 Spanish landraces and 52 reference varieties of bread and durum wheat by high-throughput genotyping. Results: The DArTseq GBS approach generated 10 K SNPs and 40 K high-quality DArT markers, which were located against the currently available bread and durum wheat reference genomes. The markers with known locations were distributed across all chromosomes with relatively well-balanced genome-wide coverage. The genetic analysis showed that the Spanish wheat landraces were clustered in different groups, thus representing genetic pools providing a range of allelic variation. The subspecies had a major impact on the population structure of the durum wheat landraces, with three distinct clusters that corresponded to subsp. durum, turgidum and dicoccon being identified. The population structure of bread wheat landraces was mainly biased by geographic origin. Conclusions: The results showed broader genetic diversity in the landraces compared to a reference set that included commercial varieties, and higher divergence between the landraces and the reference set in durum wheat than in bread wheat. The analyses revealed genomic regions whose patterns of variation were markedly different in the landraces and reference varieties, indicating loci that have been under selection during crop improvement, which could help to target breeding efforts. The results obtained from this work will provide a basis for future genome-wide association studies.Wheat is a cereal that belongs to the Poaceae family. Wheat occupies a central place in human nutrition providing 20% of the daily protein and food calories of the human population. Currently cultivated wheat originated from natural hybridization events between different species [1]. Roughly 90 to 95% of the wheat produced in the world is common, or bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.; 2n = 6x = 42, 17Gb, AABBDD genomes). The remainder of the world's wheat production includes about 35-40 million tons of durum wheat (T. turgidum var. durum; 2n = 4x = 28, 13 Gb, AABB genomes), which is cultivated mainly in the Mediterranean region (http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/).Advances in molecular biology and high-throughput genotyping technologies have significantly impacted the field of molecular plant breeding, leading to shift from a phenotype-based to a genotype-based selection [2]. The integrated use of genomic and molecular tools in conventional phenotype selection programs has allowed the development of new breeding strategies such as marker assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection. However, in wheat, the large complex genome with an over 85% repetitive DNA content has hampered the application of these molecular breeding approaches compared to their use in other crops, as the presence of two or three separate but closely related subgenomes hinders the analysis of homoeologous gene sequences [3]. The recently published durum and bread wheat reference genomes [4,5] provide high-quality data that will help to physically locate thousands of scattered molecular markers, thus facilitating the identification of key genes by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that will be highly valuable for MAS in wheat breeding programs [6].The successful genomics-assisted breeding of any crop will be enhanced by a thorough understanding of the species' genetic diversity. As is the case in other crops, genetic diversity of wheat has declined as a consequence of bottlenecks encountered during polyploidization and domestication [7,8]. Modern plant breeding practices, in which only a small number of elite cultivars are included in crossing programs, have further narrowed the genetic base of wheat throughout the world, limiting the pool of alleles in which to search for new traits of agronomic interest. This has promoted wide crossing programs carried out since the 1980s at different centers of wheat research such as CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo). Indeed, by 1990, CIM-MYT breeders began to successfully increase wheat productivity and genetic diversity through the introgression of various novel wheat materials. However, the genetic diversity represented by current wheat cultivars needs to be further increased to face novel threats, such as climate change, which demands an enlarged pool of alleles. Fortunately, an enormous number of genetically different, locally well-adapted wheat landraces were generated through natural or farmer-mediated selection in the previous century. Because future gains in yield potential will surely require the exploitation of these largely untapped sources of genetic diversity [9], deep knowledge of their genetic/genomic diversity is highly valuable to address the forthcoming plant breeding challenges [10].A large number of studies have been performed to estimate genetic diversity by employing different methodologies in diverse plant species [11,12], including wheat [13]. It is accepted that molecular markers are the best option for genetic variation studies. Among these markers, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), whose detection has been enormously facilitated by high-throughput technologies such as SNP arrays [14] or genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) [15], are the most frequently used for genome-wide diversity studies.The assessment of genome-wide diversity by GBS provides robust estimates of diversity and has been increasingly adopted as a fast, high-throughput cost-effective tool for whole-genome genetic diversity analysis in large germplasm sets [16]. The DArTseq (Diversity Array Technology sequence) markers, based on GBS [17], efficiently target low-copy-number sequences via a complexity reduction method and have been successfully applied for genetic diversity studies in different species [18][19][20][21]. Moreover, DArTseq provides data at an affordable cost, especially in complex polyploid species such as wheat (https://www.diversityarrays.com), where it has been extensively used [20,22,23]. It is indeed the method employed by CIMMYT to build the most comprehensive genotype datasets for genetic resources in wheat (https:// seedsofdiscovery.org/about/genotyping-platform/).High-throughput genotyping also provides essential information for the design of high-power GWAS, which enable the identification of agriculturally important genes and facilitate their transfer from wild or local germplasm into modern cultivars through marker-assisted selection and marker-assisted breeding and/or genomic selection. For GWAS analysis, the optimum diverse panel must be genotyped with a set of molecular markers covering as much of the genome of the species as possible [24], but the population structure needs to be investigated to avoid false associations between phenotypes and markers [25].The Spanish wheat landraces conserved at the National Plant Genetic Resources Center (CRF-INIA) and maintained in the national collection were collected in the first half of the twentieth century. Several studies have shown the great variability of the Spanish durum wheat accessions compared to other germplasm collections [26][27][28][29]. However, no genetic description of the bread wheat landraces has been reported, and the highthroughput genomic characterization of the durum wheat landraces remains to be fully realized.The aim of the present study was to characterize two collections of durum and bread wheat landraces from CRF-INIA by using the DArTseq-GBS approach. The specific objectives of the present investigation were: (1) to assess the genomic diversity of a set of durum wheat accessions comprising 191 Spanish landraces and 23 reference varieties, (2) to assess the genomic diversity of a set of bread wheat accessions comprising 189 Spanish landraces and 29 reference varieties, and (3) to compare the genetic diversity of landraces and modern cultivars in both wheat species.We characterized a set of 380 landraces and 52 reference varieties at genomic level (Additional file 1). The DArTseq approach allowed us to detect approximately 100 K DArTs (presence/absence markers) and 50 K SNPs in each analyzed species.In tetraploid durum wheat (214 accessions), a total of 98,983 DArTseq markers and 51,751 SNP markers were obtained (Additional files 2 and 3). When the markers were located in the T. turgidum reference genome, they were distributed throughout the genome (Table 1). According to the raw data, approximately 58% of the DArTs, and 37% of the SNPs were not located in the T. turgidum reference genome. After filtering to obtain highly informative markers, 38,700 DArTs and 9324 SNPs were selected for further analysis. In this set of markers, the percentage of located markers was similar to that from the raw data (66% in SNPs and 45% in DArTs). As shown in  the filters applied did not affect the marker distribution within the genome. The A and B genomes presented a comparable number of markers, both before and after filtering. Chromosome 4B exhibited the lowest density of both types of markers.For hexaploid bread wheat (218 accessions), a slightly higher number of markers, including 130,899 DArTseq markers and 58,660 SNPs, was generated (Additional files 4 and 5). As in durum wheat, the markers were detected throughout the whole genome; around 64% of raw DArTs and 41% of raw SNPs were not located in the bread wheat reference genome, a percentage similar to that of the durum wheat (Table 1). After filtering, 44,241 DArTs and 8238 SNPs were selected for further analysis. In this set of markers, the percentage of located markers was similar to the percentage obtained in the raw data (36% in DArTs and 57% in SNPs). The D genome presented a reduced amount of markers compared to A and B genomes. Regarding these latter, chromosome 4B exhibited again the lowest density of both types of markers.The marker distribution along the chromosomes was comparable in bread and durum wheat for all the A and B genome chromosomes. In general, a higher density of markers was found at both chromosome ends, as illustrated for chromosome 2A in Fig. 1. The same pattern was observed for the bread wheat D genome chromosomes.In both species, the distribution of PIC (polymorphic index content) values for the DArT and SNP data was asymmetrical and skewed towards the lower values (Fig. 2).In durum wheat, 82% of the DArTs and 75% of the SNP markers showed a PIC value > 0.2. In bread wheat, the corresponding values were 76 and 70% for DArTs and SNPs, respectively. For both species and types of markers, the average PIC values were between 0.30 and 0.35.Genetic structure of the durum wheat collection fastSTRUCTURE runs with 38,700 DArT markers divided the tetraploid wheat landraces into seven populations (K = 7) (Fig. 3a). All but one (BGE021775) of the 14 accessions belonging to subsp. dicoccon were grouped in Pop5, and all 37 of the subsp. turgidum accessions were clustered in Pop3. The landraces in both populations came mostly from the north of Spain (Fig. 3b). All of the 140 subsp. durum landraces except for one (BGE013103), which was classified into Pop3, were distributed among five populations (Pop1, Pop2, Pop4, Pop6 and Pop7), containing between 10 and 80 accessions (Additional file 1). Pop6 exhibited the highest number of accessions, showed the greatest degree of admixture and was the population with the most diverse eco-geographical origin (Fig. 3). However, some subsp. durum populations showed a narrower geographic distribution (Additional file 1). That is, the landraces in Pop1 originated mostly from eastern Spain, whereas those in Pop2 came from the south-western provinces. Pop4 included landraces from the South and East of Spain, and from the Canary Islands. Genetic diversity parameters were calculated for the fas-tSTRUCTURE populations based on the SNP data (Table 2). The population with the highest genetic diversity value (Hs, Nei's diversity index) was Pop6 (0.272), and the population with the lowest value was Pop2 (0.048). For the whole landrace collection, the D est (Population differentiation index) value, a measure of population differentiation in collections with several populations, was 0.22. The F ST values, which are related to genetic differentiation between populations, ranged from 0.743 (Pop2 vs Pop5) to 0.226 (Pop1 vs Pop6). Pop6 showed the least genetic differentiation from the rest of the populations, including those of subsp. turgidum (Pop3) and dicoccon (Pop5) (Table 2). When the diversity between the three subspecies was estimated, regardless of the structured populations, the dicoccon and durum landraces showed the highest value of genetic differentiation between the subspecies (F ST = 0.42) whereas subsp. turgidum showed lower values compared to either durum and dicoccon (F ST = 0.31 and 0.38, respectively).When we analyzed the distribution of Hs values across the genome, we detected some genomic diversity patterns that were population-specific (Additional file 6). For example, Pop2 and Pop7 presented a region of low diversity in the central part of chromosome 2A, while for chromosome 2B we only detected a region of low diversity in Pop5. On the other hand, a similar analysis contrasting the Hs values across the genome in the three durum wheat subspecies showed some common low diversity regions in turgidum and dicoccon (e.g., chromosomes 1A and 2A), while durum showed higher diversity values across the genome (Additional file 7).We also explored the genomic structure of the durum wheat collection, including the landraces and reference varieties, through a principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) based on the 9324 filtered SNP markers. The first two principal coordinates explained 21% of the total variation. Three discrete groups corresponding to the three subspecies could be clearly identified (Fig. 4a). This was in agreement with the results obtained with fastSTRUC-TURE where the three subspecies were grouped into different populations. A fourth group corresponding to the reference varieties also appeared to be clearly separated from the subsp. durum landraces. The subsp. durum accessions were differentiated from the others by PCo1, but the difference between turgidum and dicoccon was due to PCo2, demonstrating that different sets of markers are responsible of the genetic divergence among subspecies, as detected in the Hs analysis. Some landraces of subsp. durum were located close to subsp. dicoccon and turgidum. These landraces were from Pop6 and some of them (e.g., BGE019290) come from the North of Spain (Additional file 1).We further investigated the allelic variability of a functional marker involved in wheat adaptability, the vernalization gene Vrn-A1, in relation to the population structure. Three different alleles were identified in the collection: the winter-type allele vrn-A1, and two alleles related to the spring growth habit, Vrn-A1b and Vrn-A1c. The representation of allelic variation in the PCoA showed that most of the accessions carrying the wintertype allele, vrn-A1, were grouped together and corresponded to dicoccon accessions (Fig. 4a). Most of the reference cultivars and subsp. durum accessions carried the Vrn-A1c allele, and almost all of the subsp. turgidum accessions carried the Vrn-A1b allele. When analyzed within the population structure, all but one durum accession from Pop2, Pop7, and Pop1 presented the Vrn-A1c allele, which was also identified in the 80% of the durum wheat landraces clustered in Pop 6. In Pop3 and Pop4, the most frequent allele was Vrn-A1b. According to passport data (see Additional file 1), the accessions with the winter-type allele vrn-A1 came mostly from the North of Spain.Allelic variation was also studied for the HMW-GS (High Molecular Weight Glutenin Subunits) loci Glu-A1 and Glu-B1, which are related to wheat rheological properties, but no relationship with the population structure could be observed (data not shown).As the subspecies was the main discriminant factor in the global PCoA, we decided to perform the analysis excluding the turgidum and dicoccon accessions to gain insight into the variability within subsp. durum (Fig. 4b). The populations identified in the previous analysis with DArTs (Fig. 3a) were similarly grouped in the SNPbased PCoA, with Pop6 again being the population showing the greatest dispersion due to its higher intrapopulation variability (Fig. 3a). The only durum accession clustered in Pop3 (BGE013103) appeared to be located close to the Pop1 landraces in this case (Fig. 4b). This local variety can be identified in Fig. 3a at the edge of Pop3, showing admixture with Pop1, which suggests that it could present a hybrid genotype between durum and turgidum.Pop1, Pop2, and Pop7 were the durum populations that were most differentiated from the reference set. On the other hand, Pop4 was closest to the reference group. This population included old local varieties such as 'Ledesma' and 'Lebrija', obtained from crosses between 'Senatore Capelli' and Spanish landraces. One landrace from Pop6 of subsp. durum (BGE026954) was grouped together with the reference varieties. This accession, collected at the end of the 1990, is characterized by early-  The different populations names (Pop) are highlighted in bold maturity and short plants [22], which suggests that it is probably not a true landrace.Genetic structure of the bread wheat collection fastSTRUCTURE runs with 44,241 DArT markers divided the hexaploid wheat landrace accessions into four populations (K = 4). Compared to durum wheat landraces, a higher level of admixture was detected in the bread wheat populations, especially within Pop2, which was the largest population, containing 112 accessions (Fig. 5a, Additional file 1). The landraces from Pop1 came from central Spain, and the landraces from Pop4 came from the west, including the Canary Islands. Pop2 and Pop3 showed more diverse eco-geographical origins (Fig. 5b, Additional file 1). As shown in Table 3, the population with the highest Hs was Pop2 (0.277), and the population with the lowest value was Pop3 (0.101). In the whole landrace collection, the D est value was 0.17, which was lower than the differentiation found in the durum collection (0.22). The F ST values between populations ranged from 0.169 (Pop1 vs Pop2) to 0.573 (Pop3 vs Pop4). According to the F ST values, Pop4 was the most differentiated population (Table 3). Regarding the Hs distribution across the genome, we detected some low-diversity regions specific to certain populations (Additional file 8). For instance, Pop3 and Pop4 showed low-diversity regions on chromosomes 1A and 7A, while Pop1 and Pop3 showed low diversity on chromosomes 3A and 2B. This suggests that different genomic regions are responsible for the divergence among populations.The relationships among the bread wheat accessions were also assessed by PCoA, based on 8238 SNPs in the whole bread wheat collection. The total amount of genetic variation explained by the first two principal coordinates was 19.2%. The first two coordinates clearly separated the Pop4 (by PCo1), which formed the most distant group, Fig. 4 Cluster analysis of T. turgidum accessions using PCoA. Accessions from subsp. durum are shown with circles, subsp. dicoccon with squares, subsp. turgidum with triangles and the reference varieties with asterisks. a Graphical representation of PCo1 and PCo2 for the whole collection of durum wheat. Accessions are colored according to their Vrn-A1 alleles. b Graphical representation of PCo1 and PCo2 for subsp. durum accessions, which are colored according to their STRUCTURE population assignment from the other three populations, which appeared to be distributed along PCo2 (Fig. 6a). Some degree of overlap was shown between Pop2, distributed along PCo2, and both Pop1 and Pop3, located at the upper extreme of PCo2. These results are in agreement with the higher degree of admixture in Pop2 revealed by fastSTRUCTURE analysis (Fig. 5a). The reference varieties were located within a quite limited space but overlapped with some Pop2 landraces.As in durum wheat, we investigated the allelic variability of the Vrn-A1 gene in relation to the bread wheat population structure. Three different alleles were identified in the collection: the winter-type allele vrn-A1 and two alleles that are generally related to a spring growth habit, Vrn-A1a and Vrn-A1b. The accessions from Pop4 were characterized by almost exclusively presenting the Vrn-A1b allele. The accessions presenting the other two alleles could be differentiated along the PCo2 axis, whose upper portion corresponded to spring-type landraces, whereas the reference varieties and winter-type landraces were included in the lower portion (Fig. 6a).The representation of Glu-B1 alleles specific to Iberian landraces in the PCoA showed that the accessions that carried the Glu-B1f allele (HMW-GS 13 + 16) were clustered on the right side of the PCoA and corresponded to most of the Pop4 samples. Again, an interesting tendency could be observed along the PCo2 axis: accessions with the Glu-B1e allele (HMW-GS 20x + 20y) appeared to be grouped in the upper portion, while the lower portion corresponded to accessions with Glu-B1u or Glu-B1al alleles (HMW-GS 7 + 8 or 7OE+ 8) (Fig. 6b). The allelic variation was also studied for HMW-GS loci Glu-A1 and Glu-D1, but no relationship with the population structure could be observed (data not shown).The overlap between the landraces and reference varieties was more remarkable in bread wheat than in durum wheat. In fact, the reference varieties fully overlapped with the Pop2 accessions. Some of the landraces located closer to the reference varieties were collected in the 1990s (e.g., BGE025410), and according to their early flowering and lower height phenotypes (http://webx.inia. es/web_coleccionescrf/CaracterizacionCRFeng.asp), they may not be real landraces.As noted above, PCoA showed clear genetic divergence between the landraces and reference varieties of durum wheat, whereas such divergence was not as evident in bread wheat, in which the landraces and reference varieties overlapped (Figs. 4 and 6). Regarding the overall genetic diversity, the landraces showed higher diversity than the reference varieties in both species (Table 4), with the difference being greater in durum wheat.The divergence between the reference varieties and landraces varied among the different populations identified by fastSTRUCTURE. The durum wheat reference varieties showed the highest differentiation from the landraces in Pop5 (dicoccon) and Pop2 (durum), and the lowest differentiation from the durum landraces in Pop4 and Pop6 (F ST values of 0.586, 0.555, 0.372 and 0.214, respectively). In bread wheat, the reference varieties showed the highest and lowest differentiation from the landraces in Pop4 and Pop2, respectively (F ST values of 0.416 and 0.08, respectively).  To analyze the degree of allele fixation in the reference varieties, we studied the presence of monomorphic markers. Approximately, 40% of the SNP markers were fixed in the durum wheat reference varieties, and the number of monomorphic markers (3791) was comparable to that found in subsp. dicoccon and turgidum (4079 and 2119 respectively) and much higher than that found in subsp. durum (478 fixed markers). In the bread wheat reference accessions, the number of fixed SNP markers was 1771 (21%) clearly lower than the number obtained in durum wheat (Table 4).We also analyzed the Hs distribution across the genome in the landraces and reference varieties (Fig. 7). We called low-diversity regions in the reference varieties with respect to the landraces, as they might be regions fixed by breeding efforts. For this particular analysis, we employed a different set of markers, as described in Methods section, which include only SNPs located in the reference genomes. In durum wheat, we detected 20 of these genomic regions (Fig. 7a). Chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2B, 4B, 5A and 6B did not present low-diversity regions, while the rest of chromosomes presented at least one fixed region. The largest wheat chromosome (3B) presented the greatest number of low diversity regions, with 5 regions spanning a total of 39 Mb. In turn, chromosome 2A presented the widest region of low diversity (37 Mb). In summary, the identified low-diversity regions spanned 218 MB. In bread wheat, a similar number [24] of lower-diversity regions were called (Fig. 7b). Interestingly, the D genome included only two low-  diversity regions. In the A genome, we detected 12 such regions located on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 7A, while in the B genome, we observed low-diversity regions on all the chromosomes except for 3B. The widest fixed region was located on chromosome 2B, spanning 121 Mb, and chromosome 2A contained the greatest number of regions, with 4 regions. In bread wheat, the low-diversity regions spanned a total of 601 MB and included the semidwarfing gene Rht-D1, a key gene introduced in wheat cultivars during the 20th that is located on chromosome 4D, and Vrn-B1, located on 5B and related with growth habit.Modern bread and durum wheat varieties have resulted from breeding programs that have mainly been focused on achieving high yields in conventional agricultural systems. The unpredictable effects on crop performance under future climate scenarios and the increasing concern for the environmental consequences of crop management practices, which are commonly based on excessive irrigation and fertilizer application, are reorienting breeders' aims toward the development of new wheat cultivars that can maintain high yields under uncertain climatic conditions and in a more sustainable manner. For this purpose, genetic resources maintained in wheat genebanks, which have generally been underused, need to be thoroughly characterized so that the useful genetic variation that is present is transferred to modern elite gene pools. Several recent international initiatives are characterizing local wheat germplasm collections (www.seedsofdiscovery.org; www.divsek.org). However, Spanish landraces, which are locally adapted to a wide diversity of ecoclimatic conditions and mostly cultivated under rainfed low-input management systems, are absent or only represented by a small number of accessions in these studies. We decided to explore the genetic diversity of these valuable materials, by performing an analysis at the genomic level of 380 selected landraces representing the genetic variability of the wheat collection maintained at the Spanish Plant Genetic Resources Center, which is composed of more than 1600 accessions.This is the first report of the high-throughput genotyping by GBS of Spanish wheat germplasm. The GBS method has the potential to provide robust in-depth genomic diversity estimates. Moreover, this approach may reveal new alleles that might present high value for prebreeding [30][31][32]. The DArTseq-GBS methodology has been successfully applied in wheat species, in which a standard GBS approach, requiring genome resequencing, is still challenging due to the extremely large complex genome [10]. In our study, 50 K SNP and 100 K DArT markers were analyzed in each of the wheat species, from which we were able to select approximately 10 K SNP and 40 K DArT high quality markers. The availability of the reference bread wheat genome [4] and durum wheat genome [5] allowed the marker location to be performed in both species. The results showed that markers were distributed throughout the genome, although D genome markers were markedly less abundant than A and B genome markers in bread wheat. Several previous studies have shown the reduced diversity of the wheat D genome, which has been explained by the close genetic distance between the Ae. tauschii parents involved in the formation of hexaploid wheat (e.g. [33,34]). Among homoeologous sets, the group 4 chromosomes were the least covered, especially 4B and 4D. No satisfactory hypothesis has yet been proposed to explain the relative scarcity of markers consistently mapped on 4B compared to 4A [35,36], despite the latter being involved in several structural rearrangements in wheat [37].The informativeness of the markers was assessed from their PIC values, and the distribution and average PIC value were found to be comparable to those previously reported in wheat [20,[38][39][40][41].When a large germplasm collection is used for the identification of useful alleles or traits, knowledge of its genetic structure is highly recommended to optimize the search approach, which can then be focused on a smaller sample. The study of population structure is also important for genomic studies, as it is a mandatory prerequisite for successfully performing further GWAS analyses. In our case, since future GWAS analyses will be based on the high-quality SNPs identified herein, we decided to assess the structure with a different set of markers, DArTs. Population structure was assessed with the fastSTRUCTURE algorithm, which was developed by the authors of the classical STRUCTURE software but shows faster runs and provides comparable ancestry estimates and prediction accuracies [42]. In both species, the analysis of population structure was complemented with PCoA performed with the SNP dataset. As expected, the results were in close agreement, but some additional information about the subgroups and their relationship to phenotypic traits could be extracted.The Spanish durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) landraces belong to three main interfertile subspecies (dicoccon, turgidum and durum). The subsp. dicoccon, also known as emmer wheat, is a hulled wheat that is only grown in the North of Spain and represents the feral situation of this crop. Subsp. durum is the most widely cultivated and well adapted to the dry-summer conditions of the South. Subsp. turgidum, which is less common and grown in colder areas than durum, mostly consists of winter wheat [43]. In a previous study, SSRs (Single Sequence Repeats) were used to assess the genetic structure of the collection of durum wheat landraces analyzed here and 9 populations were established. Some of the populations included more than one subspecies and several genotypes could not be classified into any population [27]. In the present work, we identified seven populations, all of which were composed of landraces from one subspecies with only two exceptions (Fig. 3). The discrepancies between this and the earlier work can be explained by the different types and numbers of markers employed for assessing the population structure in both studies (40 K DArTs vs 39 SSRs).Analyses comprising other durum wheat materials have not been able to separate the durum and turgidum subspecies [44,45]. However, we clearly differentiated the three subspecies. This demonstrates the analytical power of DArT and SNP markers for taxonomical identification and supports the classification of Mac Key [46,47], with turgidum and durum as separate subtaxa. In our study, subsp. dicoccon was closer to turgidum than to durum (see F ST values, Table 2), indicating that the two subspecies share a common allele pool. As the two subspecies were grown in similar environmental conditions, this closeness might be due to similar selective pressures during local adaptation. The analysis also allowed the identification of accessions that could represent admixtures between subspecies, such as BGE021775, a dicoccon landrace located closer to durum, or BGE04564, a durum landrace grouped with the turgidum landraces. It has been reported that such admixture is not unusual in ancient local forms of durum wheat [47].Vernalization genes are the main determinants of the growth habit (i.e., winter or spring) in temperate cereals, and by affecting the vegetative to reproductive transition, these genes are involved in the ability of wheat plants to adapt to a wide range of environments [48]. The evolution of spring-habit cultivars from winter-habit accessions played a key role in the postdomestication spread of wheat. However, studies on the major vernalization gene VRN1 have been mostly limited to hexaploid wheat species and very few reports from tetraploid species can be found in the literature [48,49]. None of the durum wheat accessions characterized here showed the Vrn-A1a allele described in spring-habit hexaploid wheat varieties, which is in accordance with what has been found in other studies [50,51]. All of the available data seem to indicate that this allele appeared during wheat evolution after the last polyploidization event. The Vrn-A1c allele has been described as the most frequent determinant of a spring habit in tetraploid wheat varieties [50,52,53] but has been described as rare in emmer wheat varieties [44]. In our study, 78% of the durum accessions presented this allele, but almost all turgidum accessions (83%) carried Vrn-A1b, and 7 out of the 11 dicoccon landraces characterized for Vrn-A1 carried the winter vrn-A1 allele (Fig. 4). The presence of the spring-habit associated alleles Vrn-A1b and Vrn-A1c in the remaining four dicoccon accessions is remarkable. Emmer wheat varieties are traditionally cultivated in cool mountainous regions, where vernalization seems to be an unavoidable requirement. It may explain why few Spanish spring emmer wheat varieties have actually been described [43]. The spring type might have evolved from previous winter types as an adaptation to warmer conditions. Under the predicted climate change scenario, temperature warming may prevent the fulfilment of the requirements for vernalization in current temperate zones, thus having a negative global impact on winter wheat yields. The identification of genotypes with reduced vernalization requirements among germplasm adapted to cool zones could therefore be relevant for improving adaptability to changing eco-climatic conditions.Within our collection, a restricted geographic distribution exists for the Spanish landraces belonging to the less represented subspecies dicoccon and, to some extent, for turgidum landraces. The clustering of these two groups of accessions, each in a single population, may reflect similar environmental conditions in their respective geographic origins. The landraces of subsp. durum, which were structured into five distinct populations, showed higher variability and greater complexity, including different phylogenetic groups [27]. The identified clusters seemed to be influenced by the accessions' origin relatively little, although some geographic areas were predominant in some of the populations. The gene flow between regions via germplasm exchanges and local preferences towards a given agrotype might be as significant as ecological conditions in determining the distribution of genetic diversity in this subspecies in Spain. The exchange of seeds by farmers has been noted as one of the likely explanations for the low or absent influence of geographic origin on the genetic structure of durum wheat landraces in Iran, the Central Fertile Crescent and Ethiopia [20,54,55].The great majority of the Spanish bread wheat landraces conserved at CRF-INIA belong to Triticum aestivum subsp. vulgare, and our bread wheat set was therefore composed exclusively of this subspecies. The population stratification of the bread wheat panel identified four groups of landraces with high divergence according to the obtained F ST values. This clustering reflected the geographic origin of the accessions better than in the subsp. durum. The genetic differentiation estimated with D est was lower in the bread landrace collection than in the whole durum wheat collection, in agreement with the lower level of stratification observed. Few studies have simultaneously addressed the variability of hexaploid and tetraploid wheat varieties but higher genetic diversity in durum than in bread wheat has been previously reported in landraces from other countries (e.g., [56]). Several studies support the occurrence of a limited number of independent crosses between the diploid and tetraploid progenitors of T. aestivum, where the resulting loss of diversity during the initial polyploidization step presumably caused a severe population bottleneck in hexaploid bread wheat [33,57].One of the four groups detected (Pop4) was clearly more genetically distant. This group included landraces from western Spain, where there is a prevalence of acidic or neutral soils [58]. Most of the accessions from this population show spring growth habit and carry the f allele at the Glu-B1 locus. The Glu-B1f allele presents a low frequency in worldwide collections but has been previously described as being characteristic of Iberian landraces, which is also the case for the Glu-B1e allele [59]. The latter was predominant in Pop1 and Pop3, and was also present in some landraces of Pop2 that were closely grouped by PCoA. The Glu-B1e allele is related to poor rheological properties in bread wheat, but the f allele has been associated with good dough quality [60]. The presence of this variant in a discrete group of more differentiated landraces supports their common origin.In our study, the winter-type allele vrn-A1 was the most common Vrn-A1 allele found in the T. aestivum reference cultivars (22 out of 29 varieties). However, the most frequent of these alleles within the bread wheat landraces was the Vrn-A1a allele, which was absent in the durum wheat. This Vrn-A1 allele, which results in complete insensitivity to vernalization, is recognized as the spring-habit allele with the greatest effect among all such alleles described [61]. Even if the growth habit shows just a limited impact on genetic differentiation, spring and winter bread wheat accessions are frequently separated by discriminant analysis of principal components [62,63]. Two discrete groups regarding growth habit were not clearly defined in our PCoA, but the allelic variability of Vrn-A1 showed some relationship to population structure and a somewhat biased tendency along the second PCo axis (Fig. 6a). Regarding this matter, it must be kept in mind that the vernalization response is a complex process under polygenic control [64]. Vrn-A1 has been described as the main genotypic determinant of the vernalization requirements of temperate crops, but there are other genes, such as Vrn-B1 and Vrn-D1, whose allelic variability has not yet been characterized in these Spanish wheat landrace collections. This is the first time that the bread wheat resources maintained in the CRF-INIA Spanish national genebank have been characterized at the genetic level and compared to durum wheat accessions. This deep knowledge of their genetic structure represents the starting point for the development of a core collection of Spanish T. aestivum wheat varieties, which will allow the efficient management and use of this valuable gene pool.In diversity studies, wheat landraces usually cluster in a separate group from elite cultivars [54,55,63,65] but some degree of mixture has also been found [39,62]. Concerning the durum wheat materials examined here, the great genetic divergence between the bulk of the landraces and the reference set is remarkable (Fig. 4a). Moreover, some of the durum landraces were located closer to turgidum and dicoccon accessions than to the reference varieties (which all belong to subsp. durum). However, high relatedness to the reference varieties was detected for a reduced group of durum landraces. This group included 'Caravaca' (BGE002869), a Spanish landrace used by CIMMYT in the development of some modern cultivars (see the Genetic Resources Information System for Wheat and Triticale of CIMMYT at http:// www.wheatpedigree.net/). It can also be noted that other studies have reported a close relationship between Spanish and North African landraces [39,44] and that the reference set included two old cultivars that were commonly cultivated in Spain in the past ('Senatore Capelli' and 'Bidi-17'), both of which exhibit a North African origin. Nevertheless, our results supported little involvement of Spanish landraces in the development of the modern durum wheat varieties grown in Spain at present.In bread wheat, the situation was quite different, and the mixing between the landraces and reference varieties was much higher, especially for some accessions in Pop2 (Fig. 6). It is likely that some of these accessions are not true local landraces but, rather, old improved cultivars that were wrongly classified. The clustering of the landraces and reference varieties could also indicate a pedigree relationship. Hence, it is possible that some of the landraces characterized in our study were among the unidentified \"Mediterranean\" local varieties utilized by the early breeders as starting material to develop pure lines that were further involved in cross-breeding (see http:// www.wheatpedigree.net/). Some other varieties such as 'Richela Blanca', 'Montnegre' or 'Ardito', are related to old Italian material [43,66], which provides another feasible genealogical link between the sets of landraces and reference bread wheat materials analyzed.The overall genetic diversity of the reference cultivars was much lower than that of the landraces in both species (Table 2; Figs. 4 and 6). Genomic regions showing patterns of variation that differ between landraces and varieties can aid in the identification of loci under selection during crop improvement, which will help to better target future breeding efforts [67]. Our analysis allowed the identification of several such genomic regions by studying the distribution of genetic diversity across the reference genomes (Fig. 7). The number of regions that have presumably been fixed by selective breeding was higher in bread wheat that in durum wheat. As expected, some of the chromosomes including fixed regions harbored genes related to agronomically important phenotypes, such as Rht-D1, associated with dwarf phenotype, and Vrn-B1, associated with vernalization response, on bread wheat chromosomes 4D and 5B, respectively [68,69]. In turn, the fixed region on bread wheat chromosome 1A may be related to the presence in this chromosome of major determinants of bread quality, such as the HMW-GS encoding the Glu-1A locus. Coupling this analysis with future GWA studies will help to identify the traits underlying each of the fixed regions detected in this work.The replacement of local landraces by high-yielding wheat varieties that began at the time of the Green Revolution has led to a loss of genetic variation in crop wheat varieties. This depletion has now encouraged the use of genetic resources in wheat breeding programs, but the genetic variability of these resources needs to be exhaustively characterized for their efficient use. The present study successfully used DArTseq technology for evaluating the diversity within and between two landrace collections of bread and durum wheat and for assessing the genetic relationships between each of these collections and a reference set of modern wheat cultivars. The study of genome-wide diversity provides a resource for the design of high-power GWAS experiments, which will help to achieve the overarching goal of improving wheat for cultivation in different environments, ecosystems and stress situations. The collections of Spanish landraces characterized in the present study were clearly clustered into different groups, representing different gene pools capable of providing different sources of genes for plant breeding. The investigated panel of genotypes showed an outstanding degree of diversity compared to the reference counterparts. It therefore clearly represents a strategic platform and a valuable genetic resource that must be further studied to ensure not only its efficient conservation and management but also its useful exploitation in breeding programs.The plant material analyzed in the present study comprised 432 selected accessions (detailed information is presented in Additional file 1). This sample included 191 durum and 189 bread wheat landraces and old local cultivars (hereafter referred to as landraces), representing different ecological and geographical areas of Spain [27,70]. Among the durum wheat landraces, 140, 37 and 14 landraces corresponded to the subspecies durum, turgidum and dicoccon, respectively, while all the bread wheat landraces belonged to the subspecies vulgare. All these accessions were homozygous lines derived from genebank accessions provided by CRF-INIA. Additionally, the study included a set of 23 improved varieties of durum wheat and 29 improved varieties of bread wheat (hereafter referred to as reference varieties), which comprised the cultivars most widely grown in Spain during the last 50 years plus some varieties widely used in wheat research, such as tetraploid 'Langdon' and hexaploid 'Chinese Spring'.For each accession, genomic DNA was isolated from the young leaves of a single plant using the CTAB method [71]. Samples were genotyped using DArTseq GBS technology at Diversity Arrays Technology Pvt., Ltd. (Canberra, Australia) for the durum wheat accessions and SAGA (Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture, Mexico City, Mexico) for the bread wheat accessions [72,73].A complexity reduction method including two enzymes (PstI and HpaII) was used to create a genome representation of the set of samples. PstI-RE site specific adapter was tagged with 96 different barcodes enabling multiplexing a 96-well microtiter plate with equimolar amounts of amplification products in order to run within a single lane on Illumina HiSeq2500 instrument (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA). The successful amplified fragments were sequenced up to 77 bases, generating approximately 500,000 unique reads per sample. Thereafter the FASTQ files (full reads of 77 bp) were quality filtered using a Phred quality score of 30, which represent a 90% of base call accuracy for at least 50% of the bases. More stringent filtering was also performed on barcode sequences using a Phred quality score of 10, which represent 99.9% of base call accuracy for at least 75% of the bases. A proprietary analytical pipeline developed by DArT P/L was used to generate allele calls for SNP and DArT markers.After this process the genotyping services provided two different sets of markers. The DArT markers were scored as binary data (0/1) indicating the presence or absence of a marker in each accession, and the SNP markers were scored as 0/1/2 indicating the presence of the reference allele in homozygosity, the alternative allele in homozygosity or a heterozygous genotype, respectively. The raw data are available upon request to the corresponding author. To locate the markers in the durum and bread wheat reference genomes, the markers sequences were subjected to BLAST searches against the currently available Triticum aestivum genome IWGSC Refseq v1.0 [4] for bread wheat markers and Triticum turgidum genome Svevo v1.0 [5] for durum wheat markers. A marker was located according to the following criteria BLAST E-value <5e-10 and sequence identity > 90%.For comparison with the population structure based on GBS-DArTseq markers, we investigated the allelic variability of functional markers in the Vrn-A1 gene, one of the most determinant loci involved in the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth [74,75]. It has been described that carrying a dominant allele at the Vrn-A1 locus is sufficient to confer a spring growth habit [53]. Three alleles (Vrn-A1a, Vrn-A1b and Vrn-A1c) were characterized by PCR according to [51,52,68] and following the protocols described at https://maswheat.ucdavis. edu/protocols/Vrn/index.htm.Additionally, the panel of accessions was genotyped for Glu-1 homoeoloci. These complex loci encode the HMW-GS, which are the major determinants of dough quality in wheat. For this purpose, endosperm proteins were extracted from single seeds and fractionated via sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (12% polyacrylamide gels) according to Payne et al. [76]. HMW-GS allele classification was performed according to the Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat 2013 [77].Prior to any further analysis, the set of SNP and DART markers was filtered employing homemade R scripts [78], which are available upon request to the corresponding author. For DART markers we selected high quality markers following a step-by-step filtering strategy. First, when several markers presented the same allelic profile, all of the markers but the one with the least missing data were removed. Then, the markers that presented more than 10% missing data or were monomorphic (Minimum Allele Frequency, MAF < 0.05) were excluded.For the SNP markers, prior to any filtering step we analyzed the presence of heterozygous genotypes. As we have previously described, genotyping was conducted on homozygous lines and thus we did not expect any heterozygous genotypes. When the genotypic values for a marker was only 0 and 2, we considered the heterozygous calling [2] to be an error caused by the presence of the SNP marker flanking sequence in homoeologous genomes. In this case, the genotypes scored as 2 were recoded as 1. The same procedure was followed when only genotypic values of 1 and 2 were present in a marker, but in those cases, genotypes scored as 2 were recoded as 0. Finally, when the genotypic values for a marker included 0, 1 and 2 we recoded the genotypes scored as 2 as missing data. After this analysis we selected high quality SNP markers following the filtering strategy described for the DART markers. First, when several markers presented the same allelic profile, all but the one with the less missing data were removed. Then, markers with more than 10% missing data or monomorphic (MAF < 0.05) were excluded.The genetic substructure within the durum and bread wheat landrace collections was investigated using the fastSTRUCTURE algorithm [42] and the DArT marker dataset (including all the available DArTs after filtering, located or not in the reference genomes). Default parameters and K values from 1 to 15 were tested. The appropriate number of components that explained the structure in the dataset was determined using the choo-seK.py function [42]. The results for the identified optimal values of K were visualized using DISTRUCT [79]. Individual accessions were assigned to the population with the highest proportional membership.The genetic similarity based on the SNP data within the full sets of accessions (landraces plus reference varieties) was analyzed by principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) using the gl.pcoa function from the dartR R package [80] (including all the available SNPs after filtering, located or not in the reference genomes).The gene diversity (Hs) within populations, landraces and reference varieties was calculated based on the SNP dataset according to [81] with the basic.stats function from the hierfstat R package [82]. D est , a measure of population differentiation in collections with several populations, was calculated as defined by [83] with this same function. The genetic differentiation between populations was analyzed by estimating the pairwise fixation index (Fst) according to [84] with the stamppFst function from R the StAMPP package [85] using the SNP dataset (including all the available SNPs after filtering, located or not in the reference genomes).Fixed genomic regions in the reference varieties were identified by performing a scan of the Hs values along the different chromosomes. Hs was estimated as described previously [81]. However, for this analysis we obtained a new SNP dataset by avoiding the first filtering step, thus when several markers presented the same allelic profile we kept all of them and only filter out the markers that presented more than 10% missing data or were monomorphic (MAF < 0.05). Finally, for this particular analysis only markers with known location in the reference genomes were employed. A region was considered to be \"fixed\" when it contained at least 5 consecutive markers with an Hs equal to 0 in the reference varieties and at least 5 markers with an Hs > 0.1 in the landraces, and spanned more than 5 Mb.","tokenCount":"8035"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4bdeadaf93ee2b8fda5ab6d3779b49b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H040801.pdf","id":"-1872403643"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"358bfecc-ee2a-4ad4-bd15-39c598bd4325","pagecount":"29","content":"Of the total irrigated area, about 400,000 ha are under major schemes, of which about 100,000 ha is under the administration of the Mahaweli Authority (Table 1). The balance 300,000 ha is managed by the Irrigation Department, while a further 200,000 hectares of irrigated land under minor schemes (below 80 ha) is administered by the Department of Agrarian Services. The Irrigation Department is responsible for the management of Schemes irrigating over 80 hectares, which is estimated to number over 300 (Table 2). Although reliable statistics are not available as to the number of minor schemes operating in the country, it is estimated that minor schemes may number over 15,000, of which only half are operational. There are several minorSri Lanka had a flourishing irrigation sector in historical times. The role of the irrigation sector is now more important than ever before, because of the increasing population and the high proportion (80%) of people living in rural areas and the large number of the people dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Rapid growth in agricultural productivity is fundamental to reducing poverty in Sri Lanka, as nearly 90% of the poor are dependent on the rural agricultural economy. Productivity improvement through irrigation can contribute substantially to the growth of agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka, as over two thirds of the land used for annual food and other crop production is irrigated. Thus, irrigated agriculture plays a crucial role in reducing poverty.The irrigation sector faces numerous challenges that need to be addressed. The sector is faced with stagnant or low growth in productivity, inadequate water availability, inequitable distribution and inefficient use of water, poor profitability of crops grown, inadequate operation and maintenance as well as lack of participation in the management of irrigation systems. In addition the need for allocating water for multiple uses and sustainable use of water through river basin management have now become important issues with the rising demand of water for non agricultural purposes. This strategy document attempts to address the key issues identified.The policies and strategies for the irrigation sector outlined in the Mahinda Chintanaya such as multipurpose irrigation systems, small tank development, and trans-basin diversion of water to link existing rivers and irrigation systems to use water more productively, have been taken into account in the policy and strategy recommendations of this report. The report is arranged in nine sections as follows; an introduction followed by an overview of the irrigation sector, and a third section that discusses current policies and policy gaps and a fourth covering the key issues in the sector. Section five describes the vision for the sector and lists the objectives and targets to achieve the vision, while section six discusses the strategies and policies needed to achieve the objectives. Section seven outlines the financial plan and funding arrangements, while section eight describes how we can monitor the plan and finally section nine describes the supporting environment needed to implement the strategies.Irrigation is widespread in the drier areas of Sri Lanka, where the rainfall pattern requires water storage for successful irrigated cropping. When the policy of restoring abandoned irrigation systems was implemented, the priority was given to schemes in the Dry zone, with the dual purpose of resettling people from the land scarce south to the drier north and eastern regions. The irrigated area in the Dry Zone expanded to the current level between 1850 and the year 2000. Several large schemes were restored with financial contribution by the then government and to some extent the farmers. The Gal Oya scheme constructed in 1957 was the first multipurpose scheme launched, to be completed entirely with local manpower and financial resources. This was followed in the 1970s by Mahaweli, the largest multipurpose scheme. These multipurpose projects were aimed not only at irrigation development and settlement but also at hydropower generation. The Mahaweli project, which is by far the largest government project in the country, envisaged the development of more than 300 000 ha of new irrigated land and the generation of 800 MW of hydropower at the completion of the projectThe area under irrigation is presently estimated at about 600,000 ha, with over 80% of the irrigated area falling within the dry zone. A district-wise distribution of irrigated areas is provided in Annex 1. The largest areas (above 30,000 ha) under irrigation are in the districts of Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Batticaloa and Ampara. Over 80% of the irrigated farming area is cultivated with paddy and the balance in other food and field crops. In major irrigation areas, the cropping intensity is about 150%, whereas in minor irrigation areas it is about 100% or generally one crop a year. Irrigated crop yields range between 3-5 metric tons per hectare of paddy and much more in the case of other crops.Irrigation contributes substantially to the economy, by way of rice and other food crop production and has been largely instrumental in reaching self sufficiency in rice and in meeting a substantial proportion of the demand of other food crops. The contribution to GDP of paddy production is estimated at 3%, and with over 80% of rice production and about 25% of other food production obtained from irrigated areas, the contribution of irrigation per se to GDP may be only slightly less than this figure.Irrigation is also vertically and horizontally linked to the input and output servicing sectors such as fertilizer, chemicals, credit and water supply, marketing, export, retail and wholesale trade, storage and processing. Hence irrigation's overall contribution is probably much higher. Average net income from irrigated paddy and other crop production is estimated at about Rs 5000 per month per family (current prices) in the Mahaweli area and less than this amount in other areas. Thus in terms of providing livelihoods and income to a large mass of the population, it is a vital sector and a substantial contributor to the overall economy as well as food security of the country.schemes that have been abandoned, while new ones are always being constructed or abandoned ones rebuilt.  Currently several agencies are involved in the construction or management of irrigation systems. The main government agencies involved in the irrigation sector and their responsibilities are provided in Table 3. A Water Management Secretariat had been established to coordinate water diversions for irrigation, power generation and other purposes from major reservoirs and river systems and comprises officials representing the ID, MA, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB).The management of the major schemes above the distributary level canal including that of head works and main canals is the responsibility of the irrigation agency (ID, IMD, MA) and the system is sometimes referred to as joint management. The distribution of water and operation and maintenance below the distributary canal is the responsibility of the farmers through farmer organizations. The administrative responsibility of minor schemes, which was with the Central Department of Agrarian Services was transferred to the Provincial Governments, but due to the lack of capacity in the Provincial agencies, the Central DAS continues to provide assistance in provision of inputs, establishment of farmer organizations and also provides financial assistance for rehabilitation of these schemes.The MA has completed most of the development work connected with the accelerated program, but a few major developments that were in the original plan such as the Moragahakanda reservoir, the North Central Canal were not taken up and need to be developed. Other downstream development of system B (LB), system L, upgrading of system C , Huruluwewa feeder canal, Uda walawe LB Extension and Maduru Oya (RB) are under implementation or are expected to be taken up soon.Irrigation management and planning in the ID, which took a \"top-down\" approach has changed slowly towards a participatory approach in recent times. The establishment of the IMD to manage major irrigation systems, has been accepted by the ID, which is now adopting a similar approach in 170 major and medium schemes.Currently policies in the irrigation sector can be categorized into the following areas.• Institutional policy -Currently several government agencies are involved in the construction, operation and management of irrigation systems. This includes the ID, the IMD, the MA and the DAS. At the provincial level too there are provincial irrigation agencies for irrigation development and management and agrarian services. The Department of Agriculture (DA) also has central provincial agencies for agricultural development. There are many agencies responsible for irrigation that is causing duplication and inefficient use of manpower and institutional resources, this is a policy gap that needs to be addressed. • Irrigation system management policies -Irrigation systems are jointly managed in major schemes with the management responsibility given to the farmer below the distributary level. In the minor schemes the management responsibility is entirely with the farmers. The current systems of management have been partly successful and therefore a good assessment should be made and the shortcomings or gaps addressed. • Operation and Maintenance policies -O&M in minor schemes is the responsibility of the farmers while in major schemes the agency responsible for management is responsible for O&M above the distributary canal, while the farmers are responsible for O&M below this canal. O&M is still being largely financed by the government, although farmer contribution in the form of labour is forthcoming. Allocation for O&M by the government is declining and therefore level and quality of O&M is on the decline. Unless this situation is reversed, and the policy gap addressed, many systems will require extensive rehabilitation within a short period. • Water allocation policy -currently there is no policy on water allocation from major water courses or water bodies for various purposes. The government through the Cabinet of Ministers decide on water allocation for various purposes on a situation by situation basis or when an issue arises with respect to water allocation. The lack of a suitable mechanism or institution to address the problem of bulk water allocation is a gap that needs to be addressed before the situation becomes critical. \\ • Irrigation financing policies -Currently, the government is responsible for financing of all new major irrigation development schemes. In minor schemes, the farmer makes a meaningful contribution in the form of labour, with the major proportion of the finances being provided by the government or other agencies such as NGOs, community organizations, well wishers or beneficiaries. Thus policy measures are needed to provide incentives and attract private sector participation in irrigation investments.The policy statement set out in the \"Vision 2010\" document indicates that currently over 80% of the water withdrawals is by the irrigation sector, and the policy and strategies must be focused towards reducing the level of withdrawals for irrigation to 65%, to allow greater use of water by other sectors such as power generation, industry, domestic water supply and environmental use.The performance of the irrigation sector has been mixed, with improved yields and cropping intensity being achieved under major schemes, while performance in minor schemes have not improved with the yields and cropping intensity remaining stagnant. Farmers in minor schemes still remain at subsistence levels but the potential for achieving high increases in yield by providing water at critical times for an otherwise rainfed crop is very high in minor schemes.Overall the performance of irrigation systems both in minor as well as major schemes have not reached the potential and the economic returns from investments in irrigation have been far below the returns in other sectors including water use for other purposes such as power generation, industrial or other uses. The key issues to be addressed in improving the performance of this sector and in achieving its full potential are identified as follows;• Low productivity in terms of yields, cropping intensity and water use efficiency.• Poor or inefficient management of water for agricultural production • Inadequate or inefficient maintenance systems • Lack of modernization of irrigation technology • Inadequate investment policies in the sector • Uncoordinated development of regional surface and groundwater resources • Institutional multiplicity and lack of coordination between related agencies • Low profitability and inadequate market systems reducing income of irrigated agriculture • Inadequate protection of irrigation watersheds • Inadequate water allocation system.Low productivity and water use efficiency One of the major issues is the inefficient use of water and the resulting low productivity of water in irrigation. Furthermore, the bulk (over 80%) of the irrigation water is used for paddy production, which is one of the highest users of water with one of the lowest net income margins. However, the economic value of water may be high because of its high food security value and the large number of persons dependent on paddy for their livelihood. The productivity of water in the Mahaweli system, which is more efficient than those outside, varies between 0.2 kg per Cu M to 0.3 kg per Cu M of water, with 80% of output coming from paddy. Average cropping intensity over the last 20 years was about 160% in Mahaweli schemes, 130% in Major schemes and 100% in minor schemes. As Figure 1 shows, the trend is increasing in all types of irrigation systems.Average Irrigated Paddy Yields 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,0001 9 8 4 1 9 8 6 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 4 1 9 9 6 1 9 9 8 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 4 Year Yield (Kg/Ha)Minor Mahaw eliAverage yield of irrigated paddy was about 5 mt/ha in the Mahaweli area and about 4.5 mt/ha in other major schemes and about 3.2 mt/ha in minor schemes, in 2004.Figure 2 shows that average yield is increasing in all types of irrigation systems but the value is higher in the Major and Mahaweli schemes. Although the productivity of minor tanks is less than that of major tanks, the social benefits of small tanks are higher because these tanks are used for other purposes such as bathing, washing, livestock watering and cleaning, fishing and also serves as an easily accessible source of water in the village. Thus one of the key areas that must be addressed for the future is how to improve efficiency of water use, give more value to water used in agriculture and improve incomes of the population dependent on paddy and other food crops.(ii) Poor or inefficient management of water for agricultural productionThe bureaucracy was responsible for managing water in major systems earlier. The practice then was to release water according to a time table and the farmers were expected to follow the time table and use the allocated water efficiently at the field level. The farmers or farmer leaders were responsible for diverting water from field canals, while the agency was responsible for bringing the water to the field level. The agency staff was responsible for water control up to the field level. This system had many draw backs, with farmers not adhering to the schedule, and water being tapped illegally, water not flowing in some canals due to poor maintenance etc. Since productivity was low and the water was not being managed efficiently, policy makers turned to a joint management system with greater powers of water distribution given to farmers and the agency taking responsibility for water allocation up to the distributary canal only. The farmers were also given responsibility for maintenance of the system below the distributary canal with a proportion of the maintenance cost met by the agency. Currently this system is in place in almost all major schemes including the Mahaweli.Institutional Developments such as farmer organizations for managing irrigation water, or joint management with the bureaucracy managing the main system and the farmers managing field water distribution and operation and maintenance at the field level, were established. This system has been operating for some time with partial success. Farmer organizations with good leadership have been more effective in improving water use efficiency. Farmer Organizations (FO) with political affiliations tended to show mixed results. The capacity of the FO in terms of human and financial resources has proved to be critical for their performance. In the case of minor schemes the responsibility for management of water is fully turned over to the farmer. Low productivity combined with a high population dependent on the land and declining returns from paddy have made management of these schemes more difficult.In systems where the bureaucracy has been willing to share power, the joint management systems have worked well. Still, in a large number of schemes, substantial improvements in water management and in efficient use of water are needed to increase both water and land productivity.(iii) Inadequate or inefficient Operation and Maintenance Systems.Another major problem in improving the performance of irrigation systems is the poor or inadequate O&M systems currently in force. Lack of funding for O&M has been a major cause for the deterioration of the irrigation systems. Government funding for O&M is drying up and rice farming is still not profitable enough for the farmers to contribute adequately for maintenance, except in the form of voluntary or involuntary labour input. Inadequate O&M tends to reduce irrigation efficiency and shorten the effective life of the project.Irrigation O&M Investments Figure 3 shows a declining trend in irrigation O&M in constant prices. Inadequate O&M results in faster deterioration of the schemes, requiring rehabilitation investments to be made sooner than necessary. Large capital investments in new irrigation systems will be wasted if the issue of adequate O&M is not resolved. Greater farmer participation in management tends to reduce this deterioration. Thus the problem of inadequate O&M is another major issue that has to be addressed by policy maker to improve the overall productivity of the sector.(iv) Lack of modernization or transfer of efficient irrigation technologyThe pace of modernization and transfer of new irrigation technology has been slow.There is a lack of incentives for the private sector to participate in a large way in the introduction and operation of new technology. Modern technology such as, sprinkler irrigation, micro irrigation, drip irrigation, although introduced in a small way to farmers, has not been adopted on a big scale for various reasons. The lack of knowledge, the cost of the techniques and sometimes misconceptions that techniques using small quantities of water is not adequate for vigorous crop growth and would reduce yields, have prevented the greater spread of such techniques. Lack of training and awareness has also contributed to the poor adoption of these techniques. 12,000 14,000 1 9 4 8 1 9 5 2 1 9 5 6 1 9 6 0 1 9 6 4 1 9 6 8 1 9 7 2 1 9 7 6 1 9 8 0 1 9 8 4 1 9 8 8 1 9 9 2 1 9 9 6 YearConstant 1995 PriceThis suggests that the state is reviewing the viability of new irrigation systems as against rehabilitation for increasing productivity of existing systems. The Mahaweli was a multi purpose scheme, which did not solely depend on agricultural production for its viability. Current performance shows that gross returns from agriculture are more or less equal to the value of power generation. The fact that the Mahaweli system has also been able to divert water from various river sources to irrigation systems outside the Mahaweli river basin has helped to improve the productivity of several water short systems. These benefits appear to have given credence to the fact that the Mahaweli project will achieve its objective of long-term sustainability and economic viability. Thus it may be worthy of replication in the future if similar projects can be drawn up. Figure 5 shows the level of investments in rehabilitation. Investments appear to have picked up during the Mahaweli construction phase, and increased substantially in the recent past. It now appears to be on the decline again. Although, relatively the investment in rehabilitation is lower, in the long run the returns may not be as high as for a new scheme, because the benefits can come only from productivity increases rather than from new production. (vi) Uncoordinated development of regional surface and ground water resourcesWith the establishment of provincial administration and provincial agencies of development, uncoordinated development of water resources, both surface and ground water, has been increasing. This can have detrimental impacts on water resources in other regions or on the country as a whole. Currently there is a system of coordination between central and provincial authorities when development plans are drawn up. In addition, there is also considerable private extraction of ground water resources for agriculture and other activities. There is no authority to keep track or control extraction of both surface and ground water resources and determine optimal extraction rates for the different regions. The WRB is only an advisory body and does not have powers to regulate such development. This may become a serious problem in the near future if uncontrolled development is allowed to continue.(vii) Institutional multiplicity and lack of coordination between related agencies Many agencies are involved in managing irrigation systems in Sri Lanka. The available manpower is thinly spread among these agencies. Further, there is duplication of functions and responsibilities impeding a coordinated approach to development. The human resources could be managed and made more productive, if the functions and responsibilities are clearly defined and the capacity of the institutions developed to suit their roles. Specialization in one or other field in the sector would improve the motivation and technical capacity to undertake the specialized activity more efficiently. Thus a rationalization of the functions and resource use of the multiple agencies involved in the construction and management in the irrigation sector would go a long way in increasing the productivity of the organization as well as the output and benefits from the irrigation sector.(viii) Low profitability and marketability of irrigated cropsUsing irrigation water for growing high income crops has been limited by the lack of market for such crops and the very dramatic price fluctuations experienced due to the sensitive nature of demand for most of these products. The local market can absorb only a limited quantity of such output depending on the local demand for the product.Unlike rice, which is more price inelastic because it is a staple grain, Other Food Crops (OFCs) tend to be more price elastic and demand declines when prices rise.Even in Mahaweli area, where conditions are most conducive for growing OFCs, less than 20% of the total irrigated area is devoted for the production of OFCs, and producing about 25% of the total crop output. Wherever, output has been tied to a market source, for example, for export, for further processing or for absorption within a stable local market demand, the farmers have shown success in growing non rice food crops. Producing for the local market has also been complicated by import policies. Imports of non rice crops to reduce the burden on the consumer, when prices of these crops rise in the local market, increases the risk of losses to farmers growing these crops. This is an important issue in terms of the objective of poverty alleviation through irrigation investments.Another emerging problem in the irrigation sector is the inadequate conservation of irrigation watersheds. While watersheds of major irrigation systems are further upstream, the watersheds of smaller systems are closer to the irrigation systems and could be managed by the irrigation users and the agencies concerned. Upstream watersheds are also threatened by deforestation, cultivation and other uses and the irrigation systems including Mahaweli systems are experiencing considerable siltation of canals and reservoirs. Similarly smaller watersheds are also being denuded of forests and being used for various purposes, including cattle grazing, chena farming, etc. The threat of reduction of water flows is much greater in smaller systems which are more dependent on surrounding watersheds than larger systems which are more dependent on perennial rivers. Thus action is required to stem the destruction of valuable watershed areas.Another related issue is the competition for water for other users or the principle of multiple use of water. With growing urban population and rising incomes, the demand for potable water is rising rapidly, and irrigation water resources are being increasingly tapped for water supply schemes, and also for industry. Environment is no longer the residual water user but needs an allocation. The revenue from using water for power production or water supply is higher than in agricultural production.Thus the demand for using water for these purposes is likely to take precedence if water use is determined purely on an economic basis. Thus any future development scenario should incorporate the need for sharing of water resources by various users. River basin level management of water will become an important tool or strategy in the more efficient use of water. Thus, with a limited supply of fresh water resources, including ground water extraction, the need for judicious control and management of river basin level water resources should become an integral part of any future policy or strategy in this sector.Although there are several other issues of lesser importance that also need to be addressed, the major shortcomings that needs to be addressed urgently are discussed above. The strategy in the following chapters is developed based on these issues.The vision of the irrigation sector is invariably linked to many other sector visions and contributes to the fulfilment of the national vision and policy through the intermediary vision of food security and poverty reduction as illustrated in the chart below.Obviously the vision of the irrigation sector must be inline with the vision of other related sectors to be a realistic and achievable one.Trade vision and policyFood security and poverty reduction vision and policyWater vision and policy\"By the year 2016, irrigated agriculture will be transformed into a commercially viable and technologically advanced sector producing for local consumption and processing as well as for export, using modern irrigation techniques that optimise water use and maximise production by increasing the productivity of irrigation systems. A more productive minor irrigation sector developed through participatory approaches will contribute to poverty reduction as well as fulfil the socio economic needs of the poorer farmer. New water resources developed, through trans-basin diversions and other means will lead to increased supply for irrigation and other uses.\"Objectives of the sector i. Increase productivity of unit of water through improved cropping and irrigation techniques in existing as well as new schemes. ii. Diversify and link output of irrigation systems with stable and established markets to stabilise income and productivity of irrigation systems. iii. Improve the management of existing major schemes, through successfully implementing participatory management systems in these schemes. iv. Improve the existing systems of operation and maintenance, through participatory approaches and establishment of viable funding mechanisms v. Improve management of minor or small schemes, through awareness, education and a farmer funding mechanism to support operation and maintenance and increase productivity. Assist in farmer financing of pumps or wells to enhance productivity from minor schemes. vi. Encourage and help to spread new technology for reducing water use and improve productivity of small and medium schemes, through such systems as micro or drip irrigation or other systems. vii. Improve the watersheds of small, medium and large systems through participatory approaches. viii. Rehabilitate, abandoned or poorly maintained but operational schemes, with farmer ownership including funding or labour inputs, with technical assistance from government irrigation agencies, including a study of surface and groundwater availability for such rehabilitation. ix. Establish a system of trans-basin linkages between major rivers or river basins to divert water to water short schemes and for multiple uses of water and develop other new systems if feasible. x. Establish river basin management authorities for all major river basins, to share water for various purposes and improve the distribution and productivity of of both surface and groundwater. xi. Improve the capacity of institutions to better manage irrigation systems including groundwater resources.Targets for the sector i. Water productivity to be increased by 20% in major schemes and by 10% in minor schemes by the end of five years ii. Policies for improved or more effective O&M be put in place and implemented within the next five year period. iii. Modern methods of irrigation to be practiced by 25% of farmers in irrigated areas iv. Cropping patterns of 30% farmers to be diversified within five years v. Management turn-over of 50% of the major schemes completed within five years. vi. Establish systems to strengthen Farmer Organisations, particularly in minor schemes. vii. Establish financially viable farmer companies for water management and input/output marketing in 25% of the major irrigation systems within five years. viii. Encourage public private partnerships resulting in at least 20% of new investments by the private sector over the next 10 years.ix. 1000 minor tanks to be restored every year.x. Water shed improvement plans to be formulated for 25% of the most critically affected minor and major irrigation systems xi. Complete regional study on ground and surface water availability by third year xii. River basin management authorities to be established within the next five years at the rate of one every year. Strategies, policies or interventions needed to achieve objectives and targets, may comprise of changes to existing policies or strategies or drawing up new policies and strategies. Sometimes it may useful to weigh the pros and cons of the best option and second best solutions in strategies, particularly keeping in mind the socio-economic realities of the country.• Improving productivity and irrigation efficiency Productivity and efficiency of water use go hand in hand. Productivity can be increased through optimal input use including water, more balanced distribution of water, high yielding varieties, improved systems of water management, better operation and maintenance through farmer participation, and use of modern irrigation technology. However, all this comes to naught if the product cannot be sold for a reasonable price. Thus essential to improving productivity is to stabilize and improve the marketability of the produce. This may involve upward linkages to the input market and downward linkage to the seller. Storage and processing are also down ward links that help to stabilise prices and markets. New options such as highly productive irrigated orchards may be a solution, with an increasing demand for fruits from higher income receiving urban-population where a large part of this demand is being met from imports at present. The strategies/policies that emerge are;Improve management of water through farmer participation Better O&M through funding by government and farmer Wider use of new irrigation technology to improve output of irrigation water.Foster upward and downward linkages to agricultural output, including contracted prices.Processing and storage as a price stabilizing instrument• Investments in rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems One of the strategies for improving productivity is to opt for rehabilitation of existing schemes. The return from rehabilitation is only through increased productivity from current levels to higher levels. This margin cannot be very high as average yields are reasonably good even in dilapidated schemes. In the case of new schemes the entire production is a benefit.Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that even in rehabilitated schemes with concrete lined canals, if the water supply is inadequate or not reliable, productivity cannot be increased. A recent study showed that in a scheme which had not been rehabilitated for a long period, yields were higher than an adjacent fully rehabilitated scheme, the main reason being there was adequate water available from drainage flows, giving yields about 20% higher than the rehabilitated scheme. A study of five rehabilitated schemes showed that there was no change in area irrigated, crop yields, profitability, crop diversification, employment, in all five schemes except for two schemes where cropping intensity improved after rehabilitation. This suggests that rehabilitation should be low key, without heavy investments, but with more emphasis on farmer participation and management and investment on essentials repairs.What may be required is to improve water management through farmer participation and improvements considered essential for water distribution, rather than going for a full-scale rehabilitation. The system for O&M should be revamped to improve and maintain the system. The additional productivity obtained will justify the small investments made. Thus it is suggested that the strategy to adopt is to provide adequate funding for essential rehabilitation but accompanied by management improvement. A funding system should be established to contribute O&M funds equal to the contributions made by the users. This system prevailed earlier and was being successfully implemented, before it was abandoned due to political reasons. The strategies/policies that emerge are;Rehabilitation should be low key with essential investments Improved management of water in existing schemes through participatory approaches A farmer-government joint fund for O&M, and possibly public private partnerships.The cost of new schemes is high but in the long run may provide better returns than from rehabilitation. Moreover, a recent study shows that investments in irrigation infrastructure had direct impacts on poverty alleviation and other beneficial multiplier effects. Larger multipurpose schemes may be even better, as benefits may accrue from the various uses for which the water is used. Irrigation combined with power generation and perhaps use in industry and domestic water supply may provide a stable flow of benefits over time, when compared to irrigated agriculture. A further benefit is the possibility of transferring water through diversions to schemes outside the basin to irrigate crops in chronically water short systems. In this case, the marginal benefit of applying an additional unit of water would be very high. It may even save a crop that would have otherwise been lost. Despite high costs, new multipurpose systems may be cost effective, provide a more assured supply of water and thus induce the normally risk-averse farmer to invest in inputs and technology to increase productivity.Develop new but feasible schemes Opt for larger multipurpose schemes among feasible alternatives.• Policy measures to make irrigation investments attractive for private sector, including private investments by farmers.Currently the irrigation sector investments are overwhelmingly public. Farmer investment in pumps and tube wells is emerging as an area of substantial private sector input. Investment in irrigation and agriculture is an area of investment with high potential. This potential has not been exploited fully due to lack of adequate incentives or carefully targeted consistent policies. Tax and other incentives that are specifically targeted towards irrigated agriculture production are needed to induce private sector to invest in this area. Areas suitable for private investment include development and marketing of modern irrigation technologies such as micro irrigation, drip irrigation and sprinkler systems. Farmer investments should also be encouraged through tax or other incentives such as subsidies. However, it is cautioned that large scale development of wells and tube wells for drawing groundwater should be encouraged only after a good scientific study of water resource availability is completed.The option of public-private partnership should be encouraged at two levels; one at a high level, when developing large multipurpose systems like the Mahaweli for power, irrigation water supply or industrial use, where the possibilities for cost recovery become a reality. A 20% to 30% investment level from the corporate sector in this area could be encouraged through tax incentives, or rebates and stock options for earning profits from revenues from such projects. At the lower end of the scale, private-public partnership can emerge from small scale rehabilitation of minor systems, operation and maintenance, and storage and warehousing.Private sector participation in irrigated orchard and sugar cane cultivation would be an attractive option when developing new systems of irrigation or converting existing ones for crop diversification. Incentives for crop diversification should be accompanied by assured marketing of outputs, by the private sector for further processing, export or local sale. Super market chains have linked with the producer to obtain their outputs for sale in their outlets. This is another area that should be encouraged through incentives to the private sector. The policies/strategies that emerge are;Incentives such as subsidies for farmer investment in wells and pumps A study to determine water availability for such purposes Private corporate investment incentives for large multipurpose irrigation projects Private-public partnership at the lower end of the scale with small farmers in minor tank rehabilitation, O&M and warehousing and storage.Crop diversification incentives with private sector investment in processing, orchard development, sugar cane production and products for the supermarket chains.• Investments in watershed development, especially in the context of minor and medium irrigation schemesThe viability of small and medium schemes is threatened due to the destruction of their water sheds. • Small tank / minor scheme rehabilitation Small tank rehabilitation is less costly than major rehabilitation on a per hectare basis. Although benefits may be less than that obtained in major schemes, there are tangible and intangible socio-economic benefits that accrue in small tank rehabilitation. Water is used for multiple purposes, the water body provides a better aesthetic environment for the village, people need not travel long distances to get to a water source, and the added benefit is the production of crops to provide a nominal income. Under the circumstances, minor tank rehabilitation should be encouraged, particularly since one can garner the support and participation as well the physical input for the rehabilitation. Thus, small tank or minor scheme rehabilitation is advocated, with the proviso that rehabilitation follows a scientific study of available water resources and that no other scheme dries up if a particular one is rehabilitated. The policies/ strategies emerging are;Rehabilitate suitable small tanks or schemes that bring in highest socio-economic benefits based on scientific approaches without adversely affecting other nearby schemes.• Institutional reforms and capacity buildingThe existing irrigation institutions have to transform to meet the new challenges and policies that have to be implemented under this strategic development. As already envisaged under the restructuring plans, the Mahaweli Authority should become a specialized construction and development arm of the state to undertake the development and new constructions envisaged under the proposed strategy alternatives. The Irrigation Department should continue to specialize itself into a management agency, for improving the management of existing schemes and to take over the management of schemes developed under the Mahaweli and other developments. The Department of Agrarian Services, should gear up to implement the minor scheme rehabilitation programme in order to ensure its success. The Water Resources Board should be given legal powers to control and manage ground water resources and develop a resource map of ground water to be used for development and monitoring of ground water resources. The policies/strategies emerging are;The Mahaweli Authority to transform into a specialised construction and deelopment agency The Irrigation Department is to specialize in management of irrigation schemes with the Mahaweli schemes also transferred to this institution The Agrarian Services Department should gear up to undertake a large rehabilitation program of minor schemes. The Water Resources Board should be made the responsible agency for the control and management of ground water resources with the necessary legal backing.Investments of ongoing projects have been incorporated in the plan for investments in irrigation sector. Several, new proposals included in the Public Investment Program fall in line with the strategies outlined in this report and have been included in the Investment Plan for irrigation sector shown in Table 5. The emphasis has been given to new schemes and annual investments. For example, new investments for multipurpose projects and trans-basin diversions have been given the highest allocation.  Funding requirement for the entire period of 10 years is estimated at Rs. 210 billion or an average of about Rs 20 billion per annum over the next 10 years. As of now, it is understood that foreign funding is available to cover 25% or Rs 50 billion of the total investment. This proportion may rise once feasible projects are identified and foreign aid agencies show interest in financing such projects. It is also envisaged that part of the investment will financed by the private sector, both farmers and the corporate sector. Table 6 provides details of possible funding sources for the investments proposed in the irrigation sector. A monitoring system should be established to assess the impact of the policies and investments. A short term monitoring system is needed to determine the physical and financial progress and achievements of individual projects undertaken. A second medium term monitoring system is required to assess the success or failure of policies and strategies adopted by the plan. A third long-term monitoring system is required to evaluate the impact of the project or plan on the economy, the incomes and well being of stakeholder or beneficiary, government finances, and benefits accruing to others or related sectors, the impact on the environment, as well as on the socio economic aspects of poverty alleviation, education and social welfare of the target groups. The last mentioned assessment can be undertaken on completion of the project and after a considerable period of operation of the project.• Short term monitoring system It is suggested that for short term monitoring purposes, a system of collection of data on financial aspects and the physical progress of the project be established.The project should be monitored on the basis of targets for a period of one year, where the financial progress is estimated on the basis of expenditure as against the allocation. Financial progress must be evaluated in relation to the physical targets that should be achieved in making the expenditure. If this is not the case, the monitoring agency should review the project to determine whether the targets were too ambitious, or if other problems caused delays etc. Thus this tool will be useful in improving project implementation.• Monitoring plan for assessing impacts of policies and strategies.In order to assess the policies and strategies used in achieving the objectives a longer time frame would be required. The short term project implementation monitoring process itself will provide some idea about the success or failure of the policies and strategies being utilized for implementing the project. A basic framework for monitoring policies and strategies would also be prepared if a Log Frame approach is used in preparing the feasibility study. However a simple matrix of policies and impacts in the format given below would be sufficient to facilitate the monitoring of impacts.Policy / Strategy Evaluation MatrixAgency Responsible for ImplementingIndicator for evaluation of impacts How these indicators can be measured• Long term assessment of impact of investments and plan.The impacts on the beneficiaries, stakeholders, or the economy of the country can be undertaken by various methods. A socio economic survey of the beneficiaries will provide basic information on the impacts. Such surveys may be conducted mid way through project implementation as well as after project completion. A fairly detailed study on a sample of beneficiaries would provide details on income, outputs, inputs and cost of production, employment and other social parameters as well as housing, sanitation, education and employment aspects. Such information can be used to construct indicators such as poverty levels, income and expenditure and other social indicators of well being. In addition other aspects such as environmental impacts, technical aspects of the project, financial and economic factors should be assessed to obtain a detailed report on the impact of the project. Such an evaluation will also provide useful feedback that can be used in preparing better projects in the future.• What are the risks or threats and opportunities in the planThe major risks are delays in implementation and the lack of technical manpower, and human resources needed to implement the plan. Inability to raise adequate funds is clearly another major risk. Cost overruns may reduce the viability of the project and the envisaged benefits may not be realized due to poor preparation of the project or inaccurate data used in evaluating the project. Implementation of the project will have multiplier effects with benefits accruing to other sectors as well. The plan will facilitate the spread of new technology that could be adopted in other sectors as well.• What possible safeguards and measures are needed to reduce such threats More preparatory work and collection of reliable data would help in preparing good projects and plans. Closer monitoring during implementation would also help to reduce delays and cost overruns.• What possible support or cooperation is needed from bureaucrats, policy makers, politicians and other stake holder to succeed?The bureaucrats, policy makers, and politicians should maintain the consistency of policies and procedures once agreed. Policies should be well thought out and evaluated prior to implementation and once policies are operational enough time should be given to such policies to determine their impact before making changes. The manpower most suited for implementing such plans and projects should be used in implementation.• Cooperation and support needed in terms of policies and strategies from other sectors/institutions having an impact on this sector.Other related institutions such as the Departments of Agriculture, Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Water Resources Board and Agrarian Services can play a vital role in helping to implement such plans and projects. Their cooperation particularly in the technical aspects of cultivation and contribution to increased productivity would facilitate the implementation of the plan and strategies.It must be ensured that all related sectoral policies are consistent with the overall national development policies and strategies, and the inter-linkages are also consistent. ","tokenCount":"7498"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9bc05a95762943c368fc1e77d772ec28","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a7c1e570-a98a-415d-9177-cf748fbd5888/retrieve","id":"-420973588"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b24df573-b78d-4759-9090-f3b80e563123","pagecount":"2","content":"TechFit is a tool to prioritize and select animal feed interventions. It was developed by ILRI under the leadership of Alan Duncan. It has been further refined and developed with inputs from many individuals in and beyond CGIAR. This is one of a series of feed intervention 'TechSheets' developed alongside the TechFit tool to provide summarized information on different interventions included in the tool. Werner Stür led the development of the TechSheets. This sheet was prepared by Werner Stur and Ben Lukuyu. TechFit is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. ilri.org/techfit Feed intervention >> Improvements and feeding of crop residues and other basal feeds> Physical treatmentThis document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. ","tokenCount":"124"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68e0f7610625124cc3b134a79d5d8127","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://efi.int/sites/default/files/files/flegtredd/KAMI/Resources/CIFOR-ICRAF%20C2%20report.pdf","id":"2144808315"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"46f5319f-7086-4c21-992d-3172dc4ffb0e","pagecount":"45","content":"Disclaimer. This report has been produced with support from the European Union. The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of funding organisations.The global demand for and production of palm oil continues to grow and has placed the commodity in the centre of debates surrounding economic, social, and environmental challenges and opportunities. Concerns regarding the links between palm oil production and environmental degradation, in particular deforestation, labour exploitation, and illegal practices are at the forefront of the sector. This has resulted in a call for sustainable, including deforestation-free, palm oil, in particular from key consumer markets. With around 85% of palm oil produced in Indonesia and Malaysia and significant amounts of production done by smallholders, these two countries could be strongly impacted by the demand for enhanced sustainability in palm oil.The rise in demand for more sustainable palm oil has led to many interventions seeking to support the transition to sustainability in oil palm landscapes. This study conducted by CIFOR-ICRAF (as part of the EU-funded KAMI -Sustainability of Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil -project) examines and evaluates the interventions or existing support available for jurisdictions to transition to sustainability, which includes the consideration of economic, environmental, and social aspects of a sustainable palm oil value chain that is inclusive, reduces pressure on forests/deforestation-free, protects the environment, and promotes responsible business practices. Existing support or interventions in this study are defined as any policy, program, or initiative with a stated objective of helping to transition to sustainability and operating within oil palm producing landscapes. Specifically, two questions are explored within this study (1) what support is provided by governments and interested development partners to jurisdictions/districts and (2) what patterns and gaps exist in geographical and thematic foci of the support provided. In addition to the type of intervention/support (i.e., enabling measures, incentives, disincentives), the report specifically analyses the associated rationale for the intervention, scale of intervention, targeted beneficiaries, focal themes, and sources of funding. Examination of intervention effectiveness or achievement of intervention objectives was beyond the scope of this study.This study identifies and documents a total of 143 interventions, including 81 in Indonesia, 53 in Malaysia and ten (10) private sector coalitions or alliances across selected six Indonesian provinces, four Malaysian states and 14 districts in Indonesia and Malaysia (selection was based on factors such as oil palm extent, forest area, the number of smallholders, etc.). Most of the identified interventions take the form of enabling measures or incentives. In Indonesia, these interventions are implemented at the local or district level while in Malaysia they are more frequently implemented at the regional or state level. Many identified interventions are funded through bilateral and multilateral sources, though such funding in Indonesia is much greater than in Malaysia. Further, within the identified interventions, NGOs fund or co-fund nearly half of interventions in both countries and thus play an important role in sustainability interventions. Many interventions operate in their current location due to deforestation and environmental degradation concerns, followed by oil palm sustainability concerns in Malaysia and by livelihood concerns in Indonesia. In Malaysia, most interventions focus on conservation and environmental protection while in Indonesia the focus is on sustainability in general (no specific aspect or focus defined by the intervention). Some of the structures and patterns noticed within the interventions are a result of the differing decentralized power structures between Indonesia and Malaysia. Additionally, likely due to different economic classifications of the two countries, the amount of bilateral and multilateral support for interventions varies greatly. The associated rationale for bi-/multilateral and national level funding is more varied in Malaysia compared to Indonesia, while the rationale for international versus national/local NGO funding was wider ranging in Indonesia than Malaysia. Additionally, findings indicate that the private sector, through coalitions/alliances and through company-based sustainability initiatives, also have smallholder or community-oriented support for sustainability. Despite all the existing interventions and support, there are still gaps that need to be addressed. Findings show that interventions that seek to support smallholders, local communities, and indigenous communities and jurisdictions in transitioning to sustainability need to be expanded in both countries in terms of scale, theme, etc. This includes providing not only incentives to adopt or fund sustainable practices (e.g., good agricultural practices, agroforestry/agroecology, reduced agrochemical use) but also capacity building targeted at smallholders regional and local governments to develop sustainable plans and carry out related actions.Based on this study's findings and identified gaps areas for improvement or further support are suggested as follows:• Very few local or national NGOs/CSOs are targeted as beneficiaries in the identified interventions, thus there is a need to provide more support to them and their work through interventions to better reach and transition smallholders, communities, and indigenous people to sustainability. Creating enabling conditions and increasing the capacity of NGOs/CSOs can enhance their role as effective intervention implementors. • More interventions targeting oil palm smallholders are needed. Processes that identify or support creation of smallholder groups can be boosted to expand collective action and increase the efficiency of interventions that aim to provide incentives to adopt or fund sustainable practices and build capacity. • Given the large amount of on-going bilateral and multilateral funding and the multitude of projects, there is a need for better communication of lessons learned and applicability of interventions, so that efforts can be scaled up. Further support for processes that link or coordinate bi-/multi-lateral interventions to broader multi-stakeholder platforms could provide opportunities for communication/dissemination. • Encouraging development of public-private partnerships for sustainable development to better align sustainability efforts with subnational level policies and initiatives at the provincial or district level is needed. Relatedly, further capacity building of provincial and district governments is needed to supplement existing initiatives and to attract investments to the jurisdiction.• Support for or interventions focusing on capacity building and training on sustainable livelihoods and agriculture can be expanded, especially for independent and grouped smallholders. One possible mechanism for this is by increasing the extent and capacity of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's (MPOB) TUNAS program to better support smallholders' capacity building and MSPO group certification. • Encouraging development of public-private partnerships for sustainable development to better align sustainability efforts with subnational level policies and initiatives (at the state level) is needed. • Further capacity building of state government agencies on jurisdictional sustainable development planning, multistakeholder platform establishment, monitoring progress, entering into partnership agreements with international organizations and companies as a way to align priorities and focal themes, etc. is needed to supplement existing initiatives and to attract investments to the jurisdiction. The global demand for and production of palm oil continues to grow and has placed the commodity at the centre of debates surrounding economic, social, and environmental challenges and opportunities. Palm oil is widely used in both the food and non-food sectors, including as biodiesel, but has also been identified as one of seven major globally traded commodities that place increasing pressures on forests across landscapes in the tropics and subtropics (Wardell et al. 2021). Given the growing demand and ubiquity of palm oil, there are concerns over links to impacts on the environment (such as deforestation, soil degradation, peatland destruction, soil erosion, water pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the loss of biodiversity), exploitation, and illegal practices (Ibanez andBlackman 2016, Ching et al. 2019). With 85% of palm oil being produced in Malaysia and Indonesia, the two largest palm oil producers globally, these two countries are often in the spotlight regarding oil palm policies and agricultural practices. Smallholders, both independent and organized, play a large role in managing oil palm production areas in both Indonesia (40%) and Malaysia (35%) but face issues regarding low yields (Rahman 2020;Suhada et al. 2018) while having been identified as key in transition to sustainable palm oil.With the links and concerns mentioned, there is growing pressure from consumers, civil society organizations (CSOs), and others for sourcing sustainable and deforestation-free palm oil.Given the urgent need to enhance sustainability of palm oil, many interventions to promote sustainable production of palm oil, and, more broadly, transition to sustainability exist in Indonesia and Malaysia. The first step of this study was to create a database of interventions in Indonesia and Malaysia. This database was created using three phases of data collection, detailed below:( 3. The study also identified private sector coalitions and alliances that focus on oil palm and operate in Indonesia and Malaysia. These coalitions/alliances were identified based on CIFOR-ICRAF experience and knowledge of the region and using a targeted Google search 6 .After the initial identification of the interventions from the various methods and searches detailed above, information from these sources were utilized to fill in the database, including categorizations on the form of support 7 . Moreover, to enable comparative analyses to identify patterns and gaps, the database included the following information: In cases where the interventions did not define the targeted beneficiaries or focal themes explicitly, these were identified based on the stated objectives and activities. Note that though there may be some overlap between associated rationale and focal themes, these were two different categories of information. Associated rationale for the interventions is akin to the reason why the program/initiative operates in a specific location. Whereas focal themes are the topics and issues the intervention targets and seeks to plan programing around. For example, an intervention's rationale for operating in a location could be deforestation but the focal theme could be ecotourism, since that was selected as the topic around which support would be provided.The analyses of this database included categorization of data into meaningful groupings (e.g., type of funding into international, national, etc. or type of support of intervention into disincentive, incentive or enabling measure) and examining and calculating frequency with which specific topics, themes, etc. occur. Further, in some cases (e.g., associated rationale and funding type), the analysis included calculating frequencies within interventions that have been categorized. Analyses were conducted independently for Indonesian and Malaysian interventions as well as for the private sector coalitions and alliances.Additionally, recognizing the power, capacity, and interest of the private sector in sustainability, data from the November 2021 SPOTT palm oil assessment 8 was used to understand private sector sustainability interventions. SPOTT assesses over 100 palm oil producers, processors, and traders on their public disclosure regarding their organization, policies and practices related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The SPOTT assessment focuses on parent companies as it is assumed that their policies will apply to their subsidiaries. The companies included in the assessment operate in and source from tropical forest landscapes. SPOTT only recognizes commitments and policies and provides limited, mostly self-reported information on how relevant interventions are implemented. The analysis of companies using the SPOTT assessment data focuses on 10 specific indicators (see Appendix 2 for list). The 10 indicators were selected on grounds of their direct relevance with companies' support for jurisdictional sustainability as assessed from their stated commitments, the extent of collaboration and stakeholder engagement, adoption of FPIC, and support to smallholders.For the analyses of SPOTT assessment data, first, the ~100 companies were classified into four (4) categories based on their operating and sourcing locations 9 : (i) Indonesia only, (ii) Malaysia only, (iii) both (i.e., Indonesia and Malaysia), and (iv) neither/other. These categories form the basis for the analyses of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores of the companies and the 10 selected indicators. To further aid analysis and understanding of intervention implementation by the companies in the SPOTT assessment, additional information was gathered from online reports and updates from select companies' websites as examples.Though this study aimed to be comprehensive, due to the time and budget constraints there are limitations to the study's findings. These are discussed in Section 8.The existing support or interventions identified through the FGDs, interviews, and searches were analysed according to the various information collected. Specifically, the analysis was divided into two broad aspects, one focusing on the complied database and the other on SPOTT data, which are presented below and then discussed in Section 6. Based on the identified patterns and gaps and supporting information gathered from the FGDs, some recommendations and opportunities for broader policy processes that could further support current mechanisms are also discussed in following sections.Through the approach described above, a total of 143 interventions: 81 in Indonesia, 53 in Malaysia, and 10 private sector coalitions or alliances were identified and classified (see Appendix 3 for full list). To better understand existing support, comparative analyses to identify patterns or gaps in associated rationale for intervention, type of support or intervention, geographies (e.g., scale, landscapes), source of funding, and focal themes was conducted.Interventions operate or provide support at local (i.e., district or village level), regional (i.e., state/provincial), or national level while some provide support at multiple levels or scales. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the level at which interventions are providing support. In Indonesia, most support is provided at the local level while in Malaysia it is at the regional and national level. Further, the data shows that in Malaysia, many of the initiatives are implemented in protected areas or high biodiversity landscapes (mentioned explicitly as a focus areas), while in Indonesia, the initiatives do not explicitly identity this as the main area of work. However, it is important to note for this observation and others that results reflect FGD and interview participation (see Section 8 for a full discussion on study limitations).Examples of national level interventions include commitments made by the Government of Malaysia in 2019 to limit expansion of oil palm plantations to protect biodiversity and retain 50% forest cover by putting in place four policies towards improving the sustainability of the palm oil industry, and joining or adopting international or transnational initiatives, such as the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC). In Indonesia examples include commitments made by the government to multistakeholder forums like the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Forum (FOKSBI).Interventions were classified into three main types: incentives, disincentives, and enabling measures (summarized in table 2). In both countries, disincentives are the less present compared to the other two types of intervention, though there is a higher percentage of disincentives in Indonesia compared to Malaysia. The type with the highest frequency in both countries is enabling measures but enabling measure interventions have a much higher presence in Malaysia. In Indonesia, an example of disincentive intervention is the implementation of Law No. 41/2009(GoI 2009) for the protection of sustainable lands for food and agriculture (LP2B) by intending to prevent agriculture land conversion. An example of an enabling measure intervention includes the Palm Oil Research Grant from BPDPKS' flagship programs carried out annually as part of efforts to encourage the development of palm oil research for furthering the sustainable palm oil industry. The smallholder plantation replanting program supported by funding from BPDPKS is an incentive intervention in Indonesia where the aim is to help smallholders to improve palm crop productivity through replating and use of highquality seedlings, while preventing the clearing of new lands (expansion) by providing farmers with funds while requiring them to comply with all sustainability principles (soil, conservation, environment, and institutions).In Malaysia, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) Licensing regulation (MPOB 2005) as amended by MPOB ( 2011) is an example of a disincentive, where action (i.e., warnings, legal actions and ultimately suspension or revocation of license) can be taken on the entities that did not obtain Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification. An example of an incentive in Malaysia is the Income Tax Act 1967 (revised 1995) which allows for any entity with certification (MSPO or RSPO) to be eligible for a tax reduction, this includes capital expenditures such as those incurred for the clearing and preparation of land. An example of an enabling measure is the Johor Sustainable Development Plan (PPMJ) 2030 (Johor Government 2020), a reference document for the state leadership, government administrative machinery, industry, local leaders, and related parties towards realizing the development strategy drawn up for the next 10 years.Most interventions are funded through multiple sources (summarized in Table 3). Significant number of interventions are funded by national/local NGOs (35% in Indonesia and 38% in Malaysia), international NGOs (22% in Indonesia and 23% in Malaysia), the national government (37% in Indonesia and 35% in Malaysia), and state/provincial governments (24% in Indonesia and 25% in Malaysia) in both countries. Many interventions are also funded through bilateral and multilateral sources (51% and 18% respectively in Indonesia; 25% and 4% respectively in Malaysia), though funding through these sources in Indonesia is much greater than in Malaysia. Among the interventions examined, a large number of interventions in Indonesia (43%) are co-funded by district governments, while only a small portion (2%) were funded by the district in Malaysia (though this small percentage could have been due to the stakeholders engaged, see Section 8). Interventions have specific reasons they operate or provide support in their chosen locations. Grouping together the rationale for the interventions, those mentioned most frequently are summarized in Table 4. Results show that in both Indonesia and Malaysia, deforestation or environmental degradation was mentioned the most often across the initiatives as their rationale for carrying out their work in the selected location. This was followed by livelihood or welfare in Indonesia and oil palm sustainability in Malaysia. Overall, the initiatives in Indonesia had more varied rationales compared to those in Malaysia.To examine whether specific types of regions or regions facing specific issues draw more international funding versus national funding, the associated rationale of interventions funded by four sources were examined: (1) bilateral and/or multilateral funding, (2) each respective national government, (3) international NGOs, and (4) national/local NGOs 10 .In Malaysia, bilateral and/or multilateral funding sources are often associated with intervention rationale such as deforestation, forest/peatland degradation, agriculture and expansion, and land use change. On the other hand, interventions funded by the national government sources had rationale that predominantly focused on palm oil production and sustainability while interventions funded by both international and national/local NGOs focus on deforestation, agriculture and oil palm expansion and extent, and conservation as motivation. Though these patterns of rationale for interventions do seem to vary a bit, it is worth noting that 14 interventions are co-funded by multiple sources (see Table 5 below for a breakdown).In Indonesia, international bilateral and multilateral funding sources are often associated with intervention rationale such as deforestation, palm oil production and sustainability, climate change, sustainability, and forest protection. Interventions funded by the national government include deforestation, climate change, livelihood, palm oil production and sustainability, and agricultural expansion as the most frequent rationale. Interventions funded by international NGOs included palm oil production and sustainability, deforestation, sustainability, poverty and livelihoods, and climate change and GHG emissions as the most frequent rationale. While rationale for interventions funded by national or local level NGOs included deforestation, climate change, forest protection, livelihoods/welfare, and sustainability. A higher percentage (52% vs 26%) of Indonesian interventions compared to Malaysian interventions were co-funded by more than one of these four funding sources (see Table 5 below for a breakdown). In examining the associated rationales across all the identified interventions and those according to funding sources, deforestation and environmental degradation is a major reason for the operation of the program in a location. However, a difference in the rationale for multi-/bi-lateral and national level funding is more differentiated in Malaysia compared to Indonesia. On the other hand, rationale for international versus national/local NGO funding was more differentiated in Indonesia, where both type of NGOs in Indonesia had rationale related to livelihoods, welfare, or poverty.Focal themes are the board categories of themes or topics in which the intervention's support is provided. To examine whether specific focal themes draw more international funding versus national funding, the focal themes or areas of interventions funded by international funding (i.e., from bilateral and multilateral) and the national government were examined for both Malaysia and Indonesia. The analysis indicated no difference in focal themes associated with the two funding types (i.e., focal themes with the highest frequency for both funding types were the same) in both Indonesia and Malaysia. In Malaysia, the FGD participants identified and discussed the need for expanding certain existing focal themes and types of support:• Across all the three FGDs, the MPOB TUNAS initiative was recognized as something helpful for achieving sustainability in a jurisdiction (especially for smallholders) that can be expanded. • Capacity building efforts with smallholders and other stakeholders towards sustainability (e.g., high conservation value areas; HCV, new planting, wildlife conflicts) was also identified as something that has worked well but needs to be expanded. • Branding and communication towards external markets was also identified as an activity that needs to be increased, especially to combat the negative image of oil palm. • Lastly, participants identified the need for more public-private partnerships to help with the transition to sustainability.In Indonesia, FGD participants identified missing support or types of support that can be increased:• National stakeholders and others identified the need for increased and more effective support to resolve long-standing issues related to overlaps between oil palm plantation and state forest land (kawasan hutan) so that companies as well as smallholders can legally manage and harvest their plantations. • There is a need for smallholder-targeted capacity building to help improve agricultural practices and efforts to introduce multiple commodities so smallholders can adapt to and mitigate risks (e.g., fluctuating fresh fruit bunch price, deforestation). The capacity of farmer groups to establish fair agreements covering sale of fresh fruit bunches to palm oil mills should also be increased. • Other needed support includes increasing access to financial sources (e.g., subsidized interest rate); and preparation/support to comply with sustainability standards (e.g., ISPO) 11 . • Participants also indicated the need to increase BPDPKS funding and support for smallholders not only for replating but also to help them clarify legal plantation rights and prepare for sustainability verification. • Participants also raised the need to incentivize farmers to maintain certification and motivate them to implement sustainable practices. To improve governance of the sector, existing online information systems (e.g., SIPKEBUN, SIPERIBUN) should be used to integrate attribute and spatial data on oil palm plantations. These systems would help facilitate authorities and other stakeholders record and identify smallholder and company plantations and monitor legality and sustainability performance. • The need to enhance the capacity of local government agencies and officials was also identified, including increasing the number of certified or trained personnel at the provincial and district levels (e.g., for plantation business evaluation/penilaian usaha perkebunan, smallholder plantation registration/Surat Tanda Daftar Budidaya (STDB)). • Another need identified was for district or a village-owned processing or mill facilities that source fresh fruit bunches from smallholders. • Lastly, participants identified the need for better implementation and enforcement of existing laws and regulations, especially for ensuring company compliance, and enhancing the role of the private sector in empowering farmers and creating fair benefit sharing mechanisms (e.g., fresh fruit bunch sourcing policy).Based on further analysis of the interventions database, additional areas for potential support include clarifying land tenure issues, strengthening indigenous rights, developing monitoring and reporting systems, and strengthening processes for permitting and monitoring of plantations (see also CIFOR-ICRAF 2022b). Efforts to implement an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) as part of the results-based payment program in East Kalimantan (MoF 2021) have highlighted the importance of increasing district stakeholders' awareness of the importance of the program, gaining the district head's support, and enhancing technical capacity for monitoring, evaluation and reporting.Targeted beneficiaries are actors specifically identified as benefiting from the intervention (see Table 7). In Malaysia, the actors most frequently targeted by interventions are local and indigenous communities (46%), followed by NGOs/CSOs (30%) and state/local government agencies (32%), while \"Others\" that were targeted less frequently (11%) include the public, schools, workers, and certification agencies. In Indonesia, provincial or district governments (58%) are most frequently identified as target actors while least frequently targeted beneficiaries are NGOs/CSOs (14%; these would be either national or local), researchers/universities (8%), explicitly designated oil palm stakeholders (5%), and miscellaneous (14%).It is also worth noting that many interventions in both countries identify \"all stakeholders\" (~20%) as beneficiaries, this was especially true for jurisdiction level programs such as Sabah's Jurisdictional Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (JCSPO) initiative.Depending on their nature, scale, and stage of implementation, most interventions have clear beneficiaries and specific actors and groups identified, while others identify a wider range of actors. Across both countries, targeted beneficiaries have been involved in either designing or implementing most of the identified interventions. However, in some instances beneficiaries are only involved in a limited part of the intervention.Ten (10) private sector coalitions or alliances related to palm oil sustainability were identified in Indonesia and Malaysia. Most (80%) operate in both Indonesia and Malaysia and involve companies from both countries. The remaining 20% operate in Indonesia only. The most frequently mentioned rationale are deforestation, environmental degradation, and oil palm sustainability with the most frequently targeted beneficiary being the private sector or coalition and alliance members. For example, Consumer Goods Forum's (CGF) Forest Positive Coalition focuses on collective action among its member companies to drive and accelerate efforts to remove deforestation not only from their own commodity supply chains, but from their entire supply base (CGF 2022). Only the Palm Oil and NGO (Pongo) Alliance, Rimba Collective, and Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) have beneficiaries beyond the private sector, the first two include local stakeholders (i.e., local governments, NGOs, etc.) who can become project partners. Unlike the other identified coalitions and alliances, TFA targets a broad set of beneficiaries and includes companies, government entities, CSOs/NGOs, indigenous peoples, local communities, and international organizations. Of the 10 coalitions, seven are solely funded by the private sector, while the other three include co-funding from governments (Pongo Alliance), bilateral sources (for TFA), and international NGO and foundations (Fire Free Alliance). Additionally, 70% of these interventions focus on enabling measures while the other 30% include both enabling measures and incentives. The results of this study's analysis of the ESG scores from the SPOTT assessment are displayed in Figure 1, showing that out of more than 100 companies included in the assessment, those that operate and source from Indonesia only have higher scores compared to any other categories. This indicates that globally these companies are more transparent regarding their ESG risks and policies compared to especially those operating in Malaysia only or in neither of these two countries.The study also analyzed ten selected SPOTT indicators (see Appendix 2 and Appendix 4). In terms sustainability policy and leadership, two of the SPOTT indicators 12 analyzed show that of the companies in the assessment, companies that operate in \"Indonesia only\" have a more affirmative answer compared to companies operating elsewhere (i.e., companies in the other categories) for both the indicators. This shows that companies operating in Indonesia appear to be more likely to have published sustainability policies or similar covering their entire supply chainincluding third party suppliers and engaging with stakeholders.In considering whether the companies are employing a landscape or jurisdictional approach 13 , analysis of the data shows that a higher percentage of companies in the \"Indonesia only\" category have this approach currently in place. However, higher percentage of companies that operate and source from both Malaysia and Indonesia have this approach in place in full or even partially compared to \"Malaysia only\" and \"neither\" companies.Analysis of the four SPOTT indicators related to community, land, and labor rights shows that across all four categories many companies have commitments to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) but higher percentage of companies in \"Indonesia only\" have this commitmentwe see a similar trend when examining whether FPIC is applied to all suppliers and whether details of the FPIC process are available. The analysis for the fourth indicator (indicator number 135) shows that across the categories, none of them perform very well, and most of them have companies that have only partial or no local stakeholder engagement to prevent conflicts.Data from the three indicators related to smallholders and suppliers shows us that a higher percentage of companies in the \"both\" category (i.e., operating in both Indonesia and Malaysia) have commitments to support smallholders, followed by \"Indonesia only\" companies. However, \"Indonesia only\" companies have higher percentage of companies with programs in place (i.e., commitment implementation) to support group smallholders and independent smallholders. Intervention type. We find that a higher percentage of interventions operate at the district/local level in Indonesia and at the state level in Malaysia. While decisions on an intervention's locus are determined by the intention to get close to the target stakeholders, the operating level of the interventions likely reflects the decentralization processes in each country and where the decision-making authority regarding land and resource use lies. State governments in Sarawak and Sabah, for example, govern all matters relating to land tenure, registration, transfer and leases in respective jurisdictions. In Indonesia 16 , district governments have authority to formulate their own land use plans, develop local regulations to implement their plans and the national regulations, and specifically issue permits for the estate crop sector.The large amount of funding or co-funding from the Indonesian district governments and Malaysian state governments for many of the interventions most likely also reflects this distribution of power. Additionally, similar to the findings in the report by CIFOR-ICRAF (2022a), the importance of NGOs in the sustainability landscape is illustrated here. In each country NGOs fund or co-fund nearly half of the identified interventions, but the database indicates that more interventions were co-funded jointly with national/local NGOs compared to international NGOs in Indonesia while the pattern is reversed for Malaysia (however, the Malaysian co-funded initiatives are limited in number).Indonesia shows that certain rationales and themes/foci are more frequent than others and that many interventions utilize deforestation and degradation as their rationale and basis for their location. This is also the case for the identified private sector coalitions and alliances. This indicates the prioritization of the need to address these environmental causes to the transition to sustainability in both countries. In Malaysia, this rationale is followed by oil palm sustainability and coverage/area while in Indonesia interventions more often mention improvement of livelihood and poverty. In both countries the next frequently mentioned 16 Two main regulations (National Regulation No. 28/2018 and Minister of Home Affairs' Regulation No. 25/2020 regarding local government cooperation) shape how local governments establish collaborations with companies, foreign local governments and international organizations and state that any cooperation of provincial or district governments with foreign local governments and international organizations must endorsed by their parliaments and later approved by the central government in which decisions are made through inter-ministerial processes.rationale was the need for conservation or environmental protection. This again highlights prioritization of protecting or conserving the environment in both countries while prioritization of welfare and poverty in Indonesia could reflect the lower income levels than in Malaysia. Further, eradicating poverty and strengthening the local economy are Indonesia's key strategies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This has been mainstreamed into the Indonesian mid-term development plan (RPJMD) and provincial governments have developed relevant action plans comprising government-led programs/activities and others implemented by non-government actors including CSO, philanthropy, universities, and private sector (Bappenas 2020;GoI 2020).Analysis of the relationship between the intervention rationale and funding source (i.e., international, national government, NGO) showed differences between actors, but most have overlapping rationales. However, this is more evident in Malaysia than Indonesia, where the national government more often has rationale related to oil palm production and sustainability, while international and NGO funders are more often focused on deforestation.In Malaysia, the national initiatives involving four policies towards sustainable oil palm cultivation, licensing, smallholder support and agricommodity development, for example, cited palm oil production as the main rationale. Other initiatives such as Small Producer Inclusivity & Resilience Series (SPIRAL), Jurisdictional Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (JSPO) and Heart of Borneo supported by CSOs and international funding cited deforestation as the main rationale. The greater alignment of rationale among funders in Indonesia could also be a result of the large number of interventions that are co-funded in comparison to Malaysia 17 . Similar alignment on focal themes was seen across both countries, showing no difference with respect to funding sources, likely due to most of the interventions being co-funded.In Indonesia, there more interventions focusing on sustainable agriculture, sustainable livelihoods, and market and trade compared to other themes. Most interventions focus on highly traded commodities, such as palm oil, or seek to create enabling conditions for sustainability through the development of action plans for sustainable palm oil, replanting, smallholders' readiness towards certification verification, etc. This might be due to the need to connect smallholders within the palm oil sector to markets to improve livelihoods. Further, motivated by needs to drive local economy and food security, local governments have become more engaged in actions to attract investments and increase market access for their superior commodities (komoditas unggulan). Local governments have also specified in their green growth plans and RPJMD (e.g., Siak district, South Sumatra) the promotion of sustainable palm oil supply chains by encouraging plantation business compliance with sustainable trade (e.g., adopting voluntary and mandatory certification, and NDPE standards). One example, implemented in both countries, is NI-SCOPS (The National Initiative on Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders), which seeks to improve capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change and to increase smallholder productivity and improve their market access. Lastly, as indicated by Florini and Pauli (2018), this may also be linked to partnerships driven by markets and movement to align private sector efforts and UN SDGs addressing poverty and food security, and the intention to engage marginalized smallholder farmers in global agricultural value chains.Some areas for capacity building and other support that can be expanded include HCS and HCV approaches, efficient and credible quality assurance for assessment and reports, independent smallholder's adoption of simplified approaches, harmonized procedure for scaling up approaches across landscapes and jurisdictions, and long-term protection, management, and monitoring of HCS and HCVs (HCSA 2021). An example is a simplified approach to determining high-carbon stock areas and go-areas for plantations, which is currently being tested in West Kalimantan for adoption by smallholders.Targeted beneficiaries. The most targeted beneficiaries in Malaysia and Indonesia are different but do show some similar prioritization. In Malaysia, local and indigenous communities were the most targeted beneficiary, but smallholders and oil palm growers were not targeted as heavily. Designing initiatives to targets these groups and to help transition to sustainability is needed. Further, as noted in the three FGDs, an expansion of MPOB TUNAS or similar smallholder capacity building programs would fill this gap. Expansion of MPOB TUNAS (capacity building, knowledge transmission, and support towards sustainability) would help many smallholders to get group certified under the MSPO certification, potentially a step towards sustainability transition at a broader scale than individual smallholders.In Indonesia, district governments were identified as the beneficiaries most targeted by interventions. Though strategic policies and guidelines for sustainable development are provided and developed at the national level, the national government has encouraged district governments to implement delegated tasks such as developing district action plans, forming agrarian reform taskforces, and advancing innovations 18 . In addition, existing district level support has been spurred by the many donor-supported development projects and private sector initiatives with a landscape and jurisdictional sustainability focus.While provincial governments were a target beneficiary in only a small number of interventions, they play a critical role in advancing sustainability at the subnational level by translating national policies (e.g., national action plans for sustainability policies, ecosystem essential area, SDGs) into the local context and implementing delegated tasks. They have power over forestry affairs such as forest planning, management and conservation, especially after the Law No. 23/2014 on regional autonomy took effect and district's authorities over forestry were assumed by provincial governments. Following this, some governors like those in Sumatra, Kalimantan, West Papua and Papua actively participated in the Governor's Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF), demonstrating provincial level commitment to low-emission development, jurisdictional sustainability and innovative policies towards sustainability (Stickler et al 2018). Additionally, North Kalimantan developed the first ecological fiscal transfer mechanism for incentivizing environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices (GCF 2022), while the Governors of Jambi and East Kalimantan are instrumental in implementing and developing benefit sharing plans for the World Bank's sustainable landscape management and emission reduction programs (World Bank 2020, MoF 2021).Interventions focusing on smallholders, local and indigenous communities and rights are very limited in both countries. With the challenges for smallholders and indigenous peoples transitioning to sustainability and obtaining certifications having been already well documented (CIFOR-ICRAF 2022a, CIFOR-ICRAF 2022b), there is a need for additional programs to target these groups, especially for capacity building and good agricultural practices. Another challenge for smallholders is gaining access to mills and in relation to this, Indonesian FGD participants identified the need to have more mills sourcing from smallholders. Furthermore, support for NGOs/CSOs as a beneficiary is low and can be expanded to help provide support to rural or hard to reach communities and smallholders. Lastly, very few interventions in the database specifically stated targeting palm oil stakeholders in Indonesia compared to Malaysia. Given that all palm oil smallholders, growers, producers, millers, etc. are to obtain the mandatory Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification by 2025, this gap in interventions targeting needs to be addressed.Private sector. The private sector plays an important role in supporting sustainable jurisdictions. Private companies that are members of coalitions and alliances have made commitments to sustainability and have No Deforestation, No Peatland, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies in place. The activities of the coalitions/alliances include capacity building for the companies themselves but also training and support for their subsidiaries and smallholders in or near sourcing locations. The different types of support for jurisdictional transitions to sustainability can be seen from different supply chain actors' efforts to implement their own corporate sustainability policies. They can range from actors including traders and third-party suppliers with strong NDPE commitments to those with more general sustainability policies. The analysis from the SPOTT assessment shows that companies, especially in Indonesia, collaborate with stakeholders including local government and have programs that support smallholders. One company, for example, reports that it worked with the government to establish a fire free village program to help smallholders get sustainability certification. Another group aims at 100% RSPO certification by 2025 for its Indonesia plantation operation and supports smallholders by providing initial financing for land preparation, provision of seedlings, fertilizer, and pest control, and by providing technical assistance on GAP. Another group engages local and indigenous communities in participatory mapping to help strengthen their rights and helps plasma and independent smallholders to improve crop productivity and agronomic practices. The company also seeks alternative livelihoods to improve farmers' income and food security by growing agriculture crops. It is worth mentioning that smallholder hubs at the district level can ease companies' resource burden, facilitate field assistance deployment, build local government capacity, offer credible and well-accepted programs by smallholders and encourage holistic planning of livelihoods. Two highly rated companies operating in both Malaysia and Indonesia have collaborated with relevant parties to conserve jungle reserves, to develop rehabilitation and restoration strategies for plantation areas as HCV model forest, and to develop a mechanism to minimize human-elephant conflict across their plantation area in Malaysia.Coalitions and alliances identified in this study support their members and beneficiaries operating in both Indonesia and Malaysia on various topics related to deforestation and degradation and sustainability. However, even within these coalitions, monitoring and assessing compliance with sustainability and NDPE commitments is difficult, as also reported by CIFOR-ICRAF (2022a). CGF's Forest positive coalition has provided its members with monitoring guidance focusing on deforestation and peat conversion. And as part of Palm Oil Transparency Coalition (POTC) member assessment, Schreiber et al. (2019) indicate that there is a varied degree of compliance among third party supply chains with their corporate policies and commitments. Every company stated that its policies are applicable to all their suppliers, but few expected complete compliance with the policies or had set dates for zero tolerance for deviations. Third party supply chains are a particularly challenging area identified as a risk and POTC is attempting to develop a process to communicate the expectations.Despite these commitments and initiatives, companies have been found to be variable in disclosing information on their operations and practices. SPOTT ESG data analysis shows that companies operating in/sourcing from Indonesia only have higher ESG scores than companies operating in Malaysia only or in both Malaysia and Indonesia. However, high scores do not necessarily mean that the company is sustainable but rather that the company is transparent about its operations, has more comprehensive policies or that the company reporting is externally verified. Nearly all large companies in the palm oil supply chain (including growers, traders, consumer goods companies and financial institutions) have NDPE policies as of 2020 (CRR 2020), though the SPOTT data analysis shows that there are still many companies, especially operating outside of Indonesia and Malaysia that need to establish sustainable palm oil policies or commitments for all its operations. However, due to the structure of the palm oil supply chain, a large part of palm oil sustainability depends on palm oil refiners/traders implementing NDPE policies. Additionally, refiners have the capacity to motivate smallholders/oil palm growers to adhere to sustainable practices by refusing to purchase otherwise (CRR 2020). Thus, having capacity building programs for refiners to implement and follow NDPE policies and support smallholders and other oil palm growers to transition to sustainability is a gap that future interventions can address. Further, publicprivate partnerships or efforts that synergize NDPE policies with national and subnational policies and initiatives are needed. For example, HCV or high carbon stock (HCS) areas identified based on an assessment can only be protected if relevant government policies are supportive. In relation to company commitments to no deforestation, it is interesting to note that 148 companies in Indonesia have either registered with HCSA Secretariat or submitted their HCV-HCS approach assessment report for peer review, while no companies operating in Malaysia appeared on the list (CIFOR-ICRAF 2022a). Though this multi-method study aimed to represent the situation in districts and states/provinces in both Malaysia and Indonesia, our engagement with some stakeholders was limited (e.g., Malaysian districts). It is therefore possible that district level initiatives in Malaysia are less represented and the ability of the study to make suggestions at this level may therefore be limited. Additionally, engagement from Sabah and Sarawak was more extensive and initiatives there might therefore be better represented than those in Peninsular Malaysia. Nonetheless, the database includes a wide range of programs, which provides a sound basis for understanding of the types of sustainability interventions currently operating in oil palm landscapes. For similar studies in the future, engagement with Malaysian stakeholders, especially those in Peninsular Malaysia, would benefit from additional support and cooperation from national ministries.Another limitation is that the analysis does not account for the effectiveness of sustainability interventions, which determines whether they deliver on their objectives. Assessing the implementation issues of these programs would provide a better understanding of bottlenecks in achieving goals. Such assessments would require fieldwork and face-to-face engagement with local stakeholders, and this was beyond the scope of the current project, especially given the Covid-19 pandemic. ","tokenCount":"7202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"072fd527987065ac7612133e4b7278c9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4de5d865-41e5-4449-81af-965480542962/content","id":"-1728058972"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"38c957dc-88fe-4dc9-9b70-38b82a751869","pagecount":"18","content":"Many of the innovative breeding methodologies described here resulted when researchers began to examine problems in new ways .have engaged agricultural research in the past decades as much as the search for ways to protect plants from drought. In the case of ICARDA's recent research on grasspea, however, researchers looked for ways to protect people against the ill effects of one ol the few food crops that can withstand drought. In so doing, they have saved poor communities from an agonizing choice between starving to death and consuming a food that could result in paralysis.Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus) is a high-protein food crop for poor people in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, and China. This legume is also extremely hardy under drought, surviving months without rain. When eaten in small quantities, grasspea is harmless, but a steady diet of grasspea causes irreversible paralysis in leg muscles, the result of a neurotoxin contained in the seeds. The paralysis is a familiar occurrence in rural areas affected by long periods of drought. Classical breeding methods had only limited success in reducing the neurotoxin content to safe levels, partly because of the small amount of variation found in grasspea. !CARDA researchers successfully used in vitro culture to generate somaclonal variants of grasspea with low neurotoxin content.The low neurotoxin lines, which are being developed for cropping systems in major grasspea growing areas, will have a great positive impact. In breeding programs, they hold great promise for increasing efficiency (e.g., by making advances more rapidly than under traditional breeding schemes) and effectiveness (e.g., through pyramiding useful genes).At IRR!, multiple genes for resistance to rice bacterial blight and blast have been pyramided through molecular marker technology for durable resistance against these pests. Through the Asian Rice Biotechnology Network, three national institutes (Phi!Rice in the Philippines, RIFCB in Indonesia, and Punjab Agricultural University in India) used MAS to combine different bacterial blight resistance genes into their local popular cultivars. Advanced lines with good yield and added resistance were developed.Researchers are also using MAS to increase drought tolerance. This work is underpinned by linkages to worldwide efforts in structural and functional genomics. For upland rice production, researchers evaluated candidate genes for drought tolerance and resistance/ defense response for utility in MAS. In rainfed lowland rice, drought and submergence, the dominant problems of the ecosystem, have been difficult to solve with traditional breeding methods. The problems can be addressed through MAS for traits such as root depth, penetration ability, and osmotic adjustment. Researchers have identified mechanisms and are using them to develop screening methods, identify genetic markers, and design MAS methods for these traits .At CIMMYT, MAS is being used in wheat to screen for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus and in maize to screen for resistance to maize streak virus, for the quality protein trait, and drought tolerance. The use of molecular markers to promote this approach is being improved by CIMMYT. Breeders have already used MAS to develop maize for drought environments, and ClMMYT is working with national programs in Kenya and Zimbabwe in an innovative experiment aimed at using a single MAS selection step at an early stage of recombination to further speed the development of drought-tolerant materials .Mark£rs for genomic grouping-At IITA the introduction of RAf'D (random amplfied polymorphic DNA) markers has facilitated genome composition studies in Musa spp. Plantain and banana originated from intra-and interspecific hybridization between two wild diploid species, M. acuminata and M. balhisiana, which contributed the A and B genomes, respectively. Polyploidy and hybridization have given rise to a number of diploid, triploid, and tetraploid clones with different permutations of the A and B genomes. Thus dessert and highland bananas are classified as AAA, plantains as AAB, and cooking bananas are ABB. Other more complex genome permutations including AB, AAAB, and ABBB also exist. Classification of Musa into genome groups has been based on morphological characteristics. A plant's morphology can be altered by environmental factors and such a system of morphological classification would be inconsistent. Additionally, some characteristics are expressed at maturity and these traits can be measured only after 18-24 months.Therefore, easier, more stable, and reliable techniques are needed to determine genomic groups in Musa. This study identified RAPD markers for the A and B genomes. Eighty 10-mer Operon primers were used to amplify DNA from M. acuminata clone Calcutta 4 (AA genomes) and M. balbisiana clone Honduras (BB genomes). Three primers (A17, A18, and DlO) that produced unique genome-specific fragments in the two species were identified. These primers were then tested in a sample of 40 genotypes representing various genome combinations. The RAPD markers were able to elucidate the genome composition of all genotypes. The results showed that RAPD analysis can provide a quick and reliable system for genome identification in Musa that could facilitate genome characterization and manipulations in breeding lines .The hybridization of crop species with distant relatives (wild species) has clear advantages: it broadens the genepool and permits the transfer of alien genes that confer positive benefits, such as stress tolerance, which lead to higher yields.At IRRI, genes for resistance to brown planthopper, bacterial blight, and blast have been transferred across genetic barriers from wild species into rice.CIMMYT has drawn on genetic diversity from wheat's wild relatives to develop synthetic hexaploid wheats that have proven remarkably resistant to diseases including leaf blights, Septoria, and Fusarium head blight (scab), as well as to stresses such as heat and waterlogging. This resistance is extremely valuable, given that scab alone has been reported to cause losses of billions of dollars and millions of tons of grain in the US and China alone. To date, CIMMYT has formed almost 800 synthetics, and of these several lines have shown very high levels of resistance to scab (e.g., infection rates of only 5-10%, compared to 45-60% in susceptible checks). New materials show even higher levels of resistance. Geneticists can accelerate breeders' work in the field by identifying plants that carry the useful gene(s) or sets of alleles called quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Research at CIMMYT has recently identified three quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that contribute to scab resistance. These QTLs individually account for 10%, 15%, and 20% of the total variation of FHB resistance. A simple tabulation of these percentages, however, does not provide an accurate picture of their actual influence, because some of their resistance activity almost certainly overlaps or results from interactions between the genes. Further statistical analysis is planned to ascertain the actual combined effect of the three QTLS, but it is estimated that they account for 30-40% of the.resistance.Researchers eventually hope to account for 60-70% of the resistance. Mapping these genes is the equivalent of adding another brick to the foundation needed for building higher levels of resistance to this important disease .Functional genomics holds great promise for helping researchers understand the genetic basis of expression of complex traits by enabling them to assign specific biological functions to DNA sequences.The objectives of this area of research in the CGIAR are to identify new genes controlling complex traits; identify A variety of genetic resources, including mutants, introgression lines, and mapping populations segregating for particular traits, are being produced for functional analysis. Elite breeding lines developed from cycles of selection for specific traits become part of the resources that reveal new functions through application of genomic tools. These materials serve distinct purposes in gene discovery based on their phenotypic expression.Phenotyping activities concentrate on genetic variation and characteristics that are most relevant under field conditions.Work is underway in evaluating disease resistance, tolerance to submergence and drought, and morphological variations in the genetic stocks produced. As the work progresses, this approach will be extended to other important agronomic traits such as plant architecture, yield, and grain quality.IRRI is acquiring high-throughput equipment to conduct reverse genetics, rapid genotyping, and discovery of candidate genes in metabolic pathways. The initial investment includes robotic workstations for DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and library arraying. A plan is in place to establish a microarray facility. Eventually, IRRI plans to provide research capacity and training for national research systems in high-throughput facilities. Handling and interpretation of data (e.g., gene expression profiles) will be part of the training.In bioinformatics, IRRI' s immediate objective is to build a public database to link phenotype data with sequence information from the international sequencing groups. This database will eventually provide information on gene function, genotypes of elite lines, and phenotypic expression of specific genotypes.At ILRI, researchers have launched an ambitious program to decode the DNA of one of Africa's most destructive cattle parasites. The availability of detailed genetic information about the parasite that causes East Coast fever (a leading cause of death in African cattle) should speed the development of a cost-effective vaccine. Decoding the parasite's genetic structure could cut ten years off the time needed to produce a cost-effective vaccine. The research should help immunologists to identify the proteins that enable the parasite to invade the cow's white blood cells.Over the longer term it may also assist researchers working to develop a vaccine against malaria and improve science's understanding of human cancers. The project is being conducted by the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). Biotechnologist Craig Venter, who chairs TIGR's board of trustees, donated all of the US$ 100,000 in prize money he received as the winner of this year's King Faisal International Science Prize to this multimillion dollar project. The project is expected to sequence the parasite genome within a year. ILRI scientists estimate than 24 million head of cattle are at risk of contracting the disease. A vaccine would inject up to US$ 300 million annually into the economies of the 11 countries where the disease is widespread.Transformation, which permits the introduction of novel genes in purified form, has probably excited more controversy in plant breeding than any other innovation in recent memory. Readers do not need a review of the many issues that surround the development and deployment of transgenic organisms; instead I will focus on some of the directions that this kind of research has taken within two CGIAR centers. IRRI has been using transformation technology in efforts to develop improved resistance to rice stem borer, bacterial blight, and sheath blight, but the most well-known example of rice transformation research is Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to contain more iron and vitamin A. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's Institute for Plant Sciences inserted genes from a daffodil and a bacterium into rice plants, enabling them to produce grain with beta-carotene (which is converted to vitamin A in humans). To double the iron content in rice, the research team added a gene from a French bean. The Swiss research was conducted with funding from governments and not-for-profit organizations. If the numerous intellectual property issues surrounding Golden Rice can be untangled, the new rice will be freely available to national and international agricultural research centers, and IRRI will adapt, develop, and conduct nutritional and environmental testing on rice varieties for the tropics .At CIMMYT, transformation technology forms part of a series of conventional and novel breeding strategies designed to increase resistance in maize to stem borers, which are particularly pernicious in Africa. Once inside a maize stalk, borers are impervious to conventional insecticide applications and cannot be removed by hand. In Kenya, it has been estimated that borers damage as much as 15% to 40% of the national maize crop. A CIMMYT research team has inserted cry1B and cry1Ac genes into a tropical maize background. This maize resists southwestern corn borer (SWCB), sugarcane borer (SCB), and fall armyworm (FAW). A synthetic cry1E gene and a translational fusion cry1B-1Ab gene were also introduced into tropical maize and have shown resistance to FAW, SWCB, andSCB.For wheat, transformation research at CIMMYT focuses on developing improved disease resistance in wheat, especially resistance to the rusts, the most economically important wheat diseases worldwide. Recent significant improvements in the wheat transformation rate at CIMMYT have taken researchers much closer to achieving this goal. In 2000, researchers inserted a gene that confers complete immunity to rust diseases in rice into wheat, with striking results. Transformed plants were infected with one of the more virulent races of rust found in Mexico and showed only a modest level of infection, compared with highly lethal infections on the control plants. Although it is unlikely that the rice gene represents a magic bullet (with truly novel characteristics) against rust, it could still be a valuable asset when stacked or pyramided with other resistance genes .Geographic information systems (GIS) literally bring new science \"down to earth\" by enabling researchers to integrate, process, analyze, and manipulate data in an explicitly spatial manner. The CGIAR centers have taken advantage of GIS in their own work and have also developed a number of extremely useful, practical tools and applications that have brought the analytical power of GIS to researchers who may not even have had desktop computers five years ago.Over the last 5 years, IRRI has developed a fully functioning GIS laboratory and has established links with advanced research institutions engaged in developing and maintaining global databases. Researchers have developed crop models and a GIS-based methodology for environmental characterization. IRRI focuses its GIS capacity on analyzing rice production and socioeconomic systems, as well as biophysical and socioeconomic constraints; targeting and prioritizing research; assessing potential rice supply and demand; and determining optimal land use options.FloraMap®, a computer tool on CD-ROM from CIAT, is the product of more than two decades of research and testing. The main uses of FloraMap are to guide the collection of wild plant species as well as to investigate their taxonomic and genetic variation. The program has also helped researchers to plan gene-conservation strategies and to map crop pests and their natural enemies. For example, an international research team used the pilot version of FloraMap to map the probable distribution of five Andean species of passion fruit (Passijlora spp.). Before this research project was undertaken, only a relatively small number of passion fruit specimens had been systematically gathered and conserved, and little was known about the genetic variation and climatic adaptation of commercially important passion fruit species in South America. The research team organized prospecting expeditions, reviewed the taxonomic literature, and obtained data for nearly 400 accessions of five Passijlora species. The spatial coordinates were input into FloraMap to identify other areas where specimens might be collected. Results also allowed the scientists to compare differences in climatic adaptation with genetic variations demonstrated through isozymes. IPGRI, which is interested in FloraMap for its conservation work, is extending the use of this software to national programs and to IPGRI staff around the world.CIMMYT has used GIS to target sites for farmer participatory research both in Zimbabwe and in Mexico. In Zimbabwe, site similarity studies were conducted for prospective research sites to ensure that analyses of farmers' risk management strategies in the research site would be relevant over a wider area and for a large number of farmers. In Mexico's Mixteca region, one of the poorest yet most culturally and biologically diverse regions of Mexico, researchers work with farmer groups to identify and solve their problems. A series of site similarity analyses were used to guide a farmer tour through other parts of the Mexican altiplano so that farmers could view relevant technologies used or being developed elsewhere .These short descriptions of the ways that new scientific strategies are used in our research system provides only a minimal introduction to their great potential in helping us to fulfill our mission. These strategies are promising; they are exciting; but like any innovation, they present challenges and uncertainties that will require many things from us. They will require great vigilance to ensure that concerns about equity, human health, and environmental welfare remain at the forefront of decisions about how to accomplish our research objectives. They will require great perseverance-both from researchers, who must deal with all of the unknowns that accompany new research directions, and from research managers, who must negotiate their way through an environment in which controversy increasingly limits consensus about how the new science should be used. And finally, these research strategies will require (and inspire) immense creativity in our research community.We must not forget that it is our science that gives substance to our mission. It is worth asking whether we would have been able to engage in so many innovative research areas if our colleague Ismail Serageldin had not believed in our potential to achieve results, and convinced others of that potential. The tremendous scientific dedication and energy within the CGIAR are fitting tributes to his own dedication and energy in acting as an advocate on our behalf. His efforts are helping our research to bear results, and I can think of few better legacies for humanity .","tokenCount":"2799"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cc8a96f359a5fc82df2d1c5dbd3038dd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b45f0b2-475f-4f2a-9b77-16940a75f1c8/retrieve","id":"-131212159"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"62f37992-6198-4675-8a36-4c4a24da36b6","pagecount":"1","content":"To discern the preferences among forage varieties promoted over the past five years and identify encouraging factors among farmers.h Information transfer campaigns should continue and be extended since farmers have shown high receptivity to promotion through projects and social networks that have had contact with the projects. h Type A and B production systems are slightly more market-oriented than C1 and C2. In this sense, encouraging factors for the first ones focused on FT performance and cattle weight gains. Hence, the communication strategy could focus on showing technical results (e.g., farmers' tours and demo farms). While C1 and C2 farmers require greater access to information in general. h Most financing methods are own savings, although farmers have credit access to sources with relative ease. This means that incentives for any kind of investment are closely linked to the performance of the beef market and cattle sales. h FTs are still in their initial dissemination phase. Although the demand has not been estimated accurately, it is compulsory to articulate them with current national livestock development programs to reach a broader impact and scope to disseminate promising technologies.h Employing a qualitative approach based on what Tim et al.(2022) outlined, we explore encouraging factors, most adopted forage technologies (FT), perceived benefits, and other factors that might evolve a challenge for FT adoption. h A purposive sampling method was employed to ensure representation of both men and women farmers, adopters and non-adopters. h Then, 42 semi-structured interviews were conducted in six villages in Chieng Luong and Chieng Chung communes within the Mai Son district. ","tokenCount":"260"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1761ca17b93d980b85b04b0308b31e2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/be966b48-c8ca-4523-802f-e74a1ee40661/retrieve","id":"1704864073"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"da5d94fe-da7a-46b5-a356-364ee70b8489","pagecount":"123","content":"IWMI encourages the use of its material provided that the organization is acknowledged and kept informed in all such instances.Front cover photo taken by Ellie Biggs showing Fijian bures on Wayasewa Island, Fiji.. Sustainable rural livelihoods: A framework for analysis Figure 18. The five capital assets(left) modified by Bebbington (1999). By displaying each asset as a point, an individual's access to capitals can be graphed where the center point of the pentagon, represents zero access to assets while the outer perimeter represents maximum access. On this basis, different shaped pentagons can be drawn for different communities or social groups within communities  Figure 23. Summary of the process of livelihood impact analysis Figure 24. Range of methods to implement a Sustainable Livelihoods framework Table 1. Share of Pacific economies dependent on natural resources (GDP share by sector, %)Table 2. The planetary boundaries Table 3. Summary of the range of units which can be assessed for security and potential threats to their security Table 4. Features of the most popular participatory approaches to research and development Table 5. Guiding questions applied to the mountain pine beetle epidemic case Table 6. Trial indicators chosen for the capital assets for the three field sites This document addresses the need for explicit inclusion of livelihoods within the environment nexus (water-energy-food security), not only responding to literature gaps but also addressing emerging dialogue from existing nexus consortia. We present the first conceptualization of 'environmental livelihood security' , which combines the nexus perspective with sustainable livelihoods. The geographical focus of this paper is Southeast Asia and Oceania, a region currently wrought by the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change is the primary external forcing mechanism on the environmental livelihood security of communities in Southeast Asia and Oceania which, therefore, forms the applied crux of this paper. Finally, we provide a primer for using geospatial information to develop a spatial framework to enable geographical assessment of environmental livelihood security across the region. We conclude by linking the value of this research to ongoing sustainable development discussions, and for influencing policy agendas. The paper is split into three main parts:The first part of this paper provides background environmental information to introduce the geography of Southeast Asia and Oceania and the importance of sustainable livelihoods and waterenergy-food security in the region. The first component describes the state of the environment including details on climate, climate change and important environmental impacts such as sealevel rise, pollution, and changes in extreme events. The next section investigates vulnerabilities and pressures -social, cultural, political and environmental -on the geographical system, with clear reference to climate adaptation and socioecological resilience. Finally, water, energy and food securities are discussed in detail, providing theoretical grounding and an applied link to climate change and issues of governance.Part II: Conceptualizing 'Environmental Livelihood Security'Having described both the natural and human environmental systems in Part I, this part provides a full conceptualization of what we term 'Environmental Livelihood Security' . A substantive literature review is provided to bring together the theory of environmental security with sustainable livelihoods, in order to introduce environmental livelihood security as a means of conceptualizing livelihoods within the nexus. Multiple facets of governance provide influential material and provide synergy to the theory discussed in Part I.Environmental livelihood security refers to the challenges of maintaining global food security and universal access to freshwater and energy to sustain livelihoods and promote inclusive economic growth, whilst sustaining key environmental systems' functionality, particularly under variable climatic regimes.Environmental security, a concept complementary to sustainable development, \"investigates the heightened vulnerability people have to certain environmental stresses -which may be due to natural processes and phenomena as well as to unsustainable social activity\" (Upreti 2013: 221). Falkenmark (2001) argues that bridging the concepts of environmental, food and water security is integral to the successful future of humanity (or one that is secure for humans). Attempting to create this bridge, at least in part, Hoff (2011) conceptualized the nexus approach to human protection where availability of water resources underpins food, water and energy security. The quality of human lives is inextricably linked to water which forms the core of the hydrologic, food production and livelihood systems (Kemp-Benedict et al. 2009). Whilst Hoff (2011) identified the role of the food, water and energy nexus in influencing human security, and Khagram et al. (2003) identified the relationship between human security and livelihoods, limited research exists conceptualizing and quantifying the relationship between food-water-energy security and sustainable livelihoods, particularly under a changing climate. In addition, Brauch (2005) stated that the analysis of environmental security issues at a regional level requires a spatial approach and should account for the temporal dimensions of environmental change. This is reiterated by Upreti (2013) who highlighted the need to differentiate between macro-and micro-scale environmental security, both of which are strongly influenced by the environmental and social geography of a region; environmental insecurity, extenuated by the impacts of climate changes (e.g., more frequent extreme events), is often experienced more adversely by the poor and vulnerable of developing nations (Brauch 2005;Brauch et al. 2008Brauch et al. , 2009Brauch et al. , 2011Brauch et al. , 2016;;Scheffran et al. 2012).In this document we present the concept of environmental livelihood security (ELS) which aims to address this research void explicitly highlighted by Brauch (2005), where the need for increased conceptual work on the environmental dimensions of human security has been identified. This paper also acknowledges the need for a multidisciplinary approach, to bring together researchers with the ability to link these concepts, in theory and practice (from both a quantitative and qualitative research perspective) to examine the influence of environmental resources availability on livelihood security within Southeast Asia and Oceania (SAO); a region where livelihoods have high interdependency with the environment. The conceptual approach taken to explore issues of environmental livelihood security in Southeast Asia and Oceania combines nexus-thinking (e.g., Hoff 2011) with that of sustainable livelihoods (e.g., DFID 1999) and also discusses the use of spatial information to examine environmental livelihood security within the region.The final version of this paper was, in part, the product of a workshop held at the University of Western Australia (June 2014) where, through a World Universities Network grant, academics and regional partners met to discuss the nexus-livelihoods concept. Expertise of workshop academic attendees ranged from sociologists to geomorphologists, and inclusion of regional partners insured that discussions were centered on policy-relevant outputs. The SAO region, defined for the purposes of this work in Figure 1, is an environmentally diverse region experiencing climatic variability at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales (BOM and CSIRO 2011). This paper provides applied grounding regarding the environmental geography of this broad region in Part I, a strong theoretical background to the concept of environmental livelihood security in Part II, and an appraisal of potential geospatial data and methodologies for assessing environmental livelihood security within the SAO region in Part III.Figure 1. Countries of Southeast Asia and Oceania (SAO) which constitute the geographical region referred to in this paper: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.AND OCEANIAClimatic regions of SEO can be divided into four broad regions (Figure 2) (Preston et al. 2006).The Arid and Semiarid Asia region (Figure 2) is characterized by an arid tropical climate with hot summers (Preston et al. 2006) and cold winters with \"mid-latitude westerlies\" dominating (Cheng et al. 2012). Precipitation in the area occurs mainly between April and September with the westerlies carrying water from the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caspian (Cheng et al.2012).Long-term precipitation trends in the area are believed to be controlled by possible incursions of the Asian summer monsoon and high-latitude ice volume variation but the processes are poorly documented and little understood (Cheng et al. 2012). Temperate Asia receives the greater part of precipitation during the summer wet season, driven by the East Asian Monsoon. The area has been affected by severe droughts and floods which are thought to be associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Preston et al. 2006).Figure 2. General climatic subregions within SAO (Source: Preston et al. 2006).Climate in the North Tropical Asia and South Tropical Asia is characterized by minimal seasonal temperature variation but with marked seasonal rainfall variation resulting in distinct wet and dry seasons (CSIRO and BOM 2011). The region is dominated by three large-scale wind convergence zones and associated rainfall: the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) just north of the equator; the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ); and the West Pacific Monsoon (WPM) (Figure 3). The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a coupled atmosphere-ocean phenomenon responsible for most of the climate variability in the Tropical Asia and the Pacific Region, operates at time scales of approximately 2 to 7 years (BOM and CSIRO 2011) and has a strong influence on climate conditions. El Niño is characterized by a basin-wide warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, while the converse state, La Niña, is characterized by a cooling of these waters, also east of the dateline. These events are associated with fluctuation of the Southern Oscillation, a global-scale tropical and subtropical pressure pattern (BOM and CSIRO 2011). ENSO is closely linked with variations in the main convergence zones with shifts in the location of the zones which influence rainfall, sea level and the risk of tropical cyclones. The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are natural patterns of climate variability which also influence the climate in this region (BOM and CSIRO 2011).Given the climate characteristics of the SAO region, this area is perceived to be highly vulnerable to climate change as the area geographically comprises many island nations (particularly small island developing states; SIDS). Many of these islands have limited land area, low elevation and high dependency on ocean ecosystems for survival, leaving them highly exposed to the potential negative impacts of future climatic change (Hay and Mimura 2013). Many countries in SAO are at significant risk of extreme events (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Some regions experience very high seasonal rainfall variations associated with the West Pacific Monsoon (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Anthropogenic climate warming is predicted to produce shifts in, or exaggeration of, preexisting natural variability, such as ENSO, which can result in flooding or drought thresholds being crossed more often (Collins et al. 2010). Physical processes that determine characteristics of ENSO will likely be modified by climate change, but it is not yet possible to say whether ENSO activity will be enhanced or lessened, or if the frequency of associated events will be impacted (Collins et al. 2010). Changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme events are likely to be responsible for the primary impacts of climate change on society (Katz and Brown 1992) with changes in frequency of these events having greater impact than changes in mean temperature and precipitation (Mitchell et al. 1990). In addition to broad global change, there are many local and regional influences on climate, including urbanization, elevation, and proximity to water bodies, which can affect changes in extreme events (Choi et al. 2009).Greater negative impacts on nature and society will come from increases in extreme climate events, such as prolonged periods of hot days and intense heavy rainfall days, than from changes in climate means (Choi et al. 2009). Attempting to quantify the relationship between temperature means and extremes, research by Griffiths et al. (2005) found trends for 1961-2003 in daily temperatures and extremes to be spatially consistent across the SAO region, with increases in mean maximum and mean minimum temperature, decreases in cold nights and cool days, and increases in warm nights. This is consistent with findings by Choi et al. (2009)   (Choi et al. 2009). These results support the hypothesis that changes in mean temperature may be useful in predicting changes in extremes (Griffiths et al. 2005).Increases in atmospheric temperature reported throughout the SAO region are expected to continue into the future (IPCC 2013). The magnitude of the projected warming is likely to be different throughout the globe due to geographic and atmospheric factors. Warming in the Pacific region is projected to be approximately 70% as large as the magnitude of global average warming; this is due to the high proportion of ocean which warms at a slower rate than land (IPCC 2013). BOM and CSIRO (2011) provide atmospheric temperature projections for the Pacific region centered on three 20-year periods (relative to 1990 baseline temperatures):• By 2030, the projected regional warming is around +0.5 to 1.0 °C, regardless of the emissions scenario.• By 2055, the warming is generally +1.0 to 1.5 °C with regional differences depending on the emissions scenario.• By 2090, the warming is around: +1.5 to 2.0 °C for low emissions scenario, +2.5 to 3.0 °C for A2 (high emissions scenario).Large increases in the incidence of extremely hot days and warm nights are also projected (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Atmospheric temperature increases will likely change the global hydrological cycle leading to more atmospheric moisture. Though uncertain, the consequences of increased atmospheric moisture could result in less frequent and more intense precipitation events throughout SAO (Trenberth et al. 2007).Unlike the situation for temperature means, seasonal and annual precipitation do not show substantial, spatially consistent trends (Choi et al. 2009). Utilizing data from 143 weather stations across the SAO region, Choi et al. (2009) found there to be no systematic, regional trends in total precipitation, or in the frequency and duration of extreme precipitation events over the 1995-2007 time period. The standardized precipitation index (SPI; Lloyd-Hughes and Saunders 2002), a measure of drought (based on rainfall), indicates a trend towards fewer events at the end of the century (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Based on the SPI model, for all predicted emissions scenarios, the frequency of moderate droughts is projected to decline in the central Pacific (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Particular decreases in moderate drought occurrence are projected over the eastern equatorial cold tongue region (drought occurrence expected to decrease from 3-4 times every 20 years to 2-3 by 2090) and the central western Pacific, including Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and southern Palau (drought occurrence expected to decrease by 1-2 times every 20 years to 0-1 by 2090) (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Similar patterns are reported for mild and severe droughts (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Complementing SPI model, BOM and CSIRO (2011) report that atmospheric projections also predict droughts will occur less often in the region. This is in contrast to studies of observational studies such as in Fiji, which indicate increases in drought frequency (Deo 2011). Furthermore, research indicates that an increase in atmospheric moisture due to global warming may increase drought frequency while having little effect on precipitation (Trenberth et al. 2007). With these contrasting results in mind, it is clear that there are still many unknowns when considering extreme climate events in Southeast Asia and Oceania.Tropical cyclones affect many coastal and island communities throughout SAO. These severe storms present significant hazards including extreme winds, storm surge inundation, salt water intrusion, flooding and landslides from intense rainfall. The majority of tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere occur during November-April, with an average of one to two cyclones per day during the January-March maximum period (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Most tropical cyclones in the southern hemisphere are spatially distributed in the South Pacific between the Australian coast and the International Date Line, from about 12°S to 22°S (BOM and CSIRO 2011). In the western North Pacific, where cyclones are referred to as typhoons, increased frequency of storms are the result of favorable cyclonic development conditions, including high relative humidity, vertical wind shear velocity, sea-surface temperatures and convective available potential energy (Camargo et al. 2007).Despite high exposure of SAO to tropical cyclones, there have been relatively few studies attempting to quantify the severe storm hazards in this region (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Present global climate models struggle to sufficiently simulate features of the current climate that strongly influences frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones (e.g., regional patterns of sea-surface temperature, ENSO, and the West Pacific Monsoon) and temporal and spatial resolutions are insufficient to capture small-scale features of these systems, such as high wind speeds (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Methods have been sought to either identify relationships between tropical cyclones and large-scale environmental conditions; or to identify weather features with tropical cyclone characteristics (i.e., a closed low pressure system accompanied by strong winds) directly from climate model outputs (BOM and CSIRO 2011).Globally, tropical cyclone intensity is suggested to increase by about 2-11% (BOM and CSIRO 2011). A report by BOM and CSIRO (2011) presents several significant findings in terms of tropical cyclone frequency and intensity predictions for the Pacific region based on a number of climate model analysis methods, with outputs suggesting tropical cyclone frequency is likely to decrease by the end of the century (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Most simulations project an increase in the proportion of the most severe storms in the southwest Pacific with maximum intensity storms moving southward (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Models in the South Pacific indicate a reduction in cyclonic wind hazard north of 20 °S and regions of increased hazard south of 20 °S, which coincides with projected increases in the number of tropical cyclones occurring south of 20 °S and a shift to further southern latitudes at which storms are most intense (BOM and CSIRO 2011).Global sea-level change is occurring as a result of thermal expansion, the melting of land ice and groundwater extraction (Nicholls and Cazenave 2010). Sea-level rise is threatening people and ecosystems in many coastal areas and islands in SAO. Satellite altimetry data indicate the greatest increases in sea level have occurred in the North Tropical Asia region with considerable increases also around Papua New Guinea and Western Australia (Figure 4) (AVISO+ 2014). The IPCC (2013) stated that the mean rate of global average sea-level rise was 1.7 mm per year between 1901 and 2010 and 2.0 mm per year between 1971 and 2010 based on a comprehensive series of proxy records, tide gauge records and satellite altimetry data. Process-based models suggest that changes in glacier and ice sheet contributions will result in 0.28 to 0.98 m sea-level rise by 2100 (IPCC 2013; Figures 5 and 6).  Globally, ocean temperature increases have been largest near the surface with the IPCC reporting that the upper 75 m warmed by 0.11 °C per decade from 1971 to 2010 (IPCC 2013). BOM and CSIRO (2011) also reported a general increase in sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean since 1950. In addition, they report a decline in salinity in the western tropical Pacific Ocean and an increase in salinity to the east. These salinity changes are related to relative rates of evaporation versus precipitation (IPCC 2013) and have caused an increase in the stratification of the upper Pacific Ocean (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Projections suggest the temperature of ocean surface waters (i.e., the top 100 m) will increase globally by approximately 0.6 to 2.0 °C by 2100 (IPCC 2013). This warming is likely to be most pronounced in surface waters of the tropical and Northern Hemisphere subtropical regions (IPCC 2013). In the deeper ocean (i.e., depth 1,000 m) the warming is projected to be between 0.3 and 0.6 °C by 2100 (IPCC 2013). The salinity of sea surface is predicted to decrease in the Pacific with regional differences relating to changes in rainfall (BOM and CSIRO 2011). This declining salinity, coupled with the projected increase in water temperature is likely to drive further stratification between the surface and deep ocean, inhibiting mixing and reducing the supply of nutrients from the deep ocean received by surface waters (BOM and CSIRO 2011).The impacts of sea-level rise on coastal areas and islands include physical impacts, such as inundation of low-lying areas and coastal erosion; and ecological impacts such as salinization of soils and groundwater making them unsuitable for agriculture (BOM andCSIRO 2011, Duce et al. 2010). The countries of SAO were found to be among the most exposed to sea-level rise impacts based on various indicators (Figure 7), and various impacts can be identified within different nations in this region. For example:• Soil salinity can increase due to the inundation of the land by sea water caused by both extreme (e.g., cyclone and storm surge) and chronic events (e.g., sea-level rise) (Rabbani et al. 2013). Combined with urbanization and industrialization, salinization presents anadditional pressure to land available and suitable for agricultural production. Salt intrusion can substantially impact crop yields and the viability for agricultural production with ensuing economic consequences (Warner et al. 2012;Rabbani et al. 2013).• Mangroves provide an important land use buffer to the risks from cyclone activity, as well as a unique natural habitat. Shearman et al. (2013) used remote sensing to assess changes in some of SAO's major mangrove deltaic systems: the Fly and Kikori-Purari (Papua New Guinea), Irrawaddy (Myanmar) and Mekong (Vietnam). The study found an overall net loss of mangroves across the region with considerable variation within individual systems.The greatest decline was found to have occurred in the Papuan deltas which experience the least anthropogenic activity and where sediment load could be expected to increase due to deforestation and mining within the catchments. Shearman et al. (2013) speculate that this could be a result of eustatic sea-level rise in the area and perhaps associated with, but hard to quantify, increases in wave activity.• Groundwater is a dependency for many small island states for agriculture, livestock and domestic supply (Falkland 1991;Barnett and Campbell 2010). Groundwater in small island states often exists as a \"lens\" of less dense freshwater floating on more dense saltwater (Ketabachi et al. 2013;Robins 2013). Groundwater modelling studies have shown that sea-level rise leading to increased land surface inundation will lead to increased saltwater intrusion and therefore a decrease in available freshwater on many small island states (Ketabachi et al. 2013;Robins 2013), impacting communities and ecosystems dependent on groundwater.• Storm frequency coupled with increased sea-level rise could pose a substantial risk to coastal zones and islands in SAO (BOM and CSIRO 2011;Hay 2013). Brecht et al. (2012) identified considerable asymmetry in the exposure of countries to large storm surges with Manila in the Philippines exhibiting the greatest coastal population at risk (Brecht et al. 2012). The recent devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines potentially provides grounding to validate this assertion, but Brecht et al. (2012) noted the lack of a global database on coastal-zone management and shoreline protection -a considerable limitation to such studies. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased to the highest rates in 800,000 years; 40, 150 and 20% higher, respectively, than pre-industrial levels (IPCC 2013). A proportion of these emissions has been absorbed by the oceans leading to a decrease in pH in the process of ocean acidification (refer to Figure 8) (IPCC 2013). By 2100 a decrease in surface ocean pH of 0.06 to 0.32 is predicted. The east coast of Australia is projected to be one of the most rapidly acidifying regions (Figure 9). This acidification is associated with a decrease in the amount of carbonate minerals available in seawater to be secreted as shells and skeletal material by many key species. Reef building corals precipitate calcium carbonate in the form of aragonite and require an optimal aragonite saturation rate of four or higher. Since 1990, there has been a decline in aragonite saturation throughout the Pacific Ocean (BOM and CSIRO 2011). Future changes indicate aragonite saturation rates are predicted to fall below 3.5 in many regions of the Pacific (BOM and CSIRO 2011). The recent IPCC report (2013) projects that surface waters will become seasonally corrosive to aragonite in some coastal upwelling systems within a decade, and in parts of the Southern Ocean within one to three decades under most scenarios.Societies within the SAO region which are heavily reliant upon coral reef and other marine ecosystems for subsistence fishing, tourism and/or exports will likely be negatively impacted by ocean acidification. More broadly, oceanic climate change impacts may result in the extinction of numerous local marine fish and invertebrate species in tropical areas (Cheung et al. 2009) by 2050. Approximately 30 million people worldwide depend heavily on fish as a primary source of protein (Bell et al. 2011). Coastal and island nations, provided for by predominantly small-scale fisheries, have the highest per capita seafood consumption rates in the world (Huelsenbeck 2012).In assessing the vulnerability of national economies to climate change impacts on fisheries, Allison et al. (2009) found Cambodia to be one of the most vulnerable countries in the SAO region.   The SAO region supports areas of significant biodiversity, endemic wildlife and a major proportion of the world's threatened species. Altogether nine of the 34 international biodiversity hot spots identified by Conservation International are within the SAO region. These include East Melanesian Islands, Indo-Burma, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Philippines, Polynesia-Micronesia, southwest Australia, Sundaland and Wallacea. The scale of development and infrastructural expansion associated with rapid economic advancement within the region and its neighboring countries has resulted in regional decline in biodiversity. Human-induced disturbance of natural ecosystems can alter species composition and ecological processes. The main drivers of biodiversity loss in the SAO region include invasive species, deforestation, timber and biofuel monocultures, land use and water use change, habitat fragmentation, agricultural expansion and intensification, unsustainable harvesting of timber and non-timber forest products (e.g., over-hunting of game species), overfishing, urban expansion, pollution and climate change (Gardner et al. 2010).Increasing global demand for food, biofuel and other commodities has resulted in the expansion of oil palm and paper-and-pulp industries at the expense of lowland dipterocarp forests in Southeast Asia (Sodhi et al. 2010). Medicinal plants also face a high risk of extinction in regions where there is continuing dependence on wild collection (UNEP 2010). Those most affected by loss of biodiversity and associated decline in ecosystem services are communities whose lives are closely linked with the environment, and who are often most impoverished and marginalized (Fuentes et al. 2012). Maintaining functional connectivity across multiple-use landscapes and protection of species-rich habitats, including traditional agroforestry systems and secondary regrowth, are fundamental to long-term ecological resilience (Tabarelli et al. 2010). In this region of high cultural diversity in which community livelihoods are dependent on human-environment interactions, traditional ecological knowledge has an important role in biodiversity conservation.There has been an 800% increase in nitrogen applications to farmlands in the last 50 years; agriculture is now the largest source of nitrogen and phosphorus in water bodies, and of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to croplands only 30-50% is utilized by crops (Tilman et al. 2002;Foley et al. 2005Foley et al. , 2011)). The resultant excessive nutrient loading of water bodies facilitates eutrophication, toxic algal blooms, disturbance of species composition, anoxic conditions that deplete fish stocks, degradation of coastal ecosystems and subsequent health impacts from poor-quality drinking water (Tilman et al. 2002;Carpenter et al. 2010;Wiener et al. 2010). This highlights that agriculture can lead to decline in both water availability, through irrigation extraction greater than renewable limits, and water quality; this often has downstream impacts (Wiener et al. 2010). A global analysis revealed that developed countries are able to limit threats to biodiversity whilst maintaining water security, an option not always available to developing countries (Figure 10) (Vörösmarty et al. 2010). This suggests that under current water use practices and governance structures there will be a trade-off between increasing calls to meet biodiversity and conservation goals and the need to provide water security to approximately one seventh of the world's population. Coastal habitat degradation and marine pollution are the two main pressures in marine environments. Despite international conventions and regional efforts focused on controlling marine pollution, there has been continued increase in environmental damage caused by debris in the Asia-Pacific oceans (UNEP 2005;McIlgorm et al. 2009). The economic impact of marine debris to fishing, transportation, tourism and insurance industries in the SAO region is estimated to be US$1.265 billion across the 21 APEC economies (McIlgorm et al. 2009). Additional, less economically quantifiable costs include impact to coastal habitats, loss of local livelihoods and lost capital-investment opportunities. It is estimated that, globally, approximately 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources, entering ocean environments directly (deliberate or unintended) or indirectly via runoff, rivers, sewers, stormwater or wind (UNEP 2005). Plastics comprise approximately 60-80% of marine debris (Allsopp et al. 2006) and are potentially the most preventable form (Derraik 2002). Current understanding of the oceans' accommodative capacity for land-based wastes is limited due to the difficulty in quantifying decomposition rates of inorganic marine debris. In reducing the stock of marine debris, the benefit-cost ratios are greater for preventive measures than clean-up activities, suggesting efforts should be concentrated on reducing debris entering coastal waterways and controlling waste practices (McIlgorm et al. 2009). The dispersal of pollutants and marine organisms impacted by toxic contaminants (such as heavy metals and dioxins) is influenced by ocean currents. Due to the interconnectivity of marine systems, regional influences on waste regulation can impact localized pollutant concentrations.Both land-and ocean-based waste practices have important consequences for fisheries-related food security, particularly in communities reliant on coastal fisheries for local livelihood.Human water security threat High LowThe SAO region contains some of the largest and smallest national populations on the planet (UNFPA 2013). Populations are disproportionately distributed in the region, resulting in widely varying population densities (Waggener and Lane 1997). Accompanying this diversity are demographic trends characterized by lower overall fertility and mortality rates, as well as rapid urbanization and migration flows within and out of the region (UNFPA 2013). Some countries in the region are faced with a \"youth bulge\", which presents opportunities to accelerate development, while others are ageing rapidly, making the provision of adequate healthcare and other services imperative (UNFPA 2013). CEPAR (2013) state that significant change will occur in the Asian region's age structure; half of the projected increase in the one billion Asian population by 2040 will be over 65 and the ratio of older (65+) to working-age population (15-64) will more than triple in many East and Southeast Asian countries. This demographic transition is being driven by increases in life expectancy and decreases in fertility (CEPAR 2013).Migration is also an important population issue in the region. SAO is the origin of 40% of all international migrants globally and there are even more people moving within their own countries (UNFPA 2013). Rapid economic growth, the slowing of domestic population and the growth of the labor force due to fertility reduction have resulted in countries such as Singapore opening its doors to in-migration of foreigners for employment, with the option of permanent settlement for the highly skilled (Chongsuvivatwong et al. 2011). The Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam are major labor-exporters, whereas Malaysia and Thailand both receive and send nationals abroad (both within and outside the SAO region) (Chongsuvivatwong et al. 2011). There is also significant undocumented or illegal migration and movement of displaced people in the region -groups that are particularly vulnerable since they are disproportionately more exposed to health risks and are often left out of assistance programs in times of disasters and emergencies (Chavez 2007).Currently, two out of every five persons in the region live in urban areas, but this ratio is expected to increase significantly in the next two decades as millions move from the countryside to towns and cities in search of employment and better opportunities (UNFPA 2013). Even a slowing urbanization growth rate in China is still expected to add hundreds of millions to Asia's urban population in the next 20 years (CEPAR 2013).Demographic shifts in terms of an ageing population and increasing urbanization are not unrelated, as urban centers not only boast better job opportunities and higher incomes but also allow greater access to health services, education, and social networks -factors known to be associated with longer lives (CEPAR 2013). Accompanying these demographic shifts are social trends and changes, particularly in relation to family structure. For example, Asians are now marrying less, translating to fewer children and affecting the pattern of family formation, which can undermine traditional sources of support (CEPAR 2013). Such trends and changes in society can result in vulnerability to particular communities or individuals, which may either impact upon or be inherently rooted within cultural values.One example of vulnerability to the population, which arises as a consequence of sociocultural factors, is the marginalization of a particular ethnic minority or indigenous groups by the dominant ethnic groups in a country, often as a result of historical power shifts (e.g., Duncan [ed.] 2004). In Mainland Southeast Asia, ethnic minority groups have been pushed into ecologically marginal and vulnerable spaces, often in mountainous border regions (such as the so-called hill tribes of North Thailand or the indigenous Kh'mu in northern Lao PDR) or in fragile coastal and island locations (e.g., the so-called 'sea gypsies' in southern Thailand and Myanmar and in some provinces of Malaysia and Indonesia). Many of these groups tend to be regarded as either economically and culturally backward or environmentally destructive (or both) by mainstream society (Duncan 2004;Forsyth and Walker 2008) Gender is another major social factor of vulnerability. Gender can be conceptualized as \"the rules, customs and practices by which biological differences are translated into social differences between men and women\" (Sullivan et al. 2012). Statistics which are not gender-disaggregated mask inequality and the feminization of poverty (Chant 2006). Gender disparities persist across the board and women are yet to reach equity with men (Okali 2011;World Economic Forum 2013). Although culturally diverse, the SAO region is predominantly characterized by entrenched patriarchal traditions. These are arguably more evident in Southern Asia (where a strong son-preference still prevails) than in the small island nations of the Pacific which tend to exhibit a more fluid appreciation of gender roles (as exemplified by the Fa'afafine of Samoa). Women in many rural societies in SAO do not have equal access to land, water and other natural resources and are rarely landholders in their own right as their male peers. Women's rights to agricultural and forestland are often fragile and they face risks of being excluded in state-led land reform processes and community forestry initiatives.In Nepal, for instance, where community forest user groups (CFUG) cover more than 22% of the country's forest area, the majority of CFUG members are male, and wealthier upper-caste men tend to dominate major decisions with regard to forest control and use, although women spend much of their time and energy gathering forestry products (Acharya 2005;Larson et al. 2010). Women in most small island states of the South Pacific are also disadvantaged in terms of access to land. With the exception of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, where women enjoy the same land rights as their male peers, Pacific Island women are mostly excluded from the right of inheritance, both in patrilineal societies (e.g., Fiji, Tonga) and in matrilineal societies (e.g., Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru as well as some parts of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu) (IPS-USP 1986). In some places, perceptions of the status and entitlements of women are slowly changing, and higher education, the gradual shift from communal to individually held land, and the expansion of freehold land markets have opened some opportunities for women to own land, thereby reducing their economic vulnerability in some places (Ward and Kingdon 1995).Political and institutional factors of vulnerability have received less attention from scholarly research than ecological, economic and social factors. Yet, in many countries of the SAO region, controversial government policies have had a major impact on the sustainability of rural livelihoods. All too often, governments mistakenly believe they can control resources 'for the public good' most effectively. They tend to ignore the possibility that a communal property regime and community self-governance -when recognized and supported by the government -could provide greater protection and more effective use of the resources under many circumstances. One of the consequences of this misconception was the declaration of state-controlled protected areas, the majority of which have been established on indigenous and ethnic minority peoples' lands without their consent. In 1999, it was estimated that about 80-100 million people in Southeast Asia lived in national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, forest reserves and other protected areas, most of them without a legal basis on their land and continuously threatened by expulsion (Poffenberger 1999). This number has likely increased since then, as several countries, most notably Thailand and Vietnam, have since expanded their national protected areas (Neef et al. 2003;Dahal et al. 2011).In Thailand, communal management of forests still has no legal basis despite the constitutional rights of local communities to actively participate in the management of natural resources. In the Thai uplands, the failure to recognize communities' rights and to delineate boundaries for community forests has left local people's hands tied in protecting their communal resources against encroachers and outside investors. In Lao PDR, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia large concession projects that promote agro-industrial plantations and commercial timber extraction frequently come into conflict with indigenous approaches to forest management, despite the official recognition of community forestry in these countries (e.g., Kenney-Lazar 2012; Neef et al. 2013;Eilenberg 2014). The only country in Southeast Asia that has formally adopted community-based forest management as a national strategy to achieve sustainable forestry is the Philippines. It is also the ASEAN country that is most progressive in terms of acknowledging indigenous peoples' territorial rights. The Indigenous People's Rights Act (IPRA) provides the legal basis of giving indigenous communities titled tenure rights on their ancestral domains. Legal ambiguities remain a problem, however, as many ancestral domains overlap with mining land, traditionally owned by the State (Llanto and Ballasteros 2003). Another problem is that jurisdiction over IPRA was recently shifted from the Office of the President to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which does not see the advancement of indigenous domains as a major priority (Dahal et al. 2011).Due to high population densities, rapid urbanization processes and a strong focus on quantitative economic growth, Asia is home to the world's largest displaced population. Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) has gained increasing attention by media, development circles, civil society, donor countries and national policymakers throughout Asia, particularly triggered by well-publicized cases of civil resistance (e.g., to the Sardar Sarovar Dam in India; Maitra 2009) and to the Monywa Copper Mine in Myanmar (Zerrouk and Neef 2014)), by the enormous scale of environmental and socioeconomic disruption, for example, that posed by the Three Gorges Dam in China (Wilmsen et al. 2011;Wang et al. 2013) and by politically charged transboundary controversies and conflicts (e.g., over the impacts of dam construction in the Mekong River Basin; Tilt et al. 2009;Middleton et al. 2009;Zhang et al. 2013). In the Pacific region, mining, tourism and logging are among the major factors that have caused involuntary resettlement and dispossession of community land (e.g., Banks et al. 2013 for the case of the mining sector in Papua New Guinea; Wittersheim 2011 for the case of tourism in Vanuatu; Hameiri 2012 for the case of large-scale logging in the Solomon Islands). There is substantial empirical evidence that development-induced displacement exacerbates vulnerabilities among already marginalized, poor and vulnerable social groups, such as women, ethnic minorities, the urban poor, and land-poor subsistence farmers depending on access to communally held natural resources (e.g., Vandergeest et al. 2006;Bisht 2009;Bui et al. 2013;Quetulio-Navarra 2014). Turvey (2007) defines geographic vulnerability from a developing perspective as a country's susceptibility to physical and human pressures, risks and hazards, in spatiotemporal contexts. Small island developing states (SIDS) vary enormously according to distinct biophysical, sociocultural and economic characteristics (FAO 1999). However, Mercer et al. (2007) report common challenges are shared, including small populations, limited resources, excessive dependence on international trade, vulnerability to global developments and a susceptibility to environmental hazards. Briguglio (1995) argued many SIDS face special disadvantages associated with small size, insularity, remoteness and proneness to natural disasters rendering their economies highly vulnerable and threatening their economic viability. The geography of the region, pacific islands in particular, also means that many nations are physically isolated from global markets and their economies are narrowly based (ADB 2013a).The SAO region, particularly the Pacific nations, is characterized by a fragile economic structure, largely dependent on natural resources, which heightens its vulnerability to climate change (ADB 2013a). Economies in SAO reflect the great natural resource diversity (Table 1) but poverty rates still remain high throughout much of the region (ADB 2013a). Agriculture, industry and tourism are the primary economic contributors to GDP in the region with relative importance varying considerably between nations. The agriculture sector, including cropping and fisheries, is economically important and also extremely significant for food security in SAO. The agriculture sector in many nations is under pressure from limited arable land, and increasing population and urbanization, with climatic change adding additional pressure (ADB 2013a). Even the industrial sectors of many Pacific nations are dependent on natural resources such as pearls, shells and wood, making them exposed to climate change (ADB 2013a). Most nations in SAO experienced growth in GDP between 2000 and 2012, the highest being in East Asia which had an average annual increase of 7% over the period (Figure 11). However, the Pacific region experienced the lowest overall growth at <1% GDP (ADB 2013a).  The economies of the Pacific region, in particular the SIDS, rely heavily on tourism which accounts for up to 56% (Palau) of GDP in the nations (Table 1). Aside from direct physical impacts of climate change on the tourism industries (i.e., coastal erosion, decline of coral reefs), Scheyvens and Momsen (2008) argue that the conceptualization of these islands as extremely geographically vulnerable to climate change could present a barrier to sustainable tourism development and, in turn, economic development overall. Farbotko and Lazrus (2012) also provide evidence of this negative conceptualization manifesting in economic loss for SIDS. They contest the concept of \"Climate Refugees\" being produced on small island states due to their high vulnerability to climate changes, with particular reference to sea-level rise. The authors state that migration has been a key part of Tuvaluan life long before climate change was recognized as a threat and argue that labeling migrants as climate refugees is politically charged and disempowering to the communities concerned. Connell (2013) provides a useful review of the dialogue surrounding climate change and migration in the Pacific Region.Note: GDP data is for 2011 except for Palau, PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, which is 2012 data is based on most recent year available. Tourism data is for the year 2010 except for Kiribati and Tonga (2005). Nauru and Tuvalu are not included in the table owing to the absence of tourism data. Solomon islands lacks GDP shares data. Climate change represents a significant threat to resources critical to ensuring security across the nexus sectors, and will amplify current worrying trajectories in resource use. Warming temperatures and extreme heat events are likely to negatively impact cereal crop production (Deryng et al. 2014;Gourdji et al. 2013;Challinor et al. 2014;Rosenzweig et al. 2014). It is likely that warming temperatures will also impact crop water productivity (Döll 2002) and availability of water for irrigation (Elliott et al. 2014). Climate change will also impact the energy sector, warming temperatures will reduce the efficiency of water used in cooling systems in thermal power plants, rising sea levels could threaten coastal energy infrastructures (e.g., tidal power, coastal power plants) and droughts and erratic precipitation could impact hydropower (Rodriguez et al. 2013).Global Hydrological Models (GHM) indicate human extraction of freshwater has a negative impact on runoff in all basins compared to a natural hydrological cycle (Haddeland et al. 2013). Population increases and growing water demand will further exacerbate scarcity (Chatres and Sood 2013). However, projected changes in runoff under climate change (RCP 8.5) will have differing impacts in basins across the globe; in some basins, climate change will increase runoff cancelling out human extraction impacts (e.g., Nile Basin) and in others it will exacerbate the impacts of human extraction (i.e., increase runoff deficit from a natural hydrological cycle) (Haddeland et al. 2013).The political situation and decision-making capacity of a nation affect their level of environmental vulnerability and their ability to adapt to climate change successfully. Kelly and Adger (2000) argue that institutional constraints are a key determinant of vulnerability by controlling the access to resources, influencing resilience and constraining or enabling adaptation. The dissemination of knowledge facilitating climate-change adaptation has typically followed a top-down approach (McNamara 2013). However, it has been asserted, for example by Garnaut (2008), that climate change adaptation is likely to be most successful when bottom-up. McNamara (2013) reviewed the success of community-based climate-change adaptation projects throughout the Pacific. The author concluded that limited progress has been made to address climate-change impacts at a community level and recognized the need for broad enhancement of sustainable livelihood resources as part of project development and implementation. Hay and Mimura (2013) reviewed vulnerability, risk and adaptation mechanisms and actions employed across Pacific Island Communities (PIC). They document a shift from country-wide approaches towards those with a single-sector focus and identify the need for vulnerability assessments to be context-specific for the Pacific, allow for planned rather than reactive adaptation, need strong government support and require more sufficient evaluation, monitoring and reporting on adaptation initiatives.The concept of vulnerability is a common gateway to defining resilience. Social vulnerability, the exposure of groups or individuals to stress as a result of the impacts of environmental change, in general, encompasses disruption to livelihoods and loss of security (Adger 2000). Vulnerability for natural ecosystems occurs when individuals or communities of species are stressed, and where thresholds of potentially irreversible changes through environmental adjustments are experienced (Adger 2000). Adger (2000) defines social resilience as the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change, and ecological resilience as the characteristic of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance. There are clear links between social and ecological resilience, particularly for social groups dependent on ecological resources for their livelihoods, as demonstrated by Adger (2000) through the example of the privatization of Vietnam mangroves. The interaction of the management of the coastal resources with the social system forms a direct coevolving link between ecological and social resilience (Adger 2000). Land reclamation policy directly results in ecosystem change which feeds back to the productivity of the economic activity and the institutional structures which manage them (Adger 2000). Resilience of the management system governing fish extraction from the remaining mangroves depends on resilience to increased fishing pressure of mangrove and fish stocks (Adger 2000).Furthering the concept of dependency, resource dependency relates to communities and individuals whose social order, livelihood and stability are directly linked to their resource production and localized economy (Machlis et al. 1990). Adger (2000) states the promotion of specialization in economic activities has negative consequences in terms of risk for individuals within communities and for communities themselves. In the context of coastal regions of Southeast Asia, individuals may not necessarily rely on a single crop or fish stock, but may be dependent on an integrated ecosystem or a whole ecosystem (Bailey and Pomeroy 1996;Adger 2000). However, Bailey and Pomeroy (1996) argue social systems dependent on coastal resources are inherently resilient, despite their single ecosystem dependence, because of reduced vulnerability to sudden economic misfortune and community instability associated with the complexity of tropical coastal resource systems. Conversely, research in Malaysia by Dow (1999) has shown that major impacts can be experienced from events such as oil spills for those parts of coastal communities directly dependent on fishing. But the notion of complexity adding to increased resilience is again emphasized by Costanza et al. (1995). They report that the resilience of coastal and estuarine systems may be high due to the diversity of functions which they perform, such as rapid selfregulation and regeneration; thus the resilience of coastal communities is enhanced by the regenerating and absorptive capacity of the coastal ecosystems itself (Adger 2000).Given societal reliance on environmental services and the pressure humanity is placing on the planet with worrying trajectories in key environmental processes key thresholds in the Earth system have been identified which if exceeded could harm human well-being (Rockström et al. 2009a). This analysis suggested that humanity has already exceeded planetary boundaries for climate change, rate of biodiversity loss and the nitrogen cycle; boundaries are yet to be determined for atmospheric aerosol loading and chemical pollution (Table 2). A key message to take from the 'planetary boundaries' analysis is that human well-being, at a range of scales, is linked to Earth system functioning at a range of scales. This is based on the premise that unique environmental conditions during the Holocene provided the opportunity for human societal development and through current anthropogenic activities (often activities within water, energy and food systems), we are altering the state of the environment (Rockström et al. 2009a). For livelihoods to be secure, and be sustained in a state of security, good environmental and resource governance should not only focus on the immediate 'local' environment but also address 'global' issues and consider crossscale feedbacks (Gerst et al. 2014;Tittonell 2014). This is where 'resilience thinking' or 'systems' approaches to managing livelihoods-environment linkages (aka socioecological systems) can help address the complexities inherent to water, energy and food security (Hoff 2011). Such 'systems' approaches will not necessarily set a list of management goals (e.g., halving hunger by 2015), rather they will seek to build processes and functioning that continually link resources to positive results (e.g., a sustainable functioning food system) (Mitchell 2013;Matyas and Pelling 2012;Gerst et al. 2014). Identifying these 'processes' will be important for managing the nexus in the future to promote environmental well-being and sustainable livelihoods simultaneously. Overall particulate concentration in the loading atmosphere, on a regional basis To be determined Chemical pollutionFor example, amount emitted to, or concentration of persistent organic pollutants, plastics, endocrine disrupters, heavy metals and nuclear waste in the To be determined global environment, or the effects on ecosystems and functioning of Earth system thereof Currently, human activities and extraction of resources are threatening to undermine our resource base on a global scale, and have already done so in isolated circumstances at a local scale (Rockström et al. 2009a;Gerst et al. 2014). This suggests we are extracting huge amounts of natural capital, yet over a billion people are food, water or energy insecure; these people do not realize the benefits of the extraction of this natural capital or do not have the capabilities to utilize it in a positive manner. Research looking at the planetary boundaries and the environmental ceiling (thresholds) of localized systems is emerging to better quantify environmental impact and resilience at a regional scale (e.g., case studies in China presented in Dearing et al. 2014). Such research is advocating the better management of links between natural resources and development to enable a concurrent reduction of our pressure on the Earth system whilst simultaneously boosting livelihoods. There still remains a question as to whether the concept of planetary boundaries can be, or needs to be, operationalized or governed at the regional or local level. There may be scope to include planetary boundaries concepts, such as the threats of tipping points or the careful consideration of safe operating spaces, to attain water-food-energy security, particularly given the synergy of both concepts to natural resource use. Scale becomes an important factor in decision-making here, and monitoring system change needs careful scale consideration.Where systems are complex and contain nonlinear relationships between variables, processes or actors it is likely there are multiple potential states the system can occupy (Gallopín 2006). Closely linked to systems approaches, and inherent to the idea of planetary boundaries is an awareness that thresholds exist in system functioning, which if passed, would have negative environmental and societal outcomes; the point at which a system shifts from one state to another is termed a threshold and the system is said to have undergone a regime change (Scheffer et al. 2001;Scheffer and Carpenter 2003;Gallopín 2006;Eakin et al. 2012). When the resilience in a system is eroded it can shift from one state to another (potentially undesirable state), in a gradual, nonlinear or a more catastrophic manner (e.g., a tipping point) (Scheffer et al. 2001;Scheffer and Carpenter 2003). Before reaching a tipping point, the system may enter into a state termed as an unsafe space (Rockström et al. 2009a, b;Hughes et al. 2013a, b). Often, returning to a prior state, or a desired state, will not be as simple as reversing a development trajectory (Tittonell 2014). In this context, a loss of resilience implies increasing likelihood for the system to undergo a threshold change; often, this threshold change can be triggered by an extreme event (Eakin et al. 2012), which within the SAO region could be anything previously referred to from a catastrophic cyclone to political unrest.Explicit to the planetary boundaries framework is that the boundaries are interlinked (Rockström et al. 2009a), which is indicative of a systemic approach where change in one subsystem or system driver can impact others thus altering the state of the larger system. Regarding water, energy and food security a lack of systems thinking may allow unsustainable resource use in one's sector (e.g., excessive groundwater extraction) which may push the entire system closer to critical, harmful thresholds, undermining water, energy and food security (alongside the environmental resource base). The concept of thresholds and planetary boundaries suggests a limit or carrying capacity defined by environmental systems of varying scales for different human systems. However, due to complexity, cross-scale linkages and feedbacks and shifts in human perceptions and scientific capabilities the locations of Earth system thresholds will constantly change. Given the close integration of humans into environmental system functioning, humans now have the capacity to 'determine' our carrying capacity through innovative and effective management (Gerst et al. 2014).Given that thresholds are dynamic, to promote sustainable livelihoods and environmental functioning simultaneously management should seek to move beyond quantifying a threshold (e.g., amount of renewable water available). A more effective management strategy, and better suited to cope with inherent environmental complexities, would be to build management and livelihoods structures which have an in-built resilience to passing thresholds of harm or undergoing catastrophic collapses (Adger et al. 2005;Hoff 2011;Matyas and Pelling 2012;Carpenter et al. 2012a, b). This is often specified as 'general resilience' whereby a system has redundancy and diversity (so it can cope with a shock without collapse); flexibility and adaptive learning (so it maintains an inherent capability to re-orientate itself to utilize resources for development and resilience to a changing set of stresses, shocks and demands), leadership and polycentric governance (governance and programming in narrow silos can undermine overall system resilience; for example, often food security can be undermined by poor water quality) (Walker et al. 2010;Carpenter et al. 2012a, b;Biggs et al. 2012;Mitchell 2013;Tittonell 2014). The important feature of 'general resilience' is that it does not specify the stress, shock or risk landscape but seeks to better enable a system, and the actors within it, to be prepared for an uncertain future. Such sustainability within a system can be defined using the overarching concept of the environment nexus.Given that traditional governance structures have not led to environmental sustainability or sustainable human development, Upreti (2013) advocates a new governance approach. This approach directly links sustainable development and the management of environmental resources; it is holistic rather than sectoral-specific, and is decentralized and not just focused on delivering outcomes (e.g., production) but on delivering stewardship and learning processes (Upreti 2013). Upreti (2013) calls for iterative social learning where governance is built upon accumulated knowledge and also collective management of resources and adaptive governance with inherent flexibility to cope with future surprises. This approach to management fits with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework which identifies the need to transform governance structures so poor and marginalized people can have a voice in constructing the policies and institutions which determine their access to resources and livelihood outcomes (DFID 2001b). Adaptive learning and flexibility are also considered crucial components of generalized resilient systems (Carpenter et al. 2012a, b).The water-energy-food nexus seeks to optimize efficiencies in food, energy and water systems through integrated and adaptive management approaches which recognize interdependencies between the systems. At the same time, such integrated and adaptive management should aim to reduce pressure on ecosystems, reduce negative externalities (e.g., GHG emissions which could have negative global consequences, downstream consequences of upstream land uses), and foster positive human development trajectories (i.e., the 'security' aspect of the nexus) (Hoff 2011). The nexus approach incorporates food security, water security and energy security into one framework (e.g., Figures 12 and 13). Nexus frameworks have varied from water-centric (e.g., Hoff 2011) to more recent resource-centric approaches which link more effectively to environmental sustainability (e.g., Ringler et al. 2013). The use of the term 'security' can be ambiguous (this is further defined in Part II) as it has connotations to the security of the nation state and militaristic strength (Floyd 2008). However, a nexus perspective takes a more holistic and individual view of security; 'security' implies an individual has access and the capacity to utilize resources for their well-being without fear of harm, concerns over the stability of supply and without impacting future 'securities' for themselves or others. Viewing the nexus through an environmental lens, one would consider 'security' to be achieved when the unit of analysis (nation to individual) has the capabilities and assets to utilize environmental resources in a sustainable manner to support and further their well-being. In this paper, we include climate within our nexus approach, given its inextricable link to attaining a secure and sustainable livelihood throughout many communities of the SAO region. We term this quadrilateral mutualism the 'Environment Nexus' , a concept which can be used to denote food, water and energy security under a changing climate to achieve sustainable development.Figure 12. The Water-Food-Energy nexus according to the World Economic Forum; the founders of the nexus concept (Source: WEF 2011).Water security  \"[Food security] A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Based on this definition, four food security dimensions can be identified: food availability, economic and physical access to food, food utilization and stability over time. \" FAO-IFAD (2013: 50) Food security is determined by a complex interaction of factors (or production), conceptualized as a dynamic outcome of a food system comprising various factors which determine availability of, access to, the stability of, and the capacity to utilize, food and nutrition (Ericksen 2008). Indicators can characterize physical access to food, economic access to food, the capacity to utilize food which is often interlinked with good health and clean water, persistent vulnerability and exposure to shocks (to capture a more holistic picture of the dynamics which determine food security) (FAO-IFAD 2013). Scale is very important to be considered here, as food availability at the macro-level does not necessarily translate to food security at the micro-level, with the latter relating to Sen's (1981) theory of entitlement and is highly important to achieving equitable livelihood security.During times of famine, priority leans towards preserving productive assets to protect livelihoods rather than meeting immediate food needs (Maxwell and Frankenberger1992). Associated with food security, food sovereignty refers to the right to define food systems and food policy. Food sovereignty first came to prominence at the UN World Food Summit in 1996 and has grown into a significant grass roots movement spearheaded by the Via Campesina movement (Patel 2009;Oswald Spring et al. 2009).Globally, 12% of the world's population are deemed food-insecure, with 98% of this food insecurity concentrated in developing countries (FAO-IFAD 2013). The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015 has been met in East and Southeast Asia; between 1990-92 and 2011-13 the proportion of undernourished in Southeast Asia declined from 31.1 to 10.7%. Despite declines in undernourishment, currently 65 million and 167 million are undernourished in Southeast and Eastern Asia (FAO-IFAD 2013). In the FAO defined Asia-Pacific region (which includes South Asia, a major food insecurity hot spot) 528.7 million people are undernourished (FAO-IFAD 2013).One of the key challenges is to ensure sustainable zero-hunger in SAO countries whilst guaranteeing that there is no regress in progress made since 1990-92. This issue is pertinent given that agricultural legacies over the past 40-50 years (post-Green Revolution), whilst increasing production, have also caused severe environmental stress undermining further productivity gains. For example, in China, cropland area has recently declined, and 23% of irrigated lands are now saline (Thenkabail et al. 2010;UNESCAP 2013). Any increases in agricultural production in SAO will have to be reconciled with increasing requirements for environmental sustainability and competition from other nexus sectors (Hoff 2011; UNESCAP 2013; Godfray and Garnett 2014). Population growth up until 2050 is likely to result in two to three billion extra mouths to feed (Foley 2011) which will require an increase in food production of 100-110% (Tilman et al. 2011). This is problematic considering the signs that existing food systems are stagnating and productivity is slowing, and that there are concerns over the sustainability of irrigation resources and degraded croplands increasingly being left fallow, e.g.,10 million ha of cropland are lost each year due to salinity (Thenkabail et al. 2010;Hanjra and Qureshi 2010). Current rates of increase in crop yield fall well short of what is required to meet the increased demand from population growth (Ray et al. 2013). Improving efficiencies within food system activities, such as increasing equitable access to food, will reduce the need to produce more food. This will further reduce agriculture's impact on resource use (e.g., land and water) freeing up resources for other nexus sectors or conservation gains.Increased income in SAO countries will result in dietary shifts towards increased consumption of meat and dairy. With projected increases in population and income changing demand, agriculture will need an extra 5,600 km 3 of water per year; 800 km 3 are available from 'blue water' sources suggesting agricultural systems will need to find an extra 4,800 km 3 per year (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010). The need for extra grazing land to meet this demand will squeeze existing croplands, shift more cereal crops towards livestock feed, threaten expansion into tropical forests and natural grasslands, increase GHG emissions, and increase water consumption (The Royal Society 2009; Foresight: Final Project Report 2011; Foley 2011). Concurrently, the increased pressure to meet food demand will place added pressure on already stressed water resources, which will be particularly problematic in areas where water quality and quantity are already compromised, e.g., saline water intrusion and drought-prone regions (as discussed in Part I). The converse is also true, in that competition within the nexus for water demand could impact food security. For example, hydropower construction plans in basins across Asia may have significant impacts on the productivity of deltaic and lowland rice bowls; in the Greater Mekong, 12 hydropower dams are planned to be built between 2011 and 2025 which will impact the water and hydrological systems in lowland rice croplands (UNESCAP 2013).\"[Water security is]…the availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks to people, environments, and economies. \" Grey and Sadoff (2007: 547-548) The World Water Council (2000) elaborates key water security challenges as meeting basic human needs, securing the food supply, protecting ecosystems, sharing water resources, managing risks, valuing water and governing water wisely (World Water Council 2000; Oswald Spring and Brauch 2009;Bogardi et al. 2012;Bogardiet al. 2015).Currently 2.8 billion people live in areas of high water stress and 1.2 billion live in areas with absolute physical water scarcity (Rodriguez et al. 2013). Water scarcity can be defined as when water availability is inadequate per person (Falkenmark 1986); either when water resources development and extraction have reached sustainable limits (physical scarcity), or when human, social, economic or political factors inhibit appropriation of available water for human purposes (economic scarcity) (ADB 2013b). In SAO physical water scarcity has occurred in regions where groundwater and renewable water resources have been mined for irrigation (ADB 2013b). This has been attributed to business and governance models which regard water as a largely unlimited resource; to address these issues a restructuring of economic and political frameworks will be required (ADB 2013b). Watersheds in parts of Australia, Philippines and Indonesia pose high risk levels for physical water availability (Gassert et al. 2013) (Figure 14  Demand for water comes from numerous sectors, chiefly agriculture, energy, industry, and drinking water (Molden 2007;Wiener et al. 2010). Agriculture currently constitutes approximately 80% of water use; 65% of this water is used for rain-fed cropping with the remaining 35% used for irrigation (Wiener et al. 2010;Thenkabail et al. 2010). It is important to note there are large uncertainties in estimating agricultural water use at a global scale; various studies put annual agricultural consumption of water between 6,685 km 3 per year to 7,500 km 3 per year (Postel 1998;Thenkabail et al. 2010;Siebert and Döll 2010). It has been computed that, on average, a human being requires 50 liters of water a day for basic needs such as washing and drinking; this is expanded to 2,700 liters when water costs in food production are taken into account (Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). Per capita, per day water needs will vary with diet; one m 3 of water is required to produce a kilogram of grain whereas 13.5 m 3 are required to produce 1 kg of meat (Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). Therefore, per capita daily water use and requirements will vary in space, and often with income, as wealthier households and states have a meat-based diet (Wiener et al. 2010;Foley 2011). As a global level it is likely there will be a 40% gap between the sustainable supply of water and demand for water by 2030 (ADB 2013b). Currently, industry accounts for 16% of water withdrawals, and this will grow to 22% by 2030 with China accounting for 40% of this growth (ADB 2013b). Energy generation (from a range of sources) also requires water; and often competes with agriculture for water use.Globally, there are 276 transboundary water basins (Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). This highlights the need for an integrated approach to managing water resources, which brings together nation states and various sectors with a vested interest in water use, firstly to maximize sustainable water use and secondly, to avoid potential water-fueled conflict (Bogardi et al. 2012;Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). The transboundary nature of water sources and fluxes within the hydrological cycle indicate why tenets of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) have been subsumed into wider nexus thinking, despite the failure of IWRM to gain traction in applied governance (Bogardi et al. 2012;Lawford et al. 2013). 1.2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity (Rodriguez et al. 2013). It is noted in Biggs et al. (2013) where, using Nepal as a case study, IWRM and equitable access to water resources are limited by a lack of political infrastructure.Alongside having sufficient access to water, the water quantity, availability or scarcity aspects of water security, water quality is also a vital component of water security. Poor water quality impacts a range of sectors, at a range of spatial scales, ranging from an individual's health to agricultural production in fields and fish stocks (Wiener et al. 2010). The MDG target 7C aimed to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Since 1990, 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources; currently, 89% of the global population have access to improved water sources compared to 76% in 1990 (United Nations 2013). In East Asia, 92% of the population have access to improved water sources; in Oceania, this ratio stands at 56% (United Nations 2013). There has been less progress in achieving the MDG of halving the proportion of people without access to a latrine, flush toilet or improved sanitation at a global level; an extra 1 billion people need access to improved sanitation to meet the 2015 target (United Nations 2013). However, considerable progress has been made in East Asia where, in 2011, 67% of the population had access to improved sanitation compared to 27% in 1990.Despite progress towards MDGs for water there are still significant proportions of the world's population whose development and livelihoods are limited by lack of access to water or water of sufficient quality. For example, 636 million of the 768 million people who did not have access to improved drinking sources in 2011 were in rural areas highlighting a rural-urban disparity in water security (United Nations 2013). Despite halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water since 1999, between two and six million people die annually due to water-related diseases (Wiener et al. 2010). This highlights the importance of improving access to piped drinking water in homes as only 38% of the global population with access to improved water sources have piped water to their homesteads (United Nations 2013). There is also a need to address gendered variability in access to water; women in Asia, on average, walk 6 km a day to obtain water (Wiener et al. 2010).It has been noted that the MDG of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation does not sit easily with the premise that water security is a basic human right for all (Bogardi et al. 2012). In Asia, recent advances in poverty alleviation may be undermined by pressures on water resources; to safeguard development and development trajectories it is crucial to shift governance perspectives away from viewing water as an 'unlimited resource' and for waterscarce regions to preemptively introduce water management reforms to either 'import' water or secure innovative private investment in water systems (ADB 2013b). Investing in water security has wider economic and development co-benefits; for example, a 10% decrease in global diarrhea yields a $7.3 billion yearly avoidance in health costs and $750 million gain in working days (Wiener et al. 2010).Investment in water infrastructure and good governance of water resources is crucial to maintaining current levels of development and alleviating poverty through providing income opportunities and improving the livelihoods of the poorest (Wiener et al. 2010;ADB 2013b).Women are disproportionally represented in the ranks of the poor. Domestic water supply is generally cast as women's business but the role of women in the productive use and community management of water is slowly gaining recognition along with the increasing feminization of agriculture (Moser 1993;Lastarria-Cornhiel 2006). In water and other key development sectors practitioners are upping the ante on gender mainstreaming and moving to a gender transformative approach to represent and reflect the requirements, knowledge and skills of female water users that are still largely absent in governing institutions. Here, governance can be understood in the broader sense that it spans civil society, political society, government, bureaucracy, economic society and the judiciary (ODI 2006). Here the intersection of gender and governance is evident as females continue to be systematically excluded from leadership and decision-making positions in both formal and informal institutions.\"[Energy security is] access to clean, reliable and affordable energy services for cooking and heating, lighting, communications and productive uses\" (UN) and as \"uninterrupted physical availability [of energy] at a price which is affordable, while respecting environment concerns. \" International Energy Agency ( 2014) Winzer (2012) highlights that energy security has been defined as making the poorest segments of society resilient to fluctuations in the price of energy and also as the ability of the nation state to secure energy independence. However, there is no simple way to measure and define energy security; energy security will be a different reality for individuals in different geographical settings and that energy security needs to be addressed at multiple, interlinked, spatial scales, whilst considering the risks, threats and impacts of energy security (Winzer 2012). Consequently, energy security should be viewed through a lens which can incorporate complexity and interdependencies (i.e., a nexus approach) to highlight suitable management of resources to provide energy security to all in a sustainable manner. Winzer's (2012) review of the broad concept of energy security has several overlaps with conventional approaches to assessing the resilience of socioecological systems (e.g., recognizing both slow and fast processes) which underpin nexus thinking (Folke 2006;Jacoby 2009;Hoff 2011;Mitchell 2013).Energy security, or access to energy is a requirement for water use and food production in many situations; for example, electricity is required for pumping of groundwater for irrigation and energy is required in manufacture of fertilizers and post-harvest food system activities (Ringler et al. 2013;ADB 2013b). At the same time water is a vital requirement for energy generation; water is used for hydropower and is also used intensively in cooling systems of thermal power plants (e.g., coal, geothermal and nuclear) (Rodriguez et al. 2013). At a global scale, there are concerns about the future of energy security given that currently one billion do not have access to modern sources of energy (Hoff 2011), 1.3 billion are without electricity (with high concentrations in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia) (Rodriguez et al. 2013), and projections suggest that by 2030 demand will increase by 50% (Poppy et al. 2014) with a tripling of electricity production in Asia by 2050 (Rodriguez et al. 2013).Under current management practices, ensuring people have water, energy and food security places increasing pressure on environmental resources. An increased demand, for a limited supply of resources, is being exacerbated by population and income growth, coupled with pressures from changing climatic conditions. It is likely crop production will be negatively impacted by warming temperatures whilst also requiring more water per unit yield produced as climate change simultaneously impacts water resource availability (Döll 2002;Challinor et al. 2014). Under a changing climate, a significant challenge will arise for food, water and energy planning, especially in addressing increasing pressure on resources, whilst simultaneously securing provisions for the bottom 'billion' [of the population] and implementation of poverty alleviation schemes (Hoff 2011; Rodriguez et al. 2013). Major climate challenges facing humanity include:• Approximately 842 million people are undernourished, alongside a projected population growth of 2 billion by 2050 (Foley 2011;FAO-IFAD 2013). Cropped lands for human consumption are stagnating or decreasing, the best farm land on the planet is already exhausted and in some cases has been degraded by anthropogenic use reducing production capabilities (Thenkabail et al. 2010;Foley et al. 2011;Ray et al. 2013).• There is a net redistribution of croplands towards the tropics where the negative impacts of climate change on agriculture are most exaggerated (Foley et al. 2011).• Limited water resources are facing growing pressure from urbanization, industry, irrigation and energy sectors (Wiener et al. 2010;Hanjra and Qureshi 2010).• Warming global temperatures will reduce the productivity of water use (i.e., fewer crops grown per unit water due to increased ET) (Döll 2002).The multi-scale focus of the nexus approach captures the global-scale issue of climate change without neglecting its location-specific impacts. A nexus perspective seeks to optimize these spatial differences (through a range of locally appropriate schemes such as virtual water trade, interbasin transfers, integrated technical advances) to enhance overall system productivity and deliver food-energy-water security to all at minimal environmental costs (Hoff 2011). It is increasingly recognized that future water scarcity, which will be exacerbated by climate change, and increasing competition for limited water resources will threaten future energy security (Rodriguez et al. 2013). Given the close interdependencies between water and energy, and that these interdependencies will be heightened in the future due to simultaneously increasing demand and pressure on resources, there is a need for integrated planning. This is emphasized in the World Bank's 'Thirsty Energy' initiative, which highlights that integrated, cross-sectoral energy and water planning will increase opportunities to capture synergies and improve efficiencies in tapping into water and energy resources; such integration can be institutional (e.g., reorganization of the energy and water planning sectors; improving modelling tools) and technical (technological efficiency within the nexus) (Rodriguez et al. 2013).There are close linkages between effective management of the water-energy-food nexus, and resilience to passing harmful thresholds in human-environment system functioning. Over recent decades human extraction of natural resources has not led to equitable socioeconomic development; instead, often there have been increases in inequality, further marginalization of the poorest and degradation of natural resource bases (Hoff 2011). This situation has pushed human-environment systems close to a number of societal and environmental thresholds, which if transgressed, could have negative impacts for all with the effects most acutely felt by the poor (Rockström et al. 2009a, b;Gerst et al. 2014). Various 'securities' (Brauch et al. 2008(Brauch et al. , 2009(Brauch et al. , 2011) ) are key components of resilient national, community and household systems that have simultaneously enabled development (Mitchell 2013). At the household-level food and physical security are prominent factors, and at the national level territorial, economic, ecological and energy security are identified as components of resilience (Mitchell 2013). The link between security and resilience is clear, as resilience is often undermined by slow processes (e.g., resource extraction, long-term buildup of fertilizer application) and achieving security is often closely linked with access to resources, capabilities, entitlements and inclusive governance systems (Gallopín 2006;Ericksen 2008;Walker et al. 2012;Pritchard et al. 2013).The nexus approach is necessarily holistic and can be interpreted and applied in numerous ways given the unit of analysis and the perspective of the stakeholder. Therefore, a full review of all issues of relevance to water-energy-food nexus is not possible. More prudent is providing a multiscalar example that cuts across the food, energy and water sectors, which is globally connected and complex, and useable to highlight where nexus thinking would complement management of resources. A range of studies have explored water-food and land linkages, sometimes coming from IWRM perspective, yet less work has been done on exploring energy linkages with food, water and land systems (Ringler et al. 2013). The example used here to highlight the benefits of nexus components is biofuels which have direct energy linkages; biofuels are of contemporary importance in current debates surrounding land use, water use, energy security, sustainability and climate change and trade-offs with food security.Obtaining energy from biofuel combustion can reduce net GHG emissions as through biomass generation biofuels sequester CO 2 from the atmosphere and thus do not use up fossil carbon stores. First-generation biofuels refer to bioethanol (alcohol produced by fermentation of sugar or starch in biomass) or biodiesel made from vegetable oil crops (e.g., soybean, rapeseed, palm oil) (ADB 2013b). Second-generation biofuels refer to energy generated from cellulosic ethanol produced from lignocellulose which can be found in wood, algae, perennial crops, and crop residue (Fraiture et al. 2008; Water in the West 2013; ADB 2013b).Conversion of lands for biofuels and the use of biofuels for energy exemplify the trade-offs and synergies that cut across the energy, food and water sectors. Countries have turned to biofuels, often used for transport, in a desire to seek energy independency, reduce demand on fossil fuels and reduce GHG emissions (Water in the West 2013; ADB 2013b). However, conversion of croplands to biofuels reduces land available to generate feedstocks for people or livestock, competes for water resources which could be used for agriculture or encroaches on forests and grasslands (Tilman et al. 2009;Foley et al. 2011). In the SAO region biofuels are largely produced from conversion of peat lands and tropical forests to palm oil for biodiesel (Fargione et al. 2008).Cropping for biofuels in SAO contributes a small proportion globally, yet the region will still be impacted by biofuels cropping across the globe; as more land is set aside for biofuels food prices will rise (ADB 2013b). Due to globally interconnected markets this will impact all countries; especially the poorest segments of society (Hajkowicz et al. 2012).Projections suggest that as demand for energy grows, alongside a need to secure rural employment and development and seek cleaner forms of energy, biofuels will constitute an increasing proportion of cropping (Fraiture et al. 2008). Amongst others, nexus thinking would encourage:• Integrated planning across agriculture, water and energy sectors when implementing biofuels policy.• Enhance opportunities to minimize trade-offs and optimize synergies in resource use across sectors. This resonates with the World Bank's 'Thirsty Energy' initiative which seeks to break down barriers between independent water and energy management to enhance simultaneous water and energy sustainability (Rodriguez et al. 2013).• A full and comprehensive life-cycle assessment and account for long-term payback periods of planning and allocating land-conversions to biofuels cropping, e.g., paying off the carbon debt from conversion of peatland rainforests to palm-oil plantations in Indonesia/Malaysia would take over 400 years and the carbon debt from conversion of lowland rainforests would take 86 years (Fargione et al. 2008).• Knowledge on the water footprints of biofuel crops can be used to inform land management practices. The water footprint of crops grown for biofuels varies with crop type, agroclimatic conditions and whether the crop is irrigated or rain-fed (Fraiture et al. 2008).• Land quality and water availability can be considered for selecting crops type; soybean and rapeseed oil crops grown for biodiesel have a lower water productivity than cereal crops grown for bioethanol (Water in the West 2013).• Trade-offs between using first-and second-generations can be assessed relative to water availability, e.g., agricultural waste products used in generating second-generation biofuels do not require additional water (Water in the West 2013).• Build flexibility in management of polluted and/or degraded lands can be restored and harmful decisions can be reversed.• An integrated approach to agriculture and energy policy, sensitive to global-scale teleconnections, may reveal some of the unforeseen and spatially distinct impacts of policy drawn up in narrow 'programming silos' (Mitchell 2013).• More implicit management to decrease volatility of food prices; learning lessons from past malpractices, such as subsidies for biofuels contributing largely to the global food price spike in 2008 (Hajkowicz et al. 2012).In the interdisciplinary field of development and environmental change, concerns such as accountability, legitimacy, participation, decision-making, institutions and policymaking are increasingly being looked at together under the overarching umbrella term 'governance' . Broadly speaking, governance refers to the way rules are formulated and implemented by state or society actors in the public realm (Hoon and Hyden 2003). Rules however, as Hoon and Hyden (2003) note, are neither created nor managed in a power vacuum; they reflect the relative power and influence of contending social forces. Government refers to organizations which provide the provision for governance, whereby governance is a set of social functions which can be performed by governments as well as by other organizations, networks and institutions, where decisionmaking processes are undertaken in silos or collectively (Robinson 2009). Bevir (2013: 2) notes that governance refers to \"all processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or network, whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and whether through laws, norms, power or language. \" It thereby centers on the management of complex interdependencies among actors, who are engaged in interactive decision making and, therefore, taking actions that affect each other's welfare (Young 1996;Robinson 2009).Governance also serves to shape power relations and set direction (Graham et al. 2003;Robinson 2009).In recent years, many countries in both the Global North and the Global South have experienced a formal shift from command-and-control and prescriptive governance of natural resources towards policymaking and planning processes that build on collaboration, negotiation and deliberation among policymakers, scientists and local stakeholders (Bouwen and Tallieu 2004;Warner 2006;Neef 2009). This \"deliberative turn in natural resources management\", as Parkins and Mitchell (2005) have coined it, signified a shift from the emphasis on outcomes to a stronger focus on processes of collaborative resource governance. Ansell and Gash (2008: 544) define collaborative governance as \"a governing arrangement where one or more public agencies directly engage non-state stakeholders in a collective decision-making process that is formal, consensusoriented, and deliberative and that aims to make or implement public policy or manage public programs or assets. \" They suggest four critical variables notably (i) starting conditions, (ii) institutional designs, (iii) leadership, and (iv) collaborative process, with the latter as the core of the model while the other variables are \"either critical contributions to, or context for, the collaborative process\" (Ansell and Gash 2008: 550). The starting conditions that are most critical for collaborative governance processes are power/resource imbalances, incentives to participate, and the history of antagonism and cooperation among the stakeholders involved (Ansell and Gash 2008).A case study illustrating the governance, gender inclusion and water security is provided by the management of a new water resource found in Cambodia's CAM Tonle Sap Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project, where a formal gender analysis that preceded the project found that women and children were responsible for carrying water in 75% of the local households and could spend up to three hours a day engaged in this activity (ADB 2009). The vast majority of hygiene and sanitation responsibilities were also tasked to women. Due to the incorporation of activation strategies in the project design, women's participation has been high and they have constituted 55.6% of participants in village-level meetings on community management of ponds and piped water supply systems, and community-managed rainwater tank construction. In practice, although these women may now divert their labor into other livelihood activities, the gendering of responsibility for sustainable use of the water resource is unlikely to be redistributed. In contrast, it is interesting to note that men form the majority in the governance structures that oversee the project. Furthermore, it cannot be assured that any improvements in livelihood returns arising from the new water resource (for example, through increased agricultural production) will be equitably distributed along the lines of gender.Broadly speaking environmental security is a concept linking human well-being to the state of the environment, and is considered as security from environmental shocks or stresses, thus linking societal well-being to environmental functioning (Falkenmark 2001;MA 2005). The human-environment link has been documented throughout history; for example, Malthus' theory suggested that population growth and food demand would exceed agricultural production (Thenkabail et al.2010;Floyd and Matthew 2013) Brauch (2005) conceptualizes security using three perspectives whereby firstly, power is key to obtaining security, secondly international law and human rights lead to security, and thirdly cooperation determines security. Additionally, the geographical context is important for assessing a state of security, i.e., whether focus is on the nation state, an individual or an environmental or ecological unit (Brauch 2005;Floyd 2008;Brauch et al. 2008Brauch et al. , 2009Brauch et al. , 2011) ) (Table 3). The 1945 United Nations Charter focused on a nation-centric approach to international security; and, throughout the cold war period security was largely formalized in policy as providing state-level self-defence and freedom from conflict or war (Brauch 2005;Floyd and Matthew 2013). However, the environmental movement of the 1970s began to highlight links between humans and the environment as the foundation of a functioning society (Floyd and Matthew 2013) as discussed in the seminal piece 'The Limits to Growth' (Meadows et al. 1972). This focus on the environment leads to policy and institutional change. For example, in 1972, the US government set up the Environmental Protection Agency and the UN established the UN Environment Programme (Floyd and Matthew 2013).However, in the post-cold war era, there was a widening of the security concept beyond 'militaristic' and 'nation-state' centred approaches to recognize that there are multiple threats to individuals, communities and society as a whole, and often these threats do not respect national boundaries (Brauch 2005;Floyd and Matthew 2013). The UN, and other organizations, increasingly focus on the concept of 'human security' as opposed to 'state-security' identifying that a range of stresses and shocks can harm livelihoods and impede development (Brauch 2005(Brauch , 2009a, b), b).Environmental factors are often mentioned as stresses or shocks which can undermine human security. For example, the 2004 'Report of the Secretary General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change' identified that threats recognize 'no national boundaries' , suggested that a state-centered approach is not adequate to address the causes of, and threats to, human insecurity, and listed environmental degradation, infectious disease and poverty as threats to security alongside traditional threats such as conflict and terrorism (Brauch 2005;von Einsiedel et al. 2008).Reflecting a commitment to address environmental impacts on human security the United Nations University Institute on Environment and Human Security was established in 2003 (Brauch 2005). Further highlighting the growing awareness and formalization of links between environmental and security issues, the latest IPCC Assessment Report (AR5) released in 2013/2014 included a chapter on 'Human Security' (Adger and Pulhin 2013). The 1994 Human Development Report included a chapter on human security stating that security was previously defined with a narrow mandate focusing only on military aggression and the security of the nation state; this report advocates a shift in focus for security to 'ordinary people who sought security in their daily lives' and not from fear of a 'cataclysmic world event' (UNDP 1994: 22). Thus, according to the UNDP (1994), human security focuses on the 'worries' people experience in their daily lives and safety from both chronic stress such as hunger and sudden shocks to the system. Some key components of human security conceptualize that it is a peoplecentric, universal and holistic concept applicable to both developed and developing contexts even though the nature of stresses may vary, and the components of human security are interrelated such that if individuals in one locale are insecure this will have external ramifications (UNDP 1994).Broadly, human security can be broken down into the following areas (UNDP 1994;Brauch 2005Brauch , 2009a, b;, b;Floyd 2008):• Freedom from want which implies resource access or availability and links human insecurity to levels of vulnerability.• Freedom from fear implies that people should be free from worries that their daily lives maybe harmed by a myriad of context-specific, potential shocks and stresses. Achieving this suggests removing the root causes of human insecurity, not merely addressing the outcomes as could be implied by achieving freedom from want; 'human security is easier to ensure through early prevention' (UNDP 1994: 22;Brauch 2005).• Freedom from hazard impacts (Bogardi and Brauch 2005) highlights the vulnerability of communities to natural or human-induced hazards. The interaction of climate change, human management of natural resources and population growth in 'high-risk' areas suggests that natural disasters may undermine human development or entrench low levels of human security over the coming decades (Shepherd et al. 2013).• Freedom of future generations to inhabit a healthy environment; this resonates closely with the sustainable development agenda and suggests that attempts to ensure human security today should not be at the expense of future security. There has been an intensive regional debate on human security in Southeast Asia (Wungaeo 2004;Othman 2009) that took environmental security considerations into account.Academic debates have also questioned whether scarcity of environmental resources could be a driver of conflict and therefore of human insecurity. When the scarcity of renewable resources co-occurs with challenging social conditions there is propensity for local conflict (Floyd 2008). However, the environmental/resource scarcity-conflict linkage has drawn numerous criticisms with little empirical evidence of resource scarcity causing conflict (Brauch 2005;Floyd 2008). For example, Macquarrie and Wolf (2013) highlight that in many transboundary basins, with uneven levels of water scarcity, there have been few documented cases of water disputes. In reality, it has been suggested that environmental resource scarcity encourages cooperation instead of conflict, e.g., the Mekong Committee (now The Mekong River Commission) (Floyd 2008;Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). Other criticisms of the environmental resource scarcity-conflict concept suggest that it neglects the political ecology of resource availability and does not give sufficient consideration to factors which mediate access (Floyd 2008).Related to environmental resources are the stresses placed on the environment and the stresses the environment places upon humanity. The drivers and outcomes of environmental stress are mediated by a myriad of complex, interrelated social, economic and political processes, institutions and governance structures often operating at multiple hierarchical levels (Figure 15) (DFID 2001b;Brauch 2005). Brauch's (2005) concept of environmental stress resonates with aspects of human security and the environment nexus. The concept also reflects the widening of the security concept in the governance arena, with various UN bodies and other international organizations using terms such as 'livelihoods security' , 'water security' , 'food security' , 'energy security' , 'human security' and 'environmental security' (World Food Summit 1996;Brauch 2005Brauch , 2008; International Energy Agency 2014). With regard to environmental security there is debate whether it is security or well-being of the environmental unit (e.g., the atmosphere, climate, land and water, etc.) which should be the focus, or the security of societies and humans (inter)dependent on the environment. Early discussions of environmental security had a militaristic focus; either focusing on the impact of militaries on the environment (e.g., the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam) or on restructuring of Government defence institutions to encompass environmental issues (Floyd 2008;Dalby et al. 2009;Floyd and Matthew 2013). More recently, the environment has been closely linked with the human security concept; UNDP (1994) specifically states environmental and food security as components of human security. The UN also highlights environmental degradation, poverty and infectious disease amongst threats to human security (Brauch 2005(Brauch , 2008(Brauch , 2009a, b), b). This reflects human security encompassing a range of stresses including those directly and indirectly related to the environment. For example, food security would be threatened by environmental degradation (availability of food), poverty (access to food) and infectious disease (utilization of food) (Ericksen 2008;FAO-IFAD 2013). More recently the IPCC 5th Assessment Report includes a chapter on climate change impacts on human security (Adger and Pulhin 2014); this reflects the situation where humans are often a cause and victim of environmental threats (Brauch 2005(Brauch , 2009a, b), b). Threats to human security include chronic stresses and short-term shocks, and thus, human insecurity can manifest slowly over time or appear rapidly following a disaster (UNDP 1994). Environmental insecurity has been linked to social, economic and political factors which determine access to, and the ability to utilize, resources rather than merely environmental scarcity (Pritchard et al. 2013). For example, famines can be prevented through focus on economic power and the substantive freedom of individuals and families to obtain food rather than merely on levels of production (Sen 1999). Gender relations and ethnic and religious divisions can also see a particular segment of society more susceptible to environmental insecurity (Oswald Spring et al. 2009). In reality, there are often cyclical links between socioeconomic conditions which make people more vulnerable to environmental threats and environmental conditions and natural disasters which can undermine development, creating situations of transient or chronic insecurity and further increasing vulnerability (Shepherd et al. 2013). Bogardi et al. (2012: 41) highlight that 'political stability, economic equity and social solidarity are easier to maintain with good water management and governance' . Such 'political stability' will likely make it easier to deliver integrated management across the water-energy-food security nexus to deliver co-benefits of human and environmental well-being.Environmental security has obvious significance with understanding the resilience of socioecological systems, with a focus on identifying and managing slowly-changing factors which erode a system's resilience (Scheffer et al. 2001;Gallopín 2006). Also, there are a range of environmental threats to human security which can include 'slow' environmental degradation undermining resource bases upon which societies rely (e.g., long-term climate change impacts, salinization of agricultural land or environmental shocks which can rapidly lead to disasters such as tropical cyclones and floods) (Webster 2008;Hanjra and Qureshi 2010;Dalby 2013). Differential impacts on women's and men's security due to sociocultural gender norms are rarely considered (Ariyabandu and Fonseka 2009;Detraz 2009). However, awareness and recognition of environmental threats to human security have not been consistent. For example, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development only mentioned 'food security' but did not mention 'environmental security' and the Commission on Human Security appointed by the UN Secretary General and financially supported by Japan released a final report in 2003 highlighting 10 policy conclusions in areas which impact human security without specifically mentioning the environment (Brauch 2005).The environmental component of human security reflects the fact that threats to human security do not always respect national boundaries and that the state is an inadequate unit to manage and capture the threats to society and individuals (Brauch 2008(Brauch , 2009a, b;, b;Dalby 2013). Environmental threats often operate within or across state boundaries (e.g., river basins) and many environmental systems upon which humans rely are global or regional in nature (e.g., the hydrological cycle) thus requiring global governance of environmental resources to ensure human well-being (Vörösmarty et al. 2013;Macquarrie and Wolf 2013). Often, activities within one nation state can have external impacts on others through environmental system linkages. Burning of biomass in North India can disrupt monsoonal circulation thus perturbing a key water source for energy generation and rain-fed agriculture across South Asia (Zickfeld et al. 2005;Ramanathan and Carmichael 2008). Low-lying Pacific islands and deltaic countries such as Bangladesh are most vulnerable to sea-level rise largely driven by GHGs emitted from the industrialization of the developed world (Woodruff et al. 2013;Dalby 2013). These countries cannot address this threat with a state-centered, military response synonymous with traditional definitions of security, nor would such an approach work (Dalby 2013). Differing perceptions of environmental threats to human security determine the nature of response (Dalby 2013); the question being when does an environmental threat require a humanitarian response given a state's failure to address a human security issue? (Dalby 2013).The concept of human security was advocated by UNDP to provide enabling conditions for development (Dalby 2013). Economic development is viewed as part of the process of human development, that threats to human security should be addressed by long-term development rather than by short-term humanitarian assistance, and that human development should be sustainable (UNDP 1994). The important components of human security are building systems which empower people to 'take charge of their lives' , which give people the 'building blocks of survival, dignity and livelihood' , 'developing norms, processes and institutions that systematically address insecurities, ' and empowering people to be involved in their own decision-making processes (CHS 2003;Brauch 2005). This is echoed in the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) which is people-centric, 'supporting people to achieve their own livelihood goals' aiming to transform policies, institutions and processes such that people can utilize or gain access to assets to support their livelihood outcomes (DFID 2001b). The framework for the SLA identifies food security as a desired livelihood outcome, whereas UNDP (1994) suggests human security is an enabling condition for development (UNDP 1994;DFID 2001b;Dalby 2013). In reality, they are interdependent in that security is an outcome of development and yet a state of security creates conditions conducive to equitable development. The same is true for linkages between the environment and sustainable development; and that a community or people-centric approach to managing environmental resources is key for sustainable development (Upreti 2013).Brundtland Commission (1987) Given that dependence of human beings on a well-functioning environment and its component ecosystems, sustainable development is closely linked to environmental issues (Upreti 2013). Sustainable development is underpinned by human security, which in turn relies on conditions of food, water and energy security, which are all vulnerable to climate change. It is also noted that the poorest members of society often live in the marginal environments, either on fragmented or poor-quality landholdings in rural settings or in informal settlements in urban areas and are often directly dependent upon the environment for survival through subsistence agriculture (Upreti 2013). This implies that for sustainable development to occur, people must be free from environmental threats and new governance models are required for environmental management (Upreti 2013). Environmental issues have been recognized in development agendas and in environment goal setting, e.g., Goal 7 of the MDG is aimed at ensuring environmental sustainability (Upreti 2013; United Nations 2013).Economic-centered development has not led to sustainable management of environmental resources. Due to human impacts, many of the Earth's environmental systems have been pushed to dangerous limits as articulated by the planetary boundaries concept and is most obvious in the ongoing threat of climate change (Rockström et al. 2009;Hoff 2011). Simultaneously, a development model centered on economic development has not led to equity in the benefits of natural resource extraction; despite producing more food than is necessary per-capita, 842 million people remain undernourished (FAO-IFAD 2013). Therefore, it is argued that there is a need for a more holistic concept of sustainable development and new approaches to managing development and environmental resources (Upreti 2013). Similarly Costanza (2014) has advocated a need to 'move beyond' GDP and develop a more integrated measure of sustainable well-being and development that better reflects the threats society faces today. One of the criticisms of human security is that it is too broad a concept to be of relevance to applied policymaking (Dalby 2013). However, at the same time it is not possible to properly address human security issues and their root causes or perform vulnerability analyses within simple frameworks (Dalby 2013). The water-energy-food nexus has begun to conceptually address this challenge (Hoff 2011), yet it has some way to go as a framework to enable explicit considerations for sustainable development at a livelihood-level.\"A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for making a living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base. \"Before we draw together the literature on environmental security, sustainable development, the environment nexus and livelihoods, it is first necessary to provide some background on the concept of sustainable livelihoods.The concept of 'livelihoods' surfaced in the international development literature in the early 1990s, largely in response to the publication of Chambers and Conway (1992), who are generally credited with introducing the highly contested term 'sustainable livelihoods' (Solesbury 2003;Hilson and Banchirigah 2009). The term questioned whether concepts found within the development literature are useful both analytically, to generate insight and hypotheses for research, and practically, as a tool for decision making (Chambers and Conway 1992). Sustainable livelihoods challenged the evolution of conceptualizing development, from modernization of nations (Scoones 2009;Morse 2013), to neoliberalism enforcing free market philosophies (which saw the rise of nongovernmental organizations as key players) (Scoones 2009;Morse 2013), to actor-orientated approaches which drew attention to poverty, vulnerability and marginalization (de Haan and Zoomers 2005). Sustainable livelihoods as a concept then evolved from changing perspectives on poverty, individual and community participation and sustainable development (Sen 1981;Chambers and Conway 1992).In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development used the term 'sustainable livelihoods' in discussions on resource ownership, basic needs, and rural livelihood security (WCED 1987;Conroy and Litvinoff 1988). The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development located sustainable livelihoods as a means of linking socioeconomic and environmental concerns (Brocklesby and Fisher 2003). Both forums were important in steering concern for the environment towards a focus on people and their livelihood activities, and placing these concerns within a policy framework for sustainable development. To this end, a sustainable livelihoods approach is a holistic method of addressing development through the establishment of development objectives that focus on people's livelihoods, while providing an analytical tool for understanding the factors influencing a community's ability to enhance livelihoods and eradicating poverty (FAO 2002). 'Sustainable livelihoods' as a theory integrates three key concepts of capability, equity and sustainability (Chambers and Conway 1992).The notion of capability is derived from Amartya Sen who identified the importance of 'capability' within the development process (Sen 1984(Sen , 1987;;Dreze and Sen 1989). Sen (1984) defined development in terms of the availability of options and essential choices open to people allowing for a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge, and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. Within Sen's use of capability, a subset of livelihood capabilities includes the ability to cope with stresses and shocks, and the ability to make use of livelihood opportunities (Chambers and Conway 1992). An increase in 'capability' can occur in many ways, for example, by an improvement in educational opportunity or the quality or quantity of resources (natural, social or otherwise). There are obvious overlaps with sustainable development and its emphasis on provision for future generations and increased resilience to shocks (e.g., environmental; economic) with a diverse livelihood base. Indeed, one of the first steps taken in a livelihood analysis is a consideration of the assets open to an individual, household or a community.Chambers and Conway (1992) use the term 'equity' broadly to imply progress towards a more equal distribution of assets, capabilities and opportunities, and enhancement of these for those most deprived, including an end to discrimination against women and minorities. In the environmental security context, this concept would acknowledge that natural resources are particularly important for the poorest and most vulnerable communities who have limited access to external services (IISD 2003). Gender inequalities across disparate outcomes in health, education and bargaining power tend to be larger in countries with low GDP per capita (Jayachandran 2014). Ellis (1999) notes that gendered differences in assets, and access to resources and opportunities are widespread across global rural development contexts (e.g., landownership amongst women is rare; access to education is more difficult for women due to gender discrimination). In combination, these conditions can work to undermine equal access to the potential for diversification of women's economic activities towards achieving livelihood security. Over the last two decades development policy and programs have become increasingly cognisant of the need to reflect gender equity. For example, Meinzen-Dick et al. ( 2011) examine assets and livelihoods from a gendered perspective with a specific focus on planning for agricultural development. However, Harcourt and Stremmelaar (2012) observe that achieving gender equity has been recently obscured by the emergence of a discourse that privileges environmentally sustainable livelihood practices but places an uneven share of the responsibility for achieving these upon the production/reproduction and consumption activities of women.In the livelihood context, sustainability is a function of how assets and capabilities are utilized, maintained and enhanced to preserve life (Chambers and Conway 1992). Key challenges are whether livelihoods are sustainable environmentally and socially, through limiting impacts on other resources and providing coping mechanisms (Chambers and Conway 1992). \"Environmental sustainability concerns the external impact of livelihoods on other livelihoods\" (Chambers and Conway 1992: 9). At the local level, environmental sustainability reflects livelihood activities which maintain and enhance, rather than deplete and degrade (e.g., desertification, deforestation, soil erosion), the local natural resource base. At the global level, the question is whether, environmentally, livelihood activities make a net positive or negative contribution to the long-term environmental sustainability of other livelihoods (Chambers and Conway 1992). In terms of equity, the environmental sustainability of livelihoods is to be complemented by the social sustainability of all livelihoods, whereby \"Social sustainability concerns the internal capacity to withstand outside pressures\" (Chambers and Conway 1992). Social sustainability refers to whether a human unit (individual or household) can not only gain but also maintain an adequate and decent quality of life. Here, there is a negative dimension where individuals and communities react to, or cope with, stresses and shocks; and a positive dimension which enhances capacities to adapt, exploiting change, and assuring continuity (Chambers and Conway 1992).The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) gained acceptance amongst development scholars and partitions as a set of principles guiding development intervention, as an analytical framework to help identify intervention strategies, and as an overall development objective. Large development institutions have adopted the SLA (e.g., DFID, FAO, UNDP, Oxfam, CARE International) (Scoones 2009;Carney et al. 1999), and the concept has been applied across multiple sectors including water (Nicol 2000), forestry (Warner 2000), natural resources management (Pound 2003), animal genetic resources (Anderson 2003), agriculture (Carswell 1997), urban development (Farrington et al. 2002), river basin management (Cleaver and Franks 2005) and fisheries (Allison and Ellis 2001). Conceptualized by Chambers and Conway (1992), the SLA has experienced wide use. Not without critique, the SLA emerged at a time when neoliberal ideologies dominated development thinking resulting in the imposition of free market principles on developing nations. In opposition, and armed with an understanding that poverty reduction could only be eradicated by addressing individual and community livelihoods, the SLA became the dominant development paradigm of its time. The SLA is based on four main concepts: (i) a vulnerability context, (ii) an asset base, (iii) livelihood strategies and outcomes, and (iv) policies and institutions which shape access to assets (Brocklesby and Fisher 2003). However, the literature demonstrates variations in the basic approach (Swift 1989;Chambers and Conway 1992;Scoones 1998;Arce 2003;Davies et al. 2013). Development of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach has included the creation of a number of frameworks (e.g., Scoones 1998;Ellis, 2000;DFID 2001) that conceptually identify the key components of livelihoods and their interactions (Robinson and Fuller 2010). For example, DFID's framework is illustrated in Figure 16 and Scoones' in Figure 17. Central to all of these frameworks are a strong asset base for achieving sustainable livelihoods, a vulnerability context, policy and institutional processes, and livelihood strategies and outcomes.Figure 16. The sustainable livelihoods framework (Source: DFID 1999).Figure 17. Sustainable rural livelihoods: A framework for analysis (Source: Scoones 1998).Humans and their livelihoods are vulnerable to stresses and shocks (Chambers and Conway 1992). According to Chambers and Conway (1992: 10), vulnerability in the SLA has two aspects: \"external, the stresses and shocks to which they are subject; and internal, the capacity to cope\".Stresses are pressures which are typically chronic and cumulative, predictable and distressing such as seasonal shortages, declining resources and overpopulation, while shocks are impacts which are typically sudden, unpredictable and traumatic such as fires, floods and epidemics (Chambers and Conway 1992). Examples of livelihood stresses which build up over time include declining yields on degraded soils; diminished water tables; decreasing rainfall; and low bioeconomic productivity (Chambers and Conway 1992). Long-term changes to the climate may further exacerbate chronic stressors as identified in Part I of this paper. Seasonal stresses are often more significant than chronic stressors as they can manifest during already stressful times of the year (Chen 1991;Chambers and Conway 1992). Examples of acute shocks to the livelihood system include storms, floods, fires, famines, landslips, epidemics of crop pests or human or animal illnesses (Chambers and Conway 1992). Reducing vulnerability, from a sustainable livelihoods perspective, can be achieved externally through public action, and internally through private action.Underlying the SLA is the theory that people draw on a range of capital assets to further their livelihood objectives (DFID 1999;FAO 2002). Assets are categorized as social (social networks and relationships of trust), human (skills, knowledge, labor), natural (natural resource stocks), physical (transport, shelter, water, energy, communications) and financial (savings, income, credit) (e.g., Figure 18), and may serve as both inputs and outcomes (Baumann and Sinha 2001;FAO 2002). Various vulnerability factors (such as environmental stresses and shocks) can impact these assets (FAO 2002) which are often filtered through policies, institutions and processes that affect the degree to which livelihood objectives are realized (FAO 2002). Increasingly, it is being recognized that in addition to the traditional five asset categories, political capital (an individual's stock of political capital) determines one's ability to influence policy and government processes (Bauman 2000;FAO 2008). DFID (1999) notes that a single physical asset can generate multiple benefits; if some people have secure access to land (natural capital) they may also be well-endowed with financial capital, as they are able to use the land not only for direct productive activities but also as collateral for loans. Similarly, livestock may generate social capital (prestige and connectedness to the community) for owners while at the same time being used as productive physical capital (think of animal traction) and remaining, in itself, as natural capital. In order to develop an understanding of these complex relationships it is necessary to look beyond the assets themselves, to think about prevailing cultural practices and the types of structures and processes that 'transform' assets into livelihood outcomes (DFID 1999). The more assets a household has access to, and the more diversified those assets, the stronger the livelihood security, and the higher the coping capacity of the household in the face of threats to security (Chambers 1995).Figure 18. The five capital assets(left) modified by Bebbington (1999). By displaying each asset as a point, an individual's access to capitals can be graphed where the center point of the pentagon, represents zero access to assets while the outer perimeter represents maximum access. On this basis, different shaped pentagons can be drawn for different communities or social groups within communities (Source: Sayer et al. 2006). Some researchers have also included political capital (e. Policies and institutions represent an important set of external factors that influence the livelihoods of people, through influencing access to assets; and reducing vulnerability to shocks, positive livelihood outcomes can be produced (FAO 2008). Examples of institutions that influence livelihood outcomes include formal membership organizations (cooperatives and registered groups), informal organizations (exchange labor groups or rotating savings groups), political institutions (parliament, law and order or political parties), economic institutions (markets, private companies, banks, land rights or the tax system), and sociocultural institutions (kinship, marriage, inheritance or religion) (FAO 2008). Understanding the structures and processes that mediate the process of achieving a sustainable livelihood is critical, in particular, identification of processes which are enabling for sustainable livelihoods, social processes which promote livelihood sustainability and approaches which address the complexity of institutions relative to the livelihood context (Scoones 1998). Without an understanding the structures and processes that create positive livelihood outcomes it becomes increasingly difficult to inform and drive policy necessary to enact real change.The most basic livelihood outcomes relate to satisfaction of elementary human needs, such as food, water, energy, shelter, clothing, sanitation, and healthcare among others (FAO 2008). The ultimate outcome is to achieve preservation of the household and to provide the next generation with a desirable quality of life (FAO 2008). People tend to develop the most appropriate livelihood strategies necessary to reach a desired outcome. Scoones (1998) identified three broad clusters of livelihood strategies in the sustainable livelihoods framework. These include: agricultural intensification/ extensification, livelihood diversification, and migration. Options for rural people are either to gain more livelihood activities from agriculture through processes of intensification (more output per unit area through capital investment or increases in labor inputs) and extensification (more land under cultivation), to diversify to a range of off-farm income earning activities, to move away and seek a livelihood either temporarily or permanently elsewhere, or more commonly, a combination of strategies together or in sequence (Scoones 1998). Unfavorable or unsatisfactory livelihood outcomes maybe the result of several factors which often interact, including low level of livelihood assets, high degree of vulnerability to external shocks, and insufficient livelihood support from surrounding institutions (FAO 2008). It is not only the total number of sustainable livelihoods created that is important, but also the level of livelihood intensity (Chambers 1987;Scoones 1998). Thus investigating the multiplier effects (both positive and negative) of particular livelihood activities on others and the environment, both now and in the future is important (Scoones 1998). In the SLA, livelihoods are evaluated on the basis of \"sustainability\" of resource use. The focus on the non-income aspects of livelihoods, such as reduced vulnerability, makes outcomes difficult to measure (Ashley and Carney 1999).The SLA can be considered as a set of principles guiding development intervention (which needs to be evidence-based and community-informed), an analytical framework to understand the current state and what could enhance livelihood sustainability, and an overall development objective (e.g., to reduce the vulnerability; improving institutions) (Farrington 2001;Morse et al. 2009). These principles are deemed to explain the popularity of the SLA given their compatibility with a range of frameworks on poverty alleviation and capacity-building (both in rural and urban contexts), but like all initiatives in development, the SLA did not materialize from a vacuum but from the evolution of several older trends and ideas (Morse et al. 2009). Farrington (2001) identified some shortcomings of the SLA such as projects needing government endorsement, concepts which are not universally understood, costs in scaling-up interventions, a need for full administrative and financial flexibility and also having the potential to dismiss intra-household interactions and wider social networks. Morse et al. (2009) highlight a number of criticisms of the SLA, stating that the approach can be too quantitative, there is ambiguity in selecting and measuring assets, a lack of trust with participants can prevail, power to locally transform outcomes to interventions may be insufficient, accounting for shocks at a macro-scale is unpredictable, and the various frameworks over simply the complexity inherent in people's livelihoods. Scoones (2009) also identifies four recurrent failings of the SLA that are likely attributed to its decline in prominence: (i) an inability to deal with big shifts in the state of global markets and politics; (ii) power and politics lack focus with livelihoods and governance debates not linked to development; (iii) lacks rigor in deadline with long-term large-scale environmental change; and (iv) failure in relating to debates regarding rural economies and agrarian change. Scoones (2009) also notes that livelihood approaches have been accused of being good methods in search of a theory (O'Laughlin 2004). However, he suggests that although more explicit attention to the theorization of concepts is warranted, a more pluralist, hybrid vision is probably more appropriate if a solid, field-based, grounded empirical stance is to remain at the core (Scoones 2009).However, the evidence-based approach of the SLA is one of its core positive attributes according to Morse et al. (2009). They note that the focus on households, livelihoods and sustainability is not new but the synergy of these concepts within a single framework is the progress made by the SLA. The SLA helped establish the principle that successful development intervention, even if led internally, must begin with a reflective process of deriving evidence. In this sense, Morse et al. (2009) noted that there is a deep resonance of SLA with the broad field of 'evidence-based' intervention and policy. A further attraction of the SLA is that it is people-centric, and depends on the involvement of those meant to be helped by the change. As a result, the SLA builds upon the long history of the participatory movement in development, and techniques and methods honed over years of application in stakeholder participation can be used within SLA (Morse et al. 2009). The SLA represents an acceptance that multiple sectors (social, economic and natural) have to be considered which mirrors the values of sustainable development and integrated rural development. Additionally, it recognizes that livelihoods are dynamic and provide objectives for intervention to follow (Morse et al. 2009) which is essential for capacity building.There have also been attempts to link SLA with operational indicators (Hoon et al. 1997), monitoring and evaluation (Adato and Meinzen-Dick 2002), sector strategies (Gilling et al. 2001) and poverty reduction strategies (Norton and Foster 2001). One of the claims of the livelihoods perspectives is that they link the micro with the macro but, according to Scoones (2009), this has more often been an ambition than a reality. One of the persistent failures of livelihood approaches has been a failure to address wider global processes and their impingement on livelihood concerns at the local level. For example, he poses that a central future challenge must be integrating livelihoods thinking and understandings of local contexts and responses with concerns for global environmental change (Scoones 2009). A more geographic perspective could be of assistance here, linking a solid place-based analysis with broader-scale spatiotemporal patterns.The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach has evolved into a holistic and transdisciplinary entity that encompasses both an approach to development policy and practice, and a conceptual framework (Allison and Horemans 2006). Given its breadth, rather than elaborating exclusive 'alternatives' to the SLA, several authors have described how the SLA could address key criticisms through integration with other approaches and frameworks that link poverty alleviation with environmental resources. For example, Fisher et al. (2013) provide a useful overview of nine conceptual frameworks used to link ecosystem services and poverty alleviation (of which SLA is one); Small (2007) outlines attempts to integrate SLA with rights-based and actor-oriented approaches; Kumar et al. (2011) describe a framework which draws on the SLA and MA to show interlinks between poverty alleviation and wetlands use; and Schreckenberg et al. (2010) consider how the key concepts of SLA have influenced approaches to social impact assessment. Some of the most commonly invoked 'alternatives' or complementary approaches to SLA are discussed here.The Environmental Entitlements framework (Leach et al. 1999) highlights the role of institutions in mediating environment-society relationships, particularly in terms of access to resources. Under this framework, the community is disaggregated in recognition of the endowments (rights and resources) and entitlements (legitimate, effective command over commodities) that are available to differently positioned social actors. With its recognition of relative poverty, intra-community and intra-household differentiation in access to resources, the environmental entitlements framework explicitly addresses political economy and power relationships; the SLA has been criticized for relatively weak consideration of these factors (Carney 2002). The environmental entitlements framework bears similarities with 'rights-based' approaches to development (e.g., Cornwall and Nyamu-Musembi 2006). According to Farrington (2001), the main difference between the two approaches is that rights-based approaches focus on what people's entitlements are (or should be), and the SLA assesses the impact that the presence or absence of particular entitlements has on livelihoods (Farrington, 2001:3). Environmental entitlements and SLA developed in parallel in the 1990s (Scoones 2009), and there are analytical overlaps between the two approaches (Fisher et al. 2013). Some authors have suggested that rights-based approaches and SLA approaches can be combined to help address the shortcomings of both (Farrington 2001;Carney 2002).Alternative frameworks used for social assessment have built upon the core concepts of the SLA. Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) (Davies et al. 2013) is broadly derived from the SLA, and integrates elements of social protection, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation. ASP explicitly incorporates vulnerability, but considers vulnerability to result not only from risks and shocks, but also from the preexisting socio-institutional context. A key point of departure from the SLA is that a lack of means to cope with risk and vulnerability is in itself seen as a cause of persistent poverty and poverty traps (Davies et al. 2013). ASP advocates a 'rightsbased approach' to empower people and reduce vulnerability. Schreckenberg et al. (2010) stop short of defining a new method of social assessment, but instead present a modified version of the SLA that incorporates political and legal assets alongside the five livelihood capitals of the SLA (referred to as assets in this context). Furthermore, Schreckenberg et al. 's (2010) Social Assessment of Protected Areas framework incorporates the MA (MA 2005) definition of ecosystem services, with three categories (provisioning, regulating, and supporting services) included under natural assets and the fourth category (cultural services) included within social assets (Figure 19). Kumar et al. (2011) also utilized the MA (2005) concept whereby ecosystem services (of wetlands) are considered to partially constitute natural capital, and through transforming structures and processes, ecosystem services can contribute to all capitals. An understanding of these interactions rationalizes the extent to which ecosystems can contribute to poverty reduction for a given livelihood system (Kumar et al. 2011). Adaptive comanagement is a contemporary approach to natural resources management that links learning and collaboration to facilitate effective governance of complex social-ecological systems (Armitage et al. 2009). This approach draws on resilience theory (derived from ecological principles) and the idea of coevolving systems of humans and nature (social-ecological systems or SES), where delineation of social systems and ecological systems is seen as artificial. Local environmental knowledge is seen as holding a critical role in buffering and adapting to change (Olsson and Folke 2001). Key concepts within the adaptive comanagement and SES sphere include adaptability, vulnerability, and the capacity for systems to be resilient in the face of change -either through absorbing shocks, or through renewal, reorganization and development (Folke 2006).Resilience-based approaches have been criticized for being relatively apolitical and not prioritizing human agency (Fisher et al. 2013). Adaptive comanagement builds on this by explicitly including consideration of institutions, governance, horizontal and vertical linkages, power asymmetries and links to policy (Armitage et al. 2009). While bearing some commonalities with the SLA, adaptive comanagement has a stronger focus on ecosystem management than on livelihoods, and considers livelihoods through the lens of resilience, as exhibiting multiple dynamic equilibria for a given set of circumstances (Armitage 2007). Recently, scholars including Ostrom (2009) have sought to develop a framework for understanding complex SES that explicitly includes a number of variables related to social, economic and political settings (including governance systems). The socialecological system framework was developed to enable researchers from diverse disciplines to share a common vocabulary and analytical framework (Ostrom 2009;McGinnis and Ostrom 2014).Given the frameworks presented here to look at livelihood security and future sustainability, it is important to discuss how livelihoods are generally governed; this is particularly pertinent for the transforming processes component identified by sustainable livelihood frameworks. Building on the work of 2009 Nobel Prize Winner for Economics, Elinor Ostrom, on the governance of the commons (e.g. Ostrom 1990Ostrom , 2009)), Agrawal and Ribot (1999) and Agrawal (2001) have analyzed the trend of decentralization of government and role of community in sustainable governance of resources and have identified a number of issues with regard to identifying and empowering the community and their (in)ability to self-organize in certain conditions. Hoon and Hyden (2003) argue that the sustainable livelihoods approach has evolved as possibly the most useful conceptual derivative of sustainable development by recognizing the linkages between micro action and macro conditions and policies. It starts from the premise that individuals must empower themselves but any such effort must take advantage of local assets and strengths (whether entailed in knowledge systems or strategies for coping with or adapt to changing conditions). The capacity to cope with stress and shocks, however, cannot succeed without access to supplementary resources from outside the local context or community (Hoon and Hyden 2003). Nor will it succeed without recognition of the cross-sectoral and cross-scalar nature of the sustainable development enterprise. While community-based institutions may be well suited to manage natural resources confined to a small locality with well-defined boundaries, the interconnectedness of communities and stakeholders in a larger regional context calls for approaches that extend beyond the scale of village territories, district boundaries and sometimes even national borders (Warner 2006). A major question is then how far more institutionalized and multi-layered forms of public participation in environmental governance integrate the various types of community-based natural resources management or whether they create a parallel universe, thereby undermining local communities' or resource management groups' efforts to manage and protect natural resources (cf. Neef 2008). Gender is also an important consideration for empowering individuals and communities (see sections 2.2.2, 3.6 and 5.1.2 for examples).\"Participatory research is a collection of approaches that enable participants to develop their own understanding of and control over processes and events being investigated\" and \"Participatory development is defined as a process in which people enjoy active and influential participation in all decisions that have an impact on their lives. \"(BMZ 1999: 2; Ashby 2003: 10) Neef et al. (2013) note that participatory approaches to agricultural research, natural resources management and rural development have been widely discussed and promoted since the early 1980s (Figure 20; Table 4)(e.g., Chambers 1983Chambers , 1994;;Ashby 1986;Pretty 1995;Pound et al. 2003). These approaches originally emerged as a response to the lengthy and top-down planning processes used in rural development projects and the failure of the transfer-of-technology model which had predominated between the 1960s and early 1980s. Forerunners to these approaches were the forebears of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), a method which later evolved into the more democratic Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach, described by Chambers (1994: 953) as \"a growing body of approaches and methods [used] to enable local people to share, enhance, and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. \" RRA and PRA were developed through the merging of several research approaches and techniques, such as participatory action research, agroecosystem analysis, applied anthropology and farming systems research (Campbell 2001). The increasing interest in participatory approaches within national and international environmental systems has been linked to the limited outreach of conventional, station-based research approaches in more difficult environments. Whereas the Green Revolution, with its focus on technological packages, was successful to a certain degree in high-potential areas, it was almost a complete failure in highly heterogeneous and marginal areas, such as mountainous or rain-fed semiarid regions (Neef et al. 2013). The more recent blue revolution seeks to overcome these and other failings from a more holistic perspective in particular linking land and water use (Calder 2005). Hoon and Hyden (2003) identify two types of principal contributions generated by interest in sustainable livelihoods that have been instrumental in changing perceptions in the policy arena: (i) the first consists of those like Chambers and Conway (1992), Davies (1993), and Singh and Titi (1994) who have focused on developing participatory methodologies that may facilitate the enabling sustainable livelihoods. This \"bottom\"-up approach places the individual actor on center stage. The assumption is that empowering the poor through participatory methods is the key to success. They note that the institutional or structural constraints are, if not overlooked, often underestimated in this approach; (ii) the second approach has focused on the systems level and pointed to the disjuncture between the way natural and human systems are managed. Literature on multistakeholder participation has pointed out the importance of making values explicit in participatory processes (Checkland and Scholes 1990;Robinson and Fuller 2010). Robinson (2009) notes how in practice there is still much to learn about how to make values explicit in participatory processes and how to use such processes to arrive at collective expressions of value. The question of how to articulate, communicate and negotiate diverse types and combinations of values amongst various stakeholders is part of the challenge of governance (Robinson and Fuller 2010). Robinson and Fuller (2010) note that while much attention has been given to implementing the SLA in a participatory way at the local level (e.g., Ashley and Hussain 2000;DFID 2001;Farrington et al. 2002;Westley and Mikhalev 2002) despite the approach making no explicit reference to participation, the implications of sustainable livelihoods for the scaling-up of participation have yet to be fully explored. Table 4. Features of the most popular participatory approaches to research and development (compiled by A. Neef).A package of tools developed in the 1980s to enable interdisciplinary teams of development experts and researchers to get a quick and holistic overview of major characteristics of rural communities and their resource use.A set of interactive methods and tools developed to help rural people make their own knowledge and understanding of their socioecological environment and economic reality more explicit in collaboration with development practitioners and/or researchers (emerged from RRA).Evolved from Lewin's notion of action research and is based on the belief that research should be conducted in a collaborative way and should contribute to changing people's lives rather than just producing academic outcomes.Participatory Technology Development Developed as an alternative to linear innovation diffusion models that (PTD) emphasize a transfer to technology from science via the agricultural extension service to farmers; PTD put strong emphasis on collaborative forms of technology development by integrating local knowledge.A group-based learning process emphasizing experiential education of farmers and farmer-to-farmer exchange; major activities include field observations, small experiments and group-based analysis; mainly used to promote Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies.  A particular form of PTD popularized by international research centers to develop plant breeding programs in collaboration between plant breeders and farmers; this collaborative process of crop genetic improvement can also include processors, traders, consumers and policymakers.Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) A participatory research approach that seeks to understand poverty in its local context and social, institutional and political dimensions by incorporating the perspectives of various local stakeholders and involving them actively in follow-up activities; popularized by the World Bank.A process that involves a range of local stakeholders in monitoring and (PM&E) evaluating a particular development project, program or policy; thereby it is intended to share control over the M&E activity and engage local people in identifying adjustment of goals and corrective actions.Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is an extension of PRA and emphasizes learning about, and engaging with, communities. The approach combines a range of participatory, visual and interactive methods and tools with natural interviewing techniques and intends to facilitate a process of collective analysis and learning.The role of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in addressing decline in ecosystems services, adaptive comanagement of natural resources and building resilience in social-ecological systems is gaining increased recognition in the context of global change (Butler et al. 2012;Gomez-Baggethun et al. 2013). For example, Turnhout et al. (2012) argue for the inclusion of a broader range of ecological knowledge and stakeholders if the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is to be effective in reducing biodiversity loss at multiple scales. Under changing climatic regimes, incorporation of TEK is important in any analysis of the livelihood security of communities dependent on environmental resources. Establishing a singular definition for TEK appropriate for all stakeholders and contexts is inherently ambiguous (Whyte 2013). Berkes (1999: 5) defines TEK to incorporate the broader concepts of landscape and adaptive practices relevant to the issues of both sustainable livelihoods and environmental frameworks: TEK constitutes \"a cumulative body of knowledge, practice, and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and their environment. \" An important aspect of TEK is that it is both cumulative and dynamic, building upon experience and adapting to challenges (Berkes 1999). Combining TEK with science and management knowledge (SMK) provides the diversity and depth of knowledge for problem-solving needed to enhance social-ecological resilience to environmental stressors (Butler et al. 2012). TEK often provides place-specific, contextual and finer-scale spatiotemporal information (Moller et al. 2004;Butler et al. 2012) that offers insight on localized system response to management practices or altered environmental conditions.Governance is one, but by no means the only, tool to enhance sustainable livelihoods; science and technology are other important factors (Hoon and Hyden 2003;Juma 2001). Hoon and Hyden's (2003) paper is devoted to a discussion on how governance may be operationalized to serve the implementation of sustainable livelihoods. They suggest a four-pronged approach that takes into consideration that changes in power relations are typically the result of leadership interventions from above as well as citizen demands from below. The four aspects they cover are: articulation; mobilization; distribution and confirmation. They conceive an operationalization of governance built around the implementation of sustainable livelihoods in specific programmatic and institutional contexts where particular principles and objectives become important (e.g., access; civic engagement; rights). Recent increase in the accessibility of spatially enabling technologies has allowed communities to engage in the geographical representation of TEK through platforms such as volunteered geographic information (VGI) (discussed further in Part III). Existing quantitative spatial methods for assessing livelihood vulnerability to environmental change across multiple spatiotemporal scales can be strengthened through incorporation of TEK. However, in translating local knowledge for inclusion in spatial-based methods, consideration needs to be given to the characteristics of indigenous thinking to avoid important meaning being lost in cartographic translation. These include a cyclical concept of time, recognition of fluid and flexible boundaries, non-anthropocentricity, nonbinary thinking and the idea that facts cannot be dissociated from values (Rundstrom 1995).As identified so far in this paper, there are strong parallels between the concepts of the environment nexus, environmental security and sustainable livelihoods. The fundamental issue identified is that attaining 'sustainable livelihood security' leads us to conceptualize a term 'environmental livelihood security' (ELS), which combines the strengths of the nexus approach with the sustainable livelihoods approach. As stated in the foreword of this paper, our definition of the concept is as follows: \"Environmental livelihood security refers to the challenges of maintaining global food security and universal access to freshwater and energy to sustain livelihoods and promote inclusive economic growth, whilst sustaining key environmental systems functionality, particularly under variable climatic regimes. \" Scale is a crucial consideration for operationalizing a nexus-livelihoods approach, as this will determine characteristics such as suitable methods for monitoring change in ELS and appropriate governance tools for achieving/retaining sustainability in the environmentlivelihoods system. The concept is discussed further in this section and the importance of the term for providing a theoretical grounding for spatially assessing change at multiple scales is introduced.The SLA is an integrating transdisciplinary approach that encourages the use of the perspective of the rural household and its livelihood, rather than the boundaries of an academic discipline or government-defined sector, to identify relevant variables that describe the system. In this way, the SLA is not simply about using a systems perspective to identify relevant factors and the causal linkages between them, but it can be integrated with other approaches such as those identifying the influence of food, water and energy nexus on human security (Hoff 2011) and the relationship between human security and livelihoods (Khagram et al. 2003). The SLA can be used not only to organize information but also to help its users to restructure information and knowledge and to see the world through different lenses. In this sense, it can also be used as a framework for knowledge integration assessment (Knutsson 2006). The various SLA frameworks in use recognize that livelihoods are created from diverse assets and diverse activities. Analyzing livelihood assets and activities at the household level can contribute to an understanding of livelihood dynamics that transcends both disciplinary boundaries and outdated paradigms (Robinson and Fuller 2010).The Brundtland Report (Bruntland Commission 1987) is credited with signalling the change in emphasis from market liberalization to poverty alleviation and the environment (and thus sustainable livelihoods) as priorities for international development agencies (Solesbury 2003); but it is Chambers and Conway's (1992) paper that is the foundation of sustainable livelihoods work. This paper approached \"sustainable livelihoods\" as an integrating concept, bringing together Sen's (1984) concepts of capability with notions of equity and long-term environmental sustainability, in direct opposition to development thinking that revolved around production, employment, and poverty (Small 2007). Alternately constructed as a way of thinking, a set of principles, and a framework for analysis (Farrington 2001), the approach draws together several major popular ideas in international development thought. As such it represents a paradigm shift in international development thinking but is not sufficiently developed to be considered a paradigm in itself (Solesbury 2003). Accordingly, integration of the SLA with other constructs has merit (Small 2007). Referring to the frameworks of the SLA and sustainability science, for example, Khagram et al. (2003) note that each clearly demonstrates the intricate interconnectivities of human, social and environmental systems -action on one invariably affects the other. One notable empirical study aimed at integrating the SLA constructs with ecosystem health was pursued by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) (Connell 2010). Small (2007) notes that what ecosystem health approaches offer to the SLA is legitimization for scaling up the SLA, placing the household and its assets within the context of complex systems, thus addressing not only the poor but all system elements, particularly the natural resource context (Waltner-Toews et al. 2004;Robinson and Fuller 2010). More recently there have been approaches to integrate the SLA with constructs relevant to the water-energy-food nexus (e.g., Kemp-Benedict et al. 2009).According to Khagram et al. (2003), conceptual and practical frameworks should virtually always link security and development. In practice this means that communities concerned with each of these must be in deep dialogue and continual engagement. In this respect, the capacity sustainable livelihoods to be integrated with other constructs in sustainable development may be of particular use for analysis and practical applications in vulnerable areas where natural disasters or ecological considerations are of primary importance, such as those identified in SAO. Given the concepts discussed in Part II of this paper, we propose that the sustainable livelihoods approach (e.g., DFID 1999) could be combined with nexus-thinking (e.g., Hoff 2011), as per the conceptual representation in Figure 21, for use in adopting a framework to spatially examine the geography of environmental livelihood security. This conceptual framework for investigating environmental livelihood security (ELS) has the capacity to integrate the livelihood capitals into the water-energyfood-climate nexus. In this theoretical construct, in order to achieve environmental livelihood security there needs to be a sustainable balance between human demand and natural supply. This requires equilibrium between both livelihood and environmental pressures whereby livelihoods can place pressure on the environment and the environment can place pressure on livelihoods.The environment system is viewed through a nexus lens, incorporating the environmental security concepts of food, water, energy and climate securities. The livelihood system is viewed through an asset lens, incorporating the concepts of 'sustainable livelihood security' as analyzed by Bohle (2009: 521) who argued that \"sustainable livelihood security… can be identified and targeted, how pro-poor interventions can be planned, and how policy-relevant analysis on local levels can guide research on vulnerability, poverty and development. \" Furthermore, he stated that \"sustainable livelihood security is closely connected with the concept of human security, putting people at the center and taking equity, human rights, capabilities and sustainability as its normative basis\". Both the environment and livelihood systems retain the synergies and strengths of their conceptual informants, namely the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable development and additionally, longterm sustainability. The ELS concept is designed to be versatile enough to be applicable across spatial scales and at multilevel institutional scales.Figure 21. Conceptual framework for investigating environmental livelihood security (ELS); combines concepts of the water-energy-food-climate nexus with the livelihood capitals of the sustainable livelihoods framework.Currently, many 'security' assessments are still constrained by national boundaries such as reporting on the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations 2013), the state of food security (FAO-IFAD 2013), the IFPRI Global Hunger Index; while some reports address water security with basin-level assessments such as the World Resources Institute Aquaduct tool (Gassert et al. 2013) or the groundwater footprints assessment (Gleeson et al. 2012). However, these assessments often mask vast levels of intranation or intrabasin insecurity and gradients in environmental stresses and conditions. A first step for environmental livelihood security assessments is to move away from state-centered assessments of environmental threats; increasing fine-spatial resolution datasets are being generated which can contribute to this need e.g., WorldPop (http://www.worldpop.org. uk/); FAO AquaMap (http://www.fao.org/nr/water/ aquamaps/#map).Environmental Livelihood Security in Southeast Asia and Oceania lOctober 2014 71 Figure 21. Conceptual framework for investigating environmental livelihood security (ELS); combines concepts of the water-energy-food-climate nexus with the livelihood capitals of the sustainable livelihoods framework.Currently, many 'security' assessments are still constrained by national boundaries such as reporting on the progress of the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations 2013), the state of food security (FAO-IFAD 2013), the IFPRI Global Hunger Index; while some reports address water security with basinlevel assessments such as the World Resources Institute Aquaduct tool (Gassert et al.2013) or the groundwater footprints assessment (Gleeson et al.2012). However, these assessments often mask vast levels of intranation or intrabasin insecurity and gradients in environmental stresses and conditions. A first step for environmental livelihood security assessments is to move away from state-centeredA recurrent theme in the literature is that the root causes of environmental degradation, environmental insecurity, environmental disasters and human insecurity are due to institutional and governance frameworks not providing people with freedom to access resources in order to secure favorable livelihoods outcomes. Current security assessments are often outcomeorientated such as maps of food security or water scarcity (FAO-IFAD 2013;Gassert et al. 2013).In constructing indices, often, a range of indicators are now used reflecting complex social and environmental determinants of development or security; however, these indicators are still often outcomes of institutional structures, policies and governance processes. There is scope to develop methods, frameworks and indicators to assess the performance of policy, the role of institutions, the presence of governance processes, and the different impacts on women and men which would contribute to environmental livelihoods security. A recent example would be the work of Tall et al. (2013) which developed a set of indicators to assess national disaster management policy in terms of whether it proactively implemented disaster risk reduction measures to safeguard development from hydrometeorological hazards. However, this work was limited to assessing only one environmental threat; it did not assess how policy actually played out on the ground (the difference between policy intention and action), it was limited to the national level and did not assess informal governance structures and institutions (Lowe and Schilderman 2001).There is a need for research to focus on exploring rapid mapping of thematic disaster impacts on livelihoods, not just delineating affected areas. Such an informational gain will improve the efforts of stakeholders, charged with disaster relief and recovery operations, in ensuring that disasters have minimal impacts on the positive development trajectories of poor and vulnerable rural communities. This advance would ensure that operational disaster response is not distinct from achievement of wider development goals and climate change resilience.As demonstrated in this paper, the social-ecological environments in which women and men live and create their livelihoods are characterized by multiple lines of cause and effect, positive and negative feedback loops, unpredictability, and influences that operate across scales. For any given social-ecological system various valid \"maps\" are possible, and therefore matters of deciding which data are relevant and of interpreting them are problematic (Robinson and Fuller 2010). Multiple theories may be devised that attempt to explain some aspects of complex systems such as: identifying food webs; succession patterns; energy flows; capital circuits; patterns of political power; social, political or ecological feedback loops and cause-effect patterns, and so on, but each of these would only be describing a subsystem (Robinson and Fuller 2010). No theory can encompass all possibly relevant aspects of the whole system; for any given social-ecological system various valid \"maps\" are possible, depending on data selected.Before our notion of ELS can be measured to identify change and provide potential solutions for increased sustainable livelihoods, it is first required to identify what change has actually occurred. Indicators provide a way to identify variables of socioecological systems. Conceptual frameworks for indicators (also termed variables, parameters, measures, statistical measures, proxy measures and subindices; Veleva and Ellenbecker (2001)  The main differences among them are the ways in which they conceptualize the key dimensions of development, levels of attention to gender and disaggregation of data by sex, the interlinkages among the dimensions, the way each groups the issues to be measured and the concepts by which each justifies the selection and aggregation of indicators. Several approaches to indicator frameworks exist (UNDESA 2007), such as (i) driving force-state-response, (ii) issues or themes relating to sustainable development or sustainability, (iii) capital frameworks which evaluate national wealth as a function of different factors (e.g., finance; institutions), and (iv) accounting frameworks which pull indicators from a single database. However, while there is evidence that macro-indicator systems such as those that exist for aggregate economies, environments and societies are somewhat useful for informing broader policy controversies, there is increasing consensus that more subtle disaggregated indices are needed to reflect key realities on the ground, and that macro-indicators do not necessarily reflect the status or priorities of communities located at various scales or in different contexts (Khagram et al. 2003). Morse (2013) notes the creation and use of development indicators are related to differing theories of what development means. Development indicators were traditionally centered on economic growth (income per capita) given that development was initially synonymous with economic growth (Morse 2013). Indicators for development have since moved through several transitions to focus less on the economy and more on livelihoods and promoting sustainability. Scoones (1998) notes that no neat, simple algorithm for objectively measuring sustainable livelihoods emerges from the various definitions; indicators range from very precise measures amenable to quantitative assessment to broad and diffuse indicators requiring more qualitative techniques for assessment. In any particular case, there will always need to be negotiations and trade-offs as to what is actually valued. Scale and perspective can also be determined through identifying the boundaries of the system (Connell 2010). Selecting variables and indicators effectively defines what is included as elements in the system and what is outside the system. Likewise, the unit of analysis, variables, and indicators define what is relevant to the observer, which may differ across approaches, and the unit also defines the scale of the system (e.g., landscape; biome; household; nation) with influence occurring across scales (Scoones 1998;Connell 2010). Involving participatory approaches can aid in determining the boundaries of a system (e.g., Table 5); this provides synergies with the planetary boundaries concept and resonates with the same issues regarding scale as discussed in section 2.7.1. As an example of indicator selection, Sayer et al. (2006) use indicators within a sustainable livelihood framework in the context of wider ecosystems based upon the capital framework approach (Table 6).Discrete indicators may not be the most appropriate method for encapsulating the inherent complexity in socioecological systems. Modelling approaches which use statistical structures can help address issues of variability, diversity and uncertainty within a system. As an example, Kemp-Benedict et al. (2009) use the SLA to assess water-related poverty, and the model structure they define, as well as links between the indicators and the model, which are specific to the community. However, water can be seen as flowing through three interlinked systems of hydrology, food production and livelihoods (Cook and Gichukli 2006;Kemp-Benedict et al. 2009). In linking livelihood assets to indicators, they elaborate their conceptual framework into a quantitative model, with each node (such as natural assets) in the SLF potentially becoming a variable. They note the nodes in the conceptual framework are better characterized as ranges or distributions of values; that is, 'fuzzy' rather than as a single value. They achieve this using Bayesian modelling which relates variables to one another using conditional probabilities (Jensen 1996;Pearl 2001) This section explores how the environment can be monitored spatially in relation to water, energy and food security under a changing climate. As previously noted, spatial analysis presents a way to implement the concepts of ELS at multiscales and multilevels. Through using spatial datasets to measure potential indicators of ELS, change can be monitored and assessed through a nexuslivelihoods approach. The core environment nexus elements of water-energy-food-climate constitute the basis for assessing change spatially for enabling that balance between natural supply and human demand to ensure both environmental and livelihood security. Here we discuss available spatial data and methodologies for potential indicators in the context of the SAO region.Satellite systems provide a unique opportunity to continuously monitor the Earth at regular intervals, with satellite-based information greatly enhancing our knowledge and understanding of the processes and dynamics within Earth systems (Thies and Bendix 2011). Satellite-based observations exploit geostationary and low-Earth-orbiting satellite systems, providing data at different spatial and temporal resolutions (Thies and Bendix 2011). Satellite imagery are increasingly utilized with climate models for simulation of climate system dynamics and to improve climate projections (Yang et al. 2013). By quantifying processes and spatiotemporal states of the atmosphere, land and oceans, remote sensing satellites provide major advances in understanding the climate system and its changes (Yang et al. 2013). For example, satellite remote sensing has allowed for better understanding of the interactions between cloud, aerosols and precipitation. Remotely sensed satellite data have also played a crucial role in monitoring dynamics of snow and ice cover extents, and satellite altimetry observations have been combined with in situ or tide-gauge measurements to reconstruct long-term sea-level time series (Yang et al. 2013).Alongside these advances are a number of important challenges. The short duration of observation series and their uncertainties limit the capture of robust long-term trends of many climate variables (Yang et al. 2013). Yang et al. (2013) outline three recurring limitations of satellite data: short data spans or records, biases associated with instruments, and uncertainties in retrieval algorithms. If satellite observations lack long-term continuity, consistency and homogeneity, challenges will arise in separating long-term trends from interannual and decadal variability (Yang et al. 2013). An example of this is provided in estimates of global mean SLR made from satellite data. These estimates have been much higher than those calculated from tide-gauge data; however, owing to the short data span (~2 decades) of satellite altimetry, the higher rate could be influenced by interannual or longer oceanic variations, and cannot be necessarily attributed to accelerated sealevel rise (SLR) (Yang et al. 2013). Biases exist in the coarse-resolution sensors carried by some satellites unable to capture climate processes occurring at finer spatial scales due to their original design for meteorological observations (Yang et al. 2013). For example, as noted by Brecht et al. (2012), the spatial resolution of remote sensing elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) means that small island nations are not included in these datasets. Uncertainty in retrieval algorithms used in converting electromagnetic signals from satellite sensors into measurements of climate variability may introduce uncertainty in the magnitude of detected trends (Yang et al. 2013). Yang et al. (2013) express a pressing need for more global reference networks for collaborating satellite data and validating data products.Several studies have sought to detail the current state of knowledge and research on the application of remote sensing technologies for monitoring Earth's climate and natural hazard systems (see Joyce et al. 2009;Thies and Bendix 2011;Yang et al. 2013). To date, research has tended to focus on Earth observation technologies for measuring, observing and monitoring physical events or processes, such as the extent of flood (see Joyce et al. 2011) or changes in mean sea-level rise (see Yang et al. 2013). There is a need for further research into spatial support systems and Earth observation data and techniques for monitoring socioecological vulnerabilities.Freely available geospatial data for the SAO region are available from various sources. AVISO+ is a website run by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Center for Topographic studies of the Ocean and Hydrosphere (CTOH), which provides a portal to access global satellite altimetry data through four key themes: ocean, coast, hydrology and ice (AVISO+, 2014). Useful datasets include global sea level, wave height, wind speed and more. Outreach material and other prepared maps are also available. The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website provides weather data from stations across Australia and tidal predictions for Australia, the South Pacific and Antarctica. The BOM also provides yearly (from 2005 to the present) and monthly (from 1999 to the present) data reports on sea level and related parameters collected as part of the Australian Baseline Sea Level Monitoring Project (http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/projects/ abslmp/abslmp_reports.shtml). They also provide monthly (from 2006 to present) data and reports on sea level and related parameters for 14 countries in the South Pacific region as part of the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project (http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/projects/ spslcmp/spslcmp_reports.shtml). The Pacific Rainfall Database (PACRAIN) provides 24-hour rain gauge observations (http://pacrain.evac.ou.edu/). The University of Oxford School of Geography and Environment provides a database of climate change reports, observed and model data for 61 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam (http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/research/ climate/projects/undp-cp/).Various variables constitute important indicators for water security which signify both water quantity and water quality. Remotely-sensed products which indicate water quality have not really evolved due to inherent scale issues with monitoring water quality (e.g., pollution is largely localized to river systems, or specific wells and has a very important location context which is not currently captured in the resolution of remotely-sensed data products). Two variables which can provide valuable spatial information from Earth observation data are temperature and precipitation. From these variables, evapotranspiration can be calculated which has a strong influence on water balance in environmental systems.Evapotranspiration (ET) can be estimated from remote sensing data: using statistical models (which use remote-sensing-derived vegetation indices with in-situ measurements), surfaceenergy-balance (SEB) methods (which use thermal band in remotely-sensed products), or physical models (which use remote sensing data). A notable ET product is the MODIS-derived 1 km spatial resolution global product (derived using physical Penman-Monteith model) (Mu et al. 2011). The global and repeat coverage (every 8 days) of this product and its significant local detail make it a valuable dataset for answering many complex problems inherent within the water-energy-food nexus. Remote sensing measures of ET can be used in water productivity assessments to assess availability of water resources and also to inform planning on more efficient use of water (Platanov et al. 2008;Wiener et al. 2010). Such planning is crucial as global and national demand for available water resources are placed under increasing pressure from numerous stresses (e.g., population growth, industry, agriculture) (Hanjra and Qureshi 2010). Using remote sensing to identify locations of inefficient water use (e.g., low crop water productivity) can contribute to targeting agricultural innovations to improve the water productivity of the landscape (in agricultural terms creating more food from the same water input) and free up more water to meet external demand (e.g., utilizing the theory of climate-smart agriculture). Other studies have used Landsat remote sensing data with a 'finer' 30 m spatial resolution to map ET using a SEB model approach at a farmlevel to highlight local differences in water productivity between fields and crop types (Platanov et al. 2008). However, Landsat use is reliant upon cloud-free coverage on multiple dates throughout the growing season, so is not upscalable; but this does highlight how remote sensing could be used to target local-level water productivity improvements.Limitations of ET products provide scope for future geospatial analysis to improve accuracy and coverage of ET estimates. For example, the MODIS ET product is useful for global-or nationalscale analysis. However, it is suboptimal for understanding household-, farm-or community-level dynamics in water productivity; which is often where the impacts of water scarcity are most acute and small gains in improved water use efficiency could have a big positive impact on livelihoods. Further work could explore how fusions of MODIS and Landsat data could be used to generate local-level estimates of ET. This could inform on more water efficient crop types/cropping practices for agriculture in water-stressed locations.Precipitation can be estimated using satellite products. The NASA-JAXA produced Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation datasets are the dominant satellite-derived precipitation observations (http://pmm.nasa.gov/node/158) with a spatial resolution of 0.25˚ and precipitation estimated every 3-hours. The TRMM specifically monitors tropical precipitation (35˚ N/S), and other climatic variables including SST, ocean surface wind speed, columnar water vapor and cloud liquid water (http://www.remss.com/missions/tmi). Following the TRMM, the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) core observatory satellite was launched in 2014 to provide 3 hourly global measurements of snow and precipitation. The GPM methodology will allow continuation of the TRMM methodology enabling an extended time series; however, it has advanced the TRMM method to detect light rain and snow which are more important at higher latitudes (http://www. nasa.gov/ mission_pages/GPM/ overview/ index.html#.U0pEoPmSw6s).The focus of TRMM is on furthering understanding of the hydrological cycle and atmospheric processes but there has been less focus on understanding how the huge quantities of data generated can be better utilized to provide tangible benefits to large numbers of poor, and water-stressed agricultural communities. There is potential here, as many of the world's poorest subsistence farmers, whose livelihoods are closely tied to reliable water availability to support agricultural production, are located in the tropics (and subtropics), the focal regions for the TRMM satellite. The wide spatial coverage of TRMM, its temporal detail and ever-growing temporal coverage (~15 years) mean that it now constitutes a detailed dataset of extreme and variable precipitation events covering the majority of the world's subsistence farming landscapes. Exploring what the impact of these extreme events was for communities in a range of agroecosystems, and also on other sectors such as hydropower, would provide useful analogues and planning tools to help prepare for projected precipitation uncertainty under a changing climate. Also, the TRMM dataset could be used to identify agricultural locations where precipitation is delivered in intense pulses, interspersed with dry spells or damaging for crop production. Such locations could be targeted with local-level water-harvesting capacities enhancing resilience to climate stresses.Accurate maps of croplands are important to supplement agricultural statistics and crop acreage estimates in data-poor regions, to improve the spatial resolution and reduce the error of crop production and crop water productivity estimates (Funk and Budde 2009;Thenkabail et al. 2010;Rembold et al. 2013;Atzberger 2013). A global perspective to mapping croplands is important given the global interconnections within the hydrological cycle, food and virtual water trade, a global squeeze on available cropland and global-level feedbacks between land use, irrigation and climate (Rockström et al. 2009a, b;Thenkabail et al. 2010;Foley et al. 2011). The key challenges of using Earth observation data for assessing food security are capturing details of smallholder cropping systems with fine-enough remotely sensed resolution data, as it is at this scale where food and livelihoods have strong associations. It is also important to ensure trade-offs with water and energy use can be monitored as well as the potential impacts of changing climate. There is vast potential in remote sensing data to offer spatially explicit and timely data on croplands to help balance competing needs and reduce negative externalities between nexus linkages.Numerous global land use land cover (LULC) mapping products over the past 25 years have included agricultural and cultivated lands as a single class, or sometimes separating irrigated and agricultural lands. Even the most recent global LULC mapping products do not provide much thematic detail on agricultural landscapes. For example, Globcover 2009 generated by ESA from MERIS data has 22 land cover classes following the UN Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) at a 300 m spatial resolution (Bontemps et al. 2011). The Globcover 2009 product includes one water body class and four classes related to agriculture (two mixed vegetation-cropland classes, rain-fed croplands and flooded or irrigated land). The operational MODIS land-cover product (MCD12Q1) generates an annual global land-cover map with five different classifications schemes (Friedl et al. 2010). The MCD12Q1 product does not discriminate between crop types, though the plant functional traits classification scheme includes a cereal croplands class (Friedl et al. 2010). Unlike Globcover 2009 or MCD12Q1 global land cover products, there are several specific global cropland maps (produced for 2000) (Figure 22). These maps were generated using a range of methodologies and a combination of remote sensing, agricultural census and GIS approaches to map global croplands (Table 7) with cropland area to be between 1.3 and 1.53 billion ha around the year 2000 (Thenkabail et al. 2010).  Cropping period for each crop.Cropping intensity.Global map of harvested National and subnational 5 minutes Proportion of 5 minute grid cell area and yields for 175 statistics of cropped area (~10 km) harvested for one or more of 175 crops (Monfreda et al. 2008) and yields were spatially crops (Total area harvested per distributed onto a gridded year). global map of croplands (Ramankutty et al. 2008).Yield within 5 minute grid cell for one or more 175 crops. datasets (e.g., remote-food crops within 5 minute grid (You et al. 2014) sensing-derived land cover, cells. rural population and Area and production estimates for agricultural census statistics) cropping systems (irrigated, high to weight allocation of crop input rain-fed, low input rain-fed area and production to a 5 and subsistence). minute grid cell.The coarse spatial resolution of the global cropland maps is suboptimal for capturing cropland areas in fragmented or heterogeneous agricultural landscapes. With global cropland maps generated at a 5 minute spatial resolution there is considerable uncertainty where, and in what configuration, cropland extent, crop type, cropping intensities, and irrigation source exist within a pixel (Thenkabail et al. 2009;Thenkabail et al. 2010). This issue will be particularly pertinent over fragmented, smallholder and subsistence farming landscapes where there is a greater heterogeneity in livelihoods activities, and cropping seasons, and where farm sizes are often far smaller than 10 km pixels.There have been several regional and continental-scale cropland mapping projects at finer spatial resolutions than the global cropland maps discussed above. Xiao et al. (2006) and Gumma et al. (2011) utilize phenological details contained in MODIS data to map rice croplands across all of south and Southeast Asia at a 500 m spatial resolution. Thenkabail et al. (2005) used MODIS data to map a range of crop types and cropping intensity at a 500 m spatial resolution across North India. However, even the 250-500 m footprint of a MODIS pixel can contain a mixture of land cover types and so remain suboptimal (Bolton and Friedl 2013). Therefore, again there is potential to blend Landsat data with MODIS imager to encapsulate more detail regarding agricultural production. Some of the uncertainty in estimates of cropland area (e.g., mixed-pixel effects) will be reduced by improving the spatial resolution of cropland maps to better represent the cultivated footprint. Also, finer spatial resolution cropland maps will enable discrimination of thematic variation across cultivated lands (e.g., differences in crop types, irrigation sources, gradients of land-use with distance from the homestead) which are masked at coarse spatial resolutions. It is worth noting that accurate cropland maps, with sufficient thematic resolution, provide the building blocks for spatially distributed estimates of crop production and crop water use (Funk and Budde 2009;Thenkabail et al. 2010;Rembold et al. 2013;Atzberger 2013;Bolton and Friedl 2013). Given pressure to expand croplands to increase production to meet demands for a growing population, issues of cropland conversion to biofuel crops rather than to consumption, competition of cropland with grazing land as income levels increase and diets shift and the negative externalities of expanding croplands onto natural ecosystems (Foley 2011;Foley et al. 2011), accurate monitoring of interannual cropland dynamics is crucial. It is likely that advances in remote sensing technologies and methodologies will contribute to addressing these needs as currently maps are generally temporarily static (Thenkabail and Wu 2012).Methodologies, and toolboxes such as TIMESAT (Jonsson and Eklundh 2004), already exist to process time series (remote sensing data) generated from MODIS, and other sensors with high frequency repeat coverage (e.g., SPOT-VGT), and to obtain phenology parameters over croplands (Jonsson and Eklundh 2004;Chen et al. 2004;Dash et al. 2010). A global, annual, MODIS phenology product is available but this is applicable to all land covers and is not yet tailored towards croplands (Ganguly et al. 2010). However, progress is being made in other areas, such as the automated cropland classification algorithm (ACCA) which generates outputs of crop type, irrigation or rain-fed, and cropping intensity (Thenkabail and Wu 2012). The ACCA algorithm might reveal local-level untapped opportunities for increased intensification, diversification or temporal shifts in cropland cover (e.g., towards biofuel crops) which could have complex ramifications across multiple spatial scales (Fargione et al. 2008;Galford et al. 2008;Hoff 2011;You et al. 2014). Like cropland phenology, the ACCA needs proper validation in the most challenging landscapes, e.g., fragmented smallholder farming regions of sub-Saharan Africa before widespread operationalization. However, open-source and crowd-source data represent a novel way to continually validate cropland maps; recent initiatives include 'cropland capture' and geowiki (Atzberger 2013). Reducing uncertainty in monitoring of crop phenology will enhance the capability of discriminating specific crop types, provide greater spatial detail on the timing and duration of cropped areas improving accuracy of estimates of crop water use and detection of cropspecific development stages, and enable improved crop-yield monitoring and monitoring of crop sensitivity to extreme heat events (Wardlow et al. 2007;Funk and Budde 2009;Thenkabail et al. 2010;Lobell et al. 2012;Bolton and Friedl 2013).Complementing the ACCA, the launch of the Sentinel-2 constellation satellites will provide multispectral imaging of the Earth's surface at a 10 m spatial resolution every 5 days (ESA 2010), effectively combining the benefits of MODIS and Landsat. This will enhance the level of detail (i.e., intra-farm or individual field) which can be gleaned from remote sensing data and enable monitoring of crop phenology with reduced mixed pixel effects. This will result in more accurate monitoring of conditions in specific fields and reduce error in propagating into subsequent modelling where cropland cover is one input. This will increase the applied value of using remote sensing data to monitor crop production accurately in fragmented farming landscapes. New methodologies should be developed now to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of the Sentinel-2 satellites to monitor croplands echoing the long and successful planning prior to the launch of the TERRA and AQUA satellites carrying the MODIS sensor.Crop yield is determined by physiological processes (largely photosynthesis) at certain crop development stages, which are correlated with spectral reflectance values, prior to harvest date (Tucker 1979;Pinter et al. 1981). Often, crop yield and vegetative activity, in general, are associated with spectral reflectance in the red and near-infrared wave bands which are used as inputs into most vegetation indices (VI) such as the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) or the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Therefore, VIs derived from remote sensing data have been used as inputs into most regression models predicting crop yield (Rojas 2007;Funk and Budde 2009;Rojas et al. 2011;Bolton and Friedl 2013;Rembold et al. 2013). The correlation between VI values and final crop yield varies during a growing season, and will vary spatially due to different planting dates (Pinter et al. 1981;Bolton and Friedl 2013). For most cereal crops, crop yield has the strongest correlation with VI during the crop reproductive or grain filling (early senescence) phases (Pinter et al. 1981;Sakmoto et al. 2005;Funk and Budde 2009;Huang et al. 2013). From a spatial perspective, studies have used remote sensing, or quasi-remote sensing-agricultural census databases to highlight existent crop 'yield gaps' pinpointing large portions of China where maize and rice croplands are underperforming relative to their climatic potential (Licker et al. 2010). Other studies have highlighted water productivity gaps where there is potential to enhance the efficiency of crop water use (Brauman et al. 2013). Studies such as these are useful as they highlight where existing technologies can be targeted to increase resource use efficiency, without expansion of croplands.Remote sensing information can improve estimates of crop yield when updating crop simulation models or using Monteith's efficiency equation (Lobell 2003;Rembold et al. 2013). Monteith's efficiency equation requires measures of the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) absorbed by the crop canopy (APAR) and is estimated as the sum of incremental products of PAR and the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) (Bastiaanssen and Ali 2003;Lobell 2003). VI can be used to estimate fAPAR over a growing season as they are both influenced by leaf area index (LAI) (Hatfield et al. 1984;Rembold et al. 2013).Observed data, often derived from satellite sensor observations, can be assimilated into crop simulation models to correct model error and improve model performance (Hoefsloot et al. 2012). Satellite observations can be used to parameterize or initialize model parameters prior to simulation of crop growth (Rembold et al. 2013). As satellite observations are accumulated over a growing season state variables within a crop simulation model (e.g., LAI) can be updated via a range of techniques (e.g., re-calibration or reparameterization, reinitialization, forcing and updating) (Hoefsloot et al. 2012;Rembold et al. 2013). Doraiswamy et al. (2004) used MODIS NIR reflectance as an input into an inversion of the Scattering by Arbitrary Inclined Leaves (SAIL) radiative transfer model to estimate crop LAI through a growing season. The MODIS-simulated LAI were then used to adjust the timing of phenological stages within a crop simulation model and fit crop model LAI (Doraiswamy et al. 2004).Remote sensing is a valuable source of spatial information for Earth observation with its utility proven on many occasions, particularly for the various hazards and natural disasters experienced worldwide on an annual basis (Joyce et al. 2009). Remote sensing within this domain has become increasingly common with increased awareness of environmental issues and a simultaneous increase in geospatial technologies and the opportunity to distribute up-to-date imagery to the public through media and the Internet (Joyce et al. 2009). Remote sensing solutions are varied but generally have a role to play in all phases of the disaster management cycle (prevention, preparation, response, recovery) (Joyce et al. 2009). Comprehensive reviews of remote sensing for hazards and natural disaster events are offered by Tralli et al. (2005), Gillespie et al. (2005) and Joyce et al. (2009), providing both examples of the application of remote sensing for natural disaster mapping, and the limitations to its use, including associated difficulties of rapid data acquisition, provision of a robust product to end users, and visibility of features obstructed by vegetation canopy or cloud cover. In contributing to disaster management, remote sensing offers the advantage of the availability of many orbiting and geostationary satellite services, and coverage of almost any part of the world at timescales ranging from hours to days (Joyce et al. 2009). In addition, Joyce et al. (2009) report the scale of events roughly matches the resolution of satellite imagery, and some imagery is relatively cheap or freely available.The most common and operational use of remote sensing satellites has been the weather satellites for cyclones, storms, and flash flood events (Joyce et al. 2009). Flooding is apparent in both optical and satellite aperture radar (SAR) data (Joyce et al. 2009), which appear ideal for detection of extensive floods since the backscatter signature of water is so distinct from vegetation, providing for accurate extent mapping (Lewis et al. 1998). Combining SAR with other geospatial data, such as digital elevation models, provides opportunity to estimate water depth of flooded regions (Joyce et al. 2009).For disaster events, commercial satellite services can be tasked to collect data, and there are at present a number of systems and databases in place around the world, both commercial and otherwise, to utilize satellite data in these instances (Joyce et al. 2009). The Global Observing Systems Information Centre, the Global Geodetic Observing System and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems have been implemented to provide spatial-decision-support and to coordinate efforts to produce and disseminate high-quality satellite and climate data (Yang et al. 2013). The US Geological Survey hosts a Hazards Data Distribution System for downloading preand post-event hazard imagery, and Geoscience Australia has a hot spot identifying geographical information system (GIS) interface based on MODIS and AVHRR thermal imagery for Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific (Joyce et al. 2009). The Pacific Disaster Centre (www.pdc. org) states its objective as using information, science and technology to inform decision making in disaster response and to prevent hazards becoming a crisis. It has an emphasis on observation systems, modelling, and information communication to empower a range of stakeholders in disaster management. Sentinel Asia (http://www.aprsaf.org/initiatives/sentinel_asia/) is an ondemand network of information delivery websites developed to provide online information in the Asia/Pacific region from satellites in near-real-time, and contains information on various events such as cyclones and flooding in Myanmar and earthquake damage in China (Joyce et al. 2009).The International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' came into existence in 2000 after its conception at UNISPACE III and originally provided support for signatory space agencies and organizations. However, currently any national government can request the charter to be activated and receive support in disaster situations. Aiming to provide remotely sensed imagery and data to countries affected by disasters, the International Charter has membership of several international space agencies (Joyce et al. 2009). Each member agency has committed resources to support the provisions of the Charter and thus is helping to mitigate the effects of disasters on human life and property (International Charter 2014; http://www.disasterscharter.org/home).Often, operational use of Earth observation in a disasters' context has a focus on initial damage mapping (e.g., inundation or damage to structures), as evident in responses to the activation of the International Charter after one of the biggest recent disasters in the SAO region, Typhoon Haiyan. Much of the thematic detail in post-disaster mapping focused on structural damage and shelter, not on damage to croplands and grazing lands which support livelihoods on a day-to-day basis and will provide crucial assets to enable long-term recovery. Given that natural disasters are closely linked to poverty and maldevelopment, there should be a focus on protecting and restoring livelihoods in the long term after disasters as well as just saving lives in the immediate aftermath (Shepherd et al. 2013;World Bank 2013). There is potential to utilize available remote sensing products to generate greater levels of thematic detail regarding disaster impacts on cropping and rural livelihoods at fine spatial resolutions. Remote-sensing-based approaches for cropland mapping and crop yield estimates (Funk and Budde 2009;Bolton and Friedl 2013) demonstrate the contribution of these monitoring platforms and the importance of finer-scale mapping capabilities. There is a need for research to focus on exploring rapid mapping of thematic disaster impacts on livelihoods, not just delineating affected areas. Such an informational gain will improve the efforts of stakeholders, charged with disaster relief and recovery operations, in ensuring that disasters have minimal impacts on the positive development trajectories of poor and vulnerable rural communities.The emerging field of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), described here as the widespread engagement of large numbers of people from the general public creating and sharing geographic information (Goodchild 2007;Elwood et al. 2012), provides new opportunities for increased community participation and utilization of important local information and/ or traditional knowledge in development strategies. Recently emerged spatially enabling technologies including Web 2.0, georeferencing, geotags, global positioning systems and broadband communication have enabled mass proliferation of geographic user-generated content via the Internet (Goodchild 2007). Furthermore, the development of smartphones equipped with location and data recording sensors has resulted in near-instant geospatial data collection and dissemination using mobile platforms (see Raento et al. 2009;Lane et al. 2010). Sources of VGI include social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, photo and video-sharing websites such as Flickr or YouTube, and online map-making software such as OpenStreetMap or Wikimapia. Inclusion of the geographical component in user-generated data can assist in discriminating between reports based on location and facilitates more targeted initiatives and improved spatial planning.In the context of sustainable environmental livelihoods in the SAO region, VGI offers the opportunity for intelligent observers with diverse local knowledge to contribute reports in near-real time in-situ, without the disadvantages of other forms of technology, such as the costs associated with satellite or aerial imagery, issues of scale, or the impacts of cloud cover or weather and satellite imagery (see Triglav-Čekada and Radovan 2013). In the case of natural disasters, VGI provides a timely and cost-effective method for creating and disseminating relevant geographic information through two-way communication mechanisms facilitated between individuals, communities and authorities (see Goodchild and Glennon 2010;McDougall 2011). Increasing climate and environmental pressures in the region (see section 2 of this document) will further highlight the importance and value of VGI for understanding and addressing local risk, vulnerabilities and impacts. Furthermore, in preparing and planning community development initiatives, VGI technologies can facilitate increased input from local communities and individuals to foster greater participation in 'bottom-up' approaches and act as a mechanism to sidestep traditional or dated 'top-down' approaches.There are important challenges to consider with the use of VGI, including issues of data quality, accuracy and reliability, trust and reliability of data and data sources, security and liability, bias in reports, data management, and the notion of the digital divide, or those without means or access to technologies potentially being excluded or marginalized (see Chinn and Fairlie 2007;Flanagin and Metzger 2008;Goodchild and Glennon, 2010;Zook et al. 2010;Ostermann and Spinsanti 2011;Gao et al. 2011;Purves 2011;Elwood et al. 2012;Goodchild and Li 2012;Triglav-Čekada and Radovan 2013;Scassa 2013). But overall, with these considerations in mind, VGI provides an exciting opportunity to harness the existing dense network of observers and local knowledge to address a range of questions and issues across the environmental livelihoods sphere, and further research is needed to understand and detail potential applications and impacts (both positive and negative).The value of Earth observation and remotely sensed satellite data is intrinsically of great value in monitoring environmental change. However, such technologies and broad-scale data products are of limited use to monitoring socioeconomic conditions. This section discusses tools available for monitoring livelihoods to achieve sustainable outcomes.  2002) look at methods for understanding urban poverty and livelihoods, and note that in the livelihoods approach, knowledge is needed about the situation and strategies adopted by poor households, in relation to both their characteristics and external opportunities and constraints. The methodological approach in such data collection and analysis is first, contextual and, second, participatory. Qualitative and in-depth data need to be complemented by large-scale data collection and quantitative analysis, in order to reveal the characteristics of the context, the overall dimensions of trends in poverty, and the extent to which household characteristics revealed in relatively small-scale studies are 'typical. ' DFID has issued a series of 'guidance sheets' on implementing the SLA which summarizes and shares emerging thinking on the sustainable livelihoods approach. It does not offer definitive methodology, instead it is intended to stimulate readers to reflect on the approach and make their own contributions to its further development (http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0901/section2.pdf.) Examples of specific implementation techniques include LAT and CVA as detailed here.Closely linked to theory which was discussed in Part II, before a method can be developed a framework for establishing the SLA needs to be constructed to identify important factors and indicators for the context being studied. We have already introduced a couple of examples in Part II, but in terms of framework design a further example is provided here. Bebbington (1999) argues we can conceptualize sustainable rural livelihoods in terms of debates on access to resources (Berry 1989;Blaikie 1989), asset vulnerability (Moser 1998), and entitlements (Sen 1981). The suggestion is that one part of a useful heuristic framework for doing this is one that conceives of livelihoods and the enhancement of human well-being in terms of different types of capital (natural, produced, human, social and cultural) that are at once the resources (or inputs) that make livelihood strategies possible, the assets that give people capability, and the outputs that make livelihoods meaningful and viable. The second part of their framework focuses on household and intra-household forms of engagement with markets, the state and civil society, and the implications of these engagements for the distribution and transformation of assets. Malleson et al. (2008) adopted a hierarchical sampling scheme to select the population and regions for implementing livelihoods research. They used participant observation and participatory exercises (e.g., wealth ranking; household census). An example from Ashley and Hussein (2000) at livelihood impact assessment through livelihood strategies and stakeholder groups is given in Figure 23. Brock (1999) highlighted that ensuring field-level experience in the broader context of the relationship between research and policy, is particularly important in terms of the exchange and flow of information between different stakeholders in the policy development process (Figure 24). Figure 24. Range of methods to implement a Sustainable Livelihoods framework (Source: Brock 1999). See also DFID (2001) for further methods of implementation.The Livelihood Assessment Toolkit (LAT) (FAO 2008) process consists of three interrelated elements: (i) a livelihood baseline which provides a picture of 'normal' livelihood patterns in areas at risk from natural hazards together with an indication of likely impact of hazards, key response priorities and institutions likely to be involved in recovery; (ii) an initial livelihood impact appraisal which provides an initial assessment of impact of disaster on livelihoods at local level; and (iii) a Cause-e ect diagrams detailed livelihood assessment which provides an assessment of impact of disaster on livelihoods and opportunities, capacities and needs for recovery at household, community and local economy levels. As currently designed, the LAT is aimed at sudden onset of natural disasters. However, it is planned to extend the coverage of the LAT to other types of emergency. Each of the three parts of the LAT serves different but related functions in the assessment process. 9.1.3 Capabilities and vulnerability analysis (CVA) Cannon et al. (2008) note that key components of the SLA are contained within the Capacities and Vulnerabilities Analysis (CVA) which looks at the vulnerabilities and capacities to physical/ natural, social/organizational and motivational/attitudinal change. What might be termed as social, physical, financial, human and natural capital and the vulnerability context, have always been stressed as fundamental building blocks to understanding vulnerability and capacity in the CVA. They note, however, that a consideration of transforming processes and structures has yet to make its way into the assessment in any real sense. The integration of the livelihoods approach with the CVA tool could be used to identify vulnerable groups, relationships between actors in social networks, important capacity-building initiatives for risk mitigation and disaster preparedness, and the relationship between disaster and development.The field of sustainable development has been fundamental in capturing the emergent scientific and social understanding of the intimate coupling of nature and society: efforts to protect nature will fail unless they simultaneously advance the cause of human betterment; efforts to better the lives of people will fail if they fail to conserve, if not enhance, essential resources and life support systems (Khagram et al. 2003: 289). The sustainable livelihoods approach has a normative aspect to it which goes beyond people's own objectives or definition of poverty (DFID 1999). Livelihood outcomes should incorporate the dimensions of sustainability. This implies a need to investigate the effect of people's livelihood strategies and the outcomes that guide them on social, institutional, environmental and economic factors (and subsequently to promote positive directions of change). Both material and nonmaterial outcomes for certain groups may be challenged by others and therefore be nonsustainable. Or else the achievement of a given outcome may be at the expense of severe environmental degradation. Khagram et al. (2003: 299) state that the normative, analytic and practical space in which the questions of 'what is to be sustained' and 'what is to be developed' are debated is actually the essence of the field of 'sustainable development. ' There is no consensus in the field of a narrow or precise definition of sustainable development but debate has certainly moved beyond a global aggregate of balancing of the world economy and the global environment. Alternative framings in terms of disaggregated interests -developing individuals and communities, sustaining particular species and places are growing in strength. It is now increasingly understood that analysis of sustainable development requires understanding of complex trans-scale linkages and relationships. But, they argue, it does seem that crucial threats and vulnerabilities to sustainable development converge at meso-scales in critical regions, often ecologically defined (Kasperson et al. 1999: Khagram et al. 2003). Khagram et al. (2003) suggest it is probable that relatively too much activity is directed at local and global levels to the neglect of intermediate and intermediating geographical scales. Specifically referring to the frameworks of sustainability science and sustainable livelihoods, they note that both of these frameworks have much in common that could guide sustainable security and development (Khagram et al. 2003). Both frameworks provide a distinct awareness of the systematic, multifaceted and diverse characteristics of human and environment systems.Yet both offer a means by which to focus the analysis and practice on particular vulnerabilities in specific temporal and spatial contexts -a good tool to use in prioritizing people's development and security.This paper has presented a baseline report for (i) environmental conditions in Southeast Asia and Oceania, (ii) a full conceptualization of the term environmental livelihood security, and (iii) an assessment of potential geospatial data and methodologies which could be integrated to monitor changes in ELS in SAO. Given the information provided in this paper, researchers can now formulate approaches for expanding our concept of ELS and consider methods for spatially monitoring and assessing changes in ELS.Further research conceptualizing and quantifying the relationship between food-water-energy security and sustainable livelihoods, using a spatiotemporal approach, would advance conceptual and practical frameworks, linking security and development at intermediating geographical scales. The work by Kemp-Benedict et al. (2009) on assessing water-related poverty using the sustainable livelihoods framework is a promising step forward in this regard. Further focus on reducing vulnerabilities of poor communities to withstand the impacts of climate change will improve their security: the extent to which they can live their lives and conduct their livelihoods free from threats (IISD 2003). The literature reviewed provides support that livelihoods need to be better encompassed within nexus thinking to ensure environmental securities are applicable at multiple scales for enabling sustainable livelihoods, and not only sustainable development. There is scope to investigate ELS throughout the SAO region in detail, looking at both natural supply and human demand to push forward with sustainable solutions. Issues of scale need careful consideration when developing a framework to assess ELS and time provides an important dimension, i.e., achieving long-term sustainability.Environmental issues provide an entry point for individuals and communities to participate in decisions about their own security and development, even in the most restrictive political regimes (Khagram et al. 2003). Through the development of the ELS concept we feel that livelihoods can now be better encapsulated within nexus-thinking, and that our theorization goes some way to providing conceptual grounding for looking at the natural supply and human demand of a system and maintaining socioecological resilience under the increasing threat of climate change.Environmental livelihood security aligns itself well to ongoing discussions surrounding the post-2015 agenda and the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 1 The research presented here communicates with several outcomes of the Rio+20 meeting such as \"focus on priority areas for the achievement of sustainable development\" and \"address and incorporate in a balanced way all three dimensions of sustainable development and their interlinkages. \" We believe, that with further work, which this consortium of researchers has underway, our discussions within this paper can assist in providing action-orientated research and concise methods for assessing environmental livelihood security in SAO. The multiscale and multilevel approach to our research will ensure that such methods can assist in providing appropriate means of monitoring progress in sustainability with more informed solutions. Such outcomes were not emphasized within the MDG, as progress was only monitored at a national level. We are interested in the day-to-day lives of people not only to enable them to live more sustainably but also to improve their general living standard. In this respect, we feel the dialogue on ELS presented here will provide valuable insight for informing monitoring of the SDG process and ensuring focused and coherent action on sustainable development.","tokenCount":"31666"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"811970ee0023ce2c07f6cd6063e284ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c7f1d1d-38b8-4677-b4ab-2aba49ef9f29/retrieve","id":"-1996688222"},"keywords":["Sustainable intensification","CERES Wheat","Climate Change","Mediterranean Agriculture","Adaptation Strategies"],"sieverID":"aa538afb-cc35-4f4f-843f-cae70474df42","pagecount":"36","content":"This scientific inquiry delves into the far-reaching implications of global warming and the continuous emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere. With a primary focus on the semi-arid regions of Morocco, the study broadens its perspective to conduct a comparative analysis of similar challenges faced by Spain, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran. The paper aims to illuminate the intricate interplay between climate change and agriculture, underscoring the imperative for sustainable practices to alleviate the detrimental impacts on food security and economic stability. The methodology employed centers around the utilization of the DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) model, a reliable tool for simulating yield across different seasons. This study evaluated the performance of wheat varieties in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) regions and some in the Mediterranean area. Optimal yields were observed under treatments involving sprinkler or furrow irrigation of 60-140 mm and nitrogen application ranging from 60 to 120 kg/ha, resulting in an average yield trend of around 6 t/ha. The identified optimal seeding date was the 1 st of November, with conservation or adaptation practices demonstrating superior outcomes. This finding was further validated by climate change projections, estimating yields of up to 6.4 t/ha in Spain and a slight increase in Morocco and in one of the sites in Jordan, alas a reduction of 20% in Italy and up to 88% in Iran at the end of the century. The study's significance lies in its evaluation of nutrient and water trends in the MENA and Mediterranean regions. It offers farmers and policymakers valuable insights to guide a sustainable transition, both economically and ecologically.The undeniable reality of global warming, as emphasized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2023 report, brings forth a cascade of consequences for environmental systems worldwide (IPCC, 2023). In Morocco, a nation heavily dependent on agriculture, the historical burden of extreme weather events, such as severe droughts and floods, has led to suboptimal agricultural yields (Brouziyne et al., 2018;Bouignane, 2010). This vulnerability prompted some government in the MENA region, like the Moroccan government to introduce the Green Morocco Plan from 2008 to 2020, or the European Green Deal, in the case of the Mediterranean context, with the core objective of enhancing the sustainability of farmer incomes amidst multifaceted agricultural challenges (Sikora, 2021;MAPM, 2013;Moragues et al., 2006).The impending climate projections for the Mediterranean context paint a grim picture, indicating a projected 1.3 °C increase in the annual mean temperature and an 11% decline in average yearly rainfall by 2050 (Balaghi and Dahan, 2015). Historical severe droughts in 1994/1995 and 1998/1999 resulted in a staggering 60% reduction in cereal production, underscoring the profound impact on agricultural GDP in MENA region, but also on rural areas in Mediterranean countries i.e. Spain and Italy (Bouignane, 2010;Lorite et al., 2023).The agricultural landscape is dominated by rainfed smallholder farms, mainly cultivating cereals, legumes, and livestock. Barley, a resilient cereal crop well-suited for arid and semi-arid environments, holds particular significance (Cammarano et al., 2019, Amiri et al., 2021). The practices of these small-scale farmers are intricately tied to annual rainfall patterns, with deficits directly impacting the nation's economy (Saidi & Diouri, 2017 (Gharous & Boulal, 2016)). Market-oriented agriculture, representing approximately 15% of agricultural land, relies on irrigation. Thus, the agricultural production per unit area in MENA countries is about 2.3 t ha¯¹ which is far below the world average of 4.0 t ha¯¹ (FAOSTAT, 2020; Pala et al.,2011).Spatial variability in annual rainfall patterns categorizes regions into distinct precipitation levels, posing unique challenges (Barbour et al., 2024). An example, Morocco's water resources face a significant challenge, with per capita water availability among the lowest in arid regions, even less than that of Egypt, at just 730 m³ per person per year. Approximately 1.5 million hectares of land are designated for irrigation, primarily relying on gravity systems (47%) compared to sprinkler (9%) or localized (10%) systems (MAOM, 2009). Similar challenges are observed globally in semi-arid regions. Spain contends with water scarcity, soil erosion, and rising temperatures, impacting agricultural productivity (Lorite et al., 2023). In Egypt, reliance on the Nile for irrigation, almost the 98%, presents challenges amidst increasing demands and soil fertility depletion (Fouad et al., 2023). Italy faces altered precipitation patterns, affecting crop growth and pest dynamics, alongside socio-economic challenges in rural areas (Dettori et al., 2017). Jordan grapples with severe water scarcity, necessitating a delicate balance between water conservation and food production (Al-Bakri et al., 2011). Turkey experiences vulnerabilities to drought, soil erosion, and deforestation, requiring resilient agricultural practices (Yeşilköy & Şaylan, 2021). Iran confronts water scarcity, salinity in soils, and rising temperatures, demanding sustainable water management and adaptive agricultural strategies (Deihimfard et al., 2018;Eyshi Rezaie & Bannayan, 2012). Traditional water management practices in the MENA region, such as Khettaras in Morocco, qanat in Iran (foggara in North Africa), and acequia in Spain, pose maintenance challenges but could be included as sustainable practices (Lightfoot, 1996).Therefore, the region is considered as the most water-stressed in the world, where two-thirds of countries continue to use groundwater at rates exceeding the renewable internal freshwater resources. The region has the lowest water prices in the world, and spending about 2% of GDP on water subsidies, and has considerable low water productivity, i.e., only half the world average (WB, 2018, (Abu-hashim et al., 2021; Gatti et al., 2023). This comprehensive study aims to unravel the intricate dynamics of climate change and its impact on agriculture across semi-arid regions, providing insights into the challenges faced and fostering a foundation for sustainable solutions. Hence, the principal aim of this study are i) Identify and analyse the key factors influencing the cultivation of staple crops like wheat in the semi-arid conditions of the Mediterranean; ii) Examine how water productivity and nitrogen availability content evolve over time in the context of wheat cultivation in arid conditions, iii) Investigate the potential impacts of climate change on the shift towards more sustainable agro-ecological systems, considering the broader picture of the MENA and Mediterranean basin.The existing literature employs various models, including Agriculture Production Simulator (APSIM), Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Decision and Support System Agriculture Tool (DSSAT), and ACQUACROP, a crop growth model developed by FAO (Badora et al., 2022;Halima et al., 2021). The focus is particularly on water productivity and the agricultural system's capacity to manage and replenish water resources in semiarid and arid regions. Given the study areas, future climate scenarios may present significant challenges regarding water availability (Nisa et al., 2022). Therefore, the primary focus should centre around efficient water utilization and proactive measures to mitigate potential cascading effects resulting from water shortages (Devkota et al., 2021).The DSSAT model has been applied in the Mediterranean and WANA contexts to assess wheat management options and anticipate crop yield expectations in the studied locations. The model was utilized to explore diverse management strategies across various study locations, with pivotal factors such as sowing date, cultivar selection, irrigation, and nitrogen fertilizer rate considered. The DSSAT model, serves as a comprehensive tool for simulating crop growth, development, and yield within a single land unit. It responds to various factors, including weather conditions, management practices, and changes in soil water, carbon, and nitrogen over time within cropping systems (Jones et al., 2003). As of the latest version, 4.8.2, the DSSAT model accommodates simulations for over 42 crops. Each crop module necessitates specific inputs such as daily weather data, initial soil conditions, detailed soil profile characteristics, comprehensive crop management details, and cultivar coefficients.In their assessment of the model's predictive capabilities for the growth and yields of wheat genotypes, Waffa and Benoit (2015) found it to be effective. The model demonstrated proficiency in simulating potential wheat yield production, particularly in relation to irrigation scheduling and nitrogen fertilization, as highlighted by Gameh et al., (2020). Consequently, this study considered different climate change horizons and utilized varied weather data to evaluate changes in yield across the studied locations.Staple crops such as wheat and barley could be substantially impacted by climate change scenarios. The literature includes numerous analyses conducted using DSSAT to assess yield characteristics in various locations across the Mediterranean basin and the MENA region (Malik & Dechmi, 2019;Cammarano et al., 2019;Kheir et al., 2021;Waffa & Benoit, 2015). Leveraging DSSAT, the study aims to evaluate the impact of different climate change scenarios on various genotypes of wheat and barley, as well as their resilience in prolonged adverse conditions (Devkota et al., 2022;Mamassi et al., 2023;Ishaque et al., 2023). Pala et al. (2011) highlighted a gap in the yield of wheat production in the MENA region due to constraints such as the progressive decrease of rainfall. The example of Egypt is crucial, given its reliance on the Nile delta watershed and extensive use of nitrogen fertilizers, with increasing challenges in nutrient use efficiency (NUE) (Elrys et al., 2019, ).As Mrabet has suggested, future studies in this region should prioritize research on plant nutrition, fertilization recommendations, residue management, and irrigation practices to enhance water efficiency under conservation agriculture practices (Kheir et al., 2019;Mrabet et al., 2012;Govind et al., 2021). This research adopts a holistic perspective, considering not only crop-related indices but also their broader implications for the country's watershed. Mediterranean and MENA region countries already grapple with water scarcity issues and challenges in efficient water utilization, exacerbated by erosion reducing crop yields over time.All experimental data required for the calibration and validation of DSSAT model were gathered from a comprehensive literature review of the papers on wheat input (water, fertilizer, planting date, variety and their interaction) for closing yield gap in MENA and Mediterranean regions. The review collected data were selected on a baseline of twenty a paper among the others, by searching keywords such as climate change, impact on wheat yield and crop modelling in MENA or Mediterranean region. Those data extracted were based on yield and yield components, such as top weight, leaf area index (LAI), days to emergence, days to flowering, and days to maturity. Also, other information as required in DSSAT model such as amount of initial residue retained, no. of irrigation, amount of water applied, type, and time of fertilizer application, soil type and soil nutrient conditions, as required for model calibration and evaluation (Jones et al., 2003 Figure 1 -Diagram of database, application, and support software components and their use with crop models for applications in DSSAT v3.5 (Jones et al., 2003).The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) version 4.8, CERES-wheat model (Hoogenboom et al., 2019a, 2019b), It seamlessly integrates databases for soil, weather, and crops to simulate multi-year outcomes of diverse crop management scenarios (Fig. 1). One notable aspect is the interactive consideration of the effects of crop choices, soil conditions, weather variations, and management strategies. This allows users to pose hypothetical questions through virtual simulation experiments on a desktop computer, saving considerable time compared to the extensive efforts required in field experiments.The primary inputs for running the models such as soil properties, daily weather data, cultivar name and characteristics, and crop management practices were collected from the reviewed literatures. Essential weather data include maximum and minimum temperatures, solar radiation, rainfall, and the geographical coordinates of the weather station (latitude and longitude). For calibration purposes, distinct genetic parameters in the genotype file, such as vernalization, photoperiod, thermal time, kernel number per unit, kernel growth rate, maximum stem dry weight, and phyllochron interval were utilized.Crop management factors involve details regarding irrigation treatments (rates and dates), fertilization (doses, rates, and dates), planting information (date, depth, and density), and initial soil water and nitrogen levels, either measured or estimated. There were to be evaluated different type of irrigation (i.e., furrow, sprinklers, etc.,) based on (reference). Every option is utilized with two irrigation treatments (i.e., furrow and sprinkler) and four applications through the years. Long-term simulations for the locations representing the Marchouch, El Rehamna, Ankara, Edirne, Zagros, Ussana, North Sinai, Tanta, Irbid, El Mashuqqer, Violada District basin was performed using the calibrated model (CERES) and the two different irrigation treatments (i.e., furrow and sprinkler) based on the needs based on the historical precipitation data.To better assess the efficiency of the treatments on the crop, we computed the coefficient of crop water productivity (Chai et al., 2014) and expressed as kg haˉ¹ mmˉ¹ ET.Crop Water Productivity (CWP) = The total water applied is the sum of simulated irrigation water applied under a specific treatment, and the total rainfall over the growing season. In this comprehensive study, multiple fieldwork was conducted across diverse geographic locations to assess the impact of various factors on wheat production. The first set of experiments took place at the ICARDA experimental field in Marchouch, Morocco (33°36'41\" N, 6°42'45\" W, 390 m above sea level). This location, approximately 75 kilometres east of Rabat, experiences an average annual rainfall of 392 mm over the 47year period from 1974 to 2020, with variations ranging from 181 mm to 665 mm and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 31%. The mean annual air temperature is 18°C, with monthly minimum and maximum temperature ranges of 10-12°C and 20-24°C, respectively. The soil at this site is classified as a Vertisol with a clay-loam texture, comprising 47.6% clay and 41% silt content, with medium soil organic carbon (1.25-1.65%) and a soil pH range of 7-7.9. 12 °C, respectively. The soil in Rehamna is predominantly sandy clay loam, reddish-brown in colour, with alkaline pH and moderate levels of nitrogen and CEC.From Malik & Dechmi, (2019) the Violada Irrigation District in northeast Spain was considered. It is located in the Ebro River basin, covers an area of 5231 ha. The Mediterranean climate is characterized by concentrated precipitation in spring and autumn, with mean annual precipitation and evapotranspiration values recorded at the meteorological station of Tardienta (2005-2017) being 361 mm and 1272 mm, respectively. The mean temperature for the period was 14 °C, with the hottest month being July (mean temperature of 38 °C) and the coldest month December (mean temperature of −5.6 °C). Soils in the Violada Irrigation District were classified into 13 soil units, with Typic Xerofluvent fine-silty and Gypsic Haploxerept fine-silty being predominant.Continuing the research, Ussana, within the experimental farm of San Michele in Southern Sardinia, Italy, were studied. The Mediterranean climate in this durum wheat growing area exhibits warm and dry summers and mild winters (Dettori et al., 2017). The Ussana site, located in a hilly area, features sandy clay loam soil with a percentage of sand exceeding 50%.Therefore, in Edirne, Northwestern Turkey, the study focused on the growing seasons of winter wheat between 2014 and 2018. The region experiences an average temperature of 13. The final leg of the study took place in southwest Iran, specifically in Zagros (Dokoohaki et al., 2015). The field experiment for model calibration occurred in a research centre, while the evaluation covered 69 points in 16,500 ha of the undulating area of the region. The mean elevation of the evaluation site was approximately 2400 m above sea level, with transversal slopes of 10-20%. The long-term average annual precipitation in this area is 1400 mm, mainly falling in winter and spring months.  Model calibration and evaluation involve adjusting genetic coefficients for both models and cultivars to align with measured outputs in the study area. The dataset from the initial growing season is used for model calibration under non-stress treatments, while data from subsequent seasons are employed for evaluation. Calibration focuses on genetic parameters related to crop growth, phenology, yield, and yield components (Table 1 ).After calibration, model performance is assessed using three statistical indices: determination coefficient (R2), root mean square deviation (RMSD), and Wilmott index of agreement (D). These indices provide a comprehensive evaluation of the models' predictive accuracy.In this study, the CERES-Wheat model (Hoogenboom et al., 2017) for crop growth and development was employed due to its flexibility in handling diverse agricultural systems, including plant litter decomposition.The model was specifically utilized for wheat simulations, requiring calibration with seven genetic coefficients (P1V, P1D, P5, PHINT, G1, G2, and G3), as outlined in Table 1. The coefficients P1V, P1D, and P5, influencing the timing of development, growth, and yield components, were subjected to the influence of G1, G2, and G3 (Table 5)..The 'trial and error' or manual calibration method, commonly employed with the DSSAT model (Seidel et al., 2018), was used until a satisfactory match between measured and simulated crop parameters (grain yield and vegetative biomass) was achieved. Additional tools within the model, such as GENCALC (Genotype Coefficient Calculator) and GLUE (Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation), were also employed to refine phenological outputs (Jha et al., 2022).Sequentially, cultivar genetic coefficients were obtained, beginning with phenological development parameters related to flowering and maturity dates, followed by crop growth parameters concerning kernel filling rate and kernel numbers per plant. The outcomes were subsequently used for validation and management scenario simulations.Crop management practices for model calibration and evaluation were derived through a comprehensive literature review. Irrigation doses and timing were extracted from remote database registrations, particularly from the FAO Country profiles. The calibrated model for each crop underwent further evaluation for growth milestones (anthesis and physiological maturity), yield components (grain and vegetative biomass yields), nitrogen uptake (grain and vegetative biomass), and residual nitrogen in the soil. To ensure the scientific rigor and reliability of the model outcomes firstly, the root means square error (RMSE) between the simulated and observed values was computed as: The coefficient of determination (R²) of the linear regression was calculated between the simulated xobserved values y. The index of agreement can detect additive and proportional differences in the observed (x ̅ ) and simulated means (y ̅) and variances (Legates & McCabe, 1999). The Index of Agreement (d) developed by Willmott (1981) as a standardized measure of the degree of model prediction error and varies between 0 and 1. A value of 1 indicates a perfect match, and 0 indicates no agreement at all (Willmott, 1981).Twenty-three climate change scenarios, representing the possible average climatic conditions around year 2100 (MoEnv, 2009). According with the literature we selected three climate horizons were suggested as potential scenarios of climate change by year 2100 (i.e., 2010-2040, 2040-2070, 2075-2100). Those three scenarios (Table 2) were based on the monthly temperature and precipitation projections from the following coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation models (GCMs) MIROC5 Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 5 developed at centre for Climate System Research (CCSR) at the University of Tokyo, Japan in which temperature changes of +1.5 °C (RCP 4.5) and more than +2.5°C (RCP 8.5). Changes in rainfall of 10%, and 20% were incorporated in combinations with each level of the temperature increase. Outputs of these GCM were retrieved and extracted from the MARKSIM DSSAT weather file generator (https://gisweb.ciat.cgiar.org/MarkSimGCM/#). More details on the models, scenarios and variables for which climatology are available can be found at (http://www.ipcc-data.org/ ar5/gcm_data.html). In this study, the monthly temperature and precipitation from the GCM were used to simulate the current conditions (CO₂) and were compared with observed data of daily air temperature and precipitation for the period 1986-2023. Models' outputs were in good agreement with mean monthly air temperatures of the study areas. Outputs from the models, adjustment statistics for temperature and precipitation (Table 2), were used in DSSAT to predict yield of wheat.The R software's model function was employed for conducting calculations related to model calibration and evaluation indices. The dataset encompassing simulated yield (GY) and its associated attributes, such as water use efficiency (WUE), irrigation, evapotranspiration (ETc), and nutrient balances across various irrigation and fertilization treatments, underwent analysis through principal component analysis (Addinsoft, 2015). This analytical approach was utilized to gain a comprehensive understanding of the correlations among all factors.The analysis of wheat crop data, as reviewed in the literature spanning from 2010 to 2019, reveals a consistent cropping pattern across consecutive seasons. Table 3 presents   2022), indicates an average yield under rainfed and irrigated conditions. This trend is observed to be comparable to conventional methods, particularly in regions such as Jordan and Egypt, with a notable emphasis on the North Sinai location (Table 3).Examining experimental data, the highest yields were reported in Ussana, Italy, and Rehamna, Morocco, employing contrasting agricultural practices. In Morocco, minimum tillage coupled with the application of 120-or 200-mm ha¯¹ of water per year resulted in optimal yields. Conversely, in Italy, the absence of tillage was considered, and fertilization rates ranged from 60 kg ha¯¹ to 120 kg ha¯¹ at maximum. It is noteworthy that the irrigation amounts were generally consistent, except for Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Marchouch in Morocco, where lower water application was employed, considering the local rainfall patterns. These locations were selected for comparative analysis with others requiring higher water application and fertilization, such as Jordan, Egypt, Iran, and the central-south region of Morocco. The grain-filling duration (P5) for wheat varieties ranged from 168 to 992 degree-days, while the coefficients for kernel number (G1) spanned from 17g to a maximum of 55g. Additionally, the kernel weight coefficient (G2) ranged from 10 to 80 mg day⁻¹, and the optimal value for the spike number coefficient (G3) was set within the interval of 1.5 to 8 g (Table 3). Comparisons with previous studies indicated variability in G1 values between 15 and 50 kg⁻¹ globally, and G2 values reported by various authors ranged between 36 and 76 mg (Rezzoug et al., 2008). The optimum value for PHINT, representing plant height, fell within the range of 30 to 120 for the wheat varieties (Table 5).The calibration results, detailed in Table 6 and supplementary statistics 1, showed that simulated values closely matched observed data, as indicated by r-square and d-stat (Willmott index). This suggests the model's suitability for evaluating undulating areas. Adjustments to genetic coefficients generally aligned with previous studies, except for higher days to vernalization (P1V) for spring-autumn wheat. The compensatory effect observed, where decreasing one coefficient increases another, underscores the complex relationship between these factors (Table 5). DSSAT performed better in simulating vegetative biomass than grain yield, likely due to the latter being more influenced by climatic conditions. Comparing with previous studies, an improvement in DSSAT calibration was observed when using replicated experimental data to modify genotype coefficients. The RMSE for wheat grain yield decreased from 476 kg/ha to 413 kg/ha (Al-Bakri et al., 2011; Devkota et al., 2022). Trends in DSSAT and farmers' wheat grain yield were similar, with minor differences in standard deviations and coefficients of variation.Differences between simulated and observed yields were expected, considering variations in soil and crop management practices. Simulated values from 1986 to 2023 captured variations in wheat yield, showing a general increasing trend. The lowest wheat yield occurred in the driest years (1999,2000,2002,2008,2009,2014,2017,2019,2021), while the wettest year (2015) in Spain recorded the maximum yield of 12610 kg/ha during 1986-2023.  The simulated long-term average yield potentials for wheat varied from 8.9 to 14.9 t/ha, revealing a significant water-nutrient limited yield gap, with Iran (8.1 t/ha), Italy (8.0 t/ha), and Turkey (7.7 t/ha). This emphasizes the substantial impact of treatment variability on overall yield gaps.Multi-year simulations, aligned with experimental data, demonstrated increased grain yields for all wheat varieties with irrigation and higher fertilization rates, approaching the potential yield. The average long-term simulated potential grain yields surpassed treatments with high fertilization practices by 19% to 62%, indicating a potential reduction in attainable yield gaps for this major food crop.It's noteworthy that in some countries, water constraints, such as in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Southern Italy, seem to define the yield gap. In contrast, in Turkey and Iran, the trend suggests issues with management practices, as a reduction in irrigation and/or nutrients did not result in significant differences in attainable yield.Long-term simulations assessing the impact of high or low fertilization rates on grain yield, nitrogen balance, crop water productivity, and water use efficiency were conducted for two major rotation systems: cerealcereal (wheat-wheat) and cereal-legume, or, fallow period (wheat-lentil), aligning with case studies in the literature review.The thirty-seven-year average yields of the wheat varieties in rainfed conditions, as assessed in this study, are as follows: 3.06 t/ha (Turkey), 4.4 t/ha (Jordan), 5.13 t/ha (Spain), 3.51 t/ha (Morocco), 4.8 t/ha (Egypt), 5.29 t/ha (Italy), and 2.17 t/ha (Iran). Considering this, it is essential to examine their performance under irrigation treatments using the furrow system and no fertilization, except for leaving residue in some locations, as indicated in Table 3. The resulting yields are 3.26 t/ha (Turkey), 4.3 t/ha (Jordan), 5.45 t/ha (Spain), 4.09 t/ha (Morocco), 4.81 t/ha (Egypt), 6.16 t/ha (Italy), and 4.16 t/ha (Iran). The differences in yield are attributed to the rainfall patterns specific to these locations, as highlighted in the potential yield analysis.Further confirmation is derived from the results of irrigation with a sprinkler and low fertilization, as well as irrigation with furrow and high fertilization. Notably, the results in Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and the comparison between two irrigation amounts in Morocco emphasize the significance of localized treatments and the management of water and nutrients on-site, rather than focusing solely on the total treatment amount and product quantities such as DAP or Ammonium Nitrate.Examining the variance between treatments reveals that utilizing an application range of ammonia, urea, or nitrogen derivatives in the range of 60 to 120 kg/ha for Egypt leads to stable yields across the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. Conversely, increasing fertilization rates may result in higher yields but introduces significant fluctuations from year to year, with a 21% variance across all locations. Therefore, solely applying water without enhancing nutrient management efficiency can contribute to even more fluctuations throughout the year, with a 34% variance. Above all, the timing and the localisation of the products applied to the different plot analysed in the study seems to be relevant to outline the path trajectory to close the yield gap that is currently present. Treatments in the whole MENA and Mediterranean locations considered in the study at 4.3 t/ha for rainfed conditions, 4.4 t/ha for only irrigation, 6 t/ha for sprinkler irrigation and low fertilisation rates and 6.9 t/ha for furrow irrigation and high fertilisation rates. In the realm of sustainable water and nutrient management in agriculture, the objective is to align water availability and needs, both in terms of quantity and quality, spanning across space and time, while maintaining an acceptable environmental impact. The water balance results for the area a value of 0.34 mm ha-¹ yr-¹. Figure 5a  It is noteworthy that even in rainfed conditions, a positive water balance of 0.001 mm ha-¹ yr-¹ was observed for the sites in Edirne (Turkey), El Rehamna (Morocco), and El Mushaqqer (Jordan). Conversely, Tanta (Egypt) and Irbid (Jordan) exhibited a neutral impact, while Ankara (Turkey), Ussana (Italy), and Zagros (Iran) experienced a severe negative impact on the water balance. Additionally, sites like Violada (Spain), Marchouch (Morocco), and North Sinai (Egypt) showed higher crop water productivity but had adverse effects on the overall water balance and water use efficiency.Overall, rainfed conditions demonstrated better performance and less variability in crop water productivity compared to solely irrigated fields. The water use efficiency across the MENA and Mediterranean sites averaged at 13.69 mm ha-¹ yr-¹, with a crop water productivity trend of 1.24 mm ha-¹ yr-¹. The management of water slightly improved baseline conditions, particularly when applied through sprinkler and furrow methods. Notably, rainfall patterns played a crucial role, evident in the precipitation use efficiency (PUE) value of 29.70 mm ha-¹ yr-¹.On the nitrogen front, the balances showed a slight negative trend of 0.0011 kg ha-¹ yr-¹ over the past thirtyseven years, leading to challenges such as immobilization (32.72 kg ha-¹ yr-¹) and mineralization (4.46 kg ha-¹ yr-¹) over the years (Figure 5b). It's important to highlight those issues related to soil fertility or progressive nutrient erosion contributed to the imbalance, especially in countries with increased nitrogen application likeJordan and Egypt. Interestingly, the third and fourth treatments exhibited varying impacts on nitrogen balances, with positive or neutral trends observed in Iran, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Turkey between 80 to 120 kg ha. In gauging the impact of conservation agriculture on water and nutrient balances, the study provided a descriptive overview of the current state. However, precise estimates of nutrient leaching and runoff prove challenging due to the scarcity of national or localized data, echoing the sentiments of Malagó & Bouraoui (2023) Following the analysis of potential yield and the diverse impacts of different treatments on nutrient and water balances, we investigated the optimal seeding times for each country considered in the studies. First and foremost, the ideal period for planting wheat varieties in Turkey, based on a yield of 4.26 t/ha and a variance of 40%, is the 15 th of November.Applying a similar approach, we determined that in Jordan, wheat can be seeded between the 1 st and 15 th of December, resulting in a corresponding yield of 5.9 t/ha and a variability of 19%. Furthermore, in Spain, considering a 25% variability across different seeding periods, wheat can be planted from the 1 st of October to the 15 th , guaranteeing yields ranging from 5 t/ha up to 5.6 t/ha, particularly for the 1st of October.For Morocco, the optimal seeding times vary among different locations: the 1st of November for El Rehamna and the 15th of November for Marchouch. These timings ensure an average yield of at least 5.2 up to almost 5.6 t/ha, with respective variances of 35% and 38%. In Egypt, wheat varieties can be seeded from the datasets considered over the last 37 years, spanning from the 15th of November to the 1st of December, resulting in yields of 5.4 and 5.3 t/ha, with a variability of 20-23%.Considering Italy, especially the unique situation and microclimate pattern in Sardinia Island, optimal planting can commence from the 15th of November, with a variability of 23% and an estimated yield of 6.4 t/ha. Nevertheless, the 1st of January also exhibits a positive average trend in yield, albeit with higher variability at 27%, owing to rainfall patterns.The analysis of Iran has identified the optimal planting dates to be between the 15th of October and the 1st of November, considering a variability of 44%, resulting in average yields of 5 t/ha and 4.4 t/ha, respectively.In the MENA and Mediterranean region, the overall trend indicates that the optimal seeding date in the area is projected to be the 1st of November, with a variability of 41% and an average yield of 4.8 t/ha. The findings suggest that climate change is poised to decrease crop yields across most locations in the next two decades and towards the end of the century. This reduction is attributed to rising temperatures, despite an overall increase in rainfall. Notably, the most significant yield reduction, 75% on average, was projected in Zagros, Iran, while Marchouch in Morocco and Viola District in Spain emerged as the least affected, with 8% and 6% yield increases, respectively, under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 (Figure 7a). Across all locations, there is a consistent trend of higher yield decline under RCP 8.5, with a projected 20% average reduction by mid-century (Figures 7b and 7c). The MIROC5 model showed a greater reduction in yield under RCP 4.5 compared to RCP 8.5 for mid and end-century periods. In the MENA and Mediterranean regions, an average yield reduction of 27% (RCP 4.5) and 28% (RCP 8.5) was recorded for mid-century, while end-century projections indicated reductions of 30% (RCP 4.5) and 28% (RCP 8.5). In the case of Iran, midcentury yield reductions were alarming at 80% (RCP 4.5) and 86% (RCP 8.5), with end-century projections showing 88% (RCP 4.5) and 82% (RCP 8.5) reductions (Figures 7b and 7c).The study concludes that implementing conservation agriculture practices, as observed in Jordan, Morocco, and Spain, could mitigate the average mean yield reduction. In these regions, a slightly positive trend was maintained under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5, ranging from -1% to 6% in mid-century and 1% to 20% by the end of the century, particularly in Marchouch (Morocco) and Viola District (Spain) (Figures 7b and 7c). Notably, Violada District showcased an upper quartile range of yield around 6.4 t/ha by the end of the century, while Iran displayed a lower quartile of 0.5 t/ha. Conversely, Mediterranean countries like Egypt and Turkey experienced around a 40% reduction (RCP 4.5) in Ankara and 30% in Edirne by the end of the century (Figure 7c). In Egypt, substantial reductions of 68% (RCP 4.5) and 62% (RCP 8.5) were estimated in North Sinai, and 61% (RCP 4.5) and 63% (RCP 8.5) in Tanta by the end of the century. Finally, implementing no tillage or minimum tillage, such as conservation practices in Italy and Jordan, demonstrated a potential mitigation of yield reduction effects by the end of the century (Figure 7c). The study concludes that future temperature increases are likely to decrease wheat yield by approximately 28% in mid-century and around 30% at the end of the century. This reduction is attributed to a shortened growth cycle due to increased temperatures, impacting grain size and weight. The call for further assessments involving different GCM models and the accuracy of various crop models, such as APSIM and AQUACROP, is crucial, especially in regions like Jordan and Egypt grappling with salinity issues in water content (Deihimfard et al., 2018;Halima et al., 2021).The current assessment of yield gap indicates a missing overall potential ranging from 19% to 62% of attainable yield. Notably, high fertilization treatments, encompassing both water and nutrients, have demonstrated promising results in regions like North Sinai (Egypt), El Rehamna (Morocco), and El Mashuqqer (Jordan), with particularly close or equal outcomes observed in North Sinai. However, it's crucial to consider the potential consequences of excessive nitrogen or water applications in these areas, as they may lead to leaching, runoff, and soil erosion, especially evident in regions like Egypt and Jordan.The study identifies the optimal seeding date in the region as falling between the 1 st and 15 th of November, resulting in an average yield of approximately 5 t/ha. This finding aligns with the historical trend observed from 1986 to 2023. While these results provide valuable insights, future climate projections should beconsidered to validate and adjust these seeding recommendations. The current findings, however, are consistent with existing literature on the subject.In light of climate projections, regions implementing conservation or minimum disturbance practices, such as minimum or no tillage and localized irrigation (e.g., sprinkler systems in Morocco, Northern Spain, Italy), exhibit better performance and adaptation. It's noteworthy, though, that localized irrigation alone may not suffice to prevent leaching or runoff of nutrients in areas with high fertilization, as observed in Jordan, Egypt, and partially in Turkey (Ankara site). Effective management of residues and smart agricultural practices utilizing precipitation, as seen in Jordan, Violada District (Spain), and Ussana (Italy), can ensure satisfactory yields under rainfed conditions.In conclusion, the presented results underscore the potential of the DSSAT model to encourage farmers to enhance their irrigation practices. However, it's essential to continue considering soil properties to ensure production while advancing environmental sustainability. Policymakers in the region should collaborate with farmers, aiding in the transition and promoting the adoption of precision agriculture tools and modelling software. This support can empower farmers with enhanced precision in their practices, contributing to sustainable and efficient agricultural systems. Finally, the consideration of increasing CO₂ concentrations through the time that might affect areas that showed a positive trend at the end of the century, which are based on temperature, solar radiation and rainfall pattern. However, the result is highlighting the importance of practices such as localised water application through sprinkler better than furrow and also an optimal dose highlighted in almost all the areas except Egypt can be still improved the dose and further assessment are required. ","tokenCount":"5917"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"964778e4c0a57850d72edab95d395901","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/db0a4fdf-7664-4ba4-b07c-3fb8a7ea30b4/retrieve","id":"841789160"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"73e30dfc-d53b-4db6-b9c4-521065df29d5","pagecount":"1","content":"The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food is an innovative research for development program that aims for resilient social and ecological systems through better water management for food production. It brings together a broad range of scientists, development specialists, policy makers, and communities to address priority development challenges in six major river basins (Fig. 1). Each basin research program is a coherent set of research for development (R4D) projects that work along integrated outcome pathways.To help successfully meet the basin program goal, a theory of change is specified that makes explicit the cause and effect logic by which research is expected to achieve developmental outcomes.This poster aims to present a different way of developing an outcome pathway model for research for development programs with a broad range of partnership at various scales, and where scientists work directly with the stakeholders.An outcome logic model provides the hypotheses that are tested during the project monitoring stage. It helps the project team members to communicate what change their project is trying to bring about. The use of a logic model in program evaluation is by no means new. CPWF logic modeling has a strong actor-orientation, vis-à-vis the commonly used LogFrame.Given time and resources, the best way to develop an outcome logic model is through participatory impact pathway analysis (PIPA). PIPA is a project management approach in which project staff, key stakeholders and project beneficiaries construct the project's impact pathway together.The PIPA Process is a sequence of workshop activities and corresponding outputs (Fig. 2). This is a facilitated workshop, with time for focus group discussion, planning, and presentation of outputs to other projects for possible integration (Fig. 3).In the first phase of the CPWF (2004CPWF ( -2008)), projects were designed with their outcome logic model as a linear model starting from inputs to activities to outputs and then outcomes. Outputs and outcomes are linked by intermediate outcomes from the scaling-up and scaling-out processes (Fig. 4). The project team developed their model without any particular expectation on how changes in one actor group, at a scale level may influence change in another actor group working at a different scale.What does the project need to change?2. Outputs What will the project deliver?What is the goal of the project? In Phase 2, the CPWF revised the outcome pathway to a two-dimensional logic model, with institutional scale as the second dimension. The two-dimensional outcome pathway model consists of interdependent outcome pathways on at least three scale levels: farm, community, and an enabling environment, which affects both (Fig. 5). The model describes how project research will influence behavior of actors at the three scale levels and how these pathways support each other.. The pathways are interdependent and they support each other to achieve an outcome. The first pathway is at the farm level, in which the actual beneficiaries of the project adopt the technology.; the second pathway is at the community level, in which changes in resource management (e.g., improving access to water) are made; and the third pathway is an enabling environment to promote the change (e.g., policy ).The Basin Development Challenge Programs in CPWF Phase 2 use the framework mentioned to plan for wide-scale and sustainable adoption of technologies. Each program is composed of three to four interrelated projects, with one or two projects dealing with community-level change and policy advocacy. To strengthen rural livelihoods and their resilience through a landscape approach to rainwater management To strengthen integrated management of rainwater and small reservoirs so that they can be used equitably for multiple uses To reduce poverty and strengthen livelihood resilience through improved water governance and management in the coastal areas of the Ganges basin.To reduce poverty and foster development through management of water for multiple uses in large and small reservoirs ","tokenCount":"626"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a56193acb4287d5d4f5fd5db302ec2f7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/111f5bd3-57df-4fed-886b-0c29114d8186/retrieve","id":"-479943188"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e60de4d2-4faf-408c-9ad7-95a0425c1df8","pagecount":"5","content":"ro ect fattenin usin fodder cro s ello ai e a ier ucuna lucerne a ro roducts olasses ai e stover and chicken litter indicate that si nificant ei ht ains can e achieved ithin three to four onths at a lo cost co ared to usin the standard ro this stud it can e concluded that fattenin eef cattle on fodder ased diets is a via le ractice and the results sho that the ani als ained acce ta le ei hts dail thus the ere read for the arket ithin a reasona le eriod of ti e Keywords fodder cro s s allholder feedlottin eef cattleeef cattle fattenin usin fodder ased ration ikhala o u e 1 a ell h ala 2 ndis a ukhele 2 on eni ihlon on ane 2 kosinathi ihlon on ane 2 , Ronnie kho e 2 1 International ivestock esearch Institute I I arare i a e 2 a iland ater and riculture evelo ent nter rise a iland s du e c air or stract he vast a orit of a iland s illion eo le de end on su sistence far in for their livelihoods hich has een drasticall handica ed a stru lin econo and recent drou hts linked to cli ate chan e I hich is the onl a attoir licensed to e ort to the international arket is stru lin to et enou h fattened ani als fro local feedlots and the countr also i orts a lot eef fro the e u lic of outh frica to eet local de and i h cost of co lete i ed ration has een identified to ne ativel reduce the rofita ilit of fattenin cattle esults of trials conducted at the o er sutu s all scale irri ation ro ect I and the o ati do nstrea develo ent Introduction eedlottin involves the feedin of eef cattle ith a rotein alanced hi h ener diet for a eriod of to da s under confine ent to increase live ei hts and i rove de ree of finish and thus o tain etter rades at the a attoir e and for eef re ains stron in frica des ite ost roducers lookin to ro e orts into the uro ean nion and other international arkets ro industrial roducts fodder cro s and cro residues re resent a vast ani al feed resource hich is as et lar el une loited he livestock industr is an i ortant su sector of a iland s national econo he a rarian sector contri utes a out of the total do estic e ort earnin s of hich livestock accounts for out of this contri ution could e attri uted to cattle and the rest to the oultr su sector ation for ulation is the rocess of co inin an assort ent of feed in redients into a ration that ill eet the nutrient re uire ents of ani als for the intended ur ose of roduction alanced ration is one that rovides all the re uired nutrients in ro ortions and a ounts that ill ro erl nourish a iven ani al for hours he oal of an feedin ro ra is to rovide the correct a ount and alance of nutrients to ani als at the ro er ti e to achieve the desired level of erfor ance and rofita ilit In order to for ulate rations and redict erfor ance of ani als fed a iven ration it is necessar to redict intake hich is usuall a out of od ei ht on a dr atter asis ations are nutritionall alanced and for ulated to eet the nutrient re uire ents of ani als oth for aintenance and roduction In the case of feedlot ani als roduction refers to od ei ht ain and chan es in od condition hus feedlot ani als re uire nutrients for aintenance and od ei ht ain he ration ust e alanced in such a a that it rovides a on st others he ta le elo sho s all the results of the three feedlots na el the de o centres in eni and utsa lo hese sho the avera es er ani al in each of the feedlots he initial ei ht avera es ran ed fro k to k he avera e da s s ent in the feedlots ran ed fro to and dail ei ht ains ran ed fro an avera e of k to k he sellin rices are also sho n as ran in fro a iland lilan eni to he feed e enses ran ed fro to he feed e enses ere ased on hich as the cost er da at er kilo ra in a feed ration of k er da he la our costs ere ased on a la our cost of er da er feedlot here one la ourer as hired er feedlot hese costs ere s read over the da s s ent on avera e each ani al and also the nu er of ani als in the feedlots e o centre in eni and utsal o had and ani als res ectivel he la our cost as hi hest at utsa lo due to there ein fe ani als and therefore the fi ed la our cost as s read over fe ani als he ost rofita le feedlot as the de  ti al utili ation of fodder cro s even thou h the ani als take lon er to e read for arket and the ei ht ain er da is lo er than ith co ercial feed considera l increases ani al roduction hel s to reduce the ackno led ed ani al rotein deficit and lo ers the cost of feed roduction resultin in i roved net rofits eco endations ","tokenCount":"984"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/7818958092.json b/data/part_2/7818958092.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..aa8eed4f4ae9cb53ca1950f74bd3a812a86772cc
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"18181dc786ee028a6f00090b557f5eba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3635656e-57c7-4131-92b9-820db711e43b/retrieve","id":"1970779158"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"15b40775-82aa-4069-b518-4469c7801fca","pagecount":"12","content":"Soil salinity affects various crop cultivation but legumes are the most sensitive to salinity. Osmotic stress is the first stage of salinity stress caused by excess salts in the soil on plants which adversely affects the growth instantly. The Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) genes play a key role in the regulation of abiotic stresses resistance from the high expression of different isoform. Selected genotypes were evaluated to estimate for salt tolerance as well as genetic variability at morphological and molecular level. Allelic variations were identified in some of the selected genotypes for the TPS gene. A comprehensive analysis of the TPS gene from selected genotypes was conducted. Presence of significant genetic variability among the genotypes was found for salinity tolerance. This is the first report of allelic variation of TPS gene from chickpea and results indicates that the SNPs present in these conserved regions may contribute largely to functional distinction. The nucleotide sequence analysis suggests that the TPS gene sequences were found to be conserved among the genotypes. Some selected genotypes were evaluated to estimate for salt tolerance as well as for comparative analysis of physiological, molecular and allelic variability for salt responsive gene Trehalose-6-Phosphate Synthase through sequence similarity. Allelic variations were identified in some selected genotypes for the TPS gene. It is found that Pusa362, Pusa1103, and IG5856 are the most salt-tolerant lines and the results indicates that the identified genotypes can be used as a reliable donor for the chickpea improvement programs for salinity tolerance.Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a diploid plant with 2n = 16 chromosomes. The genome size is approximately ~ 738 mega-base-pair, with an expected 28,269 genes 1 . Chickpea is grown mainly as a rain-fed crop on residual soil moisture after the rainy season without or restricted irrigation. Abiotic stress viz. drought, heat and salt stresses are the major constraints to its production. Chickpea is one of the most important food legumes, grown in various regions and climatic conditions 2 . Globally it is cultivated in the area of 13.72 million hectares (Mha) and the annual production is recorded as 14.25 million tons (Mt) 3 .Among the legumes fababean, chickpea, and field pea are more sensitive to salinity 4 . Salt-affected soils are present in the independent borders of approximately 75 countries and covering more than 20% of the global irrigated area 5,6 . Salinity-related yield losses are estimated to be around 8-10 percent of total world production 7 . Osmotic stress is the first stage of salinity stress caused by excess salts in the soil on plants which adversely affects the growth instantly. Almost 20% of irrigated land is salt-affected, which is one-third area of food productionworldwide 8,9 . With the passage of time, this percentage is rising 10 . Increasing artificial irrigation and over-irrigation worldwide suggests that, 50% of all arable land will be salinized by the year 2050 11 . Soil salinity also affects the plant germination and therefore the crop establishes very poorly, as a result, all further growth stages of the crop are affected simultaneously [12][13][14] . Salinity is major abiotic stress after drought, which affects crop production in various parts of the world 15 . Salt tolerant genotypes are able to maintain high shoot biomass and yield under salinity 16,17 . Over eight hundred million hectares of land is salt-affected and over 434 million ha suffer from an associated condition of sodicity 8 .Salt tolerance is the capability of a plant to grow in saline soils and give yield normally without major loss. Soil salinity is a natural property of soil and therefore no avoidance or escape of saline conditions possible. Hence, soil salinity does not show seasonal variation and is difficult to manage. In this view, the mechanisms of salinity tolerance cannot be classified into the stress escape and stress avoidance, as explained for drought stress. The plant can manages the salt stress at the three levels i.e. at a whole plant level, the cellular level of the plant and the molecular level of the plant 18 .Different biochemical analyses such as mutational analysis or analysis of linkage for the interested trait are the criteria of selection and identification of candidate genes 19 . Improved sequencing technology facilitates the quick and low cost method through which enormous sequence data can be generated and eventually helpful for the identification of genes responsible for stress tolerance. Candidate genes which are responsible for abiotic stress can be identified by the use of biotechnological approach, and further can be used in crop management or improvement.Trehalose is an alpha, alpha-1, 1-linked glucose disaccharide. Trehalose is present in very low amounts in angiosperms and it is found that in abiotic stresses moderately increase of trehalose enzyme in plant [20][21][22] . Trehalase can function as an osmolytes at a threshold level and stabilize the membranes and proteins of plant 23 . Trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) generated by Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) from glucose-6-phosphate and UDP-glucose followed by dephosphorylation to trehalose and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) after that trehalase breaks down trehalose into glucose molecules 23 . Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) is one of the important enzyme genes involved in trehalose biosynthesis, which provides protection against salt stress 24 . Trehalose metabolism is positively regulated in abiotic stress tolerance. Gene expression responsible for the trehalose pathway confirms that drought and salt stress tolerance increased in several plant types 25 . Resistance to drought, salinity and cold was observed from the high expression of different isoforms of TPS in rice 26 . In Arabidopsis plants the overexpression of trehalose increased tolerance to drought stress and its plays an important role in the regulation of stomatal closure during drought stress 27 .To identify the suitable genotype, the present investigation of diverse collections of chickpea were taken for this research for physiological, molecular and identification of the gene for salt tolerance.Comparative performance of the genotypes. A significant variation was detected for control and salt treatments for most of the investigated traits. There were decreases in means values for maximum traits in saline condition (Table 1). Analysis of variance (two-way) was done for all the traits under control and salt stress conditions. Significant variability was found among the genotypes for the mean sum of the square for all the traits (Table 2). Euclidean distances were calculated for the genotypes understudy. The genotypes were groups according to their tolerant or susceptible traits. Tolerant genotypes were sub-grouped into highly tolerant to moderately tolerant. Similarly, the susceptible genotypes were grouped and sub-grouped (Fig. 1). A 2D plot was generated by all the morpho-physiological data for the estimation of genetic variation in the genotypes. Scattered plot revealed a pattern of mostly two groups which were distinctively separated the tolerant and susceptible genotypes (Fig. S1).Pearson's correlation analysis examined the relationship between traits and seed yield. Maturity days were significantly correlated with the flowering days, height of the plants was positively correlated with maturity days, negative correlation was found between seed per pod is showing with days to flowering. Plant yield was positively correlated to days to maturity (r = 0.601), membrane stability index (r = 0.410), plant height (= 0.810), pods per plant (0.884), relative water content (r = 0.326) and seeds per pod (0.354) (Table 3). Broad sense heritability and genetic advance were analysed under normal and saline condition. Moderate heritability was found with low genetic advance for plant height, pods per plant, relative water content, and membrane stability index under saline condition. Genotypes which have retained, sufficient plant height, pods per plant with water retention capacity, and membrane stability index under the saline condition are possible to give good production in the saline condition. (Table 1).Sequence similarity and allelic variation of TPS gene. Based on physiological data six genotypes were selected for allelic variation through sequencing. Trehalose-6-Phosphate Synthase (TPS) gene homolog was amplified using the gene-specific primers. The size of amplicons was ranged from 740 to 821 bp in length (Fig. S2). The results show the highest identity with the homologous Cicer arietinum TPS gene (XM_004503283). The identified gene sequences were submitted in NCBI and the following IDs were provided: JG62 (MF503402), PUSA1103 (MF503403), ICCV10 (MF503405), ICCV2 (MF503406), IG5856 (MF503407), and PUSA362  Dendrogram generated from an unweighted pair group method analysis (UPGMA) cluster analysis based on all the stressed morphological characters for salt stress. Tolerant genotypes were sub-grouped into highly tolerant to moderately tolerant. Similarly, the susceptible genotypes were grouped and sub-grouped.(KY542279) (Table S2). The gene sequence from the PUSA1103 genotype has shown the highest identity (99%) with e-value 5e-156 with the TPS gene (XM_004503283) (Table S3). Nucleotide diversity was not observed for the TPS gene. Finding positions of SNPs in nucleotide sequences was done manually by aligning the sequences in BioEdit software. A total of five SNPs (1 Transition and 4 Transversion) were detected in the sequence of the TPS gene (Fig. 2). The SNPs were found in the genotypes of PUSA1103, ICCV10, and JG62. No indels were observed across the TPS gene sequences.Candidate motifs were compared using the TOMTOM tool with sets of motifs from Arabidopsis 30 . Most of the TOMTOM hits results from searching a single DNA motif show that the query motif closely resembles the binding motif for orthologous transcription factor proteins in Arabidopsis (Table S4). These prime sequences and their similar transcription factors suggest that our results may have identified mitigating follow-up studies. Motifs prediction using MEME motif search found that all the TPS genes from different genotypes have five motifs starting from 217 to 675 nt. (Fig. 3a). The predicted motifs were further analyzed by Tomtom (a motif comparison tool from MEME-SUIT) to identify motif-specific potential transcription factors. The results suggest that the five motifs were identified as conserved motifs (Fig. 3b). Motif 1: Minichromosome maintenance1 Agamous Deficiens Serum response factors-MADS-box TFs AGL25 (AGAMOUS-Like25:involved in seed germination by influencing the ABA catabolic pathway and regulation ABA signaling), AGL63 (AGAMOUS-Like63: expressed in seeds and embryos; growth and Transcription regulation), AGL13 (AGAMOUS-Like13; highly expressed in Lateral root cap); (CBF4): involved in cold and drought tolerance, responsive to ABA and regulate drought adaption); Motif 2: ARF2 (Auxin response factor 2) transcription factor, plays an important role in auxin signaling, plant growth, development, and stress response. ARF2 may affect seed size and drought tolerance through regulating ABA signaling, Cys2/His2 (C2H2) zinc finger proteins play an important role in abiotic stress-resistant plants. Basic leucine zipper (bZIP52) gene-regulates metabolic reprogramming during stress. Motif 3: RWP-RK a putative DNA-binding domain, which was previously proposed in the primary structure of NIN, NIN-LIKE PROTEIN genes (NLP7) is a regulatory protein associated with nitrogen assimilation, WRKY50-a DNA binding proteins by the presence of the peptide sequence (Trp-Arg-Lys-Tyr) followed by a Zn-finger domain. They are important for stress-induced transcriptional reprogramming, NAC (ANAC094): NAC domain-containing protein 94 functions in transcription factor activity and is involved in the regulation of transcription. Motif 4: interacted with NLP (AtNLP4), bZIP (bZIP28), HSF. Motif 5: MYB (MYB96 and MYB 94); these transcription factors have been found to be involved in the drought response. HMG (High mobility group)-AT4G11080 (3xHMG-box1) proteins are abundant chromatin-associated proteins found in nuclei that interact with mitotic and meiotic chromosomes.Isoelectric point (PI) ranged from 7.12 (MF 503407_IG 5856) to 8. The transmembrane analysis using the TMpred tool revealed two strong trans membrane helices with a score of 820 and 574. However, lower than 500 scores did not support it to consider as a transmembrane protein. The main hydrophobic areas in the TPS protein are indicated by the arrow (Fig. 4a). The three-dimensional structure of a protein can be predicted from amino acid sequences by a web-based homology modeling tool at different levels of complexity. The 3D model of the TPS protein was constructed by using the RCSB/PDB: Protein database. The protein was found to have alpha helixes (44.3%), β sheet (18.6%), 310-helix (3.4%), and others 33.7% of the total target protein (Fig. 4b). The Psi-phi plot revealed that 91.6% amino acids along with 760 residues were found in the most favored regions, 7.7% of amino acids along with 64 residues were found in the allowed regions, and no residues were found in the disallowed regions (Fig. 4c). The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the hypothetical protein Trehalose-6-Phosphate Synthase (TPS) was obtained by using the STRING database (Fig. 5). Our results suggest that in order to carry out its functions, the target protein (TPS) interacts with a range of proteins. The interacting proteins are XP_004503574.1 Trehalase (582 amino acid), XP_004502616.1 Trehalose 6-phosphate phosphatase (388 amino acid), X P_004516418.1 Trehalose-phosphate phosphatase 1-like (266 amino acid), XP_00 4500712.1 UTP-glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase-like (629 amino acid), XP_0 04490785.1 UTP-glucose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (470 amino acid), XP_0045 13027.1 PP2Cc-Protein phosphatase 2C and cyclic nucleotide-binding/kinase domain-containing protein (1078 amino acid), XP_004503 379.1 Phosphoglucomutase, cytoplasmic-like isoform X1; belongs to the phosphohexose mutase family (582 amino acid), XP_004508490.1 The predicted functional partners interacting with TPS confirms that it may have a role in salt stress tolerance in chickpea.  There is an unfavourable physical environment that causes abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, heat, and chilling 11,31 . The salinity of soil is determined by the concentration of the soluble salt (Ece is > 4 dS/m). Due to salt stress the root and shoot growth is impaired and if the concentration is high for a long time then the plant death as a result 18 . Salt tolerance is the capability of a plant to grow in saline soils and give yield normally without major loss. Soil salinity is a natural property of soil and therefore no avoidance or escape of saline conditions is possible. Chickpea plants can be affected by 25 mM NaCl in the experiments 7 . Allele mining based on sequencing involves identifying the nucleotide variations of polymerase chain reaction-based amplified alleles of a gene in the specific genotypes. A number of alleles can be identified among the cultivars through this approach. It allows recognizing the effect of mutation insertions or deletions (InDels) in the gene structure and point mutations and to construct haplotypes. Two-way ANOVA results disclosed the presence of significant variations in the genotypes understudy for plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity, seeds per pod, 100 seed weight, plant yield, RWC, and MSI. Salinity stress lowers the seed yield of all genotypes based on the tolerance capacity varied from genotype to genotype. There were differences among the genotypes in yield under normal and saline condition seeds per pod and 100 seed weight were less affected due to the additive nature of genes controlling this trait. This has been found that salt stress delayed flowering and the delay was more in the sensitive genotypes than the tolerant genotypes. The number of filled pods and the number of seeds per plant were associated with seed yield under salt stress. Under salt stress, the weakened reproductive machinery is more in sensitive than the tolerant lines 32 .There are various assumptions regarding the ideal selection conditions for acquiring stress-tolerant genotypes for the usage of targeted environment based on heredity and expected genetic advance 33,34 . Because of the increased heritability and anticipated genetic advance from selection for grain yield, some researchers found that the non-stressed environment selection is better than the stressed environment 35,36 . On the other hand, stressed environments are also determined to be superior to non-stressed environments due to their increased heritability and higher genetic gain via selection 37,38 .Putative candidate genes of trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) were isolated using particular sequence information got from the TPS gene sequences available in NCBI from thirteen genotypes. The results indicated that the trehalose-phosphate synthase primers designed were specific to the single region in the chickpea genome. The sequence similarity analysis shows the highest identity with the homologous TPS gene. The trehalose-phosphate synthase gene was found conserved among the genotypes and this suggests that the primers designed were accurate for the desired gene. A comprehensive analysis was done for the TPS gene from the selected genotypes of in the present study. The nucleotide sequence analysis suggests that the TPS gene sequences were found to be conserved among the genotypes. The amino acid sequences of the TPS gene share highest homology with the reference (XM_004503283) TPS gene.Although, the sequence of the six TPSs genes showed high similarity among them their gene lengths were slightly differentiated. The sequence similarity analysis disclosed that the homozygous alleles of SNPs are found in position 201 in the genotype Pusa1103 and a salt-tolerant genotype ICCV10. In addition, three SNPs are found in genotype JG62. This is the first report of allelic variation of TPS gene and results indicate that the genotype Pusa1103 with the SNP has also shown a significantly higher value of RWC, MSI, and yield in comparison to other genotypes and this suggests that the SNPs present in these conserved regions may contribute largely to functional distinction.The fact that our analyses identified five motifs failing into different unique putative promoter features that await experimental verification is especially significant. Three of the five specific motifs found are supported by similar motifs, and one validates an earlier computational prediction made in other plant species using a different approach 39 . The predicted motifs found through using motif search for the given sequences have interacted with regulatory proteins. Regulatory proteins have an important function in signal transduction by inducing the expression of target genes. Transcription factors (TFs) bind to the promoters of their target genes and regulating gene expression which affects the phenotype 40 . Abiotic stress signaling pathways are regulated by transcriptional factors 41,42 . It is found that C2H2 transcriptional factors act as transcriptional activators or can repress the regulation of gene to salt stress responses 43 . Also, C2H2-type zinc finger proteins can improve plant salt tolerance by maintaining ionic balance. Salt-tolerance-related zinc finger proteins (STZ) enhance salt tolerance by regulating the expression of ionic balance-related genes 44 . The gene OsbZIP71 (bZIP: Basic leucine zipper) transcription factor activates ABA-responsive gene expression to increase the salinity and drought tolerance in rice 45,46 . A recent study supports our findings of motifs predictions suggests that the isomers of trehalose can mediate ABA-induced stomatal closure during drought stress and the isomer localized in cytoplasm/nuclear due to lack transmembrane domain are more effective in stress conditions 47 .In the present study, the physio-chemical characterization was also performed by computing theoretical isoelectric point (pI), molecular weight, instability index, and GRAVY of the TPS protein. The result suggests that most of the TPS proteins have more hydrophilic areas than hydrophobic areas, which is in accordance with the value of the GRAVY. So, the TPS protein is hydrophilic in nature with good solubility. The transmembrane analysis suggests that both inside to outside and outside to inside helices were distributed in areas 39 to 56. The transmembrane proteins may act as the main functional protein under stress. Tamura et al. 48 reported that NtC7 a new type of transmembrane protein that belongs to the receptor-like protein family also responded to the salt and osmotic stresses 48 .The analysis of secondary structure suggests that the higher percentage of α-helices in the structure may be responsible for increasing the hydrophilic properties of the protein. As in some of the studies, it was found that the surface hydrophobicity of protein increased with β-sheet content 49 . The three-dimensional structure offers valuable insights into the molecular function and in putative site identification of the studied protein. The results obtained were further validated by using the PDBsum tool by constructing the Ramachandran plot.The triangle represents the glycine (60) and proline (40) residues, and the shading on the diagram shows the different regions, as defined by Morris et al. 50 . The darkest portions correspond to the \"core\" regions in the plot, which indicate the most favorable combinations of phi-psi values. The 3D model generated is also supported as around 99% of residues are present in favored and allowed regions. The predicted PPI network of TPS suggested that it has interacted with its catalytic partners (Trehalase-TPS/TPP) and also interacted with protein phosphatase 2C family, Phosphoglucomutase, and 30S ribosomal protein S7.Previous studies have indicated that the genes of the protein phosphatase 2C family and a bZIP (transcription factor) play a crucial role as ABA-responsive element binding factors in the ABA signaling pathway 51 . Thus our results suggest that it may trigger a signal transduction pathway that involves calcium and ROS-mediated signaling and this may contribute to stress tolerance in plants. The trehalose contents are possibly modulated by trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) and play an important role in the trehalose biosynthetic pathway. Osmotic stress is the first stage of salinity stress caused by excess salts in the soil on plants which adversely affects plant growth instantly 52,53 . A plant cell adjusts its osmotic adjustments by the accumulation of companionable osmolytes to manage the osmotic stress. An experiment on rice has revealed that under salinity stress cells accumulate trehalose and also decrease sodium accumulation, salT (an osmotically regulated gene) expression, and growth reduction in plants 54 . Another study on rice suggests that the accumulation of trehalose in plants gives increased tolerance to abiotic stresses 20 .Gene expression responsible for the trehalose pathway confirms that salt stress tolerance increased in several plant types 25 . Resistance to salinity was observed from the high expression of different isoforms of TPS in rice 26 . The sequenced data generated can be further used in crop improvement programs by SNPs related to the preferred trait by the transgenic approach. It will also be beneficial to identify and validate genes that actually give insulation to these stresses so that they can be used as tools by breeders for the rapid identification of tolerant genotypes and for use in molecular breeding programs.The identified genotypes can be used for the improvement of genetic and molecular breeding programs of essential traits through hybridizations. Identification of TPS gene and their allelic variations for the gene can fetch genomic resources with diverse alleles to develop better genotypes for salt tolerance. This study provides the identifications of promising genotypes for salt tolerance and candidate genes for better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of salt tolerance.Fifty diverse genotypes containing varieties, germplasm collection, landrace, and wild derivatives were taken from the collection of Chickpea Breeding Unit, Pulse Research Laboratory, Division of Genetics at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (Table S1).Screening for salt tolerance. Screening to find out the suitable salt-tolerant genotype was done at the National Phytotron Facility of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 under controlled greenhouse conditions as follows: The genotypes were grown in normal soil and","tokenCount":"3747"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fda7510049f41b824f36bd57071ceaea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/71fea4fd-959b-483e-b8e3-f561c8b1e073/retrieve","id":"-987018253"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f25b2a2-c392-436a-855b-6ffdf5ddf9a2","pagecount":"25","content":"Cover photo: V. Meadu (CCAFS), Chili peppers in the field. A member of a women's farming group shows the peppers she has been growing, which provides additional income. In Daga Biram Climate-Smart Village, farmers and scientists are testing a range of interventions to improve climate resilience and adaptation. Photos taken September 2015 in Kaffrine and Niakhar, Senegal.The CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience, ClimBeR, aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land, and water systems in Senegal and five other countries (Kenya, Zambia, Morocco, Philippines, Guatemala), ultimately increasing the resilience of smallholder production systems to withstand severe climate change effects like drought, flooding, and high temperatures.In Senegal, the main production sectors (agriculture, livestock and fisheries, etc.) are affected by climate change and variability. The reduction in the period of biomass growth, the irregular distribution of rainfall in time and space, increasing land degradation and the frequency of dry periods and floods have all contributed to the decline in agricultural and animal productivity.If left unchecked, climate change could jeopardize the efforts developed and initiatives put in place by the Government of Senegal to achieve economic growth and emergence as set out in its Emerging Senegal Plan (Plan Sénégal Emergent, PSE). The adoption of adaptation measures to combat the effects of climate change has therefore become a priority for the Government of Senegal and its development and research partners.ClimBeR in collaboration with the Senegal Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) and the National Agency of Civil Aviation and Meteorology (ANACIM) organized a workshop on 19 July 2022 to bring together stakeholders to deepen understanding on how to co-generate innovations that can contribute to build systemic resilience against climate variability and extremes in Senegal. The main objective of the workshop was to develop a common vision and an action plan on how to strengthen climate adaptation efforts in Senegal. About 43 organizations in Senegal were represented in this meeting at the Radisson Blu Hotel. We had in total 110 participants in person and at least five participants online (Please refer to Annex 1 for a detailed list of organizations).Based on feedback from participants, ClimBeR aligns with the following priorities for Senegal's agriculture sector:• strengthening climate information services and the sustainability of the multidisciplinary working groups (MWG); • testing adaptation options in specific contexts that are appropriate for different types of farmers; • using a systemic approach to address climate and security issues in Senegal and in West Africa more broadly; and • going beyond technologies to consider governance issues for enhancing resilience.We also learned from partners that ClimBeR should have a key role in bringing stakeholders together to improve coordination and enhance synergies between climate change actors in the agriculture sector.Session 1: Linking ClimBeR to Climate Action in Senegal Session 1 Highlights The objective of this session was to introduce ClimBeR and discuss how ClimBeR can fit into the overall climate adaptation effort in Senegal. Primary conclusions include:• ClimBeR aligns fully with Senegal's national climate change policy.• There was consensus that ClimBeR will help convene relevant stakeholders. There is a need for greater coordination among activities in the field. • Data on the link between climate change and security are lacking.• Governance issues remain a challenge in addressing climate change.• Capacity building is a priority. Scientists produce many tools, but end-users need support to understand how to use them properly. • Data are also needed to advocate for integrating gender considerations in climate change strategies.ClimBeR Lead, Ana María Loboguerrero, presented an overview of ClimBeR in Senegal. ClimBeR will transform the adaptation capacity of food, land and water systems in six countries, including Senegal. ClimBeR consists of four research areas and two crosscutting themes described in Figure 1. The presentation by Ana María Loboguerrero can be downloaded here (slides 1-6).Facilitator: Souleymane Wade, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD)Question 1: What are the climate action activities that are ongoing in Senegal's agriculture sector?Madeleine Diouf, Direction de l'Environnement et des Établissements Classés (DEEC)• DEEC recently completed several vulnerability studies as part of the process for an adaptation project funded by GiZ focusing on maize. Microprojects in the Diourbel region are being implemented for women and youth. • With ANACIM, MAER is providing climate change services.• MAER is working to scale specific technologies in each area. Scaling is an important point, and real stakeholders should lead and have access to climate services. • There should not be a gap between research, results, and implementation. It is important to have an integrated approach to achieving effective rural development.• IPAR works closely with DEEC and climate change practitioners. IPAR's ambition is not only to perform research but also to lead adaptation strategies at the national level. IPAR created multistakeholder dialogues for the implementation of climate change and provides information to decisionmakers.• IPAR is currently working on an evaluation of climate change impact on the wellbeing of communities. Through this project, IPAR is developing models to assess the impact of climate change and evaluate the most affordable adaptation options. Adaptation options being evaluated include agro-forestry, insurance and other risk management mechanisms. • IPAR is working in the groundnut basin. This area could be used as a baseline to evaluate adaptation strategies in other regions.Mamadou Adama Sarr, Centre de Suivi Écologique (CSE)• CSE provides reliable, relevant data that can be translated into tools for decision making and decision support platforms. CSE specializes in spatial data. • For capacity building to be done, there must be political will of policymakers to put the issue of climate change in the center of their policies.• Mr. Sarr affirmed the need to avoid duplication of project efforts and improve coordination between projects, studies and other activities in the area of climate adaptation. • Mr. Sarr also encouraged ClimBeR to involve the private sector and consider ways to increase funding from the Green Climate Fund. Plenary Q&A• Workshop participants provided additional insight during the plenary discussion. One participant remarked that more information is needed on the future outlook of vulnerability in Senegal. • Access to finance is another priority, and this aspect of ClimBeR should be elaborated to workshop participants. • ClimBeR can build on a project that recently began under FAO and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on transformative climate action on agriculture. FAO identified 35 adaptation actions but only focuses on implementing two or three as part of the ongoing project. ClimBeR could take into account the actions that were identified in the FAO and UNDP study but for which there was no funding. • Participants emphasized that the private sector must come on board.• There was consensus that ClimBeR will help convene relevant stakeholders.Session 2: Reducing risk in production system-linked livelihoods and value chains at scaleThe objective of this session was to identify synergies and complementarities between ClimBeR and climate action efforts related to agricultural risk management. Primary conclusions include:• Climate information needs to be provided at higher resolutions to reduce losses to farmers.• Jokalante is interested in improving end-user involvement in the creation and dissemination of climate information. • Smallholder farmers must benefit from climate information, not just the researcher.• ANACIM wants to explore climate information on crop and rice farming during the off season and have services/products related to fisheries. • ClimBeR should work on increasing the resilience of multidisciplinary working groups (GTPs) and think about what will make them more sustainable with time. Facilitator: Mamadou Adama Sarr, CSE Question: What are the strengths and weaknesses of climate information services in Senegal?Ndeye Amy Kebe, Jokalante• Jokalante supports ANACIM in the dissemination of climate information services in local languages. • Ms. Kebe suggested that ClimBeR should work with Jokalante and ANACIM on climate risk profiling, which is extremely important so the farmers can have reliable and reusable data.• Jokalante is interested in improving end-user involvement in the creation and dissemination of climate information. • It is critical that the smallholder farmer benefits from the information, not just the researcher. It is not always clear whether research programs are providing a benefit to the producers being interviewed or interrogated.• She asked about the possibility of a project governance structure where impact on the producer is taken into account as an organizational priority.• ANACIM has a data collection system with 300 rainfall measurement points and 25 weather stations. However, there are issues in the reliability of the data. • ANACIM is working to develop accurate climate information at the local level, 4km-wide so that data become closer to reality. • CCAFS supported ANACIM for a long period on data provision and capacity building.• AICCRA and ClimBeR are working closely on digital climate information services.• ANACIM wants to explore climate information on crop and rice farming during the off season and have services/products related to fisheries.Aliou Faye, Centre d'étude régional pour l'amélioration de l'adaptation à la sécheresse / Regional study center for enhancing adaptation to drought (CERAAS)• CERAAS research focuses on dryland agriculture and drought resistant crops as well as artificial intelligence modelling. • CERAAS is not a dissemination institution but rather focuses on the type of information that is provided. The type of information depends on the type of farmer that is involved. The information should be targeted. • CERAAS and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have developed an initiative on disseminating existing agricultural innovations. • Mr. Faye emphasized the need for having solid, science-based, farmer advice where there is a high confidence that the program offered will yield results. • He encouraged ClimBeR to consider the important movement of crop and livestock from certain areas to more fertile regions due to climate change. • Mr. Faye also noted that ClimBeR should work on increasing the resilience of the multidisciplinary working groups (GTPs) and think about what will make them more sustainable with time. For example, the GTP in Kaffrine is not functioning.• CNAAS provides insurance to agricultural producers. CNAAS collaborates with ANACIM and Jokalante among other organizations. • One of CNAAS' priorities is to improve the information that is provided to farmers.• There is a need to go beyond climate information and move to agro-advisories. CNAAS can then use this information.• CNAAS has a new product aimed at cattle insurance. CNAAS needs more equipment to develop more precise information to market these products properly. • CNAAS is also working with ANACIM to have hybrid information using satellite data at the local level.Plenary Q&A• Participants recognized that ANACIM needs support to provide downscaled climate information services. Climate information is not always accurate at local scales. Data need to be provided at higher resolutions. For example, rainfall may vary in smaller intervals than CNAAS observations. This can result in greater losses to farmers if they act on the advice provided by ANACIM when that advice may not be accurate for their specific location. Session 3: Building production-system resilience through recognizing the relationships among climate, agriculture, security, and peace.The objective of this session was to discuss what climate security is (concept as well as understanding on how and why climate-related security risks emerge), and its relevance in the context of Senegal. Primary conclusions include:• Climate change is a driver of outmigration from certain areas, and the scarcity of shared natural resources can contribute to conflict. • Drivers of insecurity include persistence of social inequality as well as bad or ineffective governance, including land governance. • Natural resource management programs could reduce conflict and competition.• Responses need to be participatory and inclusive. They should include gender, policy and government actions, and youth employment as well. high levels of hunger are often also highly vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. Climate adaptation must be conflict-sensitive and pro-peace.The Climate Security work package will provide robust science for how, where, and for whom climate may increase the likelihood of conflict. This research will also support government and development partners to develop policies, programmes and investment plans that address climate vulnerability and conflict drivers in an integrated manner.The presentation by Grazia Pacillo can be downloaded here (slides 27-34).Facilitator: Stephanie Jaquet (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT)Question: What are the main impacts due to climate that we have to address to reduce conflict? What are some solutions to reduce conflict and competition of natural resources?Sadou Soumana, International Rescue Committee (IRC)• Mr. Soumana provided an overview of IRC's activities in the Sahel, specifically in Mali and Niger.• Sadou noted that transhumance can generate conflict. IRC's experience in Mali and Niger shows that if production decreases, for example due to decreasing rainfall, adaptation strategies must be used. • Climate change is also a driver of outmigration from certain areas, and the scarcity of shared natural resources can contribute to conflict. • Sadou suggested natural resource management programs as a solution to reduce conflict and competition. 80% of Senegal's population lives near natural resources. Communities are coming together (producers, government, police, other actors) to discuss options in terms of adapting to climate change. • Emphasize natural resource management programs at various scales.• Employ people in land restoration (green employment).• Mr. Touré warned that vigilance is important when discussing climate security even in peaceful countries like Senegal. In 2015 no one in Burkina Faso would have thought the insecurity that has developed since was going to happen. Although there is no conflict now in Senegal, it does not mean that it could not develop. • Drivers of insecurity include persistence of social inequality as well as bad or ineffective governance.• FAO has a mechanism with the Fund for Peace from the UN Secretary General. FAO focuses on three levels of actions: o 1) Improvement of governance of rural territories ▪ In West Africa, there are persistent social inequalities and inequitable access to natural resources. ▪ This area explores governance mechanisms to prevent conflicts. o 2) Implementation of land governance ▪ The land reform process is incomplete in Senegal.▪ Mr. Touré noted he had been involved in land titling and land reform programs since the 1980's with little or no results, largely due to entrenched interests. o 3) Effectiveness of conflict prevention and management mechanisms ▪ There are issues of legitimacy of institutions in land reform.▪ Responses need to be more participatory and inclusive.Pascal Yaka, Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)• The National Framework for Climate Services has been approved for about 1.5 years. Based on the seasonal forecast, stakeholders got together to determine strategies to be taken for the rainy season. In terms of fundraising, we need support on which strategies to use. • We need to go beyond climate information and consider gender, policy and government actions, and youth employment as well. If their concerns are not addressed, they will migrate, contributing to conflict.• SE-CNSA works to ensure that smallholders can provide for their own food needs and achieve self-sufficiency. One of SE-CNSA's components is response. • Ironically, this year it was the irrigated zones that had some of the most severe adverse climate circumstances, more so than the rainfed areas. Taking the long-term view, however, it's the rainfed zones that are at greatest risk.Session 4: Developing adaptation instruments to inform policy and investmentsThe objective of this session was to find synergies and complementarities between ClimBeR's policy decision support tools and current efforts to inform adaptation-related policies and investments. Primary conclusions include:• Integrated assessments should answer: Which type of varieties are best for which areas? (Specifically in the rice sector) Which type of varieties are most drought resistant? Should we move towards a mixture of varieties in a specific area? • ClimBeR can support multidisciplinary working groups (GTPs) to become sustainable. Currently, GTPs do not cover all departments, and some existing GTPs need revitalization due to staff turnover and limited funding. • CCAFS supported the Ministry of Agriculture in the creation of a platform to address climate issues among diverse stakeholders. ClimBeR should complement the work of CCAFS. • There are several platforms nationwide, and there is a need to centralize them so that there is better coordination among platforms. • Capacity building of stakeholders is also a priority.In Senegal, ClimBeR researchers and partners will co-generate evidence of adaptation options to inform policy. ClimBeR and partners including ISRA, CERAAS, and IRD will use models to understand interactions between the water cycle and cropping systems to deliver resilience and climate-smart agricultural water and input management. Work is ongoing in Casamance, Thies, Niakhar, and Tambacounda. This research area will also examine how to strengthen GTPs in 2-3 departments, including Niakhar, Fatick, and either Tambacounda or Ziguinchor. The presentation by Vincent Vadez can be downloaded here (slides 35-50).Facilitator: Aliou Faye, CERAAS • ClimBeR can support multidisciplinary working groups (GTPs) to become sustainable.• GTPs are responsible for climate monitoring at the department level. The GTPs make it possible to transmit climate information for use by the rural sector in each department, disseminating information through local radios. • Currently, GTPs do not cover all departments, and some existing GTPs need revitalization due to staff turnover and limited funding.• CCAFS was a strategic partner to MAER. CCAFS supported the Ministry of Agriculture in the creation of a platform to address climate issues. CCAFS gathered diverse stakeholders (farmer organizations, civil society, journalists) to discuss the issue of climate change in a clear way. • From those meetings, the Agriculture Directorate became the flagship organization for leading policy dialogues on adaptation and food security.• There are now 15 CCASA platforms (changement climatique, agriculture et sécurité alimentaire):one at the national scale and 14 at the district level. There is a need to centralize them so that there is better coordination among platforms. • Capacity building of stakeholders is also a priority.o Staff turnover was a challenge. o ClimBeR can help to sustain activities.Session 5: Multiscale governance for transformative adaptationThe objective of this session was to discuss governance and innovative tools to build the adaptive capacity of local communities, increasing their resilience against climate-related shocks. Primary conclusions include:• ClimBeR should generate data on the range of vulnerabilities in Senegal's agriculture sector.• Capacity building of local stakeholders is extremely important, including the dissemination of knowledge on climate funding. • There is a need for greater coordination among stakeholders. There should not be any repetition of projects in the area of climate smart agriculture. • Producer organizations were absent from the workshop but must be included in the discussions.Governance 4 Resilience promotes multi-level, polycentric governance and innovative tools to build the adaptive capacity of local communities, increasing their resilience against climate-related shocks. This work package hosted a consultation in Senegal in March 2022 to co-develop an effective governance framework that facilitates cross-scale collaboration across government and development partners (see March 2022 workshop report in French and English). Governance 4 Resilience will be focused on improving coordination, enabling responsiveness to climate extremes, improving facilitation and planning, and champions of change (key actors). ClimBeR researchers will work alongside key institutions to co-design and co-produce the Early Warning, Early Action, and Early Finance (AWARE) platform to facilitate coordination across ministries to trigger action and investment ahead of an extreme climate event. A ClimaAdapt-Gov dashboard will guide key stakeholders to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a national adaptation strategy. The presentation by Giriraj Amarnath can be downloaded here (slides 51-61).Facilitator: Laure Tall, IPARDuring the final session of the day, Laure Tall of IPAR facilitated an activity to engage all of the experts in the room. The purpose of the activity was to identify initiatives, institutions and individuals working on similar topics as ClimBeR. Responses will help define which stakeholders ClimBeR should be seeking to partner with more closely throughout the project. Each participant was asked to write down the following:• One key initiative related to ClimBeR,• One champion institution or individual, and • Proposed activities that could be implemented as part of ClimBeR.Responses are summarized in Table 1. • The production of knowledge is a key role of CSE.• CSE aims to maintain the continuity of the development of scientific information. This is an important component of the project. • CSE manages a database on environmental information in Senegal that includes data from various stakeholders to inform decision-making for all. • Capacity building of local stakeholders is extremely important, including the dissemination of knowledge on climate funding.• Ms. Tall echoed calls for greater coordination among stakeholders. There should not be any repetition of projects in the area of climate smart agriculture. • She also noted the absence of producer organizations. Producer organizations must be included in the discussions. The purpose of this session is to introduce the \"ClimBeR\" ONECGIAR Initiative, providing background information about its ambitions, objectives, and theory of change, and discuss how these fit into the overall climate adaptation effort in Senegal. This session will also introduce the agenda for the meeting and the subsequent Climate Security workshop.Presenter:-Ana Maria Loboguerrero -ClimBeR Lead (5 minutes)Panel discussion -Madeleine Diouf (DEEC) -Bounama Dieye (MAER) -Laure Tall (IPAR) -Mamadou Adama Sarr (CSE)Discussion and Q and A Expected output: National stakeholders identify strategic needs for climate action and adaptation for Senegal that can be addressed by ClimBeR's work Session 2: Reducing risk in production system-linked livelihoods and value chains at scale Facilitator: Mamadou Adama Sarr (CSE) 12:00 -13.00The purpose of this session is to find synergies and complementarities between ClimBeR and Climate action efforts about \"Reducing risk in production system-linked livelihoods and value chains at scale\" Expected output:• Consultation with key partners on follow-up to March workshop to formalize the ClimBeR WP4 implementation plans and increase engagement of national partners. ","tokenCount":"3561"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1be5ccfef88ec0b8f68876096dc2721a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8867e11b-e4f0-4eb1-ab16-a709d761dfb0/content","id":"-760989059"},"keywords":["breeding","physiology","development","farmers","traits","food security","nutrition PT, physiological trait","IWYP, International Wheat Yield Partnership","HeDWIC, Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium","HTP, high throughput phenotyping","HI, Harvest index","CT, canopy temperature","IWIN, International Wheat Improvement Network","CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","ITTA, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture","SLA, specific leaf area","QTL, quantitative trait locus","ASI, anthesis-silking interval"],"sieverID":"46844d6a-4a4b-4e12-9966-203cdc93e285","pagecount":"33","content":"Investment in scientific research is generally asymmetrical: it depends on precedents, current trends in science and technology, and economic, political and social agendas. However, asymmetry occasionally leads to bottlenecks that limit delivery of valuable technologies. This review considers the case of translating plant research to crop genetic improvement. Considerable progress has been made in basic plant science in recent decades fueled largely by the revolution in genetics. Meanwhile, human population has continued to grow exponentially, the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends has diminished significantly, and the climate is becoming less conducive to agriculture in general, especially in already food insecure regions. However, although basic research has delivered promising outputs using model crop species, relatively few new ideas have been tested in a mainstream breeding context. Past successful translational research projects-including enhancing the vitamin A content of maize, increasing the ability of rice to tolerate flooding, approaches for improving the yield potential of spring wheat, and traits for increasing the climate resilience of maize and sorghum-required interdisciplinary and often international collaboration to deliver adequate proofs of concept. They were also driven by a visionary approach and the necessary time commitment from the research institutions and funding bodies involved. These attributes are prerequisite for capitalizing on basic plant research and harnessing it to food security.In science, an idea remains a hypothesis until proven. However, in the area of crop genetic improvement, many ideas are projected from academia as solutions to challenging productivity problems, without demonstrating all the steps necessary to achieve the required genetic gains, with that task left to breeders. The explosion in fundamental plant science in recent decades has uncovered the physiological and genetic basis of many traits as well as genetic markers and assays to select for them. This has resulted in a massive pileup of ideas that have yet to be tested and translated into applied breeding programs. In the same timeframe, the world's population has almost doubled, the natural resource base for agricultural productivity is threatened by reduced water supplies and wide-scale soil erosion, and climate is already getting generally less favorable for agriculture, especially in regions with the greatest demand for staple foods. Clearly, the need for investment in translational research is more critical than ever. Investment in scientific research generally depends on successful precedents, current trends in science and technology, as well as economic, political and social agendas. All of these are understandable factors; however, when they lead to bottlenecks that compromise the delivery of needed technologies, the situation needs to be addressed urgently.The term \"translational research\" in the crop context can be defined as a systematic effort to convert basic research knowledge into practical applications. In this review, we interpret basic research to include any scientific knowledge about plants or crops that can be applied to crop improvement.Most successful crop breeders are scientists who also become \"engineers\" of a cultivar delivery pipeline. In the public sector, at least, much of their efforts go into crop protection, since it is more important in terms of food and farmer security to avoid severe losses of productivity due to pest or disease than to achieve marginal yield gains. Fortunately, it tends to be easier genetically to find resistance to disease than to achieve yield gains per se. For example, an accelerated backcrossing program based on a known source of resistance can avert a disease epidemic, if the signs of novel virulence are detected in time [1]. However, this work is reminiscent of the legendary Sisyphus: a never-ending task, due to the Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 constant evolution of new disease and pest races, as well as the periodic emergence of new threats (e.g., wheat blast or maize lethal necrosis); and it keeps breeders fully occupied. The task is often made harder-and more expensive-when new sources of resistance can only be found in unadapted material such as landraces or crop wild relatives [2]. As a result, the financial and logistical resources remaining for breeding programs to validate novel yield-boosting traits are often limited, especially as these traits are genetically complex, show interaction with environment, and therefore are not straightforward to measure and track between breeding generations. This review emphasizes why translational research should be recognized and resourced as an essential link between more fundamental research and crop breeding as it adds considerable value to both. Without an adequate translational component, the societal value from today's revolution in plant sciences will remain small and often wasted.Translation often takes a long time and can thus appear unattractive to funders and scientists. However, it can be speeded up with the newer tools of marker assisted breeding, phenotyping using drones and cameras, and speed breeding, driven by modern concepts of pipeline management using digital tools and time-management criteria to ensure rapid returns on investment.There is no lack of literature suggesting ways to improve crop yield or increase adaptation to abiotic stress [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Many of these ideas have come from research on model species whose rapid life cycle length, convenient growth habit and other features lend them to high throughput research methods. Such research is often facilitated by the use of controlled environments so that precise treatment effects such as temperature and water levels can be assured [12] and genetic experiments can avoid being confounded by unwanted environmental variation.In the last 15 years, for example, research on Arabidopsis and rice has revolutionized plant science, and given rise to enormous numbers of hypotheses for crops thanks to remarkable sets of tools to explore the genetic base of trait improvement. These tools allow researchers to find mutations in any gene in a directed way, find the associated phenotypes, map variation to specific genes, catalog gene sequences across the species and link gene expression to phenotypes [13]. Some discovery research is also conducted on the respective crops under field environments (e.g., Sukumaran et al. [14]; Molero et al. [15]. However, what these scholarly works lack is an adequate proof of concept in terms of plant breeding.Since most basic research is conducted in controlled environments and with model species, results cannot be readily extrapolated to crops in the field. Furthermore, breeders must select for many traits while basic researchers often work on one trait or gene, so pleitropic effects associated Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 with novel traits always need to be verified in appropriate genetic backgrounds and environments through pre-breeding.Crop breeding has been evolving ever since humans first selected for favored plant types within progenitor species. The Green Revolution, in the 1960s, based on dwarfing genes and breeding genetic backgrounds to suit them, and the biotechnology revolution from the 1980s onwards, have delivered increasingly sophisticated methodologies for crop improvement.In the meantime, breeding programs have been efficiently meeting the demands of a fast-growing global population through steady genetic gains and broad-spectrum resistance to pests and diseases in most staple crops [16], with exceptionally high returns on investment documented in some (e.g., Reynolds et al. [17]). Many crop and policy experts suggest that this has led to complacency, however, and both public and private sectors currently struggle to achieve the investments needed to match predicted human food demand by mid-century. The situation is especially ironic, given that many breeding programs struggling for funds have already made the initial investments in modern technologies such as phenomics, genomics and informatics that are crucial to further increase genetic gains.In addition to increase the efficiency of selection for mainstream traitsyield, disease resistance, phenology, etc.-these technologies can be powerful tools in translational research aimed at achieving step changes in yield and adaptation to emerging stresses via the testing of hypotheses under realistic environments.In fact relatively few scientists occupy the applied research space in which proofs of concept for \"yield-boosting\" traits or other crop improvement hypotheses are rigorously tested in a breeding context. This is partly a result of funding constraints and partly due to the silos that typically form when different research areas are funded from different sources [18]. Translational research must ultimately demonstrate genetic gains in the field, using up to date germplasm, across an appropriate range of target environments, and ideally in genetic backgrounds that also encompass all of the collateral traits needed to make a new cultivar marketable. In other words, in the continuum from basic plant science at one end to application in crop breeding at the other, there is a bottleneck that is especially hard to fund, falling neither under one category nor the other. Scientists who conduct fundamental research often consider translational research too mundane or costly to support, are not rewarded for it and lack the resources and/or breeding experience to carry out the required work. On the other hand, breeders may view it as too risky, timeconsuming and/or theoretical to divert scarce resources into. Therefore, lacking adequate proofs of concept, many proposed technologies with potential impact on crop improvement remain on the shelf, with a few Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 exceptions in the public sector, some of which will be presented herein as case studies. In the private sector, simple economics usually drive the need for adequate proof of concept before a breeding program can take the risky investment of retooling. Again, there are exceptions, especially with hybrid maize in the United States, where profit margins are large enough to enable more research to be funded.Funding bodies may assume that a breeding organization would routinely test promising new ideas in the interests of creating products that are more successful and gaining a bigger market share. However, the recent disappearance/reductions of \"core\" public funding-even for established institutes with a strong track-record of delivery-further narrows the bottleneck between basic research findings and their practical application [19].In summary, the contention of this review is that results from upstream plant science and their application in downstream problem-solving research are too uncoupled. Better linkage of fundamental research to breeding, via well-focused, translational research, is a necessary goal to achieve global productivity targets in the face of warmer temperatures, declining water resources and increased demand from a growing population [20], and can add value to a considerable body of pre-existing basic research through boosting modern plant breeding.The remainder of this review will describe steps for translating promising technologies-already supported by scientific data-into viable breeding methodologies. Several case studies are also outlined. A generic scheme of a translational research pipeline for quantitative traits (i.e., traits controlled by many genes and their interactions), to test hypotheses about the impact of novel trait sources, trait combinations, and selection technologies in a crop improvement context, is presented in Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 Crop Design is usually the first step where a new \"idea\" or hypothesis, i.e., a trait, allele or selection methodology must be evaluated for its potential complementarity to a package of prerequisite traits and screens associated with a given target environment [22]. As an example, the hypothesis that the trait canopy temperature (CT) is related to root system efficiency has been validated in different environments, e.g., in wheat [23].In the crop design phase it was necessary to show that CT was linked with water availability in the subsoil of the target environment. Another consideration was whether the selection environment was suitable for measurement of the trait, which is a function of temperature and relative humidity [24]. It was also necessary to verify that there was sufficient genetic variation among genotypes for CT to be used as a sensitive selection system [25].Crop Breeding, Genetics and GenomicsCrop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016Genetic resources provide different opportunities for validation of a trait or selection methodology depending on the context. Using again the example of CT, screening genetic resources for the trait under appropriate environments enabled the identification of new and possibly better sources of rooting capacity for use in crossing programs [26]. The variation found in genetic resources can also allow us to more accurately test the primary hypothesis. Genetic resource collections also provide a platform for evaluating new selection tools and protocols. Especially in this context, it is important to keep in mind that genetic resources come in many shapes and sizes, from panels of well-adapted advanced breeding lines, to biparental mapping populations, to landraces and wild progenitors whose growth habits and phenology may bear little resemblance to cultivated species. Nevertheless, testing new screening approaches on well-designed genetic resources panels can simultaneously provide a rigorous proof of concept and identify promising genotypes. DNA marker data associated with the trait would complement this exercise and provide the opportunity to explore novel genetic variation around known loci.Phenotyping is an essential step to test and validate hypotheses. This can be simple, even by eye, or complex due to the transient nature of the trait or its small magnitude. High throughput phenotyping (HTP) typically uses remote sensing to measure traits that can be measured nondestructively. Because it is cheaper and/or faster, HTP is a prerequisite for evaluating large germplasm collections and breeding generations, though obviously not all traits are amenable to HTP [27]. Precision phenotyping is typically invasive or destructive, and although more expensive and slower, can identify variation for a wider range of traits among smaller panels of pre-selected candidate parents. However, phenotyping is not just about tools and quantitative assays. Populations of plants must be controlled in terms of height and phenology to avoid the risk of confounding effects [25,28]. Furthermore, for accuracy, the selection environments must simulate as much as possible the water, light and temperature profiles of the target breeding environments as well their agronomy.Genetic analysis of novel traits can help refine crossing strategies to ensure complementary alleles, and lead to marker assisted progeny selection. Such deterministic use of molecular markers can complement genomic selection models to improve selection efficiency, especially where trait expression is harder to select for in specific environments.Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 can lead to unpredictable outcomes when stacking desirable traits in different genetic backgrounds [29,30]. Crosses involving new traits/alleles provide the definitive experimental platform for quantifying genetic gain, while the effectiveness of new screening technologies can be rigorously tested through well-controlled progeny selection. However, different kinds of crosses and selection processes are applied depending largely on trait heritability and genetic backgrounds. Where a trait has a relatively simple genetic basis and is either associated with reliable molecular markers or a heritable phenotype, backcrossing into a range of elite breeding lines is the favoured and fastest approach. However, yield and many of its physiological drivers are complex, so simple backcrossing and use of markers is not generally an option. Different crossing strategies and their objectives are summarized in Table 1.Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016Evaluation of the best performing progeny from experimental crosses over a representative range of target environments enables quantification of the impact of new technologies in terms of realized productivity.Genotype by environment interactions can be estimated by spanning the relevant extremes expected in the target population of environments.Many argue that to adequately ground-truth results, farm trials should be used for such nurseries instead of experimental stations. However, as long as both are managed within a range of recognized standards and represent target agro-ecosystems, results should be comparable.Evaluation of genetic gains in any context adds to the knowledge base and can inspire new approaches in translational research. For example, a recent comprehensive study by Voss-Fels et al. [31] showed that commercial breeding in favourable environments resulted in improvement in the physiology and haplotypes of winter wheat cultivars grown across a wide range of environments in Western Europe, information that can be applied directly to refine breeding strategies.Curation and analysis of large data sets collected in research, breeding and multi-location testing can help refine breeding strategies and document the scientific basis of yield gains, thereby providing new inputs for crop design, as well as feedback to the research community at large.Informatics is increasingly being used at all stages of the breeding process pipeline, including the barcoding of plots and trials to make automated analysis of trials easier and less error-prone.Case Even though many of the projects produce valuable new discoveries relating to important sub-traits of yield, it is not expected that all the discoveries will be reproduced in different elite germplasm, in high yielding environments or will be novel to elite germplasm. Thus the discoveries are first validated. Next, and most importantly, because single trait discoveries are unlikely to achieve major yield gains on their own, they need to be combined with other trait improvements in pre-breeding programs. The more that can be stacked, the more likely that new gains will be recognized. When such gains are realized via the wide area testing systems, then the translation of discovery to the frontiers of breeding can be considered complete [33]. Thus IWYP seeks to generate and test hypotheses through agriculturally relevant research to the point where clear conclusions can be made about the relevance of a discovery to agricultural performance in elite material in farmers' fields, thereby minimizing the investment and risk associated with adoption into mainstream breeding.One of the main hypotheses tested through translational research at these hubs was that yield could be boosted in spring wheat environments -environments that occupy around 140 M•ha worldwide and increase rates of genetic gains [36][37][38]. When evaluating genetic resource collections, biomass is often expressed at levels considerably greater than checks, under both optimal and stressed conditions [26] and relatively large variation in expression of HI is also common even among elite cultivars.A translational research project within IWYP provided proof of concept that strategic crosses seeking to better balance source and sink could increase yields over either parent. Some of the best sources of aboveground biomass were identified in exotic germplasm [26], including landraces and products of interspecific hybridization, i.e., synthetic wheat [39]. Favorable sources of sink related traits including HI, kernel number per m 2 , thousand kernel weight, and grains per spike were identified among elite breeding lines. Crosses were designed to achieve complementation of source with sink traits, in the sense that at least one parent was selected for favorable expression of biomass (source) and the other for favorable expression of sink-related traits. Segregating progenies were selected for favorable agronomic type, including phenology, height, and disease resistance. In later generations, other performance traits that would indicate a good source-sink balance-such as cool canopy temperature, HI and yield in the selection environments-were measured to aid in choosing the best performing lines in target environments.In this project, approximately 20-30 of the best-yielding progeny identified in the selection environment in Mexico, along with elite checks, were included in four international nurseries: the 2nd and 3rd Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield trial (WYCYT) and the 2nd and 4th Stress Adaptive Trait Yield Nursery (SATYN), targeted at temperate irrigated and hot-irrigated environments, respectively. Yield trials were grown at 50 sites in 13 countries that are part of a wider dissemination and evaluation network (Figure 2) [33]. Trials identified a number of new lines showing yield gains in comparison to parents and checks [40]. While HI was similar to checks, biomass was higher in many of the new higher yielding lines, indicating the potential to further boost yield through new rounds of crossing with locally adapted material. Subsequent international nurseries have shown further gains, averaging 7% over the best elite check [41]   In many parts of the world, water used by fall sown cereals (whether spring or winter wheat) is made available through in-crop season rainfall.In wheat, as much as 50% of this water is lost through evaporation that reduces water-use efficiency, thereby reducing total biomass and yield [43]. Barley and triticale have much smaller evaporation losses from the soil suggesting these cereals have unique adaptation mechanisms allowing them to better capture rainfall events. Wheat is very conservative in its early growth and is particularly slow in seedling emergence and leaf area development when compared with barley, triticale and oats [43].Comparative crop research has shown that barley has more vigorous early growth owing to: (1) more rapid seedling emergence; (2) a larger embryo; and (3) a higher specific leaf area (SLA) [44]. Differences in the sizes of the first and second leaves to emerge integrate genetic variation in embryo size and SLA [45,46], and can be used to rapidly screen genotypic diversity to increase early vigor [47]. Further, gene action for Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 early growth is additive and highly heritable, suggesting capacity for early generation testing and rapid recycling of elite alleles in a breeding program targeting greater leaf area development [48].In this project, the scientists conducted a global survey to assess early vigor across more than 5,000 wheat varieties, breeding lines and landraces with the aim to identify genetically unrelated sources of early vigor for use in breeding. This was the crop design and hypothesis phase. After standardizing for differences in seed size, the scientists compared varieties to confirm the conservative growth of wheat compared with barley [45]. They also identified 28 high vigor genotypes from India, China, The study authors then selected elite recurrent selection-derived progenies to deliver high vigor into commercial wheat varieties. The first high vigor × commercial variety populations lacked the early vigor of the high vigor parental germplasm owing to the suppressive effects of the Rht1 (syn. Rht-B1b) and Rht2 (syn. Rht-D1b) dwarfing genes on cell size [50].There therefore had to be another discovery phase. Dwarfing genes needed to be identified that would reduce plant height without Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 compromising cell size and consequently early vigor. Using unique genetic resource stocks arising from mutagenesis activities across the world [51], they were able to identity a number of dwarfing genes, which they assessed to confirm their neutral effects on cell size and early vigor.In assessments across multiple studies the Rht8, Rht12, Rht13 and Rht18 dwarfing genes appeared the most useful in providing good agronomic performance while maintaining greater early vigor [52]. These genes allowed for good expression of early vigor and also allowed for selection of greater coleoptile length [52] and increase early leaf area development.Backcross-and top cross-derived populations were then initiated in collaboration with commercial breeders to incorporate both new dwarfing and high early vigor genes into commercially-relevant genetic backgrounds. The new high vigor wheats have had a high uptake into commercial breeding programs (e.g., Figure 5). Critical in this uptake have been: (1) close and ongoing communication between researchers and the breeding companies, ( 2  Maize is the cereal with largest annual global production at 1096 M tons annually. Average yields are low, however, in drought-prone and infertile environments such as Africa (2.0 t/ha compared to western Europe at 8.9 t/ha and North America at 10.9 t/ha [55]). This outcrossing species is Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 historically vulnerable to stress at pollination. Maize breeders working in rainfed summer nurseries in the Corn Belt region of the Midwestern United States often noted that drought stressed plants suffered a large delay in silk emergence and were often barren [56]. Silk delay was also observed at high plant density [57]. Anthesis date is little affected by stress, so ultimately the delay was expressed relative to anthesis date and termed the anthesis-silking interval (ASI) [58] a strong relationship between grain yield (GY) and ASI in tropical maize. The genetic correlation between GY under severe stress at flowering and ASI reached as much as -0.60, with GY showing a dependence on ASI of the general form GY = exp (a + b × ASI) (Figure 6A). Sequía (TS) evaluated under a range of plant densities [60].ASI is a visual indicator of ear growth rate and hence useful for estimating partitioning to the ear under a wide array of stresses that reduce plant growth rate at flowering in maize. These stresses include drought, high plant density and low soil nitrogen (N) [61]. Reducing plant height by selection also decreases ASI and increases HI, resulting in grain-efficient density-tolerant cultivars [62]. In the study, contrasting selections-developed under managed drought stress and evaluated under a range of densities-showed increased ear growth rate (Figure 6B) and increases in GY and HI under flowering stress. Short ASI selections showed greater biomass at pollination, with an increased rate of kernel set, and hence increased GY. (Although in extreme cases, pollen shortage may contribute to loss of GY, reduced kernel set mainly reflects a failure of spikelets to reach the biomass threshold needed for successful pollination.) In addition, as the study indicates, kernel set in the Corn Belt Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 region of the U.S. has been positively linked to assimilate flux reaching the ear during silking, hence the importance of low ASI [63].If stress occurs outside of the flowering period (10 days before to 14 days after anthesis), selections with long vs. short ASI generally do not differ in performance. The adaptive value of long ASI in unimproved landraces is unclear. It may serve to prevent self-pollination, since inbred offspring lack fitness and would be more susceptible to stress [61].ASI generally forms part of a selection index-along with GY, barrenness and stay-green scores-as the broad-sense heritability of ASI is moderate and similar to that for GY (0.51 vs 0.43) [59,64] In temperate maize multi-location testing, high plant densities have resulted in a steady improvement in ASI over the past 70 years, although a 2002 study indicated that elite hybrids still show a strong association between GY and ASI under severe drought stress. [67,68]. As genomic selection has become mainstream in commercial breeding programs, ASI observed under managed stress conditions has been incorporated in the genomic prediction models of drought tolerance along with the primary trait of grain yield [69].As leading breeding programs focus on yield stability and ASI, susceptibility to stress at flowering is diminishing in maize, and in the future ASI should account for a smaller portion of the variability in GY under mid-season drought or high plant density. Already ASI is part of basket of traits being used for genomic selection in doubled haploid lines in both temperate and tropical maize improvement for stressed or marginal production conditions [69][70][71]. ASI has been incorporated in a proprietary version of the crop model APSIM used to inform breeders of appropriate breeding strategies for stressed environments [72]. In addition, as relatively unimproved genotypes are tapped as sources of Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 resistance to pests or stresses, selection for little or no silk delay under stress will play a role in ensuring that their progenies are stable in GY and high in harvest index. The trait that began as a casual observation in drought-stricken breeding nurseries has been successfully translated into mainline selection criteria and models that predict stress tolerant, stable and efficient maize cultivars for the future.Case Study 4: Science from Bacteria, Algae, Plants, Gerbils and PigsMillions of people, especially children and pregnant women, suffer from vitamin A deficiency (VAD), resulting in blindness or compromised immune system and associated morbidity and mortality [73]. Liver, fish, sweet potato, spinach, carrot and mango are good dietary sources, whereas most staple food crops, including maize, have little vitamin A or its precursor provitamin A (proVA) carotenoids. Breeding micronutrient-enriched staple crop varieties, such as proVA-enriched maize, is an attractive public health intervention because large populations in low-and middle-income countries rely on inexpensive staple foods and cannot always access nutritious, balanced diets.Basic research studying bacteria, algae and model plant species elucidated the biochemical pathway by which plants synthesize carotenoids [74,75]. This understanding enabled the search for natural or mutation-induced allelic diversity for enzymes affecting the production, accumulation, and degradation of proVA carotenoids in maize. Harjes et al. [76] reported alleles of lycopene epsilon cyclase (LycE) in maize that increase the production of carotenoids along the \"beta\" relative to the \"alpha\" branch of the pathway, thus favoring accumulation of beta-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin, the carotenoids with largest proVA activity. Two years later, Yan et al. [77] reported the discovery of maize allelic variants for beta-carotene hydroxylase (CrtRB1) that slow the conversion of beta-carotene to beta-cryptoxanthin, thereby favoring accumulation of the most effective precursor of vitamin A, beta-carotene.The use of molecular-marker-assisted selection (MAS) for favorable alleles of LycE or CrtRB1 to breed proVA-enriched maize varieties thus became an attractive possibility.The search for maize germplasm with higher concentrations of proVA carotenoids identified three temperate inbreds [76] that were subsequently used to form pre-breeding populations in Illinois, USA [78].These lines and three narrow-based pre-breeding populations were shared with breeders at CIMMYT and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In parallel, ten orange and flint-grained Argentinian landraces from CIMMYT's germplasm bank were found to carry the favorable CrtRB1 allele identified by Yan et al. [77], albeit at low frequency [79,80]. In practice, the temperate inbred lines and pre-breeding populations were used extensively in crosses with elite CIMMYT and IITA lines, whereas the Argentinian landraces were never used due to Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 anticipated costs of breeding to overcome their poor agronomic performance and linkage drag.The translational breakthrough was Babu et al.'s [81] validation in 26 tropical maize crosses of consistent favorable effects of alleles and their associated molecular markers for LycE and CrtRB1, as originally discovered by Harjes et al. [76] and Yan et al. [77]. The subsequent application of MAS for the favorable CrtRB1 allele, using DNA extracted from seed of numerous segregating breeding crosses prior to planting-planting only the MAS-selected seeds-resulted in rapid increases in the concentrations of proVA carotenoids in pre-breeding lines [82]. ProVA concentrations in CIMMYT breeding lines increased from less than 2 to 8 µg•g −1 in the first cycle of breeding, and have now reached 20 or more µg•g −1 in best lines of second and third cycles of breeding [83].These achievements should be compared to the breeding target of 15 µg•g −1 , which is estimated to provide 50 percent of the daily proVA requirement for children and women, assuming common daily intakes of maize [84].Although mainstream proVA breeding at CIMMYT no longer uses MAS for LycE or CrtRB1 (because the germplasm has achieved desired concentrations of proVA, and these favorable alleles are likely fixed), other proVA maize breeding programs continue to use these markers, e.g., Zunjare et al. [85].Translating nutrition science into proVA maize breeding goals was crucial to this story. Gerbil, piglet and chicken models established that proVA carotenoids in maize in the diets of these animals is bioavailable and bioefficacious (e.g., Davis et al. [86]; Heying et al. [87,88]). Robust evidence of the value of proVA maize for alleviating human VAD, however, came from long-term, community-based, placebo-controlled trials with children in three Zambian villages [89].The impact of proVA-enriched maize on the health of maize-consuming, VAD populations will depend on many factors, but varieties are currently grown and consumed in Zambia [84], and more than 40 varieties have been released for cultivation in eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil [90]. In the meantime, proVA maize translational research is taking new and exciting directions as evidence from mycology, toxicology and human cancer research led to preliminary findings that enhanced proVA concentrations in maize grain reduce colonization and aflatoxin production by Aspergillus flavus [83]. If these results are validated, the impacts of proVA-enriched maize could grow to include health benefits for millions of children suffering stunting or underweight, and adults developing liver and other cancers from consumption of aflatoxincontaminated maize. Such evidence of enhanced impact potential of proVA maize might stimulate investments to translate additional basic science, such as the role of CCD1 in degrading and thereby reducing the amounts of proVA carotenoids in grain [91], into practical tools used by breeding programs. Rice breeders in the 1960s [94] recognized the need to introduce higher yielding submergence tolerant varieties. By the early 1950s landraces with unusual flooding and submergence tolerance had been recognized, and during the 1970s were systematically screened. Several important accessions with resilience to complete submergence were found: FR13A from Orissa, India and Kurkaruppan, Goda Heenati and Thavalu from Sri Lanka. Their 10-day old seedlings survived 7 days of complete submergence. This knowledge led to the initiation of backcrossing into advanced breeding lines to see if the trait could be readily transferred.Work began in the 1980s [95]. However, submergence tolerance from FR13A was not successfully introduced into productive short-tointermediate stature lines by backcrossing until the mid-1990s [96].The genetic control of submergence tolerance was not revealed until the mid-1990s. Previously it appeared to be a typical quantitative trait [95].Then several independent studies found that up to 70% of the phenotypic variation in tolerance was due to a major chromosome 9 QTL (termed SUB 1) with other minor QTLs accounting for less than 30% of the phenotypic variation [97]. SUB1 was further mapped to a 0.16-cM region on chromosome 9 using F2 progeny mapping, before being further limited to a 0.075 cM locus (150 kb; Xu et al. [98]). Further fine mapping of SUB1 showed it to encode two or three ethylene-responsive DNA binding proteins. All Oryza sativa accessions carry SUB1B and SUB1C sequences at this locus but an additional SUB1A allele (SUB1A) is present in some lines.Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016This probably arose from a duplication of the SUB1B gene. Variant SUB1A-1 is found only in lines tolerant to flooding such as FR13A, whereas the SUB1A-2 allele is characteristic of accessions which are sensitive to flooding. The protein products of both alleles are identical with the exception of Ser186 in the flood tolerant allele and Pro186 in the flood intolerant allele [92]. Allele SUB1A-1 is much more highly expressed in leaves in response to flooding than the allele SUB1A-2 and is clearly responsible for the resilient flooding tolerance. Single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified within SUB1A and SUB1C regions that could be used as molecular markers in breeding [99]. A small genomic region containing SUB1A-1 has been introgressed into modern high yielding varieties such as Swarna and BR11 [99] using marker assisted back crossing. The importance of flooding tolerance has meant that most lowland high yielding varieties now carry the SUB1A-1 allele and are tolerant to the stress [92,98,100].Submergence causes death by many metabolic disturbances. Notably, it inhibits photosynthesis and respiration. SUB 1A-1 promotes better maintenance of soluble carbohydrate, chlorophyll and oxygen levels in a submergence-dependent manner as revealed by microarray and metabolite studies [92]. Ethylene is a key hormone induced by flooding and induces expression of SUB1A. Ethylene normally induces gibberellic acid that promotes seedling elongation. The induction of SUB 1A expression by ethylene during submergence disrupts this strategy to aid survival.The translation of the submergence trait from landraces into elite varieties is an excellent example of the impact of translational research, which resulted in very important gains for rice agriculture. It is also noteworthy that vital discoveries were necessary along the way to define the genetic changes required for introduction via marker assisted backcrossing.The Australian sorghum industry exemplifies an efficient delivery pathway to move public-sector pre-breeding germplasm into private sector breeding programs. A key element of this approach is the simultaneous evaluation of various target traits in conjunction with selelction for grain yield across the target population of environments for the crop. This has reduced bottlenecks between upstream research (encompassing both gene-to-phenotype and phenotype-to-gene approaches) and practical breeding outcomes for grain-growers.A study that examined wheat and sorghum yields over the past 30-40 years in Australia showed that sorghum yields were 2.1% per year [101]:almost twice that for wheat (1.2% per year). While yield trends for sorghum and wheat were similar in wet environments, in dry environments relative yield trends for sorghum were 3.6 times those for wheat. The effects of yield advances could not be clearly apportioned to Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 either agronomic practices or varieties. However, both crops would have benefited from the same agronomy changes (e.g., controlled traffic, minimum tillage), suggesting that genetics are likely important. While the impact of CO2 fertilization on yield increases was probably not significant in this study, there may have been a slight benefit under water-limited conditions for the C4 sorghum crop. The extra work necessary to retain high grain quality and disease resistance in wheat may also have been afactor in its moderately slower progress. [101].The higher rate of genetic gain in dry than wet environments can be partly attributed to the transfer of pre-breeding germplasm with the staygreen drought adaptation trait to the private sector (~50% genetic contribution of pre-breeding genetics to all hybrids) over a long period of time from the mid-1970s onwards [102]. Concurrent selection for yield, as well as for drought-adaptation and insect resistance traits, has helped the uptake of these traits by private breeding companies. In addition, considerable effort has been put into developing intellectual property systems conducive to uptake of germplasm by companies [102].The stay-green trait is a good example of a translational \"phenotype-togene\" approach in the Australian public sector sorghum pre-breeding program that enhances the delivery of drought-adapted germplasm to private sector breeding companies and, ultimately, to grain growers. Stay- Stay-green is a drought adaptation mechanism that improves grain yield and lodging resistance in sorghum and other cereals. Consequently, many physiological [103][104][105][106][107][108][109] and genetic studies [110][111][112] have been undertaken to better understand this trait. Genotypes containing the staygreen trait exhibit less branching (tillering) and smaller upper leaves, leading to decreased green leaf area at flowering [108,109]. Decreasing transpirational leaf area saves soil water before flowering for use after flowering when the grain is filling. Higher water uptake after flowering in stay-green lines leads to increased nitrogen uptake, biomass production, grain number and yield. Notably, stay-green genotypes do not yield significantly less under well-watered conditions.In addition, an important link has been established between canopy development before flowering and the impact on crop water use patterns Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016 and grain yield after flowering under end-of-season drought [108].Stay-green QTL also impact the anatomy of leaves and the growth of roots [109]. There are many ways by which Stg QTLs can modify canopy development, resulting in considerable plasticity. It is likely that the physiological mechanisms underlying stay-green in sorghum will also operate with similar functionality in other major cereals such as maize, wheat, and rice [109].While studies of near-isogenic lines have provided clear understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying stay-green, including yield benefits under drought, the best evidence of its impact in multiple genetic backgrounds and environments comes from a study investigating the relationship between stay-green and yield using data from breeding trials that sampled over 1600 hybrid combinations and more than 20 environments with mean yields varying from 2.3 to 10.5 t•ha −1 [112].Most associations in this study were positive, specifically for environments yielding below 6 t•ha −1 . Post-flowering drought is a major constraint to sorghum production worldwide and in Australia, limiting yields to 1.2 and 2.5 t•ha −1 , respectively. The results in how that selecting for stay-green in elite sorghum hybrids should be beneficial in a wide range of environments, particularly when water is limiting..Long-term selection for stay-green and grain yield has indirectly improved component traits and associated water capture and efficiency traits (e.g., root angle, transpiration efficiency). Evidence indicates that elite pre-breeding germplasm is extreme for both traits [102]. For example, there is evidence of an association between narrow root angle, yield and stay-green in hybrids grown in Australian environments [113]. Narrow root angle is associated with increased water extraction in deep soils, while wide root angle may be useful in skip-row systems on shallow soils.Some germplasm from the Australian public sector sorghum pre-breeding program has extreme root angle phenotypes, suggesting indirect selection for the trait. Furthermore, diversity of root phenotypes in experimental hybrids is much greater than the commercial range [102].It is often said that intellectual property rights (IPRs) inhibit translational research. It is the case that all such projects should be scrutinised by experts to avoid contravening, knowingly or unknowingly, laws associated with patented germplasm, genes or technologies but very few projects in fact need be discarded because of IPRs. This is because (i) globally, little germplasm and few genes/markers or technologies are patented or unavailable for research and exploitation, (ii) dialog with holders of relevant IPRs often result in opportunities to test hypotheses because they could result in the outcomes being nearer to market, i.e., more valuable, and (iii) there are often ways around the IPRs, e.g., by using different germplasm or variant genes, when the IPRs are fully understood.Crop Breed Genet Genom. 2019;1:e190016. https://doi.org/10.20900/cbgg20190016Sometimes the existence of patented elements becomes a driver for the investment in translational research because of the promise of additional financial rewards. It is worth noting that the founding principles of awarding IPRs was to provide inventors the chance to get the translational work done before a competitor has the same chance. Therefore IPRs are not necessarily at odds with greatly increasing the volumes of translational research, providing detailed awareness exists.While crop breeding and research into the complex traits that drive yield gains have existed in relative isolation for decades, often based around different species and growing environments, translational research pipelines based on application-relevant criteria can break down these silos through collaboration aimed at:1. Identifying \"best-bet\" traits likely to boost yield when introgressed into elite germplasm based on conceptual or simulation models.2. Accessing a wide range of both exotic and current breeding material to identify novel and better sources of trait expression and their genetic bases.3. Testing hypotheses by making crosses using sources of traits proposed by research (Table 1), bringing them into elite germplasm and field testing progeny across a range of target environments (Figure 2).4. Gaining a practical understanding of trait and allelic interactions through genetic and physiological dissection of successful progeny and their parents and comprehensive analysis of multi-location yield trials.When such translational research efforts are associated with mature breeding and pre-breeding programs, added value is generated from preexisting knowledge networks, germplasm and infrastructure (Supplementary Table S1), and the possibility to deploy multiple research activities involving different ideas and technologies on common panels of breeder-relevant germplasm. This focused approach can achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the relative contributions and interactions among novel traits and genes contributing to yield, while ensuring that conclusions are based on up to date breeding material and pertinent environments. Additional benefits include more efficient use of research resources and opportunities for closer interactions between disciplinary scientists and practicing breeders. ","tokenCount":"7013"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"940e2c20f37dcd9e3eb6d77bb4e41e11","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f5620341-760b-4578-975b-6ec8b0d26646/retrieve","id":"1615875852"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c5404610-6e40-4b77-9e9c-b9e7b03bef29","pagecount":"1","content":"Tunisian agriculture has always tried to adapt to the increase in food demand for centuries, and the modes of agricultural production have been gradually transformed. Notably, agriculture was intensified, through productivist orientations, with increased land degradation. The opportunities of a sustainable development are more and more weakened. Focusing only on economically profitable agricultural systems has heavily aggravated the agro-environmental landscapes with increasing risks and uncertainties. The impact of agricultural activities on the environment and its less favorable consequences on resourcessuch as land support and water resources are more harmful in mountainous areas than in the plains since mountain agriculture has specific characteristics: difficult natural environment related to altitude and climate, fragility of natural resources and land resources, the sharp decline in the number of farms due to social and geographical isolation.  V i si on i n g : A focus group discussion to think about the state of agriculture in one community/ production system and its evolution, and identify one or more \"desirable futures\" for the agriculture within 10 years. Session 1: Initial plenary: why is it useful to identify a vision of what a desirable future would be? ","tokenCount":"190"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"671f8d37eb61240125e60e756fcfc065","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b407e1b1-5ff3-4f71-ac99-89b821f903fc/retrieve","id":"-1057445866"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9f55af67-bf83-443f-8fff-7cdaf7db8120","pagecount":"4","content":"Nepal is one of the countries that is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and extreme weather events, with 80% of the population at risk of climate-induced natural hazards (Eckstein  et al. 2021; MoHA 2018). Climate change has a massive negative impact on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.The rise in temperature, increased intensity of precipitation and storms, prolonged droughts, floods and landslides are some of the climatic and non-climatic hazards that can affect the WASH sector in Nepal. Women, girls, persons with disabilities (PwDs) and marginalized groups are most likely to be severely impacted by climate-induced disasters (MoFE 2021a).In Nepal, there is evidence of limited knowledge, capabilities and resources of local authorities to plan, design and implement gender equality, disability, and social inclusion-informed WASH interventions. There is less understanding among local actors on how climate change (and induced hazards) will impact WASH infrastructure and services, and water supply facilities.Clean water is a blessing: A girl washes clothes with pristine water in Dailekh district, Nepal (photo: Manita Raut).The two-year (2023)(2024)  The RES-WASH project is built on experiences and insights gained from the earlier project (phase I) titled A gender perspective to understand and enhance the functionality of water supply systems: Lessons from Nepal, which was also supported by the Water for Women Fund. This project explored how gender relationships and power dynamics influence the sustainability and functionality of water supply systems in the country. It aimed to address a major limitation in the current approaches to women's empowerment in the water sector, where the focus of research and development interventions has been on women's empowerment with inadequate attention given to collective action and collective empowerment.The RES-WASH project aims to achieve the following objectives: ▪ Assess the vulnerability and risk of WASH infrastructure and facilities to climatic and non-climatic hazards such as landslides.▪ Identify gendered and social vulnerabilities related to WASH and climate change experienced by diverse groups of women, girls, PwDs and marginalized communities.▪ Improve knowledge and capacity for effective WASH systems, programs and institutional mechanisms that are more inclusive and climate resilient.Continuing our engagement to build on existing knowledge and partnerships, this project will be implemented in two locations which were also the study sites of the earlier Water for Women Fund-supported project: Sarlahi (in the Terai belt) and Dailekh (in the hills) districts.  This research aims to improve local expertise on climateresilient, inclusive and sustainable WASH by producing evidence-based data and information, and ensuring their outreach, accessibility and use by local stakeholders, especially local governments in Dailekh and Sarlahi districts. This evidence and knowledge base will be used to plan, design and implement approaches to strengthen the capacity of key local actors who can influence the planning, design and delivery of more inclusive and climate-resilient WASH.We will use three types of research methodologies in answering the research questions. First, a risk analysis framework for understanding the climate vulnerability from climatic and non-climatic hazards which can potentially impact the WASH sector. Second, the use of geospatial tools and existing datasets that are available with government line agencies and rural municipalities to identify the hazards and exposure of the WASH facilities, and vulnerable communities. Third, robust qualitative methods which include case study approaches, participatory rapid appraisal tools, and reviews of policies and interventions on WASH from climate change and gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) lenses.Research and capacity building activities will be designed and implemented in close collaboration with local governments, universities, organizations of rights holders (e.g., Dalits, PwDs, women), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and sectoral line agencies, including WASH, health and climate change sectors.Our focus to ensure the participation of at least 40% women and representatives of PwD and Dalit groups in workshops at national and local levels might be impacted by their inability to participate due to gender and social norms and/or language barriers. This project will ensure to adopt approaches and means to create 'safe spaces' and encourage their participation. This project will reach around 66,000 people directly and indirectly (at least 40% of them will be women) during research design and implementation as well as capacity building phases, thereby providing them with access to research data, information and new knowledge.   xfd| f] nIo sDtLdf $) k| ltzt dlxnf, ckfËtf ePsf JolQmx¿ tyf blnt  This research aims to improve local expertise on climateresilient, inclusive and sustainable WASH by producing evidence-based data and information, and ensuring their outreach, accessibility and use by local stakeholders, especially local governments in Dailekh and Sarlahi districts. This evidence and knowledge base will be used to plan, design and implement approaches to strengthen the capacity of key local actors who can influence the planning, design and delivery of more inclusive and climate-resilient WASH.We will use three types of research methodologies in answering the research questions. First, a risk analysis framework for understanding the climate vulnerability from climatic and non-climatic hazards which can potentially impact the WASH sector. Second, the use of geospatial tools and existing datasets that are available with government line agencies and rural municipalities to identify the hazards and exposure of the WASH facilities, and vulnerable communities. Third, robust qualitative methods which include case study approaches, participatory rapid appraisal tools, and reviews of policies and interventions on WASH from climate change and gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) lenses.Research and capacity building activities will be designed and implemented in close collaboration with local governments, universities, organizations of rights holders (e.g., Dalits, PwDs, women), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and sectoral line agencies, including WASH, health and climate change sectors.Our focus to ensure the participation of at least 40% women and representatives of PwD and Dalit groups in workshops at national and local levels might be impacted by their inability to participate due to gender and social norms and/or language barriers. This project will ensure to adopt approaches and means to create 'safe spaces' and encourage their participation. This project will reach around 66,000 people directly and indirectly (at least 40% of them will be women) during research design and implementation as well as capacity building phases, thereby providing them with access to research data, information and new knowledge. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is an international, research-for-development organization that works with governments, civil society and the private sector to solve water problems in developing countries and scale up solutions. Through partnership, IWMI combines research on the sustainable use of water and land resources, knowledge services and products with capacity strengthening, dialogue and policy analysis to support implementation of water management solutions for agriculture, ecosystems, climate change and inclusive economic growth. Headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, IWMI is a CGIAR Research Center with offices in 14 countries and a global network of scientists operating in more than 30 countries.","tokenCount":"1121"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1bb49fe91f7e60f18fc8c7fe631a327","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a36612c4-7154-437c-96aa-e4d733ad9e5f/retrieve","id":"975024388"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2ec6bb40-40b3-4a8c-a57e-406b38972a08","pagecount":"18","content":"Livestock farming is a major global economic activity, but it also contributes to deforestation and land degradation. Improved forages offer a promising solution to reduce land use and improve livestock productivity. A Promising species for such purpose is Megathyrsus maximus, which have a vast genotypic diversity held in Future Seeds, the genebank of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. This research aims to evaluate the agronomical performance of 136 accessions of M. maximus plants in Valle del Cauca. This report builds upon prelimary work previously reported (https://hdl.handle.net/10568/135506)Livestock represents a very important sector of the global economy. It is an activity that accounts for almost 50% of the animal protein produced worldwide, employs approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide and represents 20% of the agricultural GDP of developing countries (Blaustein-Retijo et al., 2019). By 2016, 156 million more hectares were under rangeland than in 1961 and this figure could reach 400 million hectares according to one projection, if current trends continue due to the increasing demand for animal protein (íbid, 2019).In some regions, livestock expansion demands growing pasture areas, making it the world's most landintensive crop. For this and many other reasons, this economic activity is attributed to increases in deforestation rates and land degradation and, consequently, to the phenomenon of climate change (Tilman et al., 2001).The current situation in Colombia is not very different and livestock farming is increasingly demanding greater use of land, since the forage supply available to producers does not satisfy the need for feed in terms of quantity and quality for the animals, and during critical periods there is a lack of feed, which leads to the mobilization of livestock in search of fertile land to avoid weight loss and even death of the animals. Furthermore, Colombia has few improved forage options, which puts the livestock sector at risk of low productivity in the event of extreme abiotic stress events (e.g., droughts, floods, soil compaction).Improved forages (i.e., forage plants with high vigor and forage quality) have the potential to improve livestock productivity and reduce land use. Currently, Future Seeds, the germplasm bank of the Alliance of Bioversity and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, has the largest and most diverse collection of tropical forages in the world. This germplasm diversity allows the selection of plants with potential for adoption in different agroecological conditions in Colombia. Promising plants for their use in Colombia, and elsewhere, include M. maximus. M. maximus (syn. Panicum maxima), also known as Guinea grass, is a forage grass widely used for animal feed in tropical and subtropical regions (Peters et al., 2011). It is noted for its wide adaptation to different climatic conditions and soil types. It can grow in a variety of environments, from tropical to subtropical. This species has a high forage yield. It provides a significant amount of biomass of good to high nutritional quality, which makes it a suitable choice for livestock feeding. M. maximus is a forage grass that can be used for grazing by cattle, but it can also be managed in fodder banks if soil nutritional conditions are adequate. Some accessions of M. maximus are tolerant to prolonged periods of drought but cannot withstand long periods of waterlogging (Cook et al., 2020).Currently, there are 512 germplasm accessions of M. maximus hosted in Future Seeds. The germplasm accessions used in this research were narrowed down to 136 in M. maximums based on previous work on promising accessions based upon observations in multilocational trials. Thereby, the purpose of this work was to perform agronomical evaluations of such materials in a clay loam soil of Valle del Cauca.Genetic material consisted of 136 accessions of M. maximus which were arranged in a randomized complete block experimental design with three replicates. The plot size was 3 meters (m) x 2.5 m and a distance between plots and replicates of 2 m. Agronomic evaluations were carried out in contrasting seasons (maximum and minimum rainfall), evaluating yield parameters: kilogram (kg) Dry Matter (DM)/Hectare (Ha)/cut, vigor, height, cover area, uncovered area, incidence of pests and diseases, % weeds, flowering. An evaluation was carried out in each of the climatic seasons and within each of these, the above-mentioned parameters were evaluated. Three ages of regrowth (35, 42 and 49 days after cutting) were also evaluated.To determine forage yield, plant material present in an area of 0.25 m 2 was harvested and their fresh and dry weight were determined, for posterior estimation of total forage yield and % of forage dry matter per hectare as described in Mazabel et al., (2022). After the agronomic evaluation within and between climatic seasons, all plots were standardized to initiate a new recovery cycle for further evaluation. The plant material resulting from each of the standardizations was removed by hand to avoid damage to the plants due to drowning/damage and/or contamination between materials.During the entire experimental phase, the plots and roads were maintained by chemical and manual control of weeds, and delimitation cuts were made in each of the plots to avoid mixing of materials between treatments.The statistical analysis of the agronomic evaluations showed significant differences for the response variables: Tons (Ton) Dry Matter (DM)/Hectare (Ha)/Cut, plant height and cover area. However, for the rest of the variables evaluated, no differences were found.Forage production based on dry matter ranged between 3.3 and 5.1 Ton DM Ha/Cut (Table 1). These results are lower than those reported by Carvajal-Tapia et al., (2021) who evaluated 130 accessions of M. maximus and obtained a forage production between 5.1 and 7.8 Ton DM Ha/Cut in an experiment in a dry tropical forest agroecosystem located in the Patía valley of southwestern Colombia. Plant height ranged between 49.2 and 109.2 cm (Table 2.), while Cover of the evaluated accessions ranged between 43 and 75% (Table 3.). The average values of the above-mentioned variables during three evaluations carried out in climatically contrasting seasons are presented below where the darker green scale indicates higher values, and the redder color indicates lower values: 5.3 3.5 1.9 3.3 6836 6.0 5.0 2.0 4.1 6839 4.9 4.3 1.9 3.6 6840 5.9 5.3 2.4 4.4 6842 4.7 4.3 1.8 3.5 6843 6.8 5.2 2.0 4.4 6855 5.9 4.7 2.1 4.0 6857 4.9 3.7 0.6 2.8 6862 6.5 5.9 3.0 5.0 6864 5.4 3.6 0.5 3.2 6866 6.4 5.8 3.4 5.0 6868 4.7 4.5 2.7 3.9 Figure 1 shows the mean frequency distribution of the population for the variable Coverage, which was 62.8%, while for the variable Plant height was 78.3 cm and for Dry matter 3.8 Ton/Ha/Cut. This allowed the identification of accessions with good performance in terms of forage production based on dry matter, where when a cut was made at 4 Ton DM/Ha/Cut it was found that there were 59 accessions that exceeded this threshold, also surpassing the control M. maximus cv. Mombasa CIAT 6962, which produced an average of 3.7 Ton DM/Ha/Cut. This shows the large number of materials that could be considered promising for the next phase of research.Figure 1. Frequency distribution of the accessions (plots).The principal component analysis (Figure 2) reveals that the first two components explain more than 80% of the variation found. It also shows that these variables are highly correlated, which makes sense considering the growth habit of this type of grasses, which are mostly erect.Figure 2. Principal components Thus, accessions CIAT 16025, CIAT 6963 and CIAT 688 are emerging as those with the highest production of dry matter, height, and cover area, which is desirable considering that one of the criteria for selection and adoption by livestock producers is the ability to produce biomass and at the same time does not leave the soil without cover.CIAT accessions 16025, CIAT 6963, and CIAT 688 should be considered for future research to determine nutritional quality at different regrowth ages and to conduct animal cafeteria trials to have robust information to select and release at least one of these accessions in the country.There are at least 50 other accessions that are interesting in terms of biomass production, cover, and plant height. However, it is important to be able to evaluate these materials under other environments to find a greater diversity of forage options for different environments.","tokenCount":"1359"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"96e734bda0813ed3dfb9bf64a8c58186","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8f64264b-b90c-4da8-9358-7082f9a67594/retrieve","id":"440283949"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba1040df-cd69-4e56-bc16-9ee9f981ff0b","pagecount":"10","content":"Nearly 1 billion people are affected by severe hunger and poverty globally. Many are farmers who rely on small plots of land for their food and livelihoods. They struggle with unproductive soil, plant diseases and pests, climate variability, and weak policies and markets. The need to strengthen the fight against hunger and poverty, especially in the tropics, is more urgent than ever.CIAT remains as optimistic about helping farming families overcome obstacles to sustainable productivity growth as it did when the Center opened its doors in 1967. The Center has decades of experience in diverse research areas, which enable us to bring a broad systems perspective to our mission to reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition. At the core of CIAT's mission is the concept of eco-efficiency. This means we promote competitive and profitable food production for economic empowerment of the world's poor, while reducing agriculture's environmental footprint and preserving agrobiodiversity.Crop improvement is a key leverage point for bringing about those aims. CIAT conducts research globally on cassava, common bean, and tropical forages, as well as on rice in Latin America and the Caribbean. Critical for reducing hunger, these crops also offer wide scope for strengthening farmers' market orientation and raising rural incomes. Our researchers work in two other areas that cut across all tropical crops and environments -soils and pro-poor policies.Through research on soil management and land restoration, the Center opens new pathways toward sustainable intensification of crop production, while improving the ecosystem services on which rural communities depend.CIAT's Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) research area harnesses the power of information to influence actions concerning climate change adaptation and mitigation, sustainable ecosystem management, and linking farmers to markets.Recognizing the significant and overlooked role of women in agriculture, CIAT's growing team of gender specialists strives to ensure our programs are gender aware and transformative.The Center has a proven record of delivering results that address the local realities and challenges facing smallholders, as well as a solid reputation for integrity, innovation, and transparency. Aware that greater impact is achieved through effective collaboration, we take pride in our strong and growing partnerships with other research organizations, NGOs, governments, the private sector, donors, and other CGIAR centers around the world.Farming is critical to three-quarters of the world's poor but receives very little attention. We share the Foundation's belief that every life has equal value, which is why CIAT is dedicated to reducing hunger and poverty over the long term.The power of investing in agriculture is clear: when farmers can grow more food and earn more income, they can achieve self-sufficiency and lead better lives. Increased income and improved nutrition produce ripple effects -allowing farmers to send their children to school, provide for their health, and invest in the future.The Foundation's strategic investments in CIAT and CGIAR -a global research partnership for a food-secure future -over the years have contributed significantly to our shared aims. BMGF is committed to agricultural development and continues to be instrumental in prioritizing innovation in the sector and encouraging others to do the same. Grand Challenges Explorations, for example, rewards unorthodox thinking to overcome persistent bottlenecks in creating new tools for the developing world.We realize there is no single silver bullet to tackling the challenges farmers face. That's why CIAT has a comprehensive strategy to produce tangible outcomes from agricultural research, which entail smarter use of resources and translate into valuable impacts, like higher incomes and improved child nutrition. Our researchers toil around the clock to boost agricultural productivity and enhance the nutritional quality of staple crops, make smallholder agriculture more competitive and market oriented, and ensure farming is both environmentally sustainable and climate smart.We are grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their steadfast commitment to CIAT's innovative research for development. We look forward to strengthening our partnership to accelerate the fight against hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the tropics.CIAT scientists and partners deliver new technology, methods, and knowledge that help farmers respond to their current and future needs. The Center cultivates change through major advances in science reinforced by improved public policies and agricultural markets. At CIAT we're proud of our ability to generate cost-effective, equitable solutions to poverty and food insecurity, which can be scaled up to deliver lasting impact.Headquartered in Colombia, CIAT has regional offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Hanoi, Vietnam, with a network of scientists conducting high-quality research throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. Our global team assesses opportunities to achieve food security and responds with unique approaches designed to preserve agrobiodiversity, enhance soil fertility and land management, support good governance, promote equity, and lift smallholder farmers out of poverty.An estimated 250 million children are vitamin A deficient and approximately to 500,000 go blind every year. A lack of the vitamin also puts children and pregnant women at risk of diseases and even death from common infections like measles.These startling facts led CIAT and partners to fast-track improvement in the nutritional value of cassava. Beta-carotene -the orange pigment used by the body to make vitamin A -was boosted fourfold from 5 micrograms to about 20. Normally the cassava breeding cycle takes around 8 years but scientists devised a \"rapid-cycling\" method to achieve record fast results in just 3 years.Vitamin A biofortification has the potential to benefit 70 million people in developing countries who consume 500 calories of cassava every day, but the BMGF-funded research has implications beyond boosting beta-carotene content in the crop. By unraveling a bit more of the mystery surrounding the genetic makeup of the crop, scientists are exploring rapid breeding for other important traits.Imagine: micronutrients-rich varieties of staple food crops that can be grown in a wide range of environments, nutritious seed that can be saved, shared, and grown by even the poorest farmers year after year, and healthier harvests that can provide nutrients directly to those who need them most. There has been steady progress in cassava breeding in the past 30 years. But when presented with a shortcut, why take the long way around?CIAT is devising a plan to reach more farmers, more quickly, and with cassava varieties that better meet their production, processing, and market needs. By exploiting several advantages of the use of homozygous lines in breeding, scientists can increase the rate of genetic gain in cassava.Researchers are developing robust protocols for the inventive process so that other breeding programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America can take advantage of this \"double-haploid\" method to obtain inbred lines in just one year, compared with the 7-10 years it takes for successive self-pollinations. Phase II of the project, funded by BMGF, is helping achieve further gains in eco-efficient agriculture.\"We can help poor farmers sustainably increase their productivity so they can feed themselves and their families. By doing so, they will contribute to global food security.Fungi: Friend of cassava and beans, foe of pests and diseases (GCE 1)Scientists at CIAT and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have a new secret weapon to enhance the resilience of beans and cassava to pest attacks. They have teamed up with fungus to fight bean weevil and cassava mealybug.The \"endophytic biological control for cassava and beans\" project hopes to prove that the commercially available Beauveria bassiana fungus can be transferred into bean and cassava crops to boost the plants' natural defenses against them. The study has the potential to achieve a major leap forward in the biological control of pests. Plus, farmers would only need to use a minute amount in order to achieve field-wide resistance, potentially reducing costs and labor.Six hundred million of the world's poor depend on legume crops for food and fodder. Legumes yield high-value grain that is priced 2-3 times higher than cereals and can be processed locally to create a wide-range of food products, while the stem and leaves, as well as the residue that remains after oil extraction, are valued as high-protein livestock feed.But farmers are facing shorter, less reliable growing seasons, especially in Africa, due to drought, heat, and other susceptibilities to climate change. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), CIAT, and partners are working to enhance the productivity of six important grain legumes -chickpea, common bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea, and soybean -by at least 20% in drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through the availability and adoption of improved crop varieties and associated crop management practices.6The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations initiative was launched in 2008 to encourage scientists worldwide to think outside the box. CIAT is proud to unite with revolutionary thinkers at BMGF to find solutions to humanity's grand challenges.CIAT proudly leads the following projects:• GCE 1: Endophytic biological control for cassava and beans (2014-2017) • GCE 2: Engineering selective autophagy for virus elimination in cassava (2014-2017)• GCE 3: Less is more: The 5Q approach (2014-2015) • GCE 4: Synthetic seeds for clonal propagation of disease-free cassava (2012)(2013) Attacking the root of the problem (GCE 2) Some refer to cassava as the \"Rambo root,\" for its ability to thrive in tough conditions such as higher temperatures and drought. But cassava has one enduring weakness: its vulnerability to pests and diseases, which can cripple farmers' production.Two of the most severe cassava viruses are cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava frogskin disease (CFSD). CMD, a curse to food security, produces mosaic, mottling, misshapen, and twisted leaflets and stunting in the root. Underground, CFSD causes thin roots that accumulate little or no starch, but on the surface the stems and leaves generally show no noticeable disease symptoms so farmers don't realize the plants have been damaged until harvest.CIAT scientists are working to combat these debilitating diseases by exploiting a plant survival mechanism, called autophagy, to seek and destroy hostile viruses. By developing a self-defense protein that is programmed to recognize invading viruses and escort them to the autophagy system, cassava can be enabled to resist devastating attacks from some of its most damaging pathogens.Less is more: The 5Q approach (CGE 3)Sometimes less is more. CIAT is testing a new, remarkably simple method to improve customer service in development. The approach allows for continuous feedback from project stakeholders to make immediate use of the results to adjust priorities and adapt project implementation if need be. The 5 questions are modified throughout the project cycle and depend on previous answers, but always address changes in awareness, behavior, access, and use of information.The methodology is being tested in Northern Tanzania as part of a project aimed to increase food security and farming system resilience through wide-scale adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices and technologies. 5Q's timely feedback loop has the potential to change the face of monitoring and evaluation in development programs, with major benefits coming more quickly to farmers.Cassava's vulnerability to pests and diseases is due in part to the way the crop is propagated -usually by the planting of stem cuttings -which can facilitate the spread and buildup of pests and diseases from season to season. In 2012, CIAT scientists began to propagate cassava using synthetic seeds produced from clean, healthy plants to help farmers break the pest and disease cycle.The seeds are artificially induced in vitro, from the plants' growing points -called meristems -by treating them with synthetic hormones to make them produce \"somatic embryos.\" These are exact genetic replicas of the parents, and have the ability to generate whole plants. The seeds are given a synthetic protective coating, mimicking a normal seed cask, for ease of storage and transportation.Two years later, the results of the \"Synthetic seeds for clonal propagation of disease-free cassava\" project are so promising that two CIAT scientists involved in the project attended the Xcelerator Training Program in Seattle to address the complexities of implementing the new technology in the developing world for broad impact.","tokenCount":"1957"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e2bb4e5ffbedc48e8280570b8218c179","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/14b0b313-5349-4c89-b694-9f20d1e20822/retrieve","id":"44737264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d13bfbfd-eea2-42d1-9256-d10e788170ed","pagecount":"16","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Over the past five years, the Health of Ethiopian Animals for Rural Development (HEARD) project has been actively operating in the Amhara, Oromia, and Somali regions of Ethiopia, covering a total of 39 zones and 70 districts. Its primary goal has been to enhance sustainable livestock productivity and elevate the marketability of livestock products. Supported by the European Union (EU), the HEARD initiative has been carried out in collaboration with key stakeholders including the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Ethiopian Veterinary Association (EVA). As the project concludes, a comprehensive final evaluation was conducted in March 2024 to assess its achievements and impacts, identify influencing factors, and provide valuable recommendations for future interventions.The HEARD program is structured around three key result components:• Result 1: Enhancing the quality of veterinary services: This component focuses on strengthening the quality of both public and private veterinary services and optimizing their delivery through the establishment of conducive environments. It operates through three grants distributed across the Somali, Amhara, and Oromia regional states. The Somali Livestock Resources and Pastoral Development Bureau, the Amhara Livestock Development Agency, and the Oromia Livestock and Fisheries Resource Development Bureau spearhead this effort, with support from the MoA.• Result 2: Improving technical competencies and incentives for veterinary service providers: This component, executed jointly by the ILRI and the EVA, focuses on enhancing the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of veterinary service providers. It aims to enable them to offer improved and rationalized services. Additionally, it facilitates the establishment of public-private partnerships and provides capacity development opportunities for veterinary professionals at various levels.• Result 3: Enhancing food safety and controlling zoonotic diseases: Led by the MoA, this component aims to improve the safety of primary products of animal origin and enhance the control of zoonotic diseases. It supports initiatives to strengthen the internal and export livestock value chains, including supporting the livestock identification and traceability system (LlTS) and conducting regular testing of animal-origin products. Moreover, this component is involved in the establishment of a meat inspection course at the National Veterinary University, which is expected to graduate 60 meat inspectors annually.Held on 25 March 2024, the one-day workshop brought together all HEARD project partners and donors (total 34 participants) for a thorough discussion and validation of the findings and recommendations presented in the project evaluation report prepared by the Frontieri Consultancy in March 2023 (see Annex 1).Welcome address: Theodore Knight-Jones, Animal and Human Health (AHH), ILRI.In his welcoming address, Knight-Jones welcomed participants of the workshop including the HEARD project partners.He emphasized the importance of hearing the detailed findings of the evaluation to the project.Opening remarks: Melaku Assefa, MoA HEARD coordinator. Melaku officially opened the workshop and welcomed participants, all the partners and ILRI for coordinating and facilitating the workshop. He mentioned that HEARD is the only project working in animal health with clear results that are contributing to communities in Ethiopia.Introductory remarks: Berhanu Taye, European Union (EU).Berhanu presented the HEARD project's methodology and intervention logic, highlighting its innovative and inclusive approach involving various partners such as MoA, National Authorizing Office (NAO), MoF, EVA, and ILRI collaborating with regional entities. He praised the essential roles played by these diverse partners and their coordinated efforts in project implementation. He said the interim joint monitoring evaluation yielded unexpectedly positive outcomes, reinforcing partner commitment throughout the project duration. This demonstrated dedication from partners and the project's innovative outcomes had paved the way for the project's expansion into additional regions while also prompting its upscale design. Darsema provided comprehensive insights into the project, highlighting collaborative processes, partnership dynamics, and ownership among various stakeholders at all levels. He emphasized the project's synergy with ongoing interventions and its key role in sustainability and scalability. Darsema also commended the involvement of financial institutions in facilitating private sector engagement in animal health service delivery. Furthermore, he underscored the significance of Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) missions and experience-sharing initiatives with other countries for enhancing project implementation and learning. In conclusion, he also acknowledged the pivotal role played by the private sector in the project's success, attributing friendly operational modalities to early and continuous engagement with financial institutions.• Encourage strong partnerships with organizations representing small-scale livestock producers to improve their involvement in ensuring their needs and priorities are considered in project design and decision-making processes.• The lack of defined baseline and target values for outcome indicators reduced the efficiency of progress measurement this needs to be addressed by the project team.• Focus on improving the monitoring and evaluation system of future projects by incorporating quantifiable outcome and impact indicators rather than depending on the activity progress.• Addressing logistic and communication challenges, improving budget execution, streamlining procurement processes, establishing risk assessment mechanisms, and allocating emergency funds.Workshop participants mentioned the below points to the consultancy team to include it in their reports• Include impact of the project on climate change.• Show the impact of material procurement and distribution to regional labs.• Draw lessons from unsuccessful initiatives such as the Animal Knowledge Centers (AKC).• Include assessment and lessons on the production and dissemination of knowledge products• Include lessons on experience-sharing visits and workshops.• Include case stories in the evaluation report• SWOT analysis by result areas to draw lessons for the next phase.• Disaggregate public-private partnership (PPP) implementation by regions and draw lessons on driving factors across sites.The below points out to the donor and partner regions in the future project• Assessment of the tasks given to the TA.• Regional labs to have procurement plans from the beginning.• Start negotiating and working with financial institutions early on during project design.A brief presentation on follow-on action (RESTORE project) -Theodore Knight-Jones, AHH, ILRI Knight-Jones gave an overview presentation on the aims and objectives of RESTORE project. RESTORE, an EU initiative builds upon the experiences from the EU HEARD project. Its primary objective is to enhance food security, nutrition, and livelihood resilience for rural communities nationwide, with a specific emphasis on regions impacted by drought and conflict. His presentation is available here: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141465.Annex 1. Workshop agenda","tokenCount":"1043"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ae152cce32d791519e98fabe167807a0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4a61575d-d626-46e5-b859-d540ace575de/retrieve","id":"-143293434"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9b9c2b1-6b06-496f-ade0-62c1fdd5aa26","pagecount":"83","content":"Les 16 et 17 septembre 2001, s'est tenu à Abidjan dans les locaux de la Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD), un atelier régional intitulé «Quelles politiques pour améliorer la compétitivité des petits éleveurs dans le corridor central de l'Afrique de l'Ouest : Implications pour le commerce et l'intégration régionale». La cérémonie d'ouverture était présidée par Son Excellence M. le Ministre de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales, Dr Douati Alphonse, avec à ses côtés Son excellence M. le Ministre de l'Economie et des Finances, M. Bohoum Bouabré et M. le vice-Président de la BAD, M. Cyril Nweze, ainsi que le Représentant du Directeur Général de l'Institut International de Recherches sur l'Elevage (ILRI) Dr Simeon Ehui. Ont également pris part à l'atelier les représentants des opérateurs économiques et des services techniques du Burkina Faso, du Ghana, de Côte d'Ivoire, du Mali, du Niger, du Nigeria ainsi que des responsables des organisations sous régionales et internationales UEMOA, CILSS, CLUSA, BAD, ILRI, FAO. Trois discours ont été prononcés à la cérémonie d'ouverture : • celui du Vice Président de la BAD souhaitant la bienvenue aux participants • celui du Représentant de l'ILRI mettant l'accent sur l'intérêt du présent atelier • celui du Ministre de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales se réjouissant d'une telle initiative et souhaitant que des recommandations réalistes sortent de l'atelier.Les travaux de l'atelier se sont déroulés en séances plénières et en commissions. Plusieurs communications ont été faites ayant trait au thème de l'atelier.A l'issue des travaux, l'Atelier a fait les recommandations suivantes :La cérémonie de clôture a été présidée par Son Excellence M. le Ministre de l'Economie et des Finances, M. Bohoum Bouabré, qui dans son discours s'est engagé à apporter l'appui nécessaire pour la mise en oeuvre des recommandations issues de l 'atelier. Auparavant, le vice-Président de la BAD avait pris le même engagement.Après la cérémonie officielle de clôture, un cocktail a été offert aux participants par les organisateurs de l'atelier dans la salle de banquet de la BAD.Le mercredi 19 septembre 2001, une visite de terrain par avion, avec à sa tête Son excellence M. le Ministre de l'Economie et des Finances, a eu lieu à Ferkessédougou pour visiter la ferme laitière Nembel Invest.L'atelier d'Abidjan sur le thème « Quelles politiques pour accroître le commerce régional du bétail dans le sous-espace centre de l'Afrique de l'Ouest : implications pour le commerce et l'intégration régionale » a été organisé par l'International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), en collaboration avec le Ministère de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales de la République de Côte d'Ivoire, et avec le soutien logistique de la Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD). L'objectif de l'atelier s'inscrivait dans le cadre de la lutte contre la pauvreté engagée par les Etats et les gouvernements de la sous-région, en collaboration avec les instituts de recherche et les bailleurs de fonds. Il visait de façon spécifique à identifier les contraintes qui pèsent sur les petits éleveurs de la sous-région et qui les empêchent d'accéder au marché des produits animaux marché en pleine expansion, en raison notamment d'une pression de la demande, dué à l'accroissement démographique et au phénomène d'urbanisation.Une des originalités de l'atelier était la participation effective des éleveurs et des marchands de bétail, venus aussi bien des pays sahéliens producteurs que des pays côtiers importateurs. A cette présence d'opérateurs économiques s'ajoutait celle de scientifiques et de chercheurs, ainsi que la présence de décideurs et de bailleurs de fonds. Cet interface a permis une fois de plus d'identifier les entraves au marché régional du bétail et de la viande surtout pour les petits producteurs, mais également de répertorier les défis et opportunités du secteur, dans le contexte de la mondialisation des échanges. Les contributions des participants ont essentiellement porté sur la situation des différentes filières animales dans les pays : production, santé animale, commercialisation, ainsi que sur l'environnement institutionnel et macroéconomique. La complémentarité naturelle des pays en matière de produits animaux à été mise en évidence, de même que les entraves à une valorisation systématique du bétail comme facteur privilégié d'intégration économique.Les présentations ont été suivies de discussions en commissions de travail sur les aspects production et commercialisation. Les principales conclusions et recommandations de l'atelier ont porté sur la nécessité de réorganiser les opérateurs à tous les niveaux, de mettre en place des structures de financement adaptées, de régionaliser et d'harmoniser les programmes de santé animale et les politiques sectorielles. Enfin les participants ont vivement souhaité que l'atelier débouche sur un programme régional de développement des productions animales qui valorise les avantages comparatifs des pays, tout en assurant aux petits producteurs un meilleur accès au marché. Nous voici au terme de nos travaux. Deux journées d'intense réflexion et d'échanges fructueux entre planificateurs, décideurs, chercheurs mais aussi et surtout avec la participation effective d'opérateurs économiques représentés ici par les petits éleveurs et exportateurs, ont conféré à notre atelier toute son originalité. Nos travaux ont également bénéficié de l'oreille attentive des institutions de financement, ce qui, nous l'espérons, va contribuer à résorber une contrainte majeure au développement du secteur, celle de son financement.Je suis convaincu que l'interface Recherche/Développement/opérateurs économiques/bailleurs de fonds qui a présidé à l'approche et à l'esprit de cet atelier permettra de déboucher sur des actions concrètes et sur la mise en oeuvre de véritables programmes de développement visant à réduire la pauvreté, à protéger l'environnement, à assurer la sécurité alimentaire et à promouvoir l'intégration des pays du corridor central dans un contexte de développement durable.C'est dans cette perspective, et pour mettre en oeuvre les recommandations de l'atelier que l'ILRI va s'atteler, en renforçant la collaboration avec les Institutions Nationales de Recherche ainsi qu'avec les partenaires du développement et la société civile.Au terme de notre atelier je voudrais, au nom du Directeur Général de l'ILRI le Dr Hank Fitzhugh, adresser nos sincères remerciements au gouvernement de la Côte d'Ivoire et tout particulièrement à son Excellence le professeur Bohoun Bouabré, Ministre de l'Economie et des Finances, à Son Excellence le Docteur Alphone Douati, Ministre de l'Agriculture et des Ressources Animales, pour tout l'intérêt qu'ils ont accordé à cet atelier ainsi que pour le soutien financier qu'ils nous ont apporté.Je voudrais ensuite remercier la Banque Africaine de Développement représentée ici par Monsieur le Vice-Président Cyril Enweze pour l'appui logistique qu'il nous a apporté, ainsi que pour la mobilisation et la disponibilité de toutes les ressources pour l'organisation de cet atelier.Nos remerciements vont également à tous nos invités qui ont rehaussé de leur présence les travaux de notre rencontre.A l'endroit des participants, et tout spécialement des opérateurs économiques, je voudrais dire que les résolutions de l'atelier sont aussi et avant tout les vôtres car vous serez les acteurs principaux sur lesquels vont reposer les actions et programmes de développement qui vont en découler. Je souhaite de tout mon coeur que nous puissions aboutir à un ou plusieurs projets à caractère régional qui puissent promouvoir le commerce et l'intégration régionale pour le bonheur de nos populations et surtout des plus pauvres.Comme je l'ai indiqué hier, le manque d'action n'empêchera par le secteur de se développer, mais un développement sans action planifiée et maîtrisée, va avoir un impact peu significatif sur la croissance, la protection de l'environnement et la réduction de la pauvreté.A tous, je dis merci, au revoir et à très bientôt.1. la conduite d'une étude pour trouver de nouvelles formes de financement de l'élevage en vue de la promotion et du développement des systèmes de financement décentralisés (micro crédit) 2. l'élaboration d'un cadre réglementaire régional pour résoudre les problèmes fonciers liés à l'élevage 3. l'exonération des droits et taxes sur les intrants et la mise en place d'un meilleur système d'information pour leur acquisition 4. la mise en place d'un système d'assurance et de couverture de risques et la conduite d'une étude sur l'impact des maladies transfrontalières . 5. la lutte contre les épizooties et la surveillance sanitaire à travers la mise en place de conventions zoo-sanitaires communautaires. 6. la pérennisation du réseau panafricain de lutte contre les épizooties au-delà des financements extérieurs 7. le renforcement des capacités des services d'appui -conseil et de recherche à travers le développement de l'approche participative 8. la promotion des organisations professionnelles à travers le renforcement des cadres nationaux de concertation (CNC) 9. L'actualisation des études sur la filière bétail -viande en la prenant dans sa globalité, c'est à dire, des pays de production aux zones de consommation Dans le domaine de la commercialisation 1. la simplification et la rationalisation des circuits à travers la structuration des circuits de commercialisation 2. la suppression des tracasseries routières par :la réduction des postes de contrôle la mise en place de guichets uniques aux frontières la mise en place d'un observatoire des pratiques anormales au franchissement des frontières 3. l'amélioration du système de transport par :la création de pools de transporteurs, -la déréglementation du secteur des transports, -l'utilisation des chemins de fer, -la recherche d'autres moyens de transport la mise en place de bourses nationales et régionales de fret 4. la mise en place d'un système d'information performant et en temps réel par la création d'un observatoire du commerce de bétail avec des représentations nationales. 5. le renforcement des capacités organisationnelles et techniques des opérateurs économiques par le développement de programmes de formation ciblés et l'organisation de voyages d'études et d'expérience 6. le renforcement des infrastructures sur les marchés à bétail par l'équipement des marchés à bétail (pèse-bétail, rampes d'embarquement,…) et la recherche de financement ainsi que la sensibilisation à l'utilisation des infrastructures appropriées. 7. la formalisation des opérations commerciales par des contrats et la mise en place d'une structure de surveillance 8. l'amélioration des problèmes de transfert de fonds par l'extension du réseau des banques régionales notamment la déconcentration de banques comme ECOBANK 9. l'établissement de normes communes pour les transactions régionales du bétail-viande par la mise en place d'un système harmonisé de normes de qualité 10. le renforcement et la réhabilitation des infrastructures par la mise en place d'un programme régional de modernisation des infrastructures (ex. Marché frontalier, pistes à bétail; gîtes d'étape etc.).Le commerce du bétail dans le sous-espace centre d'Afrique de l'Ouest: contraintes et perspectivesConseiller Technique CLUSA/MaliThis paper examines the issue of regional integration as the major challenge facing West African countries against the backdrop of livestock products seen as the most valuable instrument of integration. Although the devaluation of the CFA franc has boosted regional production, some constraints still hamper the development of the livestock sector. These include lack of organisation among farmers and appropriate financing schemes. Moreover, marketing policies and institutional systems are not clearly defined, which leaves a lot of room for illegal tax tariffs and corruption. To overcome these difficulties and improve the competitiveness of the sector, the operators need to get organised in such a way that links between producers and livestock traders could be more systematised.Schématiquement, le papier se subdivise en deux parties: la première partie présente la situation du secteur des productions animales dans le sous-espace centre de l'Afrique de l'Ouest ; la seconde propose un certain nombre de réformes et de politiques à court et moyen termes, visant à promouvoir le commerce régional du bétail et des produits animaux. La première partie s'articule autour de quatre points essentiels. 1. D'abord quelques constats. La volonté affichée des états de la sous-région de relever le défi de l'intégration sous-régionale, avec la filière bétail-viande comme instrument privilégié, dans le cadre d'une complémentarité naturelle pays sahéliens producteurspays côtiers importateurs. Si la dévaluation du franc CFA, de janvier 1994 a été une occasion de redonner un coup de fouet à cette coopération sous-régionale, notamment par l'amélioration de la compétitivité des productions locales, force est de constater que le secteur bétail-viande reste encore largement du ressort de l'informel. Il convient d'observer par ailleurs que la dévaluation a entraîné dans les pays sahéliens une hausse des prix des produits animaux et consécutivement une baisse de leur niveau de consommation. Au niveau de l'offre, la faible connaissance des systèmes de production et des statistiques d'élevage ne permettent pas de prévoir les ajustements de la production aux variations de la demande tant au niveau régional que sur le plan international. 2. L'auteur relève ensuite un certain nombre de contraintes majeures évoquées par les petits éleveurs et les commerçants de bétail eux-mêmes. Il s'agit principalement de risques liés à l'exercice de leur profession. C'est tout d'abord l'absence de contrat client pour l'écoulement des produits, ce qui rend les débouchés incertains ; ensuite les longs délais d'acheminement des animaux vers les marchés terminaux, entraînant d'importantes pertes physiques. Enfin l'absence de structures de financement, et les taxes illicites qui jonchent les circuits du bétail, contribuent à en accroître le prix final de cession. 3. En troisième lieu, les conditions de relance du secteur élevage sont présentées. Il convient tout d'abord d'assurer une meilleure organisation de la production. En effet, la fragilité des systèmes traditionnels de production, mise en évidence par les années consécutives de sécheresse, exige une exploitation plus rationnelle des élevages, notamment par des déstockages plus judicieux tenant à la fois compte des conditions climatiques et de la situation économique des éleveurs. Une modernisation progressive des systèmes de production, en relation avec le reste de l'Economie permettrait d'assurer au secteur une plus grande viabilité. Dans cette optique, les producteurs devront adhérer à une nouvelle vision du secteur, en acceptant que leurs projets particuliers soient insérés dans des programmes plus globaux de développement économique et social. Enfin, la mondialisation des échanges devrait insuffler une nouvelle dynamique au secteur. 4. Nécessité de définir des politiques commerciales performantes. S'appuyant sur les exemples de la Côte d'Ivoire et du Ghana, qui développent un élevage bovin dans leur zone septentrionale, et ceux du Burkina-Faso et du Mali qui développent la production de riz et de maïs dans leur zone méridionale, l'auteur relève une distorsion dans les politiques commerciales et agricoles qui affaiblit l'intégration, parce que ces politiques ne sont pas fondées sur les avantages comparatifs respectifs des pays. Ce point examine en outre les conditions d'amélioration de la compétitivité du secteur. Il s'agirait notamment d'assurer une plus grande régularité des flux Sahel-Côte, ainsi qu'une meilleure qualité et une plus grande diversité des produits. Une compression des coûts et une fiscalité plus adaptée contribueraient également à l'amélioration de la compétitivité du secteur. L'organisation du marché est également perçue comme une nécessité, afin notamment de réduire les coûts de commercialisation, de promouvoir l'exportation de produits de qualité, de sécuriser les approvisionnements, d'améliorer le système de transport et de convoyage. La seconde partie s'intéresse tout d'abord à la restructuration du secteur. Elle propose ensuite quelques mesures de politiques commerciales à moyen et long termes, visant essentiellement à réduire les coûts de commercialisation. Elle aborde enfin les mécanismes de financement et de promotion de l'exportation de produits de bas de gamme.Il faudra tout d'abord procéder à une réorganisation des professionnels. Au niveau des éleveurs, il s'avère nécessaire de mieux organiser la mise en marché des produits. L'offre de produits de qualité exige le passage à des schémas plus intensifs, à l'embouche notamment, avec utilisation d'une alimentation équilibrée. Pour mieux assurer l'approvisionnement en intrants pour les élevages de type moderne, les producteurs devront s'organiser en coopératives afin d'accroître leur capacité de négociation et leur éligibilité auprès des institutions de financement. Au niveau des commerçants exportateurs et importateurs de bétail sahélien, un minimum d'organisation s'impose également. L'auteur suggère la création d'un pool d'exportateurs au niveau des pays sahéliens, un pool d'importateurs au niveau des pays côtiers importateurs et des pools mixtes de transporteurs appartenant aussi bien aux pays sahéliens qu'aux pays côtiers. Cette forme d'organisation permettrait à terme de résoudre le problème d'accès au crédit qui apparaît comme la contrainte majeure à l'épanouissement du secteur. Par ailleurs la mise en oeuvre du contrat client permettra de réduire les pertes physiques et les coûts liés à l'entretien du bétail en attente d'enlèvement. Ce même contrat devra assurer au client une sécurité et une régularité de ses approvisionnements.Ainsi structurés, les exportateurs pourront organiser la prospection de façon préférentielle sur les marchés « intégrés », établir et développer des relations commerciales directes et pérennes avec des collectifs de producteurs, et les pools d'importateurs des pays côtiers. Un tel système permettra de résoudre à terme la question de l'asymétrie de l'information, contribuant ainsi à une réduction des imperfections du marché. Les opérateurs vont installer leurs bases autour de marchés équipés du bétail et de la viande, localisés sur les grands axes de commercialisation des produits animaux. Ces marchés devront également abriter tous les services administratifs et vétérinaires devant intervenir dans le secteur, de façon à assurer aux convois une plus grande fluidité, en évitant tracasseries et taxes sauvages.Au niveau des pays côtiers, les pools d'importateurs devront faciliter les transactions commerciales en travaillant en étroite collaboration avec les exportateurs, en diffusant l'information sur les prix, le niveau de la demande, la qualité du produit demandé etc..Quant aux transporteurs, qui devront se spécialiser en convoyage d'animaux, ils devront s'organiser pour assurer des convoyages groupés. Ils devront également oeuvrer à la recherche d'un partenariat avec tous les opérateurs de la filière ainsi qu'avec les pouvoirs publics, notamment pour équiper les parcours en gîtes d'étape, rampes d'embarquement, etc. mais également pour alléger les procédures administratives. Tout ceci va nécessiter l'implication d'un secteur privé dynamique.Ces mutations ne seront possibles que si l'on parvient à simplifier de façon notable au niveau institutionnel, les procédures administratives, fiscales et routières. En effet, ces procédures, telles qu'elles sont en vigueur à l'heure actuelle sont à l'origine de beaucoup de distorsions du marché. Il convient donc de mettre en place des mesures de simplification de ces procédures, afin de favoriser les échanges intra régionaux en mettant fin notamment aux nombreuses tracasseries que subissent les opérateurs tout au long des circuits du bétail. Même si certaines de ces mesures sont d'ores et déjà instituées, leur application sur le terrain n'est pas effective. Ce qui signifie que les gouvernements ont encore un rôle important à jouer pour rendre ces mesures effectives. Ils devront veiller à ce que toute taxe payée par les opérateurs corresponde à une prestation de service public, que le passeport du bétail serve à la fois de licence d'exportation et de certificat sanitaire. Les pouvoirs publics doivent s'assurer également du fonctionnement du guichet unique situé au niveau du marché à bétail.Les commerçants de leur côté devront adopter des comportements et attitudes qui favorisent la transparence. Ils devront en outre, grâce à leur nouvelle forme d'organisation, pouvoir mieux se faire entendre et comprendre par les gouvernements, pour la prise en compte de leurs préoccupations en vue d'améliorer leurs conditions de travail pour une meilleure profitabilité de leur activité.Le financement du secteur, souvent relevé comme la principale limite au développement des activités, devrait être abordé en concertation étroite entre opérateurs et institutions de financement. Cette concertation devrait amener à réduire le risque lié aux transactions commerciales et par conséquent à une plus grande fiabilité des opérations et des projets, donc à de meilleures possibilités de financement. Ceci n'est possible que si les opérateurs s'organisent dans un cadre réglementaire et non plus informel. Les banques de leur côté doivent sensibiliser les commerçants et leur apporter les conseils nécessaires pour rendre leur activité plus saine et leurs projets moins risqués et plus finançables.S'agissant des produits dits de bas de gamme (cinquième quartier, viande caprine, patte et peau de boeuf), l'auteur suggère que le commerce de ces produits fasse l'objet d'une organisation spécifique, car le marché pour ces produits existe dans les pays côtiers. Enfin, il faudra à terme envisager d'exporter des produits transformés et conditionnés à forte valeur ajoutée plutôt que des animaux sur pied. C'est cette évolution qui permettra en outre de conquérir les marchés lointains, dans le cadre de la mondialisation des échanges.En guise de conclusion, l'auteur estime que la redynamisation du secteur passe nécessairement par une redéfinition d'un espace sous régional, débarrassé des nationalismes étroits où le seul et véritable enjeu serait la valorisation de nos complémentarités. The paper prescribes sound macro-economic policies as a prerequisite to any successful sector policy and presents the importance of the livestock sector in Mali.Livestock plays a significant role in the Malian national economy as the second largest provider of foreign currency and contributes to an estimated 20% to the GDP. The paper then presents the impact of the structural adjustment programmes on the livestock sector. The effects of the devaluation of the CFA currency on the regional trade are also analysed, together with the implications and recurrent challenges on livestock products and regional integration. Les programmes de stabilisation et de relance, mis en oeuvre à partir des années 1980 pour corriger des déséquilibres macroéconomiques persistants et relancer la croissance, vont avoir des effets significatifs sur le secteur des productions animales dans la région. La limitation des dépenses publiques a réduit la possibilité des Etats de à réaliser des investissements publics dans le secteur. Ce désengagement de l'Etat de par contre favorisé la privatisation de certains maillons de la filière et l'émergence de certaines catégories socioprofessionnelles jusque là du ressort de la fonction publique. C'est ainsi qu'on assiste progressivement à l'installation de vétérinaires privés. L'objectif d'accroître les recettes budgétaires s'est traduit par une augmentation des coûts de production, en raison notamment de l'augmentation de la TVA et des droits de douane sur les intrants importés. En exigeant la libéralisation des échanges, les programmes d'ajustement ont également contribué à réduire la protection du secteur, désormais ouvert à la compétition internationale, mais surtout à une concurrence déloyale. Au niveau des consommateurs également, l'impact a été nettement ressenti, les redéploiements dans la fonction publique s'étant traduits tantôt par une réduction du nombre de fonctionnaires, tantôt par une diminution des salaires. La baisse du pouvoir d'achat a entraîné une baisse de la demande, surtout de produits animaux. L'évolution de la demande de viande de la Côte d'Ivoire illustre cette tendance.La dévaluation du franc CFA de janvier 1994, est considérée comme un fait majeur dans les économies ouest africaines. Avant cette période, les produits animaux sahéliens subissaient une rude concurrence de la part des viandes extra-africaines subventionnées, en provenance essentiellement de l'Union Européenne. Donc l'un des effets attendus de la dévaluation était de restaurer la compétitivité des exportations sahéliennes sur les marchés côtiers.Une des toutes premières conséquences de la dévaluation a été une hausse des prix aussi bien de la viande que des animaux sur pieds. Cette hausse a été cependant beaucoup plus importante dans les pays fournisseurs que dans les pays importateurs. Au niveau de la filière également les répercussions n'ont pas été uniformes d'un opérateur à l'autre. Ainsi au Burkina et au Mali par exemple, ce sont les producteurs et les chevillards qui ont le plus bénéficié de la hausse des prix. Si cette hausse des prix a constitué une incitation pour certains opérateurs, elle a également entraîné un renchérissement des intrants importés, comme les produits vétérinaires. Par la même occasion certains sous-produits agro-industriels trouvaient des débouchés à l'extérieur de la zone, et donc n'étaient plus disponibles sur le marché local pour l'alimentation du bétail.Au niveau des prélèvements, les producteurs ont tout d'abord réagi favorablement en déstockant massivement juste après la dévaluation, puis il y a eu une tendance à la rétention, ce qui a conduit à la situation d'avant dévaluation. Dans l'ensemble, les exportations ont augmenté de 58% et 85% respectivement pour le Mali et le Burkina Faso, depuis la dévaluation, par rapport à la période 1990-1993, alors que les abattages intérieurs baissaient respectivement de 11% et 18% par rapport à la même période. Les parts de marché ont également connu des bouleversements. La Côte d'Ivoire qui absorbait près de 90% des exportations du Burkina doit céder 37% de parts de marché au Ghana.Face à cette hausse des prix, les producteurs ont adopté de nouvelles stratégies de production afin de réduire leurs coûts. Ces stratégies vont de la réduction du cycle d'embouche à l'intégration verticale où le chevillard lui-même va chercher les animaux dans les zones de production. Dans une perspective de reconstitution du cheptel, on a également assisté à cette période à un renchérissement des matrices de reproduction. Les consommateurs ont également réagi à la hausse des prix en réduisant leur demande de viande. En Côte d'Ivoire et au Ghana cette baisse de la consommation s'est traduite par une diminution des importations en provenance de l'Union Européenne.L'analyse du compte de la filière fait ressortir que le coût supporté par le consommateur est essentiellement imputable au prix du producteur et à la marge du chevillard. Les coûts de commercialisation, de transport et de transformation sont restés relativement stables après la dévaluation. Il est également apparu que le marchand est celui qui enregistre le revenu net d'exploitation le plus bas. Entre 1993 et 1996, le revenu réel de l 'éleveur a augmenté de 18% au Mali et de 28% au Burkina Faso. Pour la même période, le revenu de l'exportateur était supérieur à celui du marchand opérant à l'intérieur de ses frontières.Un des défis du secteur aujourd'hui est de parvenir à satisfaire les consommateurs sahéliens aux revenus plus modestes, et la demande des pays côtiers plus solvables. En effet, un des effets négatifs de la dévaluation avait été une diminution drastique de la consommation de viande dans les pays sahéliens, avec des conséquences néfastes sur l'équilibre nutritionnel des populations. Il s'agira donc de parvenir à rétablir les niveaux antérieurs de consommation dans les zones sahéliennes tout en satisfaisant la demande des pays du Sud.Au niveau international, les dispositions de l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC) ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives au secteur. On assiste par ailleurs à une réduction des subventions accordées par l'Union Européenne aux exportateurs, et à une diminution des stocks des frigos de la communauté. Si à cela on ajoute la désaffection pour la viande bovine de certains pays européens, en raison de la maladie de la vache folle, les produits du corridor central devraient pouvoir conquérir des parts de marché sur le vieux continent.Pour satisfaire une demande en expansion et de plus en plus exigeante, il faudra sans doute améliorer les systèmes de production actuels. Il faudra recourir à des systèmes plus intensifs, plus performants, gérés et exploités de façon plus rationnelle. Il faudra également procéder à une reconstitution du potentiel de reproduction du cheptel, si l'on veut adapter l'offre aux exigences et à l'évolution de la demande. Enfin, du fait de l'arrimage du franc CFA à l'Euro, la compétitivité des produits animaux du corridor central sur le marche mondial dépendra en grande partie du comportement de la devise européenne face aux autres devises.L'auteur conclut en disant que les politiques macroéconomiques peuvent créer un environnement économique favorable au développement du secteur de l'élevage. Mais les politiques sectorielles de leur côté devront être bien conçues et s'inscrire dans un cadre cohérent. The paper provides a spectrum of the animal diseases in the West Africa sub-region. Rinderpest, Rift Valley fever and trypanosomiasis among others, are cited as the most important. Despite an annual average growth rate of 2 to 3.5%, the overall performance of the sector is still low, due in part to these diseases. It recommends that strategies to fight against these diseases should be undertaken at the regional level to be cost-effective. In order to take advantage of a growing demand for livestock products both in the region and on the international market, measures of prophylaxis should be generalised.Dans une introduction l'auteur resitue la région dans un contexte mondial au plan des maladies du bétail et de leur impact économique. Dans un premier point il rappelle les tendances récentes de la performance de l'élevage en Afrique de l'ouest, puis dans un second point il examine l'impact des maladies sur la productivité et la compétitivité du secteur, enfin dans un troisième point il propose des stratégies de lutte contre les maladies animales et des mesures visant au renforcement de la productivité et de la compétitivité.1 Les tendances récentes de la performance de l'élevage en Afrique Au plan mondial, l'Afrique sub-saharienne offre un palmarès peu reluisant en matière de maladies du bétail. Elles entraînent des pertes considérables qui se chiffrent annuellement en milliards de dollars. Les maladies épizootiques hautement contagieuses comme la fièvre aphteuse, la péri-pneumonie contagieuse bovine, la fièvre de la vallée du Rift, la peste des petits ruminants et la dermatose nodulaire bovine, continuent d'essaimer d'un pays à l'autre, en raison des déplacements des animaux (transhumance, échanges commerciaux).Les tendances actuelles de la performance du secteur dans la sous-région indiquent que depuis 1998, l'élevage ouest africain connaît un taux de croissance annuel qui se situe entre 2 et 3,5% pour les bovins et à 3,5% pour les petits ruminants des régions sahéliennes. Les taux d'exploitation sont respectivement de 10% pour les bovins et de 27% pour les ovins-caprins. Dans les zones côtières les taux de croissance se situent entre 1 et 2,5% pour les bovins, et à 3% pour les petits ruminants. Pour l'ensemble de l'Afrique de l'ouest, les effectifs ont sensiblement augmenté ces dernières années, atteignant le chiffre de 41,522 millions de têtes en 1998.Cette augmentation des effectifs ne doit cependant pas cacher la faible productivité des animaux (poids à la naissance, poids adulte, inter-vêlages, âge au sevrage), un taux élevé de mortalité chez les jeunes, de faibles performances laitières. Avec de tels niveaux de production et de productivité, les élevages de la région ne peuvent dégager que de faibles excédents commercialisables. Il convient de noter cependant que malgré ces faiblesses, les animaux de la sous-région possèdent des avantages, au nombre desquels leur grande rusticité ( trypanotolérance, adaptation à l'environnement tropical, mobilité sur de grandes distances). L'amélioration de la compétitivité du secteur s'inscrit également dans le cadre de la lutte contre la pauvreté, de la préservation de l'environnement, dans un contexte de développement durable.Pour atteindre ces objectifs, des actions doivent être menées, non seulement au niveau des systèmes de production, mais aussi au niveau de l'animal lui-même, tout spécialement de sa santé. Il faudra en effet repositionner le secteur en tenant compte du contexte international, de son évolution et de ses exigences.2 Impact des maladies du bétail sur la productivité S'agissant tout d'abord des efforts entrepris par les Etats, avec l'appui des institutions internationales pour lutter contre les maladies du bétail, l'auteur rappelle que toute action de lutte devrait être vue sous l'angle coût -avantage. Une telle approche ne pouvant donner des résultats significatifs que si elle s'appuie sur des données fiables. Dans cette perspective, une bonne connaissance de la situation sanitaire de la région s'avère être un préalable.Concernant les maladies transfrontalières tout d'abord, ce sont des maladies infectieuses hautement contagieuses, appartenant à la liste A de l'Office International des Epizooties (OIE) et considérées comme des maladies susceptibles de s'étendre au delà des frontières nationales et dont les conséquences socio-économiques et sanitaires peuvent être graves… l'incidence sur le commerce international des animaux et de leurs produits pouvant être matérialisée par des interdictions.Les méthodes de lutte contre ces maladies, particulièrement celles qui sont transfrontalières, repose sur un ensemble de mesures définies par le code zoosanitaire de chaque pays, conformément au Code Zoosanitaire International. L'application de ces mesures reste du ressort des services vétérinaires des Etats. Elle est souvent insuffisante, et donne des méthodes de lutte nombreuses et variées S'agissant de la fièvre aphteuse, il convient de noter qu'elle reste la maladie la plus urgente, mais aussi la plus difficile à combattre dans le sous-espace. Elle touche toutes les espèces et se traduit par une altération des productions animales (lait, travail). Pour éviter la propagation de la maladie, les animaux sont vaccinés dans plusieurs pays. La vaccination est interdite dans l'Union Européenne depuis 1991.La péri-pneumonie contagieuse bovine (PPCB) est une maladie infectieuse et contagieuse des bovins qui a connu une nouvelle flambée en Afrique Subsaharienne ces dernières années, entraînant des pertes économiques énormes. En 2000, plusieurs pays ont déclaré la présence de nombreux foyers de péri-pneumonie bovine. Parmi les stratégies de lutte mises en oeuvre, l'on retiendra celles relatives aux maladies épizootiques transfrontalières c'est à dire l'abattage systématique des animaux, mais surtout la vaccination.La fièvre de la vallée du Rift ou hépatite enzootique est une maladie épizootique à l'origine d'avortements et de forte mortalité. Le virus se transmet par l'intermédiaire des moustiques, et la prévention contre la maladie est difficile car il n'y a pas encore de vaccin. La peste bovine, elle, est pratiquement éradiquée grâce à la mise en oeuvre du programme PARC (Programme Panafricain de lutte contre la Peste Bovine). Les autres maladies épizootiques font l'objet de peu d'attention.Les maladies moins contagieuses ou maladies enzootiques sont des maladies transmissibles et qui sont considérées comme importantes du point de vue socioéconomique et sanitaire. Parmi elles figurent la trypanosomiase bovine, les maladies infectieuses (fièvre charbonneuse, brucellose, tuberculose etc.).Toutes ces maladies ont un impact significatif sur la productivité des troupeaux. Elles sont responsables notamment de la forte mortalité des animaux, des pertes de poids, des retards de croissance, de la diminution de la fertilité, de la réduction de la force de travail. Les estimations des pertes subies par la sous-région se chiffrent à plusieurs centaines de millions de dollars par an. A titre d'exemple, la trypanosomiase à elle seule est responsable de pertes estimées à plus de US $500 millions chaque année. Au niveau des échanges internationaux, ces maladies ont également un impact négatif, dans la mesure ou elles sont responsables de l'augmentation de la durée de l'embargo commercial que subissent les produits animaux en provenance des pays africains.Traditionnellement la santé animale était d'ordre public et les services vétérinaires relevaient de l'Etat. L'avènement des programmes d'ajustement structurel a remis cet ordre en cause, et la contribution des Etats au financement des services publics s'est amenuisée. Une des premières conséquences de ce désengagement de l'Etat est la détérioration de la qualité des services de santé animale. Au niveau régional, les Etats s'efforcent, avec le concours de la coopération internationale de mettre en oeuvre des programmes de lutte. Ainsi le Programme de lutte contre la Peste Bovine Africaine (PARC), mis en oeuvre sous les auspices du Bureau Inter Africain des Ressources Animales de l'Organisation de l'Unité Africaine (BIRA/OUA) a donné des résultats positifs dans la lutte contre la peste bovine. Ces résultats positifs permettent d'espérer qu'à terme le PACE parviendra à éradiquer et à contrôler d'autres maladies majeures comme la péri-pneumonie contagieuse des bovidés (PPCB).Les stratégies de lutte devront reposer essentiellement sur les avancées biotechnologiques et le développement spectaculaire des nouvelles technologies de l'information. L'éradication des maladies transfrontalières nécessite la mise en oeuvre de mesures visant à conférer à tout ou partie du territoire le statut de zone indemne de fièvre aphteuse et autres épizooties, et ne pratiquant pas de vaccination. Quant au contrôle des maladies infectieuses et non infectieuses enzootiques, il se traduit par des campagnes de vaccination de masse. Les maladies transmises par les tiques nécessitent également des campagnes de vaccination, associées à un programme d'éradication des tiques. La FAO, en collaboration avec d'autres institutions, appuie ce programme. Pour le trypanosome, la stratégie consiste essentiellement à lutter contre la mouche tsé-tsé, grâce notamment à l'utilisation de la technique des insectes stériles. La lutte contre les helminthoses repose quant à elle sur le développement de programmes de déparasitage et sur l'amélioration des conditions d'élevage. Ces programmes devraient être entrepris en privilégiant l'approche sous-régionale, ce qui en plus de son aspect intégration, permet une harmonisation et une normalisation des stratégies de lutte. Le zonage peut également être pratiqué. Il consiste à définir sur un territoire donné des aires géographiques de statuts zoo-sanitaire différents, ce qui peut permettre au pays de participer aux échanges internationaux. Pour parvenir à terme à une éradication et à un contrôle des maladies animales pour une amélioration des productions animales et des échanges commerciaux sous-régionaux et internationaux, l'auteur formule un certain nombre de recommandations : En conclusion l'auteur rappelle que la demande de produits alimentaires d'origine animale est sans cesse croissante, en raison notamment de l'accroissement démographique et du phénomène d'urbanisation. Pour satisfaire ces besoins, il faudra nécessairement accroître la production, assurer le contrôle des maladies transfrontalières et enzootiques.Dans le contexte de la mondialisation, des stratégies utilisant la prophylaxie doivent être développées pour conférer à moyen terme à la sous-région ou à une zone d'un pays, le statut indemne ne pratiquant pas la vaccination contre la fièvre aphteuse et les autres épizooties. Ces méthodes ne seront déployées de manière efficace que si elles reposent sur des données fiables. Finalement la compétitivité du secteur dépendra de sa capacité à moderniser ses techniques, ses outils et ses moyens d'éradication des maladies épizootiques et de contrôle des enzooties, pour que ses productions s'adaptent à un environnement sous-régional et international ouvert. From a historical perspective, this paper highlights the performances of sub-regional agricultural policies, especially in Côte d'Ivoire. These policies were based on the natural endowments of the country in the region, its comparative advantages, and the indigenous knowledge of the farmers. These policies are also compared with European agricultural policies in the last century, which were characterised by specialisation and high performance. It discusses issues that are presumed to prevent African agriculture from following the same path, such as wrong agricultural policies, lack of entrepreneurship, lack of adequate financing, and weakness of the research system. In that context, livestock have a major role to play; they must be the engine of agricultural development. Many opportunities exist in the sub-sector, especially in the milk and dairy product sectors, where the rate of self-sufficiency is very low. The experience of NEMBEL INVEST shows the challenges to overcome in such an enterprise.S'appuyant sur les statistiques de la FAO, le document commence par présenter un certain nombre de généralités sur l'évolution de la population mondiale et des besoins alimentaires et nutritionnels qui en découlent. Le papier s'appesantit ensuite sur les nouvelles opportunités de l'élevage qui est perçu ici comme le moteur essentiel du développement de l'agriculture.Les besoins énergétiques de la population mondiale ne sauraient être couverts que par une production agricole également en croissance. Cette croissance résulte des facteurs suivants : a) une généralisation de la mécanisation dans les pays développés et une spécialisation de la production, b) une augmentation des superficies agricoles, surtout dans les pays en développement, c) le développement de systèmes intégrés et intensifs dans les régions les plus peuplées du monde et dépourvues de nouvelles terre à défricher. Cette évolution ne saurait cependant faire oublier que la majorité des populations rurales des pays en développement ne disposent que d'un outillage rudimentaire, d'un matériel végétal et animal peu performant. A ces faiblesses s'ajoutent la concurrence déloyale des agricultures des pays développés et la baisse tendancielle des prix des produits agricoles. Cette situation appelle un certain nombre d'interrogations : a) quels sont les moyens et politiques de développement appliqués dans les pays développés ? b) quels sont les facteurs d'appauvrissement de la paysannerie africaine ? c) quel bilan de la production agricole et de la consommation peut-on établir pour l'Afrique de l'ouest, et quelles perspectives peut-on envisager pour les décennies à venir ? Pour répondre à ces préoccupations, l'auteur procède tout d'abord à une analyse des politiques de développement rural.L'histoire du développement agricole des pays industrialisés enseigne que vers la moitié du 20ème siècle, le tissu agraire était composé de petites exploitations de polyculture végétale et animale. Comment en un demi-siècle, ces exploitations ont-elles pu se transformer en unités de production spécialisées et de grande taille ? Cette métamorphose qualifiée souvent de « révolution agricole contemporaine » procède en fait d'une série de transformations graduelles qui se sont développées au rythme des avancées de l'industrie, des transports et communications et de la recherche agronomique. Dans le domaine spécifique de l'élevage laitier, ces transformations ont été également notables.L'accroissement spectaculaire de la production céréalière a permis de consacrer une part croissante de grains à la fabrication d'aliments du bétail, et consécutivement de multiplier les rendements des productions animales. Ce matériel animal hautement performant mais fragile a nécessité également une attention particulière, notamment au niveau de la protection sanitaire.En définitive, on peut retenir du modèle de développement agricole des pays développés, que la mécanisation, la sélection variétale, l'alimentation du bétail et la médecine des plantes et des animaux sont des paramètres intimement liés. Mais au-delà de ces paramètres objectifs et quantifiables, il faut retenir surtout que les opérateurs, confrontés à un environnement hostile, ont dû mener un combat de survie contre les hostilités de la nature. Ils ont réussi à trouver des solutions adéquates et à transformer les problèmes rencontrés en avantages pour leur développement Au niveau sous-régional et en Côte d'Ivoire en particulier, l'analyse des politiques de développement agricole fait ressortir un certain nombre de forces mais également quelques faiblesses. Ces politiques trouvent tout d'abord leur fondement dans les atouts naturels du pays, au titre des ressources naturelles et des pratiques ancestrales, mais également dans le legs colonial (développement des cultures de rente sur la base des avantages comparatifs).Au lendemain des indépendances, la plupart des gouvernements ont créé des sociétés d'Etat pour pallier l'inexistence d'un capitalisme privé. Ces sociétés para-publiques avaient pour vocation d'assurer l'encadrement et le développement du monde rural, de soutenir la politique de développement économique qui devait tirer ses ressources de la vente à l'exportation des productions agricoles. En Côte d'Ivoire, nombre de ces sociétés ont vu le jour entre 1970 et 1980. D'autres structures comme la Caisse de Stabilisation et de Soutien des Prix des Productions Agricoles ont été créées. La Côte d'Ivoire réalisait ainsi une interaction efficiente entre d'une part, les paysans et les sociétés d'encadrement chargées de leur apporter et de leur inculquer de nouvelles techniques culturales, et d'autre part, le couple producteurs-sociétés d'encadrement et les sociétés de collecte et de commercialisation. Cette politique a permis de hisser la Côte d'Ivoire au premier rang mondial pour la production de cacao, au 3 ème rang pour l'huile de palme et au 4 ème rang pour le café. Le pays exporte également le coton, l'ananas, le bois et beaucoup d'autres produits.Ces succès restent cependant limités puisque des secteurs aussi importants que l'élevage, la pêche, les industries animales et l'agriculture vivrière n'ont pas connu le même essor.Une des faiblesses du système est de n'avoir pas pu créer un capitalisme privé de substitution pour relayer l'action de l'Etat. En dehors de quelques exploitations gérées par des sociétés para-publiques ou par quelques privés étrangers, la « révolution agraire contemporaine » des pays développés n'a quasiment pas touché l'Afrique Subsaharienne. Le secteur primaire reste encore largement dominé par de nombreux petits paysans qui continuent de pratiquer une agriculture à faible rendement. L'écart de productivité avec l'agriculture des pays développés est encore considérable, de 1 à 30.Les systèmes de production de type extensif, tels qu'ils sont pratiqués dans les pays sahéliens présentent également des limites, en raison notamment de l'amenuisement des potentialités fourragères et des possibilités d'abreuvement du bétail en eau de surface. Ceci amène beaucoup de pasteurs de ces contrées à migrer vers le sud ou simplement à se reconvertir dans d'autres activités. Le nord de la Côte d'Ivoire, zone de prédilection de l'élevage, n'a pas toujours eu le soutien des pouvoirs publics et des institutions de financement pour développer cette activité.Si les cultures de rente ont bénéficié du soutien de la recherche agronomique, des pouvoirs publics et des institutions de financement, les cultures vivrières et l'élevage n'ont pas véritablement bénéficié d'une politique de développement soutenue, ni en termes de stratégie, ni en termes de moyens financiers.En termes de bilan des politiques de développement agropastoral, l'évolution enregistrée ces dernières années dans les pays développés permet d'observer que leur secteur primaire a aboutit aujourd'hui à une spécialisation et à une régionalisation des spéculations végétales et animales. Les systèmes sont devenus également hautement performants (moins de 5% de la population active pouvant nourrir toute la population.) Ces systèmes sont devenus parallèlement plus intensifs, pour forte utilisation d'intrants, avec des conséquences souvent dommageables pour l'environnement et la santé humaine.En Afrique subsaharienne par contre, l'on est encore dans la situation paradoxale où, en dépit de l'existence de terres arables, le déficit alimentaire est chronique et va en s'aggravant. Dans le cas de la Côte d'Ivoire par exemple, les taux de couverture sont de12,6 % et 54% respectivement pour le lait et la viande. En matière de production laitière, qu'il s'agisse des élevages traditionnels conduits par les bergers peuls ou des éco-fermes familiales, la productivité reste faible : environ 1,5 à 2 litres de lait par vache et par jour. Cette faible performance est certes imputable aux génotypes, mais également aux conditions d'alimentation des animaux.Cette faiblesse du sous-secteur élevage va encore s'accentuer par le désengagement de l'Etat du processus de production et de commercialisation, par la suppression de SODE notamment. L'Etat devrait donc être relayé par les investisseurs privés. Mais en l'absence d'un cadre réglementaire et fiscal global, les investisseurs potentiels ont du mal à s'implanter en raison notamment de l'inexistences de structures locales de financement, et du faible intérêt que manifestent les administrations et la recherche pour le secteur. Ainsi, de ce qui précède, on peut affirmer que les politiques de développement de l'agriculture vivrière et de l'élevage n'ont guère été couronnées de succès, faute d'un schéma opérationnel précis et de moyens de financement suffisants.Le premier défi à relever demeure celui de l'autosuffisance alimentaire. Pour cela il faudra moderniser et intensifier les exploitations afin d'en accroître la productivité. Le second défi réside dans les opportunités de débouchés commerciaux offertes par les marchés occidentaux en proie à une désaffection pour leurs propres produits (maladie de la vache folle). L'Afrique peut saisir ces opportunités à condition qu'elle continue de produire dans des conditions qui respectent l'environnement et qui garantissent la santé humaine.Il faudra ensuite assurer la relève de la puissance publique, pour apporter au secteur les investissements nécessaires non seulement pour satisfaire les besoins intérieurs, mais aussi pour saisir les opportunités qu'offre le marché international. C'est dans cette perspective que se situent les réflexions et la vision du groupe NEMBEL INVEST.Il s'agit avant tout d'une vision de professionnalisation des opérateurs et de spécialisation des activités dans le domaine de l'élevage. Ce qui suppose la création d'une exploitation à la dimension d'une PME, différente de la petite exploitation familiale traditionnelle telle qu'elle existe aujourd'hui, le métier d'éleveur devant être définitivement considéré comme une profession à part entière. Les exigences d'une telle approche portent sur la compétence du promoteur en matière de connaissance de l'environnement et du choix du type d'élevage. Par exemple, la conduite d'un élevage laitier est différente de celle d'un élevage de production de viande. Dans le cas de l'élevage laitier, la technicité et le savoir-faire de l'éleveur comptent pour environ 70% dans la réussite du projet. Les différentes facettes du métier doivent correspondre à de véritables spécialisations.Ainsi les techniques de production et de conservation du fourrage, doivent être parfaitement maîtrisées, quand on sait que l'alimentation du bétail constitue dans la zone, une contrainte essentielle surtout en saison sèche. Les besoins des animaux doivent être également bien connus afin que les rations puissent être correctement formulées. Les techniques d'insémination, de sélection, d'entretien et de protection des animaux doivent être également parfaitement maîtrisées.Enfin au bout de la chaîne, il faudra assurer la commercialisation des produits. Pour cela il faudra mettre en place de véritables stratégies pour s'assurer des débouchés aussi bien au plan national qu'au niveau sous-régional. En matière de production laitière où le seuil minimal d'implantation d'une unité industrielle est de 8000 litres, la stratégie devra consister en l'encadrement des petits éleveurs, dont il faudra assurer la collecte de la production. Cette collecte, réalisée à des prix stables et rémunérateurs encouragera et stimulera les petits producteurs, contribuant ainsi à la lutte contre la pauvreté en milieu rural.En conclusion estime l'auteur, l'élevage comme instrument privilégié d'intégration régionale souffre encore de plusieurs maux, dont la sempiternelle querelle entre agriculteurs sédentaires et éleveurs transhumants. Cette question devrait pouvoir se régler dans le cadre d'accords communautaires. Les gains de productivité nécessaires pour faire face à l'évolution de la demande intérieure et internationale ne seront obtenus que si véritablement l'élevage tire l'agriculture, comme le boeuf attelé tire la charrue.Conseiller Technique et Abdoulaye MAIGA. Vice-Président CNC Like in all sahelian countries, livestock are an important element in the economy of Niger. It accounts for 12% of the GDP and plays a major role in poverty alleviation. An estimated 22% of the livelihood of the population relies on livestock. Despite this important role, the sub-sector is still marginalised in the development model of the country. Feed availability, climatic conditions and animal diseases are major constraints to the development of the sector. Despite these constraints, the country has a comparative advantage in livestock production. Large grazing areas can be developed all around the country to enhance production. Moreover, the existence of a large regional market can also boost production. The production systems comprise the pastoralist, the agropastoralist and urban and peri-urban systems. These systems have been conservative to technological innovations, and thus operate with low productivity. In order to improve the competitiveness of the sector, actions should be taken to increase production and productivity of the herd, improve farmer's organisation, access to credit, transportation and marketing facilities.Dans une introduction, les auteurs présentent les différents éco-systèmes du Niger, ainsi que le rôle et l'importance du secteur agricole en général, et du sous-secteur élevage en particulier. Ensuite, dans une première partie, les contraintes de productions animales sont identifiées, puis dans une seconde partie les atouts sont présentés. La troisième partie décrit les systèmes de production animale tels qu'ils sont pratiqués aujourd'hui dans le pays, enfin la quatrième partie pose la problématique de la compétitivité des productions animales nigériennes.Le Niger est un pays à vocation agropastorale, avec environ 22 % de sa population vivant essentiellement des activités d'élevage, sur trois écosystèmes : la zone sahélo-saharienne, la zone sahélo-soudanienne et la zone soudanienne. L'élevage contribue pour 12% au PIB, et pour 36% au PIB agricole. Cette importance du sous-secteur fait de l'élevage un outil privilégié de lutte contre la pauvreté. Malgré cette importance du secteur, il est relativement marginalisé. A titre d'exemple, les efforts financiers de l'Etat ont chuté de 3 à 1,5 milliards de F CFA entre 1985 et 1999.Au niveau des contraintes, l'alimentation est citée en tête. La production fourragère est totalement dépendante de la pluviométrie dont la distribution et les quantités connaissent des variations drastiques ces dernières années, en raison notamment de la réduction du couvert végétal. La faible disponibilité d'intrants est également une contrainte importante. L'utilisation des sous-produits agro-industriels dans les élevages est encore à l'état embryonnaire. La qualité du fourrage en saison sèche laisse à désirer, en raison de réduction de la biodiversité, mais également du phénomène de surpâturage. La prolifération d'espèces de plantes envahissantes non appétées entrave également le potentiel fourrager. Enfin la réduction progressive des aires de production fourragère suite à l'extension des superficies cultivées, constitue également une menace pour l'alimentation des animaux.En second lieu figurent les contraintes sanitaires. Si certaines épizooties comme la peste bovine ont pu être éradiquées, il n'en demeure pas moins que les contraintes sanitaires constituent une préoccupation, dans la mesure ou elles compromettent de façon significative l'essor des productions animales. Les maladies les plus courantes sont : les maladies parasitaires, les maladies épizootiques comme la péri-pneumonie contagieuse bovine (PPCB), la peste des petits ruminants, la clavelée, la pseudo-peste aviaire et les maladies pseudo-telluriques.Sur le plan sociologique, l'attachement des populations à certaines valeurs traditionnelles laisse peu de place aux innovations technologiques. Malgré ces contraintes le pays possède un certain nombre d'atouts qui lui offrent un avantage comparatif en matière de productions animales.C'est tout d'abord l'importance des superficies pâturables. Elles sont estimées à plus de 62000 km 2 . L'aménagement d'une infime partie de ces terres peut accroître de façon significative la production de fourrages, la valeur bromatologique de ces aires et augmenter les productions animales à moindre coût. L'importance de la diversité des ressources génétiques animales rustiques constitue également un atout important.L'intérêt grandissant pour le secteur de certains groupes d'intérêt économique, en l'occurrence les femmes, mérite encouragements. Enfin l'existence d'importants marchés frontaliers comme le Nigéria est un stimulant pour le secteur. Cet important potentiel peut être valorisé par des systèmes de production diversifiés.Dans l'ensemble, ces systèmes sont restés stationnaires, assez réfractaires aux innovations technologiques. Schématiquement, on peut distinguer trois grands groupes de systèmes : le système pastoral, le système agropastoral et le système urbain et péri-urbain. L'offre de produits animaux au Niger reste mal connue, faute de recensement du cheptel.Les statistiques officielles qui sont loin de refléter la réalité estiment les effectifs en l'an 2000 à 3 312 000 bovins, 5 174 000 ovins, 8 602 000 caprins et 1 111 000 camelins (MRA, 1999). La production nationale de viande disponible à la consommation, estimée à partir des taux d'exploitation de chaque espèce est de 140 000 tonnes, soit environ 13 kg/an/habitant. Pour la production laitière, les estimations sont de 330l/vache/an, 60l/an/brebis ou chèvre, et 450l/an/chamelle. La consommation était estimée en 1995 à 50l/an/habitant. La production nationale des cuirs et peaux n'a pu être estimée en raison de la dispersion des zones de production. Du côté de la demande, l'enquête budget consommation des ménages (DSCN,1999) révèle que la consommation moyenne était de l'ordre 13, 1,4 et 1,3 kg/an/habitant, respectivement pour la viande rouge, la viande de volaille et de lait. Le MRA estimait à la même période la demande en viande à 139 204 tonnes par an, et la demande en lait à 74 956 tonnes par an. Une comparaison de l'offre et de la demande permet d'observer que le disponible commercialisable est quasiment inexistant.Les contraintes qui entravent la compétitivité des productions animales nigériennes sont de plusieurs ordres : a) la faiblesse de l'offre par rapport à la demande se traduit par des prix élevés à l'exportation ; b) la prédominance des systèmes traditionnels de production ne permet pas d'offrir des produits de qualité toute l'année ; c) la présence d'épizooties comme la péri-pneumonie contagieuse bovine, compromet les possibilités d'exportation vers les marchés extra-africains ; d) l'absence de véritables professionnels dans le secteur et le caractère informel des transactions rendent les opérateurs peu performants ; enfin, e) les difficultés liées à la collecte et au transport des produits animaux grèvent les coûts de cession.L'analyse des politiques antérieures de l'Etat montre qu'à aucun moment l'amélioration de l'environnement des productions animales n'a été au centre des préoccupations de l'Etat. En dehors de quelques programmes de relance de la production animale, ayant consisté en l'octroi d'animaux de reproduction à des éleveurs sinistrés suite aux aléas climatiques, et des interventions dans le domaine sanitaire pour contenir certaines maladies réputées contagieuses, les actions de soutien à la production et aux échanges des productions animales ont été inexistantes ou très timides. Compte tenu de ses potentialités, le pays peut tirer partie d'une relance des productions animales. Une telle politique devra reposer sur les actions suivantes :• une reconversion des mentalités des producteurs à travers des activités d'information et de sensibilisation pour les amener à comprendre les avantages qu'ils peuvent tirer de leur activité, et en faire de véritables opérateurs économiques. • un soutien à la production afin d'augmenter l'offre ; ce qui devrait entraîner la réduction des prix de cession des productions. La création d'un fonds national de développement des productions animales, alimenté par prélèvement d'un pourcentage des taxes de marché à bétail, l'imposition d'une taxe à l'importation des produits et des sous-produits animaux, et l'imposition d'une taxe sur les loteries. • la constitution d'un fonds de garantie qui pourra encourager les banques à initier des crédits à la production ; • le soutien à l'émergence de véritables professionnels par filière à travers les différents niveaux d'intervenants aux techniques d'échanges commerciaux avec pour objectif de les rendre agressifs sur le plan de la recherche de marchés ; • une lutte ardue contre les échanges informels en mettant en place une politique incitative de regroupement des professionnels, ce qui pourrait leur permettre de partager les risques, mais aussi de réunir leurs efforts financiers pour la conduite d'opérations de grande envergure et encourager le développement de relations directes entre producteurs et commerçants. • la réduction du nombre pléthorique d'intervenants dans la filière. Actuellement ce maillon d'intermédiation comprend les dilalis, des grossistes, des détaillants, aussi bien en amont qu'en aval. Cette foule d'intermédiaires est à l'origine de la hausse des prix des produits ; hausse qui ne profite pas aux producteurs, encore moins à l'Etat. • l'amélioration du transport des animaux et des produits, avec comme objectif, l'élimination progressive du convoyage à pied ; • l'application effective des dispositions de politiques communautaires, convenues d'un commun accord, que ce soit dans le cadre de la CEBV, de l'UEMOA ou de la CEDEAO, afin de réduire les tracasseries administratives qui augmentent les prix des animaux à l'exportation ; • enfin la promotion de la transformation des productions animales sur place plutôt que de continuer à exporter des animaux sur pied.L'élevage au Mali: systèmes en place, politiques commerciales et perspectivesDirecteur Général O.M.BE.VILivestock constitute an important component of the Malian economy. In 1998, the sector accounted for 9.7% of the GDP, and was the third foreign currency provider after cotton and gold. Despite its economic and social importance, the performance of the sector is poor. The production and marketing systems are not able to satisfy both the domestic demand and the international market. The major constraints facing the production systems are climate factors, animal diseases, shrinking of grazing areas and lack of animal feed especially in the dry season. Marketing systems are hampered by financial, institutional and managerial constraints. New policies and strategies, based on intensification and diversification, have to be launched, in order to ensure food security, natural resources conservation and regional integration.Le Mali est un pays à vocation agropastorale. Le secteur rural mobilise plus de 80% de la population et contribue pour plus de 40% du P.I.B. En 1998, la contribution de l'élevage au P.I.B. s'élevait à 147,9 milliards de F CFA, soit 9,7% du P.I.B. total. Pour la même année sa contribution aux recettes d'exportation était de 28,09 milliards de F CFA soit 8,6% des recettes totales, ce qui place l'élevage au 3 ème rang des recettes d'exportation après le coton et l'or. Malgré cette importance, l'élevage vit une situation de crise, marquée par de faibles performances des systèmes aussi bien de production que de commercialisation ; ce qui explique que le secteur a du mal à répondre à l'évolution et aux exigences de la demande tant intérieure qu'extérieure. L'élevage reste par ailleurs très sensible aux fluctuations du climat, et présente une croissance en dents de scie de ses effectifs, avec des modifications tant dans la structure du troupeau que dans sa localisation géographique. Aux plans institutionnel et réglementaire, les systèmes fonciers, qui reposent encore sur la coexistence de textes modernes et de pratiques coutumières ne favorisent pas la modernisation des systèmes pastoraux.Selon les estimations de l'Office Malien du Bétail et de la Viande (OMBEVI), en l'an 2000 les effectifs du cheptel malien se répartissaient comme suit : Bovins :6 700 000Ovins-Caprins : 16 800 000Camelins : 725 000Ces effectifs se répartissaient entre les systèmes de production suivants : Le commerce du bétail au Mali se fait essentiellement des zones de production vers les centres urbains du pays et en direction des marchés côtiers. En 1999, l'OMBEVI a recensé 334 marchés parmi lesquels 25 sont suivis par l'office pour l'observation des données statistiques. On distingue trois grands types de marchés : les moins importants étant dispersés dans des zones de production extensive, et les plus importants à proximité des carrefours des pistes à bétail et des grands centres de consommation.Les marchés de collecte : ils sont situés dans les zones d'élevage. Les vendeurs sont des éleveurs ; les acheteurs sont des collecteurs, des petits marchands ou encore d'autres éleveurs.Les marchés de regroupement sont situés en général en zone agricole, au carrefour de plusieurs pistes à bétail. Les vendeurs sont en grande partie des collecteurs et des petits marchands. Les acheteurs sont surtout des marchands d'envergure variable. Le niveau d'activité est important sur ces marchés contrairement aux précédents.Enfin les marchés terminaux : ils sont localisés à proximité des villes ou d'un lieu d'expédition. Les vendeurs sont soit des bouchers, soit des marchands expéditeurs. L'activité y est journalière, régulière et importante. Les marchés terminaux se subdivisent en marchés de consommation pour l'approvisionnement des centres urbains et en marchés d'exportation. D'une manière générale, l'approvisionnement des marchés varie en fonction des saisons.Parmi les intervenants sur ces marchés, l'éleveur occupe une place de choix. C'est le premier maillon de la chaîne de commercialisation. Il occupe une place de plus en plus importante dans le processus de mise en marché des animaux. Cela se traduit par une planification de la production en fonction des besoins du marché. Les éleveurs traditionnels transhumants ou sédentaires sont très peu motivés par la vente de leurs animaux. Paradoxalement le niveau des prix ne constitue pas à leur niveau une incitation à vendre plus d'animaux, bien au contraire, car la vente s'effectue juste pour satisfaire un besoin ponctuel.Le collecteur, autre agent important de la chaîne, se déplace entre les villages, campements et marchés ruraux hebdomadaires pour acheter des animaux auprès des éleveurs sédentaires ou transhumants, et les revendre ensuite sur le marché rural (de collecte) aux commerçants qui vont à leur tour approvisionner les marchés de regroupement et les marchés terminaux. L'activité de collecteur se limite généralement à la saison sèche et finit par conduire à une carrière de marchand de bétail.Les marchands quant à eux se répartissent en deux groupes : les marchands à rayon d'action court, et les marchands à rayon d'action long ou exportateurs. Les premiers opèrent sur les marchés de collecte, de regroupement et d'expédition, le bétail passant par plusieurs opérateurs, de la collecte à l'exportation. Ils achètent le bétail sur les marchés ruraux pour le revendre soit à des marchands exportateurs, soit à des bouchers au niveau des marchés de regroupement ou des marchés terminaux. La vente à crédit est une pratique courante, surtout chez les bouchers. Les seconds renferment deux sous-catégories : les gros commerçants import-export et les exportateurs simples. Les importateurs-exportateurs visent avant tout à réduire le risque lié à leur activité. Pour cela, leur stratégie consiste 1) à n'exporter vers la Côte d'Ivoire que sur commande de leurs clients habituels, 2) à s'appuyer sur des parents installés à Abidjan et Bouaké, qui les informe sur la situation du marché, et garantissent la vente et le remboursement du crédit accordé aux clients habituels, 3) à diversifier leurs activités, le commerce de bétail ne représentant que 5 à 50% de leur portefeuille. Les simples exportateurs sont quant à eux spécialisés dans le commerce du bétail. L'organisation de leurs expéditions ne repose pas sur un réseau de parents, et la maîtrise imparfaite du marché ivoirien les oblige à dépendre de logeurs intermédiaires.Les intermédiaires servent de trait d'union entre vendeurs et acheteurs, moyennant une commission (1000 F/tête) payée soit par l'acheteur, soit par le vendeur, soit par les deux parties. Ils opèrent sur tous les marchés et rendent des services divers : loger le vendeur, vendre les animaux en accord avec le propriétaire, vérifier l'origine des animaux, garantir les transactions. Le métier d'intermédiaire est un métier très ancien, qui se transmet de père en fils. Les intermédiaires utilisent un réseau de connaissances basé sur l'amitié et les liens ethniques. Sur les marchés terminaux de la Côte d'Ivoire, les marchands font appel à eux non seulement pour assurer les services traditionnels, mais aussi et surtout pour identifier les acheteurs solvables.Les courtiers ne jouent pas un rôle essentiel dans la commercialisation. On les retrouve généralement dans les marchés de regroupement où ils interceptent les animaux avant même que le propriétaire n'arrive sur le lieu du marché. Après avoir négocié le prix avec le propriétaire, ils assurent la vente des animaux.Les bouchers constituent le dernier maillon de la chaîne avant le consommateur final. On distingue en fait trois catégories de bouchers : les bouchers chevillards qu'on ne retrouve qu'à Bamako ; ils sont titulaires d'une carte professionnelle qui leur donne accès à l'abattoir et qui leur permet de faire le commerce de gros de la viande. Les bouchers détaillants eux achètent la viande aux chevillards pour la revendre au détail ; enfin les bouchers abattants détaillants qu'on retrouve à l'intérieur du pays. Cette classification tend à disparaître du fait de la crise que traverse la profession, tous les chevillards tendant à devenir en même temps des détaillants. A coté de ces bouchers on note la présence d'apprentis bouchers et de petits détaillants, qui revendent à la commission, des viandes crues ou cuites.Les contraintes de commercialisation sont également nombreuses : faiblesse de la surface financière des opérateurs et faible implication des organismes de financement en raison du risque lié à l'activité ; manque d'organisation de la filière, multiplicité des intermédiaires, charges de commercialisation trop élevées en raison notamment des taxes sauvages, insuffisance des infrastructures de transport et des équipements des marchés, absence de concertation entre opérateurs maliens et étrangers.La nouvelle orientation en matière de politique d'élevage se fixe comme objectifs a) l 'augmentation du revenu et l'amélioration des conditions de vie des populations, b) la satisfaction des besoins alimentaires quantitatifs et qualitatifs, c) la protection de l'environnement et la conservation des ressources naturelles pour un développement durable. En croisant ces objectifs avec les options fondamentales du gouvernement, à savoir : le désengagement de l'Etat, la privatisation, la responsabilisation de collectivités et la décentralisation, les orientations stratégiques retenues sont les suivantes : l'aménagement des pâturages, l'appui à la production à travers l'intensification et la diversification, la relance et la modernisation de la commercialisation.Un plan d'action a été adopté qui propose des actions précises, pertinentes et cohérentes dans le domaine de la production, de la sécurité foncière, de la commercialisation, du transport, de l'organisation de la filière, de la formation des producteurs et autres professionnels du bétail et de la viande. La stratégie d'intervention sera basée sur deux approches : l'une globale et l'autre participative.L'approche globale prend en compte toutes les composantes de la problématique de développement et les intègre : l'homme, son environnement physique et économique, les systèmes de production, etc.. Les actions doivent être complémentaires et synergiques : les actions en faveur du développement du sous-secteur élevage complètent et renforcent celles entreprises en faveur de l'agriculture et/ou de la foresterie, le tout impulsant l'économie locale. La concertation et la coordination constituent les instruments d'application de cette approche.L'approche participative repose sur une participation volontaire des populations. Elle doit être basée sur la pleine compréhension des objectifs autour desquels on veut les engager ; elle doit reposer sur le partenariat, ce qui induit la notion de coresponsabilité et non celle d'assistants et d'assistés. Sur cette base, la stratégie d'intervention définit trois axes complémentaires :• un axe horizontal qui prend en compte l'ensemble des thèmes transversaux, tout en assurant une cohérence d'ensemble de la politique de développement rural, les économies d'échelle sur les mesures conjointes pour plusieurs filières, portant notamment sur l'amélioration des facteurs de production. Cet axe intègre également la santé animale (renforcement des capacités, libéralisation de la médecine vétérinaire), l'aménagement foncier et la gestion des ressources naturelles, la commercialisation (avec toutes les mesures institutionnelles qui s'imposent), la recherche/développement, qui devra être régionalisée, enfin le crédit et le financement devront être diversifiés et faire l'objet d'une politique véritable. • l'axe vertical prend en compte les principales filières de production : bétail/viande, lait, aviculture.• un axe spécial qui prend en compte les particularités géoclimatiques des différentes régions du territoire et qui permet d'obtenir une approche systématique des différents programmes retenus sur la base des principaux systèmes de production identifiés.Dans la sous-région, l'élevage constitue une composante historique des échanges entre pays sahéliens traditionnellement exportateurs de bétail et pays côtiers importateurs. La revue de la littérature récente sur le secteur permet d'observer que globalement, la sous-région est déficitaire en produits animaux. A l'horizon 2010, les pays sahéliens ne pourront pas satisfaire leur propre demande, compte tenu de l'évolution démographique, du phénomène d'urbanisation, des conditions de production et des niveaux de productivité actuels et prévisibles. Au niveau de la région, l'évolution de la demande va exercer une pression telle sur les systèmes de production et sur les ressources naturelles qu'il faudra nécessairement recourir à des schémas de production plus intensifs, plus performants et qui préservent l'environnement.Il revient au Mali, exportateur net de produits animaux, de se préparer à cette transformation durable, avec une politique et des investissements à long terme qui permettent de satisfaire sa propre demande et de dégager un surplus exportable pour une demande sous-régionale de plus en plus importante et de plus en plus exigeante. Agriculture and livestock sectors are the backbone of the economy of Burkina Faso. About 80% of the active population relies on these activities for their livelihood. They account for 30% of the GDP, and livestock per se are the second source of foreign currency earning after cotton. Despite its potential, the livestock sector records average performances. Many constraints impede the production including: long dry seasons, persistence of animal diseases, and extensive production systems. At the marketing level, access to markets, credit availability, lack of organisation of market channels, poor equipment and infrastructure are described as major factors constraining the sector. In order to improve the marketing system, several measures based on regional co-operation and harmonisation of policies, are proposed in this paper. These include diversified and adequate transportation conditions and a better access to credit.On distingue deux types d'élevage : le moderne et le traditionnel. L'élevage traditionnel ou extensif comporte l' élevage de ruminants, l élevage avicole et l' élevage porcin. L'élevage extensif de ruminants est un système à faible utilisation d'intrants. Plusieurs sous-types se rencontrent dans ce système. L'élevage transhumant en zone sahélienne, et l'élevage sédentaire, qui se subdivise en sous-système agropastoral au centre et au sud, et en sous-systèmes mixtes intégrés au centre et au sud, en zone cotonnière notamment. Ces systèmes, qui reposent essentiellement sur l'utilisation des ressources naturelles, restent vulnérables sur plusieurs plans. L'agriculture extensive, consommatrice d'espace, restreint chaque année les parcours utilisables par le bétail, avec comme conséquence des conflits potentiels entre agriculteurs et éleveurs. Ces systèmes paient également un lourd tribut à la sécheresse.L'élevage avicole extensif reste très populaire. Il s'agit de poules mais surtout de pintades qui, malgré une faible productivité, contribuent de façon significative à la sécurité alimentaire et à l'amélioration des revenus des populations.L'élevage porcin est une activité traditionnelle au sens culturel du terme, dans certaines provinces du centre et de l'ouest. Il se conduit sous forme extensive et est l'apanage des femmes. Il connaît des problèmes d'alimentation, mais les promotrices restent ouvertes aux innovations.Des systèmes améliorés existent au niveau de chacun de ces types d'élevage. Au niveau des ruminants, certains producteurs pratiquent l'embouche intensive ou semi-intensive, ce qui permet aux animaux d'extérioriser leur potentiel. Cette pratique connaît en ce moment un regain d'intérêt qui mérite encouragement.L'aviculture moderne est présente seulement en milieu urbain et péri urbain. C'est un système qui repose essentiellement sur des intrants achetés : poussins, aliments, produits vétérinaires, etc.. L'élevage moderne comporte également des élevages porcins intensifs et un élevage laitier urbain et péri urbain.Ces contraintes sont de divers ordre. Les principales sont les suivantes:• Sur le plan naturel, les disponibilités fourragères sont tributaires des conditions climatiques. Ces disponibilités s'amenuisent d'année en année en raison de la sécheresse. Les points d'eau, en nombre également insuffisant, deviennent de plus en plus inaccessibles du fait de la colonisation de leurs abords par les champs. La persistance de nombreuses maladies du bétail malgré les efforts d'éradication constitue également une contrainte. Enfin le potentiel des races locales montre ses limites, notamment en matière de production laitière Il s'agit essentiellement du bétail, de la viande, du lait et des autres produits.• Pour le bétail, les acteurs sont nombreux dans toutes les filières. Les principaux sont : le vendeur-propriétaire, le vendeur collecteur, l'intermédiaire, le démarcheur, l'employé de l'exportateur et l'exportateur. Les modes de transports du bétail sont variés. Du campement au marché de collecte, les animaux sont convoyés en général à pied. Du marché de collecte au marché de regroupement, les animaux sont conduits à pied et en camion. A l'exportation, c'est le train et le camion qui sont les modes de transport dominants. Les informations sur la situation du marché circulent de bouche à oreille.Les circuits de commercialisation vont du campement (troupeau) au marché de collecte où une partie des animaux est vendue pour la consommation locale (boucherie, culture attelée, élevage etc..). Les autres animaux sont acheminés vers les marchés de regroupement, à partir desquels ils seront exportés. Pour l'ensemble du pays, 132 marchés à bétail ont été recensés et suivis. Les plus nombreux, les marchés de collecte sont situés dans les zones de production ; les marchés de regroupement sont au nombre d'une dizaine, et sont également situés dans les zones de production ; les marchés terminaux sont localisés dans les grands centres urbains et aux frontières. Les exportations ont connu un boom après la dévaluation. La Côte d'Ivoire reste le premier pays importateur d'animaux du Burkina. Au niveau de la commercialisation de la viande, on relève la vétusté des infrastructures de préparation des viandes, l'inadaptation des structures de commercialisation et de transport et le manque de professionnalisme des acteurs.Au niveau des autres produits, notamment du lait, on note la mauvaise organisation des circuits, une forte concurrence des produits laitiers importés, l'inadaptation des équipements, la grande dispersion géographique des unités de production, la forte variabilité de la production selon les saisons, les mauvaises conditions d'hygiène. Le commerce des cuirs et peaux souffre également du phénomène de saisonnalité de l'offre et d'une mauvaise collecte des produits.Au niveau des politiques directes on note l'institution d'une « contribution du secteur élevage » (CSE), la création d'un fonds de développement de l'élevage (FODEL), l'application de taxes de visite sanitaire, l'interdiction d'importation, de distribution et de commercialisation de viande bovine et de ses dérivés, d'aliment du bétail et de matériel génétique provenant de pays contaminés par l'encéphalopathie spongiforme. La mise en circulation de la lettre de voiture permet non seulement de couvrir les risques au niveau régional, mais aussi de suivre les statistiques.Quant aux politiques indirectes, elles concernent surtout le désengagement de l'Etat du processus de production et de distribution des intrants, la libéralisation du commerce et des prix.Au vu des contraintes précités, la mise en oeuvre des propositions qui suivent pourrait contribuer à améliorer les circuits de commercialisation du bétail et de la viande.• Amélioration et gestion des infrastructures et des équipements, notamment par la réhabilitation de l'abattoir de Ouagadougou, la construction de nouveaux abattoirs à Bobo, Pouytenga, la restructuration des marchés à bétail et à viande.• Fluidification des échanges régionaux, par une lutte plus efficace contre les taxes sauvages, une réduction des postes de contrôle et des sanctions contre les agents indélicats, une harmonisation des politiques au niveau sous-régional et une réduction des charges fiscales. • Amélioration du transport, grâce à une diversification des modes de transport, l'utilisation de véhicules frigorifiques pour le transport de la viande et des produits laitiers.• Mise en place d'un système d'information sous-régional performant et création d'un guichet unique pour toutes les formalités d'exportation du bétail et de la viande.• Facilitation de l'accès au financement, par la mise en place de mécanismes adaptés, et une plus grande implication des professionnels de l'élevage dans la gestion du FODEL. • Enfin la lutte contre les abattages clandestins et un appui à la professionnalisation des acteurs contribueraient à l'amélioration des circuits de commercialisation. • augmenter la disponibilité en eau ;• constituer et valoriser les réserves alimentaires.• intensification de la production fourragère et de concentré ; • hydraulique pastorale. 9 Appui à la filière lait• améliorer la production laitière, la collecte, la transformation et la commercialisation ; • diminuer les importations ;• améliorer le niveau de la consommation et le revenu des femmes.• amélioration du potentiel génétique ; • promotion de la filière lait et création d'unités de transformation.Source : Extrait communication MRA « Rencontres régionales sur le code pastoral » MRA Février.Chargé des Ressources Animales. Commission UEMOAThe Monetary and Economic Union of West African Countries (UEMOA) aims to build up the competitiveness of economic and financial activities, in a framework of a free and competitive market; ensure the convergence of economic policies; create a common and free market between the states; co-ordinate national sector policies, and bring into line legislations, especially fiscal policies. To meet these objectives, many actions have to be undertaken in the field of creation of institutions and policy implementation. A common market with free trade and a common agricultural policy will benefit the livestock sector. The trade policy of the Union, based on WTO principles, will definitely boost the regional trade on livestock products. As far as regional integration is concerned, livestock are seen as privileged integration factors between sahelian countries that have a comparative advantage in livestock products and the costal countries where the demand is high.La présentation s'articule autour de quatre points : 1) la présentation des objectifs de l'UEMOA, 2) le marché commun de l'UEMOA, 3) le chantier de la politique agricole de l'UEMOA, et 4) les perspectives pour améliorer la production et les échanges des produits de l'élevage au sein de l'UEMOA. En introduction l'auteur rappelle tout d'abord le rôle et l'importance de l'agriculture et de l'élevage dans l'Union, ainsi que la complémentarité naturelle entre pays sahéliens et pays côtiers en matière de production et d'échanges de produits animaux. L'élevage a longtemps été un puissant facteur d'intégration des économies de la sous-région. La mise en place de l'UEMOA contribuera-t-elle à promouvoir davantage ces échanges?1 Présentation des objectifs de l'UEMOA Les objectifs assignés à l'Union par le traité du 10 janvier 1994 sont au nombre de cinq : 1) Renforcer la compétitivité des activités économiques et financières des Etats membres dans le cadre d'un marché ouvert et concurrentiel et d'un environnement juridique rationalisé et harmonisé, 2) Assurer la convergence des performances des politiques économiques, par l'institution d'une procédure d'urgence multilatérale, 3) créer entre les Etats un marché commun basé sur la libre circulation des personnes, des biens et des services, ainsi qu'un tarif extérieur commun et une politique commerciale commune, 4) instituer une coordination des politiques sectorielles nationales, par la mise en oeuvre des domaines ci-après : ressources humaines, aménagement du territoire, infrastructures, transport, télécommunications, environnement, agriculture, énergie, industrie et mines, enfin 5) harmoniser les législations, et particulièrement le régime de la fiscalité.En vue de réaliser ces objectifs, différents chantiers sont ouverts et mis en place par l'union autour des volets suivants : 1) la mise en place des différents organes nécessaires au fonctionnement de l'Union, 2) l'harmonisation des législations, 3) la surveillance multilatérale des politiques macroéconomiques, 4) la réalisation effective du marché commun, à travers la suppression des droits de douane et des restrictions quantitatives, 5) la mise en oeuvre des politiques sectorielles.Deux de ces chantiers ont une profonde implication sur la production et le commerce des principaux produits de l'élevage. Il s'agit du marché commun et de la politique agricole commune qui fixe le cadre juridique et réglementaire pour promouvoir les activités de production et d'échanges dans le secteur de l'élevage.La construction du marché commun de l'UEMOA figure parmi les objectifs prioritaires que les Etats membres se sont assignés. Le marché commun est organisé essentiellement autour d'une union douanière entre les Etats membres. Cette union est caractérisée par : a) la libéralisation du commerce intra-communautaire, basée sur le principe de la préférence communautaire, b) la mise en place d'un tarif extérieur commun, c) des règles communes de concurrence.La libéralisation du commerce intra-communautaire est un des fondements de l'Union. En effet, la construction de l'Union douanière présuppose la suppression totale des barrières douanières entre les Etats membres. C'est donc dans ce cadre qu'un processus de libéralisation des échanges a été mis en oeuvre par pallier. A cet effet, la conférence des Chefs d'Etat et de Gouvernement a décidé dès 1996 d'instaurer, à travers l'Acte Additionnel n o 04/96, un régime préférentiel transitoire en faveur des produits échangés au sein de l'Union, avec la levée immédiate de toutes les barrières non tarifaires entravant les échanges entre les pays membres. Après des étapes successives, l'on est parvenu en juillet 1996, au désarmement douanier.Le tarif extérieur commun (TEC) est conçu comme devant être l'unique cordon douanier ceinturant l'Union, et qui doit régir les échanges extérieurs des pays de l'Union avec le reste du monde. Il poursuit les objectifs suivants : a) la volonté d'ouverture de l'espace UEMOA vers l'extérieur, b) la protection de l'environnement, c) la lutte contre le détournement de tarif à savoir, éviter que les exportateurs des pays tiers n'utilisent les pays où les droits de porte sont les moins élevés comme porte d'entrée dans l'Union, et de réexporter par la suite les produits vers les pays où les tarifs sont les plus élevés. Le dispositif du TEC repose sur une catégorisation des droits et taxes permanents et des droits et taxes à caractère temporaire. Il existe quatre catégories de produits dont les droits et taxes permanents sont fixés pour toute l'Union ; ces catégories notées de 0 à 4 selon la nature du bien, ont des droits de douane de 0,5,10,et 20% respectivement.Le prélèvement communautaire de solidarité (PCS) est une ressource affectée à l'Union. Les autres droits et taxes comprennent la Taxe Dégressive de Protection (TDP) pour compenser les baisses importantes de protection tarifaire liées à la mise en place du TEC. Elle est perçue uniquement sur les produits de l'industrie et de l'agro-industrie importés des pays tiers. La Taxe Conjoncturelle à l'Importation (TCI) est un mécanisme destiné à lutter contre les effets des variations erratiques des prix mondiaux de certains produits sur la production communautaire et à contrecarrer les pratiques déloyales à l'importation. Elle est perçue uniquement sur les produits de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de la pêche, à l'exclusion du poisson et des produits à base de poisson susceptibles de provoquer une dégradation majeure de la situation de la branche concernée. Son taux est de 10 % du prix de déclenchement, mais elle peut être perçue selon le système de la péréquation.La politique commerciale et les règles de concurrence de l'Union reposent sur les principes de l'Accord Général sur les Tarifs Douaniers et le Commerce (GATT), et par conséquent de l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC). Elle tient compte de la nécessité de contribuer au développement harmonieux du commerce intra-africain et mondial, de favoriser le développement des capacités productives à l'intérieur de l'Union, de protéger les productions de l'Union contre les politiques de dumping et de subvention des pays tiers. Elle conclut les accords internationaux dans le cadre de la politique commerciale commune.Afin d'avancer dans la constitution d'un marché unique, l'UEMOA met en oeuvre une politique d'harmonisation des taxes internes. Le régime général prévoit une TVA dans tous les Etats membres qui doit converger à 18 % au 1 er janvier 2002. Dans cette disposition, le secteur rural est dispensé de TVA, mais l'application de cette mesure est différée jusqu'à la mise en place de la Politique Agricole Commune. La fiscalité des PME/PMI est aussi en voie d'harmonisation.Les objectifs de la politique agricole tels que définis dans le Protocole Additionnel No II du Traité instituant l'Union, sont les suivants :a) la réalisation de la sécurité alimentaire et d'un degré adéquat d'autosuffisance alimentaire au sein de l'Union, en tenant compte de la complémentarité entre les Etats et de leurs avantages comparatifs ; b) l'accroissement sur une base durable de la productivité de l'agriculture grâce à la maîtrise du progrès technique, au développement et à la modernisation de la production et des filières agricoles, ainsi qu'à l'utilisation optimale des facteurs de production ; c) l'amélioration des conditions de fonctionnement des marchés des produits agricoles et des produits de l'élevage et de la pêche, tant pour les producteurs que pour les consommateurs. L'élaboration des principes directeurs de la politique agricole tiendra compte du caractère particulier de l'activité agricole, de la nécessité d'opérer graduellement les ajustements opportuns, du fait que dans les Etats membres, l'agriculture est intimement liée aux autres secteurs de l'économie.L'élaboration d'une politique agricole commune est un processus de longue haleine, si l'on se réfère à l'unique expérience concrète et opérationnelle existante, celle de l'Union Européenne. Afin de gagner du temps, une série d'actions convergentes sont entreprises, portant à la fois sur la mise en place d'un cadre cohérent et sur la conception des instruments de la Politique Agricole de l'Union. Ce programme intérimaire dit de «première génération» dans le domaine du développement rural a été adopté en 1997. Il a identifié des actions communautaires prioritaires d'intégration à court et moyen termes. Parmi ces actions figure la mise en place d'un système harmonisé de classification du bétail et de la viande en vue de valoriser la production, de faciliter les transactions commerciales, et de satisfaire les exigences des consommateurs au sein de l'espace de l'UEMOA.L'étude sur les grandes orientations de la politique agricole a été réalisée en 2000-2001. Elle avait pour but de définir les objectifs, les principes directeurs et les principaux axes stratégiques de la politique agricole, et de proposer les grandes lignes d'un plan d'action pour sa mise en oeuvre. Les résultats de cette étude ont fait l'objet d'examen par un comité scientifique composé d'experts internationaux en matière d'intégration économique et de politique agricole, pour être ensuite soumis à un vaste débat au cours d'ateliers nationaux organisés dans chacun des huit Etats membres.La réalisation de l'objectif de sécurité alimentaire au niveau régional sera ainsi favorisée par le marché unique régional et la mise en oeuvre de la politique agricole qui, en favorisant la fluidité des échanges de produits agricoles et agro-industriels donnera une impulsion à la production végétale et animale. C'est également dans cette optique que la Commission de l'UEMOA a élaboré, en collaboration avec la FAO, un Programme Spécial Régional pour la Sécurité Alimentaire (PSRSA).Enfin il convient de noter que la mise en oeuvre de la politique agricole de l'Union s'inscrit dans un contexte de libéralisation. Les instruments de cette politique, les mécanismes de l'Union douanière et d'autres actions devront permettre l'accroissement de la production, la fluidification des échanges intra-communautaires et favoriser la compétitivité des produits sur le marché international. douanières, la mise en place d'un observatoire régional des pratiques anormales et la construction de bureaux de contrôle juxtaposés.Les effets du TEC sur les activités de production et d'échanges de produits de l'agriculture et de l'élevage restent difficiles à estimer. Il faut noter cependant que la catégorisation du TEC favorise en général le consommateur final, en ne mettant que des tarifs modestes sur la plupart des biens de consommation finaux. Par contre il n'est pas certain qu'il encourage la production communautaire, surtout dans le cas de certains produits comme la viande et le lait.Aujourd'hui, les droits de douane du TEC pour certains produits animaux varient de 5 à 20%. Il est difficile de réellement apprécier les effets des changements tarifaires et des taxations internes sur l'agriculture et l'élevage, en l'absence d'études préalables. Il est seulement certain que les effets risquent d'être de grande ampleur dans certains pays pour les filières stratégiques comme la viande, pour lesquelles les conditions de concurrence sont sérieusement modifiées.Il convient de constater que dans l'ensemble, l'application du TEC pose de sérieux problèmes pour les produits agricoles. Les opérateurs économiques du secteur sont peu associés aux consultations avant la mise en application des règlements. Par ailleurs les catégories du TEC semblent parfois mal adaptées (cas notamment de la taxation du poussin d'un jour). Il paraît donc nécessaire de faire l'état des lieux de la mise en oeuvre de l'intégration commerciale, notamment la mise en place du TEC, et d'analyser l'impact des mesures tarifaires sur les systèmes de production animale et leur compétitivité. Il conviendra également de déterminer pour les différents produits de l'élevage le niveau de protection convenable. Enfin dans le contexte actuel de la mondialisation, il apparaît nécessaire d'identifier les obstacles auxquels les exportations de produits d'élevage doivent faire face dans le cadre des engagements de l'OMC.5 Perspectives pour améliorer la production et les échanges de produits de l'élevage au sein de l'UEMOA L'élevage constitue une réelle chance pour la coopération et l'intégration régionale en Afrique de l'Ouest (Perspectives ouest africaines 1993). Il est, a-t-on coutume de dire, pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest, ce qu'ont été le charbon et l'acier pour la construction de l'Europe.Les pays de l'UEMOA disposent d'un potentiel important en matière d'élevage. Le secteur du bétail et de la viande est de ceux où les complémentarités entre les zones géographiques (pays sahéliens et pays côtiers) offrent les meilleures opportunités d'échanges. L'intégration régionale doit en tirer avantage. Mais une complémentarité économique bien comprise ne consiste pas seulement à envisager l'avantage qu'auraient les pays producteurs sahéliens à gagner des parts de marché dans les pays côtiers, mais aussi à montrer l'intérêt pour l'ensemble des pays, d'une augmentation de la valeur ajoutée régionale. L'intérêt de l'Union serait d'utiliser les richesses disponibles pour accroître la production et la consommation des produits régionaux. En effet, le bétail et la viande produits dans l'espace de l'UEMOA sont en concurrence directe avec les importations de viandes de pays tiers. Ces importations constituent pour l'Union un manque à gagner. Les produits de la sous-région, dont les viandes bovine, ovine et caprine ont fait la preuve de leur compétitivité, mais l'expérience a montré la fragilité de l'équilibre, face aux pressions des marchés mondiaux.La politique agricole commune offre plusieurs avantages : 1) elle offre un marché plus vaste, avec des perspectives d'accroissement de la production et donc des revenus ; 2) elle offre une gamme plus variée de produits ; 3) elle permet de rapprocher l'offre et la demande au plan régional ; 4) elle permet de faire jouer les avantages comparatifs et donc d'améliorer la compétitivité des produits de la région sur le marché international. Le processus d'élaboration de la politique agricole commune, en cours de finalisation s'articule autour de trois axes :Axe 1 : Adaptation des grandes filières et amélioration de la production. L'enjeu ici est de mettre en place au niveau régional, un processus de concertation entre différents acteurs institutionnels et privés, pour adapter les grandes filières agricoles y compris les filières d'élevage, et assurer leur développement. Il s'agira notamment d'exploiter au maximum les potentialités offertes par le marché régional, de mettre en valeur les complémentarités agricoles et pastorales entre les pays de l'Union, de favoriser l'adaptation ou la reconversion des filières à la nouvelle situation de la concurrence.Axe 2 : Construction du marché unique agricole. Il s'agit de stimuler les échanges de produits d'élevage au sein de l'Union pour élargir le marché intérieur, de protéger les consommateurs et les producteurs, et de favoriser la diversification des productions, en réduisant les entraves aux échanges. Les interventions porteront sur l'harmonisation des normes de production et de mise en marché, sur les dispositifs de contrôle et les normes sanitaires, et sur la mise en place d'un système d'information sur le marché agricole régional.Axe 3 : Insertion dans le marché mondial et dans la sous-région. L'objectif ici est de permettre à l'UEMOA de pouvoir efficacement représenter l'ensemble des Etats membres en défendant leurs intérêts et ceux de leurs populations dans le cadre des grandes négociations avec l'OMC, l'Union Européenne et la CEDEAO. Il s'agira notamment de mieux « sécuriser » les débouchés à l'exportation et de limiter la dépendance alimentaire en assurant une insertion progressive de l'agriculture et de l'élevage de la sous-région dans le marché mondial. The Ivorian \"miracle\" has been in essence propelled by the vitality of its agricultural sector. This dynamism resulted from the conjugate effect of the colonial legacy (international specialisation based on the comparative advantage), and the political will of the government, to set up its economic development on the agriculture sector. The sector employs two-third of the active population and contributes 35% to the national GDP. In that vision, livestock occupied a minor position. As a result, the country relies mainly on imports for livestock products. Despite the lack of comparative advantage (for some type of production systems), there is growing interest in livestock production. Although animal diseases, financial and institutional constraints prevail in the country, all the traditional production systems are developed. From the regional perspective, livestock have always played a major role in the process of economic and social integration. The Ivorian market is also one of the most important terminal markets for sahelian products. In the context of globalisation, the livestock sector is facing many challenges: food security, poverty alleviation and natural resources management.La communication s'articule autour de quatre points : en introduction, l'importance de l'élevage est resituée dans le contexte de l'économie ivoirienne ; le second point présente les différentes filières de production animale, le troisième les atouts et les contraintes des productions animales du pays, enfin le quatrième point présente les enjeux et défis du secteur.L'agriculture constitue la base de l'économie ivoirienne. Elle emploie les 2/3 de la population active, contribue pour 35% au PIB total, et pour 70% aux recettes totales d'exportation. Cette importance du secteur agricole résulte de la spécialisation internationale, héritée du leg colonial, qui avait confiné le pays dans les spéculations de rente du binôme café-cacao, au nom de la théorie des avantages comparatifs. Dans ce contexte, l'élevage est resté en marge du « miracle ivoirien. » Sa contribution au PIB agricole est d'environ 4,5% et de seulement 2% au PIB total. Cependant l'activité prend de plus en plus d'importance. L'élevage occupe aujourd'hui un grand nombre d'éleveurs, il contribue de façon significative à l'augmentation des revenus, à l'équilibre de la balance des payements, à la préservation et à l'amélioration de la gestion de l'environnement.En l'an 2000, le taux de couverture des besoins était de 59% pour les viandes et abats, de 100% pour les oeufs, de 12% seulement pour le lait et les produits laitiers. La politique actuelle, caractérisée par le désengagement de l'Etat des activités de production et de commercialisation, et le recentrage sur les missions de service public, met un accent particulier sur le développement des espèces à cycle court (porcs et volailles) et sur la production laitière.A) Au niveau des ruminants, le cheptel bovin est constitué d'environ 1 409 000 bovins, dont 834 000 taurins et 575 000 zébus. La production de ce cheptel, qui couvre 42% de la consommation de viande bovine est de 23 126 tonnes équivalent carcasse, pour une valeur de 31,82 milliards de F CFA. La principale caractéristique de l'élevage bovin en Côte d'Ivoire est qu'il se trouve concentré pour près de 83% dans la région nord du pays. La productivité du cheptel demeure encore faible et le pays importe près de la moitié de sa consommation en viande bovine et 88% de sa consommation de lait.Le cheptel des petits ruminants est constitué d'environ 2 585 000 têtes dont 1 451 000 ovins, exploités à 25%, et 1 134 000 caprins, exploités à 22%. La production de ce cheptel, qui couvre 75% de la consommation de viande ovine et caprine est de 7 637 tonnes équivalent carcasse, pour une valeur de 13,720 milliards de F CFA. Le cheptel est également reparti sur l'ensemble du territoire national, avec cependant une concentration dans le centre du pays qui abrite 40% des effectifs. L'élevage de ruminants comprend trois systèmes bien différenciés : le système traditionnel, le système traditionnel amélioré, et le système moderne. a) le système traditionnel d'élevage bovin est pratiqué sous deux formes extensives : l'élevage transhumant et l'élevage sédentaire. • l'élevage sédentaire, principalement représenté dans la zone des savanes, reste archaïque, avec un faible niveau d'intervention de la part des propriétaires, des performances zootechniques médiocres. Les troupeaux sont de petite taille et sont composés essentiellement de races taurines (N'dama, Baoulé). • l'élevage transhumant, d'origine sahélienne, est beaucoup plus homogène que le système sédentaire, notamment au niveau de la taille de l'unité de production. Sur le plan génétique, les zébus dominent largement malgré une tendance fréquente au métissage, par acquisition de génisses de races taurines. L'insertion de ce mode d'élevage dans l'utilisation de l'espace rural ivoirien reste pour une large part à réaliser. Un des tous premiers avantages est la présence d'un cheptel traditionnel rustique, bien adapté à l'environnement naturel du pays. L'existence de parcours naturels et de points d'abreuvement en eau de surface constitue également un atout important. Sur l'ensemble du territoire national l'on trouve également des sous-produits agro-industriels en quantités importantes. A cela il faut ajouter l'existence d'infrastructures pastorales, de laboratoires, d'usines d'aliments du bétail, et une volonté politique nettement exprimée, en faveur du secteur.Parmi les contraintes, il faut tout d'abord déplorer l'absence d'un financement adapté au secteur, le coût élevé des intrants. Par ailleurs l'absence de sécurisation foncière décourage les investissements dans le secteur. La faible productivité du matériel génétique constitue également un handicap. D'autres faiblesses comme le manque d'organisation des professionnels, les conflits agriculteurs/éleveurs, l'inadaptation du régime fiscal peuvent être citées.A l'instar de la plupart des pays en développement, la Côte d'Ivoire a connu un essor important de ses productions animales ces dernières années. Ce prodigieux essor est le résultat d'une pression de la demande, due à l'effet conjugué de l'accroissement démographique, du phénomène d'urbanisation et de l'augmentation des revenus. Il est aussi l'expression d'une volonté politique clairement exprimée, qui a fait de l'élevage une priorité dans le schéma de développement du pays. Malgré ce développement du secteur, le pays reste encore tributaire de l'extérieur pour l'essentiel de ses approvisionnements. C'est dire que le secteur est confronté à une série de défis majeurs, dans un contexte d'intégration régionale et de globalisation des échanges.tout d'abord au niveau de la sécurité alimentaire, faute d'avoir des taux de couverture suffisants, les approvisionnements devront se faire en mettant l'accent sur les avantages comparatifs qu'offre le marché régional, notamment dans les échanges avec les pays sahéliens. L'accroissement de la production domestique, par le passage à des schémas intensifs peut également contribuer à la sécurité des approvisionnements. Un accent particulier devrait être mis sur les espèces à cycle court, aussi bien pour la production que pour une réorientation des habitudes alimentaires. -au niveau de la réduction de la pauvreté : on observe que les pauvres en milieu rural se trouvent souvent parmi les petits éleveurs, qui ont du mal à accéder aux intrants, au crédit et au marché. Dès lors, leur compétitivité et leur existence face aux gros producteurs est compromise. Il faudra alors mettre en place des mécanismes leur permettant de mieux s'organiser pour pouvoir accéder au marché des produits animaux. -au niveau de la protection de l'environnement, il est nécessaire de passer des systèmes extensifs qui dégradent les ressources naturelles, à des systèmes intensifs plus performants, au moyen notamment d'une véritable intégration de l'agriculture et de l'élevage (et non d'une simple juxtaposition). Ce passage va non seulement permettre d'accroître la productivité des systèmes aussi bien agraires que pastoraux, mais en même temps de préserver les ressources en eau et les terres fragiles marginales. Par ailleurs la promulgation d'un code pastoral et foncier permettrait non seulement de favoriser et de sécuriser les investissements dans le secteur, mais également de réduire les conflits entre agriculteurs et éleveurs dans les zones de production.Enfin dans le cadre de la mondialisation de échanges, les produits animaux de la Côte d'Ivoire, comme ceux de l'ensemble de la sous-région peuvent saisir les opportunités qu'offrent les accords de l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC). En effet, suite à la désaffection des consommateurs européens pour certains types de viandes produites sur le vieux continent, nos produits animaux pourraient sous certaines conditions, se tailler une part de marché importante outre atlantique.Ces objectifs ne peuvent être atteints que si les efforts sont poursuivis dans le sens de l'amélioration des conditions d'élevage, de la diversification et de la modernisation de la production, avec un environnement économique et institutionnel favorables.Livestock production in Nigeria is undertaken by four groups of producers-smallholder, traditional, large-scale and peri-urban producers. About 80% of the nation's herd is managed under the traditional pastoral system whose primary reasons for keeping animals are as a source of wealth, social status symbol and insurance. The daily needs of the pastoralists are met from fresh milk, and processed products such as sour milk, cheese and butter as well as from sales of yoghurt. Although most of the national beef supply comes from the traditional system of production, it is characterised by transhumance with little or no investment (capital and input), poor management such as keeping excess males, low yield offtake and little or no market orientation.The large-scale producers are few in number and are usually owned by absentee farmers. The ownership of these farms is made up of retired soldiers and civil servants who have poor managerial skill. They have access to government patronages and production is generally inefficient with regard to returns on investment because of the high capital outlay. These farms in total constitute less than 2% of the nation's herd.The peri-urban producers are scattered around urban settings with close proximity to markets. The production of animals under this system depends mainly on the availability of labour and space. The farms provide livestock and fresh products to the consumers living within the fringes of urban settlements. This system is entirely market-oriented.The smallholders are mainly engaged in mixed agriculture or agro-pastoralism. The animals under this system are grazed in the open range, but they receive feed supplements such as industrial by-products, hay, mineral salt, crop residue and other feed types. This system is market-oriented as rams, bulls, pigs and poultry broilers are raised for a period of time and sold for slaughter. However, this group lacks access to credit that is needed for productive ventures especially in the fattening of livestock for the market. The high interest rate on borrowed money militates against the extension of credit to this group and sustainable livestock production.The food price dilemma Low food price has made agricultural production generally unprofitable. While the farmers need to cover their cost of production the government advocates low food prices for the populace. Moreover, households spend their disposable income on staple foods and until these needs are met they cannot spend on the preferred foods of animal origin.Existing policies are such that the consumption of urban dwellers is subsidised by farmers who out of necessity absorb the marketing costs in bringing their products to the urban market.Access to credit has remained the most important factor that affects competitiveness in livestock and agricultural production. The Credit Guarantee Scheme, which was established in 1977 together with Central Bank Sectoral Policy Guidelines have failed to induce commercial banks to lend to agriculture.Livestock production is constrained by biological and technical factors that set the limit to productivity and output. For example, there is usually a long growth (or gestation) period during which the products may not be ready for the market. Such factors that cannot be controlled by farmers result in a lagged supply response. Moreover, livestock products are usually perishable, and because of their seasonal nature, there are immense economic distortions. Apart from the inefficient market and marketing arrangements, the arbitrary taxation of livestock trade and the re-introduction of 'Jangali' (cattle taxes of northern Nigeria) by some local governments in the country, are potent sources of price distortions.Feeds constitute 75-85% of the cost of production for non-ruminants. The rates of growth and reproduction depend on the quality and quantity of feed. Competition for grains between human and animal populations have greatly increased over the years mainly due to the rapid growth in human population. With respect to ruminants, the seasonal scarcity of forage affects the competitiveness of production as smallholders seek alternatives such as nomadic life and transhumance. The only viable alternative is investment in supplementary feeds at a very high cost.Incidences of diseases in animals continue to pose a great challenge to livestock enterprises especially smallholder producers. Diseases such as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and African Swine Fever (ASF) are still a scourge among the nation's herd. The cost of animal health care delivery has gone up because of the high cost of medication.Family labour, which used to be available on farms, now has more valuable alternative uses outside the farm. Family labour is now better employed in selling water, washing cars etc. This is to the detriment of smallholder farm work.The World Bank assisted the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) beginning in 1977, and extended technologies in the areas of agriculture to the grass roots. The production of livestock and fisheries were high and today the massive investment in capacity building under the ADP funding has helped to raise crop productivity and output significantly.Regional or international nature of livestock tradeThe regional or international nature of livestock trade in the West African sub-region poses some problems although trade is still carried out among different nations that impose different trade regulations. The regional trade is still undergoing formalisation. The article of trade and currencies for exchange are yet to be standardised. This is introducing limitations on business operations within the region and animal trade is not an exception.Over the years, exchange rate instability has significantly contributed to problems in the competitiveness of smallholder production in Nigeria. Exchange rate affects some inputs such as vaccines and other medication. In some cases it affects the cost of feed ingredients and replacement stocks, which can only be obtained from abroad (e.g. grand parent stock for swine).For quite a long time, it has been very difficult to plan adequately for costs involved in transporting items within the country. This is generally due to the unstable cost of petroleum products. Coupled with the unstable exchange rate, which makes the cost of vehicles unpredictable, animal and input transportation costs become unstable, and impose limitations on smallholder businesses.The risks involved in transporting goods on Nigerian roads are very high. Most of the roads are not adequately repaired. Vehicles using them are subjected to unnecessary obstacles that cause accidents or damage to them. When such accidents occur the freight are thrown off and wasted. Smallholders are hardly able to afford insurance premiums that go with such high-risk ventures. Another cause of loss of freight in transit is the activities of armed bandits or robbers who attack vehicles transporting animals or feed. These two causes of transit loss impose limitations on the competitiveness of smallholder production.Additional costs for water and feeds are incurred while animals are in transit from production areas to the market, and while being displayed in the markets. Such costs are unpredictable and can be high enough to cause a major offset in the actual margin of the sellers and hence the producers. This will limit the competitiveness of the producer unless action is taken to reduce such costs.In an attempt to increase government revenue, many states and local government councils have set up multiple control posts where various taxes are collected on traded animals. This imposes additional charges that are not necessarily marketing costs as no value is added for the money they collect. Such taxes are charged per truck whether the truck carries only one animal or is filled with animals, thus this method of imposing charges is bound to create business failure. Imposition of too many charges on animals in transit serves to limit the competitiveness of smallholder production.Illegal taxes (by police, Jangali etc.)The police administration has set up security posts along routes to protect people and property against armed bandits. Unfortunately, the bad ones among them extort money from motorists and charge levies on trucks. The northern Nigerian cattle taxes called 'Jangali' that have been abrogated in the 1980s are still being illegally collected in some areas. These and other illegal tax collections add to the cost of marketing and hinder the competitiveness of the smallholders.As stated earlier, smallholder producers' contribution to the nation's production of meat, dairy and animal by-products is very low when compared with the contribution of other producer groups such as pastoralists. Efforts aimed at increasing the production of smallholders will definitely increase their competitiveness. Strategies suggested to improve the competitiveness of smallholders include:The government is interested in having that food (meat and milk) available at cheap prices, while farmers are interested in maximising their profit. On the other hand, the government also needs to ensure there is equity between producers and consumers. This can be achieved by implementing a policy that facilitates government purchase of excess supply, and the release of this surplus back to the system when there is shortage.The inadequacy of infrastructural facilities has often resulted in inefficient markets and marketing of livestock and livestock products. The lack of market information and the absence of weight and measurement standards in the livestock trade are clear setbacks to efficient marketing. There is a need for both government and private sector investment in marketing infrastructure through the building of markets, loading ramps, holding yards, watering points, improvement of cattle kraals, slaughter houses and building of abattoirs.To sustain livestock production, there is a need to develop appropriate ways of extending livestock technologies to smallholders and other livestock producers. The Unified Agricultural Extension System (UAES) established under the ADP for smallholder farmers has not yielded the desired result for livestock producers. The government should give priority to making transferable technologies available, recruiting more staff and funding the training of extension agents. This will enhance the dissemination of technologies to farmers and in so doing, will improve productivity.Crop-livestock complementarity has not been fully exploited as a viable option towards sustaining smallholder livestock production. Under this system, animals are fed on crop residues, they supply draft power for cultivation and animal waste is used as manure. This complementary association will help to enhance efficiency and the returns to smallholders.The storage of processed products offers an opportunity for stabilising supply and prices overtime and space. There is a need to initiate policy measures which will make storage facilities for livestock products available to consumers' co-operatives and other private sector organisations.The government should encourage extensive private investment in drugs and vaccine production. A vaccination/drug quality regulatory body should be put in place, which will ensure that vaccines produced within the country or those that are imported meet minimum requirement standards.A vista of opportunity is opened through expanding regional co-operation between states in the West African sub-region. Regional integration promotes trade and serves to create expansive markets for agricultural and non-agricultural products among the nations involved. Organisations such as ECOWAS and OAU (now AU), which guarantee the free movement of citizens, have presented great potentials for the exchange of goods and services.There is potential to increase the production of livestock and livestock products by smallholder producers. This is possible through appropriate government policy intervention on marketing, health, crop-livestock integration etc. The success of smallholder livestock production will stimulate the settlement of pastoralists and encourage agro-pastoralists to improve their production systems.Policies for improving the competitiveness of smallholder livestock producers in Ghana: Challenges and opportunities K. Asafu-Adjei and A. Dantankwa L'importance de l'élevage au Ghana se situe à plusieurs niveaux : une frange très importante de la population, notamment les pauvres, tirent leur subsistance de cette activité ; l'élevage contribue également au processus d'intensification de l'agriculture, dans un contexte de développement durable. L'élevage bovin est essentiellement concentré dans le nord du pays, tandis que les petits ruminants sont l'apanage des agriculteurs des régions forestières, dans le cadre de systèmes semi-intensifs. La commercialisation du bétail au Ghana est jonchée d'étapes qui ont marqué son développement. Traditionnellement, le bétail circulait librement des zones méridionales pour approvisionner les marchés du sud, sans embûches. A partir de 1968, l'Allien Compliance Act va réglementer et régenter l'ensemble des activités commerciales dans le pays, y compris le commerce du bétail. Il faudra attendre l'avènement des programmes d'ajustement structurel pour libéraliser de nouveau la filière. Le Ghana reste importateur net de produits animaux, la santé et l'alimentation animales restant les deux principales contraintes pour le développement du secteur. Plusieurs politiques sont actuellement mises en oeuvre pour stimuler la production, en cherchant à résoudre les nombreux problèmes auxquels les petits producteurs sont confrontés : notamment l'accès au crédit, aux intrants, et à un matériel génétique amélioré.Livestock represent a critical dimension of the livelihood strategies of many poor and disadvantaged rural and peri-urban communities in Ghana. For many, livestock play a central role in their social and cultural identity and are a source of food, employment, food security and are also assets for store or trade. Access to quality services enhances the productivity and health of the animals and thus the income and welfare of individual producer households and the livestock sector as a whole. Effective technical support enhances the quality of meat, milk, eggs and other produce, increasing value added and opening new potential markets in Ghana and abroad.Livestock production in Ghana is important to the country's agriculture. The sub-sector is estimated to contribute about 9% to the nation's agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and is a source of income for several rural farm households, especially in the northern part of the country. For instance, in the northern part of Ghana, livestock are referred to as a 'walking bank' and provide financial reserves, serving as a risk-coping strategy, which is a buffer during crop failures and in periods of economic stress.Ninety-eight percent of crop farmers make up 98% of the people who keep livestock in Ghana. Crop farming in Ghana is mainly rain-fed and therefore provides seasonal income. Livestock keeping, however, provides substantial household cash income, particularly for the poor and supports food security in many rural households. The Upper East region, for instance, has the highest poverty incidence in Ghana with about 88% of the people living below the poverty line compared to the national average of 40%. In this region, livestock keeping serves as insurance against food deficits that occur frequently. Livestock is also a primary source of monetary income to farmsteads and improves the stability of many farm enterprises by providing income for various purchases such as inputs for crop farming. Thus, livestock keeping is crucial to the optimisation of the Ghanaian farming and livelihood systems.Livestock contribute significantly to the process of agricultural intensification and the sustainability of crop production. Livestock keeping increases the labour use per unit of land. The use of animal traction helps to alleviate labour problems, improves the quality and timeliness of farm operations and increases farm productivity. Animal traction is particularly important in increasing transportation and harvesting food crops, particularly in the Northern and Upper regions of Ghana. Moreover, the use of animal manure replenishes soil fertility and improves productivity in crop farming.The major production of livestock is concentrated in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana where the vegetation is Sudan savannah and Guinea savannah type. These three regions account for up to 77% of cattle production while the relatively dry costal savannah area accounts for 15%. The remaining 8% is produced in humid forests and transitional zones. Sheep and goats (small ruminants which are mostly of the West African dwarf type) and poultry are evenly distributed across the country. Sheep and goats are a frequent source of cash income for farm families, although the average number of flock is small (about 10 heads of sheep and goats). The offtake rate for small ruminants is about 30% higher than that of cattle, which is only 11%. Pigs are produced both commercially and in smallholder farms. Twenty percent of poultry in Ghana is produced commercially while the other 80% is traditionally produced. Commercial poultry are kept in the periphery of urban areas, especially in the southern parts of the country. Birds are primarily raised for eggs, making poultry meat a secondary production.Livestock numbers have not changed much over the last decade. A study in the Upper East Region suggested a decline in the numbers of cattle over the span of 30 years mainly because of cattle stealing by the Fulani herdsmen from Burkina Faso who practice transhumance.Livestock farming in Ghana continues to be a small-scale, unorganised rural activity. The three northern regions offer very good scope for livestock rearing. Cattle owners in the northern part of the country practice a sedentary management system. Some cattle owners hand over the daily care of their cattle to hired herdsmen (Fulanis) whereas children between the ages of five and fifteen take care of the majority of the cattle population. Small ruminant producers tend to keep their animals close to the homestead under the supervision of younger family members. Husbandry practices are generally the same as that of cattle with the exception that the animals may be washed often with soap and water to remove ticks.Cattle in the Sudan savannah (northern most part of Ghana) are almost exclusively of the Ghana Shorthorn cows and Zebu bulls. This is the region with the highest crop-livestock integration, and livestock are mainly managed extensively. Farmers in the coastal savannah do not use animals for traction and do not produce fodder for cattle. There is limited level of integration of crop and animal farming. However, some farmers apply manure from cattle to their vegetable crops, and livestock are kept as a security asset. Livestock keepers in the rain forest zone engage in crop farming, and over 95% of the farmers keep small ruminants under the semi-intensive system. During the farming season, livestock keeping competes with crop farming in the extensive and semi-intensive management systems practised in this region. In the semi-deciduous forest zone, over 70% of sheep and goat farmers practice the semi-intensive system. Livestock management is similar to that of the rain forest zone except that the system of extensive management for chicken is more prevalent in the semi-deciduous zone.The marketing of livestock, in particular cattle and small ruminants, has had a long history in Ghana, linking back to the 19th century North-South-West African trade routes that exchanged livestock for forest products. Traditionally, livestock flowed freely from the surplus regions of the Sahel on the hoof across the borders to Kumasi and then further down south to Accra-Tema and Cape Coast or Sekondi-Takoradi.The first break with this traditional marketing system occurred in 1968, when the Ghana government passed the Alien Compliance Act, which effectively removed all foreigners from a wide range of commercial activities including livestock trade. Cattle marketing in particular suffered as a result of the implementation of this Act, and the government subsequently established the Cattle Development Board, which later became the now defunct Meat Marketing Board (MMB). The functions of the Board, among others, were to develop the local livestock industry, and to purchase, handle and transport all cattle imported for consumption in Ghana. It also arranged payments to dealers from cattle sale proceeds, and distributed imported cattle to Butcher Associations that were recognised by the government. The bureaucracy that became the hallmark of the MMB contributed in cutting the flow of cattle from the Sahel to Ghana in the 1970s, resulting in imports of cheaper frozen beef from South America and Europe. The only other agency that imported beef during this period was the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC), whose beef imports went directly to feed its corned beef factory at Bolgantanga in Northern Ghana.Government control of domestic cattle trade resulted in chronic shortages of beef throughout the mid-1970s and early 1980s, until trade liberalisation under structural adjustment allowed the private sector to regain control of the domestic meat market. There have been three major markets for domestic and imported cattle in the 1990s, namely the Kpong-Tamale (Gushegu) cattle market in the north, the Kumasi cattle in the middle or forest belt, and the Ashiman cattle in the south near Accra-Tema. More recently, the Bawku livestock market where cattle from neighbouring countries (e.g. Burkina Faso) are bought and sold, has essentially replaced the market in Gushegu.The marketing of small ruminants has generally been well organised in Ghana over the years. Livestock move from the north of Ghana to the south by trucks after veterinary inspection and issuance of permit. The animals are inspected again on arrival at their destinations in the southern markets. Livestock traders may be wholesalers and/or retailers depending on their capital for trading activities and the number of animals they are able to purchase per trip. The usual marketing channels that exist move either directly from the producer/farmer to the butcher/consumer or gets to the butcher/consumer via retail itinerant traders, wholesale itinerant traders or wholesalers who then sell to retailers. More recently, many farmers have become livestock traders during the dry season when farming activity is low. Farmers/producers buy livestock from farmers in surrounding villages and sell for profit at the nearby local markets during market days, constituting another vital link in the livestock marketing chain.Ghana depends on imported livestock products, with imports constituting about 70% of the meat and other livestock consumed. Since the early 1990s, the government's official policy has discouraged livestock imports following an outbreak of anthrax in 1988 in Northern Ghana, believed to have been contracted from cattle imported from Burkina Faso and Niger. Currently, importers of livestock are required to obtain permission from the Animal Health Department of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. To be granted import permission, imported animals should be kept for examination at the Health department's quarantines located at the borders, at the importer's expense. Such cumbersome bureaucratic procedures affect the price and availability of animal products in Ghana.Cattle stock numbers have increased twice as much as that of the mid-to-late 1980s. This increase may be attributed to more cattle imports from the Sahel region, particularly Burkina Faso, in response to the CFA franc devaluation; increases in the offtake of local cattle whose prices might have risen due to increases in demand; as well as the reduction in European beef imports.While the Northern Zone is the major centre of cattle production in Ghana, the Central-West Zone (that includes the Kumasi metropolis) and the South Zone (including the Accra-Tema metropolis) are the most important consumption centres. Other livestock, mainly commercial poultry and pigs, are produced and marketed as peri-urban activities. There are no well-developed market structures exclusively for livestock marketing in any region or district across the country. There also are no 'standardised' weights and prices for animals. Cattle and small ruminants are sold in large markets (designated areas usually about an acre in size) with no structures or facilities to facilitate livestock marketing. The most important of such markets include Ashaiman (near Accra), Kumasi, Techiman, Bawku and Gushegu (near Tamale). Markets for livestock and in particular small ruminants, consisting of a few square meters of open space, are more common across the country. Therefore, improvements need to be made in market facilities, standardising sales through the introduction of scales etc.Butchers form a vital link between livestock producers and consumers in Ghana and their activities seem to be well monitored by veterinary staff under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). However, except in a few large towns, the lack of adequate facilities limits their efficient operation. Livestock farmer associations, livestock trader associations and butcher associations play important roles in the marketing of livestock in Ghana. Each type of association is more prominent in a different part of the country, therefore it might be worthwhile to establish the critical roles these associations play in livestock marketing, and ascertain why they operate differently in different parts of the country.A number of infectious and parasitic diseases pose hindrances to the production and productivity of the livestock industry in Ghana. Even though Rinderpest has been eradicated, diseases such as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP), the main zoonoses (Tuberculosis, Brucellosis, Anthrax and Rabies), foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), trypanosomosis and tick-borne diseases (Dermatophilosis, Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis and Heart water) hamper the growth of livestock development. In small ruminant 'peste des petits ruminant' (PPR), mange and internal parasites are the major diseases. Throughout the country, Newcastle and Gumboro are the major epidemics in poultry. In pigs, mange and internal parasites predominate. Rabies is endemic throughout the country and is a threat to humans.Feed is a constraint to animal production. The significant fluctuations in the supply and price of maize affect the quality of maize, consequently affecting the quality of feed. Access to water is an acute problem, especially in the dry season and in the northern parts of Ghana. Extensive trekking of animals in search of water affects their weight. Although around 450 dams and dugouts have been constructed in Northern Ghana for use by both humans and animals, most of them are either silted or overgrown with weeds, partly due to lack of maintenance and partly due to neglect.The Unified Agricultural Extension Service (UAES) was launched under the National Agricultural Extension Project in 1992. The basis of the policy was to allow one agricultural extension agent with adequate capacity to advise the farmer on all agricultural issues with back-up support from the subject matter specialists. Under the policy, all technical directors have to provide technical support on the delivery of relevant services to the farmer.The decentralisation of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) enables the devolution of activities to the district level to facilitate grassroots participation in the implementation of agricultural policies and programmes. The decentralisation was expected to enhance agricultural extension activities under the UAES. A number of impact studies and monitoring reports on the decentralisation process however indicate limited financial decentralisation, leading to financial shortages for District Development Units. Other constraints include lack of office and residential accommodation for staff in some districts, delays in payments of maintenance and inadequate T&T allowances.By privatising animal health care in Ghana, the government has adopted a two-pronged approach. The first was to train Community Livestock Workers (CLWs) who would assist MOFA staff to administer simple prophylactic and basic treatment of livestock ailments, under the Primary Animal Health Care Programme. The CLWs have been selected by livestock producers in their communities, and have been trained and licensed by the Veterinary Services Department (VSD) to perform simple first aid duties, as well as to assist VSD staff in organising vaccinations and other animal health educational campaigns; carrying out livestock census; isolating levels of emergencies of sick animals, intercepting sick or dead animals and their products and selling non-scheduled veterinary drugs and lotions to farmers.The second approach to promoting privatisation of animal health services is the withdrawal of government services in areas where veterinarians establish private practice. Disease control, vaccination campaigns and meat inspection would be contracted out to private veterinary practitioners. The government would maintain adequate animal health personnel to ensure that the quality of service rendered by private practitioners meets acceptable standards. Activities of the private practitioners include: providing good quality animal health services; maintaining good records of all veterinary activities carried out in the private practice area in accordance with the guidelines of the Veterinary Services Department; ensuring availability of veterinary drugs and other medication to livestock and pet owners; performing public functions such as compulsory vaccinations against diseases and inspection of animals for movement and slaughter; submitting monthly returns on all veterinary activities; and reporting by the fastest means possible outbreaks of any scheduled diseases that may occur to the Director of Veterinary Services.Livestock policies in Ghana have undergone some successes as observed under the NLSP especially in the areas of disease control and surveillance, improved breeding stock forage and pasture resources development. Despite these successes, it is observed that these interventions have not had a positive impact on livestock production in general and the livelihoods of the smallholder livestock keepers in particular, resulting in the persistence of rural poverty.This situation may be traced back to the dominance of resource-poor smallholders who employ low levels of technology. The World Bank Report for 2000 indicates that only about a third of all farms that keep ruminants and animal draft power are confined to the northern regions that are free from tsetse fly. Except for commercial poultry and pig producers, livestock farmers rarely use currently available technology to control diseases, feed and house their animals. These factors result in low productivity, low incomes and widespread poverty among the rural population.Smallholder livestock producers are faced with credit constraints, poor access to improved stock, feed problems, inadequate watering facilities and inefficient disease control because of inadequate budget from the central government. The challenges related to marketing and trade are: poor macro-economic management; problems with financial institutions; irregular transportation for traders; illegal taxes by the police, CEPS etc. and the problems with the butchers associations. Other challenges include the numerous checkpoints on the road and poor infrastructure for livestock development.With the current stability of the cedi, the local currency, both the producer and the consumer are bound to benefit. Smallholders will gain tremendously as the inflation rate gradually declines (it has dropped from 41% at the beginning of the year to a current rate of 34%). The increased purchasing power of wages and salaries will enable people to eat more meat. Local demand for livestock and livestock products is greater than local supply, but the improvements in technology that can help increase livestock productivity are now available. With a new livestock development project funded by the African Development Fund that is tailored towards the smallholder, the country is poised to be a self-sufficient livestock producer in the near future.","tokenCount":"21441"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2ae3a8cabb7a2d6e91f0c19d2e536451","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b701a98c-2555-4fe7-b924-6c363bbdc675/retrieve","id":"-1230288660"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af7464e2-9742-4257-9fcc-ab138831590b","pagecount":"376","content":"Governance for local and global public goods 1 governance 4 governance indicators 1 11 adaptive governance 3 information asymmetry multi-level/polycentric governance 3 institutional barriers adaptive capacity 2 institutional fit cross-scale linkages 2 Investments in resources and food systems equity & power 2 markets Food sustainability 2 Modernization Theory institutions 2 Multiple drivers of change, including climate change political-economy 2 nutritional outcome Access 1 Political Settlements adaptive/social/transformative learning 1 Politics Agricultural Inputs 1 Private sector regulation Causality 1 property rights Co-existing food systems 1 public-private partnerships community 1 Reduction of poverty and inequality coordination 1 Resilience Cross-sectoral governance 1 Right to food environmental impacts 1 risk management experience-based food security 1 samaritan's dilemma food policy 1 social-ecological resilience food regimes 1 stakeholders/next users Gender and governance 1 Subsidies governance arrangements 1 Subsistence Protocols for exclusion of keywords based on relevance Protocol Criteria Result KRP1. A keyword receives both 'of little or no relevance' and 'very relevant' ratings. Relevance level not yet determined. Results and commentary to be fed to respondents in Round 3. Keyword is brought forward for article-coverage ratings if respondent has rated as very relevant. KRP2. A keyword with more than 50% responses as 'somewhat relevant' with the remainder of responses either 'of little or no relevance' or 'very relevant' but not both. Relevance level not yet determined. Results and commentary to be fed to respondents in Round 3. KRP3. A keyword has received 50% or more responses as 'of little or no relevance', and no ratings of 'very relevant' Keyword is considered not relevant. Excluded from further analysis. KRP4. A keyword has received 50% or more responses as 'very relevant', and no ratings of 'of little or no relevance'. Keyword is considered very relevant. Included in remainder of project, and exempt from repeat ratings in round 3. Keyword is automatically brought forward for article-coverage ratings. KRP5. A keyword receives 100% 'some relevance' ratings. Keyword is considered somewhat relevant. Exempt from repeat ratings. Not included in article-coverage ratings. Protocol for exclusion of articles from Delphi Round 3 according to article familiarity Protocol Criteria Result Rationale PRF1 No respondent has indicated that they know the study well or have been involved in the study. Check for Protocol PRF2. Delphi works best when combining knowledge of respondents. Based on the results of Round 2, those who have responded in this way cannot give us an indication of coverage.This document reports on a systematic review (SR) of food systems governance indicators. This review was undertaken by the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR)'s Research Programme on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)funded 13-member Working Group on Effective Indicators for food systems governance and a review team 1 .The purpose of this technical report is for archival records in line with the principles of full and transparent documentation of systematic reviews. This report is confined to details of the review method and results, with framing and interpretation and implications of results excluded. The latter are to be published as a CCAFS working paper.This review was undertaken in response to a lack of commensurability of existing research on food systems governance. It was proposed to address this knowledge gap through proposing core indicators to be used in future research, which it is hoped will be adopted in a more consolidated second generation of research on food systems governance designed to support subsequent comparison and aggregation of results. This core set of indicators are to be assembled through a systematic review of literature, conducted according to the following research question: How can food systems governance be researched?To operationalize this research question the following two sub-questions are formulated:a. What indicators are used in current research to operationalize (aspects of) food systems governance? b. What aspects of food systems governance are not currently operationalized?To answer these questions, the key terms are defined as follows:Food systems governance: We use a simplified representation of theories of food systems (Ericksen 2008) and governance (Candel 2014). Thus, food systems governance comprises seven governance levels (local, sub-national, national, regional, global, crossscale, universal) and three food systems components (production, distribution, consumption). We use these levels and components to delimit aspects of food systems governance. This framework is displayed as a matrix below: Operationalization: refers to \"the act of generating data to empirically represent or measure a construct, including both the intermediate steps of conceptual decomposition and the final act of measurement\" (Delaney et al. 2016, p. Indicator: There is no consensus about what constitutes an indicator as distinct, for example, from questions on a data collection instrument or sub-constructs in a conceptual framework, nor are there stable reference points from which to create a definition, with different research designs conceptualising, instrumentising and reporting at different levels of abstraction. Therefore, we label as an 'indicator' a construct or instrument in an operationalization, at a harmonised level of abstraction which was agreed upon among the working group during a workshop.It should be noted that these research objectives and RQs were settled on during the course of the review. At the outset, the review was structured around the following set of RQs: RQ1: What are the main barriers, trade-offs and opportunities for governing food systems under climate change, as credibly reported? RQ2: What are the governance arrangements credibly reported to best support food security goals? sq1: How are particular conditions and mechanisms, institutions, interests and ideas-credibly reported to support forms of effective (and ineffective) governance arrangements? sq2: What forms of coordination/collaboration across levels, sectors and scales are credibly reported to improve governance arrangements in food systems under climate change? sq3: What governance arrangements are credibly reported to be most conducive to adaptive learning?In operationalizing the first two RQs, specifically the term 'credibly reported', the review focused on describing methods used in empirical studies. During the early stages of the review it was concluded that the main RQs could not be answered beyond a narrative synthesis, due to reasons which are discussed in the CCAFS report of this study. During a workshop it was decided to revise the review objectives. Specifically, the focus was shifted to a sub-set of the original research questions (namely about research methods) but to conduct it over a broader sample of literature.This presents an obvious limitation which is to be noted, namely in that the first part of literature gathering was designed and executed for different (a super-set of) goals than those used in final analysis.The overall methodology structuring our research is that of Systematic Review. More specifically, it is a Systematic Review of methods, rather than of evidence. SRs traditionally employ four general components, each of which requires composite methods and follows protocols (Magarey 2001). These four steps are:1. Collection of Literature 2. Appraisal of Quality 3. Data extraction 4. Data analysisIn this review we collect literature through a structured consultation method called Delphi (Linstone and Turoff 1975).We do not conduct quality appraisals due to resource constraints. Appraising quality of methods that derive from multiple disciplines and methodological traditions requires substantially more expertise than for evidence reviews in which all included studies use commensurable methods. Added to this is the issue of even treatment, which is difficult in reviews of mixed methods, as methods from different traditions of research require different quality assessment instruments.Another issue is that of level of reporting and the expected possibility (which was eventually encountered) that reporting of methods in reports might not be sufficient for an examination of validity or other criteria. This is noted as a limitation and a priority area for improvement. More specifically, the methods that our review describes are taken and presented at face value. This should not be taken as an endorsement that they are fit for purpose.Data extraction and analysis follows an adapted version of 'construct-centred methods aggregation' (Delaney et al. 2016). This method was designed as part of a previous review (Crane et al. Submitted, Delaney et al. 2014) and has the purpose of aggregating methods across fields characterised by instability of concepts and terminology. Indicators (as defined above), rather than research question level constructs are used as the organising unit of analysis, and are aggregated around the simplified representation of food systems framework, defined above.We gathered literature through a structured consultation and through drawing from the bibliographies of three recent systematic reviews on similar topics. Although database search is a frequently used replicable method of literature gathering in systematic reviews, we decided against using this method in this review because research on food systems governance has been conducted in many disciplines prior to the relatively recent pairing of these terms, and secondly because among the scholarship that does explicitly use complex frameworks based on FS and governance concepts, much continues to be discipline-specific while interdisciplinary research does not appear to have yet consolidated around a stable set of terminology (Candel 2014, Hospes andBrons 2016). Taken together, these two arguments lead us to doubt the capacity of traditional keyword-based database searches to generate literature pools that are not systematically biased (for example through drawing disproportionately from certain disciplines).Another reason relates to the purposes of the review. As can be seen from the research questions, our interest is in differences between governance levels and food systems components in terms of operationalization, and in differences between (thematic) types of indicators used to research these aspects of FSG. In other words, we are interested in qualitative contrasts and as such we require a purposive sampling rationale that is thematically-or theory-driven rather than seeking statistical representation of a homogeneous population body of literature.For these reasons we chose to gather literature using the Delphi structured communication method. A Delphi is a method of structured communication that facilitates knowledge elicitation among a group of experts (Linstone and Turoff 1975). It is characterised by participation of experts and the elicitation of 'tacit knowledge', anonymity of respondents, sharing of responses among the group of participants by a facilitator, and the possibility for adjustment of responses over multiple rounds as participants are shown arguments made by others. It differs from standard one-to-one consultation between the reviewer and experts chiefly as participants are asked to comment the suggestions of others. On the other hand, it differs from focus group discussions in that participation is (nominally) anonymous, while sharing of individual contributions with the group is controlled by the facilitator to counteract relations of dominance and deference that can emerge in a focus group. It differs from 'one-shot' consultations as the round-based iterations in which participants first make suggestions and then comment and rate the suggestions of others, which are then fed back to the group in a subsequent round allow participants to adjust their ratings in light of these arguments. Overall, these elements are designed to optimise the tacit knowledge of collectively-held expertise.The review drew its panel of expertise primarily from the 13-member Working Group. Involvement of these experts was secured as part of the project design negotiated between the WG and the consultants. Choosing experts in this way was expected to result in a higher response rate and lower dropout rates than with unsolicited requests for participation. There were, however, drawbacks to this means of participant-selection, namely that it could lead to artificial consensus as the experts were already in close communication and, furthermore, the principle of anonymity is compromised. For these reasons, this initial group was asked to nominate additional experts who might be contacted, although the expectation was that the response rate for those outside the WG would be lower. Two additional experts were nominated and participated on this basis, bring the total expert group size to 15.There were four topics covered in the Delphi questionnaires. First participants were asked for keywords to denote topical areas of relevance to the review. Second, bibliographic references to literature suitable for the review were requested. Third, participants were asked to conduct subjective quality appraisals on those literatures with which they were familiar, which was to function as a rudimentary quality screen. And fourth, relevance of literature was gauged through asking participants to rate the relevance of keywords, and then to match literature to these keywords. Taken together, these four elements were designed to conform to the sampling logic required to address our research objectives 2 . First, asking for nominated articles from experts coming from different disciplines was expected to capture a breadth of research, pools of which would likely be systematically missed in a keyword-based database search. Secondly, articlenominations involved (an initial) theoretical sampling from the population of research, according to the tacit preferences of individual participants. This tacit sampling was then to be formalised through the relevance-rating of keywords which provided a framework for a more structured and consolidated theoretical sampling within the set of returned references.We used a three round Delphi design. This was motivated by (a) the need to gather literature relatively rapidly, and (b) still contain enough iterations to allow some sharing of arguments over disagreements and adjustment of ratings, in other words to get the value of a Delphi study. Questions for the three rounds were designed in outline prior to the commencement of the study, and these outlines were adjusted when constructing questionnaires between rounds taking into account some of the trends in responses received and issues identified during pre-testing of questionnaires. In this report we describe the questionnaires which were finally used. Questionnaires were online and live for one week per round (with some flexibility if respondents said they needed more time), with one week between rounds for analysis and questionnaire construction for the following round.In the first round participants were shown a description of the project and simply asked to submit up to five keywords. They were then asked to submit between 15 and 25 references to research reports, which should be empirical, topical, methodologically sound, and well documented.For analysis, both sets of open-ended data were exported and cleaned. 14 responses were received for question 1, each submitting 5 keywords. The set of keywords was examined for duplications and possible mergers which were synthesised interpretively by a team member with SR experience (Aogán Delaney) with these mergers reviewed by a team member with topical expertise (Tom Evans). Two mergers were rejected and four were approved. Removing duplicates, synthesis, and addition of late responses (which were therefore not included in synthesis, but for which duplications could be removed) reduced the set from a raw 70 to 50. This final synthesised set of keywords was then brought forward for Round 2 and is shown in the table below: 10 participants submitted responses to question 2. Prior to removing duplicates, 118 references were received. These bibliographic references were assembled, duplications removed and a project index of subject literature was created. Removal of duplicates (Adger 2001, Sahley et al. 2005, Armitage 2007, Lang and  Barling 2012, Pérez-Escamilla 2012, Esnouf et al. 2013, Jacobi, Schneider, Bottazzi, et al. 2015) reduced this set to 111 unique records, which were assigned a project index ID.A fuller description of results and analysis of Round 1 can be found in Appendix A.In Round 2 participants were asked to rate the relevance of keywords (very relevant, some relevance, little or no relevance), and encouraged to provide justification for extreme ratings.They were then given the opportunity to nominate additional keywords if they felt certain topical areas were underrepresented in the set of keywords generated in Round 1. In the next section, article references were shown and participants were asked to indicate how familiar they were with them, choosing from the values 'I have never heard of this study', 'I am aware of this study but have not read it properly', 'I know this study well', and 'I was involved in this study'. Depending on their responses, participants were then shown article title, authors, and abstracts of articles to which they were familiar (i.e. responded 'I know this study well') but not biased (i.e. did not respond 'I was involved in this study') and asked to provide a subjective quality rating, choosing from the values 'very poor', 'poor', 'mixed', 'good', or 'very good', and to explain their rating. Towards the end of the questionnaire respondents were asked to address any evidence gaps. This was done through presenting the respondent with a list of keywords they had rated as 'very relevant' and asking them for any keyword which they thought had not been adequately covered by the references they had seen to provide a bibliographic reference to an empirical report to partly fill that evidence gap. Finally, the chance was given for respondents to provide email contacts so we could tailor questionnaires in the following Round based on keyword and article ratings provided in this round.It had originally been intended to include a question in this Round where respondents would match articles to keywords so as to determine relevance of articles. However, with 50 keywords to match to 105 references 3 the task became too burdensome, both for respondents and for the survey software. This is because we expected considerable overlap in respondents' nominations in Round 1 which did not materialise. Therefore the task was deferred until Round 3 when it was expected that there would be less keywords and references after the ratings of Round 2. 10 respondents answered questions on keyword ratings, while eight answered questions on familiarity and quality of references. Analytically, the second Round had two purposes: (1) to streamline the questionnaire for Round 3 by excluding 4 articles and keywords on the basis of relevance and quality so as to lower response burden; and (2) to gather and order ratings responses in such a way that they could be fed back to participants in Round 3. To pursue the first purpose, we designed the following three sets of protocols for keyword relevance, article familiarity, and article quality.Finally, 31 additional references were nominated in Round 2 to address evidence gaps. 5 of these correspond to the 6 late nominations in Round 1, while within the set of new nominations, one reference was nominated by two different respondents. As such 25 new unique records were nominated. They were added to the project index and included in both familiarity and keywordcoverage ratings in Round 3.A full account of protocols analysis and results for Round 2 is in Appendix BIn Round 3 the participating experts were first asked to re-rate the relevance of keywords. For each keyword, the distribution of Round 2 responses was presented along with all arguments made in support of these ratings, and respondents were asked again to rate the relevance, choosing from the values 'of little or no relevance', 'some relevance', or 'very relevant'. Following this, those keywords newly submitted in Round 2 to address topical gaps were presented, accompanied by the justification given by its nominator, and respondents were asked to rate relevance in the same way.After keywords, the questionnaire moved on to references. In general, for each article the reference was provided and participants were ask 'How familiar are you with this study?', with the options 'I know this study well', 'I was involved in this study', or if they had never heard of it or not read it properly they were instructed to leave the question blank and click next, which brought them straight to the next reference. Where either of the above two values were selected, the 39 relevant (or potentially relevant) keywords were shown and the respondent was asked to choose 5 topics which the study covered best. In addition, for those who indicated 'I know this study well' they were asked to rate the study for quality, again using the values 'very poor', 'poor', 'mixed', 'good', or 'very good', although explanations were not asked for on this occasion as there would be no future Round to feed them back to participants. This general model was altered for those participants who had given emails in Round 2 and tailored questionnaires were given to them which excluded any repeat or irrelevant questions.A full analysis of Round 3 was not performed. This is because at the time that R3 was closed, attention was focussed on conducting an analysis of the literature prior to a mid-term workshop. At the workshop it was decided to refine the project objectives and also to work with a broader set of literature. This effectively meant that relevance screening would not be required (thus eliminating the need to analyse responses to keyword relevance and article-keyword coverage). It was also observed in Round 2 that the low level of common knowledge of articles meant that the quality questions would not make good use of combined expertise. As such, the only results of relevance going forward were the total set of reference nominations. It is the intention of the authors to conduct a full diagnosis of this Delphi instrument, and for that the responses of Round 3 will be analysed. Readers interested in this analysis are advised to contact the authors for updates.Templates of the questionnaires used in each of the Rounds can be found in Appendix C. Questionnaires were constructed with the software limesurvey, and googleforms. Responses were analysed using Excel and SPSS.Overall, 15 experts took part in the consultation (one of whom joined in Round 3). The response rates in for each of the rounds are given below: involved in it. In other words, agreement on what counts as key works in the field of Food Systems Governance is extremely low, and roughly half of the articles submitted by the panel of experts were not known about to any significant extent by the others.An unfortunate corollary is that we did not get full benefit of the Delphi in the area we expected: interaction and a group opinion on articles (although we did get this with keywords). As such, the Delphi instrument in practice was successful only for nominating references through consultation, but not for the screening of such references. We are not yet in a position to evaluate the value of this nomination exercise as a form of theoretical sampling, but we plan to do so in the near future and interested readers are advised to contact the authors for any updates.However, one unexpected benefit of this consultation was that it revealed possible communities within the field. Even allowing for the effects of difference in response rates between rounds (we would naturally expect respondents to be more familiar with those references they had submitted themselves), if it is assumed that the Effective Indicators Working Group membership, plus 2 additional experts, is at least in any way indicative of food systems governance scholars more generally, then these results would indicate that works on food security or food systems governance are not widely known across a multi-disciplinary community of experts. What this would suggests, then, is a high degree of disciplinary-segregation and a lack of cross-disciplinary engagement with works (supporting an observation made by Candel (2014)) in what is often portrayed as a multi-disciplinary field.On the one hand, we cannot be confident that all relevant communities have been sampled through the Delphi consultation (the low level of overlap between sets of nominations would suggest we are far from saturation). This remains a limitation until such time as this pilot application of the Delphi instrument for literature gathering can be evaluated.On the other hand, it was suspected that had we opted to simply conduct a database search as is standard in SRs it is possible we would have found ourselves in one of those discreet communities. To test this hypothesis, we compared the literature we gathered with the literature examined in the SR of food systems governance (Hospes and Brons 2016), as this was the review of closest topical relevance to the present project. Only seven references were common to both sets (Lebel et al. 2006, Rocha and Lessa 2009, Termeer et al. 2010, Mount 2011, Pereira and Ruysenaar 2012, Candel 2014, Sonnino et al. 2014), meaning that there were 129 articles which were not picked up by their search. This result implies that there are significant works which are not being picked up through searches based on keywords deriving from 'governance', and 'food systems'. On the other hand, Hospes and Brons' review included around 80 articles which were not gathered through Delphi, indicating that our set of references is also a partial representation of the field (although the goal of the Delphi process was to generate a theoretically representative rather than comprehensive set of literature).Given this disconnect, it was then decided to sample articles from the bibliographies of the three recent SRs (Bizikova, Echeverría, et al. 2014, Candel 2014, Hospes and Brons 2016). We first expanded the diagnostic by comparing the Delphi-generated set of references with the total set of references included in the three SRs. Prior to removal of duplications, the three SRs yield 194 hits. 6 references were found to be in more than one SR (i.e. duplicates), while 20 (Sahley et al. 2005, Lebel et al. 2006, Koc et al. 2008, Rocha and Lessa 2009, von Braun 2009, Biermann and Boas 2010, Drimie and Ruysenaar 2010, Garcia and Rosenberg 2010, Termeer et al. 2010, Ziervogel and Ericksen 2010, Juhola and Westerhoff 2011, Mount 2011, Edwards 2012, Huntjens et al. 2012, Lang and Barling 2012, Pereira and Ruysenaar 2012, Pérez-Escamilla 2012, Galiè 2013, Candel 2014, Sonnino et al. 2014) were common with our pool of 136. Removing these yielded a total of 168 unique new references. These were added to the project index.Each of these 168 articles was then abstract-screened to see whether or not it was empirical. Screening revealed 103 non-empirical articles, 54 empirical 5 , 5 references for which an abstract could not be found, and 6 which were ambiguous. References for these 54 empirical articles were then sent to the EIWG in one final round of consultation, asking each respondent to select up to five references which they considered to be particularly relevant, innovative, or path-breaking in terms of methods used. They were also given the opportunity to submit any new references, particularly those published since 2013 (i.e. published after the searches and which would therefore not have been found by the SRs). Four WG members responded, nominating 16 references 6 out of the set of 54 (19 individual nominations prior to removal of duplications). Additionally, 4 new references were nominated. Around the same time, one author, who was contacted in order to request a copy of his article as it was not accessible to the review team, recommended an additional reference. This was also included in the project index (although it was not analysed according to protocol; see subsection: Chasing missing data).One final source of articles was that during analysis, in some cases insufficient methodological detail was reported in the primary article, and following a protocol, cited references were consulted. The procedure for this is described in more detail in the section on Analysis. 38 references were followed in this way, of which 25 were accessible. Two further accessible references were tracked down through snowballing from these 25. Thus, these 27 were also added to the project index, although their analysis did not follow the same protocol as for all other included articlessee sub-section 'chasing missing data' for reasons. This brought the total number of records which were at the very least screened in the project to 337. The project index can be found in Appendix D, which includes information on from where they were submitted, and on future screening through the review.There were two criteria for full inclusion in the review: articles must be (a) accessible; and (b) empirical 7 .Full text copies of 156 references were sought. This comprised all 136 references collected through Delphi, and all 16 references sampled from previous SRs, and the 4 additional nominations. Of the 4 new nominations, copies of three were submitted directly by nominators. 119 references were accessed either through our academic library or could be retrieved open access. Of the 34 remaining references, copies of 5 were acquired from the persons nominating them during the Delphi consultation. For the remaining 29, we set about contacting authors to request copies. To minimise burden on authors, only authors of empirical studies were to be contacted 8 , and only those in portable formatmeaning not booksas copies were to be requested via email (exclusion of books might be a source of systematic bias. Some sub-fields may be more accustomed to publishing in books than in journal articles. Books may be preferable formats to document methods than journal articles. This is noted as a limitation). Therefore abstracts of these 29 were read to screen out non-empirical and non-portable publications. 20 references were excluded on this basis. Contact details for corresponding authors of the remaining 9 were then searched for. 8 email addresses were retrieved, while one article was excluded as no contact info could be found. Of those 8 authors contacted, 6 responded and provided a copy of the requested article 9 .Thus, full-text copies of 133 references were accessed (119 through academic library or open access; 8 copies submitted by nominators; 6 shared by authors upon request).Each of these was brought forward for coding. Those articles which had not been abstractappraised as part of sampling from previous SRs were screened during the first step of coding to 7 Although logically it would make more sense to apply these filters in the opposite order, screening began during an early stage of the review with a broader set of research questions, and when conclusions of non-empirical articles were still to be reviewed. Therefore, initially, full text copies were downloaded and were subsequently coded. For the analysis recounted in this report, only empirical articles were used. For reasons of transparency, steps are reported in the order in which they were executed. 8 By the time this step was executed, the project objectives had been finalised and only empirical articles were to be included in the review. 9 One of whom nominated an additional article. This is described in sub-section 'Chasing missing data' screen out non-empirical articles. Due to administrative practicalities of the project, appraisal was done in two batches. In the first batch, abstracts were coded (including abstract appraisal) by a team of 7 reviewers (Jordan Blekking; Aogán Delaney; Paul McCord; John McGreevy; Tyler Schlachter; Katie Thompson; Jacob Weger), and cross-checked by the lead reviewer (Aogán Delaney). Where there was disagreement, abstracts were sent to another member of the review team (Peter Tamás). In the second batch of coding, abstracts 10 were only appraised by one reviewer.Not counting the 20 references which were excluded as non-empirical or books prior to contacting authors, nor those not sampled from the previously SRs, 65 articles were excluded as they were not empirical. This includes 6 articles over which there was intercoder disagreement, which was finally resolved in classifications as non-empirical (see Appendix E for details of this resolution). 63 of the 65 were gathered in the Delphi process; one (Vermeulen et al. 2012) was a false positive from the SR bibliographies; and another (Leach et al. 2010) was from among the 4 new submissions.Two further articles (Wertz-Kanounnikoff and McNeill 2012, Schader et al. 2014) were coded as non-empirical but subsequently re-included in the review as they constituted reviews of methods and would therefore contain descriptions of indicators of relevance to the project. This, therefore, left 68 articles included in the full review (66 empirical plus 2 methods reviews). The entire search and screening process is represented in the Prisma diagram below; these set of 68 included articles are listed in the table below; and details of screening for each reference of the project are contained in the project index in Appendix D. 10 During the review it became apparent to us that the abstract is not a reliable indicator of whether an article is empirical or not. This is partly to do with robustness and boundedness of our understanding of 'empirical': Many instances of uncertainty or disagreement surrounded articles which were reviews of evidence, position pieces which drew on research (often done by the same authors), and introductions to special issues, or articles which present a methodological framework and apply it only for illustrative purposes. However, there were other instances where abstracts simply did not provide enough information to make an inference. (2011) development assistance: rationale, institutional barriers and opportunities in Mozambique. Environmental Science & Policy,14 (4) The purpose of analysis was to integrate the governance indicators used in existing research into a common framework. Therefore, the indicator was to become the primary unit of analysis. However, we had defined an indicator as constructs at an agreed level of deconstruction, which is difficult to identify straight from research reports. Secondly, although our analysis was to be largely constrained to indicators themselves, any analysis or replication of methods -which we hope that our review will stimulatewould require more methodological detail than simply a set of constructs at a common level of abstraction. This was to be achieved through an intermediary stage of analysis in which a methodological summary would function as the units of analysis from which indicators would then be identified. Therefore, following (Delaney et al. 2016), data extraction and coding of primary reports of research, were to seek the following pieces of essential information: data collection methods; questions on data collection instruments (for indicators harmonised to a higher level of abstraction). Additional contextual information includes: conceptual framework; data analysis methods; justification of inference; discussion of limitations. In order to provide transparency and methodical reliability to extraction and grouping of these elements, coding would start with identification of a research question, and within the research question, any governance-related constructs. The governance construct was to be used as the organising unit, around which the above-mentioned details on its operationalization would be gathered.This constitutes the data to be extracted from articles. Extraction was done through coding in Atlas.ti, coding which is structured by a coding framework.As previously mentioned, coding of articles took place in two stages. These are described in turn.The first round of coding was designed and executed for an earlier set of research questions.Once the project objectives had been revised, a subset of coding from this first round was used and articles coded did not require any additional coding. Below is presented the steps for this first round of coding. Steps which became redundant following revision of project objectives are written in strikethrough text:1.0 In any step in the coding process that follows, you may apply the code 'Uncertain' if you are unsure about the extent to which a particular code fits. When applying the code 'Uncertain', create a comment for the quotation and describe the cause of uncertainty. 1.1 Locate the conclusion section of the paper. This will usually be headed 'Conclusion'or will be the final section of the paper. Apply the code 'Conclusion Section' to the entire section.  (Hooghe and Marks 2003).Cross-scale governance: Patterns of governance whereby actors from distinct scales, levels of social organization, or political jurisdiction are linked in order to address problems that overlap or cross boundaries between such scales, levels, or jurisdictions (Heikkila et al. 2011) One or more explicitly stated research questions can be found.The research is based on one or more research questions but they are not reported clearly.No explicitly stated research question can be found but one or more of the following conditions hold: Research objectives are stated  An implicit research question can be detected but is never stated.  Research question is stated in the article abstract but not in the body of the text.1.8 Within the research question(s)/hypothesis, identify all constructs. For each construct, assess whether it is potentially equivalent to any of the Central project-constructs (governance; governance arrangements; food security; food system; climate change).Where a construct is potentially equivalent to one of these constructs, apply the construct code from the set of codes used in step 1.2 and create an in-vivo code of the form '[documentID] -[construct name]' 11 . Repeat for each construct in the research question which is potentially relevant to one of the five central project-constructs. 1.9 Read the theoretical framework and methods section and for each construct coded in step 1.8, identify all additional sub-constructs that in some way relate to those coded in the research question. Using the same in-vivo technique, create new codes for each new construct identified.Create relationships between the in-vivo codes created in steps 1.8 and 1. Identify definitions for each construct in-vivo coded in steps 1.8 and 1.9. For each construct definition, apply your construct code and the code 'definition'. This set of step was executed by 7 coders (Jordan Blekking; Aogán Delaney; Paul McCord; John McGreevy; Tyler Schlachter; Katie Thompson; Jacob Weger). It was originally intended to blindtest this set of instructions to test for inter-coder agreement, to identify ambiguity, and to align interpretation. However, the logistical demands of the project, specifically the need for mid-term results, meant that there was no time for such testing. Instead the lead reviewer gave a training session to each of the other coders, and after coding was complete, he re-examined coded works and made corrections where instructions had been misinterpreted. Although this compromises the standards of replicability, it was a pragmatic solution in demanding circumstances.In light of the revised project objectives, new coding instructions were drafted for all papers which had not been coded in the first round. In large part these new instructions constituted a subset of the original coding instructions. Some alterations in wording were also made in light of ambiguities identified in the first round. These ambiguities were identified through three sources: questions that coders had about how to execute the steps; feedback that coders gave following execution of the steps; and observations made when examining how documents had been coded. The main sources of ambiguity are listed:-While yes-and no-codes were used to indicate whether the article was empirical or not, only yes-codes were given for items such as data collection methods reported, etc. As such, where a code was not applied, it was unclear whether this indicated that an item was not reported, or that this step of instructions was skipped. Therefore, all coding for presence of items will now have yes-and no-codes. -Placing of yes-codes was not always on the correct place, particularly as some coders placed the 'Empirical-Y' code on the word 'abstract' or over the entire abstract, rather than over text in the abstract on which bases it was concluded that the article was empirical. This can be addressed with better wording and/or demonstration. -It appears that in coding for RQs, some coders put a lot of thought into whether the RQ was clear or unclear, when the main thing that I wanted to know was whether an (clear or unclear) RQ was reported or not. This can be address with wording, and possibly through collapsing the clear/unclear distinction. -Some coders expressed difficulty determining if certain types of articles should be classified as empirical or not. The most recurrent categories that were ambiguous were: reviews; introduction to special issues; articles based on author expertise accumulated through years of research. This will be improved (although probably not conclusively) through additional guidance in the instructions clarifying how such categories should be interpreted.-Sub-constructs: there was a tendency sometimes to pick up every construct mentioned, or in some other way not to follow a mechanical deconstruction. I'm trying to think of ways to simplify this. There was also problems in use of construct relationships. Maybe a simplified system of relationships should be used. E.g. just one vertical relationship. -IN general there was problems with sections. The instructions suggest sections where the information might be found. However, sometimes these sections don't exists (either because different wording is used, or because a different format is used, for example with book chapters, or with NGO reports), and other times the info is to be found in different sections. I try to clarify that sections are only guidelines in instructions. -Whether there is more than one segment of text to be coded per item.-Use of 'uncertain' and 'methodology used' and how to put comments so that they are article-and text-specific.Based on these observations, the following set of instructions was drafted 12 , with alterations written in bold:1.0 In any step in the coding process that follows, you may apply the code 'Uncertain' if you are unsure about the extent to which a particular code fits. When applying the code 'Uncertain', create a comment for the quotation and describe the cause of uncertainty. Code item with the following codes: 'DCMethods' 'DAnalysis' 'inference' and 'limit'. If for a given paper you cannot locate the necessary information for an item, apply the codes from the following set to the heading in the methods section, as suitable: DCMethods-NotReported; DAnalysis-NotReported; inference-NotReported; limit-NotReported., and move on to the next item. One or more explicitly stated research questions can be found.The research is based on one or more research questions but they are not reported clearly.No explicitly stated research question can be found but one or more of the following conditions hold:Indicators could not be located for the presence of either a clear or unclear research question. Larson and Petkova define governance as follows: \"Governance refers to who makes decisions and how decisions are made, from national to local scales, including formal and informal institutions and rules, power relations and practices of decision making\" (2011, pp. 6-9)  1.8 Identify definitions for each construct in-vivo coded in steps 1.5 and 1.6. For each construct definition, apply your construct code and the code 'definition'.On this occasion, only one team member was available for coding these instructions were executed on all remaining papers.Of the set of 68 articles included in the review, two (Wertz-Kanounnikoff and McNeill 2012, Schader et al. 2014) were not coded according to protocol as they constituted reviews of methods and the coding framework would therefore not make sense. However, following citations (step described in next subsection) identified two additional empirical articles (Donovan et al. 2010, Jawtusch et al. 2013), which were coded according to protocol.Therefore, coding was carried out on 68 articles. In four articles no research question could be found and they were excluded from further analysis. In 12 further articles, the RQ did not contain a governance construct, and they were excluded from further analysis. In two articles, the RQ contained 2 governance constructs. The remaining 50 articles each contained one governance construct in the RQ. Therefore, our review identified 54 RQ-level governance constructs.For each governance construct, a structured summary of its operationalization was created through extracting coded text and assembling into tables, modelled on the template below: These structured summaries formed the organising unit of analysis for the intermediary stage of analysis, prior to extraction of indicators. They were carried forward to the next step.In the first stage of coding, and as previously observed in a SR of methods to study climate change vulnerability, where this analysis method was previously used (Crane et al. Submitted, Delaney et al. 2014), it was observed that most reports did not contain sufficient information to reproduce the methods used. As such, we took the additional steps of following citations and contacting authors where the information taken from reports was not sufficient to fill all fields in the structured summaries of operationalization.In the vulnerability review, we used the criterion that a page number must be provided in order to chase. This resulted in very few instances where the criterion was met and information was chased. Reproducibility is important and so places limits on how checking citations can be done. In this review, we overcame this by requiring:  a specific statement that more methodological info can be found in a particular citation, and  that such information is missing from structured summaries.Only when both conditions were met was further information sought. This occurred in 14 articles, two of which were themselves reviews of methods (mentioned earlier). When following references, only those references which were (a) in English and (b) immediately accessible were examined as time and resources did not permit examination of non-English language articles or asking among networks or authors for copies of inaccessible articles.In two of the followed articles (Huntjens et al. 2011, Jawtusch et al. 2013), both conditions for chasing citations were again met, and the next set of citations was followed. For one article (Leith et al. 2012), a suitable reference (Brown et al. 2012) was suggested by the author when contacted requesting a copy of the primary article.Each new reference which was accessed and reviewed was added to the project index (in Appendix D).It is important to note that while codes in Atlas were used to identify and extract relevant material for the structured summaries of these chased citations, coding was not done according to the coding framework as it would not make sense, for instance for the coding of supplementary material which is not in report form, or when following a secondary analysis based around one research question and searching for details of primary data collection in a study structured around a different research question. The only exception to this was for citations taken from the two methods reviews. These yielded 7 articles which were coded by the protocol. However, 3 of these were not empirical while 2 contained no governance constructs, leaving only two of these articles yielding structured summaries of operationalizations.In Appendix F you can see a record of the articles chased.As a second step, authors were to be contacted for supplementary information. In order to preserve structure and reproducibility of the review, a standard questionnaire form and email template were used. The questionnaire form consisted of the structured summary with empty fields highlighted, while the email template can be seen below:We are contacting you in relation to the methods you used in your study, reported in [reference].We are conducting a review of food systems governance indicators. Our goal is to synthesise indicators that have been used in different studies in order to identify a core set to be recommended for use in future studies. Our hope is that adoption, or failing that transparent discussion, of proposed common indicators will increase the comparability of the next generation of research on food systems governance.We began by collecting information on methods from journal articles or research reports. Such reports need to conform to expectations like word limits and accessibility that at times make it difficult to fully report methods. To supplement what we have found in reports we are contacting authors to gather a fuller picture of their methods where possible.Attached you can find a 'structured summary' of the research methods you reported to have used in operationalizing the concept [name of construct operationalized]. As you can see, we could find information for some but not all fields. Please complete the empty cells (highlighted in blue) using material documenting this project. If the required information is not documented but you clearly remember, please insert that information followed by the code (m).At this point the systematic method we are using has us exclude from further consideration methods that are not adequately documented. Of course, we cannot yet guarantee that your methods will be described in our final report (we also face restrictions), but if you help us get a more complete picture of the methods, we will be able to consider your contribution and, as such, there is at least the possibility that the effort you put into developing your methods will be recognized through adoption by future researchers. Further, your insight may also assist researchers interpret your work and it will allow them to compare their own findings with those found through your methods. All of these will help to produce a more coherent body of knowledge on food governance.We constructed a minimum threshold of information to warrant contacting authors. This was that the structured summary included a minimum of items on data collection instruments and/or conceptual deconstruction following coding (and where appropriate chasing references), but had at least some blank cells. This was chosen as a minimum skeleton around which an opperationalization is structured. Without this information it becomes very difficult to speak of or work with an operationalization as such.8 summaries were excluded because they did not contain this minimum. 7 were not contacted because all fields were full using only reports or cited material. For 39 summaries contact details for authors were sought and where found authors were contacted using the standard method described above. At the time of writing, 6 summaries had been received filled in by authors, while a number of other responses were also received.To protect the anonymity of those who did not (yet) respond, details are not reported here of responses. Including correspondence with authors as a step in SR thus raises difficulties not only in relation to SR protocols, but also in relation to ethics: through such a step authors who are contacted are being included in research without the opportunity to give or refuse consent.In total, 46 structured summaries met the minimum threshold after all steps of data extraction. These were brought forward for analysis. The structured summaries of operationalizations can be seen in Appendix G.These structured summaries were then used as data sources from which indicators were identified and extracted. The indicators were then to be situated in the two-dimensional matrix representing a food systems governance framework. The largest challenge lay in identifying indicators at an agreed-upon, but not defined, level of conceptual abstraction. To compound this, summaries had to be inspected to see if they contained this level of abstraction, as some did not. Level of conceptual abstraction was not always even within a given paper, with the harmonised level appearing in multiple levels of deconstruction 15 . Another challenge lay in synthesising indicators. Our goal was to make broad comparisons of methods and as such too detailed an examination was not possible. In practical terms, this means that we were tasked with on the one hand managing a set of indicator names, and on the other hand to do so without inspecting definitions or further operationalization for commensurability 16 . This trade-off is accepted as a limitation. It was accomplished through using a startlist of codes, creating new codes where appropriate, and consolidating the list of codes through mergers periodically. This also leads to a limitation of the results: Through taking indicators out of their theoretical context and calling indicators which are designed to measure two rather distinct concepts the same term the methods are effectively theoretically disembedded. This has clear implications for methodological quality criteria such as validity.Analysis was done according to the following set of steps:3.1 Load all structured summary tables into Atlas as new analytical units. 3.2 For any table that does not include neither items on data collection instruments nor a conceptual deconstruction, apply the code 'not-classifiable' and remove from further analysis. For those that include one but not both of these items, code as 'semi-classifiable' and remove from further analysis 17 . For those that do include this minimum amount of data, apply the code 'classifiable'. Food production is understood as \"all activities involved in the production of raw food materials\". These can range, for example \"from the process of obtaining inputs such as land and labor, breeding animals, planting crops or obtaining young animal stock, caring for the growing food material and then harvesting or slaughtering it\" (Ericksen 2008, p. 238).This operationalization examines an aspect of governance of food consumption.Food consumption is understood as involving \"everything from deciding what to select through to preparing, eating and digesting food. Prices are influential, as are income levels, cultural traditions or preferences, social values, education and health status\" (Ericksen 2008, p. 238).This operationalization examines an aspect of governance of distribution of food between production and consumption.Distribution is understood here as involving both \"moving the food from one place to another and marketing it\" and \"the various transformations that raw food material (vegetable, fruit, animal) undergoes before it is sent to the retail market\", all of which '''add value' to the raw material in an economic sense, but these activities may also significantly alter the appearance, storage life, nutritional value, and content of the raw materials\" (Ericksen 2008, p. 238) In the 2 nd iteration, step 4.1 saw 4 mergers being made:accountability (Mandemaker) and Electorally democratic (Acemoglu et al). To be called 'electorally democratic' -'commitment' (Lesnikowski) and 'performance of governance programmes' (Minde).Both are about looking at programme outcomes. Such programmes may not necessarily be related to FS and be used as a sign of commitment. As in you could substitute Minde's indicator into Lesnikowski's framework, but not vice versa. To be called 'outcomes of similar programmes'. -'distribution of responsibilities across levels' (Bizikova et al) and domestic ownership (Korhonen-Kurki et al). The latter seems to be a special case of the former. Also these can be merged with 'room for autonomous change', since they are observing something similar, but valuing it slightly differently. Also, 'support for individual/household action' would be a special case of 'room for autonomous change' in that it follows a similar logic.By the same logic as used earlier, it is also broadly consistent in which it seeks to measure with 'distribution...' eventhough it has a different implicit value. It is also not inconsistent with 'domestic ownership' since they look at very different scales and from different perspectives (the latter looking from local scale down, the former looking from national scale up). 'rescaling' (Candel) also looks at something similar, albeit in motion. Gupta's 'variety' also fits, although this indicator places quite different values. Merge as 'distribution of responsibilities across levels'. -'motivation' (Bizikova) and 'public pressure' (Lesnikowski). Both look at factors which might lead to favourable policy change. To be called 'factors leading to policy change'In step 4.2, the following mergers were made:-'access to and control of inputs' with 'distribution of responsibilities across scales'.Latter is a special case of the former. Also 'polycentricity' can be merged with these. To be called 'scale-specific responsibilities and competences'. -'cross-scale interaction' and 'involvement in supra-national institutions/agreements'.The latter is a specific case of the former, which can only occur at national level. To be called 'cross-scale interaction'. -'factors leading to policy change' and 'implementation'. To be called 'implementationsupporting conditions'. -'informal rules' with 'networks'. To be called 'informal governance'.-4.2: merge 'knowledge sharing' with 'use of science and research'. To be called 'use of knowledge and science'.-4.2: suspect merger of 'multi-stakeholder' and 'participation'. To be called 'participation and multi-stakeholder engagement' -4.2: rename 'policy change recognising Food Systems to 'favorable initial policy change'. This is to clarify how it is distinct from 'policy framework'.  (Eakin et al 2011); participation (Lebel et al 2006); empowerment (Lebel et al 2006); fairness (Lebel et al 2006) In the 3 rd iteration, no mergers were made and no new indicators were identified. Therefore the matrix from the second iteration was unchanged. The final set of results was thus arrived at. The entire analysis process is illustrated in the flow chart below, while the full list of 42 indicators is given in the table following it. A more detailed list of all individual indicators, including governance and FS classification, original names, and sources can be seen in Appendix H.Indicator Source Accountability (Lebel et al. 2006, Jawtusch et al. 2013) Adaptive capacity (Leith et al. 2012, Jacobi, Schneider, Mariscal, et al. 2015) Centralisation (Gereffi et al. 2005) Common PoolResource management design (Poteete andOstrom 2004, Huntjens et al. 2012) Corruption (Mandemaker et al. 2011, Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Country size (Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Cross-scale interaction (Donovan et al. 2010, Juhola and Westerhoff 2011, Galiè 2013, Lesnikowski et al. 2013, Cooper and Wheeler 2015) Deliberation (Lebel et al. 2006, Schouten et al. 2012) Discursive framing (Boons andMendoza 2010, Pesqueira andGlasbergen 2013) Effective (von Geibler 2013)Electorally democratic (Lebel et al. 2006, Acemoglu et al. 2009, Mandemaker et al. 2011) Empowerment (Lebel et al. 2006) Fairness (Lebel et al. 2006, Gupta et al. 2010, Jawtusch et al. 2013, Wambugu et al. 2015) Favorable initial policy change (Donovan et al. 2010, Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2014) Gender-sensitivity (Galiè 2013, Wambugu et al. 2015) Governance frameworks (Donovan et al. 2010, Juhola and Westerhoff 2011, Galiè 2013) Holistic (Jawtusch et al. 2013) Implementationsupporting conditions (Brownhill and Hickey 2012) Implementationsupporting conditions (Lesnikowski et al. 2013, Bizikova, Nijnik, et al. 2014) Informal governance (Spielman et al. 2008, Osbahr et al. 2010, Juhola and Westerhoff 2011, Galiè 2013) Institutional mainstreaming (Sietz et al. 2011, Bizikova, Nijnik, et al. 2014, Wambugu et al. 2015) Leadership (Gupta 2007, Cooper andWheeler 2015) Learning (Lebel et al. 2006, Gupta 2007, Wilder et al. 2010, Eakin et al. 2011, Jacobi, Schneider, Bottazzi, et al. 2015) Legal Framework (Kabubo-Mariara 2007, Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2014, Wambugu et al. 2015) Legitimacy (von Geibler 2013)Networks (Juhola and Westerhoff 2011, Pesqueira and Glasbergen 2013, Cooper and Wheeler 2015) organising (Cooper and Wheeler 2015, Jacobi, Schneider, Bottazzi, et al. 2015, Jacobi, Schneider, Mariscal, et al. 2015) Outcomes of similar programmes (Minde et al. 2008, Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Participation and multi-stakeholder engagement (Lebel et al. 2006, Donovan et al. 2010, Eakin et al. 2011, Jawtusch et al. 2013, Pesqueira and Glasbergen 2013, Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2014, Cooper and Wheeler 2015, Wambugu et al. 2015) Policy framework (Osbahr et al. 2008, Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2014, Wambugu et al. 2015) Political stability (Mandemaker et al. 2011) Polycentricity (Lebel et al. 2006, Cooper andWheeler 2015) Public social commitments (Mandemaker et al. 2011, Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Reflexivity (Termeer et al. 2013, Candel et al. 2015) Resilience/robustnes s (Lebel et al. 2006, Termeer et al. 2013, Candel et al. 2015) Resources (Gupta et al. 2010, Eakin et al. 2011, Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Responsiveness (Termeer et al. 2013, Candel et al. 2015) Revitalization (Termeer et al. 2013, Candel et al. 2015) Rule of Law (Mandemaker et al. 2011, Jawtusch et al. 2013) Scale-specific responsibilities and competences (Lebel et al. 2006, Gupta et al. 2010, Quinn et al. 2011, Galiè 2013, Bizikova, Nijnik, et al. 2014, Korhonen-Kurki et al. 2014, Candel et al. 2015) State capacity (Mandemaker et al. 2011, Lesnikowski et al. 2013) Use of science and research (Donovan et al. 2010, Bizikova, Nijnik, et al. 2014, Cooper and Wheeler 2015, Wambugu et al. 2015) A cleaner version of the matrix is presented below. Moves towards synthesis were begun. However, during synthesis process, 2 additional responses were received. Therefore the process involved the following:-Raw merger of responses recieved within deadline -Identification of non-identically named suspected equivalents -Submission of non-identically named suspected equivalents to SME for verification -Receipt of two additional responses -Receipt of verification by SME -Synthesis according to SME comments -Raw addition of two late responses (10 keywords)Raw merging, where keywords were only merged if they had identical names, gave 48 keywords, including 6 suspected possible mergers.The SME rejected two mergers ('food systems' with 'food regimes'; 'governance indicators' with 'governance arrangements') and approved 4 (4 keywords were collapsed into two clusters 'adaptive governance' and 'adaptive capacity'; 2 keywords were collpased into 'cross-scale linkages'; 2 into 'equity and power'; 3 into 'multi-level/polycentric governance').All these suggestions were accepted by the lead reviewer. This brought the number of keywords down to 41.Raw addition of two late responses yielded a final set of 50 keywords (9 new, one identically named as an existing keyword (food sustainability)). These are listed below including the number of times nominated. For instance, if one keyword is rated as 'some relevance' by 8 respondents, and 'very relevant' by 2 respondents, it would be fed back in R3 according to KRP2. However, if neither of those respondents who rated the keyword as 'very relevant' provided a justification of their rating, there is little point in asking respondents to re-evaluate their ratings. Therefore the keyword would be re-subjected to the protocols, this time with both 'very relevant' ratings discounted. This results in a 100% rating as 'some relevance' and so according to P5 is treated as somewhat relevant.Similarly, if a keyword has a ratio of 6:2:2 across the three ratings, and if on closer inspection after passing KRP1, neither of those who provided 'very relevant' ratings offered justification, it would be resubmitted to the protocols, with a 6:2 ratio, or 75%:25% ratio. Thus it would fall to KRP3 and be excluded from further analysis.If, however, a keyword with a ratio of 2:5:3 across the three ratings turned after closer inspection into 5:3, this would be counted as KRP2, and would be returned to respondents for re-rating, although with only one extreme rating rather than both.Section 2 -Familiarity of references Although we don't have a 100% response rate, it was decided to exclude from article-coverage ratings all references for which no respondents in R2 rated their familiarity as either 'I know it well' or 'I was involved', and further in such cases that more than 50% of respondents indicated that they never heard of it. Although it is possible that of those 4 respondents who participated in Round 1 but not Round 2 might have greater familiarity, it seems to be a good decision for two reasons: a) the response rate among those four is expected to continue to be lower in R3 than for those who did participate in R2; and b) with familiarity rates already low among those who participated in R2 a given article is likely to be not well-known and it is unlikely to get more than one participant to rate article coverage. The Delphi method is premised on combining knowledge of experts, and is least effective when only one participant answers a given question. On the other side, removing such articles is expected to lower the total number of questions and variables (which is already large) and therefore to reduce response burden.However, this is not to suggest that these references will be excluded from the review -just that they will be excluded from keyword-coverage ratings. Coverage of these articles will therefore need to be established by the reviewers.Therefore, the protocol is specified as follows:No respondent has indicated that they know the study well or have been involved in the study.Check for Protocol PRF2.Delphi works best when combining knowledge of respondents. Based on the results of Round 2, those who have responded in this way cannot give us an indication of coverage.The study has met exclusion Exclude this study from The familiarity level is quite protocol PRF1 and further more than 50% of respondents have indicated that they never heard of the study.keyword-coverage ratings.low, indicating that the chances of getting two or more respondents from those who did not respond in R2 to be sufficiently familiar to be eligible for keyword-coverage ratings is also quite low.Section 3 -Quality appraisals:--Where articles have been given conflicting quality ratings (i.e. at least two ratings with at least one of these as 'very poor' or 'poor' and at least one as 'good' or 'very good'), these references will be given back to those who rated them so, plus comments.Protocol Criteria Result Rationale PQA1One or less respondents rated the article.More than one expert judgement is required in order for the Delphi results to be strong enough to be accepted.At least two respondents rated the article, all of whom rated 'mixed'.No indication has been given as to the quality of the article one way or the other, nor are comments provided likely to sway respondents.At least two respondents rated the article, with at least one rating 'very poor' or 'poor' and none rating 'good' or 'very good'.There is a consensus among raters that the article is of poor quality.At least two respondents rated the article, with at least one rating 'very good' or 'good' and none rating 'poor' or 'very poor'.There is a consensus among raters that the article is of good quality.At least two respondents rated the article, with at least one rating 'very good' or 'good' and at least one rating 'poor' or 'very poor'.Quality not yet determined. Repeat ratings if commentary for at least one rating has been given.There is disagreement among respondents about the quality of the article. Commentary might persuade some respondents to re-evaluate their ratings.The table below summarises frequency tables for the rating of each keyword. In addition, scorings for the 4 protocols on keyword relevance are given, followed by relevance conclusions and implications for Round 3. As a result, the following table summarises which keywords fall to which conclusions and implications. After checking for supporting commentary, none of those qualifying by protocols 1 or 2 were subsequently found to be insufficiently supported by commentary. Therefore no re-assignments were made to the conclusion in the box above.These seem to demonstrate that it is easier for the group to decisively label a keyword as very relevant than as of little or no relevance.The fact that the largest number to fall within one result is that of the widest variance suggests that there is some disagreement. Hopefully this can be resolved to an extent in the third round.The following keywords were also nominated in Round 2, plus justification.Barriers, trade-offs and opportunities for climate change adaptation.May provide a process-oriented benchmark to assess 'effectiveness' of governance arrangements.Theory that it is important to promote rural development as governments tend to exploit rural poor. Problem is that it overlooks a dynamic relationship between urban and rural areas and how interventions in both areas are need to promote development and food security Urbanization as developing countries develop, they tend to become more urban which changes the food system in ways not fully understood. So important to focus on urban issues like market access and transport to market and not simply focus on things like increasing yield.International Food Policy food security is not only a local problem and it would be important to consider international dimensions like agricultural subsidies in rich countries, land acquisitions and biofuel production.Land Acquisitions a controversial issue that is often linked to food security given that large tracts of land are increasingly being purchased/acquired by foreign investors. This could be good or bad, depending on the circumstances.where is the money going to come from to promote food security? We need to think about these bigger picture issues.It seems we need to ask what metrics have been used already to evaluate effective governance and assess these metrics for applicability to food system analysisThere are a plethora of studies on the governance of global value chains. A subset of this literature focusing on those chains most linked to food security objectives might be critical.These keywords, plus justifications, will be carried forward to Round 3 for relevance rating. They will also be used for article-coverage ratings.Section 2 -reference familiarity 56 references met PRF 1. These were further inspected for protocol PRF2. Of these, 4 were re-included on the bases of moderate levels of familiarity. As such of the 105 articles included in Round 2, 52 are to be excluded from keyword-coverage ratings in Round 3.However, it is important to note that there were 6 references submitted in Round 1 after the deadline which did not make it into the questionnaire for Round 2. These will be included in familiarity and for those with appropriate levels of familiarity, keyword-coverage ratings.In addition, the following 30 additional references were nominated in Round 2 to address evidence gaps (5 of which correspond to the 6 late nominations in Round 1; within the set of new nominations, one reference was nominated by two different respondents). They are added to the project index and will be included in both familiarity and keyword-coverage ratings. Hirschman AO (1997AO ( [1977]]) The Passions and the Interests: political arguments for capitalism before its triumph, Princeton University Press, Princeton.Jones GA and Corbridge S (2010) The continuing debate about urban bias: the thesis, its critics, its influence and its implications for poverty-reduction strategies. Of the 105 references included in the Round 2 questionnaire, only 42 received quality ratings. This is slightly less than the 49 references for which at least one person reported to know it well or be involved in it. Among those articles which received ratings, 27 were rated by only one respondent, thus resulting in unknown quality according to PQA1. The remaining 15 were all rated as either 'good' or 'very good'. According to PQA4 these are being considered good quality articles. None of the 105 articles from Round 2 will therefore be returned for repeat quality appraisals in Round 3.Adgeretal20051Although this quality instrument was always highly subjective, after using it seems its value is minimal for the purposes of our project. Delphi works on the basis of collecting differing opinions from experts.However, with such low overlap in familiarity there were very few cases where differing opinion would be theoretically possible. Moreover, where such overlap occurred, opinions did not differ. We are not in a position to say whether this is as a result of the design of the quality instrument or of the literature gathering instrument in Round 1. Abstract Products certified according to their environmental and social sustainability are becoming an important feature of production, trade and consumption in the agro-food sector. 'Sustainability networks' are behind the emergence and growth of these new product forms, often evolving into multi-stakeholder initiatives that establish and manage base codes, standards, certifications and labels. As sustainability moves into the mainstream, understanding the governance of these networks is essential because they partly reshape the structure and characteristics of commodity flows. In this article, we examine the role of expertStatement . In this article, we examine the role of expert knowledge and process management in governing two multistakeholder initiativesNo A look through the paper shows that there is no description of methods knowledge and process management in governing two multistakeholder initiatives (the Marine Stewardship Council and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil) and in shaping their distributional effects. We find that the ability of developing countries, especially small-scale actors within them, to shape standard setting and management to their advantage depends not only on overcoming important structural differences in endowments and access to resources, but also on more subtle games. These include promoting the enrolment of one expert group or kind of expert knowledge over another, using specific formats of negotiation, and legitimating particular modes of engagement over others.(the Marine Stewardship Council and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil) and in shaping their distributional effects does not discriminate between primary and secondary data.(making it not useful for our goal of describing indicators), and their case studies are most probably derived from a convenience review of literature. (Boserup 1965) INTRODUCTION Ever since economists have taken an interest in the secular trends of human societies, they have had to face the problem of the interrelationship between population growth and food production. There are two fundamentally di®erent ways of approaching this problem. On the one hand, we may want to know how changes in agricultural conditions a®ect the demographic situation. And, conversely, one may inquire about the e®ects of population change upon agriculture.To ask the ¯rst of these two questions is to adopt the approach of Malthus and his more or less faithful followers. Their reasoning is based upon the belief that the supply of food for the human race is inherently inelastic, and that this lack of elasticity is the main factor governing the rate of population growth. Thus, population growth is seen as the dependent variable, determined by pre-ceding changes in agricultural productivity which, in their turn, are explained as the result of extraneous factors, such as the fortuitous factor of technical invention and imitation. In other words, for those who view the relationship between agriculture no and population in this essentially Malthusian perspective there is at any given time in any given community a warranted rate of popula-tion increase with which the actual growth of population tends to conform. The approach of the present study is the opposite one. It is based through-out upon the assumption|which the author believes to be the more realistic and fruitful one|that the main line of causation is in the opposite direction: population growth is here regarded as the independent variable which in its turn is a major factor determining agricultural developments. Actual events in the present period should go some way to make this change of perspective acceptable. Few observers would like to suggest that the tremendous increase in rates of population growth witnessed throughout the underdeveloped world in the two post-war decades could be explained as the result of changes in the conditions for food production. It is reasonably clear that the population explosion is a change in basic conditions which must be regarded as autonomous, in the sense that the explanation is to be sought, not in improved conditions of food production, but in medical invention and some other factors which the student of agricultural development would regard as independent variables. The burden of the present study is, then, to show that this line of causation, where agricultural developments are caused by population trends rather than the other way round, is the dominant one, not only in the special and obvious case of the two decades since 1945, but in agricultural development generally. The author hopes to have shown that this approach is conducive to a fuller understanding of the actual historical course of agriculture, including the development of patterns and techniques of cultivation as well as the social structures of agrarian communities. 4The fact that attention was mainly focused on food production as a limiting factor for population growth|in accordance with Malthus' main doctrine|did not prevent economists also paying attention to the question of how population growth, in its turn, a®ects agricultural production. Indeed, the theory of rent as developed by the classical economists was one part of the answer to this question: what happens to food production when population increases? However, the particular way in which this problem was tackled by the classical economists was determined by somewhat special conditions for agriculture in the Western Hemisphere in their time and this resulted in an over-simpli¯ed account of the changes in agricultural patterns that are brought about by the pressure of population growth. This point is of crucial importance for everything that follows in the present study, and some further explanation must be o®ered already at this stage. The classical economists were writing at a time when the almost empty lands of the Western Hemisphere were gradually taken under cultivation by European settlers, and it was therefore natural that they should stress the importance of the reserves of virgin land and make a sharp distinction between two di®erent ways to raise agricultural output: the expansion of production at the so-called extensive margin, by the creation of new ¯elds, and the expansion of production by more intensive cultivation of existing ¯elds. This over-simpli¯ed conception of agricultural expansion has lingered on in economic literature, and even today it is this type of analysis that is usually o®ered when problems of underdeveloped countries are discussed. Why this approach is unsuitable for a general theory of agricultural development is most easily understood if it is remembered that many types of primitive agriculture make no use of permanent ¯elds, but shift cultivation from plot to plot. This fact, which seems to have been ignored by classical economists, is fundamental for our problem, for it follows from it that in primitive types of agriculture there is no sharp distinction between cultivated and uncultivated land, and that it is impossible, likewise, to distinguish clearly between the creation of new ¯elds and the change of methods in existing ¯elds. This study attempts to draw the full conclusion from this insight. The very distinction between ¯elds and uncultivated land is discarded and instead emphasis is placed on the frequency with which the land is cropped. In other words, it is suggested that we consider a continuum of types of land use ranging from the extreme case of truly virgin land, i.e. land which is never cropped, through land cropped at shorter and shorter intervals, to that part of the terri-tory in which a crop is sown as soon as the previous one has been harvested. It is the intention by this new approach to provide the framework for a dynamic analysis embracing all types of primitive agriculture, those which proceed by cropping a plot a single time after which it is left fallow for a generation or more, as well as types of agriculture with continuous cropping of virtually the 5whole area several times a year. Once the time-honoured distinction between cultivated and uncultivated land is replaced by the concept of frequency of cropping, the economic theory of agricultural development becomes compati-ble with the theories of changing landscape propounded by natural scientists. The fathers of the traditional economic theory|in agreement with the natural scientists of their own time|regarded as immutable natural conditions many features which scientists now consider to be man-made and, in particular, the distinction between naturally fertile land and less fertile land was considered a crucial element in the explanation of agricultural change. By contrast, when the analysis is based upon the concept of frequency of cropping, there can be no temptation to regard soil fertility exclusively as a gift of nature, bestowed upon certain lands once and for all. Thus, soil fertility, instead of being treated as an exogenous or even unchangeable `initial condition' of the analysis, takes its place as a variable, closely associated with changes in population density and related changes in agricultural methods. One of the disadvantages of the usual type of analysis is that it leads to a one-sided conception of the agricultural enterprise. Attention is locality be focused upon what happens in the cultivated ¯eld, as distinguished from the whole group of activities that are needed in a given system of agriculture. Undue importance is often attached to the number of times the ¯elds are ploughed or weeded while the changes which take place in the area classi¯ed as `uncul-tivated land' tend to be overlooked. When attention is instead focused on the frequency with which the di®erent parts of the area belonging to a given hold-ing, village or tribal area is cropped, an important fact Springs to the eye: most or all of the land added to the sown area as population increases in a given territory was used already, as fallow land, pasture, hunting ground, or otherwise. It follows that when a given area of land comes to be cropped more frequently than be-fore, the purposes for which it was hitherto used must be taken care of in a new way, and this may create additional activities for which new tools and other investment are required. Thus, the new approach to agricultural development which is signalled by the concept of frequency of cropping draws the attention to the e®ects upon agricultural technology which are likely to result from pop-ulation changes. This is in sharp contrast to the usual approach which takes agricultural technology as a largely autonomous factor in relation to population changes. It is an essential problem in the economics of population changes to ¯nd out how such changes are likely to a®ect investment and it is generally agreed that the degree of security of tenure for the cultivator is one of the important determinants of investment. One of the advantages of the concept of frequency of cropping, as suggested in the present study, is that it makes it pos-sible to bring fallow land, pastures and animal husbandry within the purview of the analysis and thus to appreciate the close relationship between changes 6in technical and economic factors on one hand and changes in land tenure on the other. In short, this new approach enables us to treat land tenure as an endogenous factor, with the result that arbitrary or unrealistic assumptions about tenure can be avoided in the analysis of investment problems. The neo-Malthusian school has resuscitated the old idea that population growth must be regarded as a variable dependent mainly on agricultural output. I have reached the conclusion, to be substantiated in the following chapters, that in many cases the output from a given area of land responds far more generously to an. additional input of labour than assumed by neo-Item Quoted text Construct definition Data collection methods \"We follow the existing empirical research in the measurement of democracy. The first measure of democracy is the Freedom House Political Rights Index. This index ranges from 1 to 7, with 7 representing the least amount of political freedom and 1 the most freedom. Following Barro (1999), this index is supplemented with the related variable from Bollen (1990, 2001) for 1950, 1955, 1960, and 1965. As in Barro (1999), both indices are transformed so that they lie between 0 and 1, with 1 corresponding to the most democratic set of institutions.\" [...] \"results are presented using the Boix and Rosato ( 2001) dataset which extends the data of Przeworski et al. (2000) in which the index equals 1 if a country is a democracy and equals 0 otherwise. We also develop a simple double hazard model to deal with the simultaneous modeling of transitions to and from democracy. All of these exercises using the dichotomous measures give very similar results to those using the continuous measures.\"\"Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the online version at doi:10.1016/j.jmoneco.2009.10.002\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"Freedom House applied the concept of electoral rights on a subjective basis to classify countries annually into seven categories; group one is the highest level of rights and group seven is the lowest.\" (Barro 1999) \"We define a country as democratic if it meets the following conditions for both contestation and participation: Contestation 1. The executive is directly or indirectly elected in popular elections and is responsible either directly to voters or to a legislature. 2. The legislature (or the executive if elected directly) is chosen in free and fair elections. Participation 3. A majority of adult men has the right to vote.To code country-years, we rely on a variety of sources, which change with the time period: 1. To establish whether the executive is directly or indirectly responsible to the electorate, we have relied on the worldwide constitutional legislation compiled in Blaustein and Flanz (various years), as well as specific regional collections of constitutions, such as López Guerra and Aguiar de Luque ( 2001) for Latin America. After 1950, we also employ Alvarez et al. (1996).2. To determine the second condition, we define elections as free if voters are given multiple options on ballots and as fair if electoral fraud is absent and incumbents do not abuse government power to effectively eliminate the chance of opposition victory through peaceful contestation. To operationalize these two criteria, we rely primarily, but not exclusively, on the concept of electoral turnover emphasized in Przeworski et al. (2000). We take any instance of electoral executive turnover to an opposition party as a strong indicator of free and fair elections. However, the presence of electoral turnover is neither necessary nor sufficient to fulfill Condition 2. [...] Accordingly, we checked the history of those cases with no electoral turnover for a sufficiently long period of time (over two electoral terms) to examine whether internal coups, external interventions, abuses of state power, or reports of fraud could explain the prolonged control of the executive by the same party. If there were none and we observed contested elections, we coded the period as having free and fair elections. If a peaceful governmental turnover was observed, we applied the same check to determine how far back in time the condition of free and fair elections applied. [...] Naturally, the sources used to establish whether Condition 2 holds change with the historical period. Regional and country histories were supplemented with information from Banks (1976;especially before 1950especially before ), Alvarez et al. (1996;;covering 1950-1990), T. Beck, Clarke, Groff, Keefer, and Walsh (2001), Keefer (2005), Norris (2008), country reports from Polity (Marshall & Jaggers, 2010) and Freedom House (2010), and election reports from the EU, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Carter Center for the period after 1990.3. The suffrage condition tracks the substantial variation in the extension of the franchise prior to World War II. Since nearly all nations with free competitive elections (as well as most without) after 1946 had universal male suffrage, this is not a requirement in Cheibub et al. (2010). However, suffrage is also omitted from Polity. Defining the condition of participation as having at least half of men enfranchised is, in some sense, arbitrary (as any particular threshold must be).\" where dit is the democracy score of country i in period t. The lagged value of this variable on the right-hand side is included to capture persistence in democracy and also potentially mean-reverting dynamics. The main variable of interest is yit1, the lagged value of log income per capita. The parameter g therefore measures the impact of income per capita on democracy. Other covariates are captured by the vector xit1 0 with coefficient vector b. In addition, the mt's denote a full set of time effects, which capture common shocks to (common trends in) the democracy score of all countries. Importantly, the equation also includes a full set of country dummies, the di's. This section starts with a more straightforward approach which allows us to also use the continuous democracy scores in the Freedom House and Polity data. The strategy is to modify the model in Eq. ( 1) as follows:where Iit1 ¼ f0; 1g is an indicator which equals 1 if dit1 is below the sample mean and which equals 0 otherwise. This procedure implies that g pos represents the effect of income on democracy conditional on a country starting from a low level of democracy, capturing the extent to which higher income may promote democratization. Analogously, g neg represents the effect of income on democracy conditional on a country starting from a high level of democracy, capturing the extent to which higher income may prevent coups.\" [...] \"The double hazard model can be expressed in terms of two conditional mean functions for the probability of transitioning to democracy and the probability of remaining in democracy:where F is an increasing function with a range between 0 and 1. Eq. ( 3) describes the probability that a dictatorship collapses (transitions to democracy), and Eq. ( 4) describes the probability that a democracy survives, which is negatively related to the probability of a coup (transitions away from democracy). Together, these two equations characterize the law of motion of democracy for a given country, so that one can think of these equations as constituting a ''double hazard model''. The parameters g pos and g neg represent the effect of income on positive and negative transitions, respectively, and m pos t and m neg t represent the time effects on positive and negative transitions, respectively. Note that Eqs. ( 3) and ( 4) model the appropriate transitions to and away from democracy, but they do not yet introduce fixed country effects.To make further progress, let us also assume that Fð Þ is the normal cumulative distribution function, so that the system described by ( 3) and ( 4) is an exponential double hazard model. Since this system of equations characterizes the entire motion of democracy, it can easily be estimated by maximum likelihood.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"In the Introduction, we argued that the fixed effects results are consistent with the hypothesis that the (long run) political and economic development paths of societies are intimately linked. There is a natural complementarity between political and economic institutions. Economies grow if their economic institutions encourage investment and innovation, for example, by providing secure property rights and equality before the law; but this can only happen when those controlling political power (the political elites) are constrained. One should thus expect democracy to be associated with economic institutions that foster growth. This reasoning implies that if events at some critical juncture create a divergence in the political and economic institutions of a set of societies, these differences should persist over time; some of these societies may embark on a path to high income and democracy, while others experience relative stagnation and non-democracy. Thus, according to this theory, democracy and income evolve jointly. Nevertheless, conditional on a given development path, economic growth does not necessarily lead to democratization. This reasoning suggests that the fixed effects estimated in the previous section should be closely linked to the underlying institutional development paths and to the factors affecting what type of path a society has followed. This section investigates this question by seeing whether the presence of historical variables in the pooled cross-sectional regression can remove the statistical association between income and democracy.\" Discussion of limitations \"These results should not be interpreted as implying that historical factors (or time-invariant factors captured by fixed effects) are the only or the major determinant of democracy today. There is a large amount of variability in democracy across countries that is not explained by the historical variables in this analysis and there is also a substantial amount of over-time variability in the democracy score of a country that still needs to be understood and accounted for. For example, it remains true that over time there is a general tendency towards greater incomes and education and increased political participation across the world. In the regressions of this paper, time effects capture these general (world-wide) tendencies. The estimates of this paper suggest that these world-level movements in democracy are unlikely to be driven by the causal effect of income and education on democracy. The causes of these world-wide trends are an interesting area for future research\" section on the role of power in cross-scale linkages? It appears that once engaged in a process of co-management and rapidly evolving institutional structures, opportunities for cross-scale interactions and alliances abound.\" [...] \"Thus the political economy of cross-scale linkages requires systematic empirical evaluation, recognizing the role of power in all its manifestations within processes of negotiation.\" Discussion of limitationsCross-scale linkages Research Question: \"In this paper, we address in particular the links between elements of the governance of social-ecological systems\" [...] \"We argue that part of the persistence and stability of the governance system depends on the distribution of benefits from cross-scale linkages, demonstrated by the ability of the system to command legitimacy and trust among the resource user and the governmental stakeholders. If the structure of cross-scale linkages reduces trust then the robustness of the system is in question. In empirical research, we examine the structure of interplay of cross-scale linkages in the context of a marine protected area in Tobago in the eastern Caribbean\" Article reference: Quoted text Construct definition \"An understanding of cross-scale linkages is important in managing multiple use resources. By linkages we mean direct interactions through networks to provide information or tangible resources related to the management system. Of course almost all possible natural resources systems involve multiple direct users. Even when direct users of resources are small in number or strictly limited, there are inevitably multiple external stakeholders making claims and calls on natural resources at numerous scales. Cross-scale institutional linkages are the norm and evenuniversal in natural resource management\" Data collection methods \"The research used participatory methods including focus groups, ranking exercises, and consensus workshops. The initial interactions between stakeholders were based on trust built up over two years. Thus the observations on power relations and cross-scale linkages below are derived both from formally elicited perceptions of stakeholders themselves and from observations of the researchers acting as part of the management process\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 22 ) Data analysis methods Justification of inference from \"The observations in this paper are an analysis of the linkages and results to conclusions process of management through the lens of power and its impacts outlined in the sections above.\" [...] \"The sections above highlight the role of knowledge and information in the exercise of power.\" [...] \"How do these observations tie with the suggestions in the previous section on the role of power in cross-scale linkages? It appears that once engaged in a process of co-management and rapidly evolving institutional structures, opportunities for cross-scale interactions and alliances abound.\" [...] \"Thus the political economy of cross-scale linkages requires systematic empirical evaluation, recognizing the role of power in all its manifestations within processes of negotiation.\" Discussion of limitationsdefinitions of sustainability Research Question: \"The generic research question that drives our research is:How do definitions of sustainability become shared among actors in the biomass product chain?\" Article reference: Boons, Frank, and Angelica Mendoza. 2010 Seventeen interviews were held with actors that were part of the product chain of palm oil, or actors that sought to influence that chain through policy. We focused our interviews in Colombia because we were most interested in how actors there construct sustainability in relation to, or distinct from, the Dutch criteria. For the Netherlands, we could build on reports from policy makers, scientists involved in criteria development, and company reports and documents. We used a semi-structured approach to cover three main points:1. Perceived environmental impacts 2. Decision-making process and relations to other actors in the sector 3. Sustainability criteriaRespondents included representatives of large-and small-scale palmgrowers, process engineers at extraction plants, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and academic organizations. In Colombia two out of four producing regions were visited, the North and East region. During these field visits, the semistructured interviews were supplemented with unstructured interviews with people present at plantations, milling facilities, a nursing laboratory, and one policy meeting. Field visits were documented through field notes and photographic material. In addition to interviews, documents were gathered that represent the position of actors towards the sustainability of their activities and product.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"We used a semi-structured approach to cover three main points:1. Perceived environmental impacts 2. Decision-making process and relations to other actors in the sector 3. Sustainability criteria\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 24 ) Data analysis methods \"We start out by describing the physical streams that constitute the production and consumption chain of palm oil for energy production (Section 4.1). We then describe how definitions of sustainability are constructed in interactions among core actors. We present these interactions around six themes that we identified through the application of the action-in-context methodology (Section 4.2).\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations land over 5 ha with 5 years and longer years of operations. This approach to stakeholders' identification enabled us to explore key processes, challenges and lessons learned on implementing agricultural strategies and potential adaptations. The semistructured interviews addressed issues such as farm-level decision making, especially the role of national policy, land tenure structures, experiences with vertical and horizontal collaboration (at both national and sub-national levels), and interviewees' experiences of accessing information and linking scientific knowledge to policy and stakeholder engagement\" [...] \"We conducted 78 interviews in Slovakia (2008Slovakia ( -2009)), 38 in Ukraine ( 2010) and 43 in Tajikistan ( 2008). These included both long-distance interviews (by phone and Internet) and face-to-face interviews conducted primarily by the authors, which lasted from 60 to 90 min. During the interviews, notes were taken, and afterwards, a report outlining the findings was provided to all interviewees for review.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"we focus on 24 transition countries to review specific aspects of the transformation in the agricultural sectors including changes in land tenure, land-use and policies and strategies to monitor land ownership and guide land markets. We also reviewed the current status of adaptation policy-making, key types of priority adaptation actions, and measures and processes recommended for their implementation\" [...] \"The semi-structured interviews addressed issues such as farm-level decision making, especially the role of national policy, land tenure structures, experiences with vertical and horizontal collaboration (at both national and sub-national levels), and interviewees' experiences of accessing information and linking scientific knowledge to policy and stakeholder engagement.\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 25 ) Data analysis methods \"We then conducted a series of in-depth interviews in Slovakia, Ukraine and Tajikistan, and associated the results of the reviews with the outcomes from analyzing the interviews to identify key approaches to adaptation planning in agriculture in these countries.We chose these three countries as they have strong agrarian economies, representing different stages of the transition processes, and having well documented records of their land tenure and agricultural transformation dynamics.\" [...] \"Interview data were sorted using a simple coding system reflecting the framework categories and key themes within the research questions (Coffey and Atkinson 1996). QSR International's NVivo software was used to process the coded interviews. In total 96 categories were identified across the three countries which then were grouped into 15 major themes approximately two to three themes per each stage of the adaptation planning process. Basic statistics were included as well error margin for the key major themes and categories were calculated using the binomial confidence interval approximation method (Brown et al. 2001). The identified themes and categories are elaborated in the next section to identify key trends in the agricultural sectors and overall experiences with collaboration and participation to guide adaptation planning in CEE and CIS.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"A series of common observations can be identified from our findings to help guide future adaptation planning and implementation in transition countries\" Discussion of limitations indicators (unless directly operationalized 26 ) Data analysis methods \"We explored the overlaps and divergences in these interviews, as above, and sought a means to analyse their content, further than presenting their words unexpurgated. To do so, we borrowed from health sciences the interview triad approach (Kendall et al. 2010).The interview triad involves analysing the words and perspectives of three individuals who are variously placed to view a given problem from their own distinct experiential standpoint. In reporting on the use of this method, Kendall et al. suggest that \"Interview dyads or triads, where two or three participants are interviewed as a set or case study, can explore complex complementary as well as contradictory perspectives\" (Kendall et al. 2010:196).\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Grounded theory relies on inductive principles where data are often collected in the absence of hypotheses. Babbie ( 2001) outlined the grounded theory approach as follows: 1) Initial data are used to determine the key variables; 2) Hypotheses or propositions are then derived from the collected data; 3) Continuing data collection provides a sharpened understanding of the issues; and 4) Sharpened understanding leads to a sharpened focus for data collection\" [...] \"Wote is a semi-arid agro-pastoral area experiencing erratic and unpredictable weather. Incidence of poverty is high (74%) and drought conditions prevail on an increasingly frequent basis (Ngugi and Nyariki 2006;Rocheleau et al. 1995;Kenya Food Security Steering Group n.d.). Though focused on Wote, the issues covered in this case study speak more generally to food security policy challenges across much of Kenya\" [...] \"Many researchers examining agricultural sustainability in Kenya have noted the centrality of community, research and policy institutions to the study offood policy (Kristjanson et al. 2009;Magunda et al. 2010;Qureish et al. 2009). This work highlights the importance of \"spanning boundaries between communities, scientists and policy-makers, all the while colearning and cocreating a hybrid of traditional/local and scientific/universal knowledge\" (Kristjanson et al. 2009:5049). In their examination of land issues in pastoral communities in Kenya, Kristjanson et al. concluded that by blurring the boundaries between researchers, policy makers and communities, they brought into focus \"the probability that the information generated would not only be useful, but used\" in policymaking and its implementation (2009:5049). For 'information' to result in improved policies requires pathways along which different parties' knowledge can be mobilized. The process of mobilizing this knowledge results in new syntheses of information, new forms of knowledge. It is to this synthesis that we look for promising direction for more effective food security policy. If policy is derived from processes that integrate farmers' (and other concerned constituents') expressed concerns and active participation, that policy is likely to more closely 'fit' the farmers' needs and its implementation more readily undertaken. This process of knowledge integration and its use in policy processes echoes Mutshewa's conception of 'informational power,' which he describes as the result of a pattern of information use, including \"extracting, collating, summarising, translating, collecting or gathering information, verifying information and disseminating information\" (Mutshewa 2010:220). Mutshewa focuses on environmental planners using this power \"to counter the power bases of other stakeholders\" (ibid), and thus to drive and influence the planning process. However, informational power could become part of a cooperative rather than competitive process of knowledge integration in pursuit of a common goal that key stakeholders share despite their differences, in this case, effectively addressing food insecurity. In our view, there is power in the sharing of information, and the intentional syntheses which arise from this sharing (Raymond et al. 2010;Sanginga et al. 2007). Much innovation has arisen socially, economically and environmentally through the cocreation of knowledge. It is widely recognized that knowledge mobilization contributes to the making of effective policy (Mutshewa 2010). We also learned from those we interviewed that the central question of putting such knowledge to practical use is likewise a central concern among on-the-ground farmers, agricultural researchers and policymakers in Kenya. Because our interest was to examine links between institutional actors, rather than to generalize about the experiences of any one set of actors, our approach diverged from that of a large sample or survey of policy-makers, researchers and farmers. Instead we selected prominent leading individuals within three linked institutions and addressed questions of the efficacy of their own food security initiatives and any constraints they faced in advancing their own objectives, especially with regard to information flows between and among institutions. This produced an analytical 'snapshot' meant to be illustrative of the diversity and the overlaps in the perspectives of key informants in three institutions concerned with food policy.\" Discussion of limitations \"Much of this interrogation speaks to the question of the trustworthiness of the individual voice as a form of evidence (Thompson 20 00;Lummis 1981). Lummis (1981) addressed the trustworthiness of oral evidence in a manner that is pertinent to our use of individual interviews. He divides the issue into two main areas: \"the degree to which any individual interview yields reliable information on the historical experience, and the degree to which that individual experience is typical of its time and place\" (Lummis 1981: 109).As to the first concern, because our interviewees were speaking of current and ongoing experiences, rather than historical ones, the reliability of memory and accuracy of recall is less of an issue. What is pertinent for our 'interview triad' approach is the question of accuracy of details. Lummis posits that \"the validity of an interview can be assessed for its general accuracy by the degree to which it corresponds to checkable details… . In other words, the normal process of maximum triangulation with other sources can go a long way toward establishing the general reliability of the interview\" (Lummis 1981: 110).The second concern also provides insight into the use of interviews as evidence in scientific studies. How representative of their wider social groups are the views and opinions expressed by our interviewees? With oral histories, the researcher can compare key features of interviewees' life histories with such published data as census results to estimate the degree to which interviews are typical of wider groups' experiences. In addition to this 'fact-checking' task, we add a further qualification to the 'generalizability' of our particular interview triad. As leaders, our interviewees' opinions 'matter' insofar as they are capable of directing the actions and opinions of others, and sometimes the funds and decision-making directions of whole organizations, which in turn can have wideranging impacts beyond the individuals.In this regard we have found it most helpful to bring in the views of some of the other interviewees we spoke to in 2010. For this purpose, not only were taped interviews useful, but author field notes supplied details of other farmers', researchers' and policymakers' views and perspectives that helped validate our key informants' interviews. For example, in an interview with the District Agricultural Office (DAO), the Minister's views on the need for better information flows were corroborated by this local-level policy implementer. She stated, on the question of who in Wote is working on questions of food security, that \"the government is encouraging the integration of our [Ministry of Agriculture] services with the NGOs and businesses in the area. We are forming a stakeholders' forum to meet quarterly\" (Brownhill 2010). Interviews with farming women's group members' contextualized and validated the views of our woman farmer. For instance, women reported the same general problems and similar solutions, including use of organic manures, compost and pesticides; focus on household food selfsufficiency and the need for better information flows amongst farmers. And an interview with a senior researcher at KARI corroborated the perspectives of the Wote KARI field researcher.These local voices elaborate the settings in which the three interviewees operate and help distinguish why we chose the particular three key informants from the larger sample. Further examination of this concern about the trustworthiness of oral evidence in the form of individual interviews is merited. Bertaux and Kohli, for instance, suggest that one important dimension of the methodological challenge of oral history \"is the sheer number of life stories: Some research projects are based on several hundred, others rely on a single one, and the majority fall somewhere in between.The number depends on whether empirically grounded generalization is being sought or whether one is using a case study approach, where only generalizations based on theoretical plausibility, not statistical induction, are possible\" (1984: 218, emphasis added).Another critical issue concerns whether the researcher seeks an analysis of the subjective circumstances and experiences of the interviewee, or sets the interview the task of illuminating larger social relations and processes. \"While the sociological community usually associates life story research with an orientation toward subjectivity, many contemporary sociologists use this approach to investigate some set of social relationships … sociologists with a more subjectivist orientation have to acknowledge the existence of social frames … and those with a more objectivist orientation have to take into account the fact that social structures are the result of sociohistorical processes in which action, and therefore subjectivity, is playing its part. Consequently, advocates of both positions must not only coexist but communicate\" (Bertaux and Kohli 1984: 218-219).In our case study application of the interview triad, the emphasis was on social relations, especially regarding the dynamics of communication and action among the three institutions (farm, research institute and ministry). These are not 'life story' interviews; yet they do allow for some insight into a subjective analysis. Because of the singular nature of each interviewee's narration, the data are reflective of them as 'subjects' within their institutions. The views expressed are 'partial,' or subjective; but they also reflect a certain overlap between the individual and institutional experience, or between the interviewees' subjectivity and the institutional and wider social relations within which they are embedded.Furthermore, what Bertaux and Kohli emphasize as the need for 'coexistence and communication' between researchers adopting different approaches to their work, is a principle that is much more widely applicable and indeed constitutes a recurrent theme in this research. When applied to the area of food security policy, for instance, 'coexistence' lends itself to the growing prevalence of crossdisciplinary research design in the academy and research institutes; and, at the state level, inter-ministerial cooperation. Our case study embraces this notion of coexistence and communication, and seeks to better understand 'inter-institutional' divides that exist between farmer, researcher and policy-maker so that these divides might be bridged\"Construct: capabilities to deal with wicked problems Research Question: \"Against this background, this article aims to elucidate the presence (and absence) of capabilities that enable the Commission -which we approach as an internally differentiated arena or governance system (Cram 1993;Hooghe 2001;Kassim and Dimitrakopoulos 2007) -to deal with wicked problems\" [...] \"Our research question interrogates the extent to which the European Commission possesses the capabilities required to deal with wicked problems, and how these capabilities are deployed to resolve such problems\" Article reference: Quoted text Construct definition \"Capabilities are defined as 'the ability of policy makers to observe wicked problems and to act accordingly, and the ability of the governance system to enable such observing and acting' (Termeer et al. 2013: 4). We focus particularly on the last dimension: the presence of conditions that enable or constrain the Commission's overall ability to deal with wicked problems.\" Data collection methods \"To obtain a better understanding of the Commission's use of the five capabilities, we asked Commission officials about their experiences with the wickedness of food security and whether and how they felt enabled to cope with this wickedness. We thus used an interpretive approach, i.e., one that seeks to understand the governance context by focusing on understandings and experiences of people working in that context (Yanow 2000). The advantage of such an approach is that it provides the opportunity to obtain an indepth understanding of conditions that influence everyday work practice.We conducted an interview round at the Commission in spring 2014, in which we talked to a total of 20 Commission officials who worked in the various services in which food security concerns played a role. Interviews were semi-structured and lasted one hour on average. Most interviews were with individual respondents, but two interviews were with two or more people. Respondents were selected on the basis of the services and units in which they worked, their function or alleged experience with food-security-related issues, whereby we aimed for as much diversity as possible (for an overview, see Supplementary Material SM II). Although many respondents agreed to participate when first approached, availability and willingness were constraints in the case of Commissioners' cabinet members. Therefore, we asked high-positioned Commission officials, including a former cabinet member, about dynamics at cabinet level.We first asked respondents about their function and to what extent and how food security concerns played a role in their work and domain. The second part of the interviews was structured along the five governance challenges, whereby we asked respondents to what extent and how they experienced these challenges (observations), how they dealt with them (strategies), and whether and how they felt enabled or constrained to act (enabling and constraining conditions) (Supplementary Material SM III). For this part of the interview, we referred to the observations, strategies and conditions in Table 1, which we translated to the respondents' frames of reference by using concrete examples. Respondents were given the opportunity to complement enabling conditions with additional conditions specific to the EU context\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"We first asked respondents about their function and to what extent and how food security concerns played a role in their work and domain. The second part of the interviews was structured along the five governance challenges, whereby we asked respondents to what extent and how they experienced these challenges (observations), how they dealt with them (strategies), and whether and how they felt enabled or constrained to act (enabling and constraining conditions) (Supplementary Material SM III). For this part of the interview, we referred to the observations, strategies and conditions in Table 1, which we translated to the respondents' frames of reference by using concrete examples. Respondents were given the opportunity to complement enabling conditions with additional conditions specific to the EU context\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 27 ) Data analysis methods \"The interviews were transcribed and coded. Subsequently, these codes were interpreted and compared, resulting in the categories of conditions reported in the results section (cf. Charmaz 2006). Enabling conditions were interpreted by comparing these categoriesto Table 1 and the associated capabilities framework, although some categories were found to be specific to the EU context and therefore described in new terms. Constraints were all studied and interpreted inductively, whereby we synthesized similar observations into overarching categories. It is important to point out that respondents may have experienced the governance challenges and presence of capabilities and enabling conditions or constraints in different ways.We describe the dominant views and experiences, but also elaborate on any significant differences between respondents\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Because the enabling conditions and constraints we identified were not specific to food security but to the functioning of the Commission in general, we believe that our findings could well be extended to the way in which the Commission deals with other wicked problems.\" [...] \"In spite of relatively well-developed capabilities, the Commission seems to lack a meta-capability that would enable a continuous monitoring and adjustment of these capabilities. We would argue that this meta-capability requires at least a deliberate reflection on the system's ability to cope with a wicked problem in all its facets. We did not find such a mechanism in the case of food security. Instead, actors reflected on, and dealt with, specific elements of the wicked problem. By doing so, they can and do reshape the governance system in a way that could further enable coping with specific governance challenges, but the compartmentalization of these efforts runs the risk of keeping particular challenges unmonitored and unanticipated.\" Discussion of limitations \"Because the enabling conditions and constraints we identified were not specific to food security but to the functioning of the Commission in general, we believe that our findings could well be extended to the way in which the Commission deals with other wicked problems. Nevertheless, some case-specific characteristics should be pointed out. First, although we applied a holistic view of food security, it is a policy problem that has traditionally been dealt with mainly in the EU domain of development co-operation. This is a domain in which the Commission has relatively limited jurisdiction and resources vis-a`-vis the member states, and this makes it more difficult to respond proactively. Second, it is an issue that is widely recognized as a problem in urgent need of attention, as opposed to slumbering or unattended wicked problems. This implies that capabilities have had some time to develop. Third, and conversely, although food security has received policy-makers' attention for decades, it only came centre stage after the 2007-8 and 2010 food price crises, because of which responses and developments are still very much in progress.Regarding the analysis, our interpretive approach by definition involves a double hermeneutic (Giddens 2007). Both the researcher and respondents are subject to bias, which we have aimed to: (i) limit by preparing each interview with a desk study and by comparing respondents' experiences with each other; and (ii) make transparent by presenting the interpretive scheme and using illustrative quotations throughout the results section. Throughout the results section, references to the interview transcripts are made, so that it is clear to the reader which findings can be traced back to the interviews directly.\"collection instruments? of their livelihood responses to drought, rainfall variability and extreme rainfall events. The learning of these responses, e.g. digging drainage channels, asset accumulation, and selling livestock, etc., was used to frame the questions on social learning. Importantly, many farmers perceived temporal changes in rainfall and temperature which framed their responses. Semi-structured questionnaires (SSI) were used for structure but also to give respondents flexibility to express opinions and ask questions. 160 farmers (80 in each parish) were randomly sampled and asked questions concerning socio-economic characteristics, e.g. farmer groups, perception of climate risk, response to climate risk, adaptive capacity and social learning.\"Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 28 ) Data analysis methods \"Due to the large sample size of the case study interviews, both quantitative and qualitative interpretation of the data was used.\" [...] \"Individual actor-linkage analysis (n = 62) determined frequency of contact with institutional actors most important for learning. This exercise was triangulated with focus group discussions incorporating participatory actor and institutional analyses (n = 4). Exploration of scalar dynamics was through key informant interviews (n = 35) (actors in NAADS being the primary focus) at each scale: snowball sampling was used to interview ten actors at national scale; twelve at district scale; four at sub-county scale; four at parish scale and five at village scale. A guided and unstructured questionnaire was used to encourage freedom of expression and ease of flexibility for adapting to each scale. Data from all scales were then compared to interpret the vertical dynamics of the system. The findings in the following section initially focus on adaptive governance at the lower scales and then progress to vertical-scale integration. Finally, the livelihood outcomes are discussed\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations carried out by the GOG as part of the activities carried out to implement the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS); and, the Internet, reports, etc.The verification team contacted and communicated with a broad range of non-government organizations (NGOs), associations, community representatives, industry organizations as well as individuals in order to evaluate the different viewpoints of the LCDS and REDD+ processes and activities in Guyana. The verification team capitalized on reaching interested parties through the networks of individuals and organizations on the MSSC, as well as capitalizing on prior Guyana-specific experience and networks of Mr. Donovan and Dr. Clarke, and individual or organizational contacts provided by the GON and the GOG. The verification team was not able to contact each and every recommended individual or organization, but attempts at communication were made. It was sought to meet and talk to as many stakeholders as possible within the timeframe of the audit. Inputs from stakeholders and other interested parties was sought soon after the granting of the contract to RA and continue to be welcomed by Rainforest Alliance throughout the process, including up until delivery of a final report to the GON and GOG. Comments received after the submission of final report will be maintained on electronic files by Rainforest Alliance for potential use in any future related verification work, should it happen. The team has sought to collect and note all comments and inputs from stakeholders and use these as inputs in the verification, while keeping the objective of the assignment in focus.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? Evidence Documentation of mechanisms (i.e. systems) to disperse funds is available Evidence that the financial planning system is implemented and used. A process for regular reporting is in place and followed Evidence of strategic collaboration between sectors and between varying approache through interviews with stakeholders. Financial reporting results are distributed publicly and/or to critical stakeholder repr basis, or consistently available upon request on a timely basis. An overview of all funding directed to activities relevant to REDD-plus/LCDS efforts available The overview of funding directed to REDD+ and LCDS is updated on the LCDS webs basis By design, systems and procedures build on and foster coordination between LCDS, Written records or interviews demonstrate coordination between the above parties. REDD+ is clearly integrated into the LCDS Written procedures describing mechanisms for incorporating feedback from ongoing exist Records of inputs to the strategy are kept. Evidence of how this input is used is available (documented or through interviews) An internal monitoring system exists. Information from the monitoring system is used to improve the strategic framework A written stakeholder consultation methodology exists.The methodology is available. The methodology is followed. The methodology allows for independent input. The methodology is perceived as equitable to interested parties, irrespective of geog group. The policy is available (see Developing a Framework for an \"Opt in\" Mechanism for A Concept Paper, March 2010) FPIC is followed with respect to other interest groups. Actions demonstrate adherence to the cited Articles. Procedures exist (see 1.7) Feedback is consistently documented Evidence exists that adaptation is considered and where appropriate occurs based o Records of meetings and other inputs from indigenous and forest dependent people Evidence demonstrating how the above input has been incorporated into the consult Records of meetings and other actions demonstrate participation of women. Evidence demonstrating how women's perspectives are considered in the consultatio Awareness Session with Women's Organisations -July 21, 2009 and Report on disc convened by Rural Women's Network). Procedural elements of the cited Conceptual Framework are implemented. RGDP is developed. RGDP requirements are clear. RGDP has clear timelines for implementation Records document steps taken to establish IFM. Selection criteria emphasize credibility and independence Formal dialogue with EU has occurred with the intent of joining FLEGT process and m Records of meetings and actions taken. Formal dialogue with EITI has occurred or an alternative mechanism furthering the Records of meetings and actions taken Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 29 ) The best model structure was selected by model averaging and the Akaike information criterion, using the package AICcmodavg in R (R development Core Team 2007). Then, based on the key explanatory variables for food security and adoption of adaptation strategies, a household typology was developed (details below in 'Typology of households practicing adaptation strategies' section) and testedby performing a canonical analysis on principal coordinates, using the CAP programme (Anderson 2004)\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Assets are a key indicator of the degree of poverty (Carter and Barrett 2006); households with more assets are more likely to adopt new agricultural practices (Wood et al. 2014)\" [...] \"Off-farm income from sources such as artisanal work, commerce, gold mining, wage employment and remittances contributes to buffer production risks associated with climate variability and to stabilize cash flows and food consumption (Brown et al. 1994)\" [...] \"Smallholder farm households are typically characterized by a strong reliance on labour for production and income generation, and this variable is therefore an important driver ofhousehold-level food security (Brown et al. 1994)\" [...] \"Increased market orientation can have two opposing effects on food security: through increased diversification, it improves boththe level offood consumptioninnormal times and the ability to cope during bad times, but if it is accompanied by a big fall in subsistence production, it can have a deleterious effect on food security (IFAD 2014).\" [...] \"if markets are working well, the circulation of cash increases in rural areas and gives households broader opportunities to constructpathways out ofpoverty (Ellis and Freeman 2004) The goal of these semi structured interviews was to explore the range of households' perceptions of loss in relation to changing livelihood strategies and the influence of public policy in the communities.Farmers were asked to describe what they perceived as a flood, to discuss the frequency of flooding in the community, and to describe the impact of the 2003 flood on their property, crops, consumption, livestock, and livelihoods. They were also requested to explain their own response to their losses as well as their observation of the response of the local, municipal, and state governments. The additional key-informant interviews with local leadership and public officials captured policy and sectoral perspectives on the cause and solution to the problem of flooding.\" (Eakin & Appendini 2008) Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"The goal of these semi structured interviews was to explore the range of households' perceptions of loss in relation to changing livelihood strategies and the influence of public policy in the communities.Farmers were asked to describe what they perceived as a flood, to discuss the frequency of flooding in the community, and to describe the impact of the 2003 flood on their property, crops, consumption, livestock, and livelihoods. They were also requested to explain their own response to their losses as well as their observation of the response of the local, municipal, and state governments. The additional key-informant interviews with local leadership and public officials captured policy and sectoral perspectives on the cause and solution to the problem of flooding.\" (Eakin & Appendini 2008) Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 32 )The interviews were analyzed using qualitative data analysis software (NVIVO). Parent and childe codes are described in the supporting article Eakin, Lerner and Murtinho 2010 \"Adaptive capacity in evolving peri-urban spaces\" Global Environmental Change. 20: 14-22. (Table 2) Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"In each case, we first examine the public sector reforms carried out at the national level and ways in which they represent a shift away from governance conditions conducive for adaptation. Next we investigate how key facets of adaptive capacity-of the building sector in Norway and the water sector in Mexico-have been directly or indirectly affected by NPM reforms. Presenting a case of NPM reforms from an emerging economy and new democracy (Mexico) together with a case from a country with a long history of democratic process and political stability (Norway) highlights the commonalities of intent and structure that define NPM reforms in both contexts. Although these two studies initially were neither designed for comparison nor shared a common research approach, identification of similarities through comparative analysis of two diverse geographic contexts is particularly fruitful for eliciting generalizable lessons rather than case-specific results\" Discussion of limitations \"Although these two studies initially were neither designed for comparison nor shared a common research approach, identification of similarities through comparative analysis of two diverse geographic contexts is particularly fruitful for eliciting generalizable lessons rather than case-specific results\" access to seed; and (c) women's perception of household decision-making dynamics related to seed management was assessed through matrix analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994), matching women's daily activities and their power to make decisions about their activities.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"the management of seed at household level and its changes consequent to the involvement of the women farmers in the PPB programme\"; [...] \"men's and women's involvement in farming\"; [...] \"men's opinion of the intra-household division of labour in agriculture and their understanding of women's role in agronomic management (see Figure 2)\"; [...] \"the interaction between the international and national legal frameworks, and customary rules operating at ground level\"; [...] \"household management of seed (handling, storing, selecting, selling and buying) and women's access to seed\". Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 33 ) informal rules regulating seed management at community and intrahousehold level; seed governance frameworks; rights, access to and control of seed; international, national, local and individual levels; Gender-sensitive seed governance.\"The empirical analysis of seed management at ground level was based on direct observation and participatory assessment, both of (a) the management of seed at household level and its changes consequent to the involvement of the women farmers in the PPB programme and (b) the interaction between the international and national legal frameworks, and customary rules operating at ground level.\" [...] \"(c) women's perception of household decision-making dynamics related to seed management was assessed through matrix analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994), matching women's daily activities and their power to make decisions about their activities\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"On the basis ofthese findings, it is possible to interpolate the \"proofofprinciple\" 12 into the larger setting, to ask what might be the best options for the government of Syria to support farmers and achieve food security through improved seed governance while enhancing social and gender equity? The options, this paper suggests, would include the following\" [...] \"12 That is, this research proves that it is possible to enhance women's food-related rights through PPB in the studied contexts. This understanding can be useful in other contexts where, however, its validity needs to be assessed.\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 34 ) Data analysis methods Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations elucidate the specific nature of the answer especially in relation to the definitions of criteria provided in Table 1. The questions should, as far as possible, not use technical language: i.e. they should not say: is directional leadership a strong point of the local institution; but rather: how would you characterise the nature of the leadership shown or stimulated by the existing rule? The warm-up and concluding questions should try and ascertain if some important element has been missed out in the discussions and if there are reinforcing or contradictory ideas and forces within the institutional system in a specific context. For observations a similar technique could be used, with the difference that the researcher should see if the dimensions cover every relevant aspect. In the case of a document analysis, a more comprehensive list of questions (for example, one on each criterion) could be useful, however, those should be well defined and delineated to keep a clear focus while studying the texts. The stakeholder answers, the observations and/or the document analysis must be registered in a formal background document without any additional interpretation\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 35 ) Data analysis methods \"The third step consists of analyzing the data collected to score each criterion of adaptive capacity (see table under Fig. 1). It is necessary to have different researchers independently score the background data and then discuss the difference of opinion, if any, on a specific criterion. This helps to ensure transparency as well as robust results. All researchers should keep a record of the arguments why a particular criterion has been scored in a particular way.There are some optional further steps: if needed, it is possible to generate aggregated scores for adaptive capacity as a whole, by adding the scores of each criterion and then dividing by the number of criterion per dimension, and then adding the scores for each dimension and then dividing by 6 (the number of dimensions). These steps are only useful if the researcher wishes to compare a large number of different institutions (see, for example, Table 2); but such an aggregation method needs to be used with caution since not all criteria are additive\" [...] \"The Adaptive Capacity Wheel can be applied in different ways. This section highlights how the Adaptive Capacity Wheel can be applied both qualitatively and semi-quantitatively. Both applications have specific implications for 'scoring' adaptive capacity.\" [...] \"In the data analysis process, we used the scoring system, assigned scores to criteria based on the interviews (see Fig. 2) and clarified the underlying arguments.\" [...] \"In the data analysis, we undertook the steps mentioned in Section 3 and, since a content analysis can often lie in the eye of the beholder, the content analysis was double checked in three rounds by three different researchers, individually and then jointly. We kept a record of why we scored a criterion in a particular way in order to make the arguments transparent. Quantitative scores were assigned to the different criteria, which were then tallied to get a single value for each institution\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"The fourth step is to translate the information collected into a story -a story that communicates the strengths and weaknesses of a specific institution or institutional context in terms of adaptive capacity. In this step, the scores are interpreted to give them meaning in their context. For example, what does a '-1' score on learning capacity mean for the institution that is being researched; and what can be done to improve this dimension of adaptive capacity? Data interpretation also includes explaining (inter)dependencies between criteria and/or dimensions; and tensions between criteria and/or dimensions; which criterion appears to be in conflict with another criterion in a specific situation and why? Finally the researcher needs to draw conclusions on what the interpretations imply about the ability of a specific institution to promote the adaptive capacity of society; and what can be done to improve the adaptive capacity of the institution\" [...] \"In the data interpretation process, we interpreted the scores on criteria in the context of both municipalities. For example, it appeared that in both regions, indistinct accountability procedures for causing and solving water problems imply that residents often do not act in accordance to the roles assigned to them in the law. This behaviour can be explained by the fact that municipalities are urbanized and that residents often have no information on, or interest in, ground water flows. The complex structure of cities calls for a centralized management of responsibilities and accountability. However, such a top-down management approach of governmental bodies hampers variety, learning capacity and the room for autonomous change in some ways. This analysis shows that in cities, there might be a tension between regulating responsibilities between actors and adopting a multi-level, collaborative management approach\" Discussion of limitations \"The Adaptive Capacity Wheel can also be applied to assess policies and regulations. Where one is comparing many institutions, it may seem more relevant to undertake an additional step and aggregate the information into single quantitative scores. We have argued that the criteria are not additive and, hence, this step should be undertaken with caution. This implies that in addition to the steps taken in the previous case study, the optional fifth step under analyzing the data should be undertaken (under Section 3.3). One can aggregate the information on the different criteria into one value and again aggregate the data on the six dimensions into one score on a specific institutions' ability to promote the adaptive capacity of societies; however, with increasing aggregation, detail is lost. It is thus recommended to never use the aggregate tool without the separate Adaptive Capacity Wheels backing such an aggregation.\" [...] \"The Adaptive Capacity Wheel also has some interesting paradoxes: for example, we hinted before at the paradox between variety and leadership: strong leadership may automatically lead to less variety and weak leadership may have the advantage that a lot of variety is developed in society. Such paradoxes in the Wheel reflect paradoxes in social reality itself. Understanding adaptive capacity may call for expert judgements regarding how to deal with the overlaps and contradictions between criteria.Other key questions include: How objective is the evaluation? Are equal shares for each dimension and criterion in the Wheel reflective of equal weights? In response to the first question, a comprehensive coding system allows for enhanced transparency of the evaluation; even though there will always be a subjective element in it. In response to the second question, we have assigned equal weights to the dimensions and criteria in our applications. However, in a specific context, one dimension or criterion might be more important than another, and explaining these kinds of contextual varieties is an important step in applying the wheel. This does not stop future applications of the wheel from experimenting with assigning weights in specific contexts, and comparing how adaptive capacity improves or changes over time\" Item Quoted text Construct definition Data collection methods \"The primary data sources were documents about the process events, water policies and other project plans, and interviews with participants or conveners involved in their preparation, implementation and follow-up. In all three cases the authors were involved as experts during the adaptation process, although the cases were compiled post hoc. For each case study we undertook 10 extensive interviews with experts representing ministries, water authorities, planners, academic institutions and civil society.The interviewees in each case study were selected because they had been closely involved in the process of developing the selected strategy. An effort was made to select a mixture of experts to provide a fair representation of the perspectives on the processes being analyzed.\" (Huntjens et al 2012) \"A calibrated approach, using a standardized questionnaire for the elements of AIWM (see table 3), and a questionnaire for determining key characteristics of adaptation strategies (see table 5), expert judgment for both questionnaires, and reinterpretation of outcomes by means of relevant literature) was used to compare the water management regimes in the selected case-studies. A complete outlay of the questionnaires being used for data collection can be found in NeWater Deliverable 1.7.9a (Huntjens et al., 2007).\" (Huntjens et al 2008) \"A calibrated approach, using a standardized questionnaire for the characteristics of a water management regime, and a questionnaire for determining key characteristics of adaptation strategies (see Table 5), expert judgement for both questionnaires and reinterpretation of outcomes by means of relevant literature was used to compare the water management regimes in the selected case studies. A complete outlay of the questionnaires being used for data collection can be found in Huntjens et al. (2007).\" (Huntjens et al 2011a) Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments?\"During the interviews we discussed for each design principle the extent to which that specific aspect was similar or different when talking about (the processes of) climate change adaptation in the countries under consideration using a standardized set of questions (see Annex 1). We used the original design principles of Ostrom (1990) as point of departure for our analyses\" (Huntjens et al 2012) [Full template of questionnaires in Huntjens et al 2007] Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 36 ) Data analysis methods \"Our selection of strategies being analyzed is based on earlier work on the comparison of water governance regimes, their adaptation strategies and levels of policy learning (see Huntjens et al., 2008Huntjens et al., , 2011a,b),b). With only three cases it is not expected that major generalizations will suddenly emerge but that the contrasts will help to refine the analyses.\" [...] \"In the following section we will summarize the key observations in each case study; a more detailed description of analyses of individual design propositions in each case study is provided in Huntjens et al. ( 2011a)\" (Huntjens et al 2012) \"By using standardized questionnaires, or using these questionnaires for standardized interviews, qualitative data was being collected in such a way that it was possible to compare weighted averages on each seperate indicator. The weighted average has been calculated by multiplying each individual score by the weight which respondents assigned to it; the total sum of all respondents in one case-study was then divided by the total assigned weight (by adding up all weights assigned to this specific indicator). Furthermore, the level of inconsistency (standard deviation) for each variable has been calculated, next to 'Independent Samples T Tests', in order to test for significant differences between the case-studies.The reason for developing standardized answering options in the questionnaire is that it supports a formal comparative analysis of the results. Furthermore, the questionnaire allows for assigning weights to each indicator. In this way it is possible to aggregate multiple indicators, resulting in a score for one variable, or for aggregated variables, resulting in a score for one meta-variable (e.g. category of variables).\" (Huntjens et al 2008) \"A calibrated approach, using a standardized questionnaire for the characteristics of a water management regime, and a questionnaire for determining key characteristics of adaptation strategies (see Table 5), expert judgement for both questionnaires and reinterpretation of outcomes by means of relevant literature was used to compare the water management regimes in the selected case studies. A complete outlay of the questionnaires being used for data collection can be found in Huntjens et al. (2007).\" (Huntjens et al 2011a) Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Our selection of strategies being analyzed is based on earlier work on the comparison of water governance regimes, their adaptation strategies and levels of policy learning (see Huntjens et al., 2008Huntjens et al., , 2011a,b),b)\" Discussion of limitations \"With only three cases it is not expected that major generalizations will suddenly emerge but that the contrasts will help to refine the analyses.\" [...] \"Our comparative study had several important limitations. Only three cases were examined. The cases were compiled post hoc. For simplicity we selected as units of analysis one or a tight cluster of closely related events as a focus of our analysis of the processes. In practice all of these 'cases' were part of a much larger and less coherent collection of activities, meetings and networking that might constitute a process for strategy development. A more historical, long-term, analysis of individual cases was beyond the scope of this analysis but undoubtedly would reveal further insights about the building of trust and dynamics of relations, and changing understanding of actors involved. Another important limitation was that effectiveness was not systematically assessed. In other words, to what extent the design propositions contribute to climate change adaptation is not entirely clear yet, since the outcomes of the adaptation strategies being studied are largely unknown at present. Most of these strategies have only recently been introduced and there has not been enough time to test their long-term appropriateness and effectiveness in relation to their institutional arrangements. It does not mean however that there are no tangible outputs for the governance systems being studied. For a governance regime to deal with the current and anticipated impacts of climate change it first needs to have a policy or strategy in place, either for flood protection or drought resilience, or for both. From this perspective, the output of a governance system is not only defined by its physical interventions, but also by means of its management interventions. The three case-studies are selected because they all have climate change adaptation strategies in place, being defined as outputs of extensive policy processes\" participants ranked the risks and stress factors according to their importance, and the adaptation options according to feasibility and sustainability\" [...] \"We complemented quantitative data of the resilience indicators with qualitative information for better contextualization by means of participant observation (Martin 2004). The first author shared daily work with the respective farming family during one to three days, consisting mostly of cocoa harvesting and post-harvest activities, such as fermentation and drying of the beans. Activities were analyzed together with the family in order to capture family-specific social capital (in terms of social connectedness and capacity building). Qualitative aspects of connectedness were addressed by inquiring the meaning of being part of a local farmers' organization such as a cooperative, and changes in the community due to the emergence of such organizations and organic certification. We also discussed the farmers' experiences with agroforestry and their interest in it.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"We assessed both tree species diversity and crop diversity in the interviews by asking which trees were planted in the cocoa plots and which crops were cultivated, sold, and consumed. Cocoa yields were captured as reported by the farmers for the previous year (Philpott et al. 2007). Further, a number of different income sources may function as an insurance against potential loss of income from cocoa (Anim-Kwapong and Frimpong 2006). We defined the following categories of income sources: crops, livestock, timber and nontimber forest products, hunting and fishing, and off-farm activities\" [...] \"Connectedness was assessed by asking how many farmers' organizations family members were affiliated to; this included nongovernmental or other organizations engaged in agriculture. In order to better understand self-organization in our sample, we complemented this quantitative assessment with a qualitative analysis of connectedness and the common rules and norms of farmers' organizations (Ostrom 1990). To this end, we analyzed farmers' understanding of organic agriculture, the meaning they ascribed to being part of a cooperative, and their perceptions of The author however acknowledges a number of shortcomings of this paper, owing mostly to constraints associated with the available data. These include inability to explore the determinants of the level of land conservation; inability to analyse conservation decisions at the plot level; inability to extend measurement ofland rights to perceptions/continuum such as mode of acquisition; inability to take into account the cost of land conservation measures; and inability to take into account the underlying soil conditions/quality prior to adoption of land conservation practices. Another shortcoming of the study is the limitation ofthe short period ofthe panel used in this study. In spite ofthe limitations ofthe short period ofthe panel used in this study, this paper makes an important contribution in understanding the interplay of land rights, population density and decisions to invest in land conservation. A longer panel would be more appropriate for assessing the long-term relationship between population density, tenure security and conservation on one hand and evolution of land rights on the other. We recommend future research in this direction.\"agrarian land tenure, class configuration and agrarian policy pursued. Third, the particular interactions between the agricultural and industrial sectors in the process of development as well as the state's industrial strategy. I will analyse each of these three interrelated themes in what follows.\" Discussion of limitations \"I am less concerned with deriving policy conclusions from the comparative analysis as this is fraught with pitfalls, especially in view of the different historical context (Legler, 1999) and as there is no single path to development (Akyüz, 1998). In many ways South Korea and Taiwan are special cases and their success cannot easily be replicated (WooCumings, 1997;Jenkins, 1991a) Data analysis methods \"For the comparative analysis the list was reduced to eight factors using the same procedure as above, and these were further operationalized by indicators that were established in a consultative process with international experts of REDD+ . To allow crosschecking of results, this final assessment took place in a joint workshop attended by experts from the GCS-REDD country teams. Each country team had at least two group members, who discussed and assessed the indicators and presented the final results in the plenary with all country teams present. The threshold between 0 and 1 assessment for each factor was set through careful examination of the characteristics of the factor, and also drew on substantial contextual knowledge of case countries. As most of the countries share quite similar governance characteristics, thresholds needed to be set in a way that the -sometimes small but decisive -differences between the countries could be observed and accentuated so that the specific country features could be revealed. Finally, six factors out of the eight were identified as conditions having a role in determining the success or failure in achieving 3E REDD+ policy outputs, and the remaining two, together with a few important earlier factors that were similar across all countries, formed the joint context. These data formed a reliable and valid starting point for the QCA (Rihoux & De Meur, 2009, p. 48). The analysis was conducted using the software Tosmana (Cronqvist, 2007).\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"The aim of QCA is to enable systematic cross-case comparison without neglecting case complexity, thus allowing for modest, medium-range generalization and theorizing.\" [...] \"In QCA, each case is understood as a specific combination (or 'configuration') of factors, called 'conditions'. QCA is based on the concept of multiple conjunctural causation, meaning that (1) most often, not one factor (called condition) but a combination of factors will lead to the outcome; ( 2) different combinations of conditions can produce the same outcome (equifinality); and (3) one condition can have different impacts on the outcome, depending on its combination with other factors and the context (Rihoux, 2007, p. 367).\" [...] \"Whereas the institutional setting provides key conditions for an enabling context, actions by political actors shape the policy arena and the processes that lead to transformational change within that context. Drawing on theoretical considerations, previous studies (Corbera & Schroder, 2011;Di Gregorio et al., 2012;Gupta, 2012;Wong & Surkin, 2008), and the inductive consultation process, three hypothetical proximate conditions on the policy arena, and its impact on REDD+ , were defined in order to find out which of them are necessary to accomplish the outcome-enabling configurations and which combinations provide for a sufficient configuration for REDD+ :\" Discussion of limitations \"This analysis does have some limitations. In addition to the general problem of having a large number of conditions but only a few cases -which the two-step approach was intended to minimize -the small number of cases with outcome 1 considerably constrains the interpretation of results. This limited empirical diversity minimizes the scope for generalizing these results. Only when more cases become available -that is, when more countries make progress with national REDD+ policies -will it be possible to refine our understanding. In particular, it will be interesting to analyse if and how countries with less enabling institutional settings will proceed. For better understanding of the complex realities and the uniqueness of each national context for REDD+ , future analysis should focus on the interdependencies of the identified factors in Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 44 ) Data analysis methods \"This paper explores the association between attributes of governance and the ability to manage resilience in a set of case studies undertaken by the Resilience Alliance (Table 1).\" [...] \"We end with comparative observations drawing on additional cases when appropriate and identifying other critical issues.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations \"These findings are necessarily tentative. The collection of case studies explored in this paper was assembled post hoc, and the individual studies themselves were not designed to address questions about governance. Much of the variation in the association between governance arrangements and the capacity to manage resilience remains unexplained.Our exploration also raised several theoretical and practical issues.First is the problem of measurement. \"The capacity of NR managers is defined as the set of resources available to support the adoption of improved NRM practices, and the ability of NR managers to deploy resources effectively in the pursuit of more sustainable natural resource use (Macadam et al. 2004;Thomson and Pepperdine 2004). The prioritisation of NRM funding programmes has often been top-down with limited understanding of the multiple dimensions of landholder capacity leading to a failure to address the underlying capacity constraints of local communities for NRM (Leith et al. 2012). Without appropriate engagement with local NR managers many NRM programmes have been criticised as lacking legitimacy (e.g. Morrison 2009).\"(Brown et al) Data collection methods \"For T13, local legitimacy and relevance were crucial and a participatory approach using the SLA framework was developed, trialled, and applied across NSW (see Brown et al. 2010 for full methodological details).\" [...] \"The workshops were structured to provide opportunity for wideranging dialogue about matters that substantially constrain and enable NRM. Initially, following brief introductions, a member of the team presented briefly on the rationale for T13 and the policy orientation of the process at regional and state levels of NRM governance. NRM was introduced in terms of the 13 statewide NRM targets, which define NRM for the purpose of this research. We emphasized our interest in the participants' diverse perspectives on regionally relevant NRM as central to understanding NRM capacity. Groups defined the agro-ecological regions or industries that they felt comfortable to represent. In some workshops, the groups were comprised of land managers from diverse industries or geographical areas, and the group opted to run the process in parallel ''breakout sessions.'' Most of the 3-to 4-hour period allotted for the workshops was taken up with three overlapping, discursive tasks: facilitated discussion to develop of a set of indicators for each capital, each with a clear statement of the rationale for its selection; evaluation of the degree to which each indicator was currently enabling or constraining capacity within industry=agro-ecological zones; and reflection on the reasons for the value assigned within each region and the important differences between regions. The workshop process was facilitated by one team member, with another recording the information on a computer, and the information was projected onto a screen to enable real-time clarification. It was emphasized that the process was the first drafting stage of reports to policymakers, and participants were encouraged to continually review and edit our notations, clarify points, and highlight differences of opinion within groups.The form of interaction between facilitator, note taker, and participants was critical to the process, and especially to articulating indicators that adequately represented key aspects of an openended dialogue. In the early stages of a workshop, wide-ranging discussion was encouraged with a focus on what enabled and constrained NRM action. The note taker attempted to capture key phrases, ideas, and sentiments, while the facilitator encouraged participants to think in terms of the livelihoods framework by suggesting that a particular statement might relate to a particular capital. Soon participants were also talking in terms of the capitals, and the facilitator directed the discussion to identifying and naming up to five indicators per capital. The group then systematically worked through the capitals, identifying indicators and providing a rationale for each, including how they related to one another. \" [...] \"Numerical ratings assigned to each indicator by the group were averaged by type of capital. In the T13 workshops, assigning of values was achieved through a facilitated discussion that iteratively developed the relative degree to which indicators constrained or enabled NRM capacity at the time of the workshop. Mean ratings for each region were summarized as a series of livelihood pentagons, in which each axis is assigned a capital with a scale of 0 to 5 corresponding to the rating scale used in the workshops. This scale provides a continuum reflecting the degree to which each indicator effects NRM capacity within the area. Zero indicates that it constrains action greatly and 5 indicates that the indicator is strongly enabling. The midpoint, 2.5, suggests that on balance it is currently neither constraining nor enabling action. These ratings provide a point of entry to understanding NRM capacity\" (Leith et al ) \"The general process at each workshop with land managers involved a brief introduction to the purpose of the workshop, the livelihoods framework and adaptive capacity, a short discussion about the participants role in NRM and their farming enterprise to establish context, and an outline of the workshop process including selection of indicators, metrics, reason for assigning a particular value to an indicator, and identification of collective actions to improve the indicator.Full details of the process are in Brown et al. (2010) and Leith et al. (2012). Twelve workshops were conducted in eight catchments throughout NSW during 2008 (see Leith et al. 2012 for details). In total, 87 land managers and members of local NRM-based communities participated in the workshops, but many of the individuals who participated represented broader constituencies (for example, some participants represented farmer or industry groups). Therefore, actual representation was potentially much higher. The key NR manager groups represented in the workshops included large extensive cropping and grazing enterprises, medium-sized mixed farming enterprises, small-scale farming enterprises, sugarcane, dairy, timber production, peri-urban hobby farmers, and irrigated farming systems. Farmers were the principal type of participant, but NRM regional body staff was also involved and actively participated in discussions. There were also representatives of lands protection boards, lifestyle farmers, Landcare, NSW Department of Primary Industries staff, natural resource management (NRM) volunteers, and paid NRM facilitators.Workshop sessions facilitated by the project team then examined each of the five capitals and the information generated was recorded directly into an Excel spreadsheet which was displayed for participants to view throughout the discussion. Participants were asked to identify indicators that constrained or enabled NRM for each capital, provide a rationale supporting the selection of each indicator, and to assign a score (between 0 and 5) to each indicator where '0' implied that the indicator was constraining natural resource management and therefore is a high priority for action and '5' implied that the indicator was effectively supporting NRM and did not need immediate action. Finally the reason for the value assigned to each indicator, and collective actions that if implemented would improve the level of support provided by the indicator for NRM, was discussed. A moderation session ensured agreement among participants and provided an opportunity for sense-making.The information was subsequently summarised into written short reports designed to convey findings to the relevant regional NRM bodies for their input\" (Brown et al) Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"Most of the 3-to 4-hour period allotted for the workshops was taken up with three overlapping, discursive tasks: facilitated discussion to develop of a set of indicators for each capital, each with a clear statement of the rationale for its selection; evaluation of the degree to which each indicator was currently enabling or constraining capacity within industry=agro-ecological zones;[...] reflection on the reasons for the value assigned within each region and the important differences between regions.\" (Leith et al ) \"Participants were asked to identify indicators that constrained or enabled NRM for each capital, provide a rationale supporting the selection of each indicator, and to assign a score (between 0 and 5) to each indicator where '0' implied that the indicator was constraining natural resource management and therefore is a high priority for action and '5' implied that the indicator was effectively supporting NRM and did not need immediate action. Finally the reason for the value assigned to each indicator, and collective actions that if implemented would improve the level of support provided by the indicator for NRM, was discussed.\" The analysis also relies on qualitative approaches. Qualitative analysis of recurrent scripts associated with particular farming identities and styles (Vanclay et al. 2007) and argumentative narratives or storylines (Hajer 1995) relating to how capacity is constrained and enabled provides a nuanced description of NRM capacity across NSW\" [...] \"Analysis of all workshops allows recurrent themes to be identified (Figure 3). Across the workshops, up to six constraints were identified for each of the capitals offset by only two or three enabling factors.\" (Leith et al) \"A rudimentary word content analysis was applied to the outputs of the workshops in order to aggregate collective actions and indicators of adaptive capacity. Aggregation was achieved through identification of recurrent phrases and issues relating to collective actions. In some instances, some indicators could not easily be grouped with others and so were placed within an 'others' category. Average values of grouped indicators of the capital (± standard errors) were derived from the individual scores elicited through the workshop process. These data and interpretations are largely reported in Leith et al. (2012), but some information is presented here to provide context for the current analysis. The cumulative number of collective actions (n) associated with each indicator was used to provide a measure of the diversity of actions perceived by participants as options to remove constraint to NRM. In order to understand who might be responsible for taking carriage of the collective actions identified through the process, each action was assigned to a broad level of governance: local-community, regioncatchment, and state-national. Actions were further categorised into five recurrent activity types being: institutional arrangements (ranging from regional to state and national scale), education and training, practice change, funding and assistance, and research and development. This categorisation allowed the interaction between collective action and temporal, spatial, and governance scales to be explored\" (Brown et al) Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Rating of indicators provides comparability across a wide region, though it shrouds the local particularity that enables understanding of, and thus more appropriate intervention for, improved NRM within a specific context. Thus, results are most usefully interpreted by shifting focus between the broad regional and statewide patterns to the local and particular.\" (Leith et al) \"Our participatory M&E process is grounded within established theories of knowledge creation as described by Nonaka's SECI model (Loria 2008). This model and adaptations of it have been applied to knowledge transfer in a range of domains including agricultural technology development (Hoffmann et al. 2007), tourism (Xiao and Smith 2007), and business management (Seufert et al. 1999). For M&E of NRM, the process offers a mechanism to transfer tacit knowledge held by local NR managers to explicit knowledge through a workshop process (externalisation). This knowledge is then articulated through formal reporting where it can be combined with knowledge articulated through similar processes at other locations and with biophysical information (combination) for incorporation into management actions for social-ecological systems that cross geographical, governance, and temporal scales (internalisation). The formalised guidance on NR management created through the process can then be adapted by local NR managers and shared among peers (socialisation). The process for assessment ofNR manager capacity was developed as part ofa state wide MER strategy. In that context, the value of identifying actions to build NRM capacity rather than simply indicators of constraints to NRM is that it aids both ex ante and expost evaluation of policy and programmes. For regional NRM bodies, the priorities for collective action identified during the workshop process provide insight into what the community sees as capacity building priorities that might also improve agricultural livelihoods. Some of the collective actions fell within the boundaries of regional responsibilities and may contribute to the evaluation of existing policy, programmes, and investments against community needs by: & Providing information for the adaptation of existing policy and programmes & Identifying areas of need for community engagement and awareness to improve outcomes of existing NRM interventions & Identifying gaps to be addressed through development of new policy and programmes\" (Brown et al) Discussion of limitations \"Yet the T13 process has methodological limitations, including the consensus approach to rating indicators, the time frame of workshops, and the process more broadly. Also, there is potential for bias in the sample, as participants known to regional NRM facilitators may prioritize perspectives of those engaged in NRM. For T13, these issues were necessary trade-offs associated with ensuring inclusion of stakeholders within a tight time frame and budget. Despite these limitations, the T13 process allowed for the development of substantial cross-scale understanding of the key issues that constrain and enable NRM capacity in NSW, and especially the degree to which common themes and local particularities exist across regions. \"Pearson correlation coefficients were used to evaluate statistical associations between variables representing adaptation factors and the ARS and HAS. The number of observations (countries) in the dataset provided insufficient statistical power to allow for multivariate regression analysis. The purpose of the analysis was neither to establish causation nor to attempt to quantify causal contributions. Instead, we explore preliminary evidence of correlative trends in factors hypothesized to be potential predictors of adaptation. The results are thus exploratory, contributing to an emerging and critically needed literature on systematic approaches for quantitative assessment of adaptation predictors. The natural log of GDP and population were used.Associations were considered significant at the 95% confidence level. All statistical analyses were conducted in STATA (StataCorp v.11)\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"The number of observations (countries) in the dataset provided insufficient statistical power to allow for multivariate regression analysis. The purpose of the analysis was neither to establish causation nor to attempt to quantify causal contributions. Instead, we explore preliminary evidence of correlative trends in factors hypothesized to be potential predictors of adaptation. The results are thus exploratory, contributing to an emerging and critically needed literature on systematic approaches for quantitative assessment of adaptation predictors.\" [...] \"The results of this analysis provide a foundation to begin identifying national characteristics that differ among high and low adaptors.Here we find that adaptation response scores are significantly related to participation in international environmental treaties and national environmental governance, as well as population size and GDP. Health areas scores are found to be significantly related to population size and GDP. Several countries are outliers to these trends. Finland received a high ARS and HAS, yet has a population and GDP below median levels. Russia, on the other hand, received a very low ARS and HAS, and yet has one of the largest populations and GDPs of the Annex I group. It is worth noting that in measurements of participation in international treaties and national environmental governance, however, Finland received significantly higher scores than Russia. This indicates that while some theoretical determinants like GDP are highly associated with adaptation action, how they intersect with other contextual factors impacts adaptation outcomes. These results support hypotheses found in the adaptive capacity literature that availability of resources impacts a country's ability to engage in adaptation (Berrang-Ford et al., 2011;Ebi et al., 2006), but also point to other institutional and regulatory factors that affect how fully they result in adaptation actions (Kovats et al., 2003)\" [...] \"The methodology employed in this study is derived from, and advances in a new direction, approaches used in vulnerability and adaptation scholarship that allow systematic assessments of the complex factors affecting environmental health outcomes (Ford et al., 2013;Hambling et al., 2011;Lesnikowski et al., 2011;BerrangFord et al., 2011;Fu¨ssel, 2010b;Tompkins et al., 2010;Brooks et al., 2005). Significant correlations provide a preliminary indication of contextual factors associated with national adaptation outcomes, but cannot be used to infer causality due to the absence of longitudinal data. Furthermore, the current study is limited by the sample size of UNFCCC Annex I countries, which prevents the use of a multivariate analysis and limits statistical power to detect significant associations. Strong associations were nevertheless found between both ARS and HAS and population and GDP, and between ARS and international treaty participation and domestic environmental governance.\" Discussion of limitations \"The number of observations (countries) in the dataset provided insufficient statistical power to allow for multivariate regression analysis. The purpose of the analysis was neither to establish causation nor to attempt to quantify causal contributions. Instead, we explore preliminary evidence of correlative trends in factors hypothesized to be potential predictors of adaptation. The results are thus exploratory, contributing to an emerging and critically needed literature on systematic approaches for quantitative assessment of adaptation predictors.\"\"The methodology employed in this study is derived from, and advances in a new direction, approaches used in vulnerability and adaptation scholarship that allow systematic assessments of the complex factors affecting environmental health outcomes (Ford et al., 2013;Hambling et al., 2011;Lesnikowski et al., 2011;BerrangFord et al., 2011;Fu¨ssel, 2010b;Tompkins et al., 2010;Brooks et al., 2005). Significant correlations provide a preliminary indication of contextual factors associated with national adaptation outcomes, but cannot be used to infer causality due to the absence of longitudinal data. Furthermore, the current study is limited by the sample size of UNFCCC Annex I countries, which prevents the use of a multivariate analysis and limits statistical power to detect significant associations. Strong associations were nevertheless found between both ARS and HAS and population and GDP, and between ARS and international treaty participation and domestic environmental governance.\"Data analysis methods \"To explore differences between these groups in terms of control and governance indicators, we performed an Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). Specifically, separate T-tests were performed for all possible pairs of different quadrants and indicators, provided that the number of observations was sufficient. This analysis is referred to as the between groups analysis.\" [...] \"Next, to test the maximal and marginal explanatory value of governance indicators, we performed linear regressions for all countries together and for the groups individually. Although the between groups analysis distinguished countries based on the sign of dY and dA, the within groups analysis investigates the spatial variability in dY and dA values within groups, taking into account their correlation with governance and control indicators. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to examine relationships between governance indicators and dY and dA.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"From Figure 1 it becomes clear that countries with a yield decline are a minority. Figure 2 shows that total areas of decline and expansion countries are negligible compared with that of growth and/or intensifying countries, and that growth and intensifying countries roughly divide the area in two.\" [...] \"The results from the two analyses presented here confirm the hypothesis that in countries with lower quality of governance, agricultural production increase is more likely to be achieved by area expansion than by increase in yield. Although governance indicators do not explain vast shares of spatial variability in cultivated area and yield change within groups, a nonzero marginal explanatory value considerably increases the likelihood that governance does matter. In reality, the strengths of relationships are likely to be somewhere in between the most strictly (marginal R²) and loosely held criteria (maximal R²). Overall, the chosen set of control indicators seems adequate in explaining spatial variability in production indicators other than governance indicators, because of the overall consistency of results.\" Discussion of limitations \"When studying real-world phenomena that are the result of complex processes by means of regression analysis, it is hardly ever possible to isolate the role of the explanatory variable of interest from a wide range of other explanatory variables. In our case, we are interested in how well governance indicators can explain agricultural production indicators, but we cannot escape from the fact that governance is correlated to many other variables that also explain production indicators, e.g., climate, soils, economy, and demography. For this reason, we try to include these other variables as much as possible to account for their potential impact. We will refer to these variables as control indicators. Because of statistical confounding we will not be able to distinguish exactly which part of the explanatory power of the regression can be attributed to each of the two categories, i.e., the governance indicators and the control indicators.\" [...] \"Because we also include control indicators that are quite closely connected to governance, particularly the economic indicators, we limit our assessment of governance importance to that aspect of governance that is independent from economic performance. Because economic indicators are generally associated with overall quality of governance, the marginal explanatory values of governance are likely to be underestimations.\"interview data with sources consisting of notes from participant observation, statistics on local programmes and their impact, press releases, and government documents regarding the PDS\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \". As I worked with a research question informed by the link between e-governance and development, the focus of my study has been on the processes of change induced by technology: narrative analysis, one of the main tools for process research (Riessman, 2008), has therefore been the main method on which I have relied.\" Discussion of limitations Office.\" [...] \"Findings from Kenya are drawn from an Egerton Unversity/Tegemeo Institute report on trends and patterns in fertilizer use since the initiation of input market liberalization in 1990 (Ariga, Jayne, Nyoro, 2007;Ariga, Jayne, Nyoro, 2008). This study tracks trends in fertilizer use for a nationally representative sample of 1,260 small-scale farm households surveyed by Egerton University's Tegemeo Institute in 1997, 2000, 2004and 2007.\" (Minde et al 2008) \"The study's findings are based on three types of information and analyses:1. Review of secondary data on trends in fertilizer use, prices and other salient indicators for the four main fertilizer delivery system types: (a) integrated sugarcane outgrower arrangements, where fertilizer is supplied on credit to participating farmers, mainly for sugar production but also for other crops; (b) integrated tea inputcredit-sale systems; (c) integrated coffee input-credit-sale systems; and (d) independent fertilizer supply chains for crops not involved in coordinated input-sale-cash arrangements, mainly for maize. This information is obtained through the Ministry of Agriculture.2. Interviews of key informants in the fertilizer industry and with representatives of interlinked fertilizer delivery systems. These interviews were carried out in April and May 2005 to obtain detailed institutional and organizational information on price and supply risks, contract non-compliance risks, potential impacted information problems, and coordination arrangements with buyers and sellers in the vertical supply chain, cost structure, etc.3. Analysis of small farm household panel survey data to assess fertilizer consumption trends by crop, fertilizer intensity rates by type of delivery system, characteristics of households participating in these fertilizer delivery programs compared to households in the same areas but not participating in these schemes. This information is obtained through descriptive analysis of the Tegemeo/MSU Household Survey Database from the crop years 1995/96, 1996/97, 1999/00, and 2003/04. Analysis is based on survey of 1,364 smallscale farming households consistently surveyed across all four cropping seasons. \" (Ariga et al 2006).\"Data for this study is from 3 sources: i) Tegemeo rural household survey data from 1997, 2000, 2004, and 2007; ii) interviews with key ongoing) period of ten years as they have sought to demonstrate the intricate and intimate relationship between vulnerability to environmental stress and governance in rural Cearense society\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"The implications of these theoretical nuances are important in several critical ways. When adaptation is situated at the point of dynamic interface between human and ecological systems, human agency assumes a pivotal position as the source of variability that sponsor change in the nature of the human-environment nexus (Brumfiel 1992;Netting 1993). A second theoretical implication is that the teleological imperative of functionalism is abandoned because the dynamic of adaptation does not have an ultimate destiny, especially in the context of exogenous pressure. It is not possible to predict what sociocultural manifestations will emerge as human and ecological systems adjust to stress-of environmental origin or otherwise. This being said, the final theoretical implication of this version of adaptation is that there is an intrinsic resistance to change in the system components and interrelationships. Thus, at the localized site of human-ecological system interaction, the tension between structure and agency plays out as a dialectical process of change and persistence without any intrinsic foreknowledge of what the outcome will be.\" [...] \"The concept of \"social-ecological resilience\" resonates well with the comprehensive perspective of vulnerability. Although resilience and vulnerability are conceptually related, they are not mirror versions of each other (Gallop´ın 2006). Resilience is a characteristic of a system that allows it to absorb disturbances without losing its function and structure while protecting its capacity for change and adjustment (Carpenter et al. 2001;Walker et al. 2004). The capacity for change and adjustment is predicated on maintaining a diversity of responses, which, in the social and political realm, means encouraging and maintaining the participation of diverse actors to increase response options (Berkes 2007). As such, resilience is a defining component of the adaptation process in that it allows a system to adjust to stress while maintaining its essential character. In other words, resilience provides a long-term horizon to system dynamics that are in constant motion (Folke et al. 2002;Walker et al. 2002)\" [...] \"Based on data from our survey of rural households, we described and classified levels of vulnerability (see Table 1). The categories were created using a combination of extreme poverty (indigence) and poverty thresholds, the climate sensitivity of the household income, and irrigation. This economic metric measures the impact of drought on household production and permits an analysis of relative vulnerability across households.\" Discussion of limitations \"It should only be considered as a proxy to identify vulnerable populations based on outcomes. Other than the presence or absence ofirrigation, the metric does not consider agricultural production, because, for the most part, all rain-fed systems are similarly vulnerable.\"exercises.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations during a field visit to palm oil plantations in West Kalimantan and the 8th RSPO annual conference in Jakarta, Indonesia. Lastly, extensive participatory observation in Oxfam Novib (2010)(2011)(2012) facilitated the elaboration of this study\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 53 ) Data analysis methods Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"Here, we have developed a politics of scale framework that has permitted us to distinguish three different dimensions at which the impacts of NGO interventions occur; namely, spaces of engagement, connecting spaces, and spaces of formal interdependence. Such dimensions do not unfold naturally and successively. Instead, targeted actions and strategic maneuvers are required to realize change at each dimension. While the creation of a space of engagement always precedes and is a pre-condition for the creation of a space of formal interdependence, our analysis suggests that the creation of connecting spaces sustains the realization of the other two dimensions. This indicates that the institutionalization of rightsbased principles in private governance regimes is largely enabled by activating grassroots interests and forming alliances with partners and allies. In the case of Oxfam's intervention in the RSPO, the opportunities to articulate rights-based principles were mostly determined by the social characteristics of the problem and the ability of Oxfam to combine strategic intent with opportunistic behavior. Other critical factors include Oxfam's capacity to form and sustain networks and to capture and reorganize resources within the boundaries of the RSPO and beyond.\"53 By 'directly operationalized' it is meant that the data collection instruments contain indicators to directly represent the higher-level governance construct, rather than representing intermediary sub-constructs through conceptual deconstruction of the higherlevel governance construct.collective action for sustainable management Research Question: \"Many natural resource systems, such as forests, fall under collective management or are subject to use by multiple individuals, often for a variety of purposes (Edwards and Steins, 1998;Quiggin, 1993). Failures to overcome collective-action problems contribute to the degradation or loss of natural resources around the world. Sustaining these resources in the face of demographic and economic pressures depends upon successful co-ordination and co-operation. An understanding of the factors influencing prospects for collective action for sustainable management among resource-dependent populations has important policy implications. This article focuses on the debate about the role of group size and heterogeneity\" Article reference: Data analysis methods \"To analyze inclusiveness in terms of discourses, a discourse analysis on the issue of agricultural expansion and sustainable development was conducted. This discourse analysis is not confined to the official discussions within the Roundtable, but also scrutinizes related discourses that take place outside of the Roundtable. Discourses structure the contributions of actors to a discussion, and a discourse analysis illuminates a particular discursive structure in a discussion (Hajer, 2006). Discourse is defined here as an \"ensemble of ideas, concepts, and categories through which meaning is given to social and physical phenomena, and which is produced and reproduced through an identifiable set of practices\" (Hajer, 2006, p. 67). The discourse analysis centers mainly on the question: What are the main framings of sustainable development, specifically in relation to agricultural expansion of a specific product? By analyzing official documents and minutes from Roundtables, their member organizations and external organizations referring to the Roundtables, we identified different problem framings and accompanying solutions in the debates regarding the expansion of an agricultural crop. From this data we distilled broader categories of these framings that are similar in their views of sustainability and the way the relationship is framed between humans, economy and society concerning this specific crop. Furthermore, we linked these discourses to more general discourses on sustainable development\" [...] \"This paper analyzes the RTRS in an in-depth manner to be able to understand the mechanisms related to the deliberative capacity of this initiative. The RSPO case is used to verify whether the results for the RTRS are applicable to a broader range of Roundtables and is therefore presented in a shorter and less in-depth manner.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions Discussion of limitations \"This paper operationalized the concept of deliberative capacity in order to use it as a tool to empirically assess governance arrangements. Our research suggests that the three elements of deliberative capacity (inclusiveness, authenticity and consequentiality) are not independent from each other, but are connected. A low degree of inclusiveness is likely to go together with a high degree of authenticity in empowered space as well as a high degree of consequentiality. Further research on the relations between the three elements of deliberative capacity is needed in order to methodologically improve the concept.\"experts. 31 of them ultimately participated representing 24 institutions. They involved the positions with the highest institutional responsibilities in key institutions at the donor government interface\" [...] \"The personnel fluctuations we faced in initiating the interviews may significantly influence institutional continuity and capacities to design and implement activities. Moreover, if personnel in important positions are involved in oversized tasks, their capacities may easily become strained. To deal with some of the uncertainties resulting from this situation, we repeated the consultations with 25 key experts in 2009.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"During the interviews, the experts were asked to indicate the five most important barriers to mainstreaming\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 58 ) Data analysis methods \"The experts' responses range across all three levels of institutional capacity: the individual and organisational level as well as the enabling environment. The level of perception is evaluated according to the number of experts identifying a specific barrier as being most important. A barrier receives the highest perception level (+++) if more than two-thirds of the experts highlighted it as the main barrier, while the medium perception level (++) is given if between one and two-thirds of the experts identified a barrier. Less than one-third of expert identifications result in the low perception level (+). We find that perceptions are fairly consistent among both international and national experts, but differ significantly between the two groups.\" results to conclusions \"As shown in the previous section, each of the three levels of institutional capacity reveals different mainstreaming barriers.Next, we present specific opportunities identified through the expert consultations and literature review. Planning and implementing climate adaptation for development assistance is not only shaped by bilateral and multilateral donors, but also depends on national development planning. The opportunities focus, therefore, on donors and the Government of Mozambique (GoM). While some barriers can be addressed by either the donors or the GoM, certain opportunities can be seized in partnership. The options for mainstreaming are presented in an actor-oriented way to facilitate the recognition of specific opportunities and collaborative actions\"Discussion of limitations \"The experts interviewed mainly represented the agricultural, water, rural planning and environmental sector. These sectors have been directly impacted by extreme weather conditions, so the experts were convinced that their participation would benefit the interinstitutional networking and related knowledge transfer. In contrast, participation from the health, education and consultancy sector remained limited due to, for example personnel fluctuations, reservations or a lack of interest. Climate-relevant activities in the health and education sector were strongly related to the sectors covered in the expert interviews. Therefore, we assume that perceptions captured reveal the diversity of prevailing opinions. Our experience in the expert interviews already indicates some of the dynamics and barriers inherent in the institutional setting in Mozambique. The personnel fluctuations we faced in initiating the interviews may significantly influence institutional continuity and capacities to design and implement activities. Moreover, if personnel in important positions are involved in oversized tasks, their capacities may easily become strained. To deal with some of the uncertainties resulting from this situation, we repeated the consultations with 25 key experts in 2009.\"Discussion of limitations \"Note that while these descriptions draw from both the primary and secondary information sources described earlier, the extensive variation in Ethiopia between regions, ethnicities, and communities means that it is impossible to make conclusive, generalizable or nationally representative observations here\" Adaptations are defined in the paper as \"actions that aim to decrease vulnerability and increase resilience overall, in response to a range of immediate needs, risks and aspirations\" Data collection methods \"The methodology followed for each country is based on a common meta-analytical framework involving first, a literature analysis of the adaptation challenges facing rural agricultural communities (drawing on the authors' published research and the broader literature). As such, an inductive research approach was taken, as the key drivers of and responses to local adaptations to climate change, desertification and drought in our study countries were identified from the literature.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"the key drivers of and responses to local adaptations to climate change, desertification and drought in our study countries were identified from the literature.\"Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 60 ) \"participation\" \"policy\"\"As such, an inductive research approach was taken, as the key drivers of and responses to local adaptations to climate change, desertification and drought in our study countries were identified from the literature. Second, a discourse analysis of each study country's policy communications to the UNFCCC and UNCCD was undertaken. This involved identifying the patterns of dominant narratives present within each document (Gard, 2005), along with those powerful adaptation strategies afforded most prominence. In doing this, we also attempted to understand the process through which each narrative entered the policy (i.e. whether wholly topdown processes were used in policy development), and assessed what this could mean in relation to the more participatory approaches espoused at the international level. Next we used an approach broadly based on grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) to draw up key categories in which to place the policy adaptations. These categories emerged from the analysis, and at times shared similarities with the distinctions in typologies such as that developed by Smit and Skinner (2002). Next, we examined the overlaps and differences in the adaptive strategies detailed in policy communications to the UNCCD and the UNFCCC, as well as the similarities and differences between local and policy adaptations. A matrix was then developed to assess these results.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"This section discusses the implications of the contradiction and synergy that has been revealed in our analysis, between climate change and desertification policies, and between the challenges this presents for policy and practice. It considers how policy adaptations may become more mutually supportive if they are embedded within a broader development framework, and argues that adaptation needs to take place synonymously with sustainable development to help reduce vulnerability, in order for it to be successful (as per Schipper, 2007).\"\"In evaluating our methodology, we appreciate that there may be other adaptations taking place beyond those documented in the literature we uncovered and that our findings are not exhaustive.Our approach nevertheless permitted the relationship between local and policy adaptations to be explored in a novel and appropriate way to provide new information required to inform both academic research and policy debates. Finally, we also acknowledge that we do not focus on all crops when considering agricultural adaptations in both the policy and local adaptation literature. Instead, we consider only those crops and practices most central to subsistence production. This is because the impacts of climate change, drought and desertification on these crops are likely to have the most profound effect on household wellbeing.\"Four governance capabilities Research Question: \"Using the existing literature, we show how the presence or absence of specific capabilities has produced or prevented progress in dealing with the different problem definitions of sustainable food production under the CAP\" Article reference: Quoted text Construct definition \"We define a governance capability as the ability of policy makers to observe wicked problems and to act accordingly, and the ability of the governance system to enable such observing and acting. Hence, we argue that every capability should include the three aforementioned dimensions of acting, observing, and enabling\" [...] \"The four capabilities we identify in this article are presented in Table 1. They are derived from four main aspects of wicked problems and based on the characteristics described by Rittel and Webber (1973).\"  Feindt, 2010;Fennell, 1997;Grant, 1997;Kay & Ackrill, 2009, 2010;Lynggaard & Nedergaard, 2009;Montpetit, 2003;Termeer & Werkman, 2011;Wiskerke, Bock, Stuiver, & Renting, 2003). We follow the CAP's history by discussing different reforms: The 1984 milk quota reform is used to illustrate the reflexivity capability, the 1992 MacSharry reform serves to discuss the capability of resilience, the 2003 Fischler reform is used to illustrate the capability of responsiveness, and, finally, the Ciolos reform of 2010-2013 is meant to illustrate the capability of revitalization.\" Indicators/questions used in data collection instruments? \"We follow the CAP's history by discussing different reforms: The 1984 milk quota reform is used to illustrate the reflexivity capability, the 1992 MacSharry reform serves to discuss the capability of resilience, the 2003 Fischler reform is used to illustrate the capability of responsiveness, and, finally, the Ciolos reform of 2010-2013 is meant to illustrate the capability of revitalization\" Sub-constructs linking governance construct to indicators (unless directly operationalized 61 ) Risk of more of the same and of regression Data analysis methods \"Our illustrative case study is necessarily limited to a brief analysis of some moments in the history of the CAP highlighting a single capability perspective per reform.\" Justification of inference from results to conclusions \"The milk quota system was implemented in 1984. In terms of reflexivity, the quota debate meant the weakening of the dominant frame of supporting production increases within the CAP. Under the leadership of Commissioner Delors, the new frame of production constraints became further embedded in the European institutions and finally enabled the introduction of more production ceilings in 1988 (Elton, 2010;Lynggaard & Nedergaard, 2009).\" [...] \"The MacSharry reform introduced a new CAP regime through which, in the long run, the EU internal market could slowly adjust itself to the international markets. In addition, the MacSharry reform also introduced a new agrienvironmental and afforestation policy scheme. This was introduced as a response to increasing environmental demands from society. It would later develop into an entirely new policy domain of environmental and rural policies, known as the second pillar of the CAP. It enabled easier adjustment to changing preferences concerning environment and rural development (Lynggaard & Nedergaard, 2009). Hence, this second pillar enabled a more resilient institutional basis to adjust to future policy challenges\" [...] \"The outbreak of animal diseases has taught the Commission to attentively observe new societal concerns and to respond more quickly to changing societal values. As a result, the cross-compliance was introduced to conveniently capture and bundle a set of new issues. This new scheme developed into an enabling condition for responding to all kinds of current and future postmaterialist preferences. In more general terms, the Commission has become more sensitive about changing values, and uses Euro-barometer surveys and general public debates as a means to enable itself to become a more responsive institution.\" [...] \"In short, a revitalizing process made actors to look at the CAP in a different way: a way in which farmers would integrate farming activities with public goods. However, with declining budgets, there is pressure to maintain traditional ways of thinking, in which income and farmer's payments are the most important issues on the agenda and in which countries seek to maintain existing shares of CAP spending. Despite many new proposals to reform, the recent proposals for the period 2014-2020 seem to imply a readjustment along the traditional lines of the CAP\" Discussion of limitations \"Our illustrative case study is necessarily limited to a brief analysis of some moments in the history of the CAP highlighting a single capability perspective per reform. It is not meant to show how the four capabilities can be used simultaneously, with varying emphasis. This would have required a different research scheme. We believe that with the chosen structure, we were more capable of spelling out the different details of both the three dimensions and the four capabilities of wicked problem governance. Moreover, the analysis does not provide an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the CAP in its entirety and does not enter into the technical details of the complex CAP decisions\" ","tokenCount":"31672"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0f515d30d1c9a4ebf06bc9df786be280","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d6e665c2-2ebd-448d-a2a2-94c4f8d3bd0a/retrieve","id":"-1713342119"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1b842d94-a163-472e-8511-9c580d824f3e","pagecount":"16","content":"Livestock* is a chronically underfinanced sector across Africa compared to the value it generates for GDP, nutrition, and livelihoods. In Kenya alone, the sector contributes to 25 million livelihoods and 42% of agricultural GDP at a value of more than $10 billion, with demand expected to rise by 40-50% by 2030.Without the necessary investment, the industry will be unable to keep up with growing demand.Recognizing this, Gatsby Africa, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and AgThrive carried out a study on the Kenya livestock investor landscape, exploring how to unlock more investment in Kenya and across Africa.Investors with an impact focus are looking for promising opportunities and many are at least open to livestock investing, prioritizing benefits for smallholder and pastoralist producers. Commercial banks are looking to increase the size of their livestock and agriculture portfolios but are risk averse.A number of constraints are holding investors back or causing them to price finance too high. These include investors' perceptions of risk, lack of deep sector knowledge and lack of information on good investment opportunities.Past investments have been concentrated in more established value chains such as poultry and dairy, however, investors have diverse interests in all value chains and throughout the supply chain from primary production to processing.The study analyzed the historical livestock investments and current investment strategies of almost 90 investors, which included development finance institutions (DFIs), impact investors and commercial banks open to agriculture investing in Kenya. It assessed:1. The investment opportunity for livestock businesses from the different investor types mentioned alongside.2. The constraints to livestock investing as perceived by investors.We assessed investors based on their likelihood to invest in livestock and prioritized the higher potential investors The MethodologyThrough secondary data analysis and consulting industry experts, the team first assessed the initial longlist of about 90 investors for their likelihood to invest in livestock. Subsequent interviews of a sub-set of investors sought to shed light on investor funding mechanisms and ticket sizes and the challenges they were experiencing, and to establish future interest in livestock investing.The study only analysed investors operating in Kenya with an existing investment pipeline in agriculture. Of the investors analysed, only 40% disclosed their livestock deals. Thus, it is likely that several livestock investors and a significant number of transactions are not included. Commercial banks did not disclose deals, so our assessment of these participants was limited to qualitative data from interviews. The study was undertaken between June and November 2023 during which time over 20 investors were interviewed.The MethodologyThe study found that 31 investors had disclosed information about 51 deals in 9 livestock subsectors across 19 African countries since 2010.Of the 51 deals, 28 had also disclosed financials (amounting to $165 million): 80% from DFIs and 20% from impact investors.• DFIs invested 4x as much as impact investors, but had far fewer deals (33 for impact investors vs 18 for DFIs).• Impact investors made smaller investmentsaveraging $3M -focusing on small and mediumscale livestock businesses. They would invest in a range of company sizes and stages, including early-stage ventures.• In contrast, DFIs tended to make larger investments, averaging around $7M, in more established companies.• Debt was the preferred funding instrument, making up over 50% of investments. While impact investors had similar ticket sizes for debt and equity, DFIs tended to make much larger equity investments when they did use it, compared to debt. DFIs and impact investors made more deals in structured value chainsdairy, poultry and integrated businesses -however, they still invested in a diversity of value chains, just to a lesser degree.In Kenya, there have been 7 disclosed deals by impact investors since 2010, but no major DFI deals.There have been 7 deals across 4 livestock subsectors in Kenya since 2010. This mirrors trends across Africa, where investors tend to prefer subsectors they are familiar with and have a deeper understanding of, and that have more formal and structured offtake markets.The study interviewed 4 commercial banks that are actively looking at the opportunity in livestock. There is positive indication that banks in Kenya increasingly have targets for growing the size of their livestock portfolios. Some banks are developing tailored products for specific subsectors and business models; for example, working capital loans for feedlot operations in the beef value chain. Banks are also investing in building pipeline and providing technical assistance to businesses to help them improve their investment readiness (e.g. KCB through the KCB Foundation). Note that information related to size of pipeline or funding amounts disbursed was not shared. Local DFIs, such as Kenya's Agricultural Finance Corporation, often offer tailored solutions for specific subsectors and can offer ticket sizes appropriate for the average business in specific value chains. These local DFIs are mandated by the government to grow targeted sectors and support rural development and livelihoods. They tend to have higher risk appetites than the global DFIs.Impact investors (non-DFI) offer ticket sizes typically in the $200K-$3M range, which is well suited to agriculture and livestock SMEs. These investors tend to have the highest risk appetite, and some invest in early-stage ventures. However, these investors are unlikely to invest in multiple businesses in the same subsectors in the same country, as they tend to diversify their portfolios.Commercial banks can be flexible in ticket sizes offered and have potential to be a scalable solution within the livestock sector. However, banks are risk averse and therefore interest rates and collateral requirements are often prohibitive for the average livestock business in Kenya.Investor discussions revealed characteristics of several examples of potential investments they might consider: Without clear offtake contracts and reliable pricing mechanisms, investors see too much uncertainty in return on investment. One investor interviewed pulled out of a potential poultry investment as the company's end market was highly unstructured and volatile.Without traceability investors find it difficult to use livestock as collateral. Furthermore, investors mentioned that lack of traceability hinders a company's ability to access lucrative export markets, reducing the company's attractiveness.Investors don't see enough livestock investments -these opportunities are not getting into investor 'pipelines'. One investor interviewed said that only 10% of the agricultural pipeline reaching them is livestock related.High production risks related to disease, weather and theft coupled with low technical capacity to address the risks leads to nervous investors. One investor interviewed halted an investment in a meat processing company as the farmers supplying the processor had lost most of their livestock due to drought and the company had not set up appropriate mechanisms to support these farmers in mitigating such risks.Businesses often lack essential documentation (e.g. business plans financial models, audited financial statements) necessary for investors to evaluate them. And when these exist, business plans and financial projections are often weak, with faulty assumptions.The study found that investors are keen to enter the sector, recognising livestock as a vibrant and growing opportunity in Kenya and across Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are several challenges preventing them from doing so.For investors…• Demand for investment is growing from high performing livestock businesses, both in Kenya and across the continent.• An active rather than passive approach to developing pipeline to include livestock businesses may be required in the near term.• Collaborating with other investors and donors can help reduce the risk of investments.For businesses…• There is an investor out there for every livestock business type no matter the risk profile, ticket size, funding mechanisms (debt, equity, other) or value chain.• Impact investors and commercial banks are higher potential for SME livestock businesses, while larger scale businesses can consider DFIs.• To receive finance from non-DFI and DFI impact investors, businesses need to show clear impact for smallholder farmers and pastoralists.• There are steps businesses can take to ensure they are more \"investment ready\" and able to attract the right investment.For donors and other development practitioners…• Businesses need technical support to become \"investment ready,\" particularly when trying to manage sector specific risks and address environmental concerns.• Sharing data, analyses, and key learnings on livestock investment opportunities with investors, including detail on specific countries, subsectors and businesses, can help to address the existing knowledge gap and accelerate investment.• By collaborating with investors there is an opportunity to find new mechanisms to reduce risk or bring down the cost of finance, helping to accelerate and expand investment both within Kenya and across the continent. ","tokenCount":"1372"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0d6b05c78456393a6c036cacfcecc2b7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aafb5297-f2f7-466b-9948-0494d340acaf/retrieve","id":"724241642"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eecba3c1-84d9-4d80-abdf-2d6391788509","pagecount":"39","content":"In addition, the authors acknowledge WorldFish Cambodia, Helen Keller International, and Heifer International Cambodia for excellent collaboration and invaluable support rendered by sharing related information and experiences in the project implementation of these case studies. Particularly Mrs. Phichong Ou (WorldFish Cambodia), Dr. Sareth Nhem, Mr. Rithy Chum, and Mr. Vatola Sok (Heifer International), and Mr. Mr. Kroeun Hou and Mr. Sokha Sours (Helen Keller International) who provided thoughtful feedback and documents to improve the case studies and shared lessons learnt for further interventions to enhance the nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems in the Mekong Delta of Cambodia.Nutrition and food systems transformation have been prioritised as essential opportunities to support continuing social and economic development for the nation and the well-being of the Cambodian population. Apart from policies, the government has demonstrated commitment to the transformation of food systems. While achieving rapid development, structural changes have happened to the agricultural sector, posing challenges to promoting food and nutrition security. In the Mekong Delta, food insecurity among local people remains high. To address these challenges to produce a healthy population, the enhancement of nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems is critical in this context. The interventions and projects have been undertaken with support from the government, development partners and civil society organisations. This case study assessed three nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food systems interventions in the Mekong Delta to understand how the interventions support equitable and sustainable consumption and production of nutritious foods; and identify opportunities and gaps to increase equitable and sustainable consumption and production and consumption of nutritious foods in the Mekong Delta region of Cambodia.In this study, three projects in the Mekong Delta were studied: (i) the project implemented by WorldFish Cambodia, (ii) Helen Keller International's project, and (iii) the project of Heifer International Cambodia. Each project had different characteristics targeting nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems. The project, implemented by WorldFish Cambodia, has both specific nutrition and nutrition-sensitive activities to cope with malnutrition among children under five and food production. Helen Keller International's project aims to promote food and nutrition security among vulnerable people through access to diverse nutrient rich foods at a committed price. Heifer International Cambodia is working to increase farmers' income by enhancing backyard chicken production and value chains.The case studies find that nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food system interventions focused largely on the capacity building of farmers to improve productivity. Capacity building uses various approaches to increase production and reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture. While also providing input distribution, such as seeds, compost fertilisers, and financial contribution. Producer groups were created and put under the management of ACs. Contract farming received attention from the project while focusing on the capacity building of ACs to be the agri-enterprise on the ground. All projects also deal with crossing issues in the Mekong Delta region including women inclusion and empowerment, youth inclusion, natural resource management and climate change.Based on the study, some of the gaps identified were related to clear monitoring and evaluation of food and nutrition security indicators beyond production and income, as well as more comprehensive nutrition and behaviour change activities. It is important that interventions in the Mekong are connected and complementary to each other and ensure that farmers and consumers benefit from those interventions directly or indirectly in terms of food availability, access, and consumption of diverse and quality foods. The recommendations to enhance nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems were related to: (i)Development in Cambodia has made significant progress over the last ten years. The Kingdom graduated from low to middle-income status in 2015. The government continues making conscious efforts to build a more robust economic foundation, promote a healthy workforce, and enhance the investment climate in the country. As of 2018, the GDP per capita rose significantly to US$1,561, projected to rise to $1,754 in 2022 (NIS, 2023). The poverty rate has declined considerably from 36.7% in 2014 to 16.6% in 2022 (Alkire, Kanagaratnam, & Suppa, 2023). The government set an ambitious goal to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income nation by 2050. In the process of healthy workforce enhancement, the government has reformed its institutions and has been working closely with development partners, civil society organisations, and other societal actors. The collaboration has yielded policies and regulations that promote food and nutrition security nationwide. As of 12 December 2023, 386 projects have been implemented with the support of development partners (CDC, 2023).Nutrition and food systems transformation have been prioritised as essential opportunities to support continuing social and economic development for the nation and the well-being of the Cambodian population. Apart from policies, the government has demonstrated commitment to the transformation of food systems through leadership in the National Food Systems Dialogues in 2021 and the development of Cambodia's Roadmap for Food Systems for Sustainable Development 2030. Moreover, the government put them in the Seventh Legislature of the RGC's Pentagonal Strategy-Phase 1 for Growth, Employment, Equity, Efficiency, and Sustainability, emphasising human capital development as the first Pentagon and includes priorities around promoting a healthy diet for all and strengthening food systems so that they are robust, intelligent, resilient, and inclusive. Cambodia actively participated in the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment in Rome in 2023. Currently, the government is developing a strategic plan for food security and nutrition for 2024 -2028.In the face of this rapid development, the country, especially the Mekong Delta is extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise, other agricultural production challenges such as soil infertility, pest and diseases and inadequate access to inputs and infrastructure. This is further aggravated by structural changes in the agricultural sector (Chuon, 2021), posing challenges in ensuring food and nutrition security. The rural population that is either making a living from or engaging in agriculture, has declined dramatically from 80% in 2008 (NIS & MoP, 2009) to 61% in 2019 (NIS & MoP, 2020). Households with agricultural land decreased from 75% in 2013 (NIS & MoP, 2015) to 57% in 2020 (NIS, MoP, & MoAFF, 2020). On average, the number of parcels per holding was estimated at 1.8 in 2020 and 2.5 in 2013 (NIS et al., 2020). As of 2020, only 14% of households in the household agricultural holdings have only home lots, and 86% have both parcels and home lots (NIS et al., 2020). Interestingly, 61% of households produce agricultural products mainly for home consumption and 39% for sale. For crop production, 47% of farming households had less than one hectare in 2013; however, this figure increased to 51% in 2020 (NIS et al., 2020). The proportion of employed labour in the sector declined from 71.3% in 2008 to 53.4% in 2019 (NIS & MoP, 2020). According to (NIS et al., 2020), only 13% of holdings reported that income from agriculture was higher than the previous year, while 31% reported a decline in income or similar income compared to the previous year (NIS et al., 2020). These changes could further encourage more rural people to migrate for work in other sectors, either within the country or abroad for higher incomes.Food insecurity among local people remains a challenge for stakeholders, particularly the government. Due to economic vulnerability, 25% of Cambodian households were vulnerable to food insecurity in 2019/2020. Since 2017, 23% of its population did not have the economic capacity to respond to their essential needs in the same period. Approximately 3% of households could not meet food needs (NIS & WFP, 2022). Also, food consumption in female-headed households in 2019/2020 was even worse than in households that are IDPoor 1 . Forty-eight per cent of household expenditures were spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages (NIS & MoP, 2022). In 2019/2020, 29% of those in the rural areas were marginally food secure, while 1% faced moderate food insecurity (NIS & WFP, 2022).In addition to this, with increasing incomes, food consumption practices are also shifting significantly, contributing to all forms of malnutrition, and increasing the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Compared to previous years, the consumption of fats and sugars increased considerably in 2019/2020 (NIS & WFP, 2022). Approximately 80% of calories consumed in Cambodia come from rice and sugar, with inadequate consumption of nutrient-dense foods (World Food Programme, UNICEF, Development, & (CARD), 2023). In 2019/2020, consumption of vegetables mainly green leafy vegetables and foods rich in vitamin A and heme-iron decreased, especially in urban areas (NIS & WFP, 2022). Currently, Cambodian people are confronting four major NCDs, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes (MoH, 2018). As of 2021, 7.3% of the population ages 20-79 have diabetes (World Bank, 2023). In 2014, NCDs caused 52% of deaths nationwide, and this is projected to increase (MoH, 2018). More significantly, micronutrient deficiencies impact women as they have higher needs during childbearing. A lack of sufficient nutrients in women leads to lower birth weights and higher child mortality (NIS & WFP, 2022). Good nutrition is the bedrock of child survival, growth, and development. In 2019/2020, almost one in five households did not regularly consume food rich in heme-iron (including fish, meat, and poultry), and more than one in four households did not regularly eat foods rich in vitamin A (such as orange fruits and vegetables), which poses a risk for the normal functioning of the immune system, body growth and development, as well as reproduction. Regarding the nutritional status of women, 4% of women aged 20-49 and 14% of young women aged 15-19 years are stunted. In addition, 7% of women aged 20-49 and 29% aged 15-19 years are underweight. Women's dietary practices showed that 57% consumed food from at least five of the 10 recommended food groups (minimum dietary diversity) the previous day, 63% consumed sweet beverages, and 33% consumed unhealthy foods. Around 22% of children under five years of age are stunted, 10% are wasted, 16% are underweight, and 4% are overweight (NIS, MoH, & The DHS Program, 2023).A recent study found that food insecurity among local people remains high in the Mekong Delta (WorldFish, 2023). Prey Veng and Svay Rieng have 10%-20% of the population that cannot afford a nutritious food basket (World Food Programme et al., 2023). Landlessness among locals remains a challenge while addressing other related matters. In the Mekong plain, 59% of household agricultural holdings have only a home lot (higher than national figure, 14%), and 30% have both home lots and parcels (lower than national figure, 86%). The average number of parcels in the region per holding is estimated at 2.2. Approximately 90% of households grow crops, followed by livestock, poultry and/or insect raising (72%) and aquaculture and capture fish activities (14%) (NIS & MoP, 2020). However, only 39% of the agricultural households in the zone could produce agricultural products mainly for sale. Only 11% earned a higher income than last year (NIS & MoP, 2020).Moreover, food consumption behaviours have changed significantly. Around 20% of the current dietary consumption is unhealthy food (9% alcohol, 6% energy drinks, and 4% spices and oil) (WorldFish, 2023). The same study also found that 35% of the food budget was spent on foods prepared outside the home, alcohol, and energy drinks, mainly accessed from the markets within the village and mobile vendors.To address these challenges to produce a healthy population, the enhancement of nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems is critical, especially in the Mekong Delta context. Several interventions and projects have been undertaken with support from the government, development partners and civil society organisations. However, understanding these interventions in with a nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food systems lens remains limited, especially those in the Mekong Delta.This case study assessed three nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food systems interventions in the Mekong Delta to:1. Identify interventions supporting equitable and sustainable consumption and production of nutritious foods in deltas in the face of rapid change.2. Understand how the interventions support equitable and sustainable production and consumption of nutritious foods 3. Identify opportunities and gaps to increase equitable and sustainable production and consumption of nutritious foods in the Mekong Delta region of Cambodia.Projects for the case study were identified from a previously conducted scoping study of nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food systems interventions in the Mekong Delta in 2023. The scoping study included projects that may have recently ended (102 years), nearing completion or in the middle of implementation. The projects were required to clearly include at least 1 of the agricultural components such as food production, processing, or supply, and at least 1 of the food environment components such as food availability, accessibility, affordability, consumption, and nutrition status.The scoping study included 12 projects (published separately), from which three projects were selected to further understand the nutrition-and gender-sensitive approaches. To ensure representation, the selection sought projects conducted by the following: (i) research and development organisations (CGIAR, other research organisations); (ii) nongovernmental organisations (NGOs); and (iii) government.The interventions in the Mekong Delta were assessed to understand the key components of nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-systems. The interviews with respective organisations were conducted, and some information relied on secondary data such as reports produced by that organisation and related documents. The interviews looked at the following aspects of the projects:• Scope of the interventions: objectives; target beneficiaries; location; timeframe; partners and their roles; and multi-sectoral approaches• Areas of the food system (themes and subthemes) and corresponding activities 2 : sustainable food production and supply chains; equal and equitable access to healthy diets; and transparent, democratic, and accountable governance• Nutrition-sensitive agri-food system-related actions: food groups, availability, accessibility, utilisation, and consumption of diverse and nutrient dense foods• Gender-sensitive actions: gender, youth, and social inclusion• Monitoring and evaluation of indicators related to food production, nutrition, and gender• Progress or impact of the project on food production, access, consumption, and nutrition outcomes• Best practices for designing and implementing interventions with impact on nutrition and gender and policy recommendations• Opportunities and gaps to increase a) the availability, access, and consumption of nutritious foods, b) impact of the interventions on food and nutrition security of people in the Mekong delta and c) impact on gender and social inclusion and benefits (.In addition to this analysis, after the case study was drafted and shared with each organisation for feedback and comments. In this regard, the country director of each organisation provided further comments to improve the case study. Furthermore, a consultation workshop with stakeholders was organized to present the findings of the case studies and obtain feedback. All feedback was used the insights of the study. The following descriptions illustrate each case study guided by nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems principles and critical dimensions of food systems.Background and scopeThe fishing industry in Cambodia plays an essential role in the country's economy, accounting for 8-12% and 25-30% of the total national and agricultural GDP (Un, Chheng, Tress, Baran, & Simpson, 2014). The industry engages an estimated 4.5 million individuals in fishing and related activities (Un et al., 2014). Consequently, around 60-70% of the country's total animal protein consumption is provided by fish and other aquatic creatures, crucial to food security and nutrition. Out of the total fish production in 2013, 550,000 metric tons were caught in freshwater environments, with rice field fisheries and small-scale family fisheries contributing roughly 20% (Brooks & Sieu, 2016). In addition, rice field fisheries in Cambodia serve as a source of income. They are vital to securing food and nutrition security, especially at the household level in rural areas of the country.In the Tonle Sap region, rice field fisheries supply 62% of the fish families consume (Shieh, Eam, Kim, et al., 2021).The establishment and management of Community Fish Refuge (CFR) represents a valuable method for boosting fish productivity and biodiversity in this essential fisheries system and as a permanent aquatic habitat integrated into the rice field landscape (Figure 1). By carefully managing the refuge through habitat enhancements and safeguarding it from fishing activities, it has the potential to increase fish populations in rice field fishing zones, ultimately enhancing local households' access to fish resources (Shieh, Eam, Sok, et al., 2021) Figure 1: World Fish' representation of how rice field fisheries work (Kim et al., 2019) Recognising the importance of CFRs, WorldFish, a CGIAR research for development international organisation, has worked with the Fisheries Administration (FiA) (since 2012 to pilot and scale out strategies and best practices in CFR areas designed by FiA, World Vegetable Center, and the Feed the Future Cambodia NOURISH project (Save the Children), that included five (5) local NGOs and three (3) universities. CFRs in the Mekong Delta are managed by the Department of Fisheries Administration.The Feed the Future Cambodia Rice Field Fisheries II project was conducted to implement CFR activities on nutrition and gender. This project focused on replicating and scaling out best practices on CFR management, including efficient water use integration of homestead food production and promoting consumption of nutrient-rich small fish from CFRs.The CFR project of WorldFish was conducted in four (4) provinces around Tonle Sap -Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Battambang and Pursat. This project generally aimed to improve the food and nutrition security of poor and vulnerable rural households in the country by improving the productivity and availability of rice field fisheries. Specifically, it aimed to establish the impacts of incorporating nutrition and gender activities into CFR management on households and communities, improve the consumption of aquatic foods, grains and vegetables for human consumption and improve the productivity of rice field fisheries in the area (Shieh, Eam, Kim, et al., 2021) The project was implemented from 2016 to 2021, with a total budget of 7 million USD, including 1 million USD for health and nutrition from the USAID. The project targeted approximately 200,000+ beneficiaries composed of smallholder fish farmers, poor households with pregnant women, children under five years old and youth (including schoolchildren) (Shieh, Eam, Kim, et al., 2021).The project focused on three (3) main food commodities-vegetables, grains, and aquatic foods (natural and wild brood fish). It included capacity-building activities such as training on food processing, home vegetable production, CFR development and management and awareness raising, particularly on proper food handling and production for improved consumption and nutrition of children in the first 1000 daysThe project activities included nutrition-specific topics covering exclusive breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding practices, and nutrition-sensitive activities focusing on nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), targeting women/caregivers and youth. There were also mentoring activities on homestead food production to improve household consumption of vegetables.In addition, quantitative and qualitative surveys and site visits were conducted to document the experiences of the communities before, during and after the implementation of CFR management interventions in the four provinces around Tonle Sap.Nutrition-sensitive agriculture is a strategy of integrating nutrition into agricultural activities by prioritising the production and consumption of nutritionally rich and diverse foods to overcome all forms of malnutrition-wasting, stunting, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies. In this project, the production, consumption and processing of nutrient-dense and diverse vegetables, grains and aquatic foods were highlighted and used as a strategy to fight all forms of malnutrition at the communityand household-level affecting women and children under five. To attain the objectives, activities were conducted targeting women/caregivers and youth.Mentoring activities on homestead food production and nutrition education activities were conducted to improve household production and consumption of vegetables.Training of women/caregivers was conducted to improve knowledge, attitude, and practices related to the consumption of fish and its nutritional benefits at the household level. The project also provided beneficiaries with financial resources such as, start-up kits for small fish processing, grinder and plastic jars, and training on CFR management best practices. As well as integrated nutrition education and homestead gardening to increase households' access to available aquatic food rich in vitamins and minerals.Other nutrition-sensitive activities around water, sanitation and hygiene, or WASH, were also implemented to improve health, hygiene and nutrition knowledge and practices among household members in the target communities.Women are pivotal in small-scale fisheries, yet their contributions are often undervalued and overlooked. Despite the significant involvement of women in various fisheriesrelated activities, encompassing both pre-and post-harvest tasks, the field of fisheries management remains predominantly male-dominated.This persistent gender disparity prevails, even though many women aspire to hold leadership and decision-making positions within management committees. These positions are critical for enhancing livelihoods, building capacity, and ensuring the sustainable management of fisheries resources for future generations. To address this issue, the project undertook steps to engage and empower women (Figure 2). They actively involved women in household visioning processes and integrated them into CFR committees. As part of this effort, targeted women were equipped with knowledge and skills in various areas, including the consumption and processing of small fish, gardening, and WASH practices (Shieh J, Eam D, Kim M. et al, 2021). A total of 2,640 women were trained on Rice Field Fisheries Enhancement and Food Nutrition topics.Aside from women, more than 5,000 youth (including schoolchildren) were also engaged in awareness-raising activities focusing on consuming nutrient-rich and diverse foods, including fish from CFR and vegetables from homestead gardening. This activity provided the youth with information and background on healthy and diverse dietary practices to support the knowledge and skills imparted to their households through the caregivers.To monitor and evaluate the project, assessment activities were undertaken at different stages, including baseline, midline, and endline activities to determine the impact on food production, access, availability, and consumption at the community and household levels. These assessments encompassed a range of methods, such as surveys, in-person and virtual interviews, focus group discussions, and CFR capacity assessments (self-reported).These activities were essential for gauging the progress and impact of the CFR initiative on food production-assessed by examining the increase in fish catchment within the ponds, as recorded by the CFR committee and observed through surveys conducted by field officers. Moreover, the assessments were aimed to ascertain the project's impact on food access and availability. The project's influence on food consumption and nutritional outcomes was assessed, focusing on the practices of caregivers in nearby households and the beneficiaries. This evaluation delved into the consumption of small fish and other produce (Shieh, Eam, Kim, et al., 2021).Quantitative and qualitative activities were conducted to assess the impact of the CFR as a nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems intervention. Quantitative tools such as dietary diversity tool, 7-day recall of the household's fishing activities, and Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey (covering topics on (1) the global food insecurity experience scale, (2) nutrition among adults and children, (3) sources of food, preparation, cooking and storage, (4) water source, and (5) defecation practices) were translated to Khmer and used for the project.The project generated evidence highlighting the substantial impact of establishing CFRs on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of women, men, and other household members concerning household food production and consumption of nutrient dense foods, food safety, and related activities that contribute to the achievement of the project's nutritional outcomes.Notable improvements were observed among the respondents after receiving comprehensive training on homestead garden and CFR management, WASH practices, and other community-awareness activities. Beneficiaries and other implementers reported an increased availability and access to fish in rice fields for consumption and income. The project also improved households' access to small indigenous fish species, a good source of nutrients, including protein and micronutrients. This was because they were able to catch fish near their households. More than 90% of the participants showed enhanced awareness and knowledge regarding food safety, with the majority learning essential practices such as covering food, avoiding contact with animals near food, and storing cooked dishes in a hygienic environment.Furthermore, the results highlighted the promising potential of CFRs. These communitybased resources demonstrated their ability to sustain and enhance fish production in rice fields, with potential positive impacts on the livelihoods of landless individuals with limited resources.The implementation of the WorldFish CFR project yielded several notable best practices, demonstrating its positive impact on the community:1. Value Addition: The project went beyond simply establishing CFRs. It also provided materials and trainings on processing small fish, encouraging the consumption of nutrient-rich small fish powder by children under five in the community. Furthermore, some households/families leveraged these new skills as a source of income through selling dry powder to their neighbours, contributing to the alleviation of micronutrient deficiencies in children across the country.2. Nutrition Education: Community Awareness Raising initiatives conducted as part of the project have significantly influenced community members' knowledge and skills in terms of proper nutrition. This extended to the production and consumption of nutrient-dense and diverse foods sourced from rice fields and home gardens. Through Social and Behaviour Change Communication activities, a total of 213,138 people (51.5% women) improved their consumption of small indigenous fish at home (WorldFish, 2021). Additionally, the project improved the community's understanding of the importance of effective CFR management, fostering a higher level of compliance with the new regulations set by the CFR committee.The project recognised the pivotal role of women in its successful implementation. The inclusion of women in capacity-building activities and in CFR management empowered them to participate more actively in decision-making processes and committee activities. This not only enhanced women's knowledge and skills but also led to improved attitudes and practices related to small fish consumption at the household level, which would later result in the improved nutritional status of members of the household.The project demonstrated the potential of fish conservation in improving food security and nutrition at both community and household levels by increasing the accessibility and availability of aquatic foods. When scaled up, this approach could significantly enhance the country's food security and nutritional situation, with a reduced reliance on imported food items with lower nutrient content.With the CFR as a nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention, several challenges impeded the project's ability to have a more significant nutrition impact. These were identified as climate-related, knowledge-based and linked to migration.First, an extended period of drought in the CFR areas from 2019 to 2020 led to the drying up of some ponds, causing a decline in fish productivity. Consequently, the consumption of nutrient-rich small fish by project beneficiaries decreased. However, the project seized this opportunity to introduce innovative strategies, including deepening the ponds to ensure water availability even in the absence of rainfall and planting trees to enhance the fish habitat, ultimately resulting in increased fish survival rates.Second, knowledge gaps among some beneficiaries regarding CFR management and homestead production posed a challenge. Some households were uncertain about the project's objectives and activities, which affected their willingness to participate. To address this, community awareness-raising activities, such as household visioning sessions related to homestead food production, were initiated.Furthermore, the issue of migration emerged as a challenge, particularly concerning activities that required the involvement of both husbands and wives as beneficiaries. Migration, often involving men relocating to cities or neighbouring provinces, affected the effective dissemination of crucial knowledge and skills related to food production and consumption, essential for improving food security and nutrition within households. It is worth noting that the migration of men to work in cities is also associated with the different drivers of the food environment and barriers to food security and nutrition.Acknowledging these challenges, the project developed activities to support the effective implementation of established CFRs. Nevertheless, it's essential to recognise that these challenges likely continue to impact the effectiveness of nutrition-and gender-sensitive agricultural interventions and need to further exploration.Case study 2: Promoting Food Security, Nutrition, and Livelihood of Poor Farming Families in the Face of Inflation Crisis and Food System ChangesIn the context of the inflation crisis and food system changes, smallholder farmers and impoverished farming families face challenges and difficulties in securing their livelihood and food. Hellen Keller International (HKI) started a pilot project titled \"Improving household food security and livelihood among the Cambodian rural poor by strengthened food production systems\" in three provinces across the country, including Kampong Thom, Takeo, and Kampot, from November 2022 to December 2024. Among these provinces, Takeo is the only province in the Mekong Delta of Cambodia, the focus of the case study.The project set out a broad objective to help smallholder farmers access diverse and nutritious foods, promote nutrition security, and strengthen local livelihood in the selected communes. Specifically, it aims to enhance food security and nutrition at the community level, where members of agricultural cooperatives can work together and sell their commodities at lower prices among the members before selling to the market. The project also seeks to promote the diversification of vegetable home gardens of target beneficiaries through vegetable seed distribution, training, and regular technical assistance.The project targets 100 agriculture cooperatives (ACs) and over 4,000 producers in the three provinces. In Takeo, the project works with 1,603 smallholder farmers from 40 ACs The project focuses on various grains and vegetables, which include rice, cauliflower, potato, choy sum, tomato, water convolvulus, amaranth, long bean, pumpkin, watermelon, turnip, luffa gourd, cucumber, okra, edamame, eggplant -as key commodities (Table 1). The project is divided into three phases. The first phase was the preparatory phase lasting approximately four weeks. During this phase, the main activities consisted of clearly defining the respective roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders during project implementation and ensuring that there is full buy-in to the project's strategic vision. This was achieved through meetings with key stakeholders, including CARD, MAFF, Ministry of Health (MOH), PWG-FSN, and UNI4COOP. The expected outcome of these meetings was project activity harmonisation with any ongoing government and NGO-run initiatives in the same project areas so that conflicting approaches to issues of food and nutrition security can be avoided.The second phase, which lasts 18 months, will focus on direct project implementation in the field. This includes capacity-building activities targeting the 40 ACs to enhance their skills and knowledge so they can work independently in the future. From the project's perspective, all ACs are solid and capable of working with respective partners in their area. HKI, in collaboration with their partner organisations, provided training of trainers (ToT) to 121 lead farmers (35 women) on rice growing techniques, vegetable growing techniques, utilisation of compost fertiliser, botanical pesticide preparation, nutritious crop selection and production plans so they can train other members of their cooperatives. After the training, three (3) participants will be the focal trainers in one AC.Those focal trainers will have to perform the following responsibilities:-Work with the project staff to provide further training to farmers who are AC members.-Follow up with members about growing rice and vegetables.-Provide technical assistance to farmers.-Collect data on rice and vegetable yields from farmers.-Keep records of growing statistics with forms provided by the project.The project also distributed four (4) mechanised direct seedling tools to ACs for rice growing. This activity is a collaboration between IRRI and AgriSmart. The use of transplanters is to pilot growing techniques (i.e. growing rice in lines), which aim to provide higher yields than traditional approaches. Moreover, the project has planned to pilot net greenhouses (size 10*25m 2 ) with ACs.Furthermore, the project builds the capacity of the ACs on bookkeeping by deploying their staff to work with ACs in the province. This is to manage agricultural statistics at the AC level. More specifically, the paperwork will help ACs manage the quantity their members produce.More importantly, smallholder farmers will also receive a series of trainings to improve their capacity to grow rice and vegetables. The training focuses on growing techniques, natural fertiliser processing techniques and uses, and pesticide management. The project conducted pre-and post-harvest demonstrations to educate beneficiaries (farmers) in the ACs on how to grade and set prices for agricultural commodities that appear to be working well. When they harvested their produce, the project provided technical assistance coaching for them to understand the grading process.The last phase, which will last two months, involves handing over the critical project components to local authorities. During the handover phase, a phase-out workshop will be conducted to ensure that the different aspects of the project, including monitoring and linkages with service providers, will be maintained.In other words, while strengthening the capacity of ACs, the project attempts to secure access to food among smallholder farmers who are members of the selected agricultural cooperatives and diversify vegetable growing at the homestead. Currently, HKI is putting conscious efforts into the food production of rice and vegetables, as indicated in Figure 3 below.The project is promoting production of a variety of vegetable thus increasing access to diverse and nutritious local foods, which are vital aspects of nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems. Figure 3 shows the critical activities of the project in the nutrition-sensitive agrifood systems. Apart from a training series and the distribution of rice seeds and fertilisers to farmers, the project also distributed seeds of 14 different vegetables to beneficiaries to grow at home (Table 1). One smallholder farmer (representing a household) can receive seeds of 14 vegetables that they need to grow based on the plan developed by HKI.ACs signed conditional contracts with the project, guaranteeing accountability, defining the transparency of roles and responsibilities, and specifying agriculture inputs and equipment. The contract was jointly signed by representatives from GIZ-MUSEFO, HKI, and ACs. In return for the project providing inputs, equipment, and technical assistance, ACs agreed to sell nutrient-dense foods (i.e. vegetables and rice) to consumers at a subsidised rate. A critical condition for target ACs is that they sell diverse and nutritious foods to families designated as IDPoor 1 and 2 or who have pregnant women, lactating mothers, or children under two years old, at a price discounted by 30%. The producers who received a net house or mechanised direct seedling tool will be required to discount 40% of the prices of food sold to families described above. The project also aims to improve food consumption practices among the farmers in the target districts by building their skills and knowledge on (i) the importance of dietary diversity and nutritious foods among all members of the household, (ii) what proper nutrition and good dietary diversity looks like; (iii) how what you eat contributes to your nutrition and overall health, and (iv) which crops contribute to specific food security, nutrition, and development needs. These are expected to contribute to behaviour changes in food consumption practices. HKI also includes youth in the project. In this regard, 26 high school students were invited and trained as focal agents at the school level to disseminate information on the importance of healthy and diverse diets for families. This is intended to promote nutrition at the local level, including at the household level, and the dissemination through youth campaigns aims to reach another 5,000 students in the target high schools.The project also engages the Provincial/Municipal Working Groups for Coordinating Food Security and Nutrition (PWG-FSN). HKI supports capacity building of the working group related to food security and nutrition issues, including policy framework and report writing for higher level (i.e. CARD), as the working group has recently been created. The project also distributes national policies, strategies, guidelines, and agricultural and nutrition-related documents to the working group. Plus, the project supports their quarterly meetings to strengthen the reporting system in the circle of food security and nutrition with the higher level. The working group is an essential coordinating body on food security and nutrition at the sub-national level. The project also connects the working group with targeted ACs and producers through field visits.• Capacity building of ACs to improve rice and vegetable production for food and income security • Promote homestead production of diverse vegetables through seed distribution and production capacity building Food availability• Encourage ACs to sell rice and vegetables to vulnerable members at subsidsed price (30%-40% lower price).• Promote homestead production of diverse vegetables Food accessiblity• Promote household consumption of diverse vegetables • Educate farmers and families on four re-enforcing topics • Conduct youth campaigns at high schools on importance of diverse and nutritious diets Food consumption• Support the PWG-FSN: national policy, strategies, guidelines, agricutlure and nutrition documents, meetings, and reportingIn terms of gender, women and women-headed families are engaged in the project. The women participated in a series of training sessions related to vegetable production and nutrition and received vegetable seeds to grow at home. The youth are targeted explicitly by training high school focal agents at the school level who will, in turn, participate and lead through youth campaigns to disseminate nutrition information. The project also has a specific target to reach a total of 1,603 vulnerable households, smallholder farmers and poor farmers.The project addresses other cross-cutting issues such as climate change and natural resources management. In order to respond to climate change, the project encourages farmers to grow seeds that are climate-resilient and produce diverse vegetables. Equally important, the project educates farmers to keep updated with climate information, such as information disseminated by the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology (MoWRAM) and rain statistics in their location. The beneficiaries also received training on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and agricultural land improvement. Moreover, the use of compost fertilisers was demonstrated so that farmers could use them properly with crops.The project set out some administrative channels in the monitoring and evaluation process. At the implementation level, a baseline study was undertaken at the beginning of the project to assess and learn the current situation of the target provinces. The project deployed three staff to work with the target ACs in the province. To effectively monitor implementation of project activities, forms developed by HKI were utilized. A data collection form is employed through the three lead farms in each AC to collect information from their members, including types of crops, quantities, land size, and input use. The purpose is to follow up with farmers on whether they utilise the input provided. Additionally, the monitoring and evaluation team conducts random checks with farmers to verify the resources distributed to them and their commitment to those resources. Technical assistance form is also used to collect information on training provided to beneficiaries. In addition to this, there is a monitoring which is conducted every three months. The quarterly report is prepared for the project implementation.Regarding nutrition-related issues, the project focuses on mainstreaming and has no official form to record that information yet. Nutrition issues are raised during the meeting with beneficiaries. In the meeting, the beneficiaries can also raise what they have followed with the agreement. Moreover, the minutes prepared by the target ACs for the project are the sources for learning nutrition on the ground. The minute the recorded information on selling rice and vegetables at the committed rates.The project has only been implemented for around ten months. As such, a formal monitoring and evaluation exercise has not yet been conducted. However, some key achievements from the implementation at the time of writing were noted, and these were related to capacity building and material distribution. These include:-Built capacity of 121 lead farmers (35 women) to be farmer promoters in their agricultural cooperatives.-Distributed four rice seedling machines to ACs for piloting rice growing.-Provided a series of training (as mentioned above, depending on ACs) to 1,344 farmers (722 women) of the target agricultural cooperatives.-Provided four net greenhouses (size 10*25) to the target agricultural cooperatives.-Distributed vegetable seeds to 493 households (14 vegetables/household).-Distributed rice seed Phka Rumduol and Sen Kraob 01 to 1,110 households (50kg/household).-Conducted awareness raising of nutrition issues through lead youth at high school.-Trained ACs on how to use the transplanters distributed (two representatives from each AC received training from IRRI and Agrismart).HKI identified some opportunities to expand and improve the project's impacts in the next phase. HKI deployed a staff at the province to support the target agricultural cooperatives in relation to paperwork and data management. However, the data collection has not been undertaken yet. When the data on the agricultural production of AC members is appropriately collected, and quantities produced are recorded well, the project will be able to begin market linkages in the next phase. Chicken production has been seen as a good livelihood opportunity and source of nutrient-dense food, which the project is considering adding in the next phase.In terms of bezt practices, several activities can be considered. One is the youth campaigns can be another good practice in promoting an understanding of nutrition issues. The project notices that local nutrition issues have received more attention among smallholder farmers and local families. The final evaluation will need to document the extent to which the youth campaigns contributed to nutrition awareness so that youth engagement in the project can be replicated for other NGOs in similar fields.Another is helping farmers understand how to grade and set prices of agricultural commodities after harvest, as indicated in Figure 5 below. The project educates farmers to classify their commodities before selling. Taking cucumbers as an example, farmers collected and graded them based on sizes and shapes for selling to consumers and sellers. The cucumbers were graded into three types: number 1, number 2, and number 3. With the grading, the project educated farmers that if grading has not been carried out, farmers lose to buyers (i.e., market vendors). In the meanwhile, they need to have a proper record of information, such as quantities and prices sold, in order to report back to the project.During the project some main challenges were noted. One of the challenges is that households that were registered for the project rotate the members that participate in the project events, including training and input distribution. That is, family members would participate in any given training or project event. This might be because of their availability, knowledge, and skills. Consequently, training and input distribution can be ineffective when the production activities start, as there are inconsistencies in knowledge transfer.Migration also continues to attract more labour from farming. Some farmers, especially young people, migrated to work elsewhere to strengthen their livelihood and incomes. This can affect the engagement of farmers in vegetable supply chains to strengthen nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems in the future if this trend continues. On the production side, there will be a lack of young people engaging in agricultural work (Nguyen & Sean, 2021), and between 5% to 10% of the hours worked by members left behind were reduced due to migration (Roth & Tiberti, 2017). On the food consumption side, migration reduces the demand for food consumption in the household. The economic returns of farmers' migration not only improve the transformation of household food consumption from a staple food-dominated dietary structure to one that includes more meat and dairy products but also reduces nutrient intake among leftbehind family members (Shi, HOU, Hermann, HUANG, & Mu, 2019).Case study 3: Poultry Project of National Pride in Cambodia (PPNP)Heifer International-Cambodia (HIC) works to strengthen self-help groups and agricultural cooperatives as agri-enterprise-oriented entities, transferring skills and knowledge to smallholder farmers to increase the production and productivity of agricultural commodities and improve market linkages. It continues strengthening smallholder native chicken, vegetable, and fish chains while exploring opportunities in other agricultural value chains, including beef cattle. Native chicken (i.e. local chicken) has been one of HIC's focus commodities since 2014. In 2019, the average annual household income from selling native chicken was $4,900 (Heifer International Cambodia, 2022a). Heifer Cambodia aims to increase the annual household income to $7,700 by 2030 (Heifer International Cambodia, 2022a).HIC has been implementing the \"Poultry Project of National Pride in Cambodia (PPNP)\" from 2021 to 2026 with a 6.4 million USD investment in 11 provinces in Cambodia. Three provinces in the Mekong Delta include Takeo, Prey Veng, and Svay Rieng. All eleven provinces were selected based on the following criteria: poverty rate, large number of agricultural cooperatives, community forestry, community fisheries, and the status of migration to neighbouring countries for lower-skilled paid work (Heifer International Cambodia, 2022b).PPNP equips farmers with the tools they need to produce chickens to meet domestic demand and fetch fair market prices. HIC reinforces the poultry value chain through the project and closes the living income gap for 88,300 smallholder farmers and their communities. PPNP aims to scale up the development of the Cambodia backyard chicken sector. This will be achieved through empowering cooperatives, social entrepreneurs union of agricultural cooperatives (SEUAC) institutional capacity development, investing in native poultry processing plants, modern chick hatchery enterprises, establishing collection centres, investing in transport vehicles and working with farmers eager to set up small-and-medium-sized enterprises. PPNP will also look at household economic improvements for the target smallholder producers-social impacts for their communities and macroeconomic benefits for the country's poultry sector. Farmers will receive inputs, specialised training, and assistance and access to capital to create inclusive and profitable agri-enterprises connected to the market.The impact development goal is to accelerate the transformation from a traditional backyard chicken production system into poultry entrepreneurship led by smallholder farmers for an inclusive development that would become one of the national prides of Cambodia agriculture. The project prepared five chains to achieve the objectives above (Heifer International Cambodia, 2022a), as shown in Figure 6 below. This case study focused on how the project contributed to nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems in Prey Veng, as project activities are the same in the other two provinces. The project has been implemented in 5 agricultural cooperatives with 2,000 smallholder farmers in five communes (including Theay, Boeng Preah, Roung Damrei, Reaks Chey, and Prey Poun), located in two districts of Baphnum and Kampong Trabaek. This project has been implemented in collaboration with agricultural cooperatives, producer groups, and the private sector, such as GREENNAT Store, CSDS Co., ltd, Kenko Shuko, Co., ltd, Tropocam Fruit and Vegetable Co., ltd and focused on enhancing backyard chicken production.HIC has made conscious efforts to work with agricultural cooperatives, farmers, implementing partners, banks, the private sector, development partners, and the government to address the constraints and challenges local smallholder chicken producers face and support farmers in scaling the backyard poultry sector in Cambodia.The project intervened across a range of aspects of food systems -food production, value addition, and supply chain -and promoted collaboration with other projects.Under the food production component, HIC attempts to build and strengthen the foundations of local chicken production. The project supports and upscales the development of hatcheries and their agricultural cooperatives (chain 1). It developed hatchery enterprises owned by agricultural cooperatives (chain 2) and invested in agribusiness models for micro-small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and farmers fattening chicken (chain 3). Under these components, HIC established producer groups of smallholder farmers under the targeted ACs to meet market demand. All producer groups received capacity building on chicken production techniques. They received support in the development of business plans. The project strengthened the capacity of village livestock agents so that they could provide further training to smallholder farmers. Figure72 shows actions to support food systems.Apart from the capacity building of smallholder farmers and Collaborative Learning and Adaptation for Community Agro-Vet Entrepreneurs (CAVE), the project supported ACs in promoting collective business which can provide business services, enhance the collecting and purchasing of chickens from members, and mobilise resources from various sources, including from local government. ACs received capacity building in financial management to ensure transparency and trust with members. The project worked alongside ACs to help them increase their capital investment and perform as agricultural enterprises. Following this, ACs will have their own capital and a revolving fund for their members to start and/or expand their chicken production.The project also supported value addition and food processing with a plan to build a processing plant for backyard chickens. It was managed through the 4P model (chain 4). Heifer Cambodia supported market infrastructure such as a chicken slaughterhouse and processing facility building for ACs to process chickens purchased from smallholder farmers. Chickens are slaughtered into pieces, including wings, thighs, sausage, nuggets, and patties. The project built the capacity of ACs in grading chickens for sale to markets.The project supported training and technical inputs to enhance the chicken supply chain. Under chain 5, the intervention supported other market infrastructures for linking smallholder poultry producers to markets. ACs received cold chain trucks and motorcycles, non-cold chain trucks, collection centres, and cold-storage warehouse. These help ACs purchase, collect, and transport chicken products to the connected markets in the province and Phnom Penh. The project uses a contribution approach (60% from the project and 40% from the AC) with ACs with their transport. The project also supports breeders, chick producers, and broiler producers, where one village, 3-5 hatching chick producers, can supply 10-12 families. HIC deploys staff to map resources and markets while following up with farmers to connect farmers to markets.To help strengthen livelihoods and increase farmers' incomes, HIC connected the poultry project to another project focusing on vegetable supply chains. The project built the capacity of smallholder farmers on compost fertiliser processing techniques using chicken waste. This can help them widen the scope of their livelihoods besides chicken production. Smart agricultural practices are taught to farmers in the selected provinces.The project has promoted nutritional outcomes in the selected province by improving livelihoods through increased income and food consumption of animal-source foods, particularly poultry in households. Incomes earned from chicken sales help improve the living standards of smallholder farmers and ultimately contribute to addressing malnutrition-related issues in households. That is, they can access a variety of foods, including animal protein, with the result that children are much healthier, as noticed in the project implementation.Under the project, there is a theme, \"nutrition-health-income' that helps families reflect on their food consumption practices. Through participatory review and planning, HIC conducted a meeting with households to reflect on their child development, share and learn experiences pertaining to food consumption practices. The project also educates and encourages beneficiaries to consume chicken raised, not just focus on sales and income. In order to increase consumption of animal protein and the accompanying micronutrients.In addition, the project supported scaling out amongst poor farmers by practising the \"passing on the gift\" approach. That is, farmers who have raised chickens successfully distribute chickens to other farmers. The project builds the capacity of women and poor households around native chicken production techniques and provides chickens through the principle of passing on the gift. This helped improve their livelihoods and engage them in the implementation process. For the monitoring and evaluation process, the project employed different tools for measuring and tracking project implementation to ensure that objectives are achieved. At the stage of project design, HIC set a formulation guideline, including result framework, pathways of change, and clear targets, as shown in table 2 below. Different tools have been developed and used to track project results. A baseline study was undertaken. The project used an integrated project management system. HIC developed a self-capacity assessment tool to measure the capacity of two main actors -ACs and farmers. The collection and purchasing of agricultural commodities from members, market and financial management, and market linkages with other stakeholders are examined to assess the capacity of ACs. Farmers are assessed on production capacity and sales. The assessment is carried out on a yearly basis. The global impact monitoring is conducted annually to measure changes or progress of ACs and the communities. This tool has clear, measurable indicators. The project also has different tracking reports for his donor, including monthly plans and reports, quarterly reports, Semi-annual reports, and annual reports. Case studies on the story of the change of farmers who raise chickens successfully have been documented.The project has significantly strengthened chicken supply chains on the ground. On the farmer side, the project noted that farmers can work and help each other in raising chickens in the community. They also have adopted the standard of raising and selling chicken for income. More importantly, the recent evaluation found that families have increased their income; one family could earn income up to $5,500 per year.3 The farmers connected with potential buyers and wet markets for selling chickens. Market infrastructures and transportation means (ten trucks and one motorcycle) are essential for chicken producers. To promote added value, chicken slaughterhouses play significant roles in processing and packaging. One agricultural market was constructed in the province (ALiSEA, 2022). \"Passing on the Gift\" is the cornerstone of the project that contributed to scaling out sustainably. Reflection meetings with farmers are also vital and need to be conducted annually to learn about food consumption practices in families.Figure 10 below shows the results that the project has made across the eleven provinces (Heifer International Cambodia, 2022a). In the project implementation, HIC determined a number of best practices that improve the production and availability of chicken and income from poultry as elaborated below:-Chicken distribution: Through passing on the gift, chickens are distributed from farmers who raise chickens successfully to those who are interested but have no resources. The rationale for this approach is to ensure that other farmers benefit as well.-Social capital strengthening. The project helps build the capacity of farmers to work collectively and promote sharing resources with those with fewer resources. This helps low-income families start their own businesses.-Contract farming. Farmers have assured markets for their produce as the project connected them with buyers and suppliers through contract farming arrangements. Those buyers or suppliers who agreed to purchase those products provide training to farmers to ensure quality standards.-Capacity building of ACs. The project builds the capacity of ACs to deal with different stakeholders, including local authorities, the provincial department of agriculture, collectors, and private companies, to mobilise resources for enterprise development independently.The project has encountered challenges in promoting nutrition-sensitive agri-food system in the target province as follows:1. Climate change. With hotter weather, farmers find it difficult to raise chickens 2. Fluctuation of market price. The price of chicken is uncertain and fluctuates. It can range from $4.25 per 1kg, and a few days later, the price can decrease to $3.5 per 1kg.3. A lack of trust between the private sector and ACs/farmers. Some private sectors (vendors) do not want to engage in contract farming. They are willing to buy when they need produce.4. A lack of capital. Farmers want to expand their businesses but face a lack of capital.Accessing credit requires procedures and high-interest rates that can be challenging for local farmers.Lessons and best practices for nutrition-sensitive agri-food system projects in the Mekong DeltaAll projects built the capacity of vulnerable farming households and ACs to strengthen food production and improve nutrition at the local level. Apart from this, each project has different characteristics targeting nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems. The project, implemented by WorldFish, has both nutrition specific activities and nutrition-sensitive activities to cope with forms of malnutrition among children under five and food production. HKI project aims to promote food and nutrition security among vulnerable people through access to diverse nutrient rich foods at a committed price. HIC attempted to increase farmers' income by enhancing backyard chicken production and value chains.Learning from the implementation of the projects, best practices were identified and shared. Best practices shared by WorldFish focused on improving the management of fish raising and food consumption behaviours of mothers to address forms of malnutrition at the community level. In this process, gender engagement and empowerment were conducted to enhance knowledge and skills related to fish consumption and fish-raising management.The roles of youth in the development process have been promoted through the project of HKI. HKI has worked with youth to raise awareness about nutrition-related issues among other young adults in high school. This is expected to improve food consumption behaviours among young adolescents. At the same time, the project contributed to helping farmers gain more income through product grading (i.e. farmers classify their commodities before selling).Enhancement of the local chicken supply chain is the key focus of the project of HIC to improve farmers' incomes. Activities, such as social capital strengthening and contract farming, have contributed to enhancing the livelihood of farmers/producers. Still, best practices in response to nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems have received less attention. The project only recently had a reflection meeting with a group of mothers to learn about their child's development (i.e., children under 5).Although the projects contributed to food production, availability, access, and consumption, there remained low incentives for producers to engage in agriculture, especially diversified agriculture. Market linkages are limited, and few products have been connected to the markets. Farmers in the case studies encounter similar constraints, especially market uncertainty and price fluctuation, to improve their livelihood and enhance food and nutrition security, labour limitations, production challenges, poverty, and climate change notwithstanding. Consequently, migration further weakens food production. None of the projects have the capacity to address migration-related matters. This likely requires a more integrated approach with other projects to understand and jointly reduce issues between migration and agriculture.In addition, monitoring and evaluation of nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems interventions remains low among the projects reviewed in this study. Even though the projects contribute to enhancing nutrition outcomes, tools were used to monitor, evaluate, and track the project activities particularly focused on monitoring the number of trainings attended by participants and input distribution, and production and income indicators and less on food consumption and nutrition indicators. Only one project employed specific tools for tracking nutrition outcomes. One intervention aimed to increase farmers' incomes but did not have a tool to track whether better income contributes to strengthening nutrition outcomes. In addition, while ensuring nutrition security, the projects rely on ACs. It is noted that the capacity of ACs needs more improvement, including reporting.Nutrition-sensitive agri-food system interventions in this study focused largely on the capacity building of farmers to improve productivity which aims to increase food accessibility and consumption of diverse foods for improved nutritional status of target beneficiaries. The projects included capacity building on production, value addition, nutrition, as well as input distribution, such as seeds, compost fertilisers, and financial contribution, was undertaken for farmers to participate in the farm. The interventions also contributed to enhancing food production at scale. Producer groups were created and put under the management of ACs. Contract farming received attention from the projects while focusing on the capacity building of ACs to be the agri-enterprise on the ground.Additionally, the projects deal with cross-cutting issues-women empowerment, youth inclusion, climate change adaptation and natural resource management-in the Mekong Delta region. Women, including the poor, were empowered through capacity building to improve livelihood, ensure food security, and tackle their children's development. Youth were effectively engaged in the project of HKI. More youth were reached, and their understanding of nutrition-related issues was improved. In addition, natural resource management and climate change adaptation were integrated into the capacity building of farmers and ACs.Even though progress has been made, monitoring and evaluation of the impact of these projects on the nutritional status of the beneficiaries remains a significant gap. Capacity building of those designing and implementing the projects on food and nutrition security indicators and further study on context-specific indicators is needed.Nutrition enhancement cannot be achieved when the food systems receive less or inconsistent stakeholder attention. Promoting nutrition-and gender-sensitive agri-food systems must begin from food production through to food consumption, appropriately targeting the supporting or hindering behaviours and practices. In this respect, all interventions must be connected and complementarily to each other and ensure that farmers and consumers benefit from those interventions directly or indirectly. The following are proposed recommendations to enhance nutrition-sensitive agri-food systems.1. Strengthening food production: Profitable engagement in food production is key to improving the livelihoods of households in the Mekong, ensuring food availability and access, and supporting further participation in the food system. Therefore, interventions should consider the following actions.• Create producer groups under ACs to produce at a large scale to increase capacity and leverage. Where Acs producing different food groups can also be linked to enhance access to diverse foods.• Integrate good agricultural practices and climate adaptation into capacity building of farmers, and actors along the value chain. This requires technologies that are land, labour, cost and time-sensitive to address the existing challenges.• Engage the private sector across the food system in the design and development. Such that activities and farmer capacity and activities respond to and also inform quality, access, information, etc.Producers face market uncertainty and price fluctuation after harvesting. Improving the link between farmers and markets (input and outputs) can contribute to sustainable incomes and enhance accessibility of foods. The interventions can be considered the following:• Conduct mapping nutrient dense foods and indigenous foods and their market demand, and work to enhance the availability and demand.• Connect farmers with market vendors, including those in the same location as producers, to also ensure that there are diverse food available within these communities.• Promote the implementation of contract farming with producer groups/Acs and their capacity to grade and market produce accordingly.• Work with to private sector and government to ensure food price and accessibility.Activities directly targeting food consumption practices were limited. One project improved producers' income, and one educated youth on the importance of a good diet. However, these have not yet clearly shown positive changes in food consumption behaviours. In this regard, awareness raising around nutrition should consider the following actions.• Implement behaviour change approaches to tackle unhealthy dietary patterns and bridge income and consumption for all community member categories, children, women, men, elderly, leaders, etc.• Engage various influential actors in the communities including village health support groups (or village health volunteers) in awareness-raising activities about food, nutrition, hygiene, and health.• Use various channels for awareness creation and nutrition education such as social media such as Facebook or TikTok in the dissemination.4. Enhancing monitoring and evaluation. All people have a right to food. However, food consumption practices are changing significantly in the face of rapid development. Proper tracking of food sourcing and consumption practices, and nutrition outcomes would nutritional surveillance activities and intervention contextualisation and targeting. The following actions should be considered.• Organize a plan with food system actors and beneficiaries or target groups to respond to the project's objectives.• Develop tool(s) that can serve at least two purposes: (i) tracking the project activities and (ii) follow up food consumption practices.• Conduct reflection meetings with beneficiaries on food access and consumption.5. Enhancing multisectoral collaboration to enhance nutrition outcomes. Knowledge and skills are needed to equip food system actors including farming households to improve production, processing, and food consumption practices. Therefore, the following actions should be considered:• Incorporate or join partnerships with other organisations in the target locations to address more factors of the food system. For example, income and consumption, food markets in the communities, labour, and migration, etc.• Mainstream or integrate critical activities of successful projects into the authority of the Provincial/Municipal Working Groups for Coordinating Food Security and Nutrition to build their ownership in addressing food and nutrition security under their mandate.• Incorporate the strengthening of local and diverse food production into other projects/programs, such as school feeding program, through multisectoral collaborations.","tokenCount":"10352"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c1516aa19643f08a71a8b2454559b356","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ffa88856-77f5-44e6-9c9e-eca6f456e71f/content","id":"-948354258"},"keywords":["Seed production","Food security","Quality","Plant propagation","Crops","Models","Farmers","Partnerships","Small farms","Business management","Africa. AGRIS category codes: F03 Seed Production","E10 Agricultural Economics and Policies. Dewey decimal classification: 338.1768"],"sieverID":"2eb16dda-8b1a-4dfb-8f58-e28e18447701","pagecount":"89","content":"CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org) is an internationally funded, not-for-profit organization that conducts research and training related to maize and wheat throughout the developing world. Drawing on strong science and effective partnerships, CIMMYT works to create, share, and use knowledge and technology to increase food security, improve the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and sustain natural resources. Financial support for CIMMYT's work comes from many sources, including the members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org), national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies.More than 70% of the population in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region depends on agriculture for household food security, livelihoods, and incomes. Governments are determined to develop and improve this sector to alleviate poverty and hunger.Seed is an important catalyst for the development of agriculture. The availability of quality seed is the foundation for food production and productivity and a precursor to crop and food diversification-a goal pursued by many governments in the region. Efforts to improve the performance of the agricultural sector should include seed production and delivery systems.National agricultural research systems and international agricultural research centers have worked together to develop new, stress tolerant crop varieties that are well adapted to smallholder farmers' conditions. However, most farmers in the region have little or no access to improved seed and continue to recycle seed that has been exhausted after generations of cultivation. Yields have remained poor, resulting in persistent food insecurity.To address this problem, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have led a number of communitybased seed production activities, but many of these projects have achieved only limited success due to several factors, including:• Lack of sustainable seed production and product markets.• Lack of access to foundation seed.• Lack of training on quality seed production.• Failed or rejected seed crops due to management problem.• Lack of or poor information about the availability, characteristics, and prices of seed of improved varieties.This manual is intended to address these issues, strategizing and sharing experiences on community-based seed production. I hope it will contribute to the improvement, efficiency, productivity, and sustainability of seed systems in the region. Most smallholder farmers living in drought-prone regions of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) continue to rely on drought relief and informal farmer-to-farmer exchange to obtain seed of improved varieties. Well over 90% of smallholder farmers' requirements are met through these channels. It is therefore important to give due recognition to the informal sector a low-cost source of seed, and to use it as a vehicle for providing resource-poor farmers with improved seed of modern varieties at affordable prices.This raises questions about the viability of commercial seed production and trade for smallholder cropsparticularly sorghum, millets, beans, cowpea, bambaranut, pigeonpea, groundnut and open-pollinated maize varieties (OPVs)-in drought prone areas. Hybrid seed of maize and sorghum is more widely produced and marketed throughout the region, but seed of open pollinated varieties is only produced in anticipation of emergency purchases by governments and NGOs. Private seed companies voice concerns about the level and consistency of demand by the smallholder farmers for seed of open pollinated varieties. These concerns are reinforced by the continuing practice of delivering seed through noncommercial channels.During the past 25 years, national programs in the SADC region, in partnership with international agricultural research centers, have released a number of varieties. Some of these are excellent candidates for regional use and therefore multi-country release, if a regional policy existed. This would create a much larger potential market, making it more economical for the few active private seed companies in the region to deal with smallholder, communal, semiarid tropical crops, as well as maize OPVs. Stringent phytosanitary rules and lack of harmonization of seed regulations across countries have made it harder for the smallholder farmer to gain access to seed of these research products.Innovative, community-based seed production and distribution strategies, coupled with policies supportive of regional variety registration and release, will have a positive effect on smallholder access to the products of international centers and national programs.The objectives of a functioning seed system are to:• Provide seed of appropriate varieties for use by different categories of farmers.• Develop and identify new and more productive varieties with traits sought by consumers.• Multiply and distribute these on a timely basis and at a price acceptable to farmers.• Maintain quality control through training and regulatory systems.In the current system, two time lags need to be reduced to improve access by smallholder farmers to seed of new varieties: 1. Delays as long as 10 years in varietal development. 2. A long time lag from varietal release to the stage when seed actually reaches farmers.Seed systems can be either formal or informal/local. Formal systems generally consist of public sector research institutions, public and private sector agencies producing and marketing seed, and organizations responsible for seed certification and quantity control. The informal system consists of large number of farmers who produce both traditional and modern varieties, market their own production, and take care of their own research needs. Most government-and donor-supported seed systems in Africa are part of the formal system. Within the formal sector, two models of seed system operate: 1. State/parastatal model: Researchers provide breeder seed to a parastatal or state agency to multiply on state farms or through contract seed growers. All activities, including seed cleaning, processing, and marketing, are performed by state agencies. 2. Private sector model: The private sector plays an important role. Researchers provide breeder seed to be multiplied into foundation and commercial seed. Seed processing and marketing is done by private companies and farmer cooperatives.In most developing countries the formal sector is far smaller than the informal seed sector. The latter is the major source of planting materials for smallholder farmers in Southern Africa, serving over 90% of their seed needs. Consequently, there would be very large gains if strategies to improve the quality of seed coming from this sector were properly designed and implemented. NGOs have already made substantial investments in community-based seed multiplication schemes, which are part of the informal sector. Assistance should be targeted at improving the efficiency of these investments, by helping NGO schemes improve their seed quality control and seed marketing. Specifically, NGO seed programs could be provided with technical support to undertake:• Variety evaluation and selection of the best genotypes.• Maintenance of improved varieties currently being grown, as well as newly selected genotypes.• Development of training materials to help farmers produce genetically pure seed of cultivars of their choice.The informal seed system may be the most appropriate in (1) remote areas, where seed distributors find access difficult and farmers cannot easily reach seed and output markets;(2) a narrow agro-ecological zone, where the seed market is limited and widely marketed varieties may not be suitable; or (3) areas where the major crops have very high seeding rates, implying high transport costs to move large quantities of seed over considerable distances.In spite of massive investments in plant breeding research, the rate of adoption of improved seed in sub-Saharan Africa remains at less than 5%, partly due to the inefficiency of local seed systems. It is rare to find modern varieties bred at research stations being passed on to the informal sector for multiplication and sale, as an essential part of the national seed policy. Yet it is the informal sector that holds the key to improving crop productivity among smallholder farmers. In recognition of this fact, some nations in the region have enacted policies permitting the smooth flow of such seed to the farming community.The government of Tanzania, in collaboration with Denmark, is implementing a 10-year (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007), onfarm seed production program, aiming to strengthen the informal seed sector. Under this program, the formal system will provide initial seed of various crops, which will then be multiplied and disseminated through the informal system. The initial seed is of known pedigree (that is, an approved variety) so as to maintain genetic identity and purity. The seed produced by the program after multiplication is termed \"Quality Declared\" (Mbwele et al. 2000): responsibility for quality lies with the seed producer. Official quality control is minimal; the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency (TOSCA) inspects only 10% of the crop.Part 1: Understanding seed systems in southern AfricaThe quality of informal sector seed used by small-scale farmers can be improved in several ways:• Train farmers in better selection, treatment, and storage of seed from their own farms. Own-saved seed is often the most appropriate, certainly for farmers who cannot afford to purchase seed. The training will help them increase production through better use of their own saved seed. • Encourage farmers to make their own selection of traditional varieties, to multiply and store seed of such varieties, and to sell this quality seed of traditional varieties to other farmers. This strategy is best suited to farmers capable of some experimentation and who are potential users of modern varieties. Initially they should be encouraged to stabilize varieties they themselves have selected. These are farmers with limited resources, but living in medium to high potential areas.• Develop modern varieties at research stations, and produce good quality seed of these varieties through either formal or informal channels-whichever provides good (or acceptable) quality seed at affordable prices. This strategy will work best for farmers who can be persuaded to buy inputs, provided seed is available at prices considered worth the risk by those farmers. ICRISAT and partners are implementing several strategies in Tanzania (Rohrbach et al. 2002) and Zimbabwe (Monyo et al. 2003). These strategies are sustained by ensuring a reliable supply of breeder and foundation seed, which is then sold to seed producers, and by providing them with advice on multiplying foundation seed to generate commercial seed. Costs can be kept low if this seed is unprocessed and uncertified (Monyo et al. 2003). Little research has been done in this area to validate the added value of \"certifying\" vs. \"truthfully labeled\" 3 , beyond the proven genetic potential.Of these strategies, the first two deal with upgrading traditional varieties and do not depend on any interaction between the formal and informal systems. The third constitutes a bridge linking the formal and informal systems. Germplasm (breeder/ foundation seed) comes from the formal system, and subsequent activities are carried out in the informal system.Government agencies can assist the informal sector in many ways, the most important being to provide access to foundation seed, extension advice on seed production, processing, treatment and storage, and a legal framework that permits the marketing of \"truthfully labeled\" seed and \"Quality Declared\" seed. This will facilitate the growth of small-scale entrepreneurs in the informal seed sector. Referred to as the \"decentralized farmer-based model,\" in this approach researchers' involvement in the seed chain stops at producing breeder/and or foundation seed. This seed is sold to farmers who perform downstream activities of multiplication, harvesting, drying, processing, storage and marketing.Insofar as the main constraint to commercial sector investments is continuing uncertainty about the level of demand for seed, ICRISAT and its partners are implementing special projects targeting linkages with seed companies to help them better estimate demand. These include selling seed in small packages or monitoring sales under alternative retail pricing strategies.The private sector has the initial capital and capacity to make a difference in seed availability. ICRISAT's Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program (SMIP) works with the private sector to facilitate the servicing of smallholder communities. ICRISAT ensures that the private sector has access to good quality breeder/foundation seed stocks by providing this seed directly, if it cannot be sourced locally from the public sector research. It also works with the private sector to improve the rural retail network for OPV seed (sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut, and pigeonpea), and to test the demand for improved seed in the rural communities where these crops are important. Companies are profit motivated, and usually deal in only small volumes for the less profitable crops (OPVs). Seed companies in southern Africa have failed to invest in developing rural retail networks for crops other than hybrid maize, citing uncertainty about the level of demand for OPV seed. They also complain that rural retailers have no interest in stocking seed of subsistence crops. As a result, it is impossible to obtain pure seed of OPVs, except in major urban areas. This severely limits the adoption of new varieties.Whereas large commercial farmers in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are producing hybrid maize and seed of sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea and even maize OPVs, much seed is only produced in anticipation of drought relief emergencies. Private firms and NGOs raise concerns that this demand is not consistent. A number of NGOs in southern Africa now produce OPV seed, but the sustainability of these programs is threatened by a lack of marketing strategies. Almost all sorghum and pearl millet seed adopted by farmers in the three countries targeted under SMIP Phase 4 (Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania) has been derived from free or highly subsidized seed distribution programs run by governments and NGOs. The common availability of this subsidized seed further limits commercial incentives to develop rural seed markets (Jones et al. 2001). Yet, small-scale farmers commonly cite the lack of access to the seed as the main reason for non-adoption of new varieties.The SMIP initiated a pilot project to test the commercial demand for seed of OPVs of sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, and sunflower in rural markets when delivered in small seed packs-a cross-section of 5 kg, 2 kg, 1 kg and 500 g. All were sold at prices reflecting the full costs of packaging and distribution (Monyo et al. 2003 in press). The findings from this study are being used to encourage broader private investment in the development of rural seed trade. This should contribute directly to speeding the adoption of new varieties. The small packs pilot program has not, in itself, contributed significantly to the improvement of adoption rates for these crops in Zimbabwe, because of the low volumes involved. However, if the scheme ultimately proves successful, and the private companies involved increase volumes of seed through this channel, an important breakthrough will have been achieved. Ultimately, the SMIP will attempt to see if this can be an important avenue for the distribution of improved seed commercially to small-scale farmers in the SADC region.Predominantly Self-pollinated Crops Seed of self-pollinated crops such as rice can be multiplied by farmers with some training, with little risk of admixtures, as off-types can be easily removed. Isolation distances required are minimal and it is not necessary to set up expensive seed processing plants or seed certification units. Breeder seed can be sold to prospective seed producers and the seed system can be an informal one. However it is necessary to set up a legal framework permitting the sale of uncertified but \"truthfully labeled\" seed of notified varieties.Cross-pollinated crops such as maize are more difficult to manage, since off-types are more difficult to detect. Larger isolation distances are necessary (300 + meters). One option is to select good seed growers who can manage the crop properly, register their plots, and certify only seed grown in these plots. These can be contract farmers producing for private public sector companies. ICRISAT is successfully using this approach, where smallholder farmers produce seed on contract to a private seed company. An alternative is to encourage the development of an informal seed system in which farmers develop faith in the quality of seed produced when they are able to see the seed plot and convince themselves that the seed is of the right quality. Another ICRISAT approach uses progressive villagers or village institutions such as primary schools to introduce new varieties into the village seed system (Monyo et al. 2003). Such a strategy aims to stimulate competition among farmers, some of whom could eventually emerge as reputable seed producers. Where the cropping system is dominated by OPVs and farmers use own-saved seed, a combination of these approaches, with emphasis on a decentralized informal seed system, would meet the requirements of most small-scale farmers.The formal sector has shown little or no interest in seed multiplication for crops like groundnut, with high seeding rates and low multiplication rates. Transport, processing, bagging, and certification costs make the seed too expensive for farmers to purchase. For such crops, the most economical way would be to produce seed of the notified variety and sell it to the local community without incurring the extra costs of processing and certification.Two factors determine farmer demand for seed of modern varieties: (1) farmers' interest in the new varieties, and (2) whether the seed system is appropriate for the crop and varieties, and practical for farmers.Effective extension is important. Extension plays a crucial role in training farmers in seed production and is therefore a pre-requisite to establishing a seed system, particularly informal systems, where farmers need training in various aspects of seed production. Just as it is difficult for a seed system to be effective in the absence of extension, it is equally difficult for farmers to adopt extension recommendations in the absence of a seed system that satisfies the following criteria:• It covers all of the crops that most farmers grow.• The varieties are appropriate and endowed with critical traits. For example, for smallholder farmers in high risk areas, yield stability is more important than yield per se (Monyo et al. in press).• The political and legal environment must allow regular release of new varieties, with high quality seed.• The system must be compatible with the level of agricultural development. For example in situations where most farmers are poor and infrastructure is lacking, it is not desirable to put in place a sophisticated system involving too many institutions before the \"basics\" are in place.The system should be supported by effective research and extension services; availability of inputs such as fertilizer, pesticide, agricultural credit; and an efficient commodity marketing system. Monyo, E.S., D.D. Rohrbach, and M.A. Mgonja. 2003 The partners include national research and extension services, other government departments, NGOs, private seed companies, and most important, the community, because our approaches are based on collective action, with other partners providing support. We are pursuing three alternative approaches, depending on the area and community:• Contract seed production. Smallholder farmers are linked with a private seed company. They produce certified seed of new varieties from international centers for the company, which provides logistical support and credit for inputs. ICRISAT provides the needed technical support for the production of good quality seed. Seed Co, the leading seed company in the region, currently contracts more than 2,400 farmers in Zimbabwe. In the past three years more than 1,000 tons of seed of various crops have been produced. • Small seed packs. Seed is sold in small packs (500 g to 5 kg), instead of the usual 25 kg bags.ICRISAT has demonstrated that farmers who cannot afford the large packs eagerly buy the smaller quantities, paying the full cost, without subsidy. In the past two seasons, over 80% of the seed distributed in rural remote areas through the small seed pack program was purchased, helping to spread new varieties in drought-prone pilot areas.Part 1: Understanding seed systems in southern Africa• Seed production and distribution through primary schools. Primary schools in rural areas multiply seed of improved varieties, with technical and logistical support from ICRISAT, government agencies, and other partners. The schools then distribute this seed to nearby communities, ensuring that smallholder farmers have access to affordable, high-quality seed within a convenient distance from their homesteads.Each of the models is described below in more detail:Drought-induced food shortages are common throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC). There are two major reasons for these shortages: crop failures of maize due to insufficient rainfall, and low productivity of alternative cereals and legumes due to the continued use of traditional varieties that give poor yields and are susceptible to late-season drought. Governments and NGOs provide food and seed aid almost every year, but such interventions are neither sustainable nor sufficient to alleviate hunger and poverty in rural areas. ICRISAT and the Seed Co of Zimbabwe are working together to strengthen smallholder farmers' capacity to produce quality seed. ICRISAT is an international research organization specializing in drought tolerant crops; Seed Co is the leading seed-house in Zimbabwe with an extensive retail network. ICRISAT supplies improved, open-pollinated released varieties of its mandate crops and offers training and supervision in seed production. Seed Co offers small-scale farmers contracts to produce seed, and buys it from them subject to meeting specified quality requirements.• The program involves promotion of wide-scale adoption of four new varieties with a regional market (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia): one variety each of groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and cowpea.• ICRISAT uses a block system led by local supervisors and enumerators to carry out seed production.The local supervisors have some formal training in agriculture, whereas the enumerators are elected by farmers on the condition that they hold at least a master farmer qualification. ICRISAT trains the enumerators and the farmers on procedures for quality seed production, and additionally trains the enumerators to carry out data collection, and disseminate information and program inputs.• ICRISAT also uses the farmer field schools extension approach to teach farmers the principles of improved crop management and various cost-effective options.• This project proves that smallholder farmers are committed and can grow seed as a commercial crop.Farmers were so eager to maintain the contracts that they were willing to sell some of their harvest even during the 2001/02 drought. This shows that smallholder farmer/ private sector partnership is feasible, if there is mutual trust.• Smallholder farmers are now familiar with seed production techniques. After four years of the program no farmer is being disqualified for not following the recommended techniques.• The methodology has been tested and refined in Zimbabwe and can now be applied in other SADC countries.• The scheme is profit motivated. Farmers look at seed production as an enterprise.• Seed production capacity in the smallholder sector has been developed and farmers have been successfully linked to a private seed company.• The program disseminates improved OPVs to smallholder farmers in dry areas, greatly accelerating diffusion of these varieties.• In dry areas, frequent drought causes communities to remain food insecure. Consequently, some farmers may renege on contracts in drought years, preferring to retain their harvest for food. We are now thinking of diversifying smallholder seed production to include a few areas with more reliable rainfall.Zimbabwe. Sorghum and pearl millet are susceptible to bird damage if grown in isolated blocks. This problem is particularly severe in seed production. Small-scale farmers' small plots do not provide for adequate isolation distances for seed production. However, due to the necessity to separate grazing areas from cropping areas, individual plots are often combined into blocks. This block farming arrangement provided the opportunity to test the feasibility of producing seed for commercial sale in communal areas. For this concept to work, the community must agree to grow only the identified variety of the selected seed crop. Small-scale farmers in two pilot districts in Zimbabwe have successfully produced sorghum and pearl millet seed of designated varieties for private seed companies. (Monyo et al. 2003).Tanzania. The Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) and the Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT) have mobilized groups of farmers and assisted them to register as seed associations. The DCT operates only in the Dodoma region, but the CCT operates nation-wide and has facilitated registration of 11 farmer seed associations. The CCT supports these associations to produce improved seed of sorghum, pearl millet and maize OPVs for commercial sale (Mwaisela 1999;2000). These associations rely partly on the local community but mostly on their affiliated churches to provide markets for the seed produced. The CCT retains part of earnings to purchase additional foundation seed for farmers. This model has been in operation since 1995. ICRISAT started working with CCT during the 1998/99 season to provide technical assistance and identify the most successful associations, which can serve as models for improving the operations of others and for scaling up. One example is Mpalanga village in Chipanga division of Dodoma rural district, which has significantly enhanced community seed security through NGO assistance.Namibia. The Northern Namibia Farmer Seed Growers Coop is another example of ICRISAT technical assistance in establishing viable seed delivery systems to small-scale farmers. Initially the founding members (50 small-scale farmers) were trained on seed production by ICRISAT-Bulawayo with support from FAO-Namibia in 1994. It took only four years for this group to develop into a full-fledged, registered seed cooperative able to produce enough pearl millet seed to meet the country's needs (Lechner et al. 1996).Seed companies in southern Africa have failed to invest in developing rural seed sales networks for crops other than hybrid maize. These companies commonly state their uncertainty about the level of demand for seed of OPVs. They also complain that rural retailers have no interest in stocking seed of these subsistence crops. As a result, it is impossible to obtain quality seed of OPVs, except in major urban areas. This severely limits the adoption of new varieties. Seed of OPVs of sorghum, pearl millet, bambaranut, cowpeas, groundnuts and sunflower is only produced in anticipation of drought for relief programs. Private seed companies and NGOs are concerned that this sort of demand is not consistent. Though a number of NGOs in southern Africa have started production of seed of OPVs, their sustainability is threatened by poor marketing strategies. Small-scale farmers commonly cite the lack of access to the seed of new varieties as their main justification for non-adoption. ICRISAT initiated a pilot project to test the commercial demand for seed of OPVs of sorghum, pearl millet, bambaranut, groundnut and sunflower in rural markets, when delivered in small packages.• The seed company establishes retail sales agents in rural areas. In most instances these are the same agents used to distribute hybrid maize seed.• Seed of OPVs, including sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, cowpea, sunflower and bambaranut, is packaged in small packs of 500 g, 1 kg, 2 kg and 5 kg.• The packs are sold at prices reflecting the full cost of packaging and distribution but targeted to the drought-prone areas where these crops are best adapted.• The rural retail outlets are linked to urban wholesale centers for input supply.• ICRISAT conducts closely targeted surveys to monitor the success of the scheme: one for the rural retailers receiving the seed on credit, a second survey for urban consumers buying the seed, and a third survey of rural farmers buying the seed.• Approximately 80% of the seed placed in the urban shops was sold, including all of the groundnut and bambaranut stocked.• Approximately 55% of the seed placed in the rural shops was sold; sales of sorghum and bambaranut were strongest.• The main reasons buyers cited for purchasing the seed were to try a new variety and to replenish depleted seed stocks.• In general, the buyers were satisfied with the prices.• The variable size of the seed packs allowed farmers with less money to purchase smaller sized packages.• Most of the retailers stated their willingness to collect the seed on their own from the seed company.• Farmers buying seed made a number of suggestions for improving the program. These included the need to get the seed into the retail shops earlier and maintain this stock over an extended period.• Farmers appreciate the opportunity to purchase small pack seed and it is likely that sales will grow over time.This program proves the willingness of small-scale farmers to purchase smaller packages of a range of different open and self-pollinated seed crops. Sales are expected to grow if the seed companies are willing to maintain such initiatives. The findings from this study are being used to encourage broader private investment in the development of rural seed trade. This should directly contribute to speeding the adoption of new varieties. The small packs pilot program has not, in itself, contributed significantly to improving adoption rates for these crops in Zimbabwe because of the low volumes involved in the pilot scheme. However, if the scheme ultimately proves successful and the private companies involved increase volumes, an important breakthrough will have been achieved. Ultimately ICRISAT will attempt to see if this can become an important avenue for distributing improved seed commercially to small-scale farmers.The Seed Company of Zimbabwe established 14 retail sales agents for small pack seed in the rural areas of Zimbabwe for the first time in 1998. This included seed of sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, and sunflower in 5 kg, 2 kg, 1 kg, and 0.5 kg packages. In the second year the program added six more retailers and at least one additional crop (cowpea). Small seed packs were also distributed through wholesale trading channels for commercial sale to a much wider range of retailers.Most consumers expressed a strong desire to purchase small packs of seed and they wanted such arrangements extended to other crops, including maize. Most retailers were willing to collect seed from the company, but wanted to retain the credit component of the program. Sales will grow if the seed company is willing to maintain such incentives but the financial incentive to continue doing so remains unclear, since the company achieves higher returns by selling in bulk to relief programs. As long as large volumes of seed are distributed at subsidized prices through relief and emergency programs, the growth in adoption rates of these improved varieties is likely to be derived from emergency distribution, rather than from the development of a retail seed market.Each year many new varieties of crops are released and new technologies developed in research institutes all around the world. Much money, time and effort are spent on research to provide farmers with the means to generate higher yields and increased incomes. These varieties and technologies are tested on research stations and on farm, but few are widely adopted by smallholder farmers. Seed availability is a major problem. To address this issue, ICRISAT and partners in Tanzania are using an innovative approach whereby schools in rural communities serve as seed multiplication and distribution centers (Monyo and Mgonja 2003).• Agriculture is part of the primary school curriculum in Tanzania.• The project helps pupils in rural schools (who are encouraged to learn agriculture) and their parents benefit from easier availability of improved seed.• Selected schools are within 15-20 km of each other for easy access by farmers; and typically have over 500 students and serve approximately 500-700 farmers.• Only schools with adequate, isolated land are selected for seed production.• All selected schools are provided with enough seed to plant one hectare of the sorghum, pearl millet, pigeonpea, or sesame of the varieties recommended for the area.• The pilot scheme involving 50 schools in one district has expanded to 250 schools in eight districts of Tanzania in four years.• The scheme has expanded from initially providing only sorghum and pearl millet seed to currently supplying sorghum, pearl millet, pigeonpea, sesame and OPV maize.• Participating schools supply approximately 500 kg of improved seed of new varieties to the surrounding community every year, at affordable prices.• The initiative has already been adopted by Malawi NARS in collaboration with World Vision International to move improved sorghum and millet seed to smallholder farmers • Mozambique NARS have indicated interest in adopting this scheme for sorghum, millet, cowpea, pigeonpea and bambaranut.• The successful schools had one common strategy: they enabled the villagers, through the village government, to \"own\" the project. The village government was backstopping the schools, ensuring community support.• A training program on seed production was provided to the participating schools (one teacher from each school) and to Ward Education Officers (WEO) who would supervise project implementation. Each WEO supervised seed production in ten schools.• Field days were held to popularize the concept and to introduce it to other districts.• Representatives from the Departments of Research and Seed Services Units from Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana participated in field days held in Tanzania; thus the concept is being extended to other SADC countries.Tanzania. One specific target under ICRISAT's Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program is having at least one retail seed outlet within a 25 km radius of each targeted community. After a survey of the CCT's school feeding programs in Tanzania, a feasibility study was carried out to investigate the potential of using primary schools as seed centers. All primary school heads interviewed welcomed the idea; they felt the project would be viable (providing the school with extra income) and useful, teaching pupils practical agricultural applications. A meeting between ICRISAT and district-level officials from the relevant government ministries was organized to discuss modalities of operation. Under the leadership of Commissioners from Dodoma and Singida Districts, 100 primary schools were selected, ensuring one seed retail outlet (school) within a maximum distance of 25 km. The teachers were trained on seed production methods. The District Agricultural Officer, Education officers, and staff from the Tanzania Official Seed Certification Agency acted as resource persons. After training each school was supplied with enough foundation seed to plant 1 ha each of sorghum (variety Pato) and pearl millet (variety Okoa). This initiative is strongly supported by the local authorities as an appropriate model for community seed supply.Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Introduction of new varieties to village seed systems is part the government's Zunde (King's Granary) Program in Zimbabwe, which combines community food and seed security. New varieties are demonstrated in few targeted areas. The produce harvested from the demonstration plot is kept in the \"Zunde\" for later use by the community for food and/or seed. In Tanzania this model is in operation under the Ministry's Agricultural Sector Program Support sponsored by DANIDA (Granquist 2000). Under this program, 2-3 progressive farmers are selected per village. These farmers are given the appropriate training, and supplied with good quality foundation seed for multiplication, so that they become the source of improved seed for the entire village. Each season the farmers are supplied with foundation seed of different crops; if they produce, say, sorghum seed for the village one year, the next year they will produce groundnut or another crop, returning to sorghum every third year. Seed multiplication and distribution of improved varieties is a major problem in many countries.ICRISAT and its partners are using an innovative approach in Tanzania to resolve this issue, which could provide a model for other countries facing similar problems with seed shortages (Monyo et al 2003) Why Primary Schools?Rural primary schools were identified in two drought-prone districts (Dodoma and Singida) in central Tanzania. The selected schools are already involved in a school-feeding program initiated by the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT) to help food insecure families suffering from the effects of prolonged drought. As these communities continue to be threatened by drought, it seemed logical to establish multiplication of seed in these schools as a means of moving improved drought-tolerant varieties of sorghum and millet into the communities. Each school has over 500 students and serves 500-700 families, so there is a substantial demand for seed. Agriculture is part of the curriculum, and trained teachers are already in place. The schools are already engaged in agriculture, growing mainly cereals (sorghum, millet, maize), legumes (groundnuts, cowpea), and vegetables, to feed their students. The children are from farming families and benefit directly from practical experience in seed production. And both children and their parents benefit from the multiplication of improved seed. Many children are unable to continue their education after finishing primary school, which means that the skills learnt during this project will benefit the future farming community. Adequate land is available in schools to ensure proper isolation distances.• The initiative was introduced to the stakeholders at district, division, and ward levels.• Key players and responsibilities were identified.• Schools were selected using the following criteria: (1) schools are within 15-20 km of each other, so that farmers can get seed without having to travel long distances; (2) approximately 2 ha of land that can be isolated was available;(3) schools should be located in an area where the target crop is important; and (4) schools and the village governments should be willing to undertake the taskcommunity ownership is necessary. • The Headmaster and the agricultural teacher were trained in seed production and project supervision.• Training programs were conducted for one teacher per school, plus Ward Education Officers (WEOs), covering seed production techniques, crop management, quality control, certification standards, and storage methods. Project partners provided funding and resource persons for the training; logistics were handled by the schools and the local community.• The government assigned WEOs to supervise project implementation. Each WEO supervised seed production in ten schools.• The following issues were addressed: source seed supply, seed distribution, crop monitoring, choice of variety.• ICRISAT and local researchers provided each school with enough breeder/foundation seed to plant one hectare of seed crop. The crop/variety was carefully selected for adaptability to local conditions.• Throughout the crop season, ICRISAT, government researchers, and the resident NGO (Diocese of Central Tanganyika) monitored crop management, pest control, and other factors, providing advice on quality control.• Through the Ministry of Local Government, village government and community elders ensured the program was successful by minimizing cross-contamination from other fields and by organizing seed distribution after the harvest.• The following crops/varieties were targeted in different areas: sorghum (Pato), pearl millet (Okoa), sesame (Ziada 94), groundnut (Pendo), pigeonpea (Mali) and maize (Kilima).• The program was launched as a pilot scheme 4 years ago, with 50 schools in one district. Today it covers 250 schools in 8 drought prone districts.• The range of crops has expanded. Initially only sorghum and pearl millet seed were multiplied. Today seed of sorghum, pearl millet, pigeon pea, sesame, groundnut, and maize is being multiplied and sold.• Each school supplies approximately 500 kg of high-quality seed to the surrounding community every year, at affordable prices. As a result, the area under improved varieties has increased 5-6 fold, pushing the area under improved pearl millet and sorghum varieties in Tanzania from base levels of around 5-7% in 1999 to current levels of 29% for pearl millet and 36% for sorghum (Monyo et al 2002).• The program has been so successful in Tanzania that it is being replicated in Malawi, and the Mozambique government has expressed interest.The program was led by the communities themselves. ICRISAT, government research and extension staff, and NGOs provided support. Two key government departments-the ministry of education and local governments (the district administration)-were closely involved, ensuring that monitoring, logistics, coordination, and other issues (certification, sale permits) were smooth.The community had a clear sense of ownership of the project, which was implemented at the community level with benefits targeted to the community. There was enormous popular support, mobilized by village leaders. For example, farmers with plots adjacent to the school's seed plot agreed to plant different crops to minimize cross-contamination and ensure genetic purity of the seed being multiplied.Field days were held at the schools to demonstrate the benefits of the project. Over 1,000 farmers from the target community, from nearby areas, from other districts in Tanzania, and even from other countries attended these field days last season. The visitors included representatives from the national programs and Seed Services Units from Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. As a result, awareness spread rapidly. So did interest from other communities in implementing similar schemes. Schools-based seed projects are being implemented in Malawi, in partnership with World Vision International; the Mozambique government is planning similar initiatives with an even wider range of crops.Over 300 varieties of several crops have been developed by plant breeders from seed companies, International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) and the public sector. These varieties are registered in one or more countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Farmers may find it difficult to select an appropriate variety. The choice of a wrong crop or variety has many consequences, such as loss of yield, food security and profit. The choice of an improved but inappropriate variety also makes farmers lose confidence in improved varieties in general and this hampers technology adoption. It is therefore important that farmers are provided with information about varieties so that they can make a sound decision. This paper outlines important considerations in ensuring that farmers choose the right variety and points to the impact of that choice.Many organizations are involved in making recommendations to farmers about suitable crops and varieties. Unfortunately, many of those recommendations do not consider the wide range of factors that influence a farmer's own decision-making. When farmers choose a crop or variety, there are several considerations that influence their choice:• Household food security is important to farmers as it ensures their livelihood. The combination of crops and varieties chosen has to ensure food security across seasons. Drought or any other calamity must not endanger food security. Risk aversion is an important reason why farmers often choose to grow several crops and varieties.• Income generation/profitability, because agricultural products are farmers' main source of income and farmers seek to maximize profits. Selection of a particular crop or variety has to ensure that income generation is possible (e.g. product markets available) and the profit is maximized. Profit is to be understood not only in monetary terms but may include other factors that contribute to a farmer's livelihood.• Labour influences farmers' choice of crop and variety. For example, in Botswana, where Quela birds are a problem, farmers plant sorghum varieties with awns to prevent bird damage, or they chose a crop that is not affected by bird damage.• Land quality and quantity: when land is scarce or the labor to prepare and manage the land limiting, farmers may choose to plant high value crops (e.g. vegetables in urban agriculture) or the crop that is most important for their food security (often maize). Prime land may be used for high value crops to maximize yields and profits while poorer land is allocated to less demanding crops.• The need for inputs, because farmers must allocate limited resources among fertilizer, seed, other inputs, and non-agricultural expenses. If farmers can recycle seed without a yield penalty (e.g., OPVs versus hybrids), they may save money for other purposes (such as purchasing fertilizer). When properly managed, on the other hand, hybrid varieties may increase profits and thus provide an attractive option for farmers with more cash and better access to resources.• Availability of seed and seed prices influence what farmers plant. If there is no seed or the price is too high, farmers may change their choice of crops or varieties, or even plant inferior material (e.g., weeviled grain).• Consumer preferences and intended use influence choices of crops and varieties. In the case of maize, for example, farmers often prefer different varieties when home-processing and home-storing maize versus when they plan to sell harvests as green maize or grain.• Varieties names are often complicated. They may confuse farmers when purchasing seed from the market.• Trust in the seed vender is crucial. Farmers buy seed with expectations of certain varietal characteristics and seed quality. Whether these expectations are met often only becomes apparent long after the seed has been purchased; for example, at harvest. Thus, there is a certain amount of trust involved when acquiring seed and other planting material. If that trust is violated, farmers' livelihoods may be affected. Farmers therefore may prefer to purchase seed from a trusted source; for example, a known seed company or trusted neighbor.There has been limited adoption of improved varieties by smallholder farmers in the region. One of the reasons for poor adoption of crop varieties has been the lack of understanding what farmers want or how they assess varieties. Learning how farmers choose varieties and crops enables plant breeders and extension and NGO staff to develop better varieties and make more appropriate recommendations. Surveys have been useful in identifying what farmers want, although they often can consider only a sample of a population due to limited resources.CIMMYT and its partners are promoting an innovative variety testing scheme, mother-baby trials, in an effort to assess what farmers want. The mother-baby trial scheme allows farmers to evaluate new crop varieties in their own environment and under their own management practices. From these trials, plant breeders have discovered that the most important traits to farmers is not only yield but other traits such as taste, storability, and drought tolerance and others. National and regional variety trials, as organized by the public and private seed sector, also provide information about varieties that are more suitable to farmers' conditions. These trials compare the performance of varieties and the changes that take place from season to season. These trials may be too complicated for non-breeders to understand in detail but the information compiled assists in characterizing varieties for traits that are known to be important to farmers. Based on this information, farmers and organizations may choose varieties that help to spread the risk of pests, disease, and climatic conditions. Ministries of agriculture, seed companies, and international research centers would always have such information.Seed fairs and demonstration provide some information on how farmers assess crop varieties. However, in many instances demonstrations are planted with the full amount of inputs applied, thereby creating often a very different impression of a variety than when farmers grow them under their own cropping conditions. Similarly, the produce shown at seed fairs is often selected from the best part of a field, implying a very productive variety, and does not represent the average performance of that variety.The choice of a wrong variety may impact household food security, profits, and future adoption of new technologies (Figure 1.) Agronomic practices (cultivation, application of inputs, etc.) are affected: farmers may invest in fertilizers in the expectation that the chosen variety will make effective use of the inputs. Profits may go down or become negative if those expectations are not met. Also, depending on the variety, the crop may mature earlier or later than expected or convenient, making management difficult.  The following factors should be considered when selecting a crop variety:Determine the characteristics of the agro-ecological zone where the variety will be grown. This includes:• Amount of rainfall and the risk of drought during the season • The length of the growing seasonThe characteristics of an agro-ecological zone determine what characteristics a variety needs to perform well, what disease resistance, what maturity group, whether there is need for the variety to be tolerant to drought or low pH etc. Many varieties that are introduced from other parts of the world or even South Africa (\"exotic varieties\") may not have the appropriate disease resistance or may not be adapted to the prevalent soil types.The length of the growing season determines the ideal maturity group for a variety. Ideally, you want to have a variety that matures within the growing season (or as long as there is available soil water). Crop varieties can be classified into the following groups: • An early-maturing variety can be planted early and be harvested before the end of the season or planted late in the season and be harvested by the end of the season. It can also be used in areas where the rainy season is very short.• An intermediate-maturing variety also does not require a full season to mature. It often can be harvested before the end of the season, or can be grown where rains may stop early. When conditions are good, an intermediate-maturing variety gives typically a higher yield than an early-maturing variety.• A late-maturing variety is a variety that needs to be planted very early in the season, often with the first rains, so that it can have time to mature before the season ends. When conditions are good, a late maturing variety typically gives a higher yield than an intermediate or early-maturing variety.Note, some exotic varieties may never mature due to photoperiod sensitivity. This has been a problem when seed of exotic varieties has been used for seed relief.Determine type of germplasm whether is a hybrid or an open-pollinated variety those seed can be recycled without yield penalty. Farmers often have a pronounced preference for either seed type.Variety characteristics strongly influence the intended use. Different varieties may be chosen depending on the use of the produce. For example, there are maize varieties that are more suitable for green consumption (sweet and large cobs). Farmers often prefer different grain textures when home-processing and home-storing maize (they choose flint textures) versus selling maize grain (they choose types that give a good price in the market).Seed Production Scheme M. Bänziger, P.S. Setimela, and M. Mwala When designing a seed production scheme, it is important to be conscientious about the purpose of the scheme and its product.Many community-based seed production schemes are initiated because farmers are concerned about a lack of seed at planting time. Farmers have been recycling grain as seed (or other planting materials) for centuries, so it is important to understand what is meant by \"lack of seed\". Here are two examples: 1. Seed may be unavailable due to environmental factors (e.g., drought) or civil disturbances, which can cause acute shortages. Training farmers in community-based seed production will have limited impact, unless issues of risk aversion for crop production are addressed first: otherwise the same environmental or civil disturbances that reduce grain production will also reduce seed production. However, risk aversion strategies may include crops for which seed or planting material is not readily available. In this instance, community-based seed production schemes may contribute to increasing farmers' access to such planting material provided the cost involved in producing the planting material or seed is not greater than farmers' willingness to invest in such planting material. 2. Seed from the formal sector may be unavailable or at prices deemed too high. In this instance, farmers perceive an added value to seed over grain (otherwise they would be planting grain) and are ready to pay a higher price for seed. The perceived value of seed may consist of varietal characteristics (genetic make-up) and/or its viability. Training farmers in community-based seed production may have an impact on farmers' access to seed, provided seed production costs can be kept lower than those of the existing seed sector price and the quality of the seed produced meets the farmers' expectations.Certified seed, quality-declared seed, or standard seed are commodities where the government guarantees seed quality; i.e., genetic value, purity and seed viability. The seed producer needs to follow established regulations; adherence to these regulations is monitored. A farmer paying a higher price for seed over grain can therefore feel confident about obtaining value for money. Requirements are more stringent for certified seed than for standard or quality-declared seed.The quality of informally produced seed is guaranteed only by its seller. Thus, there is little guarantee other than knowing and having confidence in the seller, or having seen his/her seed production field, that gives an incentive for paying a higher price for seed than grain. Most countries permit the trade of informally produced seed in a community and among neighbors, but have special regulations for formal trade.Community-based seed production is not simply about producing seed. Several other aspects have to be considered, including:• Choice of crop(s) and variety.• Source of seed.• Training of seed producers.• Quality control.• Need for credit to produce the seed.• Cleaning, packaging, and marketing of seed.• Sustainability issues.Table 1 compares four models of community-based seed production. It highlights the issues of costs involved and sustainability-issues often insufficiently addressed, when designing community-based seed production schemes. Unless the public sector or an NGO is prepared to invest continuously in a seed production scheme, costs for all components (seed production, training, quality control, marketing, transport, credits) must be covered by the price of the seed produced. It is therefore in the interest of all parties involved to design scheme that minimizes costs while meeting the purchasers' expectations for quality (genetic make-up and seed viability). This chapter describes how farmers and farming communities may produce their own seed of openpollinated maize varieties (OPVs). There is no disadvantage with this practice as long as the seed has been produced and stored properly.The maize plant has separate male and female flowers (Figure 1). The male flowers, or tassels, are located at the top of the plant, whereas the female flowers (ears and silks) develop about half way up the stalk. The location of the tassel at the top of a relatively tall plant and its separation from the female flower promotes cross-pollination between plants. Commonly, pollen from a tassel will be blown by the wind to one or more plants nearby. Pollen is very small, and a single tassel may produce up to 25 million pollen grains. Shortly after pollen contacts the female silks, it germinates and grows down through the silk, eventually fertilizing the young ovule. The fertilized ovule develops into the embryonic plant within the developing seed.Maize breeding programs are continuously developing new OPVs. They are often higher yielding than older varieties or farmers' own varieties and may have other value-added traits, such as early maturity or better disease resistance. To benefit from a new, improved variety, farmers must first obtain seed of the variety. Seed production must then be done in a particular manner that maintains the purity of the variety and gives good quality seed. This is normally done by requesting foundation seed from either the national maize program or an international center such as CIMMYT. Alternatively, foundation seed may be available through private sector sources.When producing seed, a farmer usually wants to maintain the characteristics of a variety. Crosspollination between different maize varieties must therefore be prevented. Isolating the seed production field from other maize fields helps achieve this. If two different varieties are grown next to each other, cross-pollination will occur between the two varieties, and the crop grown from such seed will have a mixture of the characteristics of those two varieties. Isolation of a seed crop can be done in four ways: 1. By space. Maintain a distance of at least 300 meters between the seed crop and any other maize field that has a different variety planted (Figure 2). 2. By time. Sow your seed crop a month earlier or later than neighboring maize fields. 3. By certified seed barriers. A barrier of genetically pure seed of the same variety may be planted within the isolation distance of the seed production field. 4. By natural barriers. Seed production plots can be established on land isolated by natural or artificial forests, for example.Distance and time isolation are the most commonly used approaches. The goal is to have no other maize variety shedding pollen nearby when the seed production field is flowering. Wind may carry pollen further than 300 meters. Thus, if there are constant strong winds in one particular direction, the distance to the next maize field should be at least 400 meters. Consult with your neighbors about when and where they will plant their maize, so you can sow yours in a field that is properly isolated. Apart from considering isolation, select your best field for maize seed production and manage it well, because the value of good seed is higher than the value of grain. Choose a field where no maize has been grown during the previous year to reduce the possibility that last year's maize crop may germinate and cross-pollinate your seed maize. Farming communities may want to produce the seed of one variety for the entire community in a single field. This will help in finding a wellisolated field with good soil. Also, the village can make a collective effort to look after the maize crop well.Prepare the soil in your field at least two weeks prior to planting. If there are any grains from previous maize crops left in the soil, they may germinate in these two weeks and you should remove them when you sow your maize seed crop.If possible, sow your maize seed crop early. Choose a plant density that is recommended for your area. A common seeding rate for maize is 20 kg/ha. Planting in straight rows will facilitate crop management and seed production operations. Apply fertilizer and remove weeds in time.Carefully examine your maize seed crop as it grows. You may find plants that look very different or flower much earlier or later than most other plants in the field. These plants are called off-types and they should be removed-a process known as \"roguing\"-before pollen shedding starts. Most farmers do not like to remove maize plants from their field, but rouging is critical to maintain varietal purity.During harvest and drying, be careful that the seed of your maize crop does not get mixed with seed or grain from other maize varieties. Keep only the best and healthiest ears and kernels for seed, and use the rest of the harvest as grain. Your best seed comes from healthy undamaged ears that are typical for the variety. Thus, discard off-types, rotten and damaged ears, and ears where the kernels have started to germinate or are affected by insects. Place the harvested ears on a clean and dry surface, such as concrete or plastic, and dry them well in the sun. To make sure that all kernels get exposed to the sun, spread the ears in a flat layer and turn them several times. Maize seed stores best at <12% moisture content.When the maize seed is dry, it can be stored on the cob or shelled. Be careful not to damage the seed when shelling. Your best seed typically comes from the middle part of the ear. After shelling, clean the seed, removing dirt and other inert matter. Remove seeds that are small, look diseased, have started to germinate, or are damaged by insects. Treat the seed with an insecticide-fungicide combination, and store it in a dry and cool place. When treating the seed, follow the guidelines on the seed treatment package carefully. One good way to store seed is to place it in a jute bag, close the bag and drop it into a plastic bag, close the plastic bag and place this in another jute bag, finally closing the outer jute bag. Seed bags should be stored in a seed warehouse on wooden pallets in cool conditions away from fertilizer and chemicals.The production and distribution of quality maize seed requires diligent efforts both during field production and post-harvest handling. Field inspections are commonly conducted at different crop development stages to ensure quality.A planting inspection is commonly conducted to determine that the maize seed planted is genetically pure, of known origin, and is an appropriate variety for the area. If a mechanical planter is being used, it should be checked to ensure that it is clean and free of maize seed of other types and is properly calibrated to achieve recommended seeding densities. The field should be inspected to verify that it is properly isolated and free of volunteer plants.A second field inspection may be made during the vegetative growth phase. Isolation should be checked, along with the presence of disease, insect pests, or weed infestations. At this stage, off-type and diseased plants may be rogued.The most important field inspections are made just prior to and during flowering. At this time the maize seed field is most susceptible to genetic contamination from wind-blown pollen coming from off-type plants within the field or other maize varieties in surrounding fields. Therefore, it is essential during the pre-flowering inspection to confirm that the maize seed field has been properly rogued and is sufficiently isolated from other maize fields. Plants that are off-type or diseased, along with harmful weeds, must be removed at this time.A pre-harvest or harvest inspection may be conducted as the crop reaches maturity and the seed has lost a significant portion of its moisture content. Off-type plants, such as those that are still green when most the other plants are dry, may be removed at this stage. At harvest, ears with different grain color or texture from the produced variety should be removed.Various standard tests for moisture content, germination, and physical purity can be conducted to evaluate the quality of the seed. The most common evaluation described here is the germination test, designed to determine the seed's capacity to germinate and produce normal plants when sown under appropriate conditions.Germination tests may be conducted by building an open wooden box, 1 m long, 50 cm wide, and 10 cm deep (Figure 3). Fill the box with insect-free, loose soil. Divide it in half and plant 100 seeds in rows separated by 10 cm. Since the objective is to see how many seeds germinate, sow them one by one in a thin line about 2 cm deep. The box should be watered thoroughly and kept in a safe place away from birds and other animals. Another alternative would be to conduct the germination test in a well-prepared bed near the homestead or in a protected garden (Figure 3). Another option is to evaluate maize seed germination in paper towels or newspapers. With this method, 50 maize seeds are spread out in lines on moistened paper and then covered by another wetted paper (Figure 3). The paper is rolled and tied with a string or elastic band. The paper rolls can be placed in plastic bags or other containers and kept moist for seven days. With each of these methods, a count for normal developing seedlings is made between 7 and 10 days after sowing. A minimum of 80% germination is the suggested standard; anything below this means the seed is not of acceptable quality. Sorghum and pearl millet are important indigenous African cereal food crops. To date, several improved varieties and a number of agronomic recommendations have been developed for different categories of farmers in different agro-ecological regions. These include open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) and hybrids for grain and forages; and recommendations on spacing, plant population, and fertilizer rates. The improved varieties are diverse in maturity, adaptation, height, seed color, and size. Generally, they are tolerant to prevailing diseases such as anthracnose, downy mildew, ergot, smut, viruses, leaf diseases, and sooty stripe.Due to numerous constraints, seed production and supply for traditional food crops such as sorghum and millet are unstable and often lack continuity. As a result, promotion and adoption of new varieties in Zambia is limited. Statistics on the production and sale of sorghum and pearl millet seed/grain are not readily available (Penninkhoff 1988;Chisi and Muuka 1996). Singh and Jain (1991) estimated national seed requirements at 336-480 tons for sorghum and 295 tons for pearl millet. During 1985-94, area planted to sorghum and millet grew by 0.2 and 13.1% per year, respectively (FAO 1996). Thus, current seed requirements could be higher than this estimate. Also, the estimate was made when only a few improved varieties were available on the market. As new varieties spread and adoption increases, seed demand generally increases (Lof and Nchemba 1994;Maimu et al. 1995;Ericsson and Karlsson 1999).Farmers are increasingly aware of the benefits of improved seed and of differences among cultivars. In particular, farmers value the early maturity, large seed size, and higher grain yields of new varieties.Guidelines for producing quality seed of these varieties have also been developed. The recommendations are similar to best agronomic practices for the respective varieties, although certain additional procedures are suggested, depending on the class of seed.Procedures governing production and sale of seed need to conform to the national seed act. Standards have to be met for different crops and seed classes, and are enforced by licensed personnel affiliated to the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI), which controls the Seed Certification Scheme. Table 1 shows some of the requirements for seed production of sorghum and millet. Usually handled by the breeder, these are the first stages in the chain of seed production. The breeder has strict control, observes isolation distances, inspects the crop, and rogues off-types regularly to maintain genetic purity. Sufficient quantities of seed should be made available by the time a new cultivar is at the pre-release stage. OPV breeder seed is produced under bulk planting, but usually in small plots with wide spacing to allow for maximum expression and roguing. Seed production for a hybrid is highly technical and requires experience. Four isolations are normally maintained as follows: A-line x B-line to increase seed of the male-sterile A-line. Separate isolations are required to increase the B-line and R-line. Finally, hybrid seed is produced by crossing an A-line x R-line. Synchronous flowering of hybrid parents (nicking) is mandatory, as is rigorous rogueing of off-types and pollen shedders in the A-line. Hand pollinations and selfing in the B-and R-lines is possible. Different row ratios of hybrid parents of 4:2 or 6:2 (A-line against the B-or R-line) are used with 4-8 border rows of B/R lines planted all round the field (Chopra et al. 1999). Stagger planting of the B-line is possible but could present problems for the R-line. This category of seed is generated every 3-6 years, either during the normal season or in the off-season, under irrigation.Part of the Nucleus or Breeder seed is used to produce the Basic or Foundation Seed, either by researchers or a few contracted seed growers. Similar guidelines are followed as those for the first class of seed. The seed crop must be inspected at least three times by inspectors affiliated with the SCCI: during the vegetative growth stage, at flowering, and at maturity.Basic seed is used to produce certified seed under a similar planting pattern to Breeder and Foundation seed. For hybrid parents, however, rows of the B-line are replaced by the R-line.Some training is given to seed growers. Training courses are offered to individuals representing groups, organizations institutions. Sometimes field days are conducted to improve awareness of the improved cultivars available and illustrate important aspects of seed production (field selection, planting pattern, weeding, and fertilizer rates, among others).Locations and fields for seed production may differ from those for commercial crop production. Important consideration should be given to growing conditions, length of rainy season, irrigation facilities, humidity during ripening period, temperatures and daylength, protection from strong wind, adequate isolation distance, and the presence of birds, diseases, and insect pests or related wild/cultivated species. The field should be relatively fertile, free from water logging, and with a pH not below 4.5.Sorghum and pearl millet seeds are small. Soil should have fine tilth, and be moist and weed free at the time of planting. Zero tillage is not recommended.Drilling or stations should be done in rows at a depth of 2-3 cm when rains are established, and in such a way that the seed crop matures during a period with minimum precipitation. It is important to know the maturity period of the cultivar.Off-season planting under irrigation is possible, especially in hot valley areas. For hybrid parents, planting should be in such a way that they flower at the same time. Recommended seed rates are 4-6 kg/ha for pearl millet and 8-10 kg/ha for sorghum to achieve plant populations of 60,000-80,000 and 130,000-150,000 respectively. The recommended spacing for pearl millet is 75 cm between rows and 20 cm between hills within a row or 60 x 60 cm. For sorghum, 60-75 cm x 50 cm is recommended, with 4-8 seeds per station, later to be thinned to 2-3 plants per station. It is advisable for a block of farmers to plant the same variety at the same time. Dry planting is not recommended.Fertilizer Rates 200 kg/ha of Compound D as a basal fertilizer and 100 kg/ha of urea as top dressing are recommended. Top dressing can be applied in two splits. Fertilizer applications will differ according to local soil type and fertility.Seed plots are normally weeded 2-3 times using hoes, oxen, or tractor-drawn cultivators to keep fields weed-free at all times. In sorghum a combination of mechanical weeding and pre-emergence Gesaprim herbicide should be applied at 3-4 l/ha. Weeds compete with the seed crop for nutrients, sunlight, and soil moisture. They could also be a reservoir of diseases that contaminate the crop at harvest.Thinning to the recommended spacing and plant population is required before tillers form. Gap filling is not recommended in a commercial seed crop.Part 3:Vegetatively Propagated PlantsCassava and sweet potato are multiplied at three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The scheme has the advantage of facilitating seed distribution. At the primary level, the sites are at or near research stations for easy supervision by scientists. At the secondary level, the sites are established and managed by extension staff, NGOs, religious groups, and some individual farmers. Scientists in root crops programs backstop these sites. Multiplication sites at the tertiary level are mainly farmer managed. They are often smaller in size and more numerous. Extension staff and NGOs usually backstop these.Cassava stems can be multiplied using conventional as well as rapid multiplication techniques. In either case, the primary objective is stem production and not roots.Conventional method. The conventional cassava multiplication method is the easiest and most widely used. However, it has the disadvantage of having a low multiplication ratio (1:10) unlike the rapid multiplication technique (1:60-100). Ideally, a cassava multiplication site should have the following characteristics:• Easy access to beneficiaries.• Must not have been under cassava the previous season, to avoid volunteer plants.• Well drained soils.• Protection from livestock damage.• Away from high-pressure areas for cassava pests and diseases.• Away from other cassava fields: at least 200 m for breeder seed and 100 m for basic and certified seed.Variety. The best varieties to multiply are those demanded by farmers. Farmers usually prefer varieties that are:• High in dry matter content (at least 30 %).• Mealy (ability of the roots to cook without processing).• Early bulking.• Good for in-ground storability-that is, the ability of mature roots to stay in the ground without spoiling. Good storability prolongs the period over which the crop can be harvested. • Tolerant to pests and diseases.• Suitable for their cropping systems (e.g., high branching varieties for intercropping).• Suitable for their mode of consumption. Bitter cassava varieties are preferred where the crop is processed; sweet varieties for the fresh market.Land preparation and planting. Land for cassava multiplication should be prepared early to enable planting with the first rains. Early planting enables the crop to be established while there is still adequate soil moisture. If the site is in the dambos or low-lying areas flooded during the rainy season, planting should be done soon after the water has receded.Planting material. Only good quality planting material should be used. The following guidelines can assist in selection to avoid unhealthy stem cuttings.• Select plants that are mature, about 8 to 18 months old. Such plants will normally have brownskinned stems. Tender portions can be planted, but these easily dehydrate and get damaged by pests and diseases.• The plants should be healthy. Healthy plants have robust stems and branches, lush foliage, and minimum damage from pests and diseases.• Avoid plants with pests and diseases. Many cassava pests and diseases are stem-borne and are spread through distribution and planting of infested or diseased cuttings. The major pests are cassava mealy bug (CM) and cassava green mite (CGM), while the major diseases are cassava mosaic (CMD), cassava bacterial blight (CBB), and cassava brown streak disease (CBSD).• Avoid bruising/wounding stems. Wounds are potential entry sites for pathogens.Planting. Cassava for seed multiplication should be planted at 1.0 m by 0.5 m (20,000 plants/ha) or 0.5 m x 0.5 m (40,000 plants/ha). Stem cuttings should be 20-30 cm long, with 6 to 8 nodes per cutting. Shorter cuttings, 15-20 cm, can be used, but the risk of drying is high under poor soil moisture conditions. Care should be taken to avoid bruises and damage to the buds when planting.Sometimes stem cuttings are slightly infested with CM, CGM and other stem-borne pests. Immersing the stems in heated water (about 60 o C) for 5 to 10 minutes or treating with a 1% solution of Rogor (Dimethoate) can control these pests. Fungal diseases, such as anthracnose, can be controlled using Benlate or Decis. Field management. The major management practices after planting include weeding, fertilizer application and roguing (uprooting disease-infected plants and off-types).• Weeding. The multiplication field should be kept weed free. This is particularly important in the first three months of growth before the canopy fully develops.• Fertilizer application. Where soils are poor, fertilizer should be applied to boost stem growth. In most parts of the region, the best time for application is at or soon after planting so that the crop can make use of the fertilizer before the rains tail off. The amount to be applied depends on soil analysis. However, in Malawi a blanket application of 50 kg N and 40 kg P 2 O 5 /ha is used, in the absence of soil analysis.• Crop hygiene. Crop hygiene is of paramount importance in the production of cassava planting material. Routine field inspections to uproot and destroy disease-infected plants are a must. These should start soon after sprouting and be repeated every fortnight in the first three months of growth and once every month thereafter, if the disease pressure is not very high. The uprooted plants should be destroyed away from the multiplication field by burning or burying.• Roguing. Good planting material should also be true to type, with no mixtures. In field inspections, off-types must be identified and uprooted. In the early stages of sprouting, gaps from uprooting must be filled to achieve full stand.If the field is well managed, the stems become mature 9 to 12 months after planting. Since the objective is stem production, at harvest the plants are not uprooted but cut 20-25 cm above the ground (ratooned). Several shoots sprout from the stumps after ratooning. These should be thinned to 2 or 3 stems per stump, which will mature into stems.Post-harvest management. After ratooning, fertilizers should be applied where possible to boost growth, and the field should be kept free of weeds. Another set of stems can be harvested 9 to 12 months after ratooning. This process can be repeated as many times as possible, as long as there is no build up of diseases. The number of sets of stems that can be harvested depends on variety, soil fertility, and management of weeds, pests, and diseases. However, ratooning is not recommended in high CMD pressure areas.At and after harvesting care should be taken to avoid bruising the stems. Bruised buds may not sprout. The stems should be tied together in bundles. The size of the bundles varies with area but in Nigeria there are usually 50 stems per bundle.Stem storage. Sometimes it is necessary to store stems. Such cases arise when plants are harvested offseason and planting is to be done later or a farmer acquires stems before the field is ready for planting. However, stems can be stored only for a short time-not more than eight weeks-because they dehydrate easily and can be damaged by pests and diseases.Cassava stems can be stored by tying them in bundles and keeping them either upright or horizontally under shade in a well-ventilated area. Where stems are stored vertically, the buds should face upwards and the oldest ends of stems should be inserted into the soil and watered at the base.During storage, avoid exposure to direct sunlight and hot/cold winds. It should be noted that mature and healthy stems store better than immature ones and long stems store better than short ones.The term 'multiplication ratio' refers to the increase in planting material over what is planted. When planted, a 25-30 cm cassava stem cutting yields about 10 cuttings 12 months later, giving a multiplication ratio of 1:10. In contrast, a maize ear may give up to 300 seeds, which is a much higher multiplication ratio (1:300) than that of cassava.Rapid multiplication overcomes the handicap of low multiplication ratios in vegetatively propagated crops like cassava for the benefit of germplasm evaluation, distribution, and seed multiplication. The technique involves rapid increases in the quantities of planting material from what is available (1:60-100).Preparation of mini-stem cuttings. Whole stems are cut into mini-stems: hard woods (older parts, 1 or 2 nodes), semi-hard woods (semi-mature parts, 4-6 nodes), and tip shoots (green and tender parts, 6-10 nodes). The number of nodes per mini-stem depends on internode length, stem diameter, and weather at and after planting. Tip shoots should be stripped of all leaves except the youngest and kept in water to prevent dehydration. Care must be taken not to damage the axillary buds. Sharp tools (shears, secatuers, or knives) must be used in cutting the stems.Sprouting/Planting the mini-stems. Mini-stems can be directly sprouted or planted in nursery beds or strong plastic bags.Sprouting in the nursery. Nurseries should be near a water source and on well-draining soils. Beds should be 1 to 1.2 m wide, to enable easy working at the center of the beds, and of any length, depending on the amount of seed to be produced. The mini-stems should be planted at 10 cm x 10 cm.Hard woods should be planted horizontally, 4-5 cm deep to avoid being uncovered during when watering. Plant cuttings so that the nodes are on the left and right sides of the stems and not one on top of the other as shoots from below have difficulties in emerging.Semi-hard woods and tip-shoots should be planted vertically with two thirds of the older portion firmed in the soil. The shoots are sensitive to low humidity and should be watered lightly, three times a day.After planting, the nursery should be watered immediately and thereafter every morning and evening, except when it has rained; too much water may cause rotting of the mini-stems. The beds should be provided with labels indicating variety and date of planting. The nursery should be kept weed-free by hand pulling. The mini-stems will take 7-10 days to sprout. After 4-6 weeks in the nursery, the seedlings should be transplanted to the field. One to two weeks before transplanting, the seedlings must be hardened by reducing the amount and frequency of watering. However, a day before transplanting the beds must be heavily watered to enable easy transplanting.Sprouting in polythene bags. Sprouting in nursery beds, though commonly used, has several disadvantages. It requires 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting, is labor demanding, and soil may contain soil-borne diseases. On the other hand, sprouting the mini-stems in polythene bags without soil is quick, cheap, and convenient. However, the method is suitable only for hardwood and semi-mature mini-stems. Tip shoots, which are tender, do not usually survive the high temperatures in the bags.Before bagging, the mini-stems should be immersed in a broad-spectrum fungicide such as Benlate (Benomyl). The mini-stems should then be directly placed into the perforated bags, leaving about a third of the space empty for air circulation. The bags should then be kept under shade.High humidity and temperature in the polythene bags promote rapid and uniform sprouting. Cuttings sprout in 3 to 5 days. Sprouted mini-stem cuttings sprout well in the field.Transplanting and field management. Care should be taken at transplanting to avoid root damage. The seedlings should be transplanted into a well-prepared field at 1.0 m by 0.5 m or 0.5 x 0.5 m spacing. At this spacing, weeds are suppressed due to early foliage cover. The plots must be labeled indicating variety, date of planting, and area of each variety.• Vines for planting should come from actively growing and disease-free plants. The vines can be:-Shoot tip cuttings: These are the best parts for propagation as the meristematic cells are still actively dividing and hence grow faster and more vigorously. The tips should be 10-15 cm long. These should be planted vertically with two-thirds of the vines inserted in soil. -Three to four node cuttings: These are mostly used when there is inadequate planting material from the shoot tips. These are also planted vertically, with two-thirds of the cutting inserted into the soil. -Two-node cuttings: Two-node cuttings usually have 1 or 2 leaves intact. The leaves initiate photosynthetic activity before other leaves are formed. Two-node cuttings are also planted vertically, with one node in soil. However, these require high humidity and this is provided by covering the beds with plastic sheeting subtended 80 cm over the beds. The sheeting is removed once 80% of the cuttings have sprouted.Water the beds before planting and plant the cuttings vertically, at 10 cm x 10 cm, with leaves outside the soil. After planting, water the plants.Although tubers can also be planted they are not commonly used as seed as they can also be consumed and take longer to sprout than vine cuttings. Hence, the use of node cuttings is preferred.Nursery management. The major management practices for sweet potato multiplication nurseries are watering, weeding, fertilizer application and rouging.Watering is a must. The seedbed should be regularly watered, in the morning and evening, and should not be left to dry, especially in the first five days of planting.It is important to keep sweet potato nurseries weed free, especially in the first four weeks of growth. Once the crop has grown and covered the ground, weeds may not be a problem and weeding may be limited only to hand pulling. Care should be taken not to damage the roots when weeding.Where necessary, nitrogen fertilizer (50 kg N /ha) should be applied to boost growth, but too much fertilizer can cause rankness (tenderness of vines), which results in weak vines. Ideally, fertilizer applications should be based on soil analysis.Crop hygiene is a must in sweet potato vine multiplication. All plants infected with viral diseases must be uprooted and destroyed by burying or burning away from the field. Similarly, all mixtures (off-types) must be uprooted and destroyed to maintain seed purity.The beds should be marked with labels indicating variety and date of planting.Harvesting. As soon as the vines are long enough-usually two to three months after plantingharvesting can be done for either further multiplication or commercial production. Harvesting is done by ratooning at 10 to 15 cm above ground. Sharp tools should be used for cutting. Cutting of tips will promote side growth, as the apical dominance will be removed. This will give rise to more vines. With good management, two to three vine harvests can be done within a rainy season, as long as the plants are healthy and free from viral diseases and SPW.It is important to change the sweet potato nursery sites every two years to avoid build-up of the SPW.Vine storage. Planting of sweet potato vines should be done preferably soon after cutting the vines. This may not always be possible, as the field may be not ready, but vine cuttings cannot be kept in good condition for more than two weeks.In storage it is recommended to remove most of the leaves to preserve the food reserves in the vines, leaving only a few at the tip. The cuttings should be tied in bundles with their bases covered with a wet cloth and kept in a cool area under shade.• Lack of interest on the part of commercial seed multipliers.• Inadequate isolation. The isolation distance is rarely respected, especially by farmers, due to land constraints. With cassava varieties susceptible to pests and diseases, this makes it hard to produce good quality planting material. • Failure to rogue. Farmers are usually reluctant to uproot disease-infected plants. This is partly due to ignorance: some view diseased plants as different varieties. Similarly, farmers are not keen to uproot off-types, so the purity of seed is compromised.• Lack of financial resources. Seed multiplication is an expensive exercise, especially in the area of seed, fertilizer, and nursery security.• Theft, especially for sweet cassava varieties.• Lack of seed certification. Until recently, seed certification in some countries did not cover cassava and sweet potato, and this led to led to selling and distributing disease-infected material and off-types.• Poor supervision. This is a common problem in extension and is due to lack of knowledge concerning the management of multiplication nurseries on the part of extension staff, along with a scarcity of resources for supervision.Part 4:Groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) is a very important crop. The seeds contain approximately 25% digestible protein and 50% edible oils. Groundnut haulms and cake are valuable in livestock feed. Groundnut is therefore an important component of both rural and urban diets. It is widely grown and used for food and to generate income, particularly by women farmers. Groundnut is consumed in various ways: roasted pods/kernels, boiled fresh nuts, peanut butter, and in traditional dishes as a sauce and oil. When grown in rotation with cereals such as maize, groundnut improves soil fertility.Development of groundnut production technologies is the mandate of many ministries of agriculture. Varieties developed for commercial production include CG 7, ICGV-SM 90704 (Nsinjiro), JL 24 (Kakoma), and IGC 12991 (Baka). The earlier releases include Chalimbana, Chitembana, Mawanga, Mani Pintar and RG 1.Although improved cultivars and management practices have been developed and recommended to farmers, groundnut yields in Malawi are still very low, ranging from 250-800 kg/ha (Table 1). The market liberalization program introduced in the 1980s saw private traders purchasing substantial amounts of groundnuts, leaving very little to recycle for seed. The situation was compounded by the recurrent droughts in 1991-92 and 1994-95. National average yields started improving after improved varieties were introduced into farming communities through Action Group II of the Maize Productivity Task Force  and the DARTS-ICRISAT-USAID Groundnut andPigeonpea Projects (1999-2002). This demonstrates that, although droughts, low producer prices, low soil fertility, poor cultural practices, and predominant pests and diseases are culprits for low groundnut productivity, lack of seed of improved varieties remains a major constraint. Continued use of recycled or unimproved groundnut seed is probably the most important factor contributing to the low productivity of the crop. On the other hand commercial seed companies prefer hybrid crop varieties to self-pollinators like groundnuts, because hybrid seed materials need to be replenished each season. The ability of farmers to save their own groundnut seed hinders the development of commercial seed enterprises.The Groundnut Improvement Program in partnership with ICRISAT-Lilongwe therefore has the mandate to produce breeder's and basic seed of improved varieties each year. This seed is multiplied in several ways. Breeder's seed is produced at research station farms under direct supervision of the breeders and the Seed Technology Unit, to ensure varietal purity. Breeder's seed is used to produce basic seed, which is further multiplied into certified seed. Seed production requires high standards of management. Besides the recommended cultural practices, the grower is bound to observe stipulated seed production guidelines and standards (Table 2).Weeds cause severe damage to the groundnut crop during the first 45 days of its growth. Weeding at least twice during this critical period is imperative; i.e., at 20 and 50 days after sowing. Thorough weed control is very important before pegging. During pegging, only hand weeding should be done, to avoid damage to developing pods.Groundnuts do not usually respond to direct application of mineral fertilizers. Generally, groundnuts do very well following a well fertilized maize crop, so long as phosphorus, calcium, and sulphur-containing fertilizers like CAN, 23-21+4S were applied. Calcium is the most limiting nutrient in sandy soils and where large-seeded varieties, such as Chalimbana, are grown. An application of 100 kg/ha of single superphosphate (SSP) fertilizer is recommended to provide 7% phosphorus, 19.5% calcium, and 12.5% sulphur. The fertilizer should be applied in a band on the ridge or broadcasted onto the soil and plowed under before sowing.Harvest at the correct time. Check by lifting a few pods and examining the inside of the shell. The nuts are mature when the inside of the shell is spotted pale brown. If 75% of sampled plants show dark colour inside the shell, then the groundnuts are mature and ready for harvesting. The fall of leaves is not necessarily a sign of maturity. Timely harvesting of groundnuts is essential to avoid discolouration of nuts, germination, and pods remaining in the ground being contaminated with aflatoxin.After lifting, the groundnut should be quickly and thoroughly dried before storage. Store groundnuts in dry containers. Storage under wet conditions will enhance the development of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, which leads to aflatoxin contamination. Store groundnuts in pods. Bag the groundnuts and stack them on wooden planks or poles to avoid damage from dampness from the wall and the floor.It is bad practice to wet pods to make shelling easier, since wet nuts are not accepted at the market. After shelling, the nuts should be graded carefully. All mouldy nuts should be discarded and not fed to livestock. Shrivelled and broken nuts should be separated. Only clean whole nuts will fetch a premium price at the market.It is advisable to use new bags or packages to avoid contamination. The packages/bags should be well labelled, indicating the crop, variety, weight, and year of production.Further dry the bean seed in the sun to <13% moisture. Sort the seed to remove cracked, split and shrivelled seeds. Test the moisture content using the salt method. Fill 25% of a jam jar with salt. Top it up with bean seed. Close the jar and shake it to mix salt and the seed. Leave to settle for 10 minutes. Check the salt, with your fingers. If it is moist, then beans need further drying. Make sure that the seed is of good germination percentage before you go ahead to treat and store it. Good fresh seed should have at least 90% germination. Treat well dried good seed with treated with Super Actellic liquid formula to prevent weevil damage and Thiram or Malathion against fungi. Coat the seed with a dye to distinguish it from grain.Pack seed in clean poly-sack bags. Store seed in bags stacked on a platform (pallets) to keep them off the ground. The stack should be at least 1 m away from the wall. Keep the room cool, dry, well ventilated and protected from rodents. Phostoxin tablets may be used to protect seed from storage pests in the warehouse.After variety development, the next step is to release the cultivar. In Malawi, the Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee (ATCC) is empowered to review the proposal for release of any technology. There are guidelines and rules governing if an application is to be approved (Saka et al. 2002). For example, for a variety to be released it has to be tested multi-locationally for at least three years.Once a variety has been approved by the committee, issues of awareness and availability of seed stocks to farmers are of paramount importance. However, in the absence of proper planning, breeders are very often caught unawares with a high demand for seed of the newly released varieties.Groundnut is a self pollinating crop. It is not highly preferred by commercial seed companies, because farmers can recycle the seed for many seasons without experiencing a significant drop in their yields, as would occur in open pollinated crops such as maize. In Malawi, attempts to ensure availability of groundnut seed at the village level take the following forms.Recently, with assistance from donors, seed growers have organized themselves in grass-roots groups, such as the Association of Seed Marketing Action Group (ASMAG) in Malawi. Each ASMAG is affiliated with a national body known as the Association of Smallholder Seed Marketing Action Group. The national body coordinates seed marketing-related issues of all the member groups. So far the program looks very promising.Until recently, there was very little groundnut seed produced from commercial enterprises in Malawi. During 2000-2002 commercial farmers were contracted to produce groundnut and pigeonpea through the ICRISAT-DARTS-USAID Groundnut and Pigeonpea Project. Commercial seed companies now show interest in producing groundnut seed.Part 5:Local seed business enterprises should be seen in the context of enhancing linkages among researchdevelopment continuum stakeholders. These stakeholders include national agricultural research systems and extension service providers (national policy makers and local levels), seed producers and suppliers (local seed producers, seed companies and traders), farmers and their organizations, and the food market. Local seed businesses focus on making seed of improved varieties accessible to remote farmers with low purchasing power, as well as engaging them in a continuous feedback loop to shape research priorities. Business is a set of activities conducted to earn a profit by providing a service or a product. General business goals and strategies include reducing costs, reducing risks, and maximizing profits. Bean seed businesses are intended to put more money in farmers' pockets. There are four critical principles in seed businesses:• Improved inputs and practices lead to increased productivity and, ultimately, profits.• Profits are also increased through better management and informed decision-making and records keeping.• Efficiency (and profits) are increased through farmer-to-farmer associations.• Savings are more profitable inputs than credit.Business opportunity is found in buyers' needs and interests; specifically, where there is a high probability that a company/individual can profit by satisfying those needs and interests. Bean seed needs/demands can be put in the following categories:• Bean seed demand due to seed shortages at planting. There is a regular seed demand as result of inadequate seed stocks. It is very common for most resource-poor farmers to run short of bean seed. There is also an irregular demand due to acute seed stress situations, such as drought or floods.• Demand for new bean varieties to respond to emerging bean grain markets, such as sugar bean, or to increase the genetic pool.• Improved bean varieties with improved seed quality to increase productivity and profits.A marketing study by CIAT and the Uganda National Bean Program in four Uganda districts during 1993-1994 to introduce new bean varieties using various seed outlets is summarized in Table 1. The right skills, experiences, and resources are required to start a seed business. Seed producers must:• Be hard working.• Be adequately organized.• Be able to make decisions and take risks.• Have good business sense and financial knowledge.One must select seed varieties and the type of seed supply based on adequate market research. A seed business works best for bean varieties that have a high or moderate seed demand. Market research should be conducted before starting a seed business and every 3-4 years to update the customers' bean seed needs. A sound business is based on accurate information about the market. To make profit from bean selling seeds, bean seed producers:• Should grow seed efficiently to lower production costs and maximise profit.• Must plant high yielding varieties in fertile soils and manage fields well.• Must set seed prices at a level that allows a profit but that is affordable for farmers.Bean seed producers should promote seed by: • Making efforts to increase bean seed demand, thus expanding the market.• Looking for new customers and changing varieties regularly.• Convincing customers of the superior quality of the seed and through attractive, relevant packaging and labeling. • Offering good, friendly service.• Maintaining a reputation for high quality seed.","tokenCount":"15757"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d0c27cae27599d5a3358dad0650c3a6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26dd757d-198e-4a1e-9eb2-1ed99e85d313/retrieve","id":"-1761259299"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6a090c88-f076-4cc7-a10b-5bfb0ea3f070","pagecount":"7","content":"Previous chapters have reviewed many bean viruses transmitted by insect vectors such as aphids, beetles and whiteflies. Other bean viruses also are known to be transmitted by these vectors, or by other insects, such as thrips and leafboppers. Sorne bean viruses are not known to be transmitted by any insect vector. This chapter will review briefly sorne miscellaneous virus diseases of Phaseo/us vu/garis.Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) is an aphid-transmitted virus that was initially detected on beans in the United States (31). AMV consists of various strains including yellow dot, alfalfa yellow mosaic (31), vein necrosis (30) and spot mosaic (29). N one of these strains of AMV has been reported to be economically important ( 31).AMV was known previously as Lucerne mosaic virus, Alfalfa virus 1, Alfalfa virus 2, Medicagovirus 2, and Marmor medicaginis Holmes (7,31 ). Alfalfa mosaic virus has not been studied on beans in Latín America, but AMV and its strains ha ve the Spanish na mes of mosaico de la alfalfa, punto amarillo, mosaico amarillo de la alfalfa, necrosis venal, mosaico de la mancha and calico.AMV and its strains may produce a light systemic mottling, an intense chlorotic mottling of lea ves, necrosis of lea ves or stems, and dieback ofthe growing point. H owever, the most common symptom consists only of local necrotic Iesions which may h ave a diameter of 0.5-3.0 mm (31).AMV is easily transmitted mechanically and by aphids ( 17). lt is not reported to be transmitted in bean seed, but is transmitted in seed of a lfalfa (6%) and pepper( 1-5%). AMV particles are bacilliform in shape, ha ve three different lengths and contain RNA (7).Since AMV is not an economically important virus disease of beans, little research has been conducted with control measures. However, sorne differences have been observed in the frequency of locallesions produced on specific bean cultivars (16). Susceptibility is also correlated with plant age, ability of the virus to induce locallesions or systemic infection, and temperatures during the pre-and post-inoculation period (3,6,14,19,28).Curly top of beans is transmitted by the beet leafhopper, Circulifer tenellus (Baker). This virus can cause economic losses to beans and other cultivated crops, such as beets (Beta vu/garis L.), in the United S tates and Ca nada ( 4,31 ). Curly top has been called Ruga verrucosous Cars.& Bennett, and reportedly contains 10 strains which differ for their virulence (31 ). The common na me of curly top in Latin Ame rica is ápice rizado de la remolacha.lnfected young bean plants commonly exhibit trifoliate leaf symptoms of puckering, downward curling, yellowing and death. Primary leaves of infected plants may be thicker and more brittle than those of uninfected plants. The initial symptoms of curly top may resemble those induced by bean common mosaic virus (31). Leaf curling and yellowing also may resemble damage induced by green leafhopper (Empoasca spp.) feeding.Virus particles of curly top are geminate, have a sedimentation coefficient of 82 S and a 20% nucleic acid content (20,22).Control measures consist of resistant cultivars. This resistance is temperature-sensitive in sorne bean cultivars since it can be destroyed at high temperatures, regardless of plant age at the time of inoculation (25). Silbernagel (24) reports that the breeding lines, ARS-6BP-5 and ARS-5BP-7, are highly resistant to the curly top virus.Bean summer death is reported to occur in New South Wales, Australia ( 1, 2, 8). The disease agent is transmitted by the brown leafhopper, Orosius argentatus, which also is known to transmit various mycoplasma-like pathogens of beans and other legumes (refer to Chapter 1 1). Beansummer death was originally suspected to have a mycoplasma-like etiology, but Bowyer and Atherton (8) claim that the causal agent is nota mycoplasma but is similar in sorne respects to curly top.The host range of bean summer death includes Phaseolus vulgaris, Datura stramonium, Beta vulgaris var. vulgaris, B. vulgaris var. cicla and Callistephus chinensis (8). The Spanish name for bean summer death is muerte de verano del fríjol.The symptomatology of this disease consists of yellowing and subsequent death of beans, commonly following a period of high temperature ( 1,2). The insect vector has a mínimum latent period of 24-48 hours and remains infective for at least 21 days after acquisition of the causal agent during the nymphal or adult stage.Little research has been conducted into control measures. H owever, Ballantyne et al. (2) report that various materials resistant to curly top in the United States also were resistant to bean summer death in Australia. Additional research is required to identify resistant cultivars and to fully characterize the agent responsible for bean summer death.Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is reported to occur in Brazil and Canada on various plant species. It is not reported to cause serious economic damage to beans. However, it can affect other legumes, tomatoes, tobacco, pineapple and ornamental plants. The virus is transmitted mechanícally in tomato seed and by various types of thrips, such as Thrips tabaci, Frankliniella schultzei, F. fusca, F. paucispinosa and F. occidenta/is (9,1 O, 11, 23).Tomato spotted wilt virus also is known as Kromnek virus, Lycopersicum virus 3, Pineapple yellow spot virus, tomato bronze leaf virus and vira <a beca virus. It is commonly referred toas marchitamiento manchado del tomate in Latin America. Kitajima et al. (18) reported that particles of the virus were partially isometric, apparently surrounded by a membrane, contain RNA, and meas u re 80-120 nm in diameter. TS WV was the first plant virus reported to contain lipids (27). lts identification and characterization are reported by Best (5) and le (15).Red node has been reported to occur in the United States (31) but rarely in Latin America {11 , 26). This viral disease is reported to be related to tobacco streak virus (31). The common Latin American names ofred node and tobacco streak virus are nudo rojo and mosaico rayado del tabaco, respectively.Symptoms include a reddish disco1or:ation at the nodes of stems and pu1vini of 1eaves, as well as reddish concentric rings on pods. Pods may be shrive1ed and not produce seed. P1ants a1so may be stunted or killed (31 ).The virus is transmitted mechanically and in bean seed ( 12,31). Thereare no reports of insect vectors. The virus particles are isometric, measure 28 nm in diameter, contain three to four nucleoproteins, and have a sedimentation coefficient between 90-123 S (21).The virus may be controlled by production of clean seed and use of resistant cultivars such as Kentucky Wonder No. 780 and Kentucky Wonder Brown No. 814 (31).Many other viruses are repo rted to infect beans, but primarily only under controlled conditions in the laborato ry or glasshouse ( 13,31 ). A few examples of these viruses are clover blotch, clover (red) necrotic mosaic, cowpea aphid-borne mosaic, adzuki bean mosaic, pea dwarf mosaic, clover yellow bean, and Desmodium yellow mottle. Little if any information is reported concerning the natural occurrence of these minor bean viruses.","tokenCount":"1146"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1b252e7b2eddd197d24f5291437b23a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b3e629de-d3b9-4d72-ab95-9bb87184163e/retrieve","id":"53476641"},"keywords":["allometry","biomass","bunch","Cavendish","forecasting","regression","Musa spp.","moisture stress","East African Highland Banana"],"sieverID":"da187713-b18b-4fbb-8301-100e9dc2daba","pagecount":"26","content":"The largest abiotic constraint threatening banana (Musa spp.) production is water stress, impacting biomass buildup and yields; however, so far no studies have investigated the effects of water stress on allometric equations in banana. Weighted least square regression models were built for (i) estimating aboveground vegetative dry biomass (ABGVD) and corm dry biomass (cormD) and (ii) forecasting bunch fresh weight (bunchF), based on non-destructive parameters for two cultivars, Mchare Huti-Green Bell (HG, AA) and Cavendish Grande Naine (GN, AAA), under two irrigation regimes: full irrigation (FI) and rainfed (RF). FI affected growth, yield, and phenological parameters in the field (p < 0.05) depending on the onset of moisture stress. Pseudostem volume (Vpseudo) proved a good predictor for estimating ABGVD (R²adj = 0.88-0.92; RRMSE = 0.14-0.19), but suboptimal for cormD (R²adj = 0.90-0.89, RRMSE = 0.21-0.26 for HG; R²adj = 0.34-0.57, RRMSE = 0.38-0.43 for GN). Differences between RF and FI models (p < 0.05) were small as 95%CI overlapped. Vpseudo at flowering predicted bunchF in FI plots correctly (R²adj = 0.70 for HG, R²adj = 0.43 for GN; RRMSE = 0.12-0.15 for HG and GN). Differences between FI and RF models were pronounced as 95%CI did not overlap (p < 0.05). Bunch allometry was affected by irrigation, proving bunchF forecasting needs to include information on moisture stress during bunch filling or information on bunch parameters. Our allometric relationships can be used for rapid and non-destructive aboveground vegetative biomass (ABGVD) assessment over time and to forecast bunch potentials based on Vpseudo at flowering.Banana (Musa spp.), the most important fruit worldwide [1], is a long cycle crop with a vegetative phase between 7-13 months depending on environmental conditions, such as water and nutrients [2]. For most of the plant's life, it develops without a bunch. Bunch biomass is linked to biomass buildup during the vegetative phase (aboveground: pseudostem, petioles and leaves, and belowground: corm) [3], as assimilates are translocated from within the banana mat to the bunch after bunch emergence [2,4,5]. Monitoring vegetative biomass enables the following of growth over time and, due to its link with yields, can provide an indicator of future yields.Monitoring biomass over time can be done by destructive whole-plant sampling, but it is more practical to quantify the biomass during the growth cycle or to forecast the yield from non-destructive observations using allometric relationships. Destructive sampling is very labor intensive, time consuming, and provides only one sampling point for one plant. To capture biomass over time, plants need to be sampled periodically, requiring lots of plants and space. Sampling plants before they are harvest ready also stands in the way of quantifying bunch weights.Allometric relationships specify how growth and size in plants or plant components is related to their allocated biomass [6,7]. Parameters can be vegetative characteristics (e.g., pseudostem girth at base) [3,5,[8][9][10][11], bunch components (e.g., number of hands, fingers, finger volume) [12,13] or phenological observations (e.g., days to flowering, days to harvest). Vegetative parameters that are well connected to biomass, and/or parameters that are connected to future yields and allow bunch weight 'forecasting', are of significant interest. Measuring such parameters in the field is much faster than destructive sampling, and leaves fields intact. Allometric equations are useful for periodic biomass monitoring in the field [9] which is needed to calibrate and further improve computer crop simulation models [5,14,15]. Crop models can be used (among others) to analyze management interventions under different environments, to mitigate and adapt crop production to climate change [12,16,17] and for economic analysis to manage financial decisions (e.g., manpower and cost of agricultural inputs as irrigation) [15]. As allometric relationships are the foundation of such models, correct relationships are of crucial importance.Allometric relationships were previously developed for a limited number of banana cultivars for both vegetative and bunch biomass estimation. Nyombi et al. [5] developed allometric relationships for both biomass and bunch weight estimation for two East African highland banana (EAHB) cultivars (Mbwazirume and Kisansa) with data from two locations under various nutrient regimes. Their models followed a power function using girth and height of pseudostem as predictors, whereby covariates included banana phenological stages (vegetative, flowering, and harvest). Plants were irrigated, but with unspecified amounts of water, and fresh bunch weights ranged from 20-40 kg plant −1 , indicating stressed conditions. Pooling data across cultivars and growth stages lead to a high R² (>0.7) but increased the variance in biomass estimations. Model performance increased when data were partitioned between growth stages, indicating that allometric relationships vary with the growth stage. Yamaguchi and Araki [10] estimated biomass components using linear regression models based on pseudostem volume (Vpseudo) for EAHB cultivars from farmers' fields. Models had good fits (R² = 0.93) but the plant sample was small (n = 14) and stress could not be excluded as plants were rainfed. Negash et al. [8] estimated biomass based on pseudostem diameter and height in Enset (Ensete ventricosum), another genus of the Musaceae. Models performed well for total biomass estimation (R² > 0.89), but plants came from rainfed farmers' fields without information on potential stresses.Allometric models for bunch weight estimation were previously created, but these include parameters that change until harvest so cannot be used in forecasting bunch weights. Soares et al. [12] estimated bunch weights using multiple linear regression and neural networks for an AAAB tetraploid hybrid. Models were accurate (R² > 0.71), but predictors included variables that can only be measured in a destructive manner at harvest (e.g., average fruit weight at harvest). Woomer et al. [13] estimated bunch weights for a rainfed EAHB cv. Mbwazirume based on estimated bunch volume through linear regression (R² = 0.85-0.94), but as bunch volume changes until harvest [2], yields were not forecasted and no information on potential stress was given. Wairegi et al. [9] quantified bunch weights of 39 triploid EAHB cultivars from 179 farms in Uganda, whereby multiple linear regression models used pseudostem girth at base and height at 1 m, number of hands, and number of fingers in the lower row of the second hand as predictors. Data partitioning along cultivars, developmental stages, and regions improved model accuracy but differences were not significantly different compared to the pooled dataset. Plants were rainfed and given the wide range of bunch weights in this study (2-60 kg plant −1 ) stress from multiple sources was presumed, but its effect on allometry was not analyzed.The major constraint in all previously developed allometric models is that fields were not growing under optimal conditions as they were stressed by inadequate amounts of water and/or nutrients. Water (excess and deficit) is the most limiting abiotic constraint to banana production [18]. Suboptimal rainfall may lead to significant reduction in vegetative parameters (e.g., pseudostem height, girth), bunch components (number of hands, number of fingers, individual finger weight, fruit filling) [19], and may delay phenological events as flowering or harvest [20,21]. Parameters underlying allometric models are often impacted by moisture, but the overall effect on the relationship between a parameter and allocated biomass due to soil moisture is not specified in earlier allometric models. Their general use and applicability can be questioned. Similar genotypes may lead to different biomass allocation patterns and phenotypes under different biotic and abiotic environments [22], and banana has shown dry matter allocation plasticity due to drought and soil nutrients [23] and plant density [24]. Furthermore, due to the large phenotypic and or genetic differences between banana cultivars, allometric models can differ between cultivars [5,9].So far, no research has compared allometric models between differently irrigated plants in the same field. As allometric models relate growth and size, which are affected by soil moisture, to accumulated biomass, we are interested to check whether allometric relationships remain similar under different soil moisture regimes.The objective of this research was three-fold: Firstly, to assess the effect of soil moisture on growth parameters, phenology and growth rates using two distinctly different cultivars: the EAHB cv. Mchare-Huti Green Bell (AA), a diploid, and the Cavendish-Grande Naine (AAA), a triploid of immense commercial appeal.Secondly, to use easily observable plant growth parameters to establish allometric relationships in both cultivars for (i) vegetative biomass estimation (aboveground: pseudostem, petioles, and leaves and belowground: corm) to allow monitoring vegetative biomass production over time, and (ii) bunch weight forecasting to allow quantifying bunch weights before harvest.Thirdly, to compare these allometric relationships across water regimes for both cultivars to assess whether banana plasticity under drought results in significant different relationships. As drought readily affects vegetative parameters, yield, and phenology [2,18,22], we hypothesize drought to significantly influence allometric relationships of both vegetative biomass estimation and bunch weight forecasting.Experiments were established in fields of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha, Tanzania (3°23′58″ S, 36°47′48″ E) at an altitude of 1188 m asl as described in detail in Stevens et al. [25]. Soils are Endocalcic Phaeozems (Geoabruptic, Clayic, Humic) [26], moderately shallow to deep (90-120 cm) with a silty clay loam to silty clay texture. The climate is a tropical highland climate with a moderately cool thermal zone. Rainfall follows a bimodal yearly pattern with a long rainy season extending from late March to early June and a shorter rainy season from October to December, although rainfall is variable from year to year [25,27].Total precipitation received during the experiment was about 903 mm year −1 for HG, and 913 mm year −1 for GN, lower than those for optimal banana production (1100-2650 mm year −1 ) and not evenly spread (dry spells of more than two months) (Figure 1a) implying the need for irrigation [19,28,29]. Two experiments were carried out differing in cultivar and date of planting over the course of two full crop cycles (until harvest of C2). Planting material was provided by IITA, Arusha, Tanzania and Crop Bioscience Solutions Ltd, Arusha, Tanzania. In experiment 1, the EAHB Huti Green Bell (HG, Musa AA Mchare subgroup) was planted on 3 May 2017. In experiment 2, Grande Naine (GN, Musa AAA Cavendish subgroup) was planted on 17 November 2017. The diploid HG is characterized by a slender tall pseudostem, with erect foliage and a bunch that bears fruits with marked ridges [30]. The triploid GN is characterized by a short, thick pseudostem, with semi-drooping foliage and producing almost round fingers [31]. Both cultivars are of significantly different phenotypical constitution. Planting material for both experiments consisted of in vitro plants, hardened in growth chambers and screen houses. Plant spacing was 2 m (row) × 3 m (line) leading to 1666 plants ha −1 .The design was a blocked design with drip irrigation as treatment but given the infrastructure the irrigation treatments could not be randomized (Figure S1). In experiment 1, two blocks were planted with HG. Each block contained five rows of 15 mats, subdivided in three plots of 25 mats (5 × 5), of which the central nine mats (3 × 3) were used for continuous data collection. Each block consisted of a different irrigation treatment. For HG, there were three plots for each treatment. Border mats were used for periodic destructive sampling. In experiment 2, four blocks were planted with GN. Each block contained five rows of 14 mats, subdivided in two plots of 35 mats (7 × 5), receiving two different irrigation treatments. The central nine mats (3 × 3) in each plot were used for continuous growth data collection, leading to four replications (plots) per treatment. The first and last two mats of each row (2 × 5 mats) together with the border rows were used for periodic destructive sampling. Each treatment was replicated four times across the blocks.All mats received irrigation for the first four months post-transplant (establishment period, four MAP). Thereafter, two irrigation treatments were applied: optimal 'full' irrigation (FI) and rainfed (RF), based on volumetric water contents in the root zone (as determined by Time Domain Reflectometry) (Figure 1b). In the FI treatment, mats received water whenever more than 25% of total available water in the root zone was depleted. No supplemental irrigation was provided in RF treatments after the initial four month establishment period, leading to divergence of soil moisture between RF and FI in HG and GN closely following the dry seasons (Figure 1a,b). In HG, soil moisture first became significantly different at 23 weeks after planting (WAP) (October 2017) until 45 WAP (March 2018) during the vegetative stage of C1, followed by a rainy season after which they diverged again from 55 WAP (May 2018). In GN, RF plots became significantly more depleted from 27 WAP onwards (May 2018), close to the onset of flower emergence of C1 [25], therefore in GN most of the vegetative growth of C1 occurred under similar soil moisture in RF and FI plots.Irrigation and precipitation combined, FI plots received approx. 3100 mm (HG) and 4003 mm (GN) over the entire growing season (until harvest of C2), compared to RF plots which received 1916 mm (HG) and 2549 mm (GN). FI plots received approx. 1522 mm year −1 (HG) and 2000 mm year −1 (GN). RF plots received approx. 935 mm year −1 (HG) and 1297 mm year −1 (GN). For a more detailed explanation on the onset of moisture stress and its effect on leaf formation and canopy cover in these fields, the reader is referred to Stevens et al. [25].Mats received an optimal mixture of mineral fertilizers and manure, to exclude nutrient stresses [32]. Mineral fertilizers were split applied: 153 kg N ha −1 year −1 (urea), 206 kg K ha −1 year −1 (Muriate of potash), 19.26 kg Mg ha −1 year −1 , and 25.6 kg S ha −1 year −1 (MgSO4) were applied monthly in the rainy season and every two months in the dry season, while 40.2 kg P ha −1 year −1 (triple super phosphate) was applied every five months. Twenty L of fresh farmyard cow manure was applied per mat twice yearly before the start of the rainy season.All suckers were allowed to grow until four MAP after which suckers were selected for C2 (Figure S2). Afterwards, suckers were pruned on a monthly basis until bunch filling of C1, when a sucker for C3 was chosen. Maximally, three generations were allowed to grow at any time. Weeds and dead leaves were cut monthly and removed from the field. No pests were present in the field.No disease control was applied, except for Black Sigatoka (Pseudocercospora fijiensis) in the wet season, when moderately infected leaves were pruned to avoid further spread of this fungus [25].Growth data included periodic non-destructive growth data and destructive data (Table 1). Non-destructive growth data were measured monthly at the plot level (3 × 3 mats), on all individual plant cycles (cycle 1, C1; cycle 2, C2 and cycle 3, C3) present on the mat until harvest of C2 (Table 1). The main plant is the oldest plant on a mat, whereby ratoon plants (sucker) are new selected shoots springing from the base of the plant. To address multicollinearity, measured parameters were recombined into new parameters as pseudostem volume (Vpseudo), leaf area index (LAI), Vfinger, and Ratiofinger (Table 1).Leaf areas were estimated by measuring leaf length, leaf width, and using an experimentally determined leaf area factor (laf) as explained by Stevens et al. [30]. LAI was determined by summing the area of all the leaves on a banana plant and dividing it by the ground area for each mat.Phenological events as days to flowering (DTF) and days to harvest (DTH) were noted for each plant on a mat. As C3 has not fully flowered and harvested, phenological events were only presented for C1 and C2 (Table 2). For C1, the DTF and DTH were determined from planting. For C2, the DTF and DTH were determined from the moment of sucker selection until flowering and harvest. Flower cycle duration (FCD) notes the duration in days between flower emergence of C1 and C2 (successive cycles) on the same mat, and harvest cycle duration (HCD) notes the duration in days between successive harvest of C1 and C2 on the same mat.The pseudostem volume at flower emergence (Vpseudo, Flower) and the LAI at flower emergence (LAIFlower) were interpolated for flowering dates through local non-parametric regression (loess) on the Vpseudo and LAI data collected over the growing season (Figure S3). Similarly, the Vpseudo and LAI of the follower (S for sucker) of the flowering main plant was determined (Vpseudo, FlowerS and LAIFlower,S).Biomass component weights (pseudostem, leaf, petiole, bunch, and corm) were measured destructively during 'harvest' and 'periodic destructive sampling'.At 'harvest', harvest-ready plants of C1 and C2 showing ripe bunches were cut down at the base of the pseudostem, but succeeding cycles were left on the mat. Non-destructive vegetative and bunch characteristics (Table 1) were determined on the harvested plant together with destructive biomass. Fresh weight of vegetative components (pseudostem, leaf, petioles) and bunch (bunchF) was measured using a field balance (±0.05kg), and subsamples were taken, chopped and dried at 80 °C for 48 h in a hot-air oven (to not destroy plant tissue) until subsample weights did not vary anymore to determine the dry matter percentage (Table S1). Aboveground vegetative dry matter (ABGVD) included the pseudostem, petioles, and leaves. Hereafter, when using the term 'harvest', plants that are harvest ready for their bunches were noted.At 'periodic destructive sampling', entire mats were randomly sampled every three months from planting onwards to obtain a database of plants spanning different sizes and growth stages including C1, C2, and C3 plants. From planting onwards, every three months, mats (n = 3) were randomly chosen from border rows or from destructive sampling areas in each treatment in both experiments. Whole mats were excavated and for each individual cycle, growth data were measured (Table 1) and biomass components (corm, pseudostem, petioles, leaves, bunch) were separated and weighted. Non-differentiated suckers (not protruding above ground level) were counted as part of the corm. All cycles present on a mat (C1, C2, and C3) were used for data collection. ABGVD was calculated similarly as at harvest. Corms were separated per cycle, weighted and corm dry matter (cormD) was calculated based on fresh corm weight and subsample dry matter percentages (Table S1). ABGVD, aboveground vegetative dry matter includes pseudostem, petiole and leaf dry matter. BunchF, fresh bunch weight; Nhand, number of hands on a bunch; Nfinger, number of fingers on a bunch. Phenology data: DTF, days to flower emergence; DTH, days to harvest; Moisture (precipitation and irrigation) and ET0 Ratios: between planting and flowering (RPF), flowering and harvest (RFH) and planting and harvest (RPH); Cycle duration: FCD, flower cycle duration, the time (in days) between flower emergence of C1 and flower emergence of C2 (on matlevel), HCD is the duration (in days) between harvest of C1 and harvest of C2 (on matlevel). Treatments: full irrigation (FI), rainfed (RF). Cultivars: Huti Green Bell (HG), Grande Naine (GN). † flowering, ‡ harvest. T: notes difference between treatment FI and RF (within a cycle and cultivar) (p= 0.05), C: notes difference between cycles (within a moisture treatment and cultivar) (p = 0.05).Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric tests (α = 0.05) for multiple comparison of growth parameters between irrigation treatments, cultivar, and growth cycle were applied on collected growth data at flowering and harvest of C1 and C2 (Table 2).As the effect of added water (precipitation and irrigation) is very dependent on the environment in which a plant develops the ratio (R) of cumulative water added (W) and cumulative ET0 was determined for each plant between: planting and flowering (RPF), flowering and harvest (RFH), and planting and harvest (RPH) (Table 2).The average pseudostem growth rate (Vrate, Table 1), an indicator of vegetative growth was analyzed in terms of RPF, an indicator of moisture between planting and flowering. Linear models were created with Vrate as a dependent variable and RPF as the independent variable for each cultivar and cycle (Table 3). The average bunch growth rate (Brate, Table 1) of plants in the field was analyzed in terms of Vrate (the earlier vegetative growth rate) and RFH, an indicator of moisture between flowering and harvest. Linear models were created with Brate as a dependent variable and Vrate and RFH as the independent variable for each cultivar and cycle. Effects of the parameters were significant if coefficients in the linear models were significant (Table 3). Two types of allometric relationships were created corresponding to the different objectives: (i) models for estimating vegetative biomass (ABGVD and cormD), and (ii) models for forecasting fresh bunch weights (bunchF) from flowering onwards. Since allometry specifies how growth and size in plants or plant components is related to their allocated biomass, only parameters measured on a plant were put into the allometric equations.Plants sampled during harvest and periodic destructive sampling were used for ABGVD allometry. Data spanned multiple cycles C1, C2, and C3 with plants of different sizes. Vegetative parameters at the moment of destructive sampling (Vpseudo, LAI) and bunch parameters (Nfinger, Nhand, Vfinger, Ratiofinger) for plants sampled when bearing bunches were used for regression (Tables 1 and 4).Plants sampled during periodic destructive sampling were used for cormD allometry. CormD was regressed on vegetative parameters at the moment of sampling (Vpseudo, LAI), but given the lack of replications of bunch bearing plants at destructive sampling, other parameters were not included (Table 4).Plants with bunches ready for harvest (sampled at harvest) were used for bunchF regression. Only C1 and C2 were used, as C3 was not yet ready for harvest. As early estimation is of interest, the bunchF was regressed sequentially on predictors that can be grouped according to the period when first measurement is possible. Predictors were organized in three groups: Early predictors, relating to parameters at flowering: days to flowering (DTF), Vpseudo,Flower, LAIFlower; Middle predictors, describing bunch characteristics that do not change during fruit filling: Nhand and Nfinger; and late predictors, describing bunch parameters that change up until the moment of harvest: Ratiofinger and Vfinger (Table 4). In addition to parameters measured on the main plant, the size of the sucker at flowering of the main plant (Vpseudo,flowerS) on the same mat was also used as a predictor in regressions (Table 4).Observations used in regression analysis were subjected to a principal component analysis to identify multivariate outliers. Scatterplots in the first four PCs were made, and observations where PCA scores lay outside the 95% confidence interval (95%CI) ellipse for treatment × cultivar group were removed.First, multiple linear regression models were created for FI plants to determine the best model form for each cultivar (Table 4). Estimation of biomass and yield, as a rule rather than an exception, is heteroscedastic. As transforming variables leads to non-intuitive relations, heteroscedasticity was dealt with through weighted least squares regression (WLS) [7]. After WLS regression, residual plots were checked to confirm whether WLS models became homoscedastic. The regression models were compared to assess the most suitable linear regression form. Criteria used in model selection were the adjusted correlation coefficient (R²adj), relative root mean square error (RRMSE), and the Akaike information criterion (AIC). AIC can only be compared on models with similar number of observations. Whenever multiple predictors needed to be retained in the model, variance inflation factors (VIF) were checked as correlated predictors might lead to collinearity. Model performance was classified on RRMSE values as excellent (≤10%), good (10% < RRMSE≤ 20%), fair (20% < RRMSE≤ 30%), and poor (>30%) [34]. Next to goodness of fit criteria, the practicality of predictors in the field was also considered in choosing the final model form.After determining the best model forms for FI plants, pooled (combining data from cultivars and treatments) and specific regression models (separating data across cultivars and treatments) were created (Table 5). Specific regression models were compared between irrigation treatments and cultivars. Comparison of specific regression models were done using three methods. In the first method, the 95%CI for parameter coefficients in the regressions were compared across groups to evaluate overlap. If 95%CI overlapped, models were not different. The second method used an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) by adding categorical variables treatment and cultivar as dummy variables in the linear regression models. It was assessed whether the parameter coefficients in the models were significantly different between the groups, or whether they could be estimated by a common coefficient [7]. The third method used FI models for predicting both FI and RF data. These predicted values (xi) were plotted against observed values (yi), whereby the regression line was evaluated for bias. The bias% for each group (treatment x cultivar) was calculated aswith xi and yi being the observed and predicted values for the i th observation and n is the number of observations [9]. If the bias% is positive, the models underestimate reality and if the bias% is negative, models overestimate reality.  The onset of soil moisture differences differed between experiments (Figure 1b), due to differences in planting time (Figure 1c) resulting in rainfall periods affecting plants at a different growth stages (Figure 1a-c). In HG, moisture differences became significant during the vegetative stage of C1 onwards, whilst for GN, moisture differences occurred from the approximate onset of flower emergence in C1 (Figure 1b,c) [25]. This is reflected in the ratio between water and ET0 between planting and flowering (RPF) (Table 2). RPF differed significantly between treatments in both cycles and cultivars (p < 0.05). RPF during HG C1 differed between treatments, but remained suboptimal for both FI (0.743 ± 0.03) and RF (0.638 ± 0.0404), indicating stressed vegetative growth. RPF during GN C1 was optimal in both FI (1.44 ±0.0213) and RF (1.26 ± 0.0448), indicating non stressed vegetative growth until flowering.During bunch development, RFH differed significantly between treatments in all cycles and cultivars (p < 0.05). RFH was always optimal or close to 1 in FI, but not in RF except in HG-C1 where RF plants developed bunches during the rainy season (RFH = 1.47 ± 0.182). Contrastingly, GN C1 plants developed bunches during the dry season as shown by RFH of 0.329 (±0.0239) for RF C1.Under increased soil moisture stress, a delay in banana phenology occurred, but severity of delay differed between cultivars and cycles. In HG, flowering differences were small (4 days) in C1, and not significant in C2. In GN, differences in DTF were more pronounced. RF plants flowered on average 6 days earlier in C1. In contrast, FI plants flowered on average 40 days earlier in C2 (p < 0.05).Differences in harvest date (DTH) were more pronounced. In HG, FI plants were harvested 37 and 76 days earlier in C1 and C2, respectively. In GN, there was no difference in C1 (p > 0.05) but harvest occurred 34 days earlier in C2 FI plants (p < 0.05) (Table 2).Vegetative growth was affected significantly by irrigation (Table 2). FI increased parameters H, Gbase, and Vpseudo significantly, except for GN C1 (p = 0.24 for H, p = 0.55 for Gbase) as these developed under RPF > 1 until flowering of C1 (Table 2). Correspondingly, FI increased vegetative biomass ABGVD at harvest (p < 0.05) (Table 2).Bunch growth was also significantly affected by irrigation (Table 2). BunchF differences under irrigation were reflected in measured bunch parameters (Table 2). In HG, Nhand was increased in FI in C1 (p = 2.7 × 10 −4 ), but similar in C2 (p = 0.83). Nfinger increased in both cycles, and fingers were also bigger (Vfinger) under irrigation (p < 0.05). This resulted in significant increased bunchF under irrigation in C1 and C2 (p < 0.05).In GN, Nhand was similar in both cycles between FI and RF (Table 2), but Nfinger increased under FI in C2 (p = 4.4 × 10 −4 ) (Table 2). Large differences were obtained during bunch filling, as FingerF and Vfinger increased under FI in both cycles (p < 0.05). Differences between RF and FI occurred due to differential soil moisture during bunch filling (RFH = 0.333 in RF C1) from C1 onwards (Figure 1a).Combining phenology and growth parameters shows growth speeds (Vrate and Brate) of plants differed significantly between the treatments (Figure 2 and Table 3). Moisture (RPF) had a significant effect on growth rates of the pseudostem (Vrate), except in GN-C1 as these plants all developed under optimal conditions (RPF>1). In all other groups, RPF had a significant (p < 0.05) positive effect on Vrate in HG and GN. Both Vrate and moisture after flowering (RFH) had a significant effect on bunch growth rates (Brate) (Figure 2 and Table 5).Generally, an increase in Vrate led to an increase in Brate, except for HG-C2. Vrate on its own does not fully explain the bunch growth rate (Table 5) as coefficients for RFH are significant in several models. This is shown clearly in GN-C1, as Vrate in FI plants is smaller, but bunch growth rates are significantly larger (p < 0.05) (Table 2). Inclusion of RFH proves necessary for correctly assessing Brate. Vpseudo was linearly related to ABGVD in both HG and GN (Figure 3), and to all its components (leafD, petioleD, and pseudostemD) (Figure S6). VIFs higher than 5 (indicating collinearity) were not found in our models (Table 4). Regression models were specific models for treatment and cultivar as shown in Table 5; (b) Comparison of actual ABGVD (kg plant -1 ) with estimated ABGVD (kg plant -1 ) as obtained using the specific regression models for treatment and cultivar as shown in Table 5. FI notes full irrigation, RF notes rainfed. Models using only Vpseudo as a predictor already had a good model fit in HG and GN (RRMSE = 0.14) (Table 4). Lm.1 was the best model in terms of goodness of fit, and practicality, and was used for creating pooled and specific regression models (Table 5).Specific FI and RF models for ABGVD showed overlapping 95%CI model coefficients for intercept and slope in both HG and GN (Table 5), but coefficients were different between treatments using the ANCOVA method. For HG, the intercept was reduced in the RF model by 0.32 (p = 8.25 × 10 −14 ), and the slope was very slightly reduced by 5 × 10 −3 (p = 0.014). For GN, there was no effect on the intercept (p = 0.13) and the slope was reduced by 6.07 × 10 −03 (p = 4.46 × 10 −3 ) in RF (Figure 3 and Table 5).Comparing predictions of the FI models with RF models, led to bias% of −92.1% (HG) and −81.9% (GN) for FI plants and bias% of −44.6% (HG) and −41.4.0% (GN) for RF plants. Both FI and RF plants were overestimated. Small plants (<25L) were overestimated in small absolute terms (<1 kg DM plant −1 ), but as bias% calculates the relative deviation, these had a large effect on the overall bias%. Recalculating bias% after removal of the smaller plant (<25L) led to bias% of 2.07% (HG) and −1.48 (GN) in FI, and bias% of −7.26% (HG) and −10.1% (GN) in RF. Plants <25L were overestimated in both FI and RF (in small absolute terms), but plants >25L were only overestimated in RF.Comparison of cultivar FI models showed 95%CI model coefficients overlapped for intercept and slope (Table 5) but models were distinctly different in intercept (p = 0.01) and slope (p = 8.89 × 10 −4 ) following ANCOVA.As 95%CI for coefficients overlapped between treatments and cultivars, the differences although significant, may be small in practice. Pooling data from both cultivars and treatments (n = 700) and performing the regression on this pooled data led to a good model fit (R²adj = 0.90, RRMSE = 0.18), using Vpseudo as predictor (Table 5).The model for estimating ABGVD in HG and GN becomes: = 0.33 + 6.02 × 10 × ; HG and GN combined (2) with ABGVD, aboveground vegetative dry matter (kg DM plant −1 ) and Vpseudo, pseudostem volume (L).Vpseudo was linearly related to cormD in both HG and GN (Figure 4). VIFs higher than 5 were not found in the cormD models.   5; (b) Comparison of actual cormD vs. estimated cormD as obtained using the specific regression models for treatment and cultivar as shown in Table 5. FI notes full irrigation, RF notes rainfed.Models with only Vpseudo and LAI as predictors for cormD led to a fair model performance for HG (RRMSE = 0.22) but poor model performance for GN (RRMSE = 0.34) (Table 4). Lm.1 was the best model in terms of goodness of fit and used for creating pooled and specific regression models (Table 5).Specific FI and RF models revealed 95%CI of coefficients overlapped for both HG and GN (Table 4), but coefficients were significantly different between treatments in both HG and GN using the ANCOVA method. For HG, RF reduced the slope by 4.01 × 10 −3 (p = 5.18 × 10 −3 ), had no effect on the intercept (p = 0.09) (Figure 4, Table 5). For GN, RF reduced the intercept by 0.01 (p = 2.22 × 10 −5 ) and the slope by 5.22 × 10 −3 (p = 7.59 × 10 −4 ) (Figure 3). Due to overlap of 95% CI, differences were not so pronounced.All models for cormD (Tables 4 and 5) were suboptimal given the fair to poor RRMSE values, and the large variation around the 1/1 line (Figure 4). Therefore, specific model differences may not be correct, and care should be taken.Using the specific FI regression models led to a bias% of −54.5% (HG) and −156% (GN) for FI plants, and bias% of −13.2% (HG) and −73.2% (GN) for RF plants. Models overestimated the cormD in both treatments and cultivars. Overestimation occurred again through the influence of smaller plants. Recounting bias% after removal of smaller plants led to a bias% of −3.78% (HG) and −11.0% (GN) for FI compared to −23.6% (HG) and −39.2% (GN) for RF. Thereby, the RF plants were overestimated more strongly compared to the FI plants. In general, models overestimated small plants (<25 L), whereas bigger plants show no overestimation in HG FI, show a slight overestimation in GN FI plants, and show a large overestimation in RF plants of both cultivars.Cultivar FI models were also different as 95%CI coefficients did not overlap, and following ANCOVA, HG model intercepts were reduced (p = 1.77 10 −4 ) and slopes increased (p = 0.05) compared to GN. The best models for estimating cormD for HG and GN became = 0.13 + 2.24 × 10 × ;(3) = 0.62 + 1.08 × 10 × ;with cormD, corm dry matter (kg DM plant −1 ), and Vpseudo, the pseudostem volume (L).ABGVD was significantly positively correlated to bunchF (p < 0.05) with R²adj of 0.73 (FI) and 0.65 (RF) for HG, and R²adj of 0.61 (FI) and 0.54 (RF) for GN. Similarly, Vpseudo, Flower was linearly related to bunchF at harvest (Figure 5). VIFs higher than 5 were not identified in the bunch models. ) with estimated bunchF (kg plant -1 ) as obtained using the specific regression models for treatment and cultivar as shown in Table 4. FI notes full irrigation, RF notes rainfed.Models containing only early bunch data (lm.1 to lm.7) had RRMSE values ranging from 0.12 to 0.25 (HG) and 0.13 to 0.2 (GN) indicating good model fit (Table 4). Inclusion of data on sucker size (Vpseudo,flowerS) did not improve the RRMSE of the models (lm. 6 to lm.7) compared to models with only Vpseudo,flower (lm.1). Inclusion of data collected at later stages (lm.8 to lm.11) improved model fits as RRMSE values reduced and R²adj increased. To allow for earliest bunch estimation, model containing Vpseudo, Flower (lm.1) were retained for both HG (R²adj = 0.70, RRMSE = 0.12) and GN (R²adj = 0.43, RRMSE = 0.15).Pooled and specific regression models proved different between treatments in both HG and GN (p < 0.01) (Table 5). Model coefficients did not show overlap in the 95%CI. For HG, RF led to a significantly lower intercept (ANCOVA, p = 7.18 × 10 −12 ), whilst slopes remained similar (ANCOVA, p = 0.38). For GN, the intercept and slope were different between treatments (p < 0.05) leading to widely different relationships with Vpseudo, Flower (Figure 4, Table 4).Using the specific FI regression models to estimate bunchF for both FI and RF plants, led to a significant overestimation of RF bunches in both HG and GN (Figure 5). The bias% for FI plants was −2.31% (HG) and −1.74% (GN) and the bias% of the RF plants was −28.0% (HG) and −24.1% (GN). Therefore, using FI models significantly overestimated the RF plants.The specific models were also different between the cultivars (p < 0.01, Figure 5 and Table 5). Models for optimal bunch weights (FI conditions) became: ℎ = 0.13 + 2.24 × 10 × , ;-FI (5) ℎ = 0.62 + 1.08 × 10 × , ;-FI (6) with bunchF being fresh bunch weight (kg plant −1 ), and Vpseudo,flower being the pseudostem volume (L) at flowering.Irrigation resulted in significant soil moisture differences (Figure 1b) affecting phenology, vegetative growth, and bunch growth (Table 2). Drought in banana induces stomatal closure, reducing transpiration and photosynthesis which reduces leaf area, leaf emission rate, and vegetative growth in general [18,25,[35][36][37]. Drought during flower initiation may reduce Nhand per bunch and Nfinger per hand [28], whereas drought after flower initiation results in suboptimal fruit filling [38].HG plants already experienced different moisture regimes during C1 vegetative growth and thereby differed between FI and RF in both vegetative and bunch parameters (Table 2). GN plants developed under optimal conditions (RPF > 1) until flower emergence of C1 [25], thereby FI and RF plants of C1 did not differ in Vpseudo, Nhand, and Nfinger (Table 2), parameters that are determined during the vegetative stage. Differences in RFH from C1 flowering onward (Figure 1b and Table 2) led to differences in ABGVD, fingerF, Vfinger, Ratiofinger, and bunchF at harvest.Phenology was delayed under drought depending on the severity of moisture deficit. Differences in flowering (DTF) remained small, but differences in harvest (DTH) were very pronounced with FI plants being harvested much earlier in both cycles and cultivars (Table 2). Flowering of GN C1 occurred 6 days earlier in RF plants, but RPF of both treatments was bigger than 1, so RF plants developed optimally until flowering. After flower emergence, RFH ratios in RF plants were significantly lower than 1 (0.329 ± 0.0239) delaying harvest. Differences in DTF and DTH increased in C2, as plants of C2 developed under more significant moisture stress for GN (Table 2). Environmental stress due to suboptimal soil moisture has been shown to delay floral development and increase bunch filling duration in banana plants [18,39,40].Combining absolute growth and phenology, showed effects of moisture on pseudostem (Vrate) and bunch (Brate) growth rates (Table 3, Figure 2). Vrate was influenced by RPF (p < 0.05, Table 3), although effects differ due to the size of RPF. If RPF > 1, moisture covers the evaporative demand as shown in GN-C1, where Vrate was not influenced by RPF as RPF was optimal for both RF and FI (Table 3). Only when RPF was less than 1, Vrate seemed to be negatively affected (Figure 2 and Table 3). In order to achieve fast vegetative growth rates, RPF should remain above 1.The effect of Vrate on Brate was significant (Table 3), as faster Vrate resulted in increased Brate (Figure 2b). Moisture after flowering (RFH) also influences Brate significantly (Table 3, Figure 2c). RFH needs to be bigger or close to 1 to ensure optimal bunch filling (Figure 2 and Table 3). Within cycles and cultivars, we see that an increased RFH has the bigger Brate for GN and HG (except HG C2).Moisture deficit thereby has a double effect on bunch growth. Firstly, moisture deficits during the vegetative stage (RPF < 1) reduce the vegetative growth of the plant (Vrate), which reduces the Brate. During bunch filling, previously stored nutrients are translocated to fill the bunch [2][3][4][5]. Less vegetative biomass thereby indicates less translocation potential. Secondly, moisture deficits during the bunch filling stage (RFH < 1) affect translocation and bunch filling [18,39], resulting in a reduced Brate. Both stages are important in the eventual outcome of the bunch weight. In order to achieve optimal growth for the pseudostem and the bunch, added moisture amounts should be compared to evaporative demands of the atmosphere. If the added moisture amounts are significantly less than the reference evapotranspiration (R < 1), moisture needs to be added to ensure optimal growth.Vpseudo was significantly linearly correlated to the ABGVD (Figure 3), and a good predictor for ABGVD in both HG and GN (RRMSE of 0.14) (Table 4). Height, girth, and diameters (components for volume estimation) are often used in biomass regression [7]. In trees, height and diameter at breast height are significantly correlated to biomass of a stand [7,41,42]. Negash et al. [8] found girth at base to be the best predictor for aboveground biomass estimation (R² = 0.77-0.98) in Enset. Nyombi et al. [5] found girth at base to be the best predictor in development-stage specific regressions (R² = 0.79-0.99), but height to be the best predictor of ABGVD when pooling the data across development stages (R² = 0.98). Combining height and girth leads to a parameter describing the pseudostem (volume) in three dimensions, without leading to high co-linearity when keeping both parameters in the model [7]. Vpseudo is linked to all components of aboveground biomass (pseudostem, leaves, and petioles) in our field (Figure S6). The pseudostem is composed of tightly compacted leaf sheaths, which result from previous cumulative leaf formation. Vpseudo was therefore also correlated to the petiole and leaf mass in our field (Figure S6) [39]. However, the number of leaves and petioles at a given time are also affected by management practices (e.g., pruning) and stress conditions, indicating correlations can differ in other plantations.Even though Vpseudo was affected by soil moisture deficit, the relationship between Vpseudo and ABGVD was not influenced strongly. Specific regression models for ABGVD between treatment and cultivar differed according to ANCOVA (p < 0.05) (Table 4), but differences were small as 95%CI for model coefficients overlapped. Pooling cultivar and treatment data led to a good model fit (R²adj 0.90 and RRMSE 0.18, Table 5) indicating a single ABGVD model based on Vpseudo can be used (Equation ( 2)).Perhaps stress was not marked enough for ABGVD plasticity under drought as average bunches in RF plots ranged from 19.6 to 24.4 kg plant −1 in HG, and from 33.2 to 33.3 kg plant −1 for GN, which are considered good yields. Nyombi et al. [5] had irrigated yields for EAHB cv. Mbwazirume ranging from 20 to 40 kg plant −1 , whilst Wairegi et al. [9] showed yields for different rainfed EAHB cultivars from on farm visits ranging from 2-60 kg plant −1 . Our yields are therefore higher compared to their lower range, hence less stress was present.Models did overestimate small plants (<25L). This overestimation might be a characteristic of the model, as the intercept was not forced through zero during modelling as this may lead to poorer goodness of fit characteristics [43]. At Vpseudo zero, there is an overestimation of 0.54 kg DM plant −1 (HG) and 0.22 kg DM plant −1 (GN), which are small absolute DM values, but with a large influence on the total bias%. Removing smaller plants reduced bias%. Overestimation of small plants could also be due to the growing behavior of suckers. Small suckers have scale and lanceolate leaves but produce foliage leaves at approx. 1.5 m height [2,44]. Shading results in improved partitioning to aboveground structures [45] and leads to an increase in pseudostem growth to faster reach sunlight. Therefore, small plants might have a lower pseudostem density (kg DM volume −1 ), leading to an overestimation when presuming their density to be similar to bigger plants. Another possibility is that all smaller plants are in the vegetative stage. Nyombi et al. [5] found that vegetative aboveground biomass models differ according to plant growth stage (vegetative, flowering, or harvest). Plants in the vegetative stage had a lower ABGVD compared to plants at flowering and harvest with similar girths and heights. Pooling the data across these plant growth stages might have led to this overestimation caused by small plants, but the overestimation is small in absolute terms (<1 kg DM plant −1 ), still warranting the use of a general regression model as this is more practical. The general regression model to use for ABGVD estimation to be used is given in Equation (2).Vpseudo was linearly correlated to the belowground cormD (Figure 4). CormD models based on Vpseudo ranged from fair in HG (RRMSE = 0.24) to poor in GN (RRMSE = 0.33) (Table 4), making Vpseudo less suitable for cormD estimation. Nyombi et al. [5] found good exponential relationships between pseudostem girth at base and cormD (R² = 0.59-0.98) but cormD in their field ranged between 0-0.40 kg plant −1 , which seems low compared to our cormD values ranging from 0.09-4.27 kg plant −1 . Negash et al. [8] found good correlations between belowground biomass (corm and adventitious roots) and diameter at base for Enset (R² = 0.75), but found no such correlation with height (R² = 0.23-0.27). Creating power models with radius at base instead of Vpseudo did not improve model fits for cormD in both HG (RRMSE = 0.38) and GN (RRMSE = 0.41) (data not shown).Using aboveground characteristics to describe a belowground structure has shortcomings. Parameters relating to corm dimensions (e.g., corm height and girth) are expected to considerably improve the cormD estimation, but in order to estimate these the corm needs to be excavated. Corm dimensions also vary in diameter and height with plant growth phase (vegetative, flowering, harvest) and whether the plant is in the first or second cycle [2]. The corm is a storage organ whose reserves are used for fruit growth and sucker development, whereby bunch development stage, size and the amount of produced suckers also play a role in corm biomass [2]. In our field, the variation of cormD with Vpseudo increased with cycle, thereby partitioning models in terms of cycle or plant growth phase (vegetative, flowering, harvest) might significantly improve the model. Nyombi et al. [5] found growth stage specific allometric relationships for cormD, whereby R² reduced from the vegetative (0.98) to the harvest phase (0.57), signifying increased variation with increasing growth stage.The comparison of specific models across treatments revealed irrigation effects to be significant (ANCOVA, p < 0.05), but as 95%CI intervals overlap between specific treatment models, differences were not very pronounced (Table 4). Pooled data per cultivar did not increase RRMSE much, leading to the conclusion that cormD models are similar among RF and FI. It seems that at a given Vpseudo, cormD will be higher in FI than in RF plants, but given the suboptimal nature of models based on Vpseudo we cannot be certain of the water stress effects on corm allometry. The biomass of the underground corm structure is too variable to accurately predict based on aboveground vegetative characteristics alone, and care must be taken using these relationships.Vegetative growth (Vrate) was linked to bunch growth in our field (Brate) (Figure 2 and Table 3). Others have also shown pseudostem size significantly correlates with bunch weights: R² = 0.63-0.85 [4], R² = 0.66 [9], R² = 0.57-0.7 [5], R² = 0.97-0.98 [10]. The pseudostem size relates to bunch filling potential as assimilates are translocated during the bunch filling stage [2,4,5,46] even across ratoon plants [47]. High yields are linked to vigorous early plant growth in plantain [3].As such, stepwise regression revealed Vpseudo, Flower to be the most important predictor of bunchF compared to other regression models (R²adj of 0.7 for HG and 0.43 for GN; RRMSE of 0.12 for HG and 0.15 for GN) (Table 4). Inclusion of bunch related predictors (Nfinger, Nhand, Vfinger) improved model fits as R²adj increased (0.81 for HG and 0.78 for GN) and RRMSE decreased (0.1 for both HG and GN lm.11) (Table 5). The more parameters were included closer to bunch harvest, the better the prediction. Practically, using Vpseudo,flower as a predictor for bunchF already led to good model performance in both HG and GN FI models (RRMSE 0.13-0.14).Bunch models based on Vpseudo,flower were very different between FI and RF, as 95%CI did not overlap and following ANCOVA(p < 0.05). FI models performed better (RRMSE 0.13 for HG, 0.14 for GN) than RF models (RRMSE 0.15 for HG, 0.23 for GN).These different relationships between bunchF and Vpseudo,flower under drought follow differences in bunch characteristics under RF vs. FI conditions (Table 2). Drought during flower initiation may reduce Nhand and Nfinger whereas drought during bunch filling results in suboptimal fruit filling (Vfinger) [2,18,38]. Moisture regimes at and after flowering are thereby crucial in determining actual bunch weights in the field, but these are not reflected in Vpseudo, Flower. Up until flower emergence, GN plants of C1 developed optimally in both treatments (RPF > 1, Table 2) [25]. Height and girth (Vpseudo), Nfinger and Nhand did not differ at flowering (p>0.05), whilst bunchF, finger, and Vfinger did differ between FI and RF at harvest (p < 0.05) (Table 2). Weight and size of the fingers determined the bunch weights. Plants of similar Vpseudo,flower subjected to different environments (RFH) after flowering (e.g., GN C1) will thereby have different bunchF at harvest, changing relationships between these parameters.For accurate bunch weight estimation, bunch characteristics need to be included [9,12]. Our models improved (RRMSE became lower) when bunch parameters were included, but this no longer allows forecasting of bunch weights as bunch characteristics (e.g., Vfinger) change until harvest.Our FI models can be used to forecast bunch weights if plants developed without stress from flowering onwards (as RFH >1 in FI). Forecasting of bunchF based on Vpseudo, Flower allows to estimate bunch 'potential' weights as in Equations ( 4) and (5).To estimate 'actual' bunch weights, the environmental effects during bunch filling need to be incorporated either directly (e.g., as RFH) or indirectly (e.g., effect of RFH on Vfinger).The large phenotypical differences between HG and GN plants, also led to significantly different bunch weight regression curves for cultivars (p < 0.05). However, as cultivars were planted at a different time, differences in planting might confound differences in cultivars and we should not compare these cultivars with each other. Nyombi [5] found different allometric relationships for bunch weight for two EAHB cv Mbwazirume and Kisansa. Wairegi et al. [9] proposed the use of a general banana regression curve for estimation of EAHB bunch yields, but their results showed cultivar specific curves were characterized by lower overall variances and increased model fits. Their cultivar specific curves were similar but were significantly different in model parameters. Our results support the statement that even genetically close cultivars have different phenotypical characteristics [30].A bunch forecast model based on Vpseudo,flower needs to include additional parameters that relate to environment conditions after flowering to properly work.Irrigation and corresponding soil moisture differences had a significant effect in both HG and GN, reducing vegetative and bunch growth, and delaying phenology under RF conditions. Of the effected parameters, Vpseudo seems a promising indicator as it is linked to both vegetative growth and bunch growth rates. The universal nature of Vpseudo as a regression parameter between the two cultivars is more valuable for future allometric studies than girth or height alone.Allometric relationships for vegetative biomass (ABGVD and cormD) were not strongly affected by irrigation as 95% CI overlapped between FI and RF models indicating a single allometric model can be used across RF and FI plants for vegetative biomass estimation. Models did also not differ much between our phenotypically very different cultivars for ABGVD, hinting Vpseudo models can be used across a range of cultivars. Vpseudo did not prove sufficient to estimate cormD reliably, as a lot of variation remained in the underground biomass. Aboveground characteristics are therefore lacking to estimate belowground structures. For better estimation of belowground vegetative biomass, components relating to the corm dimensions can be added although these are more difficult to measure. This research shows the potential for non-destructive vegetative biomass monitoring at the field scale, and shows soil moisture to not affect vegetative allometry significantly. As biomass over time often underlies crop simulation models, this is especially useful for researchers wanting to calculate biomass in the field for calibrating such models without destroying plants.Bunch weight (bunchF) forecasting models based on Vpseudo at flowering were significantly different between FI and RF, showing bunch weights cannot be estimated on vegetative parameters only, without including information on stress during bunch filling or bunch components. Both vegetative growth (Vrate) and moisture during bunch filling (RFH) determine bunch growth rates. Our FI models do allow prediction of bunch weights under optimal conditions after flowering (RFH≥1) and can be used to forecast bunch weight potentials based on Vpseudo at flowering.The following are available online at www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/9/1435/s1 Table S1: Dry matter (DM, g dry matter g fresh weight -1 ) (mean and sd) of the plant organs obtained in the field trial. Moisture contents were determined from subsamples of plant organs taken at harvest from the different cycles. Treatment differences were not significant (p<0.05), leading to the pooling of data across the treatments (FI: full irrigation and RF: rainfed) per cycle (C1, C2 and C3) to obtain a dry matter percentage per organ per cycle.","tokenCount":"8859"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5083a36739715fd7d1dbfdb7a44df022","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a080dfc8-06b4-46d1-a6e1-78ef16af6233/retrieve","id":"-922056221"},"keywords":["• P571 -Activity 4","2","1: Improved environmental management options OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report"],"sieverID":"64c7218e-5fa9-4c02-b08d-3705b293abc0","pagecount":"5","content":"Adoption of Sustainable Rangeland Management (SRM) toolkit by the two main development agencies in Tunisia to ensure sustainable restoration of degraded agrosilvopastoral systems Short outcome/impact statement: ICARDA, IUCN, and NARS in Tunisia have developed an SRM toolkit that addresses the root causes of rangeland degradation. The tried-and-tested toolkit has been adopted by national and international development agencies in Tunisia. Its use is highly appreciated by pastoral communities due to its flexibility to adjust grazing strategies, taking into account indigenous knowledge coupled with science-based technologies. The projected results include better management and restoration of rangelands in dry areas, where demand for accessible and productive land is increasing.Geographic scope:• Regional Region(s):• Central Asia • Northern Africa Comments: The toolkit has been developed through work with agencies in Tunisia, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, but can also be applied in rangeland areas of Western Asia.Contributing CRPs/Platforms: The Toolbox for sustainable rehabilitation of rangelands in arid environments helps communities, policy makers and other development actors define and describe key sustainable rangeland management practices and also illustrate how they are to be used through scenarios from specific targeted regions.• 1097 -Toolbox for sustainable rehabilitation of rangelands in arid environments (https://tinyurl.com/2e4ko2fv)Rangelands make up a large portion of varied ecosystems that provide a wide range of goods and services. These resources contribute significantly towards improving livelihoods, offering income sources through food and nutrition security, trade, and tourism [1]. Unfortunately, climate change is putting these resources at risk, while unsustainable land use practices are contributing to land degradation [2]. Despite technical advances, the scale of rangeland rehabilitation interventions has been small and lacks a holistic, integrated approach. Most restoration projects focus on a single intervention, ignoring the myriad of best practices that would ensure the desired objective is achieved. Before implementing rangeland restoration, it is often necessary to first address the underlying drivers and pressures causing degradation (past disturbances). This knowledge is essential to guide rangeland conservation and restoration efforts in the dry areas.To address these challenges, in April 2019 rangelands experts from the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), NARS partners and consultants met together and committed to developing a rangeland restoration toolkit [3]. The toolkit was developed through a collaborative process and completed in 2021, comprising tried-and-tested sustainable rangeland management practices in the dryland areas, collating indigenous knowledge and modern science know-how, as well as participatory approaches to managing rangelands [4,5,6,7]. Key sustainable rangeland management practices are described, along with recommendations on how and when each are to be used in context-specific scenarios. It is expected that long-term and scaled up use of the recommended tools will result in better restoration and management of rangelands within the dry areas. In Tunisia, the Office de l'Elevage et des Paturages and IFAD funded project PRODEFIL requested support from ICARDA to implement their national rangeland restoration programs. ICARDA researchers were successful in introducing more scientific methods to measure vegetation characteristics (prior methods were based on visual estimations) and influenced the decision to expand the parameters of national grazing strategies to be more flexible and adaptable (previous rangelands resting periods were inflexible, even when pastures were thriving) [8,9,10]. Furthermore, the SRM toolkit will be adopted as one of the innovations in the One CGIAR initiative on Livestock, Climate and System Resilience (LCSR). The SRM toolkit has been conceived to be a continually evolving product. New tools can be added in the future, especially as technologies advance and current tools are updated based on feedback from end-users.","tokenCount":"587"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"563d528d339137e364bf4f8fa1b94747","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92c5582a-3237-430c-bd28-4cae3655cbff/retrieve","id":"420272806"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3250930a-7802-4e23-a436-d8b2cf847a46","pagecount":"52","content":"La subscripción es gratuita para los países en vías de desarrollo. Se agradecen contribuciones en forma de artículos y cartas al editor. La redacción se reserva el derecho de editar los artículos. INFOMUSA no se responsabiliza por el material no solicitado. Sin embargo, trataremos de responder a cada una de las peticiones. Los artículos pueden ser citados o reproducidos sin cargos, con la mención de la fuente. También se publican ediciones de INFOMUSA en francés y en inglés. Una versión electrónica esta disponible a la dirección siguiente: http://www.inibap.org/ publications/infomusa/infomusa_spa.htm Cambio de dirección: Para evitar la perdida de sus ejemplares de INFOMUSA, notifique a INIBAP con seis semanas de antelación si cambia de dirección postal.Las opiniones expresadas en los artículos son responsabilidad de sus autores y no necesariamente reflejan los puntos de vista de INIBAP.a mayoría de los bananos cultivados son triploides. Si la triploidia proporciona un cierto vigor a la planta, contribuye también a la esterilidad que frena considerablemente el mejoramiento de los bananos mediante cruzamiento y representa un reto para el mejoramiento convencional. A pesar de estas dificultades inherentes al banano, se han efectuado notables adelantos estos veinte últimos años y, hoy día, no es raro encontrar híbridos artificiales en algunas estaciones de investigación y de apoyo al desarrollo rural o, incluso, en fincas familiares.Dichos adelantos son el fruto de algunos programas de mejoramiento convencional (Menéndez y Shepherd 1975, Rowe y Rosales 1992, Shepherd 1968, Soares Filho et al. 1992, Swennen y Vuylsteke 1990, Bakry y Horry 1992, Jenny et al. 1994, Tomekpé et al. 1998). En Honduras, la Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA) es el programa de investigación que lleva más tiempo trabajando en varios tipos de bananos de postre y de cocción. Es el único programa que trabaja en el mejoramiento del banano de postre 'Gros Michel'. La FHIA ha desarrollado diferentes tipos de híbridos, algunos de los cuales se distribuyen actualmente en varios países. En Francia y en Guadalupe, el Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad) lleva cerca de veinte años especializándose en la creación de nuevos bananos de postre triploides para la exportación a partir de un esquema simple y original, basado en el conocimiento y aprovechamiento de la diversidad existente en las variedades diploides de postre (Bakry et al. 1997). En Nigeria, Camerún y Uganda, el International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) lleva cerca de veinte años mejorando los plátanos y, más recientemente, se ha implicado en el mejoramiento de los bananos de las tierras altas de África oriental. En Camerún, el Centre africain de recherches sur bananiers et plantains (CARBAP, ex-CRBP) lleva una docena de años especializándose en el mejoramiento de plátanos, de los que posee la mayor colección del mundo. En Brasil, la Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA) trabaja con los bananos de los subgrupos Pome y Silk, que son muy apreciados en este país.Dos elementos fueron determinantes en el desarrollo de la estrategia 3x/2x: la puesta en evidencia de una fertilidad femenina residual en algunos cultivares triploides por una parte y, por otra, la observación de una proporción importante de tetraploides en sus descendientes gracias a la formación de gametos triploides no reducidos que permiten conservar la totalidad del genoma de los triploides. Esta estrategia fue ampliamente explotada para intentar crear híbridos tetraploides resistentes a las enfermedades y de buen valor agronómico polinizando triploides sensibles con diploides masculinos fértiles y resistentes.Los ejemplos más conocidos dentro de los híbridos tetraploides de tipo postre de la FHIA provienen de cruzamientos entre mutantes enanos 'Gros Michel' y 'Prata' y diploides mejorados resistentes a las enfermedades de la raya negra de la hoja y Sigatoka, y al nematodo Radopholus similis. Dentro de los bananos de cocción, destacan el CRBP-39 del CARBAP y el FHIA-21 (híbridos de plátano) y el BITA 3 del IITA (híbrido de banano de cocción) resistentes todos ellos a la enfermedad de la raya negra de la hoja y que están introduciéndose o ya se cultivan en algunos países (Figura 1).Sin embargo, hay que tener en cuenta que la casi totalidad de los híbridos AAAB (resultantes de cruzamientos entre un AAB y un AA) son susceptibles de expresar los síntomas del virus del rayado del banano (BSV), originados por la activación de las secuencias virales integradas en el genoma B de dichos cultivares. Además, la fertilidad reducida de los escasos cultivares fértiles sólo permite generar poblaciones de poca importancia siendo necesario, a menudo, un número considerable de cruzamientos para esperar resultados interesantes. Otro inconveniente consiste en el alto contenido de agua en los frutos tetraploides que maduran y se ablandan rápidamente.Por otra parte, los híbridos tetraploides, tanto AAAB como AAAA o AABB, heredan a menudo una fertilidad masculina y femenina del progenitor diploide fértil. Pueden, por consiguiente, producir bananos con semillas si son polinizados. Obviamente, esto reduce su calidad; de ahí la necesidad de eliminar las inflorescencias para evitar polinizacionesFigura 1. Tetraploides resistentes a la raya negra de la hoja (o Sigatoka negra). De izquierda a derecha: FHIA-21 producido por la FHIA, CRBP-39 producido por el CARBAP y Bita 3 producido por el IITA. Figura 2. Diploides naturales y mejorados por la FHIA. De izquierda a derecha: 3362, 3142, PJB, 3437, 2989, C-IV, 2095 y Lidi. Fotos de la izquierda a la derecha: FHIA, CARBAP e IITA inoportunas. Es necesario recordar también que la estrategia 3x/2x permite, asimismo, crear numerosos híbridos diploides del tipo AA. Más del 50% de los híbridos generados por algunos plátanos son diploides AA.Contrariamente a los triploides, los diploides son muy fértiles y contienen una considerable diversidad genética; pueden ser silvestres, semisilvestres o partenocárpicos, presentando frecuentemente una o más fuentes de resistencia (o de tolerancia) a enfermedades y plagas, así como diversas cualidades organolépticas. Tienen diferentes niveles de heterocigosidad y, algunos de ellos, son antepasados de los cultivares triploides destinados al mejoramiento. Estamos, pues, ante buenos progenitores y un material ideal para los estudios genéticos y citogenéticos necesarios para la optimización del mejoramiento genético del banano.Tras haber utilizado intensamente diploides silvestres, los mejoradores se han dado cuenta de que la elección del 'donante de resistencia' también debe tener en cuenta las características agronómicas y, si es posible, ciertos criterios de calidad del fruto; de ahí el establecimiento de estrategias de desarrollo de diploides mejorados.La gran diversidad genética de los diploides colectados en el sudeste asiático y en India permitió seleccionar diploides silvestres, semipartenocárpicos y partenocárpicos, como 'Calcutta 4' (Musa acuminata ssp. burmanicoïdes) y 'Pisang lilin' (diploide partenocárpico fértil con fruto sin semillas). Estos últimos se utilizaron para mejorar los cultivares triploides pero también sirvieron de base para el desarrollo de progenitores diploides mejorados. Destacaremos el M 53 (resistente a las enfermedades foliares causadas por Mycosphaerella y al marchitamiento por Fusarium) creado en los años 50 por el antiguo programa de mejoramiento del Jamaican Banana Board y los diploides élites desarrollados por la FHIA, algunos de los cuales presentan resistencias múltiples (a las enfermedades foliares, los nematodos y marchitamiento por Fusarium) y frutos bastante más largos que los pequeños frutos de los diploides silvestres (Figura 2). Por otra parte, el National Research Centre on Banana (NRCB) y la Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, han creado numerosos híbridos diploides monoespecíficos AA e interespecíficos AB.Desde hace poco, se están utilizando híbridos diploides fértiles AA como progenitores o como material de base para desarrollar diploides élites. Se trata, en particular, de híbridos de plátano resistentes a las enfermedades foliares y que poseen una calidad de fruta cercana a la de los plátanos. Este es el enfoque que siguen principalmente el CARBAP y el IITA para el desarrollo de diploides específicos de ciertos subgrupos como los plátanos y los bananos de las tierras altas de África oriental. Dentro del marco de la estrategia 4x/2x, se crean híbridos triploides mediante hibridación entre un progenitor diploide y otro tetraploide, previamente obtenido por duplicación cromosómica con colchicina de un antepasado diploide o de un híbrido diploide mejorado (Figura 3). Esta estrategia imita el proceso natural de evolución de los bananos, ya que se supone que los cultivares triploides naturales proceden de antepasados diploides con una producción accidental de gametos no reducidos en uno de los progenitores diploides durante la hibridación (Simmonds 1962). El error meiotico que origina dichos gametos no reducidos se sustituye en la estrategia 4x/2x por una duplicación cromosómica de uno de los progenitores mediante tratamiento con colchicina (Bakry et al. 1997, Stover et Buddenhagen 1986, Vakili 1967). La hibridación no puede continuarse puesto que el producto logrado muestra una esterilidad casi total y no puede mejorase por vía convencional.Al contrario de la estrategia 3x/2x, la 4x/2x no intenta mejorar las variedades existentes sino más bien crear nuevas variedades mejoradas, próximas de los modelos escogidos, a partir de variedades ancestrales. Dichos híbridos deben, por tanto, reunir el conjunto de las características clásicas de los bananos que están destinados al mejoramiento y, además, los caracteres mejorados que persigue la estrategia.Esta estrategia, particularmente utilizada por el Cirad, ha sido posible gracias a un mejor conocimiento de la evolución de los bananos basado en sus caracteres morfológicos y moleculares (Fauré et al. 1994, Jenny et al. 1999). De este modo, se relacionó la importancia de la variabilidad genética dentro del genoma acuminata con la variabilidad en la calidad de los frutos de los grandes grupos cultivados. El ejemplo más sorprendente probablemente sea el parentesco entre la subespecie Musa acuminata spp. banksii y los bananos de cocción, lo que ha permitido producir híbridos triploides de banano de cocción de origen puramente acuminata. La variabilidad del genoma acuminata permite, asimismo, variar en gran parte el tipo de fruto y de planta obtenidos: de postre o de cocción y, además, más o menos azucarado o acidulado, fruto largo o corto, con mayor o menor capacidad de rebrote o mayor o menor rendimiento, etc.Dentro de los primeros resultados obtenidos, el CARBAP pudo identificar, entre los aproximadamente 100 individuos procedentes del cruzamiento BB x AAAA (con AAAA sensibles y BB parcialmente resistentes a la enfermedad de la raya negra de la hoja a cerca de un 20% de híbridos que mostraban una resistencia interesante a la raya negra de la hoja (Sigatoka negra). Por otra parte, combinando híbridos de plátanos diploides con tetraploides acuminata de cocción obtenidos en el Cirad, el CARBAP pudo obtener poblaciones de cerca de un centenar de individuos, de entre los cuales se están seleccionando varios híbridos triploides acuminata AAA resistentes a la raya negra de la hoja.En resumen, esta estrategia presenta ventajas innegables: un elevado número de progenitores disponibles, una mejor previsión de la heritabilidad de los caracteres interesantes y una mejor fertilidad de los progenitores diploides que se refleja en poblaciones de tamaños más importantes que permiten establecer un verdadero programa de selección que puede incluir varios criterios de mejoramiento. Ampliar la base de los progenitores implementando una estrategia de mejoramiento de los diploides o efectuando prospecciones complementarias en las regiones de interés podría aumentar el potencial de esta estrategia. A este respecto, el CARBAP desarrolla actualmente, a partir de híbridos de plátano diploides resistentes a la enfermedad de la raya negra de la hoja, diploides mejorados de segunda y tercera generación (diploides secundarios y terciarios) por cruzamiento entre híbridos de plátano diploides y fuentes de resistencia que se están duplicando cromosómicamente. No obstante, cabe señalar que los híbridos AAB procedentes de los cruzamientos AAAA x BB son igualmente susceptibles de expresar el BSV.Habida cuenta de los inconvenientes de la estrategia 3x/2x y de la fertilidad de los tetraploides obtenidos, estos últimos fueron rápidamente considerados como productos intermedios. Por ello, lógicamente, se cruzaron con diploides para obtener triploides 'genómicamente' más cercanos a los cultivares triploides iniciales, llamados triploides primarios, mientras que los triploides resultantes de los cruzamientos 4x/2x se denominan triploides secundarios. En realidad, la estrategia 3x/2x se utiliza en este caso como una posibilidad única de extracción de las características interesantes de los cultivares triploides apreciados. Posteriormente, dicho material se explota mejor, a mayor escala, gracias a los híbridos parentales tetraploides y diploides (híbridos F1) más fértiles y susceptibles de generar poblaciones más importantes de híbridos F2 que son, en realidad, los nietos de los cultivares triploides populares.Sin embargo, no se debe olvidar el hecho de que la ganancia genética lograda gracias a la restitución nuclear de la etapa anterior se verá disminuida por la recombinación que se producirá en la meiosis del tetraploide. La elección de los progenitores diploides para el cruzamiento F1, pero también para el cruzamiento F2, es, por tanto, muy importante y de ella dependerá la calidad o la reconstitución de híbridos triploides secundarios. Estos últimos deberían conservar las características apreciadas en sus abuelos (los cultivares triploides iniciales) a las que se añadirían caracteres de resistencia a enfermedades y plagas.Esta estrategia permitió al IITA, la EMBRAPA y la FHIA obtener poblaciones de híbridos lo bastante importantes para efectuar selecciones interesantes de híbridos triploides secundarios de calidad. El CARBAP utiliza también esta vía para generar poblaciones importantes de híbridos triploides secundarios a partir de tetraploides primarios resultantes de los escasos plátanos enanos. La principal ventaja de esta estrategia de dos etapas es la obtención, mediante híbridos primarios, de varios cientos de descendientes de segunda generación a partir de cultivares triploides muy estériles. Merece destacarse el ejemplo de híbridos triploides de tipo enano obtenidos a partir de híbridos tetraploides primarios que proceden, a su vez, de cultivares triploides de plátanos enanos.A pesar de las dificultades inherentes a la planta y la escasez de los recursos destinados al mejoramiento del banano, se han realizado importantes adelantos en estos últimos veinte últimos años, particularmente en bananos de consumo local, es decir, los que no son objeto de un comercio internacional por parte de las grandes compañías. La situación de los bananos de exportación es un poco distinta: las grandes compañías buscan variedades resistentes pero que respondan sobre todo a normas bien precisas de manejo pre y postcosecha. Esta es una de las razones por las cuales los híbridos tetraploides de banano de postre creados por la FHIA no fueron adoptados por la industria bananera.Se podrían lograr avances más importantes incrementando los medios destinados al mejoramiento convencional y fomentando la cooperación. También se deberían hacer progresar los estudios moleculares para hacer más eficaz el mejoramiento asistido por marcadores. Estos estudios deberían abarcar la identificación de los genes de resistencia pero también la de los vinculados a la tolerancia a los estrés abióticos, a la partenocarpia y a la calidad de los frutos. Se pueden realizar cosas muy interesantes en el mejoramiento convencional pero éste debería combinarse con métodos no convencionales como la mutagénesis y la transformación genética, o incluso la fusión de protoplastos. Sólo mediante un enfoque global se podrá dar una respuesta duradera al conjunto de los problemas que deben afrontar los cultivares. Por otra parte, no habría que perder de vista la necesidad de integrar las estrategias de mejoramiento en un enfoque global de manejo sostenible del cultivo bananero, ya que las variedades mejoradas no pueden solucionar todo.os bananos deben enfrentarse con numerosos retos ambientales, particularmente, con los patógenos fungosos y bacterianos, así como con plagas y estreses abióticos. Esta situación está exacerbada por la diversidad limitada de los cultivares. Además, las estrategias de mejoramiento convencional son problemáticas debido a la baja fertilidad femenina, esterilidad, ploidia y pobre establecimiento de las semillas. Como resultado, la genética clásica es difícil y limitada, y toma mucho tiempo. En conjunto, la dificultad en el mejoramiento convencional, diversidad genética limitada y enfermedades poco controladas apuntan a la necesidad de desarrollar estrategias alternativas para el mejoramiento de los bananos. Los enfoques biotecnológicos son particularmente apropiados para este cultivo. Este análisis se concentrará en dos tópicos distintos, pero que se sobreponen: (i) el papel de las plantas modelo en proporcionar vías que conduzcan a los enfoques para el mejoramiento de los bananos a través de la biotecnología y (ii) los enfoques conceptuales para generar bananos con resistencia mejorada a las enfermedades y otros estreses ambientales.Mientras que el \"registro\" con respecto a las aplicaciones exitosas de los enfoques de ADN recombinante en la generación de las plantas transgénicas con características agronómicas mejoradas (especialmente los que involucran la resistencia a las enfermedades) es limitado, también es justo señalar que esta tecnología tiene un poder experimental considerable. Actualmente, ya es evidente que muchas técnicas importantes (por ejemplo, la transformación genética, el silenciamiento génico) son posibles de aplicar en los bananos (James Dale, comunicación personal) y están limitadas principalmente por la selección de los genes. En otras palabras, ¿qué vamos a insertar? Además, mientras que la tecnología para la manipulación de los genes esta disponible desde varios años para muchas plantas, el éxito en las condiciones de campo ha sido dificultado por nuestra ausencia total de entendimiento de las determinantes esenciales y las vías de mediación estrés/ enfermedad. Sin embargo, es probable que aparezcan genes y estrategias más eficaces dada la disponibilidad de la secuencias genómicas.En esta sección se discutirán dos plantas modelo: Arabidopsis y el arroz. Arabidopsis ha servido como una planta modelo invaluable en numerosos aspectos de la biología de las plantas, incluyendo la patología y la fisiología del estrés, con la identificación de muchas perspectivas a ser aplicadas directamente a los cultivos. En adición, Arabidopsis tiene varias características experimentales clave: el genoma está secuenciado, los chips de micromatriz están disponibles comercialmente y un número considerable de mutantes ha sido caracterizado. En adición, la genética inversa continuará como herramienta poderosa para examinar la función de los genes en Arabidopsis.Sin embargo, Arabidopsis es una planta dicotiledónea y no es planta de cultivo. Por otro lado, el arroz es una planta monocotiledónea (y por esto puede estar relacionado más estrechamente con el banano) y es una planta de cultivo, pero no está tan biencaracterizado genéticamente, aunque pronto estará disponible la secuencia completa del genoma del arroz. Además, muchas de las características experimentales disponibles en Arabidopsis están siendo desarrolladas para el arroz, algunas de las cuales ya están en uso (por ejemplo, las líneas knockout del T-ADN de arroz). El genoma del arroz es relativamente pequeño; unas 3-4 veces más grande que el de Arabidopsis (Resink y Buell 2004). Además, varios de los genes pronosticados encontrados en el arroz tienen homólogos en Arabidopsis (Consorcio de Secuenciación del Cromosoma 10 del Arroz 2003). Otra consideración importante es el hecho de que el arroz, junto con otras plantas estrechamente relacionadas, exhibe un grado relativamente alto de sintenia (Gale y Devos 1998).Ya que la genómica del banano se encuentra en su infancia, con información limitada sobre las secuencias, es prematuro sacar conclusiones acerca de una estrategia comparativa individual y hasta que grado se conservará la sintenia. Sin embargo, se hicieron estudios iniciales (Aert et al. 2004). Curiosamente, la comparación de la estructura y organización genómica del banano derivadas de los estudios preliminares de la secuenciación BAC (BAC end sequencing), con las de arroz y Arabidopsis sugiere que el banano podría estar más cercano al Arabidopsis que al arroz (Chris Town, comunicación personal). Si esta observación preliminar se mantiene, entonces el banano se posiciona en un lugar bastante único, una monocotiledónea con más afinidad a las dicotiledóneas que otras monocotiledóneas.El gen NPRI de Arabidopsis es un elemento central bien caracterizado en la regulación de la resistencia sistémica adquirida (SAR). Cuando este gen está sobreexpresado en Arabidopsis, ocurre resistencia mejorada a la enfermedad. Para evaluar el papel del NPRI en las plantas monocotiledóneas, el gen de Arabidopsis fue sobreexpresado en el arroz y las plantas transgénicas fueron retadas con el agente patógeno del tizón bacteriano del arroz Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. Las plantas transgénicas exhibieron niveles mejorados de resistencia, aunque no de manera tan pronunciada como el cultivar resistente (Chern et al. 2001). Estos estudios indicaron que un gen de dicotiledónea puede ser expresado y conferir un fenotipo útil a una monocotiledónea y sugiere que las plantas monocotiledóneas y dicotiledóneas comparten una vía conservada que media la resistencia.La identificación y caracterización de los principales genes de resistencia (genes R) es un campo activo importante de investigación y el banano no es una excepción (McDowell y Woffenden 2003, James Dale comunicación personal). Los genes R monocotiledóneos parecen encontrarse en la estructura CC (coiled coil), en el NBS (sitio de unión de nucleótidos) y en la estructura LRR (repeticiones ricas en leucinas) a diferencia de la TIR (repetición invertida semejante a toll) NBS LRR que predomina en dicotiledóneas, incluyendo Arabidopsis (para un análisis de los genes R, ver Martin et al. 2003).Hulbert y colaboradores describieron recientemente un enfoque interesante de identificación de fuentes de resistencia poco usuales (Zhao et al. 2004 ). Este grupo inoculó varias líneas de maíz con la bacteria que causa el rayado de las hojas del arroz. Se identificaron líneas que indujeron una respuesta hipersensible (HR) al confrontarlas. Este fenotipo sugiere que estas plantas de maíz eran capaces de reconocer el agente patógeno del arroz. Después de los cruzamientos, el control genético de la HR segregó como un locus dominante único, sugiriendo la posibilidad de un gen R único. El gen responsable del maíz fue clonado basándose en mapas y, después de insertarlo en el arroz, confirió resistencia contra la bacteria de la enfermedad del rayado bacteriano (S. Hulbert, comunicación personal). Esto es más que una demostración, ya que esta enfermedad es muy severa en las zonas (por ejemplo, en China) donde se utilizan extensamente cultivares híbridos que son muy susceptibles al rayado de las hojas. Además, estos estudios sugieren que los mismos genes pueden estar involucrados en la resistencia de no hospedante y en la resistencia específica.Los organismos pluricelulares eliminan células no deseadas, dañadas o utilizadas mediante un proceso de muerte celular programada dirigida por genes (PCD). El PCD es un suicidio celular controlado genéticamente y desempeña un papel crítico en una amplia variedad de los procesos fisiológicos normales. En humanos y otros animales, la desregulación de esta vía de muerte celular natural contribuye en gran medida a las enfermedades caracterizadas por una excesiva acumulación de células (cáncer, enfermedades autoinmunes) o muerte celular indebida (ataque de apoplejía, infarto de miocardio, inflamación, SIDA, enfermedad de Alzheimer y otras enfermedades neurodegenerativas). En adición, la mayoría de los virus y bacterias intracelulares controlan la vía de la muerte celular en las células hospedantes que ellos infectan, ligando de esta manera la apoptosis a las enfermedades infecciosas.Por lejos, la respuesta más común del suicidio celular en animales es la \"apoptosis\". La apoptosis se refiere a un cúmulo de cambios morfológicos característicos que experimentan típicamente las células animales cuando mueren debido a la activación del programa endógeno de suicidio celular. La ejecución de este programa a menudo está asociada al encogimiento de las células, sangrado de membranas, condensación nuclear y citoplásmica, y fragmentación de ADN. Estos fragmentos de ADN se funden para formar cuerpos apoptósicos unidos por membranas que, en animales son rápidamente fagocitadas y digeridas por macrófagos. De esta manera, las células muertas son removidas rápida y limpiamente y se evita la filtración celular de los contenidos nocivos y posiblemente peligrosos.En contraste, la necrosis resulta de la lesión celular; las células hinchan y estallan liberando material citoplásmico, que en animales a menudo provocan una respuesta inmunológica. Mientras la diferencia entre estas dos formas de muerte no siempre es clara, en las necrosis la célula no es un participante activo en su fallecimiento. La apoptosis usualmente también es asociada con la activación de las nucleasas que degradan el ADN cromosómico en pequeños fragmentos oligonucleosómicos, los cuales al aplicarles la electroforesis resultan en una \"escalera de ADN\" característica.Los genes que controlan la muerte celular programada se conservan a través de grandes distancias evolutivas definiendo una combinación central de reacciones bioquímicas que son reguladas de diversas maneras mediante las entradas de múltiples vías. Estos genes codifican proteínas antiapoptósicas (por ejemplo, Bcl-2, Bcl-xl, CED-9, IAP) o proapoptósicas (por ejemplo, Bax, Bid, caspasas), que se combaten unas a otras haciendo las decisiones de vida o muerte para la célula. La sobreexpresión ectópica de ciertos tipos de genes antiapoptósicos puede producir células animales marcadamente resistentes a un amplio rango de los estímulos para la muerte celular, incluyendo la privación de nutrientes, irradiación, químicos citotóxicos, hipoxia y enfermedades (Navarre y Wolpert 1999).En las plantas, la muerte celular programada desempeña un papel fisiológico en una variedad de procesos, incluyendo (a) deleción de células con funciones temporales, como las células aleuronas en semillas y células suspensoras en embriones; (b) remoción de células no deseadas, como las células de la cofia que se encuentran en las puntas de las raíces elongadas de las plantas y las células del primordio de los estambres en las flores unisexuales; (c) deleción de células durante el esculpido del cuerpo de la planta y la formación de los lóbulos y perforaciones foliares; (d) muerte de células durante la especialización de la planta, como la muerte de las células de un elemento traqueal (TE); y (e) muerte de las hojas (Dickman y Reed 2003). La regulación de las vías de la muerte celular también ocurre en respuesta a estímulos abióticos (Jones y Dangl 1996). En algunos casos, también se activan programas de eliminación de células durante el ataque de patógenos tanto en interacciones planta-patógeno resistentes como susceptibles (Beers 1997, Mitsuhara et al. 1999).Aunque los mecanismos bioquímicos responsables por el suicidio de las células en las plantas se desconocen, varios informes sugieren similitudes con la muerte celular programada que ocurre en las especies animales. Por ejemplo, el PCD en las plantas típicamente requiere una nueva expresión génica, y así puede ser suprimido por la cicloheximida e inhibidores similares de proteína o de la síntesis de ARN (Dickman y Reed 2003). Las características morfológicas de las células de las plantas que están sometidas al PCD también conllevan similitudes notables con la apoptosis en animales, aunque la presencia de una pared celular alrededor de las células de las plantas impone ciertas diferencias. Semejante a las células animales, el PCD en las plantas está asociado con la fragmentación internucleosómica de ADN (escaleras de ADN) y con la activación de las proteasas (Ryerson y Heath 1996, Solomon et al. 1999).En adición a su papel en los procesos de desarrollo en las plantas, el suicidio de las células desempeña una función importante en las interacciones de las plantas con una variedad de agentes patógenos, incluyendo bacterias, hongos y virus (Mittler y Lam 1996). Una de estas respuestas de las plantas a los patógenos mejor estudiada es la respuesta hipersensible (HR). Con la exposición a ciertos patógenos, las células de las plantas en la zona afectada inmediatamente experimentan una rápida respuesta de suicidio celular, lo que teóricamente tiene como fin matar las células cercanas al sitio de infección, limitando por consiguiente la propagación de los patógenos. La HR está asociada con la expresión de una variedad de genes de defensa de las plantas y con la inducción de la La planta modelo Arabidopsis de la cual se secuenció el genoma.Martin Dickman muerte celular programada. La HR usualmente es precedida por respuestas rápidas y transitorias, incluyendo los flujos iónicos, alteraciones en los patrones de fosforilación de las proteínas, cambios de pH, cambios en el potencial de las membranas, liberación de las especies de oxígeno reactivo (ROS), y entrecruzamiento oxidativo de las proteínas de las paredes celulares de las plantas (Richberg et al. 1998).Aunque el suicidio celular de las plantas (HR) puede ser eficaz en cuanto a limitar la propagación de ciertos virus, bacterias y hongos (en particular, aquellos con un estilo de vida biotrófico), es contraproducente para limitar los patógenos necrotizantes que utilizan el cuerpo de células deterioradas como base de alimentación en caso de ciertas bacterias y hongos. Por ejemplo, se han observado características destacadas de apoptosis en las plantas (durante las interacciones compatibles) que son sensibles a los hongos necrotróficos que producen toxinas, incluyendo el Fusarium moniliforme (fumonisina), Alternaria alternata (toxina AAL) y Cochliobolus victoriae (victorina) (Navarre y Wolpert 1999, Piedras et al. 1998). De este modo, la muerte celular programada de las plantas puede acompañar reacciones tanto susceptibles como resistentes, sugiriendo vías bioquímicas comunes durante ambas interacciones.Los experimentos de prueba conceptual indican que es posible diseñar plantas genéticamente para que tengan resistencia a los agentes patógenos sin interferir con las respuestas normales de muerte celular programada necesaria para el desarrollo de las plantas. Por ejemplo, Mitsuhara et al. demostraron que la expresión en tabaco de la familia citoprotectora Bcl-2 de proteínas proveniente de los humanos (Bcl-X L ) y nematodos (CED-9) resultó en una resistencia celular aumentada a la radiación con rayos UV y paraquat. El trabajo en mi laboratorio proporcionó más evidencias que indican que las proteínas Bcl-2 funcionan en las plantas. El tabaco transgénico fue generado albergando varias proteínas antiapoptósicas incluyendo la humana Bcl-2, la del pollo Bcl-X L , la del nematodo CED-9 y la del baculovirus Op-IAP (Dickman et al. 2001). Cuando el patógeno fungoso necrotrófico Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, que tiene un rango de hospedantes extremadamente amplio (más de 400 especies), fue inoculado en las plantas de tabaco que albergaban estos transgenes, las plantas usualmente susceptibles se hicieron altamente tolerantes y en la mayoría de los casos, completamente resistentes.Eventualmente, el hongo detiene su crecimiento, presumiblemente después de haber agotado su fuente nutricional, y, lo que es importante, el hongo fracasa en colonizar e infectar los tejidos de la planta transgénica aún con una incubación prolongada. Resultados similares ocurrieron con otros hongos necrotróficos incluyendo Botrytis cinerea y Cercospora nicotianae.Un aspecto unificador de estos resultados con los hongos examinados, es que los tres agentes patógenos fungosos son necrotrofos; de esta manera, estos hongos requieren la muerte celular de la planta hospedante para crecer, colonizar y reproducirse en el medio del hospedante. En el caso del patógeno de un rango de hospedantes más amplio, S. sclerotiorum, se asumió que este patógeno agresivo, sin discriminaciones, con un arsenal impresionante de enzimas y toxinas destructivas, simplemente ahoga las plantas. Nuestros datos sugieren que esta interacción es más sofisticada; el agente patógeno interactúa específicamente con la planta activando las vías de la muerte celular del hospedante. La inhibición de estas vías, presumiblemente por los productos génicos antiapoptósicos, previene la infección fungosa aunque el hongo tiene su complemento completo de factores de virulencia. De esta manera, los agentes patógenos necrotróficos pueden cooptar las vías de la muerte celular de la planta hospedante para una colonización y desarrollo de la enfermedad exitosas. La redirección de las vías de la muerte celular de las plantas por patógenos necrotróficos puede ser esencial para que ocurra el desarrollo de la enfermedad.Aún, estos resultados no comprueban que las plantas y animales comparten características comunes de apoptosis. Sin embargo, cuando S. sclerotiorum fue inoculado en el tipo silvestre de tabaco, se observó la fragmentación de ADN en forma de la \"escalera\" característica, un rasgo común de respuestas apoptósicas. Además, la fragmentación de ADN inducida por el hongo fue detectada utilizando la técnica TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotide transferasemediated dUTP end labeling) de los grupos de ADN 3'-OH que también indicaron la presencia de los cuerpos apoptósicos. Es importante anotar que cuando las plantas transgénicas fueron inoculadas con S. sclerotiorum, no solo hubo plantas resistentes, sino que no se formó la escalera, ni tampoco hubo células positivas a la técnica TUNEL. En adición, los experimentos con el virus del mosaico del tabaco muestran que en la resistencia mediada por el gen N, la HR resultante muestra células de tabaco que reaccionaron a la técnica TUNEL y que en el tabaco transgénico que contenía genes antiapoptósicos, la muerte celular (HR) fue suprimida. De esta manera, tenemos evidencia de que las vías apoptósicas están involucradas tanto en las respuestas susceptibles como resistentes. La inducción de estas vías depende de la genética del hospedante/patógeno y del estilo de vida del patógeno. Además, hemos demostrado recientemente que estas mismas plantas transgénicas son tolerantes al calor, frío, sal y sequía (Li y Dickman 2004). Lo que es importante es que estos datos sugieren claramente que las vías homólogas son operantes en las plantas y en los animales.Actualmente, estamos en proceso de generar bananos transgénicos que albergan estos genes antiapoptósicos. Las dos principales enfermedades fungosas de los bananos (la raya negra de la hoja o Sigatoka negra y el marchitamiento por Fusarium) caben en el marco conceptual para el control de las enfermedades; en otras palabras, existen hongos necrotróficos. De esta manera estamos prudentemente optimistas de que los bananos transgénicos exhibirán tolerancia/ resistencia. También evaluaremos estas líneas con respecto a la tolerancia al estrés abiótico (calor, frío, sal, sequía).Plausiblemente, existen enormes oportunidades para utilizar los modelos animales de las vías de la muerte celular programada para desmenuzar las vías de la muerte celular en las plantas. Esta información puede llevar a un entendimiento de los mecanismos de la regulación de la muerte celular de las plantas, un área que no es bien entendida y de su importancia fundamental para la biología de las plantas. De esta manera, el entendimiento y la explotación eventual de las vías de vida y muerte de las células en las plantas pueden ser utilizados para la protección de los bananos contra los agentes patógenos y estrés ambientales. as plagas y enfermedades representan factores mas y mas limitadores de la producción, tanto de los pequeños productores, como de la destinada a la exportación, y pueden causar pérdidas catastróficas (Jones 2000a). Las enfermedades son la razón por la cual se establecieron programas de mejoramiento en Trinidad, Jamaica, Honduras y Nigeria, y han sido citadas como la razón primaria para la creación de INIBAP (Buddenhagen 1993). Es lo más apropiado que una sesión de esta reunión se dedique a estas limitaciones para la producción.Las enfermedades y plagas de Musa presentan problemas significativos en todo el mundo. Las enfermedades afectan todas las partes de las plantas, son causadas por hongos, bacterias y virus, y han sido tópicos para libros enteros (Jones 2000a, Stover 1972, Wardlaw 1961). Las plagas, aunque de menor importancia global, no obstante son factores serios para la producción por derecho propio (Gold et al. 2001, Gold et al. 2002, Gowen y Quénéhervé 1990). En este corto análisis presentamos los más importantes de estos problemas y lo concluimos con una discusión de algunos tópicos actuales.Las enfermedades causadas por los hongos son las más comunes y destructivas (Jones 2000). Las enfermedades de las manchas foliares causadas por las especies de Mycosphaerella causan daños de moderados a severos dondequiera que ocurren lluvias significativas (Jacome et al. 2003). La enfermedad de la raya negra de la hoja, conocida mejor como la Sigatoka negra y causada por Mycosphaerella fijiensis, es la más importante. Esta enfermedad se presenta en las tierras bajas de los trópicos húmedos y tiene un amplio rango de hospedantes incluyendo el subgrupo Cavendish (AAA) y los plátanos (AAB). En algunas partes, la mancha foliar eumusae, causada por Mycosphaerella eumusae, Sigatoka, causada por Mycosphaerella musicola, y pecas causadas por Mycosphaerella musae, son igual o más importantes. El marchitamiento por Fusarium, causado por Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), es un problema letal y muy propagado de este cultivo (Ploetz y Pegg 2000). Este hongo destruyó el comercio de exportación que hasta 1960 dependía del 'Gros Michel' (AAA). Una variante recientemente reconocida, la raza tropical 4 (TR4), afecta los cultivares Cavendish y amenaza la producción para la exportación y la de los pequeños productores, así, como de muchos otros cultivares fuera de su rango endémico del Sudeste asiático. Las siguientes enfermedades serias pero de menor magnitud son: las enfermedades de las manchas foliares cladosporium, causadas por Cladosporium musae, y las pecas, causadas por Guignardia musae; los problemas postcosecha de la antracnosis y de la podredumbre de la corona, causados principalmente por Glomerella musae; y las podredumbres de las raíces causadas por Cylindrocladium/Calonectria spp. (Jones 2000b, Jones 2000c, Muirhead y Jones, 2000, Ploetz et al. 2003a).Las bacterias causan varios tipos de enfermedades, las más significativas de las cuales son los marchitamientos vasculares (Thwaites et al. 2000). Con excepción de Filipinas, la enfermedad del Moko, causada por la raza 2 de Ralstonia solanacearum, está restringida al hemisferio occidental. Esta enfermedad ha eliminado al altamente susceptible 'Bluggoe' (ABB) en muchas áreas productoras en el occidente. En contraste, la enfermedad sanguínea, causada por una Ralstonia sp. (posiblemente solanacearum), se encuentra en el hemisferio oriental solo en unas cuantas pequeñas islas del archipiélago de Indonesia. Las enfermedades del Moko y la sanguínea producen síntomas similares en los bananos y se transmiten por insectos voladores. Recientemente, el patógeno que causó el marchitamiento bacteriano en el ensete, Xanthomonas campestris pv. musarum, ha sido implicado en una epidemia devastadora de bananos en Uganda (Thwaites et al. 2000, Tushemereirwe et al. 2003, S. Eden-Green comunicación personal, 2004). Una podredumbre de la fruta Bugtok, causada por R. solanacearum, está restringida a Filipinas. Menos importantes, pero más propagadas, son las podredumbres del rizoma y del pseudotallo, las cuales son causadas por Erwinia spp. (Thwaites et al. 2000).Existen cuatro enfermedades significativas del banano que son causadas por los virus (Jones 2000, Ploetz et al. 2003a). El bunchy top es la más dañina y pueden ocurrir pérdidas totales si no se hace un diagnóstico temprano y no se practica un estricto saneamiento. Lo más probable es que esta enfermedad es causada por el virus bunchy top del banano (BBTV) (la causa y efecto no han sido demostrados en las plantas inoculadas artificialmente), y con la excepción de tres islas en la cadena de Hawai, se encuentra solo en el hemisferio oriental. El mosaico de las brácteas, causado por el virus del mosaico de las brácteas del banano (BBMV), tiene una distribución más restringida en el este y es menos destructiva que el bunchy top.En contraste, el rayado del banano, causado por el virus del rayado del banano (BSV), y el mosaico del banano, causado por el virus del mosaico del pepino (CMV), se encuentran en la mayoría de las áreas donde se cultivan los bananos. Usualmente, estos virus causan daños menores, pero existen cepas severas de cada uno de ellos. Antes de que el BSV y el rayado fueran descritos (Lockhart 1986), los síntomas del rayado se confundían a menudo con los del mosaico (Stover 1972, Wardla 1961). Al menos cuatro cepas del BSV que están ligadas al genoma B pueden ser activadas (convertirse en episomales) en germoplasma A X B vía meiosis y estrés inducido por el cultivo de tejidos (Geering et al. 2001, Geering comunicación personal 2004).Ellas amenazan el progreso alcanzado por los programas de mejoramiento y al movimiento seguro de germoplasma de híbridos.Los nematodos son las plagas más importantes del banano y, dependiendo del ambiente y ubicación geográfica, cuatro especies pueden causar daños significativos (Gowen y Quénéhervé 1990) (Figura 1). El nematodo barrenador, Radopholus similis, es el más propagado (Sarah et al. 1996). Pratylenchus coffeae y Pratylenchus goodeyi causan daños igualmente serios, pero son, respectivamente, menos comunes y relativamente raros en el banano en todo el mundo (Bridge et al. 1997). Todos los nematodos mencionados arriba impactan la producción en los trópicos, mientras que el nematodo de espiral, Helicotylenchus multicinctus, causa mayores daños en los subtrópicos (McSorley y Parrado 1986). El picudo negro del banano, Cosmopolites sordidus, es el insecto más común e importante en el banano (Gold et al. 2001).Las opciones para el manejo sostenible generalmente son limitadas. Las medidas culturales pueden ser muy exitosas contra algunas de las enfermedades y los procedimientos de saneamiento y depuración que se utilizan contra el Bunchy top y la enfermedad del Moko son ejemplos sobresalientes (Thomas y Iska-Caruana 2000, Thwaites et al. 2000). Sin embargo, ellas son eficaces solo marginalmente en otras situaciones, la más notable es el deshoje para el manejo de la Sigatoka negra en las áreas con altas precipitaciones (aunque el deshoje desempeñó un papel principal en la reciente erradicación de la enfermedad en el área de Tully en Australia, el mismo coincidió con un clima inusualmente seco).Guy Blomme, INIBAP El control químico es eficaz contra las manchas foliares, pero debido a su alto costo, esta no es una opción para los pequeños productores. En contraste, la producción de los cultivares Cavendish destinada a la exportación no sería posible sin el uso liberal de los fungicidas. En un menor grado, las plagas del banano también pueden ser manejadas químicamente. Los problemas de impacto ambiental y de la salud humana que están asociados con el uso de los plaguicidas en la producción bananera han recibido una considerable atención (Ploetz 2000, Ploetz et al. 2003b).La resistencia genética es benigna para el ambiente y muy eficaz contra algunas plagas y enfermedades. Algunos bananos de las razas indígenas tienen resistencia a las manchas foliares Mycosphaerella, marchitamiento por Fusarium y R. similis y fueron utilizados para reemplazar los clones susceptibles y, siempre que fuera posible, como progenitores en los programas de mejoramiento convencional. En un menor grado, también existe resistencia en los bananos de razas indígenas contra la enfermedad del Moko, otros nematodos y C. sordidus; en general, esta resistencia no ha sido utilizada en los programas de mejoramiento.Con unas pocas excepciones, poca resistencia natural existe para problemas bacterianos, virales y nematodos distintos a R. similis. De este modo, los enfoques no convencionales, en particular la transformación genética, han recibido atención considerable cuando estos problemas han sido tomados en cuenta por los programas de mejoramiento. El grado hasta el cual los bananos transformados o modificados genéticamente resolverán estos problemas y si los consumidores los aceptarán se desconoce actualmente. Concluyo con un vistazo más cercano de unos cuantos problemas importantes.Hasta hace poco tiempo, el marchitamiento bacteriano (BXW), causado por X. campestris pv. musacearum, fue visto como un problema en el ensete, Ensete ventricosum, pero no en el banano (Thwaites et al. 2000). Se sabía que el banano era susceptible, pero debido a que este no es un cultivo importante en Etiopía, el BXW no fue visto como una enfermedad de banano importante.La rapidez con la cual el BXW se ha movido es alarmante. Reconocido por primera vez en una sola finca en el Distrito de Mukono en octubre de 2000, la enfermedad fue reportada en 15 subcondados en cuatro distritos más para el mes de junio de 2003 (Tushemereirwe et al. 2003). Para octubre de 2003, la presencia de la enfermedad se confirmó en 10 distritos y se sospechó en ocho más (ver mapa en www.cabi-bioscience.org/Html/Glob alPlantClinic.htm). Actualmente, la presencia de la enfermedad ha sido confirmada en 18 distritos de Uganda así como en la República Democrática de Congo (G. Blomme comunicación personal 2004, S. Eden-Green comunicación personal 2004). En algunos campos se produjeron pérdidas de hasta el 70% de las plantas (Figura 2).Tanto los bananos exóticos como los bananos de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental (EAHB) son susceptibles. Ya que el patógeno se mueve aparentemente por los insectos voladores y la enfermedad ocurre en un área de escasos recursos, donde sería difícil implementar medidas de erradicación y de control, es probable que la propagación continúe. El BXW amenaza claramente a extensas áreas de banano a través de Africa Oriental.Guy Blomme, INIBAP El reconocimiento de la TR4 como un patotipo diferente del Foc es reciente. Los aislados de los VCG01213/01216 han sido recuperados de las muestras enviadas al autor desde Sumatra por R.H. Stover a principios de 1992, y para el año 1994 el VCG fue recuperado en las plantaciones de Cavendish en Malasia peninsular e Indonesia. La patogenecidad de varios de los aislados fue demostrada en 'Silk' (AAB), 'Bluggoe' (ABB) y 'Grande naine' (AAA) (Ploetz no publicado).Actualmente, la TR4 se encuentra en Australia (territorios del Norte), Indonesia (Halmahera, Irian Jaya, Java, Sulawesi y Sumatra), Malasia (Peninsular), Papua Nueva Guinea, y Taiwán (Ploetz et al. 2003a). Es patológicamente diferente a la raza 4 subtropical en que el daño ocurre en la ausencia de las condiciones que predisponen a ella (por ejemplo, clima frío). También se distingue genéticamente y comprende solo los aislados en VCG 01213/01216. El hecho de que la TR4 está devastando el Cavendish en los trópicos tiene implicaciones aterradoras para la producción destinada a la exportación en el Sudeste de Asia y el comercio extenso de Cavendish en el hemisferio occidental (Ploetz et al. 2003b). Ya que la TR4 afecta a otros grupos importantes como los plátanos AAB, también amenaza la producción por parte de los pequeños agricultores en Africa Occidental y en América Latina.Minimizar la propagación de la TR4 depende del cumplimiento estricto de las medidas de cuarentena contra el traslado de retoños y rizomas. Esto protegería la producción en el occidente, pero se necesitará información adicional para combatir el problema en el Sudeste de Asia, donde la epidemiología de la enfermedad no se entiende muy bien. Ya que los patógenos aparecen donde el banano no ha sido cultivado recientemente y en parcelas que han sido establecidas con plantas provenientes del cultivo de tejidos, su fuente es un misterio. Las preguntas relevantes son las siguientes:1) ¿Cuánto tiempo pueden sobrevivir los patógenos en ausencia de un hospedante de banano? 2) ¿Qué hospedantes alternativos, que sean bananos, están presentes en estas áreas productoras y cuáles son su distribución e impacto? 3) Si las plántulas provenientes del cultivo de tejidos estaban libres de patógenos, ¿cómo el patógeno se trasladó a estos sitios?Es necesario realizar investigaciones para responder a estas preguntas y combatir la situación en el Sudeste de Asia, y en el occidente se necesita un ojo vigilante y un juego de planes de contingencia si la TR4 llega (Ploetz 2003, Ploetz et al. 2003b).Ya que la mancha foliar eumusae fue reconocida hace menos de una década, las características importantes del patógeno y de la enfermedad aún no se conocen. Poco se conoce y posiblemente se desestima la distribución geográfica de la enfermedad debido a su semejanza con la raya negra de la hoja (Figura 3). Se debe continuar el trabajo para determinar la ocurrencia de la enfermedad y su predominio fuera de las áreas afectadas conocidas. En adición, es necesario realizar estudios básicos de la epidemiología de la enfermedad, su manejo, rango de hospedantes e impacto.Es necesario realizar trabajos sobre la epidemiología del rayado del banano y de su impacto variable sobre la producción. Sólo se entiende parcialmente lo que distingue las áreas donde ocurren problemas serios de las áreas donde el 'Mysore' AAB es esencialmente el único cultivar que es afectado o donde la infección reduce los rendimientos solo ligeramente (Daniells et al. 2001). Indudablemente, las cepas severas del BSV desempeñan un papel, pero los recientes estudios en la vecina Uganda sugieren que las áreas fuertemente impactadas también podrían ser aquellas donde están presentes diversos vectores (Harper et al. 2004). Tampoco se conocen todos los factores que influyen sobre la expresión de los síntomas (Lockhart y Jones 2000, Ploetz et al. 2003a). Aunque la temperatura y diferentes etapas de desarrollo del hospedante han sido asociadas con esta variación, también pueden estar involucrados otros factores. Se debe continuar la investigación sobre la composición genética variada del patógeno y sobre la activación de algunas cepas integradas.El banano ha sido cultivado en Uganda por más de 1000 años y es la base para la agricultura de subsistencia en muchas planicies de Africa Oriental (Purseglove 1972). En décadas recientes, los rendimientos han disminuido en Uganda central (Abera et al. 1999). Aunque esta reducción ha sido bien documentada, su(s) causa(s) permanece(n) oscura(s). Se ha sugerido la disminución de la fertilidad en estos sistemas de producción, los cuales existen durante mucho tiempo (algunas plantaciones han existido por varias generaciones), así como la disminución del manejo (Abera et al. 1999). Un estudio reciente indica que la fertilidad nitrogenada y potásica probablemente desempeñan papeles secundarios en este fenómeno y que los papeles principales se atribuyen lo más seguro a las plagas y enfermedades (Smithson et al. 2001).Si Smithson et al. (2001) están en lo correcto, es necesario determinar cuales plagas y enfermedades son las responsables y porqué ellas impactaron solo recientemente estos antiguos agrosistemas. La lista de los factores que pueden estar involucrados es larga e incluye los nematodos, el picudo negro del banano, varias enfermedades de manchas foliares y el BSV. Teniendo una lista tan larga, está claro que una investigación minuciosa de las variables sería una tarea enorme. Dicho esto, un enfoque concentrado, multidisciplinario para entender este problema, en el cual los principales candidatos se investiguen en experimentos factoriales contra uno o dos EAHB importantes, podría arrojar una visión valiosa de este problema. Esperamos que el BXW no ponga en discusión esta visión.Jean Carlier P ara asegurar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción, las estrategias que se elaboran para controlar las enfermedades deben tomar en cuenta los factores evolutivos y epidemiológicos que afectan a los patógenos. Pero, ya que estas estrategias serán aplicadas en escalas temporal y espacial no muy subordinadas a los experimentos, se debe desarrollar modelos de simulación con el fin de evaluar su eficacia y sostenibilidad. Para ser realistas, estos modelos deben alimentarse con parámetros medidos en el campo, de aquí la importancia de conducir estudios sobre la epidemiología y poblaciones de los patógenos.Entre los factores epidemiológicos y evolutivos que deben ser evaluados, los procesos de dispersión y su impacto sobre el flujo génico son fundamentales para el desarrollo de la epidemia y evolución del patógeno. Una rápida dispersión aérea de los patógenos a escalas global y continental puede tener consecuencias extremas sobre las enfermedades de las plantas (Brown y Hovmøller 2002). Estos autores hicieron una distinción entre dos formas de dispersión desde una fuente de inóculo. La primera es una rara e impredecible invasión de un paso, la cual involucra el transporte de las esporas a distancias muy grandes y hasta entre continentes. Esta forma estocástica de dispersión también puede resultar en la transportación de material vegetal infectado y tiende a ocurrir principalmente a escala global. La segunda forma consiste en una expansión gradual de las poblaciones del patógeno dentro de un continente a través de los procesos normales de dispersión de los patógenos. Sin embargo, las invasiones de un solo paso también pueden estar involucradas en la dispersión de una enfermedad a escala continental.Mycosphaerella fijiensis, que causa la enfermedad de la raya negra de la hoja en los bananos, es un ejemplo de una reciente epidemia fungosa que se propagó a través del mundo tropical. Como Mycosphaerella musicola, que causa la enfermedad de la Sigatoka, esta enfermedad de la mancha foliar se origina en el Sudeste de Asia (Mourichon y Fullerton 1990, Pasberg-Gauhl et al. 2000). Aún se está propagando y reemplazando M. musicola como patógeno dominante de la mancha foliar. Mycosphaerella fijiensis es un hongo ascomiceto haploide y heterotálico que se propaga por tres vías: el traslado del material vegetal infectado (retoños infectados y hojas enfermas utilizadas para envolver los alimentos y otros efectos), la dispersión de ascósporas (producidas durante la reproducción sexual) y la dispersión de las conidias (producidas durante la reproducción asexual) (Gauhl et al. 2000). Mientras que las conidias se propagan a cortas distancias en la misma planta o en las plantas vecinas, las ascósporas viables pueden viajar con el viento varios cientos de kilómetros (Parnell et al. 1998). Los recientes estudios epidemiológicos y de las poblaciones de M. fijiensis proporcionan información principalmente sobre el nivel y la distribución de la variabilidad del hongo y su dispersión.La estructura de la población de M. fijiensis fue analizada a escalas mundial y de la planta utilizando marcadores moleculares (Carlier et al. 1996, Hayden et al. 2003a, Rivas et al. 2004). Los resultados indican que un alto nivel de diversidad genética se ha mantenido a escalas de la plantación y de la planta. Los loci se encontraban en equilibrio gamético en la mayoría de las muestras analizadas, sugiriendo poblaciones de M. fijiensis con un apareamiento aleatorio, aún a escala de la planta. Los efectos fundadores fueron detectados a escalas mundial y continental. El nivel de la diferenciación genética entre las poblaciones fue más alta a escala mundial (F st = 0.52 entre algunos continentes) y casi nula a escala local (F st = 0 entre plantaciones vecinas) (Figura 1).Las estructuras de la población observadas a escalas global y continental reflejan la historia de la dispersión de M. fijiensis. El Sudeste de Asia tenía los niveles más altos de diversidad genética, apoyando la hipótesis de que el patógeno se originó en la región. En la región de América Latina y el Caribe, los niveles más altos de diversidad genética se observaron en las poblaciones de Honduras y Costa Rica, corroborando la hipótesis de que el patógeno entró al continente por esta zona (Pasberg- Gauhl et al. 2000). En Africa, los niveles de diversidad genética en la mayoría de los países fueron similares, haciendo difícil de localizar el lugar desde donde el patógeno entró en el continente por primera vez (Pasberg- Gauhl et al. 2000). Es posible queFigura 2. Ascósporas de Mycosphaerella fijiensis germinadas y no germinadas in vitro. Los resultados reflejan la importancia relativa de la dispersión a través de materiales vegetales infectados y ascósporas dependiendo de la escala geográfica (Figura 1). A escala global, la introducción de la enfermedad en diferentes continentes se realiza probablemente a partir de material vegetal infectado. La propagación dentro de un continente probablemente resulta de la dispersión de ascósporas (Figura 2) en unos cientos kilómetros o del traslado del material vegetal infectado. La dispersión de M. fijiensis a través de grandes distancias parece ser estocástica, lo que lleva a efectos fundadores, un flujo génico limitado entre las poblaciones establecidas y, como resultado, un alto nivel de diferenciación genética entre ellas. Al disminuir la distancia, se vuelve importante la dispersión a través de ascósporas, lo que resulta en un nivel más bajo de diferenciación genética. Finalmente, la existencia de las poblaciones de M. fijiensis con apareamiento aleatorio a escalas de la planta y de la plantación, concuerda con las investigaciones que muestran el papel importante que desempeña el viento en la dispersión de las ascósporas a estas escalas (Rutter el al. 1998). Los datos no pueden ser utilizados para evaluar la importancia relativa de la dispersión a través de las ascósporas y conidias a escalas de la planta y de la plantación, ya que los aislados clonados provienen solo de ascósporas.Se utilizaron dos enfoques complementarios para estimar el flujo génico y la dispersión de las ascósporas a escala de una plantación y una zona de producción (más de unos cientos de kilómetros).Un enfoque indirecto de la genética de las poblaciones basado en el aislamiento mediante un modelo de distancia (Wright 1951) fue utilizado a escala de una zona de producción. En este modelo, la dispersión ocurre preferiblemente entre las subpoblaciones vecinas llevando a una correlación entre las distancias geográfica y genética. El estudio fue realizado en Costa Rica y Camerún en zonas productoras de 300 km de largo (Rivas 2003, Coste resultados no publicados). En total, más de 300 aislados clonados de monoascósporas de 10 a 15 plantaciones bananeras distribuidas a lo largo de una transversal fueron analizados utilizando PCR-RFLP (Zapater et a.l 2004) y marcadores de microsatélites (Neu et al. 1999, Zapater resultados no publicados). Los datos fueron analizados utilizando el método desarrollado por Rousset (1997). En ambos países se detectó un fuerte aislamiento debido a la distancia, sugiriendo que la dispersión promedio de ascósporas es mucho menor de 300 km.También se utilizó un enfoque directo basado en el análisis del gradiente de la enfermedad (McCartney y Fitt 1998). La dispersión de una fuente del inóculo fue analizada en una plantación aislada durante un período correspondiente a un ciclo sexual (alrededor de 4 semanas) (Abadie resultados no publicados). Se detectaron autocorrelaciones espaciales significativas, sugiriendo la existencia de un gradiente de la enfermedad. La distribución de la enfermedad se ajustó a una curva exponencial negativa. La distancia estimada de dispersión de ascósporas fue de alrededor de 30 metros, muy inferior a 300 km. Los resultados obtenidos utilizando enfoques genéticos y epidemiológicos de las poblaciones parecen coherentes.Estructuras de las poblaciones similares también han sido obtenidas para M. musicola (Hayden et al. 2003b, Carlier et al 2003). El hongo recién descubierto Mycosphaerella eumusae, que causa la enfermedad de la mancha foliar eumusae (Crous y Mourichon 2002), se ha observado principalmente en el Sudeste de Asia (Carlier et al. 2000), que no solo es el centro de origen de los tres agentes patógenos, sino que también del género hospedante Musa (Stover y Simmonds 1987). El estudio de la distribución y estructura de las poblaciones de los tres patógenos Mycosphaerella en el Sudeste de Asia ayudaría a localizar las zonas de coevolución. Estas zonas son las fuentes potenciales de resistencia y se podría comparar las interacciones hospedante-patógeno de los tres agentes patógenos. El estudio de las poblaciones del patógeno en sus sistemas naturales debe brindar mejor conocimiento de su epidemiología y evolución.Con respecto a M. fijiensis, el efecto de la recombinación genética, el rumbo genético y el flujo génico sobre la estructura de la población del agente patógeno de acuerdo a su estrategia respectiva, tamaño de la población y proceso de dispersión, solo están empezando a entenderse. Sin embargo, la importancia relativa de la reproducción sexual y asexual a distancias cortas aún debe estimarse. Esta proporción puede ser determinada utilizando marcadores moleculares en conidias clonadas (Chen y McDonald 1996).Aunque no se conoce la importancia relativa a escala continental de la dispersión a través de ascósporas y material vegetal infectado, el mejoramiento de las medidas de cuarentena podría limitar el riesgo de introducir la enfermedad en nuevas áreas, así como el intercambio entre las poblaciones existentes en diferentes países. Ya que la distancia de dispersión de ascósporas parece estar restringida a solo una fracción de la longitud de una zona de producción que es unos pocos cientos de kilómetros de largo, el manejo de la enfermedad también debe intentar limitar la dispersión natural del patógeno a escala de una zona productora con el fin de limitar el flujo génico entre las poblaciones de agentes patógenos.Esta característica epidemiológica debe ser explotada para planear estrategias de manejo de la enfermedad eficaces y sostenibles a escala de las zonas productoras. Los parámetros estimados también podrían ser utilizados en modelos regionales para examinar el efecto de distribución del hospedero y resistencia del hospedante que varían en espacio y tiempo. Los resultados de estos ejercicios de modelación pueden ser utilizados para evaluar la necesidad de realizar otros experimentos sobre la dispersión de las ascósporas de M. fijiensis.Los parámetros relacionados con la presión de selección ejercida sobre las poblaciones de parasitos por funguicidas y la resistencia del hospedante también deberían estar integrados en los modelos para examinar la sostenibilidad de las estrategias de manejo de la enfermedad, pero los experimentos establecidos para estimar estos parámetros deberían tratar de limitar el flujo génico. Por ejemplo, en un estudio conducido a escala local para evaluar la presión de selección ejercida por la resistencia del hospedante, el flujo génico fue tan alto que probablemente contrarrestó el efecto de la selección (Abadie et al. 2003).Problemas de la calidad de los suelos en los sistemas de bananos de Africa Oriental y su relación con otros factores de pérdida de rendimiento n las zonas productoras de banano en los altiplanos de Africa Oriental (Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Este de la República Democrática de Congo, Noroeste de Tanzania y Oeste de Kenya), los bananos ocupan hasta el 30% de las tierras cultivadas. El área está caracterizada por altitudes de medianas a altas (900 -2000 sndm) y la presencia de laderas de moderadas a empinadas, propensas a la erosión. Sin embargo, la erosión bajo el dosel permanente de banano es mucho más baja (<30%), que en los campos con cultivos anuales (Lufafa et al. 2003).En las últimas décadas, las preocupaciones referentes a que los rendimientos del banano en esta región están disminuyendo se han expresado tan a menudo, que actualmente esto se considera como un hecho establecido (Anónimo 2001, Baijukya y Steenhuijsen Piters 1998, Rishirumuhirwa 1997, Woomer et al. 1998). Sin embargo, la mayoría de los informes sobre la disminución de los rendimientos están basados en las percepciones de los agricultores (Gold et al. 1999), ya que existe una falta general de documentación sobre un buen rendimiento. Desgraciadamente, es difícil obtener datos confiables sobre los rendimientos debido a que: (i) no existe un período de cosecha único, (ii) los pesos de los racimos dependen de la estación, (iii) la duración del ciclo de cultivo es altamente variable y depende del cultivar, nutrición de la planta y clima, (iv) los pesos de los racimos muestran una alta variabilidad espacial a escalas regional, de aldea y de finca, y (v) los bananos a menudo se cultivan en sistemas mixtos y a varias densidades, complicando los cálculos de rendimiento por hectárea. Los datos sobre los rendimientos presentados por la FAO y cuerpos gubernamentales se basan principalmente en estimaciones. Sus datos muestran que los rendimientos fueron principalmente estables, mientras que las áreas productiva y cultivada aumentaron firmemente durante los últimos 40 años (FAO 2004). Sin embargo, los informes sobre la disminución del rendimiento de los bananos se remontan a las décadas de los 40 y 50 (McMaster 1962, Masefield 1949) y desde aquel tiempo han persistido.La falta de cifras confiables sobre la producción bananera hace difícil de cuantificar la disminución de los rendimientos y la importancia de los distintos factores de la pérdida de rendimientos. Si existe una disminución de rendimientos o no, si las cifras de producción son exactas o no, está claro que los rendimientos actuales de 5-30 t ha -1 año -1 Fertilidad de los suelos están muy lejos de los de 60-70 t ha -1 año -1 obtenidos en los ensayos en las fincas y en las estaciones de la región (Smithson et al. 2001, Tushemereirwe et al. 2001).La hipótesis de que la disminución de la fertilidad del suelo contribuyó a la disminución de los rendimientos de los bananos en la región fue promovida por primera vez por Masefield (1949) y McMaster (1962) y ha sido repetida desde entonces (Baijukya y de Steenhuijsen Piters 1998, Bekunda y Woomer 1996, Sseguya et al. 1999). Sin embargo, existen pocos datos para comprobar esta hipótesis. En Uganda, Smithson et al. (2001) y Ssali y Vlek (sin publicar) han intentado comparar datos cuantitativos sobre los suelos de los 60 y 90. Ambos estudios fallaron en encontrar un cambio en el contenido de materia orgánica, pero Ssali y Vlek observaron una disminución en el pH del suelo, y Ca 2+ y K + intercambiables.La mayoría de los bananos de los altiplanos se cultivan en los suelos de tipo ferralsol y acrisol, que tienen una fertilidad muy baja. Sin embargo, una proporción sustancial de los bananos en la región se cultiva cerca de las casas (Rishirumuhirwa 1997, Rufino 2003). Estas parcelas domésticas reciben residuos orgánicos de las casas y cobertura vegetal más a menudo que las parcelas que se encuentran más lejos. Bekunda y Woomer (1996) y Wortmann y Kaizzi (1998) descubrieron que la mayoría de los agricultores transferían residuos de los cultivos anuales a los campos bajo banano. Los agricultores también tienden a asignar sus mejores tierras al cultivo bananero (Gold et al. 1999). Tanto la elección del terreno, como el manejo del suelo para los bananos, explican porque los campos bananeros contienen más nutrientes (especialmente P y K) que los campos bajo cultivos anuales y parcelas situadas más lejos de las casas (Bosch et al. 1996, Rufino 2003, Wortmann y Kaizzi 1998).Los investigadores en todo el mundo (Bertsch 1986, Delvaux 1995, Lahav y Turner 1983, Landon 1991, Lopez y Espinoza 2000, Rubaihayo et al. 1994, Twyford 1967, Walmsley et al. 1971) han publicado guías para la interpretación de los datos químicos del suelo para los productores bananeros. Estas guías están dirigidas principalmente al cultivo comercial de los bananos de postre (AAA). Aunque los requerimientos mínimos publicados para el suelo varían (por ejemplo, de 0.2 Ð 1.5 meq 100g de suelo seco para K intercambiable), la mayoría de los suelos bananeros en la región (Banananuka y Rubaihayo 1994, Godefroy et al. 1991, Rufino 2003, Smithson et al. 2001, Wortmann y Kaizzi 1998, Rubaihayo et al. 1994) tienen la fertilidad óptima, de acuerdo al promedio, según estas guías (Van Asten et al. 2004). Sin embargo, se debe ser cauteloso al sacar conclusiones sobre las deficiencias nutricionales solo de los análisis químicos del suelo, ya que la mayoría de los estudios encuentran una pobre correlación entre los parámetros de fertilidad del suelo y los rendimientos de los racimos (Bananuka y Rubaihayo 1994, Rufino 2003, Smithson et al. 2001).La mayoría de los estudios que utilizaron el análisis foliar (Bosch et al. 1996, Gold et al. 1999, Okech et al. 2004, Rufino 2003, Smithson et al. 2001, Smithson et al. 2004, Ssali et al. 2003) identificaron la deficiencia de K como una limitación principal, a menudo seguida por las deficiencias de N y Mg. La deficiencia de fósforo no parece representar un problema frecuente para los bananos de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental. Se realizaron pocas investigaciones sobre los micronutrientes. Bosch et al. (1996) encontraron niveles muy bajos de Zn y Cu en comparación con las normativas DRIS establecidas para otros cultivares AAA.Otro método para detectar deficiencias nutricionales consiste en la conducción de ensayos de fertilización. En varios estudios donde se aplicaron dosis moderadas de fertilizantes con N (100 kg), P (<100 kg) y K (25-200 kg) por hectárea se observaron aumentos de rendimientos de 10-12 a 16-25 t ha -1 año -1 (Okech et al. 2004, Rubaihayo et al. 1994, Zake et al. 2000). Sin embargo, los fertilizantes parecen ser menos eficaces cuando la presión de nematodos y picudos es alta (Smithson et al. 2001, Ssali et al. 2003), o cuando ocurre el estrés debido a una sequía prolongada (Okech et al. 2004).Las propiedades físicas del suelo y la profundidad de la capa arable afectan directamente la capacidad de enraizamiento y la capacidad de retención de agua del suelo. La última influye sobre la habilidad de las raíces de extraer agua y nutrientes. Taulya (2004) observó que el peso del racimo aumentó de 8 a 16 kg. al moverse de los suelos con un horizonte A poco profundo (<20 cm) a uno más profundo (>30 cm). A pesar del hecho de que el estrés de humedad del suelo puede conducir a pérdidas de rendimiento de más del 60% (Okech, sin publicar), los aspectos físicos del suelo han recibido relativamente poca atención en la región.Durante las últimas décadas, los bananos se están convirtiendo cada vez más en un Figura 1. Se estima a 100 el número de camiones llenos de bananos que entran en Kampala cada día. A nivel del año, esto representa la pérdida de mas de 1.5 millón kg de K y 0.5 millón kg de N en las zonas rurales.Piet van Asten cultivo comercial en la región para satisfacer los crecientes mercados urbanos. Como consecuencia, se pierden más y más nutrientes de la finca y terminan en las áreas rurales de las cuales su reciclaje de vuelta a la agricultura es apenas factible (Bekunda y Manzi 2004). Los racimos de banano, especialmente la cáscara, son particularmente ricos en K y la exportación de este elemento es de principal interés. Si los nutrientes exportados de los campos bananeros no son reemplazados por fertilizantes orgánicos o inorgánicos, esto lleva a la socavación de los inventarios de nutrientes del suelo e inevitablemente a la disminución de los rendimientos a largo plazo. Este problema puede ser observado en muchos sistemas de producción africanos (Smaling 1993, Hartemink 2003).Wortmann y Kaizzi (1998) encontraron que la pérdida de N y P en cuatro sitios bananeros de Uganda fue compensada por grandes cantidades de materiales orgánicos que fueron trasferidos de otros tipos de uso de tierra (cultivos anuales, prados) a las parcelas bajo el banano. Aunque los balances de N y P pueden ser positivos algunas veces para las parcelas bananeras, la transferencia de los nutrientes de las parcelas con cultivos anuales y prados a las parcelas bananeras lleva a una aceleración de cansancio del suelo en la mayoría de las tierras de las fincas y no puede prevenir una disminución general en las reservas de nutrientes del suelo a escala de la finca. En adición, los suelos bajo cultivos anuales pierden muchos nutrientes a través de la cosecha y erosión (Wortmann y Kaizzi 1998), un proceso que luego se acelera cuando la cubierta vegetal se reduce debido a la disminución de la fertilidad del suelo. Algunos investigadores sugieren que como parte de la solución se debe aumentar la cantidad de ganado, pero Bekunda y Woomer (1996) y Sseguya et al. (1999) han mostrado que el uso del estiércol de ganado está estrechamente relacionado con el tamaño de la finca y que la última está reduciéndose continuamente bajo la presión cada vez mayor de tierras. Aunque tanto los agricultores como investigadores concuerdan que el abono (cubierta vegetal) es beneficioso para el crecimiento de la planta de banano, no existen recomendaciones sobre cuales son las cantidades y cualidades mínimas de abono que deben resolver económicamente la fertilidad del suelo, microclima del suelo y las limitaciones debido a la presencia de plagas en el suelo. Las recomendaciones mínimas rentables para el abono son especialmente importantes actualmente, cuando el acceso al mismo ha disminuido debido a la escasez de tierras sin cultivar.Con el fin de compensar los nutrientes perdidos, Smithson y Giller (2002) abogan por el uso juicioso de fertilizantes minerales para mantener la fertilidad del suelo. De acuerdo a ellos, el uso de los fertilizantes orgánicos y cultivos leguminosos es importante, pero no puede compensar por todos los nutrientes perdidos del sistema en la mayoría de los casos. La mayoría de los productores bananeros comerciales en todo el mundo utilizan fertilizantes minerales para sostener altos niveles de rendimientos. Sin embargo, menos del 5% de los agricultores de banano en la región de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental utilizan fertilizantes químicos (Bekunda y Woomer 1996, Sseguya et al. 1999, Kelly et al. 2001). En general, el uso de fertilizantes minerales en esta región está entre los más bajos del mundo. Tanto Bekunda et al. (2001) como Sseguya et al. (1999) mostraron que la ausencia de disponibilidad de crédito es una de las principales limitaciones para la adopción de fertilizantes químicos. Asimismo, a los agricultores a menudo les falta los conocimientos sobre que fertilizantes usar y como aplicarlos, y los pequeños agricultores tienden a no arriesgarse. Otra limitación que dificulta la adopción de fertilizantes podría ser la larga duración del ciclo de cultivo del banano, que requiere del agricultor ser paciente antes de que él vea el retorno de su inversión. Además, Bekunda y Woomer (1996) concluyeron que hay pocas investigaciones sobre recomendaciones de fertilizantes y tasas óptimas para el banano. Bekunda y Manzi (2004) descubrieron que aquellos agricultores que sí utilizan fertilizantes minerales ponían más énfasis en la fertilización nitrogenada que en la fertilización P o K, aunque los autores concuerdan con Wortmann y Kaizzi (1998) de que a largo término existe una mayor necesidad por los fertilizantes P y especialmente K, que los fertilizantes N.El mayor problema consiste en que el costo de mantener la fertilidad del suelo puede no ser compensado por un aumento en la producción del cultivo. Por otro lado, los costos para restaurar los suelos degradados pueden ser más altos de lo que se requiere para mantener el suelo en condiciones para la producción de los cultivos (Hartemink 2003). Esto es particularmente cierto en los altiplanos de Africa Oriental, donde los altos costos de transporte conducen a altos costos de los fertilizantes.Las plagas del suelo, como los nematodos (Radopholus similis y Pratylenchus goodeyi) y el picudo negro del banano, Cosmopolites sordidus (germar), atacan los sistemas radicales y vasculares de las plantas. Esto reduce la capacidad de la planta para absorber agua y nutrientes, lo que puede agravar el estrés debido al déficit de agua y nutrientes. Existe también una clara interacción entre el nivel de fertilidad del suelo y la expresión y severidad de los síntomas; por ejemplo, en Uganda, Murekezi (comunicación personal) y Tushmereirwe (sin publicar) observaron que los daños a los cultivos debido al virus del rayado del banano y la Sigatoka negra (o raya negra de la hoja) disminuyeron con el manejo mejorado de fertilidad del suelo. En muchos casos, una planta hospedante bien fertilizada superará los ataques de plagas y enfermedades, manteniendo así la biomasa saludable suficiente para llevar un crecimiento óptimo.Okech y Gold (1996) concluyeron de una revisión de literatura que los insectos fitófagos son sensibles a los cambios nutricionales en las plantas hospedantes. Bosch et al. (1996) sugirieron que los daños causados por el picudo negro del banano podrían estar relacionados con las concentraciones de fósforo y cationes en la planta y en el suelo, con énfasis especial sobre la relación K/Mg. Sin embargo, las relaciones entre el estado nutricional de la planta y el daño causado por la infestación con picudos negros nunca han sido confirmadas. Talwana (2002) descubrió concentraciones de Ca más altas en los bananos de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental (AAA) infectados con nematodos y formularon la hipótesis de que el Ca desempeña un papel en el mecanismo de defensa de la planta. Igualmente, Bwamiki (2004) sugirió que los mecanismos de supresión de los nematodos están ligados a la absorción de K, Ca, Mn, y Zn. Borges Pérez et al. (1983) descubrieron que el desequilibrio en las relaciones P/Zn y K/Mg condujo al marchitamiento por Fusarium en un cultivar que supuestamente era resistente. Asimismo, Hecht Buchholz et al. (1998) descubrieron que los bananos con deficiencia de Zn estaban más afectados por el marchitamiento por Fusarium que las plantas sin estas deficiencias. De aquí, una serie de estudios sobre varias plagas y enfermedades parece sugerir que los mecanismos de defensa de las plantas están estrechamente relacionados con el balance de cationes y las concentraciones de micronutrientes en el tejido de la planta, pero los procesos subyacentes aún no han sido identificados.Numerosos investigadores (McIntyre et al. 2000, Rukazambuga et al. 2002, Smithson et al. 2001) han demostrado que el efecto positivo de las enmiendas orgánicas del suelo se reduce en gran medida si la presión de plagas es alta. De aquí, el manejo de la fertilidad del suelo debería estar combinado con el manejo de las plagas para aumentar la rentabilidad de las intervenciones en la fertilidad del suelo.Si queremos mejorar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas bananeros, deberíamos mirar más allá del campo bananero y resolver las limitaciones de la fertilidad del suelo a escala de finca. El papel de los sistemas de cultivo intercalado con bananos, el papel del dosel producido por los bananos sobre la conservación del suelo y agua, y el efecto de plagas y enfermedades sobre la rentabilidad de las intervenciones de manejo del suelo, ameritan una atención especial.Los autores agradecen a 'Vlaamse Vereniging voor Ontwikkelingshulp en el Technische Bijstand' (VVOB) por patrocinar la posición de P.J.A. van  l nematodo barrenador Radopholus similis es el principal problema de la salud de las raíces en el banano y plátano. Este nematodo causa grandes lesiones en las raíces que posteriormente son colonizadas por bacterias y hongos deletéreos. Este síndrome lleva a una severa necrosis y enrollamiento de las raíces individuales, pérdidas de rendimiento y a menudo caída del pseudotallo. El control del nematodo barrenador en las plantaciones establecidas usualmente se realiza con nematicidas o insecticidas sistémicos. Estos plaguicidas usualmente solo desactivan el nematodo dentro del tejido hospedante o en el suelo por un período limitado de tiempo y en la mayoría de los casos no tienen efecto nematicida. Después de la degradación microbiana de los compuestos, el nematodo se recupera y el daño a las raíces continúa. Debido a este mejoramiento en la salud de las raíces por corto tiempo, el rendimiento aumenta después del tratamiento en las áreas donde el nematodo está por encima del nivel crítico de daños.Si se requiere o no el tratamiento, ello está abierto a cuestionamiento o es determinado por las experiencias pasadas con respecto a los rendimientos o, en algunos casos, mediante el monitoreo de las densidades de las poblaciones en las raíces. La falta de tratamiento en campos muy infestados da como resultado rendimientos bajos. Sin embargo, debido a que el nematodo solamente es desactivado por estos plaguicidas, es necesario repetir los tratamientos dentro de un ciclo para prevenir los daños. El uso repetitivo de los nematicidas ha llevado a una rápida degradación microbiana en algunas áreas y a la necesidad de aumentar la cantidad de tratamientos por ciclo. En algunas plantaciones en América Central se utilizan usualmente hasta cuatro aplicaciones para reducir los daños. Esta situación es inaceptable, tanto desde el punto de vista económico para los agricultores, como ambiental para la comunidad en general.Con la disminución o escalonamiento de los nematicidas por razones económicas o ambientales, se necesitan nuevos enfoques sobre el control de los nematodos en cultivos perennes (Sikora et al. 2005). En la producción bananera donde los altos rendimientos están correlacionados con el control eficaz de los nematodos y un sistema radical sano, se requieren urgentemente metodologías alternativas, sean estas biológicas, basadas en plantas o de naturaleza química.Una alternativa a los plaguicidas recientemente desarrollada es la potenciación biológica del material de siembra de banano con microorganismos beneficiosos, para aumentar la resistencia de la planta a la infección. El hecho de que la mayoría de las principales plagas y enfermedades del banano atacan a la planta a través de las raíces o el cormo, ha llevado a la investigación sobre el uso de tecnologías de potenciación biológica utilizando endófitos fungosos mutualistas para manejar a los nematodos, marchitez y picudos negros (Amin 1994, Schuster et al. 1995, Pocasangre 2000, Pocasangre et al. 2000, Griesbach 1999, Niere et al. 1998). Estos antagonistas únicos son aislados aleatoriamente de la endorriza de los tejidos sanos de las raíces o cormo del banano, después de una esterilización de la superficie (Figura 1). Luego los aislados son: 1) colocados en un cultivo puro 2) identificados 3) fermentados en masa 4) inoculados en las plántulas provenientes del cultivo de tejidos 5) les es permitido colonizarlas 6) son desafiados Aislados eficaces en el control del nematodo barrenador han sido recuperados en Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya, Cuba, Honduras y Costa Rica y, en nuestra opinión, serán detectados en el tejido sano de todas las plantas de banano. Bajo condiciones normales de campo estos endófitos usualmente no son eficaces debido a que sus densidades son bajas y ellos deben competir con otros microorganismos por alimentos y espacio. La potenciación biológica brinda a estos microorganismos un comienzo adelantado y ventaja competitiva. La potenciación biológica también reduce los costos totales de tratamiento, así como los efectos ambientales secundarios causados por los plaguicidas, ya que se puede tratar 2500 plantas provenientes de los cultivos estériles de tejidos en potes en vez de tratar con plaguicidas grandes cantidades de suelo en el campo. Hasta ahora el enfoque se ha basado en un sistema de cribado \"ciego\" en el cual los hongos son aislados aleatoriamente de los tejidos sanos de las plantas y estudiados en las plántulas de banano inoculadas con respecto a la actividad de control biológico.Un gran porcentaje de los aislados obtenidos de la endorriza ha demostrado una actividad antagonista significativa hacia el nematodo barrenador (Pocasangre 2000, Niere et al. 1998). La actividad contra el marchitamiento por Fusarium no resultó adecuada (Pocasangre 2000). Sin embargo, algunos aislados resultaron ser patogénicos para los huevos del picudo negro del banano Cosmopolites sordidus y tuvieron efectos negativos sobre el crecimiento de sus larvas (Griesbach 1999, Gold et al. 2003).Se ha demostrado que la potenciación biológica fue eficaz en la reducción del ataque de los nematodos en el primer ciclo bajo condiciones controladas y está siendo evaluada en el campo en Africa y América Central. También se investiga si el control es sostenible o no durante varios ciclos de cultivo. Actualmente el sistema está dirigido para ser utilizado en 1) producción bananera de un solo ciclo de alta densidad, 2) producción platanera de un solo ciclo de alta densidad, 3) bananos orgánicos y 4) producción de cultivares resistentes de banano en viveros.El término supresividad se utiliza tradicionalmente para describir los suelos en los cuales el desarrollo de la enfermedad es suprimida aunque un patógeno o plaga se encuentran presentes en el campo (Baker y Cook 1974, Huber y Schneider 1982). Este es un término paraguas que abarca la actividad del control biológico basado en el parasitismo, depredación, inhibición, competición, enfermedades y otras interacciones antagonistas con plagas o enfermedades donde se da una infección reducida en presencia de una planta hospedante susceptible.Los suelos supresores han sido identificados con respecto a los patógenos fungosos (Huber y Schneider 1982, Alabouvette et al. 1979, Weller 1988) y los nematodos fitoparásitos (Kerry et al. 1982, Pyrowolakis et al. 2002). Hasta donde sabemos este fenómeno no ha sido observado para los insectos del suelo. La supresividad usualmente está directamente relacionada con el nivel del potencial antagonista en el suelo (Sikora 1992) que está regulado por los componentes específicos de las comunidades microbianas de la rizosfera (Vilich y Sikora 1998). Los suelos supresores son la excepción y no la regla en los ecosistemas agrícolas. Consideramos que en la producción de cultivos perennes podrían ser más comunes de lo que una vez se pensó. Creemos que esta es la situación para todos los cultivos donde los nematodos fitoparásitos representan un gran problema de plagas y donde el uso constante de nematicidas es la regla y no la excepción.Al revisar la literatura sobre el banano, encontramos un vacío con respecto a la detección de suelos que suprimen a los nematodos. La presencia de los suelos supresores puede haber sido pasada por alto en los cultivos como el banano, café, cítricos o piña, debido a un extenso uso de plaguicidas del suelo. Un suelo supresor no puede ser detectado si las densidades de nematodos son continuamente disminuidas con plaguicidas. Además, si un suelo supresor es identificado, Figura 1. Técnicas utilizadas en el aislamiento de los hongos que crecen dentro del tejido sano del banano (Sikora & Schuster 1999). Figura 2. Número total de nematodos recuperados de las raíces de banano en las fincas de muestreo en octubre de 2001 (zum Felde et al. 2004). (Las columnas con letras diferentes difieren significativamente a P ≤ 0.05, utilizando una prueba ANOVA de una vía en StatsGraphics Plus 3.1.).Tabla 1. Biodiversidad de endófitos fungosos en los tejidos de las raíces y del rizoma del banano 'Pisang awak' (ABB) de Tailandia (Sikora et   ¿puede éste ser utilizado para los propósitos de manejo de plagas y enfermedades?Este vacío fue llenado recientemente por la detección de suelos supresores en las plantaciones bananeras en América Central (Figura 2). Los nematodos barrenadores presentes en estos campos fueron incapaces de multiplicarse y alcanzar densidades de poblaciones dañinas, aunque un cultivar altamente susceptible estaba siendo cultivado (zum Felde 2002, zum Felde et al. 2004). También se detectaron en Costa Rica campos que suprimen R. similis (Pocasangre et al. 2004, Cañizares 2003).La actividad supresora en cualquier suelo es regulada por el potencial antagonista en este suelo (Sikora 1992). Uno o más microorganismos, trabajando individualmente o en combinación y simultáneamente o en secuencia, son los responsables por la actividad supresora. La supresividad no es movida por factores abióticos, sino que es un sistema con base biológica.La potenciación biológica para controlar R. similis en la mayoría de los estudios se basó en la inoculación de las plantas en el cultivo de tejidos con antagonistas fungosos. Griesbach (1999) intentó inocular los retoños de los bananos de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental con endófitos, pero sólo obtuvo bajos niveles de colonización. Sin embargo, los estudios recientes de Pocasangre et al. (2004), han demostrado que las densidades de R. similis en los retoños de plátano inoculados con hongos endófitos se redujeron en hasta 86%, en comparación con el testigo.En la Tabla 1, se presentan niveles sumamente altos de biodiversidad fungosa en la endorriza de los tejidos sanos de las raíces y cormo de banano en Tailandia (Sikora et al. 2003). Estos resultados demuestran que solo hemos tocado la punta de un enorme volcán de potencial biótico, el cual puede ser utilizado para mejorar la salud de las plantas.Se identificaron los organismos involucrados en la formación de un suelo supresor en otros cultivos y, en una cantidad limitada de casos, éstos se produjeron comercialmente para utilizarlos en el campo. A menudo la aceptación por parte de los agricultores es limitada, debido a la gran variabilidad en la eficacia y costos de aplicación. El control de la plaga requiere el tratamiento de 2500 toneladas de suelo por hectárea, en los 25 cm superiores del suelo inhabitado por la plaga o patógeno destinado.La detección de suelos supresores en las plantaciones bananeras en América Central y el aislamiento de grandes cantidades de endófitos fungosos mutualistas de las plantas que se cultivan en estos campos, debería afectar la manera de conducir las investigaciones en el futuro (zum Felde 2000, zum Felde et al. 2004). La pregunta que surge es si este fenómeno es importante para la producción bananera y si se puede utilizar eficazmente en los sistemas de manejo de plagas. Se puede prever las siguientes aplicaciones 1) los campos supresores podrían ser utilizados como viveros para producir retoños destinados a los campos circundantes, 2) las plántulas potenciadas biológicamente podrían ser producidas a partir de múltiples aislados provenientes de estos campos, y 3) los retoños potenciados biológicamente podrían ser inoculados con Figura 3. Efecto de los hongos endófitos sobre la promoción del crecimiento de la planta: plantas inoculadas con Trichoderma atroviride (derecha) y plantas testigo no inoculadas (izquierda).aislados múltiples provenientes de estos campos.El concepto de \"supresividad in planta\" propuesto aquí está basado en la premisa de que las plantas seleccionan activamente microorganismos que promueven su salud en la rizosfera. Las plantas pierden hasta el 33% de sus asimilados del suelo. Los exudados se mueven a través de la endorriza hacia el rizoplano antes de que el goteo los mueva en la rizosfera. La producción de estos nutrientes, los cuales finalmente son perdidos por la planta, consume cantidades significativas de energía de esta. Creemos que las plantas gastan esta energía para mantener un sistema de soporte saludable constituido por las \"comunidades microbianas específicas de la endorriza y rizosfera\". Estos organismos viven en una asociación mutualista o simbiótica con la planta. Los bien conocidos hongos microrriza arbusculares son parte de esta comunidad microbiana y se ha demostrado que tienen actividad que promueve tanto el crecimiento de la planta como su salud (Jaime Vega y Rodríguez-Romero 2004).La detección de los campos supresores para un nematodo endoparásito migratorio también sugiere que la base de la supresividad puede estar ligada a la planta. La actividad de control biológico puede ocurrir principalmente en la planta y no en el suelo, con la planta misma que selecciona una comunidad microbiana conducente a la salud de la misma. Si este es el caso, entonces el examen de las plantas supresoras podría rendir aislamientos y combinaciones que podrían ser utilizados eficazmente para potenciar biológicamente el material de plantación. Esto podría ser más productivo que el método aleatorio estándar de \"selección ciega\" de los aislados de los tejidos de raíces. La selección de aislados a partir de las plantas que se cultivan en suelos supresores también podría asegurar que las plantas potenciadas biológicamente tengan la supresividad in planta que les brinda manejo tanto a corto como a largo plazo.Hasta hace poco, conocíamos poco de los mecanismos de acción involucrados en el control de nematodos con endófitos. Este conocimiento es extremadamente importante ya que determina como este sistema de manejo es categorizado: potenciación biológica o plaguicidas biológicos. Claro está que esto tiene importancia para el registro y por lo tanto, para los costos totales del desarrollo.Existen muchos mecanismos posibles de acción: 1) parasitismo o patogeneidad para los nematodos o huevos; 2) supresión del desarrollo de los nematodos o de la fertilidad; 3) inhibición de la movilidad, 4) interferencia a la atracción o reconocimiento; 5) inhibición de la penetración; 6) actividad repelente; 7) resistencia inducida y 8) promoción del crecimiento de la planta y tolerancia inducida.Los estudios en Bonn, Alemania, y en INIBAP-CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica, han mostrado repetidamente que muchos de los endófitos fungosos estudiados redujeron significativamente la penetración por parte de R. similis. Las observaciones más recientes también indican que ocurre la promoción del crecimiento (Figura 3). Esto podría afectar la tolerancia de la planta a la infección aumentando la biomasa del sistema radical (Pocasangre, datos sin publicar). Existen indicaciones que algunos aislados fungosos parasitan directamente los nematodos en el suelo (zum Felde 2000, Meneses et al. 2003, Cañizares, 2003).Recientemente se demostró que las raíces de banano colonizadas por endófitos tienen actividad repelente hacia R. similis (Vu et al. 2005). Esta investigación también demostró que algunos aislados son capaces de inducir resistencia sistémica al nematodo. Se demostró que varios hongos producen metabolitos tóxicos in vitro. Esto no se considera importante en condiciones de campo donde los nutrientes están al mínimo y la competencia microbiana es alta. Los resultados demuestran que cada aislado endófito puede tener un modo de acción diferente y debe ser examinado individualmente con respecto a este factor. En adición, el gran espectro de formas de la actividad indica que los inoculantes de aislados múltiples pueden ser más eficaces para producir niveles de control más altos y control a largo plazo Richard A. Sikora  El uso de la potenciación biológica en el campo comercial depende de varios factores: 1) eficacia; 2) modo de acción; 3) durabilidad del control; 4) preocupaciones ambientales; 5) economía de la producción y 6) requisitos para el registro. Las compañías comerciales que producen plántulas provenientes del cultivo de tejidos a gran escala podrían utilizar esta tecnología.Para que la potenciación biológica se convierta en una herramienta de manejo útil se necesita realizar más investigaciones en las siguientes áreas: 1) evaluación de los aislados con respecto a la fitopatogeneidad utilizando Estándares de Compatibilidad Vegetativa; 2) análisis molecular para determinar sus relaciones con todas las poblaciones fungosas endémicas; 3) características de producción, es decir, eficacia de fermentación, almacenamiento, formulación; 4) inoculantes múltiples para imitar la supresividad in planta; 5) eficacia del control de varios ciclos; 6) control de otros nematodos y enfermedades, así como de los picudos negros y 7) presencia de aislados con una actividad significativa de promoción de crecimiento.Khairuddin Tahir Mercadeo L a globalización nos está enseñando muchas lecciones valiosas, si nos preocupamos de aprender de estas lecciones. Aquellos, quienes no estén listos para aprender o son muy lentos para adaptarse a esta ola de cambios pueden encontrarse en desventaja, o peor, en frustración perpetua, sin saber que fue lo que les ha golpeado y porqué. Los gobiernos están trabajando duro para posicionar sus economías con el fin de enfrentar las nuevas reglas de la competencia global. A su vez, los negocios deben hacer ajustes radicales si quieren sobrevivir y prosperar. Las organizaciones también tienen que reinventarse con el fin de seguir siendo relevantes.A escala internacional, los estándares para la participación en el régimen de comercio global cambian a menudo y se vuelven más difíciles de alcanzar. Las reglas del juego parecen seguir cambiando en condiciones cada vez más desiguales. El mantra del mercado es ser más rápido, económico, mejor y más seguro. Para jugar este juego de la globalización uno tiene que obedecer las reglas o correr el riesgo de quedarse atrás.Hacerse competente en las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (ICT) es necesario pero no suficiente para lograr el éxito. Uno tiene también que ser creativo e innovador para convertir las ideas, herramientas y enfoques en sistemas integrados viables y sostenibles.La Red Internacional de Frutas Tropicales (International Tropical Fruits Network, TFNet), establecida hace cuatro años, tiene que operar en un ambiente desafiante y a veces cruel del sector agropecuario, en el cual los participantes son numerosos y los recursos, limitados. A menudo tenemos la impresión de que nos encontramos en una situación despiadada, donde los poderosos y los fuertes se comen a los nuevos y pequeños, los llevan a la sumisión y eventualmente eliminan a los competidores.Afortunadamente, las leyes de la naturaleza parecen estar balanceadas y ser bondadosas con nosotros. Encontramos a muchas personas y organizaciones que desean colaborar, trabajar en red y formar alianzas estratégicas con la TFNet, especialmente entre nuestros miembros, que ahora suman 55. Estamos cooperando para competir mejor con otros. Aún es posible crear una situación ventajosa para todos, con tal de que no estemos cegados por los beneficios inmediatos y a corto plazo.La membresía de la TFNet, que consiste de gobiernos, ONG, empresarios privados y profesionales con diversos intereses en la producción, procesamiento, consumo, mercadeo y comercio internacional de frutas tropicales, constituye un recurso rico. El desafío para la TFNet es desempeñar un papel eficaz de \"enlace o trabajo en red\" y al mismo tiempo brindar una plataforma independiente donde los participantes de la industria de frutas tropicales puedan interactuar y articular sus necesidades y preocupaciones y, lo más importante, encontrar soluciones juntos.Obviamente, el sostener el trabajo en red y forjar las alianzas se convirtió en uno de los principales negocios y actividades primarias de la TFNet. No es nuestro deseo o intención ser un club exclusivo y no podemos permitirnos el lujo de convertirnos en una organización de caridad, dado nuestros recursos limitados. Aunque estamos en la categoría de una organización internacional sin fines de lucro, necesitamos generar ingresos para las operaciones del exiguo secretariado de la TFNet y servir a nuestros miembros. La TFNet está abierta a colaborar con todas las partes, especialmente con nuestros miembros, quienes comparten nuestros objetivos, metas y aspiraciones, como se puede observar en varios proyectos implementados con y para nuestros miembros.Seguimos con lo que realmente importa, es decir, servir a nuestra clientela, que en nuestro caso incluye a nuestros miembros y pequeños agricultores, pequeños y medianos empresarios, comerciantes, exportadores, procesadores, etc. Creemos que los agricultores, sin tener en cuenta si ellos están en Bélgica, Bolivia o Bangladesh, son básicamente los mismos y tienen las mismas aspiraciones y expectativas para mejorar su sustento y calidad de vida y la de sus hijos. Igual que las personas en otro tipo de negocios, ellos tienen que vivir con cosechas o ingresos fluctuantes, y algunas veces sufren pérdidas debido a las calamidades naturales o a las decisiones de personas que están fuera de su control o influencia. La diferencia entre estos agricultores, dependiendo del país en el que viven, puede estar en su dotación de recursos y hasta cierto punto en el apoyo o incentivos que ellos puedan obtener de sus gobiernos, especialmente durante los tiempos de calamidad natural y turbulencia económica.Al establecer alianzas y proyectos con su clientela o una comunidad rural, la principal preocupación de una organización como la TFNet es la de escuchar diligente y pacientemente, y luego evaluar las necesidades de su cliente (versus sus deseos), dotación de recursos, brechas en conocimientos y tecnología, deficiencia de la infraestructura, etc. Aquellos involucrados en el desarrollo rural conocen esto y han desarrollado una extensa lista de control. El siguiente paso es cómo los participantes pueden convertirse en catalizadores y brindar incentivos y mecanismos apropiados que impulsarán a la clientela, o comunidad rural, a los niveles más altos de productividad, o, de la agricultura de subsistencia pasar a la economía de mercado. Los agricultores, igual que todos nosotros, son seres económicos racionales. Ellos no están destinados culturalmente a permanecer pobres y el papel de los participantes es el de facultarlos de tal manera, que ellos puedan redimir su dignidad a través de los proyectos participativos que generan ingresos.Los gobiernos, organizaciones internacionales, incluyendo las regionales, y las agencias especializadas de la ONU, son participantes importantes de las redes, ya que ellos proporcionan información valiosa, y recursos técnicos y financieros. En el escenario internacional, estos cuerpos utilizan varias plataformas multilaterales para brindar guía, dirección y coordinación para asegurar un desarrollo ordenado y sostenible de varios aspectos de la vida. En muchos países en vías de desarrollo, los gobiernos son los principales participantes a escala nacional y tienden a dominar las actividades de desarrollo rural. Este a menudo es el único canal para que los participantes se involucren en los proyectos de comunidades rurales.Tanto los gobiernos como las organiza-ciones internacionales continuamente experimentan cambios estructurales y funcionales, consolidando sus actividades y posicionándose para enfrentar nuevos desafíos y demandas. Sin embargo, muchos factores han sido identificados que pueden afectar las alianzas con los gobiernos y organizaciones internacionales, entre ellos: • Lento proceso de toma de decisiones debido a los procesos burocráticos de niveles múltiples, que puede tomar de 2 a 5 años para que el proyecto sea aprobado e implementado; • Competencia con el sector privado en ciertos negocios y duplicación de funciones en otros; • Falta de flexibilidad en el diseño e implementación de proyectos; • Preocupación por sus propios programas y actividades internas, que dejan pocos recursos y tiempo para colaborar con otros programas y actividades; • Falta de enfoque y especialización.Generalmente, las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) son buenos participantes en las redes ya que tienden a estar enfocadas y especializadas y no son demasiado burocráticas. Las ONG tienden a ser flexibles, prospectivas y adaptables en sus relaciones con los participantes. Sin embargo, a algunas ONG les falta responsabilidad o se les percibe como organizaciones con puntos de vista radicales sobre algunos problemas importantes. Algunas ONG también desconfían de otras ONG cuando compiten por recursos similares, especialmente financiamientos, clientela o grupos destinatarios.Los pequeños y medianos empresarios (SME) son participantes excelentes debido a que tienden a \"encajar\" entre las compañías públicas y corporaciones multinacionales y, como resultado, están deseando trabajar con cuerpos autónomos como la TFNet. Los SME son innovadores y listos para probar ideas nuevas para mejorar sus ingresos y una parte del mercado (Figura 1). Ellos también están deseando compartir sus conocimientos e información técnica y del mercado con otros participantes como un recurso para la expansión y mejoramiento de su negocio. La TFNet ha tenido experiencias positivas trabajando conjuntamente con los SME.Las grandes corporaciones también están abiertas a las alianzas, a menudo para mejorar su imagen como buenos ciudadanos corporativos, especialmente cuando sus productos o servicios se encuentran bajo el escrutinio público. Sin embargo, ellas tienden a favorecer las alianzas con los gobiernos y en un menor grado con los SME y ONG. Pero, en un ambiente global altamente competitivo, las relaciones de negocios están cambiando rápidamente, ya que las grandes corporaciones cada vez más a menudo ofrecen trabajo de consultoría externa a los SME eficientes, con el fin de recortar costos y entregar sus bienes y servicios a tiempo. Esta alianza ya prevalece en la cadena de suministro de alimentos, especialmente en los sectores de logística, transporte y empaque. Obviamente, ningún cuerpo u organización individual, incluyendo el gobierno, puede pretender monopolizar la tarea de traer cambios socioeconómicos a un sector o comunidad particular. La alianza y el trabajo en red se convierten en funciones esenciales con respecto a los esfuerzos de movilizar recursos para una causa común o noble.Al mismo tiempo, no se debe asumir que la alianza y el trabajo en red son solo materia de sentido común. Por el contrario, ellos deben ser aprendidos, experimentados, promovidos y nutridos. Las alianzas y el trabajo en red van más allá de compartir la experiencia y la competencia técnica, e involucra la fusión de culturas y ética laboral entre participantes multidisciplinarios. Las alianzas y el trabajo en red le obligan a uno a redefinir la visión del mundo y el sistema de valores.Durante demasiado largo tiempo, se han hecho muchas promesas a los agricultores para mejorar sus medios de vida y ellos han sido pacientes con nosotros a pesar de numerosos defectos. Pare evitar repetir los errores del pasado, se necesitan ideas frescas y creativas para asegurar las alianzas y redes exitosas. Es imperativo que dejemos de pensar tradicionalmente y tratemos de hacer las cosas de manera diferente.  La primera estrategia fue iniciada por la Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA). Esta estrategia incluye el cruzamiento de un cultivar triploide susceptible con un diploide que es resistente a las enfermedades, con el fin de producir un tetraploide resistente. Esto es posible cuando el progenitor femenino transmite la totalidad de su genoma triploide, sin someterse a la meiosis, y el progenitor masculino contribuye, en su genoma haploide, que ha sometido a un proceso normal de meiosis, con los genes de resistencia deseados. Pero debido a que el progenitor masculino proporciona mucho más que genes de resistencia, el híbrido tetraploide resultante no es una réplica exacta del cultivar triploide que los mejoradores tratan de mejorar. Como señaló Tomepke, el impacto de la estrategia 3X x 2X está limitada por la baja cantidad de cultivares triploides que poseen el nivel de fertilidad femenina que permitiría su uso en los cruzamientos. Además, los pocos que son suficientemente fértiles tienden a ser híbridos interespecíficos de Musa acuminata y Musa balbisiana y como tales, existe la posibilidad de que contengan secuencias activables del virus del rayado del banano (BSV) integradas en el genoma balbisiana.Sin embargo, como lo mostraron las exposiciones presentadas en el Congreso por otros mejoradores, el problema del BSV no los ha detenido en tratar de mejorar los cultivares locales que contienen el genoma B utilizando variantes de la estrategia convencional. Sebastiao de Oliveira e Silva reportó que, en Brasil, la Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (Embrapa) ha desarrollado varios híbridos promisorios, entre ellos el 'Tropical' (AAAB), que se parece a 'Maça' (AAB), un cultivar Silk, y 'Preciosa' (AAAB), que tiene características similares a las del 'Pacovan' (AAB), un cultivar Pome.En el International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), los tetraploides obtenidos del cruzamiento de un triploide con un diploide resistente fueron cruzados nuevamente con los diploides mejorados para producir triploides secundarios. De esta manera se han producido seis híbridos triploides para mejorar el grupo de bananos de los altiplanos de Africa Oriental, importantes localmente, reportó Michael Pillay, el mejorador a cargo del programa de mejoramiento del IITA en Uganda. Su desempeño agronómico será evaluado en el campo por los agricultores. Los seis híbridos a evaluar tienen la pulpa amarilla igual a la de los cultivares, pero otros híbridos con buena resistencia a plagas y enfermedades tienen la pulpa de color blanco que puede no ser aceptada por los consumidores y es probablemente asociada con un nivel más bajo de precursores de la vitamina A. Los últimos están siendo cruzados con las accesiones de Papua Nueva Guinea, de pulpa amarilla, para mejorar su color.Como el centro secundario de diversidad de bananos, India no tiene escasez de cultivares necesitados de una mano para resistir a las enfermedades, que en esta parte del mundo son principalmente la enfermedad de Sigatoka causada por Mycosphaerella musicola, marchitamiento por Fusarium y el nematodo barrenador Radopholus similis. El Dr Kumar de la Tamil Nadu Agricultural University en el sur de la India, presentó los resultados de los cruzamientos de triploides con híbridos diploides producidos por su partenocarpia y mayor fertilidad masculina y resistencia a las enfermedades. Algunos de los cultivares que ellos están tratando de mejorar son 'Karpooravalli' ('Pisang awak', ABB), 'Red Banana' (AAA), 'Rasthali' (Silk, AAB), 'Nendran' (AAB) y 'Poovan' (Mysore, AAB). Ellos también están experimentando con la radiación gama y mutágenes químicos para producir mutantes mejorados y con colchicina y orizalina para doblar el número de cromosomas. Se han generado tetraploides a partir de cuatro cultivares diploides locales de los grupos genómicos AA y AB y actualmente ellos están siendo evaluados en el campo.El doblar el número de cromosomas es también el punto de partida de una estrategia adoptada por el Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad) y CARBAP. El esquema empieza con los diploides, silvestres o mejorados. El número de cromosomas de los diploides mejorados es doblado tratándolos con colchicina. Luego el tetraploide inducido es cruzado con otro progenitor diploide para producir un híbrido triploide. El Cirad ha utilizado este método para desarrollar un banano triploide de postre, mientras que el CARBAP lo ha utilizado para producir plátanos AAA induciendo la tetraploidia en un diploide (Musa acuminata spp. banksii) con características parecidas a las del plátano. Como señaló Tomekpe en su discurso de inauguración, el éxito de esta estrategia se basa en una selección inteligente de los progenitores, guiada por un buen conocimiento de su estructura genética que se ha incrementado con el desarrollo de las herramientas moleculares.Las técnicas moleculares también son utilizadas para estudiar la genealogía de los cultivares de Musa. En su revisión de los marcadores moleculares, Françoise Carreel del Cirad en Guadalupe explicó cómo los científicos han tomado ventaja de la trasmisión maternal de ADN cloroplastídico y de la trasmisión paternal del ADN mitocondrial, para establecer los linajes de los cultivares monoespecíficos e interespecíficos. El orador también recordó a la audiencia que M. acuminata y M. balbisiana no son las únicas especies que han sido hibridadas para producir cultivares. Estudios moleculares han confirmado y en algunos casos revelado la presencia de los genomas de australimusa (T) y schizocarpa (S), un descubrimiento que debería eventualmente conducir a la reclasificación de ciertas accesiones.Aún cuando se trata de M. acuminata y M. balbisiana, sin embargo, raramente sabemos que variantes de sus genomas han desempeñado un papel en la evolución de los cultivares. Hugo Volkaert del Center for Agricultural Biotechnology en Tailandia presentó los resultados de un estudio realizado en colaboración con Sasivimon Swangpol de la Mahidol University, Tosak Seelanan de la Chulalongkorn University ambos en Bangkok, Tailandia y Rachel Sotto del Institute of Plant Breeding, en Filipinas. Después de analizar el ADN cloroplastídico de los cultivares tailandeses, ellos concluyeron que las tres subespecies de M. acuminata (malaccensis, banksii, y zebrina) responden por los linajes maternales ancestrales en los híbridos AA, AAA, AAB, AB y ABB. Los resultados también indican que los cultivares AAA tienen un origen híbrido y que los cultivares en el grupo Namwa tienen solo el origen maternal BB, introducido probablemente de las Islas del Pacífico. El orador sugirió designar algunos cultivares ABB como BBA para reflejar mejor su linaje maternal.Martin Dickman de la University of Nebraska en los EEUU inauguró el 4 o Simposio internacional sobre la biología molecular y celular con una charla sobre el papel de las plantas modelo en el mejoramiento de los bananos a través de la transformación genética y como la muerte celular programada puede ser utilizada para diseñar la resistencia a los patógenos (ver el artículo en la página 6). Como destacó el orador, Arabidopsis, la primera planta con el genoma secuenciado debido a su pequeño tamaño y la facilidad con la que la planta puede ser manipulada en el laboratorio, es un dicotiledón y como resultado se pensó que el banano, un monocotiledón, estaría más cercano genéticamente del arroz, otro 'monocot', cuyo genoma está secuenciado casi completamente. Si se confirman los resultados presentados en el Congreso, el banano puede no estar tan cerca del arroz como se esperaba.Los investigadores que trabajan en el genoma pueden tamizar mediante las bibliotecas BAC construidas a partir de los genomas de M. acuminata (dos bibliotecas de 'Calcutta 4') y M. balbisiana ('Pisang klutuk wulung') las cuales fueron puestas a disposición del público por el Consorcio Global de la Genómica de Musa (una biblioteca BAC de 'Grande naine' desarrollada por Cirad pronto estará disponible). Los primeros vistazos en el genoma del banano (unos 500-600 Mbp) fueron presentados por Chris Town, del Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), una institución sin fines de lucro en los EEUU, y Rita Aert de KULeuven.Los científicos en el TIGR secuenciaron y anotaron 13 clones BAC, lo que hace en total unos 1.4 Mb, de la biblioteca BAC de 'Calcutta 4'. La densidad génica fue alta y generalmente comparable con la vista en el Arabidopsis y el arroz (un gen cada 4-5 kb). De los genes anotados que tenían un parecido de alta calidad con los genes de otras especies, 78 fueron con los genes de Arabidopsis y 59 con genes del arroz. Asimismo, basándose en el contenido y distribución de la glutamina y citosina a lo largo de secuencias codificadoras, 175 genes se parecían más a los genes de Arabidopsis, mientras que solo 33 se parecían a los genes del arroz.Mientras tanto en la KULeuven, Rita Aert y sus colaboradores escogieron al azar dos clones BAC de la biblioteca BAC de M. acuminata 'Calcutta 4'. El análisis del primer BAC (82 723 bp) reveló 12 proteínas putativas, que representan una densidad génica de un gen por 6.9 kb. Se descubrieron solo 7 regiones codificadoras en el segundo BAC (73 268 bp), para una densidad total de un gen por 10.5 kb. La organización génica de estos clones se parece a las secuencias de los genomas de las Gramíneas, donde los genes se agrupan en regiones ricas de genes separadas por ADN pobres en genes que contienen elementos transposables. En contraste, los genes en los cromosomas 1 y 4 de los genomas de Arabidopsis y arroz se distribuyen bastante uniformemente.Los investigadores del Cirad, el Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), el National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) y el Queensland Department of Primary Industries (QDPI), también utilizan las bibliotecas BAC disponibles para el público para estudiar los mecanismos que llevan a la activación del virus del rayado del banano (BSV) integrado en el genoma nuclear de los cultivares de Musa, que contienen el llamado genoma B heredado de M. balbisiana. La fuerte evidencia experimental sugiere que algunas de estas secuencias integradas, que nunca producen infecciones en M. balbisiana, pueden ser expresadas y producir formas episomales del virus que ocasiona infecciones bajo condiciones de estrés en los híbridos, incluyendo el propio proceso de hibridación. Este fenómeno representa una limitación seria para la creación de los híbridos de Musa que contengan genomas A y B y su difusión.Ceremonia de apertura del primer congreso sobre Musa que tuvo lugar en Penang.Pierre-Yves Teycheney, del Cirad, mostró como su equipo utilizó genomas completos de cuatro sepas del BSV (BSV-Ol 'Obino l'ewai', BSV-Gf 'Gold finger', BSV-Im 'Imove' y BSV-Mys 'Mysore') como sondas para cribar las bibliotecas BAC con respecto a la presencia de las secuencias virales integradas en los cromosomas de los genomas A y B. En la biblioteca BAC de 'Pisang klutuk wulung' (M. Balbisiana), ellos identificaron 10 clones BAC positivos para el BSV-Ol, 9 clones BAC positivos para el BSV-Gf y 24 clones BAC positivos para BSV-Im. El cribado de las bibliotecas BAC de 'Calcutta 4' y 'Grande naine' no reveló secuencias del BSV. Los clones BAC que contenían secuencias del BSV fueron luego caracterizados por la secuenciación final de BAC e impresión de huellas genéticas RFLP y los clones BAC que contenían secuencias de BSV-Ol o BSV-Gf fueron secuenciados completamente.Como parte de este proyecto de investigación, Gandra Saiprasad del Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, pero quien actualmente trabaja en el Cirad, examinó varios factores de estrés, como un antibiótico (higromicina), una poliamina (spermidina), un agente de demetilazión (5-Aza citidina) y choque de calor (60˚C por 1 h) con la esperanza de provocar la expresión de algunas secuencias integradas. La forma episomal del BSV en plantas estresadas del cv. 'Penkelon' (AAB) fue revisada con la ayuda del PCR. Resultó que la activación del BSV fue muy aleatoria, con solo 2-4 % de las plantas tratadas con un antibiótico y un agente de demetilazación los cuales desarrollaron la infección después de 72 horas.Se construyeron bibliotecas de hibridación sustractiva supresiva (SSH) seleccionando el ARN que era común para las plantas con el BSV activado y las plantas con el BSV no activado. Se construyeron cuatro bibliotecas SSH con unos 1500-2000 EST cada una, que serán utilizadas para aislar los factores de los hospedantes involucrados en la activación del BSV.El BSV es sólo uno de los muchos organismos asociados con los bananos. En su revisión de las principales plagas y enfermedades, Randy Ploetz de la University of Florida también cubre las nuevas amenazas y las que pueden representar problemas en el futuro (ver artículo en la página 11). Otro de los discursos principales que inauguró la sesión sobre fitoprotección fue presentado por Jean Carlier del Cirad y se concentró en la estructura genética de las poblaciones de una de las más devastadoras de estas amenazas, el hongo Mycosphaerella fijiensis, con el fin de desarrollar estrategias sostenibles y eficaces para controlar la enfermedad que este hongo causa (ver artículo en la página 17).Como Ploetz destacó en su discurso, el banano, como una planta perenne, necesita soluciones para manejo de las enfermedades a largo plazo, pero pocas de las estrategias existentes son sostenibles. Claro está, mucho depende del problema. En otra charla sobre el control biológico del marchitamiento por Fusarium, Ploetz concluyó, algo desalentador para los oradores quienes presentaban charlas sobre el biocontrol del marchitamiento por Fusarium, que no existe evidencia de que el control biológico es eficaz contra el marchitamiento por Fusarium en el campo.El marchitamiento por Fusarium es un objetivo especialmente difícil para el biocontrol, dijo Ploetz. El suelo en el cual reside el patógeno, complica la protección de los sitios de infección, los suelos que son supresores naturalmente son escasos y la localización vascular de la infección protege al patógeno de muchos agentes de biocontrol potenciales. Se han examinado diversos microbios: hongos micorrícicos arbusculares, Bacillus spp., pseudomonads, endófitos no patogénicos y Trichoderma spp., pero pocos de estos estudios fueron conducidos en el campo. Lo que comúnmente ha sido reportado en las revistas científicas es una inhibición in vitro del patógeno o una reducción de la enfermedad en los estudios en potes. Cuando se llevaron a cabo estudios en el campo, los resultados han sido decepcionantes.El mejor resultado encontrado en una revista científica es una pérdida de 18% después de 11 meses, lo que equivaldría a una pérdida acumulativa de más de 60% después de cinco años. Dada la naturaleza del patosistema, el orador considera que el marchitamiento por Fusarium del banano sería difícil de controlar mediante agentes biológicos y se pregunta si sería mejor invertir los recursos empleados en la búsqueda de soluciones de biocontrol de otra manera.El control biológico es una de las características del International Banana Action Plan, que Gert Kema del Plant Research International B.V. en los Países Bajos, anunció en el Congreso. El propósito del plan iniciado por el Wageningen University and Research Centre es reducir los insumos de plaguicidas en la producción bananera en al menos 50% durante la década venidera. El plan se concentrará en el control de las enfermedades foliares causadas por Mycosphaerella y Radopholus similis y resolverá cuestiones tanto fundamentales como aplicadas. El plan se divide en siete tópicos: 1) genómica y genética de los patógenos, 2) genética y mejoramiento para lograr resistencia, 3) epidemiología y genética de las poblaciones, 4) ciencia del suelo, 5) control biológico, 6) cultivo de precisión y estrategias de manejo de enfermedades y 7) programas de extensión e impacto social.En Africa oriental, los nematodos parecen estar contribuyendo al cambio de los bananos de cocción a los cultivares cerveceros y de postre más resistentes. Dany Coyne del IITA presentó algunos de los resultados de un proyecto sobre el manejo de los nematodos en Uganda utilizando hongos endófitos mutualistas. El proyecto se lleva a cabo en colaboración con la Uganda National Agricultural Research Organization, Universidad de Makerere, Universidad de Pretoria en Africa del Sur y la Universidad de Bonn en Alemania.Los endófitos son parásitos asintomáticos comunes que no causan daños a la planta hospedante pero pueden suprimir o repeler parásitos potenciales. En Uganda, los endófitos aislados con mayor frecuencia son las cepas no virulentas de Fusarium oxysporum. Para este estudio, los aislados de F. oxysporum de los cormos y raíces fueron cribados para detectar la actividad in vitro contra el nematodo barrenador, R. similis. La multiplicación del nematodo fue suprimida en el cultivo de tejidos de las plantas de banano y aún se observaba el control de la población siete meses después de la inoculación. El orador concluyó que los hongos endófitos podrían brindar una herramienta para el manejo de los nematodos que tendría su mayor impacto al aplicarla a las plántulas provenientes del cultivo de tejidos.Igualmente, Dirk de Waele de la KULeuven abogó por la inoculación con hongos micorrícicos arbusculares (HMA) de las plantas de banano, que se transplantarán en los suelos infestados con los nematodos. Los HMA son simbiontes obligatorios que colonizan la corteza de las raíces de las plantas hospedantes. Estos hongos ayudan a las plantas a absorber agua y nutrientes minerales del suelo y a cambio obtienen el carbono como fuente de energía. En adición, los HMA aumentan la habilidad de la planta de superar el estrés abiótico y biótico y reducir la colonización por los patógenos del suelo, es decir nematodos. Sin embargo, la magnitud de esta respuesta expresada como dependencia micorrícica relativa (DMR), depende del cultivar. La mayor es la DMR, el mayor es el efecto de inoculación de micorriza.Para los pequeños agricultores en los lugares donde las plántulas in vitro no son una opción, Kim Jacobsen de la oficina regional de INIBAP en Camerún, está explorando prácticas culturales para controlar a los nematodos en un proyecto que se realiza en colaboración con el IITA y la KULeuven. Como resultado de la poca disponibilidad de terreno, los períodos de barbecho tienden a ser más cortos y las poblaciones de plagas incluyendo R. similis, se están incrementado y bajando los rendimientos. En su charla, ella presentó los resultados de la eficacia del barbecho y de los tratamientos con agua caliente en los plátanos 'Essong' (AAB, French) y 'Ebang' (AAB, plátano Falso Cuerno).Jacobsen examinó dos períodos de barbecho, barbecho largo (15 años) y barbecho corto (4 años), el efecto de adición y no adición de los fertilizantes y de tratamiento y no tratamiento de los retoños con agua caliente (20 min. a 52°C). El muestreo se realizó a 15 y 21 meses después de la plantación, para que coincidiera con la floración y cosecha del primer ciclo de producción y también, seis meses más tarde. Después de 15 meses, la cantidad de nematodos fue significativamente más baja en las plantas tratadas con agua caliente para ambos sistemas de barbecho y el sistema radical fue más sano, pero después de 21 meses, el aumento en el número de nematodos en las parcelas de barbecho corto sobrepasó estos beneficios. Los mejores rendimientos de los bananos en las parcelas con el barbecho corto no fueron tan buenos como los peores resultados en el sistema de barbecho largo. Aunque es preferible que los agricultores utilicen el barbecho largo, ellos no creen poder practicarlo por más tiempo. A menos que se mejoren las prácticas culturales del barbecho corto, sus rendimientos están destinados a sufrir.Finalmente, Omolara Rotimi de la Federal University of Technology en Nigeria, habló sobre el efecto de la cobertura vegetal en la susceptibilidad de 'Agbagba' a los nematodos. Ella comparó los regímenes de manejo con y sin cobertura vegetal. La población de nematodos consistió de Helicotylenchus dihystera, Helicotylenchus multicinctus, Hoplolaimus pararobustus, Meloidogyne spp. y R. similis. En ausencia de nematodos, el rendimiento en las parcelas con cobertura vegetal fue de 8.1 toneladas por hectárea, en comparación con 3.6 toneladas por hectárea en las parcelas sin cobertura vegetal. En presencia de los nematodos, la reducción del rendimiento fue de 46% en las parcelas con cobertura vegetal, en comparación con el 54% en las parcelas sin cobertura vegetal. Sin embargo, se observó una mayor incidencia del volcamiento (23%) en las parcelas con cobertura vegetal, en comparación con el 16 % en las parcelas sin cobertura vegetal. Evidentemente, existen interacciones complejas involucradas en los sistemas con cobertura vegetal que deben ser resueltas.Richard Sikora de la Universidad de Bonn en Alemania y Piet Van Asten del IITA-ESARC en Uganda, inauguraron la tercera sesión del Congreso sobre el sostenimiento de la base de recursos naturales en los sistemas de cultivo de Musa. Sikora revisó el tema del control biológico pero desde el punto de vista de las comunidades microbianas que viven en la rizosfera y son importantes para la salud y crecimiento de las raíces (ver página 25). Se cree que hongos específicos, y probablemente hasta bacterias, tienen habilidades promotoras de la salud de las plantas que suprimen las plagas o enfermedades cuando las comunidades microbianas se establecen y funcionan adecuadamente. El orador exploró la idea de si ellos pueden ser utilizados en la lucha contra las plagas y enfermedades.En su charla (ver página 20), Van Asten destacó las deficiencias nutricionales en las pequeñas fincas bananeras de Africa oriental. Con el crecimiento estable de la población urbana, los productos de banano y sus nutrientes se exportan cada vez más desde las fincas hasta los centros urbanos, una situación exacerbada por el hecho de que los productores de bananos de Africa oriental rara vez utilizan fertilizantes minerales para volver a suplir los nutrientes al suelo. En cambio, ellos confían principalmente en el estiércol y residuos de los cultivos, causando la consiguiente disminución de la fertilidad del suelo en los campos cultivados anualmente. En Uganda, por ejemplo, el orador estima que a los precios actuales de los fertilizantes minerales, costaría más de 2 millones de dólares estadounidenses reemplazar en las áreas rurales el potasio y el nitrógeno contenido en los bananos que se envían a Kampala.Aunque el manejo y el mantenimiento de la fertilidad del suelo son críticos para asegurar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de producción, el tópico apenas está empezando a atraer la atención de los científicos bananeros, de aquí el número relativamente bajo de charlas presentadas en el Congreso, muchas de las cuales presentaron investigaciones que han sido publicadas en las ediciones recientes de INFOMUSA. Está claro, que esta es un área que merece inversiones y esfuerzos en el futuro.En la cuarta sesión del Congreso sobre poscosecha y procesamiento para la diversificación de los ingresos, los participantes escucharon charlas sobre el desarrollo de las empresas, un tópico a menudo descuidado, a pesar de su importancia en proveer a los agricultores los medios e incentivos para invertir en la fertilidad del suelo y mejorar la protección de los cultivos. Charles Staver de INIBAP, inauguró la sesión con una charla sobre un proyecto financiado por NORAD, en el cual trabajó antes de unirse a INIBAP (ver el número siguiente de INFOMUSA). Establecido en Nicaragua, el proyecto estaba dirigido a desarrollar un enfoque de aprendizaje de grupos participativos para el manejo agroecológico de plagas y de cultivos en Musa.Los agricultores de Nicaragua de escasos recursos tienden a cultivar bananos con insumos y labores mínimos. Esta estrategia de bajo riesgo a menudo se complica por un inadecuado manejo de plagas y enfermedades que llevan a producir racimos de tamaños reducidos y menor cantidad de ciclos productivos. Con los plaguicidas comerciales fuera del alcance de la mayoría de los productores, se han desarrollado estrategias de manejo de plagas que son consistentes con la estrategia de bajo riesgo /bajos insumos, lo que convierte la producción de Musa en un complemento útil, tanto comercialmente, como para el consumo doméstico en las áreas rurales.En otro de los discursos principales (ver página 30), Khairuddin Hatir, el Director de la International Tropical Fruits Network (TFNet), explicó que el mandato de la red es el de promover el desarrollo sostenible de la producción, consumo, procesamiento, comercialización y comercio internacional del sector de frutas tropicales y subtropicales. De acuerdo al orador, los factores clave instrumentales en el forjamiento de asociaciones duraderas son el liderazgo, la buena ¿Cómo se puede detener el avance del marchitamiento por xanthomonas del banano? Focus sobre el marchitamiento del banano Figura 1. Las matas infectadas no mueren necesariamente y dificultan la eradicación de la enfermedad cuando esta se establece en los sistemas de cultivo de los pequeños productores.gobernación, la transparencia, el manejo de conocimientos, creatividad y fortalecimiento.La charla de Lois Englberger sobre los niveles de carotenoides en los cultivares de Micronesia (ver INFOMUSA 12(2):2-5), atrajo mucho interés no solo de los participantes sino también de los medios de comunicación. Sus datos muestran que algunas variedades tradicionales contienen suficientes carotenoides de la provitamina A a niveles realistas de consumo para prevenir la deficiencia de la vitamina A (DVA), la principal causa de los problemas de salud en los países en vías de desarrollo y un contribuyente significativo a la mortalidad infantil y maternal.Lois también destacó que existen muchos bananos con pulpa amarilla y anaranjada en otros países, como el 'Pisang raja', 'Pisang berangan', 'Pisang mas', 'Champa' en Bangladesh, 'Nendran' en India y 'Lakatan' en Filipinas, que podrían tener un impacto sobre la eliminación de la DVA y mejoramiento de la salud en general.Finalmente, varios oradores de Africa y Asia presentaron iniciativas nacionales y locales para sostener el desarrollo de las empresas bananeras. Los resúmenes de las presentaciones orales y carteles están disponibles en el sitio web de INIBAP: www.inibap.org.Desde que fue detectada en Uganda central en 2001 (Tushemereirwe et al. 2003), la enfermedad del marchitamiento por xanthomonas del banano (BXW, también denominada marchitez bacteriana del banano en Uganda) se propagó a al menos 21 distritos a través de las regiones oriental, central y norte occidental del país, posiblemente mediante vectores aéreos (lo más probable mediante los insectos). Aunque su distribución dentro de estos distritos es limitada e irregular, la enfermedad está llenando rápidamente los vacíos. También se está moviendo al sur y al occidente hacia las áreas productoras de banano más importantes del país, las cuales aún no han sido afectadas. Todos los genotipos cultivados comúnmente están sucumbiendo a esta nueva enfermedad que destruye los racimos con las frutas y puede reducir el rendimiento a cero, amenazando al sustento de vida de millones de personas. Recientemente también se confirmó una epidemia en la región del Norte de Kivu en la República Democrática de Congo (ver Musanews), y la enfermedad está por entrar en Ruanda, Kenia y países vecinos. Existe una creciente concienciación ciudadana de la condición de aquellos que ya han sufrido el severo castigo proporcionado por esta enfermedad y la preocupación para aquellos que están en riesgo.El BXW tiene muchas similitudes con la marchitez bacteriana del banano en otras partes del mundo (Moko, enfermedad sanguínea, enfermedad bugtok) que son causadas por Ralstonia (anteriormente Pseudomonas) solanacearum y organismos estrechamente relacionados (Thwaites et al. 2000). El control depende de las medidas que han sido diseñadas para reducir la infección y rehabilitar las áreas que ya están afectadas (es decir, manejo), y reducir o prevenir la propagación de la enfermedad a las áreas que aún no han sido afectadas (es decir, contención). La experiencia con estas enfermedades muestra que una vez que ellas se establecen en los sistemas de cultivo de banano de los minifundios, su control es muy difícil y la erradicación eficaz es imposible (Figura 1). Los agricultores y consumidores tienen que Simon Eden-Green, EG Consukting Simon Eden-Green, EG Consulting 1 Ver el foro de discusión en http://www.banana.go.ug/cgibin/discus/discus.cgi acostumbrarse a los rendimientos fuertemente reducidos. Las intervenciones en estas \"zonas de ocupación\" deben concentrarse en ayudar a las comunidades a manejar la enfermedad o aprender a convivir con ella, incluyendo la introducción de cultivos alternativos y alimentos básicos y ganar su aceptación. Esta será una tarea desalentadora en Uganda, enfatizando la importancia de la contención.La contención de la enfermedad depende de dos acciones clave: remoción rápida de las fuentes del inóculo y reducción o eliminación de las oportunidades para la propagación. Estas acciones se refuerzan mutuamente: el mayor grado de control se obtendrá cuando las fuentes de infección sean rápidamente eliminadas y los riesgos de transmisión reducidos. Se conocen o se sospechan muchas fuentes de infección para el BXW, incluyendo plantas infectadas en pie, residuos de plantas, suelos y agua contaminados, y productos comercializados (frutas, hojas y materiales de siembra). La contribución que estas fuentes hacen a la propagación de la enfermedad depende de la supervivencia de las bacterias y del modo (y la probabilidad) de la transmisión. Aunque se desconoce la importancia relativa de muchos de estos factores, las conclusiones tentativas sobre los factores que probablemente podrían ser los más importantes pueden obtenerse de las observaciones en el campo del comportamiento de la enfermedad en Uganda y del conocimiento de otros tipos de marchitez bacteriana del banano. Una característica destacada de todas estas enfermedades es que la infección parece ocurrir vía el brote masculino, siguiendo probablemente la transmisión por insectos voladores que se alimentan o recolectan el néctar y el polen. Aunque actualmente no se conoce si están involucrados los mismos insectos o similares, este es un notable ejemplo de evolución paralela: al menos tres patógenos del banano taxonómicamente distintos parecen haber desarrollado un mecanismo similar de transmisión en continentes diferentes. Afortunadamente, esto también presenta oportunidades similares para controlar la propagación de la enfermedad 1 .Las observaciones del avance de los frentes de la enfermedad en Uganda sugieren que la transmisión por el brote masculino es el medio primario de propagación. No sólo en los brotes enfermos a menudo se observa el primer síntoma sino que estos síntomas también se ven comúnmente en los tipos ABB del banano, los cuales se conocen por ser particularmente susceptibles a la transmisión por insectos de otras enfermedades de marchitez bacteriana (Buddenhagen y Elsasser 1962). Esto sugiere que, como con estas otras enfermedades, la infección aérea vía partes de la flor masculina es el mecanismo principal que impulsa la epidemia actual. De este modo la remoción oportuna del brote masculino debería interrumpir el ciclo de transmisión y prevenir la propagación de la enfermedad, especialmente si esto pudiera realizarse en aquellos tipos que son considerados estar en mayor riesgo de infección por esta vía.Aquí se encuentra el principal reto para controlar la epidemia en Uganda, donde el 'Pisang awak' de tipo ABB, conocido localmente como kayinja, se cultiva ampliamente para la producción de la \"cerveza de banano\". En los márgenes del frente de esta enfermedad, y a través de las áreas ya afectadas, se puede encontrar los kayinjas y otros tipos ABB como el 'Bluggoe' (Kivuvu) con los síntomas típicos de infección en la inflorescencia (Figura 2). Los mismos agricultores han llegado a reconocer que estos son los primeros tipos en infectarse. Las opciones de control parecen suficientemente obvias: reducir la rápida tasa de propagación destruyendo, o al menos haciendo el desbellote de los tipos ABB y luego concentrarse en la prevención de otros modos de propagación (herramientas contaminadas, materiales de siembra infectados) y sanear las áreas ya infectadas. Desafortunadamente, las parcelas de kayinjas frecuentemente son descuidadas o semicultivadas y aunque la costumbre local puede establecer los derechos de cosecha, la propiedad y responsabilidad por el mantenimiento a menudo no son claras. Bajo estas circunstancias, es entendiblemente difícil persuadir a los agricultores individuales a realizar el desbellote de las plantas sanas o cortar o destruir las matas que están infectadas pero aún pueden producir racimos de frutas ocasionales los cuales pueden ser utilizados, sin hablar de destruir las parcelas de kayinjas que aún no han sido afectadas. Es poco probable que los incentivos financieros o la compensación sean factibles dada la magnitud y la naturaleza continua del problema, y los costos y la logística involucrados, así que ¿tendrá éxito alguna forma de concienciación de la comunidad, respaldada tal vez por la coerción o aplicación de fuerza? ¿Y hasta qué magnitud pueden los agricultores individuales tomar acciones para proteger sus propias siembras de banano para su propio consumo?Podemos sugerir dos enfoques amplios: primero, una serie de cordones sanitarios en los márgenes o \"frentes de la enfermedad\" de la epidemia, involucrando medidas de control intensivas incluyendo medidas fitosanitarias, erradicación de todas las plantas enfermas, desbellote de las plantas sanas, y controles estrictos del movimiento de las personas y materiales vegetales. Esto requeriría acciones tanto dentro como alrededor de las áreas afectadas con el fin de crear un \"cortafuego\", o una zona de cero tolerancias de ambas fuentes del inóculo (plantas enfermas) y de los sitios de infección (brotes masculinos). Dadas las dificultades de manejo de los kayinjas, se requeriría un alto grado de participación de la comunidad, movilización y apoyo. Los recursos necesarios para lograr este objetivo pueden ser justificados cuando las apuestas son particularmente altas, como por ejemplo para prevenir el avance de la propagación de la enfermedad a las zonas de cultivo intensivo de banano en el sudeste de Uganda. Aún así, es difícil concebir los altos niveles de adopción (y aplicación de fuerza) de las medidas de control que probablemente son necesarios en el ancho frente por el cual la enfermedad está avanzando.El segundo enfoque depende de lo que los agricultores individuales puedan hacer por ellos mismos. Los agricultores pueden hacer poco para controlar las fuentes de infección (y de aquí el inóculo) que rodean sus propias plantas, pero ellos pueden tomar pasos para prevenir que los bananos se infecten a través de sus propias acciones (uso de herramientas, zapatos, materiales de siembra contaminados) y previniendo la propagación aérea. La pregunta, aunque no examinada adecuadamente, es ¿cuán eficaces son estos cursos de acción individuales? ¿Pueden los agricultores individuales, con parcelas en promedio no mayores de 1-2 ha, prevenir el establecimiento de la enfermedad realizando el desbellote en una escala tan pequeña? En el presente, sigue la necesidad de realizar experimentos pero las apuestas son altas. Si solo una pequeña proporción de agricultores lograra el éxito adoptando estas medidas, entonces otros seguramente los seguirían y emergerían \"islas verdes\" entre la devastación rodeante. La evidencia es ciertamente alentadora: informes sin confirmar sugieren que algunos agricultores han reducido en gran medida y hasta prevenido la propagación de la enfermedad en sus campos después de adoptar el desbellote, cortando la infección y otras medidas sanitarias. Como se informa en este número de Musanews, seguramente no es un accidente que el Cavendish enano, una variedad con morfología floral resistente a las infecciones transmitidas por los insectos aéreos, sobrevive virtualmente indemne a lo largo de los kayinjas enfermos en Etiopía. ¿Podría ser coincidencia que en Congo, donde las infecciones de la inflorescencia parecen ser raras, hasta ahora la enfermedad se está propagando lentamente?Aunque la prevención de la dispersión aérea de las bacterias entre inflorescencias puede ser el medio más importante en el control de la propagación primaria de la enfermedad, especialmente entre las fincas y aldeas, indudablemente ocurren otros modos de infección y son críticas para la contención. Las medidas necesarias pueden ser resumidas como siguen:• Vigilancia intensiva e informes para identificar la distribución actual de la enfermedad y la presencia de nuevas irrupciones sospechadas; A pesar de la coexistencia de varios sistemas de producción bananera en las Antillas, los monocultivos mecanizados siguen siendo importantes. La maquinaria pesada, labranza del suelo y plantación frecuente llevan a la degradación de la estructura del suelo y disminuye la fertilidad del mismo, mientras que el monocultivo favorece a las plagas. Los andosoles son muy frecuentes en el área tradicional del cultivo bananero de Guadalupe y promueve naturalmente el desarrollo del sistema radical. Sin embargo, las dinámicas de colonización del suelo por plantas de banano siguen siendo en gran medida desconocidas y como resultado, las prácticas culturales no pueden ser adaptadas a la absorción y habilidades de anclaje de las raíces. Se realizaron experimentos para caracterizar la arquitectura del sistema radical del banano tres meses después de la siembra en un andosol.Los experimentos realizados en rizotrones, contenedores y en el campo ayudaron a determinar los parámetros pertenecientes a las cuatro funciones principales: emisión, crecimiento, ramificación y senescencia de las raíces. La emisión de raíces fue bastante similar a lo que se observó en otras monocotiledóneas, como el maíz y arroz, y se correlacionó con el desarrollo de los retoños. El diámetro en el ápice de la raíz aumentó entre la plantación y la emisión y cambió durante la vida de la raíz. Se utilizaron dos métodos originales basados en las observaciones morfológicas estáticas para determinar las tasas de crecimiento de las raíces in situ. Las tasas de crecimiento de las raíces variaron de 0.1 cm/día en las raíces cuaternarias a 3.5 cm/día en las raíces primarias y estaban estrechamente relacionadas con el diámetro del ápice. La ramificación de las raíces fue casi estrictamente acropétala (desde la base hasta el ápice). La densidad de ramificación de las raíces fue menor al alejarse de la base de la raíz y fue disminuyendo el diámetro de la raíz principal. La senescencia de las raíces no fue caracterizada explícitamente, pero está relacionada con la duración de la fase de crecimiento de la raíz, que parece ser proporcional a su diámetro promedio.El impacto de la compactación del suelo sobre la arquitectura del sistema radical fue estudiado en potes (compactación estática con una prensa hidráulica) y en el campo (compactación dinámica con las ruedas del tractor) con el fin de investigar la respuesta de las raíces a las presiones que varían de 50 kPa a 1200 kPa. Se observó una ligera disminución en el crecimiento de la materia seca en los retoños cuando el suelo estaba muy compactado. Sólo el crecimiento de las raíces grandes fue afectado por una menor macroporosidad del suelo: una reducción de 8% en la porosidad total (correspondiente a una reducción de 65% en los espacios llenos de aire) redujo su tasa de crecimiento en un 50%. Una regresión lineal múltiple entre las tasas de crecimiento y tres factores (diámetro en el ápice, porosidad del suelo y días de grado total) explicó el 92% de la variación observada. La compactación del suelo aumentó la tasa de muerte de las raíces primarias en un factor de 4, pero no afectó globalmente la trayectoria de las raíces, que tiende a ser horizontal. El crecimiento de las raíces en los suelos compactados tuvo una trayectoria más tortuosa.Se diseñó un modelo de la arquitectura del sistema radical del banano para simular el desarrollo del sistema radical bajo varias condiciones de suelo. Una vez validado, este modelo podría ayudar a entender el efecto de varios escenarios de mecanización sobre la absorción de las raíces y la estabilidad de la planta.En enero de 2004, siguiendo una solicitud de la FAO en Goma, el primer autor acompañó a los oficiales agropecuarios locales en una visita a la región de Masisi, Provincia de Kivu del Norte, con el fin de investigar una enfermedad del banano (Ndungo y Kijana 2004). Estas observaciones iniciales sugirieron que la enfermedad podría ser un marchitamiento bacteriano causado por Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, la cual recientemente fue reportada en Uganda (Tushemereirwe et al. 2003). Las visitas subsiguientes se hicieron en mayo y agosto de 2004 y este informe confirma el diagnóstico anterior.Los agricultores locales observaron por primera vez la enfermedad en 2001 en la aldea de Bashali Mokoto, a 72 km al noroeste de Goma en Kivu del Norte. La altitud en el sitio varía entre 1700 y 1740 m. Las variedades cultivadas incluyen 'Pisang awak' (ABB) (90% de todos los bananos), bananos cerveceros y bananos de altiplanos de Africa oriental (AAA), bananos de postre 'SukariNdizi' (AAB) y Cavendish (AAA), y plátanos (AAB) (Ndungo 2004). Igual que en Uganda, todos los genotipos de banano están afectados, pero el 'Pisang awak' parece ser el primero en infectarse y las variedades Cavendish, las últimas, después de los clones matooke y cerveceros.Los síntomas fueron similares a los observados en Uganda (Tushemereirwe et al. 2003) pero con tendencia a una mayor severidad. Estos síntomas incluían el amarillamiento progresivo, marchitamiento y ennegrecimiento de las hojas, como si hubieran sido chamuscadas por el fuego. Internamente, a través de la planta se observaron rayas vasculares amarillas o marrones, y bolsillos de un exudado bacteriano de color amarillo pálido eran particularmente prominentes en los espacios aéreos en la base de la hoja en el pseudotallo. También se observaron maduración prematura y decoloración de las frutas, así como el ennegrecimiento y marchitamiento del brote masculino. Lo último, sin embargo, fue mucho menos común que lo que se observó en las mismas variedades en Uganda, donde en las áreas recién afectadas los primeros síntomas a menudo se observaban en las flores. Utilizando métodos descritos por Tushemereirwe et al. (2003), las bacterias aisladas en CABI Bioscience no se distinguían de las muestras de X. campestris pv. musacearum de Uganda. Los aislados causaron un rápido marchitamiento después de inocular plantas jóvenes de banano.Como en Uganda, la enfermedad fue reportada por primera vez en 2001 pero la situación en la República Democrática de Congo (RDC) es diferente. Contrario a la situación en Uganda, donde la enfermedad se ha propagado con una tasa promedio alarmante de 75 km por año, probablemente por los insectos que visitan los brotes masculinos, la enfermedad Che Rahani Zakaria y R. Mohd  Es imposible acertar sobre el origen de la epidemia. Una hipótesis indica que la enfermedad se ha propagado recientemente a partir de las plantas silvestres de ensete, que crecen en las laderas vecinas y áreas pantanosas. Por lo tanto, podría ser prudente destruir las plantas de ensete en la vecindad inmediata de los bananos cultivados y se debería investigar la presencia de la enfermedad en el ensete. Aparte del ensete, no se encontró ningún otro huésped alternativo. Es posible que las bacterias puedan infectar otras especies estrechamente relacionadas (como Zingiberaceae, Marantaceae y Cannaceae) pero, hasta ahora no existen evidencias de que esto ocurra en la naturaleza y si ocurre, puede no ser importante para la propagación de la enfermedad. El Ensete (Ensete ventricosum) es el alimento básico para más de 12 millones de personas en las áreas de los altiplanos en el sur de Etiopía. Crece mejor a altitudes que varían entre 2000 y 2700 m (Brandt et al. 1997). El marchitamiento bacteriano del Ensete por primera vez fue reportado en Etiopía por Yirgou y Bradbury (1968) y actualmente se puede encontrar en todas las regiones donde se cultiva el ensete y en las plantas silvestres de ensete, aunque no ha sido reportada su aparición en otros países. Se propaga principalmente a través de herramientas de cultivo infectadas, material de siembra infectado, transplante repetitivo que daña el cormo y las raíces, animales que se alimentan con plantas infectadas y posiblemente insectos que se alimentan del follaje. Ya que el ensete cultivado se cosecha por su pseudotallo y cormo con gran contenido de almidón, normalmente no se le permite florecer. Como resultado, normalmente no surge la cuestión de los insectos que se alimentan de las flores, pero se han observado síntomas típicos de la transmisión por insectos en las flores de banano (Yirgou y Bradbury 1974). Recientemente se realizó una encuesta sobre las plagas y enfermedades del ensete y el banano, financiada por la VVOB (Asociación Flamenca para la Cooperación en Desarrollo y Asistencia Técnica), en las principales regiones donde se cultivan el ensete y el banano. La zona productora de bananos más grande se encuentra en Arba Minch en el sur de Etiopía (1200 m) (Figura 1). Esta región está geográficamente separada de las áreas más húmedas de los altiplanos donde se cultiva el ensete. En esta región el marchitamiento bacteriano no ha sido reportado hasta ahora.La segunda región productora de bananos está localizada en el oeste de Etiopía y la mayor parte de los cultivos de banano se encuentra entre 1050 y 1700 m (Figura 1). Las distancias de más de 100 metros entre las parcelas son muy comunes. Aunque no es el principal cultivo, el ensete también se cultiva en esta área y presenta el marchitamiento bacteriano. La mayoría de los agricultores indicaron que la enfermedad (llamada cólera localmente) ha estado presente en el ensete y banano por unos 20 años. Las variedades cultivadas en esta región son 'Kenya' ('Cavendish enano'), 'Faranji muz' ('Pisang awak'), 'Abesha muz' (un clon matooke) y 'Red abesha' ('Uganda red'), todos bananos dulces. El marchitamiento bacteriano parece ser más común en el banano que en el ensete. La infección del brote masculino fue observada en un gran número de matas de 'Pisang awak' en las áreas situadas por debajo de 1700 m. Unos pocos agricultores reportaron la aparición de la infección en sus clones matooke. El 'Cavendish enano' que se cultiva ampliamente en esta región, aparentemente no está infectado. Se cree que la ausencia de la infección del brote masculino está ligada a las brácteas masculinas persistentes, que podrían constituir una barrera para la transmisión por insectos. Esta observación concuerda con un informe de Bakelana y Ndungo (2004), quienes establecieron que las variedades Cavendish presentes en el este de la República Democrática de Congo (RDC) fueron los últimos genotipos en infectarse.También puede encontrarse matas de banano dispersas en la región sur y central donde se cultiva el ensete, en áreas superiores a los 1700 m. La infección del brote masculino aún no ha sido observada en esta región, posiblemente debido a que mayores altitudes y temperaturas más bajas no son favorables para los insectos vectores. Esto concuerda con las observaciones realizadas a más de 1700 m en el Kivu Norte, RDC, donde la infección del brote masculino es poco común. En contraste, la infección del brote masculino ha sido postulada como una de las causas primarias de nuevas infecciones en Uganda (<1600 m), y está muy propagada en el sudoeste de Etiopía (<1700 m).Se realizaron o se están llevando a cabo numerosas actividades de extensión en Etiopía para controlar el marchitamiento bacteriano del ensete. Sin embargo, no existe un programa activo para erradicar el marchitamiento bacteriano del ensete. La remoción temprana del brote masculino no se practica. Dado que el cultivo de los bananos es una actividad en crecimiento, se debe enfocar sobre el control de la enfermedad y prevención de su propagación a través de la remoción oportuna del brote masculino, remoción de las plantas infectadas, uso de herramientas de cultivo limpias y materiales de siembra sanos.Figura 1. Principales regiones de cultivo del ensete y el banano en Etiopía (adaptado de Brandt et al. 1997) Tres fitopatólogos con experiencia en enfermedades del banano, David Jones, Chris Hayward y John Thomas, han trabajado con la Sociedad Internacional de Fitopatología y su Comité para los Nombres Comunes de las Enfermedades de las Plantas (International Society for Plant Pathology's Committee for Common Names of Plant Diseases -ISPP-CCN), con el fin de preparar una lista de nombres recomendados de las enfermedades de los bananos. Esta lista es acompañada por una segunda lista de nombres de los patógenos (principalmente bacterias, hongos y virus) que incluye referencias seleccionadas de literatura importante. Estas dos listas han sido colocadas en el sitio web del ISPP-CCN: http://www.isppweb.org/names_common.asp .Escoger el «mejor» nombre para una enfermedad puede ser difícil. Una enfermedad puede tener nombres múltiples, dependiendo del país, localidad o usuario. Internacionalmente, hasta siete u ocho nombres pueden ser usados Forum Profundidad de siembra A principios de los años 80, tuve el privilegio de pasar unos cuantos días con el finado George Wilson (Vol. 13 No. 1) durante su visita a Gabón. Discutimos la profundidad de siembra que también fue el tema de un artículo escrito por S.B. Bakhiet y G.A.A. Elbadri en el mismo número de INFOMUSA. Concluimos que no había necesidad de plantar los bananos profundamente dado su sistema radical inherentemente poco profundo, que en su mayoría se concentra en la capa arable del suelo, con algunas de las raíces que crecen en el mulch (cuando este se aplica).Sin embargo, de mi extensa experiencia africana, el tema de la profundidad de siembra con respecto a los bananos (y otros cultivos perennes) sigue siendo una materia sin resolver que merece más investigaciones (como investigación participativa en la finca), extensión apropiada y comunicación de la información, así como intercambio de experiencias.El trabajo de Bakhiet y Elbadri puede ser un punto de entrada para la discusión sobre la profundidad de siembra después de presentar algunas aclaraciones. Por ejemplo, ¿cuál cultivar fue utilizado en el ensayo? ¿Fue el cultivo regado y si fue así, cómo se suministró el agua? ¿Se trataba el ensayo sobre la profundidad de siembra o sobre el tamaño del hoyo, o sobre ambos? Si el enfoque se concentró en la profundidad de siembra, ¿fue el tamaño del hoyo similar para diferentes profundidades de siembra? ¿Qué criterio se utilizó para medir la profundidad de siembra? ¿Fue este el punto de fondo del retoño? ¿Cuál fue el tamaño de los hijos de espada y cuán homogéneo fue el tamaño de los retoños utilizados en el ensayo? para la misma enfermedad. Nadie está contento de descubrir que un nombre que ellos han utilizado por mucho tiempo no es el nombre recomendado por la normalización internacional. No fue fácil alcanzar un consenso sobre algunos nombres, aún dentro del ISPP-CCN.Al escoger los nombres recomendados, el ISPP-CCN ha mantenido en mente ciertos principios (guías) con los cuales los mejores nombres de enfermedades deberían ser consistentes. En particular, un nombre debe incluir un descriptor apropiado, indicando el principal síntoma de la enfermedad. Un nombre sin sentido, aún siendo corto y memorable, es relativamente de poca ayuda para las personas no familiarizadas con una enfermedad.Al recomendar nombres, el ISPP-CCN ha tratado de ser consistente con ciertas reglas de trabajo. Por ejemplo, los nombres de las enfermedades deben estar en inglés, debido a su amplio uso en las comunicaciones internacionales. Asimismo, solo se incluyen las enfermedades de importancia bien estudiadas en un esfuerzo de evitar futuros cambios de nombre.Una enfermedad importante del banano para la cual la escogencia del nombre fue difícil, es la enfermedad de la mancha foliar causada por Mycosphaerella fijiensis. Esta enfermedad se llama « Sigatoka negra (mancha foliar)» en muchos países, pero en algunos otros, «Raya negra de la hoja». Como compromiso, ambos nombres se aceptan como alternativas válidas.Otro ejemplo es la enfermedad del marchitamiento causada por Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. El nombre recomendado es \"Fusarium wilt\" (marchitamiento por Fusarium), consistente con el nombre ampliamente utilizado para las enfermedades del marchitamiento similares, tanto del banano, como de muchos otros huéspedes. El nombre alternativo, \"Panama disease\" (Mal de Panamá), está incluido en la lista de enfermedades como un nombre no preferido.Un tercer ejemplo es la enfermedad del marchitamiento bacteriano causado por Ralstonia solanacearum raza 2. El nombre recomendado es \"Moko bacterial wilt\" (marchitez bacteriana del Moko), combinando el nombre «Moko» (el nombre de un clon de banano particularmente susceptible) utilizado comúnmente con el nombre descriptivo \"bacterial wilt\" (marchitez bacteriana), usado a menudo para la enfermedad del marchitamiento causada por R. solanacearum, tanto en el banano, como en otros huéspedes.Los nombres para las enfermedades en la lista que han sido recomendados por el ISPP-CCN pueden ser disputados por cualquier persona que prefiera un nombre diferente. Usted está invitado a comunicar sus sugerencias al Presidente del ISPP-CCN, David Teakle, d.teakle@uq.edu.au.Se espera que siguiendo las consideraciones de las disputas, los nombres aprobados por el ISPP-CCN serán utilizados comúnmente como nombres «estándar» en publicaciones internacionales, reuniones internacionales, etc. En conversaciones, comunicaciones personales y localmente algunos nombres aprobados sin duda serán abreviados para la conveniencia, o serán utilizados nombres «tradicionales» alternativos en inglés u otros idiomas.La profundidad de siembra puede significar un tópico totalmente distinto en una plantación comercial o bajo condiciones de los pequeños agricultores, por ejemplo, si se utiliza la mecanización o no. Otros factores que también pueden tener influencia incluyen el grupo genómico (por ejemplo, AAA, AAB o ABB), la presencia de plagas y enfermedades, cultivo mixto o monocultivo y el labrado del terreno. La profundidad de siembra es un tópico importante debido a su impacto económico sobre el desempeño agronómico y sostenibilidad, y sobre los tópicos laborales y económicos, y amerita más discusiones. Guy Evers, Oficial Principal Agrícola, División del Centro de Inversiones de la FAO, Servicio para Africa del Sur y Oriental (TCIS) Correo electrónico: Guy.Evers@fao.orgEn estos días lejos de mi país, después de seis años de haber iniciado el Proyecto de Banano Orgánico en el valle del Chira a través del Ministerio de Agricultura del Gobierno del Perú y la colaboración estrecha del INIBAP, la exportación del banano orgánico en el Perú se perfila como el producto estrella de exportación, habiendo registrado el comportamiento más dinámico entre los frutales de exportación en los últimos años en base al crecimiento del valor. Si a esto aunamos los grandes beneficios que el banano orgánico generó en el Perú, el cual fue registrado en la revista INFOMUSA en junio 2004, vemos que el banano orgánico aun seguirá produciendo beneficios estratégicos como la generación de nuevas fuentes de trabajo y mejores ingresos para los pequeños productores del norte del Perú.El proyecto como se informa en \"Un Paraíso de Bananos Orgánicos\" en el informe anual del INIBAP 2003, se estableció con el objetivo de exportar banano del Perú para mejorar los ingresos de los pequeños productores de banano afectados por el fenómeno de El Niño. Aun contra las predicciones de conocidas empresas exportadoras por la lejanía de las áreas de producción de banano en el Perú y los mercados del norte, éste inició las exportaciones en el año 2000 en el contexto de la agricultura orgánica como alternativa para los miles de productores que recibían menores precios por el banano producido y pagaban mayores precios por los insumos.Analizando las cifras actuales de exportación podemos decir que la tarea fue cumplida. El gran reto que nos planteamos en aquel 1998 en una perspectiva de promoción al desarrollo de ventajas comparativas dio sus resultados, la exportación de banano no sólo es una realidad sino que continúa a tasas crecientes. Hay más empresas privadas involucradas en la comercialización, mayor competencia, nuestros bananos orgánicos cada vez llegan a mayor número de consumidores en mas países de destino, la calidad se mejora paulatinamente y las perspectivas de crecimiento de la cadena productiva del banano orgánico son prestas para la incorporación de empresas privadas eficientes que produzcan localmente insumos para la industria del banano.Las empresas actualmente se involucran con la conservación del ambiente mediante una agricultura limpia en relación estrecha con los productores que son socios estratégicos. La producción en tal esquema da como resultados bananos más nutritivos no sólo para el mercado exterior sino también para la población nacional que recibe un banano orgánico, limpio y de mejores propiedades nutritivas al mismo precio que el banano convencional.En el 2004, el volumen de la exportación de banano del Perú aumentó en 34% y el valor de la exportación creció en 39% respecto al año anterior debido al mayor precio de venta. En el 2004 se establecieron en el norte peruano diez empresas exportadoras de banano orgánico en comparación al año 2000 durante el cual sólo dos empresas exportaron el banano orgánico.A la fecha, la transnacional Dole captó el 59% del valor de exportación, entonces que las empresas Bioorgánika y Gronsa captaron el 22%. El resto del valor exportado lo realizaron las empresas Banano del Norte, Bio Costa, Inka Banana, Organia, Grupo Orgánico Nacional, AgroPiura, Biofruit, Productos Orgánicos de Piura, Tumpibanana y Agrorganic de reciente creación.Las empresas Biofruit y Tumpibanana destinan el 100% de sus exportaciones hacia el Ecuador, país vecino que re-exporta el banano orgánico a otro país como Estados Unidos. El 83% del volumen exportado a Estados Unidos y el 52% a Bélgica lo realiza la transnacional Dole a un precio promedio de US$ 6.4 por caja. El 75% del volumen exportado a Holanda lo realiza la empresa Bioorgánica a un precio promedio de 8.1 dólares por caja. Las empresas Inka Banana y Organia exportan el 51 y 34% respectivamente del volumen total exportado al Japón.Nuevamente se conquistaron los mercados de Alemania y Reino Unido y por primera vez se ingreso al mercado Chino. Japón, Bélgica y Holanda fueron los países que aumentaron considerablemente sus importaciones en el último año, en tanto las exportaciones hacia Estados Unidos mostraron tasas decrecientes en los últimos cuatro años y probablemente al cierre del 2004 la tasa de crecimiento sea Erratum En el artículo \"Evaluación de nuevos híbridos de banano contra la enfermedad de la Sigatoka negra\", en el número anterior de INFOMUSA, escribimos que la enfermedad contra la cual se evaluaron los híbridos era la raya negra de la hoja, o Sigatoka negra, causada por Mycosphaerella fijiensis. En realidad, la enfermedad era la enfermedad de Sigatoka, o Sigatoka amarilla, causada por Mycosphaerella musicola. Lamentamos el error.* FOB: free on board. negativa. Esta situación puede ser causada principalmente por la competencia con otros países más cercanos como República Dominicana, México y Ecuador, principales competidores.Desde el inicio del proyecto hasta la fecha, el banano orgánico peruano llegó a diez países entre los que destacan Estados Unidos 61%, Bélgica 16%, Holanda 12%, Alemania 5%, Japón 4% y el resto a Francia, Reino Unido, Ecuador, España y China.La tasa media de cambio de los precios FOB * fue creciente a razón de 10% entre el 2001 y 2004, de US$ 5.6 por caja de 18 kg en 2001 hasta US$ 7.4 en 2004. El incremento de los precios del banano se debió principalmente a la apertura de nuevos mercados como Japón y al crecimiento de las ventas a mercados con mejores precios como Holanda y Bélgica, sin dejar de lado que el precio FOB de las exportaciones hacia Estados Unidos también fue aumentando progresivamente.La totalidad de la producción lo realizan pequeños productores quienes venden sus productos a las empresas exportadoras quienes a cuenta certifican la producción, procesamiento y comercialización del banano orgánico y a la vez proveen asistencia técnica a los productores.El crecimiento del valor de las exportaciones viene generando una mayor conciencia del pequeño productor para la conservación del ambiente y una identificación con la producción de alimentos limpios y nutritivos. También la participación de un mayor número de empresas privadas, organismos de apoyo a la investigación y agencias de certificación en la región generarán en el mediano plazo el desarrollo de la cadena productiva de banano con realización de actividades complementarias para el mejoramiento de la producción y provisión de servicios.Los grandes temas pendientes para el desarrollo de la cadena del banano orgánico en el Perú son el desarrollo de investigaciones aplicadas, la creación de empresas privadas involucradas con la producción de insumos para la exportación y naturalmente una agenda estratégica de mercadeo para posicionar el banano orgánico peruano en el estilo de \"Un paraíso de Bananos Orgánicos\". Salomón Soldevilla Canales Correo electrónico: ssalomon@colpos.mx Tributo al Dr Maribona El 31 de Octubre 2004, la comunidad científica de banano y biotecnológica perdió a uno de sus más grandes colaboradores, el Dr Rodolfo Heriberto Maribona Hernández, director de CIBE (Centro de investigaciones biotecnológicas del Ecuador) de la Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) en Guayaquil, Ecuador.El Dr Maribona nació en 1942 en Cuba, sintiendo desde temprana edad inclinación por la ciencia. Realizo estudios de en medicina y biología en la Universidad de Harvard, en los Estados unidos, y se graduó en la Universidad de Lomonosov de Moscú en 1979. A su retorno a Cuba, se desempeño como científico abordando la temática del mejoramiento genético de la caña de azúcar por variación somaclonal.Llegó al Ecuador en 1997, como asesor de la ESPOL y en 1998 fue director científico de SEBIOCA (la Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Biotecnología). Inició los procesos de convenios con las Universidades Flamencas, en Bélgica, escogiéndose al modelo banano y Sigatoka negra por su importancia en Ecuador. Desde 1999, se desempeño como líder en el proyecto de biotecnología en Musa para una agricultura sostenible, dando lugar a la creación del CIBE. El CIBE no solamente es un centro de investigación pero también proporciona, a través de su unidad BANARED, informaciones técnicas a los agricultores a través de actividades de extensión y demostraciones de campo. Su colaboración con productores de banano orgánico fue al origen de investigaciones innovadoras sobre los mecanismos moleculares y bioquímicos fundadores de los medios de defensa de la planta.Las personas que lo conocieron y trabajaron con él lo recordaran por su apoyo y la oportunidad brindada a muchos jóvenes para hacer carrera en las ciencias, su vasto conocimiento científico y una personalidad atrayente. Isabel Jiménez, CIBE, Ecuador Rony Swennen, KULeuven, Bélgica INFOMUSA es una revista internacional que se publica dos veces al año en los idiomas inglés, francés y español. Nuestro objetivo es dar a conocer los resultados de investigaciones e informes de interés a toda la comunidad bananera. Ya que INFOMUSA publica artículos sobre cualquier tema relacionado con Musa, los autores deben emplear frases sencillas y cortas para evitar la jerga innecesaria y hacer su trabajo accesible para los lectores, especialistas en otras disciplinas. Los textos mecanografiados deberán ser preparados en inglés, francés o español y no exceder 2500 palabras, incluyendo la bibliografía. El texto debe ser mecanografiado a doble espacio. Todas las páginas (incluyendo las tablas, figuras, leyendas y referencias) deberán estar enumeradas consecutivamente. Incluya el nombre completo de todos los autores y sus direcciones completas al momento de realizar el estudio. También indique la persona quien recibirá la correspondencia respecto al trabajo. El manuscrito debe ser enviado como un adjunto al correo electrónico o en un disquete de 3.5 pulgadas para las computadoras compatibles con PC. Por favor, indique el nombre y la versión del procesador de palabras utilizado y la dirección electrónica del autor. En cualquier caso, necesitaremos recibir por correo dos copias impresas del manuscrito. Título: El título debe ser lo más corto posible y no contener números, siglas, abreviaturas o signos de puntuación. Resúmenes: Es necesario adjuntar un resumen que no exceda de 200-250 palabras. El resumen debe recapitular de manera concisa el contenido básico y enviado en el mismo idioma del manuscrito. Si es posible, se debe enviar las traducciones (incluyendo el título) en los otros dos idiomas. Palabras clave: Facilite un máximo de seis palabras clave, en orden alfabético, debajo del resumen en el idioma del autor. Introducción: La introducción debe proporcionar una razón para la investigación y cualquier información de fondo. Ya que esta introducción no pretende representar una amplia reseña del tópico, la cantidad de referencias bibliográficas debe mantenerse al mínimo. Se debe evitar las introducciones sobre la importancia de los bananos como un producto básico o producto comercial, al menos que sean absolutamente necesarias para el entendimiento del artículo. Materiales y métodos: Los autores deben proporcionar suficientes detalles de su diseño experimental para permitir al lector evaluar la validez de la investigación. Para los materiales y métodos utilizados comúnmente, será suficiente una simple referencia. Resultados: La unidad debe ser separada de la cantidad por un espacio sencillo y seguir la nomenclatura SI, o la nomenclatura común a un campo particular. Las unidades o abreviaturas inusuales deben ser definidas. Presente los datos en el texto o como una figura o una tabla, pero nunca los duplique. Evite el uso extenso de los gráficos para presentar los datos que podrían ser presentados más concisamente en el texto o en una tabla. Limite las fotografías a aquellas que son absolutamente necesarias para mostrar los descubrimientos del experimento.Discusión: La discusión no debe contener repetición extensa de la sección de los resultados, ni reiterar la introducción. Esta parte debe combinarse con la sección de los resultados. Bibliografía: Todas las referencias bibliográficas mencionadas en el texto deberán ser presentadas por el nombre del autor o autores y el año de publicación (por ejemplo: Sarah et al. 1992, Rowe 1995). Se debe evitar referencias a los documentos que circulan ampliamente, como informes anuales, y las citas de las comunicaciones personales y de los datos no publicados. Al final del texto, se debe presentar una lista de la bibliografía en orden alfabético. Por favor, siga el estilo de los siguientes ejemplos: Artículos de ediciones periódicas: Sarah J.L., C. Blavignac & M. Boisseau. 1992. Une méthode de laboratoire pour le criblage variétal des bananiers vis-à-vis de la résistance aux nématodes. Fruits 47( 5  Jones, ed.). INIBAP, Montpellier, Francia. Ilustraciones y tablas: Las ilustraciones y tablas deberán estar enumeradas consecuentemente y las referencias en el texto se harán de acuerdo a esta numeración. Cada ilustración o tabla debe incluir un título sencillo y claro. Las figuras y tablas deben insertarse después de la sección de bibliografía o en archivos separados. Gráficos: suministrar los datos correspondientes junto con los gráficos. Dibujos: si es posible, suministrar dibujos originales. Fotografías: Preferimos fotografías de buena calidad (papel brillante con un buen contraste para las películas en blanco y negro, pruebas de buena calidad y películas o diapositivas originales para las fotografías a colores), pero por favor, recuerde que no las devolveremos. Publicaremos las imágenes digitalizadas o tomadas con una cámara digital si su resolución es suficientemente alta (1 millón de píxeles o un mínimo de 300 dpi de una fotografía de tamaño real). Son aceptables los archivos con extensiones JPEG, TIFF y EPS. Evite enviar fotografías insertadas en un documento de Word o Power Point, a menos que estas están acompañadas de una mejor alternativa de calidad. Siglas: Las siglas deberán ser transcritas completamente la primera vez que éstas aparezcan en el texto, seguido por las siglas entre paréntesis. Nombres de cultivares: El nombre del cultivar debe ser colocado entre comillas sencillas. Si el nombre es compuesto, solo la primera palabra empieza con la letra mayúscula, a menos que se refiera a un lugar o nombre de persona. Utilice los nombres comúnmente acordados, como 'Grande naine' y evite las variaciones locales o traducciones, como 'Gran Enano'. Nota: Si el material de plantación utilizado para los experimentos descritos proviene o está registrado en el banco de germoplasma de INIBAP, debe indicarse su número de accesión (código ITC) dentro del texto o en forma tabular.Gracias por seguir nuestras recomendaciones. Esto facilitará y acelerará el trabajo de edición.","tokenCount":"27419"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e841270e4aea2987d922bd932d903e22","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/03f7873b-bdbe-49c2-8e09-5b0bbcc22357/retrieve","id":"-1669017614"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bcb0088f-9f98-4551-a4ca-9b77113e6d61","pagecount":"25","content":"El día 16 de noviembre se desarrolló el taller virtual contemplado en los Términos de Referencia de la consultoría. Dicho taller tuvo dos objetivos: En primer lugar, dar a conocer las conclusiones del estudio referidas a una hoja de ruta para ayudar al fortalecimiento de los servicios de información agroclimática en el contexto del Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático (2023-2027) y a la presentación de un Manual de difusión de la experiencia de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas y, en segundo lugar, recoger de las opiniones de informantes clave acerca de dichos resultados con el objeto de ajustar la aplicación de los hallazgos del estudio.El evento empezó con un primer plenario que contó con cuatro presentaciones donde se entregó información sobre los resultados de la consultoría y de aplicaciones de los servicios climáticos como también de las experiencias acerca de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas (MAP), también llamadas MTA.Una segunda etapa consistió en un trabajo de dos grupos que, a través de la respuesta de preguntas motivadoras, reflexionaron sobre las acciones claves de la hoja de ruta y sus perspectivas y, un segundo grupo que discutió acerca del manual de implementación de MAPS y las posibilidades de su desarrollo en las diferentes regiones del país.Por último, se realizó un plenario final donde se expusieron las conclusiones referidas a los dos temas principales.On November 16, the virtual workshop contemplated in the Terms of Reference of the consultancy was held. This workshop had two objectives: First, to present the conclusions of the study regarding a roadmap to help strengthen agroclimatic information services in the context of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2023Plan ( -2027) ) and the presentation of a Manual for disseminating the experience of the Participatory Agroclimatic Tables and, secondly, collecting the opinions of key informants about said results in order to adjust the application of the study's findings.The event began with a first plenary session that featured four presentations where information was delivered on the results of the consultancy and applications of climate services, as well as the experiences of Participatory Agroclimatic Tables (MAP), also called MTAs.A second stage consisted of the work of two groups that, through the answer to motivating questions, reflected on the key actions of the roadmap and their perspectives, and a second group that discussed the MAPS implementation manual and the possibilities of its development in the different regions of the country.Finally, a final plenary session was held where the conclusions regarding the two main topics were presented. Los Objetivos del taller fueron:1.1. Presentar los resultados de la consultoría, ya sea en lo referente a la propuesta de hoja de ruta para fortalecer los servicios de información agroclimática como de la implementación de Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas (MAP) como una forma de acercar el conocimiento a la toma de decisiones y hacer más aplicable la información entregada por los Servicios climáticos.1.2. Conocer la opinión de un grupo de actores clave sobre lo concluido en la presente consultoría e incorporar las posibles adecuaciones planteadas por los participantes.La convocatoria se hizo de acuerdo a una lista confeccionada por el equipo de trabajo y visada por el consultor en la que se incluyeron expertos que se han vinculado a los temas de la consultoría ya sea en el servicio público como en la academia y en la producción silvoagropecuaria. En total se invitaron 35 actores clave, a los que se agregaron 16 coordinadores de los Comités Regionales de Cambio Climático (CORECC).El evento se desarrolló totalmente en modalidad virtual, vía plataforma Google Meet, dadas las condiciones sanitarias y las normativas imperantes respecto de la situación suscitada a propósito de la pandemia COVID-19.El Webinar estuvo estructurado en 3 partes: Un primer plenario donde se recibieron las presentaciones de los 4 expositores, un trabajo de grupo donde los asistentes se dividieron en dos grupos: el primero a cargo de abordar el tema de la hoja de ruta para el fortalecimiento de la información agroclimática para el sector SAP y el segundo que se centró en el tema de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (o Agroclimáticas Participativas, llamadas indistintamente) con especial énfasis en los instrumentos que facilitan la creación de nuevas experiencias, el Manual o Guía de implementación, entre ellos.El primer plenario se destinó a la presentación de los resultados de la consultoría orientados a fortalecer los servicios de información agroclimática en el contexto del nuevo período del Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático del sector SAP (2023-2027) y de aplicaciones tanto en lo que respecta a la aplicación de la hoja de ruta del fortalecimiento de los servicios como de las experiencias en la implementación de Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas (MAP´s), genéricamente llamadas Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA). En esta sección se presenta un resumen de las exposiciones del Webinar.3.1. \"Apoyo al fortalecimiento de los servicios de información agroclimática en el sector silvoagropecuario de Chile\". Antonio Yaksic S. Consultor.El objetivo principal de la presentación fue hacer una síntesis de los resultados de la consultoría llevada a cabo en el contexto de la implementación del Plan de Adaptación al cambio Climático del sector Silvoagropecuario (2023Silvoagropecuario ( -2027)).La consultoría tiene como objetivo principal \"apoyar el fortalecimiento de los servicios de información agroclimática en el sector silvoagropecuario de Chile como parte de la implementación del Plan de Adaptación al Cambio Climático del Sector Silvoagropecuario de Chile (2023-2027) (PANCC-SAP). Como objetivos específicos se presentan dos, el objetivo N°1 (producto N°1) \"Una hoja de ruta con acciones claves orientadas a implementar y fortalecer servicios de información climática en el sector silvoagropecuario chileno alineados con el PANCC SAP de Chile\" y un objetivo N°2 (producto N°2) consistente en \"Un manual de implementación de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA) o (MAP) para Chile.3.1.1. Hoja de Ruta para fortalecimiento de los servicios de información agroclimática.Con respecto a los servicios de información agroclimática estos están insertos en un Sistema de Información que siempre ha estado ligado a la gestión de riesgos agroclimáticos. De ese modo han estado presentes como una medida específica en todas las versiones de Planes de Adaptación al Cambio Climático, desde el Plan Nacional (2008-2012) y los Planes de Adaptación sectoriales desde (2013-2017), en adelante. El objetivo genérico en todos estos planes ha sido \"optimizar el sistema Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos frente a eventos climáticos extremos\" y los productos logrados y en ejecución son, por ejemplo: la Red AGROMET, con cerca de 500 Estaciones Meteorológicas Automáticas (EMAS), el Observatorio Agroclimático con su sistema de monitoreo y alerta temprana de sequías y un vasto sistema de información meteorológica y climática.Con todo, el Sistema de Información Agroclimática mantiene algunas brechas en su desarrollo que son susceptibles de oportunidades de mejoras. Un enfoque sistémico advierte que se requieren cambios institucionales y de gobernanza. El Sistema Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos Agroclimáticos está invisibilizado, poco accesible y valorizado en muchos círculos del sector agrícola, tampoco tiene una inserción ni una dependencia clara operándose muchas veces por medio de acuerdos de buene voluntad. Por otra parte, las líneas de trabajo no se seleccionan de acuerdo con las prioridades de los usuarios sino a la disponibilidad de financiamiento. Por último, el sistema de información no está relevado como una acción prioritaria en el marco de la adaptación al cambio climático, lo que hace que no se les asignen recursos y medios para su desarrollo. Es por todo lo anterior que la elaboración de una próxima etapa de un Plan de Adaptación sectorial se transforma en una oportunidad para crear las condiciones para fortalecer y desarrollar un sistema de información agroclimática para el sector SAP.La actual propuesta de apoyo al fortalecimiento considera como resultado esperado \"La implementación de servicios climáticos que maximicen los beneficios y gestionen los riesgos climáticos en la actividad silvoagropecuaria mediante la aplicación de información climática basada en la integración del conocimiento científico y territorial para apoyar la planificación, las políticas sectoriales y las prácticas de manejo predial\".La hoja de ruta se confeccionó según lo establecido en el Plan de Trabajo y se adaptó al formato de los Planes de adaptación del SAP anteriores y al proyecto PANCC-SAP (2023-2027). Los objetivos, actividades, acciones y metas fueron agrupadas de acuerdo con cada línea estratégica definida en el Plan de Trabajo y puestas en un cronograma con tres horizontes temporales: Corto plazo (Año 1=2023); Mediano plazo (Año 2=2024 y Año 3=2025) y Largo plazo (Año 4= 2026 y Año 5= 2027). Finalmente, la Hoja de Ruta quedó compuesta por: 12 objetivos, 33 actividades, 41 acciones potenciales con distribución por línea estratégica, definiéndose, además, para cada acción potencial actores y metas o indicadores.Un siguiente paso consistió en seleccionar un total de 12 acciones clave a ser priorizadas dado el mayor impacto que ellas puedan tener en el fortalecimiento del sistema de información agroclimático. La selección de acciones, considerando su línea estratégica fue la siguiente:[1] Calidad de la información:• Definir procesos para el aseguramiento de la calidad de la información de acuerdo con los atributos de la gestión de la calidad. • Mejoramiento de medios y oportunidad de comunicación e información de servicios climáticos para las comunidades rurales alejadas.[2] Accesibilidad y Usabilidad:• Evaluar y renovar los recursos de información actualmente operativos tomando en cuenta las brechas existentes y las oportunidades de mejoras. • Difusión de herramientas de monitoreo y predicción de sequías.• Difusión de metodologías estandarizadas para estimar la demanda hídrica de los cultivos.• Fomentar la planificación y preparación antes de la ocurrencia de sequías.[3] Aumento del conocimiento de usuarios:• Difundir a través de los medios de comunicación de MINAGRI y medios locales la metodología de Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas. • Establecer Módulos de formación con enfoques alternativos de aplicación en el territorio para la acción climática (agricultura regenerativa, enfoque holístico, método keyline, etc).[4] Gobernanza:• Evaluación y actualización de la institucionalidad del Sector Silvoagropecuario vinculada a la gestión de riesgos agroclimáticos. • Caracterizar territorialmente los impactos del Cambio Climático para la aplicación de las medidas de adaptación. • Implementación de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas (MAPS) con expresión en las 16 regiones. • Presentar y comprender las características del Plan Operativo de Emergencias, especialmente un sistema moderno y eficiente de monitoreo y alertas temprana.Fuente: elaboración propia.La experiencia de instalar un piloto de las Mesas Agroclimáticas participativas se realizó en el contexto del Proyecto \"Mejoramiento de Resiliencia al Cambio Climático de la Pequeña Agricultura en la Región de O'Higgins\", con la finalidad de mejorar la toma de decisiones basada en la gestión La acción más sustantiva fue la elaboración de un Manual de MAPS que permite la propagación de la experiencia y un avance en el enfoque \"bottom-up\" e involucramiento local para co-construcción de soluciones para la adaptación al cambio climático.Fuente: elaboración propia.3.2. \"Servicios climáticos Aplicación agroclimática para la eficiencia hídrica de los cultivos\". Claudio Balbontín, Investigador Riego, INIA.Esta presentación trata de mostrar las capacidades de gestionar información con un objetivo claro, con un usuario importante llamado eficiencia hídrica. Usuario que incluye a todos quienes se ven afectados por situaciones complejas de limitantes en la disponibilidad hídrica por el cambio climático, por la producción de alimentos en un mundo en crecimiento y competencia en las relaciones humanas.Uno de los problemas que se observa en la agricultura es la baja eficiencia en el uso del agua. Eficiencia hídrica baja es del 40% y se debe llegar a una eficiencia hídrica alta (70 %), siendo el problema que la agricultura es el principal consumidor de agua. La solución a este problema es sumar los marcos conceptuales y las nuevas tecnologías en la agricultura. Por una parte, los marcos conceptuales estandarizados permiten estimar las necesidades de riego en los cultivos y, por otra parte, las tecnologías ayudan a determinar el consumo hídrico de los cultivos (riego). Estas dos situaciones al interactuar favorecen el monitoreo y la gestión en la eficiencia hídrica.Fuente: presentación Claudio Balbontín.Ante el problema, existen las herramientas para abordar la eficiencia hídrica en la agricultura. Por un lado, se puede determinar la demanda ambiental (el clima) y por otro lado el nivel de desarrollo (planta). Entonces, la solución está dada por los marcos conceptuales más las nuevas tecnologías en la agricultura. En esta solución contribuye la red agrometeorológica y la plataforma agrícola satelital (PLAS). Sumadas ambas plataformas generan el sistema RAN-PLAS.La plataforma PLAS es un convenio entre INIA y la Universidad Castilla La Mancha, España, que permiten como los satélites se unen a la agricultura que entregan Índices Vegetacionales y otros como de clorofila, de agua. Las imágenes entregadas por los satélites son convertidas en imágenes cuantitativas y de esta forma se produce la digitalización de la agricultura, las imágenes se convierten en datos.Al obtener por imágenes satelitales coeficientes de cultivo in situ permite mejorar la eficiencia hídrica, especialmente en vides de acuerdo al sistema de conducción de estas plantas, tanto en espaldera, vaso, parronal, lira u otro. Toda información valiosa para el modelamiento, propuestas de sectores de riego y determinar el consumo hídrico de la región o territorio.La demanda ambiental se puede precisar en la información que proporciona el sitio Web https://agrometeorologia.cl/ . Información como, por ejemplo, resumen diario y pronóstico, sobre receso invernal (horas, unidades y porciones de frío), frecuencia de heladas, grados día, alerta temprana de enfermedades en cultivos. También este sitio proporciona información sobre representatividad del territorio agrícola y consultar datos climáticos de distintos puntos geográficos del país.El consumo hídrico de riego. En esta programación eficiente del riego se deben tomar en cuenta información técnica de calidad, como por ejemplo estadística de evapotranspiración de los cultivos emitida por publicaciones de la FAO, la Plataforma Agrícola Satelital (PLAS) y de la Red Agrometeorológica de INIA.En el mejoramiento en la programación eficiente del riego, este debe ser la resultante de la ecuación producto entre el coeficiente basal de cultivo (Kcb) y la evapotranspiración del cultivo de referencia (ETo) máxima es el dato de partida para el diseño de los sistemas de riego.Fuente: presentación Claudio Balbontín.3.3. \"Experiencias MTA Regional Magdalena, Cesar, La Guajira y Atlántico.Ing\". Leddy Ropero Barbosa, Centro de Investigación Caribia, Agrosavia-ColombiaPresenta la definición de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas -MTA Regionales, que es \"Una innovadora iniciativa que busca integrar actores del sector agropecuario a nivel local para informar, especialmente a los pequeños productores, sobre los cambios esperados en el clima de su región; cómo estos pueden afectar sus cultivos y qué pueden hacer para reducir los impactos negativos.(FAO)\".El inicio de las MTA regionales, se produce en el año 2014 en el marco del Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) junto con el MADR, FENALCE, AGROSAVIA y CIAT, donde realizan estas reuniones en Montería (Córdoba) como parte de un esfuerzo conjunto de estas instituciones para integrar conocimientos y acciones sobre seguridad alimentaria y agricultura sostenible frente a las amenazas de la variabilidad y el cambio climático, dirigidos especialmente a los agricultores más vulnerables.Muestra la línea de tiempo desde el año 2015 al 2021 sobre el proceso de desarrollo de las MTA FOTO 5.Fuente: presentación Leddy Ropero.Sobre los productos que la MTA MCGA generan actualmente y los que se proyectan realizar los describe en la siguiente tabla:CUADRO 1.Fuente: elaboración propia en base a presentación de Leddy Ropero.Finaliza la presentación, señalando las responsabilidades que asume la institución a la que pertenece con la MTA, estas son:• Asignar a un funcionario (preferiblemente del área técnica) para que asista a las reuniones mensuales que se realizan todos los viernes de cada mes. • La persona asignada debe registrar su asistencia para que el logo de su institución aparezca en el boletín. • Asumir la logística de mínimo una reunión al año (generar invitación, realizar convocatoria, moderar la reunión) si la reunión es virtual AGROSAVIA o CENIPALMA generan el link en Teams y lo entregan al anfitrión para que los incluya en las invitaciones. • Generar recomendaciones técnicas del sistema productivo que asesore la entidad.• Recibir las recomendaciones técnicas y con el apoyo de IDEAM editar el boletín y generar la versión final. • Enviar el boletín a la base de datos de las instituciones que participan en la MTA.3.4. \"Experiencia Mesa Agroclimática Participativa Marchigüe desde una perspectiva institucional\". Pamela García, Profesional de Apoyo, Seremi de Agricultura, Región de O'Higgins.A través de la presentación se destaca el trabajo ejecutado en el Proyecto \"Mejoramiento de la Resiliencia al Cambio Climático para la Pequeña Agricultura en la Región de O'Higgins\", el cual es ejecutado con financiamiento del Fondo de Adaptación; además del Seminario Gestión de Riesgos: \"Nuevas Tecnologías y Metodologías para el uso de información agroclimática en la actividad agrícola\" realizado el 13 de julio de 2018.La constitución de la Mesa Agroclimática Participativa (MAP), se realizó en el marco del componente 2 del proyecto del Fondo de Adaptación, con un trabajo previo de identificación de territorio, de líderes, de actores claves, diseño de metodologías, trabajo en equipo y coordinación. Para ello fueron analizadas las ocho comunas del secano costero de la región de O'Higgins, siendo elegida finalmente Machigüe, por cumplir los mejores requisitos para su concreción.Los principales aspectos para la identificación del territorio en la elección de la MAP pueden resumirse en: (1) Existencia de una estación meteorológica para apoyar con datos climáticos reales.(2) Que fuera una comuna con características favorables en cuanto a los actores y líderes: agricultores interesados, técnicos adecuados y participación del municipio a través del alcalde. (3) Presencia de agricultores que ya estaban realizando acciones con otras instituciones. (4) Posibilidad de realizar un trabajo multisectorial.Fuente: presentación de Pamela García.Era primera vez que se intentaba desarrollar este método de trabajo, el cual fue percibido con entusiasmo por parte de los pequeños agricultores de la comuna rural de Marchigüe. Las reuniones de la MAP se desarrollaron en base a información local, en un trabajo conjunto entre los expertos y los propios beneficiarios, rescatando el conocimiento local. Algunos aspectos destacables fue la construcción conjunta, intentando lograr un uso de lenguaje común, con empoderamiento de los actores y definición de objetivos comunes.Un aspecto relevante para destacar fue que en la medida que avanzaba el trabajo de la MAP, comenzaron a surgir liderazgos en el grupo de campesinos. Esto ayudó a lograr un trabajo más participativo, con apropiación de los conocimientos y formación de una red de comunicación WhatsApp. Las principales ideas fuerzas a rescatar fueron: (1) Uso de habilidades blandas, (2) uso de lenguaje adecuado, (3) empoderamiento de los participantes, (4) búsqueda de un objetivo común. Respecto de esto último, el objetivo común debe ser \"mejorar la calidad de vida de los agricultores\".Uno de los desafíos de la MAP fue lograr su continuidad más allá de la ejecución del proyecto. Son muchas organizaciones que aportan a ello, destacando el Municipio, Seremi de Agricultura, Comités Regionales Cambio Climático, INDAP, PRODESAL-SAT, Organizaciones locales de agricultores, otras organizaciones locales como vecinos, escuelas, bomberos, etc. Se plantea entonces la necesidad de formalización mediante algún convenio u otra forma legal, que permita trabajar más allá de las personas y a la vez poder acceder a financiamiento.Otros desafíos de la MAP fue fomentar la gobernanza, la formación de líderes locales, la formación de transferencistas, como también incorporar a los actores estatales como Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, INIA, INDAP, Seremi de Agricultura, Municipios y otros. También se propuso como desafíos el diseño de instrumentos de apoyo, de concursos e indicadores de seguimiento, como asimismo favorecer la innovación y difusión.Finalmente, teniendo como experiencia base la MAP de Marchigüe, se concluye que es perfectamente posible la implementación en otras comunas.Fuente: presentación de Pamela García.Como se indicó anteriormente en la metodología de la actividad, los participantes fueron categorizados en base a sus funciones administrativas y pertinencia institucional, para así elaborar dos grupos de trabajo en concordancia con el criterio anteriormente descrito, el primer grupo estuvo encargado de revisar los contenidos y acuerdos de la Hoja de Ruta propuesta y el segundo grupo se enfocó en revisar las propuestas para el desarrollo de Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas MAP en Chile. A continuación, detallamos las dinámicas y contenidos desarrollados en cada grupo.4.1. Informe GRUPO 1. Hoja de ruta.Participantes: Sara Alvear, DMC; Guillermo Donoso, PUC; Raúl Orrego, INIA; Antonio Yaksic, Consultor CIAT; Liliana Villanueva, SEGRA y José Guzmán, Colaborador del Proyecto.➢ ¿Qué lineamientos futuros se pueden proponer para mejorar la calidad de los servicios de información agroclimática? ➢ ¿Los servicios de información agroclimáticos responden a las necesidades productivas de la agricultura, especialmente de los pequeños productores e indígenas? ➢ ¿Cuáles a su juicio, serían las brechas más relevantes de los servicios climáticos? ➢ ¿Cuáles son las prioridades dentro del fortalecimiento de servicios de información climáticas?Mediante una lluvia de ideas de los/as participantes, se desarrolló un importante dialogo e intercambio de experiencias para obtener la siguiente síntesis del trabajo en grupo.Una de las primeras ideas que permitió iniciar el diálogo fue definir el ámbito de acción, la coordinación, quiénes colaboran y los presupuestos que se disponen para mejorar la calidad de la información agroclimática.Es importante definir la Coordinación Nacional, ya que existen muchos actores, distintos intereses, definir qué instituciones, organizaciones y qué y cómo participan los usuarios que se beneficiarán con la información agroclimática elaborada. Hacer el esfuerzo por responder quiénes serán nuestros usuarios. Una pregunta muy amplia que tendrá que ser respondida en forma participativa por los distintos involucrados en la temática climática.Los servicios de información agroclimática tienen que darle más valor a lo elaborado por las distintas unidades como son los boletines, las proyecciones climáticas. Se hace necesario, que los Servicios de Información Agroclimática den a conocer las mejoras en cobertura territoriales y tener claridad en la demanda de los usuarios agrícolas y no agrícolas, asociados al formato que se utiliza y evitar un número grande de datos. A un usuario le interesa el proceso, un buen ejemplo es lo que está haciendo el Ministerio de Ciencias que integra información para considerar todos los datos de los servicios públicos y privados, igualmente saber hacia dónde se transita, como se agrega más información. En esta integración de información, en la Agricultura se debe sumar la hidrología especialmente hacia los pequeños agricultores.Por otra parte, se hace necesario valorar el conocimiento local y realizar investigación científica local, como, asimismo, conocer la idiosincrasia de los territorios. Sin embargo, el reducido número de profesionales y escaso recurso humano impiden realizar una labor que permita conocer las demandas agroclimáticas de los agricultores.La carencia de los aportes de las Ciencias Sociales son un impedimento para comprender y atender las demandas de los usuarios y grupos vulnerables de la ruralidad, como por ejemplo el uso de un lenguaje sencillo, comprensible y compartido por la comunidad rural y actores relevantes en los servicios de información agroclimáticos. El conocimiento recogido de la ruralidad debe compartirse, comunicarse y hacer mayores esfuerzos de difusión y de mayor vínculo o empoderamiento con el agricultor. La experiencia de las MTA presentada por Leddy Ropero Barbosa de Colombia y el ejemplo boletín de boletín contribuye a una mejor comprensión por parte de los usuarios.Dentro de las brechas detectadas, existe una relacionada con los formatos no amigables que se utilizan para transferir la información y la disminuida alfabetización digital y acceso a internet por parte de agricultores, especialmente por falta de cobertura en localidades rurales.Otra brecha es la precaria cultura de coordinación, comunicación y cooperación entre los distintos actores y participantes en la temática agroclimática que produce deficiencias en el alcance, feed back y conocimiento de la necesidad de información por parte de los usuarios. Hay que aprender a leer el territorio, descentralizar las unidades territoriales, profesionalizar los servicios, mejorar el rol de INDAP por su cercanía y servicio a la pequeña agricultura, como asimismo potenciar proyectos piloto.Una última idea manifestada en el trabajo grupal es la referida a considerar los avances que se han logrado, darles prioridad, tomar lo que se tiene, comunicar la relevancia y valorarlo con miras a la formalización para tener mayor presencia en las futuras políticas públicas y presupuestarias.La bajada de la información hacia los territorios debe ubicar las experiencias piloto básicamente con éxitos evidentes en el corto plazo y comprometer a los demandantes y así se focaliza de mejor forma la comunicación y la transferencia.Propósito del trabajo grupal.Las MAP y MTA, como instrumentos de adaptación al Cambio Climático, son instancias de encuentro entre los distintos actores de una región o comuna, en las cuales se trabaja participativamente, para acordar medidas de adaptación con base en información climática local (datos históricos, estaciones meteorológicas automáticas, sensores hidrológicos, información satelital, etc.) para monitoreo y pronósticos, que permitan tomar decisiones acertadas para optimizar la producción y los rendimientos y así mejorar las condiciones de vida de los agricultores y campesinos.El proyecto de CGIAR, cuyo mandante es la PANCC, a cargo de ODEPA, que proyecta instalar esta herramienta en todas las regiones del país, para lo cual invita a los encargados regionales de CC para conocer su opinión, interés y punto de vista de la factibilidad de su instalación y desarrollo.Encargados regionales de CTICC: Pamela García, Región de O'Higgins, Anita Narváez, Región de Ñuble, Patricia Sanzana, Región de Biobío; Elías Muñoz, Región Arica y Parinacota; Ítalo Prudent, Región de Tarapacá.Institucional: Jaqueline Espinoza (ODEPA PANCC); Diana Giraldo (CIAT-CGIAR); Beatriz Ormazábal (SEGRA-MINAGRI)Otros: Alejandra Valencia (MAP Marchigüe), Felipe Castro (Consultor)Las preguntas dirigidas a orientar la discusión del grupo son:➢ ¿Cuál es su opinión sobre la factibilidad de instalar en su región o comuna, una Mesa Agroclimática Participativa? ➢ ¿Qué actores consideraría convocar para participar en las mesas? ➢ ¿Cuáles son las prioridades dentro del fortalecimiento de servicios de información climáticas?Opiniones y Conclusiones.1. Sobre la factibilidad de la instalación de las mesas en regiones.Todos coordinadores encargados de los Comités de Cambio Climático, de las regiones de O'Higgins, Tarapacá, Arica y Parinacota, Ñuble y Biobío presentes, muestran su interés y consideran importante instalar Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas y que se debería implementar en todas las regiones del país, argumentando como muy importante realizar la iniciativa, por el aporte a la adaptación al CC de los agricultores de la región, con información climática a nivel local, para lo cual se requiere el trabajo colaborativo tanto de los servicios del MINAGRI en la región y las otras instancias regionales. Además, se destaca que la herramienta permite abordar las particularidades, en cultivos, climas, idiosincrasias y lenguas de las diferentes zonas agrícolas que existen en cada región.Angelina Espinoza de CTICC, menciona que la iniciativa está comprometida como medida a realizar en el PANCC, por lo que se establecerán las acciones administrativas, institucionales y logística, para su desarrollo en las regiones.2. Actores a convocar para conformar MAP en regiones.Se sugiere convocar los diferentes niveles actores:Institucional: Servicios del Agro, INDAP, profesionales y técnicos de atención territorial como SAT y PRODESALES, Municipios encargados de fomento productivo de los Alcaldes y Bomberos. Organizaciones comunales con presencia territorial en donde se desarrolle la MAP. Liceos agrícolas y escuelas rurales.Lideres comunales: Actores relevantes (lideres) en el territorio que puedan motivar e influir en la participación y convocatoria de la mesa. Lideres y representantes de los pueblos originarios de la zona, como se ha hecho en otras mesas en donde a partir de sus aportes se han generado nuevos indicadores de prevención y adaptación, ya que ellos conocen bien la idiosincrasia y cultura de la región. Como una forma de destacar y dar relieve al conocimiento local de los territorios también se sugiere invitar a las mesas a agricultores: de los niveles de grandes agricultores, pero especialmente a pequeños y medianos agricultores.Se reconoce que las experiencias de Chile y Colombia, en el desarrollo de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas, son un instrumento eficaz de trabajo, en el uso de la información, herramientas y nuevas tecnologías para los distintos territorios del país, y así hacer frente a la gestión del riesgo y cambio climático, donde la participación de todos los actores del territorio vinculados al agro tiene como fin, co-construir medidas y soluciones que irán en beneficios de éstos. El proceso participativo requiere la integración de los organismos públicos y privados.Se confirma que existe en Chile la factibilidad técnica, metodológica y la disposición de voluntades para aplicar la metodología colaborativa de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas para todas las 16 regiones del país. Se requiere la formalización administrativa, por parte del Ministerio y Subsecretaría de Agricultura para la ejecución de esta herramienta, que involucre a los servicios del Agro y sus unidades admirativas en el territorio.Los coordinadores regionales de cambio climático solicitan que se les notifique por oficio directo desde la jefatura del plan de adaptación contra el cambio climático. En las próximas reuniones del equipo de coordinación técnica del Cambio Climático, se revisará la escalada de la iniciativa, tanto sobre sus formas de financiamiento, como en la explicación paso a paso de su funcionamiento.Desde los comités técnicos regionales se impulsarán instancias de capacitación y tutorías para las iniciativas de adaptación y mitigación de los riesgos climáticos, para las comunidades más vulnerables.Hemos definido dividir los contenidos de las conclusiones en dos partes, para así ordenar las recomendaciones y conclusiones en base a los principales productos de esta consultoría.A partir del Trabajo de Grupo descrito en el Plenario, se obtienen las siguientes conclusiones sobre la Hoja de Ruta, esto es:1. Mejorar la calidad de los servicios de información agroclimática.Es necesario, mejorar la coordinación interinstitucional y definir quiénes deben participar, cómo colaborar, cuándo y bajo qué instancias. A nivel local es muy relevante este punto. Hay muchos actores con intereses distintos que se requiere coordinar y definir cómo entra a jugar un rol el usuario.Dentro de los actores, INDAP debe tener un rol más activo en este tipo de iniciativas para transferir información oportuna en el territorio rural, por el contacto estrecho con los pequeños agricultores. INDAP es el vínculo más importante del agro, los ojos en el territorio para el MINAGRI. También, se requiere ampliar lazos con otras instituciones como CONAF, INFOR, CIREN, entre otros.Por otra parte, se requiere construir institucionalidad, especialmente si se aplica el enfoque de cuenca para facilitar la gestión en el territorio y vinculación con los distintos actores.El mejoramiento de la calidad de la información también necesita desarrollar la cultura de la coordinación y vinculación. Por ejemplo, existen más de 40 instituciones relacionadas con la temática del agua. Esta necesidad hace imperiosa la necesidad de que los profesionales se formen para una mejor coordinación, comunicación y cooperación, espacialmente los funcionarios públicos.Este tipo de temáticas, así como el desarrollo rural, están ausentes en las mallas curriculares en carreras técnicas y profesionales afines al quehacer agrícola.2. Identificación a los usuarios y sus necesidades de información.La identificación del usuario final de la información, agrícola o no agrícola es de vital importancia.Luego, se debe definir qué tipo de información y bajo qué formato se necesita la información. La Dirección Meteorológica de Chile ha aplicado encuestas para identificar usuarios y sus necesidades de información que se puede compartirse con otras instituciones interesadas. De momento, su acceso a los usuarios en el territorio es a través de las SEREMI de Agricultura.Una iniciativa del Ministerio de Ciencia de poseer un Sistema Integrado de Información, puede ser un referente de vinculación, ya que recoge la datos meteorológicos e hidrológicos de entre todas las fuentes y servicios que generan información. Al vincularse a esta iniciativa se sumarían esfuerzos en materia de información agroclimática.3. Servicios de Información Agroclimática en Respuesta a las Necesidades productivas de la Agricultura.Esta conclusión incluye lo siguiente:• La información agroclimática debe integrar los sistemas de información hidrológica.• Mejorar el acceso a la información a pequeños agricultores y pueblos originarios (acceso a sistemas informáticos, formato de la información, comunicación ajustada a quien la recibe, etc.). • Reorientar la información disponible a las necesidades del territorio, en la comunicación para dar acceso a la información se puede conocer las necesidades concretas (necesidades de información que requerirán integración entre disciplinas, no necesariamente información agroclimática, sino información del sistema productivo como un todo). Se puede tener información valiosa de terreno para ajustar los productos de información a nivel local. • Más información en el territorio (complementar información): Existen herramientas que permiten ir complementando la información en el territorio con mediciones de las estaciones meteorológicas, y también, se puede trabajar con el aporte de observadores ciudadanos. Esto, permite generar más información, de forma complementaria, de interés para los agricultores. Debido a su reducido equipo técnico, para dar cobertura a las necesidades de todo el país, la Dirección General de Aguas, tiene poca o nula participación en iniciativas vinculadas a servicios meteorológicos e hidrológicos en terreno. En este contexto, se requiere definir acciones concretas y con tiempos acotados para su implementación con el apoyo de otras instituciones. • Aplicación de encuestas o sondeos acorde a las capacidades en el territorio: las encuestas digitales pueden no estar recogiendo todos los antecedentes necesarios para caracterizar las necesidades de información agroclimática a nivel local. Las metodologías que se apliquen para identificación de estas necesidades deben considerar el acceso de los agricultores, así también, pueblos originarios, a estas estimaciones. Su aplicación será en el territorio y las MAPs puede ser una forma de acercarse a conocer estas necesidades. • Integración de las disciplinas de las ciencias sociales (sociólogos, antropólogos, etc.) para mejorar el acceso de la información lo que permitirá conocer mejor la idiosincrasia en terreno, adecuar el lenguaje y ajustar la información a las condiciones sociales y a quienes va dirigido el mensaje. Aquí es relevante la experiencia de la MAP ya que la preparación del boletín es con los participantes de la Mesa y con ello hay una adecuación del lenguaje de la información y ajustes según necesidades de los agricultores de esta mesa. En esta experiencia ya hay un filtro en cuanto a mensaje, rubros y necesidades del agricultor.4. Brechas más relevantes de los Servicios Climáticos y Prioridades para su fortalecimiento.• Incentivar las Iniciativas regionales de coordinación tales como mesa de trabajo donde se definan líneas específicas para cada Región. Con participación extra-MINAGRI, como DMC y otras instituciones vinculadas a los servicios hidrológicos y meteorológicos. Esto como etapa de inicio. • Aumentar los niveles de coordinación interinstitucional (construcción de la institucionalidad). • Acceso de información a nivel local y ajustada a las necesidades de los usuarios.• Aumentar la alfabetización digital y ampliación de la cobertura de internet en la ruralidad para un mayor y mejor conocimiento de la información agroclimática por parte de los usuarios.1.Análisis de las dinámicas de funcionamiento de la MAP.Se considera que el desarrollo de la MAP piloto de Marchigüe fue optima en gran parte gracias a la correcta planificación y al trabajo colaborativo que se desarrolló en cada etapa de la iniciativa. Algunas de las consideraciones más destacables respecto al funcionamiento de la mesa son:Entre los participantes de la MAP de Marchigüe, los equipos técnicos de apoyo, consultores, las instituciones y servicios del agro, se ha destacado que los aprendizajes más relevantes a propósito de la experiencia piloto y que han tenido un impacto positivo en la comunidad de agricultores han sido: a) el trabajo participativo y colaborativo entre los miembros de la mesa, b) el dialogo entre el conocimiento científico y las experiencias de los agricultores a través de la construcción de un lenguaje común, c) el empoderamiento de los miembros de la mesa en la toma de decisiones agrícolas para enfrentar el cambio climático y la conformación de liderazgos al interior de la mesa, d) el establecimiento de una red de contactos y comunicaciones, y e) la entrega de información relevante y oportuna para el manejo de cultivos.Por otra parte, algunos de los desafíos y perspectivas de mejora para la mesa sugieren: a) Importancia de construir vínculos de confianza con los agricultores y los miembros de la MAP. Es necesario buscar mecanismos de trabajo que permitan a los agricultores apropiarse de la mesa, de forma en que estos se vinculen más en el proyecto, b) motivar aún más la participación de los miembros de la mesa, incluyendo a nuevos actores e instituciones para que se sumen al trabajo de la MAP, en este sentido se invita a que las próximas mesas revisen el mapa de actores propuestos en el piloto y lo adapten a sus contextos regionales, c) dar cabida y validación de las fuentes de información y conocimientos locales de los agricultores, también como una forma de construcción de confianzas al interior de la mesa, de esto depende en buena parte la motivación para asistir a las sesiones de trabajo y para darle continuidad a la MAP.Es recomendable realizar una entrega de los resultados en materia de las acciones de monitoreo y evaluación con los mismos miembros de la mesa en plazos oportunos, de esta forma se visibiliza el trabajo en materia de monitoreo y evaluación, lo que a su vez permite construir relaciones de confianza en la mesa.Respecto a los liderazgos de la MAP, es conveniente realizar rotaciones en el liderazgo, para no sobre exigir a un solo miembro de la mesa y también para fomentar la participación al interior de esta. Esta acción le también les transfiere responsabilidades a los demás actores, lo que se traduce en un mejor trabajo colaborativo.Es necesario desarrollar instrumentos de monitoreo y evaluación de las MAPs, que sean replicables de forma periódica en el tiempo. Esta característica permitirá comparar mediciones y estandarizar resultados, de cara a conseguir información de calidad. Paralelamente, se motiva a continuar proyectando las metodologías adaptándolas a los objetivos de las mesas.Se sugiere que la aplicación de encuestas de monitoreo se realice en el corto plazo luego de la entrega de los Boletines Agroclimáticos, esto permite ver resultados inmediatos del alcance y comprensión de sus contenidos y también mejorar las características del boletín agroclimático de cara a la próxima entrega.Se recomienda generar actas del trabajo de las mesas sesión a sesión y compartirlos en el corto plazo con todos los miembros de la mesa para dar continuidad al trabajo realizado en la sesión de la MAP, también se propone realizar al inicio de la sesión de la MAP un breve recordatorio del trabajo hecho previamente, para darle continuidad y coherencia al trabajo. Esta actividad significa un reforzamiento metacognitivo de los aprendizajes de la mesa. Se sugiere que el calendario de las instancias de evaluación sea en base a los ciclos de cultivo, es decir, que tengan pertinencia con los principales productos del agro que tengan los agricultores pertenecientes a la mesa.En términos del alcance que han tenido las MAPS, es importante mantener registro constante de invitados y asistentes a las MAPs para monitorear el alcance y las características de la red de actores e instituciones participantes. Este paso es clave para poder desarrollar un análisis de redes o la cosecha de alcances. Así como también para detectar potenciales alianzas estratégicas que beneficien a los agricultores.Finalmente, se vuelve necesario fortalecer los canales de comunicación con sentido de pertenencia en el territorio, por ejemplo: en territorios rurales a través de difusión mediante radios locales o en las mismas oficinas de los servicios agrícolas. En la medida que las condiciones técnicas y tecnológicas lo favorezcan, se recomienda también el uso de dispositivos móviles y trasmisión de información a través de redes sociales u otros medios que se estimen convenientes.Uno de los desafíos más grandes para las MAPS es formalizar su vínculo con organizaciones del Estado que financien y garanticen la continuidad de la iniciativa a través de la incorporación de su metodología a sus planes. Se generó un Manual para la implementación de MAPS en Chile que aporte criterios sobre la gobernabilidad de las mesas.Gracias a la elaboración del Manual MAP y el desarrollo de metodologías de monitoreo y evaluación se garantizan las condiciones para implementar todos los pasos y etapas de la mesa (en función de la propuesta que sugiere el manual de las MTA). Este hito pretende ser un aporte a la sustentabilidad de la iniciativa en el tiempo y a la replicabilidad de sus etapas para quienes deseen implementarla.Se torna fundamental darle una sostenibilidad en el tiempo para las MAPS, esta tarea se podría ver potenciada a través de la construcción de nuevos liderazgos para la mesa.Desde los comités técnicos regionales (CORECC) se impulsarán instancias de capacitación y tutorías para las iniciativas de adaptación y mitigación de los riesgos climáticos para las comunidades más vulnerables. En estas actividades se incorporará la revisión de la metodología MAP y otros enfoques colaborativos.Se confirma que existe en Chile la factibilidad técnica, metodológica y la disposición de voluntades para aplicar la metodología colaborativa de las Mesas Agroclimáticas Participativas para todas las 16 regiones del país. Solamente hace falta la instrucción concreta y directa por parte de las subsecretarías para el inicio de su ejecución. Los coordinadores regionales de cambio climático solicitan que se les notifique por oficio directo desde la jefatura del plan de adaptación contra el cambio climático. En próximas reuniones del equipo de coordinación técnica del Cambio Climático se revisará la escalada de la iniciativa, tanto sobre sus formas de financiamiento, como en la explicación paso a paso de su funcionamiento. Con esto se espera aportar a la consolidación de una estructura de gobernanza clara para las MAPs.","tokenCount":"6784"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d24f717d7f909034342acf1035d4d53a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b4a84fb1-13b3-4310-8b67-a8255570e19e/content","id":"1825715958"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"354fbc88-5d02-4212-aa34-eda5f8a8395f","pagecount":"144","content":"y Desarrollo Rural (SAGAR). La responsabilidad del INIFAP consiste en generar conocimiento y metodologías tanto científicas como tecnológicas, con el propósito de coadyuvar con el desarrollo del sector agropecuario y forestal; la generación y transferencia de tecnologías sustentables y la participación en actividades del desarrollo rural de México. Los recursos económicos del INIFAP provienen del Gobierno Federal a través de la SAGAR, de Gobiernos Estatales y de otros organismos públicos y privados del sector agropecuario y forestal.Investigador del Programa de Biotecnología Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias. Campo Experimental Valle de México. En Septiembre de 1995, el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias (INIFAP), el Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola (CNBA) y el Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), con financiamiento del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), organizaron el Foro y taller, \"Flujo genético entre maíz criollo, maíz mejorado y teocintle: implicaciones para el maíz transgénico\", el cual se realizó en las instalaciones del CIMMYT en El Batán, México.El propósito de esta reunión fue conjuntar en un grupo de trabajo a científicos de diversas disciplinas, principalmente expertos en el área de genética de maíz y teocintle, con la finalidad de analizar y discutir la información y los estudios más relevantes acerca del flujo genético entre maíz y teocintle en México, en vista de los actuales desarrollos biotecnológicos en la producción de maíz transgénico. Se intentó profundizar, junto con los expertos de diferentes áreas, en el análisis de las implicaciones que se derivan de esta interacción genética, y las consecuencias para la reglamentación en el manejo y evaluación del maíz transgénico. En este sentido, se tenía la confianza de que el intercambio de ideas e información entre expertos podría ayudar a dejar más clara la situación en un futuro próximo.Esta reunión se consideró particularmente relevante para México, donde se ubica el área de origen, diversidad y domesticación del maíz y donde el teocintle se encuentra en estrecha asociación con el maíz en los campos de cultivo de algunas regiones agrícolas. Además, el maíz en México es la base alimentaria de una gran parte de la población.La estructura del Foro y los talleres de discusión se definen, con modificaciones menores, en el cuadro de contenido de la presente Memoria. Los temas presentados y discutidos incluyeron: la distribución de teocintle en México, el estudio del flujo genético entre los diversos tipos de maíz y el teocintle, y la evaluación de riesgos probables ante una liberación de plantas transgénicas en su centro de origen. Las presentaciones de cada uno de los temas sirvieron como introducción para los grupos de discusión que se integraron con los científicos invitados al Foro. A cada grupo, que funcionó como un taller, se le asignó un moderador y un relator que presentarían a la reunión plenaria un informe y el resumen de la discusión generada con las preguntas específicas elaboradas por los organizadores, además de las cuestiones adicionales que surgieran durante los talleres. Más de 20 personas -principalmente científicos mexicanos de entidades públicas de investigación y enseñanza, junto con algunos especialistas extranjerosparticiparon en los seminarios, mesas de discusión y en reuniones plenarias. Entre otras actividades, los investigadores se concentraron en dos objetivos principales: 1) establecer criterios científicos para la regulación apropiada del maíz transgénico, y 2) identificar algunas líneas de investigación en aspectos básicos de bioseguridad y análisis de riesgo derivado de la introducción del maíz transgénico al ambiente.Durante los tres días de sesiones el trabajo fue muy intenso y, por momentos, pleno de interesantes y fructíferas controversias, que en muchos aspectos rebasaron las En este Foro se tratarán temas muy importantes, tópicos complejos y temas que pueden ser de gran interés. Yo les pido a ustedes concentrarse en estos temas, dar sus propios puntos de vista, pero también considerar los argumentos de sus colegas ya que al final de la jornada será su responsabilidad llegar a un consenso acerca de las acciones a concretarse en el futuro. Todas nuestras discusiones tendrán un impacto significativo en el futuro de los productos de la transformación del maíz en México.El CIMMYT en este caso está facilitando la reunión. Sin embargo, los resultados finales tendrán que venir de los científicos mexicanos aquí presentes, quienes posteriormente ayudarán a las entidades gubernamentales a instrumentar el curso de acción más adecuado en sus respectivas áreas de conocimiento.Ustedes están frente a un desafío muy importante y les deseo lo mejor en las discusiones. Yo trataré de participar en las reuniones de acuerdo con lo que mi tiempo me permita, aunque no será tanto como yo quisiera. Estaré atento a su informe final y les deseo mucha suerte en su trabajo.Nuevamente, bienvenidos todos.Vocal de la División Agrícola Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias Secretaría de Agricultura Ganadería y Desarrollo Rural Buenos días a todos. Daré a Uds. unas palabras introductorias. Voy a ser lo más breve posible y sólo tocaré algunos puntos que considero importantes para este Foro.El Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola, del cual son miembros algunos de los participantes en este Foro, es el responsable de discutir y evaluar las solicitudes de liberación y prueba de campo de materiales transgénicos en México. Antes de este Comité hubo varias iniciativas y varios foros de debate acerca de la conveniencia de manejar plantas transgénicas en el Sector Agrícola. En virtud de la falta de elementos de juicio -técnicos, científicos y normativos -se hizo una revisión de los procedimientos seguidos por varios de los países que están más avanzados, o estaban más avanzados en aquel tiempo, en materia de regulación de material transgénico. De todas estas revisiones de procedimientos se logró muy poco; en realidad no había elementos a la mano para poder tomar decisiones en cuanto a autorizar o no el uso del material transgénico. A pesar de esto, se ha avanzado en los últimos dos o tres años y en forma empírica, muchas veces sin contar con algunos elementos necesarios para la toma de decisiones, se ha conformado un cuerpo consultivo que ha adquirido la experiencia adecuada para afrontar la tarea de evaluación de riesgos con material transgénico.Hace aproximadamente dos años se empezó a gestar una iniciativa del Comité de Bioseguridad para analizar el impacto del maíz transgénico en México. La iniciativa se conformó más rápidamente cuando un grupo de investigadores de INIFAP y del CIMMYT, junto con el Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola, decidieron invitar a este grupo de especialistas para discutir los elementos que les permitieran tomar mejores decisiones con respecto al maíz transgénico en diferentes aspectos normativos y de investigación.Existe una dicotomía en cuanto a cómo podemos aprovechar mejor todas las ventajas de la tecnología moderna, y al mismo tiempo cómo proteger los recursos genéticos de México. Se dice que México es el país centro de origen del maíz y de otras especies cultivadas y se hablapor otro lado -de que en México debemos producir alimentos para una población que crece aceleradamente día a día. Necesitamos incrementar la productividad, necesitamos aprovechar todas las ventajas que posiblemente nos pueden ofrecer las plantas transgénicas, y también aprovechar las ventajas de la tecnología moderna, sin menoscabo de nuestra responsabilidad con los recursos fitogenéticos.En ese contexto se discutió la iniciativa y se procedió a la organización de este taller. Consideramos que este grupo de científicos tiene la gran responsabilidad de darle a nuestro país las bases -y seguramente vamos a llegar a un consenso de los lineamientos un poco más específicos -de cómo conservar y proteger nuestros recursos genéticos, a la vez de cómo utilizar armónicamente los avances y logros de la biotecnología. Aquí hay un elemento que conviene mencionar: se decidió que este taller fuera exclusivo para la comunidad científica, sin la participación de empresas privadas, porque posteriormente, con los elementos discutidos por los expertos científicos, invitaremos a la mesa a las empresas privadas para tener una discusión más fructífera y mejor informada que contenga un conjunto de reglas para la evaluación del material transgénico.Con esto en la mesa, quiero recordarles que en tres días tendremos que salir con un consenso. Estamos seguros que aquí contamos con las personas mejor calificadas para lograr este objetivo.Gracias.En el contexto de esta presentación, la ingeniería genética se usa para desarrollar productos que quisiéramos liberar al ambiente porque pensamos que representan alguna ventaja para la agricultura. Obviamente, debemos tener una razón para efectuar la transformación; debemos tener un gene o genes que queremos insertar en una planta de maíz, los cuales automáticamente mejorarán a este organismo. Más específicamente, el gene agregado deberá mejorar un carácter ya existente en la planta o proporcionar un genotipo alternativo que deseamos.Dado que el objetivo es insertar un segmento nuevo de ADN, debemos tener alguna forma de introducir ese producto molecular en la planta de tal modo que sea absorbido por el genomio del organismo receptor. Después de insertar el ADN nuevo en un organismo, debemos tener alguna forma de controlar su expresión, ya sea de forma continua durante toda la vida de la planta, o en una etapa específica del desarrollo de ésta o en determinados tejidos vegetales.La mayoría de las metodologías nos exigen la capacidad de seleccionar el segmento de ADN nuevo que ha sido introducido. Hablamos aquí de selección no desde el punto de vista fenotípico sino en los niveles celular y molecular: queremos ser capaces de seleccionar aquellas células que han absorbido el ADN nuevo y usarlas para regenerar una planta fértil. Finalmente, y quizás esto sea lo más importante para quienes asisten a este taller, los materiales resultantes deben ser sometidos a una adecuada evaluación en el campo.La ingeniería genética se fundamenta en el cultivo de tejidos, proceso que ha sido conocido desde hace muchos años. Fue a comienzos de los años 1960's cuando se regeneró la primera planta de maíz a partir de células vegetales, en tanto que la capacidad de insertar ADN en las plantas ha existido desde hace 10 años.Para dar una idea general, en la Figura 1 se presenta un esquema global del proceso. El punto de partida es una planta. Luego, mediante la polinización se obtienen plantas que producen el material vegetativo necesario para el cultivo de tejidos. La mayoría de las técnicas emplean embriones inmaduros como blanco potencial para la introducción del ADN ajeno al organismo. Cuando se les coloca en los medios de cultivo apropiados, los embriones comienzan a formar callos. Ciertas técnicas practican la introducción del ADN ajeno en esta fase. En cualquiera de los casos, una vez que se ha insertado este ADN en las células, debe haber un mecanismo para seleccionar las células transformadas, mediante el cual se obtengan subconjuntos de células que puedan ser sometidas al proceso de regeneración. Esto se logra colocando las células en un medio de cultivo que contenga un agente de selección, como un herbicida o un antibiótico. Las células que sobreviven son entonces transferidas a los medios de cultivo apropiados y se desarrollan brotes de tejido verde. Los brotes son luego transferidos a otro medio para formar plántulas, las cuales pueden ser retiradas del medio de cultivo y plantadas por primera vez en el suelo. Más tarde son transplantadas a un invernadero y, si todo sale bien, maduran para convertirse en plantas completas.En este punto tenemos una planta transgénica. Esa planta se cultiva hasta llegar a la madurez para producir semillas, las cuales se convierten en la base de las subsiguientes generaciones y ensayos de este material nuevo.La Figura 2 presenta un esquema simplificado de lo que se está introduciendo en el genoma del maíz en el proceso de la ingeniería genética. El \"vector\", como se le llama por su función de transmitir un gene, tiene diversos componentes simples. Algunos se usan porque normalmente insertamos el vector en una Figura 1. Proceso de ingeniería genética ; bacteria que sirve como una especie de \"fábrica biológica\" que replica el vector muchas veces. Otros nos permiten seleccionar células bacterianas que contienen el vector, de tal modo que podemos producir suficientes copias para emplearlas en la ingeniería genética. Como se mencionó, es necesario este sistema de marcaje para hacer la selección de los vectores adecuados. El segmento de ADN nuevo en el vector tiene que ser controlado por un promotor que lo active en los tejidos apropiados. Además de lo anterior, la mayoría de los genes requieren algún tipo de señal de terminación que detenga la transcripción de ese segmento de ADN.Lo más importante para la discusión de la ingeniería genética es el conjunto de componentes que incluye la secuencia del ADN de interés y los segmentos subordinados que regulan su expresión. Además de un gene marcador de selección, es necesario el gene para la característica de interés. El gene del carácter se puede colocar en el mismo vector o en otro separado, el cual se transforma y se introduce en la misma planta: en general, cada gene debe tener su propio promotor y terminador.Promotor 1Figura 2. Vector típico de la transformación Cuadro 1. Genes marcadores seleccionables• bar: fosfinotricina acetiltransferasa resistencia a Basta, bialofós, PPT• neo: neomicina fosfotransferasa resistencia a la neomicina• hpt: higromicina fosfotransferasa resistencia a la higromicina o geneticina Hay muchas formas diferentes de genes de caracteres. Se pueden poner dos genes diferentes para dos caracteres distintos en el mismo vector. También podemos tener genes de caracteres que se convierten en genes reporteros, de tal modo que podemos estudiar el proceso mismo de la transformación. Lo anterior es, en términos simplificados, el componente básico que se introduce en una planta.Con respecto a los ensayos en el campo, un aspecto importante son los genes marcadores (Cuadro 1).Como se describió antes, al transformar el maíz estamos insertando no sólo un gene para un carácter específico sino también genes marcadores que nos permiten, mediante su expresión fenotípica, verificar el éxito de la inserción del vector en el genomio. Aquí mencionaré tres de los marcadores más comúnmente usados. El primero y probablemente el que más se usa es el llamado gene bar, que confiere tolerancia al herbicida Basta®. Este ha sido un marcador útil para muchos cereales y particularmente para el maíz, porque es de uso sencillo para seleccionar y obtener células transgénicas en un medio de cultivo con herbicida.Indudablemente hay preocupación por el empleo de la tolerancia a los herbicidas como un marcador de selección, en particular porque se incrementa la posibilidad de tener un gene de tolerancia a los herbicidas en el producto final. A causa de esto, los investigadores usan otros mecanismos para confirmar el éxito de la inserción del transgene. Los genes marcadores de selección basados en la resistencia a los antibióticos han generado un considerable interés, ya que, por ejemplo, el gene hpt que confiere tolerancia a D. HoisingtonTerminador 1Promotor 2 Gen marcador de selecciónTerminador 2 la geneticina o la higromicina es probablemente un mejor sistema marcador que el gene de la tolerancia a los herbicidas. Sin embargo, seleccionar las células transformadas de maíz con un medio antibiótico resulta todavía más difícil que con el herbicida.El otro punto que mencioné es la capacidad de usar un gene reportero (Cuadro 2). Se dispone de por lo menos tres sistemas principales de genes reporteros que se emplean en las plantas. Son muy útiles en las primeras etapas del desarrollo de un sistema de transformación y algunos investigadores todavía los incorporan como parte de su actividad ordinaria para confirmar que se ha producido la transformación. Probablemente uno de los más comunes sea el llamado gene GUS, el cual produce una enzima que, con un sustrato apropiado, da como resultado la típica coloración azul que se ve en las células transformadas.Por desgracia, esta técnica también mata el tejido sobre el cual se practica. No obstante, es un mecanismo muy eficaz para observar células que hayan sido transformadas, que han absorbido el ADN y lo están expresando. Otro gene reportero bastante común, en particular para el maíz, es el gene C1, que automáticamente produce pigmentos rojos en la mayoría de las células de maíz que se transforman. El tercer gene reportero, de uso frecuente en el pasado aunque no es así en la actualidad, es el gene lux, que produce una reacción de luminiscencia en la mayoría de las células. Como se mencionó, los genes reporteros en general no son productos finales, pero pueden ser muy útiles para monitorear los procesos de transformación por lo que a menudo son incorporados en el proceso definitivo y consecuentemente, también son incluidos en el producto final.En relación más estrecha con el gene del carácter de interés están ciertos componentes que regulan su expresión. Estos \"promotores\", como se les llama, se presentan en dos tipos básicos (Figura 3). El primero es el promotor \"constitutivo\", que activa la expresión del gene en todos los tejidos y constantemente en el tiempo. Un ejemplo es el promotor 35S del virus del mosaico de la coliflor. A pesar de que estos promotores trabajan en todos los tejidos, cada vez que uno inserta genes regulados por promotores constitutivos hay diferencias en cuanto a la especificidad para el tejido o el grado de expresión. En consecuencia, aun cuando se activan los genes, no siempre se activan en el mismo grado en todos los tejidos. En la actualidad se están llevando a cabo un gran número de investigaciones acerca de los llamados sistemas de promotores \"inducibles\" o específicos para el tejido. Por ejemplo, si el objetivo es manipular el polen, entonces se tienen disponibles varios promotores que pueden ser inducidos mediante el choque térmico o lesiones, o los que requieren un tejido fotosintético para expresarse.Teniendo en cuenta esta amplia gama de promotores y sobre la base del gene que se quiera insertar y el tejido o la etapa de desarrollo en los cuales se va a expresar el gene, es muy sencillo identificar el promotor apropiado. Algo que probablemente sea más importante considerar es el gene para el carácter de interés. En el Cuadro 3 se enlistan diversos tipos de genes asociados con distintos productos útiles para el maíz o las plantas en general. Si observamos los tipos de genes que se podrían insertar, los principales caracteres de interés para los programas de mejoramiento de maíz en todo el mundo se vinculan con la resistencia a cuatro tipos de plagas del cultivo: los insectos, las bacterias, los virus y los hongos. No se ha comprobado si todos los genes enlistados producen un genotipo apropiado o mejoran el grado de resistencia, pero éstas son las opciones que tenemos los ingenieros genéticos.En el caso de la resistencia a los insectos, se ha comprobado que los genes Bt son muy eficaces para controlar algunos tipos de insectos, en particular los lepidópteros, pero hay otros tipos de genes que pueden conferir a las plantas una resistencia más general a un rango más amplio de insectos. Estos genes incluyen los inhibidores de proteinasas y el sistema de la oxidasa de colesterol recientemente descrito por la compañía Monsanto.En cuanto a la resistencia a los virus, los mecanismos incluyen las llamadas proteínas de la cubierta viral, las secuencias antisentido y, en fecha más reciente, la modificación del movimiento sistémico real de las partículas víricas a través de toda la planta. No conozco ejemplos exitosos, en particular en el maíz, pero en otras plantas estos mecanismos de resistencia parecen mantenerse bastante bien. Ahora hay cierto interés por estudiar la tolerancia a los herbicidas y la posibilidad de usarlos para controlar a la Striga parasitaria del maíz en floración, dotando a este cultivo de dicha tolerancia.Finalmente, en relación con la resistencia del maíz a los hongos, los diversos sistemas disponibles para expresar la quitinasa, la glucanasa y las proteínas inhibidoras de ribosomas tal vez nos permitan, en el futuro, controlar a los agentes patógenos o, simplemente, proporcionar una resistencia más general a éstos.Además de tener un gene para insertar, es preciso contar con un mecanismo mediante el cual podamos insertarlo. En los últimos años, las investigaciones de ingeniería genética han seguido tres métodos básicos para la transferencia de transgenes a los cultivos: la electroporación de protoplastos, la transferencia mediada por Agrobacterium y el bombardeo de partículas. Se puede decir, al menos en el caso del maíz, que si bien la electroporación de protoplastos es una tecnología muy adecuada para estudiar la expresión general de los genes en las células de maíz transformadas, no ha sido muy útil como parte de un sistema de aplicación eficiente, sencillamente porque los protoplastos de maíz son difíciles de regenerar para convertirse en plantas fértiles. De los otros dos métodos, la \"pistola de genes\" es probablemente el método preferido para el maíz, pero hay informes recientes de la transformación del arroz con Agrobacterium y hay optimismo en cuanto a que se puedan encontrar cepas similares para usarlas en la transformación del maíz.La mayoría de las actividades mencionadas al inicio de esta presentación emplean embriones inmaduros de maíz. Estos se cosechan después de 10 a 15 días de la polinización en el campo. En nuestro laboratorio, los embriones se transforman usando una pistola de genes. Cuando se ha colocado un gene reportero, en dos o tres días se puede ver la expresión específica en células que han sido transformadas por el nuevo producto génico y que están expresando activamente el gene. Esto confirma que se ha producido la transformación, si bien no demuestra necesariamente que el nuevo gene del carácter de interés ha sido incorporado en el genomio. Después del proceso de selección, que dura unas semanas, se pueden producir sectores de callos o callos enteros que están expresando uniformemente el gene reportero.Esto es una evidencia de que el producto génico deseado ha sido incorporado en los genomas de las células que constituían el objetivo de la transformación, que se ha transferido a las células de la progenie, y que se pueden regenerar plantas a partir de determinados callos. En general, se seleccionan los callos en un medio de cultivo que contiene herbicida; la mayoría de ellos mueren porque no contienen el gene marcador de selección. Los callos que crecen normalmente en este medio de selección y en las condiciones apropiadas, comienzan a regenerarse en plántulas. De manera muy sencilla, estas plántulas pueden ser cortadas, colocadas en medios de cultivo apropiados, inducidas a formar raíces y transferidas a invernaderos donde crecen hasta alcanzar la madurez.Por supuesto, durante el proceso se realizan otros ensayos para comprobar que el transgene está presente, pero quizás una de las demostraciones más contundentes sea observar el fenotipo definitivo sometido al factor desfavorable al cual se supone que el gene nuevo conferirá resistencia. Hemos infestado plantas transformadas mediante el gene cry IA(b)que se supone confiere resistencia a una plaga del maíz tropical (Diatraea saccharalis)-con 40 a 50 larvas por planta de esa especie en nuestros invernaderos, y logramos un control muy bueno. El paso siguiente es determinar cómo se puede incorporar el carácter en el germoplasma adecuado, llevarlo al campo y posteriormente proporcionarlo a los clientes como un mecanismo para combatir las plagas insectiles.Además de observar el fenotipo, que es en definitiva lo que uno querría ver, hay muchas formas bioquímicas y moleculares de estudiar las plantas transgénicas. Esto subraya el hecho de que la ingeniería genética no es por completo un arte sino también una ciencia muy exacta. Por ejemplo, es muy sencillo determinar la cantidad exacta de copias de un transgene en plantas transformadas y también, saber exactamente dónde está insertado en el genomio. A diferencia de muchos procesos en el mejoramiento tradicional o las cruzas amplias, ésta es una ciencia muy exacta. Sabemos precisamente dónde se colocan esos genes, el grado exacto de transcripción y traducción y qué cantidad del producto se obtiene. Podemos estudiar el transgene, tejido por tejido o según la etapa de desarrollo de la planta, lo cual nos permite conocer su estado exacto. También podemos estudiar la herencia del gene, para verificar que se hereda como un factor mendeliano y su estabilidad en toda la progenie. En consecuencia, tenemos un producto bastante exacto, a pesar del \"arte\" que intervino en su producción.Finalmente, ¿cuáles son los conocimientos actuales en el caso del maíz? Es preciso considerar un par de factores importantes. En primer lugar, la eficiencia de todo el proceso, usando la biolística, es más bien baja: menos del 1%. En otras palabras, cuando se bombardean 100 embriones, se puede esperar que menos de uno de ellos sea un evento estable, si se considera que esto requiere que el ADN nuevo no sólo sea incorporado en el genomio sino también que sea estable, que haya un grado suficiente de expresión del gene y que éste sea heredado como un factor mendeliano individual. Por consiguiente, dada la eficiencia más bien baja, hay que bombardear una cantidad bastante grande de individuos para generar eventos de transformación que valga la pena conservar.Lo que es particularmente importante y se relaciona con el aspecto del arte es el hecho de que el maíz transformado con Bt será liberado en forma comercial en los Estados Unidos de América en 1996. Por lo menos dos empresas han recibido la aprobación del gobierno estadounidense para lanzar ese producto. Esto, probablemente, es la mejor ilustración de que el maíz transgénico es viable y que las empresas privadas consideran que tendrá cierto valor en el mercado comercial. También se dispone de maíz resistente a los herbicidas, pero no sé si está orientado directamente a la comercialización en este momento.En cualquier caso, ya no estamos limitados por la falta de genes para insertar. Casi minuto a minuto se obtienen genes nuevos útiles y las alternativas se vuelven casi ilimitadas al combinar genes con diferentes promotores o, incluso, en sistemas de genes múltiples. Para casi cualquier carácter del maíz que uno pudiera pensar en mejorar, se puede identificar un mecanismo o un conjunto de genes que podrían ser útiles. Todavía no se ha comprobado todo, pero hay opciones y éstas se van a ampliar considerablemente en los próximos años.Tampoco es un gran problema el grado de expresión. Se ha comprobado que, con promotores tanto constitutivos como específicos para el tejido o inducibles, podemos obtener altos grados de expresión. Por ejemplo, los genes Bt en el maíz se pueden expresar para producir concentraciones de proteína 10,000 veces más elevadas que las necesarias para matar a los insectos, sin que haya ninguna reducción significativa del comportamiento agronómico de la planta. Por consiguiente, podemos obtener grados extremadamente altos de producción de proteína o de expresión genética en las plantas para casi cualquier tipo de producto. Obviamente, la eficiencia de la transformación es algo limitada: es preciso efectuar grandes cantidades de transformaciones y seguir los productos para identificar los mejores que se desea usar. El sistema mediado por Agrobacterium tal vez nos permita mejorar algo esta situación, pero todavía no se ha comprobado.Un problema que se torna más importante y que requerirá mucha atención es el llamado fenómeno de \"silenciamiento de los genes\", en el que los genes recién insertados se desactivan. Este fenómeno se conoce desde hace mucho tiempo, pero ahora hay más interés por comprenderlo. Se están realizando muchos estudios para determinar cómo se produce un gene estable y el mecanismo mediante el cual las plantas pueden activar y desactivar los genes. Creo que tendremos algunas opciones en los próximos años para obtener mejores productos que permanezcan estables y se expresen una vez insertados, pero ésta es un área problemática. Es una de las razones por las que se hace necesario examinar los productos transgénicos nuevos en condiciones de campo durante varios años, con el fin de asegurarse de que el gene se expresa en forma estable.Obviamente, existen ciertas limitaciones no científicas para este trabajo las cuales, en la actualidad, tal vez tienen más peso que algunas de las científicas. Por ejemplo, toda el área de las patentes. No sólo el proceso de transformación está protegido como propiedad intelectual sino que también muchos de los genes, los promotores e incluso los marcadores de selección, están patentados por alguien en alguna parte del mundo. En consecuencia, quien desarrolla un producto de maíz transgénico no lo posee por completo, sino que lo comparte con muchos propietarios. Todavía resta ver cómo todas las personas involucradas se sentarán alrededor de la misma mesa para tratar de decidir la liberación de un producto; después de todo, la mayoría no serán científicos sino abogados o apoderados de los propietarios de las patentes. Uno debe estar dispuesto a aceptar esta circunstancia antes de trabajar con materiales transgénicos.Más importantes -y obviamente la razón de que nos hayamos reunido aquí-son las normas de bioseguridad vigentes por el simple hecho de insertar un fragmento nuevo de ADN en una planta. Estos reglamentos son, para mí, una de las limitaciones más importantes para este trabajo, ya que cubren no sólo la fase de laboratorio sino que también restringen la capacidad de llevar un producto al campo con la rapidez necesaria para evaluarlo en las condiciones apropiadas. Esto último plantea una grave limitación para, incluso, las pruebas más sencillas de la utilidad de muchos transgenes que potencialmente se podrían insertar en el maíz en el futuro.Entiendo que es posible extraer el gene marcador de selección después de la transformación de la planta. ¿Es posible extraer el gene BASTA® después de usarlo para producir la planta transformada? ¿Es cierto? ¿Es muy difícil?Sí, es posible. Uno de los mecanismos más sencillos sería tener el gene marcador de selección y el gene del carácter de interés en dos vectores separados. Aun cuando esto a menudo da como resultado fenómenos de cointegración, sería posible separarlos. En la actualidad hay muchos estudios que tratan de ver cómo se podría retirar el gene. No conozco ningún sistema de uso cotidiano, pero los sistemas de recombinación, los llamados sistemas Cre-lox a partir de bacterias, parecen bastante promisorios para retirar un gene específico.Una vez que estos genes son incorporados en el germoplasma de interés, ¿en qué medida son transferibles a otras líneas? Por ejemplo, en líneas endogámicas o híbridos, ¿se hace con facilidad la transferencia? ¿se pierde algo en el proceso?No, si el gene ha sido insertado en forma estable -y la mayoría de los objetivos deseados son eventos de inserción individuales-entonces, se comporta como un gene dominante individual en las plantas. En general no hay mucha diferencia entre el estado homocigótico (dos copias) y el estado heterocigótico (una copia) del gene. Comúnmente hay un grado suficiente de expresión, aun en forma híbrida, para conferir un buen grado de resistencia. Esto es en realidad una ventaja, dada la escasa eficiencia en la transformación: una vez que se tiene un buen producto, éste puede ser usado en los programas de cruzas tradicionales para trasladar el transgene a una gran variedad de germoplasma. Este es uno de los métodos que adoptaremos aquí en el CIMMYT. No hay razón para tratar de transformar cada línea endogámica que tengamos. Podemos identificar una o dos líneas muy buenas para introducir los genes. Luego, mediante esquemas de cruzamiento convencional, usando marcadores moleculares para seguir los genes y eliminar el genomio del progenitor donador, se puede con rapidez transferir el gene a una gran variedad de materiales; es decir, en el curso de una o dos generaciones, excepto por el problema del silenciamiento de genes. Este problema surge, esporádicamente, cuando se efectúa un cruzamiento y a veces el gene es desactivado. Todavía estamos tratando de entender por qué sucede esto algunas veces y otras no. Ese no es un fenómeno exclusivo de los transgenes; probablemente se produce en muchos genes. Cualquiera que sea genetista y haya manipulado germoplasma con genes específicos sabe que hay una tremenda variación en la expresión de cualquier gene en cualquier planta y, a menudo, también existe inestabilidad en esos genes. Esto no es algo excepcional, sólo que ahora parece que verdaderamente tenemos una razón para investigar esas dificultades.¿Cuál es la preocupación actual en la industria acerca de la protección de la propiedad intelectual? La fabricación de los productos es muy costosa, las patentes son complicadas. ¿Están preocupados por la posibilidad de perder productos transgénicos como resultado de robo o del flujo de genes hacia los cultivos de otros?Mi opinión es que el sector privado no está tan preocupado una vez que se lanza el producto. En parte porque, como usted menciona, es bastante costoso patentarlo y protegerlo. Probablemente sea todavía más costoso vigilar un producto. Obviamente, cuando hay adquisición y empleo flagrantes del transgene de alguien es bastante sencillo identificar esto, pero no creo que las empresas se pongan a vigilar a todos. Pienso que el objetivo básico es sacar algo tan pronto como sea posible, ser los primeros y luego obtener productos cada vez mejores. Los primeros productos de la ingeniería genética son como los modelos T de los autos: corren y son útiles, pero las empresas pueden decir: \"Esperen a que tengamos las versiones perfeccionadas; serán muy poderosas\".Es probable que algunos de los presentes no sepan que el maíz resistente a los herbicidas se ha vendido desde hace varios años en los Estados Unidos, pero, por supuesto, ese maíz no fue desarrollado mediante transgenes sino recurriendo a la mutagénesis.Sí, eso es muy cierto. De hecho, tenemos los mecanismos de las plantas hospederas para muchos de los genes que estamos insertando.Hasta ahora muchas de las plantas han sido transformadas usando sólo un gene, un gene específico en el que estamos interesados. ¿Cree usted que esto va a cambiar en el futuro? Digamos, ¿veremos en el futuro plantas individuales resistentes a los insectos, los herbicidas y algo más?Definitivamente así es. Pienso que aquí es donde se está avanzando más y probablemente los mejores ejemplos están en el área de la resistencia a los hongos. Sabemos que, por ejemplo, la simple inserción del gene de la quitinasa realmente no confiere resistencia a los hongos, pero cuando se combina con las glucanasas o las proteínas inhibidoras ribosómicas, el efecto sinérgico de esos dos elementos es fenomenal y en verdad se pueden obtener altos grados de resistencia. Este es un caso en el cual se tienen que implementar sistemas de genes múltiples. De hecho, ahora hay informes de resistencia heredada cuantitativamente mediante la ingeniería genética. Creo que esto es cierto aun en el caso de la resistencia a los insectos. Los genes Bt son muy buenos porque son muy específicos: se enfocan hacia un conjunto bien definido de especies de insectos y eso proporciona un mecanismo muy seguro de acción insecticida. Sin embargo, obviamente hay preocupación por lo que sucederá con el grado general de resistencia de las poblaciones de insectos a la expresión de la endotoxina en las plantas transgénicas. En vista de lo anterior, se analizan varios mecanismos usando otros genes de Bt, sistemas como el de la oxidasa del colesterol y otros inhibidores de proteinasas. Por consiguiente creo que sí, en el futuro habrá una combinación de transgenes en las plantas. La mayor parte de este trabajo se concentra en la resistencia; sin embargo, otra área de investigación que en el futuro puede ser bastante importante desde una perspectiva comercial, es la de los productos del metabolismo secundario de las plantas. Esos productos obviamente requerirán de diferentes procesos para ser puestos en marcha.Si sucede eso, tendrá que agregar otro problema a su lista: la inocuidad de los alimentos. Con el tomate, por ejemplo, el público se pregunta: \"¿es inocuo este alimento?\" Si comenzamos a agregar más genes y proteínas nuevas, entonces este problema de la inocuidad de los alimentos también será muy importante, especialmente en el caso del maíz. ¿Cómo ve usted las tendencias de la investigación en esta área?Bueno, definitivamente la inocuidad de los alimentos es uno de los componentes de la bioseguridad; creo que allí es donde la ubicaría. Si los productos van a ser para el consumo, entonces ese será uno de los aspectos a considerar.¿Cuál es la longevidad prevista de algunas de estas líneas transgénicas? ¿Un año, dos años... alguna idea? ¿Qué ha previsto el CIMMYT?Yo diría que en la mayoría de los casos la longevidad es muy breve, de uno o dos años. Eso es lo que creo ahora, con los genes actuales, al menos para los Estados Unidos o para los mercados de los países industrializados. Tal vez el Programa de Maíz del CIMMYT podría abordar esta interrogante de la permanencia del germoplasma en los países en desarrollo. Sin embargo, creo que la longevidad de una planta transgénica podría ser mayor que la de una línea endogámica en el mercado comercial estadounidense.¿Cuáles son las perspectivas de que el maíz sea transformado para generar productos industriales? He conversado con algunos ingenieros genéticos y hablan de usar el maíz para producir sustancias farmacéuticas, como el compuesto usado en las píldoras anticonceptivas.Bueno, es factible. Como mencioné, tenemos los genes, podemos activarlos y no hay obstáculos técnicos mayores; por lo tanto, se puede hacer. Que en verdad se haga, probablemente se relacione más con el valor comercial del producto y con que una empresa considere que se podría obtener algo rentable. Ustedes recordarán que uno de los aspectos curiosos de la transformación del maíz es que está muy ligada al sector privado y, en consecuencia, se impulsa por un motivo utilitario en estos momentos. Si bien se podría hacer algo y hacerlo en otra planta a causa del interés científico básico, tal vez no se logre en el maíz sencillamente porque el sector privado no ha considerado que esto sea un sistema rentable.Profesor de Biología Universidad de MassachusettsLa presencia en este Foro de tres de los principales expertos en el estudio del teocintle constituye un tributo para los organizadores de esta conferencia. Dos de esos expertos son mexicanos y conocen el estado actual del teocintle mejor que yo. Pienso que mi única y modesta contribución a este taller es la perspectiva histórica de las poblaciones de teocintle en los últimos 35 años. Cuando comencé a trabajar en el teocintle en 1960 (Wilkes, 1985), no teníamos los extensos conocimientos sobre las poblaciones del teocintle con que contamos en la actualidad gracias a los Dres. Jesús Sánchez (Sánchez y Ordaz, 1987) y T. Angel Kato Y. (Kato Y., 1976;1984). Antes de entrar en los detalles de la historia natural del teocintle, me gustaría contarles algo que simboliza el tema de mi presentación. Imaginemos que uno quiere salvar la pureza del complejo genético del teocintle; busca una gran vasija de barro y deposita dentro de ésta a todas las poblaciones de teocintle. Por seguridad, coloca la vasija sobre un estante. Entonces, se da cuenta de que existe un riesgo biológico para ese complejo genético y se preocupa por la seguridad y la pureza del complejo; ¿será amenazado por el riesgo biológico? Sin embargo, no se ha advertido que hay un gran agujero en el fondo de la vasija y el complejo genético se derrama; de pronto, ya no hay más complejo genético: se ha producido la extinción, la vasija está vacía. Después de haber observado las poblaciones de teocintle en México en los últimos 35 años, puedo decirles con seguridad que, con pocas excepciones, esas poblaciones no existirán dentro de 35 años. Cualquier cosa que decidamos acerca de la bioseguridad tendrá un efecto marginal en las poblaciones actuales de teocintle, a menos que vaya acompañada de un plan de manejo para detener el desplazamiento del hábitat de las poblaciones que sobreviven en la actualidad.En los sistemas biológicos se produce la autorreplicación y la autorregulación, y sabemos, gracias a los sitios arqueológicos, que el teocintle ha existido en muchos lugares de México por lo menos durante dos mil años. Sin embargo, en las últimas décadas se han dado rápidos cambios en el uso de la tierra y el desarrollo económico del sector rural. La \"mejora\" que tiene el efecto individual más importante en cuanto a empujar al teocintle hacia la extinción es el alambre de púas. Es decir, el uso más intensivo de la tierra con el pastoreo. Hace 35 años se podía caminar 30 km en algunos lugares y no se veía un solo cerco de alambre de púas; había cercas de piedra, pero ningún poste ni alambrado. Había poco ganado, muchas milpas y teocintle. Ahora, uno camina 100 ó 200 m y hay una cerca, ganado vacuno o, peor, cabras, y nada de teocintle. Básicamente, el teocintle no tiene ningún mecanismo de protección contra los animales que pastan (Wilkes, 1988).Lo que se ha vuelto evidente es que, sin una política de conservación para proteger al teocintle, las cuestiones de biotecnología son un punto muerto. El problema político es el establecer medidas adecuadas para proteger in situ a las poblaciones sobrevivientes distribución del teocintle se encontraba en la obra de Wellhausen et al. (1952). Posteriormente, me enteré de que el mapa se basaba en un informe preparado por Hernández Xolocotzi y C. L. Gilly, de la Universidad Estatal de Iowa. La copia original presentada a E. J. Wellhausen, de la Fundación Rockefeller en México (predecesora del CIMMYT), constituyó la base de la versión en español de las Razas del Maíz en México, publicada en 1951. La versión en español en esencia era idéntica a la inglesa, excepto por la sección sobre el teocintle, que era más completa y extensa. Por desgracia, tanto el informe original como la copia de Hernández Xolocotzi se perdieron y, por consiguiente, nuestro conocimiento del teocintle era en 1960 fragmentario o basado en la literatura más antigua de comienzos de siglo. En contraste, ahora sabemos de más de 100 sitios de poblaciones, algunos de tan sólo unas cuantas hectáreas y aislados por varios cientos de kilómetros de la siguiente población más cercana. En la actualidad, la distribución del teocintle se conoce mejor que la de cualquier otro pariente silvestre de un cereal importante como el trigo, el arroz o la cebada.Tanto el teocintle como el maíz son únicos entre las gramíneas porque tienen las flores masculinas y femeninas en lugares separados. La inflorescencia masculina se desarrolla en posición terminal en la panoja y la inflorecencia femenina en la mazorca (del maíz) o la espiga (del teocintle), que ocupan una posición lateral en la planta. La morfología favorece la contaminación efectiva mediante la polinización por conducto del viento. La semilla individual del teocintle está encerrada en un segmento duro del raquis llamado cápsula del grano, y es dispersada cuando el tejido del raquis en la vaina forma una zona de abscisión y se desarticula. Este es un carácter importante de tipo silvestre que distingue al teocintle -como planta no domesticada que se autosiembradel maíz. Aun en las poblaciones donde se hibridan el maíz y el teocintle, las cantidades masivas de polen del y, al mismo tiempo, esforzarse por aumentar los rendimientos del maíz mediante mejores sistemas de labranza, mejores fertilizantes, uso adecuado de plaguicidas, semillas y también la biotecnología: todo el paquete que acompaña al uso más intensivo de la tierra. La mejor parte de este dilema es que hay incentivos económicos por parte de la industria biotecnológica y aspectos políticos que promueven la conservación in situ. México tiene la oportunidad de ponerse a la cabeza de los países del mundo, si decide ser una de las primeras naciones en resolver el problema de la evaluación de los riesgos, la bioseguridad y en equilibrar el desarrollo rural con la conservación. En México se tienen: (1) los conocimientos científicos, (2) los parientes silvestres que hibridan con el cultivo y (3) un rápido ritmo de desarrollo rural; todos los factores necesarios para enfrentar el dilema y llevar a cabo un estudio de caso para la comunidad mundial. México ya ha encabezado al mundo con el establecimiento de la reserva nacional, la primera de su tipo, para la conservación in situ del único teocintle perenne diploide silvestre (Zea diploperennis) en la Sierra de Manantlán, en Jalisco (Benz, 1988). Esta reserva de la biósfera protege al teocintle endémico, recientemente descubierto, y a una extensa área que contiene el bosque montañoso subtropical más septentrional que queda en el hemisferio. La Reserva de la Biósfera de la Sierra de Manantlán fue creada por decreto presidencial en 1987 e incorporada en la red internacional de Reservas de la Biósfera de la UNESCO-MAB en 1988. El reto es continuar con otros sitios que son el hábitat del teocintle.Hace 35 años, cuando comencé mi tesis sobre el teocintle, la literatura botánica era fragmentaria y sólo E. Hernández Xolocotzi, de la Escuela Nacional de Agricultura, Chapingo, conocía la distribución geográfica y la biología de campo del teocintle. El único sitio definido era el de Chalco, donde se encontraba una población sobreviviente de teocintle bien establecida. En esa época, el mejor mapa de la maíz cultivado no han podido diluir genéticamente al raquis desarticulante de tipo silvestre del teocintle. Se han encontrado híbridos del maíz en todas las poblaciones de teocintle conocidas en México y Guatemala (Wilkes, 1972b), pero el flujo de genes no ha alterado la fuerte presión de selección en favor de la cápsula fructífera cerrada y dura, o el raquis desarticulante que caracteriza al teocintle como planta silvestre en la flora de México. A comienzos de los años 70, George Beadle examinó unas 500,000 vainas de un número igual de plantas y no encontró una sola gluma inferior blanda; tal es la fuerza de la presión de selección en favor de los caracteres que protegen la supervivencia del teocintle.La distribución del teocintle no es uniforme ni en la vertiente occidental de México, ni en Guatemala. Las razas existen como poblaciones semiaisladas, cada una de ellas con cierto grado de aislamiento ecogeográfico. La mayoría de las poblaciones geográficas están aisladas en el sentido espacial por la topografía irregular de altas montañas y valles profundos. Estas son las condiciones que, en teoría, favorecen el rápido cambio genético (evolución). Los ambientes de estas poblaciones geográficas no son idénticos; varían en cuanto a la extensión del ciclo de crecimiento, la disponibilidad de agua y la intensidad de la luz solar (incluyendo la luz ultravioleta). De esta forma, el teocintle anual ha producido razas fisiológicamente diferentes, cada una de las cuales ha adquirido un limitado patrón morfológico y ecológico de nudos cromosómicos y diferenciación genética (Wilkes, 1967;1977).Las poblaciones de teocintle existentes en la naturaleza se limitan a dos regiones. Una es la vertiente occidental de México y América Central, en la zona subtropical de temporada seca, con lluvias estivales, que se encuentra a una altitud de entre 800 (a veces 500) y 1,800 m sobre el nivel del mar, y la segunda es la de la Mesa Central de México (1,650-2,000 m sobre el nivel del mar), también con lluvias estivales. La población de teocintle en el Valle de México (2,200-2,450 m sobre el nivel del mar) y sus extensiones en Puebla y el Valle de Toluca son una anomalía. La vegetación está constituida por matorrales espinosos deciduos o bosques. El ciclo de crecimiento desde junio hasta octubre (de agosto a junio en Huehuetenango, Guatemala, a menos de 30 km de la frontera mexicana en Chiapas) comienza con las lluvias de verano y, para agosto/septiembre (noviembre/diciembre en Huehuetenango) ha llegado a la etapa media de floración. La época de floración de la mayoría de las poblaciones de teocintle es paralela a la de las razas indígenas locales de maíz. La anomalía más difícil de resolver son las poblaciones de teocintle en Amatlán, Morelos, y Malinalco, Estado de México. Ambos sitios están situados donde una vez estaban los antiguos jardines botánicos de los aztecas. Ambas poblaciones abarcan cuanto más unas pocas hectáreas. ¿Se trata de reliquias de los jardines aztecas? ¿Fue introducido el teocintle en el Valle de México a partir del jardín botánico azteca de Xochimilco, sólo para escapar a través del valle hasta Chalco? Yo pensaba que era ridículo explorar estas cuestiones pero, con el descubrimiento de poblaciones muy aisladas en Amatlán y Malinalco, he llegado a pensar nuevamente en esa posibilidad.El teocintle, una planta silvestre muy variable, tiene grupos anuales y perennes. Los anuales que producen semilla, todos ellos diploides (2n = 20) se encuentran en ocho grupos de población geográficamente aislados, seis en México y dos en Guatemala. Algunas de las poblaciones son pequeñas; la más pequeña ocupa menos de 1 km 2 , mientras que la más grande abarca miles de kilómetros cuadrados. Hay dos teocintles perennes; ambos producen rizomas y existen sólo en hábitats restringidos en el estado de Jalisco en México. Uno es el diploide perenne (Zea diploperennis), recientemente descubierto, y el otro es el perenne tetraploide (Zea perennis), reconocido desde hace ancestral. Desde el punto de vista morfológico, se asemeja más a los teocintles perenes que a las formas anuales.La distribución del teocintle a lo largo de la vertiente occidental de México y Guatemala es paralela a la de las antiguas civilizaciones mexicanas de la mesa central y los mayas. Por tanto, sabemos que el teocintle ha sido simpátrico con las milpas por miles de años. Aun hoy, el hábitat de teocintle se encuentra en algunas de las mejores tierras agrícolas del país. En los estados mexicanos de Jalisco, Guanajuato y Michoacán, la planta crece principalmente a lo largo de las cercas de piedra que bordean las milpas, no como una maleza que invade los campos sino como un raro sobreviviente, desplazado de la tierra, que hace su última parada en lo que resta de la estrecha franja de suelo no labrado. En algunos lugares, como Chalco, el teocintle ha invadido con éxito las milpas como una \"imitación\" del maíz cultivado. Allí el teocintle y el maíz son tan similares en apariencia, que los agricultores no pueden distinguir fácilmente a uno del otro en las etapas tempranas de crecimiento, por lo que no arrancan el teocintle de sus milpas a comienzos del ciclo de cultivo.Muchas de estas milpas se usan para pastorear el ganado lechero y las cubiertas endurecidas de la semilla del teocintle pasan por el tracto digestivo del ganado sin ser digeridas, por lo que tienen oportunidad de germinar. Desde Chalco, este teocintle mimético del maíz de altitudes elevadas ha viajado en los camiones que transportan estiércol fuera del Valle de México, para establecerse en Toluca y Puebla. La población más grande -considerada como silvestre y preferida por los biólogos moleculares como forma ancestral del maíz-es la que se presenta sobre cientos de kilómetros cuadrados en las montañas entre los 800 y los 1,650 m sobre el nivel del mar, alrededor del río Balsas, principalmente en el estado de Guerrero pero también extendiéndose en Michoacán y Jalisco (500 m sobre el nivel del mar). mucho tiempo. Los teocintles anuales son todos diploides e, históricamente, la designación binomial ha sido Zea mexicana, aunque recientemente algunos investigadores han dividido este grupo en varias especies y subespecies (Iltis y Doebley, 1980;1984).Aquí he evitado conscientemente emplear términos taxonómicos (razas o especies y subespecies) para los diversos grupos del teocintle anual. Todavía no es evidente para mí que esas distinciones latinas aporten claridad. En cambio, en este trabajo se hará referencia a las poblaciones que juntas incluyen todos los grupos taxonómicos, con denominación asignada, del teocintle anual. Si se quieren establecer diferencias entre los teocintles anuales, lo más adecuado es separar la población del sur de Guatemala (raza Guatemala o Zea luxurians) de todos los teocintles mexicanos y del teocintle del norte de Guatemala en el departamento de Huehuetenango (Doebley et al., 1987). Esta población de la raza Guatemala en Jutiapa, Jalapa y Chiquimula, es la más parecida a Tripsacum y, posiblemente, la más primitiva de todos los teocintles desde el punto de vista taxonómico (Wilkes, 1972b). La semilla es alargada (trapezoidal y no triangular) y las flores masculinas en la panoja son distintas de las de todas las otras poblaciones de teocintles anuales. Los cromosomas se caracterizan por los nudos terminales, una característica que no se encuentra en el maíz. La planta tiene tendencia a ramificarse en el tallo principal desde la base hacia arriba (un carácter semejante al de Tripsacum), mientras que todos los otros teocintles anuales se ramifican de la punta hacia abajo. Además, ésta es la única raza de teocintle que muestra una tendencia al perennialismo. También, cuando se cruza con el maíz, este teocintle del sur de Guatemala retiene en la F 1 más caracteres del teocintle, como las espiguillas individuales, que las otras poblaciones anuales. La población muestra, también, una tasa de fecundidad más baja en el polen de las F 1 cuando se efectúa el intercruzamiento entre todas las poblaciones anuales. Evidentemente, el teocintle de Jutiapa es el más diferente de todos los teocintles anuales, pero esto no significa necesariamente que sea en esta región el teocintle ha coexistido con el maíz sin \"diluirlo\" genéticamente. No creo que los experimentos de flujo de genes con materiales transgénicos representen un riesgo biológico serio (Wilkes, 1972a).Si bien es difícil definir con mucha precisión el peligro de extinción, la Comisión para la Supervivencia de las Especies de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza y sus Recursos (IUCN), con sede en Suiza, ha establecido algunos criterios útiles. Seis categorías propuestas por la IUCN -extinta, en peligro, vulnerable, rara, indeterminada y estable-pueden ser aplicadas con facilidad al teocintle (Cuadro 1, Figura 1). Algunas poblaciones (la de Honduras, que era una extensión del teocintle de Jutiapa) ya están extintas y por lo menos una (la del sur de Guatemala) está en peligro y no se puede esperar que persista mucho más tiempo en la naturaleza sin algunos sitios de protección in situ. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los teocintles, con excepción de la población del Balsas, pueden ser considerados vulnerables; es decir, están disminuyendo a tal grado que, si no se hace nada, estarán en peligro. Las poblaciones consideradas raras -las de Nabogame (Chihuahua), Durango y Oaxaca-son tan escasas que podrían ser eliminadas con facilidad, pero en la actualidad no están bajo una amenaza inmediata y son más o menos estables. Las poblaciones indeterminadas (las de la Mesa Central y de Huehuetenango son una sombra de su tamaño anterior, pero parecen persistir) son aquellas cuyo estado es incierto. A causa de la amenaza representada por el rápido cambio en el uso de la tierra, la población de Huehuetenango está avanzando de indeterminada a población en peligro. Aquí, en el Valle de México, todavía se cultiva ampliamente el maíz desde Amecameca hasta Chalco y el teocintle no está amenazado, pero eso podría cambiar a medidaEn varios sitios de la Mesa Central de México, el teocintle ha desaparecido en épocas recientes a causa del uso más intensivo de la tierra y el pastoreo. Los lugares donde abundaba el teocintle alrededor de las milpas son ahora campos de fresas. En las zonas más secas, el sorgo ha sustituido al maíz y al teocintle, que al hacerse más visible en estos campos, no persiste durante mucho tiempo. En general, la distribución de la planta se está contrayendo y algunas subpoblaciones vulnerables se acercan a la extinción, si bien ninguna está amenazada por la eliminación inmediata. Las poblaciones de teocintle de la Mesa Central se han vuelto las más fragmentadas y, en mi opinión, son las mejores para realizar experimentos sobre el flujo de genes por dos razones:1. No hay ninguna población silvestre grande que actúe como reservorio y, como las poblaciones están aisladas en el espacio, se podría controlar el daño si se nos fuera de las manos el intercambio genético.2. Sobre la base de mis observaciones al mapear cada planta en el campo y seguir la frecuencia y la posición de los híbridos F 1 en el año siguiente, puedo generalizar con confianza que, cuando el teocintle está presente con una frecuencia baja, hay más contaminación con el maíz como progenitor del polen. Cuando se duplica la abundancia del teocintle, se reduce la frecuencia absoluta y relativa de los híbridos F 1 .Escogería un sitio en algún lugar a lo largo de los límites estatales entre Michoacán, Guanajuato y Jalisco. Esta también me parece una región donde las variedades elite/híbridos/materiales transgénicos de maíz tendrán su primer contacto con las plantas silvestres de teocintle. Desde hace mucho, por siglos, en el sureste de Guatemala en los en forma continua y sitios aislados a lo largo de cerros y valles de Jutiapa, Jalapa abarcaba 500 ó más km 2 , los campos o en otras áreas y Chiquimula.pero ahora la distribución es protegidas del pastoreo. fragmentada y la población más grande abarca cuanto más 1 km 2 . Tamaño de las poblaciones: Balsas > Mesa Central > Chalco > Nabogame > Durango = Oaxaca. Necesidad más importante: Más exploración en Oaxaca y Chiapas.que la mancha urbana avance sobre las tierras de cultivo y, por consiguiente, la categoría de indeterminada es apropiada. En Los Reyes, el teocintle está ahora limitado a unas cuantos hectáreas. Alrededor de Texcoco y Chiconcuac, se introdujo el teocintle hace unos 20 años y se ha establecido una población considerable (Cuadro 1, Figura 1).Las principales razones de la contracción de las poblaciones de teocintle son: (1) la intensificación del uso de la tierra (que se relaciona con la construcción de caminos y la introducción del alambre de púas para cercar los campos), (2) el \"sumergimiento\" genético de las pequeñas poblaciones aisladas que son contaminadas por el maíz y que, por consiguiente, pierden su capacidad de dispersar la semilla, y (3) la producción de un cultivo comercial, como el sorgo de baja altura, en lugar del maíz, que hace visible la presencia del teocintle. Según las estimaciones más optimistas, la distribución actual del teocintle llega a alrededor de la mitad de lo que era en 1900, como lo evidencian los especímenes de los herbarios y las descripciones por escrito (Harshberger, 1893;Collins, 1921). La desaparición de las poblaciones restantes se acelerará a medida que se construyan más caminos y se intensifique el uso de la tierra. Hace apenas 20 años, una tercera parte de las poblaciones de teocintle estaba lejos de los caminos y otra tercera parte era accesible sólo por caminos de terracería, difíciles de recorrer. Ahora, todas las poblaciones de teocintle son accesibles por caminos que se pueden transitar fácilmente en automóvil. Es interesante destacar que el factor decisivo para la supervivencia del teocintle en una región, es la siembra difundida del maíz en la mayor parte del territorio. Otras formas de uso de la tierra son mucho más devastadoras para la presencia continua del teocintle.En primer lugar, deseo expresar mi gratitud al pueblo mexicano que me ha proporcionado hospitalidad e información en el transcurso de los años. Me gustaría agradecer especialmente al ya fallecido Profesor E. Hernández Xolocotzi, de Chapingo, y al Sr. Guerrero, de Teloloapan. En segundo lugar, quiero reconocer la energía y la capacidad de la comunidad científica mexicana, que ha crecido en los últimos 35 años. Por último, creo que debemos admitir que México se está desarrollando con mucha rapidez, por lo que el teocintle se convertirá en una especie en peligro de extinción si no se avanza alguna planificación para la conservación in situ. Se nos presenta la oportunidad Figura 1. Actualización del estado de las poblaciones de teocintle en México y Guatemala.Balsas Guatemala de equilibrar la evaluación de riesgos en bioseguridad y las implicaciones políticas de las medidas de conservación. Evidentemente, debemos tener en cuenta que en toda discusión de las políticas, estamos influyendo en los hábitat locales y, cuando se está rehaciendo el mundo en términos humanos para hacerlo más productivo, no pensamos en las plantas silvestres. Nos concentramos en aumentar el rendimiento de los cultivos. La semilla del teocintle silvestre que está en el banco de germoplasma es la que conserva la pureza del teocintle tal como existe en la actualidad. Como consecuencia de este simple hecho, es preciso evaluar total y cuidadosamente la integridad y la calidad del almacenamiento de la semilla de teocintle que está ahora en los bancos de germoplasma.Una vez que se haya completado el respaldo de los bancos de germoplasma, el segundo paso será establecer experimentos para medir en condiciones de campo el flujo de genes del maíz al teocintle. Hace 30 años no existían los instrumentos para hacer esto y la medida aceptable era la presencia de híbridos F 1 y progenie de retrocruzamiento. Hoy éstas son, cuando más, respuestas parciales. No sabemos cuál fue la eficacia de esos híbridos F 1 y la progenie posterior en el traslado de genes entre los grupos taxonómicos del maíz y el teocintle. En mi opinión, el mejor lugar para hacer estos experimentos de \"liberar y medir\" es en las poblaciones aisladas de teocintle de la Mesa Central, porque: (1) pueden ser monitoreados con facilidad, (2) no existe una gran población silvestre que pueda actuar como un reservorio de genes, (3) la frecuencia del teocintle en estos campos es baja en comparación con la abundancia del polen de maíz; estas son las tres condiciones para la introgresión de genes. Si se piensa que los estudios en poblaciones silvestres son demasiado arriesgados, se podría efectuar la simulación en aislamiento genético de otras poblaciones de teocintle en, digamos, Hermosillo o Ciudad Obregón, en el estado de Sonora, al noroeste de México. El trabajo preliminar que hice años atrás indica que una frecuencia del teocintle inferior al 1% es más eficaz para la producción de híbridos F 1 . Cuando la frecuencia del teocintle se acerca al 5%, la cantidad absoluta de híbridos F 1 disminuye, lo que indica una saturación de polen de teocintle y una ventaja preferencial para el teocintle y la polinización por éste.Un segundo aspecto de los experimentos es que no sabemos prácticamente nada acerca de los procesos de selección de la semilla de maíz que realizan los agricultores de las regiones donde coexisten el maíz, el teocintle y sus híbridos. Comprendo que la preocupación es por el flujo de genes hacia el teocintle, pero, con muy poco esfuerzo adicional, habría la oportunidad de medir el movimiento de genes del teocintle y/o las variedades élite de maíz (transgénicas, híbridas e, incluso, de otra raza indígena) hacia el material criollo que tienen los agricultores. De esta forma, se podría determinar la eficacia de la selección de mazorcas para semilla por el agricultor y el fomento o el bloqueo de esa introgresión. Nuevamente, pienso que la Mesa Central es un excelente lugar para estos estudios.Los problemas de bioseguridad que plantean los materiales transgénicos para los parientes silvestres del maíz, tanto los grupos del teocintle como los miembros del género Tripsacum, son reales y deben ser considerados cuidadosamente. Mi propia opinión es que el rápido desarrollo rural y los cambios en la política sobre el uso de la tierra representan un riesgo mayor para la supervivencia de las poblaciones de teocintle. Creo que se pueden efectuar sin peligro estudios de evaluación del riesgo y, lo que es más importante, esos estudios pueden llevar a un mejor conocimiento del flujo de genes entre un cultivo y su pariente silvestre simpátrico. Hay una gran oportunidad de hacer investigaciones fundamentales. Existen los instrumentos y ya se cuenta con la capacidad aquí en México; el próximo paso es la voluntad política de comenzar.El Territorio de la República Mexicana es una de las regiones del mundo con mayor riqueza florística y se ha señalado como centro de origen y diversidad de plantas cultivadas que han adquirido gran importancia en el ámbito mundial. De esos cultivos originarios y/o domesticados en Mesoamérica, el maíz, el frijol, el chile, la calabaza y el tomate son los más importantes en la dieta del pueblo mexicano; en forma conjunta se cultivan en México aproximadamente 10 millones de hectáreas de tales especies en una gran diversidad de sistemas de producción.México está ubicado en tercer lugar a nivel mundial en diversidad biológica; posee el 10% de la flora del mundo, aproximadamente 30000 especies de plantas, de las cuales 21600 -agrupadas en 2500 géneros-son fanerógamas (Rzedowski, 1993). Una de las características más importantes de la diversidad florística de México es que el 12% de los géneros y 50-60% de todas sus especies son endémicas; es decir, su distribución está restringida al territorio nacional; este es el caso de algunas especies de teocintle (Zea spp.).Los parientes silvestres del maíz llamados colectivamente teocintles están representados por especies anuales y perennes diploides (2n = 20) y por una especie tetraploide (2n = 40); se encuentran dentro de las áreas tropicales y subtropicales de México, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua, ocurriendo como poblaciones aisladas de tamaños variables que ocupan desde menos de uno hasta varios cientos de km 2 .Al teocintle, considerado el pariente más cercano del maíz, algunos autores le han atribuido una gran influencia en el incremento de la variabilidad y la formación de las principales razas de maíz en México (Wellhausen et al., 1951;Mangelsdorf y Reeves, 1959;Mangelsdorf, 1974;1986;Wilkes, 1979), debido entre otras razones al sistema de reproducción que permite la hibridación natural en ambos sentidos, lo cual hace posible un constante flujo de genes (Wilkes, 1970;1977a;Benz et al., 1990). Por su parte, otros investigadores han indicado que al parecer no hay introgresión (Kato, 1984) entre el maíz y el teocintle en ambos sentidos, o es muy reducida (Doebley, 1990a;1990b) y no se sabe con precisión hasta que punto el teocintle ha participado en la formación de las razas de maíz en México.Desde hace algunos años, hay preocupación por los posibles cambios en la estructura genética básica de las especies silvestres relacionadas con cultivos, por la posibilidad de que los nuevos cultivo puedan convertirse en malezas, y por otros tipos de impactos ambientales asociados con la siembra comercial de variedades de plantas obtenidas mediante métodos de ingeniería genética (variedades transgénicas).Con base en evidencias moleculares, Doebley (1990b) concluyó que ocurre flujo genético entre maíz y teocintle en ambas direcciones y que a pesar que dicho flujo es reducido, existe la posibilidad de que los genes incorporados al maíz por medio de ingeniería genética puedan ser transferidos al teocintle y bajo ciertas circunstancias, difundirse a través de las diferentes poblaciones de teocintle. Las condiciones indicadas por Doebley (1990b)  Este trabajo describe la distribución geográfica de las poblaciones de teocintle en México y se dan los resultados de investigación para determinar los requerimientos climáticos de las diferentes poblaciones de teocintle y las áreas potenciales de distribución, con base en un sistema de información geográfica. Se considera que la información presentada en este documento será de gran utilidad en la planeación de estudios relacionados con las pruebas de campo o autorización de siembras comerciales de materiales transgénicos de maíz.La distribución del teocintle en México se extiende desde la porción sur de la región cultural conocida como Aridamérica, en la Sierra Madre Occidental del estado de Chihuahua y Valle de Guadiana en Durango, hasta la frontera con Guatemala incluyendo prácticamente toda la porción occidental de Mesoamérica. En las diferentes regiones de México existen poblaciones de teocintle con características morfológicas y genéticas que permiten su diferenciación. Un aspecto que cabe resaltar en relación con la distribución geográfica de teocintle, es que las poblaciones no tienen una distribución uniforme, sino que hay condiciones específicas de clima, suelo e influencia humana, donde es posible localizarlas.Entre los informes más antiguos sobre la existencia de teocintle, se encuentra el de Carl Lumholtz (1902)  (1902). Wilkes viajó a través de México y encontró teocintle en la mayoría de localidades en las que éste había sido previamente mencionado o recolectado. Adicionalmente a sus colecciones, preparó un mapa (Wilkes, 1967;1977by 1985) en que se muestran los sitios de ocurrencia de teocintle desde el sureste de Honduras hasta el norte de México. Para algunos de los puntos no se menciona la localidad.Como resultado de sus exploraciones de 1977de a 1980de , Guzmán (1982) ) presentó la distribución del teocintle en el estado de Jalisco, en la cual se señalan cinco localidades para Zea diploperennis, cuatro para Zea perennis y siete para teocintles anuales. Wilkes (1986) comunicó el redescubrimiento de teocintle en el estado de Oaxaca en dos localidades: (a) Loxicha, también conocida como San Agustín Loxicha -debido a la muestra de herbario del botánico danés Fredrick Liebmann en 1842-, aquí la población de teocintle es pequeña, de menos de 2 km 2 y fue recolectada en las cercanías de Loxicha a una altitud de 1200 m, y (b) en las cercanías de San Pedro Juchatengo a una altitud de 1150 m, la cual fue descubierta en 1985 por José M. López del Colegio de Postgraduados (Hernández X., 1987). Desafortunadamente, en la mayoría de los informes antiguos disponibles en la literatura, no se mencionan localidades específicas ni se presentan mapas que permitan ubicar las poblaciones de teocintle. En los casos de los estados de Chiapas, Sonora, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí y la \"Barranca Chica\", en las inmediaciones de la ciudad de Guadalajara, en el estado de Jalisco, a pesar de los esfuerzos de diferentes colectores, hasta el momento no se ha tenido éxito ni se cuenta con información que permita localizar poblaciones de teocintle en dichos estados.En la actualidad, los mapas más completos sobre la distribución del teocintle en México son los publicados por Kato (1976) y Sánchez y Ordaz (1987).La descripción que aquí se presenta se basa en gran parte en el trabajo de Sánchez y Ordaz (1987)  avena; el teocintle se encuentra creciendo entre el maíz y en las márgenes de los arroyos Nabogame, Tarahumare y Tejamanil que cruzan el valle. Como podrá observarse en la Figura 2, además de Nabogame, hay información de la existencia de dos poblaciones adicionales en el estado de Chihuahua: una en la Barranca de Urique y la otra en los límites con el estado de Sonora en las cercanías del Río Papigochic; esta última localidad aparece en la Figura 44 de Wellhausen et al. (1951).Este valle forma parte de la Altiplanicie Mexicana y tiene una altitud media de 1890 m, situado a 24 o LN y 104 o 30' LO (Figura 3). Esta porción tiene un clima de estepa (BS) con vegetación predominante de plantas xerófilas. El área del Valle de Guadiana, en los alrededores de la ciudad de Durango, se siembra en su mayor parte en condiciones de riego con cultivos como maíz, sorgo y chile. El teocintle se encuentra en forma abundante a la vera de arroyos y canales de riego en un área al este y noroeste distante entre 8 y 20 km de la ciudad de Durango en los lugares conocidos como \"Hacienda de Dolores-Puente Dalila\" y \"Puente Gavilanes\", y al noroeste en las inmediaciones de Francisco Villa (Hacienda Alcalde); este último lugar había sido recolectado por Palmer en 1896 (Doebley, 1983) y comunicado por Collins (1921). En la Figura 3 se señala un punto al noroeste del estado correspondiente a Cerro Prieto, localidad mencionada por Lumholtz (1902) y por Collins et al. en 1937(citado por Wilkes, 1967).En esta región (Figura 4) se presentan grandes contrastes en el clima, debido a la conformación variada del relieve y a la influencia de masas de agua, tanto clasificación climática para las diferentes áreas cae dentro de los tipos (A)C(w) y C(w). Esta región abarca principalmente porciones de los estados de Guanajuato y Michoacán y muestra numerosos valles separados por elevaciones de importancia, colocados a diversos niveles, que son en su mayoría antiguos lagos.El teocintle se encuentra de manera predominante en los campos cultivados de maíz, y también a lo largo de cercas de piedra que bordean algunos de dichos campos. Dentro del estado de Guanajuato (Figura 6) el teocintle se localiza en dos áreas principales : (i) al noroeste en Manuel Doblado, y (ii) al sur en Yuriria, Moroleón-Uriangato y Piñicuaro. Existen dos informes adicionales de su existencia, uno en Silao, al este de Manuel Doblado y otro en Querétaro sin que se precise la localidad exacta (Wilkes, 1967) Dentro del estado de Oaxaca (Figura 13) se tiene información de la existencia de tres poblaciones: i) En las cercanías de San Agustín Loxicha (Wilkes, 1967;1986), la cual fue mencionada en el siglo pasado por el botánico danés Fredrick Liebmann, ii) una población descubierta en 1985 en las cercanías de San Pedro Juchatengo (San Cristóbal Honduras) y iii) la población reportada por Lipp (1986) en la región Mixe y de la que se menciona que el teocintle es interplantado con maíz o sembrado separadamente para consumo.Las áreas de San Pedro Juchatengo y San Agustín Loxicha quedan comprendidas dentro de la Sierra Madre del Sur, con un clima predominante similar al de la Cuenca del Balsas, o sea cálido subhúmedo con invierno seco (Aw).En las Figuras 1 a 13 y en el Cuadro 1 se presenta información relativa a poblaciones de teocintle conocidas por muestras de herbario e información obtenida por diferentes fuentes. Entre los informantes predominaron agricultores y ganaderos; sin embargo, también se ha obtenido información de algunos taxónomos y técnicos encargados de asistencia técnica en aspectos agrícolas y ganaderos. Se considera que la información relativa a las localidades incluidas en la Figura 1 y Cuadro 1 es confiable y podría ser de gran importancia para planear viajes de exploración y recolección. Por su ubicación geográfica destacan las localidades de los estados de Chihuahua, Jalisco, Oaxaca y Chiapas, dado que el confirmar su existencia permitiría estudiar la diversidad genética en un continuo latitudinal, cubriendo un gran número de ecosistemas, desde Chihuahua a casi 30 o N hasta Nicaragua alrededor de 13 o N.Con base en los antecedentes registrados en el INIFAP sobre accesiones de teocintle en diversas entidades de la República, se planteó la hipótesis de que existe una superficie no determinada que reúne las condiciones ambientales adecuadas para el crecimiento y desarrollo de esta especie. Dicha superficie se constituye por tanto como área o áreas potenciales para recolección, las cuales probablemente no han sido exploradas en su totalidad.Conforme a lo anterior, se inició la presente investigación, con el objetivo de identificar áreas potenciales de distribución de teocintle en la República Mexicana. En esta sección se describen la metodología utilizada y los resultados preliminares obtenidos para la Región Pacífico Centro de México con las razas Balsas y Mesa Central.Figura 13. Distribución del teocintle en el estado de Oaxaca. El procedimiento consistió en caracterizar las condiciones altimétricas, de temperatura y precipitación para cada uno de los sitios en que se tienen registradas colectas de teocintle en los estados de Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán y Nayarit. Mediante la información disponible, se definieron los requerimientos de altitud, temperatura y precipitación de las razas de teocintle. En el Cuadro 2 se consignan los requerimientos para las razas Balsas y Mesa Central. Se presentan los resultados para estas dos razas dado que son para las que se dispone de un mayor número de sitios recolectados.Para desarrollar la búsqueda de áreas potenciales de distribución de teocintle, se utilizó la base de datos cartográficos del INIFAP para la región Pacífico Centro, trabajando a resoluciones con tamaño de celda 900 X 900 m. Utilizando esta base de datos y el sistema IDRISI se procedió a reclasificar los mapas de altitud, temperatura anual y precipitación anual en función de los rangos establecidos en el Cuadro 2. Los mapas reclasificados se utilizaron en procedimientos de sobreposición para encontrar finalmente las áreas en donde es factible que se distribuyan Balsas y Mesa Central.En las Figuras 14 y 15 se describen las áreas potenciales de distribución de las razas Balsas y Mesa Central. Para la raza Balsas se encontraron áreas potenciales de distribución en los cuatro estados, no así para la raza Mesa Central, toda vez que sólo en los estados de Jalisco y Michoacán se detectaron zonas potenciales.Cuadro 2. Altitud, temperatura y precipitación de las áreas de distribución para dos razas de teocintle.  La superficie potencial obtenida para la raza Balsas a nivel región fue de 21,013.83 km 2 ; es decir, en un 12% del área total, distribuida de la siguiente manera: 9,425.16 km 2 en Jalisco, 7,882.92 km 2 en Michoacán, 3,107.16 km 2 en Nayarit y 598.59 km 2 en Colima. En cuanto a la raza Mesa Central, la superficie regional obtenida fue de 2,150.55 km 2 (1.2% del área), distribuida en 1,307.34 km 2 y 843.21 km 2 para Jalisco y Michoacán, respectivamente.Un aspecto relacionado con la distribución del teocintle en México son sus nombres comunes. Los nombres comunes son de gran importancia en las exploraciones para estudiar o recolectar teocintle y en general están asociados a la semejanza de dicha planta con el maíz o a nombres de aves, las cuales, de Distribución del teocintle en México acuerdo con habitantes de varias regiones, se alimentan de sus semillas y pueden ser uno de los medios de diseminación.En el Cuadro 3 se anotan los nombres conocidos hasta ahora, y se indican la localidad o área donde éstos se usan. Además de los nombres anotados en el Cuadro 3, Lumholtz (1902) indicó el nombre \"maizmillo\" para el teocintle de Nabogame y \"maíz de pájaro\" y \"tats\" en la Sierra de los Huicholes; por otra parte, Lipp (1986) consignó el nombre de \"maíz de roca\" (caa mook) usado en la región Mixe dentro del estado de Oaxaca. Conviene mencionar que pese a haber realizado algunos recorridos con fines de recolección en años recientes, el teocintle no ha sido localizado en las dos últimas regiones. Es importante enfatizar que en ningún lugar la gente conoce esta planta como teocintle, lo cual conviene advertir al hacer viajes de exploración o de recolección.Figura 15. Areas potenciales de distribución para teocintle Raza Mesa Central en la Región Pacífico Centro.   En los últimos 15 años se han logrado grandes avances en el conocimiento de la distribución natural del teocintle en México (Guzmán, 1982;Sánchez y Ordaz, 1987;Doebley, 1983;Wilkes, 1986;Wilkes y Taba 1993;Wilkes y Sánchez, 1993;Sánchez y Chuela 1995). A la fecha, el Banco de Germoplasma de Maíz del INIFAP ubicado en Chapingo, México, cuenta con semilla de 144 muestras que representan poblaciones de aproximadamente 110 localidades de las diferentes regiones geográficas de México. A pesar de que el muestreo logrado hasta la fecha puede representar en términos generales la variación conocida y esperada en México, mucha de la información recabada no ha podido ser verificada en campo debido a diferentes causas: (i) lugares muy distantes y de difícil acceso, (ii) falta de recursos, financiamiento y equipo apropiado para misiones de exploración y recolección, y (iii) disponibilidad creciente de información que requiere ser correctamente documentada.Las áreas potenciales determinadas con base en el Sistema de Información Geográfica para las razas Balsas y Mesa Central coincide en buena medida con la distribución de los sitios reportados por diferentes colectores (Figuras 4, 5, 6 y 7 ). Debe reconocerse que en casos como el de la raza Balsas, la superficie potencial puede parecer muy amplia; sin embargo, dicha superficie puede estar indicando las zonas en donde se puede encontrar la raza Balsas en la actualidad, o aquellas que en alguna época estuvieron ocupadas por dicha raza en la región Pacífico Centro y que por efectos de disturbio de los ecosistemas, la distribución ha sido modificada. Por otra parte, la mayoría de las poblaciones de teocintle ocurren como arvenses o ruderales dentro o alrededor de campos cultivados de maíz; es decir, dependen en forma parcial de los nichos agrícolas o hábitat abiertos (Hernández X., 1993;Benz et al., 1990;Sánchez-Velázquez et al., 1991); tal es el caso de Zea diploperennis, y las razas Chalco, Mesa Central y Nobogame. En el caso de la raza Balsas (Zea mays spp.parviglumis), en algunos lugares parece ser parte de la vegetación natural primaria; empero, en tiempos actuales es notorio que su establecimiento depende en gran parte de la influencia del hombre a través de la apertura de campos de cultivo en sistemas de rozatumba-quema (coamiles) y por hatos de ganado vacuno al distribuir las semillas por medio de sus heces.Los resultados referentes a la determinación de las áreas potenciales de distribución son preliminares. Es muy importante que se ajusten los modelos con trabajos de verificación en campo con lo cual la precisión dependerá de la actualización de las bases de datos cartográficos de la región (sobre todo en relación a información climatológica), y de la adición de otras variables de diagnóstico, como vegetación asociada a teocintle, fisiografía, exposición de terreno, e influencia humana. Se considera necesario avanzar este tipo de trabajos a un ámbito nacional y hacer más eficientes los esfuerzos de exploración y recolección, toda vez que los recursos y personal disponibles son cada vez más escasos.Por otra parte, es difícil estimar con precisión el peligro de extinción de las poblaciones de teocintle en México. De acuerdo con lo observado en los últimos 12 años, con excepción de la Cuenca del Balsasinclusive la mayor parte de las poblaciones de los estados de Guerrero, Michoacán, Jalisco y México-el resto de poblaciones pueden considerarse amenazadas. El Cuadro 6 presenta la situación general de las poblaciones en México. * R = Rara, E = Estable, A = Amenazada, P = En peligro de extinción gracias a su utilidad como planta forrajera, a su plasticidad para ocupar espacios vacíos, a su empleo para el mejoramiento de las variedades nativas, y en algunos casos a su simbolismo sagrado ya que algunos grupos étnicos lo consideran el corazón del maíz (Hernández X., 1993).Los estudios fitogeográficos, el monitoreo, la exploración, la recolección y la conservación en sus diferentes modalidades son actividades que deberán ser intensificadas y mantenidas a través del tiempo y espacio, con el fin de reducir los riesgos de desaparición de las poblaciones. Dado que siempre existe la posibilidad de descubrir nuevas variantes con propiedades genéticas aún desconocidas que podrían aportar nuevas fuentes de genes a los programas de mejoramiento genético, dichas actividades se justifican plenamente.Preguntas y respuestas después de las presentaciones de G. En cuanto a otros factores, se puede mencionar que la amenaza de la urbanización es más evidente para las razas de teocintle tipo Chalco y Mesa Central (Zea mexicana) que se encuentran en las cercanías de Chalco, Amecameca, la ciudad de México y Morelia. Me gustaría que B. Benz comentara al respecto.Estoy de acuerdo con el cuestionamiento de M. Goodman; y en relación a lo expresado por J. Sánchez, he preparado una lista de las plagas comunes para el maíz y las especies de teocintle que he estudiado. En el caso de Zea perennis en el Nevado de Colima y el de Zea diploperennis de Manantlán, tanto Fusarium spp. como Ustilago maydis afectan a los dos teocintles y al maíz cultivado cuando se encuentran juntos, ya sea en campos abandonados o de cultivo.En el caso de los insectos, ciertos Coleópteros (Macrodactylus murinus) infestan tanto a Zea diploperennis como al maíz, aunque el impacto parece ser diferente, mientras que, en el caso de Homópteros y Lepidópteros, aun cuando ambas especies de plantas pueden estar infestadas, tal parece que el daño que tolera el teocintle es menor que el del maíz.La invasión de las zonas urbanas y los cambios en el uso del suelo, definitivamente tienen un efecto negativo sobre las poblaciones de teocintle y de maíces criollos tradicionales. Estos agentes están desplazando a estas poblaciones de la misma manera que los híbridos están empujando la sustitución de maíces tradicionales. En este sentido, se puede predecir que el maíz transgénico tendrá un efecto similar al producido por los híbridos. De la misma forma, tenemos que plantearnos la pregunta de lo que pasaría si los genes presentes en las variedades mejoradas, los híbridos o el maíz transgénico fueran incorporados al teocintle o a los maíces criollos.Me parece importante agregar que si bien para el teocintle de las razas Chalco y Mesa Central (Zea mays ssp. mexicana) la urbanización es una amenaza, con el teocintle tipo Balsas (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis), las actividades de los campesinos han incrementado la conservación de estas poblaciones. En la región del Balsas, el hombre ha abierto espacios a través del sistema roza-tumba-quema, sembrando maíz y estableciendo áreas de pastoreo en forma rotativa o alternada. Estos factores han facilitado el establecimiento de muchas poblaciones de teocintle; es decir, en estas regiones el teocintle ha sobrevivido con la ayuda del hombre.No es fácil pronosticar si el crecimiento poblacional puede causar modificaciones drásticas en los sistemas de aprovechamiento de la tierra en la Cuenca del Balsas y éstas se transformen en áreas de cultivo anuales. Sin embargo, si tomamos en consideración la tasa de crecimiento poblacional de México, la cual aún es alta, es probable que los pronósticos del Dr. Wilkes sean ciertos. Es decir, en 35 ó 40 años muchas poblaciones de teocintle existirán como reliquias en los bancos de germoplasma.Quisiera saber si en todas las regiones de México el teocintle es considerado como una mala hierba, o si hay alguna raza que sea utilizada, por ejemplo, para la alimentación del ganado. ¿Cuál es el uso que se le da al teocintle?asfalto. Aquí, en Chalco, hay mucho tizón foliar (Helminthosporium turcicum) y el teocintle lo tiene; por lo tanto, algo de esto parece ser un apareamiento de las poblaciones.En cuanto a los barrenadores, con el entomólogo del CIMMYT, John Mihm, hemos estado por Tepalcingo y encontramos barrenadores en Tripsacum, en teocintle y en maíz. Por consiguiente, parece que la localidad es importante.Quiero decir una cosa muy importante. Pienso que Jesús Sánchez ha hecho un trabajo maravilloso sobre esto y quiero felicitar a México, porque no creo que haya ningún otro pariente silvestre cercano de un cultivo importante que haya sido estudiado en una escala tan fina en cuanto a su distribución actual. Lo que hice hace 35 años fue burdo y a pesar de esto era bueno ya que esbozaba la distribución; pero ahora hemos llegado a un grado de precisión tan alto que nos permite encontrar una población en menos de una hectárea. Es decir, tenemos algunas poblaciones que parecen grandes porque están representadas en el mapa por un punto, pero la verdad es que las poblaciones son bastante pequeñas.Por otra parte, hay poblaciones que se han trasladado con el estiércol del ganado lechero. Un ejemplo aquí mismo en Texcoco es el antiguo Rancho Santa Isabela, que antes fue una gran finca lechera y ahora está ocupado por una serie de edificios de departamentos. Cuando se trasladó el ganado, los animales llevaron la semilla de teocintle a Cuautla u otros lugares y ahora podemos encontrar estos campos nuevos.Los aztecas también tuvieron dos o tres jardines botánicos, como el de Amatlán. Estuve en Amatlán hace dos días y la población que queda del jardín azteca no es superior a 10 x 40 m en la punta de un cerro. Ningún otro país en el mundo puede decir que conoce los parientes silvestres de un cultivo en esa microescala. Yo creo que ya se ha hecho la mayor parte del trabajo acerca de la distribución del teocintle.Considerando que hace 35 años, cuando se estaban haciendo estas colectas de teocintle, nadie anticipaba la disponibilidad de la ingeniería genética que actualmente se tiene y a que, al menos por las dos presentaciones que hemos escuchado hoy por la mañana, el flujo genético va del maíz al teocintle, quisiera hacer dos preguntas a los expositores. La primera pregunta es, cuál es su posición en relación al riesgo potencial de la transformación de maíz, específicamente a la conservación del teocintle como tal; y la segunda es, si pueden especular sobre los potenciales beneficios de la ingeniería genética aplicada a conservar o a hacer un mejor uso del teocintle.El Dr. Wilkes ha mencionado algunos de esos aspectos en su presentación. De acuerdo con sus pronósticos, si el maíz transgénico tiene un impacto real sobre el teocintle, entonces probablemente en unas cuantas décadas el teocintle no se encontrará en forma pura.Por otra parte, si los pronósticos son ciertos, de ahora al momento de la liberación y comercialización de las variedades transgénicas, se perderían, debido a otros factores, muchas de las poblaciones importantes de teocintle que hasta el momento se conocen. En alguna ocasión el Dr. Goodman comentó que, si las variedades transgénicas contienen caracteres benéficos, entonces el flujo genético hacia las variedades tradicionales y el teocintle sería también muy benéfico ya que éstas adolecen de los mismos problemas. De manera recíproca, la ingeniería genética podría transferir genes deseables del teocintle al maíz.G. Wilkes y J. Sánchez mencionaron la importancia de la conservación in situ. Podría, alguno de ustedes, elaborar una sugerencia para un programa específico con esa información de conservación in situ. Dado que el teocintle es, en términos ecológicos, una especie oportunista, ¿hacia dónde creen que podría ir un programa específico de conservación in situ ?En mi presentación no traté el tema de la conservación in situ ni presenté alguna propuesta; sin embargo, creo que hemos hecho una gran labor de conservación ex situ. Por otra parte, contamos con un programa modesto pero efectivo de monitoreo in situ, con la colaboración del INIFAP, el Colegio de Postgraduados y el CIMMYT. El único programa de conservación in situ es el de Zea diploperennis en la Reserva de la Biosfera de la Sierra de Manantlán.Hace algunos años S. Taba, G. Wilkes y yo nos propusimos monitorear las poblaciones de teocintle en períodos de 5 a 10 años. El objetivo fue analizar si alguna población se encontraba en peligro de desaparición para proceder a recolectar muestras suficientemente grandes y alertar a las instituciones responsables de la conservación de los recursos naturales. Ahora he empezado a dudar de si los períodos de 5 a 10 años son suficientes para detectar la desaparición de algunas poblaciones. Tal vez los períodos de 1 a 2 años serían recomendables en algunos casos.En cuanto a la conservación in situ, me parece que ha habido un gran debate al respecto. En México tenemos varias razas o poblaciones que deberían ser candidatos para conservación; sin embargo, realmente no sé que tan sencillo sería expropiar o establecer programas de conservación in situ en áreas de 100 km 2 , o aún en áreas de 1 km 2 . Creo que la combinación de monitoreo in situ y la recolección ex situ podría ser la alternativa lógica mientras se pudiera disponer de algunas reservas para conservación in situ.Me gustaría relatar un ejemplo. En 1991, G. Wilkes y S. Taba estuvieron en Guatemala para recorrer las principales zonas de distribución del teocintle con personal del ICTA. Se tuvieron dificultades para localizar algunas poblaciones, otras no fueron encontradas; sin embargo, las autoridades guatemaltecas estuvieron interesadas en iniciar un programa de conservación in situ. Hace algunos años, el Gobierno de Guatemala prohibió la recolección y salida del país de especies silvestres. Por otra parte, no se tenía en Guatemala un Banco de Germoplasma para conservación ex situ y la idea de conservación in situ no tuvo éxito. Posteriormente, en 1994, algunos investigadores del ICTA y de la Universidad de San Carlos visitaron varios lugares en donde se sabía que existían poblaciones de teocintle; la situación fue alarmante ya que muchas poblaciones habían desaparecido y no se tenía semilla de reserva en ningún Banco de Germoplasma.Yo no conozco nada del teocintle. En este sentido, me gustaría saber si el estado actual del conocimiento y la información que se tiene del teocintle es suficiente para entender qué sucedería con la introducción del maíz transgénico o si después de que hubiese la introducción, estaríamos en condiciones de evaluar el impacto.Creo que conocemos bastante de la distribución, morfología y citología del teocintle; empero, no hay suficiente información del flujo genético del maíz al teocintle y viceversa. Aunque hemos colectado muchas poblaciones simpátricas de maíz y teocintle en todo el país, no hemos llevado a cabo los estudios de diversidad genética que nos proporcionen los datos necesarios para tener una idea acerca del posible flujo genético entre estas dos subespecies. Todo este material está guardado en el Banco de Germoplasma.Considerando estas limitaciones en cuanto a información, creo que 5 años sería un tiempo suficiente para hacer una evaluación del impacto o para saber qué pasó. Sin embargo, debo enfatizar que el estado de nuestro conocimiento no es completo, aún nos falta mucho por conocer.para bloquear una reacción que, de otro modo, sería compatible. Esas funciones de los genes, como las que gobiernan la autocompatibilidad, parecen superponerse a la relación compatible normal. Es probable que ambos mecanismos contribuyan a impedir la incompatibilidad cruzada en forma colectiva y no intentaremos distinguirlos aquí.La evidencia de la incompatibilidad es de dos tipos: en un cruzamiento dado, tal vez no se forme ninguna semilla a pesar del empleo de polen viable en estigmas en potencia receptivos. La barrera para el cruzamiento es completa. En otros cruzamientos, se puede obtener una formación parcial o completa de semillas, pero la proporción de genotipos de esperma utilizados en la fecundación no es la misma que la que está presente en el polen viable. Algunos granos de polen con ciertos genotipos pueden ser incapaces de funcionar en determinados pistilos, o ser excluidos por la competencia con el polen de otros genotipos. La compatibilidad parcial se detecta en forma operativa por el crecimiento diferencial del tubo polínico y la distorsión de la recuperación de alelos acoplados a los genes de la incompatibilidad. La compatibilidad parcial puede ser simulada en cruzamientos controlados usando mezclas de polen. Se ha observado la incompatibilidad tanto completa como parcial en Zea mays.La incompatibilidad cruzada en un caso dado puede ser vista en una de dos formas. La relación congruente normal entre el polen y el pistilo puede estar alterada porque falta alguna función de uno de esos dos miembros. En este caso la fecundación fracasa a causa de que la reacción es incompleta, es decir a causa de la incongruencia (Hogenboom, 1973). La otra posibilidad es que existan genes que funcionan específicamente para reconocer el origen externo del polen y sirvanJerry Kermicle Laboratorio de Genética Universidad de Wisconsin. maíz dentado. El cruzamiento recíproco tuvo éxito. Como la barrera era unilateral, se podían producir híbridos y progenies de generaciones avanzadas y analizar como carácter heredable la no receptibilidad de la variedad de maíz reventador. La diferencia entre la condición de receptivo y la de no receptivo resultó monogénica y fue mapeado el locus Gametofito-1 (Schwartz, 1950). El alelo del maíz reventador (Ga1-s) es parcialmente dominante ya que los estigmas Ga1-s Ga1-s son en general no receptivos al polen (dentado) ga1, mientras que los estigmas Ga1-s ga1-s son parcialmente receptivos (Nelson, 1952). El sistema Ga1s : ga 1 es formalmente análogo a los genes responsables de las barreras interespecíficas que han sido definidas en varios géneros (por ejemplo, véanse Mutschler y Liedl, 1994, para una revisión reciente de esas barreras en Lycopersicon).La no receptividad de Ga1-s Ga1-s al polen ga es un criterio útil al examinar las variedades para detectar la presencia del alelo Ga1. Así, la mayoría de los maíces reventadores resultaron Ga1 Ga1 (Nelson, 1993). Todos los dentados y cristalinos norteamericanos ensayados eran ga1 ga1, mientras que muchas razas mexicanas y centroamericanas tenían el alelo Ga1.Antes, Mangelsdorf y Jones (1926) habían identificado a ga1 como un sitio en el cromosoma 4 del maíz que mostraba una transmisión preferencial de polen en ciertos cruzamientos. Cuando se autopolinizó el híbrido F 1 entre el maíz reventador arrocillo y una estirpe sugary-1, o se usó al maíz reventador arrocillo como progenitor del polen en retrocruzamientos, se transmitió una región en el cromosoma 4, descendiente de la variedad de maíz reventador (Ga1), con la virtual exclusión de la correspondiente región de la variedad dulce (ga1). A causa del ligamiento entre su1 y ga1, se presentaron granos del fenotipo dulce en alrededor del 16% (en lugar del 25%) de la progenie F 2 . Se observó la segregación 50:50 normal cuando el progenitor dulce fue polinizado con la F 1 . Como se observa distorsión sólo en los estigmas portadores de Ga1, evidentemente el reconocimiento entre el polen y los estigmas es un aspecto de este fenómeno. Se han señalado factores de reconocimiento similares entre el polen y los estigmas en los cromosomas de maíz 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 y 9  (Nelson, 1993). Sin embargo, sólo en el caso de Ga1 el homocigoto Ga Ga impide la formación de semillas cuando ga es la única fuente de polen.En un estudio anterior, Jones (1920) había descrito una prueba general para determinar la presencia de esos factores (gametofíticos) de preferencia del polen. Registró los resultados de mezclar polen de estirpes probadoras, cada una de ellas homocigótica para un carácter recesivo del grano, y aplicar la mezcla a los dos progenitores donadores. El empleo de distintos caracteres recesivos en los dos progenitores permitió determinar las proporciones de semillas autofecundadas y cruzadas. Comparando las proporciones relativas de granos de progenies autofecundadas y cruzadas en los dos casos, Jones pudo inferir si el polen autofecundado o cruzado tenía una ventaja comparativa. Casi siempre, y a veces en un grado considerable, el polen autofecundado tenía una ventaja comparativa. Mientras que los efectos de distorsión de la segregación de los genes vinculados a un factor gametofítico prueban únicamente una sola región cromosómica, el diseño de Jones es global pues permite determinar la existencia de esos factores en todo el genoma.Recientemente hemos usado la formación reducida de semillas conjuntamente con una forma modificada de la técnica de Jones de la mezcla de polen para estudiar la interacción entre los factores Ga. El polen que confiere color a la aleurona, proveniente de una estirpe que no tiene factores Ga conocidos, se mezcla con una estirpe incolora que tiene un determinado alelo Ga, y se coloca la mezcla sobre estirpes incoloras con diversas composiciones Ga. Se presentan los resultados mediante el trazado de dos variables, de la forma que se muestra en la Figura 1. La dispersión con respecto al eje Y refleja la formación reducida de semillas; la dispersión con respecto al eje X refleja la preferencia de polen.La limitada información disponible acerca de los factores gametofíticos en los grupos taxonómicos del teocintle se deriva de los intentos de cruzamientos con Zea mays ssp. mays. Los teocintles diploides en general polinizan con éxito a los maíces dentados estadounidenses. Los cruzamientos en la dirección recíproca son menos controlables y a menudo fracasan. Ting (1963) practicó la polinización de seis colecciones de teocintle mexicano diploide con la variedad de maíz cristalino \"Wilbur\" (ga1 ga1). En las plantas de cuatro de las seis colecciones la formación de semillas fue deficiente o no se produjo. En el proceso de introducir el citoplasma de teocintle en el maíz mediante el retrocruzamiento, polinizamos seis colecciones de la subespecie mexicana y seis colecciones de la subespecie parviglumis con las líneas endogámicas estadounidenses W22 y W23, ambas ga1 ga1. Los cruzamientos en la mayoría de las plantas de las colecciones de parviglumis fueron fructíferos. Cinco de los seis cruzamientos con mexicana produjeron muy poca o ninguna semilla. En dos casos introdujimos la barrera en la línea endogámica W22 mediante la selección repetida para obtener la no receptividad (Kermicle y Allen, 1990).Las dos estirpes que contienen la barrera descienden de miembros de las colecciones de Wilkes (1967) clasificadas como razas Chalco y Mesa Central. En la estirpe retrocruzada la barrera derivada de Chalco fue heredada en forma monogénica. Según los criterios de cruzabilidad con estirpes Ga1-s Ga1-s establecidas, la distorsión de las proporciones de su1 en la F 2 y el alelismo, se comportó como Ga1-s. La barrera extraída de la colección de la raza Mesa Central se comportó en forma diferente. Esta estirpe polinizó con éxito estirpes probadoras Ga1-s y ga1, pero rechazó el polen de ambas. En Ga1, tenía un alelo que le permitió polinizar Ga1-s Ga1-s. Cuando está presente sólo, este alelo Ga1 no causa el rechazo del polen ga1. Un alelo de ese tipo, que tiene el polen pero no el potencial de estigmas de Ga1-s, fue identificado anteriormente en una línea endogámica derivada del maíz reventador arrocillo blanco (Jiménez y Nelson, 1965;Maletskii, 1970;Ashman, 1981). El factor o los factores que confieren la especificidad a la barrera que tiene el teocintle Mesa Central se localizan en un locus que se encuentra a una distancia de cuatro unidades de mapa de sugary1 en el cromosoma 4. Designamos gat a este locus. En conjunción con ga1, la barrera conferida por las plantas Gat gat es débil, y la de las plantas Gat Gat es sólo moderadamente fuerte. No obstante, en combinación con el alelo único de ga1 presente en la raza Mesa Central, la barrera es fuerte, aun en las plantas heterocigotas. El empleo de mezclas de polen revela una relación funcional entre los alelos ga1 y gat. El polen portador de Gat es preferido al que tiene gat en los estigmas Ga1-s ga1; asimismo, el polen Ga1-s es preferido al ga1 en los estigmas que tienen una barrera Gat moderadamente fuerte.Con los auspicios del CIMMYT, Castro Gil (1970) usó mezclas de polen para determinar si el polen de teocintle podía competir con éxito con el maíz cuando se lo aplicaba a los estigmas de maíz. Mezcló polen de teocintles de Chalco y Guerrero con una cantidad igual de polen de numerosas razas de maíz mexicanas y centroamericanas; luego probó la mezcla en plantas de la raza de maíz donadora. Se clasificaron las progenies como maíz o como híbridos de maízteocintle. Aproximadamente en la mitad de las pruebas no se produjeron descendientes híbridos, mientras que en otras hubo un procentaje bajo de híbridos. Sólo 5 de las 57 combinaciones probadas produjeron más de 10% de descendientes híbridos. Para la comparación, se polinizaron las plantas de 14 líneas de maíz sólo con polen de teocintle. En todos los casos se obtuvo una buena formación de semillas. Como no se encontró una barrera absoluta para la hibridación, Castro Gil concluyó que la competencia del polen era responsable de la falta o la cantidad reducida de híbridos resultantes de las mezclas.En comparación con un ambiente natural, las condiciones experimentales para estudiar la compatibilidad son muy artificiales. El polen de una determinada fuente -puro a menos que sea mezclado deliberadamente-se aplica una sola vez a estigmas preparados, con la exclusión de otros agentes polinizantes. No se sabe mucho acerca de la historia natural de las poblaciones in situ para relacionar directamente los datos obtenidos en cruzamientos controlados con las poblaciones. Quizás la evidencia disponible sea más útil para formular las preguntas pertinentes. La primera es si la incompatibilidad desempeña alguna función para aislar el maíz y el teocintle.Los investigadores con experiencia a menudo detectan híbridos de maíz-teocintle en milpas infestadas con teocintle. La mayoría de los informes señalan que esos híbridos no son frecuentes. A menudo son raros en comparación con las expectativas, basadas en cruzamientos aleatorios entre el maíz y el teocintle. Por ejemplo, si el apareamiento al azar sin ninguna selección o migración se produjera en una población que tiene un 90% de plantas de maíz y un 10% de plantas de teocintle, la proporción de híbridos en relación con las plantas de teocintle en la siguiente generación sería de 18:1. No obstante, los híbridos siempre han sido una clase minoritaria. Muchos factores, incluida la intervención humana, contribuyen al aislamiento del maíz y el teocintle. La presencia de barreras para el maíz dentado en los teocintles mexicana, que típicamente crecen en estrecha asociación con el maíz, junto con la ausencia de barreras en los teocintles parviglumis, que por lo general crecen en franjas densas fuera de los campos de maíz, hace presumir que esas barreras cumplen una función en el aislamiento.La incompatibilidad sirve como un mecanismo aislante estable sólo si es bilateral. Los sistemas del maíz reventador (Ga1-s) o del teocintle Mesa Central (Gat), actuando en forma individual, constituyen barreras unilaterales con respecto a ga1 ga1:gat gat. Algún otro factor, como el momento de la floración o la selección humana, podrían contribuir al aislamiento bilateral. También es posible que los factores de la compatibilidad actúen en parejas. Por ejemplo, las estirpes de maíz reventador y de teocintle con barreras son recíprocamente incompatibles. ¿Existen esas parejas en las poblaciones simpátricas? No lo sabemos. En ningún caso se ha informado la compatibilidad mutua de poblaciones simpátricas, ya sea en términos de la formación de semillas cruzadas o conforme al criterio de Jones de la competencia del polen. Si la compatibilidad bilateral es general, presumiblemente parejas diferentes se vuelven fijas en sitios distintos, ya que una población de teocintle portaba Ga1-s pero la otra tenía Gat.Durante mucho tiempo, la gran variación intra e interracial que se observa tanto en el maíz como en el teocintle, se atribuyó al gran intercambio de genes que las poblaciones de estas plantas habrían llevado a cabo mediante el proceso de introgresión. Esta idea ha prevalecido hasta ahora y se mantiene vigente entre algunos investigadores de maíz y teocintle (Mangelsdorf, 1961(Mangelsdorf, , 1974;;Wilkes, 1967Wilkes, , 1970Wilkes, , 1977Wilkes, , 1979Wilkes, , 1986)). Empero, la información generada por el análisis de nudos cromosómicos y cromosomas especiales (Kato 1976(Kato , 1984;;Kato y López, 1990) y el análisis morfológico-ecológico (Doebley, 1984) en maíz y teocintle, ha conducido a dudar de la validez absoluta de la interpretación arriba mencionada sobre las relaciones genéticas entre las poblaciones de estas plantas. Los resultados obtenidos (Doebley, 1984;Kato y López, 1990) implican que el maíz y el teocintle se han mantenido relativamente aislados genéticamente a partir de la domesticación del primero, por lo que se deduce que han tenido la oportunidad de evolucionar en forma independiente. Sin embargo, no se descarta completamente la posibilidad de una baja frecuencia de introgresión ya que en muchas regiones conviven simpátricamente y forman híbridos fértiles.La importancia de aclarar este problema se relaciona tanto con cuestiones académicas como prácticas. Los aspectos académicos apuntan al estudio del origen taxonómico del género Zea, las segundas involucran aspectos de aprovechamiento del teocintle en el mejoramiento genético del maíz. Además, el desarrollo de variedades transgénicas de maíz mediante la ingeniería genética requiere conocer el Revisión del estudio de la introgresión entre maíz y teocintle T. Angel Kato Y. Programa de Genética, IREGEP, Colegio de Postgraduados grado de recurrencia de introgresión entre maíz y teocintle y cuál es la influencia que tendría para ambas especies. De esto dependen las decisiones que puedan tomarse por cuanto a la conveniencia o no, de la introducción y liberación comercial del maíz transgénico, debido al riesgo que involucra la transmisión de transgenes a las poblaciones nativas de maíz y de teocintle.El propósito del presente trabajo es revisar parte de los datos obtenidos del estudio de los nudos cromosómicos ya publicados y algunos otros obtenidos recientemente, con el fin de reanalizar las ideas expresadas en publicaciones anteriores sobre la introgresión entre maíz y teocintle.Comparando la constitución general de nudos cromosómicos del maíz (Zea mays) y la de los teocintles perennes de Jalisco (Z. perennis; Z. diploperennis), del anual mexicano (Z. mays ssp. mexicana) y en los anuales de Guatemala (Z. luxurians) se encontraron las diferencias y similitudes que se anotan enseguida.El análisis de un gran número de plantas y colecciones de maíz provenientes de todo el continente americano ha mostrado que solamente 21 posiciones pueden poseer algún tipo de nudo en frecuencias muy variadas (McClintock et al., 1981). De estas 21 posiciones, 18 son intercalares y 3 terminales (4C 2 , 7C y 9C). El teocintle anual mexicano (Z. mays ssp. mexicana) ha mostrado, además de las 21 posiciones observadas en maíz, 10 intercalares y 3 terminales, haciendo un total de 34 posiciones (Kato, 1976). Por tanto, en este teocintle existen nudos en 13 posiciones de nudo que no se han encontrado en el maíz (Figura 1A). Esta diferencia entre el maíz y el teocintle anual mexicano, muestra claramente que los nudos de estas 13 posiciones no han sido transferidos de este teocintle al maíz mediante el proceso de introgresión.Por otro lado, si se observa la constitución general de nudos de los teocintles perennes de Jalisco y los anuales de Guatemala, se encuentra que todos sus nudos son terminales (Figura 1B); de los cuales 3 posiciones (4C 2 , 7C, y 9C) son compartidos con el maíz y 6 posiciones (3C 2, 4C 2 , 5C 2 , 7C, 8C y 9C) se encuentran tanto en estos teocintles como en los anuales mexicanos (Kato, 1976;Kato y López, 1990;Longley, 1937;McClintock et al., 1981). Así, los teocintles perennes y los anuales de Guatemala poseen 16 posiciones de nudo terminales que no se han observado en el maíz y 13 posiciones de nudo, también terminales, que no han sido encontrados en el teocintle anual mexicano. Esta situación indica que los nudos de 16 posiciones de estos teocintles no han sido transferidos al maíz y que los de 18 posiciones de este último tampoco han pasado a los primeros mediante la introgresión. Parece difícil también que los nudos de 13 posiciones de los teocintles perennes y anuales guatemaltecos hayan sido introducidos a los anuales mexicanos por el proceso de introgresión ya que, hasta donde se sabe, no existen poblaciones simpátricas de estos teocintles.Lo descrito anteriormente se refiere exclusivamente a las posiciones cuyos nudos no evidencian la introgresión del maíz al teocintle y viceversa; pero también existe la posibilidad de que los genes íntimamente ligados a ellos tampoco sean transferidos. Por otro lado, muchos de los cromosomas no poseen nudos en esas posiciones, por lo que la información existente no descarta la posibilidad de que los genes no ligados a esos nudos puedan ser transferidos. Desde luego, esta idea puede aplicarse a todos los genes que se localizan en los segmentos cromosómicos en que no existen nudos. Longley (1937) reporta la única evidencia (en cuanto a nudos se refiere) que existe en la literatura sobre la posibilidad de introgresión; en este trabajo se (A) Maíz y teocintle anual mexicano encuentran en el maíz, pero eran desconocidos en este teocintle. Concluyen que estos resultados son evidencia de que estos alelos fueron transferidos del maíz por introgresión.En la sección anterior se ha mencionado que en el teocintle anual mexicano existen 13 posiciones de nudo que no se han encontrado en el maíz; este hecho muestra que esos nudos no se han transferido por introgresión. Sin embargo, dado que estos dos tipos de plantas poseen en común nudos en 21 posiciones adicionales en frecuencias variadas, el análisis de la introgresión entre estas plantas se hace más difícil y complejo.Es muy ilustrativo, en relación con la introgresión, el análisis comparativo de las frecuencias de los nudos en las posiciones 4C 2 , 5C 1 , y 7C que se han observado en las poblaciones de maíz y teocintle anual mexicano en diferentes regiones de México. En primer lugar, si se considera la región Chalco-Amecameca localizada en el sureste del estado de México, se encuentra que en las poblaciones de teocintle estos nudos se han observado en frecuencias relativamente altas, mientras que en las de maíz analizadas de esa región están ausentes (Figura 2). Esta información condujo a Kato (1976;1984) a concluir que la introgresión entre maíz y teocintle de Chalco-Amecameca no ocurre y no ha ocurrido durante mucho tiempo, a pesar de que en la actualidad es una de las regiones en donde el cruzamiento espontáneo sucede año con año produciendo híbridos fértiles, que según recuentos hechos por Wilkes (1967), se encuentran de 5 a 9% en diferentes campos.Por el contrario, en la región de Oaxaca-Chiapas del sur de México el maíz, especialmente de la raza Zapalote Chico, posee nudos en 4C 2 , 5C 1 y 7C en relativa frecuencia alta similar al del teocintle de comunica haber observado en dos plantas de teocintle de San Antonio Huixta, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, dos nudos intercalares pequeños, uno en el brazo corto del cormosoma 4 (corresponde a la posición 4C 1 ) y otro en el brazo largo del cromosoma 6. Esto indicaría una baja frecuencia de introgresión del maíz a este teocintle guatemalteco. Sin embargo, existe una interpretación alternativa de esta información: no se han encontrado nudos en la posición 4C 1 en el maíz a pesar de la gran cantidad de plantas y colecciones de esta planta examinadas hasta la fecha (McClintock et al., 1981;Kato 1976); solamente se ha encontrado en los teocintles anuales mexicanos. Esto hace pensar que los nudos observados por Longley (1937) posiblemente no han provenido del maíz, sino que son remanentes raros que existieron en los ancestros de este teocintle guatemalteco si se adopta el esquema filogenético propuesto por Kato y López (1990), en el cual concibe que los miembros del género Zea son producto de la diversificación a partir de un ancestro común que poseía tanto nudos terminales como intercalares en condición polimórfica.Una información que frecuentemente se cita en la literatura como evidencia de introgresión del maíz hacia el teocintle de Huehuetenango, Guatemala, son las observaciones de Ting (1958) en plantas F 1 de la cruza entre el teocintle de Huixtla y los maíces sin nudos cromosómicos (Wilbur's Flint y Conn. P 39) en las que encuentra seis nudos intercalares y dos terminales, pero ninguno de los nudos terminales típicos de este teocintle. Esto hace dudar de esta información como evidencia de la introgresión apuntada.En estudios sobre isoenzimas en los teocintles perennes y guatemaltecos, Doebley et al. (1984) encuentran que varias plantas de Z. luxurians mostraron el alelo Glu1-7, que es frecuente en el maíz pero que no se conocía en ninguno de estos teocintles.También encontraron en una planta de Z. diploperennis, dos alelos (Enp1-8 y Pgd1-3.8), que con frecuencia se muy baja frecuencia en el este de Michoacán y suroeste del estado de México; los de la posición 5C 1 , fueron encontrados en frecuencia muy baja en las cuatro sub-regiones; y los de 7C en relativa alta frecuencia en Jalisco, este de Michoacán y suroeste del estado de México y en el norte de Guerrero, pero en frecuencia muy baja en Mazatlán (Guerrero  El hecho de que en el teocintle de Oaxaca se haya encontrado algunos nudos en la posición 7C y una alta frecuencia de ellos en el maíz Zapalote Chico, no necesariamente debe indicar una introgresión de este maíz al teocintle. Se ha visto que en la región del Balsas los nudos en 4C 2 , 5C 1 y 7C también se encuentran en muy baja frecuencia en distintas sub-regiones: 4C 2 en el este de Michoacán-suroeste del estado de México, 5C 1 en las cuatro sub-regiones y 7C en Mazatlán en el centro de Guerrero (Figura 3). Por lo tanto, cualesquiera que sean las causas de la baja frecuencia de estos nudos en los teocintles de estas sub-regiones, podrían ser las mismas que han determinado que en el teocintle de Oaxaca los nudos en 7C se mantengan en baja frecuencia y ausentes los de 4C 2 y 5C 1 .En cuanto a los estudios isoenzimáticos, se ha encontrado que algunos alelos, como Glu1-8 y Enp1-14, muestran evidencia de introgresión en baja frecuencia de teocintle al maíz en la altiplanicie de México. Por otro lado, la constitución isoenzimática del maíz y del teocintle de la cuenca del Balsas ha resultado ser tan similar, que no ha sido de utilidad para analizar aspectos relacionados con la introgresión (Doebley et al., 1984;1987).Analizando con más detalle los datos de nudos cromosómicos en las otras posiciones, es decir, excluyendo los ya descritos en la sección anterior (4C 2 , 5C 1 y 7C), del maíz y del teocintle de la región de Chalco-Amecameca, se encuentra lo siguiente. Como en los casos de los nudos de las posiciones 4C 2 , 5C 1 y 7C descritas en la sección anterior, en el maíz y el teocintle de la cuenca del Balsas se encuentra que las frecuencias de nudos de cada una de las posiciones es muy variada entre diferentes regiones, no habiendo una relación definida entre las frecuencias de las poblaciones de las dos plantas (Cuadro 2). La explicación para esta situación es la misma que la recién dada para el maíz y el teocintle de la región de Chalco-Amecameca.Figura 4. Distribución de frecuencias de nudos en las posiciones 1C 2 y 2L 1 en el teocintle y maíz de la región de Chalco-Amecameca. Por otro lado, en la Figura 3 se observa que los nudos en la posición 7C, tanto en el maíz como en el teocintle de Mazatlán, Guerrero, se encuentran en bajas frecuencias, indicando que es improbable que sea el resultado de la introgresión del teocintle al maíz o viceversa, sino más bien que se ha llegado a esta situación por selección natural en el teocintle y natural y artificial en el maíz, como respuesta a los valores adaptativos que muestran estos nudos y las condiciones genéticas de las poblaciones y ecológicas del lugar.En los Cuadros 1 y 2 se observa que en el teocintle existen nudos en la posición 10L 1 y en el maíz no. En todos los teocintles anuales de México se encuentra que las frecuencias promedio de estos nudos es de 11.9% con una variación desde su ausencia en los de Nabogame, Chihuahua, y hasta frecuencias de 12.9% en Jalisco y Oaxaca de 54.2% en Durango. Por otro lado, estos nudos se han encontrado solamente en los maíces de Oaxaca, Chiapas y Guatemala en frecuencias de 3.5, 3.7 y 3.6%, respectivamente y en frecuencias más bajas en otros países centroamericanos (Kato 1976;McClintock et al., 1981). A partir de la información anterior, se puede concluir que no hay una relación por introgresión entre el maíz y el teocintle, y por otra parte que la variación en frecuencias de estos nudos en las poblaciones de diferentes regiones, principalmente en el caso del teocintle, es debida a la acción diferencial de la selección sobre los nudos con diferente valor adaptativo.Un nuevo análisis, de una parte de los datos de nudos cromosómicos de Kato (1976) Como ya ha sido mencionado anteriormente, también existen datos de isoenzimas que muestran evidencias de que la introgresión ha ocurrido del maíz a Z. luxurians y a Z. diploperennis y del teocintle anual de la altiplanicie de México (Z. mays ssp. mexicana) al maíz (Doebley, 1990;Doebley et al., 1984;1987). Sin embargo, Doebley (1990) menciona \"...hay problemas para documentar la ocurrencia de la introgresión.Siempre que las poblaciones simpátricas de los cultivos y sus parientes silvestres muestran un carácter similar, habrá varias explicaciones posibles:(1) retención de un carácter ancestral, (2) evolución convergente o paralela, y (3) introgresión\". Una aseveración semejante ha sido expresada por Smith y Goodman (1981): \"Los intentos para estimar niveles de transferencia de genes y el grado de erosión genética tendrán limitaciones, sin importar el carácter usado, ya que es imposible demarcar claramente las contribuciones por atavismo, selección y flujo de genes\". Por tanto, la información de nudos, así como la de isoenzimas que muestran introgresión, es solamente una posibilidad de entre varias interpretaciones que pueden darse a las diferencias en sus frecuencias encontradas entre poblaciones de maíz y teocintle. Esto hace que las evidencias de introgresión entre estas plantas tengan un carácter circunstancial y validez no significativa.En cuanto a características morfológicas como la coloración y pubescencia de las vainas foliares, el tamaño de grano (segmento de raquis que contiene el cariópside en el caso del teocintle), etc., que se han considerado para mostrar evidencias de introgresión entre maíz y teocintle, Doebley (1984) ha demostrado que esa información no necesariamente indica introgresión, sino que también puede explicarse en términos de evolución convergente o paralela, con base en principios ecológicos.Hace aproximadamente 20 años, Kato (1976) propuso la idea de que los nudos pueden mostrar valores adaptativos distintos con base en las diferencias en la distribución regional de frecuencias, tanto en el maíz como en el teocintle. En el presente trabajo se han descrito varios casos que han conducido al mismo resultado mencionado. ¿Cómo es que los nudos pueden conferir valores adaptativos diferentes? Una posible explicación sería la siguiente (Kato 1976): se sabe que en la heterocromatina, constituyente de los nudos, no ocurre la recombinación entre homólogos, además de que como es material adicional en los cromosomas, el apareamiento en esos segmentos puede ser irregular, lo que ocasionaría una reducción o eliminación de recombinación en los segmentos adyacentes a los nudos, por lo que los genes localizados en estos segmentos tenderían a formar supergenes (grupo de genes coadaptados que se heredan como una unidad). Esto sería una situación similar a lo que ocurre con las inversiones en Drosophila (Dobzhansky, 1970). Las distintas combinaciones alélicas de los genes en estos supergenes son las que harían que los nudos confirieran valores adaptativos diferentes. Si esto es correcto, entonces por selección en las diferentes poblaciones en distintos ambientes se puede mantener diversas combinaciones de nudos en frecuencias variadas. Esto también podría hacer posible que un nudo dado en una posición específica en poblaciones simpátricas de una región mostrara introgresión de una población a otra, y en otras regiones no haya evidencia de introgresión, como ya se ha mencionado anteriormente.Todo lo arriba descrito y discutido muestra que existe posibilidad de que entre maíz y teocintle y viceversa ocurra la introgresión con baja frecuencia. Sin embargo, debido a que las evidencias obtenidas aún son circunstanciales, la ocurrencia de este fenómeno no está demostrada, por lo cual persiste la necesidad de estudios futuros cuyos resultados, sin lugar a dudas, conduzcan a conclusiones definitivas. Se sugiere llevar a cabo estudios de dos tipos generales: 1) experimentales, en que se utilicen materiales conocidos en cuanto a marcadores citológicos, morfológicos y moleculares, especialmente de los lugares en que el maíz y el teocintle conviven, haciendo cruzamientos entre ellos, retrocruzamientos y diversas selecciones en forma controlada; 2) estudios etnobotánicos para conocer mejor la relación hombremaíz-teocintle; y 3) una combinación de 1) y 2).Por otro lado, considerando la situación ambigua sobre las relaciones maíz-teocintle, no es posible saber con certeza si al introducir y liberar variedades transgénicas de maíz en los lugares donde exista el teocintle, los transgenes puedan ser sujetos de introgresión y en qué grado puede ocurrir la transferencia. Además, con la información existente no es posible visualizar y mucho menos predecir qué efectos, favorables o desfavorables puede causar la transferencia de estos genes. Por el momento y, hasta saber con mayor certeza sobre la introgresión maízteocintle, debería considerarse que existe la posibilidad de transferencia, y, también, existe un riesgo potencial que necesita ser determinado.El autor agradece al Dr. Alfredo Carballo Q. el haber revisado el manuscrito del presente trabajo. El trabajo se realizó en la Reserva de la Biósfera Sierra de Manantlán (RBSM) situada en el occidente de México entre los estados de Colima y Jalisco (Figura 1). El interés de la RBSM por la conservación in situ de losLos resultados del presente trabajo intentan aportar elementos a la discusión del riesgo de la introducción de variedades transgénicas sobre la estructura genética de poblaciones de teocintle y variedades criollas de maíz en México. El estudio presentado es parte de un trabajo de investigación más amplio realizado en México (Louette, 1994), cuyo objetivo es aportar elementos al debate sobre la conservación in situ de variedades locales de plantas cultivadas. El presente trabajo de investigación intenta especificar los mecanismos responsables de la estructura y dinámica de la diversidad en un agrosistema tradicional, caracterizando la diversidad de las variedades de maíz cultivadas así como las prácticas tradicionales de manejo de estas variedades y su efecto sobre la estructura genética de éstas.Una variedad transgénica tendrá un efecto sobre la estructura genética del material criollo en la medida en que la variedad transgénica llegue a ser sembrada en áreas próximas al material criollo y si existen condiciones favorables para el flujo genético entre estos materiales. Nuestros datos permiten especificar, por una parte, la medida en que un sistema agrícola tradicional sigue un modelo estricto de conservación endógena de su material genético; es decir, en qué medida está abierto a la siembra de variedades foráneas. Con estos datos se estima la Figura 1. Localización de la Reserva de la Biósfera Sierra de Manantlán (RBSM) y de la subcuenca de Cuzalapa.Zona de protección estricta Zona de amortiguamiento Limites de la subcuenca de CuzalapaVariedades cultivadas e intercambio de semillaEn este trabajo se consideró el concepto campesino de variedad. Se definió como variedad al conjunto de lotes de semilla que llevan el mismo nombre y considerados por los agricultores como parte de una misma unidad. Así, un lote de semilla es el conjunto de granos de maíz de un mismo tipo seleccionados por un agricultor para ser sembrados durante un ciclo de cultivo y la progenie directa de estas semillas.Para detallar este concepto tratamos de definir en qué medida existía una relación entre el nombre dado a un lote de semilla y sus características morfológicas. Para varios lotes de semilla de las cinco variedades principales sembradas en la zona se midieron en una parcela experimental algunos descriptores de la planta, de la espiga y de la mazorca (Cuadro 1) en 60 plantas y 45 mazorcas por lote de semilla. Los datos de 21 plantas por lote fueron integrados en un análisis factorial discriminante (AFD) que permite diferenciar los lotes de semilla en función de los descriptores con menor coeficiente de varianza [varianza intra lote/ varianza entre lotes]. Las coordenadas de cada lote de semilla, sobre los 5 primeros ejes del AFD, fueron integrados en una clasificación jerárquica ascendente. Las coordenadas de un lote corresponden a las coordenadas del centro de gravedad del grupo de 21 plantas que conforman cada lote. La clasificación se realizó mediante el cálculo del promedio de las distancias euclidianas ponderadas entre lotes de semillas (Figura 2). En esta clasificación los lotes de semilla del mismo nombre conforman grupos bien definidos, a excepción del lote B1 de la variedad Blanco (Figura 2). Los lotes de semilla de las variedades Amarillo Ancho de granos amarillos y Negro de granos púrpura que aparecen en el mismo grupo se hubieran diferenciado en dos grupos si hubiéramos tomado en cuenta el color del grano en la clasificación.recursos genéticos del género Zea (Benz y Jardel, 1990) se explica por su localización sobre la costa del Pacífico de México, región probable de origen del maíz (Benz e Iltis, 1992); por la presencia de varias especies de teocintle como Zea mays spp parviglumis (Iltis, Doebley) y Zea diploperennis (Iltis, Doebley, Guzmán) (Guzmán, 1985); por el carácter primitivo de las razas de maíz sembradas (Benz, 1988;Benz, en prensa;Wellhausen et al., 1952); y las situaciones de simpatría que existen entre los teocintles y las variedades de maíz (Benz et al., 1990), así como por la aptitud de la reserva en cuanto a la conservación de recursos genéticos.El trabajo se realizó específicamente en la comunidad indígena de Cuzalapa situada al sur de la RBSM (Figura 1). La comunidad posee alrededor de 24,000 ha de terreno de topografía irregular, aislado de los grandes centros urbanos. La zona agrícola se sitúa a una altitud de 600 m y presenta un clima caliente y subhúmedo (temperatura media anual superior a los 22°C y precipitación anual de 1500 mm concentrada de junio a octubre). El maíz es el cultivo dominante, como lo es en toda la Reserva. Hay dos ciclos de cultivo por año. Se pueden sembrar 1000 ha, 600 de ellas en zona de riego. Las técnicas de cultivo se basan en la tracción animal con poca utilización de insumos químicos, a excepción de fertilizante nitrogenado. El rendimiento promedio de maíz es superior a 2 ton/ha y se destina sobre todo al consumo familiar, con venta o intercambio de los excedentes.Esta comunidad es tradicional según los criterios de Toledo (1990): dominación del valor de uso sobre el valor de mercado, mano de obra esencialmente familiar y poca utilización de insumos externos, producción destinada a la reproducción del sistema más que a la ganancia, subsistencia basada en una combinación de prácticas (agricultura, ganadería, pesca y trabajo asalariado). Esta comunidad puede ser considerada como representativa de zonas rurales de México poco integradas todavía a la economía de mercado, pudiendo por tanto servir de indicador.Así que una variedad de maíz según el concepto campesino, descrita como el conjunto de lotes de semilla del mismo nombre, corresponde a una unidad fenotípica bien definida. Son las características morfológicas de un lote de semilla las que determinan la variedad a la cual pertenece. Fenología : FM: Floración masculina (ciclo de riego de 1991) Descriptores de plantas : APL: Altura de la planta; AMA: Altura de la mazorca; AHO: Ancho de la hoja; NHO: Número de hojas arriba de la mazorca superior Descriptores de la espiga : RM: Número de ramificaciones de la espiga (primarias, secundarias y terciarias) Descriptores de la mazorca : PMA: Peso de la mazorca a 15% de humedad; DMA: Diámetro de la mazorca; POL: Peso del olote; DOL: Diámetro del olote; HIL: Número de hileras; ANG: Anchura del grano; ESG: Espesor del grano; P1G: Peso de un grano a 15% de humedad.Variedades Amarillo y Negro (+ lote B1)Figura 2. Variabilidad morfológica intravariedad: clasificación jerárquica ascendente de lotes de semilla de 5 variedades en función de sus características fenotípicas. Guino (USA) -Cosmeño -Tampiqueño -Tosqueño 2) Híbrido -Híbrido (mejorado) -Enano Gigante 3) HT47Variedades foraneas 1) Variedades criollas de otras regiones 2) Generaciones avanzadas de variedades mejoradas 3) 1a y 2a generación del híbrido HT47 avanzadas de variedades mejoradas de polinización libre y una proviene del híbrido HT47. El grupo de las variedades campesinas introducidas es muy diverso. Identificamos variedades de granos blancos, amarillos (Amarillo de Tequesquitlán, Amarillo) o púrpuras [Negro (externo)], variedades introducidas de comunidades próximas a Cuzalapa como una variedad introducida de Estados Unidos [Guino (USA)], variedades de la raza Tabloncillo y de otras razas como variedades de la raza Rosquero (Guino gordo, Guino rosquero, Negro gordo) introducidas de una comunidad de la reserva donde se desarrolla el teocintle perenne (Zea diploperennis).En una área importante se cultiva un grupo de variedades cuya presencia en la zona es muy antigua, así como un conjunto de variedades foráneas cuya permanencia en la zona es variable (de un ciclo a varios años). El conjunto de variedades sembradas en la zona puede cambiar en cada ciclo de cultivo.La introducción de variedades foráneas es el fruto del intercambio entre agricultores o de la compra de semilla. Analizamos más en detalle el intercambio de semilla, considerando en la encuesta con 39 agricultores durante seis ciclos de cultivo el origen de cada lote de semilla sembrado. Clasificamos los 484 lotes de semilla reportados en la encuesta en tres categorías: 1) semilla propia (lote seleccionado a partir de la cosecha anterior del agricultor); 2) semilla adquirida con otro agricultor de la cuenca y 3) semilla introducida de otras regiones.Sólo el 52.9% de los lotes de semilla reportados en la encuesta fueron seleccionados a partir de la cosecha anterior del agricultor (ocuparon 44.9% del área sembrada por los 39 agricultores); mientras que el 35.7% fueron obtenidos con otros agricultores de la cuenca (39.9% del área) y el 11.4% fue adquirido en otras regiones (15.1% del área) (Figura 3).Intercambio de semillas entre agricultores y flujo genético entre variedades de maíz en sistemas agrícolas tradicionalesExisten diferencias en función del tipo de variedad. La introducción de lotes de semilla fue menos importante para las principales variedades cultivadas (7.9% para las variedades locales y 5.3% para las tres principales variedades foráneas) que para las variedades foráneas menores (36.4%) (Figura 3). Las primeras son ampliamente adoptadas por los agricultores y la disponibilidad de semilla en la subcuenca es importante, en tanto que las segundas son introducidas para ser probadas. Por otro lado, observamos que las tres variedades foráneas más importantes y con presencia continua más antigua en la cuenca presentan una difusión interna importante en la comunidad. Estas variedades probaron que pueden producir bien en las condiciones de la zona y son intercambiadas entre agricultores, mientras que tal fenómeno es mucho menor para las variedades foráneas menores.Estos datos confirman que la cantidad de material genético introducido de otras regiones es importante. Figura 3. Intercambio de semilla: procedencia de los lotes de semilla según el tipo de variedad.Determinamos, con base en la encuesta y en este monitoreo, que los agricultores no buscan la separación en el espacio entre diferentes variedades ni entre lotes de semilla producidos localmente e introducidos; los agricultores siembran en promedio 2.5 variedades por ciclo de cultivo (1 a 7), todas en la misma parcela, independientemente de las variedades que se siembran en parcelas contiguas y en particular independientemente del origen de los lotes de semilla.Considerando, de acuerdo a los trabajos de Basseti y Westgate (1993), que existe riesgo real de flujo genético entre dos variedades cuando hay menos de cinco días de diferencia entre la floración masculina de una variedad y la floración femenina de la otra, determinamos sobre el conjunto de siete parcelas, en el promedio de los tres ciclos de cultivo, la posibilidad de flujo genético en 38% de los casos. En 24% de los casos las fechas diferentes de siembra, según el productor, llevaron a la coincidencia de la floración de variedades de ciclo largo y de ciclo corto. Sin embargo, tal coincidencia de las floraciones fue más probable entre variedades cuya duración de ciclo es equivalente (en 65% de los casos entre variedades de ciclo largo y en 47% de los casos entre variedades de Nos indican también que el intercambio de semilla entre productores dentro de la cuenca es muy intenso. La indisponibilidad momentánea de semilla en la comunidad, el calendario agrícola y la curiosidad de los agricultores son los principales factores que explican los intercambios de semilla tanto en la cuenca como fuera de ella.La introducción de una variedad foránea tendrá un efecto sobre la estructura genética de las variedades locales en la medida en que existan condiciones favorables a los flujos genéticos entre variedades.Para determinar en qué medida el manejo tradicional lleva a estas condiciones favorables, estudiamos durante tres ciclos de cultivo la localización en el espacio y la fecha de floración de los lotes de semilla cultivados sobre un conjunto de siete parcelas situadas a menos de 200 metros unas de otras (distancia mínima utilizada para aislar parcelas de maíz según Hainzelin, 1988), cubriendo una área de alrededor de 10 ha (Figura 4). Utilizando el efecto de xenia del color de los granos y la dominancia del color púrpura, confirmamos la existencia de estos flujos monitoreando durante la cosecha, en seis parcelas campesinas, el porcentaje de granos negros en variedades de granos blancos o amarillos sembradas en áreas contiguas a la variedad Intercambio de semillas entre agricultores y flujo genético entre variedades de maíz en sistemas agrícolas tradicionales Figura 5. Flujo genético probable entre variedades de maíz sembradas en un area de 10 hectáreas durante el ciclo de riego de 1991.El espesor de la flecha es la función de la distancia (a menor distancia mayor la probabilidad de contaminación)Negro de granos púrpura (Figura 6). Observamos que, como lo señalan los agricultores y la literatura (Paterniani y Stort 1974), la contaminación de una variedad por un tipo de maíz sembrado sobre una área contigua, disminuye rápidamente pasados los primeros 3 ó 4 surcos de contacto entre las variedades y se estabiliza sobre una gran distancia, lo cual explica por qué los agricultores piensan que la contaminación entre variedades ocurre a través de las raíces.En los lotes de maíz negro, no siendo homocigóticos para el color de grano, el flujo genético real es superior al medido. Sin embargo, la evolución del nivel de contaminación en función de la distancia a la variedad contaminante está de acuerdo con la evolución de la concentración de polen en el aire reportada en la literatura (Raynor et al., 1972).Concluimos entonces que los agricultores no buscan el aislamiento en el espacio entre variedades diferentes ni entre lotes de semilla reproducidos localmente y foráneos y que las diferencias de floración entre los lotes de semilla no son suficientes para permitir un aislamiento reproductivo, específicamente por la ausencia de aislamiento en el espacio. Este tipo de manejo conduce, por tanto, a condiciones favorables para los flujos genéticos entre todo tipo de variedad de cualquier procedencia.El grado del flujo puede parecer limitado (1 a 2% en promedio entre dos parcelas). Sin embargo, estos flujos son generalizados en todas las parcelas y ocurren en cada ciclo de cultivo, y tienen, por tanto, probablemente una influencia importante sobre la estructura genética de las variedades. La estructura genética de un lote de semilla no es estable y está muy influenciada por las otras variedades, entre las cuales figuran las variedades foráneas.Estos flujos genéticos podrían explicar el continuo morfológico y genético que observamos entre las cuatro principales variedades locales y la diversidad de las variedades sembradas a partir de muestras reducidas de granos.Existe un continuo morfológico y genético entre las cuatro principales variedades locales. El continuo se observa desde la variedad Blanco de ciclo corto hasta la variedad Chianquiahuitl de ciclo largo, pasando por las variedades Amarillo Ancho y Negro de ciclo intermedio. Este continuo está muy ligado a la duración del ciclo de las variedades.Este continuo se presenta tanto para características de la planta como para características de la espiga y del grano (Cuadro 3). Se observa también a nivel genético para cuatro de los 10 loci isoenzimáticos polimórficos estudiados con una modificación gradativa de las frecuencias genéticas de los diferentes alelos (Figura 7). variedades de duración de ciclo comparable a lo largo del continuo como lo vimos anteriormente.El flujo genético implica que los componentes de la diversidad presente en la zona se modifica en función del material genético introducido.Los flujos genéticos entre variedades podrían explicar la diversidad intralote de semilla observada en las diferentes variedades sembradas en la zona.Según trabajos de Crossa (1989)  En la cuenca, en promedio, 32% de los lotes de semilla son constituidos a partir del desgrane de menos de 40 mazorcas y, por consiguiente, están teóricamente sometidos a una fluctuación de su diversidad con pérdida de alelos raros. Este fenómeno fue identificado igualmente por Ollitrault (1987) para el mijo, el sorgo y el arroz en países de Africa Occidental. En Cuzalapa el fenómeno es sobre todo importante para las variedades de granos de color (54.7%) como la variedad Negro, sembradas en áreas pequeñas por su uso particular, aunque el fenómeno no sea despreciable para las principales variedades de granos blancos (16.4%) (Figura 8).En condiciones de aislamiento reproductivo esta situación debería llevar a una fuerte pérdida de diversidad genética en los lotes de semilla de las variedades de color. Sin embargo, aunque 70% de los lotes de semilla de la variedad Negro son constituidos a partir de menos de 40 mazorcas, la diversidad genética de esta variedad es comparable a la diversidad de las variedades sembradas a partir de un número mayor de mazorcas como la variedad Blanco (Cuadro 4). Los flujos genéticos constantes entre lotes de semilla sembrados en áreas contiguas permitirían por tanto el restablecimiento del polimorfismo intrapoblación. En este caso las variedades introducidas desempeñan el papel de \"sangre nueva\" para los tipos locales. En este sistema de manejo, la existencia de flujo genético entre variedades es importante, entonces, para la productividad de estas variedades.Los intercambios de semilla son intensos dentro de la comunidad y desde fuera de ésta. Así, al modificarse en cada ciclo la composición del grupo de las variedades foráneas, varía en el tiempo la composición del grupo de las variedades sembradas en la zona. Dennis (1987) observó igualmente un fuerte renuevo de la semilla de arroz en varias comunidades de Tailandia. Los agricultores son profundamente curiosos y abiertos a la prueba de otras variedades. El sistema tradicional descrito aparece como un sistema abierto a la introducción de nuevo material genético. El número importante de variedades introducidas indica una fuerte curiosidad por parte de los agricultores. No es una situación específica para esta zona pero sí un componente importante en el manejo tradicional de la diversidad. Para convencerse de esto basta observar hasta qué punto la agricultura mundial es el fruto de una evolución antigua y constante que incluye la difusión de plantas a partir de su centro de origen, la adopción y el abandono de variedades o de especies cultivadas, la diferenciación de razas y variedades y la adaptación de variedades a diferentes agrosistemas o técnicas de cultivo (Harlan 1975;Haudricourt y Hedin, 1987).Una variedad, en su definición campesina, es un sistema genético abierto, el cual es significativamente contrastante del concepto de variedad estable, distinta y uniforme, que se maneja tanto en el fitomejoramiento como en la conservación de recursos genéticos. Su composición varía en el tiempo tanto en los lotes de semilla que la componen como en cuanto a su estructura genética. Cada lote está sujeto a una fluctuación de su diversidad y es sometido a constantes flujos genéticos procedentes de otras parcelas. Una variedad introducida puede, por tanto, tener un efecto sobre la diversidad genética del material local y sobre todo si es cultivada durante varios ciclos en la zona.El ensayo de variedades transgénicas puede en consecuencia realizarse con medidas adecuadas de aislamiento. Sin embargo, si la semilla es sustraída de estos experimentos o si ocurre alguna contaminación accidental y si el gene introducido es favorable y fácilmente seleccionado por los agricultores, el gene puede tener difusión local mediante los flujos genéticos entre variedades y puede también difundirse sobre grandes distancias por medio del intercambio de semilla entre agricultores y llegar a zonas aparentemente aisladas.Fernando Castillo González y Major M. Goodman Colegio de Postgraduados, Universidad Estatal de Carolina del Norte ocurrencia de xenia al usar caracteres como el color y tipo de endospermo del grano de maíz, ellos muestran que el flujo genético entre diferentes tipos de maíz con floración simultánea es considerablemente alto entre los extremos adyacentes de lotes colindantes en ambos casos. Sin embargo, como se ilustra en la imagen topológica del flujo de genes en una parcela experimental de la Figura 1 (Ortiz Torres, 1993), prácticamente no hay flujo genético efectivo hacia el centro de la parcela (alrededor de 15 metros de la fuente de polen).En relación al estudio del movimiento de maíces nativos, mejorados e importados entre agricultores,El flujo de genes entre poblaciones de maíz criollo no ha sido estudiado a plenitud; sin embargo, el trabajo de D. Louette (véase el capítulo anterior de la presente Memoria) y varios estudios previos muestran una tendencia del grado en que puede ocurrir el flujo de genes entre las variedades nativas de maíz, en base a la cuantificación de ocurrencia de xenia y de la comparación de la diversidad en colecciones realizadas en épocas diferentes. Los estudios de flujo de genes entre las poblaciones de maíz indígena y las poblaciones de teocintle adyacentes a los campos de cultivo son escasos. Al respecto, se han hecho algunas comparaciones de poblaciones de maíz y de teocintle en base a las frecuencias de nudos cromosómicos y análisis isoenzimáticos; sin embargo, las investigaciones no son definitivas porque los tamaños de muestra han sido muy reducidos y la ubicación de las poblaciones en el campo no se ha especificado. El análisis se ha basado en la presencia de \"alelos\" compartidos con diferencias en las frecuencias relativas (consúltese la presentación de A. Kato en esta publicación).En la actualidad es posible realizar estudios más precisos del flujo de genes utilizando diferentes marcadores moleculares; empero, se ha generado información que puede ayudar a entender el flujo de genes entre maíz \"mejorado\" y maíz criollo. En los Cuadros 1 y 2 se presentan de manera concentrada los resultados de los estudios de Ortiz Torres (1993) y Murillo Navarrete (1978). Mediante la frecuencia en la Por otro lado, se ha comparado el rendimiento de accesiones antiguas que se conservan en bancos de germoplasma con el de accesiones colectadas en fechas más recientes (Cuadros 3 y 4). Los Cuadros 3 y 4 sugieren, aunque no necesariamente prueban, que las colecciones más recientes pueden tener antecedentes históricos de introgresión con los materiales mejorados.El Cuadro 3 resume el estudio de Vega (1973) en el cual se compararon los rendimientos de accesiones colectadas durante la década de 1940 a 1950 en los estados de Puebla, México y Tlaxcala con muestras colectadas en 1971 en la misma región. En este caso, entonces la pregunta: ¿por qué las colecciones más recientes tienen mejor rendimiento que las originales? Para contestar a esta pregunta se sugieren las siguientes posibilidades:1. La selección continua que los agricultores practican sobre sus poblaciones de maíz, mientras que las colecciones antiguas permanecen estáticas en los bancos de germoplasma. 2. La selección natural ha modificado de manera favorable los materiales colectados en épocas más recientes. 3. La introgresión de variedades mejoradas e híbridos en las colecciones más recientes. 4. La depresión endogámica debido a regeneración frecuente de colecciones en los bancos de germoplasma.Si se considera un plazo corto, la probabilidad de intercambio genético entre maíz y teocintle es menor que el intercambio entre el maíz mejorado y el maíz criollo. Sin embargo, a largo plazo, la probabilidad de intercambio genético entre maíz y teocintle aumenta. Si el maíz transgénico tiene éxito en Texas o California, es altamente probable que la semilla sea trasladada, legal o ilegalmente, a otros lugares entre los que se incluye a México. En este sentido, si en Estados Unidos se desregula el maíz transgénico, lo más probable es que éste llegue a México en un tiempo muy corto. Aun cuando parte de ese maíz transgénico no se adaptara bien a México, es casi seguro que habrá polinización cruzada con el tiempo.Una pregunta clave reside en saber si el efecto de tal intercambio de genes es importante. Es predecible que este tipo de intercambio genético, que en base a la información disponible es altamente probable, del maíz mejorado al maíz nativo o al teocintle será de consecuencias menores. Sin embargo, y aun cuando las colecciones antiguas y las recientes no provienen de exactamente el mismo lugar pero sí pertenecen a la misma área geográfica. En promedio, hubo un aumento de 0.7 ton/ha en el rendimiento de las colecciones más recientes (Vega, 1973).En este tipo de apreciación es compartida en términos generales (Miller, 1995;Berg y Singer, 1995), tendrá que demostrarse si esto es correcto.Por otra parte, hay problemas cuya solución es urgente para los agricultores. Por ejemplo, cualquier productor de maíz en México estaría a favor de alguna planta transgénica que tuviera el potencial de conferir resistencia al daño producido por los insectos que infestan el grano almacenado; sin embargo, no hay en la actualidad ningún desarrollo de maíz transgénico que se enfoque a tan serio problema. Si ese tipo de resistencia se encontrara disponible, ¿habría algún político, elegido por los agricultores, o algún científico agrícola que realmente se inclinara a restringir su uso?La generación de maíz transgénico con resistencia a herbicidas, a virus e incluso a los insectos, tendría que ser sobresaliente para que los agricultores procuraran superar las desventajas que la selección natural impondría a las plantas portadoras de transgenes y que probablemente serían inherentes a éstos.La introgresión a teocintle del material transgénico de maíz que en la actualidad está disponible, es aún menos probable. En realidad, el principal enemigo del teocintle es la densidad poblacional humana y sus actividades correspondientes (consúltese el artículo de G. Wilkes en la presente Memoria). Parece ser remoto que los materiales transgénicos actuales pudieran conferir alguna ventaja al teocintle, en relación a los probables efectos adversos de los materiales transgénicos frente a la acción de la selección natural.Los modelos genéticos básicos que describen estas situaciones son muy simples, si bien hay modelos mucho más complejos que podrían utilizarse en el caso de que se quisieran analizar los efectos, ya sea del maíz transgénico o de la selección natural. En general, los resultados son bastante predecibles si se adoptan suposiciones razonables (Cuadro 5). Estos procedimientos fueron desarrollados en su mayor parte por S. Wright y J.B.S. Haldane en los años 1930's, y se pueden encontrar ejemplos y referencias en los libros de Genética Cuantitativa.Cuadro 5. Modelo genético y económico para la difusión de nuevas construcciones genéticas. A es la nueva construcción genética, con la desventaja genética s (debido a los efectos de la selección natural) y la ventaja económica c.De acuerdo con lo establecido en el modelo genético y económico del Cuadro 5, una población de maíz nativo alcanzaría el equilibrio cuando se fijara cualquiera de los alelos AA o --, dependiendo del tamaño relativo de s y c. En las poblaciones nativas, c es apta para ser pequeña, con respecto a s, por lo que es probable una reversión a --. En las poblaciones silvestres como el teocintle se podría inferir que esto último tiene mayores probabilidades de ocurrencia.Pienso que lo que M. Goodman dice es muy revelador: si c es relativamente pequeño, c tiene que ser pequeño en comparación con s; entonces, no vamos a lograr una adopción de estas plantas transgénicas. Sin embargo, los campesinos pobres de México son quienes correrían el menor riesgo si sembraran algo cuyas ventajas fueran considerablemente superiores a lo que existiera en un momento determinado. Por consiguiente, la probabilidad de aceptar algo que puede producir mucho, aumenta la probabilidad de la adopción. Vean, por ejemplo, el cultivo de la mariguana.No tengo ninguna duda de que los agricultores mexicanos, de cualquier tipo, y aun en zonas distantes, van a sembrar cultivos transgénicos y pienso que van a hacerlo sea legal o no. Probablemente sucede lo mismo en todo el mundo; de los trabajadores migratorios mexicanos a los estudiantes de doctorado pasando por los misioneros en el Congo, toda esta gente piensa que hace algo bueno al transportar este material. Y esto no tiene nada que ver con las normas fitosanitarias o con alguna de las cosas que nos gusta pensar que nos protegen precisamente contra este tipo de actividades.De algún modo, cualquiera que sea el resultado, hay que afrontar el problema y hay que hacerlo en todo el mundo. Estas cosas nunca se van a limitar a un solo país, por más que a las empresas les gustaría limitarlas.Me gustaría hacer una pregunta doble acerca de los mutantes y su función. En primer lugar, hay una creciente literatura sobre genética ecológica donde se demuestra que las mutaciones nuevas no son necesariamente desventajosas. En segundo, ¿no tratarán las industrias de reducir los efectos desventajosos de los transgenes? Porque si las plantas son débiles, como Ud. dice, esto no ayudará a la industria.No tengo dudas de que la industria hará todo lo que pueda por disminuir cualquier desventaja que puedan tener las plantas transgénicas. No obstante, tengan en cuenta que lo harán en su material, el cual tal vez no tenga una buena transferencia ¿Hasta qué punto tendrán éxito? Creo que ni siquiera ellos lo saben en este momento. Porque esto todavía es muy experimental; probablemente no hay más de tres a seis híbridos que están realmente listos para ser comercializados el año próximo en los Estados Unidos. Aparentemente Ciba-Geigy tiene varios, Mycogen puede tener uno o dos. Hay mucha publicidad, pero no se va a disponer de mucha semilla. Se venderá en lotes de 1 a 3 (un lote de maíz transgénico por tres lotes de maíz normal) y en cantidades no apropiadas para el uso de los pequeños agricultores en los Estados Unidos.Ahora, responderé a la otra pregunta. Obviamente hay todo un conjunto de literatura sobre la función de la mutación neutral, que abarca desde la escuela de Kimura hasta la gran cantidad de literatura aparecida desde mediados de los 60's. Sin embargo, estos transgenes no son muy propensos a ser neutrales en el sentido de que al ser insertados causan una mutación que producirá una reacción esencialmente \"antigénica\" ya que, además, en sí mismos son material genético extraño. Puesto que todos los organismos tienen sus propias enzimas de restricción, eliminan periódicamente estas inserciones. Como resultado, el mecanismo será un poco más difícil de mejorar. Creo que ayudarán mucho los actuales estudios básicos en vectores y promotores.Si el CIMMYT adoptara de pronto esta tecnología como parte básica de su programa de híbridos, se hablaría entonces de introducir genes de los híbridos del CIMMYT a las poblaciones locales. El hecho de que el 85% de la superficie de México está sembrada con maíz no mejorado indica que hay algunas desventajas en los híbridos para su introducción y permanencia en las diferentes regiones. Esto no quiere decir que no podrían incorporarse híbridos o maíz mejorado, pero lo que sí sugiere es que las empresas privadas, el CIMMYT y el INIFAP, hasta el momento, no han tenido éxito en conquistar el 85% del territorio ¿Tendrán mejor suerte los transgenes? No tengo una respuesta.Estoy limitado por el semestre académico y a veces vengo a México a ver el teocintle en diciembre. Pese a estar en los puntos más alejados de las carreteras en México; aun en esos lugares se encuentran las camionetas de trabajadores migratorios que llegan ahí para la Navidad. A veces no hay otros vehículos que camionetas con placas de los Estados Unidos. Obviamente, esas son las personas que van a traer la semilla transgénica, son los transportadores y estarán en los distritos donde se encuentra el teocintle.Los agricultores mexicanos residentes en Carolina del Norte probablemente saben más que yo acerca de enviar semilla al exterior. Si quieren mandar algo a México, les aseguro que saben cómo hacerlo.Podría por favor abundar más acerca de la estabilidad de los materiales transgénicos ¿No son estables?No soy un investigador activo en ese campo, simplemente soy un fitomejorador, aunque estoy muy cerca de alguien que trabaja con una pistola genética, así que estoy al tanto de estas cosas. Para mí fue una sorpresa saber que hay todo un grupo de personas que han dedicado sus carreras a tratar de mejorar la estabilidad de las plantas transgénicas. Tuvimos un Simposio McKnight en Raleigh, Carolina del Norte, la primavera pasada, que se concentró esencialmente en los intentos de estabilizar las construcciones transgénicas. Ingenuamente, pensaba que, bueno, si disparas en el callo vegetal con una pistola y logras un inserto, es magnífico; si logras introducir dos, mejor, y si logras poner tres, todavía mejor; si pones 16, sería sencillamente maravilloso, pero resulta que estaba absolutamente equivocado.Si uno logra introducir una inserción, hay cierta esperanza de estabilidad, pero si se ponen más, de algún modo estas inserciones se reúnen y deciden irse.No sé cuáles son los mecanismos de esto y creo que hay mucha discusión sobre esta cuestión. Empero, es evidente que hay mecanismos para suprimir el material extraño y existen muchas investigaciones avanzadas, al menos en los Estados Unidos y en Europa, para tratar de vencer estos mecanismos. Sin embargo, por el momento todavía se trata de \"disparar y rezar\" en lo que concierne a la comercialización de estos productos.Uno inserta un gene, lo estudia, espera que sea estable y, obviamente, el gene tiene entonces que ser retrocruzado en muchas líneas diferentes. Hasta que uno llega realmente al proceso de retrocruzamiento, en verdad no sabe cuán estable es el gene, porque puede ser estable en el organismo A y, cuando se lo pone en el organismo B, resulta escindido y todo se acabó. El problema es que esto no es evidente de inmediato y puede suceder en las generaciones posteriores. Cuando uno descubre en la generación S 6 que, de pronto, el 25% de las plantas no tienen la inserción que tenían el 100% de las plantas de la generación S 2 , uno sabe que tiene un problema.Lo que Ud. dice es muy importante para esta reunión. Tenemos que discutir esto suponiendo que, aunque no hay mucha experiencia de campo con los materiales transgénicos, cuando se tiene un gene ya insertado y expresado el gene permanecerá.Esa fue sin duda la hipótesis inicial y pienso que, en su mayor parte, todavía es correcta. Pero sólo en su mayor parte.¿Qué tan importante es el estudio de genes que pudieran hacer más restrictiva la fertilización selectiva?Obviamente eso tiene un impacto muy serio en la probabilidad de transferir transgenes del maíz al teocintle. Tendrá ciertos efectos sobre la transferencia de genes de plantas transgénicas a por lo menos algunas variedades semicomerciales de maíz blanco en México, porque ciertas variedades de maíz blanco, incluidos algunos de los híbridos que han salido de los programas del CIMMYT y la Oficina de Estudios Especiales, tienen un factor gametofítico que impide la polinización por otros tipos de maíz. Por lo tanto, pueden ser razonablemente importantes, al menos a nivel local, pero creo que nuestro conocimiento de esto esencialmente se basará en un estudio de caso por caso, derivado de lo que mencionó J. Kermicle. Parece que no se pueden hacer generalizaciones acerca del problema.M. Goodman mencionó que si hubiera una planta transgénica en el mercado, de una u otra manera, los productores la van a traer. Quiero preguntar a D. Louette si en su encuesta usted identificó los criterios por los cuales el productor selecciona el material y lo introduce a su parcela.Los criterios son, sobre todo, el aspecto visual de la mazorca. La mayoría de las veces se lleva una mazorca cuando, por ejemplo, van a cosechar con un vecino o en otra región. La conservación del material se da si se obtiene una producción regular en varios ciclos y sin ningún accidente. Si hay algún accidente dejan la variedad que introdujeron, de un ciclo para el siguiente.Con pocas excepciones, la liberación de plantas transgénicas en América Latina ha involucrado a plantas desarrolladas fuera de la región. Sin embargo, la situación está cambiando y ahora se desarrollan plantas en países de la región y varios grupos de investigación se acercan a la etapa de los ensayos de campo. La papa es uno de los cultivos transgénicos más populares en América Latina, y más de 10 grupos de investigación trabajan en el desarrollo de variedades transgénicas. No obstante, la evaluación de la bioseguridad de estas variedades nuevas representa un desafío especial para los organismos reguladores, ya que se han efectuado muy pocas evaluaciones de los riesgos que pudieran surgir por la liberación de papas transgénicas. En general, la mayoría de las evaluaciones de riesgo derivado de la liberación de papas transgénicas se han realizado en países donde virtualmente no existían posibilidades de un flujo de genes a las poblaciones silvestres de Solanum.Ante este panorama, la Comisión Asesora sobre Biotecnología (BAC) y el Instituto Interamericano para la Cooperación en la Agricultura (IICA) decidieron organizar un taller para la revisión integral de los problemas ambientales asociados con la liberación de papas transgénicas en su centro de origen. Se hizo hincapié específicamente en los productos transgénicos desarrollados en América Latina a efecto de ayudar a los organismos reguladores y a los científicos de la región. Entre los participantes figuraron investigadores sudamericanos que trabajanIvar Virgin y Robert Frederick Comisión Asesora sobre Biotecnología Instituto del Medio Ambiente de Estocolmo en el desarrollo de papas transgénicas (incluido el Centro Internacional de la Papa, CIP), miembros de los comités nacionales de bioseguridad, la industria privada y otros especialistas con experiencia en la liberación de papas transgénicas en el norte.Una vez que escucharon las presentaciones y discusiones generales, los participantes en el taller, divididos en tres grupos, examinaron con más detalle los problemas. Cada grupo consideró los caracteres transgénicos más importantes investigados en sus países. Se les pidió que definieran los problemas ambientales y los beneficios previstos de un determinado carácter transgénico teniendo en cuenta la etapa de desarrollo del cultivo (ensayo en el campo o comercialización). Los resultados fueron expuestos en una sesión plenaria (Cuadro 1).Fue claro el consenso de que los principales esfuerzos en el desarrollo de papas transgénicas se hacen y se harán en relación con la obtención de plantas con mayor resistencia a las enfermedades y las plagas insectiles. Los caracteres más analizados en el taller fueron la resistencia a los insectos, las bacterias, los virus y los hongos. También se examinó la tolerancia a los factores abióticos adversos (en particular a la sequía), mientras que sólo se consideraron brevemente la resistencia a los herbicidas y las modificaciones de la calidad (por ejemplo, la alteración de la composición de almidón y el contenido de proteína).En los Estados Unidos de América y en Europa, la posibilidad de la transferencia de genes a especies interfértiles virtualmente no existe a causa de la ausencia de parientes silvestres. En los centros latinoamericanos de origen, habrá flujo de genes entre las papas transgénicas fértiles cultivadas con propósitos comerciales y las poblaciones silvestres de Solanum. En consecuencia, la discusión no se ocupó tanto del confinamiento de los transgenes sino de los posibles efectos que éstos tendrían en el ambiente; más específicamente, las consecuencias del flujo transgénico en los centros de diversidad.La búsqueda de un equilibrio Cuadro 1. Resumen de las discusiones en grupos de los problemas ambientales y los posibles beneficios de las papas transgénicas. Se supuso que: (1) las papas transgénicas serán comercializadas en América Latina y; (2) habrá flujo de genes hacia las especies interfértiles. En general, se coincidió en que los centros de diversidad tienen gran valor, tanto en el ámbito local como en el mundial. Además, los participantes consideraron que se deben tomar todas las medidas razonables para conservar esa diversidad. Sin embargo, no hubo un claro consenso entre los participantes acerca de si la introducción de los caracteres transgénicos en las papas cultivadas y silvestres socavaría la diversidad de Solanum al modificar los patrones de crecimiento y, por consiguiente, desplazar a la población natural. Muchos pensaron que, en la mayoría de los casos, las variedades transgénicas de papa no serían diferentes de las plantas usadas en el mejoramiento tradicional. Otros argumentaron que un carácter que aumentara drásticamente la aptitud (capacidad invasora) de las plantas, al menos en teoría, representaría una amenaza para la diversidad de Solanum. En general, se opinó que la información disponible y las actividades de investigación actuales en este campo, específicamente en relación con América Latina, son inadecuadas.En cuanto a los caracteres de resistencia a los insectos, bacterias, virus y hongos, la mayoría de los participantes opinó que los beneficios, en la mayoría de los casos, superarían a los problemas ambientales. Se argumentó que estos caracteres ya estaban presentes en las poblaciones silvestres de muchas regiones latinoamericanas y que los caracteres transgénicos no son distintos de los que se buscan por medio de la selección convencional realizada por los mejoradores de la papa desde hace muchos años. Por consiguiente, los riesgos a priori no difieren de los asociados con las variedades mejoradas convencionalmente. Se mencionó la dificultad de comparar el flujo de genes de los cultivos transgénicos resistentes a, por ejemplo, los hongos, con respecto al flujo de variedades mejoradas por métodos convencionales o que existen en la naturaleza. La razón es que un fenotipo específico en la última categoría se debe a caracteres multigénicos, mientras que las plantas transgénicas del mismo fenotipo tendrían un solo gene dominante. Se observó que las características multigénicas se transfieren con mucho menos eficiencia.Se pensó que la resistencia a los virus mejoraría las condiciones fitosanitarias para los agricultores y los productores de semilla. Los agricultores en pequeña escala serían los más beneficiados merced al mayor acceso a la semilla certificada. Los genes que codifican para la resistencia a los virus ya están presentes en las especies silvestres y hay una larga experiencia con papas resistentes a los virus obtenidas mediante el mejoramiento tradicional. Hubo una breve discusión sobre la posibilidad de crear nuevos virus mediante la recombinación y la transencapsulación en plantas transgénicas resistentes a los virus. Se reconoció que se requieren investigaciones para considerar esta posibilidad. La mayoría de los participantes pensó que esto no sería un problema importante puesto que la recombinación de los virus mediante este mecanismo se produce ya con frecuencia en la naturaleza. En consecuencia, no se consideraron necesarias precauciones adicionales en comparación con los genes neutrales.Las plantas transgénicas que codifican para la resistencia a las bacterias también fueron consideradas benéficas, por las mismas razones que las plantas resistentes a los virus. Se señaló que ya existen genes que codifican para la resistencia a las bacterias en la población de plantas silvestres. Además, se mencionó que, a pesar de la infección bacteriana, las plantas todavía pueden florecer y esparcir semillas. La infección afecta la calidad del tubérculo pero no la reproducción. Por consiguiente, no se consideró que la resistencia a las bacterias fuese un carácter que aumentaría notablemente la aptitud relacionada con la capacidad invasora de las plantas de papa.La resistencia a los insectos es importante para los cultivos en la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos. La relación entre los beneficios y los problemas ambientales es elevada a causa de los efectos negativos de los insecticidas en el ambiente y la salud humana. Desde el punto de vista económico, los grandes agricultores, que gastan cantidades considerables en insecticidas, probablemente se beneficiarán más que los pequeños agricultores. Muchos participantes opinaron que había poca información disponible sobre el efecto de los transgenes que confieren resistencia a los insectos en los centros de diversidad de Solanum. Algunos argumentaron que las plagas no son el principal factor biótico adverso en las poblaciones de Solanum y, por tanto, la presencia de genes de resistencia no aumentará en forma notable su aptitud. En cuanto a los efectos de alteración ecológica, se mencionó que la mayoría de los insectos tienen otros huéspedes alternativos, lo cual reduce las posibilidades de que las poblaciones de insectos desarrollen tolerancia a productos transgénicos como la toxina Bt. Se sugirió realizar un estudio vinculado con este carácter, sobre el efecto del flujo de genes en la ventaja selectiva y los efectos de alteración ecológica. En este sentido, se propuso efectuar un estudio de los posibles efectos de alteración ecológica en diferentes ecosistemas (la región andina, tropical y subtropical) después de una aspersión con Bacillus thuringiensis.En cuanto a los caracteres de resistencia a los hongos, la resistencia al tizón tardío (Phytophtora infestans) fue la que recibió más atención. Los participantes estuvieron de acuerdo en que las plantas transgénicas de papa resistentes al tizón tardío serían muy útiles en América Latina al aumentar la productividad y reducir la necesidad de fungicidas. Se beneficiarían tanto los agricultores en gran escala como los pequeños agricultores. Hay especies en el complejo genético de Solanum silvestre que son resistentes al tizón tardío y, por consiguiente, la transferencia de genes de la resistencia no afectará notablemente a las poblaciones silvestres. Sin embargo, algunos participantes argumentaron que la resistencia al tizón tardío puede llevar a un aumento de la aptitud general del organismo y que el flujo de genes de este carácter hacia los parientes silvestres podría modificar su patrón de crecimiento de no invasor a invasor (maleza), lo cual posiblemente afectaría la diversidad de Solanum. A la inversa, se señaló que las poblaciones silvestres de Solanum no estaban bajo una elevada presión selectiva ejercida por el tizón tardío, en comparación con las variedades cultivadas. Esto obedece a las condiciones de crecimiento desfavorables para el tizón tardío (temperaturas y humedad inadecuadas, etc.) o a la resistencia natural en las especies silvestres de Solanum. En consecuencia, se señaló que transferir genes que confieren resistencia al tizón tardío no tendría un efecto importante en el patrón de crecimiento de las poblaciones silvestres de Solanum. El valle de Toluca en México, una zona con elevada diversidad de Solanum y gran presión del tizón tardío, constituiría un buen sitio para la investigación de este problema. En la población hay especies S. demissum naturalmente resistentes al tizón tardío y se propuso efectuar un estudio sobre su ventaja competitiva y el efecto en la diversidad.La tolerancia a las heladas fue muy discutida como ejemplo de un carácter de la tolerancia a factores abióticos desfavorables. Hubo acuerdo en que las plantas tolerantes a las heladas serían benéficas en la región andina y en el sur de Argentina al aumentar la productividad y mejorar la calidad del tubérculo. La tolerancia natural a las heladas es resultado de altas concentraciones de alcaloides y está bajo control multigénico. Se argumentó que éste es un caso en que la transferencia de la tolerancia natural es más difícil que la transferencia de un solo gene dominante que codifica para una sola proteína que confiere tolerancia a la helada. Al discutir los problemas ambientales, se señaló que un carácter de tolerancia a la helada, si se propaga a los parientes silvestres, podría posiblemente incrementar la aptitud y, posteriormente, la capacidad invasora. No obstante, las variedades transgénicas tolerantes a las heladas se usarían principalmente en altitudes donde la flora ya es tolerante a las heladas y consecuentemente, el carácter no conferiría ninguna ventaja selectiva por conducto de la introgresión a los parientes silvestres. Por otra parte, se señaló que, si se establecen los genes tolerantes a las heladas en poblaciones invasoras que crecen a altitudes más bajas, estas poblaciones podrían propagarse a altitudes mayores y, posiblemente, socavarían la diversidad de las especies de Solanum silvestres. Los participantes observaron que se usan en la región variedades resistentes mejoradas en la forma convencional, sin efectos notables en el ambiente. Por consiguiente, se recomendó realizar otros estudios sobre el aumento de la aptitud después de la transferencia de genes de tolerancia a heladas. El trabajo experimental debe incluir la transferencia de genes que codifiquen para la tolerancia a las heladas a variedades que ya son tolerantes a este factor, así como a aquellas que son sensibles a las heladas.Se consideró que los caracteres que modifican la calidad de almidón, el contenido de proteína y la materia seca de las papas tienen efectos ambientales insignificantes. Se opinó que ninguno de estos caracteres es de gran importancia en el desarrollo de papas transgénicas en América Latina en la actualidad.En relación con algunos de los caracteres anteriores, había interrogantes que no podían responderse con los conocimientos actuales. Por ejemplo, nadie en la reunión conocía algún estudio sobre los efectos ambientales de la liberación de un transgene (por conducto del flujo de genes hacia los parientes silvestres), que demostrara una mayor aptitud asociada a la capacidad invasora de las plantas. Por tanto, se recomendó la realización de estudios con transgenes (caracteres) que confieren un aumento predecible de la aptitud. Se sugirió investigar la medida en que enfermedades y plagas particulares afectan a las poblaciones silvestres de Solanum. Los participantes señalaron que todo el mundo se beneficia con la utilización de parientes silvestres de los centros de origen y hay interés internacional por conservar esta biodiversidad. En consecuencia, los estudios de los efectos del empleo de transgenes en estos ambientes deben ser una responsabilidad internacional. Esto es particularmente importante en un momento en que los gobiernos latinoamericanos tienen cada vez menor capacidad para financiar este tipo de estudios y el empleo amplio de las plantas transgénicas será difícil de controlar. No obstante, los riesgos percibidos no deben ser un impedimento para las investigaciones sobre las papas transgénicas o pequeños ensayos restringidos en el campo, en los que se puedan manejar con eficacia los riesgos.Los países tomarán la decisión de introducir o no plantas transgénicas basados en sus necesidades. El criterio adoptado por muchos de los participantes en el taller fue que se trata de equilibrar los problemas ambientales con los posibles beneficios. Los beneficios en muchos casos superarán a los riesgos percibidos. Sin embargo, en varios casos se requiere más información sobre los efectos ambientales de ciertos caracteres transgénicos en regiones específicas de América Latina.La hibridación natural entre los cultivos y sus parientes silvestres tiene dos posibles consecuencias nocivas. El primer problema en potencia es la transferencia de alelos de los cultivos \"a especies de malezas para crear una maleza más persistente\" (Goodman y Newell, 1985). Mientras que algunos alelos de los cultivos pueden representar un inconveniente en la naturaleza, otros pueden conferir una ventaja. El problema es más que teórico. Los ejemplos de una mayor resistencia de la maleza que ha surgido como resultado del flujo génico de los cultivos de la agricultura tradicional a sus parientes que son malezas, incluyen a muchos de los cultivos más importantes del mundo: por ejemplo, la remolacha azucarera (Boudry et al., 1993), el mijo perla (Brunken et al., 1977), el arroz (Gould, 1991) y el centeno (Sun y Corke, 1992). En todos los casos, la evolución de la maleza ha ocasionado un costo considerable en términos de un incremento de las actividades de control.El otro problema potencial es la extinción de la especie silvestre. La extinción por hibridación se puede producir en dos formas. \"La depresión alogámica\" es una reducción de la aptitud general del organismo después de la hibridación (Templeton, 1986); la especie localmente rara resulta parcialmente esterilizada al aparearse con la especie localmente común. La otra forma es la \"inundación\" o extinción por dilución, que se produce cuando una especie localmente rara pierde su integridad genética por la asimilación en la especie localmente común mediante repetidos ciclos de hibridación e introgresión (Ratcliffe, 1973). AmbosNorman C. Ellstrand Departamento de Botánica y Fitotecnia Universidad de California en Riverside fenómenos son dependientes de la frecuencia, en el sentido de la abundancia relativa de los genotipos, con una retroalimentación positiva, de tal modo que en cada generación sucesiva la especie localmente rara se vuelve cada vez más rara hasta que se produce la extinción (Ellstrand y Elam, 1993). Ambos pueden llevar con rapidez a la extinción. Si 900 individuos de una especie localmente común se aparean al azar con 100 individuos de la especie localmente rara, se puede producir en tres generaciones la extinción causada por la depresión alogámica y/o la inundación. Nuevamente, el problema es más que teórico. El flujo de genes provenientes de los cultivos ha sido implicado en la extinción de los parientes silvestres de varias especies de cultivos (Kiang et al., 1979;Small, 1984). En la actualidad, la hibridación con cultivos puede estar contribuyendo a la declinación de parientes silvestres de los cultivos, que abarcan desde los del nogal (McGranahan et al., 1988) hasta los del algodonero (por ejemplo, Wendel y Percy, 1990).El hecho de que se puedan producir esos fenómenos no significa que se producirán. Se pueden reunir datos de estudios experimentales o descriptivos y, si está disponible, de la literatura científica anterior para evaluar las probabilidades y la importancia de los riesgos del flujo de genes. En informes previos sobre el tema se esboza la evaluación de los múltiples riesgos de los cultivos transgénicos u otros organismos transgénicos (por ejemplo, Crawley, 1990;Rissler y Mellon, 1993; Comité Asesor sobre Investigaciones en Biotecnología Agrícola del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos, USDA 1995). A continuación me referiré específicamente a posibles formas de evaluar los riesgos del flujo de genes de un cultivo a especies silvestres.El problema de la mayor resistencia de la maleza dependerá de que: (1) se produzca la hibridación, (2) el transgene tenga la oportunidad de persistir en la naturaleza, y (3) confiera una ventaja a la maleza. Obviamente, si no hay la hibridación no se puede producir el flujo génico. La forma apropiada de comprobar si se puede producir la hibridación en las condiciones de campo es crear parcelas experimentales del cultivo y de la maleza que simulen las condiciones agroecológicas típicas de la situación en que se encuentran juntas esas plantas. Las parcelas experimentales deben abarcar toda la gama de esas condiciones. Se puede entonces medir el flujo génico poniendo a prueba la progenie de la mala hierba para detectar marcadores genéticos específicos del cultivo. El tamaño de las muestras debe ser suficientemente grande para detectar el flujo génico en niveles biológicamente significativos (el óptimo sería, un orden de magnitud por arriba de la tasa de mutación, y al menos suficientemente sensible para detectar tasas de hibridación de 1%). Se ha usado una serie de esos estudios para medir las tasas de hibridación maleza x cultivo en diversas especies, como el rábano (Klinger et al., 1991), el girasol (Arias y Rieseberg, 1994) y el arroz (Langevin et al., 1990). La polinización manual y el rescate de embriones no son técnicas apropiadas porque no simulan los vectores naturales ni la producción natural de semilla.La interpretación de los datos es tan importante como los datos mismos. Frases tales como \"el flujo génico se reduce rápidamente con la distancia\" no sirven cuando se detecta alguna hibridación a distancias típicas de las que se presentan entre el cultivo y la mala hierba. Con esos datos, la interpretación apropiada es: \"El transgene se incorporará a las poblaciones de la maleza\"; la respuesta apropiada es pasar al siguiente problema, la evaluación del riesgo. La siguiente pregunta es: \"¿Persistirá el transgene?\". La genética poblacional pronostica que un alelo persistirá en una población sometida a la presión del flujo de genes aun cuando el alelo sea neutral o moderadamente desventajoso (Slatkin, 1985). En consecuencia, si se pueden reproducir los híbridos y si las poblaciones de maleza están bajo un flujo constante de genes provenientes del cultivo, el transgene persistirá. Los datos apropiados sobre la persistencia son los que indican si los híbridos de la primera generación se reproducirán en las condiciones de campo. Los experimentos de este tipo descritos antes mostrarían si los híbridos pueden pasar sus genes a las generaciones futuras por conducto de las semillas, el polen y/o la reproducción vegetativa. Hasta el momento, sólo unos cuantos estudios han medido la aptitud de los híbridos de cultivos y malas hierbas en comparación con la de las malas hierbas progenitoras en condiciones de campo (Klinger y Ellstrand, 1994;Arriola, 1995). A menos que los híbridos sean estériles o sufran una fuerte depresión de la aptitud, los transgenes persistirán en las poblaciones silvestres.Otra posibilidad son los estudios genéticos descriptivos de las poblaciones, que buscan marcadores genéticos específicos de los cultivos en las poblaciones naturales y que se pueden usar para determinar si se ha producido hibridación avanzada (es decir, introgresión) en el pasado y en qué medida. Esos estudios ya han demostrado la introgresión de alelos de los cultivos en poblaciones naturales (por ejemplo, Boudry et al., 1993;Brunken et al., 1977;Sun y Corke, 1992;Joergensen y Andersen, 1994). Se deben efectuar estos estudios a nivel de las poblaciones para determinar la frecuencia de los alelos. Las accesiones individuales de cada población no pueden proporcionar esos datos. Si se presentan alelos específicos del cultivo con frecuencias significativas (>1%) en las poblaciones de la mala hierba cercanas a las poblaciones del cultivo, es evidente que es probable la persistencia. La siguiente pregunta es: \"¿Aumentará el transgene la conversión a maleza?\". La pregunta anterior se puede abordar sin una consideración directa del transgene. Ciertos fenotipos del transgene (por ejemplo, la tolerancia a los herbicidas, la resistencia a las enfermedades, la resistencia a los insectos) ciertamente intensifican la aptitud. Como los transgenes pueden tener efectos pleiotrópicos inesperados en la aptitud, se podrían efectuar experimentos en los híbridos transgénicos sobre la aptitud en el campo, del tipo detallado anteriormente, para determinar los efectos de los transgenes. Se ha informado de algunos experimentos de este tipo, pero la mayoría fueron con cultivos transgénicos y no con híbridos (por ejemplo, Crawley et al., 1993;Linder y Schmitt, 1995). Nuevamente, es fundamental la interpretación de los datos. Un aumento de la aptitud del 5% sin duda aumentará la resistencia de la maleza a tal punto que tenga importancia económica.El problema de la extinción por hibridación dependerá de que: (1) se produzca la hibridación en una proporción considerable y (2) el grupo taxonómico raro sea localmente raro en comparación con el cultivo vecino.En contraste con el problema de una mayor resistencia de la maleza, el problema de la extinción por la hibridación depende de la tasa de apareamiento entre el cultivo y la especie silvestre (Ellstrand, datos inéditos). Específicamente, el riesgo disminuye en forma radical a medida que las tasas de apareamiento entre las especies se reducen en el apareamiento al azar (es decir, a medida que aumenta el apareamiento asociativo). La forma apropiada de medir las tasas de hibridación es crear parcelas experimentales del cultivo y el grupo taxonómico raro que simulen las condiciones naturales en que se espera que ambos coexistan. Las parcelas experimentales deben abarcar la gama de esas condiciones. Se puede medir entonces el flujo génico poniendo a prueba la progenie del grupo raro para detectar marcadores genéticos específicos del cultivo. El tamaño de las muestras debe ser suficientemente grande para detectar el flujo génico en niveles biológicamente significativos (por lo menos suficientemente sensibles para detectar tasas de hibridación de 50%). No conozco ningún experimento relacionado con las tasas de hibridación para cualquier combinación de especie común x especie rara. Sin embargo, los estudios mencionados antes que miden la hibridación maleza x cultivo (Klinger et al., 1991;Arias y Rieseberg, 1994;Langevin et al., 1990) son modelos apropiados. Nuevamente, la polinización manual y el rescate de embriones no son técnicas apropiadas porque no simulan los vectores naturales ni la producción natural de semilla. La otra pregunta es: \"¿El grupo raro es localmente raro en comparación con el cultivo vecino?\". Esta pregunta es crítica porque la probabilidad de extinción de la población es dependiente de la frecuencia. En el caso en cuestión, aumenta a medida que disminuye el cociente entre el tamaño de la población local del grupo taxonómico raro y el tamaño de la población del cultivo (N[silvestre]/N[cultivo]) (Ellstrand y Elam, 1993). El riesgo de extinción por hibridación sólo se producirá cuando un grupo taxonómico raro previamente alopátrico se vuelve simpátrico o peripátrico con un cultivo que tiene un área extensa de distribución. En consecuencia, los grupos taxonómicos en peligro son los que estarían nuevamente desafiados por la presencia de un pariente del cultivo.Se pueden estimar los tamaños típicos de las plantaciones del cultivo. Las poblaciones del grupo taxonómico raro se pueden estimar mediante el computo directo y se las ajustará cuando se prevean alteraciones y fragmentación en el futuro. Estas cantidades relativas, combinadas con las tasas de hibridación obtenidas en los experimentos anteriores, pueden ser utilizadas para hacer una estimación aproximada del tiempo que transcurrirá hasta la extinción.Evaluación de los riesgos del flujo transgénico de los cultivos a las especies silvestresLos riesgos del flujo transgénico de los cultivos a los grupos taxonómicos silvestres son directos. Su probabilidad e importancia pueden ser estimadas mediante datos científicamente obtenibles. Si bien nunca es posible prever todas las consecuencias de una tecnología, un conjunto de normas reguladoras con fundamentos científicos puede detener la liberación de productos transgénicos que probablemente crearán problemas y, al mismo tiempo, permitir la liberación oportuna de otros.Algunos de los conceptos expuestos se desarrollaron con el patrocinio del Consejo para el Intercambio Internacional de Científicos, la Fundación Nacional para las Ciencias de los Estados Unidos de América, Sveriges skogs-och jordbrukets forskningraad, el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos de América, y el Programa de Investigación y Enseñanza en Biotecnología de la Universidad de California.En mi charla de hoy quiero abarcar varios objetivos. Deseo presentar un panorama de la experiencia que hemos tenido en los Estados Unidos al reglamentar las pruebas en pequeña escala con los cultivos transgénicos en el campo y en los procedimientos para aprobar su empleo amplio. Luego quisiera describir un estudio de caso de la evaluación de un cultivo de ese tipo -una calabaza comestible-para el cultivo irrestricto en su centro de diversidad, los Estados Unidos.Estuve antes comparando notas con Norm Ellstrand y hablamos acerca de las diferencias culturales o, quizás, las diferencias en el lenguaje entre las disciplinas científicas.Obtuve un grado académico en fitopatología y luego realicé trabajo de posgrado en biología molecular, y hubo allí un cambio de lenguaje. He oído aquí algunos otros y voy a cambiar a un lenguaje que no hemos oído en absoluto, ni en español ni en inglés: el lenguaje que emplea la gente de los organismos reguladores o normativos. Les agradeceré que tengan paciencia en la traducción.Estados Unidos de América (USDA) en las pruebas de campo, la producción en gran escala y la evaluación para su liberación en los centros de origen En los Estados Unidos de América, existen diferentes entidades cuya responsabilidad es la de vigilar la inocuidad de los alimentos del hombre, la inocuidad de los alimentos para el ganado, el empleo de plaguicidas y los posibles problemas de toxicidad originados por ese empleo. La responsabilidad del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos incluye la reglamentación para otorgar licencia a las vacunas de uso veterinario bajo el mandato del Acta de Virus, Sueros y Toxinas. Los productos biotecnológicos de uso veterinario también están reglamentados por esa ley, que existe desde 1913; no se requirieron leyes ni reglamentos nuevos, sino simplemente observar los tipos de datos que eran específicos de los productos de la biotecnología. En consecuencia, el criterio de riesgo no ha cambiado; continúa siendo el de proteger la salud humana, animal y vegetal, y la seguridad ambiental desde una perspectiva más amplia.La legislación empleada para reglamentar la biotecnología vegetal es el conjunto de normas fitosanitarias, que abarcan la Ley de Cuarentena Vegetal de 1913 y la Ley de las Plagas Vegetales de 1957. Los riesgos asociados con la biotecnología no se ven como un conjunto singular de riesgos nuevos, sino más bien como los riesgos que conlleva una tecnología nueva. Los problemas fundamentales son los mismos de siempre, en nuestro sistema normativo no estamos tratando de probar que la biotecnología es segura; tratamos de demostrar más bien que las plantas transgénicas son tan seguras como otras variedades de plantas. En otras palabras, que el efecto en un ecosistema natural sin manejo -si es que existe tal cosa-no es mayor en el caso de las variedades o líneas \"nuevas\" que en el de las líneas tradicionales. Esa es nuestra perspectiva y origina muchos debates, porque aquellos que plantean la biotecnología como algo totalmente nuevo y diferente que trae riesgos totalmente nuevos y diferentes, esgrimen eso como argumento y luego insisten en que todos nosotros demostremos que la biotecnología es segura. Y se oye una mezcla de esos conceptos aun en este salón, como sucedió al discutir si los transgenes son peligrosos, a pesar de que no podemos observar la introgresión resultante de cientos -¿o de miles?-de años de cocultivo... así es. Eso en cuanto a la teoría; ahora pasaré a la experiencia.En los Estados Unidos promulgamos reglamentos específicos para las plantas transgénicas a causa de la necesidad de obtener datos bien definidos para la evaluación de los riesgos. En 1986 se publicaron los reglamentos. Exigían un permiso para la importación (el cual, por supuesto se obtiene siempre al importar), para la introducción en el campo a efecto de probarse, y para el traslado interestatal ya que los gobiernos de éstos tienen un particular interés en saber lo que se introduce. En 1993, se enmendaron los reglamentos para incluir un procedimiento muy abreviado que llamamos \"notificación\", mediante el cual pudimos asegurar ciertos parámetros para un ensayo en el campo con el fin de garantizar su seguridad. Esos parámetros incluyeron cosas tales como la no persistencia en el sitio del campo, el aislamiento adecuado y otros parámetros establecidos en los reglamentos para, por lo menos, seis cultivos. Los investigadores que deseaban efectuar pruebas con un cultivo transgénico podían certificar que cumplían con esas normas, notificar que iban a proseguir, recibir nuestro acuse de recibo dentro de los 30 días y comenzar los ensayos en el campo en los 30 días siguientes, todo ello sin evaluaciones del riesgo ambiental o total.Al mismo tiempo, formalizamos el proceso mediante el cual un solicitante podía pedirnos que emitiéramos una resolución de que ya no regularíamos esas plantas sometidas a reglamentos especiales si el solicitante presentaba datos adecuados para demostrar que la variedad transgénica era tan segura como las otras variedades (la frase \"... pedirnos que emitiéramos una resolución...\" es parte de la terminología que estoy introduciendo). Por supuesto, las variedades transgénicas todavía están sujetas a los reglamentos fitosanitarios para la importación y la exportación y otras normas sobre la calidad en el mercado y ese tipo de cosas, pero ya no están regulados específicamente como productos de la biotecnología.Actualmente hemos presentado al público una propuesta de reglamento para que la comente -como parte del proceso de toma de decisiones en los Estados Unidos-, y que permitiría que todas las plantas transgénicas fueran sometidas a pruebas en el campo mediante la notificación, excepto aquellas reconocidas como malezas ya sea por la ley o por una identificación estatal. El nuevo reglamento también simplificaría el proceso de solicitud de una resolución, reduciría el tiempo e implicaría que la quinta o sexta variedad de maíz con un tipo particular de tolerancia a un herbicida específico, por ejemplo, no recibiese el mismo examen minucioso que la primera.La Figura 1 muestra la progresión de la cantidad de permisos para pruebas en el campo de productos biotecnológicos a partir de 1987. Los reglamentos que permitían las notificaciones se pusieron en vigor en mayo de 1993, y en 1993-1994 se otorgaron numerosas autorizaciones para pruebas solicitadas con el procedimiento simplificado en lugar de la evaluación total. El número real de sitios en los campos es mucho mayor porque un permiso o notificación individual puede permitir sitios múltiples, a veces hasta en 18 estados diferentes y en múltiples localidades dentro de cada estado. Sobre esta base, yo estimaría que las plantas transgénicas han sido probadas en más de 3,000 sitios diferentes en los Estados Unidos (Figura 2).En orden de jerarquía, el maíz es el cultivo transgénico más frecuentemente ensayado en los Estados Unidos. Como se podría esperar, los principales cultivos anuales y las hortalizas se prueban más a menudo, pero también hay especies tales como el pasto Agrostis rastrera, que se usa en los campos de golf, y otras especies menos comunes. Obviamente también hay mucho interés en las plantas ornamentales y en cultivos especiales. Además, estamos considerando cada vez más el empleo de microorganismos transgénicos, en especial agentes patógenos de las plantas, que se modifican, se marcan y se vuelven a liberar en el sitio donde se identificaron sus estirpes progenitoras, ya sea como parte de la investigación sobre el control biológico del agente patógeno o simplemente como un sistema de marcadores para seguir los estudios epidemiológicos. Xanthomonas campestris, por ejemplo, ha sido sometido a pruebas en varios ensayos con un gen lux para seguir la progresión de la enfermedad. Cuando una empresa o institución nos presenta una solicitud para la desregulación de un cultivo transgénico, lo publicamos en el Registro Federal y pedimos al público que haga sus comentarios. La solicitud que ha recibido más comentarios se relaciona con una variedad de calabaza, desarrollada por Asgrow y ahora propiedad de Upjohn, que posee transgenes para las proteínas de la cubierta de dos tipos de virus del mosaico de la sandía y del mosaico amarillo de la calabacita, enfermedades muy serias en las zonas de producción de calabaza de mesa en los Estados Unidos. Se piensa que el centro de origen de la calabaza es el norte de México, pero en realidad hay una mayor diversidad en las poblaciones de calabazas en el este de Estados Unidos, en particular poblaciones silvestres a lo largo de las riberas arenosas y los bancos pedregosos de los ríos y en las zonas adyacentes. Hay poblaciones aisladas de calabaza que se extienden desde Texas a Illinois y Georgia. Los estados con las poblaciones silvestres más amplias también suelen ser los que tienen la mayor producción de calabaza de mesa. En consecuencia, muchos de los problemas que ustedes enfrentan en relación con el maíz en México fueron afrontados en los Estados Unidos en el caso de la calabaza.Algunas de nuestras primeras hipótesis tal vez eran ingenuas y por cierto que resultaron erróneas. Una de ellas fue que las poblaciones silvestres probablemente eran resistentes o tolerantes a esos virus y, por consiguiente, eran portadoras y reservorios de los virus. De hecho, casi no había resistencia detectable en las poblaciones silvestres. Lo anterior es un hecho que deberíamos haber sabido dado que eran inadecuadas como fuente de resistencia en el fitomejoramiento para obtener resistencia a los virus. Cuando se ensayaron esas calabazas silvestres en los campos junto con las calabazas cultivadas, pudieron haber sufrido a causa de la adaptación deficiente al agroambiente, pero demostraron ser por lo menos tan sensibles como las líneas endogámicas universales usadas como testigos susceptibles, y a menudo murieron incluso con las infecciones naturales cuando se las sembró en monocultivo con otras calabazas. Esto creó una considerable preocupación y llevó a muchas más discusiones e introspección.En cuanto al proceso, tuvimos un problema que todavía persiste: generalmente no es el ciudadano medio quien responde a nuestros pedidos de comentarios del público sino, más bien, integrantes de grupos con intereses especiales, como las asociaciones de defensa ambiental o los miembros de la disciplina científica más estrechamente relacionada con la solicitud. En el caso de la calabaza transgénica, por ejemplo, recibimos 58 comentarios de científicos de departamentos de ecología y 54 comentarios de integrantes de departamentos de fitopatología, mejoramiento genético o agronomía. Entre los investigadores, todos los de un departamento de investigación vinculada con la ecología dijeron que teníamos escasos datos para decidir, mientras que los fitopatólogos, los agrónomos y los fitogenetistas dijeron que nuestro reglamento era absurdo y que debíamos hacernos a un lado y dejar que el producto avanzara.Esto apunta hacia un problema fundamental: para asegurar la solidez científica de los reglamentos, se requiere un Foro más amplio para la discusión científica de un conjunto común de datos entre los miembros de disciplinas que a menudo hablan principalmente entre sí y con sus propias hipotésis. La idea sería comparar notas e identificar definiciones de trabajos comunes, ya que aun términos evidentemente sencillos se definen en forma muy diferente en las distintas disciplinas. Términos tales como control, o los impactos sobre la biodiversidad de las poblaciones silvestres: para algunos científicos, disminuir la población en forma considerable es un impacto; para otros, la pureza genética es el objetivo y un solo gene recesivo en una sola planta de la población indígena, es inaceptable. En consecuencia, tenemos que reunirnos, poner sobre la mesa algunas de nuestras hipótesis, examinarlas cuidadosamente desde todas las orientaciones multidisciplinarias y llegar al conjunto básico de datos que son accesibles para todos, no a respuestas basadas en nuestras hipótesis.Hemos permitido que se cultive ampliamente la calabaza transgénica en los Estados Unidos. Mientras estábamos recogiendo los comentarios del público, incluidos los de integrantes de las disciplinas científicas que describí, la empresa, a insistencia nuestra, también había salido a examinar el efecto de las enfermedades causadas por estos virus en las poblaciones silvestres y a determinar si la empresa tenía una función en el control de esas poblaciones. Se presentaron exactamente los dos problemas que describió Norm Ellstrand. Uno era determinar si las poblaciones silvestres estaban en efecto siendo controladas y, en el caso de que hubiera introgresión de las proteínas de la cubierta en las poblaciones silvestres, si esto llevaría a un problema vinculado con la capacidad invasora. Y sí ha habido invasiones incidentales de calabazas generalmente no consideradas invasoras. El otro problema era una hibridación que pudiera causar un efecto negativo real en la población. Bueno, de acuerdo con un sondeo más bien amplio en una gran gama de poblaciones de varias zonas, no hubo síntomas de los virus. Hemos tomado muestras de los virus y las hemos sometido a pruebas en dos o tres formas diferentes y nunca existió una incidencia de partículas víricas en las plantas. Estos datos han sido criticados porque, según se argumenta, las pruebas no se efectuaron en el momento apropiado o la muestra era inadecuada. De hecho, era una muestra bastante grande y fue tomada cuando era mayor la prevalencia de la enfermedad en el campo. Además, en Estados Unidos los áfidos no intervienen en el traslado de los virus. Todavía no sabemos por qué los virus no son importantes en las poblaciones silvestres, pero otorgamos la aprobación basándonos en parte en esos datos.Estas calabazas ahora pueden ser usadas en los Estados Unidos por cualquier académico que piense que hay un problema de aptitud, sin necesidad de contar con un permiso de APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) para someterlas a pruebas. Volvemos al hecho de que no exigimos a la empresa que obtuviera el conjunto completo de datos para demostrar que las calabazas eran inocuas; estábamos tratando de demostrar que eran tan inocuas como otras calabazas introducidas en la agricultura de los Estados Unidos. Si la introgresión en las poblaciones de calabazas silvestres afecta su diversidad, pensamos que se deben buscar otras medidas políticas para prevenir tal situación y que no se trata de un problema de biotecnología. La cuestión es mantener los ambientes protegidos separados de los ambientes agrícolas. En los Estados Unidos, por casualidad, están razonablemente protegidos gracias a la Ley de Zonas Silvestres y Ríos Panorámicos, un conjunto único de zonas de ecoturismo y hábitat protegidos.Preguntas y respuestas después de las presentaciones de I. Virgin, N. Ellstrand y J. PayneQuiero saber si en los Estados Unidos hay experimentos ilegales sobre variedades transgénicas y en qué proporción. Me refiero a experimentos que se hagan y no se consulte si se puede o no hacerlos.Por exactamente la misma razón que las cuestiones de fronteras siempre serán un problema, si uno tiene un grupo que no quiere acatar la ley, los reglamentos no tienen una función útil para evitar que la gente haga lo que quiere fuera de la ley. Hubo un caso aislado de un académico que hizo una prueba antes de que se pusieran totalmente en vigencia los reglamentos, y de vez en cuando oímos que hay personas que no siguen completamente las normas de bioseguridad. Sin embargo, no sabemos de muchos casos de desacato absoluto a los reglamentos.No entendí bien cuando J. Payne apuntó que no pensaba que era un problema de biotecnología el que las empresas que quieren liberar materiales transgénicos demuestren que no habría efectos adversos al liberarlos. En primer lugar, ¿entendí bien lo que dijo?, y, en segundo, ¿es verdad?Puede ser que mi explicación haya sido deficiente y puede ser que mi lógica haya sido deficiente. Veamos eso. El supuesto en los Estados Unidos es que la tecnología nueva conlleva beneficios y también riesgos, dados los tipos de caracteres nuevos que se pueden agregar a los cultivos. No deseamos normar la tecnología basados en la tecnología, sino que regulamos los riesgos de los productos de la tecnología cualquiera que sea la forma en que fueron producidos. Por tanto, buscamos un nivel de prueba. Volvemos al problema de que se pueden establecer evaluaciones del riesgo que en general serían aceptadas, con fundamentos científicos, pero el nivel de comodidad y el nivel de riesgo que sea aceptable siempre es una decisión de la sociedad. No es una resolución científica. Uno puede establecer una resolución científica acerca del nivel de riesgo en distintos escenarios, pero el nivel de riesgo que está dispuesta a aceptar la sociedad es una cuestión sociopolítica. La sociedad en general es quien decide.En los Estados Unidos, el sentimiento general es que el nivel tiene que ubicarse en un punto que no inhiba la tecnología nueva, dados los beneficios de ésta. Por consiguiente, pedimos a las empresas que prueben que sus productos no son más peligrosos que las variedades tradicionales. Si hay efectos en las plantas en un ecosistema natural, por ejemplo -y han habido exactamente esos efectos causados por la agricultura tradicional-decimos \"adelante, resolveremos juntos esos riesgos mediante otros métodos de la política regulatoria\", como conservar los hábitat u otras estrategias semejantes. No usaremos los reglamentos de seguridad, los reglamentos fitosanitarios, para abordar ese problema.Cuando APHIS-USDA solicita la opinión del público, ¿han podido observar patrones en ciertas ONGs, o los comentarios han sido al azar? No considero a los departamentos académicos de fitomejoramiento como ONGs en el sentido ordinario. Por otra parte, me pregunto cómo se notificó a los ecologistas. ¿Esperaban que alguna ONG se preocupara? Me pregunto si ustedes encontraron un cierto patrón de respuestas.Sí, hasta cierto punto. Hay una afinidad natural entre los ecologistas y algunos de los grupos que se interesan en el ambiente, afinidad que a veces lleva a los ecologistas a estar más conscientes del problema porque los grupos de defensa del ambiente atraen su atención hacia ellos, y porque existe literatura compartida. No creo que esto afecte la forma en que los ecologistas responden a la cuestión científica. La diferencia en la perspectiva es fundamental y se debe a la disciplina misma, no a algún tipo de filiación política.Considero al Registro Federal como un vehículo de información ¿Ven ustedes otros canales?En los Estados Unidos, con la tendencia hacia la información electrónica, actualmente proporcionamos todas las mañanas información electrónica actualizada a las 4 a.m. sobre las notificaciones y peticiones recibidas el día anterior. De este modo, cualquier persona que tenga interés en seguir los reglamentos puede obtener esta información. Recibimos unos 50,000 pedidos de verificación de la información cada uno o dos meses. La mayoría vienen de empresas que llaman, dos o tres veces al día, para asegurarse de que recibimos el documento que nos enviaron ayer, y otras empresas que quieren asegurarse de que nadie está usando su propiedad intelectual.Me pregunto si la empresa que investigaba las poblaciones naturales o silvestres de la calabaza (Cucurbita spp.) ha tomado muestras de germoplasma y las ha depositado en un banco de germoplasma como una especie de encuesta genética inicial.Bueno, no establecieron un nuevo punto de partida. Lo que hicieron fue averiguar qué nivel de introgresión pudo haberse producido en los últimos 100 años buscando y verificando las muestras de los herbarios de la última parte del siglo pasado, buscando diferencias morfológicas; estas poblaciones sí tienen morfologías muy distintas entre ellos y esas morfologías eran todavía muy reconocibles; aparentemente no ha habido cambios morfológicos de las poblaciones. Esto indica que no ha habido introgresión a partir de los cultivos agrícolas.Nuestra resolución suponía que había flujo de genes. Pensamos, basados en deducciones, que la hibridación es un umbral, ya que las variedades cultivadas tienen una cáscara muy blanda mientras que las poblaciones silvestres dependen de una cáscara muy dura para flotar corriente abajo en los ríos y para sobrevivir en el invierno. En consecuencia, parece haber un umbral de hibridación que habría que sobrepasar para lograr la introgresión. Eso es algo que no se ha discutido, excepto por alusión en el caso del teocintle, en relación con el olote (la tusa), si es que tener un olote en realidad representa un efecto de umbral de la hibridación.La participación pública en el Registro Federal no significa que APHIS haga un tipo diferente de evaluación del riesgo según la cantidad de respuestas a la cantidad de comentarios. ¿Podrían imaginarse una situación en que el número de notificaciones y ensayos sobre el terreno abrumen al público y no deje tiempo suficiente para responder?Aun ahora, en las resoluciones para producir cultivos comerciales en los Estados Unidos, recibimos tres o cuatro comentarios y eso es todo. Y, cuando damos 60 días al público para hacer comentarios, a menudo alguno de los organismos de fiscalización identifica problemas particulares y hay un poco más de correspondencia acerca de ellos, pero no nos vemos abrumados por la cantidad de cartas que recibimos.Hay ahora una campaña de envío de cartas, fuera del proceso de toma de decisiones, acerca de los problemas relacionados con la aparición de resistencia a la endotoxina delta de Bt en poblaciones de plagas y la pérdida de la endotoxina delta como recurso, en particular para los agricultores que producen cultivos orgánicos, quienes se piensa que no recibirán ninguno de los beneficios de los cultivos transgénicos sino que sufrirán todos los efectos negativos si se produjera un aumento de la resistencia en las poblaciones de plagas.Esto es para responder a la pregunta anterior de G.Wilkes. Yo no leo el Registro Federal porque tiene miles de páginas y está a media milla de mi oficina.Pero sí estoy en contacto con organizaciones no gubernamentales que por lo general escriben una carta que dice \"Estimado Norm, pensamos que usted podría estar interesado en comentar sobre el paquete de documentos de cinco libras que le hemos enviado; por favor hágalo para x fecha\", pero de ordinario no dan ninguna indicación sobre cómo quieren que les responda. Al mismo tiempo que recibo esas cartas, sé, ya que trabajo en el Departamento de Botánica y Fitotecnia y tengo muchos colegas biólogos moleculares, que ellos reciben comunicaciones similares de Monsanto y Calgene.Quiero saber si hay armonización entre los sistemas de regulación de Canadá, los Estados Unidos y México, porque usted dijo que en los Estados Unidos la novedad del proceso en biotecnología no es considerada un riesgo; es el producto lo que ustedes regulan, mientras que, por ejemplo, en Canadá consideran a la novedad como algo que debe vigilarse. En este aspecto la regulación de México se parece a la de Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, no he visto ninguna coordinación entre los tres países y, ya que tenemos el TLC, se supone que debemos trabajar en colaboración más estrecha en estas cuestiones. Esta pregunta, incidentalmente, se relaciona con la reciente desregulación del maíz transgénico en los Estados Unidos, la cual considero una decisión unilateral.En realidad, creo que hay un nivel muy alto de armonización entre los sistemas reguladores de los tres países. Usted tiene razón al señalar las diferencias en la activación en los Estados Unidos y México por una parte y Canadá por la otra. Pero la forma en que se efectúa la revisión de hecho sólo implica unas cuantas aplicaciones que son diferentes. En Canadá, esto implica incluir la tolerancia a los herbicidas que surgió como resultado de la mutación o la selección, pero muy pocas otras aplicaciones. En los otros aspectos, las cosas universales que se regulan son muy similares en los tres países, y también la forma en que se efectúan las revisiones, en términos de los tipos de preguntas que se hacen y, cuando hay ejemplos comunes, al menos en el rigor científico, los conjuntos de datos son bastante comparables. Ha habido mucha comparación, una comparación muy consciente, entre los tres organismos reguladores involucrados en examinar su proceso y asegurar de que en realidad hacían el mismo tipo de preguntas. Nos reunimos varias veces al año con los canadienses. Los organismos reguladores que participan en la Organización para la Protección de las Plantas de América del Norte (NAPPO), donde también hay muchas discusiones de ese tipo, se reunieron recientemente y lo harán de nuevo el mes próximo en Saskatoon, Saskachewan, para otra ronda de deliberaciones.Esto se relaciona con la coordinación del proceso de evaluación en particular. No hemos tratado de armonizar los mecanismos de activación, en tanto que abordamos aproximadamente las mismas cosas. Pero hemos acordado usar un criterio distinto al de Canadá. En realidad, pensamos que es bastante irrelevante la diferencia en el criterio usado.Sin embargo, hemos dado un paso adicional. Una cosa que no hemos abordado muy bien es la cuestión de los artículos de comercio. Cuando decidimos permitir que algo se cultive ampliamente en los Estados Unidos, eso no resuelve todos los posibles problemas en cuanto al producto: la aprobación no permite que el artículo comercial sea vendido a México o Canadá. Canadá y México tienen que tomar esas decisiones. Canadá tomó una medida unilateral con respecto a la armonización al buscar la aprobación de una variedad de colza que es tolerante a los herbicidas. Iba a ser molida -muchas de las plantas procesadoras están en el norte de Estados Unidos-y llevada a los Estados Unidos donde nunca ha sido cultivada en un ensayo de campo. Técnicamente, con nuestras normas regulatorias, podríamos haber requerido un permiso y que toda la semilla fuera traída bajo ese permiso para ser procesada en Minnessota. Pero decidimos que este es un producto cuyo uso final hará que sea biológicamente inactivo. Parte de él puede ser derramado accidentalmente en el camino, pero eso puede suceder con cualquier producto de colza que viene desde el Canadá y no ha provocado la propagación de la colza como maleza. Si se hacen las evaluaciones del riesgo según la probabilidad de introgresión producida a partir de la caída fortuita en el camino de semillas de colza resistente a los herbicidas, la probabilidad es muy escasa. Por consiguiente, decimos: \"Canadá ha elaborado una resolución; aceptamos totalmente la decisión de Canadá de cultivar esta colza y vamos a tratar a este producto colza como cualquier otro producto colza.\"Seguiremos considerando esto caso por caso por un tiempo, pero pensamos que este tipo de criterio puede llevar a la aceptación de cultivos provenientes de México con base estrictamente en su perfil fitosanitario, a causa del tipo de revisión que se efectúa en los cultivos transgénicos en México. De este modo, uno no tendría necesariamente que producir el cultivo en los Estados Unidos, ni obtener la aprobación para hacerlo en el país antes de permitir que entre como un producto. No es necesario separar los problemas de los productos de los problemas ambientales que surgen con la agricultura de producción.Nosotros tenemos preocupación, en primer lugar, de que se nos use para probar las situaciones de mayor riesgo, como en el caso de la industria. No deseamos que aquí se prueben aquellas cosas que no fueran aceptadas en los Estados Unidos o en otros lugares. Aun en igual condición de trato, hay problemas serios originados por las diferencias que tenemos. Por ejemplo, México no tiene suficiente personal calificado para preveer, ni instalaciones de cuarentena, ni capacidad de monitoreo, ni un sistema eficiente de seguridad para eliminar problemas. Esa es una realidad. Por otro lado, la vecindad con los Estados Unidos y el Tratado de Libre Comercio plantean un nuevo problema. No sé si en las pláticas del TLC se hayan contemplado estos problemas que tiene específicamente México en cuanto a su capacidad técnica para detectar los problemas y en su momento detenerlos. No sé cómo hayan contemplado este problema en el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos, incluso para su propia seguridad.Bueno, no intervine personalmente en las discusiones del TLC y no estoy seguro en qué medida se cubrieron esos tipos de consideraciones. Sé que se abordan los problemas de infraestructura y hay un verdadero intento ahora de proporcionar toda la asistencia que sea necesaria para mejorar la infraestructura. Yo señalaría que, en ciertos casos, de hecho México tiene personas altamente calificadas para el monitoreo, y tal vez los Estados Unidos puedan aprender de México en cuanto a los sistemas de monitoreo.No es necesario ser biólogo molecular para examinar los riesgos en el campo provocados por los cultivos transgénicos. Lo hacen mejor los fitogenetistas, o los agrónomos, personas que pueden identificar los biotipos extraños, que pueden determinar cuándo se ha producido contaminación y pueden establecer las condiciones de confinamiento apropiadas. Se basan en una larga experiencia en el mejoramiento y esa experiencia es más útil cuando fue adquirida en el ambiente beneficiario y en presencia de los factores que podrían afectar la polinización en ese ambiente.Por tanto, pienso que uno lo ve desde la perspectiva de no tratar a los cultivos transgénicos como totalmente nuevos sino como parte del sistema biológico con el cual tenemos bastante experiencia, y uno se basa en la experiencia que tiene.¿Qué grado de flujo genético podemos anticipar entre el maíz transgénico y el teocintle?A. Kato El estudio de la introgresión entre maíz y teocintle y las estimaciones del grado de su ocurrencia, se han realizado utilizando tres tipos de análisis: a) morfológicos; b) cromosómicos (nudos y cromosomas especiales), y c) moleculares (variación isoenzimática). La información que se tiene hasta ahora deriva fundamentalmente de estos estudios, en donde se pueden reconocer dos corrientes de interpretación de los resultados y observaciones reportados en éstos. Estas interpretaciones se agrupan de la siguiente forma: a) Según los estudios y observaciones de campo, especialmente del análisis de características morfológicas, se ha propuesto que ocurre un considerable flujo genético en ambas direcciones (maíz a teocintle y viceversa).b) Los estudios cromosómicos, isoenzimáticos y algunos estudios morfológicos llegan a una conclusión diferente. En este tipo de estudios se considera que la introgresión no ocurre en algunos casos y en otros, ocurre en frecuencias muy bajas.El grupo 1 desarrolló algunos aspectos complementarios relacionados con los temas siguientes: la distribución del teocintle en México, y la frecuencia e intensidad del flujo genético entre el maíz y el teocintle. La discusión de estos temas se enfocó alrededor de las preguntas sugeridas por los organizadores, como se indica en el informe y en este grupo se discutieron, además, dos preguntas complementarias, ¿Dónde podrían ubicarse los sitios de prueba para el maíz transgénico? ¿Qué acciones de conservación de germoplasma debe emprender México, en el marco del advenimiento del maíz transgénico?Participaron en este grupo las siguientes personas: T.A. Kato (moderador), J.J. Sánchez (relator), B. Benz, R. Bird, F.Cárdenas, F. Castillo González, J. Manuel Hernández, J. Kermicle, R. Ortega-Paczka, S. Taba y V. Villalobos. Les correspondió a T. A. Kato, J. Sánchez y V. Villalobos hacer la presentación de los informes de los aspectos complementarios.En la mayoría de los trabajos mencionados las evidencias presentadas son circunstanciales y hasta ahora, no ha sido posible conocer suficientemente lo que ocurre en el campo entre maíz y teocintle simpátricos. En vista de lo anterior y con el objetivo de apoyar la toma de decisiones prácticas, se considera que para mantener un grado aceptable de seguridad, conviene adoptar la hipótesis de que sí ocurre la introgresión bidireccional entre maíz y teocintle, aun cuando ésta sea de baja frecuencia.A. Kato La información etnobotánica y los resultados de estudios experimentales indican que la probabilidad de flujo genético entre maíz transgénico y criollo sería mucho mayor que la anticipada para el maíz transgénico y teocintle. Se supone que habría mayor flujo genético entre maíces transgénicos y criollos por la intervención de los agricultores en algunos de los procesos que se indican a continuación: a) Los agricultores promueven o intervienen directamente en el movimiento de variedades de maíz dentro de la misma región, de regiones contiguas y entre zonas muy alejadas entre sí. Estas últimas ocurren mediante migración gradual o por introducciones directas.b) Los agricultores promueven la hibridación entre variedades de maíz, en muchos casos, de manera consciente y sistemática. c) Es muy frecuente encontrar que los agricultores tradicionales hacen selección empírica de sus maíces.Cuando algunos de estos agricultores obtienen alguna semilla superior, estos materiales seleccionados adquieren un alto nivel de aprecio entre las comunidades por lo que se puede hacer comercialización local y regional.El flujo genético de maíz transgénico a teocintle o a las variedades nativas puede ser afectado por diferentes factores, entre los que se identifican los siguientes: a) Las diferencias regionales en los métodos y prácticas de cultivo del maíz (fechas de siembra o uso de arvenses), y en el uso o adopción de materiales mejorados, que en el futuro podría incluir al maíz transgénico.b) La proximidad del maíz transgénico con el maíz local dentro de una región determinada. c) El grado de cruzamiento entre el maíz transgénico y el maíz o teocintle local, que estaría relacionado con factores como las barreras de aislamiento, ploidía y épocas de floración.d) La capacidad de sobrevivencia de la primera y segunda generaciones de los híbridos derivados de todas las combinaciones posibles entre el maíz transgénico, el teocintle y los maíces criollos.e) La presión de selección sobre las progenies de los híbridos derivados de todas las combinaciones posibles entre el maíz transgénico, el teocintle y los maíces criollos.f) La variación de la expresión del gene transferido en el material recipiente como, por ejemplo, los efectos pleitrópicos y epistáticos.g) Factores políticos y culturales relacionados con la promoción y aceptación de las nuevas variedades.A. Kato Los reportes de los resultados de pruebas experimentales con maíces transgénicos, que se han publicado hasta la fecha, indican que los genes transferidos presentan cierta estabilidad y parecen segregar en forma mendeliana. Por otra parte, parece que tampoco se han registrado publicaciones en donde se reporte la determinación de efectos pleitrópicos, epistáticos o de otra naturaleza, en los transgenes. Partiendo de lo anterior y suponiendo que los pocos reportes en la literatura reflejan adecuadamente y sin sesgo los resultados, se puede inferir que unas cuantas variedades transgénicas, en forma independiente, no tendrían un impacto significativo sobre las poblaciones de maíz o teocintle, aparte de aquellos que confieren específicamente los genes transferidos.Sin embargo, hay que tener presente que los sistemas de producción y la utilización del maíz en Estados Unidos y México son muy diferentes, por lo que las evaluaciones del maíz transgénico y las técnicas seguidas para ello en el primer país, no son necesariamente válidas para las condiciones del segundo.Además, suponiendo que en el futuro se introdujeran un número mayor de maíces transgénicos de diferente naturaleza, se tiene qué anticipar que la situación puede cambiar drásticamente en cada una de las localidades o regiones. En este sentido sería conveniente ponderar los elementos siguientes para la evaluación de las implicaciones del maíz transgénico en México: a) En las variedades transgénicas el gene transferido es un segmento adicional de ADN que normalmente no se encuentra en el maíz convencional ni en el teocintle. Por otro lado, durante el proceso de transferencia no es posible controlar el lugar de inserción del gene en los cromosomas. Por esta razón, en dos o más variedades transgénicas con el mismo gene transferido, éste puede encontrarse en diferentes loci formando parte de grupos de ligamiento distintos. Si algunas de estas variedades transgénicas son introducidas, independientemente, a una localidad y posteriormente los transgenes fueran transferidos al maíz criollo o al teocintle, por hibridación o introgresión, con el tiempo pueden llegar a juntarse en el mismo genomio y acumularse en las poblaciones nativas. Esto ocasionaría que el mismo transgene se encuentre por duplicado, triplicado o en repeticiones de mayor grado. Esta multiplicación génica dentro del mismo genomio podría causar diversas irregularidades, entre las que se encuentran principalmente las aberraciones cromosómicas y algunas anormalidades fisiológicas.Si esta situación llegara a establecerse en las poblaciones de maíz criollo y el teocintle, entonces se puede anticipar que se presentarían diversos efectos de los cuales muchos podrían ser desfavorables para un desarrollo y reproducción normales de las plantas y por tanto, de las poblaciones.b) Por otro lado, como los transgenes pueden mutar en forma libre, y si originalmente no mostraban algún efecto adverso, después del cambio producirían efectos de diversa índole, que actualmente no es posible predecir.Conforme se incremente la formación de variedades transgénicas y éstas, en proporciones similares, se introduzcan y se liberen, el número de genes totalmente extraños en los complejos génicos tanto del maíz como del teocintle irá en aumento. Se puede predecir que esta situación llegará en pocos años, dado que la tecnología está disponible y cada vez se perfecciona y se hace más eficaz. Esta situación podría generar nuevos tipos de interacciones génicas entre los transgenes y entre éstos y los genes \"nativos\". ¿Qué efectos producirán estas interacciones? No es posible anticipar algo concreto, pero potencialmente sí hay grandes posibilidades de que ocurran efectos considerables, tanto favorables como desfavorables.Un problema fundamental en el análisis de esta situación es la falta de información que pueda orientar la toma de decisiones en relación con la introducción, prueba y liberación del maíz transgénico y las consecuencias que podrían traer las acciones que se lleven a cabo. Lo más recomendable sería hacer estudios y pruebas piloto cuidadosamente controladas y estrictamente vigiladas para obtener la información requerida antes de introducir y liberar maíz transgénico.Es necesario además llevar a cabo estudios más precisos sobre introgresión entre maíces nativos y entre éstos y el teocintle, con la finalidad de aclarar si ocurre o no y en qué grado ocurre si éste es el caso. Estos estudios pueden hacerse bajo estricta vigilancia y supervisión de investigadores y académicos capaces.Una vez que se tenga evidencia de que el maíz transgénico no tiene efectos adversos en los maíces criollos o el teocintle y se tome la decisión de aprobar su uso comercial, suponiendo que se determine que el efecto general de éstos puede no diferir del que pueden tener, o han tenido, los maíces híbridos obtenidos por métodos convencionales de mejoramiento genético, se pueden anticipar las siguientes consecuencias: a) Desplazamiento de variedades nativas de uso en agricultura comercial, en periodos cortos de tiempo, en aquellos lugares donde existen condiciones de producción con potencial elevado.b) Desplazamiento o modificación lenta de variedades nativas para consumo con usos especiales. c) Las generaciones avanzadas de híbridos o variedades introducidas y \"adaptadas\", así como las variedades nativas \"modificadas\" pueden convertirse en la fuente de enlace en la transferencia de germoplasma exótico al teocintle.d) El uso de germoplasma exótico, con o sin transgenes, en forma de híbrido comercial, resulta en la expresión de características negativas que no se detectan de inmediato sino que aparecen en generaciones avanzadas o cuando se modifican algunos factores ambientales. Estas características negativas, como la susceptibilidad a ciertos factores ambientales, posteriormente pueden ser transferidas a variedades nativas o al teocintle.¿Dónde podrían ubicarse los sitios de prueba para el maíz transgénico?J. Sánchez La pregunta nos trata de forzar a definir un sitio de riesgo nulo; sin embargo, no quisimos aceptar esa idea. Nuestra propuesta es establecer áreas en donde se pudieran minimizar los riesgos. Entonces, se acotaron 4 zonas de riesgo con una escala cualitativa que va de cero a tres (0-3), con las definiciones siguientes: La zona de riesgo cero, que es aquella donde no hay riesgo, no será establecida, al menos en un futuro inmediato. La zona de riesgo 1, con poco riesgo, donde, si se hiciera alguna prueba, debería de existir al menos un método de aislamiento para el maíz transgénico. En la zona 2, de riesgo intermedio, deben aplicarse al menos dos métodos de aislamiento. ;;;;;;; ;;;;;;; ;;;;;;; ;;;;;;; ;;;;;;; ;;;;;;; yyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyy ;;;; ;;;;;;;;;  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;  ;;;;;;;;;;;;;  ;;;;;;;;;;;;  Finalmente, en la zona 3 que es de alto riesgo, no se darían permisos especiales y, si esos permisos se pudieran otorgar, entonces se deberán utilizar al menos tres estrategias de aislamiento.Los niveles de aislamiento serán de 3 tipos: 1) aislamiento espacial, para el cual se sugieren, 20 km de distancia de las áreas de producción de semilla o de poblaciones silvestres; 2) por ciclo de siembra, para el que se sugiere utilizar los ciclos de invierno donde la producción de maíz es reducida; 3) desespigamiento del material que se quiere probar. Estas serían algunas de las posibilidades para aislamiento.La supervisión de las zonas de riesgo deberá ser realizada por personal capaz y autorizado. Se sugiere que los supervisores sean agrónomos o biólogos, capacitados en aspectos de control y aislamiento.No habrá zona cero para los primeros dos o tres años. En la Figura A se señala la zona 1, que es la de menor riesgo y que coincide con las planicies costeras donde todavía existe maíz, por ejemplo, en Baja California, Sinaloa, Sonora o la frontera con los Estados Unidos, donde la siembra de maíces híbridos ha hecho que la siembra de maíces nativos sea casi nula. Sin embargo, cerca de la planicie costera del Pacífico a 300 m de altura hacia la Sierra Madre Occidental, se encuentra una frecuencia más alta de maíces nativos.La zona 2 (Figura A) en el trópico húmedo, corresponde a la zona de riesgo intermedio. Sin embargo, existen algunas áreas donde hay grupos indígenas, que tendríamos que considerar como zona de alto riesgo para el caso del maíz.La zona de riesgo tres (3) en la Figura A, cubre una buena parte de Chiapas, Oaxaca y Guerrero hasta una parte de la Sierra Madre Occidental, donde todavía tenemos muchos maíces nativos y la mayor parte de poblaciones conocidas de teocintle y Tripsacum.Si se quisieran probar materiales de Bajío y de Valles Altos se tendrían problemas por la gran cantidad de maíces criollos en estas dos regiones. La alternativa sería buscar zonas libres de maíces nativos en los estados de Puebla, Tlaxcala, Chiapas o Chihuahua.En algunas regiones del norte de México con altitudes de 1500 a 2000 m, de clima desértico, con pequeños lotes de riego y donde no se siembra maíz, se podrían utilizar algunas áreas de prueba. Estas podrían ser propuestas como zonas de riesgo intermedio.Se sugiere que a medida que se avance en los trabajos experimentales de flujo genético, estas zonas podrían modificarse. Es decir, se podrían cambiar algunas zonas cero hacia las regiones desérticas de la península de Baja California y probablemente algunas pequeñas zonas de tipo 3 podrían pasar, posteriormente, a zonas de nivel 1 ó 2.¿Qué acciones de conservación de germoplasma debe emprender México, en el marco del advenimiento del maíz transgénico?V. Villalobos Como primer punto de análisis se describió la situación de los bancos de germoplasma en Mexico. En este sentido, se consideraron únicamente las colecciones ex situ.Existen unas 16,000 accesiones de materiales mexicanos que incluyen maíz, teocintle y Tripsacum. El INIFAP tiene aproximadamante 10,000 accesiones y el CIMMYT cuenta con aproximadamente 4,000 accesiones que, básicamente, son duplicados de las que posee el INIFAP. Existe una colección en el Colegio de Postgraduados con aproximadante 2,000 accesiones, las cuales han sido colectadas en sus nichos ecológicos, lo cual le confiere una identidad propia.Se ha estimado que la diversidad genética de los géneros Zea y Tripsacum en América Latina, está contenida en aproximadamente 26,000 accesiones que se encuentran almacenadas en diversas colecciones de todo el Continente. El CIMMYT está interesado en colectar la mayoría de esta diversidad genética y en la actualidad cuenta con aproximadamente 14,000 accesiones de ese total.Se estima que existe una colección básica (base collection) de 4,000 accesiones mantenida a -18 o C y 10% de humedad relativa, en Bancos de Germplasma de largo plazo.Se hacen estudios para determinar la colección activa, que es la que se usa generalmente para el mejoramiento genético y estudios básicos (10% representativa de la colección básica). Esta colección está en formación en el CIMMYT y se integraría con 1,000 a 1,500 accesiones.Para la conservación ex situ, se propusieron dos recomendaciones fundamentales. Una de ellas, práctica y de corto plazo, es que se mantenga en una caja de depósito del Banco de Germoplasma del CIMMYT, el material que se encuentra en el Colegio de Postgraduados ya que no se cuenta con condiciones para el mantenimiento de baja temperatura. Asimismo, se propuso analizar cuál es el estado de la colección del INIFAP, y solicitar que una réplica de esa colección también se almacene a largo plazo en las condiciones adecuadas. Si hay repetición de las colecciones, que éstas se almacenen transitoriamente en los bancos de germoplasma mientras se renuevan o mejoran las instalaciones de almacenamiento de la institución solicitante del servicio.La segunda recomendación, que no se puede seguir posponiendo, es que México necesita tener un Banco Nacional de Germoplasma Vegetal, no sólo para maíz, sino para todas las especies botánicas de importancia agrícola. Desafortunadamente, México que es uno de los centros de diversidad genética vegetal más importantes, no cuenta con un banco de esas características.La diversidad del teocintle en condiciones ex situ es la siguiente: El CIMMYT tiene aproximadamente 150 accesiones, mientras que el INIFAP cuenta con aproximadamente 140 colecciones. Estas 290 colecciones, de las que no sabemos exactamente si hay duplicación entre ellas, representan el 80% de la diversidad nacional.En el caso de Tripsacum no se tienen muchos datos. Sin embargo, se estimó que existen aproximadamente 150 ó 200 accesiones en los bancos, que representan a 16 especies de las 24 que existen.Se indicó que de las razas de maíz que se han colectado y almacenado, sólo alrededor del 10% de estas razas se utilizan para los programas de mejoramiento actual. Este dato es muy importante y deberá considerarse para las recomendaciones futuras.En cuanto a la conservación in situ de maíz y teocintle se analizó, en primer lugar, la definición de este tipo de conservación. Se partió del hecho de que el maíz es un material genético de mucha movilidad por lo que la conservación in situ es muy compleja. Así, nuestra definición operacional de la conservación in situ de maíces es la de conservación en finca, donde los agricultores protegen o seleccionan sus variedades criollas para garantizar determinada producción. En muchos casos, el mantenimiento de la identidad genética que representa a una raza en particular se hará de manera empírica. Ejemplos de lo anterior son las razas Zapalote Chico, Tabloncillo y Pepitilla; éstos, en cuanto a su órden de magnitud, son diferentes en relación al Tuxpeño o al Maíz Cónico.Se consideró que los factores que afectan la permanencia y la fertilidad de las razas que se han conservado merced al trabajo y el manejo que le dan los productores, son exactamente los mismos que pudieran en un momento dado afectar a los híbridos e inclusive a los materiales transgénicos.Cuando se hace referencia a la conservación in situ de teocintle, se considera que el teocintle sí se mantiene en condiciones in situ. En estas condiciones destacan, por ejemplo, el teocintle Chalco y el de la Mesa Central (Zea mexicana), Durango, Nobogame, Jalisco, Oaxaca y las zonas donde se encuentran Zea diploperennis, Z. perennis y Z. mays spp. parviglumis. Cabe destacar que existe una área silvestre protegida que es la de Manantlán, Jalisco, la cual ha considerado dentro de sus proyectos la conservación en finca de una población de Z. diploperennis.Se consideró que se deben tomar algunas acciones para determinar el tamaño de las colecciones en sus dos condiciones.En primer lugar, se consideró que la introducción o la liberación de material transgénico afectará de manera directa a los maíces criollos y posteriormente al teocintle a través de los criollos. Las prioridades y las recomendaciones deben estar precisamente orientadas a estas dos especies en ese orden.La primera recomendación es que, previamente a la liberación del maíz transgénico, se complete el 20% de las colecciones que faltan para tener la representatividad de la diversidad genética de teocintle en México, bajo condiciones ex situ. Igualmente, es importante intensificar, lo mas pronto posible, un programa de monitoreo de las poblaciones de teocintle, con la participación de las instituciones locales. De esta forma se rescataría el conocimiento de las comunidades que están de alguna manera asociadas al manejo de su germoplasma. Esto entraría en los datos de pasaporte de las accesiones.Se recomienda hacer estudios demográficos, estudios de exploración y de caracterización. En este sentido, se recomienda complementar la caracterización morfológica con estudios de diversidad molecular, perfiles electroforéticos y huellas de ADN. Una vez hechos estos estudios, se harían estudios poblacionales y evolutivos.Respecto a los criollos, es importante hacer una caracterización in situ y ex situ. Hay muchos materiales almacenados, por lo que sería importante discriminar la posible duplicidad de esas colecciones y de alguna forma complementar las dos colecciones más importantes existentes en el país.Con el fin de atender los riesgos que implica la pérdida de germoplasma, debido a los factores mencionados por algunos de los investigadores invitados a este taller y que están desplazando y erosionando la diversidad de estas especies, se recomienda identificar aquellas zonas de más alto riesgo para que se inicien estos trabajos precisamente en esas zonas. Se recomienda igualmente trabajar en zonas contiguas o cercanas a las poblaciones que tienen un alto crecimiento demográfico o aquellas que están sujetas a cambios ecológicos importantes.Se consideró que la liberación de maíz transgénico entraña riesgos, pero es necesario hacer el balance de riesgo y beneficio para determinar si los riesgos pueden ser mayores que los beneficios y cómo afectan o benefician éstos a los productores de diferentes niveles socioeconómicos. En otras palabras, se estimó que el material transgénico que se incorpore al mercado estará sujeto a la elección y posteriormente al manejo y comercialización de los productores.El grupo 1 sugirió que tal vez en las áreas de alto riesgo no debería haber pruebas, aunque con el desespigamiento y las medidas de control, no se espera que haya flujo de genes. Si no hubiera polen y si hubiera medidas de control, ¿sería posible diseñar un campo experimental de bajo riesgo que podría ser de alto riesgo si hubiera polinización libre? J. Sánchez: Las áreas que se identifican como de alto riesgo, incluyen la mayor parte de las zonas de Valles Altos, Bajío o zonas intermedias. Sin embargo, se mencionó que en esas zonas no se prohibirían totalmente las pruebas. En esas zonas, las medidas de control deberán ser, al menos tres de las que nosotros mencionabamos. Una es desespigamiento; otra es distancia. De hecho, nuestra propuesta no niega la posibilidad de acercar los materiales a la región, sino que las medidas de contención deberían ser mucho más astringentes, siempre y cuando fueran autorizadas las pruebas de campo.Sólo quiero hacer un comentario. Creo que es útil pensar en términos de dos o tres niveles de protección, aunque creo que es importante no pensar en ellos como aditivos. Es importante ver factores biológicos, y pensar en ellos como un sistema biológico; hay que ver si un procedimiento de contención es efectivo por sí sólo o en combinación con otros. En los Estados Unidos, hubo una tendencia a pensar en ciertos procedimientos como aditivos. Yo sé que lo hacen para ahorrar tiempo pero como medida de precaución, se debería ver y considerar la biología.Quiero hacer una aclaración. La colección de maíces de México que tiene INIFAP es de alrededor de 10,000 colectas. De estas colectas, aproximadamente, entre 4,000 a 5,000 se encuentran en CIMMYT. En Fort Collins, Colorado, se encuentra una réplica de las colectas que posee el CIMMYT y estamos en un proceso de reproducción e incremento de los materiales que no se encuentran ni en Fort Collins ni en CIMMYT, para que haya duplicados en los dos Bancos.Me gustaría agregar algo a los comentarios que hizo el Dr. Cárdenas. Tal vez haya personas en el público que no advierten que el INIFAP probablemente ha dedicado más esfuerzos a colectar y regenerar colectas de maíz que cualquier otro país u organización en el mundo en los últimos 10 años. El Dr. Cárdenas encabeza estas actividades, el investigador Juan Manuel Hernández ha hecho por lo menos la mitad de ese trabajo y Jesús Sánchez también ha hecho mucho de ese trabajo. No creo que eso se reconozca ampliamente. Además, México supera con mucho a cualquier otro país en términos del estudio reciente de las colecciones de maíz indígena.No sabía que existiera información que mostrara que los transgenes tienen un grado de mutación más alto que el de otros genes. ¿Me podría dar algún ejemplo de transgenes con un grado de mutación más alto?A. Kato: Bueno, en realidad yo tampoco sé cual es el grado o la frecuencia de mutación de éstos transgenes; no tengo información al respecto. Pero yo supongo que puede ser al menos similar al de los genes normales del genomio. Entonces, creo que desde ese punto de vista, su comportamiento puede ser semejante al de los demás genes, pero con el tiempo pueden acumularse mutaciones y cambiar el efecto. En síntesis, creo que no se puede predecir.Sobre este tema, pienso que si se agrega que la incorporación de un gene al genoma, a través de ingeniería genética, éste se va a comportar en lo sucesivo como cualquier otro gene en forma mendeliana.Creo que no es estrictamente cierto que los transgenes se van a comportar en forma mendeliana, porque en el material no transgénico no existe ese gene. ¿Cómo se va a comportar al cruzarse y al retrocruzarse? Todavía no lo sabemos.El gene insertado es un segmento adicional, por lo que podemos suponer que es como si se introdujera un cromosoma muy pequeño intercalado en un cromosoma normal; entonces no podríamos decir cómo se va a comportar ese cromosoma. Aunque es un segmento muy pequeño, no podemos predecir en forma exacta cómo se va a comportar. Posteriormente, si una variedad tiene transgenes homocigóticos, probablemente se comporte de forma mendeliana, pero no se podría asegurar con absoluta certeza. Cuando se cruzan materiales transgénicos y no transgénicos la confianza en la predicción es aún mucho menor.Es que casualmente todo eso ya se sabe. Toda la información sobre material transgénico apoya esas funciones. Si, a través de la biología molecular, se incorpora un gene bien conocido a un genoma receptivo, éste se va a comportar y va a tener un mecanismo, una forma de segregación, como lo dictan las leyes de Mendel. Después debemos considerar que hay todavía, en efecto, cierta incertidumbre respecto al lugar preciso en que ese gene se está insertando, lo cual va a cambiar las características fenotípicas y genotípicas del inviduo receptor. Pero hay que tomar en cuenta que ese material que fue modificado genéticamente entra a un programa de mejoramiento de tipo convencional, en el cual se eliminan aquellos individuos que no tienen ningún interés agronómico y aquéllos que son seleccionados, a través del método convencional, son las variedades que en su momento vamos a incorporar a una población comercial.Sí, pero el punto que estamos tratando aquí es la relación de materiales transgénicos y los no transgénicos. Si nada más se trata de manejar grupos de materiales transgénicos, es otra cosa muy diferente, pero aquí estamos hablando del efecto que puede tener el transgene o gene transferido una vez que se introduce a los materiales no transgénicos, es decir, tanto cultivados como silvestres. Lo antes expuesto es un problema diferente, creo yo. Porque si fuera igual que manejar materiales no transgénicos, como los manejamos tradicionalmente, entonces ¿cuál es la preocupación de estar aquí discutiendo este tema?Me parece conveniente comentar que es menos complicado anticipar lo que podría pasar en el maíz criollo con la inserción de un transgene, que imaginarnos lo que podría pasar en el teocintle. En el caso del maíz, podríamos suponer que el transgene tendría el mismo efecto sobre los criollos, pero sería muy difícil anticipar lo que puede pasar con los teocintles, porque muchos de esos genes pueden tener un efecto pleitrópico y modificar muchísimo, por ejemplo, la manera de reproducirse del teocintle.Un punto que sí debemos considerar es que los transgenes son segmentos de ADN extra, que no existen en el género Zea. Porque si se hubieran obtenido del género Zea, de cualquier especie o población, entonces ya sería otro asunto muy diferente.De hecho, muchos genes provienen de microorganismos o de especies de plantas muy diferentes entre sí. Sin embargo, con la experiencia de haber visto miles de transgenes, retrocruzas de muchas generaciones de F 6 ó F 8 , las construcciones sí se comportan de forma mendeliana, a menos que se haya incorporado más de un gene en el transgene. En tal caso, varios tipos de recombinaciones pueden ocurrir con secuencias similares. Esas nunca se toman como pruebas ya que si no son estables, no sirven como material básico. Las que muestran transgenes útiles son en general aquellas a las que sólo se les incorporó un gene. Si los genes se originan de un microorganismo, el gene necesitaría de cierta manipulación en el laboratorio para cambiar secuencias de bases para que así se exprese en la planta y sea estable y se mantenga. Sin embargo, ese trabajo generalmente se determina en el laboratorio y el invernadero y los que van al campo han sido muy estables durante varias generaciones. Eso es lo que pasa con miles de diferentes tipos de plantas, incluyendo al maíz, en los Estados Unidos.De todos los experimentos que se han hecho hasta ahora, sólo conozco un caso con un claro efecto pleiotrópico. Este ocurrió cuando, en el segundo año de pruebas de campo, se distribuyó ampliamente un material experimental en varios estados y se involucraron nuevos ambientes. Por consiguiente, se observó una reacción ambiental con el genotipo, hubo achaparramiento, éste se reconoció enseguida y, por supuesto, la línea se retiró del programa de mejoramiento, que es lo que se debe hacer cuando se encuentran pleiótropos en un programa de mejoramiento. Así, los transgenes se han comportado, en nuestra experiencia actual, durante 7 u 8 años y muchas generaciones, en forma mendeliana, lo cual no significa que sean estables. Son tan estables como cualquier otra parte del genomio, pero no menos.Sólo quiero subrayar lo que J. Payne dijo en dos puntos. El primero, es cierto que cuando uno incorpora un transgene en una pieza de ADN en el cromosoma de un organismo, se crea un pequeño segmento de micro-heterogeneidad en ese locus. Empero, esa heterogeneidad existe en cualquier genomio de cualquier planta. Sabemos que hay inserciones y deleciones, que hay ADN repetitivo en una cantidad considerable y que las unidades de repetición varían mucho, aun entre dos plantas del mismo campo de cultivo; el organismo se encarga de regular toda esta heterogeneidad. El otro punto es que siempre es cierto que cuando un gene se introduce a un nuevo genoma no podemos predecir a priori qué es lo que va a pasar. Sin embargo, casi todos los genes que se han usado hasta ahora -el gene bar, el gene gus, los genes de resistencia a los antibióticos y los genes Bt-se han incorporado en muchas plantas diferentes, y obtenemos el mismo fenotipo, siempre y cuando nos limitemos a introducir un solo gene estable. Creo que sería justo decir que esos genes, son genes mendelianos y que su nivel de expresión -en la mayoría de los casos y sin tomar en cuenta en qué planta se introduzcan-será muy similar.Lo que he estado diciendo es lo que se discutió en nuestro grupo y no quiero forzar a la aceptación de lo que hemos resumido en nuestra presentación. Sin embargo, quiero preguntar a los participantes de esta reunión: ¿Tiene alguien la certeza de que siempre habrá un comportamiento idéntico de los transgenes? Como en el caso de la introgresión, yo siempre había tenido la idea de que el maíz y el teocintle se mantienen genéticamente aislados, pero por la información que se ha dado en este taller me doy cuenta que se debe considerar un grado de incertidumbre. Entonces, por cuestiones prácticas, debo aceptar que puede haber introgresión y que eso es lo más conveniente para la toma de decisiones en situaciones especiales.Creo que nunca hay certeza absoluta. Creo, dado el tamaño de unos cientos o quizá mil diferentes líneas de plantas transformadas y cultivadas en el campo, que el tamaño tal vez no sea el adecuado. Sin embargo, la evidencia hasta el momento muestra que son estables en un gene, no con certeza absoluta pero, con las muestras disponibles hasta ahora, es bastante segura. En cuanto al punto específico de cambiar de germoplasma elite a germoplasma silvestre, ese experimento está llevándose a cabo en varios casos y estoy bastante familiarizado con uno de ellos que es el cambiar la calabaza de mesa cultivada a su pariente silvestre. Además, los genes son muy estables en el pariente silvestre, así como en el germoplasma elite.A. Kato: ¿Se conoce la causa de esa inestabilidad? ¿Se refieren a inestabilidad en la expresión o en la transmisión? J. Payne: Yo me refería al caso en donde puede haber múltiples copias insertadas y después hay una recombinación dentro del material y eso es cierto. Puede tener un efecto en el germoplasma pero no sé nada de ello, si generalmente es un asunto de número de copias. Ese tipo de inestabilidad ocurre cuando hay pérdida del gene o de la función del gene, cualquiera de las dos. Ese nivel de inestabilidad se ha detectado de manera muy temprana en las pruebas de campo. Si esos cientos o quizás miles de líneas que mencioné antes -ojalá tuviera un número más exacto-se hubieran colocado en el campo sin que se les observara con cuidado, no estaría contestando su pregunta con tanta seguridad, pero sí han estado bajo un intenso escrutinio y se les ha seguido muy cuidadosamente. Además, se han traído de regreso los materiales del campo y se les ha analizado a nivel molecular, e incluso a ese nivel no se ha observado cambio alguno en el grado de mutación o en la estabilidad en ese punto.Aunque un gene puede ser tan estable en una especie como en otra, el efecto final sobre cada especie puede ser diferente. Un ejemplo podría ser el cambio de endospermo en el maíz, en donde el efecto sobre la germinación de la semilla es mucho menor. Con el maíz no importa, porque se pueden sembrar más semillas, pero si ese gene pasa al teocintle, puede tener un efecto negativo sobre el endospermo y sobre la germinación, con la diferencia de que en este caso no hay nadie ahí para sembrar más semillas.Informe presentado por el grupo 1.Entonces, se estaría cambiando el sistema reproductivo de la especie y eso sí es un efecto letal. Aunque el efecto inicial es exactamente el mismo.Propongo que acordemos que, una vez incorporado un gene a través de ingeniería genética, en cualquier genoma recipiente, en este caso de maíz, variedad o criollo, el transgene se va a comportar en forma mendeliana.Mi opinión es que, hasta donde hay evidencia, los transgenes se comportan, una vez incorporados a un material, de forma mendeliana y estable; sin embargo, puede haber excepciones a las que habría que prestar mayor atención.Al decir de forma mendeliana no quiere decir que no haya excepciones y modificaciones y eso se conocerá con el tiempo.Hay dos cosas aquí que, tal vez conviene no mezclarlas: una es en sí la mecánica de la ingeniería genética y la otra son los riesgos. Entonces una cosa no está garantizando la otra. Lo que estamos tratando de hacer es minimizar los riesgos potenciales, suponiendo que éstos existen. En otras palabras, se trata de minimizar los riesgos y aumentar los beneficios.Me preocupa un poco que los resultados positivos lleguen a la literatura científica y que los resultados negativos no lleguen. Por ejemplo, si las cosas siguen las relaciones mendelianas, la gente suele trabajar con ellas; sin embargo, si no se entiende una relación de 17 a 32, no lo publican. Además, en primer lugar, muchas de estas cosas son hechas en secreto por las empresas y éstas, por lo general, no publican mucho de su trabajo. Es obvio que los materiales que llegan a las pruebas de rendimiento y las que finalmente se liberan tienen principalmente un comportamiento mendeliano. Es decir, van a tener una buena expresión. Lo que no creo que la mayoría de ustedes sepa -algunos tal vez sí-es que un gene dado con buena expresión en la línea de maíz Missouri 17 no tiene buena expresión en la línea 247 del CIMMYT. Entonces, ¿cuántas veces se tendrán problemas para obtener buenas expresiones cuando se transfieren las construcciones de una línea a otra? No puedo imaginarme que de vez en cuando no se encuentren problemas genéticos de algún tipo. En la expresión de los genes que yo conozco todo es cuantitativo; hay una expresión en diferentes situaciones y no imagino que esas cosas tampoco tengan variabilidad en sus antecedentes. No dudo que los que cumplen con las condiciones de comercialización sean bastante buenos y no creo que ninguno cree problemas. Sin embargo, no veo ningún motivo para apresurarnos y decir que todo es de esta manera a menos que estemos absolutamente seguros de que tal es el caso.Creo que todos estamos totalmente de acuerdo con lo que M. Goodman acaba de decir. El punto clave es que un transgene no es diferente en absoluto a cualquier otro gene que exista en la planta. Todo lo que sabemos que puede pasarle a los genes probablemente ya les ha pasado o les pasará a los transgenes.También estoy de acuerdo con D. Louette en que, cuando ciertos genes se introducen a otras especies de plantas, pueden tener un efecto final diferente. Tenemos que la misma expresión produce el mismo producto; sin embargo, por muchas razones también tendrán un efecto último en la viabilidad de ese organismo.¿Qué tipo de investigaciones deben llevarse a cabo para evaluar el efecto de la introgresión del maíz transgénico en el teocintle y los maíces criollos? La tarea de este grupo fue evaluar el estado del conocimiento actual en relación con la evaluación de riesgos y bioseguridad, así como diseñar las investigaciones necesarias para analizar y evaluar el efecto y los impactos posibles del maíz transgénico en caso de liberación al ambiente.Participaron en este taller las personas siguientes: F. Castillo (moderador), D. Louette (relatora), N. Ellstrand, M. Goodman, J. Kermicle, J. Larson, R. Obando, J. A. Serratos, V. Villalobos, G. Wilkes y M. Willcox. Correspondió a F. Castillo y N.Ellstrand la presentación del informe.3.2. Resistencia a herbicidas. El maíz transgénico resistente a herbicidas puede producir dos tipos de impacto. Para las poblaciones de teocintle se presentaría una situación de riesgo en el momento de la aplicación de herbicidas que acompañe a la introducción de variedades transgénicas resistentes a éstos. En este caso, se impondría una selección negativa muy intensa sobre el teocintle que crece en los campos cultivados lo que implicaría un grave riesgo de extinción. Es necesario hacer notar que los agricultores, en algunas zonas donde crece el teocintle, ejercen también una fuerte presión de selección negativa sobre el teocintle, aunque no es una actitud generalizada en todas las regiones (confróntese con la presentación de J. Sánchez, en este mismo documento). La rotación de cultivos también puede tener un efecto similar.El segundo impacto sería completamente opuesto al descrito antes. En este escenario se supondría una ventaja adaptativa del teocintle, si el transgene se incorporara a éste, por introgresión. El teocintle podría desarrollar una mayor capacidad de sobrevivencia por la resistencia a herbicidas y en consecuencia, incrementar su potencialidad de convertirse en maleza.3.3. Genes que modifican la calidad del grano. Se anticipó que los genes que controlan algunas características del grano podrán manipularse en el futuro, por lo que se discutieron los riesgos posibles.La modificación del endospermo, como el carácter dulce y amiláceo que se presenta en algunos tipos de maíz, reduce la longevidad de las semillas. Si estos genes se presentaran en teocintle, reducirían su capacidad de germinar en el campo. Las semillas de teocintle permanecen en el suelo en estado de latencia por lo que, si se incorporaran genes modificadores del endospermo, estas semillas de teocintle no tendrían la misma capacidad de sobrevivencia que las semillas normales. Si se incrementara el contenido de aceite, el resultado sería similar.3.4. Genes que modifican la estructura de la planta. La introgresión de genes que condicionan la androesterilidad, reducirían la capacidad de sobrevivencia del portador e incrementarían la tasa de cruzamiento; con seguridad, las poblaciones de teocintle serían modificadas desventajosamente en relación al maíz. Se mencionó que la modificación de algunas características estructurales podrían reducir la capacidad de formar semilla. En este sentido, una posibilidad serían los genes que controlan la reducción de ramas laterales de las inflorescencias. En teocintle, la incorporación de transgenes que controlarán la característica mencionada reduciría la capacidad de formar semilla y generar progenie.3.5. Genes que condicionan la apomixis. La institución francesa ORSTOM está llevando a cabo, en colaboración con el CIMMYT, un proyecto de investigación cuyo objetivo es transferir la apomixis del Tripsacum al maíz. Dados los avances de esta investigación, se infiere que la posibilidad de obtener maíz apomíctico y su manipulación genética a través de ingeniería genética podría ser una realidad en el futuro próximo. En este sentido, el advenimiento del maíz apomíctico incrementaría la capacidad de reproducción \"vegetativa\" del maíz, por lo que disminuiría la variabilidad de las poblaciones. Para el maíz criollo ésto produce efectos similares al uso extensivo de híbridos. Para el teocintle se podría anticipar una reducción significativa de la variación de las poblaciones si suponemos que es posible el flujo genético del maíz apomíctico al teocintle.4. Para determinar el efecto de los maíces transgénicos sobre los maíces criollos y los teocintles, se identificaron 5 áreas de investigación de las cuales existe información en cantidad variable. A continuación se describen estas áreas de investigación en adelanto de la posterior exposición detallada que hará Norm Ellstrand de algunas de estas áreas.4 Los tres híbridos se compararían en función de su adaptabilidad. Este experimento debería realizarse con un rango amplio de transgenes y si es posible para cada gene que se quiera liberar.Diseño de experimentos e investigaciones para estudiar la hibridación y la introgresión de maíz transgénico a maíces criollos y teocintle y viceversa.N. Ellstrand El objetivo de los experimentos que propusimos es medir dos parámetros relevantes que pueden utilizarse en modelos para evaluar las consecuencias de la introducción de plantas transgénicas. Los parámetros relevantes son el grado de migración (m) y el coeficiente selectivo (s). Estos parámetros son adecuados para varios modelos y además permiten predecir con bastante certeza qué es lo que va a pasar.Nosotros proponemos tres tipos de experimentos. El primero tiene qué ver con los grados de hibridación para calcular m y su variación. El segundo serían experimentos de introgresión para calcular la aptitud relativa del híbrido que podría ser negativa o positiva. De igual manera, el coeficiente selectivo del gene normal necesita calcularse independientemente del coeficiente selectivo del transgene, porque en ambos tipos de genes los coeficientes selectivos podrían ser positivos, negativos, o estar en conflicto. Finalmente, el tercer tipo de experimentos sería calcular el coeficiente selectivo del transgene en el híbrido. Las plantas transgénicas no se utilizarían en los dos primeros; por tanto, los experimentos se pueden hacer in situ.El experimento número uno es quizás el más complicado. El punto más importante es medir el grado de flujo de genes de los cultivares modernos a las razas nativas, de los cultivares modernos al teocintle y de las razas nativas al teocintle. Esto podría lograrse utilizando por lo menos dos -y tantas como sea posible-localidades apropiadas. Las regiones de macro distribución de teocintle como la Mesa Central, la del Balsas y Chalco, serían dos localidades adecuadas, con dos localidades de repetición por cada localidad general, una in situ, de ser posible, y otra, en una estación experimental local del INIFAP.Los materiales de prueba se sembrarían de manera variable para ajustarse a las variaciones naturales y la fenología de todas las localidades mexicanas. Debido a la replicación que tienen con el tiempo, se podría hacer el experimento en un año. Eso es útil con respecto a la información que se necesita y con respecto al interés de la industria de la biotecnología.Después de la lluvia de ideas, se decidió que el uso de marcadores codominantes era el más eficaz. Cuando se hacen pruebas de progenie, se puede identificar qué progenie se cruzó al otro tipo. Se toma esa progenie, se cruza con cada uno de los progenitores y se divide el número total de progenies y ese es el cálculo de m. Esto puede calcularse entre sitios dentro de una localidad, entre localidades o tipos taxonómicos, de ser el caso, y entre tiempos diferentes, lo que da como resultado un muy buen cálculo de la variación del flujo de genes en esos niveles.En el segundo experimento se siembran plantas de la siguiente generación en los mismos sitios in situ. Se tendrían F 1 's (de ser necesario se forzaría la hibridación a partir de la semilla creada por un estudio previo) y lo que llamamos S 1 's o medios hermanos. Así es que tenemos tipos puros y tipos híbridos cuya aptitud relativa mediremos.La diferencia entre esas aptitudes nos da el coeficiente selectivo (s), que representa la ventaja o la desventaja de los genes de cultivos que se encuentran en un híbrido: ya sea que se les inserte o se les retenga de la población. Como tenemos híbridos, también podemos examinar la transmisión del marcador de cultivo específico en un híbrido, lo que nos permitiría calcular la aptitud masculina. Esta característica, a menudo pasada por alto en los estudios ecológicos, es importante porque, aun si la planta carece totalmente de semillas, produce polen. De igual manera, en este caso, la aptitud de otras plantas que podrían ser fertilizadas tiene un impacto.Las pruebas de aptitud masculina (en términos de transmisión de marcadores y de pruebas de progenie) comparan las semillas que se toman directamente de las hembras. Los estudios de germinación se realizan para determinar la frecuencia del marcador en la semilla contra la frecuencia del marcador en las semillas que germinan. La frecuencia puede aumentar o disminuir dependiendo de la aptitud de la semilla y el punto hasta el que el marcador afecta la aptitud. La superviviencia de la planta es otro componente de la aptitud. Si las cosas se hacen de manera correcta, la primera siembra puede hacerse en el primer año y la segunda siembra en el segundo, con todas las combinaciones apropiadas: híbridos, entre el maíz moderno y las razas nativas, entre el teocintle y las razas nativas y entre el teocintle y el maíz moderno (en este caso, en las hembras).El tercer experimento se hace para medir la aptitud relativa cuando se incorpora un transgene. Así que necesitamos comparar un híbrido que involucre al maíz transformado (tan cercano a un producto pre comercial como sea posible) y maíz sin transformar que esté lo más cerca posible al que fue transformado. Se entiende que ocurre poco cambio genético, aunque la pregunta más importante tiene que ver con el impacto del transgene en la aptitud específica.Hoy día no es posible conducir estos experimentos in situ. Sin embargo, éstos deben de llevarse a cabo bajo condiciones lo más cercanas posibles, seguramente en México. Un grupo sintió que estos estudios de aptitud podrían incorporarse a las pruebas a pequeña escala, en campos abiertos que propuso el Grupo 1, dado que las condiciones de contención que sugieren son lo suficientemente astringentes. Estos experimentos deben ser conducidos por científicos que entienden las medidas de aptitud. Los tamaños de las muestras deben ser los adecuados para descubrir las diferencias en la hibridación en la aptitud que son importantes biológicamente: la importancia estadística sin la importancia biológica no sirve de nada. Si la muestra no puede capturar la importancia biológica, entonces los experimentos no deben de llevarse a cabo.R. Bird: Una sugerencia para este grupo es que este estudio de introgresión requiere al menos de dos años, por la necesidad que existe de tener algo de retrocruzamiento cuando se observan combinaciones de caracteres que no son de F 1 , sino de caracteres propios en diferentes miembros de la población de retrocruzas en ambas direcciones.¿Sugieres que tomemos, en el tercer año, la progenie que hemos recolectado: retrocruzas, F 2 s y nuevos F 1 s, y los coloquemos de vuelta en el campo para tener una generación avanzada?, o ¿sugieres que hagamos el experimento en repeticiones?No sólo repeticiones, también avances. Se puede avanzar en las generaciones de invierno o en los invernaderos, para obtener resultados con mayor rapidez.Algo más: se necesita tener en cuenta que teocintle y probablemente la F1 o algunas retrocruzas, deben ser tratadas con agua oxigenada para que germinen de manera sincrónica y en un alto porcentaje. En otras palabras, si se pone la semilla de teocintle en agua oxigenada a 20% durante 5 horas, se logra el 95% de germinación, pero sin esto la germinación es de sólo 5%.En el caso de que hubiera una o algunas variedades de maíz que presentaran resistencia a herbicida y que esta resistencia se hubiera obtenido a través de mejoramiento convencional -que quizá estén o hayan sido utilizadas, alguna vez, como material comercial-¿Creerían conveniente utilizar este tipo de material para ver la transmisión de estos caracteres que se semejan más a los que muy probablemente estén en materiales transgénicos? Me refiero de manera específica al gene bar que se usa como marcador de selección en plantas transgénicas de maíz.¿Sugiere usted que se use exclusivamente el gene marcador de selección en el experimento tipo 3 que es con plantas transgénicas?A. Alvarez: Sugiero utilizar como fuente de polen las plantas resistentes a herbicida que se han obtenido por métodos convencionales.Me gustaría dejar en claro que los experimentos tipo 3 serían experimentos múltiples utilizando varios productos transgénicos que serían propuestos para su liberación en México. No estamos hablando de comparar una sola construcción transgénica contra un tipo no-transformado. De hecho, estamos buscando la generalidad. Nosotros calculamos que esto se asociaría con las pruebas de campo a pequeña escala que realizan las empresas y que tan pronto como una colección representativa de esos productos se acumulara y se analizaran sus datos, se encontraría uno de estos tres tipos de información. Ya sea que las plantas transgénicas sean característicamente inferiores a los híbridos no transgénicos, que los híbridos transgénicos sean característicamente superiores, o que los híbridos transgénicos son variables comparados con sus contrapartes.Si experimentalmente vamos a evaluar un material transgénico, tal vez una buena pregunta es: ¿contra qué compararlo? Participé en una reunión, en la cual se discutió sobre un concepto que se llama equivalencias substanciales. Y este concepto se acuñó debido a esa necesidad de comparar un material transgénico con algo que le sea lo más parecido posible al no transgénico.Entonces este concepto, equivalencia substancial, se refiere al genotipo que es exactamente el mismo sin el transgene y de esa forma se hacen todas las pruebas y evaluaciones de campo. Esto es importante considerarlo no tanto por el aspecto meramente experimental, sino porque estos materiales van a llegar a los supermercados o van a llegar al público dentro de poco tiempo. Entonces, tenemos que pensar en la explicación al consumidor en cuanto a ese material que ha sido modificado genéticamente. Tal vez convenga hacer una reflexión respecto a uno de los genes que sabemos que va a ser uno de los blancos objetivo de la transformación en maíz que es precisamente el de herbicidas, o sea, ¿contra qué lo vamos a comparar? Como yo interpreto esa pregunta, es compararlo contra el material que a través de métodos convencionales se ha seleccionado para resistencia a herbicidas, es decir, compararlo contra el mismo genotipo sin el gene. Esa es la pregunta en todo casoMe gustaría añadir mis comentarios personales. Como los productos transgénicos son, básicamente, nuevos en su naturaleza, tal vez sea imposible encontrar comparaciones relevantes. Así, tenemos maíz transformado para que sea resistente a los herbicidas: tal vez sea imposible encontrar maíz no transformado que tenga resistencia a los herbicidas. Yo pienso que ese es el punto número 1. El otro punto que quiero tocar es subrayar que el proceso que involucra la transferencia de múltiples genes: las construcciones, sus marcadores de genes y el marcador seleccionador. Nos gustaría conocer el impacto de éstos así como el fenotipo del híbrido. Esto faltaría en las líneas endogámicas tradicionales.Mi pregunta es de un tema un poco diferente. Me gustaría saber si el diseño del experimento consigue el efecto deseado. Me parece que la aptitud tiene dos diferentes significados, sea que estamos hablando de las poblaciones criollas o del teocintle, que crece de manera silvestre. ¿Este experimento va a contestar la pregunta de si el teocintle será más o menos apto en un ambiente fuera de un campo agrícola? Parece ser que no, porque no es una pregunta sobre la presión competitiva de otras plantas. Además, no estoy seguro de que la aptitud de las razas criollas sea el punto clave, porque la presión de la selección para mantener cualquier población dada de una de las razas nativas es la preferencia del agricultor por preservar la semilla.Idealmente, si se quisiera conocer el impacto de las construcciones transgénicas en el teocintle, se transformaría el teocintle y después se le cultivaría con teocintle no transformado in situ. Yo creo que sería peligroso hacerlo in situ y también creo que sería oneroso para la industria el pedirle que transforme al teocintle.Ahora, creo que una vez que se tenga el gene y 50,000 dólares, se puede conseguir en un año, eso es lo que me han dicho. Yo creo que lo mejor que podemos conseguir es tener un genoma que sea un 50% teocintle y cultivarlo bajo condiciones lo más realistas posibles, aunque por supuesto esto no se va a hacer in situ, por lo que se tendrá que hacer un compromiso con el proceso. El punto es que se está trabajando híbrido con híbrido y entonces, se supone, cualquier diferencia se debería a la construcción transgénica.Me gustaría ver cómo se conduce el experimento tipo tres. Aunque no nos diría mucho de lo que necesitamos saber sobre el uso de maíz transgénico, sí nos daría información muy interesante. Me gustaría advertirle a todo aquel que intente llevar a cabo este tipo de experimentos, que se tomen en cuenta el concepto de vigor híbrido, porque uno va a traer transgenes a un ambiente que de alguna manera es algo diferente a las poblaciones criollas con las que se han cruzado. La única manera en que se puede tener aunque sea un éxito moderado con estos experimentos, sería tener materiales isogénicos con el transgene y sin él, porque de otra manera esto se convertiría en un conjunto de experimentos que no tienen ninguna relación con lo que ustedes están interesados.El vigor híbrido es un punto importante y esa es la razón por la que queríamos comparar un híbrido contra otro porque, se supone, el testigo se haría cargo del vigor híbrido y la única diferencia entre el híbrido testigo y el híbrido transformado sería el transgene.Eso es cierto, aunque el problema no reside en el vigor híbrido inicial en la generación F 1 . El problema reside, como ya mencionamos, con el vigor híbrido subsecuente que persiste durante varias generaciones después. Los agricultores tienen mucho qué ver en la suerte de un gene que se introduce a estas poblaciones y casi requiere de este tipo de experimentos para que se determine.En relación con las propuestas que se hicieron: ¿Qué pasaría si no se hace nada de eso? ¿Sería importante llevar a cabo esta investigación? F. Castillo: Se comentó que con la información que se presentó en el primer día, se pueden tomar algunas decisiones en cuanto a la necesidad de hacer la experimentación o la investigación que se sugiere. El interés es fuertemente académico. En cuanto a términos prácticos, creo que hay algo de información que se puede derivar de estos experimentos.Parece que se está pensando en los riesgos que puede haber y las decisiones que podrían tomarse con base en esta información. Pero siempre hay riesgos y provienen muchas veces de cosas que no se conocen, que no se anticipan. El caso del citoplasma Texas, es un ejemplo que podría ilustrar esta inquietud. Había mucha seguridad de que era una cosa buenísima para el mejoramiento, facilitaba el trabajo y ahorraba tiempo en todo el proceso de mejoramiento. Nadie anticipaba el desastre que ocurrió; se decidió que se introdujera en muchas variedades e híbridos de maíz, se extendió y fue un desastre.Entonces, lo único que digo es que debemos ser más cautelosos y quizás las decisiones deban estar más condicionadas a reglamentación más estricta, porque de otra manera, suceden cosas que no se esperan.Creo que al respecto habría que considerar las sugerencias o recomendaciones que dieron los grupos 1 y 2 en las que apuntan que las pruebas que se autoricen tengan diferente grado de control y, en la medida de lo posible, se realicen en lugares donde no haya riesgo de flujo genético.Solamente quiero agregar que si se decide hacer pruebas en lugares seleccionados que, por lo menos, se tomen las medidas de seguridad apropiadas. Porque si decimos que no sabemos o no podemos anticipar las consecuencias de la liberación y nos negamos a enfrentar el diseño e implementación de reglamentos, entonces abrimos la posibilidad que la gente lo haga ilegalmente y en consecuencia no habría ningún control. Si no hay ninguna regla, la posibilidad que haya actos ilegales es mayor.Tomando en cuenta el agroambiente, la diversidad genética y la agroeconomía de México, ¿se pueden llevar a cabo pruebas de campo seguras o sin riesgo, con el maíz transgénico?A. Alvarez Para contestar a esta pregunta se planteó una serie de consideraciones. Cuando se habla de llevar a cabo pruebas de campo seguras o sin riesgo, tenemos que ser muy cuidadosos. Nunca se podría hablar de llevar a cabo pruebas sin riesgo. En buena medida, los ejercicios de evaluación de riesgos que se están haciendo con las plantas transgénicas no son de ninguna manera únicos. Por ejemplo, la industria química ha venido ejercitando una serie de medidas, de reuniones, de consideraciones para saber si se libera un producto, un insecticida o un pesticida. También, en la industria farmacéutica se hacen consideraciones y se liberan medicamentos, los cuales deberán indicar, por norma, los posibles riesgos de éstos. Y sin embargo, alguien en la población alguna vez sufrirá las consecuencias de los efectos imprevistos de los fármacos, a pesar de las medidas que se tomen. Otro caso paralelo es el de las medidas de seguridad que se toman para el manejo de material radiactivo y que están diseñadas para prevenir y minimizar los riesgos.El comité de bioseguridad de cualquier país no puede ser la excepción; no puede de manera alguna asumir la responsabilidad de conceder permisos bajo el supuesto de que no hay ningún riesgo. Por tanto, de esta pregunta se deben eliminar las palabras siguientes: \"sin riesgo\". Siempre se tendrán que evaluar los parámetros y los conocimientos que se tienen en un momento dado, para tratar, de la manera más honesta y más profesional, de asegurar el menor riesgo. Después de la discusión en nuestro grupo, se llegó al consenso de que sí se pueden llevar a cabo pruebas de campo con el maíz transgénico, tomando siempre en cuenta que las medidas propuestas pueden ser válidas para algunos genes, para algunas localidades y épocas determinadas, pero no para todo. Las medidas propuestas solamente son generalidades, que son muy importantes, pero que se tendrán que resolver, caso por caso, como de hecho lo hace el Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola. Es decir, se pueden llevar a cabo pruebas con material transgénico de maíz en México, siempre y cuando se tomen medidas adecuadas para prevenir el flujo genético. Estas medidas dependerán de qué se quiere probar y de los objetivos de los ensayos propuestos.El grupo 3 tuvo la responsabilidad de analizar la liberación de maíz transgénico en el marco de la normatividad vigente en México, y de la información discutida durante las presentaciones del Foro en cuanto a la interacción de los diferentes tipos de maíz y teocintle. Los integrantes de este grupo discutieron en torno a dos preguntas: ¿se pueden llevar a cabo pruebas de campo seguras o sin riesgo, con el maíz transgénico? y ¿cuáles procedimientos y regulaciones serían necesarios? Además, trataron un tema complementario en relación al diseño de pruebas para minimizar el flujo genético.Los participantes en este grupo fueron: A. Alvarez (moderador), J. Ron Parra (relator), G. Carrillo, A. Gálvez, D.Hoisington, M. L. Mena, R. Obando, J. Payne, R. Quintero e I. Virgin. Le correspondió a A. Alvarez y J. Ron hacer la presentación del informe.Se discutió y analizó la situación en los Estados Unidos, donde se han llevado a cabo muchas pruebas con maíz transgénico, y se concluyó que esta situación ventajosa, en cuanto al establecimiento de pruebas con estos materiales, deriva del hecho de que no hay material silvestre o criollo y el material que existe es material híbrido. Los híbridos se consideran como un callejón sin salida, ya que tienen muy escasas probabilidades de ser regenerados por los agricultores. Ese material no tiene mayor problema. Por consiguiente, se sugirió que se buscaran lugares donde la producción de maíz se base fundamentalmente en materiales híbridos y hacer allí las pruebas con maíz transgénico. De esta manera se tiene la certeza de que alrededor no hay criollos, no hay teocintle y tenemos una barrera natural.Por supuesto, habrá que poner un cuidado muy especial en el análisis de las instituciones que pretendan llevar a cabo estas pruebas. Se tendrá que demostrar que disponen del equipo técnico y científico adecuado para manejar las pruebas con el debido profesionalismo.Se debe hacer un seguimiento continuo de la prueba y llevar una bitácora siempre a disposición de los miembros del Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola. Asimismo, tiene que existir documentación, mapas en donde se señale el sitio exacto donde se va a llevar a cabo la prueba, acceso restringido y mecanismos de vigilancia en los sitios de prueba para evitar que salga material voluntaria o involuntariamente de estos lugares.Si se toman en cuenta todas las sugerencias que han surgido de esta reunión, que ha sido sumamente enriquecedora, se podría concluir que sí es factible llevar a cabo pruebas con maíz transgénico sin mayor problema. Tal vez, el mayor problema se presentará cuando se llegue al momento de la desregularización de maíz transgénico y su liberación como material comercial.Por experiencias anteriores de algunas instituciones que han ensayado material transgénico en campo, en las primeras etapas se pueden tomar medidas como el desespigamiento del material transgénico. Medidas tales como el desespigamiento, la polinización con material homólogo no transgénico o distancia de aislamiento, procuran un buen nivel de seguridad e indudablemente evitan gran parte del problema. Además, si fuera necesario, se podrían llevar a cabo estas pruebas en localidades alejadas de regiones ricas en variedades criollas o teocintle aunque fuera sumamente impráctico hacer un escrutinio en 20 Km para asegurarnos que no hay materiales criollos, comerciales o teocintle, como lo sugirió el grupo 1. De acuerdo con lo discutido por nuestro grupo, las distancias que se podrían manejar son del orden de 300 a 500 m, que son las utilizadas por las compañías productoras de semillas híbridas.La inclusión de barreras con materiales no transgénicos de la misma especie, para detener el flujo de polen, es una medida muy importante. En este sentido, el Comité exige que los materiales utilizados como barrera se consideren como material transgénico y, por tanto, estén sujetos a los mismos mecanismos de destrucción o contención que el material que se está probando en el centro.El grupo que presentó el mapa de distribución del teocintle nos aporta información muy valiosa que puede ser un auxiliar altamente importante, tanto para quien planea llevar a cabo estos experimentos como para quienes tienen qué determinar si la prueba se acepta o no. De nuevo, esta consideración es en función del riesgo que puede llevar el gene.Se ha discutido que quizás el gene bar, el gene de resistencia a herbicida, le confiere una característica positiva a los teocintles. Pero puede haber algún otro gene que se considere negativo y habrá qué pensar en términos de estos mapas, dónde se pueden llevar a cabo las pruebas.Se llegó al consenso de que no conviene detener la investigación en bioseguridad ya que en el curso del tiempo se conocerá más sobre el efecto de los genes. Porque si se parte -como aquí se ha dicho y el cual parece un punto de partida muy importante por cuanto a la bioseguridad-de que va a haber flujo genético, la consideración más relevante debe ser cuál va a ser el efecto de los transgenes en los materiales criollos y en el teocintle.Se espera que de alguna manera se llegue a obtener esta información pero, en este momento, se considera que hay suficientes elementos para afirmar que las pruebas se pueden hacer. No hay por qué esperar hasta saber con certeza, o con cierto grado de certeza, cuál será el efecto de estos genes.Por otra parte, si se llega a conocer con cierto grado de certeza el posible efecto de estos genes y llegamos a una etapa de desregulación, valdría la pena considerar un proyecto de seguimiento donde se pudiera analizar el impacto de estos genes en esas poblaciones.La realización de pruebas de campo con material transgénico en centros de origen o diversidad se podrían aprovechar como oportunidades para ganar información, ya que no hay ninguna experiencia hasta ahora. Se debe evitar caer en el círculo vicioso de presumir muchos riesgos y, por tanto, no se prueba nada; como no se prueba nada, no se obtiene información y, en consecuencia, todo se prohibe.Debe llegar el momento en que se pueda romper ese círculo vicioso y entonces tomar ya una decisión de liberar estos materiales transgénicos. Posteriormente, en lo posible, habrá que hacer experimentos de seguimiento durante un tiempo razonable. El CIMMYT, INIFAP, CINVESTAV, la UNAM, el Colegio de Postgraduados y muchas otras organizaciones estarían interesadas en estos resultados.Diseño de pruebas de campo para minimizar el riesgo de flujo de genes al ambiente.En nuestro grupo se partió del supuesto de que se va a establecer un ensayo de campo con maíz transgénico en alguno de los sitios indicados por el grupo 1 y entonces habría qué diseñar las medidas que se deberían considerar.El aislamiento ideal estaría dado en un área semidesértica como, por ejemplo, en el estado de Baja California, donde no hay teocintle, casi no hay criollos, y el cultivo de maíz no es muy importante. En esa región, las barreras biológicas para el aislamiento, tal vez, no serían necesarias. Allí se podría contar con una área ideal para realizar este tipo de pruebas. Pero, ¿cuál sería la opinión de las empresas que están interesadas precisamente en las áreas con mayor frecuencia de distribución de teocintle? En este caso, sería necesario tomar algunas medidas de aislamiento en el sitio experimental.Se ha mencionado que el desespigamiento es necesario porque una de las fuentes principales de contaminación es el escape de polen. Entonces, lo más sencillo, directo y fácil es el desespigamiento de las plantas. El aislamiento en el ámbito de campos experimentales o centros de desarrollo de estos materiales es recomendable porque se debe contar con infraestructura y con técnicos capacitados para realizar estos trabajos de una forma adecuada y responsable, y evitar el escape del polen. En síntesis, el aislamiento con desespigamiento en un área donde hay riesgo de contaminación podría ser una de las recomendaciones. La otra sería que los materiales fueran supervisados por personal capacitado que tenga experiencia con este tipo de variedades.Se sugirió que para lograr el aislamiento en campos de productores, convendría utilizar barreras físicobiológicas de contención de polen, las cuales podrían ser el mismo cultivo, en este caso maíz, o la caña en el caso de regiones tropicales y subtropicales. El sorgo de tipo forrajero, en algunos casos, puede utilizarse en valles altos. Si el material utilizado como barrera es de la misma especie, en este caso maíz, no debe utilizarse como grano para alimento. Si hay probabilidades de escape a través del grano o la semilla, debe destruirse el grano que se obtiene de las barreras. Alrededor del sitio experimental no debería sembrarse maíz en el ciclo siguiente al ensayo con el material transgénico. Además, se deberá regar y barbechar el campo para eliminar, posteriormente, las plantas voluntarias.En el sitio experimental debe darse un seguimiento de todo el proceso de liberación, ensayo y monitoreo, para sistematizar la información que se genere de todas estas actividades. De esta forma se podrán definir las características más adecuadas en cuanto a barreras y aislamiento para evaluaciones futuras.El diseño y el tamaño de estos sitios experimentales dependerán del tipo de material transgénico que se vaya a evaluar, del germoplasma que se encuentra en las zonas aledañas, de las líneas progenitoras del material transgénico y del ambiente en el que se va a desarrollar. Cada uno de estos elementos, inclusive los factores genéticos, deben tener un diseño experimental para evitar escapes al nivel de pruebas de campo. Se enfatizó la necesidad de contar con infraestructura fisica adecuada, en el sitio experimental, que proteja de robo al material transgénico.Hubo un consenso general en el sentido de que, pese a que se tomen todas estas medidas, no hay 100% de seguridad de que los materiales transgénicos no vayan a escaparse.G. Carrillo: ¿Podrían mencionar algo en relación con la señalización de los lugares donde se llevan a cabo las pruebas con material transgénico? Es decir, ¿qué tan recomendable sería señalar, en la localidad, los sitios y la naturaleza de las pruebas que se están realizando y, qué papel puede jugar la población local en este tipo de pruebas? Creo que es importante que los pobladores conozcan, en términos sencillos, un balance de estas acciones, porque después viene el problema de la aceptación del producto por parte de la misma gente.Pienso que es un tanto riesgoso anticipar esta serie de aspectos. Yo opino que la gente se tiene que educar gradualmente para entender lo que está ocurriendo con la introducción de material transgénico. Sin esa previa sensibilización, yo creo que sería contraproducente.¿Se consideró el establecimiento de una auditoría especial para los resultados de la evaluación de riesgos o de los resultados obtenidos en el establecimiento de pruebas de campo con material transgénico? ¿Quién va a llevar a cabo esta investigación y cómo se le podría auditar, si es que se tuviera esa inquietud?Hasta ahora el Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad recibe, como parte de la solicitud para llevar a cabo cualquier prueba, todos los elementos lo más substanciados posibles, correspondientes a la estimación de la magnitud de riesgos que ha hecho la propia institución solicitante. En función de ese análisis de riesgos que ellos han hecho, pueden plantear una serie de medidas que consideran convenientes para la seguridad. El Comité entonces evalúa la información, puede solicitar ayuda de expertos, puede coincidir o no con la información y puede exigir o no determinados cambios.Cuando se hace la prueba en sí, debe llevarse una bitácora, la cual siempre esta disponible para los miembros del Comité. Normalmente, los funcionarios de Sanidad Vegetal reciben el material transgénico. Si se dijo que se iba a importar media libra de semilla, entonces los funcionarios certifican que sea exactamente media libra de semilla. Si se va a llevar al invernadero y se van a plantar 200 plántulas, que sean 200 plántulas. Si se ponen más, las plantas sobrantes se deben eliminar antes de llevarlas al campo experimental. Siempre hay gente del Comité y siempre hay gente de Sanidad Vegetal vigilando estas acciones.También, el Comité tiene la facultad de visitar sin previo aviso, los campos experimentales para cerciorarse de que se están llevando a cabo las medidas que se sugirieron o las medidas que el proponente se comprometió a seguir. En cuanto a la auditoría, yo creo que los datos pueden ser compartidos y pueden ser mostrados abiertamente al Comité para que éste haga su propia evaluación de los resultados que se hayan obtenido.A lo que me refería es que si podríamos considerar como algo necesario, en este caso, que hubiera un organismo independiente que vigilara todas estas acciones y que se llevaran a cabo de una manera regular y auditada.Tal vez estamos confundiendo dos cosas. Una, el Comité de Bioseguridad es el organismo asesor de Sanidad Vegetal, y la otra es el instrumento que tiene el país a través de Sanidad Vegetal para controlar todo este tipo de pruebas. Entonces, realmente el auditor es Sanidad Vegetal y este organismo debe comisionar a una persona permanente en la zona donde está el experimento para asegurarse que las condiciones son adecuadas. Tal vez por la poca experiencia que tiene el país en esta área de transgénicos falte más capacitación, falte definir sistemas más estrictos de vigilancia. Pero Sanidad Vegetal es la responsable de todo eso.Entonces, mi propuesta para este Foro es en el sentido de que se creen un mecanismo y un cuerpo especial de auditoría para un caso tan importante y político como lo es el maíz y la introducción de maíz transgénico en México.Según entiendo lo que dicen, la supervisión y el poder de intervención lo mantiene Sanidad Vegetal, aun en la fase de la experimentación y de producción. Entonces ahí me queda un poco la duda, ¿Sanidad Vegetal y el Comité de Bioseguridad mantienen sus facultades de supervisar, vigilar, en su caso intervenir y eliminar material, aún en la fase experimental?A. Alvarez: Bueno, yo creo que ésto se ha prestado a confusión en varias ocasiones. Y cuando hacemos una diferencia grande entre la fase comercial y la fase experimental es por lo siguiente: El Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola tiene su ingerencia solamente en la etapa experimental. Su ámbito comprende todos los pasos previos hasta asegurar que el material, desde el punto de vista de bioseguridad, no va a tener un impacto negativo sobre un ecosistema, sobre el medio ambiente y sobre los sistemas agrícolas. Es decir, todos estos puntos están bajo la supervisión del Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola, los cuales no abarcan los aspectos de salud humana, ya que eso le corresponde en la etapa de consumo a la Secretaría de Salud. Pero se vigila todo el desarrollo del material transgénico en la etapa experimental hasta que llega a un punto en que la empresa o institución que está haciendo estos experimentos solicita la desregulación. En ese momento, si el Comité está convencido de que el material no genera ningún riesgo, que es esencialmente igual que el material no transgénico, entonces, se puede dictaminar la desregulación de ese material.En ese momento, el material no sólo se puede cultivar ya en cualquier lugar, en cualquier cantidad y en cualquier época sino inclusive se puede introducir a programas de fitomejoramiento tradicional. En ese momento, prácticamente ya es un material normal y la regulación cae dentro del Sistema Nacional de Inspección y Certificación de Semillas, como una semilla, como una variedad que tiene qué cumplir ciertos requisitos. Esa es la principal diferencia.Yo creo que el asunto de la vigilancia debe quedar bien establecido, sobre todo porque debemos considerar que muchas veces nos encontramos con situaciones donde la vigilancia se propone, pero no se lleva a cabo de hecho. Tenemos que reconocer que las instituciones mexicanas responsables de la vigilancia no tienen suficiente capacidad de respuesta y en muchas ocasiones, ésta es muy limitada. Siendo realistas ante esta situación, debemos sugerir que el seguimiento durante la fase de experimentación se haga con personas capacitadas y con la participación de instituciones no gubernamentales independientes.La sugerencia se toma, no creo que haya ningún problema, pero sí quiero enfatizar que, hasta ahora, sólo se han recibido entre 11 y 14 solicitudes en México. También quiero mencionar que los miembros del Comité son especialistas de la UNAM, Colegio de Postgraduados, Chapingo, invitados de otras instituciones y personal de la Secretaría de Agricultura proveniente de la Dirección General de Sanidad Vegetal, del Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias y del Sistema Nacional de Inspección y Certificación de Semillas. Éstos son los miembros que van y que han ido a vigilar estos campos.No podemos estar todo el tiempo ahí, eso es cierto. Pero creo que la vigilancia, en la medida de lo posible, se ha hecho bien sin que esto signifique que no estamos abiertos a las alternativas propuestas. La sugerencia de B. Benz y J. A. Serratos me parece una buena posibilidad; es un asunto muy importante y sería en beneficio y en favor de las instituciones que quieren probar organismos transgénicos, y del mismo Comité.En ese grupo ven alguna diferencia en el caso que hemos estado analizando en este Foro, del maíz transgénico y los maíces criollos o el teocintle; es decir, algo que en particular debería de preocuparnos después de todo lo que hemos discutido aquí en estos días. No me pareció percibir en la presentación de A. Alvarez, que este grupo haya encontrado algo especialmente diferente de los casos anteriores de ensayos con materiales transgénicos. En particular, si hoy día tuviésemos frente a nosotros un maíz transgénico, ya sea generado en México o que viniera de fuera, ¿habría alguna preocupación especial y diferente en todo esto?A. Alvarez: Yo creo que si hacemos la separación de las dos etapas de las que he hablado, no hay diferencias. Es decir, mientras se cumplan una serie de condiciones que nos permitan asegurar que no habrá flujo de material genético y que no habrá escape, entonces, la prueba se puede hacer en cualquier momento. La preocupación, al contrario de otros casos que se han dado en México, es la liberación comercial, porque ahí no puede haber confinamiento.En vista de tu contestación tan precisa, me gustaría sugerir que este Foro se pronunciara por el tratamiento especial de este caso. El caso del maíz transgénico es diferente, no en esta etapa experimental, sino en lo que sigue, en esa segunda etapa de la liberación. Precisamente porque es novedoso, es diferente. Debe quedar muy claramente establecido por este Foro y después buscar si se crea un comité especial de seguimiento o no. Quizá esto último sea asunto de otra discusión.Me gustaría que quedara muy claro que hay algo que se percibe como diferente de los casos anteriores, que debe ser considerado de una forma especial.Yo creo que ese es precisamente el motivo real de este Foro. Tenemos que considerar que somos un país rico en materiales criollos, en materiales silvestres como el teocintle, y lo que nos interesa es saber o tener el mayor grado de seguridad de qué va a pasar con estos transgenes en esos materiales, en el momento de que hablemos de la desregulación y no haya contención. ¿Hay riesgo? ¿Pueden verse en riesgo estas especies? ¿Qué les va a suceder? Ese es el motivo de este Foro y es lo que nos interesa. En el momento que queramos probar y liberar espárrago, todas estas preguntas se vuelven irrelevantes, pero no podemos hacer lo mismo con el maíz en México.Quisiera comentar dos cuestiones generales que no tienen que ver específicamente con los transgénicos: los problemas de la erosión genética y otros problemas que tiene el país.El primero ya lo mencionó M. Goodman y quizá en la relatoría valdría la pena señalar la importancia que tienen los bancos de germoplasma, en este caso el de maíz. Por otra parte, deseo enfatizar la importancia de las reservas biológicas y de las grandes carencias y problemas que padecen. Estas reservas podrían, en algún momento, auxiliarnos en la resolución de problemas que surgen.El segundo también lo acaban de mencionar, en México, nuestra capacidad de infraestructura, de personal y recursos para operar en cuanto a investigación, capacitación y control de la producción no son suficientes. Hay algunas cuestiones de tipo general que México necesita fortalecer, incluso para analizar este problema, en cuanto al personal con el que se cuenta.Se ha comentado sobre la coordinación de los esfuerzos entre México y los Estados Unidos, pero no he oído absolutamente nada sobre la coordinación de esfuerzos con Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras y Costa Rica. Todos estos países se verían afectados seriamente con cualquier decisión que México tomara.Me gustaría abundar en este punto, porque de hecho en la Convención Mundial de Diversidad Biológica hay una inquietud muy grande de los países del tercer mundo por este fortalecimiento, en cuanto a la capacidad de infraestructura y de recursos humanos, para hacer este tipo de evaluaciones de riesgos. A nivel internacional, hay dudas muy fuertes en cuanto a las capacidades de los países en vías de desarrollo para evaluar los riesgos. Yo creo que valdría la pena que este Foro diera una recomendación para un modelo tan interesante como es el de maíz y teocintle y que puede además dar un ejemplo para algunos otros productos. En los países de Centro y Sudamérica -que tienen también maíz-este ejercicio en México podría ser de gran utilidad.Este comentario de A. Gálvez nos lleva de lleno al tema final de los planes futuros. En estos días se ha estado discutiendo la parte de bioseguridad, la parte de investigación y qué debemos hacer en la parte de conservación de germoplasma. Se han sentado bases durante estos dos días en los diferentes temas. Y sobre todo, tal vez en el tema que pudiera tener más actividad en el futuro que es en el tema de la investigación.En función de todo lo que se ha planteado, ¿qué planes podemos hacer para el futuro: a corto, mediano y largo plazo? Es un tema que podemos abrir para avanzar hacia el final de la reunión y son bienvenidos los comentarios, las inquietudes y las sugerencias de ustedes.Amanda Galvez sugería que esto se viera como un modelo. Hay que tener cautela. Por ejemplo, ciertamente el teocintle es una arvense, pero tenemos escasas poblaciones. Sin embargo, el paso de material transgénico sería mucho más riesgoso en los pastos. En un momento dado, una planta transgénica que aumentara la capacidad de los pastos de ser maleza es mucho más peligrosa. Nosotros tratamos un asunto específico que es maíz y teocintle en las condiciones de México, pero hay que tener más cuidado con aquellas especies no suficientemente domesticadas, como es el caso de algunas plantas que son silvestres y que se pueden convertir en forrajes, especialmente pastos, allí es extraordinariamente peligroso. Allí sí se puede prever que un carácter que se nos escape tendrá efectos negativos con mayor rapidez.Quiero pedir a A. Gálvez que nos de algunos lineamientos generales, si hay algo al respecto que pudiera servir -en este caso-como punto de partida o como punto de comparación de lo que aquí se ha dicho.Desafortunadamente no hay lineamientos establecidos. Algo que es muy claro es que, en la Convención de Diversidad Biológica no hay forma de asegurar los compromisos, porque para construir la infraestructura y capacitar recursos humanos se necesitan fondos, sobre todo en los países en desarrollo. No hay manera de atar el compromiso, digamos, de la transferencia de fondos hacia los países en desarrollo a través de un documento internacional o de algunas de estas clases de convenios mundiales que, además, tardan mucho tiempo en ser firmados.Entonces, la Convención de Diversidad Biológica lo está apuntando como algo importante, pero solamente como una inquietud de los países en desarrollo. Creo que nosotros tenemos que ser propositivos y emprendedores para poder cumplir con los compromisos y -como decía M. Goodman-hacer intercambio de experiencias y proyectos con los países involucrados. Desafortunadamente, no tengo un ejemplo porque parece que no existe.Por lo que he podido ver, el sistema de investigación agrícola del gobierno mexicano padece fuertes problemas monetarios. El personal es capaz pero tiene demasiado trabajo. Carece de fondos para cosas tan simples como la gasolina de sus vehículos. Este parece ser un problema que obviamente molesta a este grupo, pero también me parece que hay organizaciones, como el CIMMYT, que están interesadas en liberar plantas transgénicas. Tal vez Asgrow, Pioneer o Dupont, si es que estas organizaciones están interesadas en liberar plantas transgénicas y si se va a necesitar un esfuerzo gubernamental para vigilar este trabajo, me parece que es bastante justo que se cobren las liberaciones y pagar por ese tipo de trabajos. Estoy seguro de que a la gente del CIMMYT no le va a encantar la idea, ni tampoco a la de Pioneer o Dupont, pero creo que la gente que quiere hacer el trabajo tiene cierta obligación de pagar por el trabajo.Tenemos que completar las colecciones y esto debe ser una prioridad y es un trabajo inmediato. Finalmente, debemos llevar una propuesta conjunta, en el sentido de que México cuente con un banco nacional de germoplasma que contenga toda la diversidad genética autóctona de México. Esto es una necesidad de más largo plazo. Ya que estamos hablando de temas del futuro, el futuro más próximo es en junio de 1996 y es una oportunidad que no se va a dar más. Creo que hay tiempo suficiente para ir pensando, pero ya con acciones, qué papel va a jugar México en ese Foro tan importante.Un punto de vista adicional o alternativo para obtener algunos de los recursos -y pienso específicamente para el tipo de pruebas que se sugirió-es el que desarrollemos algunas bases de datos que nos permitan la venta de proyectos mientras seguimos avanzando. No obstante, el maíz transgénico en Mexico debe probarse con el patrocinio de un consorcio que involucre a la industria productora de semillas de manera voluntaria.Creo que para las empresas lo mejor sería ayudar a fortalecer ese tipo de investigaciones y desarrollar la información. No estoy de acuerdo con la idea de que la industria pague una cuota obligatoria para poder participar. Creo que esa sería una medida adecuada para asegurar que los beneficios de esas industrias no lleguen a México. Las empresas se irían a cualquier otra parte.Creo que lo del consorcio es una buena idea. También cabe la posibilidad de otorgar concesiones monetarias a una institución para apoyar ese tipo de trabajo.En relación con lo expresado por A. Gálvez y la pregunta de G. Carrillo, quiero informar que sí hay mecanismos y tal vez debiéramos estar preparados para tener una posición un poco más decisiva y determinante en la reunión mundial sobre los recursos genéticos que va a tener lugar en junio del próximo año, en Alemania. Esta es, tal vez, la oportunidad única que se nos puede brindar como país centro de origen y con un gran porcentaje de la diversidad biológica conocida. Definitivamente podría llevarse una posición con varias opciones a esa reunión.Específicamente, propondría que se llevara la petición y la posición de que México debería, en este caso, recibir alguna forma de financiamiento internacional porque en el país se concentran todas las condiciones para llevar a cabo este tipo de trabajo con relación a qué pueda ocurrir en el futuro con material transgénico en el centro de orígen. Creo que tenemos las condiciones y solo falta el recurso económico.La reunión mundial de los recursos genéticos debería ser una oportunidad para que México lleve una propuesta concreta como país y creo que pasarán muchos años para que haya otro Foro de esta naturaleza en donde podamos presentar una posición concreta.Para que esto pueda ser posible tenemos que hacer mucho trabajo en el nivel interno en nuestras instituciones. Necesitamos tener una Comisión Nacional de Recursos Genéticos, la cual no existe. Tenemos una institución que tiene el mandato, el INIFAP y que ha venido haciendo un trabajo de hormigas y sin recursos. Esto debe ser reconocido de alguna forma y además debe tener una responsabilidad y un respaldo.La conservación de los recursos genéticos no es una cosa que se determine en un sexenio, sino algo para toda la vida. Y eso debe ser algo intrínseco como lo es nuestra comida misma. aquí preparen la plataforma para intervenir en la reunión en Alemania. Es decir, sugiero sentar las bases para nominar un pequeño comité, que intervenga a través de nuestras instituciones en esa reunión y los lineamientos que el comité podría llevar a esa reunión.Un punto de aclaración nada más: la plataforma para ese Foro de 1996 ya está lista. Por coincidencia, en esta sala hay cuatro personas que asistieron a una reunión regional y posiblemente cuatro más que asistan a la próxima regional en Colombia. Pero creo que es muy importante que dos o tres participantes, o uno, el que sea, de este Foro incorpore el elemento de lo transgénico que no estaba contemplado en esa plataforma. Quiero recordarles que debe ser una posición oficial de México, la que se lleve a esa reunión de junio de 1996 y que hay mucho trabajo por hacer. Apenas es un principio, no hay todavía ni siquiera una comisión en recursos fitogenéticos.Se habla mucho de que México es el centro de origen de plantas cultivadas -eso es cierto y es quizás lo más importante-pero no se habla de otra cosa: que en México tenemos 50 años de fitomejoramiento. En este caso, también es particularmente importante la conservación de las líneas básicas y de los materiales mejorados que existen.Los materiales transgénicos también agregan lo suyo, se van a incorporar a un proceso que ya se da. No solamente ha habido una pérdida de la diversidad genética de las variedades nativas sino también perdemos los materiales ya mejorados, más ahora que se están suspendiendo programas de mejoramiento.Yo propondría para el resumen del grupo de la conservación que se incluyera dentro de los puntos, la conservación de aquellos productos que ha generado el mejoramiento genético. Sabemos que cuando hacemos mejoramiento genético convencional en maíz, no partimos de cero: generalmente estamos introduciendo caracteres favorables a materiales ya sobresalientes y esto debiera de ser válido tanto para materiales generados en nuestras instituciones oficiales como para aquellos que han sido trabajados por empresas. Incluso aquí debieran figurar hasta los transgénicos. Es decir, en las colecciones de los bancos debieran estar las colecciones de mutantes. Pero en el caso de México, lo más importante son los materiales mejorados.Quiero secundar los comentarios de R. Ortega y señalar problemas paralelos que existen en los Estados Unidos. Hemos perdido líneas endogámicas de importancia histórica porque los bancos de germoplasma no aceptaron material mejorado. Por ejemplo, en los Estados Unidos todavía no hay nada que regule el almacenamiento de líneas endogámicas obsoletas, aunque importantes, de las empresas privadas que, si bien no son parte del dominio público, una vez que sean obsoletas deben volverse del dominio público.Los bancos de germoplasma se han basado en las colecciones hechas en los diversos campos agrícolas. Ocasionalmente, unos cuantos materiales sintéticos logran llegar a los bancos aunque de hecho los materiales mejorados han sido excluídos de los bancos de germoplasma del mundo entero. No obstante, en el caso particular de los maíces, creo que hay que esforzarse para preservar, por lo menos, aquellos que son históricamente importantes.Mi comentario en relación a la investigación que se debe realizar sobre el flujo de genes y por los ejemplos que nos mostraron los integrantes de ese grupo, es que se requiere un trabajo interinstitucional. Es necesario un trabajo de equipo donde participen los biotecnólogos, biólogos moleculares y la gente que maneja la investigación desde disciplinas científicas más tradicionales. Entonces habrá que elaborar proyectos y propuestas interinstitucionales para tener los mejores estudios al respecto en la búsqueda de recursos externos.Vamos a hablar del futuro. El Dr. Rowe enfatizó que no había estado presente el sector privado nacional ni internacional. Me gustaría saber si el CIMMYT piensa apoyar algún Foro o alguna reunión similar a ésta, donde se incluyera la participación del sector privado, o hasta aquí terminará esta actividad con respecto al maíz transgénico.Por lo menos hasta este momento no hemos planeado ningún otro Foro más que éste. Queríamos empezar con los representantes y las personas de instituciones públicas mexicanas a fin de que entendieran la forma de pensar y la orientación del Comité de Bioseguridad. Tal vez sea lógico que el próximo paso sea con el sector privado. Tal vez este sector esté más dispuesto a reunirse una vez que entiendan las conclusiones a las que ha llegado este grupo sobre la posibilidad de realizar pruebas de campo controladas en México. Esto sería dar un paso hacia el futuro, aunque permítanme recalcar desde el principio que nosotros no queremos necesariamente marcar la pauta; más bien, proporcionaríamos nuestra ayuda y nuestro trabajo en ese respecto. Si ustedes creen que una reunión de ese tipo sería útil, nos encantaría colaborar con ustedes para organizarla.Creo -particularmente si se está considerando proponer a un consorcio de empresas privadas que otorgue fondos para algunas investigaciones-que hay motivos para reunir algunas compañías privadas con el INIFAP, Sanidad Vegetal, el Comité de Bioseguridad, la Comisión Nacional de Biodiversidad y otras entidades. Esa sería una manera en la que podríamos reunirnos con el sector privado.Realmente no hemos hablado mucho sobre la distribución del documento que saldrá de esta reunión, como un posible medio de acción. Si el documento contiene lo más importante de lo que escuchamos en estos días, pienso que sería poco común, en el sentido de que vendría a ser el documento más cuidadoso de este tipo que se haya producido. Esto es particularmente importante, porque los países que tienen centros de origen esperan un liderazgo cuidadoso, de allí que lo que estamos creando aquí podría resultar más poderoso de lo que pensamos y por tanto se debe distribuir de manera adecuada.Con el propósito de cerrar la reunión, primero quisiera felicitarme a mí y después a ustedes porque siento que hemos hecho un muy buen trabajo durante estos tres días.En lo personal, ha sido una gran experiencia -aun cuando no soy especialista en maíz ni tampoco biotecnólogo-ya que hemos aprendido mucho de ustedes. He visto la evolución de lo que se trató durante estos días y siento que se han puesto muchas bases en el camino por ser éste el primer Foro que trata el tema y en un cultivo tan importante como es el maíz para México.Creo que estamos contribuyendo al avance de la ciencia y ojalá lo que salga de aquí sea la punta de lanza para fortalecer todo lo que se ha hecho en estos tres días a través de más y más investigación, que nos permita tomar mejores decisiones en el futuro, tanto como país como en el plano internacional.Flujo genético entre el maíz y el teocintle, y del maíz criollo al mejorado En trabajos exploratorios se han encontrado, con cierta frecuencia, plantas híbridas y generaciones avanzadas del cruzamiento entre maíz y teocintle. Pese a ello, la separación entre maíz y teocintle es muy consistente. Tal situación ha generado dudas acerca de la presencia de flujo genético entre maíz y teocintle cuando conviven de manera simpátrica. Los resultados de la caracterización de poblaciones mediante estudios de la constitución de nudos cromosómicos y análisis de isoenzimas conduce a interpretaciones en ambos sentidos, sin que se pueda separar con precisión el tipo de semejanza por razones filogenéticas o por la existencia de intercambio genético en fechas recientes.El flujo genético libre entre poblaciones de maíz puede ser modificado por la incompatibilidad gametofítica, controlada por series alélicas, por medio de la cual se impide la polinización de manera selectiva debido a la dominancia y la interacción respectiva entre estigma y polen. Tal incompatibilidad se detectó entre algunos cruzamientos interraciales de maíz; al incluir al teocintle en este espectro, se ha detectado al menos otro locus que confiere efectos gametofíticos. Se necesita intensificar la investigación para conocer mejor los mecanismos que pudieran modificar la capacidad de cruzamiento entre maíz y teocintle así como la sobrevivencia y los mecanismos que controlan la permanencia de los descendientes de cruzamientos en sus generaciones avanzadas.El movimiento de semillas de poblaciones de maíz nativo, dentro y entre comunidades campesinas que cultivan el mismo grupo racial de maíz, es dinámico. Los agricultores reconocen varias \"clases\" de maíz en sus comunidades y pueden intercambiar semilla entre predios que son propiedad del mismo grupo familiar,Distribución del teocintle en México El teocintle y su relación con el maíz ha sido motivo de estudio desde principios de este siglo. En México y Guatemala se han realizado exploraciones que han permitido la ubicación precisa, el conocimiento taxonómico y biogeográfico de las poblaciones y las diferentes razas de teocintle presentes en ambos países. En la actualidad se tienen identificadas más de 80 % de las poblaciones de teocintle cuyo germoplasma se conserva en bancos de instituciones de investigación y docencia como el INIFAP, el CIMMYT, el Colegio de Postgraduados y la Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo.Las poblaciones más grandes de teocintle se ubican en la cuenca del río Balsas, en el área de Chalco-Amecameca en el estado de México, y en los estados de Michoacán y Guanajuato. Algunas poblaciones cubren sólo unas cuantas hectáreas en los estados de Oaxaca, Durango y en la región de Nabogame en el estado de Chihuahua.En algunas regiones, el teocintle se usa como forraje cuando la planta aún no madura y se elimina del cultivo del maíz cuando esto ocurre. Sin embargo, se tiene información proporcionada por agricultores del estado de Jalisco que permite suponer que allí el teocintle se utiliza para el mejoramiento del maíz.El cambio en el uso del suelo -en especial el pastoreo y la urbanización -es la principal amenaza contra el teocintle. En las últimas decadas se ha observado una reducción drástica de las poblaciones de teocintle y la amenaza de extinción es un peligro real. En este sentido, el maíz transgénico se podría considerar como una amenaza marginal en comparación con el efecto del crecimiento urbano.o bien pueden conseguir semilla de sus vecinos o de localidades distantes para mantener la productividad de sus cultivos. Por otro lado, se ha documentado que el polen de maíz sembrado en lotes vecinos puede fecundar, al menos, plantas que se encuentren en los primeros 10 metros adyacentes al borde de los lotes contiguos. Esta situación, más la fuerte fragmentación de la tierra en México, permite que el flujo genético entre maíces de una región sea intenso.La diversidad de los maíces nativos se ha mantenido en la mayoría de las regiones, con su dinámica genética originada por el movimiento tradicional de semillas. Aunque es escasa la información que se tiene, derivada de la comparación de maíces nativos colectados en diferentes épocas, ésta sugiere que la productividad ha mejorado con el tiempo. Se aduce que este incremento en la productividad de los maíces criollos se debe, principalmente, a la ganancia genética derivada de la selección de las mejores mazorcas para semilla, o bien merced a la introgresión de maíces mejorados.El criterio principal para el análisis de la liberación de plantas transgénicas en su centro de origen debe enfocarse hacia la búsqueda de un equilibrio entre los problemas ambientales y los posibles beneficios derivados de la liberación comercial de estos productos transgénicos.En algunos cultivos, los estudios de campo indican que existe una alta probabilidad de intercambio genético entre plantas cultivadas y parientes silvestres. Se ha mencionado que es relativamente frecuente la generación de plantas híbridas en el campo, por lo que se considera que es importante estimar cuál es el riesgo implícito que conlleva la introducción de plantas transgénicas en áreas donde existen poblaciones de parientes silvestres del cultivo.En este sentido, se pueden identificar dos consecuencias nocivas derivadas de la hibridación entre cultivos transgénicos y parientes silvestres. Una es la creación de malezas más persistentes y la otra es la extinción de la especie silvestre por vía de la hibridación.Si bien no hay datos cuantitativos directos en relación con el intercambio genético entre plantas cultivadas y parientes silvestres, se deben considerar al menos dos aspectos fundamentales en este sentido: el efecto de los transgenes sobre la sobrevivencia de la progenie producida por el cruzamiento entre la variedad transgénica y el pariente silvestre, y el cambio en el valor adaptativo asociado a la presencia del transgene. Aunque no es posible anticipar todas las consecuencias de una tecnología nueva, el diseño de experimentos apropiados para la obtención de datos sólidos permitiría tomar desiciones con fundamento científico y así evitar la liberación de productos transgénicos inadecuados para el medio ambiente y, al mismo tiempo, permitir la liberación oportuna de otros.En los Estados Unidos se han desregulado varios cultivos transgénicos, entre los que figura la calabaza, la cual tiene parientes silvestres en el sur de la Unión Americana. El fundamento del sistema normativo estadounidense establece que no es necesario probar si la biotecnología es segura o no, sino demostrar que las plantas transgénicas son tan seguras como otras variedades de plantas. En consecuencia, la resolución del gobierno de Estados Unidos para no regular algunos cultivos transgénicos se basó en la conclusión de que los efectos de los transgenes pudieran ser comparables a los producidos por la utilización del fitomejoramiento convencional.Grupo 1. Flujo genético, distribución y conservación de teocintle y maíz criollo. El estudio de la introgresión entre maíz y teocintle se ha realizado utilizando tres tipos de análisis: a) morfológicos; b) cromosómicos (nudos y cromosomas especiales), y c) moleculares (variación isoenzimática). Sin embargo, en vista de la escasez de evidencias contundentes en cuanto a la ocurrencia de introgresión entre maíz y teocintle simpátricos y con el objetivo de tener un amplio margen de seguridad en la toma de decisiones prácticas, se recomienda adoptar la hipótesis de que sí ocurre la introgresión bidireccional entre maíz y teocintle, aun cuando ésta sea de baja frecuencia.Se estima, al analizar la información disponible, que el flujo genético del maíz transgénico a las variedades nativas de maíz o al teocintle estaría influido por una gran cantidad de factores, que van desde el grado de cruzamiento entre el maíz transgénico y el maíz o teocintle locales, relacionado con factores como barreras de aislamiento, ploidía y épocas de floración, hasta factores políticos y culturales relacionados con la promoción y aceptación de las nuevas variedades. De lo anterior se infiere que la probabilidad de flujo genético entre maíz transgénico y criollo sería mucho mayor que la anticipada para el maíz transgénico y teocintle.Los informes de los resultados de pruebas experimentales con maíces transgénicos, publicados hasta la fecha, indican que los genes transferidos presentan suficiente estabilidad, segregan en forma mendeliana, y no tienen efectos pleitrópicos ni epistáticos. Sin embargo, se recomienda tener presente que los sistemas de producción y la utilización del maíz en Estados Unidos son muy diferentes a los de México, por lo que las evaluaciones del maíz transgénico y las técnicas seguidas para ello en el primer país, no son necesariamente válidas para las condiciones del segundo. Se recomienda hacer estudios, cuidadosamente diseñados, para obtener información precisa y cuantitativa acerca del flujo genético entre especies y variedades del genero Zea, antes de liberar comercialmente maíz transgénico en México, en vista de que no es posible anticipar los efectos, tanto favorables como desfavorables, que se producirían con las interacciones génicas entre los transgenes y los genes \"nativos\".Se recomienda la designación de áreas que consideren diferentes niveles de riesgo para el establecimiento de pruebas de campo y experimentación con maíz transgénico. La supervisión de las pruebas de campo en las diferentes zonas de riesgo deberá ser realizada por personal profesional capacitado y autorizado.Se deberán considerar algunas acciones complementarias para la preservación y el mantenimiento de la diversidad genética del maíz y el teocintle. En este sentido, se recomienda la conservación ex situ de germoplasma de maíz en instalaciones adecuadas para el almacenamiento a largo plazo. Además, se recomienda la construcción y operación en México de un Banco Nacional de Germoplasma Vegetal, no sólo para maíz, sino para todas las especies botánicas de importancia agrícola.La diversidad del teocintle en condiciones ex situ es de aproximadamente 80% de la diversidad presente en México. Con anterioridad a la liberación comercial del maíz transgénico, se recomienda completar el 20% de las colecciones que faltan para tener la representatividad de la diversidad genética del teocintle en México. Además, se considera necesario iniciar un programa de monitoreo de las poblaciones de teocintle, con la participación de las instituciones locales, con el propósito de rescatar el conocimiento de las comunidades que están de alguna manera asociadas al manejo de este germoplasma.La conservación in situ de ciertos tipos de teocintle está garantizada por la existencia y operación del área silvestre protegida en Manantlán, Jalisco, la cual ha considerado dentro de sus proyectos la conservación en finca de una población de Z. diploperennis. En cuanto a las demás poblaciones de teocintle, se deberán considerar propuestas similares a las de la Reserva de la Biosfera de Manantlán.Se recomienda que las prioridades de investigación y conservación se orienten en primer lugar al maíz criollo y después al teocintle, ya que se anticipa que el flujo transgénico se daría en ese orden.Es recomendable iniciar algunos trabajos de conservación y caracterización en maíz y teocintle en zonas contiguas o cercanas a los poblados que tienen un alto crecimiento demográfico y en aquéllos que están sujetos a cambios ecológicos importantes.Se consideró que la liberación de maíz transgénico entraña riesgos, pero es necesario hacer un balance de riesgo y beneficio para determinar si los riesgos pueden ser mayores que los beneficios o viceversa, y para discernir cuáles son los efectos de unos y otros sobre los productores de diferentes niveles socioeconómicos.Grupo 2. Investigaciones en el área de riesgo, impacto y bioseguridad. Los riesgos para el maíz criollo y el teocintle por la introducción del maíz transgénico, probablemente sean equivalentes al impacto que han tenido las variedades mejoradas e híbridos sobre los maíces nativos. Empero, no se puede anticipar o inferir el efecto de los transgenes sobre el teocintle, hasta que éstos se incorporen a su genoma.Los transgenes que se han incorporado al maíz pudieran tener efectos pleiotrópicos en teocintle, lo que implicaría la posibilidad de cambios inesperados que pudieran ser benéficos para el maíz nativo, pero letales o sumamente adversos para la capacidad reproductiva del teocintle. Por lo anterior, se recomienda que la investigación en esta área se enfoque hacia los transgenes y las plantas transgénicas que ya se encuentran disponibles o avanzados en su desarrollo, entre los cuales se identifican los siguientes: a) el maíz transgénico que expresa la proteína insecticida del gen de la ∂-endotoxina de Bacillus thuringiensis; en este caso se infiere que la presencia de individuos tolerantes a la ∂-endotoxina, podría contribuir al desarrollo de poblaciones de insectos resistentes al producto transgénico; b) el maíz transgénico con resistencia a herbicidas podría implicar para las poblaciones de teocintle dos tipos de situaciones: una situación de riesgo en el momento de la aplicación de herbicidas que acompañe a la introducción de variedades transgénicas resistentes a éstos, o bien, en otro escenario se supondría una ventaja adaptativa para el teocintle, conferida por la introgresión del transgene, lo cual le permitiría desarrollar una mayor capacidad de sobrevivencia e incrementar su potencialidad de convertirse en maleza.Se recomienda la obtención de información complementaria acerca del tamaño efectivo, y sobre algunos aspectos básicos de la panmixia y de la capacidad reproductiva de las poblaciones de teocintle. Además, es necesario diseñar investigaciones para determinar las frecuencias del flujo genético, frecuencias de introgresión y el efecto de los transgenes incorporados al teocintle.Para evaluar las consecuencias de la introducción de plantas transgénicas, se proponen experimentos para medir el grado de migración (m) y el coeficiente selectivo (s), dos parámetros relevantes que pueden utilizarse en modelos genéticos poblacionales y evolutivos.Se proponen tres tipos de experimentos. El primero tiene que ver con los grados de hibridación para calcular m y su variación. El segundo consistiría del análisis de introgresión para calcular la aptitud relativa del híbrido y el coeficiente selectivo del gene normal, independientemente del coeficiente selectivo del transgene. El tercero sería calcular el coeficiente selectivo del transgene en el híbrido. En los dos primeros tipos de experimentos no se utilizarían plantas transgénicas, por lo que se pueden hacer in situ. Las regiones de macro distribución de teocintle como la Mesa Central, la del Balsas y Chalco, serían seleccionadas para establecer las localidades experimentales, con dos repeticiones por cada localidad general, una in situ, y otra en una estación experimental local del INIFAP. Se recomienda el uso de marcadores codominantes para el estudio de las poblaciones experimentales seleccionadas en tanto que el tamaño de la muestra debe ser adecuado para determinar las diferencias biológicamente significativas. Adicionalmente, se sugiere utilizar como fuente de polen las plantas resistentes a herbicida obtenidas mediante métodos convencionales, con el fin de hacer comparaciones con materiales substancialmente equivalentes.Grupo 3. Regulación y medidas de seguridad en las pruebas con maíz transgénico. Se llegó al consenso de que sí se pueden llevar a cabo pruebas de campo con el maíz transgénico en México, siempre y cuando se tomen medidas adecuadas para prevenir el flujo genético. Estas medidas dependerán de qué se quiere probar y de los objetivos de los ensayos propuestos, tomando siempre en cuenta que las medidas de seguridad propuestas pueden ser válidas para algunos genes, para algunas localidades y para épocas determinadas.Se recomienda el análisis cuidadoso de las instituciones que pretendan llevar a cabo estas pruebas. Se tendrá que demostrar que disponen del personal científico y técnico adecuado para manejar las pruebas con el debido profesionalismo.Se recomienda un seguimiento continuo de las pruebas y llevar una bitácora, siempre a disposición de los miembros del Comité Nacional de Bioseguridad Agrícola. Asimismo, deben establecerse mecanismos de acceso restringido y de vigilancia estricta en los sitios de prueba para evitar que salga material voluntaria o involuntariamente de estos lugares. Se recomienda crear un mecanismo y un cuerpo especial de seguimiento y vigilancia durante la fase de experimentación y prueba de campo con maíz transgénico en México. Deberán participar personas capacitadas de instituciones de investigación e inclusive de entidades no gubernamentales independientes y profesionalmente solventes.La realización de pruebas de campo con material transgénico en centros de origen o diversidad se podrían aprovechar como oportunidades para ganar información, ya que no hay ninguna experiencia hasta ahora. Se recomienda evitar el círculo vicioso de prohibir todo por falta de información El aislamiento ideal estaría dado en un área semidesértica como, por ejemplo, en la península de Baja California, donde no hay teocintle, casi no hay criollos, y el cultivo de maíz no es muy importante. En esa región, las barreras biológicas para el aislamiento, tal vez, no serían necesarias. Allí se podría contar con una área ideal para realizar este tipo de pruebas. En las áreas con mayor frecuencia de distribución de teocintle sería necesario tomar algunas medidas de aislamiento en el sitio experimental. Lo más sencillo, directo y fácil es el desespigamiento de las plantas. El aislamiento en el ámbito de los campos experimentales o centros de desarrollo de estos materiales es recomendable, porque se debe contar con infraestructura y con técnicos capacitados para realizar estos trabajos de una forma adecuada y responsable, y evitar el escape del polen.Para lograr el aislamiento en campos de productores, conviene utilizar barreras físico-biológicas de contención de polen, las cuales podrían ser el mismo cultivo, en este caso maíz, o la caña de azúcar en el caso de regiones tropicales y subtropicales. Si el material utilizado como barrera es de la misma especie, en este caso maíz, ni el grano ni el rastrojo deben usarse para alimento humano y/o animal. Si hay probabilidades de escape a través del grano o la semilla, debe destruirse el grano que se obtiene de las barreras. Alrededor del sitio experimental no debe sembrarse maíz en el ciclo siguiente al ensayo con el material transgénico. Además, se deberá regar y barbechar el campo para eliminar las plantas voluntarias al finalizar el ciclo del ensayo. Según experiencias de algunas instituciones que han ensayado material transgénico en campo, la polinización con material homólogo no transgénico rinde un buen nivel de seguridad e indudablemente evita gran parte del problema.Las pruebas en localidades alejadas de regiones ricas en variedades criollas o teocintle pueden resultar imprácticas, por lo que se sugirió que las distancias de aislamiento entre parcelas con maíz transgénico y normal que se podrían manejar son del orden de 300 a 500 m, que son las utilizadas por las empresas productoras de semillas híbridas.La liberación de maíz transgénico en México debe ser considerada como un caso especial y de gran importancia. El caso del maíz transgénico es diferente, no tanto en la etapa experimental, sino en la etapa de liberación comercial, en la cual no puede haber confinamiento. Tal vez el mayor problema se presentará cuando se llegue al momento de la desregulación del maíz transgénico y de su liberación como material comercial. Por tanto, se recomienda analizar cuidadosamente y por anticipado las consecuencias de la desregulación. La educación del público para que comprenda lo que está ocurriendo con la introducción del material transgénico, sería un paso importante en la transparencia de la toma de decisiones para la desregulación Se recomienda que la investigación acerca del flujo de genes y análisis de riesgos biológicos derivados del uso y liberación de plantas transgénicas sea un trabajo interinstitucional coordinado. Es menester un trabajo de equipo donde participen biotecnólogos, biólogos moleculares, fitomejoradores y otros científicos que manejan la investigación desde disciplinas diversas.","tokenCount":"53565"}
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..5ed1933f0732263d13c564a650097ff9ef1167d3
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"062fe41cbeea1e2bdbc996c5f6fa416f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ff60d927-81d3-4a3e-98d2-aa653228c738/retrieve","id":"1700395300"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"edd2bdc5-0b6f-4b41-8667-7ec01e8aaaec","pagecount":"4","content":"genetic resources utilization. This strategic set of descriptors, together with passport data, will become the basis for the global accession level information portal being developed by Bioversity International with the financial support of the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT). It will facilitate access to and utilization of finger millet accessions held in genebanks and does not preclude the addition of further descriptors, should data subsequently become available.Plant height [cm] (4.1.2)From ground level to the tip of inflorescence (ear). At dough stagePlant pigmentation (4.1.4) Any additional information may be specified here, particularly that referring to the category '99=Other' present in some of the descriptors above.Bioversity is grateful to all the scientists and researchers who have contributed to the development of this strategic set of 'Key access and utilization descriptors for finger millet genetic resources', and in particular to Dr A. Seetharam for providing valuable scientific direction. Adriana Alercia provided technical expertise and guided the entire production process. ","tokenCount":"156"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8124866696.json b/data/part_2/8124866696.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..dc61163680a51f07e803ea3ff47e3620da566f14
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77dd1d010e5baad0f42a2578e6128c47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f20d7caa-bf84-4432-9edc-6770e0c01055/retrieve","id":"-1919056594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b310e66a-98fc-496a-a15e-4b738f24daa5","pagecount":"5","content":"(1) Developing tools that can rapidly and affordably analyze fodder quality, generate feed demand and supply information and formulate balanced least cost rations;2) Increasing the availability of quality feed biomass from forages and crop residues;3) Making better use of existing feed resources through feed processing, preservation and supplementation options; and 4) Developing and supporting feed and fodder value chains.   5. Experimental feed processing unit: this unit has feed processing facilities to make total mixed rations in the form of block, mash and expander extruded pellets. The capacity of the block and expander extruded pellet making machine is 100 kg/h and 500 kg/h, respectively whereas the capacity of mash making (chopper-cum-grinder) unit is 200-250 kg/h.","tokenCount":"114"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8125875309.json b/data/part_2/8125875309.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c7a1e890310e6a2394356fe956439b47a6b74bb8
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"00ced0bb11a736e3d33ec1dcadcd8267","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/231eb02a-9ee6-43f2-8ad8-7c87a43e2f3a/retrieve","id":"808504202"},"keywords":["Wodebo, K.Y.","Tolemariam, T.","Demeke, S.","Garedew, W.","Tesfaye, T.","Zeleke, M.","Gemiyu, D.","Bedeke, W.","Wamatu, J.","Sharma, M. AMMI oat (Avena sativa L.)","biomass yield","GXE Interaction","AMMI","GGE"],"sieverID":"8d87af75-553d-4e3f-a0f9-0e6b05cc7539","pagecount":"18","content":"This paper reports an evaluation of eleven oat genotypes in four environments for two consecutive years to identify high-biomass-yielding, stable, and broadly adapted genotypes in selected parts of Ethiopia. Genotypes were planted and evaluated with a randomized complete block design, which was repeated three times. The additive main effect and multiplicative interaction analysis of variances revealed that the environment, genotype, and genotype-environment interaction had a significant (p ≤ 0.001) influence on the biomass yield in the dry matter base (t ha −1 ). The interaction of the first and second principal component analysis accounted for 73.43% and 14.97% of the genotype according to the environment interaction sum of squares, respectively. G6 and G5 were the most stable and widely adapted genotypes and were selected as superior genotypes. The genotype-by-environment interaction showed a 49.46% contribution to the total treatment of sum-of-squares variation, while genotype and environment effects explained 34.94% and 15.60%, respectively. The highest mean yield was obtained from G6 (12.52 kg/ha), and the lowest mean yield was obtained from G7 (8.65 kg/ha). According to the additive main effect and multiplicative interaction biplot, G6 and G5 were high-yielding genotypes, whereas G7 was a low-yielding genotype. Furthermore, according to the genotype and genotype-environment interaction biplot, G6 was the winning genotype in all environments. However, G7 was a low-yielding genotype in all environments. Finally, G6 was an ideal genotype with a higher mean yield and relatively good stability. However, G7 was a poor-yielding and unstable genotype. The genotype, environment, and genotype x environment interaction had extremely important effects on the biomass yield of oats. The findings of the graphic stability methods (additive main effect and multiplicative interaction and the genotype and genotypeenvironment interaction) for identifying high-yielding and stable oat genotypes were very similar.The livestock subsector in Ethiopia significantly contributes to the national income [1] and rural and urban residents' means of subsistence. However, because of a lack of feed and an imbalanced supply of feed, animal output remains poor [2]. The mean oat biomass production of 9.67 t/ha in this study is promising for developing nations like Ethiopia. This country is known for its lengthy dry season, during which there is inadequate plant Plants 2023, 12, 3064 2 of 18 biomass left over from the wet season to maintain domestic livestock species and key issues with feeding livestock arise [3].Avena sativa, sometimes known as oat, is a significant multi-use cereal crop that is grown on more than 9 million hectares worldwide for grain, feed, fodder, and straw [4]. It is not very selective in terms of soils and climate and thus can reliably be grown in infertile soils and cool and humid climates [5]. One of the well-adapted and significant fodder crops that grow in Ethiopia's highlands, primarily under rain-fed conditions, is Avena sativa. It is also one of the crucial fodder crops that are frequently cultivated in the winter, when animals confront a shortage of green fodder and the majority of the feed starts to deteriorate and eventually dry out [6]. In terms of cereal output, it comes in sixth place behind wheat, maize, rice, barley, and sorghum. Oats are excellent for making hay in climates that are suitable for them. Oats ensile effectively for use on farms. Compared with wheat or barley straw, oat straw is a more appealing and nutritious feed option for livestock. However, because there are not many breeding programs for fodder oats, cultivars are often developed and produced primarily for grain, and the same cultivars are used for both [7].For quantitative variables like yield, a strong genotype-by-environment interaction might limit the relevance of inferences that would otherwise be true and significantly limit the ability to select superior genotypes [8][9][10]. The difference in the genetic ranking of genotypes in relation to the environment-for example, a genotype performing well in wellwatered conditions but poorly in dry situations-is how [11] define genotype-environment interaction. The development of genotypes that can be adapted to a wide range of various settings is the ultimate goal of plant breeders in crop improvement efforts [11]. Finding genotypes whose performance remains stable in a variety of conditions can be accomplished using yield stability analysis [12,13]. The genotypes of oats that perform the best in target conditions and those that are most adaptable to other habitats can thus be found through comparing performance across environments.Different statistical approaches for analyzing genotype stability can help with the difficult task of discovering superior genotypes in the context of significant G × E interactions [12].The genotype, environmental factors, and their interaction have a considerable impact on yield and characteristics [14][15][16]. According to [15], genotype-environment interactions (GEIs) cause genotypes to behave differently in various settings. Breeders want to determine the best growing conditions for their genotype in addition to quantifying the GEI [16]. An ideal stable genotype is one that consistently produces good results for agronomic and quality factors over a wide range of environmental conditions. According to [17], the genotype-environment interaction is usually assessed according to the AMMI (additive main effects and multiplicative interaction) model and GGE biplot analyses in order to predict phenotypic responses to environmental changes in the examined genotypes. In the AMMI approach, principal component analysis (PCA) with multiplicative parameters and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with additive parameters are combined into a single analysis. The main and interaction effects for environments and genotypes are displayed together in the AMMI biplot. Additionally, Ref. [18] offered a solitary examination of the genotype-by-environment interaction.Powerful methods for examining and providing commentary on multi-environment data structures in breeding operations include the AMMI and GGE biplot models [19,20]. Researchers interested in agriculture are particularly interested in these two statistical analyses (AMMI and GGE). This is due to the fact that they may be applied to any two-way data matrix, even those involving a number of genotypes examined across many sites [21]. These analyses include principal component analysis (PCA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) [22]. The GGE biplot analysis and the AMMI biplot analysis differ in that the former is based on an environment-centered PCA, while the latter is based on a doublecentered PCA [23]. The majority of genotypes have been reported to exhibit narrow adaptability and significant genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) effects, despite the fact that oats typically adapt to a broad range of environmental scenarios [24,25]. The significance of extending research efforts to examine the variations in biomass yield across oat genotypes and across settings was studied in this report. This study will help researchers plan the further breeding and production of promising, specific, and widely adapted genotypes. The examination of the performance of oat genotypes in various conditions in Ethiopia is still in its infancy. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (1) estimate the magnitude of the genotype-by-environment interaction, (2) identify stable genotypes with a high biomass yield based on dry matter, and (3) identify mega-environments to guide future testing strategies.Eleven oat genotypes were examined in four locations using the AMMI model, and the results showed that the environment (E), genotype (G), and genotype-environment interaction (GEI) all had a significant (p < 0.001) impact on the yield of oat (t ha −1 ). AMMI (IPCA1) was highly significant (p < 0.001) according to the AMMI model's analysis of variance (Table 1). This showed that strong genotype-by-environment (GE) interaction caused a significant difference in yield performance among the oat genotypes across the studied environments. As a result, it might be possible to create stable genotypes or entries for a certain environment. This discovery is consistent with several studies that have discovered significant interactions between the environment and genotypes of oats [24][25][26]. Oat biomass dry matter yield was influenced by the genotype-by-environment (GE) interaction effect (49.46%), genotype effect (34.94%), and environment effect (15.60%), according to the total percentage explained by sum-of-squares factors (Table 1). The genotypic response differed significantly among environments, as seen by the fact that the GEI sum-of-squares component was greater than the genotype sum-of-squares factor. Since the GE interaction or the sum of squares contributes more to the overall variance, there is a greater likelihood that cultivars will evolve for a particular environment. In line with these findings, Ref. [25] revealed that the genotype-by-environment interaction effect, followed by genotype and environment, contributed to the biggest overall sum of squares. The result is in contrast to Adjebeng-Danquah [27], who reported that the environment contributed a greater proportion of the treatment sum of squares, followed by the genotype and genotype-by-environment interaction. This was in contrast to findings from [26], who reported that the environment is the most contributing, followed by the genotype-by-environment interaction effect and the genotype effect. Both studies found that environmental conditions had a significant impact on production. This study result shows the yield greatly depends on the environment. However, genotype (G) and genotype-byenvironment interaction (GEI) are relevant to genotype evaluation, whereas the significant environmental influence is irrelevant [26].According to [18], the first two IPCAs can be used to forecast the AMMI model that is the most accurate. Several authors took the first two IPCAs for GGE biplot analysis because the greater percentage of genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI), in most cases, were explained by the first IPCA, such as for maize [28], bread wheat [29,30], common bean [29], for finger millet [30], field pea [31] and oat [14,32].The AMMI with IPCA1 and IPCA2 is the most effective predictive model for the crossvalidation of the yield variation explained by the GEI [33]. Considering IPCA1 (73.43%) and IPCA2 (14.97%) together, the sums of squares from IPCA1 and IPCA2 contributed 87.43% of the total GEI, with the IPCA1 having a larger sum of squares than genotypes. The entire genotype-by-environment interaction component was adequately explained by the model [34]. Given that it removes the bulk of the real variation, this suggests that the AMMI model with the IPCA1 and IPCA2 were suitable for cross validating the oat biomass dry matter yield variation supplied by GEI in the given data set. The GEI contributes more than genotypes, suggesting a need for research into the basis of the diverse ways that genotypes respond to their surroundings (Table 1). Because GEI weakens the usefulness of genotypes through mystifying their yield performance by means of decreasing the relationship between genotypic and phenotypic characteristics [35,36], GEI complicates the selection process.The average genotype biomass dry matter yield ranged from 8.65 t ha −1 (ILRI_15152A = #G7) to 12.52 t ha −1 (ILRI_5527A = #G6), while the average environment biomass dry matter yield ranged from 8.50 t ha −1 at Hulla to 10.67 t ha −1 at Adiyo (Table 2). As shown by genotype yield rankings that varied between environments, with the exception of genotypes G6 and G5, some GEI genotypes were of a crossover type (Table 2). The highest biomass dry matter yield across conditions was consistent for genotypes G6 and G5. Thus, the top-ranking genotypes in Chencha, Adiyo, Doyegena, and Hula, respectively, were genotypes G6 and G5 (Table 2). Four parts make up the AMMI1 biplot space (Figure 1), ranging from high-yielding environments in parts 2 (upper right) and 3 (low right) to low-yielding environments in sections 1 (higher left) and 4 (low left). The biplot in Figure 1 clearly shows that the points for the genotypes are more dispersed than the points for the environment, indicating that genotype variability is greater than environment-related variability, which is consistent with ANOVA (Table 2). The points for the typically adapted genotypes on the biplot would be close to the IPCA = 0 line (which shows negligible or no GE interaction) and on the right side of the grand mean levels (suggesting high mean performance). In this regard, the AMMI biplot was set up with two oat genotypes, such as G6 and G5, with two environments, such as Doyogena and Adiyo, on the right side of the perpendicular vertical line (Figure 1). Four parts make up the AMMI1 biplot space (Figure 1), ranging from high-yielding environments in parts 2 (upper right) and 3 (low right) to low-yielding environments in sections 1 (higher left) and 4 (low left). The biplot in Figure 1 clearly shows that the points for the genotypes are more dispersed than the points for the environment, indicating that genotype variability is greater than environment-related variability, which is consistent with ANOVA (Table 2). The points for the typically adapted genotypes on the biplot would be close to the IPCA = 0 line (which shows negligible or no GE interaction) and on the right side of the grand mean levels (suggesting high mean performance). In this regard, the AMMI biplot was set up with two oat genotypes, such as G6 and G5, with two environments, such as Doyogena and Adiyo, on the right side of the perpendicular vertical line (Figure 1). The oat genotypes (G5, G6, G9, and G11) are weakly influenced by environmental factors (lower interaction effect). The genotypes' (G2, G3, and G7) dry matter yield was strongly influenced by environmental factors (higher interaction effect), as shown in Figure 1. However, the dry matter yield response may not be higher for the genotypes that were less sensitive to environmental influences.Oat genotype ILRI_5527A (G6), which was closest to the IPCA 0, was more adaptable, high-yielding, and stable throughout the tested settings, so it was excellent. Along with G6, G5 also achieve a high dry matter yield and was adaptive in all of the studied situations. In contrast to the optimum genotype ILRI_5527A9G6), the genotypes G7, G2, and G3 were far from the IPCA 0 of the biplot and yielded low dry matter (Figure 1).Genotypes close to the IPCA 0 of the biplot are not susceptible to environmental interaction, whereas genotypes further from the origin of the biplot are sensitive and have significant interaction effects, according to [19,35,37]. Additionally, Ref. [35] claims that the best genotypes have small absolute IPC2 scores (great stability) and large IPC1 The oat genotypes (G5, G6, G9, and G11) are weakly influenced by environmental factors (lower interaction effect). The genotypes' (G2, G3, and G7) dry matter yield was strongly influenced by environmental factors (higher interaction effect), as shown in Figure 1. However, the dry matter yield response may not be higher for the genotypes that were less sensitive to environmental influences.Oat genotype ILRI_5527A (G6), which was closest to the IPCA 0, was more adaptable, high-yielding, and stable throughout the tested settings, so it was excellent. Along with G6, G5 also achieve a high dry matter yield and was adaptive in all of the studied situations. In contrast to the optimum genotype ILRI_5527A9G6), the genotypes G7, G2, and G3 were far from the IPCA 0 of the biplot and yielded low dry matter (Figure 1).Genotypes close to the IPCA 0 of the biplot are not susceptible to environmental interaction, whereas genotypes further from the origin of the biplot are sensitive and have significant interaction effects, according to [19,35,37]. Additionally, Ref. [35] claims that the best genotypes have small absolute IPC2 scores (great stability) and large IPC1 scores (wider adaptability). Figure 1 shows how the environments Adiyo and Hulla differed from Doyogena and Chencha in terms of the genotypes' dry matter yield performance. According to [36], environments with short spokes impose weak interacting pressures on the performance of oat genotypes, whereas settings with long spokes exert high interaction.On the other hand, certain environment (Figure 1) stood out as having a modest, moderate, or significant contribution to the interaction (Doyogena), Chencha, Hulla, and Adiyo, respectively. These environments (Adiyo and Doyogena) produced a mean dry matter yield that was higher than the overall mean (9.67 t ha −1 ), demonstrating that they were the best places to find high means. The settings with the highest potential (Hulla) showed variable genotype performance for dry matter yield and had a strong positive IPCA1 score (Figure 1). All genotypes progressed poorly in the low-yielding environment (IV), which had the lowest yield but a negative IPCA1 score. Similar observations were reported by different authors [36,38]. Settings with varying contribution relationships in both high-yielding and low-yielding conditions were also part of different observed findings [39].An AMMI stability value was computed to determine the stability of the genotypes (Table 3). ASV is the distance from zero in a two-dimensional scatter graph comparing IPCA1 (interaction principal component analysis axis 1) scores to IPCA2 scores. The difference in stability measurements between the two primary components can be made up for using the proportional difference between the IPCAs (1:2), which can then be calculated using the Pythagorean theorem to account for the AMMI stability value [40]. The AMMI stability value (ASV) quantifies and ranks genotypes based on their yield stability rather than providing a quantitative stability indicator [38]. In this respect, greater ASV values are associated with unstable genotypes, whereas genotypes with lower ASV values are associated with more stable genotypes. The genotypes G7, G2, and G3 were the most unstable, with ASV values of 4.9, 1.79, and 1.45, respectively (Table 3). Genotype G9 was the most stable, with an ASV value of 0.27, followed by genotypes G6 and G11, with ASV values of 0.29 and 1.08, respectively, in biomass dry matter. Refs. [13,[41][42][43] all employed a similar technique and discovered a more stable genotype with a lower ASV value.There is a need for methods that combine mean and stability into a single criterion since the most stable genotypes may not always produce the best yield performance. Stability should not, however, be the primary parameter for selection. In this regard, because ASV considers both IPCA1 and IPCA2, which account for the majority of the variation in GE interaction, the rank of ASV and rank of mean yield are combined to form the Genotype Selection Index (GSI), a single selection index [41]. Because the most stable genotypes may Plants 2023, 12, 3064 7 of 18 not always produce the highest yields, stability is not the main factor in selection. Only when it is connected to average performance does the phrase \"high stability\" have any real meaning [42]. Therefore, methods that combine mean yield and stability into a single indicator are required [43]. The lowest GSI value, with a high mean yield, is regarded as the most stable.The smallest GSI is considered the most stable (Table 3); in that regard, the most stable genotypes with the highest biomass dry matter yield were G6 and G5, which had the lowest GSI values of 3 and 6, respectively. These genotypes were followed by G11 and G4, which had GSI values of 7 and 12, respectively, suggesting that they were stable and high yielding. This result is consistent with other research that found stable genotypes with high yields could be found through analyzing the genotype selection index based on ranking mean yield and ranking AMMI stability value [41][42][43]. These outcomes matched those of the biplot graph.In order to identify the winning genotypes through showing the patterns of interaction between genotypes and environments, a polygon view of the GGE biplot graphic analysis is shown (Figure 2) [34]. In multi-location yield experiments, it is useful for detecting crossover and non-crossover genotype-by-environment interactions as well as the potential existence of several mega-environments [14,20]. G2, G3, G6, and G7 were the vertex genotypes, as shown by the genotypes in Figure 2. Because they are the farthest from the origin of the biplot, these genotypes perform better or worse in some or all environments [34], and they are regarded as specifically suited genotypes because they are more responsive to environmental change. In the GGE's polygon-view biplot, they thrive in environments that are a part of their particular sector [34].There is a need for methods that combine mean and stability into a single criterion since the most stable genotypes may not always produce the best yield performance. Stability should not, however, be the primary parameter for selection. In this regard, because ASV considers both IPCA1 and IPCA2, which account for the majority of the variation in GE interaction, the rank of ASV and rank of mean yield are combined to form the Genotype Selection Index (GSI), a single selection index [41]. Because the most stable genotypes may not always produce the highest yields, stability is not the main factor in selection. Only when it is connected to average performance does the phrase \"high stability\" have any real meaning [42]. Therefore, methods that combine mean yield and stability into a single indicator are required [43]. The lowest GSI value, with a high mean yield, is regarded as the most stable.The smallest GSI is considered the most stable (Table 3); in that regard, the most stable genotypes with the highest biomass dry matter yield were G6 and G5, which had the lowest GSI values of 3 and 6, respectively. These genotypes were followed by G11 and G4, which had GSI values of 7 and 12, respectively, suggesting that they were stable and high yielding. This result is consistent with other research that found stable genotypes with high yields could be found through analyzing the genotype selection index based on ranking mean yield and ranking AMMI stability value [41][42][43]. These outcomes matched those of the biplot graph.In order to identify the winning genotypes through showing the patterns of interaction between genotypes and environments, a polygon view of the GGE biplot graphic analysis is shown (Figure 2) [34]. In multi-location yield experiments, it is useful for detecting crossover and non-crossover genotype-by-environment interactions as well as the potential existence of several mega-environments [14,20]. G2, G3, G6, and G7 were the vertex genotypes, as shown by the genotypes in Figure 2. Because they are the farthest from the origin of the biplot, these genotypes perform better or worse in some or all environments [34], and they are regarded as specifically suited genotypes because they are more responsive to environmental change. In the GGE's polygon-view biplot, they thrive in environments that are a part of their particular sector [34]. The two genotypes that performed best in each of the four environments-Hulla Chencha, Adiyo, and Doyogena-were G6 and G5. On the other hand, because they were located on the other side of the test environments and the furthest from the biplot's origin, the vertex genotypes-except G6, the rest: G2, G3, and G7-were the ones that performed the poorest over practically the entire set of test settings. Similar findings reported on genotypes' which-won-where patterns [26,[44][45][46] agree with this study's finding. They discovered that certain genotypes performed better than others in a particular environment and that certain genotypes performed worse in certain contexts. The red-color equality lines in Figure 2 separate the biplot into four portions. While the genotypes were spread over all four sectorial areas, the environments were only scattered across one. These were only one mega-environment: Hulla, Chencha, Adiyo, and Doyogena. This implies that similar genotypes perform well in an environment of homogeneity. In order to manage the genotype-by-environment interactions and subsequently relate the findings to similar agroclimatic regions, the identified mega-environments may be helpful. The most productive genotypes in a sector are those that are located close to the vertex [16]. The first (I) sectors, which were devoid of any environment, included seven and eight genotypes, respectively (Figure 2). In the second sector (II), there were four environments that were found: Hulla, Chena, Adiyo, and Doyogena. The G5 and G6 genotypes were included in this region (Figure 2). G6 is the vertex (winner) at the four environments of the sector. The third sector (III) contained four genotypes (G1, G2, G3, and G10) without any environments; G2 and G3 were the vertex genotypes, indicating that these were the better genotypes for sector III (Figure 2). Without any environments, G9 and G11 were located in the fourth sector (IV), with no vertex genotype in this sector. The GEI variance was higher in the vertex genotypes than in the genotypes close to the origin. Resulting around average performance, the G1, G4, G5, G8, G9, G10, and G11 genotypes were close to the biplot origin, and their GEI variation was lower than that of the vertex genotypes. The results were similar to those reported by [40,42,[47][48][49][50], who stated that the testing environment was divided into various mega-environments with winning genotypes and sectors with different numbers of genotypes. The effects of GE interaction influence the accuracy of predicting the performance of some genotypes in new environments. This was observed for genotypes ranked third and above, for example, genotype eleven (G11), which is ranked as third in the environment of Chencha but not found within the top-five ranking in the Doyegena environment. Similarly, genotype two (G2) ranked third in Doyegena but was not found among the top five in Chencha and Hulla. The results show new promising genotypes (G6 and G5) which were high yielding and stable in all environments, which is recommended for the breeder for further production.According to Figure 3 of the GGE biplot, the first (PC1) and second (PC2) principal components together accounted for 87% of the total variation, showing that this biplot may be utilized to distinguish between interrelationships across the environments. The correlation coefficient is related to the angle between the biplot origin and the test environment markers [35]. Additionally, a high degree of genotype discrimination is conferred by the length of an environmental vector [19]. In the current study, Doyogena was the environment that was most discriminating (held more information) about the genotypes with the longest vectors from the origin, followed by Hulla and Chencha, which were moderately discriminating, and the Adiyo environment, which was either barely or not discriminating about genotype differences (Figure 3).The use of non-discriminating (non-informative) test environments is discouraged since they offer little information regarding genotypes [42]. Additionally, test environments with acute, obtuse, and right-angle relationships, respectively, have positive, negative, and zero correlation between environments predominantly found using the biplot vector view [16].The four environments were divided into two groups based on the angle test between environment vectors. Figure 3 shows that the first group had a modest angle between the environments Hulla, Chencha, and Adiyo; a strong positive correlation between them; and similar genetic information. It means that their capacity to distinguish between genotypes is compromised by the environment. Breeders should be able to use fewer test environments, lowering testing costs and increasing breeding effectiveness, if they can obtain trustworthy information about environment similarity and clustering. The second group is in possession of the broad angle between Doyogena and the rest of the environments.Plants 2023, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 9 of 19 ments with acute, obtuse, and right-angle relationships, respectively, have positive, negative, and zero correlation between environments predominantly found using the biplot vector view [16]. The four environments were divided into two groups based on the angle test between environment vectors. Figure 3 shows that the first group had a modest angle between the environments Hulla, Chencha, and Adiyo; a strong positive correlation between them; and similar genetic information. It means that their capacity to distinguish between genotypes is compromised by the environment. Breeders should be able to use fewer test environments, lowering testing costs and increasing breeding effectiveness, if they can obtain trustworthy information about environment similarity and clustering. The second group is in possession of the broad angle between Doyogena and the rest of the environments.The performance of the genotype in an environment is better than average if the angle between its vector and the environment's vector is less than 90. And, it is less than average if the angle is greater than 90° and near average if the angle is about 90° [16]. In this regard, G6 and G5 performed well in environments Chencha, Hulla, Adiyo, and Doyogena. Wide obtuse angles are a sign of strong crossover GE in the test conditions, and the biggest angle is somewhat wider than 90°, suggesting that the GE is moderately large. Therefore, except for G6 and G5, the rest of the genotypes showed varying performance in different environments. Similar findings in the link between environments defined using the angle method were reported by [40,51,52]. When compared to associations with small angles, which showed significant positive correlations and provided information about genotypes, they discovered that some settings between them had huge angles or low or negative correlations. The GGE biplot graph shows relationships among test environments, where 1 up to 11 stands for genotypes from 1 up to 11, consecutively. HUL, CHE, DOY, and ADY stand for Hulla, Chencha, Doyogena, and Adiyo, respectively.The performance of the genotype in an environment is better than average if the angle between its vector and the environment's vector is less than 90. And, it is less than average if the angle is greater than 90 • and near average if the angle is about 90 • [16]. In this regard, G6 and G5 performed well in environments Chencha, Hulla, Adiyo, and Doyogena. Wide obtuse angles are a sign of strong crossover GE in the test conditions, and the biggest angle is somewhat wider than 90 • , suggesting that the GE is moderately large. Therefore, except for G6 and G5, the rest of the genotypes showed varying performance in different environments. Similar findings in the link between environments defined using the angle method were reported by [40,51,52]. When compared to associations with small angles, which showed significant positive correlations and provided information about genotypes, they discovered that some settings between them had huge angles or low or negative correlations.An interesting application for comparing genotypes to a desirable genotype is the GGE biplot model. An ideal genotype has a high mean performance as well as a high level of stability across locations; a number of publications, including [18,45,53,54], claim that the optimal position-the center of the concentric circle-was used to identify the genotype with the highest mean performance and stability. Large PC1 scores (high mean yield) and small (absolute) PC2 scores (high stability) characterize an optimal genotype. Even though such an \"ideal\" genotype could not exist in the real world, it might be utilized as a standard for assessing genotypes [52]. To more clearly show the disparity between genotypes and the ideal genotype, concentric circles were created in a GGE biplot graph based on genotype-focused scaling [18,23]. Early breeding cycles can be used to rule out genotypes that are quite different from the ideal genotype, whereas later testing can take into account genotypes that are relatively similar to it [55]. When a genotype is nearer to the \"ideal\" genotype, which is shown in the first concentric circle of the GGE biplot graphic, it is considered to be more desirable [56]. The genotype G6 was located in the first concentric circle, as shown in the GGE biplot graph (Figure 4). It follows that G6 was the preferred genotype position, followed by G5, making it the preferred genotype among those of oat.rule out genotypes that are quite different from the ideal genotype, whereas later testing can take into account genotypes that are relatively similar to it [55]. When a genotype is nearer to the \"ideal\" genotype, which is shown in the first concentric circle of the GGE biplot graphic, it is considered to be more desirable [56]. The genotype G6 was located in the first concentric circle, as shown in the GGE biplot graph (Figure 4). It follows that G6 was the preferred genotype position, followed by G5, making it the preferred genotype among those of oat. This is comparable to the findings of [35,44,54] who showed that the first and second concentric circles, respectively, include one optimal genotype and a few other suitable genotypes. Similar to this, Ref. [26] found desired genotypes using various strategies. Their criteria were that an ideal genotype should have big PC1 scores (high mean yield) and a small absolute PC2 score (high stability); however, their strategy was unsuccessful in doing so. The highest-yielding genotypes are those that are drawn on the concentric and/or average environmental coordinate (AEC) center closest to the ideal genotype [57,58].In the consideration of AMMI and GGE biplot analysis of oat genotype based on the dry matter yield performance, genotypes G6 (ideal genotype) and G5 yielded more dry-matter biomass than the remaining tested oat genotypes across the tested environ- This is comparable to the findings of [35,44,54] who showed that the first and second concentric circles, respectively, include one optimal genotype and a few other suitable genotypes. Similar to this, Ref. [26] found desired genotypes using various strategies. Their criteria were that an ideal genotype should have big PC1 scores (high mean yield) and a small absolute PC2 score (high stability); however, their strategy was unsuccessful in doing so. The highest-yielding genotypes are those that are drawn on the concentric and/or average environmental coordinate (AEC) center closest to the ideal genotype [57,58].In the consideration of AMMI and GGE biplot analysis of oat genotype based on the dry matter yield performance, genotypes G6 (ideal genotype) and G5 yielded more dry-matter biomass than the remaining tested oat genotypes across the tested environments. Therefore, these genotypes are relatively wider in adaptation across the tested environments.The desired environments are those that are closest to the ideal environment, which is located in the first concentric circle of the environment-focused GGE biplot. Hulla has been in the perfect environment and is in the first concentric circle in this regard (Figure 5). Hulla had a robust PC1 score but a reduced PC2 score. Therefore, genotype evaluation in the Hulla environment increased the observed genotypic diversity across genotypes for the biomass dry matter yield of the tested oat genotypes and should be regarded as the most appropriate to identify broadly suited genotypes. Chencha's and Adiyo's habitats have been recognized as desirable environments (Figure 5), since they are quite similar to the ideal environment (Hulla).The Doyogena environments, on the other hand, were placed far from ideal conditions, making them unsuitable (fewer representatives) environments for choosing cultivars with broad adaptations but useful for choosing those with particular adaptations. Soil fertility, rainfall, and other environmental variability between environmental systems can be linked to this variation. The discriminating power of a place is influenced by the genotype composition, but the existence of GEI makes selecting a suitable test location more challenging [35]. Furthermore, they suggested that the most representative environments can be used for widely adapted genotype selection, while non-representing environments can be useful for specifically adapted genotype selection.The desired environments are those that are closest to the ideal environment, which is located in the first concentric circle of the environment-focused GGE biplot. Hulla has been in the perfect environment and is in the first concentric circle in this regard (Figure 5). Hulla had a robust PC1 score but a reduced PC2 score. Therefore, genotype evaluation in the Hulla environment increased the observed genotypic diversity across genotypes for the biomass dry matter yield of the tested oat genotypes and should be regarded as the most appropriate to identify broadly suited genotypes. Chencha's and Adiyo's habitats have been recognized as desirable environments (Figure 5), since they are quite similar to the ideal environment (Hulla). The Doyogena environments, on the other hand, were placed far from ideal conditions, making them unsuitable (fewer representatives) environments for choosing cultivars with broad adaptations but useful for choosing those with particular adaptations. Soil fertility, rainfall, and other environmental variability between environmental systems can be linked to this variation. The discriminating power of a place is influenced by the genotype composition, but the existence of GEI makes selecting a suitable test location more challenging [35]. Furthermore, they suggested that the most representative environments can be used for widely adapted genotype selection, while non-representing environments can be useful for specifically adapted genotype selection.The average environment (tester) coordinate (AEC) methods were used in the GGE biplot to determine mean dry matter yield and genotype stability (Figure 6) [59]. The average PC1 and PC2 scores across all environments are used to define the average en- The average environment (tester) coordinate (AEC) methods were used in the GGE biplot to determine mean dry matter yield and genotype stability (Figure 6) [59]. The average PC1 and PC2 scores across all environments are used to define the average environmental (tester) coordinate (AEC) [34]. The mean dry matter yield performance axis of genotypes is indicated by the AEC X axis (PC1) line that goes through the biplot's origin and has an arrow pointing in the direction of the positive end. The stability of genotypes (PC2) is measured using the line which runs through the origin and is perpendicular to the average environmental axis (Figure 6). Stable genotypes had PC2 scores that were practically zero, were close to AEC (PC1), and had the lowest number of perpendicular lines. Away from the biplot origin, however, any direction on the axis denotes a greater GE interaction and a lower level of stability.The best genotypes for selection criteria are those with both high mean yield and high stability. In this regard, in the present study (Figure 6), the single arrowed line pointed to higher yield across environments. Therefore, genotype G6 had the highest mean yield, followed by G5. They were the most stable, while G7, G3, and G2 were highly unstable, and among them, G7 performed poorly. The present study's findings are in line with the report made by [60]. They ranked genotypes based on mean performance and stability across environments. In this way, they found some genotypes to be the most stable with a high mean yield and some unstable high yielders, while some other genotypes were unstable with a poor yield and a stable low yielder.origin and has an arrow pointing in the direction of the positive end. The stability of genotypes (PC2) is measured using the line which runs through the origin and is perpendicular to the average environmental axis (Figure 6). Stable genotypes had PC2 scores that were practically zero, were close to AEC (PC1), and had the lowest number of perpendicular lines. Away from the biplot origin, however, any direction on the axis denotes a greater GE interaction and a lower level of stability. The best genotypes for selection criteria are those with both high mean yield and high stability. In this regard, in the present study (Figure 6), the single arrowed line pointed to higher yield across environments. Therefore, genotype G6 had the highest mean yield, followed by G5. They were the most stable, while G7, G3, and G2 were highly unstable, and among them, G7 performed poorly. The present study's findings are in line with the report made by [60]. They ranked genotypes based on mean performance and stability across environments. In this way, they found some genotypes to be the most stable with a high mean yield and some unstable high yielders, while some other genotypes were unstable with a poor yield and a stable low yielder.The AMMI model has been successfully applied in many studies to analyze GEI [32,35]. The AMMI model, put out by [61], makes use of analysis of variance and principal component analysis for a better understanding of GEI, its causes, and effects. The GGE biplot analysis, which prioritizes both genotype main effects and GEI effects for the study, was proposed by [59]. Only the beginning analysis steps-where GGE examines G plus GE (or GEI) while AMMI separates G from GE-and the final analysis processes, where the biplot for the interpretation are built, distinguish these models from one another. The environmental stratification provided by the AMMI biplot is complemented by the GGE biplot, which enables the identification of mega-settings and genotypes that perform best in these environments [62]. These distinctions, however, do not suggest that either approach is better than the other [58]. The graphic analysis offered by the AMMI biplot offers a very straightforward analysis for breeding researchers. Conclu- The AMMI model has been successfully applied in many studies to analyze GEI [32,35]. The AMMI model, put out by [61], makes use of analysis of variance and principal component analysis for a better understanding of GEI, its causes, and effects. The GGE biplot analysis, which prioritizes both genotype main effects and GEI effects for the study, was proposed by [59]. Only the beginning analysis steps-where GGE examines G plus GE (or GEI) while AMMI separates G from GE-and the final analysis processes, where the biplot for the interpretation are built, distinguish these models from one another. The environmental stratification provided by the AMMI biplot is complemented by the GGE biplot, which enables the identification of mega-settings and genotypes that perform best in these environments [62]. These distinctions, however, do not suggest that either approach is better than the other [58]. The graphic analysis offered by the AMMI biplot offers a very straightforward analysis for breeding researchers. Conclusions about phenotypic stability, genotype behavior, genetic divergence between genotypes, and environments with the best performance can be made based on the data. Accordingly, the stable and high-yielding genotypes G6 and G5 are advised for breeding researchers to use in breeding programs.During the primary growing season of 2018-2019, the field experiment was carried out in four different environments. The study areas are shown in Figure 7.The soil type, altitude, and mean annual rainfall at these locations are different from each other (Table 4). Consequently, each place was regarded as having its own ecosystem and considered an individual environment.Plants 2023, 12, 3064 13 of 18 researchers to use in breeding programs.During the primary growing season of 2018-2019, the field experiment was carried out in four different environments. The study areas are shown in Figure 7. The soil type, altitude, and mean annual rainfall at these locations are different from each other (Table 4). Consequently, each place was regarded as having its own ecosystem and considered an individual environment. Eleven oat genotypes used in the study are displayed in Table 5. From the total genotypes, SRCPX80AB2291 and SRCPX80AB2806 were released, and the rest were promising.   Eleven oat genotypes used in the study are displayed in Table 5. From the total genotypes, SRCPX80AB2291 and SRCPX80AB2806 were released, and the rest were promising. The experiment was laid out in an RCBD design, with three replications. The design had three blocks and there were 33 plots, each with a dimension of 2 m × 3 m and a plot area of 6 m 2 . The space between rows, blocks, and plots was 20, 150, and 100 cm, respectively. Each plot had 10 rows. The experimental seeds were planted through drilling into the soil. Each plot requirement of the seeds was measured through calculating the oat seed plantation rate of 100 kg/ha. NPS and urea fertilizers were applied at 100 kg/ha each. Data on biomass yield at the milk stage were collected from the three central rows excluding the outside rows; it was weighed and then converted to tons hectare (t ha −1 ).Utilizing Genstat, as reported by [63], statistical analyses were carried out. Each environment's data were subjected to an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a normality test prior to performing the combined analysis of variance across environments. After validating the homogeneity of the variances, the combined analysis of variances across sites was carried out. Bartlett's tests of homogeneity of variances were used to determine the homogeneity of the error variances of the individual location experiments. With genotypes acting as fixed factors and surroundings acting as random variables, a combined ANOVA was created using the AMMI model.The AMMI model's biomass dry matter yield was examined. AMMI stands for additive main effect and multiplicative interaction. Because in the validity test, the MS component of the RCBD design for the block within replication is less than the residual error across all sites, the analysis of variance was a combined analysis based on the RCBD. According to [64], the AMMI analysis was utilized to modify both the multiplicative effects of the GE interaction by the principal component analysis and the main or additive genotype and environmental effects by analysis of variance. The following model was proposed by [64] for the AMMI analysis of variance (ANOVA):where Y ij is the mean yield of the ith genotype in the jth environment; µ is the grand mean; G i and E j are the genotype and environment deviation from grand mean, respectively; α ik and γ jk are the genotype and environment principal component scores for axis k; n is the maximum number of multiplicative terms; γ k is the kth singular value of x (square root of the eigenvalue of xx' or x'x); ε ij is the error term.Because the AMMI analysis does not offer a quantitative measure of stability, Purchase et al.'s [40] recommendation was to utilize an ASV measure to quantify and categorize genotypes according to their yield stability. The stability of a genotype is evaluated using the ASV. Weighted IPCA1 and IPCA2 scores indicate that the stronger the stability, the lower the value [40]. The following formula was used to determine the ASV.The AMMI stability value (ASV) as described by [40] was calculated as follows:where SS IPCA1 SS IPCA2is the weight given to the IPCA1 value through dividing the IPCA1 sum of squares by the IPCA2 sum of squares. The larger the IPCA score, either negative or positive, the more specifically adapted a genotype is to certain environments. Smaller ASV scores indicate a more stable genotype across environments.The genotype selection index was calculated using the equation GSI = RASV + RY [43]. The terms RASV and RY in this context stand for genotype mean yield ranking across environments and AMMI stability value ranking, respectively. The author claims that GSI combines stability and mean yield into a single criterion, with a low score suggesting stable genotypes with a high mean yield. Therefore, it is assumed that the GSI with the lowest value is the most stable and has the maximum biomass dry matter yield. A genotype is better suited to particular surroundings when it has a higher IPCA score, whether positive or negative.Based on the singular value decomposition of the first two principal components, the model for a GGE biplot [35] iswhere Y ij is the mean for the ith genotype in the jth environment, µ is the grand mean, βj is the main effect of environment j, λ 1 and λ 2 are the singular values of the first and second principal components (PC1 and PC2), ξi1 and ξi2 are the PC1 and PC2 scores, respectively, for genotype ith, η j1 and η j2 are the eigenvectors for the jth environment for PC1 and PC2, and ε is the residual error term.The findings of this study support the need to test genotypes in representative environmental settings in order to find the most stable and productive genotypes. To lessen the impact of GE interaction and to increase the precision and refinement of genotype selection, the yield and stability of performance should be taken into account simultaneously. The genotypes, environments, interaction of genotype × environments, and AMMI component were significant in the analysis of variance for the AMMI model of oat biomass yield based on dry matter. Therefore, it is important to include yield along with PCA1 and PCA2 scores at the same time in order to maximize the useful effects of GEI and increase the accuracy of genotype recommendations. It was possible to find genotypes with superior and consistent biomass yield based on dry matter production using a graphical interpretation of the AMMI analysis and GSI index, which combined the ASV and the yield potential of various genotypes into a single non-parametric index. Based on YSI or GSI indices, G6 and G5 revealed the highest yield and stability. Generally, AMMI analysis is advantageous for identifying high-yielding and stable genotypes (G6 and G5), whereas GGE is advantageous for identifying genotypes that are specifically or broadly adapted. According to GGE, the same genotypes (G6 and G5) were broadly adapted. The two methodologies of analysis (AMMI and GGE) approve selecting G6 and G5 for a further breeding program or for high-production growers in the study area. This study may need to be repeated after a number of years because there will be a change in environments over a number of years, which is a challenge of this study. A limitation of the study is that the graphical analysis of GGE estimates about 87% of the reason, not 100%; i.e., a greater proportion could be explained with a better alternative methodology. Institutional Review Board Statement: The current study does not directly involve either human beings or animals for data and sample collection. Rather, the study was conducted at four locations in an experimental field. The study was reviewed by professionals from Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute.","tokenCount":"8052"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a389c496c6f6f4fb5027e40292b6e7fa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/94251cc1-5077-4599-a52c-49c91f5f5ac3/retrieve","id":"50359011"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"70ff2e49-29c8-48f8-bf64-b084f2c4f231","pagecount":"2","content":"Background Atsbi District is located in the North of Ethiopia. It is a non-highland region, which results in seasonallyinfluenced lambing times. Most inhabitants are Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Therefore sheep production and sales are strongly influenced by national and religious holidays. The main production system is mixed crops and livestock. Atsbi is a sheep meat producing area. However, children especially consume sheep and goat milk as a part of their diet.The main meat production constraints in Atsbi region are water and feed shortage, diseases and predators (Figure 1). Religion influences consumption; meat sales are limited by fasting periods in which meat consumption is forbidden. This leads to demand peaks in April, September to October and between December and January. Cash availability very much influences the amount of meat consumed.The main reason for 64% of livestock deaths in the region is starvation, which is attributed to shortage of feed, land, deforestation and erosion (Figure 1). Feed is scarce, especially in the rainy season. Many animals also die of diseases. The area is said to be served by poor veterinary services. Atsbi people care about food safety. They have some knowledge they use to mitigate foodborne zoonoses. Some observations include: Small ruminant milk is not a major part of the diet. When consumed, it is boiled or processed into yoghurt and butter. This does not apply for children who often consume milk directly from the animal without any precautions. Animals that obviously suffer from some disease are not usually consumed. Slaughtering is done carefully as people are aware of the need to pay attention to this process. It is reported that emergency slaughter and consumption of sick animals happens. Smell, colour and texture of animal source foods are used to assess quality and safety, meat is inspected before being cooked. Despite these measures, people report stomach pains and diarrhoea after eating meat. It is not clear whether this is due to food intolerance or a foodborne disease.During the value chain assessment process and subsequent discussions (early 2013), stakeholders from the district identified the following vision for their part of the small ruminant value chain development program in Ethiopia: By 2020, to have a sustainable market oriented sheep production system that contributes to nutrition and income of value chain actors. ","tokenCount":"376"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"15c9735cbacc8a12e483c1b22953bf0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37a31760-20c9-4e40-97d8-a8c966238cc4/retrieve","id":"-645415624"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7af43200-8366-4aa5-b13a-4138f3f52316","pagecount":"1","content":"Landscape degradation in Ethiopia poses a major threat to livelihoods and economic growth. Restoring these landscapes is essential for food security and sustainable living. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT has developed conceptual frameworks to guide key actors, including the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Inter AIDE, and other partners, in implementing interventions tailored to specific landscapes. By combining physical and biological soil and water conservation (SWC) measures-such as terracing, planting trees, and grasses-soil fertility improved, erosion decreased, and land productivity increased. For instance, in Doyogena Landscape alone, the use of soil bunds and grass strips expanded from 150 km in 2020 to 1,600 km by 2023. This led to increases in soil moisture, organic matter, carbon stock, and plant biomass by 20%, 133%, 49% and 80%, respectively. Local communities were actively engaged through para-conservationists and community-run tree and grass multiplication sites. Strong regional government leadership also played a key role in the process. These efforts show how inclusive, participatory approaches can drive sustainable landscape restoration, benefiting both the environment and farmers. With institutional support and digital monitoring systems, the positive impacts of SWC practices continue to grow, ensuring long-term resilience.","tokenCount":"191"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"72526c2f3a35e3d6b21fc79249ca1690","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/47136695-7562-48a9-b6bc-720622be649b/retrieve","id":"-1266532890"},"keywords":["Geographic scope:","National Country(ies):","Bangladesh Comments: <Not Defined> Links to MELIA publications: <Not Defined>"],"sieverID":"af20e5c9-8e72-47fd-a445-eac132ef1db9","pagecount":"1","content":"Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Too early to say Description of activity / study: The objectives of this study were to answer two questions: (1) what are consumers' acceptance and demand for low-milled and biofortified rice? and (2) does sharing nutritional (zinc) information --its importance, benefits, and availability in zinc biofortified and low-milled rice --impact consumers' acceptance and demand? Findings suggest Bangladeshi consumers are willing to pay a 4-5% premium for the two strategies that increase nutrition (zinc) intake -biofortification and low-milling, if they are given appropriate information. However, of the two strategies, addressing zinc deficiency via high zinc rice appears to be the optimal way forward. Full results are unpublished.","tokenCount":"115"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"afb34ab00ca84356b3b1a8bfa818b73d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dfe9dd95-2c6c-4ba0-bf08-1afbeae6f47a/content","id":"-557945673"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"017b6a61-74fa-4d89-b2b0-90f4ff430c60","pagecount":"62","content":". Launching the StudiesThe study described in the following chapters is one of a series aimed at enlarging understanding of the factors impinging on the edoption of new maize and wheat technology. Bener understanding a f the elements shaping the diffusion of new cereals technology can help governments and development assistance agencies to increase farmer income, hence the interest in the topic. Interest increased as controversy about effects of introducing \"!ew technologies attracted widespread attention to the theme.CIMMYT, with its mandate defining its role in the development and diffusion of maize and wheat technology, quickly assumed a participant's role in the discussions. The concern and the interest emanating from the critical importance of the theme stimulated CI MMYT to look for a modus operandi through which patterns of adoption and the forces shaping those patterns could be identified. Better understanding of these relationships would influence CIMMYT efforts to develop new technology, the orientation of its training program, and the approach taken in counseling governments about national programs.In order to better comprehend what influences farmer response to new technology, CIMMYT set out to facilitate the research on which this and the other studies of the series are based. We decided to examine eight cases in which maize or wheat technology had been introduced to farmers. In identifying programs for study, we limited consideration to those in which the technology had been available to farmers for no less than five vean and in which no less than 100,000 hectares of land mi~t have been affected. Eight programs were selected for study. For maize the focus was on Colombia, EI Salvador, Kenya west of Rift Valley, and Mexico's Plan Puebla. For wheat, programs• in India, Iran, Tunisia and Turkey were considered. CIMMYT's maize and wheat staff participated in the selection of these programs. With their knowledge of programs around the world it was possible to choose a varied set of experiences-e.g. programs with and without irrigation, with and without effective price ~arantees, with massive extension effort and with virtually none.To the extent possible, each of the adoption studies v. under the supervision of an indigenous economist. In or one case was it necessary to turn to an expatriate a there we had the good fortune to collaborate witt, a searcher with several years experience in the area. Ea of the collaborators shared CIMMYT's concern for fam response to new technology.Beyond sharing this concern, each collaborator had interest in farm level research done in (close cooperat with agricultural scientists. The importaace of this inter ẽmerges from our conviction that agricultOral scientists .... are knowledgeable about a particular maize or wheat a can contribute substantively to research on the cen economy of that area. Their special knowledge about . interaction between plants and their environments is portant in identifying agro-climatic zones, critical pen. for the crop, and activities which are essential to effec' cultivation. Many agricultural scientists played a promin role in these studies; each warrants our gratitude for contribution.AS the studies were completed it became apparent t much could be said for publishing them in a stane format. With several serving as Ph.D. dissertations others as less formal research pieces, a common for' could only be achieved through reworking the ori monographs. In every case but one, then, CIMp ublication is an abridgement of a longer piece. Indi.\" study, itself a review of the findings of several or research efforts, is being published in its entirely with effort to recast it in the form of the others.In making the abridgement we hive followed cert norms. Mathematical proofs have been eliminated. lit ture reviews have been included only where they rei at, points which are unique to a given study, and the discus, of the hypotheses motivating the studies have been dropr This last decision arises from recognition of the substar, commonality of these hypotheses among the studies. \"T suggested that, rather than presenting essentially the s, discussion in the text of each abridgement, the hvpoth. could be treated once in an abbreviated form for all stue That treatment follows below.While each of the studies examines a somewhat different set of circumstances all depart from the same general assumption about farmer behavior. The assumption is that farmers are income-seeking risk averters who are sensitive to the nuances of the environment in which they farm and that they are generally effective in their decision making. For the six studies based on original survey data and to a more limited extent for the study of Plan Puebfa, this common point of departure leads to a great deal of similarity in the motivating hypotheses.Given a farmer oriented by the assumptions described above, we might expect to see relationship between the adoption of elements of the new technoiocy and: 1) characteristics of the farmer-his age, education, family size, farming experience, off-farm work, percentage of land own• ed; 2) characteristics of the farm-its agro•c/imatic region, competition of industrial crops, relative importance of cereals, nearness to markets, farm size; 3) characteristics of government programs-access to credit, access to information (through extension agent visits or visits to demonstration plots). Some of the relationships between these variables and the adoption of elements of the new technologh are more arguable, some less. Least arguable are hypotheses relating adoption to education, farming experiences, percentage of land owned, more favored climatic regions, relative importance of cereals, nearness to markets, farm size, access to credit, and access to information. With other things equal and accepting our assumptions that farmers are incomeseeking, risk-averting, sensitive, and effective maximizers, virtually no one would argue that anyone of these relationships should be negative. Somewhat more arguable is the relation of age and family size to adoption. Even here it is likely that only a few would argue that these relationships might be positive.Most arguable are the relationships linking adoption to off-farm work and competition of industrial crops. With respect to the former, some hold that the relationship is positive as more off-farm work implies more income, therefore a ...ater -c.pecity to bear risk, hence a greater willingness to adopt new technologies. Others hold the converse, arguing that more off-farm work implies less interest in the farm, ,hence lesa .willingness to put in the time and energy associated with taking on new technologies. So too for industrial commodities, where those who see the relatiol'ship as positive allude to greater experience with improved inputs and larger incomes while the contrary view rests on capital restrictions and the high opportunity cost of labor.vi With knOWledge of the relationships among these variables, researchers and policy makers can better develop and diffuse new technologies. Some of the variables considered, e.g. age and family size, are beyond the control of these decision makers.• Nonethetess, by incorporating them in the analysis the effects of variables subject to their control are more clearly discerned. Knowledge of how these variables, e.g. agro-elimatic zones and extension programs, relate to adoption can be of critical importance in affecting the development and diffusion of new technology.With this rough sketch of the general II'gument, readers wanting more detail about the derivation of the hypothesized relationships can turn to the relevant original piece from which this series of abridgements was drawn. In all cases the studies feature the effects of agro-climatic region and farm size on adoption of elements of new . technology. This emphasis is related to the earlier controversy about the effects of new technology where these two factors played prominent roles.Before moving into the abridgement, some attention to the phrase \"elements of the new technology\" is warranted. Much has been made of the concept of a package of practices in the introduction of new technology. We've choslfl to look at this a bit differently, taking the view that tlte differences in risk, expected income, and cost of eaẽ lement of the technology are large enough to outweigh the effects of the interaction among these elements. That is to say, perceptive and ,prudent decision makers might well choose to take up only a part of the package rather than the entire package. For the programs studies, the two dominant elements in the package are improved seed and fertilizer. These two were analyzed as dependent var• iables for each of the studies. Of lesser importance are such elements as seed treatment, date of planting, methOd of planting, use of herbicides, use of pesticides, planting density, and seed bed preparation. Nevertheless, where one of these was recommended and where data are adequate, these are also treated as dependent variables.In this chapter we look at the importance of agriculture in the Kenyan economy and the role of maize as the basic staple in the Kenyan diet.Its central role, especially in diets, is immediately evident.Agriculture in Kenya's Economy Kenya's is basically an agricultural economy. In 1972, agricultural activities (both subsistence and monerary). excluding forests and fisheries accounted for some 34.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product, valued at £211.35 million making it ,by far the largest sector of the economy (Table 1).Agricul tu re accounted for about 60 percent of all exports, either as raw or processed goods, provided about one• third of all wage employment, and supported about threequarters of the total population.' Moreover, much of Kenya's growing manufacturing sector is based on the processing of agricultural commodities, including textiles, woolens, canned foods, pyrethrum, beef products, sugar refining, milling, coffee and tea. In addition, the production and distribution of agricultural inputs and services grew from £11 million to £26 million between 1966 and 1973. 2 Between 1964 and 1973, agriculture showed an average real growth rate of 6.0 percent in the monetary sector and 3.6 percent in the subsistence sector, In 1972 and 1973, however, agriculture grew considerably faster, with marketed production up '24 percent and H percent respectively. Although the share of agriculture in the total national product is expected to decline from 35 percent 10 29 percent of GDP over the next Plan period, it is certain to remain the most important sector of the economy for the foreseeable future.The continuing importance of the agricultural sector is reinforced by Kenya's rapid population growth, estimated at 3.5 percent or higher per year. According to the I LO employment study of 1972, the number of rural households in Kenya will increase from 1.7 million to 2.8 million between 1969 and 1985. 3 Given continued mi• gration to the urban areas and increasing demand generated by rising incomes, food demand will grow by more than 5 percent per year in the rural sector and more than 10 percent per year in the urban sector. Using income elasticities calculated by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and assuming growth rates of 3.5 percent for population and 6 percent for income, the I LO report projected average annual rates of growth of around 4 percent for maize, millet, sorghum, and other rough grains; between 4 and 7 percent for fruit; milk, pork, rice, vegetables, and wheat; and over 7 percent for beef, eggs, mutton, poultry, sugar, and edible oils. Because of already existing land shortages in the rainfed areas, thfse increases in production will have to come primarily throu~h increased productivity per unit of land. Only about I. percent of Kenya's total land area is classified as good agricultural land, with adequate, reliable rainfall and good soils and drainage.Irrigation potential is limited and extremely expensive, with development costs in the range of £700 to £1000 per hectare, rising to more than £2000 in more difficult areas. 4 Fortunatelv, however, a considerable potential for intensification of agriculture exists; in the case of almost every crop, average yields are less than half those obtained on the best small farms, husbandry is poor, planting material can be further improved, and use of commercial inputs is at extremely low levels.Maize is the most important crop in Kenya's agricultural economy, whether considered in terms of its value, it:; role as a basic dietary staple. Table 2 shows the gross marketed production of Kenya's major agricultural commodities from 1967 to 1972. In spite of fluctuations in prices and weather, substantial increases have been achieved in the production of temporary crops, most permanent crops (except sisal and wattle), and livestock products. The drought in 1970 and 1971 disguised the rapid increase in maize' production deriving from the increase in hybrid maize usage, the results of which began to be apparent in 1972 and yielded large surpluses in 1973. Also disguised in these figures is the degree to which different commodities enter the market economy. It is estimated that only 5 to Although the average family spent only about 11 percent of its food budget on maize (and the lowest income bracket 14 percent), maize accounted for as much as half the calories consurned. 9 The importance of maize established, we turn now to a discussion of several government programs focused on maize and on the diffusion of new maize technology. maize accounting for 80 percent of starchy-staple calories, the second highest percentage (after Lusaka) of any African city.7 A WHO-FAO-UNICEF survey in Kenya, although it was able to sample only seven of its intended 28 locations in the four years it had available, found maize to be the major cereal by far in all but one of the seven locations. 8 Bruce Jones, analyZing data from the 1969-70 Nairobi Urban Survey, found that maize was by far the cheapest source of calories and was second only to cow peas as a source of inexpensive protein: 15 percent of the maize crop, for example, is marketed through official channels, depending on yearly sU1'pluses, leftover stocks on the farm, and local price differentials. In 1969, for example, if all the maize produced had been marketed at the then producer price (28 shillings per:alO pound bag), the maize crop would have been worth an estimated £21 million. s In 1972 it might have been worth £50 million. There are well-recognized problems in estimating the value of subsistence output. 6 Nevertheless, local prices often greatly exceed the official market price. Whether one uses world prices, f.o.b. Mombasa export prices, c.i.f. Nairobi import prices, local prices, or the official price for a given year, maize still ranks as the most important commodity in value terms.Perhaps more important, however, is the role of maize as the basic staple in the Kenyan diet. Table 3 shows the proportionate areas in the small farm sector planted to major food crops in 1960 and 1970. In 1970, an estimated 1.1 million hectares were planted to maize, more than three times the area planted to the next largest food crop (beans), and about eight times as much as the next most important grain (sorghum). The dietary importance of maize is also indicated    1973 (1970 figures). Note; Due to differences in sampling and classification, small differences (as among potatoes, etc.) may not be significant.In this chapter we consider government programs in research, extension, farmer training, credit, pricing, marketing, and input policies in the context of their contribution to the diffusion of hybrid maize. Along the way, some special efforts to reach small farmers with new maize technology are discussed and some conclusions drawn about their possible impact on the diffusion process.Although some maize research trials took place as far back as the 19205, the9El were carried on by isolated research workers and individual farmers in different locations and had little, if any, coordinated impact other than as selection work for yield improvement and disease resistance. \"All a district agricultural officer seeking a sound solution to a problem had to do,\" Brown wrote of this period,! \"was to go and look at what some good farmer was doing and there he had a practical demonstration of what could be done.\" Not until 1955, when the first research officer was appointed to work exclusively on maize at Kitale, did a systematic program for maize breeding get under way. In 1957 a program to develop early maturing maize types was started at Katumani, near Machakos in Eastern Province, and a program for developing medium maturity varieties was commenced at Embu in 1965. The details of these programs have been described by Harrison, Dowker, Eberhart, and Oagad, and have been briefly summarized by Smith. 2 Using conventional breeding methods, inbred lines were developed from the well-adapted Kenya Flat White complex which had been selected by local farmers over the 4 preceeding years. The inbred lines were formed i~O synthetic type varieties, the first of which, Kitale Synt!ie• tic II, was released in 1961. This became very popular alid was grown on about half the large-scale farms in the Trans-Nzoia area by 1964, when the first conventional hybrids were commercially released. Because a synthetic is formed from a large number of inbred lines, it has considerable genetic variability and the farmer does not have to buy new seed every year. Hybrids, on the other hand. are developed from only three or four inbred lines, and. although they show hybrid vigor in the first generation cross. yields drop off by perhaps 20 percent in the second year. Farmers therefore have to buy seed fresh each season in order to get continuing high yields. For this reason. the original intention was to develop a joint program of synthetic and hybrid production in which the synthetics would be mainly intended for small-scale subsistence farmers and hybrids for large-scale commercial farmers. According to Harrison. \"it was felt that small-scale farmers would not pay the high price needed each year for hybrid seed and too many would plant second-generation seed.... However, the impact of the higher-yielding hybrids was so great (about 30 percent higher than the synthetics) that soon after their release it became impossible to sell synthetics to either small-scale or large-scale farmers. and improved synthetics are now used only in [preparing hybrids]\"3The fact that the Kenya Flat White complex, because of its similarity of origin, had a rather narrow genetic base presented a complication. The possibility of extract• ing further inbred Iines for continued hybrid production seemed to be limited. For this reason, a large collection of genotypes were imported in 1959 from Mexican and Republic of Kenya. Development Plan, 7970-74, p. 91.Republic of Kenya, Economic Survey. 7974. p. 58.International Labour Office. Employment. In comes, and Equality (Geneva, 1972) In this chapter we consider government programs in research, extension, farmer training, credit, pricing, marketing, and input policies in the context of their contribution to the diffusion of hybrid maize. Along the way, some special efforts to reach small farmers with new maize technology are discussed and some conclusions drawn about their possible impact on the diffusion process.Although some maize research trials took place as far back as the 19205, the9El were carried on by isolated research workers and individual farmers in different locations and had little, if any, coordinated impact other than as selection work for yield improvement and disease resistance. \"All a district agricultural officer seeking a sound solution to a problem had to do,\" Brown wrote of this period,l \"was to go and look at what some good farmer was doing and there he had a practical demonstration of what could be done.\" Not until 1955, when the first research officer was appoint• ed to work exclusively on maize at Kitale, did a systematic program for maize breeding get under way. In 1957 a program to develop early maturing maize types was started at Katumani, near Machakos in Eastern Province, and a program for developing medium maturity varieties was commenced at Embu in 1965. The details of these programs have been described by Harrison, Dowker, Eberhart, and Oagad, and have been briefly summarized by Smith. 2 Using conventional breeding methods, inbred lines were developed from the well•adapted Kenya Flat White complex which had been selected by local farmers over the 4 preceeding years. The inbred lines were formed i~O synthetic type varieties, the first of which, Kitale Synt!ie• tic II, was released in 1961. This became very popular alid was grown on about half the large-scale farms in the Trans-Nzoia area by 1964, when the first conventional hybrids were commercially released. Because a synthetic is formed from a large number of inbred lines, it has considerable genetic variability and the farmer does not have to buy new seed every year. Hybrids. on the other hand, are developed from only three or four inbred lines, and, although they show hybrid vigor in the first generation cross, yields drop off by perhaps 20 percent in the second year. Farmers therefore have to buy seed fresh each season in order to get continuing high yields. For this reason, the original intention was to develop a joint program of synthetic and hybrid production in which the synthetics would be mainly intended for small-scale subsistence farmers and hybrids for large•scale commercial farmers. According to Harrison. \"it was felt that small-scale farmers would not pay the high price needed each year for hybrid seed and too many would plant second-generation seed.... However, the impact of the higher•yielding hybrids was so great (about 30 percent higher than the synthetics) that soon after their release it became impossible to sell synthetics to either small-scale or large-scale farmers, and improved synthetics are now used only in [preparing hybrids]\"3The fact that the Kenya Flat White complex, because of its similarity of origin, had a rather narrow genetic base presented a complication. The possibility of extracting further inbred Iines for continued hybrid production seemed to be limited. For this reason, a large collection of genotypes were imported in 1959 from Mexican andColombian germ-plasm banks to widen the genetic base of the Kenyan breeding program. Though nothing significant had come from earlier Importations from temperate coun• tries (U.S., Europe, South Africa, Australia).. the Latin American material came from areas with similar ecological conditions to Kenya, close to the equator and with a wide range of altitudes. Moreover, material from the \"original\" or center-of-origin stock tends to have greater genetic diversity than varieties previously removed and adapted elsewhere. After careful pre-selection for late-maturing, high altitude, disease resistant types, 124 test crosses were grown in 1961 in a yield trial. Outstanding among the crosses was one between Kitale Synthetic II and Ecuador 573, a long-eared, high-altitude variety with tall stalks, and late maturity. This varietal hybrid was released as Hybrid 611 in 1964, the same year as the conventional hybrids, since no inbreeding had been required. Although the Ecuador 573 itself had yi.elded only 75 percent of the Kitale Synthetic II, the two varieties were sufficiently diverse to give excellent heterosis, and the first cross yielded 40 percent more than the Kitale Synthetic II. By Improving both sides of the parent populations through recurrent selection while keeping the genetic variability within each, continuing improvements in yield have been made. 4 The breakthrough in Yields, however, had already been made by 1964, at least for the high altitude areas, and within only a few years the reputation of \"hybrid\" was fi rmly establ ished.How did the new technology compare with the old technology on farmer's fields? Unfortunately, very few reliable data exist on actual on-farm yields in different !ocalities, since measurement is costly and difficult, farmers generally don't know how large their fields are, some maize is picked green before harvest time, and husbandry practices differ considerably. Simply asking the farmer will give poor (generally high) results. Using research station results is often misleading since conditions are controlled. Even non-treated \"control\" experiments often given erroneous results due to residues of fertilizer left in the soil from previous years, insect control on neighboring plots, or merely from the advantageous location of most research stations. As we shall see below, even a deliberate attempt to approximate \"poor\" husbandry in the district husbandry trials yielded almost 50 percent more than the estimated average oR-farm yield.In the district variety trials, the effect of hybrid seed (assuming good husbandry in all cases) was found to be an increase of 30 to 80 percent depending mainly on altitude. (Chapter III, Figu re 6) The effect of using the total package of recommended practices as compared with none of the recommended practices was an increase in yield of 307 percent and an estimated Increase In profitability of 532/ -shillings per acre at a price of 25/-per 200 pound I bag. Most farmers, of course, would fall somewhere between these estimates, using some of the recommended practices and not others. A 1971 study of 153 farms in a high potential area, for example, found an average yield of 18.3 bags for 137 hybrid users and 12.6 bags for 16 non-hybrid users, although many of the hybrid users were specially selected participants iO a government program and probably had higher levels of husbandry and input usage than the average farmer. s Nevertheless, a 50 per• cent increase is probably not an unreasonable average in that area. A follow-up on 36 farmers from the present study had too few non-hybrid users to give a comparative result, but found larger differences in yields due to different husbandry practices.o A comparison of hybrid yields on demonstration plots situated in farmer's fields (see Chapter III) showed substantial differences between hybrid yields in different agroclimatic zones, but again had no information on non-hybrid use. We can conclude that, although it is the combined package of practices that produces the most dramatic results, the use of hybrid seed alone will raise yields substantially, probably by as much as 50 percent under good conditions.Plant breeding, of course, is only part of the research story. An active program of agronomic research has also been essential to determine proper fertilizer application, spacing, time of planting, and other recommendations. Although agronomic experiments go back as far as 1910, it is only since 1963 that A.Y. Allan, supported by funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Britilh government, has developed a systematic program of ~gronLo;nic research, closely tied to the breeding activities ;t Kitale. Prior to that time, the effects of husbandry, fertil izer application, and plant population had been examined singly or at best in pairs. Allan set up a series of district-maizevariety and district-cultural trials using a 3 3 factorial design with different levels of nitrogen, phosphate and plant population from which annual recommendations for farmers were prepared. 7 At that time, the average yield of maize in Kenya was estimated to be about five to six bags (1000 to 1200 pounds) per acre. In the distnct variety trials, however, the unimproved local maize used in the control plots (with carefully supervised husbandry) yielded an average of 4000 pounds (20 bags) over the 1964-66 period. Clearly hybrids alone were not required to increase yields.To test the effects of poor husbandry, Allan established a series of 2 6 factorial trials in which each of the six factors (time of planting plant popUlation, type of seed, standard of weeding, and use of nitrogen and phosphate) were deliberately set at a \"high\" and a \"low\" level. The results of these experiments are shown in Table 4. Time of planting and type of seed were the most important factors in determining yield, followed by standard of weeding and plant population. Fertilizer application was not important, and, in the absence of good husbandry practices, was actually unprofitable. It is interesting that even the \"low\" level of the practices applied on the research plots yielded 1760 pounds per acre, considerably above the estimated national average of 1200 pounds. The results were illustrated clearly in a \"maize diamond\" (Figure 1) in which physical inputs (seed, ni:rogen, phosphate)' .  4 The breakthrough in Yields, however, had already been made by 1964. at least for the high altitude areas, and within only a few years the reputation of \"hybrid\" was firmly established. How did the new technology compare with the old technology on farmer's fields? Unfortunately, very few reliable data exist on actual on-farm yields in different !ocalities, since measurement is costly and difficult, farmers generally don't know how large their fields are, some maize is picked green before harvest time, and husbandry practices differ considerably. Simply asking the farmer will give poor (generally high) results. Using research station results is often misleading since conditions are controlled. Even non-treated \"control\" experiments often given erroneous results due to residues of fertilizer left in the soil from previous years, insect control on neighboring plots, or merely from the advantageous location of most research stations. As we shall see below, even a deliberate attempt to approximate \"poor\" husbandry in the district husbandry trials yielded almost 50 percent more than the estimated average oR-farm yield.In the district variety trials, the effect of hybrid seed (assuming good husbandry in all cases) was found to be an increase of 30 to 80 percent depending mainly on altitude. (Chapter III, Figure 6) The effect of using the total package of recommended practices as compared with none of the recommended practices was an increase in yield of 307 percent and an estimated Increase in profitability of 532/• shillings per acre at a price of 25/-per 200 poundl bag. Most farmers, of course, would fall somewhere be• tween these estimates, using some of the recommended practices and not others. A 1971 study of 153 farms in a high potential area, for example. found an average yield of 18.3 bags for 137 hybrid users and 12.6 bags for 16 non-hybrid users. although many of the hybrid users were specially selected participants In a government program and probably had higher levels of husbandry and Input usage than the average farmer. s Nevertheless, a 50 percent increase is probably not an unreasonable average in that area. A follow-up on 36 farmers from the present study had too few non•hybrid users to give a comparative result, but found larger differences in yields due to different husbandry practices. 6 A comparison of hybrid yields on demonstration plots situated in farmer's fields (see Chapter III) showed substantial differences between hybrid yields in different agroclimatic zones, but again had no information on non-hybrid use. We can conclude that, although it is the combined package of practices that produces the most dramatic results, the use of hybrid seed alone will raise yields substantially, probably by as much as 50 percent under good conditions.Plant breeding, of course, is only part of the research story. An active program of agronomic research has also been essential to determine proper fertilizer application, spacing, time of planting, and other recommendations. Although agronomic experiments go back as far as 1910. it is only since 1963 that A.Y. Allan. supported by funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Britilh government, has developed a systematic program of ~gronLo;nic research, closely tied to the breeding activities ;t Kitale. Prior to that time, the effects of husbandry. fertil izer application, and plant population had been examined singly or at best in pairs. Allan set up a series of district•maizevariety and district-cultural trials using a 3 3 factorial design with different levels of nitrogen, phosphate and plant population from which annual recommendations for farmers were prepared. 7 At that time, the average yield of maize in Kenya was estimated to be about five to six bags (1000 to 1200 pounds) per acre. In the district variety trials, however, the unimproved local maize used in the control plots (with carefully supervised husbandry) yielded an average of 4000 pounds (20 bags) over the 1964-66 period. Clearly hybrids alone were not required to increase yields.To test the effects of poor husbandry, Allan established a series of 2 6 factorial trials in which each of the six factors (time of planting plant popUlation, type of seed, standard of weeding, and use of nitrogen and phosphate) were deliberately set at a \"high\" and a \"low\" level. The results of these experiments are shown in Table 4. Time of planting and type of seed were the most important factors in determining yield, followed by standard of weeding and plant population. Fertilizer application was not important, and, in the absence of good husbandry practices, was actually unprofitable. It is interesting that even the \"low\" level of the practices applied on the research plots yielded 1760 pounds per acre. considerably above the estimated national average of 1200 pounds. The results were illustrated clearly in a \"maize diamond\" (Figure 1) in which physical inputs (seed. ni:rogen, phosphate)Tab/e 4. Effects of husbandry and input use on maize yields. and poor husbandry are compared with good husbandry (early planting, weeding, proper spacing). The physical inputs alone produced a 66 percent increase over the original average of all practices taken at a low level, while the good husbandry practices produced a 148 percent increase. All six practices taken at a high level produced a 307 percent increase. The implication is clear that it is dangerous to recommend the use of expensive fertilizer in the absence of high levels of husbandry. A \"second-best\" formula is implied, in which improved seed genotype is combined with improved husbandry practices for a lowcost, high-return solution. This is what most farmers in western Kenya have, in fact, discovered for themselves (see Chapter III) although the extension service has con• tinued to recommend the full package of practices.Probably the most important of the agronomic find• ings was the importance of early planting. Several explanations of this have been advanced, including the onset of fungal leaf infections, soil nitrogen fluctuations, and the moisture requirements of maize. Allan concluded that the effect of late planting was due primarily to poor root aeration in the early stages of growth. But simply, maize needs a small amount of moisture in its early stages of growth, when the growing point is still below the surface of the ground, and then considerable moisture in the later stages when it is tasselling and filling out the cob. Planting after the rains have started means that the plant starts off in very wet, cold, poorly aerated soil, and then may suffer later from water shortages when the rains are tailing off. The problem with this fact is that many, particularly small-scale, farmers have difficulty in planting early due to the hardness of the soil. delays in getting seed and fertilizer, and a fear that the rains will be late and the dryplanted seed will be wasted. As we see in Chapter III, planting before the rains had the lowest adoption level of any cultural practice in all three agrocl imatic zones of the 6 study. The costs of late planting, however, are enormous. In nine different experiments between 1966 and 1968. Allan found that each day's delay in planting after the rains started resulted in a loss in yield of an average of 75.9 pounds per acre per day (or 7.59 bags for a 20 ~ay delay after the start of the rains). E.R. Watts founei in Embu District of Eastern Province that the loss wa~as great as 6.2 bags per acre per week, yet only 58 percent of \"progressive\" farmers and 26 percent of a control group had planted before the rains due to the hardness of the soil and a lack of plows. 8 The possibilities for extended agronomic and breeding research are, of course, practically limitless. DeWilde, writing in 1966, complained that. although suitable recom• mendations existed for the highland mixed-farming areas, additional field traisl under \"widely varying ecological conditions\" were needed to determine a package of improvements for less favored areas. 9 Recognizing this need, the Kenya Maize Research Section recently began, with British assistance, an expanded agronomic research program in key maize growing districts. Belshaw and Hall. in an excellent discussion of research problems in Africa. recommended that more emphasis be placed on the economics of small•farm operations, including particularly analysis of labor constraints and of the reasons why small farmers persist in such practices as inter-cropping (planting mixed stands). ) 0 Without implying that the initial success in breeding high yielding hybrids has solved all the research problems for hybrid maize. it is nevertheless useful to ask what in the Kenyan situation produced a breakthrough at all. What, if anything, can be generalized from the Kitale research experience? Several things are apparent. First, demand for the research product was immediately present. Kitale is centered in the middle of the biggest maize growing area in Africa and the maize industry pervades the town and the research station. This is in direct contrast to many places in Africa where research stations are placed in cool hilltop conditions removed from the growers who are expected to benefit from the results. People in Kitale literally eat. drink, and talk maize. Secondly. the Kenyan case was patently not an attempt to transplant technology unalloyed from a developed, tropical environment. Fifty years of local adaptation and selection had taken place to produce Kenya Flat White. an appropriate parent stock. Thirdly, the importation of additional genetic material, when it came, was done systematically and carefully, taking advantage of a world-wide network of scientists who were able to preselect for Kenyan conditions from an analogous, but diverse, Latin American popUlation and to use that imported material in a way that would produce resuits in the qu ickest and most productive way. In other words, a thorough knowledge of local conditions and extensive local research and breeding was a prerequisite to effective utili• zation of international research work. Fourth. the quality and continuity of the Kenyan maize program staff IS probably unmatched in any national research\" program in Africa. From its inception in 1955 until 1973, the maize breeding program had only two directors, Michael Harrison and Festus Ogada, who themselves had three or four years of overlapping experience at Kitale. Their chief agronomist, A.Y. Allan. had more than a dozen years experience in Kenya. The program was supported by three American scientists coming out of the same (Iowa State) program over a period of nine years, each familiar with the others' methods and experience. In a governmental bureaucracy where two years is considered a long posting, this continui• ty in leadership (which has also largely been matched in supporting staff) is most remarkable. Finally. and perhaps most importantly, the Kenya Maize Research Program has never been isolated from the other components of ana farmers themselves. As we look further at the other components of the system, we can see how important this constant communication and feedback have become.The literature and practice of agricultural extension efforts is, of course, enormous.• I In Kenya, government interest in bringing new information to African farmers goes back at least to 1911, when, according to Fearn, \"instruction was given in the use of the wheel-plough to sons of chiefs and others at Kibos, some four or five miles from Kisumu.\". 2 Unfortunately, the chiefly bias reflected in that early extension effort has persisted to the present day; extension contacts and farmer training are disproportionately distributed toward the larger and wealthier farmers. A study of farmers in one part of Central Province found that all of the most \"progressive\" 25 percent of the farmers had been visited by an extension agent during the previous year as opposed to 41 percent of \"the least progressive\" 18 percent of the farmers.• 3 Leonard, in a detailed study of extension agents and clients in Western Province (part of the area covered in the present study), found that 57 percent of all extension visits were paid to \"progressive\" farmers (who constituted 10 percent of all farmers) and only 6 percent of visits were paid to \"non-innovative\" farmers (who constituted 47 percent of all farmers). 14  The present study found that 56.5 percent of the farmers over 50 \"cres in size had received extension visits in the past year, as opposed to 35 percent of all farms under 50 acres and only 27 percent of farms in the lakeside districts. Attendance at Farmers Training Center courses was even more highly skewed, with 48.6 percent of the largest farm owners having attended and only 8 percent of the farmers in the lakeside area. Although these percentages may be quite high by African standards, and one might even argue from the congruence of visits and progressiveness that the extension service is demonstrably effective, nevertheless the fact remains that the extension services favor the more progressive, and hence, in most cases, the wealthier farmers. This obviously has important implications for the pattern of diffusion of new technology.Concentrating extension efforts on wealthier, more progressive farmers has been justified on the grounds that, since it is impossible to reach the majority of farmers with a limited extension network, a larger proportion of total farm area can be influenced by concentrating on larger farmers, who would also serve as models for the rest of the farm community to emulate. The argument has been supported to some extent by the attention paid by acade• mic investigators to \"innovators\" or \"progressive farmers\" who tend, for a variety of reasons, to be better educated and to have larger farms.' S Recently, however, a healthy corrective view has emerged, in Kenya at least, which puts emphasis on reaching those farmers who have been left behind by changes in agricultural development. In this 8 view, attention should be devoted to those farmers who have not adopted new farm practices and more emphasis should be placed on group and mass media extension techniques .• 6 .The case of hybrid maize provides an excellent test of the extepsion service at its best since, unlike many cases where the extension service has little or nothing to offer the farmers, in this case the service had a proven and profitable package of recommendations. As of 1972, the agricultural field services had some 2600 agricultural and animal health assistants (AAs and AHAs) with certifica• te level (post-secondary) training and some 5500 junior agricultural and animal health assistants (JAAs and JAHAs) with only on-the•job training of a limited nature. This represented about one trained extension agent per 700 farms (one to 138 on settlement schemes). although far from all the trained staff were available for actual extension work, many being occupied with administrative and statis• tical dueties. In addition, there were a total of 32 district farmer training centers, although, according to the ILO report, only 27 of these were operating even at modest levels and these suffered from \"chaotic\" financing, inex• perienced staff and frequent changes in leadership (12 of 27 principals changing, for example, in 1971): 7 The quality of the field staff performance is also questionable. Leolard,for example, found that out of a possible high ot 19 points on an index of knowledge of hybrid maize reCommendations, the average score of 269 extension agents was only 13.7. Whereas 91 percent of the agents knew what fertilizers to recommend, only 59 percent knew how much to apply. Moreover, agents visited an average of only 7.2 farmers a week, which accounted for 35 percent of their work time, 13 percent devoted to demonstrations and 29 percent to administrative and statistical chores. 1 R Although these figures are from only one in-depth study, they correspond rather closely to a Tanzanian study that found only 28 percent of extension agents' time was spent visiting farmers and 14 percent in demonstrations and group activities. J 9 Although the staffing levels, by African standards, are not bad, the frequency, distribution, and content of extension contact with farmers leave much to be desired. Incidentally, there is in Kenya an Agricultural Information Centre, started in 1966, which produces posters, handouts, films, and radio programs for mass dissemination. At the time of a 1971 visits, however, the centre lacked adequate staff or funding to do its work well. By far the most useful of all mass media methods are the printed leaflets, in English and Swahili, enclosed in every package of seed sold by the Kenya Seed Company.In spite of these deficiencies, however, one must conclude that the extension service did play an important part in putting across the basic message about hybrid maize. In 1965 over 5000 demonstration plots were organized in the country, mostly in the western portion. In recent years with FAO support, the extension service has conducted hundreds of fertilizer demonstrations each year in all the maize growing districts of western Kenya. In the prasent survey, 25 percent of farmers claimed to have attended one personally, and such attendance was positively related to adoption and early adoption (especially in the high density districts where most of the demonstrations were held). Moreover, some 35.4 percent of 11 farmers said that they fi rst heard of hybrid from extension agents (Table 5) and 64 percent said that they would go to an extension agent for advice if they had a question about their maize. (In two earlier surveys, 42 percent of farmers in Vihiga Division of Kakamega District reported an extension visit; 37 percent, demonstration attendance; and 7 percent, attendance at an FTC course. In Kisii, 89 percent reported an extension visit and 40 percent had seen demonstration plots.20) These findings indicate that, whatever its shortcomings, the extension service has played an important part in the diffusion of hybrid maize, with the result that by the time of the present survey, only 9 of 360 farmers (2.5 percent) could actually say they had never heard of hybrid maize.Hybrid seed production in Kenya is carried out by the Kenya Seed Company. a locally-owned commercial enterprise in which the government, through the Agricultural Development Corporation, is a major share-holder. The commercial aggressiveness and efficiency of this enterprise is one of the major reasons for the Kenyan hybrid maize success story. The KSC was started in 1956 by a group of European farmers in the Kitale area to produce improved varieties of grass seed which had been selected from indigenous Kenyan grasses at the National Agricultural Research Station at Kitale. The founder of the company, Mr. W. Heilbuth, is still chairman of the company's board of directors. In the early 1960s, with Jomo Kenyatta's release from d1?';ention and the prospect of Independence on the horizon, European farmers stopped investing in Improved pastures, and the company began to incur losses. Then, in 1962, a Dutchman, W.H. Verburght, was recruited as manager just at the time -that the chief maize breeder at Kitale, Michael Harrison, was looking for some• one to produce hybrid seed. Up to that time It was widely thought in Kenya that small farmers would not buy hybrid seed every year. Verburght, however, saw that with a declining number of European farmers, selling seed to small farmers was the company's best hope for success, and with Harrison's prodding and E.J.R. Hazelden, an aggresive former research officer, as sales manager, the KSC began pushing seed to anyone who would buy it.Since the Kenya Farmers Association at that time was oriented almost exclusively toward European farmers, the KSC got the West Kenya Marketing Board and Dalgety, a trading compar,y engaged in buying hides and skins in African areas, to handle the seed, as well as the Bungoma Farmer's Cooperative Society. The KSC then began appointing stockists, small-scale African storekeepers selected for their location, reputation, and interest, who alone would be allowed to buy seed at wholesale prices from the KFA or Dalgety's outlets. This network spread until, by 1972, the KSC had over a thousand registered stockists. Their distribution is shown in Map 1 in relation to popula• tion. The commercial maize-growing districts (Trans Nzola, Bungoma, and Uasin Gishu) have less than 3000 persons per stockist, whereas the densely populated high potential districts (Kakamega, Kericho, and Kisii) together with Nandi, have between 3000 and 5000, and the lC\\ke.•,de districts (Busia, Siaya, Kisumu, and South Nyanz~have 10,000 or more persons per outlet. As the KFA and Dalge• tv gradually took over this promotion work on their own, the KSC reduced its staff to the present three salesmen (and the KFA increased to sixteen).Seed is sold nationwide at a fixed price of 20 shillings for a 20 pound bag, enought to plant one acre. The wholesale price is 17.75 shillings and the total markup is divided so that each stage in the distribution chain, from factory to wholesaler to stockist, receives a larger share, and con• sequently. an incentive to push the product. This approach, modelled, accbrding to Verburght, on the marketing of Wilkinson razor blades, has made \"every stockist an extension agent.\" After an initial bad experience with credit, thw KFA now sells mainly for cash, although some stockists pass on credit at their own responsibility to local customers.2 I A recent parliamentary report. complained that stockists often ran short of inputs because they could not afford to carry inventories on a cash basis and recommended that a credit scheme for stockists and a subsidy incentive be introduced to encourage stockists to have inputs on hand in good time for planting. z Z The committee also recommended subsidizing the price of seed and fertilizers to lower their price to the farmer. Seed company officials generally are opposed to a subsidy on the grounds that farmers will use greater care in planting seed they have paid for and seed is a small cost relative to the value of output per acre. What seems more important, however, is guaranteeing that stockists and wholesalers have adequate profit incentives to insure that stocks are available in time for planting in the rural areas. For this reason, reducing the price of seed should be viewed with some caution.Hybrid seed itself is produced by some 80 to 100 registered farmers in the Kitale area under close supervision (including weekly field visits to inspect weeding. detasseling, etc.) by the Kenya Seed Company and a go• vernment seed inspection unit.Farmers in 1973 received a price of 100/for a \\00 kg. bag of clean seed maize, which -at an average yield of 18 bags per acregives an adjusted gross margin of 320/• per acre for seed maize which compares with 213/per acre for commercial maize at an equivalent yield and perhaps 190/per acre for wheat, a competitive crop in some portions of the maize growing area. 23 Although seed growers complained that this was a lower profit margin than they had had in the past, given the trouble of growing seed maize,H a more serious long-term threat to seed maize growing is the continued break-up of large farms by land\"companies\" for squatter settlement. To ensure the isolation from other maize needed to grow seed correctly, a larger share of seed growing may have to be taken over by state farms in the area.After harvesting, the seed is inspected, fumigated, and cleaned, graded and treated with a fungicide/insecticide dressing before being packed. The dressing includes a bright blue-green coloring which only the company is allowed to import. to prevent counterfeiting by stockists.Although the KSC has in some years run short of seed due to the rapid uptake of hybrids by small farmers, it now tries to carr\" over from one year to the next 20-50 percent of yearly sales to safeguard against sharply increased demand or a poor seed production season. In spite of these difficulties, however, the widespread sale of high quality seed at 20/per bag is one of the strongest links in the hybrid maize chain in Kenya. The situation compares very favorably with most Latin American and Asian countries, where government-run seed agencies both grow and inspect their own seed? S Although the Kenyan government has a share in the ownership of the Kenya Seed Company, it has been wise enought to leave the production and distribution of inputs to commercial operations, while itself conducting a separate seed inspection unit. This production, distribution and inspection system may be the major reason why Kenya, almost alone among the poor countries of the world, has been successful with hybrids as opposed to synthetic maize varieties.No basic fertilizers are manufactured in Kenya, altholigh several companies maintain storage, blending, and bagging factories designed to package a wide range of fertilizer mixes with a comparatively small tonnage of fertilizers each? 6 Some phosphates are imported from Uganda but most fertil izers are imported directly from overseas. Fertilizer imports for 1963-70 are shown in Table 6.Fertilizers face the same distribution problems as hybrid maize seed, only more so. They are more expensive, bulk• iers, more specialized in use, and are used more exclusively by the large farm sector. Demand for the products is limited to a relatively short period during the year, just before planting, and yet timely availability is all•important to sales. Stockists, however, have neither the capital, the storage space, or the transport to keep and move large quantities easil't'. The result of these problems is that fertilizer distribution has developed more slowly and less broadly than seed distribution, although essentially using the same channels, namely, wholesale firms such as the Kenya Farmers Association and Dalgety. cooperative societies in those districts (mostly in Central Kenya) where they are strong, and a broad system of selected and registered stockists. 27 In spite of the generally low level of fertilizer use in some areas (only 4 percent of farmers. for example, in Zone 3 of the survey area). overall usage is increasing rapidly as shown in Table 6. This increase has been helped by the FAO-supported fertilizer demonstrations which show average benefit/cost ratios for both phosphates and phosphates plus nitrogen of 2.4,3. l Corporation (AFC) for a loan for a specific crop (either wheat or maize) and a specific acreage. After a ,~umber• some system of approvals, the AFC authorizes the Kenya Farmers Association (KFA) to make available inputs sufficient to cover that acreage. The farmer sells his crop through the KFA (acting as agent for thw Wheat or Maize and Produce Boards) and the outstanding loan is deducted from the payment. In case of a crop failure, the farmer IS protected against loss, subject to an inspection of his fields by im agent of the AFC (hence, the title GMR). Unfortuna• tely, like many other services, this system was designed to serve the interests of large-scale European farmers :md has proved ill-adapted to current Kenyan farming conditions. As an excellent recent review of farm\"credit in Kenya points out,3 I there are some 1.2 million smallholdings and only 3500 large farms and ranches in Kenya. Although ownership of these large holdings has been shifted fairly successfully in recent years from European to African bands, some of the institutions designed to serve the large• farm sector have not as yet made the transition towards Seasonal credit for maize was initiated by KFA in the early 1930's as declining world prices and locust plagues created adverse circumstances for farmers. With pressure to Increase production during World War II seasonal credit Was expanded. Under the Guaranteed Minimum Return (GMR) system, a farmer applies to the Agricultural Finance constant. The combined effect of the demonstrations and the increasing prJfitability of fertilizers obviously ac• counts for much of the increase in small brm use. (About 40 percent of total fertilizer imports are used on maize). Whether recent increases in fertilizer use will continue in the face of substantial increases in fertil izer costs remains to be seen. It should be remembered that these benefit! cost ratios were obtained on demonstration plots with relatively high levels of husbandry.One reason wh / the fertilizer companies have not been as successful as the Kenya Seed Company in promoting their products in the small farm sector is that the bulki• ness of fertilizer packages (sold in 50 kg. and 100 kg. units) makes them difficult to transport in areas where roads are poor and distances to a stockist are far. Some stockists have taken to breaking up packages and selling by the kilo, but this has aroused fears among some farmers that the fertilizer has been adulterated. Several papers and reports, therefore, have called for packaging in smaller and more manageable units? 8 Recent price increases in fertil izers have also coincided with a reduction in the government subsidy for fertilizers, making continued adoption by new users even more difficult_ It is doubtful, anyway, that the subsidy was responsible for much of the increase in demand since 80 percent of the fertilizer imported is used on large-scale farms and estates, where use has been stagnant in recent years, whereas the increase in use is primarily on small-scale farms. The ILO Report recommended discontinuation of the subsidy on equity grounds, but a government working party and the parliamentary committee recommended it be continued and increased. The parliamentary committee also charged that \"the fertilizer distributors in Kenya operate a cartel with strong links with parent companies in Europe\" which prevented them from buying from cneaper Persian Gulf sources, and asked that this situation be investigated. 29 It also expressed convern that protection being granted to East African fertilizer producers \"should not have the effect of increasing the cost of fertilizers to maize farmers,\" given the importance of increasing fertilizer use in the region. Similar problems also affect the distribution of insecticides. One representative pointed out that, although 60 percent of his total sales force was employed in servicing the smallholder' areas, this effort accounted for only 20 p~rcent of total turnover. 30 Most of the proposals to solve these problems have come in the form of stockist credit schemes, which are discussed in the following section.serving the African farm sector as a whole. Most of the current credit institutions, including some experimental programs discussed below, are in the painful process of trying to make such a transition.The first government loans to smallholders were made in 1948 by the Africa Land Utilization and Settlement Board, later the African Land Development Board (ALDEV).32In 1963, the lending activities of the two Boards of Agriculture (for African and European areas) were combined to form the Agricultural Finance Corporation, referred to above. Under the AFC, three basic types of loans are made: -Long•term loans for land purchase, of dairy cattle and permanent improvements. These loans are made to farms with a minimum of ten acres end require land titles as security. These are estimated to account for 43 percent of all farm credit.-Medium-term loans for farm development, machinery, and crops, available to all farmers but generally requiring title deeds for security. These are estimated to account for 31 percent of farm credit.-Short-term loans, such as the GMR for planting maize and wheat, and other loans for the planting of pyrethrum and tea. These are estimated to account for about 26 percent of farm credit, although most of this comes from commercial banks and merchant suppliers, with the GMR itself accounting for only about 3 percent of total farm credit.Excluding funds for land purchase provided under the Agricultural Settlement Fund, Donaldson and von Pischke's estimates show that about 23 percent of all farm credit from both public and private lending institutions went to some 200,000 small farmers whereas 77 percent went to about 3500 large farm borrowers. 33 GMR loans were divided about equally between large and small farmers, although the definition of small in this case is not clear, since GMR has a minimum acreage requirement of 15 acres. (Prior to 1964, in fact, the minimum acreage was 100 acres). In 1968, a survey in four districts of western Kenya showed that, in 1966, and 1967, the total of'such loans was only 150 in Nandi District, 151 in Busia, 55 in South Nyanza, and 18 in Kisii. 34 Even at best, therefore, only 1.5 percent of official credit went for maize grown by small farmers as of 1972. From these data it is clear that the diffusion of hybrid maize among smallholders in Kenya could not have been dependent on credit, at least from official sources.Credit from non-official sources is also extremely limit• ed in Kenya particularly since maize trading is prohibited except through official marketing channels. It is probably safe to say that official credit in Kenya is largely restricted to wealthy farmers who are in a position to obtain credit from commercial sources. For this reason, numerous reports have recommended that commercial banks be en• couraged (or required) to lend more to the agricultural sector and that the government concentrate its activities on aiding small farmers. A number of schemes to do this 12 are being tried in Kenya, which offer some preliminary lessons about the problems involved in promoting smallholder development of hybrid maize_ Experiment~1 Credit Programs Three types of approaches have been tried in recent years to improve the provision of seasonal credit to small-scale farmers: cooperative credit, supervised individual credit, and stockist credit.All three are intended to address themselves to the administrative problems which make smallholder lending more difficult than lending to large, established enterprises. These problems may be grouped simply under the headings security, supervision and recovery. Small•scale farmers often lack title deeds to their land as security for a loan. A better security for the lender, in the view of many experts, is an assurance that the funds borrowed will be spent on a profitable activity but this requires farmer training and/or extension supervision to see that proper husbandry practices are used. Finally, the recovery of loans of small amounts from large numbers of poor farmers presents difficult and expensive administrative problems, especially where the crop for which the loan has been made is one which can be consumed on the falm or sold locally, as well as through official channels. 1The only substantial, successful smallholder lending in the\":past has been by the Kenya Tea Development Authority. which has a monopoly on purchasing the farmer's output and can easily effect recovery. Another problem is that using agricultural agents as loan collectors undercuts their subsequent effectiveness as advisors and motivators of the farmers they serve. Each of the methods recently tried in Kenya deals with some but not all of these problems.Cooperative credit. The Cooperative Production Credit Scheme (CPCS) of the ministry of Cooperatives and Social Services was initiated in 1970 following a major report on cooperative credit by S. Lindquist in 1967 and the establish• ment of a Cooperative Bank in 1968. In 1969 some nine cooperative societies were participating in a pilot project which lent £25,000 to approximately 2000 members, and by March 1971, 52 societies had joined the project and had been allocated some £600,000 for lending to approxi• mately 96,000 members. 3S This compares with a total of about 4500 smallholders receiving GMR seasonal credit through the Agricultural Finance Corporation. Most of loans, however, were used for coffee picking and husbandry improvements, which reflects the concentration of viable cooperatives in the coffee growing areas.Under the CPCS, loans are made largely in kind from the cooperative society's own st.::>re or from another supplier who bills the cooperative. Loans are secured by the crop proceeds of the farmer and two guarantors and are granted at an interest rate of from 8 to 12 percent. Loan money is obtained from the Cooperative Bank (at 8 percent) or from the societies' own funds (at a lower rate), allowing a blended cost of funds of about 6 percent to the society. 36   The loans are then deducted from the payout of the cooperative to the farmer at the end of the crop season.The CPCS has several distinct advantages over other methods. First, the security of a commercial cash crop (such as coffee or pyrethrum) can be used to cover food crops (such as maize) on which collection would be dif-ficUlt. Second, the existing staft and accounts machinery of the cooperative can be used to handle the credit administration without involving extension staff in debt collection. Third, an excellent cooperative education program exists in Kenya to train society officials and employees in management of loan funds. Fourth, very large numbers of farmers can be reached through the cooperative system.The system, however, also has several drawbacks. First, it operates effectively only where cooperatives are strong, namely in the coffee and pyrethrum areas which are comparatively the wealthiest in the rural sector. Farmers in marginal areas or in districts where cooperatives are not functioning, who are most in need of seasonal credit to finance their input purchases, are generally excluded. Second, the program does not include close farmer supervision although some liaison with agricultural extension staff of course takes place. Third, only societies who have substantially cleared themselves of past debts are allowed to participate in the scheme. Since many societies have long-term unsecured loans outstanding (usually to their own officials), this has unavoidably restricted participation in the system.Nevertheless, for the areas where cooperative societies are strong due to the presence of high-value cash crops, this is the most promising credit system to date. Supervised Credit. Two experiments in providing supervised credit to individual farmers have been tried under the Kenya Special Rural Development Program (SRDP) in Tetu Division of Nyeri District (Central Province) and Vihiga Division of Kakamega District (Western Province).3 7 Both of these have been well-documented by academic researchers and project personnel, and there are some interesting differences between them. Both projects are in high-potential areas of extremely high population density where the intensification of farming through the adoption of hybrid maize would both improve family incomes and release land for growing of cash crops.The Vihiga maize credit program began in 1971 when 63 selected farmers were given AFC credit vouchers redeemable for inputs through stockists in the area. Farmers were selected on the basis of \"credit worthiness\" from a random sample of some 600 farmers In the division, and hence, represented wealthier and better-than-average farm• ers. though of course on a lesser scale than the A FC's normal activities. Credit was given for two to four acres' worth of Inputs.Farmers received intensive extension advice and obtained excellent yields (18-20 bags per acre). An 88 percent repayment rate was achieved, but only after considerable pressure from the chiefs, the AFC, and in some cases local extension staff. In 1972, 323 farmers received loans, but only a 58 percent repayment rate was achieved. In 1973,920 loans at an average of 271;' each were made. The AFC estimated servicing costs (excluding repevment losses) at 2.2 percent. An analysis of loaf' repayments in 1972 showed that profitability of the Irputs was similar between those who repaid and those who did not, but that repayers had more outside sources of income' (50 percent vs. 26 percent for non-repayers).3 h Although the AFC has been able to streamline its loanmaking and recovery operations considerably on the baSIS of the project's experience, it nevertheless seems clear that the administrative costs of supervising and recovering individual loans of such small magnitude makes the expansion of supervised credit programs extremely difficult.The Tetu project differed from the Vihiga project not in the nature of the loan and the inputs used, but in the selection and training of farmers. After a careful basel ine study. less progressive farmers were selected for participation in the program and were taken to the local Farmers Training Center for a three-day course in hybrid maize grOWing together with the extension staff from their Immediate area. Participants were offered vouchers for inputs suitable for one acre of hybrid maize. After harvest, the AFC with the help of the government administratio~co!lected loan repayments, and farmers who repaid were el igible to receive another loan. Seventy-eight percent of farmers in the first FTC couse repaid the loan,lillthc:.:oh .again only after intensive effort by the AFC an~the local chiefs. The attractive part of this program is thin poorer farmers are selected for participation and use is made of group extension methods, thereby reducing the costs of supervision. The costs of surveying and selecting the farmers were considerable, however, and the costs of collection raise the same problems as the Vihiga program. The widespread adoption of hybrid maize by other farmers on a purely cash basis in both the Vihiga and Tetu project areas raises questions as to how much of a constraint credit really is and indicates that the greatest benefits of supervised credit schemes to date may have been in the demonstration effect they had on surrounding farmers.Stockist Credit. Faced with the limited (though substantial) regional coverage of a cooperative•based credit program on the one hand, and the problems of debt collection and loan security for giving supervised credit to individual farmers on the other, government and various aid agencies have looked to stockists credit as another means of improving the utilization of commercial inputs in maize farming. The most promising program along this line has arisen out of the FAO fertilizer demonstration plots and a pilot credit scheme in the Migori Special Rural Development Program in South Nyanza District of Nyanza Province. 39 In this experiment, credit was provided bv the Kenya Commercial Bank to eight selected stockists chosen from a list of 15 prepared by the agricultural field staff. (One of the stockist was in fact a cooperative union). The loans varied in size from 3000/to 5000/• at 9 percent interest and were paid by the bank to the KFA depot in the province from which inputs were delivered 13The loans are then deducted from the payout of the cooperative to the farmer at the end of the crop season.The CPCS has several distinct advantages over other methods. First, the security of a commercial cash crop (such as coffee or pyrethrum) can be used to cover food crops (such as maize) on which collection would be dif-ficUlt. Second, the existing staft and accounts machinery of the cooperative can be used to handle the credit administration without involving extension staff in debt collection. Third, an excellent cooperative education program exists in Kenya to train society officials and employees in management of loan funds. Fourth, very large numbers of farmers can be reached through the cooperative system.The system, however, also has several drawbacks. First, it operates effectively only where cooperatives are strong, namely in the coffee and pyrethrum areas which are comparatively the wealthiest in the rural sector. Farmers in marginal areas or in districts where cooperatives are not functioning, who are most in need of seasonal credit to finance their input purchases, are generally excluded. Second, the program does not include close farmer supervision although some liaison with agricultural extension staff of course takes place. Third, only societies who have substantially cleared themselves of past debts are allowed to participate in the scheme. Since many societies have long-term unsecured loans outstanding (usually to their own officials), this has unavoidably restricted participation in the system.Nevertheless, for the areas where cooperative societies are strong due to the presence of high-value cash crops, this is the most promising credit system to date. Supervised Credit. Two experiments in providing supervised credit to individual farmers have been tried under the Kenya Special Rural Development Program (SRDP) in Tetu Division of Nyeri District (Central Province) and Vihiga Division of Kakamega District (Western Province).3 7 Both of these have been well-documented by academic researchers and project personnel, and there are some interesting differences between them. Both projects are in high-potential areas of extremely high population density where the intensification of farming through the adoption of hybrid maize would both improve family incomes and release land for growing of cash crops.The Vihiga maize credit program began in 1971 when 63 selected farmers were given AFC credit vouchers redeemable for inputs through stockists in the area. Farmers were selected on the basis of \"credit worthiness\" from a random sample of some 600 farmers In the division, and hence, represented wealthier and better-than-average farmers. though of course on a lesser scale than the A FC's normal activities. Credit was given for two to four acres' worth of rnputs. Farmers received intensive extension advice and obtained excellent yields (18-20 bags per acre). An 88 percent repayment rate was achieved, but only after considerable pressure from the chiefs, the AFC, and in some cases local extension staff. In 1972, 323 farmers received loans, but only a 58 percent repayment rate was achieved. In 1973,920 loans at an average of 2711each were made. The AFC estimated servIcing costs (exclud• ing repavment losses) at 2.2 percent. An analysis of loaf' repayments in 1972 showed that profitability of the If'• puts was similar between those who repaid and those who did not, but that repayers had more outside sources of income' (50 percent vs. 26 percent for non-repayers),3 h Although the AFC has been able to streamline its loanmaking and recovery operations considerably on the basIs of the project's experience, it nevertheless seems clear that the administratIve costs of supervising and recovering individual loans of such small magnitude makes the expansion of supervised credit programs extremely difficult.The Tetu project differed from the Vihiga project not in the nature of the loan and the inputs used, but in the selection and training of farmers. After a carefUl basel ine study, less progressive farmers were selected for participation in the program and were taken to the local Farmers Training Center for a three-day course in hybrid maize grOWing together with the extension staff from their immediate area. Participants were offered vouchers for inputs suitable for one acre of hybrid maize. After harvest, the AFC with the help of the government administratio~COllected loan repayments, and farmers who repaid were eligible to receive another loan, Seventy-eight percent of farmers in the first FTC couse repaid the loan,lillthc:.:oh .again only after intensive effort by the AFC an~the local chiefs. The attractive part of this program is thin poorer farmers are selected for participation and use is made of group extension methods, thereby reducing the costs of supervision. The costs of surveying and selecting the farmers were considerable, however, and the costs of collection raise the same problems as the Vihiga program. The widespread adoption of hybrid maize by other farmers on a purely cash basis in both the Vihiga and Tetu project areas raises questions as to how much of a constraint credit really is and indicates that the greatest benefits of supervised credit schemes to date may have been in the demonstration effect they had on surrounding farmers.Stockist Credit. Faced with the limited (though substantial) regional coverage of a cooperative-based credit program on the one hand, and the problems of debt collection and loan security for giving supervised credit to individual farmers on the other, government and various aid agencies have looked to stockists credit as another means of improving the utilization of commercial inputs in maize farming. The most promising program along this line has arisen out of the FAO fertilizer demonstration plots and a pilot credit scheme in the Migori Special Rural Development Program in South Nyanza District of Nyanza Province. 39 In this experiment, credit was proVided by the Kenya Commercial Bank to eight selected stockists chosen from a list of 15 prepared by the agricultural field staff. (One of the stockist was in fact a cooperative union). The loans varied in size from 3000/to 5000/. at 9 percent interest and were paid by the bank to the KFA depot in the province from which inputs were delivered to the stockists. The loans were secured by mortgages on the land and inventories of the various stockists. The stockists were therefore able to purchase adequate inputs and have them available in good time for planting and were encouraged to pass on part of the credit to their customers on their own. Because of adequate security, careful selection of stockists, and the small number of units involved, administrative costs were low and the bank experienced no bad debts. On the basis of this experiment, a proposal to extend the scheme to 400 stockist in 20 districts was accepted by the Danish aid agency to provide credit for seasonal purchases of inputs and construction of improved storage facilities totalling £500,000. This program should go a long way to improving the availability of inputs in the~rural areas in adequate quantities, but does not provide supervisory services for the use of the inputs nor does it reach the farmers to whom credit is most likely to be a real constraint. Careful evaluation will be needed to see if greater availability of credit to stockists does result in improved private lending to their customers. In this connection, it should be remembered that the cost of seed (at 20 shillings per acre) is not a prohibitive investment for very many farmers and that fertilizer (at 100 shillings or more per acre) is not considered profitable unless used with good husbandry practices. It is likely, therefore, that improved credit systems are not a necessity for increased adoption of hybrid maize at present although they may become more important at a later stage when achieving still higher yields is required.Of all the institutions and policies affecting the Kenyan maize industry, none arouse as much interest, outrage, or concern as pricing and marketing policies.Since the first official maize report in 1922, periodic maize crises have provoked at least eleven commissions of .inquiry, working parties or select committees to investigate and make recommendations on the pricing and marketing of maize. 4o Most of these investigations, moreover, have been competent undertakings which have conscientiously taken evidence, conducted expert analysis, and made responsible recommendations, only to see maize policy continue to be made on an ad hoc, emergency basis, with the authorities acting too late to meet the immediate crisis and then taking little remedial action until the next crisis occurs. The latest case is an excellent example. Following a maize shortage in 1971, a select parliamentary committee was appointed in July 1972, which prepared an excellent report that was unanimously adopted by Parliament in December 1973. Hardly a month later, the government rejected a relaxation of maize controls, the most important recommendation in the report, and proceeded instead to increase controls over the sale and movement of maize. As in previous crises, most of the blame was placed on traders who were \"sabotaging the distribution system.,,41 Road 14 blocks were instituted by the police to \"stamp out\" movement of maize, rice, and beans. and new permits were introduced to control the movement of crops from farm to market and from millers to retail stores. 42The factors which cause this kind of periodic chaos are actually ,quite straightforward, but this unfortunately does not make thier solution any easier. The basic problem can be expressed in a very few statements: 4 3 -Maize is the basic staple of about 90 percent of the population and the demand for it is highly price inelastic.It would be hard to find a more politically sensitive crop.-There are regular but unpredictable changes in the weather in East Africa which affect the size of the maize crop, as well as the availability of other foods.-Only 5 to 15 percent of total maize production is normally marketed through official marketing channels, depending on the size of the crop. In a good year, when maize is in surplus on farms and back market prices are low, the official marketing body will receive two or three times as much maize as in a bad year, when black market prices are high. Moreover, storage costs are reasonably high (about 5.60 shillings per bag per year in 1966) so it is costly to hold stocks from year to year.-Because maize is bulky relative to its value, transport costs are high. There is a big gap between the price wflich Kenya receives for exports and the price it pays for~im• c ports and, until the recent increase in the world pric~of maize, Kenya could neither import maize more cheaply than it could produce it nor export at a profit.In the face of these conditions, Kenya for years has sought to maintain a price level that would produce selfsufficiency in maize, but would not result in a large surplus which would have to be exported at a loss. The first guaranteed price emerged from farmer pressure in the 1930's when price declines accompanying the world wide depression led to a government guarantee. This required a guaranteed price, since swings in the market price due to variations in rainfall would be too great to assure adequate production if farmers could not be certain of covering their costs. Underlying this assumption, in the colonial period, was the belief that peasant farmers would not respond to price incentives, and European farmers had to be relied upon to produce adequate supplies to feed the African labor force. The Food Shortage Commission of Inquiry of 1943 made the point: 44Since the Colony cannot safely depend on native grown maize to satisfy its internal requirements, it must look to the European farmer to produce a certain amount of maize. The European farmer cannot afford to produce maize for sale unless he obtains a return at least equal to that Obtainable from other farming activities.In fact, deliveries to the Maize Board from large farms have varied pretty consistently with variations in small farm deliveries, both depending primarily on the weather (Figure 2) The only difference may be that, whereas large-scale farmers may vary the size of their plantings according to the price level, small-scale farmers may vary the amount of surplus maize delivered to the official marketing channels rather than the amount actually planted. 4We have already noted now J guaranteed PrlC!:: wac Introduced temporarli'.' ourlng tne DepreSSIOI\\ ana agalp ermanently, in 1942 To Keep the large-scale producer Trom being undercut by lower-cost producers In the A irlcan areas, however a controlled market had to be created as well. Since export losses were deducted trom tne payout to farmers the Europeans desired that this cost oe snareo across the crop as a whole. As a result, a system oi tight controls was introduced which nas persistec to the presen t. Without a special moveme: . permit, it IS illegal to move more than ten oags oi m .. ze Within a district, or two bags of maize across district boundaries. Smce the price differential between a maize-surplus and a maize-deficit district can be enormous (from 20/-to 100/-per bag), the possession of a movement permit enables the holder to make substantial profits. Otherwise, all sales must be made at the official price through the Maize and Produce Board. The recent Select Committee report stated that, To enforce the regulations requires frequent searches of trucks and bus traffiC by police, which is also liable to corruption. Because the Maize and Produce Board sells most of its maize to millers and other large-scale users, the controlled market can create large price differentials even in the same town. In July 1973, we found maize selling in local markets for as much as 60/-a bag while maize and Produce Board depots not 300 yards away were overflowing with maize purchased at 35    more, but since has sold in quantities of five and, recent• ly, one bag.There have been many proposals that the Maize and Produce Board should operates as a buyer of last resort, setting a floor price at which it would take all maize offered and offering to sell at a ceiling price to hold price fluctuations within a given range. Within that range farmers would be able to sell to anyone they pleased and traders could move maize easily and quickly between surplus and deficit areas, preventing the large differences in price which now prevail. Given the excellent system of highways and abundance of transport in Kenya, price dif• ferentials would vary only slightly, reflecting the costs of transport between producer and consumer. Trading in maize would itself be an asset in the development of entrepreneurial activity in the whole economy. There would also be a moderation in the sharp price variations over the course of the year which now prevail (Figure 4), since it would pay farmers to hold the maize on their farms longer after the harvest. At present, farmers have no incentive to hold back surplus maize since it may spoil and since the Board offers no differential in price according to time of delivery. In fact. farmers who deliver late may find, as many did in 1973, that the Maize and Produce Board stores are ful1. 47 Efficiency of production would also be improved by freeing the internal market, since at present the high price of maize in marginal (deficit) areas encourages farmers to grow maize there and surpluses in the optimal growing areas discourage maize production where it can be produced best. Under a free internal maize market, the Board would, of course, continue to maintain strategic storage reserves and would handle all exports and imports.The main ar~ment advanced against a free internal maize market has been that it would reduce the quantity of maize handled by the Board and that \"overhead costs would be distributed over a much smaller turnover.',48 Given the profits Kenya can presently make on maize exports, however, this worry certainly should not continue to be a problem. Greater obstacles seem to be that those who now benefit from possessing movement permits would lose their monopoly positions, plus a general bureaucratic tear in government circles of any relaxation of controls. Because of the political outcry whenever imports have been required, civil servants are hypercautious about allowing any exports to take place. An analysis of Maize and Produce Board purchases and sales over the past 14 years (Figure 5) shows an average surplus of purchases over sales of 0.95 million bags (1.27 million over the past seven years) with the peaks getting successively higher. The greatest deficit in that period was only 600,000 bags. With present storage capacity of almost 3 million bags incuding astra• tegic long-term reserve of more than a million, the country has ample capacity to avoid future domestic shortages. The increasing adoption of hybrid varieties means that Kenya has almost certainly entered a long-term surplus position. Moreover, the management of the Maize and Produce Board since the 1971 crisis has been greatly improved along with its capacity to plan imports and exports rationally. The deficits of the 19605 in fact were due more to mismanagement of stocks than to actual shortfalls of national production. In both 1965 and 1971 the decision to Import maize came so late that the harvests were starting before the imports arrived. When they did come they were either reexported or sold for cattle feed.Although it is clear that a guaranteed price has been an incentive to maize production in Kenya, the success of the maize industry has outgrown the rigidly restricted marketing system that continues. The recent increase in world prices has removed whatever rationale existed for an internal• ly controlled market. Proposed bulk handling facilities would significantly reduce transport costs, increasing exports profitability margins still further. The widespread adoption of hybrid maize may yet bring about a freeing of the internal market. With maize in abundance in the country, the incentive to maintain monopolistic movement permits may itself' be reduced to the point that a free internal market becomes a reality.Bernd Schubert has suggested four criteria for evaluat• ting agricultural marketing systems: guaranteeing of urban food supplies; stabilization of prices, both seasonally and between localities; technical and allocative efficiency; and promotion of agricultural development. 4 9 Although Kenyan marketing policy has had a reasonable success in achieving the first and last of these objectives, it has performed poorly on the others. Given the increased adoption of   mooed intemal marketing restrictions. however, there is no reason why maize cannot continue its preeminent role as the most important crop in th Kenya economy. 4. The heterosis between these twO groups has been so good. in fact, that the plants easily retch 17 to 18 feet in height and suffer damage from lodging (falling down) in storms. A special program has had to be introduced to lower the height of the plants by reducing the distence between leaves on the stalk. 41. Ellst African Stllndard. January 11. 1974, p. 1. A favorite activity for officials during the 1971 maize shortage was to visit traders' stores during the middle of the night to find the \"missing\" maize; no mention WlIS ever made officially of the serious drought then occurring as a possible explanation of the shortage. While other sources of data related to the adoption of maize technology exist in Kenya, it was decided that the larger purposes of this study could best be served by basing it on newly collected primary data. These data emerged from a sample survey of 360 maize farmers conducted in June and July of 1973.Data from the survey have been analyzed using multi• variate probit analysis, and method designed specifically to deal with a dichotomous dependent variable, which in this case is adoption and non-adoption of hybrid maize. Ordinary least squares regression has been used where the dependent variable is a continous one, and chi•square tests have been used with simple cross tabulations. In addition, the study makes use of extensive documentary evidence from such Kenyan sources as the Maize and Produce Board, the Kenya Seed Company, and the Maize Research Section, earlier farm level surveys in the region, interviews with persons involved in the Kenyan maize industry, and published sources.aven questionable how much large farm acreages follow pril.:f1 changes. Except for the large drop in acreage when farms were changing ownership in 1963-65, large farm acreeges have remainad fairly stable oyer the past 15 yaars (Figure 3), Moreover, price changes are often announced too late to affect planting, and sometimes even after harvests have been partially delivered.47. The drop in acreage of farmers applying for seasonal credit (GMR) in 1973 WllS apparently due entirely to the fact that many farmers were unable to deliver their maize to Maize and Produce Board stores and hence could not clear their 1972 accounts before planting time. As late lIS August 1973, when the 1973 crop WlIS already beginning to come in. stecks of maize from the 1972 crop were piled under tarpaulins outside many MPB reception centers.Republic of Kenya, Report of the Maize Commission of Inquiry (Nairobi, 1966). p. 23. The Report also claims that it would be impossible to control the price of maize meal to the consumer without permiting millers to make excessive profits. A. distrust of millers and traders, many of whom are Asians, seems to have been a strong motivation for control among both Europeans and Africans from the earliest introduction of controls, even though Africans in the maize-deficit districts ere the main victims of the present policy and African transporters would be major beneficiaries of the proposed changes. 49. Bernd Schubert, \"Some Considerations on Methods for Evelu. ting Marketing Systems for Agriculturel Products,\" ElIStefn Africa Journal of Rural Dflfle/opment 6 (1973): 39.... The farmers were drawn from the population of maize growers west of the Rift Valley. This area is one of the most densely populated in Kenya, produces the bulk ,)f the country's maize and has had the longest history of support from the maize industry. Map 2 shows the distribution of Kenya's population and outlines the area of the study.The general potential of the area west of Rift can perhaps best be summarized with the reference to the major a9roclimatic zones used in this study. as shownm Map 3. These were determined with the advice of agricultural scientists at the National Agricultural Research Station and the criterion used for establishing these zones was that they should be internally homogenous with respect to the suitability of the new maize technology. Zone 1 is defined as that portion of the region receiving more than 60 inches of While other sources of data related to the adoption of maize technology exist in Kenya, it was decided that the larger purposes of this study could best be served by basing it on newly collected primary data. These data emerged from a sample survey of 360 maize farmers conducted in June and July of 1973.Data from the survey have been analyzed using multivariate probit analysis, and method designed specifically to deal with a dichotomous dependent variable, which in this case is adoption and non-adoption of hybrid maize. Ordinary least squares regression has been used where the dependent variable is a continous one, and chi•square tests have been used with simple cross tabulations. In addition, the study makes use of extensive documentary evidence from such Kenyan sources as the Maize and Produce Board, the Kenya Seed Company, and the Maize Research Section, earlier farm level surveys in the region, interviews with persons involved in the Kenyan maize industry, and published sources. 47. The drop in acreage of farmers applying for seasonal credit IGMR) in 1973 was apparently due entirely to the fact that many farmers were unable to deliver their maize to Maize and Produce Board stores and hence could not clear their 1972 accounts before planting time. As late as August 1973, when the 1973 crop was already beginning to come in, stacks of maize from the 1972 crop were piled under tarpaulins outside many MPB reception centers.Republic of Kenya, RtJPOrt of thll Mtlize Commi6sion of Inquiry (Nairobi, 1966), p. 23. The Report also claims that it would be impossible to control the price of maize meal to the consumer without permiting millers to make excessive profits. A. distrust of millers and traders, many of whom are Asians, seems to have been a strong motivation for control among both Europeans and Africans from the earliest introduction of controls, aven though Africans in the maize-deficit districts are the main victims of the present policy and African transporters would be major beneficiaries of the proposed changes. 49. Bernd Schubert, \"Some Considerations on Methods for Evaluating Marketing Systems for Agriculturel Products:' Eastern Africa Journ.' of Rur.1 DfWlllopmllnt 6 (1973): 39.... The farmers were drawn from the population of maize growers west of the Rift Valley. This area is one of the most densely populated in Kenya, produces the bulk o)f the country's maize and has had the longest history of support from the maize industry. Map 2 shows the distribution of Kenya's population and outlines the area of the study.The general potential of the area west of Rift can perhaps best be summarized with the reference to the major agroclimatic zones used in this study. as shownm Map 3. These were determined with the advice of agricultural scientists at the National Agricultural Research Station and the criterion used for establishing these zones was that they should be internally homogenous with respect to the suitability of the new maize technology. Zone 1 is defined as that portion of the region receiving more than 60 inches of  Map 2. Kenya, showing population distribution and area of study.Map 3. Western Kenya. agroclimatic zones.rain per year. Ths includes virtually all of Kisii and Kakamega districts, about half of Nandi and Kericho districts, and the ezstern third of Busia district. This is the zone with the hiqhest agriCUltural potential, with generally good soils, and is consequently densely populated, especially in Klsli and parts of Kakamega. The major cash crops grown are tea, pyrethrum, potatoes, and dairy cattle in the• higher elevations and coffee, sugarcane, and bananas at the lower levels. Maize is the dominant food crop everywhere. Zone 2 consists of that portion of the region found above 1500 meters which receives less than 60 inches of rain per year. This high-altitude, moderate rainfall zone includes half of Kericho and Nandi districts plus all of Uasin Gishu, and Trans Nzoia districts and almost all of Bungoma. 1 This zone includes most of the large-scale farms (in Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia) as well as settlement schemes. Farm sizes tend to be quite large by Kenyan standards (15 acres average) and there is considerable commercial farm-Ing, including especially maize (throughout), wheat (in Uasln GiShU), calry cattle, and some tea. Zone 3 consists of that portion of land found below 1500 meters in altitude whlcn receives less tnan 60 inches of rain per year. This lone Includes part of Busia district, and all of Siaya, Kisurrou. and South Nyanza districts. It is a moderate potential area with some cash farming of sugar, cotton and groundnuts, but mostly subsistence production of maize, millets, and sorghum. Farm sizes are relatively small and farming IS hindered by special problems including flooding, impeded drainage, and tsetse fly infestation in some areas.Stratification of the Sample.In order to ensure a sample size adequate for making comparisons between agro-elimatic lones, and farm Size groups, the sample was stratified in four categories. Three of these are the lones described earlier.Because it was believed that small-scale, primarily sub• sistence farmers would behave differently from large-scale commercial farmers, a special sample of some 50 larqt' scale, African-owned farms was taken in the Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia districts. These were formerly European owned enterprises which have been ::>r are being purchased by African owners and which have received extenslv,; government attention and assistance in recent years, AI though all of the farms in this category are located in zan', 2 the large farm sample is referred to collectively and in the tables as Set 4. A few farms of over 50 acres from zones 1 and 3 were also included in Set 4.Within each of the three agro-c1imatic zones, a three stage sampling process was used to select approximately one hundred farms. First, grid squares of 100 square kilometers were numbered sequentially in each zone using 1 to 250,000 scale maps. Within each zone the populations of the various districts and parts thereof were summed and sampling segments were assigned to each district in proportion of its percentage of the total population in that zone. This step adjusted the sample for population density between districts though not within districts. Using a random number table, 34 sampling segments were selected in each zone.Second, using 1 to 50,000 scale maps, each 100 square kilometer grid was further divided into 100 one square kilometer segments. A random number table was again used to select one square kilometer sampling segments within the larger grid. On this scale map, plwsical features including roads and even huts are identifiable and some adjustments were made, throwing out segments that fell in the middle of a lacke, game reserve, or town.Third, within each segment, the interviewer made a list of all households by name before selecting any farms for interviews. 2 If there were not ten households in that segment, the inverviewer took additional households from neighboring segments to make a minimum total of ten. Interviewers took a maximum of twenty households within anyone segment. After preparing the list of households, the interviewer used a random number card to select three names for interview. This procedure was followed to prevent the interviewer from being led to \"better\" or more prestigious farmers. Random field checks of the lists of names and the farmers interviewed indicated that interviewers kept closely to the sampling procedure. If the farmer grew no maize whatsoever, the interviewer was instructed to conduct the interview but also to take another farm which did grow maize in the same segment. Only four of the 361 farmers interviewed (about 1 percent) were growing no maize at the time of interview.The large farm sample of some 60 interviews was taken from lists of some 700 large-scale commercial farms provid: ed by the Ministry of Agriculture. With the help of the District Agricultural Officers in Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu and the German Extension Team Leader in Trans Nzoia, farms which had been effectively subdivided or which were managed by the Agricultural Development Corporation were removed from the list and a random selection was made among the others. These large-scale farms are referred to as set 4 in the tables and discussion.The InterviewThe chief instrument of the survey was a structured interview containing 81 primary questions, many with a number of different parts. The interview focused on the maize growing practices of the farm but included basic information on the farmer, his knowledge of recommended practices, communication• channels used by the farmer, extension contacts, and other factors.The questionnaire was prepared in consultation with scientists in the Maize Programme of the National AgriCUltural Research Station at Kitale. It draws on the experience of similar interviews both in Kenya and in other developing countries.The findings of the .survey show a high internal consistency. The only area of significant question involves acreage estimates which are notoriously difficult in areas where farms are not surveyed and fields are neither large nor necessarily rectangular. Whereas farmers whose land has been adjudicated are likely to know the total size of their farm, their estimates of field size vary widely.Fortunately determining the nature of the maize tech• nology being used on the farm did not depend (as a yield survey would) on accurate land measurements. However, wherever field size does enter into the analysis (ai in fertilizer applications per acrel. the limitations of the ~ata should be kept in mind.  Table 7 shows the pattern of hybrid seed adoption in western Kenya in June 1973 by agroclimatic zone.The zones used and the survey methodology was described earlier in this chapter. For hybrids, \"Adoption\" was defined as use of hybrid seed for more than half of the farmer's acreage. However, only a handful of farmers were found growing both hybrid and local varieties on the same farm. Although farmers no doubt \"tried out\" hybrid on a portion of their maize acreage in earlier years, the innovation is now well enough known that farmers are apparently willing to adopt it on all their acreage or not at all depending on its reputation in their immediate area.For other inputs examined, \"adoption\" was defined as use of the input on maize. Two additional modern inputs were examined, fertilizer and insecticide.Farmers were asked two different questions relating to each of their maize fields, namely \"What kind of maize 2 the large farm sample is referred to collectively and in the tables as Set 4. A few farms of over 50 acres from zones 1 and 3 were also included in Set 4.Within each of the three agro-c1imatic zones, a three stage sampling process was used to select approximately one hundred farms. First, grid squares of 100 square kilometers were numbered sequentially in each zone using 1 to 250,000 scale maps. Within each zone the populations of the various districts and parts thereof were summed and sampling segments were assigned to each district in proportion of its percentage of the total population in that zone. This step adjusted the sample for population density between districts though not within districts. Using a random number table, 34 sampling segments were selected in each zone.Second, using 1 to 50,000 scale maps, each 100 square kilometer grid was further divided into 100 one square kilometer segments. A random number table was again used to select one square kilometer sampling segments within the larger grid. On this scale map, plwsical features including roads and even huts are identifiable and some adjustments were made, throwing out segments that fell in the middle of a lacke, game reserve, or town.Third, within each segment, the interviewer made a list of all households by name before selecting any farms for interviews. 2 If there were not ten households in that segment, the inverviewer took additional households from neighboring segments to make a minimum total of ten. Interviewers took a maximum of twenty households within anyone segment. After preparing the list of households, the interviewer used a random number card to select three names for interview. This procedure was followed to prevent the interviewer from being led to \"better\" or more prestigious farmers. Random field checks of the lists of names and the farmers interviewed indicated that interviewers kept closely to the sampling procedure. If the farmer grew no maize whatsoever, the interviewer was instructed to conduct the interview but also to take another farm which did grow maize in the same segment. Only four of the 361 farmers interviewed (about 1 percent) were growing no maize at the time of interview.The large farm sample of some 60 interviews was taken from lists of some 700 large-scale commercial farms provid: ed by the Ministry of Agriculture. With the help of the District Agricultural Officers in Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu and the German Extension Team Leader in Trans Nzoia, farms which had been effectively subdivided or which were managed by the Agricultural Development Corporation were removed from the list and a random selection was made among the others. These large-scale farms are referred to as set 4 in the tables and discussion.The InterviewThe chief instrument of the survey was a structured interview containing 81 primary questions, many with a number of different parts. The interview focused on the maize growing practices of the farm but included basic information on the farmer, his knowledge of recommended practices, communication• channels used by the farmer, extension contacts, and other factors.The questionnaire was prepared in consultation with scientists in the Maize Programme of the National AgricUltural Research Station at Kitale. It draws on the experience of similar interviews both in Kenya and in other developing countries.The findings of the .survey show a high internal consistency. The only area of significant question involves acreage estimates which are notoriously difficult in areas where farms are not surveyed and fields are neither large nor necessarily rectangular. Whereas farmers whose land has been adjudicated are likely to know the total size of their farm, their estimates of field size vary widely.Fortunately determining the nature of the maize tech• nology being used on the farm did not depend (as a yield survey would) on accurate land measurements. However, wherever field size does enter into the analysis (at in fertilizer applications per acre), the limitations of the ~ata should be kept in mind.  Table 7 shows the pattern of hybrid seed adoption in western Kenya in June 1973 by agroclimatic zone.The zones used and the survey methodology was described earlier in this chapter. For hybrids, \"Adoption\" was defined as use of hybrid seed for more than half of the farmer's acreage. However, only a handful of farmers were found growing both hybrid and local varieties on the same farm. Although farmers no doubt \"tried out\" hybrid on a portion of their maize acreage in earlier years, the innovation is now well enough known that farmers are apparently willing to adopt it on all their acreage or not at all depending on its reputation in their immediate area.For other inputs examined, \"adoption\" was defined as use of the input on maize. Two additional modern inputs were examined, fertilizer and insecticide.Farmers were asked two different questions relating to each of their maize fields, namely \"What kind of maize seed was plantea In this field~\" and \"Was tne seea p:ant,~c: tnls year new seed from a bag or old you use vour own seed from last year's crop)\" Table 8, gives the responses for specific types or maize seed. The distribution of these types is determined largely by availability since only recom• mended varieties for a given area are sold In that area. The second Question was asked in order to ascertain whether farmers were planting second generation hybrid seed and still calling it \"hybrid\". Only three of 360 farmers ex• plicitly said, when first asked, that they were using second generation seed and an additional six said they were using \"hybrid\" but also said it was \"seed from last year's crop.\"The basic figures on hybrid use, therefore, are those responses to the second Question (i.e. second generation seed is treated as a \"local\" variety). As discussed in Chapter II, some agricultural experts argue that hybrid seed is not practical for developing countries because farmers have to buy seed every year and if they do not, second generation hybrid seed gives a sharply reduced yield. The fact that only 2.5 percent of the farmers interviewed in the 1973 survey appeared to be planting second generation seed indicates that, in Kenya at least, the farmers' willingness to buy seed every year has been considerable.The most striking feature of the adoption pattern is the wide disparity In adoption between Zones 1 and 2 and Zone 3.MUCh ot me analysIs of this thesIs seeks to explain the discrepancy. According to Ogada,3 a regres• sion analysis of the 1971 Late Maturity Maize Variety Trials indicates that the yield performance of hybrid (in this case primarily Hybrid 632, which is recommended for Zone) indicates that the differential yield between hybrids and local varieties Increases significantly with improvements in the environment. Using data from controlled experiments at a total of 20 different sites, Ogada compared the mean vield of each varletv at each site on an environmental index. ihe index is Simply \"the difference between the mean vleld of all vaneties In an environment and the mean Vleld of all varieties at ali environments or grand mean:' dnd runs from rou(lnlv -30 to +30. Ogada went on to say, \"In this particular case i can state without doubt that the Zone 3 environments would be represented by the range of -10 to -25 and the high altitude areas by +10 to +25\" The analysis of risk perception in the next chapter further supports this hypothesis as does certain additional evidence provided by the farmers themselves. After the examination of the farmer's maize fields, those farmers Who did not plant hybrid maize were asked why they did not. Their responses are presented in Table 9. Responses total more than me number of farmers planting local maize since some farmers gave more than one answer. The 'Ineresting part ,,; tnlS question r, that, whereas 100 pereen: ot non-hybna planters in Zone, I and 2 gave \"expense\" do tnelr reason, almost half the responses In Zone 3 gave otner answers. I have grouped these answers under five main headings: cost, availability, information, performance, and \"congruence\" with traditional maize planting practlcts In doing this, I also Included the eight farmers in Zone 3 who said they had never heard of hybrid maize.The coding of the questionnaire may have obscured a distinction between those farmers who said hybrid was \"too expensive\" (i.e. not worth the Investment) which would have been a judgement of its performance and those who felt it was \"to expensive\" in that, although they would have liked to use it, they just did not have the money. The fact that a few farmers gave \"has no money\" as a separate answer may indicate that this was the case. The fact that several farmers said they did not plant hybrid because they \"planted too late\" may indicate that they are aware  of the importance of early planting for hybrid yields and though that with late planting it would not be profitable.In any case, we can conclude from the responses that, whereas hybrid is universally known and well regarded in Zones 1 and 2, a substantial number of farmers in Zone 3 have doubts about its efficacy or are still ignorant of its use. When asked \"Have you ever planted hybrid maize? , 24 of the 90 farmers not planting hybrid in 1973 said yes, 18 of whom (75 percent) were in Zone 3. This indicates that hybrid has received some considerable trial in that area and, for various reasons, has been found undesirable.Looking now at the impact of farm size on adoption of hybrids, the data of Table 10 shows that larger farmers consistently lead smaller farmers, even when zones are held constant. The difference between larger and smaller farmers shown in the table are not great. It must be remembered, however, that all farms over 50 acres -most. of them in Zones 1 and 2-have been eliminated from the data on which the table was constructed. These farms had an adoption rate of 100 percent. Were they reintroduced, the percentages of adoption in all zones would increase slightly. The resulting comparison of farm sizes within zones would show virtually no difference between smaller and larger farms in Zone 1, a difference of some 14 per• centage points in Zone 2, and a' difference of roughly eight percentage points in Zone 3.Looking now at fertilizer use by agro•c1imatic zone and farm size the impact of both factors are reflected in the data of Table 11 except in Zone 3, where rates of adoption are quite low. Even here, where differences between farm size groups within Zones 1 and 2 are large, the differences between agro•climatic zones are still more notable. For insecticides the relative impact of agro•c1ima• tic zones is even more evident.The results of these two tables manifest clear support of the hypotheses that agro~limatic zone and farm size play a role in the adoption of new inputs. As differences among zones exceed differences within zones for each of the inputs, the tables tend to support the idea that agroclimatic factors play a dominant role in shaping adoption patterns.With respect to hybrid seed especially, the influence of farm size is negligible as compared with that,of the climate. However, because the use of commer~ial fer• tilizers and insecticides are significantly related to size, we cannot conclude that yields (and therefore profitability) of hybrids are neutral to scale. Moreover, since mechanized plowing is conducive to early planting and has genuine economies of scale, it is reasonable to assume that larger farms plant earlier and consequently get higher yields. Whether these advantages are offset by more intensive weeding or more timely harvesting on smaller plots is possible, but can only be determined by careful (and expensive) field sampling. In any case, we can conclude that small farmers in Kenya have not been excluded from enjoying the benefits of hybrid maize and have adopted it with alacrity where environmental circumstances war• rant it. The Rate of Adoption Over Time.Table 12 presents the percentage of farmers first hearing about hybrid maize and first planting it by year and by agroclimatic zone. Figure 7 presents the data on first planting in cumulative form. Both sets of information are based on the farmers' recollection of events as of June, 1973. For the reasons given in Chapter Ill, it is believed that this information is Quite reliable in the case of first use of hybric seed, although the farmers' abl :y to recall when theY fl' ~, heard about hybrid is probably less reliable. The mean time period between first hearing about and first planting hybrid W3S approximately 1.5 years for all lones, which compares with a mean time lag of five years for Iowa farmers.  The modal frequency for first use of hybrid seed varied from two years after its introduction in Zones 2 and 4 to eight years in Zone 3. For Iowa corn farmers the modal frequency of adoption was ten years after its introduction and for Punjabi wheat farmers three yeers. s The mean frequency for first use varied from three years after first introduction for the large farm areas to five years in Zones 1 and 2 and seven years in Zone 3. It is apparent from these data that both large-and small-scale farmers in the high L'nfall portions of western Kenya adopted hybrid maize at a rate faster than American farmers in Iowa in the 1920's and 30's. It should be remembered, however, that the relative yield advantage of Kenyan hybrids over local varieties was much greater at the time of its introduction in 1963 than was the comparable American case. 6 Nevertheless, it would be difficult to conclude from the rapid adoption rates and short time lags between first hearing and first use that African farmers are in any way inextricably bound by tradition or unopen to change.A closer look at. the adoption pattern in Figure 7 shows clearly the differences In adoption rates and ceilings between zones. The former European•owned farms (Set 4) reached almost 80 percent usage within five years. Hybrid use on the smaller, but still relatively large, commercial. maize•growing farms in the neighboring areas also spread qUickly but was soon matched and even slightly overtaken by the smaller subsistence farmers in the high rainfall areas of Kakamega. Kisii, and Kericho. Hybrid use in the lakeside districts of 'Nyanza Province was ;much slower to develop and may actuallv be falling since the percentage of farm• ers who report€ •~ver planting hybrid is now considerably higher (32.9 percent) than the percent who reported plant• ing in 1973 (15.8 percent). These data are presented visually in Map 4.Interestingly enough, the rate of adoption in the high rainfall zones has been so steady that they hardly show the traditional S-shaped curve characteristic of most in• novations (in which potential adopters at fi rst hesitate, then adopt quickly, and finally slow down again as \"conservative\" late adopters a lag behind).7 Griliches reported that the S-shaped or \"normal\" curve typical of hybrid adoption in the U.S. was also found to exist for the adoption of combines, corn-pickers, and field forage harvest• ers, as well as new types of prescription drugs. s Griliches also pointed out that the equilibrium level of adoption in all parts of the U.S. never reached 100 percent. The western parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Kpnsas   10 , , reached an equilibrium level after 30 years of 30 to 60 percent hybrid use. These are areas of highly variable rainfall where the use of hybrid was profitable only for those farmers on particularly good land or able to employ irrio.ation. 9 This may eventially prove to be the case in Zone 3.Unless new varieties specially suited to that environment are developed, hybrid use may stabilize only among farmers with certain, as yet unspecified, characteristics.Although the discussion so far has focussed primarilv on the use of hybrid maize seed, this has never been consider-ed in Kenya to be the sum total of hybrid maize technology. From the outset it has been recognized that a complete package of associated practices, including both physical inputs and improved husbandry. would produce the highest yields. Allan's definitive work on agronomic factors,l 0 already discussed in Chapter II, and Moock's study of small farm maize yields in Vihiga 1 1 both indicate the importance of early planting, plant population, fertilizer use, and weeding for achieving higher yields.According to Hazelden,12 the conscious policy of the seed company and the extension service from the start was to use the new seed as a catalyst for achieving a general improvement in maize husbandry and yields. \"Hybrid\" was considered a completely new crop requiring new techniques of production. The Kenya Seed Company painted \"Hybrid\" in large letters on its company Volks• wagens and even today their publicity refers only to \"hybrid\" not \"hybrid maize.\" Seed was never subsidized and farmers were taught that, if it was worth paying for, it was worth using properly. The early demonstration plots were few and well run and the farmers got high yields from the total hybrid package. The fact that some Europeans felt that African farmers were not \"ready\" for hybrid only served to heighten the demand for it. Farmers who laughed in 1963 at the idea of 20 bags an acre saw a farm manager get 47 bags in a yield contest in 1972. How well, though, did the strategy succeed in bringing about the desired changes in husbandry that accompany the use of hybrid seed? Have farmers accepted the new technology in toto or have they merely bought the seed while reverting to traditional methods of husbandry? And what has been the difference in acceptance between commercial, physical inputs and behavioral, cultural practices? The 1973 survey gives some interesting indications.To begin with, Table 13 shows the percentage of farmers in 1973 using various recommended maize growing practices by zone. The use of manure (a beneficial but not actively recommended practice) is also included. Although the measurement of some of the practices may be fairly rough (e.g. the timing of weedings may be more important. than the number of weedings and the meaning of planting \"before the rains\" instead of \"with the rains\" may vary from place to place). nevertheless, these figures give a reasonable picture of differential adoption of maize tech• nology practices in western Kenya.The pattern of associated technology use varies marked: ly both by practice and by zone. The use of commercial inputs varies from 100 percent (for hybrid seed in Set 4) to 4 percent (for insecticide and fertilizer in Zone. 3). Cultural practices display a similar range, from a high of 100 percent planting in rows in Set 4 to allow Bf 10 percent planting \"before the rains\" in Zone 3. On the basis of the evidence no clear distinctions are noted be• tween the adoption of \"physical\" and \"cultural\" practices.Each component of the recommended technology appears to have been adopted or rejected according to its own characteristics, including cost, profitability, fISk, complexity, and congruence with traditional diets or labor patterns. Looking specifically at the commercial inputs, the weighted average of farmers using inputs falls from 67 percent (seed) to 49 percent (some fertilizer) to 46 percent (insecticide on stored maize) to 13 percent (insecticide in the field). This is in part a function of cost, since recommended levels of fertilizer cost about five times as much per acre as hybrid seed, and may also reflect availability. In the more com• mercialized maize-growing areas, of Zone 2 the use of commercial inputs of all types remains quite high whereas it drops off sharply in the smaller, more subsistence•orien1ed farms in Zone 1 and is uniformly low in Zone 3.Among cultural practices, it appears that row planting has been overwhelmingly adopted by hybrid growers. Interplanting, however, continues in importance in all the subsistence areas. Moack found 13 in Vihiga that interplanung, controlling for plant population, was positively related to maize yield and speculated that legumes may release nitrates into the soil. He also noted that farmers claim the tall maize protects the interplanted crop from hail damage. Other reasons advanced for interplanting include improved soil cover to preserve moisture and reduce erosion, cottrol of soil temperature, saving on weed control, and stag~red growing periods which affect both labor demands :and food requirements. As long ago as 1934, L.S.B. Leakey: 4 . explaining the interplanting habits of the Kikuyu, wrote: The habit of regarding African methods of agriculture or of any other activities as inherently bad because they are different from our own is most unwise. I do not suggest that the methods used by different native tribes are all perfect. Doubtless the methods of agriculture employed by the Ki:<uyu could almost certainly be improved in many details, but this could only be. done if European methods of research were employed in trying to develop the African method of cultivation, which is very different thing from trying to substitute European methods of planting for those which hlll/e been 6Volved out of reach by trial and error.As a result of the durability of interplanting as a practice, the National Agricultural Research Station in 1973 began To begin with, Table 13 shows the percentage of farmers in 1973 using various recommended maize growing practices by zone. The use of manure (a beneficial but not actively recommended practice) is also included. Although the measurement of some of the practices may be fairly rough (e.g. the timing of weedings may be more important. than the number of weedings and the meaning of planting \"before the rains\" instead of \"with the rains\" may vary from place to place). nevertheless, these figures give a reasonable picture of differential adoption of maize tech• nology practices in western Kenya.The pattern of associated technology use varies marked: ly both by practice and by zone. The use of commercial inputs varies from 100 percent (for hybrid seed in Set 4) to 4 percent (for insecticide and fertilizer in Zone. 3). Cultural practices display a similar range, from a high of 100 percent planting in rows in Set 4 to allow of 10 percent planting \"before the rains\" in Zone 3. On the basis of the evidence no clear distinctions are noted be• tween the adoption of \"physical\" and \"cultural\" practices.Each component of the recommended technology appears to have been adopted or rejected according to its own characteristics, including cost, profitability, fISk, complexity, and congruence with traditional diets or labor patterns. Looking specifically at the commercial inputs, the weighted average of farmers using inputs falls from 67 percent (seed) to 49 percent (some fertilizer) to 46 percent (insecticide on stored maize) to 13 percent (insecticide in the field). This is in part a function of cost, since recommended levels of fertilizer cost about five times as much per acre as hybrid seed, and may also reflect availability. In the more com• mercialized maize-growing areas, of Zone 2 the use of commercial inputs of all types remains quite high whereas it drops off sharply in the smaller, more subsistence•orien1ed farms in Zone 1 and is uniformly low in Zone 3.Among cultural practices, it appears that row planting has been overwhelmingly adopted by hybrid growers. Interplanting, however, continues in importance in all the subsistence areas. Maack found 13 in Vihiga that interplanung, controlling for plant population, was positively related to maize yield and speculated that legumes may release nitrates into the soil. He also noted that farmers claim the tall maize protects the interplanted crop from hail damage. Other reasons advanced for interplanting include improved soil cover to preserve moisture and reduce erosion, cortrol of soil temperature, saving on weed control, and stagqered growing periods which affect both labor demands :and food requirements. As long ago as 1934, L.S.B. Leakey! 4 . explaining the interplanting habits of the Kikuyu, wrote:The habit of regarding African methods of agriculture or of any other activities as inherently bad because they are different from our own is most unwise. I do not suggest that the methods used bV different native tribes are all perfect. Doubtless the methods of agriculture employed bv the Ki:<uvu could almost certainly be improved in many details, but this could only be. done if European methods of research were emploved in trying to develop the African method of cultivation, which is very different thing from trying to substitute European methods of planting for those which have been 6Volved out of reach by trial and error.As a result of the durability of interplanting as a practice, the National Agricultural Research Station in 1973 began  Early planting, unfortunately, is difficult to measure since the beginning of the low rains varies considerably from place to place. For this reason, the question posed in the : 973 survey asked if planting began \"before the rains started,\" \"when the rains started,\" or \"after the rains started.\" Even this phrasing presents problems, however, since there is not necessarily consensus on when the rains have actually \"started\" and since planting can be suspended if the rains appear to halt. Farmers, therefore, were also .asked, \"How many days passed between starting and finishing seeding in this field?\" and the responses indicate some variance (from an average of 4.1 days in Zone 1 to 6.9 days in Zone 3). This appears to indicate greater caution among Zone 3 farmers. In any case, planting before the rains had the lowest acceptance of any cultural practice and was, once again, lowest in Zone 3. This is consistent with our risk hypothesis, namely, that farmers will forego the higher yields which result from early planting in favor of a greater certainty that the rains have actually started. Another factor affecting early planting, however, is that plowing (whether by oxen or by hand) is more difficult when the soil is hard (and coincidentally when the oxen are at their weakest due to the fong dry period), It is not surprising, then, that early planting is highest (48 percent! in Set 4, where 100 percent of the farmers plowed by tractor, as opposed, for example, to 7 percent in Zone 3 and 25 percent in Zone 1.Interestingly enough, the practice of thinning out weaker plants is highest in Zone 3 (65 percent) and lowest in Zone 1 (32 percent). This may be becau~e farmers who have purchases hybrid seed are reluctant to pull up even a few stalks, even though it would improve their overall yield. Weeding, on the other hand, is highest in Zone 1 (where 84 percent of the farmers weeded more than once) although this is most likely a function of farm size rather than a newly adopted practice. The use of manure was also greatest in Zone 1.Unfortunately, we do not really know the incidence of husbandry practices at earlier periods and ~re, hence, unable to assess precisely how much change is~due to the e introduction of the hybrid technology package:; The evidence from earlier sample surveys, however, shows very low levels of fertilizer use in 1965, with increasing use in 1968 and agair. in 1970, but still lower than in 1973. Such information as does exist on row planting also shows a gradual increase and it is asserted that row planting was virtually unknown before the introduction of hybrid.• An indication of the \"hybrid influence\" can perhaps best be gained by comparing the husbandry practices of hybrid seed users with those of non-adopters. If we assume that husbandry improvements are a \"secular\" phenomenon, there should be no significant difference between hybrid and non-hybrid users. To measure the strength of whatever association does exist, we have used a simple chisquare test which measures the difference between the actual and the predicted observation. Any chi-square greater than 3.84 with one degree of freedom indicates a less than 5 percent chance that such a distribution would have occurred randomly; 6.63 or greater indicates a less than 1 percent probability.Table 14 shows the practices of hybrid and non-hybrid adopters for the weighted average of the entire sample. In every case except two there was a greater than 95 percent probability that the distributions were not random. One of these was insecticide use which has a 90 percent probability and the other was manure use, which although not specifically recommended by the extension service, is nevertheless used by more than twice as large a percentage of hybrid than of non-hybrid growers.Row planting and fertilizer use were especially strong-Iy related to hybrid use, while interplanting and thinning, as noted above, were positively related to non•hybrid use.Use of insecticide on stored maize and sales of maize off the farm are strongly associated with hybrid use.From the evidence of the survey, we can conclude that the adoption of associated technology is strongly related to hybrid seed adoption regardless of the overall levels of adoption of each portion of the new technology. In other words the \"package approach\" seems to be justified even if it is not 100 percent adopted in each case. The one cu• Notes 1.A small portion of western Bungoma and northern Busia districts which does not fall clearly in any of the three zones was excluded from the survey area, as were the forest areas on Mt. Elgon and in Kakamega and Nandi districts. The zones used here correspond roughly to the Star Grass, Kikuyu Grass, and Savannah zones mentioned in the literature.2. \"Households\" were used in making this list to avoid a possible bias of being directed to only the better \"farmers:' a frequent survey problem. rious exception is the thinning of young plants, which is more prevalent among non•hybrid users. The general relationship is true both of physical inputs and of cultural practices, although the level of adoption of each practice varies with its cost, complexity, and congruence with traditional practice. Where the adoption of an innovation such as early planting may increase the riskiness of the food crop, however, its acceptance has been much more limited. In the following chapter we will look more closely at factors affecting differential adoption levels among farmers.In this chapter we look more closely at the characteristics of adopters and non•adopters of the new maize technology and at the characteristics of \"early\" adopters. In particular, we consider the relationships between the adoption of hybrid seed in 1973 and such factors as agroclimatic zone, perceived risk, ability to \"tolerate\" or withstand risk, and knowledge. as well as availability, of the new technology.The purpose of this analysis is twofold. First. it is important to see what, if anything, characterizes nonadopters in order to be able to modify research, extension, or input supply systems in ways that will better reach this segment of the population. Secondly, it is important to distinguish differences between early and later adopters 30 so as to judge what effects the introduction of the new varieties has had on income distribution and employment. After comparing the factors related to early and later adoption we will consider whether time lags in adoption have caused serious problems for income distribution in Kenya.Both bivariate and multivariate methods have been used in the analysis of adoption, including difference of means tests, chi-square tests, Pearson correlations, probit analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Of these, probit analysis merits special mention since it is as yet infrequently used in social science applications. The most readable explication of multivariate probit analysis is still probably James Tobin's to Economic Survey Data. The variable X 7 warrants additional explanation. Interplanting maize with other crops is a common practice among Kenyan farmers (see Table 131_ Oftimes, especially in Zone III, maize is found intercropped with millets and sorghums, both drought resistant crops. While there may be explanations for this practice, given the physical properties of the drought-resistant crops and the taste preference for maize evidenced by its rapid spread, it seems reasonable to assume the presence of drought-resistant crops in the farmers' crop mix represents a risk averting action. In the analysis which follows, the variable X 7 serves as a proxy variable for risk aversion.A computer progran:, \"N-chotomous Multivariate Probit Program\" was used to make the necessary computations. 2 This program produces sample means and variances for each independent variable, maximum likelihood estimates for the coefficient of each variable, standard errors, and a t-test (MLE/SE). The log of the likelihood function and -2 times the log of the likelihood ratio are given, the latter of which is distributed like chi-square with m degrees of freedom for large samples and can be used as a measure of the explanatory power of the independent variables taken in groups.3 Using the coefficients obtained by the maximum likelihood method and substituting the values of the independent variables in the equation, the equation is solved and the resulting solution is converted to a probability of adoption from the normal distribution table. By substituting the average values of the sample for all but ofe variable at a time, an idea of the relative importance of ea~h variable for an \"average\" case (if such exists) can be~obtained.Tables 15 and 16 give the \"probits\" or probit runs which are used in the analvsis. The following sections discuss each of the key independent variables roughly in order of their importance. Arithmetic means (for continous variables) and frequency distributions (for dummy variables) are presented for adopters and non-adopters. Where these statistics differ between zones, the reasons for those differences and their possible implications for adoption are discussed.To recapitulate briefly, it is hypothesized that adoption will be positively correlated with education, farm size, presence of cash crops, presence of an off-farm income, availability of credit, relevant work experience off the farm, attendance at maize demonstrations, an extension visit in the past year, and location of the farm in a high rainfall zone. It is anticipated that adoption will be negatively correlated with age, distance to a source of inputs, presence of \"famine crops\" in the crop mixture, and location of the farm in a moderate or variable rainfall zone (Zone 3). Special importance is ascribed to those factors (agroclimatic zone and the presence of \"famine crops\") associated with risk and, where these factors are themsel• ves important, it is anticipated that \"risk tolerance\" or ability to absorb risk (as measured by outside income, access to credit, farm size, and presence of cash crops) will be positively related to adoption. Chi-square and difference of means tests are applied, where applicable, to the bivariate analysis, and simple correlations between variables are given with appendix.Factors Affecting the Adotpion of Hybrid Maize.Using the model presented previously, probit analysis was carried out separately on the sample population as a whole and on the sample in each of the three agroclimatic zones. Analysis of Set 4 was not undertaken since 100 percent of farmers were adopters. The results of the analysis are given in Tables 15 and 16. Because of the very small number of non-adopters in Zones 1 and 2, no statistically significant coefficients were found in Zone 1 and only imputed value of cash crops was significantly related to adoption in Zone 2 (at the 0.5 level). Most of the multivariate analysis, therefore, concentrates on the sample taken as a whole (including agroclimatic zone as an independent variable) and on adoption and non-adoption in Zone 3 (excluding agroclimatic zone as an explanatory variable).As Table 15 shows, the following factors significantly influenced the adoption of hybrid maize in western Kenya: agroclimatic zone, perception of risk (as measured by the planting of famine crops). level of formal education, knowledge of credit availability, and imputed value of cash crops. As hypothesized in Chapter I V, zone, education, credit, and cash were positively related to adoption and risk was negatively related. Although the significance of formal education as an independent variable declined with the introduction of partially collinear variables such as credit and cash crops, it remained significant at the 0.10 level in the presence of all the major variables (equation one). Among the other variables, age was negatively related to adoption and size of farm was positively related, as hypothesized, although neither had large coefficients or r•values. Measures of extension contact (extension visits and attendance at maize demonstrations or Farmers Training Centers) were positively related to adoption, though only one was signifi• cant at more than a 0.05 level (equation three). Previous off-farm work experience, whether in general or on a large, commercial farm, was, surprisingly, negatively related to adoption, and having a job off the farm at the timesof the interview, though positive in sign, was not significantly related. Distance to a source of inputs did not prove a useful indicator, since non•adopters were generally unable to answer the question correctly, and it therefore was dropped from the analysis. In fact, distance from a source of inputs, when included in the equations, turned out to be positively (but not significantly) related to adoption, perhaps because the few non-adopters who knew the distance to a source of inputs were those who lived closest to such a source.Finally, the chi-square values for all of the equations indicate that the expalantory power of the independent variables taken together was significantly different from zero at the 0.001 level. The R 2 or pseudo-R 2 values for the two main equations were encouraging (0.76 and 0.75), and the coefficients obtained predicted almost 9~per• cent of the cases correctly. ~cAs Table 16 shows, the following variables were signifi• cantly related to adoption in Zone 3: risk, education, and credit availability (at the 0.05 level) and imputed cash income  Using the model presented previously, probit analysis was carried out separately on the sample population as a whole and on the sample in each of the three agroclimatic zones. Analysis of Set 4 was not undertaken since 100 percent of farmers were adopters. The results of the analysis are given in Tables 15 and 16. Because of the very small number of non-adopters in Zones 1 and 2, no statistically significant coefficients were found in Zone 1 and only imputed value of cash crops was significantly related to adoption in Zone 2 (at the 0.5 level). Most of the multivariate analysis, therefore, concentrates on the sample taken as a whole (including agroclimatic zone as an independent variable) and on adoption and non-adoption in Zone 3 (excluding agroclimatic zone as an explanatory variable).As Table 15 shows, the following factors significantly influenced the adoption of hybrid maize in western Kenya: agroclimatic zone, perception of risk (as measured by the planting of famine crops), level of formal education. knowledge of credit availability, and imputed value of cash crops. As hypothesized in Chapter IV, zone, education, credit, and cash were positively related to adoption and risk was negatively related. Although the significance of formal education as an independent variable declined with the introduction of partially collinear variables such as credit and cash crops, it remained significant at the 0.10 level in the presence of all the major variables (equation one). Among the other variables, age was negatively related to adoption and size of farm was positively related, as hypothesized, although neither had large coefficients or r-values. Measures of extension contact (extension visits and attendance at maize demonstrations or Farmers Training Centers) were positively related to adoption, though only one was significant at more than a 0.05 level (equation three). Previous off-farm work experience, whether in general or on a large, commercial farm, was, surprisingly, negatively related to adoption, and having a job off the farm at the timesof the interview, though positive in sign, was not significantly related. Distance to a source of inputs did not prove a useful indicator, since non-adopters were generally unable to answer the question correctly, and it therefore was dropped from the analysis. In fact, distance from a source of inputs, when included in the equations, turned out to be positively (but not significantly) related to adoption, perhaps because the few non-adopters who knew the distance to a source of inputs were those who lived closest to such a source. Finally, the chi-square values for all of the equations indicate that the expalantory power of the independent variables taken together was significantly different from zero at the 0.001 level. The R 2 or pseudo-R 2 values for the two main equations were encouraging (0.76 and 0.75), and the coefficients obtained predicted almost 9t percent of the cases correctly. ~c As Table 16 shows, the following variables were significantly related to adoption in Zone 3: risk, education, and credit availability (at the 0.05 level) and imputed cash income ,. The maximum likelihood estimate of the coefficient is given first, followed by t statistics in parenthesis. 2. One, two, and three plus signs (T) indicate significance level. of 0.10, 0.05. and 0.01 respectively for a one-tailed test. 3. Equation three included the same variables as equation two with each of the work experience and information variables added in turn. The coefficients of the independent variables in equation two changed only very slightly with the addition of an additional variable, as did the constant and the chi-square value.The percentage of farmers in each zone using hybrid maize seed on more than half their maize acreage in 1973 has al ready been reported as follows:The importance of agrocl imatic zone is indicated in equation (11. Table 15. By substituting the mean values for the other variables and solving the equation, we find that location of the farm in Zones 1 or 2 increases the probe-(at the 0.10 level). Attendance at Farmers Training Centers was positively and significantly related to Bdoption, and previous work experience off the farm was significantly and negatively related to adoption (equation three). Age and size of farm were not significantly related to adoption, had very small coefficients, and negative signs. Again, the chi• square values of the equations indicate that the explanato• ry power of the independent variables was significantly different from zero at the 0.001 level. The R 2 values were 0.72 and 0.69 and 91.6 percent of the cases were predicted correctly. In the follOWing sections, each of the inde• pendent variables is discussed in greater detail. bility of adoption from 17.7 percent to 87 percent. The importance of zone is also indicated when adoption and zone are cross•tabulated, giving a chi-square value of 53.64, which is significant at the 0.001 level. The simple correlation between zone and adoption is 0.78 which is also significant at the 0.001 level.The basic puzzle in the study of hybrid maize adoption in western Kenya is to explain this substantial difference between the higher altitude, high rainfall zones (1 and 2) and the medium altitude, moderate r~infall zone (3). In the absence of reliable yield data for farms in both areas. we must regard agroclimatic zone as a measure of the general environment conditions in which the farmer makes his decisions. This includes not only the relative profitabili• ty of the new technology in each zone (se Chapter II) but also the variability of rainfall among zones. It seems to be a well-itstablished principle of meteorology that areas with lower average rainfall tend also to have higher variability from year to year. Evidently this is the case in western Kenya, as is indicated by the persistence of famine crops in the moderate rainfall area (see the discussion of~\"risk\" below).The best data on relative yields in western Kenya are from the F:A.O. Fertilizer Program demonstralion plots. 4 These plots, laid out by the extension staff on far1ners' fields in highly visible locations, have three portions~a control plot with hybrid seed and no fertilizer, a plot treated with 60 kg. phosphates (P~0 91.6%1. The maximum likelihood estimate of the coefficient is given firwt, followed by the t statistic in parenthesis.  local seed varieties are used. the results of these trials only show the relative performance of hybrids in the three zones and not of the relative performance of hybrids vis-a-vistocal varieties. We should note also that the level of husbandry on these demonstration plots is certainly well above that of the average farm. Nevertheless. the results give at least some indication of the differing performance of hybrids in the three zones.By averaging the yields obtained in Busia. Siaya. Kisumu, and South Nyanza districts (all basically in Zone 3) in 1969,  1970, 1971 and 1972, and comparing them with the other higher rainfall districts in western Kenya (all of which would be in either Zone 1 or 2) we get the results shown in Table 17.Using this measure, hybrid yields averaged 22 percent higher over a four-year period in the districts of Zones 1 and 2 than in the districts of Zone 3. Because of the hybrids' greater genetic potential. moreover. we know (Chapter III) that their advantage over local varieties will be greater under good conditions than under poor conditions, Therefore. the differences in yields between hybrids and local varieties should be even greater than the differences found between hybrids taken alone. In sum. there are good reasons to believe that differential profitabilities play an important part in explaining the substantial differences in adoption between the high and moderate rainfall zones and, consequently, in the ove~elming importance of agroclimatic zones as an explanatory variable in the sample taken as a whole.Unfortunately. the problem is not this simple because the three zones are not homogenous with respect to their history or their existing infrastructure, Hybrid maize was quite understandably promoted first in those areas where it was thought to do best. Similarly, inputs were supplied first to those areas where demand was greatest. KnOWledge of the new technology, in spite of extension efforts, varies more or less inversely to the distance from the 'National Agricultural Research Station at Kitale, The lakeshore areas of Zone 3, therefore, combine a number of features disadvantageous to the adoption of the new technology: lower altitude and rainfall; greater -variability in rainfall, poorer soils and drainage, poorer roads and input availability, lower levels of extension and farmer training, greater distance from the key research center and from input outlets. and a later introduction of hybrid varieties in the.first place,S Agroclimatic conditions. then. are confounded by differing levels of general development and services. More• over. the cash crop opportunities in Zone 3 (cotton. groundnuts, sugar) are generally not as lucrative as those in Zones 1 and 2 (tea, coffee, pyrethrum, dairy. bananas). Cash incomes from the farm are therefore much lower, and the corresponding interest in farming as a way of earning a living can be logically expected to be less. Another problem is the fact that the cash crops in Zone 3 are more seasonal than those (except coffee) in Zones 1 and 2, which means that they provide a less steady source of cash income with which commercial inputs can be bought. Because of the lag between harvesting (from August to October) and planting (in February-March) of the long-rains maize crop, ready cash is not easily available for purchasing inputs for those farmers without access to credit, Another factor closely related to agroclimatic zone is ethnic composition or tribe, Tribal boundaries in Kenya. with few exceptions, are well delineated and often conform closely to geographical features. This is especially true in the region around Lake Victoria in Kenya, where the Kisii hills and Nandi escarpment mark a sharp boundary between the Luo-speaking people of the lakeshore and the Bantu and Kalenjin-speaking peoples of the highest elevations. Only on the boundary between the Luo and ~Yia tribes north of the lake is there anything like a graljual c transition. And only in the formerly European-occupied districts of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia, where hybrid adoption is virtually 100 percent. are these substantial numbers of farmers from a variety of tribal backgrounds. The result of this situation is that tribe and agroclimatic zone are inextricably confounded, For example. there were only three Luo farmers in the sample outside Zone 3 and ten non•Luo farmers in Zone 3, These 13 farmers behaved as the majority of farmers in their zone rather than as farmers from their tribe in other zones. I have not, therefore;foond it possible to distinguish tribe as a separate explanatory variable. While not in any sense ignoring the importance of cultural and ethnic factors in determining responses to change, I would defend this conclusion in this particular case on the grounds that, whereas the Luo tribe make up the overwhelming proportion of farmers in Zone 3, a wide variety of tribes in Zones 1 and 2. including those more closely related to the Nilotic Luo than to the Bantuspeaking peoples, have responded to the favorable conditions for adoption hybrid maize. Within Zones 1 and 2, there Ytere no significant differences in adoption by tribe.In the colonial period. the lower level of agricultural development in the lakeshore region was attributed primarily to \"people problems.\" Typical of the colonial view were the wr;tings of Elsepth Huxley, the historian of and apologist for the white settlers in Kenya. In her book, The New Earth, published in 1960. Huxley entitled a chapter \"The Reluctant LUO,,,6 \"Their obstinacy is Ie• gendary,\" she reported. \"they are inclined to be sullen and suspicious.... Faintly Teutonic in an African fashion local seed varieties are used. the results of these trials only show the relative performance of hybrids in the three zones and not of the relative performance of hybrids vis-a-vistocal varieties. We should note also that the level of husbandry on these demonstration plots is certainly well above that of the average farm. Nevertheless. the results give at least some indication of the differing performance of hybrids in the three zones.By averaging the yields obtained in Busia. Siaya. Kisumu, and South Nyanza districts (all basically in Zone 3) in 1969,  1970, 1971 and 1972. and comparing them with the other higher rainfall districts in western Kenya (all of which would be in either Zone 1 or 2) we get the results shown in Table 17.Using this measure, hybrid yields averaged 22 percent higher over a four-year period in the districts of Zones 1 and 2 than in the districts of Zone 3. Because of the hybrids' greater genetic potential. moreover. we know (Chapter III) that their advantage over local varieties will be greater under good conditions than under poor conditions. Therefore. the differences in yields between hybrids and local varieties should be even greater than the differences found between hybrids taken alone. In sum. there are good reasons to believe that differential profitabilities play an important part in explaining the substantial differences in adoption between the high and moderate rainfall zones and, consequently, in the overWhelming importance of agroclimatic zones as an explanatory variable in the sample taken as a whole.Unfortunately. the problem is not this simple because the three zones are not homogenous with respect to their history or their existing infrastructure. Hybrid maize was quite understandably promoted first in those areas where it was thought to do best. Similarly, inputs were supplied first to those areas where demand was greatest. KnOWledge of the new technology, in spite of extension efforts, varies more or less inversely to the distance from the 'National Agricultural Research Station at Kitale. The lakeshore areas of Zone 3, therefore, combine a number of features disadvantageous to the adoption of the new technology: lower altitude and rainfall; greater -variability in rainfall, poorer soils and drainage, poorer roads and input availability, lower levels of extension and farmer training, greater distance from the key research center and from input outlets. and a later introduction of hybrid varieties in the.first place. s Agroclimatic conditions. then. are confounded by differing levels of general development and services. More• over. the cash crop opportunities in Zone 3 (cotton. groundnuts, sugar) are generally not as lucrative as those in Zones 1 and 2 (tea, coffee, pyrethrum, dairy. bananas). Cash incomes from the farm are therefore much lower, and the corresponding interest in farming as a way of earning a living can be logically expected to be less. Another problem is the fact that the cash crops in Zone 3 are more seasonal than those (except coffee) in Zones 1 and 2, which means that they provide a less steady source of cash income with which commercial inputs can be bought. Because of the lag between harvesting (from August to Octo• ber) and planting (in February-March) of the long-rains maize crop, ready cash is not easily available for purchasing inputs for those farmers without access to credit.Another factor closely related to agroclimatic zone is ethnic composition or tribe. Tribal boundaries in Kenya. with few exceptions, are well delineated and often conform closely to geographical features. This is especially true in the region around Lake Victoria in Kenya, where the Kisii hills and Nandi escarpment mark a sharp boundary between the Luo-speaking people of the lakeshore and the Bantu and Kalenjin-speaking peoples of the highest eleva• tions. Only on the boundary between the Luo and ~Yia tribes north of the lake is there anything like a graljual c transition. And only in the formerly European-occupied districts of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia, where hybrid adoption is virtually 100 percent. are these substantial numbers of farmers from a variety of tribal backgrounds. The result of this situation is that tribe and agroclimatic zone are inextricably confounded. For example. there were only three Luo farmers in the sample outside Zone 3 and ten non•Luo farmers in Zone 3. These 13 farmers behaved as the majority of farmers in their zone rather than as farmers from their tribe in other zones. I have not, therefore;foond it possible to distinguish tribe as a separate explanatory variable. While not in any sense ignoring the importance of cultural and ethnic factors in determining responses to change, I would defend this conclusion in this particular case on the grounds that, whereas the Luo tribe make up the overwhelming proportion of farmers in Zone 3, a wide variety of tribes in Zones 1 and 2. including those more closely related to the Nilotic Luo than to the Bantuspeaking peoples, have responded to the favorable conditions for adoption hybrid maize. Within Zones 1 and 2, there Ytere no significant differences in adoption by tribe.In the colonial period. the lower level of agricultural development in the lakeshore region was attributed primarily to \"people problems.\" Typical of the colonial view were the wr'tings of Elsepth Huxley, the historian of and apologist for the white settlers in Kenya. In her book, The New Earth, published in 1960. Huxley entitled a chapter \"The Reluctant LUO.\"6 \"Their obstinacy is Ie• gendary,\" she reported. \"they are inclined to be sullen and suspicious.... Faintly Teutonic in an African fashion ... [!]. It is not surprising that of all the major Kenya peoples, leaving aside the Masai, the luo have put up the stiffest resistance to the forward march of Progress in the agricultural field.\" Similar, though less extreme, views were expressed by Fearn, de Wilde, Ruthenberg, and a variety of government reports, most of which complained of the reluctance of the luo to adopt practices recommend• ed by the agricultural services. 7 These opinions have recently been soundly rebutted by Margaret Jean Hay in an excellent study of the economic history of Kowe, a sub•location in Central Nyanza (now in Kisumu Districtl,from 1'890 ta\"1945~8 --fnlOoking-at the Luo responses to a wide variety of innovations (white maize, cotton, cassava, farm-implements,-'education, trading) she concludes that \"far-reaching changes\" took place in the luo economy during this period and that programs which were rejected \"didn'ot represenftheoptimal at: location of land and labor resources.',9 In general, she says, \"the agricultural potential of the area has been exaggerated byoutsiders who hoped to develop it.\" A survey of Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture from 1906 to 1959 showed only 12 years in which droughts, floods, or poorly distributed rains were not cited by agricultural officers.! 0 Although colonial officials were important in introducing crops to the area, they were less significant in winning acceptance of them. Introduction often involved coercion, forced labor on demonstration plots, low prices, and conflicting recommendations. The poor acceptance of cotton, for example, introduced by John Ainsworth near Kisumu in 1906-07, has been often cited as evidence of luo backwardness. As Hay points out, however, cotton faced a 50 percent price drop between 1910 and 1914 and again after it was reintroduced in the 19205 and 19305. Moreover, the heavy labor demands of cotton conflicted sharply with the Luo food crop cycle. In spite of these problems, the Director of Agriculture noted in 1930 that \"the failure of the natives to accustom themselves to market fluctuations\" had retarded prL.~uction.l 1  Hay contrasts the response to cotton with that to maize, which spread steadily after its introduction in 1917, probably by one H.H. Holden, a Luo-speaking West Indian employed by the Department of Agriculture. The new maize was called Drobi (after Nairobi) or ababavu (\"a great thing\") because it was larger than existing varieties. It required little adjustment in techniques of planting or preparation, although it did not really become widespread until after the introduction of a complementary innovation, the hand gristmill, about 1929-when it could readily replace the easier to grind sorghum as a flour staple. White maize was also reputed to give higher yields and made a preferred white flour.! 2 Also readily accepted were cassava, especially after the famines of 1918•19 and the locust invasion of 1931-32, and groundnuts, introduced in 1913-14 and again in the 19205.After 1930, Hay found, famines in 1931•32 and 1943-44, the collapse of cotton prices during the depression, the discovery of gold nearby, and eventually the labor demands of World War II drew men off the land. labor migration and local trade became important as sources of cash income. These plus increasing population pressure, shorter fallow periods, and soil exhaustion led to a \"gradual de-emphasis of the agricultural sphere within the economy as a whole:,13 By 1945 labor migration was an accepted pattern. Although the colonial administrators took the failurp of cotton compaigns and soil conservation measures as proof of a retrograde traditionalism among the Luo, Hay concludes that the de-emphasis of agriculture in favor of out-migration to work and engagement in trading op-pOrtunities was a rational response to their conditions. Moreover, the colonial view ignored the successful adop' tion of other agriCUltural innovations, ones which either in• creased economic security (such as groundnuts and cassava) or reduced labor expenditure fsuch as gristmills and plows).From the evidence of the 1973 survey we can conclude that agroclimatic zone is the most important factor in determining the adoption or non•adoption of hybrid maize seed in western Kenya. Although hybrid maize has done well on some farms in the lakeshore zone, evidence from fertilizer control plots indicates that hybrid varieties yield substantially less in the lakeshore districts thf' in the higher rainfall zones. This conforms with other ~ata from variety trials which indicate that the relative ad~ntage of hybrids over local varieties also declines with an index of environmental conditions (Chapter III).Further suspicion about the relative performance of hybrid versus local maize is aroused by the responses of farmers in Zone 3 when asked why they did not plant hybrids (Table 9) and by the large difference between farmers in Zone 3 who had ever planted hybrid (33 per• cent) and those who were planting it in 1973 (16 percent) (Figure 6). Farmers in Zone 3 have also suffered from lower levels of extension services and farmer training, more difficult access to inputs, poorer communications, less well-organized marketing facilities, and a later introduc• tion of the new varieties. 14 Moreover, Hay's historial study shows that the Luos, the major ethnic group in Z0T!e 3, have readily adopted other agricultural innovations which either increased economic security or reduced labor expenditures. The record she-presents of periodic famines and irregular rainfall in luoland indicates that risk-aversion may be important in the way the Luos observe the new maize. Just how important we will see in the following section.The theoretical basis for including risk as an independent variables has been presented. A dummy variable-whether or not the farmer planted drought-resistant but otherwise less desirable \"famine\" crops-was created as a proxy for the farmer's perception of the risk of not getting a maize \"Risk\" was also negatively correlated with adoption in each of the three zones taken separately: crop. The \"famine\" crops used in the dummy variable were sorghum, bulrush millet, cassava, and groundnuts. The hypothesis was that farmers who include \"famine\" crops in their crop mix will be less willing to invest cash resources in the purchase of hybrid seed and complementary inputs. The dummy variable \"risk\" was negatively cor• related with adoption (-0.54) which was significant at the 0.001 level. Crosstabulated with adoption, the risk proxy gave a chi-square value of 24.82 which is also significant at the 0.001 level. I 5Chi-square values for the crosstabulation of risk and adop' tion were also significant (at the 0.01 level) for Zones 2 and 3, though not for Zone 1.Because risk was also correlated with zone (r =-0.501. however, it was included both with and without zone in the probit analysis. When included with zone (equation 1), risk had a coefficient of -1.41 and zone, 2.09. Without risk in the equation, the coefficient of zone was 2.32. In spite of this multicollinearity, risk added significantly to the equation (the chi•square value increased from 185 to 203) and risk was therefore retained as a variable in most of the equations. Because zone is so important as an explanatory variable, the alternative of running risk without zone in the equations was discarded. (When this was tried, the chi-square value dropped to 1191.To get a better idea of the importance of risk perception as an influence on adoption, we can substitute representative values for the independent variables in equation 1.Setting the independent variables at their mean, we find that, if a farmer in Zones 1 or 2 grows famine crops, his probability of adoption is reduced from 97 percent to 71 percent. If a farmer in Zone 3 (Table 16) grows famine crops, his probability of adoption falls from 25.2 percent to 0.2 percent.From the analysis we can conclude that the farmer's perception of risk, as measured by the planting of \"famine\" crops, is an important negative influence on adoption. What we do not know is whether this reluctance is due to the fact that hybrids per se are less reliable than local varieties, or whether, in the presence of considerable doubt about whether he will get a maize crop, the farmer is unwilling to pay cash for commercial inputs. A possible genetic explanation for the former case might be that the ADOPTION AND \"RISK\" Adoption and Farm Size and contrasts this with the conventional wisdom:The new technology is basically biological and chemical rather than mechanical in nature. Therefore, the new [High Yielding Varieties} did not give rise to such an economy of scale as to place the small farmer in a substantially disadvantageous position as compared to big farmers. 19   Most of the studies of the Green Revolution in Asia and elsewhere have paid particular attention to the impor~nce of farm size in determining the adoption of new technologies. Gotsch, Falcon, and others have argued that the new agricultural technologies have increased income inequalities because larger, wealthier farmers have enjoyed economies of scale in production and have had easier access to seeds, fertilizers, and, particularly, complementary inputs of tractors and irrigation. 16 More recently, Harrison and others have argued that economies of scale are not signifi• cant in LOC agriculture and are often offset by more intensive input use on smaller farms. I 7 Lowdermilk, in his Pakistan study, claims that there is \"no conclusive evidence that farm size itself is of major importance\" in the adoption of high yielding varieties, and quotes several studies from India which found size of little importance in determining adoption. 18 He quotes Dr. S.R. Sen on the subject as follows:local varieties of maize stem originally from lowland tropical varieties imported at an early stage by the Portuguese from the Caribbean and Brazilian coasts whereas the hybrids developed at Kitale stem primarily from a cross of a settlerselected plateau variety with an imported Latin American highland varie:y. The theory here would be that local varieties are more tolerant of heat and humidity than the cooler highland cross. It is certainly true that the higher the altitude, the longer growing season a variety requires.My own opinion, however, is that given a basic doubt about getting a maize crop at all, farmers are reluctant to pay cash for commercial inputs. Because of better selection, production, storage, dressing, and handling, hybrid seed is, if anything, probably more reliable in its germina• tion than local seed. The distinction is an important one. In either case, the development of varieties specifically suited to the lakeshore zone is probably essential if widespread hybrid use is to be achieved. But if a reluctance to purchase commercial inputs is the problem the development of a synthetic or compositive variety (in which the seeds can be used for planting year after year) may in fact be necessary. And, finally, until and unless a reliable lakeshore maize variety is developed, farmers should certainly not be discouraged from planting drought-resistant cr<:J:>s.Much greater research emphasis should be devoted to Unproving the yields and the nutritional value of such crop~as sorghum, millet, and cassava. In the present study, farm size was not found to be significantly related to adoption in any of the probit equations, either in individual zones or in the sample taken as a whole. In equation 1, even a ten acre increase in farm size (almost 100 percent of the av~rage farm size) would have increased the \"average\" farmer's probability of adoption by only 3 percent. Although the mean farm size of adopters was larger than that of non-adopters in each zone, these differences were not statistically significant except in the entire weighted sample where the generally smaller farm sizes in Zone 3 made the size difference significant at the 0.001 level? IIt was hypothesized that adoption of hybrid maize seed would be positively associated with the presence of cash crops on the farm. The theoretical basis for this hypothesis is twofold: first, that the presence of a cash income would offset the risk of experimenting with a new food crop, and, second, that the availability of cash from the sale of cash crops would facilitate the purchase of the necessary inputs. In the analysis, a variable \"cash\" was created by multiplying the acreage of each major cash crop (coffee, tea, pyrenthrum, bananas, sugar, wheat, and cotton) by an \"average\" estimated gross margin for that crop. 2 2 To this was added a figure for dairy production (the number of grade cattle times an average estimated net return per cow) and for marketed maize (the number of bags sold times an estimated net of 25 shillings a bag), since maize itself is the most important cash crop in Zone 2. Although there are obvious difficulties in using an \"average\" return since variations in yield are substantial between farms (the best farmers often getting double the average yield), nevertheless, this variable gives a rough measure of the cash income accruing to each farm from sales of farm produce. Sales of minor cash crops (groundnuts, passion fruit, wattle) would constitute 8 small fraction of total farm income. The values of the \"cash\" variable for the different zones are shown in Table 18. Although these are only imputed cash incomes and are not based on actual marketed farm produce, they do reveal the substantial difference between cash incomes in Zones 1 and 2 and those in Zone 3, where both the number and value of cash crops present are more limited.The sharp difference in the \"cash\" variable between adopters and non-adopters of hybrid seed lends strong support to the hypt>thesis that income from cash crops is associated with adoption (Table 29). In each case, the imputed income from cash crops was very much higher for adopters than for non-adopters and these differences were significant except in Zone 1. In the probit analysis, \"cash\" was significantly and positively related to adoption in the sample taken as a whole. For the hypothetical \"average\" farmer, an additional thousand shillings of imputed cash income would increase the probability of adoption from 76 percent to 82 percent (equation 1). In Zone 3, \"cash\" was significantly related to adoption at a 0.10 level for a one•tailed test. A thousand shillings of \"cash\" would increase the probability of adoption of an \"average\" farmer in Zone 3 not growing famine crops from 21 percent to 31 percent. We may conclude from the analysis that the presence of cash crops on the farm, itself a measure of the farmer's involvement in the monetary economy, greatly facilitates the adoption of the new technology. Marvin Mirac~has argued persuasively that the term \"subsistence agriculn.te,\" defined by some given percentage of farm producti~n which is marketed, is not a particularly useful way of classifying small-scale farmers. 23 More appropriate measures, he feels, relate to the decision-making environment of the small farmer, including degree of isolation, level of living, commitment to agriculture, security of tenure, labor availability, and other factors. While we may agree that \"subsistence\" as a term has been used so broadly as to be virtually meaningless, nevertheless, at the bottom end of the market-subsistence continuum, the presence of crops grown specifically for sale is an important influence on farm behavior.Like cash crops, availability of credit was hypothesized to be positively related to adoption of the new technology. The reasons for this are obvious. As Ronald McKinnon has written,24  Poverty and the inability to borrow to finance discrete increases in expenditures can be formidable barrie~to the adoption of even the simplest and m05t productive innovations.In spite of the high \"divisibility\" of hybrid seed itself, the recommended package of seed, fertilizer, and insecticides can represent a substantial cash outlay for a farmer with a small net income. This is no doubt part of the reason why the use of fertilizer (49 percent) and insecticide (13 per• cent) lagged substantially behind the use of hybrid seed (67 percent) in the sample as a whole and particularly in the small farm areas (Zones 1 and 3). The fact that fertili• zer is less profitable than hybrid seed is obviously also important.In the 1973 survey, a farmers were asked whether or not credit was available in their area, but for fear of biasing the responses were not asked directly whether or not they used outside credit sources themselves. The percentages of farmers reporting that credit was available, and the sources of credit reported are shown in Table 20. Interestingly, no farmer cited either stockists or commercial banks as sources of credit, testimony to the poorly developed nature of private lending institutions in the rural areas.Although we can safely assume that farmers who were not aware of credit did not avail themselves of it, we cannot be certain that farmers who felt it was available either used it or required it. Nevertheless, knowledge of credit availability was highly significant (at greater than the 0.01 level) in the probit analysis, even when included with variables such as education, cash, and farm size, with which it might be expected to be correlated. For the hypothetical \"average\" farmer in the sample taken as a whole, for example, knOWledge of credit availability increased the probability of adoption from 77 percent to 96 percent. When crosstabulated with adoption, knowledge of credit availability was significantly related to adoption in all zones except Zone 1 (Table 21).The peculiar response in Zone'l is due to the presence of only four non•adopters and is not significant. Although it is tempting to draw grandiose conclusions from the high level of significance in Zone 3, namely, that lack of credit is a major barrier to adoption, my view is that 38 In this case we would certainly expect adopters to be aware of the available sources of credit to a degree unmatched by non-adopters. In fact, GMR credit is given only to those m~ize farmer~who grfw hybrid maize. Some support for thiS explanation mayf ound in Moack's study of maize yields in Vihiga. 2 S ~e found that farmers receiving credit were invariably riclier and better farmers than average and that credit per se was not euential to the operations of those who received it, nor was it significantly related in a multivariate analysis to obtaining higher yields. This, of course, does not say anything about the possibility that I«k of credit is in fact a very real constraint to farmers at the bottom end of the scale. It is merely evidence of the fact that farmers who can get credit generally do not need it.The influence of labor migration on the adoption of farm practices has long interested social scientists. Rogers reo ports that innovators are more \"cosmopolite\" in that they travel widely beyond the boundaries of their local system. He records 132 studies (including the classic Ryan and Gross sutdy of Iowa farmers) which support a relation• ship between \"cosmopoliteness\" and innovativeness and h I • h' 26 only 42 which do not support suc a re atlOns Ip.Miracle points out that the nature of off-farm activities is important:Farmers who work elsewhere in agricu/ture-especially those working on farms much like their own except that a higher level of produc• tivity has been achieved-are more likely to adopt innovations than are those whose wage experience is in mining or manufactur• ing. The spread of plows and improved varieties of maize among smallcale African farme~in Rhodesia. Zambia. Kenya and the Malagasy Republic seems clearly to have been encouraged by the , I 27work experiences on farms operated by white sett e~. De Wilde points out that the Luos, unlike the Kikuyu, did not find European farming areas in which they could work nearby and that, although many Luos have worked on tea plantations in Kericho, this employment had little relevance to the agriculture of Central Nyanza. While reporting the conventional view that \"progressive farmers are often those whose receptivity to change has been enhanced by their work experience,\" he also points out wisely that \"the extent to which people return to their farms for the purpose of earning a living, rather than of simply retiring, tends to depend on the relative attractiveness of agricul• tural opportunities in the district, on the one hand, and of job opoortunities outside the district, on the other.\"28 Off•;rm work experience is generally thought to be positively related to technological change because (1) it provides an outside source of capital to finance necessary Inputs, (2) it widens the horizons of the farmer and increases his desire for a better standard of living, and/or (3) it provides the farmer with work experience directly relevant to his own farming situation. The percentages of farmers with present or former off•farm employment is seen in Table 22. When crosstabulated with adoption, however, neither \"job\" :.or \"work\" had significant chisquare values for any zone. In the probit analysis, \"job\" was positively but not significantly related to adoption. Having previous off-farm work experience, however, was negatively (and significantly) associated with adoption in both Zone 3 and the sample as a whole. Even more sur• prising, having worked on a large, .commercial farm was negatively associated with adoption (also at significant levels in the sample taken as a whole.) This is partly ex• plained in the case of Zone 3 by the fact that 61 percent of these farmers had worked on plantations where sisal, sugar cane, or tea rather than maize was the major crop. In Zones 1 and 2, however, almost half had worked on farms where maize itself was the most important crop.In spite of the intuitive reasoning (and in some cases historical evidence) for the importance of work experience, the 1973 hybrid maize study found no statistical evidence to support a positive relationship between previous work experience and adoption per se. The reasons for this are probably twofold. First, farm owners presently away from their farms have neither the time nor the interest to devote to farming because farmmg in general does not pay better than modern sector employment. Moreover, In these cases the farm deciSion-making is often not clearlY allocated between husband and wife; the husband usually retains the \"spending\" authority while the wife actually does the work. In these circumstances it is difficult to make timely purchases and application of inputs. 29 St'• condly, long-term reSidence outside the area (such as IS typical of many farmers in Zones 1 and 3 who have work• ed in the police, railways, and the like) is often in Moock's terms, \"a liability in the acquisition of relevant agriCUltural knowledge.\" Joyce Moock found in Maragol i that farm heads employed off the farm are less likely to make investments at home in spite of their higher incomes. She concluded that \"the individual most likely to respond to local opportunities... is one [like a teacher] who is employed and who, at the same time, can live at home.,,3o We can conclude that the farmer's attitude toward farming and the profitability of farming in a given area are probably better indicators of progressiveness than work experience per se. That this is not always the case, however, will be seen in our analysis of early adoption.In this section we discuss the relationship oflsuch \"in• formation\" variables as formal education, exten$lOn visits, attendance at maize demonstrations, and attendance at Farmers Training Center courses to adoption. It is' hypo• thesized that all of these will be positively associated with it. Here we can also conveniently discuss age, which we hypothesized will be negatively associated with adoption, most likely because of its negative correlation with education (r = -0.34) as well as because of greater conservatism in older, more traditional farmers. In his summary of studies of early adopters, Rogers found that education (74 percent of the studies), change agent contact (87 percent of the studies), and exposure to mass media (69 percentl were positively related to early adoption, while age had no clear relationship. 31  In his Vihiga study Moock found formal education, extension visits, and attendance at demonstrations to be positively related to maize yields although only schooling was significant in all the equations at the 0.05 level.Differences among different types of extension contact, however, are of interest as a measure of extension effectiveness.Since one•to-one visits are of necessity more time consuming and more expensive than group techniques, it is more than of academic interest whether they show more concrete results.The mean values of the \"information\" variables in the survey are shown in Table 23. Farmers in Zone 3 on average are older, have less formal education, and receive markedly lower levels of extension contact than farmers in the other zones. Farmers in the large-farm sample, on the other hand, have considerably more formal education and much higher levels of extension contact. A difference of means test for age and education averages of adopters produced the results given in Table 24. Nonadopters were significantly older in Zones 1 and 2 and in the sample as a whole, but not in Zone 3, whereas adopters had significantly more formal education in Zone 3 and the sample as a whole but not in Zones 1 and 2. In all cases, however, the direction of the relationship was as hypothesized. 32 In the probit analysis, age was not significant in any equation, either in Zone 3 or in the sample as a whole, although it always had a negative sign. Its coefficients were uniformly low (an additional ten years of age decreasing the \"average\" farmer's probability of adoption by only about 2 percent) and it was left out of subsequent equations. Formal education was significantly and positively related to adoption in most equations, though generally not in the presence of \"credit.\" Its coefficient, however, was generally low. For an \"average\" farmer in Zone 3, for exacnple, ten years of education (a very large amount in Kenya) would increase the probability of adoption from roughly 2 percent to only 22 percent. We may conclude then that age and education, although related to adoption in ways consistent with the hypotheses, are not decisive influences in their own right in the presence of other, more specifically relevant variables.Turning to the extension variables, Table 25 shows the percentage of adopters and non-adopters in each zone receiving different types of extension contact. All three forms of extension contact were significantly different for adopters in Zone 3 but were not in Zones 1 and 2 because of the small numbers of non.adopters. Nevertheless, the direction of the relationships was as hypothesized in all cases.Again, however, a word of caution must be advanced about these findings aod the cause and effect relationship implied. Other studies (Chapter II) have found that extension workers' are predisposed toward visiting the better farmers and that actual farm visits are more often related to veterinary problems or cash crops than to food crops. likewise, farmers selected for F T.C. courses tend to be better, richer farmers. Since participation fees are usually charged, in fact, only the wealthier farmers are sometimes able to attend. Maize demonstrations, on the other hand, are open to all farmers in a given area and the farmer decides whether or not he will attend. Since the demonstration is aimed at imparting a particular message, it is logical to expect it to have a more direct impact on adoption. The fact that demonstration attendance was the only one of the three variables that was significant in more than one zone may give some support to this thesis. In the probit analysis, all three extension variables were positively related to adoption in all equations and at significant levels in some (Tables 15 and 16). Again, however, it is unclear whether the extension contacts are successful in promoting hybrid adoption or whether extension agents are merely visiting the more progressive farmers. Since the better far\"!ers obviously make more demands on the extension staff ~nd are probably more responsive to advice, it is not surprising that they receive the most extension contact.Efforts to relate fertilizer use per acre of maize to independent variables were singularly unsuccessful. In models containing all three zones only the dummy variable for Zone 3 showed appreciable levels of statistical significance, reflecting the differences between Zones 1 and 2 and Zone 3, manifested in Table 11. Again as in Table 11 farm size showed appreciable levels of significance.In general these models explain so small a part of the variation in fertilizer use that they offer little information over that contained in 'Table 11. Because of this they are A difference of means test for age and education averages of adopters produced the results given in Table 24. Nonadopters were significantly older in Zones 1 and 2 and in the sample as a whole, but not in Zone 3, whereas adopters had significantly more formal education in Zone 3 and the sample as a whole but not in Zones 1 and 2. In all cases, however, the direction of the relationship was as hypothesized. 32 In the probit analysis, age was not significant in any equation, either in Zone 3 or in the sample as a whole, although it always had a negative sign. Its coefficients were uniformly low (an additional ten years of age decreasing the \"average\" farmer's probability of adoption by only about 2 percent) and it was left out of subsequent equations. Formal education was significantly and positively related to adoption in most equations, though generally not in the presence of \"credit.\" Its coefficient, however, was generally low. For an \"average\" farmer in Zone 3, for exacnple, ten years of education (a very large amount in Kenya) would increase the probability of adoption from roughly 2 percent to only 22 percent. We may conclude then that age and education, although related to adoption in ways consistent with the hypotheses, are not decisive influences in their own right in the presence of other, more specifically relevant variables. Turning to the extension variables, Table 25 shows the percentage of adopters and non-adopters in each zone receiving different types of extension contact. All three forms of extension contact were significantly different for adopters in Zone 3 but were not in Zones 1 and 2 because of the small numbers of non-adopters. Nevertheless, the direction of the relationships was as hypothesized in all cases.Again, however, a word of caution must be advanced about these findings aad the cause and effect relationship implied. Other studies (Chapter II) have found that extension workers' are predisposed toward visiting the better farmers and that actual farm visits are more often related to veterinary problems or cash crops than to food crops. Likewise, farmers selected for F .T.C. courses tend to be better, richer farmers. Since participation fees are usually charged, in fact, only the wealthier farmers are sometimes able to attend. Maize demonstrations, on the other hand, are open to all farmers in a given area and the farmer decides whether or not he will attend. Since the demonstration is aimed at imparting a particular message, it is logical to expect it to have a more direct impact on adoption. The fact that demonstration attendance was the only one of the three variables that was significant in more than one zone may give some support to this thesis. In the probit analysis, all three extension variables were positively related to adoption in all equations and at significant levels in some (Tables 15 and 16). Again, however, it is unclear whether the extension contacts are successful in promoting hybrid adoption or whether extension agents are merely visiting the more progressive farmers. Since the better far\"!ers obviously make more demands on the extension staff ~nd are probably more responsive to advice, it is not surprising that they receive the most extension contact.Efforts to relate fertilizer use per acre of maize to independent variables were singularly unsuccessful. In models containing all three zones only the dummy variable for Zone 3 showed appreciable levels of statistical significance, reflecting the differences between Zones 1 and 2 and Zone 3, manifested in Table 11. Again as in Table 11 farm size showed appreciable levels of significance.In general these models explain so small a part of the variation in fertilizer use that they offer little information over that contained in Table 11. Because of this they are  puts on the characteristics of the innovator rather than the innovation. It is useful first, however, to characterize early (or earlier) adopters and to see whether this characterization corresponds to that of the adopter vis a vis the non-adopter.Rogers 33 has characterized early adopters &f innova-tions as having more education, higher social staius, larger units of operation, a commercial rather than a subsistence orientation, more specialized farm operations, and a favorable attitude towards credit. \"Laggards,\" on the other hand, have been characterized as being \"Iocalite\" in their outlook, past-oriented, suspicious, and \"alineated.\" In the bivariate analysis which follows, we have defined \"early\" adopters arbitrarily as those who first used hybrid seed more than one standard deviation in time before the mean year of adoption. In a normal distribution, this would be approximately the first 16 percent of adopters. The mean year of adoption and standard deviation by zones are reported in Table 26.In the multivariate analysis, the same variables used for the analysis of adoption in 1973 have been included, except that the dependent variable is the year of adoption subtracted from 1\"974 (so that 1973 equals 1,1972 equals 2, and so forth up to 1963, which equals 11). One qualifying point needs to be made here. Because we asked the farmer in what year did he first plant hybrid seed, we may be violating our definition of adoption as \"use of hybrid on Weighted Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Average not reported here. It should be emphasized that the absence of explanatory power might be a consequence of inaccurate estimation of the dependent variable pounds of nutrient per acre. Recall that this point was made earlier when it was acknowledged that the area of fields is only loosely known by most of the farmers of the sample. This reduces the reliability of any figure purporting to describe on a per acre basis.In this section we look at the characteristics of \"early\" adopters as opposed to those of adopters and non-adopters ten years after the innovation was first introduced. Concentrating on early adopters has been a popular focus in the diffusion study literature. Such a focus is, in fact, much more common than studies of \"mature\" adoption levels or ceilings for a variety of reasons. First, social scientists are often interested in deviant behavior, whether progressive or regressive, precisely because it is different. Second, the growing realization of the importance of entrepreneurial behavior in the development process has led us to seek to identify the innovating or achievement-oriented individual. Third, it has often been asserted that by working through early adopters of innovations we can influence and even accelerate the adoption process among the general population. And, fourth, because the year of adoption gives us a continous dependent variable, social scientists can avoid the methodological problems hitherto encountered with a simple dichotomous or binary dependent variable such as adoption and non-adoption. (For the same reason, the percentage of acreage planted to new varieties and an index of dissimilar innovations are also frequently encountered as dependent variables). As we shall discuss later, this preoccupation with early adoption per se has some limitations, not the least of which is the emphasis it at least 50 percent of maize acreage.\" It is logical to think that farmers first tried hybrid seed on less than their total maize acreage, although in 1973 only a tiny proportion of farmers were planting both hybrid and local varieties on the same farm. We also know that some farmers in Zone 3 tried hybrid seed in the past but were not using it in 1973. Since we do not have any way of knowing what percentage of maize acreage was planted to hybrids in the various first years of use, our definition of \"adoption\" in this section is not strictly comparable to that used when discussing adoption and non-adoption as of 1973. We have no a priori reason to believe, however, that farmers who first used hybrid seed are significantly different from those who first used hybrid seed on 5(f percent or more of their maize acreage. Table 27 gives the characteristics of \"early\" adopters (those adopting one standard deviation or more before the mean year of adoption). as compared with later adopters in the survey. Non•adopters have not been included in the analysis because of our belief that the difference be• tween non•adoption and adoption is of a different magni• tude, if not generically different, from the numerical'difference which would separate a non•adopter from a 1973 adopter in the dependent variable. Although these simple crosstabulations are almost all consistent with the hypothe• sized relationships, only farm size had a chi-square value significant at the 0.05 level. This is due primarily to the limited sample size of early adopters in each zone. In the sample taken as a whole, all the relationships Without exception are'in the direction anticipated. \"Early\" adopters had larger farms, more cash crop income, more extension contact, more work experience, were less likely to grow famine crops, and were more likely to have a primary education than later adopters. Interestingly, although work experience on a large farm was negatively associated with final levels of adoption, it was positively associated with early adoption (especially in Zone 2, where hybrids were first introduced). This is consistent with the view that hybrids were first used by many of those African farmers who had seen them being used on European mixed farms. The negative relation of large-farm work experience to early adoption in Zone 3 may in turn be due to the irrelevance of the plantation-type off•farm work experience (on sugar, tea, and sisal estates) of most of the farmers from that region to their own farming situation.In addition to the bivariate analysis of early adoption and other factors, multiple regression analysis of early adoption was carried out with year of adoption as the dependent variable. Table 28 shows the results.Farm size, agroclimatic zone, and imputed cash incOme were significantly related to adoption at the 0.10 level. In the absence of zone, farm size was significantly related to adoption at the 0.01 level. None of the other variables (extension contacts, work experience, etc.) were significant when included with zone and/or farm size. When the regression was limited to the three variables farm size, zone, and cash, the coefficients were essentially unchanged and all three were significant at the 0.05 level.Regression analysis was also carried out separately or. each of the zones with interesting results. Table 29 shows the results for Zone 1.Once again, farm size is the most significant variable, risk in negatively associated with early adoption, and age and education, while positive, have very small coefficients (ten years of education increasing the time of adoption by less than a year). Cash, interestingly, was not significant in the presence of farm size in this Zone. The only other independent variable which proved significant (at a 0.05 level) was attendance at a maize demonstration, which increased the earliness of adoption by more than a year (coefficient 1.064). Extension visits and attendance at Farmers Training Centers, while positive in sign, were not significant and had much smaller coefficients.In Zone 2 only two independent variables were significant• Iy related to adoption, both at the 0.10 level. These were farm size (coefficient 0.04) and work experience on a large, commercial farm (1.30), The latter is especially Interesting since it supports the view, discussed earlier, that hybrids were first used by those who had seen them sizes are quite uniform, was it not the most important explanatory variable and there another possible proxy for general wealth (cash income) was the most important variable. 34 . Without stretching the analysis more than it will bear, this differing significance of farm size may have an im• portant (and, I think, hopeful) implication about the adoption process.For if genuine economies ff scale were involved in determining which farmers adopt lhe new c technology, one would expect that farm size, as cfh inde• pendent variable, would retain its importance with the passage of time. Instead, we find that, although farm size was significant in determining which farmers adopt first, it was not significant in determining \"mature\" levels of adoption. This supports the hypothesis that the ability to absorb or tolerate risk is important in the adoption process. Because they are risking a smaller portion of their total assets on a given investment, the larger farmers (or those with siqnificant cash incomes) are able to tryout the .new technology without endangering their overall security.Where, as in Zones 1 and 2, the new technology proves not to invvlve significant risks, it is then rapidly adopted by farmers of all categories. Where, as in Zone 3, significant doubts about the efficacy of the new technology remain, risk perception and ability to absorb risk (as measured by on European farms. This is especially likely to be the case in Zone 2, where the former European farms are located and where both the mix of crops and general ecological conditions would be similar between European and African farms. The seemingly contradictory fact that large•farm work experience was negatively related to final levels of adoption in the probit analysis is due perhaps to the fact that (a) the large•farm work experience of farmers in Zone 3 was not closely related to their home farm conditions and (b) large•farm work experience may have. in many cases, actually preceeded the introduction of hybrid maize. When the sample was restricted, then, to adopters and to farmers in Zone 2, it makes more sense that such experience would be positively related to early adoption. (When a regression on early adoption was run on the very large•scale farmers themselves (Set 4], work experience on a large commercial farm was the only variable that proved significant).In the analysis of early adoption in Zone 3, the only variable which proved significant at a 0.01 level was im• puted cash income (coefficient 0.44, that is to say, a thousand shillings of cash crop income would increase the earliness of adoption by almost a half year). Farm sizes were fairly uniform in this zone and were not, therefore, a particularly good measure of variations in income or ability to absorb risk. Moreover, since this sample included adopters only. farmers growing famine crops were virtually entirely excluded and \"risk\" as such was not as important a factor in the earliness of adoption as it had been in deter• mining adoption per se. The importance of cash crops, whether as a protection against risk or simply as a source of money with which to buy the necessary inputs, is strongly reinforced by this result.The only other variable besides imputed cash income which proved significant in Zone 3 (though at only a 0.10 level) was large•farm work experience, which had a coef• ficient of-1.61, that is such experience on average delayed adoption by more than a year and a half. Again, this may be due to the irrelevance of the plantation-type experience of most of the Zone 3 farmers to their own farming conditions or to the fact that this experience took place before hybrids were introduced.In sum then, there are at least two noticeable dif• ferences between factors affecting early adoption and factors affecting adoption per se. One of these-work experience on a large commercial farm-has already been discussed and, on closer examination, has been found to relate to the particular relevance of the work experience to the farmer's own farm situation (strongly positive in Zone 2 and strongly negative in Zone 3). The other interesting difference is the role of farm size, which was not significant in the analysis of adoption per se, but proved to be the most significant single variable influencing early adoption, even controlling for differences in farm size between zones. In one or more equations, farm size was significant at the 0.01 level in both Zones 1 and 2 and in the sample as a whole. Only in Zone 3, where farm imputed cash income) continue to be important in determining who adopts. Although work experience (in Zone 2) and attendance at maize demonstrations (in Zone 1) were both important, as we might expect in influencing early adoption, their importance declined as the new technology became widely known. Other \"informational\" variables (knowledge of credit availability, extension visits, and attendance at Farmers Training Centers), although positively related to adoption, may not be entirely causally related for institutional reasons we have already mentioned.These conclusions are consistent with the historical process of hybrid maize diffusion as we \"now it. The new technology as introduced first on European farms in Zone 2 and spread first to African farms in the same area, presumably because many of their owners worked on the European farms. Intensive maize demonstration campaigns by the Ministry of Agriculture, especially in such Zone 1 districts as Kakamega, Kericho; and Kisii, quickly spread the new varieties to these areas. Adoption in the lakeshore districts of Zone 3 lagged behind because the new technology was riskier, appeared to have a smaller relative advantage over local varieties, because employment experience on large mixed farms (as opposed to plantations) was less, and because levels of all types of extension contact were lower. In the face of greater climatic insecurity, drought-resistant famine crops continued to hold an important place in the farmers' mix of staple food crops.Having looked both at early adoption and at \"mature\" levels of adoption ten years after hybrid maize technology was first introduced, we can now ask what important effects early (as opposed to later) adoption may have had.Although we are inevitably interested in the nature of the innovators who adopted the new technology first, it can be argued in this case at least, that early adoption patterns are ultimately less important than \"mature\" adoption patterns for those concerned about economic progress and income distribution. 3S Every society may be presumed to have some proportion of relatively more innovative individuals, who, for reasons of achievement motivation, intellectual satisfaction, scientific pr~dilection, or simply better access to new information are willing to try out new ideas and technologies. The absolute number (or proportion) of these individuals may be of some importance depending on externalities involved in the particular innovation, but in most cases an adequate number will exist. It may even be fortunate that a majority of society's members are not in this category since innovations often prove unprofitable. By bearing the risks of experimentation for a larger society, the innovator may prevent widespread losses or may direct attention to improvements in the innovation necessary 44 for its wider acceptance. Because we too often tend to think of innovations as being uniformly advantageous, this positive aspect of differential innovation is often ignored.What is much more important than who adopts an innovation first is who is ultimately unable to adopt it and why. llnless early adoption of an innovation by a minority precludes subsequent adoption by others, final or mature ceilings of adoption will affect levels of welfare and income distribution more profoundly than relatively modest differences in the time of adoption. There are obviously cases in which early adoption of an innovation by one segment of the population results in long-term differentials in income distribution or political power. Those areas of Kenya which had planted coffee before the introduction of coffee quotas, for example, have achieved a significant long-term income advantage over the other areas. We have already mentioned an Ethiopi3n case in which adoption of high yielding wheat varieties has greatly increased land values resulting in the expulsion of an estimated 5,000 tenant farmer families from the land by landlords. 36 There is also evidence from parts of Asia that, where economies of scale in wheat production are joined with an active land market, early adopters of new grain varieties have used their profits to buyout sm1'er landowners, thereby worsening income distribution.Fortunately, however, for a variety of reasons, fhis does not appear to be the case with hybrid maize-in Kenya. First, it is questionable whether there are significant economies of scale at work in Kenyan maize production. Although mechanized plowing permits earlier planting and consequently higher yields, this advantage is at least partly offset by more intensive weeding and more careful harvesting and drying on smaller holdings. Second-Iy, the technology itself is highly divisible and not particularly complex. Thirdly, sharecropping and tenant farming are virtually unknown in Kenya and tenure is overwhelmingly (de facto if not de jure) under individual title. Fourthly, the govemment has maintained a guaranteed minimum price for maize for any given year, which has generally (though not always) protected the producer from sudden drops in the market which would undercut continued expansion of the new \\larieties. Fifthly, although the buying and selling of land is increasing in frequency in Kenya, this is primarily in the formerly Scheduled (European-owned) are.. land in the traditional African areas does not change hands easily and it is unlikely that those land purchases whiM are taking place today are being made by early hybrid adopters from their profits on hybrid. maize. Adoption in the high rainfall maize growing areas has been exceedingly rapid (faster than among American farmers in the 19305) with the result that the advantages of early adoption per se have been relatively short lived. In fact, early adoption by some farmers has facilitated rather than hindered subsequent adoption by others, both by reducing the perceived risks of the new technology in the high rainfall areas and by stimulating improved availability of seeds and fertilizers. Althouqh there were local problems of oversupply In 1972 and 1973, this is likely to be a temporary problem until export handling and storage facill' ties are improved Given penodic droughts In Africa and elsewhere and rapid population growth, overproduction of maize'is not a serious threat to continued hybrid expansIOn.We can conclude from this discussion that differences in time of adoption per se have not significantly worsened income distribution in the hybrid growing areas of western Kenya. If one wants to generalize about the effects of the diffusion of innovations on Income distribution, a useful distinction can be made between those innovations which we might call \"preclusive\" whose adoption by some indivi• duals precludes either directly (through monopolies or quotas) or indirectly (through market effects) subsequent adoption by others and those innovations which we might call \"facilitative\" whose adoption by some individuals faci-Iitates adoption by others. I f coffee planting under quota conditions is an example of the former, hybrid maize is fortunately an example of the latter. The very rapidity of the adoption process in the high rainfall of western Kenya is testimony to the fact that early adoption by some has not prevented the benefits of hybrid maize from being shared by many.Far more senous problems are presented by those who have not adopted hybrid technology ten years after its introduction. Without implying that further increases in hybrid use will not still take place, real doubts must nevertheless be raised about the suitability of present hybrid technology for the lakeshore areas. Whether for reasons of lower relative yield advantage. lower reliability. inability to finance cash purchases, lower levels of services. or more likely, a combination of all these, a substantial number of farmers In Zone 3 have tried but later discarded hybnd seed. Given this fact and the generally low level of hybrid use (15 percent) in that zone, this must be regarded as a problem of conscious non-adoption rather than mere \"lag• gardness.\" As discussed earlier, further research and a• daptation and possible introduction of composite or syn• thetic varieties may be required to overcome this problem. Special action may also be needed to reach the remain• ing non-adopters in the high rainfall areas, though as we have seen in Chapter II, achieving this through government programs is not always easy. In the end, the \"non-adoption\" problem is serious be• cause it is essentially ecological and regional. As Griliches found in the U.S., hybrid corn was never fully adopted in those western fringes of l ' e high plains where corn could only reliably be grown under irrigation. This might also prove the case in the more marginal rainfall areas of Kenya where intrinsically drought•resistant grains will continue to dominate. If high•yielding maize varieties are ultimate• ly restricted to the high rainfall zones. this will obviously worsen relative income distribution on a regional basis. Even so, absolute levels of welfare will not be worsened by hybrids since the non-maize growers would still benefit as consumers from a lower maize price than wOlfld obtain in the absence of hybrid expansion. But beca~se ethnic and ecological boundaries are closely related in 9<enya, a worsening income distribution on a regional basis is a dangerous prospect.Among the dualities of developed and developing nations. urban and rural sectors, and the like. the duality between high rainfall and low rainfall areas may yet prove the most difficult to solve. 5. Indicative of the problems in Zone 3 oS the fact that the 10VII incidence of hybrid usage was not fully appreciated before the 1973 survey.Following the preliminary results of the survey, the extension service and the Kenva Seed Company discussed revising their promotion strategies, the latter reportedlv assignIng a key sales agent to work in the lakeside area. A. Y. Allan, personal communication. February 1\" 1974.   In this chapter we will review our findings, first, in the light of the 1973 Kitale/CIMMYT Maize Survey results, and secondly, through our analysis of the Kenya maize industry. Finally, we will comment briefly on the implications of this study for an overall view of small-scale farmers and their responsiveness to change.In a period of only ten years, the use of hybrid maize varieties in Kenya has increased from an initial 400 acres to at least 800,000 acres, accounting for perhaps half the country's total production. In the high and medium potential areas west of the Rift Valley about two-thirds of small-scale African farmers had adopted hybrid seed by 1973, including up to 90 percent of the farmers in the higher altitude and rainfall zones. In the lower altitude, WisconSin for suggestong some of the ideas which follow. lower rainfall areas around Lake Victoria, however, adoption levels have been much lower, with twice as many farmers sampled (32.5 percent) reporting ever having planted hybrid maize as were planting it in 1973 (15.8 percent). Agroclimatic zone, as described in Chapter I, was found to be by far the most important variable in explaining adoption within the farmer sample taken as a whole. Lo• cation of the farm in a high rather than lower rainfall/altitude zones increased the likelihood of adoption ofIan otherwise\"average\" farmer from 18 to 87 percent. Kisii and then to the somewhat less densely popUlated but also high rainfall districts of Kericho and Nandi. Evidence from records of seed sales and from other, earlier farm• level surveys in the region support the picture obtained through farmers' recollections that the difffusion process proceeded quite steadily. at a rate somewhat more rapid than hybrid corn was adopted by American farmers thirty years earlier. Within agroclimatic zones, farmers of all ethnic groups and both sexes had adopted the new varieties to a comparable degree.The effect of farm size on adoption has changed marked• ly over time. In the multivariate analysis, farm size was not significantly related to adoption in 1973 in any of the agroclimatic zones or in the sample considered as a whole. In the bivariate analysis, farm size was also not significantly related to adoption in any of the agroclimatic zones, al• though-because of the larger farm sizes in Zone 2-it was related in the sample taken as a whole. Size of farm, however, was significantly related to the earliness of adoption in Zones 1 and 2 and in the entire sample, although the size of the coefficients was not extremely large (ten acres increasing the earliness of adoption by between 0.4 and 0.7 years). This relationship was though to be a function either of greater capacity on the part of larger farmers to take risks, and/or on the preferential treatment that large-scale farmers receive from the extension services. Because of the nature of the technology and the security of individual land tenure in Kenya, however, early adoption by larger farmers was probably more facilitative than preclusive of subsequent adoption by smaller farmers.Two other variables closely related to environmental conditions were found to be significantly related to hybrid maize adoption. The presence of drought-resistant crops in the farmer's crop mix, used as a proxy variable for risk perception, was strongly and negatively related to hybrid maize adoption in both the multivariate and bivariate analyses. I mputed income from cash crops, a rough measure of the quality as well as quantity of the farmer's land, was positively related to both earliness of adoption and to adoption per se in 1973. The imputed value of cash crops was particularly significant in the zone with the highest risk perception, indicating perhaps that ability to withstand risk is an important determinant of adoption where risk itself is perceived to be great. The presence of an offfarm source of income, another possible measure of ability to absorb risk, was positively but not significantly related to adoption.Other characterinics of the farmer and his farm environment which were found to be positively and significantly related to adoption included formal education, knowledge of credit, availability, and (in most cases) extension visits, attendance at Farmers Training Center courses, and attendance at maize demonstrations. The latter variable was significantly related to early adoption in Zone 1, where the greatest number of maize demonstrations took place in the mid-1960s. Distance to a source of inputs had to be rejected as an explanatory variable because very few nonadopters were able to give the distance correctly. However, average distance to a source o'f inputs were significantly greater in the zone with the lowest overall level of adoption. Previous work experience off the farm proved to be negatively and significantly related to adoption per se in most zones and in the sample taken as a whole. However, work experience on a large farm was positively and signifi, cantly related to early adoption in Zone 2, the large-scale farming area. Those with such experience adopted on average 1.3 years earlier than others in their area. other factors being equal. Farmers with large farm work experrience in Zone 3, who had worked mainly on sisal, sugar. and tea plantations. were. ceteris paribt4S. 1.6 years later in adopting hybrid maize.I n addition to looking at the adoption of hybrid maize seed, other components of the new tichnology were also investigated. Adoption of related practices ranged from 4 percent to 100 percent depending on the practice and zone involved. No clear differences were perceived between adoption of cultural practices and the use of physical inputs. In order of acceptance (in the weighted average of all three zones) the most widely accepted recommended practices were: planting in rows (75 percent), use of hybrid seed (67 percent). weeding more than once (63 percent).'\" \"\".'1 ... ;. , \" .\" planting pure stands (57 percent). use of commercial fertilizer (49 percent). use of insecticide on stored maize (46 percent), tbinning of plants (45 percent), planting \"before the rains\" (23 percent), using manure (23 percent), and using jOSfJC\"~in the field (13 percent). Percentages varied considerabty •.,however, by agroclimatic zone, and the definitions of What constituted \"acceptance\" of a recom• mendation of course varied, as did the probable importance of such inputs as insecticide and fertilizer in a given area. In spite of the wide variation in levels of adoption of individual recommendations, hybrid seed adopters had significantly much higher levels of adoption of related practices than non-adopters had. The only exception to thii principle was the thinning of young maize plants, whicte WIS more common among non-adopters. The strength of the relationships between hybrid seed adoption and tile adoPtiqnof other practices, indicates that the \"package\" approach of ~resenting hybrid as a new crop requiring new practices has been relatively successful. The persistence of such practjces as interplanting and later planting, however, indicates that closer study of farmers' labor patterns, food preferences. and risk aversion behavior is required. Because of the importance of early planting to obtaining higher yields, and the farmers' strong aversion to planting in advance of the rains, more work on early maturing varit ties and on small farm mechanization is needed.Why Have Hybrids Been Successful in Kenya?In describing the Kenyan maize industry and its history, we have tried to discover what factors have accounted for its relative success. It is of course difficult to say, on the basis of one case. which of these factors are peculiar to Kenya and which are generalizable to situations elsewhere. It is hoped that readers familiar with circumstances elsewhere will be able to discern for themselves which factors are likely to be relevant to a particular situation. If anything. thi.$ study shows how very site-specific agricultural technology is, even within one region of one (admittedly very•' diverse) country. For this reason, I have refrained from making broad generalizations about agricultural technology in developing countries. In this section, however, it may ~appropriate to speculate on some of the generalizable features of the Kenyan experience with hybrid maize.To begin with, Kenya is fortunate in possessing certain highland areas with good soils and reasonably reliable rainfall. Although these high potential areas occupy a very small part of the country's total area (7 percent in one estimate). they are nevertheless large enough to support a thriving agricultural industry (Chapter I). Similar, if not directly comparable, areas exist in most of the countries of the Eastern African plateau, including Ethiopia. Ugada, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, most of which, incidentally, import hybrid maize seed from Kenya. These high potential areas were largely responsible for the colonial farmers receive from the extension services. Because of the nature of the technology and the security of individual land tenure in Kenya, however, early adoption by larger farmers was probably more facilitative than preclusive of subsequent adoption by smaller farmers.Two other variables closely related to environmental conditions were found to be significantly related to hybrid maize adoption. The presence of drought-resistant crops in the farmer's crop mix, used as a proxy variable for risk perception, was strongly and negatively related to hybrid maize adoption in both the multivariate and bivariate analyses. I mputed income from cash crops, a rough measure of the quality as well as quantity of the farmer's land, was positively related to both earliness of adoption and to adoption per se in 1973. The imputed value of cash crops was particularly significant in the zone with the highest risk perception, indicating perhaps that ability to withstand risk is an important determinant of adoption where risk itself is perceived to be great. The presence of an offfarm source of income, another possible measure of ability to absorb risk, was positively but not significantly related to adoption.Other characterinics of the farmer and his farm environment which were found to be positively and significantly related to adoption included formal education, knowledge of credit, availability, and (in most cases) extension visits, attendance at Farmers Training Center courses, and attendance at maize demonstrations. The latter variable was significantly related to early adoption in Zone 1, where the greatest number of maize demonstrations took place in the mid-1960s. Distance to a source of inputs had to be rejected as an explanatory variable because very few nonadopters were able to give the distance correctly. However, average distance to a source o'f inputs were significantly greater in the zone with the lowest overall level of adoption. Previous work experience off the farm proved to be negatively and significantly related to adoption per se in most zones and in the sample taken as a whole. However, work experience on a large farm was positively and signifi, cantly related to early adoption in Zone 2, the large-scale farming area. Those with such experience adopted on average 1.3 years earlier than others in their area. other factors being equal. Farmers with large farm work experrience in Zone 3, who had worked mainly on sisal, sugar. and tea plantations. were. ceteris paribt4S. 1.6 years later in adopting hybrid maize.I n addition to looking at the adoption of hybrid maize seed, other components of the new tichnology were also investigated. Adoption of related practices ranged from 4 percent to 100 percent depending on the practice and zone involved. No clear differences were perceived between adoption of cultural practices and the use of physical inputs. In order of acceptance (in the weighted average of all three zones) the most widely accepted recommended practices were: planting in rows (75 percent), use of hybrid seed (67 percent). weeding more than once (63 percent).'\" \"\".'1 ... ;. , \" .\" planting pure stands (57 percent). use of commercial fertilizer (49 percent). use of insecticide on stored maize (46 percent), tbinning of plants (45 percent), planting \"before the rains\" (23 percent), using manure (23 percent), and using jOSfJC\"~in the field (13 percent). Percentages varied considerabty •.,however, by agroclimatic zone, and the definitions of What constituted \"acceptance\" of a recom• mendation of course varied, as did the probable importance of such inputs as insecticide and fertilizer in a given area. In spite of the wide variation in levels of adoption of individual recommendations, hybrid seed adopters had significantly much higher levels of adoption of related practices than non-adopters had. The only exception to thii principle was the thinning of young maize plants, whicte WIS more common among non-adopters. The strength of the relationships between hybrid seed adoption and tile adoPtiqnof other practices, indicates that the \"package\" approach of ~resenting hybrid as a new crop requiring new practices has been relatively successful. The persistence of such practjces as interplanting and later planting, however, indicates that closer study of farmers' labor patterns, food preferences. and risk aversion behavior is required. Because of the importance of early planting to obtaining higher yields, and the farmers' strong aversion to planting in advance of the rains, more work on early maturing varit ties and on small farm mechanization is needed.Why Have Hybrids Been Successful in Kenya?In describing the Kenyan maize industry and its history, we have tried to discover what factors have accounted for its relative success. It is of course difficult to say, on the basis of one case. which of these factors are peculiar to Kenya and which are generalizable to situations elsewhere. It is hoped that readers familiar with circumstances elsewhere will be able to discern for themselves which factors are likely to be relevant to a particular situation. If anything. thi.$ study shows how very site-specific agricultural technology is, even within one region of one (admittedly very•' diverse) country. For this reason, I have refrained from making broad generalizations about agricultural technology in developing countries. In this section, however, it may ~appropriate to speculate on some of the generalizable features of the Kenyan experience with hybrid maize.To begin with, Kenya is fortunate in possessing certain highland areas with good soils and reasonably reliable rainfall. Although these high potential areas occupy a very small part of the country's total area (7 percent in one estimate). they are nevertheless large enough to support a thriving agricultural industry (Chapter I). Similar, if not directly comparable, areas exist in most of the countries of the Eastern African plateau, including Ethiopia. Ugada, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi, most of which, incidentally, import hybrid maize seed from Kenya. These high potential areas were largely responsible for the colonial interest in Kenya, if not initially, at least once the Uganda Railway was completed in the early 1900s. That interest, in tum, was responsible for the construction of the rudi• ments of an agricultural industry-including a transport network, crop research, marketing boards, guaranteed pri• ces, and an extension service-which have been greatly in• creased and improved since Kenya's Independence in 1963. The development of Kenya Flat White maize, improved Pokot Rhodes grass, selected Kenya Boran Cattle, and other indigenous prodL: > represents the kind of basic agricultural research and .;cvelopment which can only take place over time. Perhaps more important, the agricultural success of the European farmers made farming appear profitable as an occupation worthy of investment and research. Having based its independence movement on the rights of the Kenyan people to the country's high potential land, it would have been surprising if the Kenya government had not made the continued development of its farming resources a major priority. The political power of African farmers, both large-scale and small-scale, ensures that agriculture continues to receive priority attention at the highest levels of government. This historical. phychological, and political experience is perhaps the most difficult part of the Kenyan case to duplicate elsewhere.Secondly, Kenya possesses all or most of the components deemed necessary to the successful development of new cereal varieties. As Hill and Hardin have written, \"the principal barrier to increased agricultural production in less developed countries is not the necessity of changing farmers' traditions, attitudes and customs but a problem of developing production technology capable of substantially increasing yields and making it possible and profitable for farmers to adopt it.... Adapted. high-yielding prowetion technology; ready access to critical off-farm inputs; and product! factor price relationships at the farm ...are critical ingredients in triggering an agricultural revolution: d That Kenya possesses the basic production technology for the high potential areas is beyond doubt. We have reviewed the reasons for its development in Chapter II: an already existing commercial maize sector that created the demand for the product; a systematic breeding and agronomic research program with close ties to the users of its product and to the extension services; quality staff and remarkable staff continuity; a locally based commercial production company ready to put the product into Widespread use; foreign, governmental, and producer-supplied financial support; and contacts with international research institutions. The Kenyan case is an excellent example of what Robert Evenson calls \"knowledge transfer\" rather than direct technology transfer: \"the higher the level of indigenous research activity the more productive is the regional reo search ...new varieties better suited to local regional conditions [are 1developed by crossing local varieties with international genetic material.,,2 It is not accidental that the Kenya maize research program came up with a very highyielding hybrid variety. Rather, the existence of a well-adapted local variety, a sound breeding program, and pre• selected analogous varieties from an international collec tion of genetic material made the discovery of the Kenyan hybrid varieties only a matter of time. There are few, if any, shortcuts for developing countries seeking to \"import\" the green revolution. As Griliches pointed out in the case of American hybrids, hybrid maize is not a single invention but a method for inventing corn varieties for specific local ities. There is no alternative to investing in local research capacity in individual countries in order to maximize the returns on the investments that have been made in international research institutions. In Kenya's own case, the need now is to move toward still more localized research activity, especially in agronomic work. More off-station research trials are needed to determine the constraints to adoption under smallholder farming conditions, including particularly trials conducted with inter-planting of other crops. Kenya has the core staff to direct such programs, but needs many more well-trained subsidiary staff to carry them out.The training and retention of well-qualified scientific staff 'continues to be a matter of high priority.The results of the present survey indicate the strong influence of risk and of agrolcimatic zone on adoption. More research on early-maturity, drought resistant varieties is needed if the expansion of acreage under improved varieties is to continue. I mproved varieties of sor~hum and millet are also needed for the drier areas and wor~on high• lysine maize needs to be accelerated. Because of its great ecological diversity, Kenya cannot assume that the breakthrough in high-yieldirlg late-maturing varieties has solved its food problems. Most Kenyans continue to grow all or almost all of their own food. If productivity is not improved in all farming areas. income inequalities between high and low potential areas will worsen, thereby exacerbating ethnic differences.After the production technology itself, the most im• portant ingredient in the Kenyan hybrid success story has probably been the commercial system of seed production and distribution. As Guy Hunter and others have written, different types of development institutions are necessary to different stages and levels of development. It is unwise to prescribe one type of institution for any and all development situations. Although many persons have advocated either state-run or cooperative-based input distribution systems for Kenya, the available evidence indicates that Kenya, at its present level of development, has been reasonably well served by the commercial sector both in seed multiplication and in distribution. In the former case, the most important factor has been the maintenance of quality in the product, without which hybrid utilization would not have continued to expand.Although the Kenya Seed Company enjoys a monopoly on seed sales in Kenya, Its vested interest in maintaining the reputation of hybrid maize and expanding its usage, plus government control of seed prices and the government inspection service for seeds have combined to prevent the kind of deterioration in product which has taken place in many countries under government run seed monopolies.The maintenance of a system based on hybrid, rather than synthetic, varieties, however, would not have been possible without a distribution system that could deliver new seed to the farmer each year. It is unlikely that a publ ic sector distribution system CQuid do this as effectively. By using establ ished wholesalers and selected private traders or stockists in the rural areas, the seed company is sharing overheads of distribution with literally hundreds of other inputs and consumer products. It has been estimated that while there is a health center for every 50,000 people in Kenya, there is a small store or duka for every 500. As we have seen, the population per registered stockist falls somewhere in between, ranging from 2,200 to 14,000 according to districts in western Kenya. Without establishing an enormous distribution network of its own, the government could not hope to distribute inputs el<cept through the private sector. Of course, cooperative socie• ties are often used for distribution where they are active, but functioning cooperatives are unevenly distributed around the country. It is the view of some authorities, moreover, that the slower uptake of improved maize varieties in central Kenya is due in part to the fact that cooperative societies playa larger role in input distribution in that area.The rapid expansion in hybrid seed sales over the past ten years would argue that the commercial distribution system has been demonstrably successful. It may be, however that the cost of hybrids makes them too expensive for farmers in the marginal areas to buy every year. For this reason, the early maturing Katumani varieties used in eastern Kenya have been produced as synthetics. Unless improved hybrids can be developed for the lakeshore districts of western Kenya, the development of a cheaper synthetic for that area may also prove necessary. Belshaw and Hall went so far as to recommend that a completely revised package of free synthetic-type seed plus recommended interplanting with (supposedly) nitrogen-fixing legumes be developed to avoid the necessity of purchasing any inputs at all.3 With Kenya's reasonably good transport system and a relatively well-developed retail system, however, it is not clear that the benefits of hybrid's higher yields need be sacrified. Even if hybrids yield only 10 percent more than the best composites and synthetics, a farmer (at the new price of 40/a bag) need only get yields over 5 bags an acre to make the 20/price of seed worthwhile. It has also been proposed that the governmnet eli• minate the KFA and other wholesalers as middlemen in order to reduce the cost of seed to the farmer. It is questionable whether the savings in seed cost would not be more than offset by delays in distribution under such a system. An incentive scheme giving discounts to stockists who order and take delivery of inputs before a certain date would probably be a better way of improving timely distribution, allowing earlier planting, and thereby increasing farmers' profits. A thorough study of fertil izer pricing, 50 subsides, and distribution IS beyond the scope of thiS thesis. We can only say that fertilizer usage is likely to increase in importance over time as soil fertility IS depleted. The favorable increases of the late 19605 in product/factor price relations have almost certainly been reversed in the last two years by world fertilizer inflation. The deleterious effects of this change on fertilizer utilization cannot yet be determined.A third important ingredient after technology development and input distribution has been the extension and training services of the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture. As much maligned as it has been in recent years for its fairly consistent bias toward large•scale farmers, the extension service has nevertheless conducted literally thousands of maize demonstrations, initially focusing on hybrid seed and more recently on fertilizer utilization with hybrid varieties. An agricultural journalist, visiting Kenya on behalf of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1972, reported that \"Kenya has the most effective extension service for reaching small farmers I have ever seen, and over the years I have seen a good many.',4 Although this view might surprise some observers in Kenya, it may not be far from the truth. In western Kenya, 35 percent of the farmers surveyed reported an extension visit in the past year, 25 percent had personally attended a maize demonstration, and al10st as many reported first hearing of hybrid from an exten~on agent as had heard about it through the usually far rn?re important interpersonal channels. In spite of these achievements, however, there is still much room for improvement in the extension services. Too many field staff are largely untrained (in spite of serious efforts at in-service training courses). Administrative back-up to field staff is almost non-existent; promotion policies are poor; and em• ployee morale is generally low. More use needs to be made of group extension techniques and more contact is needed between extension workers and research stations. More extension effort needs to be directed toward women farm• ers and toward farmers in the lakeshore districts which receive considerably lower levels of agricultural services.Contacts between research and extension staff need to be further improved. In spite of the relatively short distance across western Kenya, very few agricultural staff interviewed below the district level had ever visited the National AgriCUltural Research Station at Kitale. Farmers Training Centers are generally poorly staffed, run at low levels of capacity utilization, and are much too academic in their approach to farmers. In one case a visitor found farmers in a classroom being lectured on the dignity of farming while prisoners from a nearby jail tended the demonstration fields outside the classroom window. It is probably safe to say that the extension service, no matter how great its achievements, will always have considerable room for improvement.As for official sources of farm credit, because of minimum acreage restrictions, they have played little or no part in the diffusion of hybrid maize among small-scale farmers except possibly through a demonstration effect In some key areas Kenya, however, has had the good sense to experiment with various credit programs under its Special Rural Develop• .ment Program, and it is likely that improved smallholder credit schemes will be developed drawing on the lessons from that experience.At the very least, the stockist credit scheme should help to improve input availabilities in many areas and may result in the extension of some private c''!dit for maize inputs to local customers. The problem~recovery of loans or' a crop which can be sold anywhere; consumed on the farm, however, make individual credit for seasonal inputs difficult to extend on a broader basis. Although.credit has not played a major role in the adoption of hybrid seed to date, it will become in• creasingly important as fertilizer use increases over time. The importance of cash crop income as an explanatory variable in the analysis of adoption indicates that liquidity can be a problem for small•scale farmers entering the market economy for the first time.Finally, the role of the marketing system in promoting maize development must be recognized. Although it was founded to serve the interests of large-scale European commercial farmers, the guaranteed price system has been im• portant in setting a floor to protect all farmers against wide price fluctuations. The gradual improvement of storage facilities, moreover, has given the country a strategic storage capacity great enough to protect it against the shortages which have periodically plagued the market in the past. The recent increase in world prices to a level comfortably above export parity has removed the problem of exporting at a loss just at the time when hybrid production has placed Kenya in a long-term surplus position. This is a prospect that few African countries can envisage in the near future Notes 1. F.F. Hill and Lowell S. Hardin, \"Crop Production Successes and Emerging Problems in Developing Countries,\" paper presented at a Workshop on Emerging Issues Accompanying Recent Breakthroughs in Food Production, Cornell University, 1970, pp. 9, 11.Robert Evenson, \"Science and the World Food Problem,\"and It should make maize an Important export product for Kenya over the next decade. Only the introduction of bulk handling facilities to cut export costs and the relaxa, tion of controls on domestic marketing remain tu be enacted for maize to realize its full potential as Kenya's most important agricultural product. I n conclusion, we have found that a modest investment in the scientific breeding of maize has produced enormous returns to the government and people of Kenya. Small• scale as well as large-scale farmers in the high potential areas of western Kenya and more recently in central Kenya as well, have adopted hybrid maize technology at rates at fast or faster than American farmers did in the 1930s and 19405. No evidence has been found that \"traditionalism,\" \"custom,\" or \"conservatism\" has hindered the adoption of a profitable innovation. Even in those areas where adoption levels are low, historical and survey data indicate that this has been a conscious pr'ocess of non-adoption rather than \"laggard\" traditionalism. Although farmers in the drier areas suffer from lower levels of profitability, greater risk, lower levels of agricultural services, and less income from other cash crops, many of them have tried the new technology but' later given it up. As Griliches concluded about American farmers, \"taking account of uncer\\ainty ... farmers have behaved in a fashion consistent wi th fle idea • of profit maximization. Where the evidence apptars to indicate the contrary ...a closer examination of the relevant economic variables will show that the change was not as profitable as it appeared to be.\" This appears to be the case in western Kenya. I t is hoped that a case study of the willingness of African farmers to adopt profitable agricultural innovations and the factors affecting adoption and non-adoption will encourage those seeking to develop im• proved technology for food production in tropical Africa. In 1974 the Kenyan Maize and Produce Board did a followup study on the 1973 Kitate-CIMMYT survey including the higher rainfall areas of Central as well as Western Kenya. This survey was jointly financed by the Maize and Produce Board and the Kenya Seed Company in Kitale. The suggestion to repeat the exercise came from the KSC, which had a particular interest in adoption rate in Central Province, where an almost explosive adoption-with annual increases of 50 percent in seed sales-has taken place over the last few years. It was therefore decided to extend the survey into Central and parts of Eastern Province, i.e. into the Central Highlands. Thus the KSC and the MPB had joint interests in the survey-the MPB could use the results for better predictions of the total maize production and, hence for better marketing and storage decisions; the KSC would get a more solid basis for decisions on seed production and marketing.The planning of the survey was made together with The sampling procedure was essentially that employed by Dr. Gerhart in the 1973 survey. In Western Kenya it was identical, insofar as the same farmers were visited. In Central Kenya the same technique was used. The area was divided into two zones, one at higher (above 1500 m) altitudes. In each zone the total area comprised of a number of 100 square kilometers segments of which a random sample was drawn.The area that constitutes zone 4 and In our sample, zone 4 consists of the land which is below 1500 m and zone 5 is that land which is above 1500 m. Zone 5 then is between 20 and 30 km wide, and follows the forest boundary along the two mountains. Zone 4 is the valleys and plains below down to 1100-1300 altitude. Below 1100 m the rainfall is usually not thought sufficient for hybrid maize.A main objective of the survey was to find out how hybrid seed is actually being utilized by small farmers. ThiS is particularly important in those areas in Western Kenya where we already knew that a vast majority uses hybrid seed. The relative intensity of cultivation i.e. plant populations together with selected husbandry practices, would indicate what potential increases in seed sales, land utilization and maize production exist in that area. In the non-adopt• ting zone 3, the survey perhaps could give more information on the reasons for non-adoption in those areas. Since 1972, in Central Kenya, the KSC has witnessed a spectacular in' crease in seed sales, and it was therefore interesting to establish the general level of adoption. In order to estimate• the level and the pOint in time at which seed sales would be expected to level off. Compared with the 1973 questionnai re. the 1974 su rvey focussed more on the question \"how many\" of the farmers use hybrid rather than \"why\" or \"why not\". Some of the questions used to find out the reasons for adoption or non-adoption were therefore discarded. This is perhaps unfortunate. since it is not possible to treat the material in the same way as in the earlier study. For Central and Eastern Provinces, however, the willingness to adopt hybrid seed once it is available has been demonstra• ted already, and the recent phenomenal adoption rate indicates that full adoption will be reached in two or at most three years.The most important change in the questionnaire and in the interviews was a precise plant count, from which the number of plants per hectare and number of ears per hectare was computed. The reason to include this was twofold. First, a prceise measurement of plant populations would be of value for KSC's marketing decisions. Secondly, this information can be used to estimate the total production from hybrid seed in. the country. Given the amount of seed sold in various areas, the total number of maize plants and ears can be computed. When the count is complemented by a sample of mature, maize cobs, whose grain weights are measured, the total hybrid maize production in each area can be estimated-from the number of cobs and their weight. The second sample has now been carried out, and it is hoped that this will provide the first estimate of Kenya's maize production that is not based entirely on guesses.The sample. For zones 1, 2 and 3, a sample was drawn from the 300 or so earlier questionnaires because financial reasons made it impossible to visit all the farmers from the 1973 survey. The target was to have about 150 interviews and by tossing a coin one half of the segments were selected. All in all, 117 successful respondents were. about 22 percent of the total sample. The discarded interviews seem to be randomly distributed over the sample.Zones 4 and 5 (in Central Kenya) had not been visited in the 1973 survey, and a completely new sample was drawn. After studying population maps it was concluded that the population density was roughly equal in the two zones, and it was decided that the number of segments, i.e. the area of each zone would determine the sample size for each of them. A total sample size of 120 was set as the target, which would mean the selection of every second segment in each area. The selection was randomized by tossing a coin. The actual number of successful farm interviews was 104, the remainder being non-maize farmers, non-accessible segments and other field problems.Adoption Rates. It appears that about two farmers out of three have adopted hybrid maize in those areas of Kenya 54 where hybrids can be grown_ I f zone 3 IS excluded. one is left with practically all high-potential small-scale farming areas in the country. The results in these areas only, indicate an overall adoption rate of 74 percent. The Central Province had about 55 percent adoptIon, with no significant difference between zones 4 and 5. KSC area estimates based on seed sales and an assumption of 9 kgs. of seeds per acre should be increased by 1.24 (from 336,000 ha to 416,000) to give the true number of hectares under hybrid maize in the country. An important factor influencing plant population is of course interplanting, a practice which is widely spread throughout ,he small scale Kenyan Agriculture. The merits of interplanting have never been studied or demonstrated conclusively, although most authorities seem to agree that the practice has a lot of advantages in the African small-scale environment. establish the general level of adoption, In order to estimate• the level and the pOint in time at which seed sales would be expected to level off. Compared with the 1973 questionnaire, the 1974 survey focussed more on the question \"how many\" of the farmers use hybrid rather than \"why\" or \"why not\". Some of the questions used to find out the reasons for adoption or non-adoption were therefore discarded. This is perhaps unfortunate, since it is not possible to treat the material in the same way as in the earlier study. For Central and Eastern PrOVinces, however, the willingness to adopt hybrid seed once it is available has been demonstra• ted already, and the recent phenomenal adoption rate indicates that full adoption will be reached in two or at most three years.The most important change in the questionnaire and in the interviews was a precise plant count, from which the number of plants per hectare and number of ears per hectare was computed. The reason to include this was twofold. First, a prceise measurement of plant populations would be of value for KSC's marketing decisions. Secondly, this information can be used to estimate the total production from hybrid seed in. the country. Given the amount of seed sold in various areas, the total number of maize plants and ears can be computed. When the count is complemented by a sample of mature, maize cobs, whose grain weights are measured, the total hybrid maize production in each area can be estimated-from the number of cobs and their weight. The second sample has now been carried out, and it is hoped that this will provide the first estimate of Kenya's maize production that is not based entirely on guesses.The sample. For zones 1, 2 and 3, a sample was drawn from the 300 or so earlier questionnaires because financial reasons made it impossible to visit all the farmers from the 1973 survey. The target was to have about 150 interviews and by tossing a coin one half of the segments were selected. All in all, 117 successful respondents were. about 22 percent of the total sample. The discarded interviews seem to be randomly distributed over the sample.Zones 4 and 5 (in Central Kenya) had not been visited in the 1973 survey, and a completely new sample was drawn. After studying population maps it was concluded that the population density was roughly equal in the two zones, and it was decided that the number of segments, i.e. the area of each zone would determine the sample size for each of them. A total sample size of 120 was set as the target, which would mean the selection of every second segment in each area. The selection was randomized by tossing a coin. The actual number of successful farm interviews was 104, the remainder being non-maize farmers, non-accessible segments and other field problems.Adoption Rates. It appears that about two farmers out of three have adopted hybrid maize in those areas of Kenya 54 where hybrids can be grown. , f zone 3 IS excluded, one is left with practically all high-potential small-scale farming areas in the country. The results in these areas only, indicate an overall adoption rate of 74 percent. The Central Province had about 55 percent adoption, with no significant difference between zones 4 and 5. KSC area estimates based on seed sales and an assumption of 9 kgs. of seeds per acre should be increased by 1.24 (from 336,000 ha to 416,000) to give the true number of hectares under hybrid maize in the country. An important factor influencing plant population is of course interplanting, a practice which is widely spread throughout ,he small scale Kenyan Agriculture. The merits of interplanting have never been studied or demonstrated conclusively, although most authorities seem to agree that the practice has a lot of advantages in the African small-scale environment. Apart from the repeated pattern from the 1973 survey for zones 1, 2 and 3, zones 4 and 5 show a remarkably different picture from Western Kenya. First, interplanting is one the whole more common than in Zones 1 and 2. Second, interplanting does not seem to vary with hybrid use as much as in zone 1, 2 and 3. In zone 1 and 2, only 35 percent of hybrid users interplanted, whereas 51 percent of hybrid users in Central Province did. It is difficult to explain this behaviour. In the 1973 survey it was concluded that adoption of hybrid maize went along with a whole series of agriCUltural practices, including planting in pure stands. This problem will be examined later in greater detail, but it seems as interplanting may be a more deeply rooted habit in Central Province.The low plant populations per hectare mean that hybrid maize is actually planted over a much larger area than has previously been thought. Obviously, here lies the key to increased maize production. If it is the case that low plant populations are realized in pure stands as well as in interplanted fields, considerable increases in the number of plants can be made.Adoption and Husbandry Practices. In the 1973 survey it was demonstrated that adoption of hybrid seeds tends to go together with the adoption of a whole packet of improved husbandry practices, such as use of fertilizers, planting in rows and in pure stands, early planting, etc. Through carefUl analysis of his material, Dr. Gerhart showed that there actually was a relationship between seed adoption and changed husbandry practices. It is not a coincidence of two independent trends. Hybrid seed is considered by the farmers as a new crop whose growing is inherently different from the cultivation of the old type of maize.In the 1974 survey, the data for zones 1, 2 and 3 again show the same pattern as in 1973. Zones 1 and 2 have very high numbers using hybrid-related practices, significantly higher than in zone 3. e.g. 93 and 94 percent of the farmers in zone 1 and 2 planted in rows, vs. 47 percent in zone 3. The use of f \"rent practices is shown below: Central Province (Zone 4 and 5) showed a slightly different pattern. The high sea .; for row planting and for fertilizer use should be noted, ciS well as the high percentage of farmers interplanting maize with other crops (62 and 68 percent). Farming Methods in the often very high and hilly zones 4 and 5 are definitely different from those in Western Kenya. This is of course a well known fact. Particularly interesting to note is the U&e of manure, and the fact that many farmers thinned their maize. In the 1973 survey thinning was shown to be negatively related with adoption in zones 1, 2 and 3, in accord with the hypothesis that planting a large number of seeds in each hole was related with broadcasting and other husbandry practices employed before hybrid was introduced. In Central Province, however, it is common to pull out maize plants during the growing season and feed them to cattle. Also, planting many seeds in a hole reduces the numbfr of planting stations and thereby labour requirements <It planting time.There is evidence that labour supply at plcn:'ting time is an important constraint on the area that can be planted at the right time. In Central Province, where rainfall is less abundant and it s variations are greater, than in the West, late planting is related with severe yield reductions. Therefore farmers should be expected to employ various techniques to enable them to plant a large area within a short time. In the absence of mechanical implements, planting many seeds in a hole constitutes one such technique. Thus many seeds in a hole may be done for other reasons than to ensure germination from poor seed.In the 1973 survey it was investigated whether there was any difference between hybrid and non-hybrid users with regard to other husbandry practices. The hypothesis was that since hybrid has been introduced as a package of husbandry practices rather than by simply encouraging farmers to buy the new seed, it would be expected that hybrid adopters are more likely to use for example fertil izers, row planting, pure stands etc. This hypothesis was confirmed in the 1973 survey, and it has been repeated with 1974 data. The method employed was a simple chi-square test where samples of non-adopters for one practice at a time. For this analysis, a chi-square value of 2.71 or higher makes the hypothesis accepted at a 90 percent confidence level. The results are given in the table below. The sample has been divided into two parts, Western Kenya (Zones 1,2 and 3) and Central and Eastern Provinces (Zone 4 and 5). moderate altitudes (3500 to 7000 feet), The requirements of the climate were important all the way from the beginning of the programme, which started in 1965 with a large number of crosses from a widely based genetic material.In 1967, the first results were Embu Composite I and Embu Composjte 2. both formed from coloured exotic material. A systematic selection for whiteness was perform• ed on these varieties. At the same time. crosses of late maturing Kitale hybrids and Katumani was performed to get a variety with the same maturity time as the most common local maize. The local is called the Muratha Maize, and has been used as a common denominator in most comparisons throughout the programme.In 1967, the fi rst hybrid (H 511) was produced. Ithad the same maturity as Muratha, but this first version outyielded the local variety by 24 percent. The genetic material was the follOWing:Embu 12------H511 -------In both areas. row planting, fertilizer. insecticide on crop, and pure planting were all highly significant. Le. adopters are more likely to use these practices than non• adopters. Thinning the maize plants was significant in Western Kenya but not in Central. The probable reasons for this has been indicated above. Early planting was significant in Central but not in Western, and likewise, this has been discussed above. For weeding and use of manure there were no significant differences between adopters and non-adopters.The conclusions from this exercise as from the 1973 survey are that there are indeed significant differences between adopters and non-adopters. When farmers start using hybrid maize, they simultaneously take up a whole series of husbandry practices. Hybrid maize is then regarded as a \"new\" crop. different from local not only in seed, but also in farming methods. Increased production can therefore not be attributed to the seed alone. but on the other hand the seed was the vector that started the development. Without the seed. it might have been much more difficult to change the methods.What was responsible for the rapid increase in hybrid use in Central Kenya after 1970? The following description is a concentrate of Annual Reports from the Maize Research Institute of Embu 1966 to 1973.The maize breeding programme at Embu focussed on the production of medium maturity varieties fOJ Central and Eastern Provinces. The climate there is characterized by two distinct rainy seasons of limited duration, and by 56The variety was regarded as so successful, that it went ct sale commercially in 1968. It was also improved in ttl\\! next year, when it outyielded the local Muratha by 4p ercent.During the first years of the breeding programme, agronomic trials were also conducted at Embu, and the find• ings were similar to those at Kitale. It was concluded, that early planting, a high plant population (53,000 plants/hal and good weeding increase yields significantly. Recommendations for planting were issued in 1970 (then for H511).In 1969, the next breakthrough ,. oreeding was made with the production of H512. being a cross of H511 with another variety (SR52). H512 had very desirable characteristics. and in 1970 it outyielded the local by 61 percent. It was also released in that year.By 1970, the immediate needs to produce an acceptable bybrid had thus been covered. In the years since its introduction. H512 has gained great popularity in Central and Eastern Provinces, and well over half the maize acreage in that area is expected to be planted with H51 2 in 1975. The breeding programme has therefore focussed more on the long term aspects of high protein and high Iyseine maize, and~some progress has been made over the last years. Another aspect that has been of some interest is that H512 outyields all other varieties under normal rainfall, but in dry years the hybrids is outyielded by local maize with the same maturity. and both are outyielded by Katumani. Efforts are therefore made to improve the overall performance of H512 under dry conditions.Like the maize research at Kitale, the Embu programme must be judged as highly successful. In a very short time, very tangible results have been achieved in terms of high-yielding hybrids. The actual production of commercial seed has been made by the Kenya Seed Company at Kitale, and KSC has also been responsible tor the distribution of seed. The charactemtlcsof H512 are very desirable In all of Central Province, and farmers have been very quick to see the benefits. There are indications that the rate of increase in acceptance has been even faster than in Western Province, and again the KSC has succeeded in distributing the seed. A comparison between seed sales ill Central and Western Provinces is given below:• SEED SALES IN WESTERN AND CENTRAL PROVINCES level for Central Province of 220,000 to 240,000 packets. or about the same as Western. As with Western Kenya, \" IS the small farmers that have adopted hybrid seed. (I n Central Province, this can be asserted even without Clny analysis, since there are hardly any large farmers in the Province). The story of hybrid diffusion throughout Kenya is thU5 a success story, where rapid adoption has been achieved within the small-holder sector.The growth rate in Central Province is a stunning 46 percent a year since 1967/68, when H511 was first introduced, and the projected 1974/75 sales are 14 times as large as in the first year, and over 3 times as large as in 1970/71. Without pressing the data too much, it appears that the growth is even faster than in Western Province, where sales now are levell ing off because of saturation of the market, as we have seen earlier. In Central Province, it should still be possible to double the seed sales over the 1973/74 level, since only about 50 percent of the farmers indicate that they are using hybrid seed. This suggests a saturation The 1974 survey has at least demonstrated two things. One is that the results for 1974 in Western Kenya are consistent with those of 1973. The other is that a similar development of hybrid maize has taken place in Central Kenya a few years later. The reason for the lateness in Central Kenya is simply that a suitable hybrid variety became available later there.Perhaps the most valuable part of the whole survey and the analysis has been to point out in what areas we need further investigations. After the survey was completed, work started immediately on the planning of a system for objective yield surveys of maize in Kenya, which is being conducted in 1975. The work is going to be carried out by the Maize and Procedure Board together with ~e Central Bureau of Statistics. The earlier surveys have bEfen invaluable in the planning, because they provided information necessary to determine sample sizes and error levels in the yield surveys. For the objective yield survey, they have acted as pilot studies, and we have been able to avoid a large number of pitfalls and problems through what has been learnt from them. It is through its indirect influence on the more comprehensive study that the survey has been o,f some value, not through its actual findings.","tokenCount":"43503"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0928c6da30eefd8794f1c34408d6f9a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8de04362-42fc-4b60-b1e4-1eaff4c5e578/retrieve","id":"2081198612"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c631dba3-246c-49a0-91ba-3fd5cf6d5b1f","pagecount":"10","content":"This brief documents current knowledge about pygeum (Prunus africana). It aims to inform decision makers in governments in producing and consumer countries, international and civil society organisations and researchers, about sustainable (international) trade and governance of the species.The information presented in this brief includes current best practices, experiences from fieldwork by the CGIAR centres, and insights from data published in the last decade. Recommendations are made cautiously, bearing in mind its many uses, different types of national and international trade and differing national regulations and contexts. A long-term perspective also is needed due to the long time frame involved in managing the tree, and time lags before impacts on the species and on livelihoods are evident for those involved in its trade.Concerns about the impacts of trade and regulation (see box right) have led to:• IUCN Red Data Listing of pygeum as vulnerable since 1998, although the listing is recognised as needing updating.• Listing since 1995 on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This means that the species is seen as not necessarily now threatened with extinction but may become so unless trade is closely controlled through annual quotas. Legally binding on government parties, CITES does not replace national laws but provides a framework for implementation in national legislation. Since 2007, the only countries with export quotas have been Cameroon, Uganda and DR Congo. Small quantities have been exported from Madagascar, Tanzania and the Republic of Congo (10).• Despite support from a CITES Working group in Naivasha in 2008 (84,93)  African cherry, and bitter almond, as well as having many names in local languages. It occurs in the wild generally 800 metres above sea level and higher, and has been described in 22 countries in Central, East and Southern Africa. Pygeum's hard, durable wood is used for axe handles, poles, carving and fuelwood; it is an important tree for bees and honey yields; the bark and seeds are used in traditional medicine for genito-urinary complaints, allergies, inflammation, kidney disease, malaria, stomach ache, fever and for veterinary remedies. The bark, peeled off the tree, dried and chipped or powdered, is used to make an extract included in treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a non-cancerous glandular disorder affecting men mainly over forty.Fears have been expressed about the international trade in pygeum bark and ensuring secure, sustainable supplies for the following reasons:• Habitat loss of mountain forests, the areas where pygeum naturally occurs, has been generally high. Fragmentation, deforestation and degradation (1-3) affect the genetic structure of pygeum populations (6) and decreased biodviersity affects pygeum seed dispersal (6,31,32,34,35), in turn affecting pygeum populations.• Climate change is affecting mountain forests, with a predicted -45% net loss in suitable habitat in 2050 compared to 2010 (7,9). High losses of over 30% are predicted in DR Congo, Tanzania, Cameroon, Madagascar, Uganda and Kenya (1).• There is continued demand for pygeum bark in international pharmaceutical and herbal products.• Uncertainty about the most scientifically robust, cost-effective and appropriate policies and regulations to control harvesting, develop inventories and management plans, and regulate international trade (13,39,40,60).date, many exporting countries have difficulties to meet CITES requirements (11,12). Trends   Pygeum bark exporters indicated that the demand for processed bark depends on the requirements of buyers rather than being supply led. This is partly because importers are wary of processed derivatives due to problems with substitution with other substances in the past, and bark is more easily visually verified.The multiple uses and trade of the bark, leaves and berries for medicine, timber for fuelwood and carving, branches for hoes and tools handles, and flowers as important forage sources for bees, has long been known.However, the impact of international trade on pygeum-based products in local markets is unknown. In Cameroon, local trade in the Northwest and West regions appears small scale and environmentally benign, as sourcing from cultivated trees is common (13), unlike in the Southwest region (14). In Kenya there are concerns that the local medicinal trade is unsustainable as most bark originates from wild trees (15). Smallscale trade for traditional medicine between Swaziland and South Africa is thought to be unsustainable (16).African regional trade is not reflected in WCMC CITES data but has been suspected (17). Signs of a possible border trade between Nigeria and Cameroon have not been detected since 2009 (18). Armed conflicts and the porous borders between Burundi, Rwanda and DR Congo, and between South Africa and Swaziland, mean that these are also possible trade routes (16).There appears to be a continued demand for pygeum bark. The most recent market study, from 2000 (19), predicted a growing market, due to a generally aging population, who are the main users of the pharmaceuticals based on pygeum bark. Pharmaceutical companies confirmed there is a continued market and demand for pygeum-based pharmaceuticals prescribed for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) which appears stable in at least four European countries (20). Although there is contradictory evidence, a number of studies indicate the bark's efficacy in treating BPH symptoms, chronic prostatitis, sexual and reproductive dysfunctions and obstruction-induced contractile dysfunction (21)(22)(23)(24). Whilst there are many alternative plant-based drugs to treat prostate problems, no synthetic chemical alternative exists. The popularity of herbal treatments also continues to grow, with the global market for pygeum-based complementary medicines increasing (25,26).Opportunities for selling pygeum-based pharmaceuticals in Asia have been increasingly recognised (27)(28)(29)(30).Studies and interventions in the last decade have enhanced knowledge of the ecological, social and economic impacts of changes governing conservation and trade in the species, particularly international commerce.The presence of pygeum in natural forests has been shown to be sensitive to the loss of animals which disperse its seeds (31,(32)(33)(34)(35). Human activities, particularly harvesting, grazing and fire also influence tree and seedling growth, mortality and reproduction (36,72). These further negatively influence forest degradation and habitat loss (37,38). One way forward has been to specifically protect mature 'mother' trees as part of local management plans (39). Concerns about the impact of harvesting practices on other species or entire ecosystems have been raised, but not quantified (4,40).To manage trade, knowledge of the (wild and planted) status of the species is essential, and is enshrined in the CITES requirements for non-detrimental findings. Extensive inventories of pygeum in natural forests have been conducted to establish non-detriment findings for CITES in Cameroon (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53), with recent inventories conducted in Burundi (54), Congo (55), Madagascar (56), Uganda (57,58) and DR Congo ( 55). An adaptive cluster sampling approach was proposed after testing different inventory methods (42), due to the low densities and clustered nature of the species (59). This is being used by an ITTO project (56) supporting inventories of pygeum in Cameroon (41,42,43,53), Burundi (54) and Zimbabwe (101). However, the adaptive cluster sampling approach can also overestimate plant populations (102). The differences in inventory methods -particularly whether assessments of tree health and prior harvesting are included in inventories and subsequent calculations of harvestable bark quantities -highlight the need for an international, well-tested, standard inventory method. Full (100%) inventories have been recommended for pygeum located in protected areas and on farms (60). A standardised method needs to balance scientific rigour against the costs, time and local capacity to conduct such inventories. Experiences indicate that over-estimates of stocks based on some inventory methods have resulted in harvesting quotas being established which have been met by harvesting (unregistered) bark from farmed sources (18).Inventories of cultivated trees commenced in Cameroon in 2009 (8,51). These indicate that in the Southwest, around 8% of harvestable volumes can be obtained from cultivated trees (41,46,61,62). In the Northwest, inventories are ongoing, but suggest that at least 17% of total available stock exists as cultivated trees (8,42). An (unproven) assumption is that cultivation will take pressure off wild trees (63), based on experiences with rubber (64, 65) (Funtamia elastica and Parahancornia fasciculata), damar (Canarium strictum) (66) and gum arabic (Acacia spp.)(67), all tree species which have also been at risk from unsustainable harvesting and over-exploitation.For cultivated trees, felling or coppicing followed by totally stripping the bark could be a harvest method (18,68). The timber can then also be sold. Studies indicate that the tree's high quality hardwood and relatively fast growth rates make this an attractive option for farmers and provide good economic returns, avoiding laborious bark harvests and the mortality rates that occur even with sustainable harvest techniques (69). This method has been used in Madagascar and Kenya. Felling may be an option as the onus on replacement is different for cultivated than for wild trees, if registration and effective controls exist.The threats of climate change, forest fragmentation, degradation and loss, have highlighted the importance of understanding genetic variation in the species. Natural changes in the climate over the last millennia have influenced where pygeum grows and how genetic diversity (the differences among trees that are inherited) is distributed (1,70). The genetic profile and level of biochemicals in pygeum bark vary between Central Africa, east and west of the Eastern Rift Valley, southern Africa, and Madagascar (1,70). The main differences are between Madagascar, East and West Africa (3,7). There are also some differences between mountain ranges in some countries. For example, in Cameroon, pygeum in Adamaoua is slightly different from that in the Northwest and Southwest highlands and also in Uganda, between Kibale National Park and Ruwenzori National Park i . Cultivated trees have generally, (but not always), been sourced from seedlings and seed gathered locally, and so often have similar genetic and biochemical profiles to trees naturally occurring in the same region (8,71). Predictions of climate change indicate that the major exporting countries most likely to be negatively affected by a loss of natural habitats suitable for pygeum are Tanzania, Madagascar, Cameroon, DR Congo and Uganda (1).The vulnerability of pygeum to multiple threats including deforestation and degradation, harvesting, and other anthropogenic threats such as fire and grazing by livestock (44,72,73) indicates a need to set high priority areas for conservation (1,4,9). As local use, deforestation and habitat fragmentation vary widely among countries, strategies need to be adapted depending on the type and magnitude of threats. These strategies include in situ, circa situ and ex situ conservation. A major consideration in setting conservation areas is whether harvesting would be permitted. For example, although strongly advised not to harvest in protected areas in Cameroon (8), harvesting is allowed and controls are no different than for pygeum in protected areas such as the Oku Plantlife Sanctuary, Nkom-Wum Forest Reserve and Mount Muanengouba. Only in Mount Cameroon National Park are regulations stronger due to a long-running sustainable forest management project (39,88). These practices indicate that protected status of both the species and geographic area has not taken pressure off the resource in the wild and calls into question the efficacy of such protection. Similarly, in protected areas such as in North and South Kivu in DR Congo, low levels of government presence and capacity, monitoring and law enforcement (74) suggest that protected area status alone is insufficient to ensure conservation.Incomes and profits from harvesting have varied enormously over time and are generally unequally distributed between stakeholders involved in the chain. The differences are linked to the governance arrangements in force in different countries. Harvesters generally earn less and their profit margins are lower compared to traders, exporters and industrial processers (13,40), and harvesters in some areas, for example the Southwest of Cameroon, generally gain a higher, more regular income in the major harvest years than in other areas in Cameroon (13,18,92,97,98). Revenues have also been earned by elites and corrupt civil servants (13,40).Although farmers have sold farmed pygeum bark for decades in Cameroon (75) and in Kenya (76,77), an issue is that formal recognition of provenance, and mechanisms to allow and trace sales from planted sources, are only slowly emerging. Recent experiences indicate that farmers are generally not aware of the need to register their trees (8) and that cultivated bark is sold as wild sourced -and vice versa (13). Cultivation however can be a more profitable option than wild harvest (68,78). These factors highlight the need for policy and regulatory systems that actively support trade of cultivated pygeum. This includes promoting ways for farmers and communities that manage pygeum in natural forests to increase profits.Tracing cultivated trees using genetic markers could be a way to distinguish planted pygeum. An issue will be the cost and ease of implementing such controls at farm level.A problem hindering cultivation experienced in many countries, is the legal status of owning land and trees, as many farmers do not have official land title. Secure tenure has been noted as being critical for longlived tree crops (69,79). This is especially true when national regulations classify first-generation seedlings as wild, implying that they are state property (80,81). There is however a risk that gains to a wider number of people may be limited because if people do not have access to sufficient land, or do not have land property rights.The total costs of regulating harvesting compared to the economic returns and conservation benefits have been questioned. In Cameroon a series of bilateral, donor and government-funded projects over the last fifteen years, have resulted in many of the costs of inventories, monitoring and control not being borne by harvesters or exporters. Economic benefits are also unequally distributed, with the highest economic benefits accruing mainly to importers and exporters (40,82). Governments have also benefited from the issuing of permits and taxes (82,83), although considered inconsequential by the ministries responsible for forestry law compared to revenue from timber. New regulations introduced to meet CITES requirements, are aimed at increasing the sustainability of wild harvesting, but have meant fewer harvesters are engaged in harvesting in Cameroon (40). They have however resulted in higher levels of income per harvester and will benefit communities and tree owners more (18). A similar situation occurred in Madagascar when regulations were tightened, decreasing the number of harvesters and locating market power to a small number of companies (83). A cost-benefit analysis of harvesting in Mount Cameroon National Park indicates that the costs of monitoring and enforcing harvesting in protected areas are significantly higher than in non-protected areas, with most (56%) costs related to legal requirements (inventory, permits, control and monitoring), followed by harvesting (30%), export (8%) and regeneration and planting (8%). This questions the economic efficiency of wild harvests in protected areas (82). Although the costs of harvesting in the National Park are higher than in community forests and non-protected areas, the quantity of bark available in the Park and buffer zone means that it is still economically viable (18).Trade in pygeum across Africa to date has not had a good track record in being conducted sustainably.National regulations have been enacted to protect the species in many countries, many stimulated by CITES and IUCN listings. For example, pygeum has been classed as a 'Special Forestry Product' in Cameroon since 2006, and is specifically regulated by the Madagascar and Kenya Forest Acts and the DR Congo Forest Code.Guidance and national management plans to meet CITES requirements are however at varying stages of development, approval and implementation in Equatorial Guinea (84), Cameroon (8,40), Madagascar (56), DR Congo (85) and Uganda (57,58). Learning from the experiences of countries currently implementing plans which meet the CITES significant trade review and non-detriment findings could be enhanced. For example, by exchanges similar to the CITES Naivasha 2008 (93) meeting.Attempts to use different forest governance arrangements to empower harvesters such as community forests, Prunus Allocation Units and protected areas in Cameroon have had very mixed results but generally limited success (13,39,40,88,89). Investments in capacity building, strong monitoring and enforcement remain important in such models (13,36,40,87,88).Standards for inventories for wild (in protected and non-protected areas) and for cultivated pygeum differ from country to country. In Cameroon, national guidelines have not been formally published, but have been in development since 2010 (59). There are notable differences in methods used in practice, particularly the requirement to inventory tree health and prior harvesting status, as part of determining a sustainable quota (60). Guidelines have been published but not adopted for Equatorial Guinea (84).Harvesting guidelines, including recommendations for the time between repeat harvesting of bark from the same tree, have been developed. These build on decades of experience (59,86). However, experiences in Cameroon (82,(87)(88)(89) and Madagascar (83,90) strongly indicate that without adequate monitoring and control by regulatory authorities, and by local communities and customary rulers, guidelines and laws alone do not guarantee sustainable harvesting. This failure has been attributed to high demand for bark and the power and influence exporters and importers have in the value chain (13,40). Development, research and conservation organisations have often had a critical role in ensuring enforcement and raising concerns about illegal and unsustainable harvesting (40,87,89,91,92).Most countries have monitoring systems based on quota-based permits (57,93) and in-the field monitoring of tree status by state agencies, and by projects and students which are generally one-off evaluations (44,45,72,87,89). Alternative monitoring systems based on genetic (DNA) traceability are planned to be investigated by an ITTO-CITES programme with the government of Cameroon in 2015. Critical to the workability of such systems will be a reasonable cost to implement and ability to conduct DNA analysis nationally in origin countries. Other alternatives for monitoring may be possible -for example voluntary certification systems (94), such as the FairWild Standard for medicinal plants, information and communication technology and bar-coding -but are not known to have been tried or implemented.Key issues to ensure sustainable international trade in pygeum include:1. If wild harvesting is to continue ...• Consensus is needed if wild harvest is realistically sustainable. This is given the growing body of evidence that suggests that wild harvest is not sustainable, due to the nature of the tree and harvest methods, combined with the generally remote and difficult-to-access mountain location and difficulties in setting up and maintaining legal and customary governance arrangements to ensure sustainable harvesting.• An international scientific consensus is needed on appropriate inventory methodologies for wild (in protected and non-protected areas) and for cultivated pygeum. The method needs to balance scientific robustness, cost and time implications, and involve local communities to promote ownership and knowledge of locally-owned and managed resources.• Ensuring effective governance of the species and its ecosystem is essential. Experiences, particularly from Cameroon, highlight that building the capacity of management authorities, implementing new systems and conducting inventories takes time. However, the pressures on natural habitats harbouring pygeum are high and require a precautionary conservation approach that also considers livelihoods of local communities and tree owners. Where enforcement levels are low, and corruption and profits from trade are high, there are significant risks that governance arrangements, which appear to meet CITES requirements on paper have failed (40,82). Monitoring and enforcement financed by pygeum revenues appear key elements of workable governance arrangements.• An awareness that different governance arrangements result in diverse trade-offs between the benefits of trade for different stakeholders and species and ecosystem conservation, is important. Restricting access to the resource can help governments control large, often remote areas more easily. Requirements to conduct inventories raise costs for (small) enterprises to enter the market. They can lead to monopoly or oligopoly situations, such as in Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda and the DR Congo, where national markets are, or have been, dominated by a small number of traders and/or exporters. Such control may be to the disadvantage of tree owners and farmers, community-based resource owners and managers, and harvesters. However, it can allow access to wild trees to be more closely monitored and controlled than when many exploiters are permitted access to one areas, as has been the experience in Cameroon (13,94).• The ability of the species to adapt to local climate changes will be critical in determining the future availability of wild stocks. Identifying priority populations and enacting strategies to ensure their protection and management will be important to counteract the predicted negative impacts of climate change on the montane forest ecosystems where pygeum grows.Evidence, particularly from other tree species (13,63,77,79), suggests that cultivation can reduce pressure on pygeum in natural forests, given the following conditions:• Improved traceability systems that extend from planted trees to exporters and ports, and monitor natural forests to ensure wild pygeum is not sold as cultivated. This includes the standardisation of the type of pygeum-based product and a calibration of the measurement units used in international trade records.• Promoting the registration and inventory of farmed trees to make the current extent of cultivation in all producing countries clearer.• Supportive national and international policy and regulatory frameworks, including tree tenure systems that allow bark from cultivated trees to be registered and sold internationally at premium prices.• Sufficiently high price for bark that provides a good economic return for farmers.• A realisation that cultivation may benefit different stakeholders (i.e. not necessary the poorest or forest adjacent) and may create perverse incentives for wild harvest (for the landless, and those with less access).• Increased liaison with the pharmaceutical and herbal industry to ensure that cultivation programs target areas and trees in which the characteristics of the active ingredients meet industry specifications.• Tax and policy incentives to encourage cultivation to trade bark from cultivated trees that make this at least as attractive as wild harvesting.• Importers, governments in countries where pygeum is consumed and organisations such as CITES engaging with exporters and communities in the supply chain to stimulate the cultivation of bark. For example, by supporting the creation of tree nurseries and advocating the registration of planted trees, and through regulations that enable trade in cultivated bark.The low prices received by harvesters (in terms of the proportion of export price) and low level of processing in origin countries (82,95) suggest that a stronger business case can be made to finance and encourage sustainable local value adding and processing for international trade. Experiences of pygeum and other non-timber forest products, which appear successful in different countries, are:i. Using governance arrangements and capacity building (organisational, technical and financial)to change the structure, power balance and barriers to a profitable trade based on wild and cultivated pygeum in national value chains, at farmer and harvester level (96)(97)(98).ii. Adding more value and increasing profit by processing bark (such as drying, producing chips, powder or extract) in the country of origin.iii. Using collective action, such as harvesters grouping into unions, associations and community forests has been one way of increasing the negotiating power of harvesters. Whilst collective action by harvesters in Cameroon has resulted in pygeum bark price increases, the way costs and benefits are distributed varies widely between the main harvest areas, with profits dependent on the total volume of bark that can be sustainably harvested over a given period, assuming controls are in place to ensure that over-exploitation does not occur.iv. Projects and initiatives to supply planting material have improved access to quality seeds and seedlings and raised farmer's awareness of cultivation techniques and the market for pygeum bark.v. Attempts to shorten the value chain and increase profits have been tried in Cameroon, with harvester associations obtaining permits to export. However, building the skills, experience and expertise to engage in processing and export, and sufficient financial capacity, have proven difficult issues to successfully address (18,99,100).vi. An analysis of the costs and benefits of cultivated versus wild harvesting in the same geographic location for harvesters and their organisations is need to confirm the current situation and now outdated studies that compare the profitability of both options.The following information gaps have been identified as important, but lacking, that can aid decision makers in making decisions about sustainable management of international trade (4): It has been recognised that the capacity of CITES legal instruments to ensure sustainable international trade are limited. Also, that devolution of ownership or user rights of species to communal levels is not always possible. It has also been recognised that economic incentive structures in combination with effective controls and creating trade opportunities rather than trade restrictions -can provide incentive-driven conservation strategies (5). Bearing these issues in mind, different approaches to govern international trade are possible, each with its own economic, social and environmental implications. These include:1.Harvesting cultivated trees only and no wild harvest, for export trade.Exporting processed bark only -adding more value for local livelihoods and following the examples of many timber producers in Africa.Ensuring distinct gene pools remain in the different mountain ecosystems in each range state (1,7). These should be protected by legislation and a precautionary approach taken by not harvesting in these locations or gene pools. This may have implications for current harvesting in protected areas, for example in Burundi and DR Congo, Madagascar and in Cameroon, which occurs currently contrary to guidance in some countries (8).The CITES listing is reassessed in each range state in terms of threats given current knowledge of the extent of wild and cultivated trees. The Austrian CITES Management Authority (5) has recommended that to avoid negative incentives and support pygeum-based livelihoods, the international CITES, community may need to consider whether CITES Appendices listing decisions should be based not only on biological/trade criteria but also on socio-economic considerations, if it is in the conservation interest of the species concerned.IUCN listings are reassessed in each range state, particularly in the light of data on predicted climate changes, deforestation and degradation, and for countries who do not participate in the international trade.6.National and international (via the UNEP WCMC) monitoring and traceability systems distinguish and identify both wild and cultivated sources in international bark trade.","tokenCount":"4224"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9dc8d555071fbaedfcde8f22cfce1cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b6e4f52e-6a39-4a83-adae-8dbb0dca386b/retrieve","id":"1340717371"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b5c226cc-fc70-4c48-b144-1fe6ca6e871b","pagecount":"18","content":"This paper presents six key issues from the Rethinking Impact: Understanding the complexity of poverty and change Workshop (RIW) held in Cali, Colombia, March  26-28, 2008. The workshop discussed how agricultural and natural-resources research can be more effective in generating solutions for poverty alleviation and improving gender, social inclusion and equity, and how such research can be brought into the mainstream and how its impact can be assessed. 1 A diverse group of over 60 participants (42% women) from 33 organizations (54% CGIAR 2 and 46% non-CGIAR) attended the meeting. In this paper, we do not purport to represent a consensus of opinion among this diverse group, but rather our perspectives as the meeting organizers. These 'take home messages' were informed by an active dialogue before, during and after the meeting. We are associated most closely with the CGIAR and much of the discussion at the meeting was focused on the CGIAR. Therefore, the key issues are primarily oriented toward the CGIAR, but they would certainly be relevant to other organizations with similar goals and challenges.Issue 1: We know that the causes of poverty, gender and social inequity and exclusion are multi-dimensional and complex. We don't understand enough about this complexity and the implications for how best to target and manage research and development (R&D) efforts to more effectively address these complex issues.Issue 2: A lot of our 'on the ground' experience shows that distinctions between research and development are breaking down. Rather than aiming to isolate its research from development, the comparative advantage of CGIAR science lies in conducting use-oriented research that deliberately aims to link knowledge with action.Issue 3: Researchers must play an important role in helping to link academia, farmers, policy-makers, civil society and market forces to create and share knowledge as the basis for effective and sustainable action. Research organizations must recognize the legitimacy and challenges of such boundary-spanning work, reward it, and dedicate sufficient time and resources to it. Issue 4: Traditional economic impact-assessment methods (i.e. rate-of-return studies) are not well suited for evaluating many of the complex activities and roles described above. An assessment of CGIAR Financial Plans and the Workshop papers indicates that the CGIAR's work is no longer concentrated around traditional crop-improvement research and that a wide range of methods is already in use to assess the diverse outcomes and impacts arising from the CGIAR investment portfolio. Thus, there is an urgent need for CGIAR management to acknowledge the legitimacy of this diversity and the broad range of impact-assessment methods needed to evaluate it.Issue 5: New capacities are needed if we are to adopt new approaches to research for poverty reduction and associated impact assessment. Capacities include technical skills, and skills in other areas such as collaborative problem-solving, facilitation, and systems thinking. Socialscience staffing in research centers needs to be adequate (political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, human ecologists, economists, psychologists and possibly others). Policies, procedures and accountability mechanisms need to be adjusted and organizational learning capacity increased. However, capacity development ultimately depends on the commitment of top-level leaders.Issue 6: Learning organizations that are effective at innovation are also likely to be effective in engaging end-users. We need to thoughtfully assess who to involve and how, using participatory action-research, planning and priority-setting processes, evaluation and other mechanisms in order to engage farmers and the poor, or the civil society organizations that represent them, in meaningful ways at appropriate points throughout the research process.The six key issues are described in more detail in this section. We make reference throughout to papers presented at the RIW. In response to an open call, 98 abstracts were received. The selection committee invited 35 authors to present their papers at the workshop. In addition to the open call, seven leading thinkers were invited to prepare and present keynote papers. 3Issue 1: We know that the causes of poverty, gender and social inequity and exclusion are multi-dimensional and complex. We don't understand enough about this complexity and the implications for how best to target and manage research and development efforts to more effectively address these complex issues.One of the keynote speakers, Patricia Rogers from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, discussed the conceptual differences between simple and complicated or complex interventions (summarized in Table 1). 4 She described this difference as being similar to following a recipe in cooking (with clear, well-tested steps leading to standard products and certain results) compared to raising a child (where each situation is unique, outcomes are uncertain, expertise and guidelines can help but do not ensure success). Recent work led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that assessed the impacts of research on poverty confirmed that the adoption of technology is affected by three major factors-vulnerability, assets and institutions, even where the technology was likely to improve productivity gains. 5 Examples of just a few of the factors inhibiting or encouraging adoption by poor farmers illustrate the diversity and complexity that need to be understood by researchers and managed for in the research process. These include security issues (especially for women); land ownership or control over water; the perceived risk of a catastrophic loss of production; the effect of adoption of the technology on the farmer's relationship with his or her neighbors; government policies; trust and power relationships. However, even recognition of the diverse range of issues affecting adoption of technologies presents a relatively simple picture when considering the broader range of non-technology (and non-agricultural) factors that affect well-being and poverty alleviation.Several of the RIW papers also demonstrated the diversity and complexity of factors related to achieving change. Biggs and Gurung 6 presented a case study from Nepal, where positive but largely unanticipated changes took place. They investigated the contradiction between this reality and the implicit assumptions of change that underlie managerial approaches to development that rely heavily on tools such as logical frameworks, management-by-results techniques and economic rate-of-return methodologies. Their experiences also challenged the notion that 'good' and 'best' practices can be successfully transferred and scaled up.Prasad et al. 7 documented a series of changes at farm, household, market and other levels associated with the change to hybrid maize in India. They found that farmers were making changes in their own systems to adapt to new technologies, but also modifying technologies to adapt them to their systems. Formation and actions by networks of stakeholders/actors played an important role. This experience threw into doubt the reliability of efforts to establish a causal link between costs, benefits and changes, even at the level of adoption.From the experiences of Oxfam Hong Kong, Kurian Thomas 8 concluded that development is essentially a complex, non-linear process, with high levels of uncertainty and unpredictability that require a flexible and adaptive approach that builds on the contributions of different development actors.When we accept the complexity of interventions to address poverty, we then need to re-assess institutional planning, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that they stimulate dynamic research processes that serve to co-create knowledge by different actors. Developing dynamic planning, monitoring and evaluation processes would take some careful thought, but an example of how impact assessment would vary depending upon the complexity of the intervention is given in Table 2.  The concept was further developed by Nancy Dickson 11 in her keynote talk at the RIW, in which she presented five major challenges to linking knowledge with action:1. How can we better inform research priorities through dialogues between decisionmakers 12 and scientists? 2. How can knowledge from scientific investigation, tradition and practical experience be better integrated into research? 3. What sort of boundary work can help bridge knowledge and action? 4. How can we design adaptive systems so that the experimental character of efforts to link knowledge with action can be more meaningfully evaluated? 5. How can governance be forged and managed in a way that responsibly and accountably guides the choice of which problems are addressed, which knowledge is used, and which decision-makers are supported through science-based efforts? 13Other papers presented at the workshop described use-inspired research already going on in the CGIAR. Nyangaga, 14 for example, described the multiple roles and strategies undertaken by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partner researchers when analysis of impact pathways demonstrated the myriad issues affecting the uptake of research outputs and the ability of these to contribute to better outcomes. For example, researchers developed multiple strategies aimed at influencing policy processes, and empowered and motivated groups of farmers through capacity-building activities. Many of the experiences presented at the workshop reflected how CGIAR researchers are already playing boundary-spanning roles effectively in the challenge of delivering on the CGIAR mandate to apply knowledge for poverty alleviation, food security and environmental protection. Salahuddin 20 reported on the Poverty Elimination Through Rice Research Assistance (PETRRA) project in Bangladesh. The project partnership included a CGIAR Center, a development agency, local NARS and NGOs. The study gives some practical examples of establishing a continuum in the research-to-development pathway. The study concludes that \"choosing partners that were able to respond with a long-term organizational commitment towards pro-poor agricultural development and the ability of each organization to locate the project component into the wider context of their own organizational program were important for success.\" Issue 4: Traditional economic impact-assessment methods (i.e. rate-of-return studies) are not well suited for evaluating many of the complex activities and roles described above. An assessment of CGIAR Financial Plans and the Workshop papers indicates that the CGIAR's work is no longer concentrated around traditional crop-improvement research and that a wide range of methods is already in use to assess the diverse outcomes and impacts arising from the CGIAR investment portfolio. Thus, there is an urgent need for CGIAR management to acknowledge the legitimacy of this diversity and the broad range of impact assessment methods needed to evaluate it.The CGIAR has historically used rate-of-return studies to assess impacts and these have become the 'gold standard' against which impact assessment in the CGIAR is judged. Such traditional neo-classical impact-assessment approaches are valid and necessary in assessing returns to commodity research, and these methods have been well discussed and documented in the literature. 21 However, they are not sufficient for understanding (in a broader sense) how change happens and who benefits.The draft CGIAR impact-assessment guidelines focus largely on this method, while at the same time recognizing its limitations for evaluating such 'non-research' services as policy interventions, germplasm conservation, information and capacity-building. 22 As argued in earlier points above, our experiences indicate that effective research that is linked to problemsolving does not make such distinctions in reality. Analysis that is being applied in several Challenge Programs and the UK Department for International Development's (DFID) new climate change program, 23 and Outcome Mapping being used in five ILRI projects. During the meeting, we were informed of debates about impact-assessment methodologies taking place outside of the CGIAR in which many senior evaluators are arguing for a wide range of methodologies and greater flexibility. Rate-of-return studies are fully institutionalized as the standard for CGIAR impact assessment and this exerts a strong influence on most CGIAR planning, monitoring and evaluation. However, a recent analysis of the CGIAR financial reports concluded that at least 75% of the CGIAR's current budget is already directed to the types of activities for which rate-of-return studies are not best suited. 24 The risk inherent in this situation is that the application of rate-of-return studies to judge the impact of activities to which the methodology is not suited will result in inappropriate assessments of the performance of such activities and possibly lead to efforts to drive such work out of the CGIAR portfolio rather than promoting more of it.Experiences presented at the RIW reflected the application of a diverse range of approaches and methods to address an equally broad range of impacts-those most frequently reported by authors were participatory research, innovation theory, institutional learning or sustainable livelihoods frameworks. All authors reported using more than one method. Nearly half (47%) of the authors reported using some type of participatory monitoring and evaluation methods or participatory rural appraisal tools. About a third (30%) of the authors reported having conducted quantitative surveys and analysis, and nearly a quarter of studies (23%) used casestudy methodology. Other assessment methods reported included institutional or innovation histories, most significant change, social network or value chain analysis, benefit-cost analysis, and analysis of geographic data.The methods were used to assess a broad range of impacts, and most studies assessed impacts within more than one domain. The most commonly assessed impact was changes in practice, attitudes, knowledge and/or skills, followed by technology adoption and production changes or institutional changes. A third (33%) of the authors assessed income and livelihood outcomes and/or changes in well-being. Moderately frequently reported impacts were changes in empowerment and equity (27%), policy changes/policy influence (17%), changes in access to, control over or ownership of resources (10%), and changes in social networks or 23 Douthwaite B; Alvarez S; Thiele G; Mackay R; Cordoba D; Tehelen K, 2008. Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis: A practical method for project planning and evaluation. RIW selected paper. 24 CGIAR Secretariat, 2007. Investment Proposals and Financing of the 2008 CGIAR Research Agenda  (Draft). www.cgiar.org/pdf/agm07/agm07_draft_2008_finplan.pdf. Table 2 shows that only 24% of the proposals are in 'genetic improvement' for which rate-of-return studies, as outlined by Walker et al.  (forthcoming, loc. cit.) are most appropriate. The 75% figure refers to the investment proposals of the CGIAR Centers only (US$ 481 million), and does not include the US$ 38 million going to the Challenge Programs (CP). It would seem likely that traditional economic impact-assessment approaches apply less to the work of the CPs than to the work of the Centers, and thus the 75% may underestimate the extent to which the entire portfolio of the CGIAR is 'non-traditional.' relationships (10%). Some might argue that these are outcomes rather than impacts, but the list demonstrates that different people have different definitions of impact. Researchers working in the field with partners may well define impacts broadly in a way that does not conform to the current definition in use in the CGIAR, but rather in a way that is realistic and meaningful to them, their partners and beneficiaries.Issue 5: New capacities are needed if we are to adopt new approaches to research for poverty reduction and associated impact assessment. Capacities include technical skills, and skills in other areas such as collaborative problem-solving, facilitation, and systems thinking. Social-science staffing in research centers needs to be adequate (political scientists,  sociologists, anthropologists, human ecologists, economists, psychologists and possibly  others). Policies, procedures and accountability mechanisms need to be adjusted and organizational learning capacity increased. However, capacity development ultimately depends on the commitment of top-level leaders.Addressing poverty requires greater social-science capacity (beyond economics to include political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, human ecologists, etc.) and greater capacity to work collaboratively. Thus, we firmly support similar arguments made recently in the note from the Farmer First Revisited conference sent to the CGIAR independent review team. 25 Institutional support to learning processes are key, and require a broadening of impactassessment approaches beyond the traditional, mostly quantitative and economics-based expost assessments.Technical capacity entails changing organizational procedures, as well as building individual skills. Individuals can take their skills with them when they leave the organization, but new procedures and systems become integral to how an organization operates. The institutionalization of new research approaches cannot be unlinked from the learning capacity of an organization and the capacity for systems thinking (sustainable livelihoods and innovation systems are examples of where systems concepts are relevant to the work of the CGIAR).Accountability mechanisms must be established to encourage and reinforce new behaviors and practices, which ultimately requires building responsibility for new research approaches and impact-assessment methods into job descriptions, work-plans and performance assessments. Organizational culture deals with the informal norms and embedded attitudes of an organization. The commitment of top-level leadership is required to actively support a new idea or approach, commit staff time and resources, and institute supportive policies and procedures. Without this commitment other efforts, such as skill-building, will likely have limited affect.Concerns were expressed at the RIW that, in a general climate of increasing pressure to compete for grant funding (among other factors), some elements of the performance measurement system and medium-term planning process may be sending mixed messages about research for poverty impact (i.e. more demand for impact yet less recognition of multiple roles of researchers in the research process). This is likely to drive research away from the types of approaches we have argued are needed to address poverty, social exclusion and inequity. On a bright and hopeful note, Flavio Avila 26 presented a keynote paper describing the experiences from Brazil's agricultural research institute (Embrapa) that showed how the definition of impact and methods for its assessment seem to be broadening over time and how impact assessment is clearly linked to planning and other assessment mechanisms.Issue 6: Learning organizations that are effective at innovation are also likely to be effective in engaging end-users. We need to thoughtfully assess who to involve and how, using participatory action-research, planning and priority-setting processes, evaluation and other mechanisms in order to engage farmers and the poor, or the civil society organizations that represent them, in meaningful ways at appropriate points throughout the research process.This issue of inadequate meaningful engagement of end-users is possibly at the root of many other issues discussed at the RIW. This is not a new issue and has indeed been recognized in the CGIAR change process as a need to be addressed by the Partnerships Sub-committee. Many of the RIW papers (47%) used participatory impact-assessment methods and it is likely that most of the research presented used participatory approaches. This remains an important entry point for engaging farmers and users.However, many RIW participants felt that the issue of farmer involvement in research has evolved beyond participatory action-research or participatory evaluation to include meaningful engagement in different ways at different 'levels' of the CGIAR System. For example, governance of the CGIAR does not give farmers, the poor or civil society organizations (CSOs) that represent them an effective voice in the System or an effective role in decision-making. An informal review of information related to the CGIAR Civil Society Organizations Committee, for example, leaves the impression that the committee is neither staffed nor resourced, has no internal leadership and little authority or responsibility.Several participants expressed concern about an absence of requirements for ex-ante assessment for establishing priorities for research funding. While too much effort is spent on planning and bureaucracy, too little space and willingness exist for open discourse. As a result, resources may not be directed toward research with the greatest impact potential.From the perspective of many of the RIW participants, representation and voice is related to power. Participants eloquently pointed out the challenges in getting the voice of poor villagers heard in the research process-for example, overcoming practical obstacles such as language barriers or more difficult issues such as power imbalances felt at different levels such as between non-scientists and scientists, villagers or NGOs and government officials, and national and international organizations.A paper was prepared by the CGIAR Secretariat in 2006 that made recommendations for a multi-pronged approach to engaging CSOs, 27 but we do not know to what extent these recommendations were endorsed or implemented. In any event, many of the participants at the RIW felt that efforts to resolve the issue have not been adequate.In the interest of working toward practical solutions, this section provides suggestions for possible action by CGIAR leadership and management, and also presents actions that the organizers (PRGA Program, ILRI Innovation Works and ILAC) and other workshop participants are already committed to taking or actively supporting.The CGIAR must recognize and stimulate the more complex and dynamic research that is oriented toward agricultural innovation and co-creation of knowledge. As a practical first step toward this, we recommend that the CGIAR Research Priorities be classified according to their degree of complexity, so that a more clear distinction can be made between those parts of the research portfolio that are complex, more likely to require an active partnership approach and thus need different approaches to management and evaluation, and those that are relatively simple and can use more traditional approaches. Box 1 presents a possible way of categorizing the Research Priorities.Once we know which parts of the research portfolio are complex and require different approaches, research management and evaluation procedures should be differentiated accordingly. Most of the recommendations that follow assume a distinction between simple and complex, and are applied to the more complex types of research.Innovation can be linked to innovation performance by tracking such indicators as new projects, new partnerships, new resources, more diverse resource base. CGIAR managers should support efforts to benchmark learning and innovation (as it does for gender and diversity through the Gender and Diversity [G&D] Program) and track performance over time. An external system for periodic performance assessment might eventually replace the annual performance indicators related to organizational learning currently in use, which have not been validated and do not provide data that can be compared against other organizations.The CGIAR should make a stronger commitment to building capacity to manage complex research, including in areas related to participatory research, facilitation, leadership and management, poverty and development. ILAC, the G&D Program, Central Advisory Service for Intellectual Property, the CGIAR Secretariat and others are sponsoring staff development (for CGIAR and partner scientists and managers) in management, negotiation and facilitation, and those efforts should be encouraged.The CGIAR should develop and adopt a clear strategy and code of conduct for engaging users-including farmers, the poor and the civil society organizations that represent them-in the research process. Follow-up monitoring and evaluation should be done to assess success in terms of indicators such as adaptation and uptake of products, outcome achievement (in terms of behavior change or policy change), medium-or long-term sustainability of change, knowledge and relationships, and trust.The Stripe Review of Social Science in the CGIAR (underway at the time of writing) is an excellent opportunity to assess the widest range of social-science disciplines represented in the CGIAR. Management should ensure that: Social science is broadly defined in the study and information disaggregated by discipline to ensure adequate assessment of capacity in anthropology, sociology and political science; A broad range of disciplines is represented in planning the review and on the review committee;The study explicitly addresses the adequacy of current staffing for research related to social and cultural systems, farm-to-market interactions, policy-making, institutional relationships, education systems, power dynamics and others; The study also addresses CGIAR capacity for inter-disciplinary research management (crossing different social-science disciplines and between social science and natural science); There may well be deeply embedded biases in the CGIAR against some social-science disciplines, based on the strong traditional orientation toward natural-science research. This should be addressed in the study.Center Boards of Trustees, Science Council, external review committees, senior staff at Centers, CGIAR Secretariat and other formal governance and oversight mechanisms should be reviewed and monitored with an eye to ensuring that the interests of farmers, the poor and civil society are represented. In a practical sense, this could translate into CSO representation and/or representation of anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists on high-level boards and committees. This should then be monitored through the performance measurement system.The Research into Use Programme, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, ILAC Initiative and others made a commitment to develop an information portal for impactassessment methodology. This would compile existing impact-assessment methods and examples to make them more accessible and understandable for use by researchers, research managers and practitioners, and would help identify gaps where new methods are needed.CIFOR, with support from ICT-KM, 28 is leading an effort to develop a compendium of exante impact-assessment methodologies currently in use in the CGIAR. This document will be published in 2008. A discussion forum will also be established to promote dialogue about how to best move forward with a more systematic research priority-setting process that stimulates dialogue and challenges assumptions.ILAC Initiative is seeking resource support for a major impact-assessment research project that would develop or adapt methodology and then apply the methodology to participatory research for development. Ideally, CGIAR leaders would recognize the importance of the introduction of a wider range of methodologies for impact evaluation and the use of a wide range of methods would be institutionalized in the CGIAR performance standards and other mechanisms.ILAC is investigating indicators for organizational learning capacity assessment and surveys that could be used by CGIAR Centers and their partners. Indicators are likely to include: tolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty and errors; degree to which new ideas and suggestions are dealt with sympathetically; scope of relationships with external environment (clients, other research institutes, political systems, etc.); and, level of influence that employees have in the decision-making processes. ILRI's Innovation Works Programme and other RIW participants committed to further developing a set of principles for linking knowledge with action that was discussed at the workshop, and to link the principles with tools, methods, approaches and strategies. A training course for research managers-aimed at CGIAR scientists and their non-CGIAR","tokenCount":"4165"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a0d25e2e2656c99dd7d25bc6ec7d21b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4c25c593-c234-4835-977b-366bc41c92bd/content","id":"-179857479"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"52dd67db-f335-42ec-bd36-63157f9e46af","pagecount":"12","content":"Global warming poses a major threat to food security and necessitates the development of crop varieties that are resilient to future climatic instability. By evaluating 149 spring wheat lines in the field under yield potential and heat stressed conditions, we demonstrate how strategic integration of exotic material significantly increases yield under heat stress compared to elite lines, with no significant yield penalty under favourable conditions. Genetic analyses reveal three exotic-derived genetic loci underlying this heat tolerance which together increase yield by over 50% and reduce canopy temperature by approximately 2 °C. We identified an Ae. tauschii introgression underlying the most significant of these associations and extracted the introgressed Ae. tauschii genes, revealing candidates for further dissection. Incorporating these exotic alleles into breeding programmes could serve as a pre-emptive strategy to produce high yielding wheat cultivars that are resilient to the effects of future climatic uncertainty.heat is among the most widely cultivated crops in the world with more than 216 million hectares grown annually 1 , most of which is produced under temperate conditions 2 . Heat stress is one of the major abiotic stressors that impacts global wheat production, reducing leaf area, crop duration and the efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration 3 as well as reducing floret fertility and individual grain weight 4 . Together, these physiological consequences negatively impact productivity 3 with potential devastating effects. For example, in 2010, Russia saw a 30% reduction in wheat yield during their hottest summer in 130 years 5 . Cases like this could become commonplace as global warming causes temperatures to rise and extreme weather events to become more frequent. Simulations predict that global yields will fall by on average 6% for each 1 °C increase in temperature 6 , with some regions reaching 9.1% ± 5.4% per 1 °C rise 7 . Adaptation to future climate scenarios is vital to ensure global food security 8 . Climatic instability, combined with environmental constraints, such as restricted supplies of irrigation water and arable land loss, emphasises the need for breeding strategies that deliver both increased yield potential during favourable cycles and resilience to abiotic stress and environmental constraints.Such adaptation relies on genetic variation underlying the traits of interest; however, modern elite wheat material typically has limited genetic variation, particularly in the D genome 9 , due to historic genetic bottlenecks 10,11 compounded by intensive artificial selection by breeders 12 . A strategy employed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIM-MYT) to increase the genetic diversity of wheat pre-breeding material is to incorporate exotic parents in their germplasm via strategic crosses 11,13 . The most common exotic parents used are Mexican and other origin landraces 14 and primary synthetics, which are produced by hybridising tetraploid durum wheat with Aegilops tauschii, the ancestral donor of the D genome, to recreate hexaploid bread wheat 15 ; these synthetic lines act as a bridge to introduce durum and Ae. tauschii variation into modern hexaploid wheat. This approach has been successful in introducing disease resistance as well as drought and heat adaptive traits 16,17 . Landrace and synthetic material have been identified with superior biomass in comparison to elite lines under drought and heat conditions 18,19 and elite lines that include landrace or synthetic material in their background have been developed in recent years for drought, heat, and yield potential conditions [20][21][22] .Challenges remain for the effective deployment of landrace and synthetic material. Only a small fraction of these vast collections of crop genetic resources have been evaluated for climate resilience traits and potential tradeoffs under favourable conditions have not been assessed. Currently, most of these genetic resources are unused 23 as breeders tend to avoid exotic materials because of large regions of poor recombination and a fear of linkage drag 24 . Furthermore, despite evidence of the contribution of exotic material in wheat improvement, the physiological and genetic bases of heat tolerance in this material remain unclear.Here, we evaluate a spring wheat panel in the field containing contrasting material controlled for phenology and plant height under heat stress and yield potential conditions. We explore yield and related physiological traits and compare exotic-derived lines with elite lines. We conduct a genome-wide association study to reveal marker trait associations (MTA) with heat tolerance traits and evaluate their impact under favourable conditions. Finally, we identify introgressed Ae. tauschii underlying an MTA and employ in silico mapping downstream of the GWAS to narrow down the interval, explore recombination and identify candidate genes.Physiological evaluation of HiBAP I under heat stress. To estimate the contribution of exotic material to heat tolerance and identify its genetic bases, we evaluated the High Biomass Association Panel I (HiBAP I) for two consecutive years under yield potential and heat stressed irrigated conditions in NW-Mexico (Supplementary Table 1). The HiBAP I panel represents an unprecedented resource of genetic diversity 25 . It contains 149 lines, some of which are elite while others contain exotic material from landraces, synthetics, and wild relatives (Fig. 1a, Supplementary Data 1). All lines have agronomically acceptable backgrounds and a restricted range of phenology and plant height under yield potential conditions 21 which allows traits of interest to be evaluated without confounding effects.Heat stress was imposed by delayed sowing compared to the check environment (Supplementary Fig. 1) and, across both years of evaluation, this reduced yield by 48.1% and shortened the crop cycle duration by more than 30% (Fig. 1b, Supplementary Table 3). When we analysed the response to heat stress of the lines based on their pedigree, exotic-derived lines exhibited an average of 37.7% higher yield compared to elite lines under heat stressed conditions (Fig. 1c, upper). Biomass, the trait most affected by heat stress, was 39% higher in exotic-derived lines, and other yield components, except for harvest index (HI), were significantly higher in exotic-derived lines than elite lines (Fig. 1c, upper). Under yield potential conditions, exotic-derived lines did not show a yield penalty compared to elite lines, as reported in 21 (Fig. 1c, lower). Exotic lines were on average 5.6 cm and 3.8 cm taller than elite lines under heat stressed and yield potential conditions, respectively. No differences in phenology were observed between the groups in either of the environments. Plant height was not correlated with yield under yield potential conditions (r = -0.007, p > 0.05), but positive correlations were observed between plant height and yield under heat stressed environments (r = 0.699, p < 0.001). The better performance of exotic-derived lines was validated using the stress susceptibility index (SSI). This measure is negatively correlated with yield under heat stressed conditions; thus, lower SSI values indicate higher tolerance to a stressful environment. Compared to elite lines, exotic-derived lines had significantly lower SSI values for yield, grains per m 2 and biomass at physiological maturity, but not for thousand grain weight (Table 1).Additional physiological traits were measured in the experiments to help understand the physiological basis of the superiority of the exotic-derived lines under heat stressed conditions. Exoticderived lines had significantly higher normalised difference vegetative index (NDVI), a proxy for biomass, and significantly lower canopy temperature during both vegetative and grain filling stages under heat stressed conditions but not under yield potential conditions (Fig. 2). NDVI measured during vegetative and grain filling stages was positively correlated with yield (Fig. 2) while canopy temperature was negatively correlated with yield at both stages (Fig. 2). These correlations were present under heat stressed conditions but not under yield potential conditions. The correlations were steeper for exotic-derived lines than elite lines for both traits across both phenological stages, suggesting that NDVI and canopy temperature are having a higher impact on yield in exoticderived lines compared with elite lines. Under heat stressed environments, both NDVI and canopy temperature presented similar correlations with biomass at physiological maturity, grain number, and other yield components (Supplementary Table 5) but no correlation was observed under yield potential. The stess susceptibility index index calculated for yield was negatively correlated with agronomic and physiological traits except for canopy temperature, where positive correlations were observed indicating that more tolerant lines had consistently cooler canopies (Supplementary Table 5).Genome-wide association analysis reveals genetic associations under heat stress. To explore the genetic bases of these exoticderived heat tolerance traits, marker-trait association analyses were performed using Best Linear Unbiased Estimator (BLUE) means from two or four replicates for each measured trait over two growing seasons. The most relevant MTAs are shown in Supplementary Table 6, and all Manhattan plots are shown in Supplementary Fig. 2. We found 3 pleiotropic markers (Fig. 3a) on chr1B (chr1B-63398861: C), chr2B (chr2B-820002: C) and chr6D (chr6D-6276646: T). These MTAs were associated with all three heat stress indices along with multiple yield traits, including yield and canopy temperature, at both vegetative and grain filling stages, and were not associated with harvest index or phenology (Fig. 3c, Fig. S2). The favourable allele at each position was the minor allele.Lines with the favourable C allele on 1B and 2B and the unfavourable A allele on 6D have 24.3% higher yield under heat stress; lines which also have the favourable T allele on 6D have 56.5% higher yield under heat stress compared to lines with the three unfavourable alleles (Fig. 3b). Assuming the three alleles do not interact epistatically, the T allele on 6D can be estimated to increase yield under heat stress by 32.4%. Lines with the favourable allele at all three MTAs show a reduction in canopy temperature of 1.97 °C and 2.37 °C, at vegetative and grain filling stages, respectively, when compared to lines with the unfavourable allele at all three positions (Fig. 3b). Under yield potential conditions, no difference was observed between favourable and unfavourable allele combinations for yield or for canopy temperature (Fig. 3b). The b Effect of heat stress on yield (YLD), thousand grain weight (TGW), number of spikelets per spike (SPKLSP -1 ), number of spikes per m 2 (SM2), plant height (Height), number of infertile spikelets per spike (infertile SPKLSP -1 ), harvest index (HI), grain weight per spike (GWSP), number of grains per spike (GSP), grain number (GM2), days to physiological maturity (DTM), days to anthesis or days to heading (DTA/DTH for yield potential and heat stress experiments respectively), and biomass at physiological maturity (BM_PM), showing the percentage difference compared to yield potential conditions. c Comparison of yield (YLD), thousand grain weight (TGW), grain number (GM2), biomass at physiological maturity (BM_PM), harvest index (HI), and Height between elite and exotic-derived lines in HiBAP I measured under both heat stress and yield potential conditions. The boxplots are defined as follows: centre line = median; box limits = upper and lower quartiles, whiskers = 1.5x interquartile range; points = outliers. The significance of the difference between Elite (n = 83 biologically independent lines) and exotic-derived (n = 66 biologically independent lines) lines for each trait was assessed using two-tailed t tests with no assumption of equal variance. p-values below 0.01 were considered significant (*), below 0.001 very significant (**) and below 0.0001 highly significant (***). Means, standard deviations, confidence intervals and p-values can be found in Supplementary Table 2.favourable allele at each of these MTAs is predominantly found in exotic-derived lines with 50/55 (1B), 44/45 (2B) and 33/33 (6D) lines with the favourable allele classified as exotic-derived. 7 lines appear to be heterozygous (A/T) at 6D-6276646. The HiBAP lines are inbred to at least the F9 or F10 generation so, as sequencing data was generated from pooled samples, this observation could be the result of alleles segregating at this locus. However, we observe no significant difference in yield or canopy temperature under heat stress between lines that are heterozygous and lines that are homozygous for this allele (Supplementary Fig. 3). This suggests that these lines are indeed heterozygous for the favourable allele and also suggests that the phenotype may be dominantly inherited.Aegilops tauschii introgression underlies 6D MTA. Due to the better performance of exotic-derived lines under heat stress and exotic-derived lines possessing alleles for heat tolerance, we searched for introgressed material overlapping the MTAs. We detected introgressed material in HiBAP I lines by looking for genomic blocks containing windows with SNPs specific to Ae. tauschii, Th. ponticum or S. cereale and reduced mapping coverage, seen as coverage deviation (mapping coverage compared to the median mapping coverage across the panel) significantly below 1, which indicates breaks in synteny between wheat and the introgressed chromosome segment. Using this approach, we identified introgressed Ae. tauschii material at the beginning of 6D in all 33 lines with the T/T genotype and all 7 lines with the A/ T genotype at MTA 6D-6276646, where T is the favourable allele. As Ae. tauschii is from wheat's primary genome and thus very similar to the D subgenome, not every 1Mbp window is sufficiently lacking in synteny for reads to map poorly and produce significant coverage deviation below 1. This explains why some windows within the introgression have coverage deviation of around 1. However, these windows still have Ae. tauschii-specific SNPs and are within a block of 1Mbp windows in which most have significant coverage deviation below 1. Therefore, we can be confident that the introgression includes these windows.The full-length, unbroken segment is 31.6Mbp in length, as seen in Sokoll (HiBAP_57) (Fig. 4a). The segment size within independent Sokoll Weebil1 crosses show that recombination occurs readily within the segment, breaking it up into variable sizes (Supplementary Fig. 4). By comparing the overlapping segments between lines, we found a 1.80Mbp core introgressed region between 5.05Mbp and 6.85Mbp that is present in all lines with the T/T or A/T genotype at 6D-6276646 and absent in all the lines with the A/A genotype (Fig. 4a). In A/T lines, the introgression itself, in addition to the favourable allele, appears to be heterozygous, evidenced by intermediate mapping coverage deviation compared to the homozygous lines and by heterozygous SNPs whose alternative alleles are specific to Ae. tauschii. Using chromosome and protein alignments, we anchored this 1.80Mbp core region from the wheat RefSeq v1.0 genome to the Ae. tauschii reference genome, Aet v4.0 26 , and extracted the syntenic 1.49Mbp region between 4.63Mbp and 6.12Mbp. This represents the probable introgressed content of the core introgressed region and likely contains the gene(s) responsible for the MTA (Fig. 4b,  c). We found no evidence of introgressed material overlapping the 1B or 2B MTAs.Candidate genes for MTAs in 1B, 2B and 6D. For the 6D MTA, we identified the syntenic region in the Ae. tauschii genome and a list of genes that had been introgressed (Fig. 4c). As we are unaware of the Ae. tauschii accession that has been introgressed, we also looked at the genes within the same region in four other available chromosome-level Ae. tauschii assemblies 27 . Between accessions, this region varies between 1.49Mbp and 1.82Mbp in length and contains between 26 and 33 genes (Supplementary Data 2). These include a MIKC-type MADS-box gene orthologous to SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1); a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) gene found in two of the Ae. tauschii accessions with no orthologue in wheat; and a pair of type-B two-component response regulator receiver proteins, orthologous to type-B Arabidopsis response regulators (ARRs) with closest similarity to ARR-11. One member of the pair, AET6Gv20025700, appeared to have a myb-binding domain that is missing from the wheat orthologue gene model. However, after manual reannotation, we found that this difference was a misannotation in wheat so likely not causing a functional difference. We also found that both ARR genes were expressed in spike and grain in both Ae. tauschii and wheat but not in leaf or root, whereas the other candidate genes were expressed across leaf, root, spike and grain tissues. This might exclude the ARR genes for involvement in the heat tolerant phenotype which is established during the vegetative stage and maintained through grain filling. For the 1B and 2B MTAs, as they were not within an introgression, we submitted the sequence 1Mbp up and downstream of the MTA to Knetminer, a gene discovery tool 28 . Within the 2B interval, we identified DEHYDRATION-RESPONSIVE ELEMENT-BINDING PROTEIN 1A (DREB1A) and STEROL GLUCOSYLTRANSFERASE (SGT) as promising candidate genes. The functional evidence of candidacy for each candidate gene is outlined in Supplementary Note 1.Exotic parents are routinely used to increase genetic diversity in wheat pre-breeding pipelines and their enhanced performance has been demonstrated under salinity 29 , drought 14,19 and heat stress 18,30 . In the present study, exotic-derived lines performed better under heat stress than elite lines with no yield penalty under yield potential conditions. This increased yield under heat stress was associated with a range of factors, including higher biomass throughout the crop cycle, higher grain number and cooler canopy temperature during both vegetative and grain filling stages. Contrary to other studies 31,32 higher pre or post anthesis biomass (NDVI) or lower canopy temperature was not associated with higher yields under favourable conditions. Cooler canopies have been previously associated with higher tolerance to drought and heat irrigated environments 33 and with optimised root distribution in bread wheat 34 . Plants with an optimised root system are able to satisfy the high evaporative demand through elevated transpiration rates under hot irrigated conditions and thus maintain cooler canopies 35 . Higher transpiration rates are associated with increased stomatal conductance that, in turn, is associated with higher photosynthesis that can explain the higher biomass observed in exoticderived lines in comparison with elite lines. However, according to temperature response models in wheat 6 , the observed reduction in plant temperature of approximately 2 °C would be unlikely to account alone for the >50% increased yield of exotic lines 6 . Despite variation in plant height being restricted, exoticderived lines were taller than elite lines in both environments. Plant height and phenology were restricted under yield potential conditions, but the variation under heat stress environments was not initially considered for the panel construction. Interestingly, lines that performed well under heat stress had the lowest difference in plant height between yield potential and heat stress conditions. Taller plants have better light interception and a better light distribution in comparison with shorter plants, and this has been associated with increased photosynthesis 36 . Therefore, plant height may be influencing the better performance of exotic-derivatives. Among all stress indices, the stress susceptibility index (SSI) is thought to be the most useful index for evaluating tolerant cultivars. Exotic-derived lines had significantly lower SSI than elite lines, adding additional support to the resilience of this exotic material under heat stress.In the present study, heat stress was achieved by delaying sowing by more than three months. This could have introduced confounding effects as delayed sowing changes not only temperature but also photoperiod. However, the photoperiod effect in this study is considered minimal for several reasons. Firstly, the lines presented in this study were selected using the shuttle breeding technique that characterises CIMMYT's wheat breeding strategy and selects lines relatively insensitive to photoperiod and vernalisation response. This is because one selection site has a long photoperiod and negligible vernalizing cold 37 . Secondly, insensitivity to the photoperiod was confirmed by marker analysis where among the known major adaptation genes, the spring allele at Vrn-B1 (Vrn-B1a) and Vrn-D1 (Vrn-D1a) and the Ppdinsensitive allele at Ppd-D1 (Ppd-D1a) were present in ~90% of Fig. 2 Relationship between normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) and yield and between average canopy temperature and yield at both grain-filling and vegetative stages. NDVI and canopy temperature were measured with UAVs at pre-heading (vegetative stage) and during grain filling. Regression lines were calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient between each pair of traits (n = 83 and 66 biologically independent lines for the Elite and exotic-derived groups, respectively) and added for classification/condition combinations with a significant correlation (p-value < = 0.01). The correlation coefficient, r, and the steepness of the line, ranges from −1 to 1, signifying very negatively correlated and very positively correlated, respectively. Pearson's correlation coefficient, confidence intervals and p-values for all comparisons can be found in Supplementary Table 4.the HiBAP I panel 38 . Finally, delayed sowing at CIMMYT's Obregon station is routinely used for evaluating heat-tolerant breeding material, and several studies confirm the value of late sowing at this experimental site to develop germplasm adapted to different heat stressed environments worldwide 4,18,[39][40][41] .De novo SNP discovery is the process of generating SNP markers from high-throughput next-generation sequencing as opposed to using lower density genotyping arrays. The value of this approach in breeding efforts is starting to be more widely recognised. In conjunction with high throughput phenotyping methods 42 , high density, unbiased markers can be leveraged to discover MTAs or to narrow pre-existing QTL intervals to provide more robust markers for global breeding programs 43,44 . Using these methods, we have identified alleles at three pleiotropic MTAs on chromosomes 1B, 2B and 6D that when stacked increase yield by 56.5% and reduce canopy temperature by 1.97 °C/2.37 °C under heat stress conditions when compared to lines containing the three major alleles at these positions (Fig. 3b). These markers were associated with multiple agronomically important traits under heat stress including yield, grain per   square metre, grain filling rate and biomass (Fig. S2). Despite being in apparently disparate regions of the genome, the 1B and 2B favourable alleles always occur together and the 6D favourable allele usually occurs with the 1B and 2B favourable alleles. This suggests that there may be functional linkage between the markers. All three MTAs are predominantly found in exotic-derived lines but are not exclusive to any of the exotic categories as we see them in synthetic, introgression line and landrace derivatives. This brings their origin into question as their most recent pedigree suggests that the favourable alleles may have come from different sources. These MTAs do not overlap with MTAs previously identified for HiBAP I for photosynthetic efficiency 25 or biomass traits 21 . We identified several individuals that appear to be heterozygous for the introgression and for the favourable allele on 6D. As sequencing was conducted on pooled samples of 10 individuals per line, lines that appear heterozygous might instead be segregating for presence/absence of a homozygous introgression. As the phenotype under heat stress appears to be the same between lines that are homozygous and lines that are heterozygous at this locus, it seems likely that these lines are heterozygous for the introgression and allele. In addition, this also indicates that the heat tolerant phenotype contributed by 6D may be dominantly inherited; however, additional work would be needed to validate this. The zygosity of the allele in these lines can be verified in future work by developing markers and observing how they segregate in subsequent generations.By utilising mapping coverage information and species-specific SNPs, we identified that the MTA on 6D was within an Ae. tauschii introgression. We show that this introgression readily recombines within CIMMYT germplasm by comparing the introgressed segment in different offspring of the same cross. Due to concerns regarding linkage drag and lack of recombination of wild relative introgressions 44 , this is promising for the deployment of introgressed segments from the primary genepool into breeding programmes. The recombination enabled us to reduce the size of the interval responsible for the MTA by looking for the Fig. 4 Aegilops tauschii introgression underlies chr6D-6276646 MTA. a Visualising Ae. tauschii introgressions across the first 50Mbp of chr6D in six HiBAP I lines, four containing the favourable T allele at chr6D-6276646 (HiBAP 57, 29, 48, and 65) and two containing the unfavourable A allele at chr6D-6276646 (HiBAP 92 and 103). Mapping coverage deviation was computed between the HiBAP line and the median of the panel in 1Mbp windows. Red points are statistically significant outliers (n = 149 biologically independent lines). Ae. tauschii-specific SNP ratio in each 1Mbp window was calculated by dividing the number of homozygous Ae. tauschii-specific SNPs in that window by mean number of homozygous Ae. tauschii-specific SNPs in that window across the panel and then removing values below 1.45. Green lines mark the borders of the region common to all lines with the favourable T allele, corresponding to a 1.80Mbp region in wheat RefSeq v1.0 and a 1.49Mbp in Ae. Tauschii Aet v4.0. The purple line indicates the MTA position. b Synteny between 6D:1-10,000,000 in CS RefSeq v1.0 52 and Ae. tauschii Aet v4.0 26 . The green box indicates the 1.80Mbp region (1.49Mbp relative to Ae. tauschii) common to all lines with the favourable T allele, corresponding to the green region in (a). The purple line indicates the MTA position. c Alignment of 6D:1-10,000,000 in CS RefSeq v1.0 52 and 6D:1-10,000,000 in Ae. tauschii Aet v4.0 26 , illustrating how the syntenic region in Ae. tauschii was identified and extracted.region always present in lines with the favourable genotype. The smallest segment in the panel that contains the MTA is around 5Mbp and can likely be broken down further; the small size and it's telomeric location make it amenable for deployment in breeding programmes.The longest unbroken is present in Sokoll, a commonly used advanced synthetic-derived line. Recombination within the segment takes place in all Sokoll × Weebil1 crosses yet appears unbroken in Sokoll. Therefore, Sokoll may be the donor line for this marker in many of the lines in HiBAP I. This would make sense given its presence in many of the pedigree histories of CIMMYT's synthetic-derived lines (Supplementary Data 1). Some of the HiBAP I lines contain an Ae. tauschii segment that contains both the 6D MTA and a resistance gene upstream that underlies an MTA from a recent GWAS in Ae. tauschii 45 . If the accession of Ae. tauschii in the HiBAP I lines confers the same resistance these lines could be used as donors for both traits.The 6D MTA uncovered is supported by an MTA for heat tolerance reported in 13,22 nearby on 6D. Singh et al., 2018 13 state that the 6D MTA overlapped with an Ae. tauschii introgression, using speculative markers and pedigree-based inference. Here, we confirm this speculation and then demonstrate its ability to recombine and narrow down the introgressed region conferring the heat resilient phenotype through in silico introgression mapping.Following the identification of the core introgressed region, we extracted the syntenic region from five Ae. tauschii chromosomelevel assemblies and used these, as opposed to the wheat reference genome, as our source for putative candidate genes underlying the 6D MTA. Extensive literature searches on the introgressed Ae. tauschii genes or the wheat genes within the interval (for the 1B and 2B MTAs) uncovered several candidate genes for further dissection. Candidate genes are by their nature speculative but may provide a starting point for follow-up studies aiming to map the causal genes. As the 6D Ae. tauschii segment appears to be actively recombining, it should be possible to precisely dissect this region and map the causal gene. Our proposed candidate genes for the 6D MTA differ from the gene proposed by Singh et al. 13 . By using the Ae. tauschii genomes rather than relying solely on the wheat reference genome, we have demonstrated that the isoflavone reductase gene Singh et al. 13 proposed is not present in the core introgressed region. This difference and the introgressed candidate gene not found in wheat identified highlight the importance of considering non-reference genomes downstream of a GWAS, particularly when divergent material has been introduced, as the variation underlying the trait of interest might be absent from the reference genome.These three markers can be deployed into marker-assisted breeding or introgression pipeline programmes to incorporate heat resilience traits into elite cultivars. The fact that no yield penalty was identified under more favourable conditions adds value to their deployment, especially given the negative impact that has been documented in terms of yield stability under increasing temperatures using extensive international data 46 . The donor lines for these markers will be selected using our introgression mapping approach to introduce minimal linkage drag alongside the traits of interest. Efforts to develop KASP markers for the favourable MTA alleles are currently ongoing at CIM-MYT. The germplasm is available to the community through IWYP.org request.Plant material and growth conditions. The High Biomass Association Mapping Panel HiBAP I consists of 149 spring wheat lines (Supplementary Data 1) and is composed of elite high yielding lines and lines with exotic material in their pedigree history derived from CIMMYT breeding and pre-breeding programs 21 . These exotic lines include primary synthetic derivative lines, containing between 0.5% and 43% donor material 25 ; Mexican and other origin landraces derivatives; and Elite lines containing an introgressed segment of Th. ponticum on chr7D and/or S. cereale on chr1B 25 . The set of Elite lines contain 11 CIMMYT varieties released from 1966 until 2007 and additional lines derived from the systematic screening under yield potential and heat stressed field conditions of CIMMYT breeding and pre-breeding material. This allowed the identification of elite genotypes with favourable expression of traits of interest such as high biomass/RUE at different growth stages including final above ground biomass under both yield potential and heat stressed conditions. In general, pre-breeding material is derived from crosses where one of the parents was selected for expressing low canopy temperature and/ or high yield or biomass under heat stressed environments.To construct the final panel, a pre-panel consisting of more than 250 lines from different sources were evaluated in the field under favourable conditions; lines with a favourable agronomic background and without extreme height or phenology under yield potential conditions were selected to reduce the confounding effect of extreme phenology or height on the expression of biomass and other traits. HiBAP I was evaluated during 2015/16 and 2016/17 under yield potential (YP16 and YP17) and heat stressed conditions (Ht16 and Ht17). Heat stressed conditions were created with delayed sowing where emergence was registered in March instead of November or December as in a normal growing cycle (Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Fig. 1).The field experiments were carried out at IWYP-Hub (International Wheat Yield Partnership Phenotyping Platform) situated at CIMMYT's Experimental Station in Campo experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) in the Yaqui Valley, near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico (27°24' N, 109°56' W, 38 masl) under fully irrigated conditions for both yield potential and heat stressed experiments. The soil type at the experimental station is a coarse sandy clay, mixed montmorillonitic typic caliciorthid. It is low in organic matter and is slightly alkaline (pH 7.7) 47 . Experimental design for all environments was an alpha-lattice. Yield potential experiments consisted of four replicates in raised beds (2 beds per plot each 0.8 m wide) with four (YP16) and two (YP17) rows per bed (0.1 m and 0.24 m between rows respectively) and 4 m long. For heat stressed experiments, two replicates were evaluated for HiBAP I in 2 m × 0.8 m plots with three rows per bed (Supplementary Table 1). Seeding rates were 102 Kg ha −1 and 94 Kg ha −1 for YP and Ht experiments, respectively. Appropriate weed disease and pest control were implemented to avoid yield limitations. Plots were fertilised with 50 kg N ha −1 (urea) and 50 kg P ha −1 at soil preparation, 50 kg N ha −1 with the first irrigation and another 150 kg N ha −1 with the second irrigation. Rainfall, radiation, maximum, minimum and mean temperature by month for all the years of evaluation are presented in Supplementary Fig. 1.Agronomic measurements. Phenology of the plots was recorded during the cycle using the Zadoks growth scale (GS) 48 , following the average phenology of the plot (when 50% of the shoots reached a certain developmental stage). The phenological stages recorded were heading for heat experiments (GS55, DTH), anthesis for yield potential experiments (GS65, DTA) and physiological maturity (GS87, DTM) for both experiments. Percentage of grain filling (PGF) was calculated as the number of days between anthesis and physiological maturity divided by DTM.Plant height was measured as the length of five individual shoots per plot from the soil surface to the tip of the spike excluding the awns. Spike, awn and peduncle length were measured in five shoots per plot before physiological maturity (PM). Fertile (SPKLSP -1 ) and infertile spikelets per spike (InfSPKLSP -1 ) were also counted in five spikes per plot at PM. At physiological maturity, grain yield and yield components were determined using standard protocols 49 . Samples of 100 (YP16), 50 (YP17) or 30 (Ht16, Ht17) fertile shoots were taken from the harvested area at physiological maturity to estimate yield components. The sample was oven-dried, weighed and threshed to allow calculation of harvest index, biomass at physiological maturity, spikes per square meter, grains per square meter, number of grains per spike and grain weight per spike. Grain yield was determined on a minimum of 3.2 m 2 to a maximum of 4.8 m 2 under yield potential experiments and 1.6 m 2 under heat experiments. In yield potential experiments only, to avoid edge effects arising from border plants receiving more solar radiation, 50 cm of the plot edges were discarded before harvesting. From the harvest of each plot, a subsample of grains was weighed before and after drying (oven-dried to constant weight at 70 °C for 48 h) and the ratio of dry to fresh weight was used to determine dry grain yield and thousand grain weight. Grain number was calculated as (Yield/TGW) × 1000. Biomass at physiological maturity was calculated from yield/HI. Number of spikes per m 2 was calculated as biomass at physiological maturity /(shoot dry weight/shoot number).Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for canopy temperature and NDVI estimation. Aerial measurements data for canopy temperature and NDVI was collected using different aerial platforms. Each year, the logistics and availability determined which platform could be used for measuring the heat trials. A summary of the platforms used, together with the cameras and the achieved resolutions, is presented in Supplementary Table 8. The multispectral and thermal cameras were calibrated onsite by measuring over calibration panels placed on the ground before and after each mission. An exception were the aircraft missions, where a calibration performed at the airfield would not be representative of the trial conditions. The flights were designed as a regular grid of north-south flightpaths covering the whole trial with images that overlapped 75% in all directions to ensure a good reconstruction of the orthomosaic. The flights were performed under clear sky conditions at solar noon ±2 h.NDVI and canopy temperature orthomosaics obtained from the aerial images using the software Pix4D. The orthomosaics were then exported to ArcGIS where a grid of polygons representing each polygon was adjusted on top of the image. To avoid the border effect, the polygons were buffered 0.5 m from the north and south border of the plot. Finally, the pixel values were extracted using the 'raster' package in R. We extracted the value of all the pixels enclosed within each polygon and removed possible outliers and calculated the average per plot.Stress tolerance Indices. To determine the effect of heat stress in the genotypes evaluated across years and panels, Stress susceptibility index (SSI) was calculated using data from yield potential (Yyp) and heat stressed (Yht) experiments as follows (Eq. 1):where Ȳht and Ȳyp are the mean yields of wheat lines evaluated under heat stress and yield potential conditions, respectively 50 .Statistics and reproducibility. Data from both panels was analysed by using a mixed model for computing the least square means (LSMEANS) for each line across both years using the program Multi Environment Trial Analysis with R for Windows (METAR 51 ,). When its effect was significant, DTA/DTH was used as a covariate (fixed effect) except for phenology. Broad sense heritability (H 2 ) was estimated for each trait across both years as follows (Eq. 2):where r is the number of repetitions, e is the number of environments (years), σ 2 is the error variance, σ 2 g is the genotypic variance and σ 2 ge = G×Y variance. Unpaired t tests for stress index (SSI) were conducted with the means across years to determine if the elite and exotic groups presented statistical differences with p-value < 0.001.DNA extraction, capture enrichment and genotyping. All genotyping data was taken from ref. 25 . Flag leaf material from 10 plants per line was collected from field grown plots post anthesis and pooled prior to extraction with a CTAB-based protocol. DNA was extracted using a standard Qiagen DNEasy extraction preparation and quality and quantity assessed using a NanoDrop 2000 (Thermofisher Scientific) and the Quant-iTTM assay kit (Life Technologies). From this DNA, dual indexed Trueseq libraries with an average insert size of 450 bp were produced for each line and enriched using a custom MyBaits 12Mbp (100,000 120 bp RNA probes) enrichment capture synthesised by Arbour Bioscience and using 8x precapture multiplexing. 90,000 of these probes were designed using an island strategy to target regions across the whole genome. A subgenome-collapsed reference was used to design these probe sequences to enable homoeologous regions to be targeted with a single probe, thus expanding the design space. The final 10,000 probes were designed for selected genes, targeting both the gene body and 2Kbp upstream. Post enrichment libraries were sequenced using an S4 flowcell on an Illumina NovaSeq6000 producing 150 bp paired end reads. Sequencing reads were trimmed and low-quality reads removed. These reads were mapped to the Chinese Spring RefSeq v1.0 wheat reference genome 52 using BWA mem v0.7.13 53 . Samtools v1.4 54 was used to remove unmapped reads, supplementary alignments, improperly paired reads, and reads that didn't map uniquely (q < 10). PCR duplicates were removed using Picard's MarkDuplicates 55 . SNPs were called using samtools mpileup and bcftools call 56 with parameter -m. SNPs were filtered using GATK 55 to remove SNPs that were heterozygous, had a quality score <30 or a depth <5. A locus was designated as homozygous reference if no alternative allele was found but 5 or more reads were mapped at that position. To create a set of shared SNPs for use in GWAS, SNPs for all lines were combined and loci with more than 10% missing data and a minor allele frequency (MAF) below 5% were removed. The remaining SNP loci were subjected to imputation using Beagle 5.0 57 .Genome-wide association study (GWAS). STRUCTURE v2.3.4 58 was used to genetically infer the population structure of the panel and produce a population structure matrix. An admixture model was selected and run using 30,000 burn-in iterations and 50,000 Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) model repetitions for assumed subpopulations of 2-10 for 10 randomly selected, seeded iterations for each assumed subpopulation. The delta k method from 59 was applied to all 10 replicates to identify the most likely number of definable subpopulations. This was implemented using the STRUCTURE HARVESTER Python script 60 . Finally, CLUMPP v1.1.2 61 was used with 10 independent STRUCTURE replicates to produce a consensus Q matrix for each assumed subpopulation number. GWAS analysis was conducted using the MLM model implemented in GAPITv3.0 62 . Principal component analysis eigenvectors 1-10 or membership coefficient matrices for 3-8 assumed subpopulations deduced above by STRUCTURE were used as covariates in the model to mitigate the effects of hidden familial relatedness. The EMMA method 63 was implemented in GAPIT to create a positive semidefinite kinship matrix required by the MLM model. Each MTA flanking interval was deduced by identifying the SNP position furthest upstream and downstream from the highest associated SNP that was above the -log P threshold of 5.Identifying regions of divergence. RefSeq v1.0 52 was split into n genomic windows using bedtools makewindows 64 . Using the alignments produced in ref. 25 and detailed above, the number of reads mapping to each window was computed using hts-nim-tools 65 . To normalise by the sequencing depth of each line, read counts were divided by the number of mapped reads that passed the filters, producing normalised read counts c. Different windows of the genome have variable mapping coverage rates, so to compute coverage deviation we must compare each window to the same window in the other lines in the collection. Median normalised read counts, m, were produced, containing the median for each genomic window across the 149 lines. Mapping coverage deviation, d, was then defined for each line as follows (Eq. 3):for window i ∈ {1, 2, …, n}, where ε is the median d value across the genome for the line. Statistically significant d values were calculated using the scores function from the R package 'outliers' with median absolute deviation (MAD) and probability of 0.99. This method was based on ref. 66 .Producing species-specific SNPs. Paired-end whole-genome sequencing data for the Ae. tauschii reference accession AL8/78 26   69 were mapped to RefSeq v1.0 52 , filtered and SNP called as described for the genotyping above and in 25 . Homozygous SNPs were retained if they had between 10 and 60 reads supporting the alternative allele and an allele frequency > = 0.8. Heterozygous SNPs were retained if they had between 10 and 60 reads mapped and were biallelic with each allele having > = 5 reads in support and an allele frequency > = 0.3. SNPs from one relative species not shared with any of the other species or wheat cultivars were retained as species-specific SNPs. These species-specific SNPs were assigned to HiBAP SNPs if they matched in position and allele. Species-specific SNP ratios were calculated by dividing the number of SNPs in each window matched to a species-specific SNP by the mean number of SNPs matched to that species in that window across HiBAP I. SNP ratio scores below 1.45 were removed to keep enriched scores only.Synteny between Ae. tauschii and T. aestivum. The first 10 Mb of 6D from CS and Ae. tauschii Aet v4.0 26 were aligned using Minimap2 70 with parameters -x asm10. Alignments <2.5 Kb in length or with mapping quality <40 were discarded. The dot plot was produced using pafr R package 71 . Proteins encoded by genes in the first 10Mbp of 6D in Ae. tauschii and CS were aligned using BLASTp 72 . Protein alignments and minimap2 alignments were used to anchor either side of the region commonly introgressed in all lines with the 6D T genotype to anchor the region from CS to Ae. tauschii. The Ae. tauschii genes and their proteins within this segment are considered as candidate genes. BLASTp 72 was used to compare these proteins to wheat proteins. Protein domains were identified using HMMER hmmscan 73 via ebi using Pfam, TIGRFAM, Gene3D, Superfamily, PIRSF, and TreeFam databases.Extracting corresponding region and genes from Ae. tauschii genomes. Proteins encoded by genes in the first 10Mbp of 6D in Ae. tauschii and CS were aligned using BLASTp 72 . Protein alignments and minimap2 alignments were used to anchor either side of the region commonly introgressed in all lines with the 6D T allele to anchor the region from CS to Ae. tauschii. The sequence extracted from the Ae. tauschii reference genome was aligned to the other 4 chromosome-level assemblies using minimap2 70 with parameters -x asm5. Alignments below length 5000 or quality of 40 were removed. The coordinates of each orthologous region were determined manually and the genes within these coordinates extracted from the respective gff files. The Ae. tauschii genes and their proteins within these segments were considered as candidate genes for functional exploration. BLASTp 72 was used to compare these proteins to wheat proteins. Protein domains were identified using HMMER hmmscan 73 via ebi using Pfam, TIGRFAM, Gene3D, Superfamily, PIRSF, and TreeFam databases. Novelty of genes was determined by aligning the extracted protein sequence to each genome using tblastn 72 .Exploring functionality of candidate genes. The genes in each identified interval (except for those in the 6D interval) were submitted to Knetminer 28 . The knowledge networks created for each gene were then studied to identify links to the trait from which each MTA was deduced including their biochemical function and orthologous genes being linked in other organisms such as Rice and Arabidopsis thaliana. For the Ae. tauschii genes introgressed into the 6D interval, we conducted extensive literature searches to identify genes with links to heat stress response based on functional studies of related genes.Reannotating candidate gene and assessing tissue-specific expression. To test whether the missing myb-binding domain in the TraesCS6D02G014900 annotawas real or an artefact, we manually reannotated the gene. We identified the exon containing the MYB-binding domain in the wheat orthologue by aligning the coding sequence from the tauschii orthologue to Chinese Spring RefSeq v1.0 52 using tblastn 72 . We mapped Chinese Spring RNAseq data from leaf, root and shoot to RefSeq v1.0 52 using HISAT2 74 and assembled transcripts using cufflinks 75 . We visually inspected the coding sequencing and RNA-Seq alignments using IGV 76 , which showed that the MYB-binding domain exon is present and expressed in wheat. To check whether the protein has a premature stop codon, we extracted the coding sequence from the assembled transcript and checked for the presence of a complete open reading frame with no stop codons using EMBOSS getorf 77 . Finally, we checked the presence of intact domains with HMMER hmmscan 73 via ebi using Pfam, TIGRFAM, Gene3D, Superfamily, PIRSF, and TreeFam databases. To explore qualitative expression of candidate genes, we mapped Ae. tauschii RNAseq data from leaf, root, seedling and developing grain 10dd (PRJEB23317) to Aet v4.0 26 as above and abundances were counted using StringTie 78 , taking the mean transcripts per million (TPM) across the replicates. Qualitative expression of the CS orthologues was explored using Wheat Expression Browser 79 and the previously leaf, root and shoot RNAseq data mapped above.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. © The Author(s) 2023","tokenCount":"7712"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f7b73978db4e96911d2cff65499f7a13","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_5430.pdf","id":"-612032917"},"keywords":["Galnewa Irrigation Project","1 5","3","2","2 3","2","3 3","3","2 Kirindi oya Ivrigation and Settlement Project: Right BE\\nk SDA, Dailv dischrirges"],"sieverID":"92a1aad8-ad1b-4212-b9a2-f422cd320bb6","pagecount":"352","content":"Sketch of data logging s t a t i o n , P i l o t Area (El, T r a c t 2 ) , Ra.iaru?rma l e f t brink main c a n a l ~ . ~ . . .Simulated range of water l e v e l v a r i a t i o n a t t h e o f f t a k e s h i l e l e v e l a t downstream cross r e g u l a t o r v a r i e s .Reach GR12-GR13, ICirindi @a R F W . . . . . . . . . .Relative rame of water l e v e l v a r i a t i o n exqectc? nbo\\.e o f f t a k e i n v e r t l e v e l s , Reach GR12-GR13, K i r i n d i Ova RAW K i r i n d i @ a Right Danlt Main C a n a l : Water l e v e l s and gate       T ; h l e I V . 5T a b l e 1\\'.6Tab1.e 11;. 7 'Tr1ble IV.8Table w . 9  x iTable IY.11    I i i r i n d i @a RBPlC: Daily c o e f f i c i e n t s of v a r i a t i o n of main c a n a l water l e v e l a t the GR3:Dc5 l o c a t i o n , and d a i l y coefficien.,s of v a r i a t i o n of' d i s c h a r g e i n t o d i s t r i b u t a r y canal Dc5 . , I . ~ . . ~ . I . ~ . . , .Kirirrdi @a P?BPK : D a i l y c o e f f i c i e n t s o f v a r i a t i o n o f nwin c a n a l water l e v e l a t t h e GR3:BCZ .location, and  D a i l y a-veraue i;ai,er deliver\\. per unit c u l t i \\ -a t e c i ai-e~f d u r i n c each peritd of inflow along SDA Plain C a n a l . . . '1-36  ,\\~W v. 1 I k l n n h u t t i y a : S e r r s i t i v i t y of discharge i n d i s t r i b u t a r y canal 307D3 t o w i t e r l e v e l v a r i a t i o n s i n branch canal A-31Frequency d i s t r i b u t i o n s of c o e f f i c i e n t of v a r i a t i o n of discharge i n t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y h a i n c a n a l s studied . . . A-37A m v. 2Improvement i n Plain System Manerzement h a s been i d e n t i f i e d as a key t o Letter performance of i r r i g a t i o n systems.This aspect of I r r i g a t i o n Elanagement deserves more p r o f e s s i o n a l a t t e n t i o n and research.The obLiective of t h e p r e s e n t s t u d y is t o document with a managementorient.ed approach t h e r e a l i t y o f main canal o p e r a t i o n s with p a r t i c u l a r r e f e r e n c e t o of t h e planning and design of main systems on t h e nnnagentent and performance o f t h e systems.Main canal r e g u l a t i o n h a s been ruialyzed from t h e p o i n t of view o f La) its impact on t h e d i s t r i t j u t i o n of flows from t h e main canal, ( b ) its c o n t r i b u t i o n t o t h e manageability and a b i l i t s t o operate t h e physics1 systems, and ( c ) its i m p l i c a t i o n s f o r t h e inanacerial requirements o f t h e i r r i g a t i o n agencies.t h e implications IT?lI has conducted a compsrative study of t h r e e i r r i g a t i o n systems i n S r i I.anka and one i n t h e P h i l i p p i n e s , which d i s p l a y d i f f e r e n t planning and design f e a t u r e s i n t h e i r main systems and c a n a l s .These are: ( a ) t h e K a l a n l i u t t i w Branch C a n a l of the Galnewa Pro.ject i n System H of t h e Mahaweli Economic ikency of t h e Mahaweli Authority of S r i M a ; ( b ) t h e Right h l k Main Canal (RD'IC) of t h e K i r i n d i @a I r r i g a t i o n and Settlement Pro.ject IKOISP) of the I r r i e a t i o n Department, S r i Lanka; ( c ) t h e Ra.iangana P i l o t D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l of t h e R s j w a r i a I r r i g a t i o n Scheme of t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department, S r i M a ; and I d ) the S e t 0 Doming0 Area ISDA) Plain C a n a l of t h e Upper Pampanza River I n t e g r a t e 2 I r r i g a t i o n System (UPRIIS) of t h e National I r r i g a t i o n Administration ( N U ) of t h e P h i l i p p i n e s .The s t u d y analyzes t h e i m p z t of t h e physical aspects o f t h e systems, i n c l u d i n c t h e s t r u c t u r i n g of main systemsand canals, on ( a ) t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l s e t u p of t h e I r r i g a t i o n Agencies i n charge of t h e i r o p e r a t i o n s , and ( b ) t h e m % g e a b i l i t y of t h e two i n t e r r e l a t e d primary f u n c t i o n s of a main c a n a l , m e l y t h e conveyance o f water from a source of supply t o remote places of delivery t o sub-units of t h e system. F i e l d i n v e s t i g a t i o n s and analyses have been conducted t o examine ( a ) t h e a c t u a l c o n d i t i o n s under rhi'-h canal o p e r a t o r s e x e r t c o n t r o l over t h e W i c a l process. t.he flow J f water, and (b) t h e a c t u a l c o n d i t i o n s under which t h e management p r w s of d e c i s i o n making t a k e s place a t t h e v a r i o u s o p e r a t i o n a l l e v e l s of t h e agency as r e q u i r e d f o r =a1 r e g u l a t i o n .Elost of t h e information u t i l i z e d f o r t h e s t a y was c o l l e c t e d during one i r r i g a t i o n season i n 1988. This was performed through ( a ) i n t e n s i v e aut.olnatic rwnrdim of m a 1 water l e v e l s using e l e c t r o n i c data-longer technology, a5 !<ell as classizal s t a r e -r e c o r d e r s (a t o t a l of 31 d i f f e r e n t . sensing p i n t s '%ere dispersed a t key l o c a t i o n s alone t h e main canals and a t some branchine p o . i n t s ) , ( b ) c a r e f u l f i e l d m o n i t o r i m of c a n a l o p e r a t i o n s , and (cl i n t e r v i e w s of t h e o p e r a t i o n s s t a f f .The study a l s o d r e w upon pre\\,ious work conducted by IPII on t h e same systems as w e l l as r e s u l t s generated by s i m u l a t i o n s performed t h r o w h a v a i l a b l e mathematica1,mdels of some of t h e c a n a l s .A . The I m p a c t of Planning and Design on t h e MBnagement Water i n t h e Main Canals Studied of t h e Conveyance of The main. c a n a l s s t u d i e d correspond t o subsystems of much l a r g e r pro.iect.s. With t h e exception of t h e K i r i n d i Oya R i g h t BRnlc b i n C a n a l , which takes o f f d i r e c t l y from a main s t o r m e r e s e r v o i r , the canals s t u d i e d w e r e dewrident f o r t h e i r supply on an upper conveyance system. I n t h e case of t h e Kalankuttiya Branch Canal, t h e upper conveyance system c o n s i s t s of a cascade of 3 t a n k s , namely, Kalanltutti.va, Mulannatuwa, and l i a l a w e w a .The last tank is i t s e l f supplemented by a d i v e r s i o n from t h e Mahaweli River. I n t h e case of t h e S m t o Domingo Area b i n canal, t h e upper conve,vance system is charact.erizthi by a cascade of 5 d i v e r s i o n s a l o r a t h e 50 km long water course and d i v e r s i o n c a n a l (Dc#1) b e t w e e n t h e source of supply and t h e head of t h e canal s t u d i e d (SDA Main Canal). I n t h e case of Rajangana t h e c a n a l s t u d i e d is a d i s t r i b u t , a r y canal taking: o f f t h e upper reaches of a main canal.The following design characteristics w e r e i d e n t i f i e d as important parameters t h a t c o n s t i t u t e t h e foundation f o r more d e c e n t r a l i z e d o p e r a t i o n s a t the h e a d of subsystems:Decentralized s t o r a g e capacities such as i n Fiahaweli System H can improve t h e manageability of extended systems.This was evidenced by t h e higher l e v e l of performarice achieved i n System H , i n terms of t h e q u a n t i t a t i v e c o n t r o l o f t h e supply a t t h e h e a d of t h e subsystem, when compared w i t h t h e Diversion C a n a l DcUl a t UPRIIS.A t I h l a n k u t t i y a , during , & a ( d r y season) 1988 t h e management of t h e l e f t bank main canal (convey,mce system) succeeded, with l i m i t e d managerial e f f o r t , i n r e f i l l i n g t h e lialankuttiya Tank i n due. time without a f f e c t i n g t h e program of w a t e r i s s u e s f r m t h e tank. This r e s u l t , however, h a s t o be weighed a g a i n s t t h e d i f f i c u l t i , e s experienced previously a t a time of water shortage (&a, or w e t season, 1986/87).This s h o r t a g e p u t exceptional s t r a i n on t h e conveyance syst'em and on its management, which found itself r e l a t i v e l y unprepared t o fa8ze such a s i t u a t i o n with its usual manarerial p r a c t i c e s . A t t h e UPRIIS, on t h e c o n t r a r y , t h e supply provided a t t h e head of t h e SDA Main Canal depends l a r g e l y on the performance of t h e upper conveyance system ( D c 3 1 ) . In 1988, t h e yupply a t t h e head of t h e SDA was very irrerrular d e s p i t e the considerable managerial e f f o r t s deployed by t h e s t a f f of t h e Water C e n t r a l Coordinating Center of t h e UPRIIS/NIA, assisted by t h e District Hydrolocist and supported by an e f f e c t i v e r a d i o communication system. The srtpply c o n d i t i o n s a t t h e head ,of t h e system make i t almost f u t i l e f o r t h e &ency t o envisage d i s t r i b u t i r u : water within t h e Santo Dominso Area w i t h t h e ob.jective of q u a n t i t a t i v e flow c o n t r o l as i n t h e case of Kalankuttiya. I n s t e a d , it was observed t h a t t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n was implenimted with a r a t h e r high degree of success on t h e basis of a \"degraded\" ob.jective, that, is, t o s h a r e whatever inflow is a v a i h b l e i n proportion t o t h e p l a n t e d areas.,A2. The r a t i o n a l use of h y d r a u l i c \" controls\" ( e . e . , lorn-crested w e i r s ) across c a n a l s , i f permitted by t h e topography, as an a l t e r n a t i v e o p t i o n t o manual water l e v e l c o n t r o l t h r o w h gated cross-res!ulators, was found t o have ES.2 a significant impact on the staffing. and manageability of the systems. Reasons for this include: (a) simple hydraulics &d simple operations; (b) reduced room for decision making at the level .of the operators while nevertheless improvind the quality of the water level control in the main canal, which in turn conditions the decision making and operations at the offtakes aimed at flow control; ( C ) opportunity for decentralized operations of the delivery function, relatively uninfluenced by the operations related to the conveyance of water in the main canal.It was observed,' in Kirindi Oya, that the excessive operational flexibility available at the,diversion point from a main canal (gated crossregulator plus lateral 0fftake)'wa.s abused to the detriment of conditions for effective management of the conveyance of water throughout the main canal. A likely e,xplanation the present concern of gate operators is limited to the distribution of water; they have little or no concern for the conveyance of water along the main canal.is that It was also observed that although \"controls\" are seldom used as level control devices, they are more readily used as measuring devices, but sometimes with limited success.\"Controls\" in the form of duckbill weirs existing at the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal, (and on the Rajangana Pilot canal) were found to be effective in creating hydraulic conditions (control of level) suitable for the control of water issues at the offtakes while eliminating the burden of gate operations on the main canal and all its 'negative consequences. Under such a conditioning environment in the.main canal, further gain of performance in the control of flow could be envisaged through technological innovations such as baffle distributors, provided of course that the process of technology transfer has been adequately effected. The planning and design features referred to above were found to have an impact on of the conveyance of water along canals, a factor that conditions the control of the water delivery. Other managerial conditions required for the control of water issues that were examined were: (a) the availability of explicit delivery targets, (b) the possibility of obtaining feedback on the actual flows delivered, and (c) the availability of physical means for operations. B1. At the head of the canals studied, these conditions were generally found to Le adequate, with the exception of the SDA. The poor performance of the SDA b i n canal in that respect was essentially conditioned by the inadequately regulated sources of its supply: (a) the local flow from a creek, and (b) the irregular sbpply from the upper conveyance system. As a result, the delivery objective within the Santo Doming0 Area during the 1988 wet season (which in fact turned out to be relatively water short) was found to be limited to the equitable sharing of available water and apparently not the provision of controlled water issues like in the other systems. the performance ES.3 02. The general observation in,the systems studied was that the managerial conditions required for the control of delivery at the offtakes were deficient.the design features of the canals that' often include ineffective devices to assess the flow diverted. Of more importance, however, are the deficiencies of the present regulating mechanisms for the conveyance of water along the canals and the difficulties in achieving this with the current practices of operation of the gated cross-regulators, This gap was of particular significance at Kirindi 0.w Right Dank Main Canal, as the hydraulics and the length of the canal make it difficult to perform efficiently the downstream mode of regulation attempted by the Agency. But even in the Rajangana Pilot Distributary C a n a l where this function could have liken performed more easily, the Agency did not seem to have taken advant&e ol F the technology to manage the conveyance function better, and in particular to monitor the inflow-outflow water halance along the canal. This deficiency can be attributed in part toAs a result of the investiigations carried out in the four systems, some general conclusions were arrived at as follows:C1. The territorial maEhitude.of eTtensive irrigation projects is reflected in the dimensions of the or.ganii,cational setup of their management agencies.The potential complexity o,P the management is not only determined by the size and structure of the organizations but also to a large extent by the layout of the main system and' the hydraulics of the canals. It may also happen, however, that even i n a system of limited size with an organization of corresponding magnitude, such as the Kirindi Oya Right Bank Plain Canal, the canal h.ydraulics might still be highly complex. Appropriate managerial practices are therefore needed to cope with this The operation of systems in a dynamic w m e r while maintaining the objective of an acceptable level of performance generally results in a higher degree of complexity of the management.between the physical infrastructure of the irrigation main system and the superimposed organizational a r r m enients of the agency to manage tie wqter from the source to the various points of delivery.C4. The parallel refers to the relative degrees of centralization versus decentralization available in 'both the agency and the physical system to control the complex process of 'ciaision making and the actions to be perfomed at various hierarchical levels with a view to the effective conveyance and distribution of water. The conveyance system df the Mahaweli System H, including a cascade of intermediate storage tanks, is an example of a main system with opportunities for decentralized operations of subsystems. In contrast, the conve,ya&e system that provides the supply to the Santo Doloingo i\\rea Mai.n Cana1.i~ directly dependent on the operations of a central reservoir.There are both a parallel and aNext >> C 5 . The r e f e r s t o t h e o p p b r t u n i t i e s provided, through t h e layout of t h e system and t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s 3f its hydraulic s t r u c t u r e s , f o r more or less d e c e n t r a l i z e d operations. i . e . , t h e degree of f r e e d m a v a i l a b l e t o an operator t o make d e c i s i o n s i n operating h i s subsystem, within c e r t a i n l i m i t s , without beinrr constrained by the operations of t h e higher order system and without i n t e r f e r i n g w i t h i t .CG. concern of t h e mmagement l e v e l concerned with t h e operations of main canals over long d i s t a n c e s . 01! t h e o t h e r hand, t h e d e l i v e r y function is more l i k e l y t o be t h e concern of t h e o p e r a t o r s at. t h e o f f t a k e s . The design and o p e r a t i o n a l p r a c t ices of agencies, however, appear t o lack a clear perception of t h e s e two i n t e r r e l a t e d functions of a m a i n c a n a l . The main canal tends t o be perceived by i r r i g a t i q n agencies and t h e i r s t a f f as a d i s t r i b u t i o n system with .emphasis placed on t h e d e l i v e r y aspects. S t a f f do n o t o f t e n take e x p l i c i t account of t h e conveyance function i n t h e normal operations of main canals.A rational approach t o t h e management >f t h e dynamics of t h e water transfer is n o t p r e s e n t . ' C7.. A r a t i o n a l approach t o manyxement should o r i g i n a t e a t t h e planning and d e s i m s t a g e with a clear r e c 3 m i t i o n o f : ' ( a ) t h e physical processes t o be handled (conveyance and d e l i v e r y ) ; ( b ) t h e conditions which are favorable or n o t t o t h e e f f e c t i v e c o n t r o l 3f t h e s e processes ( a v a i l a b i l i t y of e f f e c t i v e means f o r i n t e r v e n t i o n , a v a i l a b i l i t y of .means of feedback regarding t h e ongoing p r o c e s s e s ) ; and ( c ) t h e c o n s t r a i n t s placed on t h e management of each process by one another i f p e r f o d ' s i m u l t a n e o u s l y i n the same canal.One can expect t h e conveyance f u n c t i o n t o be t h e primary The degree t o which t h e plSnning and design have provided t h e structural d e c e n t r a l i z e d operation of the d e l i v e r y function was found t o c o n d i t i o n s f o r he an imrmrtant f a c t o r a f f e c t i n g t h e manageability of t h e system. D. Recommendations for Improving Canal Regulation D1. From t h e s e observations, i t is clear t h a t planning and design p l a y a critical role i n determining t h e complexity of t h e manaRement of t h e conveyance of rjater along canals. conveyance f u n c t i o n tends t o have been neglected i n t h e design of main canals. This is related t o the assumption t h a t main c a n a l s would usually operate under s t e a d y flow c o n d i t i o n s . I f t h i s assumption w e r e t r u e t h e problem of r e m l a t i n d t h e conveyance would be eliminated. Observations, 'however, i n d i c a t e t h a t t h e s e c o n d i t i o n s r a r e l y e x i s t i n the canals studied. This problem is f u r t h e r aggravated when canal operations are expected t o be more responsive t o changes i n a g r i c u l t u r a l water' demantI as w e l l as changes i n t h e environment. D 2 . i 2 m o r ~s t t h e range of o p t i o n s a v a i l a b l e t o an a e n c y t o improve t h e management of main c a n a l s i n a dynamic s i t u a t i o n , t w o d i r e c t i o n s have been i d e n t i f i e d ; one dealim w i t h improvements i n t h e realm of P l w n i w and Design, and t h e o t h e r with Management Improvements.These improvements, which could be achieved under a R e h a b i l i t a t i o n and Modernization program, include t h e f o l l o w i a :The management of the ES.5 1.Structural improvements through better Planning, Desim, and Construction:1.1. Structuring the main system.in a functional way w i t h due consideration for the primacy of the conveyance of water which has to be achieved through the nuiin canal, and providing buffer capcity (intermediate storage, ill-line canal storage, etc.) between the conveyance and distribut:i!on systems (but existing systems might have limited scope for such improvements).1.2. Simplifying the hydraulics of canals and their structures through the rational use of hydrau:iic \"controls\" (weirs) to substitute for h m control wherever permitted, by the topography.Phagerial improvements through Organization Design and Information Comniunica t ion :2.1.. Structuring the oi;ganization in a functional manner, again recognizing the primacy of the conveyance function and providim the corresponding administratitve-managerial unit, appropriately located within the hierarchy of the agency, whose sole responsibility will be the operation of the conve,pnce system; the staff of this unit should be 'distinct from those engaged in operatim the subsystems.2.2. Coordinating and tigh;ening the operations of structures along main canals through more integkated management at the &in canal level; the ability to monitor, proceris, and communicate information in real-time between the operators and management is a key element; the widest possible range of management techniques and technology should be explored for this purpose :including both hardware and software options. 1 . 3 . Regulation of the Knlanhuttiya Branch Canal making use of water flow information at the t a i l end of the canal.Icirindi @ a Right Bank b i n Canal ( m C ) 2 . 3 . Sulipress the v a r i a b i l i t y of flow associated with t h e maint.enance of' the syphon ~ 2 . 3 . h p r o v e the nlanazeability o f t h e RDMC: Develop a set of s p e c i f i c procedures for more e f f e c t i v e operations of t h e main canal.2.5. Improve the c o n t r o l of w a t e r i s s u e s a t t h e o f f t a k e s .2 . 6 . Explore prospects t o improve t h e r e g u l a t i o n of t h e canal.UPfiIIS -Diversion Canal K t l -Santo Doming0 Area (SDA) Main Canal 3.1. .Improve t h e c o n t r o l O P water i s s u e s a t t h e head of t h e SDA.3.Z1 Improve t h e . r e g u l a t i o n of t h e water conveyance through t h e Diversion Canal LW1.3 . 3 . 1inproi.e t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n of water within t h e Santo Dominno Area.   The conclusion of the present comparative study of the interactions between the design and the mana)<ement of main systems, emphasized the need f o r improving performance of the regulation of the water conveyance throunh t,he main canal as a precondition toward the control of water issues, hence improving the ma.nageabili,ty of .the system with respect to this objective.The importance of the ba13ic concepts involved in canal regulation and their implications is not a discovery in itself, but the pradox is that they have not received enough professional attention and actual application.Through the study, there have been opportunities to observe that even new irrigation projects planned and designed the latest design standard of agencies do not ditferentiate between the conveyance and distribution systems (liirindi m a ) ; extensive w i n systems have sometimes no interrnedi.ate storage capacities and hydraulic control is minimized (VPRIIS); aMll key decision nlalters of agencies and designers still trust that 'the main canal operates under the pr(?vailinq steady flow conditions for which the canals have been designed. At the other end of the hierarchy, Irrigation Laborers rightly distrust measiring gages which frequently turn out to be submerged, and a plethora of gates often tends to substitute for the concept of flexible a contrNdled mannerin others w o r d s , mnageability.The rational approach to addre:ss the question of managing the & m i c s of water transfer in a canal is generally not well perceived. Ekisting operational procedures to do this, if any, tend to let the operators manage t h e conveyance task (maintaining full supply depth, FSD, by standing order) and fail to consider that it i:j essentially an operational task for the iiitermediate level making in a position to oversee a canal as a thole. The result is that the feedback provided to this level is often inadequate to serve for canal regulation. Finally, extensive and expensive projects financed by donors are designed in such a way that when the need arises to improve the regulation of flow, it is almost an impossible t a s k unless there is dramatic upgrading of the w e r i a l capacities of agencies.With t h e growing concern t,D manage water resources more efficiently and t.o provide better water distribution services to fanners,, for diversified cropping in particular, the time is opportune to create more almreness amongst irrigation agencies their staff regarding: (a) the concepts implied by Canal Remlation and the general principles to be applied; and (b) the changes to be introduced in the managerial practices of agencies as well as in the planning and design, of a nature to facilitate the subsequent operations of main systems with the objective of improving canal regulation.. . This study is a modest contribution to that end. The reference to existing systems in S r i Lanka and the Philippines and to the actual operational practices of the agencies might help bring awareness amongst those agencies of the concepts associated with canal regulation. But the subject mrltter deserves a more comprehensive approach to transfer available knowledge and canal regulation technologies to their potential users.The following is a list of s p e c i f i c areas i d e n t i f i e d f o r t h e i r p o t e n t i a l t o improve t h e manageability and t h e performance of t h e systems studied.' These are p s s i b l e d i r e c t i o n s f o r f u r t h e r focused s t u d i e s t o improve r e h a b i l i t a t i o n and management of these..systems.Elahaweli System H -Kalawewa LA b i n Canal -K a l m k u t t i y n Branch C a n a l 1.Downward comniunication between t h e Mahaweli Authority of S r i m a (MASL), Colombo, and t h e Galnew% Project l e v e l -The a c t u a l t r a n s f e r of water d i v e r t e d from P o l g o l l a Dam t o Kalawewa Dam is c o n s t r a i n e d by t h e p r i o r i t y usage of t h e P a h a w e l i River wat,m?r for hydropower generation.AS a r e s u l t , t h e supply is n o t f u l l y predictable a t t h e Project l e v e l and it does n o t t a l l y with t h e Seasonal Operation Plan (SOP) which n e v e r t h e l e s s is used b s PIG1 f o r t h e p o s t s e a s o i d e v a l u a t i o n of t h e water management. This p r t u r b s t h e planning of water r i l l m a t i o n s by t h e System H Water Management Panel, , t h e formulation of tariiets for t h e w a t e r conveyance downstream, and f i n a l l y , 'the d i s t r i b u t i o n of wter.Contractual arrangement a t t h e h i g h e s t l e v e l between t h e t w o main u s e r s of t h e wat.er -Power and Agriciilturea t t h e onset of an i r r i g a t i o n season, u @ a t i w information regarding ,;he water resource a v a i l a b i l i t y , and conunwic a t i o n by the MiWL of t h i s infoimation t o t h e Galnewa p r o j e c t l e v e l , would be coliducive t o optimal w a t e r a l l o c a t i o n s and achievement of targets with respect t o t h e water distribut:l:on within Mahaweli System H. I n any case, it would be a d v i s a b l e a t t h e l e v e l of t h e System H Water Management Coordinating Panel t o develop seasonal s t r n t e g i e s for t h e u s e of Kalawewa Tank water f o r d i f f e r e n t s c e n a r i o s of a m n i x t i o n through Polgolla.This mihht lead t o d e c i s i o n s regarding a l l o c a t i o n of w a t e r from Kalawewa t h a t mag d i f f e r from the Seasonal Operation Plan estzrblished a t t h e macro l e v e l by t h e MASL.Control of the d i s t r i b u t i o n from t h e Kalawewa L e f t .Bank Main Canal (15N€) between Kalawewa Tank and Meegalewa tank^ and r e g u l a t i o n of B=! coiiveyiince betiieen t a n k s -Inadequate c o n t r o l and supervision a t t h e o f f t a k e t o t h e Galnewa Block along t h e n a i n canal jeopardizes t h e conveyance of water t o t h e tank downstream. of the LBm:Unit would need t o be strengthened with: ( i ) a Unit Head e n t r u s t e d with a l e v e l of a u t h o r i t y and s e n i o r i t y higher than t h e I r r i g a t i o n Ennineers of t h e blocks; ( i i ) adequate s t a f f f o r o p e r a t i o n s and supervision a t t h e o f f t a k e s ; ( i i i ) d a i l y feedback regarding water l e v e l s o f , and i s s u e s from, Kalawewa, P l e e g a l e ~~i , and Kalanltuttiya tanks, t o keep t r a c k of t h e actual volumes t r a n s f e r r e d d i l y and observe pcissible d e v i a t i o n s from t h e t a r g e t s .The optirational and managerial c a p c i t y 1The c a n a l s s t u d i e d are: Kalankuttiya Branch C a n a l , Santo DominrZo Area X a i n Canal, K i r i n d i Oya Right Bank Main Canal, and Rajwana P i l o t D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l . 1mprovemenl.s a t t h e l e v e l of t h e canal studied o f t e n depends on  hj,gher l e v e l s i n t h e main system which have n o t k e n i n v e s t i g a t e d w i t h t h e Sam! amount of d e t a i l i n t h e studY.They are mentioned however i n t h e list of p o t e n t i a l areas for improvement. i n t e r v e n t i o n s at REC.2 3 .t h e k l a n k u b t i y a Branch canal -The d i v i s i o n of r e s p n s ib i l i t i e s f o r t h e operations of the branch canal between two b l o c k s , Galnewa and Mecgalewa, as a t p r e s e n t would n o t f a c i l i t a t e t h e r e m l a t i o n of t h e c a n a l , should t h i s be attempted'by t h e agency.A channel of communication would have t o be e s t a b l i s h e d to permit r e g u l a r communication o f information r e G a r d i n C the s t a t u s of flow a t t h e tail 1307-D3), as w e l l as t h e r a i n f a l l , t o the I r r i r e t i o n Engineer responsible f o r t h e headworks. Unlike o t h e r systems, t h e re,kulation of t h e branch canal can be achieved w i t h feedback focusinf e s s e n t i a l l y a t t h e t a i l o f t h e canal. I n s t a l l a t i o n of a s t a g e recorder a t t h e tail as o r i g i n a l l y planned i n t h e design would prove u s e f u l t o t,tiat end t o ' r e \\ -e a l anoma1ies:in t h e d i v e r s i o n of water a t t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y channels from t h e branch c a n a l .Other suggested improvements include: I i ) wpaii-of t h e headgate mid sea.ling of a leak which represented 13 percent of the t o t a l water i s s u e s f o r p & ( d r y season) i n 1988: ( i i ) upgrade t h e calib r a t i o n a t t h e hump gage of o f f t a k e s where t h e w e i r boxes are p h y s i c a l l y and h y t r a u l i c a l l y f i t , and c a l i b r a t e .gate o r i f i c e s as a n a l t e r n a t i v e wherever weirs are destroyed or sutmitrged; ( i i i ) supervise more c l o s e l y t h e e i g h t o f f t a k e s 2 which do n o t b e n e f i t :Prom t h e r e g u l a t i n g e f f e c t of d u c k b i l l w e i r s : l i v ) d e l i v e r simultaneous water i s s u e s t o a l l d i s t r i b u t a r y canals along t h e branch c a n a l i n s t e a d of s h i f t i w t supply between t h e upper and t h e lower p o r t i o n s as was done i n t h e pas';. I n p a r t i c u l a r , r a i n f a l l information a t Weerawila would need t o be cons:rdered as it my d i f f e r widely from t h e r a i n observed a t Lunuganiwehera.The c a p a c i t y of t h e RE-RB o f f i c e t o monitor, on a w e e k l y b n s i s , t h e progress o f t h e c u l t i v a t i o n i n each u n i t cornnand area and t o process t h i s information i n a timely manner, might need s t r e n g t h e n i w . S i m i l a r l y , t h e Center could ass:.st RE-RE3 i n b u i l d i m and maintaining a database of t h e key parameters needed f o r t h e RBMC o p e r a t i o n s such as: t h e calib r a t i o n of t h e weir or g a t e opening a t t h e o f f t a k e s , better assessment by f i e l d measurement, of adequate a t t h e head of d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l s from t h e main, given t h e ' a c t u a l disparities i n s o i l c o n d i t i o n s , etc. &vb -The design of the grill which protects the entrance of the syphon is inadequate and This has been a frequent source of disturbance for the downstream portion of the canal, provoking occasional overtopping of the bank.This grill should be removed, and other means to eiisure pople's safety should ke used, such as a floating cable anchored across the canal some distance upstream of the syphon entrance, fencing, ladder, etc.. Suppress the gets clogged dsily by weeds.Improve the manageability, of the RBMC: Develop a set of specific procedures for more effective operations of the main canal -Because the hydraulics of the.RBMC are excessively.complex, operational options should be investigated by simulation through a mathematical model3 of the canal.(a)option includes the development of a set of timely operational procedures with the objective of stabilizing more quickly than at present the regime of flow in the w i n canal after any substantial change of target delivery at the head or at: an offtake, while keeping water at Full Supply k p t h i n the various reaches.Results anticipated will be a minimum of interventions at the cross-regulators.Intervention would be timely and guided by the prior knowledge of the final setting of the gates corresponding to a given pattern of steady distribution of water, hence improving on the current trial and error mode of operations at the regulators. Current canal operation practices h,hich emph,asize the maneuver of cross-regulators are expcted to shift, with more attention F i d to the control of flow at the offtake ire: Recommendation 8 b'elow). lb) Other possible optibns to b s e investigated in view of the regulation of the canal are associated with (i) upgrading the cmunication facilities to permit feedback regarding the hydraulic status of the canal in real-time (or alike) and improvement of direct communication with operators along the canal, or (ii) explorim the pr'xpect of creating lateral storage on the side of the a n a l at some intermediate section (re: Recommendation 9 below).A first 6.Improve the control of water issues at the offtakes -The current weirbox-cum-baffles provided by,the design to assess the flow diverted have proven inadequate. M y of th,lem have already been destroyed, and the agency envisages replacing them by 13road-Crested Weirs ( E X 3 1 said to be less sensitive to submergence.#:Considering the limited head loss available between FSD in the main canal and the offtake canal k d , Parshall flumes might be advisable, and this option should be explored. 9. Explore prospects to imprave the regulation of the canal -( a ) First direction: A major difficulty in regulating the canal in ways that would be responsive, is 'the absence of intermediate storage capcity t,hat. can be mobilized for the regulation of the canal. These present 3 Such a model to simul4te stea& and unsteady flow has already been developed by IIMI throwh a slpecial project supported by the Government of France. The mdel is currently calibrated and operational.d i f f i c u l t i e s are e x p c t d t o be exacerbated with t h e operation of Phase 11, now under c o n s t r u c t i o n , t h a t will extend t h e length of t h e main canal t o be regulated. I t would be advisab:.e t o e x p l o r e the prospect of c r e a t i n g a t some p o i n t on t h e r i g h t side of t h e w i n canal s e e lateral s t o r a g e c a p a c i t y which .can act as a b u f f e r . The operation of t h e -1 would have t o be modified i n accordance, t o manage t h e fi1l.i-of such an intermediate s t o r a g e , b u t t h i s i s exwcted t o improve s u b s t a n t i a l l y t h e p o t e n t i a l manageability of t h e system i n t h e newly extended portion of t h e tail of t h e RBMC. I n v e s t i g a t i o n s regarding t h e change i n operations required t o r e g u l a t e t h e system with t h e i n c l u s i o n of t h e lateral s t o r a g e would best be undertaken by means of t h e a v a i l a b l e simulation model of t h e canal.( b ) Second d i r e c t i o n : . t h e r e 1.s p r e s e n t l y a g r e a t deal of \"downstream\" c o n t r o l of t h e system through t h e c u r r e n t practices of the I r r i g a t i o n h b o r e r s who tend t o a d j u s t w a t w i s s u e s a t t h e o f f t a k e i n a way t h a t can s a t i s f y farmers' \"demands.\" 111 t h e f u t u r e , t h e need for.more f l e x i b i l i t y i n t h e scrpply of water a t t h e o f f l a k e is expected t o i n c r e a s e as t h e p r o j e c t moves t o more c r o p diversificat:.on as intended. Considering t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s a n t i c i p a t e d i n t h e upstream type? of r e g u l a t i o n of t h i s system, given t h e p a r t i c u l a r d e s i g n p it would be advisable t o explore t h e prospects f o r employing a downstream t y p e of i*egulation and t o i d e n t i f y t h e changes t h a t would be required: ( i ) i n 1;he r u l e s of operating the canal; ( i i ) i n t h e communication of information; arid ( i i i ) i n t h e r e g u l a t i n g s t r u c t u r e s and embankment o f t h e c a n a l . I ' a r t i c u l a r a t t e n t i o n should be paid t o t h e e f f e c t i v e c o n t r o l of t h e , w a t e r i s s u e s a t the o f f t a k e and t h e i r supervision t o prevent abuses. This type o f ' i n v e s t i g a t i o n would be best conducted t h r o w h the a v a i l a b l e simulation model of t h e canal.UPRIIS -Diversion Canal DCfl -Santo Domingo Area (SDA) Main Canal 10. Improve t h e c o n t r o l of watw i s s u e s a t t h e head of SDA -Regulation of t h e supply a t t h e head of t h e SDA Main C a n a l has been i d e n t i f i e d as a key area with p o t e n t i a l t o improve 6,ffectiveness i n t h e t h e water within the Santo Domingo Area while optimizing use of t h e local flow. But t h i s also depends t o some e x t e n t on t h e l e v e l of improvement which would be p o s s i b l e t o achieve i n t h e r e g u l a t i o n of t h e Diversion C a n a l E # 1 ( r e : I&commendaLion 1 I below). management of A t t h e head of SDA, better achievement of t a r g e t ' w a t e r i s s u e s and reduct i o n of t h e v a r i a b i l i t y of t h e inflow can be expected with t h e followinrt: ( i )  Improve monitoring of t h e inflow t o SDA a t 5-Bay Checkgate. A n a l t e r n a t i v e would be t o c . a l i b r a t e t h e o r i f i c e of t h e 'IDA headgates (never operated) and assess t h e flow from a measure of t h e d i f f e r e n t i a l head through t h e s e g a t e s . This operritor should r e c e i v e a t least daily feedback regarding the a c t u a l inflow a t t h e SDA headgate; ( i i i ) develop t h e procedure t o be followed by t h e operator of t h e SDA supply h e d a t e and assim t h e following t a s k s : ( a ) estimate t h e d a i l y local flow i n t h e creek from t h e REC.5 difference between the inflow monitored at the SDA hedate and flow diverted (existine measuring station maintained by the Nydrologist); and (b) adjust the diversion of water from N'#1 to supplement the local flow so as to meet the delivery target set for the Santo Doming0 Area by the Hydrologist. Plonitoring and evaluation of the compliance of the operator with this task could be achieved by the Hydrcdogist on the basis of records of the inflow at the head of the SDA Main Canal.11. Improve Che regulation of the water conveyance through the Diversion Canal Dc#1 -Improving the control of water issues taking off from the Diversion canal should be a priority. The present level of supervision along Dc#1 does adequate to achieve any sort of regulation of the canal. It minht be desirable to strengthen the operational capacity of the Water Control Coordinating Center (WCCC) , with adequate staffing, including gatekeepers and supervisors, to be placed under the WCCC authority and payroll. Considerim the far-reaching impact on the overall performance of the system of the regulation of a large canal like Dc#1, it might be justified for NIA to concentrate efforts and means to regain what seems to be a loss of authority and to eradicate illegal interventions of the magnitude of those observed at Radial Gste RG#3, for instance. Further improvement of prformance in water management appears highly dependent in respect of law and order at the level of DC#l.The principle und&lyin$'the operation of the diversion canal is that Dc#1 should supplement local flows eventually available at the head of the various irrigation subsystem.Although not investigated in the present study, the control of water issues at the head of each subsystem should be expected to follow operation principles similar to those quoted above (re:Recommendation 10). If this were to be applied, the diversion canal Dc#1should preferably be regulalted in a downstream mode which means that the operation rules at each Radial Gate along Dc#1 should be to fill the downstream reach. The prospst of implementing such a mode of regulation should be investigated, preferably on the basis of hydraulic simulations of the flow in the canal.If feasible, this option would greatly improve the responsiveness of the system and facilitate the manac!ement of the conveyance and the comunication of information associated with it. However, there are two conditions for its feasibility: (i) effective conlirol of water issues from DC#l and associated \"policing\" along the canal (as mentioned above); and (ii) flexibility in the quantity of water released fronii Pantab.w?an Dam, to be adjusted takinp; into accodt the variation of the writer \"demand\" of Dc#1 and monitored at the head of it.12. Imnrove the distribution of water within the Santo Doming0 Area -So far. the regulation of the simuly at the head of the SDA subsystem is poor. Some limited-improvement cbulci -be achieved by fine-tuning the quantity of water diverted from W#1, but. it does not seem realistic to envisage any regulation of the water transfer along the SDA Main Canal. This is because of the current design of the canal which provides an excessive number of opportunities for ad-hoc checking, ruling out possibilities for coordinated operations along the canal. Therefore, the system seems bound*to be operatedunder a rather large variabili.ty of flow, increasing .from the head to the tail of the main canal.Under these circumstance!; the actual mode of distribution adopted by NIA's staff at the lateral, i.e., sharing the water in proportion to the area under command of the ma.jor canals, seems appropriate and might remain, though the large variability of flow is expected to have a negative impact on the erosion of the canal banks and :;tructures.However, the design of the structure at a branching point does not fit the present ' water di,stribution principles (although gatekeepers, with experience, succeed to m e the division of water through the operation of the undershot, gated cross-reguhtors). Given the fact that most of these structures are currently in a critical state of disrepair, it seems appropriate to envisage their replacement by proportional flow dividers in the course A refinement of the design would be to provide dividers which can t x adjusted. This would permit fine-tuning of the division in accordance wi.th the cultivated area in both branches with consideration for the expected .conveyance losses, etc., and would allow adjustment of the proportion to eventual changes occurring from season to season in the extent of the area cultivated under a branch.F&i.janzana Pilot Pro.jectArea -The hydraulic level control at the tail of the Pilot canal should be restored as it is essential for the equitable distribution of flow amongst field canals along the Dc. Thii3 should be done simply by restoring the width of the last duckbill weir, whose function is to provide hydraulic control of the water required for the correct functioning of the three baffle distributors located at the tail of the pilot DC. This weir therefore'is not a good measuring device. However, some kind of flow monitoring at the tail is essential, as this should !3e the main indicator to be used by the Irrigation Laborer for canal supervision.of a rehabilitation program.Therefore, such monitoring should not be viewed by the operator as being only for the purpose of filing t i record, but as a means to oversee easily the regulation over the canal and to detect any unexpected alteration of the distribution.Openness regarding the distribution of flow within the Pilot area w a s the main thrust of the experiment toward improved manageability. This should be restored if any lesson i,3 to be learned by the &ency from this expriment.objective '2f a rotational mode of delivery in Pilot area -A nlajor source of the difficulties faced in the operation of the Pilot canal related to the initial objective set by the Irrigation Department regarding the introduction of ,a rotational mode of delivery in a water surplus environment. This ms not conducive to the adoption of such a practice which has been rejected by the farmers. Drawing lessons from this, it would be advisable to revise the unrealistic objective set for the pilotpro.ject as it rms for the rest 3f the scheme. This would lead to replacement of the %inch pipe farm outlet provided in the Pilot area by the previous 3inch plpe which farmers favor f83r the continuous water issues which they are goiw to implement anyway.15. Phage the transfer of technology -A number of shortcomings were identified in most phases of th,: Pilot Project implementation: planning and design, construction, operation, maintenance of the technology, including the process of monitoring and evaluation of an experiment intended to generate training. Most of these difficulties are in the realm of the management of the Transfer of Technology, but. this stretches beyond the scope of the present study.,Main System ManaSement (E13M) has been pointed out as a \"blind spot\" to be investigated which holds the key to better performance of irrigation systems.Main system manmement has however not been a subject that has received much professional attention.Professional gaps have been identified in the training of irrigation engineers, in engineers' ideas, as well as in social scientists' preoccupation with local-level social and organizational issues (Chambers, 1988).Its potential has bem confirmed by research and experience.These gaps are reflected i n the literature by the relatively little information readily available rsgarding the manageability of main systems and the performance achieved at thst level, when compared to the number of studies of the water distributim at the farm outlet and canal turnout.This present comparative study is an attempt to fill this void by documenting with a management-oriented approach the reality of main canal operations with particular reference to the implications of the planning and design aspects for the manageability of the systems, for their performance, as well as for the organization of the irrigation agencies.The analysis has been conducted at three irrigations systems in Sri Lanka and one in the Philippines, displaying original features in the design of their main canals. The methodology adopted refers to a dual approach in the realm of: a) Performance Control for Frofessional m e m e n t , and b) Control of Deliveries and Canal Regulation.Much of the information mobilized fo7 the study was collected in 1988 during one irrigation season only.This was done through (a) intensive automatic recording of canal water levels using modern data-logger technology procured under a grant by the Government of France to IIMI, mainly for the purpose of the study, and (b) careful field monitoring of water flow and canal operations. The study also drew upon previous work conducted by IIMI on the same systems as well as results generated by simulations performed through available mathematical models of the canals.The subject of the study refers to the interactions between the design and the management of main systems and their impact on performance.The tern of reference for this activity relate broadly to the notion of regulation of main canals, its impact on the distribution of flows from the main canal, its contribution to the manageability and ability to operate the physical systems and the ilrplications in terms of m e r i a l requirements for the irrigation agencies.Further elaboration on the concepts of Canal Regulation and Pianageability is given below to better define the focus and scope of the study.1.2 DEFINITIONS w i n system management resfers to the management or software aspects of the capture, allocation, scheduling, and delivery of water on main systems dorm to, and including, outlots, and the disposal of water in drains. It includes planning, decision making, the operation of controls, and communication both upjards 1.0 managers and downwaid to uroups of farmers (Chambers, 1988).Regulation is the process or act of manipulating and distributing water supplies available source of supply as per the demands of the users, between different offtaking canals or amongst branches, laterals, and distributaries on the same canal, the main purpose being equitable distribution of water, control of harmful silt entry into canals, delivering of required discharge at eversf point in the network and facilities for their measurement, and in the case of untoward incident or false operation, limiting of water losses and avoiding of any d x e (ICID, 1967). at theCanal Regulation -The concept of canal regulation encompasses both the formulation and the execution of an operating plan for the use of water in a canal system. It includes the operation of storage and diversion works to adjust water levels in canals rind in reservoirs and changes in streamflow. T h i s process which comprises the definition of objectives, setting targets, operations of structures and feed-back regarding the attainment of targets with a view to further operai.ions, adjustments and/or changes in targets is referred to as a control proce:E. This notion of a control process is one of the concepts utilized in the analysis. E'unctions of b i n Cana:l, -The essential role of a main canal is to convey the water from a source of supply to often remote places of primary deliverv. This encompasses two functions: the transport of water along the canal and the issue of water a'; some locations. Depending on the order and dimensions of the canal, one or the other function might predominate and the canal might be viewed either as a conveyance system or as a distribution system. Yet, main canals arc often called upon to perform both functions simultaneously.In such awes the adequate regulation of the water conveyance becomes a condition_for the control of water issues.Investigating whether aid how these aspects have been taken into consideration (a) in laying out and designing main system and main canals, and (b) organizational setup of the irrigation agencies in charge of operating these canals provide the framework of the study.in the ?hnaneabilitp -The notion of manageability has been tentatively elaborated from two different pzrspectives in the stuAy: a ) the inanadeability of thl? system in terms of' t.he difficulties and constraints faced by the irrigation agencies in handling the managerial processthe flow of informat.ion associated with decision maltingwhich takes place at the various leiels of responsibility within an agency, given the structure and procedures of the organization, the capacities and motivations of its staff, the facilities available to them to communicate information, etc.This process is required .for the canal regulation throughout, extensive main systeins; and b ) the manageability of the system in terms of the difficulties and constraints faced by the operator in the control of the physical processt,he flow of watergiven the :?hysical conditions of the control structures, storage capcities if any, the information available to him in respect of both delivery targets and actual water issues, and in particular, volume delivers.Thus, one approach adopted for the stdv has been to analyze how the agencies have organized tliemselves for.the management of main systems. The various administrativ,~-managerial levels involved were identified, starting with the level where the concept of regulation of the canal system as a whole is being formulated, to the level of the operators. This included the analysi;3 of the decision making taking place at each level including the participation of others in the decision preparation phase, the information awsilable, the messages communicated to the next level of decision, and the monitoring of the effects.Another approach which w a s followed consisted of assessing whether the .conditions for effective control of water deliveries and f o r the regulation of the conveyarce of water were available at the appropriate levels in the canals studied. These conditions include a recognition of whether operational tar;gets are explicitly formulated and known bs, the operators,, whether they have the possibility to obtain reliable information on water flows (and volumes), and whether they have the means to intervene on thte water issues or the water stored, or both.Particular attention has b?en devoted to analyze the role that the layout of main systems and the design of main.canals can play in the creation of more or less favorable conditions for the control of the delivery and conveyance functions Operators are normally not expected to make decisions but to comply with standing orders, execute instructions received, and report. But field observations indicated that the room for decision making at the level of gate-keeprs. irrigation laborers, etc., is often greater than expcted and this,has implications for the overall management of the system.The analysis of the operational flexibility provided by the design and its implications on the room left to the operators for decision making measured against the information available to them regarding the complexity of t h e p a r t i c u l a r process whic:h they have t o d e a l with is c e n t r a l t o t h e study.F i n a l l y t h e question to be addressed is: that kind of f l e x i b i l i t y is s t i l l manageable?Focus -As i n d i c a t e d above, t h e focus of t h e study has been defined t o address t h e following i s s u e s :The i m p a c t of planning and design c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of t h e systems on: * t h e Administrative-Managerial s e t u p of t h e I r r i g a t i o n Agencies; * t h e Manageability of t h e systems: i ) Control of t h e d e l i v e r y f u n c t i o n and .ii 1 Regulation of t h e conveyance f u n c t i o n ; * t h e Performance of main ca,nals: i l Control of water l e v e l a t s p e c i f i c l o c a t i o n s ; i i ) Control of water flow d e l i v e r e d a t d i s t r i b u t i o n p o i n t s along t h e main canal.scol>e -The study c o m p r e s ' t h e following i s s u e s a c r o s s t h e f o u r systems s tirdied : * Identifyincr t h e f e a t u r e s ,,>f main systems layout and main csnal design which are s i g n i f i c a n t from t h e p o i n t of view of t h e r e g u l a t i o n of t h e water conveyance and t h e cmmtrol of d e l i v e r i e s ; * I d e n t i f y i n g t h e l e v e l s of decision making regarding canal o p e r a t i o n s , t h e t a s k s of t h e s t a f f , and t h e communication of information taking place i n t h a t process; * I n v e s t i g a t i n g t h e a v a i l a b , i l i t y and clarity of t h e o b j e c t i v e s regarding t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n of water, and t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of o p e r a t i o n a l t a r g e t s f o r t h e c o n t r o l of water i s s u e s a t t h e head of t h e s u b s y s t e m s t u d i e d as w e l l as from t h e main nmals; t Assessing t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of information regarding water flows along main canals and at t h e o f f t a k e s ; i d e n t i f y i n g t h e c o n s t r a i n t s and exploring possible ways t o improve t h e r e l . i a b i l i t y and t h e e f f e c t i v e n e s s of t h e monitoring of water flows; 1 Assessing t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of means f o r influencing t h e flows a t t h e offtalres; i d e n t i f y i n g t h e o p e r a t i o n a l c o n s t r a i n t s given t h e physical s t r u c t u r e s a v a i l a b l e ; exihining the room f o r d e c i s i o n making l e f t t,o t h e o p e r a t o r s given t h e f l e x i b i l i t y of t h e system; X Examining whether t h e notion of dynamic t r a n s f e r of w i n canals is perceived as an explicit o b j e c t i v e ;water volumes a l o m f Evaluating t h e l e v e l s of performance achieved through main canal o p e r a t i o n s i n terms of x3ter l e v e l c o n t r o l and e q u i t y of t h e primary d i s t r i b u t i o n of flow along t h e main canal.Besides t h e above, t h e r e ,3re o t h e r important i s s u e s r e l e v a n t t o C a n a l Regulation, which are beyond the scope of t h e present study; i n p a r t i c u l a r , t h e management processes taking place a t t h e system l e v e l i n regard t o t h e r e s e r v o i r management and t h e mter a l l o c a t i o n s . This includes procedures t o ( a I assess and forec.ast t h e water resource a v a i l a b i l i t y using hydrological information, and ( b ) monitor the progress of i r r i g a t i o n c u l t i v a t i o n , assess w t e r requirements, and aggregate t h e demand up t o t h e system l e v e l .These are a l l important malagement processes from t h e point of view of canal r e g u l a t i o n because t h e d e -i s i o n s made through t h e s e processes i n f l u e n c e t,he~formulation of t h e operatirsnal plan and t h e d e f i n i t i o n of t h e t a r g e t s required f o r t h e conveyance and d i s t r i b u t i o n of rater within t h e main system. With respect t o t h e present st@y, t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of t a r g e t s a s s e t by t h e agencies w i l l be c o n s i d e r e l as one of t h e c o n d i t i o n s required for the c o n t r o l of t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n and as a reference f o r t h e evaluation of performance. But t h e v a l i d i t y of the:;e t a r g e t s , t h e ways i n which they are defined and eventually updated w i l l not, be questioned under t h e p r e s e n t study.Four i r r i g a t i o n pro.jects were selected f o r t h e study by IIMIt h r e e i n S r i L s l l l ~ and one i n t h e Phi1ip:Jines. The choice was c a r e f u l l y made so t h a t , (in the whole, a d i v e r s e s e t of canal r e g u l a t i o n technologies was represented.The list o f t h e canals studied and t h e i r p o s i t i o n .vis-a-vis t h e p r o j e c t s and t h e l a r g e r systems is i n d i c a t e d i n Table 1-1. The s a l i e n t f e a t u r e s of th,. layout of t h e s e systems and of t h e design of t h e main canals s t u d i e d are pre:aented i n Chapter I1 of t h i s report.S p e c i a l mention h a s t o be made regarding the Rajangana P i l o t Area. This r e f e r s t o a srmll area of about hundred h e c t a r e s under t h e command of a d i s t r i b u t a r y c a r d located on t h e l e f t bank main canal of t h e Rajanaana i r r i g a t i o n scheme. This canal was considered as an a l t e r n a t i v e t o a similar P i l o t Area of comparable s i z e e:Kisting at t h e HurulurJewa i r r i g a t i o n scheme, which was o r i g i n a l l y i n t e n d e l t o be t h e f o u r t h subsystem i n t h e present comparative studv. This idea :?ad t o be abandoned because a s e r i o u s uater shortage prevented any c u l t i v a t i o n being undertaken i n t h e Huruluwewa i r r i g a t i o n scheme during t h e period of t h e stucly. Both P i l o t Areas are part of t h e Major I r r i g a t i o n Reh.3bilitation P r o j e c t (MIRP) undertaken by t h e I r r i r a t i o n Department with t h e support of t h e World Bank.One of t h e PIIRP P i l o t Areas was considered OF i n t e r e s t for t h e comparative s t u d y because of the s i x c i a 1 design p r i n c i p l e s md c o n t r o l technologies adopted f o r t h e water d i s t r i b u t i o n i n d i s t r i b u t a r y and f i e l d c a n a l s . Intensi\\,c f i e l d monitoring has been performed throughout t h e i r r i g a t i o n season a t t h e two primary syste:ars considered f o r t h e study. A t t h e trio o t h e r syst.eins; the f i e l d monitorinn' h ' i s been concentrated a t s p e c i f i c l o c a t i o n s : a t the head of the pilot distributlry canal at Rajangana (and also at a control distributary canal used by the Irrigation Department as a reference) ; and at two cross-regulators and diversions along the Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal.This made it possible to enlarge the range of the regulation technologies being studied.IIMI staff performed field monitoring of water floras and gate operations in the course of one irrigation season in 1988 as follows:-Santo Doming0 Area: July to October This monitoring effort was considerably strengthened by the installation of 12 automatic recording stations over the four sites, using electronic data-loggers, as well a$ classical stage-recorders. Altogether a total of 31 different sensing pints were dispersed at key locations along the main canals studied and at particular branching points. Table 1.2 shows the location of the various recording stations installed for the purpose of the study in each canal. These data, together with information obtained from other sources and from interviews of the operations staff, have generated a substantial b d y of information regarding the actual operational practices of the control structures and have made it possible faithfully the flow conditions prevailing in these main canals.to document However, the analysis of the data collected on the two primary sites I J ~S process as a the late termination of the irrigation season when compared to the constrained by the limited time which became available for this result of schedule imposed by the time frame of the study. engineering expertise. References to these projects, their managing agencies, and the definition of the subsystem considered for the study have atread.. been made in Table 1.1 on page 6 .Spcial mention has to be made regarding the Rajanaana Pilot Area which is by far the smallest in size of the four subsystems studied. The Pilot Area refers to the 91 hectares [ha) under the command of a distributary canal (El) located in tract 2 of the left bank main canal of the Rajmana Irrigation Scheme. This site was included in this comparative study because of the particular features displayed by the design of this canal. Despite the enormous difference in size of this canal compared with the other three, it has been possible to apply the same analytical approach to all four systems considered in this study.There are disparities in tlie sizes of the larger projects to which the subsystems studied belong.It is important to consider these aspects as well as the location of the caniils studied with respect to the main system of which they are a part.In terms of size of the corrrmand areas under (i) SDA Main Canal, (ii) Iinlawewa Left Bank Main Canal, liii) Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal and (iv) Rajanaana Left Bank E.lsin Canal, the four range between 4,000-10,000 ha, but the most simificant differences are in tenns of: t the design features o r the conveyance system and its extent up to the head of the subsystem studied. In prticular, the distance to the head of the subsystem studied from the principal source of watera storage reservoir in generaland the availability of intemediate storage in between are essential aspects f<>r the regulation of the transport of water from the source to the delivery point of particular interestthe head of the subsystem studied.t the density and the type of the facilities provided by the design for the regulation of flow within the subsystemincluding intermediate tank storageand for the diversion of water off the main canal.Firwre 11.1 is a comparative presentation of the schematic layouts of the main systems considered, hiqhlighting the locations of the canals studied within the whole system. The upper portion of the larger system be considered as a conveyance system with respeat to the location of the head of the subsystem studied. Some key parameters describin# those systems are summarized in Table 11.1.The Kirindi Gya Right I Bank Main Canal. takes off directly from the LunugamrJehera Reservoir and therefore the mobilization of the water resource into the canal studied does nc't depend upon any conveyance system at a higher level. Figures 11.2 and 11.3 dndicate the site location and the issue tree diagram of the right bank main canal.The Rajangana Pilot Area covers the CoMRand area under distributary canal No.1 (El) taking off the left bank main canal (LBMC) in its upper reach (tract 2). Thus the conveyance system from the dam to the head of the Pilot canal is only 5 km long and this is of limited practical consequences for the transport of water. The Rajangana Tank is a main storage reservoir f o r the area under command but it has to be pointed out that it also receives substantial drainage water from the Mahaweli System H, the Galnewa and Meegalewa regions in particular, located between the left and the right bank canals of the Kalawewa Tank (see Figure 11.4).The Kalhttiya Branch %rial is actually the tail section of a lateral branch of a main canal that riginates from the left bank of the Kalawewa Tank in Mahaweli System H ( s e e Figures 11.4 and 11.5). System H is itkelf a component of the vast Mahaweli Ganga developent project for hydropower and irrigation.The Kalawewa 'rank's own resources are augmented by Mahaweli Ganga water through transbasin diversions at Fblgolla and Bowatenna. A cascade of intermediate tanks -Galnewa, Mulannatuwa, and Kalankuttiyaspread along a 25 lon long main canal is the salient feature of the conveyance system.The Santo Doming0 Area (District I, Zone 3) is located more than 50 km army from the Pantabmuan Resei-voirthe only storage of River Integrated Irrigation System (UPRIIS). Figures 11.6 and 11.7 indicate the locations of the S a n t o Domi.ngo Area (SDA) in relation to the UPRIIS service area.Pantabangan is a major reservoir constructed to generate hydropower and to supplement a series of run-of-the-river irrigation systems existing prior to its construclion. As such, the supply of the Santo Domingo Area is from the Sapang Kawayari Creek, a natural water course which receives the drainage water from the Talavera River Irrigation Systems (TRIS: District I, Zone 2 and UTRIS: District I, Zone 1). the Vpper From Rizal Dam on the F'aqmnga River, a 23 h transbasin canal (DC#l) of 45 m 3 / s maximum capacity, coriveys the water released from the Pantabanpan Reservoir and delivers it th1'0ugh 5 major diversions along the way to the following areas: hmpenga River, Area, Rim1 Munic Area, Vaca Area, Lower Talavera Area, and finally Sant,o Doming0 Area. These areas belong to the two separate administrative districits: District I and District 11. Dc#1 first serves District I1 before entering District I. The Santo Domingo Supply Headgate itself takes off from the transbasin canal Dc#1 near its tail. Thus, the s a l i e n t feature of t h i s conveyance system t h a t ends a t t h e head of the Santo Doming0 Area i s a cascade of 4 major diversions: Rizal Dam, mil Heacleate, SDA Supply Headgate taking off IY31, and f i n a l l y 5-Bay Checkgate where tlie head of the SDA Main Canal is located. A t Kirindi @a, t h e water is immediately available a t t h e head of the subsystem studied as long as the resource is a v a i l a b l e i n the Lunwamwehera Reservoir. The volume of water stored i n t h e reservoir a t t h e start of t h e i r r i g a t i o n season studied (&g, w e t season, 1988) ,,as adequate but t h e area had e q e r i e n c e d severe water s h x t a g e s during t h e two previous seasons.The Rajawana i r r i g a t i o n scheme, as a r e s u l t of its geographical location i n r e l a t i o n t o Phhaweli System H, is reputedly a water surplus area. There was no c o n s t r a i n t of any s o r t w i t h respect t o the a v a i l a b i l i t y of water resources i n t h e p i l o t area.Towards t h e end of t h e season studied (m, dry seasQn, 1988) it was even observed t h a t the Agency had d i f f i c u l t y t o empty the reservoir f o r carrying out some repairs a t t h e headgate even thowh the water issues i n t o t h e l e f t bank main canal were maintained a t a very high level f o r a long period of time. On t h e other hand it was observed t h a t the Raj3nCana l e f t bank main canal, being a s i n g l e bank canal, received apprec i a b l e q u a n t i t i e s of water BS runoff during r a i n f a l l , even i n t h e upper reaches. This, coupled with temporary closures of t h e main canal, are sources of v a r i a t i o n i n t h e water depth i n t h e main canal a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t canal. The design of t h e p i l o t p r o j e c t , with t h e provision of an automatic hydro-mechanical g a t e (AVIO type) a t its head, aims a t a l l e v i a t i n g t h i s d i f f i c u l t y . Hydraulic con(iitions that are appropriate f o r t h e control of flow i n t o t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal are restored, i r r e s p e c t i v e of t h e l e v e l v a r i a t i o n s i n t h e main canal. his point is f u r t h e r discussed i n Section 4 . 2 of t h e present study.The layout of t h e b h a w e l i conveyance system t h a t includes a number of large and intermediate storage tanks, together with t h e current management practices of t h e agency with respect t o t h i s conveyance system apparently makes it possible t o ensure t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of resources at Kalawewa and a t Iialankuttiya, a t least when t h e hydrology is normal. There w a s however a notable exception recently, during mahaThe f a i l u r e of the d i d not permit adequate natural fillim of t h e Kalawewa Tank, which resulted i n a higher water demand placed on t h e transbasin d i w r s i o n s and on t h e overall management of the conveyance system. In t h e case of t h e season during which t h i s study was undertaken ( p l a 1988), it appears t h a t t h e resource available a t Kalawewa and I f a l a n k u t t i p w a s r e l a t i v e l y abundant. adequate water 1986-87. monsoon r a i n The UPRIIS conveyance system is b a s i c a l l y d i f f e r e n t from t h e Mahaweli conveyance system i n t h a t water is carried t o supplement run-of-the-river systems instead of t o supplement t h e stored resource of tank-based irrigation systems as i n t h e Mahaweli.Unlike t h e Kalankuttiya Tank which permits an almost irmnediate response t o requests f o r water from t h e connnand area, it ma>' take up to two days for the \"pure\" water (from Pantabangan Reservoir) to reach the Santo Domingo Area with a non-negligible risk of \"mishap\" on the way, despite the efforts exerted by the staff and the means of communication available to them to coordinate operations in real-time.Furthermore, the resource available in the P a n t a w a n Reservoir was exceptionally low in July 1988 at the start of the wet season during which the study was conducted. By mid-September, the situation became critical because of the failure of the August rains (93 mm against 400 m expected according to past records). Thus, the reservoir did not refill and the level was at its lowest since 1983. This situation impinged dramatically on the mter availability at the head of Santo Domingo Area. This is further discussed in Chapter IV of the present report.Preliminary coiiclusions : 'The overall ' storage capacity provided for by the design of irrigation main s,ystems in relation to (a) the hydrology, and (h) the. extent of the program area, is an important parameter as it, conditions to some extent the ability to mobilize the water resource in the course of the irrigation season, particularly at the beginning.The provision of some intermediate storage facilities (e.g., tanks) close to the areas to be irrimt,ed plays an impprtant role in facilitating the management water transported in the main system towards the head of individual subsystems.of the These situations are illustrated by the comparison of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal with Lateral B i:ii the Santo Domingo Area, both of which have cormnand areas of similar size.Quantitative control of water issues is achieved reasonably well in t'he first case, while only proportional sharing is achieved in the second. (cf. Chapter IV in the present stdy.)As a result of the planniiw and design process, systems are provided with a layout that could i,i?clude facilities for the storage of water. Depnding on this layout, the regulation of the conveyance system might require efforts that cannot be met by the current managerial capacity' of the agency. The availability of soine storage capacities close to a supply area of limited been sbwn to simplify the regulation of a conveyance system aiming at ensuring adeqwate and timely water the head of these subsystems. In other words, the complexity and difficulty involved in managing a main system in an effective and responsive m e r increases rbunatically as the buffer capacity available between conveyance arid distribution decreases. The m1:x-e extensive the project, the more relevant are these aspects. In the abse,nce of decentralized storage, regulation calls for more sophisticated techniqu,!zs in the realm of automatic control and real-. time communication of infonnatilsn.Significant discrepancies !:xist in respect of the actual availability of (stored) water at the start of an irrigation season and the hydrological changes observed thereafter, from site to site and from season to season, even in the case of the larger reservoir-based systems studied. This indicates. that in any event, given the facilities provided by the design for water conservation, there is a critical management domain to be dealt with at the system level involving water resource management, strategic plaming and h.\\.drological forecasting. However, it is not intended to elaborate on these aspects in the present stdv whose focus is more limited.A wide range of, parameters can be used to characterize the design of irrigation canals, but there ars some that have particular significance for (a) the hydraulics of the canils, and lb) the constraints generated for the effective operation of the cmtrol structures under the different flow conditions that prevail in t h e canal. The physical characteristics of the canals studied are indicated in Table 11.2.Longitudinal gradient, density of cross-structures, and location of offtakes. Besides the physicd characteristics listed in Table 1 1  The topography of the c o m d area and the gradient available for t,racing nmin canals determine, to a large extent, the possibilities to erect iumlrltors, weirs, o r drop structures along the canal.There are significant differences amongst the canals studied, with respect to the average slope of the canal, and type and density of crossresulatina structures. The contrasting longitudinal gradients of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal, the Kirindi m a Right Bank h:tn C k l and the SDA Main Canal are clearly visible in Figure 11.9.Iblanlrdttiya Branch Canal has the steepest slope while Kirindi Oya RBMC has the mildest. The impact of these slopes on the design .features of the canals is$ discussed below.  The Santo Doming0 Area (SIIA) Main Canal has similar crbss-regulltor arrangements at each of the 11 major diversions to Laterals. The regulators do not have side-walls but the gates can be overtopped. Maintaining full supply depth in the canal no longer seems to be the rule for operating the canal. Instead, the current practice is to shut the gates of the regulator (or \"check\") to issue water to the lateral and to reopen the regulator gates when no diversion is required to the lateral. Controlling the flow at the lateral through the operation of cross-regulators tends to be the general practice and in some places it is actually the only feasible option since the gates of the lateral are missing (e.g., Lateral A ) . The SDA Main Canal has been constructed some 15 years IUO and there are now only 6 gates actually operated at the cross-regu1ato.s out of 23 provided initially by the design.Even the gates that are operated afe in a very critical stage of disrepir.In addition to these, the design has provided a number of \"checks\" o r \"thresher crossings\". These st xtures, evenly spaced every 500 meters, were apparently intended (a) to raise the water level at specific locations in the main canal, as required by the farmers, to facilitate diversion into the offtakes supplied directly from the main canal, and (b) to provide means for crossing the main canal. Thes3e structures consist of several bays, but no gates. They provide opportunities for ad-hoc checking by means of flashboards, banana trunks, etc.. Observations indicate that farmers and agency staff place or remove checkjr more o r less frequently although these operations are particularly inconvenient, cmbersome, and possibly dangerous.Altogether, the cross-ri?gulators and checks provide considerable flexibility and opportunities fllr intervention on the SDA Main Canal.Preliminary conclusion: Amongst the canals studied, there are extreme situations with respect to the degree of flexibility provided by the design to adjust the water level.But the absence of this particular type of flexibility at Kalankuttiya and the Rajangana Pilot Canal appears to be more an advantage than a disadvantage from the point of view of the manageability of the system. (This point is further discussed in Chapter IV of the present study.) than 2,000 meters upstream of t h e nearest downstreamThe degree of level control achieved by the manual operation of the gated crossremlators has been studied at two locations GR3, at the head, and GR12, at the tail, of the main canal.(See Figures IV.34 and IV.35 for a schematic Layout of these measurement loclitions.) This aspect of level control will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter IV of this report.regulator.The distance of some of tlie offtakes from the next regulator downstream results in a relatively large wrriation of the water level above the sill of these offtakes. The results of a computation of surface water profiles under different steady flow regimes a:.ong one reach of the main canal is provided as an illustration of the importance of the level variations affecting the flow diverted at the farthest ol'ftakes (see Figure IV.41).Neither the topography of the Rajangana left bank main canal nor of the pilot distributaryThe main canal, which is a single bank canal, appears to have a low density of cross-structures. Considering the pilot distributary canal, the design is based on similar principles to the Kalankuttiya Iikanch Canal although the dimensions of canals and command areas are smaller, Three small duckbill weirs have been constructed across the distributary canal to provide adequate level control as needed for distributors which equip the head of each field canal that takes off this distributary canal.canal was available for the study. the baffle Flexibility provided for \"c:hecking\" across main canals. As mentioned above, the design of the Kdankuttiya Branch Canal does not provide much flexibility for manual adjustment of the water level along the branch canal.There is actually only one gated cross-regulator ( 2 bays) built near the head of the canal and this gate is intended to permit water issues to the first two distributary canals, 305D1 and 308D1, when the rest of the canal is shut off D This design configuration is comparable to that of the pilot distributary canal Dc1 at Rajangana, where there is not a single gate along the distributary apart from the shutters of the main baffle distributor at the head of the distributary canal.As indicated in Table 11.4, there is a marked contrast when compared to the high density of \"checks\" anc gates provided in the original design of the SDA b i n canal as well as Kirinci Oya FEW.At Kirindi Oya, the regulators consist of a combination of multiple gates of the undershot t p (1-5 depending on the discharge capcity of the canal at the regulator locaticn) with short side-walls whose crests are set at the design full supply depth (FSD). These side-walls, as well as some of the gates, are usually overtopped when the regulator is fully closed. The Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Cans1 is a newly constructed canal and most of the 61 the regulators are still in working condition, many of them operated. Although the cross-regulators are operated in such a m y that water overtops the side-walle, these weirs are too narrow to provide effective hydraulic level contrcml. gates of At Kalanltuttiya the .availtible gradient, uneven in certain portions of the branch canal, was exploild to build a series of nine \"duckbill weirs,\" two additional drop structures and one gated cross-regulator located about 150 meters below the head of the canal. These weirs, whose crests range from 4-25 meters in length, are des:.gned to provide some degree of control over the water level upstream of lhe weir. This hydraulic property is further exploited by locating offtakes near the weir so flow diverted into the secondary canal is pt4marily dependent on the offtake opening irrespective of flow variations: in the parent canal. Previous studies (Berthery, Sally, and Arumugam, 1989) have indicated that the degree of level control permitted in the proximity of the duckbill weirs is of the order of 6-12 percent, expressed in terms of the ratio between the range of water level variation observed and the mean depth of water above the sill of the offtakes. This relative variation is about f'our times greater at the offtakes located at some distance from the weirs ard benefiting less from the level control. The essential feature of the design of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal is that it takes advantage of these aspects of level control in the primary canal to ensure control of flow into a nlajority of its distributary canals.Figure 11.14 shows the maximum range of water level variation (obtained through a flow simulation model of the Kalanhuttiya Branch Canal used in the stud.. mentioned above) that could be expected above the different offtake invert levels when the flow released at the head of the branch canal varies from 0.5-6 m3/s. This figure clearly demonstrates that maximum water level control is obtained in the immediate vicinity upstream of a duckbill weir and that the regulating effect soor disappears with distance.Figure 11.15 (also taken from the above study) compares the simulated and observed relative range of water level variation at the distributary canal offtakes (field observations existed only in respect of 9 distributary canals). Similar conclusions regarding the comparative assessment of the design-related conditions affecting the water delivery at the offtakes, in t,erms of level control in the parent canal, can be reached, either through direct field observations or by model simulations.The SDA main canal, on the other hand, exhibits a very high density of structures across the main canal apparently built to provide maximum flexibility.It includes 11 gated cross-regulators at the head of each major lateral canal and some 35 \"checks\", also called \"thresher crossings\". The checks are evenly spaced, about every 500 meters, throughout the length of the main canal to benefit the offtakes which are also spread evenly.At Kirindi Oya, the gentle slope of the area was obviously a major constraint in the design of the right bank main canal which nevertheless provides 14 gated cross-regulators, fairly evenly spaced along its 24.5 h length. At least one distritutary or branch canal is located immediately upstream of the cross-regulators. The other secondary canals are spread over the entire length of the main canal, sometimes located at a distance of more As a research hypothesis and a direction for further studies, it would appear that some of the flexibility of the \"regulators\" and the redundancy of some of the adjustable structlxes provided by the design is meant, to some extent, to cater to some foreseeable degradation of these structures and to provide back-up. Construction costs of gated regulators might be expected to be less expensive than solid weirs even if some of the gates are redundant.Stdying the economics of various types of regulating structures including the associated operation and maintenance costs weighed against the degree of performance achieved in terms of level control might be a promising avenue of research.Availability of \"controls:h i s terminology refers to the hydraulic notion of \"controls\"1 and critical flow* (see Figure 11.16). Both are of Figure 11.16 Hydraulic \"control\" and critical depth.-\"I-----\" L ---------W '0.. (T)he cross section in a waterway which is the bottleneck for a given flow and which determines the energy head required to produce the flow. In che case of open channels, it. is the point where the flow is at critical depth; hydraulic conditions abclve the point being wholly dependent upon the characteristic of the control section and entirely independent of hydraulic conditions below the point ...\" (ICID). e,.ists where the elevation of the water surface above the control is entirely irldependent of the fluctuations of water level downstrean of it (ICID).Critical flow: That velocity of flow at which the energy of flow isIn other worcls, the maximum discharge per unit width for a Sub-critical flow j s produced by downstream control, and super-a minimum (ICID). given specific energy.critical flow by upstream contrctl (Henderson, 1966).paramount importance in open channel hydraulics. It is not our intention to present a detailed discussion of the scientific bases underlying these notions. However, it is necessary to highlight the practical consequences of the hydraulic peculiarities of the canals that have resulted from their respective designsMost irrigation canals are equipped with gated cross-regulators built across the canal in order to raise the water head above the c o m d area.But it is important to note that gated regulators are as per the above definition. Gated-regulators produce sub-critical flow upstream, hence a bsckwater effect which might extend, depending on the canal bed slope, up to the next regulator and possibly interfere with the hydraulic conditions governing the flow through its gate orifice. This situation has the potential for creating hydraulic interdependency between canal reaches. An example of this situation has been observed at Kirindi Oya.not \"controls\" There are two operational constraints resulting from this situation: a ) the operations of gated cross-regulators might have unexpected impact on the upper reaches of a canal as well as downstream: b) the assessment of flow is not always a feasible option in canals equipped with gated cross-regulators and the location of measurement sections will require special attention.Natural obstructions or man-made structures such as weirs or dropstructures built across canals or steep changes in the canal bed profile could create hydraulic conditions (critical and super-critical) which are of practical interest for the operations of canal systems.Practicing engineers often use as a memory device the fact that in super-critical flow \"the water doesn't know what's happening downstream\" (Henderson, 1966) and this is what is important in \"controls.\" Design of irrigation canals may harness these hydraulic peculiarities in many ways to: a) provide means for the assessment of the flow in canals; b) provide opportunities for flow control at lateral canals through improved performance in terms of level control at some section in the main canal; and c) provide opportunities for decoupling the different reaches of the main canal, in particular preventing the downstream reaches (and associated laterals) from influencing the upper reaches, thereby creating the hydraulic conditions that fit the upstream control type of regulation prevailing in the irrigation systems studied.The following analysis aims to identify whether \"controls,\" either complete or partial, are available at some locations within the subsystems studied and whether they are contributing to some of the aspects quoted above towards improved manageabj lity of the system. Kalankuttiya Branch Canal -The1.e are several obvious complete \"controls\" along the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal, and each duckbill weir is one of them. The design of the Kalankuttiya Ilranch Canal takes advantage of this aspect in the control of flow into the distributary canals. In addition to these, a natural rocky constriction located 2 . 8 h downstream of the tank was identified as the effective control over most of the first reach of the canal. The impact of this coilstriction was evidenced through the water surface profiles computed foi' different steady flow regimes through a mathematical flow simulation model of the branch canal.Other \"controls\" have been utilized in the design of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal in the form O P the \"weir-box\" installed at the head of the distributary canals to assess the flow diverted. However, a survey indicates that only 30 percent appear to be operating under hydraulic conditions capable of providing complete control.possible in 40 percent of them, hence limiting the reliability of the water flow assessment at the offtakes. Partial control might be Degradation of the \"contr(3ls\" and occasional suhergence was observed for various reasons, some of which are: temporary closure of a distributary canal downstream of the head to restrict'the collllllsnd area cultivated during the dry season, littering OF a downstream culvert, siltation of the distributary canal, etc. Total loss of the \"controls\" initially present results from destruction by the farmers of the weir in the weir-box.(15%) and/or permanent suhersion of the weir (15%).Rajangana Pilot Area -Similar \"controls\" exist along the pilot distributary canal in the form of 3 duckbill weirs constructed to provide level control in the distributary canal and thereby flow control into the field canals. Daffle distributors or \"modules\" are installed at the head of each field canal and at the head of the pilot distributary canal itself. The \"modules\" provide additional \"controls\" provided that their installation and .operational specifications have been respected.\"Modules\" consist of precast, standard hydraulic devices providing complete control associated with a particularly steep head-discharge relationship that renders the flow diverted relatively insensitive to head variations within an acceptable range (Figure 11.17). Santo b i n g o Area Main Canal -The design of the SDA Main Canal does not provide \"controls\" as such for the diversion of water into the major Lateral canals. Instead, this was su~posed to be achieved through the combined operation of gates at the cross-regulator and at the offtake. But there has been an intention to have some means of raising the through the provision of 35 \"checking\" oppx-tunities along the main canal that permit the minor canals to abstract water directly from the main canal. water level Partial \"controls\" were aylprently envisaged in the design as indicated by the provision of Parshall Flumes at some key locations: the head of the main canal and at the heads c i f the laterals.But careful observations indicate that several flumerli (Headgate flume, Lateral G ) are either frequently or permanently submeipged (Lateral F ) and unable to perform as complete \"controls.\"The NIIA Water Measurement Table, which is used to compute flow through the flumes,, provides correction factors to be applied to compensate for different degrees11 of suhergenoe.Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Czlnal -There are no real \"controls\" along the Kirindi Oya right bank main carlial but some exist at the offtakes for the purpose of assessment of flcliw. But many of them provide only partial control if any. The Irrigation Department intends to gradually replace the existing standard weir-box cwn baffle-wall which has been found to be unsatisfactory, with another tjlpe of \"control,\" a modified Broad-Crested Weir ( W ) .Preliminary conclusion: The design of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal as well as the Rajangana Pilot distributary canal provides a number of hydraulic \"controls.\" This indicates a cldear and systematic intention of the designer to harness these hydraulic features to provide more control of the water delivered at the offtakes. the water Control of surface profile in the parent canal and judicious lccations of the offtake in accclirdance with the profile appears to be a stumbling block towards acbhieving the distribution objective whilst simultaneously relieving the builden of the operator.In the case of the Kirindi ,Oya Right Bank Main Canal and the SDA Main Canal, the search for operatiomlrl flexibility on the main canal prevails.In these systems, \"contiPols\" are provided by designers for the main purpose of assessing the flow delivered at the offtake and monitoring.Monitoring appears, at least a l l : Kirindi Oya, as the principal thrust towards achieving the distribution objedktive. But this implies more intensive human interventions and increased 1I)urden for the staff if it is going to be implemented. ManaEiN any irrigation spitem are individuals exercising control at different points. They are mtmbers of a formal organization comprising a hierarchy of levels. Within (his framework are managers at each level entrusted with certain funct:.ons, the performance of which will entail decision making regarding the manaaement of the physical system towards achieving its goals, objectives, and targets.This decision making is influenced by the following key issuesthe information available to the management at e&h level of the organization, the messages comicated between the levels, and the mon..toringaf the effectiveness of performance of the management based on this :.nformation. Wther, in this study we will examine the implications when the physical layout fits the organization managing the irrigation system and when it does not. An additional issue to be explored is the impact of tht, decentralized or centralized nature of this organization on the operation o j ' the main canal. Decentralization is defined as a method of organizing that disburses power and authority for decision malting to multiple levels in ihe organization while a centralized organization concentrates this at the top of the hierarchy. three caseThe Galnewa Project is manrrged by the Mahaweli Economic Agency (MFA) of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri hmka (MASL).Heading the central admin.rstrative hierarchy is the Director General of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (see F i w e 111.1).The Mahaweli Economic Agency agency under the M4SL and is responsible for settlement of farmers and the managt!ment of the irrigation system. To perform these tasks the MFA must wdrk in liaison with its sister agencies, in particular, the Water Managemenir Secretariat.At the MEA (see Figure 11:(.2), Project Coordinators are in charge of the different areas of the Maliaweli Project known as Systems. The Galnewa Project is located in Mahaweli 3ystem H (Filfure 111.3). From the perspective of control over the water reisource at Kalankuttiya Branch Canal, at this level, the diversion at Bowatenneobecomes significant. The Bowatenna complex is manared by the Headworks lMministration, Ope rations and Maintenance Division of the MASL which is reslpnsible for controlling the sluice at this point.This has a direct impaclt on storage at Kalawewa. This organization as seen above results in a compllex multifunctional hierarchical ordanizational setup at the central levlel and this is replicated at the Field level too.Systems are divided into prlojects, each under the supervision of a Resident F'ro.iect Mmager with sulpportim staff (see Figure 111.4). Projects generally cover an area of 8,000-12,000 hectares (ha). At this level, the Flow Monitorim Unit evaluates the performance of the administrative level below on the basis of the water dluty.Each project is in turn divlided into administrative blocks, covering about 2,000 ha under the supervislion of a Block Manager. At the c o m d area of the Left Bank at the Galnem Project there were three Administrative Blocks prior to January 1988 and only two thereafter. A Block Manager is assisted by various specialized olfficers as shown in Figure 111.5. Each Block is further subdivided intlo units, each covering approximately 250 ha, under a Unit Manager who is assislted by two specialists, for water management and agricultural extension.Prior to January 1988, theire was a correspondence between the physical layout and the management, when tlhe Kalankuttiya Branch Canal was managed by the Kalankuttiya Administrativie Block, (Figure 111.4).The official decision-making apparatus in contlrol of the physical system is shown in Figure 111.5.The Irrigation Ehgineer is responsible for water management in the whole block from the tank1 to the field channels. His other duties include contract supervision, building maintenance, labor management, and preparing bdgets for construclkion and maintenance.Under him are mineerind Assistants who are responsible for construction and maintenance of the irrigation structures, inclhding roads and culverts, water management, and making estimates for irrigaltion works. Below the Engineering Assistant is the Technical Officer whose dLlties include supervision of construction and maintenance, camp maintenance, labor supervision, and water management. Below the Technical Officer is the Irrigation Laborer.Two Irrigation Laborers operate the Branch Canall from the main sluices to the distributaries under the instructions of the Tecllhnical Officer.In January 1988, the orgElmization as described above, underwent a change. As a result of administ1,rative reorganization, the ME4 abolished the hlankuttiya Administrative Block. The cotmnand area under the Kalankuttim Branch Canal was divided betwetltn the two remaining Blocks. The head end of the Branch Canal became the irespnsibility of the Irrigation Engineer, Galnewa and the tail end that of the Irrigation EnBineer, Meedalewa. As part of the new institutional arrangeflients, the Left Dank Main Canal Unit (Figure IV.6) was created to coordinattll water issues between the remaining Blocks which were now jointly respons1,ble for the management of the KalankUttiw Branch Canal.The most ret1;ent reorganization of the admihiStratiVe arrangements with reference t t l ) the Kalankuttiw Branch Canal is the redefinition of the boun&rit:s of authority for the Left Bank Main Canal Unit, the underlying principle being that if more than one administrative block has to share the water delivered by the physical system, it is a conveyance system and comes under the control of the Left Dank Main Canal Unit. The Engineering Assistant heading this unit are responsible for the operation and maintenance of tho Main Canal. By this definition, the Main Canal Unit is also respnsjble for controlling the offtakes to the distributary channels in the Galnewa Block as they are direct offtakes from the Main Canal.The Ralankuttiya Branch Canal is divided into five irrigation zones (305, 306, 307, 308, and 309). Distributary channels off the branch canal are labeled, for example 305-D1, which means the first distributary in irrigation zone 305. The r m : e of the number of field channels along distributaries is 2-23. Field channels in turn may irrigate 6 to 23 farm allotments, though the average j s 10 field allotments per field channel. A p a r t from t h i s s c h e d u l i q t h e Water Management Feedback Center is expected t o monitor t h e actual1 water issues through the offtakes from t h e main and d i s t r i b u t a r y canals, arlid through t h e feedback of t h e d a i l y measurements of these i s s u e s by t h e s t a f f of t h e Resident Engineer Right Bank. Measurements of c e r t a i n parametw-s t h a t are used f o r t h e calculations of t h e water schedules, l i k e s e e w e ,I.osses, r a i n f a l l , percolation rates as w e l l as t h e establishment of rating cui~ves f o r t h e c a l i b r a t i o n of t h e measuring s t r u c t u r e s i n the whole sytlrtem are the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of t h e Water Management Feedback Center.Administratively, t h e Wateip Management Feedback Center h a s no responsib i l i t y w i t h respect t o t h e operations i n t h e whole system. Technically, however, i t has t h e complete r e g r p n s i b i l i t y for t h e a l l o c a t i o n of water t o t h e d i f f e r e n t hydrological subsystems. As t h e Resident Engineer Right Bank's s t a f f has been concentrating on construction a c t i v i t i e s during maha 1987/88, a t the expense of water mananagerlient, t h e Water Management Feedback Center was delegated \" t h e f u l l a u t h o r i t y wl,th respect t o t h e operation\" i n t h e system, while t h e operations s t a f f rerllained under t h e Resident m i n e e r Right Bank, both technically and administrakively. T h i s led t o eonfusing s i t u a t i o n s as w i l l be shown later.Upper Pampanga River Integrated I r r i g a t i o n System (UPRIIS): Santo Doming0 Main Canal The National I r r i g a t i o n Administration ( N I A ) , w i t h headquarters i n Manila, is i n o v e r a l l control olP t h e p o l i c i e s , planning, and personnel of t h e Santo Doming0 Area (SDA) command area. It is a s i m l e -i n t e r e s t bureaucracy i n the business of deliverill-water. I t is a decentralized organization where power and authority f o r d15cision making with reference t o mWaalllg. t h e water resource rest w i t h the IProject, and is done i n p a r t i c i p a t i o n with t h e farmer organizations or I r r i g a t x Associations below the lateral.Between t h e N I A a t t h e top and t h e ditl-htender sections a t t h e bottom a r e four o t h e r key l e v e l s of organization: t h e pro.ject, t h e district, t h e zone, and t h e division. (Figure 111.7).,The Santo Domingo Canal i:3 located,'in District 1 of the UPRIIS Project. Ebnagement at this level is headed by a District Chi.ef and his principal task is to supervise the area prog::ammed for a cropping season (Figure 111.8). In performing this task he is itssisted by a number of task specialists as ,well as general administrative staff for accountim and.genera1 administration. The Operations Faginlter and the Hydrologist are the key task specialists.is alcivil emineer and the latter an agricultural engineer: both are on the payro:ll of the District Administration and perform tasks within the boundaries of -the District.The Ope rations Engineer is responsible for the overall operation of irrigation systems' in the Dis.;rict. He supervises and coordinates operations of the irrigation sys';erns as performed by the three zone engineers under him.The Hydrologist as given in the organization chart is immediately below the Operations Engineer and is. the representative of the Water Control Coordinating Centre (WCCC) at the District level. . He establishes and ensures a tardeted volume of water for his District and acts as liaison between the WCCC and the District. He is assisted by a group of minor officials known as gatekeepers.The next organizational level is the B , and the Santo Doming0 Canal is located in zone 3 .At th:is level a Zone hgineer is responsible for operation and maintenance of .;he irrigation network under him and for the timely supply of water to the command area. In. these tasks, he is assisted by minor officials also known a!3 gatekeepers.Each zone is composed of a number of divisions and this' is under the management of the Water Management Technician (typically a division is a lateral, but ' a large lateral rnay be under the charge of more than one such technician) who is assisted in his tasks of operation and maintenance by ditchtenders who are'in turn re!;ponsible f o r the smallest unit of management, the division.In each of the three cases, our focus of study is the. following: the hlankuttiya Branch Canal; the Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal; and the Santo Domingo k i n Canal. From this vantage point, in order to examine decision making associated with these canals in an effective manner, we must lccate the effective boundaries of analysis, first, at the levels of decision rilahirlf associated with the control of the water resource and second, at the interface from above as well as at the level of the Main Canal. As a result vf this, we have identified t:le following key levels of decision makinR for the three systems (Figure 111.9) from the highest level to the lowest. allocation of the water resoumiss of the Mahaweli River Project taking into account first, the demands of lhydropower and irrigation and then, the issues for irrigation between the difflrrent Systems. The membership of this Panel includes representatives from the MASL, the MEA, the. Water Management Secretariat, the Ceylon Electri1:ity Board, as well as representatives from the Irrigation Department and ilninisterial representatives from the political realm. Its function is to dis~:uss and approve the Seasonal *rating Plan for a cultivation season.Decision making is mid{& by two computer models at the macroand micro-levels. The macro model is system-wide and takes into consideration policy options between allocatltng water for irrigation and hydropower. The micro model w a s developed for ulse in System H and is for the simulation of irrigation scenarios onlyfolo evaluating the response of the system, tank, and canals in irrigated areas.Once the cultivation seasol? begins, problems may interfere with water issues, as for example, in 1986/87.Mechanical problems limited the anticipated diversions from lthe Mahaweli River to System H. This necessifates a weekly review l p f the situation and changes being made in the volunie of water to be issued. 'Ime forum for making decisions is the weekly meeting between the Chief Irrigation Engineer of MEA and representatives of the Water Management Secretarialt.Kalawewa Reservoir: The Slystem H Water Management Coordinating Panel. The System H Water Management Coordinating Panel controls water issues from the Kalawewa Reservoir. This panel comprises the Deputy Resident Project Manaer (Water Management), Galnewa Project, Chairman; the Irrigation Engineer, Flow Monitoring Unlit, Galnewa, Secretary; and the Irrigation Engineers responsible for the mlain sluices of the reservoir.The functions of the pan1.1 are: 1) to discuss and decide weekly sluice issues, taking into account thl? availability of water; 2) to insure, with assistance from others, that imly the allocated quantity is taken from the reservoir and is distributed plroperly within the irrigable areas: 3 ) to increase efficiency by varying diversions within the system; 4 ) to subnit data regarding reservoir levels, sluice issues, rainfall, and inflows into the system daily basis tlhrough the secretary of the p e l to the Chief Irrigation Engineer, MEA, who uipn presenting the situation to the Water Management Secretariat, would Ithen obtain the required diversions into the system; and 5) through the secrletary of the p e l , to maintain close contact with the Bowatenna complex anli bring to the notice of the Chief Irrigation Ehgineer any problems regarding diversions. on a Water issues are limited to the c 0 -d area sanctioned under the Seasonal Operating Plan. Iniltial water issues are based upon the extent of land prepared during the lalnd preparation period as allocated in the cultivation calendar. Subsequlently, for each rotational issue there is a standard allocation of water folr the total extent under cultivation. A further computation is made flor seepage and percolation (5 percent) and for conveyance losses (10 percent) in the command area and the main canal.Losses at the level of the dktributary channel are discounted as they are assumed as s e e m e on the farm.The secretary to the commi\":tee explained the role of the panel thus:The subject of discussion at these Setings was operations (for water management) for the upomin&( week in the H area. The official in charge o'f the w e m e n t of a particular,section of the main system is responsible for presentid the relevant details regarding rainfall and stage of crop growth, and :indimtip how much water is required for his area. The Irrigation Engineer (Flow Monitoring Unit) is responsible for submitting information on rainfall in the Kalawewa catchment, water through diversion, and 'Ae balance in the tank at the end of the previous week. Based on tliis information a decision is made on how much to issue at the field le.'fel, with an eye towards stretching the water until the last issue for the season as decided upon at the cultivation meeting at the beginning o:? the agricultural season. A decision is also made regarding the amount ':o be issue&to each sluice for the next week.The distribution amount within. the project is the function of the operating staff. So long as they,,do not exceed the weekly average, they can decide whether -: o distribute the given amount of water in two or five days, or to reduce issues if there is adequate rainfall. addition, these meetings are also a forum for reviewing the previous week's operations from the perspective of how decisions were implemented with reference to the dec:isions made. Underlying these operations is the assumption that canal control ,of water issues alone is not enough, that the efficient distribution of water within the block is important, and that be achieved only with the cooperation of block-level officials such as the block Irrigation Engineer and his engineering assistants as well as the farmers.This committee was created in January 1987 in response to the drought and the resulting sharp drop in the reserVoir level.It held regularly scheduled weekly meetings and performed its functions systematically.However, in yala (dry season) 1!')88, possibly due to the less acute situation in reservoir levels, meetings were less frequent.Nevertheless, the secretary to the panel continued to act with cmittment and efficiency, as liaison with the higher level oif management. This was due to the absence of a systematic management to control and monitor water allocistions to the administrative blocks along the Left Bank Main Canal.In yala 1988, despite the1 new institutional arrangements, management of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal clontinued much as before. The Kalawewa Left Bank k i n Canal Unit was nlot involved either in Kalankuttiya tank sluice operations or its Branch Canal ,operations. The Irrigation Engineer Galnewa with the an Irrligation Laborer under him set. the Kalankuttiw Tank sluice daily discharge to, the Branch Canal, as well as the daily settings of the Distributary Clanals in the section of the Branch Canal under him. In the section of the Brslnch Canal under the Meegalewa Administrative Block, the management was in the hands of an Engineering Assistant who had previously also managed this slection as an Engineering Assistant in the defunct Iialankuttiya Mministriative Block in consultation with the de facto managers of the upper section olf the Branch Canal.The role of the Main Canal Unit was limited to ensuring 'that the tank level at nlpt fall to a level where it would be unable to make issues to the Branch Canal. A Technical Officer at the Main Canal Unit who was responsible for the sliuice operations of the Kalankuttiya Main Canal under the previous management hlas entrusted with this task to be performed in cooperation with the Engineerinlg Assistant Main Canal Unit and the Irrigation Engineer Meegalewa.A redefinition of the bouni+ries of the Main Canal is planned for the future.If previously, the' Kalawewa Left Bank Main Canal extended from Kalawewa Reservoir to Mulannatulva Tank and from there to the Meegalewa Block, now it would include the physlioal system up to Mulannatuva and then diversions from this t a n k to Kalankulptiya Tank and then to what was Kalankuttiya Branch Canal up to the point ofi the administrative boundaries between the two blocks that manage the Branch Clanal. The mineering Assistant heading this unit will be'responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Main Canal. By this definition;the Main Canal Unit is for controlling the offtakes to the distributlary channels in Galnewa Block. Moreover, the Flow Monitoring Unit will perfoirm its role of monitoring through measurement along the Left Bank Main Canal ,as well as along the Branch Canal no.1.The decision-making prcceslses resulting from this change in hydrological boundaries was explained by'thei Irrigation Engineer (Flow Monitoring Unit) as follows: The System H Water Flanel will allocate water to the Left Bank on a weekly basis. The Block Irrigaition Engineer will attend these meetings as observers so that they will, know and understand on what basis the panel allocates water so that they can make their requests from the main canal unit, on the same basis. Thle Block Irrigation Engineer will request the required amount of water from the Engineering Assistant, Main Canal Unit who will then total the amount fcir the command area and request this from the Panel. Based on what the Pane11 allocates and what is requested by the respective Irrigation Engineem., the Engineering Assistant will prepare an Next >> i i r r i c a t i o n schedule f o r t h e L e f t Dank.In t h e event of problems ois h o r t a g e s , he w i l l c o n s u l t i<i.:h t h e P r o j e c t W i n e e r , L e f t M i (formerly known as Deputy Resident Pro,iect Phnager) .'l'he Flow Monitoring Unit a t Galnewa monitors t h e water use of thr :'.dnlinistr:%tive Block i n terms ok the monthly water duty. Blocks are compared a c d i n s t t h e p e r f o r n w c e of othe:: Blocks as well as a g a i n s t t h e i r o m t a r g e t e d values under t h e Seasonal Operating Plan  A t t h i s l e v e l , though t h e r e is some corres-pondence betueen c o n t r o l of d i s t r i b u t a r y o f f t a k e and c o n t r o l of u n i t . t h i s is n o t always t h e cas'e.I n Kalankuttfya t h e r e are cases where the c o n t r o l of t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y o f f t a k e is i n t h e domain of one u n i t manager h u t t h e water i s s u e s are common t o two u n i t s . This w i l l at t i m e s cause complexity i n t h e tacks of d e l i v e r y and i s s u e of w a t e r a t t h i s l e v e l .As documented for 1986/87, a t t h e Unit, the I r r i g a t i o n Laborer of t h e Block O f f i c e who is i n cha,.me of t h e head of t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y , t h e Unit Planacer, tlie I r r i g a t i o n Laborer. of t h e Unit, and t h e farmers and t h e i r l e a d e r s h i p i n some cases t r y t o ad.just what is perceived by management and farmer-as an i.nadequate suppls. by e x t e n d i m t h e 7-day r o t a t i o n o r 12 &ys and beyond (Raby and Mer,rey, 1989). This n e c e s s i t a t e d some a d d i t i o n a l r e q u e s t s f o r rqater from t h e mar.azement l e v e l a t t h e L e f t Bank.Tlle Unit, Manager r e c e i v e s h i s information on water schedules from t h e Eluclr O f f i c e , h u t he implements; t h i s schedule t h r o w h t h e I r r i g a t i o n Laborer. Ni! h s standing o r d e r s on t h e mnount of water he must i s s u e as determined b\\r t h e I r e i ~h t of t h e s t a f f g a u g c a t t h e head of the d i s t r i b u t a r s ? . The twical Lrrio'ation h h o r e r st t h e Dizitributary o f f t a k e a t Iialankuttiya is a l o c a l r e s i d e n t , himself a c u l t i v a t o i , and has on t h e average, 10 years of s e r v i c e a x 3 nm.nac?^\"cs, t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y o f f t a k e as well as d i s t x i h u t i o n a t t h e f i e l d channel turnout based on his exxrience and farmer demand. But this is not always the case; the Unit I4anager is expected to keep him informed of decisions made at the Block melting and the Irrigation Laborer is expected to discuss problems with refereilice to water issues.More typically, the Irrigation Laborer may take up issues of shortages with his counterprt at the Block or the Engineering Assistant responsible for water mansgement at the Block. Commonly, however, Ithe Irrigation Laborer will suhit his request to the Block through a notjl? from the Unit Manager validating his verbal demand.Preliminary Conclusion: Im-t s l p f Organization and Decision Wing on Canal Operations A supply based plan thlis becomes demand driven.A corollary to the siz'l? of the Mahaweli Project is its centralized apparatus of organizat.ion/decision making. The planning and the subsequent adjustments of the simulated plan for seasonal operations at the Galnewa Project are undertaken at the Ctlmter in the the Mahaweli Authority of Sri M a . During the courlse of the season, the operational plan in real time as well as its djustments are dependent again on the Center, but now in the hands of two members of Ithe Mahaweli family of agenciesthe Mahaweli Economic Agency and the Watelr Management Secretariat.The density of management between the unit of study (the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal) and its rater resource (Polgolla Dam) ,is reflected in the number of agencies ( I ) , the number of levels ( 4 ) and finally the number of individuals involved in decision making through whom information must be accessed above Galnewa Project (Figure 111.11).This is categorized as the number of interest groups and individuals participliting in decision making related to the water resource. This centralization and densitx make for complexity of management in terms of response time to fill the Kalawewa Reservoir.This becomes problematic particularly in a water-short season. The availability of telephone and radio communication flicilities with the levels abve makes for some ease in this situation a l t Galnewa. But the nonavailability of similar comunication facilities betweeill the Project and below makes for difficulties in communication.At the Galnewa Project, thjl2 nature of the apparatus for organization and control of the sluices of the Ilblawewa Reservoir is single interest and is therefore simpler and when coilitrol is exercised, as in the drought-ridden period in 1986/87, the Water Mlmagement Coordinating Panel is an effective mechanism .Below this level, while lthe agency remains the same, complexity is the result of the number of decisioii centers influencing decision making at the Blockoriginally the threl? Block Offices at Galnewa, Kalankuttiya and Pleegalewa and subsequently, the Main Canal Unit with Galnewa and Meegalewa ( 3 ) . A t t,he Unit any such coilnplexity in communication is the result of (a) sharing of the Distributary C a n l i l offtake between two Units and (b) communication between the Unit Manag4.r and his Irrigation Laborer. Communication for operation is largely infonlwl and verbal, supplemented by the periodic meetings for progress evaluatioli of the cultivation plan.The object of monitoring is the water duty based upon water'issue/supply compared with the seasonal targ!ti?t under the Seasonal Operating Plan for the System; for' the Left Bank/F'ro,ject; for the Bl'ock; and for.the Distributary as implemented through the standing orders. But canal operations during a cultivation season are in fact demand based. ' Further, at the unit level, in emphasizing the multiple aspectlit of the, perfonnance of a unit manager, for ,example, are health or housing for the settler, or operation, maintenance or construction in the case of the Irrigation Engineer. There is actually a trade-off in the emphasis given to the water management function of a Unit Elsnager.complete absence of monitoring perfommice and he manages the'Distributary Canal offtake based on his experience and the information he may receive on an informal basis.At the level of the Iii!rigation Laborer there is a of hisBroadly three levels of decision making can be recognized in the Kirindi CWa Irrigation'and Settlement hi-oject. ' The highest level is the Senior Irrigation EnRineer of the Wai';er Management Feedback Center, as he controls the water issues from the head sluice. The Resident Engineer Head Works, whose staff operate the Head Works, can be considered at the next level as he only implements the decisions of the Senior IrrigationThe third level is the office of the Resident Engineer Right Bank in which the Resident Engineer Right Bank himself, the Irrigation Engineer and the Technical Assistant are all involved in,the supervision and monitoring of the canal operations. Due to the fact that all of them were more occupied with construction activities, their involvement with water management has been at a minimum and a separation of their responsibilities would not reflect the actual situation.The loweiiit level of decision making is that of the Irrigation Laborer who actually operates the different structures.Engineer.The Water Management Feedlxpck Center and the Resident Eng ineer Head w. The responsibility of 'the Senior 'Irrigation Engineer of the Water Management Feedback Center with respect to'canal operation is not very clear. Whereas the Senior Irrigation Engineer till June 1988 did not have f o m l responsibilities with respect to canal operation, he was expected to monitor the actual .water issues .and the canal operation. As the Resident Engineer Right Bank's staff was very involved with construction activities, an informal arrangement was made so that the Senior Irrigation' Engineer could give instructions to Irrigation Laborers, who' were administratively under the Resident Engineer Right Bank's,office. In June 1988, this informal arrangement was formalized through a lhtter from the Chief Resident Engineer in which he delegated the \"fu1:il authority over the operation\" to the Senior Irrigation Engineer of the Wa';er Management Feedback Center. However, no reference was made to any means by.which,to effectuate this full authority and in practice, no means whatsiiiever were allocated for this purpose to the Senior Irrigation Engineer.The informal as well as .':he formal arrangements were not well defined; the Senior Irrigation Engineer'iij authority was sometimes openly questioned by the Irrigation Laborers. Thu:i; the actual canal operation has been rather chaotic during maha 1987/88 and yala 1988, as nobdy was really responsible for the canal operation. Monittoring of the canal operation by the Senior Irrigation Engineer and his starf sometimes led to direct instructions by the Senior Irrigation Engineer to tll~e Irrigation Laborers, and in other cases led to letters from the Senior Irrirlfation Engineer to the Resident Engineer Right Bank concerning the canal operakion.The actual allocations from the reservoir have to be authorized by the Senior Irrigation Engineer of l;he Water Management Feedback Center. In practice, this means that if ,I! substantial change of the discharge in the main canal will take place, the Senior Irrigation Engineer sends a note to the Resident Engineer Head Worllrs, with a copy to the Resident Engineer Right Bank. In this notification he ilnentions the date of the envisaged change, the envisaged new discharge itself: and a request to the Resident Engineer Right Bank to alert the Irrigation Lallmrers to the envisaged change. The operations of are then done by the staff of the Resident Engineer Right Bank.the structures Several standing orders (i>f the Irrigation Department apply to the operation of water flows in the main canals of the Kirindi Oya scheme:1.Upstream of a cross-regulalior, the level of tlie main canal always has to be maintained at full supply leIJel. In this way a stable discharge can be supplied through the offtakes tli) the distributary canals.If the discharge through lthe main canal increases, the excess discharge has to be released gradually thlrough the gates of the cross-regulator.The released discharge has lto be spread evenly over the parallel gates of the cross-regulator to prevent erosion of the canal bund, and to extend the life of the cross-regulator.In the opinion of the staff of the Kirindi Oya scheme these standing orders are sufficient for prolper operation of the main canal provided the Irrigation Laborers have some elwperience in these operations.Because of some lacunae in the quality of the construction of the downstream developnent of the Kirilidi Oya scheme and because of a higher percentage of upland soils in the coilnmand area than assumed before the construction, the full supply depth dl>es not give enough head to issue enough water through the distributary canal 1,fftakes during land preparation. Thus it is necessary to raise the leveils in the canal (in same cases with 12 centimeters) during land preparirtion through overflowing of the side walls of the cross-regulators, A permallent overflow is necessary in some oases where the required head cannot be re.a?hed at all. In these cases the firslt decision to operate the canals in this was taken by tile Resident Engineer Right Bank, whichever way particular way 'During the off-season beltween yala 1988 and the coming maha season, the cross-rlsgulators were planned to be raised to correct the side walls of the faulty full supply depths. they were applied, with the con:iient of the Senior ITrigation Engineer of the Water Management Feedback Center. In some instances, however, the Senior Irrigation Engineer has taken .the initiative for a new instruction with respect to the operation of the structures in the main canal of which two examp1,es are given below:1. With rainfall, the dischargtir through the &in canal increases mainly because some Irrigation Laboreirs reduce the discharge to their distributary canals. For that reason, the d:l,scharge that is released from the head sluice is usually reduced (on the insi1;ruction of the Senior Irrigation Engineer) by 5 to 10 cusecs (0.142 to 0.283 m3/sec\"but in case of (more than 75 m whole connnand arwa of t+e Right Bank Main Canal) the discharge may &,stopped entirely for 5 dqys.If the discharge is restarted after a heav rain, the Irrigation Lallmrers (probably on request of the water users in their distributary canals) tend to keep water as much as possible for their own distributary canals, which delays the conveyance to the tail-end tracts.has instructed the Resident Engineer Right [Bank to refrain from operating the crossregulators after a heavy rain, :,p order to stabilize the main canal sooner after the rain (even if that mezims that the cross-regulators will overflow).To solve this problem the .Senior Irrigation EngineerAnother aspect of the cariial operation that has been taken up by the Senior Irrigation Engineer is the aggravation of the destabilization caused by the cleaning of the siphon. The entrance of the siphon is equipped with a grill, to prevent human beings being pulled into the siphon. Every morning the grill is cleaned, and the resulting decrease of friction causes a daily drop of the level in the main aim1 upstream of the siphon by approximately 0.45 meters.Senior Irrirlfation Engineer has signaled the problem as it also increased the risk of ovei!rtopping of the main canal upstream of the siphon, and advised the Resident Engineer Right Bank to remove the grill, and to install a fencing of barbed wire around the entrance of the siphon.The discharges in the main canals and distributary canals are not reliably known (only the discharge released through. the head sluice is reliably known). The information that the Senior Irrigation Engineer will get with respect to the behavior of the main canal the incll.,dental information about problems that occurfor example, the overflowing of the main canal or the drainage of excess discharge through Branch Canal 2.Daily information on variations in flow arid its consequences through feedback from Irrigation Laborers or water users will not reach the Water Management Feedback Center as that information goes to the Resident Engineer Right Bank's staff. Only indirect information through feedback of the measwements by the staff of the Resident hgineer Right Bank will reach his officti?. actual behavior of the main canal. is through This feedback system is not reliable as no cross checks are made m y more and because many measu11:ing structures have been damaged (as well as because of the frequent backwater effect, as will be pointed out in Chapter Resident Engineer Right Bank'is staff.Monitoring of the actual canal operation is done, therefore, through frequent field visits by the staff of the Water Management Feedback Clenter.It is clear from the aboive that the monitoring done by the Water Management Feedback Center alnd the infonnation available to them are not appropriate to regulate the mailn canal. Delegating \"full authority for the operation\" to the Senior IrrilEation Engineer without making available such information to him or allwatinlg in some other way the means that are needed to carry out this responsibilitly is hot very practical.The Resident Engineer Heal Works can be considered to be of the same hierarchical level of decision ilnaking with respect to the canal operation and the operation of the head slulice. He is assisted by a Technical Assistant in the actual operation of the lhead sluice. The Resident Engineer Head Works receives instructions from tlhe Senior Irrigation Engineer to increase and decrease the discharge to th~e main canal.He calculates the opening discharge and gives instructiolns to a Technical Assistant, who operates the head sluice.The office of the Resident,hBineer Right Bank. In the office of the Resident Engineer Right Bank, the Resident Engineer himself, together with the Irrigation Engineer and the Technical Assistants are involved in the decision-ding processes wid? respect to canal operation. At the same time, all these officers are involved in construction activities, so that canal operation receives rel,l%tively little attention.This led to the afore-mentioned arrangement witli the Senior Irrigation Engineer of the Water Management Feedback Center.At the beginning of mjfa 1987/88, the Resident Engineer Right Bank decided that 3 of the 15 Techni(ix1 Assistants would be confined to the dayto-day operation of the 3 ltracts of the Right Bank Main Canal. It was envisaged that this division of responsibilities would guarantee a better performance, compared to the earlier arrangement where all 15 Technical Assistants were involved with llmth operation and construction activities. Nevertheless, both arrangemenlts did have the same result: operations were neglected. The 3 Technical Asslistants who were assigned a tract each, felt frustrated that they were not hllowed to be involved in construction activities at all; motivation was low for them to go to the field for their oppational duties.The overall responsibililty for the operation of the Right Bank was delegated to one of the two Ihigation Engineers who was working for the Resident Engineer Right W ' s office (this Irrigation Engineer was allowed to combine the operation and coilistruction tasks).During maha 1987/88 and yaila 1988, the Resident Engineer Right Bank did not delegate the responsibilitlp for the conveyance of water to the tail-end tracts to a Technical Assistant, but did this himself in cooperation with the Irrigation Fmgineer who was ill charge of operation and maintenance. As the Resident Engineer Right Bank hiilhself atld the Irrigation Engineer did not have the time to monitor the actual1 canal operations they did not have enough information to actually coordinate the canal operation. Operation of the main canal as a whole (i.e., the conveyance and distribution functions) was thus not coordinated in the field and water issues to the 3 tracts, the distribution function, were wiged separately.Irrigation Laborers who djld not operate their structures correctly did not feel responsible for the corlkequences downstream. If they open or close the gates of a cross-regula1:or fully, without informing the Technical Assistant or the Irrigation Laborers downstream, the resulting excess discharge will cause problems downstream. The Resident Engineer Right Bank mderstands this problem and next maha he plans to charge the Technical Assistarit of The problems of uncoordinated and suboptimal operation of the cross-regulators upstream, often lead to water shortages (or excess water) at the tail end and thus the Technical Assistant of the tail-end tract will be more motivated to coordinate the conveyance th& other Technical Assistants. However., the easiest way to take care of thc: conveyance function is by asking for more water to be allocated to the majn canal as a whole as it is done presently. the tail-end tracl!. with the supervision of the main -1.In principle, the Teehnicd Assistants provide the basic instructions to the Irrigation Laborers. In case a substantial change of the discharge through the main canal is to bike place, the Technical Assistant is expected to alert the Irrigation Laborerls, although he does not always do it. In practice, his involvement in clby-to-day water management is limited and his field visits are infrequent.With respect to the changeis in the discharges in the main canal, the Resident Ehgineer Right W ' s office is informed of the date of change, but not of the envisaged time., A ctlange in the afternoon or evening requires, however, that the Irrigation 1,aborers be alert during the night. which they usually are not, especially if tl.hey are not aware of a change at all. The Resident Engineer Right;. Bank and the Irrigation hgineer also visit the field now and then, and giveb instructions to the Irrigation Laborers with respect to canal regulation. These instructions are made on an ad hoc basis; it has happened that the Technics1 Assistant and the Irrigation Engineer have given different instructions to an Irrigation Laborer on separate field trips within a short period of 5 minutl.es.Irrigation Laborers have k e n instructed'by the Technical Assistants to see that, in cases of heavy rain the discharge in the distributary canals does not become too large, beckuse it would erode the canal. In such a situation they are expected to rlduce the discharge and inform the Technical Assistant, who will inform the Irrigation Eagineer. The Irrigation Engineer in turn requests the Senior Irrj1,gation Engineer for of the.main canal discharge.In princirlile, the excess discharge has to be drained through the spills (i.e., the Ibadial gates) to 'the Weerawila Tank. In practice, the ' l a c k of coordj1,nation among the Irrigation Laborers and the Technical Assistants, or slow reaction by the Irrigation Wineer and Technical Assistants, led to 11,he drainage of the excess discharge through Branch Canal 2. Branch Canal 2 anyway functioned as a drain for fluctuations in the main canal discharge,, thus decreasing the risk of.the downstream a reduction coffei-dam breaching, but it W~IB perhaps also an easy way of dealing with problems of canal operation; reflecting that water management had a low priority compared to constructis!m activi.ties.Because of this function 'l>f Branch Canal 2, special instructions were given for the operation of the 81;ross-regulat,or just downstremyof the offtake to Branch Canal 2. Irrigation Laborerg were instructed to adhere strictly to full supply depth, because of the risk of breaking the cofferdam downstream of the cross-regulator. After the cofferdam breached on two occasions the Irrigation Laborers were threatened that they would be fined 2 days' salary if it happened again. As the main canal fluctuates considerably at Branch Canal. 2, due to its plmition downstream af a major part of the main canal including the siphon, the cross-regulator had to be ope,pted quite frequently, even at night. The 1rrigation.hborers who were working close to the coffeldam and the cross-relgulator near B m c h Canal 2 maintained an .informal information system to lprevent breakage of the cofferdam.The.Irrigation Laborers. At this lowest level, decisions are made by the Irrigation Laborers concerniing the operations of individual structures of the main. canal cross-regulatoris and distributary canal offtakes. Usually, the Work Supervisor supervises the activities of the Irrigation Laborer. However, during maha 1987/88 an~j yala 1988 the Work Supervisors were involved a n l y in construction work and nipt in water management. Next maha, they will be involved in water managemelpt too. With respect to canal operation the Irrigation Laborers have to follow the afore-mentioned standing orders.Maintaining full supply delpth in the main canal requires regular interventions by adjusting the gatles of the cross-regulators due to fluctuations in the discharge. Such fluctualtions or changes of flow occur due to changes in the discharge issued thrlough the head sluice, to operations of crossregulators or offtalres upstrealm of the concerned cross-regulator, or to rainfsll.According to the standing orders, any excess flow in the main canal has to be released gradually in order to stabi1,ize the fluctuations in the downstream part of the.,main canal, and this means that a change in flow has to pass through a cross-regulator iwhile maintaining the head. As the Irrigation Laborer is not aware of thle duration and size of a change in flow, the adjustment of the gates is a tilme-consumi&! trial-and-error process for him.If he does not release the!, discharge gradually, the fluctuations in the downstream main canal will incrlease. However, as these fluctuations of the discharge are drained through Elranch C a n a l 2, there are no incentives for the Irrigation Laborer, Technical Alssistant, and Irrigation Engineer to take care of these fluctuations as lon$l. as the discharge in the main canal is large enough.. An exception to this ils the operation of the cross-regulator at Distributary Canal 5 of tract, 1.O m 1 1 June 1988, at 1330 h the discharge to the main canal from the helad sluice, was increased by 0.425 m3/sec (15 cusecs). As a result, the lievel of the main m a 1 at Distributary Canal 5 sta.rted to rise, and the moss-regulator started to overflow. The Irrigation Laborer, was not alerted by the Technical Assistant who probatlNly ; i of the expected change in the discharge, opened the gates of the cross: regulator only at 2000 h. As ,he opened'them totally, the level of the main canal upstream of the siphon (which is situated downstream of the crossregulator of Distributary Canall. 5 ) started to rise and the main canal overtopped.2 to release the discharge gradually because he has to prevent overtopping of the main canal upstream of the siphon.The policy of the Irrigaticim Eepartment with respect to the operations of the main canal besides the 3 standing orders is to expect the Irrigation Laborers to become experienced on-the-job.To get this experience the Irrigation Laborer can be helpxi to some degree by supplying him with some quantitative information on expdcted changes in flow. In order to release a change of flow gradually, the Irrigation Laborer should have some sort of idea of the size and duration ofl: the discharge as well as the envisaged change in discharge; the Irrieration Laborer cannot see at the beginning of the change of flow how big it wikll be and how long it will If at all he is warned about the chalnge of flow by the Technical Assistant, he is not inforined about the quantitat1,ive dimensions of the flows. However, if he is informed about the latter, he could gradually get an idea of the sizes of discharges and the required reaaktion on particular changes. continue.The discharge through the clross-regulator is generally not spread evenly over the paFallel gates. Usw.lly, one gate is opened to a large extent and one or two others opened only slightly.The excuse of the Irrigation Laborers is that there is debris . obstructing the other gates, or that the gates are not functioning well. A more probable reason is that the operation of all gates at a low operling is a heavy job because of the high water pressure, compared to the operatl.ion of only one gate at a low water pressure. Moreover, it is easier for t h e . Irrigatioll Laborer to recognize the required opening for the standard discharge for one gate only, compared to the openings of a combination of gatles.In taking a decision concebrning canal operation, the Irrigation Laborer has to consider the discharge thlat has to be issued to the distributary canal offtake, the distribution, as well as the water that has to be conveyed to the downstream parts of the maici canal, the conveyance. With respect to the distribution, the Irrigation hiborer has to issue as much as possible to the distributary -1s during land preparation, and is allowed to increase the head by overflowing the cross-regulator.During the cultivation sealaon, the Irrigation Laborer should follow the water schedules as prepred by tlhe Senior Irrigation Engineer. However, the measuring structures of the distl.ributary canals do not function yet, and thus the actual issuing of water to tlhe distributary a trial-and-error process. Moreover, it has to bd a trial-and-error process, b u s e he has to adjust the issues to the demanhl. of the water users; the unofficial instruction of Assistant in this respect is to give as much water to canals is the Technical *The Irrigation Department plans to solve this problem by raising the bunds of the main canal..the water users as they want LSIO that the Technical Assistants themselves do not have to spend time in dealiing with requests for rater) arid ask the leaders of the water-user glroups for written requests.After land preparation is completed, the Irlrigation Laborer reduces the discharge to a lower level, and gives more if water users request him f o r more. In practic.e, this 'trial-and-error Flrocess occurs after land preparation, till a situation i.s established which is reasonably satisfying for water users and Irrigation Laborers.In general, the upper limit of this discharge. is the design discharge. even in periods of high water denand. . The only way to increase the water issues to the distributary canalis during such pei-.iods is by increasing t-he head, and thereby overflowing the cross-regulators. If a constant level of overflowing of the. cross-regulator ' is.. maintained this practice will riot interfere with the conveyance function. But if it is practiced as a method of adjusting the issues to the1 distributary canal, this practice i s i.n ,conflict with the conveyance clf water to downstream tracts. Due to lack of supervision of the conveyance1 through the main canal as a separate operational goal and the canali operation in general, this practice has been wi.de-spread during maha 19871'88.As stated earlier, canal operation can be used by the Irrigation Laborers for 2 different and sclNmetimes conflicting functions: the conveyance of water through the main cansl.1 and the water issues. to the distributary canals.A s the water usem are close by, and always demand water, the Irrigation Laborer usually givesi. priority to water issues to the distributary canal, and more so if the convejlance of water is not monitored.With rekpect to the watl.er issues to the distributary canals the Irrigation hborers have to chocilse among the following options : * without going against ,the standing orders, they will probably do so, but will issue a certain extra discharge to allow against fluctuations.* 911 the other hand they can also issue too much water anyway, to be sure t.hat water users will-not complzltin to them.If they cannot get enough discharge to the distributary canal, they can close t,he gates of the cro:l;s-regulator a little and allow a certain overflowing of the cross-regulzlrtor ; whether temporarily, as they can always defend. their case to any supellvisor by stating that the main canal is fluctuating (i.e,, rising), .or permanently, if the water users claim that. they do no get enough water.In all cases there is no. discussion, or any other form of information exchange, between the people that schedule the water issues and the water users, except for the malfunctioning devices used for actual water issues to the distributary and field canals.These allocation processes and the resulting operational plans, wh:.le assumed to be separate from the canal operation, do interfere c1earl:lr with the canal operation as explained above. Together with the trial-and-error processes for the release of the discharge through the gates of the cros!ii-regulator, the trial-and-error processes for issuing water to the distributailry canals cause a fluctuations of the level of the main canal.Recently, the Irrigation Ilaborers have been instructed not to operate the cross-regulators after the discharge in the main been reduced because of rain. Thus it is hqxd to realize a fast stabilizing of the main canal after the discharge becomcks normal again. Many water users complain that even after sufficient rain has fallen, they do not want the.discharge to be lowered as water does not.rerIwin longer than 4 hours on the upland fields. Moreover, as yet the Irrigation Department has no means of measuring the rainfall in the different parts of the scheme. When the discharge beoomes normal again, all water useips want to irrigate at the same time and the Irrigation Labrers at the head-end tract will have to close the gates of the cross-regulators, if the water users request them to do so.Operations Standim orders and unsteady flow conditions. Canal operation in the Kirindi Oya Scheme is governHll mainly by the standing orders, together with some additional instructions. The management efforts by all officers are mainly directed to .the execution of these standing orders. The actual responsibilities of the Irrigatj1,on Laborer, and the options to tackle them are not fully covered in this way; the standing orders assume a fixed, supply-based water schedule that can be easily met by following these instructions because it assumes1 steady flow conditions. The actual water management is mostly demand driven without any adjustment of the operational targeting and thus unsteady flow conditions prevail. canal has Design and the actual f'ulfillment of the conveyance and distribution functions. Two different aspecks complicate the decision making by the Irrigation .Laborer. First, the actual decision making by the Irrigation Laborer is the dealing with trpial-and-error processes with respect to the release of flows through his cross-regulator. Second, the issuing of water to the distributary canals alsclb requires trial-and-error processes, which processes, .however occur mainly at the end of the land preparation.These two processes can b c k conflicting in some cases, but in such cases the present instructions to thci Irrigation Laborers are not sufficient for operation of the main canal with respect to conveyance and simultaneous water distribution; there are many cbptions that have not been covered. If the choices'among these options are1 left entirely to the Irrigation L&orers, it will lead to a suboptimal canal operation as: i) they will not recognize the esceptional (e.g., predictable change of flows) and therefore consider than as routine aspects of the canal operation, and ii) the Irrigation Laborers are not neutral decision maker$ with respect to the conflicting interests of the canal operation and water djlstribution.The role of communication. At present, the situation is worsened by the fact that little communication takes place between the Irrigation Laborers and the Resident Engineer Right Bank's staff. Therefore, little feedback from the Irrigation Laborers' problems is possible, and instructions cannot be attuned to the actual needs: Because the Resident Engineer Right Bank's staff was not monitoring th<l? canal operation satisfactorily, the Senior Irrigation Engineer felt compe:l.led .to monitor the canal operation to a certain degree.This inevilably led to conflicts between the Water Management Feedback Center and the Resident Engineer Right Bank's staff. the situation may improve when 1' Engineer Right Bank's office who will be responsible monitor the entire canal operation to get enough discharge at the tail end.Organizational design solu,ions and non-solutions. During maha 1988/89, the Technical Assistant of the Resident tail-end tract. will become responsible for the canal .operation too, when he will have .to for.the Further, if the Technical Assistant of the tail-end block prefers it, he w i l l ask for more water in the main canal than is really necessary, to d r e his job easier. To prevent such a situation, higher levels in the organization will have to ihonitor the actual water distribution and conveyance as well.Canal operat.ion cannot be ilhanaged by the Senior Irrigation Engineer of the Water Management Feedback Center as long as he has no information on the actual consequences of canal opltrations.Even without much effort beiexerted by the staff of the ResJtdent Engineer Right Bank to operate the water flows in the miri canal, becaustl? of their interaction with their own staff and the water users they wilkre better informed than the Senior Irrigation Engineer on the actual behavior of the main canal. This means that even if the Senior Irrigation Engineer. had technical authority over the Irrigation Laborers, he would have been unilbble to operate the main canal without such real time information gathered form the Irrigation Laborers and water users.In practice, the Senior Irrigation 'Engineer monitors water issues through the head sluice and the issues to the distributary canals (which will be possible from next maha).If the Technical Assistant of the tail-end block requests, through the Restdent.Engineer Right Bank, for more water to the main canal, the Senior 1r:l;igation Engineer will not be able to refuse that request. He does not .hWe sufficient insight into the actual water needs in the different tradCs, and cannot take the risk of crops being destroyed through lack of water.Improved procedures. The (quality of canal operation by the Irrigation h b r e r s can a l s o be increased by givin&them a knowledge of what happens in the main canal as well as in thtl?ir distributary canals. At present, they are not informed about the size of .Ithe increased discharge, about the adtual discharges through the main canal lto the distributary canals, etc. As long as they operate the conveyance an(ll the water distribution themselves, that kind of information can help them to' get a better idea, of what they are doing.For eza!!ple, they will be able lto get more experience in the operation of the parallel gates of.the cross-regl.dators for a certain defined increase of the discharge.This type of i~l~fonnation can have a direct effect on better communication between the Resident Engineer Right Bank's .staff and the Irrigation Laborer.Another. way of improving this alerting system is to give exact times of envisaged cllianges in flow and to limit the changes in the evening.TIPro.ject Office in (i:abanatuan.As' a decentralized system of nlanmenient, NIA in Manila has 5:iven considerable autonomy to its project management. As reported to us t l i y the Head of the Systems Planagement Division at NIA, the Manager of UPRIIS is considered a Head of a Division at NIA Headquarters.at the! highest level of management is to irrigate a certain sized command area given the available water supply. At the Project le\\.el, the Project Manager, and his staff, in particular those in the Operations Division and the Watrkr Central Coordinating Center (WCCC) make their decision on the area to h i ! irrigated bas@ on the UPRIIS Operation Rule Curve (Figure 111.12). In the wet season, cultivation is primarily with rainfall from the catchment ' while diversion from the reservoir becomes significant in the dry season. However, this wet season proved to be not so wet after all. A s was apparent at. the UPRIIS Project Office at Cabanatuan, the drought reached crisis proplirtions on 12 September 1988. The goal at the central and project levels 11;s. that once the decision is taken to begin irrigating a fixed area, this iri: done in consultation with the National Food and Agricultural Council and the Provincial Development Council. The allocation of the available watw equitably districts becomes the concern of the project managemerlit, in particular the WCCC.The.progress of the Projecit is measured by the central authority according to operational data which include service area, program area, planted area, harvested area, cropping .intensity, average yield, and project irrigation efficiency. The next step is Irrigation Service Fee Collection which includes current collectibl6l!s, total collection, and Fee Collection Efficiency.For this purpose, the project mlmagement tracks the following data: reservoir hydrologyelevation of, relea$e from, and inflow into the dam; daily discharge at mjor flow points [Dirlitributary Canal 1, (El) which is significant for the supply to Santo Doming0 which is one such ,pint]; daily rainfall by district; weekly status of farming activities by area categorized in the following manner -Area Under hlmd Soaking, Area Under Land Preparation, Area Under Normal Irrigation Pericid, Area Under Terminal Drainage, and Area Harvested; and the seasonal mon:l.toring and evaluation of the planted area in each system with reference to the irrigation efficiency. This daily, weekly, and seasonal reporting is supplwnented by information communicated at fortnightly meetings convened by the Project Manager with his District Chiefs. On a daily basis as needed, radio and telephone communications exist while field visits are more frequent : i . n crisis situations.It is also monitorwl on Ekpnditure -o&M cost per hectare.The Water Central Coordinpion Center (WCCC). The WCCC is one of two keg sehments of the Project 0ff:I.ce that is in systematic communication with tlie level below. The formal organizational link between the WCCC and the District Office is the WCCC Chief Engineer. He decides upon actual water allocations within the boundarii1.s of the Project and fixes the target flow to be met at key diversion points ililong the irrigation network.The Operations Division laci:tually, Operation and Maintenance) as the second segment, has a diffewent role with respect to the District-level management. If the task of the WCCC is to monitor and evaluate the volume of water present at any given.pojlnt, this office has as .its central task, the monitoring and evaluation of thw management that is responsible for ensuring this supply of water. It alao has the related task of budgeting for maintenance of the irrigation netwoil'k. However, due to funding cutbacks over the years, the District Budget doel!s not allow for routine maintenance and what funding is available is not for fixing or replacing gates but for example, for embankment filling and r1;urfacing of the canal.Thus, under the financial budget for 1988, thew is an o&M component amounting to approxi-rnate1.y B1 million in a total budget of approximately P 6 . 5 million. This budget is not for system maintenance but, for vehicle maintenance, and t,ransport and travel items.This has implications for the state of the physical system. Under the Irr:l,gation Operations Support Project, operation and maintenance expenditure wi:.1 be increaskd to a level of about 90 percent of what is necessary in order to maintain maximum productivity.The Operations Divisions has the additional task of monitoring and evaluating the performance 0:' the staff at the.District level within the criteria monitored by NIA. Essil?ntially, the zone engineer, the hydrologist, the Water Management Technicians, the gatekeepers, and the ditchtenders within a District are evaluated mually and rated under the categories of Operations, Maintenance, IrrigaLion Service Fee Collection Efficiency, Farmer Organization, and Adniriistration. This evaluation in turn is based primarily on their reporting, and periodically through field visits. It evaluates the targeted estimates; for example in irrigation, this includes the estimated rqater for at 2 . 5 literdha and normal growth at 1 . 5 literdha. Irrigation efficiency is compiiled by taking into account the difference between the area actually irrigated and the projected area at the start of the cultivation season and t l l j e targeted and actual discharge of water converted to .the percentage diflference. Reports are primarily on a weekly or monthly basis and the Water Manligement Technician's weekly report is a key source of information. In preplsring this, he is assisted by the ditchtender. Reports rihich are essentially plrogress reports of the cultivation season are suhitted to the zone enginee:l? who in turn suhnits his report to management at the higher levels of the Disltrict and Project.District 1 Office, in Munol&. The District Office is formally under the general supervision of a civi!l engineer with the title of District Chief.The key personnel f o r water WQagement at this level are the Operations Engineer and the Hydrologist.The Operations Engineer 'is responsible for the overall operation and maintenance functions in the Diljtrict. The WCCC receives from the district level, particularly from the hydrologist, information necessary to m . & e releases from the Pantabangan DIm at a given time. Hydrologically, at the highest level there is correslpondence among the reservoir (project), SDA Mc (zone), and the distributary lllateral). At the district organization there is no such correspondence witlh a hydrological boundary. The irrigated area under the Pantabangan Reservoir 'covers four Districts. In particular, the WCCC in consultation with the !District Hydrologist fises targets in terms of l (a1 flow t o be d i v e r t e d a t t h e l h p a n g a Diversion Dam (Rizal) through Dc1a major d i v e r s i o n canal which coni7ey.s water. t o be shared between Districts 1 and 2 and ( b ) flow a l l o c a t e d t o t h e r e s p e c t i v e Districts.The Hydrologist is, responsible f o r ( a ) t h e monitoring of t h e volume of water a.llocated t o t h e District.This m o n i t o r i w comes i n t h e following d i f f e r e n t forms: maintaining antll updating records of r a i n f a l l i n t h e command area, and catchment flow; ( b ) ~e q u e s t i n g t h e required supplemental volume of water from t h e d i v e r s i o n ; ( c ) e m u r i n g t h a t t h e required volume of water is received a t t h e main supply g a t e ; and Id) requesting a reduction i n t h e amount d i v e r t e d i n response t o riiudden i n c r e a s e s i n t h e a v a i l a b l e water supply i n t h e District.H e i s a s s i q t e d by a' category of o f f i c i a l s known as gatekeepers. There are gatekeepers a t d i v e r s i o n p o i n t s , a t t h e main supply g a t e , and a t t h e head of t h e Branch C a n a l . The function of t h e gatekeeper is t o open, r e g u l a t e , and c l o s e t h e g a t e s (cross-regulators along D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 1, p a r t i c u l a r l y Radial ( m t e 3 , t h e supply g a t e t o t h e Five Bay Creek and t h e head g a t e a t Sa.hto Domirigo Area). As i n t h e case of t h e h y d r o l o g i s t , t h e gatekeepers are a l s o on t h e p a y r o l l of t h e Districti n t h i s case t h e gatekeeper h'ho must ensure t h e llargeted inflow from Dc1 t o t h e supply g a t e at t h e Five b y Creek is r e a l l y an employee of District 2 . Then, from t h e p o i n t of view of maintaining t h e pj.anr~led volume of water i n t h e Santo Domingo Area canal, t h e uppermost e f f e c t i v e hydrological boundary is Radial G a t e 3 along E l , while t h e organizational b0umhries are i n t h e realm not of District 1 b u t of District 2.A s mentioIiied by t h e hydrologist of District 1 , h e makes f i e l d v i s i t s t o check t h e perfoilmince of t h e gatekeeper approximately t h r e e t i m e s a week and more frequenkly i f necessary. Such performance monitoring i s done p r i m a r i l y by v i s u a l l y a p p r a i s i n g the water e l e v a t i o n i n t h e canal, e s p c i a l l y a t Radial Gate 3 . Ilhere are f i v e p o i n t s along D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 1 a t t h i s p o i n t with one gatflikeeper monitoring approximately t w o g a t e s . Through s t a f f gauge readings thei!y maintain d a i l y records of w a t e r l e v e l which are s u h n i t t e d t o t h e hydrologisti. on a weekly basis.A t t h e p o i n t of supply a t Five Bay Creek t h e catchmeri!t area is 1,500 ha, but t h e a c t u a l volume of water i n t h e Creek on a given day is computed by taking t h e d i f f e r e n c e 'between t h e supply through the! d i v e r s i o n a t Dc1 and t h e flow a t Five Bay Creek measured by a P a r s h a l l fltipe. This becomes part of t h e weekly data suhmitted by t.he gatekeeper t o t h e hydrologist of District 1.Zone 3 i n District 1: SanI1,o Domingo Area. The Zone Engineer is respons i b l e for operation and rnaintenclince within t h i s area.H e keeps d a i l y personal c o n t a c t with h i s o f f i c i a l s by t r a v e l i n g within h i s area as w e l l as by meeting them informally a t t h e field s t a t i o n . H e is t h e l i n k between t h e District and t h e f i e l d l e v e l s .on t h e performance of i n d i v i d u a l o f f i c i a l s begins z l i t ' t h i s l e v e l .water is received a t t h e Lateral.The a c t u a l impact of t h e monitoring system j The Division. . . Z Water Manzligement Technician is i n charge of a d i v i s i o n . A d i f f e r e n t managerial l e v e l emw-ges a t the head of t h e lateral.A Water Management Technician may be i ~e s p o n s i b l e f o r a whole lateral o r else ( t h i s may depend on t h e l i m i t s of t h e command area a d m i n i s t r a t i v e l y designated under each Water Management Tclchnician) s h a r e a lateral with a fellow Water blmagement Technician a s , f o r e:i:ample, i n Lateral B. The National I r r i g a t i o n Administration monitors t h e performance of t h e s e two sets of o f f i c i a l s on t h e basis of t h e i r a b i l i t y t o d e l i v e r and manage t h e water estimated f o r t h e commarld area .under them.d e l i v e r y is a prime frunctlon of i r r i g a t i o n s e r v i c e ) , it should a l s o be a b l e t o c o l l e c t s e r v i c e f e e s frorln t h e farmers.For the Water Management Tedhnician f o r example, t h e N I A Evaluation allocates 42 percentage p o i n t s f o r o p e r a t i o n s , h'ith 25 f o r maintenance.Together they malre a t o t a l of 67 percentage p o i n t s . I f t h e s e two aspects i n p a r t i c u l a r are s a t i s f a c t o r y , then it i s col1ection:if w i l l be s a t i s f a c t o r y , and another 25 percent.age p o i n t s are a l l o c a t e d f o r c o l l e c t i o n s . This is t h e c e n t r a l o p e r a t i o n a l p r i n c i p l e f o r t h e N I A and i t s mmgement a t a l l l e v e l s and as one Water c o l l e c t i o n . \"Procedures f o r monitoring performance of t h e managers as w e l l as t h e channels f o r communicati~ig information and d e c i s i o n s are a l l focused on t h i s t a r g e t .The physical d e t e r i o r a t i o n of t h e system ( t h e absence of g a t e s , tlie d i f f i c u l t y of operating t h e g a t e s ) calls f o r greater ingenuity on t h e part, of t h e Water E.lanagemlknt Technician. Thus, Lateral A, f o r example, has no g a t e s and t o i r r i g a t e thti? conunand area under i t , t h e gatekeeper has t o c l o s e t h e Santo D o m i n g 0 Area Ilkin Canal. Pbriagement a t t h e o f f t a k e of t h e lateral is f u r t h e r complicated by two o t h e r f a c t o r s : t h e f i r s t is t h e presence of c u l t i v a t e d areas iimder its command known as, f o r example, A-S ( e x t r a area i r r i g a t e d beyond the area designed) and the' second, is farmer i n t e r v e n t i o n of t h e checks along t h e lateral, e s t a b l i s h e d by t h e agency t o ensure e q u i t y of supply t o t h e .turnouts. assumed t h a t Planagemerit Technician, quoting .the Operations Manager, put i t , 9 , i r r i g a t i o n . is A weekly meeting is h e l d eillrly Monday morning between t h e farmers and t h e Water Management Technicimii t o assess t h e success o r f a i l u r e i n meeting farmer demand (perception of th(l? fanners and t h e corroboration of t h e d i t c htender are t h e criteria f o r ' water adequacy at t h e t u r n o u t ) . The Water Elanagement Technician takes h i s problems t o t h e Zone Engineer and t h e o t h e r staff a t t h e District Office iijtaff meeting later i n t h e day. S h o r t f a l l s i n d a i l y supply of water a t t h e lakeral are observed b u t they are approximated on a weekly t o t a l basis and r,ikported a t t h e D i s t r i c t l e v e l . However, i n an emergency it is always p o s s i b l e t o communicate with t h e zone engineer during h i s d a i l y v i s i t s t o t h e f i e l d )atation of t h e Water Management Technicians o r during o f f i c i a l v i s i t s mde by .Ithe Water Management Technicians who use motor bicycles o f f i c i a l l y provided. A Water Management Technician is 'assured of a volume of water based on t h e e x t e n t planned f o r c u l t i v a t i o n under t h e cropping calender.I f thersis is a s h o r t f a l l he may bring t h i s t o t h e a t t e n t i o n of t h e District m a g l m e n t , who i n t u r n may monitor t h e Water Flanagement Technician t o che!ck &ether t h e command area designated f o r i r r i g a t i o n is i n f a c t c u l t i v a t e d and whether service f e e s are c o l l e c t e d . This r;eeltly d e l i b e r a t i o n and. r e p o r t s . submitted by t h e Water Management Technician t o t h e zone engineer are aggregated a t t h e district l e v e l and submitted t o t h e WCCC f o r t h e I r r i g a t i o n Water Weekly Evaluation. Thus, on 13 September 1988, t h e evaluatisim f o r t h e last week of August f o r t h e Santo domi.ngo <*ea w a s as follows: FTeliminary Conclusion: Impact,of Organization and Decision W i p g on C a n a l Operations In examining t h e manageria:; aspects of canal r e g u l a t i o n i n t h e UPRIIS P r o j e c t , two dominant c h a r a c t x r i s t i c s emerge: t h e single i n t e r e s t t a s k s p e c i a l i z a t . i o n focused on watcitr and t h e decentralized organization w i t h c o n t r o l of t h e water resource a t t h e UPRIIS P r o j e c t . These c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s should l o g i c a l l y r e s u l t i n a f l e x i b l e organization.A t t h e N I A i n ? h i l a , t h e o b j e c t i v e s of management are spelled o u t as providing i r r i g a t i o n s e n i c e s to t h e farmers. I f t h e s e r v i c e is s a t i s f a ct o r y , t h e c o l l e c t i o n of I r r i g a t i o n Service Fees w i l l i n c r e a s e and hence, IrriFration Efficiency and I r r i i l a t i o n Service Fee Collection E f f i c i e n c y are its t a r g e t s f o r monitoring t h e h r o j e c t , and the District. Below t h e District l e v e l t h e s e same t a r g e t s becorlne i n d i c e s f o r monitoring t h e performance of individual managers, notably thilit of t h e Water Management Technician and t h e Zone Engineer.For t h i s purpase, monitoring t h e t o t a l i r r i g a t e d area and a gi\\.en volume of xater during t l l i s adequate -, t h e s e s t a g e s are nilbt r i g i d l y t i m e bound and t h e only c o n s t r a i n t i s t h e area o r i g i n a l l y t a r g e t e d f o r c u l t i v a t i o n and t h i s is determined by t h e \\rolume of w t e r aiailable throiigh r a i n f a l l i n t h e r q e t season and t h e s t o r a g e i l l t h e dam during the dry sea$on.0nc.e land soaking is completed, e v e r y attempt is made t o complete cii$lti\\iati.on of t h i s area by sharing t h e minimal .supply of water a y a i l a b l e over t h e e n t i r e area c u l t i v a t e d .As hydrological boundaries c r o s s m u l t i p l e administrative. boundaries t h e d i f f i c u l t y of performing t h i s t:ltsk is increased. It is f u r t h e r compounded by t h e anomlous p o s i t i o n of t h e dJistrict l e v e l s t a f f of t h e WCCC.Thus, while t h e WCCC a t t h e P r o j e c t was :lrwift i n responding t o r a i n f a l l , its district l e v e l f u n c t i o n a r i e s were 1es:Is able t o do so, given t h e i r competing a f f i l i a t i o n s t o Districts..Tilie monitoring functions of t h e District by t h e P r o j e c t is placed i n t h e hands , o f t h e WCCC while t h e c o n t r o l of t h e s t a f f performing i t s functions is i n t h e hands of those who are monitoredt h e D i s t r i c t -l e v e l s t a f f . Main caJuwl operation and r e g u l a t i o n a t t h e SDA are c l e a r l y influenced by t h i s pr(l?cedure.As w e witnessed i n t h e case of t h e hyd\\rirologist of District 1 and t:l?e gatekeeper of District 2 'on whom t h e former depends t o g e t h i s water, ther'le are no p o s i t i v e or negative consequences f o r t h e gatekeeper, professionally, i n responding t o t h e request f o r water. The hydrologist simply s a i d t o t h e gl:atekeeper, \"you give us our water and do your job. \" However, as we observed clluring. the rotation under discussion, despite t,hese c o n s t r a i n t s and taking i n t o account the physical c o n s t r a i n t s of operation i n some l a t e r a l s , the 'Water Management Technician and the l a t e r a l management adapted t h e i r opeipational style t o complete i r r i g a t i o n of the command area according t.o schedule.The lack of a systematic a p o a c h t o tracking information t r a n s m i t t e d a t the d i f f e r e n t the physical and managerial systems and t h e l a c k of positive o r negative sanctions f o r e f f e c t i v e performance or t h e absence of it on the part of the managers a t these l e v e l s is an indication of a lack of awareness of t h e conveyance func!:tion and its impact on delivery and distribution of water i n a t i m e l y nlmer. Given t h e s i z e of t h e Project and the Dist.rict, it, is the Zone t h a t i r i meaningful hydrologically and managerially.However. given t h e distance flljorn the Dam [60 kilometers (h)] and i n p a r t ic u l a r the distance of t h e l a s t iateral of SDA from the E l diversion point, timing of releases t o t h e d i f f e r e n t offtakes becomes an important f a c t o r , p a r t i c u l a r l y a t t h e lateral, and there is a t present no mechanism t o monitor this conveyance function as peirformed by t h e management of the D i s t r i c t / W C C C even though i t impimes on t h e performance of t h e Water Management Technician i n p a r t i c u l a r . Thus, i n our ob$ervations of one rotation (Annex 111.1) w h i l e we rere c l e a r l y aware of the 'cirucial r o l e of radio and personal communicat i o n s on a d a i l y basis and the r o l e of meetings and reporting on a less frequent basis, we were unaware of t h e existence of the l i a i s o n o f f i c e r .W e subsequently discovered t h a t his15 r o l e w a s a c t u a l l y t o connnunicate an37 changes i n releases from t h e Dam t o the gatekeepers along El. There w a s also a lack of complete record keeping aswciated w i t h changes i n t h e volume of w a t e r deli\\-ered on any given d a y . For example, what is verbally transmitted over the radio o r t h e d a i l y t a r g e t s found i n t h e notebook of the hydrologist were not recorded. l e v e l s ofA comparison of the fo:iml organization and t.he decision-malting the three case s t u d i e s under consideration from t h e perspective processes i n of t . h e i r i m p a c t , on main canal mlmagement reveals the following:1. ?lain canal operations i n , i t s dual aspects of control of issue and regulation of conve.yance are influenced by what is i d e n t i f i e d here as the c_omplexitp of organizational d e i l w . This complexity is l a r g e l y determined by t h e scale of the project ,imd t h e distanceboth spatial and organizat i o n a lfrom t h e water resourcNl3. Scale and distance determine t h e degree of control t h a t can be .exercised by t h e management a t the main canal as w e l l as a t t h e organizational l e v e l s tlirough which it must operate t o realize i t s objectives. From t h i s perspect,ive, the Kirindi Oya I r r i g a t i o n and Settlement Project is a t an advantage over t h e others.This has t h e following implication for main '-anal operations: i n the t h r e e cases examined, KOISP and UPRIIS fall into the first category while the Galnewa Project falls into the second. the water resource distribution are and its mdeip the same agency while in Galnerga the control of'the water resource is within the pufview of at least three agencies of which one is also responsible for managing the distribution.3. Single-versus multi-ob.iecti(ves for water by the agency; for example, the priorities established between hydropower and irrigated agriculture. In Galnerqa, based on the simulatjion model for the SOP, it is 100 percent for the first and 90 percent for t h r l k s,econd, while a similar choice is made in the Philippines. While the UPRIIIS was primarily aimed to conserve water as a dependable year-round supply fox: agriculture, as a multipurpose pro.ject, in practice, a trade-off is made between the two dimensions. In Kirindi Oya Irrigation and Settlement PrclNject, water is for agriculture. This prioritizing of water for more than one purpose will not necessarily lead to positive or negative impact 011 canal operation in itself. Potential complications arise from the eiive-and-take process between the agencies in their daily operations. For exaimple, in the Galnewa case, in 1986/87, the lower priority for irrigated qgriculture was accompanied by an unsystematic issue with reference to timing of such issues. This is the result of unplanned shifting of prioritlies influencing the established operational targets for water.The number of tasks that must be performed by personnel managing water over and above this particular tlask has an impact on the amount of time and care expended upon the task of main canal operations. The UPRIIS has a single task while Galnewa is multiple-task oriented.The Kirindi Oya Irrigation and Settlement Projeckt illustrates the situation where the concern over construction has consequencles for the concerns of irrigation. Followiw this, is the tendency of persclnnel to concentrate on those tasks emphasized by the agency at the expense of others.In the first two systems the control of These six factors may individually or in multiple combinations assist or impede the success of canal operptions. They determine and limit the options for decision d i n g in a systems1,tic and.timely manner. The fit or lack Of Next >> fit between layout and the c'rganization for management further influences canal operations. be mitigated by the presence of the following additional factors: 7. A decentralized organizati;g in contrast to a centralized one. Through &central iziria the management, Fiower and authority for decision malting will be disbursed to multiple levels in the organization while a centralized organization concentrates this sit the top of the This gives the discretionary power of decisi,bn making to managers who function under uncertain conditions (shifting of priorities) to have some alternative options to c.ounter ruianticipatd change, at the operational level, without waitim f o r clearance from above,. In the WRIIS, the levels of organization and corresponding decision malking are thus decoupled at the Project and secondarily at the District. However, as discussed elsewhere (Chapter IV) the decoupling of the physical system can to a large extent facilitate canal operations within a centralized organization such as Galnewa.8. A reliable and predictable manag ement information system for accessing information will enable timeH,y response on the part of management at different levels. In addition t1.o regular reporting, and meetings routinely aimed at better informed deci:l:ion making, the telephone and the radio will enable the management to be in ciiontrol of the exceptional. However, to be effective, information received at each level and through each mode must be part of one integrated managemerlk information system.In the absence of this, the efficacy of the zilystem, exceptional at one level (WCCC in the UPRIIS and the System H Water Panel in. Galnewa) may be less effective at mother level (the District in the first case and the Left Bank in the second). In the KOISP, in the zl;bsence.of such formal mechanisms, the Senior Irrigation Engineer collects his information on his own reconnaissance.-The absence of this will result in ad hoc decision making.9 . The fit. between objectives as specified in the operational plan of the panaaement, for example, duriru! a cultivation season, and its criteria for monitoring its employees will dt1:termine the efficiency with which the agency can perform the dual tasks for canal operation. A disjuncture between the ob,jectives specified in the ollx?rational plan which map be for example, supply-oriented, and the actual operations which may be demand-based, and the monitoring of staff perfomlmce according to the original supplg target will create ambiguities and unoertainties for the management. In any event, post hoc evaluation of the cult:.vation plan based on area cultivated and yields (and this is not an operational plan) while construed as an evaluation of the employees eollectivelf, falls short of identifying individuals, allocating respoi~lsibility, and monitoring their performance. leading to rewards and sanction!13. Main canal operations must ultimately rest on this performance of individuilils.erratic. ' Typically, these individuals are recruited without any experience or training, and allowed to acqlJire know-how for operations with time and on a trial-and-error' basis. Thiis may not be always optimal. In addition to technical training, training ,in the cognitive and affective domains is recommended not simply for opl?rators at this level, but at all levels of management. Thus, the advantag(l?s derived from the management information system, the operational plan, and the monitoring will ultimately rest upon the awareness, the motivation, and incentive of management to implement .objectives for canal operation:; and this can be achieved in large measure through training going beyond the standard technical training. Each of t h e main canalis 'studied is a n i n t e g r a l part of a larger i r r i g a t i o n system.I n Chapteir 11, t h e structure and l a y o u t of t h e whole physical s y s t e m , and its natulral decomposition i n t o subsystems on t h e basis of t h e i r w a t e r sources have,beeln examined. o u t t h a t one of t h e important elements t o be considered was t h e n a t u r e of t h e l i n k between t h e subsystem s t u d i e d and t h e niext higher system l e v e l .This \\<ill determine t h e degree of freedom ( o r ,autonomy, w i t h i n certain l i m i t s ) a v a i l a b l e f o r o p e r a t i o n s a t t h e head of the1 m a 1 s t u d i e d w i t h respect t o t h e water resource without i n t e r f e r i n g w i t h , o r being a f f e c t e d . b y , t h e o p e r a t i o n s of the higher-order system; t h e coinveyance system. I t w a s a l s o pointed Inte'imecliate s t o r a g e was hiighlighted as a u s e f u l means of decouplinr complex h y d r a u l i c systems intoi simpler subsystems, thereby r e l a x i n g the l i n k of dependency between t.he convelyance system upstream of t h e s t o r a g e and t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n subsystem below tlhe s t o r a g e .The subsystem is t h u s provided w i t h some f l e x i b i l i t y f o r t h e ciontrol of flow a t its head, .as i n t h e case of t h e Iia1ankutti;M Branch Canail.Regulation of t h e o v e r a l l system is a l s o f a c i l i t a t e d . I t i a s a l s o pointed o u t tlhat h y d r a u l i c \" controls\" l i k e d u c k b i l l weirs used f o r c o n t r o l l i n g canal watier l e v e l were a b l e t o serve a similar purpose, easing t h e dependency l i n k betwleen t h e flow a t an o f f t a k e (or t h e head of a subsystem1 and t h e v a r i a t i o n s o~f flow r e s u l t i n g from o p e r a t i o n s i n t h e parent canal ( o r t h e conveyance systeml) . Hydraulic \" c o n t r o l s , \" though r e s t r i c t , i n g t h e f l e x i b i l i t y with respect tio t h e operation of t h e conve;vance system, when compared t o gated c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r s , are n e v e r t h e l e s s able t o provide opportunities f o r t h e c o n t r o l olf flow a t t h e o f f t a k e s nearby.I n Chapter 111, t h e orga1nization.design and t h e processes of d e c i s i o n making t h a t are c e n t r a l t o thle management of t h e main system i n t h r e e d i f f e r e n t p r o j e c t s representinlg t h r e e d i f f e r e n t physical c o n f i n r a t i o n s are examined. T h i s was done by revliewing, i n a series of t h r e e case s t u d i e s , t h e formal o r g a n i z a t i o n , t h e 'decision making t a k i n g p l a c e a t each adminiktrative-managerial l e v e l , t h e communication of information from one l.evel t o t h e next one, dorm t o and including t h e l e v e l of t h e operatorso f t e n r e f e r r e d t o as t h e execut!ing part, b u t , who appear a c t u a l l y t o be key dei:isiori rnalrersand t h e rolie of feedback a t t h e various decision-makim le\\.els' in\\rolved i n t h e operaticlns of t h e c a n a l s .In Chapters I1 and I I I , , t h e lead idea concerns t h e amount of c e n t r a l i z a t i o n versus decentrlalization which exists i n both t h e physical s y s t e m , regarding t h e water reslource s t o r a g e , and t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l system regarding t h e d e c i s i o n making rielated t o t h e mobilization of t h a t resource.For example, National Ilrrigation AdministrationAJpper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NlIA/UFRIIS) which appears to have a rather decentralized managerial stru(1:tuz-e is responsible for operations of an extensive main system of major diversion canals from a central water resource stored in the Pantabanpan &s<iwvoir.On the other hand, Mahaweli Economic &ency/System H is well known for it centralized management though the physical system displays a grealt deal of dispersed storage capacities.In this chapter, the mlmageabilitp of systems is analyzed from the point of view of the availabililty of conditions necessary for the management of the two ksic func.tions of main canals: the delivery function and the conveyance functiun,The management of the delivery function means the control of water issues, assuming adequate water supply at the head of each place of delivery. In the first cart of this chapt$l?r we examine whether the conditions to exert control over the water issues are available to an operator or not. These conditions include either physical facilities like gates or measuring devices their availability depending on the design., construction, and maintenance processesor managerial output such as distribution targetsmade available as a result of the wa:er allocation decision-making process usually prfonned at the highest level of an agency by arbitration between water demand and water resource, but also at the level of the operators themselves who often tend to meet the dewlids of neighboring farmers.The three criteria used to assess the manageability of the system in respect of the control of water issues are as follow:Criterion A : Availabilit:,? of operational delivery targets.Criterion B: Avai1abilit:lr of reliable informatipn on water flows.Criterion C : Availabilitjr of means to influence the water issues.The assessment has been done at the head (main canals) of each subsystem studied and at the offtakes aloilg those canals. The same criteria are used for the head and the offtakes, but it is important to examine the conditions at these two locations, separately. This is because the two types of locations may differ greatly in the physical facilities provided by the design and the managerial level to which the operators are reporting, as well as in respect of the h3.drauliil: conditions existing at these locations~. It should be noted, however, that existing hydraulic conditions are viewed in this study as an external factor and not as an intrinsic element to be considerdin assessing the wllageability of the system from the point of view of the delivery function.The hydraulic conditions iiwater level in a tank or a canal) prevailing at the head of a delivery point are important, especially the variability of these conditions, because then, additional operations would normally be required to achieve similar per:lFormance in the control of water issues.The management of the con1,eyance function means the regulation of the transfer of water throughout, a system (including main canals) to provide adequate water supply at the valrious delivery points required for the above-mentioned three controls of water issues. The availability of specific conditions for doing this is (briefly reviewed in the second part of this chapter.As a preliminary remark, our observatiohs reveal that the need for mansdinr, the transport of water throughout and the requirements for achieving this are usuall!v well perceived by agencies, and less by the operators. This is perhaps exemplified by the statement attributed to a Sri Lanlran engineer in Chambelrs (19881: \"You open the sluice, and you go to sleep.\" On the other hand, the advantage of controlling the water issues at the offtakes and the requirisments for doing so are better known. The tendency, however, is to emphaisize the 'means to ensure the control of the delivery function (i.e., flekible gate arrangements, improved measuring devices, multiplication of the points of monitoring, and centralization of the results,. etc. ) neglecting the means and requirements for regulating the conveyance function.Because canal regulation a:plies to the canal system as a whole, it is an operational task that shou.ld be managed at a level of decision making within the agency capable of overseeing the whole system; Individual operators might be in a position to manage the control of water issues well, provided there are appropriate ilneans at a particular location.But, one cannot expect. the operators to .manage the conveyance of water with the localized information they have on the system.There is a common beli@f, however, that canal regulation might eventually result from the add:ition of independent operators controlling the water issues at the various offiAes. This should be associated with another belief that flows in main canal$ are largely invariant with time (steady flow regime). This, the steady flow regime, an ideal situation, would eliminate the problems of managing the (1:onveyance of water. Such an assumption is often considered in the design of main canals and agencies tend towards achieving the distribution o f rmter under such conditions. But field obser\\-ationsl in the various carlals studied show that this ideal condition is seldom achieved.In this chapter, a number of examples will be given to illustrate the different reasons for the variatlbility of flows in main canals. Some, like changing the water issues all. the headworks in response to rainfall, are 'The longest continuous peiliod of stable flow recorded in the Santo Doming0 Area LSDA) Main Canal at the level of Lateral B was no more than 4 days (from 19 Aeust to 23 Auguslit 1988) for the whole period of observation.. Stable flows prevailed for 6 &Iys in Xirindi 0y-a Right Bank Main Canal (from 29 April to 5 May 1988) but thisl, corre'sponds to a period for which the system was artificially maintained steady for the purpose of calibrating a mathernat,ical model (no gate intrlirventions of any sort were permitted). At Rajangana Left Bank Main Canall., an exceptionally long period of stable and high flows was observed near the1 end of the cultivation season in July to .4ugust 1988, but this was repclirtedly an attempt by the agency to hrain off the rese'rvoir for repairs at th& main sluice. intent,ional. There are other rritasons which are unavoidable in any attempt to manage the system. For example, the adjustment of flow at the major offtakes or, more significantly, the operations of gated cross-regulators induce variations of flow in. the main canal which themselves prompt other maneuvers. This closed-loop situation might sometimes result in permanent unsteady flor; conditions as observed in the Kirindi,Oya Right Bank Main Canal near Branch Cmal 2 (Fimre IV. 1 ) .Thus, managim the conveymiice of volumes of water through the main system from tank to tank, or from canal reach to canal reach ip a dynamic mode is the essence of canal regulation. . It is also a challenge to irrigation agencies if any oontrol of the primary distribution of water within extensive irrigation systems is to be achieved. Three specific criteria have been used in this study to evaluate the manageability of the systems with respect to the regulation of the conveyance of water. They are as follows:Criterion D: Availability mf operational targets for the conveyance of water.Criterion E: Availability of means to store and release water within the main system and to control water level at key locations along the maiiii canal.Criterion F: Availability of information regarding the status of water storage (or wliter Level) in reservoirs f o r main canals).Criterion G: Availability of means for cmunicating the information required for the regulation of the water transfers.The three criteria used 'LO assess the manageability of the system in respect of c.ontro1 of water issues are discussed below.Criterion A: Avai1abilit:lt of operational delivery targets.The availability of operational .ltargets is a prerequisite for any control process. Delivery targets might take the operational form of water depth corresponding to a discharge (1st the calibrated gauge of an offtake. The study will assess:whether there are delivery targets formulated explicitly at some level within the system, either .iit the head of main canals or at the offtakes; whether the targets of the agency are known to the operators or whether they use their own, based on, for instance, farmer demand with or without communication of tlhese latter targets to the agency;* whether the agency targets are standing orders or whether they are regularly qdated. Some of the constrailnts and difficulties related to lack of comunication of information gertaining to operational targets between the operators and other operaitional levels within the agency will be highlighted.Criterion B: Availability of reliable infonpation on water flows. The on water flows is also a condition for availability of reliable inforimation the operators and other deciision makers to get feedback. Appropriate feedback is thle point of view of the control of water issues as well as for the overall canail regulation. The study will examine whether and how an operator has the piossibility to know if the delivery targets are being met or not at a given timle. * what constraints have to lbe faced in assessing flows in canals under field conditions ( e . g . , sultmergence, siltation, rating curves, etc.).Criterion C: Availabilityl of means to influence the water issues. The availability of means by which ~rn operator can influence water issues is an important element But it is also important to note that such maneuvers transform gatekeepers into decision makers. Wherever operational lflexibility exists it is important to evaluate how the operators cope with it ad'manage it. The stuAy will attempt to respond to the following:* what is the range of opelrational options made available to an operator the design of the canals towards achileving control of water issues.given the operational flexibility provided in studied?* what are the other implirtant constraints that determine the gatekeeper's decision to operate the system (the \"what\" and the \"how\")? For example, the, gate could 1 l ~ k g e d , or the design of the gate could be such that the gatekeeper h r l r s to undergo considerable hardship/discomfort to operate the gate to achieve a particular setting time-effectively. t is there any advantage for the operators in having estra operational flexibility, given the coml~~lexitp of management which it implies? A summary of the evaluatiolll of the manageability of the different canals on the basis of these criteria :!is indicated in Tables IV.l and IV.2.Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main h l t l klivery targets.The Senior Irrigation Jhgineer, Water Management Division decides upon the dail:lr hater issues to be delivered at the right bank main canal headworks (Critckrion A). In doing this, the Senior Irrigation Wineer refers to t i l i e seasonal irrigation schedule he had 53~0: Senior I r r i r a t i o n kainieei:'s Office, liirindi ma.-The m t e r requirement diurinn Stage 3 iweeks 9-16) is chosel~ as a staiidard (Coef f icierit 1 ) and the computations of 3;ater requirememtare performed f o r t h i s period. The !:atei-requirements f o r the rJther periods a r e derive.3 b : . aispl~iinc the coeffic.ieiit cc,rrespxidine: t o the period i n question.The d i f f e r e n t slazes app1i:able durinr the st,udy period are indicated i n t,he c u l t i \\ ~a t i o n calenchr of the r i r h t bank main.canal system between Decenibei. 1987 and J u l r 1988 iFi8eui-e 1\\'.21.Fcxthe coiivenience of comipa,i-iilr! t h e o r e t i c a l , and a c t u a l main canal water i s s u e s , a w x l c l j -w e i g h t 4 ave,rage discharge ihWv)) r a t e vas computed, based u p n the I r r i n a t i o n Uepwt,ment,' 5 (ID) planned w e l t l y i r r i o a t i o n schedule f o r eai:h ~:.11.1:11 tskini! o f f from t.he r i r h t banli main canal as follows:The t w & l y i;eizhted avernize discharge rate was assumcrl t o prevail i n a zi\\-eri canal o\\-er the sev-eii days of a p a r t i c u l a r w e k arid t o represent the 1-ater requirement of t h a t canslrl. The requirement of each tract w a s obtained by asXreratine t h e d a i l y requiwements t h u s obtained f o r t h e d i f f e r e n t c a n a l s i n t h e tract.The t h e o r e t i a l ex-sluice requirement TEAS then computed by adding t h e requirements of t h e ' d i f f e r e n t tracts (conveyance and o p e r a t i o n a l l o s s e s i n t h e main c a n a l havelinot been t a k e w i n t o a c c o u n t ) . t h e a p p r o p r i a t e c o e f f i c i e n t beine applied deperlding on t h e stace of growth o f t h e c r o p i n each tract.For example thes1.e rates., i f a l l t h r e e tracts are i n Stage 3 ( c o e f f i c i e n t l ) , would be:Actual water i s s u e s . Figulre IV.3 shows t h a t t h e a c t u a l d a i l y d i s c h a r g e s a t t h e main s l u i c e (as recordled by t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department) g e n e r a l l y exceed t h e t h e o r e t i c a l WeekIiv weighted a v e r a e discharge v a l u e s . This d i f f e r e n c e could be assumed t o slcater t o t h e r i g h t bank main canal o p e r a t i o n a l and conveyance l o s s e s I t h e Ueplprtment's weekly schedule already accounts f o r losses i n f i e l d c h a r m e h a n d diI3tributar-v c a n a l s ) . A very rough estimate of main c.anal l o s s e s could be obtained by comparing t h e oversupply t o t h e t h e o r e t i c a l ex-sluice weekly weighted average d i s c h a r g e requirements as shown i n Figure 1\\!.4.( E s t i m a t e s film t h e period of canal c l o s u r e i n A p r i l are i n d e t e r m i n a t e . ) In i e n e r a l , the oversupplp appears t o be less th,an 35 p e r c e n t , which is t h e value asilrmed f o r l o s s e s i n unlined main c a n a l s i n t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department Technical 'Note 6.The most s u b s t a n t i a l discipepancy between t h e o r e t i c a l weekly weighted average d i s c h a r g e requirement$ and actual d i s c h a r g e s uas obser\\*ed f o r t h e period 10 A p r i l t o 10 ?lay 1988. The r a i n a t Lunugamwehera (103 millimeters lmml from 9 t o 1 4 21pril) proqipted t h e c l o s u r e of t h e main c a n a l for f i v e days, between 12 and 16 hpipil, according t o t h e standard procedure. I r r i g a t i o n i s s u e s resumed on :l.7 April a t t h e flow rate of 1.96 oubic meters per second (m,J/sec) 1.175 c u s e c d which is n e a r l y equal t o t h e flow of 5.24 m J / s e c (185 c u s e c s ) t h a t prevail1,ed before t h e r a i n . The i s s u e rms maintained a t 4.96 m s / s e c u n t i l t h e end tlif A p r i l o w i n g t o t h e last date f o r t h e completion of i r r i g a t i o n . i n T r a c t 2 being extended beporld t h e , i n i t i a l l y planned date of 19 A p r i l .of t h e target f o r t h i s prolongation of t h e i r r i g a t i o n i s s u e i n T r a c t 2 . The information a v a i l a b l e t o t h e selnior i r r i g a t i o n eneineer t o determine t h e magnitude of t h e water i s s u e s rlieeded after canal c l o s u r e due t o t h e r a i n are n o t clear. During t h e three-weelk period which followed t,he closure of t h e ciinal. i n A p r i l , i t w a s observixl t h a t t h e d i s c h a r g e was nearly two and a h a l f times t h a t of t h e .weeklp weightrid average d i s c h a r g e rate correspondirx? t o t h e i n i t i a l schedule.The standard procedure t o respond t o t h e r a i n is t o c l o s e t h e main canal f o r f i v e days if r a i n f a l l esceeljs 75 mm ( 3 inches) a t Lunurramwehera. The r a t i o n a l e behind t h i s is t h a t t h e n e s t two d a y s could be allowed f o r canal r e f i l l i n n and t h e normal water issues could then recommence after seven days i t h e normal r o t a t i o n a l perioij).The spatial d i s t r i b u t i p n of r a i n i n t h e area, however, is uneven. This is c l e a r l y demonstrated by t h e fact t h a t on 27 and 28 April t h e r e were 113 mm of r a i n a t W i r a w i l a b u t only 6 mm a t Lunwmwehera. See a l s o Table IV.4 and F i m r e IV.5.A t p r e s e n t t h e r e does not appear t o be a plan f o r rediucine t h e i s s u e of water at t h e main s l u i c e i n such a case. I t w a s reported firom t h e f i e l d t h a t t h e r e had been excess water on 27 and 28 April a t t h e t a i l '3f t h e r i n h t bank main canal.Target flows i n t h e instiruction form of t h e s e n i o r i r r i g a t i o n e w i n e e r are c l e a r l y lcnown and recorded. H e sets t h e d a i l y target flow t o be issued a t t h e right. bank main canal main g a t e and makes sure that. it is c o r r e c t l y implemented. H e a l s o eets somi? feedback from t h e f i e l d through r e g u l a r inspection along t h e main canal t o a s c e r t a i n whether t h e i s s u e s are adequate with a view t o preventim? oversiupply.?leans f o r operations. The s e n i o r i r r i g a t i o n engineer communicates t h e required flow t o t h e Resident Engineer (Headworks) whm can then c a l c u l a t e the corresponding opening of tlne radial g a t e i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e r i g h t bank main canal.The #senior i r r i g a t i o n engineer o f t e n computes t h e openiruz of t h e radial gate corriesponding t o t h e required flow himself. using t h e equation t h a t relates t h e \"discharge through the g a t e t o t h e g a t e opening and t h e r e s e r v o i r water l e v e l . The equation has apparently been c a l i b r a t e d a g a i n s t f i e l d measurements blv t h e project s t a f f .It was observed once during t h e season t h a t , i n t h e 85hsence of a c h a r t or a precomputed t a b l e t o h e l p i n t h i s process, t h e compiAtation of gate opening is n o t e n t i r e l y error-. f r e e . T h i s process, however, h,i&$ now been systematized through t h e use of c.omputer spread-sheet software.Each operation is esecuteij. by an i r r i g a t i o n l a b o r e r . H e is supervised by a t e c h n i c a l a s s i s t a n t who i n t u r n i s i n s t r u c t e d by t h e Resident Engineer I Headworks ) . The headcate is e l e c t r i c a l l y powered but t h e r e is a manual backup i n case of power outage.Information on water flows' A meter permits t o a d j u s t t h e opening of t h e gate as per t h e t a r n e t valiie. Althowh the scale of t h i s meter does not. allow f i n e tuning of t h e g a t e d . j u s t m e n t , researchers of t h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l I r r i n a t i o n Management I n s t i t u t ' i t I I I M I ) have found it t o be a b l e t o provide reasonably a c c u r a t e flow contro'li n t h e course of a f i e l d measurement campaign carried o u t f o r t h e \" c a l i b r a t i o n of a mathematical flow simulation m o d e l of t h e . K i r i n d i Oya Richit Dank Main C a n a l , a d i s c h a r r e increment of 1.552 m 3 / s e c was measured' i n 'the main canal when t h e required i n c r e a s e i n main s l u i c e d i s c h a r c e was 1 . 5 m4/sec, a d i f f e r e n c e of only t h r e e percent.\\-ilit?i E f water l e v e l . The d a i l y v a r i a t i o n of t h e water l e v e l i n t h e Lunwamwehera Resel-\\oir is l i m i t e d owing t o its l a r g e s t o r a a e capacity-. This favorable design f e a t u r e mlkkes it p o s s i b l e t o maintain Gjater i s s u e s at t h e headworlis f a i r l y constant aind as per t a r g e t without frequent i n t e r v e n t i o n t o reset t h e main s l u i c e gate oipening.Preliminary conclusions. The manageability of the system, with respect to the control of water issues released from Lunugamwehera Reservoir into the Kirindi @ a Right Bank Mairli Canal, appears to be satisfactory. Explicit water-issue targets at the headworks are formulated and communicated to the staff in charge. Instructions at this level are strictly executed to achieve the intended result.Although the capacity to clontrol target discharges at the head of the system appears to be adequate\\, the overall performance of the system would also be determined by the deci:lion-making to the definition and continuous updating of t e targets, expressed in terms of water to be released at the head of the ri 1 ht bank main canal and conveyed through the different reaches of the canal.In other words, the waterl-allocation process appears critical and might' need improvement, in order to provide more pertinent objectives for the conveyance of water; a notion1 which is lacking at present. This point will be further discussed in Section1 4 . 3 of this stwiv. Pleegalewa, who is in charge of lthe lower section of the branch canal. The Engineering Assistant would crilms-check the total requirements received for the blawewa Left Bank Main Canal against the allocations, make any alteration as required and detilrmine the operations to be carried out at the main sluices of the three reservoirs (Kalawewa, Mulannatuwa, and hlankuttiyava) as well as the iliistributary canals taking off the left bank main canal to serve the Galnewa irrigation block.But very little of this plim was actually implemented during yala (dry season) 1988 and most of the important operational decisions regarding Kalankuttiya such as opening and closing of the tank sluice, altering delivery schedules, etc., w e 1 . e continued to be taken by the Irrigation Engineer, Galnewa, who exercis4c)l these same responsibilities in his previous capacity as Irrigation Enjlineer of the now defunct Kalankuttiya administrative block.Thus, the Irrigation Englrneer, Galnewa, effectively decides on the Issues to be delivered from t l l i e Kdatikuttiya main sluice (Criterion A ) . He was assisted by a new Engillleering Assistant, Galnewa, posted at the Kalankuttiya Community Trainling Center, who gave instructions to an irrigation laborer performing the manewers at the tank sluice, as well as setting daily the distributary canal gates in Blocks 305 and 308 under the Galnewa administrative block. I L t was reported that the Irrigation Fhgineer, Galnewa, had complained of thti? difficulties he experienced in deciding the daily releases from the Kalankuttiva Tank because he lacked the means ofcommunicating with the Meegaleriw administrative block, especially after the transfer of their engineering assistant who had initially prepared the irrigation schedule for the lowiifr section of the branch canal.As a result of this situlrtion, it seems that very little control has been exerted during yala 1988 r(l?garding the issues from the Kalankuttiya Tank with respect to the water alltipcation objectives and targets decided at the System H Water Management Coord:ltnating Panel. The Panel itself did not meet as frequently as it did during the previous season. This w a s partly owing to the relative abundance of water in Iialawewa during the present season which apparently reduced the need for effective manag ement of the available resources. Another contributory factor was the prolonged absence of the Deputy Resident Project Mrllnager (Water Management), owing to his hospitalization, who used to chnir the panel meetings.Assessment of water flows. For assessing the flow issued into the branch canal, the laborer who iiiperates the main sluice uses as a reference a calibrated staff gauge (denoted MS1) located about 200 meters downstream of the headworks (Figure IV.6). The measuring station is fitted with a stage recorder that w a s installed to rlterve the needs of the Flow Monitoring Unit, but not explicitly for the operations of the branch canal although the Irrigation Ehgineer's staff maktl! use of the calibration table developed and maintained by the Flow Monitorji.ng Unit to assess the branch canal flow. The operations staff of the block oi'fice, however, .do the recol-ds which are available at the Unit to gfl!t feedback on the canal operations performed. Furthermore, the flow asserirsed at this station does not always represent the flow issued at the blankutiliya Tank. This is because water is sometimes diverted into two distributary canals, 305-Dl and 308-D1, located in-between the tank and the staff gauge .Ml. Estimating the flow diverted into these canals is either unreliable becmse of the sutmergence of the measuring weir (305-DI1, or not possible becau:lie of the absence of any functioning measuring device '(308-D1), which had been destroyed by the farmers. not use Therefore, assessing the flow released from the tank at times when 305-D1 and 308-Dl are receiving walI,er is guesswork. .For all practical purposes, the assessment of water issues to the branch canal is done at the MSI location by means of the calibrated staff gauge of the Flow Monitoring Unit (Criterion B I .It has soinet:l.mes been the practice to supply the two distributary canalsInterference with water issues to the rest of the branch canal is thereby limited and adjustment of the main gate, which would be otherwise more complex, is facilitated.at the head of the system separately.Means to influence wateil: flows.Another pint .that should be highlighted is in regard to. the physical condition of the headworks (Criterion C). There are thretii gates at the headworks but only one is functioning. Furthermore, thrtlwhout the season, there was a continuous leak of about 280-340 liters per seciond (liters/sec) (10-12 cusecs) through these .gates.. Between rotations, weliter was kept standing at a high level in the head portion of the branch canElvl by closing a gated cross-regulator located about 150 meters from the main sluice, apparently in an attempt to reduce the flow of the leak. During the previous season (&,  wet season, 1987-88), the irrigation schedule was 40 arranged as to utilize the leak to supply water to the two distributary clmals at the head of the system (305-D1 and 308-Dl).But during the sleason under consideration (.yala 1988) no such intention was apparentall 2 1 0 distributary canals taking off from the branch canal were supplied simultaneously for most of the season. Furthermore, in mid-August dluring this season, the last working gate malfunctioned and could not be loperated any more. This period, between 19-25 August 1988, is visible in Figulre IV.7 which represents the record of t d t water levels, main sluice glate openings, and average daily discharge in Kalankuttiya branch -1.Thei'agency w a s obliged to repair one of the other two gates but the gate remained1 difficult to operate.Actual water issues commlred to the initial schedule. Water issues in the Ihlankuttiya Branch Canal sltarted on 8 May 1988 although the first issue had been originally planned fix-10 Play. Under the original schedule, drawn up by the Irrigation Engineer, 'IGalnewa, in coordination with the Engineering Assistant, Meegalewa, it had .idso been decidsd.to issue water continuously for land preparation and plantilz till 16 May and to commence issues on a rotational basis from 23 . M a p .The period of water issue for land preparation ( f o r the whole syst(?m), however, was extended till 19 Play 1988. A special issue was thereaftejr made to the tail-end distributary canals (in Fleegalem administrative block) on 20 May in response to a request of the Engineering Assistant, MeegalelJa. There have subsequently been 13 rotations until the branch canal was fina.lly closed on 26 SeptemberThe actual schedule and durations of islisues (from three to four days) was generally decided upon with very short notice and with due consideration to the rainfall which has been particu:liarly abundmt during yala 1988.Figure IV.8 indicates the, actual and initially planned water issues in Kalankuttiya Branch Canal durim! p l a 1988. The discrepancy (both in terms of volume and timing) between !the initial plan drawn up at the beginning of the season and the actual 'operal,ions is clearly .shown in this figure. These differences are notably owing to rainfall. The agency should thus have the capacity to update and successfilrlly implement their targets in accordance with the hydrological conditions;.The daily rainfall contriqution to the water. deliveries is highlighted in Figure IV.9 which compares.tklie planned and actual daily water deliveries per unit area at the staff gauge: MSl (in terms of. equivalent depth of rmter).The start, end, and duration of each rotational issue, and the number( of adjustments performed at the main sluice during each rotation are inc1Ycated in Table IV.5. This table has been established from the agency's record of water levels at the staff gauge MS1, supplemented by IIMI's own field. observations. The period at the beginning of the yala cultivation season, 8-14 May 1988, will be used as an examplil? to illustrate the current iterative mode of adjustment of sluice of the Kalankuttiya Tank and the difficulties involved in adjusting the flow 'LO meet a given target.Table IV.6 and Figure IV..lO represent the hourly values of water levels recorded at the calibrated staff gauge PI.51 and ?he corresponding values of discharge for the above period.The target initially set for the first irrigation issue on 10 May was 1.6 m3/sec ( 5 7 cusecs) which is equivalent to a height of 1.1 meters (3.6 ft) at the ca.librated staff gauge;PISl. The start of the season, however, had been advanc.ed to 8 Map with Walter being issued to some of the head-end distributary canals, and thiis target value had been already attained the previous day ( 9 May) by an oper:lstion at the main sluice performed at 2300 h on 8 May.In addition, there appears to have been further interventions at the main sluice between 0900 h <md 1200 h onThe initial target of 1.6 m3/sec for 10 May was inixeased to 2.0 mJ/sec ( 7 1 cusecs) (i.e,, 1.19 meters, or 3.9 feet Iftl, at'. the staff gauge EB1) by the Engineering Assistant, Galnewa, in responsi? to a request of the Engineering Assistant, Meegalewa, to facilitate issues to the tail-end distributary canals. The new target was not achieved at once. A .first opening of the main sluice was done at 1200 h on 10 May which brouglnt the level at MS1 to 1 . 3 meters ( 4 . 2 5 ft), equivalent to 2.38 m3/sec (84 casecs). It was followed the next day (11 Ph'lay) by four alternate closures and ;>penings of the main sluice that resulted in a water level of 1.22 meters (4.0 ft) at MS1 (i.e., 2.1 m3/sec or 7 1 cusecs).The sluice was again operated i m 12 Mag to compensate for the opening of distributary canal 308-Dl and a i n increase in water issue to 305-D1; the water level at MS1 read 1.24 meters (81.05 ft) at the end of this maneuver. The corresponding flow in the brainch canal was 2.15 m3/sec or 76 cusecs. The target issue was again revised ;3n 13 May on the assumption that the total anticipated area had now to b12 served and the main sluice was accordingly adjusted to record a rater level close to the final target value of 1 . 3 meters ( 4 . 2 5 ft) at MSl (i.e., 2.38 m 3 / s e c or 84 cusecs). 9 May.Besides the difficulties in assessing the actual issues released from the tank with some degree of isccuracy, .and the trial-and-error procedure involved in determining the cixrect gate setting corresponding to a target flow, interventions were also nieded at the main sluice to maintain the target flow 'at the desired va,Lue as indicated in Table IV.5. These latter adjustments of the main sluicie (roughly one per rotation) .were usually necessary to compensate the flow variations resulting from water level variation in the Kalankuttiya Tiank.In the course of yala 19818 a total of 106 interventions have been performed at the main sluice',of the Kalankuttiya Tank. Thirty four Lor 32 percent) of them correspond to openings and closures at the beginning and end of the different periods of watler issue. Sixty three (or 59 percent) of them have been made in response to clhanges in targets while the balance nine (or nine percent) have been to comgensate changes in tank water level.Variations in tank watcls level. The variations of tank water level 0.26 meters per observed during the season have, been in the range of 0.0 to day (Figure IV.7; note t h a t :In t h i s f i g u r e t h e recorded tank water l e v e l s have been m u l t i p l i e d by two t c i l f a c i l i t a t e graphic r e p r e s e n t a t i o n ) .I f no adjustments are t h e nlmin sluice opening, a decrease i n branch canal flow w i l l occur due t o t h e decrbease i n tank water l e v e l .For example, between 0600 h on 27 J u l y and 0600 h on 2 8 ~ J u l y t h e tank w a t e r ' l e v e l dropped from 2. The impact of t h e l a c k of main s l u i c e operation on branch canal discharges can a l s o be studidid dur.ing t h e period between 19 and 25 August rchen t h e s l u i c e g a t e s .were undeir repair.Between 0600 h on 20 August and 0600 h on 21 A u g u s t t h e tank water l e v e l dropped from 2.81 meters t o 2.55 meters. The corresponding chaqge i n branch canal was from 3 . 2 m3/sec t o 2.92 m3/sec. This is a n i n e perclent reduction i n t h e average d a i l y discharge occurred as a r e s u l t of a 26-celntimeter drop i n tank water l e v e l .During t h e s t u d y , carried o u t i n yala 1988, it was observed t h a t t h e l e v e l i n t h e Fhlankuttiya Tank v a r i e d continuously, depending on t h e timing and r e l a t i v e magnitudes of t h e !inflow and outflow. But it has been p o s s i b l e t o always maintain t h e tank wbter l e v e l above 1 . 5 2 meters ( 5 f t ) , which t h e agency considers as t h e minimlm operating l e v e l , due t o t h e r e l a t i v e l y abundant water a v a i l a b l e i n thl: Kalarcewa Reservoir t h i s season. I t has been r e p o r t e d , 'however, t h a t during khe crisis s i t u a t i o n associated with t h e maha 1986-87 drought, t h e water levC1 i n t h e U l a n k u t t i y a Tank even dropped below 0 . 9 meters ( 3 f t ) (%by and Merlrey 1989).Obviously t h e degree o f . c o n t r o l over t h e tanlr water i s s u e s under t h e s e latter c o n d i t i o n s would have been poorer than t h a t observed duriqg t h e r e l a t i v e l y favorable c o n d i t i o n s of yala 1988. Two reasons could be attlributed f o r t h i s : a1 t h e l i m i t e d c a p c i t y of t h e tank near t h e dead s t o r a g e r e s u l t s i n faster d e p l e t i o n of water .lLevel i n t h e tank f o r t h e same i s s u e s , and b ) t h e s e n s i t i v i t y of t h e fl(l,w v a r i a t i o n through t h e main s l u i c e o r i f i c e i n c r e a s e s considerably w:ith t h e reduction of t h e operating hydraulic head over t h e o r i f i c e .Poorer c o n t r o l over t h e ttuldc water i s s u e s i n a t i m e of water shortage would have exacerbated t h e d l f f i c u l t i e s of w a t e r d i s t r i b u t i o n along t h e branch canal and c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e o v e r a l l downgrading of t h e m a n a e a b l l i t a , of t h e system as reported earliclkr.The manageability of t h e system, as f a r as t h e c o n t r o l of isater i s s u e s frorli h l a n k u t t i y a Tank i n t o t h e branch canal is concerned, is r e l a t i \\ e l y efftl)ctive, given t h e e x i s t i n g f a c i l i t i e s and t h e o p e r a t i o n a l arrangements. The qrgency tends t o meet t h e t a r g e t i s s u e s which they have d e f i n e d . Some l i m i t k i l g f a c t o r s are p r e s e n t , however, which can be a t t r i b u t e d t o :inudequate planning and design t h a t have result.ed i l l the rat he^, inconvenient arrangement Ifor a s s e s s i n g t h e flow r e l e a s e d a t t h e head of t h e branch c a n a l ; inadequate maintenance of s?ssential s t r u c t u r e s such as t h e main s l u i c e headgate; and t h e l e v e l of performance a(1:hieved by t h e agency i n t h e r e g u l a t i o n of t h e conveyance system ( i . e . , , t h e management c a p a c i t y of t h e agency t o maintain water l e v e l s i n t h e Kalankuttiya Tank i n an acceptable range b y ' t i m e l y r e f i l l i n g ) . Thiiis w i l l be f u r t h e r discussed i n Section 4 . 3 .Target flows. A t t h e Uppelr Pampanga Riiqer I n t e g r a t e d I r r i g a t i o n System (UPRIIS), t h e engineer i n chairge of the Water Central Coordinating Center located a t t h e National I r r i g a t i o n Administration ( N U ) P r o j e c t Headquarters, Cabanahah, decides upon t h e actual water a l l o c a t i o n s within t h e main system and f i x e s t h e t a r g e t flow t o b e m e t a t key d i v e r s i o n p o i n t s .The s i t e l o c a t i o n s and i r r i g a t i o n netrmrk have been shown i n Figures 11.6,11.7,and 11.8.The Water Central Coordinaiting Center r e c e i v e s , from t h e district s t a f f , all t h e information required t o determine t h e necessary releases a t any given time from t h e Pantabangan s t o r a g e r e s e r v o i r .I n p a r t i c u l a r t h e Center, i n c o n s u l t a t i o n with t h e District :Hydrologist, f i x e s t a r g e t s i n terms of a key l o c a t i o n i n t h i s respect as it is l o c a t e d a t t h e boun&ry between t h e two districts and because water is f i r s t d e l i v e r e d t o District I1 as it passes through it before reaching D i s t r i c t I .The Hydrologist of D i s t r i c , t I , whose o f f i c e is located a t Munoz, a l s o p l a y s a key r o l e i n t h e a b w water-allocation process coordinated by t h e Water Central Coordinating Cent,i?r. He i n d i c a t e s t o t h e Center t h e flow t o be conveyed through E#1 t o serve :the needs of h i s district. H e c o n s c i e n t i o u s l y checks a t RG#3 i f t h e district 'for which he is responsible g o t its s h a r e of water and he would a l e r t t l h e Center i f it did n o t . During t h e watera l l o c a t i o n process, he would ali;o have determined t h e s h a r e of t h e t a r g e t e d district flow t h a t should be i i v e r t e d a t t h e SDA Supply Headgate, located toward t h e tail of DcXl ( C r i t e r i o n A ) .This last d i v e r s i o n is 'effiected i n t o t h e Sapang Kawayan Creek which d r a i n s water from a relativiely l a r g e catchment areat h e Upper Talavera River I r r i g a t i o n System a l s o of District I (Zones 1 and 2 ) .available for the irrigation ol P the SDA. a creek into the SDA Main Canal1 at the 5-Bay Checkgate (see Figure 11.8).For most of the time, t l l i e SDA h i n Canal draws all the water available in the creek at that location r l u l d there is usually no operation performed on the intake structure unless ekcessive runoff makes it necessary to discharge the excess flow in the creek through the spillway of the 5-Bay Checkgate built across the creek.Communication of informall.ion and revision of targets. Hydrologists of the districts attend a weekljh meeting with the Water Central Coordinating Center at Cahanatuan. This ptovides an opportunity for information exchange regarding the irrigation demand 1 at the district level, status of the water resource and current policielbs of the Water Central Coordinating Center regarding the use of the resourlce. In addition, the hydrologists have the possibility to communicate +th the Center in real-time, through a radio link. The Hydrologist of Distrlict I , in particular, informs the Center of any substantial rainfall occurrling in the area that would justify a reduction of supply to the SDA.It has been possible to otliserve and document such a sequence of events during the period between 12 and 16 September 1988.The physical observations were supplementedlby the continuous record of water levels in the Parshall flume near the qain canal headgate provided by the electronic data-logging equipment installeld here.Figure IV.ll shows the schematic layout of this data-logging stlation. The hydrologist and the Water Central Coordinating Center were obliged to change the target flow in the conveyance system following substantial rainfall in the command area. This rainfall ended a period of relative droulght that had prdvailed since the start of the season. The week started withi a reduced allocation of 10 m 3 / s e c to District I, of which 4 m J / s e c were meant for diversion at the supply headgate to complement a local flow estimated by the hydrologist to be in the range of 2 m J / s e c . Hence, a total target 1pf 6 m3/sec was supposed to be available for the SDA Main Canal at the 5 -b ~ Checkgate.The hydrologist said &(at he was able to rely on his experience to estimate the local flow availablte in the creek before and after the rains. He also claimed that such a Iproblem had been studied at the Water Central Coordinating Center on the basil3 of the flow-monitoring data at both ends of the creek which are communiabted to their office. Similarly, the water requests made by the hydrologis: to the Center does not seem to result from any systematic and analytical assessment of the demand in the SDA cormnand area, but instead he seems to t+ke into consideration the relative abundance or scarcity of water to fojmulate a realistic request that would have a chance of being fully met.Thus, the zone engineer in charge of the area expressed the view that 6 m3/sec was inadequate compared to the supply under normal circumstances that averaged 9 m 3 / s e c at the head of SDA Main Canal.It turned out that according to IIMI's own assesrlbment, the actual flow delivered at that time had varied between 9 and 10 m3/rliec. This indicates either an underestimation of the local flow or oversupply from Dc#1 or both, compared to the target.On 1 4 September, t h e SDA teceived heavy r a i n i n t h e afternoon ( 5 1 mm a t Balm).t h e Water Central Coordinating Center.But he a l s o placed a standing request of 5 m3/sec f o r District I t o prevenis Dc#l emptying which would otherwise r e q u i r e one o r two days t o r e f i l l . Gut of t h i s r e q u e s t , 2 . 5 ml/sec were meant f o r d i v e r s i o n a t t h e headpate t o su]~>plement a local flow estimated i n t h e range of 3 . 5 ni3/sec by t h e h y d r o l o g i s t , hence a t o t a l of 6 m3/sec a t t h e main c a n a l .IIMI's discharge record a t t h a t l o c a t i o n (Figure IV.12) i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e flow reaches a peak of 12 m3/sec during t h e n i g h t followi-t h e r a i n , before f a l l i n g t o 6 m3/sel1: by mid-day on t h e 15th, t o 4 m 3 / s e c on t h e 16th, and t o less than 4 m 3 / s e c ' o n ' l 7 September 1988.The hydrologist immedi;ittely communicated this by radio t o Means t o cont.ro1 flows.Actual flows t h a t are 'lower than t h e t a r g e t s s e t f o r SDA Main C a n a l should 1 1 ~ viewed i n r e l a t i o n t o t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s e q x r i e n c e d by operation s t a f f of t h e National I r r i g a t i o n hdministration i n t h e r e g u l a t i o n of t h e conveyarm? system, Dc#l i n p a r t i c u l a r . It was observed f o r 'instance September, t h a t t h e conveyance of water through Dc#1 had been t o t a ' l l p int.errupted a< R M I as a r e s u l t of i l l e g a l o p r a t i o n s on t , h i s r e g u l a t o r during t h e absence of t h e gatekeeper.A l a r g e s e c t i o n of Dc#1 subsequently got, emptied which would have increased t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s i n maintaining a s t a b l e d i v e r s i o n of water a t t h e SDA Supplsr Headgate as per tLhe t a r g e t of 2 . 5 n i 3 / s e c .a r e s u l t of t h e s e c o n d i t i o n s , t h e r e is p r e s e n t l y a l i m i t e d c o n t r o l over t h e SDA inflow which v a r i e s widely even within a day. on 16The o p e r a t i o n a l d i f f i c u l t i e s faced by t h e agency i n t h e r e g u l a t i o n of flow through t h e conveyance sddem (DC#ll impinge o n ' i t s c a p a c i t y t o meet its d e l i v e r y t a r g e t a t t h e head of ~ t h e SDA subsystem.But o t h e r p r a c t i c a l problems Khich l i m i t t h e c a p a c i t y of t h e agency t o assess and monitor t h e a c t u a l flow a v a i l a b l e a t t h e helid of SDA Main Canal should be mentioned. R e l i a b i l i t y of flow est.-.. A t t h e SDA Supply Headgate, t h e hydrologist e s t a b l i s h e d a measliirement s t a t i o n with a calibrated s t a f f g a m e which permits him t o assess t h e flow d i v e r t e d from Dc#l i n t o t h e c r e e k ; b u t f o r a s s e s s i n g t h e t o t a l flow $entering t h e system a t t h e head of SDA Main C a n a l , he relies on t h e inillications given by t h e UPRIIS/NIA Water Measurement Table of J u l y 1977, and on observations of t h e water depth i n t h e P a r s h a l l flume i n s t a l l e d t h e r e .The d i r e c t measurements a d c a l i b r a t i o n s performed by IIMI f o r t h e study a t t h i s l o c a t i o n revealed s i g : h i f i c a n t discrepancies'between t h e actual flow measured by c u r r e n t metering ansli t h e assessment of t h e same through t h e t a b l e s used by t h e agency (see Table IV.7 and FiBures IV.13. and I V . 1 4 p e r t a i n i n p t o t h e c a l i b r a t i o n oif t h e P a r s h a l l flume a t t h e headgate). The Xralues obtained from t h e t a l b l e exceed t h e a c t u a l flow by 18-46 percent depending on t h e degree of .suhiiergence a t t h e flume. I t was observed t h a t t h e flume was f r e q u e n t l y submerlged. This is most l i k e l y due t o t h e s i l t a t i o n of t h e canal s i n c e its construcstion. Total submergence may a l s o occur a t low florqs as a r e s u l t of i n t e r v e n t i o n s a t a check s t r u c t u r e e x i s t i n g downstream. The d i f f i c u l t y i n estimatiNng flow when t h e d i f f e r e n c e between water le\\,els upstream and downstream. of t h e flume t h r o a t approaches zero (i.e.., 0 total submergence), is cleaq-ly shown in the record of water levels and discharges between 1 and 3 Olbtober 1988 (Figure IV.15). This 'limits the reliability of the measuring 'lievice to correctly assess the inflow at the head of the. subsystem, I This situation might accslxmt for the apparent lack of interest on the part of the agency to make use of the daily at the .head of the SDA Main Canal for opera.ICiona1 purposes. .On the other hand, if such information is to be used 'for operational purposes, it would require ad.justments to the setting ojf the SDA Supply Headgate which is located at quite a distance from the 5-Bi 11y Checkgate in response to the observations made at that point (abut 20 km away by road). Apart from the hydrologist, whose duties include such moniil,oriG, there does nQt seem to be a mechanism f o r the operation of ,the sup$ly headgate (at DC#1) in response to feed-back from the 5-Bay Checkgate.Preliminary conclusions. me NIA/UPRIIS seem to have an effective mechanism in place for monitoibing the progress of cultivation and allocating water at the, system level takirlg into account the water resource status and the hyckrology. It also has t l l i q capacity to revise, almost in real-time, the water allocations within variotiis reaches of the system. The implementation of the planned allocations, horirever, falls short of expectations.The inability of the agency to regulate effectively the conveyance of i.Tater effectively along the dixrersion canal Dc#1 was identified as a major constraint towards management of the distribution of water in the SDA.improving the This point will be discussed further in Section 4.3., .The manageability of the +stem with respect. to the control of the water issues at the head of the SDA lbin C a n a l appears limited, given the existing facilities and monitoring practlices of the agency, but with a potential for improvement. Amongst constraints identlified, and possible ways, to relay them, there are :a) The Parshall flume locatedl at the head of the main canal is frequently suberged, thus limiting the reliability of assessment of the flow entering the main. canal,. Furthennore, it needs to be properly calibrated as Water Measurement Tables of July 1977 was found to be totally impropler for this particular device. IIMI, however, was able to significantly upgrade the calibration of the structure in the course of the study, imd this is now readily available to the agency.the UPRIIS/lgIA bl Feedback regarding the acltual flow available at the head of SDA Main Canal is not presently conlsidered when operating the supply headgate to SDA from =#I.Improved /nonitoring of the flow at the 5-Bay Checkgate, upgraded communication pr&edures to ensure that this information is received (at least twicja a dsy) by the gatekeeper in charge of the supply headgate on Dc#1, +d tighter supervisi,on of the headgate to prevent unauthorized interlfentions appear desirable.Rajangana Pilot Area: Distributawy Canal 1, Left Bank Tract 2Means for flow control.The Rajangana pilot command area has been equipped in late 1987 with hydrmnechanical flow control devices at the head of the Distributary Canal 1 and 9 field channels that take off from this canal. The arrangement at the head of this subsystem consists of an automatic constant downstream level gate (AVIO type) that is intended to provide the requisite condition:ii for the correct functioning of a main baffle distributor (maximum capacity mf 300 liters/sec) located downstream of the gate, function of which is to control the flow delivered into the pilot area. IIMI also monitored water flows at the head of Distributary Canal 2 in Tract 2. This served as a reference to comparii? the impact of the hydromechanical equipnent installed in the pilot area,The layout of the data-logging station installed at this location (refwred to as the \"control\" area) is shown in   The c h w e in mode of watllir delivery. At the planning and design stage of the Major Irrigation Rehabidlitation boject, the Irrigation Department made a decision to introduii:e rotational irrigation in the Rajangana irrigation scheme. This was no: readily accepted by the farmers and it became evident would be difficult to respect the original objective of generalizing rotational irrirlfation for two reasons: a) the exceptional wa$er,resources presently avaihble for the Rajarrgana irrigation scheme which benefits from the drainage water from the Mahaweli System H, and b) the wellestablished practice of farmers of continuous irrigation.In 1986-1987, at the onsiirt of the project implementation, the farmers mobilized themselves against thc proposed replacement of the traditional 75mm ( 3 inch) farm pipe outlii?t by 225-mm ( 9 inch) pipes intended for the rotational issues. This optioiii was finally abandoned in the entire Major Irrigation Rehabilitation ProJect except for the pilot area, and this accounts for some of the difficiiilties observed at that level.In fact, a technical as!iqistant became involved in supervising the operations within the pilot pro.,iect area although interventions at that level are usually the t a s k of a work supervisor and a field irrigator. The intervention of the technicajl assistant was apparently required to handle share water ale% field channels..the complaints of farmers reganlling their difficulties to It is therefore important, in studying the pilot project, to dissociate the two aspects: a) the impact (of the initial decision the planning stage with respect to the iincde of delivery and the implications of this decision on the sustainability 'of the project, and b) the impact of the design option chosen for impr\">ving the control and the manageability of the distribution system.Only the >kecond aspect is discussed in, this studv.Actual flow delivered. F w m the start of the monitoring in early July 1988 to the end of July, the flow issued to the pilpt area has been maintained at a reasonably consitant value of 270 literdsec (2.87 literdsec p i . 11ect.are f o r t h e 93 ha irriibated i n t h e p i l o t command area), while d u r i i z ,\\ugust a flow of around 210 lit,ers/sec \"2.23 l i t e r s / s e c / h a ) w a s maintained. T h i s reduction i n d e l i v e r y 1 1 , s somewhat compatible with t h e reduced water requirements towards t h e end of t h e season.A d e t a i l e d a n a l y s i s of t h e rmtei.-I.evel record a v a i l a b l e a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t canal, however, iridicaLes that some odd interverlktions occur a t n i g h t . From t h e end of J u l y 1988 until niid-i\\ugust t h e r e h a s been a r e g u l a r i n c r e a s e of t h e flow t o t h e p i l o t area during t h e n i g h t .The flow was increased around 2200 h and res.tored around 0600 h almoilrt daily during t h a t period. T h i s obviously implies t h e consent of t h e gatekeeper who has c u s t d y of t h e key of t h e b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r .These noctuimal i n t e r v e n t ' , o w are c l e a r l y i l l u s t r a t e d i n Figure IV. 18 which r e p r e s e n t s t h e water l e v e l s recorded a t t h i s s i t e f o r t h e period 2-10 August.The I n f o i m t i o n on r a t e r flows,, .4ssessing t h e flow a t the. head of t h e p i l o t d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l and settirig it as per t a r g e t is s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d ; t h e flo\\;s d e l i v e r e d are expected t o correspond t o t h e sum of t h e d i s c h a r g e v a l u e s through each of t h e b a f f l e distipibutor s h u t t e r s , which are e i t h e r f u l l y opened o r f u l l y c l o s e d a t any given tirlie.The b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r s o r \"modules\" which equip t h e p i l o t area are c a l i b r a t e d i n t h e manufacturimb process acc.ording t o s p e c i f i c dimensions and design s t a n d a r d s . Therefore thipre is 'no need f o r p r i o r c a l i b r a t i o n i n t h e f i e l d o r use of a table t o asseclis t h e flow. Flows could be assess,ed d i r e c t l y and openly by agency s t a f f as wilt11 as farmers. . . , .The c u r r e n t metering carriitd o u t during t h e study a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t d i s t r i b u t a r y .permitted t o confilm t h e accuracy of t h e flow d e l i v e r e d compared t o t h e nomirut1 value corresponding t o t h e setting of t h e b a f f l e d i s t x i b u t o ] . s h u t t e r s , within a m s i m u m e r r o r of p l u s o r minus 10 p e r c e n t . A t discharge values higher than 150 liters/sec, t h e a c t u a l flora tends t o be less than t h e nomin:lbl value, and v i c e v e r s a . c a n a l hav-e 71 Conditions for r e l i a b l e eiptimtes of water flow. Discrepancies between t h e o r e t i c a l and a c t u a l f l o w s oci)ur i f t h e water l e v e l c o n t r o l a t t h e head of t h e b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r is . n o t s t r i c t l y s a t i s f i e d . The d i s t r i b u t o r is then unable t o f u n c t i o n p r o p e r l y as .lFr design. The c h a r a c t e r i s t i c head-discharge r e l a t i o n s h i p f o r t h e s i n g l e b a f f l e calibrated d i s t r i b u t o r shown i n Figure 11.17 i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e folllowing water l e v e l v a r i a t i o n s above t h e d i s t r i b u t o r sill could be tole,lrated by t h e XXl type of d i s t r i b u t o r i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t d i s l t r i b u t a r y c a n a l (Qn r e f e r s t o t h e nominal d i s c h a r g e ) :' .Qn-5% It is therefore important to analyze whether these conditions were niet in the field.Construction accuracy and $upervision. At the head of the pilot area, the depth of water over: the sill of the baffle distributor is effectively controlled by .':he automatic gate. The gate is designed to maintain the water level at the head of the pilot distributary canal constant, irrespective of '1;he fluctuations of water level in the main canal. This required particular attention at the time of construction to ensure that the instalhtion specifications were strictly respected.In December 1987, a short consultancy by the engineers of the manufacturing firm was organized by IIMI, although there was no pro&sion for this in th(N+ pilot project implementation plan. It was found that the level settings of some of the concrete work did not conform to had to he rectified to allow the correct installation of the gat':?. Adjustments required for the .joint installation of the gate and baffle distributor associated with it do not. tolerate errors of marl? than a few millimeters in levels. Irrigation Department staff had also found that the head in the main canal was for the correct operation of the gate and decided to remedy the situation on 6 June by constructing a temporary check structure in the main canal to raise the water level at the head of the pilot distributary canal. This actually compensates for some unexpcted head loss (around 50 cm) through the offtalremaybe due to some obstruction of the conduit.Since then, the design arrangement in place at the head of the pilot area has been capable of effectively and automatically controlling the inflow to the pilot distributary canal without any gate adjustment by the agency. Even large ve1,riations of water level in the main canal such as that which occurred on 13 August 1988 for some unidentified and unexpected reason were successfully accommodated. Annex IV. 1 documents the impact of such a perturbation in the main canal on water issues to both the pilot distributary canal (Distributary h a 1 1, Tract 2 ) and the Distributary Canal 2 in Tract 2 used for comparison p u w e s (referred to as the \"contil*ol\" canal).performeii by the consultants at that time.As far as the control of issues from the main canal to the pilot area is concerned, the manageability of the system appears * high^ The o p e r a t i o n s are . . l i m i t e d t o t h e i n i t i a l s e t t i n g of t h e b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r s h u t t e r s as per trlirget owing t o t h e hydromechanical devices i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l . T h i s favorable s i t u a t i o n i n terms of simp1icit:ir of o p e r a t i o n s , however, should n o t h i d e the strict c o n d i t i o n s which have \"to be . m e t i n t e r n of s u p e r v i s i o n and s k i l l r e q u i r e d a t t h e c o n s t r u c t i o n s t a g e and t h e r e a f t e r f o r t h e maintenance o f t h e sys t e n 1 .Thus, t h e t e n t a t i v e e v a l u a t i o n of t h e manageability of t h e system referred t o above on a p u r e l y ,aperational basis, should be weighed a g a i n s t the capacity of t h e I r r i w t i o n Department t o meet t h e high q u a l i t y s p e c i f i c a t i o n s r e q u i r e d during the c o n s t r u c t i o n phase, and t o undertake t h e necessary maint,enance of t h e hydromechanical equipment. Obviously t h e s e c o n d i t i o n s w e r e not i n p l a c e p r i o r t o t h e implementation of t h e p i l o t p r o j e c t and one may question t h e s i u s t a i n a b i l i t y of this p r o j e c t unless specific e f f o r t is made by t h e Irrigatioln Department t o address t h e s e i s s u e s .Thus, i n t h e c o n t e x t of an agency n o t f a m i l i a r with t h e technology being tested, . t h e i n i t i a l operaitional concern which w a s t o improve t h e manageability through a better c o n t r o l of water i s s u e s , has now s h i f t e d t o another area which relates t o management o f t h e transfer of technology. There are a number of i s s u e s thiat have t o be addressed i n t h i s c o n t e x t ( e . g . , c o r n m i c a t i o n of information, t r a i n i n g ) b u t t h e s e are beyond t h e scope of t h i s study.Conclusions of S e c t i o n 4.2.1 * x The concern t o c o n t r o l the! water i s s u e s a t t h e head of t h e subsystems I ~S i d e n t i f i e d as an important o b j e c t i v e t h a t motivates o p e r a t i o n s s t a f f i n a l l f o u r subsystems sl!.udied. A t t h i s level, t h e notion of t a r g e t deli\\-ery is meaningful t o t h e o p e r a t o r s .These targets are g e n e r a l l y eqAicit (except i n t h e cme of t h e S D A ) , though seldom recorded as such i n t h e f i l e s maintained by t h e agencies. They provide, however, a r a t i o n a l e f o r t h e o p e r a t i o n a l p r a c t i c e s a t t h e headworks of main canals.The a b i l i t y of t h e o p e r a t o r s t o achieve c o n t r o l of t h e water i s s u e s a t t h e head of t h e c a n a l s :i~tudied, however, appeared h i g h l y v a r i a b l e . I n t h i s respect, t h e manageall~ility of t h e systems was found t o be adequate a t t h e head of t h e Kitrindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal and a t t h e Rajangana P i l o t Distribut:lnry Canal, fair ( b u t still p o s s i b l e ) a t t h e head o f t h e Kalankuttiya Branch C a n a l , but F o r [and n o t p o s s i b l e ) a t t h e head of t h e SDA Main Canal.Trio types of f a c t o r s were found t o affect t h e c o n t r o l of water issues a t t h e head of t h e canal: 1) i n t r i n s i c f a c t o r s of manageability such as t h e m e a n s t o assess t h e flow 3 e l i v e r e d and t h e means a v a i l a b l e t o & J u s t t h e flow, and 2 ) e x t e r n a l faiztors t h a t condition t h e p o s s i b i l i t y t o c o n t r o l water i s s u e s , such as t h e supply a t t h e place o f d e l i v e r y . Plain s t o r a g e r e s e r v o i r s or intermediate tanks have proved t o be e f f e c t i v e i n pro\\ridlng e x t e r n a l c o n d i t i o n s t h a t are favorable f o r t h e c o n t r o l of t h e r a t e r issLtes a t t h e headworks of t h e canals t a k i n g O f f from them. This was i l : . u s t r a t e d i n t h e case of t h e Kirindi @a Right * Regarding t h e i n t r i n s i c f a c t o r s of t h e manageability a t t h e head of a main canal, two aspects w e r e found t o be of p a r t i c u l a r s i g n i f i c a n c e : 1 ) t h e performance and conven:ience of t h e arrangements provided, g e n e r a l l y through t h e design, f o r t h e assessment of t h e flow d e l i v e r e d , thereby providing t h e operator w i t h Although monitored by National I r r i g a t i o n Administration Fersonnel, it has been e s t a b l i s h e d t h a t t h i s p r t i c u l a r device was rot r e a l l y used f o r o p e r a t i o n a l purposes.I n s t e a d , an a l t e r n a t e gauging s t a t i o n located upstream, at t h e SD.4Supply Headgate taking c f f E#1, w a s i d e n t i f i e d as the o p e r a t i o n a l l o c a t i o n ; t h i s latter device was c a l i b r a t e d by t h e d i s t r i c t h y d r o l o g i s t .Thus, t h e q u a l i t y of t h e c a l i b r a t i o n of t h e e x i s t i n g measuring devices good i n d i c a t o r of t h e l o c a t i o n s where an i r r i g a t i o n agency can and t is a a c t u a l l y exerts c o n t r o l of t h e water i s s u e s .The initial calibration of these measuring devices and their maintenance thereafter was seldom carried out by the staff responsible for operations. Most' oftisn, the calibration is performed by separate monitoring units of the agencies or by outsiders. For example, the Mahaweli Economic Agency-Flow Monitoring Unit at Kalankuttiya, byproducts of the Traininjj System for Water Management Technologists conducted during the early years of operations at the Wpper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigjation System and later by the district hydrologist, or calibratioin built into the fabrication of the baffle distributors at Rajangma.The manageability of the measuring facilities available at the head of the canals studied is a fuinction of two conditions: 1) the reliability and sustainability of the 'zalibration of the device, which is associated with a greater or lesser dismand for the maintenance of the calibration, and 2) the convenience olf the arrangement as an instrument to be used by the operator to adjust the flow to meet a target.An arrangement like the baffle distributor installed at Rajangana Pilot Area totally alle\\jiates ,the need for calibration and offers the possibilityrarefor direct reading of the flow delivered. This information is openly available, not only to the operator, but also to other interested parties, in particular to the fanners. The operator also found the arrangement simple to operate as the shutters do not need to be adjusted, but can be directly set to the target flow (in steps of discharge of 10 liters/sec).imain sluice gate of the Kirindi Oya Right Banlc Main Canal is also effective. The gate orifice was calibrated once by the Irrigation Department after construction of the canal and this calibration, which depends only on the gate characteristics, is likely t,o last longer than any gauging section in a canal. Here too the arrangement is convenient for the operator. The opening of the sluice gate corresponding to a given target flow is first computed depending on the prevailing tank water level. The openiM of the sluice gate can then be set directly to the required value by means of a meter and an electrically powered comind.The arrangement at the heaid of the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal might be considered less favorable because of the distant gauging station that permits to assess only a Fiart of the water issued from the tank (the first two offtakes excluded). The calibration of the gauging station has t o be verified from tiime to time by the Mahaweli Economic Agency-Flow Monitoring Unit. Furthermore, the setting of the gate is not a straight forward action as' at Kirindi @a, but an iterative process that requires a few maneuvers tlefore the operator can meet a target flow.The design arrangement at the head of SDA (5-Bay Checkgate) is the least manageable, and is a l.ikely reason for it being abandoned.If the flume were calibrated, tkie adjustment of the inflow to SDA to a given target would require the ci'perator to follow a number of steps: two water level readiMs at the .flume and the consultation of a table to assess like the t.he flow; then assessing the local flow in the Creek by difference with the flow released from the E # I , and then making the necessary adjustment at the SDA Supply Headgate situated more than 10 km from the 5 -b y Cheokaate. A s the: local flow i's likely to vary, this adjustment process would have to be repeated frequentLy not to mention again the constraint associated with the regulation of the supply through X#1.Criterion A: Availability of oFerational targets for delivery Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main CanalThe water-issues to be made at the head of each canal (branch, distributary, or field channel) taking off from the main canal are computed on the basis of the seasonal irrigation schedule elaborated by the Senior Irrigation Engineer (Water Management).The Irrigation Engineer at the office of Engineer (Right Bank), computes the heights of water corresponaing to the discharge planned at each offtake that should be maintained over the measurement weirs located at the head of each of these lower-order canals. The theoretical head-discharge relationship for free flow over a weir is used, irrespective of the physical and hydraulic conditions under which the weirs are functioning (the weirs are frequently damaged and/or submerged) a N'svertheless, the field irrigators are expected to adjust the offtake gates to maintain these heights and respect the rotation schedule.The actual operating procedure, however, differed considerably from the nominal one. Our observations i-evealed that adjustment of offtake gates is performed in response to the prevailing downstream demand/supply conditions of that canal. Adjustments are first made to the field channel offtakes in order to deliver adequate flows to the field channels. The higher-order canal (distributary or branch crrnal1 offtake gate is then suitably adjusted to ensure that all field cliannels supplied by it do not suffer water shortage. Observations, howevei:, indicate that the supply at the offtakes along the main canal varies continuously with the fluctuation of water level in the main canal.The field irrigators are wpplid with weekly schedules regarding the supply to be achieved at each offtake, in terms of water levels to be maintained above the measuring weirs at the head of each distributary canal or field channel.But thesie instructions are rarely followed. Ad hoc modifications are made depending on the actual field conditions as described above. For all practical purposes, the true objectives of the operators are not expressed in terms of a givm flow to be delivered at the offtake but as an \"equilibrium\" t o be reached li.e., a no-complaints situation).With experience, the. field irrigators seem to have developed different kinds of references that ref1ec:t the status of the system which they know correspond to the no-complaints. situation. This includes marks in the main canal which represent, in general, a level in the main canal above full supply depth and corresponding narks in the lateral canals.Target flows, as computed by the senior irrigation engineer, are not neoessarily being respected; instead there seem to be uncontrolled s:lrstem of responding to demand2 at the level of the distributary canals and field channels.At. Kalankuttiya, the irrigation laborer responsible for the daily setting of distributary canal gates in Blocks 305 and 308, as well as the setting of the tank sluice, knows the target flow to be issued for the d a y . This laborer meets the Irrigzion Engineer, Galnewa, every morning between 0700 h and 0800 h for instructions on above tasks. Instructions are usually given in terms of relative gaugii: height corresponding to the intended flow at the different locations.The Aily report of this ij-rigation laborer to the irrigation emineer also provides the engineer with an opportunity to get some feedbk regarding the supply to the three offtakerr (306-D1, 306-D2, and 309-D1) located at the extremity of the c k l section for which he is responsible (i.e., downstream end of the upper section of thsl? branch canal). (See Figure IV:6.) These distributary canals are actually part of the Meegalewa Block but it seem that this irrigation laborer is purposely monitoring them on the orders of the Irrigation Fngineer, Galnewin. Such a procedure, involvinig daily instructions t o the irrigation laborer regarding the target issues and feedback to the irrigation engineer, was apparently lacking for the loweir section.of the branch canal which Came under the administrative responsibility of the Meegalewa Block during p l a 1988.For different reasons, includiing distance to the branch canal and lack of personnel at the Meegalewa bloclk office, neither the Block Manager nor the Irrigation Fngineer was in a piosition to exert any authority in distributing water to this section for the h S t season. Therefore, the irrigation laborer in charge of the distributary m a 1 gate operations in Blocks 306, 307, and 309 was left on his own, with tihe initial irrigation schedule prepared at the start, of the season as the sole reference.On the other hand, it is a' common practice among irrigation laborers who operate field channels to request additional water issues. The request is channeled through the unit manager and conveyed to the block office with a \"field note.\"the duration of supply but sometimes are for ir'creased flow in the branch canal as well. The argument usually evoked is the need for completing the irrigation activities.In yala 1988 for instanc,,e, there was a request for additional flow on the second day of the land-preyilaration period and at the end of this period a These requests are generally for extension of 2The actual regulation of. the system appears ambiguous.At the tertiary level it tends to &I! demand driven while regulation of the main canal is generally supply drivm. special issue was made in response to a specific request from the tail end of the branch canal. Many other requests for extension of rater issues were noticed during the season; the practice of the \"field note\" is a routine rather than an exceptional operation. During yala 1988 extensions were made' at the end of 8 out of the 13 rotations practiced.In yala 1988 such requests were easy to satisfy because of the relative abundance of the rater resource and because of the pattern of rotational issues adopted by the agency for this seasonsimultaneous issues to all distributary canals during three days and closure of the branch canal during the next four days.Hence, satisfying a request for extension of water issues was only a matter of postponing the normal closure of the distributary and branch cansls.On the other hand, the duration of the rotations is also sometimes reduced, usually due to rainfall.Explicit, supply-based operational targets for each rotational period are transmitted to the irrigation laborers who attempt to meet these targets. Byt these targets are sometimes modified, usually towards the end of the rotation, when farmers request extensions to the duration of water issues. These requests are generally granted by the management.Observations carried out in the SDA indicate that monitoring is performed with respect to. the interlateral weekly status of farming activities which are further sggregated at the division, zone, district, and project level. This informitism provides the material for the monitoring and evaluation tasks that are the core of the management activities at the project headquarters.Operations staff within S3A also monitor daily discharges at the supply headgate, at the heads of major lateral canals (Laterals A, B, .F, and G ) , and the daily rainfall. This information, collected by the gatekeepers, is submitted through the water management technicians and zone engineer to the hydrologist or operations engineer. It is doubtful, however, whether this information is 'used for the day-to-day operations of the SDA subsystem.The water resource at P a n t a w a n Dam had been scarce since the beginning of the season, and iijsues 'to SDA were discontinued. IIMI performed flow monitoring during the period July-September 1988 at Laterals B and G in addition to at the main caniil headgate.  IV.8) at the branching point of Lateral B from SDA Plain Canal f o r the period 21 July to 7 October 1988 indicates that the flow in L3teral B was generally below 2 m3/sec at that location apart from the period:3 25-30 J u l y , 5-11 August, 17-26 August, and intermittent periods from 0'3-20 September which received more substantial issues ~ After the long period of 11.0~ flow that prevailed in August.-September, the zone engineer in charge of! SDA (District I, Zone 3) had worked out a schedule to issue water between laterals in a rotation r w i n g from one to four days depending on the extent .of the planted area in the lateral concerned. The schedule (Figurt!! IV.23) was elaborated in consultation with the hater management technicians of the zone and with the farmer group leaders with effect from 12 Sepi,ember 1988.It turned out that by the time the rotation was implemented, there had been some rain in the area (7 miid 9 September) and more thereafter ( 1 4 and 17 September). Nevertheless, the rotation was implemented as planned and the records indicated that Lateral B was issued water strictly as per the agreed schedule from 0800 h on Monday 12 September to 0800 h on Wednesday 1 4A second -rotational issue took place from 19-21 September. Thereafter, attempts were made to continue the schedule of, rotations to Lateral B despite the limited water supply in the main canal.Evidence of the irregulririty of the flow entering the subsystem is provided 'by the records. These problems were already noticed at the Given these conditions, tihe notion of target flow to be distributed in terms of absolute discharge values appears meaningless to the water management technicians. This was confirmed by the technician in charge of Lateral B who admitted that during the very short period available for the issue to his particular lateml (from Monday 0800 h up to Wednesday 0800 h ) , his strategy was to divert as much flow as the capacity of the canal permitted. The records show t,hat the timing of the rotations implemented at Lateral B since 12 September wias strictly respected and the diversion was achieved by checking f u l l y the main canal.But before the rotational issues took place the operators appear to have implemented another strategysharing the water flow in an acceptable proportion between Lateral B and the main canal below the branching point seems to have been the rationale for the canal operations.For instance, during the Linique period of relative stability of the flow in the main canal between 19 zind 23 August, the proportion of the main canal inflow diverted into Lateral B was nearly 40 percent (Figure IV.24).It is remarkable to observe that for this particular period during which the operator was in a good position to control effectively the sharing of water, the division of flow between Lateral B and the main canal was nearly in the same proportion as the respective planted areasthe extent of 2,852 ha planted under Lateral B corresynnds to 40.6 percent of the total planted area of 7,031 ha.upstream of the cross-regulator. But'most of the time, the flow in the main canal is rapidly changing and the division of the inflow into the above proportion is difficult to achieve.For i n s t a n c e , during t.he period from 24-31 J u l y , t h e records (see Table I v . 7 and Figures IV.26 arid I V . 2 7 ) show t.hat t h e o w r a t o r had a d i f f i c u l t Lime trying t o s h a r e o u t t h e inflow i n t h e proportion of t h e areas served. The frequency d i s t r i b u t i o n s of t h e f-low i n t o Lateral B during t h e a h v e period ( F i g u r e IV.28), derived from t h e discharge values recorded a t 10-minute i n t e r v a l s . i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e flow d i v i s i o n a c t u a l l y took p1ac.e i n prowortion t o the r e s p e c t i v e planted areas ( i . e . , 40.6 percent of inflot\\, di\\rertetl i n t o L a t e r a l B ) less than 35 percent of t h e t i m e .On t h e average over t h e e n t i r e period of measurement, from 21 J u l y t o 7 October 1988, Lateral B receive$ approximately t h e same proportion of water 111.68 m i l l i o n cubic meters, o r #10.8 p e r c e n t , o u t of 28.58 m i l l i o n c u b i c meters a v a i l a b l e immediately upstream) compared t o its s h a r e of t h e program 'area 140.6 p e r c e n t ) (see Table IV.8 and Figures IV..21 and I V . 2 1 ) . T h i s is 911 estremely favorable r e s u l t , given t h e physical c o h d i t i o n s o f t h e c o n t r o l s t r u c t u r e s and t.he d i f f i c u l t i e a faced by t h e o p e r a t o r t o d i v i d e t h e water. Some of t h e s e d i f f i c u l t i e s a r e A i s c u s s e d later on i n t h i s c h a p t e r .Preliminary conclusions. I t does n o t appear t h a t t h e o p e r a t i o n s s t a f f i n t e n d t o c o n t r o l t h e f l o w d i s t r i b u t e d along t h e SDA Main C a n a l by r e f e r e n c e t,o any predetermined t.arget f h w .Obviously t h i s option does n o t seem practic.able given t h e i r r e g u l a r i t i e s of t h e flow e n t e r i n g t h e system.Instead of q u a n t i t a t i v e f loiq c o n t r o l , s h a r i n g whatever flow a v a i l a b l e i n t h e proportion of t h e i r r i g a t e d area appears t o be t h e p r e v a l e n t mode of operation of t h e main canal.I n times of water scarcity, time-sharing was introduced as a more s t r i n g e n t method of c o n t r o l b u t with l i m i t e d r e s u l t s i n the absence of flow c o n t r o l a t the head of the subsystem. These d i s t r i b u t -i o n p r a c t i c e s c o n s t i t u t e a substitu.:e f o r any t p of r e g u l a t i o n based on flow c o n t r o l .Analpsis of t h e operation:j performed a t t h e h t e r a l B branching p i n t , revealed that it has n o t been erisp t o manage t h e s h a r i n g of v a r i a b l e inflow hetrGeen Lateral B and t h e SDA Main Canal given t h e e x i s t i n g d e s i g n of t h e partitioni'hg s t r u c . t u r e lundershot gated r e g u l a t o r ) .Rajangana P i l o t Area: D i s t r i b u t a r y Canal 1, Left Bank T r a c t 2A 1 1 f i e l d channels t h a t t a k e o f f from t h e p i l o t d i s t r i b u t a r y canal ( D i s t , r i b u t a r y C a n a l 1, L e f t Bank T r a c t 2 ) are equipped with b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r s ( o r \"modules\" ) of 30 liters/sec maximum discharge capacity. By opening or c l o s i n g one o r riore of t h e s h u t t e r s of each module t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r can ad.just t h e flow t o be d e l i v e r e d i n s t e p s of 5 liters/sec i n t h e range 0-30 liters/sec. Hence, t h e a c t u a l t a r g e t flows set by t h e o p e r a t i o n s s t a f f are displayed openly.Anyone, farmers i n p a r t i c u l a r , can check t h e value i n respect of each of t h e . f i e l d channels by direct observation.A s a matter of f a c t , t h e proper functioning of t h i s arrangement was d i s r u p t e d i n t h e case of t h r e e f i e l d channels l o c a t e d a t t h e t a i l -e n d owing t o i n a p p r o p r i a t e i n t e r v e n t i o n f o r flow monitoring purposes.As a r e s u l t , t h e i n i t i a l capability t o v e r i f y by direct observation t h e balance'between t h e flor; issued a t the head of t h e :iwbsystem and the flows d i s t r i b u t e d i n t o the f i e l d channels (These aspects a r e f u r t h e r commerited upon l a t e r i n t h i s chapter.) was no lorger pixsible.Conclusions, with respect '!to Criterion A; of Section 4 . 2 . 2The four systems studied e:sihibit important differences with regard t o t h i s c r i t e r i o n , which i:'; t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of operational t a r g e t s t o control the water issue13 along t h e main canals studied. h e difference r e l a t e s t o t h e nature of t h e a c t u a l operational ob.jectives considered i n issuing water along t h e main canal. They m y be formulated i n terms of predetermined t a r g e t flows t o be i s s u e d , l i k e i n the case o'f Rajanaana and lialanlruttiya, o r i n terms of a given share of t h e a w i l a b l e flow a t a t i m e i n t h e main canal, like i n t h e case of t h e SDh.Various degrees of d i f f i c u l t y are e.rperienced i n .maintaining t h e s e t a r g e t s i n the d i f f e r e n t cimals studied. The design a t t h e head of the canals taking off from the Rajangana P i l o t Distributary Canal mikes it r e l a t i v e l y easy t , o respect the t a r g e t s .In addition, adherence t o t h e target,s can be e a s i l y v e r i f i e d . On t h e other hand, farmer i n t e n e n t i o n appears t o i n t e r f e r e w i t h e f f o r t s of i r r i g a t i o n laborers i n Iiamlanlkuttiya, while a t Kirindi O p , a c t u a l t a r g e t s tend t o be defined i n terms of s a t i s f y i n g farmers' demands.Another difference relates t o t h e communication of irifoimation t o and from t h e f i e l d wheih deviations from t h e operational t a r g e t s occur. Upward communication of information leading t o appropriate adjustments o f the main s l u i c e are observed a t Kalankuttiya r e s u l t i n g i n the extension of the r o t a t i o n a l periods. This is sometimes observed a t Kirindi Oya.But information on f l o w adjustments a t t h e head of the system is hardly ever communicated downward ( i t is n i l i n t,he case of SDA) with t h e r e s u l t t h a t t h e necessary downstream operational maneuvers t o respond t o such changes cannot be c a r r i e d out e f f e c t i v e l y and i n a t i m e l y manner. C r i t e r i o n B: Availability of relliable water flow information The capacity of t h e oJierators and i r r i g a t i o n agencies t o adequately assess t h e flow delivered a t tk8e offtalres along main canals is important f o r a t l e a s t t w o reasons: 1 ) as EN. condition t o control t h e delivery i t s e l f a t a given p o i n t , and 2 ) t o be able t o monitor the performance achieved i n t h e primary d i s t r i b u t i o n of water from t h e main canal oyer a period of t i m e .These aspects a r e e s s e n t i a l for, the regulation of flow i n a canal.Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main C a n a l Tlie f a c i l i t i e s provided by t h e design of t h e Kirindi Oya Right Dank Main C a n a l t o assess the flow diveri8.ed from the main canal i n t o t h e l a t e r a l canals are similar t o those of Kalanki,ittiya Branch C s n a l .A l l 33 secondary canals t h a t t d r e off from the m a h canal are equipped with measuring weirs of d i f f e r e n t , width depending on t h e design c a p a c i t y of t h e canal i n question. p e r f o r a t e d b a f f l e t o prevent turbulence and t o inx-ease t h e accuracy i n measuring water over t h e weirs.The p h s s i c a l condition of n e a r l y 30 percent of t,he measuring s t r u c t u r e s has d e t e r i o r a t e d , although t h e system is new and has been functioning f o r less than f i v e seasons (Table IV.11). I n p a r t i c u l a r , t h e b a f f l e walls have proved t o be very inconvenient and most of them have been broken e i t h e r by farmers o r sometimes even bv t h e operations personnel of t h e I r r i g a t i o n De-urtment. The main reason fo:? t h i s is t h a t t h e b a f f l e . w a l 1 tends t o act as an o b s t a c l e e s p e c i a l l y when b.locked by weeds. This creates a d d i t i o n a l head l o s s e s , f u r t h e r l i m i t i n g t h e to:al head a v a i l a b l e t o d i v e r t t h e required flow even €or t h e maximum openin;g of t h e o f f t a k e g a t e s .Given t h e g e n t l e topography of t h e system, t h e tnaximum head a v a i l a b l e above t h e weir crest appears i n s u f f i c i e n t i n many places. This is t h e l i k e l y explanation f o r t h e d e s t r u c t i o n of about 50 percent of t h e measuring weirs within T r a c t s 1 and 2 a t times of water s c a r c i t y when it might have been d i f f i c u l t t o maintain f u l l supply depth i n t h e main clrnal. firthennore, from a hydraulic p o i n t of view, many of t h e s e measuring weirs appear t o be f u l l y sribmerged a t t h e nominal capacity, d i n g flow assessment through t h e c u r r e n t practices of t h e agency questionable.This r e s u l t s i n a general overestimate by t h e Department of t h e flow d i v e r t e d a t t h e o f f t a k e s . A disc.ussion on the d i f f e r e n c e s i n discharges computed a t t h e head -of Branch C a n a l 2 by t h e f r e e -f l o w head-discharge equation f o r t h e weir and the IIMI method which uses t h e o f f t a k e g a t e opening and t h e d i f f e r e n t i a l head through t h e o r i f i c e is presented i n Annex I V . 2 .values.Overestimation is o f t e n due t o a s s e s s i n g flow a t t h e measuring weir depth because of The 1rrigai;ion Department is p r e s e n t l y i n t h e process of \\.rhile t h e water s u r f a c e has been r a i s e d above t h e critical baclwater e f f e c t s . replacing the e x i s t i n g measuriw: devices with: broad-crested weirs (see below) t h a t are reputedly less vulnerable t o t h e e f f e c t s of submergence.In a n y case, t h e Department's monitoring exercises do n o t seem t o be used f o r any operational purposes as y e t . The d i f f i c u l t i e s referred t o above have been analyzed i n d e t a i l a t t h e two laterals selected f o r t h e study, D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 i n T r a c t 1 and Branch Canal 2 i n T r a c t 5.I'iglu-es IV.34 and IV.35 show t h e l o c a t i o n s of t h e s e sites. The crest of t h e weir of Branch C a n a l 2 was i n good condition while t h a t of D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 had been damaged and t h e crest partially lowered. Both weirs were found t o be submerged a t f u l l flow (approximatel>T 400 liters/sec f o r Distributar:r C a n a l 5 and 1,200 liters/sec for Branch C a n a l 2 ) . Furthermore, i t r q a s reported t h a t when s e t t i n g o u t t h e proposed broadcrested weirs it was discovered t h a t t h e e x i s t i n g bed l e v e l of Branch C a n a l 2 was about one f o o t (0.305 meters) higher than the design value. Similar observations have been reported s i n c e IIMI provided t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department with a topographical survey t h a t it commissioned f o r t h e purpose of e s t a b l i s h i n g a mathematical flow simulation model of the Right Bank Main 82 C a n a l .T h e s e findings have attracted t h e a t t e n t i o n of t h e Department t o the problem of t h e q u a l i t y of t h e construction of t h e K i r i n d i Opa Project ( e . s . ,A sample a n a l y s i s of t h e r~i:coids a t Branch C a n a l 2 from 27 t o 28 ?131c11 1988 (Annex IV. 3 ) i n d i c a t e s t h e r e s u l t i n g e r r o r c u r r e n t l y made i n a s s e s s i n g t h e flow i n it by two methods: over t h e weir, and 2 )t h e offtallre g a t e openings and t h e continuous records of water l e v e l s upstream and down:i;tream of t h e g a t e o r i f i c e .During this period, t h e o v e r e s t i m t e i n flow ranges between 17 and 25 percent f o r discharges above 1 . 5 ni3/sec whi L e t h e error was almost n e g l i g i b l e f o r flows below 1.0 m 3 / s e c given t h e dowmtream condition of t h e s y s t e m a t t h a t t i m e .L ) based on t h e .depth of rv.ater by employing Further i n v e s t i g a t i o n rewaled t h a t a g a t e e x i s t i n g a c r o s s t h e branch c a n a l a t a drop s t r u c t u r e about 100 meters downstream of t h e measuring w e i r was sometimes operated i n ordelr t o raise the head within t h e reach of Branch C a n a l 2 and i n c r e a s e t h e supply i n t o D i s t r i b u t a r y Canal 8 and F i e l d Channel 6 (see Figure IV.36 f o r relatiw l o c a t i o n s of t h e s e s t r u c t u r e s ) . I t has been observed t h a t t h e c l o s u r e of t h i s checkgate was responsible f o r t h e backwater and submergence of t h e measuriniz weir even a t low flows.For example, around midniglnt on 27 April, t h i s g a t e had been closed with t h e i n t e n t i o n of reducing t h e flow d i v e r t e d i n t o Branch C a n a l 2 while it was. not p o s s i b l e t m i n t e r v e n e on the offtalie g a t e of t h e canal i t s e l f . This is c l e a r l y v i s i b l e i n t h e water le'vel record i n d i c a t e d i n Annex I V . 2 .The consequent rise i n branch canid water l e v e l a t t h e measuring weir w i l l be i n t e r p r e t e d as dn i n c r e a s e i n branch canal discharge i f t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department's free-flow head-dilscharge equation is used f o r computation. On t h e o t h e r hand, t h e fact t h a t t 8 h e backwater e f f e c t would cause a n e t decrease i n branch canal discharge is csorrectly brought t o l i g h t i f t h e IIMI equation f o r t h e Branch C a n a l 2 o f f t a k e o r i f i c e is employed. Details of t h i s and similar episodes t h a t i l l u s t r a t e t h e ' i m p a c t of using t h e free-flow weir equation f o r conputation of disscharges i n t o t h e branch canal are a l s o given i n Annex I V . 2 .Tlie s e n i o r i r r i g a t i o n engineer is w e l l aware of t h e above problems t h a t l i m i t t h e c a p a c i t y of t h e agency t o c o r r e c t l y assess t h e flows d i v e r t e d a t t h e offt,akes. A p r o t o t y p of t h e modified broad-crested w e i r has been tested m d plans are underway t o replace a l l t h e e x i s t i n g measuring weirs cum b a f f l e wall a r r a n g m e n t s , which t h e fanners sometimes perceive as o b s t r u c t i o n s t o obtaining adequate flow i n by t h i s s t r u c t u r e . Alt,hough t h e neii s t r u c t u r e s might well t o l e r a t e a g r e a t e r degree of submergence than t h e e x i s t i n g s t r u c t u r e s without discharge being adversely a f f e c t e d , t h i s advantage might, be n u l l i f i e d i f t h e weirs are f u l l y s u h e r g e d as it, seems l i k e l y t o happen gjven t h e topography of t h e canal bed.t h e i r canals, Preliminary conclusions. The poor physical condition of ' t h e measurind weirs does not permit reliable assessment of t h e flow a t n e a r l y 30 percent of *the canals t h a t take off from ?,he Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main C a n a l . Most of t h e weirs are, i n a d d i t i o n , frci?quently sub.jected t o su; w r g e n c e . Under t h e s e circumstances, assessment of ?low ' assuming free-flow c o n d i t i o n s has been shown t o lead t o ovetestimriition.The I r r i g a t i o n Department expects more reliable flow information once t h e present weir-box type of measuring devices are replaced with modified broad-crested weirs, reputed to be less vulnerable to submergence. But the problem might persist unless additional hydraulic head is provided by suitably altering the profile of the canal bed.Mast of the 20 distributary canals along the branch canal are equipped with measuring devices consisting of a broad-crested weir and associated measuring scale, commonly referred to in the project as a hump pa=, located in a weir box at the head of the canals. These facilities make it possible to assess over the weir by means of the appropriate head-discharge relationship for free-flow condition. Such relationships ( u s u a l l y in the form of a calibration curve) shiuld be established through field measurements of head and flow (by current-metering). The Flow Monitoring Unit attached to the Resident Project Manager's Office at Galnewa assists the irrigation endneer in charge of the branch canal by developing and updating the necessary rating curves. the flow Duri'ng the period of i:rrigation; gauge readings at the heads of distributary canals are monitored by the irrigation laborers of each block (Galnewa and Meegalewa) on a &lily basis. The irrigation laborers sometimes adjust the offtake bate openings if. they observe that the water levels in the distributary canals (expressed in terms of head over the weirs) show deviations from the target values given to them. But the laborers record the' gauge reading after any adjustmttnt they might have performed, with the result that the agency records would generally show .exact compliance with the targets. The monitored readings are subsequently converted into discharge at the project office. This conversion is performed on the assmption that free-flow conditions prevail al; all the locations at all times, which is not necessarily true.At the time of the study, d l the offtake gates (steel sluice gates with a manually operated screw t . p 1.ifting device) along the branch canal were in .working order. But only 85 percent of the crests of the weirs were in g o d physical condition. Our observzltions indicate, however, that only 30 percent of the weirs actually function under free-flow conditions at all times. Forty percent of them are mbject to submergence from time to time for various reasons, and 15 percent are suhnerged at all times. Even though the weir is physically intact ard the hydraulic conditions are satisfactory, measurirg gauges are sometimes missing.Taking all these factors into consideration, the final assessment made during yala 1988 of the capacity to assess flow into the distributary canals is as follows: (See also Table IV -Possible assessment: 25 percent with a sensitivity of around 20 percent (relative variation of discharge for a variation of 1-cm read at the measuring scale).These observations are in keeping with previous reports indicatim that \". . . at the lower level of '';he agency clearly there is a suspicion and distrust of the gauge reading% by the irrigation laborer . .The rkasons for the <deqilkte hydraulic controls for the assessment of flow are numerous: 11 ,It some .distributary cana~ls, the head available between the crest of the weir and the bed of thil? canal was found to be insufficient compared to the capacity of the almal (e.g., less than 0.25 meters for Q = 0.2 m3/sec); this was either owing to topographical conditions that impose a limited longitudinal slopli on its profile, or due to secondary raisiru? of the canal bed as a resu81t of siltation.At other distributary cana,Ls, it is not uncommon to observe that.the submergence of weir is a temporary phenomenon created by the operation of a structuire located gate to provide additional head to field channels, culverts, etc.). In such cases the design inconsistency (exce:issive flexibility) appears to be responsible for the difficulties encouiitered in correctly assessing the flow.The temporary nature of the difficulties faced in some canals is well illustrated by the observations made at Distributary Canal 308-D2 during yala 1988. Following the traditional (share-cropping) pratice, part of the c o m d area supplied by 308-D2 was not irrigated during .mla 1988. Thus the culvert located aboult 40 meters downstream of the weir was closed during this season. This has c~~msequently led to a rise in the water surface in that reach which in turn hd. to submergence of the measuring weir at the head of 308-D2. In this case, 'the agency had temporarily lost the capacity to assess of 308-D2 (3uLuring yala 1988 with the facilities initially provided by the design. But. this capacity is likely to be restored in maha when the entire command area is irrigated and the culvert is left open. the measuriing dormstream (e.g.,In order to assess the flow at the offtake of Distributary Canal 308-D2 for the purposes of this stuliy, additional information had to be utilized the offtake gate opening a d the hydraulic head over the orifice of the gate. The gate openings were mimitored by IIMI field staff while hydraulic heads were derived from the water-level records obtained by the data-logging equipment installed by IIMI at this location with sensors in the branch canal and immediately upstream of tlhe weir at the head of the distributary canal.Figures IV.29, IV.30,. and IV.31 describe the physical layout at the dab-logging station establislhed' by IIMI near the first duckbill weir to monitor water levels in the brainch canal a3 well as in Distributary C a r d s 305-D3 and 308-D2. The data gathered at this location, supplemented by the results of the monitoring of gaite operations at the two distributary canal offtakes, bring to light the contrasting hydraulic conditions prevailing at the heads of these two distribuitary canals. These conditions (i.e., whether or not free-flow conditions prevail) in turn, affect the control of flow diverted at the offtalres.The difficulties exprienccd in the control of the flow diverted at the offtake due to submergence are illustrated by comparing the records of water level 'obtained at the head 'of Distributary Canal 308-D2 (subject to submergence) and at 305-D3 (not affected by submergence) during two periods of rotational water issue, 21 to 25 June 1988 and 28 June to 2, J u l y 1988. 'Fimres IV.32 and IV.33 show that both the number of interventions and the resulting changes in Giater level. (and hence flow diverted) are greater in the case of 308-D2 than in 305-D3, although in both cases there was no change in the level of water in the parcint canal due to the effective level-control performed by the nearby duckbill. weir, DBW#l.The availability of reliable information regardim the distribution of water flow along the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal is determined by three conditions to be met simultaneously: a) the physical condition of the measuring weirs at the head of the different distributary canals, b) the presence or absence of a measuring gauge, and c) acceptable free-flow hydraulic conditions at these locations. An evaluation conducted on this basis revealed that reliable flow information can be obtained in respect of 25 percent of the distributary canals. Another 10'percent yield questionable flow information rdiile there is no direct possibility for the operator to assess flow in the remaining 35 percent of the channels.The difficulties in assessing flow have been shown to be sometimes of a temporary nature, due to occasional submergence of the measuring device as a result of seasonal intervention at a regulating structure situated immediately downstream.The main lateral canals along SDA Main Canal are equipped with standard concrete Parshall flumes designed to permit the assessment of the flow diverted.The flumes are of different widths and assessment of flows diverted at the lateral is usually done on the basis of the depth of mter measured upstream of the throat of the flume. These values have to be used in conjunction with the LPRIIS/NIA Water Measurement Tables of July 1977 (the Hydrologist of District I, had ! I printed copy of this document which he used to carry with him to the field).The tables also provide the reduction factors to be applied to the flJw, depending on the degree of submergence of the flume which is a function of the ratio between downstream and upstream water levels measured at the flune.Detailed observations reg,3rding the hydraulic conditions prevailing at the flume of Lateral B, at Later.%l G, and at the main flume at the head of SD.4 Main Carla1 have been possible during the irrigation season 1988, on the basis of upstream and downstream water level records. These observations are as follows:1 )at Lsteral B, and was also frequently observed at the head of the SDA and even more often at Lateral I : . Depending on the degree of submergence (defined as the ratio between downstream and upstream water depths at the flume) an appropriate reducti(m factor could be applied to the free-flowThe submergence of the measring devices is prevalent.Next >> estimation of discharge. But ziiometimes 100 percent submergence might occur, i n which case estimation of flow is n o t possible.An example of such a s i t u a t i o n occurred between 1 md 3 October 1988 a t the SDA Supply Headgate, and has already been discussed j, Section 4.2.1.Use of t h e UPRIIS/NIA Water Measurement Tables of J u l y 1977 f o r estimntion of flow t h r o a h t h e Il'arshall flumes is n o t always reliable.For esample. a p p l i c a t i o n of t h e UF'RIIS/NIA Water Measurement Tables of J u l y 1977 t o t h e P a r s h a l l flume located a t t h e head of t h e system leads t o a systematic overestimation of t h e measured flow values i n t h e ranee of 18-46 percent. This phenomenon has a l r e a d y been r e f e r r e d t o i n S e c t i o n 4. J u l y t o 7 October 1988, computation of f h w on t h e basis of t h e UPRIIS/NIA Tables would lead t o am overestimation o f . 3 . 7 percent of t h e volume a c t u a l l y d e l i v e r e d i n t o t h e L a t e r a l B ( i . e . , 12.11 m i l l i o n c u b i c meters a g a i n s t 11.68 m i l l i o n cubic meters) (see Table IV.141.Regarding t h e P a r s h a l l fluine a t L a t e r a l G, t h e comparison of measured flow with t h o s e estimated u:isim t h e UPRIIS/NIA Tables g i v e s much greater d i s c r e p a n c i e s (see Table IV.13 :md Figures IV. 38 t h e measured p o i n t s , ' however, sugest th;lit t h e flow a t this flume is f r e q u e n t l y subnerred. The degree of submeireence could not l?e q u a n t i f i e d .because water depths downstream of t h e throalt were n o t monitored. Hence, flow e s t i m a t i o n s by both m e t h o d s (LJF'RIIS/NIA Tables and IIMI r a t i n g curve) assume t h a t f r e eflow c o n d i t i o n s p r e v a i l a t thdit l o c a t i o n , which might n o t always be true. The computation of volume d e l i v e r e d i n t o t h e L a t e r a l G over t h e period 5 August t o 7 October 1988 (Tab'le IV.151, however, i n d i c a t e s t h a t use of t h e WRIIS/NIA Tables would have sverestimated t h e supply by over 100 percent compared t o t h e value c a l c u l a t i d on t h e basis of the c a l i b r a t i o n carried o u t i n t h e c o u r s e of this study (i.e., 2.63 m i l l i o n cubic meters a a i n s t 1.28The following t a b l e compares t h e design and actual dimensions, as c o n s t i u c t e d , of t h e P a r s h a l l flumes: drawing of standard Parshall flume.Thomh the physical dimersions of the flumes agree with the theoretical values. it is not clear whether the UPRIIS/NIA Water Measurement Tables have been verified under the present field conditions which might be quite different from the conditions that prevailed at the time when the water measurement tables were established. For example, the canal beds downstream of the flunies niavke silted, and/or the regulating structures after the flumes mavbe operated at elevations higher than originally planned.F'reliminary conclusions. The concrete Parshall flumes installed at the head of the lateral canals of SDA Main C m l conform to the standard design as far as the physical dimensions are concerned.Their hydraulic furict.ioninz. however, has been found to be different from what is assumed in the U P R I I S / N I A Water I.leasureme:-k Tables, at least in the stwiy locations.Furt.herrnore, the flumes at the ,;upply headgate, Lateral B, and Lateral G have been found to be frequently sihnerged.Using these devices in conjunction with the U P R I I S / N I A Water Mt3asurement Tables to assess flow generally overestimates the actual flows 'to a l a r g e extent.R a j m a n a Pilot Area: Distributriry Canal 1, Left Bark Tract 2The distribution of flow amongst the field channels that take off from the pilot distributary canal is controlled through baffle distributors or .\"modules\" similar to the ont? installed at the head of the distributary canal. but of smaller capacity 130 liters/sec).;\\s mentioned earlier in this chapter, assessing the flow delivered to each field channel through the calibrated distributors is expected to be direct. Simply adding the nmiinal discharge values marked on the open shutters at any one time would yield the total discharge beinn delivered, provided that the hydraulic conclitions required for the correct functionim of the module are met.If so, the modules are supwsed to contribute two important elements to the manageability of the system: 1 ) open access to the information regarding the flow delivered at the various field channels to anyone and in particular to the farmers, and 2 ) easy control of the water distribution within the command area by rapid water ba1;lmce computationthe inflow issued into the distributar,v canal (corresponding to the setting of the main module) should be at least equal to the total outflow delivered to the various field channels, assessed by summing up the values corresponding to the open shutters.Whether the hydraulic prer'i3quisites referred to above were satisfied during yala whether .ithe irrigation agency,derived any benefit from the addjtional capability provi,lled by the technology is briefly discussed below.1988 and i\\s indicated earlier, the variation of head of water over the sill of the module m u s t be limited wit:i?in a narrow range to permit the module to deliver the nominal flow. In the case of the 30 liters/sec modules, a 5-cm head variation will maintain a #discharge within plus or minus 5 percent of the nominal value, while a 7 -' m variation will maintain a discharge within plus or minus 10 percent of thi? nominal value. This level control at the head of each field channel is achieved by means of regulating weirs built across the distributary canal. The length of the weir (duckbill weir type) was desi-gnd in accordance ijith the required accuracy of level control (msimwn oserflow height over wi?irs does not exceed 7 cm). One of the tasks performed by IIMI through tlhe consultants in November-December 1987 was precisely t o check the setting '3f the sill of the modules with respect to the 'crest of the regulating weirs. This postconstruction clhecking appeared to be critical for the performance of the pilot experiment as many errors were corrected at that time except for some, such as an inappropriate location of a weir with respect to the field-channel offtake, and the absence of a module to control 'the flow of the tail-end field channels. Subsequently, during yala 1988, it was observed that the level control achieved by the regulating weir was effective in the case of six field channels out of the nine that take off from the distributary canal. The water surface elevation upstrelam of the modules was maintamed within the acceptable range and the flow delivered in these field channels was considered to be equal to the niominal values. It was not possible, however, to verify this assumption by cuirrent metering.It was also discovered tlhat an alterations made by the agency to the 3The unfortunate intervention at the tail end of the distributary canal referred to re'veals a l a c k of understanding of the design of the p i l o t project. This is m e of several deficiencies that have been identified in of the pilot project since the formulation of the project arid the definition of its objectives, the understanding of the design concepts underlying such a pilot project, up to the project above actually the conduct design had detrimental consequences for the the pilot pro.iect. This intervention took the form of a reduction of the width of the last regulating weir which increases the head at three tail-end field channels, and was reportedly made for the purpose of some flow monitoring needed at the tail of the distributary canal. By doing this, the agency transformed the regulating weir, whose performance requires a large width, into a measuring weir where a narrow width is Freferable. As a result, the impact of the calibrated distributors at the head of the last three field channels on flow control at the tail of the pilot distributary canal has been totally negated. Furthermore, it takes away the possibility for the agency to perform direct monitoring and simple control c f the distribution (water balance between inflow and outflow) which cculd have been otherwise performed easily and reasonably accurately. misunderstanding of the basic objective of the pilot project and the associated role of canal regulation in improving the manageability of the system; on many occasions I M I researchers had to remind the Irrigation Department staff that the primary focus of the pilot experiment was on improving the manageability of the system rather than on water saving;These can be summarized as follows: c) the innovative aspects of the design to be tested, its strict hydraulic requirements, the implications for the supervision of construction and installation, and for the maintenance of the equipnent. It was observed in 1987 during the project implementation that no officer, at project, range, or even at the headquarters level, had received the least technical documentation or information regarding the propcsed control technology; and d) inadequate expertise available to advise the department in the implementation of the pilot project and its operation; even the consultant supposed to cater to this task had no the technology to be tested and the manner in which it should be operated. lack of prior information and training regarding knowledge regarding IIMI ' s initiative, in late 1987, to bring in additional expertise from the manufacturing firm (NS'FHCM-FLUIDES, France) to guide Irrigation Department staff in the instdlation of the new technology was definitely opportune to make the equipenc work, at least initially, but this could not compensate for all the shortco~nings quoted above in the planning, desibn, and implementation of the pilot pr'Jject.( F i g u r e 11.171, a tentative water balance of the distribution of water along the pilot distributary canal wais prepared the consequences of the design alteration (Table IV  y m : i) Infiltration losses have not been taken into account, but the distributary canal is relatively short. ~ ii) The theoretical ratinlg curve fol-the baffle distributor has been used to assess floiw delivered under non-nominal conditions of level.Conclusions, with respect to Criterion B, of Section 4 . 2 . 2The availability of reliaible flow information is a fundamental requirement for the control of water delivery from main canals, and which cannot be overlooked.A number of practical prcsblems that render difficult the correct assessment of flow have come to light in the course of this stud.., hence, limitim the capacity of the agency to control the delivery. Some of these problems are related to the deterioration in the physical condition of the measuring device and associated game, while others are more of a h5draulic nature. The latter problems are of two types: a) use of an improper head-discharge relat.ionship, or b) impssibilitv to obtain a head-discharge relationship due to pernllanent or temprary submergence of the measuring device following intervention at a regulating structure situated immediately dowi,&ream.Assessment of flow without due recognition of the existence of these h;vdraulic phenomerw leads to unreliable information on the water issues.Criterion C: Availability of mmns to influence water issues Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main h m lThe design of the Right Bank Main Canal provides the following facilities for altering the flow diverted off the main canal:2) the gates at the cross.-regulator immediately downstream lone. to five gates depending on the capacity of the main canal at that location); the variations of head in the mair, canal associated with the variation of inflow and the operations at the regulator affect the flow into Most of these cross-regulator gates are still in working condition.the gate of the offtake (one gate per lateral in general), and the lateral.There is a lateral canal. immediately upstream of each of the 1 4 crossregulators built along the 2 4 . 5 h 1 right bank main canal. These are either a branch canal, a distributary canal, or a field channel, depending on the size of the command area served. There are 19 other distributary canal and field channel offtakes, but they are located at some distance upstream, from 200-2,000 meters, of the closest regulator (see Table IV.11).Offtalres located far upstream of the regulators are expected to be more sensitive to the variation of qater level in the main canal than those which are close to a regulator. This,is demonstrated in Figure IV.41, which shows the variation water swface profile in the canal reach between gated cross-regulators GR12 an& GR13 for different values of main canal flow at GR12 ( 0 . 5 to 3 . 5 m3/secl as :simulated by the mathematical flow simulation mdel of the Kirindi @-a Right 133nk Main Canal. These water surface profiles have been obtained under the hypothesis that the water level at GR13 is maintained at full supply depth (FSD).The water level at the cross-regulator itself,' however, could be e.upected to deviate from full supply depth under normal operating conditions. Figures IV.47 and IV.18 indicate the observed frequency distributions of water levels at cR12, based on continuous datalogger records at this location over the period March-June 1988. The range of variation in water level correspnding to the intel-quartile interval [i.e., between the 75th and 25th percentiles which, in the c:ase of GR12 are, respectively, FSD-3 cm and FSDt10 cm) is 13 cm.W e shall assume that the variation in water level at gated crossregulator GR13 is the same as that at the adjacent regulator GR12 (i.e., from FSD-3 cm to FSD t10 cm, or 1 : : cm). The range of variations in water level (Delta H) that could he expected above the pipe invert levels of each of the . . . I r i \\ i e otrttllies situateu i n this rcacn i n response r.0 m ~n camu aiscnm'cc values from 0 . 5 t o 3 . 5 m3/:1ieC a t GR12 is' obtained throwh d i f f e r e n t , simulations and is i n d i c a t e d :,;n Table IV.18 and Figure I V . 4 2 . The r e l a t i v e range of mter l e v e l v a r i a t i o n with respect t o t h e mean head e x p e c t d a t each o f f t a k e is a l s o computed and :#is eqressed as a f u n c t i o n of t h e d i s t a n c e of t h e o f f t a k e from t h e r e r u l a t o r :,.n Figure I V . , 1 3 .The v a r i a t i o n in h y d r a u l i c h e a d i n r e l a t i o n t,o t h e proximity of t h e o f f t a k e s t o t h e downstream aated c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r GR13 is c l e a r l y v i s i b l et h e offtakes located f u r t h e r away from GR13 are more vulriei-able \";o f l u c t u a t i o n s i n the main canal water level.Tile implication f o r c o n t r o l of 'kater d e l i v e r y a t t h e o f f t a k e s is t h a t t h e i.nt.eiisi t.y of i n t e r v e n l i o n s necessary a t those o f f taltes which arc I~cnsollnhl?w l l -1 ~w u l a t e d l i . e . , l i m i t e d r d a t i v e range of water l e v e l f l u c t u a t i o n i n t,he [xirent. c a n a l ) is less 'Lhan a t o f f t 3 k e s which are sub,ject. t o a larce r e l a t i v e range of \\.ariation i n i g a t e r l e v e l i n t h e p a r e n t canal. ----------_-----------------------------------.------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bank Plain Canal and D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 i n Tract 1 is 45 meters upstream of t h e g a t e d c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r GR3 a i t t h e head o f t h e system.I n s u c h s i t u a t i o n s , t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s operating t h e d i v e r s i o n s t r u c t u r e s aloiw t h e ri,r?ht bank main canal arbit,rate between d i f f e r e n t o p e r a t i o n a l o p t i o n s t o achic:ve an intended d i v e r s i o n .The folloriinz p r a c t i c e s were observed: F i r s t t m e of operations: t h e most frequent t y p s of operation. One or more gates a t a cross-regu1ato.r are operated while keeping t h e gate of t h e l a t e r a l i n t h e same position.Thus, the flow diverted is controlled i n d i r e c t l y through t h e control of t h e water level i n t h e main canal. This practice is consistent w i t h the standing order of t h e agency t o maintain t h e l e v e l upstream of t h e cross-rerfulators a t f u l l supply depth.By doing so, t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s a i m t o maintain i n t h e main canal a c e r t a i n head over t h e i n l e t of t h e l a t e r a l , t h e g a t e opening of which was i n i t i a l l y set by reference t o some appropriate \"spindle length\" .known t o t h e operator from experience a s being able t o provide t h e intended supply; o r by trial and e r r o r .I n operating t h e cross-regulators t h e i r r i g a t o r s do not always maintain the same openings a t a l l the gates of a given Instead t h e y tend t o always operate only one 01: two of the gates (usually t h e ones t h a t are easier t o o p e r a t e ) . This pracl;ice could give rise t o unfavorable hydraulic conditions t h a t might be a contributory f a c t o r t o the erosion of t h e canal bed and banlxs occurring immedititely downstream of t h e regulators. regulator.. ;It Distributary Canal 5 , it appears t h a t t h e e f f e c t i v e head which c.omnmnds t h e flow t o t h e charmel (difference i n water l e v e l s on e i t h e r s i d e of the offtake o r i f i c e ' ) was gerlerally maintained within a range t o c m . T h i s is i l l u s t r a t e d by , t h e Right Bank Main Canal water l e v e l record near the offtalre of Distributary Canal 5 f o r t h e period from 12 Play onwards corresponding t o the start of t h e second i r r i g a t i o n season i n Tract 1 (Figure I V . 4 4 ) . A f t e r a few i n i t i a l changes i n t h e opening of Distributary Canal 5 on.12 and 13 May [for, cleaning t h e canal), t h e g a t e of Distributary Canal 5 was not operated any more until 28 June 1988. of 20 I t was a l s o observed a t various locations, and a t Distributary Canal 5 i n p a r t i c u l a r , t h a t f i e l d i r r . i g a t o r s a c t u a l l y maintain a l e v e l i n t h e main canal which is higher than f u l l supply depth.In t h e case of Distributary Canal 5 and Branch Canal 2 , t h e w a t e r level a t t h e two gated cross-regulators (CR3 and GRl2 respectively) t h a t control hydraulic head a t these offtakes is most frequently maintained a b u t 4 c m above f u l l supply depth (FSDt4 c m ) . Figures IV.15, I V . 4 6 , IV.17, and IV.48 indicate t h e frequency d i s t r i b u t i o n s of main ,canal water l e v e l s (excluding t h e period of canal closure i n mid-April 1988) a t these two locations.The i n t e r q u a r t i l e range of l e v e l variations a t Distributary Canal 5 and Branch Canal 2 are FSD-6 c m t o FSDt4 c m a t D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 and ED-3 c m and FSDt10 c m a t Branch Canal 2.Maintaining water l e v e l s above f u l l supply depth w i l l allow l a r g e r flow t o be diverted i n t o the l a t e r a l canal compared t o its nominal design discharge. during s i t u a t i o n s of high i r r i g a t i o n d e m d w h i l s t a t t h e same time d e l i v e r i n g water i n t h e u p p r reaches.I n o t h e r words, it h i g h l i g h t s the magnitude of t h e disturbances cr~iused t o t h e regime of flow downstream by t h e c u r r e n t o p e r a t i o n a l p r a c t i c e s i n t h e upper reaches of t h e system.Second type of o w r a t i o i ~~: less frequent than t h e f i r s t type. The Operations are done g a t e s at t h e o f f t a k e s of t h e la'ieral canal are operated. e i t h e r i n conjunction rJith t h e *>perations of cross-regulators o r s e p a r a t e l y .A t D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 i n Tract ' 1 , during t h e previous i r r i g a t i o n 18 March. u n t i l t h e end of t h e i r r i g a t i o n i s s u e s i n T r a c t 1 and f i n a l c l o s u r e of D i s t r i b u t a r y C a n a l 5 on 7 Apiril 1988. The.gate openings a t t h i s l o c a t i o n between 20 and 27 March 1988 shown i n Figure IV.49 are an example. These o f f t a k e c l o s u r e s were g e n e r a l l y n o t associated with adjustment a t the crossr e g u l a t o r unless t h e differencs? i n water l e v e l between t h e main canal and a t t h e head of t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y csmal became too small and prompted remedial a c t i o n a t t h e cross-regulator g a t e s (partial c l o s u r e ) t o r e s t o r e t h e flow d i v e r t e d . Paradoxically, t h e adjustments perfoimed i n response t o such s i t u a t i o n s , u s u a l l y created owiing t o a reduction of inflow i n t h e main canal, sometimes led t o an increased d i v e r s i o n of water.season, temporary c l o s u r e s of t h i s canal. have been recorded r e g u l a r l y from A t Branch Canal 2 i n Tract ' 5 , t h e operations of t h a t g a t e i n r e l a t i o n with t h e g a t e d cross-regulator GR12 have been more comples because of t h e dual f u n c t i o n of t h i s canal during t h i s p a r t i c u l a r season.t h e supply of t h e area under i t s command, t h e branch canal was a l s o used as a drainage channel t o evacuate excess water c.oncentrating i n t h e lower p o r t i o n of t h e Right Eank Main C a n a l . This l a t t e r f u n c t i o n was r e s o r t e d t o whenever necessary ' t o p r o t e c t a temporary c o f f e r dam located below gated crossr e g u l a t o r GR15, f i v e kilometers downstream of Branch Canal 2 . This c o f f e r dam, b u i l t by t h e I r r i g a t i o n Department, has been i n p l a t e f o r t h e whole season (although s e v e r a l t i m e s breached and r e b u i l t ) .I t was intended t o prevent water flowing beyond Tract 5 , thus minimizing o p e r a t i o n a l l o s s e s . I t a l s o served t o impound water i n t h e last reach thereby increasing t h e v a t e r s u r f a c e e l e v a t i o n and f a c i l i t a t i n g t h e w a t e r supply t o t h e lateral canals iocated i n t h i s reach. iThis denotes t h e study l o c a t i o n t h a t includes t h e gated crossr e g u l a t o r GR#12 and Branch C a n a l -2 .. SThis denotes t h e stud:r l o c a t i o n t h a t includes t h e gated c r o s sr e g u l a t o r GR#3 and Distributar:r Canal-5.The presence of t h e c o f f e r dam, and t h e particular concern of t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s t o ensure its prote82tion has played an important r o l e i n t h e operation of t h e lower p r t i ' m of t h e main c a n a l . Some informal m o d e of r e g u l a t i o n seems t o have been practiced by the i r r i g a t o r s ; information r e g a r d i w t h e s t a t u s of w!er a t t h e c o f f e r danl was conmunicated t o t h e i r r i g a t o r i n charge of GR12:B(:2 so t h a t preventive a c t i o n . c o n s i s t i n g of d i v e r t i m t h e escess water tlIrough t h i s canal could be implemented. Such B discharge of escess flow through t h e branch canal w a s recorded on 10, 13, 23, and 28 Pla.lal.ch 1988. This risks achieved by f u l l y c l o s i n g t,he gated c r o s sr e g u l a t o r GR12 rihile opening t h e branch-canal o f f t a k e . The episode of 27 t o 28 March 1988 is f u l l y descr.ibcd i n Annex I V . 3 .The r e v e r s e t;\\.pe of operation a t GR12:BCZ ( i . e . , c l o s u r e of t h e branch canal t o release a d d i t i o n a l wat.er t o t h e tail) was a l s o observed.For example, on 8 Map 1988 t h e @'ate of t h e branch canal was closed following a big reduction of inflow a t t h e head of main c a n a l .The e v e n t s t h a t led t o t h i s c l o s u r e were as follows:. s i n c e 6 May t h e i r r i g a t o r had been making a number of i n t e r v e n t i o n s t o progressively c l o s e t h e g a t e s of GR12 so t h a t f u l l supply depth could be maintained a t t h e cross-regulator. The flow released t o t h e t a i l a l s o decreased, up t o t h e point t h a t t h e branch canal had' t o be f u l l y closed on 8 Play t o release s u f f i c i e n t water t o t h e tail end. This sequence of events is shown i n F i g u r e IV.50.Other tsws of operations: i n exceptional circumstances. Yet another option was implement& i n Branch C a n a l 2 t o reduce t h e flow i n t o it a t a t i m e when it was n o t p o s s i b l e t o o p e r a t e t h e o f f t a k e g a t e f o r a few days. This was achieved by changing t h e .nydraulic conditions downstream of t h e o f f t a k e g a t e . It. h a s been observed t h a t a l l i n t e r e s t e d parties ( f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s and farmers) are well aware of t h e : ? t e n t i d impact of backwater on flow i n t o t h e brarich c a n a l , and they apparent Ly know how t o \"manipulate\" it when necessary. T h i s unexpected s i t u a t i o n arises not only because of t h e g e n t l e topography of t h e command a r e a t3erved by t h e Right Bank Main C a n a l , ' b u t a l s o f o r various reasons p c r t s i n i n g t o t h e design and c o n s t r u c t i o n of t h e system. Thus, t h e d i f f e r e n c e i n e l e v a t i o n between t h e o u t l e t of t h e o f f t a k e s and t h e canal bed of t h e lateral i s 3 o f t e n n o t s u f f i c i e n t . These conditions are aggravated i f f o r some reason, (:anals are n o t excavated t o t h e design l e v e l !construction f l a w ) , o r when t h e design a l s o includes the l o c a t i o n of s t r u c t u r e s ( i , e . , checlrgate, cu:.'vert, e t c . ) downstream of t h e o f f t a k e , t h e operation of which could inlierfere with t h e functioning of t h e o f f t a k e !design f l a w ) , o r when s i l t a t i o n of t h e lateral canal raises t h e bed l e v e l !nlaintenance flaw 1 .The design does n o t always provide permanent free-flow canal s e c t i o n s below t h e o f f t a k e s such as drop s t r u c t u r e ( i . e . , a \"hydraulic c o n t r o l \" ) t h a t rmuld decouple t h e hydraulics of t h e lateral canal from t h a t of t h e main ccanal. This m e a n s t h a t operaticm of a check structure i n a lateral can a f f e c t t.he flow d i v e r t e d i n t o t h e .lateral, and hence t h e flow i n t h e main c a n a l itself. a t t h e o f f t a k e s , t h e i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of r a t i o n a l operations of a s y s t e m and determination of c o r r e c t s e t t i n g s of t h e v a r i c u s adjustable structures c o n s t i t u t e f a i r l y complex tasks, beyond t h e c u r r e n t capacities of t h e o p r a t o r s . These!iydsaulic c o m p l e s i t i e s are a t t h e o r i g i n the o p e r a t o r s t o c o n t r o l t h e del.ivery. of t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s experienced by In t h e case of Branch Canal 2 , a drop s t r u c t u r e e x i s t s a b u t 100 meters dormstream of t h e o f f t a k e .f i e l d channel are located in-between t h e o f f t a k e and t h e drop s t r u c t u r e . The drop S t r u c t u r e is f i t t e d with a g a t e , t h e -assunled function of which is t o provide more f l e x i b i l i t y i n of t h e lateral canals a t t h e head of Branch C a n a l 2 . On 26 A p r i l 1988, t h e flow d i v e r t e d i n t o t h e branch canal was t o o much, but o p e r a t i o n s ' of GR12 and t h e g a t e of t h e Branch Canal 2 were temporarily impossible because of an on-going water measurement'campaign a t t h a t t i m e . ;\\ccording t.o t h e r e c o r d s , t h e ' chec1rgat.e i n Branch C a n a l 2 was p a r t i a l l y c l o s e d at, midnight e i t h e r by t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r or t h e farmers.The backwater e f f e c t was propagated upwards, reducing t h e e f f e c t i v e hydraulic head over t h e o f f t a k e g a t e o r i f j k e and r e s u l t i n g i n a r e d u c t i o n of about '14 percent o f t h e flow d i v e r t e d i n t o t h e branch canal. This setting a p p a r e n t l y remained unchanged f o r s e v e r a l clays u n t i l t h e gate a t t h e drop s t r u c t u r e was f i n a l l y l i f t e d around 10 Ma:, 1988, hence changing a g a i n t h e h y d r a u l i c c o n d i t i o n s downstream of t h e off'take (see Annex IV.2).t h e supply Preliminary conclusions. ?'he design of t h e K i r i n d i Oya Right Bsnk Main Canal provides t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s with a very high degree of f l e x i b i l i t y i n terms o f o p e r a t i o n a l o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r achiex-ing r e q u i r e d d i v e r s i o n s of water off t h e main c a n a l . A t many p l a c e s , however, t h e s e o p e r a t i o n a l o p p o r t u n i t i e s are g r e a t l y u n d e r u t i l i z e d , r e s u l t i n g i n a c e r t a i n r e d u n k c y , a t least a t t h e p r e s e n t t i m e , when most of t h e slates are still i n working o r d e r .Consequently, t h e potentia:. for combined o p e r a t i o n s of a m u l t i p l i c i t y of g a t e s a t each d i v e r s i o n p o i n t renders t h e h y d r a u l i c s of t h e main system v e r y complex, especially when functioning under unsteady flow c o n d i t i o n s which r e p r e s e n t t h e commonly prevalent; s i t u a t i o n .Up t o f i v e gates a t a crossr e g u l a t o r p l u s one g a t e a t a n o f f t a k e could i n t e r a c t i n determining t h e flow t o be d i v e r t e d i n t o a latera:.. Not t o mention t h e i n f l u e n c e of t h e v a r i a t i o n of inflow i n t h e r n a x c a n a l ( t h a t could r e s u l t from t h e o p e r a t i o n of a r e g u l a t o r upstream) and t h e backwater effect ( t h a t could r e s u l t from t h e o p e r a t i o n of a regulatoi; downstream). This s i t u a t i o n is sometimes f u r t h e r aggravated by t h e i n t e r v e n t i o n s a t s t r u c t u r e s located i n t h e lateral i t s e l f , downstream of t h e offtrike, t h a t might a l s o a f f e c t t h e flow diqerted.The d e c i s i o n s regarding combination of s t r u c t u r e s t o be operated and t h e i r respectiye s e t t i n g s are l e f t t o t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r ' s judgement, based 011 h i s understanding of t h e s:isteni. The design values of f u l l supply depth [corresponding t o t h e crest of ';he side-walls of t h e c r o s s r e g u l a t o r s ) do n o t always appear t o be adequate i n t h e eyes of t h e i r r i g a t o r s i n o r d e r t o d i v e r t t-he intended flow.The f i d d i r r i g a t o r s have t h u s de\\reloped r a t h e r s i m p l i s t i c o p e r a t i o n a l p r a c t i c e s , based on t h e i r own e s F r i e n c e , t o ensure t h e supply of water t o t h e laterals with the least e f f o r t on t h e i r part.From t h e f i e l d i r r i g a t o r s ' perspective, it appears t h a t the crossremtlator has emerged as t h e privileged instrument of intervention t o control the flow diverted at t h e offtake, which is their primary concern. The i r r i g a t o r s operate these s t r u c t u r e s intensively w h i l e paying l i t t l e a t t e n t i o n t o t h e consequences of these interventions downstream and upstream of t h e i r locations ( i . e . , t h e sudden t r a n s f e r , or storage, of water generated as a r e s u l t of t h e i r interventions).Such interventions are an important source of v a r i a b i l i t y . These aspects h i l l be discussed i n Section 4 . 3 .The f a c i l i t i e s available t c control t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n a r e limited t o ihe 20 offtakes e x i s t i n e s l o w the 10.9-lon branch canal. A l l offtakes have a i n t e except the last one a t t h e tail ( 3 0 7 -D 3 ) , which a l s o acts as a drain f o r t h e branch canal.Althomh t h e system was f i r s t commissioned i n 1978, t h e Sates a t t h e offtakes are still i n working condition, the spindles are greased t o ease t h e operations, and some of them even have a padlock.Operations are performed by t h e two i r r i g a t i o n laborers i n the course of t h e i r d a i l y turn of duty along t h e branch canal. The i r r i g a t i o n laborer compares t h e water l e v e l i n the weir-box a t t h e heads of the d i s t r i b u t a r y canals w i t h t h e t a r g e t (generally a standard depth of water a t the hump-gau~el anc. proceeds with gate ad.justments wherever necessary.This appears t o be stra.ightforward, a t least where t h e r e is an operational measuring device, hut a d e t a i l e d analysis of t h e r e l i a b i l i t y of the assessment of flow thromh these de\\-ices (as discussed i n Chapter 111) r a i s e d some questions i n t h i s r.egard. This might explain,rhy t h e i r r i g a t i o n laborer does not always t r u s t the gauge and tends t o t a r g e t i f necessary t o meet the farmers' c.emands (Raby and Merrey 1989). override t h e Two-thirds of the d i s t r i b u t a r y canals, however, are l&ted close t o duckbill weirs which regulate eiffectively t h e rater l e v e l i n t h e branch canal. Under these conditions, t h e frequency of offtake date adjustments h a s been found t o be r e l a t i v e l y low, provided t h a t t h e pipe o u t l e t of t h e offtake is not affected by a backwater e f f e c t .The above observation i s . supported by t h e r e s u l t s given i n Table I V . 2 0 which indicates t h e i n t e n s i t y 01' operations performed durine t h e period Ma>, t o September 1988 a t the oi'ftakes 305-D3 and 308-D2.Both offtakes a r e adjacent. t o t h e f i r s t duckbill weir and benefit i d e n t i c a l l y from its water level remlatim e f f e c t , but t h e offtake 308-D2 was sub,ject t o backwater e f f e c t and submergence w h i l e 30!i-D3 was not.t h e head of 308-D2and not operational durine pila 1988 because of t h e p r t i a l closure of d i s t r i b u t a r y canals downstream; only a portion. of t h e t o t a l c o m d area was cult:.vated as p a r t of t h e t r a d i t i o n a l b e & $ & @( o r sharecropping) practiced d u r i m t h e dry season i n S r i Lanka.\"he measurine w e i r a t was submerged 'rrtble I V . 20.Iialanlwttiya Br:mc.h C a n a l : Frequency of i n t e r v e n t i o n s a t two i d e n t i c a l l y r e g u l a t e d . d i v e r s i o n s from 9  This special i s s u e used t o be inplemented i n conjunction with t h e c l o s u r e of t,he g a t e d r e g u l a t o r located immediately downstream of t h e s e cmals.' .Preliminary conclusions.Thomh t h e q x . r a t i o n a 1 f l e x i b i l i t y and t h e o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r i n f l u e n c i m water i s s u e s are limited t o a minimum, c o n t r o l of water i s s u e s n e v e r t h e l e s s appears t o be very e f f e c t i v e . This is due t o t h e fact t h a t t h e m a j o r i t y of t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l s b e n e f i t frcm e f f e c t i v e c o n t r o l o f rater l e v e l ' in t h e p r e n t canal and t h a t a l l t h e o f f t a k e gates are s t i l l i n workinrr c o n d i t i o n a f t e r more than 10 years of operation.Santo Doming0 Area (SDA) Main CanalThe d e s i m of the diversion s t r u c t u r e s taking off the SDA Phin Canal i n t o the 11 ma,ior l a t e r a l s a r e b a s i c a l l y the same gated cross-regulating s t r u c t u r e s as those a t Kirindi Oya, described above.There a r e . however, important d i f f e r e n c e s ' i n the mode of operations of these s t r u c t u r e s . In addition t o t,hese, the main canal includes 35 \"checks\" o r \"thresher c r o s s i m s \" t o allow f o r the diversion of water t o a number of turnouts spread along t h e main canal.Na,ior diversions.Diverting a given quantity of water requires adjustments of a cross-regulator w i t h multiple gates and an offtake w i t h one o r two g a t e s . In p a r t i c u l a r , t h e concrete anchoring of t But. these s t r u c t u r e s are i n a c r i t i c a l state of d i s r e p a i r .Irrespective of whether a g a t e is present a t the offtake, fe.g., Lateral B ) , or absent, ( e . g . , Lateral A ) , the current practice of t h e gatekeeper is t o operate t h e cross-regulator and not the g a t e of the offtake t o control the flow i n t h e lateral. Thus, the control of the water i s s u e is not direct but is by t h e control of water depth i n the main canal.Some gates a t t h e cross-regulator will be f u l l y opened i n order t o c u r t a i l t h e issue of water t o the l a t e r a l . Other offtakes located upstream ( a t least up t o t h e next \"check\") w i l l be thereby s i m i l a r l y affected.This practice h a s been observed i n d e t a i l a t t h e Main Canal/Lateral B diversion during 1988. I t h a s already been indicated i n t h i s paper t h a t t h e ratekeeper was a b l e t o divide t h e incoming flow between Lateral B and t h e main canal downstream of Lateral B i n n e a r l y t h e same proportion as t h e r a t i o between the planted areas commanded by each canal; Lateral B received 40.8 percent of t h e inflow over t h e three-month period of observations compared t o i t s s h a r e of 10.6 percent af t h e area.This, indeed is a remarkable achie\\-ement considering t h e f a c i l i t i e s available.I t is doubtful, holqever, &ether t h i s diversion arrangement was i n i t i a l l y designed with a view t o p r o p r t i o n a l sharing of water, given the s t r u c t u r a l d i f f i c u l t i e s involved i n attempting t o do so. Shutting off t h e flow i n Lateral B,by operating t h e regulator t o lower the water l e v e l i n t h e main c a n a l , rather than closing t h e offtake g a t e , is p s s i b l e because t h e sill of t h e offtake is located a t a much h i g h e r l e v e l than t h e bed of the main canal. But t h e r e s u l t of t h i s arrangement is t h a t the division correspording t o a p a r t i c u l a r s e t t i n g of t h e regulator gates is extremely s e n s i t i v e t o the v a r i a t i o n s of l e v e l i n t h e main canal. of flow I n p a r t i c u l a r , Lateral B w i l l t i n d t o draw off more water than its share when flow increases i n t h e main canal and less when main canal flow is decreasing.t o the unregulated inflow and frequent gate adjustments are required i n order t o maintain t h e division of flow a s per t h e intended proportion.The record of t h e g a t e interventions for t h e period from 24-31 J u l y 1988 (Table IV.9 and Fimre IV.26) and analysis of the d i v i s i o n . of flow before and a f t e r intervention demonstrate the. a b i l i t y of the operator t o manage these conditions and determine the appropriate gate 3 p n i n g s or closures t o f i n a l l y a r r i v e a t a f a i r l y acceptable overall resuFt i n terms of t h e division of water a t t h a t point.The water l e v e l i n the m a i n canal varies widely due On t h e other hand it is l i k e l y t h a t the frequent and important variations of t h e water l e v e l observed i n t h e canal have a detrimental effect on the s t a b i l i t y of t h e canal b+sdepth v a r i a t i o n s of 1 . 5 meters/day have keen observed and v a r i a t i o n s ; of more than 0.5, meterdday were frequentcausing problems of erosion. T j i s is aggravated by t h e current operational practices, especially when r o t a t i o n s between laterals are implemented.Ninor diversions. Other types of s t r u c t u r e a r e used f o r the diversion of water a t t h e various t u r n o k s lpcated along t h e main canal. The design has provided \"checks\" ( a l s o knom a s \"thresher crossings\" ) a t about 500-meter i n t e r v a l s across the main canal, single-gated turnouts, and double-gated turnouts of the Constant Head Orifice ( ( 3 0 ) type.There are presently 50 offtakes, plus 9 i l l e g a l pipe offtakes. Half of the turnouts i n s t a l l e d are double-gated turnouts (CHO type) but none of them is operational.Only 25 percent of t h e t o t a l number of turnouts have a gate.The \"checks\" a r e manually $operated and do not have any gates. The water l e v e l is raised by placing or removing obstructions such as flashboards, banana trunks, etc. u n t i l t h e water head is considered t o be adequate by t h e operators who are generally the farmers. Most checks are temporary but some are peimanent.A g r e a t deal of farmers' a c t i v i t i e s is devoted t o checking operations when water is s h o r t m d a l s o t o removal under the i n s t r u c t i o n s of t h e s t a f f O F the i r r i g a t i o n agency when flow is more abundant.The operations of the \"checks\" may appear cumbersome and sometimes dangerous, but these are of primary importance t o those \"privileged\" fanners who have d i r e c t access t o the main canal water through t h e 59 e x i s t i n g offtakes. . When t h e supply is s h o r t , however, t h e s e p r a c t i c e s tend t o favor farmers located a t t h e head reach'of the main canal a t t h e expense of those located downstream.The design of t h e SDA Main Canal has provided a s i g n i f i c a n t potential f o r influencing water issues off t h e main canal. Cross-regulators and check s t r u c t u r e s have been provided along the main canal, a t i n t e r v a l s of apprd;&nately 500 meters, and each offtake was i n i t i a l l y provided w i t h one o r two gates. Y e t , t h i s p o t e n t i a l cannot be f u l l y exzloited due t o t h e poor physical condition of most of the control structures a Based on our observations, only about 25 percent of the regulator and offtalce gates can be operated.Irrespective of whether there is a gate at an offtake or not, water issues to the offtake tend to 1~ controlled by the control of water level in the nwin canal, through the operation of the cross-regulator (at major diversions) o r the check structure (in the case of minor diversions). Such interventions are performed wil;h little consideration for their negative impact on the conveyance and distribution of water. In fact, the design configuration and associated mcde of operation almost impossible to envisare the regulation of the conveyance of water along the SDA Main Canal.Rajangana Pilot Area: Distributary Canal 1, Left Bank Tract 2 make it Issues of water to the liiterals taking off from the pilot distributary .canal are made through the'open:.ng and closing of the three shutters of the baffle distributors which equip each of them. (The 30 liters/sec baffle distributors are compsed of 3 shutters of 5 , 10, and 15 liters/sec respectively, which can be rlanipulated separately to deliver any flow in steps of 5 liters/sec up to the m i m u m capacity.) Thus, the operation is straightforward for the operator as the shutters are precalibrated and do not need to be adjusted on a trial and error basis. They should be either fully closed or fully opened and the value of the flow delivered is indicated on ea& shutter.Conclusions, with respect to Criterion C, of Section 4.2.2The ability to influence dLversions of water from the parent canal is determined by the means provided for this purpose by the design. Whether adjustable structul-es are maintained in working condition and whether their operations are convenient to the operators also determine the manageability of the system with respect to the control of water issues from main canals.The canals studied displa:,ed a variety of situations characterized by different degrees of fl.exibility of the design arrangements, which can be expressed in terms of the range of possible operational options left to the discretion of the operator at a branching point.hiongst the four subsysLems studied, maximum flexibility was ' ' observed along the Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal. Here, an operator is presented with a large rarlge of options for adjusting the flow diverted at an offtake.It can be either a direct operation of the gate at the offtake, an indirect operation at the rates of the cross-regulator immediately downstream, or a combination of direct and indirect operations. Such a situation was identified as having a high potential for complex hydraulics, hence difficult to manage, given the fact that the flow diverted at a diversion is not only affected by the operations of structures at that location, but also by the operations of structures located either upstream of that diversion (variation of flow resultim from the operation of cross regulators in particular), or even dormst,ream throuzh the effect of the backwater.Similarly, the SDA Main Canal displays a very large operational flexibility.The initisl potential provided by the design, however, has been eroded by the current state of disrepair of the structures.The flexibility is still 'high but operations are essentially of the indirect type.'The potential for complex hydraulics in the canal is extreme given the number of \"checks\" and the ad hoc nature of the checking performed.Minimum operational flexibility was observed along the Kalankuttiya Branch Canal and along the Rajangana Pilot Distributary C a n a l . In these subsystems an operat?r is provided single and direct operational option (i.e., the operation of the gate or the shutter at the offtake). In addition to this, the impact of the variations of flow associated with operations of structures upstream tends to be minimized by appropriat: design arrangements (duckbill weir), while the impact of downstream intervention is totally eliminated. The simpler banal hydraulim-s and the single operational option were identified as being favorible .and more 'conducive to the rational operations of the offtake in achieving control of the water issues along the canals.From this comparison it 'xas observed that operators faced with a great deal of operational flexibility and complex hydraulics cope with such situations by me.ms of over simplifications; the indirect type of operations focused at the cross-regulating structures are preferred for influencing'the flow diverted. 017 the other hand, flexibility limited to a :single operational option at an offtake has been identified 8:s a constraint but rather as an advantage in'achieving the objectivt? of control of the water issues along canals, enhancing the mgeability of systems while dramatically reducing the work load of operators. with a 4 . 3The different conditions nitcessary for the control of water issues by an operator, at the head and along main canals,. have been discussed in SectionThese conditions, though iiecessary, are not ' sufficient to ensure the control of water issues. In addition to the above conditions, water should also be available with an cite hydraulic head at the point of delivery during the pried of water issue.Managing the transfer of water -'the regulation of the conveyanceaims to satisfy this particular type of requirement: the control of water levels. This includes both the control of water levels in intermediate tanks as well Ss the control of water surface profiles along canal reaches. But what is importan{ to realize is that !=low the water surface there is a volume of {m. Two typical water surface profiles along a canal shown in FigureAlong a canal equipped with cross-regulating structures, the reaches between the regulating structuri?s could be viewed as a cascade of small storage capacities. This becornes apprent when the longitudinal sections of the canals studied are viewed ( I t i ~e 11.9). As real canal systems have to be operated in a dynamic way, the volume of water stored in the various reaches varies with time. Thei:efore the filling/emptying of these storage capacities is a process which has to be properly managed if control of the water surface profiles along canal reaches and in reservoirs is to be ach i eved .Three aspects of the ctrnal regulation should be pointed out. They to the relate to the particular nature of the physical process corresponding transfer of water through irrigation main systems.1 ) Volume: the role of storayte capacities. In a main canal which consists of a cascade of elementary storages capacities, the possibility to refill a reach depends availahility of water that can be drawn off from the upstream reaches.Under the genepal regulation practices, this water represents what is left over from the upper reaches after eventual compensation for Golume variation arising from a1 man-made level adjustments through the operations of adjustable cross regulators, if any, and from b) natural variation of the water surface profile along canal owing to variation in flow (Figure IV.511.upon the This situation implies that an extensive cascade of interdependent storage is a constraint. In the process, any response to either a positive or negative water transfer will be delayed. This brings up two new elements of performance to be considered with respect to the management of a conveyance system: t the responsiveness of the cperations, e,xpressed by the lag-time required to effectuate the transfer of a given quantity of water from head to tail (i.e~, a measure of the inertia of the system); and6.4s indicated in Chapter 11, flow along main canals is often subcritical as water surface in a canal reach is often raised above the critical depth through the operation of check structures located at the downstream ehd of reach.up storage of water in a canal reach.On the other hand, critical flow ( o r even supercritical flow) may exist locally for some distance downstream of \"control\" structures either natural or built in the canal design. Under these hydraulic conditions, a headdischarge relationship exists which depends on the physical characteristics of the control section. The water stored under the surface i s also more limited and it is nil when there is no flow.% the effectiveness of the operations expressed by the proportion of the additional water introdu$:ed at the head of the system that will eventually reach the tail (i-e., a measure of the conveyance efficiency).'A number of techniques have been developed to alleviate these difficulties and improve the responsiveness and the effectiveness of the conveyance of water.These techniques are in the realm of planning and design, control technology, an3 improved operations of existing regulating structures.Some of them sre reviewed in the course of the present comparative analysisFor instance the judicious provision of intermediate storage capacities in a design increases the potential for more responsive operations with simpler regulation procedures. Intermediate storage permits to break the excessively long chain of dependencies quoted above. With appropriate management, intermediate storage can be made to act as a buffer capacity.These permit to decouple extensive systems into smaller subsystems which gain a degree of freedom for their operations at the head whilst neutralizing the variability originating from the upper system.Therefore intermediate storage capacities have the potential, subject to them being appropriately regulated, to increase the overall manageability of irrigation systems. Water levels in intermediate storage tanks are the key parameters to be used for the regulation of water transfers in such main systems.On the contrary, intermediate storage capacities which are inadequately responsiveness and manageability managed might have an adverse inpact on the of systems.Distance and time: the role of communications.In the preceding section, the control of a water issue has been analyzed as a local process handled by a low-level managerthe operatorwho can nolmally get feedback on the spot regarding the consequences of his intervention on the flow diverted.This situation exists in the operation of single bank canals.The regulation of the water transfer, on the contrary, is a timedependent process that applies to a main system or main canal considered as a whole.Thus the distance and the time are the two essential dimensions which have to be considered by an operations manager responsible for the regulaLion process.\"Typically, the transfer of additional water at the head of a main canal is implemented by increasing the discharge hhich itself prompts the raising of the water surface profiles along the canal reaches even though the level would be maintained at full supply depth at the downstream end, either through hydraulic \"controls,\" automatic control, or through the manual operations of the cross-regulators.Offtakes located along a reach are therefore likely to take more water, in proportion to the increased head, unless gate adjustments can be made in a timely manner.Next >> Tlierefore, t h e a v a i l a b i l . . t y of m e a n s of comniunications whereby an operations manager can o b t a i n feedback regarding t h e on-going processes a t remote l o c a t i o n s , and commun:.cate operational i n s t r u c t i o n s , are c e n t r a l aspects of t h e r e g u l a t i o n of ex1,ensive main canals and main systems. Infoimation m u s t be a\\.ailable i n a timely msrlner i f it is t o be of any use f o r t h e canal r e g u l a t i o n .Therefore, t h e feedback should be s e l e c t i v e and should focus on key p r a m e t w s and l o c a t i o n s such as t h e t a i l -e n d s e c t i o n of a main canal, t h e boundary of operational u n i t s , t h e head of major d i v e r s i o n s . escape s t r u c t u r e s , tttc.The response t i m e considered as a p p r o p r i a t e f o r t h e communication process ( i n reality feedtack plus response t i m e ) is a v a r i a b l e which depends, t o some e x t e n t , on t h e i n e r t i a of t h e physical process. For i n s t a n c e t h e weekly meeting of t h e System H Water Management Panel a t Galnewa, which r e v i e u s t h e s t a t u s of intermediate s t o r a g e capacities and sets new conveyance t a r g e t s for t h e week, might s t i l l be adequate f o r t h e r e g u l a t i o n i n t h a t p a r t i c u l r i r case zi\\,en t h e availzible b u f f e r capacity of t h e tanks.Process: The i n i t i a t i o n of water t r a n s f e r . Although water always flows from head t.o t a i l , t h e t r a n s f e r of water through a c a n a l can be initiated from one o r t h e o t h e r end of a canal reach: e i t h e r f i l l i n g or d r a i n i n g . S i m i l a r l y , within a series of canal reaches, with or without intermediate r e s e r v o i r s , it is i m p o r t a n t t o d i s t i n g u i s h \\&ether the t r a n s f e r of water w i l l be e f f e c t u a t e d from reach t o reach s t a r t i n g from t h e head end and \"pushed\" downward t o t h e t a i l of t h e system or, a l t e r n a t i v e l y , i n t h e r e v e r s e order with t h e mobilization of downstream s t o r a g e capacities f i r s t , which are subsequently refilled from t h e rrdjacent reach upstream.I n t h i s study t h e f i r s t process is called an upstream m o d e of r e m l a t i o n while t h e second a downstream mode of remulation. This d i s t i n c t i o n is important because of its implications on t h e communication of o p e r a t i o n a l information which would have t o be c o n s i s t e n t with t h e p a r t i c u l a r m o d e of r e g u l a t i o n .I t is n o t uncommon, horJever, t o observe changes which o r i g i n a t e a t t h e downstream end ( t h e o f f t a k e ) i n response t o fanner demand ( e . g . , K i r i n d i @a Right Bank Main C a n a l ) .then propagated downward from reach t o reach.The downstream m o d e is l i k e l y t o be confined t o t h e operation of m i n systems i n t h e absence of adequate c o n t r o l of d e l i v e r y . For i n s t a n c e t h i s would be t h e m o d e of operation of a conveyance system permitting t o r e f i l l intermediate tanks when nece:ssarp ( e . g . , t r a n s f e r from Kalawewa Tank t o Kalanliuttiya Tank) a I n t h i s c h a p t e r , t h e canalis s t u d i e d are used t o i l l u s t r a t e a ) some of t h e approaches applicable t o t h e c o n t r o l of water l e v e l i n canals as l a i d clown through t h e planning and d($sign s t a g e ; and b ) t h e implications of t h e s e i n vierd of t h e necessary r e g u l a t i o n of t h e volumes of water i n transit from canal ;reach to canal reach incliding intermediate storage tanks, throughout the main system.In an attempt to assess -;he manageability of the systems studied with respect to the regulation 0:: the water conveyance, the four specific criteria, listed in Section 4.1, have been used as fo1lows:a Criterion D: Availability of operational targets for the conveyance of water prerequisite for any control process. Conveyance targets might take the operational form of a given volume of water to be transferred from tank to -xmk and monitored either by the variation of level in a reservoir or by the iissessment of inflow and outflow for a certain period of time or by a combinat.ion of both. Along canals, the transfer of water is often constrained by the other conditions set for the control of the water issues. This is usually translated into operating rules which state that tlie transfer of water has to be effectuated from reach to reach while maintaining the rater surface a: full supply depth within each reach.9Criterion E: Availability of rneims to store and release water within the main system and to control water level at key locations along the main canalThe availability of target!; is aThe availability of some form of intermediate storage capacity within a system is of paramount importance for the regulation of the water transfers.If such a storage is allowed to fluctuate, it can provide a buffer capacity between two subsystems, henee an opportunity for the two subsystems to be regulated separately to some extent.Intermediate reservoirs do not always exist in main canals but some limited storage capacities might be built in the canal itself, either through the provision of cross-regulating structures or in storage adjacent to main canals.Regarding the control of water levels, three different approaches have been identified in the canals .studied:1 ) Manual operations of adjustable cross regulating structures. The provision of cross-regulators with undershot gates is the most connnon technique used in irrigatism canals to tentatively control water level BThese criteria are refsrred to as Criteria D, E, F, and G to distinguish them from Criteria i, B, and C which have been employed in assessing the manageability of the systems with respect to the control of the distribution function.9To achieve this means that a balance between inflow and outflow (including infiltration losses) has to be maintained in each reach at any one time. In a series of canal reazhes separated by cross-regulating structures, this esercise is likely to be difficult to achieve if inflow is varyinst, unless special design or operational arrangements have been established to cope with this variability.The availability of such arrangements are examined in this section. throwh muiual opcrations. This was s t u d i e d i n the Szu1t.o Domiixo A r e a iSD.4) ?lain Canal and a t t h e ICirindi @ a Right Banlr Main Canal. Design of f i x e d hydraul:.c \" control\" s t r u c t u r e s .The pro\\,'ision of hydraulic \" c o n t r o l s \" sucti as long-crested d u c k b i l l weirs makes i t p o s s i b l e t o maintain watei' l e v e l a t t h e weir, and immediately upstream, within a narrorg range i r r e s p e c t i v e of t h e flow v a r i a t i o n s i n t h e main c a n a l . This xas s t u d i e d a t h l a n k u t t i y a Branch C a n a l . I r i s t a l l a t i o n of automatic , -.The provision of hydromechanical gates l i k e t h e one i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e Rajangana P i l o t D i s t r i b u t a r y Canal permitted t o a u t o m a t i c a l l y c o n t r o l t h e water l e v e l downstream of t h e g a t e as r e q u i r e d f o r t h e o p e r a t i o n of t h e main b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o i -.C r i t e r i o n F: A v a i l a b i l i t y of information regarding the s t a t u s o f water s t o r a g e (or water l e v e l ) i n resttrvoirs (or main canals). Water t r a n s f e r s can be assessed through the v a r i a t i o n of l e v e l i n r e s e r v o i r s with c o r r e c t i o n f o r p o s s i b l e water i s s u e s during t h a t period. The depthcapacity curve of s t o r a g e r e s e r v o i r s permits t o assess t h e v a r i a t i o n of t h e volwne s t o r e d by monitoring t h e tank water l e v e l . . Volumes i s s u e d can be obtained by i n t e g r a t i o n of t h e flow d e l i v e r e d a t t h e p l a c e of d e l i v e r y over t h e time.Along canals, t h e s t o r a g e capacities corresponding t o d i f f e r e n t water surfa::e p r o f i l e s for d i f f e r e n t s t e a d y flow c o n d i t i o n s are g e n e r a l l y not r e a d i . l y a v a j l a b l e t o t h e i r r i g a t i o n agency i n charge of operations. By d e f a u l t . t h e ' c u r r e n t operatin!! r u l e s related t o t h e management of t h e t i a n s f e r of water do n o t take i n t o account the v a r i a t i o n s of b u i l t -i n c a r d storage capacities corresponding t o t h e d i f f e r e n t flow regimes. I n s t e a d , t h e operating r u l e s are general1:i e x i r e s s e d i n simple terms t o t h e o p e r a t o r s i i . e . , t h e standing order t o ma.intain water l e v e l a t f u l l supply depth a t t h e r e , g u l a t o r I .These r u l e s m e a n t h a t t h e volume of water contained within a reach would i n c r e a s e o r decreast? with t h e v a r i a t i o n of inflow. This would t o some extent. p e r t u r b and delay -Ae t r a n s f e r of water. Water s u r f a c e p r o f i l e s i n reach GR12-GX13 of t h e l i i r i n d i ma Right Bank Main C a n a l with water l e v e l a t GR13 maintained a t f u l l supp.ly depth s r e given i n Figure IV.41.; h o n g s t means c u r r e n t l y used f o r t h e communication of information i n view of t h e canal r e g u l a t i o n , t h e most common are: 1 ) t h e r e g u l a r meetings of staff r e s p o n s i b l e f o r c a n a l o p e r a t i o n s ; 2 ) o p e r a t o r s c a r r y i m messages o\\zer s h o r t d i s t a n c e s using 1oc:il transport, push bicycle, e t c ; 3 ) t h e use of t,elephone and radio cornmudcatism system over long distances; 4 ) i n some cases t h e transmission is d,jne by t h e water itself (backwater). This h y d r a u l i c p e c u l i a r i t y is harnes,sed by hydromechanical technologp such as t h e automatic gate used for t h e c o n t r o l of w a t e r l e v e l downstream of i t s e l f i n s t a l l e d a t t h e Ra.ianjiana P i l o t Project..Current Concerns and I'ractices of Agencies Regarding t h e Regulation Several aspects i n t h e above respect have already been discussed i n t h e preceding sections. Reference I S made t o i n Chapters I11 and I V , and Section 4 . 2 . i n particular. Only t h e nlain observations are reviewed i n t h i s section i n the l i g h t of the above criteria, i n an attempt t o evaluate t h e manageability of t h e systems studied with respect t o t h e conveyance of water. A summary of t h i s comparative evaluation is given i n Table IV.21.A t the higher level of decision-making i n agenciest h e operational level concerned w i t h t h e management of the water resource stored i n t h e main reservoirdecisions are made regarding t h e a l l o c a t i o n of water t o t h e various reaches of main systems Agencies determine a t t h e onset of an i r r i g a t i o n season, t h e extent of area t o be i r r i g a t e d , and prepai-e an indicative seasonal plan t h a t represents t e n t a t i v e a l l o c a t i o n s , of water planned on the basis of t h e most probable scenario of water resource a v a i l a b i l i t y and water demand anticipated f o r t h e area t o be irrigated.Water level i n t h e main storage reservoir used i n conjunction w i t h t h e depth-storage relationships are key elements f o r t h e decisions regarding water a1:focations (Figure 1  decisions often take place :it a lower l e v e l within the administrativemanagerial setup, e i t h e r a t t h e project level (Galnewa P r o j e c t ) or a t the level of the subsystems (Kalanlcuttiya Branch C a n a l ) , o r even a t the l e v e l of t h e ' l a t e r a l from the malin cam1 or the offtake (Kirindi Oya). These decision-making processes us1.tally ' take i n t o account the hydrological conditions a t the t i m e of t h e water issues as well as requests from farmers.The f a c t t h a t a c t u a l allocations tend t o be decided upon a t t h e intermediate operational l e v e l s while water resource management is d e a l t with ' a t t h e highest l e v e l , implies t'nat i f t h e regulation is t o be e f f e c t i v e there should be communication between these l e v e l s and feedback provided t o t h e higher operational l e v e l .The schedule of intended water a l l o c a t i o n s , formulated through whatever decision-making process, forms the basis of what is referred t o i n t h i s stuck as operational t a r g e t s f o r t h e conveyance of water. The r a t i o n a l e for these processes and the adequacy of t h e i r outcomest h e t a r g e t sare not discussed i n t h i s section of t h e study. Instead, t h e a i m of t h i s section is t o a s c e r t a i n whether or not these decisions are made. If decisions arefound to be made, it is atterrpted to find out whether these decisions are operational so that they could serve as targets for the transfer of water and whether information and feedback is provided to the operation level which is in.contro1 of the water resource.Mahaweli System H: Kalawewa Left Bank Main Canal and Kalankuttiya Branch Canal During maha 1986-1987 the Mahaweli Economic Agency experienced a severe drought which strained the conveyance of water through the Mahaweli System H.Deficiencies observed at that time led the water level in the Kalankuttiya Tank to drop below its minimum operational level with subsequent loss of control over the distribution :in that block. This situation pointed out the need for more effective regulat:.on procedures for the transfer of water from the Bowatenna Diversion to Ka:lawewa Tank and to other intermediate tanks of the system.Since then, the procedures ,followed by the Mahaweli Economic Agency for the regulation of the .systeii were strengthened.The System H Water Management Coordination Panel created at the time of the crisis provided, through its weekly meetings, a forum for communications and feedback between various operational levels which proved to be effective. The lia1awer.m Left ~a n k Mail; Canal Unit, a new managerial level, was created in January 1988, to specifically oversee the operation of the Kalawewa Left Bank Main Canal from Kalawewa up to and including half of the Iialankuttiya Branch Canal. The new unit has not been fully operational in 1988 and its staff not yet entivsted with authority in accordance with the hierarchical position of the system managed. Yet, this Unit clearly filled a void in the previous operational setup of the agency.1 ) Transfer from Kalawewa to Kalankuttiya Tank via Mulannatuwa Tank. On the basis of the resources available in the Kalawewa Tank, the System H Water Management Coordinating Piinel reviews weekly of water issue to be the Galnewa and Meegalewa irrigation engineers and for the formulation of their request to the engineering assistant heading the Main Canal Unit.The engineerin![ assistant prepares a daily schedule of anticipated inflow and outflow 'LO and from each intermediate tank as well as the water levels anticipated diily in the Mulannatuwa and Kalankuttiya tanks which should not be below three and five feet respectively (Criterion D). He uses for this purpose the depth-discharge relationship of the tanks (TableThese values are not necessarily used as targets for the actual operations and they do not priwide a reliable record of the actual issues. These values do not tally with those more reliably assessed separately by the Flow Monitoring Chit on the same canals for the purpose of postseasonal evaluation.the rates adopted byThe intermediate storage capacities available at Mulannatuwa and Kalankuttiya tanks (Criterion E) , though limited in volume, play an important role as buffers, in the regulation of the main system. Kalankuttiya Tank for instance neutralizes the variability of the supply from Kalawewa while ..< permitting t o implement a schedule of r o t a t i o n a l water i s s u e s downstream without being constrained by the supply.The simultaneous d e l i v e r y cf water from t h e l e f t bank main canal between I i a l a w e w a and Mulannatuwa tanks (16 d i s t r i b u t a r y canals of t h e Galnewa Block), however, was reported t o be a r e c u r r e n t problem which a f f e c t s t h e e f f e c t i v e n e s s of t h e t r a n s f e r of water between those tanks.So f a r , t h e s t a f f of t h e &ahar<eli Economic Pgency have msde various attempt,s t o a l l e v i a t e these d i f f i c u l t i e s through s t r e r g t h e n i n g t h e supervision and c o n t r o l over tliese d e l i v e r i e s when water i s . s h o r t and scheduling t h e d e l i v e r y t o Calnewa e i t h e r simultaneousl>-while perf'orming its conveyance function ( pala 1988) or a l t e r n a t i n g l p (maha).But i n any case, t h e i r r i g a t i o n engineer reported t o t h e System II Water Management Ccsordinating Fanel t h a t he needed a t least 5 . 7 l i t e r s per second (200 c u s e c s ) i n t h e l e f t bank main canal f o r its operations r,ith respect t o t h e Galnew Block.The Flow Monitoring U n i t has i n s t a l l e d 12 measurement s t a t i o n s f i t t e d with s t a g e recorders between Kal.awewa and I i a l a n k u t t i p . But t h i s information i s not. us.& by t h e s t a f f of t h e L e f t Bank Main C a n a l Unit f o r t h e operations of t h e l e f t bank canal. 7he operations s t a f f , however, o b t a i n a f r i n g e b e n e f i t from t h i s i n t e n s i v e monj.toring a c t i v i t y i n t h e sense t h a t t h e s t a f f g e t access t o gauging s e c t i o n s with t h e i r corresponding r a t i n g curves ( C r i t e r i o n F ) .During t h e drought of maha 1986-87, t h e s h o r t f a l l i n the expected augmentation of t h e lialawewa 'Tank resource through t h e Polgolla-Bowatenna Diversion w a s a key i s s u e .But t h e r e l a t i v e u n c e r t a i n t y a t t a c h e d t o t h i s augmentation has o f t e n been 'pointed out by t h e System H Water Management Coordinatiru: Panel as being a t >:he o r i g i n of t h e d i f f i c u l t i e s they have f o r planning t h e r9ater a l l o c a t i o n s downstream. Amongst t h e c o n s t r a i n t s quoted are t h e l i m i t e d c a p c i t y of t h e tunnel a t t h e d i v e r s i o n , and t h e p r i o r i t y giver, t oThere is a l s o an inadequate communication mechanism between t h e Galnewa P r o j e c t l e v e l and t h e upper managerial l e v e l , tlie Mahaweli Authority of S r i Lanka (&by and Merrey 1989) . energy a t t h e c o s t o f ' a g r i c u l t u r a l use of t h e water.I n yala 1988, t h e water re,source has been r e l a t i v e l y abundant and t h e water received from Polgolla has n o t been a c o n s t r a i n t . But it w a s reported t h a t t h e t . a r g e t s recommended b y t h e System H Water Management Coordinating Panel were n o t respected by th,? i r r i g a t i o n engineers r e s u l t i n g i n more water being issued than planned.In t h e case of t h e lialankuttiya Branch Canal, tlie conveyance t a r g e t set by t h e I r r i g a t i o n Engineer, Galnewa, c o n s i s t s of defining t h e d u r a t i o n of t h e r o t a t i o n and t h e flow t o be issued from t h e tank (between 2 t o 3 m3/sec) ( C r i t e r i o n D ) . The schedule is very f l e x i b l e . For example, t h e s t a r t i n g date of t h e i s s u e is decided upon with very l i t t l e n o t i c e , t h e schedule permits t o accommodate demands from t h e farmers f o r extension of the period of water i s s u e which are g e n e r a l l y s a t i s f i e d within a day, and t h e canal is c l o s e d during t h e r a i n and t h e schedule is modified accordingly (Figure IV.8).I r r i g a t i o n laborers do not have t o bother about t h e control of water level i n the branch canal since a series of nine duckbill weirs perform t h i s \"automatically\" provided t h a t t h e flow released a t t h e adequate f o r the water t o flow' over the nine duckbill weirs t o t h e tail ( C r i t e r i o n E).The analksis made i n Section 4 . 2 has shown t h a t t h i s condition was not always mot. 1 ' 1 s a r e s u l t more water ha, t o be issued a t t h e head of t h e system t o compensate. head is T h i s is a case whereby t i e control of water issues a t t h e offtakes is t h e stumbling block f o r t h e regulation of t h e canal.But a t t h e same t i m e , t h e performance achieved i n t:ie control of the water level a t t h e offtalre might be conducive towards achi(?ving t h i s end.Regarding t h e effectiveness of t h e water transfer, observations indicate that i t is low a f t e r a canal closure u n t i l t h e canal g e t s r e f i l l e d . For instance ori.20 Play 1988 t h e t a i l end farmers of a request t o the I r r i g a t i o n b i n e e r , Galnew%, for an extension of t h e water issue so t h a t they could complete t h e land pr?paration i n t h a t area.The request w a s accepted and t h e branch canal wxs reopened a t 0800 h. For t h e period, 0800 h t o 1600 h , 41,087 cubic meters 3f water were released from t h e dam, but t h e record indicates t h a t only 5,551 cubic meters a c t u a l l y reached t h e tail (13 p e r c e n t ) . The graphs i n Figure Between water i s s u e s , t h e . i r r i g a t i o n laborers s e e m t o have d i f f i c u l t i e s t o keep t h e offtakes closed i n the face of t h e pressing demand of farmers t o draw upon the water accumulated behind the weirs, and the ponds soon g e t empty. Consequently, it takes about 12 hours t o r e f i l l t h e canal a t t h e start of t h e next water issue. A p r a c t i c a l consequence of t h i s is t h a t water usually arrived late i n the evening a t the tail of t h e branch canal when farmers a r e no longer i n t h e f i e l d t o receive it. But on the contrary, t h e water a t the tail end is shut off soon a f t e r a canal closure.From t h e above observations, it appears t h a t t h e tail (307-D3) is a key location from which feedback h a s t o be communicated t o the operator of t h e hcadworks i n v i e w of t h e regulation of the branch canal. I t is i n t e r e s t i n g t o note t h a t t h e i n s t a l l a t i o n of a stage recorder at t h i s p a r t i c u l a r location h a d been anticipated i n t h e design of t h e canal and t h e s h e l t e r f o r it has even been b u i l t .A similar recorder h a s been i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e branch canal referred t o as s t a f f gauge M S 1 i n t h i s study by t h e Flow Monitoring Unit f o r t h e purpose of evaluating t h e water issues released from the Iialankuttiya Tank over t h e season.The operator of t h e main s l u i c e derives an incidental benefit f r o m . t h e ' c a l i b r a t i o n of t h i s s t a t i o n t o assess the tank water issue.has never been i n s t a l l e d .The agency does not monitor systematically the water conveyed a t t h e t a i l of t h e branch canal as needed f o r t h e regulation.I t has a l s o no r e l i a b l e means t o assess the flow a t t h e tail owing t o t h e prevalent submergence of t h e measuring device a t 307-D3 ( C r i t e r i o n F) ( r e f e r SectionBut the' envisaged recorder a t the tail Furthermore, w i t h t h e new organizational arrarzemeilt , the i r r i g a t i o n laborer r h o operates t h e offtakes i n t h e t a i l portion of t h e branch canal durina the period of i s s u e , is: now attached t o t h e Meegalewa Block Office while t h e headgate operation is under the responsibility. of t h e Main Canal Unit ( i t was a c t u a l l y under the I r r i g a t i o n Engineer, Galnewa, during yala 1988). W i t h r e s p t t o t h e re6:ulation of the branch canal, dissociating operational r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s of' the head from t h e tail appears as a drawback from t h e previous s i t u a t i o n where both were under t h e Kalankuttiya Block. This is not conducive t o f a c i l i t a t e communication and feedback from t h e tail t o the hcad a s needed f o r a n e f f e c t i v e regulation of the branch canal (Criterion GI even though s:%.tematic feedback was already lacking i n t h e previous s i t u a t i o n .Vpper F'ampnga River Integrated I r r i g a t i o n System: Diversion Canal E # 1 andTransfer through the Diversion C a n a l E#1. The procedure used by t h e Water Central Coordinating Center t o deoide u p n t h e flow diverted through the Diversion C a n a l Eitl i n . ! consultation with the respective d i s t r i c t hydrologists, h a s been presented i n Chapter I11 and Section 4 . 2 i n Chapter I\\'. I t r e s u l t s i n targets. formulated i n terms of discharge t o be released o r diverted a t key locations within the system: a t Pantabangan Dam, Rizal Diversion Dam, and Radial Gate RG#3the boundary between District I1 and District Iand a t SDA Supply lleadgate along E#1. These last two points a r e of particular concern f o r t h e District I as t h e water has t o f i r s t cross District I1 before entering D i s t r i c t I (Figures 11.6, 11.7, and 1 1 . 8 ) .The t a r g e t s used by the Water Central Coordinating Center f o r t h e conveyance of water through E.Vl a r e not expressed i n terms of q u a n t i t i e s o f water t o be trmsferred within ;i given period of t i m e .Conveyance t a r g e t s a r e not explicit and t h e y do not seem t o be recorded: intended discharge a t the key branching points (including RG#3) and period of application ( C r i t e r i o n D ) . Thus, t h e flow monitoring performed does not appear geared t o provide t h e t i m e l y information regarding the volumes being transferred a s required f o r the regulation of :X#1 i n a dymmic manner ( C r i t e r i o n F ) .There is. no intermediate storage along E # 1 except t h e storage b u i l t i n the canal i t s e l f h'hich is considerate and which can be varied through the operation of t h e radial gates ('Sriterion E ) . But there does not seem t o be a systematic approach t o manage the volume of water stored i n t h e diversion canal and t o monitor t h e water level with a view t o regulating t h e water t.ransfer. Instead there appears t o be ad hoc p r a c t i c e s l i k e those observed i n mid-September 1988 and reported i n Annex 111.1, and an alarming l e v e l of j uncontrolled interventions on t h i s major canal.But t h e s t a f f of t h e National I r r i g a t i o n Administration do not seem t o h.we a consistent approach t o control of h'ater l e v e l i n W # l , thereby i n respect of the management of t h e water storage b u i l t i n t h e canal. I t is unlikely t h a t t h i s information is monitored and systematicall?: communicated t o t h e lt'ater Central Coordinating Center' (Criteria F and G) . For example, t h e hydrologist of District I would a t a given t i m e decide t o lower the water level upstream of Radial Gate #3 below f u l l supply depth t o prevent an>' illegal tapping of water upst:?eam, or else, he will at certain times try to build up additional storage in the downstream reach of Dc#1 to try to respond to the anticipated demand of thit SDA.The Water Central Coordinating Center makes use of a radio telecommunication system by which the district hydrologist can give some feedback on of the system and the Occurrence of rainfall in some part of the command area. This communication appears to be an essential link for the operation of the main system. It enables the highest managerial level to.respond swiftly to any changing environment and take the appropriate action to conserve water from the Pantabangan Dam (Criterion GI. This communication system is also used by the Center to inform the staff of the clm~ige in the targets to be used for the canal operation. The downward communication of information from the Center to the along Dc#1 and the implementation of the revised targets, however, do not appear to be !,,orking as efficiently as it, is. in the upward direction.From this observation, one may question whether the current targets and practices used for operations of Dciil are a;>propriate from the point of view of the regulation of the conveyance of water along this diversion canal. the status gate keepers 2) Transfer from SDA Supply Headgate, on E#1. dohmstream through SDA Main w. As indicated in ,Section 4.2, the diversion .of water from the diversion canal Dc#1 is sun2osed to augment local flow available in the S a m liakayan Creek.It was also indicated that the National Irrigation Administration's source of information for assessing the local flow at this particular location was not adequate. This uncertaintg together with the Xrariability of both the local f.loy and the augmentation provided from Dc#1 to 'the Creek, results in poorly regulated supply at the head of the SDA Main Canal (Figure IV.12). of any storage capacity at the head of the subsystem or along SDA Main Canal (Criteria E ) doer, not provide a buffer against the variability of the flow, that could lead .to improving the regulation and control of the water issues along SDA Main Canal. Furthermore, the multiple opportunities provided by the design for \"checking\" of the Main,Canal make it almost impossible for the agency to ewrisage the management of the transfer of water from reach to reach whilst maintaining constant the head of water at the off takes.Therefore, the SlM Main Canal seem to be operated under principles other than those of .regulation and control of the water issues.Cwing to the' absence of adequate. regulation at the head of the subsystem, it was observed that the distribution of water amomst laterals had shifted towards a \"degr;Aed\" ob,jective: the achievement of equitable division of whatever flow that tiomes in.But given these new water-distribution principles, .one would question whether the design of the SDA Phin Canal is the most appropriate. There is a large number of distributary cxmls talting off directly from the main canal and the design of the major diversion structures at the laterals using gated cross-regulators is particularly inconvenient for the proportional division of flow. But, this apparently permits the agency to break free from the hea\\y constraints which would be otherwise put on the management of the whole system if Conditions such as the availability of delivery targets, assessment of flow 'against these targets, communication of information and feedback in real time for the remulation of the conveyance are therefore alleviated.Flow monitoring performed along SDA Main Canal is essentially an administrative task that has no bearing on the canal operations.the objective was the control of water issues.A s a mtter of fact, the current channel of communication that would eventually permit to satisfy a request for additional water placed by a water management technologist of the SDA is a long and hazardous process. At first, the technologist would consult his zone engineer during one'of his regular visits and try to solve the problem at that level by a local reallocation. If insufficient, the zone engineer would take the matter up to the district hydrologist who will then contact the Water Central Coordinating Center. But in any case it would talre more than three days for whatever additional \\cater issue the Center might decide to allocate, to reach the SDA from Patanbangan Dam.The cri.teria which have teen used so far in this analysis to assess and compare the manageability of a system do.not seem to be relevant in the case of the SDA Main Canal which is currently not manageable according to these standards. ' Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main Canal represents a case slmilar to the SDA Plain Canal in the sense that the distribution function of the canal is dominant and tends to mask the need to also winage the conveyance function.But while the National Irrigation Administration appears to have given up the intention to control delivery e s per predetermined targets within SDA, this is still an objective at Kirindi Cya, at least for the Senior Irrigation Fngineer of the Irrigation Department who oversees the operations of the Right Bank Main Canal at the pr,oject level.The Kirindi Oya Right BE& Main Canal seems essentially perceived and operated as a distribution system and the targets used for its operations are not expressed in terms of dymmic transfer of a given quantity of water from the main reservoir to the diff'erent tracts of the system (Criterion D ) . Instead, the agency formulateti targets in terms which actually describe a static hydraulic configuration of the canal, which the agency aims to achieve. It includes the fol.lowing set: 1) the definition of the water to be issued at the main sluice in relation with the demand as perceived by the Senior Irrigation Officer of the Irrigation Department, 2 ) a standing order to maintain the water at full aiupply depth upstream of each regulator at all times, and 3 ) the concern to avoid water shortage at the .tail-end section of the min'canal or excess flow which might endanger the coffer dam built by the agency to permit construct:ron work further downstream.O n the other hand, the actual outflow of the system at the offtake is often left to the discretion 0:: the irrigation laborers who manipulate the cross-regulators.By frequent and confused operation of the cross-regulato~s fi.e., storing or draining the cascade of ponds between the regulators), the irrigation Laborers generate pulses in the conveyance of water downstream rdiich are detrimental to the regulation (Criterion E l .Water levels in the main canal are not monitored by the Irrigation agency though it is one of the stated operational targets (Criterion F ) . The volatile nature of this informa.:ion which is affected by the operations of the regulators might be one o:? the reasons which preclude a systematic use of that informstion in the sbsence of adequate facilities to communicate and proc.ess meaningfully that infonnation in real time.h' the other hand, should -;he agency wish to monitor the volume of water in transit at some section of the main canal, the assessment of flow would be particularly difficult,. to achiiave because of the submergence prevailing in all reaches. This would actutilly require individual assessment of flow through each bate of a cross-regulator plus, where applicable, the flow over the side-walls (Criterion E).At ,E;irindi @ a Right Bmk Main Canal, an assigned staff member systematically records the water depth at each offtake. Yet, for the reasons indicated in this chapter, including the limited reliability of that information, it is very unlLkely that these records go beyond the files maintained in the office of the resident engineer.?lore. significant for the :Legulation of the canal is the first-hand infoin~tion which the Senior Irrigation Engineer of the Water Management Feedback Center endeavors to obtain through his regular patrols along the main canal. Significant also are the nonofficial exchanges of information which the irrigation laborers ajssigned to the tail end of the canal seem to have developed 'to prevent the coffer dam from overtopping which would cause them to be fined. As reported in Annex IV.3, it was observed that irrigation laborers take remedial action in real time and divert excess water to the drainage through the Branch C . m a l 2:This was due to the lack of other means to communicate in real time this sort of information to higher decision-making level, the Rszsident Fhgineer Right Bank or the Senior Irrigation Engineer of the Irrigation Department for appropriate corrective action. Nevertheless, the cofPer dam has apparently been breached six to 'seven times season despite the particular attention of the staff i n that area and the financial incentive they have to protect it (Criterion G ) ~ during the Obviously,. the manageability of the system with respect to the con\\,eyance of water is limited given the design of the existing regulating structures and the current mole of operation. An illustration of this is given bf the diffusion from head to tail of the h;vdrogram representian incremental release of water of 1.5 m3/sec for three hours on 2 May 1988 for the purpose of calibrating a mathematical model of, the canal. The record is obtained for an exceptional period without any intervention on the structures o f the system [Figure IV..53) Rajangana Left Bank Main 12-1: Pilot AreaThe technology and the design arrangements used for the pilot distributary canal have been presented in Chapter I1 and Section 4 . 2 , Chapter IV. With respect to thc convepnce of water through this subsystem the following points should be highlighted:1) At the head of the pilot distributary canal.An automatic gate controls the water level downs':ream of it and thus, provides a downstream mode of regulation at the head of the system a baffle distributor installed next to it. .From this point dorm, the system is supply driven. ' This particular arrangement permits to regulate the flow at the head of the subsystem in a way similar to what can be achieved of a intermediate tank (reduction of the variability).2) Along the pilot distributary canal. The regulation at the head of the pilot area was a condition to envisage the extension of the regulation further dorm to the level of the field-channel turnouts. ksign arrangements similar to those of the I[alanlruttiya Branch Canal have been used for the control of water level at turnouts along the distributary canal.The regulation of the conveyance through the distributary c.anal was expected to be simplified by t h e opportunity offered to the operator of the subsystem to easily check the correct balance between inflow (at the head) and outflow at the field-channel turnouts.Feedback from the tail was expected to be the key information needed by the operator for the regulation.A s indicated in Section 4.3, the potential of the above technology and design arrawement simple regulation of the system has not been fully utilized. The irony is that the expected advantage of the system with respect to the manageability of the regulation was annihilated throu8h an intervention made at the tail fcm the purpose of flow monitorim.Conclusions of Section 4 . 3for aThe analysis presented in Section 4 . 3 is an attempt to assess the manageability of the systems and main canals studied with respect to the regulation of the conveyance of water, if this were an objective of the irrigation agencies. At this point, however, it is necessary to put this assessment in perspective wit1 respect to the present concerns of the operation staff and the curre\"lt approaches of irrigation agencies in that domain. The following behavior were also identified in the course of the study.Irrigation agencies apparently share the concern to control the delivery of water from main canals but their approaches to the convepnce of water in those canals are not much elaborated. The perception of the need to msnage this particular function in the eyes of the staff responsible for main canal operations is lacking.In addition, the awareness within irrigation agencies of the conditionsphwical and organizationalwhich can either facilitate or complicate the effective management of the conveyance of water is very limited and this m i d has far-reaching consequences. These consequences can be traced in the layout of main systems, in the design of the main canals studied, as well as in the organizational structure of the agency, especially in the setting of intermediate operational levels which does not necessarily match the Function of main canals, and finally in the managerial practices .of those intermediate levels which often tend to hand off blindly t o the operators all tasks related to the movement of water in canal, and implicitly the conve,Vance.t of the conieyance of water does not seem to be a primary concern for the staff involved in the operations of the main canal studied. T h i s concern, however, tends to emerge at the'higher operation-managerial level while the need arises to achieve more effective transfer of a scarce i<ater resource from' tank to tank as in the case of the Ihlawewa Left Bank ?lain Canal in the blahaweli Syst$em .H or through extensive convemce system like the case of the diversion canal Dc#1 at Upper F'ampanga River Integrated Irrigation System. But despite this growing concern, the means and the efforts deployed by the staff who oversee the operation of canals of such a ni..gnitude as DCft.1, the practice,s were found to be ad hoc rather than to be rational 'and systematic, resulting in poor regulation of the supply of water at the head of the Santo Doming2 Area (SDA) Main Canal for the period of the stucly.The standard approach of a,aencies with respect to the operations of main canals can.be simplified as follow: 1 ) the flow in main canals should remain reasonably steady and the water level maintained at full supply depth so that the water issued at the head of main canal could be adequately delivered at the offtakes, 2) i f necessary, it should be also possible to \"push\" the water downstream through the op2ration of regulators; these maneuvers are expected to be necessary to h$?lp the water to reach the tail of extensive length of canal faster. Under this approach the stream flow of water through a canal as a static flow process that is expected to be prevalent per contrast to occasional peri(xls while it would dynamic flow process as a result of the pushing (or retaining) actions. * Xith the above proposition (I), the regulation of the conveyance of wat.er in the snin canal is no longer a concern for the intermediate operational level which averse,? the canal. This may justify why the main canal tends to be viewed (and d,?simed) by agencies as distribution systems rather than conveyance systems.* In an attempt to cope with proposition ( 2 1 , agencies have evolved different arrangements by which the involvement of intermediate operational Level is alleviated. Under the current approaches, most of the operations t a s k s , either control of the water issues at the offtake along main canal or occasional \"pushing,\" are expe2ted to be dealt with by gatekeepers with a minimum managerial input on t h e side of the higher decision-making levels. m e intermediate operational levels tend to confine their role to the d i n g of decisions regarding the water to be released at the head of subsystem and nlain canals.and subject that they are in control of the water issues at the head of the canal (Kirindi Ow, Kalankuttip), they m y also involve themselves in formulating broadly what targets delivery at the offtalie along main canal shoufd be. Such operational arrangements were i d e n t i f i e d a t Kirindi @a f o r instance i n t h e form of standing order given t o the i r r i g a t i o n laborers i n charge of t h e regulators (mainlienance of f u l l supply d e p t h ) .For t h e SDA4 Plain Canal, no order of any s o r t given t o t h e gate keepers and the agency relies t o t a l l y on t h e i r experience t o deal with clwamic flow process. I n ' m y cases, however, t h e operational arrangements proposed by agencies t o cope rg1t.h occuriwnce of dynamic flow process tends t o increase dramatically t h e burden of the operators.In some other (rare) cases, arrangements have been made through the d>mmic fl.ow process while relieving a l s o t h e operators from t h e additional operation burden usually associated with these conditions.These arrangements were observed 'in t h e case of the Kdankuttiya Branch C a n a l and the Rajangana P i l o t Distributary C a n a l w i t h t h e provision of nonadjustable regulators .in t h e form of duckbill weirs.Because. intermediate opei-ational l e v e l s lack t h e f e e l , t h e w i l l , and eventually t h e know-how t o manag:e the conveyance of water through main canal, the current flow monitoring performed by i r r i g a t i o n agencies is not geared t o olxratioris. On t h e contrary, tk,e f l o w monitoring is generally perceived and c a r r i e d out by operators who do it l i k e another administrative burden required from them by the cgency which they may eventually use f o r postseasonal evaluation of t h e s t a f f . ' In each of the canals studied, there is scope f o r reconsidering the.s!bbstance of t h e information cmunicated i n view of t h e regulation of nlain c a n a l s , and t h e ways by which it is communicated t o t h e level of deciision making which a r e i n a position t o overkee t h e main canal.THE LFEL OF THE MAIN CANALIn Chapter IV, the necessity to control water surface profiles alonc main canals, and at the points of delivery in particular, has been emphasized as an important step toward:% ensuring the control of water issues. One ob.ject-ive of canal re,culation is to achieve this effectively, either throueh manacemerit effort (e. P . opera.:ions of gated cross-regulators 1 , or through design arraricements fe.c., duckbill weirs).Therefor-e it i.s propsed, in the ,first part of the present chapter, to assess the perfoinwnce of the regulation of the conveyance along the main canals studiwl in tenns of an indicator of the daily variability of water level at selected locations along the c.anals. The variability of flow observed at the offtalte nea:?by will then be related to the recorded variability of r.-ter level in the main canal.In the second part, the pe.rformance achieved is assessed in terms of the spatial variability of the wate:r delivered locations alons the main canals. The indicator used is the daily mean volume of water delivered per unit conunand area. This indicator pennits a comparison of the water delivery, irrespective of the actual mode of distribution (either explicit flow control or proportional sharing), and gives indications of the equity of t,he distribution. within the sys.tem.The results obtained arc? evaluated with respect to the plannim and design characteristics of each ixnal. The underlyiw causes for differences in performance are sought and comparisons are made across the different study sites.The analysis will focus on two locations where intensive data collection xas undertaken:near the head of the branch canal, at the first duckbill weir, DBWl: the distributary canal in the imediate vicinity included in the analysis is 305-D3 (see Figure I V . 2 9 f x plan of data-logging station);at the tail end of the bruich canal; the distributary canal in the immediate vicinity included in the analpsis is 307-D3.water level control at t h e two locations. Figure V . l indicates the branch canal water levels recorded every 10 minutes by the datalodgers at these two locations during four typical rotations, two at the beginning of the season (23-26 Map, and 31 M a p 3 June 1988, denoted R1 and RZ respectively). and two towards the end (19-22 August and 6-9 September 1988, denoted R l l and R12, respectively).The water levels at the head and tail locations are plotted with respect to the' p i p invert levels of the nearby offtakes 305-D3 and 307-D3, respectively. and thus represent the hydraulic head over these two offtakes, which, together with the offtake gate o p n i m , determine the discharge into tlhe offtake. Firture V . 2 shows the discharges into these two distributary canals durine the above mentioned rotations R1, R2, R11, and R12.The daily ranee of branch canal water level variation at the two locations is shown in Firares V.3 and V . 4 , respectively. During the periods of water issue (generally 3 to 4 d a y s ) , the dai1.y range of variation in branch canal water level near the duckbill weir is extremely limitedthe nkximum, minimum and mean hater levels nearly.coincide with one another (Figure V . 3 ) . Fxtreme water levels occur more frequently outside the perids of issue. On the other hand, at the tail-end location considerable water level fluctuations are recorded both during and outside the periods of water issues.In fact the canal often runs dry outside the water issue periods (represented by the horizontal lines in Figure V.1).The regulating effect of the duckbill weir at the head-end location is evident; the variatibn ,in water level during the periods of issue is negligible. The water level is maintained at .around 10 centimeters Icm) above the crest of the duckbill weir. Simificant variations in water level are only observed outside the cfficial periods of when attempts are made to drain off the water retained by the duckbill weir. This water is supplemented by the leak out of the main sluice gates of Kalankuttiya Tankthe gates c.anrlot be closed ccmpletely. On the other hand, the water levels at the tail end, which does not benefit from any form of water level control, exhibit large fluctuations durim as well as outside the periods of water issue.In the case of the relatively well-regulated 305-D3 offtake, the mean head.is mainhined at a reasonably constant value of approximately 1.1 meters where~as the unregulated 307-D3 offtake is subject to a mean head that varies between 0.3 and 0 . 5 meters.In fact the highest value of water level obseiied at the 305-D3 offtake at the beginning of the season, during the land-preparation period, was Ertificially induced when the water issue from the Ihlanltuttiya Tank was increased to facilitate flow measurements by the Flow i'lonitorim Unit of the Mahaweli Economic Uency.In order to facilitate. comparison between different loostions the of the coefficient variability is expressed in noridimensional form of variation ( C V ) .   in terms Daily coefficients of va~.iation of branch canal water level at duckbill weir DBWl and at the tail end are computed using the water level data gathered at 10-minute intervils by means of electronic dataloggers. The results are shown in Table V.l m d Figure V.5 (duckbill weir DB#1) and Table V .2 and Figure V.6 (tail end). Variability of water level at DBWl is nearly zero duriw! the water issue periods once a stable regime has been established. Some variations are present at the beginnim (fillina of canal reach) and end of the water issue periods, but these are essentially transient conditions that occur over limited durations. Stability is usuallv attained in 2-12 hours, dependiiw on the magnitude of the flow in the branch canal and the offtake gate settinas. As expected, greater variation in water level is exhibited at the tail md.Coefficients of variation #of branch canal water level at the above two locations are also computed for each rotational period of water issue and are compared in Table V.3 and Fimre V.7.The coefficient of variation of branch canal water levels near 305-D3 is relatively high during the period R2 txxause of the reduction in br;mch canal flow that took place durim this rotation.. R11 also shows a islight increase in coefficient of variation as this was the period when the hssad sluice gate was rendered inoperable; the water flow out of Ka1ankutti.w Tank was thus uncontrolled, and varied with the drop in tank water level (see also Figure IV.7). Very low flow was maintained in the branch canal during R13, being the last rotation for the season. The branch canal water level also varied accordingly. However, the magnittde of variability at 305-D3 is practically negligible when compared to the variability recorded at t:ie tail-end distributary canal 307-D3. (see FigureImpact of water level variation on discharge diverted at offtake. The coefficient of variation of discharge into the distributary canals 305-D3 and 307-D3 located at DBWl and the tail end, respectively, are computed for each rotational water issue period (Table V.4 and Figure V.8).Given the low variability of hydraulic head. at the 305-D3 offtake compared to the 307-D3 offtake, the variability of discharge into the former offtake would also be e.\\pected .to be correspondingly low. However, discharge variation is This is riel1 illustrated by the .relatively high values of coefficients of variation obtained for rotatioiis R1, R 2 , and R12 during which operations of the 305-D3 offtake gate have been recorded.No gate operations were prformed during the other :rotations and the coefficient of variation of dikcharge r e m i n d low.also influenced b:? gate operations at the 305-D3 offtalre.In the case of 307-D3, the variability in branch canal water level is directly reflected in the variability of discharge in the distributary canal for the corresponding periods of water issue. Offtake gate interventions do not come into play as 307-D3 is kept open continuously so that it ful.fills its frhction as a drainage chaniel. for the Knlanlruttipa subsystem. Figure V.9 indicates the extent of correlation between the coefficient.of variation of branch cwial water level and the coefficient of variation of distributary canal discharge during the different rotations. The only exception to the observed trend is R13; during which there was no flow at the tail end of Kalankuttiya branch canal for ,part of the rotation, thus accountiw for the A discussion on unusually high coefficient of discharge for this period. 123 the sensitivity variations in the branch canal is presented in Annex V . l . of the discharge in distributary canal 307-D3 to water level In the case of 305-D3, on the other hand, the impact of the variability of branch canal water level on distributary canal discharge is not as clear cut as at 307-D3 (pee Figure V.10).The variations in branch canal water level at are themselves very small due to the presence of the duckbill weir. However, it will be noted that rotations R1, R2, and R12, during which gate interventions have been recorded at the 305-D3 offtake stand out from the other rotatj.ons when no gate interventions took place during the water issues.That is, although branch c+al water level variability has been negligible, variations in discharge have occurred during R 1 , R2, and R12 as a result of offtake gate operations.Kirindi Oya Right Bank Main can81The analysis will be confined to the two monitoring locations on the right bank main canal consisting of a gated cross-regulator and associated of ftake:1 ) CR3:Dc5 in Tract 1, near the head of the system, and 2) GR12:BC2 in Tract 5, near the tail of the system.Daily range of water level variation. Figures V.ll and V.12 show that there is a significant daily rcme of water level variation above the offtake pipe invert at the two 1ocati.ons. However, little or no fluctuations were recorded at either location irk the main canal between 26 April and 1 May 1988, when the whole right bank main canal system was maintained under the same steady state regime for crrrrging out the the right bank n l a i r r canal mathematical flow simulation model. The impact of interventions at the head sluice, such as inureasin&! and decreasing the main canal release, is felt to a greater extent at the head-end location (GR3:Dc5) than at the tail (GR12:Bc2). Examples are the increase in inflow on 2 May (for the model calibration under unstedv flow conditions) and the reduction in inflow on 6Flay. A negative value indicatw that the main canal water level fell below the level of the invert leve., of the offtake. Such situations occurred at GR3:Dc5 on 22 March (when the (iR3 cross-regulator gates were suddenly opened fully, presumably to send more water to the tail reaches) and again durim the wried of closure of the miin canal between 11 and 17 April.Another significant fact ,*at emerges from Figures V.ll and V.12 is that the mean operating head of the branch canal Bc2 offtake (nearly 140 cm) is higher than the mean operating head of the distributary canal Dc5 offtake (around 80 cm).This would a-priwi be expected to result in a lower relative rame of main canal water level variation at the Bc2 offtake compared to that at the Dc5 oflake.Variability of water lev&.Variability, expressed in terms of the daily coefficient of variation of main canal water level at the distributary anal E 5 and branch canal Bc2, is shown in Figures V.13 and V.14,Next >>considerably. by about 50 cm below E D .The s t a f f gauge i n t h e creek indicated \"32\". r a t h e r c l o s e t c \"36\"a l e v e l t h a t corresponds t o t h e target, d i s c h a r r e of 2 . 5 m3/secand t h e hydrologist ordered t h e gatekeeper t o make an adjustment. I t looked as i f someone had a d j u s t e d t h e g a t e according t o t h e new t a r g e t .Looking a t IIMI's records logged i n at 5-Bay SDA i n t a k e , such an ad.iustment might have taken place before midnight on 15 September.But a t 0230 h on 16 September, t h e flow was a l r e a d y stepping down s u b s t a n t i a l l y , possibly because of t h e inflow i n t e r r u p t i o n a t E # 3 (see below), which prompted a drop of t h e water l e v e l i n M31 and reduced t h e flow d i v e r t e d a t t h e SDA Headgate.W e a l s o met t h e c h i e f engineer of t h e WCCC doing an understocd.that he did frequent i n s p e c t i o n s i n t h i s area which h e could conveniently v i s i t because he l i v e d t h e r e .He told us t h a t he had already inspected Dcl early t h a t morning and he reported a discharge a t RG#3 of 6 m 3 / s e c .W e proceeded along El towards E # 3 . The water i n t h i s canal was very 1315 and El was'almost empty when reaching E l f 3 a s i t u a t i o n which t h e h y d r o l ? g i s t wanted t o avoid through h i s p o l i c y of 70:30 [see p. 5 0 ) .Someone h a d f u l l y c l o s e d E # 3 . This was p o s s i b l e as t,here was no lock t o prevent unauthorized persons operating such a major s t r u c t u r e .The gatekeeper, whose house was nearby, was n o t p r e s e n t . The mt,er was r a p i d l y building up i n t h e canal upstream of RG#3 and it was about 15 c m atmve the maximum l e v e l as i n d i c a t e d by t h e red symbol painted on t h e canal bank; water was o v e r t o p p i x t h e radial g a t e s and t h e hydrologist said t h a t i t would be r i s k y t o lewe it as it was. Moreover, as he p u t i t , he wanted t o \" g e t h i s water back.\"H e explained t h a t as f a r as he k n e w , District I1requested water for t h e c u r r e n t period and t h e r e f o r e he was supposed t o g e t f o r h i s District I t h e t o t a l flow of 5 m 3 / s e c of E l . I t was evident t h a t he had no d i r e c t l i n k with h i s counterpart but w a s r e p o r t i n g what he heard i n d i r e c t l y , posijibly from t h e WCCC.A f t e r some i n i t i a l h e s i t a t i o n , [ t h e gatekeeper wa;3 still n o t p r e s e n t ) , the hydrologist decided t o l i f t RG#3 g a t e by himself an11 w e all helped him t o do so.I t took about 15 minutes t o l i f t t h e only :xate t h a t could be operated, up t o gradation \"60\".This was determined . b y t h e hydrologist on t h e spot using t h e UPRIIS/NIA Water Measurement T i b l e and assuming a discharge rate and water head over t h e g a t e . Responding'to our questions regarding t a r g e t l e v e l t o be maintained i n t h e upstream reach as assumed f o r t h e g a t e setting, he said ' t h a t he did n o t maintain t h e upstream reach of DCI a t RG#3 a t Full Supply Level. ~ fle claimed t h a t doing so would prevent District I1 from drawing w a t e r from t h e canal as they w e r e n o t supposed t o r e c e i v e any water.i n s p e c t i o n and had not A t t h i s p o i n t t h e g a t e k e e p r m e back and e q l a i n e d t h a t he had had t o g o t o t h e town e a r l y morning. H e i n s i s t e d t h a t t h e g a t e was opened when h e , l e f t , and claimed t h a t t h e faiiners of District 2 were responsible f o r t h e i n t e r v e n t i o n that occurred d u r i i g ' h i s absence. When w e questioned him on h i s role i n canal o p e r a t i o n s s i n c e .;he r a i n on Wednesday, 14 September, he said t h a t although he was aware of a reduction of t h e flow of El, he was still ignorant as t o why t h i s happened. H e was a c t u a l l y expctitX t h i s informstion t o be conunwicated t o him ear:iier.H e a l s o reported t h a t he m e t t h e Zone Eilgineer of District I1 t o which D i s t r i c t he w a s t d m i n i s t r a t i v e l y a t t a c h e d , and t h a t t h e latter had asked him t o continue i r r i g a t i n g some upland farms t h a t still'rleeded water i n t h e iiext District, although he normally received h i s i n s t r u c t i o n s regarding t h e operation of RG#3 from t h e WCCC.In this case, w e can reasonably q u e s t i o n t h e r e l i a b i l i t y of t h e gatelteepr's explanation a t a t t h e timing and t h e circumstances i n which t h e c l o s i n g of RG#3 might have taken p l a c e . F i r s t , it takes hours t o empty such a large c a n a l up to t h e p i n t which w e observed on Friday morning.It is l i k e l y that, t h e c l o s u r e haprened during t h e n i g h t as IIMI's logger seems t o i m p l y .If s o , RGfl3's gatekeeper, i f he had r e a l l y l e f t on Friday morning, should ha\\e noticed i t .Another hypothesis is t h a t i f t h e water l e v e l maintained i n t h e canal upstream of RG113 w a s e x c e s s i v e l y low due t o i n a p p r o p r i a t e setting of RG113, t h e farmers of District I1 themselves would hax'e been hindered from drawing any water from El.  The I r r i g a t i o n Department ( I D ) appears t o c o n s i s t e n t l y maintain d i s t r ib u t a r y c a n a l flows a t values s u p r i o r t o t h e t h e o r e t i c a l l y computed t a r g e t s ; P o s s i b l e reasons could be: i n c o r r e c t assumptions i n computation of r e q u i r ements: response t.o farmer demands f o r more water; f a c i l i t t l t i n g o p e r a t i o n s .2 . Discharges i n t h e ' c o n t r o l ' canal are more vulnerable t o f l u c t u a t i o n s i n main canal water l e v e l ; hence t h e need f o r more i n t e n s e i n t e r v e n t i o n s a t the o f f t a k e g a t e t o respond e f f e c t i v e l y t o t h e s e v a r i a t i o n s and maintain d i s t r i b u t a r y canal flow a t t h e t a r g e t value. Otherwise, t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l flows w i l l also vary i n r t ? s p n s e t o main canal water l e v e l . fluctuat.ions and w i l l d i f f e r from t h e trbrget v a l u e s , which is what a c t u a l l y h a p p n e d d u r i n z t h i s period.3 . The combination of automat:.c g a t e and b a f f l e d i s t r i b u t o r p e i m i t s p i l o t canal discharge t o be less influenced by water l e v e l v a r i a t i o n s i n t h e main c a n a l , i . e . , discharge is main1:ained around 200 liters/sec, without need f o r i n t e r v e n t i o n on t h e part of agency s t a f f . This demonstrates t h e r e l a t i v e ease of manageability of t h e hydromechanical devices i n s t a l l e d a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t . canal compared t o t h e classic undershot o f f t a k e gate a t t h e head of the contvol c a n a l . More effect:.ve c o n t r o l of discharge is thereby p o s s i b l e a t t h e p i l o t canal.Comparisons of t a r g e t s L ' e r s r t s a c t u a l volumes: P i l o t area -Actual d e l i v e r y of 996 m3/ha is 35.5 w r c e n t KG than t h e t h e o r e t i c a l t a r g e t of 735 m3/ha.Actual d e l i v e r y o f 888 mJ/ha is 14.9 p e r c e n t m,re than t h e t h e o r e t i c a l t a r g e t of 773 m3/ha. ( b ) with r e s p e c t t o t h e \"modifiecI\" t a r g e t s : P i l o t area -Actual d e l i v e r y of 996 m3/ha is 7.8 w r c e n t @,re than t h e m o d i f i e d t a r g e t of 924 m3/ha.Actual d e l i v e r y of 888 m3/ha is 22.3 w r c e n t __ less than t h e modified t a r g e t of 1,143 m3/ha.Comprison of a c t u a l d e l i v e r i e s a g a i n s t t h e so-called m o d i f i e d t a r g e t s is more a p p r o p r i a t e as t h e s e lat4:er values more r e a l i s t i c a l l y r e p r e s e n t t h e o p c r a t i o n a l targets of t h e agency. The above r e s u l t s a g a i n demonstrate t h a t d e l i v e r y targets can be more e f : ? e c t i v e l y maintained a t t h e head of t h e p i l o t canal compared t o t h e c o n t r o l c a n a l .A-1 1  The above data highlight the considerable spatial variation in rainfall between the head (Lunugamweheral and tail (Wirawila). The sudden rise in branch i m l water level recorded around midnight of 26-27 April has not been due to an increase in main canal water level at the branch canal location o r to gate interventions at either the nearby crossregulator, GR12 o r at the branch canal offtake itself. The most likely cause is the backwater curve generated by the closure of the check structure located in the branch canal around 100 meters downstream of the measuring weir.Interpretation of this increase in branch canal water level by using the 1 below) for free flow over a rectangular weir (as done by in branch canal equation fequation the Irrigation Department) leada to a corresponding increase discharge, from 1.41 m3/sec to 1.76 m3/sec and finally to 1.95 m3/sec. But in reality this backwnter phenomenon would tend to decrease the flow into the branch canal. This be>omes evident if the flow is estimated on the basis of opening m d the difference in water levels between main and branch canal (equation 2 below); the discharge falls from 1.34 ma/sec to 1.22 m3/sec and then to 1.15 m3/sec. the offtake The consequences of the two rainfall events at Wirawila on 27 and 28 April 1988 are shown as small increases in the water level records in the main and branch canal for this period. Again, different conclusions in respect of branch canal discharges would be arrived at depending on the equations used to compute flows at the head of this canal.Use of the free flow weir equation would lead to a substantial increase in branch canal flow. For example, on 27 April, flow computed on this basis would show an increase from around 1.91 m 3 / s e c to 2.5 m3/sec. Similarly on 28 April a discharge as high as 3 m3/sec would have been computed. However, on 28 April tie branch canal discharge would only have increased from 1.15 to 1.21 rnJ/sec if computed by using the orifice flow relationship (equation 2 ) that integrates not only water level in the branch canal but also the offtake gate opening and main canal water level. Episode 05 -06 June 1988The influence of downstream conditions in Branch Canal 2 on the estimation of flow at the head of the canal is also demonstrated by the events recorded between 5 and 6 June 1988. At around 1130 h on 6 June an IIMI Research Assistant closed the checkgate downstream of the branch canal offtake to carry out flow measirements at the head of the canal. This maneuver is typical of what mtght really occur, especially at low flows, to divert sufficient water into the two laterals ( E 8 and FC6) taking off from the branch canal just above this check gate. The change (increase) in water level at Bc2 is recorded by the datalogger. This increase in level can only be attributed to the change in the downstream condition in the branch canal because the main canal water .Level has not changed and neither the crossregulator nor the offtake gate has been adjusted. Again, use of the free flow weir equation would lead to interpreting this change in branch canal water level as an increase in discharge, whereas the flow in fact dropped due to a reduction in differential head between main and branch canal.Effective and efficient smtem management requires proper estimation of flow delivered at different control points. Flow monitoring is complicated by physical and hydraulic problems existing at measuring locations. The above discussion highlights some of the precautions and practical difficulties associated with flow monitoring and the erroneous (and often diametrically opposite) interpretations of identical information that one might make, depending on the bsic assmptions made in respect of phpical and hydraulicThis could have far-reaching consequences on systew perfomme. IV.3: Typical a n a l y s i s 0:' data s e t acquired a t K i r i n d i @a RFP!C/BC2logging s t a t i o n , 27-28 March 1!@. Following is a p r i n t o u t i n t a b u l a r and graphic format of raw data acquired a t one o f t h e s e v e r a l logging s t a t i o n s i n s t a l l e d by IIMI f o r t h e purpose of t h e s t u d y i n S r i h l k a and i n t h e P h i l i p p i n e s . devices l o c a t e d as i n d i c a t e d 011 t h e schematic layout a t K i r i n d i ma RBMC/ECZ were used and t.liey permitted s.tniultaneous records a t each p o i n t . I n t e r p r et a t i o n of t h i s p r t i c u l a r t i m e sequence is given below as an example of the type of a n a l y s i s and understanding generated by t h e s e records with a view t o e v a l u a t i n g t h e a c t u a l canal o p ? r a t i o n p r a c t i c e s .The rapid and simultaneou!; rise i n t h e water l e v e l a t S1 (upstream GR12) ,and t h e decrease a t S4 (downstream GR12) i n d i c a t e t h e obvious c l o s u r e of g a t e s of t h e c r o s s regulate:; a t 1300 h on 28/03/1988; t h i s is f u r t h e r confirmed by t h e monitoring of g a t e o p e r a t i o n s carried o u t by IIMI. The problem is t h e r e f o r e t o assess t h e r a t i o n a l e f o r such a p a r t i c u l a r operation and t h e consequences of i t , gi.ien t h e normal operating r u l e s t o maintain water a t 'Full Supply Depth (FS:)) [ R e d u c e d Level ( R . L . ) 39.310 meters1 upstream of t h e r e g u l a t o r G i 1 2 .Since t h e middle of t h e n i g h t of 27-28 March 1988, t h e water l e v e l a t GR12 has been r i s i n g above FSD. main c a n a l , which might be t h e r e s u l t of heavy r a i n i n t h e area and a t Lunugamvehera (32 mm), earlier.. I n t h e morning, t h e water was overflowing about 10 c m above t h e sidewall,; of t h e c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r , and t h e gatekeeper i n d i c a t e d i n h J s f i e l d book thiit he opened t h e g a t e s a t 0723 h and 0830 h i n an attempt t o lower t h e l e v e l , . b u t t h i s does n o t seem t o have been s u f f i c i e n t t o b r i n g it back t o FSD. A s a r e s u l t of increasing d i s c h a r g e i n RBhC ahd t h e subsequent backvater e f f e c t , d,Jrmstream l e v e l a t GR12 r o s e continuously s i n c e midnight and still more rqhen atiditional water was r e l e a s e d by t h e opening of the r e g u l a t o r gates of (2212. This apparently r e f l e c t e d higher flow i n t h e A t some s t a g e , t o t a l outflow through GR12 and Bc2 would have been g r e a t e r than t h e main canal inflow and t h e reach upstream of GR12 soon started emptying. t h e c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r . dropped f a s t b e 1 0 ~ FSD. d i v e r t e d i n t o Bc2, which was p a s s i b l y below t h e t a r g e t a l l o c a t i o n .No longer c o n t r o l l e d by t h e weirs, t h e water l e v e l This immediately prompted a f a l l i n t h e d i s c h a r g e A t 1300 h , t h e gatekeeper a t GR12 decided t o intervene. Facing a s i t u a t i o n where water was s t i l l unusually high i n t h e downstream reach, he a p p r e n t l y decided t o d i v e r t as much water as p o s s i b l e i n t o BC2, used as a drainage f a c i l i t y . a t 1335 h , by which s i d e w a l l s were soon a g a i n overtopped, and he opened f u r t h e r t h e Bc2 g a t e t o d i v e r t most of t h e flow i n t o Bc2. The combined e f f e c t of t h e continuing rise i n t h e main canal l e v e l f o r about two hours. b e f o r e s t a b i l i z a t i o n , and t h e opening of t h e o f f t a k e , a l t o g e t h e r b r o a h t about 700 liters/sec of excess water i n t o EX2 f o r t h e whole n i g h t (20,000 m 3 f o r about 8 h o u r s ) .H e first c l o s e d t o t a l l y t h e g a t e s of t h e c r o s s -r e a l a t o r As a hypothesis still t o be confirmed by interviews with I D s t a f f , t h e gatekeeper might have received information from t h e s t a f f i n charge of o p e r a t i o n of t h e downstream reaches who are responsible f o r p r o t e c t i n g a A-22 cofferdam located downstream. purposely d i v e r t e d water t o pre,rent t h e r i s k of breach o f t h a t cofferdam b u i l t f u r t h e r down by t h e agency t o raise head a t t h e offtaltes i n t h e l a s t reach, If s o , t h e Water I r r i g a t i o n Laborer ( K I L , ) h a sThe question now is t o f i n 3 o u t whether the earlier i n t e r v e n t i o n made a t CR12 i n t h e morning according t,s t h e usual o p e r a t i o n a l r u l e s was opportune, whether i t has put t h e . c o f f e i d a n a t r i s k , inducing a remedial a c t i o n t h a t put t o waste 20,000 m 3 of water, and. i f so, what would have been a more a p p r o p r i a t e act.ion ~ w i l e s 1 8. 2 present t.he v a r i a t i o n of water l e v e l upstream and dormstream of the cross-regulator GR12 as recorded by t h e d a t a l o g g e r . P l o t t i n g t h e s e i n Reduced Levels p e r m i t s t o compute t h e h y d r a u l i c head over t h e g a t e of t h e r e g u l a t o r and over i t s appurtenant s i d e walls. Side walls of r e g u l a t o r s are u s u a l l y erased a t Full Supply Depth l e v e l (R.L. FSD a t CR12 I 39,310) and l u r t i c i p t e t o some e x t e n t i n t h e c.ontro1 of l e v e l over t h e weir.Figure 2 permits t o e v a l u a t e t h e e f f e c t i v e n e s s i n c o n t r o l l i n g FSD l e v e l a t the r e g u l a t o r over t i m e . I t shows t h a t during these two d a y s , t h e water l e v e l i n the imin canal h a s been above FSD most of t h e t i m e , even before t h e complete c l o s u r e of t h e r e g u l a t o r GR12.Figure 3 presents t h e recoid of gate o p e r a t i o n s as maintained by t h e gatekeeper ( k ' I L ) . Actual g a t e opening was computed from i n d i c a t i o n s of s p i n d l e h e i g h t of each g a t e and c a l c u l a t i o n of t h e total o r i f i c e area a t t h e c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r GR12 I4 g a t e s ) and a t t h e L a t e r a l BC2. I t matches f a i r l y w e l l with t h e v a r i a t i o n of l e v e l recorded by t h e logger t h a t reflects changes i n t h e gate setting, an i n d i c a t i o n of confidence which can be placed i n t h a t p a r t i c u l a r set of data.Figure 4 p r e s e n t s t h e reslilt of an estimate of r e s p e c t i v e f l o w v a r i a t i o n i n time a t GR12 and BC2. This was d e by c a l c u l a t i o n of d i s c h a r g e s passing through g a t e s and over s i d e walls a t t h e r e g u l a t o r . T h e o r e t i c a l equations were used w i t h a discharge c o e f ' f i c i e n t a d j u s t e d on a v a i l a b l e gauging made by II?1I, i n a s s o c i a t i o n with similar records and information on g a t e s e t t i n g a t t h a t time .This e v a l u a t i o n p e r m i t t e d t o assess t h e i m p a c t of t h a t p a r t i c u l a r sequence of g a t e o p e r a t i o n s i n respect t o t h e outflow i n both d i r e c t i o n s a t RBYC/BC2 d i v e r t i n g p o i n t . i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f t h e graph f o r temporary imbalance o f inflow/outflow t h a t r e s u l t s i n s t o r a g e v a r i a t i o n i n t h e main canal reach f o r sometime a f t e r a g a t e i n t e r v e n t i o n .Figure 5 p r e s e n t s t h e r e s u l t s of a comparative e v a l u a t i o n of flows a t t h e BC2 by c.omputation using tilo sets of data: ( i l t h e d i f f e r e n t i a l head over t h e g a t e o r i f i c e ( S 1 minus 5 2 ) and record of g a t e opening, and; l i i ) t h e xater l e v e l i n t h e weir box 1st:nsor S2) t h a t corresponds t o t h e s t a f f gauge readings c u r r e n t l y used by t h e agency t o assess discharge a t Bc2. I n t h e first c a s e , computation h a s b e t m made with t h e o r i ' f i c e equation and a discharge c o e f f i c i e n t 10.61) derived from t h e a v a i l a b l e gauging performed on that c.anal and simultaneous records. I n t h e second case, t h e free flow weir equation is used f o r comparison purposes.As a matter of f a c t , cali1)ration of t h a t p a r t i c u l a r s t a f f gauge [ i n s t a l l e d by IIMI) has n o t b e e n s u c c e s s f u l . the weir a r e good, t h i s s t r u c t u r e appears t o be sub.ject t o submergence depending on discharge and doimstream o p e r a t i o n s of t h e Dcs, and t h u s t h e level o f ' v a t e r a t t h e i d e i r box alone is n o t enough f o r c a l i b r a t i o n of B02. Figure 5 i l l u s t r a t e s t h e occurrence of t h e s e phenomena f o r t h e h i g h e s t flows. On t h e other hand, K 2 ' s flow c s t i n l a t e d with t h e o r i f i c e equation is c o n s i s t e n t w i t h most gauging p r f o r m e d by IIMI throughout t h e season. Next >> coiiiples, and the e f f e c t i v e inanagement of these s t r u c t u r e s under dynamic (:ondi tions requires mageria.1 capacities which a r e seldom currently . x \\ ~~i l a b l e w i t h i n agencies.A technology t h a t h a s proven t o be e f f e c t i v e i n a l l e v i a t i n g these d i f f i c u l t i e s a t t h e level of the d i s t r i b u t i o n system is the provision of simpler h y d x a u l i c control st:.-uctures i n the main canal offering less operational f l e s i b i l i t y ( l i k e the duckbill weirs displayed along the Iialankuttiya Branch Canal) ~ 9.t h e conveyance of water a t t h e iippropriate intermediate the systems studied appeared fa:: less developed and sometimes nonexistent. 10 * An important aspect t o be considered i n a r a t i o n a l approach t o the design and management of main s:(stems and subsystems, is t h e nature of t h e dependencies b u i l t i n between t h e physical processes t o be performed (conveyaqce and delivery,.) on the one hand, and t h e d i f f e r e n t managerial processes associated w i t h these (delivery l e v e l , regulatory l e v e l , resource management l e v e l ) , on t h e o t h e r .The operational arrangemen':s available t o perform t h e task .of regulating operational l e v e l i n Rational and functional deaigns should provide some domain. of freedom f o r t h e operation of subsystemsat lower l e v e l s , with t h e view t o improve t h e nmageability, responsiveness, imd performance of t h e o v e r a l l system. These could be, f o r instance, i n t h i s form of physical buffer capmities l i k e an intermediate tank between t h e conveyance and d i s t r i b u t i o n systems.Management of storage i n t h i s -tank becomes t h e main task of the higher-level system. This is s i m i l a r l y achieved through the a l l o c a t i o n a t t h e r i k t n m a g e r i a l l e v e l of decentralized responsibility over subsystems.In such an arrangement, t h e administrative-managerial level i n a position t o oversee the whole a m a l should be entrusted with t h e operational task of regulating the conveymce of water i n t h e main anal. Decisions regarding operation of the regtilating s t r u c t u r e s should be retained a t t h a t l e v e l , w h i l e t h e room f o r decision making of lower-level operators w i t h respect t o t h e conveyance of iw:er s h o u 1 d . k minimized. T h i s is obviously a ms.jor i l e p r t u r e from current operational practices of agencies which a i m t o \"regulate\" t h e conveyance through standing orders given to t h e operators and t o ininimize t h e need f o r information communication between managerial l e v e l s .On the contrary, t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y of communication f a c i l i t i e s a t the intermediate managerial l e v e l t o get adequate feedback regarding t h e ongoing process of water transfer ( a t key l o c a t i o n s ) , ,and t o communicate timely, s p x i f i c instructions t o t h e operators, is t h e critical f a c t o r f o r a regulatioI.1 approach, unless t h e s e important c o n s t r a i n t s are a l l e v i a t e d by some degree of automation (downstream c o n t r o l ) .11. Depndencies between physi,xil processes can be e i t h e r loose or t i g h t , hut the design of i r r i g a t i o n systems play key r o l e s i n s e t t i n g the nature of t h e s e dependencies and by doing so determine t h e p o t e n t i a l manageability of spstems. Finally. .t.he manageria:l efforts required for control of the primary distribution of water from the .main canal can be incornmensurable between systems depending upon whether the functional aspects associated with reculation of the conveyance of water throwh main systems and control of Imter delivery-have or have not been adequately considered .at the initial planning and design stage.If not,, managerial capacit.ies which are not currently available within irrigation agencies might be required, and control of water deliveries might be, in some cases, am unrea1ist.k ob.jective. Substantial 'rehabilitation and modernization to accommodate a :rational and functional approach for operation of canals niay be neLded in such cases.In summary, improvements can be expected under a rehabilitation and modernization program through t l ! e following:A.Structural improvements throwh better planning, design, and construction:Structuring the min system in a functional way with due consideration for the prirnsy of the convemce of water which has to be achieved through the main canal, and providiw buffer capacity (intermediate storage, in-line canal storage, etc.) between the conveyance and distribution systems (but existing systems might have limited scope for such improvements).Simplifying the hydraulics of canals and their structures throu& 'the rational use of hydraulic \"controls\" Iweirs) to substitute for human control wherever permitted by the topography.B.l. Structuring the organization in a functional manner, recogniziu? the primacy of the conveyance function and providing the corresponding ad~~iinistrative-managerial unit, appropriately located within the hierarchy of the agency, whose sole responsibility will be the operation of the conveyance system; the staff of this unit ehould be distinct from that engaged in operating the subsystems.Coordinating and tightening the operations of structures along main canals through more j.ntegrated management at the main canal level; the ability to monitor, ,process, and comhnicate information in realtime between the operator:; and management is a the widest possible range of manafilement techniques and technology should be ezplored for this purpose'includiw! both hardware and software options.key element;The s t i d y was led by M r . Daniel Berthery, C i v i l & i b l r i c u l t u r a l Eneirieer. The text was prepared w i t h t h e material c o n t r i b u t e d and s w g e s t e d by h i s IIMI c o l l e a n u e s . Dr. Hilmy S a l l y . C i v i l & Water Resources Engineer, D r . Namika Raby, S o c i a l S c i e n t i s t and Mr. Charles Ni.iman, Associate Expert i n Management. Dr. i\\lf&do Valera, [lead. IIElI F i e l d Operations i n t h e P h i l i p p i n e s and D r . P.S. Rao, Senior I r r i g a t i o n S p e c i a l i s t a t IIMI Headquarters proLiided e s s e n t i a l a s s i s t a n c e and advice f o r t h e pro.ject implementation.The material was c o n t r i b u t e d by IIMI's f i e l d research s t a f f , Elessrs.Wilf.redo bmos and Rcdelio Navarez i n t h e B i l i p p i n e s , and Messrs. S.Pathmara.iah and Asoka Hiwurahena i n S r i M a .The information communicated t o t h e r e s e a r c h e r s by t h e s t a f f of t h e c o l l a b o r a t i n g n a t i o n a l i r r i g a t i o n agencies i n each of t h e f o u r i r r i g a t i o n systems s t u d i e d was e s s e n t i a l t o t h e study. I n p a r t i c u l a r , t h e serT-ices of Mr. S. Yatawara. I r r i g a t i o n Ennineer, Flow Monitoring U n i t , Galnewa whom t h e Mahaweli Economic .L\\rency made a v a i l a b l e f o r t h e stud? are very much a p p r e c i a i e d I Thanlrs a l s o f o r t h e recowendations of Frofessor A.A.Kampfraath, Head of the Uepartment, of Manarternent S t u d i e s , , % r i c u l t u r a l Universitv of k'areninren. Holland. i n our attempt t o apply t o C a n a l Reeulstion a manacement approach t h a t he had d e v e l o p 4 f o r i n d u s t r i a l processes a S p e c i a l thanlts is due t c M r . Jsyanthalmmr ik-umugam f o r h i s assistance i n processine t h e data c o l l e c t e d through t h e e l e c t r o n i c d a t a l o g g e r s and f o r most of t h e graphic prcductions and t o Mr. D.W. b d a r a ; t o M r . T.M.K.Wi~,iesinghe f o r drawing some of t h e f i g u r e s , Mrs. Chandrika Jayawardena f o r secrei.aria1 assistance, and the editorial s t a f f , a l l of IIMI.Comparative                     c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r i n t h e main canal and upstream and downstream of t h e P a r s h a l l Flume loc.3ted a t t h e head of t h e a d j a c e n t L a t e r a l B.of t h e main) fitted w i t h 3 u l t r a s o n i c s e n s o r s : 1 e a c h upstream and downstream of t h e c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r i n t h e main c a n a l and 1 a t t h e 3 ) f i t t e d w i t h 3 u l t r a s o n i c s e n s o r s : 1 e a c h upstream and downstream of t h e c r o s s -r e g u h t o r and 1 a t t h e o f f t a k e of t h e ad.jacent d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l , DC5, i n t r a c t 1 .u l t r a s o n i c s e n s o r s : upstream and downstream of t h e c r o s s -r e g u l a t o r i n t h e main c a n a l .and upstream and downstream of t h e measuring weir i n t h e a d j a c e n t br.3nch c a n a l , BC2, i n t r a c t 5. u s i n g t h e double i n t e g r a t i o n method, as w e l l ' a s f o r d a t a management.S p e c i f i c computer s o f t w a r e was used i n t h e p r o c e s s i n g .  M a y 15:OO 1.24 2.115 14-May I5:OO 1.30 Il-nay 13:OO 1.12 2.096  13-Way 13:OO 1.30 2.319 09-Way 14:OO 1.09 1.580 Il-Way 14:OO 1.20 2.053 13-Way 11: OO 1.31 2.424' 09-Hay 15:OO 1.09 1.569 11-Hay 15100 1.22 2.096 13-Way 15:OO 1.31 2.436 09-Hay 16:OO 1.08 1.558 Il-May 16:OO 1 . 2 2 2.096 13-May 1690 1.31 2.436 09-May 11:OO 1.08 1.558 11-Way 11:OO 1.23 2.152 13-Way l1:OO  .Note to be read in conjunction with Tables IV.7, IV.12 and IV.13.The discharge across a.Parshzrl1 flume under free flow conditions is a function of the head upstream of the Lhroat (Ha).(computed from HdH, where H, is the head downstream of the throat) increases above 70%, the discharge is obtained by the application of a reduction factor to the free flow discharge. These reduction factors are available (from the tables used by the agency) for a submergence ranging from 70% to 98%. Parshall flumes of throat width 10 feet and above these reduction factors are applied only after the submergence reaches 80%.During calibration of the Parshall flumes it was noted that at some instances the flumes were submerged. '4ence the discharges obtained from the measurements that were done under submerged conditions were corrected (i.e. increased) to their corresponding f pee flow discharges (actually a reverse process of applying the reduction factors) and a curve was fitted to this set of free flow values.submergence is 95%, giving a reduction factor of 0.79 for a 15 foot Parshall flume, the free flow discharge is computed as 5/0.79 = 6.33 m3/s.The use of the calibration curve for the Headgate and Lateral B yields estimates of the free flow discharge for the given value of Ha. If the degree of submergence is above the allowable value for the particular throat width the corresponding reduction factor should be applied. discharge would be multiplied by the corresponding reduction factor to obtain the actual discharge.In the case of Lateral G I since only the head upstream of the throat was monitored, a curve was fitted to the measurements done without considering the effect of submergence, Hence in this case the discharge could be directly obtained from the calibraticin curve. But given the dispersion of the measured points (see calibration curie), discharge computations at Lateral 0 could sometimes be erroneous, depending on the degree of submergence prevailing at that time.However, when the submergence For For example, if the measured discharge is 5 m3/s and the Here the free flow .--------.  .-_ ----_--_--.  -------:-----------:--------:-----I;--------:--:-----I----------                  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.------------    By mid-September, because of t h e f a i l u r e of the r a i n s i n A u r m s t (93 nxn a g a i n s t 400 nxn expected a c c o r d i n g t o past records), the Pantabanaan Reservoir e l e v a t i o n was a t t h e lowest s i n c e 1983. As a r e s u l t , i n t h e Santo Domineo Area (SDA), t h e Zone Engineer and t h e Water Management Technicians (Wh) worked o u t a new i r r i g a t i o n d e l i v e r y plan for t h e area, , w i t h effect from Monday, 12 September 1988.I t l a . ? . based on a weekly r o t a t i o n among Laterals along t h e SDA Main Canal.During t h e previous week ( b e f o r e 10 September), t h e Water Central Coordinating' Center, Cabanatuan (WCCC) had allocated about 15 m 3 / s e c t o District I.A t t h e beginning of t h e c u r r e n t week, t h e t a r g e t flow h a d been redmed t o 10 m3/sec, following information communicated t o t h e WCCC by t h e Hydrologist of District I , t h a t t h e area had received some r a i n . Of t h e 10 n3/sec, 4 m 3 / s e c was supposed t o be d i v e r t e d a t t h e SDA Supply Headgate t o complement t h e local flow estimated a t around 2 m 3 / s e c . Thus, t h e intended inflow i n t o SDA Main C a n a l a t 5-Bay i n t a k e was about ' 6 . m 3 / s e c s i n c e Monday 12 September f o r t h e 9.568 h e c t a r e s ( h a ) irriflated from t h a t source. The Zone lh?ineer considered t h i s supply s h o r t compared t o supply i n normal s i t u a t i o n s averaging 9 m 3 / s e c . A s t h e new r o t a t i o n plan -me i n t o e f f e c t , L a t e r a l B received t h e t o t a l amowit of t h e a v a i l a b l e water a t its Checkgate, from 0800 h on Monday up t o 0800 h on Wednesday, IIMI's record a t t h a t l e v e l i n d i c a t e d that t h i s operation was e f f e c t i v e l y achieved on t i m e by c l o s i n g f u l l y t h e s o l e g a t e of t h e Main Checkgate t h a t can b2 operated, despite extensive damage t o t h i s s t r u c t u r e . Fkcept f o r about 4 hours a t t h e beginning of t h e r o t a t i o n f o r which L a t e r a l B was given aboA 3.5 m3/sec, it had been flowing a t n e a r l y m a x i m u m capacity f o r t h e d u r a t i m of t h e r o t a t i o n . By 8.00 h on Wednesday, t h e same checkgate was l i f t e d by t h e gatekeeper, allowing t h e water 'surface i n t h e upstream reach of t h e main canal t o drop b e l o w t h e o f f t a k e l e v e l of L a t e r a l B c u t t i n g s h o r t t h e di.gersion, so t h a t the SDA Main Canal downstream and Lateral E and E-X could takover on their t u r n i n t h e r o t a t i o n schedule. D u r i m t h e first day, thm? Water Management Technicians allocated water t o the upper portion of L a t e r a l B while t h e lower p o r t i o n was given water t h e second day.However, t h e Technician i n charge of t h e lower p o r t i o n of Lateral B said t h a t 2 1 hours was t o o s h o r t for him t o complete i r r i g a t i o n of h i s section and t h a t he would , l e d an a d d i t i o n a l 8 hours or so, f o r which he wanted t o request permission f r m h i s Zone Fhgineer.On t h e following afternoon, t h e r e w a s heavy r a i n f a l l i n t h e c m d area, l a s t i n g f o r more than t g o hours.The Water Management T e c h n i c i a n s , w h i l e pleased with t h i s r a i n , were wondering how t h e \"management\" would r e s p n d .Would SDA r e c e i v e mme water o r would WCCC c u t o f f t h e supply i n response t o t h e r a i n ? They h o p d t h a t t h e r e would be no f u r t h e r reduction of the supply.W e l e a r n t t h e following d a y t h a t information regarding t h e r a i n had been t o e s t a b l i s h The hydrol3gist of D i s t r i c t 1 n o t only informed t h e WCCC mJ/sec a t RG#3 communicated without delay t o t h e WCCC, which took quick a c t i o n a new flow t a r g e t .of t h e r a i n f a l l by r,adio, b u t placed a standing request f o r 5 A-2 so t h a t DC1 would keep a min.imun flow t o prevent emptying i t , which would otherwise r e q u i r e 1 or 2 days t o r e f i l l .On Thursday mornim, w e l e a r n t w h i l e interviewing t h e Operation Engineel. f o r t h e District, t h a t t h e Head of t h e WCCC a c t u a l l y dropped i n a t t h e District O f f i c e t h e previous afternoon and informed t h e Operation Engineer of t h e new supply t a r g e t of 5 mJ(sec.Thus t h e h y d r o l o g i s t who was with us during t h i s i n t e r v i e w , received t h e information a t t h e same t i m e as w e did.H e f u r t h e r s a i d t h a t t h i s disch:xge w a s supposed t o be shared e q u a l l y between zone 2 and zone 3 on t h e assumption t h a t t h e local flow available a t 5-Bay would be l a r g e r .Based o n his experience, he assumed t h a t f o r such a r a i n in tens it.^, 3 . 5 m 3 / s e c of runoff would be a v a i l a b l e t o complement 2 . 5 m 3 / s e c t o l x d i v e r t e d a t t h e Supply He.&ate.Thus, t h e intended inflow i n t o SDA Main a t 5 -b y in'take w a s supposed t o be about 6 m 3 / s e c on Thursday, 15 September after t h e r a i n , i . e . , a c t u a l l y no reduction i n t h e supply t a r g e t f o r t h e SDA, compared t o t h e supply t a r g e t b e f o r e t h e r a i n . On Thursday a f t e r n o o n , w e visited E l . A t t h e SDA Supply Headsate, t h e water l e v e l i n DC1 was high b u t t h e flow d i v e r t e d was surprisingl3; less than expected. Flashboards placed a c r o s s a lateral escape allorwd t h e l e x r e l i n t h e p a r e n t c a n a l t o rise by about 30 c e n t i m e t e r s ( c m ) above F u l l Supply Depth.I n t h e d i v e r t i n g c r e e k , a s t a f f gauge indicated \"17\" which corresponds t o a d i s c h a r g e of 1 . 7 4 m 3 / s e c only i n s t e a d of 2 . 5 m 3 / s e c as planned.t h e c a l i b r a t i o n table maintained by t h e h y d r o l o g i s t which he keeps i n h i s personal notebook! The h y d r o l o g i s t e q l a i n e d t o u s t h a t it is p o s s i b l y t h e r e s u l t o f an i n t e r v e n t i o n by farmers of Zone 2 , who may have c l o s e d t h a t g a t e temporarily t o d r a w more i n t o t h e i r turnout. This indeed was p l a u s i b l e because t h e Headgate is n e i t h e r locked nor watched as t h e gatekeeper i n charge resides some d i s t a n c e away from t h e g a t e . W e w e r e a l s o t o l d t h a t previous attempts t o lock t h a t g a t e with a padlock o r o t h e r means were n o t s u c c e s s f u l as farmers tampered with i t .even weld t h e g a t e , as w e l l as o t h e r l a r g e r s t r u c t u r e s a c r o s s El t o prevent farmers changing t h e gate settings. P r e s e n t l y , t h e r e is only one gate o u t of t w o working a t t h e SDA Supply Headgate, t h e second one having been broken d u r i m maintenance work done by N I A along t h e canal.Moving along El, we found R a d i a l Gate #3 open up t o graduation \"100\".Only one gate of t h e t h r e e radial g a t e s was functioning. The two o t h e r gates were o u t of order and k e p t i n a c l o s e d p o s i t i o n . T h i s c r e a t e d a d d i t i o n a l d i f f i c u l t i e s when high flows had t o be conveyed through El.t h e upstream reach ( a b o u t 1 meter below FSD) e . g . , a head o f 1.85 meters over a g a t e opening of 0.85 meters, w e could e s t i m a t e the flow passing through RG#3 using t h e UrmIIS/NIA Water Measurement 'bible -J u l y 1977. This document was establ i s h e d s p e c i f i c a l l y f o r t h e s y s t e m structures a t the t i m e of c o m i s s i o n i n g t h e system.The h y d r o l o g i s t had a copy of t h i s booklet a t hand. Thus t h e estimated flow was 7 m 3 / s e c , i . e . , more t h a n t h e 5 m3/sec as planned by WCCC.On Friday morning, -16 Sept.ember, w e t h e h y d r o l o g i s t our o b s e r v a t i o n s made on t h e field, t h e day before. H e a c t u a l l y had planned t o i n s p e c t Dc1 a t t h i s t i m e , t h e first t i m e s i n c e Wednesday's r a i n , and w e decided t o accompany him.W:en w e a r r i v e d a t SDA Supply H e d a t e w e found t h a t it was opened wider t h a n b e f o r e , although t h e level i n DC1 had droppedThe e s t i m a t e was made according t o During times of s e r i o u s water crisis t h e NIA's staff The t a i l -e n d d i s t r i b u t a r y 307D3 has two openings which are GO c m i n diameter. length of 3 . 3 meters and a crest e l e v a t i o n o f 90.062 meters above mean sea l e v e l ( P E L ) . The d i s t r i b u t a r y canal (Dc) f u n c t i o n s as t h e drainage f o r t h e Kalanltuttiya subsystem as w e l l , manipulated throughout the season. There was no check s t r u c t u r e located i n t h e Dc immediately downstream of t h e o f f t a k e g a t e t o generate backwater e f f e c t t h a t might have influenced t h e flow through t h e o f f t a k e . Therefore, t h e h y d r a u l i c head t h a t contro:.s discharge i n t o t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l w i l l only depend on t h e water l e v e l i n t h e branch c a n a l .The measuring device: c o n s i s t s of a broad crested w e i r having a Thus, its g a t e s were f u l l y opened and neverThe discharge i n t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal was estimated by making use of t h e water l e v e l record from t h c e l e c t r o n i c datalogger i n s t a l l e d downstream of the broad-crested w e i r and ';he previously e s t a b l i s h e d c a l i b r a t i o n equation between t h e water l e v d i n t h e Dc a t t h i s point and measured discharge rates.Since t h e t a i l -e n d reach of t h e branch canal (BC) is poorly r e g u l a t e d , Therefore, a few days of water i s s u e periods yield a data set t h e water l e v e l i n t h e BC is h.ighly unstable even w i t h i n a single day of water i s s u e . t h a t d i s p l a y s a wide range of , l a r i a t i o n i n branch c a n a l water l e v e l and i n corresponding d i s t r i b u t a r y cmil discharge rate which could be used t o d e r i v e a r e l a t i o n s h i p between t h e s e two v a r i a b l e s .For t h i s p u r p s e , t h e w a t , ? r l e v e l i n t h e branch canal and t h e corresponding discharge rate i:i t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal r e c o d e d a t 10 minute i n t e r v a l s bet,ween 1.2/05/1988 aid 25/05/1988 by t h e datalogger were used. &ta p o i n t s were extracted froin approximately 1,500 data p o i n t s by excluding d a t a o u t s i d e periods of w a t e r i s s u e (approximately 3 days of flow o u t s i d e water i s s u e periods were prese:?t between t h e s e two dates). The d i s t r i b u t a r y c a n a l flow rates corresponding t o a p a r t i c u l a r value of branch canal water l e v e l were averaged (weighted for t h e number of occurrences) and a data set of 27 pairs of water l e v e l and discharge w a s f i n a l l y obtained.A l i n e a r r e g r e s s i o n a n a l y s i s was performed between the square r o o t of t h e branch canal water l e v e l above t h e i n v e r t of t h e o f f t a k e (89.852 meters above PEL) and t h e d i s c h a r g e r a t e i n t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal. The following r e s u l t s were obtained: The r e l a t i o n s h i p between h-anch canal water l e v e l above t h e i n v e r t of the o f f t a k e and t h e discharge i n 307D3 can t h u s be expressed as: Q = -' i 3 i . m t 162.74.: w . 5 where, Q = D i s t r i b u t a r y canal discharge ( l i t e r s / s e c ) , and H = Branch c a n a l w a t e r l e v e l akove pipe i n v e r t l e v e l (cm).A value of -737.458 w a s ot.tained f o r t h e i n t e r c e p t as t h e w e i r crest of t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal was 21 cm above t h e pipe i n v e r t l e v e l (89.853 and 90.062 meters, r e s p e c t i v e l y ) . l i n e of best f i t . Figure 2 is another i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of t h e above c a l i b r a t i o n curve which shows t h e s e n s i t i v i t y of d i s c h a r g e i n t h e d i s t r i b u t a r y canal (e.rpressed i n terms of t h e percentage change i n d i s c h a r g e ) t o a change i n t h e branch canal rater l e v e l ( i . e . , t h e o p e r a t i n g head). The incremental change i n branch c a n a l l e v e l up t o 10 cm h a s been considered, i n 2 c m s t e p s . canal d i s c h a r g e t o a given change i n branch canal water l e v e l decreqses with t h e i n c r e a s e i n operating head.From f i g u r e 2 it is seen t h a t t h e s e n s i t i v i t y of d i s t r i b u t a r y Table 1 sumnwrizes t h e e n t i r e computations and r e s u l t s .The average water l e v e l i r t h e branch canal over t h e season has been 44 c m above t h e i n v e r t of t h e o f f t a k e while t h e d a i l y standard d e v i a t i o n of water l e v e l s i n t h e branch -.l v a r i e s between 4 cm and 10 c m (25th and 75th p e r c e n t i l e s , r e s p e c t i v e l y ) , with a mean of 7 c m . This suggests t h a t t h e water level i n t h e branch canal could f l u c t u a t e between 37 and 51 c m w i t h i n a day of water i s s u e .From f i g u r e 1, t h e mean branch canal water l e v e l of 44 c m above the i n v e r t l e v e l of t h e o f f t a k e of d i s t r i b u t a r y canal 307D3 (which determines t h e hyd.raulic head a t t h e o f f t a k e ) corresponds t o a d i s c h a r g e of 342 liters/sec i n 307D3. The p r c e n t a g e v a r i a t i o n c,f discharge corresponding t o a given d e v i a t i o n of branch canal water l e v e l from any o t h e r value of h y d r a u l i c head a t t h e 307D3 o f f t a k e can be s i m i l a r l y determined from Figure 2.Table 1. Computational Table relaced t o t h e S e n s i t i v i t y of discharge i n 30iD3 to water l e v e l v a r i a t i o n i n branch canal. Average CV = 0.063","tokenCount":"100966"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2dd5768248da66b6f4823a4695c4141d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/47d5be39-27e0-4775-8269-524b0ec9ac1e/retrieve","id":"884474050"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b693fc69-f832-4583-b7ac-97315129cc6a","pagecount":"277","content":"Ce rapport à été commandité par le CTA afin d'affiner sa connaissance des besoins en information des pays ACP. Le CTA ne peut en aucun cas se porter garant de la fiabilité des données, inclues dans le rapport, ni prendre la responsabilité des usages qui pourraient en être fait. Les opinions exprimées ici sont celles de leurs auteurs et ne reflètent pas nécessairement le point de vue du CTA. Le CTA se réserve le droit de sélectionner des projets et des recommandations portant sur son mandat.Depuis 2003, le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale entreprend des études d'évaluation des besoins d'information agricole dans l'ensemble des régions ACP (Afrique-Caraïbes-Pacifique), conformément à son mandat. Ces études permettent non seulement de mesurer l'impact des produits, services et programmes du CTA mais aussi de connaître les besoins des partenaires du Centre et d'apprécier leur capacité à produire et diffuser localement des contenus et supports adaptés à leurs publics spécifiques. Cette approche pragmatique, axée sur l'écoute et le dialogue, permet au CTA de bien cibler ses interventions. Le Centre peut ainsi procéder à des choix stratégiques dans la mise en oeuvre de ses propres programmes et répondre de façon efficace à la demande des utilisateurs. C'est dans ce contexte que se situe la présente étude. Elle porte sur le Burkina Faso, un pays sahélien, d'Afrique de l'ouest.L'étude vise à améliorer les stratégies de collaboration avec les organisations ACP actives dans l'agriculture et la pertinence de l'appui du CTA aux pays africains ACP.La démarche utilisée a alterné recherche bibliographique pour dresser le profil du pays, entretiens avec les institutions dans cinq des treize régions administratives du Burkina pour mieux cerner les besoins en GIC et un atelier de validation, destiné principalement au classement argumenté des services et produits du CTA.Ces diverses activités ont été précédées les 16 et 17 août 2007, d'un atelier de cadrage à Abidjan, en Côte d'Ivoire. Cette réunion de briefing rassemblait les chargés d'études des différents pays. Elle a permis aux consultants de faire connaissance, de rencontrer l'équipe du CTA et le coordonnateur de l'étude. Les termes de référence de l'étude ont été passés en revue ainsi que la typologie et les critères de sélection des institutions retenues ainsi que leur nombre, compris entre 10 et 15. Cette rencontre a permis d'identifier les institutions et d'enrichir les questionnaires à administrer. Concernant le style et la forme, il a été recommandé de simplifier l'écriture, de rendre le texte « vivant et agréable à lire » et de veiller à la bonne présentation du rapport.Sur place au Burkina, la recherche bibliographique s'est faite auprès d'une trentaine d'institutions et des centres de documentation disposant de données sur le pays, le secteur agricole et socio-économique et les médias et la télécommunication. L'exploitation des documents, la réalisation d'interviews avec des personnes ressources, les recherches en ligne ont permis de consulter les principales sources d'information agricoles pertinentes sur le Burkina. Afin de bien préparer les entretiens aussi bien au niveau central que dans les régions, le questionnaire a été envoyé par e-mail aux différentes institutions sélectionnées afin qu'elles en prennent connaissance avant les interviews. Des appels téléphoniques ont permis d'informer les institutions de l'envoi du mail et d'avoir confirmation de sa réception. Au total, trente (30) institutions ont été retenues pour les entretiens. Les résultats de la recherche terrain ont été dépouillés, expliqués et analysés selon les consignes définies au préalable lors du briefing d'Abidjan. toutes sortes. Les enjeux nationaux et internationaux : désengagement de l'Etat du secteur productif, professionnalisation agricole, décentralisation, régionalisation, mondialisation, etc. font également l'objet de requêtes. Il en est de même pour les changements climatiques, la maîtrise de l'eau, la gestion des ressources naturelles, la sécurisation foncière, le changement de mentalité, la responsabilisation des acteurs pour le développement, la régionalisation, la mondialisation, le genre, les jeunes.Au Burkina, les besoins en renforcement des capacités sont immenses. Ils concernent surtout la formation, l'équipement, l'amélioration et l'élaboration de stratégies de communication. Mais leur prise en charge ne manque pas de soulever de nombreuses questions. En effet, sauf pour de rares disciplines, il existe localement des structures capables d'assurer des formations en GIC et en TIC y compris au niveau supérieur. C'est le cas des instituts d'informatiques relevant de l'Université de Ouagadougou et des nombreux instituts privés.Les stages et autres sessions de formation, dont ceux organisés par le CTA pour la confection des pages web, des outils de communication de proximité, etc. ont permis à nombre de structures de disposer des compétences dans ce domaine. Mais l'impact de ces formations est discutable. Faute d'expérimentation, de moyens matériels et financiers, de suivi, ces acquis restent souvent théoriques et sans effet réel sur la production et la productivité agricoles.Le problème n'est pas tant de former, mais de s'assurer que la formation dispensée va produire du changement au sein de la structure. Tels qu'identifiés par les institutions enquêtées les besoins de formation concernent le renforcement des capacités des personnels chargés des GIC et TIC des organisations paysannes, des médias, des ONG et des institutions publiques. Les OP devraient être outillées pour élaborer des plans et stratégies de GIC en vue de rompre avec l'amateurisme. Les réseaux de médias, quant à eux, veulent renforcer leurs capacités en matière de collecte, de traitement de données, de journalisme et de montage numérique. Plus important, quel que soit le public concerné, principalement les médias, une réelle approche participative en matière de production de contenus constitue un impératif.Les entretiens réalisés et l'atelier de validation ont révélé le degré d'appréciation des produits et services du CTA par les utilisateurs. Les programmes de formation, les programmes d'appui aux séminaires se classent en tête, suivis de Spore. Les activités relatives aux TIC viennent en dernière position. Mais les plus accessibles sur le plan logistique et technique (existence d'équipements appropriés) viennent en tête.Ce classement fait par le groupe lors de l'atelier national suggère que tous les produits et services du CTA restent pertinents. Mais les plus accessibles sur le plan linguistique et technique (existence d'équipements) viennent en tête.Au regard des axes prioritaires dégagés par le plan d'actions 2007-2010 du CTA, à savoir : améliorer l'efficience et la durabilité du Centre, étendre son rayon d'action, faciliter l'accès à l'information, actualiser les thèmes d'information prioritaires et accroître les capacités des ACP en GIC et TIC, cinq organisations partenaires du CTA ont été sélectionnées. Deux anciens, deux nouveaux et une structure d'accompagnement. Ce sont :Le CTA est invité à organiser des séances de renforcement des capacités à l'intention des médias (Radio Taanba) et des instituts de recherches (INERA) qui expriment un besoin de formation continue des cadres en collecte, traitement, diffusion de l'information.Il est impératif pour le service techniques et système de GIC, d'assurer une meilleure promotion de la méthodologie des thèmes prioritaires d'information, en poursuivant les formations à son utilisation et en encourageant les pays où il est déjà connu, c'est le cas du Burkina, à l'utiliser au niveau local et national pour l'identification et l'actualisation des thèmes d'information à soumettre au CTA.Au regard de l'analyse faite par les institutions sur les produits et services du CTA, l'auteur de l'étude recommande que le Centre:s'appuie davantage sur ses partenaires pour élargir et adapter son offre de produits et services d'information ; -renforce sa fourniture en produits et services électroniques ; -poursuive sa politique de développement des TICs (installation de télécentres communautaires surtout), pour diffuser à une large échelle ses produits et services ; -diversifie ses partenaires pour disposer de nouveaux relais en vue d'une meilleure diffusion de ses produits et services; -soit une plate-forme appelée à recevoir tous les produits des partenaires.Pour une bonne collaboration, les interventions du CTA à l'endroit de ces partenaires devront :-favoriser les échanges entre le CTA et le réseau des partenaires. Pour ce faire, la promotion et la formation à l'utilisation des TIC dans toutes les institutions partenaires est nécessaire. Cela est vu par les institutions comme le gage d'échanges fructueux.-respecter les clauses contractuelles. C'est la base de la durabilité de tout partenariat, dont chaque partie doit tirer profit. Cela suppose que les partenaires soient outillés pour diffuser les informations du CTA en vue d'accroître son rayon d'action et sa durabilité. En retour, les partenaires attendent du CTA plus d'opportunités de formation et d'équipements en GIC et en TIC.-impliquer tous les acteurs dans la mise en oeuvre du partenariat, les informer régulièrement. Cela permet à chacun de se sentir concerné par les actions à mener pour le renforcement de la collaboration.Outre ces conditions, l'expérience enseigne que la réussite du partenariat à l'échelle locale doit bénéficier d'un accompagnement technique.1. Créé en 1983, le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) exerce ses activités dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-CE. Il a donc pour mission d'élaborer et de fournir des services qui améliorent l'accès des pays ACP à l'information pour le développement agricole et rural, et de renforcer la capacité de ces pays à produire, acquérir, échanger et exploiter l'information dans ce domaine.1. Les programmes du CTA s'articulent autour de trois principaux axes d'intervention :-fournir un large éventail de produits et services d'information et mieux faire connaître les sources d'information pertinentes ; -encourager l'utilisation combinée de canaux de communication adéquats et intensifier les contacts et les échanges d'informations (entre les acteurs ACP en particulier) ; -renforcer la capacité ACP à produire et gérer l'information agricole, à élaborer et mettre en oeuvre des stratégies de gestion de l'information et de la communication (GIC), notamment en rapport avec la science et la technologie.3. Cette mission du CTA se concrétise aujourd'hui à travers trois groupes de programmes/départements opérationnels :produits et services d'information ; -services et canaux de communication ; -techniques et systèmes de gestion de l'information et de la communication (GIC).4. Ces départements opérationnels sont appuyés par l'unité Planification et services communs (P&CS) qui leur fournit la base méthodologique nécessaire pour mener à bien leur travail et assurer le suivi de l'environnement ACP, avec pour objectif d'identifier les questions et tendances naissantes et de formuler des propositions qui seront traduites dans les programmes et activités du Centre.5. La présente évaluation des besoins en information agricole s'inscrit donc parfaitement dans le cadre du mandat de l'unité P&CS.6. D'une superficie de 274 000 km², le Burkina Faso, ex-Haute-Volta, est un pays sahélien enclavé de l'Afrique de l'ouest.7. Selon les résultats du recensement général de la population et de l'habitation (RGPH) du Burkina Faso effectué par l'Institut national des statistiques et de la démographie en 2006, le pays compte 13 730 258 habitants, dont 6 635 318 d'hommes et 7 094 940 de femmes, soit 94 hommes pour 100 femmes. Les femmes représentent plus de la moitié de la population, qui réside principalement en zone rurale (près de 80% soit quatre Burkinabé sur cinq).8. La répartition géographique de la population présente des inégalités selon les régions. La région du Centre, qui abrite Ouagadougou, la capitale administrative, du pays renferme 11,1% de l'ensemble de la population. Même si le phénomène d'urbanisation reste limité comparativement à d'autres villes d'Afrique, tout semble indiquer que les centres urbains continueront d'être d'importants pôles d'attraction dans les années à venir.9. Les Burkinabé parlent une soixantaine de langues. Il existe cependant trois langues nationales : le mooré, le jula et le fulfuldé.10. Selon le profil des Régions du Burkina Faso dressé par la Direction Générale de l'Aménagement Territorial, du Développement local et régional en décembre 2005, la croissance du PIB entre 2000 et 2004 a été relativement positive, passant de 1,6% en 2000 à 4,6% en 2004, avec des pics de forte croissance de 6,8% en 2001 et jusqu'à 8% en 2003, le tout dans une décélération du taux d'inflation de -0,3% en 2000 à -0,4% en 2004.11. L'accès des pauvres aux services de l'éducation constitue l'un des axes prioritaires du Cadre Stratégique de Lutte contre la Pauvreté. A la rentrée 2003-2004, le taux brut de scolarisation au primaire était de 50,2% au niveau national, dont 44,5% pour les filles et 55,6% pour les garçons. La région du Centre est la plus fortement scolarisée avec un taux brut de 90% ; la région la moins scolarisée est celle du Sahel (27,9%).12. Le pays se caractérise par des taux de mortalité générale et spécifiques élevés, respectivement de 15,2 pour mille et de 81 pour mille en 2003. Cette mortalité est due, entre autres causes, aux maladies transmissibles que sont le paludisme, les maladies cibles du Programme Elargi de Vaccination (PEV), la malnutrition, les maladies diarrhéiques, les infections respiratoires aiguës. Le taux de séroprévalence du Virus Immunodéficience Humaine (VIH) en fin 1998 se situait entre 7 et 10% de la population générale. On observe des flambées épidémiques d'ampleur variable dues aux maladies telles la rougeole, la méningite cérébro-spinale, la fièvre jaune et le choléra.13. D'après le bilan des ressources en eau effectué en 2001 à l'occasion de la préparation du Plan d'Action pour la Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau (PAGIRE), le Burkina Faso serait globalement en situation de pénurie, avec une quantité d'eau mobilisable de 850 m3 par an et par habitant, au lieu des 1000 m3 (normes des Nations Unies). L'hydrogéologie du pays ne permet pas non plus de mobiliser facilement les ressources en eau souterraine, puisque la moitié du territoire est située en zone de socle. 17. On compte près de 30 000 groupements villageois et co-opératives, regroupés dans les organisations professionnelles agricoles. Ces regroupements se font principalement autour des filières (céréales, coton, fruits et légumes, élevage, oléagineux, etc.) ou de spécificités (organisations de femmes, de jeunes, d'éleveurs…). A côté de la Confédération paysanne du Faso, la CPF, on compte près d'une dizaine de faîtières.18. Le Burkina Faso dispose d'un potentiel de 200 000 hectares d'eaux de surface répartis entre les fleuves, rivières, mares, lacs, barrages et retenues d'eau exploitables pour la pêche et la production halieutiques. Cinq barrages et onze cours d'eau constituent les principaux supports de production du poisson. Les principales communautés de pécheurs exercent essentiellement dans les zones de l'est, du nordouest et du Sahel.19. La politique sectorielle dans le domaine des ressources halieutiques a été conduite pendant un quart de siècle par le Ministère chargé de l'environnement. Depuis 2002, elle relève du Ministère de l'agriculture, de l'hydraulique et des ressources halieutiques. D'après le profil des Régions du Burkina Faso dressé par la Direction Générale de l'Aménagement Territorial, du Développement local et régional en Décembre 2005, la filière pêche est une source d'emplois et de revenus pour les populations. Elle occupe à plein temps 13 000 personnes. La production annuelle en poisson est évaluée entre 6 000 tonnes et 8 000 tonnes. Le chiffre d'affaires avoisine 5 milliards et demi de francs CFA.20. Le Code Forestier, voté sous la Loi n° 006/97/ADP du 30 janvier 1997, est la législation de base qui régit la gestion des ressources halieutiques. Il fixe conformément à la Politique Forestière Nationale, les principes fondamentaux pour la conservation et la protection des ressources halieutiques. Toutefois, d'autres instruments juridiques et directifs internationaux influencent la gestion de ces ressources, parmi lesquels on peut citer la Constitution du 2 juin 1991, le Code de l'Environnement, la Réorganisation Agraire et Foncière (RAF), la loi relative à la gestion de l'eau, le Code de Conduite pour une Pêche Responsable (CCPR), etc.21. Les forêts naturelles occupent 50% de la superficie totale du pays. Chaque année, cette superficie recule de 50 000 ha, du fait de l'utilisation agricole et de la production du bois de chauffe. La politique gouvernementale en matière de foresterie a fait l'objet de relecture en 1995. Cette nouvelle politique, inscrite dans le document intitulé Politique Forestière Nationale, a défini des objectifs communs aux différents sous-secteurs, des options et approches opérationnelles spécifiques, des principes d'action également communs et une stratégie globale. Les ressources forestières relèvent du Ministère de l'environnement et du cadre de vie, qui possède des démembrements dans toutes les provinces et régions. L'importance économique des ressources végétales forestières (bois, pharmacopée, fruit telles que le karité, fourrage) et leur prise en compte dans la comptabilité publique connaît aujourd'hui un intérêt certain. Ainsi, selon la convention cadre des nations unies sur le changement climatique du Burkina, leur apport économique au Produit Intérieur Brut (PIB), représente 13% . Selon le rapport national sur la gestion des forêts du Burkina, des méthodes d'approche participative appropriée permettent de gagner la participation des populations sur une base volontaire et responsable à l'aménagement des forêts. On dénombre environ 300 Groupements Villageois de Gestion Forestière (GGF) totalisant en 1998 un effectif de plus de 11.100 membres et 200 Groupements d'Apiculteurs qui participent à la gestion des forêts aménagées par les deux projets étudiés. Cependant la participation des femmes est variable et relativement faible. Elles représentent en moyenne 25% de l'ensemble des effectifs des GGF dans le cadre du Projet Aménagement des Forêts.22. La pratique de l'élevage est généralement associée à celle des cultures pluviales. L'élevage occupe 8% de la population active du Burkina Faso et contribue pour 12% au PIB. Les produits de l'élevage et dérivés occupent la deuxième place en matière d'exportation. La tendance est au développement de l'élevage périurbain (porcins, ovins, caprins, volailles). Sur le plan spatial, la région du Sahel vient en tête pour les bovins, les ovins et les caprins. La région du Centre Ouest domine pour les porcins, les asins, les chiens, la pintade, la poule, la volaille. Les chats sont beaucoup plus nombreux au Centre Ouest et les dindons dans les Hauts Bassins. La production de canards domine à l'Est.23. Le département chargé de l'élevage propose une division du pays en trois zones d'élevage : la zone Nord qui correspond au sahel burkinabé. C'est une zone pastorale intégrale avec une vocation de « naissage ». La zone centrale affiche une tendance pour le « ré-elevage » et l'embouche et la zone Sud, celle de l'intensification et de l'association agriculture-élevage 24. Le Burkina Faso a opté pour la politique des aménagements pastoraux pour assurer la sécurité des éleveurs et moderniser progressivement l'élevage. Le département chargé de l'élevage préconise le traçage et le respect des pistes à bétail et le désenclavement pour assurer la mobilité du bétail et le transfert des productions vers les centres de consommation des produits d'élevage. Le pays dispose de 10 zones pastorales actives d'une superficie totale de 541 711 ha et de 44 zones pastorales identifiées d'une superficie totale de 1 683 600 ha selon le profil des Régions du Burkina Faso dressé par la Direction Générale de l'Aménagement Territorial, du Développement local et régional en Décembre 2005. Ces aménagements visent, entre autres, à limiter les conflits entre agriculteurs et éleveurs, récurrents dans le pays.25. Au Burkina Faso, le domaine des télécommunications est l'apanage de trois opérateurs exploitant la téléphonie mobile depuis 2001, date de l'interconnexion des trois réseaux. Il s'agit de l'opérateur historique, l'ONATEL (Office national des télécommunications) et de sa filiale Telmob d'une part et de Telecel Faso et Celtel Burkina d'autre part. L'ONATEL jouit du monopole du téléphone fixe, du télex, du télégraphe et de l'accès à l'international. L'office dispose d'un réseau de liaisons, hertziennes à plus de 90%, d'une longueur totale de 2 700 km.26. Il existe aussi un réseau de téléphonie rurale et un système de communication par radio mis en place par le Ministère de la santé pour le désenclavement de 120 formations sanitaires en zone rurale. Ce dispositif est en cours d'extension à 93 autres formations.27. Le nombre de lignes installées a augmenté légèrement mais de façon régulière sur la période 2000-2006 avec plus de 18 500 abonnés. Cela est principalement dû à l'introduction de la boucle locale radio. La télédensité fixe, bien qu'elle soit passée de 0,47 téléphone pour 100 habitants en 2000 à 0,75 téléphone pour 100 habitants en 2006, reste encore très faible. Cette télédensité est inférieure à la télédensité moyenne de l'UEMOA pour l'année 2005, à savoir 1,1 téléphone pour 100 habitants.28. Malgré la légère progression du parc de lignes fixes, les disparités régionales persistent. Une étude menée par la délégation Générale de l'Information, intitulé « Stratégie d'opérationnalisation du plan de développement de l'infrastructure nationale d'information et de communication », indique que le Centre, chef-lieu Ouagadougou, la capitale politique, est la région la plus couverte avec une télédensité de 4,53 téléphones pour 100 habitants, suivie de la région des Hauts-bassins, avec comme chef-lieu Bobo-Dioulasso, la capitale économique, qui affiche une télédensité de 1 téléphone pour 100 habitants. Ensuite vient un deuxième groupe de région (les Cascades, le Centre-Ouest, le Centre-Est, le Centre-Nord et le Nord ) avec une télédensité comprise entre 0,20 et 0,40. Le reste des treize (13) régions affiche une télédensité inférieure à 0,20. La télédensité fixe dans la région du Centre représente plus de quatre fois celle de la zone UEMOA et la télédensité de la région des Hauts-Bassins est presque égale à celle de la zone UEMOA.29. Sur les 13 régions, 11 sont à la traîne en matière de couverture en téléphonie fixe. La stratégie de développement du service universel et la privatisation de l'ONATEL, intervenue en fin décembre 2006, devraient permettre de remédier à cette situation.30. Les trois opérateurs de téléphonie mobile ont poursuivi le déploiement de leurs réseaux sur le territoire national conformément aux dispositions de leurs cahiers des charges. CELTEL Burkina, TELECEL Faso et TELMOB doivent chacun couvrir les 61 villes et localités et les axes routiers figurant dans leurs obligations ainsi que toutes les villes du Burkina Faso ayant une population d'au moins 10 000 habitants. Le déploiement du réseau était prévu pour être réalisé en cinq phases prenant fin en 2005.31. Selon la Stratégie d'opérationnalisation du plan de développement de l'infrastructure nationale d'information et de communication, de la délégation Générale de l'Information, le nombre de localités couvertes par l'ensemble des opérateurs mobiles est passé de  34. La presse écrite burkinabé compte une douzaine de journaux publiés en français : 4 quotidiens, 7 hebdomadaires et 2 bimensuels. Les quatre quotidiens, dont trois sont implantés dans la capitale et l'autre à Bobo-Dioulasso, se disputent le maigre lectorat local. Le tirage de ces quotidiens varie entre 4 000 et 12 000 exemplaires, dont plus de la moitié est absorbée par le lectorat de la capitale, Ouagadougou. Les hebdomadaires et les bi-mensuels, plus ouverts à l'information politique sont fortement prisés par le lectorat urbain, friand d'information politique et de faits divers. Leur tirage n'excède pas 6 000 exemplaires par titre.35. Les chaînes de radios diffusions sonores sont caractérisées par leur diversité et leur multiplicité. 72 chaînes de radios commerciales, confessionnelles, communautaires, associatives et étatiques se partagent le paysage médiatique sonore burkinabé. Les radios communautaires ayant pour vocation la communication pour le développement se caractérisent par un personnel peu formé, très mobile, et par une faible implication des populations dans la conception et la réalisation des programmes. La place occupée dans ces radios par les programmes d'information sur le développement reste faible. Leurs principaux atouts : l'utilisation des langues nationales et l'information de proximité.36. A part la principale chaîne de télévision, la télévision nationale du Burkina (TNB) qui couvre l'ensemble du territoire burkinabé, les trois autres (une confessionnelle et deux commerciales) trouvent leur audience dans les deux principales villes : la capitale Ouagadougou et Bobo Dioulasso, vers lesquelles elles orientent leur programme. Avec pour mission d'assurer le service public télévisuel sur l'étendue du territoire et participer aux programmes de développement économique, la TNB propose chaque jour de 9h00 à 2h00 du matin un programme d'information qui s'efforce de répondre aux attentes de tous les Burkinabé. En ce sens, elle propose des tranches d'information en langue nationale bissa, bobo, bwamu, dafing, dagara, dioula, fulfudé, gulmachéma et lobiri, lyelé, mooré et san de 30 minutes à l'endroit du monde paysan et rural. Outre ces tranches d'information, la TNB, qui s'autoproclame « chaîne du plaisir partagé » propose des émissions comme identité culturelle, et yelsolma à l'endroit du monde rural.37. Le paysage de l'information agricole et de la communication pour le développement du Burkina souffre de nombreuses entraves, malgré un réel dynamisme. Outre la modicité des moyens consacrés à ce secteur, la faiblesse des infrastructures de télécommunication à l'échelle nationale, les contraintes concernent l'approche en matière d'identification des besoins d'information, de traitement et de diffusion de l'information.38. Le cadre juridique et institutionnel de l'information et de la communication au Burkina est marqué par le libéralisme politique, avec comme principales références la Constitution de juin 1991, le Code de l'information et la loi portant création du Conseil Supérieur de la Communication (CSC). Ce dispositif consacre une réelle avancée dans les libertés démocratiques et proclame la légalité de l'initiative privée dans le domaine de la communication.39. Le gouvernement reconnaît l'importance du rôle des médias et les télécommunications comme des facteurs de développement économique, social et culturel.40. Tout comme il l'a fait pour le secteur agricole, l'Eat se désengage progressivement des structures de production et de diffusion de l'information. Ce qui peut être interprété comme une volonté politique de consacrer l'indépendance, la crédibilité et l'objectivité de la presse et des médias.41. De nouvelles associations issues du monde de l'information et de la communication émergent et se positionnent sur le créeneau de la défense des intérêts des communicateurs. A ce titre, elles peuvent favoriser de nouvelles approches professionnelles.42. Le caractère libéral du Code de l'information est reconnu aussi bien par les professionnels des médias et de la communication que par les autorités.43. La pratique de la liberté de la presse se renforce, comme en témoigne la prolifération de nombreux titres et la création des stations de radios privées à caractère associatif ou communautaire qui traitent de tous les sujets sans en reférer à une instance quelconque.44. Le Ministère chargé de l'information et de la communication mène diverses actions, au nombre desquelles le renforcement de la couverture médiatique du territoire, l'amélioration du cadre législatif et réglementaire garantissant la libéralisation de la démocratisation de l'espace médiatique, la formation professionnelle des personnels de l'information et la gestion des infrastructures des organes de presse publique.45. Le Conseil supérieur de la communication, chargé de la régulation de la communication publique au Burkina Faso, de par ses initiatives en faveur d'une publicité responsable et pour l'usage équitable de l'espace médiatique public par le pouvoir et l'opposition favorise l'instauration d'une démocratie consensuelle.46. La reconnaissance de l'importance de la place et du rôle de l'information agricole par le gouvernement se caractérise par les efforts consentis pour la production de contenus techniques par la Direction de la Vulgarisation et de la Recherche Développement, la mise en place de centres chargés de la collecte, du traitement et de la diffusion de ce type d'information et par l'extension de la couverture médiatique sur l'ensemble du territoire, notamment la couverture télévisuelle.47. La radiodiffusion télévisuelle a été introduite au Burkina Faso en 1963 avec l'implantation d'un émetteur de 50 watts à Ouagadougou. Cet émetteur permettait uniquement aux habitants de la capitale de recevoir les émissions de la Télévision nationale. Selon le document de politique nationale de communication pour le développement du ministère de l'information, aujourd'hui, le parc d'émetteurs du Burkina comprend 18 sites localisés dans les grandes villes. Les émissions sont reçues par au moins 60% de la population burkinabé. Le gouvernement veut porter ce taux de couverture télévisuelle de 60 à 100%. Ce qui l'a conduit à élaborer un projet en conséquence. L'Etat accorde un intérêt particulier au développement de ce média qui, incontestablement, joue un rôle important dans l'information et la sensibilisation des populations rurales afin de les impliquer dans les actions et les programmes de développement. Les bénéficiaires de ce projet sont les populations urbaines, semi-urbaines et rurales. 53. Les syndicats de journalistes dénoncent régulièrement les définitions des notions de diffamation, «d'atteinte à l'honorabilité des corps constitués» ou de la sûreté de l'Etat qu'ils accusent de porter préjudice aux médias, dans la mesure où leur interprétation est «très ouverte». En effet, l'article 110 du code stipule que la diffamation commise par l'un des moyens énoncés à l'article 2 (à savoir des publications d'ordre général ou spécialisées, des affiches, des moyens audiovisuels ou tout autre support de communication de masse), envers les cours, les tribunaux, les forces armées ou les corps constitués sera punie d'un emprisonnement et/ou d'une amende. Au contraire, la protection des journalistes professionnels contre les offenses par actes, propos ou menaces commis à leur endroit pendant ou à l'occasion de l'exercice de leur profession est jugée vague. En effet, l'article 110 du code dit tout simplement que de telles offenses seront punies conformément aux textes en vigueur.54. Les associations professionnelles du secteur des médias se considèrent sousreprésentées au sein du Conseil supérieur de la Communication avec trois membres sur un total de onze estimant que ce rapport traduit la volonté de l'exécutif de garder un certain contrôle sur le Conseil.55. Le   Les besoins institutionnels des organisations interviewées au Burkina sont des besoins en information et en renforcement des capacités résumés dans les tableaux 1 et 2. -Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Autres : informations sur les prix pratiqués en Europe.-Utilisation des technologies de communication dans la vulgarisation : édition.-Gestion de l'information au sein de l'organisation.-Méthodologies participatives --Information visuelle ou illustrée (en images) : 1 er .-Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée : 2è. -Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.-Systèmes d'assurance des récoltes : savoir ce que c'est.-Utilisation des technologies de communication dans la vulgarisation.-Gestion de l'information au sein de l'organisation.-Edition et mise en forme des rapports. montages de documents.-Méthodologies participatives.-1 er : résumés.-2è : documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée. -Technologie postrécolte.-Variétés de cultures.-Conditionnement.-Achat/mise à disposition d'équipements.-Utilisation des déchets.-Brevets.-Lutte intégrée contre les nuisibles.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Indentification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.-Systèmes d'assurance des récoltes.- -Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives au marché.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.- -Système de tri.-Variété de cultures.-Conditionnement.-Utilisation des déchets.-Lutte intégrée contre les nuisibles.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives au marché.- -Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives au marché.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.- -Problèmes liés à l'agriculture.-Ressources non agricoles : AGR.-Problèmes d'équilibre hommefemme (genre) : thématique actuelle.-Réglementations nationales et internationales : conventions sur l'environnement;-Développement et financement de programmes.-Réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement (régionaux et internationaux).-Systèmes de tri: semences améliorées.-Technologie postrécolte.-Variétés de cultures.-Achat/mise à disposition d'équipements.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés : SIM.- -Questions liées au développement social.-Problèmes d'équilibre hommefemme (genre).-Réglementations nationales et internationales.-Conférence et réunions.-Foires commerciales.-Développement et financement de programmes.-Réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement (régionaux et internationaux).--Systèmes de tri.-Technologie postrécolte.-Variétés de cultures.-Conditionnement -Achat/ mise à disposition d'équipements.-Transport (terrestre).-Utilisation de déchets.-Lutte intégrée.-contre les nuisibles.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.-Systèmes d'assurance des récoltes.- -Ressources non agricoles.-Questions liées au développement social.-Problèmes d'équilibre hommefemme (genre).-Foires commerciales.-Développement et financement de programmes.-Réseaux disponibles axés sur l'agriculture et le développement (régionaux et internationaux).-Systèmes de tri.-Technologie postrécolte.-Variétés de cultures.-Conditionnement.-Achat/ mise à disposition d'équipements.-Lutte intégrée contre les nuisibles.-Autres : formation en recyclage des restes de récoltes.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.- -Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.- -Système de tri.-Technologie postrécolte.-Variétés de cultures.-Conditionnement.-Achat/mise à disposition d'équipements. -Transport (terrestre).-Utilisation des déchets. -Lutte intégrée contre les nuisibles.-Financement et micro-crédit.-Données relatives aux marchés.-Indentification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.-Systèmes d'assurance des récoltes.- -Données relatives aux marchés.-Identification des marchés.-Profils des produits de base.- -Lutte intégrée contre les nuisibles :-Données relatives aux marchés :-Identification des marchés -Profil des produits de base :-Gestion de l'information au sein de l'organisation :-Édition et mise en forme des rapports : montage de documents -1 er : Documents rédigés dans la langue appropriée120. Les besoins en renforcement des capacités des institutions interviewées au Burkina Faso sont multiples et varient en fonction des institutions (confère tableau 02). . 121. Les organisations paysannes comme la FENOP et l'APHV, plus modestes auront besoin d'un appui en personnel chargé des GIC et à l'acquisition de matériels informatiques ainsi que d'une formation à l'utilisation de ce matériel.122. Les besoins de formation des institutions de recherches comme l'INERA concernent l'édition de documents sur les resultats de la recherche.123. Pour les institutions publiques, plus nanties en personnel pris en charge par l'Etat, les besoins en renforcement de capacités portent sur : l'amélioration de la gestion de l'information au sein de l'institution, l'édition et mise en forme des rapports : montage et production de documents ; la formation en techniques andragogiques.. La Direction Régionale de l'Agriculture de l'Hydraulique et des Ressources Halieutiques des Hauts Bassins (DRAHRH/HB), résume spécifiquement les besoins en renforcement des capacités des institutions publiques en ces termes : formation en TIC et en GIC avec équipement à l'appui, élaboration de projets d'information; formation en planification de stratégies en TIC et en GIC.124. Les médias et réseaux de médias ont surtout besoin de formations pour leurs ressources humaines chargées de la collecte et du traitement de l'information.125. En analyse, on peut dire qu'au Burkina, les requêtes en renforcement des capacités pour toutes les institutions intègre la formation. Ainsi nous avons classé les besoins en formation par ordre d'importance. Ce qui donne les résultats suivant : 168. Au regard de l'analyse faite par les institutions sur les produits et services du CTA, l'auteur de l'étude recommande que le Centre :-s'appuie davantage sur ses partenaires pour élargir et adapter son offre de produits et services d'information ; -renforce sa fourniture en produits et services électroniques ; -poursuive sa politique de développement des TICs (installation de télécentres communautaires surtout), pour diffuser à une large échelle ses produits et services ;-diversifie ses partenaires pour disposer de nouveaux relais en vue d'une meilleure diffusion de ses produits et services; -soit une plate-forme appelée à recevoir tous les produits des partenaires. Améliorer les stratégies de collaboration avec les organisations ACP actives dans l'agriculture et la pertinence de l'appui du CTA aux pays africains ACP. Les résultats attendus de cette étude sont les suivants : 1. une description et une analyse de l'état des infrastructures, des services d'information et des capacités de GIC des institutions impliquées dans l'agriculture et le développement rural ; 2. une identification des besoins en termes d'information et de renforcement des capacités de GIC pour les principales institutions et les potentiels partenaires clés du CTA présents dans le secteur du développement agricole et rural ; 3. une compilation de données de référence sur l'état de la GIC et des TIC dans l'agriculture et le développement rural pour un meilleur suivi de la situation.Le profil de chaque pays étudié sera ainsi actualisé, avec des données fiables sur l'état des services d'information agricole, de la GIC et des TIC. Le CTA pourra alors décider, en connaissance de cause, des actions à mettre en oeuvre et des partenaires qu'elle aura à choisir. Ces données seront résumées dans un (1) rapport principal sur chaque pays étudié ne dépassant pas 30 pages hors annexes (voir la section 8 ci-dessous).Le consultant utilisera des méthodes d'évaluation rapide, à la fois qualitative et quantitative : 1. passage en revue de la littérature et des sources d'information disponibles, y compris les conclusions des évaluations de programmes ; 2. entretiens avec les acteurs clés et les parties prenantes concernés ; 3. usage limité des questionnaires.La méthode d'évaluation rapide permettra d'avoir un aperçu des principaux problèmes et de connaître les profils des entreprises / organisations dans chaque pays, informations qui pourraient, à l'avenir, servir de base à des études approfondies si nécessaire.Les rapports élaborés sur chacun des pays étudié ne dépasseront pas 30 pages (hors annexes) et seront structurés comme suit : La version provisoire du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de trois mois à compter de la signature du contrat par le CTA. La version finale du rapport et de ses annexes devra être remise dans un délai de deux semaines après réception des commentaires et observations du CTA.Les consultants nationaux doivent être titulaires d'un diplôme universitaire ou équivalent, et avoir au moins 10 ans d'expérience dans les domaines de l'agriculture, du développement rural ou des sciences sociales / économiques. Ils doivent avoir une parfaite connaissance du secteur agricole de leur pays, ainsi que des principales parties prenantes et institutions / organisations actives dans ce domaine. Des connaissances en sciences de l'information seront un atout supplémentaire. La capacité à communiquer et à rédiger en anglais ou en français est indispensable. La maîtrise d'au moins une des langues locales pour les besoins des échanges et des interviews sera également un avantage.En plus de disposer des compétences ci-dessus citées, le coordonnateur régional devra parler couramment l'anglais et le français, connaître les pays faisant l'objet de cette étude d'évaluation et avoir une expérience avérée dans la coordination d'études menées par plusieurs consultants à la fois, ainsi que dans la production de rapports de synthèse.La coordination globale de cette étude sera assurée par Melle Christine Webster, responsable adjointe de l'unité Planification et services communs du CTA. Les systèmes de production sont en perpétuelle mutation en raison de facteurs divers (démographie, climat, économie marchande, etc.) qui entraînent des changements de comportement des agriculteurs et des structures sociales. D'où la nécessité de revoir périodiquement la typologie des systèmes de production pour mettre en évidence la diversité existante.L'agriculture burkinabé est dominée par environ 800.000 petites exploitations familiales mixtes (agriculture et élevage) caractérisées par des superficies de taille comprise entre 3 et 6 ha, des rendements généralement très faibles, à dominance extensive (moyens de travail manuels, utilisation de peu d'intrants externes). L'agriculture dans ces exploitations familiales est surtout une agriculture de subsistance. On note cependant l'introduction timide mais progressive de cultures marchandes (coton, cultures maraîchères) et d'activités génératrices de revenus. Avec la réalisation des grands aménagements hydro-agricoles et de barrages, les productions halieutiques se développent.Dans certaines régions, des entreprises agricoles (agro business) ont fait leur apparition. Ce sont des exploitations à plus grande taille, avec des moyens de production modernes et dont l'objectif principal est la rentabilisation économique des investissements. Les domaines d'activités couverts sont l'agriculture et l'élevage intensifs.On note enfin autour des grandes villes un développement de l'agriculture urbaine et péri urbaine dont l'objectif est de satisfaire les besoins des citadins en produits maraîchers et plantes ornementales.On peut donc distinguer : La filière coton fait vivre plus de 3 millions de personnes, soit environ 20 % de la population totale du Burkina. Pour la campagne 2006, le pays récoltait près de 800 000 tonnes de coton graine.La production fut pendant longtemps sous le contrôle de la Société des Fibres Textiles (SOFITEX) majoritairement détenue par l'Etat. Depuis la campagne 2004, deux autres compagnies exploitent le coton dans le pays. Il s'agit de la Société cotonnière du Gulmu (Socoma/Dagris) à l'Est et de Faso Coton au centre.Les principaux acteurs de la filière sont donc les producteurs et leurs organisations de base, les entreprises de transformation et de commercialisation des produits dérivés du coton.La production a évolué comme l'indique le tableau depuis une vingtaine d'années. De 84 600 tonnes en 1984, la production atteint 245 887 tonnes en 1986, avant d'amorcer une baisse jusqu'à 114 763 tonnes en 1993. Depuis la dévaluation de 1994, la production cotonnière connaît une reprise avec un niveau de production de 471 945 tonnes en 2003. En 2007, on estimait à près de 700 000 tonnes la production du pays. Ce qui place le Burkina au rang de premier pays ouest africain producteur et exportateur de coton. La culture du coton est la filière la mieux organisée de toute l'économie : l'encadrement technique des producteurs, la fourniture des intrants agricoles à crédit, la collecte, le transport et l'égrenage se font sous la responsabilité des agents de la SOFITEX qui jouissait du monopole dans la filière. La cession partielle à deux autres sociétés privées de production ne modifiera pas l'organisation de base dont la SOFITEX tire ses performances.Le coton est le premier produit d'exportation du Burkina Faso. De 1997 à 2002, les recettes d'exportation du coton et des cotonnades ont représenté 44% à 58% de la valeur des exportations totales du pays.Plus de 95% des recettes liées à ces produits (coton et cotonnades) proviennent de la vente du coton en masse égrené, le reste étant constitué des exportations de fil de coton et de coton non égrené.Le principal client pour le coton masse égrené est la Suisse qui, tout au long de la période importe en moyenne 35% du volume et procure un peu plus de 30% de la valeur totale. Le principal accord commercial du Burkina sur l'agriculture est celui de l'Organisation mondiale du Commerce (OMC) signé avec 151 pays membres. Cet accord date de la période 1986-1994. Le Burkina y a adhéré en 1995. Il existe d'autres accords et instruments de politique régissant le commerce des produits agricoles au sein des pays membres de l'Union économique monétaire ouest africaine (UEMOA) et de la Communauté économique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'ouest (CEDEAO).L'Accord sur l'agriculture de l'OMC L'Accord porte sur le commerce international des produits agricoles. Au terme de cet accord, le pays signataire lève les restrictions quantitatives à l'entrée sur son territoire des produits agricoles et fait l'effort d'harmoniser ses politiques commerciales pour rendre le commerce plus équitable. En contrepartie, il peut accéder au vaste marché international. Sont visés, tous les produits agricoles, excepté le bois et les produits de la pêcherie. On distingue ainsi :les produits agricoles initiaux : lait, blé, les animaux vivants ; -les produits agricoles dérivés : pain, beurre, viande ; -et les produits agricoles transformés : chocolat, saucisse, saucisson, vins.Les poissons et les produits de la sylviculture sont exclus de ces accords commerciaux sur l'agriculture de l'OMC.Les L'Accord ADPIC définit les domaines qui doivent être protégés (utilisation de produits chimiques dans l'agriculture, protection de la variété végétale, indications géographiques, etc.) et les moyens à mettre en oeuvre pour cela. Il précise les périodes de transition pour la mise en oeuvre complète de l'accord : 5 ans pour les pays en développement et 11 ans pour les PMA.Les accords de partenariat économique (APE) Non encore adoptés, les analystes redoutent leurs conséquences. Globalement, l'ouverture du marché du Burkina aux produits européens va exacerber la concurrence sur certains produits (lait par exemple), et on pourrait voir apparaître une concurrence sur des produits nouveaux. Ce pourrait être par exemple le cas de la pomme de terre : si aujourd'hui, la pomme de terre du Burkina peut faire face à la concurrence européenne, cela ne serait plus le cas avec une baisse du prix des pommes de terre importées. D'un autre côté, le prix de certains intrants nécessaires à la production agricole ou la transformation agro-alimentaire pourrait être abaissée par une libéralisation des échanges avec l'UE. Mais les droits de douane sur ces produits sont faibles (5 % pour les engrais par exemple), et donc le gain assez faible. Gain dont bénéficiera le consommateur final (le producteur agricole ici) qu'à condition que les importateurs retransmettent effectivement la baisse de prix.Le tarif commun de l'Union économique et monétaires ouest africaine (UEMOA) L'UEMOA, dont le Burkina Faso est membre, a adopté et mis en oeuvre depuis le 1 er janvier 2000 un tarif extérieur commun (TEC), qui s'impose à tous les membres. De plus, le marché commun a supprimé les droits de douane à l'entrée du Burkina pour les produits issus de la région. La mise en application du TEC s'est traduite pour le Burkina Faso par une baisse des droits de douane. Pour les produits agricoles, la moyenne simple sur les droits de douane est passée de 29% en 1997 à 15% en 2003, ce qui représente une réduction de plus de 40%.L'application du TEC, qui a engendré une baisse des droits de douane pour presque tous les pays de l'UEMOA, s'est traduite par une augmentation des importations de riz, de pomme de terre, d'huiles végétales, de viande de volaille, de maïs. Les prix payés aux producteurs ont accusé une baisse de 70 % au Burkina Faso.Le Burkina Faso applique une TVA qui a un taux unique depuis 1993, et dont le niveau est de 18% depuis 1996, conformément à la réglementation de l'UEMOA. Les produits alimentaires non transformés et de première nécessité comptent parmi les produits pour lesquels une exonération de TVA est prévue par le régime commun de l'UEMOA.Le Burkina a mis en place des droits d'accises sur certains produits, comme le café, le thé et la noix de kola pour lesquels elle est de 10%.Le secteur agricole demeure, aux yeux de tous les gouvernements qui se sont succédés au Burkina, le moteur de développement économique et social du pays. Du fait de son importance, il devrait contribuer davantage à la croissance économique et aider à renforcer la position de l'économie nationale aux niveaux régional et mondial.Quatre axes guident les actions de l'Etat dans ce secteur. Ce sont :-un changement qualitatif dans les techniques de production ; -le développement de l'hydraulique agricole pour affranchir l'agriculture des aléas climatiques ; -un environnement institutionnel favorable à l'investissement dans l'agriculture ; -la spécialisation des productions agricoles en fonction des zones écologiques.La politique de développement agricole du Burkina Faso s'articule et se consolide autour de sept grands axes d'orientation stratégiques qui découlent du Document d'Orientation Stratégique (DOS) élaborée en 1997 et de la Stratégie de développement Rural (SDR) élaborée en 2003. Il s'agit de :-accroître, diversifier et intensifier les productions agricoles, pastorales, forestières, fauniques et halieutiques ; -renforcer la liaison production/marché ; -accroître et diversifier les sources de revenus ; -améliorer l'approvisionnement en eau potable et assainissement ; -assurer une gestion durable des ressources naturelles ; -renforcer les capacités des acteurs et créer un cadre institutionnel favorable ; -promouvoir l'approche genre en vue d'améliorer la situation économique et le statut social des femmes et des jeunes en milieu rural.L'objectif global de la politique développement agricole c'est d'assurer de manière durable et continue la production agricole pour satisfaire les besoins des populations tout en maintenant et améliorant la qualité de la vie et de l'environnement, entre autres, par :-l'accroissement de la population agricole ; -la satisfaction des besoins alimentaires de la population ; -la continuité (durabilité) des actions menées et la reproductibilité des ressources naturelles ; -l'amélioration de la vie ; -l'amélioration de la qualité de l'environnement.-diversifier et spécialiser la production agricole de façon régionale ; -intensifier et accroître la production agricole ; -mettre sur le marché des produits compétitifs ; -améliorer les revenus des producteurs.-freiner la dégradation des ressources naturelles, restaurer et maintenir l'équilibre écologique du milieu ;-améliorer la gestion de la fertilité des sols ; -assurer la maîtrise de l'eau et l'exploitation rationnelle des aménagements hydroagricoles.Les objectifs spécifiques d'ordre social :-assurer l'autosuffisance et la sécurisation alimentaire ; -contribuer à la lutte contre la pauvreté en zone rurale ; -promouvoir le rôle de la femme et des jeunes dans le secteur agricole.Le développement agricole se décline en sept actions prioritaires :-promotion des filières porteuses : organiser et renforcer les capacités des acteurs, promouvoir des filières porteuses (fruits et légumes, céréales traditionnelles, riz, tubercules, oléagineux, jatropha curcas pour biocarburant, pêche, etc), favoriser l'émergence d'agrobusiness men, spécialiser l'agriculture régionale, conquérir des parts de marché aux plans national et international.-développement de la petite irrigation : augmenter des superficies aménagées, équiper les producteurs de moyens d'exhaure performants (motopompes, pompes immergées, etc.) ;-développement de la mécanisation agricole : moderniser les exploitations agricoles, équiper les acteurs de tracteurs, charrues etc. ;-développement du secteur semencier : produire des semences potagères, céréalières en quantité et en qualité suffisantes, mettre en application la loi sur les semences ;-développement de l'hydraulique : construire de retenues d'eau, points d'eau modernes, faire de grands aménagements hydro-agricoles ;-renforcement de l'opération saaga : couvrir l'ensemble du territoire de générateurs, acquérir des appareils plus performants ;-sécurisation foncière : faciliter l'accès à la terre des couches vulnérables, élaborer et mettre en application de la loi sur le foncier, améliorer la fertilité des sols.La politique gouvernementale en matière de secteur forestier a fait l'objet de relecture en 1995. Cette nouvelle politique inscrite dans le document intitulé « Politique Forestière Nationale » a défini des objectifs communs aux différents sous-secteurs, des options et approches opérationnelles spécifiques, des principes d'action également communs et une stratégie globale.Tels que définis dans le document cadre, les objectifs de la politique du secteur forestier auquel appartenaient les ressources halieutiques visent à :-définir la place et le rôle des trois sous-secteurs ; -préciser les options gouvernementales à travers les axes prioritaires de développement qui s'y rapportent, en fonction des missions du Ministère de tutelle; -rationaliser la gestion des ressources des trois sous-secteurs; -conférer une base conceptuelle pour l'élaboration de la législation afférente à la gestion des trois sous-secteurs; -constituer un outil de négociation et un cadre de référence quant aux concertations avec les partenaires au développement pour la coordination et l'harmonisation des interventions menées dans les trois sous-secteurs.Cinq options spécifiques au sous-secteur des pêches ont été retenues :-la rationalisation de l'exploitation des ressources halieutiques à travers l'exploitation optimale du potentiel existant et des aménagements en vue de l'amélioration de la productivité et de l'augmentation de l'approvisionnement en poisson ; -l'établissement de concessions de pêche au profit des populations riveraines en priorité ; -le développement de la pisciculture semi-intensive ; -la génération d'emplois et de revenus stables en milieu rural ; -la conservation des écosystèmes aquatiques naturels et des plans d'eau artificiels.-l'approche écologique privilégiant l'accroissement de la production par l'exploitation optimale du potentiel existant et par des aménagements appropriés dans le but d'améliorer la productivité ; -l'approche programme sur la base de filières intégrées et reposant sur l'association de volets halieutiques et agropastoraux et sous-tendue par des opportunités de recyclage des déchets résultant des exploitations menées dans les secteurs agricole et pastoral.-une participation accrue des opérateurs économiques et des populations rurales organisées en groupements ou structures appropriées ; -une affectation des contributions extérieures en priorité à l'acquisition de connaissances et de technologies nouvelles et à l'amélioration des capacités des ressources humaines impliquées dans la gestion du secteur des ressources naturelles et des activités qui y sont développées (populations rurales, agents de l'Etat, opérateurs économiques, ONG).Le cadre juridique et institutionnel de l'information et de la communication au Burkina est marqué par le libéralisme politique, avec comme principales références la Constitution de juin 1991, le Code de l'information et la loi portant création du Conseil Supérieur de la Communication (CSC).Le Ministère chargé de l'information mène diverses actions, au nombre desquelles le renforcement de la couverture médiatique du territoire, la mise en place d'un cadre législatif et réglementaire garantissant la libéralisation de la démocratisation de l'espace médiatique, la formation professionnelle des personnels de l'information et la gestion des infrastructures des organes de presse publique.Le conseil supérieur de la communication, chargé de la régulation de la communication publique au Burkina Faso, épaule le Ministère.Les politiques gouvernementales vont surtout dans le sens de l'extension de la couverture médiatique sur l'ensemble du territoire. Cadre institutionnel est chargé de la régulation de la communication au public au Burkina Faso.On entend par communication au public, toute mise à disposition du public ou de catégories de public, de signes, de signaux, d'écrits, d'images, de sons ou de messages de toute nature qui n'ont pas le caractère d'une correspondance privée.-Développement et Décentralisation des télécommunications et des technologies de l'information et de la communication Le sous-programme a pour finalité principale de favoriser l'expansion des TIC à partir du réseau interurbain des télécommunications.-Développement des canaux et moyens de communication de proximité : Le sous-programme vise à associer l'utilisation des moyens de communication traditionnelle à celle des grands moyens d'information pour la sensibilisation, et cette faisant, développer des axes de communication multidirectionnelle.-Elaboration des stratégies sectorielles de communication et appui aux activités de mise en oeuvre et de suivi évaluation du Programme National de Communication pour le Développement Le sous-programme vise à donner les moyens aux secteurs de développement de promouvoir leurs propres stratégies de communication, en vue d'atteindre les objectifs définis par le gouvernement dans les domaines de l'éducation, de la santé, de l'élevage, de l'agriculture, de l'environnement, de l'information et du développement social.La population du Burkina Faso s'établit à 13 730 258 habitants composés de  L'une des plus grandes stratégies de lutte pour la réduction de la pauvreté tel que défini dans le CSLP (Cadre Stratégique de Lutte contre la Pauvreté) est la promotion de l'accès des pauvres aux services de l'éducation. A la rentrée 2003/2004, le taux brut de scolarisation au primaire était de 50,2% au niveau national dont 44,5% pour les filles et 55,6% pour les garçons. Au plan spatial la région du Centre est la plus fortement scolarisée avec un taux brut de 90% ; la région la moins scolarisée étant le Sahel (27,9%). Cinq régions se situent au dessus de la moyenne nationale. Il s'agit, du Centre (90%), des Hauts Bassins (59,6%), du Centre Ouest (53,6%), du Nord (53,4%) et des Cascades (53,2%). D'après le bilan des ressources en eau effectué en 2001 à l'occasion de la préparation du Plan d'Action pour la Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau (PAGIRE), le Burkina Faso serait globalement aujourd'hui en situation de pénurie, avec une quantité d'eau mobilisable de 850 m³ par an et par habitant. Le seuil de pénurie a été identifié par les Nations Unies à 1 000 m³ mobilisables par an et par habitant. La principale raison de ce déficit est une pluviométrie trop limitée. L'hydrogéologie du pays ne permet pas non plus de mobiliser facilement les ressources en eau souterraine, puisque la moitié du pays est situé en zone de socle.En milieu urbain (36 villes) malgré les bonnes performances de l'entreprise publique (ONEA), le taux de desserte en eau potable est estimé à 70%, avec un taux de connexion relativement faible (un branchement privé pour 36 personnes environ). A Ouagadougou une grande partie de la distribution se fait à partir de bornes-fontaines et de charretiers. La mise en service du barrage de Ziga devrait permettre de doubler progressivement le nombre de connexions individuelles (on estime la demande à plus de 60 000 branchements si le prix de vente est abaissé à 100 000 FCFA). Le véritable enjeu en milieu urbain est l'amélioration de la desserte dans les quartiers périphériques, où l'on estime que plus de 300 000 personnes ont un accès très limité aux services publics de base.Si l'on définit le rural (y compris les petites villes) comme les zones où le service n'est pas assuré par l'ONEA, l'entreprise publique d'eau et d'assainissement, le taux de couverture en milieu rural est estimé à 60%, avec de très fortes disparités sur le plan géographiquelorsqu'on multiplie le nombre de points d'eau par les 300 personnes qu'il est censé desservir, on obtient un taux de couverture des besoins théoriques supérieur à 100% dans certaines provinces. Le service en milieu rural est assuré en grande partie par des forages équipés de pompes manuelles, une technologie sur laquelle le Burkina Faso a très largement misé dans les années 1980 et 1990, notamment à cause de la difficulté de mobiliser les ressources en eau.Le taux d'accès à l'assainissement est assez faible en milieu rural (moins de 15%), surtout pour le traitement hygiénique des matières fécales. Au Burkina, 61% des populations sont privées d'accès à un point d'eau aménagé et 87% n'ont aucune installation sanitaire de qualité. On estime que 86,7% des ménages choisissent la nature comme lieux d'aisance. 13% des ménages utilisent les latrines traditionnelles contre 0,3 qui disposent de latrines hygiéniques. Selon les normes d'équipement en matière d'assainissement, seules les latrines dites hygiéniques (avec dalle) sont conformes.Le phénomène migratoire est une donnée importante au Burkina Faso. Ses origines remontent à l'époque précoloniale avec les mouvements de peuplement. On distingue les migrations internes et les migrations internationales.Les migrations internes concernent les déplacements de populations à l'intérieur du pays d'une région à une autre. L'essentiel des migrations s'effectuent du plateau mossi, peu fertile, vers l'Ouest, le Sud et le Sud Ouest du pays, dotés de bonnes terres. Le facteur principal de migration interne est donc la recherche de terres agricoles exploitables. Les régions du Nord et du Centre Nord ont un solde migratoire négatif. Il en sort plus de personnes qu'il n'en rentre. Les   La carte représentant les treize (13) régions du Burkina et le graphique ci-dessus intitulé « télédensité » appelle quelques observations. Malgré la légère progression du parc de lignes fixes, les disparités régionales persistent. La région du Centre dont le chef-lieu est Ouagadougou, la capitale politique, est la région la plus couverte avec une télédensité de 4,53 téléphones pour 100 habitants ; elle est suivie de la région des Hauts-bassins avec comme chef-lieu Bobo-Dioulasso, la capitale économique, qui a une télédensité de 1 téléphone pour 100 habitants.Ensuite vient un deuxième groupe (Les Cascades, le Centre-Ouest, le Centre-Est, le Centre-Nord et le Nord) avec une télédensité comprise entre 0,20 et 0,40.Enfin, on a un groupe ayant une télédensité inférieure à 0,20 et composé du reste des treize (13) régions.La télédensité fixe dans la région du Centre représente plus de quatre fois celle de la zone UEMOA et la télédensité de la région des Hauts-Bassins est presque égale à celle de la zone UEMOA.Sur les treize (13) régions, onze (11) régions sont à la traîne en matière de couverture en téléphonie fixe. La stratégie de développement du service universel et la privatisation de l'ONATEL vont permettre de remédier à cette situation.   Le graphique ci-dessus illustre la croissance exponentielle du parc d'abonnés mobiles qui est passé de 30 000 abonnés en 2000 à plus de 1 000 000 en 2006. Ce qui démontre la justesse de la stratégie de libéralisation du secteur des télécommunications du Gouvernement du Burkina Faso malgré les importantes contre-performances enregistrées par l'un des opérateurs dans l'exécution des obligations de son cahier de charges. Une étude de l'UEMOA sur l'évolution des télédensités de la zone UEMOA sur la période 2001-2005 montre que le Burkina a presque atteint la télédensité mobile moyenne qui était de 7,6 téléphones pour 100 habitants.L'informatique a été introduite dans le pays en 1970 avec la création du Centre national de traitement de l'information (CENATRIN). A la fin des années 1980, deux autres instances voient le jour :le conseil supérieur à l'informatique du Faso; -la délégation générale à l'informatique.  Analyse du secteur des TIC-Télécommunications.Les institutions publiques au Burkina regroupent les ministères et les institutions en charge de l'agriculture et de développement rural au Burkina. On compte 11 institutions centrales qui ont des ramifications au niveau régional (13)   -un département communication est en charge des GIC. Il comprend 10 personnes tous animateurs de radio et 1 documentaliste. Les responsables des différents départements font la collecte des données également. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -séance de formation au profit des animateurs et documentaliste ; -acquisition de moyens financiers avec équipement à l'appui.-insuffisance de formation en GIC et TIC ; -manque de moyens financiers pour alimenter la communication.Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? La FNGN est une organisation très crédible, présente dans toute la région du nord. Anciennement connue sous le nom de 6S, la FNGN constitue un véritable laboratoire dans le domaine du développement. Elle peut constituer un terrain de recherche action intéressant en information et communication. La structure de par son étendue peut facilement faire remonter les besoins d'informations de ses membres et servir de relais pour la diffusion de l'information du CTA à la base. La FNGN intervient dans une zone agroécologique fragile, celle du Sahel. La Fédération peut partager ses préoccupations et ses expériences réussies dans le domaine de la diversité biologique, des changements climatiques. De plus, la structure dispose d'une radio qui peut non seulement produire des contenus pour le CTA mais diffuser, en les adaptant, les dossiers techniques radio. Communication, information La communication-information constitue l'axe central de la stratégie de la FENOP (édition de bulletin, appui à des initiatives locales de communication, production d'émissions, collaboration avec l'existant, mise en place de bibliothèques villageoises, mise à jour du site Web, etc. Formation Renforcement des capacités des membres sur des sujets spécifiques tels que : -les techniques de production ; -la gestion économique ; -la gestion des ressources naturelles ; -la négociation ; -l'analyse des politiques, etc. ; -les échanges paysans ; -l'expérimentation. A travers son réseau la FENOP diffuse et accompagne l'expérimentation d'innovations techniques ou paysannes dans les domaines de la production, de la conservation, commercialisation communication, etc. Intermédiation La FENOP appuie ses membres dans la recherche de financement de leurs programmes. Le chargé de programme à l'information communication et le responsable de l'information au sein du bureau (un administrateur) Il existe aussi une commission avec 3 à 5 membres dont le rôle est de fixer les orientations des activités de communication et des actions à proposer au CA avec l'appui du technicien. Ils participent à la priorisation des thématiques. La Fenop appuie la publication de « Jen gomen ». La FENOP travaille avec des personnes ressources endogènes et externes (animateurs paysans, journalistes etc.) La commission information et le chargé de programmes informations mettent à jour le site avec l'appui de l'AFDI. Il existe un site web et par le passé il existait un système intranet, internet avec la mise à jour des infos en ligne. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : La formation d'un cadre dans la mise en place d'une banque de données de la FENOP ou des OP du Burkina. Appui du CTA sollicité.-l'insuffisance de compétences ; -l'insuffisance de moyens financiers pour mettre en ouvre la stratégie de communication de la Fenop Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? La FENOP est une organisation paysanne. En tant que faîtière, elle regroupe des unions départementales, provinciales et régionales. En théorie, elle peut toucher près de 500 000 producteurs ruraux. Elle constitue de ce fait un puissant relais pour faire remonter l'information du terrain et pour l'y diffuser. La FENOP constitue l'un des partenaires de longue date du CTA qui peut se prévaloir d'une expérience dans la mise en oeuvre de programmes d'information communication avec le Centre. C'est le cas notamment des Initiatives locales de communication (ILC) qui permettent aux membres au niveau du terrain de mettre en oeuvre des activités de communication de proximité au profit de leurs membres. On peut ainsi citer les émissions de radio, les journaux en langues nationales, les bibliothèques villageoises. La Fenop a accumulé au fil des ans une solide expérience sur la question de l'utilisation des langues nationales. nationales : Bunasols : bureau national des sol, SP Coned, Inera : intitut national de l'environnement et de recherche agricole, Ifdc, internationales : Ipgri, Centre international de recherche-développement sur l'élevage en zone subhumide (Cirdes).-le service suivi-évaluation fait publier les résultats à travers rapports et système de collecte de données pour produire des articles et cela se fait avec les autres services ; -la production d'affiches se fait via un prestataire, pareil pour les pièces théâtrales ; -production d'émissions de radio ; Il existe un serveur et il y a un réseautage. Existence d'une connexion haut débit et tous les postes sont connectés Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : Former le personnel en système d'information géographique Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication : faibles capacités en terme de ressources humaines et d'équipements Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? Le PICOFA intervient dans l'Est du Burkina. Il a été choisi pour cette raison et en raison de son implication dans la préservation des ressources naturelles, à travers les actions de fertilisation des sols qui peuvent profiter à d'autres régions du Burkina. Son statut d'institution publique ne manque pas non plus d'intérêt pour faire entendre la voix des partenaires, principalement des organisations de la société civile par les décideurs. Le PICOFA est très engagé dans le développement des TIC au profit de ses partenaires, notamment ses opérateurs qui interviennent dans les trois provinces de l'Est. Le Projet dispose de moyens et peut, moyennant certaines conditions, contribuer au financement de certaines activités du réseau des partenaires du CTA. Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) + prestations (structures de l'Etat, ONG, projets, organisations internationales (FAO, PNUD, GTZ, ACDI, Banque Mondiale, CTA, OCDE …), etc. Programmes/ projets mise en oeuvre : Réalisation, production, études et évaluations Groupe cible : organes de presse, structures de gestion des radios locales, organisations paysannes, communautés rurales Moyens mis en oeuvre pour les contacter : Internet, téléphone, fax, visites, ateliers, programmes Degré d'interaction avec le CTA : Spore, publications, séminaires annuels, co séminaires, programmes de formation Degré de collaboration/ interaction avec d'autres institutions : GRAF, GTZ, PNUD, Banque Mondiale, CTA (appui à des initiatives de communication), Syfia international, Organisation internationale de la francophonie, CRDI (mise en oeuvre d'un programme commun), Inter réseaux (partage d'informations) Prise en charge des besoins en information : . Le premier métier de l'entreprise étant la gestion de l'information et de la communication, toute l'équipe est mobilisée à cette fin. Jade Productions/CAN possède une petite unité documentaire avec des ouvrages spécialisés en communication pour le développement et information, elle publie et diffuse au sein du groupe de presse Syfia, un fil de 24 articles par mois sur les questions de développement, société, etc. en Afrique et sur les grandes questions en débat au niveau international. Jade Productions, à travers le CAN dispose d'une phonothèque comprenant des centaines d'émissions produites par les radios membres du RER Afrique aussi bien en français que dans les langues nationales. Les contraintes en GIC concernent la visibilité, faute d'outils appropriés. Pour y faire, la structure pense à la mise en service d'un site web. Les programmes exécutées sont divers et variés (voir les activités décrites précédemment). L'institution ne possède ni politique d'information ni plan stratégique d'information. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits :problèmes liés au développement rural, accords internationaux, etc. Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication : faibles capacités en terme de ressources humaines et d'équipements Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? Jade Productions est une structure certes privée, mais elle bénéficie d'une reconnaissance des organisations de la société civile, notamment les OP et les ONG qui lui font appel dans le domaine de la communication pour le développement depuis près d'une dizaine d'années. La structure travaille aussi avec le CTA depuis 1999. Son responsable, Souleymane Ouattara, a contribué à l'expérimentation de la méthodologie de détermination des thèmes prioritaires d'information. Il a appuyé plusieurs départements du CTA dans la production d'outils de communication, et plusieurs partenaires du CTA dans la mise en oeuvre de leurs programmes (Fenop Burkina, Fupro Bénin, Avidel, etc.). Ces atouts justifient le choix de Jade Productions pour l'animation du réseau des partenaires du CTA au Burkina. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : L'élaboration des stratégies de communication et la mise en réseau en perspective du projet de site.Manque de formation pour une meilleure maîtrise des différents canaux pour que l'information passe de façon efficace. Au niveau interne, les outils à utiliser pour faciliter la communication entre les services de manière efficace ne sont pas au point. Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'ONG/ARFA est actif dans l'Est du Burkina. Elle a été choisie par ce qu'elle intervient dans la conservation et la restauration des eaux et des sols ; à cause de son appui à la production, à la commercialisation, à la certification biologique pour divers produits dont sésame et légume…elle fait également de la formation technique et civique et ne manque pas de conseiller les exploitants en matière de gestion. Sa principale cible que son les paysans font de l'ONG un acteur incontournable pour le développement de la région de l'est. -Equipements dépassés Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? Tin Tua est une association bien structurée qui intervient partout à l'Est et touchent une grande majorité des différentes couches sociales. Il peut être d'un grand apport pour la remontée de l'information de la base et pour la diffusion à la base. Elle travaille dans plusieurs domaines tels que l'éducation (alphabétisation et la formation) ; l'innovation pédagogique et le renforcement des capacités des organisations. Grâce à ses bibliomotos, Tin Tua arrive à faire un effort de vulgarisation des livrets en langues nationales auprès d'un bon nombre de ruraux dans l'Est du pays. En somme, l'association oeuvre à promouvoir un développement durable par l'éducation en milieu rural avec un minimum d'équipements et de ressources humaines.Nom de l'Institution/Organisation : Association nationale des producteurs de haricot vert (ANPHV) 06 BP : 9995 Ouaga 06/ Ouagadougou, secteur 28, prolongement Charles d Gaule, rue Gurm, route de Tabtenga, pore 444 Burkina Faso tel : 00226 50 42 18 47/ 76 61 12 77 fax : 00226 50 36 36 44 e-mail : anphvbfaso@yahoo.fr Définition de mission/objectifs : l'ANPHV a pour objectif principal la valorisation de l'activité de production de haricot vert à travers une qualité et une maîtrise toujours plus grande du travail. Il s'agit de transformer la production de haricot vert en un emploi valorisant et durable. Pour cela ; elle entend : -Favoriser des échanges entre les producteurs de haricot vert -Contribuer à la diffusion de nouvelles techniques et technologie, fruit de la recherche technique et ou paysanne ; -Favoriser l'approvisionnement en intrants et le contrôle de la qualité de ces intrants ; renforcer les capacités organisationnelles et de négociation de ses membres ; -Favoriser l'accès des membres aux appuis financiers pour l'équipement et lesInsuffisance de compétence des animateurs en matière de collecte et de traitement de données ; non maîtrise de l'outil informatique. Manque d'équipement et de formation Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'haricot vert est l'une des denrées principales qui contribue beaucoup à l'économie du pays. En théorie, l'ANPHV est une association qui regroupe plus de 5 000 producteurs en provenance de 49 villages. L'association favorise des échanges entre les producteurs de haricot vert ; contribue à la diffusion de nouvelles techniques et technologies, fruit de la recherche technique et/ou paysanne. Elle dispose également d'un dispositif d'intervention décentralisé avec des animateurs sur le terrain. Ayant la possibilité de faire la diffusion des recherche, cette association peut permettre aussi à des partenaires d'autres pays du CTA de profiter de ses résultats de recherche. -La promotion de la solidarité entre les organisations membres de la confédération -La concertation et la coopération entre la confédération et d'autres organisations faîtières aux niveaux national et international ; -La négociation avec l'Etat et les partenaires au développement sur les questions d'intérêt commun aux organisations membres aux niveaux national et international (orientation de la politique agricole, fiscalisation des intrants, produits et équipements agricoles, question foncière, code des investissements en agriculture et en élevage etc.); -La collecte, le traitement et la diffusion des informations d'ordre général (touchant au monde rural) et spécifique ( sur demande des organisations membres) -La création d'un fonds pour le financement des audits ou contrôles externes de ses affiliés, des sociétés coopératives et groupements à leur demande -L'assistance à l'éducation et à la formation continue des coopérateurs -L'étude et la défense des intérêts de ses affiliés et des sociétés coopératives et groupements ; -La promotion de l'inter coopération -La vulgarisation et le suivi de l'application de la loi coopérative de façon permanente et adéquate -L'accomplissement de tout acte se rattachant directement ou indirectement à l'objet social ou susceptible d'en favoriser la réalisation -Etre un cadre d'échange et de concertation -Représenter ses membres au plan national et international -Assurer la défense des intérêts matériels et moraux des organisations membres  Néant pour les TIC, la CPF fait appel à des spécialistes en informatique en cas de besoin et pour le maintien des appareils. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -un budget en GIC ; -du matériel et du personnel.-une unité en TIC ; -du matériel informatique plus performant Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication : Pas de budget en communication propre ; -Manque de personnel en GIC.-Insuffisance du matériel informatique (en nombre et en performance) ; -Manque d'une unité en TIC.La FEB est une fédération qui regroupe des éleveurs traditionnels, des producteurs laitiers, des organisations de cuirs et peaux et tous ceux qui font l'embouche. Elle défend les intérêts des éleveurs, oeuvre à la croissance durable de l'élevage au Burkina Faso et contribue à la définition de stratégie pour sa promotion. C'est donc une structure qui pourrait échanger ses expériences avec d'autres institutions partenaires du CTA en matière d'élevage. élus des organisations de producteurs de coton, producteurs de coton, population rurale, étudiants, chercheurs et les partenaires.-Magazine Spore, mais en nombre de numéros très insuffisants -participation aux co-séminaires (séminaires co-organisés par le CTA et d'autres agences comme l'IICA, la FAO, etc.) Degré de collaboration/ interaction avec d'autres institutions : -Oxfam, PDA/GTZ, ICCO, Helvets : mise en oeuvre de projet -Sofitex, SOCOMA, FASOCOTON ; AProCA : appui ponctuel là la conception d'outils de communication, échanges d'informations. Prise en charge des besoins en information : une équipe de cadre qualifiés, dont une communicatrice formée à la communication Participative ; 3 cadres (économists et agronome avec une expérience en suivi évaluation) ; un pool d'élus expérimenté dans la gestion de l'information ; sur le terrain, des agents d'appuis aux producteurs, chargés entre autres taches, de diffuser et de collecter l'information auprès des producteurs à la base. Il y a 2 Agro économistes au siège et 4 sur le terrain pour le programme coton biotechnologie. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : Réelle nécessité de renforcer les capacités des acteurs à la collecte des données et à la gestion et à la diffusion de l'information, appuyer les capacités des cadres à l'analyse et à la gestion de l'information, appuyer l'UNPCB à mettre en place un centre de documentation et à installer des cellules multimédias d'information dans ses structures à la base. Fournir en grande quantité les publications gratuites et pertinentes du CTA. Acquisition de matériel plus performants, formation du personnels qui interviennent dans les TIC, disposition de système de connexion adapté (exemple : système de connexion électrique ou avec panneau solaire, connexion par satellite des organisations à la base) et le renforcement du parc informatique des organisations à la base.-Difficultés à remonter l'information de la base au sommet à cause de la faible capacité des acteurs à la base à mener cette action (les agents de terrain ont un profil de gestionnaires et de financier donc, ils n'ont pas les moyens intellectuels pour servir de relais au niveau GIC).-Le faible équipement informatique de ses organisations à la base (Unions Provinciales et des difficultés à mettre les organisations à la base en réseau). Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'UNPCB est l'organisation faîtière des groupements des producteurs de coton au Burkina Faso. Elle représente les producteurs du coton auprès des autres acteurs de la filière. C'est aussi une structure qui oeuvre à promouvoir la culture du coton et des cultures vivrières qui y sont asociées. Elle oeuvre aussi à la promotion par l'information et la formation, la recherche et la diffusion d'innovations techniques, économiques et sociales aux services des producteurs de coton. L'UNPCB regroupe principalement les élus des organisations de producteurs de coton et les producteurs de coton. Elle est représentée par des Unions Provinciales dans 36 provinces du pays qui sont des provinces productrices du coton, soit un total de près de 325 000 producteurs. C'est une structure qui touche une bonne partie du pays et son centre d'intérêt est d'un grand apport pour l'économie du Burkina. En somme, l'UNPCB travail dans le développement rural et dispose d'un minimum d'équipements et de ressources humaines pour cela. -insuffisance de formation en GIC et TIC ; -manque de moyens financiers pour alimenter la communication.La radio Taanba, radio évangélique qui est un canal d'information, de formation et de sensibilisation ; un médium où sont véhiculées les valeurs comme l'intégration, la solidarité, la tolérance. La radio produit des émissions sur les droits et devoirs des enfants et de la femme ; sur les nouvelles techniques de cultures donc, elle met en oeuvre des activités d'information et de communication pour le développement. Et arrive à s'implanter dans une zone où les radios commerciales ont échoué. Revenus des prestations de services (communiqués, annonces) ; apport de l'Association, les subventions de l'Etat, partenaires de l'Association comme l'UNICEF, OXFAM Québec et OXFAM Grande Bretagne. Programmes/ projets mise en oeuvre : -Plan Intégrés de Communication (PIC) de l'UNICEF sur le programme éducation, le PIC du Comité National Permanent de Lutte contre la pratique de l'Excision, de la lutte contre le trafic des enfants, le changement de comportement, le programme lutte contre la tuberculose et le programme palu.-Production des émissions des services des partenaires (FENOP par le biais du CTA) ; -Montage numérique et stockage des émissions pour passer de l'analogie au numérique.Accent mis particulièrement sur les femmes et les enfants mais, toute la population est concernée en général.-Magazine Spore, -Publication CTA, La radio a pris part aux :-Programmes de formation du CTA ou d'autres institutions Degré de collaboration/ interaction avec d'autres institutions : La radio étant un outil de travail de l'Association, les partenaires de l'Association sont également ceux de la Radio et la nature de la collaboration est idem à celle de l'Association Munyu. Ce sont : -Nationales FENOP, Comité National de Lutte contre la Pratique de l'Excision, Services Techniques et Régionale des Domaines d'intervention de l'Association ; pour la mise en commun des projets et les échanges d'information.-Internationales UNICEF, Terre des Hommes Allemagne, Pacte/AEC pour des appui techniques et la mise en commun des projets.-La radio et le Comité Munyu de Développement de Base qui travail surtout avec l'association mais, travail aussi beaucoup avec la radio en ce qui est de la GIC -Une personne en charge des TIC numérique (service maintenance et technique) avec 2 suppliants Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -Formation en techniques d'archivage ; et formation du personnel en montage numérique -Équipements (ordinateurs, disque dur externes de grande capacité de stockage -Accès à Internet Principaux problèmes rencontrés dans la gestion de l'information et de la communication : Difficulté d'archivage, manque de formation du personnel, pas assez d'ordinateurs et problème de modem pour l'utilisation de l'Internet Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? La radio FM Munyu est avant tout un outil de travail pour l'association Munyu qui s'en sert pour rendre visible ses actions. Cette radio met l'accent particulièrement sur les femmes et les enfants mais, aussi sur toute la population en général. Partant du fait que cette radio informe, sensibilise, et éduque les femmes, les hommes et toutes la communauté en vue d'un changement de comportement envers la femmes et la fille, on peut dire qu'elle oeuvre de ce fait à un développement économique, social et durable de la zone. -Difficulté pour les journaux dans les provinces d'avoir accès aux nouvelles technologies; -Les circuits de distribution sont difficiles à maîtriser compte tenu de l'enclavement; -Spécificité des logiciels de traitement de texte en langues nationales ; -Manque de professionnalisme des principaux animateurs des journaux -Manque de personnel spécialisé en GIC -Manque de personnel formé en TIC, -Matériel informatique dépassé Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'AEPJLN est une association des éditeurs et publicateurs des journaux en langues nationales qui oeuvre pour la promotion de l'information en langues nationales par l'édition et la diffusion de journaux. Cette association met en oeuvre des activités d'information et de communication pour le développement tout en s'intéressant aux alphabétisés et aux néoalphabétisés et en appuyant la post-alphabétisation. Elle est l'une des rares institutions à oeuvrer dans ce domaine au plan national.Nom de l'Institution/Organisation : Radio « la voix du paysan » (VDP) BP 100 Ouahigouha Adresse physique : secteur 1; Burkina Faso Tél : 40 55 02 60 Définition de mission/objectifs : Relayant les animateurs ruraux de la FNGN qui sillonnaient les campagnes à vélo, armés de leur porte-voix, elle s'est assignée les missions primordiales suivantes :-Introduire et vulgariser les nouvelles technologies agricoles -Informer sur les évènements régionaux, nationaux et internationaux -Sensibiliser la population sur les différentes fléaux (sécheresse, santé, faim, etc.) ; menaçant la région et proposer des moyens de lutte pour les éradiquer -Favoriser l'épanouissement de la population en respectant les traditions positives -Distraire. Objectif: Objectif global de la radio c'est de libérer la parole paysanne et créer les meilleures conditions pour une communication participative.-Réalisation et diffusion d'émission (émission éducatives, culturelles, techniques culturales et les innovations technologiques) -Les pages d'informations générales -Emissions récréatives (sport, musique, humour) Nombre d'employés (administrateurs, personnel technique, de bureau, etc. à titre temporaire/ permanent) : Nombre total d'employés : 8 personnes dont 1 directeur, 1 secrétaire comptable, 1 responsable chargé du marketing, 1 chef des programmes, 1chef du service technique, 1 chef chargé de production et 2 aide techniciens. Il y a également une vingtaine de collaborateurs extérieurs qui sont des bénévoles et les 112 noyaux relais auxquels la radio fait appel de temps en temps pour un travail à temps partiel. Filiales/ représentations, autres sites : 112 noyaux relais installés dans 112 villages. Ils assurent le suivi des activités en ce concerne l'information. Budget annuel : 16 millions FCFA/ an. Sources de financement, y compris les principaux bailleurs de fonds/ agences de parrainage : -Revenus des prestations de services (communiqués, annonces) ; -Apport de l'Association, -Subventions de l'Etat, -Contract d'émission avec les partenaires tels que l'UNICEF, la FNGN, les Ministères de l'agriculture, de l'environnement, de la santé. Programmes/ projets mise en oeuvre : -Programme palu, sida et tuberculose (Ministère de la santé) -Programme lutte contre la pratique de l'excision (CNLPE) -Programme de récupération des terres dégradés ; programme de développement rural durable : PDRD ; programme de conservation des eaux et des sols (Ministère de l'agriculture) -Programme de développement communautaire et locale et le programme national de la gestion des terroirs.-Formation des animateurs par la CISB, une coopération italienne. Les agriculteurs (maraîchers, les producteurs) ; les éleveurs (bétail et viande et embouche) ; l'environnement (groupement de protection de la nature). Toutes ces structures qu'elles soient organisées ou pas.-Publications CTA Degré de collaboration/ interaction avec d'autres institutions : -Les Ministères de l'Agriculture, de l'Elevage, de l'Environnement le MEBA et les autres CRA : mise en oeuvre des projets et échanges d'information.-Coopération Suisse : appui à la mise en oeuvre des projets.-Les CRA sous-régionales : échanges d'informations, concertations pour donner les positions des producteurs face aux décisions de l'Etat (prix des produits, conditions d'accès aux marchés).Au sommet c'est le secrétaire général qui fait la synthèse des informations pour les faire passer lors des différentes rencontres mensuels aussi bien au niveau régional, provincial que départemental. A la base, ce sont les animateurs endogènes qui sont chargés de ce volet. La radio « voix du paysan » pour faire passer l'information en cas d'importants projets Il y a aussi la secrétaire et le comptable Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -Mise ne place d'un groupe de paysan pour la réalisation d'un dépliant pour mieux faire connaître la chambre et ses réalisations ; Email : ass_munyu@yaho.fr Définition de mission/objectifs : « l'AFC/Munyu » s'est donné pour mission de contribuer à l'amélioration du statut de la femme en vue du bien être de la mère et de l'enfant. Pour ce faire, l'Association vise les objectifs suivants : elle vise globalement l'éveil de la femme burkinabé (par rapport à ses droits et à ses devoirs), la promotion de son statut et son développement socio économique par des initiatives individuelles et collectives à travers les actions suivantes : -Lutter contre l'analphabétisme en général et assurer une éducation et une formation adéquate aux filles et aux femmes ; -Promouvoir la santé de la femme et de l'enfant ; -Développer des activités génératrices de revenus des femmes ; -Promouvoir l'équité genre pour une culture de paix durable ; -Développer des liens de solidarité entre tous ses membres ; -Renforcer les compétences des membres de « AFC/Munyu » par des formations ; -Consolider les acquis de l'Association pour son renforcement institutionnel ; -Travailler à mobiliser des ressources pour une auto prise en charge progressive de « l'AFC/Munyu ». Domaine d'expertise : Education (centre de formation pour jeune fille) ; santé (activités de sensibilisation) ; promotion économique (aider les femmes à avoir les moulins à grain et la gérance d'unl'information et la met en ligne. Sinon l'ensemble des membres se charge de la gestion des stocks d'ouvrage du réseau. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -Acquisition de moyens financiers pour la conduite des activités des 24 centres chargés de la GIC.-Acquisition d'équipement d'édition.-Doter tous les 24 centres de micro-ordinateurs avoir des logiciel spécialisé en documentation et leur donner accompagner de formation. Acquisition de matériel neuf ; permettre à tous les centres d'avoir un accès à internet. Acquisition d'autres logiciels pour voir les avantages liés à ces logiciels accompagnés d'une formation conséquente.-Manque de moyens matériels et financiers pour la gestion et le traitement de l'information.-Irrégularité dans la parution de ridebbinfo ; -Manque de fond pour les activités de formation à la GIC, vétusté du matériel ; manque de logiciel approprié.Le RIDDEB est un réseau d'information et de documentation environnemental qui regroupe 24 centres de documentation et oeuvre à mettre en réseau des données environnementales au niveau de chaque centre membre. Le réseau met en oeuvre des activités d'information et de communication pour le développement qu'il met à la disposition de tous les acteurs qui oeuvrent dans le domaine de la préservation de l'environnement de l'information environnementale pour des prises de décision conséquentes. C'est un centre d'une envergure nationale qui travaille dans le développement rural par son implication dans le renforcement des capacités dans la gestion de l'information environnementale.Nom de l'Institution/Organisation : Réseau de communication sur le pastoralisme (RECOPA) BP : 200 Adresse physique : 1200 logements Ouagadougou villa 1001 Burkina Faso Tel : 50 36 24 93 77/40 77 06 20 Email : arecopa@fasonet.bf Site Internet en cours : www.recopa.org Définition de mission/objectifs : Améliorer les conditions de vie des pasteurs OG : renforcer les capacités des pasteurs et leurs organisations à participer à l'élaboration, l'analyse et la mise en oeuvre de l'ensemble des textes et lois qui touchent au développement du pastoralisme. OS1 : appuyer les organisations dans l'analyse des politiques, lois et textes existants et les nouveaux en préparation par rapport aux enjeux du pastoralisme OS2 : sensibiliser l'opinion sur la nécessité de la prise en compte de la problématique pastorale dans la définition des plans de développement sectoriels. OS3 : réconcilier les différents intérêts des utilisateurs des ressources naturelles au niveau local, national, régional, international par l'identification et le marquage des ressources Il existe une division audio-visuelle et 3 personnes en charge de la production audiovisuelle et un consultant externe est chargé de la mise en ligne des informations. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : -Acquisition d'équipement audio-visuel (camera et enregistreurs), obtenir du financement pour faire des production culturelle -Formation avec équipement à la clé, afin de mettre à profit ce qui a été appris lors de la formation. (ordinateurs ; plus des logiciels de montage).-Manque d'appui financier pour l'édition et la publication. Difficulté de collaboration avec les médias publics donc manque de visibilité.-Manque d'équipements adéquats pour l'audio-visuel, l'édition et la production de document culturel.-L'administration et la gestion du site Internet sont très chères, mais on manque de moyens pour avoir quelqu'un qui s'en occupe en permanence.-Manque de formation en informatique. Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'ATB est un atelier théâtre qui fait de la sensibilisation et éveil les consciences pour le changement de comportement ; met à nu les problèmes de société et du monde rural en vue de sensibiliser sur les problèmes de développement. Ces activités qui sont des activités d'information et de communication, rentrent dans le cadre du développement rural. Avec un public qu'est le monde rural en majorité, l'ATB est un messager idéal pour faire passer l'information à travers le divertissement.Producteurs de coton de la zone cotonnière de l'EST. Degré d'interaction avec le CTA : Néant Degré de collaboration/ interaction avec d'autres institutions : -SOCOMA est un partenaire technique, -BACB est un partenaire financier, -GTZ/PDA est un partenaire financier. Prise en charge des besoins en information : L'inspecteur en gestion joue ce rôle de façon informelle. Principaux besoins en information non encore satisfaits : Formation dans ce domaine et appui en l'équipement.-Manque d'équipements, mise en réseau informatique et centralisation des données.-Manque de formation en informatique. Pourquoi avoir sélectionné cette institution ? L'URPCE est une union régionale des producteurs de coton qui intervienne à l'est. Cette structure oeuvre à l'appui aux producteurs de base à la gestion transparente, à l'animation sur la vie coopérative, la sensibilisation à la production et à la commercialisation primaire du coton et à la formation à l'utilisation des outils de gestion. La structure est également impliquée dans la gestion des ressources naturelles, dans la protection de l'environnement et la régénération des sols. Elle travaille donc dans le développement rural. 03 BP 7010 Ouagadougou, 03 Burkina Faso Avenue du Général Aboubacar Sangoulé LAMIZANA, en Face de l'Hôtel de l'indépendance. Tél. : (00226) 50 32 45 79/80 Fax : (00226) 50 30 54 86 Email : veilleinfos@sisa.bf ou mazoung@fasonet.bf Site Internet : www.sisa.bf Définition de mission/objectifs : Définition de mission:la direction générale des prévisions et des statistiques agricoles a pour mission, le suivi régulier des indicateurs de la situation alimentaire du Burkina Faso, la réalisation des études et enquêtes nécessaires à la définition des stratégies et programme de lutte contre l'insécurité alimentaire, la collecte, l'exploitation et la diffusion de l'information sur l'évolution de la situation alimentaire et la mobilisation de l'aide alimentaire. Objectifs : A ce titre, elle est chargée de ","tokenCount":"14805"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"898a0c38ce45402e39a01499b4be5245","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/SOF-2021-06E.pdf","id":"-1265397972"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7a0b28cf-2029-4c09-8306-72d5b1c7d976","pagecount":"18","content":"the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This programme, known as \"Agenda 2030,\" consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. It is a people-centred development agenda that seeks to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions, preserve the environment and ensure more peaceful and inclusive societies.Agenda 2030 recognizes the following: \"Targets are defined as aspirational and global, with each government setting its own national targets guided by the global level of ambition but taking into account national circumstances. Each government will also decide how these aspirational and global targets should be incorporated into national planning processes, policies and strategies.\"The Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) Convergence Plan for the conservation and sustainable management of Central African forest ecosystems comprises six priority action areas and three cross-cutting areas. It serves as a reference framework for actions in the forestry and environmental sector in Central Africa.To better guide Central African countries in implementing Agenda 2030, it is crucial to ensure that the Convergence Plan aligns with the SDGs. The nine action areas of the Convergence Plan and the 17 SDGs of the UN Agenda 2030 will serve as a framework for the analyses to be carried out. The mainstreaming of the SDGs into sustainable forest management in Central Africa will consist of reviewing the ways in which the COMIFAC Convergence Plan action areas are linked to the SDGs. This mainstreaming will make it possible to monitor the contribution of Central African forests to the SDGs, via reviews of the voluntary national reports produced by countries and of the efforts made by these countries and the challenges encountered. This review will also facilitate exploration of options for better mainstreaming of the SDGs into the sustainable management of forests in Central Africa.The forests of the Congo Basin play a crucial role in regulating the climate system of not just Africa, but the entire world. These forests also provide a livelihood for the 60 million people who live in them or nearby; perform essential social and cultural functions for local and indigenous populations; and, more indirectly, help feed the 40 million people living in nearby urban centres, as pointed out by Marquant et al. (2015). When these forests are managed sustainably, they have the potential to provide \"sustainable nature-based solutions\" to many issues related to water, energy, food and nutritional security, poverty alleviation and others. In this way, they contribute to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nonetheless, the question of how to harness this huge potential remains.The Forests of the Congo Basin 167Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into Forest Management in Central Africa: current status, challenges and improvement optionsThe first part of this chapter deals with the alignment of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan with the SDGs. It provides an overview of the SDGs and targets that can be prioritized in light of the expected results of the priority action areas of the Convergence Plan. The second part focuses on national ownership of the SDGs through voluntary national reviews (VNRs) and the inclusion of forest contribution to the SDGs in national reports. Contrary to the findings on the Convergence Plan's alignment with the SDGs, the contribution of efforts to the SDGs -as reflected in the country ownership exercises -is still limited to one or two forest-related SDGs. This practice does not sufficiently take into account the range of forest contributions to the SDGs. The third and last part of this chapter presents the options for improving SDGs mainstreaming into the sustainable management of forests in Central Africa.Application of the SDGs to sustainable forest management is not yet a common practice. Up to now, focus has been on analyses that show that forests and their related policies contribute to achieving many of the goals and targets of Agenda 2030 in addition to SDG 15, which specifically addresses the sustainability of forest ecosystems (De Jong et al. 2018; Baumgartner 2019; FAO 2018). Generally speaking, application of the goals and targets to local circumstances and priorities involves mainstreaming the SDGs into national agendas. 1 In recent years, other levels of SDG ownership have emerged, at both the territorial and theme-based levels.Cities and regions in particular are viewed as the most suitable level for grassroots work to achieve the SDGs. Having cities and regions mainstream the SDGs has thus become a major concern of urban governance (UN-HABITAT 2018) and of local development (Thibault 2017).In contrast, the theme-based approach to SDG ownership has been explored mainly at the global level, as evidenced by the discussions at the High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (HLPF) held in July 2018. With regard to forests, this approach is key to the global objectives on forests of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests (2017-2030). The 6 goals and 26 related targets of this Strategic Plan were adopted by the General Assembly in 2017. Their aim is to contribute to achieving the SDGs, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Paris Agreement reached as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2The Congo Basin forests provide many ecosystem goods and services. For this reason, it is important to provide the resources needed to monitor and enhance the contribution of these forests to the SDGs. However, it should be noted that aligning the SDGs with the cross-border governance of a forest ecosystem as important as the Congo Basin is a painstaking exercise and that the lack of a joint reference framework for sustainable forest management is very often the first obstacle to be removed. It is for these reasons that the COMIFAC Convergence Plan is essential.The Central African countries have agreed to the SDGs and have undertaken monitoring of the progress made towards achieving them. These countries have also signed a treaty 3 committing them to the conservation and sustainable management of Central African forest ecosystems and establishing COMIFAC as the subregional reference institution for the harmonization of forest and environmental policies. COMIFAC has a Convergence Plan which defines the action strategies of the subregion's countries and of other stakeholders in the conservation and sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa.Box 6.1 presents the priority action areas, the cross-cutting action areas and the main impacts expected from the Convergence Plan.An exercise was carried out to see how the Convergence Plan aligns with the SDG targets; this work made it possible to prioritize 31 targets of 10 SDGs. 4 The main findings from this analysis are presented below.• SDG 1 \"End poverty in all its forms everywhere\" is closely linked to the concerns addressed in priority action area 5 \"Socioeconomic development and multistakeholder participation\" of the Convergence Plan. Through its operational objective 5.1.3. \"Fostering the development of job-and income-generating activities in forest environments,\" the Convergence Plan seeks to increase the incomes of forest dependent populations and the number of jobs for men, women and young people in the forest sector. Forests offer income-generating opportunities via collection and sale of wood and non-wood forest products, as well as through the sharing of logging benefits with nearby communities (see operational objective 5.1.2). In the Central African Republic (CAR) and Gabon, the forestry sector is the country's largest private employer and the second-largest employer after the State. In Cameroon, nearly 8,000 jobs are provided by the formal forestry sector. However, women are poorly represented in the sector: 281 out of 8,047 workers in 2008 (Eba'a Atyi 2013). Sustainable forest management is helping to alleviate poverty by creating wealth and protecting the essential functions of forests that underpin the livelihoods of poor people. • SDG 2 \"End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture\" is consistent with the Convergence Plan's priority action areas 5 \"Socioeconomic development and multistakeholder participation\" and 3 \"Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.\" The forests of Central Africa offer a wide range of food products of plant and animal origin (Ndoye 2016; Tata-Ngome 2016). In some places, hunting meat accounts for up to 80 percent of people's protein intake; about 5 million tonnes of bushmeat are harvested each year (Van Vliet et al. 2012). Forest foods contribute to household resilience by providing a safety net in times of crisis (Tata-Ngome 2016). According to COMIFAC's strategic orientations, 53 The treaty is available online: https://comifac.org/images/documents/traitecomifac_français.pdf 4 The prioritized SDGs: SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 12, SDG 13, SDG 15 and SDG 16.   5 These guidelines are spelled out in the Subregional Guidelines on the sustainable management of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) of plant origin in Central Africa (http://www.fao.org/3/ak414f/ak414f.pdf), the toolkit on integrating the Right to Adequate Food (RAF) in plant-based NWFPs in Central Africa (http://www.fao.org/forestry/42451-0dea 893d3253a87ad78abcad1833ff739.pdf), the subregional strategy for the sustainable use of wildlife by indigenous and local communities in COMIFAC countries, the COMIFAC strategy on access to biological and genetic resources and fair and equitable access and benefit sharing (ABS) arising from their utilization, and the sub-regional programme on forests for food security and nutrition in Central Africa, etc.three priorities can be considered in the SDG 2 indicators. The first relates to access to forest foods (SDG target 2.1). The second relates to improving the productivity and income of smallscale food producers (SDG target 2.3), and the third relates to the conservation of forest genetic resources (SDG target 2.5). • SDG 5 \"Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls\" is aligned with the core values to be respected during the implementation of the Convergence Plan. In addition to good governance, the other three values are respect for human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples; gender mainstreaming; and cooperation, partnership and solidarity. This SDG is also related to the concerns addressed in priority action area 1 \"Harmonization of forest and environmental policies\" of the Convergence Plan. Even though the laws in force often grant equal rights to men and women, there are still gender-based differences that are rooted in traditional norms and practices. A subregional strategy for mainstreaming gender into the sustainable management of natural resources in Central Africa has been adopted by COMIFAC The expected impacts of the revised Convergence Plan:• The deforestation and forest degradation rate is stable compared to the current level within each country of the COMIFAC area.• The integrity of protected areas and transboundary protected areas is maintained.• The living conditions of the local populations are improved.The Convergence Plan also clearly states the values on which efficient implementation of the priority actions should be based, as well as basic assumptions for ensuring that the framework conditions for success are met.Chapter 6 member countries. 6 It especially focuses on gender equity in the distribution of social roles and responsibilities, as well as on gender mainstreaming into national policies and subregional programmes (in line with target 5.5). It also deals with securing rights and access to forest resources for women (in line with target 5.a). • SDG 6 \"Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all\" (in particular target 6.6 \"By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes\") partially overlaps with priority action areas 2 \"Sustainable management and development of forest resources\" and 3 \"Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.\" In addition to forests, the Congo Basin is also characterized by its wealth of water resources. The Congo River Basin, for example, accounts for about 30 percent of Africa's water resources and covers an area of about 4 million km 2 , 85.3 percent of which is covered by tropical rainforests in Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Congo. The relationship between forests and the watercourse system that criss-crosses them is both complex and highly interdependent.Not only is water fundamental to the life of trees and therefore of forests, but forests also play a crucial role in maintaining the quality and quantity of water (Betti 2011).  et al. 2017). At the policy level, the national industrialization strategies for greater processing of forest products and the strategies for the development of ecotourism as part of the economic enhancement of protected areas and the wildlife sector are promoted in operational objectives 2.2.2 and 3.1.3 respectively. They contribute to targets 8.3 and 8.9. • SDG 12 \"Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns\" has a number of targets that are fully aligned with the Convergence Plan. This is the case of target 12.2 \"By 2030, achieve sustainable management and sustainable use of natural resources,\" which is largely in line with priority action areas 2 \"Sustainable management and development of forest resources\" and 3 \"Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.\" Another example is target 12.5 \"By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse,\" which addresses similar aspects to those addressed in the national industrialization strategies for more advanced processing of forest products promoted by the Convergence Plan.In the forest industry, measures have already been taken to ensure reduced-impact logging, improve raw-material productivity in wood processing, and recover waste and other residues from forestry, etc. Perhaps the most significant variation of the circular economy concept is the adoption of cogeneration in wood processing industries (Crehay 2012). Operational objective 2.2.3 \"Enhance legality and promote certification\" also contributes to target 12.7 \"Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities.\" Making legal timber an obligation in public procurement in Central Africa is already making headway (Eba'a Atyi et al. 2018) and has even become a reality in Cameroon. • SDG 13 \"Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts\" corresponds in general terms to priority action area 4 \"Combating the effects of climate change and desertification\" of the Convergence Plan. Nature-based and especially forest-based solutions for climate-change mitigation and adaptation are those that have been explored the most in Central Africa. Over the past decade, emphasis has been placed on combating deforestation in order to reverse the trend of emissions from forests. Several countries have developed national strategies and REDD+ 7 investment plans and are committed to establishing national systems for forest monitoring.Most of these countries are conscious of the fact that climate change affects Central Africa, 8 and they have developed both national plans and investment plans to promote adaptation to climate change. All these measures are provided for in the Convergence Plan, in particular in operational objective 4. to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels\" touches on aspects that are core to forest governance in Central Africa. These include the fight against corruption, participation and gender-based discrimination. The first aspect is addressed in priority action area 1 \"Harmonization of forest and environmental policies\" of the Convergence Plan. Nearly all the Central African countries have made the fight against corruption in the forest sector one of their priorities, by creating specific units or services to tackle this scourge. The fight against corruption in the forest sector is part of target 16.5 \"Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.\" The second aspect, in this case participation and inclusive forest management, occupies a prominent place in priority action areas 1 and 5. Subregional Guidelines on the \"Participation of Local and Indigenous Peoples and NGOs in the Sustainable Management of Forests in Central Africa\" have been adopted 10 and contribute to target 16.7 \"Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.\"The third aspect is related to the fight against gender-based discrimination in the forestry sector. Indigenous peoples in particular are quite often victims of discriminatory practices, as recent reports on human rights violations in biodiversity conservation projects show. 11 Measures have been taken in some countries to protect these vulnerable groups. This is the case, for example, of ( 1 The countries produce voluntary national reviews (VNRs) as part of the monitoring and review of the 2030 Development Agenda (Agenda 2030). Preparation of the VNRs by the countries is governed by a manual 12 which sets out the different steps to be followed. These VNRs make it possible to monitor the progress made by countries in their Agenda 2030 implementation and in the challenges and lessons that emerge from it. Emphasis will be put on (1) monitoring the contribution of forests to the SDGs through the analysis of national voluntary reports produced in 2019 and/or 2020 and (2) ongoing subregional efforts and initiatives to address the challenges encountered.The Central African countries have undertaken to mainstream the SDGs into their national agendas. 13 The approach adopted by these countries is very often inspired by the guidelines circulated by the UNDP (2016) for mainstreaming Agenda 2030. Three main outcomes are expected from this approach: analysis of how to put the SDGs into context, the prioritized targets and indicators, and the resource mobilization strategy for the implementation of Agenda 2030. The targets and indicators from the prioritized SDGs guide national SDG ownership efforts to integrate them into global and sectoral strategies. They also act to monitor the progress made towards achieving the SDGs and to prepare the national voluntary reports. 14The forest-related indicators are an integral part of nationally prioritized SDG targets and indicators.To this effect, review of the mainstreaming of forest contribution will focus on the national voluntary reports of the following seven Central African countries 15 : Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, DRC, CAR and Chad.It should be kept in mind that each country chooses its own targets according to its priorities and their relevance to the achievement of the SDGs. For example, Cameroon has selected 153 targets and 52 priority targets to reduce poverty, catch up in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improve the resilience of its population. In the DRC, the awareness and outreach process targeting stakeholders has helped the country's commitment to achieving the 17 SDGs take on concrete shape and led to the selection of 38 priority targets and 59 indicators. Congo adopted 14 objectives, 74 targets and 113 indicators. The CAR has prioritized 37 targets and 245 indicators, and Chad has prioritized 70 out of the 169 targets identified. It should be noted that the national reports of the Central African countries have focused more on progress in monitoring the achievement of SDG 15 and secondarily on SDG 13.Alignment of the SDGs with national agendas provides an overview of the forest-sector contribution, which very often remains focused on the natural characteristics of the forest. This approach hides the many benefits that other sectors derive from sustainable forest management without bearing the costs. In fact, in the national reports that have been analysed, the multiple strengths and potentialities of forests are not sufficiently highlighted when monitoring achievement of the SDGs. Indeed, the countries of the subregion are making huge efforts in the conservation and sustainable management of their forests. These efforts should be capitalized so that they contribute to the achievement of most of the targets and indicators of all the SDGs. This capitalization should focus on taking into account the efforts made by these countries, particularly in achieving the following goals: combating poverty (SDG 1); combating hunger and food security (SDG 2); gender equality (SDG 5); clean water and sanitation (SDG 6); decent work and economic growth (SDG 8); and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16). The positive externalities of forest management are as important as the health of the forest.At the subregional level, OFAC is currently compiling information to monitor the implementation of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan.The synergies between the SDGs and the COMIFAC Convergence Plan clearly show that forests contribute to achieving most of the SDGs by providing various social, economic and environmental benefits. If we focus primarily on SDG 15 indicators and somewhat on SDG 13 (as can be seen in the targets and indicators prioritized by countries), we gain only a partial picture of the range of the forest contributions to the SDGs. In fact, a sector as important as the forests of the Congo Basin contributes to resolving a wide range of development problems and, in turn, contributes to several SDGs. It is against this backdrop that COMIFAC has initiated an inclusive process to develop subregional guidelines to monitor forest contribution to the SDGs. This process, which FAO is facilitating with technical assistance, 16 has shed new light on forests and their contribution to the SDGs. It has also made it possible to provide Central African countries with guidance on how to achieve harmonious tracking and reporting on 31 targets of the prioritized SDGs.The Subregional Guidelines 17 are formed by 5 principles, 12 guidelines and the priority action areas associated with them. The principles are derived from the four areas of action common to the Convergence Plan and the SDGs: forest governance, inclusive and responsible economic growth, sustainable livelihoods of forest-dependent populations, and the biophysical results of forest management and its externalities. Figure 6.1 presents the four areas of action common to the SDGs and the priority action areas concerned.16 http://www.fao.org/3/ca9261fr/CA9261FR.pdf (consulted on 14/06/21). 17 These Guidelines were reviewed and approved during a subregional workshop held in Libreville on 26 and 27 November 2019. They will be submitted to the COMIFAC Council of Ministers for adoption.The first draft of the Guidelines was reviewed and approved from a technical angle during a subregional workshop held in November 2019 in Libreville, Gabon. These Guidelines will be submitted for adoption by the COMIFAC Council of Ministers, prior to the launch of outreach activities and support for country ownership.To facilitate the implementation of these Guidelines, a set of indicators has been identified as a directory of \"thematic actions\" associated with each indicator. With these new Guidelines, countries will be better equipped to fill the above-mentioned reporting gaps and to monitor progress towards achieving the SDGs, particularly with regard to forest contribution. A better assessment of the contribution of forests to the SDGs will provide policymakers, technical and financial partners, and the general public with new insights into the value and importance of Central African forests to the SDGs.The Subregional Guidelines can also be used for awareness-raising, ownership and mainstreaming of \"forest-based solutions\" into sectoral policies and programmes on water, energy, food, employment, poverty alleviation and other issues. For example, by highlighting, SDG 6 target 6 on the protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems, the Subregional Guidelines draw attention to the role of forests as a regulator of fresh water and also as an alternative to the \"grey infrastructure\" on which countries are still heavily dependent. Moreover, by prioritizing targets 7.1 and 7.2 of SDG 7, the Subregional Guidelines also highlight the solutions that forests can provide in the energy transition.The alignment of these Guidelines with the global objectives on forests of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests (2017-2030) can serve as a harmonized framework for the monitoring of the contribution of Central African countries to these global objectives and of forest contribution to the SDGs.Finally, taking into account the wide range of forest functions, as set out in the Subregional Guidelines for monitoring the SDGs, also offers an opportunity to explore and consider emerging issues such as internationalizing the concept of \"nature-based solutions.\"  Guideline 9: Assessing and disseminating the impact of measures taken to promote decent employment in the forest sector within the framework of monitoring SDG 8Guideline 10: Highlighting the impact of actions taken to improve productive use of forest resources, within the framework of monitoring SDG 12Principle 5: Forest governanceGuideline 11: The values system based on ethics, equity and social justice that underpins forest governance should be periodically evaluated, and these results should be highlighted in monitoring SDG 16.Guideline 12: Efforts to make forest policies and programmes gender-responsive should be made as part of monitoring SDG 5.Ownership of the SDG themes makes it possible to monitor the forest contribution from the various angles, such as economic, social and environmental. However, in doing so, various types of barriers are encountered: insufficient coordination between sectors, administrative red tape that hampers periodic review of public policies, and weak statistics systems, etc.Forests affect a number of other sectors and vice versa, in particular agriculture, energy, infrastructure and extractive industries (Pouakouyou and Mayers 2015; Buttoud and Nguinguiri 2016). Stakeholder involvement in forest management is a recurrent concern in forestry. Coordination among stakeholders in different sectors is crucial.Lack of coordination between sectors thus appears to be a major obstacle to proper monitoring of forest contribution to the SDGs in Central Africa. Some countries in the subregion are trying to find solutions to this problem by setting up bodies to promote coordination between sectors. OneSince 2016, the DRC has been implementing Agenda 2030 via a participatory, transparent and in-depth approach at the provincial, national, regional and international levels.The creation of the Congolese Observatory for Sustainable Development (OCDD) within the Ministry of Planning has enabled not only ownership, but also steering and monitoring of the Agenda 2030 SDGs. For this reason, the awareness-raising and dissemination process targeting all stakeholders was launched in 2016, with 38 priority targets and 59 priority indicators from among 105 targets and 159 indicators.The DRC's VNR report assessed the progress made in achieving the SDGs and the impact of the policies and strategies that had been implemented. However, this report did not address the details of each sector's contribution to achieving the SDGs nationally. Indeed, the report on the forest sector did not present specific data on forest contribution to the SDGs in the DRC.example is the Congolese Observatory for Sustainable Development (OCDD) in the DRC. It was created within the Ministry of Planning and is working towards an inclusive process of ownership, implementation and monitoring of the SDGs.A silo approach is unsuitable for the multifunctional nature of forests. Responses by individual sectors to forest degradation or biodiversity loss have shown their limitations. It is largely because of pressures from other sectors of activity that forests are threatened by degradation and deforestation in Central Africa (Tchatchou et al. 2015). From this angle, enhancing the monitoring of forest contribution to the SDGs cannot be done in isolation by forest-sector stakeholders alone. It is thus clear that work with other sectors on joint projects is necessary.There are several issues raised in the COMIFAC Subregional Guidelines that should not be addressed from a forestry perspective alone. For example, woodfuel is the main source of energy for 90 percent of Kinshasa's population (Schure et al. 2013), and responses to woodfuel supply problems should not be compartmentalized into activities by individual sectors. Rather, these problems should be addressed as an integral part of a coordinated energy policy that takes into account the main players in the biomass energy sector.In the countries of the subregion, most of the public administrations involved in development sectors (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, livestock, economy, etc.) use traditional management approaches rather than ones that are more flexible and that adapt to various circumstances (e.g., results-based management, ecosystem approach, nature-based solutions). Moreover, these countries lack an organizational culture in which periodic review of policies and strategies is carried out so that they can be updated and adapted to new situations and requirements. It is highly likely that the targets prioritized by Central African countries in their voluntary national reports will not be revised by their 2030 deadline, as is the case of several of their forest and environmental policies.To implement the Subregional Guidelines to monitor forest contribution to the SDGs, reliable data is required to establish baselines for the identified indicators and to report on progress made in reaching the priority targets. However, in the Central African countries, national statistics systems lack sufficient capacity to produce forest data that are timely, systematic, accurate, relevant and comparable. Lack of reliable data is one of the risks of failure in SDG implementation, as pointed out in the Africa Sustainable Development Report (2017). 18 In nearly all the countries of the subregion, national statistics institutes face a shortage of financial and human resources. Given this situation, the task of monitoring the SDGs seems out of proportion compared to their capacities (Roca and Letouzé 2016). These difficulties can be explained primarily by differences in methodologies, lack of coordination within the national statistics system, lack of funding and human resources, inadequate infrastructure and somewhat of a lag in data technology (CEA et al. 2017).Several countries in the subregion recognize that it is urgent to meet the growing need for harmonized and good-quality data for monitoring the SDGs and the African Union's Agenda 2063. Chad, for example, in its 2019 VNR report on SDG implementation, announced launch of reforms to enhance statistics production. In Cameroon, meanwhile, work is under way to develop the third generation of its National Strategy for the Development of Statistics.The units in charge of statistics in the countries of the subregion face both a shortage of suitable work equipment for analysing and processing statistical data and a lack of qualified personnel to produce reliable statistical data, this despite the existence of several large statistical training schools in the subregion. To deal with this situation, functional and operational capacity building for the countries' statistics units is a prerequisite, as is capacity building (1) for the staff of those units, for mastering the tools, software, approaches and techniques currently in use for data collection, analysis and processing; and (2) for identification and coding of indicators and targets related to the SDGs. These two types of capacity building for national statistics units are needed to enable the countries in the subregion to produce reliable statistical data and to facilitate the monitoring of the contribution of forests and other development sectors to the SDGs.The disparities observed in the voluntary national reports of the countries analysed in this research have highlighted the shortcomings in identification of indicators and targets and in reporting on the contribution of forests and other development sectors to the SDGs. These shortcomings justify the need in the countries of the subregion for capacity building in proper use of the Subregional Guidelines for monitoring forest contribution to the SDGs. This capacity-building work can be carried out once the Subregional Guidelines are adopted by the COMIFAC Council of Ministers.Because forest-related SDGs cut across several development sectors that fall under the responsibility of several government ministries, the production of voluntary national reports on forest contribution to the SDGs requires good coordination between the different sectors involved. Coordination via the establishment of an inter-sector platform will allow contribution by the various sectors to the SDGs to be better taken into account in the national reports. Such a platform can be facilitated by a government ministry in charge of planning or development issues. Lack of good institutional coordination leads to the production of national reports that do not necessarily reflect all the contributions of the different sectors to the SDGs. Furthermore, institutional coordination will make it possible to better harmonize approaches to data collection, analysis and monitoring of forest contribution to the SDGs in national reports and thereby facilitate comparisons between countries.To achieve this, strategic policy guidelines for sectoral ministries are crucial for guiding the choices of the ministries in charge of institutional coordination, so that they will not be challenged by other ministries.The sectoral ministries in charge of forests and the environment in the countries of the subregion lack expertise in assessing forest ecosystem services. However, this expertise is essential for assessing the range of the contributions of forests and their ecosystem services to the SDGs. Capacity building in this area of expertise will equip the technical staff of these ministries to better assess forest contributions to the SDGs in Central Africa and to produce national reports that will better reflect these contributions.OFAC is already compiling information to help monitor the implementation of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan. It would be useful to strengthen OFAC's capacities so that it can process data on the SDGs in addition to the data which the countries are collecting to inform the indicators of the COMIFAC Convergence Plan that OFAC is already processing.Our research shows that the COMIFAC Convergence Plan can serve as a frame of reference for assessing the contribution of Central African forests to the SDGs. It highlights fields of action common between the Convergence Plan and the SDGs.The exercise of aligning the COMIFAC Convergence Plan with the SDGs has once again highlighted the multiple functions performed by the forests of the Congo Basin and the many services they provide to humans and the planet.Our research also shows that the range of forest contributions to the SDGs has not been sufficiently understood or reflected in the voluntary national reports produced by the countries of the subregion. Indeed, few of the countries provided detailed information on forest contribution to the SDGs, and the national voluntary reports which were analysed did not highlight forest contribution to SDGs other than SDG 15 and SDG 13. In fact, nearly all the countries tracked forest contribution only to these 2 SDGs out of the 10 prioritized SDGs.The multifunctional approach employed by COMIFAC in monitoring forest contribution to the SDGs goes beyond just an environmental function. This approach pays as much attention to the economic and social functions of forests as to their environmental function. The multifunctional approach should be used more, in order to identify the range of services that forest ecosystems provide to achieve the SDGs.Our research also explored options for enhancing the monitoring of forest contribution to the SDGs and has made recommendations for improving the monitoring of forest contribution.As for future prospects, the production of the Subregional Guidelines for monitoring forest contribution to the SDGs in the COMIFAC countries is a significant step towards improving the reporting of forest contribution to the SDGs. Once these Guidelines are adopted by the COMIFAC Council of Ministers, they can be adopted internally by the countries. To this end, the capacities of the countries of the subregion should be strengthened, in order to help them obtain better ownership and implementation of the principles, guidelines and priority actions needed to improve their reporting on the SDGs and on forest contributions to the latter. 2.3 By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment.2.5 By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed.SDG 5. Gender equality 5.5 Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.5.a. Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws. SDG 6. Clean water and sanitation 6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.7.1 By 2030, ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.7.2 By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.SDG 8. Decent work and economic growth 8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small-and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services. 8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.8.9 By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products.SDG 12.12.2 By 2030, achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources.12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.12.7 Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities. 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.13.3 Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.SDG 15. Life on earth 15.1 By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements.15.2 By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally.15.3 By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.15.5 Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.15.6 Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed.15.7 Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and address both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products.15.8 By 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive alien species on land and water ecosystems and control or eradicate the priority species.15.9 By 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts.15.a Mobilize and significantly increase financial resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems.SDG 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions 16.5 Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.16.b Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development.","tokenCount":"6305"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"676f8e02326b4b72c1250f313aec9183","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b1dacadd-45a5-4aba-a8e4-b7484bb4338c/retrieve","id":"718467776"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eb91dc5e-0f89-49d6-b346-0a485b7b8a94","pagecount":"32","content":"The publications in this series record the work and thinking of IWMI researchers, and knowledge that the Institute's scientific management feels is worthy of documenting. This series will ensure that scientific data and other information gathered or prepared as a part of the research work of the Institute are recorded and referenced. Working Papers could include project reports, case studies, conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research reports, monographs, etc. Working Papers may be copublished, by IWMI and partner organizations.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.Across Africa and Asia, a growing number of smallholder farmers are finding ways to better manage water for agriculture to increase yields and income, and diversify their cropping and livelihood options. Farmers buy or rent irrigation equipment, draw water from nearby sources, and individually or collectively build small water storage structures. This development is often overlooked by external investors, yet the smallholder agricultural water management (AWM) sector is contributing to food security, rural incomes, health and nutrition. While small-scale AWM practices could potentially benefit hundreds of millions of farmers, this potential is far from being realized. The AgWater Solutions Project examined this trend together with the opportunities and constraints associated with smallholder AWM in two states in India, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, and five countries in Africa, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia and Zambia. Through this, the project identified a number of ways in which the potential of the smallholder AWM sector can be realized, including:• Building supportive institutional structures: Existing governing bodies typically cater for public irrigation systems and are often not adapted to capitalize on the opportunities and to handle the challenges posed by this alternative mode of irrigation development.Traditional agricultural institutions rarely focus on market-oriented smallholder crop production, such as high-value vegetable production in the dry season.• Overcoming value chain inefficiencies: Market inefficiencies negatively affect farmer decision-making and access to technology. Inefficiencies include: poorly developed supply chains; high taxes and transaction costs; lack of information and knowledge on irrigation, seeds, marketing and equipment; and uneven information and power in output markets.• Improving access to technology for all sectors of society: Better-off farmers have greater access to information and technology than their poorer counterparts and women who face several hurdles: high upfront investment costs, absence of financing tools, and limited access to information to make informed investment and marketing choices.• Managing potential trade-offs: While smallholder AWM can be beneficial for an individual farmer, its uncontrolled spread can have unexpected consequences. If not managed within the landscape context, the many small dispersed points of water extraction, can negatively impact downstream users and cause environmental damage.Addressing these challenges requires a fresh look at new and existing AWM technologies, products and practices to enhance the potential of the smallholder AWM sector and find solutions.Agriculture is the main livelihood for 70% of West Bengal's population. The state's high population density, high rates of rural poverty and low per capita landholdings make it essential for farmers to grow two to three crops a year to survive. Good AWM is a critical element in achieving this. However, policies introduced in the early 1990s had the unintended consequence of stifling agricultural growth, which fell to under 2% from nearly 6% in the previous decade (Mukherji et al. 2011). Under these policies, irrigation costs increased dramatically, while the market price for paddy remained the same. The low growth rate in agriculture and the decline in boro paddy production (Figure 1) are of considerable concern as West Bengal has not yet attained food security (Mukherji et al. 2011). Recent surveys by the National Sample Survey Office of India suggest that 11% of rural households do not have enough food some months of the year. Thousands, mostly men, migrate out of the state in search of work.West Bengal has enough land and water resources to sustain more agricultural growth. Many tributaries of the Ganges River flow through the state and rainfall is high (between 1,200-3,000 millimeters (mm) a year) (Indian Meteorological Department). Water and other natural resources are unevenly distributed across the state, which means that different locations require different AWM solutions (AgWater Solutions Project 2010). One challenge facing state planners is the small farm size -three-quarters of the land is suitable for agriculture, but over 3.3 million hectares (Mha) are divided into plots of 2 hectares (ha) or less (Directorate of Agriculture 2005). Small plots require appropriately scaled AWM inputs, technologies and practices.Better AWM for smallholder farmers offers a flexible and economically feasible strategy for raising both farm productivity and the living standards of poor rural farmers. The Agwater Solutions Project mapped the potential for AWM to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in West Bengal and found that just over 40 million people (70% of the rural population) could benefit from AWM (Figure 2).Source: Maps generated for this study using remote sensing data by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Note: changes in the extent of boro paddy depicted here differ from official statistics, which are not calculated using remote sensing data. FIGURE 1. Boro paddy production in West Bengal before and after policy changes.Source: FAO 2012a.The AgWater Solutions Project identified many existing AWM practices that could support the realization of the estimate that over 40 million people could benefit from AWM. The type of AWM options being utilized in the state varies by agroecological zone, and this should be taken into account when developing AWM solutions. In North 24 Parganas, shallow tube wells with diesel pumps are the main source of irrigation; in Hugli, deep tube wells with submersible pumps are prevalent; in Uttar Dinajpur, diesel shallow tube wells and occasional treadle pumps were found; and in the drier district of Purulia, tanks and ponds were the most important source of water for agriculture. An initial scoping of several AWM options was made and after stakeholder consultation three areas of research were selected. These were, the mechanisms to improve crop production through access to groundwater, factors affecting adoption of water-lifting devices and the 'hapa' model of rainwater harvesting. A series of recommendations were made on how to increase adoption and sustained use by smallholders (Table 1). Details of the approach and related studies undertaken to arrive at these conclusions are given in Box 1 and elaborated in subsequent chapters. Further information, including case studies and Box 1. AgWater Solutions Project approach.Situation analysis and selection of AWM options: An initial analysis was undertaken of the conditions in each country and the AWM practices already being undertaken. These were reviewed with stakeholders and some of the most promising practices were selected.Field-scale and community-level case studies: Researchers used a participatory opportunity and constraint analysis and methodology to understand the complex interaction among social, economic and physical factors that influence the uptake and success of AWM options, and to identify technologies appropriate to different contexts in each of the project countries.Watershed-level case studies: Researchers used a multi-disciplinary approach to look at how the natural resource base impacts on, and is impacted by, AWM in four watersheds in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, West Bengal (India) and Zambia. The analysis concentrated on the hydrological impact of current and potential AWM interventions; the current resourcebased livelihoods and dependencies on sources of water and water management practices; an impact assessment of potential AWM scenarios; and a review of formal and informal institutional capacity to deal with AWM interventions and potential emerging externalities.National AWM mapping: Maps were developed to help assess where AWM will have the greatest impact within a country or state, and where specific interventions will be most viable. The steps followed were to use a participatory process in which experts defined the main livelihood zones based on farming typologies and rural livelihood strategies, and the main water-related constraints and needs in the different rural livelihood contexts. Using this, the potential for investment in water to support rural populations could be mapped based on demand and availability of water. A further step was to map the suitability and demand for specific AWM interventions, such as motor pumps or small reservoirs, and to estimate the potential number of beneficiaries, application area and investment costs. These allow investors to choose entry points and prioritize investments in AWM that will have the most beneficial impacts on rural livelihoods.Researchers used geographic information system (GIS)-analysis, crop mix optimization tools and predictive modeling techniques to assess the regional potential for the 'best-bet' AWM technologies in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in terms of: potential application area (in hectares), number of people reached, net revenue derived and water consumption. Scenarios were also developed to factor in climate change and potential changes in irrigation costs.An integral part of the entire project was the engagement of stakeholders from the initial assessment of AWM opportunities through to the identification of possible implementation pathways. The dialogue process was used to ensure that project results reflected stakeholder perceptions and addressed their concerns. State consultations, dialogues, surveys and interviews were fed into all stages of the project. mapping data can be found on the project website (http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org).Groundwater has emerged as the main source of irrigation for smallholder farmers in India and much of it has been through private investments. West Bengal is no exception. Revising groundwater policies in the State, as well as the provision and pricing of electricity, could propel smallholder farmers on a path to higher agricultural growth and poverty alleviation.In some parts of West Bengal there is ample groundwater, yet less than half of it is being used. The main obstacles are policy restrictions and the widespread perception that groundwater is scarce. West Bengal has fewer electric pump sets in use than most other states. In a 2010 report, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimated that the number of electric pump sets in use was less than one-fifth of the potential (CEA 2010). A better understanding of where and how groundwater resources are used can help inform policies that would in turn promote greater use without over-exploiting the resource.Nearly 900 farmers were interviewed in 59 villages in 10 districts. Researchers also interviewed private pump dealers, personnel at the State Water Investigation Directorate (SWID), Department of Water Resources Investigation and Development, which is responsible for implementing the Groundwater Act, and the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd., which is in charge of providing electricity connections to farmers and is also in the process of metering agricultural tube wells.The AgWater Solutions Project found that only 42% of West Bengal's groundwater potential is currently being used. Fewer than 10% of blocks in the state are regarded as 'critical' and none are over-exploited. However, policies governing groundwater use, notably the Groundwater Act of 2005, have been restrictive with respect to permission for new wells. The Act was designed to control the number of new wells and create an inventory of groundwater structures. Permits and registration applications were routinely rejected even in districts where groundwater development was only 20-25% or where groundwater depth was less than 30 feet (9 meters (m)).Groundwater data indicate that, in many areas of the state, restricting groundwater use is unnecessary and even counterproductive. Preliminary analysis of well data from 1990 to 2009 show that, in general, for every 1 m of drawdown in the pre-monsoon season, there is 0.85 m of post-monsoon recharge. This suggests that it would be more beneficial to productively use the groundwater in the dry season and thereby create storage space so that the subsequent monsoon rains can be captured for use in the next dry season rather than flowing out of the system unused (Figure 3). To compensate for any net depletion, this natural recovery process can be enhanced through rainwater harvesting (see study on hapas below).  Key factors constraining groundwater use and farmer investment are groundwater policies that restrict permits for electrical connections and the high cost of diesel, which is the main alternative if electricity is not available. When diesel is used for pumping the cultivation costs are almost twice that of farmers using electric pumps (Figure 4). Even farmers who purchase water from electric pump owners have lower cultivation costs than diesel pump users. As a result, farmers with diesel pumps tend not to grow profitable, water-intensive crops such as boro paddy and vegetables. Overall, electric pump owners earn more (Figure 4).We propose introducing a one-time capital cost subsidy to electrify pumps and reduce the cost of irrigation. Where permanent connections are not feasible, we suggest providing temporary boro connections. Priority should be given to blocks with low levels of groundwater use, high rainfall and alluvial aquifers, and where electrification rates are low, such as in the North Bengal districts of Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri. Districts with known arsenic or fluoride problems should be avoided.Since this study and presentation of related recommendations, a government order was passed whereby the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) will provide new electricity connections to farmers for a fixed connection fee ranging from INR 1,000 to INR 30,000 per connection, depending on the connected load. Previously, farmers were required to cover the cost of all infrastructure (wires, poles and transfers) based on the distance from the network. The state's Groundwater Act of 2005 was amended in November, 2011. The revision states that farmers in 301 safe blocks with pumps of 5 horsepower (HP) or less and a discharge rate of 30 m 3 /hour or less will no longer require prior permission from the SWID to apply for an electricity connection.Following this change in the Groundwater Act, little has actually been done to implement it. Information campaigns are required so that farmers are alerted to the changes. Officials need to be made aware of the reasons for the change so that they can make more informed decisions. Campaigns should take place in all blocks, with the exception of critical and semi-critical blocks which are outside the purview of the amended Act. North Bengal should be a priority area.Agricultural productivity can be improved by utilizing more groundwater, but there are challenges to ensure that the resource is managed equitably and to limit potentially negative social, health and environmental impacts. While strategies unroll, groundwater quality and quantity must be closely monitored (e.g., through detailed aquifer mapping) and corrective measures should be taken as required. Remediation measures in locations where arsenic is currently a problem or may become a problem could involve the provision of arsenic-free drinking water and folate supplements for vulnerable communities.In-situ rainwater harvesting is also an important complementary measure, because recharge must be increased to make the best use of groundwater resources. Rehabilitating existing ponds and building new water capture and storage systems will be necessary. Source: This study.Using the biophysical criteria of soil properties as a predictor of groundwater availability and night lights as an indication of electric grid connections, combined with livelihood-based demand, researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project estimate that rural electrification of pumps could benefit from 2 to 4.3 million households (4-8% of rural households) in West Bengal, at a 50% adoption rate (Figure 5). The potential application area is 866,000 to 1,743,000 ha (or 13.2 to 26.6% of the total agricultural land area). • Regional workshops were held in Cooch Behar, Maldah, Bankura, Hooghly and the South 24 Parganas, which included stakeholders from all the districts of West Bengal.Stakeholders recommended rural electrification for all districts in North Bengal (Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Dinajpur and Maldah). Murshidabad was not proposed as being suitable for electrification of pumps for groundwater use, because eight of its blocks have groundwater that is contaminated with arsenic. Similarly, Nadia was not included, because groundwater in 85% of its blocks have arsenic beyond permissible limits for agricultural use. Parts of West Midnapur and Bankura (beyond the hard-rock aquifer) has been proposed for electrification.• During field visits to the districts, farmers stated their interest in rural electrification and also prioritized electricity and diesel subsidies to reduce the cost of irrigation.• A body of stakeholders, including members of government departments, researchers and NGOs are concerned about the implications of increasing groundwater use, and the potential for West Bengal to encounter the problems that other states like Punjab are facing.Source: FAO 2012b; Saikat Pal, AgWater Solutions Project Dialogue Facilitator, July 2012, pers. comm.Source: FAO 2012a.Note: GW = groundwater. Small ponds on individual farms can store rainwater for the dry season, allowing households to diversify crops, produce fish, increase livestock numbers and have more water for domestic use.In dry districts like Bankura, collecting rainwater for use in the dry season has major implications for agriculture and livelihoods. In 2008, a program, funded by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), was initiated by the NGO, PRADAN, to experiment with reservoirs to store rainwater 4 . Known locally as hapas, these storage ponds were initially designed to cover 5% of a farmer's land to provide supplementary irrigation for paddy.They were highly successful and farmers have modified them, by making them larger and deeper, so that they can be used for multiple purposes.This project investigated the impact of hapas by interviewing 64 beneficiary and 36 nonbeneficiary households in three villages in the Hirbandh block. Interviews were also conducted with several government officials and the implementing organization, PRADAN. It was observed that the number of hapas being used in the study villages has grown steadily during a short period of time (2 to 3 years) (Figure 6). While farmers were initially reluctant to give up land for rainwater harvesting structures, the farmer surveys carried out by the project highlighted a number of benefits from their adoption, including:• higher average annual incomes as a result of increased production. This averages INR 5,792 after costs (Figure 7);• diversified crop mix (hapas owners now grow maize and vegetables);• multiple-use options, including domestic purposes, livestock and fish;• better nutrition and social status;• more livestock;• reduced migration and more children attending school;• more agricultural labor jobs (in-field and for excavating ponds); and• reduced risk associated with climate variability and groundwater overdraft through storage and recharge.The adoption rate of hapas has been most striking in villages with a high percentage of scheduled (officially listed) castes and tribes, who have small farms and need only set aside small portions of the land they cultivate. Research tells us that further scaling-up of the initiative requires involvement of all the villagers and engaging all political parties to minimize politicizing of the approach.Encouraging local officials in other districts to use MGNREGS to fund hapas, and offering demonstration programs for government officials that are responsible for MGNREGS funds are likely to increase adoption. Under the project and hosted by PRADAN, the state MGNREGS team members accompanied by the District Nodal Officers from 10 districts visited the Bankura Workshops at state and district level and field visits with farmers identified rainwater harvesting as a priority in areas where there is limited scope for groundwater development and where farmers have sufficient land to allocate 10% to rainwater harvesting structures. Coastal areas were also highlighted because of salinity issues. Specific districts for which rainwater harvesting is suggested are Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapur and some of the coastal part of the South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur.Source: FAO 2012b; Saikat Pal, AgWater Solutions Project Dialogue Facilitator, July 2012, pers. comm.Box 2. Irrigation service providers.Irrigation service providers are private entrepreneurs who rent out small pumps and offer support services to farmers who want to irrigate crops. The service provider rents a pump set to an individual or a group of farmers for a fixed period of time, and takes care of the running costs, and operation and maintenance of the pump set. Farmers pay a fixed rate per hour that covers all costs and leaves a profit for the service provider. Depending on the need and the level of skill and motivation of service providers, they can extend their services to offer loans for agricultural inputs, agronomic advice and credit.Benefits:• For local entrepreneurs: a profitable business opportunity.• For farmers: affordable access to motorized pumping as individuals (no need to organize into a collective); potentially related services (agronomic and marketing advice, and credit); and higher profits from vegetable farming due to larger areas and better water supply.MGNREGS site. They interacted with the villagers and the Bankura District Administration and MGNREGS cell.To make best use of their hapas, farmers need some sort of water-lifting technology. Among the farmers in our survey, about 40% use their own pumps or hire a pump. Encouraging pump rental markets or 'irrigation service providers' (Box 2) could help to reach more farmers.Using criteria including low groundwater yield, lower population density, relatively short length of the growing period and occurrence of Thionic Fluvisols (as an indication of seawater intrusion) combined with livelihood criteria, researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project estimate that rainwater harvesting could benefit 393,000 to 626,000 households (0.7-1.1% of rural households) in West Bengal, at a 50% adoption rate. The potential application area is 589,000 to 939,000 ha or 9.0 to 14.3% of the total agricultural land area (Figure 8).Despite falling sales and increasing abandonment of the treadle pump, they were once an important AWM technology in Cooch Behar and offer lessons about technology adoption. Investors must understand that AWM technology adoption is not a static process but rather one that is dynamic over space and time.The Cooch Behar District provides a unique site for the study of adoption of water-lifting technologies for agricultural use. In the early 1990s, farmers in Cooch Behar were smuggling treadle pumps over the border from Bangladesh. By the end of the decade, the same farmers were among the first to benefit from the influx of cheap, lightweight Chinese diesel pumps, which were also smuggled across the border. Now, electric pumps are becoming more popular as the power grid expands. The range of available water-lifting technologies and the long history of adoption offered an ideal study site to examine adoption dynamics.Nearly 300 smallholder farmers were interviewed. The main findings from the interviews (  Treadle pumps Most pumps were purchased in the years between 1995 and 2002. Only five of the original 60 pumps are still in use. They were first purchased because of the low cost, easy operation and maintenance, and relative portability. Rising wages (treadle pumps require a lot of labor) and availability of alternative options have considerably reduced their popularity.Electric and diesel pumps Increased availability and affordability of diesel and electric pumps. Rental markets for motor pumps. Most farmers who owned treadle pumps now hire motor pumps.Source: Malik and Ray 2011.The adoption of irrigation technology does not necessarily follow a linear path from simple manual methods to 'advanced' motorized technologies, a process sometimes referred to as the 'technology ladder'. The 'ladder' implies that manual watering methods, such as buckets followed by treadle pumps, are necessary stepping stones to gain finances and irrigation experience before progressing on to buying a motor pump. The reality is more nuanced. Most first-time motor pump owners relied entirely on rainfall before taking up irrigation. Nearly all former treadle pump users switched to pump rental markets rather than buying a motor pump and most farmers that relied on rental markets were first-time irrigators.Ownership is clearly not a necessary precondition for technology access. If motorized pumps are too expensive for smallholders they can rent them or buy them second hand. Rental markets have emerged as a natural response to demand from those who do not own pumps. Markets for secondhand pumps and spares are also emerging as demand increases.Low cost and affordability are not necessarily the determining factors that persuade smallholders to invest in a certain technology. Farmers seek other values such as pump weight or durability.For example, a lightweight pump can be used on many fields and can be carried home and stored under lock and key. Our surveys also showed that the majority of smallholders who could not afford to buy a motor pump did not invest in a treadle pump, but preferred to rent a motor pump even if it is slightly more expensive. The key is, therefore, to make alterative options available to meet different needs because every option has pros and cons.Using the biophysical criteria of soil properties as a predictor of groundwater availability and night lights as an indication of electric grid connections, combined with livelihood-based demand, researchers from the AgWater Solutions Project estimate that non-electric motor pumps, especially diesel pumps, could be used by 1.1 to 3.7 million households (2 to 6.5% of rural households) in West Bengal, at a 50% adoption rate (Figure 9). The potential application area is 0.4 to 1.4 Mha or 6.9 to 22.8% of the total agricultural land area. This is in addition to the areas that could be served by electricity connections.Agricultural water management interventions will impact social and environmental aspects within and beyond the area where they are implemented. They can increase food security and help to alleviate poverty, but re-allocation of water can potentially undermine other uses of the same water, for other livelihood purposes or, indirectly, by reducing availability to support different ecosystem services. Undertaking a baseline assessment and participatory scenario analysis helps to identify potential positive and negative impacts of future AWM interventions, which can help to mitigate or avoid negative impacts and increase the success of the intervention.Livelihood-based demand Source: FAO 2012a.Note: GW = groundwater. In West Bengal, a baseline assessment and a participatory scenario analysis were undertaken in a stakeholder dialogue with local experts. One of the concerns raised was a drop in the groundwater level due to increased irrigation. The impacts of increased irrigation on yield and water resources were then modeled. The dialogue and modeling showed that irrigation in the watershed can increase with only local effects on groundwater levels. However, soil fertility and the use of agrochemicals need to be monitored to avoid further negative impacts.The Jaldhaka River is a tributary of the Brahmaputra River and flows through Bhutan, West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh. The area in India covers 6,410 square kilometers (km 2 ), which is 66% of the total watershed (Figure 10). This includes mountainous areas, a piedmont upstream and a flat middle and downstream area. Rainfall is high (3,180 mm/y) with 80% falling between June and September (de Condappa et al. 2011). About 65% of the population of the watershed lives below the Indian poverty line (DHC 2002). Most people earn a living as multi-crop farmers, some as independent tea growers (financially the most well-off), and others with off-farm and non-farm activities (generally the least well-off).Farmers grow up to three crops per year, including rice, jute, potatoes, vegetables and tobacco. The most common method of irrigation uses diesel pumps, followed by electric pumps, canals, river-lift irrigation, and then treadle and hand pumps.In the Jaldhaka watershed, households depend on and manage their own resources. Few community based initiatives exist for livelihood strategies and farming. People without land or with small parcels are highly vulnerable to external shocks. Agricultural production and development is not restricted by water resources but by land area per smallholder household, on average, only 0.8 ha per household. The other limiting factor is the lack of opportunity to intensify water use through better irrigation technologies and practices. Only a few farmers in each village own a diesel or electric pump and rent these out to other farmers. The limited availability of pumps means that farmers cannot access irrigation at the most appropriate time, which decreases crop yields. Despite the relatively high level of groundwater use, the volumes extracted are less than natural recharge, which means that there is room for increased irrigation for summer-season rice production.In the stakeholder consultation, a future AWM scenario, 'rural electrification', was discussed. This is a relevant future pathway in the Jaldhaka watershed according to a stakeholder dialogue held in Kolkata in 2010 as part of this project. The rural electrification scenario assumes that farmers would increasingly use electric pumps instead of diesel pumps and would start growing summer-season rice on fields currently only used for growing rainfed rice. Modeling showed that increased irrigation could improve rice yields by 13 to 25%, resulting in an additional 60,000 to 100,000 tonnes (t) per year (t/yr) (Figure 11). The impact of rural electrification on the current level of groundwater use would be small if less than 50% of the area producing rainfed rice is irrigated (Figure 12). An increase of more than 50% would disturb baseflow and groundwater levels, especially in already intensively cultivated areas (Figure 12). FIGURE 11. Yield impact when fields that currently grow rainfed rice are increasingly irrigated.Source: SEI 2010; de Bruin et al. 2012. FIGURE 12. Water balance impact when fields that currently grow rainfed rice are increasingly irrigated. Source: SEI 2010; de Bruin et al. 2012.The rural electrification scenario has both positive and negative social and environmental impacts. An increased rice yield for farmers would provide them with more income, and tea growers would benefit by being able to use sprinkler irrigation and power sprayers for pesticide application. It is, however, likely that not all smallholder farmers will be able to afford electricity, limiting their ability to improve their livelihoods. Increased production is also likely to impact soil fertility, and the use of agrochemicals with potential negative effects on human health and the environment. These impacts can, however, be mitigated by ensuring equity of access and training to help farmers manage soil fertility in a sustainable way.What Jaldhaka farmers and local experts say about enabling positive change:\"Ask us what we want and don't want. Help us get better access to credit. Provide training to mitigate existing negative impacts on health and the environment. Ensure good governance in the natural resources planning process.\"The AgWater Solutions Project did not undertake an exhaustive analysis of all the possible AWM options that are available to West Bengal, but it looked at three major 'groups' of AWM options that can have considerable influence over the smallholder irrigation landscape. Options for groundwater use and recharge were reviewed, specifically in relation to how and where to ease restrictions; surface water storage and collection was reviewed, focusing on the hapa model; and technology adoption was investigated to understand what motivates choice of AWM option.Hapas appear to be a popular choice for smallholders including scheduled castes and tribes, because they can be constructed on small landholdings and can be used for multiple purposes. If rolled out across the state, hapas could benefit up to 626,000 households irrigating 14% of the total land area. The investment cost to reach this number of people could be up to USD 2,940 million. Investment in hapas can be supported by local governments, especially through MGNREGS. Officials should be given information about hapas, including construction and benefits. Hapas are suitable in most areas, especially where rainfall is sufficient and groundwater use is limited (e.g., due to aquifer type or water quality). They can also be used to recharge groundwater.Electricity connections to utilize groundwater for irrigation could benefit up to 4.4 million households, irrigating nearly 27% of the total land area. Electricity is the cheapest way to power motor pumps in West Bengal (and many other places), but it can be hard and costly to get a connection. Easing policies that restrict access to the grid can offer much-needed access to groundwater which can enable farmers to grow high-value dry-season crops. This recommendation has been accepted by the state government but more needs to be done to make farmers aware of the change in the Groundwater Act.Diesel pumps are an option if electricity is not available, but they are much more expensive to run and farmers are likely to need some sort of financial support. If supported, around 3.7 million households could make use of diesel pumps and 23% of the total agricultural land area could be irrigated. Combined with electrically powered pumps, some 14% of the rural population could make use of groundwater.In all cases, an option for those that cannot afford the capital cost of a pump to make use of either surface water stored in hapas or groundwater, is pump rental markets.Studies on the adoption dynamics of AWM technologies suggested that a rethink of the 'technology ladder' is in order. The adoption of irrigation technology does not necessarily follow a linear path from simple manual methods to 'advanced' motorized technologies. Instead, farmers should be offered a range of options so that they can select those that best suit their needs.","tokenCount":"5437"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0ea0e02ad988cb49dcb204b4f5c9eeb9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H016791.pdf","id":"492078546"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"111e783f-77d0-4d22-9848-6e0ab7c0f1b0","pagecount":"2","content":"THE GREEN REVOLUTION was a technological and managerial revolution which consisted of a clear set of essential elements, including new seed varieties, fertilizer, pesticide, and a reliable water supply. If all elements were implemented together the resuH would be a dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity. If one or more of the elements were missing the revolution would not take place. It was a package deal. Similarly, the irrigation sector in developing countries is in need of a management revolution which consists of the essential elements needed to manage irrigation systems in an integrated way. These elements are a clear and sustainable water right, clearly defined responsibilities and incentives, appropriate and functional infrastructure, and adequate resources. If one or more of these elements is missing the needed irrigation management revolution will not happen.Irrigation management transfer, or turnover, is being planned or implemented in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. We define it as the reduction in the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as farmer groups in irrigation management. Governments are promoting management transfer largely because of their inability to finance the cost of irrigation management, their inability to recover the cost from farmers through fees, their poor performance in irrigation management, and a rising expectation about the capacity of farmers to take over the management of irrigation systems, either fully or partially. Management transfer is not likely to produce the kind of management revolution needed in the irrigation sector unless it consists of an integrated package of water rights, clear responsibilities and incentives, functional infrastructure and adequate resources.The transfer of management roles to farmers is being done through various strategies in different countries. The introduction of an irrigation service fee in Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico shifts responsibility for paying for irrigation from the government to the users. In the Philippines, the government provides management contracts to Water Users Associations (WUAs) , still paying part of the cost, but transferring the role of management to farmers. In Indonesia, the government has a program of providing direct grants to villages which in turn use the funds for improving their irrigation systems through local labor. In the USA, Mexico and Colombia, farmers elect boards who govern and hire professional staff to do routine management. In China, villages provide franchise contracts to pump irrigation teams. In Indonesia, entire management for small-scale irrigation systems is being transferred to farmer organizations. Management of subsections of irrigation schemes is being transferred to WUAs in Mexico, the Philippines, China and Sri Lanka.This often involves federating WUAs from tertiary to distributary levels. In Chile, New Zealand and Bangladesh, irrigation systems are sold outright to WUAs or other NGOs. 5'nstitutionai Specialist, IIMI, Colombo.* The emphasis on organizing and motivating farmers often tends to neglect the need for greater clarity about rules and rights of farmer organizations.* Turnover processes which do not involve farmers in decision making or investments in infrastructure improvements do not enhance local self-reliance of farmer groups.* Governments often fail to clearly define their future roles after turnover and redeploy staff accordingly. This can• result in . lower-level bureaucratic assistance to turnover and the continuance of placing agency staff in field operational pOSitions even after turnover occurs. * Farmers tend to want full control over system infrastructure and operations before they are willing to fully finance irrigation.* Farmers often do not want complete withdrawal of the government in the irrigation sector. They are often still needed to regulate water allocation between irrigation systems along river basins, to mediate disputes, to provide technical guidance and support services.* Farmers are beginning to organize their own support services.All of these strategies involve some degree of transfer of management to farmer organizations. Chile, the USA and New Zealand are perhaps the most extreme cases where full rights and ownership of irrigation systems are transferred. Most cases of turnover are only partial. The government continues some management roles, such as retaining subsidies for irrigation or continuing to manage the diversions and main canals of large systems. Most cases of turnover do not include the full set of essential elements needed forthe management revolution. The elements which are most often lacking are a clear and enforceable water right, clearly defined responsibilities and management incentives in the WUA and adequate resources to finance sustainable irrigation. However, we cannot expect irrigation management transfer to succeed if these elements are not part of the change process. Local conditions which make turnover more likely to succeed include profitable agriculture, high socioeconomic dependence offarmers on irrigated agriculture, high hydrologic dependence of agriculture on irrigation, lack of severe social divisions and existence of local institutions and skills for irrigation.In summary, experience to date with irrigation management transfer seems to be producing the following lessons: * When management is transferred to farmers, they tend to place a higher priority on cost efficiency than do government agencies.* Farmers often seek diversified sources of financing irrigation in addition to payment of water fees (such as side line enterprises in China or contracted services in Colombia).","tokenCount":"835"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7c8822d37689edeac72ff244ffa9840e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/7360822d-9ca9-456d-8c2a-3d1de18d7cbc/content","id":"-241144929"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"28028fde-7ae5-493c-9b94-bafcf3a3f544","pagecount":"35","content":"The process involves collaboration of biological scientists and econanists to identify the groups of famers for whan technologies are to be developed, determining their circumstances and problems, screening this infonnation for research opportunities, and then irrplem:mting the resulting research program on experi.Itent stations and on the fields of representative famers.Many national agricultural research programs are rroving toward the adq;>tion of on-fann research techniques ..!.! This irrplies locationspecific research for representative fanrers. An'ong the challenges that scientists face in this type of research are the identification of priority therres for investigation, the selection of representative sites for on-fann exper:i.rrentation, and, rrost i.rrp)rtant, the definition of the clientele for whan the recamendations are to be developed. The concept of the \"recanrendation danain\" is a powerful tool for resolving these problems and for organizing an efficient on-fann research program.The tenn \"recanrendation danain\" was first introduced in the CDMYT Econanics manual on the use of partial budgets for econanic analysis of agronanic data (Perrin, Winkelmann, Moscardi and Anderson, 1976). In this manual, the recamendation danain was described as follcws:\"It is i.rrp)ssible to conduct experiments on each fann to make recamendations tailored to each fann. Instead, you nust define a target group of fanners, conduct experiments under conditions representative of their fanns, and make recamendations which are awlicable to the entire group. We shall call such a group of fanners a recamendation danain • Generally, a reccmrendation danain will consist of fanners within an agroclimatic zone whose farms are similar and who use similar practices ••• \" (p.1).Further discussion of the recarme..'1Cation danain concept was presented in the second ClMMYT Econanics manual, on assessing fanners' circumstances (Byerlee, Collinson, et aI, 1980). In this manual, the reccmrendation danain was defined as \"a group of roughly harogeneou.s famers with similar circumstances for whan we can make rrore or less the sane recanrendation\" (p.71).The aim of this paper is to discuss in rrore detail the concepts and procedures associated with fonning recanrendation danains. First, the n.eed for danains will be discussed, with E!rtphasis on their q;>erational 11 The tenn \"on-fann research\" will be taken to rrean \"research with a fanning systems perspective, using on-fann research techniques\". For a discussion of concepts and vocabulary associated with on-fann research, see Byerlee, Harrington and Winkelmann (1982). role in OFR. Then the recanrendation danain concept itself will be examined and techniques for fonning danains will be presented, follCMed by a discussion of issues and canplications involved in the practical use of danains in on-farm research.Over the past several years, Cnt1YT agronanists and econanists have developed a set of procedures for multidisciplinary, on-fann research with a fanning systems perspective. Y These procedures are designed to be used by biological scientists, social scientists and farmers, in order to derive appropriate reccmrendations. They include the follCMing series of steps: the diagnosis of farmers I circumstances, the design and managerrent of on-fann experiments, the analysis of experimental results, and the presentation of reccmrendations to farmers. The concept of the recx::moondation danain is vital to every one of these steps of on-fann research.The early stages of on-farm research are concerned with diagnosing fa.rrrers I practices and problems and identifying opportunities for on-farm  1982, p. 12;Moscardi et al, 1982) advocate setting fixed factors at \"representative\" levels, so that on-farm experirrents may measure the yields and profits that famers can expect when they superi.np::>se one or rrore of the treatrrents on top of their own current practice. Once again, \"representativeness\" can be defined with reference to a given recamendation danain: Fixed factors should be set at levels representative of those for the danain being studied. llResearchers rrust analyze the experimental data in order to forrrulate fa.nrer reccmrendations. Three kinds of analysis are usualy needed: (1) agronanic analysis (hCM may observed responses be explained in tenns of biological and physical processes?)(2) statistical analysis (are observed responses real or due to randan chance?) (3) econanic analysis 37 This does not mean that fixed factors are necessarily unifonn for experirrents in one danain. Famer practice will vary sarewhat within a danain, and the experirrents may want to semple this variation. For rrore discussion of issues related to site selection and the level of non-experirrental variables, see Kirkby, et ale (1981) and Tripp (1982).(which alternative technologies will be preferred by famers?)}'/ In doing these kind of analyses pooling the data is generally recamended. Data fran trials within the sane danain should be pooled but data fran different danains should be analyzed seParately.The ultimate PurPOse of on-farm research is of course to derive recarrrendations for famers. If the concept of the recamendation danain has been followed faithfully, then by the tiIre recc:mrendations are ready for famers, extension agents know exactly who their targets are. Using recamendation danains helps avoid two equally unpalatable alternatives:(1) offering a different recamendation for each famer (tCX) expensive)(2) offering a single recamendation for the whole famer population, despite differences anong famers (inappropriate for many famers).Instead, recamendations are derived and offered with well-defined groups of famer clientele in mind. 47 We have errphasized that famers will prefer technologies that are carpatible with their circumstances.An understanding of these circumstances, both socio-econanic and biological, should be accarplished in the diagnostic, planning, and early experiIrental phases of on-farm research. Econanic analysis will then be carried out on technologies otherwise acceptable to famers. For a review of partial budgeting techniques for econanic analysis of agronanic data, see Perrin et al. (1976) and Harrington (1982).Recarrrendation danain has already been defined as a group of famers whose circumstances are similar enough so that they are all eligible for the sane recarmendation. It should be emphasized that the danain is a group of famers, not a geographical area or land tyPe. Danains are canposed of famers because famers, not land tyPes, take decisions on neil elerrents of technology. Defining danains in tenns of groups of famers underlines the possible importance of socioeconanic criteria in domain identification.It also allows the possibility of domain Research area in this paper will si.rrply mean the area in which investigation is to take place. This is usually defined by the research institution and may have administrative or agroclimatic boundaries.Although the concept of reccmrendation danain is often quite helpful in refining these boundaries, we will assurre here that the research area is given. Our job is to take the mandated research area and decide how it should be divided into recarm:mdation domains.Fanrers' circumstances are used in order to identify recame..Tldation danains. They are defined as \"all those factors which affect fanrers' decisions with respect to use of a crop technology. They include natural factors such as rainfall and soils, and socioeconanic factors such as markets, the farrrers' goals and resource constraints\" (Byerlee, Collinson, et al. (1980): 70). Figure 1  --Circumstances which are often major SOlJ!ces of uncertainty for decision-making.A reccmrendation is a description of a new element or elements in a production technology (an improved variety, a new chemical, a different practice, a change in the timing of an operation, etc.) which researchers believe famers will find useful. In the case of the on-farm research paradigm described here it is derived fran an understanding of famers' prcblems and a thorough testing under fa.rrt'ers' conditions.Recarrrendations are saretines made in groups or \"packages\", as when a new variety is recarm:mded along with a certain planting density, insect control and fertilizer level. This is particularly important when there are strong interactions anong several elements. The errphasis, however, should always be on reccmrendations that fa.I:Yrers can adopt in a step-wise fashion. There is now considerable evidence that fa.rrt'ers are rrore likely to adopt simple recanrendations and make changes gradually, rather than make abrupt, large-scale changes in their practices (e. g • Byerlee andHesse de Polanco (1982)). Thus on-farm research identifies and tests technologies with a limited number of new elements under famers' conditions, to find out which reccmrendations can be accamodated by famers.The process of danain fonnation is usually a gradual one, as researchers gain rrore experience in their area. Aithough there is no unique fonmla for determining domains there are a set of guidelines that can be used. These are discussed in the following sections. Recamendation danain fonna.tion can be thought of as a process of considering all the various circumstances that might affect farmar practices and deciding, for each one, if it is the basis of significant differences in practices and p:>ssibilities within the research area. One way of making this operational is to think of a checklist, such as that in Table 1, which lists major categories of circumstances that may be used to define recamendation danains. The list is by no rreans ccrrplete, and researchers working in different areas will surely add other factors to this list. It will also be appreciated that many of these factors are interrelated: altitude affects terrperature and frost incidence, for instance, and rainfall affects weed population.several exanples may make clear hCM the variables on this checklist can be used. to define recarmmdation danains. Consider the case of soil differences, which are often inportant in detennining farner practices.In one research area in southern Veracruz, Mexico, there were two basic soil types. F~s in the river flood plain had alluvial soils and grew wet season vegetables and dry season maize. Neighboring famers had sandy, acid soils and grew pineapple and maize, in the wet season only.The difference in soils is responsible for very different maize practices and prcblems with respect to such factors as rroisture stress, disease and insect incidence, and fertility requirerrents. Re<::x:mrendations about maize appropriate for one group would not likely be appropriate for the other. Thus we have two separate reccmrendatiol1 danains for maize, in this case determined by soil type.  Another natural circumstance that may lead to significant differences in practices and research opportunities is altitude. In part of the Callejon de Huaylas in Peru, maize researchers identified two recamendation danains, based on altitude. In the lCMerdanain, fran 2,600 to 3,000 rreters, famers could plant two crops a year and had serious problems with leaf fungus diseases. In the higher danain, above 3,000 neters, only one crop a year was possible and one of the principal problems that famers faced was frost damage to their maize. Altitude here served to distinguish two danains, with different maize practices, problems, and opportunities for research. Again, altitude will not always serve to distinguish recamendation danains. If variation in altitude is not associated with significant differences in famer practices or biol~ical response then it can be crossed off the checklist.The sane holds true for other natural circumstances. In their study of famers' practices and problems researchers will want to ask whether such things as rainfall pattern, slope, or pest incidence can be used to define different recamendation danains. Irrq:lortant factors are of course not lilnited to natural circumstances, and Table 1 presents a number of socioeconanic circumstances that may also be useful in identifyingdanains. An exarrple or two may be helpful.It is often the case that famers who share the sane natural Researchers believed there might be a difference in weed control practices between sprayer renters and owners. But a survey shCMed no differences in weed control practices or timing between the two groups and revealed that the rental rrarket for backpack sprayers was quite adequate. Thus access to a sprayer did not affect famer practices and did not serve to distinguish recamendation domains.Famers can also often be distinguished by access to land.Differences in fann size nay not only directly affect the tyPe of practice that a famer follCMs, but nay also be correlated with many other differences, such as access to equiprent, credit, or rrarketing sane seeding techniques, the same seeding dates, the sane fertilizers, etc.? If there are differences, then there may be two danains. If there are no significant differences, then fann size will not be used in defining danains. In this case researchers will go on and ask the sane questions about other natural and socioeconanic circumstances on their checklist (Table 1). If fann size is not i:rrp:>rtant, does altitude or soil type or land tenure serve to distinguish f~rs' practices and problems? If not one or rrore of these factors, what else on the checklist might define different danains? As researchers gain rrore experience in danain fonnation they will probably rely less on a formal checklist.~/ But the process is always the same, considering how a series of circumstances affect how a famer undertakes a particular enterprise.In the examples considered so far a single factor (e.g. altitude or fann size) has been used to divide a research area into reccmnendation danains. But it is not always the case that only one factor influences famer practices and research opportunities. Researchers nust exhaust the possihilities on their checklist in the search for relevant circumstances for defining danains. An exarrple of maize research in Peru was discussed earlier, in which researchers identified two danains, based on altitude. In fact, the actual situation was rrore carplicated, as there were other i:rrp:>rtant differences in famers' circumstances in the research area. In the lower zone there were two principal fann typessmall fanns averaging less than 2 hectares and large fanns averaging 40 has. These two fann types had quite different patterns of rotation, input use, varietal requirements and maize sales. In the higher zone there were not such marked differences in fann size, but sene famers had 57 Researchers will have their own preferences on how to think: about these factors during diagnosis. Collinson (1979), for instance, suggests first considering agroecological factors and then rrovi.l'lg to \"hierarchical\" divisions due to socioeconanic differences.access to irrigation while others did not (all fa.rrrers in the lONer zone had irrigation). This was responsible for significant differences in rotations and input use. Thus there were actually four different recarm:md.ation danains in the research area, based on altitude, farm size and access to irrigation.In order to form reccmrendation danains researchers must study the circt.nnStances and practices of famers in their area. Using a checklist of circumstances they can consider in turn various possibilities for defining recanrendation danains. It may be that the area is harogeneous enough to constitute a single reccmrendation danain. If not, there are usually one or at rrost a few key circumstances that can be used to define danains. This is not to say that the differences between the danains are necessarily sinple, but only that there should be a relatively straightforward way of identifying and describing them.In the case of the two danains fomed by differences in altitude, researchers are not so much interested in altitude ~se but rather in the way altitude is responsible for determining two quite different, carplex patterns of disease and pest incidence, cropping cycle and varietal preferences. It is these factors that determine the practices that fanrers follON and the innovations that they are likely to adopt.It is these factors that dictate two seParate sets of on-farm exPeri.mmts for researchers. Delimiting the two danains in terms of altitude is simply a convenient way of identifying the danains and helping researchers to plan their work. It may be that the distinction between altitude zones is even correlated with other factors such as human population density, with lONer densities at the higher elevations. This would lead to differences in rotation patterns and soil fertility between the two domains, even though there is no ~priori relationship between altitude and rotation. Again, the denanination of the high elevation and the low elevation danains is a convenient way of describing a whole series of different circumstances arrong two groups of famers.It is often asked if this process of danain formation is adequate for covering all famers in a research area. Will there not be a few fanners in the high elevation danain, for instance, whose practices are different fran the rest? Or might there not be scme fanners whose circumstances are in between the two altitude zones? There may well be, but are there enough such fanners to make it worthwhile to fonn separate reccrcrrendation danains? Recall that danains are fomed so that researchers can effectively deal with the majority of fanners in a Particular area. The selection of good criteria for danain fonnation will result in a ff?ll large danains, each roughly harogeneous with respect to major research opportunities and current production practices, with distinct differences between danains. There may be sane fanners who are not covered by the definitions, but forming special danains for them might not be a wise use of research resources.The question of which fanners should be addressed by an experi.Irental program is not only related to research efficiency, but also to policy.If several danains have been identified it is often necessary to decide which ones will receive attention. Very often national policy will contribute to making these decisions, as priority may be given to certain tyPes of fanners (small fanners, camercially-oriented fanners, etc.) or to certain tyPes of crops (basic grains, cash crops, etc.). As research policy is usually concerned with obtaining high benefits fran a given research invest:Irent, this also often implies concentration on danains that contain the largest mnnbers of fanners and present the nost promising opportunities for improving productivity •The relationship between policy and on-fann research is not one-way, however. There are substantial opportunities for feedback fran on-fann research to policy makers. In the case of recarmendation danains there is the opportunity for providing policy makers a much clearer idea of the nature of the farming popUlation. Very often policy mandates are stated in tenns of \"target groups\" whose definition (e.g. \"the small fanners of region X\") masks considerable variation in circumstances and potential.Illlch nore precise targeting.There is an apparent paradox in the definition of a recarrcendation danain. If it is defined as a group of fanrers whose circumstances are similar enough to make them elegible for the sane recarmendation, how can we be sure of the constitution of the danain before the recamendation has been made? The answer is that we often cannot be corrpletely certain, Procedures for assessing famers' circumstances are described in Byerlee, Collinson et al. (1980). These procedures include a review of secondary data, an exploratory survey and, often, a short, well-focused fornal survey.Initial hypotheses on variables for dividing fanrers into danains may be developed during a review of secondary data for the research area.Keeping in mind the checklist (Table 1) of circumstances which may affect danain fonnation, the researchers can examine the secondary data with an During the exploratory survey, developrent of hypotheses on reccmrendation danains and hypotheses on research opportunities proceed together. Researchers strive to understand ha.v different circumstances lead to different practices and problems, and whether or not these differences are relevant to the research opportunities that have been identified. For exanple, if the important research opportunities in a maize area appear to be insect control and disease-resistant varieties, then soil differences may not define reccmrendation danains. If, in the sarre area, the principal research opportunities turn out to be fertilization and rroisture conservation then the difference between maize farms on sandy soils and those on heavier soils is probably enough to detennine two seParate recamendation danains.There need not be any difference in current fanrer practice in order for a particular research opportunity to divide an area into different danains.In one area in Honduras both land o.vners and renters had sj milar maize practices, using a maize-falla.v rotation which alla.ved several years between crops of maize on one piece of land. Research opportunities for weed control and variety were the sarre for both groups.But in thinking about the possibility of intensifying the system by introducing a cover crop of velvet beans which would alla.v several years of continuous maize plantings, the difference between owners (woo had assured access to their plots over time) and renters (who did not) becane important, and defined two different danains with reSPect to this opportunity. The interaction between research opportunities and danain boundaries is therefore quite :i.nportant. The survey analysis should seek to identify a small number of danains, each as harogeneous as PJssible, which allCM efficient research on the highest priority therres. The survey may, for instance, define two recamendation danains with ve:ry distinct research opportunities, as in the exanple of danains defined by altitude in Peru.In that case, research on maize varieties (one of several opportunities) was oriented by farrrer reSPJnses to a question on principal problans. Those at the laver altitude indicated a problem with leaf fungus disease, while those at the higher altitude expressed interest in maize of a shorter cycle because of frost damage.In other cases, two danains may share at least sate research opportunities, but require exPeriIrentation under different conditions.Danains that are defined by access to irrigation, for instance, may share chemical weed control in maize as a research opportunity, but different products, levels and application methods may be indicated for each danain. The survey is used in this case to define the circumstances that are representative of irrigated and non-irrigated danains, in order to choose the levels of non-experiIrental variables for each danain.Particular care must be taken when proposed criteria for danain formation are proxies for actual practices and conditions . Analysis of the survey should lead to major, as opposed to merely statistically significant, differences between danains. For exanple, in one survey in a barley producing area tractor ownership was proposed as a criterion for distinguishing recattrendation danains . Analysis of the survey shCMed several differences in land preparation between tractor owners and renters. In the case of early harrCMing before ploughing, for instance, 54% of the owners, but only 41% of the rent.e:rs, did a pre-plough harrCMing.The difference was statistically significant (at 5%) and shCMed, not surprisingly, a tendency for tractor owners to do a rrore thorough job of preparing their fields than tractor renters. Differences of this nagnitude were observed for several other land preparation rrethods. They were not, hCMever, sufficient to define recamendation danains. Whether or not the farner did an early harrCMing was affected by carpeting labor danands, previous crops, soil conditions, and several other factors besides nachinery ownership. Thus rrore effort should be nade to specify the carplex of cirClmlStances that conditions land preparation rrethods. The single factor of tractor ownership identified in the survey, although responsible for statistically significant differences in practices, is not sufficient to divide the research area into t\\'JO clearly distinguishable danains. In the rreantirre, if research o~rtunities are identified which interact with land preparation (seeding rrethods and timing, for instance), then research should be carried out for the najor categories of land preparation, using land preparation itself as a defining characteristic of the danains, rather than tractor ownershtp, which is only a weak proxy.~/ 4.4) Using danains as a franework for on-farm research Once recoomendation danains are identified they are used as the basis for the on-farm experirrental program. Experirrents are designed for specific re<XJIlrendation danains; the exact nurrber of a certain experirrent to be planted in one danain dePends largely on the type of experirrent.If it is an experirrent of an exploratory nature then it nay be rePeated only a few tines, while if it is a verification experirrent (the stage just before deronstration) then it will be very widely distributed within 6/ This exarrple assurres that land preparation itself is not an o~rtunity for investigation, which of course nay not be the case. different Irerrbers of the sane danain. In tenus of analysis of variance, \"site by treatrrent interaction\" should not be consistently significant.When this interaction tenn is significant (at an appropriate level) researchers should see if this is merely randan variation (e.g. because of rainfall differences), or if there is a constant factor (e.g. a previously unidentified difference in soil tyPes) which is responsible.In the latter case, this may lead to a division of what was fonrerly one danain into two or nore. SimilarI y , when experi.rra1tal results are consistently unifonn across two danains, researchers may consider canbining them into one.Once danain boundaries are finnly identified, the agronanic, econanic and statistical analysis of experi.rra1ts proceeds by pooling the data within each danain.The results are then used to fonn reccmnendations for the danain.At ti.nes research programs wish to use a set of tentative danains to organize OPR in a large area. Senior research planners may feel, for example, that one danain may occur in nUI'l'erous small defined areas (each handled by a different OPR field team). To reduce duplication of effort in on-fann trials, these senior researchers may wish to make a first \"rough cut\" at danain fonnation, assigning each OPR field team to work with one or two of them.In these cases, \"zoning\" procedures can be used. Specifically, fonnation of nUI'l'erous tentative danains in a large area can be initiated by rreans of a very brief fonnal survey with local extension personnel that provides data for grouping together famers with similar fanning systems. As OPR teams are assigned to initiate fieldwork, they can accept or adjust the tentative danains identified in the zoning process.81 This section draws heavily on the experience of M. Collinson (1979) and S. Franzel (1981) in East Africa.As researchers deal with danain fornation in their study areas several issues and ccrrplications tend to arise. These include questions of danain size, danain permanence and others. The purpose of this section is to discuss these questions and show how they may be addressed.What is the appropriate size of a recarm:mdation danain? There is no set answer to this question, but obviously the larger the danains the nore cost-effective will be the research program.Danain size is influenced by the heterogeneity of the area. In places where there are many different microclimates and great variations in the socioeconanic circumstances of famers a relatively large mmber of danains are likely to be identified. In other places, vast areas may be subject to similar circumstances and famer practices, and a feN danains will suffice.Danain size is also determined by the availability of research resources.More resources allow the exploration of nore research opportunities and thus the delineation and managerent of nore and smaller danains. At times these factors may have contradictory influences on danain size, as when work is carried out in a very carplex, heterogeneous target area with very feN resources available for i.nplerenting OFR. In these cases a decision is often taken to carry out research in only a feN high-priority danains, selected according to research opportunities, famer characteristics or national policy.Danain size is thus bounded on the small side by expected returns to research expenditures. Domains should not be so small that benefits fran neN technology for that danain are less than corresponding research costs (or better, less than the expected returns fran alternative uses of research resources). J:)cnain size need not be bounded on the large side.In fact, danains should be as large as possible, with the oondition that famers in the danain can still be expected to adopt reccmrendations arising fran work on major research opportunities. Large danains allCM the fixed costs of on-fann trials to be spread over a wider mmber of users.In practice, danain sizes dem:>nstrate considerable variation. They have ranged fran a feN thousand fanrers to several tens of thousands, or nnre. There is clearly no \"best\" size for a recan:rendation danain.We have already seen that the definition of danains may be refined during the process of on-fann research.As workers becare better a<:x:IUainted with the area, their PerSPeCtive of research opportunities and agronanic responses will change, leading at ti.rces to redefinition of danains.Similarly, we have seen that danain definitions are linked to research opportunities, and as research therres tend to shift over ti.rce these shifts often require adjustments in danain boundaries. In one research area in Ecuador, for exanple, where maize was the principal crop, farmers with and without canplerrentary irrigation constituted a single danain for maize research, as no significant differences in practices could be detected between these two groups of fanrers. But as research progressed, and especially as an early-maturing maize was released for famers which allowed neN rotation patterns, the difference in access to irrigation becarre inportant. Rotation possibilities that included crops grown in the dry season were much different between these two groups of famers, and where previously there had been a single danain two were formed as research advanced.It must be kept in mind that the sinplified, shorthand definitions of dana.ins really serve to sumnarize researchers' perceptions of how a canplex of fanrer practices and circumstances influence the identification and developnent of research opportunities. As these op{x)rtunities change and evolve so do danain definitions. Dcmains may be joined, split or otherwise redefined, and researchers should do so when research efficiency may be i.rrproved. The soil type determined land preParation and crop rotation possibilities and hence strongly influenced the nature of the weed population. Thus seParate sets of weed control experirrents were planted in the two danains. SOil type had no influence on varietal requirenents however, so the area constituted only one danain with respect to variety, and the nurrber of variety trials planted (across the two soil types) was appropriate for a single d.anain. If there were reasons to suspect an interaction between varietal perfonnance and soil.type (or the practices detennined by soil type), however, two sets of variety trials would be indicated.In certain cases, the experi..nental program may be exactly the sane between danains. In the exarrple of the two danains distinguished by soil type it may be that similar fertilizer trials should be planted in both danains in the initial stages of experi..nentation although the agronanic responses and final reeattrendations will likely be different. Or in the case of d.anains distinguished not by soil type but rather by land tenure, the sane fertilizer trials may give the same agronanic response, but lONer net benefits to sharecroppers than to CMIlers will mean sarewhat different fertilizer recan:rendations for the two d.anains. In this latter case, a single set of experi.rrents may suffice for deriving the two different reccmrendations.As national agricultural research programs rrove toward on-fann research, the need grCMs for a way to specify the clientele for that research. The recanrendation danain concept can fill this need.Conceptually, a danain is a group of farrrers with similar circumstances who are eligible for the same recanrendation.Operationally, danains are forrred around famers with similar practices for a given enterprise and for whan researchers see similar opportunities for the inproverrent of these practices. Such famers can be grouped together in terms of biological and/or socioeconanic variables.Recamendation danains are useful as a frarrework for on-fann research.As researchers strive to select the feN rrost irrportant experi.Irental variables and then study them under representative conditions, danains provide the necessary context for defining \"irrportant\" and \"representative\". Recamendation danains also provide a criterion for pooling the data obtained fran on-fann trials, thus In providing a frarrework for on-fann research, recamendation danains are a useful tool. Like all tools, hCMever, they are ItOst helpful when used with imagination and care.","tokenCount":"5130"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dc87d11fcd29efc07643f9b059b42855","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/76665a65-bde9-4591-94e1-5cf097bfab49/retrieve","id":"787534105"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4fc74c87-6759-4639-bc81-f47b658a0e6f","pagecount":"279","content":"L'aliment est un besoin fondamental pour la vie ! L'agriculture, l'élevage et la pêche fournissent à l'homme une variété de produits qui doivent être conservés pour être consommés sur une plus longue période. Le développement des méthodes de conservation a contribué à la production d'aliments au niveau mondial, au point qu'aujourd'hui, on estime que la production alimentaire mondiale est suffisante pour nourrir toute l'humanité. Cependant, il existe de grandes disparités en matière de disponibilité alimentaire, en particulier en Afrique au Sud du Sahara où la précarité alimentaire, l'augmentation galopante de la population et l'urbanisation effrénée font craindre le pire pour le futur.Différentes stratégies ont été mises en oeuvre pour remédier à cette situation, notamment l'augmentation de la production agricole à travers des paquets technologiques plus productifs. Cependant, la sécurité alimentaire ne peut être garantie uniquement par l'augmentation de la production. Les efforts consentis peuvent donc être annihilés si l'accent n'est pas également mis sur la réduction des pertes post-récolte de manière à s'assurer qu' à terme, l'intégralité de la production se retrouve sur la table des consommateurs, à l'état frais ou transformé.La transformation et la conservation des produits alimentaires nécessitent des opérations destinées à leur assurer une bonne qualité en les rendant attractifs, comestibles, délicieux et nutritifs pour le consommateur. Le stockage, la distribution et le commerce des aliments nécessitent que ceux-ci aient une durée de vie commerciale relativement longue et soient d'une bonne innocuité pour les consommateurs. La qualité de l'aliment s'apprécie à travers tous ces facteurs. Par conséquent, elle est essentielle aussi bien pour le producteur que pour le consommateur.Il est alors important de développer des savoir-faire technologiques et des infrastructures adéquats pour satisfaire la demande d'aliments de bonne qualité. Dans le contexte du continent africain qui doit aujourd'hui, plus que par le passé, faire face à une crise d'identité culturelle alimentaire, du fait de la mondialisation, cette nécessité de développement technologique revêt une importance toute particulière.Le Centre technique de coopération agricole et rurale (CTA) a été créé en 1983 dans le cadre de la Convention de Lomé entre les pays ACP (Pays d'Afrique, des Caraïbes et du Pacifique) et les États membres de l'Union européenne. Depuis 2000, il exerce ses activités dans le cadre de l'Accord de Cotonou ACP-CE. Le CTA a pour mission de développer et de fournir des services visant à améliorer l'accès à l'information en faveur du développement agricole et rural. Il cherche également à renforcer la capacité des pays ACP à produire, acquérir, échanger et utiliser des informations dans ce domaine. Les programmes du CTA s'articulent autour de quatre thèmes principaux :• améliorer la gestion de l'information et élaborer des stratégies de partenariat en vue de formuler et de mettre en oeuvre des politiques de développement ;• promouvoir les contacts et l'échange d'expériences ;• fournir aux partenaires ACP des informations à leur demande ;• et renforcer leurs capacités à acquérir des informations et à les communiquer.CTA, Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, Pays-Bas LISTE DES SYMBOLES a w activité de l'eau (-) A la constante de Hamaker (J) c concentration (mol.l -1 ) c ch capacité de chaleur c s chaleur spécifique (J.kg -1 .K -1 ) CV coefficient de variation (-) d distance (m) D temps de réduction décimale (min) d ch chaleur de congélation (J.kg -1 ) D f diffusivité (m 2 s -1 ) E a l'énergie d'activation (J.mol -1 ) F temps de léthalité (min) F f force frictionnelle (N) F g force gravitationnelle (N) g accélération de gravité (m 2 s -1 ) G module de rigidité (N m -2 ) G l gradient de vitesse d'écoulement laminaire (s -1 ) h distance (m) H longueur (m) J B nombre de rencontres dues au mouvement Brownien (s -1 ) J G nombre de rencontres dues au mouvement laminaire (s -1 ) k constante de vitesse d'une reaction (mol l -1 ) 1-n s -1 ) k B constante de Boltzmann (1.38×10 -23 J K -1 ) k c transfert de la chaleur (W.m -2 .K -1 ) k 0 facteur pré-exponentiel (loi d'Arrhenius) k s constante de la loi viscosité de traction (Pa s, Ns m -2 ) 1/κ distance caractéristique colloidale (nm) λ puissance de conductibilité (W.m -1 .K -1 ) µ taux de croissance v vitesse d'une réaction ρ densité (kg m -3 ) σ contrainte de cisaillement (N m -2 ) σ 0 contrainte de seuil (N m -2 ) ψ d la charge électrique (V)La science alimentaire se définit comme une combinaison des sciences fondamentales et des sciences appliquées s'occupant des diverses étapes comprises entre la production primaire des aliments végétaux et animaux et la consommation des produits finis. L'homme a fait depuis très longtemps de nombreux efforts pour conserver ses produits agricoles. Par exemple, la bière Babylonienne date de 7000 avant J.C., et les Romains avaient des abattoirs en l'an 100 après J.C. Tout au long de son histoire, l'homme a été confronté à la nécessité de disposer de ressources alimentaires sous forme de réserves. On distingue cinq motivations :•D'abord sa préoccupation est de garantir sa survie pendant la période annuelle où la production agricole n'est pratiquement pas possible (la saison sèche en pays tropicaux et subtropicaux, la saison froide en pays tempérés). Ce sont en premier lieu ses aliments de base que tout groupe humain a cherché à conserver : les céréales, les légumineuses, les racines et tubercules, ainsi que les viandes et les poissons. •En second lieu, l'homme a toujours cherché à disposer d'aliments variés, autant par nécessité biologique que par plaisir et aussi pour des raisons de sécurité : en étendant la gamme de produits comestibles, les populations réduisent leur dépendance et de ce fait le risque de famine. •Tous les aliments récoltés à certaines saisons (par exemple les fruits) ou de façon périodique (produits de pêche ou de chasse) ont donné lieu à la mise au point de techniques de conservation en vue de leur stockage. Exemples : séchage à l'air libre ou à l'abri des oiseaux et insectes, fermentation, salage, fumage,..... Le souci de conserver la viande, en particulier leComposants principaux et propriétés des aliments gros gibier obtenu par la chasse collective et le poisson pour les consommer plus tard ou les exporter vers d'autres régions, est depuis des siècles une préoccupation de bien des peuples. •Par ailleurs, l'homme a peu à peu élaboré des méthodes de préparation qui rendent l'aliment consommable, plus digestible ou de meilleur goût. Il a ainsi pu utiliser des espèces ou variétés inconsommables en l'état en faisant disparaître les composés toxiques : par exemple les variétés amères de manioc dont l'acide cyanhydrique est éliminé par rouissage, la pomme de terre dont les alcaloïdes sont détruits au cours du trempage associé à une fermentation. Les différents modes de cuisson mis au point par l'homme permettent parfois une augmentation de la digestibilité par la gélatinisation de l'amidon ou la dénaturation des protéines. •La saveur, la texture et l'appétence des aliments sont aussi le plus souvent améliorées par la cuisson et on peut constater que tous les groupes humains connus pratiquent la cuisson sur le feu.Le début du développement de la science alimentaire était stimulé par la nécessité de conserver les aliments. En 1810, Nicolas Appert a décrit la conservation des aliments dans des bocaux en verre à l'aide de la chaleur. Beaucoup plus tard en 1860, c'était Louis Pasteur qui a découvert un nombre d'espèces de micro-organismes et leur importance par rapport à la détérioration et la fermentation des aliments. Le développement de nouveaux produits industriels a commencé par Mège Mouriés en 1869 avec l'invention de la margarine comme substitut économique du beurre. L'étude des micro-organismes a été facilité par l'invention de la coloration de Gram par le Prof. Gram (1884) et le développement des techniques stériles par Robert Koch.On peut positionner la science alimentaire au centre de nombreuses sciences fondamentales et appliquées, tout comme un système solaire dont la science alimentaire représenterait le centre.Ce livre traite des aliments, leur transformation, conservation et qualité. Par ordre de présentation la composition des aliments et leurs ingrédients primaires seront traités dans la chapitre 1, suivie dans la chapitre 2 par les facteurs de détérioration. Avant la discussion sur la conservation (chapitre 4), on traitera de quelques méthodes de transformation (chapitre 3). Tout au long de la chaîne de production depuis la matière première jusqu'au produit fini, la qualité des produits et la sécurité hygiénique sont essentielles. On abordera les aspects de qualité dans la chapitre 5. Dans le contexte tropical, quelques exemples des procédés de transformation de produits spécifiques seront discutés dans la chapitre 6. Un certain nombre de livres plus spécialisés sont présentés dans la bibliographie. Enfin, le lexique terminologique présente, par ordre alphabétique, quelques termes et notions importantes.Les composants chimiques 1.2 Les composants chimiques et leur importance technologiqueLa teneur en eau des produits alimentaires joue un rôle déterminant durant leur conservation. En effet, les micro-organismes ne peuvent pas se multiplier en absence d'eau. La teneur en eau disponible est un facteur primordial ; il représente l'activité (chimique) de l'eau, ou a w . On peut déterminer l'activité de l'eau a w par la formule suivante :dans laquelle P signifie la pression de vapeur. La définition pour les solutions idéales est :L'activité de l'eau (a w ) de certains aliments est présenté au tableau 1.2.1.En effet, une partie de l'eau contenue dans le produit alimentaire n'est pas disponible pour des réactions. En réduisant la teneur en eau disponible, c'est-à-dire en abaissant son a w , on améliore la stabilité microbienne du produit. Pour ce faire, on peut procéder de deux façons : soit éliminer une partie de l'eau libre par séchage ou déshydratation ou concentration, soit augmenter la teneur en solutés en ajoutant du sel, du sucre, etc. (cf. l'équation 1.2).Par ailleurs, il faut remarquer que la teneur en eau d'un aliment (%) et l'activité de l'eau du même aliment ne sont pas liées directement, comme l'illustre le tableau 1.2.2.( Dans la figure 1.2.1 une isotherme de sorption est donnée pour un aliment ayant une faible teneur en eau.Les courbes d'adsorption et de désorption (processus de séchage) ne suivent pas la même allure; ce phénomène est appelé \"hystérésis\". Pendant le séchage les capillaires se ferment, pour les re-ouvrir, il faut une pression partielle de l'eau plus élevée.On distingue trois régions de comportement de l'eau dans les courbes de sorption. Pendant l'adsorption d'humidité, la surface du produit est couverte par une couche monomoléculaire (Région A: l'eau liée). La région B correspond à l'eau nécessaire pour former une échelle d' hydratation. L'eau de la région C se met dans les capillaires ou est libre.Généralement l'eau est mobile sauf dans la région A.Dans la figure 1.2.2 on peut voir l'influence de l'activité de l'eau sur quelques réactions d'importance pour la détérioration des aliments. Les protides sont des polymères composés de divers acides aminés. Les acides aminés (Fig. 1.2.3) sont couplés par des liaisons peptidiques, en formant des polypeptides. Les acides aminés les plus importants sont présentés au tableau 1.2.3. Les protides se trouvent dans la plupart des aliments en taux très divers. Dans les produits d'origine végétale, les protides se présentent comme une source de nutriments de réserve dans le cytoplasme des cellules. Dans les viandes et les poissons, on trouve les protides surtout dans les muscles. Du point de vue de la nutrition humaine, les protides sont une source essentielle d'acides aminés. Le tableau 1.2.4 donne la teneur en protides de quelques aliments. Quelques propriétés des protides d'importance dans le cadre de la transformation sont :•Solubilité dans l'eau : elle est influencée par la salinité et le pH. En principe, la solubilité augmente la valeur nutritive. En addition, les protides solubilisés influencent le comportement physico-chimique des aliments. •Coagulation : elle est provoquée par la chaleur (dénaturation), la salinité et la présence de diverses enzymes. La coagulation est d'importance par exemple pour la fabrication du fromage qui est constituée de caséine coagulée. •Décomposition par hydrolyse : quand les protides sont hydrolysés, les peptides et les acides aminés formés auront une plus forte solubilité dans l'eau. Ceci augmente la valeur nutritive et la saveur des produits peut être améliorée par certains acides aminés libres. •Les réactions de Maillard se réalisent entre les groupes aminés des protides, peptides, acides aminés, et les sucres réducteurs. L'importance de ces réactions est la formation des substances de couleur et de goût, mais aussi la perte de valeur nutritive. Il est également recommandé de consulter le lexique terminologique.Du point de vue chimique, la plupart des lipides sont des glycérides des acides gras. Les glycérides se présentent souvent comme des triglycérides (Figure 1.2.4). Les lipides sont importants dans la nutrition comme une source d'énergie et d'acides gras essentiels. Il y a des acides gras insaturés et des acides gras saturés. Les acides gras insaturés sont sensibles à l'oxydation. Le taux des lipides peut varier; par exemple le manioc est très pauvre (1-2%) en lipides, tandis que les arachides contiennent environ 45% de leur poids sous forme d'huile.Quelques propriétés générales des lipides d'importance sont : •Qu'elles sont hydrophobes (non-miscibles avec l'eau), et ont la capacité de former des émulsions avec la phase aqueuse; •On peut extraire les lipides des aliments en utilisant des solvants organiques; les lipides eux-mêmes sont des solvants pour certaines vitamines; •Leur poids spécifique est inférieur au P.S. de l'eau, causant la flottation des lipides à la surface de l'eau (par exemple l'écrémage du lait est causé par la différence de poids spécifique); En addition des lipides il y a d'autres matières grasses comme par exemple la lécithine, qui est un phospholipide. La lécithine a une grande importance technologique; elle est utilisée comme produit de stabilisation des émulsions.La détérioration des matières grasses peut avoir lieu de 2 manières :•Par l'hydrolyse causée par des enzymes (lipases) : les acides gras libres formés sont assez volatiles et causent une odeur de rancidité, •Par oxydation catalysée par des enzymes (par exemple les lypoxygénases) ou des traces de métaux (par exemple Cu, Fe); les cétones et les aldéhydes formés causent une odeur piquante. On peut éviter ou freiner l'oxydation par l'addition des produits antioxydants. Ce thème est traité dans le chapitre 2.Les saccharides sont très répandus dans les produits d'origine végétale; les produits d'origine animale contiennent de faibles taux de saccharides. Les molécules les plus grandes sont les polysaccharides contenant quelques centaines d' unités de monosaccharides. Les polysaccharides les plus importants sont l'amidon (dont l'amylose et l'amylopectine), le glycogène, la cellulose, l'agar-agar, les gommes et les matières pectineuses.Du point de vue technologique, l'importance des saccharides est énorme. Comme les polysaccharides ont leurs fonctions de fibres (par exemple la cellulose et les matières pectineuses) qui donnent la fermeté aux tissus végétaux, leur décomposition changera la texture des produits. En plus, l'amidon et le glycogène ont une fonction de réserve de saccharides. L'amidon peut être gélatinisé par la chaleur en présence de l'eau. L'amidon est une nourriture très importante pour les populations du monde entier. L'amidon peut être décomposé par l'action des enzymes pour la fabrication de maltose et de glucose, que l'on peut transformer en plusieurs produits importants.Les di-et monosaccharides ont des propriétés très importantes qui déterminent la qualité des produits alimentaires. Par exemple, ils ont un goût sucré. Ce pouvoir édulcorant varie selon les saccharides, comme l'illustre le tableau 1.2.6.En plus, les saccharides sont caramélisés en présence de la chaleur et de l'acide. Cette réaction influence la couleur et le goût. Ensuite, les saccharides peuvent être fermentés par les microorganismes. La fermentation peut être indésirable dans certains cas : on la considère comme une détérioration. Mais on connaît aussi des fermentations désirables (la fermentation alcoolique du vin, de la bière et du dolo, la fermentation lactique du yaourt et du fromage) pour lesquelles le glucose, le maltose et le lactose sont des ingrédients indispensables.Pour les applications diététiques on utilise des produits édulcorants de base non-saccharide parce qu'ils ne représentent pas d'énergie métabolisable. Quelques exemples de ces produits sont la saccharine et la thaumatine.La saccharine (acide benzoïque-o-sulfimide; Figure 1.2.6) est très utilisée dans les régimes diabétiques.La thaumatine est un protide/peptide d'origine végétale, que l'on peut produire aussi par voie biotechnologique. Du point de vue chimique , les saccharides sont composés de C, H et O. Les unités les plus petites sont les monosaccharides, dont les plus importants sont le glucose, le galactose, et le fructose. La figure 1.2.5 présente quelques exemples. Couplés, 2 monosaccharides constituent un disaccharide. Les disaccharides les plus importants sont le saccharose, le lactose et le maltose. Ainsi, on connaît les trisaccharides, les tétrasaccharides, etc.Tables de compositionLes minéraux se trouvent soit sous la forme inorganique comme des sels (par exemple dans l'eau potable et dans le lait), soit sous la forme organique comme constituants de complexes organiques (par exemple le magnésium se trouve dans la chlorophylle, le fer dans l'hémoglobine, le cuivre dans le sang des mollusques, le phosphore dans le phytate, le soufre dans quelques acides aminés, le calcium et le phosphate dans la caséine.)Les vitamines sont des micro-nutriments indispensables pour le métabolisme humain. On les distingue par leur solubilité soit dans l'eau (la vitamine C, et celles du complexe-B), soit dans les lipides (les vitamines A, D, E, et K). En général, les vitamines sont sensibles à la chaleur, à l'oxydation et à la lumière.La plupart des aliments frais d' origine végétale ou animale contiennent une multitude d'enzymes. Ce sont des protides que l'on peut définir comme biocatalyseurs des réactions du métabolisme. Les enzymes ont une action spécifique. Souvent, ils sont thermolabiles. Quelques exemples sont les amylases (décomposant l'amidon), les protéinases (décomposant les protides), les lipases (décomposant les lipides), et les oxydases (catalysant les réactions d'oxydation).Selon l'origine du produit, il y a une multitude de composants chimiques qui se présentent à des taux faibles mais qui peuvent donner des propriétés caractéristiques. Quelques exemples sont les acides organiques, les colorants, les huiles essentielles et les composants d'odeur et de la saveur.Du point de vue de la nutrition, la connaissance de la composition des aliments et leurs ingrédients est très importante. On fait la distinction entre les macro-nutriments et les micro-nutriments.Les macro-nutriments comprennent les protéines, les lipides et les saccharides ou glucides, tandis que les micro-nutriments sont les sels minéraux, les vitamines et d'autres composants de teneur faible mais importants pour la santé du consommateur.Du point de vue de la technologie des transformations, la connaissance de la composition est essentielle pour mieux ajuster les conditions de transformation aux sensibilités des composants. Par exemple, plusieurs vitamines sont perdues aisément par des traitements à l'eau, ou par chauffage. La documentation professionnelle fournit des « tables de composition » qui offrent l'information sur les macro-et micro-nutriments. Dans ces tables, les aliments sont groupés selon leur origine (les céréales, les fruits, les poissons, etc.).En général on distingue la « composition approximative » qui spécifie les pourcentages d'eau, de protéines, de saccharides, et les valeurs énergétiques, et la composition plus spécifique en minéraux, vitamines, acides aminés, etc. Ici, nous présenterons quelques exemples représentatives des aliments de l'Afrique de l'Ouest qui ont été reproduits (avec permission) à partir des tables de Oguntona & Akinyele (1995) Un micro-organisme est un organisme vivant, le plus souvent végétal, que l'on peut seulement observer à l'aide d'un microscope (voir lexique). Les micro-organismes peuvent être classés en cinq groupes majeurs : les virus dépourvus de structure cellulaire, les protozoaires qui sont de structure unicellulaire, les bactéries, les levures et les champignons ou moisissures. Les trois derniers groupes sont importants en sciences alimentaires. Quelques caractéristiques de ces trois groupes sont présentées au tableau 2.1.1. forme : coques, bâtons, ou spirales grandeur : 1 à 3 µm (1 µm = 10 -3 mm), le plus souvent unicellulaires. Levures forme : ovoïde, grandeur : ≈10 µm, grand pouvoir de fermentation des saccharides en alcool et dioxyde de carbone, le plus souvent unicellulaires. Champignons forme : mycélium multicellulaire, grandeur d'une cellule : ≈ 20 µm.Les bactéries sont des organismes unicellulaires de type primitif (cellule procaryote), alors que les levures et les champignons ont dans leurs cellules des structures comparables à celles des cellules animales (cellule eucaryote). On distingue les bactéries par quelques propriétés morphologiques comme la forme des cellules, la structure de l'enveloppe autour de la cellule et leurs propriétés métaboliques et génétiques.La cellule bactérienne présente différentes formes dont les plus courantes sont la coque (Figure 2.1.1) (par exemple : streptocoque) et le bacille (ou bâton), voir figure 2.1.2. Ses dimensions varient de 0,2 à une dizaine de µm. La cellule bactérienne est limitée par une membrane cytoplasmique et par une enveloppe de structure variable selon les espèces. La nature chimique de cette enveloppe permet de classer les bactéries en deux groupes, Gram+ et Gram-, à l'aide d'une coloration simple (la coloration de Gram, voir aussi le lexique).Il est difficile de donner des notions générales sur la physiologie des bactéries, parce qu'il existe une grande diversité de types trophiques et respiratoires. Les bactéries intéressantes pour la microbiologie alimentaire sont hétérotrophes : ça veut dire qu'elles nécessitent la présence d'un substrat organique. Certaines espèces sont saprophytes, vivant librement dans la nature ; d'autres sont des commensales de l'homme ou des animaux et enfin d'autres sont des parasites ou possèdent un pouvoir pathogène ou toxique.Selon les espèces, les bactéries sont aérobies ou anaérobies et ceci d'une manière stricte ou facultative. Les aérobies ont besoin d'oxygène pour vivre. Les anaérobies sont détruits par l'oxygène; ils ne peuvent vivre qu'en absence d'oxygène et pour les anaéro- -Gram-positif, Lactobacillus (\"bactérie du lait\"), -Gram-négatif Escherichia coli, Salmonella b) sporulés : toujours Gram-positif : -aérobie, Bacillus, -anaérobie Clostridium bies facultatifs, l'oxygène n'a pas d'influence sur leur vie. Le tableau 2.1.2 présente quelques exemples de bactéries. Dans des conditions défavorables, certaines espèces formeront une spore bactérienne : partie de la cellule qui est formée dans certaines circonstances et qui est assez résistante à la chaleur. Quand, après un traitement à la chaleur, la spore survit, elle peut se développer en une nouvelle cellule.Les cellules peuvent avoir une mobilité active grâce à l'existence d'un système ciliaire ; un ou plusieurs cils à position polaire ou périphérique.Les levures ne sont pas classifiées comme les bactéries, mais selon l'assimilation et la fermentation des saccharides. Beaucoup d'espèces de levures ont un pouvoir caractéristique de fermentation. Exemples de levures : Saccharomyces, Candida. La structure cellulaire est présentée sur la figure 2.1.3. La plupart des levures se multiplient par bourgeonnement (Figure 2.1.4) tandis que certaines se divisent comme les bactéries (par exemple les Schizosaccharomyces).Il y a une distinction très compliquée selon les caractéristiques de morphologie, de multiplication, etc. Des exemples de quelques champignons très répandus sont Penicillium, Aspergillus, Fusarium et les Mucorales. La figure 2.1.5 montre la structure du mycélium de Penicillium comme micro-organisme multicellulaire. 17   Les micro-organismes présentent une variété étonnante de types métaboliques. Pour leur vie (entretien ou maintenance), pour leur développement (croissance et multiplication), pour l'expression de leurs propriétés (mobilité, luminance....), ils ont besoin d'énergie et d'éléments nutritifs. Le catabolisme est l'ensemble des réactions qui permettent la récupération d'énergie biologiquement utilisable et la production de métabolites de base à partir de nutriments. L'anabolisme est l'ensemble des réactions qui permettent les synthèses cellulaires à partir des métabolites de base et d'éléments du milieu. La plupart des modifications des aliments sont liées à ces mécanismes.Pour qu'un micro-organisme se développe, il doit trouver dans le milieu tous les éléments nécessaires à ses synthèses et les conditions psychochimiques favorables. Presque tous les micro-organismes intéressants pour l'alimentation sont hétérotrophes. Ça veut dire qu'ils ont un besoin obligatoire d'une et parfois de plusieurs substances organiques, qui servent comme source d'énergie. Les éléments nécessaires sont C, H, O, N en quantité importante, P et S en quantité plus faible et enfin des éléments en quantité très faible, les sels minéraux et oligo-éléments (Ca, Co, Mg, Mn, Na, K, ....).Les conditions optimales de survie et de développement d'un micro-organisme nécessitent un milieu contenant une certaine quantité d'eau libre. Cette exigence varie selon les espèces. Les aliments peuvent être classés selon leur activité de l'eau (a w ) qui est le rapport entre la pression de vapeur de la solution (milieu, aliment) et celle de l'eau pure. Le tableau 2.1.3 montre la différence entre le taux d'humidité et l'a w . Les aliments hygroscopiques (lexique) ont un fort pouvoir d'incorporation de l'eau. Par conséquent, ils auront la même a w que les aliments moins hygroscopiques. Les activités de l'eau compatibles avec la vie et le développement microbien varient de 0,6 à 1. Les espèces pouvant se développer dans des produits à faible a w sont appelées xérophiles; celles résistant à une forte concentration en sucre ou en sel sont respectivement appelées osmophiles et halophiles (Tableau 2.1.4).Tableau 2.1.3 (gauche) Teneur en eau (%) de quelques aliments qui ont une a w de 0,70Tableau 2.1.4 (droite)  Influence de l'a w sur la vie microbienneOeuf en poudre 10 Farine de froment 13 Légumes séchés 14-18 Amidon 18 Fruits séchés 25 Temps de dédoublement (t g ) en fonction de la température Tableau 2.1.6 (droite)Croissance bactérienne en 24h en fonction de la température (N 0 = 2 000)Tableau 2.1.7 Thermorésistance de quelques micro-organismes 2. 1.3.3 Température On distingue différentes catégories de micro-organismes selon leur optimum de croissance en fonction de la température :Psychrophiles : -5 à +15 °C, Mésophiles :+15 à +40 °C, Thermophiles : +40 à +55 °C.Selon la température, le dédoublement sera plus rapide comme le montre le tableau 2.1.5 où l'on a observé la croissance dans le lait cru. Le tableau 2.1.6 indique la croissance bactérienne dans le lait cru après 24 h, en fonction de la température. Il ne faut pas confondre micro-organisme thermophile et thermorésistant. La thermorésistance est l'aptitude à résister à un traitement thermique alors que la thermophilie est son aptitude à se développer à haute température. Quelques groupes de bactéries forment des spores ; les spores à faible résistance comme celles de Clostridium botulinum type E résistent 10 minutes à 90 °C ; les spores à haute thermorésistance peuvent résister 45 minutes à 120 °C. Quelques exemples sont données dans le tableau 2.1.7.Combinaison temps/température mortelle pour 1 million de germes à pH = 6,5 Le comportement des micro-organismes par rapport au pH est variable (Tableau 2.1.8). On appelle acidophiles les micro-organismes dont le pH optimum se situe au-dessous de 5,5 mais, en industrie alimentaire, on a l'habitude de classer les micro-organismes entre ceux qui peuvent se développer au-dessus et au-dessous de pH 4,5. Le pH 4,5 permet de séparer les aliments en deux groupes par rapport à leur aptitude à permettre la croissance des principales bactéries pathogènes. Au dessous de ce pH les risques sanitaires sont minimes.Quelques facteurs de détérioration des alimentsLes altérations d'origine microbienneLa plupart des produits alimentaires contiennent des micro-organismes, exceptés quelques rares produits alimentaires qui sont naturellement stériles (comme par exemple le contenu des oeufs frais.) Les légumes et les fruits sont porteurs de germes normalement présents dans le sol, l'air ou l'eau. Les viandes contiennent des germes initialement présents chez l'animal ou qui sont introduits au cours des différentes opérations de préparation. Certains de ces micro-organismes sont néfastes à la qualité de l'aliment, d'autres au contraire sont indispensables parce qu'ils participent à l'élaboration de l'aliment. Il existe un certain nombre dont la présence ou la prolifération dans l'aliment peut avoir des conséquences plus ou moins graves pour le consommateur.Les micro-organismes peuvent être les causes des maladies. L'aliment peut être porteur de quelques germes pathogènes, qui vont se multiplier dans le corps humain et causer des maladies (fièvre typhoïde, choléra, dysenterie). L'aliment peut être le milieu où se multiplient une grande quantité de micro-organismes qui, après, sont consommés avec l'aliment (intoxination alimentaire paratyphoïde). L'aliment peut être le milieu de multiplication de micro-organismes, qui sécrètent des substances toxiques (botulisme ; intoxination par les staphylocoques).Les maladies infectieuses : sont dues à la prolifération du germe au détriment du tissu de l'hôte.Les toxi-infections : les germes (10 6 -10 9 ) produisent des substances toxiques spécifiques dont le pouvoir toxique dépend de la charge microbienne.Les intoxinations : sont dues à des exotoxines produites par les micro-organismes; dans ces cas, la présence des germes euxmêmes dans l'organisme de l' hôte n'est pas indispensable. Les maladies diarrhéiques constituent un des problèmes de santé les plus importants dans les pays en voie de développement. Elles conduisent souvent à :•une issue fatale,•une alimentation réduite,•la perte d'éléments nutritifs ou leur mauvaise absorption,•le déclenchement ou l'aggravation de la malnutrition.Le respect des règles d'hygiène dans chaque maillon de la chaîne de fabrication, l'entretien des locaux et du matériel dans un bon état de propreté, le respect des consignes de traitement (chauffage, pasteurisation, stérilisation, etc.) et de conservation, sont indispensables pour sauvegarder la santé des consommateurs.Quelques facteurs de détérioration des alimentsLes facteurs les plus importants qui influencent la croissance des micro-organismes dans les aliments sont : le pH, la température, l'a w et le potentiel d'oxydo-réduction. L'altération de l'aliment est perceptible à des taux supérieurs à 10 7 bactéries/g et 10 5 levures/g. La modification des glucides : La modification des glucides s'effectue de plusieurs façons :•l'hydrolyse des polysaccharides, ce qui affecte la texture du produit ; •les fermentations alcoolique, lactique, butyrique, gluconique, le cycle de Krebs, etc. •la formation des acides carboxyliques, d'alcools, de cétones, d'aldéhydes, des odeurs et des flaveurs.La modification des protéines : Elle s'effectue de diverses façons :•l'hydrolyse des protéines en peptides et acides aminés affectant ainsi la texture du produit ; •les réactions de décarboxylation conduisant à la formation d'amines ; •les réactions de désamination conduisant à la formation d'acides organiques + NH 3 . •\"la fermentation putride\" et la putréfaction résultant de ces différentes réactions.La modification des lipides : Elle est la résultante de deux types de réactions :•la lipolyse qui conduit à la libération des acides gras,•l'oxydation des lipides conduisant au phénomène de rancissement.La dégradation des aliments par les micro-organismes entraîne successivement la modification de l'odeur, de la couleur, du goût et de l'aspect.Les odeurs : Elles sont variables selon la nature de la molécule qui en est responsable. Exemple : triméthylamine, mercaptan, diméthylsulfure, sulfure d'hydrogène, ammoniac, acide butyrique, diacétyle, rancissement.La couleur : L'altération des produits se caractérise souvent par l'apparition de zones colorées à la surface. Cette modification de couleur est essentiellement due à :•la synthèse de pigments,•la destruction ou la transformation de pigments naturels (carotène, myoglobine, polyphénols).Le goût : La modification du goût est caractérisée essentiellement par l'aigreur du produit.Aspect/structure/texture : La dégradation de ces trois caractères résulte de :•la modification de macromolécules (pectine, (hemi) cellulose, protéines), •la synthèse de macromolécules (exemple : dextrane).La valeur nutritionnelle : L'une des conséquences de l'altération d'origine microbienne des aliments est la modification de la valeur nutritionnelle pouvant conduire à son amélioration ou le plus souvent à sa perte. La valeur nutritionnelle est affectée par :•la réduction de la valeur calorique possible (négative),•la synthèse de molécules à activités biologiques (positive ou négative selon les cas), •la destruction des produits toxiques/antinutritionnels (positive),•la putréfaction (négative).Des exemples de dégradations d'origine microbienne des principaux types d'aliments sont donnés dans le tableau 2.2.1.  •La déshydratation : L'activité catalytique des métaux dépend en partie de l'activité de l'eau. Il est important de maintenir l'a w dans les aliments entre 0,1 et 0,4 ; le maintien d'une a w autour de 0,2 est idéal pour empêcher l'oxydation des lipides.L'influence de la température : Le rôle de la température dans l'oxydation des lipides est complexe. La vitesse d'oxydation augmente avec la température. En revanche une température élevée peut entraîner la formation d'antioxydants.Les conséquences de l'oxydation des lipides : Les conséquences des réactions d'oxydation se situent essentiellement à deux niveaux :•la perte de la qualité organoleptique : due d'une part à la formation de composés volatils d'odeur désagréable, et d'autre part à la perte de couleur. Les produits de leurs activités en particulier les molécules d'acides gras en C 4 -C 12 qui sont partiellement solubles dans l'eau, conduisent au rancissement des aliments (goût du savon).Les altérations d'origine chimique et biochimiqueL'application de la chaleur sur les aliments au cours de traitements domestiques ou industriels influence la qualité des protéines. Les réactions des protéines à chaud au cours de ces traitements culinaires domestiques ou industriels entraînent des modifications qui ont des effets favorables et défavorables. Parmi ces modifications on peut citer :•la dénaturation qui correspond à un ou à des changements de conformation : déploiement de la molécule globulaire et démasquage de résidus d'acides aminés entraînant une perte de la réactivité; •la réduction de la solubilité; la formation de précipités, de gels ou de pâtes; •l'amélioration de la digestibilité;•la perte de l'activité enzymatique; •la diminution du pouvoir toxique de facteurs antinutritionnels et de toxines (inhibiteurs protéiques, lectines); •la réaction de Maillard en présence de sucres réducteurs conduisant à la formation de ponts covalents intra ou intermoléculaires avec baisse de disponibilité de la lysine; •la désamination de l'asparagine et de la glutamine; •l'isomérisation de résidus d'acides aminés (L → D) : baisse de valeur nutritionnelle; •la formation de ponts covalents intra-ou intermoléculaires de nature isopeptidique (γ-glutamyl-ε-N-lysine) ou de type lysinoalanine : baisse de digestibilité; •des réactions entre molécules de cystéine avec : formation de ponts covalents -S-S-, désulfuration, •la formation de lanthionine, de lysinoalanine; •la formation de composés fortement mutagènes (par exemple au cours du grillage au feu); •la baisse de la digestibilité après un traitement thermique dur, surtout avec un traitement alcalin. Quelques facteurs de détérioration des aliments En résumé on peut dire que la réaction de Maillard affecte plusieurs aspects de la qualité des aliments, notamment :•la couleur, •l'odeur, l'arôme, la saveur, le goût, •la perte de la valeur nutritionnelle due principalement à son impact sur les protéines (diminution de lysine disponible, de la digestibilité et de la solubilité). •cependant elle forme des composés qui ont des propriétés antioxydantes.Vitesse relative a w 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 0 1 pH Vitesse relative 8 7 6 9Chap. 2Les moyens de prévenir le brunissement non enzymatique sont relativement peu nombreux. Outre l'élimination des substrats, l'abaissement du pH, la surveillance de la température et de l'humidité, l'addition d'agents inhibiteurs est un moyen efficace de prévenir la réaction de Maillard. Le seul inhibiteur efficace du brunissement non enzymatique est, jusqu'à présent, l'anhydride sulfureux, utilisé sous forme de gaz (SO 2 ) ou de sels (NaHSO 3 ). Les sulfites réagissent avec les composés carbonylés, les bases de Schiff, les composés insaturés, en donnant des sulfonates qui sont des produits stables.L'anhydride sulfureux et les sulfites sont utilisés dans :•le moût de raisin et le vin,•les fruits déshydratés, •les pulpes pour confiture, •les jus concentrés, •la purée déshydratée de pomme de terre, •les tranches de pommes de terre déshydratées.Définition : On appelle brunissement enzymatique la transformation, enzymatique dans ses premières étapes, de composés phénoliques en polymères colorés, le plus souvent bruns ou noirs. Les étapes de cette transformation sont présentées en figure 2.3.16. Le brunissement enzymatique s'observe chez les fruits et légumes. Il pose des problèmes de couleur, en particulier lorsque les tissus sont malades ou endommagés (par traitement); dans les tissus intacts il n'y a pas de brunissement enzymatique, car les enzymes et leurs substrats sont séparés (compartiments distincts).Indésirables dans certains aliments comme les pommes, les poires, les abricots, les pêches, les bananes, les avocats, les pommes de terre, les champignons, le brunissement enzymatique est désirable dans d'autres aliments tels que les dattes, le thé, le cacao (et aussi dans le tabac).Il existe de nombreux substrats naturels, mono, di-ou polyphénoliques, du brunissement enzymatique. Les pigments qui se forment par brunissement enzymatique sont désignés par le terme général Mécanisme : Comme il est montré à la figure 2.3.17, la première étape (hydroxylation) est catalysée par l'enzyme monophénolase (crésolase). La deuxième étape (oxydation) est quant à elle catalysée par l'enzyme polyphénoloxydase (polyphénolase, catécholase). L'oxygène moléculaire est l'accepteur d'hydrogène. La vitesse de brunissement enzymatique est souvent limitée par la teneur en substrats (et non celle en enzyme). Le pH optimal de ses réactions se situe entre 5 et 7.Il existe de nombreux moyens pour empêcher le brunissement enzymatique, mais pour des raisons de coût, de toxicité, de réglementation ou d'effets secondaires défavorables à la qualité, seuls certains d'entre eux sont utilisés en pratique, et sont mentionnés ci-après :-inactivation des enzymes par la chaleur (blanchiment, pasteurisation), -addition de composés réducteurs : acide ascorbique, -immersion des fruits dans l'eau salée ou sucrée : limite l'accès de l'oxygène, -abaissement du pH (acide citrique), -enlèvement de l'oxygène par le vide, ou par N 2 , -addition d'anhydride sulfureux (SO 2 ) ou de bisulfite : réaction avec les quinones, peut-être aussi avec l'enzyme.  En principe la contamination commence par la présence des insectes adultes qui déposent leurs oeufs dans l'aliment. Le dépôt des oeufs par les insectes a lieu déjà depuis la récolte. Ensuite, il se poursuit au cours du séchage au sol, du stockage mal protégé, etc. Mais les oiseaux amènent aussi les insectes.Les aliments les plus fréquemment attaqués par les insectes sont les céréales (farine, pain, produits de boulangerie) ainsi que les poissons séchés, fumés, etc.Les conditions favorables à la multiplication des insectes sont :•la présence de nutriments •Appliquez pour les portes un système avec sas. Des deux portes, il y en a toujours une qui est fermée. Comme cela, on minimise l'entrée d'insectes. On traite le sas une fois par jour avec de l'insecticide.de façon mécanique : suspendez des papiers tue-mouches (papiers collants); établissez des pièges à mouches (appât toxique). de façon chimique : si l'aliment peut le supporter (qualité, odeur, etc), pulvérisation de pyrèthre en kérosène.Les arthropodes 2.5 Les rongeursLes rongeurs préfèrent les mêmes conditions de vie que les insectes :Les magasins de stockage, les (super) marchés, les hôtels, etc. sont en principe des lieux idéaux pour la multiplication des rongeurs. Depuis longtemps, l'homme essaye de limiter la compagnie des rongeurs. Les anciens Egyptiens adoptaient le chat comme un animal sacré... Les chasseurs professionnels de rongeurs étaient très importants pendant le Moyen Age, mais le sont aussi de nos jours dans les méga cités (Inde, Amérique du Sud …) Le tableau 2.5.1 montre les rongeurs les plus importants pour l'industrie alimentaire : ce sont essentiellement les rats et les souris. En principe les rongeurs sont intelligents et difficiles à attraper. On peut améliorer le taux de succès de la chasse par la connaissance des habitudes des animaux, et spécialement leurs sentiers. Ces sentiers peuvent être reconnus par les traces noirs ou bruns de poils et de saleté. D'autres critères de distinction sont par exemple s'ils sont capables de grimper et nager, et la forme de leurs excréments (crottes dispersées ou en groupe ; forme des crottes), s'ils sont herbivores ou omnivores, et les traces des sentiers.Rattus norvegicus Rat brun ou petits yeux, vision mauvaise, maturité sexuelle à 3-4 mois, Rat de Norvège nocturne, rez-de-chaussée 5-10 petits par mise basRat de navire ou grimpeur agile, très répandu 200 rats par an par couple Rat de toit dans les régions tropicalesSouris domestique plus petite que les rats, maturité après 2 mois; rayon d'activité 3-5 mètres 10 petits par accouchement; du nid 2000 par an par coupleLes rats servent comme vecteur déposant les bactéries pathogènes comme Salmonella paratyphii. Les épidémies paratyphoïdes en particulier sont associées aux aliments « prêts à utiliser » : poisson fumé, saucisse de foie, etc. parce qu'ils ne reçoivent plus de traitement de chaleur.Les dommages matériels sont considérables :•aux stocks (les dégâts peuvent être considérables). Un rat consomme 25 grammes par 24 heures.Les rongeurs•aux objets durs : La raison pour laquelle les rats et les souris rongent est que les dents rongeantes continuent à croître toute la vie. Le fait de ronger permet à ces animaux de les maintenir dans les limites convenables. Exemples : un tuyau d'eau en fer rongé peut causer un dommage d'inondation ou de court-circuit; fil électrique rongé; incendie; emballage rongé.Les rongeurs sont attirés à l'usine ou au magasin par exemple par :•la démolition des bâtiments du voisinage Défense permanente :-fermer tous les trous : réparer les vitres cassées, poser des grilles sur les tuyaux d'écoulement d'eau sale et d'égout. -écarter les ordures : les brûler ou utiliser des poubelles bien fermées.Les exigences formulées vis à vis de la qualité des aliments sont que :•la composition et la structure doivent être de bonne qualité, et •ils ne doivent pas nuire à la santé.Les facteurs de détérioration présentés dans les sections 2.1 -2.5 risquent -indirectement ou directement -de conduire à une qualité inadéquate, ou même à des nuisances causées par les aliments. Cette détérioration peut se manifester à des niveaux différents, comme suit :•Les matières de base (les ingrédients) peuvent être insupportables (par exemple, les glands sont amers), ou même nuisibles à la santé (par exemple des champignons toxiques, ou des germes pathogènes présents dans le lait cru). •De la même façon, les contaminations des matières de base sont insupportables (par exemple, du sable dans la farine) ou même nuisibles (des résidus de pesticides, ou des morceaux de verre).Par exemple un goût indésirable causé par de mauvais traitements peut être insupportable ; de même l'ajout d'une concentration trop élevée de produits chimiques toxiques, ou l'introduction des germes pathogènes pendant des traitements non-hygiéniques peuvent constituer un risque pour la santé.La mauvaise qualité se manifestant pendant le stockage peut causer •L'inappétence (une détérioration perceptible avec les sens, par exemple, la putréfaction, la fermentation, l'aigreur, ou la présence des moisissures). Ces aliments mal acceptés ne sont pas nécessairement nuisibles à la santé ). Les méthodes visent en général à éviter la détérioration microbienne qui est la plus importante. On peut tuer tous les microorganismes ou éviter que les micro-organismes vivants puissent se multiplier.Tous les micro-organismes sont tués par stérilisation (normalement 15 min à 121 °C). Au cours du procédé, on essaie d'éviter que les aliments soient changés. Après une stérilisation il faut protéger l'aliment contre une ré-infection. Tous les micro-organismes ne sont pas tués pendant la pasteurisation, mais au moins les germes pathogènes le sont. Souvent, il faut garder l'aliment dans un réfrigérateur après traitement, parce que les spores qui sont aussi capables de détériorer l'aliment, ne sont pas détruites.Une autre méthode est de ne pas tuer tous les micro-organismes, mais de changer l'aliment plus ou moins, de façon telle que les germes ne se multiplient plus. (Bactériostatique : le microorganisme ne meurt pas, mais il ne se multiplie plus ; bactéricide : le micro-organisme est tué); parfois, on protège un aliment contre la ré-infection.Il y a une grande variété de combinaisons des méthodes décrites. Il faut remarquer que la prévention d'une infection microbienne est très importante. Souvent des mesures préventives par une pratique hygiénique (désinfection, nettoyage) peuvent être efficaces.Les traitements de transformation (les Opérations Unitaires) des matières premières visent à obtenir des produits désirables et d'augmenter la durée de conservation. L'ensemble des traitements dans l'usine constitue le schéma de fabrication ou le diagramme technologique (flow sheet). On peut diviser les opérations unitaires en quelques groupes fondamentaux :•Le transfert de matières.   En raison de leur nature, les liquides et les gaz sont transportés par le courant à travers des tuyaux, des rigoles, des cuves, etc. Les courants sont créés par des pompes, soit de façon mécanique, soit par des gradients de pression.En principe les liquides et les gaz peuvent être transportés par différence de pression hydrostatique ou par différence de pression de gaz. Le siphon (Figure 3.2.8) est un exemple de l'utilisation de ce principe.On distingue différents systèmes :•les pompes à piston (Figure 3.2.9),•les pompes à rotation (Figures 3.2 Génie des procédésLe transfert de chaleurLe transfert ou transport de chaleur est très important pour le chauffage (transfert de chaleur à l'intérieur du produit), le refroidissement (transfert de chaleur du produit vers l'environnement) mais aussi pendant le stockage (quand on désire maintenir une température constante dans un produit inert, il faut éviter le transfert de chaleur). Par conséquent, dans certains cas on désire améliorer ou minimaliser ce transfert, comme l'illustre le schéma ci-dessous : chauffage améliorer Transfert de chaleur refroidissement diminuer isolerPour le chauffage, le moyen le plus utilisé est la vapeur d'eau saturée. Le tableau 3.3.1 montre la relation entre la pression de vapeur saturée et sa température.Le transfert de chaleur s'effectue toujours des zones de température élevée aux zones de température basse. On distingue 3 différents mécanismes de transfert :•la conduction (surtout dans les matières solides), •la convection (dans les liquides et les gaz) ou •la radiation (ondes électromagnétiques, surtout à travers les gaz).   Le coefficient de transfert k total est calculé selon la formule suivante :Maintenant, on connaît le coefficient de transfert total de chaleur k total = 1 / 0,00367 = 271,96 W.m -2 .K -1Ensuite on substitue les données connues : T 1 -T 2 = 50 °C = ∆T Disons que la superficie de la boîte = 0,050 m 2 (un exemple du calcul est présenté ci-dessous) Prenons une période de 5 minutes = 0,0835 heure Dans ce cas, le transfert total de chaleur sera :   Note : L'opération de mélanger se combine souvent avec le transport et/ou la réduction de la taille de matières. Comme le mélange, la séparation est une opération très importante dans les procédés de transformation et de conservation alimentaire. Le tableau 3.5.1. résume les catégories de séparations des phases gazeuses, liquides ou solides. Ensuite le tableau 3.5.2. présente un certain nombre d'exemples pratiques d'opérations de séparation.Dans cette section, on fera la distinction entre les séparations mécaniques et les séparations faites par transfert de chaleur.     On adapte la porosité du milieu de filtration à la grandeur des particules qu'on veut filtrer. On peut filtrer en utilisant :•la pression,•la force de gravité (filtre en papier dans un entonnoir),•le vide (Figure 3.5.8) : les particules solides sont aspirées sur la superficie du filtre. Le liquide traverse le filtre, entre les sections 1-5 et est évacué par les décharges B (centre). La matière solide est lavée au niveau des sections 7-8, pressée pour enlever l'eau de lavage, et enlevée par le racloir. En créant des forces centrifuges, on accélère la sédimentation des particules solides. En fait, il ne s'agit pas d'une vraie méthode de séparation; on utilise la centrifugation (Figure 3.5.9) pour accélérer par exemple la filtration et la sédimentation. Cependant, c'est une technique que l'on utilise fréquemment dans l'industrie alimentaire.Quand on a beaucoup de solide et peu de liquide, la pression peut être avantageuse. Par exemple on utilise la pression pour l'extraction des jus de pommes et d'autres fruits. Quand on applique des pressions élevées, une déformation des cellules peut avoir lieu; dans ce cas on sépare le contenu des cellules des parois cellulaires. La technologie de séparation par membrane est appliquée au niveau moléculaire ou ionaire.Osmose inverse (OI) : La concentration des solutions par l'enlèvement d'eau.La concentration des substances organiques par l'enlèvement partiel des ions monovalents comme Na + ou Cl -(déminéralisation partielle).La concentration des grandes molécules et macromolécules.Enlèvement des bactéries, séparation des macromolécules.Quelques applications dans l'industrie laitière sont groupées dans le tableau 3.5.3.La séparation La plupart des aliments et des ingrédients alimentaires sont hétérogènes et contiennent des particules de tailles diverses. La réduction de taille des matières est pratiquée pour de nombreuses raisons. Par exemple :•les dimensions de la matière ne conviennent pas à la consommation •pour obtenir un produit homogène, on le réduit en petits morceaux ou en pâte ou en émulsion •pour mieux mélanger avec d'autres ingrédients •pour mieux faire l'extraction, etc. etc. En fait, moudre c'est réduire le produit entier sans séparation de certaines parties. Le tableau 3.6.1 présente divers appareils que l'on utilise pour la réduction de taille. Leurs effets sur la matière peuvent varier selon qu'il s'agit de couper, de frapper, de tirer, etc. en fonction de la nature physique des matières à réduire.Les diverses figures 3.6.1 -3.6.11 sont résumées dans ce tableau :  Tout au long de la filière, au cours des étapes de transport, de stockage, de commercialisation, les aliments sont le plus souvent protégés par un conditionnement qui les met à l'abri des chocs mécaniques, de la contamination microbienne ambiante, parfois de l'air, de la chaleur, de la lumière, etc. L'emballage donne une présentation valorisante. La figure 3.7.1 résume les rôles de l'emballage.Les matériaux utilisés pour l'emballage des aliments sont extrêmement divers. Ils sont choisis en fonction du problème à résoudre, de l'aliment lui-même et des contraintes locales. Le choix de l'emballage en fonction du produit et de son environnement nécessite la prise en compte de données telles que :• les risques d'altération et les conditions de stockage (exigences du point de vue microbiologique, organoleptique, (bio)chimique, physique, a w , sensibilité à l'oxydation); •les interactions entre le produit et son contenant (passage dans l'aliment de certains composés de matériaux d'emballage, ou passage de composés volatils à travers l'emballage); • la composition chimique des matériaux d'emballage et leur perméabilité (à l'humidité, à l'oxygène); • les demandes spécifiques pour le produit et l'emballage (ayant pour cible les consommateurs). Quelques exemples d'emballages utilisés fréquemment sont les caisses en bois ou les paniers tressés pour les fruits, les jarres en terre pour le stockage des olives, les feuilles de bananier ou de maïs pour envelopper le fromage ou la pâte de manioc, les bocaux en verre, etc. Tous ces emballages remplissent leur fonction depuis fort longtemps. Le développement plus récent des boîtes de conserves métalliques, puis des matières plastiques et des matériaux complexes a permis de nouvelles fonctions : conserves appertisées, briques de lait UHT, boîtes de boissons gazeuses, etc.On peut généralement diviser les matériaux d'emballage en 2 groupes : • l'emballage qui a pour but de former des unités de transport sans fournir une protection contre la détérioration.Exemples : caisses en bois, caisses en carton, sacs en tissu, etc. • l'emballage qui protège le produit contre la détérioration et qui forme la plus petite unité de vente.Nous nous limiterons à l'étude du deuxième groupe, qui comporte comme emballages les plus importants :• les boîtes de conserve en fer blanc,• les récipients en verre,• les emballages qui sont utilisés pour les produits séchés.On verra que tous les types d'emballages ont leurs avantages et leurs inconvénients spécifiques. Une comparaison générale de quelques emballages (tableau 3.7.1) montre clairement l'influence du type d'emballage sur les frais de transport.Le choix de l'emballage se fait en fonction des objectifs, mais aussi des disponibilités et du coût. Souvent ce sont des contraintes dans les pays en développement où on ne trouve localement que quelques matériaux. Pour les emballages qui sont en contact direct avec l'aliment, il est indispensable de s'assurer de leur innocuité. Dans le cas des récipients métalliques, l'application d'un vernis intérieur permet d'éviter la corrosion et donc le passage d'étain et de plomb dans l'aliment, surtout quand celui-ci a un pouvoir corrosif (présence de nitrates, de composés soufrés, de caramel, etc.).Pour les emballages en plastique, il faut veiller à l'absence de monomères comme le chlorure de vinyle et éviter le passage dans l'aliment de certains adjuvants de fabrication de la matière plastique qui pourraient être toxiques. Même dans les pays où une législation stricte régit l'usage des matériaux de conditionnement, certains emballages potentiellement toxiques ou non hygiéniques sont parfois utilisés. Ainsi, des aliments vendus dans les rues de certaines villes sont présentés dans des morceaux de sac de ciment de récupération et il existe en Asie des ateliers de récupération de sacs en plastique ensuite revendus après lavage et séchage.Dans de nombreux pays, l'industrie plastique offre films, sacs, sachets à très bas prix, alors que les emballages en verre ou en métal sont rares et coûteux. Ceci ne va pas sans poser des problèmes pour l'environnement. La récupération des bouteilles en verre permet dans certains cas de réduire à la fois les coûts et les nuisances.La plupart des boîtes de conserves sont fabriquées à partir du fer étamé. Le fer étamé consiste en une plaque d'acier, couverte des deux côtés d'une mince couche d'étain. On distingue divers types de fer étamé suivant les méthodes utilisées pour appliquer la couche d'étain sur l'acier, l'épaisseur de la plaque d'acier, les couches d'étain. On distingue : • le fer étamé à l'aide de chaleur, • le fer étamé à l'aide d'un procédé électrochimique.Le deuxième type de fer étamé se caractérise par des épaisseurs de la plaque d'acier et de la couche d'étain moindres que celles du premier type. La figure 3.7.3 donne une idée sur la composition et les dimensions d'une plaque de fer étamé.Les ressources mondiales d'étain devenant limitées, on a cherché à produire du fer blanc sans utiliser de l'étain. Maintenant, on produit du fer blanc couvert de chrome. Contrairement au fer  Génie des procédésL'emballage des aliments étamé, il faut toujours couvrir le fer chromé d'une couche de laque, et ce, afin de protéger le chrome de la corrosion causée par les produits acides. L'autre raison de la couverture obligatoire du chrome est due à la toxicité du chrome. Une autre matière métallique utilisée beaucoup est l'aluminium. L'aluminium est cependant assez cher et peu solide. A cause de cela, on utilise de préférence des alliages d'aluminium plus résistants.La fabrication des boîtes comprend la fabrication des corps de boîtes et la fabrication des couvercles (couvercles et fonds sont les mêmes).A partir des lames de fer étamé, on découpe (à l'aide d'une guillotine) des bandes de fer suivant la longueur (figure 3.7.4.a.). Ensuite, ces bandes sont découpées suivant les dimensions des boîtes avec un couteau à bandes multiples (figure 3.7.4.b.).Puis, afin d'assurer un meilleur sertissage, on enlève les angles d'un côté de la lame du corps de la boîte (figure 3.7.4.c.). A l'aide d'une rouleuse, la forme de la boîte est ensuite déterminée (figure 3.7.4.d.), suivie par la soudure (figure 3.7.4.e.) des bouts de la lame de fer. Enfin, le flasque est formé (figure 3.7.4.f.). Le sertissage comprend la fermeture des boîtes à l'aide d'une sertisseuse, qui connecte les couvercles avec le corps de la boîte. La moitié des couvercles est utilisée comme fonds de boîtes, l'autre moitié forme les couvercles. Le dernier stade de fabrication des boîtes consiste à sertir le fond au corps de la boîte. Après le remplissage de la boîte, le couvercle est serti avec la boîte de la même manière que le fond. La boîte est fermée avec un couvercle qui s'adapte parfaitement au flasque de la boîte. Ensuite, l'ensemble est tourné entre les deux rouleaux de la sertisseuse afin que les flasques du couvercle et du corps soient pliées ensemble (figure 3.7.6).La corrosion peut se définir comme l'ensemble des réactions chimiques entre le produit et la boîte elle-même. On peut classer la corrosion selon 3 groupes de réactions possibles :•Dissolution de l'étain, qui a comme résultat la décoloration et l'augmentation de la concentration d'étain dans le produit. •Attaque du fer. Le fer est dissout dans le produit. Parfois a lieu la formation d'hydrogène qui cause le \"bombage chimique\" des boîtes. Les autres phénomènes sont la perforation des parois et la formation de la rouille qui cause des décolorations. •Décoloration de l'étain et du fer causée par des produits riches en soufre. Ces décolorations ne sont pas nuisibles à la santé, mais elles sont indésirables du point de vue esthétique.On essaie de protéger les boîtes de conserve de la corrosion comme suit :• En choisissant le type de fer étamé le plus approprié pour les produits donnés. Ici, les épaisseurs des couches de fer et d'étain sont des facteurs importants. • Application d'une couche protégeant la laque. Les feuilles de fer étamé sont laquées avant d'être transformées en boîtes. •L'extérieur des boîtes peut être protégé de la corrosion (rouille) par l'étiquetage ou par l'impression directe sur le fer étamé.Le sertissage presseuse de la sertisseuse Le plus souvent, on utilise du verre non coloré. Lors de la fonte des matériaux de base, on peut colorer le verre par addition de charbon, de soufre ou d'oxyde de magnésium, ce qui donne une couleur verte au verre. Quelques unes des propriétés du verre sont :• la transparence, • la stabilité à la corrosion, • la possibilité d'ouvrir et de refermer le récipient en verre, • la dureté, • l'imperméabilité aux gaz et à la lumière ultraviolette.La fonte du verre se fait dans un grand four à bassin (superficie 6 x 8 m, profondeur de 1 m) que l'on maintient à une température de 1400 -1500°C à l'aide de brûleurs à gaz ou à huile. Les maté-riaux de base sont mélangés et introduits dans le bassin. Ils flottent sur le verre liquide et sont ainsi exposés à la radiation directe des brûleurs. Le verre liquide qui est formé est transporté vers un réservoir à 1200°C qui assure l'approvisionnement de l'usine. Un système à ciseaux et à pinces fournit à l'usine de grandes gouttes de verre liquide. Ces gouttes sont introduites dans des moules métalliques qui ont exactement la forme du récipient désiré. Après la fermeture du moule, la goutte de verre est gonflée jusqu'au moment où la masse de verre possède la forme du moule. Ensuite, le récipient qui est déjà suffisamment rigide est enlevé du moule à 600°C et est introduit dans un tunnel de refroidissement. Là, il est refroidi selon un programme précis de refroidissement et ce, afin d'éviter la cristallisation du verre et la naissance de tensions internes qui affaibliraient le récipient.Dans une industrie à grande capacité, les récipients ont une vitesse considérable sur les rubans de transport. Par le frottement des récipients les uns contre les autres et contre le système de transport, il se produit des rayures à l'extérieur des récipients. La présence de rayures amenant certains risques de casse pendant le traitement à chaud (stérilisation), on peut protéger le verre à l'aide d'une mince couche qui est très dure et qui améliore les propriétés de glissement.En général, on divise les récipients en verre en :• bouteilles (à goulot étroit),• bocaux (à goulot large).La plupart des bouteilles sont fermées à l'aide de bouchons à capsule métallique (figure 3.7.7). La capsule consiste en un disque métallique dont les bords sont pliés. Cette capsule est munie d'un disque en liège, couvert de plastique, qui doit assurer une bonne fermeture de la bouteille. D'abord, on place la capsule sur la bouteille, sous pression, afin que le disque en liège soit comprimé et ferme bien. Ensuite, les bords sont pliés autour du goulot de la bouteille. Les autres possibilités pour fermer les bouteilles sont : les bouchons en liège, les capsules plastiques, et les capsules à vis.Les bocaux sont fermés à l'aide de divers types de couvercles, dont les plus connus sont : Les facteurs jouant un rôle important contre la détérioration des produits séchés emballés sont la perméabilité à l'eau et à l'air. On cherche toujours des matériaux d'emballage qui soient imperméables à l'air et à l'humidité. Bien que l'on utilise dans certains cas des boîtes de conserve lors de l'emballage (lait en poudre, café en poudre), l'emploi de sachets en plastique est souvent meilleur marché. Avant d'utiliser un certain matériel pour l'emballage, on détermine sa durabilité ainsi que sa perméabilité. Le Tableau 3.7.3 offre quelques exemples de matériaux synthétiques qu'on utilise fréquemment pour emballer les aliments. On y trouve les caractéristiques, la durabilité, la perméabilité et les applications courantes. On n'a toujours pas trouvé de substances alliant à la fois une grande imperméabilité et une grande solidité. Voilà pourquoi on utilise souvent des alliages, c'est-à-dire une gamme de matériaux composée de couches collées. L'une des couches fournit la solidité (souvent en plastique) et l'autre l'imperméabilité (souvent une mince couche d'aluminium). Les produits sont emballés en sachets, soit sous vide (café moulu dans des sacs plastiques), soit sous un gaz inerte (N 2 ) comme les potages instantanés. Etant donné que les matériaux d'emballage jetés sont assez résistants, ils ne seront pas détruits par le temps comme les autres déchets. Cela implique que ces débris portent préjudice à l'environnement. D'ailleurs, dans les usines transformant les ordures domestiques en compost, les emballages difficilement dégradables posent des problèmes. Un autre aspect négatif de ces types d'emballages est qu'ils favorisent l'épuisement des ressources naturelles par l'usage unique de l'emballage. Afin d'essayer de résoudre ces problèmes, on centralise la collecte des ordures et l'on effectue le tri au centre de collecte. Tout le fer étamé est enlevé magnétiquement et on peut le réutiliser dans la production de fer étamé. L'aluminium est aussi enlevé et réutilisé. De la même façon, on peut collecter le verre, le moudre et l'introduire dans les fours afin de le fondre. La quantité d'emballage en plastique, soit collectée, soit jetée sur les abords des routes, augmente rapidement. Cependant, il n'est pas profitable de réutiliser les différents types de plastiques.On a inventé récemment des plastiques qui sont détruits lentement par la lumière solaire ou qui peuvent être décomposés par les micro-organismes du sol (les plastiques biodégradables Avec la connaissance de la cinétique des réactions on peut déterminer la vitesse des changements dans les aliments et cela est important pour contrôler la qualité des aliments. Les changements peuvent être désirés mais parfois ils sont aussi indésirables. Le traitement le plus important est encore le traitement thermique et l'objectif principal est la destruction des micro-organismes. Les objectifs secondaires sont la cuisson, la destruction des enzymes, le développement de la réaction de Maillard, l'inactivation des facteurs antinutritionnels, etc. Mais on a aussi des réactions défavorables telles que la perte de la valeur nutritionnelle, le développement de goût et de couleur indésirables, c'est-àdire la perte de la qualité. Une possibilité d'améliorer la qualité des aliments est l'optimisation des traitements thermiques. Les éléments nécessaires pour cela sont :•la connaissance de la cinétique de pénétration de la chaleur dans le produit traité et la connaissance des propriétés thermiques des aliments (cf Chapitre 3) •la connaissance de la cinétique de destruction des microorganismes et des paramètres caractérisant leur thermorésistance et la connaissance des cinétiques des réactions secondaires (destruction des enzymes et des vitamines, brunissement, texture, etc.) L'analyse de la cinétique qui suit est basée sur les réactions chimiques : qu'est-ce qui se passe entre les molécules ou les atomes pendant une réaction ? Généralement on peut représenter la vitesse v d'une réaction par :Aspects de conservation (4.1) avec c la concentration (mol l -1 ), t le temps (s), k la constante de vitesse ((mol l -1 ) 1-n s -1 ) et n l'ordre de la réaction (-). En principe, l'ordre n peut varier entre 0 et 3, mais fréquemment on utilise n=0, n=1 ou n=2. Dans le cas de n=0,  Une fonction générale pour le changement de la concentration est : et Pour un ordre de n = 2, comme l'illustre la figure 4.1.3 : Quand on connaît l'ordre de réaction n, E a , et k 0 , on peut calculer l'effet du traitement à une certaine température. Par exemple, si n = 0, E a = 100 kJ/mol, k 0 = 1x10 9 mol/l/s, c 0 = 1 mol/l : Si T 2 -T 1 =10 °C, par définition Q 10 =k 2 /k 1 , et :Les aspects de cinétique Alors, on peut noter que le paramètre Q 10 est une autre expression pour l'énergie d'activation, mais il faut qu'on réalise que le paramètre Q 10 est fortement dépendant de la température (cf. équation 4.21). Une autre conséquence de l'équation (4.17) est qu'on peut calculer les combinaisons de températures et de temps pour obtenir les traitements thermiques équivalents. Par exemple pour n = 1, l'équation (4.5) indique que ln(c 0 /c) = kt. Pour avoir un même effet le rapport c 0 /c doit être constant, c'est-à-dire k.t = constant. Par exemple, pour t 1 .k 1 = t 2 .k 2 = ln(c 0 /c) on trouve :Si on connaît t 1 à T 1 pour obtenir un certain effet, on peut calculer le temps t 2 à la température T 2 pour avoir le même effet.Deux types de phénomènes de dégradation des aliments peuvent être résolus par l'action des températures élevées : les réactions enzymatiques et l'action des micro-organismes défavorables comme illustrée au tableau 4.2.1. Le premier cas concerne surtout le blanchiment et le second la pasteurisation et la stérilisation. Le blanchiment offre parfois un autre intérêt, notamment celui d'améliorer la texture. Ainsi le blanchiment des tomates permet de préserver la couleur rouge et de ramollir les tissus, ce qui facilite les opérations ultérieures (obtention de sauce, de concentré ou de jus) en maintenant la couleur de la tomate fraîche.Les haricots verts soumis à un blanchiment avant congélation gardent une belle couleur verte et sont rendus plus tendres. Pour les produits qui seront ensuite séchés, le blanchiment a aussi l'avantage d'augmenter la perméabilité des parois cellulaires du végétal et donc de faciliter à la fois le séchage et la réhydratation ultérieure. Enfin, l'opération de blanchiment favorise l'élimination de l'air et des autres gaz dans l'aliment et contribue ainsi à réduire les phénomènes d'oxydation, notamment dans les boîtes métalliques.La pasteurisation vise une destruction sélective de la flore microbienne présente dans l'aliment. Elle s'effectue à des températures modérées (Tableau 4.2.2) et les micro-organismes sporulés ne sont en général pas détruits. De ce fait, on ne fait le choix d'une pasteurisation que dans certains cas; seulement quand l'aliment offre peu de risques bactériologiques du fait de ses caractéristiques propres (par exemple l'acidité dans les jus de fruits) ou bien si on ne cherche à éliminer que quelques organismes pathogènes (comme Mycobacterium tuberculosis dans le lait). Un traitement plus long ou à plus haute température risque de lui faire perdre ses qualités organoleptiques. Il y a encore quelques années, la stérilisation s'effectuait surtout à température modérée-temps long. Mais certains produits, en particulier le lait, perdaient beaucoup de leurs qualités nutritionnelles et organoleptiques. Les recherches qui ont été effectuées à ce sujet ont montré que les réactions défavorables qui se produisent au cours du chauffage (pertes de vitamines, réaction de Maillard, etc.), n'ont pas la même sensibilité à la température que les micro-organismes. Dans le cas du lait par exemple, au-delà de 135 -140°C, la perte de qualité est moindre que l'effet de destruction des micro-organismes pathogènes. On verra ce sujet d'optimisation des traitements thermiques plus en détail au paragraphe 4.2.3.C'est Nicolas Appert qui en 1810 a mis au point un procédé de conservation de jus de fruits par chauffage dans des flacons hermétiquement clos. Puis en 1873, Pasteur a effectué des travaux sur le vin qui ont donné naissance à la microbiologie alimentaire. L'appertisation est un procédé de conservation qui consiste à enfermer un aliment dans un récipient hermétiquement fermé et à le soumettre à un chauffage. De cette façon la destruction des micro-organismes et des enzymes susceptibles d'altérer l' aliment est assurée.L'étude des phénomènes physiques et microbiologiques a permis de mettre en évidence que la destruction des micro-organismes est directement proportionnelle au nombre de micro-organismes (cf. section 4.2.2). Autrement dit, plus la contamination est forte, plus le nombre de micro-organismes détruits par unité de temps est élevé. Plus la population de micro-organismes devient faible, plus la destruction des germes encore vivants est limitée et en théorie, on n'atteint jamais la stérilité absolue de l'aliment. En pratique, avec un traitement thermique prolongé, on arrive à réduire la charge ou le contenu microbien à un niveau tel que la probabilité d'avoir encore un germe vivant par boîte de conserve est extrêmement faible.Généralement on trouve une réaction d'ordre n = 1 approximativement pour la destruction des micro-organismes, c'est-à-dire : ouLa conservation par la chaleur (4.24) ou avec N le nombre de micro-organismes à l'instant t et N 0 le nombre initial (comparer les équations 4.5 et 4.6). On peut définir maintenant la valeur D, le temps de réduction décimale, c'est-à-dire le temps nécessaire pour obtenir N = 0,1 x N 0 (90% de cellules détruites), autrement dit pour obtenir logN 0 -logN = 1. On trouve alors que : de manière que : ou La figure 4.2.1 représente l'équation (4.27).  On introduit maintenant le coefficient z, qui représente l'élévation de température qui permet de réduire de 90% la durée de chauffage. Avec a = -1/z, on trouve à partir de l'équation 4.30 que : La figure 4.2.3 donne une représentation de l'équation (4.31), une telle courbe est appelée courbe TDT (thermal death time).     On regroupe les micro-organismes à tuer selon leur thermorésistance \"F \".Groupe 1. Sensible : F ≤ (10 minutes à 80°C) mesuré en milieu faible en lipides). La pasteurisation est fatale pour les champignons, les levures, les bactéries non-sporulées et les germes pathogènes. Dans le cas des conserves, si l'emballage est intact, ces micro-organismes ne causent pas de risques. Quand l'emballage n'est pas intègre, il y a une chance de réinfection par exemple causée par l'entrée de l'eau réfrigérante contaminée. Dans le cas des demi-conserves : il y a quelques non-sporulées (Staphylococcus), qui peuvent survivre à la pasteurisation. Pour le lait, le barême de pasteurisation est souvent 30 mn à 63°C, ce qui est équivalent à 15 s à 72°C. Ceux qui peuvent survivre sont : Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Corynebacterium et Lactobacillus.Groupe 2. Résistants : (10 minutes à 80°C)< F ≤ (10 minutes à 115°C, ou 4 minutes à 120°C), mesuré en milieu de pH 6-7, faible en lipides.On a choisi cette limite de 4 min. 120°C pour pouvoir justement tuer les spores les plus résistants de Clostridium botulinum (cf. Chapitre 2.1). Clostridium botulinum forme la toxine \"botuline \" dans des milieux non-acides. Dans ce groupe, on trouve généralement les bactéries sporulées, comme Bacillus et Clostridium, groupées dans le tableau 4.2.4.Groupe 3. Ultra Résistants : F > (4 minutes à 120°C). C'est le cas surtout des thermophiles (50-55°C), qui peuvent causer des dégâts considérables dans les zones tropicales. De même que quelques non-thermophiles, par exemple Cl. sporogènes 3679 Aspects de conservation (cf. Tableau 4.2.5). Ces thermophiles posent des problèmes importants; on ne peut pas chauffer l'aliment jusqu'à la mort des plus résistants. Cela coûterait trop cher en plus de la déformation et de la décomposition du produit. Il faut prévenir la contamination par les micro-organismes de ce type (F > 4 mn 120ºC) en appliquant des règles d'hygiène strictes. On peut appliquer HTST, combiné avec la mise en conserve stérile \"aseptic canning\". On peut diviser les aliments en groupes selon leur pH :1. Aliments acides à pH < 4,5. Ce sont surtout les fruits et les produits fermentés lactiques. La valeur F est petite, causée par le pH bas. Ces aliments sont assez faciles à conserver par voie thermique, parce que les spores non tuées ne sont pas capables de germer à ce pH. On applique pour ce groupe le traitement 1 (10 mn, 80°C), pasteurisation.2. Aliments à faible acidité, et pauvre en lipides, avec un pH > 4,5 : ce sont par exemple les légumes (pH 5-6) et le lait (pH 6,7). F est plus grand qu' avec les aliments du type 1. Les spores peuvent germer parce que le pH est favorable; les ultrarésistants sont souvent absents; les produits de conservation ne sont pas autorisés. Dans ce cas, on vise à produire des aliments contenant le minimum (de préférence : zéro) de spores vivantes. On recommande le traitement 2, par exemple 10 mn à 115°C.3. Aliments à faible acidité, et riche en lipides (15-45%), avec pH 5,5-6,5 : ce sont par exemple la viande et le poisson.F est plus grand qu'avec les aliments du type 2, à cause du rôle protecteur des lipides contre l'effet thermique sur les cellules. Contrairement aux aliments de type 2, ici quelques produits de conservation sont autorisés (sel, nitrate, nitrite, substances de fumées). On recommande le traitement 2, par exemple 10 mn à 115°C.En dehors de l'objectif principal (destruction des micro-organismes) il existe un certain nombre d'objectifs secondaires et de contraintes, tels que :•La destruction des enzymes nuisibles (protéases, lipases, oxidases, etc.) •La préservation de la qualité nutritionnelle (vitamines, protéines, etc.) •La préservation de la qualité organoleptique (absence de brunissement, de faux goût, tenue des émulsions, absence de synérèse, etc.) Les réactions secondaires ont leur propre cinétique mais par approximation les réactions peuvent être décrites par une cinétique de premier ordre (comme la destruction thermique des micro-organismes). On peut, par conséquent, aussi définir et déterminer les valeurs D et z pour les réactions secondaires. Le tableau 4.2.6 donne quelques exemples.Le problème d'optimisation existe parce qu'on veut d'une part choisir une valeur F avec un certain seuil (par exemple, destruction des enzymes ou des micro-organismes), et d'autre part une valeur F avec un certain plafond (par exemple, destruction des vitamines). La conséquence est qu'on est limité à choisir certaines combinaisons de températures et de temps (cf. Figure 4.2.5).Quelques exemples peuvent éclairer sur l'utilisation de paramètres pour caractériser les réactions secondaires. Pendant la stérilisation du lait (4 sec à 135°C, traitement UHT) 99,6% de la vitamine B1 est préservée. La valeur z pour la destruction de la vitamine B1 étant de 25 °C (Tableau 4.2.6), quelle sera la proportion de vitamine B1 préservée si on stérilise à 110°C en maintenant la même valeur stérilisatrice ? Pour conclure la partie sur la cinétique voici un dernier exemple. Un traitement de 5 h à 74°C donne une destruction de 90% d'une protéase. La valeur z pour cette destruction est 32°C. Quel sera le taux de destruction en condition UHT (4 sec à 135°C) ? Une destruction de 90% veut dire c/c 0 = 0,1, alors D 74 = 5 h =300 minutes :Le taux de destruction est seulement 4% par le traitement UHT par rapport à 90% à 74°C. Ces exemples montrent qu'on peut vraiment arriver à des résultats différents en variant les combinaisons de temps et de température.   La \"stérilité commerciale\" signifie qu'au moins toutes les spores de Clostridium botulinum + tous les germes pathogènes + les agents de détérioration ont étés tués, et que les conditions de stockage ne permettent pas la croissance des micro-organismes. Pour cela, il faut atteindre au centre du produit, un équivalent de 4 mn à 120°C (y compris le temps de chauffage et de refroidissement).Il faut garder le plus petit possible le nombre initial de micro-organismes, parce que cela réduit la chance d'avoir des ultras résistants; et la valeur F sera plus petite (fonction de N 0 ).-Il faut être prudent avec l'addition de la gélatine, des condiments, du sucre, parce que ce sont souvent des sources de contamination microbienne.-Il faut accélérer la transmission de chaleur, parce que cela réduit la période de traitement thermique.-Il faut refroidir le produit rapidement après le traitement thermique, surtout après \"stérilisation commerciale\". Comme les aliments peuvent contenir encore des spores qui peuvent survivre, il faut réduire les chances de leur germination. Pour cela, il faut refroidir dans l'eau froide courante (de l'eau potable ou désinfectée au chlore).-HTST (High Temperature-Short Time) est le traitement à tempé- Le transfert de chaleur de la paroi de la boîte de conserves au produit peut prendre place selon deux mécanismes : soit par conduction (matière solide), soit par convection (liquides). En fonction du mécanisme de transfert, les endroits les plus froids se trouvent dans le centre géométrique, ou un peu plus bas, comme montré par les figures 4.2.8 et 4.2.9.Le transfert de chaleur est influencé par plusieurs paramètres :•La viscosité du produit (conduction ou convection).•La présence d'air dans la boîte (quand l'air est présent le contact entre la paroi et le produit est moindre). •Le diamètre et la forme de la boîte.•La présence de lipides (petit λ).•Le ratio d'infusion à la quantité de produit solide (plus d'infusion améliore le transfert). •Le type de milieu chauffant (vapeur ou eau).•Le freinage du courant dans la boîte.•Le freinage du courant autour de la boîte.•La rotation de la boîte.En fonction de la nature de l'aliment, on peut améliorer la transmission de chaleur par courant forcé (convection) dans la boîte en lui faisant subir une rotation. Les paramètres suivants jouent des rôles importants :•La largeur de l'espace de tête ou \"headspace\", •La position de la boîte pendant la rotation, •La vitesse de rotation.Comment établir le traitement adéquat? On connaît diverses options : Méthode empirique par l'examen de la stérilité commerciale : On transforme et emballe une partie entière du produit, en utilisant les types et dimensions d'emballages prévus pour la production commerciale. On divise la partie en lots de ± 100 unités. Chaque lot sera soumis à des combinaisons de temps et de température de chauffage différentes. Ensuite, on fait un essai de stockage à 37°C (favorise la croissance des mésophiles) et/ou 55°C   Les boîtes sont bougées \"end over end\" (bout pardessus bout), comme illustré sur la Figure 4.2.12. Ce système plus coûteux est utilisé pour le traitement thermique des produits visqueux comme par exemple, le lait concentré dans lequel on vise à améliorer le transfert de chaleur, à éviter le surchauffage de l'extérieur du contenu, et à éviter la formation d'une peau.Les boîtes ou flacons remplis de produit sont transportés par la chaîne (Figure 3.2.3) à travers un tunnel rempli de vapeur thermostaté. A des températures supérieures à 100°C, on a des systèmes avec sas avec lesquels on traverse les différences de pression sans perdre la vapeur. Une autre possibilité est la stérilisation hydrostatique (Figure 4.2.13). Dans ce système, le réservoir d'eau sert comme \"bouchon\" qui évite l'échappement de la vapeur.Il existe des systèmes qui combinent la continuité et les facilités de bouger les boîtes ou flacons.  Ce sont le plus souvent les produits liquides, que l'on peut chauffer très précisément à HTST par procédé continu, suivi fréquemment par le remplissage dans des boîtes, flacons ou sachets sous des conditions stériles (Figure 4.2.7). Si la mise en conserve stérile n'est pas possible, on peut stabiliser le produit par une stérili-sation complémentaire après la mise en boîte. Cependant, ce procédé est contre-indiqué pour la production, parce que le refroidissement du produit mis en boîte sera plus lent et ceci peut être à la base d'une perte de qualité.On connaît 2 systèmes pour le traitement continu des liquides :•Les échangeurs de chaleur à tuyaux concentriques (Figure 4.2.14). Ils sont utilisés pour le traitement des produits suffisamment liquides. Pour les produits visqueux on a inventé le \"votator\" (Figure 4.2.15) contenant des vis de transport qui évitent l'encroûtement.La conservation par la chaleur     Les insectes et les parasites (de la viande : Trichines par exemple) sont facilement tués par une période de garde de 2-3 semaines à -20°C. La réfrigération comme la congélation, est une technique de conservation qui nécessite une excellente qualité de la matière Aspects de conservation première car elle ne permet qu'un ralentissement de la vitesse de détérioration. Il importe donc de ne réfrigérer que des aliments en bon état et frais. Il est par ailleurs indispensable de procéder à une réfrigération le plus tôt possible après une récolte ou abattage avant que le produit évolue ou se dégrade.La température d'entreposage doit être choisie en fonction du produit et maintenue la plus constante possible jusqu'à sa distribution au niveau du consommateur. Il faut chercher le meilleur compromis entre la période de garde et les dépenses causées par l'application d'une température plus basse (Tableau 4.3.1).Le fait de stocker des aliments en général humides dans une atmosphère réfrigérée peut conduire à un rééquilibrage de l'activité de l'eau. Ce rééquilibrage peut être évité soit en emballant les aliments avec des matériaux hermétiques à l'eau, soit en maintenant l'air à une certaine humidité.On essayera de trouver un compromis entre deux facteurs, la diminution de l'humidité afin de freiner la croissance microbienne d'un côté et l'augmentation de l'humidité afin d'éviter la dessiccation des aliments de l'autre.Le stockage de produits alimentaires différents dans un même entrepôt doit être évité car il conduit parfois à des imprégnations d'odeurs. Le melon, le beurre, le fromage frais par exemple captent très facilement des odeurs d'autres aliments stockés à leur voisinage immédiat. Comme nous l'avons déjà vu dans la chapitre 2, l'hygiène dans les entrepôts est très importante, aussi bien que la construction d'un aménagement intérieur : par exemple des étagères métalliques qui facilitent le nettoyage du magasin utilisé. Comme produit de désinfection, on utilisera une solution de formaldéhyde à 40% qui est pulvérisée par dose de 3 grammes de formaldéhyde par m 3 . On peut utiliser le formaldéhyde seulement quand le magasin n'est pas utilisé.Il est parfois intéressant d'associer plusieurs techniques afin d'obtenir une conservation optimale des produits. Sur ce principe, les techniques d'atmosphère modifiée ou d'atmosphère contrôlée ont été développées pour les entrepôts de congélation. En jouant sur la composition de l'atmosphère ambiante (comme la teneur en azote, en oxygène et en gaz carbonique), en diminuant la proportion d'oxygène (O 2 ) de 21 % à 4 %, voire 1 %, on peut ralentir la plupart des réactions de maturation . En élevant la teneur en CO 2 jusqu'à 5 %, voire 10 %, on peut diminuer aussi l'intensité respi- La viande peut être conservée pendant 3-4 semaines, quand elle est réfrigérée jusqu'à 1°C en 24 heures et stockée à une activité de l'eau (a w ) de 0,85-0,90 et 0-1°C. Les organes doivent être congelés rapidement.Les poissons et les crustacés se conservent moins facilement que la viande parce que, (a) le pH est de ± 6,5 (viande 5,7) et facilite l'attaque des micro-organismes; (b) chez les poissons, la chair s'infecte plus facilement avec la saleté des intestins, et (c) à l'origine, les poissons ont plus de micro-organismes psychrophiles que la viande. La durée maximale de réfrigération est de 10 jours pour les poissons et de 3 jours pour les crustacés. Le poisson congelé rapidement, stocké à -30°C peut être conservé pendant 1-2 ans.Le lait traité très hygiéniquement et réfrigéré rapidement à une température inférieure à 10°C et pasteurisé, peut être stocké à 0°C pendant 10 jours.Le beurre de bonne qualité peut être stocké à 0-4°C pendant quelques semaines. Pour des périodes plus longues, il faut le congeler et le stocker à -10°C.Les oeufs sont réfrigérés le plus rapidement possible à une température inférieure à 15°C; ensuite ils sont recouverts d'une mince couche d'huile afin de freiner l'évaporation et stockés à -1°C (a w de 0,85) dans une atmosphère de 2,5 % de CO 2 et 97,5 % d'air.Les aliments séchés ou mis en conserves sont stockés de préférence à des températures inférieures à 20°C afin de freiner les réaction chimiques telles que les réactions de Maillard et la caramélisation. Le Tableau 4.3.2 présente les conditions optimales de conservation des produits réfrigérés.Les produits végétaux, en particulier, les fruits et les légumes sont en principe très sensibles au stockage à l'état frais. Après la récolte, les tissus végétaux continuent leur métabolisme. Quelques exemples de processus qui peuvent avoir lieu seuls ou de manière combinée sont : •la décomposition des substances pectineuses : le collant entre les cellules disparaît et les fruits deviennent doux, •la décomposition de l'amidon et la combustion des substances organiques. Le tissu a besoin d'oxygène et produit du CO 2 . Du fait des changements de conditions par la combustion, il y a des quantités de produits de réaction qui peuvent différer des quantités normales. Par exemple, une accumulation de gluco- se peut avoir lieu comme résultat d'une décomposition accélérée de l'amidon (des pommes de terre qui deviennent sucrées après congélation). On a malgré tout trouvé des conditions favorables pour le stockage au froid d'un grand nombre de fruits et légumes. Souvent, la solution se trouve dans le stockage à des températures moyennes (10-15°C) combiné avec un stockage au gaz. On maintient par exemple une concentration de CO 2 de 1% (air : 0,03 % de CO 2 ) pour le stockage de certains types de pommes.Des concentrations de gaz trop élevées peuvent causer la décoloration de la chair des fruits (on utilise, par exemple, du CO 2 , de l'éthylène CH 2 =CH 2 , de l'acétylène CH≡CH).La congélation normale des fruits et légumes est peu appliquée, car après décongélation, les produits sont souvent en mauvais état. Au contraire la congélation rapide des produits végétaux a un bon avenir.  L'effet utile de la MR (ε) = -20 1,0 0,8 0,7 0,6 0,6 0,5 -15 1,2 1,0 0,9 0,7 0,7 0,6 -10 1,5 1,2 1,0 0,9 0,8 0,7 -5 2,1 1,6 1,2 1,0 0,9 0,8 0 3,2 2,1 1,6 1,3 1,1 0,9En pratique, la compression est effectuée dans un compresseur à piston (Figure 3.2.9); parfois on utilise des compresseurs rotatoires (Figures 3.2.10,3.2.11,et 4.3.4).   La conservation par le froid Pour des cas exceptionnels (où l'on utilise de l'eau, de la glace ou de l'air comme moyen réfrigérant), on peut mettre en contact le produit et le moyen réfrigérant. Dans la plupart des cas, il faut réfrigérer le produit par plusieurs étapes; on peut alors, par exemple, illustrer le cours du courant de chaleur comme suit :La méthode de réfrigération illustrée est la plus utilisée. On la rencontre dans les applications les plus connues du froid :•entrepôts frigorifiques,•congélation.En principe, on peut diviser les magasins en deux types :•les magasins réfrigérés par l'air ambiant ; ils sont beaucoupAspects de conservation plus utilisés dans les zones modérées et froides,•les magasins réfrigérés par l'air réfrigéré mécaniquement. Selon les températures employées, la composition de l'air, l'utilisation, on connaît par exemple : les cellules frigorifiques, les cellules de congélation, les réfrigérateurs, etc.La chaleur qu'il faut retirer du magasin frigorifique est produite par : La production de chaleur par le produit, l'homme et les appareils : La quantité de chaleur produite par les produits dépend de la température et du produit. Quelques exemples sont donnés dans le tableau 4.3.5. Par exemple, quand la capacité de la machine réfrigérante ne suffit pas à retirer la chaleur produite par les bananes à 13°C, la température monte. À cause de cette augmentation, la production de chaleur augmente et à ce moment-là, il faut écarter une partie des bananes afin de pouvoir encore contrôler la situation.La production de chaleur de l'homme est de l'ordre d'environ 1255 kJ.h -1 . Les appareils électriques produisent environ 3600 kJ.h -1 .kW -1 , soit 2645 kJ.h -1 .cv -1 . On calcule cette quantité de Joules à l'aide de la formule suivante : Magasins frigorifiques : température > 0°C. Magasins de congélation : température < 0°C.On peut classer les divers types de cellules frigorifiques selon leurs fonctions :•cellules à pré-réfrigération, où l'on baisse rapidement la température des produits jusqu'à la température désirée de stockage. •cellules frigorifiques normales, où l'on garde les produits pendant une plus longue période. Ici, il faut avoir la possibilité de contrôler le taux d'humidité de l'air. D'ailleurs, il faut assurer une bonne circulation de l'air à travers les produits. •cellules à gaz, où l'on garde les produits dans une atmosphère de composition différente de celle de l'air. Afin de garder la composition de l'atmosphère constante, il faut une construction imperméable au gaz. •cellules à tempérer, où l'on chauffe le produit sous des conditions très sèches, afin d'éviter une condensation sur le produit quand il sort du magasin frigorifique.Les cellules de congélation sont en principe construites de la même façon que les cellules frigorifiques, sauf si on exige plus de la capacité de la machine réfrigérante et des parois isolées. On distingue :•les tunnels à congélation, qui ont la même fonction que lesLa conservation à sec cellules à pré-réfrigération, c'est-à-dire qu'ils servent à congeler rapidement les produits avant qu'ils soient stockés dans les cellules à congélation. •les cellules à congélation qui servent à stocker les produits plus longtemps. Les produits sont presque toujours emballés et ne nécessitent guère un contrôle régulier; pendant le stockage, on peut empiler les produits. •les cellules coopératives à congélation, surtout très utiles à la campagne, où les paysans peuvent louer une ou plusieurs boîtes qui se trouvent dans une grande cellule à congélation.La conservation par le froid implique le transport et la distribution à un froid continu. Dans l'usine, il est important de transporter les produits entre les cellules sans les dégeler. Ceci peut avoir lieu à des températures inférieures à 0°C (par exemple, produits sucrés ou salés). De l'usine au détaillant, on utilise, par exemple, des navires possédant des cales réfrigérées, des camions et wagons réfrigérés.Pour la distribution, les détaillants utilisent des chambres froides pour le stockage et dans le magasin, les boîtes réfrigérées \"reach-in\". Le consommateur utilise les réfrigérateurs et les congélateurs de ménage.Sécher est une des méthodes les plus anciennes de conservation. Le but du séchage a toujours été d'obtenir un produit léger et stable, qu'on peut facilement emballer et garder. La technique classique consiste à sécher le produit à l'aide de l'air ambiant préalablement séché par la radiation solaire. Dans certaines régions du monde, par exemple au Mali et au Burkina-Faso, cette méthode est très utilisée. Cependant, la plus grande partie de la production des aliments séchés est effectuée par des méthodes artificielles.Dans les méthodes de conservation, on peut comparer le séchage avec l'utilisation du froid; les micro-organismes ne sont pas tués, seulement les conditions sont modifiées.Souvent, on améliore la conservation des produits séchés par le fumage ou l'emballage sous un gaz inerte. Ce sont toujours les propriétés caractéristiques de l'aliment qui doivent déterminer les conditions de séchage. L'exécution technique est de moindre importance et est dictée par les conditions désirées. En principe, les conditions les plus favorables sont une température basse du produit et des périodes courtes de séchage. De cette manière, les changements chimiques sont freinés le plus fortement possible. En pratique, on ne peut pas appliquer toujours et partout ces condi-Aspects de conservation tions idéales, parce qu'elles posent des problèmes d'ordre financier.Une température basse peut s'obtenir par l'application du vide (mais c'est cher). Il est beaucoup plus important de garder les produits séchés à des températures peu élevées, parce que pendant les (souvent longues) périodes de garde, il y a un certain nombre de changements qui sont fortement accélérés par une augmentation de la température.De nombreux facteurs interviennent au cours du séchage, déterminant sa rapidité et la qualité du produit obtenu : •la température de l'air; •le débit de l'air permettant l'évacuation de la vapeur d'eau formée; •les caractéristiques du produit (composition, texture,...); •les dimensions du produit (épaisseur, etc.).En général, la perte en eau est rapide au début puis se ralentit et si l'opération se prolonge, il n'y a plus d'eau dans l'aliment et donc plus de déshydratation.Le type de séchage le plus courant utilise l'air chaud obtenu soit grâce au soleil (séchage solaire), soit par d'autres moyens (combustion de bois, de gaz, de gas-oil,...). Par le réchauffage naturel ou artificiel de l'air, on amène celui-ci à une humidité relative faible, ce qui lui permet de \"capter\" l'eau des aliments mis à sécher. Ce chauffage de l'air permet aussi d'élever la température de l'aliment et de faciliter ainsi l'évaporation de son eau. Pour que le séchage à l'air ne soit pas trop long, il faut que l'aliment soit disposé en couches minces et que l'air puisse circuler autour d'elles. Différents types de séchoirs existent. Tous les séchoirs solaires se basent sur le même principe, depuis le plus rudimentaire (un sol en terre battue, un morceau de toile ou une terrasse en ciment où sont étalés les produits, par exemple graines de céréales ou légumineuses, graines de café, fèves de cacao...) jusqu'au plus élaboré avec capteurs solaires et circulation d'air forcée, en passant par les claies séchoirs \"autobus\" avec des claies mobiles et un toit qui permet de protéger les produits en cas de pluie. ( cf. figure 4.4.1) En termes quantitatifs, ce sont les céréales et autres grains et graines (légumineuses, café, cacao....) qui sont les plus concernés car leur conservation et leur stockage ne sont possibles qu'après séchage. Partout et depuis des millénaires, les paysans ont mis au point des techniques de séchage adaptées aux produits, aux moyens, aux conditions climatiques. Malgré cela, le séchage reste une étape critique dans le processus post-récolte qui occasionne de nombreuses pertes, en particulier quand les populations ne disposent pas de moyens de séchage artificiel et que les conditions climatiques ne sont pas favorables.A maturité, les divers grains et graines ont un taux d'humidité élevé, 30 à 40 %. Après la récolte, les grains, organes végétaux, continuent à respirer et plus ils sont humides plus la respiration est intense et le dégagement de chaleur important. En stockant un grain humide, la température augmente rapidement, des moisissures et des fermentations se développent et les grains se prennent en masse. Les insectes, eux, peuvent se développer sur des grains d'humidité inférieure à 10-11 %. La germination n'a lieu qu'au-delà d'une certaine teneur en eau du grain (18-25 %). Tous ces phénomènes sont favorisés par des températures relativement élevées (20 à 35°C) et les conditions de la plupart des pays en développement leur sont donc propices.De ce fait, la durée de conservation d'un grain est fonction de la température ambiante et de l'humidité du grain. Ainsi à la température de 25°C, le grain de maïs peut être stocké à 22 % d'humidité pendant 7 jours au plus ou à 12 % d'humidité pendant plusieurs mois. La teneur en eau du grain se maintient en équilibre D'autres produits agricoles bruts ou transformés sont couramment séchés pour leur conservation. C'est le cas par exemple du manioc : le gari, la farinha, l'amidon aigre, les cossettes, le tapioca, produits issus du manioc après diverses transformations, sont séchés soit au soleil, soit à la chaleur sèche dans une marmite, soit avec des équipements industriels. Dans de nombreuses zones de pêche, le poisson est mis à sécher après un salage ou une fermentation.On peut généralement classer les produits à sécher en plusieurs groupes :•les substances simples, souvent des matières purifiées telles que des saccharides, de l'amidon, etc. En principe, les techniques de séchage nécessaires sont les plus simples. •les substances liquides (solutions, suspensions, émulsions, etc.), qui sont souvent séchées par pulvérisation ou par des plaques chauffées. •la plupart des aliments qui ont gardé leurs propres structures, tels que la viande, le poisson, les légumes blanchis, le café, les fruits, etc. La période de séchage du dernier groupe d'aliments est très longue étant donné l'hétérogénéité du produit et les phénomènes de migration d'humidité du centre du produit vers l'extérieur.Comme nous l'avons déjà vu au chapitre 1.2, l'activité de l'eau (a w ) est un facteur qui influence fortement la croissance microbienne. On a trouvé que les valeurs de a w inférieures à 0,70 évitent généralement la détérioration microbienne. Cela ne veut pas dire que l'on n'a pas de problèmes microbiologiques dans les séchoirs. En respectant des règles précises d'hygiène, on évite la présence des microbes pathogènes dans les produits séchés. Avec des manipulations techniques adéquates, on évite la prolifération des microorganismes pendant les premières phases du séchage.L'assurance de salubrité, par exemple le système HACCP (cf. 5.5.3) ne peut être effectif que si les mesures de base suivantes sont prises:•Eviter l'infection des aliments séchés par contact avec les parois et les sols. •Nettoyer fréquemment et efficacement (contrôle !) les appareils, les instruments, etc. •Distribuer au personnel des vêtements de travail et des cha-peaux propres que l'on peut changer et stériliser fréquemment.•Construire, entretenir et contrôler un nombre suffisant de toilettes (w.c.), pourvues de brosses, de l'eau courante chaude et froide, de savon et de serviettes de façon à se sécher les mains efficacement et hygiéniquement. •Contrôler régulièrement le personnel : état de santé général, état de la peau, des cheveux et des ongles. •Se défendre contre les insectes et les rongeurs (chapitres 2.4 et 2.5). •Essayer de garder l'air de ventilation stérile, frais et sec.Comme nous l'avons déjà vu en chapitre 1.2. et comme c'est résumé à la figure 4.4.2, la vie microbienne est arrêtée à une a w de 0,70. Malheureusement, il y a d'autres types de détérioration qui peuvent avoir lieu en-dessous de cette limite. On a d'abord trouvé qu'entre 0,70 et 0,40 il y a 3 types de mécanismes de détérioration :   La conservation à secOn bloque le groupe réducteur et on évite la réaction de Maillard.On applique des concentrations de 200 -1000 mg de SO 2 / 100 grammes de matière sèche, afin de garder la couleur et de mieux conserver la vitamine C. Une autre possibilité consiste en l'élimination du glucose par addition d'une petite quantité de l'enzyme glucose-oxydase. Cette possibilité s'applique à la viande et au blanc d'oeuf (le glucose est oxydé en acide gluconique).•Changements physico-chimiques : Les changements physicochimiques qui peuvent avoir lieu ne sont pas encore très bien connus. On a trouvé des changements de la structure colloïdale, qui ont rendu difficile la reconstitution des aliments séchés (pouvoir d'absorption de l'eau pendant la préparation). D'ailleurs, dans le lait en poudre on a trouvé que le lactose peut se présenter sous une forme amorphe, qui est très hygroscopique sous forme de α-lactose, et qui rend alors difficile la conservation sous forme sèche.Même à des activités de l'eau inférieures à 0,30, il y a des réactions qui sont favorisées, notamment l'oxydation des matières grasses.Le rancissement est une forme de détérioration qui est causée par l'oxydation et la saponification des corps gras. Ainsi, l'oxydation des caroténoïdes (par exemple au niveau des carottes) est favorisée par une a w inférieure à 0,30. On peut freiner cette oxydation par emballage sous vide, ou sous un gaz inerte, tel que N 2 ou CO 2 .En principe, on peut sécher un produit par l'application de 4 méthodes :•Séchage à l'air courant.•Séchage soit sur une plaque chauffante, soit en combinaison avec un vide. •Séchage par radiation (solaire infrarouge).•Séchage diélectrique (courant alternatif de haute fréquence).En pratique, la plupart des séchoirs marchent à l'aide du premier système. Pour cette raison, nous traiterons des aspects théoriques les plus importants du séchage à l'air courant. Nous avons déjà vu au chapitre 1.2 que l'a w d'un aliment est déterminée par la température. Elle est aussi influencée par l'humidité:: une augmentation de l'humidité cause une augmentation de l'a w . La relation entre a w et humidité est présentée sur la figure 4.4.3. La courbe s'appelle \"isotherme de sorption\".Il est maintenant clair qu'avec une température et une humidité données, l'a w est fixée (flèche 2, figure 4.4.4). Comme nous l'avons vu sur la figure 4.4.3, les isothermes varient beaucoup pour les divers aliments (flèche 1, figure 4.4.4).Examinons maintenant le cas théorique suivant : Nous avons un bac contenant de l'eau, qui est placé dans un courant d'air non saturé en eau. L'air et l'eau ont la même température (Figure 4.4.5). P H2O étant supérieure à P courant , l'évaporation de l'eau a lieu. La chaleur d'évaporation est retirée de l'eau. La température de l'eau baisse. A cause de la différence de température, il y aura un courant de chaleur de l'air à l'eau. Enfin, s'effectue une situation d'équilibre où l'eau a une température qui est inférieure à T °C et qui s'appelle \"température de surface humide (T SH )\". L'autre température (de l'air) est appelée \"température de surface sèche (T SS )\". Quelques exemples sont présentés dans le tableau 4.4.2.Teneur en eau (g/g) a w 1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,2 0,4  La touraille (Figure 4.4.6) est le type de séchoir le plus simple. Elle consiste en un fond perforé. L'air de séchage est injecté par les trous et traverse le matériel. On utilise souvent la touraille pour les matières flottantes (graines, fruits, légumes, café). On trouve surtout les tourailles dans les usines de petite capacité, qui trai-tent une grande variété de types de produit. Les tourailles ont des inconvénients, mais elles sont simples et peu coûteuses. Les inconvénients des tourailles sont la difficulté de garder le matériel homogène, la mauvaise répartition de la chaleur, et le bas rendement de la chaleur.La conservation à sec Séchoir à tunnel (Figure 4.4.8). Dans ce type de séchoir, le tunnel contient une série de chariots sur lesquels le produit est étendu. Les chariots sont transportés lentement de l'entrée à la sortie, où le produit termine son séchage. Dans les séchoirs de type plus complexe, on fait recycler l'air de séchage.Séchoir à cylindre rotatoire (Figure 4.4.10). On utilise les cylindres rotatoires pour sécher des produits qui flottent facilement et qui ne collent pas. Dans le cylindre, on a construit un mécanisme qui mélange les produits de façon à ce qu'ils soient exposés de manière égale à la chaleur. Ces produits sont ensuite transportés à travers le séchoir grâce à une faible inclinaison du cylindre.Nous avons ainsi vu les trois types de séchoirs les plus couramment utilisés pour le séchage des produits dont le séchage est lent. La période de séjour du produit dans ces types de séchoir peut varier de 15 minutes à quelques heures. Pour le séchage des produits qui sèchent rapidement, on peut appliquer le séchage pneumatique.Séchoir pneumatique, 1 er cas : technique pour des poudres. On mélange la poudre (par exemple l'amidon) avec l'air à sécher à l'aide d'un désintégrateur (cf. chapitre 3.6.). Ensuite, le mélange passe à travers un système tubulaire et la poudre est séchée et transportée en même temps.Séchage pneumatique, 2 ème cas : technique \"Lit Fluide\". Un lit fluide est formé par des particules de matière solide, qui sont transportées par un coussin pneumatique. Ce coussin pneumatique est formé par des injecteurs d'air chaud à sécher. Le matériel va se comporter comme un liquide (fluidisation). Par cette méthode, on obtient un mélange intensif sans dommage mécanique. On peut appliquer cette technique pour sécher de nombreux produits, par exemple des graines, du sel, du café, des légumes, etc.Avant de sécher ces liquides, on les concentre fortement par évaporation, parce que l'ensemble : concentration et séchage du produit concentré, est meilleur marché que le séchage du liquide dilué. Un autre avantage est la vitesse de séchage, qui est plus grande pour un concentré visqueux que pour un liquide dilué. Séchoir à atomisation. (Figures 4.4.11 et 4.4.12) Le produit liquide est pulvérisé dans une grande chambre avec de l'air à une  température assez élevée. Malgré cela, la température du produit ne dépassera pas 50°C (température de la surface humide). Pour s'assurer un séchage régulier du produit, il faut que les gouttes soient de même grosseur (vitesse égale de chute). Il est souvent difficile d'obtenir des gouttes de diamètre homogène (le diamètre souvent utilisé est de 0,05 mm). Le séchage à pulvérisation est surtout appliqué pour le lait, mais aussi pour les oeufs, les extraits de café, la farine de pomme de terre, le sang, etc. La vitesse de séchage est de l'ordre d'une 1/2 minute.   Il y a des différences essentielles entre le séchage par sublimation et le séchage classique (où l'eau est évaporée) qui peuvent influencer considérablement l'aspect extérieur, la couleur, l'odeur, la valeur nutritive, les propriétés de réhydratation et la consistance du produit.Séchage classique : Au cours du séchage, une partie de l'humidité de la phase liquide est transportée du centre vers l'extérieur du produit où a lieu l'évaporation. Les substances solubles dans l'eau sont amenées vers la périphérie où, pendant l'évaporation progressive, les concentrations augmentent. À cause de ces concentrations plus élevées et des hautes températures, des réactions non réversibles (détérioration) sont propagées. Le séchage, à partir de la phase liquide, cause un certain rétrécissement du produit qui, combiné à l'augmentation de concentrations des substances solubles, freine la vitesse de séchage et détériore les propriétés de réhydratation. Lors de la réhydratation du produit séché, le rétrécissement ne disparaît que partiellement; aussi, les substances solubles accumulées à la périphérie ne sont pas complètement ramenées au centre du produit par l'eau qui pénètre. Dès lors, la répartition de ces substances reste inégale après la réhydratation.Séchage par sublimation : Pendant la congélation a lieu une séparation de l'humidité des substances solubles. L'eau cristallise sous forme de cristaux de glace, tandis que les substances qui étaient dissoutes sont fixées entre ces cristaux. Les substances ne se déplacent pas pendant le séchage, où la glace s'échappe du produit par sublimation. Un rétrécissement très restreint s'opère. Les réactions non réversibles sont fortement freinées par la basse température et le manque d'oxygène. Finalement le produit reconstitué a des propriétés qui ressemblent beaucoup plus à celles du produit original qu'à celles d'un produit séché reconstitué selon les techniques classiques.Les traitements préalables au séchage par sublimation, selon les produits concernés, sont : La conservation à secAspects de conservation tion ou tout autre type de détérioration, le produit est souvent emballé, sous une atmosphère de gaz inerte (exemple : l'azote, l'hélium), dans un emballage imperméable aux gaz.Ce système assez cher ne peut être profitable pour le producteur que pour la conservation des produits dont le séchage ne peut être réalisé de manière aussi satisfaisante par un autre procédé.Quelques exemples de produits qui sont conservés par le séchage par sublimation : l'extrait de café (Nescafé), la viande de poulet, les champignons, le sérum de sang (applications médicales) et les cultures bactériennes (ensemencements aux fermentations, et applications scientifiques).Comme nous l'avons vu, toutes les méthodes importantes de conservation causent des changements plus ou moins considérables dans les aliments. Afin de diminuer ces changements, qui sont souvent indésirables, on peut appliquer un traitement de conservation plus léger en combinaison avec l'addition de certains produits chimiques. L'action de ces produits chimiques consiste généralement dans la réduction de la croissance microbienne.Selon leurs modes d'action et les effets qu'ils causent dans les aliments, on peut classer les produits chimiques de conservation comme suit :Dans ce groupe, on trouve les produits qu'il faut ajouter en grandes quantités afin d'obtenir une action de conservation (qui ne sera d'ailleurs jamais de 100%). Du fait de ces concentrations éle-  vées (acides 1-5%, sel, sucre, alcool 5-50%) le goût du produit est souvent tellement modifié que l'on ne peut utiliser ces produits de conservation que dans des cas spécifiques. Les produits suivants sont classés selon leurs types d'action :Diminution de l'activé de l'eau (a w ) On obtient une diminution de l'a w par l'addition de quantités appropriées de produits suivants :•du sel (NaCl ou KNO 3 ), (poisson, viande)•des sucres (sucre de canne, glucose, etc.), (fruits) •de l'alcool, (fruits, boissons).Le principe de l'action de conservation consiste dans la réduction de la multiplication des bactéries qui causent la putréfaction.Celles-ci ne peuvent plus survivre à des valeurs de pH inférieures à 4,5. Cependant, il y a encore d'autres micro-organismes qui sont aussi capables de survivre à des valeurs de pH inférieures à 3,0 (un certain nombre de levures et champignons, ensuite les bactéries acido-lactiques). L'effet est causé par les acides non-dissociés. La diminution du pH s'effectue par :-l'addition d'acide, surtout l'acide acétique (mise en vinaigre des olives, de la viande), mais aussi l'acide citrique, tartrique, lactique et propionique.-la formation d'acide par des micro-organismes, surtout la formation de l'acide lactique dans les produits fermentés tels que les céréales fermentées, les saucisses dures, la choucroute, le babeurre, le yaourt, le fromage. seulement perméable à des substances non chargées. Dans la cellule le pH intracellulaire est supérieur au pH extracellulaire, l'acide se dissocie en formant des ions H + . Pour la cellule il faut que les ions H + soient éliminés, ce processus consomme de l'énergie et par conséquent, la croissance de la cellule est inhibée.Dans ce groupe, on trouve les produits qui ont une action de freinage du métabolisme des micro-organismes. La conservation par l'addition de produits chimiques Aspects de conservation maximum de chance qu'un certain nombre de micro-organismes pathogènes développent une résistance contre plusieurs antibiotiques (ceux qui sont utilisés dans les aliments). Cela posera de réels problèmes en cas de maladie; pour cette raison, on a proposé l'utilisation de quelques antibiotiques dont on a démontré que les micro-organismes ne développent pas de résistance. Jusqu'à présent, il n'a pas encore été trouvé de tels antibiotiques, sauf les tétracyclines (rarement utilisées aux Etats-Unis). Par contre, certaines bactériocines comme la nisine sont appliquées dans les fromages. Le tableau 4.5.2 présente quelques concentrations admises de produits de conservation, qui ont une admissibilité entre certaines limites. Egalement, le tableau 4.5.3 montre quelques additifs, leur code \"E\" et les taux acceptables du point de vue toxicologique. Enfin, il faut remarquer qu'un certain nombre de pays exigent la mention des produits de conservation utilisés sur l'emballage du produit.Comme nous l'avons déjà vu dans le chapitre 2.6, la conservation à l'aide des micro-organismes (bioconserves) est presque toujours accompagnée de changements de goût et d'arôme. Pour cette raison, cette technique n'est appliquée que pour certains produits typiques. Il faut d'ailleurs remarquer que l'on ne peut garder de façon illimitée les bioconserves, surtout quand on change les conditions des produits.Le pH bas est causé par la formation microbienne d'acide (le plus souvent l'acide lactique et/ou l'acide acétique). La concentration d'acide doit être assez considérable (2 -4%). Même dans cette condition, il faut souvent ajouter une quantité de sel (NaCl) afin d'améliorer la conservation.Exemples : choucroute, cornichons, choux-fleurs, olives, vinaigre, yaourt, fromage.L'alcool est formé, avec la formation de CO 2 , pendant la fermentation alcoolique des sucres. Parallèlement, pendant la fermentation des jus de fruits, se déroulent plusieurs transformations (bio) chimiques dont les produits contribuent à la saveur et l'arôme caractéristiques du vin. La conservation du vin est assurée par l'acidité, le taux d'alcool et la présence des sucres qui sont encore fermentescibles. On peut améliorer la conservation du vin par pasteurisation, par bacto-filtration (on élimine les micro-organismes),La conservation à l'aide de micro-organismes ou par addition de produits chimiques (SO 2 , acide benzoïque, voir section 4.5).Les voies métaboliques à partir du glucose sont présentées sur la figure 4.6.1. Dans le contexte de cette section, on fait la distinction entre les fermentations alcooliques, lactiques et acétiques.# produits de la fermentation alcoolique, ∆ produits de la fermentation lactique homofermentative, * produits de la fermentation lactique hétérofermentative, ∼ produits de la fermentation acétique (Acetobacter aceti), ≈ produits de la surfermentation acétique (Acetobacter peroxydans).  On a trouvé déjà en 1904 que la radiation ionisante, émise par une source radioactive, par exemple le Cobalt 60 , a une action mortelle sur les micro-organismes. Les grands avantages de l'application de la radiation sont :•que la température au cours de la stérilisation n'augmente que de 10°C. •que les rayons ont un grand pouvoir de pénétration; ce qui implique que l'on peut traiter en une fois de grands emballages remplis d'aliments. Depuis 1950, de nombreuses recherches scientifiques ont été faites sur le sujet de la radiation, et on a trouvé que le système de radiation est très souhaitable comme traitement de quelques aliments spécifiques. D'autre part, on a pu constater que le procédé de radiation pourrait poser certains problèmes.La conservation par la radiation ionisanteIl y a plusieurs inconvénients liés à cette technologie :•Accumulation des résidus radioactifs dans l'environnement; •Changements indésirables d'odeur et de goût : la stérilisation par radiation ionisante n'est pas appropriée pour beaucoup d'aliments, parce que sous l'influence de l'énergie ionisante ont lieu des réactions de formation de radicaux et d'oxydation, qui altèrent l'odeur et la saveur des aliments; •Perte de la valeur nutritive : les protides, les lipides et les saccharides ne sont pas détruits par la radiation. Néanmoins, l'application des rayons peut amener une destruction de quelques vitamines (par exemple la thiamine); •Risques microbiologiques : l'application de rayons ionisants accélère la formation de mutants de micro-organismes qui sont résistants à la radiation. Cela introduit des risques sanitaires, surtout avec Clostridium botulinum type E, microorganisme très dangereux; •Coûts : les coûts d'installation, de mise en marche, et de protection de l'homme contre les effets nuisibles des rayons radioactifs sont élevés.L' O.M.S. a approuvé la radiation ionisante à une dose inférieure ou égale à 10 kGy, ce qui est adéquat pour la destruction des bactéries végétatives (formes non-sporulées).A présent, on développe des accélérateurs d'électrons, avec lesquels on est capable de créer un rayon ionisant sans utiliser une source radioactive. C'est un développement important qui permettra l'utilisation de la radiation comme méthode inoffensive sans avoir les problèmes de résidus radioactifs dans l'environnement.Etant donné les diverses restrictions de la stérilisation par radiation ionisante et le traitement E-beam, ce procédé n'est applicable que dans certains cas comme :•Fourrage : la présence de Salmonelles dans les abattoirs est un risque pour la santé humaine. La quantité de micro-organismes du genre Salmonella, amenée par le bétail aux abattoirs, peut être diminuée par l'utilisation de fourrage débarrassé de ce micro-organisme par radiation; •Viande et volaille congelées : la seule méthode pour décontaminer la viande et la volaille sous forme fraîche est l'application de la radiation au produit congelé. Le produit reste congelé et dans certaines conditions appropriées, ce n'est pas dangereux pour la santé;•Fruits et légumes : par l'utilisation de très petites quantités d'énergie rayonnante, on peut freiner les processus de maturation des tissus végétaux. Par exemple, on peut freiner la maturation des bananes destinées à l'exportation grâce à la radiation effectuée à une dose très faible.La qualité des aliments est de toute évidence très importante, mais en même temps c'est une notion qui est un peu vague. Une définition très générale est la suivante : la qualité des aliments peut être définie comme étant la recherche de la satisfaction du désir du consommateur. L'évaluation de la qualité implique des facteurs aussi bien objectifs que subjectifs, et ces facteurs sont parfois cachés, c'est-àdire invisibles pour le consommateur. Les facteurs subjectifs sont en effet les propriétés organoleptiques, c'est-à-dire les propriétés qui sont perceptibles avec les organes des sens. Ce sont notamment la couleur (perceptible avec les yeux), le goût (la langue), l'arôme (le nez et la langue), l'apparence (les yeux et les mains), l'ouïe (les oreilles). Aussi subjectifs sont des facteurs psychologiques déterminés par la culture et les habitudes, l'appréciation de la manière de produire et finalement le coût. Ces facteurs sont subjectifs parce que chaque homme peut les évaluer de manière différente.Les facteurs objectifs sont des choses comme la détérioration, la salubrité (parfois cachée pour le consommateur), la stabilité et la valeur nutritionnelle (cachée pour le consommateur). Ils sont objectifs parce qu' on peut mesurer ces facteurs avec des instruments. On ne peut pas complètement séparer les facteurs subjectifs et les facteurs objectifs. Par exemple, une détérioration chimique comme l'oxydation peut avoir des conséquences sur le goût et l'arôme.La détérioration peut être de nature chimique : par exemple, l'oxydation, la réaction de Maillard; de nature biochimique : par l'action des enzymes; de nature physique : par exemple, la sépara-Aspects de qualité tion, la sédimentation (des phases dispersées); de nature microbiologique : par l'action des micro-organismes (bactéries, levures, moisissures).La salubrité est déterminée par la présence dans l'aliment d'agents toxiques, de micro-organismes pathogènes, d'allergènes, de contaminants chimiques.La valeur nutritionnelle est déterminée par la teneur en calories (énergie), la teneur en protéines/acides aminés indispensables, la teneur en acides gras indispensables, la teneur en vitamines, la teneur en sels minéraux, la teneur en oligo-éléments, la digestibilité et la biodisponibilité.La stabilité est l'aptitude du produit à ne pas s'altérer trop rapidement. Les conditions d'entreposage doivent être prises en compte. En effet on peut dire que la détérioration est la perte de la qualité.Le but de la technologie alimentaire est de produire des aliments de bonne qualité. En ce qui concerne la production, cette qualité est déterminée par deux facteurs, la qualité du plan de fabrication, et la qualité de la fabrication elle-même. Le plan de fabrication est aussi dépendant de la chaîne de production des aliments (Figure 5 Chaque maillon de la chaîne est important pour la qualité, notamment :•la qualité des matières premières,•la qualité de la fabrication,•la qualité de la distribution et du stockage,•la qualité de la gestion d'entreprise Lorsque l'organisation est plus grande, la logistique (la gestion et le processus de stockage et de distribution) devient plus importante.Une question importante est comment on peut mesurer la qualité. Les facteurs objectifs sont mesurables par des analyses microbiologiques, chimiques, organoleptiques, physiques. Pour l'interprêtation des résultats d'analyse on a besoin des méthodes statistiques. Aussi, la gestion est importante parce que c'est peut-être nécessaire d'engager certaines actions.Les quelques facteurs ci-dessous cités sont très importants pour la production des aliments en ce qui concerne la gestion de la qualité :•le caractère périssable des aliments : hygiène, temps de passage dans la chaîne ; •la santé des consommateurs : les micro-organismes pathogènes, les résidus/contaminants des agents chimiques (biphényles polychlorés [en Anglais : PCB], des métaux tels que Cd, Zn, Pb, etc). Il faut que le technologue prenne conscience que les aliments sont consommés «pour vivre». •la diversité des fournisseurs, •la variabilité des matières premières en fonction des saisons, •l'échelle de production, •l'importance de la valeur ajoutée, •la réglementation en vigueur Une autre manière de décrire la qualité est l'utilisation des facteurs dits extrinsèques ou intrinsèques. Les facteurs extrinsèques sont des facteurs qui ne sont pas directement liés à l'aliment luimême; par contre, les facteurs intrinsèques sont liés directement à l'aliment (Figure 5  Le but du chapitre 5 est de discuter les aspects de qualité mentionnés plus en détail, sauf la qualité microbienne qui a déjà été discutée dans le chapitre 2. Le tableau 5.2.1 ci-dessus énumère les divers types d'états colloïdaux à deux phases non miscibles.Si l'on classe les aliments d'après leur texture on peut distinguer :Les solutions : ont une viscosité plus ou moins élevée. Exemples : la bière, le vin, le coca, le jus de pomme, l'huile de table ; elles n'ont de structure qu'à l'échelle moléculaire. Quand elles sont très concentrées, elles forment une structure vitreuse (bonbons de sucre, bonbons acidulés).Les suspensions : ce sont des solutions contenant des particules insolubles (fragments de cellules végétales, agrégats de protéines, grains d'amidon). Quelques exemples sont le jus d'orange, le lait, le lait de chocolat.Les pâtes : sont semblables aux suspensions, à la différence que dans les pâtes les particules se touchent et forment un réseau. Des exemples caractéristiques sont la purée de tomate, la marmelade de pommes, le pâté de foie, le beurre d'arachide.Les émulsions : sont soit des globules gras dispersés dans une phase aqueuse (huile/eau ou H/E), soit des globules d'eau dispersés dans l'huile (E/H). Il y a beaucoup d' aliments qui sont en effet des émulsions. Des exemples sont le lait et la mayonnaise (H/E), la margarine et le beurre (E/H).Les mousses et écumes : elles sont constituées de bulles, représentant un grand volume d'air ou d'autres gaz, entourées de minces films liquides. Quelques exemples sont la mousse de bière, la crème glacée, les oeufs à la neige, la mousse de chocolat, la mie de pain qui est formée par des bulles entourées par de minces films solides (gluten, amidon).Les gels : constitués de réseaux de macromolécules dans une phase aqueuse. Quelques exemples sont les confitures, la gélatine, le pouding.Les gels de particules : qui forment un réseau. Des exemples sont le yaourt, l'oeuf cuit ou poché, la viande (fibreuse). Il faut noter qu' il existe des mélanges de ces configurations mentionnées ci-dessus, tels que la glace (mélange d'une émulsion de globules gras, suspension des cristaux de glace, gels de particules de caséines, mousse de l'air), le fromage (mélange d' une émulsion, gels de particules), le pain (mélange de mousse et gels de particules), etc. Les propriétés des aliments sont dépendantes du type de configuration et des interactions au niveau colloïdal. Alors, une connaissance de base sur les colloïdes est nécessaire pour comprendre les propriétés physiques des aliments.Etant donné qu'ils sont constitués par une dispersion de nombreuses particules, tous les systèmes colloïdaux possèdent des Aspects de qualité interfaces de grande étendue entre les phases constituantes. Un rapport surface/volume élevé entraîne, en raison de la tendance à la diminution de l'étendue des interfaces, une grande instabilité thermodynamique et par conséquent une déstabilisation des systèmes colloïdaux.Il existe trois mécanismes principaux de déstabilisation d'un système colloïdal : a) la séparation des phases dans les cas où les phases présentent une différence de densité ; la sédimentation et l'écrémage sont des exemples de séparation des phases.b) la floculation des particules en cas d'attraction entre elles. c) la coalescence ou fusion des particules entre elles Pour la sédimentation (ou bien l'écrémage) la chute sous l'influence de la pesanteur se fait à vitesse croissante jusqu'à ce que la force frictionnelle de résistance (due au milieu où se produit la chute) F f (N) devienne égale à la force gravitationnelle F g (N) :La chute des particules sphériques de rayon r se fait à vitesse constante V (m s -1 ) si F f = F g , c'est-à-dire quand la vitesse est constante ρ=densité de la particule (kg m -3 ) , ρ 0 = densité de la phase dispersante (kg m -3 ) , g= accélération de gravité (m 2 s -1 ), η = viscosité de la phase dispersante (Pa s, ou Ns m -2 ). La sédimentation ou écrémage est donc d'autant plus lente que la taille des particules est petite, que la différence de densité entre particules et phase dispersante est faible, et que la viscosité de la phase dispersante est élevée. On peut voir que l'effet du rayon est très grand, dû à r 2 . A titre d'exemple supposons que ρ 0 =1 kg m -3 , ρ =0,92 kg m -3 , η = 0,002 Nsm -2 (c'est-à-dire une viscosité double de celle de l'eau), r=0,1 µm, on calcule donc une valeur V=8,7×10 -13 m s -1 ou 3 nm h -1 . Si r=100 µm, les autres conditions étant les mêmes, on calcule V=8,7×10 -7 m s -1 ou 3 mm h -1 , montrant donc le grand effet du rayon des particules. On peut utiliser la différence de densité entre particules et phase dispersante en technologie alimentaire pour séparer des phases. Par exemple, la séparation des globules gras du lait est réalisée pendant la production de la crème par centrifugation.La floculation et la coalescence sont une conséquence de l'interaction entre particules, c'est-à-dire des forces d'attraction et de répulsion. La force d'attraction entre particules colloïdales s'appelle force de van der Waals et cette attraction est d'un type général. On peut décrire l'attraction entre particules sphériques en terme quantitatif comme une énergie :V A est l'énergie d'attraction (J), r le rayon des particules (m), h la distance entre les particules (m), et A est la constante de Hamaker (cf. figure 5.2.1.) La constante de Hamaker est caractéristique du matériel constituant les particules et elle varie entre 0,1×10 -20 et 2x10 -20 J. La répulsion entre particules est soit de type électrostatique, soit de type stérique. La répulsion électrostatique peut être décrite pour des particules sphériques comme une énergie V R (J) :ε est la constante diélectrique (elle est égale à 80 pour l'eau, 3 pour l'huile, par exemple), ψ d est la charge électrique (V), r le rayon des particules (m), 1/κ est une distance caractéristique dépendante de la concentration c des électrolytes avec une valence z (1/κ est en nm si c est en mol/l) :Une plus grande valeur pour 1/κ indique une répulsion plus forte. Le tableau 5.2.2 ci-dessous donne une idée de l'effet de la concentration c du NaCl (z=1) sur 1/κ, et donc sur la répulsion électrostatique entre des particules chargées. L'effet de la valeur de la valence z est très fort à cause de z 2 . Le tableau 5.2.3 en donne une idée. La conséquence est que la floculation est promue si on a des électrolytes avec une valence plus élevée. Dans le lait , par exemple, la présence de Ca 2+ est favorable pour la précipitation de la caséine. Parfois on ajoute du Ca(Cl) 2 au lait pour aider la floculation en caillant le lait pour la fabrication de fromage.0,001 10 0,01 3 0,1 1 1 0,3En outre, il existe une autre répulsion de type stérique, c'està-dire une répulsion due à la présence des polymères adsorbés sur les particules (cf. Figure 5.2.2). Les molécules forment un obstacle entre elles si la distance devient petite. On ne peut pas exprimer la répulsion stérique par une formule simple comme la répulsion électrostatique. La répulsion stérique dans les aliments est surtout importante si on a la stabilisation (des émulsions, des mousses) par les protéines. V (10 -20 J)Figure 5.2.3. Energie d'interaction entre deux particules sphériques en fonction de leur distance h. V R est la répulsion électrostatique, V A est l'attraction van der Waals, V ST est la répulsion stérique, V T est l'énergie totale (V T =V A +V R +V ST ). Calcul fait sur la base de deux particules avec r=1µm, A=10 -20 J, ψ d = 50 mV, mais résultats seulement approximatifs.Energie d'interaction entre deux particules sphériques en fonction de leur distance h. VR est la répulsion électrostatique, VA est l'attraction de van der Waals, VST est la répulsion stérique, VT est l'énergie totale (VT=VA+VR+VST). Calcul fait sur la base de deux particules avec r=1µm, A=10 -20 J, ψ d = 50 mV, mais résultats seulement approximatifs.La combinaison de répulsion et d'attraction résulte en une énergie totale V T (cf. Figure 5 La cinétique de floculation dépend des conditions d'écoulement. S'il n'y a pas d'écoulement, les particules peuvent se rencontrer seulement par le mouvement Brownien. Une équation pour le nombre de rencontres J B (s -1 ) dues au mouvement Brownien est : avec N le nombre de particules (m -3 ) , k la constante de Boltzmann (1,38×10 -23 J K -1 ), T la température absolue (K) et η la viscosité (Ns m -2 ). L'équation indique l'importance du nombre de particules et de la viscosité. Si la viscosité est augmentée, c'est plus difficile pour les particules de se rencontrer, et par conséquent d'avoir de la floculation. S'il existe l'écoulement le nombre de rencontres est augmenté considérablement. Pour l'écoulement laminaire, l'équation permettant de calculer le nombre de rencontres J G (s -1 ) est : avec d le diamètre des particules (m) et G l le gradient de vitesse d'écoulement laminaire (s -1 ). L'équation indique que le diamètre des particules est très important dans ce cas (d 3 ), c'est-à-dire que les plus grandes particules floculent plus vite que les petites particules pour le même G l . C'est d'autant plus remarquable que la viscosité n'est pas importante dans ce cas. (5.2.7) (5.2.8)La stabilité des particules, donc des aliments, est fortement influencée par le pH et les électrolytes si on a une stabilisation dominée par la répulsion électrostatique. Le pH peut influencer la charge des particules (ψ d dans l'équation 5.2.5), par exemple si on a des protéines adsorbées un pH élevé donne une charge négative, et un pH bas donne une charge positive. La Figure 5.2.5 donne un exemple de l'effet de la charge ψ d ; si V T est négative le résultat est la floculation.L'effet des électrolytes est pareil mais leur influence est liée au paramètre κ, (cf. Figure 5 Un bon exemple est la stabilité du lait. Si on diminue le pH, la stabilité de la caséine (présente dans les particules dites micelles) est perdue, et on peut observer l'instabilité de la caséine dans le lait acidifié : le résultat est la floculation. Dans le cas du fromage on a aussi une floculation de la caséine (provoquée par la présure) et les globules gras sont enfermés dans le caillé . Mais les globules gras sont seulement floculés, ils ne sont pas fusionnés : ils se trouvent dans un minimum secondaire.Dans le cas d'une émulsion, ou bien d'une mousse, il est nécessaire d'avoir des agents tensio-actifs. Pourquoi? C'est dû à l'instabilité thermodynamique à cause d' interface de grande étendue : il y a une tendance spontanée à diminuer l'étendue des interfaces et cela est réalisé par floculation et coalescence. C'est pourquoi on a besoin des agents tensio-actifs, aussi bien pour la formation que pour la stabilité. Premièrement, ils sont effectifs parce qu'ilsAspects de qualité abaissent la tension superficielle/interfaciale et ce phénomène facilite la formation d'émulsions et de mousse. En général, les agents tensio-actifs sont caractérisés par : •une structure amphipolaire éventuellement chargée, •l'adsorption sur l'interface/surface, les deux extrémités de leurs molécules présentant des affinités l'une pour la phase aqueuse et l'autre pour la phase lipidique (cf. Figure 5.2.7) , •la réduction de la tension interfaciale/superfaciale, •la possibilité d'émulsification, •la protection des particules contre la floculation et la coalescence (stabilisation).Phase lipidique (air, huile) Les agents tensio-actifs ont aussi leur influence sur l'interaction colloïdale parce qu' ils sont adsorbés sur l'interface des particules et peuvent contribuer à l'interaction électrostatique et stérique (cf. Figure 5.2.2), dépendant de leur structure moléculaire.Les facteurs influant sur l'interaction des particules sont résumés dans le tableau 5.2.5. En outre, on a l'influence de la viscosité qui détermine le nombre de rencontres entre particules (cf. équation 5.2.7). Si la viscosité est très élevée, c'est plus difficile pour les particules de se rencontrer du fait du mouvement Brownien.La qualité physiqueLes gels sont obtenus par la formation d'un réseau de particules ou de polymères à travers la phase dispersante. Si les flocons sédimentent on obtient alors un précipité. Dans certains cas il est nécessaire d'avoir un précipité (par exemple si on veut extraire la caséine du lait par précipitation); dans d'autres cas, il faut éviter la formation d'un précipité et, par contre, stimuler la formation d'un gel (par exemple dans le cas du yaourt ou du caillé). Il n'existe pas une grande différence entre la formation d'un gel et celle d'un précipité; c'est seulement une question de cinétique. On peut dire qu' un gel est un réseau de particules qui ne peuvent pas précipiter à cause du réseau qui est formé. La formation d'un gel est plus probable lorsque : •la floculation est plus rapide, •le fluide ne s'écoule pas, •la différence de densité est faible, •le nombre de particules est élevé.Lorsqu'un réarrangement des particules dans un gel est possible, le nombre de liaisons augmente, le réseau se contracte et la phase dispersante est expulsée conduisant au phénomène de synérèse (perte de qualité physique).En effet, il existe deux types de gels (Figure 5.2.8) :•gels de macromolécules, comme la pectine ou la gélatine •gels de particules, comme le yaourt (particules de caséine), la margarine et le beurre (particules de cristaux gras) La différence entre les deux est le type d'interaction. Dans le cas des gels de macromolécules on a un réseau de macromolécules, dans le cas de gels de particules on a une attraction entre les particules. Il existe aussi des mélanges des deux types, comme les gels d'amidon : les deux types de macromolécules (amylose et amylopectine) forment des gels de macromolécules, et les graines d'amidon forment des gels de particules. Les amidons à l'état natif sont des sphérocristaux présents dans les tissus végétaux sous forme de granules intracellulaires denses, d'aspect et de structure souvent caractéristiques de la plante d'où ils proviennent. Ils sont pratiquement insolubles dans l'eau froide.Lorsque les amidons sont exposés à la fois à la chaleur (~ 60º C) et à l'humidité, il y a la gélatinisation. Les granules gonflent du fait d'une adsorption d'eau sur les groupements polaires (hydroxyles), une adsorption qui entraîne une augmentation de leur volume (20 -30 fois) ; la viscosité est aussi augmentée conduisant à un effet d'agents épaississants. Elle permet d'ailleurs aussi une augmentation de la digestibilité.Pendant le stockage de l'amidon gélatinisé, il se produit le phénomène de rétrogradation (recristallisation d'amidon). Ces phénomènes sont en partie expliqués par des modifications physico-chimiques intervenant au niveau des constituants de l'amidon. En effet, après un certain temps les molécules vont s'agréger de nouveau et entraîner la rétrogradation et par voie de conséquence la perte de la qualité de l'aliment. Un exemple de ce phénomène est le rassissement du pain.Comme nous l'avons vu, il existe la possibilité d'avoir la floculation et éventuellement la séparation des phases. Si on veut éviter cette séparation, on peut utiliser des agents stabilisants. Ces agents sont utilisés surtout pour augmenter la viscosité des solutions (cf. équation 5.2.7), des suspensions et des émulsions et des mousses dont la phase dispersante est aqueuse ; ils agissent en tant qu'épaississants. L'augmentation de la viscosité peut conférer une texture particulière, stabiliser la phase dispersée, empêcher ou réduire la formation de cristaux de sucre ou de glace en ralentissant la diffusion des molécules.Les principaux agents stabilisants sont les colloïdes hydrophiles suivants : amidons naturels et modifiés, cellulose modifiée, pectines, gélatines, caséine, gommes.La rhéologie est la science des phénomènes de déformation et d'écoulement de solides et de fluides sous l'influence de forces mécaniques en fonction du temps. Ces phénomènes déterminent souvent les propriétés fonctionnelles des aliments et interviennent pendant les traitements (comportement mécanique), pendant l'entreposage (stabilité physique) et au moment de la consommation (texture). Les propriétés mécaniques déterminées par la rhéologie sont : •l'écoulement des fluides, •la résistance aux déformations des solides, •la rupture/fracture (de liaisons interatomiques).Ces propriétés sont déterminées par la structure du produit.Il existe deux types de comportement rhéologique idéal : solide élastique, fluide visqueux. Les paramètres importants pour la rhéologie sont la force F (N), la contrainte σ = F/O (N m -2 ) O = surface sur laquelle F agit, et la déformation relative ∆H/H (H = longueur en m).Lorsqu'une force, provoquant une déformation ou un glissement sans changement de volume, est appliquée à un corps solide, on observe que la déformation relative est proportionnelle à l'effort appliqué.La contrainte de cisaillement (en Anglais : shear stress) est définie comme la déformation relative comme (en Anglais : shear strain) ( cf. Figure 5.2.9). Pour un solide élastique idéal on obtient la loi de Hooke :La constante de proportionnalité G s'appelle le module (en Anglais : modulus) de rigidité (N m -2 ). Dans le cas d'un solide élastique idéal, l'élasticité est immédiate et totale (comme un ressort ou un caoutchouc), et la déformation est réversible (cf. Figure 5.2.10).On peut définir ( cf.  Traction et compression sont encore d'autres formes de déformation qui sont importantes pour les aliments pendant la transformation mais aussi pendant la mastication, cf. Figure 5  (5.2.12)La qualité physique (cf. Figure 5.2.14). σ < σ 0 : élasticité, σ > σ 0 : écoulement (newtonien ou non newtonien). Pour σ > σ 0 le résultat est une destruction de la structure. L'existence de σ 0 permet aux particules (exemple de jus de fruits) de ne pas sédimenter.Pour les corps plastiques non-newtoniens l'équation est : avec η* : la viscosité apparente ; pour les corps de Bingham (comportement Newtonien) :Quelques exemples de ce comportement rhéologique sont : la pâte, la margarine, le ketchup, la crème fouettée, la marmelade de pommes, le chocolat, la moutarde. b) Le comportement pseudoplastique/dilatant Les fluides de ce type ne présentent pas un seuil σ 0 pour que l'écoulement puisse avoir lieu, mais la viscosité dite ici apparente (η*) change lorsque la vitesse relative d'écoulement augmente (cf.  Quelques exemples sont les aliments comme les gels, le ketchup, le miel, les potages concentrés. Enfin et dans le domaine de la rhéologie, on parle également de la fracture et de la rupture des aliments. La notion de fracture/rupture est importante parce que les aliments doivent rompre pendant la mastication ; par contre ils doivent rester intacts pendant le transport et le stockage. La différence entre la résistance à la rupture et la cassure à temps peut être très subtile. Deux conditions sont indispensables à la réalisation de la fracture et de la rupture :•la contrainte de cisaillement doit être assez grande pour qu'il y ait rupture des liaisons, •le temps d'application doit être assez long pour que les liaisons puissent rompre. Il y a une déformation maximale avant que la rupture ait lieu. Pour la plupart des aliments elle est obtenue à moins de 1 % de déformation mais cela dépend du matériel. Quelques exemples sont donnés au tableau 5.2.7.   (5.2.17)Pour des particules sphériques (molécules inclues) Einstein a trouvé que k est la constante de Boltzmann (1.38×10 -23 J K -1 ) T la température absolue (K) η la viscosité (N s m -2 ) r le rayon (m).Quelques exemples de diffusivité sont donnés dans le tableau 5.2.8, et il est évident que la diffusivité est déterminée par la taille des molécules/particules.H 2 5,1 ×10 -9 NaCl 1 × 10 -9 Saccharose 5,2 × 10 -10 Amidon soluble 1 × 10 -10 particule de caséine (50 nm) 4 × 10 -12 particule de caséine (200 nm) 1 × 10 -12Tableau 5.2.8 Diffusivité (D) de quelques molécules dans l'eau à 20 °C L'effet de la température sur la diffusion est donné par l'équation d'Einstein (5.2.18), mais on a aussi un effet de la température sur la viscosité. La diffusivité est influencée par la présence d'autres molécules, par exemple la présence de sucres en solution réduit sensiblement la diffusivité des arômes. Dans la plupart des aliments le comportement diffusionnel des molécules est perturbé par beaucoup de phénomènes, et pour cela on parle de diffusivité apparente D'. La figure 5.2.20 donne un exemple de diffusivité de l'eau dans les aliments déshydratés. (5.2.18)Pour conclure le chapitre sur la qualité physique , nous donnons dans le tableau 5.2.10 un résumé des phénomènes de perte de la qualité du point de vue physique.164Chap. 5Pour la diffusion des molécules, par exemple d'un liquide dans un aliment, on peut calculer le temps nécessaire aux molécules dans l'aliment pour arriver à une certaine position ou Le paramètre x 0,5 indique la valeur x pour laquelle la concentration c est 0,5×c 0 . La figure 5.2.21 et le tableau 5.2.9 donnent une représentation de ce phénomène.x 0,5 Les perceptions gustatives et olfactives sont l'aboutissement de processus psychophysiologiques très complexes et largement inexpliqués. Elles sont influencées par les autres perceptions sensorielles (vision, toucher), par la température, par des stimulations chimiques non spécifiques, et par diverses motivations psychosociologiques en partie responsables du caractère agréable ou désagréable des perceptions.La saveur et l'arôme des aliments résultent de la stimulation simultanée de récepteurs situés dans la bouche et dans la cavité nasale, par un très grand nombre de constituants des aliments.La nature et la structure de ces constituants, les quantités présentes dans les aliments, l'intensité et la nature des perceptions sensorielles qu'ils provoquent, seuls ou en association, font l'objet de nombreuses recherches dont le but final est l'amélioration de la flaveur des aliments. Cette amélioration peut être obtenue principalement par quatre voies : •le choix et la sélection des matières premières ; •le choix des procédés technologiques de transformation ; •l'addition aux aliments de substances aromatisantes naturelles ou synthétiques ; •la formation, au sein même des aliments, de quantités accrues de molécules aromatisantes.Les Les phénomènes de compensation/masquage : lorsque des saveurs sont mélangées.La perception de goût est déterminée par :•La qualité du goût : pouvant conduire au phénomène d'adaptation, •L'intensité pouvant être évaluée par la loi de Fechner, •Le charme, l'attrait, •L'odeur (l'odeur contribue aussi un peu au goût)Les récepteurs olfactifs sont localisés dans la partie supérieure de la cavité rétro-nasale. Il n'y a pas de récepteur olfactif spécifique pour une odeur donnée.Lors de la prise d'aliments, les substances volatiles libérées dans la bouche parviennent à la muqueuse olfactive en passant par la cavité buccale.Il existe environ 17 000 substances olfactives différentes et environ 150 autres que personne ne peut distinguer. Il y a environ 100 mots disponibles pour désigner les différentes substances olfactives. C'est-à-dire qu'il est très difficile de décrire les flaveurs dans les aliments. Cela signale un des problèmes qui sont associés à la recherche organoleptique.Il y a des interactions entre les odeurs (neutralisation, renforcement, nouvelles odeurs) et les diverses combinaisons possibles expliqueraient la multitude d'odeurs différentes. Généralement les odeurs complexes sont préférées par rapport aux odeurs simples. En outre, il faut réaliser que la préférence pour un goût est aussi déterminée par la culture.Tout comme avec le goût, des phénomènes d'adaptation et de perception sont aussi observés avec les odeurs.Quelques exemples de molécules odorantes (volatiles) sont les esters (fruits), les aldéhydes (tomates), les amines (poisson), les mercaptans (café), les pyrazines (des aliments cuits), les lactones (pêche, lait chauffé).On peut dire que l'acceptation des aliments par le consommateur est surtout déterminée par le goût et l'arôme. C'est pourquoi on utilise parfois des agents aromatisants dans l'industrie alimentaire. Ces agents sont employés pour donner, renforcer ou modifier un arôme, ou encore pour masquer un arôme indésirable. On utilise pour cela : •Des épices et des herbes aromatiques, soit en poudre, soit sous forme d'oléorésine. •Des huiles essentielles, qui présentent l'avantage d'être assez concentrées et d'avoir cependant un arôme analogue à celui de la plante d'origine ; mais elles sont sujettes à l'oxydation et cela peut poser un problème.Aspects de qualité•Des extraits de fruits (framboise, cerise, fraise, pêche) obtenus par extraction avec un mélange éthanol-eau. Ces extraits sont très peu concentrés en substances aromatisantes; des extraits de vanille, obtenus de la même manière, ont de bonnes propriétés masquantes. •Des arômes encapsulés obtenus par séchage par atomisation d'une émulsion ou suspension de substance aromatisante et de gomme ou de maltodextrines. Les films protecteurs de gomme prolongent la durée de conservation des substances sensibles à l'oxydation. •Des substances aromatisantes synthétiques, que l'on emploie surtout sous forme de mélange, pour renforcer des arômes naturels. Ces substances présentent l'avantage d'être très économiques.La couleur joue un rôle important dans l'évaluation de la qualité d'un aliment. C'est une des premières impressions d'un aliment. En effet la couleur est souvent liée à la maturité, à la présence d'impuretés, à la mise en oeuvre appropriée ou défectueuse d'un traitement technologique, à de mauvaises conditions d'entreposage, à un début de détérioration par les micro-organismes, etc. Nous observons la couleur d'un objet comme un effet d'un stimulus sur la rétine, effet transmis par le nerf optique au cerveau, et intégré par ce dernier. Alors, cela n'est pas une propriété de l'objet, ni une lumière. Le stimulus est causé par une lumière réfléchie et/ou transmise par l'objet à partir d'une lumière incidente (cf. Il existe deux types de percepteurs visuels dans l'oeil : •les bâtonnets qui sont les récepteurs de la clarté et de l'intensité ; ils ne donnent pas de vision des couleurs. La vision dépend des bâtonnets à la lumière de faible intensité •les cônes qui sont responsables de la vision à la lumière de Un autre système est l'espace psychologique des couleurs de Munsell : il est beaucoup moins physique et beaucoup plus physiologique et psychologique que celui de la C.I.E. Dans le système Munsell, il y a 3 caractéristiques : la teinte (en Anglais : hue), l'intensité (en Anglais : value) et la nuance ou la saturation (en Anglais : chroma). En effet dans le système Munsell, la représentation des teintes et des nuances est faite au moyen d'échantillons de peinture sur papier, chaque échantillon présentant par rapport au suivant la plus petite différence possible perceptible par l'oeil (limite ou seuil de différenciation ; ce seuil constitue d'ailleurs une mesure de la sensibilité de l'oeil). Pour obtenir une couleur constante, on peut ajouter à l'aliment des colorants naturels (exemples : chlorophylle, carotène, flavonoïdes, anthocyanes, betalaïnes) ou artificiels (exemples : tartrazine, amaranthe, érythrosine, brillant bleu).Pour juger et contrôler la qualité organoleptique des produits alimentaires, on fait appel à des critères et à des méthodes d'évaluation de divers types :•les jury de dégustation, c'est-à-dire l'exploitation systématique, dans des conditions statistiquement valables, des réactions de groupes représentatifs de consommateurs ou de personnes spécialement entraînées, auxquels on demande de se prononcer sur les caractères organoleptiques ;  La qualité nutritionnelle est l'aptitude de l'aliment à bien nourrir. Cette notion comprend deux aspects :•un aspect quantitatif : c'est l'énergie stockée sous forme chimique, apportée par l'aliment à la machine physiologique, et mesurable à la bombe calorimétrique ; •un aspect qualitatif : c'est la recherche de l'équilibre nutritionnel de l'aliment au regard des besoins du consommateur, ou d'un enrichissement en un élément particulier (vitamine, fer...), ou encore d'une composition spéciale répondant à certaines pathologies, telles que les aliments sans sel, les produits diététiques.Dans la plupart des cas, les opérations culinaires domestiques ou les traitements technologiques appliqués aux produits alimentaires se traduisent par des effets favorables sur la qualité, qu'il s'agisse de la valeur alimentaire ou de la qualité hygiénique. Les modifications favorables s'observent au niveau des qualités organoleptiques et plus particulièrement au niveau des arômes, du goût, mais aussi de la couleur et de la texture. Certains de ces traitements permettent de détruire des microorganismes dangereux, d'inactiver certains composés toxiques ou encore d'inhiber des enzymes capables de provoquer des réactions défavorables, en particulier sur la couleur ou le goût. Malheureusement, il n'est pas rare que certains de ces traitements domestiques ou industriels affectent d'une façon plus ou moins importante la qualité initiale du produit. L'étude de ces modifications peut être envisagée soit en fonction du type d'aliment, soit en fonction des grandes catégories de nutriments qui entrent dans la composition de nos aliments, soit en fonction du type de traitement appliqué.Beaucoup d'opérations unitaires, en particulier celles qui ne font pas intervenir la chaleur, ont peu ou pas d'effet sur la qualité nutritionnelle des aliments ; ces opérations incluent le mélange, le lavage, le triage, la lyophilisation et la pasteurisation. Les opérations qui séparent intentionnellement les composants des aliments altèrent la qualité nutritionnelle de chaque fraction comparé à la matière première. Une séparation non désirée des nutriments hydrosolubles (minéraux, vitamines hydrosolubles et sucres) se produit aussi au cours de certaines opérations.Le traitement par la chaleur est la cause majeure des changements de propriétés nutritionnelles des aliments avec comme conséquences : •l'amélioration de la digestibilité ;•la destruction des facteurs antinutritionnels ; •ou à l'opposé la destruction des vitamines thermolabiles ou la réduction de la valeur biologique des protéines, ou l'activation de l'oxydation des lipides.L'oxydation est la seconde cause importante des changements nutritionnels dans les aliments. Ceci a lieu lorsque l'aliment est exposé à l'air, ou comme résultat de l'action de la chaleur ou des enzymes oxydatives. L'importance des pertes de nutriments durant la transformation dépend de la valeur nutritionnelle d'un aliment dans le régime alimentaire. Certains aliments constituent une importante source de nutriments pour un grand nombre de la population. Les pertes en ces nutriments sont alors plus significatives dans ces aliments que dans ceux qui sont consommés en petites quantités ou ceux qui ont une faible concentration en ces nutriments.Les glucides sont des composants abondants et souvent majoritaires de bon nombre de produits alimentaires. Ils sont essentiellement représentés par des polymères comme les amidons ou la cellulose, des dimères comme le saccharose ou le lactose, et par des monomères comme le glucose ou le fructose. Dans leur grande majorité, les traitements culinaires domestiques ou industriels ne se traduisent pas par des modifications importantes de leur disponibilité. Le traitement de l'amidon par la chaleur en milieu humide conduit à une gélatinisation qui correspond à une absorption d'eau, une augmentation de volume des granules d'amidon et une augmentation de la viscosité de la solution (cf. 5.2). C'est en raison de cette propriété que les amidons sont utilisés comme agents épaississants des sauces (cf. 5.2.4). Du point de vue nutritionnel, la gélatinisation des amidons se traduit généralement par une augmentation de leur digestibilité.Le saccharose subit peu de modifications au cours des différents traitements sauf dans le cas de sa caramélisation. Le chauffage du saccharose en milieu acide, comme c'est le cas dans la cuisson des confitures de fruits, conduit à son hydrolyse en sucres simples, ce qui ne modifie pas sa valeur nutritionnelle. Les sucres simples, glucose et fructose, sont présents dans de nombreux produits de panification, de biscuiterie, de confiserie ou à base de fruits. Ces sucres réducteurs chauffés en présence d'acides aminés peuvent donner des réactions de Maillard (brunissement non enzymatique) qui rendent ceux-ci inutilisables pour 1'organisme. Les réactions de Maillard peuvent se produire au cours de 1'entreposage de céréales sèches si celui-ci s'effectue à des températures élevées ; mais elles sont surtout importantes dans les traitements de cuisson.L'élimination mécanique des celluloses et autres composants de fibres alimentaires (hémicelluloses et lignines) des produits végétaux (céréales, tubercules, fruits et légumes) peut se traduire par une augmentation de la digestibilité des autres nutriments et plus particulièrement des protéines, mais n'oublions pas que ces polymères jouent un rôle physiologique important en favorisant le transit intestinal. De même l'élimination d'une partie des fibres des enveloppes des graines de céréales (polissage du riz, décorticage du maïs ou du sorgho) se fait au prix d'une perte en vitamines. Le choix d'un rendement d'extraction sera donc un compromis entre une teneur élevée en vitamines et une faible disponibilité de ces mêmes vitamines et aussi des minéraux du fait de la présence de fibres. La cuisson permet de ramollir les fibres et facilite donc leur ingestion, mais elle ne permet pas leur solubilisation, ni leur hydrolyse au cours de la digestion.Aspects de qualitéBeaucoup de traitements ont des effets favorables sur la valeur nutritionnelle des protéines. Cependant des modifications défavorables apparaissent parfois. Dans la majorité des cas, elles se traduisent par une diminution des teneurs en acides aminés indispensables ou par la formation de substances antinutritionnelles ou toxiques. La cuisson d'aliments riches en protéines conduit à leur dénaturation, c'est-à-dire à des modifications de la forme des molécules protéiques (la structure secondaire et tertiaire des protéines), qui n'affectent pas la chaîne d'acides aminés elle-même (la structure primaire). Cette dénaturation conduit à l'arrêt de l'activité biologique de la protéine et améliore sa valeur nutritionnelle de plusieurs façons. D'abord on peut citer l'augmentation de la digestibilité du collagène (viandes à cuisson longue) et de l'ovalbumine (blanc d'oeuf). Ensuite, l'inactivation des protéines antinutritionnelles de certaines légumineuses (soja, arachide, haricots, etc.) : les phytohémagglutinines. En dernier, l'inactivation d'une autre catégorie de protéines, les enzymes, qui ont de nombreux effets défavorables sur les nutriments (lipases, protéases, etc., cf. 2.3).Le chauffage d'un aliment protéique en présence de sucres réducteurs comme le glucose, le lactose ou le fructose conduit au brunissement de cet aliment par les réactions dites de Maillard. Leurs conséquences nutritionnelles sont nombreuses : perte de disponibilité de la lysine, apparition de composés antinutritionnels, mais des substances antioxydantes sont également formées.Ces réactions sont d'autant plus fortes que la température est élevée et se produisent surtout dans les aliments semi-humides. Elles provoquent aussi des modifications de goût et de couleur appréciées et même recherchées pour un grand nombre de produits (biscuits, viande rôtie, etc.). Les traitements thermiques à température élevée (entre 100 et 200 °C) comme la stérilisation ou la cuisson au four ou sur le feu provoquent la destruction des acides aminés, d'où une baisse de la valeur nutritionnelle de la protéine. Cela concerne : •la désamination de l'asparagine et de la glutamine ; •l'isomérisation de résidus d'acides aminés (L → D) ; •des réactions entre molécules de cystéine avec formation de ponts covalents -S-S-, désulfuration, et formation de la molécule déhydroalanine (R-CH 2 -SH → R=CH 2 + H 2 S) •la formation de ponts covalents intra-ou intermoléculaires de nature isopeptidique (γ-glutamyl-ε-N-lysine) ou de type lysinoalanine (R-CH 2 -NH-(CH 2 ) 4 -R', formée d'une réaction de déhydroalanine et lysine) et lanthionine (R-CH 2 -S-CH 2 -R', formée d'une réaction de cystéine et déhydroalanine)•la baisse de la digestibilité après un traitement thermique dur, surtout avec un traitement alcalin (extraction de protéines végétales, fabrication de caséinates, filage des protéines).Quand la température est très élevée (viandes et poissons grillés au feu de bois par exemple), on observe la décomposition d'acides aminés en corps mutagènes (mais cela est spécifique pour la viande et le poisson parce que la présence de créatinine est nécessaire pour la formation des corps mutagènes). De nombreuses autres réactions peuvent s'observer dans des conditions particulières mais sont de moindre importance.Les lipides peuvent subir au cours des traitements technologiques, des préparations culinaires ou de l'entreposage, de nombreuses modifications qui affectent leur valeur nutritionnelle. Pour l'essentiel, ces modifications se produisent sur les doubles liaisons d'acides gras insaturés et provoquent ainsi des pertes d'acides gras indispensables.Les principaux phénomènes qui effectent la valeur nutritionnelle des lipides sont l'oxydation, l'hydrolyse (ou lipolyse) et la décomposition par la chaleur (cf. 2.3).L'oxydation des lipides, c'est-à-dire le rancissement, est un phénomène qui se produit spontanément quand le lipide est au contact de l'air. Le rancissement est rapide et important pour les lipides riches en acides gras insaturés. Il se produit au cours du stockage à température ambiante ou en réfrigération et même sur les produits congelés. L'oxydation peut être limitée en protégeant le produit d'un contact avec l'air. La principale conséquence de l'oxydation est l'apparition d'une odeur et d'un goût rances qui peuvent rendre l'aliment inconsommable. Il se produit une légère perte de valeur nutritionnelle. L'addition d'agents anti-oxydants est souvent utilisée pour limiter les risques de rancissement. Notons enfin que le chauffage accélère les processus d'oxydation donnant aussi des composés nocifs; ce sont des peroxydes.L'hydrolyse des lipides est possible et le chauffage à température élevée (170-200 °C) des matières grasses peut conduire à une hydrolyse. C'est notamment un problème dans le cas des fritures du fait d'apport d'eau par l'aliment à frire.Pour éviter ces phénomènes d'hydrolyse et d'oxydation, il convient d'abord de n'utiliser en friture que des huiles très stables à la chaleur (comme l'huile d'arachide), de ne pas dépasser 180 °C, de limiter le temps de chauffe et surtout le nombre de réutilisations de l'huile de friture. Sinon, on risque d'éliminer les acides gras essentiels et une accumulation des composés toxiques dans l'huile de friture.Des pertes en éléments et sels minéraux sont susceptibles de se produire dans nos aliments d'une part par élimination mécanique de certaines parties de l'aliment (parage des fruits, blutage des céréales), et d'autre part au cours de traitements dans l'eau (blanchiment et cuisson dans l'eau), les sels minéraux solubles diffusant alors de l'aliment vers la phase aqueuse.L'étude du comportement des vitamines au cours de la préparation des aliments est un sujet fort complexe. D'une part les treize vitamines ont des sensibilités bien spécifiques aux différentes conditions ou agents susceptibles de les détruire. D'autre part, les technologies sont nombreuses et variées. Dans la pratique, ce qui importe est de pouvoir estimer les teneurs en vitamines présentes dans l'aliment au moment de sa consommation. Le fait de l'exprimer en pourcentage de couverture des apports quotidiens conseillés (AC) renseigne sur l'intérêt nutritionnel de l'aliment en l'une ou l'autre des vitamines. C'est ainsi qu'il est moins grave de détruire la vitamine C présente dans le lait (1 à 2 % des AC dans 100 ml) que celle du jus d'agrumes (plus de 40 % des AC dans 100 ml). De même, il importe de préserver la vitamine E des huiles végétales car elles en sont une des principales sources.En ce qui concerne la responsabilité respective des traitements ménagers ou industriels dans les pertes en vitamines, il est fréquent qu'ils se substituent les uns aux autres. Ainsi dans le cas des légumes, l'épluchage, le lavage et le blanchiment industriel remplacent le stockage, l'épluchage et le lavage à la maison.Les vitamines ne constituent pas un ensemble de corps ayant une parenté chimique ; elles sont très différentes les unes des autres et chacune a sa constitution propre, bien définie, son activité spécifique, ses sources très variées. Elles ont cependant en commun le fait d'être actives en très petites quantités.Suivant leurs propriétés et les conditions de leur conservation, on peut classer les vitamines en deux grands groupes, selon leur solubilité :•les vitamines solubles dans l'eau ou hydrosolubles : le groupe des vitamines B, et la vitamine C ; •les vitamines solubles dans les lipides ou liposolubles : les vitamines A, D, E, K.Cette distinction est utile, car elle permet en pratique :•de ne pas commettre trop de confusions sur les aliments où se trouvent les vitamines. Ainsi, les vitamines liposolubles ne peuvent se trouver que dans un aliment gras, ceci ne voulantpas dire que tous les aliments gras renferment toutes ces vitamines ; •de mieux comprendre tout ce qui touche à la conservation des vitamines ; en effet, les vitamines hydrosolubles passent dans l'eau dès que l'aliment est en contact d'une importante quantité d'eau (trempage, cuisson, etc.) ; •d'être attentifs à certains risques de surdosage, en ce qui concerne les vitamines liposolubles.La stabilité des vitamines dans les aliments dépend de leur sensibilité respective aux différents facteurs physiques ou chimiques auxquels ils sont soumis pendant le traitement, le stockage ou la préparation de ces aliments. Les plus importants sont la température, l'oxygène, la lumière, l'humidité et le pH.Les sensibilités particulières de chaque vitamine à ces différents agents sont les suivantes :  La réduction de taille est l'opération par laquelle la taille moyenne des particules solides constituant l'aliment est réduite par l'application de la mouture, la compression, etc. La rupture des cellules et l'augmentation de la surface de contact qui en résulte provoquent des réactions oxydatives au niveau des acides gras et de la vitamine A. La perte de vitamine C et de la thiamine dans les fruits et légumes est substantielle (78 % dans le concombre). La perte de ces nutriments pendant le stockage dépend de la température, de la teneur en eau de l'aliment et de la concentration d'oxygène pendant le stockage. Dans les aliments secs, la principale perte de nutriments est due au tamisage et à la séparation des différentes parties après la réduction de taille des particules. C'est le cas par exemple de l'enlèvement du son du riz (Tableaux 5.4.2 et 5.4.3) : les grains de riz sont débarrassés de leurs enveloppes (glumes et glumelles) ; on obtient ainsi le \"riz cargo\". On peut ensuite retirer la pellicule Le développement des microorganismes cause des changements complexes à la valeur nutritive des aliments fermentés en changeant la composition des protéines, des matières grasses et des glucides, et en utilisant ou en secrétant des vitamines.Protéines : La fermentation de la farine de maïs avec des levures pures, S. cerevisiae et C. tropicalis, augmente la teneur en protéines de 7,6 à 8,9 et 8,4 % respectivement. Le taux de protéines augmente ultérieurement à 16,4 et 14,5 % respectivement, lorsque les levures sont utilisées avec du malt de maïs dans la farine de maïs. Cependant, la matière sèche perdue est de 52,4 et 14 %, respectivement. D'autres études montrent que la fermentation naturelle ou avec des levures des céréales améliore légèrement le taux de protéines, ce qui peut être attribué à la perte de matière sèche, principalement des glucides.Bien que les changements quantitatifs soient minimum au niveau des protéines, on a observé des modifications qualitatives significatives pendant la fermentation naturelle. On a observé par exemple une augmentation significative des acides aminés essentiels pendant les trois premiers jours de la fermentation naturelle de la farine de maïs par des bactéries protéolytiques : 30 % pour la lysine et 20 % pour la méthionine.On a noté aussi une augmentation significative du taux de lysine disponible chez le riz, le mil, le maïs et le blé, après 6 jours de fermentation.Vitamines : Bien que la fermentation lactique naturelle des céréales et des mélanges céréales-légumineuses s'est révélée comme facteur d'amélioration de la teneur en certaines vitamines du groupe B, des variations considérables ont été observées dans différents rapports. L'augmentation ou la diminution de la teneur Aspects de qualité en vitamines varie avec la nature de la matière première, la nature de la microflore, la température et les méthodes de détermination de ces vitamines.Un auteur a trouvé que la teneur en thiamine diminue lorsque le sorgho est mis à fermenter pendant 4 jours 25 °C, alors que les échantillons non fermentés et ceux mis à fermenter à 35 °C n'ont pas connu de variation significative. Les teneurs en thiamine, en riboflavine et en niacine augmentent de manière significative pendant la fermentation du sorgho et du mil (Tableau 5.4.4). Une augmentation significative de la teneur en vitamine B12, en folacine, en riboflavine et en acide pantothénique a été notée après 4 jours de fermentation naturelle de la farine de maïs. D'autres auteurs ont rapporté une augmentation significative de la teneur en riboflavine et une diminution de la teneur en niacine dans le niébé et le pois chiche. Le tableau 5.4.5 résume quelques résultats obtenus pour les produits fermentés à base de lait et de soja. Ces résultats montrent que les changements de teneur en vitamines notés sont influencés par beaucoup de facteurs qui incluent la matière première utilisée, le traitement qu'elle a subi, les microorganismes responsables de la fermentation, etc. Les facteurs antinutritionnels, tels que les inhibiteurs de protéase, les lectines, les sucres responsables de la flatulence, les tannins et les agents liants des métaux, sont présents en concentration élevée dans beaucoup d'aliments à base de légumineuses. De même, la plupart des céréales contiennent des quantités appréciables de phytates alors que certaines céréales comme le sorgho et lemil contiennent des quantités importantes de polyphénols et de tannins.Les effets antinutritionnels et toxiques de ces composés sont connus. Les tannins forment par exemple des complexes avec les protéines, réduisant ainsi leur disponibilité. Les phytates forment des complexes avec les minéraux divalents (calcium, fer, magnésium, etc.), réduisant ainsi la disponibilité de ces nutriments. Elles réagissent également avec les protéines pour former des complexes protéino-phytates.La réduction ou l'élimination de ces facteurs anti-nutritionnels est un objectif important à atteindre au cours des processus de transformation. Des opérations telles que le dépelliculage ou le trempage ou la germination réduisent ou éliminent les tannins.Plusieurs chercheurs ont observé une réduction significative ou une élimination totale de certains facteurs antinutritionnels dans les céréales, les légumineuses et les oléogineux après une fermentation naturelle. Par exemple, on a observé une réduction significative de l'activité antitrypsique, du phytate de phosphore et des sucres de flatulence dans le maïs et les mélanges maïs-soja après 4 jours de fermentation (Tableau 5.4.6). Cette réduction peut être attribuée à la dégradation microbienne de ces composés pendant la fermentation. Plusieurs études ont également montré que la fermentation lactique améliore la disponibilité des minéraux. Par exemple, la fermentation lactique augmente la disponibilité du fer dans le sorgho. Cette disponibilité est doublée lorsque le sorgho est décortiqué avant la fermentation. Elle est multipliée par 6 quand la céréale a été soumise à la fois à la germination et à la fermentation. Les graines de céréales et de légumineuses, surtout celles d'arachide peuvent être contaminées par l'aflatoxine par suite des conditions de récolte et de stockage défectueuses. Des études récentes ont montré que le procédé traditionnel de production d'ogui (une pâte fermentée de maïs ou de sorgho) contribue à une réduction de la teneur en aflatoxine B1 du sorgho variant entre 69 et 74 %.La réduction du pH à un niveau inférieur à 4,5 (ou augmentation de l'acidité) qui se produit lors de la fermentation lactique ne favorise pas le développement des microorganismes pathogènes dans l'aliment. En outre, la production de substances antimicrobiennes contribue également à l'inhibition des pathogènes. La consommation des aliments fermentés empêcherait la colonisation des pathogènes envahisseurs, augmentant ainsi la résistance du système intestinal.Le traitement par la chaleur est l'une des plus importantes méthodes utilisées dans la transformation des aliments, non pas seulement à cause des effets désirables qu'il a sur les qualités organoleptiques des aliments (beaucoup d'aliments sont consommés à l 'état cuit) mais aussi à cause de l'effet de conservation qu'il a sur les aliments par la destruction des enzymes, des parasites, des insectes, et de l'activité microbienne. Les principaux avantages de la transformation par la chaleur sont (sans parler du fait que les pathogènes sont détruits) :•la destruction des composants anti-nutritionnels des aliments (par exemple l'inhibiteur de la trypsine dans les légumineuses) ; •l'amélioration de la disponibilité de certains nutriments (par exemple la digestibilité des protéines, la gélatinisation de l'amidon etc.) ; •le contrôle relativement simple des conditions de transformation. En général, le chauffage à des températures élevées pendant des périodes plus longues entraîne une plus grande destruction des microorganismes et des enzymes. Des procédés de température élevée-temps court permettent de prolonger la durée de conservation autant que les traitements à plus faibles températures et pendant des périodes plus longues, mais ces procédés permettent une plus grande rétention des propriétés sensorielles et nutritives des aliments.Dans la plupart des cas, les traitements technologiques des aliments ont des effets bénéfiques car ils permettent à une grande variété d'aliments saisonniers d'être disponibles sur le marché sous une forme attractive, de bonne qualité sanitaire, organoleptique et nutritionnelle. Cependant, certaines modifications défavorables apparaissent parfois notamment lors des traitements mal contrôlés ou excessifs. Ces modifications affectent la qualité nutritionnelle des aliments. C'est ainsi que la structure primaire des protéines se trouve modifiée, entraînant une diminution de la teneur et/ou de la disponibilité biologique en acides aminés indispensables ou par la formation de substances antinutrition-L'analyse et la maîtrise de la qualité nelles ou éventuellement toxiques. Ces modifications peuvent être très préjudiciables pour certaines catégories de consommateurs tels que les enfants en bas âge, les personnes âgées et/ou les populations sous-alimentées, dont l'alimentation ne repose que sur un nombre limité de produits comme le lait, les céréales ou les légumineuses.Si on veut établir la qualité des aliments, il faut la mesurer. L'analyse des aliments n'est pas facile à cause de la variabilité des matières premières, à cause de la structure complexe des aliments et aussi à cause de l'inévitable variabilité des analyses. Supposons par exemple un résultat d'analyse selon la méthode de Kjeldahl qui donne un résultat de 3,8 % de protéines, alors que la norme préétablie = 4 %. La question est maintenant de savoir si le résultat de 3,8% est acceptable ? On ne peut pas répondre à cette question simplement. Pour l'interprétation des résultats, il est nécessaire de déterminer l'exactitude et la précision de l'analyse. L'exactitude représente la différence entre le résultat obtenu et la valeur réelle. Bien qu'on ne sache jamais la valeur réelle ( sinon ce n'est pas nécessaire d'analyser !), on est obligé d'étalonner les méthodes utilisées. L'étalonnage est nécessaire pour déterminer l'exactitude du résultat obtenu. Cette démarche relève de la responsabilité du chercheur ! La précision permet de connaître la dispersion entre les valeurs obtenues après quelques répétitions d'analyse. Il faut qu'on réalise que les résultats d'analyse ne sont jamais pareils : on a toujours une variabilité quelle que soit la méthode utilisée. Cependant la valeur actuelle de la précision dépend de la propriété de la méthode utilisée et de l'expérience du chercheur. Des méthodes statistiques sont nécessaires pour apprécier les résultats d'analyse. Pour éclaircir la différence entre l'exactitude et la précision on peut les exprimer d'une façon imagée comme une cible sur la figure 5.5.1. Dans l'exemple d'analyse de 3,8% de protéine, supposons l'écarttype s = 0,1 % (alors 3,8 ± 0,1%) obtenu avec 4 répétitions et nous voulons savoir à 95 % l'intervalle de confiance pour la moyenne de cette analyse. L'équation concernée est :et la valeur t pour n N =4 est 2,78 (on peut trouver cette valeur dans les livres statistiques). Alors, on peut calculer l'intervalle de confiance à 95% comme :C'est-à-dire que la valeur préétablie (4%) n'est pas comprise dans l'intervalle, autrement dit, on peut constater que la teneur en protéine trouvée est trop faible. Cependant, si l'écart-type s = 0,1 %, obtenu après 2 répétitions, la valeur t = 4,30 et l'intervalle de confiance à 95% est maintenant :Dans ce cas, la teneur en protéine est encore acceptable. Cet exemple montre qu'on a vraiment besoin de la connaissance statistique pour être capable de juger les résultats obtenus. Cet exemple montre aussi l'importance d'avoir des répétitions disponibles : on peut améliorer la précision avec des répétitions ! (Ceci n'est pas possible pour l'exactitude).Fréquemment, on utilise quelques résultats expérimentaux pour calculer une valeur finale. Par exemple, pour calculer une densité, on doit mesurer le volume et la masse d'un matériel. Les erreurs de toutes les deux mesures sont propagées dans le résultat final. Il existe quelques règles pour calculer la propagation des erreurs.Supposons, par exemple, les résultats suivants pour le séchage d'un échantillon. Le poids avant séchage (± l'écart-type) M 1 = 100 ± 0,5 g et après séchage M 2 =20 ± 0,1 g. La teneur en eau est donc M 1 -M 2 =80 g , mais quelle est la précision dans ce résultat? Les règles pour l'addition et la soustraction sont d'ajouter les variances (s 2 ) des deux analyses : Alors dans l'exemple, l'écart-type de la teneur en eau est : et le résultat final est donc 80 ± 0,51 g. L'équation (5.5.4) montre aussi qu'il faut réduire l'écart-type le plus grand! Si on a trouvé la valeur CV D on peut finalement calculer l'écarttype s ρ :Il existe de nombreuses méthodes pour analyser la teneur en composants dans les aliments, la qualité microbienne et la qualité physique. Il n'est pas possible de discuter ces méthodes ici en détail, surtout parce qu'elles évoluent dans le temps . Nous mentionnerons seulement quelques méthodes utilisées fréquemment. Diverses méthodes sont utilisées pour déterminer la teneur en protéines dans les aliments :•la méthode de Kjeldahl qui permet de doser la ANP (l'azoteAspects de qualité non-protéique) ; le taux de protéines est obtenu en multipliant l'ANP par un facteur de conversion. 6,25 x N % = % protéines ; le facteur de conversion varie selon l'alimemt (exemple : lait : 6,38 x N %).•le dosage des acides aminés (hydrolyse avec l'acide chlorhydrique) avec un analyseur d'acides aminés (chromatographie) ; •les méthodes biologiques. Pour les lipides plusieurs méthodes sont utilisées parmi lesquelles :•l'extraction par le Soxhlet (méthode gravimétrique),•la détermination des acides gras après saponification (généralement on utilise la chromatographie en phase gazeuse). Pour les glucides plusieurs méthodes sont aussi utilisées : •dosage des sucres réducteurs (par exemple la méthode de Guillement et Jacquot ou de Luff Schoorl) •HPLC (chromatographie en phase liquide).•Méthode polarimétrique pour le dosage de l'amidon. La valeur calorique est déterminée par la chaleur de combustion (énergie brute) ou par le coefficient moyen d'Atwater (énergie métabolisable). Les vitamines peuvent être déterminées par HPLC ou par des méthodes chimiques et microbiologiques.Plusieurs méthodes existent pour l'analyse des sels minéraux telles que l'incinération, la SAA (spectrophotométrie à absorption atomique). Les méthodes chimiques sont aussi utilisées pour leur dosage. Parmi les diverses méthodes utilisées pour mesurer l'oxydation on peut citer : •l'absorption d'oxygène par un liquide, l'augmentation du poids du liquide, la concentration d'oxygène dans l'atmosphère (électrode à oxygène). •les diènes conjugués (C=C-C=C) : λ = 233 nm, •l'iodométrie : ROOH + 2 H + → ROH + I 2 + H 2 O •la teneur en peroxydes •l'essai à l'acide thiobarbiturique qui réagit avec l'aldéhyde malonique pour donner un pigment de λ = 532 nm. Cet essai a une bonne corrélation avec la rancidité organoleptique ; •la réaction de 2,4 -dinitrophénylhydrazine avec les composés carbonylés totaux ; •l'indice d'iode qui mesure le nombre de double liaisons. Plusieurs paramètres sont utilisés pour l'évaluation de la réaction de Maillard : •couleur, réflexion, absorbance, λ = 420 -540 nm ; •lysine disponible ; •HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural, un intermédiaire dans la réaction de Maillard) : λ = 285 nm ; •produit d'Amadori dosé par HPLC (produit de protéines obtenu après hydrolyse dans HCl 6N conduisant à la furosine).En ce qui concerne l'analyse microbiologique on utilise encore les méthodes traditionnelles, c'est-à-dire la croissance des microorganismes ; les normes pré-établies pour la plupart des aliments sont :•Flore aérobie mésophile : < 10 5 /g •Coliformes fécaux : < 1/g •Salmonella : absence dans 25 g •Germes anaérobies sulfito-réducteurs : 10/g •Staphylococcus aureus : < 100/g La préparation de l'échantillon doit obéir à une méthodologie adéquate :•prélèvement réalisé dans des conditions rigoureuses d'asepsie ;•analyse le plus rapidement possible (ou réfrigération/congélation adéquate) ; •homogénéisation de l'échantillon (la plupart des aliments sont hétérogènes) On peut prédire les types microbiens que l'on a le plus de chance de rencontrer. Pour les micro-organismes pathogènes, on a souvent recourt à un enrichissement sélectif, un isolement et l'identification.De nos jours on utilise de plus en plus des techniques nouvelles comme l'immunofluorescence et l'immunoenzymologie issues de la biologie moléculaire (l'hybridation ADN/ARN, le PCR qui permet une recherche très rapide et spécifique de certaines bactéries).Pour évaluer la texture et les propriétés rhéologiques, il existe aussi beaucoup de méthodes, qui sont parfois très empiriques. Nous mentionnerons les viscosimètres à rotation et les pipettes d'Ostwald pour mesurer la viscosité. Les propriétés viscoélastiques peuvent être mesurées par des appareils qui effectuent des mesures vibrationnelles ou par un pénétromètre qui pénètre dans un aliment à une certaine distance et en un certain temps.L'activité de l'eau a w peut être mesurée en mettant en équilibre un aliment dans un dessicateur contenant des solutions avec une a w connue (cf. Tableau 5.5.1.). Après que l'équilibre est réalisé, on peut exprimer les résultats sur une courbe de sorption/désorption.Eau pure 1 Saccharose 80 g/100 ml 0,95 Saccharose 140 g/100 ml 0,90 Chlorure de sodium 30 g/100 ml 0,90 BaCl 2 (saturée) 0,90 Saccharose 205 g/100 ml 0,85 Chlorure de sodium 51 g/100 ml 0,80 NaCl (saturée) 0,75 KI (saturée) 0,67 MgCl 2 (saturée) 0,33 •de déterminer les stades où l'on peut agir efficacement pour éliminer les risques ou les réduire à un niveau tolérable. Le système HACCP a pour but : •d'améliorer la sécurité des produits alimentaires et prévenir les maladies transmises par les aliments ; •de planifier les activités ; L'HACCP est applicable aussi bien dans les ménages que dans l'industrie ou les restaurants.Le système HACCP constitue une approche systématique pour recenser, apprécier et supprimer les dangers. Pour cela le système HACCP permet d'inspecter et de surveiller :•les sources possibles de contamination ; •les modes de contamination ; •la probabilité pour que les micro-organismes se multiplient au cours de l'opération de transformation ou de stockage. Le système HACCP est meilleur par rapport aux autres méthodes telles que le contrôle de qualité classique portant sur le produit final. Le système HACCP est aussi moins coûteux et plus efficace que l'analyse d'échantillons et l'inspection des usines.Les dangers potentiels doivent être repérés dans les trois domaines suivants : •les matières premières utilisées ; •les méthodes de transformation et l'équipement utilisé ; •le mode d'utilisation du produit final. La figure 5.5.2 donne un résumé de la méthode HACCP. Ce n'est pas possible de discuter le système HACCP ici en détail ; nous ren-L'analyse et la maîtrise de la qualité voyons le lecteur à Bryan (1994). Pour expliquer la figure 5.5.2 nous donnons un exemple : la pasteurisation du lait cru. Le danger à l'étape no. 1 est de reconnaître la présence, la croissance et la survie de micro-organismes (et ses toxines ou enzymes) pour l'aliment ou la matière première ou ingrédient concerné, la gravité mesure l'importance des conséquences possibles, et le risque estime la probabilité de survenue des dangers. Dans l'exemple du lait cru, les dangers sont les micro-organismes pathogènes (notamment Salmonella, Campylobacter, et Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Le risque est très grand parce que le lait cru peut être dangereux et est le vecteur de la tuberculose.Un point critique pour la maîtrise (PCM) à l'étape no. 2 est une activité permettant d'agir sur les dangers recensés à l'étape no. 1. Cela peut être une élimination de dangers liés aux microbes, ou bien une réduction au minimum (sans une élimination totale). Dans l'exemple du lait cru, le PCM est la pasteurisation faite de manière que les pathogènes soient éliminés.Les critères d'intervention à l'étape no. 3 sont des valeurs limites fixées (durée et température dans un procédé thermique, activité de l'eau, pH, etc.). Les critères choisis doivent garantir la suppression des dangers, avec indication de seuil de tolérance. Dans l'exemple du lait cru, les critères sont une combinaison de tempstempérature à 15 s -72 °C ; cette combinaison de temps -température assure que le risque est maîtrisé.La surveillance à l'étape 4 a pour but de vérifier si les critères fixés sont respectés. Dans l'exemple du lait cela veut dire un enregistrement de temps et de température pendant le processus. Il Aspects de qualité faut qu'on puisse corriger à temps à l'étape no. 5 si quelque chose n'est pas correcte ; dans l'exemple du lait, on peut encore traiter le lait. La vérification à l'étape no. 6 peut être confiée aux responsables ou à un organisme. Dans l'exemple du lait, la vérification est l'analyse microbiologique ou l'analyse de l'enzyme phosphatase, qui fonctionne comme un indicateur (l'absence de l'activité de phosphatase garantit que les micro-organismes pathogènes sont absents). Il faut souligner que la vérification n'est pas la même chose que la surveillance !Ce chapitre vise à faire de façon succincte le point sur la transformation des céréales dans la sous-région ouest-africaine, en particulier le maïs, le sorgho et le mil. Mais, auparavant, afin de comprendre les mécanismes biochimiques qui entrent en jeu lors de la transformation des céréales, il est nécessaire de connaître les principales caractéristiques des grains.Il s'agit essentiellement de leur structure et de leur composition.Le grain comprend 4 parties (cf. figures 6.1.1 et 6.1.2). De l'extérieur vers l'intérieur, on distingue : Le tégument encore appelé testa chez le sorgho. Il est riche en composés polyphénoliques (tannins) anti-nutritionnels. Il joue un rôle important dans la défense contre les insectes. L'endosperme qui se distingue par ses longues cellules rectangulaires qui forment un ensemble compact et qui contiennent des Le triage : c'est une opération qui permet de calibrer les grains selon leurs dimensions (longueur, largeur, épaisseur), leur densité, leur forme, leur couleur, leur état de surface etc. Il est réalisé avec des appareils appelés trieurs ou calibreurs.Cette transformation dont le point de départ est le grain entier comprend les opérations de décorticage et de mouture.Le décorticage : Il consiste à enlever le péricarpe du grain, riche en fibres indigestes. Selon la structure du grain et la force du décorticage, tout ou une partie du germe peut être éliminé.Le décorticage traditionnel du sorgho se fait par pilage du grain préalablement nettoyé et éventuellement modifié (5% d'eau) pour rendre plus souples les téguments et faciliter le dépelliculage. Ce décorticage peut être schématisé comme montré par la figure 6.1.3. Le décorticage du mil et du sorgho par la technologie intermédiaire est peu répandu en Afrique de l'ouest. Le retard pris dans la mécanisation du décorticage de ces deux céréales s'explique par les problèmes de mise au point et par le fait que la mouture, plus pénible pour les femmes, a été mécanisée en priorité.Les difficultés posées par le décorticage mécanique du mil et du sorgho sont :•Hétérogénéité de la taille des grains ;•Présence de hile et de téguments colorés qui nuisent à l'acceptabilité des produits finis ; •Friabilité des enveloppes qui facilite leur pulvérisation et complique par la suite leur élimination ; •Présence de testa difficile à éliminer et riche en polyphénols préjudiciables à la qualité des produits finis. •Elimination du péricarpe entraînant une perte de 20 à 25% en poids ; Il existe deux procédés de décorticage mécanique :•La voie humide qui consiste à ajouter 0,5 kg d'eau pour 10 kg de grains, amenant l'humidité à environ 15 %. Cette opération réduit la pénibilité du décorticage mais les grains décortiqués se conservent mal et sont généralement moulus immédiatement en vue d'une consommation rapide. •La voie sèche qui consiste à faire frotter le grain sur des surfaces abrasives montées sur un rotor. Le décorticage industriel du mil et du sorgho devrait éliminer par abrasion ou par attrition la totalité du péricarpe y compris la testa souvent fortement colorée par les anthocyanes. Mais, il ne devrait pas éliminer la couche à aleurone située immédiatement sous la testa à la périphérie de l'albumen.Une technique consiste à humidifier rapidement le grain pour décoller légèrement le péricarpe au niveau de l'endosperme, puis à le passer dans un moulin à cylindres cannelés. Les sons sont séparés des semoules et des farines. Mais les enveloppes du sorgho se séparent difficilement de l'amande contrairement au blé.Le décorticage traditionnel du maïs a pour but d'enlever le péricarpe mais surtout le germe qui, du fait de sa richesse en lipides risque d'altérer les qualités organoleptiques des produits finaux (farine, bière). Le décorticage traditionnel du maïs comprend trois étapes : •Le mouillage du grain par trempage rapide ou aspersion d'eau dans le mortier ou la meule. La teneur en eau est amenée à 25 -30 % ; •Le décorticage au mortier ou à la meule avec élimination du germe ; •Le vannage pour éliminer le son.Le décorticage/dégermage mécanique du maïs est effectué artisanalement avec des machines utilisées pour le blanchiment du riz (Figure 6.1.4). Les pertes au décorticage sont élevées du fait des brisures. Le décortiqueur PRL (Figure 6.1.5) à disques résinoïdes effectue un dégermage partiel du produit. Il n'est donc pas toujours recommandé pour l'équipement des mini-maïzeries qui doi-Technologie des produits vent respecter certaines normes de qualité pour écouler leurs produits sur le marché (grits devant contenir moins de 0,5% de lipides).En Amérique latine et particulièrement au Mexique et en Amérique centrale, un décorticage du maïs par voie chimique est couramment pratiqué : il s'agit de la « nixtamalisation ». Les grains de maïs sont cuits quelques heures dans une solution alcaline (eau saturée en chaux). Au cours de cette scission alcaline, une fraction importante des composés pariétaux, du péricarpe est solubilisée. Le péricarpe devient alors fragile et délitescent. Il est ainsi facilement éliminé par simple frottement des grains les uns sur les autres au cours de l'étape du rinçage ; On obtient ainsi le nixtamal, qui est un grain précuit complètement décortiqué mais non dégermé. Les pertes au décorticage sont faibles : 8 -17 %.Au point de vue nutritionnel, le procédé de nixtamalisation est doublement positif puisqu'il permet en outre de transformer la niacine sous sa forme assimilable.  Le décorticage industriel du maïs : comme pour les deux premières technologies, le germe doit être éliminé dans la transformation industrielle si l'on veut éviter un rancissement rapide de la farine.On distingue 2 types de décorticage industriel :•la voie humide où le maïs est porté à 15 -16% d'humidité avant dégermage. Le taux de matières grasses final est inférieur à 1%. •La voie sèche où aucun traitement préalable n'est requis et le maïs est dégermé à 12 -14% d'humidité.Le dégermage industriel ne pose pas de problèmes d'ordre technologique.La mouture et le broyage : Les opérations de mouture et broyage conduisent à la préparation des semoules ou de farines avec ou sans issues (enveloppes et sons). C'est sous cette forme que les céréales sont converties pour servir de base aux plats traditionnels ou nouveaux. Lorsque l'on réalise une semoule grossière, on parle généralement de broyage alors que pour la fabrication de farine fine, on parlera de mouture. La technologie traditionnelle de mouture des céréales la plus répandue, reste le pilonnage au mortier ou à l'aide de meules dormantes. Les grains décortiqués sont trempés 1 à 24 heures. Le grain a alors une humidité comprise entre 22 et 26%. Il s'ensuit une homogénéisation et humidification à l'intérieur du grain. Les femmes impriment au pilon, non seulement un mouvement vertical, mais aussi un mouvement transversal obtenu par percussion des parois latérales du mortier. Le pilonnage est interrompu par plusieurs tamisages.Technologie intermédiaire : en milieu rural comme en milieu urbain, on assiste au développement de la mécanisation de la mouture grâce à l'introduction de petits moulins motorisés et polyvalents (sorgho, mil, maïs). Ces moulins peuvent être classés en deux catégories : •Les moulins à meules ou à disques qui sont les plus indiqués pour les moutures par voie humide. Ils sont toutefois polyvalents et peuvent moudre indifféremment les produits secs et humides. Pour cette raison, les moulins à meules sont les plus répandus en Afrique de l'Ouest. ; •Les moulins à marteaux qui théoriquement, ne peuvent écraser que du grain sec. Sinon, on observe un colmatage de la grille de sortie. Une augmentation de 1% du taux d'humidité des grains entraîne une diminution du débit de 10%.Technologie industrielle : toutes les opérations pour obtenir la farine sont mécanisées. On peut considérer qu'une minoterie est de type industriel lorsque sa capacité de traitement dépasse 30 tonnes par jour.Il existe toute une gamme de produits de première transformation selon les technologies employées. En Afrique occidentale, on distingue 2 principaux types de produits de première transformation : les produits issus d'une mouture sèche ou semi-humide et qui sont peu ou pas fermentés (les grains décortiqués, les farines et les semoules) et les pâtes fermentées (principalement le mawè et l'ogui) qui sont obtenues par mouture humide du grain entier ou décortiqué.Les produits artisanaux : ce sont les grains décortiqués, les semoules, le couscous et les farines infantiles. •Les farines de sevrage : Les aliments de sevrage trouvent leur place dans l'alimentation du nourrisson entre le lait maternel exclusif et une nourriture de type adulte. Pour répondre aux besoins de l'enfant, un aliment de sevrage doit être :-Une bouillie ou une purée : l'aliment doit être facile à manger pour que l'enfant ne le refuse pas ; -Un aliment très nourrissant : beaucoup de mères pensent que plus un aliment est épais, plus il est nourrissant pour le bébé. C'est une erreur. La qualité de l'aliment ne dépend pas de sa consistance, mais de sa teneur en énergie; -Un aliment équilibré : Pour que sa croissance soit harmonieuse, l'enfant a besoin de plusieurs nutriments : des aliments énergétiques (sucres ou glucides, matières grasses ou lipides), des aliments constructeurs (protéines), des aliments protecteurs (vitamines et sels minéraux). L'aliment de sevrage doit contenir dans de bonnes proportions tous ces éléments ; En pratique, il est composé de céréales que l'on enrichit avec des protéines animales (lait) ou végétales (légumineuses), des matières grasses et des fruits frais.-Un aliment digeste : l'alimentation adulte ne convient pas à l'enfant dont le tube digestif n'est pas encore capable de tout digérer et absorber. L'aliment de sevrage subit donc une préparation spéciale qui le rend plus facile à assimiler (prédigestion). Le grillage permet de détruire les facteurs antitrypsiques qui empêchent les enzymes de décomposer les protéines des aliments. Le grillage permet également une précuisson et la dégradation partielle de l'amidon. La mouture permet d'éliminer les morceaux et d'obtenir une farine très fine. Le tamisage permet de retirer certaines fibres non digestes. La cuisson rend les molécules constitutives de l'amidon sensibles aux enzymes digestives.-Un aliment sain : on utilise pour préparer les farines, des produits sains, et l'on élimine notamment tous les produits toxiques (moisissures pouvant sécréter des mycotoxines, matières premières traitées contre les insectes et qui contiennent encore des pesticides etc.).Dans plusieurs pays africains, des farines infantiles présentant toutes les caractéristiques citées ci-dessus ont été élaborées. On peut citer : La farine Misola au Burkina Faso : elle est composée de petit mil (60%), de soja (20%), d'arachide (10%) de sucre (9%) et de sel (1%) ; La farine vitafort au Congo : elle est composée de farine de manioc (43,4%), de farine de maïs (30%) de farine de soja (18,6%) de sucre (8%) et de 32 mg de BAN 800 MG pour 100 g de matière brute. Le BAN 800 MG est une enzyme mise au point par les chercheurs de l'IRD (ex ORSTOM) au Congo, qui permet d'agir sur l'amidon en limitant son gonflement au moment de la préparation de la bouillie et de réduire sa viscosité ;Les farines de OUANDO au Bénin à base de riz, de maïs et de lait (Rimalait) ou de céréales et de soja avec enrichissement en vitamines (Cereso).Les produits industriels et semi-industriels : on distingue les farines, les semoules, les pâtes fermentées et l'amidon.•Les semoules et les farines : au Sénégal et au Mali sont installées des mini-minoteries villageoises qui sont équipées de décortiqueurs à disques abrasifs et de broyeurs à meules ou à marteaux. Ces unités sont destinées à produire des semoules et farines de maïs vendues sur le marché local et urbain. Si les semoules se vendent bien, on observe en revanche un problème de qualité de la farine. Celle-ci n'est pas adaptée à la fabrication du tô. Il existe par ailleurs une unité semi-industrielle pour la production de grits par mouture semi-humide sur cylindres. Les consommateurs reprochent à ces produits un manque de purification, la présence de sons (arrière goût désagréable) et de lipides (mauvaise conservation). •Les pâtes fermentées : dans les pays du Golfe du Bénin et à Cotonou en particulier, près de 50 % du maïs est broyé sous forme humide afin de donner des pâtes fermentées appelées mawè et ogui. Ces pâtes sont utilisées pour la confection de nombreux plats.Le mawè destiné à la vente est obtenu après une étape de broyage et une étape de mouture fine, séparées par un tamisage et un lavage des produits. Il s'agit d'un produit raffiné (pauvre en lipides, fibres et cendres), humide (46 à 48% d'eau), et qui a subi une fermentation de type lactique. •L'amidon : l'extraction de l'amidon est l'un des principaux débouchés du maïs dans les pays développés. L'amidon est extrait de l'albumen après broyage du grain en milieu humide. Pour faciliter l'extraction et la séparation des différents constituants, le grain est mis à tremper pendant plusieurs heures à 50 °C environ dans une solution aqueuse enrichie en SO 2 et en acide lactique. Le germe et le péricarpeLes céréales deviennent élastiques tandis que l'albumen devient friable. L'attaque chimique par le SO 2 et l'acide lactique facilite par ailleurs la libération de l'amidon. Le grain est ensuite soumis à une succession de broyage et de tamisage. L'amidon est extrait, purifié par centrifugation puis séché.La seconde transformation met en oeuvre des farines et des semoules pour fabriquer des aliments prêts à consommer ou des produits de cuisson et de préparation rapides.Les opérations de seconde transformation La cuisson : pour les céréales, elle se traduit d'abord par des modifications (importantes et favorables) de leurs qualités organoleptiques (saveur, couleur…). Les réactions chimiques qui se produisent au cours de leur cuisson sont nombreuses et complexes. Il apparaît souvent des composés aromatiques et la texture de certains composants comme les protéines, l'amidon ou encore les fibres est profondément modifiée.Le maltage : Il consiste à faire germer le grain jusqu'à l'apparition d'une pousse. En général le grain est trempé pendant 16 à 24 h, ce qui lui permet d'absorber suffisamment d'humidité pour germer et pour que les pousses apparaissent.Au cours du processus de germination, le grain produit l'amylase, une enzyme qui convertit l'amidon insoluble en sucres solubles. Cela a pour effet d'alléger la pâte produite en chauffant une bouillie d'amidon dans l'eau, ce qui a son tour permet une plus grande densité calorifique dans une pâte d'une viscosité donnée. Ainsi, on peut utiliser jusqu'à 3 fois plus de farine quand on utilise du grain germé. L'énergie que les jeunes enfants peuvent consommer est souvent limitée par le volume qu'ils peuvent absorber. Mais en utilisant le grain germé, on peut rendre les aliments mieux adaptés à certaines catégories de jeunes enfants. La farine à base de grain malté est donc utilisée très largement dans la production d'aliments pour enfants.Mais lorsque ces aliments sont préparés à partir du sorgho, il faut faire très attention au taux de l'HCN, car les enfants y sont vulnérables. En effet, les radicelles et les pousses du sorgho germé contiennent de très grandes quantités de glucosides cyanogènes qui, à l'hydrolyse, produisent une toxine puissante, l'HCN connue sous différents noms : acide prussique, cyanure.La fermentation alcoolique : bien que les boissons ne soient pas des aliments majeurs, elles constituent dans plusieurs pays une source d'énergie non négligeable.Les porridges fermentés fluides sont généralement préparés et utilisés comme boisson. On les considère comme des aliments et ils apportent d'importants éléments nutritifs.La bière est une source de vitamine, de matière grasse et de sels ainsi le riz blanc et un sous-produit pulvérulent, les issues. Au cours des opérations de blanchiment, des grains se fragmentent en proportion plus ou moins élevée, produisant des brisures de divers calibres. Enfin, le riz blanchi peut subir un polissage ou même un glaçage, opérations ultérieures destinées à améliorer la présentation du riz.Le nettoyage se fait à l'aide de tarares, c'est-à-dire des appareils à cribles plans et à secousses. Ils sont placés à l'entrée des silos de stockage ou en tête des opérations d'usinage, avant les décortiqueurs ou les classeurs à paddy. Les tarares sont à 2 ou 3 cribles ; ils possèdent une soufflerie créant un courant d'air agissant sur le paddy à son entrée sur le tarare et à sa sortie après son nettoyage par les cribles. Le ou les deux cribles supérieurs retiennent les impuretés de grandes dimensions; le paddy propre est retenu par le crible inférieur au travers duquel passent les petites impuretés.La figure 6.2.1 présente un diagramme de transformation montrant les étapes majeures et les produits intermédiaires.Technologie des produits 6.2.4 Décorticage L'appareil le plus répandu est le décortiqueur à meules ; il est essentiellement composé d'une meule fixe supérieure (meule gisante) sous laquelle tourne dans un plan horizontal une meule inférieure (meule courante). Chaque meule est constituée d'un disque en fonte, les deux faces se faisant vis-à-vis étant recouvertes d'une substance abrasive appliquée en couches bien uniformes. Le paddy est introduit par une lumière ménagée au centre de la meule supérieure et se répand entre les deux meules. Par friction et pression sur les deux extrémités des grains, ceux-ci sont débarrassés de leurs balles. Le mélange riz décortiqué, balles, sons et brisures est évacué par une goulotte débouchant latéralement de la partie inférieure du carter du décortiqueur.On juge de l'efficacité du décorticage par son rendement en riz cargo (grains entiers ou de dimensions supérieures à trois quarts de grain + brisures). La meule ne permet que rarement, et dans les meilleures conditions, d'obtenir un rendement en cargo supérieur à 75 % (du paddy), dont au minimum 4 % de brisures (Tableau 6.2.1). Le réglage, l'entretien et le rhabillage des meules (avec le mélange abrasif) sont délicats et demandent l'intervention de spécialistes. Le rendement maximum en riz cargo et le taux minimum de brisures ne peuvent de toute façon être obtenus que si les lots de paddy à décortiquer sont homogènes, exactement d'un même format et de même longueur. Aucun réglage ne peut compenser l'hétérogénéité des lots de paddy à usiner. Les planchisters sont constitués par des cribles horizontaux superposés qui sont suspendus à des joncs flexibles, l'ensemble étant animé d'un mouvement circulaire horizontal par un excentrique mu par un axe rotatif vertical (Figure 6.2.2).Le séparateur à paddy ou table densimétrique (Figure 6.2.3) se compose essentiellement d'un plan métallique incliné, de forme rectangulaire, et animé de mouvements alternatifs longitudinaux. Sur ce plan se trouvent des chicanes de tôle dont l'arête médiane est dirigée vers la partie supérieure. Le mélange riz décortiqué + paddy est envoyé au milieu du plan ; le riz décortiqué, plus dense, descend le plan au travers des chicanes. Par contre, le paddy, plus léger et plus élastique, rebondit sur les chicanes et remonte la pente du plan pour sortir par le haut. Technologie des produits introduit par la partie supérieure entre le tronc de cône et l'enceinte. Le riz se dispose dès lors en anneaux plus ou moins larges et tourne avec le tronc de cône. Le blanchiment résulte du frottement des grains les uns contre les autres et du frottement contre la surface abrasive, mais afin d'éviter que les grains ne soient entraînés dans un mouvement de rotation sans fin, des freins en caoutchouc sont fixés sur les bords latéraux de l'enceinte et sortent de l'enceinte en direction de la surface abrasive du tronc de cône. La distance entre le frein et la surface abrasive doit être telle que la masse des grains soit freinée tout en permettant à ceux-ci de passer. Le blanchiment optimum, aboutissant à une blancheur optimale du grain, est obtenu par élimination, aussi modérée que possible, des issues (farines basses de blanchiment) et par l'obtention du taux le plus élevé possible de grains entiers (ou le taux le plus faible possible de brisures), tout en maintenant un débit horaire normal. Le blanchiment complet est obtenu dès que l'albumen est mis à nu, donc après l'élimination des téguments et de la couche à aleurone du caryopse.Le taux d'extraction total doit être compris entre 5,5 % et 9 % pour obtenir un blanchiment satisfaisant (6 à 8 % en moyenne), et 9 à 9,5 % pour un blanchiment absolument complet; mais seulement 3 à 4 % pour un semi-blanchiment.Le riz simplement blanchi a un aspect mat ; il reste légèrement saupoudré de farine. On peut simplement le brosser avec des brosses en tampico ou en feutre, permettant d'obtenir le riz \"fleur\". Industriellement, on le polit dans un cône polisseur semblable au cône à blanchir, mais dont la toupie tronconique est garnie de peau de mouton ou de flanelle et dont l'enceinte perforée est en toile métallique constituée de fils ronds et non carrés.Le glaçage consiste en un enrobage des grains avec une suspension de talc dans une solution de glucose. Ce glaçage n'est pratiquement réalisé que pour le riz de luxe.Dans certains pays, en Italie notamment, le riz poli subit un très léger enrobage d'huile.Au cours du blanchiment, l'élimination des couches périphériques du caryopse entraîne la disparition plus ou moins complète de nombreux éléments nutritifs (lipides), d'éléments minéraux (calcium et surtout magnésium, potassium, phosphore et fer), et de diverses vitamines. On a dû chercher une technique permettant de conserver, malgré le blanchiment, la teneur initiale ou tout au moins des teneurs élevées en ces éléments, et ce, particulièrement pour les vitamines. Pour soustraire les vitamines à l'action du blanchiment, il suffit de les faire diffuser vers l'intérieur du grain. Cette diffusion est obtenue par l'opération dite \"d'étuvage\", quiLes racines et tubercules consiste essentiellement en un trempage du paddy suivi d'une élévation de température puis d'un séchage. Le paddy est ensuite usiné comme un paddy ordinaire. Au cours de l'usinage, et plus spécialement du blanchiment, les pertes en vitamines hydrosolubles sont beaucoup moins importantes avec le riz étuvé qu'avec le riz ordinaire : pratiquement pas de pertes de niacine, tandis que les teneurs en vitamines B1 sont doubles, et celles en vitamines B2 supérieures de 30 à 50 % à celles obtenues sans étuvage.Outre la diffusion des vitamines hydrosolubles du péricarpe vers l'intérieur de l'albumen, un certain nombre de phénomènes physiques et chimiques sont provoqués par le trempage et l'action de la température humide ; l'amidon tend à gélatiniser ; ainsi, la texture du grain se trouve consolidée et le grain ne se brise pratiquement plus et résiste bien aux insectes.Si l'étuvage a pour but de permettre au riz de conserver la plus grande partie possible de ses éléments vitaminiques, l'enrichissement consiste à ajouter au riz non étuvé blanchi, les éléments qui ont disparu au cours du blanchiment et même des éléments complémentaires. L'enrichissement consiste à mélanger intimement à du riz blanchi des grains de riz dont la teneur en éléments minéraux et en vitamines a été particulièrement accrue ; ces grains constituent le \"prémix \" que l'on mélange dans la proportion de 0,5 à 1 % au riz blanchi ordinaire.Les tubercules (manioc, igname, patate douce, pomme de terre, taro), du fait de leur richesse en amidon, constituent une source énergétique importante dans l'alimentation humaine.Le manioc peut être considéré comme la quatrième production végétale pour sa contribution à l'alimentation de la population mondiale après le riz , le blé et le maïs. L'Afrique a produit près de 55 % de la production mondiale de manioc en 1999. Les deux plus importants pays africains consommateurs de manioc sont le Nigeria et la République Démocratique du Congo qui consomment à eux seuls le tiers du manioc utilisé en alimentation humaine dans le monde.Quant à l'igname, elle est produite de façon extensive dans trois régions du monde : l'Afrique occidentale, les Caraïbes et l'Asie du sud-est. 95 % de la production mondiale (à l'exclusion de la Chine Populaire) provient de l'Afrique Occidentale et plus particulièrement de la zone comprise entre la Côte d'Ivoire et le Cameroun. Les plus gros producteurs d'igname dans cette zone sont : le Nigeria (78 % de la production mondiale), la Côte d'Ivoire, le Ghana, le Bénin et le Togo.Le taro, la pomme de terre et la patate douce sont produits en plus faible quantité. Les tubercules étant des organes végétaux gorgés d'eau, leur conservation à l'état frais est difficile.Le manioc, une fois récolté, est très périssable. Si aucune précaution n'est prise pour sa conservation, il se détériore après 48 heures. Cette détérioration après la récolte est due à deux processus distincts : les changements physiologiques qui surviennent 24 heures après la récolte et les changements microbiens qui se produisent une semaine après la récolte.L'igname peut se conserver pendant plusieurs mois mais subit également des dégradations (pourrissement, attaque par les insectes, transpiration et germination) qui entraînent d'énormes pertes post-récolte.Il est donc nécessaire de transformer le plus rapidement possible ces tubercules pour limiter les pertes.La composition chimique des 3 tubercules : manioc, igname et patate douce est montrée au tableau 6.3.1.Dans ce chapitre, on exposera de façon succincte les différents types de transformation des tubercules en général et particulièrement de l'igname et du manioc.   La transformation de l'igname en cossettes : toute variété d'igname peut être à priori utilisée pour la production de cossettes. Mais la variété qui se prête le mieux à la fabrication de cossettes est de l'espèce Dioscorea rotundata. Cette variété, connue sous le nom de « kokoro » dans les zones de production du Bénin, est en général de petite taille. Les tubercules épluchés sont trempés dans l'eau et chauffés à une température moyenne de 65 °C pendant quelques minutes. La fin de la précuisson correspond au moment où lesTechnologie des produits tubercules acquièrent une certaine flexibilité. Les tubercules sont ensuite séchés sur des aires de séchage pendant 3 à 4 jours au soleil. Le produit obtenu en fin de séchage est appelé cossettes d'igname. Ces cossettes sont concassées et réduites en farine par mouture. La farine de cossettes d'igname sert à préparer la pâte (amala ou télibo-wo) ou le couscous d'igname (wassa-wassa).Production de cossettes de manioc : toutes les variétés de manioc sont aptes à la transformation en cossettes. Les tubercules de manioc sont épluchés, lavés et séchés au soleil, sur des aires de séchage jusqu'à ce qu'ils atteignent un taux d'humidité d'environ 12 %. Les cossettes sèches sont réduites en une farine qui est utilisée pour la préparation de la pâte ou la fabrication des biscuits.Nous nous limiterons à la deuxième transformation du manioc.Les racines de manioc sont épluchées, découpées, lavées et râpées. Un ferment à base de manioc peut y être ajouté avant le râpage. La pulpe est mise à fermenter pendant un ou plusieurs jours. Il s'agit d'une fermentation de type lactique. La pulpe fermentée est destinée à la fabrication de divers produits finis dont le gari et l'agbélima principalement produit dans les Pays du Golfe du Bénin, et l'attièkè produit en Côte d'Ivoire.Production de gari : la pulpe fermentée (pendant 1 à 4 jours) est pressée, émiettée, tamisée et cuite jusqu'à ce qu'elle atteigne un taux d'humidité d'environ 10%. Parfois, la pulpe tamisée subit une cuisson partielle, puis un séchage au soleil. Le produit obtenu après cuisson complète ou après séchage s'appelle gari. C'est une semoule de couleur blanchâtre à jaune, à grains secs et durs qui se caractérise par un goût acidulé. Il existe une technique d'incorporation d'huile de palme et de farine de soja qui permet d'obtenir du gari enrichi.Production d'agbélima : la pulpe est pressée en cours de fermentation. La pulpe fermentée est mélangée avec de la farine de maïs fermentée et cuite sous forme de pâte. La pâte est consommée avec de la sauce.Production d'attièkè : (couscous de manioc). La râpure de manioc est mélangée à un ferment à base de manioc désigné localement sous le nom de magnan. La fermentation dure 1 à 2 jours. La pulpe séchée est émiettée et défibrée. Elle subit ensuite une granulation (roulage), un séchage et un vannage. Les granules secs sont cuits à la vapeur. Le produit obtenu s'appelle attièkè. D'autres produits sont obtenus après rouissage du manioc. Le rouissage est une fermentation lactique spontanée effectuée principalement en Afrique Centrale. Le procédé consiste à immerger dans de l'eau des racines de manioc, entières ou prédécoupées, pendant trois à cinq jours. Pendant le rouissage, les racines sontLes racines et tubercules ramollies et les substances qui participent au goût du produit sont élaborées.Les produits obtenus à partir du manioc roui sont : Le foufou : les racines de manioc rouies sont émottées ou découpées en cossettes puis séchées au soleil. Les produits séchés sont ensuite réduits en farine qui est utilisée pour préparer une pâte dense de texture élastique.La chikwangue : c'est une pâte vendue emballée dans des feuilles végétales au Congo. Elle est de texture élastique et encore plus dense que le foufou. C'est le produit final d'une longue et fastidieuse transformation par voie humide des racines rouies qui comprend plusieurs opérations : défibrage du manioc roui, laminage, précuisson, malaxage, modelage et cuisson terminale.Selon la méthode traditionnelle, les principales phases pour obtenir l'amidon sont : l'épluchage, le lavage, le râpage, la filtration et le séchage. Après la récolte, les tubercules frais sont épluchés à la main, lavés et ensuite râpés en pulpe. Cette pulpe est placée dans un panier suspendu au-dessus d'une cuve recouverte d'un morceau de tissu propre. Après avoir versé de l'eau sur le panier, l'amidon lavé est filtré par le tissu et s'écoule dans le récipient placé en dessous du panier. Cette opération est répétée jusqu'à évacuation totale de l'amidon. Le liquide recueilli est laissé décanté et l'amidon se dépose au fond du récipient. Le surnageant est éliminé et l'amidon est séché au soleil ou utilisé tel quel.Une autre méthode traditionnelle consiste à déverser les râpures dans des sacs et à les immerger complètement dans l'eau. Ces sacs sont ensuite pressés pour obtenir le liquide blanc qui s'écoule dans des seaux. De l'eau fraîche est ajoutée à chaque baisse de niveau. L'opération est répétée jusqu'à ce que l'eau d'écoulement devienne claire. Le liquide obtenu repose pendant plusieurs heures pour permettre la décantation de l'amidon. Le surnageant est éliminé et l'amidon est lavé 3 à 4 fois avant d'être éventuellement séché au soleil.Dans les petites et moyennes entreprises, la pulpe est obtenue à l'aide d'une râpeuse mécanique ou d'un broyeur désintégrateur. Le lait d'amidon est extrait soit à l'aide d'un tamis rotatif et vibrant, soit à l'aide de centrifugeuse puissante. Le lait d'amidon est stocké dans un bassin de sédimentation au fond duquel l'amidon se dépose. Après séparation et raffinage, on récupère l'amidon.L'amidon séché est réduit en farine par mouture. Cette farine est ensuite utilisée en biscuiterie, en boulangerie et en blanchisserie.Fabrication du tapioca : on utilise l'amidon humide. Celui-ci est tamisé, granulé et cuit sous agitation, à température modérée ( 60 °C environ), dans un récipient à fond plat. Le produit obtenu en fin de cuisson s'appelle tapioca et se présente comme un noyau d'amidon Technologie des produits enfermé dans une enveloppe de gélatine fine mais ferme. Le taux d'humidité du tapioca est d'environ 12%.Production de sirop de glucose : l'amidon de manioc est liquéfié et saccharifié par les enzymes α et β amylases du riz germé. On procède à une filtration et à une concentration à 80% de sucre. Il s'agit d'une technologie d'origine vietnamienne qui est en cours d'adoption dans plusieurs pays africains.Le manioc frais contient jusqu'à 30 % d'hydrate de carbone sous forme d'amidon. Cette caractéristique en fait l'un des produits de base les plus adaptés à la fermentation pour la production d'alcool. L'alcool éthylique dérivé du manioc est le résultat d'une série de processus chimiques consistant à saccharifier l'amidon de manioc, à fermenter la solution subséquente et à distiller ensuite l'alcool.Les huiles végétales sont produites à partir des graines des plantes que l'on trouve dans différentes régions du monde. Parmi la centaine de types de graines oléagineuses connues, un petit nombre a une signification commerciale. Ce sont : la graine de coton, l'arachide, le tournesol, la noix de coco, la noix de palme, la noix de karité, la graine de lin, l'olive, le sésame, le navet, la graine de ricin.L'importance majeure des huiles végétales est la nutrition humaine (sous forme d'huile ou de margarine). D'ailleurs, beaucoup de graines ont une teneur élevée en protéines, ce qui permet leur utilisation comme fourrage. Les huiles végétales peuvent aussi être utilisées pour d'autres applications industrielles, comme par exemple, la production de savon, de peinture, de vernis, de plastiques. Les huiles végétales peuvent être divisées en trois groupes selon leurs utilisations (Tableau 6.4.1). Les oléagineux sont des plantes dont les graines servent à produire, artisanalement ou industriellement, de l'huile ou des beurres. Ils ont un rôle économique pour les pays en développement. Etant donné que les plantes oléifères ont toutes leur spécificité, la technique de libération des graines varie selon les cas. Soja, arachide, coton : on applique un traitement de décorticage. Les appareils utilisés pour le décorticage consistent ordinairement en une cage cylindrique horizontale dont la paroi est formée soit de barreaux métalliques, soit d'une tôle perforée. A l'intérieur de cette cage, dans laquelle les gousses à décortiquer sont introduites, tourne un arbre garni de croisillons batteurs sous l'action duquel les gousses sont comprimées et froissées. Le mélange des graines et des morceaux de gousses non décortiquées restent à l'intérieur.Tournesol et navet : les graines sont libérées des fleurs par une action de battage suivie par un tamisage.Noix de coco : les amandes de coco extraites des coques sont séchées au soleil ou à l'air chauffé artificiellement. Le produit sec s'appelle le coprah et sert comme produit de base pour l'huilerie. En général en Afrique de l'Ouest, on extrait l'huile de façon artisanale par voix humide à partir du coco non séché. Les noix sont fendues en 3 parties avec un coupe-coupe. Les amandes sont ensuite extraites des coques bourrées avec un couteau.Noix de palme : les régimes de palme sont stérilisés d'abord afin de faciliter l'égrappage, qui consiste en la séparation des rafles et Broyage : un broyage préalable facilite la pénétration de la vapeur pendant le conditionnement. Ce broyage est souvent effectué à l'aide de rouleaux.Conditionnement : les graines sont traitées à la vapeur afin de faire éclater la plupart des cellules. Parfois, il y a déjà une partie de l'huile qui s'échappe spontanément, \"l'huile vierge \".Extraction de l'huile : on connaît deux procédés, l'extraction sous pression et l'extraction par solvant.L'extraction sous pression : une presse mécanique ou \"expeller \" est utilisée. Elle est essentiellement constituée d'une ou plusieurs cages cylindriques, ou légèrement coniques, formées de barreaux en acier spécial espacés de quelques dixièmes de millimètre. A l'intérieur de chacune de ces cages, tourne un arbre garni d'éléments à vis, dont le nombre, la disposition et le pas varient suivant le travail recherché. Les graines conditionnées sont introduites à une extrémité de la cage et entraînées par les éléments à vis vers l'autre extrémité. La mouture sort ensuite par l'espace annulaire compris entre l'arbre et les barreaux terminaux, espace qui peut être plus ou moins obturé à l'aide d'un cône coulissant sur l'arbre ou d'un diaphragme réglable. Ce dispositif, combiné avec un écartement décroissant entre les barreaux dans les sections de cages proches de la sortie et avec une conicité éventuelle de la cage ou de l'arbre, permet de réaliser une pression de plus en plus forte au fur et à mesure que progresse la matière. Dans les modèles de presses les plus puissants, on atteint ainsi des valeurs de l'ordre de 2000 kg/cm 2 . L'huile s'écoule par les interstices ménagés entre les barreaux et tombe sur un tamis où elle abandonne une partie de ses débris. Elle est ensuite dirigée vers un réservoir et débarrassée des impuretés restantes à l'aide d'un filtre-presse à plateaux. Quant au tourteau, il est brisé, à sa sortie de la cage, par un dispositif approprié ; si l'usine travaille en pression unique, il est ensuite refroidi et mis en sacs ou stocké en vrac. Si la pression est suivie d'une extraction par un solvant, le tourteau est concassé avant d'être dirigé vers l'extracteur.L'extraction par solvant : Les tourteaux de pression sont convenablement préparés et portés à une température appropriée ; ils sont alors mis en contact (pendant un temps approprié) avec un solvant, lui aussi porté préalablement à la température voulue (par exemple hexane à 50°C). On obtient ainsi une solution d'huile dans le solvant, appelée \"miscella \", que l'on soumet à un chauffage en vue de la concentrer et, finalement, d'en recueillir l'huile par distillation et condensation des vapeurs de solvant. La matière épuisée, qui a retenu une certaine quantité de solvant, est, elle aussi, chauffée afin d'en retirer le solvant par évaporation et condensation.Actuellement, particulièrement dans les grandes usines, on utilise surtout des installations permettant de réaliser sans aucuneLes produits oléagineux discontinuité l'ensemble des opérations (extraction proprement dite, concentration et distillation du miscella, récupération du solvant). Cependant, on trouve encore de petites installations fonctionnant en discontinu (ou semi-continu). Dans ce cas, la récupération du solvant retenu par le tourteau déshuilé est effectuée dans l'extracteur lui-même, et non dans un appareil spécialement affecté à ce travail.Raffinage de l'huile : le raffinage de l'huile comporte la démucilagination, la neutralisation, le blanchiment et la désodorisation. La démucilagination permet d'obtenir, d'une part, de la lécithine pouvant être éventuellement déshydratée et purifiée et, d'autre part, des pâtes de neutralisation débarrassées de ce produit, qui constitue un agent d'émulsification.On neutralise les acides gras libres afin de pouvoir les séparer de l'huile sous forme de savon.La décoloration, ou blanchiment, est généralement effectuée sous vide (environ 700 mm Hg) à une température de l'ordre de 80 °C, dans une batteuse pourvue d'un dispositif de chauffage, par incorporation de 1 à 2 % de terre activée (diatomées) dans l'huile préalablement déshydratée. Après un temps de contact de 20 à 30 minutes, le mélange d'huile et de terre est passé sur filtre-presse.La désodorisation est effectuée de façon classique, en discontinu ou en continu, par entraînement à la vapeur des matières volatiles sous vide poussé (environ 750 mm Hg) à une température voisine de 180 °C.L'huile raffinée doit être stockée avec encore plus de précautions que l'huile brute, car elle ne contient pas d'anti-oxydant naturel. Il convient donc de la conserver à l'abri de la lumière, de la chaleur, et de l'humidité, dans des réservoirs d'une parfaite propreté. On limite la durée de cette conservation avant la mise en petits emballages qui seront ensuite soustraits à l'action des agents précités, particulièrement à la lumière. 6. 4.3.2  Empâtage : le mélange est maintenu à une température d'environ 80 -90°C dans une grande marmite pendant l'addition lente de la quantité de soude (NaOH) nécessaire à la saponification de l'ensemble.Séparation des phases (Rélargage) : on ajoute une certaine quantité de solution de sel (NaCl) et de NaOH, qui a pour but d'emmener les impuretés lors de sa chute au travers du savon. Après la séparation des deux phases, on retire la phase aqueuse.Malaxage : le produit, qui s'appelle savon liquide, est homogénéisé à l'aide d'un malaxeur.Solidification : le savon liquide est refroidi en dessous de son point de solidification à l'aide d'un filtre-presse. On obtient, comme résultat, des plaques de savon solide.Découpage : les plaques de savon sont découpées selon les dimensions des barres, qui sont ensuite divisées en morceaux de savon.Séchage : les morceaux de savon sont séchés dans un tunnel à sécher.Conditionnement et livraison : selon la demande du marché, les morceaux peuvent être enveloppés dans du papier. Ils sont finalement emballés dans des cartons.La margarine est une émulsion d'eau et de matières grasses. Cela implique, déjà, qu'on la prépare à partir de deux types de matières premières : une phase grasse et une phase aqueuse.Préparation de la phase grasse : à partir d'huiles raffinées, on compose un mélange avec un point de solidification tel que la margarine permette de bien enduire les aliments destinés à la consommation. Cette température peut donc varier suivant les climats. Afin d'obtenir une plus haute température de solidification, on ajoute des lipides durcis par hydrogénation. On ajoute également au mélange des vitamines A et D et un colorant à base de carotène, la provitamine A, qui sont solubles dans les matières grasses. Par ailleurs, on ajoute souvent une composition d'arômes artificiels.Préparation de la phase aqueuse : une partie de l'arôme de la margarine est fournie par la phase aqueuse, qui consiste en lait écrémé acidifié. On fait alors fermenter du lait écrémé à l'aide d'une culture de bactéries productrices d'acide lactique dans des conditions bien précises. C'est pendant cette fermentation qu'aura lieu la formation des arômes spécifiques du beurre; selon le goût des consommateurs, on ajoute ensuite un certain pourcentage (0 -2 %) de sel à la phase aqueuse.Emulsion : les deux phases sont pompées dans un appareil à action continue qui consiste en un réfrigérateur tubulaire (votator). Le tube est pourvu de couteaux rotatoires qui transportent le mélange sous pression à travers le système. Le produit refroidit rapidement et commence à se cristalliser au contact de la paroi du tube. Les couteaux l'enlèvent de la paroi et le mélangent intimement avec le reste du produit. Le degré de cristallisation et les dimensions des cristaux déterminent la texture du produit fini.Emballage : le produit fini est expulsé de l'appareil sous forme de boudin rectangulaire, qui est ensuite coupé suivant les dimensions et le poids des unités de vente. L'emballage se fait dans du papier pour les margarines dures, tandis que les margarines douces (faciles à enduire) sont emballées dans des cuves en PVC (Chlorure de PolyVinyle).Les fruits et légumes 6.5 Les fruits et légumesLes fruits et légumes constituent un groupe d'aliments végétaux dont la distinction est essentiellement d'ordre gastronomique.Du point de vue botanique, les fruits sont les structures de la plante qui, au stade de la maturité, contiennent des graines. On estime généralement que les caractères communs aux fruits sont : la richesse en sucre, l'acidité relativement élevée, le parfum prononcé. En outre, ils se consomment à l'état cru.Les légumes quant à eux, recouvrent divers types de structures végétales dont les feuilles (laitues…), les racines (carottes…) les fruits (tomates, gombo…). Généralement, les légumes sont caractérisés par une faible acidité.Les fruits constituent l'une des plus importantes productions végétales. Les agrumes viennent en tête, suivis par les pommes, les raisins et les ananas.L'importance accordée aux fruits et légumes est surtout liée au rôle prépondérant qu'ils jouent dans la nutrition humaine en tant qu'une des principales sources de micro-nutriments (vitamines et sels minéraux).Les pays en développement, et notamment l'Afrique, produisent des quantités importantes de fruits et légumes, généralement consommés en frais. Cependant, leur forte teneur en eau les rend sensibles aux actions des agents physico-chimiques et biologiques de dégradation. Ils sont donc très périssables et ne peuvent être conservés à l'état frais que pendant quelques jours au maximum, d'où la nécessité de les mettre sous une forme où ils peuvent se conserver plus longtemps.En Afrique, très peu de techniques de transformation des fruits et légumes à petite échelle sont développées. Toutefois, certains produits comme la tomate et l'oignon sont transformés en purée concentrée au niveau des ménages. Le piment et le gombo sont séchés avant d'être parfois moulus.Ce chapitre vise à exposer brièvement les différentes méthodes de conservation et de transformation des fruits et légumes.Les techniques de conservation et de transformation comportent en général deux groupes d'opérations : •Les opérations de pré-traitement du produit à transformer (nettoyage, lavage) ; •Les opérations de traitement (déshydratation, cuisson, séchage...). Pour une bonne conservation des produits transformés, ces techniques doivent respecter dans leur mise en oeuvre les exigences ciaprès : •Partir des produits sains et intacts ;•Mettre en oeuvre des opérations qui permettent de détruire ou d'inhiber les agents de dégradation ; •Assurer la propreté hygiénique (stérilité) des matériels de conditionnement ; •Assurer l'étanchéité des matériels de conditionnement.Pour rendre les fruits et légumes aptes à la conservation et à la transformation, un certain nombre d'opérations de pré-traitement sont nécessaires. L'ordre des opérations de pré-traitement varie suivant l'espèce de fruits ou légumes concernée et le mode de conservation choisi.Lavage-Nettoyage : Cette opération permet d'éliminer les pierres, les déchets terreux, les feuilles, une partie des micro-organismes de surface et les résidus de produits chimiques pulvérisés avant récolte. Ces pesticides, indépendamment de leur toxicité, peuvent provoquer des altérations de couleur et de saveur ou favoriser la corrosion des emballages métalliques. Le lavage peut se faire :•Par trempage du produit dans de l'eau pure ou contenant 5 à 10 % de sel ou 0,1 à 5 % de lessive de soude. Dans ces deux derniers cas, un rinçage soigneux doit suivre le lavage ; •Par aspersion d'eau ; •Par aspersion suivie d'un trempage.L'eau utilisée doit être dans la mesure du possible, propre, fraîche, potable et être renouvelée.Triage et calibrage : Ils permettent l'obtention de produits de grosseur ou de maturité homogène d'une part, et l'élimination des produits altérés et des débris foliacés d'autre part. Le triage peut se faire suivant la taille du produit (triage par grosseur ou calibrage) ou selon la maturité (uniformité de couleur ou de fermeté).Pesage : Il permet de : •Connaître la quantité de fruits ou légumes arrivant à l'usine s'il est effectué avant triage et lavage ou la quantité nette de fruits ou légumes à transformer s'il est effectué après triage et lavage ; •Calculer les quantités d'ingrédients à ajouter aux produits dans le cas de certaines transformations. On les exprime en kg par kg ou par 100 kg de produits.Parage (épluchage ou pelage) : il consiste à enlever les parties abîmées ou les éléments non comestibles ou indésirables des fruits ou des légumes traités, (Exemple : le coeur de l'ananas) qui pourraient dénaturer la saveur du produit fini et altérer ses qualités organoleptiques. Lorsqu'il s'agit de l'élimination de la peau de certains fruits ou des parties externes non comestibles de certains légumes, on parle d'épluchage ou de pelage. Le parage n'inclut pas l'enlèvement des pépins et du noyau.Dénoyautage-Epépinage : cette opération consiste à éliminer le noyau et les pépins qui pourraient donner une amertume prononcée au produit fini, s'ils étaient traités avec la chair du fruit. Le dénoyautage et l'épépinage sont effectués soit : •Manuellement avec des cuillers dénoyauteuses ou épépineuses, d'ustensiles épépineurs ou dénoyauteurs ménagers à poussoir ; •Mécaniquement avec des dépulpeurs ou des centrifugeuses essoreuses.Découpage-Râpage : le découpage et le râpage ont pour but de réduire la taille du produit traité, principalement son épaisseur qui peut constituer un obstacle à : •La migration de l'eau lors du séchage ; •La pénétration de sel, d'acide ou de sucre; •La pénétration de chaleur lors de l'appertisation.La diminution de l'épaisseur du produit permet ainsi de réduire le temps de traitement, ce qui assure une meilleure conservation des qualités organoleptiques et nutritionnelles (séchage et appertisation). Pour assurer l'homogénéité des traitements, il importe que la taille des morceaux soit sensiblement du même ordre.Le découpage se fait soit manuellement avec des couteaux en acier ou des trancheuses à lames multiples, soit mécaniquement avec des trancheuses dites coniques. Le râpage se fait avec des râpes (manuelles ou entraînées par un moteur ou un pédalier).Broyage : il est effectué, en ce qui concerne les fruits, dans le but d'obtenir un nectar ou une purée. Il peut être aussi effectué en tant que pré-traitement du séchage de façon à faciliter la déshydratation ou en tant que post-traitement de séchage pour transformer les produits séchés en poudre.Le broyage manuel se fait au mortier et au pilon tandis que pour le broyage mécanique, on utilise des broyeurs (à marteaux ou à meules).Pressage : cette opération a pour but d'extraire le jus des fruits, tout en effectuant un tamisage de la pulpe. Elle permet donc d'obtenir un jus de fruit clair ou pulpeux contrairement à la méthode de broyage qui donne une purée. Pour ne pas enrichir le jus en tannins, ce qui lui donnerait une astringence excessive, il est nécessaire d'éliminer pépins et noyaux avant le pressage.Le broyage se fait à l'aide de presses (hydrauliques, pneumatiques, à levier, à vis …) ou d'essoreuses centrifugeuses.Tamisage : cette opération s'applique aux produits déshydratés ayant subi une opération de broyage. Elle est également effectuée sur des produits liquides ou pâteux et a pour but dans ce cas d'éliminer les particules les plus grossières et les morceaux de fruits non désagrégés.Le tamisage se fait à l'aide de tamis traditionnels en osier tressés finement ou des tamis animés de mouvement de vibration.Clarification-débourbage : l'opération de clarification-débourbage consiste à éliminer du moût du fruit (qui n'est pas toujours consommable tel quel), les particules ou composants désagréables pour la dégustation ou nuisibles à sa bonne tenue. Si le moût était tamisé au préalable, l'essentiel de ces particules ou composants sont les matières colloïdales en solution (protéines, tannins, pectines) et les matières insolubles en suspension (débris cellulosiques). La clarification-débourbage se fait de diverses manières : Les fruits et légumesConservation par la chaleur (appertisation) : c'est la méthode de conservation qui consiste à enfermer l'aliment dans un récipient hermétiquement clos, et à le soumettre à un chauffage assurant la destruction ou l'inactivation des micro-organismes et des enzymes susceptibles de l'altérer. L'appertisation s'applique à de nombreux fruits et légumes (petits pois et tomates en boîte, fruits au sirop, jus de fruits, nectar de fruits…).Dans la mesure où les légumes diffèrent des fruits du point de vue composition chimique, les conditions de chauffage ne sont pas similaires. Les légumes ont une acidité plus faible (pH>4,5) que les fruits et peuvent contenir plus de micro-organismes du sol thermo-résistants que les fruits. En outre, beaucoup de légumes exigent plus de cuisson que les fruits pour l'amélioration de leur flaveur et de leur texture. Pour ces raisons, les légumes mis en boîtes exigent généralement un traitement thermique plus intense que celui appliqué aux fruits (stérilisation). En effet, l'acidité réduit le temps et la température nécessaires à la conservation des fruits par le chauffage (pH<4,5) (pasteurisation). Pour assurer la stabilité des conserves de fruits, la température à coeur du récipient contenant ces produits doit être portée à environ : 82 -85°C pour les purées ; 80 -85°C pour les jus troubles et de pH 3,5 à 4,2 ; 75 -80°C pour les jus limpides et de pH<3,5 ; 85°C pour les fruits au naturel et au sirop.Conservation par le sel, le vinaigre ou le sucre : la conservation des fruits ou des légumes par le sel et le vinaigre s'effectue suivant deux principes différents, selon que l'on autorise une fermentation ou non : •On peut tout d'abord traiter les légumes avec du sel en forte concentration (15% minimum) sans ajouter de vinaigre. A cette teneur, les germes putréfiants ainsi que les germes pathogènes sont inhibés et il n'y a pas de fermentation dans le produit (sel = agent de conservation). •On peut procéder également d'une deuxième manière en traitant les légumes par des solutions à une concentration de l'ordre de 8 à 10% de sel, ce qui permet le développement sélectif d'une certaine catégorie de micro-organismes (les bactéries lactiques) et autorise une fermentation. En effet ces bactéries vont transformer les sucres fermentescibles du produit pour la plupart. Cet acide, ainsi que l'acide acétique provenant du vinaigre que l'on ajoute également, inhibe le développement d'autres micro-organismes nuisibles, tels que les bactéries productrices de spores, les bactéries protéolytiques et les organismes pectolytiques. (Sel + vinaigre = agent de conservation).Quant à la conservation par le sucre, elle a pour but de confire le fruit, c'est-à-dire de porter la teneur en sucre de leur suc cellulai-Technologie des produits re à une valeur telle que le produit obtenu ne peut plus s'altérer. La conservation est alors assurée par :•L'acidité naturelle des fruits;•La concentration élevée en sucre inhibant tout développement microbien (et notamment de moisissures) par abaissement de a w .Exemples de fruits conservés par le sucre : Sirops de fruits : ils sont obtenus après cuisson d'un jus de fruit (agrumes, ananas…) ou d'un extrait de plante (bissap, tamarin, gingembre…), filtré, éventuellement additionné d'un acide et mélangé à du sucre à raison de 150 à 200 g de sucre pour 100 g de liquide.Confitures, gelées et marmelades : Une confiture est une préparation de fruits entiers ou en morceaux, cuits dans un sirop de sucre. Une gelée est une préparation obtenue uniquement avec le jus ou extraits aqueux des fruits, sans trace de pulpe. Une marmelade est une préparation de fruits réduits en pulpe, purée, jus, extrait aqueux, écorces, par la cuisson avec le sucre.Pâte de fruits : friandise molle très sucrée faite de fruits.Fruits confits : confiserie faite de fruits trempés dans des solutions de sucre puis glacés ou givrés.Conservation par séchage : le séchage ou déshydratation consiste, par une action combinée libre de chaleur et de ventilation, en l'élimination poussée de l'eau contenue dans le fruit ou le légume, jusqu'à atteindre une teneur en eau compatible avec une conservation à long terme. Le séchage confère aussi au produit une facilité de réduction en poudre et une facilité de stockage supérieures.La teneur en eau résiduelle des fruits séchés ne doit en général pas dépasser 23 -24%. Lorsque les fruits déshydratés sont destinés à être réduits en farine, leur teneur en eau finale est plus faible (de l'ordre de 8 à 10%). La teneur en eau des légumes séchés est de l'ordre de 5 à 15%.Traditionnellement, le séchage est réalisé par exposition directe des produits au soleil. Il s'agit d'un séchage par rayonnement et convection, très économique, mais présentant cependant des inconvénients considérables quant à la qualité nutritionnelle et hygiénique des produits séchés (dégradation des vitamines, dépigmentation des légumes, brunissement, contamination par la poussière ambiante, contamination dues aux insectes, aux oiseaux et aux rongeurs).Différents types de séchoirs améliorés ont été conçus. On peut citer : les séchoirs à crib abrité, les séchoirs à claies sur rails, les séchoirs armoire à ventilation éolienne, les séchoirs à capteur solaire, les séchoirs tunnel etc.Conservation par le froid : la conservation des fruits et légumes par le froid se fait surtout par congélation ou par surgélation. La conservation par le froid est l'une des méthodes utilisées pourLa sucrerie maintenir les qualités nutritionnelles des fruits et légumes. Elle permet de préserver la flaveur naturelle, la couleur et les constituants volatiles des fruits et légumes, mieux que la stérilisation et la déshydratation. C'est la meilleure méthode de conservation de jus concentré d'agrumes et d'ananas, ainsi que de beaucoup d'autres produits. Mais dans les pays en développement, la conservation par le froid est très peu utilisée parce que trop coûteuse.Conservation par irradiation : le traitement des fruits et légumes par irradiation est un procédé récent. Si les radiations permettent de détruire tout ou une partie des micro-organismes présents dans l'aliment et d'inhiber ou retarder des processus physiologiques, les modifications chimiques qui peuvent être produits au sein des denrées alimentaires sont encore insuffisamment connues. L'irradiation pourrait être utilisée pour prolonger la durée d'entreposage à la température ordinaire de certains fruits tropicaux.Elle est utilisée aussi pour inhiber de façon durable, la germination des pommes de terre, des oignons et des carottes.Conservation par atmosphère contrôlée : la conservation des fruits et légumes fait aussi appel à la modification de l'atmosphère des entrepôts en agissant sur la teneur en oxygène, en anhydride carbonique et en azote. Par exemple, des atmosphères de 10 à 15% d'oxygène et de 0 à 2% de CO 2 ont permis de prolonger jusqu'à 8 mois la durée de conservation des agrumes.En effet, une baisse de la teneur en oxygène ou un excès de CO 2 de l'atmosphère ambiante ralentit l'intensité respiratoire et la plupart des réactions de maturation, mais il n'est pas indiqué que la teneur en oxygène descende en dessous de 2 à 4% : le produit acquiert une saveur alcoolique due aux conditions d'anaérobiose ainsi créées. De même, l'emploi d'anhydride carbonique à des doses dépassant 5 à 10% et pendant des durées prolongées à basse température, peut provoquer ou aggraver certaines altérations Exemple : la banane acquiert une saveur anormale.En pratique, on joue à la fois sur la teneur en CO 2 et la teneur en O 2 , en fonction de la variété, de la date de récolte, du pré-traitement de maturation etc.Les atmosphères contrôlées sont intéressantes pour la conservation de beaucoup de fruits, mais en ce qui concerne les fruits tropicaux, les études n'ont pas été approfondies et les applications industrielles sont très rares et coûteuses.De préférence l'usine est située au centre de la région des plantations afin de réduire le temps de transport des cannes à la sucrerie.Le conducteur de cannes comprend une partie horizontale et une partie inclinée, montant vers les moulins (Figure 6.6.1). Aussitôt Technologie des produits après le changement de pente, il passe sous un coupe-canne : c'est un arbre tournant à 500 -750 t/minute et portant des couteaux qui frappent la masse des cannes dans le sens dans lequel elles avancent. Il coupe les cannes en morceaux et transforme l'entremêlement de tiges en une couche uniforme. Il est généralement suivi par un second coupe-canne, plus puissant ou plus rapide, et portant plus de couteaux, qui divise encore la masse et, réglé plus près du fond, achève de couper les tiges laissées intactes au fond par le premier coupe-canne. La couche dense et uniforme finalement obtenue est prise beaucoup plus facilement par les moulins que la masse de tiges entremêlées, avec ses intervalles et ses vides.La masse ainsi préparée arrive aux moulins. Un moulin est un ensemble de trois cylindres, disposés comme les feuilles d'un trèfle, un supérieur et deux inférieurs. La masse de cannes est écrasée au passage et le jus coule sous le moulin. La canne écrasée, ou bagasse de premier moulin, est reprise par un conducteur intermédiaire et conduite au moulin suivant. Les batteries de moulins comprennent en général 4, 5 ou 6 moulins, mais, dès le second moulin, il n'y a plus que très peu de jus à escompter d'une nouvelle pression. On a donc recours à l'imbibition, qui consiste à arroser la couche de bagasse avec de l'eau ; elle est absorbée par la bagasse, dilue le jus qu'elle contient, et est extraite ainsi enrichie au moulin suivant. Les cylindres sont creusés de rainures circulaires, qui permettent une meilleure prise de la canne ou de la bagasse. L'extraction, ou efficacité des moulins, est de l'ordre de 95 % du saccharose de la canne, et varie suivant la lignine de celle-ci, le nombre de moulins, la proportion d'eau ajoutée en imbibition (20 à 35 % du poids de canne), l'état du matériel et la compétence du personnel.Le jus obtenu représente environ 100 % du poids de canne, suivant le taux d'imbibition. On le pèse (Figure 6.6.1) sur une balance automatique, afin de pouvoir contrôler la richesse des cannes et le travail de l'usine. On le chaule au lait-de-chaux, en portant son pH aux environs de 7,8. On le pompe ensuite à travers les réchauffeurs jusqu'au clarificateur. Les réchauffeurs sont des échangeurs de chaleur tubulaires. Etant à une température légèrement supérieure à celle de l'ébullition, le jus traverse un séparateur de vapeur dans lequel il libère brusquement son excédent de chaleur sous forme de vapeur, et entre à 100 °C dans le clarificateur. Celui-ci est un grand récipient divisé en plusieurs étages ou compartiments, que le jus traverse, et de surface suffisante pour que la vitesse de progression du jus ne gêne pas la décantation du précipité formé au chaulage. Le jus clair est soutiré à la partie supérieure des compartiments tandis que les boues s'accumulent au fond, d'où elles sont extraites par gravité ou par pompage. Le volume qui s'ensuit pour le clarificateur correspond à une durée de séjour du jus allant d'une heure et demi à trois heures suivant la difficulté de la décantation. Le séjour le plus court est évidemment le plus souhaitable, en raison de l'inversion indésirable du saccharose en glucose et en fructose. Le jus clair va à l'évaporation (Figure 6.6.1). Les boues sont envoyées au filtre. Elles sont séchées et constituent une excellente fumure.L'évaporation se fait à multiple effet dans des \"caisses \" alignées en batteries. Ce sont des échangeurs tubulaires (Figure 6.6.2) avec un grand espace libre au-dessus du faisceau tubulaire (Figure 6.6.3). Le jus à concentrer bout dans les tubes de la première caisse qui sont entourés à l'extérieur par de la vapeur. La vapeur du jus obtenu est envoyée au faisceau de la seconde caisse, pendant que le jus concentré passe à son tour de la première à la deuxième caisse, et ainsi de suite au travers de 4 ou 5 caisses. Un régulateur automatique maintient le sirop sortant de la dernière caisse au Brix voulu (c'est-à-dire au degré de concentration voulu). On arrête l'évaporation un peu avant le point auquel les cristaux se forment, soit à un Brix de 60 à 70. Technologie des produits turation voulue, on l'ensemence avec un bol de sucre très finement pulvérisé. On grossit ce grain soigneusement en évitant de laisser se former une seconde génération, qui donnerait du faux grain ou des cristaux plus petits ; on rentre dans l'appareil de l'égout B (Figure 6.6.1) et on termine cette masse cuite C comme les précédentes, à cela près qu'elle est bien plus délicate et demande beaucoup plus de temps. Après malaxage, elle fournit comme liqueurmère la mélasse, qui est censée être épuisée, et comme sucre un sucre pâteux, à petits grains, qui, réempâté avec de l'eau, du jus ou du sirop, donnera un magma servant de pied-de-cuisson aux cuissons A et B (système du simple magma) ou aux seules cuissons B (système du double magma, dans lequel le sucre B sert à son tour de pied aux cuissons A).Les malaxeurs ordinaires, dits \"pétrins \", sont avantageusement remplacés par des malaxeurs-refroidisseurs. Ce sont des cuves analogues, mais dans lesquelles tournent des serpentins à l'intérieur desquels circule de l'eau tiède : ces malaxeurs à circulation d'eau font gagner beaucoup de temps et de place. Dans les malaxeurs, les cristaux continuent à se nourrir aux dépens de la liqueur-mère, dont la sursaturation est plus ou moins maintenue du fait de la baisse de température.Le turbinage s'effectue dans des essoreuses centrifuges, de préférence automatiques. Les centrifugeuses continues tendent à remplacer ces appareils très complexes : elles sont beaucoup plus simples et économiques, mais ne fournissent pas un épuisement aussi complet, et il convient de mettre en balance l'économie qu'elles apportent avec la perte supplémentaire de sucre qu'elles laissent dans la mélasse.Le sucre est passé au travers d'un sécheur-refroidisseur à cylindre rotatoire.Après le séchage, on enlève les cristaux de mauvaises dimensions par tamisage. Les cristaux de la dimension désirée sont emballés en sacs de 50 ou de 100 kg.Les boissons alcoolisées 6.7 Les boissons alcoolisées Environ 150 à 400 g de cônes de « houblon» (fleurs femelles de Hupulus lumulus , contenant des résines amères et anti-microbiennes) par hectolitre sont ajoutés au moût et le mélange est bouilli pendant quelques heures pour extraire les résines de houblon dans le moût. Pendant cette ébullition le moût est stérilisé ; les protéines précipitent et le moût est concentré par évaporation contrôlée. Les protéines coagulées sont éliminées par une deuxième filtration ou par centrifugation et le jus est refroidi à 6-8ºC. Ce jus est appelé «moût doux».Le «moût doux » est ensemencé en utilisant 10 6 -10 7 cellules vivantes de Saccharomyces cerevisiae / ml de moût. La fermentation se fait en deux temps : •Fermentation principale : pour la bière « lager » à une température de 6-8ºC pendant 7 jours. Les levures sédimentent par floculation après le maximum de fermentation. En ce qui concerne la bière anglaise « Ale » la fermentation se fait à 15-16ºC pendant 2-3 jours ; les levures flottent à la surface de la bière après la fermentation. Pendant la fermentation principale, la plupart des saccharides fermentescibles sont transformés ; le CO 2 produit est récupéré pour diverses utilisations (embouteillage de la bière, production des boissons gazeuses, etc.). La bière issue de la fermentation principale est appelée « bière jeune ».La viande et le poisson L'utilisation du froid : la réfrigération est très importante dès l'abattoir. La carcasse est refroidie en quelques heures de 38ºC à 5ºC. Aussi, le transport au grossiste et au détaillant sera à l'état refroidi, ainsi que le stockage. La durée de stockage maximale lorsque la viande est conservée entre 0 et 5ºC est de quelques jours. La flore psychrophile (Pseudomonas spp.) est capable de se multiplier à ces températures et de détériorer la viande par voie enzymatique. Lorsque la viande est congelée à -20ºC, la durée de stockage est de quelques semaines. La surgélation (congélation rapide par Technologie des produits l'application d'azote liquide) pose quelques problèmes de détérioration incluant le séchage de la superficie de la carcasse et la croissance lente de moisissures noires (décoloration). Le salage : NaCl + NaNO 3 (salpêtre) avec l'action conservatrice de la nitrite (formation de nitrosomyoglobine et nitrosohémochrome)La fermentation lactique : saucisses fermentées (exemple : le salami). Le principe du procédé est résumé sur la figure 6.8.1.La composition chimique globale du poisson est présentée au tableau 6.8.2. Le poisson frais se détériore très rapidement, à cause des enzymes digestives et des enzymes des muscles (cathepsines) du poisson, des microbes et de leurs enzymes.Les traitements à bord du poisson frais sont les suivants : ouverture ventrale, éviscération, enlèvement du sang, lavage et stockage (sur glace, ou par congélation).Les poissons sont conservés en utilisant des techniques diverses : Mise en boîte (sardines, thon, hareng, etc. à l'huile, sauce de tomates, saumure)  Salage sec avec drainage : 100 kg poisson + 50 kg sel en couches. Le poisson est séché graduellement parce qu'on permet à la saumure de s'échapper. Ce traitement constitue une combinaison du salage et du séchage.Salage avec du sel sec, sans drainage : Une saumure est formée couvrant les poissons. Après une incubation de longue durée la sauce de poissons est formée (par exemple le Nuoc-Mam du Vietnam).Traitement à la saumure (10-20% de sel) pour quelques jours. En combinaison avec la pasteurisation pour la fabrication des semi-conserves.Froid : Congélation à bord (poissons de mer). Il est très important d'avoir à sa disposition l'infrastructure d'une « chaîne froide ».Les produits laitiers 6.9 Les produits laitiers 6.9.1 Introduction Le lait cru est la base de tous les produits laitiers montrés au tableau 6.9.1. Ces produits sont très différents du point de vue du processus de fabrication, de leur structure, leur composition et leurs caractéristiques. Une grande variété de traitements sont appliquées au lait au cours de l'élaboration des produits laitiers. Le lait pasteurisé par exemple est un produit dans lequel le lait cru est peu modifié, alors que le fromage est du lait avec beaucoup plus de modifications.Dans la composition, il y a une variabilité due au type d'animal (vache, brebis, chèvre, chameau), à l'alimentation des animaux et à la saison. Le lactose est le seul glucide important dans le lait ; la caséine forme 80 % de la protéine. 0,1 0,5 0-0,2 0,1-0,2 0,8-1,4 vit. A (u.i.)10-50 0 700-900 0-30 277-385 vit. D (µg) 0-0,1 0 0,8-8 0,01-0,04 0,2-0,4 vit. E (µg) 0,1 0 1,5-10 0,03-0,1 0,6 vit. B12 (µg) 0,2-0,5 3 0 0-0,4 0,3-2,6Tableau 6.9.1 Composition de quelques produits laitiersLe lait cru renferme de nombreux germes dont le développement rapide est assuré par sa température à la sortie de la mamelle. Si le lait n'est pas refroidi immédiatement en dessous de 4 °C, sa population microbienne peut atteindre plusieurs millions de germes par millilitre au moment de la livraison. Le tableau 6.9.2 illustre l'influence importante de la température de stockage et le niveau initial de la contamination, sur la croissance microbienne. Un chauffage à 72ºC pendant 15 -20 secondes appliqué de façon continue dans un échangeur de chaleur détruit tous les germes pathogènes. Si le lait concerné est propre et ne contient pas beaucoup de germes saprophytes banals, la flore résiduelle constituée par les micro-organismes thermorésistants sera faible et le lait pasteurisé est de bonne qualité. En cas d'une forte contamination, une température de 85 -90ºC pendant 15 -20 secondes peut être nécessaire pour réduire suffisamment le nombre de bactéries résiduelles, mais dans ce cas il y a aussi une détérioration du goût du lait. Avant de pasteuriser le lait, on peut l'homogénéiser, afin d'éviter la séparation de la matière grasse pendant le stockage.Subordonné aux législations nationales et les sortes du lait, le lait pasteurisé doit avoir moins de 3 x 10 4 germes banals / ml en principe; les coliformes fécaux doivent être absents / 1 ml. Souvent, le lait entier doit avoir 3,6 % de matières grasses, le lait demi-écrémé, 1,5-1,8 %. La durée maximale de stockage du lait pasteurisé est d'une (1) semaine environ au réfrigérateur.Le procédé général :Lait → réglage de la matière grasse → homogénéisation (Cf. Figure 3.6.11) → pasteurisation (Cf. Figures 4.2.13 et 4.2.16)→ emballage aseptique (Cf. Figure 4.2.7).La stérilisation consiste en un chauffage énergique destiné à détruire tous les micro-organismes du lait en vue d'assurer une longue conservation. Le résultat peut être obtenu par deux méthodes : le procédé conventionnel et le procédé par ultra haute température (UHT).Quelle que soit la méthode, il faut que le lait soit homogénéisé avant la stérilisation, pour éviter la séparation de la matière grasse au cours de la conservation.En utilisant le procédé conventionnel, le lait est chauffé dans des conditions d'autoclavage, soit 15-20 minutes à 115-120 °C, ou 8-10 minutes à 125-130 °C. Le lait est préalablement conditionné en récipients hermétiques comme les bouteilles en verre ou en matière plastique.Le procédé UHT consiste en un chauffage instantané du lait, en flux continu, à 140-150 °C pendant 2-3 secondes, suivi d'un conditionnement aseptique dans des récipients stériles, par exemple, emballage en carton ou en matière plastique de formes diverses.Dans les pays tempérés, la conservation du lait stérilisé est assurée pendant plusieurs mois à la température ambiante, à condition que les récipients ne soient pas ouverts. Dans les pays chauds, il est souhaitable de le conserver au frais. On observe des modifications d'ordre biochimique au cours de la conservation, surtout si la température est supérieure à 15 °C.Autrefois, le lait stérilisé était un lait profondément modifié dans sa composition, sa structure et sa valeur nutritionnelle par le traitement thermique. Aujourd'hui les progrès réalisés par les techniques et le matériel de stérilisation permettent de limiter considérablement les modifications enregistrées. Le lait stérilisé, en particulier par le procédé UHT, conserve sa teinte blanche initiale et sa valeur nutritionnelle est respectée (Cf. 4.2.3).Le lait concentré se présente sous deux formes : sucré et non sucré comme indiqué au tableau 6.9.3. Le lait est concentré sous vide par évaporation partielle d'eau. Dans le cas du lait concentré non sucré, 45 % de l'eau est évaporée et la conservation est assurée par la stérilisation à l'autoclave. Le produit reste liquide. Dans le cas du lait concentré sucré, 75 % de l'eau est évaporée et la conservation est assurée par l'addition de 40-42 % de sucre. Le produit devient pâteux. Pour éviter tout accident de fabrication, il faut que le lait cru soit d'excellente qualité et d'une grande fraîcheur.La préparation du lait comporte les étapes suivantes: triage (qualité), réglage du taux de matière grasse, pasteurisation (105-120ºC, 10-15 sec) pour tuer les germes pathogènes, les germes banals et pour inactiver les enzymes, et enfin homogénéisation de la matière grasse.Les progrès réalisés dans la technologie industrielle de l'évaporation permettent maintenant de limiter notablement l'action thermique sur le lait. La valeur nutritionnelle du lait concentré est très proche de celle du lait frais, notamment dans le cas du lait concentré sucré, qui ne subit pas une stérilisation.C'est du lait pratiquement sans eau (moins de 4 %; a w ≈ 0,05), qui ne peut donc plus être un siège de développement microbien.Pour la fabrication, le lait est soumis à la même préparation que les laits concentrés. Le lait est ensuite soumis à une concentration préliminaire, puis à une dessiccation par pulvérisation sous la forme d'un fin brouillard dans une grande chambre parcourue par un courant d'air chauffée à 150-160 °C. L'évaporation de l'eau de concentration est immédiate; la température du produit est d'environ 60 °C. Les gouttelettes de lait tombent à la base de la chambre sous forme de fines particules (Cf. Figure 4.4.12). La poudre de lait entier est conditionnée à l'abri de l'air sous azote (N 2 ), pour éviter l'oxydation de la matière grasse. La poudre de lait maigre contient très peu de matières grasses.Le lait fermenté est fabriqué suivant un principe très ancien : la fermentation du lactose avec formation d'acide lactique, d'alcool ou de ces deux produits. En Europe, le yaourt (ou yoghourt) est le lait fermenté le plus consommé ; dans les pays de l'Est, c'est le kéfir, caractérisé par une fermentation alcoolique ( ~ 1 %), qui représente 70 % de la consommation totale du lait fermenté.Lait concentré -non sucré -addition d'un sirop de saccharose -addition de sels stabilisants stérile (40-42% du produit fini) (0,2% Na-phosphate) pour éviter la coagulation favorisée par les ions calcium pendant la stérilisation -évaporation sous vide partiel à -évaporation sous vide partiel (53-55ºC) basse température (53-55ºC) (45 % de l'eau est évaporé) (75% de l'eau est évaporé) -conditionnement en boîtes -conditionnement en boîtes métalliques métalliques ou en verre -stérilisation en autoclave 115-120ºC, 20 minutes.Tableau 6.9.3 Différences entre le lait concentré sucré et le lait non sucré 6.9A part les produits principaux de la fermentation (acide lactique / alcool), d'autres produits sont formés : ce sont les substances aromatiques qui donnent au produit final ses caractéristiques organoleptiques spécifiques.Le procédé général de production de yaourt est décrit comme suit: 1. Lait entier, demi-écrémé ou écrémé 2. Augmentation de la matière sèche soit par évaporation partielle, soit par addition de lait en poudre écrémé, ou caséine en poudre, ou concentration par ultrafiltration.3. Pasteurisation et refroidissement à 45-50ºC 4. Ensemencement 2-3% (Lactobacillus bulgaricus + Streptococcus thermophilus) 5. mise en pots 5. mise en vaisseau incubation 45-50ºC 2-3 h incubation 30ºC 16-20 h jusqu'à la formation du coagulum (gel) refroidissement <5ºC brassage en cuve, suivi par la fluidisation arrête l'acidification conditionnement en cartons ou plastique Les caractères gustatifs du yaourt peuvent être modulés en agissant sur les conditions de la fermentation. On peut obtenir ainsi des produits plus acides ou plus doux. Le yaourt doit être conservé au réfrigérateur.Il est généralement admis que le yaourt est à l'origine d'une stimulation des sécrétions digestives et qu'il assure une bonne digestibilité et un coefficient de digestibilité élevé pour de nombreuses substances, notamment les protéines et les minéraux. La présence de micro-organismes vivants, susceptibles d'intervenir sur l'équilibre de la flore intestinale, ou la résistance aux infections n'est sans doute pas sans signification. Le yaourt contient encore environ 3% de lactose ; cependant c'est un produit laitier convenable aux personnes qui ont une intolérance au lactose due à la présence de l'enzyme β-galactosidase.La dénomination fromage s'applique au produit, fermenté ou non, obtenu à partir du lait ou d'autres matières d'origine laitière coagulées avant égouttage ou après élimination partielle de la phase aqueuse. L'intérêt nutritionnel des fromages réside dans leur teneur en calcium, en protéines, et pour certains d'entre eux, en vitamines du groupe B. Fabriquer du fromage est une façon de conserver les protéines et les matières grasses du lait. Une très grande variété existe, par exemple : •fromage frais (fromage de campagne) •fromage à pâte molle avec moisissures externes (brie, camembert) •fromage à pâte molle à croûte lavée (munster, pont-l'évêque) •fromage à pâte pressée non cuite (Cantal, Gouda, Port-Salut etc.) •fromage à pâte pressée cuite (Comté, Emmenthal, Gruyère)En général, la fabrication d'un fromage comprend trois étapes : en premier, c'est la formation d'un gel de caséine : elle se fait par caillage ou coagulation du lait par addition de présure. La coagulation est une opération qui vise à la séparation des constituants du lait qu'on souhaite soumettre à l'action des micro-organismes. La deuxième étape est la déshydratation partielle du gel : elle se fait par égouttage qui aboutit à un caillé. La dernière étape est la maturation du caillé par des enzymes dont les plus actives sont celles produites par les micro-organismes. C'est l'affinage du caillé qui conduit au fromage. Les étapes de fabrication d'un fromage à pâte dure (le Gouda) sont résumés par la figure 6.9.1. Quelques outils spécifiques sont illustrés par les Figures 6.9.2, 6.9.3, et 6.9.4. Aliments (Food): substances prises par la bouche qui maintiennent la vie et la croissance, donnent l'énergie, construisent et remplacent les tissus.Appertisation (Appertization) : la destruction de tous les micro-organismes importants dans les aliments ; quelques micro-organismes restent vivants, mais ne se multiplient plus (\"commercial sterility\"), nommé ainsi en référence à Nicolas Appert.Autoclave (Autoclave) : un fourneau dans lequel on obtient des températures élevées par l'utilisation de pressions de vapeur élevées. Les autoclaves ont deux buts : diminuer la période d'ébullition et de stérilisation. Les micro-organismes sont tués plus rapidement à ces températures élevées. Les autoclaves sont utilisées pour stériliser les aliments emballés , par exemple en boîte.Blanchiment (Blanching) : un traitement à la chaleur. On blanchit les fruits et les légumes avant la mise en conserve, séchage ou congélation, et ce pour diverses raisons : ramollissement de la texture, dégonflement, élimination de l'air, destruction des enzymes, élimination des odeurs non désirées. Le blanchiment se réalise par trempage dans l'eau chaude (90-100°C) pendant 0,5 à 5 minutes, ou par traitement à la vapeur.Botulisme (Botulism) : Type rare mais assez mortel d'intoxication des aliments causée par l'endotoxine botuline, produite par Clostridium botulinum. La toxine interfère au niveau du système nerveux central. Le contrôle de la température du corps, de la vue et de la respiration sont déréglés. Le micro-organisme est anaérobie et les spores peuvent supporter l'ébullition à 100°C pendant 3 heures. Elles nécessitent une température de 120°C et un pH inférieur à 4,5 pour être détruites. Dès lors, les aliments bouillis, surtout la viande et les légumes non acides en conserve, peuvent encore contenir ces spores. La toxine elle-même est détruite à 65°C.Caramélisation (Caramelization) : une couleur brune qui se forme quand on traite les saccharides à chaud ou en présence de l'acide. Alors, le \"caramel\" est produit par brûlage du sucre et est utilisé comme colorant. Des jus de fruits sucrés brunissent par caramélisation quand ils sont stockés à des températures élevées. Il ne faut cependant pas confondre la caramélisation avec les réactions de Maillard.Chauffage par micro-ondes (Micro-wave heating) : chauffage par utilisation de chaleur résultant de la pénétration des ondes de haute fréquence (fréquence de radio ; 5 millions de cycles/seconde). Quand on place un aliment entre les électrodes, la chaleur est excitée à l'intérieur des aliments, et ce, à cause des forces électrostatiques et des mouvements moléculaires. Dans ce procédé, on chauffe de l'intérieur de l'aliment vers l'extérieur d'une manière rapide, contrairement au chauffage normal.Coagulation (Coagulation) : un procédé dans lequel les protides, les cristaux gras, les globules d'émulsion, etc. deviennent insolubles, et ce à cause de la chaleur, des acides et des bases fortes, des métaux et autres produits chimiques.Coloration de Gram (Gram stain) : les bactéries peuvent être divisées en deux groupes selon leur pouvoir de retenir (Gram-positive) ou non (Gram-négative) le colorant cristal-violet après essai de décoloration avec l'alcool. Technique nommée ainsi d'après Gram (botaniste Danois).Lexique Terminologique tion du chocolat. Elles sont obtenues industriellement à partir du soja, de l'arachide, du maïs.Micro-organismes (Microorganisms) : organisme vivant seulement observable à l'aide d'un microscope.Mise en conserve stérile (Aseptic canning) : les aliments sont stérilisés en avance à des températures très élevées (150-180°C) pendant quelques secondes. Les aliments sont ensuite mis en boîte stérile de façon stérile. Il y a moins de perte d'arôme, de couleur et de valeur nutritive, comparé aux méthodes conventionnelles de mises en conserve.Pasteurisateur (Pasteurizer) : appareil destiné à pasteuriser des liquides comme le lait, les jus de fruits, etc. Au fond, ce sont des échangeurs de chaleur. On passe le produit de façon continue entre des plaques chauffées ou par des tuyaux, où on le chauffe à la température désirée pendant une période désirée. Après cela, a lieu une réfrigération rapide.Pasteurisation (Pasteurization) : les formes végétatives de nombreuses bactéries peuvent être tuées par traitement à la chaleur moyenne (pasteurisation), tandis que pour la destruction totale de tous les micro-organismes + spores (stérilisation) on a besoin de températures plus élevées pendant de plus longues périodes ; souvent le produit est décomposé ou endommagé par ce traitement. La pasteurisation prolongera la durée de conservation pendant une période limitée.Pathogènes (Pathogens) : micro-organismes qui causent des maladies, souvent des inflammations.Perméat (Permeate) : le liquide passant à travers une membrane de filtration.Phénoloxydases (Phenol oxydases) : enzymes causant le brunissement enzymatique par l'oxydation des substances phénoliques jusqu'aux quinones, qui ont une couleur brune (par exemple dans les fruits et champignons coupés).Produits de conservation (Preservatives) : toute substance qui est capable de freiner ou arrêter le processus de détérioration par fermentation, acidification, putréfaction, etc. Parce qu'il y a des produits de conservation qui peuvent être toxiques, l'utilisation de certains produits dans les aliments est limitée à certains taux. Quelques substances permises à un taux indéfini : le sel, le salpêtre, le sucre, l'acide lactique, l'acide acétique, la glycérine, l'alcool, des condiments. Quelques produits de conservation permis à des taux limités: l'acide sorbique, l'acide benzoïque, et le dioxyde de soufre.Rancissement lipolytique (Lypolitic rancidity) : quelques micro-organismes produisent des lipases, des enzymes qui hydrolysent les lipides. Dans les aliments, ils hydrolysent les lipides jusqu'au glycérine. Les lipases sont détruites par la chaleur.Réactions de Maillard (Maillard reaction) : le brunissement non-enzymatique. C'est une réaction de condensation entre les acides aminés ou protides et les saccharides réducteurs. Dans les protides ce sont surtout les groupes amines libres de la lysine qui réagissent avec les saccharides. Cela cause une perte de lysine disponible, parce que le complexe \"lysine-saccharide\" n'est pas digestible.Rétentat (Retentate) : le sédiment, le concentrat, ou le liquide retenu par une membrane de filtration.Saccharides (Carbohydrates) : substances qui contiennent du carbone, de l'hydrogène et de l'oxygène, par exemple les sucres, l'amidon, les dextrines, le glycogène, la cellulose. On peut les hydrolyser (chimiquement ou à l'aide des enzymes) jusqu'aux sucres simples (monosaccharides) comme le glucose, le fructose, le galactose.Légumes : immergés dans une saumure de 5-10%, ils subissent une fermentation lactique. Les micro-organismes non désirés sont supprimés par le sel. A 25°C, le procédé dure quelques semaines, avec une concentration finale en acide lactique de 1% environ.  ' 3, 19, 40, 110, 122, 133, 189, 191, 257 eau, vapeur   6,37,86,124,173,174,188 réactions de 260 maïs 181,182,183,193,197,199  ","tokenCount":"42706"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3cd59fdf3696da077e1e353503f6eb15","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9b744a0-dd83-4984-9223-3cb7fa2585a8/retrieve","id":"615614627"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e584f5f1-edca-4072-b65f-ce6851be8c4b","pagecount":"3","content":"America and the Caribbean together hold the planet's largest reserve of arable soils, 30% of renewable water, 46% of tropical forests and 30% of biodiversity. Climate change and natural disasters, exacerbated by COVID-19, have eroded economic and food security in the region, destabilizing communities and triggering migration. Further breakdown of the region's most vulnerable agrifood systems will push millions globally into food insecurity, unleash unprecedented migration, especially of young people, and jeopardize our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.Agricultural expansion and intensification, and urbanization, have degraded over 20% of forests and farmlands in the region, affecting productivity, carbon storage and biodiversity. Regional food production depends on smallholders, whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change. Farmers lack access to training, improved technologies and remunerative markets. High uncertainty due to climate variability discourages new investment and agricultural value chains fail to incentivize resource efficiency, agricultural diversification and inclusivity. Socioeconomic disparities are more pronounced for women and indigenous peoples, whose participation in agrifood system innovations is hindered by deep-seated inequalities.supported by enhanced capacity of national agricultural research extension systems (NARES). 2. Establishing inclusive, digitally enabled agro-advisories for risk management, consolidating a digital-enabled ecosystem around climate risk management and sustainable intensification across value chains in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. 3. Developing an agrifood system that meets both mitigation and sustainable development objectives, integrating sustainable development priorities, social inclusion and genderresponsive frameworks into efforts to mitigate climate, building an investment-friendly climate around low-emission agrifood system development. 4. Creating InnovaHub (innovation hub) networks for agrifood innovation and scaling to accelerate the development, mainstreaming and early commercialization of innovative tools, technologies and approaches to the adoption of climate-responsive agrifood system pathways. 5. Enabling science-informed policies, investments and institutions, supporting the adoption of climate-resilient and competitive practices for reducing food insecurity and out-migration, particularly in the context of the current global crisis.This Initiative will work in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.Proposed three-year outcomes include:1. Nutrition-sensitive innovations co-designed with local actors enable agrifood systems in four regional countries to effectively align the technical aspects of transition processes with the socio-ecological needs of at least 200,000 farmers. 2. A digital ecosystem spanning three Latin American and Caribbean countries empowers producer associations, agritech companies, government agencies, NGOs and public extension services to offer digitally enabled agro-advisory services to at least 200,000 farmers. 3. Low-emission strategies with development goals across agroecosystems, landscapes and value chains, reaching at least 300,000 hectares, are integrated by national and local governments in three Latin American and Caribbean countries. 4. InnovaHub learning, knowledge management and evidence in four Latin American and Caribbean countries accelerate on-farm uptake and scaling of innovations, making them more gender-responsive, production-friendly and context-specific, reaching at least 200,000 farmers. 5. CGIAR science, evidence, and tools are used by public and private institutions in three Latin American and Caribbean countries to inform and shape more transformative, sustainable, mitigation-comprehensive and climate adaptation-friendly policies, incentives and initiatives. These are then mainstreamed and scaled throughout three countries.Projected impacts and benefits This Initiative has strong social capital and partnerships at regional and prioritized country levels. We engage partners from design phase on, so they a) benefit from, b) replicate at larger scale with additional investments within their own country/regional strategy and ongoing projects/programs, and c) multiply through new partnerships, the initiative innovations based on their context-specific needs. Demand, innovation and scaling partners include CGIAR, ministries of agriculture, institutions under the NARES agencies for international development, advanced research institutions/universities, regional organizations, international and local NGOs, the private sector, rural small and medium enterprises, extension and agro-advisory services, food processing businesses, farmers' and growers' organizations, etc.For more details on this Initiative, visit the Initiative website. 1 Projected Benefits are a way to illustrate reasonable orders of magnitude for impacts which could arise as a result of the impact pathways set out in the Initiative's Theories of Change. In line with the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, Initiatives contribute to these impact pathways, along with other partners and stakeholders. CGIAR does not deliver impact alone. These projections therefore estimate plausible levels of impact to which CGIAR, with partners, contribute. They do not estimate CGIAR's attributable share of the different impact pathways.","tokenCount":"695"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9bd2184bcd8f49c528394903fb3b2329","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/25a2acf1-0780-46c1-83cf-00f1a9fc2f18/retrieve","id":"-1544692400"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f9326b6a-ce82-43c7-9f48-cf8ab3696fca","pagecount":"53","content":"Disclaimer: This work was carried out by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) as part of the CGIAR Initiative on West and Central African Food Systems Transformation (TAFS-WCA) and has not been independently peer reviewed. Responsibility for editing, proofreading, and layout, opinions expressed, and any possible errors lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown, and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IWMI, CGIAR, our partner institutions, or donors.In the developing world, the drivers behind changes in social ecological landscapes (SEL) are intricate and have been steadily intensifying over the years. Regions blessed with abundant natural resources, encompassing fertile soils, lush forests, freshwater bodies, valuable minerals, and more, tend to experience rapid population growth and heightened poverty rates. This often results in a heightened demand for essential livelihood components, including access to alternative livelihoods, education, food, healthcare, water, forest resources, housing, roads, and spaces for agriculture and aquaculture. Furthermore, the intersection of multiple national and global stakeholders continues to exert substantial pressure on exploiting natural resources at the sub-national level. To address the pervasive issue of land degradation, particularly in developing nations like Burundi, the implementation of landscape surveying and mapping emerges as a crucial tool. These methods provide valuable insights into ecosystem services and their interactions, paving the way for sustainable landscape conservation.Employing the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) for Social-Ecological Landscape (SEL) assessment framework, a diverse array of methodologies was employed in the current study, with a focus on the sub-Nyamagana watershed on the Imbo plain in Burundi. This research aims to conduct a comprehensive situational analysis, shedding light on how drivers and pressures converge to define the state and impacts of SEL, while also emphasizing institutional and stakeholder responses. To delve deeper into the intricacies of the Nyamagana watershed, a complementary approach involving focus group discussions and individual questionnaires was undertaken. The survey covered a total of 166 households and six focus group discussions, each comprising twelve participants. The findings highlighted several factors and pressures, predominantly stemming from the intensive utilization of natural resources, as well as biotic and abiotic constraints such as drought, flooding, pests, diseases, and anthropogenic pressures like anarchic mining and rapid population growth. Of notable concern is the complexity of soil use and land cover, especially the widespread use of chemicals such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which pose significant threats to ecosystem components. The social-ecological dynamics are characterized by a combination of ecological factors, including environmental disturbances like heavy rains, prolonged dry seasons, fires, deforestation, and climate change. The social component of the system encompasses all human activities, spanning the economy, technology, politics, and culture, that result in intricate interactions between communities and ecosystems.Within the Nyamagana watershed, various institutions play a crucial role in landscape management, with identified stakeholders including research services (e.g., ISABU, IRRI, IITA, and Burundi University), extension services (e.g., BPEAE, NGOs, and projects), and policy entities (such as the local administration and mixed committees for water management).The study underscores the looming threats to biodiversity, livelihoods, and ecosystem processes, particularly in the provision of soil and irrigation water, due to soil erosion by landslide, unsustainable mining activities and the unsustainable utilization of natural resources. Addressing these challenges necessitates a comprehensive and collaborative approach involving both local and global stakeholders to foster sustainable development and conservation efforts.The productive landscape, also viewed as a social ecological system (SES), is a complex combination of natural and human-modified ecosystems shaped by ecological, historical, political, economic, and socio-cultural processes. These productive landscapes are rich in natural resources and offer opportunities for sustainable livelihoods; however, how these resources are utilized directly influences biodiversity, global climate dynamics, and the capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Despite these potential benefits, landscape pressures are on the rise, particularly in regions with high population growth rates, where demands for infrastructure, housing, industry, trade, agriculture and aquaculture are intensifying. The escalating pressures on landscapes stem not only from local demands but also from the persistent demand by multiple stakeholders at the local, national, and global levels to exploit natural resources. This has led to a widespread threat to landscapes, characterized by overexploitation and misuse of resources, exacerbated by the compounding impacts of climate change (Atampugre et al. 2022a). Consequently, biodiversity and ecosystem services are diminishing, and the sustainability of agricultural production systems and livelihoods is increasingly in jeopardy.Productive landscapes in Burundi, like in many developing countries, are often influenced by a combination of socio-economic, environmental, and institutional factors. In the context of Burundi, the pressures on landscape resources are intensifying due to various human factors, including the rising demand for high-quality and high quantity of food, competition for productive land for biofuel, urban expansion, and non-food uses. Additionally, unsustainable land use practices contribute to ongoing land degradation, manifested in diminished soil health and nutrient status. Anthropogenic climate change is further exacerbating these challenges, impacting agricultural yields and income stability, and thereby threatening the resilience of agro-ecologies and the stability of food systems in the country. Natural factors such as climate variability, extreme weather events, and wildfires also contribute to the complexity of managing landscapes for optimal yields and sustainable land use. Recognizing the significance of ecosystem services underscores a growing need for approaches that address the complex challenges in managing social-ecological landscapes.Burundi's agricultural sector is primarily characterized by small-scale farming, resulting in various agroecological constraints and socio-economic system instability (Tata 2015). Despite abundant resources for agriculture, such as ample rainfall, an extensive river system, freshwater lakes, fertile agricultural land, and productive marshlands, the region is facing many challenges. Over the years, soil erosion has significantly increased, leading to adverse environmental effects, particularly due to inappropriate land use on hills and mountainsides. This erosion has contributed to higher sediment levels in rivers, leading to landscape degradation in highlands, resulting in an overall decline in crop yields and loss of agro biodiversity. This situation raises concerns about food insecurity, shortages, and heightened vulnerability to climate change (FAO and GEF 2017).The significant expansion of farming territory has reduced forest coverage to only 6.6% of the country. This shift towards small-scale farming and land use changes has not only impacted the agro-ecological dynamics but has also contributed to socio-economic instability in Burundi (Tata 2015). Therefore, despite the abundant natural resources, the agricultural landscape is grappling with challenges that necessitate sustainable and strategic interventions to ensure food security and environmental sustainability.This research, commissioned by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Ghana, falls under the CGIAR initiative on Transforming Agri-Food Systems in West and Central Africa (TAFS-WCA) Work Package 3 (WP3), which focuses on inclusive landscape management and pathways for scaling land and water innovations for resilient agri-food systems. This initiative recognizes that equitable access to and responsible use of land and water resources are fundamental to creating a healthy, productive, and One-Health-sensitive environment that fosters resilient agrifood systems and livelihoods. This analysis is driven by the need to understand and identify synergies and trade-offs between landscape development and the intricate ecological resources and processes that exist within. The development aspect involves a more intensive engagement with space and land use, organization, and arrangement. The characteristics of land and space, along with their entire natural and built-up substratum, play a crucial role in determining the trajectory of future sustainable development. In this context, this research emerges as a critical undertaking, linking current development, potential development pathways, and the conservation of natural resources.Utilizing the DPSIR-SEL framework and the sub-Nyamagana watershed in the Imbo plain as a case study, this research aims to conduct a comprehensive situational analysis, illuminating how drivers and pressures converge to shape the state and impacts of the socio-ecological landscapes (SEL). The study site serves as an ideal case due to its abundance of natural ecological resources, its diverse and competing land uses, including agriculture, forestry, conservation, mining, and industry, and its current experience of significant environmental degradation. The selected landscape is the primary spatial unit of analysis for this research. Consequently, this landscape assessment will be of significant value for decision-making in future land use, space organization, nature protection, and sustainable use of natural resources.The main objective of this study is to assess the status and trends of natural resources and ecosystem services while considering the possible impacts on human well-being and the institutional responses.• Assess the drivers and pressures underpinning landscape change in the sub-Nyamagana watershed.• Examine the dynamics of the state of the social ecological landscape (SEL).• Explore the impacts of landscape transitions on human wellbeing, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.• Examine the existing institutional and policy responses to landscape drivers, pressures, dynamic states, and impacts.The study area was identified in the Imbo Plain and operating along the Rusizi River, as the project is shared among three countries (Burundi, the DRC, and Rwanda). Significant competing land uses and activities associated with soil degradation (i.e., agriculture, forestry, mining, settlement expansion, chainsaw operations, etc.) was another criterion for choosing this site. Other key factors that incited researchers to implement the project in the Nyamagana watershed include the diversity of staple crops (e.g., legumes, cereals, and vegetables) planted in the region, the quality and quantity of water provided by the managed Nyamagana River and its uses for irrigation, and the presence of existing initiatives in landscape management by different stakeholders in the Nyamagana River.The Nyamagana watershed, which is a part of the Rusizi watershed was identified as the study area, according to the criteria outlined in section 2.1.A map of the study area and its provinceThe sub-Nyamagana watershed includes urban areas, agricultural land, forests, and pastures consisting of spaced trees and shrubs, as well as grasslands. Upstream of the watershed, there is dominance of forests and meadows, while downstream there is dominance of agricultural land and urban areas (Figure 2). From the 1930s, the Rusizi plain was gradually drained, cleared, and populated, while natural areas were drastically reduced. Agricultural production has developed over the years, with \"peasants\" dominating the perimeters, growing mainly cotton and irrigated rice fields.A few years later with ethnic conflicts, there was progressive but fast densification in the plain of Rusizi and the hills of the Mirwa (hills overlooking the plain of Rusizi). The fragmentation of small agricultural exploitation and the multiplication of small plots of food crops have conquered a large part of the space of Mirwa, accelerating the phenomena of erosion and degradation of the slopes to the detriment of the natural forests (Sindayihebura 2005). The geological configuration of the Sub-Nyamagana watershed consists essentially of two dominant units. These are highly metamorphic rocks (such as micaschists, paragneisses, amphibolites, dolomitic, and limestones) and some well-stratified quartzites and white quartzites, phyllite intercalations, dark grey quartzites and coarse conglomerates rich in iron oxides. Downstream of the river, in the plain of Rusizi, there is a dominance of alluvial cones, fluvial-lacustrine formations with coarse sands, fine silty-clay deposits, locally cemented pebbles by iron oxides; undifferentiated cenozoic, the Ruhagarika Formation; sandstone and alluvial conglomerates from valley bottoms, lake beaches, and low terraces; and sedimentary deposits (Figure 3).The sub-Nyamagana watershed is a part of the Ruzizi basin, which is the target area of the project.It is characterized by a dense hydrological network feeding it mainly upstream (see Figure 4). The hydrographic network of Nyamagana connects four municipalities spread over an altitude ranging from 850 m to 1500 m and crosses an escarpment of tens of kilometers with waterfalls of high flow upstream and average flows downstream. It offers the advantage of erecting dams for irrigation of vast areas for agriculture (Figure 4). In the Rusizi area, there are relatively abundant surface water resources because of high rainfall and storage in marshes and lakes. A dense hydrographic network means that it has a high hydroelectric potential. Among the internal rivers are the Kaburantwa, Kagunuzi, Mpanda, Nyamagana, and Muhira rivers (African Development Fund 2005).Purposive sampling was used to choose the participants for the focus group discussion (FGD). Therefore, the invited respondents came from farmer groups involved in irrigation water management of the Nyamagana River. Five FGDs were held with 12 persons in each. Each group of 12 (Figure 5) had six men and six women. Each FGD was conducted on a selected Colline (the lowest administrative subdivisions in Burundi) bordering the sub-Nyamagana watershed and/or one of the irrigation canals.The sample size of respondents for household survey was determined using the Bernoulli sampling formula released as follows: A sample of 166 respondents was obtained using the above formula for calculation.The framework applied for this situation analysis report is shown in Figure 6. When addressing driving forces, agricultural and educational reforms, technological innovations, equity policies, and decision-support tools should be considered. In contrast, when addressing pressures, the strategy to be used would be based on land-use planning and management, human behaviour-change strategies, limiting discharges, resource-use management, awareness-raising, education, etc. Regarding reactions, factors to be considered include landscape condition, revitalization, remediation, landscape and community planning, restoration, assessment, etc. The components that are considered for impact-based solutions include adaptation methods, diversification of sources of income, mitigation, welfare indexing, and assessment and monitoring of ecological services, among others.The interpretation of the framework leads to an understanding of the interaction between the different output land uses.Driving Forces: This study has been conducted to assess driving forces in the landscape of the Nyamagana River in Cibitoke province. Driving forces are the forces that cause observed landscape changes, i.e., they are influential processes in the evolutionary trajectory of the landscape. These forces have also been called keystone processes (Bürgi, Hersperger and Schneeberger 2005). The analysis emphasized on the socioeconomic, political, technological, cultural, agricultural, and natural environment as the main influential factors. These socio-cultural, economic, and political factors have been added to broaden the logical framework of the study. The driving forces form a complex system of dependencies, interactions, and feedback loops and they affect several temporal and spatial levels (Bürgi et al. 2005).Different land-use patterns in watersheds apply different types of demand on the watersheds. Understanding the many types of pressure exerted on a watershed is crucial. They are characterized as human actions connecting the forces that propel social and economic functioning and result in environmental changes. The variations seen in watersheds, the pollution discharges from industrial operations, or contamination due to agricultural practices as the use of mineral fertilizers, pesticides, the physical and biological degradations, the construction of artificial habitat; agricultural operations (such as cropping, fishing, tree felling), among others, are all frequently caused by changes in land and water use.Landscape status: A watershed's condition includes both the natural environment and the area that people live in or use. The evaluation of the amount and quality of the elements that make up the environment or landscape, namely: 1) physical, 2) chemical, 3) biological, and 4) production systems modified by human action, is what is meant by the analysis of this state.The use of land and water will always influence ecosystems and human wellbeing. The availability, accessibility, and production of ecosystem goods and services are all impacted in some manner by changes in the structure, functioning, and composition of ecosystems (Atampugre et al. 2022b). The most obvious or perceptible changes in socioeconomic well-being of people are where these consequences may be seen. When we discuss ecosystem goods and services, we refer to all ecosystem processes or byproducts that benefit humans, either directly or indirectly. These might involve offering services, controlling ecosystem services, using ecosystem services for cultural purposes, and supporting ecosystem change processes.The results of these interactions can be determined by using the DPSIR framework to analyse the interactions between different landscape elements. According to some authors, these are the results of the causal relationship between the various aspects of ecosystem exploitation. To understand the consequences of each composition, it is important to understand the steps taken by communities, people, and the government to prevent, make up for, mitigate, and adapt to changes in the landscape. In various circumstances, the occupants of a landscape or watershed can alter their behaviours, and these adjustments are likely to cause health problems that call for medical attention. Additionally, these human acts, through the consumption of ecosystem goods and services, counteract the social or economic impact of the human situation on wellbeing. The driving forces, pressure dynamics, landscape conditions, and impacts might all be the focus of responses.Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources to get information on the various DPSIR components. Primary data were obtained from household surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), and key informant interviews (KIIs). Semi-structured questionnaires and checklists with open-ended and closed-ended questions were used for household surveys, FGDs and KIIs. A structured questionnaire was employed to gather quantitative data, with the assistance of welltrained enumerators using KoboCollect software. The data were collected using questionnaires comprising household farm characteristics such as the number of farmlands, the size of the farmland, the land tenure, and the soil fertility of their farm.Additionally, data on household food production and consumption, household livestock, household livelihood diversification and alternative income sources, external income and migration, social networks, household physical assets, and public services were also gathered.Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were utilized to collect qualitative data. The participants in FGDs comprised the members of associations in charge of sub-Nyamagana water management, while the key informants were composed of ISABU researchers involved in the project implementation, the General Director of IGEBU, the Dean of FABI, the lecturers of Burundi University, the adviser in charge of planning, development and statistics of Rugombo commune, the head of the water distribution committees in the communes of Rugombo and Buganda, and the hydrologist officer at IGEBU. Six focus group discussions were conducted for each Colline, consisting of six women and six men each. The focus group discussion checklist aimed at understanding the types of land uses, the agricultural production systems, the wild biodiversity, the drivers of land degradation, and the institutions and partners operating in the landscape.Data were collected using the KoboCollect tool and analysed using SPSS statistical software. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, and percentages were calculated to provide an initial understanding of the gathered data. T-test and chi-square test were carried out on the data set at the 5% significance level to determine the significant difference and existence of any relationship between household livelihoods and land use, agricultural production systems, land size, state of institutional and policy support, etc. The data collected from KIIs and FGDs were analysed using a qualitative approach to understand the underlying factors and social dynamics influencing the status of the landscape.In general, topography, demographic pressure, uncontrolled rice farming, anarchic mining and quarrying, and climate change collectively threaten the health and functioning of social-ecological landscapes (SEL). Within the Nyamagana sub-watershed, unsustainable agricultural practices and overexploitation of natural and artificial resources are threatening biodiversity, the livelihoods of farmers, and ecosystem processes, including soil services. This research assessed the status and trends of natural resources, considering the possible impacts on human well-being and institutional responses. Figure 7 summarizes the finding. The drivers underlying the landscape dynamics in the Nyamagana sub-watershed are diverse and originate from several sources. Some factors are natural, such as weather (e.g., precipitation, temperature, humidity, etc.), geology, and topography, while others are the consequences of human activities (e.g., land degradation, deforestation, etc.) In addition, the demographic pressures are generating land scarcity, and overexploitation of both natural and artificial forests is posing a threat to the watershed according to those households surveyed during the data gathering phase.According to the results from the focus group discussions (FGDs), the participants of all 6 FGDs congruently stated, \"Drought, strong winds, diseases and pests, flooding due to the lack of water drainage systems, hail, erosion and gullying, unpredicted rain, and landslides are the main natural drivers of the landscape change.\" To overcome the natural disturbances cited above, the participants responded, ˝some efforts are being implemented to address the issues, for instance there is increased irrigation to mitigate the frequent droughts\". They added that \"pests and diseases are being controlled by spraying some chemicals pesticides and biopesticides despite those products being often not effective.\" To address the effect of flooding and drought, the participants divulged, \"We are trying to make drains manually; planting agroforestry trees in our farms; mulching is another option to address the effect of the water stress.\" Additionally, they said, \"Farmers establish shortcycle, drought-tolerant crops to cope with drought and have started to put in place anti-erosion ditches to address landslides and soil erosion.\"The average number of household members in the study area in given in Figure 8. According to the results given in Figure 7, the average number of members living in the same household ranges between six and seven in most Collines of the study, except in the Kagazi colline, where the average household size is five. This indicates that the sub-Nyamagana watershed is overpopulated. This overpopulation could lead to land scarcity, overexploitation of natural and artificial forests, soil fertility depletion, reduction of soil microorganisms, etc. From a positive angle, however, overpopulation could also be the source of a workforce that could contribute to the improvement and diversification of natural resources.The number of months during which households struggle to get enough food is given in Figure 9.Based on the results presented in Figure 8, more than 50% of the households suffer from food shortages for a period ranging from 3 to 6 months, while only 38% of the households experience a short period of food shortages (1-3 months).The food shortage in households could lead to a lack of management of the existing natural resources. Moreover, the shortage of food may be a result of the insufficiency of natural resources within the sub-Nyamagana watershed. The months of the year with food shortages for householders interviewed in the sub-Nyamagana watershed are given in Table 1.As indicated in Table 1, more than 50% of farmers reported insufficient food or struggled for sufficient food to feed their families from July to December. Notably, 72.5% of households do not depend on their own food production. Therefore, to meet sustainable production in the Nyamagana watershed, support in terms of farmland management systems and technical advice will be key to sustaining food security throughout the year.  The mitigation strategies adopted by households to cope with food shortages during these periods are highlighted in Table 2. According to the results presented in Table 2, most households reduce their dairy food consumption to cope with the food shortage. The food intake reduction strategy in Kagazi and urban centre Collines scored a high percentage (100%). The food donation strategy was undertaken only by Rusiga and Rugeregere Collines at the levels of 5.3% and 4.8%, respectively. The promotion of integrated farming production systems may improve the productivity of diversified crops to address the food shortage.The land tenure systems encountered in the Nyamagana sub-watershed are given in Table 3. Based on the results highlighted in Table 3, most households practice agriculture on their own land.According to the land scarcity reported in the Imbo plain (Rusizi Feasibility Report 2022), the farmers in the sub-Nyamagana watershed are challenged to find enough cropping land, compelling them to overexploit their cropping land. As a result, most forage species are facing extinction, and soil fertility is being depleted, worsening soil erosion, landslides, flooding, etc., which have been observed over the years. The water sources adopted in the Nyamagana sub-watershed are given in Figure 10. As depicted through the assessment of the water sources results in the Nyamagana sub-watershed, farmers in Rusiga, Kagazi, the urban centre, and Rugeregere are using irrigation canal water pathways for dwellings and agricultural purposes. In Ruvumera and Rusororo, farmers are not connected to irrigation canal pathways yet. They mostly depend on the rain, while a few farmers also use streams and tap water to irrigate their farms.As shown in Figure 9, irrigation canals are the primary source of water for most farmers (54.2%), while 36.1% do not irrigate their farmlands. Importantly, the presence of irrigation canals along the Nyamagana River is one of the opportunities to repopulate and diversify numerous crops that have been lost over the years.Table 4 presents results based on farmers' perceptions of the water supply. Results reveal that 36.7% of farmers consider irrigation sources used on their farms to be insufficient, and 36.1% of farmers are uncertain whether irrigation water is sufficient or not. Only 11.4% of farmers concur that water availability is sufficient for irrigation. Consequently, activities that boost the diversity of natural resources could also be threatened by the lack of water for irrigation. The levels of farmer satisfaction regarding the water supply for irrigation is given in Table 4. The results given in Table 5 indicate that there are no significant differences between irrigated and non-irrigated land sizes. The average size of irrigated land is 0.28 ha per farmer, while the land size of 0.27 ha represents the non-irrigated land per farmer. The similarity in size between irrigated and non-irrigated land is due to the hills in the study area in Ruvumera and Rusoro, where farmers do not practice irrigated agriculture yet. Human-based activities causing pressures can be classified into three main categories: (i) excessive use of natural resources through contact; (ii) increased production and waste discharge into the environment without proper treatment, thereby contaminating ecosystems; and (iii) the complexity of land cover and soil use, particularly the use of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) that are detrimental to ecosystem components. The most significant factor among the several causes and variables influencing landscape change in the Nyamagana sub-watershed is the anarchic mining that takes place in the river and along its banks. Additionally, agriculture is carried out using less ecologically suitable methods, sometimes ignoring the buffer zone surrounding the Nyamagana River. These farming practices greatly degrade the soil, primarily along the riverbanks.Four out of six of the FGDs \"converged on the bush fires as the anthropogenic disturbances that threaten the agricultural production in the landscape.\" Most (five FGDs) reported that \"the deforestation for multiple purposes is another pressure on agricultural production.\" One FGD cited \"the planting of eucalyptus trees on farms\" as a cause of agricultural production decline. Another FGD revealed that \"the use of degenerate seeds is the cause of the loss of the agricultural production\", yet another FGD mentioned \"the destruction of irrigation canals\" as \"the cause of the drop in agricultural production.\" According to three FGDs, \"the exploitation of the buffer zones and anarchic mining and quarrying threaten the increase of agricultural production in the study area.\" The limitations and challenges to agricultural productivity are perceived to be unsustainable natural resource management, including deforestation, agricultural land expansion, and inadequate waste management, according to the Rusizi basin feasibility study (2022). Due to harmful practices and inadequate land use planning, the Ruzizi Basin landscapes have been severely degraded. This has led to a decline in groundwater recharge, low groundwater levels, low river flow regimes, food insecurity brought on by degraded soil, and a progressive loss of forest cover and biodiversity.The main household livelihood activities carried out in the Nyamagana sub-watershed besides agriculture are given in Table 6. Apart from the agricultural activities implemented, most farmers (71.2% out of the total interviewed) practice small trade as their main source of income. The second most common source of income is handicrafts (9.6%), followed by mining (5.8%) and remunerative employment (7.7%). In the study area, charcoal production is insignificant (1.9%). This indicates that the Nyamagana sub-watershed lacks sufficient trees for making charcoal. All of the farmers who participated in the interview declared that their main occupation was agriculture.The level fertilizers and pesticides used by farmers is given in Figure 11. The interviewers reported that more than 80% of farmers apply fertilizers and pesticides in their crops. This implies that the excessive application and irrational use of these products can be harmful to human ecosystem services. Therefore, the sensitization and promotion of friendly agro-ecological practices may address the reported inappropriate use of synthesis fertilizers and pesticides over the years. The t-t test showed that there was a significant difference (P value<0.05) between the users of the chemical products and the non-users in terms of the number. To reduce the harmful effects of these chemical products, it is necessary to sensitize farmers to use organic products such as biopesticides and organic manure.The proportion of farmers who diverse of the agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides to improve the crop production are highlighted in Figure 12. According to participants in the six FGDs, \"the biodiversity, water, soils, and forests are not optimally managed for current and future use.\" The participants in five FGDs revealed that \"there are no effective available management regimes in place for managing biodiversity, water, soils and forests,\" However, one FGD said that \"some management regimes are available such as the law against bush fire practices (administration) and water management committee.\" The participants also suggested practical ways to manage resources to ensure their availability for current and future use: \"avoiding bush fires, planting agroforestry and forest trees; awareness-raising sessions on good agricultural practices, technical and financial support, regulation of mining and quarrying and soil erosion control.\"The staple crops planted in the study area, crop production, and quantity consumed and sold are provided in Table 7.According to the results presented in Table 7, a diverse range of staple crops are planted in the study area. However, most of the crops are not cultivated by the majority of farmers. This may be due to the scarcity of seeds in the study area. It is noted that the crops cultivated by the majority of farmers are maize (33.7%), bush beans (25%), cassava (20%), and rice (8.5%). Moreover, the interviewed farmers reported that the majority of crops planted by farmers are used for family consumption. When it comes to income from crop sales, rice provides the highest income (1,260,470.00 BIF), followed by tomatoes (955,555.60 BIF), taro (525,000.00 BIF), and groundnut (310,000.00 BIF) even if they are cultivated by a small number of farmers.The animal types raised in the study area, the number, and the income derived from the sale of animals are given in Table 8.According to the results shown in Table 8, the animals raised by farmers in the study area are mostly goats (27.5%), pigs (26.3%), chickens (26.3%), and cows (12.9%). Farmers in the Nyamagana subwatershed raise an average of 2 to 4 animals. The highest income (199,479.00 BIF) is generated by the sale of cows and their by-products. This is followed by the income from pig sales (108,515.00 BIF). As the income from the sale of livestock is insufficient, it may be deduced that farmers struggle with the lack of capital to properly manage and safeguard existing natural resources. The appreciation of farmers in terms of soil fertility in the sub-Nyamagana watershed is given in Table 9. As shown in Table 9, more than 50% of surveyed farmers reported that their soils were moderately fertile. However, a significant number of farmers (39.1%) revealed that their soils were poor, while a few farmers (8.7%) claimed that their soils were very fertile. This low level of soil fertility is due to overexploitation and inadequate management of their farmlands, erosion, and flooding, which also threaten the diversity and abundance of natural resources.The state of the social ecological dynamics of the landscape is understood as the set of critical resources (i.e., natural, socio-economic, and cultural) whose flow and use are regulated by a combination of ecological and social systems (Mehring et al. 2017). Generally, it is a complex and dynamic system in perpetual adaptation. The concept also alludes to the dynamics of communities in the sense of the evolution of their structure and composition. These dynamics are also the results of environmental disturbances such as heavy rains, long dry seasons, fires, deforestation, and climate change. Going deeper, we realize that these are complex adaptive systems in which human societies are integrated with nature. Thus, through the social component, which refers to all human activities, including the economy, technology, politics, and culture, we understand that there are interactions between communities and ecosystems. The states of the social ecological landscape (SEL) dynamics are illustrated in Figure 13. A good example of community-ecological interaction defining the state of landscape is that the team discovered that the installation of irrigation infrastructure in one of the Colline has the unintended consequence of further increasing landslide occurrences due to inadequate drainage and saturation problems (Figure 14).  Human activities: Economic, technological, politics and cultural.Community and ecosystems interactionsAt the level of a watershed, nature often provides benefits and services that play essential roles in the lives of households living in the watershed. In other words, ecosystems support human wellbeing by supporting, providing, regulating, and providing socio-cultural and economic services. However, well-being depends on the supply and quality of human services, technology, and institutions.Ecosystem services are the benefits that people derive from ecosystems: provisioning services of goods and services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood, pests, and disease control; cultural services such as spiritual and recreational benefits; and supporting services, such as nutrient recycling, that contribute to the daily lives of individuals in households.Through the focus discussion and structured questionnaires, households residing in the Nyamagana sub-watershed were interviewed for this study, which allowed researchers to pinpoint specific effects of watershed transitions on human well-being resulting from biodiversity and ecological services.  The main causes of soil erosion in the study area are given in Table 10. The main cause of soil erosion cited by 33.5% of interviewed farmers was unsustainable agricultural practices, followed by the steep slopes and topography reported by 25.1% farmers. The third (15.6% of farmers) and the fourth (15% of farmers) cited wind erosion and deforestation and land clearance, respectively, as the causes of soil erosion. Therefore, there is a need to develop the capacities of farmers in sustainable practices that mitigate these causes of erosion. The level of sub-landscape management based on the three major techniques adopted, according to farmer perception, is indicated in Figure 16. Among the three major techniques adopted, most of the interviewed farmers reported that diseases and pest management strategies were the main techniques implemented in the study area. The causes that prompted the adoption of water harvesting, soil conservation, and disease control are multiple.The soil conservation was adopted by farmers to protect against erosion on their farmlands located on the steep Nyamagana watershed. The high temperature recorded in the study area exacerbates the proliferation of diseases and pests. Therefore, the farmers who own lands in the Nyamagana watershed must apply pesticides to fight these diseases.The highlights of the findings on farmer adoption of water harvesting techniques are given in Figure 17. According to the results given in Figure 17, water harvesting techniques are mostly adopted in Rusiga (31.3%), followed by Ruvumera village (20.69%), among the villages that implemented these strategies. As the study area is located in a region with a prolonged dry season, farmers must use water conservation techniques in order to irrigate their crops during the period of water scarcity. Despite the anthropogenic disturbances taking place, several concrete efforts have been implemented to mitigate their negative effects, such as the establishment of farmer associations for capacity building and raising awareness about smart farming. The protection of the riverbanks using fixing grasses (e.g., Pennisetum) and agroforestry trees (e.g., bamboos, grevillea) is being adopted, and agriculture close to riverbanks is prohibited. Farmers are adopting organic manure to fertilize their crops in order to improve soil productivity. Meanwhile, the government is continuing to raise public awareness of the harmful effects of bush fires on landscape degradation.Four out of six FGDs revealed that there are \"no agricultural activities and other land use systems to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services\" while two FGDs reported that \"some agricultural activities are being implemented in order to improve the biodiversity such compost production, planting agroforestry, forestry and fruit trees, protection of riverbanks with bamboo, installation of anti-erosion ditches\".Institutions that are taking part in environmental protection as a part of the Cibitoke province's landscape management system have an impact on landscape management. The main initiatives in this direction are: (i) preserving the appearance of distinctive natural landscapes and specific geomorphological formations; (ii) promoting the revitalization of natural or close-to-natural environments; (iii) preserving the appearance of native fauna and flora as well as their natural living spaces; (iv) contributing to the maintenance and improvement of biodiversity; (v) supporting the efforts of the local government, private groups, other institutions, and people who are fighting to safeguard the environment and the landscape; and (vi) educating and enlightening the public about these issues. The results of the study show that there are already some institutions that deal with landscape management in the study area. There are also some institutions that manage landscapes based on different laws and regulations. Figure 18 illustrates the landscape management mechanisms identified during the study in the Nyamagana sub-watershed.Existing institutional responses to landscape drivers, pressures, dynamic states, and impactsThe current state of the landscape is described in this study based on the analysis of the Nyamagana sub-catchment region landscape. The investigation brought to light a number of urgent issues affecting the ecosystems of the Nyamagana sub-landscape as well as the specific organizations in charge of managing the ecosystem services of the watershed. The study employed a variety of methods, including focus group discussions and structured individual surveys, to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. These two methodologies helped develop a third technique, known as the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) strategy, which helped conceptualize the overall study.This research defines the case that the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and ecosystem services in the Nyamagana sub-watershed is typically motivated by the survival needs of local households rather than by the pursuit of high-level well-being based on the socio-economic characteristics of Cibitoke Province in general and the Nyamagana watershed in particular. As a result, the stresses that characterize the state and implications of the Nyamagana sub-watershed are primarily local in nature, although some are identified as regional. The study also found that ecosystems were increasingly being converted into subsistence farming using less advanced technologies, unregulated small-scale mining, and unsustainable farming methods.Biodiversity, livelihoods, and ecosystem processes, including the provision of soil and irrigation water, are under threat from the extraction of abiotic resources through mining and the unsustainable use of natural resources. Comparing the access to livelihoods of families in the research area revealed that there are unequal distributions of restricted livelihood options, food, raw materials for domestic use, health, education, and access to land for agricultural production among user households. The effects of the competition between ecosystem protection and development are visible in the over-exploitation of soils and the fragmentation of land due to non-ecological agriculture practices where soils are always occupied by crops without rotation or fallow systems. Due to the need to use chemical inputs that have huge impact on biodiversity, these practices deplete the soil and also contribute to environmental contamination. Another concern is the Nyamagana river's bank degradation and contamination because of unlawful community mining and farming that disregards the buffer zone between crops and the river's banks.The outcomes of this situation analysis of the Nyamagana River landscape also revealed weak institutional capacity, insufficient human and financial capital, and limited access to information on natural resources for the appropriate planning and assessment, monitoring, and practical ecosystem service integration to support planning in Cibitoke province, Rugombo commune.The study recommends several steps that can be performed to alleviate the limitations found in this analysis:-Improve local capacity for managing and improving access to ecosystem services and natural resources.-Assist local governments in ensuring integrated, sustainable development.-Constantly build human capacity, especially in relation to integrated management of natural resources and the development of the Nyamagana River catchment area.-Encourage multi-stakeholder, participatory methods for preserving ecosystems and enhancing the standard of living for residents of the Nyamagana Landscape.-Encourage investments in landscapes that support sustainable development, including climate-smart goals.-Promote top-down decision-making when addressing landscape challenges, such as land use management, as this should be effective in resolving the negative results of conflicting land uses.-Keep an eye on changes to see if sustainable socio-ecological goals are being achieved.-To safeguard areas with a variety of minerals in the subsoil, mining laws or mining codes need to be improved or put into effect.-To achieve sustainable environmental management, strict procedures relating to the management of mining sites should be put into place to combat illicit and uncontrolled mining in the Nyamagana River landscape for the smart management of natural resources.• Do markets provide incentives (inputs) for social and environmental sustainability?• Are supporting organizations in place to facilitate social and environmental sustainability?• Does local knowledge, norms, and values support the sustainability of the social and environmental sustainability? 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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5b87050611574b8ab619b9a9df0f4d1d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/131649bf-f456-4ff6-9509-bc966cd96560/retrieve","id":"-782001496"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cbccdf80-4eab-4eeb-8660-f3a43885eae0","pagecount":"28","content":"Women from the village of Boni (Burkina Faso) in front of a motorised grain mill powered by oil from Jatropha curcas. © D Hérard/REA COVER STORY UNCTAD Biofuel production technologies: status, prospects and implications for trade and development http://tinyurl.com/4y9fngv To fi n d ou t m or e COVER STORY OCtOBER-nOvEMBER 2011 | SPORE 155 | © Xxx A Himba woman harvests Commiphora resin, used for making natural perfumes (Namibia)a profound impact on agriculture. A 2°C rise in temperature by the end of the 21 st century -an optimistic scenario -will lead to dramatic changes in farming and have an impact on food production, particularly in ACP countries. However, agriculture is also a significant contributor to climate change, responsible for around a third of global emissions if you include the clearance of forests to make way for crops and livestock. Farmers need to adapt to climate change while maintaining or increasing food production. At the same time, they need to adopt practices which reduce agriculture's climate footprint. 'Climate-smart agriculture' must achieve the triple goal of increasing food production, helping farmers to become more resilient to climate change and reducing emissions. However, agriculture has failed to receive the attention it deserves in the international climate-change policy arena. It is vitally important that it features more prominently when negotiators meet in Durban, South Africa for the 17 th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). During the meeting, on 3 rd December 2011, CTA will be co-hosting the third annual Agriculture and Rural Development Day. This will highlight the importance of climatesmart agriculture and provide a voice for farmers groups, research organisations, development agencies and NGOs. No government will adopt measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if they threaten a nation's ability to feed itself. This is one of the compelling reasons why agriculture should be at the heart of the negotiations in Durban.or a while, they seemed the answer to the world's energy problems. Biofuels -mainly produced from food crops -were regarded as a highly promising source of renewable energy. But hopes faded as researchers found these first generation biofuels caused environmental problems and diverted land and water away from food production, limiting local supplies and driving up prices. Now, concerns over the sustainability of using food supplies to produce biofuel has shifted the focus to 'second generation' biofuels in a bid to increase energy output from a broader range of plant sources. Second generation biofuels are based on agricultural residues and invasive plant species, as well as high-yielding non-food crops that can be grown on more marginal or degraded land. The most typical uses of advanced biofuels are for transportation, although some may be used in generators to produce electricity.While research and development is currently dominated by industrialised countries, with commercial production due to start in the next few years, there is considerable scope for developing countries to play a role, provided they can meet certain challenges. A study issued by the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that biofuels will provide 26% of total transportation fuel in 2050, with second-generation biofuels accounting for 90%. More than half of all second generation biofuel production is projected to occur in non-OECD countries. Biofuels currently under development include lignocellulosic feedstocks such as wood, tall grasses, forestry and crop residues and algae.In some ACP countries, efforts are already being made to be involved. Fiji has identified sites for 23 biofuel mills which could be in place by 2013. The feedstock will be copra, which is already used in a plant operating on Koro Island. South African biofuels company Stellenbosch Biomass Technologies has acquired the rights to commercialise cellulosic ethanol technology from US-based biofuels company Mascoma Corporation. This will allow it to adapt the technology for southern African conditions and plant materials. Also in South Africa, scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research are collecting and propagating microalgae and have started to develop processes to produce bio-oils.The potential is certainly there. \"In theory, the [African] continent could replace its transportation fossil fuel demands with renewable biofuel and still be a net exporter of biofuels\", said Emile Van Zyl of Stellenbosch University. A 2007 study estimated that by 2050, Africa could provide one-quarter of the world's bio-energy through the use of second generation technologies. A report by Brazilian experts has estimated that Senegal could be producing 28 million l of ethanol a year by 2013. This would reduce the country's dependence on imported fuel as part of Senegal's 5-year bioenergy development programme, which it is forecastSecond generation biofuels could increase income opportunities and promote rural development without competing for food production. But ACP countries will need more infrastructure and investment if they are to benefit from this emerging sector.will create 100,000 jobs. The 2007 South African Industrial Biofuels Strategy predicted that the production of 400 million l of biofuel per year would generate an additional 25,000 jobs. A recent IEA study found that in Cameroon, potential second generation biofuel production could exceed the country's fuel demands.Agricultural and forestry residues should be the feedstock of choice in the initial stage of production, since these are readily available and do not require additional land cultivation, say experts. Waste products from agriculture and forestry (straw, stalks, sawdust and leaves), wastes from processing (nut shells, sugarcane bagasse and sawdust) and organic municipal waste, can all be potential sources. The remaining residues may still be used for other uses, including fodder, organic fertiliser or domestic cooking fuel. In a number of ACP countries, agricultural residues and by-products suitable for second-generation biofuel production are currently dumped, burnt or inefficiently used. These include residues from crops such as maize and rice and bagasse and molasses from sugarcane processing.Some dedicated cellulosic energy crops also hold promise as a source of feedstock for second generation technologies. These present major advantages over first generation crops in terms of environmental sustainability. Compared with conventional starch and oilseed crops, they produce more biomass per hectare because the entire plant is available for conversion to fuel. Some fastgrowing perennials such as short-rotation woody crops and tall grasses can grow on poor, degraded soils where food crop production is difficult due to erosion or other factors. However, jatropha (Jatropha curcas) -the prime new generation biofuel produced in Africa -has sparked vigorous debate amid criticism that it is taking valuable land for food and requires more maintenance than at first claimed.Significant challenges lie ahead. In Cameroon, as in many ACP countries, tenure schemes are based on collective property and land rights remain unclear. Other obstacles are lack of research and development, poor infrastructure and shortage of skilled labour. Cellulosic biomass is more resistant to being broken down than starch, sugar and oils, so converting it into liquid fuels is more expensive. Other considerations are the crucial role that decomposing biomass plays in maintaining soil fertility and texture; excessive withdrawals for bio-energy use could have negative effects.Promoting smallholder participation in biofuel crop production requires active government policies and support. Crucial areas are investment in infrastructure, research, finance, market information and legal frameworks. A biofuel value chain will need to be installed, with private sector involvement to oversee harvesting and processing.More detailed research is still needed to ensure that second generation biofuels will provide economic benefits for developing countries. IEA calls for a global road map for technology development, an impact assessment of commercial second-generation biofuel production and improved data on available land.In the meantime, there is no need for ACP countries to be entirely left out. Until new technologies are commercially available, and the macro conditions set in place, small-scale second generation bio-energy systems could play an important role in improving agricultural production and energy supply. Promising areas pinpointed by IEA include more efficient use of bagasse in Tanzania and using saw-mill residues in Cameroon for the generation of heat and power.tRADItIOnAL KnOwLEDGE■ Indigenous communities are helping to draft Namibia's first bill on access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The bill is due to be completed by the end of the year so that the country can sign the Nagoya Protocol, an international framework for ensuring more equitable sharing of genetic resources.The legislation is designed to prevent the exploitation of indigenous resources such as devil's claw (Harpagophytum sp.) a plant used by the San people to treat rheumatism and arthritis, and hoodia (Hoodia gordonii) which is used for suppressing hunger. In the past, Namibian communities have received little compensation for products made from these plants. \"Communities will benefit if their associated traditional knowledge is involved, or if they are the direct legal providers of the resources in question\", said Pierre du Plessis, Namibian negotiator for the Nagoya Protocol. The bill includes a platform that will retain lawyers to assist communities in drawing up equitable agreements.Ten years after being launched, significant progress has been made in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). However, much remains to be done before the 2015 deadline, according to the latest MDG report by the United Nations, published in July. According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, \"To reach these goals, there needs to be inclusive and fair economic growth that benefits everyone and which enables everyone, especially the poor and marginalised, to take advantage of economic opportunities\". http://tinyurl.com/4yxbus3■ It has been the worst food crisis in Africa for 20 years. Famine has been officially declared in several regions of Somalia, and communities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda have also been affected. Widely predicted for several months, the famine has struck 12 million people in the Horn of Africa. Drought, conflicts and soaring food prices have fuelled the spread of the crisis, which has been exacerbated by inadequate agricultural investment in the region and poor natural resource management. After a late start, the international community has met to explore options and launch a two-pronged strategy. Emergency relief operations have begun to deliver food aid to the thousands of refugees pouring into the overcrowded camps. At the same time, calls are being made for more long-term support for agriculture and livestock farming. Areas to be targeted include restoration of degraded land, improved animal health, better water management and developing irrigation.http://tinyurl.com/3shmo85nGO Pesticide Action network is helping farmers in Mauritius to set up bright yellow wooden boards, 1 m 2 and coated with transparent grease to attract leafminers. these pests, previously uncontrollable without insecticides, destroy significant quantities of vegetables. Farmer Kritinand Beeharry has reduced chemical inputs by more than 60% thanks to the new initiative.the Melanesian Agricultural Information System (MAIS) is a newly launched regional initiative for agricultural research and development agencies in Papua new Guinea, Solomon Islands and vanuatu under the EU-ACP Science and technology Program project. MAIS, which went on-line in June, currently comprises 18 libraries.The launching of a cocoa marketing cooperative, involving 11 small producers' associations from villages in the region of Água Izé, Sao Tome and Principe, has led to a significant increase in output. Production from 'CECAQ-11' rose from 50 t in 2004 to 600 t in 2010. The cooperative was formed after several years' work, with progress made in improving the quality of the product -from the Criollo variety -and in efforts to process it locally rather than exporting raw cocoa beans. The gradual introduction of more modern cultivation, fermentation and drying methods has produced higher yields for farmers. They have also been able to bypass middlemen for marketing. As a result, they now obtain fivefold higher prices than before. The cooperative is supported by a joint programme run by the UN together with the fair trade organisation Cafédirect. The initiative certifies the cocoa as a fair trade product and imports it directly from the cooperative.Planned for several decades now, will the Kandadji dam on the Niger River in Tillabéri region finally become a reality? All the indications are that it will. In May, the construction site was officially opened by Niger's President Issoufou Mahamadou. The goal is to ensure food security for the people of Niger. Able to store some 1.6 billion m 3 of water, the dam should make it possible to irrigate 120,000 ha of land, thereby opening the way for the production of 700,000 t/year of food crops. Work being carried out on the dam by the Russian firm Zarubezhvodstry (ZBS) with a price tag of around FCFA89 billion (€135.6 M) is scheduled to be completed in 2014. Also planned is a 130 MW hydro-electric power station.■ Uganda is relaunching its cashew (Anacardium occidentale) sector, which was struggling after years of abandon. A pilot scheme is running in Teso and Lango sub-regions, where researchers have multiplied 200,000 seedlings and rehabilitated 100,000 neglected trees. Both improved and traditional varieties are being grown as part of the programme, which is implemented by the National Forestry vILLAGE ORChARDS■ To increase levels of farming, consumption and trade of forest fruits, Senegal's agricultural research institute ISRA has launched a project called 'village orchards'. It involves the institute carrying out research to improve the quality of so-called 'wild' fruit and satisfying demand from villagers who consume them. In partnership with village orchards, researchers at ISRA have been able to domesticate wild fruits. For example, they have improved the jujube (Zizyphus mauritania), making it bigger and tastier, and shortened the fruiting cycle of the tamarind (Tamarindus indicas) from 15 to 4 years, and that of the madd (Saba senegalensis) from 5 to 2 years. According to Ibrahima Thomas, an engineer at ISRA's national forestry research centre CNRF, domesticated jujube now sells for up to FCFA1,500 per kilo (€2.5) at markets in Dakar. Trained in reforestation techniques, the villagers are helping to domesticate these fruits and pass the knowledge on to other farmers. Macoumba Diouf, Director General of ISRA, says that given its success with rural communities, the 'village orchards' project is now being transferred to Senegal's Waters and Forests services.After harvesting Researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia examined the effects of crop diversity on the efficiency of cocoa farms in Ghana and found inter-cropping boosted cocoa output. Good choices included maize, plantain and cassava and fruit trees such as mango (Mangifera indica), African plum (Dacryodes edulis) and avocado (Persea americanum).A village-based project is helping 30,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to earn extra income by processing cassava. The Cassava Village Processing Project (CVPP), launched by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and Farm Concern International, is based on a model where one-eighth of the produce of each land plot is used for home consumption, while the remainder is processed for industrial use. Communities have set up 120 village processing units, designed to turn farmers into commercial producers and semi-processors linked to animal feed manufacturers.Resources Research Institute and the Common Fund for Commodities. Joseph Okilan, of the Teso Cashew Nut Growers Association, says a hectare of land supports 30 trees and produces about 4,500 kg of unshelled nuts per season -an average of 150 kg/tree. A kilo of unshelled nuts sells for UGX5,000 (€1.5), but there is an even more lucrative market in selling roasted nuts to hotels for four times the price, at UGX20,000 (€6)/kg.Cashew, which belongs to the mango family, thrives in sandy soils with low rainfall. Cashews are highly prone to pests and diseases, but scientists are testing a number of varieties to overcome the problem.■ In Mozambique, Gouda Gold, a Mozambican and Zimbabwean-owned company, produces a quality cheese in the central region of Manica. The product benefits from tradition of cattle rearing, milk production and cheese-making in the area.The company recently received Dutch funding to enable it to import modern equipment adapted to local conditions. Some 12.5 t of Gouda are now produced each week, in keeping with international standards, including those for the highly demanding Dutch market. In Mozambique, the cheese is sold to supermarket chains in the main towns, as well as catering firms and airlines. For export, the company is targeting the powerful South African market.The factory, situated on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Chimoio, employs about 30 people and is supplied by 75 Holstein cows. However, company director Brendon Evans says that there are still more opportunities for milk suppliers: \"We are ready to help small-scale producers in the province of Manica by buying their milk in the near future.\"An artificial insemination farm for cattle has opened in Mauritania near Idini, 55 km from the capital of Nouackchott. The pilot farm -the first of its kind for this country -has facilities for handling 300 head of cattle and aims to improve animal species and increase the country's milk and meat output. Priority will be given to poor herders. The first phase involves the three regions of Nouakchott, Trarza and Brakna. According to Fall Moktar, technical advisor for livestock at Mauritania's Ministry for Rural Development, the operation will later be extended to the rest of the country.Varroa alert varroa, a mite that targets bees and destroys entire hives, is threatening bee production in Madagascar. All the main beekeeping areas have been affected. A surveillance plan based on local farmer research has been set up as part of a joint initiative between the national beekeeping federation, FEnAM, the country's veterinary services, DSv, and the Faculty of Sciences.Brown sea cucumber (Bohadschia vitiensis). Banc de Souzy, Madagascar AQUACULtURE sea cucumbers ■ Madagascar's national marine research institute IHSM, based in Toliara, is expanding its sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra) breeding operations. The plan is to increase the current annual production from 90,000 to 200,000. At the same time, IHSM is teaming up with the project to support fishing communities in Toliara (PACP) to promote sea cucumber production among local fishers.The PACP project, funded by the African Development Bank, plans to set up 50 marine reserves for sea cucumber production, as well as research and development initiatives to promote red algae (Euchema denticulatum) cultivation. The reserves will be supplied by the IHSM breeding centre and will be managed by fishing communities trained by the PACP. Sea cucumber is a valuable source of revenue for them. This marine mollusc, which resembles a large slug, is highly prized by the Chinese, who eat it fried or in a sauce. hUntInGEcotourism, together with legal production of game meat and hunting tourism, have the potential to contribute significantly to conservation, food security and to boost Namibia's economy, according to the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. A study shows that game meat is the primary source of rations for around 23,000 agricultural workers who consume over 4,500 t of game meat each year. The report finds that while wildlife-based land uses (WBLU) on private land already contribute significantly to food security through provision of protein, generation of employment and foreign currency, there is more potential in this sector and a need for greater integration of emerging black farmers.■ Vinasse, a residue from the distillation of molasses, is traditionally used as fertiliser in Bas-Congo. But this sugarcane byproduct is now also being used to surface unpaved roads. Spreading the blackish liquid over clayey beaten earth tracks appears to counter the dust that often causes pulmonary disease. The result is a healthier environment. Once spread over the clay earth, this 'tar' can last for up to 1 year, or even longer if rainfall is not too heavy. Reports of the efficacy of vinasse have reached regions far from Bas-Congo, and requests have been pouring in for the material. But the country's sugar company, La Compagnie Sucrière, which produces 90,720 m³ of vinasse each season, does not sell it. It gives the sugarcane by-product free to workers who ask for it. The company also makes use of it, mainly as fertiliser for its crops. \"Given its high potassium content, we use vinasse on our sugarcane plantations, which cover 48 villages\", said company director Louis Mweze Lowa.With support of UK NGO Farm Africa, a community forest management scheme is helping to conserve the Kafa Forest in the Ethiopian highlands. After shrinking to half its original size due to clearance for farmland, tree-felling for charcoal and the expansion of commercial farms, the forest is now a model for sustainable use. Members harvest honey and spices and grow coffee, cardamom, long pepper (Piper longum) and fruit in agroforestry schemes. The area is divided into three zones -a Core Zone of undisturbed forest, a Buffer Zone with sustainable farming and a Transition Zone, occupied by farmers growing cereal crops, tea and coffee. \"In 6 months, these women learn how to fabricate, install and maintain solar-powered household lighting systems and become Barefoot Solar Engineers\", said Bunker Roy, the college's founder. The women are tutored by \"unschooled Indian women who have learned to train others in the skills they have acquired, learning by doing.\" he added.Despite abundant sun exposure, many Africans, Zambians included, have little energy for their cooking, heating or lighting needs. Now, they are realising that the solution is within reach.hABItAtIn the province of Bas-Congo, south west of Kinshasa, some villagers are using bamboo as roofs for houses, instead of metal, which is more expensive, or straw, which is less resistant. Bamboo also keeps houses cool, a popular factor. Cut in large quantities from the forest, the bamboo is dried in the sun before being split lengthwise and assembled to make a sturdy covering. But environmentalists have raised the alarm. With roots that hold the soil in place, bamboo is a valuable tool against erosion. \"We are saying that this anarchic and uncontrolled cutting of bamboo must be stopped if disaster is to be avoided later on\", said Anderson Mavungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo's provincial Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism.A build-up of locust populations in southwestern Madagascar makes it imperative to treat at least 300,000 ha of locustinfested territory by May 2012, warns FAO. Anti-locust operations enabled an upsurge to be contained during the 2010 season, but weather and ecological conditions in the first half of 2011 triggered a renewed build-up of locust populations, posing a serious threat to the livelihoods of 13 million people.An agreement for the joint launch and management of a transboundary protected area comprising the Sena Oura national park in Chad and the Bouba n'Djidda park in Cameroon was signed between the two countries on 2 August in Yaoundé. the accord calls for the complex to act as a \"bulwark against desertification, crossborder poaching and climate change.\" SOLAR POwER safer soil ■ Small-scale farmers in Kenya can now sterilise soil using a locally made device that harnesses solar power. The solar concentrator uses mirrors to focus the sun's rays, directing them on to a container with soil inside. The high temperature kills harmful pathogens such as fungi, in preparation for planting seedlings. \"I saw the need for this type of equipment because farmers were using wood fuel, which was getting scarcer and scarcer due to felling of trees\", said inventor Peter Mwathi.The solar concentrator has been tested and is being successfully used, especially for the germination of tissue banana seedlings, which are highly sensitive to pathogens.One user is Ruth Githii, who grows macadamia nuts in Mukuru-ini district. \"Firewood has become scarce and more expensive nowadays\", she said.The device can also be used to heat water and roast cashew nuts and macadamia seeds for value addition. According to the inventor, the concentrator can cut energy costs by 50%. The kit sells at €174, but Mwathi is working to reduce the price.A study for the future ■ An international team of researchers and other academics is to work on the nutrition outlook for the African continent in the run-up to 2025. The programme, Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to Come, or SUNRAY, will take into account the main factors influencing food availability and nutrition, such as climate change, rising food prices, increasing water scarcity, social dynamics in households and rapid urbanisation. SUNRAY is expected to last 2 years and will develop strategies to help Africa to feed itself in the next 10 or 15 years. African researchers are invited to submit working documents on the theme, so as to ensure, in the words of programme official Carl Lachat, a researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Anvers, Belgium, that \"interventions are driven by reflections from African countries, and that priorities are not defined in advance by donors.\" A simple technology that uses bed nets laced with insecticide can significantly cut pest damage to high value chain crops such as tomatoes and cabbages, say researchers. the nets, designed in a partnership between the world health Organisation and private companies from Japan and tanzania, offer protection for 3 to 5 years.Even the biggest organisms need help from smaller ones. In Madagascar, the baobab benefits from a microscopic mushroom, whose presence in the soil tones young plants by stimulating their absorption of minerals and water. This beneficial interplay between tree roots and the fungus is known as mycorrhizal symbiosis. To encourage the presence of these A fund for small-scale producers ■ FEFISOL, a specialised rural microfinance fund for Africa, was launched on 21 July in Brussels. It targets producers' organisations working in sustainable agriculture, including fair trade and organic farming. The aim is to provide funds to help promote quality and long-term strategies, particularly through access to new market outlets. African microfinance institutes (MFIs) will benefit from subsidised loans made by the French development agency AFD, which will absorb the losses resulting from exchanges with local currencies. Technical assistance will also be given to help these MFIs develop new products, improve operations planning and develop capacities for legal and human resources. The €15 million budget, due to double in the next 2 years, is funded by AFD, the European Investment Bank and a consortium of development institutes, ethical investors and MFIs.■ With tea prices soaring (+49%/year between 2007 and 2010), several East African countries are seeing a marked increase in exports. Following Malawi and Tanzania, Rwanda is now reviving its tea sector, with a significant impact on exports, whose value rose by 51% between the first 3 months of 2009 and those of 2010, with total sales of 37,600 t and a turnover of US$17.4 million (€12.14 million). This performance outstrips the objectives of Rwandan tea authority OCIR-Thé, which had set a target of US$14 million (€9.76 million). In neighbouring Burundi, output reached 8,002 t in 2010, compared with 7,500 t in 2009.Smallholders in Vanuatu are targeting the Chinese market to tap a boom in prices for sandalwood.Communities are engaging with business merchants to plant extensive areas of the tree (Santalum spicatum). Global prices are at an all-time high and China is proving a ready market. Businessman Jonathan Naupa has launched a sandalwood plantation and processing venture, Tropical Rainforest Aromatics, teaming up with small-scale farmers.\"Because of its high economic value and suitability to be developed in cultivated situations, including agroforestry systems and plantations, sandalwood has the potential to make a significant contribution to rural economies\", he said.Ghanian soil scientist Olufunke Cofie is working to develop fertiliser pellets from treated human waste to boost agricultural productivity and improve sanitation. She is using a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) initiative in Global health programme. Cofie has led several projects on turning faecal sludge and urban waste into useful products.Businesses in Cape verde and Guinea-Bissau have set up partnerships to import fruit from the latter and sell it to the former. Imports are planned for mangoes, lemons, pineapples and oranges. these fruits grow abundantly in Guinea Bissau, a country that is closer to Cape verde than the usual source, Latin America.the west African Development Bank (wADB) has commissioned a feasibility study to set up a harvest insurance system for the west African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) region. the insurance would enable subscribers to receive financial compensation for harvest losses caused by climate swings.In 2011, Tenga Ltd, a company in the province of Niassa, northern Mozambique, began exporting macadamia nuts to Europe, opening the door to competitive international markets. Cultivation of this crop is highly labour-intensive and requires considerable volumes of water. To rise to the challenge, the company has installed a motor pump and a modern irrigation system. In the first phase of operations, the firm plans to export 5 t of macadamia nuts.Nshili (Rwanda)Globalisation and climate changegiven these developments, what are the OIE's activities and priorities?The World Organisation for Animal Health tries to ensure that governments have policies that are suited to the new challenges they face. We try to persuade countries to give priority to preventing animal diseases and fighting to eradicate them. Public initiatives are one of the most effective channels for achieving this -legislation, detection and disease control.An important task for the OIE is to create standards: we draw up norms for our 178 member countries with the aim of improving global animal health. It is mainly a question of preventing and combating disease. For example, when an epidemic breaks out, governments need to have the means for eliminating sick animals and compensating livestock keepers. That requires financial and human resources, training, etc., but not all countries have this. For developing countries, it is important to ensure that legislation -often inherited from the time of colonialism -evolves so that it complies with international standards. Mechanisms have been set up to promote international solidarity. OIE has launched a global fund for animal health. Northern countries have an interest in giving this kind of aid because although they no longer have these diseases, they need to eradicate them on a global scale in order to avoid any risk of them being reintroduced. Limiting health risks will also have a positive impact on rural development.We are permanently involved in lobbying governments and donors, with the aim of obtaining good animal health governance throughout the world.How do you ensure that member countries respect the norms you introduce?We have set up a mechanism for evaluating our members. Several hundred experts evaluate the situation regarding animal health mechanisms in the 178 countries, examining a series of 46 critical skills (the existence of a coordinated response mechanism for health emergencies; appropriate training for decision-makers, etc.). Launched in 2004, these evaluations have so far been conducted in more than 100 countries. Some of these exercises may include a financial assessment, which calculates the investment needed to achieve compliance and sets out budgetary proposals. We organise a monitoring process for these evaluations for countries that request it.In addition, each of our member countries has nominated a national focal point for seven themes, and each year we organise a 3-day training seminar for everyone, on each theme at regional level.Our message to governments and donors is based on a detailed list of arguments.Global animal health has many repercussions, first and foremost that of food security. Livestock keeping and aquaculture are a major source of protein, milk and eggs, which are essential for growth. Animal traction is still extremely important in ACP countries, so good animal health is crucial to crop production. Food safety also comes into play. Good animal health governance can have a decisive impact on the occurrence of food-related accidents. It also has an impact on public health, since 75% of emerging diseases are of animal origin. Lastly, it has an impact on poverty reduction. Worldwide, one billion people depend on animals for their survival. Farmers in ACP countries mainly keep goats, a few chickens, a cow… The links between animal health and poverty reduction are very strong, for animals who are not cared for cannot bring in revenue. Good animal health would enable more countries to access profitable markets. At present, only three African countries have access to European markets for beef exports: Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland.What challenges lie ahead for OIE?In spite of the eradication of rinderpest, many formidable diseases remain. Rabies claims more than 50,000 lives each year, and most of the victims are children. Rabies could be eradicated, for we have some very good vaccines. All it would take would be to vaccinate dogs. But there is a lack of political will. Another example is foot-andmouth disease. It affects cattle and goats, sheep and pigs, and although it does not have a high mortality rate it causes significant drops in output and prevents affected countries from exporting their livestock and products. Sixty countries are currently free of this disease, which can be eradicated by vaccination. Good governance is crucial, together with resources supplied by the international community to buy the vaccines.2011 is World Veterinary Year, and this, coupled with vigorous mobilisation of our member countries, has brought recognition of the importance of good global governance for animal health. The OIE is working to make sure that this impetus does not lag.Launched  From the most seasoned to the most recently established, and from the most basic to the most sophisticated, radio stations (public, private or community), television networks and the written press, but also video, theatre and Web-based media -all are focusing on issues that are of vital importance to ACP farmers. Among these topics are adaptation to climate change, food security and modernising farms. In Benin, the national radio has teamed up with the federation of producers' organisations (FUPRO) to set up an early warning agrometeorology service to enable farmers to improve planning of operations such as sowing and harvests in the face of weather-related risks. In Nigeria, theatre programmes are being broadcast on radio to give advice on how to limit the effects of climate swings. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Islands, where the impact of global warming has been dramatic, radio has helped communities to return to normal following the passage of a tsunami on the island of Nivatoputapu in Tonga. After being swiftly installed, the radio station broadcast programmes to keep communities informed and active.The media also provide support for the growing involvement of producers and their organisations in the political arena. In Mali, Radio Fanaka, led by a young and energetic team, offered encouragement to farmers from the Fana region during the cotton crisis, providing them with a platform in local languages to make their voices heard. In Congo, the community radio station Biso na Biso, programmed by and for Pygmies in the north of the country, broadcasts items based on their knowledge to improve forest protection. In Cameroon, The Farmer's Voice, 'the monthly magazine of the rural contractor' has become the producers' mouthpiece. It has developed a website that is playing a growing role as a tool for lobbying. After relaying a petition calling for the release of demonstrators against soaring prices in 2007, the monthly publication successfully repeated the initiative in 2011. The Internet enables previously isolated rural areas to have access to international information and to express an opinion.The development of information technologies has profoundly changed the media landscape in ACP countries. While less than 30% of Africa's population has access to electricity, 11.5% have access to the Internet, according to the International Telecommunication Union. More than 500 million mobile telephones are in use throughout the continent. These phones now have multiple uses, able to send SMS and connect to the Internet, offering an infinite potential for communication, from which the media can then benefit. The emergence of social networks, which make it possible to communicate in real time, is another significant development. Farmers and herders can use the Internet via theirA newspaper, a radio station and a community multimedia centre (CMC). For the Huguka association ('be informed' in Kinyarwanda), these media can all play a role in providing training and promoting communication for rural communities, many of them poor with low literacy rates. It is the farmers, grouped into 22 local editorial committees, who decide on the subjects to be covered in Huguka, the monthly newspaper published in Kinyarwanda (4,500 copies) and distributed throughout Rwanda. At the CMC, computers and a library with more than 1,000 items enables people, especially the young, to stay informed. The most recent tool is a radio station, launched in 2011, which should, says Huguka coordinator Eugène Ndekezi, make it possible to achieve \"greater diffusion of best agricultural practices and promote community development with better access for illiterate people.\" © I Maiga DOSSIER phones to have instant updates on the current prices of their products, buy seeds and tools, obtain weather forecasts and have access to veterinary services.However, in many regions the traditional media formats are still the only channels available to rural communities. The major dailies, with circulations of several hundred thousand -in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa -and smaller ones in West Africa, which distribute a maximum of a few tens of thousand copies, devote little space to rural issues and are not distributed in more remote inland areas. The written agricultural press, which specifically targets these regions, still survives. However, although demand is significant, resources are lacking. The quality is often high, but the few publications that remain are struggling to survive, with weak circulations, often limited to local areas, and low levels of pay for their journalists. A case in point is Agri-Infos in Senegal. The difficulties are compounded by the scant interest shown by many journalists in rural issues and widespread ignorance of the stakes and developments of a sector in a state of flux.The community rural press is extremely dynamic. All, or almost all producers' organisations, chambers of agriculture and commodity associations now have their own newsletter, with a distribution that may not always be regular, but is always eagerly awaited. Armed with a computer, a printer and a mobile phone, it is not difficult to produce a quality illustrated newsletter these days. Such publications strengthen links with members of the organisation and ensure that their viewpoint is made known and that the interests of their members are protected. They also serve as a channel to donors and as means for lobbying decision-makers. Women sometimes take the helm, as in South Africa, where a newsletter is published by a women farmers' union: Sikhula Sonke.Specialist press agencies also exist, such as Agropresse Haïti, which produces newspaper articles, reports and radio broadcasts, as well as video reports and documentaries on new techniques that have proved successful or otherwise.Elsewhere, video has brought a new dimension to rural media. Now relatively simple and inexpensive, it has become an information channel that can be used in the most remote communities, whereas television rarely bothers with covering rural areas. In Bama, in western Burkina Faso, Abdoulaye Ouédraogo, who is head of the Union of rice cooperatives in the valley of Kou, produced a video on his own initiative which was shown at a general assembly to raise awareness among farmers of how rainfall penetration was being affected by silting. As a result, producers suggested ways to solve the problem. A record of the meeting will be used as a tool for advocacy with the authorities.Launched in the wake of the liberalisation of the airwaves, and following decentralisation and the emergence of local groups, community and commercial radio stations have sprung up all over Africa during the past decade. With good knowledge of the local environment, culture and the language of their listeners, these networks have several goals: giving rural communities access to information, facilitating communication among them, highlighting their experiences and raising awareness among public opinion and governments about their cause. They often take the place of staterun rural radio stations which collapsed when outside funding was withdrawn.However, these radio stations must survive with scant resources, often supplied by listeners themselves who pay to broadcast messages such as births, deaths and adverts and sometimes by local NGOs or donors. The wide-ranging nature of the programmes makes it possible to reach sizeable audiences. During a workshop in Bissau, which brought together community radio stations from Portuguese-speaking African countries, the fact that economic survival of the networks depended on having large numbers of listeners was recognized. These countries often have particular features, such as Angola, where radio stations launched by the Catholic Church -the product of a solid tradition -remain highly active. In most other ACP radio stations, broadcasters -most of whom have had little training and work on a voluntary basis -use data that they find on the Internet, together with international information, to top up local content. Some of them make use of specific programmes that they can download -from sources such as Farm Radio International and Panos -or podcasts of programmes. However, not everyone has access to information. To address this issue, a Pan-African Conference on Access to Information was held in Cape Town, South Africa, in September 2011. Managing and updating material can also prove difficult when resources are scarce. Energy can be a major problem: irregular or inexistent, it often determines broadcasting times. Faced with such obstacles, listeners can sometimes be extremely inventive. Launched in 2004, Radio Communautaire Mabele RCM, based 200 km west of Kisangani in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, broadcasts programmes for farmers who contribute palm oil to fuel the electric generator that powers the radio. Previously reluctant to carry out maintenance work on roads or other infrastructures, farmers now do so with more enthusiasm. Each time they repair a bridge or a gully the radio mentions it, which motivates producers to do even more and encourages them to support the radio station.New uses such as live telephone and community forums have made a major difference, turning radio into an interactive tool that gives a voice to farmers.Listeners' clubs are proving very popular. Members of the club in Kalehe, some 70 km north of Bukavu (DRC), joined together to listen to a programme broadcast by Radio Maendeleo on honey production and its potential for improving revenues and health. In this region, honey is consumed and used to treat children's diseases. To help people avoid having to go to Bukavu to get supplies, the programme host was asked to explain how to make beehives. Four women subsequently launched a pilot beekeeping project using traditional hives.Faced with increasingly complex subjects which extend well beyond the traditional scope of agronomy and agriculture, such as EPAs and agricultural policies, journalists need to be better trained to cover rural issues. Now crucial vectors for extension, they are becoming increasingly important in getting messages out to producers. The Question-and-Answer services developed by many rural radio stations are evidence of this. However, radio show hosts and journalists are not agriculture experts. All too often they make do with broadcasting or writing aboutPopular with approximately a million farmers, community radio Mampita, based 500 km south of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, has become a crucial tool for producers. \"It is the only radio station that talks about our daily concerns: our rice fields, our families, our markets, our safety\", says Alphonsine Ravaonoro, a member of the Mampita association. \"The way farmers work has greatly moved on since the launch of the radio\", says one listener, Rasoa. According to the Information Director at the Ministry of Culture, \"90% of the country's 250 radio stations are urban, and very few of them deal with farmer issues.\" Funded by the Swiss cooperation in 1997, the radio station is owned by a federation of about 250 village groups and has enjoyed remarkable financial independence since 2007. It has a network of some thirty local correspondents to make recordings in the bush.what they have found or heard, without investigating the information they present. If the media is to play any role in providing accurate information, it needs to be technically up to speed -no small challenge and one which means ensuring increasingly effective training. There are many initiatives under way: in Fiji, about 20 young female journalists were recently trained for community radio, learning how to strengthen capacities for media lobbying.Links between journalists and research also need tightening. Various competitions and prizes seek to promote interest in these issues, which are crucial to the future of ACP countries. Among them are the CGIAR-FARA prize for agricultural journalism in Africa, the ACP media contest organised by CTA in the run-up to the international extension conference in Nairobi and the Media Award staged by the Caribbean Week of Agriculture 2011 (Dominica, October 2011).Initiatives like these will become more effective once rural media are finally able to pay their journalists a decent wage, a situation which is, regrettably, far from the case for the time being. But the spectacular development of community radio in many ACP regions does at least give room for hope.  The French version of The Farmer's Voice, subtitled 'Monthly magazine of the rural contractor' has been published since 1988. The English version was launched in 1996. The magazine is published by an NGO in Cameroon, SAILD, which seeks to make information more accessible to producers so that they can make a better living from their farms. Each month, over 10,000 copies are distributed, more than 60% by subscription. how has tfV's role developed since its launch? At the outset, TFV was created as a newsletter to link producers' organisations. Then, gradually, the monthly publication developed its advisory services, to answer questions from producers who were disturbed by the drop in cocoa and coffee prices and wanted to develop food crops and small-scale livestock. Then, farmers' concerns turned to more \"political\" issues: How does the government see farmers? What plans does it have to help them? So, while continuing to publish technical information, we have also moved into advocacy. Our decision, in 2007, to take a stand alongside civil society organisations in calling for a ban on frozen chicken imports to Cameroon, produced good results. That was a turning point for TFV. More than just a source of information, the monthly magazine now looks out for the interests of rural entrepreneurs, and lobbies for good agricultural policies in Cameroon and Central Africa.Funding is a real problem, for the rural press is not a profitable sector. TFV has developed its distribution network in each region of Cameroon. It is effective, but extremely costly. At the current price of each issue (FCFA300; €0.45) our sales only cover 30% of the costs of the magazine. We launched an on-line version of TFV in 2005. The results have been phenomenal. The Web has brought us two new audiences: the sub-region and young people. We had been shut out of Cameroon, but we now receive post from readers in Congo, Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon. We are reaching young people, whom we never managed to interest when we only had the print version. We get many letters from young graduates in Cameroon who cannot find a job. They are seeking employment and they ask our advice. So the website enables us to be more interactive with our readers. \"For us, it is important that we have the same level of information as the other stakeholders, to strengthen our position during negotiations\", said E. Gounou, Executive Secretary of the cotton producers' association CCNPC.Without focusing on specific themes, editions of AIC-Infos strictly follow the development of each cotton season, from preparations (forecasts for quantities sown and statements of input requirements) right through to the balance sheet at the end of the year. This information is eagerly awaited by those out in the field who will then study the statistical data supplied to guide them on decisions they must make for the coming season.The cotton sector's commodity association brings together three professional groups: ginners, input importers and distributors and producers. The secretariat deals with questions of seed production and distribution, input distribution and marketing of seedEach month, cotton producers in Benin rush to get a copy of AIC-Infos, the newsletter published by the sector's commodity association. Over the years it has become an essential tool for planning the farming season and finding out all there is to know about cotton sales and prices.From left to right:Trucks take cotton to a factory for processing A farmer after the harvest © J Saizonoucotton and has the task of representing stakeholders in Benin's cotton sector at the national and international level. Thus, AIC-Infos is at the heart of cotton operations in Benin. Its flexible structure, with a coordinator flanked by a five-member editorial committee, enables information to be collected in the field and processed by the various services, according to requirements. The monthly publication is particularly valued for items of precious information that it alone offers: charts indicating physical and financial shifts relating to cotton production and prices agreed by stakeholders and approved by the government. As a result, issues become working documents and are kept throughout the season and beyond. Many articles are also dedicated to examining how cooperatives operate.A key tool Some 1,200 copies of the newsletter are distributed in print, and the issue is later posted as a PDF file on the AIC website. Nevertheless, the publication is a victim of its own success to some extent: the number of newsletters on offer falls far short of demand, with each member of the commodity association desperate to get hold of a personal copy. \"To avoid the chaos that we see with each new issue, I have ordered the secretary to make enough copies so that all members can have their own\", said Midou Alassane, who heads the Bahounkpo cooperative. AIC has formed a partnership with nearby radio stations which broadcast themed programmes in local languages throughout the season, from June to December. Subjects include technical advice, treatment and management of cooperatives. It is proving a useful adjunct to a tool which, with every new issue, reaffirms the key role it serves.hukri Adan, 49, has always kept camels, but until recently, with scant profits. Now, a marketing and processing project in Garissa, northern Kenya, has helped to triple his monthly income to €750. Initiatives include a Camel Research Centre, a dairy plant to pasteurise milk and a slaughterhouse. Some 40,000 farmers have formed cooperatives to supply milk to the plant and 20,000 farmers supply livestock to the slaughterhouse. As drought spells become more severe due to climate change, there is growing interest in the role of camels as a source of milk, meat and revenue.Much of the trade in camel produce is informal and hard to quantify. But interest is booming, driven by urban markets in developing countries, ongoing demand from the Middle East and new markets in industrialised countries, spurred by health food trends. Products aimed at markets in the North -almost exclusively from the one-humped dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) -include powdered camel's milk, butter, low-fat steak, soap, cosmetics and camel chocolate.The global market for camel products has a potential of US$10 billion (€6.95 bn) a year, says FAO, though there are significant challenges. Generally, a female camel produces just 5 l of milk a day. Milking is done by hand, and processing and marketing pose hurdles for herders with poor transportation and retail systems. But the value chain is being streamlined in some ACP countries and experts claim camels represent good potential. World camel milk production is 1.3 million t -500 times less than cow's milk -but demand is soaring. Camel's milk has three times as much vitamin C as cow's milk and is rich in iron, unsaturated fatty acids and B vitamins. Research is ongoing into its role in reducing diabetes and heart disease. With improved feed, water, husbandry and veterinary care, daily yields could rise to 2011, says FAO, a promising prospect given that fresh camel milk typically fetches at least three times more than cow's milk in African countries.The main focus is on dairy products, promoting small and medium scale industrial investments, mobile collection and processing units to add value to camel products and extend shelf life. In Somalia, British NGO VETAID and Germany's Vets without Borders are working to create milk collection and distribution points, improving hygiene and providing business skills. The Tiviski dairy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, has developed a sterilisation process to extend market reach. Annual revenue from camel products now tops €1 million, with 800 herders receiving regular income. With advice from a French cheese-making expert, company founder Nancy Abeiderrahmane produced a soft white cheese quickly dubbed Camelbert. In Kenya, the Vital Milk factory exports camel milk and products to South Africa and Tanzania. Demand for camel hair and hides is growing, with one hide fetching up to €50.The adaptability of the camel to changing climatic conditions has raised prices and brought new opportunities. Camel farming could be an option for up to 35 million people living on semi-arid land in Africa, says a new study. Some communities, such as the Samburu tribe in northern Kenya, are already selling off cattle and goats and replacing them with camels to cope with drought. A number of pastoralists have embraced a more market-based economy, with herders now working as livestock brokers in small trading centres along Kenya's Garissa-Lamu-Mombasa route. Women are engaged in activities such as selling milk cakes. In Garissa, Kenya, livestock sales generate €367,000 each week. Elsewhere, traders have shifted to Ethiopian markets, where camels are sold to Middle Eastern buyers.1000 -5000 5000 -10,000 10,000 -25,000 25,000 -50,000 50,000 -100,000 Somalia, accounts for half the total world camel milk production Promoting and marketing camel products, linking producers groups to processors, improving methods for milk preservation and value addition -these are just some of the initiatives helping to smooth the value chain for camel products in ACP countries.Production and post-harvest systems, environmental adaptation techniques and marketing strategies -all these aspects are covered in this wide-ranging analysis of tropical horticulture. The chapters outline successes and failures in practices currently used and set out how the quantity and quality of horticultural produce could be improved. They home in on specific case studies, including tropical vegetables, fruit and ornamental crops. In recent years, the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) has gained valuable experience working as a facilitator between various stakeholders. Five case studies are examined, each one illustrating the benefits but also the pitfalls of facilitator involvement.  Good quality seed is the cornerstone to improved farm incomes and food security, both at local and national levels. Yet while some countries have realised the importance of seeds, and given this sector priority, others lag behind and the seed system continues to be weak, leading to underperforming agriculture Improved seeds can make all the difference, producing better harvests and helping producers to combat challenges such as pests and climate change through more resistant varieties. So what is the secret of good seeds? A guide in the popular Tropical Agriculturalist series sets out to explore the two main ways for obtaining seedby saving part of the grain from an earlier harvest or purchasing from a commercial supplier. It explains the biological principles that determine the quality of seed and analyses technologies and good management practices that can help control and improve seed quality. It all describes the way in which the seed supply system works at local, national and international levels, and makes some suggestions as to how this could be improved.By M turner CtA/Macmillan, 2011. 152 pp. ISBn 978-0-230-02239-3 CtA number 1643 10 credit points hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets in developing countries during the food riots of 2008, their anger served not just to highlight soaring food prices, but to reflect growing unease about the effectiveness of international aid on agriculture and rural development, and the role that agricultural research should be playing. In its annual report on global development that same year, the World Bank admitted its responsibility for the disastrous state of food production in Africa.A new book aims to take the debate on rural development a step further. It seeks to raise the profile of agricultural research and rural development initiatives that are helping to address real problems, with respect for local producers built into their design.The author looks at sustainable practical solutions based on case studies presented at the APPRI international workshop 'Learning, Producing and Sharing Innovations: tools for co-construction and sustainable implementation of innovations in dryland Africa'.OCtOBER-nOvEMBER 2011 | SPORE 155 |Commodity exchanges in Africa can be an effective way of improving smallholder farmer linkages to markets. A study focusing on coffee, maize and beans seeks to establish the extent to which new models have provided a positive impact on farmer marketing channels, and have assisted in upgrading marketing institutions that support the smallholder community. A treaty for plant biodiversity ■ Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are essential for sustainable agriculture and food production. But in spite of their importance, PGRFA are being lost at an alarming rate.. Today, just 30 cultivated species provide 90% of human calorific food supplied by plants. This loss of agricultural biodiversity has seriously damaged small-scale farmers' livelihoods and drastically reduced the potential of present and future generations to adapt to changing circumstances.A key effort to address this problem is being made by The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), a pivotal piece of recent legislation that provided a road map for the use of such resources for sustainable agriculture and food security. This book traces the development of the treaty and explains why it was needed, with clear descriptions of the different interests at stake between all players in the global food chain. ■ 2009 is a year that will not easily be forgotten in many parts of eastern Africa. As rains failed to arrive, 20 million people were estimated to be suffering from food insecurity due to water shortages. When the crisis deepened, staple crops became so expensive that people resorted to eating wild cactus in some regions and conflicts brewed between tribes in the north. Similar stories of famine and failed harvests have emerged across much of the world during the past 2 years, causing widespread suffering and economic losses, with eastern Africa hard hit again.Drought is increasingly being recognised as a key indicator and instigator of the problems facing the planet and is a major factor in what many climate experts predict is an impending global water crisis.This book offers a review of the historical occurrence of global drought, particularly during the 20th century, and assesses the likely pattern of events in the present century, given current trends for climate change. It calls for better observations of drought when it occurs, and improved monitoring of both current and future conditions. In agriculture, women constitute the majority of farmers and producers and therefore make up a significant part of the supply base. Yet women suffer many gender-specific constraints when participating in market-based activities. A new report aims to provide a deeper understanding of gender-specific features of the value chain.By A Boodhna IIED, 2011. 24 pp. ISBn 978-1-84369-813-5 Downloadable as PDF file from: http://tinyurl.com/3c7w788 simple power ■ Mechanical power is critical for making human labour more productive, especially in rural settings, where other energy sources may be lacking. For centuries, the type of power has been used for water pumping, food processing, and manufacturing, supporting daily activities such as water transportation, irrigation, and shelling crops. It has relatively low investment costs and can often be applied on a smallscale. As a result, financing of mechanical power can often prove to be one of the most cost-effective methods of supporting people with low incomes, and helping them to earn more.However, in spite of the importance of mechanical power in meeting every day energy needs at the local level, its role in contributing to poverty reduction and improving livelihoods is widely under-estimated, a fact reflected in the lack of data and documentation on the subject. Seeking to address this gap, a guide analyses the contributions that mechanical power can make to better income generation and living standards ■ Global demand for spices -a category that includes dried seeds, fruits, roots, bark and other plant materials -has increased steadily in recent years. In 2009, the volume of spices traded on world markets reached 4 million t, with most of the products originating from developing countries, often produced on small farms. Although the market is booming, opening the way for interesting opportunities, the spice sector also faces significant challenges. These include the complexity of sourcing, the length of supply chains and the diversity of participants in each chain. Regulations and standards require good production inputs and practices, traceability and approved environmental and social conditions. The investment needed is turning many ACP spice farmers and companies to abandon export markets in favour of local or regional markets, or switching to other crops such as cocoa or oil palm.Tracing a number of real-life cases, this book highlights possible solutions to sustainability challenges .Understanding the benefits, costs and risks when connecting small-scale producers to formal markets is critical in helping companies, farmers, NGOs and donors decide whether to invest in supply chain opportunities. A report seeks to ask key questions, such as who the rural poor are and under what conditions they benefit.By A Buxton, D Seville & B vorley IIED, 2011. 52 pp. ISBn 978-1-84369-814-2 Downloadable as PDF file from: http://tinyurl.com/3d34hjzNo-tillage, use of green manure and the practice of crop rotation on small farms are all described in this publication. The guide gives detailed advice on which types of green manure are most suitable for which small-scale farm production systems, depending on soil fertility and the type of crops grown. ■ The premise that food security in lowincome countries can be achieved through sustained effort by local small-scale farming communities is central to this book. But there are two key prerequisites, both of which are closely linked. The first is strong support from local, national and international agencies, without which little lasting progress will realistically be made. The second is that the small-scale producers must themselves feel that their interests are being protected, and that they are involved in drawing up the systems designed to help them.Firmly convinced that both features can and must be worked into any lasting development strategy, the author, an experienced agriculturalist with a long experience in developing countries, offers practical advice to ensure that policy makers and rural communities work together towards a common goal. It ends with an analysis of ways that stakeholders could work together more effectively in order to achieve better results. This year we launched two new series. The first, Pro-Agro, is a collection of practical books aimed at extension workers and rural communities. It is published in partnership with ISF Cameroon, in line with our mission of capacity building in ACP publishing. The second collection is CTA's Policy Briefs. These concise and peer-reviewed documents for policy makers address the most topical issues. They present an analysis of the topic, expert opinions and a range of policy options. 2011 will also see the launch of CTA Publishing website. Visitors will be able to order publications online, update their personal information and download e-publications. The revolution in publishing is only just beginning. Digital publishing allows us to print, index, annotate, comment on, and store and share a text easily. The implications for agricultural development in terms of facilitating the management of information resources, publishing in different formats and ease of sharing information across a wide range of media via different communication channels, are enormous.What do you see as CTA's role in developing digital publishing in ACP countries? I see CTA helping ACP publishers and organisations to adopt the most suitable technologies or legal devices, or to apply the most effective economic model. In the great debate on open access, on whether or not to safeguard intellectual rights and the financial implications that this entails, the voices of ACP organizations should also be heard.How can interested publishers partner with CTA?Our new Strategic Plan has identified priority themes which should be reflected in our (co) publications: the development of value chains, support for the elaboration of agricultural policies, etc. There are still knowledge gaps in both publishing and the Web in these areas, ones which we expect to fill through suggestions received from publishers and ACP organisations.The Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) is the highlight of the agricultural calendar in the Caribbean. In 2011 it will take place in Dominica from 10-14th October. CWA provides a space for dialogue between policy makers at the highest level as well as executives and representatives from key stakeholders in regional policies.Since 2003, CTA has been actively involved in CWA. This year, CTA will support two workshops during the event. The first of these is on climate change adaptation in the Caribbean and addresses the challenge of water management. It is jointly organised by CTA, CARDI, Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre and Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology. The second workshop concentrates on building coherence and linkages among the components of the Regional Food and Nutrition Security Policy. This is supported by IICA, CaRAPN and CARICOM Secretariat.In addition, CTA has partnered with IICA, CaRAPN and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers to host an agricultural round table on the topic of food and nutrition security.The Association of Caribbean Media Workers, IICA, CARDI and CTA will also jointly announce the award for journalists 'Excellence in Communicating Agriculture' on Wednesday 12 October.Finally, CTA's Science & Technology Advisory Group meeting will take place during the event.The 2011 CWA is sure to provide useful and interesting points for consideration and will undoubtedly be a great success.The 24 th Brussels Policy Development Briefing was held on 14 September. Entitled 'Major drivers for rural transformation in Africa: Job creation for rural growth', the Briefing discussed the main challenges involved in rural transformation processes. Several high profile speakers such as Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of NEPAD, Professor Peter Hazell from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and Paul Dorash from IFPRI shared different perspectives on rural transformation processes across continents. The debate also centred on rural employment and rural labour markets needed to create growth and economic development. The Briefing was attended by some 150 participants with another 100 following the discussions live online. The Briefing was organised in partnership with CTA, the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, the European Commission (DG DEVCO), the ACP Secretariat, Concord and others. Resource materials from this and other Briefings are available to download on: www.brusselsbriefings.net (continued from page 25) The conference has attracted substantial interest from around the ACP and beyond. To date, 729 participant registrations have been received. While the deadline for sponsored participants is now closed, others wishing to pay to attend can still do so online.Also confirmed for the conference, are a high level Ministerial panel from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Keynote speakers will include the AGRA President, Prof. Monty Jones, a Brazilian extension specialist and two farmers from Senegal and Papua New Guinea. The event organisers recently launched a number of sponsorship packages for those companies wishing to avail of the fantastic branding opportunity.Visit http://extensionconference2011.cta.int for more information on registration and sponsorship packages as well as the latest news on the conference.Mushrooms, the lesser known forest treasure mrs Isabelle Lagaillarde wrote to us having read the article on forests in issue 153. She shares her view that wild mushrooms are another significant and under-estimated product of the forest. According to her, throughout the world several high value wild mushroom species such as boletus, cantharellus and morchella grow naturally in symbiosis with the local woodland. these mushrooms are highly demanded in developed countries and careful and well-managed exploitation of this natural resource could contribute not only to forest preservation but also the local economy.Reacting to our article on price volatility in issue 154, mr Norbert eboh commented that, in his opinion, ACP governments should do more to incentivise youth to become involved in farming. with large numbers of enthusiastic university graduates there should be lots of opportunities to create employment in this sector from production through to marketing.mr Yacouba Diallo was delighted to read the interview with our colleague José Filipe Fonseca! José's suggestion that currently the agricultural sector is not perceived as attractive for youth rang true for Mr. Diallo. he agrees that in order to really engage youth, the industry needs to offer financial security and employment opportunities. to make this happen, he believes that it is necessary to have policies that encourage young people to invest in agriculture. these policies, he writes, should include access to rural and peri-urban agricultural land, implementation of an infrastructure that supports production and the development of financial loans targeted at youth in agriculture. All of this should, in his opinion, be supported by a training programme for youth on entrepreneurial activities in agriculture. we wish all these beneficiaries all the best in their access to global literature for agriculture and rural development. tEEAL 'the Essential Electronic Agricultural Library' is edited by the Cornell University. It is a full-text digital database of agricultural journals which can be accessed without internet.","tokenCount":"11419"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8cae15cab9c2e3cdbb49cd84d8f90d8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/65d6784b-89b0-4e1a-a0f1-cdd871bd4187/retrieve","id":"1920870650"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"00d4e27a-870c-4fd7-82ba-57b71eecd822","pagecount":"13","content":"Background and summary of the findings Bananas (and plantain, Musa spp.) are the most important crops contributing to food security and the income of millions of smallholder farmers in Tanzania. Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV, genus Babuvirus), an aphid-transmitted virus, was first reported in 2021 in the Buhingwe district in the Kigoma region of Tanzania (Mpoki et al., 2022). The disease caused by this virus infection is termed as banana bunchy top disease (BBTD). A reconnaissance trip in Tanzania from December 2020 to January 2021 revealed plants with typical BBTV symptoms (stunting, bunchy growth with shortened petioles with chlorotic streaks, and yellow leaf margins) in several banana fields in Muhinda and Mwayaya villages. A confirmatory survey conducted in April 2021 in Muhinda, Mnanila, Kibwiga (Buhigwe district), Kalinzi, Mkigo, and Nyarubanga (Kigoma DC) revealed that the disease was widespread. Following a surveillance and diagnostic workshop conducted in August and October 2022, including alerts to report fields with suspect BBTD symptoms, banana farms with symptoms of BBTV infection were reported from Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Pwani, and Rukwa regions. The BBTV has no effective solutions. Preventing the virus spread and eradication of infected matts is the best strategy.With the support of funding from USAID and the CIGAR plant Health Initiative, an emergency delimitation survey was conducted in the major banana production regions where the crowdsourced information suggested the occurrence of BBTV symptomatic plants. This survey was conducted in five zones comprising regions already invaded and those at high risk of invasion. The delimitation survey summary, maps of BBTD distribution in Tanzania, and disease impact on banana production and livelihoods are provided in this preliminary report.The project has organized a preparatory workshop, \"Containing the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) Spread in Tanzania and Rehabilitating Banana Production in the Disease-Affected Areas: Inception and Planning Meeting,\" on 24 and 25 March 2023, at IITA, Dar-es-Salaam, along with the project implementation partners, Tanzania Plant Health and Pesticide Authority (TPHPA), Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) and Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA). The team discussed the delimitation survey plan, setting up teams, and training for survey teams in surveillance and sampling procedures. The surveyed regions were selected based on banana production area (Fig 1), proximity to areas known to have BBTV, and where the crowdsourcing information suggests the occurrence of BBTV symptomatic plants. A total of 15 regions were selected as a priority for the Phase-1 delimitation surveys, which were organized into five groups (Table 1). Five teams were set up to survey the target districts of each region. The primary survey team comprised 42 members drawn from IITA, TPHPA, TARI, and TAHA, and they were trained through two online workshops organized on 28 April Delimitation survey preparatory activities:2023 and 2 May 2023, which covered the performing surveys using an Android app-based ODK tool specifically designed for the BBTV surveillance, which enables real-time data collection and reporting. The survey team was also taught to recognize disease and collect leaf samples for virus confirmatory testing in a laboratory. Each survey team further engaged secondary survey teams locally in the target districts and trained them in the survey procedures. The BBTV ODK application was loaded into the Android apps of the surveyors prior to the survey launch. Arusha (6) Kilimanjaro ( 6) Manyara ( 3) Tanga ( 8) Pwani ( 6) Dar (1) Morogoro ( 2) Kagera ( 8) Kigoma ( 6) Mbeya ( 8) Katavi ( 6) Rukwa ( 3) Geita ( 6) Mwanza ( 8 Surveys were performed in a total of 15 of 31 regions of Tanzania. TPHPA wrote official letters to the regional, district, and ward-level extension offices informing them about the delimitation survey exercise and its relevance, seeking support for the survey team. On arrival to a district the survey team visited District Agricultural and Livestock Development Organization (DALDO), District Agriculture, Irrigation and Cooperative Officer (DAICO), and MAICO's office for courtesy and agreement on the work plan. The local officials provided approval and commissioned District Plant Protection Officers (DPPOs) to work with the survey team and oversee the survey activities in all sites in the respective districts. In the targeted villages, the survey team engaged with the Village Extension Officers (VEOs) who participated in conducting the surveys. These measures were taken to ensure that local authorities are part and parcel of the work being undertaken as well as to provide training on the disease and measures to take to manage the disease. From each visited banana field in the surveyed region, the teams collected leaf samples from suspected plants that could not be definitively diagnosed as BBTV using symptom expression alone. These samples were taken to the laboratory at the IITA in Dar-es-Salaam for confirmation using the rapid BBTV diagnostic kits based on recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) devices.Data was collected using a questionnaire in the ODK tool. The emphasis was on BBTV but also collected data on other important banana diseases and geographical and household information. During the survey, the enumerators visited BBTD-affected fields located at least 5 km apart and interviewed the head of the household based on the structured questions in the ODK tool uploaded on smartphones. Data in ODK forms were submitted when a reliable internet connection was secured. Virus testing data were collated in Excel sheets and matched to the corresponding field data downloaded from the BBTV ODK tool.Key findings:Of the 15 surveyed regions BBTV was detected in 10 (Fig. 2). BBTV was not detected in Arusha, Kagera, Manyara, Mara, and Tanga regions (Table 1). Further monitoring of fields in these regions is ongoing using the BBTV crowdsourcing group.In the Kilimanjaro region, BBTV was detected in 2 districts, Moshi Municipal and Moshi Rural. The other districts (Hai, Mwanga, Rombo, and Siha) appear free from this disease. Measures to continue monitoring for the disease are in place using Crowdsourcing. Local authorities, including DPPOs and extension officers, were included in the crowdsourcing.BBTV was very severe in Moshi (Msaranga Ward), with farmers abandoning banana production for alternate crops like maize, cassava, etc. The virus wiped out entire banana fields. Initially, BBTV was seen in Moshi Municipal only in the previous surveys conducted in 2022, and now the virus has spread to the Rural Moshi district.In Dodoma, BBTV was detected in Dodoma Urban. This followed reports of a backyard garden that had BBTD symptoms. The garden had been established with planting material bought from a nursery in Morogoro. More districts in Dodoma should be surveyed to get the full extent of the disease in this region.In Morogoro, three districts were surveyed. BBTV was detected only in Morogoro Urban and in the Mzinga ward. This detection was made possible by a report of a farmer in Dodoma who observed BBTV symptomatic in the suckers purchased from a nursery near the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro. The survey team detected severe BBTD symptomatic suckers in the nursery. The nursery operator confirmed sourcing the planting material from the Mzinga ward in Morogoro Urban. The nursery has been selling banana seedlings to many farmers in Dodoma, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Shinyanga, and Mara. Farmers in Mzinga claim to have noticed BBTD symptoms starting in 2022 but were unaware of the source. Production losses in this ward are more than 90%. A follow-up of the banana sucker distribution from this nursery is needed.In Pwani, BBTD was detected only in Kisarawe District. No BBTD was detected in the other eight districts. Farmers were not aware of the disease.Because the plants were no longer producing, farmers abandoned the farms or cut at the base of pseudostems. The leftover stubbles and new sprouts serve as inoculum sources and perpetuate the disease.BBTD was widely distributed in the two districts (Kinondoni and Ubungo) that were targeted in Dar es Salaam Region. Most of the bananas are grown in backyard gardens. Most farmers bring planting material from their rural homes, which was the most likely source of the disease in Dar es Salaam. Farmers reported seeing the disease starting in 2021.Kigoma is the first place where the disease was noticed and reported. The disease is widespread in Buhigwe and Kigoma districts, with all fields visited having diseased plants. During this survey, BBTD was detected in Uvinza District, showing that the disease continues to spread southwards. Kasulu and Kibondo districts were free from the disease. However, a suspected plant was observed in one field in Kakonko District. Diagnostic tests of the samples taken from this field tested positive for BBTV. A repeat test will be organized for reconfirmation. Nonetheless, this result confirms a northward movement of BBTV. More fields in this area need to be surveyed to identify spread of BBTV to other fields in this area and implement eradication.In Katavi, BBTD was observed in the three districts that were surveyed, while in Mbeya, plants with BBTD symptoms were observed in four districts. It appears that BBTD is widespread in Katavi. Further surveys are needed, covering more districts to better understand disease distribution and severity, including Rukwa and Songwe regions, as these regions border with BBBTV-affected Mbeya to the south and Katavi to the north.In Nothern Tanzania, BBTD was detected in three of the eight districts in the Mwanza Region. The districts with BBTV are Nyamagana, Sengerema Town Council (TC), and Ukerewe Districts. Mild symptoms that looked like BBTD were observed on only one plant/mat in one site in Misungwi on a Matoke variety reported to be sourced from Rombo District in Kilimanjaro. Confirmatory tests conducted in the laboratory was positive to BBTV.In Ukerewe District, BBTD is widely distributed, and all wards are affected. Disease incidence was 81%. A similar situation was observed in Nyamagana District. In Kagera, eight districts were surveyed, and all were free from BBTD symptoms and, no BBTV was detected in the leaf samples from these locations.In Geita, BBTD was detected in two districts, Geita TC and Geita Rural District. The Geita TC district is the most affected (80%), while the areas affected in Geita DC are those near Geita TC. It appears that the disease is spreading from urban to rural areas. Farmers reported that they had seen symptoms of BBTD in Geita TC since late 2019, and many have replaced their banana fields with sugarcane, vegetables, and other crops.Molecular diagnostics analysis of the collected samples confirmed the presence of BBTV in all areas where symptoms of BBTD were observed, including Kakonko and Misungwi districts where suspected cases were mild symptoms (Table 3).Top-level meetings should be organized to deliver awareness to the government/ministries to secure access to government resources in fighting against BBTD.Awareness campaigns are needed among farmers and extension officials as their knowledge of BBTV and BBTD is critically limited. Consequently, the disease spread into new areas was not noticed until very late, which seems to have allowed the firm establishment of the disease in farms.Movement of planting material might be the major factor contributing to the spread of BBTD. There is a need to reduce or restrict the movement of planting materials from one place to another. There is a need to establish a functional banana seed system to curb the spread of BBTD.A strategy to strengthen the production and supply of clean planting material to farmers needs to be developed and operationalized. This should go hand in hand with educating famers to stop taking planting materials from neighbours or unverified sources.The disease continues to spread. More surveys are needed, especially in the new areas, to delineate infected from uninfected areas and implement zoning to stop disease spread.Immediate interventions are required to prevent further spread of BBTD in the country.1.3.5.      ","tokenCount":"1926"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4d70c01a197bd35acb0a5f25daccb9a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/477f80dd-dce7-4685-a8e8-4f9bebdd3d5b/retrieve","id":"1667273435"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bf686173-29cd-4beb-b7e5-8fb90da86a1c","pagecount":"23","content":"The study aims to analyse key determinants of urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness in Malawi to support youth policies. A mixed-methods approach is used, which combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative method involved a Bivariate Logit Model and Multinomial Logit Model to analyse nationally representative survey data from the Fourth Integrated Household Survey in 2016-2017. The qualitative method employed thematic analysis to data generated through Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews for key stakeholders involved in agri-business in Lilongwe district. The qualitative analysis, which focuses on a case study for urban and peri-urban youth in agribusiness, was used to validate, and provide context for the quantitative analysis. The results revealed that a majority of the urban and peri-urban youth engaged in agribusiness across Malawi work in sole farming (family farms or ganyu); in addition, women outnumber men in terms of engagement in agribusiness, and this stems from tradition. In addition, the determinants that affect youth's engagement in agribusiness consist of demographic factors, institutional support, assets, and shocks. It was also shown that men were more likely than women to be engaged in sole farming, but they were as likely as women to be engaged in other forms of agribusiness. The policy recommendation from this study is that programs aimed at supporting youth engagement in agribusiness should consider a variety of factors; If resources are limited, the programs should ensure that they offer capacity strengthening for the youth in the form of extension services and practical training in agribusiness.Youth in low-income countries, including countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), struggle to secure gratifying livelihoods as they enter the labour force in astounding numbers [1]. In addition, employment in the formal wage sector in sub-Saharan Africa remains elusive [2], with many youths not able to get employment in the formal sector [3]. Most often, youth work in small, informal family businesses where they are self-employed or where they work without pay [4]. According to the International Labour Office [5], in 2019, 23 percent of youth globally were engaged in formal employment while 77 percent were engaged in informal employment. It is projected that over 4.8 million young Africans will enter the labour force each year between 2010 and 2050 [6]. Moreover, the evidence shows that youth in Africa are three times as likely as older adults to be unemployed [7].In Malawi, youth unemployment is high standing at 27.5 percent for youth aged 15-24 years and 23.0 percent for youth aged 15-34 years compared to 20.4 percent for the total unemployment rate [8]. According to Fox et al. [2], the employment structure in African countries, Malawi included, has not changed much due to their failure to structurally transform into high-income economies with more productive agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The efforts to address youth unemployment in Malawi have been inadequate with most policies and programs not paying explicit attention to the agricultural sector [9,10].Agriculture can be a source of livelihood for youth in Malawi. According to FAO [11], agriculture in Malawi remains the principal livelihood opportunity for many young people, as agriculture is seemingly the default source of livelihood for most, including those living in urban centres [12]. Agriculture is also a source of livelihood for youth in Africa. As such, some agribusiness interventions across Africa have produced favourable outcomes such as youth startups and youth employment [13]. The Government of Malawi and development partners have been implementing youth-based programs in agribusiness with the aim of providing youth with training and resources to promote employment in agribusiness. The Integrated Youth Development Programme (IYDP), One Village One Product (OVOP) program in Malawi and Associated Centre for Agro-Based Development and Entrepreneurship Support (ACADES) are some of the programs.In some cases, the employment opportunities for young people in agriculture have not materialized in gainful employment due to various constraints. Some of the constraints for African youth include lack access to credit and improved technologies; limited practical skills, and limited access to fair markets as well as lack of access to land [14,15]. These challenges are due to limited inclusion and the lack of a favourable environment to create a sense of ownership by the youth engaged in agricultural value chains [16]. Indeed, in Malawi, the youth and agricultural policy framework provides little support to youth in terms of access to affordable farm inputs, land, extension services, even value addition initiatives and access to markets [9]. Evidence shows that youth in Malawi face various and interconnected challenges; as a result, they suffer simultaneous well-being deprivations [17]. According to Ismail [18], there is limited knowledge on employment experiences and barriers for some youth groups, including urban and rural youth. In this study, we examine the factors that influence youth employment in agribusiness in the urban and peri-urban areas of Malawi.Some studies have analysed the determinants of employment in agribusiness [12,[19][20][21]. For example, Gelan et al. [21], using a linear regression model, found that education, farm income, livestock ownership and access to credit, inputs, and land influence employment in agriculture in Ethiopia. Byishimo et al. [22] found that land inheritance had a negative influence on youth migration and non-agricultural based employment in Rwanda.In Malawi, Van den Broeck et al. [19], using linear probability models, found that demographic factors, shocks, and job characteristics are important determinants of off-farm employment among the youth. In addition, Benson et al. [12] used a multinomial logit regression and found that education, age, gender, dependency ratio, education, ethnicity, distance to market and shocks (drought) influence youth's employment in agriculture and/or in industry/ services for Malawi. Kafle et al. [20] examined the dynamics of youth employment in Malawi and Tanzania and found that a high degree of youth in Malawi are in farming while their participation in agri-food enterprises remained constant between 2010 and 2013 (around 15%).In addition, youth's participation in different employment options in Malawi was driven by push/negative factors such as the loss of jobs or livelihood options; it could also be driven by pull/opportunity factors such as the higher opportunity costs of remaining in agriculture.Most studies have focused on rural settings and little research has been done on factors that influence youth employment in agribusiness in the urban areas of Malawi. This study aims to contribute to addressing the knowledge gap on the determinants of urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness by using the nationally-representative survey data generated as part of the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Household Survey (LSMS-IHS) initiative. The study also employs a triangulation approach which complements the quantitative analysis with a qualitative analysis, thereby enabling an in-depth understanding of the key determinants of urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness.The main objective of this study was to identify key factors influencing urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness in Malawi. Specific objectives were as follows:i. Identify the determinants of youth employment in agricultural-related enterprises in urban and peri-urban ii. Analyse opportunities and challenges experienced by urban and peri-urban youth in agricultural-related enterprisesThis study is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the data and methods used for the analysis. Section 3 presents results. Section 4 presents a discussion of the findings. Section 5 presents the conclusions and implications of the findings.The study used a mixed method approach which combines quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method consisted of econometric regressions on a nationally representative sample of youth engaged in agribusiness in the urban and peri-urban areas of Malawi. The qualitative method employed thematic analysis with qualitative data obtained from key stakeholders involved in youth in agriculture, including those related to the Associated Centre for Agro-Based Development and Entrepreneurship Support (ACADES). ACADES operates in Lilongwe and Mchinji districts and started in the year 2013. It has grown to be the largest network of youth in agribusiness in Malawi with over 3000 members; it provides the muchneeded evidence as it promotes employment through investment in agribusiness by supporting youth in agribusiness. The qualitative analysis which consisted of a case study provided validation and context for some of the quantitative results. The combination of both methods should strengthen policy recommendations. 2.1.2 Qualitative data. Qualitative data were generated from focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs) in Lilongwe district; the district houses Lilongwe city, the capital city of the country (Fig 1). Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 135 participants. A total of 12 FGDs were conducted with a range of 7 to 10 participants. The FGDs were held with youth (men only, women only, and mixed groups with a total of 4 FGDs for each group) who are involved in agribusiness in the urban and peri-urban areas of Lilongwe district. These youth include both those in ACADES and those who are not in ACADES but are involved in agribusiness in the two districts. ACADES focuses on employment creation and economic empowerment by redefining the agricultural sector, transforming it into a viable and desirable career for youth. ACADES aims to promote youth development in agribusiness through skills development, empowerment, capacity building, resource mobilisation, advocacy, and access to inputs and markets. The 17 KIIs were composed of local leaders, government officials from five government ministries (agriculture, youth, labour, education, and trade), officers from government and non-governmental institutions and youth bodies. These participants provided in-depth and detailed information about agribusiness and youth employment situations in the urban and peri-urban areas of Malawi.The data collection process was reviewed and approved by IITA's Internal Review Board (IRB); the approval number is IRB/IF-CA/008/2021.One key step in the quantitative analysis was the construction of variables to use in the econometric analysis. In the quantitative analysis, youth employment in agribusiness is the main (dependent) variable which comprises on-farm and off-farm employment categories including wage and self-employment. With regards to the employment categories, the study distinguishes four types of employment in agribusiness: employment in farming involves a youth who works on a family farm or engages in ganyu (casual labour) on farms; it is labelled 'Farming'. Employment in a mix of farming and off-farm non-agricultural wage activity involves a youth who is engaged in 'Farming' and self or wage employment in a non-agricultural sector; it is labelled as 'Farm_NoAgWage'. Employment in an off-farm agricultural wage activity is defined as any work outside farming but in agriculture (self or wage employment); such form of employment can be alone or combined with other activities such as farming or a non-agricultural household business; it is labelled 'AgWge_Farm_Biz'. Employment in a mix of Farming and non-agricultural business activities or apprenticeship is labelled as 'Farm_-Biz_Skill'. It involves a youth employed in 'Farming' but also apprenticeship or in non-agricultural household business activities such as home-based or outside home enterprises (not in agriculture).In line with the literature review on the push and pull factors affecting employment [19,21], the quantitative analysis retains exogenous variables that reflect demographic factors, institutional support (credit and extension services), asset ownership, market access and shocks. Specific demographic variables include age, sex, marital status (whether the youth is married, divorced/separated, widowed, or never married), religion (whether the youth have a religious belief or not) and household headship (whether the youth is household head or not). For household size, it consists of the number of family members while the dependency ratio reflects the number of dependents (individuals below the age of 14 years and above 64 years of age) per family. Additionally, education consisted of 4 levels: no formal education, primary, secondary and tertiary; the variable reflects the highest educational attainment for each respondent. The tertiary educational level includes a diploma, undergraduate degrees, or postgraduate qualification. The variable on access to credit reflects whether the youth has received credit or not (0 for no; 1 for yes). A similar code is used for access to agricultural extension services. The wealth index reflects the ownership of household and productive assets such as home appliances and agricultural tools. Other variables include idiosyncratic shocks (whether the household experienced an idiosyncratic shock or not), livestock ownership (tropical livestock unit owned), landholding (land measured in hectares), distance to the nearest tar road, and distance to the nearest market in kilometres.2.3.1 Quantitative analysis: Econometric models. This paper uses two logit regression models. The first model, a bivariate logit model, is used to estimate key factors determining urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness. Here, youth employment in agribusiness is a binary indicator. The bivariate logit model is specified as follows:Where: Y i = Dependent binary variable (youth 'i' is employed in agribusiness = 1, or unemployed = 0) P i = Probability of youth 'i' being employed in agribusiness 1 -P i = Probability of youth 'i' being unemployed β 0 -β ik = Regression coefficients x i1 = Explanatory variablesThe second model, Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) is used when there are more than two categories and the dependent variable is categorical [23]. The MNL is used to identify key determinants that affect engagement of urban and peri-urban youth into specific agribusiness employment categories. The MNL is specified as follows:Where: EMA ij = dependent categorical variable (youth 'i' is employed in agribusiness activity 'j' = 1, unemployed = 0) β 0 . . . β ik = Regression coefficients The MNL uses the same explanatory variables used in the bivariate logit model (Eq 2). In MNL, one category of the dependent variable which has a large number of observations is chosen as the reference category [24]; in this case, 'Unemployed' was set as the reference category. The Relative Risk Ratio (RRR) were reported for the MNL, and the coefficients were computed in relation to the reference category.The bivariate logit model was used to identify key determinants of youth employment in agribusiness, whereas the multivariate analysis provided more insights on the determinants affecting youth employment in specific categories of agribusiness employment. The econometric analysis was conducted in STATA 14.2 and sampling weights were used in the regression analysis to ensure that the results are nationally-representative.2.3.2 Qualitative analysis: Deductive coding approach. Qualitative data were analysed using deductive coding (thematic analysis) aided by NVivo software [25]. In the study, a deductive coding approach was undertaken in several stages, as suggested by Bernard [26]. Firstly, line-by-line coding of all text from field notes and interview transcripts from both FGDs and KIIs was done. Then, broad ideas and concepts identified were assigned codes to structure the data. The codes were then synthesized and iteratively grouped into relevant themes (predetermined categories or themes). The themes within the data were compared against one or more themes that are proposed in existing literature and compared across all cases. Then, the results were further synthesized into three broader themes with sub-themes nested within them. The data was coded into the following themes: (i) key factors that influence youth employment in agribusiness; (ii) opportunities faced in agribusiness; and (iii) challenges faced in agribusiness. The key questions asked were: what are the main factors that influence youth to be in agribusiness? How do these factors influence youth to be employed in agribusiness? What are the opportunities and challenges youth face in agribusiness, and how do they affect their employment in agribusiness? The study adopts the definition of youth by the African Union (AU) Commission, which defines youth as a person aged between 15 and 35 years.In the urban and peri-urban areas of Malawi, the average age of the youth who were either unemployed or employed in agribusiness was 26 years in 2016-17, with 37.9% being males (Table 1). These youths stayed in households which comprised about 5 people on average and 24.4% of them were household heads; the others were related to the household head either as a spouse, a child, etc. Most of these urban and peri-urban youth (55.9%) had no formal education. About 29.1 percent had access to credit, while 55.3 percent had access to agricultural extension services. Less than half of these youth had experienced idiosyncratic shock; they also had an average landholding of about 0.02 hectares and an average livestock unit of 0.11. In addition, these youth lived about 1.45 km from a tarmac road and 1.57 km from the market (Table 1).There were key differences between the youth employed in agribusiness and the unemployed youth based on the Wald test (Table 1). There was a significant difference in terms of age: the youth employed in agribusiness were slightly younger (25.2 years) on average than the unemployed (26.5 years). About two-thirds of the youth employed in agribusiness were female (57.1%); yet, among the unemployed youth, the majority were also female (65.5%). More than half of the youth employed or unemployed were married. Also, the youth employed in agribusiness were less educated than the unemployed youth. More specifically, 66.1% of the youth employed in agribusiness had no formal education, compared to 48.9% of the unemployed youth. The average household size for the youth employed in agribusiness was slightly smaller than that of unemployed youth. Also, the average dependency ratio for the youth employed in agribusiness was 0.95, whereas it was higher, at 1.04 for the unemployed youth (Table 1). There were also significant differences in terms of access to agricultural extension services and credit. For example, most of the youth employed in agribusiness (72.7%) had access to agricultural extension services compared to the unemployed youth (43.3%). In addition, the youth employed in agribusiness were more likely to have access to credit than their counterparts. The results also showed that the youth employed in agribusiness experienced slightly less idiosyncratic shock compared to the unemployed youth group. Additionally, the statistics show that the youth employed in agribusiness had an average landholding of 0.04 hectares, while the unemployed youth had an average of 0.01 hectares. Also, there was a significant difference in the number of livestock units owned. For instance, the youth employed in agribusiness held an average livestock unit of 0.16, while the unemployed youth held 0.08 units on average. The average distance to the road for the youth employed in agribusiness was higher than for the unemployed youth. However, the youth in agribusiness faced a shorter distance to market compared to the unemployed youth (Table 1).Out of the more than 2.5 million urban and peri-urban youth who were either unemployed or employed in agribusiness in Malawi in 2016/17, about 59.08 percent were unemployed, and 33.4 percent were employed solely in farming (Table 2). About 1.69 percent of these youth were receiving an agricultural wage or were combining the agricultural wage with other income sources such as farming or a household non-agricultural business. Of these, about 86% were engaged in agricultural wage work only. Approximately 4.23 percent of the youth were employed in a mix of farming and off-farm non-agricultural businesses, whereas 1.69% were involved in farming combined with a non-agricultural household business or apprenticeship (Table 2).Gender differences were observed in the employment categories (Fig 2). For one, the share of females among the unemployed youth was 66 percent. Women also outnumbered men across the categories of employment in agribusiness. Such a trend is a little nuanced when considering the different districts. For example, in Mzuzu, which is in northern Malawi, males slightly outnumbered women in the 'farming' employment category. For all other employment categories, women outnumbered men. In Lilongwe, which is in central Malawi, more females were employed compared to males in all employment categories. In Zomba, there were more males than females in the employment category where farming is combined with a business or apprenticeship and in the one involving off-farm agricultural wages. In Blantyre, which is in southern Malawi, females outnumbered males for all employment categories except the one In this section, results are divided into three subsections. The first subsection presents results derived from both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The second part shows results derived only from the quantitative analysis, whereas the third part shows results derived only from the qualitative approach.Mixed-methods analysis. The determinants of youth employment in agribusiness that were identified through the quantitative and qualitative methods can be classified into the following themes: demographic factors such as sex (gender), marital status, and education; institutional support including credit access, access to agricultural extension services, and distance or access to markets; wealth (assets, livestock, and land ownership); and shocks.On gender, the bivariate logit results showed that being male is associated with a higher likelihood of being employed in agribusiness compared to being female. More specifically, for the bivariate logit, the odds ratio on 'sex' is statistically significant and the value of the marginal effect is 0.061, meaning that being male instead of female increases the likelihood of being employed in agribusiness by 6.1% (Table 3). The results of the MNL show that male youth were more likely to be employed in 'farming' compared to female youth; for the other three employment categories, male youth were as likely as their female counterpart to be employed (Table 3). The results from the quantitative analysis are partly supported by the results from the qualitative analysis. More specifically, findings from all FGDs highlight that females tend to engage less in agribusiness (especially farming) than males because they face socio-cultural factors such as an increase in household and child-caring responsibilities as well as marital obligations that limit their engagement in agribusiness.The bivariate logit results showed that being a married or widowed youth was associated with a lower likelihood of being employed in agribusiness than being single (never married) (Table 3). The MNL results revealed that being married decreased the likelihood of being employed in farming (-8.7%); in a mix of farming and a business or apprenticeship (-0.9%); or in agricultural wage work either conducted alone or in combination with farming or a business (-1.5%). For the latter employment category, being separated also decreased the odds of employment compared to being single (never married). The findings from all mixed FGDs revealed that marital status influences youth to be in agribusiness, especially for females. Some married males were engaged in agribusiness but also tried to work in non-agricultural jobs or businesses in search of more remunerative opportunities and income. Participants underlined that married females tend to engage less in agribusiness because of their husband's jealousy that they will indulge in immoral conduct with their male counterparts (Table 3).As expected, findings from the bivariate logit model revealed that more educated urban and peri-urban youth had a higher likelihood of not being employed in agribusiness (Table 3). The odds ratios for the variables on education were statistically significant, and the values for marginal effects related to these variables decreased with the education level, going from -4.3% for primary education to -19.4% for tertiary education. The MNL results show a similar trend for employment in farming: less educated youth have a higher likelihood of being employed in farming. However, for two of the other agribusiness employment categories that involve agricultural or non-agricultural wage work, youth who had completed secondary education were more likely to be employed in these other categories compared to uneducated youth (Table 3). Such results are not surprising, as young people engaged in farming can receive training from their parents and community for farming; however, their engagement in other wage work usually requires a higher educational attainment. Findings from all FGDs confirmed that education is an important determinant of youth being employed in agribusiness, as it equips youth with skills and knowledge in agribusiness. However, all FGDs and key informant interview participants highlighted that the formal education system is more theoretical and that additional practical training in agribusiness would be needed. In all FGDs with non-ACADES participants, it was found that youth lack access to agribusiness education (training). Moreover, in all focus group discussions, participants revealed that most of the youth have little knowhow in agribusiness activities, and the education curriculum does not focus much on agribusiness with a practical approach. Particularly, participants from ACADES underscored that the training programs provided by ACADES are very helpful, but more can be done. Attesting to that, a government official pointed out that:\"Education programs do not focus much on agribusiness, despite it being a sector that has the potential to provide vast socio-economic benefits. Adding to that, education mostly focuses on a theoretical approach. This is a problem as youth lack the practical know-how in agribusiness activities\". (Male key informant, Ministry of Youth, December 2019, Lilongwe)Another government official reiterated that:\"Education is mostly class oriented. Despite the education system putting in place entrepreneurship programs, Malawian culture does not promote entrepreneurship but white-collar jobs. The education system is creating robots as it does not harness creativity and critical thinking; this is killing opportunities for youth\". (Male key informant, National Youth Council of Malawi, December 2019, Lilongwe)The combination of the quantitative and qualitative results on education imply that 'lack of education' is a push factor for youth's engagement in 'farming' and educational opportunities are a pull factor for the youth involved in other agribusiness employment categories.The bivariate results show that having access to credit increases the likelihood of a youth being employed in agribusiness by 2.8%. However, the MNL results show that credit access is a positive determinant only for the youth engaged in a mix of farming and business or farming and apprenticeship. For all other employment categories, including sole farming, credit access seems to have no impact on engagement (Table 3). Access to credit is the most important determinant influencing youth to be employed in agribusiness, as it enables youth to have financial capital. In mostly all ACADES and non-ACADES FGDs, participants narrated that youth find it difficult to acquire credit, especially from banks, as they do not have the collateral banks require. However, female youth FGDs highlighted that female youth are sidelined in accessing credit compared to male youth. Here, we can conclude that the quantitative results reflect that most youth in agribusiness had very limited credit access in 2016/17 (Table 1); the qualitative analysis reveals the aspirations of urban and peri-urban youth who express the importance of credit access in enabling success in agribusiness.Based on the bivariate logit results, youth who received agricultural extension services were 22.2% more likely to be employed in agribusiness compared to those who did not receive such services (Table 3). Compared to all other exogenous variables, 'access to agricultural extension services' has the highest positive impact on the likelihood of being employed in agribusiness. Results from the MNL model also showed a positive relationship between access to agricultural extension services and the likelihood of being employed in all employment categories except the one involving agricultural work wages. In addition, 'access to agricultural extension services' was also the variable with the highest positive impact on the likelihood of employment in 'farming' and 'Farm_Biz_Skill'. It was revealed during all FGDs that access to agricultural extension services is an important determinant of youth employment in agribusiness as it develops capacity to do agribusiness activities. Yet, youth face constraints related to access to agricultural extension services, such as having little or no access to agricultural extension services. Non-ACADES participants particularly indicated that public agricultural extension services mostly focus on older farmers, and young farmers are usually left out. One male youth highlighted that there aren't enough and sometimes no face-to-face meetings with extension agents from both government and development partners.Results on land ownership in Table 3 show that an increase of one hectare in land size is associated with an increase of 3.4% in the likelihood of being employed in agribusiness. However, the MNL results showed that land ownership seems positively linked with the likelihood of being employed in 'farming' only; for all other forms of agribusiness employment, land access has either a nil or negative impact on the likelihood of engagement. However, findings from all FGDs and KIIs revealed that land is an important factor that influences youth in agribusiness. Limited access to land was highlighted as one of the major challenges the youth face in all FGDs. Youth in other forms of agribusiness other than farming pointed out that a lack of land makes them venture into off-farm agribusiness employment. Male FGD participants further explained that most youth do not own land; for those who do, the land size is less than one hectare and is usually still owned and used by their parents. In all female FGDs, it was narrated that it is more difficult for female youth to access land because of cultural views and inheritance practices that, in most cases, allow only men to own land. This hinders females' investment in agribusiness, as they have limited access to land for production.Results from the bivariate logit showed that an increase of one Tropical Livestock Unit (tlu) is associated with an increase of 5.9% in the likelihood of a youth being employed in agribusiness (Table 3). The results from the MNL model showed a positive relationship between livestock ownership and engagement in 'farming' only or engagement in a mix of farming with a business or apprenticeship (Farm_Biz_Skill). For the agribusiness employment categories that involved agricultural or non-agricultural wage work, livestock ownership had no impact on the likelihood of engagement. FGD participants from all mixed groups underlined that having livestock is an important determinant for youth to be employed in agribusiness, as youth can be able to sell the livestock or livestock products. For example, youth with chickens can sell the eggs or the chickens. This enables youth to start a business because it acts as a starter pack for being in agribusiness.Contrary to expectation, experiencing idiosyncratic shock seems to have no impact on the likelihood of a youth being employed in agribusiness; the odds ratio related to the variable 'idiosyncratic shock' is not statistically significant (Table 3). The result from the MNL model showed that experiencing an idiosyncratic shock reduced the likelihood of a youth being engaged in sole 'farming' by about 3.4%; however, for all other agribusiness employment categories, experiencing an idiosyncratic shock has no impact on the likelihood of engagement. The FGDs with mixed groups revealed that the presence of shock, such as the death or illness of family members, influences youth to be in agribusiness to support the sick family member or the family after the death of the breadwinner. Furthermore, participants highlighted that poor weather conditions (such as drought and erratic rainfall) negatively affect their engagement in agribusiness, especially farming.Results from the bivariate logit model showed that an increase of one kilometre in the distance to a tarmac road would lead to an increase of 0.1% in the likelihood of the youth being engaged in agribusiness. From the MNL model, a positive and significant relationship between the distance to the nearest tarmac road and the likelihood of engagement is also found for the youth engaged in 'farming'. Such result reflects that the youth who are currently engaged in 'farming' tend to be located further away from tarmac roads compared to unemployed youth; such youth are likely working in rural areas in Malawi with limited access to tarmac roads. FGD's findings revealed that long distances to the road as well as poor road conditions negatively affect youth engagement in agribusiness. These conditions push the youth out of farming as they increase the cost of transportation, thereby making the youth invest less in agribusiness, which decreases production. Thus, 'better access to roads' pulls the youth to engage in a combination of farming and a business or apprenticeship.Based on the bivariate logit results, long distances to the market had no statistically significant association with a youth being employed in agribusiness. Moreover, results from the MNL model showed that long distances to the market had no impact on the likelihood of youth's engagement in different agribusiness categories. Findings from all the FGDs and KIIs showed that access to the market (such as access to quality inputs, consistent buyers, and stable market prices provided through contracts) is an important determinant for youth to be employed in agribusiness. This enables youth to buy farm inputs (seed, fertiliser, etc.) from the market and sell their products at the right time and price.Quantitative analysis. In this section, determinants that were derived from the quantitative analysis but were not captured through the qualitative analysis are presented. One such determinants is age, and the results show that 'older' youth tend to engage more in agribusiness. More specifically, the results from the bivariate logit in Table 3 show that an increase in the age of youth increases the likelihood of being employed in agribusiness. Similarly, MNL results revealed that the age of youth positively influenced youth employment in three of the four agribusiness employment categories; it's only for the category involving some agricultural wage work that there seems to be no relationship between age and the likelihood of engagement (Table 3).Results from the bivariate logit model also show that youth who are household heads are 6.3% less likely to be employed in agribusiness compared to youth who are related to a household head (Table 3). The results from the MNL model showed a similar result for the youth engaged in 'farming' only. Such results suggest that urban and peri-urban youth who are household heads do not consider 'farming' only as a viable source of livelihood. (Table 3).The bivariate logit results show that an increase of one unit in household size would reduce the likelihood of a youth being employed in agribusiness by about 3%. The results from the MNL model also reveal a negative relationship between household size and the likelihood of engagement in any of the agribusiness employment categories. Such results show that agribusiness loses its viability as a source of livelihood for the youth, as their family size increases (Table 3).Similarly, the results from the bivariate model show that an increase of one unit in the dependency ratio is associated with a decrease of 6% in the likelihood of youth being engaged in agribusiness. Such a tendency is also observed for youth engagement in 'farming' only. Here, we can conclude that sole 'farming' loses its viability as a source of livelihood with an increase in the number of dependents in a household (Table 3).A qualitative approach. In this section, we present results that were derived from the qualitative analysis but not captured through the quantitative analysis. These results focus mainly on the key challenges and opportunities related to youth employment in agribusiness.Opportunities. The qualitative analysis revealed that agribusiness value addition and integration into value chains provide youth with opportunities to find employment. All FGD and KII participants underscored that opportunities exist in food production, processing, and marketing services that youth can engage in. Participants, particularly from ACADES, highlighted that the availability of programs that support youth with training, access to inputs, credit, and markets helps provide youth with the opportunity to engage in agribusiness. On the other hand, non-ACADES participants indicated that such programs that support youth in agribusiness are helpful but do not reach all youth in Malawi. One female youth indicated that agribusiness programs have the potential to offer youth training in agribusiness and access to credit, inputs, and markets through which they can gain skills and employment. But the programs need to be gender sensitive. Additionally, one government official from the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that: \"Agribusiness is a hot issue and has the potential to provide opportunities for all youth in Malawi. However, the agribusiness sector needs a structure that is creative and inclusive of youth through technology-driven loan acquisition, and a conducive policy environment, as these will excite youth to get into agribusiness and be able to experience the full agribusiness opportunities\". (Male key informant, December 2019, Lilongwe) Nevertheless, it was revealed during all FGDs that the opportunities in agribusiness for youth are still few and not yet realised because of the lack of government investment in the sector and in youth. Therefore, this discourages youth from considering employment in agribusiness, as they opt for employment in other sectors. As such, adequate support and investment by the government and development partners are needed in the agribusiness sector to create more opportunities for youth.Challenges. The results from FGD participants identified a range of challenges that youth face in agribusiness that affect their engagement. Participants ranked the challenges faced in agribusiness (Table 4) and highlighted the major challenges.The findings from all FGD participants ranked lack of access to credit and lack of access to farm inputs as the first major challenges youth face (Table 4). Participants revealed that urban and peri-urban youth were unable to access credit facilities due to a lack of collateral, which hinders agribusiness activities and, as a result, negatively affects engagement in agribusiness. Participants in all FGDs pointed out that the complex loan acquisition procedures with high interest rates preclude them from acquiring a loan, which hampers engagement and the success of agribusiness enterprises. The ACADES official elaborated:\"All youth in Malawi (both urban and rural youth) are regarded as risky clients due to a lack of collateral and viewed as not serious. Credit facilities need to view all youth as potential clients so as to cater for these age groups in order for them to engage in agribusiness\". (Male key informant, December 2019, Lilongwe)An official from the Clinton Development Initiative explained that:\"Policy rates need to be brought down to improve access to credit among youth in agribusiness, both in urban and rural areas.\" (Male key informant, November 2019, Lilongwe).Similarly, all FGD participants revealed that limited access to improved farm inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, and farm equipment is due to a lack of money to buy the inputs, which is a challenge youth face in agribusiness (Table 4). Participants in all focus group discussions underlined that youth are less likely to use improved inputs, which affects engagement in agribusiness. Moreover, participants from ACADES underscored that youth have little access to inputs and delayed delivery of these inputs, which affects the growth of agribusiness enterprises. In addition, inadequate education in agribusiness was ranked as the second major challenge youth face, which affects engagement in agribusiness. All focus group discussion participants elaborated that most youth have little knowledge of agribusiness, affecting the growth of agribusiness or employment in agribusiness.Moreover, lack of access to fertile land for production and limited access to markets were ranked as the third major challenges youth face in agribusiness (Table 4). Land is an essential asset in agriculture. However, participants in all FGDs revealed that potential land for production is scarce, with much of the land being privately owned or owned by parents, who utilise the land, which affects the ability of the youth to engage in agribusiness. In addition, findings revealed that limited access to markets for their products hinders youth from selling their products, which further affects engagement in and growth of an agribusiness enterprise. All FGD participants highlighted that unstable market prices and a lack of consistent buyers of their products leads to them being exploited by unscrupulous traders (vendors) who buy products from the youth by setting their own prices. This interference deters youth's activities and engagement in agribusiness. Participants in ACADES FGDs underscored that despite ACADES providing market access, sometimes (more specifically, once a year or every two years), there is a delay in buyers purchasing their products; this makes it difficult for them to sell their produce on time. Non-ACADES participants narrated that there are limited or no buyers for their products, which makes youth sell their products to dishonest vendors. An official from the Ministry of Trade said that: \"Agriculture and agribusiness are wealth, and therefore, market systems should be in place to support youth in the agribusiness sector for easy trade. Because if there is no trade, there is no economic growth\". (Interview with a male key informant, November 2019, Lilongwe)The ACADES official narrated that: \"The market is messed up, and there is a lack of market information. But the market is large, and youth, given the right resources and proper market system, are able to produce products that Malawi imports from other countries. (Male key informant, December 2019, Lilongwe) Similarly, a youth leader from Mhub added that \"market accessibility is hard for most youth in terms of inadequate market access, limited market information and market infrastructure which hinders youth's engagement in agribusiness\".The fourth challenge was limited access to agricultural extension services and poor weather conditions (Table 4). In all FGDs, participants emphasised that youth lack access to agricultural extension services. Participants underscored that agricultural extension services are nonexistent with inadequate extension services from both the government and development partners. Nevertheless, despite Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUA-NAR) providing agricultural extension education, a lot needs to be done to reach most youth in agribusiness in Malawi. Furthermore, all FGD participants revealed that poor weather conditions affect the ability to obtain high-quality produce in large quantities as they decrease plant populations and distort crop development. Participants underscored that such an effect on the produce makes it less marketable due to poor quality and quantity. In all FGDs, participants emphasised the need for improved farm equipment, such as irrigation solar pumps, to help youth produce without hurdles.In her remarks, an agricultural extension officer elaborated:\"Extension workers are few with one extension worker working with 2000 farm households.Adding that they mostly worked with already organized and established farmers and mostly youth are left or few are in those groups. This affects the level of youth engagement in agribusiness, as extension workers help increase youth adoption of new farm practices\".The fifth challenge was inadequate agribusiness programs for the youth (Table 4). Participants in all mixed groups underlined that agribusiness programs for the youth are scarce, with the few existing programs not fully addressing the bottlenecks related to access to markets, farm inputs, land, and credit. Participants in all FGDs pointed out that youth's access to agribusiness programs can help provide youth with training, inputs, loans, and other resources needed for agribusiness engagement and growth. Both ACADES and non-ACADES participants viewed ACADES as a good initiative that is helping youth in agribusiness in terms of access to training, inputs, markets, and market information.3.3.4 Key challenges and opportunities for youth's engagement in agribusiness: Qualitative versus quantitative approach. Based on the bivariate logit model, the number one factor that enhances youth's engagement in agribusiness is 'access to extension services' (Table 5). That variable has the highest marginal effect with a value of 0.222, and this implies that having access to extension services increases by 22.2% the likelihood of an urban or peri-urban youth being engaged in agribusiness. The variable with the next highest statistically significant effect on the likelihood of being engaged in agribusiness is \"tertiary education\" with a value of -0.194. An urban or peri-urban youth with tertiary education is 19.4% less likely to get engaged in agribusiness; such a result suggests that the lack of education is a negative factor that pushes youth into agribusiness. The next key factor affecting the likelihood of a youth being engaged in agribusiness is related to marital status. More specifically, being married or widowed reduces the likelihood of getting engaged in agribusiness. This result suggests that being married or widowed hinders youth's engagement in agribusiness.A comparison between the ranking of key determinants based on the quantitative analysis (bivariate analysis) (Table 5) and the ranking of constraints based on the qualitative analysis (Table 4) shows that access to extension services is common to both rankings. Hence, access to extension services can be considered a key factor that would enable urban and peri-urban youth in Malawi to successfully engage in agribusiness. Education, and more specifically, adequate training in agribusiness, is another factor that would help the youth successfully engage in agribusiness. Lack of training in agribusiness is identified as the second most important constraint to the engagement of youth in agribusiness based on the qualitative analysis (Table 4). However, in the quantitative analysis, education, which mainly consists of secondary education, has been identified as a key determinant that helps the youth branch out of sole farming and engage in additional activities such as wage employment.Lack of access to productive land is another key constraint to youth's engagement in agribusiness, based on the qualitative analysis (Table 4). However, for the quantitative analysis, the size of cultivated land is a key determinant that enables youth to engage in sole farming (Table 5). For the youth who combine farming with additional activities, land access is not a key enabler. This result might reflect the fact that the youth who branch out of sole farming conduct farming activities on land owned by others.Based on the qualitative analysis (Table 4), credit access is a key determinant affecting youth's engagement in agribusiness. From the quantitative analysis, credit access is a key enabler for youth's engagement in agribusiness, only for those who combine farming with a business or apprenticeship (Table 5). Such results reflect that such youth are financially literate and are hence more likely to successfully use credit.Lack of access to markets (due to inadequate markets, marketing information and infrastructure) and a lack of improved farm inputs has been identified as a key constraint to youth engagement in agribusiness based on the qualitative analysis (Table 4). In the quantitative analysis, market access for both farm inputs and output sales are measured by the distance to a tarmac road and the distance to a market. These two variables are not identified as key determinants in the quantitative analysis (Table 5). Such discrepancy might stem from the fact that the variables used to define market access (for both inputs and outputs) in the quantitative analysis do not capture the meaning of market access, as identified through the qualitative analysis. Indeed, market access as revealed through the qualitative analysis, involves access to quality farm inputs, consistent buyers, and stable output prices. For urban and peri-urban youth, it's very unlikely that distances to roads and markets also equate to enhanced access to improved farm inputs, access to consistent buyers, and stable prices from season to season.This study provides an analysis of the determinants of urban and peri-urban youth engagement in agribusiness in Malawi. A mixed-methods approach is used, which combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative analysis is conducted on national-level data on urban and peri-urban youth in Malawi, and the qualitative analysis is conducted on data collected on the youth program, ACADES, and from decision-makers involved in youth engagement in Malawi.Regarding land access, it is an important determinant of agribusiness employment for urban and peri-urban youth in Malawi, based on the mixed methods approach; however, previous studies have shown that youth usually have limited access to land [27][28][29][30]. Most youth face more constraints in accessing and using agricultural land compared to experienced farmers [31], and this limits semi-commercial and commercial production for the youth. As ascertained by Asfaw et al. [32], agricultural land accessed or used by the youth in Malawi is mostly less than one hectare on average, which makes it hard for profitable ventures.In addition, the descriptive statistics showed that female youth in agribusiness outnumber males in almost all urban and peri-urban areas (Fig 2). This could be linked to the fact that women are traditionally involved in all aspects of farming, regardless of their location in Malawi; there is usually no gendered division of labour for agricultural activities in the country [33]. In Mzuzu, there were more male youths in 'Farming' compared to females (Fig 2). This result could be linked to patrilineal practices in northern Malawi (Mzuzu). In this region, women, unlike men, cannot inherit land. However, the central and southern parts of Malawi (Lilongwe, Zomba, and Blantyre) have matrilineal systems, and women inherit land from their mothers in these systems [33]. This explains why women outnumber men in Lilongwe, Blantyre, and Zomba for \"farming.The regression analysis also revealed that men are more likely to get employed in sole farming compared to women; however, men were as likely as women to get employed in other types of agribusinesses. Women represent a large percentage of the youth labor force in agriculture (Table 1). But they face many challenges in terms of limited access to resources, land, and credit facilities. Other studies have shown that women face low levels of education as well as gender norms that imply that they should be responsible for child and elderly care and domestic work [34,35]. Young women also face gender challenges in agricultural value chains that affect their participation [36][37][38]. These constraints and gender norms limit the role of women in agriculture. An interesting result from the analysis is the negative association between non-single female youth and their employment in agribusiness (qualitative analysis). However, this could be linked to married female youth having marital obligations coupled with socio-cultural and gender norms (such as reproductive roles, caring for children, and domestic chores) embedded in the communities, which affect women's time and engagement in agribusiness. Alternatively, it might be because of a lack of opportunities and resources, especially for widowed female youth. This inverse relationship has also been observed in previous studies that found that marriage reduced the likelihood for women to enter into employment in Malawi [19,39].Like many other studies [27,[40][41][42], this study shows that formal education negatively affects the likelihood of being engaged in agribusiness. The study also shows that less educated youth are more likely to be employed in sole farming, while more educated youth branch out of sole farming and seek other forms of employment, mostly off-farm employment. This is because off-farm employment usually requires one to be trained, unlike sole farming, which is usually taught by family members on-farm. Existing studies on the role of formal education in employment decisions found that formal education can help youth better understand and adopt agricultural innovations [30,43]. However, this would call for skill development interventions that include technical and vocational training to ensure that the youth are skilled enough to adopt improved innovations and succeed in agribusiness [44].Concerning credit, the analysis in this study shows that credit enables youth to acquire agricultural inputs and permits them to have the financial capital needed to start agribusiness activities. This result is consistent with previous studies that found that access to capital or credit was a key determinant of youth' engagement in agribusiness in Kenya and Nigeria [45,46]. Moreover, findings from the quantitative analysis revealed that access to agricultural extension services was positively associated with being employed in the various agribusiness employment categories. This positive association likely stems from the essential and practical knowledge youth acquire through extension services. However, the negative association between youth employment in an off-farm agricultural activity (AgWge_Farm_Biz) and access to extension services could be linked to the fact that off-farm employment usually does not require direct access to agricultural extension services compared to on-farm activities. Other studies have highlighted that youth in Malawi have limited access to extension services, which hinders agricultural intensification and engagement [30,28].The study findings on livestock show that owning livestock is an important determinant of youth's engagement in agribusiness. The findings from the quantitative analysis showed that owning livestock increases the likelihood of being employed in agribusiness, particularly in sole farming and in a mix of farming and non-agricultural businesses. This is consistent with results from the qualitative analysis, which implied that youth can use the proceeds from selling livestock or livestock products to start agribusiness enterprises. This result suggests that livestock acts as a valuable asset that can be used to diversify agribusiness income. The positive influence of livestock ownership on youth's engagement in agribusiness was also highlighted in another study, which showed that livestock ownership is positively linked with the number of hours that youth allocate to agriculture in Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia [42]. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings reveal that idiosyncratic shocks affect the likelihood of youth being employed in agribusiness; more specifically, some shocks, including climatic shocks, tend to push the youth to abandon sole farming. A previous study has shown that shocks don't influence off-farm employment for men and women in Malawi, except for death or illness in the household, which tends to push Malawian men towards offfarm employment [19].Our findings demonstrate that access to roads and markets is an important positive determinant of youth employment in agribusiness. Youth can more easily participate in agricultural transformation in a conducive environment that includes better linkages with markets [47][48][49]. Our study shows that improving market accessibility for urban and peri-urban youth in agribusiness should translate into enhancing access to consistent buyers and ensuring that youth receive adequate and stable market prices for their products.This study demonstrates the importance of mixed methods in assessing determinants of youth employment. The quantitative analysis alone is useful to identify key determinants based on the revealed employment behaviour of the youth. However, the qualitative analysis taps into youth's aspirations and their own understanding of the challenges and opportunities linked to engagement in agribusiness. As such, the qualitative analysis provides context to enrich our understanding of the determinants affecting youth engagement and, hence, derive more appropriate policy recommendations.This study combined quantitative and qualitative methods to identify the key factors that influence urban and peri-urban youth employment in agribusiness in Malawi. The results show that urban and peri-urban youth in Malawi who are engaged in agribusiness are either employed in sole farming; agricultural wage work, or a combination of farming and off-farm activities. The majority are in sole farming; fewer, more educated youth branch out of sole farming to get employed in agricultural wage work or in activities that combine farming with wage work, a business or apprenticeship. For the youth engaged in sole farming, the results show that push factors consist of limited education. Pull factors consist of access to agricultural extension services, and ownership of land and livestock. Additional key determinants identified through the mixed methods approach consist of gender, marital status, shocks, credit access, and distance to market. For the youth who tend to branch out of sole farming, key pull factors which were identified consist of higher educational opportunities and access to agricultural extension services. The key policy recommendation from this study is that programs aimed at supporting the engagement of urban and peri-urban youth in agribusiness in Malawi should consider a variety of factors. However, the core of such programs should involve enhanced access to extension services and practical training in agribusiness. These two elements are the main pull/opportunity factors that would facilitate the successful engagement of youth in agribusiness. One key limitation of this study is that the qualitative study was conducted in Lilongwe only. It would have been preferable to include other urban and peri-urban areas of Malawi in the qualitative analysis to better capture youth's perceptions across locations and tribes. The mixed methods approach has also revealed that future quantitative research targeting urban and peri-urban youth in agribusiness would benefit from including indicators that capture 'output price stability' and 'buyer consistency' to measure market access.","tokenCount":"9097"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"40f87313c1ada3167d2d69e342ad2716","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e1f04964-ddcc-46bb-a101-0af5277f5994/retrieve","id":"785610082"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3180d332-7e8a-4681-b0c6-0c6eaf0792d8","pagecount":"154","content":"Production, area planted aud y1eld. of ca •• ava for major produc1ng countrles. average Producc16n, 'rOlla ._brada y rendiJlllento. para la mayor{a de los pa1.e. productores, promedio Pase 1 2 J J 4 4 7 8 4) 9 1966-1968 2 Average amual y1eld for countries .how1ng y1elds of 10 tona/ha. and above llendiJlliento p_dlo anual para pai.e. moatrando rendiJlliento. por encima de 10 tona/ha., 1966•1968 • T.ble. 3 4 Averase .anual productien per capit. for countrl ••• bowlng productlon ef 100 kg •• per caplta .nd .bove Promedio .nual d. l. produccl6n per cAplta para pai ••• .o,trando una produccl6n por encima de 100 Itsr. per clpita. 1966-1968 AREA PLANTEl> 'II1TH CASSAVA AREA SltMBRADA CON YtX:A (1.000 HAS.Altbough casaava 1a an important aource of carbohydratea for the population of a large number of tropical countr1es, reaearch aimed at increaaing the productlon and productivity of this crop has been relatively scarce~ !he objective of thia report waa to recompile certa1n basle data on the production of caasava and analyze past trends of the relationahip between cassava production and population for each of the caasava productng eountrles.Basie data were obtalned from statist1csl bulletlns isaued by the Food and Agricultural Organizaclon of the United Naciona (FAO) and the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT).!he fol1owlng aymbola are uaed in the tables:None or a negligible quantity (leas chan one•half of the unit indicsted) or entry not applicable.Data not avaiIable.To divide the decimala froro the whole number. a period (.) la used.For a number of Afrlcan countries, the term \"Farms and Estates\" refers ta enterprises mainly operated 00 a commercial basis and adequately covered 4.by the agricultural surveys. \"Villages\" refer to amall farma utUizlng traditional production methods.METHODOLOGY lbe tendency in the production of cassava per capita was eatimated by Simple linear regression, utilizing the equation y • a + bx, where \"y\" lS productlon per capita in kilograma aod \"x\" 1s acode for years. lbe coeffic1ent \"a\" expresses esti_ted production per capits in kilograma in the year prior to the first year for which lnfotmatlon was ava11• able. lbe coeff1elent \"b\" indieates the ehange in per eapita eassava pro-duet10n 1n k1tograms per year during the per10d under consideration.Some of the countries analyzed show a definite trend during part of the period for which data were avatlable, but not for the whole periodo An additional regresston analysia including only the yeara for whieh a trend was apparent was carr1ed out for ehese countries. The regreasion line referrlng to the total period ls indicated by a full line whl1e the partial regression line i8 shown by a broken lineo As iodieated by the eorrelation eoeffic1ent (R 2 ), some of ehe eountries show sueh large annual production fluetuations that no trend vas apparent.The area planted wlth cassava shows an lncreas1ng trend oí abOllt 200.000 hectares per year during the period under considerat1on (Table 45).5.   pre.enten une fluctuaci6n ,rande en la producc15n anual aln nlnsune tendencia ap.rente.11.El Area aembrada con yuca mue.tra un incremento de 200.000 bectlrea. por ano durante el periodo considerado (Tabla 45). Loa ~yorea incremento. son encontradol en Africa y Sur AmArica con incrementoa anualea de 480.000 y 124.000 hectlreas respectivamente.De la 11Ii_ forma, la producci6n _ndial de yuca preaenta una tendencia ascendente. Durante el periodo conaiderado, la producci6n mundial se increment6 en dos millones de toneladas mltricas anuales. aproxil1lldamente. liendo Africa y Sur AmArica los principales contribuyentes. El rendf.m1ento mundial de yuca no present6 cambios durante el periodo (Ta-: bla 46). El Africa presenta un de.censo en la tendencia en rendimiento de cerca de 110 kilogramos por hectlrea anualmente. mientras que en Sur AmArica ae presenta un incremento en la tendencta de 90 kilogramos bectlrea. t. producc16n per clpita se increment6 en 7.S kilogramo. anuales en Sur AmArica pero decreci6 para el resto de continentes considerados.t. producci6n per cApita parece haber sido constante durante el período 1963-1968. Cerca del 40 por ciento de la producci6n mundial de yuca proviene de Sur AmArica (Tabla 27) y es producida sobre un 25 por ciento del Irea _ndial sembrada. Africa ea el .egundo con un 36 por ciento de la pro-ducci6n total pero utiliza caa! la mitad del Irea mundial aembrada con yuca.Siendo el principal productor de yuca en el mundo. Brasil produce cerca de un tercio de la producei6n total del mundo y cerca del 85 por 12.ciento de la producci6n en Sur Amarica (Tabla 1). El aeguado en t.. portancia el Indonesia con un 15 por ciento de la producci6n mundial.Loa al. altoa rendimientoa promedioa .e encuentran en Sur Amarica con cerca de 14 toneladaa por hect'rea (Tabla 33      .   '\"     ::;.           '\"..       ","tokenCount":"769"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84e31d95717bfb5468c001a8adf9d9fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/37918e92-e776-4895-b8e0-aab96b35f05d/retrieve","id":"-827727"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6540c745-db53-4b23-82c9-ba52d91974fc","pagecount":"14","content":"How can research findings be translated into effective development outcomes that improve the livelihoods of the rural poor on a broad scale? Questions like this are often raised regarding international agricultural research, and the Consultative Group (CG) centers in particular, given their global mandates of food security, improved livelihoods, and sustainable resource management. In the case of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, the Spanish acronym), the internal debate about how best to move from research to development outcomes through \"going to scale\" or \"scaling out\" was the subject of the Annual Review in December 2002. This chapter forms part of that debate.In the past, CG centers sought to disseminate their research through scholarly publications, seminars, and training sessions targeted towards national agricultural research systems (NARS). Many of these efforts used a traditional Transfer of Technology (ToT) approach in which it was assumed that technological advances generated by a CG center could be transferred through training or publications to NARS scientists who would, in turn, deliver these improved practices to the farmers. Although important advances were made-most notably the productivity gains of the Green Revolution-the ToT model has been widely criticized. As a result, the CG has identified, developed, and to varying degrees adopted a more nuanced approach using tools such as farmer participatory research (FPR) to better identify farmer needs and adapt technological solutions to myriad local conditions. However, FPR also faces limitations when the issue of scale is brought into play. To be effective, participatory approaches require a high level of interaction between researchers and farmers, and while millions of small-scale farmers exist throughout the developing world, the number of CG scientists engaged in FPR is limited. Thus, only a small fraction of the rural poor can be reached directly through these methods (Gonsalves, 2001).While some centers invested in strengthening NARS' capacities to carry out participatory research, international policies of lean government and reduced public sector spending have reduced both the capacity and quality of NARS in large parts of the developing world. This is clearly the case in most of Latin America and parts of Africa, where some NARS have been abolished completely to be replaced by private sector technical assistance firms.At the same time, international donor agencies that support agricultural research have begun to demand concrete development outcomes from the centers they support. These demands tend to focus on ex post impact evaluations and often seek to justify, using cost/benefit analysis, monies invested in agricultural research. Within a context of weakening NARS, persistent global problems, and limited staff, many CG centers have difficulties showing the quality and quantity of impacts that are increasingly requested of them. While few question the quality of the science, many ask about its appropriateness for the rural poor and whether the results are actually reaching these populations. How can research best serve them? This chapter describes work by CIAT's Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project to forge a stronger link between research and development (R&D) outcomes through the promotion of Learning Alliances (LAs) with international development agencies. Such alliances seek to:• Feed research outputs into existing or proposed development activities, • Track use, adaptations, improvements, and adoption of methods and tools by users over time,• Identify and document development outcomes influenced by CIAT's work more clearly, and • Foster long-term, collaborative inter-organizational relationships that improve overall collaboration and effectiveness, both of development practitioners and researchers.The chapter includes a review of key inputs that led to the idea of LAs, a section describing the concept in more detail, a comparison between LAs and Learning Selection processes, two brief case profiles, and conclusions and further research questions.The LA approach is the result of a mixture of journal articles and CIAT's institutional history driven by a long process of personal reflection about how to generate better development outcomes from a research perspective. This section seeks to provide the reader with an overview of that process in the hope that it will contribute to a greater understanding of the LA approach in practice.A great deal has been written about the idea of scaling out or going to scale. For the purposes of this chapter, we can understand the process of scaling up as one that \"leads to more quality benefits to more people over a wider geographic area more quickly, more equitably, and more lastingly\" (Gonsalves, 2001). This process has important temporal, spatial, institutional, economic, technological, and equity components that should be viewed as complementary to one another. Hence the goal of scaling can be understood to be one of augmenting the reach of lasting, positive development outcomes across space, populations, and time. The question then becomes, how can a research organization best achieve this in an environment of weakening traditional partners, limited funding, and global mandates? Denning (2001) proposes eight areas of intervention and investment to support processes of scaling up from the perspective of a CG center. These include linking to policymakers, higher education institutions, basic education institutions, seed supply systems, community organizations, product marketing systems, extension and development organizations, and research institutions. In sum, this is a more systemic focus where the research center seeks to effectively cover the continuum from basic science to downstream development outcomes. Of particular interest here is the importance given to working in partnerships with extension and development organizations. As Denning (2001) notes, \"by directly engaging in the development process through strategic partnerships with development institutions, the impact of research will be realized more quickly and on a greater scale than with classical technology transfer approaches\". The challenge here is for research organizations to re-think their role, organizational structure, values, and final goals in such a way that they can meaningfully engage with development agencies in confronting challenges at a global scale.Achieving successful collaboration, however, is easier said than done. Although the potential for positive synergies is apparent, diverse institutional value and reward systems need to be negotiated. As Roper (2002) discusses, researchers and development practitioners differ in their perspectives on learning. While researchers value the development of theory for its own sake, academic credentials, and complex research methods, development workers seek practical solutions to pressing problems, respect field experience and results, and tend to favor simple, effective methods for their work. A successful collaboration between the two camps requires a common language that acknowledges these differences and, at the same time, identifies common ground or purpose, complementary skills, or strengths, and invests in the creation of personal and organizational trust among participants. Initial transactions costs and investments for these relationships are high. As a result, the selection of adequate, long-term partners is essential for positive results. However, once established, these relationships create new knowledge and improved practice. There is no end product as such; rather, there are processes, a series of products, and various configurations of relationships that are ongoing, fluid, and adaptable to the needs of the moment (Roper, 2002).Finally, in a positive relationship established between researchers and development practitioners, results will include not only improved development outcomes, but also processes of institutional learning and change. Solomon and Chowdhury (2002) identify various factors that facilitate learning and contribute to effective partnerships. These include (1) an orientation towards learning and change, (2) adequate planning and resources, (3) positive collaborative experiences and relations of mutual respect, (4) a shared paradigm of evaluation for learning, and (5) clear links between learning and action. These factors also must be considered when collaboration with development partners is discussed.This brief review suggests that effective processes of scaling out between research organizations and development agencies require clearly defined roles and responsibilities based on trust and mutual respect. These relationships can be long-term, flexible, and evolutionary in nature, and include an important learning component. Finally, given the transaction costs involved in their creation and the limited capacity of research organizations, it would seem that a few high-quality relationships would be preferable to many low-quality ones. Processes of scaling out achieved in this fashion would contribute to improved livelihoods for larger numbers of the rural poor.How is CIAT as a CG center positioned to participate in the kind of scaling out process described above? What strengths or previous experience can CIAT bring to the table? Previous CIAT experience with training as a tool for scaling out provides another important input for the LA approach.The Center ran a complete training program from its inception until the mid 1990s. This program included in-house training carried out at CIAT headquarters in Cali, Colombia, as well as in-country training carried out with NARS partners in various parts of the tropics. The major thrust of this program was to build scientific capacity of partner organizations through training in CIAT methods and tools. As such, this process can be considered a knowledge transfer. This paradigm suffered some changes during in-country training sessions where tools were adapted to local needs, but the focus remained on teaching NARS scientists how to replicate what CIAT knew how to do. Benefits from this program included wide geographic coverage, and strong personal and professional relationships with a generation of NARS scientists who have now become decision makers. Less attention was paid to how the scientists used what they learned and what were the results from their work.The training program was abandoned in 1995, only to be resurrected the following year with a focus on capacity building for natural resource management (NRM) and the production of a series of guides for trainers. Over 400 participants from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), universities, and NARS received instruction in the use of these training tools in Colombia and Central America from 1997 to 2000. While this marked a departure from an exclusive focus on NARS as engines for scaling out research results, limitations to the \"training of trainers\" approach were found. Lessons learned from this work include:• Post training follow-up is needed to move from book knowledge to applied and locally relevant knowledge.• Large organizations make better partners due to greater autonomy, and capacity to implement training results.• CIAT research outputs, when translated into training materials, are widely accepted.• There is no \"one size fits all\" ideal mix of training materials. Clients need a menu to choose from, depending on their needs at the time of training.• It is important to move from a focus on training to one of capacity development, from short-term, one-off actions to long-term relations based on dialogue and collaboration.Formal and informal consultations with development agencies, some of which had received training in the NRM guide series, complemented academic and institutional sources of information. During a series of meetings in Honduras, important complementarities between CIAT and international NGO staff, skill bases, funding, reach, and roles came into focus (Table 1). In addition, these agencies expressed interest in exploring a new way to work together with researchers that went beyond the traditional scope of training. Topics included research focused on their needs and those of their final beneficiaries, documentation and learning from experiences, the promotion of policy dialogue with municipal to national governments, and the development of joint R&D projects. From the point of view of development practitioners, an international research organization such as CIAT is well positioned to support such relationships not only through the provision of existing scientific findings, but also by facilitating processes of documentation and learning at various scales.The need for increased, effective, and sustainable development outcomes, and a revision of limitations encountered in training and consultations with development agencies, provided the basis for the formulation of a new, partnership-centered approach between a research organization and development agencies. This approach strives to provide a framework to link R&D organizations, understand how knowledge flows between them, capture adaptations made to methods and tools, as they are adapted to diverse situations, and begin to bridge the gap between research agendas and development needs. The following section provides an overview of the idea of LAs.In the context of this chapter, an LA can be understood as a process undertaken jointly by R&D agencies through which research outputs are shared, adapted, used, and innovated upon. This is done to strengthen local capacities, improve the research outputs, generate and document development outcomes, and identify future research needs and potential areas of collaboration.The LA process begins with the identification of research outputs or development outcomes susceptible to scaling out by partners. It is followed by one or many adaptation and learning cycles, and is completed with the detection of new research demands, which feed back into the research process, and contribute to the generation of improved livelihood or policy outcomes. Figure 1 shows the LA process.Several key issues need to be managed for an LA to be successful, as outlined below.Clear objectives based on the needs, capacities, and interests of the participating organizations and individuals must be defined. What does each organization bring to the alliance? What complementarities or gaps exist? What does each organization hope to achieve through this collaboration? Answers to these questions, and an overarching cooperative agreement are helpful first steps. In the real world, however, clarity on these issues is often only achieved through practice.   An LA seeks to benefit both parties; therefore responsibilities and costs should be shared. This is imperative at the beginning of such relationships where funds for scaling out (from the research side) or training (from the development side) are often tied to project budgets that are difficult to modify in the short term. In the future, joint proposals for funding may present a good vehicle for supporting these activities.In the myriad contexts in which rural development occurs, there are no set answers. As such, LAs view research outputs as inputs to processes of rural innovation that are place and time specific. Methods and tools will change as users adapt them to their needs and realities. Understanding why adaptations occur, if they are positive or negative in terms of livelihood outcomes, and documenting and sharing lessons learned is the goal.Learning Alliances have diverse groups of participants ranging from rural women to extensionists to NGO managers to international scientists. Identification of each group's questions and its willingness to participate in diverse aspects of learning processes is key. Flexible but connected methods-ranging from participatory monitoring and evaluation to tried and true impact assessment-are also needed. A critical research issue is how different learning processes interface with one another, and how this interplay affects development outcomes.Rural development is a process that stretches over many years. To effect meaningful change and to understand why that change occurred requires long-term, stable relationships capable of evolving to meet new challenges. These relationships should orient researchers' agendas towards key issues that contribute to positive change and, on the other hand, inform development practitioners of new or improved methods or tools that improve their practice. The transaction costs involved in establishing and maintaining LAs and their long-term nature indicate that quality should take precedence over quantity.Based on these key issues, how should a research organization select adequate partners for LAs? A relatively simple way of going about this is to use a scoring tool such as a matrix based on key criteria identified by the research organization. Table 2 shows an example of such a tool adapted from Franzel et. al. (2001), and applied to rural agro-enterprise partners. Once LAs are operational, what use are they in terms of scaling out? Potential uses for LAs can be divided among direct results, contributions to development outcomes, and higher level results. Direct results are those from the learning process itself and include improved methods, tools, and approaches adapted to varying conditions, as well as increased knowledge about processes of institutional learning and change. Learning Alliances in the area of rural agro-enterprise development can also contribute to improved livelihood outcomes, and should be assessed in terms of increased competitiveness of rural economies and value chains, employment generation, and reductions in rural poverty. Finally, higher level results, which combine direct results with livelihood outcomes, can contribute more focused research agendas, and provide inputs for improved rural development policies.How do LAs relate to processes of innovation and change described by others? Are they complementary or contradictory? This section contrasts LAs to one model of technological innovation to see how they compare. Douthwaite et al. (2002) present a conceptual model for explaining innovation in agricultural engineering called Learning Selection (LS). This approach posits four steps or stages through which a technology evolves on its way to being widely adoptable. These are: (1) bright idea, (2) best-bet, (3) plausible promise, and (4) wide adoptability. Throughout this process, the R&D team interacts with users in different fashions, often informally, to move a technology from development to expansion. In this process, much of the innovation needed to ready a technology for rapid expansion comes not from scientists and engineers, but from users themselves. During the innovation process, researchers assume a role of selectors whereby changes that increase the robustness of a given technology are \"selected\" and promoted, while others are discarded. A widely adopted technology, following this model, contains some of the researchers' original ideas, but is composed mostly of user innovations that have been identified and selected throughout the process. This model of innovation is much more dynamic and realistic than the traditional ToT model when applied to hard technologies. How does the LA approach and its focus on knowledge-based or soft technologies fare when compared to the LS conceptual model? Certain similarities exist between both models because they attempt to promote processes of adaptation and improvement between researchers and users. Key similarities include the need for a clearly defined output (or technology) to share with potential users, the importance of selecting motivated partners who face a real need for the technology in question, and a strenuous learning system that allows researchers to follow change in the technology and support positive innovation.The LA approach complements the LS model in a variety of ways. First, there is an explicit focus not only on the robustness of the technology itself, but also on understanding the institutional learning and change process between researchers and development partners that leads to improved soft technologies. Second, results in areas indirectly related to the technology itself-development outcomes and higher-level outcomes, such as information for policy formulation or improved research agendasare included in the scope of analysis. Finally, the LA approach advances the LS model in that it examines soft as well as hard technologies, thus providing inputs to assess the effectiveness of the LS model in the case of soft technologies.The Rural Agro-enterprise Development Project of CIAT has developed a Territorial Approach to Rural Enterprise Development comprised of four interrelated components (Lundy et al., 2002):(1) Formation of working groups on rural enterprise development within a territory;(2) Identification of market opportunities;(3) Analysis of product chains and the design of strategies to improve the competitivity of these chains, and (4) Supply of sustainable rural business development services.The Territorial Approach is the sum of these components and may be considered the technology being scaled out using the LA approach. This section will describe that process briefly as it applies in Nicaragua and east Africa.In collaboration with CARE-Nicaragua, the Territorial Approach to Rural Enterprise Development is being applied in 10 municipalities in the Departments of Estelí and Matagalpa in Nicaragua. A working group on rural enterprise development has been formed in each department with the participation of a varying mix of local NGOs, farmer or community organizations, and for-profit technical assistance firms. These working groups have carried out a rapid diagnosis detailing the enterprise potential of their areas, existing enterprises, and support services, and identified market opportunities. During 2003, they will prioritize market opportunities and design strategies to increase their competitiveness in the selected product chains. The LA as originally negotiated will finish in July 2003 with the design of these competitivity strategies for 10 product chains.Formal time for learning and reflection are built into the work plan after the first 6 months, and again at the end, while informal learning and documentation occur throughout the process. Of interest here is the variety of learning agendas ranging from those of community organizations to those of the international research center facilitating the work. An effort is being made to link these agendas in a coherent fashion so as to draw more complete conclusions about the process.Based on work thus far, direct results achieved include improved methods for working group formation and market identification, augmented skills among participants, and the generation of locally adapted versions of CIAT tools. Early indications show that higher-level results may include changes in departmental development strategies, as well as links to other rural economic development activities funded by common donors in other parts of Nicaragua. A full evaluation of this process was carried out in the second semester of 2003 to more completely assess results.A second example of an LA in practice is the collaboration between CIAT and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in east Africa. Based on the same technology-the territorial approach to rural enterprise development-an LA was established between CIAT and CRS for six countries of east Africa (Ethiopia, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Sudan). In this case, the LA process occurs at a regional scale, with CRS country offices being the direct participants. Within each country, the CRS office selects a pilot region where the technology will be implemented, and trains local partners in its use. This LA is slated to finish during 2004 with the design of strategies for improved competitivity for selected product chains.Results achieved to date include changes made to the territorial approach to adapt it to African conditions (the technology was developed in Latin America), an increased use of participatory tools and techniques for market identification, as well as new skills learned by CRS staff in east Africa. Possible higher-level results include the reformulation of CRS enterprise development strategy for the region, and a proposal to replicate the process in additional countries in eastern Africa, southern Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.What lessons can be drawn from these two experiences? First, a strong demand exists for an LA approach. Both CARE and CRS have repeatedly expressed their interest in a long-term, stable relationship through which research results could be scaled out and development outcomes improved. The philosophy of collaboration and learning appear to have struck a chord with these two development agencies. Second, a cost-sharing approach is feasible. In both Latin America and east Africa, costs for the LA are shared among the development agencies and CIAT. Third, the territorial approach to rural enterprise development is seen as a good way to improve development outcomes in the field or rural enterprise development.Finally, the LA approach appears to be an effective vehicle for scaling out with limited resources. Prior to implementing the LA approach, CIAT was able to reach two municipalities directly in Central America and three sites in east Africa. As a result of this strategy, CIAT research findings are now being implemented and improved upon in six countries in east Africa and 10 new municipalities in Nicaragua, with no change in CIAT staffing. Additional possibilities for scaling out this process have also been identified. These can be grouped into \"geographic spread\" or \"organizational spread\" categories. In the geographic category, repetition of the LA approach is being discussed with additional partners in Africa and Latin America, and would open the possibility of inter-organizational sharing of results. In the organizational category, potential avenues of scaling out include collaboration with CRS Latin America in eight countries, and with CARE in four countries in Central America. A key challenge facing the LA approach at this juncture is how best to mix funding sources between development and research to take advantage of these opportunities.Experience to date suggests that the LA approach is an effective way for scaling out results and may serve as an appropriate vehicle for carrying out more systematic research on the process of scaling out itself. As the approach evolves, however, additional research needs to be conducted on the topics given below.(1) When is it most appropriate to engage development partners during the research process? Some authors posit that stakeholders enter once researchers have defined their \"best bet\" (Douthwaite et al., 2002), while others cite the need for much earlier involvement of users in the process (Denning, 2001). What difference does earlier or later involvement in the research process make in terms of later scaling out of results? (2) The use of a more nuanced model of scaling out where issues such as adaptation-, innovation-, and context-based best practice in a given time and space force us to look beyond simple, linear explanations of this process. How do institutional models and learning processes play a role in scaling out? Can they be promoted as a way to speed it up? Should they be treated as a research issue in their own right? Should CIAT and the CG pay more attention to this area when designing and assessing processes of scaling out? (3) The use of an LA approach requires a willingness to negotiate research agendas between scientists and development practitioners. Is it feasible to expect research centers to shift from a tradition of researcher-or donor-led science to one of demand-led science where the research agenda is structured on concrete demands from development partners? What impact would such a shift have on scientific quality, applicability, and final contribution to livelihood outcomes? How would this shift affect donor willingness to support research activities? (4) Shifting from a paradigm of training to one where interaction with partners is characterized by joint learning requires specific skills, such as an ability to negotiate institutional agendas, a capacity to conduct research on process, not just product outputs, and the ability to relate discrete research findings to a larger context of development outcomes. Do research centers have the necessary skill base to effectively carry out LAs on a large scale? What skills would be needed to achieve this? Are donors willing to support additional staff with the skills necessary to make an LA approach work?A more coordinated approach between R&D agencies offers the potential for positive synergies and improved outcomes to support the livelihoods of the rural poor. To achieve this in practice, however, negotiations on organizational and personal goals and structures are necessary. A clear mutual understanding needs to be developed to underpin collaborative efforts in the mid to long term. The structuring of this relationship and identification of key factors that facilitate it is, in itself, a research issue.The question facing the CG centers is one of remaining relevant not just scientifically, but as effective partners helping to resolve global issues such as poverty in a creative and sustainable fashion. This goal is too big for any one institution or even group of institutions. To achieve meaningful change, researchers and development practitioners need to join forces in effective alliances where skills and funds complement one another, rather than reinventing the wheel. The LA approach is an attempt to provide a framework for such collaboration.","tokenCount":"4480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f5fed30f5b4c2d60d53ad5195cb05ace","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6f08ec61-dcdb-43f6-a1d2-2f493b1f1497/retrieve","id":"-986765476"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0724b33-5744-4b52-9794-91b6538d0726","pagecount":"1","content":"Take home messages :1.Small seed packs provide a lucrative business opportunity for seed companies. Leldet Seed Co and KARI Seed Unit have started extensive small pack marketing, with critical FIPS outreach support. 2.Small packs help broaden and scale up the certified seed client base. One ton of bean seed can potentially reach more than 10,000 customers. 3.Poor farmers, including women, are ready to purchase certified bean seed if : the seed comes from a trusted source; the pack sizes are small enough to be 'risk free'; and the seed is made accessible in neighborhood venues.Results: thousands of farmers with great production gains 28,000 farmers bought small packs in the first season of sales. Despite the ravaging drought, the majority of farmers who bought seeds, had a excellent harvest . The next season, we are aiming for 72,000 customers.Beans are a key food crop in Kenya covering an estimated area of 800,000 ha/year . Per capita annual consumption is 22/kg/year overall, and rises to world highs of 65/kg/year in select regions.Kenya is also one of the few countries in sub Saharan Africa with a relatively well developed commercial seed sector. However, while about 40 seed companies operate countrywide, only four market bean seedand these concentrate on old varieties, released before the 1980s.Because farmers recycle bean seed for as many as 5-7 seasons (!), seed companies see little profit in focusing on beans, as compared to trade in crops such as maize or garden vegetables.The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) has recently released four varieties which are greatly appreciated by farmers and consumers due to their outstanding food and market traits and their ability to produce well in high stress, even drought prone zones. The issue is how to reach 100,000s of farmers with desired seed of new varieties.Seed systems for impact: key features •• There have to be ongoing supplies (responding to demand)Commercial company standard practice is to package certified seed in minimum units of 2kg packs and to sell in specialized agro-input shops, mainly concentrated in medium and higher potential areas, where more commercial farmers congregate Smallholder farmers have been reluctant to buy such seed, which may cost 200% to 400% the price of local seed,.The small pack approach (100 g or less) had been successfully pioneered in Rwanda by CIAT in the early 1990s. Farmers were unusually interested in the new varieties, and were ready to pay for small, risk-free amounts of certified seed. The action research solved a number of challenges : how to make new varieties, and high quality seed available to farmers; how to make them affordable., and how to make them geographically accessible. The concept was not taken up by commercial sector due to lack of active seed companies in Rwanda.In The small seed packs were marketed across drought prone bean growing areas of Kenya Who buys small packs? Overwhelmingly, farmers prefer the small 75g packs. However, The Leldet Ltd seed company reports that a good number come back to buy the much larger 400g sizes, after the initial trial. So demand is being created for certified seed per se, as well as for new varieties. ","tokenCount":"521"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22ef59ad860c6a5bcd90f7b27973f49c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/23d7543e-c4ac-4955-846d-8c1421b9eefe/retrieve","id":"-2121785393"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9edbf660-7ffb-4e61-92b4-5dd9d6986f3f","pagecount":"26","content":"The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries would like to acknowledge the individuals and organizations that have directly contributed to the production of this field guide. This document is produced by the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries with support of the Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Task Force. The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries would specifically like to acknowledge the staff of USAID / PRIME / USFS, EAIR , ILRI, GIZ.Prosopis juliflora (hereafter called Prosopis) was introduced into Ethiopia in the 1970s as a soil conservation measure due to its high drought tolerance. This was done without realization of the invasive nature of the plant. As a result, it rapidly spread through the country, in particular in drylands and along water courses, overtaking critical dry season grazing areas and irrigable land.Due to the increasing issues with Prosopis removal and management, the Government of Ethiopia published the National Strategy on Prosopis juliflora Management (NSPM) to coordinate efforts on removal and restoration and to prevent the expansion of Prosopis to uninvaded areas.The goal of this guide is to harmonize Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control management efforts at the woreda level. The guide targets extension agents, relevant woreda and kebele Prosopis management 1 1 This guide is developed under the NSPM; in terms of alignment, particularly the institutional structure for Prosopis management from Federal, Regional through to local levels, this guide only explicitly mentions local woreda and kebele level stakeholders. 1 offices, and pastoral and agro-pastoral communities at the grass-roots level of the selected intervention areas. Specific actions include:• To guide woreda level Prosopis infestation area assessment and mapping; • To prioritize areas and plan for Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control management actions; • To organize community and stakeholder groups to practically manage and monitor Prosopis.It is recommended that this guide is complemented by appropriate land management skills trainings, and supported by relevant technical documents, including existing and new best practices.Orange grid squares represent areas where species was present and red grid squares where species was considered invasive.Prosopis is a thorny evergreen shrub or tree often reaching a height of 12 meters. It is tolerant to salty and alkaline soil, but sensitive to cold weather. It grows well in low rainfall areas.Prosopis has a well-developed taproot, extending up to 50 meters, allowing it to reach groundwater reserves during the dry season. The plant spreads through seeds and root suckers. It produces many small, hard seeds that can pass through the digestive system of animals to then germinate when hitting the ground.Seeds can have a high level of dormancy; they can stay viable in the soil for up to 10 years, until favorable conditions for germination occur when the hard seed coating has broken down and a certain level of water is available. Prosopis seeds are spread through domestic and wild animals feeding on pods, attracted by the sweet seed coat. Seeds are eaten and then dispersed through animal dung; the act of going through an animal's gut prepares the seed for germination. Prosopis can also spread through flooding and along irrigation canals.Livestock illnessTo manage Prosopis effectively it is required that Government agents work closely with local communities. This joint working partnership will start with the preparation of a Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control action plan. Prosopis action plans should have clear targets for prevention, clearance, and rehabilitation of Prosopis infested areas.Initially, roles and responsibilities within community management systems, where they exist, should be negotiated, agreed upon, and made clear during the planning process. This is done through a series of meetings and discussions with the key stakeholders/community members and government offices at woreda and kebele levels within the targeted/selected intervention areas. In collaboration with all relevant actors, multi-stakeholder and participatory Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control action planning meetings should be arranged.Suggested steps for successful development of a Prosopis action plans are as follows:Identify actions for community members 1. Introduce the subject of Prosopis invasion, the problems caused, and the need for prevention, clearance, and control through joint management actions.2. Conduct rapid analysis of the trends of degradation or infestation by Prosopis, and current management patterns of the resources in the area.3. Analyze stakeholders and institutions, and the relevance of each in the planned joint Prosopis efforts.4. Map prosopis infestation areas. Conduct mapping exercises with community groups. These maps should be geo-referenced in order to ensure accuracy and enable area estimation.Community works to remove Prosopis 5. Select areas for prevention, clearance, and control actions. Participants should discuss and select priority areas based on the urgency of management actions and the different level of infestation as identified in the mapping process, and prescribe the specific management measures corresponding to the level of the infestation. 8. Finalize the plan. Groups present their plans for discussion and comments. Merge the community plans of all locations/groups to develop a woreda level Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control action plan. 9. Hold a final meeting for all stakeholders to endorse the details of the Prosopis prevention, clearance, and control action plan and develop and agree on roles and responsibilities to implement the plan. 12. Submit quarterly progress monitoring reports to the relevant Prosopis management bodies.Criteria to consider when prioritizing Prosopis infested areas for clearance:• It is recommended, where possible, to clear large joined areas rather than small fragmented patches of Prosopis. It is important to assess the level of Prosopis infestation present in the area in order to identify the appropriate prevention, clearance, and control management actions.Areas The key management strategy in non-infested areas at risk of infestation is prevention through proper land management. These prevention practices will vary by land use, e.g. land used for livestock grazing ors land used for crop production.LAND USED FOR LIVESTOCK GRAZING Intensify management of grazing systems including regular monitoring of the grassland areas to check for Prosopis seedling emergence or sprouting. This is the first sign of Prosopis invasion. The faster that prevention and clearance actions are taken, the faster and easier Prosopis will be controlled. However, seasonal management of open grasslands will require repeated management actions. The community managing the grassland area will need to clear (uproot) Prosopis seedlings at least 2 times per year, before the onset of, and directly after, the rainy season(s).12 4 4 This is a recommended minimum number of times that Prosopis clearance activities should take place.LAND USED FOR CROP PRODUCTION Crop cultivation requires intensive land management actions such as land preparation, seed sowing, crop weeding, pest control, and crop harvesting. In order to prevent Prosopis infestation, regular monitoring of the cultivated land area to check for Prosopis seedling emergence or sprouting is necessary. If Prosopis seedlings begin to occur, remove the seedlings using the same methods and timing as the removal actions in livestock grazing areas (as mentioned previously).PREVENTION OF FURTHER SPREAD, CLEARANCE, AND CONTROL Prevention of further spread, clearance, and control is key in less-infested areas. Controls include removal of seedlings, intensive use of land to prevent infestation, containment, hand cutting, and uprooting. Handing cutting and uprooting usually involves community level group work. The cutting of the Prosopis stems and branches is done using a hand-held axe and/or machete. Cut materials are stacked together and burned. Stump treatment is then recommended (necessary); the Prosopis stump is removed either through burning and/or digging out with a pick-axe. Remove the root system below the bud zone (20-30 cm below ground) to reduce the likelihood of re-shooting. Old engine oil can also be painted on the cut stump to prevent resprouting -regular checking of any signs of regrowth are required. Advantages of hand cutting; this approach can be used for community-based activities including the Government of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net 14 Program-using cash or food for community-based public works. Disadvantages of hand cutting; this is hard and potentially dangerous work. Communities should be provided with the appropriate safety equipment, such as gloves and goggles, to prevent injury from sharp thorns.Remove material 20-30 cm below ground level by either digging or burningPrevention, clearance, and control methods are similar in both moderately infested areas and highly infested areas, but will vary in degree of intervention depending on the level of infestation. For example, highly infested areas will require repeated clearance and intensive follow on land management actions. In Moderately to Highly infested Areas, the use of combined machinery and human labor is recommended, where possible. The use of machinery will enable the penetration into high infested Prosopis thickets and remove the bulk of the Prosopis trees. Human labor can then follow after the machinery, to clear the site of Prosopis debris and clear smaller seedlings. This approach also allows for greater scale in terms of the number of hectares cleared.Machine based removal involves the clearance of Prosopis using either chainsaws and/or heavy machinery. Chainsaws will allow for quicker cutting of thicker Prosopis stems. Heavy machinery is used to either push (bulldoze) or pull (plough/rip) the Prosopis tree from the ground. Blade ploughing cuts off plants stems/trunks below ground level. This clearance method is best undertaken before Prosopis matures and produces seeds and establishes an extensive root system. Machine removal should be undertaken in the dry season. Success depends on cutting the root system below the bud zone (20-30 cm below ground) to reduce the likelihood of re-shooting. Care should be taken to avoid native plant species when blade ploughing. Bulldozing mature Prosopis stands has been found to be an effective and efficient removal technique. This process removes the tree/bush and stump together. Clearance needs to be followed by hand cutting and seedling uprooting to prevent re-infestation.Advantages of machine removal--this approach can be used for large area clearance. It is relatively fast and efficient. Disadvantages of machine removal--high cost in terms of machinery purchasing and hire. May cause environmental damage through soil disturbance. An Environmental Impact Assessment should be carried out before removal by machinery is undertaken.Fire should be used to burn removed cut materials (biomass) and soils containing large amounts of seeds in highly infested areas. Proper care needs to be taken that fire is controlled and is not spread to neighboring vegetation.It is essential that all removal and control actions ensure that the spreading of Prosopis seed is avoided.LAND USED FOR LIVESTOCK GRAZING After clearance of Prosopis, regular monitoring of the grassland area to check for Prosopis seedling emergence or sprouting (as with non-infested areas) is necessary. Seedlings are the first sign of Prosopis re-invasion. The faster that control and prevention actions are taken, the faster and more easily Prosopis will be controlled.Seasonal management of open grasslands will require repeated management actions. The community managing the grassland area will need to clear Prosopis seedlings as needed and adjusted to the season. It is recommended to carry out this work before the onset of, and immediately after, the rainy season(s).LAND USED FOR CROP AND FORAGE PRODUCTION In order to prevent Prosopis re-infestation, regular monitoring of the cultivated land area to check for Prosopis seedling emergence or sprouting is necessary. This is the first sign of Prosopis invasion. The faster detection and prevention actions are taken, the faster and easier Prosopis will be controlled. It is recommended to clear Prosopis seedlings at least 2 per year, before the onset of the rainy season(s).Annual cultivation of land is recommended to prevent re-infestation, as uncultivated land will be re-infested from Prosopis seed in the soil.","tokenCount":"1879"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f31ceccb04ed1b3abf7e81a4cf68681e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/361bda8a-bc09-4f2c-9adb-bfa8b77ea5e3/retrieve","id":"-2034582830"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"71030733-017b-4633-b96b-68e3948d5027","pagecount":"31","content":"First and for most thanks to God. I am greatly indebted to my advisor Ato Gebeyehu Goshu and my co-advisor Dr.Yilkal Asfaw for their intelectual advice, material provision and devotion of their time to correct the thesis.I acknowledge with gratitude ILRI/IPMS project and Dr. Azage Tegegne, IPMS/ ILRI, Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, for providing financial, material and moral support in the course ofr my research field. I also thank Dr. G/Medhin, Dawit and Amare,IPMS/ILRI, Atsibi womberta PLW, RDO, for the facilitating and cooperation in my stay with them.Finally from the depth of my heart I would like to thank to my brother Araya Abraha and my family for their financial and moral support in to achieve this goal.I finally express my thanks to my close friends who shared me love and experience.An attempt was made to study major health problems of livestock in Atsbi womberta Woreda, northern Ethiopia, from December 2006 to April 2007. Questionnaire survey was v carried out on 100 livestock owners to collect information on the livestock production system and the major health problems recognized by farmers in the study area, observational also were conducted.The questionnaire survey result revealed that in cattle infectious diseases (58.5 %) followed by miscellaneous case (27%) and parasitic problem (14.5%), in sheep parasitic problems (50.3%) followed by infectious diseases (46.2%) and miscellaneous cases (3.5%) are the common health constraints and similarly in goats the most important health problems were those caused by parasites (20.5%) followed by infectious cases (63.1%) and miscellaneous diseases (16.3%). In equines miscellaneous cases (63.5%) followed by parasitic diseases (11.5%) and infectious diseases (25.5%) were identified. In poultry NCD (53.5%) was the most devastating infectious disease.In the observational study, in cattle tick (15.8%) and Fasciolosis (14.9%), in caprine pasteurellosis (25.8%) and Abortion (25.4%), in ovine fasciolosis (34.1%) and abortion (22.7%), in equine GI parasites (22.75%) and colic (13.6%) were the common cases frequently appeared during the study time.The retrospective study showed that infectious disease with an average of 28.2%,parastic 46.4% and miscellanosis25.4% were frequently recorded in the woreda veterinary clinic.The study also addressed that the animal production system in the study area in general is traditional with a number of problems. Most of the respondents complained that animal feed followed by water shortage is serious problem. They also indicated that due to uncontrolled animal movement specially from Afar Regional State, disease transmission is a problem. Key Words/Phrases: Atsbi womberta livestock, animal health infectious, parasitic, miscelanosis, disease .Animal production has been considered as the main component of agricultural development in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Like in many developing countries, domestic animals play a crucial role in Ethiopia, they constitute as source for traction power, income, in provision of milk and meat (Mekonnen et al., 1989). Ethiopia is known for its high livestock population, being the first in Africa and tenth in the world, The recent livestock population estimate that the country has about 44.3 million heads of cattle, 23.6 million sheep and 23.3 million goats (CSA, 2004).Despite the large number of livestock in Ethiopia the sector is characterized by low productivity and, hence, income derived from this sector of agricultures could not impart significant role in the development of the country's economy (Mukasa-Mugerwa, 1998).The low productivity is attributed to the low genetic potential of indigenous cattle, poor nutrition and reproductive performance, inadequate management, high disease incidence and parasite burden. Among these diseases have numerous influences on productivity and fertility of herds i.e. losses due to mortality and morbidity, loss of weight, slow down growth, poor fertility performance and decrease physical power.In tropical areas livestock health problems is high due to environmental factors like high temperature and humidity, topography structure of sloppy area exposed to flood so easy to infect soil born diseases, stress factors and drought are common in these area as a result feed availability is limited and low vegetation coverage. And the other major reason is the lack of weakness of animal health services (Assegid, 2000).Even though these diseases are due consideration, experiences has shown that (Coppock, 1994) information on animal health was never a significant focus of research. However, knowing the type and extent of the common and /or major health problems is very important owners, Veterinarians, and researchers and can assist in the development of herd health strategies and the selections of possible interventions (Radostits et al., 1994), to recommended that an organized research that can elucidate major animal health problems is a central issue for further study of epidemiological study on the diseases of livestock.The general objectives of this study were:• To characterize the livestock production system.• To enquire base line information on major health problems of livestock in the study area.The study was conducted in Astbi womberta woreda, which is found in Purposive and simple random sampling methods have been done to select the peasant association, households, respectively. Initially five PAs namely: Golgel neale, Felegewyin, Barka adisbha,Kalamine and Hayelom were purposely selected based on accessibility transport, agro-ecological differences. From each PA 20 households were randomly selected which then made a total of 100 households to include in the study. All livestock owned by the sampled households were considered as study animals. There were, therefore, cattle 493, goats 964, sheep, 1493 and equines 155(donkeys, mule and horse), poultry, 336,camel 25 and 117 beehives included in the study.A detailed and organized questionnaire format (Annex I) was designed and an attempt was made to generate base line information related to livestock production and with particular emphasis on major livestock health problems; livestock diseases considered as important by farmers and measures taken by farmers against livestock diseases. About 0.2% of the estimated whole population of household heads of the Woreda that amount 100 respondents were involved in the interview. The questionnaire was framed in such away that farmers could give information that are recent and easy to recall, and it was filled directly by interviewing randomly selected farmers from different villages of the five peasant associations.Twenty key respondents was selected by the development agent in each of the five PAs and informal group discussion has been held for one hour to generate relevant information for the farmers. Points considered during the discussion were disease occurrence and trend for the last few years and constraints of livestock production..Clinical cases appearing in the Atsbi womberta veterinary clinics from December 2006 to April 2007 were examined to address the major clinical diseases of livestock in the study area.The data collected in the study was stored in the Excel Microsoft (MS excel) and descriptive statistics was employed to summarize the data.The majority of respondents were male (82%) and the maximum and minimum age was 78 and 22 years, resistively. Regarding educational status 82% of respondents didn't get any education (Table1 Majority of the respondents own sheep, goats, cattle and equine which are major species with herd structure (Table2). 2.9 1-5In the study area animals are used for different purposes and hence they are considered as backbone of the livelihood of the community. Their functions and products, and proportion of respondents are listed in (Table 3). Majority of respondents indicated that natural pasture; cereal straws and cactus (belles) are the major livestock feed types. The respondents also reported that feed availability depends on seasons. Feed shortage is the main problem especially during dry season in the study area to maintain market oriented livestock development extension. Common feed stuff types and proportion of respondents is shown in (Table 4). Most of the peasants sixty nine percent house different specie animals with in one house, which is separated from their own house and thirty one percent of the respondents house the same species of animals in different houses, which are separated their own home.Regarding to breeding most of the eighty percent of respondents use uncontrolled natural mating and twenty percent respondents use selected bulls to reproduce cattle.eigthy five percent explain the performance of their animals by recalling and fifteen percent respondents use measurable unit to know the performance of their animals.Respondents sold livestock for different purposes fifty three percent, thirtyfive percent and ten percent respondents indicated that they sell animals for house hold expense, due to drought and diseases/out break, respectively. Respondents argue that they don't have specific time for selling livestock but mostly selling is under taken during holidays and cultivated season.Respondents reported that they cull animals from the herd based on age, reproductive capability, disease and production level (Table 5). Respondents complained that many infectious, parasitic and miscellaneous diseases are the major health problems of livestock, which are cause of death of number of animals and production loss. They also indicated that the disease dynamic is aggravated by many factors like feed shortage, inadequate Veterinary service, season and agro ecological. Diseases outbreaks were reported to government bodies only by 45% of the farmers and about 63.9% of the reporting farmers knew that the government bodies responded for their reports.The peasant respond that 42.5 %( N=94) of them use modern treatement, 35.2 %( N=77) use traditional treatment and 22.3 %( N=50) use slaughter to cure/relief diseased animals.Traditional treatments are widely used in the study area for infectious, surgical, non infectious and parasitic. Among the preventive measures vaccination and slaughter are mostly practiced. The proportion of respondents and treatment and preventive measures taken by them are listed in Table 8. Cost of treatment and vaccination and proportion of Respondents is described in (Table 6)The survey also indicated that 50% (N=50) of the Respondents reported to the government body when out break /diseases were encountered. Of these 44%(N=22) Respondents ascertained that government has interfered to halt the out break/ diseases. The result of the present study disclosed the existence of major animal health problems on market oriented livestock development of cattle with an over all diagnosed based on questioner survey, Check list group discussion, retrospective and clinical observation.58.5% of infectious diseases, 14.5% of parasitic and 27% of miscellaneous diseases were recorded at the study area.The current survey revealed that among the infectious disease Anthrax (16.98%), Blackleg (15.7%), Mastitis (10.6%), Pasteurellosis (8.9%) and Lumpy skin disease (5.3%) were encountered that frequently occurred in the area. The result shows that there is difference in frequency of respondents proportion on infectious diseases of cattle. This difference may be due to degree of severity, mortality and morbidity rates and loses of economy as prioritized by farmers.Anthrax and Blackleg are categorized as soil borne diseases in the study area occurred frequently. The diseases were major health problems of cattle, sheep and equines.Several studies reported that Anthrax and Blackleg were claimed to be the leading cattle health problem in Ginchi water shed area (Belayneh, 2002). Blackleg was reported to be the most important infectious disease with prevalence rate of 20% in the northern part of Ethiopia (Tigray) (Legesse, 1996) and Tesfahiwot ( 2004) also mentioned that it was common infectious disease of cattle in Ada liben Woreda. These two diseases were endemic as major health problems in the study area .The reason is probably due to the area is characterized by short heavy rainfall, flood and drought which predispose for the agent to be epidemic. Epidemics tend to occur in association with marked climatic or ecological cahange, such as heavy rainfall, flooding, or drought Aiello (1998).Mastitis: based on questionnaire survey, participatory approaches with key respondents, veterinary stuffs and retrospective study mastitis was found major health problem of smollholder dairy farmers in the study area. Solomon( 2006) reported that mastitis was major dairy cow health problem with high prevalence rates( 16.2%) in Asella, eastern Ethiopia . Over whelming cases of mastitis were sub clinical and clinical mastitis in both breeds (Kassa et al., 1997). In the area dairy cows were distributed to the farmers by government but the managements could not know well understood so that dairy cows easily affected by mastitis.Lumpy skin disease: The result indicated that lumpy skin disease was found as the frequently appeared infectious viral disease in the study area in cattle. The disease frequently occurs from November to December. This result agrees with Regassa (2003) in Nekemte, Western Ethiopia that occur during November and December. The author also discussed the epizootic characteristics of this disease has close association with climatic condition mainly prolonged and heavy rains which favor an increase in the population of biting insects and topography. Traditionally the disease occurs in Southern and Eastern Africa but, in recent years, has extended north west through the continent in to sub-Saharan west, Africa (Merck, 1998). In the area clinical cases were observed during the study period.Septicemia pasteurellosis (hemorrhagic septicemia or bar bone): Was observed in cattle as the main infectious disease in the study area. This might be animals movement is common for searching of feed, water and to be soled for market during drought period. In addition to these there are predisposing factors such as stress, excessive cold (due to high altitude ranges) that can favors the bacteria to multiply and then evade the lower respiratory tract from which infection is triggered. Radostits et al. (1994) also indicated that the disease is common when animals are exposed to wet, chilly weather or exhausted by heavy work.Regarding to the result many parasitic disease were observed as common health problem of livestock.Among the parasitic diseases GI helimenthiasis was found frequently causing mainly loss of body condition, emaciation and weak in draught power of cattle. The high occurrence of parasitic diseases in the study area could be due to low deworming practices and the increasing of irrigation lands in the Woreda at which reproduction and development of the parasites and their intermediate host is favored.. Feseha (1998) reported that gastro intestinal helimenthiasis commonest disease-affecting cattle in other crop-livestock production system areas of Ethiopia.Other reports ( Belayneh,2002 andTesfahiwot,2004) also showed that GI helimenthiasis in Ginchi watershed and Adaliben woreda were major animal health problems of cattle respectively.Fasciolosis on of the common endoparasite that affect productivities and growth rate of cattle in the study area. This could be associated to large water wholes and marshy areas available in the grazing area and less deworming.This finding is in agreement with other results with incidence rates as high as 33.8% and 47 % that were reported by Regassa (1985) from northwestern Ethiopia and Ameni (2001) from northeastern Ethiopia respectively.The study also revealed that with ratio of 3.45% mange mites were ectoparsites of cattle that affects skin mostly encountered in the study area. This result was relatively low compared that of Assegied (1991) who recorded a prevalence rate of 7.4%, and relatively high compare that of Chalachew (2001) who reported prevalence of 1.86%. This difference might be due to the study design, management, climate condition and season. An animal that is affected by mange mites shows with clinical signs like rubbing, itching, emaciated body condition and loss of hair in the field area observed.The observational study also showed the presence of low tick infestation in the area. This was may be due to the microclimate (high land) helps for lowering tick infestation in the study area. High land districts have lesser tick population relative to low land in addition, tick infestation is highest in area by a complex interaction of factors such as climate, hot susceptibility and grazing habits (BOANRT, 2003).In this survey reproductive problems were important health problems one of cattle as mentioned by respondents. This may be due to un controlled breeding, infectious agents, production and management systems. Kassahun (2003) 6.3% andYesuneh (2005) 2.23 % abortion prevalence rates were recorded in different parts of Ethiopia.Inaddition a prevalence rate of 7.5% ( Tigre, 2004) and 7.8% (Tadesse,1999) dystocia was recorded in Holleta. The high occurrence of dystocia may vary due to the fact that it is influenced by factors such as age and parity dam, as well as breed of the sire (Marrow and Noakes 1986).The present study showed that small ruminants were affected by parasitic disease (50.3%), infectious disease (46.2%) and miscellaneous disease (3.5%).Parasitic diseases in small ruminants were found high which was responded by the farmers during interview and field supervision. Among the parasitic diseases, endoparastic comprises more than half of the reported cases. This could be attributed to overgrazing of infested pasture and low use of antihelmenthics. This result is in consistent with previous findings in Ethiopia high land sheep (Tekalye et al, 1992) and (ILCA, 1996). Similar result has also been described by Belay (1998) in western part of Ethiopia (15%).The result shows that circling disease (coenuruses cerebralis) was among the major health problems of sheep in the Atsbi womberta woreda. Its occurrence may be related with presence of infected final host (dog) in the area and low prevention and control strategies.Fasciolosis was also the major health problems of sheep mentioned during the survey protocol procedures in the study area. This result agrees with Tembley (1997)  Sheep/goat poxviruses in the present study were found frequently occurring viral infectious diseases in the area. Similar study reported by Haffize (2001) in central Ethiopia indicated that prevalence rates of sheep pox and goat pox were 1.55% and 1.62%, respectively. Factors predisposing for poxvirus infection include climate, housing and shortage of feed during the long dry season. The occurrence was higher in young animals than in the adults. As sheep and goat pox are endemic to Ethiopia, adults had lower prevalence probably due to acquired immunity by previous infection and vaccination. Sheep poxvirus occurs in all breeds, sexes and ages of sheep but lambs suffer with higher disease incidence and more sever lesions (Kimberling, 1988), Ethiopia is consider as having a low sporadic occurrence of the disease (FAO- WHO-OIE, 1993). But in the 1999 about 25 out breaks in sheep and goat pox were reported to MOA with a reporting rate of only 42.4% (Tariku, 2000), live, attenuated vaccines of sheep and goat pox are produced at the national institute (NVI), Debrezeit Ethiopia, to control the disease.The present study showed pasteurellosis which is locally called 'mieta /areye' is the most serious economically important bacterial infectious disease of small ruminants in the Woreda. This result is in agreement with findings of Aschalew (1998) who studied on Ovine pneumonic pasteurellosis in north shoa. He described that the higher incidence of the disease were from December to January could be due to the adverse effects of the inclement weather, which was coldest during this months. Pasteurellosis being commensally of the upper respiratory tract selectively proliferate and colonize the lower part of the respiratory tract. This occurs during times of ill defined factors of which inclement weather is one example (Radostitis.o.m.et al., 1994). Similarly the high occurrence of the diseases in the woreda may be to stress.In the study area one of the major animal health problems of equines is African horse sickness. AHS is highly fatal viral infectious disease of horses, mules and donkeys (Radostitits et al., 1994). Its frequent occurrence may be due to the present of insect vector in the area. In areas where out breaks occur the morbidity rate is related to the number of insect vectors present (Radostits et al., 1994). The other reason may be due to low vaccination coverage in all villages/animals in the area.In donkeys, parasitic disease is the most frequently encountered health problems in this study area.Among the parasitic cases, GI helementhiasis is the predominant case, which is occurring, significantly in higher rate in young donkey. This finding is in agreement with that of Yoseph (1993) in Wonchi area.Mostly this may be due to stress, which leads to lower immuno competence. Young donkeys are subject to stress when they are being training to carry loads by their owners and hence they become susceptible to parasitic infestation. This study also correlated with result of Tesfahiwot (2004) in Ada liben woreda.The study indicated that Back sore is the leading most important health problems of equines in the study area and representing more than 63.5% of traumatic wound in equines. Significance nearly similar finding was reported by Awake (1995), northern Gonder, for prevalence of 48%, anther report by Tesfahiwot (2004) in Ada liben area for prevalence of 50%. This result little bite differs because equines use extensively for transportation and loading of salt from remote area (Afar) to market, poor harnessing which cause abrasion and small to large wounds (Seifert et al., 1993).Lameness and hyena bite were also identified in the study that were frequently account significant proportion of traumatic health problems. These diseases related to the housing systems, ragged, swampy and open fencing systems, which predisposing donkeys for hyena bites and unsuitable topography and improper loading style of donkeys which expose donkeys remarkably to lameness (Rodriquez, G., 1991).Colic which was found one of miscellaneous cases had a considerable incidence rate which could be attributed to the heavy infestation rate of houses with the red worms, restricted access to water, poor teeth status, access of fermentable feed staff, torsion of intestine and others (Radostitis, et al., 1994).The study also revealed that New castle Disease (NCD) was identified as more popular and economically significant infectious viral disease of chickens in the study. It was also reported by Dessie and Jobre (2004) that NCD was the single major health constraint, which cause heavy mortality and morbidity to village chicken and affects productivity of the system in the country. Its frequency in the woreda may because of absence of control and prevention methods to reduce its economical impact.This study revealed that in Atsbi womberta woreda the mixed crop-livestock production system is the dominant system and livestock are the most important component of live hood of farmer in the area. The woreda support different species of livestock including cattle, small ruminant (Sheep and goat), and equine (Donkey and mule) and poultry.Though livestock are the major source of live hood in Atsbi womberta woreda, farmer cannot exploit full potential of the sector because of different constraints. Among this constraint live stock disease and feed shortage are the major ones. Disease like infectious diseases, external and endo parasite and miscellaneous case are the major health problems of livestock developments for poor productivity of the sector. As the consequence this disease affect both the local and national economy. So to improve productivity of the sector.Livestock owner need to be introduce with the basic knowledge of nutritional and animal health management Development of proper animal health delivery system that could be extended to all livestock owner.Introducing alternative forage developments (cultivated pasture) is mandatory to alleviate feed shortage Using data generated from this study, which could be serve as basic line information, strategic disease control scheme should be develop to fight against infectious, parasites and miscelionosis diseases.","tokenCount":"3745"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5fb3e515c3e0f8e0d5a626387138f1aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/brief/CITES-Brief.pdf","id":"99813095"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e9bb6799-7d9c-4121-9b25-a1b3516381bf","pagecount":"8","content":"Habitat degradation resulting from land use change and the overexploitation and illegal trade of wild species are driving the current biodiversity crisis.• Launched in 1975, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), now has 183 contracted state parties and the European Union. The Convention lists species at risk from international trade in one of three appendices, depending on the level of threat. • Tree species listed by CITES numbered only 18 in 1975; by 2013, more than 350 tree species were listed, around 200 of which are used and traded for timber. The CITES Tree Species Programme was launched in 2017 to ensure that trade in timber, bark, extracts and other products from CITES-listed tree species is sustainable, legal and traceable. • This brief highlights a new Cambridge University Press book: CITES As a Tool for Sustainable Development, with a focus on the governance of tropical timber species.In 1973, a global Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was adopted to prevent the extinction of many species of animals and plants due to international trade. Saving endangered species presents a critical challenge for conservation and sustainability movements and is also a matter of survival, providing livelihoods for many communities worldwide. 1  In 2015, the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs -notably SDG 15, Life on Land) called for urgent action to protect endangered species and their natural habitats. As Ivonne Higuero told delegates at her first meeting as CITES Secretary-General at the 18 th Conference of Parties (CoP) \"Humanity needs to respond to the growing extinction crisis by transforming the way we manage the world's wild animals and plants. Business as usual is no longer an option. \" (IISD, 2019). This feature highlights a new Cambridge University Press book -CITES As a Tool for Sustainable Development -edited by Marie-Claire Cordonnier, David Andrew Wardell and Alexandra Harrington. The book focuses on the legal implementation of CITES to aid in achieving the global SDGs. Through interdisciplinary analysis and case studies across jurisdictions, more than 40 contributing authors analyse how CITES can support more sustainable development through international and national law and policy reforms. They consider recent innovations and key intervention points along flora and fauna global value chains, and make recommendations to strengthen CITES implementation, including through global, national and local trade controls of endangered species. The book has attempted to move away from a focus on iconic terrestrial vertebrates -reflecting the biased International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) database of species' conservation status records, the RED List 2 -by including plants and aquatic vertebrates.According to an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report, we face an extinction crisis with an estimated 75 percent of the Earth's land surface has been significantly altered and 66 percent of the oceans are exhibiting signs of cumulative human impacts (IPBES 2019). Although habitat degradation associated with large-scale land use changes is a key driver of biodiversity and species loss, the overexploitation of wildlife including the illegal wildlife and plant trades and related biosecurity risks are key threats to the current biodiversity crisis (Anagnostou and Doberstein, 2022;Bashyal et al., 2023;Borsky et al., 2020). The IPBES report concluded that \"Human actions threaten more species with global extinction than ever before. An average of around 25 percent of species in assessed animal and plant groups are threatened suggesting that around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiversity loss\" (IPBES, 2019: 11-12). This warning served as a wake-up call and highlighted CITES role in protecting timber, fish and wildlife from overexploitation.It is estimated that 70 percent of all emerging zoonotic diseases (EZDs) over the past 50 years have originated in wildlife populations (Karesh et al., 2005;Swift et al, 2007). A more recent workshop report by IPBES, 'Escaping the Era of Pandemics' , identifies wildlife trade as a \"particularly important risk factor for disease emergence\" (Daszak et al., 2020). As many as 1.7 million unknown viruses are circulating in mammals and birds alone, up to half of which could infect humans and cause the spread of zoonotic disease. Despite this, there are currently no binding obligations within the CITES text that explicitly address the role of the wildlife trade in the spread of EZDs or infectious diseases, although a zoonotic diseases working group was established after the last CITES Conference of Parties (CoP). The overwhelming concern of CITES is to protect species against overexploitation from trade while ensuring that risks to the health and welfare of live wildlife traded are minimized.CITES functions in all countries where a complex array of local, regional, national and international administrative, civil, criminal and environmental regulations is already in place to implement conservation strategies. The Convention has faced growing pressures to address issues such as habitat loss, EZDs and human-wildlife conflict that CITES is not designed to regulate. The wildlife trade has expanded significantly in the last few decades. Although data are not fully available for domestic trade, the international legal wildlife trade has increased 500 percent in value since 2005, and 2,000 percent since the 1980s (Daszak et al., 2020). An estimated 24 percent (7,638 species) out of the more than 31,500 known terrestrial bird, mammal, amphibian and scaled reptile species are traded globally (Scheffers et al., 2019). CITES also operates within the broader context of transnational organized environmental crime in wild species, which a combined estimate places at an astounding USD 70-213 billion per year. According to a 2014 United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) report, the international illegal wildlife trade is estimated at between USD 50 and 150 billion per year; illegal fisheries, between USD 10 and 23.5 billion; and illegal logging, between USD 30 and 100 billion (Nellemann et al., 2014). In contrast, global overseas development assistance totals roughly USD 135 billion per year.Two early attempts were made to regulate the wildlife trade in 1900 and 1933. 3 The Convention for the Preservation of CITES has been able to do this by revising the text of the Convention, although this can take many years; 5 the adoption of supportive measures (101 Resolutions and 332 Decisions in effect by July 2020); the National Legislation Project (NLP) to assist parties to adapt national laws and regulations; the establishment of the permanent committees, the budget and work programme of the CITES Secretariat through resolutions and decisions; rules for controlling trade mechanisms integral to implementation and compliance (inter alia international action plans, and the Review of Significant Trade for species listed in Appendix II believed to be traded detrimentally); texts establishing long-term compliance processes; and the hundreds of proposed additions or changes to listings (to the three Appendices) following each CoP every 3 years.The book examines the implementation of CITES by considering species and commodity value chains. The selected case studies presented below focus on the governance of tropical timber species. The volume explores many other case studies relating to the overexploitation of fisheries, including the scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini); trophy hunting of the markhor (Capra falconeri); the protection of the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii); as well as several crosscutting themes such as understanding markets in order to conserve CITES-listed species, trade and zoonotic diseases, and CITES as a tool for monitoring and adaptive management.In 1975, when CITES came into force, only 18 tree species were listed under the Convention and therefore subject to international trade controls. Proposals to list commercially traded timber species in the stricter Appendix II (as opposed to Appendix III) often met resistance, particularly from range states. There was a common misconception that listing a species was equivalent to a trade ban; source countries were therefore concerned that it would result in prohibited or restricted use and consumption. In 2007, at CoP 14, this resistance from range states (where a particular species occurs) manifested itself in the defeat of all proposals to list timber species, which had been put forward by the EU. Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa was the first multilateral conservation treaty signed by European colonial powers in London in May 1900. 4 It included five sections to protect different categories of animals and encouraged the creation of wildlife reserves to preserve a sufficient supply of wildlife to satisfy the (colonial) hunting community whose \"naked utilitarian perspective was made explicit in the preamble\" (Bowman et al., 2010: 5). Although it did not enter into force, the 1900 Convention initiated calls for the strict regulation of trade. A subsequent Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State was adopted in London in November 1933, and entered into force in January 1936. The scope of this Convention was extended to include plants and recognized that preservation could best be achieved by the \"constitution of national parks, strict natural reserves and other reserves within which the hunting, killing or capturing of fauna shall be limited or prohibited\" (Articles 3-7).After more than a decade of negotiations and meetings, 25 articles and 4 appendices were finally agreed upon at the Washington Convention in 1973. Two years later, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came into force for the original 10 signatories (Reeve, 2002). CITES currently has 183 contracted state parties plus the EU and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2023.Parties to CITES are required to adapt their existing national legislation or adopt new legislation to meet specific criteria. In addition, each signatory is expected to designate one scientific and management authority, prohibit trade in violation of the Convention, penalize trade violations, and provide for the confiscation of illegally traded and possessed animals and plants.The main characteristic of CITES is the listing of species which are at risk from trade, in one of three appendices, for which graduated controls are required depending on the level of threat. By February 2023 there were 704 animals and 395 plants in Appendix I, which are endangered, can only be traded in exceptional circumstances and require both import and export permits. In Appendix II, there were 5,466 animals and 33,764 plants representing species which can be traded subject to regulation often based on agreed annual quotas, and the provision of export permits. Appendix III is a unilateral listing for which trade controls are relatively minimal and includes 372 animals and 134 plants. Hundreds of species are added to the CITES appendices, particularly Appendix II, every three years after each CoP, the most recent of which was in Panama in November 2022.CITES is a complex and dynamic multilateral environmental agreement. It has been able to adjust and adapt throughout its history as the signatory parties to the convention have used different instruments to rise to new challenges of regulating international wild plant and animal trade (see for example, Wijnstekers, 2011;Oldfield, 2013;Wyatt, 2021;and CITES, 2023).three from Central America, one from Asia and the rest endemic to Madagascar. Kenya proposed listing East African sandalwood populations (Osyris lanceolata), also in Appendix II, was also accepted. This positive shift in attitude, evident between 2007 and 2013, coincided with the launch of a joint collaborative programme under CITES and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) to support capacity building to strengthen implementation of CITES for timber species. The number of listed timber species continues to expand (Reeve, 2015). Subsequently, a CITES Tree Species Programme, initiated in 2017 (https://cites-tsp.org), aims to provide direct financial assistance to Parties in taking conservation and management measures to ensure that their trade in timber, bark, extracts and other products from CITES-listed tree species is sustainable, legal and traceable. Since CoP 16, considerable progress has been made in tackling international trade in tropical tree species, but more needs to be done.The following examples of CITES-listed tree species are all based on chapters in the book, and illustrate how, and to what extent, CITES has been able to regulate international trade of timber, bark and resins -or not.Prunus africana is the only wild relative of peaches, plums, cherries and almonds and was listed in CITES Appendix II in 1995 following the destructive trade in its medicinal bark in the mid-1980s. Even with major subsidies from overseas development assistance, the commercial wild harvest of Prunus africana continues to be unsustainable, both economically and for the long-term viability of wild resource stocks in, for example, Cameroon and Madagascar. Although it is not the only vulnerable species, it holds useful lessons for assessing CITES as a tool for the promotion of sustainable development. It encompasses a 'northern perspective' that uses trade bans as a pro-conservation tool and a 'southern perspective' to promote sustainable use of wild populations by local communities, In addition, in common with many other valuable natural resources, the trade in Prunus africana has been subject to elite capture (rent-seeking behaviour often by local leaders), which has weakened both development outcomes for local communities and undermined decentralized forest management. Interest in the species led to lobbying to continue the trade at national and international levels, which undermined the strong scientific evidence of unsustainable harvesting. However, an import ban was introduced by the European Union (EU) in 2007, harnessing linkages between regional legislation in the EU, as a key market, and international law of a CITES-listed species whose populations were being affected by unsustainable harvesting through trade. In common with other CITES-listed plants, such as orchids and gaharu (Aquilaria species), Prunus africana has long been cultivated, although until recently few attempts have been made to develop separate supply chains from cultivated stocks.Policy support from CITES to develop a separate supply chain for cultivated Prunus africana bark would have significant conservation and livelihood benefits. There are precedents for this, even for CITES Appendix I-listed species, with provisions for facilitating trade in commercially captive-bred live animals when it can be shown that this would result in species conservation benefits. 6 In contrast to lucrative bark exports, livelihood benefits to local harvesters from wild harvest are less than one US dollar a day, owing to a net bark price of USD 0.33 per kg.As with other CITES cases such as orchids, crocodiles and Aquilaria resin, what is needed to supply the current and future markets is to develop separate, traceable Prunus africana bark supply chains based on cultivated stocks. In Cameroon, for example, this would create opportunities for more than 3,500 smallholder farmers growing this species in their agroforestry gardens.The Although CITES has played a key role in developing regional management strategies for bigleaf mahogany in the Amazon region, the authors of this chapter argue that a complex synergy of multiple international and national factors explains the policy developments regarding changes in the mahogany Beyond the Peruvian specifics, even beyond the forest sector, this case speaks to a problem applicable to the entire international trade in wild species: a stamp on an official document is not sufficient guarantee of something's actual legality in many countries, and despite the CITES requirement for a legal acquisition finding. This is a key issue in the context of laws like the US Lacey Act and EU Timber Regulation, where the buyer is legally responsible for their products' possible illegalities even if they did not set out intentionally to buy illegal goods.The Chilean larch (Fitzroya cupressoides) or Alerca is the only species of the genus Fitzroya, originally named by Charles Darwin for Captain Fitzroy of the H.M.S. Beagle. Darwin made his infamous voyage around the world, which he diarized on the Beagle from 1831-1836. Wood from the tree was widely used during the colonial period for roof shingles, furniture and ship masts. The Chilean larch is the second longest-living vegetal species in the world, with specimens that are more than 3,600 years old. It is a large conifer that has been logged heavily for over 350 years. Its range has been reduced to less than 15 percent of its original area, located mostly in the remote and difficult to access high cordillera of the Andes. The Chilean larch is a species threatened with extinction and is included in Appendix 1, which means that international trade is forbidden except in limited and special situations set out by the treaty and in the domestic laws of the state parties to it. While the larch is protected by CITES and a plethora of domestic laws, these have largely failed to effectively ensure the future conservation of this species. A 2010 Chilean Congress report on compliance with CITES identified several weaknesses associated with domestic implementation. These included deficiencies in audits due to a lack of rigour in inspections carried out by public agencies; incoherence between the legal framework and the actions of state institutions, attributed in part to the ignorance about the regulations; and a lack of coordination between the authorities involved in the inspections.The effectiveness of CITES is ultimately subject to the technical ability and willingness of member states to implement its decisions, which depends largely on political and institutional factors. In the context of Chile and the Chilean larch, possible steps to move forward are: (i) to unify international and domestic obligations in order to achieve the goal of protecting the Chilean larch;(ii) to strengthen the oversight of institutions and their capacities for control, supervision and monitoring; and (iii) to increase the domestic penalties for illegal trade at international and national levels.Afromosia (Pericopsis elata) and the illegal timber trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo In a country with entrenched governance challenges, the CITES timber legality verification process is inadequate. National capacities of both the scientific and management authorities are weak, and as in many countries, the DRC does not have a fully compliant national CITES implementing legislation. This is essential both for the integrity of CITES but also for the effectiveness of legislation enacted in the European Union, the United States and Australia to exclude imports of illegally logged timber. New approaches may be needed to regulate the timber and wildlife trades in the DRC, such as timber parks at border crossings (Ferrari and Cerruti, 2023) and the use of vouchers to monitor the bushmeat trade (Hart, Omeme and Hart, 2021).Frankincense (Boswellia spp.)Frankincense is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from several tree species of the genus Boswellia that occur in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and South Asia. Resin of various grades is produced by tapping the trees two to three times per year. Cheap resin is produced in the Horn of Africa, which is the Roman Catholic Church' s major source. The global aromatherapy market is expected to continue to expand rapidly, at a compound rate of 7-15 percent per year. While demand has grown, both the health and the size of several Boswellia populations have declined in all producing regions. Resin harvesting does place pressure on harvested trees, but the economic value of the resin trade also protects them from more destructive forms of use (such as fodder, charcoal, firewood) or land conversion.Afrormosia tree, Yangambi, DRC.Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR Boswellia species are currently not listed in CITES but their conservation, status, trade and threats have been under discussion since 2009 with a view to possible listing proposals. Concerns, however, exist that a CITES Appendix II listing could in effect act as a trade ban in major producing areas rather than encourage sustainable trade. Listing could also be problematic in other countries where governance is unstable (Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, etc.) or where political sensitivity around the cultural heritage of Boswellia makes listing highly sensitive (such as Oman). The ramifications of these potential issues need to be examined from multiple angles.Gum and resin collection, particularly of Boswellia species, is a key source of income for hundreds of thousands of people in the Horn of Africa. Although CITES is not required to consider livelihoods when making a listing decision, which is based on biological criteria concerning a species status and threats to its survival, the potential impact of Boswellia listing on the livelihoods of some of the world's most vulnerable people, and the potential consequences for different species in different areas, need to be considered carefully.There is some evidence of increasing pressure and declining populations in some areas for certain frankincense species. However, given the currently limited quantitative data, political complexities and differential pressures facing different frankincense species, it is unclear in most cases whether CITES Appendix II listing would be a help or a detriment. A listing in Appendix II does not automatically trigger a trade suspension. Somalia has been subject to a general suspension of trade for all CITES-listed species since 2004 but this is not the case for Ethiopia. 8 Certainly, a genus-wide listing would be inappropriate.While CITES is a powerful tool to regulate international trade, it should be applied with care and in circumstances where such regulation would be of a benefit to the species involved. Therefore, the book advocates, for each of the species, further assessment efforts, consultation with stakeholders and understanding of real-world impacts is essential before considering further interventions.The overexploitation of wildlife, combined with habitat loss, pollution and climate change, means that \"1 million species are facing extinction\" (Wyatt, 2021: 15). Although CITES -as this book has illustrated -has made significant contributions to improving the regulation of the international timber and wildlife trade, significant gaps remain (Waeber et al., 2023). It is beyond the scope of this feature to present a detailed discussion of the limitations of CITES, so we shall highlight only a few. Many species, such as shihuahuaco (Dipteryx micrantha) in Peru, where it is widely harvested to supply the international trade in parquet, are not listed (Espinosa and Valle, 2020). Domestic trade in listed species is not addressed by the Convention, although this has been addressed in resolutions that have had some impact for certain species, notably with respect to the trade in ivory and pangolins. CITES, however, fails to accurately monitor supply, particularly where trade is illegal, and it does little to consider the complex nature of demand or contend with changing market dynamics. John Scanlon, a former CITES Secretary General, has advocated incorporating public health concerns to address biosecurity risks and perhaps even to establish a new convention to tackle wildlife crime. Furthermore, on problem applicable to all international trade in wild species is that a stamp on an official document is not sufficient to guarantee actual legality in many countries. This is a key issue in the context of laws like the US Lacey Act and the EU Timber Regulation where the buyer is legally responsible for their products' possible illegalities, even if they did not set out intentionally to buy illegal goods. Last but not least, greater synergies between different Conventions and instruments with similar objectives are needed to obviate the risk of creating new loopholes in regulating international trade, as occurred in 2013 when the EU Timber Regulation was introduced.","tokenCount":"3804"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e5f02bb6b75960e664b2ff6d008a7a9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5222592a-108f-4006-92b4-93877c8af870/retrieve","id":"1233716812"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2886a77c-e71b-456d-9fdb-d5aad083d01a","pagecount":"2","content":"Well, if we take the livestock population, yes, Ethiopia is the first in Africa and ninth or tenth in the world. This is just a number. This does not have any connection with the economy and its benefits for the people. But the number shows that we are listed first in Africa, and ninth in the world. Regarding the resource, we are much better.As far as I am concerned, I do not think that we are using our livestock resources effectively. We could have used it in a much better way than the current trend. There are multiple reasons why we are not using them effectively. One of the main reasons is that our farmers both in the highland and lowland areas raise animals for different purposes. It is not for economic gains or to produce livestock products. For instance, in the highland areas, farmers rear cattle for nurturing farm oxen. This means that they need to increase the number. They do not focus on the productivity. What if we start to plough our farms in a mechanized way? We do not need that much number for increasing the productivity rate. With small number, we can produce more to feed our people. As I told you earlier,We can buy wheat by selling milk or meat The second problem is that our farmers are not market-oriented. This time, the concept of selling livestock products becomes growing, but in the minds of most farmers, this concept is not established. If we assume that the farmers are market-oriented, the consumer, found in the cities, is not purchasing the products due to their extortionate prices. Now a days, even drinking a glass of milk becomes luxury.In the push and pull system, when the market pulls the demand, farmers strive to produce the necessary products. In our current market, there is no pull factor. On the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture pushes farmers with multiple trainings and awakenings to produce and uplift the productivity level. There will be no change by pushing the farmers to meet the limit unless there is a pull factor from the market. We need to work hard to run away from this circle. Furthermore, our investment needs to be seen. As we know many investors come to Ethiopia. Even multi-millionaires want to work and scale up the sector. They also enquire about investment opportunities. Many of them came with higher drive to work and change circumstances. They also ask about the budgetand other preconditions to start working in the sector. After these all questions, they ask about the return investment. When they know the fact about their profit, they start looking for other sectors specially trade and hospitality. We could not attract investors who would work harder and confidently start to work in agriculture.Let me give you an example, when I was a student, getting a rose flower for your lover was difficult. And now, you can get flowers anywhere. The reason was that 15 -17 years ago, the government prepared an exclusive package for investors who wanted to work on the flower industry. For the investors, land and loan queries were answered within short period of time. The necessary materials were imported free. These were the incentives for those investors from the government. Due to such pressure from the government, the country is now filled with flowers. Such revolutionary decisions are needed in the livestock sector. That is why we say our livestock have their own qualities. They are resilient and adaptive. Genetically, our livestock breeds are of high quality. This is our responsibility to study and document these qualities of our breeds so that when the question of patent is raised we should explain everything about it. It is our responsibility.A number of researches have taken place. These studies focus on genetic characterizations and on the whole Ethiopian livestock genetics. We believe that we are succeesful so far. A study has been undertaken on every Ethiopian livestock. We have also published a book on these issues. This book is found at Ethiopian National Museum. This depicts we have documented everything regarding Ethiopian livestock every quality. Maximizing productivity is the next step we will take.Moreover, practices were implemented to uplift the livestock in different time frames. For instance, there was a ranch in Adami Tulu. It was established during the reign of Emperor Haileselassie I and continued throughout the DERG military regime. This ranch has been a place for studies on maximizing the productivities of Borena cattle. Various actors and stakeholders were involved in the study, and they achieved many improvements on the cattle. However, when the Derg regime was toppled, the people destroyed the ranch and slaughtered the cattle for food. That day the people destroyed genetics. This ranch is not the only one; there are different study areas in Bahir Dar and Wollega. In these studies, most of them lack continuity. Inconsistency of the government's investment focus is also a challenge. Every season and every year, government's priorities differ and the budget might be allocated to different areas.Therefore, we can say that we are advantageous that we have indigenous breeds, but it should be supported by productivity improvement. Our farmers have plenty of questions that need to be answered regarding livelihood. As a result, better productivity and conserving the indigenous breeds should go together and equally. Our advantage of having indigenous breeds should go with improvement.I believe that it is still easy to halt informal trade. On the other hand, Ethiopia has vast borders in every corner. For instance, when you ask a farmer from one of the border areas to sell his livestock in Addis Ababa, you need to answer the questions of proper transportation. Again, we need to have proper market with proper price. Unless we meet these preconditions, it will be impossible to get what we want. We may present statistics about losses from informal trade, but we have our own homework to do. We need to focus on our duty, and then we will be successful.We have been working with responsible stakeholders especially with the government. We have supported the government on areas of strategic importance. For instance, ILRI and the Ministry of Agriculture, have designed a 10 years Livestock Master Plan. The government is implementing this master plan. Not only this, we have also finished working on the 10 years poultry development strategy. There are also big strategic supports.Likewise, I think there should be government supported strategic transformation on the macroeconomic level. This is beyond ministry of Agriculture or other stakeholders. The mandate is on the government. The whole agriculture setup should be transformed. Currently, we are listening to news on cluster farming and mechanized farming. This action will definitely help the livestock sector. It is because farmers start raising quality breeds for specific products such as cattle for meat or milk production. This time, the productivity hits the highest. Everything is interconnected.Of course, the children get what is needed in their first 1000 days. But it is not enough. Based on World Health Organization and World Food Program set criteria, our children do not get what necessary livestock nutrients. For the above reasons, there are initiatives that are endorsed by different international organizations and the Ethiopian government. These initiatives are even become declarations like Seqota Declaration. The declaration commits to eradicating the underlying causes of chronic under-nutrition and ending stunting among children less than 2 years by 2030. This declaration is like a commitment for us. To meet our objectives, we should be productive, and those who are living the lowest living standard must also afford the products.Currently, there are conflicts in different parts of the world. Do you think the current world's situation affects Ethiopian livestock?Definitely, those conflicts affect the country directly or indirectly. In Ethiopia, there is enough production and productivity. In this case, the challenge is that the annual growth of production and productivity of the country is not equal to the population growth. The production rate does not match the population growth rate.In this case, the export products are different from the products needed locally. For instance export sheep and goats are very lean; rather the sheep and goats for the local market are fatty. The second one is that though it is profitable to sell products in local markets, we export them for hard currency. The local demand is high.Firstly, we need to work on the quality and quantity of our feed resources. Second, we need to work highly on animal health. We need to have healthy animals to produce healthy products. In addition, private health service providers should be involved. We also need to work on genetic development and improvements. Above all, we need to create conducive market linkage. We need to have proper market linkage throughout the country. Unless we create such system, we might end up losing what we have in hand. We might create informal trade system. The other one is that we do not add any value on our products. So the market chain is needed.Besides, our land policy should be assessed, too. Livestock and livestock products are perishable. Infrastructure should be fulfilled to support the investment. To improve the livestock, there has to be different packages to help investors.Most of the companies are achieved under their capacity. They cry out for enough livestock with desirable qualities. In the contrary, the pastorals say that they do not have the market. Something is wrong. That is why we need the market chain.If we start using modern machines and start mechanized farming, the farmer will start thinking about quality rather than quantity. Having improved and flawless land policy will pave the way for better production.Our agriculture is tuned in producing wheat and maize, and all the news are on them. The budget, manpower, and everything channeled to it. It is good. One thing our policy makers, the government, and the people should know is we can buy wheat by selling milk or meat.It is true that 99 percent of Ethiopian sheep and goats as well as 95 per cent of the cattle are indigenous.","tokenCount":"1682"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6a1b49425c295541493041d86dfe91ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/da08723e-d53a-4bd0-918d-9ab9ad1c966f/retrieve","id":"-1736975147"},"keywords":["1.2. 1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7 1.2.8 1.2.9 1.2.10 1.2.11 1.2.12 1.2.13 1.2. 14 1.2.15 1.2. 16 1.2.17 1.2.18 1.2.19 1.2.20 1.2.21 1.2.22 Activity 2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6 2.2.7 2.2.8 2.2.9 2.2.10 2.2.11 2.2.12 2.2.13 2.2.14 González, E.l","Fory, L.F.l","Vásquez, J.J.l","P. Ruiz1","Mora, A.2","Silva, J.l","Duque, M.C.l","Corredor, E 3L •• 2 12 .","entm1, ._ , . 1 SB2, 2 IP4 , 3 Fedearroz. Funding from GTZ, Germany. ProjectNo. 99.7860.2-001.00 ClA T, Cali, Colombia. 8 pp. 2.2.4 Propaiating commercial clones and transgenic cassava plants with RITA Ministerio de Agricultura y Oesarollo Rural de Colombia. 2.3.4 Transient Transformation Assay of a Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) Candidate Resistance Gene Differentially Expressed During Host Plant Disease Resistance Response"],"sieverID":"2690429d-4ad7-4e72-a35a-9adc4d95cd9a","pagecount":"406","content":"Id~ntification of molecular markers associated with gene(s) conferring tolerance _ to aluminum toxicity in a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrid population .OUTPUT l.The fin gerprinti ng of common bean genotypes with microsatellite was carried to determine the origin of the patented EnoJa variety. The similarities obtained are consisten! with the hypothesis that EnoJa is a selection from one of the pure-line commercial cu ltivars ofthe Mayocoba market class, grown in Mexico for export to the USA.• Diversity in the CIAT collection of tepary beans (Phaseolus acutifolius) analyzed with two combinations of AFLP primer pairs to distinguish taxonomic relationships with P. parvifolius as well as within the species between P. a. var. acutifolius and P. a. var. tenuifo/ius.• Genetic diversity of microsatellite alleles determined fo r a third common bean parental survey that provide the basis for mapping and genetic tagging experiments fo r drought and abiotic stress tolerance. This information was incorporated into a new molecu lar genetics database constructed for microsatellite parental surveys and the Beangenes database.• Phaseolin characterization of Caribbean common bean germplasm showing hybrid Mesoamerican -Andean origin to red and pink mottled \"Andean\" landraces.• Interspecific progeny presented signi fican! introgression of drought tolerance from P. acutifolius to common bean. These represen! anoth er potenti al source of toleran ce genes to improve common bean, and may also be a so urce of heat tolerance.The identification of a Symbiotic Bacteria from Native Colombian Entomophagous Nematodes was obtained using sequence analyses of PCR ampl ified 16 S rOAn regions. The data showed that the 16s sequence from the nematode symbiotic bacteria Baci//us sp. is clase! y related to B. cereus. B. thuringiensis and B. anthracis.• Molecular characterization was carried out on Fleminga, Cratylia, as part of a collboration with the forage project and on soursop, lulo, plantain, and avocado as part ofthe collaboration with Corpoica.• Red rice accessions collected from Tolima and Huila, Colombia, were fully characterized using morphological, phenological, and microsatellite markers. The characteri zation allowed distingu ishing red rice biotypes alike to cultivated varieties or the wild species O. ruflpogon, or in between.• Crop/wild/weedy specific microsatellite to be used for tracing gene flow and introgression were identified. Current methodology sensitivity allowed detecting 2% introgression in bulked DNA samples of different genotypes.• Potential red rice accessions candidates to conduct gene tlow/introgression analysis were selected based on susceptibility to RHB V, overlapping flowering with crop, presence of red/brown color stem, leaves, grain awn and husk.Twenty bean genotypes from Mexico and Peru and the patented variety EnoJa were analyzed. One microsatellite marker per linkage group was chosen on the bas is of a discriminatory power ranging between 0.74 and 0.94 (Gaitán, personal communication).Five seeds of each genotype selected for this study were grown in the greenhouse. Leaf tissue was then collected in liquid nitrogen, ground and 5 g used for genomic DN A extraction, employing a CTAB-chlorofonn pro tocol according to the modifications made by Afanador et al. (1993).PCR reactions were carried out in a final volume of 20 f .. d as follows: 20 ng of genomic DNA were added to a mix containing 1 O mM Tris-HCI pH 8.8, 50 mM KCI, 1.5-2.5 mM MgCI 2 , 0.25 mM of each dNTP, 0. 1 f.!M of each forward and reverse primer, and one unit of Taq polymerase. The PCR profile included an initial denaturation step at 94°C for 3 min followed by 35 cycles of 15-sec steps at 94, 50-55 and 72°C, with a final extension step at 72°C for 5 min. Amplified products (3.5 f.ll) were resolved on 6% denaturing polyacrylamide gels with 5 M urea and 0.5X TBE, using silver staining protocol according to the manufacturer's guide (Promega Inc., USA)In total 52 polymorphic alleles from the 2 1 genotypes evaluated in this study were scored for their presence or absence; and a cluster analysis was performed wíth the NTSYS-pc vers. 2.02 software package (Rohlf, 1994 ), using the UPGMA method, based on the Dice similarity coefficient.Figure 1 shows the results of the scoring of the presence (1) or absence (O) of the 52 polymorphic alleles.. .. . r:-•,: . , ... Microsatellite markers were suitable for distinguishing genetic diversity among the bean genotypes selected for this study.At a 0.38 similarity leve), four groups were identified (Figure 2). Sorne similarity with the results obtained from the isozyme analysis was observed, but this time the microsatellites discriminated within the largest group, where the EnoJa variety was found. The group contained Canario-type Peruvian germplasm such as GS707, GS703 and G14024. The germplasm accessions, G13094 (Mayocoba) and G 11891 (Culiacan-11-57R-M-37-M-M) from Mexico were nearly identical for the loci analyzed in this study, and a high degree of similarity between them and the EnoJa variety was also observed (0.91 similarity level), which may indicates that the Enola variety is not unique.-! These similarities are consistent with the hypothesis that EnoJa is a selection from one of the pureline commercial cultivars of the Mayocoba market class, grown in Mexico for export to the USA (Kelly, 2000).The exclusive property claim to a11 bean cultivars with the EnoJa seed-coat color, based on the \"invention\" of that seed-coat color is therefore being contested on the basis of the argument that the program of severa) successive cycles of self-po11ination and selection from ye11ow bean materials purchased in Mexico did not create or invent the seed-coat color, which has existed in Peru since ancient times (Debouck and Voysest, personal communication).The genetic diversity within tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius A.Gray) and related species (P. parvifolius) has been studied using isozyme markers and RFLPs (Scinkel andGepts, 1988, 1989;Garvin and Weeden, 1994). The objective of this research was to use amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers to study the patterns of diversity within the species and its placement relative to other Phaseo/us species that were used as an outgroup. AFLPs tend to be evolutionarily conserved markers and serve to reference different species relative to each other, however to be accurate more than one combination of AFLP primers should generally be used. Last year we reported on the results of one AFLP combination and this year we compare a second AFLP primer combination to obtain more conclusive results. Additional objectives of the study were to determine if P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius merit being separate species and if molecular markers can distinguish between the botanical varieties var. acutifolius and var. tenuifo/ius within the species P. acutifo/ius. Another purpose of this research was to lay the groundwork for genetic improvement of tepary beans given that presently there are no improved varieties of tepary beans and a diversity assessment would be important for deciding on which crosses to make. Improved varieties of tepary beans would be a very useful and interesting crop especially for dryland agricultura) systems because tepary beans are the most drought-adapted species of the genus. They are also known to have high heat and salinity tolerance and good nutritional quality. Reestablishment of tepary bean production would build on a tradition of cultivation in Mexico, South westem United States and Central America, that goes back 5000 years. New varieties of tepary beans could also be important for other desert regions where pulse production is needed.Genotypes and DNA extraction: A total of 108 genotypes from the Genetic Resources Unit of CIA T were analyzed in the experiments as described in 1ast year's annual report. These included an outgroup of 9 genotypes from the Phaseolus genus including 4 P. vulgaris (common bean); 4 P. /unatus (lima bean); and 1 P. glabellus genotype.AFLP analysis: Amplicon-template preparation, pre-amplification, and selective amplification were described in last year's annual report. To determine which were the best primer combinations based on the EcoRI (E) -Msel (M) adapters and primers with 3 selective nucleotides each we conducted a survey with one common and one tepary bean accession. Based on this we decided to add the combination E-ACCIM-CT A to the combination E-AAG IM-CTT that we analyzed last year. PCR products were run on 4% silver-stained polyacrylamide gels for 1, 1.5 and 2 hours as described in last years report.Data analysis: Genetic similarities between genotypes were determined with the Dice coefficient using NTSYS 2.02 (Rohlf, 1993). The similarity matrices were used to construct dendrograms with the same program. Principal component analysis was done with the software package SAS (SAS Institute, 1989). Once the groups were determine, mean similarity índices were estimated between the following groups: P. acutifolius cultivated, P. acutifolius var acutifolius , P. parvifolius, P. vulgaris, P. lunatus. Primer combinations were compared with Mantel \"Z\" statistic for the correlation of genetic distance matrices.Both AFLP combinations used in this study had a good polymorphism rate, clear amplification profile and well-distributed range in PCR product sizes. The AFLP combinations produced a total of262 bands (167 for E-AAGIM-CTT; and 95 for E-ACCIM-CTA 95 bands. In terms ofnumbers of polymorphic bands, the primer combination E-AAGIM-CTT was a lot less efficient that the primer combinations E-ACCIM-CTA. (Table 1). Considering all the bands produced in the two primer combinations, 99.2% of the bands were polymorphic across aU species and 74.8% were polymorphic across the outgroup. However, polymorphism within P. parvifo/ius (16.8%) was low, within cultivated P. acutifolius (31.7%) was low to intermediate and within wild P. acutifolius (42.7%) was intermediate (Table 2).Both monomorphic and polymorphic bands were used to determine the genetic similarity between genotypes. For the combined analysis of two AFLP primer combination only 99 tepary beans and their close relatives were analyzed, consisting in 46 cultivated P. acutifolius var. acutifolius; 32 wild P. acutifolius var. acutifolius; 11 P. acutifo/ius var. tenuifolius; and 1 O P. parvifolius accessions. Figure 1 shows the principal component analysis derived from either AFLP combination separately or for the total number of bands. The combination E-AAG/M-CTT was efficient for grouping the genotypes by species while the combination E-ACCIM-CT A in addition to separating the species allowed a better distinction between groups within species. This was evidenced in the separation of four groups: cultivated P. acutifolius, wild P. acutifolius var. acutifolius, wi1d P. acutifolius var. tenuifolius and P. parvif olius with this second AFLP combination. The analysis of the combined dataset also coincided with the established taxonomic relationships for the group of species analyzed, with P. glabellus as the most distant from P. acutifolius followed by P. lunatus and P. vulgaris. The correlation between the two genetic matrices for each AFLP combination was 0.83 . The use of two AFLP primer combinations seems to have sampled different parts ofthe bean genome and gave usa more accurate picture ofthe relationships within and between species.The structure of the dendrogram created for the full dataset of AFLP bands as shown in Figure 2, also agrees with known taxonomic relationships for the six species represented in the study. P. glabellus was the most distant group, followed by P. lunatus. P. vulgaris was the closest to the P. acutifolius -parvifolius clade. The leve! of similarity was around 35% between the five groups. Within both P. vulgaris and P. lunatus the distinction between Andean and Mesomerican genepools was clear. The leve! of similarity between genepools was lower in P. vulgaris (65%) than in P. lunatus (75%). Within the P. acutifolius -parvifolius spectrum, all the accessions shared up to 50% similarity. In the dendogram, a total of five groups could be distinguished within the P. acutifolius -parvifolius spectrum: 1) cultivated P. acutifolius from Central and North America 2) cultivated P. acutifolius from North America (mainly Sonora and Sinaloa), 3) wild P. acutifolius var. acutifo/ius 4) wild P. acutifolius var acutifolius and tenuifolius; and 45) P. parvifolius. These five groups could be organized hierarchically into a Iarger clade, consisting of groups 1 and 2 with the remaining as separate groups. The first clade contained all the cultivated P. acutifolius, while the remainding groups contained all the P. acutifolius var. tenuifolius and P. parvifolius accessions. The wild P. acutifolius accessions were distributed among the two clades, with sorne more allied to the cultivated accessions of the same species and others allied to the P. parvifolius group. Within the first clade, the two cultivated groups ( l and 2) were related at 85% similarity and these were related to the wild accessions (group 3) at 75% similarity. The P. parvifolius and P. acutifolius (both var. acutifolius and tenuifolius) were related at 64% similarity.As mentioned above, the AFLP combinations accurately displayed the genetic structure of the Phaseolus genus, where tepary beans are in the tertiary gene pool of common (P. vulgaris L.) and scarlet runner (P. coccineus) beans but are fairly distant from other Phaseo/us species such as lima beans (P. lunatus. P. glabellus). The analysis also showed that tepary beans were less diverse than common bean or lima beans. This is probably because tepary beans most likely have hada single center of origin from where they were distributed across the current range of the crop, while common and lima beans were domesticated in two centers of origin. The relationships within the P. acutifoliusparvifolius clade has been controversia!. The AFLP data presented here suggest that the P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius probably do not deserve to be different species, but could qualify as possible subspecies or varieties within the species. The high amounts of diversity found in the wild P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius accessions are an interesting resource for breeding tepary bean cultivars. The high similarity among all the cultivated tepary beans, seems to indicate that the crop may have arisen from a single domestication event and have suffered a geneticbottleneck which limits diversity within the cultivars. From this study, there is very little evidence for introgression from wild relatives into the cultivated genepool after the initial domestication event. Tepary beans are known to have a very low crossing rate that limits the creation of new diversity within the crop. The lack of diversity within the cultivated tepary bean is a serious limitation for improvement of the crop. The lack of diversity within the cultivated tepary bean belies sorne of the variability found for disease and insect resistance within the species. However, that lack of diversity in other characteristics such as plant morphology, adaptation range has serious implications for improving the species agronomically and using the species in inter-specific hybridization.Future plans• Additional wild tepary bean genotypes will be analyzed, including representative of Phaseolus parvifolius and P. acutifolius var. acutifolius, tenuifolius and latifolius.• Genetic studies will be conducted with crosses between individuals from the different groups identified in this study (see following section).   : =========~~-~---------¡===:::=:=:=:=:=:=:=::¡;~~~~~~~~~~JUiU  parvlfo/ius) and three others bean species (P. vulgaris, P. lunatus and P. glabellus) using Dice genetic similarity coefficient for two AFLP primer combinations: E-AAG/M-CTT and E-ACC/M-CTA 1.1.3 Genetic analysis of crosses between cultivated tepary bean and wild Phaseolus acutifolius and P. parvifolius Introduction Cultivated tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) has severa) wild relatives. First are the wild accessions within the species itself, these include two variants (var. acutifolius and var. tenuifolius) and second there are the wild accessions belonging to the closely related species, P. parvifolius.The genetic diversity within cultivated tepary beans is small (see previous section), therefore the objective of this research was to study the variability generated by crossing cultivated tepary beans by several of their wild relatives. The crosses can be expected to incorporate added genetic diversity into the cultivated tepary beans which may be useful for breeding this neglected crop. These crosses are also being analyzed for polymorphism and segregation in the F2 generation using common bean microsatellites. The crosses will also be used to generate recombinant inbred lines that can be analyzed for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance genes segregating in the populations derived from these crosses. Finally, we also hope to identify any incompatibility factors in these intra-and inter-specific crosses and map them to help determine which species and variety designations are merited among the tepary beans.We used a set of six contrasting tepary parents (Table 1) to develop a total of seven reciproca! and non-reciproca! F2 populations (Table 2). Crosses were made with hand emasculation and both the F1 and F2 plants were grown in 9-inch pots in the greenhouse and single harvested. The F3 families from each of 120 F2 plants harvested from the greenhouse for the AP-1, AP-2, A T -1 and AT-2 populations were field-planted at CIA T headquarters in semester 2002 A (for the F3 ofthe AP populations) and semester 2002B (for the F3 ofthe AT populations). Seed scarification was used to increase the germination rate on both these crosses. The AP populations were advanced by single seed descent to the F4 generation in Semester 2002B. In each generation, data was collected on a series of phenotypic characteristics (Table 3) sorne of which are descriptors for the species (IPGRI, 1985). In the field, yield and yield component (number of pods per plant, number of seed per pod, etc) were evaluated for the F3 family and for the inidividual p1ant that was advanced to the F4 generation. In addition, for the A T population, rust and powdery .mildew resistance were evaluated on a 1 to 9 scale (CIA T ref.). Leaf tissue was collected for each individual F2 plant grown in the greenhouse and DNA was extracted by the method of Afanador et al. (1993). Ninety-four plants were analyzed for each of the AP populations and fourty-six plants were analyzed for the A T populations. A total of 68 common bean microsatellite markers (BM, BMc, BMd, BMy and Clone series) were tested for polymorphism on the parents of each population. Polymorphic microsatellites were run on all individuals of the population along with the parents. Conditions for amplification and analysis ofmicrosatellites are given in other parts ofthis annual report.Phenotypic analysis showed that both the AP and A T populations were segregating for all the traits listed in Table 3. Severa! of the traits appear to be simply inherited, notably stem color, flower color (as evaluated in both the greenhouse for F2 plants and in the field for F3 families from all populations). Rust resistance (as evaluated in the field during a natural epidemic that occurred for the A T population in Semester 20028) also appeared to be simply inherited. Meanwhile, growth habit, plant height, fl owering date, maturation date, leaf size, leaf color, pod size, yield and yield components were more quantitative traits in all the populations. Leaf shape was probably an oligogenically inherited trait because there were gradations between the narrow leaf of the wild tepary bean and the wider leaf of the cultivated tepary bean. For the more narrow crosses, the AA population segregated for plant height, stem color, flower color and leaf shape in the greenhouse, while the AC populations showed very little segregation except in plant height in the greenhouse. Neither of these populations has been planted in the field yet.For the molecular survey, the rate of parental polymorphism was roughly equivalent for both the AP (28 microsatellites or 40.6%) and AT (29 microsatellites or 43 .3%) populations (Table 4). Ofthese a total of 25 and 9 microsatellites were selected to run on the AP and A T populations, respectively. Significant segregation distortion was observed for 48% (12 microsatellites), 76% (19), 11% (1) and 22% (2) of these markers in the populations AP-1 , AP-2, A T -1 and A T -2, respectively. The average segregation distortion was much higher for the cross between P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius (62.0%) than between P. a. var. acutifolius and var. tenuif olius (16.5%).The segregation distortion results suggest that there is a greater distan ce between the parents of the AP population than the A T population. Supporting this hypothesis was the observation of genetic incompatibilities and hybrid lethals and dwarfs in the cross between P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius but none between P. acutifolius var. acutifolius and var. tenuifolius. In each pair of reciprocal crosses the use of the cultivated P. acutifolius as the female parent reduced the amount of segregation distortion, while the use of the wild parent, either P. parvifolius or P. acutifolius var. tenuifolius increased the amount of segregation distortion (Table 4). This may reflect the possibility that a cytoplasmic factor for incompatibility is more significant when the wild tepary beans are used as females than when the cultivated tepary bean is used as the female parent. Garvin and Weeden (1994) made a series of similar inter-varietal crosses between P. a. var. acutifolius and var. tenuif olius and studied the resulting populations with isozymes and RFLPs, finding a similar low level of 10% segregation distortion in this type of population. Our analysis is the first that we know of to reveal the high levels of segregation distortion in the inter-specific crosses between P. acutifolius and P. parvifolius.Segregation distortion and hybrid lethal incompatibilities are common among both intra-specific (eg. Andean x Mesoamerican P. vulgaris) and inter-specific crosses (P. vulgaris x P. acutifolius) within the genus Phaseolus.• Construct a full genetic map for the inter-specific and inter-varietal crosses using additional molecular (microsatellite and AFLP) or morphological markers. • Tag traits of interest, such as rust and powdery mildew resistance, in the F2 populations.• Single seed descent of F2 populations until the F7 generation to develop recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations. • Conduct QTL studies in the RIL populations for drought and abiotic stress tolerance.• Compare segregation distortion in the inter-specific and inter-varietal crosses and in F2 and F7 generations.• Develop additional populations from potential tepary bean parents listed in Microsatellites markers are based on short segments of DNA in which a specific simple sequence motif of 1-6 bases is repeated in tandem, multiple times. Due to the innate variability at microsatellite loci, these markers have been ideal for characterizing genetic diversity in crop species at the inter-specific, inter-subspecific, inter-varietal and even intra-varietal levels. Microsatellites have been found to vary in the polymorphism they detect depending on the length and sequence of the repeat motif they contain and their location along the chromosomes, specifically whether they reside in gene-coding or non-coding segments of the geno me.The objective of this study was to complement two previous parental surveys by evaluating all newPhaseolus microsatellite markers developed at CIA T and elsewhere for their allelic variability on a third panel of 20 common bean genotypes. This new panel of parents represents di verse cultivated germplasm of common beans, both Mesoamerican and Andean, which have been used as parents in the bean breeding program. Severa} accessions from Durango (type III climbing habit) and Guatemala (type IV climbing habit) races (groupings within the Mesoamerican genepool), are represented in a microsatellite survey for the first time.The genotypes consisted in 20 common bean genotypes including 4 Andeans and 16 mesoamericans (Table 1) which are the parents of 8 mapping populations being studied at CIA T for nutrient deficiency, aluminum and drought stress tolerance. Among the Andean accessions were representatives of the Nueva Granada race only, while among the Mesoamerican populations there were representatives of the Mesoamerica, Durango and Guatemala races. Severa! of the breeding lines from the SEA series are the result of pedigrees which combine parents from the Durango and Mesoamerica races. Among the genotypes used here were a mixture oftype I (determínate bush), II (indeterminate bush), lila {prostrate bush) and IVa (climber) growth habits. The populations included 5 intra-genepool Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican crosses and 7 inter-genepool Mesoamerican x .Andean populations (Table 2). The intra-genepool crosses included sorne that were between representatives of the same race or of -different races (notably Mesoameñca x Durango-Mesoamerica hybrids). The genotypes were evaluated with a total of 166 microsatellite markers (ofwhich 98 were derived from genomic libraries and 68 were derived from cONA or gene sequences). The markers were amplified at different annealing temperatures according to the estimated melting temperatures of the primers. The amplification conditions are given in other parts of this annual report. The PCR products were resolved by electrophoresis for approximately one hour at 130 constant volts on silver-stained 4% polyacrylamide gels. Microsatellite alleles were sized by comparison to the 1 O and 25 bp molecular weight standards (Promega).The average rate of polymorphism was higher in the seven inter-genepool (Andean x Mesoamerican) crosses (55.1 %) than in the five intra-genepool (Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican) crosses (22.6 %) (Table 2a). Among the Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican crosses, the rate of polymorphism was higher in the ínter-racial cross SEAS x MD23-24 (25 .9%) and in the intra-racial cross BAT881 x G21212 (26.5%) than in the other crosses which were within a single race and between more closely related genotypes such as OOR364 x BAT477 (both Mesoamerican CIA T breeding lines). Among the inter-genepool crosses al! were relatively similar in the leve! of polymorphism between the parents (from 55 to 59% on average), with the possible exception of BRBR191 x MAM38 (51.2%) and BRB191 x MAM49 (53%). Both of these trends for polymorphism rates in intra and inter-genepool crosse were equally evident when using genomic and cONA derived microsatellites.Genomic microsatellites detected more polymorphism (43 .9%) than cONA microsatellites (38.4%) overall. The difference was more noticeable in the intra-genepool crosses than in the inter-genepool crosses, where both types of microsatellites were about equally effective in uncovering polymorphism. Among the classes of markers, the BM, BMy and BMd microsatellites were the most polymorphic, while the Pv microsatellites were the least polymorphic (Table 2b). New microsatellites (clones) were intennediate in polymorphism, reflecting the fact that they are from a mix of genomic and cONA clones.Significantly fewer average alleles per locus were found for microsatellites from genes (2.9) than for microsatellites from non-coding sequences (3. 7). Although the highest number of alleles was 12 for gene based microsatellites and 14 for genomic microsatellites, the gene-derived microsatellites frequently were bi-or tri-allelic and mostly distinguished the difference between Andean and Mesoamerican genepools. Meanwhile the genomic microsatellites detected more alleles and were thus able to resolve sorne within-genepool variation. The discriminating power (O) of the genederived microsatellites (0.478 among polymorphic, 0.349 among all markers, including monomorphic) was lower than for the genomic microsatellites (0.548 and 0.411, respectively). The discrimination power was positively correlated with the number of alleles produced at the locus. Null alleles were uncommon in both microsatellite classes. This study confinns that the more polymorphic genomic microsatellites may well become the mainstay of mapping studies since they will be more useful than the cONA derived microsatellites in narrow intra-genepool crosses. Meanwhile the more conserved and stable cONA-derived microsatellites may find their greatest utility in mapping in wide inter-genepool or inter-specific crosses.• Construction of another panel of common bean parents to survey for polymorphism in populations developed for disease resistance studies and marker assisted selection. • Genotyping of many of the common parents and genetic sources used at CIA T, to allow us to implement whole-genome marker assisted selection that is specific to the genetic crosses made in our bean breeding program.• Assembling of microsatellite fingerprint data into the AceOB database, BeanGenes that were described in last year's annual report. The introduction of beans to the Caribbean was postulated to have occurred from northem South America along the \"Arawak are\" of Leeward islands long before the Spanish Conquest. The Caribbean was also know to have been influenced by the pre-Colombian cultures of Central America. Therefore, the Caribbean was a transition zone between the two regions and was likely to have had a mix of bean gerrnplasm even before the time of the colonies. Later, as a trading center and way station for the Europeans, the Caribbean likely received new crops and varieties from all over Latín America. This rich heritage makes the Caribbean even today a probable center of secondary diversity for beans. Caribbean nations and societies meanwhile have undergone rapid changes in the past fifty years which have led to the abandonment of agriculture in many places there. Where agriculture holds on, such as the interior of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) farrn-size is small and land pressure is intense leading to environmental degradation and emigration from rural areas. Given all this it is interesting to document and preserve the genetic diversity of beans that are still left in the Caribbean. At the University of Puerto Rico, the bean program has collected traditional bean types at local markets or from farrners, most of which were classified as \"Andean\" because of their seed size and color class. The UPR researchers have conducted a genetic diversity analysis of this gerrnplasm using RAPDs and comparing this gerrnplasm to other \"Andean\" genotypes from the Dominican Republic and CIA T.The objective of this work was to characterize the phaseolin alleles found in the collected gerrnplasm and thus help the University of Puerto Rico to determine the genepool to which the traditional varieties belong. A long terrn objective of this project is to conserve the genetic resources of this group of Caribbean varieties by using them in breeding programs.A total of 68 entries of common bean genotypes were genotyped for their phaseolin pattem. These included a total of 43 traditional varieties (or selections thereof) from the Caribbean (23 from Puerto Rico, 18 from Dominican Republic and -1 each from Haiti and Jamaica); bred. lines from CIAT (6), University of Puerto Rico (15); as well as modem varieties from Colombia (ICA Palmar), Peru (Blanco Laran) and the United States (Montcalm, Redhawk). Total seed proteins were extracted from 0.1 O g of peeled, finely-ground, oven-dried seed by a standard extraction technique used at the Genetic Resource Unit at CIA T. One microliter each of the protein extracts were separated with 6% separation / 12% stacking SDS-PAGE (polyacrylamide) mini-gels run for 50 minutes and stained with Coomasie Blue dye. The phaseolin pattem was compared to known standards provided by O. Toro ofthe Genetic Resource Unit ofCIAT.Only three phaseolin pattems were found among the Caribbean landraces: the most common being the \"T\" allele typical of many bush Andean beans. The \"S\" allele typical of Mesoamerican beans was the second most common allele while a third pattem, the \"C\" variant, was found for only a single traditional variety from Puerto Rico (Naranjito 1). The \"C\" pattem is thought to be a hybrid of \"S\" and ''T' phaseolins. In both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico the \"T' phaseolin was more common than the \"S\" phaseolin. It was notable that in Puerto Rico only one out of 23 varieties (4.3%) had \"S\" phaseolin, while in the Dominican Republic 5 out of 18 varieties (27.7%) had the \"S\" allele. Among the modero Andean varieties and breeding lines both \"S\" and \"T' alleles were found. No additional diversity was observed at this locus for the germplasm studied and these results were confirmed with the use of phaseolin standards with known banding patteros.Phaseolin allele has been associated with seed size in traditional varieties in Latin America (Castinieras et al., 1994) with \"S\" types generally being small seeded. The phaseolin locus has been associated in genetic studies with a QTL underlying seed size (Gepts et al., 1988). In this study, the \"S\" phaseolin pattero was found in many medium-seeded varieties although the largest seeded varieties did have the \"T\" phaseolin. In the modero varieties, the seed size was not correlated with phaseolin pattero.It seems that the Andean type \"T\" phaseolin is more common in Puerto Rico than in the Dominican Republic due to its closer proximity to South America along the suspected route of introduction through the Leeward island chain into the central Caribbean. Conversely, the Mesoamerican type \"S\" phaseolin may be more common in the Dominican Republic than in Puerto Rico because of its proximity to Cuba, which may have acted as a bridge to Mexico and Central America, probable sources of Mesoamerican beans with \"S\" alleles. Indeed, two studies showed that Cuba had a mixture of\"S\", \"Sb\" and \"T' phaseolins, with the Mesoamerican types predominating (Castinieras et al., 1994;Lioi et al, 1990). In that study phaseolin allele was correlated with seed size, while in this study, large seeded types had both phaseolin patteros, suggesting that hybridization and recombination between phaseolin type and seed size had occurred in sorne of these Caribbean \"Andean\" genotypes.Therefore we may postulate a hybrid Mesoamerican-Andean origin for several Caribbean seed classes including the red mottled (Dominican Pompadour), pink striped (Jamaican Miss Kelly, Puerto Rican Colorado de Pais) and red speckled (Haitian Pompadour) types. In the Caribbean, seed size of landraces is often intermediate between Mesoamerican and Andean types, as is growth habit, leaf size and other phenotypic traits. This provides evidence of further mixing of the genepools in this region of the Americas. A similar area of genepool overlap and mixture is postulated to have occurred in Northero South America, especially in Colombia where many Andeans present Mesoamerican phaseolin alleles indicating possible past hybridization and introgression. These studies have been supported by other molecular marker assays and surveys. Meanwhile, breeding programs have encouraged the same sort of recombination between phaseolin types and seed size in their advanced línes. Thls was seen in this study where many of the CIA T and UPR large seeded \"Andean\" breeding lines were a mixture of either \"S\" or \"T' phaseolin genotypes.The advantages of hybridization between the genepools is evidenced in sorne Caribbean germplasm which although they have the medium to large seed size of the Andean types, have a greater adaptation to tropical lowland conditions to which the Mesoamerican types are better suited. Hybrid progeny that fit local preferences and had these advantages were probably selected by the farmers in the region and as such, the germplasm of the Caribbean shows promise for breeding efforts that try to adapt Andean beans to warmer climates. The center of diversity of the genus Phaseolus is found in Middle America, and largely in Mexico. Thus sorne species of Phaseolus evolved in dry, near-desert environments. These dry-adapted species include P. acutifolius (Pa) both domesticated and wild forms, and P. parvifolius (Pp) which is either closely related to acutifolius or is a morphotype of the same. These species are considered to pertain to the tertiary gene pool of the common bean and crosses with P. vulgaris (Pv) are possible through embryo rescue. Work at CIAT has advanced in obtaining intermediate types that are nearly fertile with both parental species, thus facilitating gene transfer across the species barrier. One important objective of these crosses is to transfer drought tolerance from acutifolius to common bean.Interspecific crosses were generated in previous years through congruity backcrosses (Haghighi and AScher 1988), to transfer resistance to common bacteria! blight (Mejía Jiménez et al. 1994 ). Several hundred interspecific pro gen y were available combining accessions of Pa and Pp with common bean cultivar ICA Pijao. Subsequently, as work advanced in improving fertility and gene introgression of interspecific hybrids, more complex crosses (Mejía Jiménez et al., 2001) were made involving other accessions of common bean (ICA Pijao, MAM38, A775, A800 and Bayo Madero) and cultivated (G4000 1, G40020, G40065) and wild (NI576) tepary beans.F3 seed was planted in the field under drought conditions in the June season, 200 l. Promising families were harvested in bulk and in F4, individual selections were made followed by another cycle of mass selection. Thus, in 2002, F6 families were evaluated in a yield trial with RBC design and three replications under severe drought conditions, as described above.Highly significant differences in yield were refistered among families and checks (Table 1). The tolerant heck, SEA 5 yielded 715 kg ha-, and the sensitive check (ICA Pijao) which figured as the cornmon bean parent in many of the lines produced 468 kg ha\" 1 (significantly less than SEA 5). The best line derived from ICA Pijao yielded 798 kg ha\" 1 , which was significantly different than Pijao, suggesting effective introgression from acutifolius for drought tolerance. The best families, however, were derived from the cross BKI 11 of P. acutifolius with the race Durango cornmon bean variety Bayo Madero from Mexico. Race Durango typically presents sorne level oftolerance to drought, and the combination ofBayo with acutifolius produced lines that yielded over a ton, or about 50% over the tolerant check. This is comparable to the yield advantage obtained in the intraspecific crosses which represented far more investment of time and breeding than in these crosses with acutifolius, although the interspecific progeny are still far removed from cornmercial cornmon bean type with the necessary agronomic traits and grain. The hope is that the mechanisms that operate in acutifolius might be complementary to those in vulgaris, and permit the pyrimiding of even greater tolerance. Heat tolerance is still another trait that is required in combination with drought tolerance, and these crosses may offer this trait as well. • Cross between eongruity baekeross hybrids involving the genotypes 040020 and 040001 of tepary bean, and ICA Pijao, A775, MAM38 and A800 of common bean (Mejla Jiménez et al. 1994). Interspecific progeny presented significant introgression of drought tolerance from acutifolius to comrnon bean. These represent another poten tia! so urce of tolerance genes to improve comrnon bean, and may also be a source ofheat tolerance.Whiteflies are considered a major problem in cassava production in the Neotropics and Africa. Most whitefly species cause crop losses through direct feeding; sorne are very efficient vectors of severa! economically important plant viruses.Despite intensive crop improvement efforts, current whitefly and virus control practices still depend heavily on pesticides. Despite the increase in pesticide use, whiteflies are not being controlled effectively because of pesticide resistánce. Thus the use of pesticides for whitefly control is neither environmentally sound nor sustainable.Host plant resistance offers an environmentally sound solution; however crop plant resistance to whiteflies is scarce. In the future the use of insecticida! genes to whiteflies by genetic transformation should be a good pest-control alternative. Genetic transformation of cassava with Bt genes has been identified as desirable for protection against stem borers. Recently a promising new group of toxins thá.t might eventually be used instead of Bt or in combination with it were isolated-symbiotic bacteria (Enterobacteriaceae) from entomophagous nematodes, belonging to the genera Xenorhabdus and Photorhabdus. These bacteria, which live in a mutualistic association with the nematodes, are released from the gut of the nematode when the insect hemocoel is invaded by the nematode. These bacteria-secreted compounds are active against a wide range of insects from different orders and are as patentable as the delta-endotoxins of Bt and therefore may provide useful alternatives to the deployment of Bt toxins in transgenic plants.In 1992 it was found that native nematodes are associated naturally with Cyrtomenus bergi in three different locations of Colombia. These nematodes were originally identified as three strains of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, but their identification has been revised by another taxonomist who concluded that they correspond toa new species of nematode, order Rhabditidae, genus Rhabditis.Therefore, assuming that the symbiotic bacteria-nematode association is specific, the possibility of identifying new bacteria species from the aforementioned native Colombian nematodes is probable and the identification of a new insecticide protein from these bacteria would be possible. Biochemical and morphological tests showed that the isolated bacteria probably belong to the genus Bacil/us.The purpose of this study was to identify the bacteria isolated in association with Rhabditis sp. by using sequence analyses ofPCR-amplified 16S rDNAs. This novel insecticide could be used against a range of pests in addition to whiteflies. These in elude mealybugs, homworrn and soil pests such as burrower bugs and white grubs.Strains. The following were used: Strain IJ3SQC92 from the symbiotic bacteria nematodes, Bacillus sp. and the control strain Bacillus thuringiensis (Laverlam).DNA isolation. Isolates were grown in Medium ci> (3 mi) and incubated at 28-30°C on a shaking rack ovemight. DNA extraction was done as described by Lumini (1996) with sorne modifications.PCR amp/ification of 16S rDNAs. PCR amplification was done as described by Babic et al. (2000) with sorne modifications. The following two eubacterial-specific oligonucleotide primers (QIAGEN) were used: 5 '-CCGAA TTCGTCGACAACAGAGmGA TCCTGGCTCAG-3 ' sense and 5'-CCCGGGATCCAAGCTTAAGGAGGTGATCCAGCC-3 ' antisense (Weisburg et al., 1991 ).Nuc/eotide sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rDNAs. The PCR-amplified 16S rDNAs of the aforementioned strains were sequenced. Amplified 16s rDNAs were purified with the QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (250) (QIAGEN). Single-strand sequencing was perforrned using a Big Oye kit (Perkin Elmer).DNA isolation. We obtained a pure and concentrated DNA of two strains, Bacillus sp. and B. thuringiensis (Figure 1 ). PCR amplication oj 16S rDNAs. DNAs of two strains isolates were amplified with the two specific eubacterial primers used, two produced a single fragment. Two fragments were around 1600 bp, which was the s ize expected for 16S rDNAs (Figure 2). Nucleotide sequerzcing oj PCR-amplified 16S rDNAs. The isolated sequences 16S rDNAs of Bacillus sp. and B. thuringiensis were compared to GenBank database sequences us ing the algorithm BLASTN to identify the higher scori ng s imilarities. For Bacillus sp. there was a high percentage of homology (98%, data not shown) to different Bacillus spp., mainly to B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, B. anthracis and B. mycoides. The previous sequences along with other more distantly related species of Baci/lus (B. /arvae, B. pasteurii, B. subtilis, B. pumilus, B. licheniformis, B. lentus, B. firmus, B. coagulans and B. badius) were downloaded from the GenBank database to draw specific relationships between these species and the isolated sequence (Bacillus sp.).These sequences were aligned using CLUSTAL-X. A bootstrap confidence analys is was performed on 1000 replicates to determine the reliability of the di stance-tree topologies. Graph ic representation ofthe resulting trees was made us ing NJPLOT (Figure 3). Neigh bor~j oining tree from Bacillus spp. partia116S sequences based on bootstrap approach; to determine the reliability of the topology, numbers indicate bootstrap support fo r interior nodes; the bar indica tes a distan ce of 0.002 su bstitutions per si te.The output tree showed that the 16S sequence of Bacil/us sp. was grouped with B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, B. anthracis and B. mycoides, confirming the high percentage of homology presented by BLASTN. Groups formed in the tree were also consistent with the identification keys from Bacillus spp. according to the International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology. These keys are supported by traditional methods (morphological data, biochemistry tests) to classify the majar species of Bacillus (Thiery & Frachon, 1997).The data showed that the 16s sequence from the nematode symbiotic bacteria Bacillus sp. is closely related to B. cereus, B. thuringiensis and B. anthracis.• Isolate more strains of the symbiont bacteria Bacillus sp. from nematodes • Conjugate molecular, morphological and biochemical data to make a clear identification of the symbiont bacteria • Perform DNA-DNA hybridization of different strains and Bacillus-related species to identify the problem speciesY. Cortés,' G. Gallego/ J.A. Valencia,' G. Ligarreto, 3 D. Fajardo, 1 1. Sánchez, 1 and J. Tohme The Colombian collection of Musaceas (CCM), rñaintained on the farm \"El Agrado\" (Armeñia, Quindio), has plantains adapted to high-altitude agro-ecosystems (elevation 1310 m). Of the 134 accessions, sorne of which were the first introductions to America, only a few have been characterized on the basis of agronomic and morphologic traits including growth habit, development and production (Belalcázar et al., 1991 ). Severa! ongoing studies on the morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of the genus Musa will certainly contribute toward understanding the genetic diversity of the CCM. We propase to evaluate this collection further, using microsatellites to simplify the management of the collection by reducing, for example, in vitro and ex silu maintenance costs. DNA samples have already been collected. We will use 25 microsatellite primer pairs for analyzing the genetic diversity of the CCM.1.1.9 Molecular and agromorphological genetic diversity characterization of soursop (Annona muricata Linn) and related species of the Anonaceae family A. Mej ía, 1 l. Sánchez, 2 R. Saavedra/ N. Royero/ G. Gallego 1 and J. T ohm e 1 1 SB-2 Project, CIAT; 2 CORPOICA; 3 Corporación BIOTECWe are characterizing, at the molecular and agromorphological level, the genetic variability of soursop and related species ofthe Anonaceae family, available in national gerrnplasm banks as well as in other agricultural research centers. Of the 98 samples collected, the DNA extracted and analyzed with three AFLP primer combinations (E-ACT/M-CAA, E-AGC/M-CTC, E-AGC/M-CAA; AFLP's Análysis System 1 Kit -GffiCO-BRL). Samples were run on denaturing, polyacrylamide gels (4 or 6%, depending upon primer combination). AFLP pattems are being interpreted to understand genetic similarity relationships among samples. 1.1.10 Improving the breeding of lulo (Solanum quitoense La m) through understanding the species' genetic diversity P. Fory, 1 G. Gallego, 2 M Lobo\\ C.I. Medina, 3 J. Tohme, 2 D. Debouck 2 and 1.. Sánchez 31 Universidad Nacional, Palmira-CO; 2 SB-2 Project, CIA T; 3   Lulo is a fruit crop in high demand in Colombia. To satisfy consumer requirements, the country has to import approximately 25% of the demand from Ecuador, which is equivalent to the production of 10,000 ha. Colombia has ecological niches suitable for growing the crop, genetic variability to develop new genotypes, gerrnplasm collections of the species and related taxa, and breeding programs that have already released the first Colombian var. Lulo La Selva. To improve the breeding of lulo through an understanding of its genetic diversity requires the support of modero technologies such as molecular markers. We propose to study the genetic potential of lulo and _ related species available in the State Gerrnplasm Bank System, coordinated _by CORPOICA, in an attempt to establish and exploit the genetic diversity of the crop. For this purpose the collection is being morphologically characterized. Furtherrnore, DNA samples have been extracted from several individuals and will be analyzed using AFLP' s Analysis System 1 (GffiCO-BRL). Home gardens are microenviroments containing high levels of species and genetic diversity within larger farming systems. These gardens are not only important sources of food, fodder, fuel, medicines, spices,construction materials and income in many countries around the world, but are al so an important means for in• si tu conservation of a wide range of plant genetic resources. Home gardens are dynamic in their evolution, composition and uses. Their structure, function, and species and varietal diversity have been influenced by the changes in socioeconomic circumstances and cultural val u es of the users of these gardens. The understanding of these factors and the ways they change, according to the behavior and decision-making pattems of these users is crucial in shaping strategies for including home gardens as a viable option for in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity (IPGRI's Home Garden Projects). AFLP molecular characterization of the existing diversity in Capsicum sp. from home gardens in Guatemala and Cuba is the main purpose of this research. We coHected 86 samples in Guatemala and 85 in Cuba. The DNA was extracted and samples analyzed with two primer combinations (E-AGC/M-CAA and E-AGG/M-CTT) with the AFLP's Analysis System 1 Kit (GIBCO-BRL). Then, the samples were run in 4% polyacrylamide gels. More than 80 polymorphic DNA bands were observed, which-after classification and statistical analyses-will províde information on the diversity maintained in borne gardens.1.1.12 Molecular analysis of the genetic stability of cassava clones (Manihot esculenta Crantz) cultured in vitro with silver nitrate to retard growth C. Ocampo 2 ; G. Mafla 2 ; G. Gallego 1 ; J .C. Roa 2 ; J. Tohme 1 and D.G. Debouck 1Genetic stability of in vitro-propagated plants has been a concem for the conservation (in vitro or cryoconservation) of germplasm. The molecular criterion has been proposed as the method of choice to detect genetic changes. Thus our objective was to monitor the genetic stability of these plants at the molecular level, after they had been exposed to in vitro culture and growth retardants. We decided to use AFLPs (given their more ample coverage ofthe genome) to fingerprint in vitromaintained plants o~ six cassava clones, which were subjected to treatments with two concentrations of silver nitrate to retard growth.Plants were first micropropagated by meristem culture, grown in the greenhouse and planted in the field. Morphological, agronomic and isoenzymatic evaluations were run on all materials. The AFLP's Analysis System I kit (GIBCO-BRL) was used, with sorne modifications, to run the AFLPs. Two genomic DNA extractions from young Jeaves were performed for each clone to guarantee the reproducibility ofthe method (Table 1). Two primer combinations were selected for AFLPs. They gave the following banding patterns:• E-AAC/M-CTA: generated 68 well-defined bands, monomorphic within each clone and polymorphic between ~Iones• E-AAG/M-CTG: generated 61 well-defined bands, monomorphic within each clone and polymorphic between clonesWe have not detected band differences between controls and treatments in all six clones analyzed with these two prímers. Thís may be an indication that treating plants with a growth retardant such as silver nitrate do~s not have a majar effect on the genetic stability of the plants; at least not detectable with the methods reported here. More primer combinations, as well as other markers like microsatellites, may be used to expand the genome coverage throughout the cassava linkage groups so more data can be generated to corroborate our initial findings.CIATs-work on shrub legumes emphasizes the development of materials to be •used as feed supplement during extended dry seasons. High-quality tropical shrub legumes are readily available for better soils, but germplasm with similar characteristics adapted to acid, infertile soils is scarce.Flemingia macrophylla and Craty/ia argentea have shown promising results in such environments; hence work on these genera is part of the overall germplasm strategy of the CIA T Forages team.C. argentea is being increasingly adopted and utilized, particularly in the seasonally dry hillsides of Central America and, more recently, the Eastem Plains of Colombia. However, most research and development has becm based on only a few accessions; hence activities to acquire and test novel C. argente a germplasm is of high priority. F. macrophylla is al so a high\\y promising shrub legume with excellent adaptation to infertile soils. In contrast to C. argentea, whose adaptation is limited to an altitude below 1200 m, F. macrophylla can be grown successfully up to 2000-m altitudes. However, the potential utilization ofF. macrophylla is limited by the poor quality and acceptability of the few evaluated accessions. The project aims to investigate the genetic d iversity within collections ofF. macrophylla and C. argentea with three main objectives:• ldentify new, superior forage genotypes based on conventional gerrnplasm characterization/evaluation procedures: morphological and agronomic traits, forage quality parameters, including in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and tannin contents • Optimize the use, management and conservation of the collections. Test and compare different approaches to identifying core collections for each species based on (a) genetic diversity assessment by agronomic characterizationlevaluation; (b) gerrnplasm origin inforrnation; and (e) molecular markers (AFLPs). • Create a basis for planning future gerrnplasm collections with respect to methodology, geographic focus and genetic erosion hazardsAgronomic characterization and evaluation. Space-planted, single-row plots in RCB design with three replications were established in Quilichao in March 1999 (C. argentea, 39 accessions) and March 2000 (F. macrophylla, 73 accessions). Additionally two replications were sown for seed production and morphological observations. The following parameters were measured in the trials: vigor, height and diameter, regrowth, incidence of diseases, pests and mineral deficiencies, and dry matter (DM) yield during wet and dry seasons. Crude protein content and IVDMD of the entire collections were analyzed for their nutritive value. For the morphological evaluation, qualitative and quantitative parameters were measured such as days to first flower, days to first seed, flower color, flowers per inflorescence, flowering intensity, pod pubescence, seeds per pod, seed color, leaf area, peduncle length, etc.For F. macrophylla, a more detailed analysis of nutritive value was conducted of a representative subset (25 accessions) that included high, interrnediate and low nutritive value accessions, the selection based on crude protein content and IVDMD. The analysis comprised fiber (NDF, ADF, N-ADF), tannin purification, and condensed and hydrolyzable tannin contents. Additionally, another subset of 10 accessions [9 high-quality accessions (18437,18438,21083,21090,21092,21241,21580,22082,22327) and CIAT 17403] was sampled 2, 4, 6 and 8 wk after cutting to assess the effect of age on digestibility as well as on protein, fiber and tannin content.Based on data referring to the morphological, agronomic and feed quaJity variation of all accessions, a core collection will be created, using multivariate statistic tools (Principal Component Analysis -PCA and Cluster analysis).Based on ecogeographical inforrnation of accession origins, a core collection will be c\"reated based on the hypothesis thaf geographic distances and environmental differences are related to genetic diversity. The analysis will be conducted with FloraMap™, a GIS (Geographic Inforrnation System) too! developed by CIA T, which allows the production of climate probability models using PCA and cluster analysis.. Genetic analysis will be conducted using the AFLP molecular marker technique. Based on the results a core collection will be created, using multivariate statistic\" tools (PCA and cluster analysis).Data analysis and synthesis. Individual and combined data analyses of all generated inforrnation will be perforrned, including the use of GIS tools and multivariate statistics. In the analysis of each of the different approaches (agronomic characterization, origin inforrnation, molecular marker analysis), PCA and cluster analysis are used to create core collections. The eventual correlation among the different approaches and clusters is evaluated. The outcome is expected to help decide which of the three methods or combination thereof is most appropriate (i.e., timewise and cost efficiency) for creating a core collection; e.g., if an agronomic evaluation of the en tire collection is not feasible because of time constraints, a core collection may be created using origin information and/or molecular marker analysis.Based on molecular marker similarities and the GIS analysis, suggestions will be made for focusing future collections on areas with particularly high diversity and for improving collection (= sampling) strategies (e.g., sampling frequency; roadside collections). Accession duplicates in the world collections will also be identified.Agronomic characterization and eva/uation.  104890, CIAT 7184, 21090, 21241, 21248, 21249, 21519, 21529 and 21580 with a total DM production >300 g/plant. Among the materials with high digestibility (>45% on the average), ClA T accessions 18437,20622,20631,20744,21083,21090,21241 had DM yields higher than 200 g/plant.Based on the forage quality results (IVDMD and CP content, Table 2), a representative subset (25 accessions: 10 erect, 11 semierect, 4 prostrate) was chosen for subsequent analysis ofNDF, ADF, condensed and hydrolyzable tannin content (CIAT 17403, 17407, 18437, 18438, 19457, 20065, 20616, 20621, 20622, 20744, 20975, 20976, 21083, 21087, 21090, 21092, 21249, 21529, 21580, ~ 21982, 21990, 21992, 22082, JOO 1 ). Fiber analysis showed that the FND, F AD and N-F AD contents are higher in the -dry season than in the wet season. The fiber content of high-and medium-quality accessions was nearly identical, while fiber content of the low-quality accessions was slightly higher (Table 3). A subset of 1 O high-quality accessions was analyzed for wet seasonforage quality (IVDMD, crude protein, fiber and tannin content) after 2, 4, 6 and 8 wk of regrowth. The IVDMD, crude protein and fiber content varied with time. IVDMD generally increased slightly and was highest after 6 wk. To verify these findings the study will be repeated with cuts in the dry season. Fí~r content (ADF and NDF) seemed to be correlated with IVDMD and generally also had its highest values after 6 wk of regrowth. There was very little variation for crude protein content (Figure 1).        Variability in IVDMD, crude protein and fiber content of 1 O high-quality accessions of F. macrophylla after 2, 4, 6 and 8 wk of regrowth. IVDMD = in vitro dry matter digestibility, CP = crude protein, ADF = acid detergent fiber, NDF = neutral detergent fiber. Morphological characterization and evaluation. The phenology study has not yet been completed, but available data allow sorne preliminary assessment using PCA. For F. macrophylla, the parameters included thus far are days to first flower, days to 50% flowering, length of inflorescence peduncle, flower color, Iength of bracts, seed color, inflorescence branching (terminalfaxillar), flowering intensity, Jeaf(Iet) area, leaf peduncle Iength and pubescence, and data from a visual evaluation after 8 wk of regrowth (height, diameter, vigor, pests, diseases). PCA performed with the agronomic data of 71 F. macrophylla accessions revealed high correlations between seed color, length ofthe inflorescence peduncle, inflorescence branching and height, as well as between days to first flower and days to 50% flowering (>70%). Cluster analysis (UPGMA) resulted in 8 groups.The first group contained 18 of the 19 erect-growing accessions. They were characterized by their height (160-290 cm), and by a terminal, pedunculate and branched, raceme-Jike inflorescence with light rose-coloured flowers (Photo 1) and black seeds. The average leaflet area was 40 cm 2 with an average peduncle Jength of 5 cm. The other erect-growing accession (No. 21249), with the same growth and inflorescence characteristics, was in a group of its own, distinguished by lower vigor and high disease attack. Group 3 (20 accessions) was composed nearly exclusively of semi-erect accessions with an average height of 134 cm and diameter of 205 cm. This group al so included two prostrate accessions (19797,20624) because of their extensive height and diameter. The inflorescences of these accessions were axillary and sessile, with dark pink flowers in dense, cylindrical racemes (Photo 2) with brown and mottled seeds. Accession No. 18437 with the same characteristics fell into a fourth group of its own beca use of higher disease attack, together with No. 21090, due to very late flowering (3 55 days to 50% flowering). The remaining 26 semierect and prostrate accessions, with the same inflorescence characteristics as mentioned before but with a lower average height (86 cm) and diameter (137 cm), fell into a large sixth group. Groups seven and eight differed from all other accessions with respect to the bracts and bracteoles. Generally in F. macrophylla the bracts and bracteoles are shorter than the inflorescence resp. flowers. In sorne accessions the bracts and bracteoles were longer than the inflorescence resp. flowers (Photo 3), falling into two distinct groups: Group seven with accessions 21080, 21994, 22058 and group eight with accession 21086. These accessions also had conspicuously larger leaves (avg leaflet area was 68 cm 2 , while the avg of the whole collection was 34 cm 2 ) that resemble tobacco leaves. This growth type was therefore named \"tobacco\" in contrast to the three other aforementioned growth types: erect, semierect and prostrate.Efforts made in genetic analysis showed as a preliminary result that the common manual DNA extraction methods do not work well with F. macrophylla and C. argentea. The modified protocol, which was used to extract DNA, showed promising results at the beginning, but frequent degradation, contamination and partial digestion occurred later due to secondary plant compounds, probably polyphenols. In preliminary trials with a commercial extraction kit, the DNA purity was higher and thus far problems have not occurred in either digestion or amplification.Photo l. Inflorescence ofthe erect growth type ofF. macrophylla.  1843 8, 21083, 21090 and 21092, followed by 19454, 20622, 20625, 20626, 20631, 20744, 20975, 21087, 21241, 21249, 21519, 21529, 21580, 22082 and I(LRI)15146 and JOOl. More detailed analysis oftwo subsets have shown that aceessions with higher feed quality in terms of digestibility and DM production have lower fiber contents than low-quality accessions. A further set of accessions has been obtained from V iet Nam.• Four c/early distinguishable F. macrophylla growlh types. Morphogical studies clearly reveal four different growth types: erect, semierect, prostrate and \"tobacco.\" Agronomically promising accessions are either of the erect or semierect type. Prostrate and tobacco-type plants generally have lower DM production and/or lower digestibility.• Preliminary analysis of origin information on F. macrophylla and C. argentea. Passport data of the two collections were mapped with FloraMap and classified in clusters. The number of clusters utilized corresponds to the number of clusters employed in the agronomic study.• Core collection approaches in lhe multipurpose shrub legumes F. macrophylla and C. argentea assessed. Preliminary analysis of origin and agronomic information did not identify correlations between the clusters obtained in the two approaches. Data will be further studied and compared to results of AFLP analysis.Hybridization between crops and their wild relatives sometimes brings genes into wild populations, occasionally resulting in the evolution of aggressive weeds and/ or endangerment of rare species. Transgenic crops may also result in s imilar outcomes. The likelihood of crop-to-wild hybridization depends on the out-cross rate, and on distance and direction between wild and crop populations. Cultivated rice, O. sativa L., is an autogamous plant, with a low out crossing rate of 0-1% (Roberts et al. 1961 ). Rice is an introduced species in the Neotropics from Africa and Asia, but with wildlweedy relatives including wild native species in Central and South America. Hybridization can be expected within the genomic group that includes O. saliva, viz., the AA group. The wild relatives of AA genome, which are found in Central and South America and may hybridize with the rice crop, include O. rufipogon and O. glumaepatula (Oka and Chang, 1961;Vaughan and Tomooka, 1999). Red rice (Oryza saliva f. spontanea) is weedy rice with a red pericarp and darkcolored grains. The seeds shatter readi ly and possess dormancy characteristics. The plants typically are tall, late maturing, and have pubescent leaves and hulls. In contrast to Asia where manual transplanting is still predominant, in tropical America direct seeding of red rice-contaminated seed source is common, making red rice the most serious weed problem. Genes from rice varieties may transfer quickly into red rice (1% to 52% hybridization rate) (Langevin et al. 1990). However, most of the hybridization rate estimates have been done under temperate conditions. This work' is part of a project directed to analyze the gene flow from non-transgenic or transgenic rice into wildlweedy relatives in the Neotropics, and its effect(s) on the population genetic structure of the recipient spec1es.Collection of Red Rice Samples in the Field. V arious commercial rice field plots were selected at Tolima, the major rice-cropping area in Colombia. Plots with known cropping history were selected. Plots had been planted with the same variety for at least the last eight growing seasons (two years), and included one of the 4 more widely grown commercial varieties: Fedearroz 50 currently grown by 80% of farmers; Oryzica 1 the previous most popular variety cultivated before Fedearroz 50 was released; and Coprosem 1 or Cimarron. A total 158 red rice plants and their corresponding seeds were harvested from each plot. Samples were grouped in populations based on their origin according to the commercial variety grown in the field. Morphological and Phenological Characterization. The morphological characterization was conducted using 16 qualitative and 9 quantitative descriptors. The phenology characterization included 6 descriptors. Plant and seed morphological evaluations were conducted using the samples collected from the field (FO generation). The phenological characterization was performed in the greenhouse (F1 generation) and in the field (F2 generation) using progeny plants obtained through selfing of each FO plant. The corresponding rice varieties grown in the field at the moment of the field sample collection, a transgenic Cica 8 rice variety, and the wild species O. rufipogon, O. glaberrima, and O. barthii were used as controls.Data Analysis. Principal component and coordinate analysis were conducted using a SAS statistical package program.Seed parameters allowed a better characterization of the red rice populations collected. The analysis of the 1650 seeds indicated broad husk color diversity, varying from greyed yellow color (alike the commercial varieties) to brown color (alike the wild rice species). The widest diversity was noted in the populations derived from the Oryzica 1 and Fedearroz 50 plots, where about 50% of the red rice biotypes showed grains with husk color alike the corresponding commercial variety, from 2% to 15% of biotypes had husk color alike the wild rice species, and the other biotypes with husk colors corresponding to either greywed orange stripes, or brown stripes. In contrast, about 40% of the red rice biotypes derived from the Coprosem 1 and Cimarron plots showed brown grains alike the wild species, 0% and 10% of the red rice with grains alike the varieties, and only one or two of the other husk color categories. Similar patterns were noted when the awn, the apiculus, and the pericarp were characterized. Sorne red accessions with colored grains, also showed greyed orange or greyed purple coloration in the leaves and tillers, which may facilitate the identification of hybrids since anthocyanin production in rice is encoded by dominant gene(s).A correlation analysis between grain Iength and grain width also showed that the red rice populations derived from the Coprosem 1 and Cimarron field plots were the least diverse, and clearly distinct from the rice varieties. The red rice population derived from the Oryzica 1 plot was the most diverse. While sorne biotypes showed shorter and thicker grains alike the wild species O. rufipogon and O. glaberrima, others showed long and slender grains alike the varieties, and sorne biotypes were in between the wild species and the crop. Few of the samples from the Fedearroz 50 plot had long and slender grains. Oryza barthii had extra long and thick grains. Those red rice biotypes undistinguishable from the variety by their gram traits still showed seed shattering characteristic of the weedy rice.Principal component analysis using the 9 quantitative morphological descriptors indicated that 77% of the variability could be explained by 4 main components, where grain length, width and thickness, jointly with length between nodes, and width of the flag leaf and the previous leaf were the most important. The coordinate principal component analysis using the 16 qualitative morphological parameters allowed to group the 158 red rice biotypes in three major clusters mainly characterized by the presence or absence of grain awn, and brown husk color, respectively (Figure 1). Results indicated a significant similarity between sorne red rice biotypes and rice varieties. Likewise a tight association was noted between various red rice samples and the wild Oryza species, especially with O. rufipogon (Figure 1). Of the phenological traits evaluated days to flowering (DTF, 50% anthesis) is the most relevant when considering likelihood of gene flow.  2).Seed traits significantly accounted for most of the variability found in the red rice populations collected. The presencel absence of awn and husk color grouped the biotypes in three major clusters. Seed qualitative traits jointly with the relation grain length to width easily allows to identify the red rice varietal types and those similar to wild species from the regular weedy types.Large number of red rice biotypes overlap in flowering with cultivated varieties. No clear influence in flowering pattem was noted respect to the variety previously being grown in the field . Based on this morphological and phenological characterization, sorne red rice biotypes had been selected to conduct gene flow analysis and identify indicators for an easy trace of gene flow in the field over subsequent generations.• Red rice biotypes representing the 3 major chlsters with contrasting morphological characteristics easy to trace through hybridization, and overlapping in flowering respect to rice varieties were selected for evaluation to RHBV resistance.• Of these biotypes, those susceptible to the virus and easily distinguishable by red rice specific microsatellite molecular markers (described in report 1.1.12 herein) will be potential candidates for the gene flow and introgression follow up analysis using either transgenic Cica 8 resistant to RHBV or other rion-transgenic variety as pollen donor.Oka, H.l.; Chang, W.T. l96l. Hybrid swarms between wild and cultivated rice species, Oryza perennis and O. sativa. Evolution 15: 418-430. -•----   6 7Field Plot A careful assessment of potential impacts of gene flow from transgenic plants on population genetics of natural crop plant biodiversity is needed in other to design strategies for the safe and durable use of these crops in the Neo-tropics. This work is part of a project directed to analyze the gene flow from non-transgenic or transgenic rice into wild/weedy relatives, and its effect(s) on the population genetic structure of the recipient species. Last year we reported a preliminary screening of 50 microsatellite markers to identify those polymorphic between a set of commercial rice varieties, wild Oryza species, and advanced transgenic Cica 8 RHBV resistant lines and hand-made crosses with selected varieties. The current report summarizes the progress on setting up the use of microsatellites markers to assess and trace gene flow from transgenic and non-transgenic rice into wild Oryza species and red rice under controlled confined field plots, and under local agricultural field conditions in Colombia. A genetic diversity analysis was fust conducted in order to determine the genetic structure prior gene flow, and to select the best combinations of transgenic or nontransgenic rice, and wild/weedy populations to assess the gene flow.Plant Material. A set of 50 microsatellite markers (at least 4 per each chromosome) were screened. The microsatellite selection was based on their location in the chromosome (McCouch et al., 1997). At least two markers located distal from the centromere per each chromosome arm were chosen to increase the likelihood of fmding recombination between the experimental genotypes. The markers were amplified at different annealing temperatures according to the estimated melting temperatures of the primers. The PCR products were resolved on silverstained polyacrylamide gels and microsatellite alleles were sized by comparison to the 1 O and 25 bp molecular weight standards (Promega). The genetic distance between samp les was calculated using the Dice algorithm, and a dendogram was constructed using the Unweighted Pair-Group Mean Average (UPGMA). The genetic distances and dendogram were built using NTSYS-PC software version 2.02 (Rohlf, 1997).Results and Discussion.Genetic characterization of rice varieties, red rice, and wild Oryza species. The dendrograrn obtained showed thirteen groups with a similarity of 0.43. O.glumaepatula was the most distant group, followed by O.glaberrima and O. barthii. O.rufipogon, was found within the red rice group (Figure 1). For the red rice population, in sorne cases it was possible to associate the genetic clusters with sorne phenological and morphological traits. rufipogon with sorne red rice biotypes with significant similarity on morphological and phenological traits. The fourteen most polymorphic microsatellites detected a high number of alleles ( 1 06). In general the size of the alleles ranged from 108 to 252 bp. This analysis allowed the identification of 46 specific alleles for red rice; 17 specific alleles for the wild species; and only two specific alleles for the rice varieties. O.glumaepatula showed larger number of specific alleles (8) compared to O.rufipogon, which shared all their alleles with red rice. A low number of heterocigotes was found in the red rice population as a whole, with a range of 0-19 heterocygotes per microsatellite. Total genetic diversity index ofNei (0.637) was intermediate to high. In contrast, the genetic diversity index between the red rice populations collected from the different field plots was 0.55, which is considered an intermediate value. The value obtained for Gst (0.136) reflects a lower genetic diversity inter-population (collected from different field plots) than intra-population (individuals collected from the same field plot analyzed as one population).Tracing gene jlow with microsatellite molecular markers. Clearly distinct combinations of crop, red rice, and wild species had been selected for gene flow and introgression follow up, based on the morphological, phenological, and molecular genetic characterization using microsatellite markers. Conditions had already been standardized for detection of 2% out-cross using genotype specific markers (Figure 2). Conditions are being optimized to detect 1% of out-crossing rate.Specific microsatellite alleles were identified in different commercial varieties, red rice accessions and wild species, which can be used to trace gene flow and introgression. As expected, wild species O. glaberrima with O. barthii clustered together in a group, and in a separate cluster with O. glumaepatula of low similarity with the rest of the population. According to this cluster analysis, sorne red rice accessions showed high genetic similarity to the varieties and others to the wild species O. rufipogon. These genetic similarity coincide with the morphological and phenological characterization already conducted. The red rice-O.rufipogon biotypes will be subject oftaxonomic classification to elucidate if they are introduced accessions of the wild species from Asia. The red rice-variety biotypes might be indicators of hybridization between red rice and the crop, and thus better candidates as receptors of gene flow. These materials could be ideal materials to trace transgene(s) flow. Clearly distinguishable red rice biotypes are recommended to trace gene flow from non-transgenic rice, in order to provide a broad understanding of the hybridization and introgression dynamic on this population over time.• Best crop/ wild/ weedy candidates to conduct gene flow and introgression analyses will be selected based on the molecular characterization and the morphological/ phenological characterization presented in report 1.1.11 (herein). • Crop/ wild/ weedy specific microsatellites will be used to trace hybridization and population genetic through generations in the field. • The spatial distribution of alleles will be used to study local gene flow, including polleo dispersa! distances. • Results will be compared with those using transgenes as a too! for tracing gene flow.Genetic information present in plant mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) has been of great used in phylogeny and in population genetics studies (maternal inheritance), because of its complementarities to nuclear Mendelian segregation. Organelle plant genomes are highly conserved in structure (Palmer and Stein, 1986). Chloroplast DNA restriction patterns provide useful information to assess the phylogenetic relationships among plant species, due to the low rate of rearrangements, the relatively small size and predominantly maternal inheritance. This tool has been used in severa! interspecific taxonomical works to study the genetic organization in centers of diversity or to establish the relationships between the cultigens and their related wild taxa, in genera such as Zea, Oryza, Musa, Solanum, Nicotiana, Lycopersicom (Schmit et a l., 1993). Sun et al. (2002) investigated the variation of nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA among 75 cultivars and 118 strains of common wild rice from ten Asian countries using Southern Blot and PCR analysis. They were able to distinguish differences between the Indica and Japonica cultivars, where they detected variations in both the nuclear and the cytoplasmic genomes, confirming that the Indica-Japonica differentiation is of maja r importance in cultivated rice. Demuesure et al. (1995) designed a set of universal primers for amplification of polymorphic non-coding regions of mtDNA and cpDNA in plants. These primers could be used as a first approach to discern polymorphism among rice and wild/weedy relatives for use in gene flow and introgression analyses, thus facilitating the identification of the polleo donar source. The cpDNA and mtDNA polymorphisms analysis (maternal inheritance) comp lements the information generated with microsatellite markers (nuclear inheritance) giving a comprehensive understanding of the hybridization and introgression dynamic under field conditio ns.The experimental materials used in this preliminary study consisted of plants from Oryza sativa composed by one accession of red rice, the commercial rice varieties Cica 8 and Fedearroz 50, a hand-made cross between the transgenic Cica 8 RHBV resistant line AJ-49-60-12-5 and Fedearroz 50, and two wild species Oryza glumaepatula and Oryza rufipogon. Total DNA was isolated from young leaves according to the method described by McCouch et al (1988). The PCR was carried out in 25 J.LL total volume containing the following components: 20 ng of genomic DNA, 0.4 J.1M of primers (Table 1), 0.2 mM dNTPs, 2.5 mM MgCI 2 , 2.0 U Taq polimerase, IX PCR buffer that consisted of Tris HCI 10 mM (pH 9.0), KCI 50 mM and Triton 0.1 %. The amplification was carried out using 1 cycle of 4 min at 94°C, 35 cycles of 45 s at 92°C, 45 s at 55°C, at 72°C for 4 min and one cycle of 10 min at 72°C. The PCR products were separated on agarose gel (1.0 %), stained with ethidium bromide and visualized by UV fluorescence . These amplification products were then digested by incubating 3 J.LL of PCR product with four restriction enzymes at 37°C, for 4 h. The digested amplicons were then separated on 1.5% agarose gel.  The preliminary work included 12 pairs of primers, which amplify mostly non-coding sequences. Nine cpDNA primers amplified the corresponding regions in the six rice samples. These primes had been designed to amplify the complete sequences of ch1oroplast genome of Oryza sativa and Nicotiana tabaccum (Demuesure et al., 1995). The sizes of amplified fragments range between 11 00 and 2800 pb (Figure 1 ). The digested PCR products of 8 fragment size with four restriction enzymes (Pstl, Rsa I, Dra I, Hae Ill) 1 revealed cpDNA polymorphisms in the region CP8 corresponding to the non-coding regions between the aminoacid tmS [tRNA-Ser-(GGA)] and tmT [tRNA-Thr (UGU)]. A polymorphic fragment was observed forO. glumaepatula after the digestion with Dra I. This result needs to be confirmed using other DNA sample from another individual of O. glumaepatula (Figure 1 ).• The evaluation of cpDNA and mtDNA amplified products using other additional restriction enzymes in order to identify specific polymorphic patterns between varieties, red rice and wild Oryza species. • Determine if organelle polymorphism could be used as a too) to trace gene flow in rice.The Annonaceae fami ly (common name: anonas) presents 240 species of 30 genera in Colombia, and comprises severa) groups important as food products, commonly known as anones (A.  squamosa), soursops (A. muricata), chirimoyas (A. cherimola), atemoyas (A. squamosa x A. cherimola) and \"anones amozonicos\" (Rollinia mucosa), among others (Murillo-A, 2001).Soursop (Annona muricata L.), because of its exquisit taste, flavor and nutritive value is the most promisory anona species in Colombia (CIA T and C. BIOTEC, 2002). Like all the Annonas, soursop is native to the American tropics, possibly Colombia or Brazil (León, 1968). This is why Colombia may have the world's largest genetic diversity of soursop. However the extent of this diversity is not known , and has not been used in breeding programs to improve agronomic traits either. As a matter of fact, theres is only one germplasm bank in Colombia, C.l. Corpoica Palmira Germplasm Bank (43 anonas accesions), which has not been characterized at all. This project is the first attempt to study the genetic diversity of annonaceus species from Colombia. The objective is to know the genetic variabi1ity of the germplasm bank by applying DNA molecular marker technology, like AFLP. We would like to know if this variability is representative of Colombian diversity. Corporación Biotec and CIA T (SB02 project) are in charge of the molecular characterization. Corpoica carries out the agro-morphological characterization and a support in population genetics. The results of this project will contribute to the development of more productive, genetically diversified planting material.For the genetic variability analysis, we evaluated 81 accesions from Corpoica germplasm bank and our own working collection. The 81 accessions were made of 45 entries from A. muricata and 36 of related Annonaceae species (Tables 1 and 2). We applied the method of Dellaporta et al. (1983) for DNA extraction, using PVP 1 g r 1 in the extraction buffer and a chloroform 1 isoamylalcohol (24/1) cleaning step befare DNA precipitation. The AFLP protocol followed was that described by Vos et al. (1995), using AFLP Analysis System I Kit (Gibco BRL). In preliminary trials we evaluated 15 different combinations of selective nucleotides for AFLP amplification. Then, we selected three combinations that displayed the highest and \"most readable\" polymorphisms between soursop species and/or between Annonaceae species. They were E-ACT, M-CAA (combination F); E-AGC, M-CTC (combination M); E-AGC, M-CAA (combination N). Selective amplifications were size-fractionated on 6% or 4% polyacrylamide denaturing gels and visualized through silver staining. AFLP fingerprinting of each accesion were converted into a similarity matrix, based on Nei and Li index (1979). The similarity matrix was analyzed using NTSYS (Rohlf, 1994) computer program. Dendrograms were constructed by UPGMA method (Sneath and Sokal, 1973).In the soursop germplasm, the 45 accesions showed 141 bands for combination F. The number of bands per individual ranged between 41 and 58, where only eight bands were monomorphic (Fig. 1), giving a 90 % polymorphism. Fourty-one accesíons presented genetic símilarities higher than 0.80 (Fig. 2). Four accesions, 1919Four accesions, , 1959Four accesions, , 1958Four accesions, and 1920, which are currently identified as A. muricata species (C.I. Corpoica Germp1asm Bank), showed specially different fingerprints. Genetic similarity between 1919, 1959 and the other 41 muricata accesions was 0.45. Similarly, genetic similarity between 1958Similarly, genetic similarity between , 1920 and the other 41 accesions was 0.30. As we can see in Fig. 3, 1959 looks more similar toA. montana than toA. muricata, while 1958 appears more similar to putatíve A. glabra accesions, and 1920 showed more similarity to putative Rollinia mucosa accesions (Table 2).  Soursop accesions analysed with combination F presented low genetic variability, compared to the variability observed by A. montana and putative R mucosa accesions (Fig. 2 and 3). The development of the crop in Colombia, and the exchange of germplasm by soursop growers, has made possible the trade of seeds adapted to different agroecological zones. This may be one reason why, in our analysis, 2014 and AMUR M5 from Barínas (Venezuela) and Ciénaga-Magdalena (Colombia), respectively, presented a similaríty higher than 0.85 with 2015 and 2017, accesions collected from Fusagasugá-C/marca and Buga-Valle, respectively (Fig. 2).We observed genetic varíability between accessions that oríginated from seeds of the same tree (siblings) for instance there was variability between AMUR H2-1 and AMUR H2 as well as between AMUR H3 and AMUR H3-5 (Fig. 2). This observed variability could be attributed to natural out-crossing on account of the protogyny in the soursop flowers (Escobar and Sánchez, 1992). To arríve at a defmitive confrrmation of the status of variability between siblings in soursop however, it is suggested that an in-depth molecular marker analysís using AFLPs for instance, should be carried out.In general, in the Annonaceae germplasm evaluated there was high genetic variability (Fig. 3). Four groups were related at 0.20-0.25 similarity: A. glabra-!ike accessions; A. montana andA. muricata accessions; accessions similar to \"anones amazónicos\"; chirimoyas, atemoyas and anones-líke accessions.Parallel to molecular characterization analysis, we are evaluating Annonaceae species as potential rootstocks for in vitro propagation of selected soursop clones (see \"Optimization of the in vitro propagation methodology of selected clones of soursop (Annona muricata L.) and evaluation of the compatibility between different combinations of scions and rootsocks micrografted in vitro\", this Annual Report). Previous observations indicate that not all accessions are usable as rootstocks. For instance, soursop scions respond differently to different rootstocks of Annona montana. Therefore it might be convenient, due to the intrinsic genetic variability (Fig. 3), to select, based on fingerprínts, those accessions best suited for rootstocks.Finally, one accession of Annona glabra from C.l. Corpoica Germplasm Bank appeared more related toA. montana accessions (genetic similarity of0.65) than to putative A. glabra (similarity around 0.30). It's therefore convenient to review, based on fingerprints, the present classification of severa! accessions in the bank.Each soursop accession showed a different AFLP fingerprinting with combination F. This molecular marker could be used for the identification of soursop clones and future varieties.Soursop accessions conserved at C.I. Corpoica Palmira germplasm bank presented low genetic variability with combination F. lt may be convenient to collect new germplasm. 1t is reccomended to check the identification ofat least four accessions : 1920, 1959, 1958 andA. glabra.• Complete the genetic variability analysis of anonas accessions with two different combinations of primers ( combinations M and N). • Evaluate the genetic variability of siblings by AFLP markers.Nigeria is the world 's largest producer of cassava with an armual production of 32 million tons a year (Nweke et al. 2001). This is a more than 200% increase from production twenty years ago. Reasons for the leap in production have been attributed to government po licies that favor cassava, population in crease and the adoption of improved cassava varieties (Nweke et al. 2001 ). Nigeria has the highest area in Africa planted to improved varieties, 60%, and cassava is more of an urban staple and cash crop than a food security crop. The impact ofthe increased commercialization of cassava in Nigeria is expected to lead to an even greater adoptio n of improved varieties and an erosion of land races and the inevitable loss of diversity. A high leve! of genetic diversity of cassava has been demonstrated in land races found in traditio nal Ameri-Indian and African farrning communities (Doy\\e 1997;Fregene et al. 2002), principally a product of the allogamous nature of cassava, agricultura( practices, and natural and farrner se lection. This genetic diversity is an important resource and needs to be collected and preserved for future use. Besides a study of genetic diversity might reveal genetic differentiation amongst accession that might represent heterotic pools. A study to assess the genetic diversity of cassava land races in Nigeria was initiated in July 2000, we describe here completion of the SSR characterization component and present insights gained from the study.To study the genetic diversity of cassava Jand races on a country-wide basis. Assess genetic differentiation between the Nigerian and Latín American accessions, for example accessions from Guatemala. Genetic crosses between Nigerian and Neo tropicalland races that are highly differentiated to test for heterotic groups.The original study plan was to characterize by SSR markers the 148 accessions held at the cassava gennplasm banks of the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI) and the Intemational Institute of Tropical Agriculture (liTA). The liTA collection was made during the collaborative study of cassava in Afiica (COSCA) from 65 villages in the entire country. The lack of passport data for more than half of the NRCRI collection and the incomplete liTA COSCA collection Jead to a decision to conduct a fresh collection in all 65 Nigerian villages surveyed by the COSCA study. The collection was carried out by 3 teams from liTA during the period of May through June 200 l. All 65 COSCA villages were visited and an average of 4-5 of the most commonly grown varieties were collected. Farmers were also asked questions on where they got their varieties, disease and pest incidence and end uses. A total of 285 accessions were collected. The names and passport data of the Jand races collected can be seen at the following URL: http://newwebciat/vuca/Molcas/index.htm, under Nigeria country study. The collection was planted at liT A, Ibadan and will be maintained there.DNA was isolated from young leaf tissue harvested from field plants according to a modified miniprep method of Dellaporta et al. (1983) at the biotechnology research unit, liTA, Ibadan. DNA was quantiated by flourirnetry and shipped to CIA T for molecular analysis. A student from liT A participated in the molecular analysis as a means of transferring the technology to Nigeria. A total of 36 SSR markers, two from each of the 18 linkage groups of the cassava genome, ha ve been defined based on their clear banding pattems and robustness across severa! SSR diversity studies, this set of markers were employed in characterizing the Jand races. PCR amplification, gel electrophoresis, and silver staining were as described earlier for these SSR markers (Fregene et al 2002). A previous study had shown high differentiation between African and Guatemalan land races, a set of 13 Jand races from Guatemala was therefore included to confinn the earlier observation. SSR allele data captured off the gels using the computer software \"Quantity One\" (Bio-Rad Inc.) Genetic distance, based upon the proportion of shared alleles (PSA), was obtained using the computer program \"microsat'' (Minch 1993).The distance matrix obtained was displayed graphically using a principal component analysis (PCA) using the compuater program JMP (SAS Institute 1997). Parameters of genetic diversity and differentiation were calculated from allele data using the computer packages GENSURVEY (Vekeman et al 1997) and FSTAT (Goudet 1990).Data from a total of 31 unlinked SSR loci was available for statistical analysis the other 5 markers had poor overall data quality requiring their elimination. Genetic diversity parameters, including total heterozygosity (Ht) and genetic differentiation (Gst) ranged widely from locus to Iocus (Table 1 ). The average number of alleles for each locus was roughly four and is similar to that found for a study of land races from Tanzania and 7 Neo-tropical countries (Table 2). The probability that 2 randomly selected alleles in a given accession are different, average gene diversity, was 0.5832±0.0482 and it is quite high as also found for the previous study. However, average gene diversity was higher for land races from Guatemala (0 .62 -0.650) compared to those from Nigeria 0.49 -0.57). Cassava land races from the humid and sub humid regions of Nigeria had higher average gene diversity compared to those from the semi-arid region of the country. The results found here buttress earlier fmdings that agricultura! practices of cassava farmers and the allogamous nature of cassava produces a large pool of volunteer seedlings that natural and human selection acts upon to maintain a high leve! of land race diversity of a clonally propagated crop (Doyle et al. 2001;Fregene et al. 2002).Unique alleles were found in the Guatemalan accessions and pair-wise comparison of the genetic differentiation estimator FsT revealed moderate to high genetic differentiation between the Nigerian and Guatemalan land races (Table3 ). Of particular interest are Guatemalan land races from the town El Progresso. The FsT (theta) estimator) of genetic differentiation averaged over all loci average is low 0.82, but is comparable to that from the study of cassava varieties from Tanzania and 7 Neo tropical countries (0.09 1 ). The low leve! of genetic differentiation in cassava comes as a surprise given the \"out of Brazil\" hypothesis for cassava. Possible explanations would be a continuos exchange of germplasm and the active generation of genetic diversity by farmers.Genetic distances between all pairs of individual accessions was calculated by the l-proportion of shared alleles (1-PSA) and presented graphically by a principal coordinate analysis (PCA) (Figl). The PC 1 and PC2 accounted for 26% and 16% of the total variance respectively. The PCA clearly separates the accessions from Guatemala from those from Nigeria, but it also reveals a sub-structure in the accessions from the Semi-arid region of Nigeria. The presence of a defmed sub-structure in the genetic relationship of cassava land races from Africa has been demonstrated before in Tanzania (Fregene et al. 2002). It is yet to be understood the underlying basis for the sub-structure. These results al so agree with a previous AFLP marker study of 29 African and 11 Neo-tropics Iand races that placed African and Neo-tropics land races in two distinct cluster with a sub structure for the African accessions (Fregene et al. 2000).The differentiation amongst land races from Guatemala and Nigeria observed in a previous study (Fregene et al. 2002) and confrrmed here may well represent heterotic pools as have been found for maize (Shull et al. 1952). One of the principal reasons for this study was to assess genetic diversity in cassava land races as a first step to delineating heterotic pools for a more systematic improvement of combining ability via reccurent reciproca! selection. Activities ongoing include diallel crosses of representative land races from Nigeria and Guatemala.• Genotype a larger land race collection from Guatemala with the 36 SSR markers • Analyze the SSR marker results • Genetic crosses between Nigerian and Guatemalan land races Fregene M.A., Berna! A., Dixon A., Duque M., and Tohme J. (2000). AFLP Analysis of African Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Germplasm Resistant to the Casava Mosaic Disease (CMD).Theor and Appl Genet 100: 678-685 Fregene M., Suarez M., Mkumbira J. , Kulembeka H. , Ndedya E. , Kulaya A. , Mitchel S. Gullberg U. , Rosling H., Dixon A., Kresovich S. (2001) Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Diversity of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Landraces: Genetic Diversity and Differentiation in a Predominatly Asexually Propagated Crop (Submitted to Genetics) Goudet J, 1995. FSTAT (vers. 1.2)   (AIIem, 1994; Fregene et.al  1994; Roa et al. 1997; Olsen and Schaal 1999), the diversity of cassava and its wild relatives in Memo-America is great enough to suggest a second center in Meso-America. Besides, the potential of Meso-American diversity in cassava improvement has not been properly assessed. Three recent studies of genetic diversity in land races from South America and Meso-America 60• sub-luftid (Chavariagga et. al. 1999;Fregene et. al. 2002;Raji et. al. unpublished data) have revealed unique alleles in land races from Guatemala at a frequency high enough to suggest a Meso American center of cassava diversity. The results of the three studies were based u pon 6, 4, and 13 Guatemalan land races. The small sample size of the previous study could distort the allele frequencies and lead to wrong conclusions. A larger collection and SSR characterization of land races from Guatemala was therefore planned to confmn preliminary data of a Meso-American center of diversity and to secure the largely untapped diversity in Guatemala before it becomes extinct. In addition, a selection from the Guatemalan collection will be crossed to CIA T elite parents to evaluate the utility ofthe Meso-American diversity in cassava breeding.  The concentratíon and quality of DNA samples was accessed by flourimetry and agarose gel electrophoresis respectively. The DNA samples were diluted to 1 O nglml for subsequent PCR analysis. A set of 36 SSR markers, carefully chosen to represent a broad coverage of the cassava genome with moderate to high polymorphism information content (PIC) and robust amplification, • were used in this study. SSR diversity studies PCR amplification, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and silver staining were as described earlier for these SSR markers (Fregene et al 2002).A total of 30 SSR markers ha ve been analyzed to date in the Guatemalan gennplasm. Results so far reveal a number of unique alleles in the Guatemalan accessions not found in those from other regions (Fig 1). The allele data was captured using the prograrn \"Quantity One\" (Bio-Rad Inc) and entered directly into EXCEL (Microsoft Inc) in preparation for statisticaJ analysis (Fig2). Statistical analysis to be carried out include: principal component analysis (PCA) of a distance matrix based upon 1-proportion of shared alleles, and parameters of genetic diversity and differentiation as described in Fregene et al (2002).Silver-stained polyacrylamide gel of PCR amplification of cassava ac:c:esslons from Guatemala, Colombia and Brazil with primen ofSSR marker SSRYlO. A unique allele can be observed in the Guatemalan accessions with a high frequency.Figl . Determination of SSR allele sizes on silver-stained polyacrylamide gels usin& the software \"Quantity One\" (Biorad)Cassava ís an important food crop in developing countries where it is the fourth source of _ calories, after rice, sugarcane and maize, for more than 400 million people (El-Sharkawy, 1993).Africa is now the largest producer of cassava with a production of 90million metric tones in l999 (F AO 2000). It is cultivated mainly for its storage roots, which provide 390-400 calories/1 Og dry matter. The leaves when consumed as vegetable provide 7g protein per 100 g edible portian (liTA 1991 ). The collaborative study of cassava in Africa (COSCA) revealed that cassava serves as a family food staple, a famine reserve crop, and a cash crop.Cassava was introduced from Brazil, its country of origin, to the tropical areas of Africa, the Far East and the Caribbean Islands by the Portuguese during the 16th and 17th centuries (Jones, 1959).In Ghana, the then Gold Coast, the Portuguese grew the crop around their trading ports, forts and castles. lt was a principal food eaten by both the Portuguese and the slaves. By the second half of the 18th century, cassava had become the most widely grown and used crop of the people of the coastal plains (Adams 1957) The spread of cassava from the coast into the hinterlands was very slow. lt reached Ashanti region, Brong Ahafo and the northem Ghana, mainly around Tamale in the l930.Until the early I980s,the Akans of the forest belt preferred plantain and cocoyams and sorghum and millet in the north. Cassava became firmly established in most areas after the serious drought of 1982/83 when all other crops failed completely (Korang-Amoakoh,Cudjoe and Adams 1987).Cassava ranks frrst in the area under cultivation and ultilization. Cassava contributes 22% of the agricultura! gross domestic product AGDP compared to 5% for maize, 2% for rice, and 14% for cocoa (Al-Hassan, 1989;Dapaah, 1996). According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS), for 1.73 million sampled households 83% were found engaged in cassava production.The spread of cassava into the upper west and upper east of Ghana is an indication of growing trend in cassava production through area expansion ( MOA, 1990).In the traditional bush-fallow system, sorne cassava plants are allowed to grow during the fallow period, which is long enough to allow cassava to flower and set seeds. The usual out crossing habit of cassava leads to the production of numerous heterozygous gene pools, which create phenotypic diversity. New hybrid combinations from self-sown seed from which farmers select and propagate desirable types. This process creates pools of new land races, which are adapted to the different agro-ecological zones of Ghana. Coupled with this are the several narnes that farrners give to cassava as they distribute among themselves. Several land races have been found with the sarne narne and morphological characteristics yet genetically different and the sarne land races could ha ve different narnes in severa! places (Fregene et al., 2000). Doku ( 1969)   , 1996). Heterotis groups identified in maize in the early 20th century (Shull et a l 1953) have been the basis of a very successful hybrid seed industry.The objective for this study is to assess the genetic diversity in Ghanaian 1andracesTo detect heterotic pattems in the collection and between the Ghanaian collection and land races from other countries and regions.(3) To generate hybrids between the Ghanaian land races and genotypes from putative heterotic groups and se1ect together with farrners superior hybrids from the crosses.In January 2002 a collection of cassava land races from all the agro ecological zones in Ghana was done. A total of 45 villages visited during the collaborative study on cassava in Africa (COSCA) were visited. Another 28 villages, important for cassava production, were also visited. Farrners were assembled and asked to share information on cassava varieties grown by them, characteristics of their varieties, and reasons for keeping them. Farmers volunteered to give mature cassava stems, which were labeled.Fresh young leaf sarnples of the accessions were collected on ice and used for DNA extraction.An arnount of 0.1 g of the fresh young 1eaf was ground in liquid nitrogen and the DNA extracted using the Qiagen kit. The extraction was carried out in liTA, lbadan, Nigeria. The DNA was carried in abso1ute ethanol to CIA T. DNA quantification was done using the fluorometer. The DNAs were diluted to 1 Ong/ul and used for SSR reactions. A sub-set of 36 SSR markers, two from each of the 18 linkage groups of the cassava genome, was employed to obtain an estímate of genetic diversity and differentiation in the land races. PCR amplification, gel e lectrophoresis, and silver staining was as described earlier (Fregene et al 2002). An intemal control of 10 genotypes was included to permit comparison between this study and other ones. The PAGE gels containing SSR data will be scanned and allele sizes determined using the computer software \"Quantity One\" (Bio-Rad Inc.) based upon an interna! gel molecular marker size standard. Genetic distance, based upon the proportion of shared alleles (PSA), will be obtained from the raw allele size data using the computer prograrn \" microsat\"of Eric Minch (http://www.lotka.stanford.edu/microsat.html). Distances between the accessions will be subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) using JMP (SAS Institute 1995) to obtain a structure of relationship between the land races. Parameters of genetic diversity and differentiation will be calculated from allele data using the computer packages GENSURVEY (Vekeman et al1997) and FSTAT (Goudet 1990).A total of 320 landraces were collected including 18 genotypes with yellow roots. Farmers who responded were predominantly women. Among the land races were very early bulking ones 3-9 months after planting. The various local names given suggest a lot of useful traits farmers had associated with the cultivars. Cassava hard wood stems were cut to 20-30cm sizes and planted in plastic pots in a nursery. These were sent to the field after 4weeks and planted in an irrigated field at the Ashiaman office of the Ghana Irrígation Authority. A copy of the collection was packaged and sent to liT A. Accessions were planted in single rows at 1m x 1m spacing with improved varieties as checks.To date, seventeen out of a set of thirty-six primers used routinely for SSR characterization o cassava genetic diversity have been analyzed. The rest of the analysis is on going. Once the SSR marker analysis is completed, genetic distance and estimates of genetic diversity and differentiation will be calculated. A principal component analysis (PCA) will also be carried out to graphically display the genetic distance matrix. Based upon clusterings obtained above, genotyopes representative of the clusters will be selected as parents for a diallel experiment to search for heterotic patterns.• Statistical Complete SSR marker analysis ofthe entire collection • Obtain estimates of genetic diversity and differentiation from the SSR data • Test heterotic patterns present within the collection or between the collection and others.• Over 150 new microsatellite markers have been developed from common bean small insert and cONA libraries. These have been characterized for allelic diversity and sorne have been mapped on the core mapping population at CIA T (OOR364 x G 19839) or on other populations (G2333 x G 19839 and SEL 1309 x OOR476). In addítíon, the microsatellites are being used to integrate genetic maps for QTL analysis of drought and abiotic stress tolerance in common bean RIL populations.• Identification of quantitative trait loci and candidate genes for seed micronutrient content in two populations of common bean has shown the complex inheritance of iron and zinc accumulation. Further experiments are underway in collaboration with plant physiologists at USOA.• Gene tagging has been successful for severa! insect and disease resistance genes in common bean. Bulk segregant analysis ofthrips resistance has identified five candidate regions, while QTL analysis has identified two major genes for Apion resistance. Severa! microsatellites near the arcelin cluster are being tested for the selection of bruchid resistan ce. Resistance to bean gol den yellow mosaic virus and common bacteria! blight are being mapped in an additional population and will translate into new molecular markers for selection of these diseases.• Marker assisted selection for the Cassava Mosaic disease (CMD) was conducted on a large number o f crosses made between CMD resistant progenies and elite parents and screened with the SSR marker NS 158 that is tightly linked to CMD2 gene.• Gene expression profiling of cassava responses to Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis infection was implemented usin g microarray. Six cONA libraries were constructed from resistant and susceptible genotypes. Chip with 768 clones were constructed and hybridized and differential expression genes were detected.• 312 OH lines derived from the Caiapo!O.glaberrima cross were phenotyped and screened with 100 SSRs. Seventy putative linkages were identified for yield and yield components.ALL OHs were homozygous either for Caiapo or O.glaberrima and positive transgressive segregation for most traits was detected. Significant associations were found between RM 127 on chromosome 4 and plant height, RM283 on chromosome 1 and panicle sterility, and RM292 on chromosome 1 and grain yield. Nearly 50% ofthe putative linkages(30) with a positive effect on agronomic traits was due to alleles derived from O.glaberrima. Recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations are useful for genetic studies because they are made up of stable lines which can be grown over a wide range of environments in a consistent and statistically reliable fashion (large plots, many replicates). The objective of this research was to create an anchored, full-coverage genetic map for three populations of RILs developed to study abiotic stress tolerance in common bean . We were specifically interested in using the new microsatellite markers developed in our laboratory to anchor and fill in previously developed RAPO maps, both to compare genetic maps and to assure that all chromosomes are being assayed in the genetic study.Our ultimate goal is to identify the regions of the genome which affect yield under phosphorous stress.Genotypes: Four RIL populations were developed from crosses between five abiotic stress tolerant susceptible and tolerant parents, all of which were bush bean types from the Mesoamerican gene-pool (Table 1 ). They were:DOR364: an improved variety which is widely grown in Central Arnerica where it is known as 'Dorado', that is derived from the cross BAT 1215 x (RAB 166 x DOR 125). This genotype has type 11 growth habit, is inefficient for phosphorous and responds to fertilization with phosphorous.BAT477: an advanced line from CIAT derived from the cross (G 3834 x G 4493) x (G 4792 x G 5694). This genotype has a type m growth habit and small cream colored seed. It has high nitrogen-fixation capacity and adaptation to drought conditions due possibly to a deep root system.G3513: a landrace from Mexico (Comitán de Domínguez, Chiapas, 1635msnm) with type m growth habit and small black seed that yields well under low phosphorous conditions. G21212: a landrace from Colombia (El Tambo, Nariño, 1360msnm) with small black seed and high efficiency under low phosphorous conditions. BAT881: an advanced line from CIA T derived from the cross (G 3834 x G 2045) x (G 3627 x G 5481) which has low yield under phosphorous deficiency stress but high biomass production and good yielding ability under optimum conditions. lt has very small brown colored seed with b1ack hilum ring.The seeds of all these genotypes are shown (Figure 1 ). DNA extraction: For the crosses DOR364 X BAT477 y BAT881 X 021212, eight seed per RIL line was germinated on humid paper in a dark growth chamber for five days until the frrst etiolated leaves could be harvested into 1.5mL eppendorf tubes. DNA extraction procedure was according to the protocol of Afanador et al. (1993). For the DOR364 X G3513, leaf tissue of two-week old seedlings was ground in liquid nitrogen and placed in 25mL centrifuge tubes for DNA extraction via a CIA T protocol (Gonzáles et al., 1995) Phenotypic data: The RIL populations were planted in ten different environments (Table 2) and each RIL line was evaluated for yie1d, flowering and maturity date and 100 seed weight.Linkage analysis and QTL detection: Genetic maps were constructed with MAPMAKER (v 3.0) for Windows. Markers were assigned with a mínimum LOO of 3.0. QTLs were identified by a) single point analysis using simple linear regression which was conducted with the software Qgene (Nelson, 1997) where the assumed model was for an R1 self population; and b) composite interval mapping analysis which was conducted with the software QTL Cartographer v 1.5 or vl. 2 1 (Basten et al. , 2001). Parameters for Model 6 analysis were a 10 cM window of analysis and 10 most significant markers used as control. Markers were detected by forward and backward multiple linear regression for each chromosomal position at 1 cM intervals with a global significance leve) of 5%. Both LR (likelihood ratio, -21n (L¡/L 0 )) and LOO (log 1 o CL tiLo)were reported. QTL position corresponded to the point with maximum LOO within an interval. Oeterrnination coefficients (R 2 and TR 2 ) were used to determine the phenotypic variance explained by a single QTL ( either alone or in conjunction with all other significant intervals). Additivity values were also estimated. The genetic maps for the three populations were enhanced by the inclusion of microsatellite markers, even though the rate of polymorphism was low for these crosses given that all the parents were Mesoamerican and therefore relatively similar. Polymorphism rate was highest in BAT881 X G21212 (36% of all microsatellites tested), then DOR364 X BAT477 (23%) and DOR364 X G3513 (23%). An advantage of the microsatellites was that the linkage groups made up of RAPD markers could be tied to chromosomes on the core map of common bean. For example, a total of 15 new microsatellites could be placed on the BAT881 x G21212 genetic map and this allowed the identification of eight chromosomes. In the DOR364 X BAT477 population seven linkage groups were assigned to chromosomes while in the DOR364 X G3513 only six linkage groups could be assigned. Although fewer markers have been placed on the other two genetic maps, this work is continuing and will allow us to compare the positions of markers and QTLs from one population to the other. Therefore, for now we will present the results of phenotypic and QTL analysis of the BA T881 x G21212 population.Phenotypic data collected for all three populations over the years 1997 to 2000 showed significant correlations between the same trait over locations and between sorne of the different traits within or across Iocations. Flowering data and maturity date were often correlated as might be expected. Yield was positively correlated with maturity date in sorne locations. lt was surprising to see the correlation of yield data across different stress environments. Quantitative trait 1oci (QTLs) were identified with single point analysis and the software Q-gene for all the characteristics measured. In single point analysis the level of global significance for QTLs was 1% (p < 0.01 ). However sin ce there were 159 markers in tbe BA T881 X G 21212 map the per marker significance level was 6.28e-5 (0.0 l 1 # markers), according to the Bonferroni correction factor (Lynch y Walsh, 1998). QTLs for yield in the different environments were found on chromosomes b03c, b05e, b06ga, b08fa y b08fb as described below:Chr. b05e: a region defmed by the markers AK 1201 (RAPO) and BMd20 (microsatellite) was associated with yield under high and low P in Darién 1998a and explained more than 20% of phenotypic variance. The positive effect was from the BA T881 allele. In the same region, was a QTL for maturity date under high P in Darién in 1997b and under drought in Palmira in 2000b. Although these QTLs only explained a little more than 10% of the variation, the association explains the correlation between yield and maturity date in those trials. The marker Y501 identified another QTL for y ield in high P in Darién 1 998a. Chr. b06ga: the marker L202 (RAPD) was associated with yield under low P in Darién 1998b and explained around 20% of variance. Another region with the markers BM 13 7 y BM 15 8 (both microsatellites) was associated with days to maturity in high and low P in Darién 1998a. For this QTL the longer maturity carne from the G21212 allele.Chr. b08fa and b08fb: QTLs were identified for the markers C lon638, T402, Ql701 and L201 for yield under high P in Darién 1998a and under 1ow P in Darién in both semesters in 1998. Positive effects were associated with the G21212 allele. The consistency of this QTL Jeads us to believe that the region is associated with phosphorous use efficiency but affected by environmental variance. Severa) QTLs for maturity data under high P, low P and drought were found near Clon 007 and O 1603 on this chromosome and most explained around 20% of variation. Other QTLs for yield under low P in Darién 1998a were found around the markers Ql801, Z 1903, Ml201 y Z701, wbile QTLs for maturity and flowering date under high P and drought were found near the microsatellite BMd25 and the RAPD 's Vl602 y R2002.Using composite interval mapping, we identified a total of 104 significant QTLs for 28 out of the 33 trait x location characteristics analyzed for the BAT881 X G21212 population. Mínimum LOD for a significant QTL was set at the threshold 2.81 for any traits with a normal distribution. Traits with non-normal distribution were subjected to 1000 permutations with a sign ificance leve! of 5% to find the empirical threshold for the experiment (Churchill y D oerge, 1994). Composite interval mapping had the advantage of identifying the location and effect of each QTL. A total of 33 QTLs were found for yield in the three locations under low P or drought stress conditions, which were the motivation for this study. Of these 19 were placed on linkage groups that could be assigned to chromosomes and 15 were on linkage groups that could not. The following is a description ofthe QTLs found per chromosome:Chr. B05e: Seven QTLs,r3,r5,r8,r9,rlO,r18, and r32 were found on this chromosome. The first three were associated with yield under high P in Darién en 1997(b ), and explained only 13 to 19% of phenotypic variation and were related to the BA T881 allele. The remaining QTLs were associated with yield under 1ow P in Darién 1998(a), and were responsible for up to 37% of phenotypic variation re1ated to the same parent. Another yie1d QTL was found near the marker BMd20, which was consistent across both high and low P in different seasons. Chr. b06ga: Three QTL's were found on this chromosome: including QTLs near R901 for y ield under high P in Darién (1998a) and markers Rl 01 and El 04, at a distance of 34 cM, for y ield under Jow P in Darién (1998a).Chr. b08fa and b08fb: Eight QTL's, r6, rll, r13, r17, r22, r23, r29 y r31 were identified on this chromosome. The QTLs rl3 (Cion007), r23, rll y r6 (BM151) were significant for yield under irrigated conditions in Palmira (2000), explaining from 22 to 26% ofthe phenotypic variation and related to the G21212 allele. Two other intervals in the region, near C703 and BM151, also were associated with days to flowering under drought in Palmira (2000), explaining between 18 and 20% variation attributed to the G2 12 12 allele. Another QTL (dco5), clase to BM151, was associated with days to maturity under drought in Palmira (34%), as well as under high P in Darién 1997 (26%), low P in Darién 1998(b) (23%), with later maturity allele contributed by G21212. The markers W l 603, L201, y UIOOI (QTL's r31, rl7 y r29 respectively) were associated with yield under optimal conditions, including under high P in Darién (1998a). Finally, a QTL associated with G212 12 near Q 1701 explained 34% of the phenotypic variance for yield under drought stress in Palmira (2000b) (14%) related to the G21212 a llele.QTLs for other characteristics such as flowering or maturity date and 100 seed weight were found on chromosomes b03ca, b03cb, hOSe, b08fa, b08fb, and linkage groups bg7, bg8, bg!O y bg15 .Continue the integration of the three genetic maps with additional microsatellites. Use the QTLs identified in this study as starting points for further genetic analysis via near isogenic line development. Legumes provide essential micronutrients that are found only in low amounts in the cereals or root crops. An ongoing project has shown that bean seeds are variable in the amount of minerals (iron, zinc and other elements), vitamins and sulfur amino acids that they contain and that these traits are likely to be inherited quantitatively. The objective of our most recent studies has been to tag sorne of the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling mineral content in beans and to characterize candidate genes for micronutrient accumulation in common bean.The two recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations, representing the Andean x Andean cross (021242 x 021078); anda Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican cross (014519 x 04825) that were used in this study are described in more detail in last year's annual report (CIA T, 2001). This year we added additional microsatellites to the genetic maps and expanded the QTL analysis to include both composite interval mapping (ClM) and single-point regression analysis (SPA) . The mapping of microsatellites is also described in Jast year's report. Phaseolin analysis for the Andean population was conducted as described in a previous section of this report. Severa! SCAR primers were developed based on the sequence of common bean ferritin (Oenbank entry X58274) and amplified with a range of PCR conditions. Segregating fragments were evaluated on the entire set of RILs. Oenetic maps were constructed with Mapmaker and used for both single-point regression (SPA), simple interval mapping (IM) and composite interval mapping (ClM) QTL analysis. The interval mapping QTL analysis were conducted with the software QTL Cartographer v 1.5 (Basten et al., 200 1 ), using model 6 default parameters: 1 O cM window of analysis with background of the 1 O most significant markers, analyzing by forward and backward multiple linear regression for each chromosomal position at 1 cM intervals with a global significance level of 5%. QTL position corresponded to the point with maximum LOD within an interval. Determination coefficients (R 2 and TR 2 ) were used to determine the phenotypic variance explained by a single QTL (either alone or in conjunction with all other significant intervals). Additivity values were also estimated.Of the 11 O microsatellite markers tested on the parents of the populations, more were polymorphic and could be mapped in the Andean population (34) than in the Mesoamerican population (23). Although botb crosses were with parents from a single genepool, the rate of polymorphism was higher in the Andean x Andean cross (40 %), than in the Mesoarnerican x Mesoamerican cross (20.9 %). In addition a total of81 RAPD bands were mapped in each ofthe populations. For the Mesoamerican population, 14 linkage groups could be detected, while the Andean population had a total of 12 linkage groups. As common bean has 11 homologous chromosomes, the present maps are likely to be representative, however sorne linkage groups remain sparse in coverage. The total map length was 121 O cM for the Andean populations and 123 5 cM for the Mesoamerican population. Across either population, up to six microsatellites were found per linkage group. The single locus nature of microsatellite markers was useful for anchoring the RAPO markers to known chromosomes and for comparing between the two maps. The order of the microsatellites in each population agreed with that of the microsatellites in the core CIA T mapping population (OOR364 x G 19833). Ten out of the eleven chromosomes of com.mon bean could be identified in both the Andean and Mesoamerican populations based on the microsatellites or homologous RAPO bands that they contained. Three additional linkage groups were found for the Mesoamerican population that could not be tied to a chromosome because they 1acked a microsatellite ora cross-referenced RAPD. The number of unlinked markers was 15 in the Andean population and 19 in the Mesoamerican population. Coverage was especially low for chromosomes bOl , b03, b06 and bl1 in the Andean populations and for chromosomes bOl, b05, b09, blO and b1l in the Mesoamerican population.Segregation distortion occurred with 35% ofthe markers in the Andean population and was most notable on chromosomes b07 (where G21 078 alleles predominated) and b 1 O (skewed towards G2l242). In the Mesoamerican population, 22% ofthe markers showed distorted segregation and was most notable on chromosome b03 and with the unidentified linkage groups.In both the populations both iron and zinc content in the RlLs presented a continuos distribution, suggesting that mineral content behaved as a quantitative trait (Table 2). Iron content ranged from 33 to 98 ppm (average 57.9 ppm) in the Andean population RlLs, and from 41 to 85 ppm (average 5.9.1 ppm) in the Mesoamerican population. Zinc content ranged from 25 to 49 ppm (average 34.5 ppm) in the Andean population and from 30 to 49 ppm (average 38.7 ppm) in the Mesoamerican population {Table 1 ). Highly significant correlations were observed among iron and zinc content in the Andean (r=0.63) and Mesoamerican (0.55) recombinant inbred line populations.QTLs were found for iron and zinc content in both populations using SPA. However QTLs were only found in the Andean population using CIM analysis. The results of the SPA analysis were highlighted in last year's report so we will update the CIM results here and in Table 3: Significant QTLs (with a LOO> 2.5) were detected on chromosomes bOl, b09 and blO for iron and on chromosomes bOl, b02, b08 and b10 for zinc. The positive markers varied in their leve! of significance and the proportion of variance in mineral content that they explained as indicated by the deterrnination coefficient (R2). The most significant QTLs in composite interval analysis for iron and zinc, explained up to 32% and 38% of the variance, respectively. The majority of the positive QTLs were associated with alleles from the high mineral parent, G21242. However this was reversed for the case of one of the QTLs for zinc (Zn2 on chromosome b08) where higher zinc content was derived from the G21 078 allele. Therefore, it appears that high mineral content parent provided most of the genes for high mineral content to their progeny, while the low mineral parent provide only one additional gene for mineral content. This may explain why the distribution of mineral content in the progeny was similar to the range between the parents and why transgressive segregation was minimal.In sorne cases the QTLs for both minerals occurred jointly at the same marker and were consistent across both populations, therefore sorne of the QTLs for the accumulation of both minerals may be genetically linked or pleiotropic, controlling both traits at once. Joint analysis confirrned this by detecting QTLs for both minerals together on chromosomes bO 1, b02, b08 and b 1 O. These results are promising for plant breeding of higher micronutrient content given that if the same QTLs contribute simultaneously to both iron and zinc content, it may be easy to select for these traits jointly.We have also begun to study the common bean genes involved in getting iron and zinc from the root zone to the grain. Progress was made in mapping a single locus of the phytoferritin gene (probably a gene family) using a SCAR marker for the gene. The locus was identified on chromosome b07 near the phaseolin locus in the Andean population genetic map, which would be interesting given that both are seed proteins. Westem blotting and analysis with ferritin antibodies showed similar protein molecular weights for the bean ferritins extracted from all the parents tested, indicating that it will not be possible to map the gene through an isoform approach.Phytoferritin is of interest because it is the major storage form of iron in all tissues including seeds, however other genes will also be analyzed in the upcoming year. Meanwhile, additional studies on the physiology of uptake are being conducted by collaborators at USDA-Houston to see if the mapping parents described above differ in their ability to adapt to iron deficiency. An assay for iron reductase activity in roots has shown that sorne varieties of common beans, as in most legumes tested, are more efficient than others in taking up iron.The present work will hopefully permit us to focus on certain parts of the genome and certain physiological processes that influence higher mineral content in bean seeds. We planto analyze additional populations and candidate genes in the upcoming year and integrate the information about the map locations of QTLs for micronutrients with those for other agronomic traits that we have been studying. The final objective is to be able to use marker-assisted selection to breed new varieties of common beans with commercial seed types and high micronutrient content.• Expand the genetic mapping effort in the Mesoamerican population for which marker coverage is presently inadequate • Compare maps generated for the two populations to discover all common QTLs. • Fine map regions ofthe genome with desirable alleles for higher mineral content • Detect QTLs for the amount of sulfur containing amino acids (SAA), as well as for the amount of the other minerals analyzed in the ICP study, which include Mn, Ca, Mg, K, P and S. Climbing beans are an important traditional component of agriculture in Central America and the Andean Region. Climbing beans have a higher yield potential than bush beans but this is often dependent on soil fertility levels and ability to recover nutrients from the soil. In this research we analyzed a population of recombinant inbred lines derived from the cross of G2333 x G 19839, for yield, yield components, climbing ability and other morphological traits. G2333 is also a source of low phosphorus tolerance due to enhanced adventitious rooting capacity. Therefore the population was grown under high and low phosphorus treatrnents which were compared for root characteristics. Phosphorus deficiency is very important in Latin America and East Africa affecting 60 and 50% of soils in these regions, respectively. We will conducta QTL analysis for these traits in the upcoming year.Plant Material and Phenotyping: A total of 84 F5 :8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from the cross G2333 x G 19839 were grown under high and low phosphorus conditions in Darien (Valle) during the rainy season in semester 2002A. G2333 (' Colorado de Teopisca ') is a climbing bean from Mexico that has a type IV a growth ha bit, while G 19839 is a landrace from Peru with a type lila growth habit. The RILs were grown in two experiments, one at high phosphorus (fertilization of 300 kglha TSP (45 kg P205)) and one at low phosphorus (fertilization of 50 kglha TSP (7. 5 kg P205)) levels. The experiment was a split-plot design, in a randomized complete block design with two repetitions under trellises and two replications without tre llises. The non-trellised plots were planted at different times one week apart to allow for root sampling .. For the trellised plots, the following variables were evaluated for two plants each within a plot and averaged to produce plot values: plant height (PH), intemode length (IL), number of vines per guide (NV), raceme length (RL), pod length (PL), number of pods per raceme (P/B). All these measurements were taken on the middle portion of the plant. Climbing ability (CA) was evaluated on a 1 to 9 scale (where 1 =highly aggressive climber and 9 = no climbing ability).Climbing ability was measured both at flowering and again in pod filling stages. Data was also collected for yield per plant (y/P), and the yield components: pods per plant (P/P), 100 seed weight (100s), days to flowering (DF), days to maturity (DM) and harvest index (liT) based on stem and pod weight. Data was analyzed with a combined ANOV A in which sources of variation were: environment (high or low P), genotype (RIL) and genotype x environment. Pearson' s correlation coefficients were estimated for the combination of climbing ability with yield and all the yield components. For the root experiment, two plants were analyzed per plot for adventitious root number, basal root number, shoot dry weight, root dry weight. Derived variables were root-shoot ratio, specific root length . Root length was analyzed with the software program WinRhizo.Marker analysis: DNA was extracted for the parents and the 84 Rll.s by the modified mi niprep procedure used in the Germplasm Characterization Laboratory.A parental survey was conducted to identify SCARs, RAPOs and microsatellite markers that were po lymorphic. The SCARs evaluated so far include SCP05, SAP6, ROCII, SK14, SII9, UR11GT2, SAS13, RBG303, SHI8, H20, SBD5, SW19, SW13 , SBB, SAB3, and BAC6. To reduce the risk offalse positives all the SCARs were run on six random individuals form the populations in addition to the two parents. The RAPD primers used were ten of the most polymorphic used on other populations (AAI9, AK06, H19, I-07, L04, 0-20, VIO,. A total of 110 microsatellites, including the BM, BMy and BMd series, were used in the mapping exercise. All the polymorphic markers were run on the entire population of Rll..s. Segregation was scored and the dataset was introduced into the program Mapmaker to construct linkage groups.For the root traits, the G2333 x G 19839 Rll.. population showed genotypic variation for all the variables. Analysis of variance is pending. Meanwhile, phenotypic results showed significant affect of genotype x environment for most of the traits measured on the aerial portion of the plan t. For the analysis of climbing ability, there was significant GxE in the traits having to do with plant biomass: branch length, branch number, internode Jength, climbing ability at flowering, number of pods per plant and yield as indicated in the frequency histograms (Table 1; Figure 1). This demonstrates that phosphorus levels had a differential effect on the genotypes, whereby sorne genotypes responded better to high phosphorus while others were more severely affected by low phosphorus. This suggests that many of these traits are of \\ow heritability and controlled by many quantitative genes. Meanwhile, the variables for pod length, pods per branch, height, climbing ability at pod fill, days to maturity and harvest index showed strong genotype and Jocation effects but no significant interaction of genotype x environment. This suggested that these traits were less sensitive to phosphorus Jevels. Sorne of the same genotypes that performed well for these traits at high phosphorus were also good at low phosphorus Jevels. Therefore, the heritability of these traits is likely to be higher than for the ones mentioned above.Yield and yield components, except for 100 seed weight and pod Jength, were highly correlated with climbing ability, (Table 2). These results help to confmn the high yield potential observed in climbing beans. Beans with good climbing ability also had a slight advantage in terms of pod Jength and seed weight but this was not highly correlated with clirnbing ability especially in low phosphorus. Climbing ability measured at two different stages were significantly correlated with each other and also with related traits, such as plant height and internode Jength (Table 3). This suggests that the visual scale created for measuring climbing ability is a good indicator of plant height and can be used as a substitute for time consuming physical measurements thus facilitating the evaluation of this variable. The importance of internode length in contributing to climbing ability is indicated by their high correlation. Meanwhile, the number of branches was less highly correlated with climbing ability and therefore was not as important a contributor to overall plant height. Note that because climbing ability was scored on a scale where 1 was the highest plant and 9 the lowest plant, climbing ability was negatively correlated with plant height. lt was interesting to find that correlations between climbing ability and its other component traits were higher under high phosphorus than under low phosphorus treatment.Meanwhile the correlations between climbing ability and yield components were similar in both environrnents, except for branch number which was correlated with severa! yield component traits under low phosphorus more than under high phosphorus. This suggests that branch number is important for reaching the yield potential of climbing beans under low fertility conditions because pod distribution becomes more important under this stress. Meanwhile under both high and low fertility levels, climbing ability affected pod length, seed weight, pods per plant and yield per plant in a similar manner.Progress has been made on the genetic mapping. A total of 70 microsatellites was polymorphic for the two parents and were used to construct a framework map for the population. Of the full set of polymorphic markers, 66 could be placed into ten linkage groups. No microsatellites could be assigned to chromosome 1 O. The total map length was 1050 cM with an average interval between markers of 15.7 cM. Segregation distortion was observed for a small percentage ofthe markers. The 1 O RAPO primers generated an addition 28 markers which are in the process of being integrated into this population. In addition, five out of the 16 SCARs were polymorphic and could be mapped to the predicted location for the SCAR (Table 4) based on previous studies. The preliminary QTL detection found three significant loci, on chromosomes b02 (for specific adventitious root length), b07 (for low P shoot dry weight) and b08 (for adventitious root number in high P).We planto saturate the genetic map described here with up to 150 single copy markers anda set of 1 O additional RAPOs. Once the full genetic map is constructed we plan to conduct single point analysis and composite interval mapping to determine the genomic locations of quantitative trait loci controlling the characteristics described in this report. This is one of the first studies to investigate the inheritance of climbing ability in common bean in a recombinant inbred population. Apart from the determinacy and photoperiod response genes, no other loci which affect plant architecture in climbing beans, have been studied. This study will address this by providing the biological material to dissect the physiology and genetics of climbing ability. To understand better the role of genotype x environment interactions, we will evaluate the Rll... population in severa! new environments (Palmira and Popayán). This way we hope to test the interaction of climbing ability with high or low temperatures found at these different altitudes. Once QTLs are identified we hope to ha ve a better understanding of the inheritance of climbing ability and associated traits. The genetic map will also be useful for exploring the role of adventitious rooting for low phosphorus stress in common bean. The population is being phenotyped in hydroponic experiments in the greenhouse in Pennsylvania State University that we hope to describe in the upcoming year.    Thrips palmi is a darnaging insect pest of comrnon bean and other dicotyledenous crops that was introduced from Asia (Java, Indonesia) into the Arnericas during the last decade. Starting in the Caribbean, (Cuba, Dorninican Republic, Haití and Puerto Rico) the species spread rapidly into the United States and northern South Arnerica (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela). The greatest darnage inflicted to cornrnon bean production in Colombia is seen in climbing bean varieties that are grown for the fresh market (including snap beans and Cargarnanto dry beans). Sequential plantings, common in the production of snap beans is very conducive to heavy infestations ofthrips and whiteflies, which are synergistic in the darnage that they inflict. Misuse of insecticides also can lead to resurgence in thrips populations.In the 2000 Annual report we described a preliminary QTL study using RAPD analysis of a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from the cross BAT881 x 021212. This year we used microsatellite markers to increase the precision of QTL identification and to associate these QTLs with specific chromosomes. The specific objectives of this research were to 1) construct bulks of lines differing in resistance and susceptibility based on the QTLs detected in that population; 2) conduct a bulk segregant analysis 3) screen the bulks with all existing microsatellite markers that were polymorphic for the two parents ofthis population; and 4) study the importance of each positive microsatellite with a single point regression QTL analysis.The BAT881 x 021212 population, consisting in 139 F7 generation RILs was evaluated over two seasons ata field site in Pradera, Valle, Colombia. In the first season (semester 1999A-April), the population was planted as an un-replicated trial ; while in the second season (semester 1999B -July) ir was planted in a randomized complete block desígn with three repetitions. The inoculation conditions were as described in Annual Report 2000. The Iines were evaluated on a per row basis for both thrips damage and reproductive adaptation (RA) using a l-9 scale according to the CIA T standard evaluation ( 1 =resistant, good pod set; 9=susceptible, poor pod set). In our previous work, quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified through single-point regression analysis of the phenotypic data onto the one hundred and fifty one RAPO markers which had been run on the progeny. Based on the RAPO results, five ONA bulk pairs were created with five each of the most resistant and most susceptible progeny lines from the population that presented the correct allele at the QTL locus (Table 1). One ofthe bulks, IR. only had four individuals due to few resistant genotypes with the appropriate allele at the QTL locus. These bulks were screened with 1 07 microsatellites, most of which had already been showed to be polymorphic for the parents. Any microsatellites showing a polymorphism in one of the bulks were run on a set of 94 out of the 139 RILs developed for this population. The microsatellite segregation data was compared to the phenotypic data (damage and RA in 99A and 99B) to establish whether there was an association with resistance based on a single-point regression QTL analysis done with the software program qGENE.The bulk segregant analysis identified 20 positive microsatellites from the survey of 107 markers (18.7%) (Table 2). The bulks were effective at capturing a large number of potential microsatellites to screen and this number of lines per bulk resulted in relatively easy to read polymorphisms (Figure 1). Despite the fact that the bulks were determined based on separate RAPO linkage groups that showed QTL associations, severa! of the bulks included the same individual progeny lines. This may have Jed to sorne of the microsatellite assays detecting more than one positive bulk as was seen with the markers, BM143 and Clon037. Most of the microsatellites were tested against the bulks twice to confirm their repeatability and only a few showed differences in the bulk genotype. The bulks detected different numbers of polymorpbic markers: 11 were associated with BG 1, seven with BG7, ten with BG3, five with BG9 and four with BG6.Resistance source were G21212 for the bulks BGl (Damage), BG3 (Damage), BG9 (RA and Oamage) and BG6 (RA); versus BAT 881 for BG7 (RA) eventhough among the parents, BAT 881 usually shows slightly better resistance than G21212. The QTL results may explain why many of the RIL's outperformed either parent evidence oftransgressive segregation. Segregation analysis of the positive microsatellites showed that segregation distortion was uncommon and most microsatellites (17 out of 20) had normal segregatien. As expected for the F5:7 RILs, heterozygotes were relatively infrequent in the population (Figure 2).The single point regression QTL analysis showed a total of nine significant marker x trait associations. For damage score, two microsatellites were significantly associated with the trait 1999A, while three were associated in l999B. For reproductive adaptation, one marker was significant in 1999A and three were in 1999B. Two markers from chromosome b6, Clon037 and Clon410 were significant for both damage score and reproductive adaptation in 1999B. Clon037 was also significant for damage score in l999A. The variation explained by any single marker ranged from a low R2 of6.2% toa high R2 of27.7%. The consistency of QTL results across seasons and across traits and the high R2 val u e for the two markers on chromosome b6, indicate the importance of this QTL for durable thrips resistance. We will associate these results with the original RAPO linkage groups that were the basis for designing the bulks, when we map the microsatellites and RAPD markers together.• Continue mapping with additional microsatellites to achieve complete map coverage in the BAT881 x G21212 population • Composite interval QTL mapping with entire map dataset.• Repeat the field analysis for a third season to measure thrips resistance 00 S::Clon 037   This year we continued a project begun last year to tag resistance to the bean pod weevil (Apion goodmani Wagner) which darnages beans grown in Mexico and Central America. Resistance is controlled by two possible mechanisms -either antibiosis involving a hypersensitive response that encapsulates the oviposition site -or antixenosis that affects the preference of oviposition sites. Epistasis between two independent genes, Agr and Agm, has been suggested to control the hypersensitive response. The fact that a few genes control resistance may explain why it has been relatively easy to transfer resistance from Mexican landraces where it is found to new breeding lines with Central American grain types. The objectives of this research were to identify additional markers linked to the genes controlling resistance in the recombinant inbred line (Rll..) population derived from Jarnapa x Jll7 and to try to identify the chromosomal position of the resistance QTLs identified so far.An additional set of 54 F5 derived recombinant inbred lines was created for the Jamapa x Jll7 cross. These have been sent to a field site in Mexico for testing and have been used for ONA extraction. This brings to a total of 104 Rll.. lines the full set analyzed for this characteristic. Screening of susceptible and resistant bulks (of 4 lines each) has continued from last year with additional RAPO and microsatellite markers. A total of 131 RAPO primers and 200 (58 BM, 16 BMc, 51 BMd, 8 BMy, 53 Clan, 8 Pv and 6 VM) microsatellite markers have been evaluated so far. In addition the RAPO and SCARs that were polymorphic from last year's survey were run on the additional set of lines, however the microsatellite remain to be mapped on the full set of Rll..s for the upcoming year. In addition, the RAPO primers which were reported last year as polymorphic for the bulks were also mapped on two core mapping populations, OOR364 x 019833 and BAT93 x Jalo EEP558. A genetic map was constructed with the new dataset of 104 lines and all the polymorphic RAPO markers using the prograrn Mapmaker.In the bulked segregant analysis an additional three RAPOs and 27 microsatellites proved to be polymorphic for the parents and the bulks. All 28 RAPOs and the SCAR SK16 that were polymorphic for the bulks were run on the en tire population of 104 individuals. The microsatellites will be run this upcoming year. As in last year's results, most of the markers were linked to each other in three tight linkage groups with four or more markers each. The genetic mapping was consistent between the first set of 50 individual recombinant inbred lines and this additional group of 54 individuals.Among the RAPOs that were significant in the bulk segregant analysis, a total of nine were polymorphic in the OOR364 x 019833 population and one was polymorphic in the BAT93 x Jalo EEP558 population. The RAPO markers mapped to the first of these populations identified chromosomes bO 1, b02, b05, b07 and b08 as potentially important for A pian resistance, while the RAPO marker mapped in the second population identified chromosome bO 1 as importan t. This agrees with the mapping results with single copy microsatellite markers that showed that three linkage groups namely chromosomes B 1, B8 and B 1 1 were important for the resistance.• All positíve microsatellites will be mapped on the full set of RILs • QTL analysis will be carried out when phenotypic data is available for the new set of recombinant inbred lines. • Two-way interaction tests will be done to confmn epistasis between the genes or QTLs identified above. • Implement marker assisted selection for Apion resistance .at CIA T, for which we will need to test the validity of using the microsatellite markers. • Develop a SCAR marker from sorne of the positive RAPO markers.The most common storage pests of common bean are the Mexican bean weevil, Zabrotes subfasciatus (Boheman), and the bean weevil, Acanthoscelides obtectus. These cosmopolitan weevils belong to the Bruchid family and cause an estimated 13% Ioss to bean crops worldwide (Cardona and Komegay, 1999). Zabrotes is especially important in warm tropical regions below 1000 m altitude, while Acanthoscelides is more common in cooler clirnates. While Zabrotes is only found in storage, Acanthoscelides also lays its eggs on the beans in the field (Schoonhoven et al. 1988). Researchers have found that a special seed protein named Arcelin, which was discovered in wild accessions of cornmon bean from Mexico, provides high resistance to Zabrotes and slight resistance to Acanthoscelides (Osbom et al., 1988).Arcelin and related proteins, including alpha amylase inhibitors and phytohemaglutinins (all members of the APA family of proteins) provide resistance to bruchids through antibiosis by reducing the adult emergence, female fertility and insect growth and lifecycle (Posso et al., 1989). These proteins are all synthesized only in the embryonic axis and cotyledons during seed formation. Arcelin is inherited as a monogenic trait and to date, there are 7 variants of arcelin (ARC 1-4 identified by Osbom et al (1986), ARC 5 by Lioi and Bollini (1989), ARC 6 by Santino et al (1991) and ARC 7 by Gallegos et al ( 1998)). These variants are all highly similar (Sparvoli and Bollini 1998) but provide different levels of resistance. Within the allelic series the leve! of resistance is progressively lower in the variants ARC5 > 4 > 1 > 2 > 6 > 3 when in the background of the wild progenitor. However in the cultivated background the alleles that provide the most resistance are ARC 1 > 2 > 5 > 3 > 4 (Cardona and Komegay, 1999). Differences in resistance leve! are thought to be dueto sequence variability or carbohydrate content (Harmsen et al. 1988). Arcelin is known to be a partially dominant gene, which provides its highest level of resistan ce to bruchids when in the homozygous fonn. Heterozygous Are+/ Are-individual seeds are less resistant than Are+/ Are+ seed. CIA T researchers ha ve used the ARC 1 variant widely in their breeding programs to create resistant breeding lines such as the RAZ series through backcrossing and gene transfer (Cardona et al, 1990). However, no Arcelin-derived bruchidresistant variety has ever been released.The method of selecting for Arce) in based resistance has been to assay for the protein in the seed. A serological method has been implemented which detects arcelin in small quantities of ground seed tissue. The process requires arcelin-specific antibodies and protein electrophoresis equipment. Arcelin based selection of bruchid resistance has been very useful. For example in the breeding of the RAZ lines, two generations of backcrossing and selfing were generally sufficient to obtain resistant genotypes that were true to seed type when arcelin was evaluated during the backcrossing process. This represents one of the first true uses of marker-based selection in common bean although with a protein marker rather than a DNA based one. One limitation of protein based selection that it is time-consuming and is not compatible with other marker systems.The objective of this research was to replace the pro te in based selection of arcelin with a genetic assay using closely lin.ked microsatellite or SCAR markers for arcelin or related AP A proteins. Todo this, we are screening two DNA extraction techniques based on alkaline lysis and organic separation, to explore the potential of establishing a high-throughput DNA marker system to screen for arcelin based bruchid resistance. Tbe long-term objective of this work is to increase the efficiency of breeding for multiple constraint resistance and facilitate the pyramiding of bruchid resistance with other biotic and abiotic stress resistances.A total of 63 genotypes were used in the experiments. These included the 7 wild accessions of common bean that were the sources of the seven variants of arcelin known to exist (Tablel); 28 advanced breeding lines from the bruchid resistance program (either RAZ or GG designations) (Table 2); and 28 bruchid-susceptible parents used in crosses with Are 1 or Are 5 containing !in es (data not shown). Two DNA extraction techniques were used. One was a rapid, high-throughput \"microprep\" method based on alkaline lysis developed in the laboratory ofN. Weeden. The other was the standard organic-solvent (phenoUchlorofonn) based \"miniprep\" used in our laboratory and based on the method of Afanador et al ( 1998). Tissue was harvested in the greenhouse as leaf disks cut with a hole-puncher for the microprep or newly emerging trifoliates for the miniprep.Another set of 791 F 4 and Fs progeny derived from crosses between RAZ lines and the susceptible parents was grown in the field and DNA was extracted from Jeaf disk tissue by the alkaline extraction microprep technique. The DNA was used for microsatellite amplification which was conducted according to standard PCR protocols.A total of seven microsatellites were selected based on either map Jocation and proximity to the arcelin locus (BMd26, Clon41) or because they were part of the sequence of AP A gene family members. This second group included BMd9 (derived from the D-Lec 2 gene Phytohemaglutinin-L; Genbank entry X06336), BMd 15 (Erythroglutanating Phytohemaglutinin; K03288), BMd 16 (Leucoaglutinating Phytohemaglutinin; K03299), BMy11 (Phytohemaglutinin pseudogene; X04649) and Pv-atctO 1 (Arce !in; M68913 ). It is interesting to note the large number of microsatellites in the phytohemaglutanin members of the APA family, but the lack of microsatellites in alpha amylase which have also been extensively sequenced.[n tenns of the practica! experiments, DNA quality was high for miniprep DNA but low for alkaline microprep DNA. Samples extracted with the second technique were easily degraded and could not be stored for more than a few days. This affected microsatellite amplification, with consistent results only obtained with the miniprep DNA. Five of the microsatellites have been amplified to date.Microsatellite allele diversity varied with each of the markers. The rnarker detecting the most alleles (11) on the germplasrn survey was Clon41, while the rnarkers detecting the least were Bd 1 S and BMd26 (3 each). Within each of the subgroups of germplasrn diversity observed with the different microsatellites also varied. The pattem of diversity for the alleles indicated that linkage disequilibrium exists between all the rnicrosatellites tested and the Arcelin locus as discussed below:Within the wild beans that were sources of resistance, BMd 15 detected only one al! ele, BMd26 detected two alleles, Clon41 revealed three banding patterns, Pv-atctO 1 detected six alleles and BMyll revealed seven band pattems (Table 1). Although BMd15 detected only one allele, this allele was different frorn any of the alleles found in the susceptible cultivated genotypes and therefore would make a good díagnostic marker for the presence of introgression frorn the wild accessíons. Indeed this allele was found in all the Are 1 containing RAZ lines (Table 2). Similarly, the two alleles for the microsatellite BMd26 that were found in the wild sources were unique to the wild accessions and the derived RAZ or GG lines and not present in any of the susceptible lines (data not shown). The alleles ofthe other markers also presented this pattem of association with arcelin introgression. However, the markers BMd26 and Clon41 which are not directly at the arcelin locus were associated with arcelin resistanee in only 14 and 12 out of the 26 RAZ lines tested, respectively (Table 2). The two markers co-segregated in al! the lines except for four indicating only rnoderate crossing over between the two markers during the development of the RAZ lines. The higher leve! of linkage disequilibriurn between arce! in and BMd26 versus arcelin and Clon41 confum the mapping results whieh indicate that BMd26 is more closely linked to arcelin than is Clon41. lt is interesting to note that for BMy 11 we found a different allele for each wild accession source of arcelin alleles and that the alleles associated with the Are 1 and AreS variants were perfectly diagnostic in the corresponding Are 1 and AreS containing RAZ and GG Jines (Table 2). Therefore, this marker would be useful for diagnosing the arcelin variant present in a segregant.Another interesting point to note is that the presence of multiple bands for sorne of the markers may indicate that these are duplicate loci. This is to be expected for sorne of the hemaglutininbased markers (BMd9, BMd15, BMdl6 and BMy11) because this protein is known to be encoded by a gene farnily.  Test the remaining two microsatellite markers in the region of the arcelin locus and improve the DNA extraction technique. Determine the leve! of linkage disequilibrium between the markers and the arcelin locus in breeding populations.Use the markers to select for greater recombination around the arcelin locus and break the linkage drag associated with this locus which has a negative affect on plant vigor of arcelin-derived lines.Common bacteria! blight (CBB) is an important foliar and seed-borne disease of Andean beans grown in tropical lowland and mid-elevation areas of Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.The disease is also important in the subtropic and temperate regions of the Americas and Africa during hot, humid summer weather. The disease is caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. Phaseoli (Xcp), which is widespread and part of a complex of Xanthomonad bacteria! pathogens attacking many broadleaf and vegetable crops. Bean golden yellow mosaic virus (BGYMV) is the most serious viral disease of beans in lowland tropical Latinamerica.BGMV is caused by a bipartite geminivirus that is transm~tted by the whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii 1 tabaci. Red mottled beans are one of the few Andean types that are grown in Jow and mid-altitude areas of the region where the vector and virus are present. BGYMV is a wellestablished endemic problem in beans grown in the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Florida, Haití and Puerto Rico), Central America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua), Mexico (Sinaloa, Veracruz) and South America (Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia).The objective ofthis work was to develop a genetic map for the cross SEL1309 x DOR476 and to undertake a QTL analysis to detennine the genes controlling BOYMV and CBB resistance in these genotypes. A second objective was to find altemative markers for the SCARs that are presently in use for these diseases sorne ofwhich segregate in this population.The source of BGYMV resistance in DOR476 (pedigree DOR367 x (DOR364 x BAT1298)) is originally derived from a pyramid of resistance sources including DOR364 and DOR367 (pedigree A429 x RA030). The A429 resistance source has been characterized to have a single recessive gene, bgm-1, which reduces mosaic symptoms. DOR364 is known to carry a QTL for BOYMV resistance on chromosome b04 that is derived from Porillo Sintetico, an early resistance source. Two molecular markers, both SCARs, have been used to select for BOYMV resistance. The first marker, called DOR21 is closely linked to bgm-1. This gene has been tagged but not mapped to a specific linkage group. Meanwhile the second SCAR marker, Wl2, is associated with the quantitative trait locus (QTL) for BOYMV resistance found on chromosome B04.The source of the CBB resistance in SEL1309 (pedigree = ((BA T1579 x XAN159) x (A251 x APN18))) x (RAB489 x (A686 x G6385))) traces its CBB resistance back to XAN159 (pedigree ((04449 x 010022) x 040020) x 04509) which was a product interspecific hybridization between common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) anda tepary bean (P. acutifolius Oray) accession, 040020. XAN159 was a1so used to develop the most popular sources of CBB resistance for the tropics, the lines V AX3 , 4, 5 and 6 that are being used for breeding at CIA T and elsewhere. A SCAR marker, SU91, has been developed that tags a majar QTL for common bacteria! blight resistance from XAN159 (Pedraza et al., 1997) that was tentatively mapped by Tar'an et al (2001).The recombinant inbred population was developed from the F2 of the cross between SEL1309 and DOR476 by single seed descent until the F5 generation. Subsequently the harvests for each of the 100 R.ll.,s were bulked until the F7 generation when they were tested in the greenhouse for CBB and BGYMV resistance. CBB was evaluated by bacteria! inoculation. BGYMV resistance was evaluated by inoculation in the greenhouse with a mechanically transmissible strain. Data was collected for CBB on a 1 to 9 disease scale, where 1 = resistant and 9 = susceptible. Data for BGYMV was collected in the following categories: percent plants infected after inoculation (INF), severity on the same standard 1 to 9 scale as for above for overall symptoms (BGYMV), for leaf mosaic (MOS), for flower abortion (F AB), for pod deformation (DEF) and for dwarfmg (DWF).•DNA was extracted from the R.ll.,s by the method of Afanador et al. (1998) and used for mapping experiments and for bulked segregant analysis. A total of 175 microsatellites developed in our Iaboratory were used to amplify the parents and the bulks of CBB or BGMV resistant or susceptible individuals. Ofthese, 37 were polymorphic for the parents and were amplified on all individuals in the population. In addition a total of 40 RAPD primers and 18 SCARs were amplified to generate banding pattems. The microsatellites were run on 4% polyacrylamide gels, while the RAPOs and SCARs were run on 1% agarose gels. Conditions of amplification are given in other sections of this and previous annual reports.A total of 160 polymorphic fragments (120 RAPOs, 5 SCARs and 37 microsatellites) were analyzed for the population. The SCARs that were polymorphic are listed in Table 1 and the parental survey and bulked segregant analysis carried out for these SCARs is shown in Figure l.The parental survey detected size differences in the co-dominant markers SR2 and DOR21, the two markers for the bgm-1 gene, while the rest were dominant. Differences were detected between the CBB resistant and susceptible bulks that were consistent with the parent genotype for the CBB marker SU91, and for the BCMV and BGYMV markers, SW13 and SR2. In the case of the SAP6, one of the bulks amplified a band that was not present in either parent. Differences were detected between the BGYMV resistant and susceptible bulks that were consistent with the parent genotypes for the BGYMV marker SR2 and the BCMV marker SW 13. The rust marker SF 1 O and the anthracnose marker SAB3 amplified in one of the bulks but in neither parent (data not shown).Ofthe polymorphic fragments a total of 112 loci (77 RAPD, 3 SCARs, 33 microsatellites) could be placed on a framework map. The majority of microsatellites showed normal segregation and the leve! of heterozygosity was low (Figure 2). The resulting preliminary map covered all 11 chromosomes of the bean genome and hadan average of 3.3 microsatellites and 7.0 RAPOs per chromosome. Chromosomes were identified based on the assignment of single copy microsatellites that had been previously mapped on other core mapping populations in our Jaboratory (DOR364 x G 19833 or BAT93 x JaloEEP558) using the chromosome numbering system of Freyre et al ( 1998). Segregation distortion will be deterrnined when the map is completed.The SCAR marker SU91 tentatively identified chromosome 1 O. However, this identification is not complete given that we could not confirm this location with additional microsatellite markers from that chromosome. Other researchers have tentatively placed SU91 and the QTL for CBB that it tags on chromosome 8 (Miklas et al., 2001) so we will try to determine which designation is correct. Of the other SCARs, ROC 11 which tags the BCMV resistance gene, bc-3, could be mapped to the correct predicted location on chromosome 6, while R2, which tags the BGYMV resistance gene, bgm-1, could not be mapped.• ldentify the map location of the SCAR R2 and place the BGMV resistance gene, bgm-1, within the bean genome • Saturate the map further with additional microsatellites.  A).. . ...Large-scale marker assisted selection has been successfully carried out for a maja r gene conferring BGMV resistance, bgm-1 (Beebe et al., 2002) but remains elusive for other genes that provide resistance, such as the quantitative trait locus (QTL) for BGMV resistance on chromosome 4. Although this QTL has been tagged with the W12 SCAR marker, the marker is difficult to use because of its lack of repeatability under the alkaline extraction techniques used in our laboratory. As a possible replacement for the W12 SCAR, we have identified a tightly linked microsatellite marker, 104555, that we were interested in testing for its ability to amplify DNA extracted by both the alkaline (high-throughput) and organic (high-quality) extraction techniques.Selection based on a co-dominant microsatellite marker compared to a dominant SCAR also represents a new challenge, therefore we were interested in analyzing the allelic diversity at the microsatellite locus in a range of BGMV resistant and susceptible breeding parents.A total of 146 varieties and advanced lines that are potential parents in the Mesoamerican and Andean breeding programs were used in this study. DNA was extracted by both the alkaline (high-throughput) and organic (high-quality) extraction techniques. The markers used were the microsatellite marker, 104555 (Yu et al., 1999) and the SCAR marker, W12 (Pedraza et al., 1998). The marker 104555 is equivalent to Pv-cttOOl (Yu et al., 2000). The genotypes ICTA Ligero, DOR364, G17341 and DOR500 were runas controls in every PCR plate and on every loading, since they have weU-established BGMV reactions. DOR364 contains the W12-QTL, ICT A Ligero and DOR500 are known to carry the bgm-1 gene, and G 17341 is a source of resistance. The SR2 SCAR marker (Singh et al., 2001) for the bgm-1 gene was also amplified on the same set of parents.In an initial experiment to compare the results between extraction techniques, both the microsatellite and the SCAR marker were amplified with DNA samples from both extraction technique for a set of 27 out of the 154 genotypes. The results were the same for both DNA samples, therefore for the remaining genotypes, both markers were amplified only with the lower quality alkaline extraction technique. Good amplification was obtained with the majority of genotypes despite the lower quality of the DNA template, however, it was noted that 43 genotypes did not amplify.The microsatellite 104555 proved to be highly polymorphic and seven alleles (amplification products) were observed among the parents tested. Each of the genotypes used as a control had a different allele: ICTA Ligero (165 bp); DOR364 (159 bp); Gl7341 (157 bp); DOR500 ( 153bp).Ofthe other genotypes, a total of 10 had the ICTA Ligero allele, 32 had the DOR364 allele, 10 had the GI7341 allele and 47 had the DOR500 allele. The alleles found in the small ' Mesoamerican' versus ' Andean' large seeded genotypes generally did not have different molecular weights. The fact that there was no apparent association between allele and genepool may be because many of the 'Andean' genotypes were breeding lines with mixed ancestry that included genes from both genepools. A total of 46 out of the 142 genotypes that were tested were positive for the W12 marker. A positive reaction was more common in those genotypes with the DOR364 or G 17341 alleles of the microsatellite (84 and 70% ofthe time, respectively) than with the DOR500 or ICTA Ligero alleles of the microsatellite (11 and 10% of the time, respectively). This confirmed that there is probable linkage disequilibrium between the microsatellite and SCAR markers and therefore between the microsatellite and the BGYMV resistance gene underlying the QTL found on chromosome 4 where both markers are located.Indeed, the DOR364 allele was in many of the genotypes which were positive for the W12 marker and which were bred for BGMV resistance, including A686, A800, BAT304. DICTA113, DOR476, DOR482, DOR557, DOR582, EAP9504-30B, ICA Pijao, ICTA Ostua, IPA7, MD23-24, NEB31, Negro Cotaxtla 91, Negro INIFAP, RAB609, SAMl , SAM3, Tio Canela, UPR9653-16, V AX4 and V AX5 . This alleles was also present in genotypes that had been bred for BGMV resistance but which were negative for the W12 marker, such as the Carioca line A 774 and the red mottled lines, RMC1, RMC3, RMC12, indicating that the microsatellite marker may be more predictive than even the SCAR. The G17341 allele was also found in a series ofred mottled lines, RMC 2,4,S,6,7,8,and 16, which were positive for W12 and were bred from pedigrees containing BGYMV resistant parents; as well as in V AX6 which was negative for the marker.The DORSO O allele was found in a series of A, EMP, FEB and RAB lines, sorne of which have BGYMV resistant parents in their pedigrees and other that do not. These results confirm the observation that the BGMV resistance in DOR390 and DORSOO does not come from incorporation of the W12 -104555 chromosomal segment from DOR364 even though these are related by pedigree. lt remains to be determined if the DOR500 microsatellite allele would representa resistant allele ofthe W12 QTL and ifthere is an allelic series at the W12 QTL locus which has different grades of BGYMV resistance. Future Plans• Test additional microsatellites from the region around Wl2 to determine if the same pattem of geneflow remains and associate microsatellite allele data with pedigree information. • Improvements will be made in the high-throughput extraction technique given that there were individuals that did not amplify. In addition this extraction procedure DNA that cannot be stored for a long period. Indeed we found that upon a repeat attempt to amplify the alkaline extraction ONA after a couple of weeks, it had degraded to the point of being un-amplifiable.Abiotic stresses are a primary limitation on bean yields in the developing world. CIA T places high priority on developing germplasm that is tolerant to stresses including drought, low phosphorus and low soil N. CIA T participates in a project with the Catholic University of Leuven, the Center for Research on Nitrogen Fixation (CIFN), Cuemavaca, Mexico, and the Mexican national bean program of INIF AP, to develop both improved Rhizobium strains and improved bean germplasm with greater BNF capacity. One unique line, BAT 477, has been demonstrated to present superior BNF under both optimal and suboptimal conditions, including under P stress and drought stress. One object of the project is to confirm the value of QTL for BNF that were identified in greenhouse trials, to map the QTL in relation to the universal bean map, and to develop markers for Marker Assisted Selection (MAS). Maps based on locus-specific markers such as microsatellites are superior since they permit comparative mapping of traits. Furthermore, microsatellites are typically more stable and repeatable than many markers such as RAPOs, and can serve as a framework within which to map other markers such as RAPOs and AFLPs. The present exercise is designed to create such a framework that will greatly improve a RAPO map that already exists, and subsequently saturate it with AFLPs.DNA extrae/ion. Total ONA was extracted from the leaves of parental lines OOR 364 and BAT 477, and from the population of 132 Recombinant lnbred Lines (RILs) derived from the cross of the two parents. Y oung trifoliate lea ves were collected in the field and in the screenhouse and subsequently macerated in liquid nitrogen. ONA was extracted from the ground leaves using the mini-prep method of Afanador et al. The ONA quality was observed by electroforesis in 0.8% agarose gels. Finally ONA was quantified in the flourometer and diluted to a concentration of 1 O J.LI for the work with microsatellites.Markers for map construction. Primers to amplify microsatellites were evaluated on the parental genotypes and those presenting polymorphism were then amplified on the RILs. Microsatellites were amplified by PCR under conditions that were specific for each primer pair; were separated by electrophoresis on polyacrilimide denaturing gels: and were visualized with silver staining.A variable number of polymorphisms were detected among the parental genotypes using different random combinations of primers. AFLP were obtained by PCR and visualized on polyacrylimide gels stained with silver nitrate.Microsatellites. At present 166 microsatellite primers ha ve been evaluated on the parental genotypes DOR 364 and BAT 477 of wbich approximately 21% (34 primers) bave presented polymorphism . This low percentage is attributed to the close genetic relationship of tbese materials since botb pertain to the Mesoamerican race of common bean. Among the 34 polymorphic microsatellites, 25 are co-dominant markers, which is to say, tbey amplify both alleles of a diallelic locus producing bands of different weight (Figure 6). The nine remaining microsatellites correspond to dominant markers, in whicb only one band is present from one of the two parents. Eighteen of these polymorphic microsatellites (53%) are of a genomic origin, which is to say, they amplify regions that contain both coding and non-coding sequences, while the other 16 (47%) are of genic origin and amplify coding regions. Nineteen microsatellites have been amplified and read on the 132 RILs, these corresponding to 15 co-dominant and 4 dominant markers.AFLP markers. Six combinations of primers were evaluated on tbe parental genotypes revealing from 4 to 31 polymorphisms per primer combination. Combinations 4 (E-AGG + M-CAA) and 6 (E-ACA + M-CTC) produced the most bands, and can contribute to saturation ofthe linkage map ofthe RILs in the least time and work, and therefore will be employed initially with the RILs.Linkage map. The linkage map ofDOR 364 x BAT 477 contains at the moment 129 markers, of which 119 are RAPDs (V e lasco, 1998), plus 1 O microsatellites recently mapped on the RILs (Muñoz, 2002). The markers, with the exception of 21 that continue unlinked, are distributed in 15 linkage groups with a total distan ce of 655 cM. Seven of these groups could be associated with chromosomes thanks to the microsatellites that anchored them to the reference map.Bean golden mosaic (BGM), which is caused by a geminivirus transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), is a devastating disease ofthe common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in Latin America. The most important gene for conveying resistance to BGMV is the recessive gene bgm-1, whose SCAR marker is being used successfully in a MAS breeding scheme since 1999. Another SCAR marker (Wl2) appears to be linked to the QTL controlling BGMV resistance. This SCAR, which generates a 732-bp DNA fragment, was used in this study to achieve a higher leve! of resistan ce through MAS.An alkali DNA extraction was perfonned as described previously, (CIA T, 2000 and2001) and the PCR process and visualization of the bgm-1 marker also remained the same, -except that 384well PCR microplates were used instead of the 96 wells, together with multichanne1 combs for loading the samples on agarose ge1s, in order to speed up the MAS process.For the W12 SCAR, PCR conditions were as follows : each reaction contained 5 ~1 of the extracted DNA diluted 1:1 in sterile water, 0.2 mM of each dNTP, 0.2 ~M of each forward and reverse primer, 1 O mM Tris-HCI pH 8.8, 50 mM KCI, 2.5 mM MgCI 2 and 1 unit of Taq polymerase for a total volume of 25~1. The PCR profile was 35 cycles of a denaturation step at 94°C for 30 sec, an annealing step at 70°C for 30sec, and an extension step at 72°C for 1 mio. PCR products were resolved in a 0 .5X TBE agarose gel with ethidium bromide at a fmal concentration of0.02j.lg/ml. The presence or absence ofboth SCAR markers was scored.Two nurseries were screened for the presence ofthe bgm-1 gene using DOR21 SCAR from Oct.-Dec. 2001. In total, 1241 red-and black-seeded F 5 families were planted in Darien to evaluate tolerance to low P, in Santander de Quilichao to determine resistance to ALS, and in Palmira for MAS for BGMV, where 776 plants with the bgm-1 marker were selected and advanced to the next generation. A total of 286 F 3 elite populations for drought stress were also evaluated with DOR 21 and Wl2 SCARs. Results showed 204 carrying the bgm-1 marker: 172 with the W12 SCAR and 123 with both. Four nurseries, selected on the basis ofthese results and seed quality, were sent to Nicaragua and Honduras. After advancing them to the F 5 , the presence of bgm-1 and W12 markers was confirmed. Tissue samples from 4 plants/line were bulked for DNA extraction and amplification of the aforementioned fragments . A total number of 5 52 lines (23 7 red seeded, 224 black seeded and 91 assorted seed color) were screened from June-Sept. 2002. Among them, 294 were found to have the bgm-1 SCAR: 106, the W12 SCAR; and 64, both. These results were used to select nurseries that will be sent to NARS in Central America, prior confmnation of tolerance to ALS, CBB, ANT and low P.In another tria [ (Jan.-Mar. 2002), 4369 individual plants from 46 F 1 multiple-cross segregant populations were screened. The 1611 red-and black-seeded lines having the bgm-1 resistance allele were harvested and advanced. Among 127 F 3 bulks of crosses with Rojo de Seda for El Salvador, 103 were identified as having bgm-1 SCAR. The high frequency ofthe resistance allele was explained because these populations had two resistant lines (RAB 630, obtained through MAS at CIAT, and 9824-47-1, bred in Puerto Rico) in their pedigree. Also 87 F 5 bulks of Rojo de Seda (backcrosses to DOR 364) were screened. The 20 identified as having the marker were advanced.Continuing with MAS for the bgm-1 gene, 37 segregant populations with red, black and creamstriped seeds (F 1 multiple crosses for drought stress and high Fe content) were evaluated. Among 2852 individual plants, 1761 having the bgm-1 were harvested to continue with the MAS breeding scheme.Although Wl2 SCAR was used forMAS purposes this year, high-throughput screening will be difficult to accomplish. On the one hand, it was sometimes difficult to amplify the fragment; on the other hand, spurious bands were seen. A new set of primers was designed (E. Gaitán pers.Comm) and will be tested in the DOR 364 x G 19833 mapping population prior to large-scale screening.Of the 9514 plants screened for the presence of the bgm-1 gene marker, 50% were selected for generation advancing in the breeding scheme.Sorne other DNA extraction protocols are currently being assayed. Hopefully they will make it feasible to store stable DNA extracts longer than with the alkali extraction.group of progenies with excellent agronomic performance was produced, but a genetic study without precedent for cassava was initiated. This diallelic analysis was harvested during the first semester of 2002 and produced information essential for understandin Ph.D. students: a woman from Vietnam anda man from Uganda.The diallel trials for the North Coast (Table 1), Acid Soil Savannas (Table 2) and inter-Andean valleys (Table 3) were recently harvested and the data collected is thoroughly analyzed.For scientific validity, a singular planting was carried out: from each crossing, 30 of the best Fl plants grown in CENICAÑA were selected to obtain at least eight stakes of excellent quality. Six of those stakes were used to plant the trials and the others were planted in nurseries to serve as seed source. The six stakes for the trials were distributed in three replicates located at two representative sites. Every Fl (with a few exceptions) from the diallel cross experiment were made up of 30 genetically different individuals confonning a full-sib famility (both parents known and incommon). Each individual was represented in the trials by six plants, as mentioned above. Many of these families can provide the basis for molecular marker studies that will facilitate future work on cassava genetic improvement. It should be pointed out that in addition of the30 individual clones from each Fl cross, sister clones could also be found in the Clona/ Eva/uation Tria/s.    Only 30 plants were used to represen! each F l cross in the diallel study. Remaining plants from each cross were planted in an ordinary Clona/ Evaluation Tria/.In Table 4 the averages (combined across the two locations where the trials were conducted) of the most important traits are presented.From the breeding point of view the results from the diallel study from nine parents are equivalent to the Clona/ Evaluation Tria/. The only difference being that rather than having all the plants from a given clone planted in one-row plot, in the diallel experiment these plants were scattered in three replications at two Iocations. Also six rather than eight plants were used to represent each clone in the diallel. Best perfonning clones will also be included in Preliminary Yield Trials. The experiment was planted again this year.The averages for each cross can be further consolidated to produce the averages of all the crosses involving a given parent, which are presented in Table 2.15. As it is frequently the case results from Table 5 demonstrate the difficulties in producing a perfect genotype. For instance the progenies of parent 5 (SM 1565-17) were outstanding yield wise and showed excellent reaction to trips. However, they also showed the lowest dry matter content in the entire experiment.Progenies from parent 6 (SM 1411-5) had a superior plant type (the lowest average score = 2.69), the highest dry matter content (28.42%), but low harvest index (0.51). lt is clear that the results presented in Table 5 agree with those from Table 4 with the averages of each individual F1 family.lt should be remembered that results from Table 4 are averages across 30 clones making up each F1 family, and those from Table 5 grouping together the averages of all the progenies with a parent in common. The range of variation among individual clones is much Iarger. For instance, the highest average for yield in Table 4 was 45.68 tlha (cross 1 x 9), but the highest yield by an individual clone was equivalent to 134 tlha (Santo Tomás trial). When we perfonn the analysis of the segregation within each fami ly (that is, among the 30 clones from each F1 family), sorne interesting results are expected to surface.A second diallel study was conducted in the acid-soil savannas environment. The ten parents involved in this study were listed in Table 2. As for the diallel in the northem coast, each Fl crosswas represented by 30 clones, two environments were used, with three replications each. The trials were both planted in CORPOICA-La Libertad, but with two very contrasting soil conditions. The results of these trials are presented in Table 6 and 7, for the high-and low-fertility environments, respectively. The differences in soil fertility resulted in little development of foliar diseases in the tria) with good soil fertility, but excellent disease pressure in the tria) planted in soils with edaphic limitations. Likewise, productivity was very contrasting with average freshroot yields of28.31 and 12.1 0 tfha, respectively. Two important diseases are found in the acid soil environments: bacteria) blight or CBB (Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis) and the fungal super elongatio disease or SED (Sphace/oma manihoticola). All breeding activities for this ecological region, therefore,take particular attention to these biotic problems. Looking at the best ten crosses (based on fresh-root yield) from Table 6, the parents that more frequently participated in these crosses were 7 (participating in five of those crosses) and 1 and 4 (related to four crosses each). Looking at the worst ten yielding crosses, frequent progenitors were number 5 and 8 (participating in four families each) and parent 1 O (which produced three of these poor families). The average fresh-root production for the high-soil ferti1ity trial was 28.31 tlha, ranging from 3 7.51 ( cross 7x 1 O) down to 20.40 tlha ( cross 1 x8). lt must be remembered that these averages are coming from 30 p1ants in three replications (90 observations). Therefore• an average of37.51 t/ha is quite remarkable.Results from the low-fertility trial (Table 7) are quite contrasting with the ones from the ftrst environment. lt is interesting to note how the soil fertility affected the capacity of the plants to protect themselves from the foliar diseases. lt is well known that under good nutrition the plants can better react against biotic stresses, and that the contrary is also true. The two trials were less than a km away, so the differences in disease pressure can be reasonably explained by the soil fertility factor.Sorne results are obvious from the summary presented in Table 6. Cross 8x9 had very Iittle level of resistan ce to super-elongation disease (SED), with an average rating of 4.18. Cross 9x 1 O had also a high rating ( 4. 12). One immediate conclusion is that, at least, parent 9 had very low levels of resistance to SED. On the other hand, progenitors 1 and 5 produced progenies with good reaction to the disease.Ta ble 6. Average ofeach Fl-cross from the diallel study planted under high soil fertility conditions at CORPOICA-La Libertad (Villavicencio, Meta Departmeot). Parent 4 produced families with excellent harvest indexes in the two environments where the diallel trials were planted. For the same trait parent 1 O produced good progenies in the lowferti lity field and parent 7 in the high-fertility tria!. Parent 9 produced five of the worst families for harvest index in the low-fertility tria!, and parent 5 in the high-fertility conditions. This last observation is not surprising because parent 5 (SM 1565-15) is particularly well adapted to the savanna conditions where it shows excellent canopy development. When progenies from this clone are grown in high fertility soils the canopy development may prove to be too excessive, resulting in low harvest index.For plant type, progenitors 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 produced the best progenies in the high-fertility tria!.In the low-fertility conditions, on the other hand, parent 1, followed by parents 2 and 5 had a superior performance based on the results of their progenies. The good leve! of resistance to SED found in parent 5 may have contributed to the good rating for plant type, as well.The information from Tables 6 and 7 has been consolidated in Table 8 where the averages of the nine Fl crosses derived from each of the ten progenitors is presented, indiv idually for each environment. Each average is based theoretically on 81 O data points (nine crosses, 30 genotypes per cross, and three rep1ications). Therefore, these figures are very so1id and reliab1e.For resistance to SED, parents 1 (CM 4574-7), 5 (SM 1565-15), and 3 (CM 7033-3) showed the best reaction (1ow score). On the other hand, parents 8 (HNIC-1), 2 (CM 6740-7), 10 (tvlTA1 8), and 9 (MPER 183) were mediocre based on the reaction to the disease of their progenies. In was a surprise to find out that the progenies from MT Al 8 presented good 1evels of reaction to the bacteria! blight (CBB), with a score of 2.50 also found in the first parent (CM 4574-7). M TAl 8 was developed in Tbailand (where it was named Rayong 60) and it was not known to have resistance to the disease. This situation may be due to sorne sort of recessive resistance in MT Al 8 (already suggested in the literature) or else, because the levels of CBB were not has high as for SED, therefore, resulting in misleading results. Progenies from SM 2058-2 presented high ratings for CBB, suggesting that this clone is very susceptible to the disease. This would also support what was concluded from the data in Table 7 where, five of the worst crosses for CBB included SM 2058-2 as one ofthe progenitors.Progenitors 7 (SM 2219), 5 (SM 1656-15), and 1 (CM 4574-7) produced the progenies with highest average productivity in the low-environment tria!. MPER 183, on the other hand, produced progenies with very low root productivity (almost half as much as those from the previously mentioned parents). Poor perforrnances, in the low-fertility tria!, were shown by the progenies of MT Al 8 and CM 7033-3. In the high-fertility conditions the progenies from SM 2219-11 showed the highest root-productivity, followed by those from CM 4574-7, SM 1219-9, and CM 6740-7. In this environment the progenies from SM 1565-15, HMC-1 snd CM 7033-3 yielded poorly.Taking advantage of the huge volume of inforrnation from these diallel trials the phenotypic correlations shown in Table 9 were obtained. Very high correlations with root productivity were found for root aspect score (p= -0.94), harvest index (p= 0.88), dry matter content (p= 0.80), reaction toSED (p= -0.73), and plant type score (p= -0.64). Negative correlations here are dueto the fact that in the scores 1 = excellent and 5=very poor performance.Tab1e 9. Phenotypic corre1ations measured in the 1ow-fertility dialle1 tria! conducted at CORPOICA-La Libertad (Villavicencio, Meta Department). Correlations were estimated using averages for each family across the three replications. It is also worth mentioning the little association between reaction to CBB and SED. Although there seems to be a negative association (p= -0.1 0), the relationship is weak enough to suggest that it is feasible to obtain genotypes with good levels of reaction to both disease, that is that the traits are likely to be independently inherited and controlled. As was the case for the sub-humid and acid-soil savannas environrnents, a dialed study was also conducted for the mid-altitude valleys. A set of nine parents was used. As in the other diallels, 30 clones represented each F 1 cross. Two locations with three replications in eache were used to obtain the data. Results from the evaluation at CIAT-Palmira are presented in Tables 10 and 11, and those from AGROVELEZ-JAMUNDI are in Tables 13 and 14. The same variables are presented for the diallel studies at the two locations, with the exception of scoring for mites at CIAT-PALMIRA and for white flies at AGROVELEZ-JAMUNDI. The fact that no reliable data for white tlies could be taken at CIAT-PALMIRA reflects the success of the measures taken to control this problem. In effect, white flies pressure at CIAT's experimental station in Palmira was very low during the reported period because of the interruption of cassava planting for one month every year. This measure disrupts white flies cycle and has resulted in a significant reduction of this problem in our plantings at this station. Results from the diallel at Palmira were consolidated to obtain the averages for the progenies of each progenitor (Table 11 ). The best two parents for fresh root yield were MPER 183 and MECU 72 with average yields above 50 t/ha. This revelas the advantages of having the access to materials from the germplasm bank (both progenitors are landaraces from Peru and Ecuador, respectively). ln addition, MECU 72, is not only a valuable source of resistance to white flies, but also posses good levels of resistance to mi tes. SM 1278-2 and HMC-1 were the worse progenitors based on the average root productivity of their progenies. progenies with 1ow dry matter in their roots. HMC-1 a lso was characterized by progenies with higher susceptibi1ity to mites (Table 12). The results so far analyzed from the diallel study illustrate, once amare, the difficulties in combining in one genotype desirable traits. Fo r instance, MPER 183 has excellent levels of root productivity but ,•ery low dry matter contents. On the other hand, CM 6740-7 has high dry matter content. but its productivity was not as outstanding. HMC-1 a1so has high dry mane r content, but low root productivity and clear susceptibi1ity to mi tes. The best crosses for dry-matter yield were 2x9 (22.49 tlha), 4x9 (21.37 tlha), 6x9 (20.39 tlha), and 1x8 and 2x8 (both with 20.32 tlha). Parent 9 is in three ofthese five crosses.Results from the diallel Jamundí are presented in Tables 12 and 13. Although there was severe pressure from white flies, average fresh root yield were higber than at Palmira (47.95 versus 45.24 tlha). Root dry-matter content in Jamundí, however, was lower than at Palmira (32.01 versus 35.22 %). Best crosses for fresh root production at Jamundí were 7x9, 2x9, and 2x8.with 64.4, 60.2, and 59.3 t/ha, respectively. Crosses 2x9 and 2x8 also had been among the highest yielding F1-cross families at Palmira.Data from Table 13 suggest again a good performance of the progenies from MPER 183 with the highest levels of average fresh root production (52.41 tlha), followed by SM 1219-9 (50,64 tlha)and CM 6740-7 (49.82 tlha). In relation to dry-matter contents, the progenies from SM 1278-2and SM 1741-1 were the only to average above 33 %. As was observed in Palmira, the progenies from MPER 183 and MECU 72 had 1ow dry matter contents (31.44 and 30.44 % , respectively).SM 1741-1 proved to be susceptible to white flies (average score 3.51) andas expected, MECU 72 produced progenies with excellent reaction to this insect (average score 2.00). The progenies from CM 6740-7 and SM 1219-9 showed good levels ofresistance to white flies (average scores < 3.00).The highest dry-matter yields observed at Jamundí were from crosses 7x9 (20.25 tlha), 5x6 (20 .01 tlha), 2x3 ( 18.92 t/ha), 2x9 ( 18.82 tlha), and 6x9 ( 18.37 tlha). Two of these five families of crosses (2x9 and 6x9), also were among the highest yielding materials at Palmira.The problem of combining different desirable traits into one genotype is one of the difficulties frequently encountered by plant breeders. A second other limitation occurs when clones with outstanding performance in one location have a very poor one in a second location, resulting in high genotype by environment interactions. Table 14 shows the correlations for several variables measured at Palmira and Jamundí. Correlations are based on the average for each Fl cross (across three replications of each location). Fresh root at both locations showed a good correlation of O.68. In general all correlations were high (> 0.50) with the exception of plant type (p = 0.05) and number of commercial roots (p = 0.28). lt is possib1e that the low correlation for plant type is a result of the two different insect pests (mi tes in Palmira and white flies in Jamundí) affecting the trials. The reaction to these pests has a strong effect on the plant aspect variable as well.A last result of the diaJiel study is presented in Table 15, where phenotypic correlations among variables at each location are summarized. At Palmira yield and reaction to mites had a correlation = -0.39, whereas at Jamundí the correlation between white flies and fresh root yield was -0.20. These values were negative because a small insect damage is qualified as 1, and a severed damage with a score of 5. The correlation between yield and plant type was much higher at Palmira (p = -0.74) than at Jamundí (p = -0.27). Plant type at Jamundí was difficult to score because of the high soil fertility resulting in frequent lodging in severa) families. Also worth mentioning is the contrast in the correlations between harvest index and fresh root yield at Palmira (p = -0.03) and (p = 0.48).lt was not possible to establish a clear relationship between fresh root yield and dry matter content in the roots. Therefore, it should be possible to eventually generate high yielding clones with high dry-matter content in their roots. The fact that correlations are not necessarily evidence of a cause -effect relationship is supported by the meaningless correlations between root color and harvest index (p = 0.63 and 0.43) or between root color a reaction to insects (p = 0.56 and 0.63).The diallel studies represet an important effort invested in producing valuable information about the genetics of agronomically important traits in cassava. They also provide a large segregation of materials that could eventually be selected as elite clones. Also, because within-family data is avai lable the studies offer ideal populations that may be used for a more precise measurement of how a given trait segregates.The studies have also been used by Ph.D. students from Vietnam and Uganda. Because of the large amount of infonnation that needs to be processed the wihin-family variation has not yet been analyzed.1.2.12 Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) for breeding for resistance to the Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) at CIA TThe presence of cassava mosaic disease (CMD), the most important production constraint in A frica, and its absence in Latín America limits the usefulness of CIA T cassava germplasm in Africa and India. With the discovery of a dominant CMD resistance gene, CMD2, and 3 molecular markers tightly associated with it, it is not possible to breed for CMD resistance at CIAT. A pilot experiment was set up together with liTA in 2000, as a proof of concept of the utility of molecular markers in CMD resistance breeding. Six crosses, and reciprocals, were made between TME3 and TME9, two cassava land races from Nigeria that carry CMD2, and: a susceptible Nigerian land race and 2 elite cassava varieties from llT A, one tolerant and the other susceptible to CMD. We describe here findings of that experiment.A second phase of molecular breeding for CMD resistance breeding at CIA T has also been initiated. CMD resistant progenies derived from TME3 that were obtained from llT A in 2000 were crossed to elite parents of CIA T's cassava gene pools, and to high carotene or high protein content genotypes. Seeds harvested from the crosses were genninated in vitro from embryo axes in preparation for MAS and to permit sharing of the CMD resistant genotypes with collaborators in Africa and India. Thes plants will also be the basis of breeding for CMD resistance in CIA T cassava gene pools ..The MAS crosses were made in 2000 and a seedling nursery was established at the IIT A Mokwa sub-station, a low CMD pressure site in Nigeria, in 2002 . The crosses were harvested December last year and re-established as a clona) observation trail at the IlT A headquarters in Ibadan, a high CMD pressure area. Table 1 summarizes the families that are in the clonal observation trial. The plants were evaluated at 3, 4 and 6 months after planting for resistance to CMD. DNA was isolated from 1-2g of young leaves and dried for 24h in an oven at 48°C. The dried leaves were ground using a power drill and washed sand. DNA isolation was from 200mg leaf tissue using a miniprep version of the Dellaporta ( 1983) protocol. Molecular marker analysis was at CIA T. A single dilution, 1 OX, was employed for all samples. The samples were analyzed with the SSR marker NS 15 8, the closest marker found to date to CMD2. PCR analysis and acrylamide gel analyses were carried out as described by Akano et al. 2002. Gel image was captured by scanning and transferred to a Microsoft Excel file for the inclusion of resistance data and interpretation.A large number of crosses were made between CMD resistant progenies, introduced from liT A to CIA T, and elite parents of CIA T cassava genepoo ls, high beta-carotene varieties and high protein and dry matter content wild Manihot accesions and inter-specific hybrids (Table2). To permit for sharing ofthis invaluable germplasm with collaborators in India and Sub Saharan Africa and sti ll being able to keep a copy here for breeding purposes, the seeds are being genninated from embryo axes. Once genninated, the plantlets will be multiplied, molecular-assisted selection (MAS) will be perfonned using the marker NS 15 8, and CMD resistant ghenotypes will be shipped to collaborators.DNA isolation using dried leaves, a power drill and the mini Dellaporta protocol allowed for the processing of 130-150 sarnples daily. Yield of DNA was between 10-20ug/ 200mg of leaves, which provides enough DNA for more than 200 PCR reactions. This DNA also stores very well and can be used at again at a later time. For more routine MAS work, DNA extraction using 96 well plates and TE (Tris-HCL 10Mm (pH8.0), and EDTA (1mM) pH 8.0) current1y being used for bean MAS at CIAT will be tested (CIAT 2001).Molecular marker analysis, using the NS 158 SSR marker that is tightly associated to CMD2, of the crosses revealed the marker to be an excellent prediction too! for CMD resistance in sorne crosses but not in others (Figure 1 and Table 2). Scrutiny of the data, reveals that in crosses where the marker is a good prediction too!, \"recombinants\", genotypes that are disease susceptible but carry the NS 158 marker alle1e associated with resistance and vice-versa, were predominantly those with the marker allele associated with resistance but are \"resistant\" from phenotypic data (Table2). The second class is made up of disease susceptible varieties, roughly one quarter of the total number, that carry a presumably resistance allele. The first class of recombinants underscores a fundamental problem in the field evaluation of disease resistance, i.e uneven pathogen pressure. The crosses employed to test the MAS concept have been in the field for only 6 months and uneven disease pressure can lead to susceptible genotypes being erroneously scored as resistant. In an earlier study where a similar set of crosses had been in a field in Uganda for 2 years under heavy disease pressure, and had been pruned back after a year, there where no recombinants (CIA T 200 1 ). Pruning in creases CMD disease symptoms in susceptible varieties. This strengthens the case for MAS in CMD resistance breeding even where segregating populations can be evaluated in the field. The second class of recombinants reveals a problem of the molecular marker being used. A revision of the allele sizes for marker NSI58 of the genotypes TME3, TME9, TME117, and TMS91934 revealed that the CMD resistant genotypes (TME3 and TME9) and the susceptible genotypes (TME 117 and TM91924) ha ve the same allele size of allele for the allele that is associated with resistance. Although NS 158 is tightly linked to CMD2, less than 1 cM, it has the same allele size for certain resistant and susceptible genotypes The proportion of the susceptible \"recornbinants\", roughly one quarter of the total, also agree with the hypothesis of a confounding allele frorn the susceptible parent. This highlights the need to develop a marker that is truly unique to CMD2. Efforts are underway to clone, by positional cloning, CMD2 and to develop an allele specific PCR fragment for use as a sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker.More than 7000 seeds were obtained from crosses between the CMD donor parents and elite parents of CIA T's cassava gene pools (Table 3). These seeds are being germinated in vitro and MASwill be employed to select resistant genotypes for shipment to collaborators in India and Africa. The advanced back cross QTL (AB-QTL) identification and introgression of favorable alleles of gene for high protein and dry matter content, pest resistance and starch quality in cassava is in its second year. During the first year more than 1,200 accessions of wild species and inter-specific hybrids representing 7 wild Manihot species were evaluated for the above traits and genotypes with high protein and dry matter content, excellent resistance to white flies and very high amylopectin content were identified (CIA T 200 l ). The best genotypes were selected for second year evaluation of six plants (clona! observation or single row tria!, SRT) and also planted in the hybridization block for genetic crosses to elite CIA T parents. Genetic crosses between the selected wild accessions and CIA T elite parents will provide F 1 families to initiate the AB-QTL scheme. This year we report on the SRT tria!, 6 plants as against 1 last year, of the wild accessions and also on genetic crosses made.A major problem this year was the high incidence of frog skin disease (FSD) in the clona! observation tria!, more than 70%, which has lowered considerably dry matter content and affected protein content in an unknown way. Sorne genotypes turned out with an exceptionally high amount of protein, while others showed a significant reduction compared to last year's result. FSD infected materials that showed high values for the above traits have been re-planted in Santander the Quilichao pending a virus clean-up of these genotypes by tissue culture and thermotherapy. Nevertheless, seeds obtained from crosses to the selected wild accessions are supposed1y virus free and have been planted in the seedling nursery for transfer to the field and trait evaluation at harvest.Accessions of inter-specific hybrids and wild Manihot species with high protein and dry matter content, good resistance to white flies, and high amylopectin content starch identified from last year's evaluation were established at CIA T Palmira this year as a clona! observation tria!. A selection index program developed by the cassava breeding unit (CIA T annual report 2000) was used to select the best 12 genotypes for protein content, dry matter content, and white fly resistance and the best 4 genotypes low amylose content, a total of 145 wild accessions and 343 inter-specific hybrids for genetic crosses. Due to very poor gennination of a majority of the wild species planted directly in the fields from woody stakes, a principal problem with wild species, it was necessary to plant these accessions again in bags in the green house. The stakes were treated with growth honnones to aid gennination and transferred to the field after 2 months in the green house. For sorne materials, the problems with poor gennination continued and open pollinated seeds obtained Iast year from these genotypes had to be planted to obtain infonnation on the trait of interest.At 1 O months after planting, all six plants were harvested and measured for fresh root yield, dry matter content, foliage weight, harvest index, culinary quality, starch contentlquality, and frog skin disease according to standard CIA T procedures. Dried roots from genotypes that had high protein content Jast year were sent for total pro te in detennination at the CIA T analytical service lab. Seeds from the genetic crosses were also collected and genninated in a seedling nursery in preparation for transfer to the fiel d. Due to the lateness in establishing in the field sorne of the wild accessions, particularly the high protein content genotypes, mature seeds could not be harvested before the end of the hybridization season, the immature seeds were therefore harvested and genninated from embryo axes (see activity 6 for more details).The second year evaluation of inter-specific hybrids and wild accessions selected for high protein and dry matter content, and other traits of interest confinned the stability of the trait value across years (Table 1). However, the experiment was greatly inhibited by the difficulty of establishing the wild accessions from woody stakes. The inter-specific hybrids fared much better, an observation worthy of mention is a genotype, CW67-30, from an inter-specific hybrid family between cassava and its progenitor, M esculenta sub speciesjlabellifolia that hada fresh root yield yield of 114 tlha or 39tlha dry matter yield (Table 2). The genotype CW67-30 showed very vigorous growth and profuse production of foliage, it has been planted again with more replications to examine if the extraordinary yield will be repeated. Also planted again are the above best 25 inter-specific hybrids.A large number of crosses were made between wild accessions and inter-specific hybrids baving bigh protein and dry matter content, waxy starch, and pest resistance and more than 2000 seeds in total were obtained (Table3). Good size populations exist for the different traits and for the identification of F 1 genotypes for the AB~QTL scheme. The seeds ha ve been planted at CIA T Palmira and they will be evaluated for the relevant traits at 9-1 O months after planting. Future Perspectives• The evaluate the inter-specific hybrids generated for the target traits • Continue making crossesThe cassava green mites (Mononychellus tenajoa) is a biotic stress of cassava that becomes prominent during periods of prolonged dry periods. In East Africa, overlapping outbreaks of CMD and CGM during the dry season tend to result in very heavy losses and a severe reduction in farro profits (Legg et al. 1998). January this year at CIA T Palmira was particularly dry and, not surprisingly, a very heavy inciden ce of mi tes was recorded on the station. The CIA T cassava entomology group conducted a thorough evaluation of cassava plants in the field and while most plants bad damage ratings of 4 on the CIA T scale of 1-5, where 1 is no symptoms, and 5 is severe Ieaf damage and stunted growth, 4 inter-specific hybrid families from the wild Manihot accession MFLA 437-007 showed an almost equal number of susceptible(score of3-4) and resistant (score of l-2) genotypes.The very high leve! of resistance found in the inter-specific hybrids and the almost equal number of susceptible and resistant genotypes, which suggests a simple mode of inheritance of the resistance gene(s), makes deployment of this source of mite resistance very attractive. Bulk segregant anlysis (BSA) using 500 SSR markers was quickly used to identify molecular markers associated with resistance. At the same time, highly resistant hybrids were crossed to CMD resistant parents, to combine CMD and CGM resistance for Africa, and a lso to elite cassava parents at CIA T.A clona! observation tria! of 6 plants per genotype of inter-specific hybrids between the cassava varieties CG487-2, CG50 1-16, MCol2215, and CM2766-5 and the M esculenta sup spp jlabellifolia accession MFLA 437-007, designated CW68, CW65, CW67, and CW66 respectively were planted at CIA T Palmira August last year. They were evaluated for resistance to mites during a very heavy mite infestation January this year. A high leve! of resistance was observed in about half of the inter-scpefic hybrids. lt was thought desirable to transfer this high leve! of resistance to elite parents of the cassava gene pools. Genetic crosses where therefore made to elite parents ofthe cassava gene pool.Following the interesting distribution of resistant genotypes observed in the families, the fami ly CW67 was chosen for bulk segregant analysis of CGM resistance. Ten resistant and ten susceptible genotypes were used for molecular analysis. DNA was isolated from 1-2g of young Jeaves and dried for 24h in an oven at 48°C. The dried leaves were ground using a power drill and washed sand and DNA was isolated from 200mg Jeaf tissue using a miniprep version of the Dellaporta (1983) protocol. DNA from the cassava parent Mcol22l5 was also isolated for inclusion in the analysis. The wild parent no longer exists it was eliminated from the field in 2000 during an eradication of the wild Manihot bank, many of which were contaminated with frog skin disease, the crosses were made in 1995. DNA from the bulks and parent was genotyped with the 500 available cassava SSR markers. Markers that were polymorphic in the bulks were analyzed in individual genotypes that make up the bulks.Resistance response to CGM in the families CW65, 66, 67 and 68 was qualitative, i.e., all 6 plants of resistant genotypes showed no visible symptom, while all plants of susceptible genotypes were always heavily infected. The percentage of resistant to susceptible plants was about the same (Figure l ).A chi square of the ratio of resistant to susceptible plants was not significantly different from a 1: 1 ratio at a probability leve] of 0.05 for CW65, 66, and 68 . This fits the expected segregation ratio for a single dominant gene heterozygous in the wild accession. BSA revealed an allele of the SSR marker, SSRY330, is present in the resistant parent and in the resistant bulk but absent in the susceptib le bulk and the susceptible parent (Figure 2). The polymorphism was confirrned when the individuals of the bu lks were screened with the SSR marker although 3 and l recombinant could be observed in the resistant and susceptible bulk respectively (Figure 2). The SSR marker is currently being analyzed in a ll individuals of CW67, as well as those ofthe other three families.Genetic crosses have been made between inter-specific hybrids having high CGM resistance and elite parents of CIA T gene pools, a total of 832 seeds were obtained (Table3). This cross can be loosely described as a back cross and it is the second step of the AB-QTL scheme. Seeds obtained ha ve been planted at CIA T Palmíra and they will be evaluated for the relevant traits at 9-1 O months after planting.Analyze the marker SSRY330 in the entire individuals of all 4 fami lies namely, CW65, CW66, CW67, and CW68 Second year evaluation ofthe inter-specific hybrids in Santander the QuilichaoFigure 2. Silver stained polycrylamide gel of bulk segregant analysis (BSA) of CGM resistance in the CW67 family, the topmost fragment segregates with resistance. Three and one recombinants r. espectively can be observed in the CGM resistant and susceptible varieties. F stands for father, the mal e parent (MFLA 437-007), while R and S stands for the resistant and susceptible bulk respectively.Table3. Seeds obtained from crosses betweeo tbe ioter-specific hybrids with higb levels of resistaoce to CGM aod elite parents of cassava gene pools at CIA T. Cassava produces cyanogenic glucosides which is often rightly or wrongly seen as a health hazard to consumers, particularly in the very poor segment of the population that depend on cassava as a staple. Conventional breeding for low cyanogenic potential (CNP) is fraugbt with the confounding effect of the environrnent and developmental stage at which CNP is measured. A project has been initiated in Uganda to map the genes controlling cyanogenic potential (CNP) in cassava with funding from the Swedish project for Biotechnology and Biosafety Research Network in East Africa, (BIOEARN). The identification of molecular marker associated with CNP will increase the efficiency and the cost-effectiveness of breeding low CNP cassava varieties for Uganda. The BIOEARN project is being conducted as a joint project between the MBL, Swedish University of Agricultura! Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, NARO, Namulonge, and Intemational Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIA T). Activities in the project so far include the development of mapping populations and their establishment at National Agricultura! Research Organization (NARO), Namulonge. In addition, facilities for simple sequence repeat (SSR) genotyping of the mapping population have been made available at the MBL. A meeting of partners under the project was planned for mid-may to a.Resolve bottlenecks in the molecular marker activity b.Appraise progress made so far and write a short report c.Make recommendations on future activitiesTwo key requirements for the genetic mapping of CNP are segregating populations with a simple pedigree and easily assayed molecular markers on a genome wide basis. For cassava two kinds of markers are currently available on a genome-wide basis: simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and restriction fragrnent length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. The SSR are highly infonnative and polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR)-based markers making them most appropriate for genetic mapping. The RFLP markers are also inforrnative, but tedious to use, they are therefore being converted to PCR-based markers known as single strand confonnation polymorphism (SSCP) markers.To implement the SSR marker technology at the MBL for genetic mapping of CNP, 8 SSR markers from the Cassava MapPairs were amplified by PCR in 7 parental genotypes, 2 grand parental and 5 parental, of sorne of the F 2 mapping progenies using a Perkin Elmer 9700 PCR machine. The PCR reaction was electrophoresed on 6% polyacrylamide gels and visualized by silver staining.The original mapping population for the study was severa! F 2 families derived from selfing F 1 progeny from the Gomani x Mbundumali cross. Initial in vitro establishment of the sexual seeds from embryo axes was conducted at the tissue culture faci lity of the Namulonge station using 30 seeds from the F 2 fami ly GMM 13. Poor growth of the maj ority of the cultures was observed. It was then decided to continue establishment in pots filled with sterile soils. An issue raised with the use of the Gornani x Mbundumali F 2 s is their poor adaptation to Uganda, particularly adaptation to the devastating cassava mosaic disease (CMD). lt was therefore decided to create back-up F2 families generated from local vari eties. A very bitter local variety known as Tongolo was crossed to two CMD resistant varieties, SS4 and TME4. The F 1 progenies were planted directly in the field March 12 and are now 1 O weeks old .The parental survey of parents of the mapping population with more than 500 SSR markers have begun. Results obtained so far reveal a good leve] of polymorphisms in the parents (Figl). A summary of fami lies and number of plants expected are shown in Table Not all families will be established dueto their small sizes. It is necessary to keep the field weed free and watered during the oncoming dry season that begíns in June. The plants a lso will greatly benefit from sorne ferti lizer application to ensure that woody stakes can be obtained by December when they will be cloned . At the moment, the crosses have not been given a code, neither have the individual plants been labelled, it is necessary that this be done w ithin the next two months to avoid a mix-up later in the experiments.• MAS Parental survey of Mbundumali, Gomani, Tongolo, SS4, TME 4 and selected progenies using SSR and SSCP markers. To be included are 5 parents and 7 progenies (a total of 12 samples) to be analyzed with all available markers• Harvest of two roots from the new CNP crosses at 7 months after planting (MAP), evaluation for CNP using the picrate method and generation ofF2 families for mappingOccurrence of vitamin A deficiency and otber nutritional problems overlaps with areas where cassava is an important staple food. EffortS have therefore been invested to realize the potential of cassava to improve the vitarnin A consumption of people living in the tropical belt, where it is a predominant crop. Both roots and Jea ves of cassava contain considerable aroounts of vitamin A precursors (P-carotene), 0.1 02 to 1.040 mg/100 g fresb roots and 12.05 to 96.42 mg/100 g fresh Jeafweigbt (CIAT 2001). Severa) studies have higblighted the possibility of increasing available content of beta-carotene in both leaves and roots (Iglesias et all997, CIAT 2002, tbis report). Furthermore, the h.igh P-carotene content is not often combined with high dry matter yield, resistance to pests and diseases aod acceptable root quality. Crosses between selected sources of cassava with high nutritional quality and adapted local will need to be made.Given the long grovvth cycle of cassava; improvement of a trait that is expressed only late in the growth cycle of the crop, such as P carotene, will benefit from marker-assisted selection. The inheritance of P-carotene in cassava has been demonstrated to be controlled by 2 genes (Iglesias et al. 1997). It is therefore a relatively simple trait to identify markers for. Molecular markers associated with ~-carotene will allow for its selection early in the breeding cycle. We describe here discovery of a S 1 cross from the cassava Jand race Mcol72 with a wide spectrum of segregation for beta-carotene from pure white to pink color. This family is appropriate for the development of markers for beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A.As part of an initiative to develop cassava populations tolerant to inbreeding, 14 genotypes commonly used as parents in the CIA T breeding were selfed and the seeds established at the experimental station of CENICAñA last year. This year, a clona] observation experiment, a single replication of 1 O plants in a row per genotype, was set up at CIA T Palmira. At 1 O months after planting the experiment was harvested. It was observed that in the S 1 family of 38 plants from the Colombian land race MCol72, a wide segregation was observed in root color from white to pink. The roots were scored qualitatively using the usual CIA T scale of 1 (white) to 8 (pink); pictures were also taken of a cross section of the root. Two genotypes with the deepest pink coloration were selected for quantitative determination of carotenes in the roots using high performance liquid chromatography. The parental genotype MCol72 has a root color that is normally described as cream colored or 4 on the CIA T scale.The discovery of a wide segregation for root color in an S 1 cross from a cream colored variety provides an ideal population for bulk segregant analysis (BSA) of ~ carotene content and to identify markers associated with genes controlling the above trait. For DNA isolation, l-2g of young Ieaves were harvested from all 38 genotypes into small paper envelopes and dried for 24h in an oven at 48°C. The dried leaves were ground using a power drill and washed sand and DNA was isolated from 200mg using a miniprep version ofthe Dellaporta (1983) protocol. Two bulks of 6-1 O DNA samples from genotypes with pure white and pink roots respectively were created. DNA from the bulks and parent will be genotyped with the 500 cassava SSR markers; markers polymorphic in the bulks will be employed to analyze the entire population. Markers associated with yellow/pink color will be determined by a simple linear regression of phenotypic data on marker genotype marker class means (single point analysis) using the computer package Q-GENE 2.30B (Nelson, 1997). The amount of phenotypic variance explained by each marker will be considered significant ifthe probability of observing an R 2 value is less than 0.005.The S 1 cross showed a wide spectrum of segregation for root color (Figure 1 ). A wide spectrurn of variation in color can be seen from pure white to pink. Al so to be noted is the pattem of deposition of beta-carotene.The evaluation of two genotypes with pink roots revealed total beta-carotene content of 1.69mg/100g fresh weight (AM273-23) and l.38100g fresh weight (AM273-7) respectively. The value obtained from AM273-23 is the highest to date from the characterization of the CIA T germplasm bank for beta-carotene. These results reveal the potential to increase beta-carotene in the roots. A series of experiments have therefore been planned to: Generate a larger S Cassava is an allogamous tetraploid that accumulates a significant genetic load that is released on inbreeding. The average yield of selfed lines was observed to be about half the average yield of parental genotypes and the degree of inbreeding varied greatly amongst different genotypes (Kawano et al. 1978). Inbreeding depression primarily affects the general growth and vigor of the plant, reflected directly in lower root yield, and therefore no inbreeding is carried out at any stage of traditional cassava breeding. Cassava breeders in general strive to select progenitors and make crosses that mazimize heterozygosity and minimize inbreeding But inbreeding is desirable for cassava for the reduction of the genetic load currently carried by many elite clones which in tum permit the use of valuable breeding schemes such as back-cross breeding. But more importantly inbreeding is important because it eliminates the confounding effect of dominance process and maximizes the additive gene variance on selection (Ceballos et al 2002). Inbred lines also have the advantage that they can be shipped and stored as botanical seed, facilitating the exchange of germplasm which at the moment can only be done via expensive tissue culture shipments. A selection program was therefore set-up for tolerance to inbreeding in 1999, at the moment more than 300 S 1 lines have been produced from 5 elite clones and S 2 lines were produced this year (see net section of this report). We describe here evaluation ofthe S 1 familiesFourteen cassava genotypes were chosen for the development of populations tolerant to inbreeding. The genotypes were chosen due to their good general combining ability performance for yield, dry matter yield or root quality. They include the following lines: MCOI22, CM523-7, MCOLI684, MBRA12, MCOL2060, MVEN77, MCOLI522, MTAI1 , MPAN51, l\\.1ECU169, MCOLI468, MCOL72, CM849-1, HMCI. More than 300 pollinations were made per genotype and between 30-150 seeds were obtained per genotype. The seeds were planted at the CEN1CAñA experimental station October 2000. At 10 months after planting, harvested August 2001, all plants were harvested and measured for fresh root yield, dry matter content, foliage weight, harvest index, culinary quality, starch content/quality, and frog skin disease according to standard CIA T procedures. Six families were selected to continue the process of inbreeding based on their average yields and flowering. The families were also planted in an observational tria!, six plants in single row replication, in October 2001 at CIA T Palmira and barvested in M ay 2002. The traits described abo ve were evaluated for all plants.Inbreeding depression was severe in many of the genotypes, particularly in MBRA 12, MCOL1684, MCOL1468 and MCOL1522; inbreeding depression of more than 70%, vigor was very poor and sufficient stakes could not be obtained for further experiments and were therefore eliminated. Six farnilies showed better tolerance to inbreeding depression as observed from their yield data (Table 1 ), highlighting the great differences in cassava to inbreeding depression. Maximum yield of these farnilies were on an average of 18 tonslha of fresh root with the exception of family AM312 that had 35tfha, this farnily also had the largest standard deviation. Average root yield was less than half of the average yield of the parents which is in agreement with earlier observations of inbreeding depression in cassava. The 2002 experiment, the clonaJ observation experiment agreed quite closely with data from the seedling tria! (data not shown). Distribution of dry matter content and harvest index from the clona! observation revealed normal distribution ofthe traits in aH families. Two families, AM266 and AM312 account for 83% ofthe best 25 genotypes for fresh yield in the clona! observation tria! (Table 2). A genotype from AM266 had maximum yield of 98 tlha, this same family produced the genotype with the highest yield in the seedling tria! albeit different genotypes, underscoring the big error that can occur when evaluation is based on a single plant and the effects of inter-genotypic competition. The family AM312 accounted for 67% of the best 25 genotypes for dry matter content. The trend observed in the data from the second year evaluation that individuals from certain S 1 families tend to domínate the group ofbest genotypes for certain traits highlights the important role additive genes play in the expression of these traits.• Establishment and evaluation of S 2 progeniesCassava, which is a staple crop for miUions of people in the tropics, represents the basis for food security in several marginal regions. Studies performed by CIA T scientists in the past, however, showed that farmers' yields usually range from 10-12 t/ha in Colombia; whereas experimental yields have reached as high as 66 tlha/yr. This is mainly dueto diseases such as cassava bacteria! blight (CBB), anthracnose, Phytophthora root rot, Fusarium root rot, African cassava mosaic and cassava frogsk.in.CBB is a major disease caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam). The most suitable and practica! approach for controlling CBB is through host resistance. The development and release of resistant germplasm have been limited in the past for lack of knowledge on the genes in volved in resistan ce and defense, the inheritance of important traits and the interaction of resistance genes with the environment.The development of genomics and bioinformatics tools is increasing our knowledge of plant genome structure, organization and gene function. An understanding of the factors leading to incompatibility in the cassava-pathogens interaction will help clarify the rapidly expanding knowledge of host resistance/susceptibility. Our goal is to identify those important factors that contribute to incompatíbility in cassava to Xam .Plant material, inoculations and RNA extraction. Two resistant (M Bra 685 and SG 107-35) and a susceptible (M Col 1522) cassava cultivar were inoculated with strains CIO 15 1 and CIO 46, respectively. Four-week old plants were inoculated by stem puncture with 10 8 ufc/ml. Stem tissues were collected at 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 h, 7 and 15 days postínoculation (pi). The controls were healthy noninoculated plants and plants inoculated with sterile water (mock-inoculated).The tissue was ground in liquid nitrogen, and total RNA was isolated according to the Proteinase K method (Hall et al., 1978 andRocha, 1995).Construction oj cDNA libraries. Six cDNA libraries were constructed as follows: Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH; Diatchenko et al., 1996) was used to generate three cDNA libraries, enriched for sequences expressed specifically in infected stems of cv. M Bra 685, M Col 1522 and SG 107-35 at 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h, 7 and 15 days pi. cDNA from healthy and mockinoculated plants (from tissue collected at the same time points as the infected tissue) was used as the driver to remove common sequences. Three libraries (corresponding to three inoculated cassava cultivars) were constructed using the same protocol, but no hybridizations were carried out.cDNA microarray technology. Microarray experiments utilized arrays prepared in the Project SB-02 (Assessing and utilizing agrobiodiversity through biotechnology) laboratory. The slides were polysine coated (Erie Scientific Co.). The PCR product from each clone was microarrayed onto glass slides.After the spotting, slides were snap dried on the thermocycler at 95°C for 1 O sec, UV cross-linked at 650 ~. and dried at 80°C for 1 h. Microarray probing was done as per Hedge et al. (2000) with sorne modifications. S lides were then scanned at CIA T facilities and analyzed using ArrayPro software. The entire experiment was repeated to ensure accurate gene expression profiles. In order to assess spot variations within slides, the spots on each slide were printed 4 times.Data analyses. Spot densities from scanned slides were quantified by using Array-Pro software (media Cybernetics). Local background was calculated with the local-ring technique. Scans for the two fluorescent probes were normalized following the protocol proposed by (http://afgc.stanford.edu/-finkeVtalk.htm).Three cassava cultivars were selected to construct the cDNA Iibraries. In the susceptible cv. M Col 1522, symptoms were observed very rapidly pi with the highly aggressive Xam strain, CIO 46. In the highly resistant SG 07-35, an incompatible interaction was observed when challenged with strain CI0-1 51. The M Bra 685 Cv. also showed a high leve! of resistance when inoculated with CI0 -151 even though sorne symptoms were observed at 7 or 15 days pi. In a first experiment, the three nonsubtracted libraries were spotted. Microarrays containing 768 clones were constructed. Each glass slide contained two copies of the en tire arra y, each of which consisted of 2 subarrays with 1 O rows and 21 columns. S lides were hybridized with cDNA from healthy tissue (Cy3) and with cDNA from inoculated tissue collected 48 h pi (Cy5) (Figure 1). A very Jow signa! was detected for the Cy-3 labeling in the hybridizations. Efforts are now being made to troubleshoot this problem and analyze data for all time points. However, an analysis was made in order to identify clones that were significantly expressed in the inoculated tissue. Figure 2 shows that most of the genes have greater intensities at Cy-3 . Differential expression in the inoculated tissue compared with the healthy control. Of the 94 spots, however, only 5 showed the differentia1 expression in both replicates within the array and were sequenced. This low number of differentially expressed genes after inoculation can be due in part to the high background in blocks 1 and 2 of the array (Figure 1). There is also a need to perform more replicates of the hybridization, as well as a hybridization using Cy-3 to !abe! RNA extracted from infected material and Cy-5 for RNA extracted from healthy tissue (a reverse hybridization experiment).The five clones sequenced showed the following homologies when compared to the EST and nonredundant databases of GenBank using the Blastn and Blastx algorithms, respectively. Two sequences showed no significant homologies to sequences in the GenBank, one sequence showed homology to an Arabidopsis tha/iana protein with an unknown function, one sequence was homologous to a Phytopthora infestans-challenged leaf of a So/anum tuberosum cDNA clone (e value = 3e-7), and the fifth clone was homologous to an expansín proteín (e val u e = 3e-88).Expansins are a group of extracellular proteins that directly modify the mechanical properties of plant cell walls, resulting in a turgor-driven cell extension. Their role in defense has been reported (Lee et al., 2001 ). Oligosaccharides released from cell walls are also potent elicitors of plant defense. a.C:..r::.~::::Mean signal intensity of healthy tissue (Cy3 labeled) In rice, twenty-one wild species and two cultivated species ( O.sativa and O. glaberrima) represent wide genetic variability for rice breeding prograrns. It has been suggested that the Oryza wild species represent a potential source of new alleles for improving yield, quality, and stress resistance of cultivated rice (Xiao et al. 1998). However, limited use of this variability has been made. Barriers still exist in effectively utilizing genes from wild species. Advanced backcross populations and molecular mapping techniques are good altematives for introgression of these genes and to detect these new alleles in segregating populations.This report focuses on progress made in identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with yield increase in a double haploid population derived from a Oryza glaberrima x O.sativa cross.Experiments were set up under greenhouse, and field conditions, as well as in the anther culture and the CIA T Biotechnology laboratories. Methods described by Tanksley and Nelson. 1996, and Lentini et al1997 were used to develop the double-haploid lines (DHs) from a BC3Fl populatiém, as shown in Figure l .An irnproved rice cultivar Caiapo was used as the recurrent parent whilst Oryza glaberrima (IRRI, accesion # 1 03544; Jones, 1996) was used as the donor parent. Very high sterility was found in each generation. The BC 3 F 1 population was processed by anther culture (Lentini et al. 1997) to obtain the DH BC 3 F 1 population (900 DHs were generated) but only 312 DHs were selected for field testing and molecular tests (Figure 1). From 209 SSRs screened in the parents Caiapo and O glaberrima reported by Temnykh et al., 2000 (Figure2), 100 SSRs were selected for PCR standarization and screening of the 312 DHs.(Figure 3). The 312 DHs were yield tested and phenotyped under irrigated conditions. A completely randomized block design with three reps was used, and two-row plots, 5-meter long and 30x30 spacing were planted.... . . ..RAi:i5J A .. Caiapo andO. glaherrima were placed a t tite beginning and at tbe end of eacb plot of 92 individuals. Gels were loaded four times to complete tbe whole population. Polyacrilamide 6% gel, 3M Urea, r elat 19:1, O.SX TBE. 110W/cm2, 2 hours.A normality test (\"S\" statistical test of Bowman and Sheriton, 1975) was carried out for each quantitative trait (Lynch, M. and Walsh, B. 1998). The order of the microsatellites in the molecular map was defined by the Comell published molecular rice map (Temnykh, et al. 2000).Chi squared test (oc::: 0.05) was used to calculate the segregation percent of each marker and to defme deviations ofthe Mendelian proportions.A linear regression with 1000 permutations was used to identify association between molecular markers and traits by QTL Cartographer program 1.16 (Basten, et al. 2002).Plant height, nurnber of panicles per plant, panicle length, 1000 grain weight and % sterility were taken on five plants/ rep in each DH líne (Table 1) whilst grain yield was taken on a plot basis. Forty eight percent of the 209 SSRs were polyrnorpbic and the molecular characterization of the 312 DHs showed that all of thern were homozygous either for Caiapo or O.glaberrima. Introgression of O.g/aberrima alleles occurred throughout the whole genome. Positive transgressive segregation was observed in all traits measured, except for panicle number (Figure 4). Based on the 100 microsatellites frorn the RF-Comell frarnework rnap screened on 312 DH lines, 70 putative linkages were identified for yield, and yield components. However, only 3 of these were confinned by the 1000 permutations analysis. Results using QTLcartographer software, indicated associations of RM 127 marker on chromosome 4 with plant height, RM283 marker on chrornosome 1 with panicle sterility, and RM292 marker on chrornosorne 1 with grain yield. Data suggested that 50% of the putative linkage (35) with a positive effect on the trait of interest was due to O. glaberrima alleles. Resu1ts obtained for grain yield on chromosornes 1 and 5 showed similar associations to results frorn Moneada et al. 2001 and Ishimaru et al. 200 1; other associated markers in this study were observed in different studies (Castaño, C. 2002).Laboratory bottlenecks that affect the process of mo lecular characterization and statistical analysis were identified and preventive measures were put in place to irnprove the efficiency of the overall process. Standardize and evaluate more SSRs markers in non-saturated regions on the map of the DH BC3F1 population to confirm the 67 putative linkages and to identify new associations.Complete the statistical analysis of other populations from the project, like the BC2F2 population derived from BG90-2 1 Oryza rufipogon and the BC3 F2 population derived from Lemont/ Oryza Barthii.lnitiate the analysis of agronomic and molecular data from different generations obtained of the BG90-2 1 O. rufipogon cross, which were sowed in the same location, to determine the environmental effect and to look for gene introgression from the wild species in these different populations.In spite of the great impact made in rice production in Latin America (LAC) there is a need to increase it in a sustainable way. New alleles can provide genetic variability for crop enhancement.The Oryza wild species represent a poten tia! so urce of new alleles for improving the yield, quality and stress resistan ce of cultivated rice. The purpose of this paper is to provide increasing evidence that certain regions in O. rufipogon and O. glaberrima harbor genes of interest for the genetic improvement of cultivated rice. Families Replicated yield trials. Twenty eight lines derived from the cross Bg90-2/0. rufipogon were planted in replicated yield trials in six locations under irrigated conditions in Colombia. Transplanting was done in CIA T whilst direct seeding was done elsewhere. A completely randomized design with three reps was used. Data on main agronomic traits, including grain yield, was taken. A two-way analysis of variance was used for the analysis of grain yield, whilst a GEBEI package that implements appropriate clustering and ordination procedures was used in a preliminary analysis of the GxE data.Evaluation for tolerance to biotic stresses. Advanced breeding lines from the cross Oryzica 3/0. rufipogon were field tested in a \"hot spot\" for reaction to three diseases in Tolima, Colombia, using the Standard Evaluation System for Rice and three reps. Doubled-haploid lines derived from the cross Caiapo/0. glaberrima were evaluated in a \"hot spot\"area in Meta, Colombia, for tolerance to the Rice Stripe Necrosis Virus.Selection for grain quality. Advanced breeding lines were evaluated for gram length and translucency in the CIA T Quality Lab.Grain yield. Data are presented in Figure l . Statistical analysis showed no significant yield difference in grain yield between Bg90-2 and its progenies in each location.Although none of the interspecific lines was excellent in all Jocations, a few lines perfonned better than Bg90-2 suggesting that there was a good genetic variability present in this group of lines. A few lines performed as well as Fedearroz 50, the highest yielding variety planted by farmers in Colombia.However, the GxE interaction was very high (75%), suggesting that the performance of genotypes was dependent on the climatic/soil conditions found in each location (data not shown).Tolerance to biotic stresses. Sorne fungal diseases, particularly Rhizoctonia sp., Sarocladium and Helminthosporium sp., considered of minor importance in the past are now causing yield losses in several areas in LAC. Most commercial varieties grown are susceptible. Results from field tests suggest that lines derived from the cross Oryzica 3/0. ru.fipogon showed a good tolerance level to these diseases (Table 1).The fungus Polymyxa graminis transmits the rice stripe necrosis virus (RSNV), disease frrst reported in Ivory Coast in 1977; it was reported in Colombia in 1991 and now is found in Panama and Brazil. All commercial varieties are susceptible to RSNV (Table 2); however, high leve] of tolerance was found in O. g/aberrima. Our results show that tolerance to RSNV has been successfully transferred to improved varieties.    Grain quality. Development of high yielding varieties with tolerance to biotic stresses and excellent graio quality is the main breeding objective of national rice programs in LAC. Both parents, Bg90-2 and O. rufipogon, posses poor grain quality. However, positive transgressive segregation for superior grain quality was observed in the BC2F2 generation which led to the selection of advanced lines with long and slender, translucent grains (Figure 2). Apomixis is a trait of great potential impactas a plant breeding too! in agricu lture because even highly heterozygous genotypes breed true through seed, retaining their vigor. The common mode of reproducing commercial Brachiaria is by facultative apomixis. A SCAR marker derived from RAPD Nl4, closely linked to the apomixis gene (6cM) (Rocha et al., 1997), was chosen forMAS purposes due to its stability and easy handling in PCR processes, which allow high-throughput screening.Young leaftissue was collected and dried at40-50°C for 18-20 h. T issue grinding was performed in a Mixer Mili MM-2 (Retsch, Inc). DNA was extracted from 30-50mg oftissue as follows: 600 PCR reactions were carried out in a final volume of 25 ¡..tl as follows: 5 ¡..ti of diluted DNA was added to a mix containing 1 O mM Tris-HCI pH 8.8, 50 mM KCI, 2.5 mM MgCh. 0.2 mM each dNTP, 0.1 ¡.LM of each forward and reverse primer, and one unit of Taq polymerase. The PCR profile included an initial denaturation step at 94°C for 3 min, followed by 35 cycles of a denaturation step at 94°C for 30 sec, an annealing step at 55°C for 30 sec, and an extension step at 72°C for 1 min. PCR products were resolved in a O.SX TBE agarose gel with ethidium bromide at a fmal concentration of 0.02 J.! g/ m!. The presence or absence of the SCAR linked to the apomixis gene was scored.The presence or absence ofthe N14 marker was scored in 121 maternal genotypes BROONO. The plants having the N14 marker were also identified as apomictic according to the progeny test conducted in the field. The rest of the plant material (not showing the N l 4 marker) showed sexual behavior in the field. The concurrence of the results from both lab and field tests shows the poten tia! use of this marker for indirect selection of apomictic or sexual genotypes in order to improve Brachiaria breeding.A set of 375 hybrid clones obtained by crossing 40 sexual genotypes as female parents with the genotype CIAT 16320 (B. brizantha) were also evaluated for the presence of the Nl4 SCAR.When the SCAR was run, the presence/absence ratio was approximately 1:1, with 190 plants showing the DNA fragment. These results will be compared with the progeny test to be conducted in field. After evaluating these materials for resistance to Rhizoctonia, the sexual clones identified will continue in the breeding scheme.Given that tissue grinding is still one of the bottlenecks in speeding up MAS breeding in Brachiaria, efforts are being made to overcome this situation. Two 96-microtubes are being adapted to the Retsch Matrix Mili MM-2 racks, which will make it possible to grind 192 samples ata time, by adding stainless steel beads (3-mm diam.) inside each microtube. We have observed that differences in tissue hardness among samples result in uneven grinding of the tissue; thus we are attempting to make changes in the sample collection to prevent this problem.Aluminum (Al) toxicity is one of the most important constraints to crop production on acid soils (Rao et al., 1993). Signalgrass (B. decumbens Stapf cv Basilisk) is one of the most widely sown forage grass in the tropics, with 26.4 million ha in Brazil alone. Unlike most food crops, it is directly derived from a wild apomitic germplasm accession that is highly resistant to Al and well adapted to infertile acid soils (Sanchez and Salinas 1981;Paulina et al., 1987). Ruzigrass (Brachiaria ruzziziensis Germain and Evrard cv Common), a closely related species of the same agamic complex, is less Al resistant (Miles and do Valle 1996). Previous experiments ha ve established significant differences in aluminum (Al) tolerance between B. decumbens (resistant) and B. ruziziensis (sensitive) (Wenzl et al., 2001). The main objective ofthis work is to identify microsatellite (SSR) markers associated with the gene or (genes) that confer aluminum tolerance in a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens cross .Plant material: A parent B. decumbens 606 (tolerant) and B. ruziziensis 44-2 (sensitive) were used to generate hybrid population of280 individuals .DNA Extraction: DNA was isolated using the protocol described by Edwards et al., (1991) and modified by Quintero et al., (2000). DNA was quantified on a DYNA QUANT 200 fluorometer (Hoffer Scientific Instruments, San Francisco CA). Quantified DNA was diluted to a final concentration of 5 ng/ul. Then 25 ng of DNA was used for PCR.Microsatellites: The isolation of microsatellites and the methodology for PCR amplification and evaluation of polymorphism have been described previously by Gaitan et al., (2000). We are using silver staining to visualize the allelic segregation of the markers.We started the evaluation of the segregating F1 population (280 individuals) using 39 Simple Sequences Repeat SSR that showed polymorphism (Table 1 and Figure 1), to find markers associated to aluminum resistance for mapping and ultimately cloning the resistant genes.  • Establishment and evaluation of S 2 progenies -Evaluate both parents to look for more polymorphisms.-Finish the evaluation ofthe SSR in the Fl population.-Analysis ofthe data to construct a linkage map for Aluminum resistance.• Genomic resources (principally cDNA libraries and expressed sequence tags) have been developed for common bean roots and nodules under abiotic stress, concentrating on genes expressed during phosphorous deficiency. Other abiotic stress tolerance genes are likely to be found in these sequences and cDNA libraries.• Using a candidate gene approach, locate a genetic region in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) that correlates well with resistance to angular leaf spot was located. The region contains a cluster of Resistance Gene Analogs (RGA) of the TIR-NBS-LRR type. Sequencing of a BAC clone (about 80 kb long) covering part ofthe cluster has been completed.• New SSR markers were used to increase the saturation of the cassava molecular genetic map using PCRbased markers. Out of the total of 157 SSR markers, the geno me loci corresponding to 144 of them or 92% were successfully amplified .. In all, 59 out of these 144 markers, or 38%, were polymorphic and therefore used in screening the mapping population. 20% of these polymorphic SSR markers forrned allelic bridges.From the present work, 52 of these new SSR markers were placed on the existing molecular genetic framework map of cassava with 4 7 of them being uniformly distributed over 16 of the existing 18 linkage groups. Also, 5 of these were linked to a group of markers that are yet to be assigned to any of the existing linkage groups.• Expressed Sequence Tags for cassava starch were generated. A total of 10, 368 clones were isolated from CM523-7 from MPerl83. A total of 3770 unique clones' sequences were obtained. A number of interesti ng homologies were obtained between sorne of these sequences and starch biosynthesis re1ated genes in the Genbank.• Differentially expressed sequences were isolated in resistan! Brachiaria plants infested with spittelbug.MW Blair Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have proven useful for gene discovery for many crops. In common bean, there is a need to isolate cDNA clones from various tissues and begin generating EST sequence data for the crop. For this it will be necessary to construct multiple cDNA librarles that are ofhigh quality and representative for genes expressed in the tissues sampled. There is an EST working group in the Phaseomics consortium and EST sequence generation is one of the principal objectives of this group of scientists. However, to date, there ha ve been very few ESTs generated (a total of35 are found in Genbank as of July 2002). At CIA T we are very interested in generating sorne of the cDNA librarles for this effort using as starting material RNA extracted _ from a) príority tissues where genes for agronomic and quality traits can be expressed (roots, leaves, pods, seeds); b) tissues affected by conditions of induction that are important to production of beans by small farmers in the tropics ( disease or insect resistan ce, low fertility, drought or heat stress tolerance); ande) genotypes that have been developed or tested at CIAT that are leading varieties in Latin Arnerica or Africa and which have advantages in terms of the traits described above.In addition to the information generated on gene expression by EST sequencing, the sequence information can also be used to design molecular markers that tag expressed genes either as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of sequence tagged sites (STS) markers. A certain percentage of EST sequences have also been observed to contain simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that can be used to desígn microsatellite markers. The objectives of this research were to 1) develop two cDNA libraries from common bean roots that were stressed or unstressed for phosphorous deficiency; 2) begin EST sequencing and gene discovery using these libraries; and 3) estímate the frequency of microsatellites in the EST sequences and use them for marker generation.Tissues and RNA extrae/ion: Plants of the genotype DOR364 were grown under phosphorous sufficiency or deficiency for 5 days as follows: seeds were sterilized with bleach, germinated and grown in a nutrient solution with and without phosphorous. For both treatrnents, the seeds were placed about 3 cm from the top of rolled-up germination paper, which was wrapped in foil, and the bottom kept in the nutrient solution which was always replaced as used. Tissues were collected from tap roots and from lateral and basal roots of plants grown under both the optimum phosphorous and stressed conditions. Total RNA was extracted using a Trizo) extraction technique. The RNA was quantified with spectrophotometrically at Abs 2 60nm and size selected to be in the range of 1 to 3 kb in length. Poly-A messenger RNA was selected with a Dynabead protocol (Dynal).Libraries: Two cDNA libraries were constructed from the messenger RNA that was isolated as described above. The procedure followed was based on the UniZAP -cDNA synthesis kit (Stratagene). mRNA from both treatments was primed in the first strand synthesis with a hybrid oligo dT linker-primer that contains an Xhol restriction site and was transcribed using StrataScript reverse transcriptase and 5-methyl dCTP. Following ds cDNA synthesis, EcoRI adapters were ligated to the blunt ends and the sample was digested with Xhol. The result was cDNA with an EcoRI sticky end on one side andan Xhol sticky end on the other. This size-fractionated cDNA was precipitated and directionally ligated in the UniZAP XR vector arms. The lambda library was packaged in Gigapack m Gold extracts, and plated into E. coli cellline XL-1-Biue MRF' for In vivo excision. The cells were plated on Q-plates with Carbenicillin (1 00 mg/L) and colonies were picked and arrayed into 96-well plates. A total of 36,000 bacteria! colonies were picked from the excised library by a Q-bot robot. Automatic blue-white selection (with standard parameters as set on the Q-bot) was used to fmd the insert-containing clones. All the clones were stored in 384well plate format glycerol stocks that were copied once into working and master copies of the library that were stored at -80 C. Each of the libraries was spotted onto gridded Hybond N+ membrane filters with six fields each with a 96 position double-replicate 4 x 4 pattern. The low phosphorous library was named Pv_DEe, while the high phosphorous library was named Pv DEd.Clone sequencing: As a preliminary analysis ofthe library quality, 1440 clones were miniprepped by a modified alkaline lysis method (CUGI laboratory protocols, 2002). and sequenced from the 5'side of the clone using either Sp6 or Ml3 Reverse primers. The clones were sequenced from the 5' end using the TI primer, and then from the 3' end with the T7 primer. All sequences were searched for vector segments to check for insert integrity. The sequences were scored with PHRED quality values. The successful sequences contained a mínimum of 100 continuous high quality bases, with a PHRED value of 20 or above and were trimmed to remove vector, adaptar, E. coli and Poly A sequences.Two root cDNA libraries were successfully constructed from poly A mRNA that was captured from 4 ug of total RNA isolated from high and low phosphorous treated roots of the genotype DOR364. Preliminary analysis of the clones for each library showed that the average insert size was around 1.5 -1.8 kb, which is about normal for most cDNA libraries that are well represented. The 18,000 clones that were picked for each library could fit on two filters each. In future hybridization experiments, clones could be identified by their position in the double-replicate pattern found at each grid axis in the address system. The cONA libraries are interesting because they represent genes that are turned on as an early response to optimum or low phosphorous in young plants. The stage of phosphorous deficiency response is considered early since the roots were harvested when they had started to develop initiating lateral roots but befo re adventitious rooting starts. At the time of the basal and tap root sampling, there was not much difference in shoot growth given that the seed reserves are known to last for about 7 to 9 days, and only after that does slower growth set in with the low P plants. Therefore, symptoms of phosphorous deficiency were not seen in the plants harvested for the RNA extraction. The phosphorous levels were 1 mM for high P, and none added for low P (note that the low phosphorous treatrnent was not actually quite zero since the tap water used for this had about 0.5 uM phosphorous). Although P content of leaves was not measured in these plants, previous work with plants that were grown under similar conditions to these had shoot P concentration after 5 days of 172 umo l/gdw for high P and 155 um/gdw for no P (Bonser et al 1996).We selected the genotype DOR364 to use for these libraries for various reasons. First, DOR364 is a tropically adapted; red seeded variety grown throughout Central America, from the Mesoamerican genepool and as such is an important variety to understand. This was important to the present research given that the genes discovered in this variety could be important for adaptation of this variety to farmer's conditions. Secondly, DOR364 is also the parent of the CIAT mapping population, DOR364 x Gl9833, and therefore any genes that would be ofinterest from the sequencing portian of the project could be mapped by conversion to markers for linkage analysis in the mapping population.We have started the EST sequence analysis of the two libraries and have obtained a total 1911 sequences so far (Table 1). Of these raw sequences, 1414 were high quality, gíving a success rate of 74%. The individual success rate was better for the Pv_DEd library (80%) than for the Pv_DEe library (69%). The average number of bases per trim sequence was also higher in the Pv_DEd library (533 nt) than in the Pv_DEe library (489 nt). The sequencing success rate was about standard for EST libraries at Clemson with stringent rules for what constitutes successful sequences. Also the sequencing so far confirms good insert size and also that there are no chimerics in the library. The sequences represent identifiable 5' and 3' ESTs since they carne from a directionally cloned cDNA \\ibrary and were sequenced with either T7 or T3 primers. AH the sequences have been BLAST searched against each other to check for sequence redundancy (redundant clones consist in 90% identity over half the nucleotides in the sequence). The vast majority of the sequences were unique, and when compared to all plant proteins in the Genbank database identified significant homologies (EXP<le-6).The results of the EST sequencing also gave us a good idea of which simple sequen ce repeats are common in cONA sequences, where these are located and how frequently they occurred in the library. The large majority of the repeats occurred in the 5'untranslated region (UTR) upstream of the start codon for the open reading frame (ORF) where these could be identified. Another proportion of the SSRs occurred in the 3' UTR, while fewer were found within the ORF. The total percentage of ESTs that might be expected to contain potential SSRs based on this study is approximately 5.6 %.The present work brings toa total of 4182 the number ofESTs for beans generated here at CIAT (3086 of high quality), including sequences from leaf and root tissues. More will be generated this year through collaborations with severa! sequenciog labs. After screening for microsatellites, a total of 540 EST sequences have been annotated and submitted to Genbank so far. This collection of new gene sequences for common bean represents many more individual sequences than are currently in the Genbank public database for all Phaseo/us species together.Future plans  Common bean grown in the tropics is often produced on poor soils or marginal land that is deficient in phosphorous and other essential nutrients. Low phosphorous can adversely affect symbiotic biological nitrogen fixation (SNF). The association of low nitrogen fixation with low phosphorous use availability is a double blow to crop productivity, which often affects small farmers who do not have access to commercial fertilizers. Sorne genotypes, with the best example being the CIA T 1 in e BA T 4 77, can fix nitro gen despite lower amounts of available phosphorous . The mechanism by which this genotype is more efficient is not fully understood, although progress has been made in understanding sorne of the physio logical responses that underlie this response (Vadez and Drevon, 2001 ).In this research we were interested in exploring the genetic control of good SNF potential under low phosphorous conditions by comparing nodule-expressed genes under both phosphorous sufficient and deficient conditions. The specific objective was to initiate the construction of three cDNA libraries for genes expressed in mature nodule cortex tissues in three genotypes that were inoculated with Rhizobium tropici, CIA T strain 899 and grown under pbosphorous stress conditions: BAT477 (phosphorous efficient), DOR364 (phosphorous inefficient) and Line 115 (even higher phosphorous efficient). We were also interested in analyzing a series of candidate genes that had been isolated from nodule cortex under stress conditions. The nodular cortex is thought to control the effective function of the nodule by controlling oxygen permeability and nutrient transport, which is thought to change with nutrient deficiency, salinity or drought stress. This research was part of a project entitled \"Candidate Genes for Tolerance of Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation (SNF) to Phosphorus Deficiency in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)\" that was approved by the French science program called the Agropolis platform.Genotypes and growth conditions: Three genotypes were used for cDNA library construction: BAT477, DOR364 and line 115, one of the F5:9 progeny from the cross of these two parents. Seeds of each genotype were germinated in petri dishes where they were inoculated with strain CIA T899 ofRhizobium tropici at four days after germination. Tbe seeds were then transferred to nutrient solutions (Drevon et al. 1988) and grown under two phosphorous treatments applied as KH2P04 : limiting phosphorous: 75¡..uno1es per plant and sufficient phosphorous: 250 ~ moles per p1ant.RNA extraction: At approx.imately three weeks after p1anting, 150 nodules ( of 3 mm in diameter or larger) were collected, the inner cortex and bacteroids were removed by dissection with a razor blade anda blunt ended need1e. The dissected nodular cortex was ground immediately in liquid nitrogen and the resulting powder was stored at -80°C. RNAeasy extraction kits (Quiagen) were used to isolate total RNA and aligo dT coupled Dynabeads (Dyna1 inc.) were used to iso1ate poly-A messenger RNA. CDNA library construction was carried out with Stratagene's \" UniZap-cDNA synthesis kit. Size fractionation was done with sephadex columns (GIBCO-BRL).A series of 70 clones representing nodule-expressed genes from soybean, medicago, common bean and other legumes were mini-prepped and sequenced to confmn insert size in preparation for use in screening the common bean nodule cortex library. Of these, 59 were clones from a differential display experiment carried out in INRA (Hassan et al., 2000). Standard sequencing techniques were carried out with dye terminator chemistry on an ABI 377 automated sequencing machine (Applied Biosystems).In both genotypes sufficient RNA of high quality was obtained to conduct RNA hybridization experiments, with total yields of 5 ug for Line 115 and 3.5 ug of BAT477 and DOR364 in both high and low P treatments. RNA quality was determined spectrophotometrically and on 1% agarose gels. cDNA synthesis proceeded well for Line 115 RNA but after fractionation yields of cDNA were at a low concentration of 50nglul and since the protocol recommended higher concentrations this was not used for library construction. With BAT 477 RNA there was sufficient cDNA concentration for the ligation to the vector and for packaging. We have not yet sequenced any of the clones from these libraries but plan to start in the upcoming year.In the meantime we have started to sequence clones that would be of interest for screening the resulting libraries. The most likely candidate genes were aquoporins (from Vigna mungo, Medicago truncatula and Phaseolus vulgaris), carbonic anhydrase (from P. vulgaris and Glycine max) and phosphate transporters (from G. max). In addition we identified two common bean genes from the set of differential display clones with the following homologies: a) to a putative senescence associated protein from Pisum sativa and b) to a Ca-dependent protein kinase from Arabidopsis thaliana. We have also tried to use the RNA extractions in preliminary macroarray hybridization experiments, using filters prepared for EST clones from phosphorous-starved, arabidopsis roots and from mycorhizae-colonized medicago roots (kindly provided by P. Nacry and by H. Kuester). Under this project, two CIA T scientists and one researcher from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) participated in a laboratory exchange program with INRA -Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) -ENSA -UMR. Sois et Environement. The project will continue through the year 2003.• Finish construction of cONA libraries, attempt to subtract libraries made for high and low phosphorous and begin sequencing nodule specific genes. All of these techniques rely on the availability of ONA libraries. Microsatellites ha ve been developed us ing both small-insert clones 1-kb) and cONA sequences for a wide range of plant species. In this study, we were interested in developing common bean microsatellites from small-insert and cONA libraries that were constructed and screened last year for simple sequence repeat. The new set of gene-based and genomic microsatellites will be useful for mapping and tagging projects in common bean.Libraries: Four libraries were screened for microsatellites. The largest library was a Ieaf cONA library from the genotype G 19833 consisting of 64, 128 clones called Pv _ GEa. In addition, three small-insert genomic libraries from the genotype DOR364 were screened. These were based on three restriction enzymes: (1) Rsai library (19,584 clones) 2) Alul library ( 18,432 clones); and3) Haeiii library (19,968 clones). These libraries are described in more detail in the 2000 Annual Report.Clone selection and sequencing: Clones were selected from the cDNA and small-insert library filters with repeat containing oligonucleotides as described in last year's annual report. Putative simple sequence repeat-containing clones were picked from their appropriate position in 384-well plate fonnat glycerol stocks and sequenced on an automated ABD77 sequencer. The positive clones were sequenced initially from one end of the insert. In the case of the cDNA library, the 5 'side of the clone was sequenced using either Sp6 or M 13 Reverse primer and the 3' end was sequenced with either the T7 or Ml3 primers. In the case ofthe small insert libraries the clones were sequenced with either T7 or T3 high temperature primers. Any cDNA clone that did not contain an SSR in the 5'end was sequenced again from the opposite 3' end with T7 or M13 Forward prirners. Small insert clones were only sequenced from the opposite direction if the insert was larger than 500 bp which was rare.The new microsatellite primer pairs were tested with a rapid PCR protocol of 3 min 92 C, followed by 34 cycles of 15 sec denaturing 92 C, 15 sec annealing 47 C and 30 sec extension 72 C. Amplification was done on a panel of 18 genotypes as described previously (CIA T, SB2 Annual Report, 2000). The PCR products were run on 4% polyacrylamide (29: 1) gels for 1 hour at 130 constant volts.A total of 271 O sequences were obtained for this project of which 2271 were from cDNA clones and 439 were from small insert clones (Table 1). The cDNA clones that were sequenced included a \"random set\" that had to been selected to contain simple sequence repeats and a \"selected set'' that had been. A total of 768 individual 5' sequences were obtained for the random set, while a total of 1503 individual 5' (927 reads) and 3' (576 reads) sequences were obtained for the selected set. These raw sequences were processed with the UNIX-based programs, Crossmatch and Phred (P. Green and B. Ewing) to remove vector and adaptor sequences and to detennine sequence quality. Phred detennines confidence values for each base call in a sequence based on the peak height of that base in the electropherogram of that sequence. Phred values equal to or above 20 indicated high read quality, values between 16 and 19 were acceptable but not ideal and values below 15 were considered poor. A total of 1672 successful sequences were obtained from the cDNA library.After sequence trimming, the program Sequencher (v. 4.1.2 Macintosh, Gene Codes Co.) was used to compare similar sequences. All clones were checked against all other clones from the library to remove redundancies between clones. Any pair of clones containing a similarity of 90% or greater in SO% of the total bases sequences were considered redundant and only the better quality sequence was selected for further analysis and for primer design. The sequences were also searched for vector segments to check for insert integrity.After redundancy checks, the sequences were screened for simple sequence repeats using the SSRIT too!. Meanwhile, among the clones selected by hybridization, a total of 421 cDNA sequen ces (28% of the total) and 11 O small insert sequen ces (25% of the total) were found to ha ve simple sequence repeats, reflecting a relatively low efficiency of the hybridization based screening to detect SSR positive clones. By comparison, in the random set of cONA clones there were 80 (l 0.4% of the total). It was notable that for the cONA sequences, simple sequence repeats were more frequent in the 5'end sequences (354 positive or 38% of the total) than in the 3' end sequen ces ( 67 positive or 11.6% of the total). This suggests that simple sequen ce repeats are more common in the 5' untranslated region of the cDNA or initial part of the open reading frame than in 3' untranslated regions of the cDNA This observation was corroborated by EST sequencing in additionallibraries that we have analyzed at CIAT.In the case of the cDNA clones that contained microsatellites, the sequences were analyzed with the program ORF finder (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) so as to identify the longest uninterrupted open-reading frame and the probable 5' or 3' untranslated regions of the cDNA. We were interested in knowing the location of the simple sequence repeat relative to these parts of the individual cDNA. This was important since many of the microsatellites, especially those based on di-nucleotide repeats, were located in the untranslated regions of the cDNA and not in the open reading frame. After running the ORF finder, the positive sequences were searched for homology to the non-redundant Genbank database using the program BLAST (http://www.ncbi .nlm.nih.gov). A large number of the cDNA clones identified homologous genes in this database, in the MIPS Arabidopsis thaliana database, or in Swissprot (Table 2). The ORF finder program was not used in the case of small-insert genomic clones, as these were assumed to be mostly from non-coding regions ofthe genome.After the sequence processing, the software program Primer 3.0 ((http://wwwgenome.wi.mit.edu/cgi-bin/primer/primer3) was used to analyze the regions flanking the simple sequence repeat to design primers for the microsatellite markers. A total of 341 primers pairs were designed for cDNA sequences and 77 for small insert sequences. However for an initial ordering of microsatellite markers only the di-or tri-nucleotide containing motifs were ordered, including 238 primer pairs for cONA clones and 59 for small insert clones. Tetra and pentanucleotide motifs will be ordered separately ata later date. All the primers were designed in regions of high quality sequence (Phred score above 15) that had balanced amounts of GC 1 A T content and that fulfilled the following design parameters: noncomplementary ends, melting temperature (T m) of 60 C, primer length at least 20 nucleotides long. The average product size was between 100 and 200 base pairs, however the product size for the cONA clones was kept slightly smaller than for the small insert clones given the risk of crossing intron-exon boundaries in the cONA sequence. For the small insert clones, no effort was made to keep the product size especially small given that these were genomic sequences. Many of the primer pairs designed for cONA sequences were anchored to the start codon of the open reading frame where these could be identified. More than one primer pair was designed for severa! cONA and small insert clones which had multiple simple sequence repeats.So far we have tested 191 primer pairs (132 from the cONA sequences and 59 from the small insert sequences) for amplification ability and potential polymorphism on a set of parents discussed elsewbere in the annual report. Of the cONA-based microsatellites, 51% presented polymorphisms, 40% were monomorphic, 1% showed multi-copy amplification, and 8% did not amplify. Of the microsatellites based on small-insert clone sequences, 44% were polymorphic, 44% were monomorphic and 12% did not amplify. The level of polymorphism appeared to be related to the number of repetitions in the simple sequence repeat more than the specific motif that the simple sequence repeat had. Microsatellite markers designed for simple sequence repeats of more than ten repetitions were much more likely to be polymorphic than those designed for simple sequence repeats with less than seven repetitions.• Sequence a random set of the small insert library clones to determine common motifs.Test the new microsatellites on additional parental surveys and assemble the information into BeanGenes and Oracle databases that we are maintaining at CIA T.Polymorphic microsatellites will be mapped on either the DOR364 x G 19833 or BAT93 x JaloEEP558 core populations or on additional mapping populations that the lab is working on. Sequences will be submitted to the EST database at Genbank. The sequenced cONA clones represent the first substantial number of EST sequences in beans. So far, 540 of the 2271 EST sequences described here have been uploaded to Genbank. These ESTs are high quality sequences that contain no SSRs. This effort has increased the number of ESTs for Phaseolus in the ESTdb at Genbank from 35 entries earlier this year to 575 entries now. EST sequences will be used to develop SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) based assays, especially as simple procedure such as dense chips, become available. The objective of this study was to test the new microsatellites described in the previous two sections on a panel of 18 common bean genotypes representing wild and cultivated germplasm of common beans, both Mesoamerican and Andean, which have been used as parents in the bean breeding program.The genotypes are described in the CIA T annual report (2000) and were the parents of 11 mapping populations being studied at CIA T for nutritional quaJity, phosphorus stress tolerance and other traits (Table 1). The genotypes were evaluated with a total of 178 new microsatellite markers ( of which 119 were derived from the cONA library and 59 were derived from the smallinsert genomic libraries).The markers were amplified at different annealing temperatures according to the estimated melting temperatures of the primers. The amplification conditions are given in other parts of this annual report. The PCR products were resolved by electrophoresis for approximately one hour at 130 constant volts on silver-stained 4% polyacrylamide gels. Microsatellite alleles were sized by comparison to the 1 O and 25 bp molecular weight standards (Promega).The average rate of polymorphism was higher in the four inter-genepool (Andean x Mesoamerican) crosses than in the seven intra-genepool (Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican) crosses (Table 1). Among the Andean x Andean crosses, 021078 x 021242 was the most polymorphic and among the Mesoamerican x Mesoamerican crosses, 011360 x 011350 was the most polymorphic. This may reflect ínter gene-pool introgression in one of the parents of each population. Among the inter-genepool crosses al! were relatively similar in the leve! of polymorphism between the parents (from 33 to 36% on average). Both of these trends for polymorphism rates in intra and inter-genepool crosses were equally evident when using genomic and cONA derived microsatellites.Oenomic and cONA microsatellites detected about equal polymorphism (22.6%) overall. Similar number of average alleles per locus were found for microsatellites from the cONA and genomic libraries. The discriminating power (O) of the gene-derived microsatellites (0.490 among polymorphic, 0.267 among al! markers, including monomorphic) was slightly higher than for the genomic microsatellites (0.471 and 0.189, respectively). The discrimination power was positively correlated with the number of alleles produced at the locus. Null alleles were uncommon in both microsatellite classes.• Mapping of the new microsatellites will be pursued • Assembling of microsatellite fingerprint data into the AceDB database, BeanGenes that were described in last year's annual report The obj ective of this work was to characterize the phaseolin alleles found in two sets of comrnon bean genotypes that are parents of recombinant inbred line populations at CIA T. Phaseolin is the major seed storage protein in bean seed and has been used as an evolutionary marker given that the genetic diversity at the phaseolin locus reflects the structure of the species: wild accessions generally have more diversity than cultivated genotypes and Mesoamerican and Andean beans have different alleles. Phaseolin analysis has been used to follow introgression and as a genetic marker in mapping studies. The genetic resource unit has experience detennining the phaseolin pattern on denaturing protein gels.In the frrst part of this study, a total of 30 common bean genotypes were evaluated for phaseolin pattern. All the genotypes were parents of genetic mapping populations used in the Bean Germplasm Laboratory and Bean Breeding Program. In the second part of this study, severa) mapping populations were also analyzed for phaseolin pattem. Total seed proteins were extracted from 0.01 g of peeled, finely-ground, oven-dried seed by a standard extraction technique used at the Genetic Resource Unit at CIA T. One microliter each of the protein extracts were separated with 6% separation 1 12% stacking SDS-PAGE (polyacrylamide) mini-gels run at 180 V for 50 minutes and stained with Coomasie Blue dye. The phaseolin pattem was compared to known standards provided by C. Ocampo ofthe Genetic Resource Unit ofCIAT.A total of 4 phaseolin pattems were detected among the 30 genotypes (Table 1). These included the alleles for phaseolin \"S\", \"T\", \"C\", and \"1\". The alleles could be distinguished by the number and molecular weights ofthe protein bands on the SDS-PAGE gels (Figure 1). As expected, the \"S\" allele was common in the Mesoamerican genotypes while the \"T'' allele was common in the Andean genotypes. A single wild accession (G24390) had the \"1\" allele, whi1e both a wild (G24404) anda cultivated (G21242) bean had the \"C\" allele.The phaseolin protein pattem was polymorphic for nine populations of interest in the CIA T breeding program and so far the locus has been mapped in three of these populations. The phaseolin locus was already mapped in the BAT93 x Jalo EEP558 population (S x T) (Freyre et al., 1998). From that mapas well as the one from Vallejos et al (1992) the phaseolin gene family is known to be located on chromosome b07.Our results showed that in the core CIAT mapping population (DORJ64 x G19833-S x T alleles) the locus mapped to the expected location on chromosome b07 and fit the expected segregation ration of 1: l. Heterozygosity at this locus was very low ( 1.2% ). This was not surprising given that the population of 87 RILs is in the F 11 generation.In the advanced backcross population (Cerinza x (Cerinza (Cerinza x G24404))) -CIL x T), segregation was skewed towards the cultivated allele \"T\" allele and surprisingly there was introgression of both the \"C\" and \"L\" alleles from the wild parent. In the Andean micronutrient population (G21242 x G21 078 -C x T), the Iocus al so mapped to the correct location on chromosome b07.   Phaseolin pattern in 16 genotypes of common bean that are parents of mapping populations at CIAT.Future studiesMapping ofthe phaseolin locus in the Cerinza X (Cerinza (Cerinza X G24390))) (T X n, DOR390x (DOR390 x (DOR390 x G 19892)) (S x T) and G2333 x G 19839 (S x T) populations.A cluster of Resistance Gene Analogs (RGAs) that explain 47 and 64% of the resistance to two isolates of angular leaf spot (ALS) in the common bean is currently being analyzed at the sequence leve!. In doing so, we pursue three goals:To facilitate the genetic dissection of the cluster in order to establish which member(s) of the cluster is(are) involved in the resistance to ALSTo generate new molecular markers that benefit breeding programs To understand the difference in sequence that determines resistance in genotype Gl9833 m contrast with other genotypes Once a full-length genomic copy ofthe member associated with resistance is obtained, it could be introduced in susceptible genotypes in order to demonstrate that they are effective resistance genes.Last year we initiated the sequencing, at the genomic leve!, of a relatively large BAC clone (57Ml4) of the common bean that contains 4 members of the RGA 7 family out of 7 found in a contig of 11 BAC clones. On the other hand, at the expression leve!, it is necessary to determine whether sorne members of the RGA 7 family are being expressed in the plant as an indication of its functionality. Here we show the advances made at both levels of sequence analysis and the work in progress that is required to accomplish the proposed goals.Sequencing of the BAC clone 57Ml4 was initially attempted by a transposon-insertion strategy using a kit from Epicentre, which randomly inserts an EZ::Tn <KAN-2> transposon, containing a selectable marker (kanamycin resistance) and sequencing primer-binding sites into BAC DNA (CIAT, 2001).A second strategy was designed to complement the results obtained with the first one. It involved constructing a \"subcloning library of amplified fragments from the BAC 57Ml4\". The BAC clone was partially digested using a low concentration of MSel, and the fragments were ligated to a common Msel-adapter used for AFLP. The ligation was diluted andan aliquot used to perfonn a standard PCR reaction using the MSei-adapter as a primer. Amplified products were separated by electrophoresis in an agarose gel; and those in the range of 500-0.2 bp were excised, purified and cloned in the pGEM-T easy vector system (Promega). The library was transformed in Escherichia coli DHSa cells by electroporation, and 384 clones were randomly selected. Plasmids were isolated by \"the microwave protocol,\" a high-throughput method that allows microwave-mediated bacteria! cell lysis in a 96-well fonnat (Marra et. al., 1999) for use directly in sequencing reactions with T7 and/or SP6 primers.Two different software programs are being used to edit and assemble sequences in contigs. Sequencher, which is the current software for editing sequences in the Project, includes severa! useful features such as fast contig editing and restriction-site analysis. For large-scale sequencing projects, however, the choice is Phred/Phrap/Consed (Gordon et al., 1998), which are used together for editing, assembling and viewinglediting, respectively. The results obtained from both packages were merged to arrive at the final inference.To isolate the complete sequence of cDNAs corresponding to expressed members of the RGA 7 family, we decided to perform a Rapid Amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) (Frohman, 1993), using tbe SMART RACE cONA Amplification kit (Ciontech) and following the User Manual instructions. RNA was extracted using Trizo!® reagent from the first leaves of one-month-old G 19833 plants that had not been challenged with any pathogen. Gene-Specific Primers (GSPs) were designed from the sequence of RGA 7 so that they can produce overlapping 5 'and 3 '-RACE products; thus they can also be used to amplify the original RGA 7 sequence. An additional Nested Gene Specific Primer (NGSP) was designed for 3 '-RACE (Figure 1 ). Sequencing ofthe BAC 57M14. The complete sequence ofthe BAC clone 57-M14 is important to unveil the structural organization of cluster RGA7. We sequenced 501 clones -either at one or both ends-from the transposon insertion library that rendered about 55 kb ofthe total sequence. However, 50% of the clones were assembled on one of three contígs containing retroelement-type sequences. There was clearly a bias in the transposon-insertion reaction for this kind of sequence, which explains why we were not able to cover a greater portion of the total sequen ce. Therefore, a new library was constructed, this time containing subcloning-amplified fragments from the original BAC 57Ml4 (see above). After sequencing the 384 subclones, we reached 70 kb ofthe genomic sequence. Currently, we are working on the remaining sequence, which ís estimated to be 10-15 kb long.Twenty contigs were assembled, their sizes ranging from 690 bp-a contig containing a single clone-to 26.2 kb. We then performed GenBank searches with the BLASTX algorithm as a frrst step to identify contigs containing RGA-type sequences and additional putative coding sequences.Only 9 out of the 20 contigs contained sequences that, when translated, have significant homologies in the protein database (Table 1).Six of the contigs correspond to RGA-type sequen ces. Considering that contig RGA 7F may be the 3 'end of one of the other RGA 7 contigs, we can reason that BAC 57M 14 contains 5 members ofthe RGA7 family. When 989 bp ofthe 5 'coding sequence ofthese members was compared, their similarities ranged from 68-91%. The NBS sequen ce of the original RGA 7 predicted that this RGA was ofthe TIR-NBS-LRR family (CIAT, 2000). Now, we have confmned this because the 5' region ofthe RGA7 members contained in BAC57Ml4 is homologous to the TIR domain of R-genes. Only RGA 7B contains all the domains of a TIR-NBS-LRR, and we are currently working on the annotation process involving intron-exon prediction, open reading frame determination, etc. We still have to complete the sequence of the other members in the contig, and this will be done when the remaining sequence ofthe BAC clone is determined. A great portion of the BAC sequence may be not coding, and another is related to retroelementtype sequences. This last finding is striking, although not uncornmon. RGA 7 seems to be located in a region enriched in transposable elements, which has also been the case for sorne R-gene clusters: Xa21 (rice) and Mla (bar1ey). In the fonner case, evidence for the involvernent of transposition in the evo1ution of the cluster has been provided (Song et. al., 1997).The origin of BAC 57M14 is the common bean cv. Sprite. However, the source ofthe resistance that we ha ve found associated with RGA 7 is var. G 19833, one of the parents in the rnapping population used at CIA T. Now, our aim is to isolate the corresponding copies of RGA 7 mernbers frorn G 19833 and detennine if one or severa! of them are conferring resistance to ALS. A genomic approach is currently being designed to reach this goal.Iso/ation of RGA 7 cDNAs. Trizo1® reagent guarantees ONA-free preparations of RNA. The SMART RACE cONA Amplification kit frorn C1ontech allows the amplification of5 ' and 3' end sequences of a known target as RGA 7 from cONA. After the cONA synthesis reaction, we perfonned a PCR using both GSPs to amplify the overlapping fragment corresponding to the original RGA 7 NBS sequence. Successful amplification of the expected band of :::::500 bp confinned that the GSPs we designed worked well, that our method of cONA synthesis was satisfactory, and that RGA 7 is constitutively expressed in common bean 1eaves. We a1so tested the RACE technique on the expression of a housekeeping gene, a subunit of the Rubisco Activase. Primers designed from an EST for this gene, reported in the GenBank, perrnitted the amplification ofthe expected fragment in both 5'-and 3'-RACE (data not shown).3 ' RACE amplification attempts for RGA 7 produced multip1e products, but at very low yields. Therefore we perforrned an additiona1 (nested) PCR reaction on these primary products, using the Universal Nested Primer (UNP) provided with the kit and our NGSP. Mu1tiple products were then observed at 0.5, 0.8, 1.2, 1.5 and 3.0 kb. By far, the band at 0.5 kb was most efficiently amplified. Cloning and sequencing ana1yses of these mu1tiple products were achieved for the bands at 0.5, 1.2 and 1.5 kb, which correspond to the RGA 7. However, they do not seern to correspond to fuli-Iength cONA sequences even though the largest product contains the LRR motif. The band at 3 kb has the expected size of a full cONA product, but we were not able to clone it. After gel excision, the 0.5 kb band was present as a background that competed in the cloning reaction with the desired largest band. Now, we are considering sorne of the rnultiple products an artifact in the cONA synthesis, particularly the one of 0.5 kb, because we have found sorne regions in RGA 7 with high TA content, which could lead to mispriming of the oligo (dT)primer. Other explanations may be alternative splícing or the use of multiple polyadenylation sites although they seern less feasible.On the other hand, the 5'RACE arnplification failed to produce the expected band of l.5kb even after several rearnplification procedures were tested. In conclusion RACE is not a simple matter, and a number of factors influence the success of the procedure:The R-genes are expressed at low rates in the cell although the mernbers of sorne large RGA farnilies are more easily detected (Acosta & Tohme, 2001). The efficiency of both 5'-and 3'-RACE arnplifications depends on the abundance ofthe target transcript. According to Clontech, \"no method of cDNA synthesis can guarantee a full-length cDNA, particularly at the 5' end.\" The severer secondary structure may block the action of the reverse transciptase andlor the Taq DNA polymerase in sorne instances. Consequently, our next step is to improve the performance of RACE procedures to determine whether RGA 7 is being expressed as a complete sequence, which is to be expected for an NBS-LRR type R-gene.Finishing and annotating the complete sequence ofBAC clone 57-Ml4 Isolation of members of the RGA 7 farnily from parental line 619833 , which contains resistance specificíties in this farnily Improvement of the RACE technique for weakly expressed genes. Critical points are the quality of RNA, cDNA synthesis and PCR arnplification.Retrotransposons are mobile genetic elements that transpose through an RNA intermediate and are ubiquitous in plants. Retrotransposon have become a powerful too! for many tasks, including: diversity and linkage analysis, mapping, phylogeny, expression, retrotransposon based molecular marker studies, and an increasing interest in the field of retrotransposon mediated genomic evolution has become evident considering the insertional patterns of retroelements in promoter regions, resistance gene clusters, and the synergic activation of retrotransposons and stress genes.We continued in sequencing and analysis of fragments from a previously generated library (Galindo, Gaitan and Tohme, 2001) created by using the technique implemented by Pearce et al. ( 1999) to isolate numerous and di verse RNAse-LTR fragments. Analysis of the sequen ces uncovered evolutionary relationships concerning bean retroelements.Besides the clones selected for sequencing and analysis in the previous study (Galindo, Gaitan  and Tohme, 2001), new clones from the library were selected to be sequenced and analyzed giving an overall number of 123 clones with the expected pair of primers (RNAse-Msel). Ana1ysis was performed using Sequencher 3.0, Blast x 2.0, C lustal 1.8, Clustal x 1.62, Matlnspector professiona1 (Quandt et al., 1995) and PAQ (Baccam et al., 2001).From the 123 clones having the expected pair of primers in the flanking regions, 91 showed similarity to RNAse like sequences from the Genbank. Figure 1 shows a1ignment of sorne of the conceptual translations ofthe isolated RNAse sequences.Small continous variations between sequences indicated that retrotransposons behaved as a quasispecies-like population. An examp1e ofthis behavior is shown by sequences CIAT-Tpv403, CIA T-Tpv 1151 and CIA T-Tpv459 (Fig. 2). The sequence CIA T-Tpv403 has a 98 similarity score (assesed by Clustal W) to CIAT-Tpv1151 (one nucleotide difference), and the latter bears a 98 score to CIAT-Tpv459; however, CIAT-Tpv403 and CIAT-Tpv459 have a similarity score of97 (two nucleotide difference) meaning that these two sequences (when comparing this RNAse section) are two units away from each other, and at the same time, one unit away from CIA T-Tpv 1151 , as defined by a hamming sequen ce space (Eigen 1993 ). The inference of a quasispecies-like behavior led us to analyze possible clustering between the isolated RNAse sections. When the 92 sequences were submitted to Clustal X (Isolated sequences plus element Tpv2-6 isolated by Garber et al., 1999) it was difficult to limit clustering for sorne sequences. Therefore, we analyzed the same sequences using a whole new package \"PAQ\" (Partitional Analysis in Quasispecies) which has already been implemented for retroviral sequen ces (Baccam et al., 2001 ). Eight non-overlapping clusters were defined and eight sequences were left out of any cluster using an optimal radius value of 6 differences (Table 1). PAQ uses hamming distance to create groups where the degree of separation between each sequence reflects similarity, and the separation depends on nucleotide or aminoacid changes from one sequence to another. While Clustal relies on a progressive alignment where all the sequences become related, PAQ excludes under-represented sequences or sequences that are far from most common variants in sequences space, thereby not forcing relationships. PAQ only assumes that closely related sequences should differ by a small number of changes while additional preestablished evolutionary processes are the basis of programs like Clustal. T hese more complicated Additionally sorne ofthe presumed LTR regions (L814-90, L438-314) were analyzed with the program Matlnspector to search for putative transcription factor binding sites. Besides finding typical transcription factor binding sites, high scoring homology was found to SBF-1 which is also present in the promoter region of bean defense gene CHS 15 coding for chalcone synthase (Lawton et al. 1991 ), and to DOF recognition motifs which are al so related to pathogen responsive gene expression (Y anagisawa and Schmidt 1999). These elements may provide evidence of recombination mechanisms leading to activation of retroelements by the same factors activating defense genes. Although the mechanism leading to acquisition of these regulatory sequences between both types of sequences is obscure, retrotransposons related to RGA clusters have been found in rice (Song et al., 1997), Jettuce (Meyers et al., 1998) and bean (Acosta, unpublished results). The acquisition of these sequences by retrotransposons could also explain retrotransposon activation by stress factors (Hirochika et al. 1996), which is also a common feature of defense gene promoters.• Mapping of a population derived from a G 19884 *DOR362 cross using primers derived from severa! L TR regions from different retroelements using a modification of the SSAP technique (Waught et al, 1997). characterization, genetic marker-assisted breeding, dilucidation of complex genomic mixtures and genetic fingerprinting. The fact that there is no need for previous sequencing and that this technique is characterized by rapid, high throughput makes it an inexpensive and suitable option for generating genetic map saturation in Neotropical plants such as cassava.Genera/ion of pane/s. Whole genomic DNA was extracted from four parents of two mapping populations: NGA-2 and CM 2177-2 for the first one; M Ecu 72 and M Col2246 for the whiteflyresistance gene mapping population. Total DNA (1 00 ¡ .. d) of each parent of the flfSt population was bulked and digested with 2 units of the restriction enzyme Pstl. Then the digestion product was bonded to its corresponding adapter and PCR amplified. The product of this amplification was further column-purified using QIAGEN PCR cleaning kit, then bonded to the pGEM T-easy vector, and used to transform competent Eschlerichia coli strain DH5a, by electroporation. The positively transformed cells (white colonies) were transferred onto a freezing medium, where they grew at 37°C ovemight. The culture was PCR amplified using T7 and Sp6 universal primers. Afterwards PCR products were alcohol precipitated and dried at room temperature. The same protocol was carried out with both parents, but this time using restriction enzyme Mspl. With the other two parents, the procedure was repeated using the same enzymes. Once the PCR products were dried, they were re-suspended in spotting buffer. These were spotted onto microscope glass slides covered with polysine, using SPBIO MirraiBio's spotter. Slides were processed as per Jacoud et al. (200 1 ).General ion of the representa/ion. DNA ( 100 ng) of each parent was digested with the two enzymes in separate reactions, bonded to their own adapter and PCR amplified. A fraction ofthat product was also digested with EcoT14I or Banii and PCR amplified. The product was then column purified (QIAGEN PCR purification kit) and labeled with Cy3 or CyS dyes, using an Amersham Megaprime Labeling kit, except that the enzyme was Kleenow fragments, exonuclease free, polymerase J. Five units were employed for each reaction.Hybridization. Cy3 and CyS solutions were concentrated at ~~l and mixed with hybridization solution from Clontech, denatured at 94°C for about 3 min, and pipetted directly onto the microarray surface. They were immediately covered with glass cover slips and incubated at 60°C in a water bath hybridization chamber from Clontech ovemight. After hybridization the slides were process washed in SSCXSDS solution. After washing, the slides were dried at room temperature by centrifugation.Scanning and image ana/ysis. Once dried, slides were scanned with Virtek Chipreader, and images were analyzed using Array Pro version 4.0.Four genomic libraries were generated; two libraries for each pair of two mapping population parents: Only the first library was taken to make 7 panels and hybridize them: 3 using Pstl DNA probe, 2 using Pstl and EcoT141 DNA probes, and 2 using Pstl and Banii DNA probes. Eight clones of this library are possibly polymorphic . Table 1 summarizes the place in the library where clones are and to which parent they are related. ln this table it can be seen that the leve! of polymorphic clones found by this method is low. Only 8 clones seem to have different sequences between parents that correspond to 0.52% of the library. The DArT technique is not yet completely standardized so not all ofthe genomic libray clones were represented in the hybridization.When using other probes, other polymorphic clones were found in the same library. For example, clone 384/2*F22 was found only when using probes Pstl and Banii. On the other hand, sorne polymorphic clones were found when using different probes; e.g., clone 38411 *F2 was found using all three types of pro bes.Seven polymorphic clones were sequenced and compared with the sequences database, but no matches with reported sequences were found.Future Activities The most abundant genetic polymorphisms between individuals are Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and sma ll insertions/deletions, both of which are emerg ing as a new generation of markers due to their abundance and amenability to fully automated genotyping. SNPs are single base-pair positions at which different sequence alternatives exist between two individuals. There are six possible SNP types, either transitions (A<>T or G<>C) or transversions (A<>G, A<>C, G<>T or C<>T). (http://v .. ww.cerea lsdb.uk.net/snp.htm.). These polymorphisms can be used as simple genetic markers, which may be identified in the vicinity of virtually every gene. There is also great potential for the use of SNPs in detecting associations between allelic forms of a gene and phenotypes, especially for common diseases that have multifactorial genetics. Severa! different routes to the discovery of SNPs may be taken: The resequencing ofPCR amplicons with or without prescreening, electronic SNP (eSNP) discovery in shotgun genomic libraries, eSNP discovery in expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries, and direct sequencing ofDNA segments (amplified by PCR) from severa! individuals (Rafalski, 2002). The Proj ect (SB-02: Assessing and utilizing agrobiodiversity through biotechnology) starteddiscovering SNPs using direct sequenc ing from 1 O different Phaseolus vulgaris genotypes.Ten genotypes belonging to Mesoamerican and Andean pools (wild and cultivated) are being used for sequencing reactions to find polymorphisms. Severa! primer pairs were designed from sequences obtained from the GenBank, which amplified from 300-1000 bp for noncoding regions such as introns, CDs and sorne RFLP probes. Libraries were generated using degenerated primers, clones were sequenced and specific primers were designed to amplify all 1 O genotypes.Primer pairs producing strong and unique bands for each genotype were used in sequencing reactions. The PCR products for each regionlgenotype were sequenced directly in both directions. The resulting sequences were edited, and a ligmens us ing Sequencher Software version 4. 1 and Clustal X were done to find the polymorphi sm between genotypes. Primers that produced more than one band were eliminated in thi s study .A total of 46 primer pa irs were standardized for magnesium concentration and annealing temperature. Almost all of them can be amplified us in g the same PCR program. Of the 46 primer pairs, no polymorphism was found in only 4 (9%); in 2 8% there were regions with insertion/deletion polymorphi sms of at least 1 bp in size. We covered 20,964 bp of the P. vulgaris genome in which we observed 223 SNPs in total, and 111 (50% ) of them were polymorphic between DOR364 and G19833. An example ofthis can be observed in Figure 1, in which two SNPs are polymorphic between parentals and gene pools.[~Aultiple Alionrnent Mode 1 Font Sizec=@J SEQ6-EG62,,F igu re l. Clustal X alignment among ten genotypes using one intronic region.Design primers from the polymorphic site to be used for single-nucleotide primer extension Standardize high-throughput detection of SNPs, using the bead system on Luminex-1 00 Use polymorphic primer extension for SNP detection in mapping and diversityThe utility of the molecular genetic framework map of cassava published five years ago (Fregene et al., 1997) has been hampered by the preponderance of RFLP markers that were used in anchoring the map. On realizing that the map could be made a lot more useful for cassava researchers worldwide especially in the NARS of Africa, Asia, Latín America and the Caribbean, through the inclusion of PCR-based markers, CIA T's BRU has over the last few years been developing and mapping simple sequence repeat markers (Mba et al., 2001 a & b; Fregene Pers.Comm.; Mba, Pers. Comm.). There have been two batches of SSR markers developed, one set from a cassava whole genomic library while the second batch were sourced from a cassava roots and leaves cDNA library.This report summarizes the mapping of the series of 157 SSR markers developed from the cassava roots and Jeaves cDNA library.Mba et al. (2000 and 200 1) had described the construction of the cDNA library, picking of clones, isolation and sequencing of putative SSR-containing clones, primer design and synthesis for clones containing SSR loci in suitable positions. The use of these SSR markers to screen the parents of the mapping population, TMS 30572 and CM 21 77-2, and the initial screening of the 150-member F 1 mapping population progeny were al so described in these 2 reports.The SSR markers that hada unique allele in either or both parents ofthe mapping population, i.e. polymorphic, were used to screen the 150 progenies making up the F 1 mapping population. The segregation data of the markers that fitted the expected ratio of 1: 1, presence: absence of the unique parental allele were used to place the markers on the framework map using the linkage analysis computer package MAPMAKER 2.0. (Lander et al., 1987).A LOD score of2.0 or more was used for placing the markers within the existing linkage groups.All the data analyses procedures were the same as has been already described for the mapping of sorne SSR markers from a whole genomic library (Mba et al., 2001). Specifically, the \"compare\", \"try\",\" three point\", \"ripple\" and \"map\" commands of MapMaker were used to determine the genome Jocations ofthe markers. The Kosambi function ofthis software was used all through .Amplification of the SSR Joci. Out of the total of 157 SSR markers, the genome loci corresponding to 144 of them or 92% were successfu lly amplified at either of the annealing temperatures of 50°C, 55°C or 57°C. In all, 59 out ofthese 144 markers, or 38%, had at least an unique allele in one or both parents of the mapping population in which case they were c lassified as polymorphic while 85 of them or 54% had no unique alleles in either of the parents, making them monomorphic and hence ofno use for mapping in this population (Figure 1). Amongst the polymorphic SRR markers, i.e. those with at least one unique segregating allele in at least one of the 2 parents of the mapping population, 3 types of polymorphism were observed, namely, one unique allele in TMS 30572 (54%), a unique allele in CM 2 I 77-2 (46%) or at least a unique allele in both parents (20%), this Jast type being referred to as \"allelic bridges\". The results obtained are summarized in Figure 2 below.Figure 2: Types of polymorphism observed in the parents of the mapping popu lation in percentages of total polymorphism observedStatistica/ tests. Chi-square tests of one degree of freedom at 0.01% level of sign ificance were carried out to determine ifthe markers segregated according to the expected Mendelian ratios. It was found out that all the 41 SSR markers that were polymorphic for the female parent, TMS 30572 segregated according to the expected 1:1 ratio. A ll but 4 of the 35 markers that were polymorphic for the maJe parent, CM 2177-2, segregated according to the expected ratios of 1:1 and 3: l.Genome location of the markers. The linkage groups initially established by Fregene et al. (1997) and followed by Mba et al. (2001) were maintained and the new SSR markers whose mapping is being described in this report fit into these groups.From the present work, 52 new SSR markers derived from a cassava roots and Jeaves cONA library were placed on the existing molecular genetic framework map of cassava (Figure 3). Forty-seven of these markers were uniformly distributed over 16 of the existing 18 linkage groups. Al so, 5 of these were linked to a group of markers that are yet to be assigned to any of the existing linkage groups (shown on the bottom right hand com er of the linkage map, Figure 3). The distribution of these markers within the linkage groups is summarized in Table l.Table 2. Number of the new SSR markers according to linkage g r oups for both the female-and male-derived molecula r genetic ma ps Linkage groupFemale-derived linkage ma p (TMS 30 572)Male-derived linkage map (CM 2177-2)Out ofthe 52 SSR markers evaluated, 14 ofthem had polymorphic bands that segregated for both parents (Table 2), thereby forming 14 allelic bridges in 9 linkage groups, an example of which is shown using linkage group L in Figure 4. A criterion for assigning linkage groups is based on this concept of allelic bridges as this helps corroborate the veracity of each linkage group as being the same for segregations from both parents. In the linkage group L, 2 allelic bridges corresponding the map positions oftwo markers, SSRY236 and SSRY 250, are shown (Figure 4). The QTL mapping early bulking at CIA T has identified a number of major QTLs for this irnportant trait (Okogbenin and Fregene 2002). Last year, a new F 2 mapping population was developed from an F 1 individual to validate the authenticity, magnitude, and action of these QTLs. Quantitative trait locí (QTL) mapping in single generation, full-sib pedigrees of allogamous crops is complicated by the inability to access all information on the genetic architecture of the quantitative trait in question. Furthermore, marker genotype in these mapping populations result from the índependent meioses and crossovers in the maternal and paternal parents leading to separate maps for each parent which alters QTL mapping by redefming mating type ata locus leve) rather than allloci in both parents. (Groover et al. 1994;Van Eck et al. 1994;Grattapaglia et al. 1994 ).The new genetic map of cassava was constructed using SSR markers, a relatively easier to use marker system. The use of SSR markers have considerably cut down the time required for the development of a cassava map compared to earlier efforts, from 3 years to a little over a year. Although, 3 F 2 crosses were developed, only one, the cross with the highest number of heterozygous markers in the F 1 parents, was eh osen for map development.The F 2 population obtained from the K150 progeny ofthe cassava map population was selected as our F 2 mapping population because of the large number of markers that were heterozygous in K150, more than 60%, and the relatively large number of progeny, 372. Due to poor seedling development of certain genotypes (resulting in senescence in sorne few cases), only 268 plants of initial 372 in the F2 population were used for genotyping. The F 2 seedlings were initially germinated in the screen house at CIA T headquarters in Palmira under intensive management and care in February 2000. Seedlings were later transplanted to the field in July 2000 and harvested for planting materials at 11 months after planting (MAP) the following year (200 1 ). Of the 268 genotypes used for mapping analysis, only 207 genotypes with relatively sufficient stem cuttings (12 stakes) of about 25 cm long each could be planted for QTL mapping experiment at Santa Elena, in a location, 25 Km from CIA T headquarters. Individual genotypes were sown on May 18, 2001 in single row plots of 6 plants each in randomized complete block design of two replications. Plants were planted at 0.8 cm between plants and 1m between rows. All plants were harvested 7 months after planting (MAP). Traits measured include: dry root yield, fresh foliage and harvest index.DNA was extraction from individual genotypes of the F 2 population has been described earlier (CIAT 2001). For the parental survey, 186 SSR markers developed by Mba et al. (2001), 132 SSR markers from a cassava root and leaf cONA library (Mba et al., unpublished data), and 154 SSR markers generated by Fregene et al. (unpublished data), a total of about 500 markers, were used. PCR amplification and page gel electrophoresis were as described by Mba et al (2001). For linkage analysis, individuals of the F 2 population were by the three different genotypic classes expected for a F 2 population and Chi square values were computed to test for significant deviations from expected ratios (segregation distortion). Linkage analysis was using MAPMAKER/EXP 3.0 (Lander et al., 1987). Recombination fractions were converted to map distances, centiMorgan (cM), using Kosambi mapping function ..The mean of each genotype over two replications was used for the correlation analysis and QTL mapping Phenotypic correlations coefficients between yield and components were estimated and tested for significance (P< 0.05). Type ID mean squares from ANOV A based on General Linear Model procedure (Proc GLM; SAS 1996) was used to calculate broad sense heritability estimates for each trait.The locations of putative QTLs were determined by interval mapping analysis using MAPMAKER/QTL 1.1 b (Patterson et al. 1988). Maximum likelihood estimates of both additive (a) and dominance (d) effects were calculated simultaneously during the genome sean for QTLs as performed by MAPMAKER/QTL. The gene action of a QTL, largely additive, dominant or recessive, can be determined by evaluating the relative likelihood of gene mode1s. To test for additional QTLs, we fixed the position and effect of one QTL, the single QTL model (SQM), then re-scanned the genome searching for other QTLs, using a two-QTL model (TQM). Two-QTL map allows each locus to control its fraction of the variance while at the same time estimating the effect of the other. The multi-locus model was used explain how much of the phenotypic variance among the F 2 population for each trait was explained by fitting in the model, QTLs identified in SQM and other additional QTLs detected in TQM.A total of 122 SSR markers, or 25%, were polymorphic in the F 1 parent and could be scored in the F 2 mapping population (Fig 1). This number is close to what is ex pected, that is 50% x 50% (average percent polymorphisms of SSRs in cassava x percent polymorphisms expected in a F 1 genotype ). Most of the markers surveyed had the expected segregation, a ratio of 1 :2: 1, for homozygous for parent A, heterozygous and homozygous for parent B respectively. Deviation from the expected 1:2: 1 genotype frequency was significant (P S 0.05) for 33 (27%) of the 122 markers scored. The 122 markers were employed in constructing a linkage map (Fig2). The linkage map consists of 100 markers, 22 markers remained unlinked. The presence of so many unlinked markers suggests that the available SSRs still do not cover the entire cassava genome.The number of linkage groups in this map ( 22) exceeds the haploid number of chromosomes for cassava, indicating that the map is also unsaturated.Phenotypic data for DR, FF and m showing means, standard deviatio n, kurtosis, skewness, and W-test are summarized in Table l. Data range for each trait measured revea1ed wide variation in the F2 population as equally observed in the Ft. All of the traits studied showed continuous distribution as expected for quantitative traits. The heritabi1ity (H 2 ) estimates in the F 2 were 66% for dry root yield (DR), 68% for Fresh foliage weight (FF) and 78% harvest index (HI). The relative ly high heritability of the three traits is in agreement with high estimates obtained in the F 1 (Okogbenin and Fregene 2002). A total of nine QTLs (LOD> 2.0) (three QTLs each) influencing FF. DR and ill were identified by interval mapping analysís on seven linkage groups (Table 2). Results revealed that two QTLs (Dr3 and Ff3) fall wíthin a s ingle interval (NS 928-SSRY 153) separated by only 4 cM (Table 2). The direction of the genetic effects of these two QTLs are similar, suggesting that they are probably not different QTLs, providing evidence for gene pleiotropy for DR and FF at this locus.Seven highly significant two-QTL interactions were identified for FF, and 4 each for DR and HI (Table 3). Phenotypic variance (PV) explained for these interactions varied from 11 to 36% with LOO scores ranging between 2.74 and 8.97. Sorne of the QTLs identified in the single QTL model (SQM) significantly interacted with each other. In sorne instances, interactions led to highly significant increase in LOO and PV explained. For example, Drl significantly interacted with Dr13 resulting in LOO of 5.14 and explained PV of 17.2%, which were higher than the sum of LOO scores and PVE for both QTLs under the SQM. All additional QTLs identified in the two-QTL model (TQM) were fitted along with those identified in the SQM in a multi-locus model to determine total phenotypic variance explained among the F 2 progeny for each trait. The total PV explained based on multiple QTL model are 33% for foliage, 44% for DR and 37% for HI.The gene action of individual QTLs was evaluated by comparing the fits of individual QTL models (Lander and Botstein, 1989). The three QTLs detected for FF revealed different gene actions: Ff3 had a recessive gene model, Ff5 dominance, while F/9 exhibited additive gene action. Two of the QTLs identified for DR (Dr 3 and Dr 13) were consistent with a recessive gene model. Two other QTLs, Hi2 and Hi9 exactly fit a pure additive model. The additive effect, which is the measurement of the change in a population mean when an allele of a QTL is substituted, showed that Hi9 increased harvest index while Hi2 decreased HI. The third QTL for HI (Hil2) was recessive.A comparison was made of QTLs identified in the experiments using F 1 and F 2 crosses. Results reveal that 1, 7, and 3 common QTLs were detected for fresh foliage, dry matter yield and harvest index respectively (Table 4).• Test QTLs that are stable across generations and thatexplain substantial phenoytpic variance (>20%) in a different genetic background   GP 12 (NS74-NS319)* GP 20 (SSRY 314-NS82)* GP 17 (SSRY182-SSRY I48) FF = fresh foi1age yie1d; DR = Dry matter yield; Hl = Harvest index. Gp = Linkage group. The marker interval where the QTL was found is indicated in parenthesis.Angela Zarate, Edgar Barrera, Martin Fregene SB-2 Funding: CIA T lntroduction Progress towards a PCR-based map of cassava for gene tagging and marker-assisted selection has crossed a significant mi le stone w ith the report of a SSR only map of cassava (CIA T 2002, this report). However, 20% of SSR markers evaluated remained unlinked and denotes that the map is not complete and more markers need to be developed. At the same time, saturation of the RFLP genetic map of cassava has continued with 57 SSR markers from genomic sequences (Zarate et al 2002, unpublished data) and another 45 SSR markers from cONA sequences (Garcia et a l 2002, unpublished data) added to the map.To ensure that a PCR-based map of cassava can be ach ieved within the near future efforts have been geared this year to converting RFLP markers on the genetic map of cassava to single sequence conformation polymorphism (SSCPs). Furthermore, additional SSR markers have been designed from cassava genomic sequences reported in GeneBank, w ith particular reference to BAC end sequences developed at the Clemson Un iversity Genome Institute (CUGI).More than 100 RFLPs from the molecular genetic map of cassava ha ve been sequenced. Primers were designed from 2 RFLP c lones, CYP790 1 and CYP7902 and used to amplify total genomic DNA from the two parents of the mapping population and a sub-set of 20 progenies. PCR amplifications were carried out in 12.5-Jll reactions containing 100 ng of DNA, 0.5J.l.M of each primer, 10 X of Taq polymerase buffer (500mM KCI, lOOmM Tris-HCI (pH 8.5), and 1 mg/ml gelatin), 2mM ofMgC1 2 , 0.5mM of dNTPs and 0.25 U of Tag polymerase. The PCR profile was: 94°C for 2 min, followed by 30cycles of 95°C for 1 m in, 55 e for 2 min and 72 °C fo r 2min. A final extension step of 72 °C for 1 O min was added at the end. The PCR amplification was cleaned with the QIAGEN PCR clean-up kit (QIAGEN lnc. Los Angeles, CA) and digested to completion with 1 OU of Hinfl restriction enzyme for 3h at 37 °C according to the manufacturer's instruction (New England Biolabs, Cambridge, MA). The digestion product was electrophoresed on 6% polyacrylamide-MDE gels (Cambrex Bio Science Inc, Baltimore, MD) made up of 10% glycerol, 6ml 1 OXTBE, 25m! MDE gel solution, 65ul TElvfED, 500ul APS, and 60ml deionized water, at 40Watts for 48h. The gel was stained as described by Slaubaugh et al (1997). Briefly, the gel was fixed for 3 m in in 10% ethanol, 0.5% acetic acid, stained for 5 m in in fixing solution plus 0.2% sil ver ni trate , washed in water for 1 m in and developed for approximately 10-20 m in in 3% NaOH and 0.27 % fonnaldehyde in water. Following staining, the gel was fixed for a further 5 min and washed in water.The construction of a bacteria! artificial chromosome (BAC) library from the white fly resistance variety MOLC72 has been described earlier (Tomkins et al 2001). A total of23 01 BAC ends were sequenced and 1755 good sequences were deposited in gene bank (Tomkins et al 2002. Unpublished data). The BAC end sequences were downloaded from GeneBank and following SSR motifs: (A T), (GA), (CA), (GC), (GT), (TCT), (GCT), (AGC), (GCC), (GGT), (A TT), (GGA), (TA TG), and (GTGA) were searched for in the sequences using the DNAMAN software. The local BLAST facility at CIA T (http://gene2/BLAST/inic io.htm) was used to compare the sequences with each other to eliminate duplicated sequences. Primer design was using Primer 3.0, the primer picking software fo und at http://waldo.wi.mit.edu/cgi-bin/primer/primer3.SSCP analysis of the parents of the cassava mapping population and a sub-set of 20 genotypes of the same population revealed polymorphisms that segregated as single dose restriction fragment (SDRF) polymorphism. The entire mapping population is being analyzed at the moment. Primers will be designed from other sequenced RFLP markers that are currently on the map to al so convert them to PCR-based markers. A draw back of the SSCP methodology is the need to always purchase costly MDE gel solutions (Cambrex Bio Science Inc, Baltimore, MD). Efforts are also being made to try nonnal polyacrylamide gel solutions in an effort to reduce costs. The sequenced RFLP markers being converted to SSCP markers can also be described as sequence tagged sites (STSs). These have the advantage that once they have been analyzed in any population the map location as well as the sequence is known.A total of 141 BAC end sequences were found to contain SSR motifs. The distribution of SSR sequences was as follows: 67 dinucleotide, 46 trinucleotides, 4 tetranucleotide, and 24 other (mixture of different repeats) motifs, a mixture of two or three motifs (Table 1). Average length of the dinucleotide repeats was 8 repeats for the dinuleotide, 6 for the tri and 4 for the tetras. Primers designed will shortly be sent for synthesis and once available they will be placed on the existing map of cassava beginning with the parental survey.  , 1987). The challenge to cassava researchers lies in the development of the cassava varieties that have starch species targeted to these different needs.That cassava starch is of high quality is evidenced in the fact tbat it (cassava starch), and its industrially produced derivatives are increasingly replacing the other traditional sources of starch in food, paper, textile and adhesive industries. However, a majar bottleneck to this trend of the industrialization of starch production from cassava has been the widely varying characteristics observed for major starch quality índices. At times such variations are observed not only between cassava cultivars but also in the same cultivar under different conditions such as environmental factors and time of harvest (Sriroth et al., 1998).The Cassava EST Project. The ever-increasing rapid development of genomics and bioinformatic tools is incr~\"lSing our knowledge of plant genome structure, organization and gene function and one tool which holds a lot of promise in unraveling the complexities in gene expression is Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs). These are usually short (300 to 500bp) single read from random cONA. They fonn the basis for getting a global \"still image\" snapshot of gene expression (leve) and complexity) in a given tissue at a given time under given conditions and therefore represents the status of the activities of enzymes encoding for specific plant metabolic pathways.This strategy of partially sequencing randomly selected cONA clones has since evolved into an inexpensive and efficient gene discovery methodology (Ohlrogge and Benning, 2000). As far back as 1992, Uchimiya et al. had successfully matched the sequences obtained from a rice cONA library to reported genes in the Genbank. lt is little wonder then that the ESTs database is the fastest growing and constitutes the largest portian of the public ONA sequence database with approximately which as at Oecember 2001 contained over 1.3 mili ion ESTs spread over most of the plant genera (Walbot and Oelseny, 2002). The large scale exploitation of ESTs as reservoirs for gene cloning, evaluation of tissue-specific gene expression, as markers for map based cloning and for the annotation genomic sequences has not only become routine in Arabidopsis (Gyorgyey et al., 2000;White et al., 2000) but has been extended to such other plant species as poplar (Sterky et al:: 1998); grapes (Ablett et al., 2000); and in Pinus (Temesgen, et al., 1998;Cato et al., 2001). Linked with such a novel high throughput platform as the DNA microarray technology, ESTs become even more potent as a rapid route to the identification of genes and to linking sequence infonnation to biological function (Richmond and Somerville, 2000).The cassava starch ESTs project, a joint project between ClA T and the French Universities of Perpignan and Montpellier, aims at the development of at least 5,000 ESTs each from 2 root cONA libraries sourced respectively from cassava varieties CM 523-7 and MPer 183 . 1t is hoped that the annotation of these ESTs and in concert with the novel microarray technology, sorne functions will be assigned to the sequences. This will ultimately therefore lead to the use of these as tools for exploiting the genetic diversity that is available in cassava and by so doing lead to the expansion of the range of the potential uses of cassava starch. Also, it is envisaged that the ESTs to be generated shall be used to develop ONA chips and also converted to PCR primers to be used in saturating the existing molecular genetic framework map as has been demonstrated for Pinus (Cato et al., 2001) and al so as markers in gennplasm fingerprinting.Two cDNA libraries were constructed (Cortes et al., 2001 ), one each from root tissues of CM523-7 (high starch content) and MPer 183 (low starch content). The authors had reported the detailed procedures for the cONA synthesis and cloning using the Stratagene's cONA Synthesis Kit, ZAP-cDNA ® Synthesis Kit and ZAP-cDNA ® Gigapack® III Gold Cloning Kit in CIA T's SB-2 Annual Report for 2001, pages 281-282.The in vivo mass excision of the pBiuescript phagemid from the Unizap XR vector using ExAssist helper phage with SOLR strain was according to the Manufacturer's protocols contained in the manual.Minipreps of the plasmid colonies were done according to the REAL Prep 96 protocols from QIAG~ . These were then sequenced on the ABI PRISM® 3100 Genetic Analyzer from Applied Biosystems Inc. Sequencing was from the T3 end.This is a summary of results obtained and available to CIA T as of 26 J une 2002. The table below summarizes the progress report on the isolation and sequencing of cDNA clones from the 2 libraries. Presently, the sequences for 3770 unique clones have been obtained. The sequencing of the rest of the clones is on going. Sequencing and analyses ofthe remaining clones (more than 5,000).• Using the published sequences of genes involved in the starch biosynthesis pathway -ADP glucose pyrophosphorylase; Branching Enzyme and Granule Bound Starch Synthase (GBSS) - (Munyikwa et al. , 1997)as queries against all cassava starch ESTs sequen ces • Broadening the genbank searches for homology • Application ofthe ESTs and future perspectives • Project aim ofthe development of at least 5,000 ESTs each from 2 root cDNA libraries is on target • ESTs to be annotated and along with the microarray technology develop DNA chips • Will become robust tools for exploiting cassava genetic diversity • ESTs to be converted to PCR • Project scope however is limited and to be fully meaningful, a much larger project based on cDNA libraries from a broader range of cassava varieties (starch quantity and quality yields) is an imperative.Undoubtedly, sorne appreciable gains have been made in the development and deployment of molecular tools for cassava improvement. These include the RFLP-anchored framework map (Fregene et al., 1997), the development and mapping of SSRs (Chavarriaga, et al., 1998; Mba, et  al., 2001 ), and the BAC and EST libraries. Suarez et al. (2000) had also reported a small-scale development ofESTs from Polymorphic Transcription Derived Fragrnents (TDFs).There is therefore still a compelling need to develop a lot more PCR-based markers (SSRs, ESTs, SNPs, etc.) and place them on the framework map. The on-going EST project also should forrn the ímpetus for developing DNA chips to complement the existing PCR-based markers. Saturation of the map to a density of at least 1 PCR-based marker per 1 O cM of the cassava genome will vastly improve researchers' ability to identify key markers for specific traits through fine mapping.Whitetlies are among the most serious pest and disease vectors that affect agricultura! production on many crops around the world. In cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), the whitetly Aleurotrachelus socialis can cause from 70-80% y ield loss due to direct feeding damage. The most important source of resistance genes is genotype M Ecu 72. Due to the importance of the whitetly as a pest and virus vector, it is necessary to understand the nature of the genes that confer resistance to the whitetly in genotypes like M Ecu 72. Therefore it is important to know the F1 segregation of crosses between M Ecu 72 (resistant genotype) x a very susceptible genotype (M Col 2246), using molecular markers. This would help accelerate selection of germplasm resistant to whitetlies and also to isolate resistant genes.Plant material. From the cross M Ecu 72 (resistant parent) x M Col 2246 (susceptible parent), a total F1 offspring of 286 individuals (family CM 8996) was produced. These materials were sown and evaluated in the field at two different locations: Espinal-Tolima (CORPOICA-Nataima, 350 m e levation and sandy soils) and Santander de Qui lichao-Cauca (990 m. elevation and acid soils) in May 200 1 and March 2002. These evaluations will identify gene segregation in the offspring so that we will be able to select the resistant and susceptible materials.The field evaluation was done using population and damage scales ranging from 1-6, where 1 is the absence of damage and population and 6 is high population and damage (curling, sooty mold, etc.). Three evaluations were performed in 2002 using the highest damage and population dates for information processing (Arias, 2002).In vitro propagation. For the greenhouse evaluation, the seeds were multiplied using the in vitro propagation methodology developed by Escobar ( 1991) to obtain enough material in a short period of time (approx. 3 mo), half the time the plant requires to produce lignified stems. In addition optimal health cond itions were achieved. The tips were cultured in 4E medium (Roca, 1984) in 16-ml assay tubes. The growing period was from 60-80 days. Following this period a second in vitro propagation in 4E medium in l 00-ml tlasks were performed to increase the number of plants per clone. After this the tips of each clone are cut for culturing in 17N rooting mediurn (Roca, 1984) for 30-40 days. Finally the plants are transferred to the greenhouse. Th is methodology not only allows the conservation of materials under optimal growing conditions, but it also supplies sufficient material in a reduced space.Mapping. We used Simple Sequences Repeat (SSR) to find markers associated with resistance for mapping and ultimately clone the resistant genes. We used silver staining to visualize the allelic segregation ofthe markers.Field evaluation. Initial field evaluations showed that these materials (family CM 8996) had Iow levels of the pest because control plants (clones very susceptible toA. socialis) did not present high levels of damage or population (scale of 4-6). The harvest evaluation showed that root yield was between 4.5 and 86.5 t/ha, and many clones presented desirable characteristics (high percent dry matter, palatability, etc.). From this fam ily, sorne materials having a high yield percentage were selected to increase the number of seeds and for evaluations with a higher number of repetitions. Due to the fact that pest population and damage produced by A. socialis in these clones were low, further studies are a needed in order to determine if there are indeed resistant materials to the pest. Currently, the family is under a second sowing cycle at the same locality in Tolima, and a high pressure exerted by the pest has been detected as control clones have high degrees of damage (4)(5)(6). Preliminary evaluations ha ve demonstrated that sorne genotypes from the family present low levels of damage and population (up to 2). Therefore we might infer that these materials are resistant to the whitefly (Aleurotrachelus socia/is) although further evaluations in the field and in the greenhouse are needed to study behavior for a longer period of time to corroborate these results. (Arias, 2002).In vitro propagarían. We grew the 286 genotypes obtained fro m the in vitro propagation in tubes with 4E medium (Roca, 1984 ). We obtained 5 clones per genotype, which are being grown on l7N medium and set out in the greenhouse. These c lones are renovated every 4 mo to maintain fresh and healthy plants.Mapping. Both parents (M Ecu 72 and M Co l 2246) were evaluated with 343 cassava SSRs (Mba et al.,200 1) including 156 cONA SSRs (Mba et al., subm itted). Approximately 155 of the SSRs were polymorphic in the parentals and were eva luated in the F 1 (286 individuals) (Figures 1 and  2, Table 1).   Future Activities• Greenhouse evaluations ofthe family CM8996• Field evaluation ofthe family CM8996• Evaluation of the SSRs in the Fl (17 SSRs for the M Ecu-72 linkage map). Segregation data from these evaluations will allow the construction of a linkage map for resistance to whitefly.Attempts to clone genes expressed down stream of the single dominant gene, designated CMD2, that confers high levels of resistance to the cassava mosaic disease (CMD) by the serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) has led to identification of many differentially expressed tags -11 bp cONA sequences. Two methods were employed to annotate the tags obatined, PCR amplification of a cONA library, using the tag sequen ce as sense primer and a primer designed from the 3' end of the multiple cloning si te of the vector (p YES, lnvitrogen In c.), and ESTs from CMD resistant genotypes. We describe here the generation of 4000 ESTs expressed in a CMD resistant genotype challenged with the virus.A cONA library was constructed in pYES (Invitrogen lnc.) using mRNA from the CMD resistant bulk. Two micro litre of the cONA library was electroporated into 40ul of E. Coli HB 1 O 1 cells (Gibco BRL) and plated on LB agar plates + arnpicillin (100ug/ml). A total of 5,000 colonies were picked into 70ul ofLB media + ampicillin (IOOug/ml) in 384 well plates. Plasmid isolation was by the MONTAGE 96-well plate system (Millipore lnc), 4 96-well plates or 384 clones were processed at a time. The 3 ' end sequencing of the cONA clones was with a primer designed from the 3' end of the multiple cloning site of pYES (lnvitrogen lnc.) and Su! of plasmid miniprep.Sequencing PCR reaction was with the big dye terrninator kit (Applied Biosystems) on a 9600 Perkin Elmer Machine or an MJ Research ONA engine (Tetrad). The sequence reaction was cleaned using the multi screen 96-well plate format (Millipore lnc.) and analyzed on a Shimadzu RISA 384-capillary sequencing machine. Sequences obtained were cleaned from vector sequences by eye and combined into one single text file using a program written in perl, running on a SunSparc Station (Sun Microsystems Inc.). A program was written in perl to perfonn batch BLAST (Altschul et. al at 1990) similarity searches for sequence identification using the CIA T local BLAST site (hnp://gene21BLAST/ inicio.htm).The 3' end sequencing of about 5000 cDNA clones generated a total of 4000 ESTs. Homology with known genes and proteins deposited in public data bases were sought for using the local BLAST (Aitschul et. al at 1990) at CIA T, the identity of about 2500 sequences could be ascertained with a good confidence leve! which corresponds to about 800 unique sequences.Redundancy found in sequences of known functions was about 30%. The ESTs were used for tag annotation and results are summarized Table l. The most abundant tags were easily annotated, for example, identity of the ten genes that make up 5% of all expressed transcripts were found by ESTs, but annotation of less abundant tags is not as efficient. This suggests that the PCR method of tag annotation is a more powerful route to annotating SAGE tag compared to ESTs from regular cDNA libraries. On the other hand ESTs from a norrnalized cDNA library may be a more efficient means of tag annotation compared to non-norrnalized libraries. EST data will be be submitted to the Gene Bank. Postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) is a major constraint to the development of cassava for producers, processors and consumers alike. Extending the shelf life of cassava to 1-2 weeks is perceived as a goal that would ha ve many benefits, particularly the sustainable livelihoods of smallscale rural farmers, food security and poverty alleviation.The objective of this project is to iaentify the full set of major genes involved in the response by exploiting the powerful high-throughput analysis of cDNA libraries. This will enhance understanding ofthe problem and also provide the tools (clones) that could serve as components of gene constructs to modulate PPD. In this report we presentan important step to make this goal achievable: the development of a cDNA library from different time-points during the PPD process in cassava roots.Cassava roots from cv. CM 2177-2, the male parent ofthe F1 cross used to generate the molecular genetic map of cassava, was used as source of plant tissue for the RNA extraction in the construction ofthe cDNA library.Roots from cv. CM 2177-2 were harvested from 10-month-old plants. The RNA was isolated form the following time-points : O, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 96 h after harvest. Poly (A)+ RNA was purified using magnetic poly A DYNAbeads according to the manufacturer. The cDNA synthesis and cloning was done using the Stratagene cDNA Synthesis Kit, ZAP-cDNA ~~> Synthesis Kit and ZAP-cDNA ~~> Gigapack~~> III Gold Cloning Kit according to the manufacturer.cDNA library evaluation. A total of 6 amplified cDNA libraries were evaluated by (a) determining the mean titer of the amplified library, (b) estimating the proportion of nonrecombinants by blue/white color selection, and (e) determining insert size. To determine insert size, 10 individual plaques were chosen at random from each library, and PCR was carried out using T3 and T7 primers. The number of PCR products larger than or equal to 0.9 kb were reported as percentages.Results are summarized below in Table l. Libraries \"Early 1\" and \"Late 1\" are those constructed at CIA T in 2001; \" P late lig 1 ,\" \"P late lig 2,\" \"P late lig 3\" and \"P early\" are those constructed at Bath in 2000. The expected titer for an amplified library is in the region 1 x 10 9 to 1 x 10 11 , with the number of recombinant plaques 10-to 1 00-fold higher than nonrecombinant plaques (i.e., 1-10% nonrecombinants). Thus libraries \"Early 1\" and \"P late lig 1\" would appear to be the most acceptable.Genomic library construction. The following steps have been completed: (l) Extraction of DNA from leaves of cv. M Col 22; (2) optimization of Sau3A digestion conditions; (3) large-scale digestion of 50 Jlg DNA, where an aliquot of the digestion was run on a gel to ensure the results; ( 4) phenol extraction and ethanol precipitation of digested DNA to remove restriction enzyme; (5) digested DNA run on a preparative gel without ethidium bromide for size fractionation. The marker lane and a marker lane of an aliquot of digested DNA were then cut from the gel and stained with ethidium bromide, and then compared to the unstained portion of the gel to identify the region containing the fragments of interest. ( 6) The region of the gel containing fragments from 13-21 kb were cut out of the gel, and the DNA was recovered from the gel by electroelution into dialysis tubing and concentrated using Elutip columns. ( 7) In order to prevent ligation of any remaining smaller fragments that could subsequently ligate into the vector as a single large fragment, the DNA was treated with alkaline phosphatase (CIAP) (8) To remove the CIAP the DNA was purified using a Quiagen purification kit.The Stratagene Lambda DASH I1/BamHJ Vector Kit has been ordered but has not yet arrived. On arrival the ligation and packaging reactions can be carried out.• Genomic DNA from 8 transgenic cassava lines prepared and transferred to Dr. H Li, Bath University. • Total RNA extracted from leaves and roots of cv. NGA2 over a 5-day period. This RNA is intended for Northern analysis. • Preparation of probes for Northern analys is -PAL, MecASP, MecCPI and la082 (cysteine protease) • Sequencing of la082 (cysteine protease)• Completion of genomic library construction and evaluation of genomic library • Preparation ofNorthem blots using PAL, MecASP, MecCPI and la082 (cysteine protease) as probes • Root treatments with salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, ethephon and H 2 0 2 and extraction of RNA from these roots for Northem blotting as above • Completion of sequencing of la082 and submission of sequence data to Genbank.Cassava bacteria! blight (CBB) is a major disease, endemic to Latín America and Africa, which causes serious damage to the plant and results in severe yield losses. The causal agent is Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam). The most appropriate and practica! approach for controlling CBB is through host resistance. This resistance operates from the vascular system and seems to be polygenic and additively inherited; however, no resistance genes have been identified. Plants in general have a wide spectrum of cellular and molecular defenses including cell wall fortification, phytoalexin production and development of a hypersensitive response (HR) (Baker et  al., 1997; Culver & Dawson, 1991; Hammond-Kosack & Jones, 1996). Resistance genes actívate these defense reactions directly or indirectly. Understanding how these genes are involved in the recognition of and response against pathogen attack will allow us to understand how to manipulate resistance against a wide range of pathogens.The objectives of this work are to:• Identify differentially expressed bands between two different cassava cultivars, one resistant and one susceptible to CBB (M Bra 685 and M Col 1522, respectively), using the cDNA-AFLP technique• ldentify putative molecular disease resistance markers through analysis of cDNA-AFLP patterns at different postinoculation (pi) times with Xam strain CIO 151• Isolate and sequence the fragments identified• Compare the sequence data with the GenBank database to identify similarities• Verify the differential expression ofthese fragments in time, through Northem blot and RT-PCR analyses?Sample preparation and cDNA synthesis . Young plants were inoculated by stem puncture with Xarn strain CIO 151. Stem tissues were collected at 24 and 72 h pi, and at 7, 15 and 30 days pi. Controls were healthy noninoculated plants and plants inoculated w ith steri le water. The tissue was ground in Iiquid nitrogen, and total RNA was isolated using the Proteinase K method (Hall et al., 1978). Poly (A) RNA was isolated using oligo (dT) coupled to DynaBeads (DYNAL). cDNA was synthesized using oligo (dT) primer and SuperScript II reverse transcriptase (GIBCO BRL) from 400-500 ng of mRNA as starting material.cDNA -AFLP projiling analysis. The template for cDNA-AFLP was prepared according to Bachem et a l. (1996) using EcoRI and Msel restriction enzymes and adapters . Preamplification was carried out with one EcoRI and one Msel single-chain adaptar with no (O) or one (1) selective base. The product was checked on agarose gel, and a 1130 dilution was used for subsequent amplifications (with primers with 2 or 3 selective bases, GIBCO primers and P lant AFLP Kit, GIBCO, respectively). Selective amplification products were separated on a 6% polyacrylamide gel processed with the silver staining technique (Promega). Bands of interest were marked, cut and eluted in ddHO. AFLP fragments were reamplified by PCR, ligated to pGEM®-Teasy (Promega), transformed and sequenced using an automated sequencer (ABI Prism 377). The sequences were edited using Sequencher 3.0 (Gene Codes Corp.) and compared with GenBank databases through BLASTx and BLASTn.Northern hybridization. The total RNA from each sample (7.5 to 25 f,lg of total RNA, containing ethidium bromide) was run on 1.2% agarose denaturing gels (IX MOPS, 3% formaldehyde). The RNA was transferred to nylon membranes (Hybond N+) in 1 OX SSC. Pro be ampl ifications were cleaned and labeled with radioactive dATP 32 through the Multiprime f'l..,¡A Labeling System (Amersham). Hybridizations were performed from 42-65°C, in formamide hybridization buffer (5X SSPE, 5x Denhardt's, 0.1X SDS, 50% formamide), rapid hybridization buffer (Amersham) or phosphate buffer (0.5 M NaHP04 pH 7.2, 7% SDS, 1% BSA). Hybridized filters were incubated with autoradiographic film at -80°C up to 1 O days. A hybridization test was performed with a nonradioactive Dig High Prime DNA Labeling & Detection Starter Kit II (Rache), foll owing the manufacturer's instructions.RNA extraction for RT-PCR was performed as stated prev io usly and cleaned with SV Total RNA Isolation (Promega) for DNA-free samples. cDNA synthes is was accomplished as described above, using 20 J.lg of total RNA as starting material. The complete cDNA reaction was diluted in arder to decrease the amount of aligo dT primer in the reaction. Two f.ll of this dilution was used for PCR amplification.The cDNA-AFLP technique was implemented with success using stem tissúe from cassava plants.We evaluated 32 and 40 combinations of AFLP primers with 2 and 3 selective bases, respectively. These cDNA-AFLP pro ti les showed 40-70 bands per primer combination, ranging fro m 100-1500 bp, w ith -3600 fragments screened (Figure 1). Differential expression was observed for 353 fragments putatively induced by the pathogen in the resistant variety, with an average of -5 bands per combination. These fragments ranged from 130-650 bp.We have sequenced and compared 231 bands with GenBank databases. Significant homo logies with known or putative genes were found for 154 sequences, 1 05 of which are plant related. Only 34 of these showed homology with plant resistance or defense-related proteins (Table 1). We found fragments similar to resistance Cf-2 and 12 genes from tomatoes, and others with homology to putative resistance proteins. They appeared at 24 h pi in the resistant variety, indicating that their expression increased in the presence of bacteria. This differs from severa! authors who argue that resistance proteins are constitutively expressed in plant cells in order to recognize an invading pathogen (Staskawicz et al., 1995;Hammond-Kosack & Jones, 1996). Sorne ofthese bands showed expression in the susceptible variety a lso, but at late ti me points (15 d pi, bands E6, E18 and E45, Table 1), suggesting that these putative genes are present in both genotypes but are expressed earlier in the resistant variety.  Fragments E6 and E45 showed significant homology w ith leucine-rich repeats (LRR) from Cf2 and 12 genes (LRR and NBS-LRR type, respectively). This motif is involved in protein-protein interactions and acts in specific recognition of avirulence proteins from pathogens (Staskawicz et a l.,199 S). Fragment E 18 showed homology with a puta ti ve resistance protein in lettuce. This putative gene also has structural elements characteristic ofNBS and LRR motifs (Shen et al., 1998).Other fragments were similar to serine/threonine or receptor protein kinases, which long to a different type of resistance gene that modulates the phosphorylation state of other proteins and is involved in signa! transduction cascarles that actívate defense responses in plants. These results indicate that through the cDNA-AFLP technique we have isolated resistance-and defense-related fragments induced by Xam, correspond ing to three different types of resistance genes in plants.belong to a different type of resistance gene that modulates the phosphorylation state of other proteins and is involved in signa! transduction cascades that actívate defense responses in plants.These results indicate that through the cDNA-AFLP technique we have isolated resistance-and defense-related fragments induced by Xam, corresponding to three different types of resistance genes in plants.Severa} fragments showed homology to senescence, apoptosis and donnancy-associated proteins, suggesting that they might be involved in the programmed cell-death mechanism included in hypersensitive responses . This defense reaction, very common in plants, creates a toxic media that prevents the establishment and expansion of the invading pathogen (Hammond-Kosack & Jones, 1996, Staskawicz et al., 1995). Another 59 fragments did not show significant homology to known sequences in the databases. These were differentially expressed starting at 24 h pi, indicating that were also induced by the pathogen and might represent novel sequences putatively associated with resistan ce to Xam in cassava.T o corroborate the difference in expression of the fragments, we prepared severa! Northern blots and hybridized them with labeled probes, but results were unsatisfactory. Although severa! methods for RNA extraction were used (special for recalcitrant tissues), there may have been sorne sort of contamination in the RNA restrict hybridization with pro bes and positive controls ( cassava ubiquitin and ribosomal fragments) . Given the foregoing, we decided to corroborate the fragments expression through RT-PCR and designed primers for 9 fragments and 2 positive controls (ubiquitin and ribosomal). RT amplification was standardized with primers for ubiquitin and ribosomal fragments, employing 4 RNA samples ( 4 different inoculation time points; measuring the number of PCR cycles that do not reach the curve plateau). However, amplification conditions with each pair of primers need careful standardization (temperature) in order to evidence real differences in the leve! of expression over time. Amplification with primers for fragment M15 was standardized at anilealing 55°C and 30 PCR rounds. Comparison of M 15 amplification products between varieties and inoculation time points is under way, as well as standardization of PCR conditions for the rest ofthe primer pairs.• Amplify each fragmented pair of primers using RT-PCR and analyze differential expression over time • Hybridize a cassava cONA library with these fragments to isolate full-length clones • Use this infonnation to implement a detection method for resistance to Xam in other cassava varietiesCassava bacteria! blight (CBB), caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam), is a major disease of cassava (Manihot escu/enta Crantz) that was reported for the first time in South America but now has a worldwide distribution (Verdier, 1994). At present the bacteria! factors controlling plant infection are not yet well understood. The DNA microarray method is a valuable tool and a very powerful technique that can provide infonnation about DNA sequences that are simultaneously expressed in specific environments or under sorne stress or treatment. lf the studied organism is not completely sequenced, entire sequenced genomes or anonymous sequences can be screened, using mRNA as the probe.This study focuses on elucidating Xam genes that are regulated at different stages during cassava infection.Plan! material. Four-week-old cassava plants of cv. MCol522 were inoculated with CIO 46 Xam strain; and punctured stems were collected at 24 h, 48 h, 7 days and 15 days postinoculation. All tissues were collected in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80°C until used.DNA extraction and microarray construction. Strain CI046 genomic DNA was partially digested and adapters were ligated to obtain fragments that could be amplified. Then one ofthe adapters was used as a primer to amplify DNA segments. The PCR product was cloned into the pGEMT-Easy (Promega) vector and transfonned into E. coli DH5a. Clones were amplified using T7 and SP6 primers, and spotted onto a glass slide.Probes and hybridization. Total RNA was extracted from inoculated stems (plant probe) and bacteria grown in culture media (culture probe), using a modified Kit SV (Promega). Then 30 ¡..Lg of total RNA were labeled using random primers, following a protocol proposed by the TIGR Institute (w,;.,w.t i!D\". onr). These cDNA-labeled primers were used as probes in slide hybridization. Slides were then scanned and analyzed using ArrayPro software.An effic ient method for RNA extraction was developed, makin g it possible to obtain high-quality RNA samples in large quantities (Figure 1 ).A genomic li brary was obtained w ith 1900 clones contain ing fragments from 500-1 200 bp long (Figure 2).An array containing anonymous sequences from genomic DNA of strain CIO 46 was constructed for use in different studies.Labeling and hybridization protocols using total RNA from infected tissues and from bacteria grown in a medium (i.e., RNA concentration, labeling and hybrid ization temperatures) were standardized. M sM s)A major ClA T involvement in this project is to produce foundation seed of stable rice lines containing the Ds insertions. All experiments will be carried out in Oryza sativa ssp japonica cv Nipponbare.To produce TI seed, stock plants (provided by Yate University) will be crossed as males to wild type female plants in the CIAT nursery. Efficient outcrossing can be achieved using a male-sterile female line.Since male-sterility in Nipponbare is not presently available a backcross-breeding scheme shown in Figure 1 was used to introgress this trait into Nipponbare. A nuclear male-sterility allele (msms) found in IR36 (provided by GSKhusb from IRRJ) was used as the donor parent. The Nipponbare male-sterile version will be used for the production of foundation seed from each transposition selection (Tl seed) produced in this project A simplified crossing method described by Sarkarung, 1991 was used. A seed sample from the IR36 source segregating for mal e sterility was planted under field conditions in CIA T; male-sterile plants were phenotipically identified at flowering time and used as the female parent. F2 seed was harvested from F l plants and grown in the field for the identification of male-sterile plants, which were backcrossed to Nipponbare to produce BCIFI seed. A second BC to Nipponbare was done and the BC2F2 population was grown in the field to allow the identification of male-sterile plants, which were used to produce the BC3Fl seed, and subsequently the BC4Fl. This seed was planted again in July/02 to produce BC4F2 to observe for segregation. At this point the Nipponbare malesterile plants look very similar to the fertile counterpart Nipponbare.The spittlebug is the most harmful pest of Brachiaria in America. One of the methods of controlling it, is the use of cultivars that are naturally resistant. We are interested in elucidating the molecular basis of resistance to spittlebug in Brachiaria using two strategies from different levels: At the genomic leve!, we isolate sequences bearing strong similarities with resistance genes (Rgenes) named RGAs (Resistance Gene Analogs); (Acosta,1.; Tohme, J. 2001. CIAT SB-2 project annual report. P183-l85. Cali, CO.). Given the need to establish the expression profile ofthe genes implicated in resistance when the resistant genotype is challenged with larvae of the insect, we followed two approaches: Look specifically for elements probably involved in the recognition of the insect and the activation of the resistance; and seek information about the defense response itself.Mapping of RGAs from Brachiaria brizantha. A candidate gene approach was developed to characterize Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for resistance to spittlebug in Brachiaria. Based on the strong structural similarities between R-genes of the NBS-LRR (Nucleotide Binding Site-Leucine Rich Repeat) family, which includes the main part of cloned R-genes, we had isolated RGAs using degenerate primers targeting highly conserved regions (CIA T. 200 l. SB-02 project annual report. Cali, CO). Now, these RGA sequences have been used as molecular markers to determine whether they are part of the spittlebug resistance QTL.To obtain sequences related with the defense process, we used a differential display technique that allows us to isolate fragments of cDNAs induced by the insect attack in a resistant variety. Sequence information of these fragments is used to hypothesize about its possible function in the defense response in arder to get closer to the resistance mechanism.Specific primers were designed for each of 8 RGA classes established previously (CIA T. 200 l. SB-02 project annual report. Cali, CO) in order to use RGAs as PCR-based molecular markers. Five out of the 8 classes were informative polymorphic markers between the resistant and susceptible varieties (B. brizantha CIA T 6294 and B. ruziziensis BR4x44-03, respectively). One of these PCRbased markers is a Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequence (CAPS), while the other ones represent dominant molecular markers (Presence/ Absence ). These polymorphic classes were evaluated in a population derived from an interspecific cross of B. ruziziensis BR4x44-03 X B. brizantha CIA T 6294. This population contains 215 individuals that ha ve been scored phenotypically for resistan ce to one of the most widespread species of spittlebug (Aenolamia varia), and have been used to construct a genetic map (CIA T. 200 l. SB-02 project annual report. Cali, CO). The RGAs were located on this map using Mapmaker (Lander, 1987). The correlation analysis between the segregation of RGAs and the resistance score was done with QGENE (Nelson, 1997).To isolate sequences differentially expressed in a Brachiaria-resistant variety (CIA T 36062) when challenged with spittlebug, we employed a highly sensitive technique known as Differential Subtraction Chain (DSC) (Luo et al., 1999). Expressed sequences from treated and nontreated plants are put in hybridization, and sequences common to both states are suppressed. This is achieved by successive rounds of hybridization with a subsequent enriching of the sequences expressed only in the treated plants.Two pools of plants from genotype CIA T 36062 grown under similar conditions were used for this assay. One pool was infested with A. varía larvae; the other was not treated. lnfestation was done in superficial roots according to Cardona (1999) (Figure 1 ). These were collected at different stages of the infestation progress (1-30 days) from both pools, and total RNA was extracted from superficial roots with Trizo!® reagent. We made two RNA pools that represent two populations of genes expressed in each condition during that time and are denominated \"tester\" (infested) and \"driver\" (not infested). Oouble-strand cDNA was synthesized using the SMART cONA Synthesis Kit (Ciontech) according to manufacturer's instructions. The cONA was then digested with Dpnl and Iigated with different adaptar sets for each cONA pool to make its subsequent amplification by PCR possible.Figure 1: infestation system units consist in single steams propagules with profuse superficial roots. This substratum serves as feedings sites for nymphs.We performed two separate hybridization experiments with different hybridization buffers: SSH (Oiatchenko, 1996) and DSC (Luo et al., 1999), following the hybridization and PCR parameters suggested by Luo et al. (1999). After each round of hybridization , the leve! of subtraction was checked by PCR. Accordingly to these stages of subtraction we executed 3 and 4 rounds of hybridization for the SSH buffer and the OSC buffer respectively. PCR products from the last round of hybridization were considered to contain differentially expressed sequences from the tester; therefore, they were cloned in batch, and a 96-c\\one library was constructed for both types of hybridization. Sequences for the complete libraries were obtained, and homologies were searched for in the Gene Bank, using the BLASTN and BLASTX algorithms (Aitschul et. al., 1997).Mapping of RGAs .from B. brizantha. Segregation of 5 RGA markers on the mapping population B. ruziziensis BR4x44-03 X B. brizantha CIAT 6294 did not show significan! association with the trait of interest (resistance toA. varia). The highest explicative value for the resistance phenotype was 5%, corresponding to RGA SB . Sorne AFLP markers used in the construction of this framework map show much better associations (25%) with resistan ce to spittlebug (CJAT. 200 l. SB-02 project annual report. Cali, CO). Oespite the smal l size of such markers (ranging from 100-300 bp), we attempted to sequence them in search for R-gene candidates; however, no apparent homologies were found (data not shown). Moreover, these QTL-containing regions are not saturated in molecular markers; thus they may sti ll contain RGA-type sequences that were not isolated in the set we tried to map. Consequently our next step is to define new classes of RGAs isolated from less complex sources of DNA, such as cONA or the arrayed genom ic library that is currently being constructed in the SB-02 Project. In this way we expect to obtain more diverse and representative RGA sequences that may be included in a genomic region implicated in the resistance of Brachiaria to spittlebug.Two \"subtraction libraries\" were constructed using DSC (see methods). They were supposed to contain sequences being expressed exclusively in resistant Brachiaria plants that had been challenged with spittlebug. It is highly probable that such cDNA fragments correspond to genes involved in the resistan ce response to the insect attack. Sequence analyses of 171 clones (Table 1) revealed 35 sequences with known homology, 4 hypothetical proteins (HP), 2 unknown proteins and 16 sequences with no homology. We isolated sequences that participate in the R-gene-mediated defense response studied in other plant systems (Figure 2). Indeed, we found Hypersensitive Response (HR)-related sequen ces (Table 1 ), suggesting that localized programmed cell death, a common strategy to arrest the propagation of pathogens, is also important in the resistance to spittlebug. This episode provokes a hormone response that alerts the entire plant; accordingly, we found sequences that are part of the ethylene, jasmonate and salicylic acid pathways triggered during resistance (Cheong, 2002). This evidence encourages us in the search for R-gene type sequences involved in the resistance mechanism of Brachiaria. Additionally, we found other general response elements to feeding, wounding (Reymond, 2002) and stress responses (Table 1), which are well correlated with the type of attack that the insect executes in the plant (mechanical wounding). Unfortunately, a high number of redundant clones representing 4 types of rRNA artifact sequences were also isolated (not shown). These sequences are an artifact of the cDNA synthesis even though we used a poly-T primer for that step. One way to prevent this in future experiments is to use mRNA as a template for cDNA synthesis. When we separated the subtraction fmal products in polyacrylamide gels (data not shown), we were able to see from 50-65 different bands for each hybridization. Evidently, the 96-well libraries were too small to represent well the entire set of differential sequences present after subtraction, particularly in this case where the concentration of rRNA-enriched products can \"mask\" the cloning of less abundant fragments . However, we applied this strategy to make a rapid inspection ofthe contents and quality ofthe subtraction. Now our goal is to construct Jarger libraries that exclude rRNA fragments by cloning smear excisions from polyacrylamide gels. In that way we expect to broaden the light that initial analysis of subtraction products has shed on the mechanisms of resistance to spittlebug in Brachiaria.we report here.Upstream elements have a particular interest in searching for polymorphism between susceptible and resistant varieties.• The subtractive hybridization performed did not allow detection of constitutive mechanisms of resistance. Therefore we plan to perform a subtractive hy bridization of cDNAs from a susceptible and resistant variety, challenging them with the insect to find out whether there is a constitutive mechanism of resistan ce.D.F. Cortés, 1 J. Miles 2 and J. Tohme 1 SB-2 Project, 2The identification of differential gene expression between two organisms or cells types is a frequent goal in modem biological research. The possibility of determining mRNA expression differences between apomictic and sexual genotypes using the novel tools of functional genomics is a powerful way to access the gene expression involved therein.Several recent and rapid PCR-based methods, including Subtractive Suppression Hybridization (SSH) and Representational Oifferences Analysis (RDA), are being used to clone genes that are differentially expressed between genotypes. Recently, cDNA rnicroarrays were developed and used to differentiate gene expression quantitatively by hybridization of a complex mRNA-derived probe onto an array of PCR products.Microarrays allow thousands of genes to be monitored simultaneously for expression level and compared between tissues.Here we show the advancement in the merging of cDNA subtraction technique with rnicroarray analysis as a potential method for detecting unique differentially expressed genes related to apomixes in Brachiaria.In arder to verify the efficiency of the subtraction procedure carried out previously between B. decumbens (apomictic) and B. ruziziensis (sexual) (CIAT, 2001), dot blot analyses of subtractive cDNA clones were hybridized with radioactively labeled cDNA prepared from inflorescence tissues of apornictic and sexual genotypes. As has been reported (Wan et al., 2002) although the SSH is a helpful technique for isolating differentially expressed genes, a high percentage of clones in the subtractive cDNA library may not be differentially expressed.From the subtractive library that contains the putative genes expressed only in the apornictic genotype, 140 cONA clones were randomly selected after subtraction efficiency was determined. The selected clones were sequenced with an ABI prism sequencer using AmpliTaq ONA polymerase and a Big Oye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kit (PE Biosystems)Sorne of the sequenced clones with significant similarities found in the sequences databases were used to design primer and PCR amplification onto genomic ONA and cDNA prepared from B. decumbens (apomictic) and B. ruziziensis (sexual). PCR amplification was also carried out on previously characterized cONA bulks of apomictic and sexual genotypes. Of the sequenced cDNA clones, only 45 showed homology with known proteins of maize, wheat, rice, tomatoes, Arabidopsis and Hordeum vulgare. The rest of the sequences showed no similarity with the Genbank sequences. PCR amplification of the cDNA clones that had significant homology with the MADS-box transcription factor, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, sucrose synthase, polyubiquitin and SCAR N 14 linkage and the apomixis loci were successfully carried out using the corresponding PCR primer pairs for these genes. The results of the amplifications of these genes are shown in the figure below. These cDNA clones can now be mapped to see if there exists sorne tinkages between them and the apomictic locus in Brachiaria. The clones can also be used as probes for screening a fulllength cONA library in order to obtain the full sequences for these clones.It is noteworthy that the N l4 SCAR that we have been using as a marker to discriminate between the apomictic and sexual genotypes of Brachiaria failed to amplify any corresponding locus in RNA extracted from the inflorescences of both genotypes. This would then Jead us to suppose that the sequences for this SCAR are not part of a gene expressed in the inflorescence and forms the basis for future work to determine exactly where the gene is expressed in the plant.• Sequencing clones of interest. Sequence the remaining set of clones identified as being differentially expressed and homologous.• The identified and sequenced clones will be used as pro bes against Northern blots to confirm their differential expression.  Hanna, 1990). Scientists and geneticists ha ve studied the two broad categories of apomixis-gametophytic and sporophytic-because of their widespread occurrence and potential usefulness in plant breeding. The genetic analysis of apomixes provides researchers with various inordinate challenges because of ploidy levels, lack of sexual progeny, lethality and accurate identification and classification of pro gen y.Methods for classifying progeny accurately in genetic studies are being developed, and currently severa! methods are available to researchers, none of which provides a complete picture. These include phenotypic analysis, cytoembryological study, microbiological methods and a variety of markers. A combination of these methods may be used to classify progeny accurately.When the genetic cause of apomixis is identified, apomixis could be applied to plant breeding programs as a means of permanently fixing hybrid vigor or capturing desirable genotypes immediately. Several theories of the genetic control of apomixis have been put forth. Studies suggest one major gene or linkage group with the possibility of modifying genes. None of these theories has proven to be completely satisfactory due to the lack of inheritance data, inaccurate progeny classification and recombination.Recent advances in functional genomic technologies have provided a particular way to monitor gene expression on a genomic scale and under different conditions. Based on the recent gene expression technologies available, we are working on the identification of genes expressed during early embryo sac development, which could be related to the apomictic reproduction mode in Brachiaria.Phenotypic identification and material selection. Selection of 7 apomictic and 6 sexual materials in the field was done by phenotypic detection of the reproduction mode. Phenotypic detection of apomixis involves the classification of a known heterozygous maternal parent and its progeny (grown from seed) with no observed segregation; or, in the case of the sexual reproduction mode, the presence of several progeny with complete heterozygosity. Phenotypic selection was also combined with the presence or absence of SCAR N14, which is linked to the apomixis locus.RNA extraction. From each ofthe apomictic and sexual genotypes selected, 300-400 embryo sacs were obtained by cytological methods. Once the tissue was frozen in liquid nitrogen, the total RNA was extracted using Trizo!® Reagent (Invitrogen). Equal amounts ofhigh-quality RNA were pooled for apomictic and sexual material to obtain one bulle of total RNA from apomictic genotypes and another from sexual genotypes.Ful/-length cDNA libraries. Two full-length cONA libraries were constructed from the apomictic and sexual bulles. Double-strand cDNA synthesis was perfonned using the template switch technique (SMARTTM PCR cDNA Synthesis Kit; Clonthech). The PCRamplified cDNA was cloned using the Creator™ SMARTTM cDNA Library Construction Kit.• Construct forward and reverse cDNA subtraction libraries to identify genes expressed only in the apomictic or sexual bulks. • Carry out cDNA microarray spotting. Clones from each library will PCR amplified and spotted onto replicate glass slides using a SPBIO spotting robot. • Perform microarray hybridizations with Cy3-and Cy5-labeled cDNA derived from poly(A)+ of genotypes used in the cDNA subtraction library construction • Include microarray hybridizations with labeled PCR product of the SCARs markers, linked to the apomixes loci in the Brachiaria genetic map. • Generate cDNA chips with clones derived from the full-length cDNA libraries of both sexual and apomictic genotypes. • Identify clones of interest. Computer analyses of the microarray hybridization output will be use to identify clones that change their pattem of expression between sexual and apomictic genotypes. • Perform microarray hybridization and sequencing of the full-length cDNA chips, using as probes cDNA clones identified as interesting in the cDNA substraction cDNA chip. • Use the identified and sequenced clones as probes against Northem blots to confmn their differential expression.Activity 2.1Transfer of gene and gene combinations using cellular and molecular techniques• The genetic transfonnation of tepary bean hybrids carried out in 2001 with the Agrobacterium strain LBA4404 pTOK233, was confinned through southem b1ot. The transfonnation methodo1ogy used was developed at CIA T and pennits the screening of 1arge populations of hybrids. This is specially useful for breeding common bean genotypes arnenable to Agrobacterium-mediated transfonnation.• lnterspecific hybridization between the comrnon bean and the tepary bean genotype, Nl576, (which is genetica11y transformable using Agrobacterium tumefaciens) was achieved and hybrid populations developed. Results from the evaluation ofthese populations for stab1e transfonnation suggest that sorne hybrid 1ines have received genes from tepary bean invo lved in conferring competence to Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transfonnation of mature seed meristems.The time consuming process of cu1turing and app1ying se1ective conditions to transfonned tissues of comrnon bean has been automated through the use of a modified and simplified temporary imrnersion methodo1ogy. This will lead to perfonning the transformation experiments more efficiently and unifonnly.• Field evaluation of F 6 interspecific popu1ations between cornmon and tepary beans developed through congruity and double congruity backcrosses clearly showed for the first time that drought to1erance can be effectively introgressed into comrnon bean from this species and using these hybridization methodologies.• Two new cassava cultivars (ICA-Negrita and SM1219-9) were transfonned using Agrobacterium and Bio1istics. Putative transgenic plants are positive for Southem of PCR-products probed with GUS gene.• Southem blot analysis of transgenic rice using isoschizomer restriction enzyme pair indicated a differential methy1ation pattem between RHBV resistant and susceptible plants. Resu1ts may suggest a possible association of the RNA mediated RHBV resistance in these plants and a potentia1 posttranscriptional gene si1encing dueto transgene methylation in these plants.• Evaluation for RHBV resistance in the greenhouse suggest a possible protection encoded by the antisense NS4 transgene conferred by a different mechanism respect to the resistance encoded by the nucleoprotein transgene, since most resistant plants showed highest 1evels ofNS4-RNA expression.• Progeny plants containing stable inheritance of high level of expression of the anti-fungal P APy 123 transgene were advanced at the T2 generation, and are currently being evaluated for sheath blight resistance.Although transgenic common bean plants have been developed through particle bombardment (Russell et al., 1993; Aragao et al. 1996, 1998 and 2002), a methodology for Agrobacteriummediated transformation is still needed in a rder to efficiently apply recombinant DNA techno logies in common bean breeding and research.Compared to particle bombardment. Agrobacterium-medi ated transformation offers different and unique advantages for transforming plant cells, such as the possibilities to: (i) transfer only one or few copies of DNA fragments carryi ng the genes of interest (ii) transfer of very large DNA fragments of a size as large as 150kb, (iii) produce transgen ic plants with fragments of foreign DNA of the desired size, and (iv) prod uce more effic iently transgenic plants free of antibiotic marker genes.Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of common bean has not been possible up to date, despite the many experienced scientists and labs that have attempted it around the world. From the genus Phaseolus only the transformation the tepary bean (P. acutifolius) has been clearly demonstrated . Two methodologies have been used for it: the inoculation of green nodular callus tissues (Dillen et al., 1997) or of meristems of mature seeds (Mej ía Jiménez et al., project SB2 Annual Reports 2000 and2001 ).The Agrobacterium mediated mature seed meristem transformation (AMMSM-Tran sformation) methodology developed at CIAT, did not require the previous induction of a callus tissue and thus allows the faster production of a transgenic plant, and the screening of large populations of genotypes with less effort than the previously developed methodology.However, the application of the AMMSM-transformation methodology to more than 30 wild and domesticated genotypes of common bean during the year 2000 and 200 1 yie lded no transgenic callus tissues or plants. Transformation experiments done with tepary bean genotypes and hybrids (see annual report of 2001 ) suggested that nuc lear genes of the genotype NI576 are involved in conferring competence to Agrobacterium med iated transformation of hybrids between responsive and non-responsive genotypes. For this reason we started interspecific crosses between common bean and the NI576 genotype of tepary bean, to transfer the supposed traits for Agrobacterium transformation competence to common bean.The objective of this activity is to breed one genotype of common bean , which can be efficiently transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens, from w hich the transgenes can be transferred fast an easily to common bean cultivars.During the year 2002 we continued to produce interspecific populations and test them fo r competence to Agrobacterium mediated transformation. We are currently also investigating the improvement of genetic transformation methodologies through particle bombardment.Hybrid progenies involving the Nl576 tepary bean genotype, and common bean genotype Bayo Madero (among others used as facilitators of the interspecific cross) were generated through double congruity backcrossing (Mejía Jiménez et al., Annual Reports 2000, 2001and 2002).Mature but not dry pods were used as source of sterile explants (whole mature seeds without one cotyledon) for transformation experiments. The cointegrate strain of Agrobacterium LBA4404 pTOK233 (Hiei et al., 1994), and the binary strains C58C 1 pTARC B1B (Dillen et al., 1997) and C58C1 pCambia1305 .2 (http://www.cambia.org.au) were used for transformation, following the previously described protocol (Mejía-Jiménez et al., Annual Reports 2000 and2001 ).Confirmation of the genetic transformation of the tepary bean hybrids inoculated w ith Agrobacterium tumefaciens.During 2000 and 2001, a novel methodology for the genetic transformation for Phaseolus beans was developed. Severa! hygromycin resistant meristematic tissues were obtained from F 2 seeds of two tepary bean hybrids (G40022 x NI5 76 and G40065 x NI576) inoculated with the Agrobacterium strain LBA 4404 pTOK233. However, plants could be regenerated from only three of them. These plants and their progeny expressed GUS in most of their tissues. The transformation of these plants was confirmed during this year through southem blot (Fig. 1 ).Fig. 1 South ern analysis of non transformed plants (G40022 and NI576) and T 2 progeny of two GUS-positive and hygro myci n resistant tepary bean hybrids G40065 x Nl576 and G40022 x NI576 obtained through the inoculation of mature seeds with the Agrobacterium strain LBA4404pTOK233. Total DNA of the plants was digested with BahmHl and probed with a labeled fragment corresponding to the hygromycin phosphotransfera. se (hpt) gene.This AMMSM-transformation methodology is different from the one developed previously (Dillen et al. 1997), and since the induction of a callus tissue is not necessary for applying it, it is specially useful for screening genotypes or populations of hybrids for competence to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. This is the first demonstration that meristerns found in mature seeds of a Phaseolus bean species can be transformed stably with Agrobacterium.Further development of fertile hybrid progenies between common and tepary bean using the tepary gentoype NI576In order to breed common bean genotypes which are responsive to the AMMSM-transformation methodology, we have started interspecific crosses in which we included the tepary bean genotype, NI576, as a putative source of genes involved in conferring competence for transformation. We also included tepary bean genotypes, which were selected as the best in forming meristematic callus (a trait that can be useful during selection of transformed tissues), 040022 and 040065 and the best-identified genotype of common bean, which also forms meristematic callus, Bayo Madero. The development of fertile interspecific hybrids between the genotypes NI576 and Bayo Madero was possible only through a complex series of backcrosses (see annual reports 2000 and 2001) we performed starting from advanced congruity backcross hybrids developed years before (Mejía-Jiménez et al, 1994).Since the stable introgression of tepary bean traits into common bean genome can be very difficult, and with the DCBC only a small proportion of the donor genotype NI576 is expected to be transferred to the receptor genotypes, severa! backcrosses may be necessary for obtaining a fertile genotype which combine the desired traits. A strategy for accumulating traits that may positively affect the in vitro culture and genetic transformation behavior of a genotype is being followed. This consists in screening hybrids obtained from both cytoplasms for competence for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and in intercrossing them again. We are using transient or stable gus expression as well as callus induction and maintenance characteristics as screening tools.Severa! hybrids populations with different complexity grades, produced by intercrossing hybrids with common or tepary bean cytoplasm which involve the genotypes NI576 and Bayo Madero, have been produced during 2002 and are being tested with binary Agrobacterium strains carrying marker genes for AMMSM-transformation. No transgenic plants have been obtained from these experiments, but severa] lines with tepary bean cytoplasm (A-DCBC8-l; see common x tepary bean interspecific crosses report) have been identified that after selection, produced meristematic (regenerable) calli that express GUS. Also promising lines with the cytoplasm of common bean have been identified (V-DCBC5), which produced calli expressing marker genes after transformation. This has been never achieved before with a common bean genotype (see annual reports of 2000, 2001 and 2002).Improvement of the in vitro culture steps following the transformation of the explants through the use of temporary immersion systems (TIS)The temporary immersion tissue culture methodology is a relatively young innovation for the way cells, calli or tissues are cultured in vitro. Instead of culturing them over a semisolid medium, or immersed in a liquid medium, which must be agitated or aerated in order to allow an appropriate gas exchange, in the TIS methodology the tissues are immersed only temporarily once, or several times a day, in a liquid culture medium, maintained wet but not in direct contact with the medium, most of the time. This is achieved using different types of vessels and by transporting the culture media from one vessel to another using hydraulic or pneumatic methods (Teisson and Alvard, 1995;Escalona et al. 1999).We have implemented the TIS methodology for culturing transformed bean tissues (through particle bombardment or Agrobacterium) in the phases following the transformation: meristematic-callus induction and selection. The advantages of applying the TIS methodology in transformation has been severa!: fewer media changes are needed, selective conditions are applied more uniformly to all explants thereby reducing the number of escapes (non transformed tissues that resist selective conditions) and reduction of tissue recontamination (when they have been inoculated with Agrobacterium). Also, a better aeration of the tissues is achieved producing healthier and bigger putatively transformed calli after fmishing the selection. This last advantage of the TIS culture methodology seems to be very important for AMMSM-transformation, since the small size of the calli obtained after selection was the most important constraint impeding the fast and efficient regeneration of several of the meristematic calli that resisted selection after transformation ( armual report 2001 ).Towards the improvement of the genetic transformation methodologies of common bean through particle bombardement. Particle bombardment has been the only transformation methodology that has permitted the recovery of transgenic plants in common bean. This methodology however still has severa! impediments that prevent its routine application or would hinder the commercialization of the transgenic cultivars developed by this way. The most important impediments are: (i) the low rate of stable transformation, (ii) the need for the elimination of the antibiotic marker genes from the process or from the final product, and (iii) the occurrence of multiple insertions ofthe bombarded DNA molecules in the same DNA locus.The two last constraints could be solved if the transformation efficiencies could be increased, and large populations of independently produced transgenic plants are developed. The lines that show the desired patterns of DNA insertion, and the desired levels of expression of the transgenes, could then be selected from these populations. In order to increase the transformation efficiency while using particle bombardment, we are testing the bombardment of plasmid DNA or DNA fragments in different conftgurations, the use of the TIS system for culturing bombarded tissues and the screening of several agronomically important lines or cultivars of common bean to identify the ones that respond best to the tissue culture and transformation treatments applied.The transformation of the hygromycin resistant and GUS pos1t1ve plants recovered after the inoculation of mature seeds of tepary bean hybrids with Agrobacterium during 200 l has been conftrmed through southern blot.Gus expressing hygromicin or geneticin resistant meristematic callus tissue has been obtained after selection of common x tepary bean hybrids inoculated with binary Agrobacterium strains Future plans• To further develop hybrid progenies using the genotypes NI576, and Bayo Madero as parents • To screen the hybrid populations developed in order to identify genotypes that can be efficiently transformed through the AMMSM-transformation methodology • To improve the efftciency of transformation of common bean cultivars through particle bombardment using plasmids or DNA fragments in different conftgurations, and temporary immersion tissue culture systemsSevera! traits fo und in tepary bean (P. acutif olius A. Gray) accesions are important for common bean breeding. For example tepary bean genotypes have been identified to be a source for resistance to drought (G40020 and G40023), the bruchids (A. obtectus and Z. subfaciatus; G40 199), Ieaf hopper (Empoasca kraemeri; G400 19 and G4003 6) and bacteria) blight (Xanlhomonas campestris pv phaseoli; G40020). Also the accesion NI576 could be a source for genes for competence to Agrobaclerium mediated transforrnation (see report on bean transforrnation).Crossing of common with tepary bean has been traditionally difficult. Using facilitator genotypes of both species, and applying recurrent and congruity backcrossing (CBC; the altemate backcross of the hybrids with genotypes of each species for several cycles; Haghighi and Ascher, 1988), we could produce fertile progeny (Mejía-Jiménez el al. 1994), from which the V AX. lines with high levels of resistance to bacterial blight were developed (Singh and Muñoz, 1999).However the production of fertile hybrids involving most of the above mentioned tepary bean accessions, has been attempted by recurrent and congruity backcrossing but it has not been possible.Using a modification of the CBC methodology, we called Double Congruity Backcrosses (DCBC), and advanced CBC hybrids developed previously as bridge, we could develop fertile interspecific hybrids involving the tepary bean accession N1576 (Annual report 2001 ).In 2001 we started with the use of advanced DCBC hybrids, as bridge to facilitate the cross of other accession of tepary bean, G400 19, G40036, G40 199 and G40023. During 2002 and through the use of this backcrossing strategy, fertile progenies involving all these tepary bean accessions were produced. These are now be tested by the for introgression ofthe desired traits.Double congruity backcross hybrids with the cytoplasms of common or tepary bean (V-DCBC and A-DCBC hybrids) were developed starting from advanced congruity backcross hybrids with cytoplasm of common bean developed previously (Mejía-Jiménez el al., 1994), as described in the annual report 2000 (Mejía Jiménez et al. 2000; Table 1 and 2).Difficult to cross genotypes of tepary bean are crossed first to the most advanced fertile DCBC hybrids available ofthe same cytoplasm, to generate fertile hybrids, which are then crossed to the most advanced DCBC hybrids with common bean cytoplasm in arder to produce fertile or self sterile hybrids, which have to backcrossed to obtain fertile progeny.Embryo rescue was applied when necessary to recover viable hybrids from aborting embryos (Mej ía-J iménez et al., 1994 ).Introgression of drought tolerance from tepary bean to common bean through CBC and DCBC Drought tolerance has been always a breeding target in the common x tepary bean interspecific crosses made at CIA T. Dueto this, accessions oftepary bean selected as resistant to drought by J. White (Iike G40023, G40020 and G40068), were included in the crossing program realized between 1988and 1993(Mejía-Jiménez el al., 1994; Tables 1 and 2), in which we applied the CBC strategy. Starting from the most advanced hybrids obtained in that program we perforrned a series of new crosses which included intercrosses between CBCS hybrids and between the obtained hybrids, followed by crosses to the cultivar Bayo Madero or to DCBCs hybrids involving the accession N1576 of tepary bean (Tables 1 and 2).In 2001 F3 progeny of these hybrids was provided to the lP l project for screening for drought tolerance. This year the IP 1 project reports the results of the second year of screening of F6 populations derived from these hybrids. Severa( lines derived from CBC or DCBC showed resistance to drought, and one ofthis yielded 40% more than the tolerant check, SEA 5 (see Beebe et al., in this Annual Report). The complex pedigree of two of the most productive of these lines is shown in table l. This is the first clear demonstration that drought tolerance in common bean can be improved through interspecific crosses with tepary bean. It is also a demonstration, that complex multigenic traits such as drought, can been effectively introgressed from species of the tertiary gene pool to common bean through the congruity and double congruity backcross strategies. BKI 11=Common Bean: Pijao (ICA Pijao), MAM38, A775, A800, Bayo Madero Tepary bean: G40001 , G40020, G40065 (cultivated). NI576 (wild)This year new F3 progenies of more advanced DCBC lines and other involving other common bean cultivars or breeding lines selected for drought tolerance the previous year, were provided to the IP 1 project for further screening.Development of fertile progenies between common and tepary bean through DCBC involving accessions of tepary bean selected for agronomic traits Table 2 shows a summary ofthe interspecific crossing program between common and tepary bean carried out since 1988. Until 1993 five generations of CBC were developed involving the common and tepary bean genotypes shown in the table, and others from which no fertile progeny was obtained (Mejía-Jiménez et al. 1994). From these hybrids the V AX lines were developed (Singh and Muñoz, 1999). The DCBC crossing program was started after many unsuccessful attempts to cross the tepary bean accession NI576 (as male) with common bean directly, or using the intercrossed CBC hybrids as bridge (hybrids with code M). Hybrids between common bean and a tepary bean hybrid involving NI576 could only be developed on the tepary bean cytoplasm (A-DCBC-1 ). These hybrids were self steri1e and had to be backcrossed in order to obtain fertile progeny (A-DCBC-2). A-DCBC-2 hybrids were used for producing the first DCBC hybrids with common bean cytoplasm: V-DCBCl. These hybrids were partially fertile (such as the .MMNNI14, table 1 ). At this time and despite the many backcrosses, the levels of introgression from the tepary genome are much less than expected. For example the seed and flower color of the A-DCBC-2 hybrids did not influenced the seed or flower color of the V-DCBC1 hybrids or that of its pro gen y.For increasing the introgression of tepary bean alleles in the hybrids with common bean cytoplasm, severa! further cycles of DCBC on both cytoplasms were carried out (Table 2).F ertile hybrids involving the also difficult to cross accessions of tepary bean G400 19, G40036 and G40199, have been developed by crossing them with A-DCBC6-1 hybrids, and by crossing the resulting self fertile hybrid with V -DCBC5 hybrids. Self fertile and cross fertile hybrids were produced. More recently more hybrids involving G40199 have been developed (A-DCBC8-1).The most important results of the whole program are: The leve! of difficulty to perform the backcrosses is reduced with the advance of backcrosses mainly in the P. acutifolius cytoplasm The frequency of appearance of morphological markers from the mal e parent, such as leaf petiole size (in the case of hybrids made in the P. acutifolius cytoplasm), hypocotyl and flower color, and bracteoles, seeds or flower size, in F1 hybrids is increasing. The fertility and vigor of the F1 hybrids tend to increaseDuring 2002 severa! hybrid progenies with common bean and tepary bean cytoplasm which involve in their pedigrees the tepary bean genotypes G40019, G40036 and G40199 have been provided to the project IP l. These are being screened for resistan ce to drought, Empoasca and bruchids (see IP1 annual report).Regarding the hybrid lines invoolving the accession Nl576 tested for Agrobacterium mediated transformation through the innoculation of meristems of mature seeds, regenerable meristematic calli which express marker genes have been selected from severa! lines with the cytoplasm of tepary bean (A-DCBC8-l). Also promising lines with the cytoplasm of common bean have been identified (V -DCBC5), which produced calli expressing marker genes after transformation. This has been never achieved before with a common bean genotype (see annual reports of 2000, 2001 and 2002).CBCs and DCBCs allowed the introgression of genes of tepary bean involved m drought tolerance to common bean lines.DCBC allows the production of viable and fertile or cross-fertile common x tepary bean hybrids from genotypes that were before incompatible using other crossing techniques.Promising results, regarding competence to genetic transfonnation through Agrobacterium, were obtained after screening of DCBC interspecific hybrid populations.Tablt 2. Intcnptcific crossts program bdwttn P. vulgaris x P. acuáfolius in dtvdopmut sinct 1988. Tht column of tbt middlt s hows tbt codt assigntd to cacb hybrid gtntration. Acctssions of common or ttpary bcan involvtd in tbt program art in bold; CBC-congruity backcross hybrids (Haghigbi and Ascbtr 1988). DCBC,. Doublt congruity backcross hybrids; V-DCBC= DCBC witb tht cytoplasm of common bun; A-DCBC-DCBC witb tht cytoplu m of ltpary bun; tbt DCBC bybrids witb odd numbtn rtsult from a cross bttwcu two DCBC witb difTtrtnt cytoplasms. Thest are In gtntral self-sttrile (total self-sterile hybrid gtntrations are sbown in italics). Tht DCBC bybrids witb tbe cven numbers result from a cross between two DC BC witb tbe same cytopla.sms. Tbtse are in general stlf-fertile. .J.Future plaos• To continue with the DCBC strategy to produce more advanced DCBC hybrid generations• To perform additional DCBCs with hybrids that have already shown in the field resistance to drought, Empoasca, or Acanthoselides or that have shown competence for Agrobacterium mediated transformation. • To measure the introgression of DNA fragments from the tepary bean genotypes into the ferti le hybrid populations produced using AFLP techniques.CIA T has developed transgenic cassava plants smce the beginning of the 90s, usmg Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and the commonest cassava regeneration system-somatic embryogenesis. The Friable Embryogenic Callus (FEC) system has been implemented for routine transformatio n of new clo nes with either Agrobacterium or a particle gun to introduce insect-resistance genes. The real usefulness of transgenic cassava will, however, rely not only on our ability to deliver plants to the farmers, which implies dealing w ith intellectual property right issues, but also to modify genetically the genotypes they prefer. Given that cassava is a highly heterozygous crop, genetic transformation of a model clone like 60444 (formerly known as TMS 60444) and the transfer of transgenes to other clones through c rossing are impractical dueto time constraints. Obtaining a variety by c lassical breeding usua lly takes about ten years; therefore transgenic plants have to be obtained for varieties selected by farrners-an approach that requires adjusting the in vitro culture system for each clone. We report the molecular analysis of transgenic plants of the model clone 60444 and preliminary data on the transformation of farmer-selected cu ltivars using Agrobacterium and bio listics.FEC lines from clones 60444, M Col 2215, CM 3306-4 and SM 1219-9 were submitted to transformation with Agrobacterium strains C58C 1-pBIGCry and LBA4404-pBJGCry; and shooting w ith plasmids pBIGCry and pSGMC . Cotyledons of somatic embryos fro m clone M Col 2215 were also assayed for trans formation with Agrobacterium strain LBA4404-pBIGCry. Plasmid pBIGCry contains three genes: nptii, cry1Ab and gus-intron; while plasmid pSGMC contains the last two plus pmi for selection on mannose. The selection regime of transgenic tissues and assays for transient and stable gus expression are summarized in Table l . Modified ELISA tests (Envirol ogix, ME, USA) were run to quantify the amo unt of CRYIAb protein expressed in young leaves oftransgenic lines 55, 80 and 92.Four lines of putatively transgen ic plants were obtained with model cv. 60444: 27, 55, 80 and 92. A ll lines were established in the greenhouse. Two of them (55 and 92) still express the gus-intron gene very strongly. Jt should be noted that the FEC from Jine 80 tested positive for gus expression (stable expression; Table 1) before the third round of selection. Southern blots of PCR products showed pos itive signals for lines 27, 55 and 80 when probed with cryl Ab. Line 92 was not included in this test a lthough it expresses gus strongly (Figure 1 ). Southern blots of genomic DNA detected the g us -intron and/or the nptii genes in lines 55, 80 or 92. Line 55 and 80 had at least two in serts ofthe T-ONA ; line 92 had only one (brackets in Figure IC). T ransgenic tobacco showed at Jeast one insert, while nontransgenic rice showcd two nonspecific hybridizing bands. The gus-intron probe detected a rearranged T-DNA insert of higher molecular weight in lines 55, 92 and transgenic tobacco. No band was observed in line 80 (it does not express gus). Most probably this T-DNA was rearranged while stored in Eschlerichia coli or Agrobacterium as all independent transgenic lines contain the same size insert. Plasmid pBIGCry must have undergone a rearrangement as Southerns of genomic DNA-hybridized with the probe crylAb, digested from plasmid pBT1291, from which crylAb was originally subcloned-do not show the expected T-ONA (data not shown). Similar results were obtained with transgenic tomato transformed with pBIGCry (H Ramirez and L Fory, personal communication).Taken together, the molecular evidence indicates that there are at least three transgenic cassava lines derived from cv. 60444 (lines 55, 80 and 92). These lines may contain rearranged T-ONA carrying the cry iAb gene. The rearrangement in pBIGCry must be confirmed by sequencing. Although we suspect that the T-ONA of pBIGCry may contain rearrangements, the CRYIAb protein may still be expressed. The concentration ofthis protein in transgenic cassava lines 55, 80and 92 was estimated as the average of two measurements (OD 450 ), separated in time, using the standard curve depicted in Figure 2. The results indicated that for line 55 only, the amount of CRY 1 Ab protein m ay be el ose to 0.18 x ( 1 0)-6 ng of pro te in per gram of fresh tissue. However, these results need to be interpreted cautiously. As stated above, besides possible rearrangements in the T-ONA, the crylAb gene was not detected by Southerns of genomic DNA in these transgenic lines. Estimations of CRY 1 Ab concentration varied from test to test, although line 55 always showed 00 readings above the background level. In one case the background was so high that the raw absorbance of the negative control exceeded those of 1ines    (Figure 3). The former was obtained after shooting; the latter from Agrobacterium-mediated transfonnation with strain LBA4404-both with plasmid pBIGCry. Positive controls from tobacco and cassava (lines 55 and 92 from clone 60444 mentioned before) indicate the position (720 bp) of the expected band in Southems. We are still in the process of testing more putative transgenic lines through preliminary screenings via PCR. Once we have plants in the greenhouse, Southerns of genomic DNA for at least two of the genes present in pBIGCry or pSGMan (nptii, cry1Ab, gus-intron or pmi) will determine the true transgenic status ofthese new lines.• Induction of more FEC lines, at least four times a year, to replenish o ld cell lines and to establish new ones with new farmer-selected cultivars. • Implementation of cryopreservation for long-term storage of FEC lines • Bioassays with the cassava hornwonn.• Sequence T-ONA of pBIGCry to confirm status of cry1Ab gene • Find new sources of cry genes to replace the one in useIn 1992 the frrst transgenic cassava plants were obtained at CIA T through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Only one line (53-5.2) was shown to contain the T-DNA from pGV l 040 canying the genes nptil, uidA and bar (Sarria et al., 2000) although four more lines (108, 137-3.1 y 207) were also preserved as putative chirnerical transgenics, based on their tolerance to PPT (Phosphinotricin; herbicide Basta = glufosinate-ammonium). Since then, these plants have been clonally propagated in vitro and in the greenhouse. lt is important to monitor the activity of the transgene, especially in clonally propagated crops, where chimeras may disappear after severa! cycles of propagation. On the other hand, silencing may be occurring to shut down the expression of initially active transgenes. We evaluated the presence of the bar gene and its transcription, as well as the tolerance of these transgenic lines to aspersion with the herbicide Finale (glufosinateammonium) at different concentrations (Echeverry 2002).The research was divided into three components: (1) Detect the presence of bar by PCR and Southern Blot analysis, (2) detect transcription of bar by RT-PCR and ( 3) evaluate bar activity phenotypically by aspersion and in vitro tolerance tests. We checked the aforementioned lines plus transgenic tobacco, canying the bar gene from same plasmid, as well as nontransgenic controls ( cassava M Peru 183 and tobacco ).The conditions for amplifying the bar gene by PCR were as follows: 1 ~g oftarget DNA, 2 J.LM of each primer (forward 5'-CGCTATCCCTGGCTCGTC-3' and reverse 5'-CGACCACGCTCTTGAAGC-3 ' ; expected product at 205 bp), 200 ~M of each dNTP, 2 mM of MgCh, IX buffer 10X, one unit Taq polymerase for a final volume of 25 ~1. For tobacco, the conditions were the same, except that MgCh was increased to 1.5 mM. The amplification profile was 3 min denaturation at 94°C, followed by 35 one-minute cycles of denaturation at 94°C, 2 min annealing at 55°C and 2 min extension at 72°C. The final extension cycle was at 72°C for 5 min. Agarose gels were blotted onto nylon membranes for Southem blot analysis using a radioactive bar pro be, PCR-amplified from pGV 1040.In those individuals in which bar was detected, we ran RT-PCR to detect transcription using Superscript 11 Invitrogen~ to produce cDNA, previous treatment of RNA with DNAse. 450 ng of transgenic tobacco cDNA and 1.5 J.Lg of cassava cDNA were PCR amplified according to the following protocol: 2 ~M of each primer, 200 ~M of each dNTP, 2 mM MgCh, 1 X buffer 1 OX, 1 unit taq Gibco-BRL ill, for a final volume of 25 ~l. The cDNA amplification profile was 1 min denaturation at 94°C, 30 one-minute cycles of denaturation at 94°C, 2 min annealing at 62°C and 3 m in extension at 72°C. A final extension was performed at 72°C for 1 O m in. Southem blots were performed for hybridization of PCR products.For those individuals that were RT-PCR positive, leaf disks were cultured on a basal medium containing 0.5 ppm BAP and Finale at a final PPT concentration of 8 mg/1. Similarly, plants from these individuals were sprayed with Finale at 8 mg/1, 200 mg/1 and 1500 mg/1. Two sprayi ngs were done for each concentration at 15-day intervals.We detected a 205-bp, PCR-amplified band only in line 53-5.2, transgenic tobacco and plasmid pGV 1040, which corresponded to the expected product of the bar gene. The Southerns confirrned this finding (Figure 1). No bands were detected in lines 108 1.1, 137-3 .1 and 207, suggesting that they are not true transgenics, not even chimeras, given that PCR should be able to amplify the gene, even in chimeras. These lines are probably somaclonal variants that escaped selection with PPT, which, in part, explains their initial tolerance to herbicides (Sarria et al., 2000). RT-PCR also detected a 205-bp band in 53-5.2, tobacco and pGVI 040 when hybridized to a radioactive, PCRderived bar probe (Figure 2). The background observed in Figure 2 was unavoidable for all amplifications. These results confirmed that 53-5.2 is a true transgenic that still transcribes the bar gene although at lower levels than the comparable transgenic tobacco. In vitro leaf-disk cultures showed total necrosis in negative controls of cassava and tobacco, while transgenic tobacco and line 53-5.2 survived in medium with PPT (8 mg/1) (Figure 3). Leaf disks from 53-5.2 remained green but did not grow, while tobacco disks increased in size. This experiment agreed with the detection of RT-PCR products from the bar gene in both transgenic plants. Figure 3. Leaf disks from transgenic and nontransgenic plants cultured onmedium containing 8 mg/1 of PPT. Transgenic tobacco disks remained green and grew. Similarly, leaf disks from 53-5.2 also appeared greener than nontransgenic controls.Spraying with 8 mg/1 PPT had no effect on plants (not shown). Controls and transgenics did look similar. At 200 mg/1 PPT, transgenic and nontransgenic cassava still looked similar. Both plants lost most of their leaves although they recovered w ith time (the shoot apex continued producing new leaves). At the same concentration, transgenic tobacco remained green, retaining all its leaves, while nontransgenic tobacco dried out and died (Figure 4). The difference between transgenic and nontransgenic tobacco was striking, indicating that the leve! of bar transcription detected w ith RT-PCR was enough to confer tolerance to the herbicide applied at this concentration. The same cannot be said for the transgenic line 53-5.2; the observed transcription did not seem to be sufficient to protect this line from the herbicide sprayed at this concentration. Finally, aspersion of PPT at 1500 mg/1 (for field application) killed both cassava transgenic and nontransgenic plants and nontransgenic tobacco. The only one to survive was the transgenic tobacco plant (Figure 4) although its leaves turned yellow and the lower ones dried out and died. In conclusion, the transgenic cassava line 53-5.2, derived from clone M Per 183, contains and transcribes the bar gene although this expression is not enough to confer tolerance to the herbicide Final e (200 mg/1 PPT). Transcription of the bar gene in this line seems to be enough for leaf disks to survive in vitro on medium containing 8 mg/1 PPT.• One Iast test will be performed with cassava line 53-5.2. It will consist of rooting cuttings from in vitro plants on media containing PPT, at concentrations from 4-16 mgll. • Similarly, one last Southem blot analysis of genomic DNA will be performed to detect the bar gene inserted in 53-5.2 and tobacco.Gina Puentes, E. Barrera, Paul Chavariaga, Chikelu Mba, Martín Fregene SB-02 Project, CIA THigher incomes from cassava in marginal areas of the developing world where the crop is generally found will require the industrialization of the crop and the development of novel industrial products from cassava with the aid of biotechnology. There are severa! novel products that can be produced from cassava, including modifted starches such as 100% amylopectin or 100% amylose starches, from the down regulation of the granule-bound starch synthethase (GBSS) gene or the starchbranching enzyme (SBE) gene. Industrial applications of either pure amylopectin or pure amylose starches, such as the production of high-value biodegradab le polymers from pure amylose starches or the use of 100% amylopectin in thickeners, pastes and glues, have a market with unlimited growth potential.With funds from the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, a project has been initiated to engineer industrial varieties genetically with an antisense construct of the GBSSI. GBSS, which is the predominant starch synthase gene, catalyses the conversion of ADP-glucose to amylose through the linkage of an ADP glucose to a preexisting glucan chain. Antisense disruption of the GBSSI gene has been employed to create patato transformants with 70-100% amy1opectin via the down-regulation ofthe GBSSJ gene (Salehuzzaman et al., 1993).Isolation of a cassava GBSS cDNA clone. More than 87, 000 clones of a cassava root and Ieaf cONA library cloned in the vector pCMV SPORT (GIDCO BRL Inc., USA) was gridded onto highdensity filters (Mba et al., 2000, unpublished data). The library was screened using a potato GBSS cONA clones, a gift from Dr. Christine Gebhardt (Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany). The potato GBSS gene was labeled with e 2 P] dA TP by random primer labeling and hybridized ovemight to the cONA filters according to standard protocols for Southem hybridization used in cassava (Fregene et al., 1997). The ftlters were washed twice with 2X SSC + 0.1% SOS at 60°C for S m in, and autoradiography was at -80°C using 2 intensifying screens.Construction of transforma/ion cassettes. Primers were designed from publi shed sequences of a full-length cassava cONA of the GBSSI gene (Salehuzzaman et al., 1993) that incorporate BamHI and Xbal restriction enzyme recognition sites to enable subcloning of the cONA clone in the antisense orientation into the multiple-c loning si te (MCS) of the vector pRT1 O l. The primers were used to amplify the cONA clone obtained above, and the PCR product was cleaned using the QJAGEN PCR Clean Up Kit (QIAGEN Inc., Los Angeles, CA), digested with the appropriate enzymes. A 2.1 kb BamHI/Xbal fragment was subcloned in the sen se and antisense between the 3SS promoter and the 3SS polyadenylated terminator region of vector pRT101 , a g ift from Dr. Ryohei Terauchi, Iwate Biotechnology Research Center, Kitakami, Japan. The 3SS prometer, GBSS gene in antisense orientation and the termintor region were excised using the restriction enzyme Hind 111, separated on a special gel, Symergel (Diversifted Biotech Inc., USA), eluted and cloned into the Hind 111 si te of the binary vector pBIG 1 O 1 having the GUS-intron and npl/1 reporter genes, a gift from Dr Richard Sayre, Ohio State University, Columbus.Three GBSS cONA clones obtained from screening the cassava library were sequenced, and one was found to be a complete cDNA clone. The cDNA clone has the A TG start codon 81 bp down stream from the beginning of the cDNA sequence and a stop codon about 100 bp from the poly-A tail. PCR amplification with the designed primers yielded a fragment about 2.1 kb in size that corresponds to the full-length GBSS cDNA clone (Figure 1 ).  with Hind 111, and the two resulting fragments (sizes 2.7 and 2.6 kb) were separated by electrophores is (Figure 2). The bigger fragment was eluted and c lo ned into the Hind 111 site of pB IG 1 O l. Th is is the construct that was u sed in the particle gu n and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.• Agrobacterium transformation and regeneration of the industrial cassava cv. Reina with the antisense construct of GBSSI cloned in pBIG 1 O l. • Genetic transforma/ion. Genetic transformation w ill be done by particle bombardment and Agrobacterium transformation of Friable Embrygenic Callus (FEC) cultures of four cassava clones: MCol2215, CM3306-4, SM 1219-9 and MNigll; and if FEC is available, the clone Reina as well. • The first reporter gene assays (gus assays) with FEC are expected at the end of Dec. 2002.Once transformed calli have been revealed to have stable incorporation of the construct, regeneration ofthe transgenic calli will be initiated.The project is training a Colombian undergraduate project student (Gina Jazbleidi Puentes, Universidad Nacional-Palmira) in the tools and methodology of genetic transformation in cassava.Rice hoja blanca virus (RHBV) is a major virus disease of econornic importance affecting rice in northem South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Previous reports described the generation and selection under field conditions of transgenic RHBV resistant Cica 8 plants carrying the nucleoprotein (RHBV-N) viral gene. The transgenic RHBV resistance encoded by the RHBV-N gene appears to be RNA mediated, where plants do not expressed the transgenic protein but low levels of RNA (Lentini et al., 2002). One potential mechanism underlying the transgenic resistan ce is through gene silencing.There is increased evidence that transgene expression in plants is characteristically unpredictable, and depends on many factors, including the position of integration, the number of transgene copies and the structural integrity of the integrated DNA. Transgene silencing can occur at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional leve!. DNA methylation is often associated with transgene silencing, although it is presently unclear whether methylation causes silencing or is a consequence (Ingelbrecht et al., 1994;Fu et al., 2000). Last year, we reported the evaluation in the field for two semesters of transgenic Cica 8 lines were forty five entries derived from line AJ-49-60-12-3-3 were highly resistant showing scores 1 to 3. The transgenic resistance is stably inherited in crosses with other varieties (Annual Report 2001), and currently F 4 generation plants are being evaluated for yield potential and other agronornic traits to incorporate the best lines into breeding. This year we report the studies directed to understand the resistance mechanisrn underlying RHBV transgenic resistan ce vi a analyzing the RHBV -N gene expression in transgenic resistant plants.Southern blot analysis. Two transgenic Cica 8 fines with known resistance (A3-49-60-12-3-57 resistant, and A3-49-60-12-3-31 susceptible) were selected. Genomic DNA was isolatedfromyoung leaf tissues (McCouch et al.,1 988), and 20 pg DNA were digested with restriction endonucleases (Bam HI and KPN !), restriction fragments were resolved through 0.8% agarose gels, transferred onto Hybond-lt\" membranes (Amersham), and hybridized with Alpha-r 2 P}-dATP-labeled hybridization probe specific to the RHBV-N gene prepared using the multiprime DNA-labeling system (Amersham) (Sambrook et al., 1989).DNA Methylation Analyses -PCR Technique. Total genomic DNA was extracted at 20 days after gennination frorn individual plant using a Dnasy plant mini kit (Qiagen), and 200 ng of DNA was digested for 5 hr at 37°c with 30 units of restriction endonucleases rnethylation sensitive or insensitive. Two sets of prirners were used. The frrst set amplified the complete RHBV -N coding region. The second set amplified a 2.0 Kb fragrnent including the whole transgene, from the promoter to the terminal region (35S promoter-RHBV-N coding region-nos terminal) (Figure 1). All PCR products were separated by size on a 1.5% agarose gel stained with ethidiurn brornide. The fragrnents were transferred onto Hybond W membranes (Arnersham). The ~robe was synthesized by randorn-primer, and labelled by nick translation, in the presence of alfa 3 dATP. Hybridization and high stringency washing were carried out according to standard procedures (Sarnbrook et al., 1989).Southern blot analysis. The Southem analysis of genomic DNA showed rnultiple N gene fragrnents larger than the 1.4 kb expected size indicating that the transforming DNA did not integrate as a complete unit in the A3-49-60-12-3-3 line . The multiple banding pattems for the N gene suggest integrative fragrnentation and rearrangements. The complex rnultiple banding pattem has been inherited through seven generations of selfing suggesting the integration at one locus. The detection ofthe corresponding 1.4 kb N sequence by PCR and RT-PCR, suggests the presence ofat least one copy of the full length N gene sequence and the Jack to resolve the corresponding 1.4 kb N fragment by Southern appears to indicate the lost of a restriction site(s) which could be due to methylation at one or both Bam HI/Kpn 1 flanking si tes of the N gene sequence. Bam HI and Kpn 1 are inhibited by methylation of the same cytosine. Additionally, Kpn 1 is also inhibited when methylated at the adenine. Bam HI does not cut GGA rro 4 CC; GGA Tm 5 CC; and GGA \"f\"\"úc hmsc . Kpn 1 does not cut GGTm 6 A m 5 CC; and GGTAC m 4 C. lf one assurnes that the Kpn 1 and Bam HI sites are methylated, a tandem direct repeat is predicted at 5.4 and 5.9 kilobases, and tandem inverted repeat is predicted at 5.4 and 7.4 kilobases, respectively (Lentini et al., 2002). sensitive or insensitive restriction enzymes (Hae m, Bg 11, Psti and Dpn 1 ) and then amplified by PCR (Figure 2A). These results suggest possible differential DNA methylation between these two lines. Progeny plants derived from each ofthese transgenic lines need to be evaluated to elucidate if these polymorphic restriction pattem is reproducible and associated with the resistance/ susceptible trait. The original plasmid DNA was also analyzed following the same procedure. As expected, when restriction enzymes cutting inside the RHBV -N gene were used (Bam Hl, Bg II, Pst 1) and then the plasmid -DNA was PCR using a set of primers flanking the RHBV -N coding region (sk and RHBV 10, Figgure 1) no amplified RHBV-N fragment was resolved (Fugure 2B). In contrast, when plasmid -DNA was digested with enzymes no cutting the gene cassette (Clal) or cutting outside the PCR amplified region (Eco RV and Sphi), the complete RHBV-N was amplified using the same set of primers (Figure 2B). However, when restriction isoschizomer enzyme pairs (Mbo I and Sau3ai, Figure 1) were used a differential amplification pattem was noted (Figure 2B). Mbo I cut the methylated séquence GATmSC and not cut the Gm6A T. Sau3A 1 no cut GA TmSC but cut Gm6A T. No plasmid-DNA digestion was obtained when Mbo 1 while Sau3Al did cut the DNA. These results suggest a possible methylation at the adenine. It is important to determine the leve! of methylation of the plasmid-DNA sequence used for the transformation in arder to understand better the potential methylation pattem in the RHBV -resistantl susceptible transgenic rice plants. Fu et al. (2000) used a similar strategy in rice and identified at least three distinct types of silencing effects associated with different methylation pattems, including a novel form of transcriptional silencing involving methylation of cytosine residues only at non-conventional si tes in the coding region.  (A) Genomic DNA of lines A3-49-6012-3-57 (resistant) and A3-49-60-12-31 (s usceptible) was first digested with either of one these enzymes (Hae II, Bgl II, AleNI, Pstl, Sphl Sau3Al, or Dpnl) or not digested and then amplified with a set of primers to amplified the complete RHBV-N gene sequence including the promoter a nd terminal region of the gene. La nes 1,3,5,7,9,11 , and 13 correspond to A3-49-6012-3-57 DNA. Lanes 2,4,6,8,10,12, and 14 correspond to A3-49-60-12-31 DNA. Lanes 15-17 correspond to non-digested transgenic DNA. Lanes 18-21 correspond to nontransgenic Cica 8 co ntrol. Lanes 22-28 co rrespond to the pVR3 plasmid.  The genome of the Rice Hoja Blanca Virus (RHBV) consists of four species of Single Strand RNA (ssRNA) designated RNA 1, 2, 3 and 4. The RNA 4 encocles a major non-structural protein (NS 4 ), which accumulates in the tissues of plants infected with the RHBV. The differentiaJ plant-insect NS 4 expression, and the simiJarity of NS 4 sequence with well characterized heJper proteins described for other insect-transmitted viruses, suggest that NS 4 might be involved in the RHBV transmission from the plant to the plant-hopper, or in the virus movement from cell to cell. The main goal for the expression of the RNA 4 in transgenic rice is to determine the function of the major NS 4 protein and study the potential for a novel and different method of producing viral resistant plants. Last year, we reported the transformation efficiency and recovery of transgenic indica varieties and • identified 55 transgenic plants carrying the NS 4 sense and anti-sense orientations by Southem analysis (Fory et al., 2001, CIAT SB-2 Annual Report). The anaJysis for the gus-intron, hpt, and NS 4 transgenes, RT-PCR and Northem analyses for the NS 4 of the first generation of transgenic (T 1 ) p1ants derived from selfing of the original transformed lines (T 0 generation) and identified as transgenics by Southem blot, indicated that not aJI T 1 plants inherited the three transgenes. These molecular analyses suggest that in sorne of the lines the NS 4 gene may had been integrated in a separate locus, allowing the elimination of the antibiotic resistance and/or marker genes through sexual crossing in advanced generations. Tbe initial evaluations of RHBV resistance in the transgenic plants showed that most T 1 plants from transgenic Palmar line 4 transformed with plasmid piC004 showed intermediate levels of resistance (Fory et al.,200.1, CIA T SB-2 Annual report, 200 1 ). In this report we present the results for the evaluation of RHBV resistance in the ft.rst generation of transgenic Cica 8, Palmar, Cirnarron, Fedearroz SO, Nipponbare and the breeding line CT11275 plants transformed with five constructs (piC002, piC004, p1C007, piC008 and piC009), which differ in the NS4 sense and anti-sense orientation, and the promoter sequence (3SS CaMV promoter Vs maize ubiquitin promoter).Rice Genetic Transformation. The genetic transformation was conducted following the procedure described in Fory et al., (CIA T SB2 Annual Report 2001 ), using the plasmid constructs described in Tabares et aL (CIAT SB2 Annual Report 2000).Molecular Analyses of the Transgenic Rice Plant. Southem blot, PCR, RT-PCR, and Northen analysis were conducted as described in Fory et al., (CIAT SB2 Annual Report 2001).RHBV resistance assays. Fourteen independent events of transgenic lines represented by 16-18 plants each per line were evaluated for RHBV resistance as described in Fory et al. (CIA T SB2 Annual Report 2001). In all cases, on ly transgenic plants showing non-rearranged single integration NS4 gene copy by Southem blot were selected for RHBV resistance evaluations. Cica 8 plants were inoculated at 15 days after planting, and Plants at 13 days after planting since the non-transgenic plants ofthis variety show intennediate RHBV resistance. Evaluations were conducted once a week starting 5 days after removal ofviruliferous insect vectors, up to 54 days after inoculation.Cica 8 transgenic plants generated using the constructs piC002, piC007 and piC009 were susceptible to the RHBV. Between 69 to 100% ofthe plants showed symptoms on more than 50% of the leaf area. The reaction to the virus was similar to that observed for piC002~ 12 line, used as the susceptible control. In contrast, Cica 8 line 9 containing the anti-sense NS4 gene from plasmid piC008 showed about 30% of the plants with less than 10% of leaf area with disease symptoms (Table 1). In sorne of these plants, the integration of the NS4 gene has been demonstrated using Southern blot and PCR. Similarly, Palmar line 4 transformed with anti-sense NS4 gene derived from plasmid piC004, showed a significant 63% reduction in the number of plants diseased respect to the non~transgenic control. In this case, 53 % of the transgenic Palmar líne 4 showed little or no disease symptoms (<10% leaf area affected (Table 1). These results corroborate last year results where the same line showed 54% reduction in disease (Fory et  • Molecular analyses of T2 generation derived from resistant Tl plants are currently in progress to identify plants containing and expressing the NS4 gene, and determine the gene inheritance • Selected plants will be evaluated for RHBV resistance and resistant ones self cross to generated fixed lines • Lines will be evaluated in the fieldThe protection of crops against pathogens is of the utmost importance in modem agriculture. Major crop production losses are registered in rice each year due to various crop diseases. The fungi Rhizoctonia solani (causative agent for sheath blight), Helmithosporium, Rhincosporium, and Sarocladium have been irnplicated in causing irnportant rice yield losses in the Southem cone of South America and increasing spreads have been reported in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. All rice varieties are susceptible to these diseases and there are no known sources of stable genetic resistance. An altemative approach for the management of the rice sheath blight disease is to introduce into the rice genome genes that encode proteins with antifungal activity. Datta et al. (2000) had reported the the introduction of chitinase gene in sorne indica rice cultivars, however transgenic plants were not stably resistant to sheath blight in advanced generations. The genus Phytolocca is the source of a number of proteins whose antiviral and antifungal properties have been analyzed. These antiviral proteins are designated P AP (pokeweed antiviral protein). P APs inhibit the infection of a wide range of RNA and DNA viruses each representing a different plant virus group, such tobacco mosaic virus in plants (Chen et al., 1991) and animal viruses, including poliovirus (Ussery et al., 1977), herpes simplex virus in animals (Aron and Irvin, 1980) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (Zarling et al., 1990). In recent years, there has been growing interest in using single-chain RIPs, such as PAP, as the cytotoxic component of imrnunotoxins targeted to cancer cells. The work by the Dr Tumer group of Rutgers University, USA shown that transgenic tobacco plants expressing PAPare resistant to virus from different groups (Wang, 1998). Mutated versions of P AP gene ha ve potent antifungal activity (Zoubenko et al., 1997). Homozygous progeny oftransgenic tobacco plants expressing these PAP genes displayed resistance to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. Transgenic P AP potato showed protection against Phytophtora infestans, and transgenic P AP turf grass are resistant to various fungal pathogens. These results suggest the possibility of designing molecular strategies for incorporating fungal or viral resistance into rice. We are interested in constitutively expressing PAPy123 gene in transgenic plants in order to obtain sheath blight resistance in riceb. Last year we reported the generation severa! independent transgenic events of indica varieties carrying the P APy 123 gene (Tabares et al., CIA T SB3 annual Report 2001 ), a new version of P AP gene with a deletion of 3 nucleotides. The southem blot analysis indicated the recovery of various transgenic lines showing the integration of at least one copy ofthe gene without rearrangements, and the Westem analysis indicated that about 50% ofthe plants showed gene expression of P AP protein. This year we report the progress advancing plant generation with stable inheritance of gene expression of P AP and combining good agronomic traits, which will be evaluated for sheath blight resistance.Molecular Analyses of PAPy 123 Transgenic Rice Plants. Southem blot, PCR, RT -PCR, Northen and Western analyses were conducted as described in Tabares et al., (CIA T SB2 Annual Report 2001).Evaluation of agronomic traits in the greenhouse.Agronomic traits were eva1uated on plants grown to maturity in individual pots. The number of days to maturity was determined by scoring the number of days from sowing to flowering. At harvest time, the number of tillers and panicles per plant were counted. The percentage of fertility was detennined. Plant height was measured from the base of the plant to the tip of the youngest fully expanded leaf. Non-trasngenic Palmar and Cica 8 varieties were used as controls.Stability in inheritance and expression of P APy 123 gene in transgenic rice plants Southern blot, PCR, RT-PCR, Northern, and Westem analyses indicate the stable integration, inheritance and expression of the PAPy123 gene from TO to T1 generation of sorne PAPy123 transgenic plants. Of the transgenic events evaluated, from 40% to l 00% of the T1 plants inherited the PAPy123 gene (Table 1). Higher level of PAPy123 gene expression was detected in Palmar transgenic lines respect to the Cica 8 lines (Table 1).Agronomic perfomance of PAPy123 transgenic TI generation plants. No significant differences in flowering and plant height were noted between transgenic plants and the corresponding nontransformed controls (Table 2). Most transgenic plants showed a higher number of tillers than the non-transformed controls, especially those derived from Cica 8. Fertility was affected in sorne Palmar transformed lines, lines with high fertility leve! could be selected (Table 2). For example, PAPyl23 transgenic Palmar line 31 and PAPy123 transgenic Cica 8 line 12 showed comparable or lower sterility percentages when compared with their respective controls, while showing relative in creases in the number of tillers. The growth rate of in vitro propagated soursop plants was doubled while the survival rate increased from 50 to 90% by using a combination of locally sourced materials as growth substrate. This substrate was made up of \"cachaza\" (filter cake), \"carbonilla\" (coa! dust, both by-products of sugarcane processing), and pine bark chips, mixed in volumetric proportions of 3:1:1 parts, respectively. This improvement makes the propagation process more efficient and perrnits a faster production of clona! plants of this fruit tree species.The totality of the soursop trees propagated in vitro through micrografting that ha ve been established in the field, severa! of whicb were already three years of age, continue to show a fast and healthy growth, and fruit production comparable in quality and quantity to trees propagated by conventional grafting methodologies. This indicates that the propagation process of in vitro micrografting is safe and do not produce offtype plants with malformations attributable to genetic or epigenetic changes.The encapsulation-dehydration technology to cryopreserve the cassava core collection was developed • The RlT A system used for for cassava propagation was modified, adjusted and implementing with crops like Brachiaria, rice, tropical fruits and yams among others.• A low-cost, in vitro propagation platform with different crops, integrating conventional, sol id and liquid propagation systems was establishing.• Results using Temporary Immersion System (RlT A) suggest that the induction of embryogenic callus derived from zygotic embryos or anther culture is enhanced when a larger number of genotypes are tested, including recalcitran! indica types.• Applying a pre-treatment of water stress or a high osmotic treatrnent during plant differentiation significantly enhanced plant regeneration from embryogenic rice callus. These results suggest an increased generation of plants from recalcitran! genotypes.• This year a significan increased in plant regeneration from 20% to 60'% was achieved from naranjilla by optirnization the in vitro culture conditions of donar plants. Comparative analysis of regenerated plants and in vitro propagated plants grown in the field indicated similar plant dvelopment for all traits. Plants derived from in vitro cultures flowered significantly earl ier, at 90 days in contrast to 150 days, and formed fruits about 3 months earlier (at 160 days in contrast to 270 days) respect to standard crop. These results suggest that early flowering and fruits formation induced from in vitro derived plants could be an attractive advantage.Although somatic embryos (SE) can be induced by the thousands, plant regeneration from either SE or Friable Embryogenic Callus (FEC) is quite low in cassava. Regenerating plants from FEC or organized embryogenic structures usually requires severa! media combinations, and efficiency may depend upon the clone used. Sorne authors report the use of semisolid and liquid media (Sofiari et al., 1998), or meM Bra ne rafts (Schopke et al., 1997) to regenerate plants from FEC. More recently, temporal immersion systems such as RITA® have been adapted for massive, in vitro multiplication of cassava stem cuttings (Escobar et al., 2001), andSE of bananas {Aivard et al., 1993;Escalant et al., 1994), rubber (Etienne et al., 1997) and tea (Akula et al., 2000). Given the success of RITA in achieving high conversion rates of soma tic embryos into plants in the last three ofthese species, it was decided to apply it to cassava plant regeneration from SE and FEC.We report the establishment of FEC cell lines in cassava clones of commercial importance in Colombia. We also report improvements on embryo-to-plant conversion with the use of RITA in cassava plant regeneration from FEC. lmproving plant regeneration from FEC is desirable for efficient genetic transformation.of commercial cassava clones.Plant material. We used ten cassava clones (M Col2215, TMS 60444 or M Nig 11, M Tai 8, M Bra 383, CM 3306-4, CM 523-7, CM 4574-7, CM 6740-7, SM 909-25 and SM 1219-9) adapted to different edaphic and climatic zones in Colombia. Propagation on 4E medium was according to standard protocols (Roca, 1984). For the induction of FEC we used a modification of Taylor's method (Taylor et al., 1996). To improve plant regeneration we tested standard semisolid media and liquid media in RITA (Table 1).Somatic embryo and FEC induction. Somatic embryos were induced from immature Jeaf lobes and/or axillary buds on semisolid MS4 medium. Then 30-day-old SE clusters were isolated from all clones and transferred to GD2-50Pi medium (Gresshoff & Doy, 1974). Clusters of SE were subcultured and purified every 20 days for 80 days on fresh medium. FEC induction was achieved in a growth chamber (Percival Scientific™, Model CU-32L; 28±2°C, 12-h photoperiod). The FEC obtained was altematively purified by one growing cycle in SH-50Pi liquid medium (Schenk & Hildebrandt, 1972). After 30 days of shaking at 120 rpm, they were plated on GD2-50Pi semisolid medium to purify FEC.    Three petri plates per clone, with nine FEC clusters each (130 mg FEC/petri; 14 mg/cluster ofFEC) were set for embryo maturation. Embryos at the cotyledonary stage were placed on semisolid MS2-AC for 15-20 days to complete maturation . Mature embryos germinated and e longated on MS2-GA3 medium, semisolid or liquid in RITA (Figure 1). Embryos contained in RITA vessels were left drying out (not inmersion) for two days before the bathing cycle started for 1 min every 6 h. Finally, the shoot apex of elongated embryos was excised and transferred to 4E medium for rooting and plant establishment. Culture conditions for plant regeneration on semisolid media were the same as for FEC induction and proliferation. For treatments using RITA, conditions were the same as for SE induction with a 12-h photoperiod (44f...Lmol-2 s• 1 or 38¡..tmor 2 s\" 1).Somatic embryo induction. AII cassava clones responded to the induction of SE, but to different degrees. Except for one genotype (M Bra 383), all clones produced SE from either leaves or axillary buds at percentages that ranged from 33.3-96% (Table 2). Leaves seemed to produce more embryos than axillary buds. Even when a clone produces very few SE, repetitive embryogenesis may be used to multiply SE and obtain sufficient explants for FEC induction; this was actually done when FEC was first reported in cassava. ( 1) SE clusters induced from leaves or axillary buds were mixed for FEC induction;\"(2) FEC was induced but did not proliferate; (3) FEC was induced and cell lines were established; (ND) not done.FEC induction and proliferation. Induction of FEC also appeared to be genotype-dependant. It was possible to induce FEC in 7 out ofthe 10 clones studied. Although FEC induction was carried out at least twice for each clone and all clones produced SE, FEC cou ld not be obtained in three clones (Table 2). Proliferation ofFEC from clones M Tai 8, CM 523-7 and CM 6740-7 was hindered by tissue phenolization, which was not observed with other c1ones. It took 6-8 months to establish pure FEC lines-a period already long for in vitro culture, but within the range expected to establish lines (Taylor et al., 2000).The development of FEC was asynchronous. Sorne clones produced FEC after only 24 days; whereas for others ít took twice as long (Table 2). The amount of FEC obtained from each clone was also variable, from a few small clusters (case of TMS 60444) to abundant large clusters as in the case of M Col 2215 (Figure2). lt was possible to establ ish FEC línes (actively growing in vitro, in liquid or semisolid medium) for clones TMS 60444, M Col 2215, CM 3306-4 and SM 1219-9.The most recent lines were initiated in Jan. 2002. These results suggest that, from the clones tested here and by other authors, FEC can be produced at different rates in a range of at least 21 cassava genotypes. Further research is needed however to fine tune the system for sorne genotypes, to reduce FEC in vitro c ulture time and to propagate and develop pure FEC lines that maintain their capability to regenerate abundant, norma l-looking plants.  Plant regeneration. From the genotypes tested for plant regeneration, TMS 60444 was the fastest in producing torpedo-and cotyledon-stage, green embryos, 8 days after being explanted onto medium with NAA. Clone CM 3306-4 fo llowed (12-13 days after being explanted onto medium with BAP) and MCol2215 was the slowest (30 days after being explanted onto medium with BAP). Statistical analyses of the number of mature embryos an d the number of plants regenerated from FEC clusters (Table 3) showed differences between clones, which depended upon the media (semisolid or liquid) and the hormonal treatment. However, if we compare the total number of plants obtained in liquid or semisolid med ium (X 2 test with 1 df, = 95%, p = 0,215), regardless of the clone or hormone, almost 79% of the plants regenerated from treatments T2 and T4 (Table 4 and Figure 2). In these treatments liquid media were used together with RITA to germinate and elongate embryos. RITA seemed to have a beneficia! effect on plantlet development as they appeared more normal and vigorous than plantlets developed on semisolid media (Figure 2).In summary, embryo-to-plant conversion from FEC in cassava, when compared with conventional systems on semisolid media, was significantly enhanced by the use of Temporal Immersion Systems such as RITA. We therefore recommend using RITA to test plant regeneration from somatic embryos in a wider range of cassava clones as an alternative to regenerating larger numbers of plants for genetic transfonnation experiments.• Induce more FEC lines, at least four times ayear, to replenish old celllines and to establish new ones with new cultivars • Implement cyropreservation for long-tenn storage ofFEC linesCryopresevation could be the safest way to maintain gennplasm in the long term. In recent years CIA T developed the encapsulation-dehydration technique (Escobar et al., 2000) that made it possible to in crease the percentage of recovered frozen material as compared with classicaJ methods (Escobar et al., 1997). This new technique is not only less costly than the classical methods but also facilitates the handling of beads and drying steps.To test the consistency of the methodology, we initiated acttvttJ.es to cover the entire core collection. This allowed us to have a general idea of how many cryopreservation response groups we have, and what kind of adjustments need to be implemented.Methods have been described by Escobar et al. (2000) and Manrique (2000), and modifications have been implemented since then.We have handled 245 clones from the core collection during the last 3 years. At present, we are still receiving more clones from the Genetic Resources Unit (GRU) to complete the collection. We initiated propagation schemes (3-4 cycles/clone) to complete at least 100-150 plants/clone. Frozen and nonfrozen plants were planted in CIA T fields and harvested. Yield and root morphology (skin and pulp color) were compared. Leaves were also collected for isozyme and DNA analysis.In 2002 we received 95 clones from the core collection of the GRU. We are maintaining 53% of this collection. Activities this year included a strong propagation scheme and cryopreservation methods (pre-and postfreezíng management oftissues).Preliminary data showed good shoot recovery across time, up to 9 mo, for clones M Cub 16, M Dom 4 and M Pan7. The maximum response observed on M Ven 90 was 10% a:fter one month (Table 1 ). The initial response with control frozen tissues should be monitored in order to decide whether it is feasible keeping the tissues in liquid nitrogen for longer periods. We estimated that 30% should be the Mínimum Shoot Recovery Percentage (MSRP) (Escobar et al., 2001). The lower initial MSRP observed in all clones was usually associated with the use of suboptimal tissues (Escobar et al., 2000). Only M Pan 7 showed an acceptable initial MSRP response after 1 h in liquid nitrogen. The procedure allowed us to standardize logistical aspects previous to the freezing step. Goodquality materials (proper age, appearance and shoot size) were used to initiate new experiments.That was why we used M Col 22 and M Per 436, which were in the high-response group as compared to M Ven 90 (the lowest response observed).In all cases the materials frozen up to 12 months showed up to 80% recovery. The control was consistent in its behavior (Table 2). Differences observed between both experiments confrrmed the importance of initial measurement and explant quality for continuing with freezing experiments. Despite the huge amount of labor involved in each experiment, it is better to discard those clones that do not reach at least 30% MSPR during the initial measurements. In Table 3, it can be observed that only 13 .8% ofthe clones (9/65) did not reach 30% MSRP.  •¡.o¡.•¡. Based on the skills and workforce capacity of our group, we did 8 repetitions per clone, with 1 O shoots each. Treatments incJuded one control (1 h under liquid nitrogen conditions), 3 different conservation times ( 1, 6 and 12 m o), and 4 extra cryo-tubes per clone for medium-term observations (24-36 mo). At present we are maintaining 200 clones under these conditions.Eight isozyme systems (DIA, ACP, G6-PDH, GOT, IDH, MDH, SKDH and B-EST) were used to compare cryopreserved and noncryopreserved clones ( each clone had two lines in the gels, the first corresponding to in vitro, noncryopreserved plants and the second to cryopreserved clones, Figure 1). For M Bra 691 (first pair, line 1-2) and M Bra 542 (4th pair, line 7-8) the SKDH system showed differences in enzyme patterns, which were later accredited to human error (sample mislabeling or misplacing). The changes observed in both clones most probably did not correspond to the cryopreservation treatment. Oc ampo and Hershey ( 1989) observed similar behavior due to mixing materials in the field bank, using 3-EST system. We are now obtaining DNA for AFLP-fingerprint analyses. Harvesting of the materials did not show yield differences between the in vitro and cryopreserved treatments. Morphological descriptors of the roots were consistent between treatments. As expected, mislabeled materials showed different color pattems (i.e., M Bra 542 and M Bra 691) (Figure 2). Later on this method was implemented with other cassava clones. If farmers maintain their interest in cassava and the economic aspects are improved, the implementation ofthis method cou ld support decentralized, local seed systems.A total of606 1 plants from 6 clones (M Bra 383, CM 523-7, M Co l 1522, HMC 1, CM 6740-7 and M Per 183) were produced at CIA T's pilot site and transplanted for the hardening phase to a rural greenhouse, in collaboration with local farmers from the community. These materials will be assessed in the field during the second semester of 2002 in order to collect data on plant development, yield and total management costs.Different cassava clones were collected in severa! municipalities of Cauca, and data were gathered on them such as climate, soil cond itions and topography of the collection sites; varietal characteristics and farmer uses. A total of 27 clones were identified, using the standardized morphological descriptors for cassava of the Intemational Plant Genetics Resources Institute (IPGRl).Two in situ seed banks were established with the stakes collected from the farmers' plots, using conservationist tillage practices and low levels of inputs. An additional set of these materials were used for an in vitro thermotherapy phase and for molecular analyses. The cassava clones sown in Perico Negro (Puerto Tejada, Cauca) during 2001 was harvested.The very low prices of cassava roots over the last six months and the legal/illegal importation of cassava starch and derivatives have affected project activities because farmers do not consider cassava as an economic option. At present they cannot recover their investments.When the greenhouse was built, the farm owner decided to improve her income growing pigs and chickens. These activities led to contamination, and all the material that the group had was lost.For that reason it was necessary to include other clones as well as implement a simple system to manage and control contarnination; which involves periodic checks in LB culture medium. Different points and their coloring in the culture medium are used as indicators of the leve) of pollutants.The key factor to ensure success is the management of in vitro plants during hardening. Different methods for ex vitro management have been published (Roca et al., 1984, Guo and Liu, 1994, Ng et al., 1994). We adapted a simple method that reduces costs and labor per activity. Based on the 6061 plants that the fanners received, the percentage of plant loss in the farmer-managed greenhouse hardening system is considered low (12.6%) because this was the first time that they had handled such a large lot of in vitro-produced materials.Overall management of the in vitro cassava seed production project has allowed participating members to address issues such as education, health care (through food security efforts), community organization, improved agronomic practices and recovery of home vegetable gardens, among others, thus benefiting the entire community.An international workshop was held at CIAT on in vitro cassava propagation and genetic transformation, with 38 participants including farmers, cassava program technicians from both the public and prívate sectors, and representatives of universities from Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela. This activity was carried out with the collaboration ofthe Colombian consortium of researchers and small-scale farmers, Programa Colombiana de Biotecnologia Agrícola (PBA), Cassava Biotechnology Network for Latín America and the Caribbean (CBN-LAC) and the systemwide Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) as posthumous homage to Chusa Gines and Veronica Mera (Figure lA). A local workshop on rapid propagation and pest management was carried out in Santa Ana. An experiment to compare in vitro material and stakes (CM 523-7 and M Bra 383) planted in the previous year in Puerto Tejada was harvested. When the control material (stakes) was harvested, strong FSD symptoms were observed. For that reason in vitro plants were not considered for the next cycle of rapid propagation. With support of the Virology group, we are initiating an indexing test using Secundina.We are in touch with the Colombian Agency Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA), Quindio and the regional cassava consortium, Consorcio Latino Americano de la Yuca (CLA YUCA) to obtain certified stakes to initiate the rapid propagation scheme (Figure lB).Materials that farmers had for field transfer cou ld not be planted because a long dry season did not allow it. They could only use their water for household use, not for irrigation.The workshop served as a space to share experiences in cassava propagation with different participating countries, analyze the problems encountered and discuss potential areas of collaboration.It was possible to incorporate simple hardening systems that allow farmers to reduce planting losses.Ideal propagation systems include low-cost and rapid propagation. With the former it was possible to certify material, with the latter, costs are reduced and farmers can maintain use of conventional stakes.Des pite the advantages of the in vitro system, it is necessary to introduce cultural practices and IPM activities. The Cauca area is under high pressure from the whitetly and viral diseases such as frog skin. This scenario means that the renewal of material needs to be done more frequently, and special care must be taken during the initial stake selection.In view of the aforementioned situation, the group has shown interest in producing in vitro seed of other crops such as bananas and pineapple and reducing the work carried out with cassava until the market situation of cassava roots and starch improves.Farmers have a reservoir of planting materials plot with six cassava clones that are important for the zone.• Evaluate 6000 cassava plants produced in vitro in farmers' fields (San Rafael, Santa Ana Evaluate and Puerto Tejada) to produce high-quality planting materials and then increase stake production using the rapid propagation system (depends on water availability) • Produce and return to farmers clean material of27 loca l varieties • Analyze costs and compare with other propagation systems • Fingerprint the 27 clones collected using the AFLP molecular marker technique • Write a paper that summarizes the project's experiences over two years in the use of in vitro techniques in farmer-managed cassava planting materials production • Hold a workshop to diffuse experimental results on low-cost, rapid propagation and conservation activities using the farmer-farmer training technique Introduction CIA T has developed a massive propagation system using RITA~. Vessels containing mediurn supplemented with TDZ were tested with 16 commercial clones (Escobar et al., 2000). We found that the propagation rate could increase 1:6-11 compared with 1:3 in conventiona1 so lid 4E mediurn (Roca 1984) and that it is clone dependent.We also implemented RITA with transgenic lines. Once these plants pass the first small-scale trials and are ready for massive multiplication, it will be necessary to count on an efficient propagation system that guarantees high multiplication rates of desired planting material for field testing.Ten cassava buds/container were grown on a medium supplemented with TDZ, with an immersion frequency of 1 min every 6 h and 5 min every 12 h. Nine high-carotene content cassava clones were included in the propagation scheme.The SB-1 project did meristem culture with 3 local clones. Initial proliferation on a solid 4E medium was implemented. The Universidad de Sucre sent two in vitro yam materials. At the beginning, normal proliferation on solid media was implemented. Basal tissue used for the RITA treatment was used as the initial structure.We  Local clones from the Colombian Northeast Coast were propagated using a medium supplemented with TDZ. Although the propagation rates did not different from solid conditions, there were numerous induced buds per cutting. This structure will enable us to increase the propagation rate in the next cycle (Table 2). Media with a high content of a stronger cytokinin induce bud activation, but do not allow their growth. Roca (1984) observed similar responses when his group established a cauliflower propagation scheme.Sorne authors ha ve referred to the potential use of high carotene-content cassava materials to reduce childhood blindness and Vitamin A deficiency. For that reason we introduced sorne experiments with nine clones with yellow roots. Sorne of them, especially CM 2772-3, could be released to the farmers in Putumayo. Clones M Bra-522 and M Bra-496 had the lowest response, similar to solid conditions (Table 2).For transformation activities an efficient embryo-plant conversion system is necessary. RITA improved plant conversion up to 78.82% vs 21.18% on a solid medium. FEC conversion depends on the genotype and growth regulator used (Montoya, 2001 ). A medium supplemented with BAP gave a better response (41.38%) than when supplemented with NAA (37.44%).Transformation events produce only a few plants, making it necessary to implementa propagation system to support small-to medium-scale trials in the greenhouse and then field testing. Three transformed lines were propagated on a sol id medium and then put in RITA. Line 270400 gave the highest propagation rates (Table 3). These results should be considered as preliminary because no replications were done for lack of availability of initial stock.Small farmers from the Colombian Atlantic Coast consider cassava, yams and plantains as their basic crops. In recent years the yam fields have been attacked by anthracnose, and sorne materials are being lost. The Colombian consortium of researchers and small-scale farmers, Programa Colombiana de Biotecnologia Agrícola, (PBA) and the CORPOICA, the Colombian Agricultura! Research Program organized an interdisciplinary team to focus research on this crop. Preliminary CIA T results showed propagation rates near 1:4-5 . Further adjustments are necessary to achieve better results. Last month farmers sent us another 5 local yam clones for testing a new propagation system.Two workshops to diffuse the method on in vitro propagation and the RITA system were held with PBA and CORPOICA staff.  Continuous cycles on RITA reduce the propagation rate and in crease hyperhydrici ty; thus it wi 11 be necessary to introduce sol id phases between the RITA cycles. Materials produced w ith RITA increase their propagation rates on a sol id medium due to the previously induced numerous tiny buds .Future Activities To safeguard sorne ofthe very valuable cassava genotypes infected by the frog skin disease (FSD) during the last growing season, the construction of a tissue culture facility for clean-up of the most valuable FSD infected lines via tissue culture and thermo-therapy was approved by management.The tissue culture facility, completed late August, consists of a growth room and a bio-safety hood room. lt is available to the CIA T cassava community for tissue culture clean-up of FSD infected materials and propagation of clean planting materials.Another use to which the facility has been put is embryo rescue of immature and mature sexual seeds. lnterventions to control the escalating problems of white flies at the CIA T experimental station, namely a compulsory one-month \"zero cassava\" period at CIA T has meant that all plants other than plants in the hybridization block need to be barvested at 11 montbs after panting. Tbis year, poor flowering ofS 1 genotypes in the hybridization block and profuse flowering ofS 1 plants in clona) observation trials (COT) implied that the COT plants had to be used for making genetic crosses to generate S 2 families. Because these plants must be removed in Jess than a year, the fruits were barvested less tban 90 days after pollination, in otber words before maturity. Tbe embryos of the immature seeds from the S 2 families were rescued by embryo culture according to protocols developed at CIA T (Fregene 1999).The facility was also used for establishment, from embryo axes, of mature seeds of breeding populations for CMD resistance. A key reason for CMD breeding at CIA T is to develop Latín America cassava gene pools adapted to the disease should in case it makes its debut in the region.A second irnportant objective is to facilitate germplasm shipment of CIA T's elite cassava germplasm to regions, such as India and Sub Saharan Africa, where CMD is endemic, through the introgression of CMD resistan ce into CIA T' s elite germplasm. To permit marker-assisted selection (MAS) of CMD resistan ce at CIA T for Latín America and at the same time fulfill plant quarantine conditions for the shipment of the CMD resistant CIA T germplasm to India and Africa, it is necessary to germinate and maintain in vitro breeding populations. This year more than 3000 controlled crosses, and >4000 open pollinated crosses were made involving CMD resistant parents introduced from liT A. The seeds were harvested as mature or immature seeds and are being germinated from embryo axes.To rescue embryos of imrnature seeds of S 2 farnilies To germinate from embryo a.xes of seeds from eMD breeding populations To rescue embryos from crosses between high root protein content accessions of wild Manihot species and elite cassava parentsIrnmature fruits, the fruits were cut open using a sharp knife and the seeds removed and tested for viability (ability to sink in water). A total of 446 viable S 2 seeds were obtained. Another 3600 matured seeds were obtained for crosses between eMD resistance and elite parents of eiA T cassava gene pools, wild accessions with high protein and high beta-carotene varieties. Another 450 immature seeds from crosses between high root protein content accessions of wild Manihot species and elite cassava parents also required embryo rescue.Immature or mature seeds were removed and surface-sterilized by immersion in 70% alcohol for 1 min, followed by immersion in 0.5% sodium hypochlorite for 6 min, and then rinsed three times with sterile water. Under aseptic conditions, the seeds were split along the longitudinal axis utilizing sterile pliers and the embryonic axes were removed with sterile forceps and scapel. Excised embryonic axes were placed radicle down on 113 MS medium, supplemented with 0.01 mgJ-1 NAA, 0.01 mgJ-1 GA3, 1.0 mgJ-1 thiarnine-HeL, 100 mgJ-1 inositol, 2% sucrose, 0.7% agar (Sigma eo.) and 25 mgJ-1 of a commercial fertilizer containing: N 10, P 52, K 10, pH 5.7-5.8 (Roca 1984). This medium is also known as l7N. The embryo cultures were incubated under an o o altemate temperature regime of 35 e for 16 h and 25 e for 8 h, in darkness for the first 5 days, to promete growth of the radicle, then under continuos illumination from a 40 W fluorescent bulb(5,000 ~mol m-2 s-1) for the next 5 days. The cultures were then transferred to a growth chamber with a 12h photoperiod (illumination, 5,000 ~mol m-2 s-1) at 2le and grown for 40 to 45 days.Over time, severa! modifications were made to the protocol to reduce the difficulty of opening up immature fruits, given the large nurnber of fruits to be handled, and also to reduce darnage to the embryos during removal. The first modification was to cut the fruit in half, remove the seed, disinfect and place directly on 17N media. The temperature and light regirne was also modified for better germination as follows: a constant temperature regime of28-30°e anda 12/12h photo-period and the use of a piece of gauze for 1 O days to reduce influx of light, after which the cultures were fully exposed to light.Problems with bacteria! contamination were solved by adding the antibiotic rinfarnpicilin to the media at a concentration of 50mgll. Fungal contamination on the other hand was eliminated increasing the concentration of sodium hypochlorite to 5% and extending incubation times up to 1 O mio. Dueto continued problems with poor germination, a modification ofthe seed scarification and surface-sterilization was added for mature seeds. Seeds were soaked in 50% sulphuric acid for 30 minutes followed by immersion in sterile water for 30 mio, then a 5 mio wash in alcohol, and incubation in 5% sodium hypochlorite for 6 mio, followed by 3 final rinses with sterile water. The softened testa was then scrapped off with a knife and the whole seed, cotyledons and embryos, was placed on the media.The 446 immature S 2 seeds were harvested the same day and stored at room temperature. Embryos were extracted and cultured over a period of 2 weeks, with an average of 40 seeds processed every day. During the first week, problems of fungal infection, apparently due to storage at room temperature, lead to a huge loss of seeds. This problem was eventually solved, but the 8-14 day storage ofthe immature fruits, reduced the viability ofthe seeds considerably. Previous experiences revealed that air drying excised immature seeds at room temperature drastically reduced germination rates (Fregene 1999). It appears that storage of immature fruits at room temperatures had the same debilitating effect as air drying immature seeds. Immature seeds from the interspecific crosses were therefore harvested and embryos cultures on a daily basis. Only 67 plants or 15.02% could be recovered from the 446 embryos cultured. The S 1 genotypes from which S 1 plants cold be recovered include AM244-35, AM244-38, AM244-39, AM244-64, AM244-101, AM244-109, AM244-135, AM244-164, AM266-21, AM266-41, AM266-50, Y AM266-76. These S 1 plants have been multiplied in preparation for transfer to the green house and to the field the following year.Results of more than 500 seeds processed so far have revealed more than 80% germination rates, confirming the damaging effects of storing immature seeds before embryo culture. So far, more -than 1 00 mature seeds from the crosses generated for marker-assisted breeding of CMD resistance were cultured from embryo axes. Germination rates were higher than 90%. Results were much better here presumably due to the maturity of the seeds and the sulphuric acid treatment. No effect on gennination and growth was observed of changing the temperature regime from the previous regimes described earlier for embryo rescue (Fregene et al 1997) to a constant 28-30°C day and night.Future Perspectives• Completion of the embryo culture of the CMD resistance breeding populations and the inter-specific hybrids for higher protein content. The Cassava Friable Embryonic Callus (FEC) system (Taylor et al., 1996) has been implemented as an alternative transformation technique (López, 2000) at CIA T since 1999. Despite the potential uses of this method, it is very labor intensive until sufficient good-quality FEC is recovered thereby justifying the need to have a preservation system for the FEC once obtained. In this way, the need to continually invest more time and resources in developing the FEC is eliminated as it can readily be thawed from the freezer and used when needed.The cryopreservation of FEC may provide a means of ensuring genetic stability of ce ll lines and could provide a source of fresh tissue useful for genetic transformation. Cassava clones M Co l 2215 and M Nig 11 were used to standardize desiccation and desiccation-vitrification techniques.The cryopreservation technique established by Santos ( 2002) was implemented.For initial plant recovery, the RITA® system was implemented, following Montoya (2002).Hardening and greenhouse plant management were implemented as per Roca et a l. (1984).FEC from both cassava clones showed response after freezing when using desiccation and des iccation-vitrification. Desiccation done with a 0.95% agar medium content showed better recovery after freezing than other levels of agar. M Nig 11 had better plant conversion than M Col2215 .The RITA system enhanced the conversion from FEC to plant. soma tic embryogenesis of banana (Alvard et al, 1993;Escalant et al, 1994), coffee (Berthouly et al, 1995;Etienne et al, 1997), citrus (Cabasson et al, 1997), oil palm and rubber plant (Etienne et al , 1997), and at CIA T for cassava (Escobar and Roca, 1999). High efficiency has al so been demonstrated for clona! propagation through micro-cuttings of coffee, and sugar cane (Lorenzo et al, 1998); for proliferation of meristems of banana, and pineapple, and for micro-tuberization of potato (Teisson and Alvarad, 1998).We have previously reported preliminary results using RITA for the induction of embryogenic callus derived rice from mature zygotic embryos (Tabares et al., CIA T SB2 Report 2000) and from anther culture (Tabares et al., CIA T SB2 Report 2001 ). This year we report a comparative analysis including various indica and japonica rice genotypes.Mature zygotic embryos or anther culture of the indica rice Cica 8, Palmar, Fundarroz PN 1, Cimarron, Fedearroz 2000, and CT 11275, and of the japonica breeding line CT 6241-17-1-5-1 were used.For anther culture, donar plants were grown in the field, panicles harvested, and anthers cultured according to Lentini et al., 1995. Tissues were either culture in liquid medium contained in RITA vessels or in liquid medium in baby food jars (for anthers, control) or on so lid medium for zygotic embryos. Induced callus from each culture system, was then transfer onto solid plant regeneration medium according to Lentini et al. 1995.Although there was a tendency for an earlier callus induction from zygotic embryos of the indica variety Cica 8 in RITA (5 to lO days earlier respect to solid medium), this difference was not significant (Figure 1 A). However, a significant higher number of healthy callus was induced in RITA respect to solid medium in petri dish (Figura lB and C). A similar tendency was noted for the indica variety Palmar (Figure 2A and B). Although callus induction is enhanced in RITA, this system seems not to be appropriate for plant regeneration in rice. Green plant regeneration was highly inhibited when callus induced in RITA were also culture in liquid regeneration medium in the RITA system. In contrast, a high and similar green plant regeneration to the control was noted from callus induced in the RITA but when transferred onto solid medium in jars (Figure 3). Preliminary attempts also suggest that the induction of embryogenic callus is enhanced in RITA when a larger number of genotypes are tested, including recalcitrant indica types (Figure 4).  • Optimize conditions for the broad application of RJTA for induction of embryogenic callus in a diverse number ofrice genotypes commonly used in the breeding program. • Standarize conditions for an efficient use of this technique for the generation of doubled haploids from anther culture.Between the two rice types (indica and japonica) of the most widely cultivated rice species (Oryza sativa L.), indica rice cultivars have proved to be less amenable to the in vitro culture. Sorne ofthe factors that affect plantl regeneration frequency from rice callus are the concentrations of gelling agents, osmotic, and the specific combinations of plant growth regulators. So as to enhance greenplant regeneration, supplements such as tryptophan, proline, polyamines such as spermidine, changes in hormone composition, carbohydrate source, osmotic stress, partial desiccation and high concentration gelling agents (Khanna and Raina, 1998) have been used to improve the regenerability of rice callus culture. Partial desiccation has been reported to enhance somatic embryo differentiation and development in soybean (Hammatt and Davey, 1987), grape vines (Gray 1987), wheat (Carman 1988), spruce (Roberts et al .1991) and cassava (Mathews et al, 1993). Tsukahara and Hirosawa (1992) reported that this treatment was effective on japonica rice callus induced from cell suspension cultures. Plant regeneration frequency was considerably increased in most of the cultivars when the callus was treated with water stress, as compared with untreated controls (Lee et al., 1999). Ka vi Kishor et al. ( 1986 and1987) reported that the osmolarity of both growth and regeneration media was important for obtaining, retaining and reviving the high regeneration frequency of rice callus. Lai and Liu ( 1988) reported that the lower water content of callus cultured on a medium containing mannitol and a high concentration of agar was one of the elemental factors for efficient regeneration of rice callus. In the present study , a simple method was tested to reduce the water content of callus, thereby increasing the regeneration frequency of rice.Three separate experiments were conducted to test different treatments to increase the plant regeneration frequency from callus culture. Experiment 1(water stress treatment): six indica rice genotypes, (Palmar, Fedearroz 50, Fedearroz 2000, Cimarrón, Cica 8, CT-11275, and Fundarroz PN1) were tested. Scutellum-derived callus of 1-2 mm diameter, were induced on the NBA medium (Li et al , 1993) medium were transferred to MS (Murashige and Skkog, 1992) semi-solid medium (0.4% agarose) or with 1% agarose (water stress), supplemented with 4mg!L Kinetin , 2mg/ 1 ANA, and 3 % maltosa. For water stress treatments, the cultures were incubated in the dark at 27°C to dehydrate callus. After two weeks of culture, stressed callus from 1% agarose-containing medium were transferred to the corresponding 0.4% agarose solid medium for regeneration and incubated in light. The calli that were not treated with water stress were also cultured on the medium semi-solidified with 0.4% agarose Experiment two (concentration of gelling agent) after induction callus MS regeneration medium supplemented with 4mg/ 1 Kinetin, 2mg/l ANA, 3% sucrose, and 2g/l or 4g/l gelrite. Experiment 3 (osmotic stress), a set of callus were subcultured for 24 hr on callus induction medium +3% mannitol or 3% sorbitol, after partía] desiccation treatment callus were transferred on regular plant regeneration medium. Another set of callus was transferred from callus induction medium without partial desiccation treatment to regular MS regeneration mediurn (control) or supplemented with either 3% mannitol or 3% sorbitol. For the three experiments a factorial experimental completely random design was used.Plant regeneration was significantly increased in all genotypes when callus were treated with water stress for 2 weeks on medium containing 1 % agarose (Figure 1 ). The most significant differences were noted in Palmar, CT11275, Fedearroz 50, Cica 8, Fedearroz 2000 and Fundarroz PN1, which plant regeneration was increased from 0%-15% to 60%-100% (Figure 1 ). Significant differences in plant regeneration was also noted when the gelling agent (gelrite) was increased from 2 gr/1 to 4 gr/1 (Figure 2). Although in this case the enhancement in plant regeneration was less pronounced (Figure 2) respect to the water stress treatment (Figure 1 ). Pre-osmotic treatment on callus induction medium inhits plant regeneration from those callus, whereas a highly significant increased was obtained with mannitol or sorbitol was included in the plant regeneration mediurn (Figure 3). The best response was noted when 3% sorbitol as used to increase the osmoticum ofthe mediurn (Figure 3).• Comparative plant regeneration analyses of water stress treatment in callus induction and regeneration media with 1% agarose respect to increased osmoticum with 3% sorbitol in plant regeneration medium. • Test best conditions with a wider range of genotypes used in rice breeding.Lignin is the second most abundant organic compound on the earth, after cellulose. lt is a complex aromatic polymer, which provides mechanical strength to plant cell walls and hydrophobicity to conducting vessels. In addition, lignin deposition is thought to represent a defense reaction against pathogen iscusió. However, lignin may have a negative impact on the utilization of biomass (Atanassova et al., 1995). In grasses and legumes a negative correlation between lignin content and in vitro dry matter digestibility has been reported. Lignin composition, particularly the relative proportion of syringyl (S) and guaiacyl (G) units in the lignin polymer, and the nature of the covalent linkages between lignin and other po lymers are also important determioants of digestibility (Heath et al., 1998). COMT is a key enzyme in the lignin iscusión s pathway. In angiosperms, COMT is bispecific and methylates caffeic acid to produce ferulic isc using S-adenosul-Lmethionine as a methyl donar. CDNA clones encoding putative COMTs have been isolated from severa! plant species including alfalfa (Medicago sativa) (Gowri et al., 1991), maize (Zea mays) (Collazo et al., 1992), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) (Pellegrini et al., 1994), barley (Hordeum vulgare) (Gregersen et al., 1994), Stylosonthes humilis (Mclntyre et al., 1995), ryegrass (Lolium perenne) (Health et al., 1998) and sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) ( Selman-Housein et al., 1999). Therefore the modification of lignin content and/or composition by genetic manipulation would be of great economic interest. For these reason, CIA T jointly with The Plant Biotechnology Centre, La Trabe University, AU, are working in the isolation and characterization of genes from Brachiaria that are involved in the lignin discusións.CDNA library screening. A Uni-Zap™ XR cDNA library (ZAP cONA Synthesis Kit, Stratagene) was constructed from whole 1 O day old Brachiaria seedlings. The library was screened with a e 2 P] dCTP-labelled 1461 bp Xba 1 fragrnent ofLolium perenne OMT-1 (Accesion number AAD10253). CDNA inserts were excised and cloned using the ExAssist helper phage with SOLR strain as described by manufacturer (Stratagene). DNA sequencing. High quality plasmid DNA (Maxi kit, Qiagen) was sequenced by the dideoxy chain termination method (BigDye™, ABI) on a ABI 373 automated sequencher. For sequencing the interna! region of BdOMT, synthetic oligonucleotide primers were designed from the DNA sequences previously determined. Southern B1ot Hybridisation. Genomic DNA from Brachiaria leaves was isolated following the methodology McCouch et al. (1988 ). Twenty-five g of Brachiaria DNA, five g of bean DNA, 1 O g of rice and cassava DNA, were digested with each of the restriction enzymes Bam H 1, Xho 1, Xba 1 and Eco R l. The fragments were separated on 1% agarose gels and transferred to Hybond ~ membranes according to the manufacturer•s instructions (Amershan). Probe consisted of the open reading frame of BdOMT prepared by PCR. DNA probes were random primer labeled using Megaprime DNA Labelling System kit (Amersham) and ( 32 P] dA TP. The hybridization was carried out overnight at 60°C following the manufacturer• s recommendations.Isolation of a Brachiaria decumbens OMF cDNA. ONA library constructed from RNA of 1 O da y old Brachiaria seedlings was screened with a 1461 bp Xba 1 ryegrass OMT probe. A single highly represeoted cONA was iso1ated and fully sequenced. BdOMT is a fulJ length 141 O bp cONA with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,083 bp, a 5' noncoding region of 62 bp and 3' noncoding region of 256 bp including a poly(a) tail. The putative protein encoded by BdOMT cONA consist of 360 amino acids. Within the coding region BdOMT has 89%, 88%, 87% and 77% sequence identity with OMT from sugar cane (Se), sorghurn (Sb), mai.ze (Zm) and lolium (Lpl), respectively (Figure 1 ).  The modification of lignin content and/or composition by genetic manipulation would be of great economic interest particularly in forage species. Once the lign in gene OMT was identified is necessary to introduce this gene in transformation vectors. For this reason, the BdOMT gene in sense and anti-sense orientations driven by the 35S CaMY promoter were placed into the plasmid pCAMBIA 1301 and pCAMBIA 1305.2 both carrying the gus-intron and hygromycin resistance gene. At the same time, mature embryos derived callus of indica rice variety Palmar and japonica variety Nipponbare were transformed by Agrobacterium.Vector Construction.All DNA recombinant techniques were performed essentially as described by Sambrook et a l., (1 989). The Open Reading Frame of BdOMT was amplified by PCR from pBiuescript SK (+) phagemid (Stratagene) containing the Brachiaria OMT cONA full-length insert at the Eco RVXho J sites, with two specific primers design with the Xba J cut sites.The 1,158 bp fragment generated by the digestion with Xba I of the PCR product was insert at the Xba I site ofthe binary vector pRT101. The orientation ofthe inserts was determined by restriction digestion of plasmid recovered from transformed Escherichia coli DH5 . The resulting vectors were pRTOMT-2 (sense orientation) and pTROMT-25 (antisense orientation).A 1,857 bp Hind III fragment ofpRTOMT vectors carryin g the BdOMT gene flanked by the 473 bp CaMV 35 S promoter and 226 bp Nos PolyA terminator sequences, were inserted at the Hind III site ofthe polilinker ofpCAMBIA 130 1 and pCAMBIA 1305.5 vectors (Figure 1). Six new vectors were identify and their OMT gene integrity was verified by three ways ( 1) restriction pattems (2) Southem Blot of restriction pattems using a BdOMT gene as a probe and (3) sequencing all new clones.All new vectors were transferred to Agrobacterium tumefaciens AGL-1 strain . Genetic Transformation. Mature embryos derived calli jrom rice varieties Palmar (indica) and Nipponbare (japonica) were used as a target. Agrobacterium transformation was made according Tobares et al., 1999.Vector Constructions. E ig ht new constructio ns were obtain (table 1, figure 1 A, 1 B). These constructio ns are accompanied by a complete identificati on card that include a restriction pattem (Fig ure 2). The restriction pattem s were transferred and hybridized with the open read ing frame of BdOMT (figure 3 ). Six of these new vectors were partially sequencing and their sequences coincide with the sequence previous\\y established for BdOMT. to regeneration medium containing hygromycin as selection agent (Table 2). At the moment, GUS stable expression has been determined in some callus transformed with pC05.20MT-2 and one GUS positive plant has been regenerated. Currently, regeneration phase is in progress. products, increasing its market value. A major constraint for the rapid adoption of naranjilla by the local farrners is the limited availability of elite gerrnplasm free of pathogens. The high leve! of trait segregation restrains its multiplication through seeds. Rapid multiplication of quality planting materials is of paramount importance. One of the main objectives of this project is to develop a protocol for in vitro propagation of naranjilla with application for conservation and rapid multiplication of clones free of pathogens. The expected results include the mass multiplication of elite clones that then can be distributed to farrners . Since breeding for this species is almost nonex.isting, paralelly to the in vitro propagation effort, it will be important to develop plant regeneration and transfonnation systems to aid the development of germplasm. Last year it was reported the advancement in establishing a system for maintenance of the in vitro germplasm collection, and the progress made identifying factors to increase the plant regeneration efficiency from elite naranjilla materials. This year it is presented the development of an efficient plant regeneration system, the evaluation of regenerated plants in the field and the comparison of the growth and development with in vitro propagated plants. The establishment of a protocol for introducing new material from plants growing in soil is also presented.High quality and elite clones provided by the Andean Fruit Center (Centro Frutícola Andino -CEF A) were used. This collection includes naranjilla with or without thoms commonly grown by farrners. The effect of the in vitro propagation medium on the efficiency of plant regeneration was evaluated. Different propagation medium were tested using foam plugs to determine the interaction of the medium composition and free gas exchange. A protocol to readily incorporate material in vitro from the greenhouse or the field was optimized. A small scale field tria! was conducted at 1700 m over sea leve! and a mean temperature of 22C was conducted to compare the growth and development of regenerated plants respect to in vitro propagated clones.A randomized block design of four replicates each of 15 experimental units was used to determine the best medium composition and explant to induce a direct plant regeneration in naranjilla. A nonparametric chi-square analysis indicated that petioles showed showed from 3 to 9 times more more plant regeneration that the corresponding Jeaves from thomy and non-thomy clones respectively (Figure lA). A significant higher response was also noted on medium originally develop for plant regeneration of tomato (Ultzen et al, 1995), consisting on MS salts, B5 vitamins, supplemented with sucrose 1 O gil, glucose 1 O g/1, gelrite 1.5 g/1, zeatine 2 mg/1 and IAA 0.02 mg/1 (Figure 1 A). On this medium petioles from thomy genotypes showed twice increase in plant regeneration respect to a medium reported for naranjila ( Hendrix et al., 1987) composed by MS salts and vitamins and supplemented with sucrose 30 g/1, agar 7 g/1, IAA 0.01 mg/1, kinetin 5 mg/1, or with a modification consisting on gelrite 2 g/1 and BAP 2 mg/1 (modification suggested by Dr Richard Litz, Univeristy of Florida, laboratory which Hendrix work was conducted)(Figure lA). Non-thomy genotypes did not regenerate any plant on medium developed by Hendrix (Figure lA). The efficiency in response was highly affected by the medium composition on which the petiole donor plant were grown. Petioles of plants grown on medium A (MS basal salts and vitamins, and supplemented with calcium pantothenic acid 2.5 mg/1 and ge lrite 3.5 g/1 ) showed about 20% more plant regeneration respect to petioles from plant grown on medium Y2 MS(~ MS basal salts supplemented with ANA 0.02 mg/1, BAP 0.04 mg/1, and GA 3 0.05 mg/1) (Figure lB). Although plants developed better on media CEFA (MS salts with Tiamina 0.4 mg/L and lnositol 100 mg/L, gelrite 2 giL y BAP 0.5 mg/L) or Corpoica (MS salts with Tiamina 0.4 mg/L and lnositol 100 mg/L, ge lrite 2 giL y BAP 0.5 mg/L) when foam plugs rather than plastic caps were used to sea! the test tubes, the best development is obtained in medium A.The re-establishment of an in vitro collection derived from greenhouse or field grown plants is under progress by using apical meristems instead of axillary's buds as the starting materials. Shoots derived from axillary's buds showed high levels of contamination. The current protocol used consist of sterilization with 70% ethanol for 1 m in, followed a wash with water and then immersion in 1% sodium hipochlorite for 15 min. Then three washes with sterile bi-distiV de-ionized sterile water. Apical meristems are cultured on medium A supplemented NAA 0.02 mg/L, BAP 0.04 mg/L and GA3 0.05 mg/L.Field comparison of regenerated plants respect to in vitro propagated plants, indicate that naranjilla plant growth and development appears not to be affected by the organogenesis process (Figure 2). Plant height, leaf morphology, and plant type as well as days to flower formation, anthesis, and fruit development were similar in the two types of plants (Figure 4). In both cases, plants flowered 45 days after transplanting in the field (about 90 days after transfer from in vitro conditions to the soil in the greenhouse prior to the field), and fruit formation started at 65-70 days (Figure 3). But this variety is susceptible to one of the major limitations to tomato production in this region: the budworm (Tuta absoluta), which eats the tomato buds and young leaves. lt had been difficult to breed tomato resistant to this pest by standard breeding. The only sources of resistance genes is from wild tomato species which are incompatible with the cu ltivated tomato, and so far the attempts for an inter-specific breeding program has not been successful (Lourencao et a l., 1985). The main objective of this work is to transform the tomato variety UNAPAL-Arreboles w ith the Bt gene cryiA(b ), which had been used successfully to obtain resistance against Lepidoptera pests in various economical important crops (i.e. maize, cotton).In previous reports it was described the evaluation of three protocols commonly used for tomato callus induction and plant regeneration (Fillatti et al., 1987, Narvaez, J 993, andUltzen et al ., 1995). Results indicated that the highest response for callus induction and plant regeneration is noted on M3 medium sequence (Uitzen et al ., 1995). An increase in response of about 2-fold and 4fold on callus induction and plant regeneration was noted on M3 media respect to the other med ia tested. The lowest response was obtained on M2 medium (Fi llatti et al., 1987).Two Agrobacterium mediated transformation protocols commonly used for tomato (McCormick et al., 1986;Fillatti et al., 1987), were tested using the tomato variety UNAPAL-Arreboles. Agrobacterium strains C58C 1, Agll and LBA4404 containing the pBIGCry construct (L. l. Mancilla at CIAT) were used. This gene construct contains the cty lAb gene driven by the 35s CaMV promoter, the nptll gene for kanamycin resistance as selection markers, and the gus-intron as a reporter gene. Transgenic plants were identified by southern blot analysis. Inheritance of gus expression and kanamicine resistance was evaluated from TO to TI generation. Clonallys propagated plants of the original TO plants were evaluated for agronomic traits in the greenhouse.A total of four hundred tomato explants (cotyledonary leaves of 7-1 Oday-old plantlets) were infected with LBA4404/pBIGCry weekly. After co-cultivation for 48 hour, about 10% of the explants were analyzed for gus trans ient expression. Explants from cultures showing transient expression were transferred to selection media containing kanamycin for sclection. After three weeks on selection media, regenerated plantlets were recovered. The number of transformed plantlets isolated varied among the different experiments. From O to ten plants were recovered per experiment.A total of 59 putative transgenic plants were produced from 8 experiments ( 400 explants by experiment). This shows an efficiency of 1.84 % for recovering kanamycin resistant plants from the initial agro-infected explant. Of these plants 15 were transferred successfully to the greenhouse and 6 plants had shown stable gus expression throughout the vegetative and reproductive Ji fe cycle.Last year it was carried out the morphological and molecular characterization of kanamycinresistant and gus-expression P28, P33 and P47 clones atTo and TI generation. Selfed progeny derived from TO plants (TI clones) was evaluated for agronomic traits and resistance to kanamycin and Gus expression. No differences were noted neither between the TO and TI plants, nor between the transgenic plants and the tomato control plant for the various morphological traits evaluated {plant height, node lentgth, leaf type, presence of pubescence in stem, flower color and shape, fruit color and shape). These results indicated that no somaclonal variation is apparent in the transgenic plants. Preliminary results on the molecular characterization of clones TO and Tl by PCR and Southem analysis suggested that nptll and gus-intron genes are inserted in the genome of these plants. The patterns of segregation for gus expression and kanamicine resistance of the selfed progeny of T0-28, T0-33 and T0-47 clones were 3:1 for both genes, indicating the insertion of an active locus for each of these genes. V ariation was noted on the co-segregation of the two genes: 95% for selfed progeny ofT0-28, 82% for T0-33 and 63% for T0-47.This year it is reported the fmal biochemical molecular and insect-bioassay analysis of the UNAPAL-Arreboles transgenic materials.The TO and Tl tomato transgenic clons were analyzed by PCR and Southem blot for the presence ofnptll, gus-intron and crylAb transgenes, according to Sambrook et al., (1989) and Gonzalez et al., (1995) . The expression of the cry l Ab gene at the protein leve) in the transgenic plants was carried out using an ELISA kit (EnviroLogix Inc ), according to the manufacturer protocol. And the insecticida! activity of the transgenic plants towards tomato larvae budworrn (Tuta absoluta) was analyzed perforrning an insect-bioassay. Each of the TO, TI and control plants were infected with 20 insect eggs and sixteen days after plant infection it was recorded leaf tissue damage, larva survival and larva weigh.This year it was confirmed the presence of nptii and gus-intron genes by PCR and Southem analysis. A 0.7 Kb nptii anda 0.65 Kb gus-intron fragments, corresponding to the expected size, were amplified by PCR in all the transgenic plants, but these fragments were not present in the negative untransforrned plants. These results were confirmed by Southem analysis. DNA from TO and Tl transgenic tomato plants was digested with Pstl and probed with the 0.65 Kb gus-intron or 0.7 Kb nptii-PCR fragments labeled with 32P. Gus-PCR probe hybridized a 1.7 Kb band, while nptii-PCR probe hybridized a 1.0 Kb band which were present in both the positive control and the transgenic plants, but were absent in the DNA ofthe not transgenic plants.On the other hand, DNA digested with Hindill and BamHI probed with the 0.65 Kb gus-PCR fragrnent labeled with 32P, reveled that the transgenic plants present more than 1 O gus-intron gene copies, with one gene insertion in T0-28 and T0-33 clones and two gene insertions in T0-47 clon.Similarly, DNA digested with Xbal and EcoRI probed with the 0.7 Kb nptli-PCR fragment labeled with 32P, reveled more than 1 O nptll gene copies in the transgenic plants, with one gene insertion in T0-28 and two gene insertions in T0-33 and T0-4 7 clones.PCR analysis for the presence of crylAb gene reveled a 1.2 Kb expected band, in both positive control and the transgenic plants, unfortunately this same band was also observed in the negative not transfonned plants. This result indicate that crylF and crylR primers could be annealing unspecific regions in the tomato genome. Genomic DNA digested with EcoRI probed with the 1.2 Kb cry-PCR2 (derived from pBT1291 plasmid), reveled a 3.2 Kb band in both transgenic plants and negative not transfonned plants , while the positive (plasmid) control reveled a 0.5 Kb band. Similarly, genomic DNA digested with Xbal probed with the same 32P labeled probe (cry-PCR2) reveled a 0.4Kb band in both transformed and not transfonned materials while the positive control showed a 3.5 Kb band. These results suggest possible changes in the crylAb gene sequence or possible rearragements in this region.The inmunoassay analysis of these transgenic materials reveled that the arnount of crylAb toxin was either too low to be detected by the ELISA test or the transgenic materials are not expressing the crylAb transgene.An insect bioassay using Tl-28 transgenic plants and not transfonned plants indicated a Tuta absoluta larva survíval of 92.5 and 95% respectively after l6d eggs plant ínfestation; while the percentaje of leaf tissue darnage was 100% and the larva weigh average was 3.6 mg in both transfonned and not transfonned plants. These results are in concordance with the results obtained in the inmunoassay test.To discard the possibility of insect resistance to crylAb toxín, it was evaluated the effect of the bioinsecticide Turicide (5 g/1) in larva survival. The results of this assay showed that the application of the bioinsecticide reduced significatively the three parameters evaluated: leaf tissue damage in 50% , larvae survival in 63.7% and larvae weigh in 61.5%. These results are indicating that this insect is not resistant to the crylAb toxin; for this reason the high leve! of larva survival in the tomato transgenic plants indicate that the crylAb gene is not expressed in these materials.Between 1996 and 1999, a methodology was developed for in vitro propagation of selected clones of soursop (or guanábano in Spanish, Annona muricata L). This methodology consists in the in vitro micrografting of buds over rootstocks obtained from in vitro germitated seeds. The buds used are obtained either from shoots cultured in vitro, isolated from clones growing in the greenhouse or from micrografts produced previously ( cyclic micrografting). In vitro propagation of plants offers many advantages over traditional methods of vegetative propagation, however sorne propagation methodologies have been shown to produce a variable proportion of abnormality in the growth of the plants, known as somaclonal variation. Somaclonal variants can be a real problem when in vitro propagation is used for supplying commercial plantations with planting material.The occurrence of somaclonal variations in in vitro propagated plants has been attributed to genetic or epigenetic changes caused by the use of methodologies which involve cellular dedifferentiation, callus formation or direct production of adventitious buds. Since in the soursop propagation process no adventitious formation of new buds is involved, and only the \"natural\" system of axilary bud re-growth is used for the production of new buds, no genetic changes are expected to occur in the propagated trees. However the induction of epigenetic changes such as pleiotropy or juvenility or simply root malformation (see George, 1993), can not be excluded.In arder to test if the developed propagation methodology is useful for producing true-to-type planting material, we started the evaluation of trees propagated through in vitro micrografting at CIA T and in farms located in different soursop producing zones of Colombia in February 2000.The evaluated plants were obtained from the clone Elita (Ríos Castaño and Reyes, 1996) micrografted over rootstocks of the same variety. These were planted in January 1999 in farms belonging to experienced soursop growers located in Huila and Valle or later at CIA T in February of 2000. At CIA T besides the micrografted plants, other plants produced through the traditional grafting method (kindly provided by the Profrutales nursery) were planted. Micrografted plants were 8 months old while normally grafted plants were 1 O months old at the time of planting at CIA T. Preliminary data on parameters related to the vegetative growth of the trees, flowering, fruit set, production, and fruit quality have been collected while more detailed data collection is on going.Comparison of effects of in vitro micrografting and traditional grafting methods on the vegetative growth of trees In arder to study if plants produced through in vitro micrografting are different from those produced through traditional grafting methods, the vegetative growth, fruit production and fruit quality of trees from the same genetic background and propagated through both methodologies are being evaluated at CIA T. Tree height, volume of the canopy and perimeter at the grafting site, were taken as índices of vegetative growth during the first 12 months. But because the micrografted plants have to be pruned starting from the 12th month after planting (MAP) in arder to initiate tree fonnation, from this time onwards only the perimeter of the stem could be taken into account, in arder to have a reliable estímate oftree growth.Until 30 MAP, the growth rates of the tress propagated through both systems are the same in the field. (Fig. 1). The small differences in size of the stems shown by the different propagation methodologies can be attributed to the differences in age and size of the trees at the time they were planted in the field. Comparison of flower set and fruit production of trees propagated by in vitro micrografting and by traditional grafting methods Just as was the case with trees propagated by traditional methods, micrografted trees initiated flowering at 11 MAP and produced the first fruits at 15 MAP in the field . Trees propagated by both methods showed a cyclic behavior in flowering and fruit production, which possibly coincided with the seasonal climate changes at CIA T (Figure 2).Although these are preliminary results because soursop trees stabilize their production on ly after 7 years of planting, the measurements made so far, led to the conclusion that the plants propagated through in vitro micrografting suffered no delays in flowering and fruit production when compared to those propagated through the traditional methods. Field evaluation of new combinations of scions from selected clones and rootstocks of soursop and related species Hitherto, only plants from one combination of se ion and rootstock (El ita /El ita) ha ve been evaluated under different field conditions. During the first half of 2002, a total of 11 new combinations were planted at Yaguará (Huila) and La Esneda (Valle; Table 1). Additionally, more than 1400 trees of sim ilar combinations will be planted in other locations at the end the year 2002 and the beg inning of 2003.No genetic or epigenetic modification, which can be attributed to the propagation process, has been observed in any ofthe trees propagated through the in vitro micrografting method.The in vitro micrografting propagation procedure is a safe method for producing genetically uniform and di sease-free planting materials of this species. Future plans  (1997) as having excellent properties for sustaining plant growth under greenhouse conditions. Additionally, the effect of microrrhization of the plants on their survival and vegetative growth is also being investigated .Two-month old micrografted plantlets of the clone Rosa over the rootstock El ita were used. They were transferred to the greenhouse and planted in different substrates that contained CIA T soil, sand, cachaza (filter cake), coal ash, rice shells or pine bark chips. Most of these components are by-products ofthe sugar or paper industry. Altematively, the plants were inoculated with vesiculoarbuscular (V A) micorrhizal fungi (Table 1) in 016 Deepot™ containers (Hummert Intemational). Survival of in vitro micrografts planted on different substrate combinations in the greenhouse.A very highly significant effect of the substrate type on the survival and growth of the micrografted p1ants in the greenhouse was found. While only less than 50% of the plants survived when planted on CIA T soil, substrates containing \"cachaza\" and coal ash, showed survival rates of over 70%. The highest survival rate was achieved with the substrate combination S2 (Table 1) which contained 3 phenolization during the micrografting process, and fo und polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as being the best. In 2002 we investigated the effect of different modifications to the micrografting solution used on the efficiency of graft union, and in supporting growth of the micrografted scion. The results are shown in fig. l. Compared to the antioxidant solution used before, rates of grafi union and development of the scion after micrografting were improved by using micrografting solutions that in addition to the antioxidant were supplemented with WPM salts, sucrose and casein hydrolysate. But the best results regarding the scion development were obtained when the antioxidant solutions were supplemented additionally with the growth regulator BAP. This growth regulator or the combination of it with the other components ofthe solution also promoted a fast growth ofthe scion allowing the plantlets to be transferred to the greenhouse in less than 6 weeks after micrografting. Evaluation of the culture media used.The in vitro phase of the propagation methodology of soursop through micrografting consists of many step: (1) seed germination in vitro (for rootstock production); ( 2) induction of growth of axillary buds, (3) elongation of axillary buds (for scion production), ( 4) culture of micrografts and (5) cu lture of mother micrografts (in vitro micrografts used as source of buds for the production of new micrografts). Each of these steps required a different culture medium of a different composition (Table 1 ). In 2002 these culture media were revised and their preparation simplified by using only one source of a ready to use salt mixture as the basal medium. The newly developed media can be prepared easier and faster. Also by using them an improvement on the success rate of every step involved in the propagation process was achieved (Fig. 2) , allowing the performance of the propagation with more efficiency than before. The most important modification of the culture media is the use of the MS-salt mixture in half or one-quarter concentration, instead of the complete WPM salts. ~c...•R01 /2GA3 Use of rootstocks of other Annona species for the production of more vigorous, disease resistant and widely adapted soursop treesThe use of rootstocks of different genotypes or species from that of the scion for the production of vigorous, widely adapted or disease resistant plants is a common practice in fruit tree propagation.In soursop this avenue has been largely under-exploited.We are investigating both at the laboratory and greenhouse levels, the compatibil ity of scions of different selected clones of soursop and different rootstocks of the same species and of the related species A. montana and A. glabra. The results of the micrografting experiments of rootstocks of these species with scions of the c lone Rosa are presented in the figure 3. Regarding micrograft union (measured 15 days after micrografting) no significant differences were found between the different rootstocks. However regarding the development in vitro and in the greenhouse of the micrografted buds, significant differences were found. Surprisingly, it was the combination Rosa/A. montana, and not the micrografts of the scion of Rosa over its own rootstocks that was the combination that has shown the highest frequency of development. This combination is a lso the one that shows the highest growth rate in the greenhouse (data not shown). Future plans• To improve the methodology of production of rootstocks in vitro, which is the most limiting step in the process of scaling up ofthe propagation methodology.• To include more elite selected clones and more rootstocks in the propagation and evaluation process.The carotenoid pigments are essential components of photosynthetic organisms and have a great variety of functions in plants. The formal pathway of carotene biosynthesis is well know from chemical research and genetic and inhibitor experiments. Carotenoids derived from plant food sources are converted to vitamin A and other important compounds humans need for growth and development; moreover, certain carotenoids have been identified for their role in protection against cancer, in promoting immune responses and as antioxidants.Vitamin A deficiency (V AD) is considered as the third most important nutritional disease for its high level of prevalence. In many countries where V AD is a serious problem, cassava is a basic staple; however its nutritional quality is poor because it lacks proteins and vitamins, and nearly 90% of its dry weight is represented by carbohydrates. In most clones, the edible portion of the root is white and devoid of any carotene, in contrast to the yellow-pigmented roots, which are rich in carotene but not widely cultivated.Our work seeks to increase the knowledge of genes that code for specific steps in the metabolism of the carotenes, to improve the carotene content of cassava roots and enhance their nutritional value.In addition we are interested in isolating and characterizing tissue-specific promoters for cassava roots. In order to achive this goal we are characterizing the genes phytoene synthase, (Psyn) phytoene desaturase (PDes) z-carotene desaturase (CDes) and b--lycopene ciclase (Blyc), all of which are involved in the biosynthesis pathway of carotenes.Using Clustal X 1.62 software program (Intetligenetics, Mountain View, CA), the consensus sequences were identified for each of the aforementioned genes by sequence analysis of cONA clones reported in GenBank NCBI (www.ncbi.hml). A set of primers for each of the consensus sequences was generated using Primer 3® software. The designed primers were used to amplify orthologous sequences in the cassava genome.Genomic DNA was extracted (Dellaporta et al., 1983) from leaves of M Per 297 ( high carotene content) and CM 523-7 ( low carotene content), previously characterized by HPLC for carotene content within the cassava core collection at CIA T. Total RNA was extracted from fresh roots of each genotype by following the method developed by Relly et al (200 1 ).The PCR reaction from genomic DNA was carried out in a 25 mi of IX PCR buffer containing 100 hg of ONA, 0.6 mM each of the reverse and forward primers, 2.5 mM MgCb. 0.24 mM dNTPs, 2 U taq polymerase, incubated at one cycle of94°C (l min), followed by 35 cycles of94°C (45 s), 50°C (45 s), 72°C (45 s) and one cycle of72°C (5 min).cONA obtained with the SMARTTM cONA Synthesis Kit (Clontech) was used as the template for PCR amplification of carotene genes. The same primer-pair combinations used with genomic DNA as the template were used when cONA from cassava roots was used as the template in the PCR reaction. Beside the same primer pair was used in the cDNA amplyfication, there were changes in the reactíon conditions to optimize the PCR. Al! PCR reactions were carried out in a final volume of 25m! with 1 X PCR buffer (Pelkin Elmer), 0.6 mM of each primer, 250 hg of cDNA, 0.24 mM of each dNTP and 1 U taq polymerase (Pelk.in Elmer). Depending on the primer combination and genotype, the concentration of MgCh and annealing temperature differed from 2.0-4.0 mM and from 48-52°C, respectively. All the reactions were incubated at one cycle of94°C (1 min) followed by 35 cycles of 94°C (45 s), anneaJing temperature (45 s), 72°C (45 s) and one cycle of 72°C (5 m in).PCR products were visualized by electrophoresis in agarose gel, the resulting bands were purified using a Qiaquick Gel Extraction® Kit (Qiagen) and cloned into pGEM-T cloning vector (Promega).The vector was used to transform Eschlerichia coli DHSa using the CELL PORA TORil> system (GIDCO BRL). Screening of positive insert size clones was carried out by endonuclease digestion and PCR amplification, after DNA plasmid extraction was done (Sambroock et al., 1989) Plasmid DNA of clones with the expected insert size were extracted by Quiaprep Spin Miniprep® Kit (Quiagen). These clones were sequenced using T7 and SP6 renmers and Bigdye Tenninator Cycle Sequencing Kit (Applied Biosystems) in an ABI PRISM 377 DNA sequencer (Pelkin Elmer). The sequences were edited using Sequencher 3.0 (Gene Code Corp.) and compared with the Genbank databases (www.ncbi.htlm) using BLASTx.Consensus primers were successful in amplifying the orthologous sequences, both in genomic DNA and cDNA, (Figures 1-3). A single band was obtained with all the primer pairs used; only CDEs and Blyc amplified from cDNA ofCM 523-7, as well as Psyn and PDes from M Per 297 amplified two diffe rent bands. PCR product sizes from DNA and cDNA were in accord with the expected sizes, based on consensus sequences.Several genomic and cDNA clones from CM 523-7 and M Per 297 were sequenced , and significant homologies with genes reported for phytoene synthase have been found (Figure 4). The genomic sequences for Cdes, PDes and BLyc did not show homology with any ofthe expected genes (data not shown).PCR products from cassava genomic DNA and cDNA for each one of the putative genes were obtained using primers designed from consensus sequences.Significant homology with severa! clones for phytoene synthase in otbers plant species was found for genomic and cDNA clones obtained from cassava.Conserved domains of fami lies genes involved in the carotene biosynthesis pathway are useful to obtain orthologous sequences expressed in the cassava roots.• The positive clones obtained will be use as probe in the isolation of full-length cDNA clones from two recently made cassava root cDNA librarles from M Per 297 (CreatorTh 1 SMART TM cDNA library kit) and CM 523-7 (Lambda Zap II nt Stratagene).• A genomic library from M Per 297 and CM 523-7 will be made to iso late the complete genomic sequences, inc luding their promotor region, for each one ofthe candidate genes.  Vitamin A deficiency (V AD) is a major public health problem in developing countries and is a cause of preventable blindness in extensive populations of young children who go blind every year (Combs, 1998).Cassava is a primary staple for about 300 million people of those developing countries in which xerophthalmia caused by V AD is a serious problem. The main source of pre-ormed vitamin A is animal food, which is beyond the reach of many people in the developing world who, therefore, depend on those carotenoids (pro-vitamin A) present in plant foods that can be converted into vitamin A in the body The more widespread white-colored cassava roots contain only minor amounts of J3-carotene (the carotenoid with the highest vitaminic activity, Bradbury et. al., 1988); but yellow roots contain considerable amounts (> 1 mg/200 g of fresh tissue)This study was designed to improve the analytical methodology for detecting and quantifying carotenoid compounds, estímate the proportion of carotenoids with and without vitaminic activity in cassava roots, and complement the results obtainable from the colorimetric methods with those from the HPLC methods. This is because while the colorimteric method gives only the estímate of total carotenoids, the HPLC method has the capability of compartmentalizing the values into the individual components of J3-carotene, a-carotene, lutein, lycopein, etc.Colorimetric method. The extraction procedure outlined by Safo-Katanga et al. (1984) was adjusted by extracting root parenchyma with petroleum ether. The extraction protocol for leaves had to be modified due to the presence of tannins and chlorophylls. The adjusted protocol included severa! extractions with petroleum ether at 35-65°C and washing steps with methanol in order to minimize the interference from the other pigments. A 5-g sample was taken out of the root or leaves at random, 10-11 months after planting. The quantification of total carotenes was done by ultraviolet spectrophotometry using a Shimadzu UV-VIS 160A recording spectrophotometer. UV detection was done at f...= 455nm for root extracts and f...== 490 nm for leaf extracts.HPLC method Starting with the method used for the colorimetric quantification of total carotenes, aliquots (20 mi) of petroleum extract were completely dried by rota-evaporation. Then the dry extract was dissolved in 1 mi of HPLC mobile phase (methanol: methyl-terbutyl-ether: water, 80:15:4 v/v), centrifuged at 14000 rpm, and 10 J.Ll were injected in the HPLC system using a YMC carotenoid 5 ¡.Lm, 250 mm x 4.6mm column. Separation was done by isocratic elution with a mixture of acetonitrile:methylene chloride: methanol, 70:20: lO v/v) as mobile phase at 1 mi min' 1 and 30°C. ¡3-carotene was detected by monitoring absorption at 450 nm. ldentification and quantification was done by comparing retention times and UV-VIS spectra with a J3-carotene standard (Sigma C-0 126).Root samples of 99 clones from the gennplasm bank or the cassava breeding project at CIA T were used for this study. Harvesting took place at 9-10 months of age (nonnal harvesting time for cassava at CIA T), and commercial size, dísease-free roots were taken to represent each clone.Root samples from the 99 clones were analyzed using the colorimetric method for total carotenes, and then the same sample was analyzed using the HPLC procedure described above. Results of the two different methods are presented in Table l. The more recent HPLC methodology, using pre-columns and columns specifically designed for carotenoids, is considered to be more precise than the standard methodology employed for quantifying carotenoids in cassava roots and leaves. The results presented in Table 1 are very relevant for two reasons:A large proportion of total carotenes ha ve been found to be 13-carotene, which has twice as much vitaminic activity as a.-carotene Total carotenes have been found to be considerably higher (0.52 + 0.04 = 0.56 mg) when using HPLC than with the colorimetric method (0.42 mg).Despite the foregoing differences, it is clear that there is a high, positive correlation (0.88) between the two methodologies for measuring carotenes. The degree of association between total carotenes (colorimetry) and 13-carotene (HPLC) is further illustrated in Figure l.Surprisingly, the results at the top right comer ofthe plot in Figure 1 correspond toa pinkish rather than a yellow cassava root. As this root produced the highest leve! of j3-carotene among the roots evaluated, greater emphasis will be placed on analyzing roots with pink parenchyma.  Severa! important conclusions can be obtained from this work:The amount of total carotenes in colored cassava roots is higher than suggested by the colorimetric method.A large proportion oftotal carotenes is f3~carotene, which has higher vitaminic activity. Cassava has a high potential in helping overcoming vitamin A deficiency in human populations affected by this problem. Greater emphasis should be given to pin.kish roots.• Currently other studies are being carried out to measure the stability of carotene content in the roots across environments (genotype x environment interactions) and with different processing methodologies (boiling, sun-and oven-drying, and gari production). The carotenes are measured not only in the fresh roots, but also after freezing at -80 and -20°C or lyophilization.Higher in comes from cassava in marginal areas of the developing world wbere the crop is generally found requires the índustrialízatíon of the crop and the development of novel industrial products for cassava with the aid of modero biotecbnology. There are severa! novel products that can be produced from cassava. They include modified starches, such as IOO% amylopectin or 100% amylose starches, from the down regulation of the granule bound starch synthethase (GBSS) gene, or the starch branching enzyme (SBE) gene. The industrial applications of either pure amylopectin or pure amylose starcbes, such as the production of high value biodegradable polymers from pure amylose starches or the use of 100% amylopectin in thickeners, pastes, and glues, is a market with unlimited growth potential.With funds from the Ministerio de Agricultura y Oesarollo Rural of Colombia a project has been inítiated to -genetically engineer industrial varieties with an anti-sense construct of the GBSSI. The granule bound synthethase (GBSS), is the predominant starch synthase gene, and catalyses the conversion of ADP-glucose to amylose through the linkage of a ADP g1ucose to a pre-existing glucan chain. Anti-sense disruption of the GBSSI gene has been employed to create potato transformants with 70-100% amylopectín vi a the down-regulation of the GBSSI gene Salehuzzaman et. al. ( 1993 ).Isolation of a cassava GBSS cDNA clone. More than 87, 000 clones of a cassava root and leaf cONA library cloned in the vector pCMV SPORT (GIBCO BRL inc. USA) has been gridded onto bigh density filters (Mba et al. 2000, unpublished data). The library was screened using a potato GBSS cONA clones, a kind gift of Or Christine Gebhardt, Max Planck Institute, Cologne, Germany. The potato GBSS gene was labeled with e 2 P] dATP by random primer labelling and hybridized ovemight to the cONA filters according to standard protocols for Southem hybridization used in cassava (Fregene et al. 1997). The filters were wasbed 2 times with 2XSSC + 0.1 %SOS for 5 minutes at 60°C and autoradiograpby was at -80°C using 2 intensifying screens.Construction of transforma/ion cassettes. Primers were designed from publisbed sequences of a full length cassava cDNAs of the GBSSI gene (Salehuzzaman et. al. 1993)  Three GBSS cONA clone obtained from screening the cassava library were sequenced and one clone was found to be a complete cONA clone. The cONA c lone has the A TG start codon 81 base pairs down stream from the beginning of the cONA sequen ce and a stop codon about 100 base pairs from the poly A tail. PCR amplification with the designed primers yielded a fragment about 2.1 kb in size that corresponds to the full length GBSS cONA clone (Figl). The transformation experiments are ongoing and conc lusive results of reporter gene assays are expected at the e nd of Decembe r. Once the transformed calli has been revealed to have stable incorporatio n of the construct, regeneration of the transgenic ca ll i wi ll be initiated.• Agrobacterium trans formatio n and regenera tio n of the industria l cassava variety \"Reina\" with the anti-sense construct of GBSSI cloned in pBIG lO 1High levels of resistance to the cassava mosaic disease (CMD), the crop's most important production constraint in Africa, is mediated by a single dominant genes designated CMD2. The serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) has been employed to identify many genes differentially expressed in resistant genotypes in response to heavy disease pressure of the African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) and the East African Cassava Mosaic Virus. The most differentially expressed gene was a beta-tubulin gene found to be expressed 12 times in CMD resistant genotypes compared to susceptible genotypes. Tubulin are the building block of microtubules the main component of celluar cytoskeleton and they have been implicated in cell-to-cell progression and cytoplasm-to-nucleus movement of viruses.To further understand the role beta-tu bu! in plays in the molecular basis of resistance, an experiment was designed to transiently co-transform a CMD susceptible cassava genotype and other host of the virus, for example Nicotiana benthamiana and Nicotiana tabacum, with infectious viral clones and the beta-tubulin gene. Infectious DNA clones of two strains of the virus were obtained from Drs John Stanley and Rob Briddon, John Innes Center, Norwich UK, anda license to work with them was obtained by the Iwate Biotech Research Center (IBRC). Method of transient transformation was by agro-infiltration, N. benthamiana and N. tabaccum, or biolistic inocu1ation, cassava. A CMD susceptible cassava variety, TMS30555, and the cassava land race that is the original source of CMD2, the single dominant CMD resistan ce gene, TME3, were used for the experiments.Plant materials were the CMD resistant variety TME3 and the susceptible variety TM$30555. Both genotypes were obtained as tissue culture plantlets from liT A and transferred to pots with soil for the experiments. A full length beta-tubulin cDNA clone was PCR amplified using primers that contained the recognition site for the appropriate restriction enzymes and cloned into PRT101 (35S promoter), for biolistic inoculation, or into the XVE inducible binary expression vector or into the binary vector pBIN m-gfp-ER, for agro-inoculation. The PCR fragment was cleaned and digested with the appropriate enzyme and eluted from a 1.5 % agarose gel. The purified fragment was then cloned into appropriate vector and transformed by electroporation into E.Coli strain HB 101. A 1:50 dilution of plasmid preparations from an ovemight culture of a single E. Coli colony was analyzed by PCR, using the original beta-tubulin primers, to confmn success of the cloning experiment. To that ensure that a full length beta-tubulin protein will be expressed in the transient assay, 3 clones from each cloning experiment was sequenced with ~ primers that covers the entire Iength of the gene.Infectious DNA clones from two virus strains were employed in the transient assay experiment, partial repeats of the A and B genome of the Sri-Lanka Cassava Mosaic Virus (SLCMV A and SLCMVB) cloned into the binary vector pBIN PLUS, and full length clones of the African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) A and B genome cloned into pUC 19 (ACMV A and ACMVB). Infectivity of cassava by virus partial repeats in a binary vector clones and agro-inoculation has not been demonstrated, therefore all agro-inocu1ation experiments were with N benthamiana and N tabaccum. But cassava has been successfully infected by biolistics, therefore the biolistic experiments were with cassava and N tabaccum, as control.A preliminary biolistic experiment was conducted to standardize the conditions for the BIO-RAD particle gun bombardment and to ensure expression of the beta-tubulin gene c1oned into PRTIOI.Leaf discs of about 5cm 2 from the cassava genotype TME3 and N tabaccum were used for the preliminary experiment. There were three treatments: bombardment with the PRT101 plasmid containing the luciferase gene alone, the luciferase construct combined with a PRTI O 1 plasmid in which the luciferase gene has been replaced with a beta-tubulin gene having the 11 bp truncation and the non-truncated beta-tubulin gene. Three leaf discs were used for each treatment and per crop. Particle gun bombardment was according to standard procedures established at the IBRC (Terauchi, 2002, personal communication). One 1 month-old live plant each was included for both cassava and N tabaccum in the Juciferase treatment as control. Leaf discs were bombarded once with 2.5ug of DNA from the respective clones, while whole plants were bombarded 3 times. After bombardment, leaves were placed on water in a petri dish an incubated at 25°C for two days.Two days later, total proteins were isolated from leaf discs transiently transformed with the betatubulin gen, to confirm the expression of the beta-tubulin gene using standard procedures established at the IBRC (Saitoh, 2002 personal communication). Exactly 3.6ug of total protein lysate from allleaf discs from treatments 2 and 3, and 2 non-bombarded controJs were separated on a SDS-PAGE gel. Western blot analysis, using an anti-body raised to purified rat brain betatubulin, was carried out as described in the manufacturer's product sheet (SIGMA Inc, St. Louis, USA).Following the preliminary experiment, a biolistic experiment was designed to inoculate the CMD resistance genotype TME3 and the CMD susceptible variety TMS30555 with the ACMV A and B infectious clones. A second treatment was co-bombardment of the ACMV clones and the betatubulin gene into the CMD susceptible genotype TMS30555. Three one-month old plants ofTME 3 were used in the first treatment, while 2 one-month old plants ofTMS30555 were each used in the frrst and second treatments. Plants were bombarded twice with 2.5ug of DNA from the respective clones as described earlier. The inoculated plants were transferred to a virus containment area in a secure green house.For the agro-inoculation by infiltration experiment, the SLCMV A and SLCMV B clones were transformed into agro-bacterium strains MOG and EHA105. Similarly the beta-tubulin gene in the binary vectors XVE and pBIN m-gfp-ER were transformed into agro-bacterium strains MOG and EHA105. Agro-infiltration was according to standard methods established at the ffiRC (Saitoh 2002, personal communication). There were 4 treatments: the virus alone (a mixture of SLCMV A and SLCMV B), the virus and the beta-tubulin gene (in XVE), the beta-tubulin gene alone, and a dilution of the beta-tubulin gene to reflect the concentration in the mixture with viral clones. Three plants of N benthamiana and N tabaccum each were used per treatment. Agro-infiltrated plants were transferred to a virus containment area in a secure green house. After two days, the betatubulin gene will be induced by treatment of agro-infiltrated plants with the animal steriod, estradiol. Plant tissue will be collected from all plants and stored for Westem analysis of gene expression using a conjugated mouse beta-tubulin antibody or antibodies raised to the coat protein of ACMV. Agro-inoculation of cassava could not be achieved due to poor infiltration, cassava leaves are covered with a thick cuticle.The full length of the beta-tubulin gene is 1667bp, the translated portion of the gene corresponds to 134lbp or 447 amino acid motifs. The beta tubulin protein showed more than 80% homology with similar genes from rice and arabidopsis. Comparison of the complete sequence of the beta-tubulin gene with ESTs generated for tag annotation during the SAGE experirnent revealed two betatubulin molecules, one transcript had an 11 bp truncation in the 3' untranslated end of the cDNA molecule. This molecule was also the most abundant from the EST project, 4 as against 1 of the non~truncated. It is not clear if this molecule plays any role in the over-expression of beta-tubulin, therefore the molecules were separated in at least one of the transient assay experirnents, the biolístic inoculation.Results of the biolistic experiment to standardize the conditions for the BIO-RAD particle gun bombardment for expression of the beta-tubulin gene particle gun revealed good expression of the full length beta-tubulin gene in all leaf disc by western blot (Fig 1 ). Similar results were also obtained with non-bombarded controls suggesting the detection of endogenous beta-tubulin. There is therefore a need to separate the confounding influence of endogenous tubulin and transient expression vía the use of a non-plant secondary antibody fused to the tubulin protein. The luciferase assay was conducted on leaf discs from all treatment using a rapid enzyme substrate assay anda flourescence reader according to standard methods in use at the IBRC (Terauchi et al. 2002, personal communication). Results revealed good enzyme activity on the average for all samples, although samples from the co-inoculation (luciferase and beta-tubulin) had a 5 to 10 magnitude reduction. This may be an effect of the quantity of leaf samples, as more than half of the leaf disc had already been used for the Western blot analysis. The luciferase activity of the bombarded cassava and N. tabaccum whole plants were the highest for all samples.The western blot analysis of the tobacco plants agro-infiltrated with the infectious virus clones or beta-tubulin gene or both remain to be carried out. The plant tissue is stored at -80oC pending a trip to Japan to conclude the above studies.Future Perspectives• Western blots of agro-bacterium and particle gun infected plans to assess expression of the beta-tubulin gene and the infectious viral clones • Additional co-transfonnation experiments to better synchronize expression of the betatubulin gene and infection by viral clones.Table 1 presents a summary of measurements for dry matter, HCN, total carotene for roots and leaves, as well as color, PPD and sugars in the roots.Carotene content in the roots ranged from 0.102-1.040 mg/100 g Ff, demonstrating the potential of cassava clones with yellow roots to contribute to overcoming V AD in regions of the world where this malady is a chronic problem. As expected, carotene in the leaves was much higher, ranging from 12.05-96.42 mg/100 g FT. Concentration of carotene in the leaves correlated poorly with the same trait when measured in the roots (p = -0.074).Cassava therefore offers a dual approach for solving V AD: introducing and promoting yellowrooted varieties and/or favoring foliage consumption. The phenotypic correlation between total carotene content in the roots and root color score (n=788) based on the visual scale was very high and positive (p = 0.860). Mineral concentrations in the leaves were much higher than in roots (Table 2). A high positive correlation between minerals content in roots and leaves was observed for K (0.49), Mn (0.43), N (0.38) and P (0.36). Mineral concentrations in lea ves further illustrate the nutritional value of this tissue for animal as well as human consumption. The leaves, in addition to high carotene and protein contents, also showed excellent levels for key minerals. Regarding protein content in the roots ( estimated through N measurements ), the mean crude content of 3.06% agrees with reports in the literature (Onuma, 1987). The average crude protein content in the foliage (30.6 %) was much higher than in the roots. Postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) is a characteristic that limits the marketability of the fresh roots and necessitates either consumption or processing shortly after harvesting. The average for PPD was 24.47%, with individual values ranging from 0-100%. The correlation coefficient (p = 0.348) indicates that there is a positive association between dry matter content and PPD. HCN does not seem to have a strong effect on PPD, whereas carotene did reduce andlor delay the onset ofPPD (p = -0.123). Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between PPD and carotene, suggesting the occurrence of a threshold effect with carotene values lower that 50 mg having gradually lesser effect in reducing or delaying PPD.Results observed in the large samples analyzed demonstrate that cassava roots and particularly the leaves are a valuable source of carotene, which can help alleviate chronic V AD in human populations suffering from it. The additional advantage of carotene's reducing the physiological deterioration of roots somewhat could encourage farmers to grow cassava clones with yellow roots. Consumption of foliage by humans is to be promoted whenever possible.In a pilot experiment we found that hybrids of a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens population segregated for root-related characters that are relevant for the adaptation to acid soils.These include ' root growth potential' (the ability to initiate and elongate roots in the absence of externally supplied nutrients) and aluminum (Al) resistance (see '\"ldentifying individuals with contrasting aluminum resistance in a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrid population\" in this report). We therefore extended the ongoing phenotypic evaluation to the complete hybrid population available at CIA T.The results ofthis experimentare going to be useful in two ways:They will enable us to refine a single-step screening procedure to discard rapidly genotypes not adapted to acid soils. The phenotypic data will provide a basis for the mapping of QTLs controlling physiological and morphological characters associated with acid-soil adaptation. The latter should provide an avenue towards implementing marker-assisted selection for acid-soil adaptation in the future.Stem cuttings from hybrids of a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens population were rooted in a low ionic strength nutrient solution in the glasshouse during 9 days. Rooted stem cuttings from each genotype were grouped into homogeneous pairs. One cutting from eacb pair was used to measure root growth in the absence of Al (in 200 M CaC1 2 ; pH 4.2), while the other was used to measure growth in an identical solution, to which 200 M AlCh had been added. Treatment solutions were changed every second day to rninirnize pH drifts. At harvest on day 2 1 after transfer to treatment solutions, stems were separated from roots and dried to determine their dry weight. Roots were put into a solution containing neutral red and methylene blue and left to stain for at least 24 h. After rinsing with water, they were scanned on a flatbed scanner. The resulting images were analyzed with WinRHIZO image analysis software to determine root length and average root diameter. Thus far, three growth cycles, each comprising up to three pairs of stem cuttings per genotype (more for the two parents) have been fully analyzed in this experiment, which is still ongoing.An extensive root system that explores a large soil volume can take up immobile nutrients such as phosphorus more efficiently. It is presumably an important trait that permits plants to grow on nutrient-deficient, acid soils. Adapted genotypes should therefore have long thin roots and cluster in the lower right comer of a plot of root diameter (Y axis) versus root length (X axis). To produce such a plot, root length and thickness data were log-transformed and adjusted for the effect of stem cutting dry weight as described in the following report on •'Identifying individuals with contrasting aluminum resistance in a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrid population.\" The two sets of data were then plotted against each other, for stem cuttings grown in both the absence and presence of Al (Figure l ).In the absence of Al, stem cuttings of hybrids had root lengths ranging from 0.6-7.0 m. Wbile the poorly adapted parent (B. ruziziensis) was at the low end of the range, a significant number of hybrids produced longer roots than the well-adapted B. decumbens (Figure 1, left panel). The two parents were e lose to the two extremes of the range of root diameters, however (Figure 1, left panel). As expected, root elongation was inhibited in the presence of Al, and roots became thicker (note differences in population means in right vs. left panel ofFigure 1).  For these reasons it would be desirable to isolate \"physiological components\" contributing to root growth in the Al treatment. Performing the same screen in the absence of Al provides access to the component that allows plants to initiate and elongate roots in the absence of all nutrients but Ca in the growth medium and to the component that is responsible for inherently thin roots (Figure 1, left panel). A comparison of root length for each genotype, in the presence and absence of Al, provides indirect access to the physiological component that govems Al resistance (see \"Identifying individuals with contrasting aluminum resistance m a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrid population\" in this report).• We continue to collect data from additional growth cycles to increase the precision with which we will be able to \"dissect'' root growth into these physiological components. Subsequently, the set of physiological data will be combined with genetic data to identify QTLs associated with these traits.Previous experiments have established that there is a significant difference in aluminum (Al) resistance between B. decumbens (resistant) and B. ruziziensis (sensitive) (Wenzl et al., 2001). Given that apomictically reproduced plants tend to be highly heterozygous, alleles conferring Al resistance in apomictic B. decumbens are expected to segregate in a B. ruziziensis x B. decumbens hybrid population. The main objective of this work was to use this population to isolate genes whose expression is associated with Al resistance.Here we report on a physiological evaluation of 3 8 individuals of this hybrid population selected on the basis of data from preliminary experiments to include both Al-resistant and sensitive hybrids.Based on the results of this evaluation, two groups of contrasting individuals will be formed to compare gene expression pattems in root apices, the presumed site of action of the Al-resistance mechanisms.Rooted stem cuttings of each genotype were grouped into homogeneous pairs. One stem cutting from each pair was used to measure the root-elongation potential in a solution containing 200 M CaCh (pH 4.2); the other was used to measure growth in an identical solution, to which 200 M AICh had been added (see \"Evaluating acid-soil adaptation of 274 Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrids\" in this report). The experiment consisted of ten independent growth cycles, each with up to nine pairs of stem cuttings per genotype.Inhibition of root elongation is a well-known symptom of Al tox.icity. Addition of Alto the basal solution containing only CaCh had a pronounced effect on root elongation in most genotypes. Initial analyses, however, indicated that the effect of Al was highly variable. This was true both for within-growth-cycle replicates and the average effect of Al in different growth cycles.Several factors may have contributed to this variability:Root elongation in a solution lacking all nutrients but Ca largely depends on reserves (sugars, nutrients) present in stem cuttings. Those that ha ve a greater biomass are therefore expected to show superior root elongation in both treatments.Previous results suggest that a good nutritional status increases the Al-resistance leve! of Brachiaria spp. (Wenzl et al., 2002). This may enhance the positive effect of the stem cutting's biomass on root elongation in the Al treatment.Stem cuttings taken from plants with a good nutritional status are likely to contain more nutrients per unit ofbiomass, thereby potentially amplifying the effect ofthe stem cutting's biomass on root -elongation in both treatments.These considerations highlight the importance of adjusting root elongation data for stem cutting biomass and the nutritional status of the donor plants-the latter presumably varying in an unpredictable manner from one growth cycle to another.All data were log-transformed because growth data tend to be log-normally distributed (Causton & Venus, 1981 ). This improved normality in most cases as determioed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Linear regression of root length and diameter on the dry weight of stem cuttings indicated a highly significant effect for the former (P < 10' 2 s), but not the Iatter. At least 13% ofthe variance of root length data in the basal treatment and 20% in the Al treatment could be accounted for by the variable dry weight of the stem cuttings. Root length data were therefore adjusted for the effect of the dry weight of the stem cuttings (using separate linear regressions for individual growth cycles, which slightly increased the percentage of explained variance).Adjusted root lengths of most genotypes fell within the range of 2.5-6.3 m per stem cutting (log values from 0.4-0.8; Figure 1). Only B. roziziensis (1.0 m) and hybrid No. 114 (0.7 m) had much shorter roots. Interestingly, about halfthe hybrids had longer roots than the acid-soil adapted parent B. decumbens. Given this inherent variability in root elongation potential, root elongation in the presence of Al is expected to be the result of a superimposition of two physiological components:The ability to elongate roots in the absence of extemally supplied nutrients plus Al resistance. While this might be advantageous for rapidly discarding nonadapted genotypes in a breeding program, it makes it necessary to isolate the cornponent of overall performance in the Al treatrnent that is attributable to Al resistance. This is because the experiments to isolate genes rely on the assumption that sensitive genotypes do not express genes that confer Al resistance. Not dissecting the two components, however, could result in a misclassification of genotypes expressing Alresistance genes as \"sensitive\" because they lack the (presumably unrelated) ability to elongate roots in the absence of nutrients.0.9r-----------------------------------------------------------------------. Therefore Al resistance was quantified by comparing root elongation in the Al treatrnent with that in the basal treatrnent. For each pair of stem cuttings that had been split between the two treatments, the difference between the log-transformed root lengths in the two treatrnents was calculated (equivalent to computing the ratio of untransformed root lengths). The two poorly elongating genotypes (114, 44-02) were excluded from this analysis because too large a fraction of their fmal root length had already been present at the time of transferring stem cuttings into the treatrnent solutions. The average effect of Al on root elongation varied among growth cycles (33-60% inhibition), perhaps because of the differences in the nutrient status of the stem cuttings (see discussion above). An adjustrnent for growth cycle-specific effects, which accounted for 13% of the variance of the difference between the log-transformed root lengths, was achieved by subtracting the average difference in a particular growth cycle (i.e., the average effect of Al) from the individual values computed for pairs of stem cuttings. The resulting value was called \"Alresistance index.\"If Al resistance and the ability to elongate roots in the absence of externa! nutrients are separate physiological components that segregate independently, then there should be no correlation between Al-resistance índices and the root elongation potential (the log-transformed root lengths in the absence of Al). Figure 2 appears to confrrm this assumption (r 2 = 0.02) and underscores the need to break down the two components for the purpose of associating gene expression pattems with either ofthe two.  Figure 3. genotypes were organized according to their Alresistance index. Two independent findings seem to confirm the validity of our approach to quantify Al resistance in the stem cuttings:The Al-resistant parent (B. decumbens) had the highest Al-resistance index (the Al-sensitive parent could not be scored dueto its extremely poor root elongation in the basal treatment). Evaluation of a different Al-toxicity symptom-the lateral swelling of roots-demonstrated that roots of genotypes classified as Al resistant tended to swell less than those of Al-sensitive genotypes (r 2 = -0.78; Figure 3). Future Plans• Two groups of contrasting genotypes ( 4-6 each) wil1 be eh osen from the upper and lower end of the range of Al-resistance índices for subsequent experiments to associate gene expression pattems with an Al-resistant phenotype. from root apices, using a mechanism that does not rely on externa! detoxification by organic acids (Wenzl et al., 2001 ). Based on these results we hypothesized that a less negative ( or even positive) surface-charge density of root apices could be a highly effective mechanism of nonmetabolic Al exclusion. According to this hypothesis, B. decumbens should also be more resistant to other toxicants with different physicochemical properties (ion radius, etc.) as long as they are cations.Here we report on experiments to evaluate the susceptibility of the two Brachiaria species to lanthanum (La 3 } and other lanthanide ions using relative root elongation (RRE) of seedlings as a measure of resistance.Seeds of B. decumbens and B. ruziziensis were genninated in 200 M CaCh (pH 4.2) for 4-5 days. Homogeneous seedlings with roots 2-3 cm long were transferred to continuously aerated soJutions containing 200 M CaCb (pH 4.2) plus a lanthanide salt (chlorides of lanthanum, cerium or ytterbium). The seedlings were left to grow in the glasshouse for 3 days. At harvest, root lengths were measured, and root elongation was calculated by subtracting the root length at transfer.The results obtained with La 3 + show that Al-resistant B. decumbens is more resistant to La 3 + ions than Al-sensitive B. ruziziensis (Figure 1). In all other plant species tested thus far, genotypes differing in their resistance to A¡J+ ions are equally sensitive to La 3 +. Other lanthanide ions such as Yb 3 + and Ce 3 + triggered a similar differential response (Figure 2). This is the first time that a general resistance to trivalent cationic toxicants has been observed in plants. These findings are consistent with the possibility that the surface-charge density of root apices-the principal site of Al injury-acts as a generic mechanism to avoid uptake of phytotoxic cationic toxicants. Y et the possibility remains that this \"cross resistan ce\" is due to other factors. Further work is in progress to evaluate the significance of a surface-charge-based Al-resistance mechanism compared with other mechanisms. Results from these experiments may provide insights into breaking down B. decumbens resistance to Al into physiological mechanisms. This may prove to be particularly useful if genetic control of the trait tums out to be complex (which may indeed be the case; see \"Identifying individuals with contrasting aluminum resistance in a Brachiaria ruziziensis x Brachiaria decumbens hybrid population\" in this report). • The Cassava Biotechnology Network for Latín America and the Caribbean (CBN-LAC), now in its second year of operation, is a network of cassava researchers and end-users united by the goal of mobilizing the development and application of biotechnological tools for the enhancement of the value of cassava for food security and econornic development in the poorest rural areas of the LAC. Three functional Pilot Si tes in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador were established while that ofCuba is yet to take off. The network carried activities at the pilot CBN also undertook activities in the areas of fundraising, communication and creation of awareness and staffing• Guidelines policy on the use of genetic transformation was prepared for management approval. The docume nt \"Pact with society\"outline. CIAT policy on transgenic research at the center • A database containing functional categories of ESTs and their application in the construction of cONA microarrays for the analysis of a plant-pathogen ínteraction ((cassava -Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manilwtis) was implemented. The data set contains 4800 sequences distributed in fifteen funcúonal groups. Among genes with an assigned function, about 8 % were involved in energy utilization; 8 % i!l protein synthesis and degradation; 4% in disease and defense. 96 clones have been sequenced and compared with GenBank databases. Significant homologies with known genes or putative genes have been found, 8 sequences showed homology with plant resistance or defense related proteins. Among the homologies, we found a catalase, a translaúon initiation factor 28, a calmodulin, a glutaredoxin and a UOP-glucose dehydrogenase • A database was developed in Filemaker Pro for expressed sequence tag infonnation that has been used to search for microsatellites in common bean.• A set of biotechnology lectures was prepared for public schools in Cali. A guidebook covering basic theory and lab experiments was developed for use in regular science courses. Training of the high school science teacbers was also carried to familiarize them with the new teaching tools.• 13 Genomic and cONA librarles were constructed in beans, cassava, rice and Brachiaria • Staff of SB-2 continued the contact with the private sector with Colombian subsidiary or the lntemational branch of severa! companies to obtain freedom to operate on relevant technologies and to access genes and gene constructs. Similar contact took place with GO in the Andean regions.• 13 proposals were approved and a total of 24 organizations contributed to the funding of SB-2.The Cassava Biotechnology Network for Latín America and the Caribbean, hereafter referred to by its acronyrn of CBN-LAC, is a network of cassava researchers and end-users united by the goal of rnobilizing the developrnent and application of biotechnological tools for the enhancement of the val u e of cassava for food security and economic development in the poorest rural areas of the LAC.  (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998), which was also funded by the DGIS . The regionalization was as a re~ult ofreviews ofthe parent CBN CBN operates along three main complementary thrusts:1-Priority setting and evaluation through the strategic use of social science strategically to ensure that cassava end users have a real voice in decision-making in the developrnent and implementation of biotechnologies ll-Technology diffusion by further adapting key biotechnologies together with srnall farmers by public sector research. ill-Information to promote awareness building/dialogue arnong scientists and end-users of the opportunities and constraints inherent to biotechnologyThe frrst year of CBN-LAC (2001) was devoted to the establishment of contacts and building collaborations with the responsible entities at the proposed pilot sites at Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, and Ecuador. Proposals were developed and funded for the pilot sites at Brazil and Colombia thus: In the case of Ecuador, on account of the peculiarity of not having any agency assigned the role of cassava R&D, and considering all the prior investrnents into cassava R&D, a multi-stakeholder analysis was initiated leading eventually to the commissioning of a diagnostic study on the Status of Cassava Production and Use. Data collection from the Manabí province, the cassava-producing Five improved cassava c lones, 005, 003 , BGMI318, BGM 1393 and BGM 1389S, were selected from farmer participatory breeding trials on th e bas is of resi stance to bacteriosis and drought tolerance. T hese were a lso the varieties most preferred by farmers in the Caetité region. Planting materials (stakes) from these selected c lones have been submitted to the CNPMF-EMBRAPA B iotechnology Unit for clean ing and rapid multiplication.Arising from the rapid in vitro multiplication ofthese 5 selected varieties, a total of 432 plantlets have been produced in the Biotechnology Laboratory of CNPMF-EMBRAPA. The multiplicatio n ofthese c lones is on going.A simple system was developed to manage and control contamination, and involves periodic checks in LB culture medium. Different points and their coloring in the culture medium are indicators of the leve! of pollutants.A total of 6061 plants of six clones (MBra 383, CM 523-7, MCol 1522, HMC1, CM 6740-7 and MPer 183) were produced and planted in the rural greenhouse, with the help of local farmers, for the hardening phase. These materials will be assessed in the field during the second semester of 2002 to gather information on plant development, yield, and total cost of management.Men and women now have the capacity to work together as a group and can therefore modify the conditions of their community through actions directed to improve the leve) of education of the population, share experiences with other communities, and produce the seed of other crops using in vitro techniques.The women participating in the project also participate in activities carried out by governmental entities and other NGOs. They are presented as members of a group and participate actively in the development of new projects.A criterion of common well being ís used to handle all interpersonal problems arising between group members. Actions of solidarity continue to be an important characteristic of most project participants, allowing them to overcome economic problems and issues related to insecurity.Different cassava clones were collected in severa! municipalities of Cauca, Colombia, and data were gathered on the clones such as climate, soil conditions, and topography of the collection si tes; varietal characteristics; and farmer uses.A total of 27 clones were identified, using IPGRI's standardized morphological descriptors for cassava.Two in situ seed banks were established with the seed collected in farmer plots, using conservationist tillage practices and low levels of inputs.One additional set of this material was send to CIA T for termotherapy and molecular analyses.The percentage of plant loss in the farmer-managed greenhouse hardening system is considered low (12.6%) because this was the first time that farmers had handled such a large lot of in vitro produced materials.Overall management of the in vitro cassava seed production project has allowed participating members to address issues such as education, health care (through food security efforts), community organization, improved agronomic practices, and recovery of borne vegetable gardens, among others, thus benefiting the entire community.Severa! members of the women' s group, who have usually been passive ' information receivers' have now become open questioners about the project. Not only the dedication group members bave CBN has in close collaboration with PRGA identified sorne parameters that could be used to elicit certain urgent information from the data collected so that further work in Ecuador could be commissioned and these are summarized thus:A number of questions that would give a good indication of preferences that could be analyzeáby gender (detectable by the respondent's name), age, wealth (as measured by landholdings and tenure status), principal occupation and agroecological zone (various data from Section A).Questions that relate to the importance of cassava overall compared to other productive activities or community priorities include: c17 (preference for cassava vs. other crops ), d2 (importance of cassava for family subsistence) gl and g2 (importance of cassava to household well-being), and h9 (indication ofwhat are considered the most important problems faced by the community).Questions that indicate preferences, problems and priorities for cassava include: el, c2, c4, eS (input requirements and constraints) c3 (disease problems) C7, clO, cll, c13, c14, c19, c20 (varieties known, used, preferred and reasons) c13, c14, clS, c16 (Yield/production) c18 (preferred characteristics for cassava plants and reasons)-responses may overlap with previous c21, c22 (demand for mix ofvarieties) c24 (might give a rough idea ofthe importance of cassava for marketing vs. subsistence) c25 (importance ofbeing able to delay harvest) c27 (asks about seed knowledge and supply within the community.May give an indication of the importance of cassava, as well as the degree of innovation and cohesion present in the community) d3 (importance of cassava by-products) e4 (varietal preferences ofbuyers of cassava or cassava products el.l, e2.1, e3.1 (difficulties encountered in marketing fresh cassava, cassava starch and cassava tlour) el O ( difficulties encountered in processing ( spec grating)) h4 (productivity and profitability of cassava o ver time) Note: Although c26 asks about the knowledge ofthe respondent about varietal resistance to drought and tloods, it does not ask them to indicate if resistan ce to either drought or flood resistance is a priority.Questions that give an indication of for whom cassava is important and the degree of voice/asset control that person has are: c12 (who decides variety selection) dl (division oflabor for cassava and other household production activities) eS (control over income from sales of cassava and cassava products) g4, gS, g6 (control over household income and expenses)Fami/iarization with Projects at Pilot Sites and Monitoring oj on-going Activities. The interim CBN coordination has traveled to and has become quite conversant not only with the on-going projects but also with the partners at all the pilot sites at Cauca, Colombia; Cruz das Almas, Brazil and to Quito and Manabi, Ecuador. Plans are underway for initiating the Pilot Site in Cuba.Sma/1 Grants. The criteria for the award of the CBN Small Grants have been developed and the announcements inviting applications ha ve been published. lt is hoped that the first set of the grants will be awarded by 01 February 2003.WebPages. The CBN WebPages will be launched before the end of2002Recruitment of CBN Coordina/ion Staff. A search is on for the recruitment of a Regional Coordinator to take over the coordination of the Network in early 2003. Al so, in conjunction with PRGA, the TOR for the Social Scientist position has been developed and tbe search is also on to fill this position.Fundraising. The Canadian lntemational Development Researcb Center (IDRC) has generously provided funding in the total sum of has been provided in the total sum of US$750,000 spread over 5 years for \"The Ginés-Mera memorial fellowship fund for postgraduate studies in biodiversity\". This fund is aimed memorializing Dr. Maria de Jesús (Chusa) Ginés and Ms. Verónica Mera, CBN Coordinator and Social Scientist, respectively, who lost their lives in a tragic airplane accident while on an official trip from their base in Quito, Ecuador, to the headquarters of the lntemational Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIA T), Cali, Colombia. Specifically, the fund aims at achieving the following over the 5-year span:To provide opportunities and support to female and male master's students from the developing countries of the world to undertake thesis research addressing key elements of the sustainable use and conservation of agricultura! biodiversity, in particular: a) intellectual property rigbts and access to agricultura} genetic resources b) molecular characterization of agrobiodiversity e) community-based conservation of genetic agrobiodiversity. 2. To promote the bridging ofthe research/ development divide, by encouraging researchers and their borne universities to develop linkages with research for development projects, and to undertake applied research which informs development processes.To explore opportunities for further expansion of this initiative in order to involve other stakeholders.To encourage and support the exchange of information, knowledge and technology between the stakeholders in agricultura! biodiversity conservation in these countries.Jnformation Dissemination and Communication. An intemational workshop was he id at CIA Ton in vitro cassava dissemination and genetic transformation. This activity was carried out with the collaboration ofPBA, CBN, and PRGA as posthumous homage to Chusa Gines and Verónica Mera. This new initiative will bring to bear the full potential of agricultural and health science to reduce micronutrient malnutrition in the developing world. This program, if fully funded, will have a significant impact on the health of poor people, particularly children and women in the developing world, more than 3 billíon of whom are affected by micronutrient malnutrition.To prepare the Challenge Program Proposal, CIA T and IFPRI held a number of consultative meetings .. In 2002, two planning meetings were held involving donors and scientists.In April, scientists gathered to discuss and enhance the technical aspects of the proposal. A meeting of proposed Program collaborators was hosted in Houston, Texas, USA, April, 2002 by the USDA, a member institution of the nutritional genomics team, shortly after notification of selection of biofortification as one of three \"fast-track\" proposals. Responses to the iSC comments on the December, 2001 version of the proposal were discussed, as well as govemance and project management issues. A dístinguishing characteristic of this meeting were comments and discussion on the use of bíotechnology by participants from the prívate sector.In May 2002, more than 30 stakeholders attended a two-day meeting to provide their insights on the proposal A two-day meeting Stakeholder meeting, World Bank, May, 2002 was convened primarily to receive input and suggestions on the proposal and the iSC comments, from a number of institutional perspectives, from those not initially collaborating in the project. A distinguished group was assembled representing NARES, NGOs, the prívate sector, donors, and scientists from a number of disciplines, in addition to a subgroup of proposed Biofortification Challenge Program collaborators. The tone of the meeting was quite positive and many constructive comments were received. A new draft of the revised proposal was prepared after the stakeholder meeting incorporating these comments and a final version was submitted to the lnterim Science Council for their consideration.The Biofortifcation proposal has now successfully passed the review by the interim Science Council and was strongly recommended by the Executive Science Council for funding. USAID has already funded a CIA T pro posa] on \"Breeding micronutrient-dense, high iron and zinc beans to combat micronutrient deficiency and anemia in Latín America and Africa.\"One of the objectives of the cassava molecular diversity network (MOLCAS) is to make available to cassava researchers every w here results of the molecular characterization of cassava genetic diversity. With the completion of the Peruvian, Nigerian and Tanzanian study, a database was constructed in Oracle to accommodate the results ofthe above and other studies. Data available for viewing include passport data of the accession, raw SSR gel data, allele sizes, SSR locus information, parameters of genetic diversity and differentiation and principal component analysis (PCA) of genetic distances. The data base will be updated as other country studies become available.The data-base is organized according to country studies, the Peruvian, Tanzanian and Nigerian country studies are the available ones at the moment. The fJist page of each country study has links to raw marker data namely, allele sizes per accession and genome location of the marker, where available (Fig 1). Other links are intra-population estimates of genetic diversity, gel images of individual markers and appendixes of additional information from the country study (Fig 1). The URL for the data base is: http://newwebciat/yuca/Molcas/index.htm. Since the inception of the data-base in June, average monthly hits for the fJist three months averaged 2500 hits per month (Table 2). The high number ofvisits to the site confJims the importance ofthe MOLCAS data-base for the cassava community. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a major food crop in the tropics, feeds about 500 million people throughout the world (Restrepo et al., 1999). The appli cation of molecular genetic analys is to the improvement of the cassava crop has been limited as compared to other crops. The construction of EST (Expressed Sequences Tags) databases and DNA microarrays provides powerful strateg ies for investigating diverse conditions in cassava s uch as disease resistance and defense responses, starch content and postharvest deterioration. This study refers to the implementation of a database containing functional categories of ESTs and their application in the construction of cDNA microarrays for analyzing plant-pathogen interactions and the study of differences in starch content of different cassava varieties. The plant-pathogen interaction studied corresponded to the cassava-Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam) pathosystem .The objectives of this study were to:Evaluate and identifY expression pattems in volved in the defense response of M esculenla to Xam through the constructio n of an EST data base and specific DNA microarrays of cassava. Evaluate and identify differences in starch content from two cassava varieties through the construction of an EST database and specific DNA microarrays of cassava. Contribute to the construction of a DNA chip ofthe Euphorbiaceae fami ly.EST databa.s•e construction. ESTs of M esculenla were obtained from NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Jnformation), EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) and a ljbrary constructed at CIA T (Project SB-02: Assessing and u ti liz ing agrobiodivers ity through biotechnology) and sequenced at the Université de Perpignan. A putative function was assigned to each sequence based on simi larity to sequences of known genes. The BLASTn and BLASTx algorithms were used to query the NCBI. The highest expectation values (E values < ! x 10\" 4 ) were retrieved for each sequence.Sample prepara/ion and cDNA synthesis. Two cv. (M Bra 685 and SG 107-35) were evaluated for differential gene expression over time after inoculation with Xam isolate C IO 151. Four-week-old plants ofthese cultivars were inoculated by leafand stem puncture, respectively. Stem tissues were collected at 6, 12, 48, and 72 h postinoculation (pi), and 7 days pi. The controls were healthy noninoculated plants and plants inoculated w ith sterile water. The tissue was preserved in liquid nitrogen, and total RNA was isolated using the Proteinase K method (Hall, 1978). Poly (A) RNA was isolated using Oligotex mRNA Midi kit (QIAGEN, CA). cONA was synthesized, using a SMART™ PCR cDNA synthesis kit (CLONTECH, CA) from 400-500 ng of mRNA as starting material.Technology may be considered part of the development motor of society. It is therefore necessary that the general public be assisted to keep up with the pace of technological changes. CIA T has been considered as a promoter research site in the region. Taking care of that, many activities ha ve been developed to motívate knowledge diffusion, such as \"Biotechnology for not Biotechnologist'' and \"Open-House\" where people don 't were afraid to ask everything than they want to know about genetic transformation. Other activities have been developed to attend joumalist, police makers, business managers, universities, public and prívate schools, ONG and prívate industry among others, allow us demystify biotechnology. Styles (2002), consider that if biotechnology has a potential role in our society, scientist must be proactive in educating the general public.We_ consider that if people had good knowledge about how biotechnology is, they could take decísions and adopt more easily the changes. This will also involve educating the educators.A multidisciplinary working group was establishing to perceive how many biology teachers know about new technologies, biotechnology and his art-status. Sorne biological-sciences teachers were invited to attend a meeting at CIA T. They receive one day of basic biotech theory. Sorne themes were selected by research and teacher to include in practica) section. A basic manual was written to use as guidebook. Teacher reviews it and make suggestion about pedagogic form and how were the best form to present very pleased the information. A practica) guide for laboratory experimentation was developed. Science-biology teacher was invite to attend a practica! 2-day section. In the round-table they judge the activities. Conclusions and suggestion were take into consideration to adjust both manuals. Science teachers are irnplementing biotechnology lab activities and they are thinking to involve in normal currículum agenda.Teachers from public school had difficulties with its up dating, reading technical paper in English and lnternet access. Biological sciences are very challenging to teach in school, for that reason a relevant issue is that they could maintain access to technical support.[n sorne cases teachers consider that biotechnology is expensive technique. They do not consider that it' s allowed doing in his/her lab. Research has the information but teachers have the manner to facilitate this sort of learning by their students.A guídebook was under checking taking care of teacher's suggestion. A guidebook including cell and molecular biology themes such as cell division, tissue culture, DNA extraction, PCR and other molecular techniques and evolution among other topics were wrote.Manuals involve how could they build low cost equipment to implement the biotechnology activities suggested in its currículum. Educating our consumers will be invested for the future and they will be ready to accept challenges that technological progress present. Improve public relations is only one element of a strategic plant for the future, and education is one strand ofthe plan .Diffusion on biotech module will be with teacher-teacher interaction through CASD training implementation.When this module was implemented as normal course, a feedback meting will be plane to know how was the adoption.Cassava BAC library-Collaboration with Clemson UniversityClemson University constructed as part of a collaborative project funded by USAID, a BAC library for cassava using the clone MECU72. This clone carries resistance to the wh itefly pest Aleurothachellus socialis. The library contains 73,728 clones stored in 192 384-well microtiter plates. A random sampling of BACs indicated an average insert size of 93 kb. Based on a genome size of 760 Mb, library coverage is approximately 1 O haploid genome equivalents. 8oth whitefly resistance and ACMV will be targets for map-based cloning using the BAC libraries as tools. • From ten day old Brachiaria seedlings• From rice cv. IRA Tl3 infected with Pyricularia isolate CICA 9-31-4• From cassava leaves for PI-ID• From bean cv. G19833 for isolation ofTY1 copy retroelements• For microsatellite isolation in beans, Brachiaria and palms• For Oiversity Array Technology (DarT) in bean, cassava, Brachiaria and rice.\"Manejo de germoplasma local y aumento de la agrobiodiversidad de frijol y maiz con variedades biofortificadas para mejorar la nutricion en comunidades rurales y urbanas de Nariño\" Cuenta de las Americas. (submitted by FIDAR with CIA T).\"Mejoramiento de la nutrición humana en comunidades pobres de America Latina utilizando maiz (QPM) y frijol común biofortificado con micronutrientes\" proposal presented to Fontagro (IDB), to improve nutrition in rural and urban communitities in Colombia and Guatemala with NGO partners (submitted by FIDAR with CIA T).Desarrollo de gennoplasma mejorado de arroz con resistencia al añublo de la vaina causado por Rhizoctonia.Alternativas para introducir mayor valor agregado a la producción de arroz en Colombia-MADR-Colombia.","tokenCount":"90357"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3410c38dc2967fdef6a29c6142686895","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/21e4281b-5f4c-42fd-a175-8d9b7762a1d5/retrieve","id":"424258170"},"keywords":["soil organic matter","soil organic carbon","measurement","monitoring","reporting","verification","MRV"],"sieverID":"0642889b-cee6-46dc-aff4-da9b481fe073","pagecount":"56","content":"How to measure, report and verify soil carbon change to realise the potential of soil carbon sequestration for atmospheric greenhouse gas removalThe International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) believes that open access contributes to its mission of reducing hunger and poverty, and improving human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.CIAT is committed to creating and sharing knowledge and information openly and globally. We do this through collaborative research as well as through the open sharing of our data, tools, and publications.Soil organic carbon (SOC) represents a stock of around 1500 -2400 Gt C (~5500-8800 Gt CO 2 ) in the top metre of soils globally (Batjes et al., 1996;Sanderman et al., 2017). The lower estimate in the range is approximately three times the stock of carbon (C) in vegetation and twice the stock of C in the atmosphere (Smith, 2012). Small changes in C stocks can therefore have significant impacts on the atmosphere and climate change. Since the onset of agriculture around 8000 years ago (Ruddiman, 2005) soils have lost around 140-150 Gt C (~510-550 Gt CO 2 ; Sanderman et al., 2017) through cultivation. It is known that best management practices can restore some at least some of this lost carbon (Lal et al., 2018), so it has been suggested that soil C sequestration could be a significant greenhouse gas removal strategy (also called negative emission technology [NET], or carbon dioxide removal [CDR] option; Smith, 2016). Global estimates of soil C sequestration potential vary considerably, but a recent systematic review by Fuss et al. (2018) suggests an annual technical potential of 2-5 Gt CO 2 yr -1 . Estimates of economic potentials are at the lower end of this range (Smith et al., 2008;Smith, 2016).An incomplete understanding on how SOC changes are influenced by climate, land -use, management and edaphic factors (Stockmann et al., 2013), adds complexity to designing appropriate monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) platforms. For instance, process-level knowledge on how these variables influence changes in C stocks and fluxes remains incomplete (Bispo et al., 2017). Furthermore, the reversibility of C sequestration, when practices that retain C are not maintained, or due to climate variability or climate change, increases uncertainty in the time-frames needed to monitor SOC enhancement activities (Rumpel et al., 2019). In addition, the large background stocks, inherent spatial and temporal variability and slow soil C gains make the detection of short-term changes (e.g. 3-5 years) in SOC stocks and the design of reliable, cost effective and easy to apply MRV platforms challenging (Post et al., 1999).In 2012, Smith et al. (2012) described a framework, building on available models, datasets and knowledge, to quantify the impacts of land use and management change on soil carbon. That paper concluded by presenting a future vision for a global framework to assess soil carbon change, based on a combination of mathematical models, spatial data to drive the models, short-and long-term data to evaluate the models, and a network ofThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. benchmarking sites to verify estimated changes. Here we review the new knowledge since then, and further develop this vision in the light of the need to provide credible and robust MRV capabilities to support the growing International and National initiatives to increase SOC, such as the International \"4p1000\" initiative (Chabbi et al., 2017;Rumpel et al., 2018;Rumpel et al., 2019).We focus on methods to measure and/or estimate SOC change, but these measurement/estimation methods also form the basis of how changes in SOC can be monitored and reported at plot to national (and even global) scales, and how reported changes could be verified. We begin by reviewing the methods and challenges of measuring SOC change directly in soils (section 2), before examining some recent developments that show promise for quantifying SOC stocks (and therefore change) using flux measurements, non-destructive field-based spectroscopic methods and the possibility in future of estimating SOC change through earth observation / remote sensing (section 3).We then review how repeat soil surveys are used to estimate territorial changes in SOC over time (section 4), and how long-term experiments and space-for-time-substitution sites can serve as sources of knowledge and can be used to testing models, and as potential benchmark sites in global platforms to estimate SOC change (section 5). Section 6 summarises recent reviews on models available for simulating and predicting change in SOC, after which section 7 describes MRV platforms for soil organic carbon change already in use in various countries / regions. The finish the review (section 8) by describing a new vision for a global framework for MRV of soil organic carbon change to support national and international initiatives.Accurate estimates of SOC stocks rely strongly on baseline SOC values, which are determined by physical sampling and soil C content measurements. This approach traditionally involves the quantification of (1) fine earth (< 2 mm) and coarse mineral (> 2 mm) fractions of the soil, (2) organic carbon (OC) concentration (%) of the fine earth fraction, and (3) soil bulk density or fine earth mass (FAO, 2019a). In some instances, such as grasslands or forest soils, it may be of interest to quantify and account for the coarse fraction of belowground OC (FAO, 2019a). The challenge remains to accurately estimate the rock content of sampled soils, which can significantly affect soil bulk density (Page-Dumroese etThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. al., 1999;Throop et al., 2012;Poeplau et al., 2017). Changes in management that influence carbon content also affect the bulk density of the soil (Haynes & Naidu, 1998), and thereby the amount of soil that is sampled within a given sampling depth. It is therefore recommended to use an 'equivalent mass basis' approach when comparing SOC stocks across land uses and different management regimes (Ellert & Bettany, 1995;Wendt & Hauser, 2013;Upson et al., 2016).Direct measurements also rely on appropriate study designs and sampling protocols to deal with high spatial variability of SOC stocks (Minasny et al., 2017). To reduce potential sources of error in SOC stock estimation and minimize the minimum detectable difference (i.e. the smallest difference in SOC stock that can be detected as statistically significant between two sampling periods; FAO, 2019a), a large number of soil samples is often required (Garten & Wullschleger, 1999;Vanguelova et al., 2016;). Sufficient sampling depth is a crucial factor for properly evaluating changes in soil C content (IPCC recommends a minimum depth of 30 cm). Several long-term agronomy experiments suffer from an increase in ploughing depth during more recent decades, as agricultural machinery became more powerful. Insufficient information on historical sampling depth can also add uncertainty to the results.Several methods for increasing soil C content require deeper sampling for confirming the expected effect. The positive effect of no-till on soil C content measured in the surface soil may not be apparent when measuring to 60 cm depth (Angers and Eriksen-Hamel, 2008;Blanco-Canqui & Lal, 2008). Crops with deep root phenotypes are considered a promising method to increase C sequestration in soils (Paustian et al., 2016), though demonstrating their effect requires deep soil sampling. Deeper soil sampling (100 cm) is recommended (FAO, 2019a), but often requires specific machinery and is costly.Costs associated with collecting, processing and storing soil samples and C content measurements using, for example, common dry combustion methods (Nelson & Sommers, 1996) can make large-scale direct measurements of soil SOC stocks prohibitively expensive.It was estimated that to detect meaningful changes in soil C stocks across forest ecosystems in Finland (i.e. 3000 plots at the national scale) might cost 4 million Euro for one sampling campaign (e.g. baseline measurement from one year) and then again for the following sampling interval (e.g. 10 years later; Mäkipää et al., 2008). Thus, there is the need toThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. evaluate these costs against the value of soil C sequestered (Smith, 2004b;Mäkipää et al., 2008) and search for trade-offs between costs involved and alternative SOC estimation methods including different modelling approaches.A combination of direct measurements (at the plot scale) and modelling (at larger spatial scales) can greatly help defining the efficacy of different land management practices in enhancing soil C sequestration and has been used for estimating soil C change in national GHG inventory platforms (e.g. VandenBygaart et al., 2008). It is, therefore, crucial to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of measuring and sequestering C across different land uses and socio-economic conditions (Alexander et al., 2015).An alternative to repeated measurements, is to draw up a full carbon budget. This indirect approach accounts for the initial uptake of carbon through photosynthesis (Gross Primary Production), its subsequent partial losses through respiration (soil, plant and litter) to give net ecosystem exchange (NEE) or net ecosystem production, and further C inputs (organic fertilisation) and outputs (harvest) to and from the system (see Soussana et al., 2010 andSmith et al., 2010). Measurements of the net balance of C fluxes exchanged (i.e. estimating NEE) can be achieved by chamber measurements or by the eddy covariance method (EC, e.g. Baldocchi, 2003). During recent decades, estimates of C sequestration from flux measurements have been reported to be comparatively uncertain due to i) necessary assumptions associated with data processing (e.g. footprint, spectral corrections, i.e. Aubinet et al., 2012), the fact that ii) this method is a point-in-space measurement, and iii) net changes in soil C pools are relatively small compared to C stored in biomass and litter when measured over short time periods (i.e. < 5year).Despite this, recent developments in instrumentation (analyser performance and setups, e.g. Rebmann et al., 2018), data acquisition and processing (i.e. data loggers, software, QA/QC checks) have greatly improved the reliability of estimates (e.g. Fratini & Mauder 2014).Further, harmonized networks of long-term observation sites, created to provide access to standardised data, and to quantify the effectiveness of carbon sequestration and/or greenhouseThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. gases emission at European (Integrated Carbon Observation System, ICOS, Franz et al., 2018) and global scale (FLUXNET global network, e.g. Baldocchi et al., 2018; Figure 1), have greatly reduced uncertainties in flux and supplementary measurements. Moreover, ongoing analyses on peculiarities of flux measurement likely to increase uncertainties in flux measurements, such as integration of (moving) point sources i.e. grazing animals (Felber et al., 2015, Gourlez de la Motte et al., 2019), ditches (Nugent et al., 2018), and fallow periods, have been studied thoroughly and have allowed routine data analyses to be updated (e.g. Sabbatini et al., 2018).Concerning the comparison between C sequestration determined via the EC technique (i.e. full C balance) and soil C stock changes, some studies have shown poor agreement (Jones et al., 2017), but a number of studies have shown comparable estimates, when applied for time frames >10 year and with soil data including at least both top and medium soil depths (i.e. 0-60cm) (e.g. grassland: Leifeld et al., 2011;Skinner & Dell, 2014;Stahl et al., 2017, cropland: Emmel et al., 2018, Hofmann et al.2017;forest: Ferster et al., 2015). Coupling of eddy-covariance with soil C stock change studies has become a favoured approach to understand both short-and long-term effects of principal drivers (e.g. management, climate) on ecosystem functioning (i.e. Eugster & Merbold, 2015), in natura measurement and modelling approaches (e.g. Williams et al., 2009, Beer et al., 2010, Besnard et al., 2018).New spectral methods for measuring soil organic carbon concentration and stocks are rapidly becoming available for direct point measurements in-field and in the lab, but also for measurement of patterns at larger scales across landscapes and regions. Each comes with a specific associated accuracy and cost (Bellon-Maurel & McBratney, 2011;England & Viscarra Rossel, 2018). A smart combination of these and more traditional methods can either bring down costs (Nocita et al., 2015), provide more exhaustive spatial patterns of soil organic carbon stocks (Aitkenhead, 2017, Rosero-Vlasova et al., 2018) or provide indications for change in stocks (Li et al., 2018;Zhao et al., 2017).The methods for measuring soil organic carbon concentration mainly rely on the reflectance of light on soil in the infrared region. The organic bonds and minerals in the soil absorb light at specific wavelengths, resulting is a soil content-specific absorbance orThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. reflectance spectrum. This spectrum is measured with high level of spectral detail (hyperspectral, often in the lab) or limited level of detail in wider bands (multispectral, often from satellites or cheaper field instruments). Using a statistical model based on a spectral library, the soil carbon percentage can be predicted from spectral measurements of the unknown samples. The spectral library is derived from samples on which soil properties have been determined by traditional laboratory methods, such as dry combustion, alongside reflectance measurements. Relevant wavelengths for soil and soil organic carbon are mainly in the mid-(4000-600 cm -1 ) and the near-or short-wave infrared region (2000-2500 nm). Other key soil properties can also be simultaneously determined if present in the spectral libraries, including fractions of organic carbon and vulnerability of soil carbon to loss (Baldock et al., 2013(Baldock et al., , 2018)), soil texture, pH and others (Stenberg et al., 2010), which can be used inform modelling approaches. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) is a statistical method that is currently most widely-used to predict soil properties from spectra. These machine learning approaches (also e.g. Cubist, Random Forests, Support Vector (regression) Machines and others) are rapidly developing, and new techniques are becoming available, currently referred to as deep learning (Padarian et al., 2018) and Memory Based Learning (Ramirez-Lopez et al., 2013;Dangal et al., 2019). These techniques, such as Locally Weighted PLS Regression, use local calibrations based on spectrally similar subsets of a spectral library. This will likely lead to considerable improvement, reducing the prediction errors. This does not resolve the inherent laboratory measurement uncertainties associated with both reference and spectral data.Standardisation of reference laboratory methods, spectral measurements and soil data exchange to some extent negates these issues, and they are addressed in several international co-operations, one of which is Pillar 5 of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP, 2017). If standardisation and calibration transfer challenges can be solved, combining spectral libraries can provide a vast data resource for not only local, but also more regional and global SOC analyses (Viscarra Rossel et al., 2016a,b;England & Viscarra Rossel, 2018).Laboratory costs could be reduced by using Fourier-Transform mid-infrared (MIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for estimation of total carbon, organic carbon, clay content and sand fraction (Wijewardane et al., 2018;Viscarra Rossel et al., 2006). Several commercialThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. laboratories use near-infrared (NIR) for this purpose but once a sufficient spectral library or calibration set is compiled, MIR outperforms NIR (Reeves, 2010;Viscarra Rossel et al., 2006;Vohland et al., 2014). In such studies or applications, bigger libraries are spiked or sub-selected to build local (spectral or geographical) prediction models using machine learning techniques (Janik et al., 2007). Sample preparation is very simple (dry, sieve to <2 mm, fine grind (Soil Survey Staff, 2014) and after a library is built, the measurements are fast and inexpensive, and can assess all of the listed properties at the same time (Nocita et al., 2015).These spectral libraries can also be used to calibrate field spectrometers, although accuracy will often be lower, mostly due to moisture and surface roughness of the soil.Higher-cost in situ systems are available for both NIR and MIR (Dhawale et al., 2015;Hutengs et al., 2018). Alternatives are cheap in-field NIR spectrometers for point measurements (Tang et al., 2019) which tend to have low(er) accuracies due to hardware constraints and which may have bias. On-the-go systems with 2 to 5 wavelengths are on the market as well as penetrometers with VNIR, which also provide a measure for penetration resistance or compacted soil (Poggio et al., 2017;Ackerson et al., 2017;Al-Asadi & Mouazen, 2018;Wetterlind et al., 2015). A final possibility is a core sampler which measures the extracted soil core in field with VNIR and active gamma radiation for (total) bulk density (Lobsey & Viscarra Rossel, 2016).An important property for calculating soil organic carbon stocks is soil bulk density which is difficult to measure accurately in field (Bellon-Maurel & McBratney, 2011). A method used in a number of setups is gamma attenuation. This can be measured on the extracted soil core (Lobsey & Viscarra Rossel, 2016;England & Viscarra Rossel, 2018) or directly in the soil (Jacobs et al., 2009). With this technique the attenuation by matter of gamma radiation originating from a small radioactive source is measured over a known volume between source and detector. The matter in this case consists of both soil and moisture.The volume is simulated using Monte Carlo simulations. This provides a measure of dry bulk density after correction for moisture content as measured for instance with a TDR (Jacobs et al., 2009) or VNIR (Lobsey & Viscarra Rossel, 2016).The benefit of these techniques is the possibility to acquire more samples and/or more infield measurements, allowing a user to address the potential of carbon sequestration of theThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. soil adequately. Some of these techniques are most suitable for describing the spatial distribution of soil carbon, while others are suitable for quantitative estimates or monitoring (in time, allowing the impacts of management on soil carbon to be detected).Choices can be made based on cost and required accuracy of the purpose (value of information or decision analysis).At larger scales, remote sensing offers added possibilities. This can either be by relating UAV, airplane or satellite data directly to soil properties, or by inferring changes in SOC by vegetation changes, or by using remote imagery as a covariate in digital soil mapping of SOC. Direct interpretation can be performed on hyperspectral imagery in combination with spectral libraries for direct quantification of bare soil patterns (top 1 cm) (Jaber et al., 2011;Gomez et al., 2012), or by using multivariate imagery for mapping bare soil patterns as indication of SOC or soil class differences either using raw or enhanced imagery such as by multi-temporal composites (Rogge et al., 2018;Gallo et al., 2018).Changes in vegetation patterns visible in remote imagery can be used to detect (changes in) land use and thus infer soil properties and SOC change. Analysis of land use change, net primary productivity and soil organic carbon stocks are instrumental for id entifying hotspots of SOC sequestration potential (Caspari et al., 2015;van der Esch et al., 2017).The third option is to use satellite imagery products as covariates in digital soil mapping, where the relation between soil properties and satellite information is used to predict SOC maps at various depths using point observations and satellite imagery products (McBratney et al., 2003;Minasny & McBratney, 2016;Hengl et al., 2017).Remote sensing offers a range of possibilities, detail and spatial scales that are not feasible with point measurements alone (Mulder et al., 2011;Ge et al., 2011). That said, a combination of remote and in situ or point data will remain necessary to derive high resolution and accurate SOC maps. Apart from the limited penetration depth (top 1 cm while a soil profile would be desirable), this is also due to the fact that in many regions bare soil is never visible, or areas are too often covered in clouds. At the same time, the high temporal frequency and high spatial resolution of remote imagery offers an unprecedented possibility to study and monitor space-time dynamics of SOC change if used in combination with (long term) monitoring stations (Chabrillat et al., 2019).This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Repeat soil sampling programmes have been conducted in a number of countries, such as England and Wales (Bellamy et al., 2005;Kirkby et al., 2005), Denmark (Heidmann et al., 2002;Taghizadeh-Toosi et al., 2014a), Belgium (Sleutel et al., 2003) and New Zealand (Schipper et al., 2014see below). These rely on resampling of previously sampled locations after varying periods. Advantages are that repeats sampling schemes measure actual soil carbon contents over large spatial scales and over long periods (Bellamy et al., 2005), but the main disadvantage is that land use change and land management between sampling periods are mostly unknown, making attribution of any observed changes in soil carbon to specific drivers (such as management or climate change) very difficult (Smith et al., 2007). In some cases, records of land use and management have been available allowing the effect of management changes to be assessed for better verification of modelling approaches to quantifying SOC stock changes (Taghizadeh-Toosi et al., 2014a).Resampling of soil survey sites originally sampled in the 1970-1990s in New Zealand has played an important role in identifying changes in soil carbon stocks in grazed pastures (Schipper et al., 2014). The difficulty with these historical resampling efforts was that sites were not chosen with national survey purposes in mind, so their representativeness was questionable. Additionally, sampling efforts were not carried out uniformly over space and time, so resampling was potentially confounded by the effects of soil type, climate, and other factors. However, these data have been central to development and subsequent implementation of more robust sampling designs of grazed lands. Alongside resampling of sites impacts of management practices on carbon stock have been explored through sampling of adjacent long-term management practices (e.g., Barnett et al., 2014;Mudge et al., 2017).In the case of Europe, differences exist in the availability of soil surveys among countries.As highlighted in the final report of the ENVASSO project, soil monitoring networks are much denser in northern and eastern European countries compared with count ries located in the southern part of the continent (Kibblewhite et al., 2008). For example, countries such as France, Sweden or Poland maintain systematic soil monitoring systems at national level with different density of monitoring sites and sampling frequencies. In the case of France, different soil monitoring system levels exist which operates to either forest andThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.non-forest areas. The Soil Quality Monitoring Network was created 20 years ago for nonforested areas, covering the main land uses in France in a 16 x 16 km grid (King et al., 2005). Similarly, in Sweden, soil monitoring is performed at two geographical levels (national and regional) and with different levels of application: forest land, integrated monitoring (areas with minor impact of forest management), intensive monitoring plots (223 forest plots) and arable land monitoring (Olsson, 2005). Poland has also different soil monitoring systems for forest and cropland soils. For the case of croplands, monitoring soils started in 1994 and since then soils have been sampled every 8 years with different soils properties measured (Bialousz et al., 2005). In Denmark, soils are sampled every 8-10 years to 1-meter depth on a regular 7-km grid covering both agricultural and forest soils (Taghizadeh-Toosi et al., 2014a).In contrast, EU Mediterranean countries as Italy, Spain or Greece are examples of European regions where systematic national soil monitoring systems are under-developed or non-existent, despite the risks of SOC losses, and soil erosion events resulting from a combination of crop management and regional impacts of climate change (Trnka et al., 2011). For example, in the case of Italy, there is no monitoring system but there is willingness to develop it. In Spain, over the last 20 years, two independent soil national inventories have been performed; one to assess soil erosion and the other to asses soil heavy metal pollution (Ibañez et al., 2005). However, the inventories have not been linked and there is no firm schedule for future resampling yet in place.Since changes in bulk soil carbon occur slowly (Smith, 2004a), long term measurements are required to show the relatively small change against the large background carbon stock. To this ends, long-term field experiments exist in various parts of the world, with some dating from the 19th century. Though many of these experiments were originally set up to examine the effects of management (often fertilization) on crop or grass yield, many have a history of measurements of soil carbon and nitrogen change. Over recent decades, results from these field experiments have been central to testing the accuracy of models of turnover of soil organic carbon. As noted by Smith et al. (2012), the long-term experiments in various parts of the world existed largely in isolation of each other, but in the 1990s, there were attempts to bring the various experiments together into shared networks (Barnett et al., 1995), with twoThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. such networks focussing on soil C; the Soil Organic Matter Network (SOMNET) and EuroSOMNET (the more-detailed European component of the larger global network) were two attempts to couple soil organic carbon models with observations from long-term experiments (Smith et al., 1997), with the aims or both testing models and the sharing, comparing and use of data from across the experiments to estimate carbon sequestration potential (Smith et al., 2000). SOMNET later evolved into an on-line, real-time inventory project with a web-site known as LTSEs, Long-Term Soil-Ecosystems Experiments, which now has collected metadata on well over 200 long-term soil experiments Richter et al. (2007), with the metadata currently hosted by the International Soil Carbon Network (iscn.fluxdata.org/partner-networks/long-term-soil-experiments/). Smith et al. (2012) showed the locations and purpose of these long-term experiments. Most (>80%) of the world's longterm field studies address agricultural research questions, and most of the field studies test agricultural questions in the temperate zone. Non-agricultural sites and experiments in the bioclimatic zones other than the temperate region are under-represented (Smith et al., 2012).Long-term field studies have proved extremely valuable for understanding the long-term dynamics of soil organic carbon and wider issues of soil sustainability (Richter et al., 2007).In terms of monitoring, reporting and verification, the long-term experiments serve as a) a long-term record of change, b) a testbed for soil organic carbon models, c) locations where new practices could be tested and measured and d) sites where shorter term (e.g. flux measurements) could be taken to better understand shorter term processes. Such experiments could therefore form vital components of national and international monitoring, reporting and verification platforms for soil organic carbon change. Existing long-term monitoring sites are extremely valuable but do not exist in every global region, making a compelling case for starting new long-term experimental / monitoring sites in under-represented regions.The soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics can be described by different mathematical formulations (Parton et al., 2015), as presented in Table 1, and different model approaches (Manzoni & Porporato, 2009;Campbell & Paustian, 2015). Most common soil organic matter (SOM) models are compartment models, which use between two and five carbon pools (Falloon & Smith, 2000). While the stability and complexity of the organic compounds is not represented explicitly in models, it is represented by varying turnoverThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. and residence times of organic carbon in different carbon pools (Stockmann et al., 2013).The residence times are controlled by the decay rate of the carbon in the different pools, which is usually described by first order kinetics (e.g. Paustian, 1994;Falloon & Smith, 2000;Parton et al., 2015). A wide range of different models show this structure, either as independent SOM model or as part of an ecosystem model, dynamic vegetation model or a general circulation model (Ostle et al., 2009;Parton et al., 2015;Campbell & Paustian, 2015). Manzoni & Porporato (2009) identified about 250 different models, but there are still new developments, as there are still unresolved challenges.Despite the development of different approaches that allow the measurement of different carbon pools in the models (e.g. Skjemstad et al., 2004;Zimmermann et al., 2007;Janik et al., 2007), SOC pools are often still initialised in a spin-up run (Nemo et al., 2017). This is a practical approach if information about the fractionation is not available, but it relies on ideal assumptions of equilibrium (Smith et al., 2002) which impacts the results (Bruun & Jensen, 2002). Further, the residence times of most pools exceed the duration of available measurements, which makes the calibration and validation of the models difficult (Falloon & Smith, 2000;Campbell & Paustian, 2015). Additionally, not all relevant processes (e.g. priming) are represented in the models (Wutzler & Reichstein, 2013;Guenet et al., 2016).Recently, there has been a discussion about the ability of existing models to reflect changes in temperature (Conant et al., 2011;Moyano et al., 2018), which is most relevant to simulate climate change impacts (Conant et al., 2011). In short, it is not clear, if the slower, more stable pools get differently affected by temperature changes (e.g. Conant et al., 2011;Campbell and Paustian, 2015). For these and other purposes there are an increasing number of new model approaches and hypotheses (e.g. Cotrufo et al., 2013;Wieder et al., 2013;Lehmann and Kleber, 2015;Wutzler et al., 2017). Therefore, longterm data sets (section 5) are needed to test the performance of the established and the new models.Many operational SOC models only simulate turnover and decomposition of the SOC pools and the added organic carbon (Toudert et al., 2018). These models thus rely heavy on proper estimation of carbon inputs in residues and organic amendments (manure, compost etc.) as well as on information on the biological quality of these inputs. Most modelling approaches used for inventory purposes rely on input data from harvest residues or decaying plant parts and external organic amendments. The plant C inputs are mostlyThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. derived from measured agricultural yields using simple allometric equations, where the C inputs is related linearly or non-linearly to crop yield (Keel et al., 2017). Comparison of different published approaches of estimating C input, but using the same decomposition model, have demonstrated large uncertainties in simulated changes in SOC (Keel et al., 2017). The selection of allometric functions for estimating C input is therefore a critical step in the choice of model approach. Recent research has also questioned the appropriateness of using simple allometric functions such as fixed shoot:root ratios for estimating C input (e.g. Hu et al., 2018). Rather than assuming a fixed shoot:root ratio, using a fixed amount of belowground C input depending on site and crop may provide the most robust estimate (Taghizadeh-Toosi et al., 2016, Hirte et al., 2018). This has implications for modelling application where changes in crop productivity is a main driver of C inputs.A number of greenhouse gas emission and soil carbon change quantification schemes have been developed in various parts of the world. For example, the Australian Carbon Farming Initiative/ Emission reduction fund has guidance relating to sampling and measurement of SOC and estimating and reporting SOC stock change for SOC management projects (Australian Government, 2018). In Alberta in Canada, there is a Conservation Cropping Protocol, a tool used to quantify greenhouse gas emissions reductions from conservation cropping (Alberta Government, 2012). For certain production systems (e.g. livestock production), FAO has published guidance on measuring and modelling soil carbon stocks and stock changes (FAO, 2019a). In this section, we examine methods already in use in countries participating in the Global Research Alliance of Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA).We first searched the GRA publications library 1 for operational soil MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) systems/procedures, giving limited results (e.g., Minamikawa et al., 2018). Subsequently, we searched the Web-of-Science using \"((soil AND carbon) OR 1 https://globalresearchalliance.org/publication-library/This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. soc) AND ((monitoring OR reporting OR verification) OR mrv)\", giving 91 potential sources. Adding the GRA country names (56 as of October 2018) to the initial search reduced this to 14 papers. These studies cover parts of a country (McHenry 2009;Nerger et al., 2017;Steinmann et al., 2016;Wilson et al., 2010), consider selected agro-ecosystems or agricultural practices (Allen et al., 2010;de Gruijter et al., 2016;McHenry 2009;Scott et al., 2002;Wu et al., 2010), outline the basis for a possible national soil monitoring system (Spencer et al., 2011;Visschers et al., 2007), were discontinued due to lack of funding (Goidts et al., 2009;Taghizadeh-Toosi et al., 2014;Yagasaki & Shirato 2014) or, alternatively, concern measurement systems that are in their first (Mäkipää et al., 2002;Nijbroek et al., 2018) or second round (Orgiazzi et al., 2018;Spencer et al., 2011).Much early work has been done in Australia (McKenzie et al., 2002), and in 2014 the Australian Government approved the first methodology for soil carbon sequestration for use at farm level (de Gruijter et al., 2016); recommended procedures of stratification and sampling, however, may vary between countries (e.g. Australia and New Zealand, see Malone et al., 2018). Overall, a lack of common procedures between (and within) countries affects the suitability of using the SOC stock as absolute indicator for monitoring changes in land quality and soil degradation, for example in relation to the SDG monitoring framework (Sims et al., 2019). Earlier reviews (Batjes & van Wesemael 2015;de Brogniez et al., 2011;Lorenz et al., 2019) also indicated that basic soil data and SOC stock change monitoring systems are not available, or inconsistent (Jandl et al., 2014), for many regions and nations.Within the GRA and the CGIAR CCAFS programme, the initial focus has been on MRV resources for the livestock sector (Wilkes et al., 2017).There are three main approaches (experimental field-trials, chronosequence studies or pairedland use comparisons, and monitoring networks) to determine relationships between environmental and management factors, and SOC dynamics and GHG emissions (Batjes & van Wesemael 2015;McKenzie et al., 2002;Morvan et al., 2008;Spencer et al., 2011) or changes in soil quality/health (Bai et al., 2018;Leeuwen et al., 2017). An overview of longterm terrestrial soil-experiments (LTEs) is maintained by the International Soil Carbon Network, including those from a European Network of long-term studies for soil organic matter (SOMNET, Powlson et al., 1998). Examples of chronosequence studies include those carried out in Brazil (Cerri et al., 2007;de Moraes Sá et al., 2009), Ethiopia (Lemenih et al., 2005) and China (He et al., 2009), while paired-land use comparisons have been reviewed by various researchers (Bai et al., 2018;Murphy et al., 2003;Oliver et al., 2004).This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Following up from the review of European soil monitoring networks (Morvan et al., 2008), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission launched an initiative to sample the topsoil at 22,000 points of the Land Use/Cover Area Survey (LUCAS project, see Montanarella et al., 2011). The first soil sampling round ( 2009), based on standard sampling and analytical procedures, followed a stratified sampling design to produce representative soil samples for major landforms and types of land cover of the participating countries. A new LUCAS sampling round is presently underway, providing the basis for a longer-term monitoring system (Orgiazzi et al., 2018). Similarly, for the USA, Spencer et al. (2011) discuss the design of a national soil monitoring network for carbon on agricultural lands, including determination of sample size, allocation, and site-scale plot design. Teng et al., (2014) indicated that for accurate soil monitoring in China, it will be necessary to set up routine monitoring systems at various scales (national, provincial, and local scales), taking into consideration monitoring indicators and quality assurance.Table 2 serves to illustrate the diversity in soil monitoring networks and sample designs in selected GRA countries. The most common sampling design for networks aimed at monitoring regional/national SOC stocks is either stratified (according to soil/land use/climate) or grid based. Large countries with a low sampling density (<1 site per 100 km²) generally adopt a stratified design to include all important units (van Wesemael et al., 2011).The (expected) variability within these units should be determined to assess the optimal number of samples for each stratum (Brus & de Gruijter 1997;De Gruijter et al., 2006;Louis et al., 2014). Such an approach will allow a (geo)statistical analysis of SOC stock changes for the soil/land use/climate units under consideration as an alternative or test for process-based models. Continuous soil monitoring for SOC at time intervals of 10 year is often proposed as a compromise between minimum detectability of changes (Garten & Wullschleger 1999), and temporal shifts in trends (Bellamy et al., 2005;Schrumpf et al., 2011;Steinmann et al., 2016). This may be longer than the duration of many land use management projects that involve the measurement of SOC stock changes (Milne et al., 2012).New Zealand has developed a model-based approach (Tate et al., 2005;McNeill et al., 2014) to track SOC stock changes with time assuming that SOC stock values vary by soil type, climate and land-use, and that the key driver for long-term (decadal) changes in SOC stocks are due to changes in land use, with all other changes due to soil, climate or erosionThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. assumed constant. This country-specific (Tier 2) empirical method was initially described in (Tate et al., 2005) reflecting land-use change issues relevant to New Zealand. As further soil profile data was collected (currently 2050 profiles) the model was increasing improved (McNeill et al., 2014) adding data from specific land use classes (notably indigenous and exotic forest, cropland, horticulture, and wetlands). The approach was also refined to account for spatial autocorrelation to improve the assessment of the overall significance of land use change and reports three validation studies for the model (McNeill et al., 2014). Using low-producing grassland on a high-activity clay IPCC default soil and moist-temperate IPCC default climate class as a reference, the 0-30 cm SOC stock is 133.1 tonnes/ha, the change as a result of land use can be determined, along with the marginal significance. For example, a transition to high-producing grassland results in a change of -0.22 tonnes/ha (not significant), while a transition to perennial cropland results in a change of -19.5 tonnes/ha (significant).While changes in national or large regional scale carbon stock measurements can be addressed using geo-statistical sampling approaches, aligned targeted approaches (such as sampling of chronosequences and paired land uses) can directly determine land use change factors, while controlling for other spatially dependent variables, i.e. they can determine the carbon gain/loss that will occur with a change in land use or management. When coupled with monitored changes in land area undergoing these changes, estimates of national scale carbon stock changes can be calculated. The change in carbons stocks determined from paired site sampling can also be used to validate interpretations derived from national scale measurements.All countries that are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are required to provide national inventories of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases due to human activities. The IPCC methodologies are intended to yield national greenhouse gas inventories that are transparent, complete, accurate, consistent over time, and comparable across countries. Because different countries have different capacitiesThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.to produce inventories, the guidelines lay out tiers of methods for each emissions source, with higher tiers being more complex and/or resource intensive than lower tiers. In the context of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, inventories remain the main tool connecting policy with mitigation.Figure 2 shows the categories of methods used by GRA countries for estimating the changes in mineral soil carbon stock for the \"Cropland remaining Cropland\" category. Countries listed as non-annex I face major challenges with either non-existent data (15 countries do not have country specific information they can use to develop their inventory and 8 countries do not consider for SOC changes in croplands because do not have the technical capacity to monitor these sources) or a lack of relevant data (with the exception of Ghana and Malaysia) GRA non-annex I countries use a Tier 1 approach to report SOC changes associated with areas defined as Cropland land use.On the other hand, soil C stocks are influenced by multiple factors that affect primary production and decomposition, including changes in land use and management and feedbacks between management activities, climate, and soils. However, only a few countries have taken into account cropland management activities. Table 3 provides an overview of the methods used in GRA countries for estimating carbon stock change and emissions associated with agricultural land-use and management activities on mineral soil.There are still high levels of uncertainty in the estimates; however, uncertainties are relatively low for Annex I countries due to their well-developed statistical systems and capacity to use higher-tier methods. In contrast, national inventories of many developing countries generally have greater uncertainty and are not sufficiently rigorous to enable monitoring of emissions.For Tier 2 inventory development countries could use the expertise of other GRA members, for instance from those countries that have adopted a Tier 3 method (see Table 4) to estimate soil organic C stock changes in agricultural land.With increased obligations for reporting on GHG emissions and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris agreement, it is important that all countries are able to estimate their GHG emissions to maximise transparency, accuracy, completeness and consistency. Improving inventories requires enhanced national capability to gather relevant activity data to develop country-specific emission factors. There is a need to improve the evidence base and to better connect governments and relevant expertise toThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.subsequently improve the quality of agricultural NDC's and the way their achievements are reflected by national GHG inventories.The sections above describe the methods available to measure and monitor carbon, models that can be used to simulate and project changes in SOC, different types of experimental platform and data needed to test models and allow them to be run from plot to global scale, and methods / platforms that could be used to verify any simulated change in SOC (summarised in Figure 3). These form the components of a system suitable for MRV of SOC change (Figure 3). Central to the system are benchmark sites, which could be located at existing or new longterm experiments (Figure 3, item 2; Richter et al., 2007), or could consist of wellcharacterised chronosequences or paired sampling sites (e.g. He et al., 2009;Oliver et al., 2004). The benchmark sites would preferably be located on representative land cover/ land use types, soil types and with representative management. At these sites, proposed practices to increase SOC could be tested in fully randomised block designs, and SOC change measured over time (measurements every few years), while measuring shorter-term processes (such as greenhouse gas emissions) more frequently (continuously with eddy covariance flux towers or frequently with automated chambers; Figure 3, item 2; Baldocchi, 2003). The same sites could be used to test novel spectral methods for measuring SOC change against traditional direct SOC measurement (England and Viscarra Rossel, 2018). Careful alignment of site selection and experimental design with other goals of land owners, managers and regulators (e.g., quantification of soil quality change or nutrient use efficiency) will promote stronger uptake of an international suite of benchmark sites with additional benefits.Since it would be prohibitively expensive to set up benchmark sites covering all possible combinations of land use, climate, soil type and management practice, models of SOC change are required to interpolate and infer change across all combinations, and to project changes into the future, across landscapes and under novel combinations (Figure 3, item 3; e.g. Richards et al., 2017). To establish confidence that the chosen model or models are capable of accurately and reliably simulating SOC change, they need to be tested acrossThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. the full range of parameter space (i.e. multiple soils types, climate zones, land use types and soil management options; Smith et al., 1997;Erhardt et al., 2018). If necessary, the models can be further developed or parameterised using data from the same long -term experiments, of from shorter-term experiments, before being evaluated again against a dataset not used in development or parameterisation (Smith & Smith, 2007).When the model(s) are deemed to be reliable, they could be applied a) to derive IPCC tier 2 emission or SOC stock change factors, which are specific to the region and conditions represented within the region (e.g. Begum et al., 2018), or b) spatially over the whole landscape (or the entire land area of a country) using spatial databases of soil characteristics, and land cover, management and climate data (Figure 3, item 4), to directly simulate SOC change and GHG emissions, thereby delivering a tier 3 methodology to report emissions (Smith et al., 2012). Data on changes in soil management are necessary for estimating changes in SOC/GHG emissions, and this could also be provided by selfreported or farm-survey-derived activity data (Figure 3, item 5).If self-reported activity data is used as the primary mechanism for reporting, such activity data could be verified through spot checks / farm visits or could be done using remote sensing (Figure 3, item 7), which can show, e.g. presence of bare fallow, cover crop or residue retention; Rogge et al., 2018;Gallo et al., 2018). In addition to providing a mechanism for verification of activity data, remotely-sensed earth observation products could also provide spatial data to run the SOC / GHG models. For example, earth observation can be used to estimate changes in carbon input to soils, through changes in NPP/GPP (Chen et al., 2019;Neumann & Smith, 2018), land degradation (Sims et al., 2019), and can also be used to determine land cover / land cover change (e.g. Chen et al., 2018).Well-calibrated models, supported by measurements, can also be used to establish relationships between a management change in a particular situation (combination or soil, climate, land use and management) and a change in SOC / GHG emissions, including estimates of uncertainty (Fitton et al., 2017). This would allow activity data (Figure 3, item 5), self-reported by the farmer / land manager, to be used as the primary source of data for reporting, in place of the need to directly measure SOC of GHG emission changeThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. (Smith, 2004b). More broadly, uncertainties and potential biases in all components of the MRV framework, including all measurements and modelling schemes, need to be addressed.For transparency, there is a need for unified protocols for such uncertainty assessments.In terms of verification, change in SOC stocks, spatial soil monitoring networks (Figure 3, item 6) could be used to ground-truth SOC changes estimated by the tier 2 method or tier 3 model projections over time. If resampled every few years, the soil monitoring network (on a grid as shown in figure 3 item 7, e.g. Bellamy et al., 2005, or using a stratified sampling protocol; Montanarella et al., 2011) could provide independent estimates of large scale SOC change. Some basic methodological requirements and recommendations can be formulated for 'good SOC-monitoring and MRV practice' to support scientific and policy decisions (Batjes & van Wesemael 2015;Desaules et al., 2010;Morvan et al., 2008;Spencer et al., 2011). These include: (1) the provision of long-term continuity and consistency under changing boundary conditions, such as biophysical site conditions, climate change, methodologies, socio-economic setting and policy context, (2) adoption of a scientifically and politically (e.g., for GRA, UNFCCC, UNNCCD) appropriate spatial and temporal resolution for the measurements, (3) ensuring continuous quality assurance at all stages of the measurement and monitoring process, (4) measurement / observation and documentation of all potential drivers of SOC and GHG change, and (5) soil monitoring network-collated, georeferenced samples archived and the associated (harmonised) data made accessible through distributed databases to enhance the value of the collated data for multiple uses. In addition to this, soil monitoring networks should be included in a broader cross-method validation programme to ultimately permit spatially and temporally validated comparisons both within and between countries. An open-access database, where short-or long-term soil C measurements could be uploaded and shared (e.g. https://dataverse.org/ or an online collaborative platform as used in the CIRCASA project: https://www.circasa-project.eu/), would also be of great benefit for progressing a global MRV system.As indicated, the implementation of soil monitoring networks poses several scientific, technical and operational challenges. From an operational point of view, to implement an integrated monitoring system it will be crucial to overcome initialization costs and unequal access to monitoring technologies. For developing countries, this will require international cooperation, capacity building and technology transfer (de Brogniez et al., 2011), which could be facilitated within GRA, CCAFS and similar organisations, in synergy with relevantThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. funding mechanisms, or via the recently-established \"Global assessment of soil organic carbon sequestration potential (GSOCseq)\" programme of the UN FAO (FAO, 2019b).While other components of a soil MRV framework could be added, the components outlined in Figure 3 could certainly fulfil all of the functions necessary for an MRV system. As seen in sections 4 to 7, the existing capacity in terms of existing benchmark sites, soil monitoring programmes and access to models in different countries varies greatly. While some countries are already using tier 2 and 3 monitoring of soil C change, others have barely begun to build capacity. Recently, the UN FAO has established a programme called \"Global assessment of soil organic carbon sequestration potential (GSOCseq)\" (FAO, 2019b) which aims to build this capacity internationally. Programmes such as this, could pave the way for making this proposed MRV framework a reality.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.   This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Table 1. List of different functions to simulate the decomposition in models following the discussion of Parton et al. (2015). The publications listed refer to the example models. The abbreviations describe the carbon (C) at the start (C 0 ) and at a certain time (t) step (C t ), the decomposition rate (k), the Michaelis-Menten constant (K m ) and the maximum reaction velocity for the process (V m ), the carbon demand by the microbes (X 0 ), the Monod constant (K t max ). The graphs show C t in a time series for one set of arbitrary parameters.   ","tokenCount":"8214"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"267c3740186a138c442eedcd58bf1e93","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H_9239i.pdf","id":"686507587"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fcacfb01-947d-4f13-bc12-0f8c90c002fd","pagecount":"98","content":"vii * IIMI Sample Survey. 1995. ' * Numbcn 1-9 refer to the n i n operational farm size categories. * llM1 Sample Survey. 1995. ** Numbers 1-9 refer to the nine operational farm size categories ' c 9 Title ;alinity Management Alternatives for the Rechna Doeb, 'unjab, Pakistan lolume One: Implications and Recommendations for Sustainable lrriaated Aariculture bport No.Table 5 Table 6 Table  Table 9 Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14 Table 15 J.     Table 23  : i Table Table Table Table Table Table Table 30 Table 31 Table 32 Measures of Inefficiency in Total Land Use for the Rechna Doab ..    Table 40 Table 41 Table 42 Table 43 Potential Increments in Area Under Major Crops in the Districts         In the Rechna Doab, the problem of land utilization has two aspects viz., the level of utilization of cultivable area (i.e. the proportion of cultivable area actually cultivated), and the intensity with which the cultivated area is being utilized. Intensity of cultivation can be defined at least in two ways: the number of times the cultivated area is cropped within a year; and the level of application of current or complementary inputs, such as labor, fertilizer, manure, irrigation, etc. Across the Rechna Doab, the level of agricultural production depends primarily on how well the almost irrelaxable constraint of agricultural land is utilized. In this context it becomes important to identifl the economic factors responsible for under-utilization of land input. The following discussion in this Section describes the historical trends (as reported in the government censuses) towards the utilization and optimization of land and other resources impacting the overall productivity of the irrigated agricultnire within the doab.A.Resource Use at the FarmTables 1 and 2 capture the temporal variations in th number of farms and are operated by different farm categories witlih the Rechna Doab. The number of small farmers (owning less than 2.0 ha) were 49 percent in 1960 and decreased to about 47 percent of the total number of land owners in 1990. Also, 47 percent of small farms owned only 14 percent of the farm area in the 1990s. The mid-size farmers (owning land from 2 to less than 10 ha) made up 48 percent and owned 58 percent of the land in the 1990s. The large farms (owning land 10 ha and above) composed about 5 percent of the total but possessed 28 percent of the total land area in 1990 (Govt. of Pakistan, 1994). Tables 1 and 2  . of IIMI's sampling effort in 1995 whereby, across 443 farms, about 10 percent of the small .   Cultivated AreaThere exists an inverse relationship between the cultivated area and the problem of waterlogging and salinity. The temporal changes in total cultivated area in the Rechna Doab indicate a decrease in the area under cultivation by about 0.052 Mha from 1960 to 1990 within the Rechna Doab (Table 3). The proportion of cultivated area (CAT) to total farm area (FAT) was higher on small farms and gradually decreased as farm size increased.Similar results were obtained from IIMI's sample survey of 1995 whereby on the small, medium and the large farms, the proportion of cultivated to the total farm area was 90 percent, 88 percent and 85 percent, respectively.Land tenure plays a vital role in the formulation of a long term strategy to combat the problem of the waterlogging and salinity. The census data in Table 1 shows that the total number of farms decreased from 0.81 million in 1960 to 0.75 million in 1990. Internal to this decrease in the number of farms is the change in the composition of the farm holdings.From Table 4, the ratio of small-owner farms increased from 39 percent in 1972 to 56 percent in 1990. This incease has occurred at the expense of the medium and large land holdings that have decreased by 11 and 5 percent, respectively, since 1972. The percentage of owner-cum-tenant farms has increased for small farms from 13 percent in 1972 to 21 percent in 1990, but the percentage of both medium and large farms has decreased from 77 and 10 percent, respectively, in 1972, to 71 and 8 percent in 1990.In 1972 about 22 percent of the small farms fell into the category of tenant farms; these farms increased to 39 percent in 1990. The proportion of medium-tenant farms decreased from 72 percent in 1972 to 58 percent in 1990, but that of large tenant farms increased from 9 percent in 1972 to about 13 percent during the same period. IIMI's sample coverage reveals that the highest percentage of owned farms fall in the medium category (68 percent); the trend is similar for the owner-cum-tenant and tenant farms (61 and 75 percent, respectively).Table 5 shows that the overall land use intensity in the Rechna Doab was 81 percent in 1960 and 93 percent in 1990. The intensity of land use was reported to be higher on tenantoperated farms (96 percent) and owner-cum-tenant farms (95 percent) but close to the overall figure for the owner-operated farms during 1990. The results of the 1995 farm highest on the small farms (90 percent) and lowest on the large farms (85 percent).. survey reveal that the overall land use intensity in the Rechna Doab was 86 percent. It was s ..   The temporal analysis of the census data  in Table 6 shows the estimates of the cropping intensity for the Rechna Doab. The overall cropping intensity was 91 percent, 121 percent, 131 percent and 146 percent during 1960, 1972, 1980 and 1990, respectively. The intensity of cropping during 1990 was almost the same on owner and owner-cum-tenant farms but it increased to 97 percent on tenant-operated farms. The 1995 figure on aggregate cropping intensity was 134 percent, being highest on the small farms (150 percent) as compared to the medium and the large farms. The cropping intensity on the medium and large farms is estimated to be 131 percent and 135 percent, respectively. The growth in the use of tubewells took place since the early 1960s, and the increased availability of groundwater in the Rechna Doab served as the catalyst for the introduction of the biochemical and fertilizer inputs in the following years. The census data for the Rechna Doab shows that 6 percent of the small farms irrigated their fields using groundwater during 1960; the corresponding percentage for the medium and the small farms was 58 and 36 percent, respectively. The comparison of the census data  in Table 7 indicates that although the use of tubewells on small farms has increased, their share in the total acreage irrigated by tubewells during 1990 tias been only 28 percent as compared to 59 and 13 percent for the medium and large farms, respectively. The 1995 farm survey reveals these percentages to be 1 0 , 69, and 21 percent, respectively.Tractors were introduced during the 1970s and their use was confined to activities such as land preparation (where the advantage of tractor power over labor or bullock was the greatest). Table 8 shows the distribution of the tractor population by farm sizes between 1972-90 whereby tractor usage increased on the small, medium, and large farms by 13, 58, and 29 percent, respectively. The increasing trend is substantiated by the IIMI data of 1995; during 1995 about 8 percent of the small farms, 68 percent of the medium farms and 24 percent of large farms reported the use of a tractor.The increased intensification of agriculture and the expansion in acreage has been accompanied by a decline in the number of bullocks. According to the 1990 Census of Agriculture, only 47 percent of the farms were left with bullocks. This has been an important argument in the favor of tractorization. The census estimates that the number of animals declined from 1.6 million in 1960-61 to 0.58 niillion in 1990. Meanwhile, the cropped area increased from 2.6 Mha in 1960-61 to 3.52 Mha in 1990. The increase was even more pronounced in the double-cropped area where the shortage of farm power can be a severe constraint because of the short interval between halvesting and sowing.      1972-95   Table 9.Total Cultivated Area Irrigated and its Distribution in the Rechna Doab, 1960-95..The new technology, comprising high-yielding varieties, chemical fertilizers, increased mechanization, and improved irrigation practices requires new investment in agriculture.In the Rechna Doab, where subsistence farming is characterized by low saving rates, new investment could only be achieved through increased borrowing. Despite the relatively easier access to borrowing from the financial institutions, the farmers have been constrained on the repayments due to calamities or bad harvests. The accumulated debt has resultantly o€fset much of the anticipated gains, especially for the small and medium farms that are unable to modernize adequately. According to the 1960 Census of Agriculture, 25 percent of small farms, 34 percent of medium farms, and 35 percent of large farms were in debt in the Rechna Doab; in 1990 it was 17 percent, 25 percent, and 43 percent for small, medium and large farms, respectively.*During 1959-60, the total canal-irrigated area was 1.94 Mha; the share of small farms was only 11 percent, while the share of medium and large farms was 64 percent and 25 percent, respectively. By 1989-90, the canal-irrigated area increased to 2.12 Mha, with the share of 14 percent, 60 percent, and 26 percent on small, medium and large farms in the Rechna Doab. At the same time, about 0.17 Mha were irrigated using supplemental irrigation provided by the tubewells. The increase in irrigation supplies has also increased the proportion of cultivated area irrigated (CAI) to cultivated area from 82 percent in 1960 to 92 percent in 1990 (Table 9, previous page).Labor on agricultural farms consists of family labor, permanent labor, and casual labor.Family labor consists of household members of 10 years and above who perform any kind of agricultural work on their holdings. Family labor may be classified in two categories, i.e. permanent and part-time family labor, depending upon the time they devote for agricultural work. The Census of Agriculture (1990) also included older household members in the permanent family labor force who might not be doing the physical work but would take interest in the planning and operation of the farms. The part-time family labor consisted of those members who, in addition to the agricultural work on their farms, also render their services elsewhere, such as the service or business sector, etc.During the peak season, the farmers hire casual labor on a daily or weekly basis to deal with in cash, either on a daily or weekly basis. In the prevailing cultivation system involving family labor, the men spend most of their time on agricultural farms while women have traditionally performed most of the household work and also help in agricultural activities .such specific needs as transplanting and hawesting of crops. Casual laborers get their wages during the peak seasons. For casual hired labor, the women are often employed for specific tasks such as transplanting of rice/vegetables, cotton picking, weeding, hawesting and threshing activities. Most of the time they are paid in kind. This study analyzes only the use of permanent hired labor, since the data on the other categories of labor are not avail able.The permanent hired labor involves persons who work on the farm on a full-time basis, are employed for longer periods and may get a part of their wages in cash. The rest of their wages are paid in the form of grains on a fixed-period basis, i.e. quarterly, yearly, etc. They perform different types of work such as general agriculture work, which includes ploughing, planking, weeding, irrigating agricultural fields, taking care of livestock on the farms, etc.Normally, the tenure of permanent-hired labor is one year. Table 10 shows that, on the average, there has been a decline in the hiring of permanent-hired labor on small and medium farms from 16 percent in 1960 to 3 percent during 1995. The large farms are reported to hire more permanent wage labors on their farms as their share has increased from 31 percent in 1960 to 54 percent in the 1990s.In the Rechna Doab, the introduction of fertilizer during the 1960s was a new experience. Its consumption increased from 87,000 nutrient tons in 1989-90 to 93,000 nutrient tons in 1992-93 in the Faisalabad District alone. It reduced significantly in 1993-94 when the consumption touched the low of 79,000 nutrient tons. Elsewhere, the trend is similar to the Faisalabad District where the use of fertilizer remained limited to the irrigated areas, and that too for major crops. Fertilizer use was highest for wheat (48 percent), followed by cotton (16 percent), rice (12 percent), sugarcane (9 percent), and maize (7 percent) in 1990 (Govt. of Pakistan, 1990-91). The total consumption of fertilizer in the Rechna Doab increased from 428 thousand nutrient tons in 1989-90 to 459 thousand nutrient tons during 1993-94 (Govt. of Punjab, 1994)'.More significantly, instead of an increasing trend in the fertilizer use on the farms (from 1980 to 1990), the consumption on all the farms has declined. According to the Agricultural Census of 1980, 24.87 percent of small, 42 percent of medium, and 49.53 percent of large farms reported the use of fertilizer on their farms. According to the 1990 Census of Agriculture, the use of fertilizer on small, medium and large farms decreased to 22.78 percent, 35.5 percent and 40.28 percent, respectively (Figure 1). During IIMI's survey, almost all of the farmers quoted the higher prices of the fertilizers and credit constraints to be the major reason for low fertilizer use; other reasons being adulteration and nonavailability of the required fertilizer at the proper time. . In terms of both output and employment, the major agricultural crops in the Rechna Doab are wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton. Total cultivated area, production and yield per hectare of wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane in the Rechna Doab is reported in Figures 2-5. Out of the total production of the Wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane in Punjab This trend persisted till mid 1980s in the The increase in productivity was the result of the new innovations introduced through the green revolution, like the chemical fertilizers and the distribution of the high yielding variety seeds. However, in recent years, the wheat output has been low; during 1993-94 the average yield on the farmers fields in the Rechna Doab was recorded as 2.25 tonsha as compared to 5.02 tonsha on the experimental stations. Based on the IIMI farm survey, a majority of the farmers cited the scarcity of irrigation water as the main reason behind low wheat yields. About 40 percent of the farms (mostly Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang districts) regarded the bad quality water to be the contributor towards the lower yields ofwheat; more than 42 percent regarded the presence of salinity to be the reason for low production of wheat.Table 11 shows the regression results pertaining to the trends in wheat production with respect to the area and productivity of the wheat crop in the Rechna Doab, and at the district level. After trying different functional relationships, the linear equation in all of the cases provided the best fit. All of the regression equations were statistically significant at the'99 percent level of confidence. The over all explanatory power (as shown by the RZ) was of the estimated variables. For the Faisalabad district, the increase in the wheat urea is not accompanied by a consistent increase in productivity that initially increased from 1970 to 1980 and thereafter decreased between 1990 and 1995. In case of the Gujranwala and the    Table 11.Trends in Wheat Production with respect to Area and Productivity. Sialkot districts, the trend in the area under wheat shows a decline during the period 1980-90 and afterwards the coefficient for the area under wheat (Area,,,,) increases. For the Jhang and Sheikhupura districts, the coefficients for the area under wheat consistently show a declining trend during the 1980s and beyond.The coefficients for the overall trend in wheat yield showed an increase during the 1980s in all of the districts, except Faisalabad. For the Gujranwala and Sialkot districts, the coefficients for the wheat yields also depict a decline in productivity during the 1990s due to the scarcity of irrigation water, low fertilizer applications and the infestation of weeds (Byerlee et al, 1984;Malik, 1986;and Ahmed et al, 1988). The farmers perceptions about in the next Section of this Volume.the reasons for the low productivity on their farms in the Rechna Doab are being discussed -Pakistan is recognized internationally for its fine quality rice known as \"Basmati.\" This variety is being grown in the Kalar tract of the Rechna Doab (districts of Sialkot, Gujranwala, and Sheikhupura) characterized by clayey soils. The basmati variety grown in this area has a special aroma which distinguishes it in the international market. Among the rice exporting countries, Pakistan has the monopoly in the production of this aromatic variety. A coarser, IRRI-6, variety is also grown by the farmers.The trends in the total area, production and yield under the rice crop from 1970-94 has been .The summaly of the regression results, relating the rice production with the area and yield over time, has been given in Table 12. The estimated equations are found statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. The examination of estimated coefficients Table 12.Trends in Rice Production with respect to Area and Productivity.N P foryield in the equation for the Rechna Doab showed that the per unit paddy yield depicted an incrcasing trcrid Irorn the 1970s to 1990s; the coefficients for the yield during the 1980s and 1990s are statistically significant and had the positive sign.The estimated coefficients for the urea showed a negative trend from the 1970s onwards. Similar trends in the yield and the area under the rice crop were seen in the regression equations for the districts of Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura. The yield coefficients for the paddy crop in these districts show the interdistrict variations in the yields between 1970 and 1990; these districts have the higher coefficients for yield (and more than 75 percent of production) as compared to the districts of Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh.A declining trend in the area under the rice crop was seen in the Rechna Doab as well as signs during the 1980s and 199Os, thereby showing that the rice yield and the area increased during the Green Revolution, but declined during the post Green Revolution period.Studies conducted by Mustafa (1991) and Ghafoor et a1 (1986) reported the reduction in rice yields due to the problem of land degradation. The latter, after conducting experiments with different amendments to reclaim the saline soil, reported that H,SO, application was the best treatment as compared with gypsum , HCL, and CaCI, for reclamiaing lands in the rice growing area.in all of the districts, except Faisalabad District. All the estimated coefficients had negativeCotton cultivation is comparatively more intense in the southern part of the Rechna Doab. Its area increased from an average of 0.28 Mha during the 1970s to an average of 0.35 Mha during the 1980s (Figure 4(a)). This increase in the area was the result of increased canal water supplies and the ground water development (Government of Pakistan, 1988). The other major factors responsible for the increase were the remunerative and stable price policies of the government. This increasing trend in the area was interrupted in 1992 when the virus attack ruined the cotton crop on a majority of the farms. The district-and the doab-level regression results, showing the relationship of the production with the area and yield, have been summarized in Table 13. All of the regression equations were statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence and have a very high explanatory power (RZ ranges from 0.89 to 0.99). Table 13 shows that the yield coefficient for the 1970s is positive, however it becomes negative during the 1980s; this rate of decrease further intensified during the 1990s.The coefficients for the area under the cotton crop in the Rechna Doab showed an increasing trend during the 1980s and 199Os, which was significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. Similar trends in the cotton crop was observed for the districts of Faisalabad, Jhang, Sheikhupura and Sialkot. For Gujranwala District, the coefficient for the yield was significant during the 1980s and showed a declining trend with respect to yields which persisted into the 1990s.The acreage under the sugarcane crop in the Rechna Doab has expanded from 0.18 Mha during 1970-71 to about 0.25 Mha during the 1990s (Figure 5(a)). The cane yields, however, have been poor and ranged between 35-39 tons per hectare during this period. Figure 5(b) shows that among all of the districts in the doab, Faisalabad contributes the maximum acreage under the sugarcane crop followed by Jhang and Toba Tek Singh. It is also in these districts that the yield is significantly higher than the rest (Figure 5(c)).From Table 14, all of the regression equations, depicting trends in the sugarcane production with respect to the area and productivity, are statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. The overall explanatory power For Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura districts, the results show an increasing trend in the sugarcane area that is offset by a declining trend in the productivity between 1970-95. Except for the Yield,,., and Area,,., in the Toba Tek Singh District, all the other coefficients for all of the districts as well as for the entire Rechna Doab, are statistically significant at the 90-99 percent level of confidence., is very high (0.99).The preceding Section identified the major farm level indicators of vertical growth in productivity. The interpretation is compounded further by the spatial differences in productivity among farms, such as ownership status (owner, owner-cum-tenant, tenant); farm Table 13.Trends in Cotton Production with respect to Area and Productivity.size (small, medium and large farms); and scarcity of irrigation water and poor quality of groundwater. The non-availability of required input resources (irrigation, fertilizer, improved seed, tractors and machinery, etc.) at the proper time also prevent farmers from raising their productivity. Another physical constraint, which is now a major threat to the irrigated farm economies, is the increase of area affected by waterlogging and salinity. The following discussion shifts the focus from the observed historical trends in area, production and yield, as gathered from published reports, to IIMI's own field obselvations across 443 farming locales within the Rechna Doab. In this Section, the farmers' perception about the quality of irrigation water, soil conditions and drainage management in the Lower Rechna Doab has been presented. The study also shows that for the majority of the farmers, the concept of participation in the drainage projects was new. Only the farms who have been the beneficiaries from drainage projects show some interest, but they were also not sure about their possible complementary role. Further studies are recommended wherein research should focus on the basic issues of participation of farmers in the management of drainage projects.Tables 15 and 16 provide insights regarding the pattern of agricultural land use on the sample farms and its distribution in the Recbna Doab. The information pertains to the total number of farm holdings, farm size and culturable wasteland. From Figure 9(c) of Volume Four, nearly two-thirds of the sampled domain lies in the districts of Faisalabad and Sheikhupura; small and medium farms, which have a larger number of farm holdings, constitute less than 47 percent of the farm area. A similar trend exists in the distribution of land among farm categories at the district level (Table 15).The sample survey revealed that about 13 percent of the total area on agricultural farms was not used at all and was kept as culturable wasteland. Regarding the distribution of culturable waste, the highest percentage occurs in the Faisalabad District (42.83 percent) followed by Jhang and Toba Tek Singh districts (Table 16). The smallest proportion of culturable waste area is found on small farms, while it increases accordingly for the larger farms. The aggregate figures for the doab are not dissimilar to the trend at the district level.The impression obtain from examining these gross figures is that as the farm size increases, the culturable wasteland also increases. Statistically, the distribution of total culturable wasteland in Rechna Doab, and its relationship with the size of farm holding, is skewed towards large farms. Similar inferences were drawn by Berry and Cline (1979), Khan (1979), andChaudhry et al. (1985) while studying the size-productivity relationships in Pakistan.. .From Table 17, about 43 percent of farmer perceived the groundwater quality at their farms to be good, while 37 percent of the farmers reported it to be saline and not fit for irrigation; the remaining farms did not offer a qualitative judgement about the groundwater mainly because the tubewell installation was in the recent past, or the respondents took the land on lease for the first time and were unaware of any deleterious effects. About 9 percent of the farmers indicated a marginal quality of groundwater which they were using for irrigation by mixing it with the canal water. However, regardless of this qualitative definition, about 69.5 percent (308) farms (Table 18) were using the groundwater for irrigation on their farms. About 8.5 percent of the farms were using the groundwater as the sole source of irrigation supplies and about 57.6 percent of the sample farms used it to supplement their canal water supplies. It is a common prevalence that the farmers do not rely on either laboratory tests or an expert opinion on the useability of their groundwaters, thus exposing their farm lands to the insidious effects of sodicity until such time at reclamation becomes tedious and less cost effective.Table 19 shows that only 33 percent of the fanners perceived their soil conditions to be fit for cultivation; 43 percent of the farms had salinity, 5 percent of the farms had sodicity, and about 9 percent of the farms were having the problem of both salinity and sodicity. Very few (3.2 percent) of the farms reported adverse conditions due to waterlogging, and none solicited help from the soil testing labs set up by the Provincial Government. In fact, a majority of the farmers were not aware of the existenceflocation of the nearest soil testing lab.The above information, when considered in the context of Table 20, shows that the areas under waterlogging, salinity and sodicity conditions contribute 1.5 percent, 8.63 percent and 3.4 percent towards the culturable waste area which accounts for 13.6 percent of the total sampled farm area in the Rechna Doab. The farmers apprehended an increasing trend in culturable waste in the coming years; their own efforts to combat the menace of salinity/sodicity relied upon the traditional methods of applying farm yard manure, effective leaching of the soils through rice cultivation, and cultivation of only wheat during the rabi season. A majority of them either did not know about deep ploughing to break the hard pan or they never had enough irrigation water of good quality to facilitate flushing of the salts. Farmers relying exclusively on the groundwater towards raising of the rice crop on saline lands reported progressive deterioration of the soil structure for which no alternative recourse was available other than wheat cultivation during rabi. In some cases, farmers' endeavors to apply gypsum as a soil amendment was of€set by the scarcity of irrigation supplies to accomplish the desired dissolution of the sodium ions..Table 21 provides the summary statistics of the fanners perceptions about the drainage .  conditions on the sample farms at the subdistrict level. The drainage conditions have been classified into three categories, i.e. good, poor and worse. The soils with poor drainage conditions are a result of waterlogging and salinity, whereas the soils with the worse drainage conditions are those which have all the characteristics of poor drainage plus the sodicity hazard or topographic depressions that accumulate water. About 71 percent of the farmers in subdistrict Kabinvala and about 50 percent in Kamalia reported poor drainage conditions. The worst drainage conditions were found in the subdistricts of Chiniot, Toba Tek Singh and Sheikhupura where the farmers perceived 7.1 percent, 3.7 percent and 2.9 percent of their farm area to be under the worst drainage category.Most of the farms with the poor drainage conditions had been unable to raise crops in the affected fields for several years; some of these farms did benefit from the public sector drainage schemes, but the return to cultivation was slow. The farmers of the Sangla Hill and Satiana area, who are the direct beneficiaries of the tile and interceptor drainage projects, endorsed the positive effect of these reclamation schemes on their farms. Still, they feel that the drainage problem has not been solved completely as some of the sumps are not collecting sufficient drainage effluent necessary to keep the water levels below the root zone.Regarding participation in the drainage projects, most of the farmers reported ignorance about their potential role or contribution to such public sector undertakings; the exceptions being the farmers in the Sangla Hill and the Satiana areas, as stated above. The overall response was that the government agencies have never involved them in any kind of project activity; however, they would be willing to play an active role. One farmer stated that due to this isolation (created by the government agencies), they are unable to distinguish between friends and foes. He narrated an incident whereby on one of the sumps, a 2 km length of the electric wire was stolen during the day; the farmers reckoned the thieves to be WAF'DA officials. Had they (the farmers) been taken into confidence and given a sense of participation in the project, perhaps this loss could have been avoided.Since 1960, agriculture in the Rechna Doab has undergone major structural changes due to the introduction of new technologies and large investments in water development. Part of the enhanced water availability contributed to the increase in both cropping intensity and crop yields, and the rest was used to bring more land under cultivation. The 1990 census data reveals that despite all efforts to increase the cultivated area in the Rechna Doab, the total cultivated area amounted to 2.3 Mha out of the 2.44 Mha of farmland; still, there were 0.052 Mha of land on agricultural farms that could be cultivated but are classified as culturable waste. Since the cultivated areas are approaching their limits in cropping intensity, there lies the chance to increase agricultural production in the country by bringing * -these culturable wastelands under agriculture. Tables 22 and 23 provide figures pertaining to the total number of farm holdings, farm size and culturable wasteland, which provide insights regarding the pattern of agricultural land use and its distribution within the doab. For example, during the census year 1990, about 4 percent of the total area on agricultural farms was not used at all and remained as culturable waste. Regarding the distribution of cultivated and culturable waste area, Table 23 shows that the highest percentage of cultivated arealies in Jhang (24.51 percent), followed by Gujranwala (17.28 percent), Sialkot (17.13 percent), Sheikhupura (16.79 percent), Faisalabad (15.44 percent), and Toba Tek Singh districts (8.85 percent). For the culturable waste, more than one-half (56.24 percent) of the distribution is in the Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang districts; the highest occurrence being on large farms. This trend persists at all levels, and leads to the conclusion that as the farm size increases the area under culturable waste also increases. The following discussion focuses on the statistical significance of the relationship existing between farm size and culturable waste area by using the dis-aggregated district data. .Spatial and Temporal Relationships of Culturable Waste AreaFarm SizeThe regression results derived through the regression Equations 8 and 9, (which relate the culturable waste area with farm size and the irrigated area, as already specified in Section IV of Volume Four) are summarized in Tables 24 and 25. Equation 8 in the model captures the effect of farm size on the CWA, whereas Equation 9 examines the CWA relationship with increases in irrigation supplies. The summary of the results in Table 24 shows that the regression equations for all of the districts and across the Rechna Doab have high explanatory power, including the expected signs and magnitude for the estimated parameters. The explanatory power (Rz) is 0.88, 0.84, 0.83, 0.78 and 0.57 for the districts Faisalabad, Jhang, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Sialkot, respectively. At the doab level, the value of the RZ is 0.75.The elasticity coefficients for the farm sizes in the 1960s are statistically significant in all of the districts at the 99 percent level of confidence, and, except for the Toba Tek Singh district, have the positive signs; the magnitude being greater than 1 for Jhang, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala districts, meaning that a one percent increase in the farm size in these districts led to more than a 1 percent increase in the CWA. This trend continued into the 1990s.At the doab level, the postulated direct relationship between farm size and culturable waste lands is empirically valid during all of the time periods (before, during and after the Green increased in the Rechna Doab as the coefficient for FAT, is positive, higher than FAT, and statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. One of the reasons might be that the secondary salinization (due to the exploitation of the bad quality ground water .Revolution/SCARPS). Surprisingly, ten years after the Green Revolution, the CWA has  Table 24.Trends in Culturable Waste Area with respect to the Farm Area Total Table 25.Trends in the Culturable Waste Area with respect to the Farm Area and Proportion of Irrigated Area on Farms through SCARPS tubewells), led to this increase in the cultureable waste area during the 1990s. The intercept term and intercept dummies have negative signs and the coefficients are significant for 1972, 1980 and 1990, meaning that technological developments led to a decrease in the CWA within the Rechna Doab. In the case of the Faisalabad and Sialkot districts, the technology did play a role in reducing the CWA till the 1970s and afterwards it did not play a significant role in reducing the CWA as both the intercept dummies were lion significant for these districts.Irrigation SuppliesBased on Equation 9(as referred above), Table 25 shows that the log-linear regression equations (relating the CWA with FAT and CAI) for all of the districts and the Rechna Doab have high explanatory power and the expected signs and ~nagnitude for the estimated parameters. The elasticity coefficients for the farm sizes showed a positive relationship between farm size and the CWA in all of the districts. Table 26 shows that there was no significant change in the relationship between farm size and CWA in the districts of Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Sialkot as compared with elasticity coefficients for tlie farm size in the 1960s.For the Faisalabad District, the elasticity coefficients for the farm sizes during the 1970sshowed an increasing trend (B, + B, = 1.28) in the CWA with increasing farm size that is sustained thereafter. Gujranwala District also showed a similar trend beginning in the the 1970s, but during the 1990s the situation worsened as the elasticity coefficient for the farm sizes became 1.37 (B,+ B, ). In Jhang District, the farm size had lesser impact on the CWA during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as compared with the 1960s. At the same time, it is observed from Table 25 that the proportion of area under irrigation has a negative relationship with CWA during the 1960s and afterwards, except for the Sialkot District where the initial trend from the 1960s persisted.In all of the other districts, the elasticity coefficients for the proportion of irrigated areas on the farms showed that an increase in the irrigated area led to a decrease in the CWA.For the districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala, the area increased till the 1990s; it was unlike the Faisalabad and the Jhang districts where the increase in the area under irrigation decreased the CWA till the 1980s, before recovering during the 1990s. This may be due to the fact that the proportionate area under irrigation increased in these districts due to the improvement of the irrigation supplies and exploitation of the tubewell water, but afterwards the bad quality groundwater, particularly in Faisalabad and Jhang districts, led to increase in the CWA during the 1990s as compared to the 1970s and 1980s. At tlie doab level, the relationship between farm size and CWA remains the same during the 1980s and 1990s as in the 1970s because the coefficients for FAT, and FAT, is non-significant.Regarding the partial effect of irrigation on CWA in Model 2, it has been found that irrigation played a significant role in reducing the CWA during the 1960s (as the elasticity coefficient for irrigation is negative and significant at the 99 percent level of confidence).After the 1960s, there was not much improvement in the proportionate area under irrigation, which could play a significant role in decreasing the CWA. The technological improvements (as captured through the intercept and the intercept dummies) proved to be negative and there was no significant impact on the CWA in all of the districts except Jhang and Sialkot.Spatial and Temporal Relationships of Cropping IntensityA negative relationship between farm size and the cropping intensity was expected. In order to test this relationship, the log-linear Equation 10(Section IV, Volume Four) was estimated. In this equation, cropping intensity (CI) was used as the dependent variable and the farm size as independent; their post-1970s dummies were the explanatory variables in the equations. The regression coefficient estimates of Equation 10 are summarized in Table 26. All of the coefficients have the expected size and sign, proving the argument of an inverse relationship between farm size and cropping intensity. All equations, in each of the districts, are statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. The explanatory power of the model (R') is 0.69,0.82, 0.81, 0.89,0.58 for the districts of Faisalabad, Jhang, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, and Sialkot, respectively; for the doab, it was 0.63. It is clear from the regression equations in Table 26 that the greater the farm size the lower will be the cropping intensity. This relationship persists beyond the Green Revolution period and To test the significance of the relationship between the cropping intensity and the availability of irrigation supplies, Equation 11(Section IV, Volume Four) was estimated by incorporating the proportionate area under irrigation per farm along with the farm size and intercept dummies. The summary of results from Equation 11 are given in Table 27 wherein the intercept term, as well as all the intercept dummies, are positive and statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. This again showed that technological advancements led to an increment in the cropping intensity in all of the districts during each of the census periods. In Jhang and Faisalabad Districts, all of the farm size (FAT) coefficients after the 1970s are negative for the relationship between farm size and cropping intensity; the same trend holds at the doab level. For Gujranwala District, the estimates of the elasticity coefficients depict the existence of a negative relationship (which was significant at the 99 percent level of confidence) between farm size and cropping intensity during the 1960s. There was no significant change in the relationship between FAT and CI after the 1960s in the Sialkot District. A similar relationship for the Sheikhupura District showed no change after the 1970s.Regarding the effect of irrigation on cropping intensity, in case of all the districts and in the Rechna Doab, it was positive and significant at the 99 percent level of confidence during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This means that if irrigation supplies were increased, there will be a tendency to bring more area under cultivation and thereby reduce the unculturable waste areas.The results from Tables 22 and 23 shows that both intensive and extensive use of land is lower on the large farms as compared with small farms. In other words, as farm size increases, both intensive and extensive use of land decreases. What would happen if everybody used the land the way the small farmers are using it? Or, what if redistribution of land takes place? Whatever policy is implemented to fully utilize the land, at least the unirrigated area will be cultivated once and the irrigated area cultivated twice. If such a policy is followed, there is a need to know how much inefficiency exists in extensive and intensive farming at the aggregate and at the district level. On the basis of these assumptions, indices have been developed (indicated in Tables 28--34) that will help in identifying how much land is underutilized and how it is distributed among different farm categories in different regions.In order to estimate the index of inefficiency, certain assumptions were considered that are reasonable within the limitations of the available data. For measuring the inefficiency in cropping intensity, irrigated areas (CAI) are assumed to have potential for two crops and unirrigated areas (NSA) have potential for at least one crop. As such, the minimum potential number of times a unit area of land is croppable (GCA) is equal to twice the netirrigated area added to the unirrigated area. There is a possibility that a negative number might be obtained in certain cases because the unirrigated area may be cropped more than once and/or the irrigated areas may be cropped more than two times a year, thereby making GCA greater than the sum of the NSA and CAI. Table 28 shows that, at the Rechna Doab level, the measure of inefficiency during 1990 is higher for medium and large farms; these results, when viewed in the context of the estimates of the inefficiency indices (Table 29) that are calculated from the 1995 Rechna Doab survey data, confirm that the small farmers are the most efficient in the potential utilization of the farmlands. Table 29 also shows that the inefficiencies of the medium and large farmers in the districts Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh and Jhang are not only much higher than the small farms in these districts, but that the medium and large farms in the districts Sheikhupura, Hafizabad and sub-districts Kabinvala of district Khanewal are comparatively more efficient. This shows that much scope exists to improve the efficiency of medium and large farms in the districts of Jhang, Faisalabad and Toba Tek Singh.From the measures of inefficiency, it is observed that cropping intensities of the net cultivated area can be improved. The additional area which can be cropped through intensification of cropping is given in Table 30. At the aggregate level, the additional croppable land through the improvement in cropping intensity was determined to about 0.85 Mha; the major contribution being from the medium and large farm holdings.The analysis also computed the indices to measure the inefficiency in total land use by combining the inefficiency in cropping intensity with the culturable waste area (CWA). These indices have been computed at the Rechna Doab and district level by incorporating the CWA into the above inefficiency in cropping intensity (Tables 31 & 32). The indices show similar trends in the distribution of inefficiency in total land use among different farm categories as are reported in Tables 28 and 29 for the measures of inefficiency in cropping intensity of net cultivated area.Table 33 shows the indices computed for the percentage distribution of additional croppable land through improvement in culturable waste areas at the Rechna Doab and district levels.For the doab, about 0.938 Mha of additional land can be brought under the croppable area through improvement in the culturable waste areas. Again, the major contributors are the medium and large farms of Faisalabad, Toba Tek Sing11 and Jhang districts.Measurement of Inefllciency in Total Land Use E.By using the above measures of inefficiency, the total land loss is computed at the Rechna Doab and district level (Table 34). The total increase in cropped area at the Rechna Doab level, bv making improvement in the croping intensitv and bv bringing in the additional area from culturable waste lands, amounts to 0.938 Mha, which is about 40.69 percent of the total croppable area. Out of this potential recovery, 21 percent is from the improvement in cropping intensity and the remaining area comes from the culturable wastes.Cropping Potential of Culturable Waste Area F.Table 35 provides the estimates regarding the distribution of area under different crops with respect to the GCA in the Rechna Doab. It shows that on the average that about 39 percent of the GCA falls under the wheat crop in the Rechna Doab. If this proportion of distribution is maintained, then, from Table 36, about 0.369 Mha will be cultivated under the wheat crop, 0.119 Mha will be cultivated under the rice crop and the average area under the cotton and the sugarcane crops will be 0.09 and 0.098 Mha, respectively. The major contribution is coming from the Jhang District, followed by the Faisalabad, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala Distrcits, which are the major contributors in the area under all four crops.Taking into consideration the existing average yields of the four major crops, Table 37 (previous page) estimates the potential productivity of the four major crops in the Rechna Doab. It shows that by increasing the cropping intensity of the existing cultivated areas and by bringing the culturable waste under cultivation, the doab has the potential to produce 0.947 million metric tons of wheat, 0.281 million metric tons of rice, 0.103 million metric tons of cotton and 4.671 million metric tons of sugarcane. Once again, the major share of the production is coming from the Jhang and Faisalabad districts.Based on the additional cropping potential mentioned above, the question arises as to why the farmers in the Rechna Doab are unable to achieve this potential? Table 38 provides the reasons to this effect wherein the most dominant constraint at the farm level is the reported scarcity of irrigation water. This constraint is more severe in all of the three farm categories in the Faisalabad District where, on the average, about 66 percent of the farmers reported that there were shortages of irrigation water. The second major reason, about 20 percent of the reported farmholdings, cited the incidence of salinity depressing the cropping intensity on the farms. Another 10 percent of the farms reported some other reasons (waterlogging, sodicity, mechanical breakdown of tractorltubewell, non availability of the credit, etc.) for keeping the land fallow on their farms.In total, about 13 percent of the farms responded that they have a cropping intensity of about 200 percent and never kept the land fallow . Most of these respondents were small farmers who are located either on the head reaches of the water courses or have access to ground water which is of good quality, which helps them to cultivate two crops per year.In estimating the resource productivity of the four major crops in the Rechna Doab, the Cobb-Douglas production functions were developed and used for two types of data sets; (a) overall sample of all farms, and (b) the selected sample from different case definitions for each of the crops (as presented in Section IV-C of Volume Four). The results are presented in Tables 39-46 for the major crops within the doab. The generation of these  Table 38.Reasons for Keeping Farm Area Fallow.      Farms having a m gmteer than 2 hectares and less than 10 hectares. Producuon Functions for the Sugarcane Crop Corresponding to Selected Case Definitions for Constraints to Productivity. F a m having area greater I h . I , 10 heclam.production functions was beset with specification problems since the true explanatory variables had remissions in their certainty. Also, the presence of some implicit/joint production factors, such as tubewell irrigation and farm yard manure, may not be fully explained by such analyses. However, in order to avoid the misspecification bias due to high multicollinearity (Madala 1988), the intercorrelation amongst the explanatory variables was tested and no serious problem of multicollinearity was found (Appendices A l -A4).A.Production Function Estimation for Wheat 1)Regression results for the cumulative sample information are summarized in Table 39. The (LTFWCLND), fertilizer cost (LTFWFRC), labor numbers (LTFWLAB), canal irrigation cost LTFWCCAN), weedicide cost (LTFWEEDC), and the distance of the farm from the outlet (LDISTANC); the dependent variable was the yield (LTFWYLD). The overall equation, as well as the explanatory variables, were significant at the 99 percent level of confidence (RZ = 0.82), the exception being LNDISTANC at the 90 percent level of confidence. The estimated coefficients showed that canal irrigation, land preparation and fertilizer costs were the main source of variation in the wheat production.For each percentage point increase, the LNDISTANC contributed to about 0.04 percent reduction in the yield, while one additional unit of LTFWLAB led to about 0.07 percent increase in the wheat production on the farm. The elasticity coefficients showed that one percent increase in the LTFWCLND, LTFWFRC, LTFWEEDC and LTFWCCAN augmented the wheat production by 0.14 percent, 0.10 percent, 0.16 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively. The sum of the elasticity coefficients (0.79) showed decreasing returns to scale.1Cobb-Douglas model for wheat contains six independent variables, i.e. land preparation costThe most plausible reason for the low productivity of the LTFWYLD is that a majority of the farms did not have access to modern equipment and machinery to plough their fields according to the required numbers and ways, which resulted in low wheat yield per farm in the Rechna Doab. The productivity coefficients for the LTFWFRC and LTFWEEDC were also less due to modest applications of these inputs for two reasons, either the required fertilizer/weedicide was not available in enough quantity at the time of application, or if it is available, due to the shortage of the irrigation water/ credit available with the farmers, the farmers did not apply those inputs in the required quantity. These results were in line with . the findings of Akhtar et al. (1986), Hussain and Young (1987) and Sethuraman (1990).(LTFCOTW). This means that, being a long rooted crop, the cotton yield showed a higher response to expenditures towards better land preparation. The sum of the elasticity coefficients showed that constant returns to scale prevails on the cotton farms in the Rechna Doab (b,+b,+b,+b, = 0.9985).Case SelectionsThe regression results pertaining to the selected case definitions for the cotton crop are summarized in Table 42. All of the equations were statistically significant at the 99 percent level of confidence. In Case I, for both the medium and the medium & large farm production by 44 percent and 38 percent, respectively. A similar response is obtained for respectively. However, in the former, the coefficient for LTFCOTW was statistically significant at the 90 percent level of confidence and had a negative sign meaning that a one percent increment in the tubewell irrigation cost led to decline of about 0.07 percent in the cotton production. Dinar et. a1 (1986) and Bajwa et. al (1992) have linked this reduction to the harmful effects of the bad quality groundwaters for irrigation.For Case 11, the LTFCOPP explained about 32 percent of the variation in the cotton production on the large and medium farms. Case 111 is unique in reporting the LTFCOFRT as the significant independent variable which explains 78 percent of the variation in the cotton production on the medium and large farms within the Rechna Doab. However, what remains common amongst all the cases is the sum of the elasticity coefficients that reflects the decreasing returns to scale for cotton production. 'Production Function Estimation for RiceEstimates of the parameters in the production functions for the rice crop are presented in Table 43. The LTFCCAN appeared to be more productive as compared to the other inputs like LTFCLND, LTFCOFRT, and LTFLABNO. The per unit increase in the LTFCLND, LTFCOFRT, LTFLABNO and LTFCCAN shows an increase in the rice production by 0.29, 0.08,0.14 and .36 fractions of the respective inputs. The coefficient for LDISTAhTwas also significant at the 99 percent level of confidence and contributed about 0.11 percent reduction in the yield against each percentage increase in distance of the farm from the head of the watercourse. The negative sign for LDISTANC correlates well with the commonly observed downstream scarcity of water in irrigation systems. Once again, similar to the results of Mustafa (1991) and Ali (1989), the sum of production elasticities showed that decreasing returns to scale prevail in the rice production on the farms in the Rechna Doab (b,+b,+b,+b, = 0.78).Case SelectionsThe results of the Cobb-Douglas production functions for the six different scenarios are summarized in Table 44. Seven independent variables, LTFCOFRT, LTFCOPP, LTFCCAN, LTFCLND, LDISTANC, LTFCOTW and LTFCOFYM were used to evaluate their impact on the productivity of the rice crop. For Case I, the coefficients for LTFCOFRT, LTFCOPP and LTFCCAN were significant at the 90 percent, 95 percent and 99 percent levels of confidence, respectively. The sum of the elasticity coefficients indicates decreasing returns to scale (b,+b,+b, = 0.92). From amongst the significant regression coefficients of Case 11, LTFCCAN had the highest value of 0.4362 in comparison to LTFCOFRT (0.2491) and LTFCOLND (0.1321). Their sum of the elasticity coefficients also gave decreasing returns to scale (b,+b3+b, = 0.82).For the respective farm size differentiations in Case IV, the coefficients for LTFCOLND and LTFCOTW explained between 93 and 98 percent of the variation in the rice production.The coefficients for LTFCOLND are particularly significant as it highlights the importance of good land preparation for the rice crop. The negative sign of the coefficient for LDISTANC translates to a maximum of 0.17% reduction in yield for each percent increase in distance from the outlet. Similar to Adinarayna (1985), the sum of the elasticity coefficients depicted constant returns to scale on the farms.The coefficient for LTFCOFRT in Case V was the lone parameter of significance at the 99 percent level of confidence that explained 88-91 percent of the variation in productivity. InCase VI (where farms having soil salinity and lower land use intensity were targeted) the coefficient for LTFCOFYM, along with LTFCOPP and LTFCOFRT, were significant at the 90-99 percent level of confidence and explained about 96 percent of the variation in rice production on the farms. In comparison, the coefficients for LTFCCAN and LTFCOLND in Case VII explained about 92 percent of the variation in the rice production over moderately fine to fine soils with medium surface textures. The sum of elasticity coefficients for each of the Cases V-VII showed decreasing returns to scale.The estimates in Table 45 for sugarcane show that the coefficients LTFCFRT, LTFCOLND and LTFCCAN are significant at the 99 percent level of confidence (Rz = 0.80) with the more productive than similar increments for fertilizer and land preparation. The sum of the production elasticities show constant returns to scale for sugarcane within the Rechna Doab (b,+b,+b, = 1.025).2)Table 46 represents the regression estimates of the six selected cases for the sugarcane crop. For Case I, LTFCFRT is the only significant variable and explains about 90 percent of the variation in the sugarcane production. The Case I1 estimates for LTFCFRT and LTFCCAN explain 78-83 percent variation in the sugarcane production, where the elasticity coefficient for LTFCCAN is higher (0.6980) than the coefficient for LTFCFRT (0.3664). The model showed contrasting results on the medium farms where the elasticity coefficients were higher for LTFCFRT as compared with LTFCCAN.In Case 111, where all of the farms raising sugarcane on the medium soils were taken into consideration, the LTFCOPP was a major addition to the parameters of significance in the preceding cases; however, its elasticity coefficient remained lower in comparison. In Case IV, the LTFCFRT is no longer significant in an environment wherein 81 percent of the variation in production is explained by LTFCONM, LTFCOLND and LTFCCAN. In fact, the last two parameters have the highest confidence level in explaining 91 percent of the variations within the medium farms of Case V; also, the elasticity coefficient for the LTFCCAN is higher (0.7308) than the LTFCOLND (0.3667). Finally, in Case VI (where the farms having moderately coarse surface texturewere targeted), the LTFCOTW, LTFCOLND and LTFCCAN coefficients explained about 99 percent of the variation in the sugarcane production. The highest contribution to this effect came from LTFCOLND (0.9173) as compared to LTFCOTW (0.0544) and LTFCCAN (0.0397). The sum of elasticity coefficients for the six different cases showed mixed results; the returns to scale decreased in Cases 1 and 4, but remained constant (0.9940 -1.0988) in the remaining cases..1Farm level profitability and returns depend on the mixed availability of both the natural, as well as the capital, resources that are suitably exploited by the managerial skills of the farmers. The spatial and farm size differences in the gross and net incomes from the major crops (wheat, cotton, rice and sugarcane) on the farms in the Rechna Doab have been calculated and reported in Tables 47-54. The major objective, involving estimation of the gross receipts and expenditures, was to determine the sustainability of compensations from the labor and capital investments. This analysis of the farm income from the major crops also provided an assessment of the incentives for different farm size groups (belonging to different locations on the outlet), to participate in raising certain specific crops within the Rechna Doab. In estimating the net income from the major crops at the district level, only the gross income [(production * price) + (value of the by-product)] and the variable costs fixed cost, i.e. land rent, was also taken into consideration.* .were taken into account. For the disaggregations with respect to farm size and location, the         Singh. After the labor cost, the second highest cost item was the fertilizer application to the wheat crop (ranging from Rs. 1866 (Hafizabad) to Rs. 2161 (Toba Tek Singh). The land preparation costs were ranked as the third major variable costs items in producing wheat on farms in the Rechna Doab. The net returns per hectare (excluding land rent) were the highest for the Districts of Sheikhupura and Faisalabad. In the Faisalabad District, about 98 percent of the sample farms reported having medium textured soils (which is considered suitable for the wheat crop) but about 47.2 percent of the farms reported having bad quality ground water which contributed towards negative net returns from the wheat crop. In the Sheikhupura District, where there is significant variation of the soil texture (i.e. 37.2 percent of the farms reported having medium soils, 40.8 percent of the farms reported moderately fine textured soils and about 22 percent of the farms were having fine soils), supplemental reliance on largely useable groundwaters was a major contributor to the high net returns from the wheat crop. In the Hafizabad District and the Subdistrict of Kabinvala, the Iiet returns were offset by the comparatively higher incidence of soil salinization. In the formcr, about 59 percent of the farms reported the problem of salinity while in the subdistrict Kabinvala about 29 percent of the farmers reported having a problem of waterlogging on their farms.Table 48 summarizes the per hectare figures on production, gross returns and net returns (excluding and including land rent) from the wheat crop. The data has been disaggregated with respect to the small, medium and large farm categories that are located at the head, middle and tail reaches of the watercourses. The small farms located in the middle reaches had higher net income (Rs. 4775) as compared to the head (Rs. 3985) and the tail reach farms (Rs. 4391). This was equally applicable to the medium farms where the mid reach farmers were having more net income (Rs. 4562) as compared with the farms located at the head (Rs. 4164) and the tail reaches (Rs. 2923). Only the large landholders benefited from being in the head reaches of the watercourses with a net income of Rs. 5634 as compared to the middle (Rs. 4625) and tail reaches (Rs. 3458). These large farms, due to their access to credit and the timely availability of inputs, were having average net incomes (Rs. 4572) that were higher than the small (Rs. 4384) and medium farms (Rs. 3883).If the net incomes are compared only for the locational attribute, then the mid reach farms were having the maximum per hectare production, and thus net returns (Rs. 4654), as compared with the net returns of the farms located at the head (Rs. 4594) and the tail reaches (Rs. 3590) of the watercourses. If the fixed cost, i.e. land rent, is taken into consideration, the net income from the wheat crop (except for the large farms and the small farms in the middle reaches) in the Rechna Doab becomes negative. This aggravating situation (with 42.8 percent of the farms in the Rechna Doab reporting soil salinization and 33.1 percent having both salinity and sodicity on their farms) needs to be improved through both reliable and timely inputs to productivity. Table 50 reveals the spatial differences in the productivity and the net returns from the per hectare cotton production in the Rechna Doab. The small farms located at the head of the watercourse were more productive and showed more per hectare net income (Rs. 26041) than locations further away from the outlets. For the medium farms, the middle and tail reaches showed higher net income than the head reaches, whereas the large farms remained more productive in the middle reaches of the watercourses. Overall, the head reach farms showed more production, and thus a higher net income (Rs. 22882), as compared with the middle (Rs. 17779) and the tail reach farms (Rs. 17137).  51 (b) also shows that the net income per hectare from the rice crop was the highest in the Hafizabad District; farmers in the Toba Tek Singh District and the Kabinvala Subdistrict reported a loss due to waterlogging on their farms. The net returns in the Sheikhupura District are lower because a majority of the farms relied on supplemental irrigation through tubewells which escalated the cost of production.From Table 52, the small farms in the middle reaches were more productive and showed more net returns per hectare (Rs. 7245) as compared to the head (Rs. 437) and the tail reaches (Rs. 173) (the low values showing a failed rice crop due to waterlogging). For the medium farms, the head reaches of the watercourses showed the highest per hectare net income; the large farms benefited most in the middle reaches. Overall, the middle reaches reported the highest per hectare net income (excluding land rent) (Rs. 6331) as compared with the net income from the farms located at the head (Rs. 4339) and the tail reaches (Rs. 3435) of the watercourses. With respect to farm size, the medium farms ranked higher against other categories. Table 52 shows that the net income, inclusive of the land rent, is negative in the case of small farms which are located at the head and the tail of the watercourses. The per hectare yield was highest in the Jhang District where the cultivation was limited mostly to the loams/silt loams. This was followed by the rather extensive cultivations in the Sheikhupura District where the soils are rich in clayey fractions and are more favorable to the higher consumptive use requirements for sugarcane. The lowest yields for the sugarcane crop were reported from the Sub-district Kabinvala where the farmers planted sugarcane on the waterlogged soils.-Farm Size and Location Sugarcane, being the longest duration crop, requires an extensive resource utilization at the farms in terms of better land preparation, fertilizer and irrigation. Table 54 shows that the production of the sugarcane was higher in the head and middle reach farms as compared with the tail reach farms across all farm size categories. For the smaller farms, the net income (excluding land rent) was found higher in the middle reaches; the medium and large farms had higher net incomes in the head reaches. Overall, the farms located in the head reach of the watercourses showed higher net incomes from sugarcane production (Rs. 17102) as compared to the farms located in the middle (Rs. 15616) and the tail reaches (Rs. 10714). Based on farm size differentiation, the average net returns from the large landholdings were the highest (Rs. 15661) as compared with the net returns from the medium (Rs. 14711) and the small farms (Rs. 13060).The study provides an overview of the historical trends and spatial differences in productivity of major crops (wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton) for variations in farm sizes occuring at both the smaller district level and the entire doah. Concurrently, fanners' perceptions are also explored about ground water quality, soil conditions, land utilization, cropping intensity and drainage management. The estimation of the total unused cultivable land within the sampled farms is compared to the size of the fann holding for ascertaining the efficiency in land use specific to the four major crops. Finally, it estimates the relationship between the output of major crops and input resource (labor, fertilizer/manure, irrigation, mechanization) utilization under a specified set of physical constraints were estimated to suggest policy measures for achieving full utilization of land and water resources. The conclusions which emerged from this study are listed below: The proportion of the cultivated area to the total farm area was highest on the small farms (90%), followed by the medium (88%) and large farms (85%).The highest percentage of owner operated farms fall in the category of the medium farms (68 percent); the trend is similar for the owner cum tenant and the tenant farms (61 and 75 percent, respectively).For the large farms, the number of owner, owner cum tenant and tenant farms is 20%, 15% and 24%, respectively. The distribution of the small farms into the above tenurial classes has the respective percentages of 12, 24 and 1. .The overall landuse intensity in the Rechna Doab has been observed to be 86 percent. It was highest (90 percent) on the small farms and lowest (85 percent) on the large farms.The over all cropping intensity in the Rechna Doab was 134 percent during 1995. The cropping intensity in the Rechna Doab was highest on the small farms (150 percent) as compared with the medium (131 percent) and large farms (135 percent).Ten percent of the small farms, 69 percent of the medium and 21 percent of the large farms used tubewells to irrigate their fields.The tractor usage was maximum on the medium farms (68 percent), as compared with the small (8 percent) and large farms (24 percent).The farmers did borrow money for investments on the farm, but then were often unable to repay, particularly after calamities or bad harvests. This resulted in small and medium farms being unable to modernize sufficiently and to get adequate benefit from the new technologies that had become available over the years. The study showed that from 1960 to 1990, the debt of the small and medium f a r m decreased from 25 and 34 percent to 17 and 25 percent, respectively; for the large farms, the debt has increased from 35 percent to 43 percent from 1960 to 1990, respectively.On the average, the proportion of cultivated area irrigated (CAI) to cultivated area in the Rechna Doab has increased from 87 percent during 1960 to 92 percent in 1990.A decline in the hiring of permanent labor on small and medium farms has been observed from 16 percent in 1960 to 7 percent during the 1990s. The large farms reportedly hired the most labor on their farms, and their share has increased from 31 percent of the large farms in 1960 to 54 percent in the 1990s.The use of fertilizer remained limited to the irrigated areas and also for major crops.Fertilizer use was highest for wheat (48 percent), followed by cotton (16 percent), rice (12 percent), sugarcane (9 percent), and maize (7 percent) in 1990 (Govt. of Pakistan, 1990-91). The total consumption of fertilizer in the Rechna Doab increased from 428 thousand nutrient tons in 1989-90 to 459 thousand tons during 1993-94 (Govt. of Punjab, 1994)p.A significant change has been observed in fertilizer use in that the increasing trend between 1980-90 has subsequently been declining. During the 1980s, about 24.9 percent of small, 42 percent of medium, and 49.5 percent of large farms reported the use of fertilizer on their farms; during 1990, the use of fertilizer on small, medium and large farms decreased to 22.8 percent, 35. The analysis showed that the distribution of cultivated lands and the culturable waste area (CWA) had a similar distribution trend to that of total farm size. The highest incidence of CWA occurs within the Faisalabad District (42.8%), followed by Toba Tek Singh (16.6%), Jhang (17.4%), Khanewal (10.9%), Sheikhupura (10.2%) and Hafizabad (2.0 %). The smallest proportion of culturable waste area was found on small farms, while the highest proportion of culturable waste lands was found on the large farms. This trend was the same across all levels of comparison.Of the 443 sampled farms, about 43 percent (190) perceived the ground water quality to be good; another 37 percent (162) responded that the ground water at their farm was saline and was not fit for irrigation. About 12 percent of the farms (53) were not sure about the quality status due to the reasons that either the installation was very recent or the lease was new. Finally, 9 percent of the farms (38) behold that they have marginal quality ground water which they were using by mixing it with the canal water for irrigation purposes.About 33 percent of the farmers perceive their soil conditions to be fit for cultivation while 43 percent of the farms were having a problem of salinity, 5 percent of the farms had sodicity and about 9 percent perceived a combination of both salinity and sodicity. About 3.2 percent of the farms reported waterlogging. The farmers stated that they never considered laboratory testing of their farm soils. In fact, the majority of the farmers were not aware of the existenceflocation of the nearest soil testing laboratory.If a full level of land utilization (by making improvements in the cropping intensity and by bringing the CWA under cultivation) takes place, the total cropped area can be increased by about 0.938 Mha.The possible share of the cropped area under four major crops (wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane) could be increased by 0.368,0.117,0.089 and 0.097 Mha, respectively. The resultant increases in the crop production for these crops could be 0.95, 0.28, 0.10 and 4.6 million tons, respectively.Of this total improvement in cropped area from an increase in the cropping intensity and extensive use of land, 29.37 percent of the area will be from the Faisalabad District, 29.96 percent from the Toba Tek Singh District, 29.66 percent from the Jhang District, 17.98 percent from the Sheikhupura District and about 13.31 percent from the Gujranwala District. Of the total additional area which could be cropped, 58.75 percent will come from the medium farms, 31.74 percent from large farms and only 9.51 percent from the small farms.Within the Rechna Doab, there were wide interdistrict disparities. On the average, there can be about a 21 percent improvement in land utilization. In three districts (Jhang, Faisalabad, and Toba Tek Singh), the cropping intensity can be improved cumulatively by more than 75 percent. Comparatively, only 7.1 percent improvement is.possible in the District Sialkot..The results of the Cobb-Douglas production functions showed that decreasing returns to scale prevailed on the farms in the Rechna Doab for the wheat, cotton and rice crops, whereas constant returns to scale are expected for the sugarcane crop.For the wheat and rice crops, the unitary increment in the distance of the farm from the outlet reduced the yield of wheat and cotton by 4 percent and 11.45 percent, respectively.The production function estimates for the major crops (corresponding to the selected Case definitions for the constraints to productivity) showed that the farmers investment in canal irrigation has the highest contribution towards productivity of all the four major crops in comparison to other inputs like fertilizer, chemicals and tubewell irrigation.  Overall, the large farms were getting higher net returns (excluding land rent) of Rs. 4572 per hectare from the wheat crop as compared to the small (Rs. 4384) and medium farm (Rs. 3883).The farms at the head and the middle reaches of the watercourses have higher net returns per hectare from the wheat crop (Rs. 4594 and Rs. 4694, respectively) as compared to the farms located on the tail of the water courses (Rs. 3590).For the cotton crop, the highest (per hectare) net income from the cotton crop was estimated in the Jhang District (Rs. 24773) as compared to the districts of Toba Tek Singh (Rs. 18078), Faisalabad (Rs. 15990), Sheikhupura (Rs. 14824) and Subdistrict Kabirwala (Rs. 13990). The high returns from the cotton crop were due to the higher price of cotton as compared to the other major crops being grown in the Rechna Doab. The average net returns per hectare (excluding land rent) from cotton were higher on the large farms (Rs. 21665) as compared with the small (Rs. 15824) and the medium farms (Rs. 20250). Relatedly, the net returns per hectare in the head reaches of the watercourse commands were higher (Rs. 22822) as compared with the farms at the middle (Rs. 17779) and tail (Rs. 17137) reaches.The study showed that the net income per hectare (excluding the land rent) from the rice crop was the highest in the Hafizabad District (Rs. 6872) as compared with the districts of Jhang (Rs. 5465), Sheikhupura (Rs. 3969), Kabirwala (Rs. 3472) and Faisalabad (Rs. 3464).The analysis revealed that the net returns per hectare (from the rice crop) on the medium farms were higher (Rs. 5760) as compared to the small (Rs. 2618) and the large farms (Rs. 5726). The farms located in the middle reaches of the watercourse commands showed higher net returns per hectare (Rs. 6331) as compared to the head (Rs. 4339) and the tail (Rs. 3435) reaches.For the sugarcane crop, the farms in the Sheikhupura, Jhang and the Faisalabad districts had higher net returns (Rs. 15849, Rs. 15234 and Rs. 12516, respectively) as compared to farms located in the districts of Hafizahad, Toba Tek Singh and Subdistrict Kabirwala, where the net returns from the sugarcane cropwere Rs. 10961, Rs. 6822 and Rs. 3344, respectively.The net returns per hectare from sugarcane were higher on the farms located at the head (Rs. 17102) as compared to the farms located at the middle (Rs. 15616) and the tail (Rs. 10714) reaches of the watercourses. The average net returns of the large farmers from the per hectare sugarcane production were the highest (Rs. 15661) as compared with the net returns on the medium (Rs. 14711) and the small farms (Rs. 13060).This study attempted to estimate the operational distribution of land holdings in the Rechna Doah across different farm-size groups in terms of the percentage distribution of holdings and to estimate the total culturable waste land in the Rechna Doab. After estimating the relationship between the size of holding and the level of unused cultivable land, the analysis focused on the relationship between cropping intensity and the size of holding and the influence of the level of irrigation on cropping intensity. The additional production potential of the four major crops (wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane) being grown in the Rechna Doab was also estimated. The chances for achieving the production potential are greater in the case of the medium and large farms of the Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh and Hafizabad districts. A majority of the farms in these areas are constrained by the Management options to overcome these shortages include an increase in the conveyance efficiency of the existing irrigation infrastructure, and reallocation of inter-and intra-canal supplies from fresh groundwater zones to the saline ground water areas. The farniers in the fresh groundwater area may be compensated towards overcoming the pumping costs associated with increased reliance on the subsurface supplies.Technological options are available to augment the surface water supplies by the exploitation of the fresh layer of the groundwater through skimming/fractional wells. Since deep groundwater quality is mostly poor in the Rechna Doab, the Government should encourage and invest towards the installation of skimminghctional wells and provide the requisite advisory services to the farmers in establishing safe pumpage limits to avoid the depletion of the fresh ground water layer.Technological options should also be made available to the farmers for reclaiming the problem soils and to bring back the original potential of the land resource. These options range from chemical amelioration (use of gypsum, sulfuric acid, etc.) to biological amelioration (growing of salt tolerant crop varieties and grasses). The potential farm level benefits could be higher provided the farmers are properly educated about the judicious use of the amendments and inputs, and guided towards the adoption of the recommended practices.The major conclusions which emerged from this study are listed below: t .scarcity of irrigation water and the incidence of salinity, sodicty and waterlogging.If full land utilization (by making improvements in the cropping intensity and by bringing the CWA under cultivation) takes place, the total cropped area can be increased by 0.938 Mha.The possible share of the cropped area under the four major crops (wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane) could be increased by 0.368, 0.117, 0.089 and 0.097 Mlia, respectively. The resultant increases in the production for these crops could be 0.95, 0.28, 0.10 and 4.6 million tons, respectively.. t","tokenCount":"12865"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acddfa797ab73441b0a1a4e068a12049","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d2dfaf2-4e48-43b6-b52f-c5eab34d00a2/retrieve","id":"437723168"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ce063dca-8217-4375-956c-d619b95327f9","pagecount":"2","content":"• Gender-equitable control of productive assets and resources • Technologies that reduce women`s labor and energy expenditure adopted Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Yes SRF 2022/2030 targets:• # of people, of which 50% are women, assisted to exit poverty Description of activity / study: Findings indicate that the switch to Zero Tillage contributed to substantial time savings in India and Nepal and did not lead to any reallocation or increased burden of roles and responsibilities to women in any of the surveyed localities (24 households in 3 countries), while knowledge on weed management practices were balanced among spouses (e.g. no gendered knowledge divide created). In contrast to other study findings for other geographies ( which warrants more in-depth analysis), Zero Tillage use did not reinforce or deepen existing inequalities within households. Zero Tillage may be an important component of an inclusive agricultural development pathway in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP). Further research on the inclusivity of ZT in the context of labour burden in the EGP is needed . Extension efforts should target herbicide use as it becomes more normalised, enabling both male and female community members.","tokenCount":"191"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"463bc3cd42c644cdea5191dee016035d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d2b41b66-8b9d-459b-b185-908583045877/retrieve","id":"-1475243921"},"keywords":["\"\"'~~~'\" -'-~- f¡',l 1\"\"' 1 ~ . ,",",' ' ' . 11~35 . '¡., ,\" \"'l' i t.~:¡~!.. ,:~\" .\": ':\\'","~'o, ':'.,:","\".QS Guillermu G. Gdmez Ph.D\" ('oordilllldor I'¡ograma POll:lnos","CIA.r Fabidn A1I'afado M.V., Progu:m. I'orcirnn, INJ.<\\P, EcuJldor fe,ni:","Chamorfll loo!,. Programa Poreinas, eIAT. Actualmente Escuela Graduados lNCAP Guatemala fuome H. MafU'f"],"sieverID":"e92db6b6-f4a0-48aa-8bf6-940632d7ab64","pagecount":"14","content":"lNTRODUCClüN 5 Los subproductos de moliner{a 00 arroz y su composici6n qurmtca G , El valor alimenticio de puUduraa de arroz para ce [\"dos Factores que pueden afectar su utUiznci60 en alimentscMn porcina B Efecto de. la cantidad de protefila y de la adiciÓn de az\\1csr en dietas a base de puliduras de arroz 12 Efecto de In calidad de la protel'na suplementaria 14 Efecto ue la. adulteración de las puliduras de arroz con cliscaras de arroz molic:l.a.s 17 Empleo de njveles crecientes de melaza con dietas a base de puliduras de arroz 20 • Resumen 23Por tales razones, durante los tUtimos años, el Programa de Porcinos del CIAT ha concentrado sus actividades 00 investiguci6n en la eva!uaci<'n de subproductos agroindustrialcs disponibles en l3. mayortu de p:lrses latinoamericanos con el fin de desarrollar sistemas de alimentac1Ón económicos sustituyendo, en casi su totalidad, a los granos de cereales. El arroz (Oriza sativa L.) es uno de los cultivos m!fs importantes en el mundo yen, Amd'rica Latina. Des-pu.é's de ser cosechado y sometido a los procesOs de molinerra, produce varios subproductos los cuales pueden ser utilizados en a1imentaci~n porcina; de I'!llos, el que más se utUiza es el conocido como puliduras, polvillo, semolina o harina de arroz. Hasta la fecha, los trabajos experimentales realizados en el CIAT, han sido orientados a sustituir los granos de cerenles, maíZ o sorgo, por JlUliduras de arroz, especialmente en raciones para cerdos en crecimiento f acabado, y a estudiar los factores que pueden. afectar la utilización eficiente de este subproducto.Los subproductos de lnol1nerra de arroz y su composiciÓn química El grano de arroz que llega a los molinos es conocido corno arroz\" paddy\" o arroz en c:1:scs\"t'u y cst~ constituido por la ctíscar:'l, los tegumentos del grano o pericnrpfo, el endospermo y el embri6n o germen. En d pro{',eso de molienda o pulido del grnno, e1 arroz \"paddy\" es separado en In c(Íscnr;¡, el salvado (normalmente, con germen), las pulidur~f'l y el grao!) de arro], pulido. Las cáscaras o cascarilla de arroz pueden ser utilizndas COmo alimento de volumen para rumiante.s, como m~terial de combust16n o como matcri:ll de construcciÓn. El salvado y las pulidu ras son subproduct0fj lmpq{'t.¡mws del prOC(lSO de moHendn do! gr:HlO de arroz y 80n normalmente USados como nlhnon!o para gnnndo, {!F;pN'Üthnentc, para cerdos y \\'oves. El ::rrroz pulido o arroz blanco es utilizado para consumo humano, 6 , , El Cuadro 1 muestra la composIción qufinfca dol gnno de arro7. y de BUS aubproductos. La cásci\\1\"a, de :n'['o7. posee contonidos bajos 0:. protern3 y do grllsa, pero cantidades apreciables de fibra cnl<h¡ y de mtneralM¡ especinlm'<!nte 00 afUce. El salvado con germen y las pulldurfls de nrroz U('i,1CD un 12 ... 13 por ciento de protetha cruda y entre 13-12 po!' ciento de grasa; 01 Salv[ldo normalmente tiene mayores cantidades de fibra (12.5 va 3.2 por Q{cnto) y de mümrales (10,8 ve 6.':) por ciento) quí3 bs puliduras de I'Irroz (NatlMftl Acaderny of Sctenees, 1971). Loa resultados de a4,TUnos análists qufmicoB, l\"n\\lll.z,)dos en lQ8 laboratorios d-al CIAT de muestras de puliduras de arroz procedl~nt.e.8 ele varios paraea latiDoamericanos, indican Una composici6n similar a las ,jo1 Cuadro 1. La composfaió'n qufmica y el valor alimenticio de las puUdu1.\":is ..... anun ligeramente, dependiendo de la eficiencia del procesamionto da pulido o de la adulteraciÓn con Cantidades elevadas de casca\\\"Ula. El grano (le Rrroz contiene algo más de 8 por cicn+.o de prote:lha y cantidades ttpreoittbles de almid6n expresadas como extracto no nitrogenado {76 por ciento).Además, las pulida ras de arroz aportan cantidades considerables de vitaminas del complejo B, así como de f6sforo (Kik, 1957). Este elemento minerol se encuentra casi en su totalidad l'n la forma de Maforo frtico y pOl' t~mto, es de disponibilidad limitada. Debido al alto contenido de grasa, el valor alimenticio de  .. La calidad nutricional de las puliduras puede ser adulterada mediante la adición de c~scaras molidas de arroz. El efecto nocivo de la adlci6n de caSCaras es debIdo principalmente a su alto contenido de Bnice~ el cual irrita las paredes gtistricas e intestinales. Con la adición de c:\\'scaras molidas, los contenidos de sOice y de fibra cruda aumentan considerablemente y los contenidos de proterna y grasa disminuyen (Arnott y Linn, 1966). La forma más Simple y r!i'pida de determinar el grado de adulteraoión de las puliduras de arroz con cáscaras de arroz, es mediante el an.flisis de proterna cmda. Las puliduras de bueno calirlad tienen niveles norm;lles de proterna cruda; conforme aumentan los niveles de adulteraci6n con cáscara de arroz, el contenido ~ protema cruda disminuye considerablemente.El valor alimenticio de puliduras de arroz para cerdosFactores gue pueden afectar su utilizaci6n en alimentaci6n porcina Las recomendaciones para el uso de las puliduras de arroz son del orden del 25-30 por ciento de las raciones (Morl'ison, 1966). A estos niveles, los aumentos de peRO y la eficiencia de convers16n nlimctltici\" de cerdos en crecimiento y acabado son similares 8 las que ,<¡e obtienen con raciones testigos a base de marz y de torta de soya (Cunhn, 1957;Durán, 1959). Niveles de puliduras de 8  , 1963).La sustituci6n prog'resiva de sorgo por puliduras hasta obtener la sustitu-cf6n total (80 por ciento), en dIetas de crecimiento y Mabado con suplementa-ci<Sn de torta de soya y torta de algod6n. produjeron aumentos de peso menores en la medida en que se incJ:'ementaban los niveles de puliduras, obscrvlfudose también una reducci<'5n en el consumo de las dietas (Ara et al., 1975)~ La susti-tuct6n progresiva del mar? por puliduras de arroz (Cuarlro 2), en dietas para cerdos en crecimiento (20..50 kilogramos). no afecM signlfIcaHvament.e IQS aumOntos de peso basta niveles de 45 por drmtro rY> pulidura.s de arroz en las dietas pero, la sustituci6n del 60 por ciento del rnaJZ moUdo por puliduras, redujo el aumento diario y el consumo de la dieta tambil!n disminuy6 (Cuadro 3) • 9: \\ 1 . . En general, los resultados experlmentale~ de dIctas con altos nlvoles do puUdur9.~ de arroz indican una reducci6n diaria en DI aum.~nto de peso, aar como una dlsminucMn en el consumo diario. Son varios lo!! factoroa que pueden ser responsables do estos bajos rendimientos y algunos de ellos han sido estudiados en el elATo La calidad de la proterna de las pulidul\"as en relacidn con la cantidad Ik protelha en las dietas, la cantidad y calidad de la protelha suplementaria. la adulteraci6n de las puliduras con cdscara de arroz molido, la presencia de altos niveles de Mafaro HUco y sus interrelaciones con otros elementos minerales y la palatabilidad o gustosidad de las dietas con niveles elevados de puliduras, son algunos de 108 factores que pueden afectar la utilización de éstas en la alhnentaci6n porcina. Los trabajos e,xpcrimcntales que se presentan a continua-ci6n fueron hechos con cardos en crecimiento y acabado y en la mayoría de ~los, se ha utilizado un 60 por ciento de puliduras ,en las dietas experimentales. El material designado corno puliduras, polvillo o harina de arroz utilizado en las pruebas experim,mtales en el CIAT. ha sido un producto Con un contenido de pro-teIha entre 12.5-14. O por ciento y con 5-6 por ciento de fibra cruda.Los animales experimentales utilizados fueron cerdos Yorkshire, destetados a las ocho semanas de edad. Los grupoS experimentales fueron machas castrados y hembras, distribuidos con base en camadas, sexo y peso; normalmente, el peso promediO inicial fluctuaba entre 1'1-20 kilogramos y el peso promedio final entre 90-95 kilogramos. Los cerdos se vacunaron contra el c61era porcino a 18s seis semanas de edad y se vennifugaron contra pardSitos internos, una semana después del destete y antes del inicio del perroda experimental. Los animales se alojaron en corrales sombreados y con piSO de concreto; las dietas experimentales se prepararon en forma de harina y se suministraron en ccrnederos automáticos; el agua de bebida se suministró continuamente en bebederos autom6ticos. Los auimales exp<~rimentales se pesaron cada catorce días; la duración del experimento fue la misma para todos los tratamientos. Sin embargo, en algunos, la duraci6n se prolongó hasta que cada tratamiento alcanzara el peso promedio final de beneficio. En aquellos experimentos en 108 cuales se usaron dos dietas, de crecimiento y de acabado, el camhin d~ dieta se reali:l.aba entl.t\\do el peso promedio por animal del grupo era de aproximadamente 50 kUogra-11 ~ .. • Utuctdn total del maflz pOr puliduras (77.7 por ciento resultando en una .neta con 18.9 por ciento de proterna), con dietas en las cuales se usd' el 60 ¡mr ciento de puliduras. pero a dos niveles de protefila, 16 y 18.9 por ciento, respectivamente y adem¡{s. una dieta con la inclusf<5n de 18.7 por cIento de azdcar.. Durante el perlbdo de acabado, la sustitución total del maíz resultd en un nivel de 86.7 por ciento de pul1dura$ de arr(lZ~ En el Cuadro 5 se incluyen los resultados obtenidos durante los perrodos de crecitniento y acabado (20-96 kllogrsmos) y 108 nIveles de prote:lba en las dietas. La sustitución total del maíz por puliduras de arroz resulteS en disminU-ci&n !le 10.8 aumentos diarios de peso. a pesar de que los niveles de protelba de la dieta a base de puliduras y torta de soya fueron superiores a loa de la dieta control; el consumo de la dieta a base de puliduraa y torta de Boya fue inferior al de la dieta control ya los de las dietas con 60 por ciento de puliduras de a-Cuadro 5.Efecto de dos niveles de protelha y de la adici6n de azdcar eJl dietas a baae de harina de arroz para cerdos en crecimiento y acabado.Imsumen de resultados sobre perrodos de crecimiento y acabado (20. Todns las dietas contcnfnu: 4% harina de hue.\"loEl; .3% premezc1a de v1tamina~ y .5% premezcla de mlncraks.• ;'.' * } 4• ..un experimento, hecho durante el pedado de crecimiento con una dteta a base de 60 por ciento de puliduras de arroz y torta de soya suplementada con lisina (0.15 por ciento) o metionioa (0.15 por ciento) o con la adición conjunta de ambos aminolicidos. sugieren que el aminoácido susceptible de ser limitante en la combinnct6n puliduras de arroz/ torta de soya serfa la metionina mita que la lisina (Cuadro 8).Los resultados experimentales sugieren que h calidad de la prote'lhn suplementaria es importante y se debe tomar en consideración. La complementaridad de las puliduras de arroz con fuentes protefnicas de origen animal de alta calidad, como la hl'lrina de peselldo, parece ser m4s conveniente que la combi-naci6n de puliduras con fuentes prote1hlcas de orige~ vegetal. Aparentemente III meUonina sería el aminoácido susceptible de ser deficiente en las dietas de puliduras de arroz con fuentes proteínicas vegt:tales. sin embargo, es necesario obtener m~s informaciÓn sobre este particular, antes de proponar una conclu-siÓn de tipo general.Cuadro 7.Efecto de diferentes fuentes proteIhicas en la utilizaciÓn de puliduras de arroz, en dietas para cerdos en crecimiento y acabado (lB -90 kg). bl Dietas calculadas isoproteíntcas (16% prot.).Efecto de la adulteraciÓn de las pulidaras de arroz con cáscaras de arroz molidas POMblemente. el aspecto pr~ctico de mayor importancia en la utilizaci6n de las puliduras de arroz en alimentaciÓn porcina, es la falta de consistencia en su composición qUfinicR, La falta de uniformidad dc la caUdad alimenticia de las puliduras se puede deber a causaS accidentales relacionadas con la ineficiencia en el proceso de molienda o pulido que no permite una separaei6n efectiva del salvado y de las puliduras; tambi6n puede deberse a cau~as intencionales debjdo a la inclusi6n de cáscaras de arroz molidoR. Aunf]lIe estas anormalidades pueden ser detectadas mediante una aproeiaci6n macrosc6pica del producto, el mejOl' método y el más sencillo seda obtener la determinaci6n de protetna cruda.Con el fin de estudiar el efecto de la adici6n de cáscaras <le nTroz se pro-ccdi6 a preparar diferentes combinaclonefl de puliduraf'l de arroz dt: btlf~na calidad con cantidades variables de cáscara (k~ nr'ro7. moliJa, de f'1rmn de obtener adulteraciones del 10, 20, 30 Y 40 por cientoo Por ejemplo, para obtener una adul-• !i-:ternc16\" del 30 por ciento se mezclaron 18 kllogrnmos de c¡{scara do arroz roolilia con 42 kilogramos de pulic'uras de arroz de buena calidad, de manera. que. en 61) kilogramos de mezcla, el 30 por ~iento (18 kilogramos) estaba constituido por 18S c'scaras de arroz molidas. En el Cuadro 9 se presentan 108 resultados de los análisis qurmlcos de e$tc tipo de mczcbs; como era de esperarse, la tnclustdn de cantld::I(1es creckntes de e!'iscara de arroz molida resulta en una diluciÓn de loa contenidos de proteIha y de graRll. y en un aumento progresivo del contenido de fibra cruda y de cenizas.El Cuadro 10 presenta la composicio:'Sn de las dietas expt:lrimentales para el perrodo de crecimiento, con puliduras de arroz que contienen 10, 20, 30 Y 40 por ciento de c!1.scara de arroz molida. El remplazo de las düerentes combinaciones fue hecho peso por peso, sin m:;,diiicar la cf.l1ltribucH5n de los otros ingredientes y por lo tanto, las dietas de crecimiento variaban en su contenido final de protefha, desde 18.8 hasta 15.8 por ciento. para las dietaS con O hasta 40 por ciento de aduUeración de cáscara de arroz, respectivamente o Las dietas de acabado teman I::ont.cnidos de prote:l'na del 15.8 hasta 12.8, para los mismos rangos de adulteración con cáscara de arroz. Los resultados de este experimento se presentan en el Cuadro 11, pal\"8 los períodos de crecimiento y de acabado. La adulterací6n de las pulidul'as de arroz con niveles crecientes de Cuadro 9.CompQsici6n química de las puliduras de af'rOZ con niveles crecientes de adulteract6n con cáscaras de arro.Z molidas. cáscara de arroz molida, no afectd significativamente el aumento de peso de los cerdos en crecimiento y acabado, pero el eíecto principal se manifestó' en u.n aumento del consumo de la8 dietas con mayores contenido>! de cáscara de arro.z resultando en conversiones alimenticias inferiores, es decir, la cantidad de dieta por un kilogr9tno de aumento de peso aumentaba conforme se incrementaban los niveles de cd.scara. de arroz en las puliduras~ Un experimento en el cual se prepararon dietas isoprotelhicss. con los mismos niveles de adultcracio:'Sn con cáscaras molidas, mostl'o:'S resultados pdcticamente similares a los descritos con niveles de proterna variable.Los datoS' obtenidos en la evaluacMn de pulidurns experiment.almente a-dulteradaFl con la inclusi6n de c¡'{scaras de arroz moWlas, indican Cf!.1e el cerdo puede soportar niveles relativamente altos de fibra crurla en dietas de crecfmien- Niveles protefna dictas, % a/ Promedios de diez cerdos por grupo. Perfodo experimental: 98 dflls.to y acabado, sin que afecte conSiderablemente su velocidad de crecimiento. El parámetro afectado de importancla económica fue la cant.idad de alimento requerido para obtener una determiuada ganancia de pesoo Los cerdos son obligados a consumir mayor cantidad de a.limento para compensar la reduCciÓn energC'tica de la raci~n con altos contenidos de fibra. Nutricionalmente, las puliduras de arroz con alto contenido de fibra y bajo contenido de protefna, deberran de ser má:s baratas que aquellas de buena calidad.Empleo de nivclüs crecientes de melaza con dietas a base de puliduras de arroz Uno de los factores responsables de los bajos rendimientos producidos en cerdos alimentados con dietas a base de puliduras de arroz es el consum'J limitado de éstas, especialmente cuando se compal\"an con las raciones testigo a base de marz y torta de soya. Aparentemente, la consistencia física de las dietas o su sabor afectan su consumo por parte de 108 animales. Se observaron aumcn-.'• tOA en el cOJ1flumo con In rtdlc16n do 87.I1car n lml didn3 H bm'lc e1i) pull(luras do arroz, pero el precio de dicho producto es muy alto panl juslificar su uso pr~c tlco en raciones para cerdos. La melaza de caña (:oMtituye un subproducto disponible en la mpyorla de 108 pafses latinoamericanos, emple:ffldose normalmente en alimentaci6n animal, La adici/'ln de melaza, por fin alto contenido de azdcares, mejorarla la gu~:to8idad de las dietaS a base de puliduras de arroz y la oombinaci<5n de estos dos subproductos agroindustriales sustituirla totalmente los granos de cereales. En el presente trabajo se describen varios estudios sobre nutrición porcina realizados como parte de las act.tvidades de investigación orientadas a desarrollar programas de alimentación basados en el uso de subproductos agroindustrlales. e•n este caso. de puliduraR de arroz.Los subproductos del proceso de molinerra o pulido de arroz tienen Variados usos pero las puliduras son normalm(!nte empleadas en allmentacit'5n a-. ;~ , A-,\"nlmal, eRpecialmctlte pnfa cerdos y aves. Las puliduras de arroz de buena cnlidad pueden constihtir la fuente energ6tica principal, en dietas para cerdos en crecimiento y acabado.El exceso de proteína en dietas a base de pulíduras no mejora el crecimiento de los animales; por lo tanto, las dietas deben ser balanceadas para cubrir los requerimientos nutricionales de 108 cerdos. La caltdad de la prutelha suplementaria es de rnucha importancia, obteniéndose mejores resultados con la combinación de fuentes protefuicas de origen animal de buena calidad, como es ln harina de pescado. Se requiere olJtencr mayor inforrnacMn para conocer mejor el potencial nutricional de combinaciones de puliduras con fuentes protetni-eaS de origen vegetal.La calidad nutricional de bs puliduras de arroz puede ser afect<1dn por la adulteraci6n con cáscara ,de arroz molida. resultando un producto alto en fibra y bajo en proterna. LOA cerdos en crecimiento y a~abado pueden consumir dietal'> con puliduras altas en fibra, sin afectar significativamente el crecimiento pero el consumo de las dietas ea mayor; el resultado es una men8r eficiencia d.:l conversión alimenticia.El empleo de niveles crecientes de melaZa en un.a dicta basal, constituida principalm3nte de puliduras y de torta de soya, permite sustituir totalmante los granos de cere;¡les por una combinaci6n dJ estos dos suhproductos agroindustriales. Se obtienen resultarlos similares utilizando graBa animal y m01aza de Ca.'1a. ","tokenCount":"2918"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0a65770120a44a1c450fc54f52318658","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/35b72c82-d2c2-4969-8acc-aadc9119aacc/retrieve","id":"-1243793476"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"49aeefa9-2893-4910-9a7f-43e8d91fc8af","pagecount":"20","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), brings together the world's best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth System Science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. www.ccafs.cgiar.org.• Julian Gonsalves Reminders:• Community innovation development funds can encourage farmer experimentation, thereby building capacities to innovate/adapt.• CBA is a bottom up approach that is driven by community needs and priorities. The process is context specific but lessons can be drawn for scaling out efforts.• Identifying options for adaptation at the community level can help build adaptive capacities.• It is important to understand the differential impacts of climate change on men and women.• Communities with more assets and diverse income sources can better adapt to climate change.","tokenCount":"143"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f3d2eb0cf4aad43c330b1ef4a3fe15b4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7569cffe-73dc-4466-9ebf-8f0a8f76b3a5/retrieve","id":"732644374"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9045d19b-8c60-43c4-b770-b62209d443b2","pagecount":"63","content":"Numerous approaches have been developed by researchers for measuring intra-household decisionmaking. Most use quantitative surveys that often rely on a standard set of questions that inquire about who contributes to key household decisions or women's abilities to participate in these decisions. Such questions have been criticized for focusing too much on the identity of the decision maker and less on understanding why and how decisions get made within the household and on the multiple facets of women's roles in decision-making processes 1 . To address the shortcomings of current approaches, we (an interdisciplinary group of applied gender and agriculture researchers) developed a transdisciplinary and mixed-methods approach that can be adapted across livelihoods and geographies to measure intra-household decision making and shed light on the \"who,\" \"why,\" and \"how\" of important household decisions. This guide describes the transdisciplinary process that was used to develop the mixed-methods research tool for understanding and measuring intra-household decision making. In our approach, we focus on measuring who makes which decisions, how, and why and how this influences food, nutrition, and economic security outcomes. This guide, therefore, provides a base for other researchers and development practitioners to develop a context-specific mixed-methods tool for understanding and measuring intra-household decision making. Future users of the tool will be able to explore, in particular, the following research questions:1. Who within the household makes decisions on production, processing, trading, and expenditures? 2. Why does one spouse or the other (or another household member) make certain decisions? 3. What process(es) do couples or other dyads use to make these production-, processing-, trading-and expenditure-related decisions? 4. What types of 'mental tasks' (cognitive labor) are embedded within these decision-making processes? Who is responsible for these mental tasks? Why? 5. How do decision-making processes (who decides, how and why) influence specific food and nutrition security and economic outcomes at household level?The tool was developed in the context of the cassava value chain in Tanzania, focusing on agricultural-and expenditure-related decisions. However, the tool and its development were designed to be flexible, and it has considerable potential to be applied to other types of livelihoods and in other geographies.The development of this mixed-method research tool received human subjects/ethical research approval and appropriate guidelines were followed.This section presents the step-by-step process that was used to develop the Household Mixed-Methods for the Study of decision-Making Research Tool (HOMME-SMART). In Figure 1 we summarize the eight-step process that we used. Breaking down the process into stepsStep 1: Literature reviewWe reviewed the literature to identify the issues and knowledge gaps concerning the measurement of intra-household decision making. The review helped to justify why there is a need to develop a mixed-methods research tool. The following are the key highlights:• While there is wide acceptance of women's empowerment as an important development goal, there is less consensus on how best to measure empowerment across contexts. These concerns are especially salient to quantitative approaches, which often rely on a standard set of questions that inquire about women's abilities to participate in a range of decisions within the household (see Box 1).Box 1. Examples of tools to measure women's involvement in making intra-household decisionsThe Demographic Health Surveys (e.g., see Tanzania DHS-MIS Report, 2016) ask women and men who usually makes decisions on major household purchases, allowing respondents to indicate that decisions are made by the respondent, the respondent's spouse/partner, jointly with the spouse/partner, or other. The project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index asks women and men to indicate, from among the agricultural activities they participate in, which individuals (up to three) normally make the decision on a given activity, how much input they contributed to the decision, and to what extent they could participate (if they currently do not). It does not explore further how decision-making processes unfold and why household members make certain decisions alone or jointly with other members (Malapit et al., 2019).• Questions about women's involvement in decision making within the household have been criticized for numerous reasons, including too much focus on the identity of the decision maker and less on understanding why and how decisions get made within the household and on the multiple facets of women's roles in decision-making processes (Bernard et al., 2020). Asking questions beyond who makes decisions (and to what extent) is especially important given that in many rural, low-income country contexts (especially in Africa) spouses may not pool resources generated from their labor or have the same preferences for how resources get allocated. Asking why and how decisions are made can improve the measurement and understanding of intra-household power dynamics. • Decision-making questions are formulated using outsider (or etic) perspectives on what matters regarding intra-household decision making, and more broadly, women's empowerment (Elias et al., 2021 2 ). Yet, emic (insider) perspectives are a critical source of information and can help inform the development of questions and overall research tools. Step 2: Stakeholder consultationIn the early stages of developing this tool, we consulted with a diverse set of local stakeholders to inform the design of the tool and to gauge their interests in utilizing the proposed tool once developed to better understand and measure intra-household decision making for their research or development programs. We recommend that all projects intending to use this approach also consult relevant stakeholders.Consultations were held with stakeholders in and around the study regions in Tanzania to learn from their experiences and knowledge about intra-household decision making as it relates to their programmatic work and agricultural context. The consultations also assessed the demand for such a tool to understand and measure intra-household decision making. A brief guide was developed to facilitate the discussions with the stakeholders (Annex 1) and was deployed with researchers from the national program who are involved in social and gender research, and practitioners from development organizations.The consultation with stakeholders enabled the research team to identify priority topics for developing the qualitative tool. For example, information from stakeholder consultations enabled the research team to identify the types of interview questions to ask, how to consider other household members in addition to couples, and type of crops to consider (food versus cash crops).The stakeholder interviews also helped us consider important issues, such as the importance of the identity of the decision-maker and the beneficiaries of the decisions. Their recommendations also included the need to address issues of financial accessibility and type of marital relationships and how to handle interviews with polygynous households, for instance. This was specifically taken into consideration during the study where the decision on which of the wives should participate in the study with the husband was left for such households to decide on their own.Step 3: Designing the dyadic interview discussion guideThe literature review and stakeholder consultations informed the development of the qualitative discussion guide, which was used when jointly interviewing dyads on intra-household decision making. The process of developing the dyadic interview guide involved back-and-forth discussions among research team members while keeping the key research questions in mind. The first section of the discussion guide seeks to explore \"who does what and why\" and \"who decides and why\" with regards to different agricultural tasks within the (in our case) cassava value chain, and the second part covers the \"how couples make decisions,\" \"why,\" and \"cognitive labor\" questions. The questions on the use of cognitive labor were developed based on the framework by Daminger (2019 6 ). According to this framework, cognitive labor may entail:1. Anticipating the need to do something 2. Identifying options to completing it 3. Making decisions to pursue it 4. Monitoring the results from making the decisionIn addition, at the start of the discussion guide there is a section inquiring about basic demographic information and the household's involvement in cassava value chain activities. A couple of other questions inquire about subjective and relative livelihood status.The semi-structured interviews were designed in a format that allowed the same issues to be discussed with multiple decision-making dyads (e.g., married couple or a woman heading her household who resides with an adult daughter or son). The open-ended questions allowed participants to respond in their own words, and the interviewer could frame follow-up questions as necessary based on responses.To aid comprehension and improve response quality, the discussion guide also allowed participants to demonstrate their answers with beans in questions requiring estimates of proportions or percentages. Also, cards with images that depicted specific cassava production, processing, and trading tasks associated with decision-making questions were developed and included in the guide (see in Annex 2). The purpose of developing these cards and including them into the tool was to enable dyads to visualize specific activities they engage in and help trigger discussions with them while providing the opportunity for the research team to better understand who within the household carries out the different cassava value chain tasks, who makes final decisions on such tasks, and why.Once the discussion guide was finalized, it was piloted. A research protocol that describes all aspects of study procedures and research plan was developed. The protocol highlights the research objectives, main research questions, specifies study area and describes the approach to participant selection as described in Step 4 below. It also explains the composition of the field research team and how team members are to be trained. In addition, the protocol describes how data will be handled and analyzed and lists expected study outputs.Step 4: Piloting of the qualitative dyadic interviewsPrior to piloting the qualitative dyadic interviews, the field team was trained on the discussion guide and study protocol. The field team was responsible for translating the discussion guides and consent forms into Kiswahili (the language in which the interviews were conducted). They also developed a qualitative data entry/note taking sheet and practiced administering the interviews.Once the training was completed, the discussion guide was pretested with a few dyads to assess it for clarity and relevance prior to conducting the pilot. The assessment also entailed checking for length of interview (time needed to complete the interview) and ease of asking questions. The feedback from the pretest helped in modifying the final version.We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 married/cohabiting couples and other dyads (20 interviews in each of the two study regions). Before the research team travelled to the pilot study area, respective local governments at regional and district levels were informed about the study through official letters. Upon arrival, the research team paid courtesy calls, and, in each district, an extension officer was designated to work with the research team during the entire period of data collection. The extension officer served as both local contact and liaison between the research team and study participants.The protocol for conducting interviews with couples and other dyads entailed first an introduction by the research team (1 woman and 1 man who took turns interviewing and taking notes) and second obtaining the informed consent of both study participants. All the interviews were audio recorded. The target couples and dyads for the study were those who lived together and who participated in cassava value chain activities, and therefore, made cassava production, processing, and/or trading decisions along with key expenditure-related decisions together or separately within their households. The couples and other dyads who comprised the qualitative study sample included:1. Married/cohabiting couples (often, men as heads of households but not always, and including monogamous and polygynous couples) 2. Women as heads of households, not married but living with their adult female or male child(ren)/dependents (> 18 years or older)In polygynous households, the research team did not ask to speak with multiple wives and their husband, but rather, they were asked to organize themselves according to how they wish to present themselves. In most cases, the husband decided who among his wives would participate in the interview.Concerning the latter dyad type, very few dyads who met this profile were identified during the study. In many cases, a woman heading her household and not married was living with a child or children under the age of 18, which were unable to be interviewed given the human subjects requirements, and importantly were likely not responsible for making significant decisions in the household.Step 5: Analysis of the qualitative dyadic interviews and vignette developmentOnce the qualitative dyadic interviews were completed, the recordings of the interviews were transcribed and translated into English and then were added into the ATLAS.ti software for analysis.Prior to the analysis, a coding structure (Figure 2), which included inductive and deductive codes, was developed by conducting a preliminary analysis of select transcripts. The coding structure is based on a process framework for decision making and potential inputs into that process. The analysis resulted in 80 individual decision-making patterns, two each from the 40 interviewed couples and other dyads. That is, for each interview, two different patterns in terms of visualizations (see Figure 3 as an example) were developed to represent agriculture-and expenditure-related decisions, respectively. Thereafter, research team members (2 women, 2 men) came together for an analysis workshop to analyze the different patterns/visualizations. During the workshop, the visualizations were printed and similar decision-making patterns were grouped together. This process resulted in the identification of seven main decision-making patterns, which informed the development of seven vignettes 7 (see in Annex 3) on how agriculture-and expenditure-related decisions are made amongst married/cohabiting couples, each stemming from a decision-making pattern. The short stories for each of the decision-making patterns were developed using the content contained in the visualizations of the individual patterns within the seven decision-making pattern groupings. Thereafter, the patterns were ready for validation in the study regions.7 A vignette is a short story lasting one to two minutes that is verbally presented during a qualitative or quantitative interview to illustrate a difficult concept or process and enable interviewees to respond in a more precise and comfortable manner, especially when the topic under study is relatively sensitive (e.g., decision making within the household). Thus, a vignette serves as both a stimulus and aid to encourage respondents to discuss their thoughts more openly.Additionally, it is worth noting that although there were a few other types of dyads (motherson/mother-daughter dyads) apart from couples, for this study we did not focus on their decisionmaking patterns, because they comprised only a small portion of the sample. Thus, the patterns reflect those of married/cohabiting couples only.Step 6: Validation of the vignettes (decision-making patterns)Once the vignettes were developed, we validated them in the two study regions using drama skits and Focus Group Discussion (FGDs). Doing so allowed us to consult people within a select number of communities on whether the vignettes represent real-life scenarios of couples making agricultureand expenditure-related decisions. First, scripts for the drama skits were developed by a local script writer and reviewed by the research team (see Annex 4). Then, a drama group was identified, and the scripts were provided to the group for rehearsing.The drama skits were performed in the study districts where qualitative data collection was conducted. The skits were followed by FGDs. This took place in two study areas (where qualitative data were collected) and one in a non-study area. In total, nine FGDs were conducted, each comprising six participants. In each of the three districts, there was one mixed-sex FGD, and two separate-sex FGDs (1 women only, 1 men only). The participants of the FGDs comprised representatives of married/cohabiting women and men, including those in monogamous and polygynous relationships. In each case the drama group acted out the different drama skits while FGD participants watched. During the FGDs, a guide was used to facilitate the discussion and the research team took notes using a prepared data collection sheet.Photo 1: Validating the vignettes using drama and focus group discussions in Kagera and Kigoma regions, Tanzania. Photo credit: Gloriana Ndibalema.In addition to FGDs, a brief key informant interview, with a researcher based in the region at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute who is considered an expert on the topic of intra-household decision making, was conducted to receive feedback on the vignettes. The printed and laminated vignette description cards were presented to the key informant who read and provided their comments based on guiding questions.The validation process indicated that all the seven vignettes represented the decision-making scenarios in the study area, although certain patterns were found to be more/less dominant across the study communities.After the validation process, the seven vignettes were ready to be embedded into the household survey.Step 7: Quantitative survey module developmentIn this step we developed a module that was designed to be embedded in a multi-topic household survey. The decision-making module was, to a great extent, informed by findings from the qualitative study.Two main decision-making modules were developed. The first module was on who makes decisions within the household, how and why. Following a discussion (and analysis) it was determined that eight questions on decision-making topics related to production, processing, marketing, and expenditure would be asked. These topics were selected based on decisions perceived by couples and other dyads to be important during the qualitative study and allowed us to focus on matters that are important and have meaning to individuals/couples. The vignettes on the decision-making patterns were included in this first decision-making module. Questions were developed around the vignettes. Illustrations for each decision-making pattern were developed and printed on cards to help with understanding the vignettes during implementation of this module.The research team also had to decide which potential response options to include to address the \"why\" questions in this module. The responses on why decisions are made by one individual or jointly were grouped based on their similarities. The groupings for why decisions get made by one spouse or the other included:1. Contributes the most resources, income, or labor to the activity 2. Is the head of household 3. Introduced the idea 4. Makes decisions about this and I make decisions about other things 5. Is the most knowledgeable about this activityThe groupings for why decisions get made jointly included:1. Both agree on/support the decision 2. Both contribute resources, income, or labor to the activity 3. All decisions on the topic are made togetherThe research team also had to decide which questions to include in this first decision-making module on cognitive labor. These included questions on monitoring and evaluation of the outcome(s) from household's decisions about different agriculture-and expenditure-related topics. Other aspects of cognitive labor like anticipation of the need to do something and identifying options or making sole or joint decisions were embedded in the vignettes that were part of the module.The second decision-making module was developed to collect data on participation in specific activities related to the decision-making questions asked in the other module.In addition to the two decision-making modules we developed, several other modules were developed or pulled from existing resources. Modules on background characteristics covered household characteristics, asset ownership, group participation, and access to extension services and finance. We also included modules on the key outcomes that we expected to be associated with different decision-making patterns. These included dietary diversity, food security, and cassava production and productivity and sales.See Annex 5 for the quantitative tool.Step 8: Piloting of the quantitative survey with the decision-making modulePrior to the commencement of quantitative data collection, an enumerator training was organized.The training comprised different activities including review and digitization of the quantitative tool.The enumerators also practiced administering the survey in preparation for the pretest, which was conducted after the training. After receiving data from the pretest, the tool was refined, and a few modifications were made to it as necessary.Photo 2: Survey practice during training in Kagera Region, Tanzania. Photo credit: Devis Mwakanyamale.After the revision of the quantitative household survey, including the decision-making module, it was administered in a large household survey. It was administered to a total of 1352 randomly selected households (or couples). In half of the sample (joint interview sample), spouses were interviewed together for all the modules except for the one on dietary diversity. For this module, only the wife was interviewed. In the other half of the sample (separate interview sample), spouses were interviewed together from the beginning of the survey, but then were interviewed separately for the two decision-making modules. Again, only the wife was interviewed for the module on minimum dietary diversity. The decision to conduct the interviews using these two approaches aimed at assisting the research team to examine the issue of heterogeneity in the interpretation of who makes decision within the household as identified in the literature review. For example, studies show the need for new research tools that can reduce differences in reporting of decision making between spouses by improving how decision-making questions are formulated and asked (Ambler et al., 2017).Annex: Mixed-methods research tool for measuring and understanding intra-household decision making The purpose of stakeholder consultation is to inform the design of the tool and to gauge the interests of local stakeholders in utilizing the proposed tool once developed to better understand and measure intra-household decision making for their research or development programs.1. Looking at your target communities/project participants, what are the main agricultural crops that they grow? (Establish a cassava or other crop focus based on information provided) 2. We would now like to focus on how husbands and wives take decisions on agricultural matters in your target communities: Are these kinds of decisions part of the work at your organization? Why have you decided to make household decision-making part of your work? What is problematic about household-decision making in your eyes? 3. Are you aware of any successful strategies to transform household decision-making towards more equity? In the stakeholder's own organization? Observed in other organizations' work? 4. What are the challenges you have encountered in your work on household decision-making?How could these be coped with? 5. What is your demand in terms of tools for understanding, measuring, and transforming household decision-making? 6. Do you conduct surveys to understand agricultural and social development challenges that your organization can address? How? What are your experiences? 7. Do you consult the literature for the design of an intervention? How? How useful is that? 8. Do you use behavior change communication in your work? How? Why? Examples 9. What should we consider when developing the vignettes? Is it a good strategy to validate the vignettes through drama skits? Would you be interested in learning about the process? What would make the vignettes/skits suitable to your needs? 10. What should we consider when developing the survey tool? What would make it suitable to your needs? 11. Would you like to be kept informed about our work including outputs? The purpose of this section is to understand broadly what nodes of the value chain the household participates in and to what extent to understand better whether the household produces cassava primarily as a food or cash crop (or both), processes cassava only for food or for sale (or both), trades cassava in small or larger quantities or not at all. In addition, we are interested in understanding if the household diet is cassava based or cassava is consumed together with other staples or not at all (e.g., only grown as a cash crop). In this section, we are not interested in learning about all the production-, processing-, or trading-related tasks the household (or its members) engage in, and who does which tasks, but rather trying to understand which nodes the household participates in and the purpose of engaging in each node for food or cash (or both) reasons.1.a. Ask the dyad, \"Does your household [produce/cultivate OR process OR trade] cassava?\" Document whether the household produces and/or processes and/or trades cassava. Part A. Intra-household decision making (who and why)1. Determining who within the household carries out cassava value chain activities, who makes the decisions on cassava value chain related matters and whyIn this section, we will draw on the responses above in the section entitled, 'Participation in cassava value chain activities and to what extent'. We will use their responses in this section to determine the setup of the participatory exercise with the dyad.Based on your responses above on the types of activities your household participates in and the extent of this participation, we would like to take you through an exercise to help us better understand who within the household carries out specific cassava production, processing, and trading/marketing tasks, and who makes the decisions on these matters and why. We will follow several steps to help you both respond to the questions we ask during the exercise. Please work together to respond to these questions. Please feel free to discuss while answering the questions, there are no right or wrong answers.Steps in the exercise to follow by asking specific questions or guiding the dyad through the process. Note: Document the five tasks they chose.*See draft cards in Annex A. ^Note, the dyad could identify all tasks as being 'higher' or all tasks as being 'lower' level of importance. This would influence how the process flows from then on. †Note, in some cases there will be < 5 tasks, and thus proceed with asking the three questions (in 4.b) for all tasks. In other cases, the dyad only engages in activities in the production node and then proceed to 4.b for those five tasks that are most important. But in other cases, there will be very few tasks regarded as higher-level of importance and then proceed to 4.b for those tasks. Finally, if the dyad engages in all nodes of the value chain and in many/all tasks, ask them to choose 3, 1, and 1 tasks in the production, processing, and trading nodes, respectively OR if the dyad engages in two nodes (e.g., production and processing/trading), then ask them to choose 4 and 1 tasks in the production and processing/trading nodes, respectively.2. Expenditure-related roles, responsibilities, and decision making within the household 1. Who is responsible for holding the income after you sell your cassava products?Who makes the final decision on how the income is used from your cassava sales?Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together?Who makes the final decision on which foods to purchase?Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together? 3. Who is primarily responsible for distributing food amongst different household members? Who makes the final decision on how much food is distributed to different household members? Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together? 4. Who is primarily responsible for purchasing the farming inputs needed to produce cassava (e.g., fertilizer or tools and equipment)?Who makes the final decision on whether to purchase farming inputs to produce cassava?Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together? 5. Who is primarily responsible for purchasing household items of larger value (e.g., mattress, sofa, bicycle or motorcycle, television, etc.) Who makes the final decision on what larger household items get purchased?Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together? 6. Who is primarily responsible for accessing financial loans and services? Determine if formal or informal loans are typically obtained (e.g., from a bank versus VICOBA) Who makes the final decision on whether to access financial loans and services?Why is this person in charge of making this decision or why does this decision get made jointly together? Part B. Intra-household decision making (the process and the use of cognitive labor) 1. The process dyads use to make important decisions on cassava production and postharvest related matters and the cognitive labor they use 8Based Were there any concerns or issues that arouse during this interview concerning the topics we brought up and their relevance? Where there any specific issues that made you uncomfortable or that could help us improve the questionnaire? 5. Do you think it is preferable to make decisions together or alone? Which types of decisions and why? 6. How do you feel now that you had these discussions? - ------------------------------------------------------------Thank the dyad for participating in the interview. Ask each person how they are feeling after participating in the interview. Remind each person that if they wish to contact anyone on the research team, that the contact information is available in the informed consent form that was provided to them.Production-related task cards and associated decision-making questions Draw on the above responses in the guide on household participation in cassava value chain activities to specify food versus cash crop OR both. *Products could include fresh roots, cassava flour or dried cassava chips. To be determined when asking about this task.Vignette A: Husband shares idea, discusses with wife, and husband makes the final decisionThe husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X]. The husband shares his idea with his wife, and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the wife confirms she is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the husband considers before he makes the final decision.The wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made. The wife shares her idea with her husband, and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or alternative options from either the husband or wife are considered before the husband makes the final decision.Vignette C: Husband shares idea, discusses with wife, and they make a joint final decisionThe husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made. The husband shares his idea with his wife, and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the wife confirms she is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the husband considers before the husband and wife make a joint final decision.The wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made.The wife shares her idea with her husband, and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the wife considers before the wife and husband make a joint final decision.The wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made.The wife shares her idea with her husband, and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or the wife considers an alternative option from her husband before she makes the final decision.The husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made. After sharing his idea with his wife, he makes the final decision. Mr. NYAMWALA: Alright! Now, as soon as the rains begins, we will start farming. We will use the two acres of land that are close to our maize field. I will follow up with our extension officer about where to get clean seeds of improved cassava varieties. So, get prepared for the work, okay? Mrs. It's okay my husband (Mr. NYAMWALA and his wife, agree to start cassava cultivation from next spring to address the effects of climate change).After the harvest season, one day Mrs. Tumbo meets Mrs. Nyamwala at the well and asks her how it is they do not complain about hunger in the village when the situation is bad for most people.Mrs. TUMBO: My husband, I have something that troubles me. In my home the situation is dire, and hunger has gripped every corner. But why doesn't your family complain, and you never go to ask for free corn from the local government? Mrs. NYAMWALA: My husband and I decided to focus on cassava farming and now things are not so bad. We get enough food and a little surplus that we sell other people to earn additional income. Mrs. TUMBO: Wow! I didn't know that secret. So, when I get home, the first thing I do is share it with my husband. (They said goodbye to one another and returned home while Mrs. TUMBO intending to share with her husband about expanding cassava cultivation) Mrs. TUMBO: My husband! Where are you? Mr. TUMBO: I'm in the kitchen madam! Why are you calling out so loud? Mrs. TUMBO: My husband, there is something I want to share with you. Mr. TUMBO: What is that thing that drives you crazy this evening? Mrs. TUMBO: You know what, our friends Mr. and Mrs. Nyamwala are not hungry this year. Mr. TUMBO: Let me come closer! Mrs. TUMBO: I asked his wife, she said they worked hard on cassava, and they now have sufficient food. In fact, my husband, I wish we could also expand our cassava farm this coming season. Mr. TUMBO: My wife, you told me something very important today. This idea was brought by Mr. Samanga but I ignored it. I didn't know Mr. Nyamwala took it seriously. Mrs. TUMBO: Yes, my husband. They decided to act on the idea and have reaped the benefits of their decision. Why can't we also expand cassava production? We haven't used that other farm for the past three years. Its soil is suitable for cassava production. Mr. TUMBO: (After pondering for a while) I see! It's true my wife. There is a need for us to increase the size of cassava farm and use improved seed. That way, we will harvest more and curb the problem of food shortage. Mrs. TUMBO: Sure! Mr. TUMBO: So, I have decided that this coming season, we will expand our cassava field.It has been five years since the people of Kazamoyo became involved in cassava farming. Cassava production benefits them greatly and some villagers decide to get involved in livestock keeping. On the way to the farm, Mrs. MASAPA shares something with her husband.Mrs. MASAPA: My husband! Mr. MASAPA: Yes, my wife, what do you want to say? Mrs. MASAPA: You know we have been farming all these years and made a lot of money. I was thinking we should start raising goats now. How do you feel about that, my dear? Mr. MASAPA: I am sure you are aware that I don't like to get involved with the livestock. Your idea is good, but if you want to start that project be certain that you will be responsible of taking care of the goats, not me! Mrs. MASAPA: Don't worry, I will take charge of the project dear. But if I may ask, are you afraid of animals or it is just a disgust? Mr. MASAPA: Oh my gosh! Everyone has their own preferences. You go do some research and consult a vet officer then you will let me know how much it costs. I will support you with the start-up cost, including the cost of the shed. Mrs. MASAPA: I have done some research on the costs and other requirements related to goat farming already. Mr. MASAPA: Oooh, you had gone that far already Mrs. MASAPA: Yes, my husband. I went to Mrs. Othman and found out they have many goats and shared with me the costs of how to start goat farming. Here is the breakdown. Mr. MASAPA: Mh! So, you are this serious! Okay, tell me, what is your though now? Mrs. MASAPA: I have decided we will raise the goats. The cost is not high as you have seen. So, I will manage them well and you will see the results. (Mrs. Masapa concludes the discussion by deciding to manage the entire project and her husband trusted her and supported her financially and with ideas).Mr. Kipwipwi and his family have been engaged in cassava cultivation for a long time even before cassava experts arrived in Kazamoyo village. Currently, he is not satisfied with the production of the crop despite the field being large.Mr. KIPWIPWI: (Leaning down, thinking deeply) All this big field I harvest only a handful, why should we waste our energy on this big farm? I think something must change. (Mr. Kipwipwi shares his thoughts with his wife) Mr. Kipwipwi: My wife Mrs. KIPWIPWI: Yes, my husband. Mr. KIPWIPWI: Our cassava harvest is not proportional to the size of the farm. I have made up my mind that next season we will grow cassava on two acres only instead of the five Mrs. KIPWIPWI: Okay Mr. KIPWIPWI: So, we will use the remaining 3 acres for other crops like beans and maize Mrs. KIPWIPWI: Okay (Mr. Kipwipwi decides to reduce the size of cassava farm).  Now we will read some stories about how couples make a decision on this topic.We will also show you pictures that illustrate how couples make a decision on this topic.After hearing these stories and looking at the pictures, we will ask you which couple is the most similar in how you make decisions.Among the couples that you resemble, which is the MOST similar to your couple?What is the MOST important reason why [YOU/YOUR HUSBAND/YOUR WIFE] generally make the final decisions about [X]?What is the MOST important reason why you and your husband/wife make the final decisions about [X] jointly together?HUSBAND The husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The husband shares his idea with his wife and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the wife confirms she is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the husband considers before he makes the final decision.The wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The wife shares her idea with her husband and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or 59 alternative options from either the husband or wife are considered before the husband makes the final decision.The husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The husband shares his idea with his wife and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the wife confirms she is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the husband considers before the husband and wife make a joint final decision.Wife shares idea, discusses with husband, and they make a joint final decisionThe wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The wife shares her idea with her husband and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the wife considers before the wife and husband make a joint final decision.The wife realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The wife shares her idea with her husband and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the husband confirms he is supportive of the idea and/or the wife considers an alternative option from her husband before she makes the final decision.The husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. The husband shares his idea with his wife and they discuss jointly about the idea. After discussing, the wife confirms she is supportive of the idea and/or suggests an alternative option that the husband considers before the wife makes the final decision.The husband realizes something needs to happen or a decision needs to be made regarding [X] decision topic. After sharing his idea with his wife, he makes the final decision.Production -(1) which variety to plant in your main cassava plot; (2) Which area of land should be devoted to the main cassava production; (3) when to harvest cassava from your main plot Processing -(4) how to process the cassava from your main plot Trading - (5) where to sell cassava from your main plot or how much cassava to sell from your main plot Expenditure -(6) building/refurbishing a house; (7) paying school fees I am interested in whether you had the food items I will mention even if they were combined with other foods. For example, if you had a soup made with carrots, potatoes and meat, you should reply \"yes\" for each of these ingredients when I read you the list. However, if you consumed only the broth of a soup, but not the meat or vegetable, do not say \"yes\" for the meat or vegetable.As I ask you about foods and drinks, please think of foods and drinks you had as snacks or small meals as well as during any main meals. Please also remember foods you may have eaten while preparing meals or preparing food for others. Please do not include any food used in a small amount for seasoning or condiments (like chilies, spices, herbs or fish powder). ","tokenCount":"6772"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6069c86859539276c89611627b707b09","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/064d23db-dfbb-467b-8eb9-405c1bdebb5c/retrieve","id":"1629372665"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5801a4ab-7163-430e-9acc-f1c9cff5c12a","pagecount":"8","content":"hen potential risks to the environment from new genetically modified (GM) crops are discussed, the focus is generally on risks of genes escaping to wild relatives that become \"superweeds,\" risks of crops themselves becoming weeds, and the potential that toxins produced by the GM crops (or toxins used to kill pests of engineered crops) will harm nontarget organisms (for example, Johnson, This volume; Rissler and Mellon 1996;Snow and Moran Palma 1997) . These are all tangible risks, that can be diminished if taken seriously. Their worst-case negative impacts on the overall environment in developing countries are relatively small compared to the impact on the environment of rural populations without food security and living in poverty.Because poverty can lead to environmental degradation, we will examine a potential chain of interactions between genetic modification, increased yield, variation in yield, food security, and environmental degradation. We believe that new genetic modification has great potential for increasing yield and decreasing yield variation, but that such accomplishments will require vigilance by scientists and society.Giving farmers the right kind of seeds can never ensure food security, but giving them the wrong kind of seeds always can make things worse. Social scientists know that you cannot alleviate poverty just by growing more food, but agricultural scientists are always being pushed by philanthropic and development organizations to produce more food because food production is a necessary but not sufficient condition for food security (Serageldin 1999). This has led to increased yield becoming a focus of international attention.About 50 years ago agricultural scientists were told that the growing world population would demand that we substantially increase crop yields. Amazingly, agricultural scientists, with the financial aid of many government and private organizations, did a reasonable job of meeting this demand (Conway 1998). Today agricultural scientists are being told to do this again because world population growth by the year 2025 or so will demand that we increase production by 30-50 percent (see Pinstrup-Andersen and Cohen, This volume). A special report in Science (Mann 1999) reviewed recent debates about whether, with or without biotechnology, plants could be pushed to become that much more productive. Even if agricultural science can push plants and soils to meet this demand, what happens in 2025 if the optimistic forecasts of no population growth after that date are incorrect? Do we once again ask agriculturalists to raise yields?One thing that crop and animal breeders have learned over the years is that when you select strongly for improvement in one trait of an organism, be it speed in a race horse, appearance in a dog, or yield in a crop, there are tradeoffs (Falconer and Mackay 1996;Mann 1999). The race horse may be frail, the dog less intelligent, andFred Gould and Michael B. Cohen the crop less capable of dealing with stress. In our efforts to keep increasing maximal or average yield, we must be vigilant not to produce crops that have high variation in yield because they are less capable of withstanding stresses associated with unusual weather or pest outbreaks. There has always been support given to programs that breed for stress resistance, but these programs are often funded with the goal of increasing yield rather than decreasing variation in yield. A number of recent reviews have attempted to determine if the variation in crop yields (statistically adjusted for change in the mean) have changed during the 20th century. The conclusions of these assessments indicate that on a global and continental level overall adjusted variation in yield has not generally increased (Naylor, Falcon, and Zavaleta 1997;Calderini and Slafer 1998), but that the component associated with genetic crop improvement has increased (Calderini and Slafer 1999). This means that the variation in yield is being pushed upward by the varieties of crops grown, but that other factors such as improved irrigation may be balancing out this increase caused by breeding.Unpredicted spatial and temporal variation in yield has a different relative importance depending on your perspective. Local variation in yield gets partially averaged out at the world market scale, and it can be dealt with reasonably well by individual farmers if they have the resources to farm on a three or four year time horizon. But for the subsistence farmer, variation in yield can be critical. If you were a subsistence farmer who could not save harvested corn for more than 12 months, would you rather have a corn cultivar that in five successive years produced 48, 72, 12, 24, and 84 bushels per hectare or a second cultivar that produced 46, 36, 41, 43, and 38 bushels per hectare? Your choice would probably depend greatly on the details of your social and economic situation (for example, whether you had alternative crops or alternative sources of income, and whether you had cash crops; Walker 1989), but in many cases your concern over the 15percent lower average yield of the second cultivar would not outweigh concern over the year when the first cultivar yields 12 bushels per hectare, especially if you could not predict when that year would come. Having the right seed cannot ensure that you will not have variation in yield, but having the wrong seed can guarantee that you will have high variation. The \"race horse\" seeds we produce for resource-rich farmers may not always be the best seeds for subsistence farmers. Our contention is that there is a need to pay substantially more attention to yield stability as we strive for higher average yields. A more radical stance is that increasing yield stability rather than increasing average yield should be the primary goal.Because at the local level, drought, flooding, and pests vary significantly from year to year, cultivars bred with resistance or tolerance to any of these disruptive factors would decrease yield variation and could also result in increased average yield. Genetic engineering has improved and should continue to improve, these traits, but care must be taken in how this is done if a major goal is decreased variability in yield.Crop breeders have long known that some conventionally bred cultivars with resistance to insect and microbial pests may perform wonderfully for the first few years after they are deployed commercially, but then fail miserably in controlling the targeted pests in later years because the pest has evolved a way to cope with the resistance mechanism in the cultivar. Sometimes there is a slow decline in effectiveness of the cultivar, but in other cases the onset of control failure is rapid and unpredictable. If you are a subsistence farmer, the failed performance of such cultivars can mean hardship, especially if the cultivar had previously performed well and long enough for you to gain confidence in it. Indeed some of the criticisms of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s centered on rice cultivars that were rapidly adapted to by insect and microbial pests. For example, brown planthopper populations adapted to the single-gene resistance in the first Green Revolution rices within 2-3 years of their widespread cultivation (Gallagher, Kenmore, and Sogawa 1994), and single-gene resistance to the rice blast fungus has been notoriously unstable (Ou 1985). The longevity of cultivars with single blast resistance genes in Japan has been less than 3 years (Kiyosawa 1982).In industrial countries, breeders and seed producers sometimes try to deal with pest adaptation to widely used crops that have one resistance mechanism by maintaining, in reserve, replacement cultivars with different resistance mechanisms, for example wheat rust (McIntosh and Brown 1997). These systems are sometimes able to replace cultivars in a single season as was the case with the southern corn blight epidemic in the USA. In developing countries, instituting such a system for subsistence crops is difficult or impossible because of limited infrastructure and resources.Not all pest-resistant cultivars are rapidly adapted to by their target pests. Entomologists and plant pathologists have worked hard to predict whether a specific resistant cultivar is likely to work well for a long time under field conditions. This characteristic called \"durable resistance\" has proven to be partially predictable, but many plant pathologists are only willing to judge the durability of a specific type of pest resistance in retrospect.The general problem of pests adapting to any approach used to control them has been the bane of agriculturalists for centuries. Weeds, pathogens, and insects have all overcome various cultural, chemical, and biological approaches used for their control (Gould 1991). Over 500 insect species are known to have adapted to at least one insecticide (Georghiou and Lagunes 1988), and it often takes less than three years for this adaptation to evolve (Forgash 1984). In many developing countries this can severely disrupt food production because replacement insecticides are often not available, and the beneficial insect populations have been decimated by insecticide use.In 1997 and 1998, there was a tragic series of over 400 suicides among cotton farmers in Andra Pradesh, India in response to crop failures that were in part the result of pest adaptation to insecticides (Verma 1998;McGirk 1998). The farmers were heavily in debt because of several seasons of crop failures, caused by irregular rainfall and heavy infestations of the insect pests Spodoptera litura and Helicoverpa armigera. Application of large doses of highly toxic insecticides such as monocrotophos and methomyl were not effective because of pest resistance to these compounds, and their toxicity to predatory and para-sitic arthropods which otherwise could have provided some level of natural biological control.In the 1970s entomologists, plant pathologists, and weed scientists began a concerted effort to use knowledge of evolutionary biology and population genetics to develop strategies for slowing the rate at which pest populations evolved adaptations to control tactics such as pesticides and pest-resistant crops. This approach called \"pest resistance management\" now seems highly appropriate for crops developed using genetic engineering, because there is good reason to predict that some approaches to the development and deployment of engineered pest-resistant crops will last much longer than others.When new genetically improved crops that expressed insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were first developed, there was much concern in the United States about insects adapting to these toxins. Unlike conventionally bred resistant crops, where a resistance mechanism can only be moved within a single crop species, the Bt toxins were being moved into multiple crops, so insects that fed on more than one crop would get multiple exposures. Unlike insecticides that are sprayed only during some time periods in the season when pest pressure is high, the newly developed crops produce the toxin all season long, so all insects in a population can be exposed to the toxin. Everything known about pest adaptation indicated that overuse of such crops could give great control for a limited number of years followed by failure (Tabashnik 1994).In the United States there was one other pertinent fact about Bt crops. B. thuringiensis, the bacterium that was the source of the toxin genes in the crops, has long been sprayed on crops by organic farmers and others as an alternative to chemical insecticides. Organic farmer groups and their supporters protested that the overuse of Bt toxins in genetically engineered crops, and the subsequent development of adapted pests, would leave them without an effective pest control tool. This highlighted two issues: one was the plight of the organic farmer and the other was the unique, environmentally benign nature of Bt toxins compared to conventional pesticides. A set of Bt toxins, sometimes referred to as Bt endotoxins, were known from previous uses to be effective at killing either some caterpillars or some beetle species, but they had no effect on almost all other species. From an environmental perspective these are wonderful toxins, and unless other toxins with this high target specificity can be quickly found, the overuse and loss of Bt toxin efficacy in transgenic crops could send cotton and potato farmers back to spraying environmentally disruptive chemicals.All of the above issues led the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) to finally require that Bt crops be developed and deployed in a manner that would decrease the risk of rapid pest adaptation. EPA staff have worked hard in pushing companies to develop workable resistance management plans (Matten 1998), but to date this has only been partially successful. It is worth examining some of the processes that led to the current situation in the United States to understand better some of the issues that will face developing countries if they attempt a similar approach. We are not privy to all of the workings of the US-EPA so we can only provide an observer's perspective.Prior to the commercialization of any genetically improved crops, the US-EPA held meetings of Scientific Advisory Panels to get advice from experts outside EPA regarding risks of genetically improved crops. One of the recommendations of these panels was to institute resistance management programs. When EPA granted conditional registrations for the first Bt corn cultivars in 1996, one of the conditions was the development of resistance management plans by the year 2000. The EPA felt that such plans were not immediately needed because they expected adoption of these Bt cultivars to proceed more slowly than it actually did. The conditional registration for Bt cotton included a resistance management plan, but this plan is now being reexamined because it lacks rigor. More recent conditional registrations of newer corn cultivars have included more stringent resistance management plans. The imposition of resistance management plans is something new for the US-EPA and the agency has been gaining sophistication in this area over time.In 1998 the EPA convened a Scientific Advisory Panel to reassess the issue of Bt resistance management. The report of this panel (EPA 1998) laid out some clear recommendations to the EPA.After considering a number of potential resistance management strategies, the panel recommended that \"a refuge/high dose strategy must be employed for target pests within the current understanding of the technology.\" They added that \"regulatory strategies should serve to provide growers with a sustainable approach that encourages compliance.\" These were important recommendations worthy of careful examination.We would like to discuss the refuge/high dose strategy in some detail because it is often misunderstood. The high dose portion of this strategy is most easily understood by analogy to the use of antibiotics. When doctors prescribe antibiotics they often give their patients the admonition that even if they feel completely cured after three days, they should continue to take the antibiotic for the full time prescribed. The reason for this is to produce a high dose of antibiotic for an extended time period that will kill even those rare bacterial cells that have a mutant gene conferring partial tolerance of the antibiotic. After three days you may have killed 99 percent of the targeted bacteria, but if the 1 percent that survive have a gene that confers partial tolerance and are transmitted to another individual, his or her infection will be more difficult to treat. More importantly, when that next individual takes the antibiotic, the partially tolerant bacteria may evolve even higher tolerance if among the millions of bacteria involved in the infection there are a few bacteria with other mutations that add to the tolerance conferred by the initial mutation. When a patient takes an antibiotic for the full period prescribed, the expectation is that even the partially tolerant bacteria will be killed. As long as it takes more than one evolutionary step to result in complete tolerance of the antibiotic, the prolonged use of the antibiotic should derail the adaptive process by inhibiting the first step.The use of a high dose of Bt toxin in crops serves a similar (though not identical) purpose. In all cases studied to date it takes more than one gene, or at least more than a single copy of a gene (heterozygous condition) to confer high tolerance of Bt toxins (Tabashnik 1994;Shelton and Roush 1999). When Bt crops are first commercialized it is estimated that about 1 in 1000 individuals may carry one copy of a gene for tolerance of Bt, and only 1 in 1 million would carry the two copies needed to achieve a high level of tolerance (Gould and others 1997). The high dose approach is set up to ensure that each plant that produces Bt toxin produces enough to kill most of the partially tolerant individuals.But if the high dose is used by itself, some insects out of the billions that can infest a local area may have two copies of the gene. If they survive and mate, the Bt crops could rapidly lose effectiveness. This is where the refuge part of the \"refuge/high dose\" approach comes in. All of the current target insects for Bt crops are obligately sexual. That means that they must mate to reproduce, and that their offspring obtain half of their genes from each parent. If a small portion of a farm is planted to a cultivar that does not produce Bt toxin this area serves as a refuge for Bt-susceptible insects. Because the highly tolerant insects are expected to be so rare, they are likely to mate with susceptible insects produced in the refuge. The offspring of these matings will have only one gene for tolerance, and so will be killed if they feed on a Bt-producing plant. By combining the refuge and the high dose, this strategy derails the evolutionary process as long as more than one gene copy is required to survive the high dose. Pests can eventually adapt to such a strategy but the time period required can be 10 to 100 times longer than expected if this strategy is not implemented.The 1998 EPA Scientific Advisory Panel was clear about what constitutes a high dose and what constitutes an effective refuge. They defined a high dose as 25 times the amount of toxin needed to kill susceptible target insects. They concluded that an effective refuge existed when for every insect with a resistance gene produced in the Bt crop there would be 500 susceptible insects produced that could mate with the resistant insects. These are stringent requirements and they work in concert. If a crop does not quite produce a high dose, the expected number of insects with at least one resistance gene increases. This results in the need for a larger refuge to produce the 1:500 ratio.How do these recommendations line up with Bt crops that are now on the market in the United States? With Bt potato the data indicate that there is a high dose for the target pest, Colorado potato beetle (Perlak and others 1993). However, it is not confirmed that farmers are planting effective refuges. With corn, most cultivars produce a high dose for the European corn borer, but not for the corn earworm (Andow and Hutchison 1998). Refuges currently appear large enough for the European corn borer, in part because of lack of full adoption of Bt corn, but the refuges may sometimes be too far from the Bt corn to allow insects from the refuge to cross-mate with insects from the Bt crops. In cotton there is a high dose for the tobacco budworm (a major cotton pest) but not for the corn earworm (also called the cotton bollworm in cotton) (Gould and Tabashnik 1998). Proposed refuges of about 10 percent are expected to be sufficient for the tobacco budworm, but may not be sufficient for the cotton bollworm. There appears to be a high dose in cotton for the pink bollworm, but this has not been completely confirmed. There is certainly room for improvements when the producers of Bt crops present their new resistance management plans to the US-EPA in 2000.If the United States is struggling to meet the requirements for resistance management plans, what does this mean for developing countries? Monsanto has already entered joint ventures in China to produce Bt cotton. At a recent USDA/ EPA workshop (August 1999, Memphis, TN), there was debate as to whether similar resistance management strategies would be required in China. The expert statement was conditioned on the assumption that no Bt corn was grown in China. If that assumption held then the targeted Chinese pest on Bt cotton, Helicoverpa armigera, could utilize non-Bt corn to produce the Bt-susceptible insects. It appears that there now will be Bt corn grown in China, and the Bt cotton that is being planted in China does not have a high dose for the target insect. This is not the kind of scenario that is likely to retard the evolution of adapted pests. If Chinese farmers and administrators come to rely on Bt corn and cotton in the next few years using the current technologies and risk management, there is a clear risk that yields will show variation over time. (It is important to note that one reason that Chinese farmers need Bt cotton is the fact that the target insect pest, Helicoverpa armigera, has adapted to conventional insecticides and can not be effectively controlled.)There is economic pressure in many developing countries to adopt Bt crops that were developed to control U.S. pests. If these crops are sold as \"second hand\" cultivars to these countries, it is hard to imagine that they will usually be effective at thwarting pest adaptation. Unless there are careful contingency plans to deal with the eventual failure of these cultivars, their adoption by developing countries could lead to higher than necessary yield variation. For example, it has been argued that situations such as that in Andra Pradesh demonstrate the urgent need for the release of Bt cotton in India. Two kinds of Bt cotton have been field-tested in India: one from the Monsanto Company and one produced by an Indian research institute. Many farmers will be eager to adopt Bt cotton, which can help to control S. litura and H. armigera. The availability of Bt cotton may also attract many new farmers to invest in growing cotton. However, if a carefully designed resistance management plan is not implemented, the farmers may suffer another severe setback in a few years should the pests adapt to the Bt cotton. In desperation, these farmers may again turn to highly toxic insecticides, repeating a tragic cycle.It is often said that by the time insect pests adapt to Bt crops, biotechnology will develop replacements. If it was easy to develop replacements, competitive market pressures in the U.S. cotton and corn seed trade would have already resulted in alternative toxins being produced. The only even marginally novel toxin in corn is the Cry9C Bt toxin that AgrEvo has marketed, but because of health concerns, the US-EPA has approved its use only in corn grown for livestock feed. It has been said that the people with the most to lose from pest adaptation to Bt toxins are those who own the companies that own the genetically engineered seeds, but the aggressive stances of some companies against implementation of resistance management plans recommended by US crop scientists does not, however, indicate sincere concern. An explanation for this discrepancy could be that as with the pesticide market, most of the important profits from Bt crops are expected to come in the first years of widespread use, and resistance management could interfere with these early profits. Public and commercial interests are therefore expected to classh.International agricultural research centers such as IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) have devoted significant resources into development of resistance management strategies. At IRRI, research has led to a much better understanding of the type of Bt rices and cultivar deployment strategies that will be needed to arrest adaptation to Bt rices by two major stem-boring pests (Cohen and others 1997). It is clear from this research that even if high dose plants can be developed, it will be difficult to institute effective refuge systems in subsistence, rice growing systems. Seed mixtures of a Bt and non-Bt varieties will be easier for farmers to establish, but studies of the biology of the target pests indicate that field-to-field refuges will be more effective (Cohen et al. 1997;A. Dirie, N.L. Cuong, M.B. Cohen, and F. Gould, unpublished data). In some industrial countries, it has been possible to legislate and enforce the use of refuge fields by farmers growing Bt corn and Bt cotton (Andow andHutchinson 1998, Gould andTabashnik 1998). It will presumably be quite difficult to implement the use of refuges by farmers in developing countries, where farm sizes are small, the numbers of farmers is very large, and there is limited communication with farmers through extension agents or other means.The best way to get around the problem of less than optimal refuges is to build reinforced highdose cultivars. So far, the best way to do this seems to be by producing cultivars with high doses of two types of toxins that each require a different adaptive mechanism in the insect pest (Gould 1991;Roush 1997). For an insect to survive on such a plant, it would need to carry mutations at two genetic loci, one conferring resistance to each toxin. Insects with two copies (homozygous) of the mutations at both loci will be rare in pest populations that have had limited or no previous exposure to the toxins. Thus smaller refuges would suffice to prevent mating between two resistant individuals. For example, with a variety that produces two toxins it might be sufficient for a village to have 5 percent of its fields planted to non-Bt varieties, compared to the 25 percent refuge that might be necessary to provide good resistance management for a Bt variety that produced only one toxin.For varieties genetically engineered with two toxins, it would be ideal if one toxin was a Bt delta-endotoxin (the class of toxin used in all Bt crops produced so far), and the second was from an unrelated class of toxins. Unfortunately, as noted above, additional classes of toxins that have all of the advantages of delta-endotoxins have been difficult to find. The best that can be done at present is to select pairs of delta-endotoxins that are highly dissimilar in amino acid sequence (some pairs of toxins sharing as little as 20% amino acid similarity, Feitelson, Payne, and Kim 1992) and that have been shown to bind to different target proteins in the midgut of the insect pest (Van Rie 1991;Gould 1991). Such combinations of toxins have been identified for several important pests (Gould 1998). Unfortunately, in at least two pest species, strains have been identified that have broad-spectrum resistance to widely divergent delta-endotoxins (Gould and others 1992;Moar and others 1995). In addition, given that industrial countries are having difficulty in developing alternative toxins, this will certainly be a high hurdle for international research centers and national agricultural research systems, unless assistance is received from industrial countries in the form of substantially increased research funding or donation of patented technologyThe development and implementation of any resistance management plan in developing countries will require action by national biosafety committees, departments of agriculture, or other regulatory bodies. National biosafety committees in developing countries have made impressive progress in drafting and implementing biosafety regulations for the importation and testing of transgenic crops. For example, within the past 10 years regulations for field testing have been established by China, India, Thailand, and the Philippines. Regulators in developing countries have shown an awareness of the importance of resis-tance management, but have not yet faced the challenge of producing a specific plan for a specific Bt crop. As Bt crops begin to approach commercialization in developing countries, it is important that international organizations such as ISNAR (International Service for National Agricultural Research) and others, which have helped to train national biosafety committee members, expand coverage of the resistance problem in their training courses and workshops.In the above discussion we have only touched on some of the problems inherent in developing pest-resistant cultivars that can be expected to sustainably decrease yield variation. While it will not be difficult to spread pest resistant cultivars around the world in the next few years, it will be difficult to do this in a way that increases long-term food security and thereby decreases environmental risks. We must soon decide if sustainable pest-protected crops will be a priority in international agricultural research.","tokenCount":"4671"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"907617f25e2948e333f0853b929899aa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e1babb3d-dc15-4dfa-96c5-ed97b73a26a0/retrieve","id":"1019326295"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"098a563a-be2b-4da2-8cd7-3199f8733c67","pagecount":"7","content":"In 2005, India passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA, \"the Act\"), a law guaranteeing all rural households 100 days of work at a minimum wage through the building of durable assets, which created one of the largest anti-poverty programs in the world. Now known as the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA (MGNREGA), a notable feature of the program is that it envisions a democratic, bottom-up process of choosing which durable assets would be built within a community. Toward this end, the Act gives citizens the right to participate in the process of identifying potential projects and delegates responsibility to village governments in selecting which assets to build.Yet, in the long history of public works programs, there has been limited research on how assets created under such workfare programs are selected, or how to increase the role of women or other marginalized groups in the decision-making process. The Act provides a list of permissible works that span natural resource management, individual and community assets, common infrastructure for women's groups, and rural infrastructure more broadly. Given the scale of the program, the assets selected at the village level have tremendous potential to enhance rural resilience to unexpected shocks and crises, especially those related to climate change. This is important, as extreme weather events on the Indian subcontinent are increasing, both in frequency and in the magnitude of their impacts on agricultural productivity, household livelihoods, assets and incomes, and health and nutrition. These events, as well as their impacts on incomes, often affect women more severely (Mason and Agan 2015;Kosec et al. forthcoming).Understanding how to enhance women's voice and agency within the process of selecting community assets is important for three major reasons. First, women and men may have different asset preferences (Chattopadhyay and Duflo 2004). Recent time-use survey data from India find that women spend far more time on unpaid domestic and care work than men (eight times as much) (India, NSO 2019). Thus, women may place relatively more value on projects that reduce effort in collecting fuel and water, for example. If their voices are not included in the asset selection process, the village could miss out on aDECEMBER 2022 range of development projects that would improve overall productivity, resilience, and well-being. Second, where projects are built affects who benefits from them. Households that had MGNREGA assets built on their own land or that live near an asset cultivate more land, use more inputs (including their own labor), and have higher agricultural output (Gehrke 2015;Muralidharan et al. 2021). Ensuring that women influence asset placement is thus critical. Third, greater participation and inclusivity in the process of selecting community development projects can increase the perceived legitimacy and satisfaction with projects, as well as willingness to contribute toward their construction and maintenance (Olken 2010). Within MGNREGA, households that report playing a greater role in project selection also report greater satisfaction with the usefulness, quality, and maintenance of the projects (Ranaware et al. 2015). In this project, IFPRI will partner with the NGO Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) to test interventions to increase women's voice and agency in the process of selecting MGNREGA assets. While Odisha is among the poorest states in India, it has also emerged as a frontrunner in many progressive livelihood interventions and innovative policies related to agriculture, social protection, and climate resilience. Odisha straddles as many as 10 agroclimatic zones, presenting interesting contexts to study the choice of assets and their role in enhancing rural resilience, especially to climate shocks. In the past, Odisha's state government has demonstrated a commitment to enhancing women's economic empowerment through several state-specific schemes, such as Mission Shakti. Given this, and the convergence between MGNREGA and Mission Shakti within the state, there is potential for our research to inform state government policies.Every year, individuals and groups within villages can identify assets that they would like the MGNREGA workfare program to build. According to the program rules, these ideas should be discussed in an annual village town hall meeting, where the village collectively decides on a list of works to prioritize. MGNREGA staff and a block technical assistant assess project submissions based on their eligibility and technical feasibility; for those that pass this screening, MGNREGA staff prepare project cost and labor estimates. Then, when MGNREGA workers seek employment, they are assigned work based on these estimates.Figure 2 provides a stylized depiction of the work-planning process. Despite the detailed guidance on how to foster grassroots participation and collective decision-making, implementation of this guidance within the MGNREGA program has been weak compared to other aspects of the program, as occurs in many community-driven development programs with similar goals. For example, existing field surveys find that a third of beneficiaries of assets reported playing no role in deciding which works to undertake, and nearly half felt that works were decided without the involvement of the village town halls (Ranaware et al. 2015). Women's involvement is likely to be even more limited given the added barriers they face to public participation, including mobility constraints, social norms that discourage their speaking in public, and lower perceived self-efficacy (Cheema et al. 2019;Chang et al. 2020;Brule and Gaikwad 2021;Bernhard, Shames, and Teele 2021;Robinson and Gottlieb 2021).We plan to test two distinct pathways for enhancing women's voice and agency in selecting MGNREGA assets to build: 1) access to female role models who have successfully navigated the MGNREGA process already and 2) gender-sensitivity trainings for village MGNREGA staff. The role model intervention will introduce women within treatment villages to other women who have successfully secured MGNREGA assets. This holds potential to increase both women's understanding of how the process should work in practice and their aspirations to participate in the process as they see examples of women who have successfully done so.Given the prominent role of local administrators and local elected representatives in the project planning process, gender-sensitivity trainings aim to encourage these village leaders to be receptive to women's suggestions. Trainings will address potential differences in policy preferences between men and women, the value to the village of including women's ideas, the ways that the MGNREGA guidelines protect women's participation, the significant barriers women may face in bringing their proposals to the village meeting, and effective ways of eliciting women's ideas to ensure that they are part of the process.In the coming months, we plan to conduct qualitative research in a small number of villages on how the community planning process for MGNREGA asset selection works in practice. This exercise will help us work with our partners to refine the interventions before implementation.IFPRI will be collaborating with PRADAN and the state government of Odisha to conduct a randomized controlled trial, which is designed to test the effects of these two potential pathways for increasing women's voice and agency within the MGNREGA asset selection process. The sample will include 10 districts across Odisha where MGNREGA operations are most significant and active, and which represent the priorities of both state government and implementing partners. These districts span agro-ecological contexts to ensure that a variety of asset types and conditions are reflected.Randomization will be conducted at the Gram Panchayat (GP) level, the basic village-governing institution in rural India. Our study design is summarized in Figure 3. Overall, we aim to select a total of 300 GPs from across the 10 study districts. Approximately 150 villages will be assigned to each of the two treatment arms; in one treatment arm, villages will receive the role model treatment, and in the second treatment arm, villages will receive the gender sensitivity training for leaders. Among treatment villages, half will receive both the role model intervention and the gender sensitivity training to assess whether there are any complementarities between the treatments. The remaining 75 villages will be assigned to a control group. If our initial qualitative research reveals that many potential program participants lack information on the basic process for submitting project ideas, then we may also include an information treatment.Research questions include: Does exposing women to female role models affect the likelihood that women submit projects for consideration, and that their projects are selected at the community level? Does sensitizing village leaders to how and why women should be involved in the MGNREGA asset selection process affect the likelihood that women submit projects for consideration, and that their projects are selected at the community level? Are the interventions more effective if combined?At baseline, we will collect administrative data from villages on the projects submitted for consideration, as well as on the projects selected to be built through the MGNREGA program. We will also interview the local MGNREGA technical staff who evaluate projects and village leaders involved in facilitating community meetings and project selection. We will conduct a baseline household survey with a sample size of approximately 15 households per village, sampling from the list of MGNREGA job card holders in each village (those who can potentially access the program if they choose to).The interventions will be conducted after the baseline survey, but before the project planning cycle begins for the 2023-2024 MGNREGA project cycle. The endline survey, in turn, will be conducted after the projects have been selected for the year.Our study will contribute to a growing body of experimental evidence on interventions that enhance women's voice and agency in public policy, as well as the overall role of local communities in deciding how to allocate community development resources. Giving communities a prominent role in selecting development projects is an increasingly important development strategy employed by both international donors and national governments, for at least three major reasons. First, information asymmetries imply that communities almost always have more knowledge about local needs and priorities compared to central planners. Second, communities may have greater incentives and ability to use funds well and to monitor corruption, given that they are the beneficiaries of the spending. Third, transferring decisionmaking to communities may strengthen social capital within communities, encourage the development of local dispute resolution mechanisms, and expand communities' experiences with participation in governance.However, the evidence is mixed on how well community decision-making works in practice. Ideally, a process that affects the use of community resources should include the voices of all community members. Local decision-making, however, can be dominated by local elites, and the voice of women and marginalized citizens in decision-making is by no means guaranteed, even within a process that is formally open to all. Rent-seeking can also be high within programs that are implemented by local governments. Attempts to increase women's participation in community deliberations and monitoring of community-selected development projects have had limited effects. For example, van der Windt, Humphreys, and Sanchez de la Sierra (2018) find no evidence that requiring parity between men and women in community decision-making over development projects changes the types of projects that are selected or affects the role of women in the community.Existing literature points to at least three constraints to raising women's voice and agency in the asset allocation process. First, citizens may lack information on how transfer programs are supposed to work, preventing them from effectively advocating for their views, even within well-established and long-standing programs that should theoretically be well-known to the public (Banerjee et al. 2018). Second, deliberation around asset allocation for community development projects often rests on preexisting traditional groups and institutions. Women are frequently involved in social or economic self-help groups, but social and leadership capital in these single-gender settings often do not translate to mixed-gender settings (Kosec, Bleck, and Gottlieb 2022). Devolving decision-making to the local level can make it more difficult-rather than less-for women to participate if the process requires significant interaction with local male elites (Kosec, Song, and Zhao 2020). If women have not had the opportunity to build experience expressing preferences in a mixed-gender setting, then even attempts to adjust program rules to enhance their participation may not yield meaningful changes in deliberations or project selection.Third, local elites can play an outsized role in shaping the outcomes of community deliberations, even unintentionally. In an experiment that randomly varied leaders of community decision-making, Humphreys, Masters, and Sandbu (2006) find that leaders' preferences explained one-third of all variations in policy prioritizations by local communities, even when leaders were instructed to play a moderating role and small community groups were tasked with working together to express policy priorities. Leaders may also react differently to preferences expressed by women, which itself could affect whether women are willing to voice preferences (Chaturvedi, Das, and Mahajan 2021).Overall, there is a need to unpack the mechanisms through which both supply and demand constraints on women's voice and agency can be eased within the community decision-making process of selecting and maintaining development projects. Working with our partners, we can expand the knowledge base on how to raise women's voices in Odisha. ","tokenCount":"2121"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5d6c7445b0c84eea6da8594a602f791","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92754200-fb34-42a4-ba87-f09e76c2ef08/retrieve","id":"1086089255"},"keywords":["Lathyrus sativus L","2 Grass pea","Lathyrus sativus L"],"sieverID":"1bc5bd11-c230-4523-9fb4-153d44ea3517","pagecount":"91","content":"and Ukraine. IPGRI's mandate is to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations. IPGRI works in partnership with other organizations, undertaking research, training and the provision of scientific and technical advice and information, and has a particularly strong programme link with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Financial support for the research agenda of IPGRI is provided by the Governments of Australia,Humanity relies on a diverse range of cultivated species; at least 6000 such species are used for a variety of purposes. It is often stated that only a few staple crops produce the majority of the food supply. This might be correct but the important contribution of many minor species should not be underestimated. Agricultural research has traditionally focused on these staples, while relatively little attention has been given to minor (or underutilized or neglected) crops, particularly by scientists in developed countries. Such crops have, therefore, generally failed to attract significant research funding. Unlike most staples, many of these neglected species are adapted to various marginal growing conditions such as those of the Andean and Himalayan highlands, arid areas, salt-affected soils, etc. Furthermore, many crops considered neglected at a global level are staples at a national or regional level (e.g. tef, fonio, Andean roots and tubers, etc.), contribute considerably to food supply in certain periods (e.g. indigenous fruit trees) or are important for a nutritionally well-balanced diet (e.g. indigenous vegetables). The limited information available on many important and frequently basic aspects of neglected and underutilized crops hinders their development and their sustainable conservation. One major factor hampering this development is that the information available on germplasm is scattered and not readily accessible, i.e. only found in 'grey literature' or written in little-known languages. Moreover, existing knowledge on the genetic potential of neglected crops is limited. This has resulted, frequently, in uncoordinated research efforts for most neglected crops, as well as in inefficient approaches to the conservation of these genetic resources.This series of monographs intends to draw attention to a number of species which have been neglected in a varying degree by researchers or have been underutilized economically. It is hoped that the information compiled will contribute to: (1) identifying constraints in and possible solutions to the use of the crops, (2) identifying possible untapped genetic diversity for breeding and crop improvement programmes and (3) detecting existing gaps in available conservation and use approaches. This series intends to contribute to improvement of the potential value of these crops through increased use of the available genetic diversity. In addition, it is hoped that the monographs in the series will form a valuable reference source for all those scientists involved in conservation, research, improvement and promotion of these crops.This series is the result of a joint project between the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). Financial support provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany through the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is duly acknowledged.Dr Joachim Heller, Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) Dr Jan Engels, International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) Prof. Dr Karl Hammer, Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)The grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L., Leguminosae) has over the past decade received increased interest as a plant that is adapted to arid conditions and contains high levels of protein, a component that is increasingly becoming hard to acquire in many developing areas. This monograph attempts to show the large potential this crop has for the areas where it is now grown as well as for other areas where its adaptation or desirable features make it a very attractive crop to produce.The genus Lathyrus is large with 187 species and subspecies being recognized (Allkin et al. 1983). Species are found in the Old World and the New World. There are centres of diversity for Old World species in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean region (Zeven and de Wet 1982). However, only one species -Lathyrus sativus -is widely cultivated as a food crop (Jackson and Yunus 1984), while other species are cultivated to a lesser extent for both food and forage. Some species are valued as ornamental plants, especially the sweet pea (L. odoratus). Cytogenetic and biosysystematic studies that have been conducted on some of the main pulse crops have focused attention on wild species genetic resources and their more efficient utilization in crop improvement. The extent of the morphological variation of L. sativus also has received attention, with Jackson and Yunus (1984) finding great variation, especially in vegetative characters within the species.Grass pea is an important crop of economic significance in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Ethiopia. It is cultivated and extensively naturalized in Central, South and Eastern Europe (from Germany south to Portugal and Spain and east to the Balkans and S. Russia), in Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus and in West Asia and North Africa (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Algeria).The grass pea is endowed with many properties that combine to make it an attractive food crop in drought-stricken, rain-fed areas where soil quality is poor and extreme environmental conditions prevail (Palmer et al. 1989). Despite its tolerance to drought it is not affected by excessive rainfall and can be grown on land subject to flooding (Kaul et al. 1986;Rathod 1989;Campbell et al. 1994). It has a very hardy and penetrating root system and therefore can be grown on a wide range of soil types, including very poor soil and heavy clays. This hardiness, together with its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, makes the crop one that seems designed to grow under adverse conditions (Campbell et al. 1994). Compared with other legumes, the grass pea is resistant to many pests including storage insects (Palmer et al. 1989).1 Taxonomy and names of the species 1.1 Classification of the genus Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a food, feed and fodder crop belonging to the family Leguminosae (= Fabaceae), subfamily Papilionoideae, tribe Vicieae.Other economically important species include Lathyrus cicera and L. tingitanus for grain and L. ochrus, L. latifolius and L. sylvestris as forage species. A newly described species, Lathyrus amphicarpus, is presently found in the Middle East and has the potential of becoming important as a self-seeding forage species.This section gives an overall description of the crop. There is a large range of variation for several of the characters.Lathyrus sativus is a much-branched (Fig. 1), straggling or climbing, herbaceous annual, with a well-developed taproot system, the rootlets of which are covered with small, cylindrical, branched nodules, usually clustered together in dense groups.The stems are slender, 25-60 cm long, quadrangular with winged margins. Stipules are prominent, narrowly triangular to ovate with a basal appendage. The pinnate leaves are opposite, consisting of one or two pairs of linear-lanceolate leaflets, 5-7.5 x 1 cm, and a simple or much-branched tendril. Leaflets are entire, sessile, cuneate at the base and acuminate at the top (Figs. 1 and 2). The flowers are axillary, solitary, about 1.5 cm long, and may be bright blue, reddish purple, red, pink, or white (Fig. 1). The peduncle is 3.0-5.0 cm long with two minute bracts. Flowers have a short and slender pedicel. Calyx teeth are longer and glabrous. Tube is 3 mm long with five lobes, subequal and triangular. Standard petal is erect and spreading, ovate 15 x 18 mm, finely pubescent at upper margin, clawed. Wings are ovate, 14 x 8 mm, clawed and obtuse at top (Fig. 2). Colour is similar to standard. Keel is slightly twisted, boat-shaped, 10 x 7 mm, entirely split dorsally, ventrally split near the base. Colour is a lighter shade than wing and standard.Stamens are diadelphous (9+1) with vexillary stamens free, 9 mm long, winged at base, apical part filiform, slightly winged. Staminal sheath is 6 mm long, with free filaments of uniform length. Anthers are elliptoid, 0.5 mm long and yellow.Ovary is sessile, thin, 6 mm long, pubescent with 5-8 ovules. Style is abruptly upturned, 6-7 mm long, widening at tip, and bearded below the stigma. Stigma is terminal, glandular-papillate and spatulate.Pods are oblong, flat, slightly bulging over the seeds, about 2.5-4.5 cm in length, 0.6-1.0 cm in width and slightly curved (Figs. 1 and 2). The dorsal part of the pod is 2-winged, shortly beaked and contains 3-5 small seeds. Seeds are 4-7 mm in diameter, angled and wedge-shaped (Fig. 2). Colour is white, brownish-grey or yellow, although spotted or mottled forms also exist. Hilum is elliptic and cotyledons are yellow to pinkish yellow.Germination is hypogeal, the epicotyl purplish-green. The first two leaves are simple. The first leaf is small, scale-like, often fused with two lateral stipulae. The second leaf is sublate, connected at the base with stipulae.3 Origin of the species and important centres of diversity 3.1 Origin It has been reported by several authors that the origin of L. sativus was unknown as it was thought that the natural distribution had been completely obscured by cultivation, even in southwest and central Asia, its presumed centre of origin (Smartt 1984). However, it is now suggested that the crop originated in the Balkan peninsula. There are reports of wild L. sativus in Iraq (Townsend and Guest 1974) but it is not clear if these are indeed wild or escapes from cultivation. As reported by Jackson and Yunus (1984), some of the earliest archaeological evidence comes from Jarmo, in Iraqi Kurdistan, dated at 8000 BC. Remains of Lathyrus species have been found at Ali Kosh (9500-7600 BC) and Tepe Sadz (7500-5700 BC) in Iran and are among the most common foods recorded at these sites (Jackson and Yunus 1984). At Azmaska Moghila, in Bulgaria, remains dated at ca. 7000 BC have been tentatively identified as L. cicera (Renfrew 1969). Remains of L. sativus also have been reported in India dating back to 2000-1500 BC by Saraswat (1980) who indicated the possibility of diffusion of the crop from West Asia. Vavilov (1951) described two separate centres of origin of the crop. One was the Central Asiatic Centre which includes northwest India, Afghanistan, the Republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and western Tian-Shan. The second was the Abyssinian Centre. In addition, Vavilov noted trends in diversity similar to those found in other pulses, such as lentils and broad beans, in that smaller-seeded forms were found in southern and southwest Asia, whereas around the Mediterranean region, almost all were highly cultivated forms with large white seeds and flowers (Jackson and Yunus 1984).However, the combination of archaeobotanical and phytogeographical evidence gathered now leads to the conclusion that the origin of L. sativus cultivation is located in the Balkan peninsula, in the early Neolithic period, dated to the beginning of the 6th millenium BC (Kislev 1989). Kislev suggests that the practice of agriculture of annuals, including cereals and legumes such as pea and lentil, introduced from the Near East around 6000 BC enabled the domestication of L. sativus in this region. This means that L. sativus is perhaps the first crop domesticated in Europe as a consequence of expansion of agriculture from the Near East.There is a large amount of morphological variation, especially in vegetative characters such as leaf length, while floral characters are much less variable (Jackson and Yunus 1984). The development of forms with larger leaves may have resulted from selection for forage types. It appears, therefore, that there is a large base of germplasm present in many countries that can be utilized by plant breeders in the production of locally adapted lines for specific requirements.The species L. sativus is probably a derivative from the genetically nearest wild species, L. cicera (Hopf 1986). This somewhat smaller-seeded vetch grows in the countries from Greece to Iran and Transcaucasia. In this area carbonized Lathyrus seeds have been retrieved from a number of prehistoric sites, going as far east as India. Grass pea could also be traced in Italy and southeast France. One isolated sample is reported from early bronze age Portugal. The most northerly finds are known from Hungary. Hopf (1986) reports that under the scanning microscope the papillae on the seed surface of the two species look somewhat different. In L. sativus the papillae were low, wide, with a somewhat blunt top and long, almost radial, protruding ridges; whereas in L. cicera the papillae were higher, conic and pointed; and the shorter, shallower ridges did not reach the top and were not connected with those of the neighbouring papillae. He also found that the same differences could be found in a prehistoric sample, and therefore concluded that these two species probably grew together in the same field. It is suggested that expansion of L. sativus farming to southern France and Spain may have led to the domestication of the local L. cicera. According to archaeobotanical finds it happened not later than the 3rd or 4th millennium BC. Then came the possibility of their being mutually cultivated and the spread of such a mixture throughout the Mediterranean basin. Kislev (1989) believes that seed coat patterns may help in verifying the theory that in the Neolithic period L. sativus was cultivated in eastern Mediterranean countries while L. cicera was confined to France and Spain, as it is today.The close morphological affinity of L. sativus, L. cicera and L. gorgoni is interesting and may be a consequence of hybridization or common ancestry (Jackson and Yunus 1984). Lathyrus sativus and L. cicera resemble each other in certain floral characteristics, although in fruit L. sativus is closer to L. amphicarpus, L. blepharicarpos and L. marmaoratus (Davis 1970). The relationship of L. stenophyllus to these three species is more problematic on account of the small numbers of specimens examined. From the material studied by Jackson and Yunus (1984) there was a clear distinction between these three species and the other 11 species of section Lathyrus, with a few exceptions. In addition, the pollen morphology of L. sativus, L. cicera and L. gorgoni is very similar (Yunus 1982), and preliminary karyotype studies of these species show close similarity. Davies (1958) has indicated a closer link between L. sativus and L. cicera than to other species. Close association of L. sativus with L. cicera and L. gorgoni also has been shown by Bell (1971), on the basis of the distribution of non-protein amino acids in Lathyrus species.In general interspecific hybrids are difficult to make in Lathyrus but the reasons for this interspecific incompatibility are not at all evident. The ability of L. sativus and L. cicera to hybridize was demonstrated by Lwin (1956) and confirmed by Khawaja (pers. comm.). This suggests a close association between these two species. The hybrid L. sativus and L. amphicarpus (Khawaja 1988) also suggests a close association between these two species. Lathyrus sativus, L. cicera and L. gorgoni have a sympatric distribution in Turkey and are often found as weeds in other crops. As L. sativus has been shown to have varying amounts of outcrossing, ranging as high as 27.8% in Bangladesh (Rahman et al. 1995), the possibility of natural outcrossing between these species cannot be discounted. An evaluation of the species genepools is a valuable step in the exploitation of germplasm (Smartt 1981) and this approach appears to be much needed in Lathyrus if it is necessary to reach outside the cultivated species genepools for valuable genetic traits.Subterranean vetch (L. amphicarpus) produces underground cleistogamous flowers that are never exposed to light (Abd El Moneim 1989). These flowers are sessile in the axils of minute, lobed leaves on subterranean rhizomes or stems. The flower-bearing rhizomes develop from cotyledonary buds situated at the basal nodes just above the root collar. They are chlorotic, delicate, rarely branched and consist of a few long internodes. The apex is recurved to protect the apical bud as it penetrates the soil.Subterranean and aerial flowers normally appear simultaneously, although occasionally the subterranean flowers develop after those above ground are completely matured. The underground flowers are more fertile than their exposed counterparts. The location of the subterranean flowers probably protects them from environmental factors harmful to pollen formation or fertility and from grazing. This species was discovered during evaluation of new vetch germplasm during 1986/87 at ICARDA (Abd El Moneim 1989). They had been collected from dry areas in the central Anatolian region of Turkey and from barley-growing areas in Syria where the species sometimes grows as a weed.There appear to be few studies on the nutritional aspects of L. sativus. Rotter et al. (1991) gave the following composition of four samples grown in Manitoba, Canada, as shown in Table 1. Rahman et al. (1974) gave the following values for L. sativus: energy 362.3 cal; protein 31.6%; fat 2.7%; nitrogen-free extract 51.8%; crude fibre 1.1% and ash 2.2%. Aletor et al. (1994) reported on selected lines of three Lathyrus species. They found that crude protein averaged 32.5% (of dry matter) in L. sativus compared with L. cicera at 29.5%. Ash content was reported to vary from 3.5 to 3.56% for advanced lines and crossing progeny of L. sativus. Data on various antinutritional factors were investigated in 100 germplasm collections of L. sativus at Morden Research Station, Canada by Deshpande and Campbell (1992).A strong epidemiological association is known to exist between the consumption of grass pea and a motor neuron disease called lathyrism (paralysis of lower limbs). A neurotoxin, ß-N-oxalyl-L-a, ß-diaminopropionoc acid (ODAP also known as BOAA) has been identified as the causative principle for lathyrism and is present in all parts of the plant (Campbell et al. 1994). ODAP was first identified in L. sativus by Bell (1962) when he found ninhydrin-reacting compounds in many Lathyrus species. The biosynthesis of b-ODAP from its precursor b-(isoxazolin-5-on-2-yl)-alanine (BIA) was demonstrated in young seedlings by Kuo et al. (1994). Prakash et al. (1977) reported that ODAP was found in all tissues of L. sativus plants, irrespective of age or variety, but maximum content was observed in the leaf at vegetative stage and in the embryo at the reproductive stage. Rotter et al. (1991) reported that chicks fed 400 g/kg of low-and medium-ODAP lines or 600 g/kg of low ODAP line suggested that ODAP might play a anti-nutritional role in food digestion. This aspect, however, has not been critically examined.Condensed tannin levels in L. sativus lines ranged from 0 to 4.38 g/kg (Deshpande and Campbell 1992). Out of a total of 100 lines, 29 accessions/ genotypes lacked or had barely detectable levels of condensed tannins. Twentyseven accessions had tannin contents greater than 2 g/kg. Since tannins are strongly astringent (owing to their protein-binding properties), a depression of feed intake, which lowers animal productivity, would be expected. Although astringency seems to be the major cause of lower feed intakes, several other factors may contribute to the lower feed efficiency ratios of tannin-containing diets. These include the formation of tannin/protein complexes that make the protein unavailable, inhibition of the digestive enzymes, increased synthesis of digestive enzymes due to inadequate enzymic digestion, and increased loss of endogenous proteins such as the mucoproteins of the gastrointestinal tract (Price and Butler 1980).The total phenolics ranged from 39 to 999 and 86 to 891 mg/kg in 100 lines when assayed by Folin-Ciocalteu and Prussian blue assays, respectively (Deshpande and Campbell 1992). The genotypes that were devoid of condensed tannins did contain lower levels of other phenolic compounds. Unlike condensed tannins, low molecular weight phenolic compounds, unless present in very high amounts, do not directly cause any harmful effects to swine and cattle. Their only apparent effect appears to be a contribution to the bitter taste of the ration, thereby lowering the feed intake of animals.In their study they found that both condensed tannins and total phenolics were highly correlated with the seed coat pigmentation (Deshpande and Campbell 1992). The 29 lines that were almost devoid of tannins were all characterized by a white to creamy yellow seed coat, with very few, if any, speckles. In contrast, with the exception of one accession which had whitish-yellow seeds with brown specks, the moderate to high tannin-containing lines were all characterized by a dark brown to black pigmentation of the seed coats. In these lines, the tannin levels were found to generally vary with the intensity of pigmentation, with the darker seed coats generally giving higher levels of tannins. The flower colour in L. sativus is generally highly correlated with the seed colour: the blue, pink or red flowers usually producing speckled, coloured seeds, whereas the white flowers are associated with white to creamy yellow seeds. Breeding and selecting for flower colour should therefore be useful in developing lines with low levels of condensed tannins and phenolics in L. sativus.The trypsin inihibitor activity (TIA) and chymotrypsum inhibitor activity (CIA) varied within narrow ranges in a study on 100 genotypes (Deshpande and Campbell 1992). The mean TIA and CIA values were, respectively, 155 x 103 and 10 x 10 3 units/g of seed. Although TIA was detected in all the genotypes studied, three genotypes were devoid of any CIA. It was interesting that unlike most other food legumes which show an equal if not greater distribution of Bowman-Birk double-headed type inhibitors capable of inhibiting both trypsin and chymotrypsin simultaneously (Deshpande and Damodaran 1990), all the grass pea genotypes studied were characterized by very high levels of TIA. This also suggests the possibility of this legume predominantly containing mostly the Kunitz type singleheaded trypsin inhibitor. The only studies in the literature on the purification and characterization of L. sativus trypsin inhibitor have shown it to be a protein of apparent molecular mass 22 000 (Roy and Rao 1971;Roy 1972Roy , 1980)). It comprised five protein components ('isoinhibitors') of identical isoelectric points and contained 203 to 212 amino acid residues. Their amino acid composition and molecular weights also suggest that they are of the Kunitz class of trypsin inhibitors. Since Kunitz trypsin inhibitors are generally absent from many agriculturally important members of the legumes such as Phaseolus, Pisum and Vigna (Deshpande and Damodaran 1990), L. sativus appears to be an exception to this general rule. The higher TIA, compared with the CIA, of chickling vetch genotypes clearly distinguishes this food legume from the rest, in having a higher content of Bowman-Birk double-headed inhibitors capable of strongly inhibiting both trypsin and chymotrypsin. In evaluation of 36 lines of L. sativus (Aletor et al. 1994) at 18.16±2.36 g/kg DM was found to be similar to that found in L. ochrus and about twice the levels found in L. cicera.The correlation coefficients between different antinutrients were determined. The total phenolics and condensed tannins were positively correlated with the enzyme inhibitory activities of grass pea genotypes. Therefore the selection of white-flowered and white-seeded types could aid in the development of grass pea lines that are low in or devoid of these antinutritional factors.As grass pea is a legume crop and fixes atmospheric nitrogen, it is utilized in many production areas to aid the main economic crop. In many cases grass pea is produced in the farming system before the rice crop or alternately with a rice crop. The growers feel that the nitrogen fixed by the grass pea crop produces higher yields not only for the crop itself but also for the succeeding crop. Therefore the crop fits very well into a long-term sustainable farming system.The grass pea is an annual legume commonly grown for its grain, but also used for fodder or green manure. The vegetative types are utilized in the production of fodder or forage for animals (Fig. 3).The young plants are used as a fodder for cattle or for grazing, as in Bangladesh. Normally, the fields are allowed to be strip-grazed by cattle before the crop is allowed to regrow and then harvested for seed. Lathyrus has great potential as a fodder crop. Gowda and Kaul (1982) reported that in studies at BARI, Joydepur, fodder yields of 7-10 t/ha were obtained in intercropping with maize, without affecting the grain yield of the maize.The growth and seasonal quality of L. sativus and some related species have been studied by Abd El Moneim and Khair (1989). Rihawi et al. (1984) noted changes in the potential nutrient efficiency of different legumes, including L. sativus at different stages of maturity. The stems and chaff remaining after harvest is often the most important factor for producing the crop in South East Asia.The plants are normally pulled while they are still green but after the pods have filled. This allows maximum food value to remain in the biomass and at the same time produces good seed yields.In surveys of growers in India it is often found that the animal feed value of the crop is more important than that for human food in determining the production of this crop. This also has been found true in the Sind province of Pakistan where it is estimated that 60% of the crop is used for forage; of the harvested portion, 60% of the seed is used for animal feed and 40% for human consumption or sale (Khawaja, pers. comm.). Often the feed is comprised of ground or split grain or flour and is used as feed for lactating cattle or for bullocks at the time of heavy field use such as during land preparation. The nutritional value of low lathyrogenic grass pea for growing chicks (Rotter et al. 1991) has been reported. As well there has been evaluation of L. sativus as an ingredient in pig starter and grower diets (Castell et al. 1994).Different seed coat colours might be preferred in different regions according to tradition and use of the crop. The seed coat colour can also affect the nutritional value of the seed. Condensed tannin levels were found to be positively correlated with seed coat pigmentation, with coloured genotypes containing greater levels of tannin (Deshpande and Campbell 1992). The genetics of flower and seed coat colour are now starting to be understood in grass pea (Tiwari and Campbell 1996).In India, the grains are sometimes boiled whole, but are most often processed through a dal mill to obtain split dal. Dal, a soup-like dish, is the most common method of retailing the crop in the Indian subcontinent (Pandey, pers. comm.). The flour, made from grinding either the whole or split seed, is sold as basan. In many parts of Bangladesh, roti (unleavened bread) made out of grass pea flour is a staple for the landless labourers. More recently the dal or basan has been used to adulterate pigeonpea dal and chickpea basan as these crops demand a higher price on the market (Rahman, pers. comm.).In Nepal the dried grains are split either in a stone grinder on a home scale or milled to make dal which is consumed with rice. The grains are also ground and made into flour for use in a pancake-like preparation of badi or pakoda (Yadov, pers. comm.). Grass pea flour increasingly is being used to adulterate the higher-priced legume flours such as chickpea and mungbean.In Ethiopia, particularly the northern regions, and in Eritrea tef, wheat, barley, maize and sorghum, either singly or in combination, are used to produce a fermented, sour pancake-like unleavened bread called enjera. Lathyrus grain is ground into shiro and is used in the preparation of wott, a sauce that is eaten together with the enjera. For snacks, cereals, legumes or their mixture are most often consumed roasted or boiled. Boiled grass pea (nifro) is consumed in most areas. Kitta, an unleavened bread made from grass pea, is consumed to a more limited extent, mainly at times of acute food shortages (Tekele- Haimanot et al. 1993).During the month of February in South East Asia the tender young vegetative parts are plucked (4-6 cm length) and cooked as a green vegetable. They are also rolled and dried for off-season use as a vegetable (Bharati and Neupane, 1989). The green pods and seeds are eaten directly or the whole pods are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. This augments the supply of fresh vegetables available at this time of year. The remaining plant is then allowed to grow and is harvested for seed.The young pods are boiled, salted and sold or consumed as a snack. This can be seen in many of the grass pea growing areas of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan where vendors are found on street corners or at public transportation areas during the season. The snacks are said to be very tasty and are prized for this feature.The grass pea is utilized in many areas of South East Asia as a 'utera' crop. The seeds are broadcast into a standing rice crop. When the water is drained to allow for harvesting of the rice, the seeds germinate and the crop utilizes the remaining moisture for growth. Normally the smaller-seeded type lines are utilized as the growers believe that they will remain dormant longer under flooded conditions and give better germination when the water is drained.In many areas of South East Asia and China where grass pea production occurs the crops are either grown under 'utera' conditions and utilize remnant water or are sown on rain-fed areas where they must exist on minimum moisture until harvest. The crops normally are considered to require low or zero inputs and therefore not only utilize remnant water but also must utilize remnant soil nutrients. As many of these soils are deficient in zinc this aspect requires further study to determine the effects on the crop.There have been a number of evaluations of L. sativus germplasm to study the variation in it and related or wild species (Jackson and Yunus 1984;Hanbury et al. 1995). There also have been evaluations of the nutritional value (Dutta et al. 1982;Deshpande and Campbell 1992), of which several have focused on the forage, fodder or feed value (Ghobrial et al. 1983;Somaroo 1988;Abd El Moneim et al. 1990;Keatinge et al. 1991). Several of these compare L. sativus collected locally with collections from other areas. It should be noted that in some of the studies only one or two lines have originated from a given country while a large number of lines have been evaluated from another area or country. While these evaluations provide very important data on the geographic variability that exists one must also be aware that a single line may or may not be representative of an area and therefore exercise caution about the conclusions that are drawn. There are, however, many general trends that are evident and that do demonstrate the existing variability.There exists a wide range of days to 50% flowering as can been seen in India (Table 2) where it ranged from 47 to 94. The small-seeded lakhori types are usually much earlier flowering than the large-seeded lakh types. Hanbury et al. (1995) also reported a wide range from 76 to 123 days of 451 lines collected from a large number of areas. Sarwar et al. (1995b) reported a range of 43 to 88 in 1072 accessions collected in Bangladesh. In Canada this trend also has been found with collections from Europe, compared with South East Asian types; the larger-seeded European collections are much later to flower.In India days to maturity ranged from 86 to 127 (Table 2). This trend follows that of days to 50% flowering where the smaller-seeded types are usually earlier maturing. Assessment of 732 lines in Canada gave a range of 97 to 121 days (Table 3) which was similar to that found in India. In Australia, Hanbury et al. (1995) found a range of 137 to 148 days with maturity being rated as when the pods had all turned a golden brown and the leaves were still on the plant. Many of the lines grown in this study were from Bangladesh and would be expected to mature during a similar time frame as those from India. This indicates the environmental influence on this character and the need to evaluate germplasm under conditions that are very similar to those where the crop is to be produced.Plant height has been found to vary greatly. In India it varied from 15 to 68 cm (Table 2) while in Canada it ranged from 24.5 to 172 cm (Table 3). The small-seeded types were the shortest in plant growth in both studies. This trend also appears to be true if small-seeded lines from India, Bangladesh or Pakistan are grown in Canada and compared with accessions from Europe or the Middle East. The largerseeded lines from Europe and the Mediterranean region usually produce taller plants with larger biomass than lines from South East Asia.  There is a very large range in the number of branches per plant. Pandey (Table 2) reports that at Raipur they varied from 1.8 to 28.4. It has been found in Canada that this feature can range as high as 40 branches per plant. In direct contrast Mehra et al. (1995) reports on evaluation of exotic germplasm. Accessions from France had 5.2 primary branches while those from Bangladesh had 5.7, those from Ethiopia had 5.0, those from Cyprus had 5.5, those from Afghanistan had 5.0, those from Germany had 5.0, and those from the previous USSR had 5.5. These, however, were rated as primary branches and may differ from the above ratings. In most studies there is a high correlation of branches per plant and grain yield. This feature is a very important one. Unfortunately there has not been enough evaluation of this character to demonstrate geographical distribution of the trait.This character varies in India from 2.4 to 59 (Table 2). There is a direct association with branches per plant with more branching plants having higher pod numbers.The larger-seeded types also have more pods per plant as they normally have increased pant height. Therefore, there exists a correlation between large seeds, pods per plant and plant height. This is normally also associated with later maturity and increased plant biomass. Further assessment of lines having these characteristics is required, especially for those crop improvement programmes that are concerned with increased herbage production.In Nepal Yadov (1995) reported that pods per plant varied from 13 to 59 with a mean of 36 when 72 local germplasm accessions were evaluated. Thus this character shows a large range of variation.General and specific combining abilities have been estimated in grass pea for pods per plant, 100-seed weight, seeds per pod, grain yield per plant and ODAP content (Dahiya and Jeswani 1974). It was generally found that nonadditive gene action was predominant in both the F 1 and the F 2 .Pod length in Canada varied from 1.7 to 5.6 cm (Table 3); in India Pandey found a variation from 1.88 to 5.18 cm (Table 2). While this is a very close comparison it should be noted that the European lines in the Canadian study had the same pod length as the smaller-seeded lines in the study in India. Therefore, the smallerseeded lines from India (having more seeds per pod than the European lines) appear to produce pods with equivalent lengths. This is also indicated in evaluations by Mehra et al. (1995) where they report pod lengths of 2.92 to 3.05 cm from 223 accessions that were evaluated. They also report that 48 accessions from Syria had pod lengths ranging from 3.6 to 4.0 cm while 12 accessions from Canada ranged from 3.08 to 4.0 cm in length. It would be very interesting to study this aspect in further depth with increased number of seeds per pod in larger-seeded types. Evaluation of existing germplasm collections might yield lines with increased pod length combined with large seed size which might be desirable for crop improvement programmes desiring to increase yield and seed size at the same time.In Canada seeds per pod varied from 1 to 4.3 (Table 3) while in India they were found to range from 1.6 to 4.6 (Table 2). The small-seeded lines normally had a higher number of seeds per pod than did the large-seeded lines evaluated in Canada. Results reported from Nepal (Yadov 1995) show a range of 2 to 5 seeds. Although the results are similar they were not expected, as the European lines normally have fewer seeds per pod than those from South East Asia. It would appear that this characteristic requires more detailed examination as seeds per pod normally has a high correlation with yield. As increased seed size usually is also highly correlated with higher yield, plant breeders might want to consider increasing seeds per pods in larger-seeded types as an effective means of increasing yield.In many parts of the world there is a shortage of feed and fodder for livestock. This is especially true for many arid regions were grass pea is grown. In many cases the value of the fodder equals or exceeds that of the grain produced. Pandey reports a range from 0.4 to 51 g (Table 2) which clearly demonstrates a large variation in this character which can be utilized by breeders interested in improving feed or forage production. Somaroo (1988) states that dry matter yield per hectare was found to be 5707 kg in 1980 and 2624 kg in 1981 at ICARDA. This compared with a seed yield of 1802 kg/ha in 1980 and 698 in 1981. Syouf (1995) reports on an evaluation of dry matter yield of eight forage legumes in Jordan in which two lines of L. sativus ranged from 425 to 1390 kg/ha. He states that evaluations have shown that Lathyrus species were among the most promising ones in the ICARDA programme. The highest-yielding forage species, however, was L. ochrus. Robertson and Abd El Moneim (1995) reported on the evaluation of 272 accessions at Tel Hadya, Syria in 1992-93. The biomass yield ranged from 516 to 5200 kg/ha with a mean of 2167 kg/ha. The straw yield ranged from 440 to 3861 kg/ha with a mean of 1720 kg/ha. This compared with a seed yield of 29-1406 kg/ ha with a mean of 445 kg/ha.In Australia, Hanbury et al. (1995) reported that a range of 190 to 220 g/1000 seeds was found when 451 lines were evaluated during 1994. The smallest seeded lines originated from Bangladesh with the largest being from Cyprus, Germany, Tunisia, Hungary, Greece and Czechoslovakia. Sarwara et al. (1995b) reported that they found a range from 29.5 to 67.6 g/1000 seeds in Bangladesh. Robertson and Abd El Moneim (1995) found a range of 34.5 to 225.9 g for 272 accessions, with a mean weight of 86.8 g. In an assessment in Canada, seed size varied from 56 to 288 g/ 1000 seeds (Table 3, Fig. 4) with the smallest-seeded lines originating from South East Asia. Although seed size appears to be larger for some of the same lines when grown under Canadian conditions the same trend appears to exist, especially with the ICARDA evaluations. This wide variation in seed size should be of value to the breeder as Hanbury et al. (1995) found there was a correlation between seed size and yield. There was also a correlation between seed size and vigour, an aspect that is important in stand development as well as in herbage production.It has been indicated by many studies that the larger-seeded types of grass pea and those having a larger amount of vegetative material are found around the Mediterranean region. Hammer et al. (1989) found material with an exceptionally high 1000-seed weight in south Italy. The small-seeded types have been found in the Indian subcontinent. The small-seeded lines of the Indian subcontinent usually have a tendency for seed shattering caused by the early splitting of the pod down its ventral rib before the pod matures. Many of the lines from Europe do not have this characteristic that is undesirable in most situations. However, if the plants are being used for grazing purposes this feature might be desirable as it does result in the self seeding of the plants.Although seed density has not been evaluated in many studies, in Canada it was found to vary from 612.2 to 828.8 g/L (Table 3). Although this shows fairly large variation it is not of the magnitude of that found in 1000-seed weight. No trends of this characteristic are known to exist, mainly owing to limited evaluation of germplasm.The flower colour in L. sativus can be blue, pink, red, white or various combinations of these colours. As pointed out by Smartt (1984) the white-flowered types are generally found in the Mediterranean region with the blue-flowered types being found as you progress towards South East Asia. In India, Nepal and Pakistan the flower colour is blue with a very few plants having red flowers. In Bangladesh this also holds true except a few plants can also be found with pink flowers. In France many of the plants have white flowers as well as blue. As the flower colour is closely correlated to seed coat colour with white flowers producing white seeds and coloured flowers producing coloured seeds, flower colour is a very useful character that can be used by breeders in selection for this character. As the amount of tannins in the seed is highly correlated with seed coat colour -with white giving low levels (Deshpande and Campbell 1992) -this character becomes very important. Grass pea types with white or cream seeds are often found in European accessions; however these traits are rarely found in accessions from Ethiopia or from the Indian subcontinent.There has been little work reported on the resistance of grass pea to various insect pests. Certainly more effort is required in this area in the improvement of this very hardy pulse crop.In India some 1200 lines have been screened against thrips. Although none has been found resistant against this pest yet, 12 accessions showed a degree of tolerance having a score of 5 against 9 for susceptible genotypes: 117,539,557,617,6802,33333, RLS-2, RPL-26, JRL-31, KHB-19, RLK-273-1, RL-273-3 and ST.\\white-14 (Pandey et al. 1995;Pandey, pers. comm.).At ICARDA, resistant genotypes for cyst nematode (Heterodera ciceri) and root knot nematode (Meloidogyne artiella) have been identified. However, the severity of infection and occurrence of these pests are not presently well documented.Lines showing moderate resistance to powdery mildew have been identified in India (Lal et al. 1985). At Raipur, the lines RPLK 26 and RL 41 have been found to be tolerant to powdery mildew. In addition 86 lines from local germplasm collected from around Raipur, India have shown resistance to downy mildew (Agrawal, pers. comm.). Efforts are underway in India to transfer the powdery mildew resistance to higher-yielding, more adapted lines. In Syria L. sativus lines that were moderately resistant to powdery mildew (Erysiphe pisi) have been identified. Lines in India have been identified that were free from infection by downy mildew in a 3-year evaluation under conditions of heavy natural infection (Narsinghani and Kumar 1979).Germplasm screening is being done to select pure lines or to find donors for resistance against this pathogen. Unfortunately, resistant genes have not been found in the available germplasm. However, it was noted that some landraces appear to have some ability to escape this disease. Promising lines having tolerance/escape were reported as RLS-1, RLS-2, JRS-115, JRL-43, and JRL-16 (Pandey, pers. comm.). It is interesting that he reports resistance of Lathyrus aphaca against powdery mildew.In screening of 96 lines Mishra et al. (1986) found 8 lines that were highly resistant or immune to Cercospora pisi sativae f. sp. lathyri Misha. Six lines were resistant, 40 moderately resistant and the remainder highly susceptible.The ODAP levels in the collection varied from 0.22 to 7.20 g/kg. Among a total of 18 lines that contained less than 1.0 g/kg ODAP, nine had levels of less than 0.5 g/ kg. In contrast, 24 lines had ODAP levels over 4 g/kg with the rest having intermediate levels. Thus a large range of variability in ODAP can exist in germplasm collection of grass pea. It should, however, be noted that ODAP levels are influenced by the environment, growing conditions and locality (Leakey 1979). Lines totally lacking in ODAP have not yet been identified in present breeding programmes, but there have been several reports of levels as low as 0.01% from Canada, ICARDA and Ethiopia. The biosynthesis of ODAP in grass pea has only recently been elucidated (Lambein et al. 1990). Thus development of safer cultivars of L. sativus will likely continue to be dependent in some degree on the development of genotypes that express low levels of ODAP in given environments.In the littoral zone of Morocco, Villax (1963) reported that the variety Favetta performed well among varieties introduced from Greece, Libya and Portugal. In Cyprus, Soadou (1959) reported that among 4 local varieties and 23 introductions from Algeria, Australia, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Portugal and Turkey of L. sativus, L. cicera and L. ochrus, a variety of L. sativus from Greece outyielded other introductions and was more leafy. In Turkey Hertzsche (1970) recorded that 9 ecotypes of L. sativus have been collected from different regions in Turkey during the period 1965-69 and assembled on the west coast of Izmir. The seed yields of 21 L. sativus lines were found to differ significantly, ranging between 1201 and 1889 kg/ha in winter and between 1104 and 2167 kg/ha in spring trials at Diyarbakir, Turkey (Düsünceli 1993). In contrast the seed yields of L. cicera varied significantly, between 458 and 1354 and 938 and 1438 kg/ha in winter and spring respectively. He found that although there was a significant variation in response of the lines in winter and spring sowing, most of the L. sativus lines gave better seed yields when sown in winter than in spring, while most of the L. cicera lines gave better yield in spring sowing. Herbage and biomass yields varied from 21 140 to 26 940 kg/ha and 5422 to 8098 kg/ha respectively in L. sativus, showing the large potential for forage production by this species.In Jordan, Hopkinson (1975) recorded that a variety of L. sativus from Cyprus performed well, while in Syria Van der Veen (1967) stated that two varieties from Cyrus have proven well adapted. In northern Iraq a local variety of L. sativus was cultivated extensively in some areas, while a variety introduced from Turkey proved to be more productive and cold tolerant than the local variety in small adaptability tests at Mosul (Kernick 1976).In Nepal a collection of 87 local germplasm has been evaluated and compared with 10 exotic lines. The local lines were higher in yield, had more seeds per pod and earlier maturity than the imported lines (Yadov, pers. comm.). Early and final stand counts were also found to be higher in the local material. The exotic lines had a larger seed size -10.2-11.0 g/100 seeds -compared with 4.7-5.3 g/100 seeds in local material. A summary of the agronomic characteristics examined has shown a wide range of variability, especially in plant height and pods per plant. In 1987 a total of 72 local collections was evaluated at Rapmpur (Yadov 1995). Days to flower varied from 68 to 94 with a mean of 85. Days to maturity ranged from 125 to 139 with a mean of 135. Plant height had a mean of 71 cm and ranged from 46 to 106 cm. The number of pods per plant varied considerably, from 13 to 59 with a mean of 36.In Bangladesh during 1993-94 the collections that had been made from the Rajshahi Division and the coastal areas were evaluated at BARI (Sarwar et al. 1995a). Days to flowering varied from 57 to 91 while days to maturity varied from 117 to 128. Pod length ranged from 2.7 to 3.5 cm and seeds per pod varied from 3.0 to 5.3. Yield was found to vary considerably -from 960 to 2502 kg/ha. ODAP content of the seed ranged from 0.04 to 0.75% with a mean of 0.32%.An evaluation of 1187 lines collected in India identified variation in maturity, seeds per pod and many other agronomic characteristics (Table 2).In Chile through a field trial using five dates and three sowing densities of a heterogeneous grass pea population, different parameters related to yield were evaluated. The respective correlations also were calculated and a path coefficient analysis was done on yield and its components. Results indicated that the best sowing dates were at the end of winter and that sowing delays reduced yields significantly. No significant differences were found among seeding rates of 140, 210 and 280 kg of seed per hectare. Yields reached with the three densities were over 3000 kg/ha, and in some cases surpassing 4000 kg/ha. Characterization of the yield parameters indicated that yield per plant, seeds per plant and pods per plant (X) are the most variable. Branches per plant and seeds per pod (Y) have less variability and average seed weight (Z) has the lowest phenotypic and genotypic variation. Correlation analysis indicated the existence of a high degree of association between yield per plant and pods per plant (X), and also between yield and seeds per plant and branches per plant. Seed sowing density, on the other hand, appears negatively correlated with branches per plant and pods per plant (X). The path coefficient analysis between yield per plant and its components (X, Y and Z) indicated that pods per plants (X) had the greatest direct effect over yield and consequently it would be the most important factor in a selection process within the species.In China among the 16 species that have been found, L. sativus, owing to its drought resistance and high protein content in seeds, has been extensively cultivated in the northwest part of China since the 1960s. Until the early 1970s, the production area of L. sativus in the Gansu Province reached over 20 000 ha. It was used as a natural fertilizer (green fertilizer) and forage, and in some places also as one of the constituents in human diets, especially when the cereal crop failed. In 1973, the consumption of L. sativus was directly attributed to an epidemic outbreak of lathyrism. This has become a matter of public concern and of subsequent action to prohibit cultivation of what would otherwise be a valuable crop. The major result of this work during the past two decades is that four lines of L. sativus with relatively low toxin content and good agronomic characteristics have been screened out from 73 varieties with an ODAP seed content ranging from 0.075 to a highly toxic 0.993%. The average protein content of these lines was 23-25%. These low-toxin lines have been stable over several years. Toxicological tests of lines from the Wuwei District of Gansu Province have shown that they were safe when fed to animals. Neither acute nor chronic lathyrism was found when donkeys, pigs and sheep were fed with seeds of these lines constituting 50-80% of the daily intake for 180-250 days (Chen, unpublished).A listing of plant genetic resources collections is given in Table 4. Although this listing gives the main collections of L. sativus and the related species L. cicera, it is not complete. One of the outcomes of the workshop on L. sativus held at Raipur in 1995 was to develop a network that would focus on the development of a database of present collections. This is urgently required and will be instrumental in the development of a long term strategy for germplasm conservation for this species. A brief outline of several collections and their contents are given below.In Bangladesh the first systematic collections of grass pea were made in 1979 in collaboration with ICRISAT. During 1980 and 1981 additional collections were made financed by FAO. Unfortunately the major part of these collections was either damaged or lost because of lack of proper storage facilities (Sarwar et al. 1995a).In 1992 and 1994 the Pulses Centre, in collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Extension, collected 2078 accessions from 55 districts of Bangladesh. Of these, 1072 accessions were evaluated at the Central Experimental Station Farm, Gazipur in 1993 with an additional 788 accessions being evaluated in 1994. The germplasm that was collected is being safety-duplicated at ICARDA and CLIMA. To date, 1153 and 200 accessions have been sent to ICARDA and CLIMA, respectively. The evaluation included days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, pod length, seeds per pod, ODAP content and yield (Sarwar et al. 1995a). It is interesting to note that seeds collected in the droughtprone areas away from the coast were larger in size than seeds collected from the coastal areas. This was thought to be due to the environment of these two areas (Sarwar et al. 1993). In 1993 all 1072 accessions were found to be blue flowered; however, a lot of flower mutants were identified in the collection. These included white, pink, deep pink, red, light violet, reddish blue, pinkish blue and light blue.It was thought probable that these arose from the blue flower colour and were alleles, suggesting that flower colour might be governed by multiple alleles.The Agriculture and Agri-food, Research Centre, Morden, Manitoba has 776 accessions of L. sativus and 34 of L. cicera in storage at 3°C and 20% RH. These have been evaluated for all the descriptors as set out by the 'International Network for the Improvement of L. sativus and the Eradication of Lathyrism' (INILSEL) (Fig. 5).The accessions include a back-up set of 82 accessions from Nepal. The Plant Genetic Resources of Canada, Ottawa also has 113 accessions of L. sativus and 30 accessions of L. cicera in long-term storage. All accessions have been evaluated using the list of descriptors developed by INILSEL.The Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Castilla, Chile has 74 accessions. Although a former collection had previously been made of which 56 accessions were in storage, there was another collection made in 1992. These 74 accessions were collected in inland and coastal dryland areas between Llicao and San Nicholas at an altitude of 50 to 230 m asl. These samples were collected in the main area where L. sativus is grown. However, future collections should take in all the coastal dryland areas of Chile. The purpose of the collection is to obtain the greatest  In Ethiopia the total holding of Lathyrus is 282 accessions out of a total pulse crop collection of 4912 accessions on 12 species (Tadesse 1994). Lathyrus ranks fifth among the pulses in this collection in importance after faba bean, field peas, chickpea and lentil. These collections are preserved under conditions of -10 and 4°C. The largest collections of Lathyrus have been derived from the traditional field crop of the country. In some cases the samples do not correspond with the growing area index (GIA) percentage calculated for the various administrative regions. As an example, a relatively large number of samples was collected from the Wello area were the GIA% is low. On the other hand, few samples were collected from Gondar, which has a higher GIA%. The samples were obtained from a wide altitudinal range: as low as 1685 m to as high as 2795 m (Tadesse 1994). These accessions have been evaluated for a large range of agromorphological characteristics. On the basis of flower colour, which is highly heritable, it is considered that the northern regions of Ethiopia possess large genetic variation.There are 206 lines officially in storage at the present time at the Biodiversity Institute, Addis Abeba. However, unfortunately the documentation of most of these, which were originally on computer, is now only available manually from the original documents.It is quite apparent that there are wide gaps in the collection as it now exists. To fill this gap, it is suggested that a targeted collecting expedition be undertaken in collaboration with relevant crop specialists. This operation should focus on both random sampling and specific traits of interest.The collection at the University of Pau, France has 1807 accessions of L. sativus originating from: Belgium (3), Bulgaria (13), Czechoslovakia (18), Cyprus (44), Germany (261), Spain (31), France (487), Greece (158), Hungary (5), Italy (41), Poland (10), Portugal (104), Romania (2), former USSR (30), and Ukraine (4). In addition the following other species are conserved: L. cicera (509 accessions), L. heterophyllus (80), L. latifolius (311), L. sylvestris (666) and L. tuberosus. Storage conditions are at -40°C and 80% RH in unsealed plastic containers. The storage volume of the room is 5 m3, but Dr Combes reports that there is no room remaining for additional accessions. The L. sativus accessions have been evaluated for flower and seed coat colour.The first effort to systematically collect the grass pea germplasm in India was in 1967 (Mehra et al. 1995). Approximately 600 accessions were collected and analyzed for ODAP content. In 1969 subsequent collections were made from Bihar, Eastern U.P., West Bengal, Gujarat and Haryana. In 1975 IARI scientists collected from the tribal areas of Bihar. In 1976 some indigenous accessions were sent to the Lathyrus Improvement Program at Raipur M.P. from Jawahar Lal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur. Later on the Directorate of Pulses Research, Kanpur also supplied some indigenous materials to this programme. Exotic accessions belonging to Italy, Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, France and Iowa were also received from NBPGR (National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources), New Delhi. During 1989During -90 and 1990During -91, 1187 landraces of grass pea were collected from the growing regions of Madhya Pradesh. At the present time 2659 accessions are being maintained at Raipur. A set of landraces has been stored in the National Genebank at NBPGR, New Delhi. These have been coded as IC 142554 to IC 143565. Short-term storage facilities have been developed at the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University, Raipur.The NBPGR was started in 1976 and presently maintains 1119 accessions, including exotics. Of these, 1061 samples have been conserved as base collections in the genebank (Singh and Chandel 1995). Approximately 1154 exotic accessions have been introduced into India during the past decade.In 1994-95, 283 accessions of L. sativus and five other Lathyrus species (L. pseudocicera, L. inconspicuus, L. aphaca, L. cicera and L. chrysanthus) were evaluated at IARI, New Delhi. Evaluations were made on plant height, number of primary branches, pod length, number of pods per plant, seeds per pod and 1000-seed weight (Mehra et al. 1995).Collecting missions in 1981, 1989, 1990 and 1993 reported 36 accessions of eight species of Lathyrus (Syouf 1995), although only one L. sativus accession was reported. Syouf also reports that 20 Jordanian Lathyrus accessions were evaluated for 12 descriptors at Tel Hadya, Syria in 1992. These included days to 50% flowering, days to 90% podding, days to 90% maturity, pods per inflorescence, pod length, pod width, seeds per pod and 100-seed weight.The Cytogenetics Laboratory of NARC has 666 accessions in storage. These include 103 accessions from the Sind province. Recently collections have been obtained from Afghanistan as well to augment the Lathryus Improvement Program.Evaluation of 880 accessions for ODAP content and 590 accessions at seven different agroclimatic regions in Pakistan has been completed. The Plant Genetic Resource Institute at the National Agricultural Research Institute, Islamabad has 97 accessions of grass pea from the Sind province of Pakistan. In addition they have 46 accessions comprised of nine related species as well as 35 exotic lines (Haqqani and Arshad 1995).The N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in Saint Petersburg has a total collection of 723 accessions of Lathyrus species. It is not known, however, how many of these are of L. sativus or of L. cicera.ICARDA holds 'in-trust' Lathyrus germplasm for more than 45 countries under the auspices of the FAO (Robertson and El Moneim 1995). The emphasis of the collection is on the species L. sativus, L. cicera and L. ochrus; however, over 40 other species are also in storage. The majority of the accessions are from the WANA region. A total of 1560, 185 and 138 accessions are being conserved for L. sativus, L. cicera and L. ochrus respectively. There are an additional 1056 accessions of the other species. Germplasm has been evaluated for stress resistance and tolerance to cold, and ODAP content. In 1992-93, 1082 accessions belonging to 30 species were evaluated using 21 descriptors. The complete results are reported in Robertson and El Moneim (1995).In 1987, 1988 and 1995 a total of 449 Lathyrus seed samples were collected in Turkey (Sabanci 1995). Seventeen accessions were of L. sativus while the remainder were from 31 other species. A complete list of accessions that are available for distribution is given in Sabanci (1995). He notes, however, that the number of species found in the more recent collections was about half of that found in 1970, showing the serious erosion that has taken place in this genera. However, only 185 accessions are stored at the Plant Genetic Resources Department (Frison and Serwinski 1995).The collection at Southampton University also contains a very large number of accessions of other species of Lathyrus. An effort is being made at the present time to organize the collections, databases and descriptors for L. sativus as well as for the other two important species -Lathyrus ochrus and L. cicera. These aspects need to be addressed as the potential of this crop and related species becomes more recognized.During the fifth meeting of the working group on forages of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources (ECP/GR) it was recommended that a European Vicieae database be established and managed jointly by the University of Southampton, IBEAS, Pau and CNR, Bari. This recommendation is implemented within the framework of ECP/GR. The responsibility for updating the database on Lathyrus lies with Daniel Combes, IBEAS, Pau (Gass et al. 1995). The database was established in 1985 after a colloquium on Lathyrus held in Pau. It includes two annual species (L. sativus and L. cicera) and four wild or semi-wild perennial species (L. heterophyllus, L. latifolius, L. sylvestris and L. tuberosus). The total number of accessions is 4000, out of which 1810 are L. sativus. Countries of origin are mostly European, but also from North Africa, the Middle East, Ethiopia and India. The database can be provided to everyone on floppy disk or on paper (see Appendix II for address). It is also freely accessible through the Internet on the Pau University web site (http:// www.univ-pau.fr) by clicking on 'La recherche' and then on 'Biologie' (Daniel Combes and Monique Delbos, pers. comm.). It is also accessible through Dirk Enneking's CLIMA web site (http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/u/ enneking/home.html) which contains other useful information on Lathyrus.A database of other Lathyrus species is managed by F. Bisby, University of Southampton (for address see Appendix II). This database contains 1491 entries, covering approximately 70 species.Until now most descriptors that have been used for collections have been passport descriptors. Those that have been used for the collection at Pau, France have been recommended by the forages working group of ECP/GR. Unfortunately, many passport data are missing for most of the accessions, as collecting of accessions was done generally before any IBPGR/IPGRI recommendations had been established.Although there are a number of institutions with fairly sizeable collections of grass pea and related species, nothing really consistent has been done on the standardization of these descriptors. Ray Clark from NPGS in Washington has established a quite important list of evaluation descriptors for L. odoratus (sweet pea). This could constitute a possible base of discussion for the establishment of such a descriptor list for L. sativus. It contains morphological descriptors as well as descriptors for resistance/sensitivity to parasites (particularly fungi). It might be of interest to add a list of enzymatic descriptors, as new data in this area are beginning to accumulate (Godt and Hamrick 1991;Yunus et al. 1991;Al Kadi 1993).In a near future one can also imagine descriptors for DNA markers (RFLP, RAPD) that could be added, as they begin to be studied.The Germplasm Resources, Crop Improvement and Agronomy Committee of INILSEL agreed in 1988 to use the following descriptors as the basis for their collections:• Days from seeding to 50% flowering of plants • Anthocyanin present in stem • Flower colour • Leaf width (narrow = 0.5 cm, medium = 1 cm, wide = 1.5 cm)• Seed coat colour At the IPGRI-ICAR/IGKV regional workshop on Lathyrus genetic resources, held 27-30 December 1995 at Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishavidyalaya, Raipur, India it was agreed that a list of minimum descriptors be developed and made available to cooperators (Arora et al. 1996). A booklet on the list of descriptors for the Lathyrus genepool, including wild species, will be prepared and published by IPGRI. They identified the following as Minimal Descriptors for working and long-term Lathyrus collections:• Days from seeding to 50% plants with flowers • Anthocyanin present in stems • Flower colour • Leaf width (narrow = 0.5 cm; medium = 1 cm; wide = 1.5 cm) A completed list of descriptors will be developed in the near future for this crop. This is badly needed as the crop's agronomic and economic importance becomes more evident and a more organized collecting, evaluation and storage programme is developed. At the recent workshop at Raipur there was strong interest in the development of a Lathyrus Resources Network, especially for the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) and South Asia regions (Arora et al. 1996). The network will focus on genetic resources, securing present collections and identifying what diversity remains uncollected. Dr Arora, IPGRI, India was named the coordinator. It was agreed that the network would complement the work being done by INILSEL which has been recently reorganized as ILLRA (International Lathyrus and Lathyrism Research Association).As L. sativus has orthodox seeds the general method of ex situ storage has been drying to approximately 5% moisture content and storage under refrigeration or frozed conditions. The methods of storage in the existing collections have, however, ranged from paper bags to plastic containers to sealed laminated pouches. Clearly this is an area which deserves more attention and correct practices have to be implemented by the various storage facilities.Although no in situ conservation of germplasm in the farmers' fields has been reported, this aspect received support from the Regional Workshop on Lathyrus Genetic Resources in Asia held at Raipur, December 27-29 1995. They recommended that some pilot studies be carried out for in situ conservation (Arora et al. 1996).Comprehensive collections of L. sativus germplasm have been made in Bangladesh and in the province of Madhya Pradesh in India. While many other collections have taken place in other countries, many have not been comprehensive, or did not include other closely related species or in some cases have been lost after collecting. There is an urgent need to determine accurately the status of the present collections and areas which have been adequately sampled. The need for this was expressed in the recent workshop held at Raipur, India. An internationally coordinated effort will be required to determine the present status of collection as well as to coordinate further efforts that are deemed required.In vast areas of Rissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Eastern Utter Pradesh and the Himalayan region of India, surveying and collecting of Lathyrus species still has not been done. The subspecies aphaca and ochrus are found at the present time as weeds in the areas that have been collected for L. sativus; however, they were not included in the collections. Possibilities do exist that other species of Lathyrus may exist in India, especially in the mountainous regions of the country. Davis (1970) reported on the existence of about 60 species of Lathyrus in Turkey alone, while Maha (1995) reported nine species of Lathyrus collected from mountainous regions of Jordan. In India many unexplored areas should be surveyed for the presence of wild relatives of L. sativus as well as for the major species.In Spain there are reports of decreased production of both L. sativus and L. cicera. These species were grown in the more mountainous areas. However, at the present time they are often found only at the edges of fields or in gardens for personal use. It appears that there is a very real threat of this germplasm being lost if a comprehensive collection is not made at the earliest possible time. The status of local landraces and collections needs to be established for other areas of southern Europe, including southern France, Greece, Italy and Turkey, as the same threat may be present for their germplasm.Only 103 accessions have been collected from the Sind area of Pakistan because of difficulties involving the security of the collectors. As the Sind province produces approximately 65% of the Lathyrus grown in Pakistan, this area requires adequate collecting. Other production areas of Pakistan have not been sampled at the present time, nor have other related species been determined or collected to any extent. There appears to be and urgent need to determine the status of the present collections and to undertake further systematic sampling of the existing germplasm.In Nepal only one accession of L. sativus germplasm has been collected. The Nepalese government banned commercial trade in this crop in 1993. The production of the crop is expected to decline, thereby putting severe erosion pressure on existing germplasm. As grass pea is number two in area of production of pulse crops in Nepal the existing germplasm should be adequately protected through collecting, evaluation and storage before the expected erosion has had serious effects on the collectors' ability to representatively sample the existing germplasm.In Ethiopia in 1995, a group of scientists from Ethiopia, CLIMA and ICARDA collected more accessions from several regions in the country in a joint expedition but official figures of the accessions have not been released yet. About 300 accessions of grass pea cultivars were collected by breeders at the Adet Research Center in the dense growing areas of Gojam and Gondar in the 1987 and 1994 cropping seasons. These are not included in collections registered at the Biodiversity Institute in Addis Abeba. Therefore the exact state of collection, evaluation and storage for Ethiopia is not clear. This needs to be determined before long-range plans can be developed for this country.It is known that production of L. sativus occurs in the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi of China where production is increasing. The representation of these areas in the collection of the Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources must be determined.ICARDA has the most extensive collection of germplasm for the Mediterranean region as well as for North Africa (Table 4). This has taken place under their mandate on forage crops. Although they have been involved in recent collecting of germplasm from these areas, there still exists a need to adequately sample this large area.As expressed by Smartt (1984) it is rather puzzling that a crop which has been used as a pulse for at least 8000 years and is still so used, should have made so little evolutionary progress as a grain crop during this time. He considers it probable that the lack of progress as a pulse crop might have been due to its other and possibly more important use as a forage crop. The selection pressures imposed on forage crops are in many ways the opposite of those on grain crops. The large seed, an advantage in grain crops, is not necessary in a forage crop, while the luxuriant vegetative growth, desirable in a forage, is much less important in a grain crop, especially if it is at the expense of seed production. These countervailing selection pressures may have cancelled each other out and maintained the status quo over this long time period. He points out that this suggests that there may be unrealized potential for the development of grass pea as a pulse crop. He considers that the development of a more compact growth habit, combined with some increase in seed size and elimination of the neurotoxin, could transform this into one of great value in the semiarid areas of developing countries.Chromosomal and cytogenetic studies have shown the genus Lathyrus to be predominantly diploid with 2n=28 chromosomes. The chromosome numbers of more than 60 species have been reported with only three species having been shown to have more than 14 somatic chromosomes. Two species (L. pratensis and L. venosus) are tetraploid with 2n=28 chromosomes and one species (L. palustris) is hexaploid with 2n=42 chromosomes. These species have been studied cytologically and have been shown to be autopolyploids. The occurrence of an autohexaploid is among the very few examples in the plant kingdom (Khawaja, unpublished). These autopolyploids are, in reality, cytotypes as diploid forms also occur in nature.Interest in experimental interspecific hybridization in the genus was shown in sweet pea (L. odoratus) as early as 1916. Burpee (1916) and others were interested in trying to introduce genes for yellow flower colour into the cultivated species from wild relatives in the same genus. Successful interspecific hybridization in the genus has been shown to be exceedingly rare, as has been found in other genera of the Leguminosae.Interspecific hybridization between other species in the genus Lathyrus has been attempted by many researchers since the report of the successful crossing of L. hirsutus x L. odoratus by Barker (1916). Most attempts have been failures and even though many thousand cross-combinations are theoretically possible, only 16 have been reported as successful. Interspecific hybridization involving L. sativus has only been reported as successful in two instances. In 1956 Lwin succeeded in crossing L. cicera with L. sativus; however, this cross has been unsuccessful in subsequent attempts (Davies 1958;Khawaja 1988). Khawaja (1988) reported that L. sativus crosses readily with L. amphicarpus when the latter is used as the female. It also has been noted that in certain cross-combinations fertilization is successful but the embryo aborts during development. The stage of development at which abortion takes place differs with the cross-combination. Cytological studies of the F 1 hybrids between L. amphicarpus x L. sativus, L. amphicarpus x L. cicera and L. odoratus x L. chloranthus were carried out by Khawaja (1988) which showed 50-70% chromosome homology and pollen fertility in conformity with the meiotic pairing.From the information available on crossing, fertility and chromosome behaviour of the hybrids it may be concluded that breeding strategies involving alien genetic transfer for the improvement of grass pea are possible through the readily crossable species L. amphicarpus. There also appears to be a high probability of success in obtaining interspecific crosses between some species that do not cross because of embryo abortion after fertilization through the utilization of embryo rescue techniques.Plant regeneration techniques developed by Dr P.K. Roy and Dr Mehta (Mehta et al. 1991) have been successful in regenerating plants from explants derived from stem, leaf and root tissue. The resulting plants showed a high amount of somaclonal variation in plant habit. This technique may be successfully exploited in the production of agronomically desirable types in low ODAP lines and thus provide a faster means of improvement than that allowed by conventional crossing and backcrossing methods.The floral biology of L. sativus is such that it favours self-pollination. However, there have been indications that some outcrossing occurs in the species, which is dependent on environmental or genetical factors. The extent of natural outcrossing that can occur in L. sativus has been a concern of several plant breeders over the past 10 years. Rahman et al. (1995), in a study using four flower colours for which the genetics were known, found outcrossing from 9.8 to 27.8%. This was determined by planting red, white and pink (all recessive to blue) flowered lines and then surrounding them with a blue-flowered line, the blue flower being dominant. Evaluation of the flower colour of individual plants was used to compute the outcrossing that occurred between lines based on natural pollinating mechanisms. It did not attempt to determine the amount of pollination that occurred within the genotypes.It is not known if wind or insects are the major vector in the transfer of pollen, which can rapidly increase the heterogeneity in different populations. In most breeding programmes the crosses are done under controlled conditions in the greenhouse or under gauze coverings. The flowers are emasculated by removing the anthers in the late bud stage. The following morning the styles are fertilized with pollen from a preselected parental plant as soon as possible following dehiscence of the anthers. The pollen at this time is orange and rapidly becomes clear as it loses its viability. Although this is a time-consuming process it can rapidly result in a large number of successful pollinations as several seeds normally develop from each pollination.Male sterility has been reported in many plant species but has only been reported to a limited amount in L. sativus. The first report of male sterility was by Srivastiva and Somayajulu (1981), in which they found that some plants had reduced stamens and the anthers did not produce pollen. No seed set was observed on selfing these plants although open-pollination gave good seed set. Quader (1987), in a study involving 40 sterile plants and 40 pollinator lines, found that 26 pollinator lines produced sterile plants. The F 1 showed complete fertility in four cross combinations and complete sterility in another three cross combinations. The presence of both cytoplasmic and genetic factors controlling male sterility was indicated. The rest of the crosses segregated for sterile and fertile plants. He concluded that there were both single and double restorer genes.Mutation breeding can be a valuable supplement to conventional plant breeding methods. It can be used to create additional genetic variability that may be utilized by the plant breeder in the development of cultivars for specific purposes or with specific adaptabilities. Mutation studies on L. sativus have shown that the chemical mutagens EMS (ethyl methanesulphonate) and NMU (N-nitroso-N-methyl urea) are more efficient than radiation in the production of chlorophyll mutations (Nerkar 1976). However, varieties have been found to respond differently to exposure to gamma irradiation (Prassad and Das 1980a). A wide spectrum of morphological mutations has been found to affect plant habit, maturity, branching, stem shape, leaf size, stipule shape, flower colour and structure, pod size, and seed size and colour (Nerkar 1976). Plant habit mutants such as dwarf and erect, as well as giant forms, also have been induced (Prassad and Das 1980b). There thus appears to be a large selection of both naturally occurring and induced morphological characteristics that are available to the plant breeder.Studies by Singh and Chaturvedi (1986) have shown that at biologically comparable doses the mutagenic effectiveness was in the order of N-nitroso-N-methyl urea (NMU), ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) and gamma-rays and efficiency in the order of Gammarays, EMS and NMU.An indication that ODAP content might exhibit a simple Mendelian inheritance has been reported from variation induced in grass pea through both physical and chemical mutagens (Nerkar 1972). In the segregating M 2 generation in all treatments the distribution curves showed three distinct peaks which are characteristic of monogenic F 2 segregation.While these studies report on the formation or development of many mutations it is not known if they were stored for future utilization. This aspect needs to be addressed as they are a potential source of additional variation in the species.Genetic detoxification of the toxin ODAP is the most feasible method of producing a safe crop compared with other physicochemical processing methods that have been developed (Gowda and Kaul 1982;Smartt et al. 1994). Flower and seed coat colour could be useful genetic markers for identifying lines with low neurotoxin content (Dahiya 1976;Kaul et al. 1986;Quader et al. 1986). Flower colour in grass pea varies from blue to pink, red and white. Grass pea types with blue flowers and speckled (coloured) seed coat are common in the Indian subcontinent whereas white flowers with white seed coat are common in the Mediterranean region (Jackson and Yunus 1984) and in many European lines. Dahiya (1976) reported that genotypes with light cream colour seed contained low neurotoxin content. But Quader et al. (1986) reported that white-flowered plants had increased toxin compared with blue-flowered plants. However, Kaul et al. (1986), in a survey of 127 accessions of grass pea germplasm, did not find any association between flower or seed coat colour with the neurotoxin content. Although no association exists, flower colour could be introduced into low or zero neurotoxin lines as a means of identifying these lines from high neurotoxin lines. It is probable that the introduction of seed size, seed shape or seed colour could have an effect on consumer preference for this pulse and would therefore be less desirable.The ODAP content of Lathyrus has been shown to differ widely both between accessions and between environments (Ramanujam et al. 1980;Dahiya and Jeswani 1975). Although many attempts have been made to find a correlation between ODAP content and seed coat or flower colour, the results have either been conflicting (Dahiya 1985;Quader et al. 1985) or have not been successful (Roy and Rao 1978). Although a high correlation to a readily identifiable plant characteristic would allow the characteristic to be used as a rapid selection technique for low ODAP content, it is not essential. Any rapid and inexpensive method capable of handling large numbers of progenies in a breeding programme can be utilized for the identification of low-ODAP segregates.Germplasm has been collected and evaluated at a large number of sites and there are numerous reports concerning the evaluation of local germplasm and lines that were introduced from other areas. In many of these cases they have been evaluated for both seed and forage purposes and to determine their adaptability. In most cases the amount of ODAP also was determined.An indication that ODAP content might exhibit a simple Mendelian inheritance has been reported from variation induced in Lathyrus through both physical and chemical mutagens (Nerkar 1972). In the segregating M 2 generation in all treatments the distribution curves showed three distinct peaks which are characteristic of monogenic F2 segregation.In a study done at Morden, Manitoba (Tiwari and Campbell 1996) four low-ODAP lines were intercrossed (crosses and reciprocals) to evaluate the genetic basis of low seed ODAP concentration in grass pea. Mean ODAP concentration of the low lines ranged from 0.338 to 0.677 mg/g of seed. The F 1 progenies of the crosses LS90235 x L900436, LS82046 x LS90235 and the reciprocals exhibited heterosis, producing higher seed ODAP concentration than the high parent. However, high ODAP concentration of the progenies of line LS82046, when this line was used as the female parent, was associated with a cytoplasmic influence. The high ODAP values in the F 1 also could be explained by the interaction of different modifiers or background genes. In general, progenies of the low-ODAP lines did not segregate for high ODAP concentration, which suggested common genes among the low lines in grass pea. The F 2 progenies exhibited a wider variability than the parental or F 1 generation which suggests the presence of different modifier genes between the lines. A cytoplasmic influence was detected in two of the low lines. Line L720060 had progenies that segregated for lower ODAP concentration when it was used as the female parent compared with using it as the male parent. Line LS82046, in contrast, produced progeny that segregated for higher ODAP content when it was utilized as the female parent. Similar to the present observation, Quader et al. (1987) have postulated ODAP content to be influenced by cytoplasmic factors.The four low-ODAP lines were crossed to the high-ODAP line, L880283, to observe resulting segregation patterns. Mean ODAP concentration of all the low-ODAP lines was below 0.7 mg/g of seed compared with 2.540 mg/g for the high-ODAP line. Mean ODAP concentration of the F 1 and F 2 progenies of the low-ODAP x high-ODAP lines was found to be in the intermediate range. The segregation of F 2 progenies covered the entire parental range and exhibited higher variability than both parental and F 1 progenies. Classification of the F 2 data for discrete classes of low and high ODAP concentration was not possible. In monogenic inheritance, two distinct groups of low and high ODAP concentration would be expected in a segregating F 2 population. The continuous variation of ODAP concentration in the segregating F 2 progenies of all the crosses, together with very close to normal distribution, indicated that ODAP content was inherited quantitatively. A significantly higher seed ODAP concentration was detected when the high-ODAP line L880283 was used as the female parent in some of the crosses, indicating the presence of a cytoplasmic factor. Nerkar (1972) reported that ODAP content might exhibit a simple Mendelian inheritance in a study of variation induced in Lathyrus in segregating M 2 generations. However, variation was continuous in his experiment, although three peaks were present. The choice of phenotypic class intervals was somewhat arbitrary in this case. As reported by Quader et al. (1985), variation of the F 2 progenies was continuous although they postulated a simple monogenic inheritance on the basis of two peaks. Biosynthetic pathways studies by Malathi et al. (1967) and Lambein et al. (1990) revealed that at least two enzymes were involved in the synthesis of the neurotoxin. This also suggested that more than one gene controls ODAP synthesis. Quader et al. (1987) reported the possibility of more than one gene controlling ODAP content. However, results could easily be confounded with additive genetic effects influencing a monogenic trait. This could occur if differences between the parents were small and there was difficulty in distinguishing a segregating pattern from the normally distributed population of a quantitative trait. In this investigation, however, contrary to a few reports suggesting monogenic inheritance of ODAP seed content, it was found to be quantitatively inherited.ODAP concentration of grass pea seed was also found to be affected by the stage of seed development in the pod. Relatively higher amounts of ODAP were detected from immature shrivelled seeds than from plump seeds from the same plant. An intermediate level of ODAP was found in average-sized seed. This observation indicated that ODAP may be synthesized during the early stages of pod development and the concentration may be diluted as the cotyledon is filled with starch. Hence, it is important that analysis of ODAP content be conducted on well-matured pods.While the problem of ODAP content has been focused on by most plant breeders there has been increased activity in the past decade on the grain yield of the crop. Increased yield has been a selection criteria for most crop improvement programmes. However, some of the yield components that affect yield, such as double podding or increased seeds per pod (see Fig. 6), have seen few efforts in most breeding programmes. This area requires more input to allow the potential of this very hardy pulse to be more fully exploited.The biomass yield of L. sativus has started to receive attention in breeding programmes only during the past few years, although evaluation of this character has taken place over the past 30 years. There is active improvement in this aspect in the ICARDA Lathyrus improvement programme as well as in Canada at Morden, Manitoba. The aspects of improvement of forage, fodder and straw are presently hampered by lack of information on nutritional values of these components in livestock feeding. This area requires more emphasis as Lathyrus has been shown to have a large potential for forage in the WANA area as well as forage and straw in the South Asian region.Most of the reported work on grass pea improvement has been on the reduction of ODAP content in the seed. Although low lines were identified almost 20 years ago no concentrated effort was placed on this problem until after 1985. The Lathyrus Collogue held that year at Pau, France has served as a catalyst in many ways to focus research on many of the different aspects of grass pea improvement.The ODAP content of grass pea has been shown to differ widely, both between accessions and between environments (Dahiya and Jeswani 1975;Ramanujam et al. 1980). The distribution of ODAP content in landraces in several countries is quite similar (Table 2). Although many attempts have been made to find a correlation between ODAP content and seed coat colour or flower colour the results have either been conflicting (Dahiya 1985;Quader et al. 1985) or have not been successful (Roy and Rao 1978). Although a high correlation to a readily identifiable plant characteristic would allow the characteristic to be used as a rapid selection technique for low ODAP content, it is not essential. A rapid and fairly inexpensive method capable of analysing over 100 samples per day has been developed for a breeding programme for the identification of low-ODAP segregates (Hussain et al. 1994). This method is based on the method of Briggs et al. (1983).Genetic improvement work on L. sativus commenced in 1966 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Jabalpur with the collecting, maintenance and evaluation of 503 germplasm accessions (Lal et al. 1985). In 1970, over 1500 samples of Lathyrus maintained at the IARI at Delhi were screened for ODAP content, with a few lines having a low content of 0.15-0.3% (Jeswani et al. 1970). It was reported that in 1971, 1000 samples were screened for ODAP content in a research programme at IARI. They were found to vary from 0.2 to 2.0% (Leakey 1979). The distribution of ODAP in different plant tissues also was determined (Mehta et al. 1991). A breeding and selection programme using recurrent mutagenic treatment was started to produce high-yielding, low-toxin lines of Lathyrus (Swaminathan et al. 1971).The Lathyrus improvement programme in India was transferred to the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University at Raipur where work is continuing on screening lines for low ODAP content as well as developing lines with specific morphological characters. Through an active hybridization programme they are transferring low ODAP content from Canadian lines into adapted, high-yielding material. Recently the L. sativus breeding programme at IARI has been reactivated with emphasis being placed on lowering the ODAP content through the use of both hybridization and somaclonal variation. Kumari and Mehra (1989) have evaluated the genetic basis of some traits in grass pea. Roy et al. (1993) have reported the findings of reduced ODAP content in somaclones derived from internode explants of L. sativus.In Bangladesh, a screening programme was initiated in 1979 to explore the possibility of isolating toxin-free lines from germplasm systematically collected from 10 districts (Kaul et al. 1986). The screening of the germplasm continued for over 5 years. Lines having ODAP contents of as low as 4.5 mg/g of sample to a high of 14 mg were found, indicating a large variation in ODAP content. Line 3968 was selected as being significantly low in ODAP, as well as earliest in maturity and the highest yielder (Anonymous 1980). An ongoing Lathyrus improvement programme at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute at Joydepur has recently produced a number of lines having very low ODAP content, ranging as low as 0.03% (Quader, pers. comm.). These lines, however, are not as high yielding as some of the local accessions. More recently a total of 2078 accessions was collected (Sarwar et al. 1995a). These accessions are available at the Pulses Research Centre, Ishurdi and the Genetic Resources Centre of the Bangladesh Agricultural Institute, Joydepur. In addition, during 1995, in collaboration with ICARDA and CLIMA a further collecting trip was made that resulted in an additional 62 accessions.Canadian evaluation of Lathyrus germplasm began in 1967 at the Agriculture Canada Research Station, Morden. A breeding and improvement programme was established in 1982 and has resulted in the release of the germplasm LS 8246 (LS82046) having a ODAP content of 0.03% in the seed (Campbell 1987). An additional two lines containing a factor for low ODAP content have been developed. These lines -L900239 and L920278 -have been shown to produce low ODAP content in the seeds when used as parents in crosses. They also appear to differ in the content of ODAP in the cotyledons and in the seedlings. It is possible that the amount of ODAP found in the seed of grass pea is dependent not only on the amount produced in the plant but also on the amount transferred into the developing seed. Studies are underway to determine the inheritance and mode of action of the three sources for low ODAP content in the seed. As well the present objectives of the programme are to transfer these low-ODAP characters into highyielding, adapted lines having good agronomic potential. Some of these lines have been selected for increased seeds per pod and for double pods per node. This involves hybridization of selected lines with screening and evaluation of the resulting progenies.Grass pea improvement in Nepal commenced with the collecting of 17 lines in 1986 and an additional 89 lines in 1987. These are presently being evaluated for agronomic characteristics under the Grain Legumes Improvement Program and are being screened for ODAP content at the Morden Research Station, Canada. Highyielding accessions have been selected as parental material for a hybridization programme to develop high-yielding, adapted types with very low or zero ODAP content in the seed.Collecting and evaluation of grass pea also has taken place in Ethiopia, with 252 lines of locally collected material being maintained at the Plant Genetic Resource Centre in Addis Abeba. At least 127 of these line have been evaluated for agronomic characteristics at the Adet Research Station.Attempts to provide growers with varieties with low ODAP content led to the selection and release in 1973-74 of the variety Pusa-24 by IARI in India (Lal et al. 1985). This variety had been shown to yield as well as some local collections in most years. Pusa-24 was a very important breakthrough as it clearly demonstrated that the level of ODAP could be selected against and that lines low in or lacking ODAP were indeed possible.In Chile the variety Quila-blanco was developed in 1983 (Tay et al. pers. comm.). It was selected from the locally grown heterogeneous population and based on a bulk of six plants. The principal characteristics of this variety are uniform maturity, large white seeds (1000-seed weight of 287 g) and a protein content of 24.3%.Line 8612 was released recently in Bangladesh as a low-neurotoxin variety. It is the first line that was developed specifically for this feature that has been released although a number of crop improvement programmes have lines in final evaluation or field trials.Statistics on production of grass pea are not available for all countries where it is produced (Table 5). The major grass pea growing states in India are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Rissa, West Bengal and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is grown on an area of approximately 1.5 million hectares with the annual production of 0.8 million tonnes. Owing to a ban on its cultivation and trade, exact statistics are not available for this crop. However, nearly two-thirds of national acreage under grass pea is in southeastern Madhya Pradesh and in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra (Pandey, pers. comm.). However, the official statistical report for India lists an area of 783 800 ha, a production of 482 300 t, and a yield of 615 kg per ha in 1992-93 (Ministry of Agriculture 1993).Pulses play an important role in the rain-fed cropping systems of Bangladesh. Among the pulses, khesari (L. sativus) ranks first in area and production and contributes approximately 35% of the total pulse production for the country. The productivity is low at 728 kg/ha (Malek et al. 1995).Grass pea in Pakistan was classed under field pea production for many years and therefore statistics are incomplete or lacking. The area of production in 1991-92 was reported at 129 800 ha with a production of 45 400 tonnes with an average yield of 459 kg/ha (Khawaja et al. 1995) Approximately 20 000 ha of grass pea were grown in North Gansu province of China in recent years (Chen, pers. comm.) with a stable yield 20% higher than field peas (Pisum sativum). This production has increased in spite of human lathyrism being a serious problem in the province of Gansu in the 1970s. The farmers like the crop for its usefulness as an animal feed, as a supplement in food processing and for its nitrogen-fixing capabilities. Although the Ministry of Agriculture of China once restricted the cultivation of the species, this restriction has now been removed. Jing-Zhong (1995) reported that 20 000 ha of land was under production in the north of Shaanxi province.Grass pea occupies approximately 8.7% of the total area and 7.6% of the total production of food legumes in Ethiopia. It is grown in areas with severe natural production disasters. Grass pea production is mainly concentrated in the northwest zone (58.04%), the central zone (16.3%) and the northeast (12.8%) and northern parts of the country (Dibabe et al. 1994). The seed is used for human consumption and the straw for animal feedThe surface cropped in Italy with L. sativus fell from 9674 ha in 1950 to 160 ha in 1972; more recent data are not available because the crop was not assessed because of its economic irrelevance. The regions in which the crop was most cultivated were Abruzzo, Toscana and Puglia in their less-favoured environments where it was used for grazing and grain for both human and animal consumption.There is limited production of grass pea in many other countries in Central, South and Eastern Europe (from Germany south to Portugal and Spain and east to the Balkans and S. Russia), and in Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq Afghanistan, and Iran. It is also produced in North Africa, Morocco and Algeria.In general grass pea is a crop that grows well under the high temperatures of the subtropics as a winter crop. It is therefore best adapted to areas with arid or semiarid conditions. The crop, under these conditions, is generally sown in October/ November and harvested in March (Sarwar et al. 1995b). Haqqani and Arshad (1995) state that Lathyrus is a winter season crop adapted to the subtropics or temperate climates. Usually, when it is grown in more northerly regions it is produced as a summer crop and thus must mature during the generally cooler autumn weather. In many cases this produces excessive biomass growth as the plant continues vegetative growth, usually until freezing terminates growth.Grass pea is usually grown after a crop of rice in South Asia and is broadcast into the standing rice crop approximately 2 weeks before harvest. The grass pea then germinates and grows on the residual moisture. It was also noted in Ethiopia by Negere and Mariam (1994) that the crop can withstand heavy rains in its early stage and prolonged drought at maturity and during grain-filling. This demonstrates a very hardy root system that allows the crop to grow under harsher conditions than do many other pulse crops.The production of grass pea in South East Asia has often been observed in marginal areas that are often waterlogged, lowland, or rice-growing areas and plays an important role in increasing the cropping intensity. In such areas, farmers cannot produce a good winter crop of wheat, oilseeds or other winter legumes. It is mostly sown into almost mature rice fields during November when field moisture is at a totally saturated condition. Usually the seeds are soaked overnight and mixed with the fresh cow dung before sowing (broadcasting). Growers appear to be under the impression that mixing cow dung with the seeds protects the seeds from birds and insects and also enhances germination.Grass pea in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan is generally sown at a rate of 40 kg/ha under 'utera' conditions. There is no land preparation as the seeds are broadcast by hand into standing water in rice fields before the rice is harvested. When it is sown on rain-fed land the soil is usually prepared by two ploughings by oxen. The seeds are broadcast and planked about 2 weeks after the first ploughing. In Ethiopia and Syria the seeding rate can vary from 40 to 60 kg/ha although most of the preplanting cultivation remains almost the same.In the Mediterranean region L. sativus, L. cicera and L. ochrus are normally seeded after the first autumn rains. In Pakistan the crop is normally sown in November and thus grows through the winter months. It is reported to be relatively tolerant to frost and so can withstand some freezing temperatures. The plants often form a rosette during this period but rapidly elongate with the occurrence of warmer weather.Grass pea in South East Asia is often sown mixed with other crops as an insurance against adverse weather conditions that might affect growth or yield of the various crops utilized in the mixture.Normally in most growing areas of South East Asia weeds are controlled by hand weeding. This may or may not be practised as the crop often is considered a lowinput crop with lower returns and therefore weeding may not take place. In Canada it was shown that L. sativus yields decreased with increasing density of volunteer wheat or barley (Wall and Campbell 1993). Lathyrus was not competitive with weeds, especially when moisture was a limiting factor to plant growth. Herbicides which might safely control annual weed in Lathyrus have been identified (Wall et al. 1988;Wall and Friesen 1991), but none are currently registered for use in Canada.Aphids (e.g. Aphis craccivora) are reported to be a major pest in India, Bangladesh and Ethiopia. Powdery mildew (Erysiphe polygoni DC) and downy mildew (Peronospora lathyri-palustris Gaumann) are the two major diseases that infect grass pea. Losses due to these organisms as well as varietal reaction have not been critically studied. Powdery mildew (Erysiphe pisi) is an important disease of grass pea in India, causing economic losses of grain yield. This region has very congenial climatic conditions for endemic outbreak of this pathogen. Downy mildew is reported as a serious disease in South East Asia. However, documentation of the occurrence or severity is scant and therefore more studies are required on this disease. Also, resistance or tolerance of collections have not been evaluated and should be addressed. Survey work in 1988 and1990 in Ethiopia revealed that powdery mildew (E. polygoni) and rust (Euromyces fabae) were low in incidence (less than 5% of the plants infected) and light in severity (under 5 in a 1 to 9 scale) on local landraces while heavy powdery mildew infection with ratings of 8 and 9 was recorded on cultivars introduced from other countries. In 1989 both powdery mildew and rust infection were heavier in Woreta district and Meshenti around Bahr Dar. The severity and incidence of root rot and wilt diseases (Fusarium spp.) ranged between 5-9 and 5-25%, respectively. It can be concluded from the survey results that powdery mildew and rust are important diseases of the crop in the northwestern part of Ethiopia. However, severity varies from season to season.Although the small-seeded types are desired for 'utera' production it can be seen that they are not necessarily higher yielding under these conditions (Table 6). The amount of seed that is used per area of production does become important as the small-seeded types need significantly less than do large-seeded types to produce the same stand. There appears to be a need for further evaluation of lines that produce higher amounts of biomass under these conditions. Greater biomass serves two different purposes. It allows for better ground cover, a factor that is very important in South East Asia as the crop matures into the heat of the spring season, which aids in protecting the soil from drying out. It also helps maintain It can be seen that in India there has been significant progress in the development of lines higher yielding than the check variety Pusa 24 (Table 7). This germplasm can provide a good basis for the further development of adapted lines that have very low or zero amounts of the neurotoxin ODAP. The development of such lines has already been demonstrated in Canada, Bangladesh and Ethiopia.The leaves turn yellow and the pods turn grey when mature. Pod splitting, which leads to premature shattering of seeds, is common in small types found on the Indian subcontinent (Fig. 7). There the plants are pulled out by hand or cut with a sickle near the base. The plants are then stacked and allowed to dry in the field or on the threshing floor for 7-8 days. The plants are spread out on the threshing floor and beaten with sticks. The seeds are more resistant to damage during harvesting operations than are field peas. It is a common practice to use cattle to help thresh the pods by trampling. The seed is then winnowed and cleaned. The seeds may be dried for several days before being stored. The straw and chaff are used for cattle feed, generally mixed with rice straw. The growers value the straw as a feed stuff as it is an important source of protein. In many cases the value of the straw can be as great as that of the grain and thus is a major consideration for the farmer in the production of this pulse. The main limitation of grass pea is the neurotoxin ODAP. If the seeds are consumed as a major part of the diet for an extended period, irreversible crippling can occur. This will remain a major limiting factor in the production of this valuable crop until such time as low-or zero-toxin lines are released. However, as there are now several sources with ODAP levels at 0.01% it would appear that this is no longer a limitation for most breeding programmes. However, owing to the severity of this problem most research over the last 25 years has concentrated on this aspect. Unfortunately this has resulted in many other areas of evaluation and crop improvement being neglected. Lathyrus sativus at present is banned for commercial sale in several of the states in India and in Nepal. While this has had little impact on the production of the crop it has had very serious repercussions on the research on this crop. Politically it is very difficult to fund germplasm collections, evaluations and development of new varieties on a banned crop. Therefore the major effect of the ban on commercial trade has appeared to be a reduction of the much-needed research on this crop. This research effort is required as grass pea is ranked as the second pulse in area of production in Nepal and the fourth in India in spite of the bans.The small-seeded lines, known as lakhori in India, often have a very severe shattering problem. This occurs with the splitting of the ventral vein of the pod as the seeds enlarge and before they are mature. This necessitates early harvest if seed shattering and loss are to be avoided. Fortunately most large-seeded types do not shatter and therefore the trait should be readily improved in breeding programmes.There appear to be fairly high levels of trypsin inhibitor in grass pea (Deshpande and Campbell 1992) compared with many of the food legumes, the notable exception being soya beans. In the few studies to date on this trait there appears to be little variation that could be exploited in breeding programmes. The reduction of this trait would make the crop much more desirable as animal food. As heating during food preparation almost eliminates this problem it does not appear to be a major concern for most human consumption. There are reported uses in Bangladesh, however, where the seeds are ground, mixed with water and eaten as paste balls. In cases such as these the amount of trypsin inhibitor would affect the nutritional value of the crop.Thrips can be a serious pest of grass pea, resulting in crop damage. In evaluations of germplasm in India there appears to be little known resistance to this insect problem.Lathyrus sativus has a number of unique features that make it attractive to the grower and to the consumer. These are: • Adapted to growing under harsh environmental conditions such as drought stress. This is a very favourable trait throughout the arid regions of china, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. • Adapted to growing under waterlogged conditions. This has been exploited in south east asia where the seeds are broadcast into the water of a standing rice crop. It also has been reported from Ethiopia where flooding from monsoon rains can severely damage other crops. • A high level of protein which normally ranges from 26 to 28% but can be as high as 32%. • Agreeable taste which can be utilized in snack foods as well as a component of the regular diet. • A high biological nitrogen fixation rate which allows the crop to be an important component in sustainable farming systems. • Can be used as forage or fodder for animals, both as a primary crop and as the residue remaining after harvesting the grain. • The grains are used as human food or as animal feed.• Requires few inputs and therefore is adaptable to ecological sustainabilty.Several courses of action have been indicated to date, including: • Collecting, conservation and evaluation of germplasm from areas that have not had adequate sampling yet. • Investigation of interspecific hybrids that might allow the transfer of desirable traits into L. sativus. • Initiate breeding programmes for forage and fodder production in South Asia utilizing the vast amount of germplasm and expertise available from ICARDA. • Physiological studies are required to determine the drought tolerance mechanism in L. sativus and closely related species. • Physiological studies of the nitrogen-fixing ability of L. sativus and closely related species, including evaluation of Rhizobium development under flooded conditions of rice-growing areas. • Breeding of lines with higher-yielding ability through the incorporation of yield components such as double pods per node and increased seeds per pod. • Breeding of lines with increased forage production both for present production areas and also to allow increased production in arid regions as forage. • Physiological studies to determine the role of zinc in ODAP concentration, especially in the zinc-depleted rice-growing areas where L. sativus is presently being grown. • Physiological studies to determine the need, if any, of ODAP content in plant parts other than the seed. • Assessment of resistance or tolerance to Orobanche species and the development of control measures. • Assessment and identification of resistance to insects such as thrips.• Assessment of present germplasm collections for disease resistance or tolerance, especially to powdery mildew and downy mildew. • Assessment of germplasm for increased herbage production, for increased seed yield and harvest index. • Assessment of germplasm for yield components, including double podding and seeds per pod. • Assessment of genotypes for hardiness traits such as cold tolerance.• Assessment of germplasm for nutritional components such as protein.• Assessment of germplasm for anti nutritional factors such as tannins, phenolics and trypsin inhibitors. At present it appears that variability exists in all such factors except trypsin inhibitors. • Identification and elimination of the enzyme responsible for ODAP production.• Safe levels, if they exist, of the neurotoxin ODAP need to be identified. • Development of new export markets which will require very low or zero ODAP levels in new varieties. • Identification of areas for in situ conservation.• Development of varieties for specific end needs including herbage production, selfseeding mechanisms, seed size and plant vigour.A workshop on Lathyrus genetic resources in Asia was held at Raipur, India, 27-29 December 1995. The following recommendations were developed from the discussions and deliberations of the workshop sessions (Arora et al. 1996):• It was felt desirable to estabish a network on Lathyrus genetic resources.• The proposed network will include countries from South Asia and WANA region including Ethiopia. CLIMA and other research organizations interested in Lathyrus may also be associated as research interest groups. • The network activities will be coordinated by IPGRI Coordinator for South Asia located at NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110 012, India. • There will be a representative from each country to act as a country coordinator in the network.The activities suggested for the Network are as follows:• Emphasis on two other species of economic importance -L. cicera and L. ochrus -besides L. sativus. The wild species genepool also may be given adequate attention. • Current status of germplasm collections needs to be assessed by each country. Documentation of existing genetic resources held by different national programmes needs priority. ICARDA may take up creation of database for germplasm from WANA region and Ethiopia while IPGRI can take up preparation of database for South Asia. • A list of minimum descriptors as discussed may be made available by IPGRI to cooperators. A booklet on the list of descriptors for the Lathyrus genepool (including wild species) may be prepared and published by IPGRI involving WANA and South Asia region. • Once the databases are prepared, these will be supplied to member countries for sharing information. • IPGRI Coordinator at South Asia office, New Delhi may develop a Directory of Lathyrus genetic resources and expertise from network countries.• The major objective of the networking would be germplasm exchange, collecting, evaluation, characterization, conservation and utilization. • It was agreed to assess the status of existing germplasm available within different member countries. • Depending on the outcome of critical evaluation of the above information, the gaps for further collecting can be identified.• Adaptive studies need to be carried out by countries in the South Asia and WANA regions with emphasis on both grain and forage purposes. Mechanisms for coordination/country contacts need to be identified.• It was agreed to have a collaborative breeding approach to quicken the process of developing lines with low ODAP, high yield (biomass/seed yield), and resistance to diseases and pests/abiotic stresses.• Basic studies on genetic control of different traits such as flower colour, ODAP content, etc.; outcrossing mechanisms; preparation of linkage maps and studies on reproductive biology in different Lathyrus species; inter-relationships between different Lathyrus species using genetic and cytogenetic techniques, molecular markers and other biotechnology approaches, and interspecific hybridization needs to be undertaken. It was suggested that such work may be carried out in India through collaboration. • The network should have a close link with other groups concerned with establishment of safe ODAP threshold limit; survey of Lathyrism, public awareness, microbiological studies on nodulation/nitrogen fixation, and preparation of agronomic packages. • Development of low-ODAP lines should be coupled with development of appropriate strategies for maintenance of genetic purity through proper isolation mechanisms. • Some pilot studies may be carried out for in situ (on-farm) conservation of germplasm in farmerss fields. • It may be desirable for Network functioning to approach the national systems to identify/nominate country coordinators and the expert scientists/ institutes.• The importance and need for a core collection was stressed. It was suggested that it should be possible to define the core collection with available data.• It was suggested to duplicate the germplasm accessions at two places in India: base collection at NBPGR, New Delhi and active germpalsm collection may be maintained at IGAU, Raipur and IIPR, Kanpur. • It was suggested that other participating countries may, if they desire, deposit their germplasm with either NBPGR, New Delhi or ICARDA.• Collecting of genetic diversity in hot spots and its study may be given due emphasis. • The active and working collections are being maintained in a number of countries.Such procedures need to be followed by each country. Complementary conservation strategies need to be developed based on experience from pilot studies.• IPGRI may explore the possibilities of obtaining funds. Need-based proposals are to be developed by Network participating countries for support. The potential donaors such as ACIAR, Asian Development Bank, BMZ Germany, FAO, UNDP and EU, etc. may be approached.• It was felt that expertise within the region may be fully utilized for various PGR-related activities. • To promote concern on conservation and use of Lathyrus, information on work being carried out in the region may be published in the IPGRI-APO Newsletter. • Proceedings of the workshop may be brought out by IPGRI, New Delhi office.• The Network Coordinator will have the country coordinator nominated by the nodal agencies in the participating countries. • It was agreed that the Network coordinator will indicate steps to have a Steering Committee constituted in consultation with the country coordinators.","tokenCount":"19270"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9eb2e13c10a196174fa5ce0165798bd5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f872a105-2d0f-4644-8db9-6b247c77a511/retrieve","id":"507800312"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"727e4606-2ae9-4fbf-9ae0-b649e43df0e1","pagecount":"26","content":"Having few improved forage options puts the livestock sector at risk of low productivity in the event of extreme abiotic stress events ( eg , droughts, floods). Currently, the CIAT genebank (now Alianza Bioversity -International-CIAT) and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute ) has the largest and most diverse collection of tropical forages in the world. This diversity of germplasm allows the selection of new materials with potential for adoption in different agroecological conditions in Colombia.Information related to the existing diversity in tropical forages in terms of their resistance to drought and tolerance to waterlogging can serve to improve animal production in periods of drought and extreme rainfall. Additionally, knowledge of the development of different pastures and their water demands can better recommend the most appropriate genotypes for various climates and situations, and guide grazing management and irrigation schedules.It is not true that plants displaying the C 4 photosynthetic pathway are more resistant than plants displaying the C 3 photosynthetic pathway . The development of water deficit in grasses (C 4 ) and legumes (C 3 ), as in any plant, occurs when the water supply does not match their water needs. The availability of water is essential to determine the productivity of C 4 grasses and C 3 legumes , and a wide variability has been found in the way they respond to periods of drought. In the tropics, perennial grasses and legumes are widely used for livestock production. The perennial nature of both groups of plants (grasses and legumes) means that they face drought conditions at some point in their productive lives. Thus, avoiding water deficit by controlling water loss is a common response in both tropical grasses and legumes. Plants control water loss through responses in the aerial part. Previous research by the Forage Network conducted at CIAT (now Alianza Bioversity Internacional-CIAT) showed significant differences in transpiration per unit leaf area and leaf senescence in various forage plants. Both responses serve to counteract excessive water loss in conditions of water deficit and are a rapid screening method for the selection of outstanding plants in drought conditions. Therefore, the objective of this work was to improve the understanding of the responses and coping strategies of eleven genotypes of tropical forages (four legumes and seven grasses) under drought conditions under greenhouse conditions. Therefore, measurements of transpiration (total water extracted by the plants), leaf area and leaf senescence were determined in a period after 21 days of plant growth under well-irrigated or dry conditions. This information can contribute to a good targeting of different genotypes for different agroecological zones with different patterns of drought events.The methodology used in the present experiment was previously described in greater detail by Cardoso et al ., 2015 . The trial was carried out in a greenhouse at CIAT headquarters, Palmira, Colombia (latitude 3°29' N; longitude 76°21' W; altitude 965 m). During the course of the experiment, atmospheric conditions were recorded at a weather station (WatchDog 2475 Plant Growth Station , Spectrum Technologies Inc., USA) and were run at an average temperature of 30/22°C (day/night), a relative humidity of 42/74% (day/night) and a maximum photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) of 1200 µmol m 2 s − 1 (mean daily PAR value of 750 µmol m 2 s − 1 . The soil used in this study was a Mollisol collected at CIAT facilities at 0-0.20 m from the soil surface. The soil was sieved to pass a 2 mm mesh.The plant material used in this study consisted of vegetative propagules from 11 accessions of different forage species of grasses and legumes. The accessions studied were Desmodium vellutinum 23982, Stylosanthes guianensis 11995, Centrosema molle 15160, Centrosema acutifolium 15816, B. brizantha 26124, M. maximus 16051, M. maximus 6799, M. maximus 6172, M. maximus 6798, M. maximus Sabanera, M. maximus 6177 . The accessions came from the Bioversity-CIAT Alliance Genetic Resources Unit, with the exception of cv . Sabanera , from Agrosavía . The accessions are planted in pots filled with 4 kg of fertilized soil (milligrams of added nutrient per kilogram of soil: N 21, P 26, K 52, Ca 56, Mg 15, S 10, Zn 1.0, Cu 1.0, B 0.05 and Mo 0.05) and good irrigation conditions. Each propagule was selected visually for its homogeneity (4 m in length). The propagules were then replanted in a 2:1 (w/w) mix of soil and river sand that was previously fertilized (milligrams of nutrient added per kilogram of soil mix: N 40, P 50, K 100, Ca 101, Mg 28, S20, Zn 2.0, Cu 2.0, B 1.0 and Mo 1.0). This fertilization rate represents the recommended generic fertility level for crop and pasture establishment (Rao et al. 1992). After fertilization, the soil mix was allowed to air dry for a couple of days. The soil mixture presented an apparent density (ρ soil) of 1.4g/cm 3 , organic matter of 6% and a pH of 7.5. After air-drying the soil, 5 kg of soil mixture were inserted into 4.5-liter pots. The soil mixture was then saturated with water and allowed to drain for a couple of hours until it reached field capacity. After that, a propagule ∼1 cm below the soil surface was planted in each pot with soil and irrigated daily to maintain field capacity under greenhouse conditions for 21 days. Subsequently, the plants were not watered for 28 days. Each genotype had four replicates.Daily transpiration was calculated for each replicate by weighing each cylinder throughout the experiment every 2 days and before collection (at 21 days). The well-irrigated treatment soil (control) was maintained at field capacity by adding the same mass of water lost through evapotranspiration over a 2-day period. The progressive drying of the soil treatment (hereinafter called drought) was imposed by the cessation of irrigation from the beginning of the experiment. Pots with soil but no plants were used to estimate soil evaporation only under the two levels of water supply. The total transpiration of the plants was calculated from the difference between evapotranspiration and evaporation (average value of four cylinders).The plants were collected 21 days after the start of the treatments. Dead and live leaves were separated manually and the leaf area was measured with a leaf area meter (Li-COR 3100, Li-COR Biosciences , USA).All statistical analyzes were performed in R software (v 2.15.2) (R Development Core Team 2012). Data were checked using Levene's test for homogeneity of variance and log-transformed if necessary. The data was then analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. A post hoc analysis using the LSD test (α = 0.05) was used to identify differences between genotypes by treatments.The results with respect to transpiration, leaf area and transpiration per unit of leaf area are presented in Table 1. The results indicate that legumes presented lower efficiency in leaf blade production per unit of water transpired compared to grasses ( M maximus and U. brizantha ) . This is due to the greater efficiency of plants with C 4 metabolism (grasses) over C 3 plants (legumes). Within the grasses, it was observed that B. brizantha CIAT 26124 showed lower transpiration per unit area than the rest of the grasses ( M. maximus ). This may be due to the fact that U. brizantha CIAT 26124 presents lower leaf senescence under stress conditions than the M. maximus accessions included in this study (Table 1). It is possible that the low senescence of U. brizantha leaves is a genetically controlled attribute, similar to late senescence (' stay green \") observed in many other species. Within the M. maximus accessions , no significant differences were found in terms of leaf area production, transpiration, or transpiration per area unit. However, the CIAT 6172 accession presented greater leaf senescence during the course of the experiment. This may indicate that CIAT 6172 is more sensitive to water scarcity conditions than the other M. maximus accessions included in this study. Within the legumes, it was found that Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 11995 and Desmodium vellutinum CIAT 23982 are more sensitive to water scarcity than Centrosema acutifolium CIAT 15816 and Centrosema mole 23982. The best drought adaptation between Centrosema acutifolium CIAT 15816 and Centrosema mole 23982 may be due to a more efficient use of water and greater soil cover to minimize transpiration, as well as the redirection of the leaves upwards as a mechanism for dissipating excess energy. Soil waterlogging is an important limitation to the productivity of tropical forages. Soil waterlogging (or soil flooding) occurs when the soil is saturated with water. Due to the slow diffusion of gases in water, the exchange of gases between the soil and the atmosphere is strongly hampered. Soil waterlogging reduces plant growth as O 2 availability in the root zone decreases. The lack of oxygen in roots makes it difficult for the uptake of nutrients by mass flow (for example, nitrogen). This means that, if the plants do not have adaptations to withstand waterlogging, a symptom is the progressive \"yellowing\" of the leaves (loss of chlorophyll in the leaves). This loss of chlorophyll in leaves can result in the total death of the leaves and perhaps the plant. To cope with waterlogging, plants often develop new roots that are capable of taking up nutrients dissolved in soil or standing water. In previous studies carried out at CIAT, it was identified that the greater production of roots in conditions of waterlogging was an adequate \"proxy\" to evaluate tolerance for waterlogging in tropical forages (including legumes and grasses), and that plants with greater length of adventitious roots (defined as roots produced during waterlogging) showed lower leaf senescence.Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the responses and coping strategies of eleven genotypes of tropical forages (four legumes and seven grasses) under flooded conditions. Therefore, determinations of the length of cord roots and leaf senescence were carried out in plants subjected to stress due to waterlogging for 15 days.The methodology used in the present experiment was previously described in greater detail by Cardoso et al  1992).After fertilization, the soil mix was allowed to air dry for a couple of days.The soil mix had a bulk density (ρ soil) of 1.5g/cm 3 , 6% organic matter, and a pH of 8.0.After air-drying the soil, 5 kg of soil mix was inserted into 4.5-litre pots.The soil mix was then saturated with water and allowed to drain for a couple of hours to reach field capacity.After that, a ∼0.01 m propagule was planted below the surface d the soil in each soil cylinder and irrigated daily to maintain field capacity under greenhouse conditions for 15 days. Subsequently, the pot was introduced into another larger and larger pot to maintain a constant sheet of water 3cm above the ground. Each genotype had four replicates.The plants were collected 21 days after the start of the treatments. Dead and live leaves were separated manually and the leaf area was measured with a leaf area meter (Li-COR 3100, Li-COR Biosciences , USA).The roots separated from the stems. Under a dissecting microscope, roots that appeared to be damaged were graded and discarded. Following this, the roots were placed in a water-filled acrylic tray and carefully arranged so that there was no overlap of lateral roots. These roots were scanned to record gray images at 600 dpi with a dual scanner (EPSON Expression 1680, Japan). The scanned images were then used for root length determination using WinRhizo (Regent Instruments, Canada).All statistical analyzes were performed in R software (v 2.15.2) (R Development Core Team 2012). Data were checked using Levene's test for homogeneity of variance and log-transformed if necessary. The data was then analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. A post hoc analysis using the LSD test (α = 0.05) was used to identify differences between genotypes.Significant differences were found between the different genotypes for the length of cord roots and percentage of dead leaves. Within M. maximus accessions , there are differences in the amount of root production induced by waterlogging at surface nodes. In particular, CIAT 6798 and 6177, cv . Sabanera show a greater number of roots. The aforementioned genotypes also show taller stems under flooded conditions than under control conditions and have lower percentages of dead leaves (Table 1). The production of cord roots and greater stem elongation under waterlogged conditions suggests that these genotypes have an escape response (oxygen search) that is beneficial to them. Desmodium Vellitunim CIAT 23982 shows hypertrophied lenticels. The genotypes of Centrosema molle , C. angustigolia and Stylosanthes guinanensis show adventitious roots. In general, it is suggested that genotypes capable of producing a greater number of cord roots are more tolerant to waterlogging. It is important to note that the soil used is a soil that does not contain highly concentrated redoximorphic elements (iron and manganese) that can reach toxic concentrations under flooded conditions. It is probable that the outstanding genotypes in this type of soil ( Mollisol , pH > 7), do not support waterlogging conditions in acid soils with high iron and manganese contents. Therefore, the objective of this work was to improve the understanding of the responses and coping strategies of 15 accessions of Cenchrus ciliaris under drought conditions under greenhouse conditions. Therefore, measurements of dry matter production in stems and roots, root:stem ratio , height and canopy temperature depression were determined in a period after 21 days of plant growth under well-irrigated or dry conditions.The methodology used in the present experiment was previously described in greater detail by Cardoso et al ., 2015 . The trial was carried out in a greenhouse at CIAT headquarters, Palmira, Colombia (latitude 3°29' N; longitude 76°21' W; altitude 965 m). During the course of the experiment, atmospheric conditions were recorded at a weather station ( WatchDog 2475 Plant Growth Station , Spectrum Technologies Inc., USA) and were run at an average temperature of 30/22°C (day/night), a relative humidity of 40/70% (day/night) and a maximum photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) of 1100 µmol m 2 s − 1 (mean daily PAR value of 710 µmol m 2 s − 1 ). Inside the greenhouse, 3 radiators were located to increase the temperature and increase the steam pressure to constant values between 3.0 and 3.5 kPa. The soil used in this study was a Mollisol collected at the CIAT facilities at 0-0.20 m from the soil surface. The soil was sieved to pass a 2 mm mesh.The plant material used in this study consisted of vegetative propagules from 15 accessions of Chloris gayana from the ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute, Ethiopia) germplasm bank that were grown in pots filled with 4 kg of fertilized soil (milligrams of added nutrient per kilogram of soil: N 21, P 26, K 52, Ca 56, Mg 15, S 10, Zn 1.0, Cu 1.0, B 0.05 and Mo 0.05) and good irrigation conditions. Each propagule was selected visually for its homogeneity (0.04 m in length. The propagules were then replanted in a 2:1 (w/w) mixture of soil and river sand that was previously fertilized (milligrams of added nutrient per kilogram of soil mix: N 40, P 50, K 100, Ca 101, Mg 28, S20, Zn 2.0, Cu 2.0, B 1.0 and Mo 1.0.) This fertilization rate represents the recommended fertility level for the establishment of crops and pastures (Rao et al. 1992).After fertilization, the soil mix was allowed to air dry for a couple of days.The soil mix had a bulk density (ρ soil) of 1.4g/cm 3 , 6% organic matter, and a pH of 7.5.After air-drying the soil, 5 kg of soil mix was inserted into clear plastic cylinders (80 cm high x 7.5 cm diameter) inserted into yellow PVC tubes. of the same dimensions.The soil mixture was then saturated with water and allowed to drain for a couple of hours until reaching field capacity. After that, a ∼0.01 m propagule was planted below the soil surface in each soil cylinder and irrigated daily to maintain field capacity under greenhouse conditions for 21 days. Subsequently, a factorial combination of 15 C. ciliaris genotypes was established (plus two controls: Urochloa brizantha cv . Toledo and Urochloa hybrid cv . Mulato II) by two conditions of water supply (well irrigated and progressive drying of the soil) in a randomized complete block of four replications. The experiment was carried out for 21 days.Daily transpiration was calculated for each replicate by weighing each cylinder throughout the experiment every 2 days and before collection (at 21 days). The well-irrigated treatment soil (control) was maintained at field capacity by adding the same mass of water lost through evapotranspiration over a 2-day period. The progressive drying of the soil treatment (hereinafter called drought) was imposed by the cessation of irrigation from the beginning of the experiment. Soil cylinders without plants were used to estimate soil evaporation only under the two levels of water supply. The total transpiration of the plants was calculated according to Cabrera -Bosquet et al. ( 2009) from the difference between evapotranspiration and evaporation (average value of four cylinders).Three leaves were selected per plant to monitor Canopy Temperature Depression (CTD) using an infrared light temperature gun ( Spectrum technologies , USA). The CTD was calculated as the immediate difference in temperature in degrees Celsius between the leaves and the environment.The plants were harvested 21 days after starting the treatments. Stems (all of the aerial part) and roots were separated and washed under a delicate stream of water. These were then taken to a forced air oven maintained at 60 °C for 96 hours for the determination of dry mass. The dry mass of roots and stems were used to calculate the ratio between root and stem per plant. Plant height was determined prior to harvest with a tape measure.All statistical analyzes were performed in R software (v 2.15.2) (R Development Core Team 2012). Data were checked using Levene's test for homogeneity of variance and log-transformed if necessary. The data was then analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. A post hoc analysis using the LSD test (α = 0.05) was used to identify differences between genotypes by treatments. Controls were included as reference but were excluded from the ANOVA tests. Hierarchical clustering was then performed using the simple method.In general, the results indicate that C. ciliaris is less affected by drought than cvv . Toledo and Mulato II under the growth conditions of the present experiment. Transpiration and CTD data suggest that C. ciliaris they have greater stomatal control which reduces transpiration under control and drought conditions than cvv . Toledo and Mulato II. Greater stomatal control in plants is characteristic of grasses adapted to semi-arid and arid zones . The morphophysiological attributes of the different accessions of C. ciliaris registered in this experiment did not show significant differences (Table 1 and 2). The dendrogram (Figure 1) shows little variability in the attributes, which indicates that the variation between the accessions is continuous. Chloris gayana is a grass native to Africa, but widely cultivated and naturalized in the tropics and subtropics. Chloris gayana exhibits high phenotypic diversity and adaptability, as well as easy agronomic management, which makes this species interesting for its introduction into various production systems in Colombia. For various producers in Colombia, the introduction of new cultivars resistant to drought is a priority. CIAT imported 18 accessions of Chloris gayana for evaluation under dry conditions as part of the Forage Network. Preliminary data (see Red de Forrajes report, 2018) showed that Chloris gayana has a deep and long root system. Long and deep roots are associated with the maintenance of water status in drought conditions.Therefore, the objective of this work was to improve the understanding of the responses and coping strategies of 18 accessions of C. gayana under drought conditions under greenhouse conditions. Thus, measurements of shoot and root dry matter production, root:shoot ratio , canopy temperature depression, and root attributes (root length density, average root diameter, and maximum root depth) they were determined in a period after 28 days of growth of the plants in conditions of good irrigation or conditions of drought.The methodology used the present experiment was previously described in greater detail by Cardoso et al ., 2015 and is similar to that used for the Cenchrus evaluation. ciliaris , previously described . The trial was carried out in a greenhouse at CIAT headquarters, Palmira, Colombia (latitude 3°29' N; longitude 76°21' W; altitude 965 m). During the course of the experiment, atmospheric conditions were recorded at a weather station ( WatchDog 2475 Plant Growth Station , Spectrum Technologies Inc., USA) and were run at an average temperature of 29/20°C (day/night), a relative humidity of 55/75% (day/night) and a maximum photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) of 1050 µmol m 2 s − 1 (mean daily PAR value of 750 µmol m 2 s − 1 ). Inside the greenhouse, 4 humidifiers were located to reduce the vapor pressure to constant values between 2.5 and 3.5 kPa. The soil used in this study was a Mollisol collected at the CIAT facilities at 0-0.20 m from the soil surface. The soil was sieved to pass a 2 mm mesh.The plant material used in this study consisted of vegetative propagules from 15 accessions of Chloris gayana from the ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute, Ethiopia) germplasm bank that were grown in pots filled with 4 kg of fertilized soil (milligrams of added nutrient per kilogram of soil: N 21, P 26, K 52, Ca 56 , Mg 15, S 10, Zn 1.0, Cu 1.0, B 0.05 and Mo 0.05) and good irrigation conditions. Each propagule was selected visually for its homogeneity (0.04 m in length. The propagules were then replanted in a 2:1 (w/w) mixture of soil and river sand that was previously fertilized (milligrams of added nutrient per kilogram of soil mix: N 40, P 50, K 100, Ca 101, Mg 28, S20, Zn 2.0, Cu 2.0, B 1.0 and Mo 1.0.) This fertilization rate represents the recommended fertility level for the establishment of crops and pastures (Rao et al. 1992).After fertilization, the soil mix was allowed to air dry for a couple of days.The soil mix had a bulk density (ρ soil) of 1.4g/cm 3 , 6% organic matter, and a pH of 7.5.After air-drying the soil, 5 kg of soil mixture was inserted into clear plastic cylinders (120 cm high x 7.5 cm diameter) inserted into yellow PVC tubes. of the same dimensions.The soil mixture was then saturated with water and allowed to drain for a couple of hours until reaching field capacity. After that, a ∼0.01 m propagule was planted below the soil surface in each soil cylinder and irrigated daily to maintain field capacity under greenhouse conditions for 15 days. Subsequently, a factorial combination of 18 Chloris genotypes was established. gayana by two conditions of water supply (well irrigated and progressive drying of the soil) in a randomized complete block of four replications. The experiment was carried out for 28 days.Three leaves were selected per plant to monitor Canopy Temperature (CTD) using an infrared light temperature gun ( Spectrum technologies , USA). The CTD was calculated as the immediate difference in temperature in degrees Celsius between the leaves and the environment.The plants were harvested 28 days after starting the treatments. Stems (all of the aerial part) were separated and washed under a delicate stream of water. These were then taken to a forced air oven maintained at 60 °C for 96 hours for the determination of dry mass. The dry mass of roots and stems were used to calculate the ratio between root and stem per plant.Prior to harvest, record the visual depth of the roots manually with a counter metric. The roots were washed to remove soil with tap water and then placed in a container with a few drops of wetting agent (polysorbate 20) for 10 min and rinsed again with tap water to remove loose soil.After that, the roots were placed in plastic bags and stored at -20 °C for further analysis. For morphological characterization, roots were carefully placed in a water-filled acrylic tray to minimize root overlap. Dead roots and debris were removed as much as possible from the tray with tongs and an eyedropper. The roots were then scanned to record gray images at 400 dpi with a dual scanner (EPSON Expression 1680, Japan). Recorded images were processed with ImageJ software to remove background noise (ie, <0.3 mm soil particles). The processed images were then used to estimate root length and average root diameter (ARD) using WinRhizo software (Regent Instruments, Canada). Root length density (the length of roots per unit volume of soil, RLD cm cm 3 ) was calculated. After scanning, roots were carefully harvested to minimize material loss and oven-dried as previously described to determine root dry mass.All statistical analyzes were performed in R software (v 2.15.2) (R Development Core Team 2012). Data were checked using Levene's test for homogeneity of variance and log-transformed if necessary. The data was then analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. A post hoc analysis using the LSD test (α = 0.05) was used to identify differences between genotypes by treatments. Hierarchical clustering was then performed using the simple method. Additionally, simplePearson correlations were made between the different attributes under control and drought conditions.Two contrasting accessions were identified, the most sensitive being accession number 13072; the accession with the best production in both control and drought conditions was 13103. In general, it is observed that the genotypes best adapted to drought conditions under greenhouse conditions were those with longer roots (but not necessarily deeper), thicker roots and a higher root:stem ratio (Tables 1 and 2). Table 3 shows the correlations between attributes under control or drought conditions. Figure 4 shows the hierarchical grouping by genotype based on attribute similarities.  There is a wide variety of promising forage plants, of which not much is known about their morphological characteristics. The characterization of plant morphology requires measuring the vegetative and reproductive structures. This type of characterization has allowed evaluating ecotypes or accessions under conditions of water deficit and their productive potential. This evaluation has made it possible to identify ecotypes or promising accessions for their introduction to the market or improvement programs . However, morphological characterization sometimes becomes a process that requires a lot of time and increases the possibility of generating errors in the measurements of different attributes. Currently, various approaches to plant phenotyping have been developed to assess diversity based on image analysis. Accordingly , the objective of this study was to evaluate a low-cost method using drone images to estimate color pixel values, morphometric parameters, and field coverage area.14 material accessions were established under field conditions at CIAT headquarters, Palmira, Colombia (latitude 3°29' N; longitude 76°21' W; altitude 965 m). each accession has 4 or 5 plants that have been imaged weekly with a drone ( Phantom IV. DJI, China) equipped with a two-band camera that captures infrared (750-800nm) and red (650-700) ( Sentera , USA), and the drone's own camera (RGB). Due to the cessation of activities at the CIAT facilities (COVID-19), there were problems ( eg , weeds and difficulty in obtaining drone data) in data collection. The weeds were mixed with the plants to be evaluated and it was not possible to accurately distinguish weeds from plants of interest.Knowledge of water use by forage cultivars (evapotranspiration, ETc ) can contribute to the direction of appropriate genotypes for various climates and situations, and guide grazing management and irrigation schedules. An integrating measure to help characterize plant water use is the crop coefficient (k).Data obtained previously (see final report of Red de Forrajes 2019) empirically showed the relationships between ETc , K and the leaf area index (LAI) in several Urochloa genotypes. spp . and M. maximus . In general, the relationships between them are described by quadratic equations of the third level as follows:K= -0031(ETc 2 ) + 0.40 ( ETc )+ 0.11, R 2 = 0.8, p< 0.001 K= -0.026(IAF 2 ) + 0.35 (IAF) + 0.08, R 2 = 0.8, p< 0.001 However, the empirical determination of ETc , K or IAF is demanding. Therefore, one of the objectives of this study was to determine crop evapotranspiration rates and crop coefficient in 13 Urochloa cultivars. spp . and Megathyrsus maximus under field conditions using meteorological information and obtained remotely with a drone. Additionally, special emphasis was placed on K since the K values represent the integrated effects of changes in leaf area, plant height, crop characteristics, water availability, development rate, and plant life. soil and weather conditions.The trial was carried out under field conditions at CIAT headquarters, Palmira, Colombia (latitude 3°29' N; longitude 76°21' W; altitude 965 m). During the course of the experiment, atmospheric conditions were recorded at a weather station. The soil where the plants grew is a Mollisol with an apparent density (ρ soil) of 1.5g/cm 3 , organic matter of 8% and a pH of 7. . Crop evapotranspiration ( ETc ) was calculated for these using the Penman-Monteit Fao 56 equation. Plant height was standardized every nine weeks (20 cm above the ground) to record changes in growth. Additionally, crop coefficient (k) was calculated according to evapotranspiration data from a reference surface ( ETo ) and crop ( ETc ) according to the formula k = ETc / ETo .The reference surface evapotranspiration ( ETo ) is a hypothetical grass reference crop with an assumed crop height of 0.12 m, a fixed surface resistance of 70 sm -1 and an albedo of 0.23. The reference area closely resembles a large, well-watered, green grass area of uniform height, actively growing and completely covering the ground. The fixed surface resistance of 70 sm -1 implies a moderately dry soil surface as a result of weekly irrigation frequency. For ETc calculations , leaf area index (LAI) data were used remotely calculated with a drone ( Phantom IV. DJI, China) equipped with a two-band camera that captures infrared (750-800nm) and Red ( 650-700) ( Sentera , USA), and the drone's own camera (RGB). IAF calculations were based on previous regressions obtained with Random Forests . The study was conducted for one year at weekly intervals (September 2019-September 2020).The data obtained for different genotypes at weekly intervals are shown in the figure . In general, the growth patterns of the crop ( eg .., k), followed the precipitation patterns (Figures 1   and 2). It was observed that the two cultivars of M. maximus grow faster after standardization. However, the growth rate of M. maximus slows down under conditions of minimal rainfall. On the contrary, the cvv . of Urochloa in general maintain constant growth rates during the different periods evaluated. This suggests that cvv . of M. maximus they are closer to the anisohydric model of water use (water wasters), than the cvv . of Urochloa spp .The K values shown in the different crops under conditions with different rainfalls showed that the shape of the plant is related to the amount of water transpired. Within the evaluated cultivars, it was evidenced that the height of the canopy and the inclination of the leaves (data not shown) influence the amount of water transpired. The tallest plants with the most vertical position of their leaves ( M. maximus cvv . Tanzania and Mombaca , and U. brizantha cv . Toledo) showed higher ETc and K values. In contrast, the shorter plants with more horizontal leaves ( U. humidicola cvv . Llanero and Tully ) showed lower ETc and K. Within the Urochloa hybrids , this pattern was repeated: cvv . cayman showed taller plants with more vertically positioned leaves and higher ETc and K values than cv . Mulato II (plants shorter and with leaves located in a plane more horizontally than cv . Cayman ).The data obtained from Etc , K, and IAF indirectly with the Penman -Monteith equation and drones indicate that this methodology can be implemented for large-scale estimation ( eg , farms) and support agronomic management of forages and grazing, as well as to guide irrigation application with greater precision and efficiency in water resources The different genotypes studied differ in terms of resistance to drought and waterlogging, but surely the classifications may vary between different studies, probably due to different climates, soil types, duration of imposed stresses, and evaluation methods. Differences in root growth in constrained soils (for example, high resistance to penetration) may influence resistance to drought.Likewise , surely the ranges of ETc and K of tropical forages vary widely depending on the environment (evaporative demand and soil water). The K data obtained in this instance of the Forage Network provide valuable reference points for making irrigation recommendations. Further work is needed to understand the genotypic variation of different forages in terms of ET (or K or LAI) and the possible influence of canopy morphology as well as physiological traits (e.g. osmotic adjustment, stomatal regulation, sensitivity to low values). high atmospheric steam demand). both in conditions of field capacity or drought.It is necessary that the information obtained from previous studies carried out under greenhouse and field conditions be integrated. Although phenotypic information under greenhouse conditions may seem irrelevant to some breeders and agronomists, many traits of interest are not easy to accurately record under field conditions. The combination of data from both greenhouse and field conditions should provide relevant information to quantify genotype x environment interactions to establish priorities for breeding key plant traits in stressful environments.Currently, information obtained remotely by drones makes heavy use of segmentation processes based on pixels or shapes. However, one limitation (as observed in this report) is that it is easy to confuse weeds with plants of interest under this modality of image analysis. It is recommended to use semantic segmentation to face this limitation.","tokenCount":"5603"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b8f128b99bfad56bbe4d90a1ff1ce07b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bf294a91-d2cd-4a8e-8f28-761fcd5fe318/retrieve","id":"1942529213"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df78a204-4c4e-4eca-bee5-2eb7a47d6f23","pagecount":"116","content":"From inception, the rationale for the existence and work of IITA had a major focus on plant breeding. It is noteworthy that this included crop quality as well as yield and that distribution of planting material of improved varieties to other centers or institutes was a key output. However, variety development was not seen in isolation; it was an integral part of farming systems together with improving soil fertility and other key factors. At the same time, a strong commitment to capacity development, training, and effectiveness in terms of impact was also evident.By 1974, IITA was working on a relatively wide range of crops; not only the current \"mandate\"maize, cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, cassava, and yam, but also sweetpotato, rice, cocoyam, lima bean, pigeonpea, winged bean, African yam bean, and velvet bean. A key Main photo here 50 years of improving African food crops Genetic Resources Center Head Micheal bberton briefs visitors to the gene bank. Photo by IITA. Young Mchare banana hybrid plants. Photo by IITA.Violet Mwanza (right)  showing soybean and maize crop grown in rotation to a fellow farmer.A five-year period of unprecedented growth of IITA leveled off in 2017. The budget of the Institute, which almost tripled from 2011 to 2016, declined slightly. This reduction was felt by almost all the research centers in the CGIAR system resulting from a continued reduction in core (Windows 1 and 2) funding and a reduction in contributions from large donors for certain programs. Through sound cost control in the management of the Institute, IITA was able to maintain its scientific staff and programs, avoiding the layoffs that occurred at some other centers. The increased science capacity, improved infrastructure, and updated scientific equipment that occurred during the period of growth have greatly increased IITA's capacity to conduct research to deliver grow. It has now been extended to many African countries under the ENABLE Youth Program, funded by the African Development Bank. The IITA Agripreneur program in Ibadan will provide advice and service to groups that are being established in other countries. The goal of the ENABLE program is to get African youth more involved in agriculture, driving innovation in the sector, and addressing youth unemployment.A highlight of 2017 was the celebration of IITA's 50th Anniversary. General celebrations took place throughout the year at the various IITA sites with the core celebration in July, and an international science conference in November, at Ibadan. The core celebration was attended by dignitaries, partners, alumni, and staff and included the official commissioning of the Akinwumi A. Adesina Agripreneurs Building. Over the year, IITA reflected on the many achievements of its first 50 years and the many new initiatives that will foster even greater contributions as the Institute enters its second half-century.It has been an honor to have served as Chair of the Board and Director General of this Institute over the last six plus years. We would like to thank our colleagues on the Board for their dedication to IITA's success. The Board also expresses appreciation to DG Sanginga and the senior management team for their significant accomplishments and for their vision for the future. We congratulate the scientists and support staff for the excellent research being conducted. Finally, we express our appreciation to our funders who recognize the importance of the work being done and have confidence in the Institute's ability to do it.The mission of IITA is to be the leading research partner facilitating agricultural solutions to overcome hunger, poverty, and natural resource degradation throughout the tropics. IITA sees a bright future for Africa, a continent that can become a world leader in agriculture and sustainability. The Institute's 2012-2020 Strategic Plan established an ambitious goal of lifting 11 million people out of poverty and revitalizing 7.5 million hectares of degraded land by 2020. IITA is committed to providing leadership in the region in achieving these goals.IITA was established by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations in 1967 to contribute towards global food and nutrition security. It was created based on the need to have an African version of the Green Revolution that transformed Asia through increased agricultural production in the 1960s. It became the first African link in a network of international agricultural research centers.As a research-for-development center supported by numerous donors and partners, IITA focuses on three strategic objectives: (1) increasing foodFor a long time subsistence agriculture has been seen as the way of life for poor smallholder African farmers, contributing to their livelihoods and creating employment. Agriculture, however, can drive economic development and wealth creation. To maximise its potential for transformation, agriculture needs to be seen as a commercial business at all levels.security and availability, (2) increasing profitability of foods, feeds, and other agricultural products, and (3) sustainable management of natural resources.Its research is organized around several core themes: Improving crops, Making healthy crops, Managing natural resources, Improving livelihoods, and Enhancing nutrition.The Institute also works on special initiatives including youth engagement in agribusiness, commercialization of technologies in a business incubation platform, empowering women, developing seed systems, protecting and conserving biodiversity, and big data and open access.In 2017, IITA celebrated its 50th year of service to African agriculture and smallholder farmers.Presently, IITA has become the largest international agriculture research center in tropical Africa, contributing to food and nutrition security in the region. Its research has produced many improved varieties in most major African staples that include banana/plantain, cassava, cowpea, maize, soybean, and yam; improved overall agricultural productivity; and created wealth for farmers and value chain actors, while making significant contributions to national economic development.IITA has spread from its original location in Ibadan, with hubs created in East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa, while the Ibadan facility doubles as Headquarters and the West Africa Hub. Each Hub is equipped with research facilities and fields, with operations engaging countries within the Hub in a spectrum of research and delivery activities.The impacts of IITA's research for development on smallholder farmers are evident in the development and adoption of improved varieties in most of the major staples in the continent. For example, adoption of almost 400 varieties of cassava with increased yields and better resistance to pests and disease and environmental stresses; more than 100 IITA-bred materials or genebank accessions of cowpea; 327 maize varieties-70% of which have IITA germplasm; 78 improved yam varieties developed; introduction of soybean as a food and cash crop in West Africa; adoption of drought-tolerant maize in 13 countries in eastern, western, and southern Africa with projected economic gains of US$907 million; introduction of cowpea and soybean for nutrition; and nutritional benefits of biofortified yellow cassava.The development of a biocontrol product called Aflasafe™ against aflatoxins in maize and groundnut and its commercialization in IITA's Business Incubation Platform is now helping some African countries go back to trade in groundnut and maize and making food supplies safer.In Nigeria, IITA has been working with the Federal Government on its Agricultural Transformation Agenda.Poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa IITA's impact assessment studies in several countries showed that as of 2016, at least 4.3 million people had been lifted out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through the adoption of improved agricultural technologies developed by the Institute and its partners.In Nigeria, two technologies-improved cowpea varieties and drought tolerant maize varietieshave contributed to getting an estimated 3.5 million people out of poverty.Farmers show off good cassava harvest.One study found that by 2012, 58% of cowpea farmlands was cultivated to improved varieties with yield gains of 254% over local varieties. It also established that the nutritional status of children below five years was higher among those who had adopted the technologies compared to the non-adopters.A 2015 baseline study of the African Development Bank-funded Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa (SARD-SC) and an impact study of the Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) on improved crop varieties combined with crop management practices, integrated pest management practices, and marketing strategies collectively showed further that almost a million people were lifted out of poverty in association with IITA technologies.In 2016, IITA received the Al-Sumait Food Security Prize for Development in Africa. The prize was awarded jointly to the International Potato Center (CIP) and IITA for the groundbreaking research on the causes of undernourishment and for providing solutions to agricultural challenges.IITA was cited as \"a leading Africa-based crop center and a member of CGIAR, focusing on research and development of the key African food crops: banana and plantain, cassava, cowpea, maize, soybean, and yam. The team's efforts developed and deployed safe and more nutritious food crops such as legumes, cereals (vitamin A maize), with the first released orange maize varieties from it, and tubers (cassava) through biofortification, use of efficient and affordable biocontrol products against aflatoxins, and made these available to smallholder farm families in the region to balance calories, diversify diets, and safeguard health and nutrition.\"In support of AfDB's programs, including the Feed Africa initiative, IITA leads the implementation of the AfDB-funded multimillion dollar initiative to transform African agriculture called Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation or TAAT. Over the next 10 years, AfDB will be investing US$24 billion in agriculture, focusing on agricultural value chains, agribusiness, and agroindustrial development.A key component of AfDB's strategy is providing support to Agripreneurs who will drive agriculture and development in Africa in the future. This will be achieved in a flagship program known as ENABLE Youth. This program was based on an approach that IITA piloted and is designed to develop the next generation of millionaire/ billionaire farmers and agribusinesses. In 2016, AfDB financed almost $800 million for the program in eight countries. In 2017, another 15 countries were planned to be financed.IITA has also contributed massively to the capacity development of African researchers and scientists in agriculture and supported national agriculture research systems in the continent.Since inception, IITA has trained over 140,000 individuals from 68 countries-more than 40,000 of them women. These professionals have advanced their knowledge and acquired skills directly through IITA's training programs and indirectly through knowledge passed on to them.In the next 50 years IITA will intensify its efforts in three areas: (1) The transformation focus of its research which aims, through massive scaling out efforts, to have an impact on changing livelihoods of farmers and the economies of African countries; (2) Youth in agriculture and agribusiness, which provides solutions to the issue of youth unemployment and unearthing opportunities for youth in agriculture and agribusiness; and (3) Strengthening research to address direct and indirect impacts of climate change in partnership with other institutions, to ensure food security and incomes through agriculture.Finally, IITA will strengthen efforts in aligning its research and delivery operations with the strategic goals and targets of priority countries in partnership with other research and development entities, including stronger engagement with NARs, regional and subregional organizations, and continental policy and political processes. This will be done in parallel with its historical mandate of developing international public goods to enhance science and agricultural productivity.IITA@50 higher yielding varieties and supplied NARS in the region with inbred lines carrying good characteristics including disease resistance. The development of hybrid maize at IITA was an important factor in the emergence of a number of seed companies, particularly in Nigeria.Great progress has been made in recent years in the development and release of maize varieties resistant to the parasitic weed Striga, a major threat to maize production in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and varieties with increased levels of micronutrients, especially provitamin A.The release and adoption of early maturing varieties has allowed the expansion of the area where maize can be grown to include semi-arid parts of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.An early focus of cassava improvement, from 1971, was on resistance to cassava mosaic disease (CMD). This was achieved in a triumph of classical plant breeding that had a massive impact in sub-Saharan Africa. Combining resistance to CMD with that for cassava bacterial blight (CBB) and high root yields turned cassava from a crop used in times of famine to a major source of calories for people in both rural and urban areas. This was an achievement that demonstrated clearly the impact that wellfocused plant breeding could have on food security. In 2002, a new and successful battle was fought against a more virulent strain of CMD in Nigeria.Maize Cassava development was the opening of the Genetic Resources Unit (now Genetic Resources Center, GRC) with a mission to collect, conserve, characterize, and distribute African grain legumes, rice, and root and tuber crops. The \"geographical domain\" of IITA was agreed to include all humid and subhumid tropical zones. The current focus of mandate crops developed in the early 1990s and included the transfer of sweetpotato work to CIP and the regional rice mandate to WARDA (now AfricaRice).In the early years, maize improvement focused on lowland rust and lowland blight, which had been seen for a long time as the major factors limiting yield in lowland West Africa. Together with rapid selection for key agronomic traits, this focus resulted in very successful varieties grown over large areas in West and Central Africa during the 1980s.A recurring feature of plant breeding efforts at IITA throughout the 50 years has been the need to address new challenges particularly with respect to pests and diseases. In the 1970s for maize this was maize streak virus (MSV) with the basis for success being the development of a robust protocol to screen for resistance and the working together of IITA scientists from different disciplines. These successes were achieved through breeding open-pollinated varieties, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s a program of inbred line and hybrid development was initiated. These allowed the production of IITA@50 Through various iterations of its strategy, IITA has maintained a pan-African approach to cassava improvement and this continues with breeding programs in all four subregions of sub-Saharan Africa. In the 1990s, IITA and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Uganda developed a strong partnership to fight CMD in that country. Partnership with NARS through the Southern Africa Root Crops Research Network and the Eastern Africa Root Crops Research Network in the 1990s were important in the introduction and collaborative development of new cassava varieties in the two subregions. A major current focus in Eastern Africa is understanding the genetic control of, and breeding for, resistance to cassava brown streak virus.The adoption of released cassava varieties with increased levels of provitamin A under the HarvestPlus program since 2009 is important, particularly for the nutrition and health of mothers and young children.IITA soybean breeding essentially developed this species as a viable crop in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The development and introduction of soybean lines with \"promiscuous nodulation\" and the bringing together of this trait with desirable production characteristics, greatly increased the yield of soybean, particularly in Nigeria. To these was added greater seed lifespan to overcome decline of viability before planting. Until their development starting in the early 1980s, highyielding varieties successful in other parts of the world, could not be grown in sub-Saharan Africa without rhizobial inoculation. The impact of greater soybean production from adoption of new varieties and the promotion of its utilization in various food forms were seen in the enhanced nutritional status of children. New varieties have been developed and released in Nigeria that combine high yields with resistance to soybean rust that threatens increase in, and stability of, production of the crop.Yam is a key staple crop for West Africa and the focus has been on the breeding of the two most widely grown species: water yam (indigenous to Asia) and white yam (indigenous to West Africa). Improved varieties have been developed and released in Nigeria and other countries with higher yields, good quality and storability, and increased disease resistance. Institute, Nigeria, developed and promoted the minisett method of rapid propagation and later introduced other methods based on vine cuttings and aeroponics.Cowpea is indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa and IITA's GRC houses the global collection\"of more than 17,000 accessions, many of which have been used extensively in variety development. The early collection of more than 8,000 accessions was screened for disease and pest resistance from the 1970s and varieties were developed and released for both the humid areas and savannas. In the late 1980s, the cowpea breeding program moved from Ibadan to Kano with a focus on breeding for savannas and dual grain and livestock fodder purposes. The impact from adoption of these varieties has been well demonstrated, especially enhanced food security during the \"hungry season\" of the savannas. Fast maturing (60 days) cowpea varieties with increased disease resistance were particularly important.East African highland banana and plantain in West Africa are important sources of income and nutrition and IITA has breeding programs for both these categories of the crop. A major success was the development and distribution of black sigatoka resistant cooking banana. These were developed through a collaboration between IITA Onne station and partners including the Agricultural Development Program at Owerri. This had a major effect on the acceptability and cultivation of cooking banana in Southeastern Nigeria. Work continued to develop black sigatoka resistant hybrids in plantain. Improved hybrids have now been distributed in many countries inside and outside Africa.A continuing preoccupation of IITA and its breeding programs, from the outset, has been to work closely with NARS. This involves transfer of breeding lines, joint varietal testing, and training. In general varieties developed by IITA and partners are released through the NARS.The Future IITA's breeding programs continue to develop new varieties for adaptation to changing environmental conditions and market preferences in selected target regions. The programs increasingly use new tools and approaches to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of breeding and selection and they collaborate with colleagues in ancillary disciplines and the private sector to improve seed systems. Among other things, these improvements will reduce the periods required for coming up with new varieties that are superior to those currently in use and speed up the delivery of their seeds and planting materials to end-users.After\" compiled by Rodomoro Ortiz.The beginning of soil and soil fertility research at IITA Low and declining soil fertility has for a long time been recognized as a major impediment to intensifying agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, from its inception, soil and soil fertility management have been part and parcel of the IITA research portfolio. The period 1967-1982 was a time of great expectations due to the early successes of the Asian Green Revolution and IITA, alongside other international research centers, was created to bring the benefits of modern agricultural science to the African farmer. The aimYoung people start early taking care of the environment.Photo by IITA.was to replace traditional, and assumedly outdated production systems with new, more productive ones.IITA's founding fathers, among others, were concerned with the low and declining land productivity in the face of growing populations and the inadequacy of traditional farming methods to curb this trend. Therefore, early research efforts were on land clearing, soil erosion, and zero tillage, combined with chemical weed control and small or medium level mechanization (Fig. 1). From the mid-1980s, attention began to shift towards existing production systems and their capacity for change and sustainable intensification (SI).Alley cropping and planted leguminous fallows were on the agenda for several years, but were eventually replaced by technologies which were closer to the farmers' own experience, such as dual-purpose legumes. These became part of the tool box of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) (Fig. 2), which today is the pillar for soil and soil fertility management research. Its principles are aligned with those of SI, which encompass (i) increased production per unit of land, (ii) maintenance of essential soilbased ecosystem services, and (iii) resilience to shocks, especially climate change.   1990 2000 2010 1970 1967 1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002  Search for the holy grail in soil and soil fertility managementFrom the late seventies, substantial efforts were made to develop and fine-tune \"low input\" , technologies such as alley cropping and herbaceous legume-based systems (including rotations, relay cropping systems, and live mulch systems). This was partly driven by the initial failure of Green Revolution approaches and the lack of favorable conditions for the use of agro-inputs on food crops.The approach used in developing and promoting alley cropping systems followed the traditional technology transfer model where a lot of efforts went to fine-tune the systems before they were exposed to farming communities and promoted through development-oriented efforts (Fig. 1), as illustrated by the AFNETA (Alley Farming Network for Africa) project. Initial evaluations of herbaceous legume-based technologies established that the main interest of farming communities of a Mucuna fallow was the suppression of Imperata cylindrica rather than improved soil fertility. There was a massive effort in the second half of the 1990s to disseminate the Mucuna technology to farmers in Benin, by various investors and development organizations.However, from the late 1990s, it was becoming clear that alley cropping and herbaceous legume-based technologies  were not attracting the necessary farmer interest, mainly due to the lack of immediate returns on investment in land and/or labor.The focus moved to integration of grain legumes that led to the breeding of soybean for dual-purpose properties and promiscuity (Fig. 1). This was a commendable example of effective cooperation between a breeder and a soil microbiologist at IITA. The interest of farmers was immediate since such legumes not only provided immediate income through grain production but also the effects of the rotation on the subsequent maize crop were visible. Following its success, efforts were expanded to include cowpea and more recently groundnut and beans, supplemented with limited and targeted amounts of fertilizer, as research by the BNMS (Balanced Nutrient Management Systems) project.The ISFM approach (Fig. 2), which is the cornerstone of today's soil and soil fertility management R&D, is building on these earlier successes and complements the need for fertilizer with the necessary implements, including varieties, organic inputs, and other amendments, towards maximizing the use efficiency of these inputs. ISFM also recognizes that there is not one fit-for-all solution in relation to soil and soil fertility management, and that decision support tools are required to assist smallholder farmers in finding the right solutions for specific crops, production objectives, and overall environmental and institutional conditions. Evidence of impact of investments in soil and soil fertility researchThe early work of IITA did not warrant impact assessment since the technologies developed were not applicable to existing farming systems. Only with the shift to alley cropping and herbaceous legume-based interventions were efforts started to disseminate fine-tuned (most often under on-station conditions) solutions to farming communities.For the Mucuna technology-the only herbaceous legume of the many evaluated that was promoted at scale-profitability for farmers was high as long as NGOs purchased the seed, artificially turning the species into a commercial crop. When this stopped in 1996, the adoption declined by 25%.The decline in adoption of Mucuna and the abandonment or neglect of many alley cropping fields, revealed by impact studies, led to the virtual abandonment of these technologies by research and development organizations. Up to the mid-1990s, the impact of IITA's soil and soil fertility management R&D on farming communities was low to nil although it must be recognized that many scientific outputs had been generated. Thus, in practical terms, impact-oriented NRM R&D at IITA started during the late 1990s.No full-fledged impact study has been carried out to date in the savannas of Nigeria where the dual-purpose legumes were promoted, in combination with BNMS technologies although indirect evidence shows a large scope for meaningful impact (or important interest in uptake at pilot scale). Recent work in the CIALCA region indicated that while few farmers in the area have reached 'full ISFM\" , some components were taken up by substantial proportions of the target population with the uptake of specific technology components occurring sequentially rather than simultaneously.A recent impact study in the CIALCA region showed that adoption of agricutural researchfor-development technologies reduced the probability of being poor by 13% and that a large share of this poverty reduction is causally attributable to adoption of improved crop varieties (32%) followed by adoption of postharvest technologies (28%) and crop and natural resource management (26%). These studies indicate that ISFM practices have scope for large-scale uptake although only formal adoption studies will provide the necessary evidence. Such studies are planned for some major investments in NRM (e.g., the N2Africa project).The concerns of IITA's founding fathers remain as valid as ever, or even more so, with growing populations, ever-declining availability of good agricultural land, and new challenges such as climate change. Solutions for addressing soil and soil fertility management constraints commonly consist of several individual components that can interact with each other (as clearly demonstrated by ISFM, Fig. 2). Furthermore, such solutions require investments in agro-inputs and knowledge and skills, and are thus, per definition, limited to areas where the institutional environment is conducive for their uptake by smallholder farmers. Even then, not all farming households will be able or willing to invest in crop intensification practices, either by need (lack of resources) or willingly (no interest in intensifying agriculture).Lastly, the full uptake of ISFM is a stepwise process whereby components are gradually added, often following logic (e.g., in the CIACLA region, fertilizer use was demonstrated to be higher in the presence of purchased maize seed). This makes the actual timing of impact studies quite important and supports the need for studies that look at changes over time, e.g., through panel studies. While not attempting to shy away from formal impact studies, the above observations demonstrate the many limitations such studies face when dealing with NRM-related topics.Lastly and certainly not least, one major lesson learnt from the past 50 years is that a clearly impact-oriented and consistent approach to NRM R&D is required to ensure that the best practices get disseminated at scale. Changing the NRM R&D agenda too often, as was done regularly during the past 50 years, could have been another reason for delayed impact of these investments.Clear responses to the application (crops on the left did not receive fertilizer while those on the right did) of appropriate fertilizer in a cassava-maize intercrop in South-East Nigeria. The trial was implemented in the context of the African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI). Currently, we have established a collaboration with our host organization (NM-AIST) to develop a link to local farmers to facilitate the evaluation of texture and flavor characteristics of these bananas, which has never been accomplished before. The participation of the farmers will help ensure the quality characteristics of the bananas and soon ultimately lead to their successful adoption and dispersal.almost every major disease and pest of banana in Africa, as well as being particularly vulnerable to a new strain of Fusarium that has been reported in Mozambique.Bunch of improved bananas developed by IITA. Photo by IITA.Banana seeds. Photo by IITA.The reduced fertility and parthenocarpy (seedless fruit development) of these bananas make them especially challenging to work with. Most people who have spent their lives consuming them have never seen a banana seed. The varieties currently grown by farmers in the region have never been the target of systematic genetic improvement and in many ways, likely represent the same bananas that their ancestors have been growing for hundreds of years. The work of IITA researchers in Arusha has documented variability in pollen viability among Mchare varieties (manuscript in preparation) which has allowed us to focus our efforts on those varieties that are most likely to successfully produce seed. However, even the most fertile Mchare only produces about 20% of the pollen observed in wild type bananas and female fertility is also greatly reduced. As many as 30 daily pollinations can be required to produce a single seed. The challenges do not stop there. Only 17% of these seeds will germinate even using techniques such as embryo rescue. It is not an exaggeration to say that the production of these first Mchare hybrids is an extremely significant breakthrough.In the past year, IITA along with our partners at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), has completed an expansion of facilities that include state-ofthe-art facilities for tissue culture, pathology, and DNA analysis, with extensive pollination blocks established. The first fruit of this labor has resulted in the production of the first Tanzanian Mchare hybrids produced by hybridization with multiple disease resistant wild bananas.Field of banana plants intercropped with legumes. Photo by IITA.However, despite its value and critical role in both food security and income generation for smallholder farmers, its cost of production is much higher than other crops in the region. It has high labor requirements-land preparation, planting, staking, weed control, and harvesting.In addition, farmers must save up to one-third of their harvested crop as seed for planting in the next season. Yam is also highly vulnerable to a plethora of pests and diseases as well as population pressure and climate change; and its growing demand has driven cultivation of this crop onto less fertile land. IITA yam research has developed solutions to these challenges including developing improved varieties.Yam breeding is a complicated and lengthy process that starts with approximately 10,000 distinct seedlings that progress through 6-7 years of selection then to on-farm evaluation and variety release trials across many locations. In the end, only 2-3 varieties with desired traits are released.Because of this lengthy process, yam breeders need tools and procedures that efficiently and effectively evaluate performance and selection of the best parents for hybridization and the progenies with the highest probability of replacing or adding to the currently grown varieties or landraces. They also need to fully understand market requirements to ensure that the new varieties they develop are acceptable to farmers, processors, exporters, or consumers.The IITA breeding team and partners, largely through the AfricaYam project (www.africayam. org) has made progress in modernizing and improving breeding efficiency of this poorly understood but vitally important crop.A recent major development in these efforts was the development of a reference genome sequence for white Guinea yam (D. rotundata)Cultivation and weed control in yam field using two-wheel tractor.Photo by A. Edemodu, IITA.from IITA's breeding population. This was a result of innovative collaboration between IITA, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), the Iwate Biotechnology Research Center (IBRC/Japan), and the Earlham Institute (UK).Bioinformatics and sequencing of RNA (RNAseq) identified 26,198 genes in the yam genome. A subset of these genes was used for phylogenetic analysis (studying the evolution of the yam species) which showed that the yam genes didn't group with other representative monocots, including rice, palm, and banana.The yam genome was found to have a unique set of genes encoding proteins with lectin domains known to be associated with protection against pathogens, nematodes, and insects. To illustrate the value of the yam DNA quality assessment: Loading of DNA sample on agarose gel to assess quality of DNA.Photo by P. Agre, IITA.reference genome, sequencing of separate pools of DNA from female and male plants was conducted. The genome region controlling sex-determination was located on pseudomolecule 11 and DNA markers that are strongly linked to this trait were developed and evaluated.While the research team will continue to refine and improve the reference genome (Raising the profile of yam: Whole genome reference sequencing of a neglected orphan crop revealed, http://www.iita.org/news-item/raising-profileyam-whole-genome-sequencing-neglectedorphan-crop/) as improvements in sequencing technology and bioinformatics software develop, many studies have been initiated to use the reference genome for yam improvement. Using genotyping by sequencing, a diverse collection of 941 yam landraces, breeding clones, and related wild/semi-wild species were genotyped to study genetic relationships and develop single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for quality control. Distinct clusters of germplasm based on species were identified and this information was used to identify a subset of germplasm for trait characterization and association analysis.In total, 318 clones were selected and resequenced with IBRC and trait collection has been completed for one year. Over 14 million SNPs were identified after alignment of the sequences to the reference genome and analysis using a bioinformatics pipeline. Similarly, biparental intraspecific mapping populations have been developed for both D. rotundata and for D. alata, genotyped and characterized under field conditions. Genotyping of these populations is ongoing in collaboration with Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD).Collectively, this data will be used to identify marker-trait associations for important agronomic, disease and pest resistance, and tuber quality traits. Sequenced-based DNA markers have been converted to markers suitable for high-throughput, lowcost genotyping platforms. Genome-wide and trait-associated markers will be tested using new breeding methods (markerassisted selection and genomic selection) to shorten the yam breeding cycle and qualitycontrol protocols using DNA markers will be established to reduce errors in the breeding program.In combination with other technology improvements, genomics-based breeding can dramatically improve yam breeding in the next few years. IITA and its national partners in West Africa will be better positioned to develop yam varieties needed in the markets and deliver these to farmers faster. Evaluating rust resistance lines for yield and introgression of Rpp rust resistance genes into IITA elite linesAcquisition of new germplasm during 2017 included evaluating some rust resistant lines from the USDA germplasm collection at Ibadan, Nigeria. Results from the evaluation indicated that only one known rust resistant accession PI635999 (Rpp 3&4) was moderately adapted to tropical conditions. The other known rust resistant accessions were not adapted. Crosses between the rust lines and IITA were developed and marker-assisted selection (MAS) will be used to select the resistant progenies from the crosses.During the 2017 season, preliminary variety trials and advanced variety trials were planted in Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Zambia to determine the performance of varieties under different environmental conditions, which included drought and low soil phosphorus conditions. The trials consisted of 30-40 lines per set including checks. Genotypes exhibited significant differences for several agronomic and disease traits. On average, the best five experimental genotypes showed a significant yield advantage of between 5 and 16% better than the best commercial check (Fig. 2). As per product concept, experimental lines yielding greater than 5% compared to the best check will be advanced to the next stage of evaluation if other agronomic traits such as resistance to shattering, lodging, diseases, and having an acceptable seed size meet the criteria. For example, in Ghana, TGx 1844-22E distributed through Soybean International Trials (SIT) and having excelled in the advanced trials in Nigeria in 2015, is going through variety registration, https://mailchi.mp/illinois/have-a-look-atsils-latestmonthly-digest?e=807cdd1b85, providing farmers with a wide range of choices to use multiple stress tolerant varieties to improve their production. Ousmane BoukarIncreasing cowpea productivity in sub-Saharan Africa) is a major source of dietary protein for people living in the savanna and Sahel regions of sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a source of income and livestock feed, and can improve soil fertility by fixing nitrogen (N) from the atmosphere in its root nodules. Constraints to cowpea production in West Africa include low and erratic patterns of rainfall, and severe attacks by insects and diseases, but the major constraint is poor soils.Even with sufficient rainfall, soils with low fertility cannot supply enough nutrients for the crops.Measurements for plant height, stalk number and leaf color in Fashola village field (2015). Photo by IITA.The use of chemical fertilizers is a simple and quick method to enhance plant nutrients in the soil. However, in rural areas of Africa, the prices of chemical fertilizers are usually twice the international prices making them unaffordable for most farmers. In addition, there are many places where farmers do not have access to chemical fertilizers due to the inadequate infrastructure and difficult economic conditions.Legumes need P to fix N Phosphorus (P) deficiency is a serious problem which limits the productivity of cowpea in the dry savanna and Sahel regions. Low levels of P in the soils have negative effects on the formation of root nodules and limit the growth and survival of rhizobia in the roots of legumes. This reduces their effectiveness in symbiotic N2 fixation.Photo by K. Suzuki, IITA. On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa has vast quantities of rock phosphate (RP) deposits of varying quality, some of which are of sedimentary origin and reactive. High-to medium-reactive (>15 g citrate-soluble P/kg) sedimentary rock P deposits are found in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo in West Africa. Indigenous rock P is more readily available to farmers than chemical fertilizers.The Improving the water and nutrient use efficiency of crops under dry savanna and Sahel regions in Africa project, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan, conducted experiments in Nigeria to identify the effect of rock P application on cowpea.From the results, a minimum RP application of 57 mg P/kg is necessary to enhance cowpea yield. To verify the efficacy for indigenous rock P on cowpea cultivation and to identify the optimum method to apply RP in the field, the team conducted field tests from 2015 to 2016 in Fashola village, Oyo State, Nigeria. Fashola fields have extremely low soil P. The tested methods were broadcasting (BC) and micro-dosing (MD). To identify the effect of RP application with BC and MD on cowpea growth and yield, treatments using single super phosphate (SSP) were also established. Zero application treatment was used as the control.From the study, the differences among the treatments compared to zero application were not significant except in two clones-IT97K-556-4 and IT90K-284-2. Although no significant differences were identified for the positive effects of the RP application onHarvesting cowpea pods in Fashola village field. Photo by K. Suzuki, IITA.cowpea cultivation, the shoot dry weight (SDW) at 8 WAS in seven good responder genotypes except IT97K-499-35 tended to be higher under the RP application with BC and MD methods when compared to the control. Focusing on the application methods, MD and BC, the SDWs under MD application of 114 kg P/ha in 2015 and 60 kg P/ha in 2016 as RP tended to be higher than under BC application. The pictures show the positive effects of the MD method on cowpea growth. The same trends were identified under MD or BC application of 30 kg P/ha as SSP.As the next step, our study focused on co-application of indigenous RP and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to promote P nutrient uptake from rock P. In pot experiments, we inoculated cowpea with Glomus intraradices and established the treatments of no-inoculant and inoculant with AMF under no-P application and rock P application at a level of 60 mg P/kg. Using 15 cowpea genotypes, the pot experiment was conducted for verifying the effects of co-application of RP at 60 mg P/kg and AMF inoculation. One of 15 genotypes (Sanzi) showed significantly (P <0.05) higher shoot dry weight (SDW) at 8 WAS with AMF co-application than in the treatment of only rock P application. The SDW of 14 other cowpea genotypes were slightly higher than when only rock P was applied. AMF inoculation appears to be ineffective under high soil P conditions. Therefore, these results indicated that rock P application at 60 mg P/kg is too high for AMF inoculation to work. The optimum application amount of rock P should be less than 60 mg P/kg.In another pot test, four levels of rock P application: 0, 20, 40, and 60 mg P/kg were established with AMF inoculation using six cowpea genotypes selected from the nine genotypes. The SDW at 8 WAP showed that 20 mg P/kg was the optimum level for cowpea with AMF inoculation.Additionally, AMF can contribute to increase water as well as P uptake. We observed that AMF inoculation has a positive effect on increasing drought tolerance of cowpea genotypes that are susceptible to drought. More detailed studiesThey say two is better than one, but for this one-of-a-kind, four-year initiative, five was better than one. The project, that came to an end in June 2017, saw five countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda) join forces to tackle one of the major challenges to cassava productioncassava brown streak disease (CBSD) and cassava mosaic disease (CMD). The two viral diseases are fast spreading across the continent affecting food security and incomes of smallholder farmers.Silver TumwegamireIITA-TanzaniaA technician multiplies hardened tissue culture plantlets of elite clones using node stem cutting technique at Kibaha, Tanzania. Photo by S. Tumwegamire, IITA.The project, New Cassava Varieties and Clean Seed to Combat CBSD and CMD, shortened to 5CP supported the countries to successfully share their five best cassava varieties in terms of yield and resistance to the two diseases. This producing either very small roots or none at all. Cassava varieties resistant to these two diseases are therefore urgently needed by rural farmers in eastern and southern Africa (ESA), to protect their food and income security.5CP borrowed lessons from joint action against CMD in the 1990s, and brought together the national agriculture research systems (NARS) of the five countries most affected by the two deadly cassava diseases to share and test their elite germplasm to speed up the breeding process and develop varieties with strong resistance to CBSD and CMD. The other objective of the project was to pilot a commercially viable seed system in Tanzania to ensure farmers have access to a new pipeline of improved cassava varieties from research.Hod did we tackle the problem?Virus testing and indexing: The project started with each country selecting and submitting its five best cassava varieties in terms of yield and resistance to the two viral diseases, as well as four local checks. These were then cleaned of viruses at both the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and the Natural Resources Institute (NRI).The 25 varieties were Sangoja, Sauti, Yizaso, Kalawe, and CH 05/203 (Malawi); Colicanana, N'ziva, Okhumelela, Orera, and Eyope (Mozambique); LM 08/363, F19-NL, Tajirika, Shibe, and F10-30-R2 (Kenya); Kipusa, Pwani, Mkumba, Mkuranga 1, and Kizimbani (Tanzania); NARO-CASS 1, NASE 14, NASE 1, NASE 3, and NASE 18 (Uganda). Two regional checks-Kibandameno (from Kenya, a susceptible check for both CMD and CBSD) and Albert (from Tanzania, a susceptible check for CBSD) were also included. All clean plantlets were dispatched to Genetic Technologies International Limited (GTIL), a private tissue culture (TC) laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya, for micropropagation.Micropropagation: At GTIL, at least 300 TC plantlets of each variety were raised and was to speed up efforts to develop and supply farmers with improved varieties of cassava that are resistant to the two viral diseases, the greatest constraint to the crop's production. Management of the exchanged elite varieties in target countries: Upon arrival in the countries, the TC plantlets were hardened, macropropagated using two-node stem cuttings, and field multiplied in sites with very low CBSD and CMD pressure that were isolated by at least 200 m from any cassava crop to minimize any virus spread. They were then distributed and planted in field trials at over 30 sites across the five countries. The sites had varying levels of CBSD and CMD pressure, and climatic and soil conditions.Three major achievements were accomplished Firstly, up to 31 varieties (25 elite, 2 standard checks and 4 national checks) were successfully virus-cleaned and indexed, and 27 varieties were exchanged among the target countries. The other four were returned to their respective mother countries as national checks. This germplasm presents a unique opportunity to identify varieties with high levels of resistance to both CBSD and CMD under the diverse range of virus/virus vector/environmental conditions in these five ESA countries.Additionally, these varieties have great potential for use as parents to generate superior progeny. The clean stocks are also a great asset for initiating extension programs for multiplying and disseminating high-quality, prebasic \"seeds\" . Hitherto, most of the target countries have had no access to field-based stocks of high-quality, virus-tested planting material.Secondly, a strong partnership was built between breeders and virologists in national and international institutions as they worked together to combat these diseases through elite resistant germplasm and clean seeds. The partnership also allowed cross-learning between partners at all levels of the process. It is envisaged that these partnerships will continue after the project.Thirdly, the elite varieties were successfully tested in 33 different sites across the partner countries and comprehensive data collected, some of which has been uploaded to www. cassavabase.org. The remaining sets will soon be uploaded. Upon analysis, the collected data should elucidate the magnitude of genotype by environment interactions for CBSD/CMD, yield, and other performance characteristics.Although combined data analysis is yet to be done, preliminary selected data analyses by graduate students on the project are already helping to guide stakeholders on which varieties are likely to be most appropriate in which agroecologies and CBSD/CMD disease pressure conditions within the eastern and southern African region.Moreover, the preliminary data and the germplasm exchange described here have provided a foundation for the development and implementation of new CBSD mitigation programs in Tanzania (BEST Cassava Project), Burundi, Rwanda (CBSD Control Project), and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (Action to control CBSD in DRC).Violet Mwanza is a lead farmer from Nkunga agriculture camp in Chimusuku village, 35 km away from Katete District, Eastern Province, Zambia. \"I decided to join when I heard that the project focused on improving soybean production using ISFM practices to improve soil, income, and welfare of farmers,\" she says.As a lead farmer she supported passing on the knowledge gained by setting up on-farm demonstrations for other farmers to learn. In 2015, she planted 2 ha of soybean and 2 ha of maize. and is supported by several international research institutions for specialized research support and capacity building.The project aims to conduct extensive research to understand cassava nutrient requirements and growth dynamics under different conditions within specific areas of interest. Crop growth models have been adapted and calibrated to simulate responses to nutrients and rainfall regimes and have been integrated into decision support tools to provide tailored recommendations. These tools, when deployed, will assist extension agents in advising farmers on the best practices to achieve higher yields and maximal revenue.In December 2017, ACAI marked its second year of activities since inception. In just under 21 months, the project had already moved through key milestones in generating a unique knowledge base on cassava agronomy, developing the initial versions of the decision support tools, and improving the capacity of partners and the NARIs to carry out agronomy research.ACAI is developing decision support tools for six use cases targeted to improve fertilizer use for improved yield and cassava root quality, enable sufficient and sustainable supply of cassava roots to processing industries, and facilitate improved cassava agronomy advice.1 Site-Specific Fertilizer recommendation tool, targeting extension agents supporting commercial cassava growers to maximize returns on investments in fertilizer.2 Fertilizer Blending recommendation tool, targeting fertilizer companies to produce better blends suited for cassava.3 Intercropping recommendation tool, targeting extension agents supporting smallholder cassava growers to maximize revenue generated in cassava intercropping systems by optimizing plant density and arrangement, and varietal choice.4 Best Planting Practices recommendation tool, targeting commercial cassava growers investing in mechanized land preparation to recommend the most profitable tillage regime.5 Scheduled Planting recommendation tool, targeting commercial cassava growers to ensure sustained year-round supply of cassava roots to the processing industry.6 High Root Starch content recommendation tool, targeting outgrowers supplying roots to starch factories to maximize root starch content.The project has finalized the prototype (V1) of the decision support tools deployed on desktop, Open Data Kit (ODK), and paper-based recommendations. In 2018, ACAI will be carrying out validation exercises to test the accuracy of the tools and the user experience and gather feedback from primary partners for further improvement.IITA's Adebowale Adetunji and Rebecca Enesi reading a barcode to record data from a cassava trial plot at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. ACAI is using barcoding of plants and trial plots for identification and efficient data collection and data management.Photo by IITA.Trials on cassava-maize (Nigeria) and cassavasweet potato intercropping showed that substantial improvements compared with the local practice can be achieved through a combination of improved and compatible germplasm, optimized crop density and arrangement, and application of fertilizer. In Nigeria, average increases of 4 t/ha of cassava roots and 1.2 m 2 of maize cobs were achieved, and profitability of fertilizer use could be achieved by targeting fields based on local knowledge on the history of maize performance.Trials on scheduled planting and harvesting, and starch measurements across the field trials for the various use cases showed wide variation in starch content and yield, with the month of harvest explaining 35-64% of the variation in starch content, and site-specific conditions (mainly weather) and crop age explaining another 21-36%. Small, negative fertilizer effects on starch content were found, but these only occurred when N and P applications were not balanced and did not outweigh the benefits of fertilizer effects on root yield.The project has especially combined the use of the Quantitative Evaluation of the Fertility of Tropical Soils (QUEFTS) model and the Light Interception and Utilization (LINTUL) model. The QUEFTS model is applied for predicting the yield response to the combined application of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and identifying the most profitable nutrient regime given prices of available fertilizers, while the LINTUL model is used to predict water-limited yields by considering daily weather data, crop characteristics, and soil physical properties.The two models are in a complimentary sequence to each other generating data on factors that influence cassava root yield. The data is analyzed to determine the kind and amount of fertilizer to be used so that farmers can get maximum return on investment.These findings were integrated in the first versions of the decision support tools, in a format that allowed extension agents to provide site-specific and tailored recommendations to candidate farmers participating in a pilot exercise to validate the findings. The aim is to further improve both the content and the format of the recommendations before scaling up the tools planned in 2019.ACAI has run more than 1400 trials across 940 trial locations in Nigeria and Tanzania with over 9000 yield assessments carried out from the trials. The partnership with the NARIs has linked the project with more than 10,000 cassava growers and extension agents within their system.The decision support tools developed by ACAI will be deployed to extension agents operating within the dissemination networks of the development partners to support cassava growers to improve their yield, access the market, and apply best practices for optimal returns and efficient investment.Although ACAI is currently validating the tools, the project is already training select individuals as trainers who will help transfer technical knowledge to extension agents, who will in turn disseminate and expand the use of the tool.ACAI is aiming to create tools that will generate a value of $28 million within the project's fiveyear tenure. This value is expected to directly impact over 100,000 households in the countries where ACAI operates.Evidence from first testing of the recommendations has confirmed that profitable yield increases of 20-100% can be obtained by applying the recommendations. The tools also successfully identify when not to invest in intensification options, which in itself is a substantial improvement over current, blanket recommendations.After completion of the validation exercises, ex ante assessments of the potential impact of the tools will be conducted to aid in further targeting and tailoring.Science-based delivery to transform African agriculture  Scaling Readiness has contributed significantly to:• A rapid analysis of the innovation system including profiling stakeholders, innovations, and projects based on their relevance to scalability.• Identifying the specific innovations that impede agricultural transformation in the targeted geographical areas.To have a more effective scaling outcome and to use resources efficiently, R4D projects need to focus their activities on the component with the least scalability.Scaling Readiness• Measuring current scalability of the innovations using evidence. In April 2017, the ACAI project conducted a baseline survey of the scalability of its components before it started scaling activities. Near the end of the project in February 2017, the Community Phytosanitation project made an endline assessment of the scalability of its components. It identified significant progress in the development of variety and partnership arrangement, but the local seed multiplication system was a critical component that hindered the application of the approach at scale.Scaling Readiness generated evidence on the scalability of innovations in the CGIAR portfolio. It presented the scalability of each component of the ACAI and Community Phytosanitation projects and guided them to focus on the challenges that hinder the use of technologies and other innovations at scale.Scaling Readiness aims to provide support to IITA initiatives and provide them with evidence and decision support tools to develop and implement evidence-based scaling strategies. It also aims to use state-of-the-art social science methods, such as social network analysis and content analysis for publishing evidence about scaling the interventions IITA has been coordinating and its contribution to the transformation of African agriculture. The SILT research aimed to test and understand how a campaign approach, with different formats and media targeting different members of a typical small-scale farming family (i.e., with young/older or male/female and combinations), could best from a single, technical brief developed by the delivery consortium.Specifically, the project sought to understand the contextualized insights into the merits of different combinations of media and approaches,Farmers appreciating good performance of legume technologies at one of N2Africa sites in Gairo district, Tanzania.Photo by F. Baijukya, IITA.reach each individual, and then influence their knowledge, decision-making, and adoption as a household. The extension and communication information was presented as a campaign-based approach, and the technical campaign material was all drawn to provide key learnings for future scaling-up programs, while at the same time increasing the profitable production of common bean and soybean in Tanzania.The research challenge was to test how the different combinations of media and approaches work together:The campaign approach focused on developing a variety of media, including print, demo plots, training days, and radio to support traditional extension approaches. This contrasts with most development communication projects, which are usually constrained to a single form of communication due to limited time, knowledge of alternative forms of media, or budget limitations. Many development communication projects involve intensive face-to-face efforts that are cost and labor intensive.SILT hoped to show that there are alternatives and a range of options to suit different target groups, budgets, and objectives. The selection of media and the editing process refined in this project created nuanced information that targeted specific members of the households in an inclusive way and contributed to project success.A key target was to reach 500,000 farming family members through the multimedia campaigns. We directly contacted with 600,000 over 3 years. Another key target was to have 100,000 farmers starting to practice one of the promoted improved legume technologies. The evidence showed that this target had been exceeded, and many farmers have started to use more than one promoted practice, and shifted knowledge related to legume farming.Overall, study results showed that combining multiple extension strategies enhances scalingup processes with gender-disaggregated facts as follows:• Women and youth easily accessed information when general agricultural advice is given using interactive approaches that encouraged provides an opportunity to promote family focused learning. Uptake of technologies requiring cash input was low. • Despite variability in methods of obtaining information, there were no observed significant gender differences in uptake of technologies between men and women implying the need to focus on system-wide strategies to make inputs available such as improved seeds and input brokerage.Key enabling factors included having a wide variety of partners covering the complexity of activities and issues involved: seed supply, research, policy, communication, and interactive radio. These partners realized early on the value that each organization brought to the consortium, and that synergies and close integration would be the key to achieving and sustaining our objectives.Another key factor was the high level of consistency of the message across the campaigns at scale. Having one technical brief, signed off at national level, was vital. However, what really made the difference was the skill involved in, and therefore the effectiveness of, tailoring these messages to the targeted audience segment.Researcher talking to farmers. Photo by IITA.Illustration by D. Sones, CABI.The Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder Farmers in Africa (N2Africa) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is working to expand the farm area planted to grain legumes (common bean, cowpea, groundnut, chickpea, faba bean, and soybean) and enhance their yields to improve smallholder farmers' incomes and food and nutrition security.  Photo by T. Ampadu-Boakye, IITA.The project went into a second phase (2014 to 2018), focused on scaling proven technologies and ensuring sustainable input and output supply chains for farmers to buy and use the products developed and tested under Phase 1. Three new countries--Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda, were added to the project in the second phase as part of the project's core countries together with Ghana and Nigeria.The six other countries became Tier-1 countries that consolidated earlier achievements.Diagnostic, demonstration, and adaptation trials Fifty-three diagnostic trials were established in 2017 responding to key research questions, mostly about nutrient management. A total of 1,454 demonstration trials were established focusing on disseminating a single technology or a combination of technologies. The demonstration trials showcased the best-bet technologies to many farmers and were used to collect data on their performance. Evaluation of these technologies was conducted with farmers to ascertain their preferred technologies and the information was used to reshape the technology packages they would use. Adaptation trials are small trials established and managed fully by farmers (with limited backstopping) to determine how they adapt technologies to their settings. Inputs that farmers received for these trials consisted of an improved legume variety with P-fertilizer and/or inoculants. In 2017, farmers established 25,071 adaptation trials. A selection of these adaptation trials was monitored to assess the performance of the technologies under heterogeneous farmers' conditions and management. Table 1 gives an overview of the number of trials established in the Core and Tier 1 countries in 2017.In the adaptation trials, mean legume yields varied from 300 to 2,600 kg/ha on the N2Africa plots, and from 400 to 2300 kg/ha on own legume plots (10 × 10 m plots) (Table 2). Mean yields significantly increased on all N2Africa plots compared with the own legume plots, except for Uganda. Farmers generally saw an increase of 300 to 800 kg/ha on the N2Africa plot compared with their own legume plots.In relative terms, farmers growing cowpea or bush bean in Tanzania and soybean in Nigeria, on average more than doubled their yields. Generally, more than half of the farmers had Ensuring impact & delivery a yield increase of >50% (except for Uganda). Note, however, that there is an experimental error associated with the use of measurements on sub-plots which may inflate the proportion of fields with more than 50% yield gain.The lack of increase in legume yields on the N2Africa plots in Uganda may have been caused by dry spells in parts of the country, which limited the number of trials that could be harvested and depressed legume yields (cf. yields of bush bean and soybean). The positive effect of the use of P-fertilizer in adaptation trials of cowpea was larger in Eastern Tanzania than in other parts of the country, suggesting that P-fertilizer is especially recommended on cowpea in this area. The combined results of yields and farmers' evaluations of diagnostic, demonstration, and adaptation trials over multiple seasons led to the development of best-fit recommendations for the different legumes in the core countries (Table 3).In Ghana, the New Yara Legume (NYL) fertilizer (NPK, Ca, OMg 2 , OB) was tested against TSP fertilizer. In all three legumes, NYL resulted in larger yields than TSP (see examples for soybean and groundnut in Fig. 1). Yields of cowpea were also significantly larger with 1250 kg/ha for TSP and 1380 kg/ha for NYL (P < 0.05). The difference in performance of cowpea and soybean varieties in different parts of the country in both diagnostic and demonstration trials led to tailored recommendations about the suitability of varieties for different parts of the country. The early maturing soybean variety TGX 1985-10E was outperformed by the other two improved varieties in terms of yield, but was still considered suitable for late planting.Agronomic studies to develop recommendations for soils non-responsive to inoculation and P-fertilizer showed that an additional application of 30 kg/ha of S (sulfur) was recommended for chickpea production in Northern Ethiopia, while a combined application of K 2 O (60 kg/ha) and lime (4.6 t/ha) was recommended for soybean production in acidic soils in Western Ethiopia. Bush bean in Northern Tanzania with a combination of (N)PK fertilizer and inoculants resulted in the highest yields. The highest yields of groundnut were attained with a combined application of farm yard manure, Minjingu Rock Phosphate (MRP), and a little gypsum. Farmers also ranked this treatment highly as these inputs are readily available and less costly to smallholder farmers. Aflasafe, a biocontrol agent for controlling fungi producing aflatoxin was added on top of fertilizer treatments to assess the impact of agronomic practices on its efficacy. There were higher levels of aflatoxin contamination on groundnut from plots that were not treated with Aflasafe and no difference between the two biocontrol methods as they both reduced aflatoxin levels by up to 95%.In Uganda, diagnostic trials were conducted to identify the nutrients needed to close the yield gap related to soil fertility, as previous trials had shown that neither application of P + inoculation could close yield gaps of soybean nor manure + P close yield gaps of climbing bean. In soybean, inoculation and lime resulted in significant increases in yields compared to the control or lime alone; and yields of inoculation and liming with P were significantly better (1526 kg/ha) than without P (1,383 kg/ha). The addition of K, N, Mg, Ca, and micronutrients did not result in a significant change in yield until manure was added, resulting in a maximum yield of 1872 kg/ha. The economic viability of the nutrient combinations particularly inoculants alone, inoculants + P, and inoculants + P + manure-should be assessed and related to farmers' capacity to purchase. Climbing bean grain yields showed significant responses to lime application and combined application of lime + P.This reiterates the need to manage soil acidity in the highland areas to improve climbing bean productivity. It could also explain the responses to manure and P application in some demonstration trials in previous years; manure probably plays a liming role. The liming contribution of manure needs to be evaluated, as manure could be an alternative option to agricultural lime in climbing bean production for those who have access to it.In 2017, we also captured the \"learning pathways\" that have led to changes in demonstration trials from 2014 up to 2017; describing the main reasons behind moving from best-bets to bestfits 1 . Common reasons to discard varieties in demonstrations were poor yields (often the result of increasingly irregular rainfall patterns). Introduced varieties were therefore in most cases selected based on their drought tolerance and better yields. For groundnut, there was also a clear selection towards varieties with high oil content and with a good taste to accommodate market demand. Changes in inputs described specifically for 2017 were that Legumefix was added to bush bean in demonstration trials in Tanzania because results elsewhere (Ethiopia, Rwanda) indicated a response to inoculation in common bean. In Ghana, TSP was replaced by NYL for fertilizing cowpea and soybean. In Uganda, the herbicide Beans Clean was introduced in 2015 to produce bush bean, climbing bean, and soybean to reduce the labor intensity of weeding. Some weeds persisted after the application of Beans Clean, so a stronger, broad-spectrum glyphosate herbicide was introduced in 2017 to be used in combination with or instead of Beans Clean.Feedback from farmers was very often the basis of changes. Evaluation with farmers is clearly necessary to steer practices towards bestfit within a regional context with its specific weather and market conditions. Other lessons learned from capturing these changes were the need for varieties that are more tolerant to changing and irregular weather conditions while still being high yielding and marketable.The availability and accessibility of legumespecific inputs such as certain rhizobium strains (Ethiopia), TSP (Tanzania, Uganda), or DAP (Ethiopia) were often a problem, stressing the importance of networking with partners and lobbying policymakers.To transform agriculture in Africa, evidence on the effectiveness and impact of the dissemination approaches needs to be applied; this is an important research-for-development milestone of the N2Africa project since it is also a learning grant. Effectiveness of dissemination means smallholder farmers have the capacity to use and adapt the technologies. To create impact, this capacity needs to be complemented with a sustainable input (certified seeds, inoculants and fertilizers) and output supply.N2Africa and its partners continued in 2017 to reach smallholder farmers by raising awareness and conducting training on the use of technologies through various dissemination activities. These comprised field demonstrations, adaptation trials, field day packages, and innovative multimedia including interactive radio campaigns, comics, videos, posters/leaflets, and SMS messages. By 2017, a total of 553,800 farmers had been reached (47% female), 33% more than the already ambitious target for 2017 (Fig. 2).The project and its partners in 2017 established 1,454 demonstrations and 25,071 adaptation trials across the target countries. Most households (49%) were reached through demonstrations followed by field days and agricultural shows (27%). Through the end-ofseason evaluation feedback sessions, about 90 farmer groups across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, evaluated the different approaches whereas 76 groups evaluated adaptations in Ghana and Uganda.Farmers indicated their preference for demonstrations as they gave an opportunity for them to \"see, learn, and do,\" when organized together. Demonstrations are also familiar platforms for farmers and make it easier to engage in and fit in with existing partner systems.Field days also offer a platform to link with other value chain actors such as agrodealers and produce buyers, create linkages to access inputs and output markets, and offer broader learning as other farmers participate. Farmers indicated the unique opportunity given to individuals to practice the use of the technologies outside the group and to change it as desired. Although participation and preferences varied for each approach, awareness and knowledge levels about the technologies increased among farmers and resulted in the use of the technologies. A total of 182 farmers in Uganda participated in demonstrations only and 124 (68%) used the introduced varieties (Maksoy 3N); 54% of farmers who participated in the evaluations used at least a single technology with most using introduced varieties, spacing, fertilizers, and inoculants.The data presented is from the project's Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system. Other evaluations on the (cost)-effectiveness of the different dissemination approaches were conducted by an MSc student comparing radio to demonstration plots. The findings showed that farmers learn more from demonstrations compared to radio but net costs and learning increase favor radio campaigns in cost effectiveness. This led to N2Africa's sister project, Gender and the Legume Alliance: Integrating multimedia communication approaches and input brokerage (GALA) on farmer learning and change in behavior following radio and SMS campaigns. Seventy percent of farmers declared they had changed their behavior; radio with SMS was most effective followed by SMS, and radio alone. To address the challenge of limited access to and use of legume seeds, inoculants, and P-rich fertilizers, the countries continued to pursue the various strategies put in place in 2016. To sustain the production of certified seed, national seed systems were supported (e.g., ARI Uyole, Tanzania) to produce foundation seed for seed companies to produce certified seed. Others have linked seed companies and other partners directly to institutions that produce foundation seed, e.g., The Inventive Minds and EGALF Ventures in Nigeria have been linked to the University of Agriculture in Makurdi where they access foundation seed for their community seed producers. A total of 48 tons of foundation seed was produced and/or accessed across the selected countries.To ensure legume seed is available at community level, the project continued to promote over 4,000 farmers to produce certified or quality declared seed across the countries. In aligning marketing seed with grassroot producer groups, 1,590 tons of seed were sold by seed companies, agrodealers, and community seed producers, increasing the cumulative volume of seeds used by farmers to 3,399 from 1,809 tons in 2016, achieving 74% of the target for 2017.Table 2 shows that supported farmer groups had access to and used 67% of seed demanded across the various legumes. Some farmer groups indicated their interest and the volume required but did not purchase for various reasons including limited access to agrodealers to targets of 39 t/year and 7,700 t/year. Several strategies implemented together with partners contributed to this success. Agro-inputs Suppliers Ltd (AISL) in Malawi, for instance, invested in the distribution chain by procuring 15 solar-driven coolers for proper Nitrofix inoculant storage in 15 of its outlets and has constructed a permanent and fully equipped laboratory for inoculant production.Although the overall targets for 2017 have not been met, the strategies implemented in 2017 will continue to yield results as the private sector continues to invest. For example, in Ghana, dissemination activities with YARA resulted in an increase in P-fertilizer used by farmers (e.g., from 150 t in 2016 to 194.6 t in 2017) excluding quantities distributed through the Government of Ghana's Planting for Food and Jobs program and this partnership is envisaged to continue in 2018. In Nigeria, the ABP program contributed to 78% sales of inoculants in 2017.To sustain accessibility to improved seeds, countries have put in place various strategies including seed companies contracting trained seed producers as outgrowers. Other countries have also linked seed producers to seed companies for mopping up seeds produced.In addition, many more agrodealers (136) were engaged and linked to various farmer groups. About 32% stocked more than one legume input 68% stocked seeds, 32% stocked fertilizer, and 28% stocked inoculants. Most inoculants were distributed in Ethiopia through cooperative unions in addition to two agrodealers. and climatic changes. Some varieties are not resistant to drought and there was poor market access for those varieties.In 2017, the volume of inoculants and fertilizers used by farmers increased compared to 2016 (Figs. 3 and 4). About 79% of the volume of inoculant and 65% of the volume of fertilizer were achieved in relationOver 900 farmer groups were able to estimate inputs, especially seeds, needed for each season. However, this needs further support to ensure timely compilation and delivery to the inputdealers and access to input price information by farmers. Assessment of these systems has been made and an ICT-based demand quantification system is being piloted in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. Tanzania, however, has adopted the Village Based Agricultural Advisors (VBAA) and Community Volunteers (CV) models for input demand quantification for the upcoming year. The latter was based on limitations in the previous system where farmer groups quantified their demands but lacked price information. In total, 149,818 persons (46% female) were involved in collective marketing and value addition. The scales of operation were at both household and commercial levels. Table 3 is the aggregated data from countries and crops and indicates that 77% of the 2017 target has been achieved for participation in collective marketing.Due to high demand for the produce, the price margin between collective marketing and individual selling is minimal in, for instance,  Farmers across the countries, at times, complained of delayed payments when they had collectively sold to major buyers, limited access to market information in comparing prevailing market prices to those being offered, and high storage costs for bulking.In Tanzania, the introduction of VAT on animal feed increased prices and reduced demand. Animal feed processors could therefore not process soybean purchased in 2016. This decision has been reversed and hope fully the demand for soybean will revert in 2018.IITA, under the Improved Seeds for Better Agriculture (SEMEAR is the Portuguese acronym) project of the US Government Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, seeks to sustainably increase the adoption of improved technologies of cowpea, soybean, and sesame to increase incomes and food security of smallholder farmers, especially women. This is through increasing the production and supply of seedsIITA-ZambiaThe competitiveness and profitability of most smallholder legume and sesame farmers in Mozambique are constrained by low productivity resulting from many challenges including poor access to seeds of improved and high-yielding varieties and the use of poor agronomic practices.There is a complete lack of effective and well-coordinated mechanisms to produce and supply improved seed to farmers. It is targeting 100,000 households with 35% women in the project areas.In 2017, the second year of implementation, the project produced 136.44 t of early generation seeds of common bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeon pea, sesame, and soybean representing 102% of the 133.76t target. This quantity of seed comprises 25.12t of breeder/pre-basic seed, which can plant 684 ha, and 111.32t of basic seeds expected to cover 2,287 ha of land during the upcoming season. The project also assisted its network of partners to produce 1,293.38 t of certified seed which is 87.2% of the annual target of 1,483.4 t. This shortfall is attributed to the low performance of common beans as well as delays with groundnut and cowpea seed production data from partners.The project also facilitated the inspection of seed multiplication fields of partners and the subsequent certification of 14 communitybased seed producers. The seed producers received certificates and batch numbers for their seeds to serve as evidence of quality assurance for seed buyers. were trained in many subject areas including variety selection, improved management practices, seed production techniques, seed storage, packaging, labeling, seed business management, and disease and pest control.In addition, over 120 field days were organized in partnership with a number of organizations across project locations with the participation of 4,541 farmers and stakeholders, and almost 41% female farmers.\"Farming is a serious profession\"With the increased farm revenues, the Sinsseque family was able to invest in agricultural inputs like a spraying machine and mechanization services, improved their storage facility, and purchased a new motorbike. The impact of the SEMEAR project is much broader than this; in fact, the Sinsseque family hires up to 50 laborers from their community to help farming.Instead of selling their entire crop to big commercial entities, Telma and Américo reserved 180 kg of improved cowpea seed and 25 kg of improved sesame seed to sell to local farmers struggling to access good-quality seed. This current season, up to 30 smallholder farmers will have access to certified seed.Américo is also the president of the AFANE farmers' association and in August 2017, the association's seeds were certified by the National Seed Services Regional Laboratory of Nampula. SEMEAR facilitated seed inspections during the past cropping season. The certification was one step towards the formation of sustainable and profitable communitybased seed production enterprises. Américo is very happy with the certification and says the group is committed to improving farming practices and producing good quality seed that comply with the national seed regulations.\"With the certified seeds AFANE farmers are motivated to farm because they are sure that those seeds will germinate and they will get good yields. They will also fetch better prices.When buyers refuse to pay fair prices, we can refuse that offer and we are sure that another client will appear!\" said Américo. Américo, Telma's husband, accepted the challenge of experimenting with Lindi, an improved sesame variety, and obtained 119 kg of certified seed that he sold at 75 MZN/kg ($1.3). By applying good agricultural practices that he learned from SEMEAR, Américo realized that his agricultural business can become much more profitable and therefore, the following season, he will increase his farming land from the current 11 ha to 15 ha and he will mostly grow seed of improved varieties:\"I have made my decision; I will invest in production of improved crops like cowpea, groundnut, and maize.\"In the lush greenery of the southern highlands of Tanzania, one of IITA's leading research delivery projects, the Africa RISING-NAFAKA project, is blazing the way in applying GIS tools to add more precision to their scaling methodologies.The project, which is funded by the United StatesAbeid Chonya and wife Sumaiya collaborate with the Africa RISING-NAFAKA project in bean seed multiplication in Mkungugu village, Iringa District of Tanzania. Photo by J. Odhong', IITA.Africa RISING, IITA-Ibadan  The findings of this research greatly improve the existing recommendation domains in many aspects. First, the newly generated domains are ecologically sustainable since critical ecosystems such as nature conservation parks and wetlands were masked out to ensure scaling-out of agricultural technologies has minimal negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services.The masked areas included national parks in Mikumi, Ruaha, and Udzungwa mountains that are globally recognized biodiversity hotspots and water catchments with high vegetation biomass that store and sequester significant amounts of carbon. Secondly, the new domains are generated using an objective data-driven approach compared to existing domains that were generated using subjective expert judgements.Thirdly, by using an Impact Based Spatial Targeting Index (IBSTI) as an objective tool for priority setting when scaling agricultural technologies, priority areas within each sustainable recommendation domain are identified and targeted. This, therefore, maximizes the potential impacts of scaling intervention and enhances rationalization of limited resources. It helps to pinpoint priority zones with a high overall population, high poverty index, and number of women and children less than five years that are essential for targeting specific agricultural technologies. This index enables development agencies to estimate potential impacts of their technologies thereby supporting evidence-based site selection. This enhances effective allocation of limited resources and promotes achievement of greater impact especially for projects with a limited time span.Mzee Abdalla (center), a farmer in Ulaya village in Kilosa District in a discussion with Africa RISING GIS specialist Francis Muthoni (right).Photo by G. Ndibalema, IITA.Photo by IITA.\"The SARD-SC project has done many things for us. Before, we used to boil cassava to eat and sometimes make fufu, but the project has taught us a lot, especially processing cassava into various products. We now make custard, cakes, and bread from cassava flour and many other things,\" said Korma Koroma, leader of the Tangeai Women Association, Sierra Leone, during an impact assessment program carried out by the project in 2016. The project was implemented by several CGIAR centers, specifically IITA, ICARDA, AfricaRice, and IFPRI. ICARDA supervised the wheat value chain, AfricaRice carried out its activities on rice, and IITA supervised cassava and maize activities. IFPRI was tasked with supporting the other centers with policy initiatives and strengthening the technical and commercial capacities across the four value chains.In its five years of implementation, the SARD-SC project recorded many achievements and milestones to ensure food security in the target RMCs. It employed a multi-pronged approach focusing on production, marketing, transformation, and consumption to drive agriculture as a profitable business for resourcepoor, smallholder farmers. In Sierra Leone, the only way the people knew how to eat cassava was by boiling and traditional fufu. However, with the establishment of processing centers and training of women processors accompanied with technical backstopping, many new products have been introduced to the country. Gari, which is one of the major products of cassava in Nigeria, has now become a staple food in Sierra Leone after rice.Employing the value chain approach to improve the profitability of the mandate crops and introducing technical innovations have opened new vistas for smallholder farmers in many communities. Value chain development has enabled the identification of gaps and interventions that can benefit marginalized groups such as women, youth, and the poor and has contributed to improving the livelihoods of farmers and women, especially those who have become financially self-reliant.Technology generation efforts through SARD-SC support have led to the release of six new, high yielding cassava varieties resistant to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). In DR Congo, forFarmer with herhuge cassava root.example, these varieties have been handed over to the National Ministry of Agriculture for dissemination to farmers. They also served as sources for the regional breeding program, tackling CBSD challenges facing cassava growers in DRC and the Great Lakes.In Sierra Leone, among the cassava varieties introduced into the country by the SARD-SC project was SLICASS 7. This has become the symbol of the women farmers and processor groups' success in the country. Agnes Mamigbane, chairperson of the Mamigbane Women's Processor group, in Bo District has this to say: \"SLICASS 7 can last up to seven days after harvesting the tuber without a stain.\" She pointed out that the improved variety has enabled them to meet market demand in producing gari, high quality cassava flour (HQCF), and other cassava products; and reduce postharvest losses. Marie Yomeni, Cassava Commodity Specialist, said that because of the project's assistance, many of the women farmer groups had become invaluable partners of the project in supplying and disseminating improved varieties to other smallholder farmers.The SARD-SC maize value chain particularly focused on creating and maintaining a seed system that would address low yields in the RMCs. Thus, the project developed and deployed tested and certified seed, and developed multi-stresstolerant, nutrient-dense, and mycotoxin-resistant varieties and complementary crop management options. These were strategically deployed to create impact in different countries. To date, some 123 such varieties have been developed and tested on-station and on-farm.Sam Ajala, Maize Commodity Specialist said, \"We are also concerned about maintaining sustainable production and multiplication of such certified seed varieties.\" Some of the key milestones achieved included the introduction and intensification of maize farming in the southern part of Kaduna State and Nassarawa in Nigeria, establishing a maize innovation platform in Cameroon, and the economic transformation in the lives of maize smallholder farmers in rural Mali.The SARD-SC wheat component has identified and released 21 new and best-fit improved wheat varieties along with their crop management packages, through successive multilocational field trials, and evaluation and validation of advanced breeding lines. Eight of these new varieties-four in Ethiopia, two in Nigeria, and two in Sudan-were officially released for wider cultivation in 2015. The introduction of heat-tolerant, high-yielding wheat varieties completely overcame the myth that wheat is not a tropical crop. Some countries such as Nigeria and Sudan readily incorporated this commodity into their agricultural transformation agendas.Across the cassava and maize commodities, research and innovations have resulted in transforming traditional foods and agricultural produce into processed products. In all SARD-SC cassava countries, more than 50 culinary innovations have been developed using cassava flour for confectionery such as cakes, bread, doughnut, chin-chin, egg rolls, biscuits, meat pies, tofu and tofu kebabs, and tapioca. Odorless fufu, coconut gari, and vanilla-flavored ice cream are some other innovations derived from HQCF in Sierra Leone. Innovation has also brought about new products and diversification of maize cookies, chin-chin, To' (drink made from maize in Mali), and several other products. All these products are now commonly sold locally by women.Activities were also undertaken to evaluate the economic use of cassava waste for commercialProducts developed from cassava starch on display.Photo by IITA.production of edible mushrooms. The project had conducted ethnomycological surveys in each of the three regional Innovation Platforms established for cassava in Sierra Leone to assess indigenous knowledge on mushroom value to rural communities.Pieter Pypers explaining about ACAI's work.Photo by IITA.For the wheat value chain, many women beneficiaries have been trained on making both local and exotic recipes from wheat. The products included bread, cakes, doughnut, buns, meat pies, egg rolls, chin-chin, taliya (local spaghetti), gereba, alkaki (wheat sweet), and funkaso.SARD-SC aimed to enhance the productivity and profitability of the mandate crops for smallholder farmers in many RMCs because of low yield, poor farming methods, vagaries of weather, and lack of improved planting materials. The need to introduce good agronomic practices was imperative, hence, the maize value chain included the adoption of complementary crop management options in training farmers. Implemented through demonstration trials across the four value chains, the farmers witnessed the outcomes of modern farming methods applied on farms.Adoption of agronomic practices by farmers was responsible for a higher percentage of uptake of improved technologies. Affirming the impact of the adoption, Hauwa Bio, leader of Muamia Women Association, Sierra Leone, said: \"IITA/SARD-SC has taught us how to plant cassava in rows, spacing, weed control, harvesting, and reduction of postharvest losses.\"Sani Hamza, from Guzou, Zamfara, recorded his first success with the application of the best agronomic practices in 2015. He harvested 4 t of maize in 1 ha. Previously, Hamza had attended the SARD-SC pre-season training organized in collaboration with the Maize Farmers' Association of Nigeria and the Ahmadu Bello University extension services. AfricaRice introduced a calibrated RiceAdvice android tool for providing farmers with guidelines on field-specific management practices to improve productivity and profitability.The project also introduced appropriate technology and mechanization to process the commodities.In Sierra Leone, the project installed nine processing centers across the country in different cassava growing communities, equipped with milling machines, hydraulic pressers, graters, sealers, and many more to reduce drudgery and speed up processing .The SARD-SC wheat sub-project introduced a raised bed mechanized planter towed by a tractor to all the wheat producing countries. The costeffective machine was devised to make land preparing and sowing on raised beds convenient for resource-poor, smallholder farmers.Teaming up with the private sector and research partners, AfricaRice developed technologies that rapidly transformed the rice business within project countries. AfricaRice introduced the Agricultural Transformation Agenda thresher-cleaner or ASI-Thresher into Nigeria and other rice producing countries. The machine was designed to remove particles from paddy rice. It also introduced a new technology named GEM (Grain quality, Energy efficient, and durable Material) rice parboiling technology and different types of weeders such as the ringhoe and the straight-spike.SARD-SC considered training and capacity development as key to understanding and embracing technological innovations. For example, the rice component has enhanced the competence and skills of 451 NARES partners in crop management, marketing, integrated rice management, data analysis, and multi-stakeholder platforms.In 2014, over 360 agricultural professional and stakeholders from various countries attended training and workshops on diverse topics under the wheat component. Under the cassava value chain, 167 NARES scientists and technical staff were trained, whereas 1025 people were trained in processing cassava into new products. In addition, nine PhD and 10 MSc students from four countries were offered scholarships to carry out research in agronomy, breeding, postharvest, and socioeconomics in collaboration with African universities. A good number of people have also been trained under the SARD-SC maize and wheat sub-projects.The SARD-SC project adopted the Innovation Platform (IP) as a strategy to gain maximum benefits across all the value chains. Bringing together a group of individuals with different backgrounds and interests to diagnose problems, identify opportunities, and find ways to achieve their goals concretized the concept of IPs.More than 100 IPs were established and promoted dissemination and adoption of proven technologies, with more than 10,000 stakeholders trained across the four value chains on their operations for technology delivery and impact.The five-year SARD-SC project has indeed resulted in life changing impact on the beneficiaries and communities through the four commodity value chains.In his assessment of the project success, Chrys Akem, SARD-SC Project Coordinator, said: \"We believe we have delivered; achieving more than the targeted 20% yield increase across the different commodities, engaging millions of households and laying pathways that will influence sustainable agriculture for smallholder farmers to alleviate poverty.\"SARDC-SC Project Coordinator Chrys Akem. Photo by IITA.to the provision of draught power that can be used for cultivation as well as transporting farm produce to the market. Contacts with extension agents indicated exposure to information on improved maize varieties, which in turn shortened the time between variety release and actual planting of the variety.Results also showed that participation in cooperatives increased the probability of adoption of improved maize varieties, inorganic fertilizer application, and crop rotation in 2015.The probability of adoption of improved maize varieties increased by about 18 percentage points due to cooperative membership while that of inorganic fertilizer application increased by about 23 percentage points in 2015. The likelihood of adoption of crop rotation increased by nearly 19 percentage points with cooperative membership.The findings showed the same patterns for 2012. For 2012 and 2015 combined, cooperative membership increased the adoption of inorganic fertilizer application by 11 percentage points and crop rotation by 24 percentage points. Overall, the results point to the need for policies promoting farmer organizations such as cooperatives coupled with effective extension services for faster and greater adoption of improved technologies.input support program (FISP) that is supplying farmers with inputs such as improved seed and fertilizers at a subsidized price. To benefit from this program, farmers are expected to apply through their cooperatives, farmers' organizations, and associations. In addition to providing subsidized inputs, the program is encouraging farmers to adopt sustainable intensification practices such as crop rotation.A study was conducted to assess the speed and determinants of adoption of improved maize varieties in Zambia using survey data collected in 2012 and 2015 in the eastern province of Zambia by IITA and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).The results from a duration analysis showed that the average time (adoption gap) it takes between the year a variety of improved maize is released and the year the farmer plants the variety was 9 years. Figure 1 shows that the waiting time or adoption gap was shorter for cooperative members (steeper slope) than that of non-members. This implies that cooperative members are more likely to adopt improved maize varieties faster than non-members.The results further showed that cooperative membership, age of the household head, livestock ownership, and the number of contacts with agricultural extension officers are important determinants of the speed of adoption. A 1% increase in cooperative membership increases the speed of adoption of improved maize by 3 months. Similarly, livestock ownership increases the speed of adoption by 0.06 years. Livestock ownership plays an important role with regardWomen beneficiaries of SARD-SC.Photo by IITA.The project titled \"Improving Women's Financial Capabilities: A Pilot Project Proposal to Empower Women in South Kivu\" is focusing on this issue. This project began in 2017 to enhanc women's empowerment through improving their financial capabilities, which refers to the \"attitude, knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy needed to make and exercise money management decisions that best fit the circumstances of one's life.\" To fulfill this objective, we used a combination of approachesMicrofinance at the margins: Understanding women's financial capabilities in South Kivu, DRCIn the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), women's opportunities to gain skills in enterprise development and participate in formal savings opportunities are severely limited. The high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) further marginalize women from gaining access to microfinance. that included training, group discussions, and personal counseling to improve entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, and attitude to support positive behavioral changes in household financial decisions. We worked with both women and men. Targeting women in skills training alone has proved to be an inadequate approach to supporting women's empowerment. Although women often engage in business and savings, commonly accepted norms and intra-household relations with spouses constrain women's decision-making about how to spend money and husbands may assume control over their spouse's income. Clearly, this undermines efforts to improve gender equality and development outcomes overall.This project was jointly designed with Mamas for Africa, an NGO that supports women and girls in eastern DRC in their fight against violence, poverty, and inequality. Through this initiative, we facilitate access to microfinance services for women who have experienced GBV; increase women's ability in the household to support gender equitable household outcomes in managing finances; and support collective action mechanisms to increase solidarity and improve savings activities.The project is currently in two rural locations in Walungu territory that have differing levels of market access. Irongo is a more rural location with weak market access, while Mushinga has better access to weekly markets. Thirty women who sought medical attention in the last 2 years were purposefully selected to participate.Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Focus group discussions and in-depth personal interviews were used to better understand the local context, including gender norms related to finances. Then a household baseline survey was conducted with husbands and wives, where applicable, to understand intra-household financial and business management and attitudes about gender-specific roles and better assess how women participants would manage income and savings in their households.Twenty-six women from two villages opted to participate in the project; their ages ranged from 28 to 65; 67% of them are illiterate. Fourteen of the women are married, and seven are widows.The remaining women independently manage households while their husbands migrate in search of work, often in mines and potentially for years at a time. A 5-day intervention that included training and individual counseling was carried out with women and men to build women's financial capabilities.Financial and negotiation skills were provided to build women and men's capacity and to change behaviors so women gain greater support from male household members in their enterprise and savings activities. Gender dialogue groups were used to discuss decisionmaking and planning of a household budget and sharing labor in household tasks, for example. Each woman then received US$30 as startup capital following training on allocating and developing a budget to meet household needs, invest in a microenterprise of their choice, and to save. Women then created a plan with support from an economic counselor on how to use this money.Since the project began, women formed two groups and engage in diverse enterprises such as selling rice, beans, flour, and banana. They established a link to formal banking services and opened group accounts in the nearby bankingA woman reviews her personalized business plan with the project's economic coach.cooperative. For half of the women, this is their first experience having their own savings account; only 27% of the beneficiary households received credit in the last 2 years. Each group in Irongo (12 members) and Mushinga (14 members) met once a week with a local facilitator, and saved and discussed their successes and challenges, recorded by the facilitator and shared to support a better understanding of microfinance challenges and opportunities.The figure compares the savings performance of both groups: initial savings, savings from November through March, and the total savings. Both groups saved similarly in the initial round, $112 and $129, respectively. Savings amounts decreased from December through February. Explanations for the decreases were household shocks and emergencies, e.g., hospital fees. In Irongo, the group also faced challenges to secure a weekly meeting place, so did not manage to save in January and February. However, in March both groups were able to set aside savings. To date, Mushinga has saved a total of $468 and Irongo, $229.A cause and concern for the discrepancy is Irongo's weak market access. Mushinga is close to two weekly markets and many members sell products in these markets. The Irongo group is currently developing plans to work more collectively with each other so that they may save more frequently. In general, married members often save higher amounts and save more frequently than widows and women whose husbands have migrated.In the baseline survey, we measured agreement with statements about autonomous and joint financial management, among others. Women often strongly agreed with statements that supported men's autonomy in managing money. They also said that women must share income with their spouse. In other words, men generally have authority on managing income, while women do not, reflecting unequal, gender-based differences in financial independence. The impact assessment showed significant decreased levels of agreement with such statements. Women were less supportive of men's autonomy and the necessity to share with their husbands, for instance. Such changes in attitudes are essential to change financial behaviors in the household. If women do not personally believe they have the right to manage finances independently, they will not.Qualitative data also indicated changes in household management. Occasionally, women actively protested their husbands' requests to use money for alcohol. Rather, women put the money into savings as they had planned. In addition, women reported significant changes in their levels of satisfaction in managing expenses and increased skill in managing business. Women reported that they are also in a better position after the intervention to This project has provided key insights to guide future gender transformative research. Among these lessons is the need to use relational and intersectional approaches to understand the local social context. It is imperative to work with and engage men, especially in the household, to address and improve women's financial capabilities. Women's circumstances are diverse and dynamic; their experiences vary based on their household structure, affective networks, and life stage, for instance. This project showed that training of both men and women using financial capabilities approaches has supportedCommunity women celebrating their successes on the processing center.Photo by IITA.significant changes and improvements in women's ability to exercise their ability to make choices or important finance-related decisions in the household. An integrated, gendered approach to microfinance will better support the potential to enhance women's entrepreneurship, savings, and gender equity in the agriculture sector. We analyzed perceptions and identified major drivers of youth engagement in different segments of the agricultural value chain.A large portion (82%) of youth interviewed in South-Kivu perceive agriculture as a sector that can provide jobs and incomes for majority of unemployed youth in their area. This is because agriculture requires abundant labor in all segments of the value chain and countries (see figure ). The positive perception observed is certainly explained by the fact that all the respondents are members of associations that are spaces for development thinking with special emphasis on the role of agriculture.does not require a high qualification. In addition, agribusiness offers good income generation opportunities for the youth given the high demand of agro-food commodities in the area where more than 80% of the food consumed is imported from neighboring  Analysis shows that youth are interested in all the segments of the value chain including production (44%) and specifically on processing and marketing (56%). Youth would engage differently in the various segments of the agricultural value chain. Majority of them (56%) preferred to engage in processing and commercialization segments for quicker and less risky income generation whereas 44% would like to engage in production.Their engagement in agribusiness as well as in different segments is driven by their gender status. It was observed that young boys were more likely to be engaged than young girls. Their ability to easily have access to land increases their tendency to open farms and engage into agriculture. Large land sizes make farming much more economically viable for the farmers by enabling them to reap economies of scale and use better and cost-effective technologies. Land serves more than just a productive asset and is often used as a preferred collateral in the credit market. The level of the youths' experience in associations, which facilitate access to productive resources (e.g., land and finance), and to inputs and output market, experience in entrepreneurship, value of assets owned including the one owned by their family. On the contrary, asset value and number of years in offfarm entrepreneurship business discourage their engagement in the different segments of the agricultural value chain.Despite their enthusiasm, several challenges prevent them from engaging in those agribusiness activities. Among these constraints is the very weak credit culture among youths as only 34% have ever asked for credit. However, 95% of people who asked for credit received it but the amounts received were small ($1,000 on average), at a high interest rate (6.8%) and short term for reimbursement (less than a year). However, the rate of reimbursement was high among credit beneficiaries (more than 95%), an indication that youths can pay back their loans. Other challenges identified were low level of skills in business ventures, overtaxation by government agencies, limited support from government and other development organizations, poor quality of physical and communication infrastructures as well as limited access to land.Youth enthusiasm and engagement in agricultural value chains can be boosted by investing more in modernizing agriculture and reducing administrative and financial constraints to make it more profitable and more attractive to the youth. Efforts should be directed to enhancing youth skills in agribusiness while ensuring ease of access to land and other productive resources through youth-friendly systems with consideration to gender. Moreover, the development of effective government entrepreneurship programs aimed at supporting young people's enterprise could have a positive impact in engaging youth in agribusiness.Youth Agripreneur making a pitch at a forum with partners during the board meeting. Photo by IITA.While yam is an important food and income crop, one of the greatest constraints to its production is lack of high quality and clean seed especially of newly released improved varieties. There is competition between seed and food uses as the tuber can be used for both. Therefore, the aim of the second phase of the Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA II) is to set up a robust commercial seed system to supply smallholder farmers with high-quality clean seeds of improved, released, and market-preferred yam varieties through private seed companies. The initiative plans to reach approximately 320,000 smallholder farmers in six states in Nigeria (Benue, Enugu, Federal Capital Territory, Nasarawa, Niger, and Oyo) and two regions in Ghana (Brong Ahafo and Northern), the two project countries. In the process, other groups such as the certified seed yam producers and marketers will also benefit from selling the high-Yam plants grown in the screenhouse using aeroponics.Photo by IITA.quality yam seed and developing seed business skills for long-term livelihood improvement. Similarly, technical and infrastructural capacities will be strengthened for the national research partners and for the private seed companies to profitably propagate enough high-quality prebasic and basic seed yam.During the year 2017, three key interventions were successfully achieved toward the scaling up of high-quality seed yam propagation. technologies. These are:Partnership with private sector on the aeroponics system Four seed companies-Da-Allgreen Seeds Ltd., Biocrops Biotechnology Ltd., Nwabudo Agro Seeds Ltd., and PS Nutraceuticals International Ltd., were selected to establish an aeroponics system (AS) for basic seed yam production. Biocrops Biotechnology Ltd. had earlier benefited from one aeroponics system from YIIFSWA, and has agreed to build a second. All four seed companies committed to invest in AS technology and based on the development of each seed company's business plan, the updated LoA was signed.The four seed companies had an aggregated land total of 50 hectares dedicated to producing basic seed yam annually. Business plans were developed together with each seed company that included information about the number of AS to be constructed, probable source of funding for investment, and their market strategy and development plan. A manual for clean foundation seed yam production http://yiifswa.iita.org/wp-content uploads/2017/10/Manual-for-Clean-Foundation-Seed-Yam-Final.pdf and a video on AS www. youtube.com/watch?v=lCwyPG1P9JY) was produced.The breeder seed production, initiated with a stock of 2,264 plantlets in January, was bulked to produce 36,550 breeder seeds at end-December using the Temporary Immersion Bioreactor system (TIBs). From the breeder seed produced, around 7200 TIBs plantlets were successfully hardened and partially used to plant two aeroponics systems that generated over 100,000 single-node vine seedlings transplanted in the field at a density of 40,000/ ha for basic seed yam tuber production. While the single-node vine cutting from aeroponics for basic seed yam production has the advantage of starting with virus-free planting materials, these can be reinfected with time in the field. The reinfection rate of virus-free seed yam in the fields was up to 7% of virus infection recorded between planting of the single vine in October 2016 and April 2017. The spatial variation in infection rates was typical for insect-transmitted viruses.The average sizes of tubers harvested at 6 months are shown in Table 1. The tuber sizes vary from a minimum of 3 g (3 g to 49 g) to a maximum of 4,561 g (1002 g to 4,561 g).The detailed procedures of breeder seed yam planting materials production using TIBs can be found at http://yiifswa.iita.org/wp-content/ uploads/2018/02/Clean-Breeder-Seed-Yam-TuberONLINE.pdf -The 80 performance demonstration trials spread across farmers' fields in six states [Benue (15), Enugu (6), FCT (10), Nasarawa (16), Niger (15), and Oyo (18)], were planted with three improved and released yam varieties (two Dioscorea rotundata [TDr 89/02665 and TDr 95/19177] and one D. alata [TDa 98/01176]). One location-specific farmers' best variety was used as a check to assess varietal performance and to quantify the superiority of the improved varieties over the locals.At harvest, results revealed that TDa 98/01176 had the highest yield with a mean of 19.1 t/ha followed by TDr 95/19177 with 18.0 t/ha. TDr 89/02665 which had smaller seeds at planting recorded 14 t/ha while FB had the least yield with a mean 12.1 t/ha. The maximum yield for each variety was recorded in Oyo (TDa 98/01176, 34.6 t/ha), Nasarawa (TDr 95/19177, 31.5 t/ha), Oyo (TDr 89/02665, 24.6 t/ha) and (FB, 22.7 t/ha). In areas where these improved varieties perform below the local best in terms of food quality or market preference, we promote the local best or market-preferred varieties by cleaning them against the major viruses affecting yam.Table1. Range of sizes of tubers harvested from single-node vine 6 months after planting in the field. partners. This result was hugely contested during focus groups; both male and female respondents agreed that men often dedicate more time to fruit vegetable production, while women dedicate more time to leafy vegetable production (see figure). Nevertheless, women still emphasized that they perceive themselves as dedicating more time to farming than men.However, there was a consensus on the distribution of responsibilities where both perceived men as \"bread-winners\" and women as being responsible for domestic chores. Consequently, both stated that domestic responsibilities prevent women from getting more involved in agricultural production, while men are free to dedicate most of their time to farm-related activities.Who earns more and who contributes more to family expenses?The difference in perceptions by men and women living in male-headed households concerning income and expenditure allocation, was again remarkable. Figure 2 shows the perceptions of men and women on the total amount of household income, as well as on how much is earned by husband and wife.Investigating the different perceptions, focus groups revealed that both men and women keep their individual income confidential to strengthen their position in intra-household Gender perceptions on labor allocation in the production of vegetable crops.  Both male and female farmers understood low cooperation and male dominance as obstacles for development. Quantitative and qualitative data confirm that men tend to have higher incomes and dominate money-related decisions. This is astonishing since vegetable farming constitutes an upcoming business opportunity in the investigated communities and offers better access for women than other sectors (i.e., cereal crop production).However, women still earn and control smaller amounts of money and, in most cases, remain economically dependent on their husband's contribution. Women explained that their lower income was due to men's control over access to land, financial capital, knowledge, and markets, while men perceived women as having physical limitations and poor money management skills, which restrict their opportunities to progress economically through vegetable farming.Obstacles to achieving food security, poverty alleviation, and women empowermentVegetable production may constitute a beneficial livelihood strategy for women in rural Tanzania. Nevertheless, women still face numerous disadvantages compared to their male counterparts. These are mainly manifested in unequal access to key resources, such as land, financial capital, knowledge, and time, which results in unequal participation opportunities and unequal benefits from participation. The livelihood outcome of male and female farmers is essentially affected by intra-household benefit sharing. In this regard, distrust and low cooperation within the households may constitute serious obstacles for food security, poverty alleviation, and women empowerment.Further research should investigate the correlation between participatory decision-making and household well-being. Lecoutere and Jassogne (2016) who analyzed this correlation for coffee farming households in Uganda concluded that participatory decisions on production and resource allocation have a positive effect on food and income security, as well as household well-being. Income control was more balanced between the spouses and men dedicated more time to reproductive activities. Consequently, we emphasize the necessity of including men in gender transformative interventions in agricultural research and development.The study was conducted under the \"Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation\" (Africa RISING) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by IITA.The target farmers live in Babati, Kiteto, and Kongwa districts in northern and central Tanzania.Women sell vegetables at a roadside market in Linthipe EPA Malawi. Photo by J.Odhong, IITA.Trained Agripreneurs operating the fish smoking enterprise.Photo by IYA.Improved approaches and widespread activitiesThe Youth-in-Agribusiness program has evolved, emphasizing the provision of training in agribusiness for youth, creation of jobs through the establishment of independent agribusinesses, expansion of the program to other locations in Africa, and recognition of the program through intense advocacy and impact.Year 2017 witnessed the realization of these outcomes as many of the youth trained under the program became CEOs in the agricultural sector and created jobs for other unemployed youth.The mechanism toward agribusiness development is through the development of detailed business plans for investment and commercial loans. Several mentors assisted in this effort, particularly EKIMIKS in Nigeria.These plans were built upon six proven business models: seed production, cassava production and processing, fish production and processing, horticulture, advanced propagation systems, and value-added processing; but the youth were encouraged to explore other enterprise opportunities as well. This resulted in the establishment of some businesses outside the initial scope of the business plans.Businesses launched in June 2017 are related to poultry raising, snack production, seed production, fish processing, and cowpea and yam packaging.Frotchery Farms Limited: This business is located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and owned by Babatunde Yusuf, Ngozi Chituru, and Hammed Oni, who were trained under the IITA Youth Agripreneurs incubation program. They specialize in the production of smoked fish using the smoking kiln technology. Developing a strong customer base, they have ''grown'' the product which is now available in supermarkets, restaurants, and hotels. The business has achieved a revenue of N3,707,560 (about $10,300) and processed over 4.5 tons of fresh catfish since start up while developing strategies to increase the existing market. Frotchery Farms projects that it will process 36.6 tons of fresh catfish resulting in average monthly sales of 2-4 million naira ($5555-11,500) and create direct employment for at least two additional youth in 2018.Gracevine Foods: The business is owned and managed by Idowu Abosede, a young lady who studied Animal Breeding and Genetics at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, Nigeria. Located in Ibadan, Nigeria, Gracevine adds value to agricultural produce by processing and marketing products such as clean stoneless cowpea, cowpea flour, yam flour, and plantain flour. The business has three young employees. This enterprise conducts business in Niger State and maintains another distribution office in Ibadan, Oyo State. Since existence, the business has produced 3.5 tons of its products with a generated revenue of N774,030 ($2,150) and a 23.4% profit. Furthermore, in 2018 the business is projecting a 25% increase in production totaling 12.25 tons of products and revenue of N2,400,000 ($6,667) with at least three additional distribution channels.TopNotch Poultry: TopNotch Poultry is a small-scale, commercial feed-to-fork, broiler enterprise owned and managed by Yetunde Oginni and Ibukun Agbotoba. It aims to establish a reference-farm with feed milling, breeding, incubating/hatching, processing, and retail/food units for research, training, and demonstration in best-fit technologies and practices suitable for youth businesses. In addition to fresh broilers, TopNotch also provides smoked, grilled, and fried chicken. The business started with a loan of $14,000 and grew with a weekly processing of 500 birds, an annual revenue of $90,000, and $14,000 net profit. The demand for their product has grown and they are projecting a weekly processing of 1,000 birds, an annual revenue of $200,000, and a net profit of $40,000. A local investor invested some funds in the operation of the business.TAC Farms: This is owned by Mustapha Quadri, a graduate of Botany from Ahmadu Bello University. TAC Farms produces improved maize and soybean grain for poultry farmers as raw material for feed formulation and oil processing industries that use soybean as a raw material. TAC Farms has 13 hectares of field in Zaria with an office located at Challenge, Ibadan, Oyo State. Since its establishment in 2017, TAC has harvested 28 tons of maize, but faced the challenge of floods, which destroyed  In DRC, eight agribusiness plans are being finalized requiring about $1.7 million in loans and a projected revenue of $7.8 million. Fish cages, poultry, and mushroom production were launched in April 2017 and additional business plan development is ongoing.The young CEOs mentioned above were supported by IITA through the provision of start-up funds, improved planting materials, a series of entrepreneurial, business management, and leadership training, mentoring, and backstopping.IITA's Business Incubation Platform (BIP) employed several Agripreneurs in 2011 as key account managers for IITA technologies like Aflasafe, Nodumax, and GoSeed while an additional five youth were employed as enterprise leads to run cassava, maize, plantain, vegetable, and fish businesses with the transfer of the enterprises to BIP.Similarly, the five-year project funded by the MasterCard Foundation and awarded by Michigan State University was officially launched in 2017. The project, known as Agri-Food Youth Opportunity Laboratory (AgYouthlab), is targeted towards expanding youth employment opportunities in the agrifood systems of Nigeria and Tanzania. This program aims to train 16,250 out-of-school, disadvantaged youth within the age range of 18-24 in Nigeria and Tanzania along the value chains of cassava, poultry, oilseeds, horticulture, and aquaculture. This project provided full-time employment for six agripreneurs in Nigeria and Tanzania.During early 2017, IYA moved to Imo State to establish an incubation center where young people in the southeastern part of Nigeria can be trained and equipped with agribusiness skills. The incubation center served as a model for gainfully employing young people in the state along the agricultural value chain. It provided an opportunity for IYA to extend its tentacles and fulfil its vision of ensuring that youth in all the geopolitical zones in Nigeria tap into the benefits available in agriculture to enhance food production. To show its support for the IYA program, the state government released some abandoned facilities-fish ponds, poultry, and greenhouse at the Imo State Polytechnic Umuagwo and at the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority in Agbala to IITA for use in the incubation program. IITA deployed six experienced Agripreneurs from Ibadan and Abuja to renovate and resuscitate the facilities and display the viability of the horticulture, fish, and poultry enterprises.The unit hosted the first-ever African Youth Agripreneurs Forum sponsored by the African Development Bank in IITA Ibadan. The conference, which was attended by over 300 young agripreneurs from all over Africa, gave them an opportunity to network and pitch their business ideas for funding.Year 2017 also witnessed the commissioning of Africa's first Agripreneurs building at the IITA headquarters. The building is now called the A.A.A Agripreneurs building after the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina. The building houses offices, seminar rooms, boardrooms, and other facilities. The commissioning was attended by the former Presidents of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Yakubu Gowon.The IKYA DRC team increased the production of cassava flour to an average of 16 tons per month. This activity is conducted in conjunction with Community-based Cassava Processing Centers (CCPC) established through other IITA projects where IKYA serves as a trainer and marketer of flour as well. Two factors limited the group's flour production: the supply of fresh cassava from outgrowers, and the rate of drying through an open-air system. To increase the supply of cassava, IKYA has linked with 14 youth groups engaged in cassava production and installed a locally made solar dryer at each CCPC. Drying will be accelerated through the purchase of a flash drier. Two large abandoned fish pond networks were discovered at Myakabere and Lwiro and are being modernized to produce catfish. To reduce costs the group produces its own feed from locally sourced ingredients. IKYA also operates a commercial bakery in Bukavu town where cassava-and protein-enriched breads are produced.The unit also recorded progress with some of its projects. The Community Youth in Agribusiness Group (CYAG) project sponsored by Chevron Nigeria Limited engaged 147 beneficiaries in the host community with independent businesses spinning off after the first phase of the training. IYA's Building on the successes of the first phase of the training with negotiations ongoing for the flag-off of the second phase of the project. For 2018, IYA has a focused vision for youth in agribusiness and sees its progress in terms of both short-term strategy and longer term targets. It is envisaged that IYA will provide leadership roles and services to Agripreneurs across Africa, developing collaborative programs that advance youth agribusiness skills, and improve both agribusiness opportunities and the creditworthiness of youth entrepreneurs. Services provided will include advocacy, fund raising, communication, and training. Agribusiness incubations will no longer be based within the IITA HQ in Ibadan. Pilot enterprises will be positioned in various locations with technical and logistical backstopping.The AfDB ENABLE Youth Program has started slowly, but ultimately will provide loans to member countries towards developing national youth agribusiness programs in partnership with IITA. Many of the principles pioneered by the Agripreneurs will become incorporated into the curricula of universities and vocational schools. The positive examples set by young entrepreneurs will prompt commercial lenders to establish youth business programs and the public and private sectors to establish Youth Agribusiness Parks. Agribusinesses intended to provide self-employment for their founders will grow and provide decent jobs for other youth within a transforming agricultural sector.Training A total of 288 trainings were conducted by IITA for staff, partners, and other stakeholders. Table 1 shows the training activities and distributions. A total of 18 awards were given as shown bellow. Guidelines and standard operating procedures have been developed in the year under review. These include: i) Staff training and development policy and guidelines, ii) Internship procedure and guidelines, iii) Internship evaluation and feedback for interns, iv) Training needs assessment forms for individuals and Units, v) Development of the draft of the coaching and mentoring scheme.CDO is developing the IITA e-learning system that will enable the institute to conduct training online using both text functions and an integrated virtual classroom system. Scientists and other staff can conduct trainings for their Units, the Institute, and public online using different time scheduling tools and cover as many locations as possible.There is also room for flexibility for selfpaced learning. The e-learning is up to 60% completion and will be completed by the end of 2018. Training and seminarsFunding for 2017 was $98.713 million, of which 99.98% came from CRP and Non-CRP funding windows and 0.02% from other sources. Expenditures were $98.049 million (net of indirect costs recovery of $10.877 million) of which 88.9% was used for program expenses and 11.1% for management and general expenses.The governments and agencies that provided the largest share of our funding in 2016 and 2017 are shown in Figure 1 (top 10 donors).IITA`s 2017 total budget-cum-total expenditure are respectively depicted in Figures 2 and 3.Table 1 shows investment by CRP and Non-CRP funding windows. Table 2 gives an indication of the financial health of IITA, while ","tokenCount":"19743"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bc506887d9404b820a0347116cce1144","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a9b0e7bd-fd36-4994-90de-8871fa0de58d/retrieve","id":"-1426732615"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e91589b5-b63e-427a-bf55-55872852fe0d","pagecount":"8","content":"Foto: D. Debouck/CIAT. Flujos de germoplasma en las Américas.Durante los últimos treinta años, la colección de frijol conservada en el banco de germoplasma del CIAT se ha distribuido casi en su totalidad aproximadamente nueve veces. El sistema de acceso abierto ha beneficiado a todos los países, empezando por aquellos que son centros de origen de la diversidad, y aquellos donde el frijol se ha introducido posteriormente. Aún sin cuantificar los beneficios derivados del avance en el entendimiento de la genética o el valor socioeconómico de la producción para el autoconsumo, es claro que la inversión hecha en el esfuerzo de conservación ha rendido un beneficio mucho mayor que los costos de conservación.Informe Especial Recursos FitogenéticosEl banco de germoplasma del Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) mantiene 36.000 materiales de frijol, la mayoría de Phaseolus vulgaris, originarios de Mesoamérica y Suramérica. CIAT distribuye 5000-6000 muestras/año a usuarios alrededor del mundo. Un análisis de los patrones de distribución de estas muestras revela que los científicos del CGIAR, la mayoría fitomejoradores del CIAT, recibieron 54% de los materiales, para estudiarlos y encontrar resistencia a insectos y enfermedades y tolerancia a sequía y suelos pobres. Estos materiales se usaron para producir 230 variedades mejoradas que fueron distribuidas a usuarios en países en desarrollo en Latinoamérica y África, cuyo valor en aumento de producción se ha calculado en US$1.15 mil millones. Se han distribuido también materiales a universidades y sistemas nacionales de investigación agrícola (790 usuarios en varios países). Sus investigaciones han aumentado nuestro conocimiento de la evolución, domesticación y genética de los frijoles. Un análisis de flujos entre regiones demuestra que esta colección ha beneficiado a usuarios de varias regiones del mundo. Aun los usuarios en Mesoamérica, principal donante de muestras, obtuvieron un mayor número de materiales que los que donaron. Las actividades de colección, conservación e intercambio de materiales representan una valiosa inversión y una necesidad para el desarrollo agrícola. Palabras claves: Frijol, Phaseolus vulgaris; recursos genéticos; germoplasma; bancos de germoplasma; conservación del germoplasma; acuerdos internacionales; redes de investigación; América Latina; Mesoamérica; CIAT.Germplasm flows in the Americas: 30 years of distribution of bean samples by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture. The genebank of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) holds 36,000 accessions of beans, of which the majority are Phaseolus vulgaris, most of it originating in Mesoamerica and South America. CIAT has distributed 5,000-6,000 samples/yr to users around the world. An analysis of the patterns of distribution of samples revealed that CGIAR scientists, for the most part/mostly CIAT's bean breeders, received 54% of the total distributions, screening almost all the conserved material for resistance to pests and diseases and tolerance to drought and poor soils. They used these materials to produce and make available 230 improved varieties to users in developing countries in Latin America and Africa, the value of which, in increased production, has been estimated to over USD $1.15 billion. Material has also been distributed to universities and national research programmes (790 users in various countries). Research carried out with these materials has contributed to our understanding of the evolution, domestication and genetics of beans. An analysis of flows between regions revealed that the collection has benefited users from around the world. Even users from the Mesoamerican region obtained more samples from the genebank than the number donated. The continued collection, conservation and exchange of plant materials represent a valuable investment that is necessary for continuing agricultural development. Keywords: Bean; Phaseolus vulgaris; genetic resources; germplasm; genebank; germplasm conservation; international agreements; research networks; Latin American; Mesoamerica; CIAT.na de las actividades claves de los centros internacionales de investigación agrícola del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR, por sus siglas en inglés; www.cgiar.org) es el mantenimiento de 11 bancos de germoplasma, los cuales albergan colecciones de materiales en fideicomiso para la población del mundo y disponible para el uso de todos. Las variedades nativas de las Américas representan la mayor proporción de especies en estas colecciones. Los fitomejoradores han aprovechado estas colecciones con la finalidad principal de aumentar la disponibilidad y calidad de alimentos para la población de los países en desarrollo (FAO 1998). Debido a una reducción del apoyo financiero a estos centros, el financiamiento de los bancos de germoplasma no ha incrementado en proporción a los costos de mantenimiento. Cuando los bancos de germoplasma enfrentan limitaciones financieras, es importante demostrar el valor de estas colecciones, asociado al uso de los materiales para la investigación y el fitomejoramiento. Una forma de medir este uso es cuantificando los flujos de germoplasma hacia los usuarios. Este estudio analiza los flujos de germoplasma de la colección de frijol conservada por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), uno de los centros del CGIAR, hacia diferentes usuarios en diferentes regiones entre 1973 y 2000. El análisis permite entender mejor el nivel de interdependencia entre los agricultores de las Américas y los de otras partes del mundo, así como la importancia de la colección de frijol del CIAT para la investigación y el desarrollo de la agricultura en Latinoamérica y otras partes del mundo.Para más de 300 millones de personas en el mundo, el frijol (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) es parte central y asequible de la dieta diaria. Este cultivo es la leguminosa de grano o menestra alimenticia más importante a nivel mundial. La cosecha global es de 18 millones de toneladas métricas al año, evaluada en 11000 millones de dólares americanos (FAOStat 2005). El frijol común fue domesticado hace más de 7000 años en dos centros de diversidad -Mesoamérica (México y América Central) y la región andina de Suramérica (Chacón et ál. 2005, Gepts 1998). Las variedades de frijol se cultivan desde el nivel del mar hasta 3000 msnm. En su mayoría, los productores son agricultores con lotes pequeños (de menos de una hectárea), sin riego, con poco o ningún fertilizante o pesticida (Singh 1999). Meso y Suramérica son las regiones de mayor producción; sus ocho millones de hectáreas producen casi la mitad de la producción mundial. El frijol fue introducido al África sub-sahariana hace siglos; la producción se concentra en áreas densamente pobladas del África oriental, la región de los grandes lagos y las partes montañosas de África del Sur (Singh 1999).La colección mundial de Phaseolus es mantenida en fideicomiso para la población mundial en un banco de germoplasma operado por la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos en la sede del CIAT en Palmira, Colombia. El centro cuenta con tres estaciones adicionales en el país, cada una en diferentes condiciones ecológicas, donde se puede llevar a cabo la multiplicación y renovación de semilla de diferentes variedades. La colección cuenta con casi 36.000 muestras de 44 taxa, de las cuales 26.500 son Phaseolus vulgaris cultivado. Aproximadamente 1300 son formas silvestres del frijol común y el resto son otras especies cultivadas o parientes silvestres distantes del frijol común (www.ciat.cgiar.org/, datos del 24 octubre 2006). Esta colección contiene 15% de las muestras de frijol conservadas a nivel mundial (FAO 1998). Considerando que 97% de las muestras son de variedades nativas, es probable que esta colección sea la más representativa del germoplasma conservado ex situ (Singh 2001).Los investigadores del Programa de Frijol en el CIAT llevan a cabo investigaciones y fitomejoramiento usando estos recursos genéticos. Uno de los objetivos principales de los programas de mejoramiento del CIAT es la identificación y desarrollo de germoplasma tolerante a la sequía y a la baja fertilidad del suelo (Ishitani et ál. 2004). La combinación de tolerancia al estrés y resistencia a enfermedades y plagas es otro tema de interés de los programas de investigación del CIAT (Beebe y Pastor-Corrales 1991). Con miras a alcanzar estos objetivos, los científicos 'frijoleros' del CIAT evalúan continuamente la colección, seleccionan el germoplasma con resistencias a plagas y enfermedades y luego hacen una acumulación en 'pirámide' de genes de resistencia en materiales agronómicamente idóneos (Singh 2001).Los recursos fitogenéticos conservados por el CIAT formaban parte de las colecciones adscritas a la FAO hasta 2006, cuando pasaron a formar parte del sistema multilateral del Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (el Tratado; ver Frison et ál. y Esquinas y Hilmi, pág. 9 y 20 en este número). Bajo los términos de estos dos arreglos legales (el acuerdo con la FAO y el Tratado), el CIAT ha facilitado materiales de su colección de germoplasma, sin costo, a agricultores, asociaciones campesinas, fitomejoradores, agrónomos, servicios de extensión, universidades e institutos de biodiversidad. En promedio, el CIAT distribuye cada año entre 5000 y 6000 muestras en respuesta a pedidos de todas partes del mundo. Los materiales del banco de germoplasma pueden ser usados en investigación para fitomejoramiento, evaluación agronómica, multiplicación de semilla y capacitación en conservación genética. A veces se distribuye material colectado en campos de cultivos y fuentes silvestres; otras solicitudes se enfocan hacia las líneas seleccionadas y mejoradas, productos de las actividades de fitomejoramiento de los investigadores del CIAT, quienes trabajan con los materiales del banco de germoplasma.Desde el establecimiento del CIAT en 1967, los programas nacionales de investigación agrícola en 39 países han distribuido 362 variedades de frijol, 238 en América Latina y 111 en África, desarrolladas a partir de germoplasma suministrado por el centro (Voysest 2000). Estas variedades se han sembrado en un total de aproximadamente 2,4 millones de hectáreas y han generado un beneficio acumulado de 1,15 mil millones de dólares americanos (base 1990) (Johnson et ál. 2003).Al analizar los flujos de germoplasma de frijol desde el CIAT durante las últimas tres décadas, se observa una reducción notable en el número de muestras distribuidas anualmente (Fig. 1). Si bien en 1988 el número total de muestras distribuidas llegó a un máximo de más de 35.000, este número ha bajado desde entonces. En los últimos diez años, la distribución no ha superado las 9000 muestras por año. Para tratar de entender este patrón, se llevó a cabo un análisis más profundo de los datos digitalizados y manejados por la Unidad de Recursos Genéticos del CIAT durante el periodo 1973-2003. La Unidad mantiene un banco de datos digitalizado que incluye información sobre pasaporte, características del material conservado y tipo de institución receptora de materiales (e.g. sistema nacional de investigación agraria, centro del CGIAR, compañía comercial, organización no gubernamental, agricultores, etc.) (Cuadro 1).Los científicos del CGIAR son los que más han solicitado germoplasma. A lo largo de 30 años, han solicitado 31.242 materiales distintos, o sea el 88% del total de la colección conservada de frijol. Esta amplia diversidad de materiales ha sido usada principalmente por la unidad de fitomejoramiento y otras unidades de investigación del Programa de Frijol del CIAT, donde los investigadores trabajan con la finalidad de encontrar genes de resistencia a diferentes tipos de estrés y de mejorar el rendimiento de las distintas clases comerciales de grano. A lo largo de 20 años, el número de transacciones hacia este tipo de usuarios (1898) representaba el 54% del total de transacciones por parte del banco de germoplasma. En promedio, cada material ha sido distribuido más de seis veces. Esta intensidad de uso puede explicarse por la cercanía física entre las unidades de investigación del CIAT y el banco de germoplasma, y pone de manifiesto la integración de las actividades del banco con los programas de investigación del CIAT. El número promedio de materiales por transacción (104,5) para este grupo de usuarios es uno de los más altos.En conjunto, los sistemas nacionales de investigación agraria y las universidades solicitaron 28% del número total de muestras distribuidas; esto representa más de 790 usuarios, o sea más del 70% del número total de receptores. Sin embargo, tanto el promedio de materiales por transacción como el promedio de veces que un mismo material fue distribuido son menores. Una fracción importante de la diversidad aún no ha sido utilizada por este tipo de solicitante (sistemas nacionales de investigación agraria: 17.902; universidades: 23.119). La Fig. 2   (1998: 32%; 1999: 40%; 2000: 34%). El Cuadro 2 refleja la distribución de muestras a través de 30 años. Mientras que la distribución a científicos del Grupo CGIAR aumentaba rápidamente entre 1973 y 1988, se redujo de manera sustancial en los siguientes años. La distribución a receptores que no pertenecen al CGIAR se ha mantenido estable, con un promedio anual de distribución de 3000 a 4200 muestras. Durante los cinco últimos años del periodo (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003), la proporción entre receptores CGIAR y receptores no CGIAR ha fluctuado alrededor del 50% de muestras distribuidas. El análisis de la distribución de cada material de la colección de frijol del CIAT se resume en la Fig. 3. Se ve que el 10,5% del total de la colección jamás ha sido distribuido; este porcentaje es muy bajo en comparación con otras colecciones del CGIAR, y aún más comparado con colecciones fuera del CGIAR. La mitad de la colección ha sido distribuida entre una y siete veces. Un 10% de la colección ha sido distribuido más de diecisiete veces. Sin embargo, más del 40% de la colección de frijol del CIAT jamás ha sido aprovechada afuera del CGIAR, lo que indica que una amplia diversidad aún no ha sido utilizada por los usuarios externos.El Cuadro 3 presenta las regiones fuentes y destinatarias de materiales del banco de germoplasma del CIAT para los diez flujos más importantes. Mesoamérica y Suramérica, los dos principales centros de diversidad, han provisto más del 40% de todas las muestras distribuidas. El mayor flujo desde el banco de germoplasma del CIAT fue de materiales mesoamericanos distribuidos a la región mesoamericana (casi 16.000 muestras que representan casi el 58% de los materiales disponibles).   las muestras de Europa y un 31% de los materiales suramericanos. Solamente el 31% de los materiales suramericanos fueron distribuidos dentro de esa misma región. El Cuadro 4 se centra en las muestras solicitadas y recibidas por parte de usuarios en estas dos regiones. La región mesoamericana suministró 10.966 materiales a la colección de frijol del CIAT (Cuadro 3) y recibió 13.890 materiales en total de todas las regiones. Es decir, Mesoamérica es un beneficiario neto del sistema de acceso abierto del CGIAR, ya que recibió un mayor número de materiales únicos comparado con los materiales que donó. Para la región suramericana, las cifras muestran que si aún no llega a ser beneficiario neto en términos de materiales únicos, lo es en términos de muestras recibidas (15.405 muestras en total). El número de materiales únicos recibidos por las otras regiones es mayor que el número donado.En la Fig. 4 se presenta un análisis de los flujos, considerando la región de procedencia del germoplasma comparado con la región donde están ubicados los receptores. Mientras que en 1983 aproximadamente el 50% de los materiales solicitados venían de otras regiones, esta proporción aumentó hasta llegar a representar cerca de 85% en 1991, 1995 y entre 2001 y 2003. La explicación puede estar en que los países que suministran su propio germoplasma al banco de germoplasma del CIAT logran acceso no sólo a su propio germoplasma, sino también al germoplasma de otras regiones, entre los cuales pueden encontrar genes de resistencia a enfermedades y cruces para aumentar el rendimiento.¿Qué podemos aprender de estos patrones de flujo? Dos preguntas surgen de los patrones antes descritos. están dando las primeras variedades mejoradas en este sentido (Blair et ál. 2005). La utilización de la colección por parte de usuarios no pertenecientes al CGIAR (p.e. universidades) se ha mantenido relativamente constante, situación que puede explicarse por su riqueza genética. Gracias a la utilización de dicha colección, los conocimientos sobre la diversidad genética de frijol (Freytag y Debouck 2002, Muñoz et ál. 2006, Tohme et ál. 1996) y sobre su domesticación (Chacón et ál. 2005, Khairallah et ál. 1992) han progresado rápidamente. Estos conocimientos preliminares son imprescindibles para hacer una mejor conservación y un mejoramiento más efectivo. Igualmente han progresado los conocimientos sobre el mapa genético (p.e., Freyre et ál. 1998) y sobre la regulación génica de las proteínas del grano (Kami et ál. 2006).En relación con los patrones de intercambio interregional, el caso del frijol común ofrece un ejemplo interesante de interdependencias. A partir de unos pocos focos de domesticación en Mesoamérica y la zona andina (Chacón et ál. 2005), algunas poblaciones evolucionaron junto con organismos herbívoros y enfermedades (Beebe et ál. 2000, Singh et ál. 1991), desarrollando así resistencia o tolerancia a estos organismos patogénicos (antracnosis: Pastor-Corrales et ál. 1995, mancha angular: Guzmán et ál. 1995, Rhizobium: Aguilar et ál. 2004). Como consecuencia, se han encontrado y se seguirán encontrando fuentes de resistencia entre las colecciones o las poblaciones de frijoles silvestres (Guzmán et ál. 1995). Los cruzamientos entre razas de variedades han contribuido a aumentar la producción. En un gran número de casos el fitomejorador es reacio a volver a fuentes 'primitivas' de variación y prefiere usar material ya mejorado, el cual también puede encontrarse en la colección. Como bien lo dijera Harlan (1978), en cualquier muestra se encuentran características de interés; por lo tanto, cuanta más diversidad hay en una colección, mejor será la misma.Durante los últimos treinta años, la colección de frijol conservada en el banco de germoplasma del CIAT se ha distribuido casi en su totalidad casi nueve veces (basado en el número de muestras distribuidas). El sistema de acceso abierto ha beneficiado a todos los países, empezando por aquellos que son centros de origen de la diversidad, y aquellos donde el frijol se ha introducido posteriormente. Aun sin cuantificar los beneficios derivados del avance en el entendimiento de la genética o el valor socioeconómico de la producción para el autoconsumo, es claro que la inversión hecha en conservación ha rendido un beneficio mucho mayor que los costos de conservación. La conservación y el acceso a la colección de frijol del CIAT han permitido a los agricultores luchar contra los riesgos en la producción. Por lo tanto, la colección representa un \"seguro social\" muy provechoso (Gepts 2006). Se pueden esperar beneficios semejantes en el futuro, tanto de la misma colección como de los intercambios e investigaciones que con ella se hagan. ","tokenCount":"2986"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba5d48f89168cbaa365fc23df836141e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e0dae99a-1c79-41ad-bca7-d805b7ba43c9/retrieve","id":"825666980"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4ad2310c-835f-4d41-80f9-8f1b4ef1cba3","pagecount":"11","content":"A coherent set of planned activities for achieving speci c goals in a de ned period in a speci c space. An intervention is a general name of a project. Although most interventions are projects, there are other types of interventions such as programs, a speci c combination of projects for achieving higher-level objectives, and initiatives that refer to a set of planned activities usually without clear speci cation of goals and period. Scaling Readiness can be used for multiple types of interventions, e.g. projects, programs, policy interventions.In Scaling Readiness two different Innovation Readiness metrics are used for addressing two different management questions. The rst one is the Average Innovation Readiness Level. It refers to the average Readiness of all the novel components of the innovation. The Average Innovation Readiness Level aims to give an overall idea about the functioning of the innovation without considering the interdependencies among the components. The second Innovation Readiness metric is the Innovation Readiness Score. The Innovation Readiness Score is the minimum of the Innovation Readiness Levels of all the novel components. It aims to present the overall functioning of the innovation taking into account the dependencies of the components for the proper functioning of the innovation. Depending on the preference of the innovation managers, either or both of the metrics can be used.It is a metric indicating how mature or effective an innovation is to achieve its use objectives. It can be considered as a systematic answer to the question \"how good an innovation functions.\" It can be between 0, which indicates that the innovation is just an idea in the mind of its potential designers and developers, and 9, suggesting that the innovation is a proven innovation with clear evidence of its value measured in terms of livelihood impact, pro t, etc. Research and development projects increase the Innovation Readiness Levels by improving the design of the innovations, developing and validating the improved designs in uncontrolled and controlled conditions.Knowledge, technology, a concept, practice, etc. that constitutes a part of innovations. Innovations have many components. Some of them are novel and play critical roles in the functioning and use of the innovation in the contexts the intervention operates for achieving speci c intervention goals. They can be standalone innovations for other contexts and goals but for the speci c goals and contexts an intervention operates they work as a part of a larger innovation. In Scaling Readiness, these novel components of innovations are identi ed, characterized, and diagnosed. Measures in Scaling Readiness are calculated using evidence. Speci c claims of Readiness and Use measures are assessed through a hierarchy of sources of veri cation. High-quality science articles and other peer-reviewed documents are the rst sources. In their absence, technical documents or other publicly scrutinized documents are used to back up speci c evidence claims. In the lack of any documents, multiple experts' opinions proven to have su cient competencies are triangulated to identify the measures.A component or subset of components of an innovation that perform worse and are used by fewer users than the other components of the innovation. In Scaling Readiness, the bottleneck components of an innovation are used to prioritize the activities of a research for development intervention to achieve maximum impact at scale with minimum cost and resource use. Bottleneck components are not universal and depend on a speci c time, space and for speci c goals. A set of narratives that explain the fundamental, chronic and complex problems of the agri-food system using more concrete and easily observable crop-related activities  These 10 are different types (1 tool 3 practice 1 service 1 principle 1 technique 1 approach 1 method 1 organisational arrangement )Readiness of the novel components vary between 4 and 7. These imply that the Innovation Readiness Score, which is based on the lowest-scoring component used for identifying the bottleneck component is 4. Meanwhile the Average Innovation Readiness Score, which is used for comparing the innovation with its previous status as well as with other innovations, is 5.7.In other words, the major bottleneck(s) for Integrated Agri-food System Transformation Strategy in Mexico, Peru, Colombia for Improving the effectiveness and e ciency of agricultural knowledge management systems, Improving effectiveness and e ciency of collaborations partnerships and other stakeholder engagements is/are : crop-based agri-food system narratives, opportunistic change management.Please note that the bottlenecks are identi ed using available evidence sources such as journal articles, book chapters, rigorous technical reports and in their absence other complementary research and research communication items. In some cases, an advanced novel component can be assessed as a bottleneck if there is no available evidence about its Readiness. This can be the case especially in innovation components that are designed, or developed recently. If this is the case, the use cases are recommended to invest resources in publishing and disseminating the evidence. Once the dissemination is done, the Readiness scores will be updated.Option 1: Substitute -nd alternative solutions that can serve the same purpose as crop-based agri-food system narratives crop-based agri-food system narratives' develop insights about how agri-food system functions using crops as an anchor of the narrative. If there are any available su ciently performing alternatives that can serve the same function, it is recommended to replace crop-based agri-food system narratives with the most suitable alternative Option 2: Outsource -establish a partnership with organizations that can develop and validate cropbased agri-food system narratives more effectively, e ciently and locally Option 3: Insource -further design, develop crop-based agri-food system narratives using the human resources of the use case team.crop-based agri-food system narratives is at the level of application (unproven). For it to move to the next level, it is necessary to test the capacity of crop-based agri-food system narratives using applied research methods. If there are local or national organizations or teams with su cient experience and capabilities to test the capacity of crop-based agri-food system narratives using applied research methods, it is recommended to outsource the work on crop-based agri-food system narratives. If there are no such local and national organizations and teams, but there are international organizations that can do the work effectively and e ciently, they can be the second outsourcing option.Please note that working with existing partners is not necessarily an advantage. Although, working with local organizations that EiA Latin America Transformation Strategy team has long term collaborations can improve the ownership of fully developed Integrated Agri-food System Transformation Strategy in the future, it might hinder the (further) development of crop-based agri-food system narratives signi cantly. Therefore, it is recommended to have an honest conversation with existing long term partners about the development needs and validate if their experience and capabilities match these needs. If they do not match, it is recommended to offer the long term partners to co-manage the collaboration with other development partners that will be leading the outsourced work.if the substitution and outsourcing options have a low likelihood to develop insights about how agrifood system functions using crops as an anchor of the narrative, it is recommended to (further) develop it using the internal human resources of EiA Latin America Transformation Strategy use case.crop-based agri-food system narrativesMain mandate and contribution of research for development organizations like CGIAR is to develop scalable solutions, or innovations, that can achieve high impact at scale. However, not all scalable solutions are suitable for the CGIAR system. Innovations can be produced by repetitive trial and error or can be discovered and developed by coincidence. The key niche and contribution of CGIAR are sciencebased innovations. What makes science-based innovations different from the others are systematic documentation about how they work and the availability of the information for public scrutiny. Therefore, it is important for EiA Latin America Transformation Strategy use case team to prove the Readiness of their innovations by systematically documenting the performance of the innovation and disclosing the information to the public. This will not only increase the scienti c credibility and reputation of the use case but also increase its attractivity for investments.Option 0: Prove -document and disclose available and recently generated cognitive, conceptual, applied, experimental or impact/bene t evidence of crop-based agri-food system narratives in Mexico, Peru, Colombia or su ciently similar contexts Main mandate and contribution of research for development organizations like CGIAR is to develop scalable solutions, or innovations, that can achieve high impact at scale. However, not all scalable solutions are suitable for the CGIAR system. Innovations can be produced by repetitive trial and error or can be discovered and developed by coincidence. The key niche and contribution of CGIAR are sciencebased innovations.What makes science-based innovations different from the others is the systematic documentation of how they work and the availability of the information for public scrutiny. Therefore, it is important for EiA Latin America Transformation Strategy use case team to prove the Readiness of their innovations by systematically documenting the performance of the innovation and disclosing the information to the public. This will not only increase the scienti c credibility and reputation of the use case but also increase attractivity for investments. ","tokenCount":"1504"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0b3c796c09b89f4115d17ef1ddee51ce","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9f0cec5e-e3fb-44ad-91c3-c3c5a5108509/retrieve","id":"1368199621"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e1d35e95-3c53-4fb6-9779-ef1f5834b191","pagecount":"36","content":"This resource pack This resource pack is a showcase for renewable energy technologies used by farmers in Africa. These include use of wind, water and solar power to pump water, generate electricity and process crops. There are also interviews on production of biogas, and how livestock can improve energy flows on a farm, use of plant-derived oil for lighting, a source of heating for poultry chicks made from waste charcoal dust, and how to boost soil fertility using biomass.During 2007 and 2008 the price of oil has risen to record highs. This has had massive knock-on effects in the global economy. It's also had a major impact on the price of food. Oil underpins industrialised agricultural systems. Fertilisers and pesticides are made using oil, and farm operations such as land preparation and harvesting depend on it. Rising oil prices have therefore greatly increased the costs of food production in the industrialised countries.For small-scale farmers, the rising cost of oil-based farming inputs has put them under increased pressure. Most efforts to increase the production of small-scale farmers have focussed on increasing their use of chemical inputs. And the availability of energy is a key factor for farmers who want to expand their agricultural activities, or add value to their harvests through agro-processing. In this situation, farmers may be keen to adopt farming systems which are not dependent on fossil fuels, but get their energy from renewable sources.Use of renewable energy in farming systems can mean several different things. For example, fossil fuels such as oil are non-renewable, so finding alternative ways of fertilising the land and controlling pests that do not depend on chemicals, will normally involve the use of renewable resources. Such methods reduce farmers' vulnerability to the rising price of oil.Renewable energy also includes generation of power to do a number of farm tasks: pumping water for irrigation, for livestock or for domestic use; lighting farm buildings; powering processing operations and others. These forms of renewable energy include solar energy, wind and water power, oil from plants, wood from sustainable sources, other forms of biomass (plant material), and biogas (gas produced from fermentation of manure and crop residues).Use of renewable energy for agricultural purposes is still quite rare in Africa, although oil prices may drive farmers towards such options. More common, however, is use of renewable energy by farming families in their daily lives. This resource pack also therefore covers several technologies that, while not specifically agricultural, are relevant to rural communities.Colonial farmers introduced thousands of wind pumps to South Africa and Namibia, and lesser numbers to Zimbabwe and Kenya. Some of these are still in use, but many are not, often because local communities cannot get the spare parts or specialised knowledge to maintain the windmills. Later attempts to introduce wind-powered water pumps have often failed, for a number of reasons, including:• High investment cost -the initial cost of a wind pump is usually higher than for a diesel or petrol pump, even though over the lifetime of the pump it becomes cheaper. With limited funds, farmers or farmer groups will be more likely to buy a diesel or petrol pump.• Maintenance and service -pumps in remote areas often break down because of a lack of servicing, spare parts or trained people to maintain them.• Need for water storage -as well as the windmill, farmers must also invest in a large water storage tank, so that water supply can be maintained when the wind is not blowing (and the pump not pumping).• Low output -depending on wind speed and the depth of the water in the ground, wind pumps deliver relatively small quantities of water, which may be inadequate for irrigation or to service large communities.In Zimbabwe, many rural communities do not have electricity and face extremely high charges for fuel. Researchers from the University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo are therefore interested in finding out whether wind power could be a viable technology. A newly designed windpump, capable of pumping 60,000 litres of water per day, has been successfully trialled in several communities. The water has been used to grow high value horticulture crops. Community members have also been trained to maintain and repair the windmill pumps. Windmills for pumping water tells the story.Pumping water using solar power Solar panels (also called Photovoltaic or PV panels) are used to generate electricity from sunlight. The electricity can be used to power a water pump, normally used for village water supply, livestock watering and small-scale crop irrigation, e.g. vegetable plants in a home garden. The water is pumped from underground into a tank, which must be large enough to store sufficient water to supply the village needs during cloudy weather.Installing a solar powered water pump is a fairly expensive option (several thousand Euros or US dollars), although the systems last for a long time and are reliable. Before installing this kind of system, a detailed assessment must be made of water demand (including needs of people, livestock and crops) and availability (e.g. well yield). The site must also be carefully surveyed to ensure the system is designed correctly. Although solar-powered water pumps are generally reliable and need little maintenance, if they do go wrong, skilled technicians are required to carry out repairs. Availability of this expertise is another factor in choosing whether to have such a system.Because of the costs and expertise needed, solar powered systems are usually associated with either donor-funded projects or government water-supply programmes. In The Gambia, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working with the government to install solar-powered water pumps in around 150 large (over 1000 people) communities. Each community must raise US$1000 per year to cover the costs of servicing and maintenance. Night watchmen are employed to protect the panels. In Solar-powered water pumps, Acting head of Rural Water Supply, Alhagi Jabbi, says that the provision of pumped water has had a real benefit in reducing incidents of water-borne disease. The success of the project has led JICA to consider scaling up the approach to other African countries.Agricultural produce has been dried by the sun and wind in the open air for thousands of years. In industrialised countries, drying of crops is mostly done by mechanised driers, which are quicker and give a higher quality product. However, these driers are expensive and require large amounts of fuel to work.Solar driers are more effective than sun drying, but have lower costs than mechanised driers. Designs of solar drier include quite simple boxes with glass covers, or more complex designs where heat is collected in one part of the drier, and then transferred to a box where the crop is placed. While various designs of solar drier have been proven to work, none are in widespread use in Africa. However, they may be in use in certain areas for drying certain crops, such as coffee and rice. For more information on solar driers, including interviews, see the earlier CTA resource pack on Drying agricultural produce (RRRP 08-1).In this pack, Solar-powered fans for tobacco curing describes how smallscale tobacco farmers in Malawi are using electric fans, powered using a solar panel, to optimise the process of drying or curing their tobacco leaves. The technology allows much better control of the temperature in the curing barn, halving the time needed to cure the leaves and greatly reducing the amount of firewood used in the process. As a result, farmers are producing top quality leaf which sells at higher prices on the auction floor. There is potential that the technology could be used for vegetable and fruit drying.Across Africa, less than 10% of rural households are connected to a national electricity grid. Extending national grids to remote areas is expensive, so in Cameroon the Rural Electrification Agency -with recent backing from the President -is taking a different approach; solar power.The need for electric power in rural areas is well-recognised. Currently, the lack of electricity, and the opportunities it brings, is contributing to the rural-urban exodus, particularly of young people. Electricity can power small-scale industries and other income generating activities, improve educational performance by giving children light in the evenings, can power health clinics and schools, and give people access to information through computers and mobile phones.Installing photovoltaic (PV) solar panels is not a cheap option, particularly as they frequently have to be imported from overseas. Spare parts may also be expensive for the same reason. But the cost of solar technologies is coming down, and the current hike in oil prices may, by boosting the solar market, bring prices down further.With its plentiful supply of sunlight, Africa is well-placed to benefit from solar energy provided it is a cost-effective and sustainable option. For this reason, the Cameroonian authorities are training local technicians to be able to maintain the solar power systems. Solar power for rural electrification discusses the possibilities and challenges for the technology.Many countries now have hydro-electric power stations, with large dams capturing water, which is used to drive turbines and generate electricity. However, small-scale versions of this technology also exist, which provide power to isolated rural communities. The small-scale system taps part of the water from a river and feeds it down a pipe (which is sited on a steep gradient to increase the speed of water flow). The water then drives a turbine, generating a 24 hour supply of electricity, which is typically used for lighting, and for TVs and radios. In some cases, the electricity is also used to power small businesses, for example providing light to a poultry farm, or power for a milk chiller or an agro processing operation.Small-scale hydropower -also called micro-hydro or pico hydro-is normally more expensive to set up than a diesel-based system of electricity generation, especially if imported equipment is used. However, where local materials are used, it is possible to reduce the cost substantially, and with proper training, all operation and management can be carried out by the community, as well as repairs or replacement of worn-out parts. In the long run, the electricity produced by micro-hydro is very cheap compared to other sources. Assuming a year-round availability of water in the river, a micro-hydro scheme is a reliable source of continual power, suitable for providing electricity to health centres or schools, as well as businesses.While micro-hydro is a very well established technology in parts of Asia, it is much less widespread in Africa. Electricity from water power describes a micro-hydro scheme that is bringing electric power to a community living on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya.Biogas is used for cooking and lighting in the home, and is produced from animal manure and crop residues. The technology is most suitable for farmers who practice stall-feeding (zero grazing) of their livestock, as this gives them a regular supply of manure. The manure is mixed with water and then fed into a large tank.Here it is fermented by bacteria, producing gas (usually about 60% methane, plus carbon dioxide and other gases). The gas collects in a reservoir, connected by pipes into the kitchen of the home. Here it is used either in gas cookers or lights, helping families to save money on fuel. The gas also burns cleanly, so people cooking with it do not suffer from inhaling smoke.Most designs of biogas digester need to be fed with manure on a daily basis. This obviously requires some labour, and also requires an all year round supply of water, which can be a limiting factor. However, as well as providing gas for the home, the system also produces slurry from the digested manure, and this can be used as a fertiliser without needing any further treatment. This saves money compared to buying chemical fertiliser, and is less work than making compost. Biogas digesters also improve on-farm sanitation.Despite some efforts to introduce biogas technology, e.g. in Uganda, it has not been widely adopted for various social and economic reasons. The cost of installing a biogas digester is a big initial expense for most farming families. Farmers must also be quite disciplined in how they feed their digester in order to maximise gas production. If labour is in short supply, this can be a problem. The digesters are reliable, but need regular checking for leaks, and may need specialist parts, e.g. if pipes or valves are corroded.In Biogas -clean energy from cattle dung Ugandan farmer Ruth Musoke describes the biogas system on her farm which provides her with gas for cooking. Biogas for cattle farmers comes from Ghana, where biogas specialist Elias Aklaku explains the advantages the technology offers to those with cattle herds.The jatropha plant (Jatropha curcas) has seeds that have a high oil content.When extracted from the seeds and filtered, this oil can be used as a fuel, both in modified car engines and also in smaller devices such as lanterns. The oil can also be turned into biodiesel, a fuel which can be used in any diesel engine.Jatropha trees, which can grow up to 6 metres in height, are found in regions close to the equator and are able to grow in arid or degraded land that will support few other crops. After planting, the trees take three years before they start producing fruit, so farmers are usually advised to grow them in addition to their normal crops, for example as a hedge. Planting the crop can actually prevent soil erosion and deforestation, since at harvest time (which occurs after each rainy season), only the fruit are harvested and the plant remains in the ground.Typically farmers growing jatropha will not extract the oil themselves, but will sell their seeds to a biofuel manufacturing company. But in Tanzania, the non-profit organisation Jatropha Products Tanzania is training farmers to grow the crop and extract the oil, and also training young people to manufacture lanterns which can burn the oil. This is proving a cheaper and cleaner source of fuel than kerosene.See Jatropha oil -an alternative to kerosene.During their first 30 days, young poultry chicks need to be kept warm. For those with electricity, heating lamps are one option. These can be powered either from the national grid, from a generator or a renewable energy such as solar or microhydro. A cheaper alternative may be to use fuel briquettes made from waste products. For example, charcoal dust -a waste product from charcoal makingcan be mixed with sawdust, grass and other wastes to produce a fuel briquette that will burn slowly, over several hours.In Uganda, Godfrey Kiyoge has been using charcoal fuel briquettes to heat his poultry brooders for around seven years, and is now training other farmers to do so. In Charcoal briquettes for brooding chicks he explains how it is done.Biomass, such as wood, straw, crop residues and manure, contains stored energy. In some farming systems, this energy is retained within the system so that little or none is wasted, and little external input of energy (e.g. from chemical fertiliser or fossil fuel powered machinery) is needed. Feeding crop residues to livestock or fish is one example of this. The livestock or fish provide food as well as fertiliser, and in the case of cattle, draught power. Use of biogas digesters takes this a stage further, making use of bacteria on the farm as well!Mixed livestock/crop farms can be the ideal way of retaining energy within a farming system, but for those without livestock there are still many good energyconserving strategies. Adding crop residues or compost to the soil recycles their nutrients into the next year's crop. It also boosts water holding capacity and reduces erosion by wind or heavy rainfall. But how much organic matter do farmers need to supply sufficient nutrients and minerals, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium? At the Fambidzanayi Permaculture Centre in Harare, staff are working to find out an answer -see Recycling plant materials.Wood is the most widely used fuel in rural Africa, and will continue to be used in the future. Shortage of woodfuel, caused by widespread deforestation, is a major problem in many areas, so sustainable systems for planting and harvesting trees are essential. This can be done by individual farmers planting trees on their own land -for example along field edges or in woodlots -or by communities establishing a woodlot, or sustainably managing an existing area of forest. If enough trees are planted, to replace those that are cut, wood can be a renewable source of energy.Increasing the efficiency with which wood is used also helps to reduce rates of deforestation. There are designs of improved stoves that burn wood much more efficiently than if it is simply burnt openly. Such designs could be used in an agroprocessing operation.In some cases, farmers plant trees that not only provide fuel but also add fertility to the soil (nitrogen-fixing trees), for example Sesbania and Tephrosia trees.Leaves and small branches from these trees can be added to the soil, and act like a fertiliser. Some trees have deep roots which can pull up minerals like potassium and phosphorus and bring them into the surface layer of the soil where they are available to crops. Trees for fuel and fertility gives more detail on this.Windmills for pumping water can be found in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Many of these have fallen into disuse, usually because of a lack of spare parts or local expertise in maintenance. But given the rising cost of diesel, should African agriculture departments be supporting wind power as a way to provide water for irrigation? Are there any other technologies that have been abandoned, but which your listeners think deserve to be re-looked at?The Gambia's adoption of solar-powered water pumps has been supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Has either JICA or another donor sponsored any similar schemes in your country? A representative of the ministry responsible for energy might comment on that. Do your listeners believe that solar power is something the government should be supporting, for example by policies which encourage local industries that manufacture the solar panels etc?Drying or curing agricultural produce can be a way of both preserving it and adding value. Maintaining quality during the drying process is very important, for example to prevent contamination or mould growth. Could a solar-powered fan be a useful addition to drying technologies used in your country, either for tobacco or other crops? Listeners could be asked to phone in on whether these fans could be a useful technology.These interviews raise the issue of how important it is for rural communities to have electricity. How big a priority should this be? Is it the key to rural prosperity, health and education? And if it is important, what are the best strategies for making it available? Do solar or small-scale hydro power have a place in government energy plans? An interesting topic to discuss with an energy ministry spokesperson. You could also investigate whether any NGOs are working in this sector.With firewood becoming more expensive in many areas, rural families may be increasingly keen to look for alternative, cheaper sources of fuel. For those who keep some livestock, biogas could be a good option. But the technology needs to be installed by trained workers, and this is likely to be done through either a government or NGO scheme. Is there any scheme to encourage adoption of biogas in your country? If so, how successful has it been? If not, is this something your listeners would like to see?One of the exciting things about jatropha is that it is drought-resistant and will grow in dry areas which may not support many other crops. Are there any organisations promoting jatropha cultivation in your country or area? Could a representative be invited to give more information about the crop and how people can benefit from it? Another aspect you could explore is the health risks from kerosene smoke. Are there any ways to reduce the dangers?This technology of fuel briquettes from waste charcoal dust and sawdust is wonderfully simple and could be possible anywhere that charcoal is made. Some of your listeners may have experience making fuel bricks, either from these or other materials, which they could share by phoning in.This is a much bigger topic, which could probably be the subject of a whole resource pack. Farmers will have heard many times about the value of using manure, crop residues etc to fertilise their fields. One problem is for them to obtain enough organic matter to have a meaningful impact on their fields. Inviting an organic or permaculture expert to your studio to answer listeners' questions, put by pen, in person, on the phone or by text, could be a way to give listeners some new ideas about how they can manage this.This interview concludes by advising farmers to seek local advice before they plant trees, in order to choose the right species. That would give an excellent lead in to a guest from a forestry department, who could give some locally specific recommendations for tree planting.Other aspects of renewable energy in agriculture not covered in this packThis pack has largely concentrated on specific technologies that rural communities might use. But widespread adoption of some of these technologies may depend on government policies that either directly promote them, or offer incentives to private sector industries.Sunlight can be used to cook food or to dry agricultural produce. There is more information about solar driers in the earlier Resource Pack 08-1 -Drying agricultural produce.The interview on jatropha describes how this plant oil can be used in a simple lantern. On a bigger scale, jatropha oil can also be used to power agricultural machinery.Most forms of agricultural processing are dependent on energy. In this pack, technologies such as micro hydro and use of solar panels have focussed on supplying domestic needs (e.g. electric light, drinking water), but they could also be used to power small agro-industries.If Windmills for pumping waterUsing wind power to pump water from the ground is something that has never really taken off. The high cost of building and maintaining windmill pumps has put people off. The other problem is that you may also need to build a large water storage tank so that you will have enough water to use even on days when there is no wind blowing.But a lot of wind enthusiasts always believed windmills can be cheaper than using a diesel or petrol powered pump. Tayisepi, share with our listeners how the windmill pump system works and its benefits for farmers. William, I'll start straight away with you. Some of our listeners may not be familiar with the windmill powered pump. How does the pump system work?The pump system is a submersible pump which is put in the borehole and then the windmill would actually be harnessing the wind energy, convert it into the sprocketing motion that will then pump the water.Is the water then pumped into a storage tank from where the water is drawn for use?Yes. There is an option of putting a storage tank. The tank would actually be raised above ground so that we have got the pressure when we need to use the water. But otherwise you can have the windmill pump pumping directly to your source of use. But in that case there would be excessive water which may be lost.We are talking about a windmill pump system. Does it only work when it is windy?It uses wind energy but our design would actually improve on it to harness the smallest amount of wind flow which is there.Does the speed of the wind then determine the amount of water that can be pumped at certain times of the day?Yes. The speed of the wind determines. As the wheel moves faster the pump will also be pumping faster. But when it is completely windy it doesn't turn.How does this pump that you developed provide a solution to the water needs of the community, particularly farmers?In most farms around here there is no electricity. So this pump would actually be using the wind energy and it would provide for the energy that is required to pump water for domestic use, as well as for animals and other farming activities.I would now like to actually turn to Nicholas to actually describe to us about the capacity of this pump. For example, on average how much water can you pump over on a typical day or during the typical week?On average we are looking at up to 60,000 litres of water per day. Working on a 40 per cent effective wind day period. Otherwise it can generate a bit more than this, provided we have sufficient storage capacities for harnessing the water for the period it is pumped.Looking at the community where you actually installed this pump, how can you use that water?They have a cooperative garden. That water is meant to provide the horticultural activities watering needs.Can this pump system be used for any other on-farm activities?Yes. From the household use to livestock, to irrigation, to market gardening, you name it. Most farming activities require water; that gadget can be used for that.What kind of challenges did you meet in designing the wind pump?In terms of the challenges we are looking at the costs associated with the installation of the wind pump. Like this design that we have at the moment was going for US$13,000, that's for the whole process, labour and materials included. And this is a product that can be used at community level. But then also one of the challenges we have at the moment is the aspect of the material costs, due to the inflation we are experiencing.You have already mentioned that it cost you something in the region of US$13,000 to come up with the design and to install it. I would then want to find out, how do you maintain this pump?In our process we included community cadres out there, that is community members who will remain and are taught to maintain those gadgets. That way we, I think we believe it will ensure the windmills will always be working because they know how to maintain the basic parts.Tayisepi Yes it does. The countryside of Zimbabwe's communal lands mainly is quite windy for a good part of the year. Like William had indicated, the design we came up with uses very low energy from wind. So you find with the average wind speed we experience in Zimbabwe, it is said that it can pump water perennially.What are the future prospects for commercialising this windmill pump system?There is quite a future in it as long as we keep on improving on the design and especially the storage capacity. Like we had indicated, this windmill can pump up to 60,000 litres a day. But in terms of the storage arrangement we have at the moment, most of it will not be stored. So if we improve on the storage side of the process we are going to have quite an enhanced capacity as well.I thought I could as well ask you, does your pump system have a name?That's ok. It is called a windmill, that's all. We will brand that shortly, now that you have suggested it. That sounds very interesting, we will definitely try to work towards a branding. End of trackSolar-powered water pumpsPumping water by hand can be a time-consuming, laborious job. Using a dieselpowered pump is an easier alternative, but high fuel costs are making this an increasingly expensive option. So what about renewable energies? Are their environmentally friendly and affordable ways to pump water?Our next report comes from The Gambia, a country which is taking the lead in solar powered water pumping. Alhagi Jabbi, Acting Head of Rural Water Supply explained more to Ismaila Senghore.\"Compared to periods when we were… OUT:… Ismaila, thank you very much.\" DUR'N: 5'24\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Alhagi Jabbi of the Department for Water Resources in The Gambia, speaking to Ismaila Senghore. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.Compared to periods when we were using diesel generators the price of diesel fuel was going up from period to period and communities could not afford to buy diesel and also buy spare parts for the running of these generators. Then the use of solar energy was highly welcome in the Gambian communities and it is very, very successful.Now what were the criteria you used to install the solar pumps in the localities where they are?For example we say a community of at least 1000 people should be able to raise enough funds per year -this is roughly about $1000 -to maintain a system all year round and this is even enough to pay for the bills, for maintenance and for other charges, the running costs of the solar system.You say these projects are all very successful by your standard. Now how can you explain this success?All their communities have their bank accounts, all the communities are connected to private companies for maintenance and this is actually the thing the water policy is asking for. The water policy is encouraging private involvement in the maintenance of water supply facilities and now we have succeeded in that virtually we say it is 100% successful.We have supplied something like 150 large communities with solar powered water supply facilities and about 10 others provided on cattle drinking points across the country.What kind of equipment have you put in place in these localities?We have installed solar panels and then we have also installed submersible pumps so that they can raise water to the overhead tank, which is connected to the distribution network within the communities.Was it expensive in the first place?No, we tried to make the installations very simple and we tried to harmonise equipment. So if you get equipment from various sources it makes maintenance a little bit complicated. But we tried to harmonise equipment so that the supply of spare parts, the supply of skilled labour is also adequately met at community level.Now what do the villages use the water for, basically? Jabbi About 90% of the water is for use for drinking and cleaning purposes plus cooking purposes, domestic use. And then the other 10% say for light gardening behind their homes. Also a trough for small ruminants and other domestic animals that loiter about within the community.Are there any threats for example to the equipment, say from thieves or from children loitering around or from domestic animals?Actually domestic animals and children are not normally major concerns because communities are normally sensitised and they include children and women and everybody within the community are sensitised. Sometimes we have threats from thieves but we try to circumvent these with intensifying security around the solar system, especially night watchmen. But during the day everybody is a watchman over these systems.And how cost effective is the whole system?The investment is worthwhile. The supply of safe drinking water has a direct bearing on the health. When you go to some of these clinics, the amount of waterborne diseases or water related diseases affecting children and women have reduced drastically because of the supply of clean drinking water. And we reduce the time the woman has to spend collecting water. That has a direct economic benefit for the community, so that they can spend their time on other activities.And finally Mr Jabbi would you say or would you advocate for the extensive propagation of this kind of solar water pumping projects throughout the Gambian rural communities and elsewhere in the developing world?Exactly Ismaila. During our last evaluation JICA was using the Gambia as one of the models so that they can transfer these experiences Gambia has with solar to other countries they are supporting. Because JICA did not go into solar initially but with this success story in the Gambia, now JICA is so much convinced to translate this utilisation of solar into other African countries.Who is JICA?JICA is Japan International Cooperation Agency.Thank you very much Mr Jabbi.Ismaila thank you very much, I am also very pleased because I have a lot of experience with this solar to share this with the communities is a pride for me Ismaila, thank you very much. End of trackSolar-powered fans for tobacco curingUsing solar panels to generate electricity is not a new technology, but there are still relatively few examples of it being used in Africa. Major drawbacks include the cost of installing solar systems and also problems with theft.But in Malawi, a project working with tobacco farmers is proving that solargenerated electricity can play a useful part in agricultural production. The project is focusing on the curing of tobacco; this is the process by which green tobacco leaves are carefully dried under controlled conditions, in order to preserve the aroma and the valued chemicals in the leaves, ready for sale and manufacturing into cigarettes.Curing of tobacco often requires large quantities of firewood, and has been blamed for deforestation. So could the solar-powered process be a more environmentally friendly method?To find out how the system works, Excello Zidana went to the Ministry of Energy and Mining to meet Chief Energy Officer, Lewis Mhango. Mr Mhango began by explaining how the tobacco curing process works.\"The normal way of curing tobacco … OUT:… the properties of those fruits.\" DUR'N: 5'01\"The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.The normal way of curing tobacco, especially flue-cured tobacco, is they dig a hole in the wall and then they stock firewood in a fire chamber, and then the normal flow of air takes the flues into the flue pipes, and then the heat is emitted in the room and then the tobacco gets cured. But the use of solar fans has revolutionised the process of curing tobacco, especially for smallholder farmers. Because what it does is that you have a solar panel, and then that solar panel is connected to a battery, and then the power is preserved in the battery during the day. And then at night you plug in, it is connected to a solar fan, which is a DC fan. So this fan is put at the fire chamber. So the fan drives the flues into the flue pipes from the fire chamber. Now that forced draught into the flue pipes, you can control the temperature very easily, one. Two, you can dry the tobacco very fast, since you are able to control the temperature it means you reach the required temperatures very easily, and then you control at that particular time, so the tobacco that maybe takes one week to cure, you can do it in three days. So the time is also reduced, and then the amount of firewood is also reduced. The savings are phenomenal, that's why farmers have liked the solar fans. So the process is a combination of a solar powered fan and a little firewood.So in the process, the function of the fan is to regulate the heat?Yes, definitely. To regulate the heat, and to regulate the heat in such a way that if you want higher heat quicker, you can attain it very fast with a solar fan. While if you use the natural flow, it means you have to keep on stocking and stocking the firewood and then your heap is finishing, you need more firewood. But with this one, with the little firewood that you have, you force the draught quickly, the draught is going out in there, in the process the solar fan is also keeping the fire always burning, so that you generate the heat faster.Is there any difference in quality of tobacco between the two systems, the one that uses the solar powered energy and the other one that uses maybe the fuel without the solar powered energy?Yes, the difference is quite phenomenal. The target is to get a gold leaf, which is favoured on the auction floors. So with a solar powered fan, because you are able to control the temperatures, then you can maintain the temperatures for sometime, and then the colouring, the gold colouring, you can even monitor using a thermometer in terms of the temperature. So you attain the required temperature very easily using the solar fan.And what are the probable advantages or disadvantages of this system?The major advantage is, as I say, it reduces your cost of curing the tobacco, one. Two, the amount of firewood people are using is reduced, therefore you are also reducing deforestation. The third advantage is that the quality of leaf is excellent, and then the farmer fetches higher amounts of money at the auction floors, because he is able to produce good quality tobacco. But there are also some disadvantages. The major disadvantage is the initial cost of solar is quite high, although if the farmer plans properly he can still recover the cost within a short period of time, because the quality of the tobacco will fetch higher amounts of money, and therefore he can recover his money quickly. And again, if you have solar, when you are through with your tobacco curing, the solar you can also connect to lights in your house, you can also play your radio, you can also have your TV.So you kill several birds with one stone?With one stone.Now, does this system need to be for large-scale curing or drying, or would it be possible to have a smaller scale version of the technology?Yes, when we started the project we were trying to look at the possibility of having large farms to use the solar, because of the cost. But we did discover that the amount of tobacco that goes through large farms is quite huge, that the solar fan would not be ideal for large farms. So we are targeting smallholder farmers. These are the farmers who produce between 5,000 and 10,000 kg of tobacco a year.And what other crops might this kind of system be relevant for?It could be relevant for preserving vegetables, and probably there is also the possibility of maybe preserving fruits, but for fruit preservation we need a bit more research to make sure that it will not denature the properties of those fruits. End of trackSolar power for rural electrificationIf you live in a rural area, the chances are you are listening to this programme on a battery powered radio. In fact, across Africa, less than ten per cent of rural families have access to a national electricity grid. Yet all African countries are fantastically rich in one source of power -solar energy. And technologies exist to turn this power into electricity.Despite this, however, the use of photo-voltaic cells to generate electricity from sunlight is almost non-existent in most African countries. Very few energy ministries have taken solar power seriously, and while in the northern hemisphere, governments offer subsidies to solar power companies and consumers, the same has rarely happened in Africa.One reason for the poor spread of solar power is that governments have typically seen it as a donor-driven technology. Recently, however, Cameroon has taken a different view, as Martha Chindong found out when she spoke to Nsangou Bouba Aliyu from the Rural Electrification Agency in Yaoundé.\" Solar energy, it has a big potential in the African continent because energy is everywhere in Africa, there is enough sunlight. So for the obstacles, since the material for solar systems is imported from overseas and materials are expensive so companies can come and install here in Cameroon so as to bring down the cost.There are so many advantages. I will take for example the improvement of the living conditions of the rural masses. There is the fight against rural exodus. There is also the creation of income generating activities if these projects are done in the villages.It solves specific needs which does not entail heavy cost, for example in health centres, schools that are very far off from the network. Secondly this energy is some sort of clean energy, a silent type of energy and is not dangerous and is very practical because the costs of operating and maintenance is virtually nil.Are there specific uses of solar energy for farmers?Yes for farmers there are specific uses. Let me say it can be used for water supply, for drinking and even irrigation. It can also be used to transform and conserve agricultural produce.Bouba I mean that solar energy does not make any noise like when you start generators which make a hell of a noise, it disturbs.What factors do you look for when you want to install solar energy in a rural community?First of all and which is very much important, we have to carry out good studies. We see the options and the material that the villagers will use like radios, fridges, machines. Then we will match it up with the energy needed. The second factor is a good maintenance of the equipment. There should be somebody there to maintain this equipment.What of the users when they use the energy for these activities, do they need to pay a price?This depends whether it is an individual installation. If it is an individual installation they don't need to pay a price because it is for the home and nobody else. But if it is something like a collective installation it entails an operator who manages the running of the installation and for this case people have to pay some price for him to sustain the management cost.Let me know from you, the villagers can they keep the project running without the help of technicians?For this case the project cannot be run like that. It needs a technician or let me say local technicians to carry out the running of the installations.And for maintenance too?Yes and for maintenance and that's one mission of rural electrification agencies, to assist the rural population, train local technicians who will look after these installations.For now the funding of solar energy is done solely by the government. Is it only the government that can fund or are there other possibilities of having funds?Normally it is not only the government, you have individuals or communities which can regroup to acquire their own solar systems.What is the hope for the future? Bouba I think we should be hopeful because following what we are seeing now concerning the fuel prices, you see that the prices are going higher and higher for fuel and everything, but the prices of solar systems they are gradually coming down as the other prices are going up. So we should be hopeful that in the coming years the prices are going to fall very low.So Mr Bouba, before we go I do not know is there any last word? Bouba I just want to emphasise that solar energy is good because it is a clean type of energy and it is renewable. And by renewable I mean that the sun is always there. The equipment can go off, get bad or something but they will replace it. Meanwhile the sun is there to give back the energy. End of trackElectricity from water powerFor most people, particularly in rural areas, kerosene lamps and battery powered torches are essential sources of light once the sun has gone down. But kerosene and batteries have costs, and not only financial ones. Smoke from lamps can cause eye and breathing problems, and batteries can damage the environment if they are disposed of carelessly. And with rising oil prices, just lighting a home is requiring more and more of household income.In Kenya, the NGO Practical Action, also known as ITDG, has been supporting rural communities to set up small-scale water-powered electricity generators. These work by piping water down a steep gradient and onto a turbine, which spins at high speed, generating electric power which is then supplied to homes.The system is known as Pico hydro. In Kathamba village, on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, Eric Kadenge met with Silas Muchira Gachoki, Secretary of the village Pico hydro project.\"The project has got about … OUT:… with 5 bulbs and 2 sockets.\" DUR'N:3'20\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Silas Gachoki, hoping that electricity from a smallscale water-powered generator, or Pico hydro, can be supplied to more villagers in Kathamba, Kenya. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.The project has got about 172 members, and the Pico has already served 58 households, which is benefiting around 1,500 people. We start by contributing a small amount of money. After getting the money, we started building a reservoir, that's a dam. From there we bought pipes, then we have the gradient where we build the powerhouse down here. We get the turbine. Then we had someone who came with all those technologies and after getting power that's when we started supplying to those few members you have heard.What are the benefits of this project to the local people here?In fact to mention a few, my neighbour is used to buying paraffin. He has children who are in school. Every week he is using five litres. A litre is costing now 85 shillings. You can see it is more than 400 shillings per week. These dry cells for a radio or a torch are now lasting for one week and it is costing 45 shillings. So per month you are using a lot of money. Whereas whoever is using the power, it is just 80 shillings or 50 shillings the whole month.What kind of geographical environment do you need for you to construct this kind of facility?For someone to have power, first you need water flowing, and it should be flowing yearly, not seasonally. This is not a seasonal stream; it runs all the year round. You need a gradient area, so people has to work hard to get some money because a project like this needs some money to construct a powerhouse. Cables are now costly. You need pipes, generators, the turbine. We need security. You can see we have used the metal doors.And the parts that you have mentioned, the turbines, the motor, is there anything that you need to import or everything is available?Now the turbines and whatever are now locally found. Like ours here has never broken down for those years. So mostly you have to grease the machine. So after every three to four months we have to come here and maintain the machine, you grease it, you look whether the turbines are working well. So for sustainability we don't have a problem.What are your plans in the future? Do you intend to extend it?Our future plan, as you can see downstream here, we have a big river here, just 800 metres from here, from this powerhouse. We want to extend; we have already bought in fact some materials. We have bought pipes, we have bought blocks, because we have to construct a powerhouse there, which we are going to get about 10 kilowatts there, whereby we will now be able to supply our 172 members with 5 bulbs and 2 sockets. End of trackBiogas for cattle farmersWhat form of energy do you use to cook your food or light your house? You probably use more than one kind: kerosene, firewood and perhaps electricity as well. But for those who own livestock, there is another possibility. Biogas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, is formed when organic matter, such as animal dung, decomposes by the action of bacteria. If this gas is captured and stored, it can be a useful fuel, powering lamps and cookers. It is a popular technology in parts of Asia, but few people in Africa have adopted it.What you need to produce biogas is a large, cement chamber, usually underground, and known as the digester. You need to regularly -usually twice day -feed in manure for the microbes to work on. As the biogas forms, it collects in a reservoir tank from which pipes lead to lamps or a stove in the farmer's home.Setting up a biogas system is not cheap, and it needs daily attention to keep up gas production. But for farmers with sufficient livestock to provide the necessary dung, it can be a good, long-term source of energy. Dr Elias Aklaku is a biogas specialist from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He spoke recently to Adu Domfeh about the potential of biogas for livestock farmers.\"Biogas will become very important … OUT:… or large-scale farmers.\" DUR'N: 5'12\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Dr Elias Aklaku, discussing the potential of biogas energy for cattle farmers. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.Transcript Aklaku Biogas will become very important and crucial if you are using the socalled zero grazing system. That is, we don't allow our animals to go wild and be grazing around, but we confine them and we bring the fodder to them. So if you confine your animals and you bring the fodder to them and they defecate around, they soil the area, you must get rid of this. That is the sanitation aspect of it; that is animal hygiene. But in terms of agriculture also, those who have cattle which even go around and come back, they do deposit something around them and this can even be utilised. It may be enough to give them light. They can cook with it instead of cutting down trees for firewood.In a sense livestock are very important in improving energy flows around the farm.Well that is it. Livestock are very important. So if you have large stocks of animals around you, the best thing to do is to go into this aspect of biogas technology. And not only that; farmers even in the oil palm industries, shea butter industries, where you have organic waste that is both from plant and animal origin, it can be handled to produce biogas.So how best do the farmers collect, store and use the manure to improve their farming practices?Manure is already in use in Ghana. In northern parts some of them, they dry it and even burn it as fuel. Some collect it and throw on the field. But if you have a kraal and the animals are in and they are in a large quantity, both their droppings and their urine, if all this will be gathered then it Is fish farming another good form of energy generation?Yes. With fish farming the whole issue is about feeding. You need to have enough feed for them because they are multiplying, we are harvesting them, they are multiplying, we are harvesting them. This is why, for example, if you have a large inflow of liquid waste, after treating it in a biodigester, the effluent which is a biofertiliser, if you allow this to seep into where the fish ponds are, if the sun shines, this helps algae to grow, and the fish feed on the algae and you can be harvesting the fish. So this treatment of organic waste can also become a source of feed material for fishes growing in ponds.What practical tips can you give a farmer who rears livestock, to make better use of the livestock in terms of supplying farm energy?You see, even if you can't make use of all the droppings of all the animals, out of a hundred cattle you may have about one-tenth of them which are female ones about to calve. Normally you can seclude these ones. Cement an area, or have an area for them with a gentle slope. You can use a rake down the slope. When they drop their faeces, and their urine too drops, it washes along these rills into a container and that will be the entrance point for your biodigester. And with those ten cattle that are housed there overnight, before you are aware you have enough energy for you, and then the effluent which comes out, you can even grow your gardens around your place there. And before you are aware, you wife doesn't depend on kerosene, and she doesn't go to fetch firewood. So I would advise, maybe there should be a biogas programme for small-scale farmers, or large-scale farmers. End of trackBiogas -clean energy from cattle dungThe burning of animal dung as a source of energy is often criticised for removing valuable nutrients from farming systems. However, there is a way that farmers can get energy from livestock manure and still use it as a source of fertility on their fields. When manure decomposes it releases a natural gas -a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide -which makes an excellent and clean fuel for cooking and lighting. In India and China this 'biogas' is used by millions of small farms, helping to improve farm sanitation as well as providing a low cost source of energy.In Africa, Uganda is leading the way in the adoption of biogas. Even here, however, it is still quite rare. Wambi Michael recently travelled to Mukono district to meet Ruth Musoke, one of Uganda's biogas pioneers.\"Madam Musoke, you are one … OUT:… delay the less fire you get.\" DUR'N: 5'23\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Ruth Musoke, one of Uganda's biogas pioneers, talking to Wambi Michael. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.Madam Musoke, you are one of the few farmers within Mukono who are using a biogas digester. How did you learn about the biogas digesters?We have a friend called Pastor Kakembo, he came and visited our place, he suggested to us that we can install a biogas system at our place because we had cows and he had the same system at his place. So we went to his place and we admired the system. So he is the one who gave us the technical person who did the work for us.When did this begin?That was almost 8 years back.And has it been working throughout 8 years now?Yes, very successfully. We normally use it for cooking and lighting. We get light from biogas and then fire.This one is for the collection of urine from the main building where the cows stay throughout the day, but it was not enough, the urine was a lot so we had to construct another pit where the urine collects up. And that one it is more comfortable because it is where we do the mixing.How do you mix the cow dung into the digester?At that system, there are two bowls which are prepared for the mixture. So we get urine from the pit and then we collect cow dung from the place where we keep the animals, and then we mix it up, pour it in the main digester. That is how it is done.We have heard reports that you need 19 kgs of cow dung daily to feed a digester. Where do you get the 19 kgs of cow dung?Me, I have almost 9 animals and I normally use 2 wheelbarrows of cow dung to get the biogas I need for my home consumption.Yes, I have a lot of it. Because what I have, I can't mix it up on a daily basis. We collect cow dung in the morning and in the evening. So we have a reserve pit again, where we keep this cow dung, the one which is not used up for biogas system, and it is normally taken up by those farmers and other people who have the system and don't have access to cow dung.Can we go to the fireplace and see how it works?Yes.In most times when you come to a kitchen like this in rural areas in Uganda, you see a lot of soot, but I can see here it's very clean.Yes and it's because I'm using fire from biogas.Because normally entering such a kitchen would mean that maybe we would see some tears coming out of you! Musoke I don't think it's so clean, but that's how it is.OK. I see very clean fire coming out of the gas plate. Where is the fire coming from?It is coming through the other pipe and these are the switches. How clean is the biogas?Whatever you prepare is so clean, even the saucepan, they don't get stained. Blue flames only, which doesn't stain. And the maintenance is so low, just to repair the other plate, because they get stained. That thing is done in Katwe.Yes. For instance you are cooking something, what you are cooking pours on it and then that metal part of it rusts. That is the main problem with it.But I have changed it ever since it was there only two times.What about the digester, does it require some maintenance?Ever since we installed it we have never done any maintenance, but what you need to do, you have to be committed in mixing this. You become so smelly on the day when you do the mixing. That's why some people don't want that business. But here it is done, we regularly do it. I do it, my children do it, everyone who is on duty does it. We don't employ someone to mix for us.Many Ugandans have heard of the biogas but many fear the installation costs. How much did it cost you to install this system in this farm?We used almost 2.5 million to install the system.And you think you have reaped some money from the 2.5 million shillings that you initially invested here?A lot, I have saved a lot, because what gets out of the system? They come here, those ones who are doing the business of the gardens and what, they get that waste from me and they give me some money. What matters most is for someone who is using this biogas to be active in mixing. The more you mix the more fire you get, the more you delay the less fire you get. End of trackJatropha oil -an alternative to keroseneEvery evening, millions of families across the world light up kerosene lanterns, especially in rural areas not connected to a national electricity grid. In some countries, kerosene is also widely used as a cooking fuel, and may be subsidised by governments, to reduce dependence on firewood. But in Tanzania, a locally produced alternative to kerosene is gaining in popularity. Jatropha oil is produced from the seeds of the jatropha tree, a plant found in regions close to the equator, which can grow up to 6 metres in height.Jatropha Products Tanzania Limited is a non-profit organisation which is promoting the use of jatropha oil in the country. Farmers, for example, are being trained in how to extract the oil and use it to meet some of their energy needs. Albert Mshanga explained more to Lazarus Laiser, about how the oil can be used.\"Jatropha oil, essentially, can be used … OUT:… energy at our household level.\" DUR'N: 5'30\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Albert Mshanga of Jatropha Products Tanzania Limited.The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.Jatropha oil, essentially, can be used in different ways. It can be used to light a small lantern like the jatropha lamps that we have in front of us here. Also it can be used in a small stove which has been modified to use plant oil. Jatropha oil can also be transformed into biodiesel and used in cars which use diesel oil.Now Mr Albert, focusing on the small lantern which is just before us, will you just describe how it is made?This small lantern is made up of a recycled coffee tin. The coffee tins have been thrown away after the coffee inside has been used. Also we have a glass on top of it which is put there to radiate the light, to increase the illumination of the lamp. And we have the wires which are used for making handles and a frame for the glass. The fabrication of this lantern is quite simple. It is just a coffee tin, wire, and a glass and a copper tube at the middle of the lantern. The copper tube is used as an area where you fix or you put your wick, and the copper tube is used to warm the oil around it, so it makes the oil thinner so it can increase the capillarity of the oil.So the tube which is going down there, you say that it helps to heat the oil to make it thinner?It is true that the copper tubes go inside the oil in the tin. The copper tube is used because it transmits heat inside, and plant oil is thicker than kerosene, so you have to warm it so that you reduce the viscosity of it, and hence you increase the capillarity of the oil.So you think that this lantern is more cheaper to use than the kerosene lantern?Yes, the lantern is cheaper compared to the kerosene lantern. We did a study on the use of the jatropha oil and the kerosene in the same type of lamp. In jatropha oil, the amount of oil that was consumed in a month was only a litre, but for the kerosene we found that in a month it used three or four litres. And in lighting the lamp, the amount of oil that is used in ten hours, we did a study and found that for the jatropha, only 50 cc went out, while for the kerosene lamp, 180-220 cc of kerosene was used in the same period. So economically, this jatropha lamp seems to be more economical compared to the kerosene lamp.What also if you compare the smoke which is coming out after burning the oil?As you can see here, the jatropha lantern does not produce smoke. There is smoke but the smoke is very small, you can't even see it or you can't detect it. Currently the price of this small jatropha lantern is 3,500 Tanzanian shillings. But we do encourage in areas where we promote the production of jatropha, we do encourage farmers to produce oil and various other products on their own. So essentially what we do at JPTL, we teach the farmers how to process the oil and also we teach youth in those areas how to fabricate the lamp. So you will find that, even if you see now the prices are 3,500, but farmers can be taught how to fabricate the lamp, and they can fabricate the lamps for themselves and also sell to other householders within the community. And also, by teaching them how to fabricate the lamps, we create some sort of employment to the youth, and we do also conserve the environment by recycling the tins. The other thing is you can produce your energy at a household level. Instead of travelling long distance in search of oil; you know that a lot of villages in our country, the infrastructure is quite poor. Carrying kerosene from town to villages, the price goes higher compared to the oil which can be produced at local level, at household level. And you can have your energy for cooking, for lighting, at your vicinity, instead of going outside and depending on oil from outside, we can have energy at our household level. End of trackCharcoal briquettes for brooding chicksMinimising costs is an essential part of any successful business. For those who rear poultry, feed is normally the biggest cost. Farmers may be able to reduce this cost by making use of waste products from certain agro-industries, such as brewing. In the right mixture, these can make excellent poultry feed.But as well as feed, poultry farmers also have to spend money on providing heat, particularly to the young birds. Here too, however, it may be possible for them to reduce their costs by using a waste product from a local industry -charcoal making.In For how long have you been using charcoal briquettes in poultry?For over 6, 7 years I've been using charcoal to brood -especially here we have the programme for hatching. We use the local chickens to hatch the chicks, instead of using the brooders, exotic brooders and what. So once they are hatched we normally collect them together and then we brood them. To make it more cheap, we use the briquettes, and this is what we have been promoting to our farmers who come here to train.Has this technology been adopted by many farmers in Uganda? And how sustainable is this technology?The sustainability of the technology, as we know here in Uganda, most of the people are in the business of selling charcoal. So that you find that you have a lot of dust produced. So if one was to collect such, you can get sacks and sacks. Provided that people are still making charcoal as a source of energy for cooking there is sustainability in getting charcoal dust.And we are talking about environmental protection, and if you say charcoal is to be burned so that people can get the dust and make briquettes. Don't you think that is one way of impacting on the environment?As an environmentalist I can honestly say that it is not good to make charcoal. People are still making it because that is the only way. And if they are still doing so, we also look at how we can utilise whatever they produce. And this will also help us, if they are to utilise also the dust which is wasted, that means they will reduce on the way people have been cutting trees to combat the what? The desertification. End of trackRecycling plant materialsAs oil prices reach record levels, chemical fertilisers are also becoming harder to afford. But crops need nutrients to grow and if left without fertiliser, soils soon become depleted and unproductive. Using organic matter found on the farm, such as crop residues and animal manure, can be a low-cost alternative to chemical fertilisers. It can also help to build longer-lasting soil fertility and healthier crops with fewer pest and disease problems.At the Fambidzanayi Permaculture Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, researchers have been investigating how much organic matter, or biomass, crops need to grow well. Edwin Mazhawidza, a research officer, explained more about this to Sylvia Khumalo, and how the system of using organic matter as a fertiliser, known as biomass transfer, works.\"Biomass transfer is a technology … OUT:… system can now replicate itself.\" DUR'N: 5'21\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Edwin Mazhawidza, on how energy stored in plant matter, known as biomass, can be used to increase crop production. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.Mazhawidza Biomass transfer is a technology that has been used long back by many farmers. And in the system of biomass, we will be mainly concentrating on the use of things like stover, animal manure in the farming system. These things: straw, crop residue, manure, they contain energy, and also they contain a lot of nutrients which are needed by the plants. So it is a form of renewable energy which is used in the farming system.Tell me, are there any geographical limitation or considerations that a farmer has to make before they venture into this type of practice?Mazhawidza There are no geographical restrictions. What is important in this farming system is that a farmer has to do all conservation techniques. Because a farmer may need trees, he may need also grass, and animals must also be integrated in the farming system. So in terms of geographical restrictions, this practice can be applied anywhere, and even in the desert, even in the rainforests or even in the savannah woodlands, provided that a farmer has access to crop residues to straw or even to manure. And if that farmer has access to those things, he or she can retain them. So there are no geographical restrictions when one wants to engage in this biomass transfer as a way of maybe fertilising the soil or even pest and disease management in the farming system.Is there any special type of knowledge that a farmer has to have in order to establish this system and also are there any financial implications?Mazhawidza In terms of knowledge, we shall find out that the knowledge which we are using is that knowledge which is local, which is indigenous to the people at a particular place. We then enhance that information with the research which are currently being done now. For example, we can now know the nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium ratios in all those crop residues and in manure. So we are just blending that information with the indigenous knowledge system that has been there.Mazhawidza When we are talking of this nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium ratio, it benefits the user because we are now talking about plant nutrition. Plants need certain minerals for them to produce food. For example, when we are talking of a crop like maize, maize needs around 200kgs of nitrogen per hectare, 90kg of phosphorous per hectare and also potassium, it needs 70kgs. So the NPK ratio can actually assist a farmer, knowing how much to apply. So that is the reason why we are breaking down these various biomasses, knowing the NPK ratio so that we can recommend the farmer what to use so that they can have a higher yield.So how sustainable is this system? Mazhawidza This system is very sustainable. It is economically viable, because a farmer would be using available resources. Like for example cow manure, leaf litter, straw, wood, all those things may be available at the farm. So he may have higher profits because the inputs would be less. So that system is also sustainable in the sense that there is interdependence of elements. For example, animals may depend on plants and plants may also depend on animals so it actually replicates itself, the system.Right and Eddie you have also been telling me about your outreach programmes in the community. Can you tell me how that works?Mazhawidza We have got outreach programmes around Zimbabwe, in Mashonaland district, in Matabeleland district, where we are implementing these techniques with farmers. And we are working with around, more than 1,000 farmers. So we are carrying researches with these farmers on biomass transfer. We target specific plants, for example there are plants which have got high nitrogen such as the leucaena species, and we also do research with farmers using their organic manure so that the farmers can have that hands on approach by observing the results. And after observing the results they can know the best technique for them to use. And it appears as if most of them are adopting this biomass transfer because they feed the soil, then the plants can absorb the nutrients from the soil. Unlike chemical fertilisers which can feed the plant directly, but in this biomass they actually work for an average of four years. So although it is labour intensive for the first year, but after the first year the system can now replicate itself. End of track.Trees for fuel and fertilityWhen we talk about renewable energy, we may think first of technologies like solar panels or hydroelectric dams. We probably don't think of firewood, not least because much of the firewood we use is not from renewable sources; trees are felled but not replaced, and in time the land becomes deforested and barren.But given responsible harvesting and replanting, trees can be an excellent source of renewable energy. And for farmers, some tree species not only provide fuel, but also boost soil fertility, contributing energy that crops need to grow.Hellen Wangechi, who works for the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, works with farmers to promote tree planting. Visiting her on a windy day at her field station in Laikipia, Winnie Onyimbo learned more about how to make better use of trees on farms.\"When advising farmers on tree … OUT:… and you can do very well.\" DUR'N:3'00\"BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Hellen Wangechi with some sensible advice for tree planters. The interview comes from a resource pack produced by CTA.When advising farmers on tree planting does a choice of tree vary between different locations?Wow, yes it does and it varies with agro-ecological zones. When you look at the rainfall, for example, when you look at the soil, the soil type, it varies. Like the tree you will plant in Mombassa at the moment is not the same tree that will do well in Nyeri which is cold. So the tree varies with the region. So the farmer has to be advised.Are there trees that are good for both fuel and also for soil fertility?Yes, like sesbania, it takes about 3-5 years, it is very good in nitrogen fixing and also good in fuel wood. We also have Cajanas cajan, that it is the pigeonpea. It also provides fuel wood and nitrogen, as well as food: the pods, we eat the pods. And quite a number of other trees, like tephrosia also provides both of them, among many other trees.Do you encourage farmers to plant one species or do you encourage them to plant a mixture of species?Most of the time we tell them to mix the species because there is a bit of compatibility. Even when you look at maybe disease outbreaks and all that, if you have a mixture of trees there is a tendency that some trees will resist of course and some will die, some will remain. And also when you have a mixture of trees, also you know the products that you get from the trees, they vary also. You will be able to get maybe edible pods, fuel, timber, from a variety of them. So we advise them to plant as many varieties, as many types as you can on your farm.What are good practices for harvesting fuel wood?Personally I would not encourage a farmer to cut a whole tree but I encourage people to prune the trees. Pruning removes the side branches and if you have enough trees on your farm you can be pruning trees every now and then and you get enough supply of fuel wood.Ok what are good practices for increasing soil fertility?You can use trees. The nitrogen can be added into the soil when the leaves fall and they decompose. Or the same trees can be cut and they can be incorporated into the soil so they add nitrogen. But for other nutrients like phosphorus and potassium, there are some trees that have been found to mine. Mining is the sourcing of the nutrients from deep into the soil and it is recycled, brought up into the upper soil layers or the soil surface where the plants or the growing crops can take it up.Ok one last thing, what would you advise African small-scale farmers on planting trees, both for soil fertility and for fuel wood?Seek for information first before you plant. Be advised by the experts on what to plant, where to plant and how to plant it, and the best type for your particular region because not all trees do well in that particular region and again not all trees supply the same amount of nitrogen. Seek information and it is there, we have institutions dealing with that and you can do very well. End of track","tokenCount":"12476"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aef6f1f25f8db9d9e7d6828af6d1cc43","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a73bf5d4-b658-4a61-9612-d76fc0e6431b/retrieve","id":"534745399"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fc92f0af-33c1-4441-99e0-be3ceda9eb3e","pagecount":"6","content":"The study evaluated the severity of Rice Blast (Pyricularia oryzae) infection in rice plants using a visual scale ranging from 0 to 9, where lower scores indicate resistance and higher scores indicate susceptibility. The data were gathered from nine experimental trials conducted between 2022 and 2024 at CIAT's facilities in Palmira, Colombia, involving 6,256 to 10,970 micro plots per trial. These trials included genotypes from FLAR, HIAAL, and Fedearroz, with specific checks such as Fedearroz 2000, Colombia 1, and Bluebonnet 50 to benchmark rice blast resistance.To classify the severity of Blast fungus infection using machine learning (ML), the study created three datasets for training, testing, and prediction purposes. These datasets were employed to train supervised ML models for both binary and multiclass classification, predicting the susceptibility of rice plants to Blast fungus based on visual assessments. The data were collected using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with RGB and multispectral cameras for remote sensing, and processed using Agisoft Metashape and Phenoi software to create orthomosaics, extract vegetation indices, and generate canopy metrics. These processed data were then used to train ML models using PyCaret and Scikit-learn, aiming for high accuracy in predicting Blast (Pyricularia oryzae) infection in rice plants.The study utilized data from nine experimental trials conducted between 2022 and 2024, amounting to 81,442 records used to analyze vegetation indices (VI) for detecting Blast infection in rice plants and 12 characteristics (NDRE_MEAN, NDVI_MEAN, GNDVI_MEAN, BNDVI_MEAN, NDREI_MEAN, NPCI_MEAN, GRVI_MEAN, NGBDI_MEAN, CH_MEAN, CV_MEAN, CC_%, CC_mt2) and the column BL that contains the labels that we want to classify. After cleaning the dataset by removing outliers, the vegetation indices were standardized, showing a consistent distribution with minimal standard deviations. The mean values of indices such as NDVI, GNDVI, and NDRE were used. The datasets, which included vegetation indices and their corresponding ground truth values, were properly merged using concatenation and merging techniques, ensuring accurate linkage of each data point with its respective output for training purposes.The training was divided into two separate experiments based on the number of classes to predict. The first experiment focused on splitting the dataset to classify two classes (resistant and susceptible), while the second focused on three classes (resistant, moderately resistant, and susceptible). It is important to note that different class grouping combinations were tested for each experiment. For each experiment, training was conducted using PyCaret and Scikit-learn, applying different hyperparameters to achieve the best results. Additionally, these trainings were conducted on data using both oversampling (to generate synthetic data to balance classes) and undersampling (to randomly remove data to balance classes).The best results obtained for each experiment were as follows: for the two-class experiment, the best result was achieved with combination number two, applying oversampling and training a Random Forest classifier through Scikit-learn, achieving an accuracy of 0.98 for test data and 0.97 for prediction data. For the three-class experiment, the best result was obtained with combination number one, applying oversampling and training a Random Forest classifier through Scikit-learn, achieving an accuracy of 0.91 for both test and prediction data. Below are the images related to the class combinations, confusion matrix, and classification report for test and prediction data from both experiments.   ","tokenCount":"525"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a30b95cdeb3793dca74b8303c39f7218","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9b09ac6e-22dc-4493-905d-840fe62127ad/retrieve","id":"-977549987"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f187d16e-df1b-42e4-8880-5337aa4502f9","pagecount":"46","content":"In these highly uncertain and rapidly changing times, the SADC region, like many regions in Africa, remains fundamentally dependent on a resilient agricultural system and natural resource base. Climate change still poses the greatest threat to the agricultural system and therefore technical capacity is needed to address these future impacts and adapt plans, policies and programs. Taking into account alternative futures, the SADC Futures project has produced tailored supporting materials and documents as part of a wider approach for foresight training in the region. These documents and the associated foresight framework aim to equip users to practically apply the range of foresight tools and methods for innovative strategic planning and policy formulation for climate resilience.• poor healthcare and education systems. [6] IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE Migrants add to population growth in countries with relative political stability and promising economies. This can bring in new skills and contribute to GDP.Migrants add to population growth in recipient countries putting pressure on natural resources, infrastructure and public services e.g. health care, housing and education.SADC region is characterised by semiskilled and unskilled migration channelled at the bigger economies resulting in heightened tensions and xenophobia. [8] The average life expectancy of the region has increased from 52.3 years in 2008 to 61.0 years in 2018. [1] By 2070, Sub-Saharan Africa will have a workingage population of 1.8 billion, more than the United States, India, and China combined. [4] Between now and 2050, the workingage population in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa will increase as follows: In 2014, the percentage of SADC's population under the age of 25 was 43.2%. [2] 02 Longevity Throughout Africa mortality has been reduced through improvements in nutrition, sanitation, and measures to combat malaria and other tropical diseases. [4] Infant mortality has fallen by 29% in the last decade. In Botswana, infant mortality has dropped by 46%. [4] The average life expectancy of the SADC region has increased from 52.3 years in 2008 to 61.0 years in 2018. [1] 05The World Bank estimates that the large workingage population could generate 11-15% GDP growth between 2011 and 2030. [3] The growth of the informal sector in SADC will be important for employment generation, food security and poverty alleviation and will be critical to local economies. Although the individual incomes of informal workers are often low, cumulatively their activities contribute significantly to GDP. E.g. in Zambia, the informal economy currently contributes ~24% to GDP.The growing human population will increase the demand for food, for both people and feed for livestock. This implies a need for growth in the agriculture sector.There is an opportunity/need to promote and roll out climate smart agriculture initiatives as the demand for food increases. An increase in human population and the subsequent increase in demand for land will also present an opportunity to promote improved agricultural techniques for intensification as opposed to further expansion into natural areas. Sustainable farming methods and technology can be implemented to improve yields and realise better returns from small land allocations.If the agricultural sector is developed to include more profitable high-value farming and animal husbandry in conjunction with improved transport networks and intra-African trade, projected urbanisation rates may not be realised as people will be attracted to the rural areas for employment opportunities. This is provided mechanisation does not replace traditional labour. [4] Construction and service jobs may grow in parallel with urbanisation as expanding cities create their own demand. [4] A growth in the informal sector such as trading will potentially expand the market for agricultural produce from smallholder farms.The growing human population will increase the demand for food, for both people and feed for livestock. If current, inefficient agricultural practises are continued, the area of land under farming will expand and degrade surrounding natural resources. This will likely have devastating impacts on biodiversity and the ecological goods and services on which the most vulnerable sectors of society depend.Additionally, land clearance for the expansion of residential and agricultural areas to meet the needs of a growing population will contribute to carbon emissions and climate change and in doing so, create a negative feedback loop affecting food security.As cities are overwhelmed with migrants, transport, housing, electricity and sanitation infrastructure will be found lacking, resulting in vast slums of substandard housing, rutted roads and squatters. [4] The slums could contribute to urban sprawl and potentially the loss of arable land, contributing to urban food insecurity.A high percentage of the working-age population engaged in informal activities will prevent developing countries from achieving formal economic growthlinked to an inability to collect taxes and other necessary domestic resources required for reinvestment and prospects for future government-funded urbanisation projects will diminish. [7] SADC youth are unlikely to have the skills to compete with workers in south Asia or north Africa. They are thus likely to be restricted to agriculture and the informal labour market, low-productivity and low-income work. [4] Growth of low-productivity sectors and the informal economy will lead to a weakened tax base.Informalisation discourages investors and weakens competitiveness. It also blocks informal enterprises, like smallholder farmers, from finance markets, technology, and education.POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS 11 Impact of population growth and rapid urbanisation on agriculture 04 Population growth   More than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa. The population of Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double by 2050. [56] The estimated population of the SADC region increased to 345.2 million in 2018, from 336.9 million in 2017, representing a 2.5% annual population growth rate. [1] The largest proportion of the SADC population is found in: [1] Demographics of SADC countries are varied. For e.g.:• Fertility is rising in the Seychelles;• In Mozambique and DRC the fertility is high (~6 children/woman) but stable, falling by less than 1% per year;• In Malawi, fertility is high but falling very rapidly, 2.5% per year or more; and• In Mauritius, fertility has fallen to replacement levels (2.1) or below. [4] Africa has not yet experienced the same increases in education, income, and other indices of modernisation that were found to reduce fertility rates in Asia and South America. [4] Secondary education of women in Africa has been found to be key in reducing fertility rates. [4] Urbanisation Southern Africa is one of the most rapidly urbanising regions in the world.Some SADC countries are highly urbanised, with urban populations around 60% of their total (South Africa, Angola, Botswana). However, some SADC countries are barely urbanised at all, with urban populations comprising less than 20% of their total, such as Malawi. [4] More than half of the overall regional population already live in urban areas, a figure projected to rise to threequarters by 2050 [5]. Food insecurity is a result of low investment in the agricultural sector, poverty, climate extremes and price volatility.Available food is not necessarily nutritious, resulting in micronutrient deficiencies (iron, iodine, folate, vitamin A, and zinc) and, in turn, high numbers of children and other vulnerable populations suffering from malnutrition. [9] The 'double burden' of malnutrition -the concurrence of undernutrition and overweight/obesityis also a growing challenge in the region, with the prevalence of overweight people in four Member States (Botswana 11.2%, Comoros 10.6%, Seychelles 10.2% and South Africa 13.3%) revealing an emerging problem. [9] Food purchase is critical in urban areas (and becoming more so in rural areas), in most countries food prices are rising faster than inflation, with serious consequences for household food security amongst the poorer sectors of society. [16] Urban food insecurity is often overlooked. [16] Diets in the SADC region are mainly cereal based. [9] The minimum acceptable diet (MAD; a measure of the quality of young children's diets) is very low, with most Member States having an MAD of less than 15%. This is due to the consumption of monotonous diets and a lack of knowledge on appropriate feeding practices; uninformed behavioural patterns often influenced by culture; and limited access to health and nutrition services. [9] Available 2019 data shows that the • Low investment in the agricultural sector Promoting climate smart agriculture could present opportunities for introducing more varied crop/vegetable production for improved nutrition.Furthermore, introducing climate resilient fruit and vegetables and livestock will reduce dependence, and thus pressure, on natural resource harvesting for nutrition supplementation.The expansion of agriculture production into surrounding natural areas to meet the food requirements of a growing human population will increase pressure on resources, leading to deforestation and degradation of land and water systems. This in turn will contribute to carbon emissions and climate change.Poor nutrition in the region results in poor cognitive development, leading to reduced educational performance and eventually poor labour market outcomes, i.e. lower productivity, lower earnings. This in turn impacts the productivity of agricultural systems, the ability of smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable approaches and adapt to climate change, as well as the ability of rural households to diversify incomes away from subsistence farming and thereby decrease their reliance on natural resources.Trade policies have improved the access of the SADC population to affordable, highly processed, non-nutritious foods. As seen with populations in developed countries, this is likely to contribute to growing numbers of overweight and obese people, ultimately exerting pressure on state welfare systems. However, this healthcare challenge, as it applies to the SADC region's developing countries, will be magnified by the low levels of education, cultural beliefs and low-income levels.HEALTH 02United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommends that countries invest 6% or more of their GDP to education. In 2018, GDP contributions to education were: [10] The lowest literacy rates globally are observed in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Southern Asia. [11] SADC consistently outperforms Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, though it still trails other regions of the world.Malawi, Mozambique and Angola, men and women in the Comoros, and the elderly (>65 years old) across the entire region. [11] 14 01 School enrolment• Over the last 50 years, enrolment in education has increased at every level for both genders within the SADC region. [12] • From 1960 to 2010, enrolment rates in primary education increased at an average annual rate of 1.5%, with female enrolment increasing slightly faster at 1.6%.[12]• Spending on education approaches that of high-income economies and is well above the amount spent by developing countries and regions on average. [12] • Despite these improvements, SADC is unlikely to attain the current global average of 30% tertiary participation within the next decade. [12] DR of CongoZambia 1% LesothoSouth AfricaZimbabwe 8% MozambiqueMalawi Only 5% of Sub-Saharan African school leavers gain access to university education. Mauritius has in recent years achieved the highest enrolment ratio of 17%, however, South Africa together with Nigeria contribute more than half of the enrolments.There are disparities between the urban and the rural areas in SADC countries in terms of access to education. [13] Only the following countries can claim that threequarters of their youth attend secondary school:Literacy levels 14The importance of environmental education was recognised by SADC when in 1993 the Ministers of Environment established a regional environmental education programme. Since it started operating in 1997, the SADC regional environmental education programme (REEP) has been working to enable environmental education practitioners in the SADC region to strengthen environmental education processes for equitable and sustainable environmental management choices.Improved environmental awareness in rural populations will encourage the use of environmentally sustainable agriculture practises. A good understanding and successful adoption of improved, sustainable farming methods should increase revenue generation and system resilience, subsequently attracting funding from lending institutions.an ever-growing regional population will likely result in the continued and expanded use of low-productivity agriculture systems which are vulnerable to changing weather patterns. This will lead to further environmental degradation, food insecurity and impoverishment.Furthermore, a growing population with low levels of environmental awareness will continue to overharvest and abuse natural resources.This will in turn impact on agriculture as environmental goods and services such as freshwater, fertile soils, flood buffering wetlands, pollinators, natural predators (for pest control) etc. are affected.Improved education levels will enhance the abilities of the SADC population to implement sustainable and climate-smart agricultural systems.Improved levels of education increase employment opportunities thereby diversifying livelihoods away from low-productivity agriculture and reducing household dependence/impact on natural resources.Improved levels of education in women will allow them to generate their own incomes through formal employment thereby fostering independence and reducing vulnerability.A growing human population with low levels of education will prove disastrous in terms of poverty levels, food security and environmental sustainability.Low levels of education will limit the ability of people to access and/or participate in sustainable agriculture projects, initiatives and funding opportunities and create/capitalise on initiatives.Stable economic growth will build investor confidence, hopefully reigniting private sector interest in the agriculture sector.As the region's largest employer and main source of livelihood for households, improving productivity in agriculture will have positive impacts on food security, vulnerability and resilience.Additionally, investment in improved agriculture technology will limit the impact of the sector on environmental degradation and climate change.In remote rural areas lacking economic infrastructure, smallholder farmers are unable to expand and upgrade their inputs, production processes and end markets.A lack of economic diversification at the village level means continued pressure on natural resources for livelihoods.With slowed economic growth in South Africa and the recent downgrade of the country's credit ratings to 'junk status', compounded by high unemployment levels (30%) and uncertainties related to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is unsurprising that economists are predicting a recession in 2020. This is likely to have repercussions on the economies of other Member States.Struggling economies, high levels of unemployment and a lack of investor confidence will negatively impact the agriculture sector as funding becomes limited and labour wages potentially dip.The economic and political strength of South Africa in Southern Africa is undeniable. South Africa is the strongest economy in SADC and in the whole continent of Africa. [15] The country is also the gateway to foreign direct investment to the developing world. South Africa holds the key to the success of SADC both at economic and political levels [15]. However, SADC's dependence on South Africa increases its vulnerability.The SADC region registered an estimated average economic growth rate of 1.8% in 2018 compared to 2.1% in 2017. [1] Economic growth rateThe Southern African economy is projected to grow slower than others in the continent-at 2.8% in 2020. This is attributed to high inflation, increasing government debt, and slow growth in South Africa, which contributes about two-thirds of the region's GDP. [14] South Africa's economic growth has slowed in recent years. The country's credit ratings have been devalued to 'junk status', the Rand has hit an all-time low and subsequently economists are predicting a recession in 2020. The situation is further complicated by uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.With the share of the private sector in GDP at >70% in most countries, no regional integration will be sustainable without active private participation. [14] In 2018, the four fastest growing economies in SADC were: [14] In Almost all the African agricultural workforce is employed in smallholder production systems rather than large farms. [29] Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, and South Africa are service-driven economies, and so is their employment sector. [14] IMPACT ON AGRICULTUREThe agricultural sector has a pivotal role in employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, employing more than half of the total workforce. While its importance to the rural population is well documented, recent surveys suggest that agriculture is also the primary source of livelihood for 10% to 25% of urban households. National census data indicates that the number of people employed primarily in agriculture has increased over time. [16] Slowed economic growth will be reflected in the agriculture sector as development/expansion projects are put on hold.This will likely translate to a loss of employment potential.Most employment in the region was provided by the agriculture sector during 2010-2018. The highest rate was in Malawi (85%), followed by Mozambique (75%) and Madagascar (73%). The fact that agriculture contributes the second largest share of GDP in these three countries suggests low productivity. [14] Madagascar 73%GDP per sector• The manufacturing sector has been prioritised as key to drive growth for the coming decades, it grew by 4.3% in 2018 compared to 4.6% in 2017. [1] • In 2018, Angola overtook South Africa for contributing the most to the SADC agriculture sector.• The agriculture sector continues to be vulnerable to variable weather, increasing the need to invest in climate-smart agriculture to enhance agro-based industries and food security. [14] South Africa has historically contributed more to the total GDP in SADC than other Member States.However, the contribution of the sector to national GDP is low, e.g. in 2018 its input was 2.5%. [14] Angola has, since 2013, generally been producing and contributing more than South Africa and in 2018 was the region's top producer. Agriculture contributed 7.3% to Angola's national GDP in 2018. [14] For most SADC countries, the greatest contributor to GDP in 2018 was the service sector ranging from 41.2% to 73.6% for Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia and Zimbabwe. [1] Following the service sector, in 2018 the order of sector contribution to regional GDP was as follows, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, agriculture, construction and lastly electricity, gas and water. [14] The share of the manufacturing sector to overall GDP for the SADC region in 2018 stood at 11.9%, against 11.2% in 2017.With regards to the manufacturing sector, Zimbabwe and Tanzania recorded significant growth rates of 12.1% and 8.3% in 2018 whilst DRC manufacturing sector declined by 0.8%. [1] Agriculture contributed a range of 2.5%- Agricultural products are a major component of trade in the region, with 31% of total agricultural imports of SADC countries coming from other SADC countries. [19] The United Kingdom's Food Retail Industry Challenge Fund (FRICH) supports 25 projectsfor farmers in over a dozen African countries by bringing their produce to European markets. FRICH supports projects in the following SADC countries: DRC Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The main produce exported is coffee, tea, juice, beef, fish, flowers and palm oil. [20] • Even though a significant percentage of the world's arable land is in Africa, the continent is a net food importer, and this is expected to grow from USD 35 billion in 2015 to over USD 110 billion by 2025. [21] • Current account deficits are a common scenario in SADC countries. [22] An overreliance on imports is expected to continue.• Major constraints to expanding exports include lack of financing, lack of production capacity, high costs of transport, and high cost of doing business.• SADC has taken a proactive approach to regional trade liberalization, with a strong regional agenda to pursue liberalization. [18] Intra-and extra-regional liberalization has been reflected by the SADC region more broadly. In addition to instituting a regional Free Trade Area in 2008. All SADC members are also members of the WTO and have implemented extra-regional liberalization measures in line with WTO commitments.• Intra-regional trade is seen as being particularly important in sustaining value-added processing activities in the agro-food sector in the SADC region. [21] South Africa also has the most diversified production base in the region, with a strong domestic food processing sector, while many of the other SADC countries are dependent on a limited number of primary commodity exports (namely mineral, agricultural, or petroleumbased commodities). [18] South Africa has received the most foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region. [18] South Africa has a Bilateral Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU).South Africa acts as a trade hub in the region, with the largest economy: two thirds of total SADC trade are with South Africa. [18] Mozambique recorded the largest current account deficit with large imports of capital goods and services related to natural gas megaprojects.For The region adopted the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap in 2015 and in the process prioritised infrastructure as a key enabler that catalyses industrialisation.The transport sector is a key pillar for regional economic development, being largely responsible for the movement of people, goods, and services. SADC ICT projects include, but are not limited to:• Digital Terrestrial Television Migration Support to all SADC Member States.• Optical fibre for all SADC Member States. Many infrastructure development projects are listed on the SADC Short Term Action Plan (STAP) or as national projects. These include, but are not limited to [23]:• One Stop Border Posts (OSBPs) in Botswana/Zimbabwe, Botswana/ South Africa, DRC/Zambia, Zambia/ Tanzania, Zimbabwe/South Africa and Botswana/South Africa.• Road projects in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Madagascar, Tanzania, Malawi and DRC.• Kazungula Bridge construction linking Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.Railway projects in Tanzania, Zambia, DRC, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.• Ports in the Seychelles, DRC and Zambia.• A container terminal in Namibia.• A dry port in Zambia.• Port expansion in Durban.STAP includes 16 energy projects with a total estimated value of USD 12.27 billion. These regional energy projects have fallen behind schedule, with 67% still at the feasibility stage. They include:• Interconnector projects in Tanzania/ Zambia/ Kenya, Mozambique/Malawi, Mozambique/Zambia, DRC/Zambia, Malawi/Zambia, Zimbabwe/Zambia/ Botswana/Namibia, Botswana/South Africa, Angola/Namibia, Mozambique/ Tanzania and Mozambique/ Zimbabwe/South Africa.• A Backbone Transmission Line in Madagascar.• Hydropower projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC, Tanzania and Malawi.• A natural gas extraction project in Namibia.• Power stations in Zimbabwe.Eight STAP projects, worth USD 13.48 billion have been designed to expand the region's water infrastructure. These projects include:ICT SECTOR• Water supply projects in Eswatini, Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, DRC, South Africa, Angola and Namibia.• Wastewater treatment in Madagascar.• Water transfer projects between Lesotho-Botswana and DRC-Angola-Botswana-Namibia-Zambia-Zimbabwe.• Dam/reservoir construction in Mauritius, Seychelles.• Irrigation scheme development in Tanzania.• To facilitate trade and economic liberalisation, non-trade barriers need to be removed. One such barrier is a lack of adequate infrastructure.• Many infrastructure development projects are inactive.Most projects remain at the feasibility stage with very few having been completed. [23] On the contrary, 82% of regional ICT projects are being implemented.• At least 70% of the reviewed SADC infrastructure projects are struggling to raise the required capital. Only 41% of the projects have partially secured funding and amounts raised are inadequate and so prevent completion. [23] • Climate change and weather variability can negatively affect the region's infrastructure. For example: lower than average rainfall in the 2018-2019 season had an adverse effect on hydropower generation in Zimbabwe and Zambia.• Additionally, the destruction of infrastructure by Cyclone Idai in March 2019 and Cyclone Kenneth (pictured above) in April 2019 highlights the importance of climate resilience in infrastructure going forward. [23] Impact of infrastructure on agriculture Improvements in regional transport infrastructure could improve market accessibility for agriculture produce. This could provide access to both regional and global markets as transport networks link countries to ports for shipping. One stop borders and improved road and rail access will also facilitate the importation of critical agriculture inputs such as fertiliser and seed.Improved transport infrastructure will reduce the costs associated with taking goods to market and for the purchase and shipment of agricultural inputs.The successful roll out of ICT infrastructure will enable farmers to access valuable information on improved/ climate-smart technology, methods, inputs and livestock breeds. Improved communication channels will also allow farmers to access information related to climate change. This will allow them to make better informed decisions regarding planting and harvesting times etc.Improved access to electricity through new energy infrastructure will be crucial to the future of farming in the SADC region. Electricity is essential for farming operations, particularly on commercial farms, such as irrigation, milking and maintaining cold chain temperatures. Improved energy infrastructure and associated supply could potentially bring down tariffs.will provide farmers access to vital water sources for irrigation and watering livestock. This will be particularly important in the arid and semi-arid areas of the region that are more prone to the effects of climate change.Sustainable agricultural systems cannot be achieved without economic and social infrastructure. Poor infrastructure and high infrastructure costs prevent access to affordable inputs, education and technology, markets, and links up and down the value chain.Many smallholder farmers in the region lack access to paved roads and reliable railway services and therefore markets. This prevents them from realising local, regional and global market opportunities that could assist in escaping the low-productivity trap.A lack of access to ICT services will prevent farmers from accessing information on important developments in agriculture technology, methods, inputs and livestock and seed genetics. They would also be prevented from accessing information on climate change and weather patterns rendering them vulnerable to shock events such as flooding, hail and drought.Africa's rural communities pay 60 to 80 times more per unit for energy than urban populations in the industrialised North. Electricity is essential for a number of farm operations. Poor/unreliable electricity supply results in revenue losses due to an inability to irrigate, milk cattle or maintain required cool chain temperatures. Back-up energy supply using generators is very costly and would likely be unaffordable to most smallholders.will prove detrimental to farmers in the arid and semiarid areas of the region that are more prone to the effects of drought, which is predicted to worsen in the future.Extreme weather events such as cyclones and flooding can damage regional infrastructure such as roads, railways, ports and bridges. This in turn will affect farmers' access to markets and agriculture inputs.The Green Climate Fund (GCF)  • Lack of investment has traditionally been a major barrier to progress in Africa. [24] Sustainable development requires investment in the industries and services that create wealth and the infrastructure that is required to supply them.• Investment into the SADC region has traditionally been low due to political and security issues. [25] However, policies promoting stronger Member State cooperation attracted significant FDI from 2001-2010. Countries with large resource industries such as South Africa and Angola tend to receive the most foreign investment.• SADC transboundary investment initiatives have the potential to be realised. For example, in the Nacala Corridor, investors have developed a railway linking Malawi to Mozambique to transport coal to the ports for export. This has the added potential of stimulating local agriculture production by using this infrastructure to link smallholder farmers in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia with larger commercial markets. [24] • Sub-Saharan Africa has become the second fastest growing region in the world. To sustain this growth and optimise the potential benefit to all from it, increased investment is needed. [ Cross-border trade constitutes an important market for output. Informal cross-border trade of all kinds is estimated to make up between 30% and 40% of all intra-SADC trade. Small, informal sector farmers and traders struggle with the high cost of buying/selling foreign currency for/from transactions, as well as the security risks of carrying cash. [27] DRIVERS AND TRENDS technology allows banking and finance infrastructure to reach previously excluded areas and populations. Improved access to mobile phone and internet banking enables remote farmers to spend more time on their land rather than travelling to the nearest branch to make transactions. This service also saves farmers in transaction fees.Access to insurance provides farmers with a safety net, enabling them to operate whilst navigating the uncertainty of climate change related weather patterns and extreme events.Climate change mitigation and adaptation can be promoted as a unique entry point for accessing international funds.Impact of finance on agriculture Micro-loans are the most common source of credit for small farmers. However, they are often unregulated and more expensive than loans from formal sources, as well as not being suited to the needs of annual crop farming (although quite well-adapted to other farming activities, such as poultry and vegetable production). Micro-loans provide only a small percentage of the agricultural sector's credit needs. [27] 02 Financial institutionsThe lack of documentation confirming land ownership, inadequate access to banking infrastructure and lack of knowledge/awareness of available microfinance initiatives continues to pose a challenge to smallholder access to finance.and/or commercialise their operations without access to funding or loans.Extreme events associated with climate change e.g. droughts and flooding, will result in financial losses, from which most smallholder farmers would unlikely be able to recover without insurance pay-outs. This will lead to further impoverishment and food insecurity in the rural areas of SADC.African countries have increased their agricultural trade at both global and regional levels in recent years. However, it remains low and below its potential. [20] African countries trade with each other far less than other countries globally. Europe remains the primary destination for African agricultural exports [20].Agriculture global and intra-regional trade growth has been experienced in recent years.Domestic markets tend to dominate the food industry of developing countries (90%-95% domestic trade). This is important for the millions of smallholders in SADC as the standards required to meet domestic markets are less demanding.Improving access of smallholder farmers to markets at domestic, regional and international scales will contribute to increased agricultural productivity, reduced rural poverty and improved food security.Access to secured markets would improve investor confidence in smallholder farms and liberate funds accordingly.Smallholder farmers in the SADC region struggle to access global and regional markets due to the poor quality of physical infrastructure, inefficient customs processes and high harassments costs, inconsistent regional standards and regulations, and nontariff trade barriers including stringent food safety and traceability requirements such as those required by the EU.Access to agricultural trade by smallholder farmers is also affected by wider challenges such as constraints to increasing productivity, underdeveloped connections between smallholder producers and other value chain actors and increasingly frequent and extreme weather events in the context of climate change.Unless smallholders can sell profitably on a regular basis, they will ultimately be constrained to subsistence production. Further, if low productivity prevails in rural agriculture, regional stagnation will persist. Successful agriculture transformation requires sustained growth in productivity which results from adequate market access.The most exported agricultural commodities from the region are cash crops including: [20] cotton cocoa coffee cassava sorghumREGIONAL AND CONTINENTAL POLICIES/BODIES SADC policies and programmes include: Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, the Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for the Water Sector, the Regional Water Policy, the Regional Strategic Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Development and Management, Regional Agricultural Policy, the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan, the Multi-Country Agricultural Productivity Programme. [28] Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is the African Union's continental policy framework for agricultural transformation.The regional level institutional structures for managing water, energy and agriculture sectors are [28]:• Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) for development, coordination and harmonisation of agricultural policies and programmes.• Infrastructure and Services Directorate for the development, coordination and harmonisation of energy, transport and communications, tourism and water policies, strategies, programmes and projects.• Water Division SADC River Basin Organisations (RBOs), to oversee harmonisation of national water use policies, and moderate transboundary issues.• Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) to enhance regional cooperation in power development and trade, and to provide non-binding regional master plans to guide electricity generation and transmission infrastructure delivery.to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and develop sound policy, regulatory, and legal frameworks and build capacities.SADC is one of the wealthier and more peaceful regions in Africa, but inequality threatens to destabilise it, giving rise to challenges such as corruption, crime, poverty and exclusion of youth, women, and minorities.Transparency International discloses that most SADC countries fall within the 'more corrupt' category. Corruption undermines economic development by generating considerable distortions and inefficiencies. Corruption contributes to a decline in economic growth and a reduction in FDI. [58] DRIVERS AND TRENDSPolicies. Concepts such as climate change, climate-smart agriculture and conservation agriculture have been incorporated into regional and to some extent national policies.Decentralisation. SADC aims to improve governance through decentralisation, this refers to initiatives which entail the transfer of authority, responsibility for services, fiscal and human resources to local governance. [57] The objective is to capacitate local governance structures, as well as to increase the capacity and productivity of the public sector in general. Despite the significant progress there are still key issues that need to be addressed:• Lack of political will or authority;• Absence of a holistic development framework;• Ineffective institutionalisation of local participation committees;• Management capacity constraints and deficits;• Fiscal crisis;• Role of traditional authorities;• Weak links between civil society organisations; and• Undemocratic behaviour by ruling regimes. [57] IMPACT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNANCE ON AGRICULTURE for guiding national action (and attracting international funding) for climate-smart agricultural systems.Concepts such as climate change, climatesmart agriculture and conservation agriculture have been incorporated into regional and to some extent national policies. However, in some Member States insufficient funding, a lack of human and institutional capacity, donor fatigue, and a lack of coordination among stakeholders remain key challenges to their implementation.As of 2010, 58.8% of the total Sub-Saharan workforce was in agriculture and a slightly higher proportion (63.6%) of the total population was in rural areas. [29] Most African agriculture takes place on a small scale, for example, most crop farms are smaller than 5 ha and evidence from numerous household surveys supports the idea that the median size of a crop farm is between 1-2 ha. [29] Smallholder families consume much of their own agricultural output.As most rural livelihoods in the region are dependent on the extractive use of natural resources, one of the key areas for resilience building is the agricultural sector. Activities aimed at increasing productivity and introducing adequate risk management strategies needs to be prioritized. For example, support to income diversification, introduction of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA), Conservation Agriculture (CA), and the application of Good Agricultural Practices; support to and strengthening of the introduction of weather index insurance for small-scale farmers; and support to the creation of group savings as a risk reduction mechanism to enable investments in productive assets.Successful implementation of a resilient agricultural sector will translate into job creation for the growing rural population which in turn may slow the trend of rapid urbanisation.Communal farming, contrary to commercial farming, does not have a capitalistic entrepreneurial profit-making business ethos such as hired wage labour, interest on capital, rent for land and profit maximisation. Hence, the communal family farm does not represent capitalist production but a simple commodity production. Thus, the nature and character of communal farming has very little to do with profit making but rather food security. Efforts to transform this system to profit making has been found to be difficult. [30] 02 PastoralismCommunal livestock farming is one of the world's oldest farming systems and is predominately practised by rural households in developing countries, especially in Africa. [30] IMPACT OF PASTORALISM ON AGRICULTURETo date, traditional pastoralism seems to be resilient to economic crises experienced throughout the globe. [30] Appropriately managed communal livestock farming using hardier, disease and pest tolerant, indigenous breeds should be encouraged to improve rural household resilience and food security.Traditional leaders have been identified as agents to lead change in rural areas. As governance authorities and custodians of land and indigenous knowledge, they have the power to manage grassroot initiatives. They provide a channel for implementation of localised initiatives that suit unique community contexts.Traditional adaptive methods are often more compatible with realities on the ground. Sustainable agriculture projects should be designed with local adaptive beliefs and practices in mind. Alternatively, religious structures or communitybased organisations, could be positioned for capacity building.Traditional pastoralism is prone to climatic conditions, especially drought. [30] The initiation of community-based sustainable agriculture initiatives requires effective leadership.There are risks in utilising traditional leadership channels as they can be open to corruption. Almost all the agricultural workforce in Sub-Saharan Africa is employed by smallholder production systems rather than large farms, although there is no conceptually clear way to define 'small farms' or 'smallholder agriculture'. [29] The degree of dependence of smallholders on agriculture varies greatly both across and within countries. Although African smallholders depend on agriculture for sustenance as well as for cash income, many also pursue non-farm activities. [29] Rural non-farm employment serves as a form of diversification and a safety net for managing seasonal fluctuations in agricultural labour demand and provides cash income.In rural areas close to urban markets, households may specialise in the intensive production of high value agricultural outputs, such as fruits and vegetables or dairy, aimed at urban consumers. [29] Large sectors of the agriculture workforce consist of 'employees' as follows: [29] • Non-farm employment is growing in importance in many developing countries and many studies point to large continuing flows of population from rural to urban areas. [29] • Agriculture's share of total employment has been falling steadily in almost all countries in the region. As rural populations continue to grow rapidly, however, the absolute number of people working in agriculture and living in rural areas seems likely to rise for the next several decades in Sub-Saharan Africa. [29] BotswanaSouth AfricaMauritiusNatural capitalIn Sub-Saharan Africa, 63% of households use wood and charcoal as their main source of fuel for cooking and at least one-third of this is harvested unsustainably. [17] Plant and animal products, timber and wildlife tourism account for a large proportion of the region's GDP and are a source of livelihood for many of its citizens. [33] Rangelands are used for livestock production (smallholder and commercial), intensive agriculture (often dependent on groundwater and irrigation technology), mining, tourism and the game industry. [35] Rangelands in the region comprise grassland, arid savannah, semi-arid savannah, thicket, karoo, desert and fynbos.The SADC region is endowed with rich wildlife resources and subsequently has large revenue generating potential through the tourism sector. If managed correctly, this will lead to the diversification of livelihoods away from smallholder agriculture, which will relieve some of the pressure on natural resources and reduce vulnerability in the region.Destruction of crops and livestock by wildlife is a direct threat to livelihoods and invariably leads to hunting and killing of animals by agricultural communities. This contributes to a loss of biodiversity and potentially upsets food chains as keystone species such as apex predators are targeted.Intensive livestock production for meat and milk is leading to an increase in large-scale ranching operations and more intensive production by smallholder farmers who protect their animals with fencing which prevents wildlife from accessing traditional migration corridors and dispersal areas. [17] Impact of transboundary management on agriculture Groundwater is the main source of water for 70% of the population in SADC. It is particularly important in dry regions where surface water is scarce or seasonal.The growing population of the region places added pressure on surface water resources that are diminishing in arid and semi-arid areas due to climate change. This could provide valuable motivation to promote water wise farming methods and technology that enables efficient use. Furthermore, an increased demand for clean potable water by an ever-growing population highlights the need for improved groundwater research and access. In the arid and semi-arid areas of the SADC region that are most affected by drought, such as the Karoo in South Africa, groundwater sources are vital for livestock and irrigation.Groundwater is likely to play an important role in human survival and economic development under changing climatic conditions. [36] Clearing of land for agriculture production and large-scale animal husbandry contributes to climate change through the emission of carbon and methane to the atmosphere. This then ultimately affects weather patterns and the agriculture sector. The most vulnerable to climate change events are the region's rural poor who are largely reliant on rainfed subsistence farming.Essentially, the breakdown of ecosystems and the loss of natural goods and services in the region will have the greatest impact on the poor and marginalised sectors of society.Agriculture in the region is mainly rainfed and so is susceptible to rainfall variability. Extreme events associated with climate change increase the vulnerability of agricultural systems.03 Impact of climate change on agricultureAgriculture contributes to biodiversity losses for a number of reasons [17] • Over the short-term farmers obtain higher yields by clearing land of all vegetation before planting.• High yielding crop varieties generally need to be planted as monocrops to achieve their yield potential.• Increasing use of agrochemicals affects pollinators and predators, both within and around the cultivated area.• Lack of market information and financial incentives prevents farmers from planting a more diverse range of crops.• Overfishing leads to harvesting of immature and rare species of fish and other marine animals.• Changes in land management and ownership, is leading to disruption of animal migration and general freedom of movement.• Water pollution in the region is expected to increase due to economic development and demographic growth. Many water bodies already contain unacceptable levels of pollutants and contaminants. [36] • Irrigation and water demand are increasing as more farmers turn to higher value dairy and horticulture products to meet basic income needs. In Tanzania, horticulture is the fastest growing agriculture subsector, generating USD 642 million in 2016. [17] • Availability of affordable technologies such as water pumps and irrigation equipment are increasing access and use of water for agriculture.• Potable water supplies are contaminated by human and animal waste as agriculture intensifies and spreads into new areas. Dust from eroded soils can also be a significant contaminant of water in savannah areas converted to annual crop production. [17] • Run-off of fertilizers results in the rapid growth of algae in aquatic ecosystems, creating anaerobic conditions that cause complete ecosystem failure. [17] • Pesticide residues can enter human and wildlife food chains via water.Although the process is gradual and less visible, it is very damaging.[17]• Water salinity can prevent the growth of crops or reduce yields and is often caused by over-extraction of groundwater or failure to maintain drainage channels in irrigation systems. [17] IMPACT OF WATER ON AGRICULTUREPoor sanitation and a lack of access to potable water causes waterborne diseases which translate directly into a loss of revenue and the inability to sustain livelihoods. [14] Furthermore, contamination of valuable water resources by fertilisers, pesticides and human and animal waste reduces its potential for use in crop irrigation and can have serious health implications.The growing population of the region places added pressure on surface water resources that are diminishing in arid and semi-arid areas due to climate change.In times of drought, irrigation water is scarce which affects second season cropping, such as wheat, for commercial farmers.Water supply and sanitation is poor in most SADC countries: > 98 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and ~154 million do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. [36] Water use efficiency is poor in the SADC region. [36] The volume of water available to support domestic and economic activities can be increased by using techniques such as desalination, wastewater reuse and green water. However, these are not commonly used in the region.• Many species are under threat from natural and human pressures and extinction rates in the region are high by global standards. • Threats include climate change, pollution, alien invasive species encroachment, overharvesting of natural resources, land clearing, poaching and illegal trade.• Forest clearing for agriculture and fuelwood is a significant cause of deforestation mainly for small and mediumscale farming activities. [17] • Government policies that encourage agriculture expansion, forestry and human settlement in natural habitats contribute to biodiversity loss. [34] • Disabling institutional and social factors include a lack of capital assets, ill-defined property rights, limited access to financial services and markets, inadequate safety nets in times of stress and a lack of participatory mechanisms for resource management. [34] • Pressure factors that directly increase demand for resources include rapid population growth, migration and natural disasters such as drought and floods. [34] • Unsustainable land use practices resulting in habitat and land degradation, include expansion of rainfed cultivation; soil mining and shortening of fallow periods; overgrazing and uncontrolled harvesting of biomass. [34] • Land conversion including deforestation, drainage of wetlands and invasion of grasslands is occurring relentlessly as a direct result of food system outcomes and practices. [17] • IFAD (2016) estimated that 70% of the increase in agricultural output observed from 2001 to 2008 in Sub-Saharan Africa was due to an expansion of the area under cultivation, and only 17% was due to improved inputs.• FAO has projected that agricultural land in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 63 million hectares over the next decade.[17]• Through desertification, soil in Southern Africa has lost 25% or more of its fertility and the process is on-going. [34] Annual net forest loss in the SADC region was approximately 1.8 million ha (0.46%) in the period 2005-2010. Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia had the highest rates of deforestation in the period 2005-2010. [35] NATURAL CAPITALImproved management of regional forests, where possible using community-based initiatives, will enable lower income rural populations to sustainably access important natural resources e.g. wood for timber and energy, medicinal plants, bushmeat and fruit. This will enhance resilience and food security.Food security can be utilised as a persuasive entry point for sustainable agricultural and forestry interventions.In order to improve the yields of smallholder farmers, soil productivity and water resource management must be addressed. Climate-smart agriculture could provide means to restoring soil fertility.As the region's population grows, so does competition for grazing land and forest resources. Large scale erosion and desertification have contributed to food insecurity in several areas in the region. [34] Forest clearing for agriculture and fuelwood is a significant cause of deforestation often resulting from small and medium-scale farming activities. [17] Farm yields and productivity are dropping due to poor soil management.Greater than 40% of the SADC region's species are endemic. [33] Forests contribute important livelihood needs for the lower income rural populations (e.g. fuelwood, timber, charcoal, medicinal plants, and fruit).Forest resources in the SADC region cover an estimated 394 million ha. About two-thirds of the region's forests are in the DRC and Angola. [34] Agriculture About 70% of the region's population depends on agriculture for food, income and employment, which relies on the right amount of rain at the right time. [16] Cultivated land accounts for only 6.11% of the total surface area in the SADC region. [16] Agriculture production in the SADC region falls into two broad categories: commercial farms or smallholders, with the latter subdivided into subsistence and commercial production. [17] In Southern Africa, livestock and crop production values are similar at 47% and 53% respectively. Regional differences in relative contribution of crop and livestock farming reflects the agroecological and cultural diversity. [16] Commercial farms are characterised by extensive areas, use of mechanisation, high quality inputs (most importantly improved seeds) and good agricultural practices. [17] Agricultural commercialisation is the transformation process in which farmers shift from mainly consumption-oriented subsistence production towards market-and profit-oriented production systems. [38] Smallholder farming is the main economic activity in rural areas in the SADC region, relying on seasonal rainfall as the main supply of water for crops and using traditional methods of farming. [32] Smallholder farming dominates the agriculture sector in terms of agricultural land coverage, comprising about 80% of the cultivated land and contributing about 90% of agriculture produce. [32] Smallholder farms are characterised by their small size, use of unimproved seeds, low (or more often no) use of fertilizer or pesticides, low financial resiliency and often production that maintains risk mitigation over maximizing financial returns [17].Smallholder farms comprise around 80% of all farms in Sub-Saharan Africa and directly employ about 175 million people. [16] Most African agriculture takes place on a small scale with most of the crop farms smaller than 5ha. The median size of a crop farm is between 1-2 ha, according to available data. [29] Smallholder farming is recognised as being central to rural livelihoods and therefore indispensable to food security and poverty reduction and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa.The agricultural sector plays a pivotal role in employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, employing more than half of the total workforce. [16] Almost all the African agricultural workforce is employed in smallholder production systems rather than large farms, although there is no conceptually clear way to define 'small farms' or 'smallholder agriculture'. [29] In Southern Africa, agriculture is credited for 65% of regional employment and 73% employment of economically active women. [29] National census data indicates that the number of people employed primarily in agriculture has increased over time. [16] Agriculture is also the primary source of livelihood for 10% to 25% of urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa. [16] Smallholder farmsFisheries and aquaculture directly contribute USD 25-30 billion to the African economy. The industry provides employment to over 12 million people (58% in the fishing and 42% in the processing sector). [17] Africa accounts for less than 5% of global fish production. [17] Inland and marine fisheries are dominated by artisanal fishing practices that contribute a valuable protein source to communities. [17] Namibia struggles with unregulated practices and overfishing as do Zambia andZimbabwe. Fish stocks in Lake Kariba are declining annually and the water is polluted by human and animal waste. [17] DRIVERS AND TRENDS• In Sub-Saharan Africa the meat and dairy industries are some of the fastest growing sub-sectors.This reflects growing local economies, rising incomes and a corresponding dietary shift to incorporate larger amounts of animal products. The most significant animal products are poultry (meat and eggs), beef and dairy. [39] • The market for poultry production outside of South Africa is currently dominated by smaller farmers, but the growing demand is resulting in rapid upscaling.• Livestock numbers frequently exceed the land's carrying capacity and compete with wildlife for resources. [32] • Although growing, aquaculture investments and production are still low. [ Poultry contributes a substantial share (45%) of livestock production value in SouthernAfrica. [16] The market for poultry production outside of South Africa is currently dominated by smaller farmers. There is a welldeveloped informal market for \"village\" chickens, which attract a relatively high price. [39] Several countries have established export industries e.g. Namibia has the largest fish export industry in Sub-Saharan Africa with a wellestablished supply chain to regional and European markets. [17] In Southern Africa, over 90% of livestock owners are classified as smallholders and their animals largely consist of indigenous breeds. [41] Animals are kept for food security and livelihood needs.In Sub-Saharan Africa, livestock production systems tend to be expansive and pasture based due to the climate and vegetation. Movement of livestock in accordance with seasonal changes and fodder availability can be the only way to secure feed for large herds. [16] In areas where crop production is marginal, cattle rearing is often dominant, mostly in free-grazing arrangements. In Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa, the livestock industry is a key contributor to GDP. [9] In smallholder areas of the SADC region, the beef cattle numbers and their percentage contribution to the total country figures (where known) are as follows: [41] (88%) Botswana(67%) South Africa(91%) Zimbabwe(94%) ZambiaNamibiaMozambique(90%) MalawiHigher-yielding breeds are being introduced by commercial ranchers and through Government and donor-funded programmes, but their numbers are still insignificant compared to the total animal population since they require more specialised feeding and veterinary services. [17] The SADC Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) project is designed to strengthen regional institutions in order to identify, diagnose and control the serious socio-economic impacts of transboundary animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, rift valley fever, pestes des petits ruminants, and African swine fever, and to make livestock a tradable commodity. [40] A new strain of Foot and Mouth Disease from East Africa recently broke out in Zambia, potentially threatening the livestock industry in the region.Most farmers in Southern Africa are smallholders who cultivate less than 5 ha. [9] Cropping typically contributes about 20% to 60% of annual food needs for poor households in the region. [9] In Sub-Saharan Africa maize dominates the cereal market and is expected to account for almost 40% of total cereal consumption by 2025, followed by other coarse grains (27%), rice (18%) and wheat (15%). [16] Maize accounts for 80% of cereal production in Southern Africa. It is a particularly dominant crop in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Maize production has been affected by extreme droughts and flooding in the region.Other major cereals consumed in the SADC region include millet, rice, sorghum, barley and wheat. Cassava is consumed as the main staple in DRC. [16] Common sources of protein include beans and other legumes, especially for the lowest income households. Beans and legumes are often intercropped with maize and cassava. Sweet potato production is also important for household level consumption. [16] The use of capital inputs such as tractors and irrigation are very low in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cereal yields per hectare, value added per agricultural worker and total factor productivity are subsequently much lower in Sub-Saharan Africa than in Asia or Latin America. [43] Mechanisation in Southern Africa has largely been limited to large-scale commercial farms (particularly in South Africa), while most smallholder farms rely on labour. This is largely due to the affordability of labour (outside of South Africa) and the relative unaffordability of agricultural equipment and the struggle to access required finance. [39] 05 Crop production 06 Access to inputsThe adoption of improved seed has increased in Africa over the past 20 years but is still far from the global average. South Africa is an exception, as most of its big commercial crops e.g. maize and soya, are cultivated using transgenic seeds [39].Most smallholder farmers in Southern Africa obtain their seed from informal systems i.e.by saving a portion of their harvested grain each year, sharing seed with their neighbours, or buying seed on the local informal market.Access to improved seed is sometimes possible through participation in subsidised seed distribution programmes under government or NGO initiatives.[39]The main obstacles to greater purchases of improved seed are: [39] FERTILIZER Africa currently uses only 3% of the world's fertiliser, at an application rate that is about 1/10 of global averages. [43] IRRIGATION Irrigation is critical for food security and rural development, but <5% of cultivated land in the region is equipped for irrigation. [36] Land in the SADC region with irrigation potential is around 20 million ha but only 3.9 million ha is actually irrigated. This accounts for only 6.6% of the total cultivated area. Although the irrigated area occupies only 6.6% of cultivated land, productivity from irrigated agriculture is three-fold better than rainfed agriculture. Challenges to improved mechanisation include:• Acquisition of equipment (mostly the cost of purchase).• Maintenance, which is essential for farmers to obtain the full value of the equipment over its life. This constraint includes the availability of spare parts. [39] • Utilisation (expensive equipment like tractors can be extremely useful for farmers, but they do not need them every day all year, and so the unit cost per \"use\" is often extremely high). In 2015, agriculture contributed 20.2% to SADC region GDP. [42] Agriculture produce accounts for large proportions of export earnings in Southern Africa. [29] South Africa is a net exporter of agricultural products, with about 45% of exports going to Africa.In Southern Africa, the majority share of production value of fruits and vegetables is due to South Africa's export oriented horticultural production. [16] FOOD STORAGEAccording to estimates by the African Post-Harvest Losses Information System, as much as 10%-20% of grain is estimated to be lost prior to processing. [20] Sharply reducing postharvest losses is an important avenue for improving food and nutrition security. Agricultural extension can help to lower these losses by disseminating. [20] Most African commodities are exported in their raw form and processed elsewhere with very little value added in the producers' economies. The primary sectors, mining and agriculture, contribute about 50% of most SADC countries' GDP and most exports are raw materials and commodities of low value -therefore SADC's net trade is significantly negative.[44] Industrial development in most SADC countries is underdeveloped and poorly diversified. [44] MARKET ACCESS Smallholder farmers struggle to access markets due to inadequate access to market related information, limited produce storage capacity and the inability to share risk and information with other farmers based on their geographical remoteness. [44] Improving access to markets and market information enhances farmers' bargaining power and enables them to make betterinformed decisions about production and marketing. [44] Nontariff measures increase trade costs and restrict the participation of African agribusinesses in both global value chains and intra-African trade. Such nontariff barriers include trade policies e.g. export bans and regulatory failure resulting in high transport, border-crossing and agricultural input costs. [44] Lack of coordination across departments, onerous border procedures, weak cross border cooperation and corruption also constitute barriers to intra-African trade. [44] Multi-country resource-based development corridors can be an important tool to promote regional trade, for example the Nacala corridor between Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique; the Beira corridor linking several countries with Mozambique's port of Beira; and, the Lobito corridor linking the DRC, Zambia and Angola. [44] EXTENSION SERVICES The SADC region is heavily affected by climate change and variability, and projections suggest that impacts will become more severe. Current variability and extreme events across the region are increasingly evident. [9] Climate change will directly affect crop yields by:An increase in temperature, leading to increased heat stress and reduced crop yields. (The region's staple crop -maize -is particularly prone to the effects of climate change);Changes in rainfall patterns: increasingly erratic rainfall events of high intensity, leading to floods and more frequent droughts and dry spells; andA delayed onset of the rainfall season and an early tailing off, thus reducing the growing period for crops. [9] Developments in the sector will enhance the resilience of the rural populations of the region to climate shocks and changing weather patterns.A high dependence on rainfed monoculture cropping and the use of traditional methods of farming exacerbates the vulnerability of smallholder farmers to the vagaries of climate change, as drought or flooding tends to result in total crop failure. [32] The growing trend in animal product consumption in Southern Failing crops and livestock deaths resulting from climate change events will increase the reliance of smallholders and rural communities on natural resources.If not managed, this can lead to deforestation, land degradation and biodiversity loss.There is overwhelming support and evidence for agriculture-induced socio-economic growth in developing countries, including the Southern Africa region. [29] What makes it more critical in low income countries is that most of the population (over 70%) lives in rural areas and over 75% of the poor are rural smallholders who primarily depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.This implies that developments in agriculture can have far reaching direct effects in uplifting the lives of the poor and enhancing their resilience to the effects of climate change. However, many developing countries have not fully utilised agriculture for its multiple functions. [38] Accelerated changes to farm structure, accompanied by investment in mechanisation, improved farming practices, inputs and storage have the potential to induce a much higher rate of productivity growth.Agriculture provides important income opportunities for the rural poor, particularly during land preparation and crop harvesting periods. This provides low skilled employment which generates income for invaluable staple purchases, thereby contributing to food security and poverty alleviation. This employment sector is going to be crucial with the projected population growth in the region.Furthermore, the development of effective regional infrastructure provides market opportunities and enhances competition. Greater investment in prioritised infrastructure at national and regional levels will promote trade, provided there is sufficient political will to do so. [20] Smallholder farmers, who constitute the bulk of the rural poor in SADC, have not fully benefited from agriculture's multiple functions because they predominantly practice consumption-oriented subsistence agriculture which excludes them from the formal market system and the related income-mediated benefits. [38] IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURE 36IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE Reducing risk in smallholder farming requires agricultural development policies, and policies that create a conducive enabling environment for agriculture.Managing risk in smallholder farming requires social protection policies that can also contribute to reducing risk.The multiple risks and vulnerabilities that smallholders face are increasingly well understood, and new policy frameworks are emerging that distinguish between different types and sources of risk (for example, idiosyncratic and covariant risk affecting agricultural production, markets and health) and between different response options (investment in crop or livestock protection, irrigation, market stabilisation and access, cash transfers etc.). [46] IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE • Most renewable energy capacity is grid-connected; however, offgrid applications have seen strong growth in recent years. [49] • The use of mini-grids and/or household solar systems and other mini-and pico-scale technologies is becoming popular in the SADC region, as national utilities face significant financial constraints that have hindered their capacity to meet government targets for energy access and grid extension. [48] • To improve the rate of uptake, the majority of Member States offer subsidies of some kind for the installation of off-grid systems, recognising that rural households will rarely have the financial capacity to pay for the technologies themselves. [48] • Power shortages experienced across the SADC region hinder progress towards higher agricultural and industrial production which is central to the development of productive capacity and the creation of employment -ultimately contributing to poverty alleviation.• SADC has linked various national generating plants. This interconnectivity has facilitated the establishment of a trading platform, enabling countries with power shortfalls to purchase from those with surplus.• The poor financial health of utilities, high upfront costs and inconsistent regulatory frameworks for renewable energy development tend to hinder investment in the sector. [48] In Sub-Saharan Africa 65% of farm power relies on human power, 25% on animal power and only 10% on engines. Compared to other developing regions, with engines generating 50% of farm power, this is very low. [50] Climate change related disasters, such as drought, can have adverse effects on power generation capacity in the region. For example, hydro-electric power generation at Lake Kariba and Cahora Bassa.Access to electricity in SADC is poor, especially in rural areas, with a weighted regional average electrification rate of 48% in 2018. [47] Although, access to power by the population increased significantly between 2011 and 2016 especially for Tanzania, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Botswana and Mozambique, which ranged from 4% to 18.6% over the five years considered. [47] Access to modern electricity/energy services and equipment for smallholder farmers in developing countries could have significant positive impacts on food security, gender empowerment and rural poverty.Additionally, rolling out renewable energy projects in rural areas will lessen the burden of electricity supply on governments as well as lower the state's (and cumulatively the region's) contribution to carbon emissions.The lack of access to electricity/energy by smallholder farms in SADC hampers their productivity by limiting land preparation, irrigation, storage and processing. A lack of electricity means no cold storage which affects the shelf life of fresh produce and contributes to wastage and a loss of income.Community-based schemes can struggle to deliver an effective service due to poor governance and a lack of professionalisation. The private sector is important in such schemes, but the absence of economies of scale makes them unattractive. [48] Climate change related disasters, such as drought, can have adverse effects on power generation capacity in the region. For example, hydro-electric power generation at Lake Kariba and Cahora Bassa. an increase of 17.4%. Regional power demand rose from about 53,800 MW to 58,100 MW between 2013 and 2018. [47] In rural areas, where most of the population lives, 97% of households rely on wood for their energy needs. In urban areas, charcoal has become the fuel of choice, accounting for over 50% of all energy expenditure. [48] Essentially, traditional biomass is the most widely used energy source in SADC, mainly for cooking. [49] Fossil energy dominates electricity generation and the transport sector. [49] SADC is endowed with an abundance of renewable energy resources which accounted for 23.5% of power generation in 2016. [47] According to the SAPP, energy trade has increased from ~500 MW (1% of operating capacity) in 2012 to about 14,500 MW (24% of operating capacity) by 2018, following the implementation of both generation and transmission/ interconnector projects. [47] Information and communication technology infrastructure is already in place within SADC, but has been implemented inefficiently due to a lack of development in other sectors. [51] To establish the affordable, 'always-on' connectivity that SADC envisions for the region, the ICT Sector Plan component of the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan promotes development of four strategic pillars: infrastructure; capacity building and content; e-services and applications; and research, innovation, and industry development. [51] Improved mobile phone, radio and television signal access in rural areas can be employed for information sharing, and can be developed as tools for poverty alleviation, for example, through sharing health and climate information, e-learning at schools or enabling economic activity through mobile phone banking.Involving the private sector in the provision of necessary knowledge infrastructure and services could enable ICT distribution to rural areas.Better access to mobile banking and information on weather patterns could enable smallholder farmers to be better positioned in facing extreme climatic events through improved financial planning and informed agricultural decision making. This in turn could contribute towards food security and poverty alleviation in rural areas.Limited access of rural communities to ICT in the region will impact access to mobile phone banking and micro-insurance options. It will also limit the amount of information available to them in terms of weather patterns, improved farming methods and inputs, and market information. This will limit the growth potential of smallholder farmers and increase their vulnerability to extreme climatic events, ultimately contributing to food insecurity and impoverishment.Approximately 60% of the population has adopted mobile technology, with regional ranges from 20% to 100%. [51] Only 4% of SADC residents are internet users, although usage varies widely between Member States e.g. from 1% in the DRC to 40% in the Seychelles. [51] Similar to global trends, postal mail volumes are declining at an annual rate of 5%, although parcel mail is increasing due to e-commerce. National postal services handle 96% of domestic letters and 80% of international letters, but only 28% of domestic parcels and 20% of international parcels. [51] Rural populations have lower ICT access compared to urban populations. This implies a shortfall in the implementation of the country's strategies for ICT spread to rural areas.• As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall sharply from 2.4% in 2019 to between -2.1 and -5.1% in 2020, inducing the first recession in Sub-Saharan Africa in 25 years. [59] • Analysis shows that COVID-19 will cost the region between USD 37 billion and USD 79 billion in output losses for 2020.• GDP growth will decline rapidly in SADC region's largest economies -Angola and South Africa-due to persistently weak growth and investment. [59] • The uncertainty of the impact of COVID-19 on local markets is expected to lead to increased risk aversion from investors who are waiting to see its potential impact in Africa.• Since global economic growth is a key driver of commodity prices, local prices have dropped as the virus has spread. This compounded with a reduction in global demand of raw materials will severely impact SADC countries such as the DRC and Zambia, which are significantly exposed to risk in terms of industrial commodity exports. [59] • The region's tourism sector is expected to experience large losses due to severe disruptions to travel.• The manufacturing sector is also impacted as the global supply chain experiences delays, raw material shortages, increased costs and reduced orders. [59] • To prevent the virus spreading, measures have been implemented that will affect food systems at all levels.• Reduced production of high value commodities (i.e. fruits and vegetables) is already likely, but is not noticeable as yet because of the lockdowns and disruption in the value chain.[60]• Restrictions in vehicle movement will affect the livestock sector due to reduced access to animal feed and slaughterhouses.• Blockages to transport routes will be particularly detrimental to fresh food (e.g. dairy, fresh fish and seafood) supply chains resulting in food losses.[60]• Transport restrictions and quarantine measures are likely to restrict access to markets, curbing farmers productive capacities and hindering them from selling their produce.• Shortages of labour could disrupt production and processing of food, notably for labour-intensive industries (e.g. horticulture).[60]• A reduction in the agriculture labour force in SADC will have a dire effect on rural incomes and livelihoods as well as the industry itself, which is particularly labour intensive.• The crisis is further magnified in SADC countries that are already experiencing food shortages.• The COVID-19 crisis will likely cause a food security crisis in Africa, with agricultural production potentially contracting between 2.6% and 7%. [61] • Food imports could decline substantially (13%-25%) due to a combination of higher transaction costs and a reduced domestic demand (lack of income). [61] • Access to food will be more difficult and more expensive.Many depend on the food systems stability for their livelihoods and shocks to the food chain may disrupt production and trade which can have volatile market effects and implications on food prices and agri-food based incomes. [61] • China has already seen an increase in food prices by 20% in comparison to 2019 prices. This could be due to food hoarding and chain disruptions. [61] • The virus will have the greatest impact on the poor and marginalised with limited power and resources to adapt to unpredictable crisis events.• Looking at the Ebola virus disease (EVD) effects in Liberia, a reduction in household income can be expected across the board, not just in communities where the virus is present. It is also likely that food security will be further compounded by lower household crop production as was the case with EVD.• In DRC, the EVD outbreak disrupted food production and supplies which resulted in violence in the area and a need for large amounts of humanitarian food assistance.• The World Bank is deploying up to USD 160 billion in financial support to help developing countries protect the poor and vulnerable, support businesses and bolster economic recovery. [59] ","tokenCount":"11575"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a9725fdbb9480f7bd20fef4857e6fe4b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B68D3CD8063236875D3C5B90BBB31200/S1742170517000333a.pdf/estimates_of_the_willingness_to_pay_for_locally_grown_tree_fruits_in_cusco_peru.pdf","id":"322734901"},"keywords":["urban food systems","Latin America","middle income countries","consumer preferences","healthy diets","food policy"],"sieverID":"6166db41-f67c-4a93-9752-b7bd5b5594e3","pagecount":"12","content":"Urbanization, changes in the retail sector and economic growth in developing countries may offer new opportunities to build connections between urban consumers and nearby farmers. The design of strategies to build such connections will require deeper insights into the food preferences of urban consumers. This paper presents a choice experiment of the preference of locally grown apples, avocados and pears vis-à-vis nonlocal equivalents with 300 consumers in a traditional market in Cusco, Peru. Willingness-to-pay estimates are derived from a multinomal logit analysis. We found that consumers who are younger and more educated and those with young children tend to be willing to pay more for locally produced apples, avocados and pears. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the research for advancing efforts to localize food systems in developing countries and opportunities for future research.The rapid pace of urbanization, changes in the retail sector and economic growth in many parts of the developing world have lead to major changes in the foods that people eat, with a growing tendency towards over nutrition (Gomez and Ricketts, 2013;Popkin, 2014;Tschirley et al., 2015). At the same time, these changes may offer new opportunities for strengthening an important dimension of urban food systems-the connections between consumers and nearby farmers. The potential to strengthen rural-urban links in developing countries around food can support development goals related to health and nutrition, as well as local economic development (Gelli et al., 2016). A deeper understanding of the preferences of urban consumers-their perceptions, priorities and behaviors-will provide critical insights for the design of policies and strategies to support actors in the food system to achieve impact at scale.This study sheds light on the preferences of consumers for a set of fresh tree fruits in a developing country context. We applied a choice experiment (CE) in Cusco, Peru-a city that has experienced considerable economic and population growth in recent years-to estimate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for locally grown apples, avocados and pears vis-à-vis their non-local counterparts. The remainder of this paper is divided into five sections. The next section reviews the recent insights from North America, Europe and across developing countries on consumer preferences for locally produced food. We then describe the study design and protocol we followed to conduct the CE. In the following section, we explain the theoretical framework that forms the basis of the mutinomial logit (MNL) analysis used to estimate the probability that a consumer would be WTP more for a local fruit over a nonlocal fruits. We then present the results from the estimation of the MNL analysis. The final section discusses the implications of the results for the development of urban food systems and provides suggestions for future research. consumers' perceptions and WTP more for locally produced agricultural products; the effectiveness of local food labeling schemes; and challenges faced by producers, processors, intermediaries and retailers to meet demand in these regions.Research on consumer preferences in these urban systems found that consumers in Europe and the USA were WTP from 5% up to 50% more for food that was labeled as being locally grown. These studies included various food products: potatoes in Colorado (Loureiro and Hine, 2002); wine in Greece (Skuras and Vakrou, 2002); fruits, vegetables and meat in South Carolina (Carpio and Isengildina-Massa, 2009); strawberries in Ohio (Darby et al., 2008); and wine and apples in Germany (Grebitus et al., 2013). The preference for local products by consumers in Colorado was stronger than it was for organic or GMO free products (Loureiro and Hine, 2002). In several studies, consumers' WTP was higher for more perishable products, demonstrating the importance of freshness in the decision for local products (Carpio and Isengildina-Massa, 2009;Grebitus et al., 2013). WTP estimations in the Global North varied by the type of consumer with higher income households, younger consumers, more educated consumers and consumers who have young children WTP the most for locally grown food (Loureiro and McCluskey, 2000;Loureiro and Hine, 2002;Carpio and Isengildina-Massa, 2009).When considering the Global South, researchers have brought to light various challenges facing food systems; however, few have addressed issues around localization and the interests of urban consumers. Attention has been focused on the capacity of producers to meet the safety and quality standards demanded by importers in the USA and Europe (Unnevehr, 2000;Martinez and Poole, 2004;Asfaw et al., 2010;Lee et al., 2012) and buyers in supermarkets (Reardon et al., 2003). In response to the export orientation of the agricultural sectors in developing countries, researchers have argued for 'food sovereignty,' or the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food based on sustainable production methods (Rosset, 2008;Altieri and Toledo, 2011). The food sovereignty debate remains rooted in the rural sector and has yet to expand on the needs and preferences of urban-based consumers for healthy and nutritious foods.The evidence that exists on food preferences by urban consumers in developing countries is fairly limiteddespite the fact that Latin America has been over 80% urbanized for nearly two decades and Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest rates of middle class expansion and city growth (Kharas, 2010;UNDESA, 2014). Various case studies from Asia suggests that urbanization and income growth have contributed to greater demand for safe and nutritious food with limited exposure to agrichemicals (Roitner-Schobesberger et al., 2008;Wang et al., 2008;Aryal et al., 2009;Mergenthaler et al., 2009a). Several studies have estimated that consumers were willing to pay more for organic foods in developing countries, such as in Sri Lanka (Piyasiri and Ariyawardana, 2002), Nepal (Aryal et al., 2009), Vietnam (Mergenthaler et al., 2009a) and Peru (Garcia-Yi, 2015). While these studies did not evaluate whether consumers were also WTP more for locally produced foods in these contexts, they provide some indirect support for consumers' potential interest in locally produced foods to the extent that organic foods are more likely to be produced and sold in relative close proximity.A few studies have assessed the demand for locally produced food and the capacity of local suppliers to respond to local demand. An estimation of demand elasticities of supermarket purchases by Vietnamese consumers revealed that their demand for domestically produced food items remained strong irrelevant of whether the purchase was made in supermarkets or traditional markets (Mergenthaler et al., 2009b). In Nairobi, Kenya a box scheme to provide locally produced fruits and vegetables to urban consumers ultimately failed, mainly due to logistical challenges. The box scheme was able to meet the demand for locally produced fruits and vegetables only for a relatively short period of time (Freidberg and Goldstein, 2011). Another study in Nairobi found that young, urban consumers' demand for indigenous vegetables in local markets and restaurants has grown so much that smallholders are struggling to keep up (Cernansky, 2015).Several authors have also identified the potential to promote locally-produced fruits and vegetables in fast growing cities to address dietary trends, characterized by growing consumption of processed foods and meat and dairy products (Delgado, 2003;Reynolds et al., 2014). For instance, Penny et al. (2016) found that fruit consumption was altogether low but still higher than vegetable consumption (204 g compared with 117 g per day) in peri-urban Lima, Peru. These eating habits have led to rapidly rising rates of obesity in middle-income countries, which is related to the increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (Kimokati and Millen, 2011;Swinburn et al., 2011). How to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables remains an important question, especially as poverty and limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables may limit their consumption (Rasmussen et al., 2006;Bigio et al., 2011). Strategies to promote fruit and vegetable consumption in Peru and elsewhere must contend with the reality that urban households may simply prefer to spend the majority of whatever of their food budget reamains after the purchase of staple foods on energy-dense but nutrient poor foods.The study site is representative of the fast growing regional cities throughout Latin America and other developing regions. These cities have emerged as important destinations for rural migration with families attracted by growing economies and less congestion (Montgomery, 2008). Insights into the preferences of consumers in Cusco is likely to shed light on the preferences of consumers in other cities in Latin America and perhaps elsewhere. Regional cities are likely to face similar social changes with growing populations and incomes with local food production dominated by poor and isolated farmers with relatively few marketing opportunities. Most of the farming households in Cusco, 59% of the department's population, balance subsistence production with market oriented production. They sell relatively small volumes in local markets (INEI, 2013). Many of these farmers are dedicated to growing traditional products (e.g. quinoa and other Andean grains, native potatoes, squash and corn) using low input methods.The population of Cusco, Peru has been growing at an annual rate of more 0.5% between 2010 and 2015 (INEI, 2015a). At the same time, a booming tourism sector and mining industries have propelled this growth (El Comercio, 2014). Median per capita income in the department grew at an average rate of 11% per year between 2008 and 2015, more than doubling in this period from nearly US$900 to over US$1800. This growth was much more rapid than in Peru as a whole, where it grew by about 60% from around US$1500 to US$2400. This growth was spread throughout the population, as the ratio of the income that the wealthiest 25% received to the bottom 75% fell from 3.5 to 2.9 from 2005 to 2015 (INEI, 2014).The CE was part of a larger study to understand the food environment in the city of Cusco and determine consumers purchasing behaviors and preferences for locally grown fruits and vegetables. This research consisted of two phases. In May 2015, we held four focus groups with between 8 and 15 consumers in each group.Participants were asked about what local food meant to them and what distinguished it from non-local foods. They also described the characteristics of local foods including physical appearance, taste and freshness differences. They finally identified local foods that they sought out. Three of the most frequently listed products were avocados, apples and pears. The surveys were administered between July and August 2015 with 300 consumers. In addition to the CE, the survey included questions about the households' demographics and food budgets; food safety practices; purchasing habits in traditional markets, supermarkets and directly from producers; and perceptions of locally grown fruits and vegetables in comparison with those grown in other regions of Peru and other countries. The questions for the CE were included at the end of the survey.The consumer's WTP for locally produced fruit for avocados, apples and pears was determined by responses to four questions for each fruit, with the order in which the fruits were discussed assigned randomly. Firstly, the participant was asked which fruit she would prefer to purchase, the local fruit or the non-local fruit. The price for each fruit was randomly assigned to be either the same for the local and non-local fruit or 10% more for the local fruit. This strategy allowed us to control for starting point bias, whereby the first value presented influences the respondent's valuation of the good (Boyle et al., 1985;Herriges and Shogren, 1996). The consumer was then asked if she would pay more for the locally produced fruit. If the participant answered in the affirmative, she was then given a card with a list of prices and asked to select the highest amount she would pay for the locally produced fruit and still prefer it to the non-local fruit. The non-local fruit maintained the same price as the starting price presented in the first question. The price on the card ranged from 10% to 50% more than the price for the non-local fruit. Finally, she was given another card to select how confident she was in her choice. She would indicate whether she was completely sure, sure, neither sure nor unsure, unsure and completely unsure of her choice. The consumer was then asked the same series of questions for the next two fruit (Fig. 1).Participants in the focus groups were selected while they were shopping in one of two traditional markets. The surveys were also conducted in a large, traditional market, frequented by consumers from across the city of Cusco because of its location in the center of the city. We selected the participants from these traditional markets in Cusco because the majority of consumers in Cusco continue to make nearly all of their fruit and vegetable purchases in these traditional markets, even with the growth of supermarket sales in Peru. Key informant interviews with leaders of consumer organizations, observations made of consumer purchases in the traditional markets and supermarkets and the results of the focus group meetings, confirmed this finding. These traditional markets in Cusco have basic infrastructure provided by the municipal governments, consisting of small stalls with concrete floors, which are rented out to vendors for the sale of fresh produce, meats and household products. Most market sellers are intermediaries, who purchase their products in wholesale markets or sometimes directly from farmers. A few farmers sell small volumes of their own production at the entrance of the markets, but most prefer to sell directly to the vendors in the market.To establish the four focus groups, we selected shoppers at different times and different days in an attempt to capture the range of shoppers in Cusco, as work and family schedules influence the shopping times of different types of consumers. Two of the focus groups were made up shoppers on a Wednesday. One group of participants was of morning shoppers and another group of participants was made up of afternoon shoppers. Likewise, another two groups, one of morning and another of afternoon shoppers, were selected on a Saturday. Two-thirds of the participants were women, covering a wide age range, with the youngest participant being 20 and the eldest being 75.To conduct the surveys, the enumerators occupied a stall in the center of the market and approached consumers as they passed the stall to invite them to be interviewed, often just before or after they had made their purchases. As an enumerator finished one interview, she approached the next person that passed the stall to interview. The participants were compensated for their time with gifts of kitchenware. Once 100 interviews had been conducted (a third of the total), we analyzed the demographics of the participants to see how well the sample represented the population in Cusco by age and education levels. The monitoring allowed us to realize that younger consumers were not well represented in the first third of the sample. The enumerators then targeted younger consumers in the market by recruiting participants at midday when young office workers went to the market for lunch, as well as expanding the gift selection offered to items that would be more attractive to younger consumers, similar to strategies used by Karp Resources to attract younger participants (2012).As shown in Table 1, the sample selected for the surveys well represented the overall urban population of Cusco in terms of age and education levels. On average the consumers included in the sample were slightly older, more educated and included more women than in the population of Cusco, according to the last census in 2007. As the principal female adult in the household make the decisions on the food purchases in Cusco and throughout Latin America, women were more likely to making food purchases in the market. Thus, they were more prevalent in our sample (Martinez-Zuniga, 2007;ELAC, 2010). As educational attainment has been increasing in Peru, the higher percentage of consumers that have high school or post-secondary education is likely to be well representative of the current population, as the census data are nearly a decade old (World Bank, 2016).Households of different wealth classes in Cusco were also included in the sample, as demonstrated in self-reported per capita income levels and the construction materials of the home of the participants in Table 1. The sample was weighed toward middle-income groups of households, as classified by the Peruvian national statistics institute (INEI). There were fewer households in the least wealthy and most wealthy categories than the overall population. The types of homes of those who participated in the survey also indicated that the sample was weighted toward middle households. Their homes were more likely to be constructed of brick or cement and have cement, laminate or ceramic flooring than the overall population, which was more likely to have homes made of adobe and dirt or wood floors. As the rapid economic growth has expanded the middle class in Cusco, we expect them to be an important sector of the demand for local foods. They have a larger food budget with the ability to spend more on higher quality foods. Thus, they were important component of this study.Consumers overstate their WTP in CEs because the experiment fails to call for actual expenditures (Diamond and Hausman, 1994;Venkatachalam, 2004;Murphy et al., 2005). In this case, the purchase of local foods may be a socially desirable behavior, which would encourage respondents to overstate their WTP for the local food (Bennett et al., 2011). Based on the research of techniques to limit this tendency of a respondent to overstate her WTP, we designed our research so that the interviews were conducted in the same environment where fruit and vegetable purchases were made and included the CE at the end of the survey after questions focused on food prices and budgets had been asked. Conducting the experiment in the environment where the decision is normally made and asking introductory questions on purchasing habits has been shown to help ensure that the respondent will make a choice that more realistically reflects her actions, as she would have the prices of the goods and her preferences in mind when making the selection (Landenburg and Olsen, 2008;Gracia et al., 2012;Bogomolova et al., 2016).To try to evaluate the extent that hypothetical bias existed in this CE, we ask a follow up question to determine the participant's level of confidence in her stated WTP. Research has shown that if a participant expressed doubt in her response, she would be less likely to follow through on it in the real world (Champ et al., 2004;Murphy and Stevens, 2004;Mohammed, 2012). Thus, if the participants showed that they had little confidence in their responses, we would have little reason to fully accept the results. On the other hand, if the participants said that they had a high degree of confidence in their responses, we would have additional evidence to accept their WTP preferences.To conceptualize the choice made by the respondents in the CE, following (Alpízar et al., 2001), for the local fruit j over other the non-local fruit i can be represented as δ j , which is a dichotomous variable equal to one if the local fruit j is chosen and zero if it is not δ j ¼ 1 if V j ðA j ; p j ; y; s; εÞ> max½V i ðA i ; p i ; y; s; εÞ∀i ≠ j 0 if otherwiseA j represents the attributes of fruit j (e.g. local). We assume that these attributes are strictly exogenous to the consumer. p j is the specific price for the fruit. The consumer's personal characteristics are represented by s (e.g. consumer's gender, age, education level, income and number of young children), and y is the consumer's household income. The components that are unobservable to the researcher, (subjective) attributes of the products and/or consumer, are treated as a random variable ɛ (Hanemann, 1984). Equation ( 1) can be understood in terms of a probability of choosing the local fruit where the error term ɛ enters the conditional indirect utility function as an additive term.To depict the distributional assumption of ɛ, the MNL model, described by McFadden (1984), has become the accepted model to use in applied work. Our CE included M choice sets (each of the three local fruits has six bids). Each choice set F m consisted of K m alternatives in terms of sequentially increasing bids, such that F m = {A 1m, ,.., A km, }. Thus, the probability of choosing alternative j from a choice set F m can be expressed as:The MNL model assumes that the random terms (ɛ j , ɛ i ) are individually, identically distributed (iid) with a mean of zero and var(ɛ) = π 2 /6μ. Then, the choice probability in equation ( 3) according to McFadden (1984) becomes: For simplicity the indirect utility function V j (.) is assumed to have a linear functional form, where vector X′ h , includes all variables (the attributes of the fruit, price, the characteristics of the consumer and household income) while β is a vector of the cofficients, which measure the effect of each of the viarbles in X′ h on the probability to choose the local fruitThe empirical model of the probability of selecting the local fruit becomeswhere the decision is expected to be influenced by the consumer's gender, age, education, income and the number of young children in the household, as demonstrated in previous studies (Bogomolova et al., 2016) (Table 2). The estimation of the empirical equations can be conceptualized as six different equations for each fruit F m . One equation for each of the possible WTP options presented to the respondents of nothing, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50% more for locally grown apples, avocados and pears. Although the respondent faced six choices in the study, the analysis of the choice is a comparison of the base, paying nothing, against each one of the amounts included in the study.For each of the fruits considered, nearly 75% of consumers were WTP at least 10% more for these locally grown fruits while 25% were not WTP more (Fig. 2). A clear difference in the results was that more consumers were WTP much for locally grown apples than they were for the other two fruits. Eleven percent of participants were WTP 50% more for locally grown apples while only 4% were WTP 50% more for locally grown avocados and pears (This difference may be a result of apples being much less expensive than the other fruits. At the time of the study, pears and avocados were US $1.25 kg −1 while apples were US$0.75 kg −1 in the local market. So, a 50% price increase would only be US $0.38 for apples but US$0.63 for avocados and pears. The absolute price difference rather than the relative difference may have been a greater consideration for these consumers.) As demonstrated in Table 3, the consumers that were WTP more for locally grown fruits were on average younger, more educated, had higher household incomes and had more young children.The analysis of the multinominal logit (MNL) model collaborate the results that age, educational attainment and the number of young children in the household influenced the consumers' WTP more for locally produced apples, avocados and pears. The coefficients and marginal effects for these three variables were statistically significant for each of the fruits. The coefficients and marginal effects for the same variable across the three fruits had the same direction of statistical significance. (In a few cases, a coefficient was significant while the complementary average marginal effect for the variable was not significant or visa versa. This situation can occur because coefficients and the marginal effects are calculated differently. The coefficients are maximum likelihood estimations while the average marginal effects are the average across all participants of the effect (the partial derivative) that the variable being analyzed in the empirical equation has on the probability to choose the local fruit at the price level.) The direction of the statistical relationship for the age coefficients indicated that a younger consumer was more likely to be WTP more than older consumers for locally produced products. The direction of the statistical relationship for the education coefficients demonstrated that consumers that attended school longer had a higher probability to be WTP more for locally grown fruits. Finally, the direction of the statistical relationship for the number of children in a household under 14 revealed that the more children in a household the more probable the consumer was WTP more for the locally grown fruit.Tables 4-6 present the coefficients and average marginal effects for each of the variables across each of the bids presented to the participants of 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50% more for the locally grown fruit. Since WTP nothing was used as the base for comparison between it Gender A dummy variable that takes a value of '1' for a female respondent and '0' for a male consumer Age The respondents age in years Education The number of years of education completed by the respondent Income Per capita household income for the respondent's household ChildrenThe number of household members 14 years old or younger and each of the WTP scenarios, paying nothing more was not estimated. Several coefficients and marginal effects of a variable were found to be significant for one or two fruits but not across all three fruits, so no conclusion could be made about the effect of these variables on all locally produced fruits. For instance, per capita household income was a significant predictor of WTP for locally grown avocados and pears, but not for locally grown apples. Wealthier consumers were WTP more for locally grown avocados and pears.The average marginal effects estimates provide an average across all the participants of the probability of a consumer being WTP 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50% more for the local fruit from a unit increase of the variable. For example, a consumer that is 1 year younger than another would be 0.39% more probable to be WTP 30% more for a locally grown apple than a consumer that is a year older. Thus, a 30-year-old consumer would be 11.7% more probable to be WTP 30% more for locally raised apples than a 60-year-old consumer. Likewise, she would be 6.3% more probable to be WTP 50% more for locally produced avocados and 6.9% more probable to be WTP 50% for locally produced pears than the 60-yearold consumer would for these locally produced fruits.The participants in the CE indicated considerable confidence in their response. For each of the fruits, 97% of the consumers were either sure or very sure of their response. At most 3% of consumers indicated they were neither sure nor unsure of their response. No one indicated that she was unsure or very unsure about the WTP responses she provided. These results allowed us to have more confidence in the validity of the participants' responses than we would have if they were not sure of their responses.  The results from the CE for selected tree fruit purchases by consumers in Cusco, Peru lend support to the emerging body of research that suggests an unmet demand for local foods in urban areas of developing countries. A growing subset of Cusco consumers seeks out locally grown fruits and is likely to pay a premium for these products. Important was the finding that more educated and younger consumers were more probable to be WTP more for locally produced fruits. Thus, the demand for locally produced foods in Cusco is likely to expand with a growing economy and population and rising education levels. The findings in Cusco and those from other studies provide justification for local governments, NGOs and others to begin to explore options in support of the production, marketing and processing of food for nearly urban food systems. The vast majority of discussion in the rural development literature on smallholders and their engagement with markets continues to revolve around meeting the needs of distant buyers and consumers. The nurturing of urban-rural connections will require new approaches for building the capacities of local farmers and business and metrics for measuring progress. Approaches will need to address simultaneously the demand constraints to the localization of urban food systems expansion, including the potential to develop labeling and promotional material that allows urban consumers to distinguish locally produced products and marketing campaigns on the availability and characteristics of different locally produced foods during the year.We recognize that the most consumers in developing countries have budget constraints that limit their ability to spend more on food, reducing the options available to them to consume more nutritious and healthy foods and support social and environmental goals. Therefore, the building of stronger urban-rural connections at scale around food will be a long-term process, dependent on continued economic growth and effective strategies that bring together food system actors in ways that encourage growth in the demand for and supply of locally produced foods.In light of changing food preferences in urban areas, further research is needed to understand the buying patterns, information sources and eating preferences of consumers, who are most likely to seek out locally produced products and how to best target them. Methodologies that use experiments and observations that allow researchers to witness consumers' buying habits in seeking out local products and reactions to interventions to promote local foods (e.g. promotional materials, displays and labels) would not only allow researchers to validate or refute these results but also provide insights in creating programs to establish linkages between smallholders and nearby urban consumers. While urban consumers in some countries rely on supermarkets for a sizable share of their food purchases, in many countries, including Peru, traditional markets will continue to represent the bulk of fresh food purchases into the distant future. Deeper insights into options that support market sellers in the storage, branding and marketing of fresh foods in these markets will be necessary for development agencies to bring interventions in urban food systems to scale.Finally, there is a need to better understand smallholders, processors and intermediaries' ability to meet this growing demand for locally produced food and the potential bottlenecks in developing linkages between urban areas and nearby farmers. The development of new theories on urban-rural connections around food in developing countries is needed to encourage deeper discussion on the roles of consumers, businesses, governments and development agencies in driving change in the urban food system. Such research should target the needs of stakeholders in the food system to develop strategies to address these bottlenecks at different levels in the system and engage with consumers, farmers, businesses and governments; develop marketing opportunities for rural households; and ensure the access of urban consumers to healthy and nutritious food.","tokenCount":"5056"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"54f0d2c73ec7547b52b49a21938dadcf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8c71eea-e39c-4539-b067-95ec709b902a/retrieve","id":"-1990372411"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cdac0f95-e154-49b2-b796-f824118c3b5d","pagecount":"26","content":"Micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) remain widespread among people in sub-Saharan Africa [1][2][3][4][5] , where access to sufficient food from plant and animal sources that is rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) is limited due to socioeconomic and geographical reasons [4][5][6] . Here we report the micronutrient composition (calcium, iron, selenium and zinc) of staple cereal grains for most of the cereal production areas in Ethiopia and Malawi. We show that there is geospatial variation in the composition of micronutrients that is nutritionally important at subnational scales. Soil and environmental covariates of grain micronutrient concentrations included soil pH, soil organic matter, temperature, rainfall and topography, which were specific to micronutrient and crop type. For rural households consuming locally sourced foodincluding many smallholder farming communities-the location of residence can be the largest influencing factor in determining the dietary intake of micronutrients from cereals. Positive relationships between the concentration of selenium in grain and biomarkers of selenium dietary status occur in both countries. Surveillance of MNDs on the basis of biomarkers of status and dietary intakes from national-and regional-scale food-composition data 1-7 could be improved using subnational data on the composition of grain micronutrients. Beyond dietary diversification, interventions to alleviate MNDs, such as food fortification 8,9 and biofortification to increase the micronutrient concentrations in crops 10,11 , should account for geographical effects that can be larger in magnitude than intervention outcomes.Globally, more than two billion people are affected by one or more MNDs and the risks of deficiency are greater in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) than in most other regions [1][2][3]12 . These MNDs, which are also known as 'hidden hunger', remain a major challenge for achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger) by 2030 12 . Causes of MNDs include the inadequate intake of micronutrients -in particular, calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), iodine (I), selenium (Se), zinc (Zn) and vitamin A -especially in regions in which diets are dominated by cereals and where access to foods from plant and animal sources that are richer in nutrients is limited 11 . Most cereal grains have inherently small micronutrient concentrations, especially once bran and embryo fractions are removed during milling 10 . Cereal grains also contain large concentrations of anti-nutritional compounds such as phytates (inositol phosphate compounds), which inhibit the absorption of Ca, copper (Cu), Fe, magnesium (Mg) and Zn in the human gut 2,3,5,10 .The prevalence of MNDs must be estimated if policy responses are to be developed in the context of socioeconomic and environmental drivers of food system change 6 . The prevalence of MNDs can be determined from multiple sources of evidence. Biomarkers of status, including micronutrient concentrations or enzyme activities in blood and other tissues, are often used to assess population status 7,12,13 . However, establishing thresholds of sufficiency for biomarkers can be challenging due to variation in the ranges considered to be 'healthy' between demographic groups, physiological buffering and the influence of infection and inflammation, which can have short-term effects on circulating concentrations of micronutrients in the human body 7,14 . Biomarker studies also impose burdens on participants and technical challenges for the collection, storage and analysis of samples, especially in low-income settings. Complementary methods to estimate MND risks include measuring micronutrient intake from composite dietary analyses 15 or, more commonly, from estimates of intake from dietary recall 5 , household food consumption and expenditure data 5,16 and food balance sheets [1][2][3] .Estimates of the prevalence of MNDs from food supply and intake require reliable data on the micronutrient composition of food;national or international food-composition tables are routinely used in SSA 2,5 . However, data are typically limited to single values for each food-nutrient combination and are therefore of limited value for exploring spatial drivers of micronutrient intake. This is problematic given the widespread consumption of locally produced staple foods such as cereal grains among smallholder farming communities, and given that food micronutrient composition varies within countries 5,17 .Subnational food composition data have not yet been used to inform estimates of the prevalence of MNDs in SSA. This is despite a long history of studies in the fields of medical geology and veterinary sciences, which have linked human and livestock nutritional status to soil and landscape factors. These include studies on the micronutrients I 18 , Se 4,18,19 , molybdenum (Mo) 20 and cobalt (Co) 21 . Substantial variation in the Ca, Fe, Se and Zn concentrations of staple crops was recently reported from nine districts in Uganda and some of this variation was associated with soil characteristics 17 . The case for using subnational food composition data to estimate the prevalence of MNDs is strengthened by recent evidence of long-range geospatial variation in grain Se concentration being linked to biomarkers of Se dietary status. In parts of the Amhara region of Ethiopia, nutritionally important variation in the grain Se concentration of teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was associated with soil and landscape covariates at distances extending further than 100 km, which is similar to patterns seen among human biomarkers of Se dietary status 22,23 . In Malawi, human Se dietary status was associated with variation in the grain Se concentration in maize (Zea mays L.) at localized scales 4,5,15,[24][25][26] . Grain sampling for micronutrient quality has not yet been conducted systematically at wider geographical scales in SSA.Grain micronutrient concentrations in cereal crops are reported here from 1,389 locations in Ethiopia, based on a spatially balanced sample in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions, during the late-2017 and late-2018 harvest seasons. The sampling frame represents a subset of around 354,000 km 2 of cultivated land-representative of most of the cereal production area in Ethiopia (Fig. 1)-which was constrained to accessible locations that were less than 2.5 km from a known road. At each location, a grain sample and a co-located composite soil sample were taken with the informed consent of the farmer. Grain samples reported from Ethiopia included teff (n = 373), wheat (n = 328), maize (n = 302), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench; n = 138), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.; n = 181) and finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.; n = 39), with a smaller number of triticale (× Triticosecale Wittm. ex A. Camus; n = 20) and rice (Oryza sativa L.; n = 8) samples. In Malawi, grain micronutrient concentrations are reported from 1,812 locations, which were sampled during the April-June 2018 harvest season. The Malawi sampling frame represents around 66,000 km 2 of cultivated land (Fig. 1). Cereal production in Malawi is less diverse than in Ethiopia and grain samples comprised mostly maize (n = 1,608) samples, together with sorghum (n = 117), rice (n = 54), pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.; n = 32) samples and a single finger millet sample. Sampling designs, grain analyses and geostatistical methods expanded on those described for part of the Amhara region 22 (Extended Data Figs. 1-9 and Extended Data Tables 1-3).Grain Ca, Fe, Se and Zn concentrations varied substantially between and within crop species (Fig. 2 and Extended Data Table 1). Maize typically had the lowest concentration of all four micronutrients; people relying on maize-based diets are therefore likely to have the lowest micronutrient intakes. Finger millet is a good potential source of Ca, with a median grain Ca concentration (4,574 mg kg -1 ; range, 3,203-6,264 mg kg -1 ) that is almost two orders of magnitude greater than in maize (median, 64.5 mg kg -1 ) in Ethiopia. The single finger millet sample from Malawi had a grain Ca concentration of 3,564 mg kg -1 , which is consistent with the large Ca concentrations that have been reported for finger millet flour from markets in Malawi 26 (range, 2,900-4,700 mg kg -1 ). A screen of finger millet varieties in India 27 showed a grain Ca concentration range of 1,350-3,120 mg kg -1 (n = 49 genotypes), indicating that the trait is conserved across the species. Although the bioavailability of Ca in finger millet will be limited by phytate, as it is for teff, which also had a high grain Ca concentration in Ethiopia (median, 1,473 mg kg -1 ; range, 46.8-7,925 mg kg -1 ), fermenting flour to produce injera (a thin flat bread that is commonly consumed in Ethiopia) increases the bioavailability of Ca and other mineral micronutrients by stimulating endogenous phytase enzymes 28 . Within-species variation in grain Ca, Fe, Se and Zn concentrations will arise due to spatial variation in soil and landscape factors, and the effects of extrinsic soil dust. The potential effects of soil dust are pronounced for Fe; soil total Fe concentrations (medians, 92,744 and 28,804 mg kg -1 for Ethiopia and Malawi, respectively) are more than three orders of magnitude larger than median grain Fe concentrations of 20.3 and 21.3 mg kg -1 for maize grain in Ethiopia and Malawi, respectively. Grain concentrations of Se and Zn are less sensitive to soil dust due to the much lower total concentrations of these elements in soils (medians, 0.35 and 0.32 mg kg -1 for Se and 100.1 and 33.7 mg kg -1 for Zn, in Ethiopia and Malawi, respectively).This study focused on mineral concentrations in grain of teff and wheat for Ethiopia and maize for Malawi. These crops were chosen because they comprise a large proportion of the energy intake in national diets and have good spatial coverage in the survey. Grain concentration maps were based on ordinary kriging. Kriging variances-the expected squared error of the predictions-quantify the uncertainties in the maps (Extended Data Figs. 3, 4). The dietary contribution for each crop-nutrient combination was then mapped as a percentage of dietary requirements and visualized on quartile scales from yellow (small) to dark red (large). These calculations used food balance sheets from the Food and Agriculture Organization 29 and assumed estimated average requirement (EAR) thresholds for a representative demographic group-adult women aged 18-24 years eating an unrefined (that is, high phytate) diet 30 .There is spatially dependent variation in grain Ca, Fe, Se and Zn concentrations over large distances in Ethiopia and Malawi (Figs. 3, 4). These observations are likely to be of nutritional importance given that most cereals are grown, milled and consumed locally in Ethiopia 31 and Malawi 5 , because they show that the dietary supply and intake of these nutrients varies substantially from one location to another. In Ethiopia, spatial dependencies were seen over distances from 100 to 200 km for the concentration of Ca in teff, for the concentrations of Fe in teff and wheat, and for the concentration of Se in wheat (Extended Data Fig. 2 and Extended Data Table 3). For grain Se and Zn concentrations in teff, and grain Ca and Zn concentrations in wheat, longer-range spatial variation extends beyond 250 km. In Malawi, the spatial dependence of the variation in grain Ca, Fe and Se concentration of maize occurs at distances of 50-80 km. For the concentration of Zn in maize grain in Malawi, more of the variation was attributable to differences over distances that were too short to be resolved by our sampling frame, although the value of the variogram still increased at distances up to 100 km.In Ethiopia, the Ca concentrations in teff and wheat grain were generally greater in crops sampled from north, northeast and east Tigray region, north and northwest Amhara region and from areas of the Rift   Valley than crops from most of the Amhara region (Fig. 3). A trend of increasing grain Se concentrations in teff and wheat 22 and increasing Se dietary status of children 31 from the west to the east of the Amhara region has been reported previously. The largest grain Fe and Zn concentrations in teff and wheat were in north Amhara, Tigray and northwest and southwest Oromia regions. In Malawi, maize grain Ca, Se, Zn and-to a lesser extent-Fe concentrations are typically greater in the Shire Valley of the southern region, than in the northern and central regions (Fig. 4). These observations are consistent with observations that crops growing on localized soil types (for example, Vertisols) have greater grain micronutrient concentrations than crops growing on more weathered, acidic soils 4,5,25,26 . As in Ethiopia, geographical areas with the largest maize grain Se concentration in Malawi co-located with areas of Se sufficiency that have been reported in both cross-sectional studies 15 and representative surveillance analyses 24 of human biomarkers of Se dietary status.Links between grain micronutrient concentration and a dietary outcome were observed for Se, for which there is a reliable biomarker of dietary status 7,13 . Biomarker data for Se for 321 enumeration areas in Ethiopia 23 and 101 enumeration areas in Malawi 24 are available from recent National Micronutrient Surveys. For each enumeration area, the nearest grain sample site for any crop type was identified. In both countries, there is a statistically significant positive relationship between the Se concentration in grain and the Se concentration in serum (Ethiopia) and plasma (Malawi) (Extended Data Fig. 5). Direct evidence of links between the grain concentration of other micronutrients, biomarkers of dietary status and health outcomes remains a major research challenge.Soil and environmental factors that influence variation in grain micronutrients-for teff, wheat and maize in Ethiopia, and for maize in Malawi-were observed (Extended Data Figs. 6-9 and Extended Data Table 3). For example, soil pH was statistically significantly correlated with grain Se concentration for all crops in both countries (positive relationships). Grain Zn concentration was significantly correlated with soil pH for teff in Ethiopia (negative relationship) and for maize in both countries (positive relationships). Further studies of contrasting responses to soil pH, observed in teff and maize, are needed. However, the generally weak predictive value of soil pH on grain Zn concentration (Extended Data Figs. 7, 9) is consistent with a survey of staple crops in Uganda 17 . Soil organic carbon was significantly correlated with grain Se concentration in wheat in Ethiopia (negative relationship), grain Zn concentration in wheat in Ethiopia (positive relationship) and grain Zn concentration in maize in both countries (positive relationships). Grain micronutrient composition was also significantly correlated with at least one environmental covariate for each micronutrient, crop and country. In Ethiopia, grain Se concentration was negatively correlated with mean annual precipitation for each crop and was positively correlated with mean annual temperature for teff and wheat in Ethiopia and maize in Malawi. Mean annual temperature and topographic index-a measure of soil wetness at a site-were positively correlated with grain Zn concentration for maize in Malawi. Multivariate spatial statistical modelling could be informative about soil and environmental factors that jointly influence the variation of grain micronutrient concentration; however, this requires additional statistical assumptions and is beyond the scope of this study.In Ethiopia, the proportion of dietary Ca requirements that can be met by the consumption of teff and wheat is much greater than for maize in Malawi, however, it is still likely to be less than 25% of the required amount for most of the population (Fig. 3). In Malawi, maize intake provides less than 3% of dietary Ca requirements for many, despite providing more than 50% of dietary energy requirements (Fig. 4). Cereals provide a greater proportion of the dietary Fe, Se and Zn requirements than Ca in both countries. For example, for some rural households in Malawi, more than 100% of dietary Fe, Se and Zn requirements will be met by eating locally produced maize alone. However, most households will receive less than 25% of Se, less than 50% of Fe and less than 75% of their Zn requirements from a typical consumption pattern for maize.Surveillance of MNDs and food system foresighting activities currently rely on national or international food composition data to estimate micronutrient supply as a proxy for intake 6,7 . Subnational food composition data are not yet used, probably because of the logistical and conceptual challenges in generating data in the required forms. Challenges include sampling crops across large areas during short harvest periods, analysing large numbers of samples and associated data in areas in which access to suitable laboratories and trained personnel is often lacking, and communicating sparse data and associated uncertainties. Spatial dependencies in the grain micronutrient concentrations found in this study can be communicated simply using localized administrative level boundaries. Mean grain Ca and Zn concentrations for teff and wheat show spatial trends when mapped to woreda administrative levels in the Amhara region of Ethiopia using geostatistical models and block kriging (Fig. 5). Ideally, improved access to diverse diets would alleviate many MNDs 1-6 . However, this is unlikely to be feasible in the shorter term for many people for socioeconomic reasons 6 . A crop micronutrient survey within a country could inform shorter-term interventions to alleviate MNDs. Such interventions include supplementation 32 , food fortification 8,9 and biofortification of staple crops through breeding and agronomic approaches 10,11 . For example, Zn-biofortified wheat varieties, which were recently released in India and Pakistan 33,34 , have been bred with a target to increase Zn concentrations by 8-12 mg kg -1 above a notional baseline grain Zn concentration of 25 mg kg -1 . Similarly, increases in grain Zn concentration in new Zn-biofortified hybrid maize varieties of 15% in Guatemala (ICTA HB-18 and ICTA B-15) and 36% in Colombia (BIO-MZN01), with target levels of around 30 mg kg -1 , have been reported 35 . Here, geographical differences in grain Zn concentration, in both wheat (Ethiopia) and maize (Malawi), can exceed these breeding targets. Subnational spatial sources of variation could support priority areas for the release of new crop varieties or micronutrient fertilization strategies and improve impact evaluations of biofortification interventions. The persistence of MNDs is clearly more complex than micronutrient supply in cereal grains 36 . For example, livestock are important components of diverse diets and income; identifying areas of lower concentrations of micronutrients in forage crops could inform strategies to improve livestock health and production 20,21 .This study did not explore the effects of crop variety (genotype) or farmer management strategies (management), which will contribute substantially to the variation in yield and grain micronutrient concentrations, even over short distances within and between fields of the same farm 37,38 . For example, the preferential use of locally sourced organic materials by smallholder farmers on certain fields can improve the quality and yield of grain micronutrients in maize-based 38 and wheat-based 39 systems in SSA. Temporal variation in environmental (environment) factors, such as the projected decreases in cereal grain micronutrient concentrations due to increased atmospheric CO 2 -of 6% for Fe and 9% for Zn in wheat by the mid-twenty-first century 40 -and increased leaching of soil Se under higher rainfall 41 , should also be considered. However, rising temperatures may compensate for some of these effects in terms of grain micronutrient quality 42 . A better understanding of how the complex interactions between genotype, management and environment drive crop micronutrient quality within diverse, climate-smart farming systems is essential for a more-sustainable global food system.Any methods, additional references, Nature Research reporting summaries, source data, extended data, supplementary information, acknowledgements, peer review information; details of author contributions and competing interests; and statements of data and code availability are available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03559-3.  The map on the right shows the analysed area.Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Grain and soil samplings from farmers' fields were completed in November-December 2017 (for most of Amhara region) and November 2018-January 2019 (Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions) in Ethiopia, and in April-June 2018 in Malawi. The work involved sampling of grain and soil from farmers' fields and grain stores with the informed consent of the farmers. The work was conducted under ethical approvals from the University of Nottingham, School of Sociology and Social Policy Research Ethics Committee (REC); BIO-1718-0004 and BIO-1819-001 for Ethiopia and Malawi, respectively. These REC approvals were recognized formally by the Directors of Research at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi), who also reviewed the study protocols.The objective of this study was to support the spatial mapping of grain Ca, Fe, Se and Zn concentration of cereal crops. We sought reasonable spatial coverage over the target sample frame and used 'main-site' and 'close-pair' sampling to support the estimation of parameters of the spatial linear mixed model (LMM) 22,43 .In Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions), target sample frames were constrained to locations at which the probability of the land being under crop production was ≥0.9 based on predictions produced on a 250-m grid. These predictions were derived from the interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery by trained observers and by machine learning methods applied to multiple covariates derived from remote sensing data and digital elevation models 44,45 . The sample frame was further constrained to include only those locations from a 250-m grid that fell within 2.5 km of a known road. A map indicating nodes on a 250-m grid (with the same origin as the agricultural land-use grid) that met this requirement was prepared. These constraints may introduce possible biases into predictions made at locations outside the designed sample frame, however, it would not otherwise have been possible to visit all of the sample locations in the time available. Information on the distribution of roads was taken from OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org). Of a total land area of around 1.1 million km 2 in Ethiopia, the total cropland mask represented 354,325 km 2 , of which 220,467 km 2 was within 2.5 km of a known road. In Malawi, the cropland area was determined from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative 46 . The agricultural area used was defined as including all raster cells that included the category of 'cropland' in their description. In Malawi, where road access to cropped areas is generally better than in Ethiopia, no constraint to road distance was imposed on sample locations. The mapped cropland areas are shown in Fig. 1.In Ethiopia, a total of 1,825 primary sample locations were selected a priori, with each 250-m grid node within the sampling frame allocated an equal prior inclusion probability. This was done using the lcube function from the BalancedSampling library for the R platform 47,48 . The lcube function implements the cube method, to enable random sampling according to specified inclusion probabilities while aiming for balance and spread with respect to the specified covariates 49 . Here, inclusion probabilities were uniform across the sample frame and sample locations were selected for spatial balance, which entails that the mean coordinates of sample locations are close to the mean coordinates of all points in the sample frame, and spatial spread, which ensures that the observations are spread out rather than clustered with respect to the spatial coordinates 50 . A subset of 175 of these locations were selected as close-pair sites at which an additional nearby sample was taken to support the estimation of parameters of the spatial LMM 43 .In Malawi, a different sampling method was used to achieve good spatial coverage of a total of 1,710 main-site locations. These included 820 fixed sample points from the 2015/16 Demographic and Health Survey of Malawi 24,51 . The stratify function in the spcosa library for the R platform 52 divides a sampling domain into Delaunay polygons centred on a set of fixed points and with the remaining polygon centroids selected to partition the domain into approximately equal-area regions. The centroids of the polygons were selected as sample points. An additional 890 sample points were found in addition to the 820 fixed ones, with the stratify function. Once these were obtained, a further 190 locations were selected at random as close-pair sites for an additional nearby sample, as in Ethiopia.Sampling was conducted by teams who were trained in standard procedures and risk assessments. Each team planned to visit five main-site locations per day. Main-site locations were loaded onto a computer tablet and printed on paper maps for each team. A team would navigate to the target location, using a handheld GPS device for the last few kilometres. At each sample location, the team would identify the nearest field with a mature cereal crop within a 1-km radius, and sample grain and soil, subject to farmer consent. If a field with a standing mature cereal crop was not apparent, that is, the crop had been harvested, or a non-cereal crop had been grown, the team would ask the farmer to identify a field from which a cereal crop had recently been harvested and stored, and from which a sample could be obtained. If sampling was not possible, then the team would either look beyond a 1-km radius for an alternative location, or abandon the location. At designated close-pair locations, a second field was identified ideally within around 500 m (range, 100-1,000 m) of the main-site location. If a close-pair location could not be found, then a close-pair location would be selected at the next sample location that was not already earmarked for a close-pair sample.Within a selected field, samples were taken from a 100 m 2 (0.01 ha) circular plot. This was centred as close as practical to the middle of the field unless this area was unrepresentative due to disease or crop damage. Five subsample points were located (Extended Data Fig. 1). The first point was at the centre of the plot. Two subsample points were then selected at locations on a line through the plot centre along the crop rows, and two more points on a line orthogonal to the first through the plot centre. Where possible, the central sampling location was fixed between crop rows, and the long axis of the sample array (with sample locations at 5.64 and 4.89 m) was oriented in the direction of crop rows with the short axis perpendicular to the crop rows. A single soil subsample was collected at each of the five subsample points with a Dutch auger with a flight of length of 150 mm and diameter of 50 mm. The auger was inserted vertically to the depth of one flight and the five subsamples were stored in a single bag. Where a mature or ripe crop was still standing in the field, grain samples were taken close to each augering position by a different operator, to minimize further contamination by dust and soil. For maize, a single cob was taken at each of the five points. Maize kernels were stripped from around 50% of each cob lengthways and composited into a single sample envelope for each location. For smaller-grained crops, sufficient stalks were taken so that approximately 20-50% of the sample envelope was filled (dimensions 15 cm × 22 cm), with samples placed grain-first into the sample bag and the stalks were twisted off the grain heads and discarded. If a crop was in field stacks, then a subsample, comprising five cobs for maize, or a representative sample for other crops was taken from each available stack, taking material from inside the stack to minimize contamination by dust and soil (Extended Data Fig. 1). If a crop was in a farmers' store, that is, already averaged from across the field, then a representative sample was taken, while avoiding grain from the store floor if grain was loosely stored and avoiding grain with visible soil or dust contamination.Photographs at sample locations and of sample bags were recorded for quality assurance along with site GPS locations. In Ethiopia, 1,385 of the 1,389 locations from where grain data are reported had positional uncertainties of ≤8 m as recorded by the GPS. The other four locations had positional uncertainties of 9-16 m. In Malawi, 1,790 of the 1,812 locations had positional uncertainties of ≤9 m. A further 16 locations had positional uncertainties of 10-17 m, and 6 locations had positional uncertainties of 2,900-5,000 m. We took a decision not to exclude any data based on positional uncertainties for this study. We used robust estimators of the variograms (Extended Data Fig. 2), which are resistant to effects of spatial outliers due to a small number of points being in the wrong position 53 and these models were validated. Any effect of position error on the broad mapped pattern of long-range spatial variation at these scales will therefore be very limited and localized.Whole-grain samples were air-dried in their sample bags. Each sample was then ground in a domestic stainless-steel coffee grinder, which was wiped clean before use and after each sample with a non-abrasive cloth. Whole grains are consumed in many settings, although more-refined fractions-with concomitant losses of more micronutrient-rich bran and endosperm fractions-are often consumed. All preparation was done away from sources of contamination by soil or by dust. A 20-g subsample of the ground material was then shipped to the University of Nottingham. Soil samples were oven-dried at 40 °C for 24-48 h depending on the moisture content of the soil. Preparation took place in a soil laboratory to avoid cross-contamination with grain samples. Plant material was removed from each soil sample, which was then disaggregated and sieved to pass 2 mm. This material was then coned and quartered to produce subsample splits. A 150-g subsample of soil was poured into a self-seal bag, labelled and shipped to the UK for analysis in the laboratories at the University of Nottingham and Rothamsted Research. Soil pH (water) and soil organic carbon (SOC) content were measured using standard methods 22 .Grain micronutrient analysis methods followed standard methods 54 . Approximately 0.2 g of each ground sample was weighed and digested using a microwave system. For samples collected in the Amhara region in 2017, a Multiwave 3000 48-vessel MF50 rotor (Anton Paar) was used; digestion vessels were perfluoroalkoxy tubes in polyethylethylketone pressure jackets (Anton Paar). Samples were digested in 2 ml 70% trace-analysis-grade HNO 3 , 1 ml Milli-Q water (18.2 MΩ cm; Fisher Scientific) and 1 ml H 2 O 2 . Settings were: 1,400 W, 140 °C, 2 MPa, for 45 min. For samples collected in 2018-2019, we used a Multiwave Prom 41HVT56 rotor and pressure-activated venting vessels made of modified polytetrafluoroethylene (56-ml 'SMART VENT', Anton Paar). Samples were digested in 6 ml of 70% trace-analysis-grade HNO 3 . Settings were: 1,500 W, 10 min heating to 140 °C, 20 min holding at 140 °C, and 15 min cooling to 55 °C. Two operational blanks were typically included in each digestion run. Duplicate samples of a certified reference material (Wheat flour SRM 1567b, NIST) were included in approximately every fourth digestion run. Following digestion, each tube was made up to a final volume of 15 ml by adding 11 ml Milli-Q water, then transferred to a 25-ml universal tube (Sarstedt) and stored at room temperature. Samples were further diluted 1:5 with Milli-Q water into 13-ml tubes (Sarstedt) before analysis.Multi-elemental analysis of grain (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Ca, Cd, Cr, Co, Cs, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Sr, Ti, Tl, U, V and Zn) was undertaken using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; iCAPQ, Thermo Fisher Scientific). The instrument used a helium collision cell with kinetic energy discrimination to reduce polyatomic interferences. Samples were introduced from an autosampler incorporating an ASXpress rapid uptake module (Cetac ASX-520, Teledyne Technologies) through a perfluoroalkoxy Microflow PFA-ST nebuliser (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Internal standards were introduced to the sample stream on a separate line via the ASXpress unit and included Sc (20 μg l -1 ), Rh (10 μg l -1 ), Ge (10 μg l -1 ) and Ir (5 μg l -1 ) in 2% HNO 3 (Primar Plus grade; Fisher Scientific). An external multi-element calibration standard (Claritas-PPT grade CLMS-2; SPEX Certiprep) was used to calibrate Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Cd, Ca, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Se, Sr, Tl, U, V and Zn, in the range of 0-100 μg l -1 (0, 20, 40, 100 μg l -1 ). A bespoke external multi-element calibration solution (PlasmaCAL, SCP Science) was used to create Ca, K, Mg and Na standards in the range of 0-30 mg l -1 . B, P and S calibration used in-house standard solutions (KH 2 PO 4 , K 2 SO 4 and H 3 BO 3 ); Ti was determined semiquantitatively. Sample processing was undertaken using Qtegra software (Thermo Fisher Scientific) with external cross-calibration between pulse-counting and analogue detector modes when required. Se was determined separately using a triple quadrupole ICP-MS (iCAP TQ; Thermo Fisher Scientific) using an oxygen cell to mass shift the isotope 80 Se to m/z 96 ( 80 Se 16 O) to reduce interference from the 40 Ar dimer. Drift correction was achieved using Rh as an internal standard; calibration used the CLMS-2 multi-element standard (Certiprep).Analyses were conducted in batches of around 240 samples per run on the ICP-MS instrument (Extended Data Table 1). Individual grain concentration data were corrected for run-specific operational blanks and then converted to concentration on a dry-matter basis. Element-specific limits of detection were reported as 3× the standard deviation of the operational blank concentrations, assuming a notional starting dry weight of 0.2 g of sample material (Extended Data Table 1). For samples for which the grain element concentration was less than the limit of detection, data were removed before the statistical analyses.No adjustment was made for potential contamination of grain samples, for example, with soil dust from the field or store using typical markers (for example, Fe, V). Two sorghum samples, taken from a grain store in Malawi, were excluded from the data analysis based on high concentrations of Ca, Mg and other elements that were considered unlikely to have arisen from soil contamination.Summary statistics were computed for concentrations of all elements in grain and histograms were examined. It is common for geochemical variables to be log-normally distributed, and the coefficient of skewness of the data was examined using octile skewness as a robust measure of asymmetry of the distribution 55 . The data were analysed on the original scales of measurement (mg kg -1 ) if the octile skewness was within the interval [−0.2, 0, 2] as described previously 56 . If the octile skewness fell outside this range (with a positive value), and the absolute value of the octile skewness after log e transformation was smaller than on the original scale, then the data were analysed on the log e scale (Extended Data Tables 1, 2).Variograms were estimated for each variable using three estimators (Extended Data Table 2): the standard estimator 57 and two alternatives 58,59 . The two alternative estimators are more robust than the standard estimator to outlying data, be these marginal outliers (apparent on the histogram) or spatial outliers (apparent in local spatial context). The variogram estimates were formed from all pairwise comparisons among observations up to a maximum lag distance (330 km in Ethiopia and 100 km in Malawi), and with lag bins with a width of 10 km. The distance between any two locations (specified by latitude and longitude) was computed as the great circle distance using the distVincentySphere function from the geosphere library of the R platform 47,60 . Exponential variogram functions were then fitted to the estimates by weighted least squares 61 . The exponential variogram was selected because it ensures positive definite covariance matrices for distances on the sphere 62 . Each model was then tested by cross-validation. The selected models are shown in Extended Data Fig. 2.In cross-validation, each observation was removed and predicted from the remaining observations by ordinary kriging. This was done using each variogram model fitted for each variable to the sets of point estimates computed by the three estimators. The standardized squared prediction error (SSPE) was computed for each observation as the squared difference between the observed and predicted values divided by the prediction error variance (kriging variance) as computed in the standard ordinary kriging equations 53 . The median value of the SSPE has an expected value of 0.455 in the case of a valid underlying variogram model with normally distributed kriging errors 53 . The standard estimator due to Matheron 57 is more statistically efficient than the robust alternatives, so if the model fitted to these estimates appeared correct from the cross-validation results (the median SSPE is within the 95% confidence interval) then the alternatives were not considered. If the SSPE suggests that the model fitted to Matheron estimates are affected by outliers, then the models fitted to robust estimates were also cross-validated, and one was selected on the cross-validation results 53 .Once a variogram model was selected it was used to compute predictions of the grain concentration (with or without transformation) on nodes of a fine square grid. This was done by ordinary kriging 61 . In ordinary kriging, it is assumed that the mean value of the variable of interest is locally constant, but unknown. An estimate is found that is a linear combination of the observations such that the expected squared error of the prediction (the ordinary kriging variance) is minimized. The kriging variance is also computed as a measure of the uncertainty of the prediction. For a given variogram, the kriging variance reflects the proximity of the location at which a prediction is made to observations of the variable of interest. In the case of variables that had been transformed to logarithms, the prediction at each location was computed by exponentiation of the prediction on the log e scale. The resulting back-transformed estimate is a median-unbiased predictor, which is appropriate for variables with a skewed distribution 63 . Note, the kriging variance cannot be meaningfully back-transformed. However, it still indicates how the uncertainty of the predictions varies in space and so it is mapped here on the log e scale for transformed variables. The kriging variance maps are shown in Extended Data Figs. 3, 4. In Ethiopia, where the sample sites are irregularly distributed over the mapped area, the kriging variance differs markedly depending on the local sample density.In Ethiopia, we mapped the percentage of dietary requirement potentially met by the intake of wheat and teff (Fig. 3); similarly, in Malawi for maize (Fig. 4). In Ethiopia, 97.6 g per capita per day of wheat and 89.3 g per capita per day for teff (based on the Food and Agriculture Organization database item, 'other cereals') were used as reference intakes 29 ; in Malawi, 342.8 g per capita per day was used as a reference maize intake 29 . Estimated average requirement (EAR) thresholds of 860, 22.4, 45 and 10.2 mg per capita per day for Ca, Fe, Se and Zn, respectively, were chosen as a representative threshold, based on an adult woman aged 18-24 years eating an unrefined (that is, high phytate) diet 30 . These thresholds are similar to other demographic groups. Because a comparable measure of uncertainty to the kriging variance for this derived variable is not available, we defined a mask for Ethiopia, where the sparsity of sampling leads to larger uncertainty compared with Malawi. We considered the Zn concentration in teff, a variable with spatial dependence over long distances, and identified those areas in which the kriging variance for this variable exceeded 75% of the variance of the variable itself because the sampling was sparse. These areas defined the mask used for the maps of the percentage of dietary requirement for all variables and is shown in grey in Fig. 3.The maps shown in Figs. 3, 4 are made by point kriging-that is, they are predictions of a measurement at an unsampled site. Ordinary kriging can also be used to predict the mean value of a variable across a region or 'block' 61 . To illustrate the communication value of this approach, the mean concentrations of Zn and of Ca in grain (teff and wheat) are shown at the woreda level in the Amhara region (Fig. 5). These were obtained by block kriging of woreda means from the same sample data, and with the same variogram models as used to produce the point kriging predictions.Determining the links between a dietary biomarker of status and grain micronutrient concentration focused here on Se, for which there is a reliable biomarker of dietary status 13 ; this is not the case for Zn 7 and the other micronutrients analysed in this study. Data on the concentration of Se in the blood of women of reproductive age were available from micronutrient surveys in Ethiopia (serum 23 ) and Malawi (plasma 24 ). Mean concentrations were computed for each enumeration area available-321 in Ethiopia and 101 in Malawi-for which the latitude and longitude for each enumeration area centroid were available. For each enumeration area, the nearest grain sample site (regardless of crop) was found. In Ethiopia, the median distance to the nearest grain sample site over all enumeration areas was 17 km. In Malawi, the median distance was much shorter (1.4 km), which is attributable both to the denser crop sampling in Malawi and to the fact that enumeration areas used for the micronutrient survey were targeted for sampling.The enumeration areas do not comprise a simple independent random sample, so the relation between the serum or plasma Se concentration and the Se concentration in the nearest grain sample could not be quantified by a statistic such as the correlation coefficient. It was therefore studied with an appropriate LMM incorporating a spatially correlated random effect, modelled with a Matérn correlation function 64 . Exploratory analysis indicated that a log e transformation of all serum or plasma Se concentrations was necessary for the assumption of normal random effects to be plausible. The observed serum or plasma Se concentration was modelled as a linear function of the concentration in grain at the nearest sample location. Residual maximum likelihood was used to estimate the random effects parameters. The fixed effects were then estimated by weighted least squares 65 along with their standard errors. The evidence against the null hypothesis that the regression coefficient for serum or plasma Se on grain Se concentrations was zero was tested by a log-likelihood ratio test.Plots of the serum or plasma Se concentration in women of reproductive age, in Ethiopia and Malawi, respectively, show a positive correlation between the variables (Extended Data Fig. 5), which is supported by the statistical models. For Ethiopia, the estimated regression coefficient (log[ng serum Se per ml] and log[mg of grain Se per kg]) was 0.08 with a standard error of 0.02. The null hypothesis that the coefficient was zero is rejected on the grounds of the log-likelihood ratio statistic (L = 14.48, P = 1.4 × 10 −4 ). If there was no relationship between the biomarker and the grain Se concentrations, the probability of obtaining an L-statistic this large or larger would be very small. Similarly, for Malawi, the estimated regression coefficient was 0.09 with a standard error of 0.03 (L = 11.56, P = 6.7 × 10 −4 ).Data on the concentration of Se and of Zn in grain (maize in Malawi; teff, wheat and maize in Ethiopia) were extracted along with the corresponding data on soil pH (water) and SOC. Observations for three environmental covariates were also extracted for these same locations: (1) mean annual temperature; (2) mean annual precipitation values from the CHELSA datasets 66,67 , which are downscaled to a spatial resolution of 30 s; (3) topographic index values from the 30-s resolution MERIT Digital Elevation Model 68 . The topographic index-which is sometimes called the topographic wetness index-is a measure of the tendency for drainage to accumulate at a site and is widely used as a predictive measure for soil properties. Following exploratory analysis, grain Se concentration data were log e -transformed to make the assumption of normal random effects plausible; this was not necessary for grain Zn. Measurements of SOC from Malawi showed a marked positive skew and were therefore log e -transformed.Data were analysed using a LMM in which a regression-type function of environmental covariates was considered as a fixed effect along with a spatially autocorrelated random effect, as described for the biomarker data. Random-effect parameters were estimated by maximum likelihood, and then the fixed-effect parameters by weighted least squares. The first model was fitted with a constant mean as the only fixed effect. The second model was fitted with mean annual precipitation as a fixed effect. The evidence for this predictor was evaluated by a log-likelihood ratio test of the second model against the first. The predictor was retained initially if the probability of obtaining a value of L as large or larger than observed under the null hypothesis of no effect of the predictor was <0.05. Additional predictors were then considered in the order of mean annual temperature then topographic index. Finally, the P values were evaluated as the outcome of multiple tests, controlling the false-discovery rate (FDR) 69 at 0.05. The FDR is the expected proportion of incorrectly rejected null hypotheses among all rejected ones. For each micronutrient in each crop and country, the predictors were identified that could be regarded as significant with FDR control at 0.05. The same procedure was followed to produce a comparable model based on the two soil properties, considering first soil pH and then SOC.Plots of grain Se and Zn concentrations against the environmental covariates and soil properties are shown in Extended Data Figs. 6-9. The evidence for environmental covariates or soil properties as predictors of micronutrient content in the grain is summarized in Extended Data Table 3. Extended Data Table 3 also shows the estimated coefficients, and their standard errors, in separate models for each micronutrient; for maize, teff or wheat in Ethiopia and for maize in Malawi. The predictors in these models are only those that were selected with FDR control.","tokenCount":"7736"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a24262b647c799b1ce7be7d1721df9e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1562a770-3e80-482f-a687-7e45432d447f/retrieve","id":"323499175"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f7b9a6ed-7427-4fb0-aca0-374e40b409af","pagecount":"7","content":"Following the launch of the CSA strategy for the Central American Integration System (2017), supported by CCAFS, actors from all levels (local, national, regional/international) implemented 259 transformations aligned with the strategy's objectives toward scaling Climate Smart Agriculture. These transformations include CSA policy formulation and implementation, capacity strengthening and partnership around CSA, mechanisms to facilitate and articulate climate financing. Most of the transformations are concentrated in the policy area. Guatemala and Costa Rica experienced more change in the region.Changes in average temperature and precipitation patterns make Central America one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. The effects of these events are already being felt in food security, agricultural productivity, water, ecosystems, among others. Of particular importance for Central America is the implementation of the Climate-Smart Agricultural Strategy for the Central American Integration System region (EASAC) [1]. The EASAC, which was launched in 2017 and whose formulation was fed by scientific research generated by CCAFS [2,3], has been the main reference for guiding policies and interventions in the region in relation to agriculture and climate change. Approved by eight ministries of agriculture of the Central American System of integration (SICA) [4], and with the support of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), since its launch have been achieved 259 transformations, aligned with the EASAC objectives, occurred at the national level (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá, Belize y Dominican Republic) and regional levels, attesting of a great dynamic toward CSA scaling in the region [5]. These transformations cover policy, institutional, and financial frameworks of the countries and region, with the aim of promoting a more competitive, inclusive, sustainable, and climate-smart agriculture. While most of the transformations are policy-related, changes have also been found in the creation and promotion of initiatives, alliances, and CSA dialogue spaces at regional and national levels, and at the strengthening of CSA capacities of governments, research actors, and extension systems at the national level [6]. To achieve these transformations, technical and financial support from international cooperation agencies has been vital. What we can conclude from the transformations observed through the preliminary results from a theory-based impact assessment [5,6], is that climate-smart agriculture potential for scaling up still has a lot to offer with a focus on building an agriculture adapted to climate change and climate variability.• Central America is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate extreme events and climate change [1]. To address this issue, In Central America, the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) with the support of CCAFS, CIAT, IICA, FAO, ECLAC, and CATIE; formulated and adopted for Central American Integration System (SICA) the Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy (EASAC) [2,3]. The EASAC was launched in June 2017 [4]. Since then, and although the EASAC was launched only 3 years ago, 259 transformations, aligned with the EASAC objectives, occurred at the national level (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize y Dominican Republic) and regional levels attesting of a great dynamic toward CSA scaling in the region.These transformations are related to the policy, institutional, and financial frameworks of the countries and region. In total 226 transformations happened at the country level, while 33 transformations occurred at the regional level. Most of the transformations are related to changes at the policy level (CSA policy formulation/adjustment) (193 transformations). Then institutional transformations were identified related to the creation and promotion of coordination initiatives, alliances, and CSA dialogue spaces at regional and national levels, and the strengthening of CSA capacities of governments, research actors, and extension systems at the national level (45 transformations). On the financial level, technical and financial support from international cooperation agencies has been crucial to the observed transformations in the countries and region (23).Guatemala [5] and Costa Rica [6] are the countries experiencing more transformations. Honduras [7], El Salvador [8] and Nicaragua [9] show average progress while Panama [10], the Dominican Republic [11], and Belize [12] are the countries with the lowest number of transformations observed.Actors from International cooperation's at the regional level played a key role in supporting policy formulation and program implementation (European Union [13], FAO [14], CCAFS [15], ECLAC [16] among others). The predominant issues associated with the CSA are food and nutritional security, water resource sustainability, family agriculture, the low-emissions strategy, monitoring of Nationally Determined Contributions, and forestry policies. Transformations tend to be geographically concentrated in the Central American Dry Corridor. While recent, these transformations at the policy, institutional, and financing level are keys to foster CSA at scale in the Centro-American region, and the support from CCAFS has been acknowledged by CAC authority and Guatemalan ministry [17,18].","tokenCount":"762"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9350ae33a0e5c4098233e978173a6637","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b508cc80-9dd7-4eb1-89ef-ad1c0a8d7bd4/content","id":"357105953"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0f6e4d16-9238-47b1-b99d-44e701a68d0b","pagecount":"17","content":"Dactylopius opuntiae (Cockerell) (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae) or prickly pear cochineal, is the most damaging pest on cactus species with heavy economic losses worldwide. The efficacy of two Moroccan EPN isolates; Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Poinar) (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae) (applied at 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 ) against D. opuntiae nymphs and young females were evaluated under both laboratory bioassays and field conditions. Results showed that S. feltiae was more effective, causing higher mortality of nymphs and adult females (98.8% and 97.5%, respectively) after 8 days of exposure, resulting in an LT 50 value of 5.9 days (nymph) and 6.0 days (young female). While, H. bacteriophora had lower mortalities (83.8% for nymph and 81.3% for adult females). For the cochineal nymphs and adult females, no significant difference was observed among S. feltiae at 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 , and the positive control, d-limonene applied at 0.5 g/L which was used due to its high effectiveness against nymphs and females of D. opuntiae. In the field experiment, d-limonene at 0.5 g/L and S. feltiae applied at 75 IJs cm −2 were effective in reducing nymph and adult female populations by 85.3-93.9% at 12 days of post exposure period. To our knowledge, this work is the first report on the use of EPNs to control D. opuntiae. Thus, in addition to d-limonene, both Moroccan EPN isolates S. feltiae, and H. bacteriophora could be used as part of the integrated pest management strategy against D. opuntiae. Many factors such as temperature can affect the establishment and effectiveness of EPNs under field conditions. Therefore, additional studies under field conditions are needed.Native to Mexico, the cactus cochineal Dactylopius opuntiae (Cockerell) (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae), is an invasive pest of prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. (Caryophyllales: Cactaceae) and other Opuntia species in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Africa 1,2 . In 2014, D. opuntiae was detected for the first time in Morocco 3 . Both nymphs and female adults stages of D. opundiae feed directly and permanently on the host plant's elaborate sap causing chlorosis and premature dropping of cladodes and fruits 4 . Severe infestations of up to 50% of the cladode surface can in some time lead to the death of the plant 5,6 . In Brazil, the damage caused by D. opuntiae on O. ficus indica and other Opuntia species used as forage resulted in the loss of 100,000 ha, valued at $25 US million 7 . Similarly, in Mexico, the damage caused by this pest is severe, the premature drop of fruits and young cladodes has resulted in lower yields and higher production costs for Mexican cactus crops 8 . Since its first detection in Morocco, the introduced D. opuntiae has caused enormous damage in several areas of cactus production in the country where prickly pear cactus plays an essential role in the ecological system, preventing desertification and preserving biodiversity 9 . Dactylopius opuntiae establish and spread more easily than many other scale insect species due to the waxy coating on their dorsal side which protects them from exposition tocontact insecticides, high reproductive rate, and the propensity to spread quickly through natural carriers such as plant products, wind, water, rain, birds, human, and farm animals 10 . Dactylopius opuntiae females have three biological developmental stages-egg, nymph (two instars), and adult-whereas males have egg, nymph (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th), pre-pupa, pupa, and adult 11 . For male the moults to the third, fourth and fifth (nymph) instars take place in the cocoon, but the successive exuviae are extruded from the posterior end of the cocoon, indicating when the moult has occurred 11 . Datylopius opuntiae has high fecundity rate (on average 150-160 eggs) with total incubation period < 1 day 8 . The average developmental time for D. opuntiae crawler from egg to first moult is 14.92 days, the mean duration of the female from egg to the commencement of oviposition is 84 days 11 . The duration of the second instar from the first moult to the commencement of pupation averaged 11.2 days 10 . The pupal period lasted approximately 10 days, at the end of which emerged a red, white-winged male 11,12 . The adult male is short lived, usually dies within 3-5 days after its emergence and does not consume during this period of life 11 . The life cycle of D. opuntiae varies from 90 to 136 days depending on the environmental conditions, especially the temperature (the cycle duration is short in high temperatures) 12 . They also seem to be able to become dormant on inert material over the period of time under unfavorable conditions 11 .Dactylopius opuntiae is controlled mainly by organophosphate and neonicotinoids insecticides 8 , which can have harmful effects on human and animal health 13 , the environment 14 , and in some cases limit international trade in cactus plants among the countries interested in cactus cultivation, including Morocco 4 . Therefore, to reduce insecticide use, many alternative management strategies have been explored in many countries, such as the use of mineral oils, resistant genotypes, detergents, plant extracts, mycoinsecticides, and biological control agents (Predators) 4,15,16 .The Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex alone has been used in Brazil to control D. opuntiae 17 or in combination with natural extracts of Ricinus communis L. and Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz, and results are promising 18 . A key point for the use of these fungi in IPM is the molecular characterization of the genetic profiles of F. incarnatum-equiseti strains, as there are considerable differences in efficacy as biological control agents among the biotypes collected in the field 17,19 . Several species of predators (insects and spiders) are associated with D. opuntiae and some can control it, but to date, no parasitoids have been found associated with D. opuntiae. To prevent the spread of the D. opuntiae in Morocco, the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, implemented a major emergency plan for the control of this scale pest in 2016. This plan also included a research program covering the most important management components such as biopesticides 20 , beneficial insects [21][22][23] , and host plant resistance 9 . Five botanical extracts and one detergent were tested for the control of nymphs and adult females of D. opuntiae in laboratory bioassays and under field conditions in Morocco. The results show that the use of biodegradable products, black soap at 60 g/l in double application or in combination with Capsicum annuum L. extract at 200 g/l, could be incorporated into the management program for the control of D. opuntiae as a safe alternative to chemical insecticides 20 . Also, after the detection of D. opuntiae in Morocco, investigations were carried out in different areas of cactus production in order to find biological control agents that could be used as predators against D. opuntiae. Fourteen predators were found associated with D. opuntiae and identified 22 . Hyperaspis campestris (Herbst, 1783) was found to be the most important species associated with D. opuntiae in Morocco 22 . It is important to note that the varietal resistance of cactus to D. opuntiae, was the relevant and saving solution currently exists in Morocco. The eight cactus varieties identified as resistant to D. opuntiae by research in Morocco, will constitute a solid base for the launching of the national program of recovery of decimated cactus throughout the country 9 . Since the body of D. opuntiae is covered by wax that makes it hard to be controlled by the use of chemical and botanical sprays, therefore, biological control seems to be promising alternative control strategies 24 than insecticides. Within biological control, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) of the families Heterorhabditidae and Steinernematidae are obligate pathogens of insects 25 , associated with specific symbiotic bacteria belonging to the genera Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus respectively 26 . The life cycle of EPN consists of four stages, egg, juvenile (four stages), adult, and the 3 rd juvenile infective stage 27 . Regarding the mode of action of EPNs, the infective juveniles enter the host body and release their bacteria, and subsequently the insect dies within 48 h after infection 28,29 . EPNs complete 1-3 generations in a single host and when the necessary resources are depleted, the IJs leave the host and forage for a new situable host 27 . The developmental duration and reproduction of EPNs depends on host quality, however, information on their host searching behavior under field conditions is quite scarce in the literature 30 . The host-seeking behavior of EPNs has been classified into two categories: cruisers (active seekers) and ambushers (sit-and-wait foragers) 31,32 . Crusaders, such as H. bacteriophora, are highly mobile and active 31,32 , with an ability to orient themselves based on long-range volatile signals 33,34 and an ability to find sedentary subterranean hosts 34 . On the other hand, ambushers, such as Steinernema carpocapsae Weiser (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae), have low mobility 31,32 , an ability to nest or stand 32 , and a lack of response to long-range volatile signals 33,34 . But some species, such as S. feltiae, do not nest like ambushers 32 and do not respond to long-range volatile host signals in a manner similar to cruisers 34 . EPNs are very promising biocontrol agents showing high potential for the management of many harmful pests of different crops including scale pests [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] . Several strains of Steinernema feltiae and Heterorhabditus bacteriophora native to Morocco have been identified [46][47][48] . To the best of our knowledge, the efficacy of these native EPN isolates, isolated from Moroccan soils, has not been evaluated against D. opuntiae. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of two indigenous EPNs in controlling nymphs and adult females of D. opuntiae under laboratory and field conditions.Laboratory trials. The Moroccan EPN isolates S. feltiae and H. bacteriophora were evaluated for their pathogenicity against D. opuntiae nymphs and adult females based on their infectivity rates. The tested EPN species at different concentrations were significantly different in their pathogenicity against nymphs (Fig. 1) and adults female of D. opuntiae (Fig. 2). The greatest 8-days nymph cumulative mortality (96.3-100%) was achieved by d-limonene applied at 0.5 g/L, and S. feltiae at 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 (F index = 33.30, df = 6; 56, P < 0.0001). At the end of the experiment, nymph cumulative mortality for H. bacteriophora at high concentration (75 IJs cm −2 ) reached 83.8%.At 8 days after treatment, the greatest adult mortality was achieved by d-limonene at 0.5 g/L (100%), and S. feltiae at 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 (95.0-97.5%) (F index = 33.3, df = 6; 56, P < 0.0001). (F index = 31.9, df = 6; 56,  Datasets are the mean of two independent trials with four relicates. Treatments with the same letter are not significantly different according to Tukey's LSD test at P < 0.05. P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the percentage mortality caused by H. bacteriophora at 50 and 75 IJs cm −2 . The lowest percentage of adult female mortality observed at 8 days after treatment was achieved by H. bacteriophora at 25 IJs cm −2 (72.5%). The pathogenic efficacy of all nematodes tested against D. opuntiae nymph increased as the exposure period increased. The largest increase, from day 1 to day 8 post-treatment, was seen between d-limonene and S. feltiae at the concentration of 75 IJs cm −2 . The experimental data are presented in Fig. 3.During the first day after treatment, D. opuntiae nymph mortality at the highest concentration showed a 40% variant for both d-limonene and S. feltiae. The same mortality rates (40%) were displayed in H. bacteriophora, but at day 4 after treatment. Maximum mortality was recorded after 8 days by both d-limonene (100%) and S. feltiae (98.8%) (Fig. 3A).For the concentration of 50 IJs cm −2 . At 24 h post-treatment, the highest nymphal mortality was achieved by d-limonene (42.5%) followed by S. feltiae (32.5%), whereas 2 days are required for H. bacteriophora to kill the same number of insects (32.5%). After 8 days post-treatment, d-limonene and S. feltiae reached 100% and 97.5% mortality, respectively, while H. bacteriophora reached 78.8% mortality (Fig. 3B).The lowest percentage of nymphal mortality was observed at the concentration of 25 IJs cm −2 (Fig. 3C). At 24 h post-treatment, the highest nymphal mortality was achieved by S. feltiae (28.8%), whereas 4 days are required for H. bacteriophora to kill the same number of scale insects (28.8%). After 8 days post-treatment, d-limonene and S. feltiae reached 100% and 96.3% mortality, respectively, while H. bacteriophora reached 75% mortality (Fig. 3C).A significant difference in nematodes pathogenicity against adult's female was also observed among treatments (Fig. 4). At the highest concentration (75 IJs cm −2 ), the highest mortality percentages at 24 h were observed among adult's female exposed to d-limonene (40%) and S. feltiae (35%), whereas 2 days are required for H. bacteriophora to kill the same number of scale insects (35%). Steinernema feltiae and H. bacteriophora reached mortality of 97.5% and 81.3%, respectively, at the 8 th day post-infection (Fig. 4A). At the concentration of 50 IJs cm −2 , mortality was achieved 30% on day 3 and 96.3% on day 8 by S. feltiae. Two days are required for H. bacteriophora to kill the same number of insects (30%). After 8 days post-treatment, H. bacteriophora reached 77.5% mortality of D. opuntiae adult females (Fig. 5B). Low mortality was observed at the concentration of 25 IJs cm −2 (Fig. 4C). With the exception of S. feltiae, which killed 25% and 95% of the insects tested at days 1 and 8 post-treatment, respectively; H. bacteriophora achieved 15% mortality at day 1 and 26.3%, 42.5%, 72.5%, respectively, at days 4, 6, and 8 post-infections.The susceptibility of D. opuntiae to a particular nematode species and concentration is one of the major factors determining LC 50 levels. The concentrations required to induce 50% mortality of D. opuntiae nymphs and young females under the effect of S. feltiae and H. bacteriophora are shown in Table 1. The Probit analysis used to analyze the mortality results showed that S. feltiae had the lowest median lethal concentration value, whereas H. bacteriophora had the highest (Table 1).The concentration required to induce 50% mortality of D. opuntiae nymphs and young females for the two EPN isolates tested at low, medium, and high concentrations are shown in Fig. 5A,B (nymph) and Fig. 6A,B (young female). One-way ANOVA analysis shows that mean mortality was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by exposure of D. opuntiae insects to different concentrations of EPN suspensions. Insects exposed during the period from 1 to 8 days after treatment to the highest concentration (75 IJs cm −2 ), exhibited a significantly higher mortality rate.The mean survival time (LT 50 ) of D. opuntiae nymphs (Fig. 7A) and young females (Fig. 8A) exposed to selected nematodes with a concentration of 75 IJs cm −2 ranged from a minimum of 5.9 to a maximum of 6.2 days and from a minimum of 6.2 to a maximum of 6.4 days, respectively (Table 2). The survival curves for all treatments were different by the Kaplan-Meier method (P < 0.05). Pearson's chi-square statistical test (all P values < 0.05) indicated that the data did not fit the regression models according to Breslow (generalized Wilcoxon), where χ 2 = 4.25, df = 1, sig = 0.039 (nymph) and χ 2 = 3.86, df = 1, sig = 0.05 (young female).Lethal survival time analysis of D. opuntiae nymphs and young females exposed to the control and selected nematodes with concentration 50 IJs cm −2 did not indicate any significant difference between mortality times (Table 3). The survival curves for treatments with the 50 IJs cm −2 concentration were different by the Kaplan-Meier method (P < 0.05). Pearson's chi-square statistical test for nymphs (all P values > 0.05) (Fig. 7B) indicated that the data fit the regression models, where χ 2 = 3.28, df = 1, sig = 0.07 and concerning young females (Fig. 8B) χ 2 = 4.56, df = 1, sig = 0.033 according to Breslow (generalized Wilcoxon). Likewise, with the 25 IJs cm −2 concentration, no significant difference was observed between the mortality times (Table 4). As for the other concentrations tested, the survival curves for the treatments with 25 IJs cm −2 concentration were different by the Kaplan-Meier method (P < 0.05) but the Pearson chi-square statistical test (all P values > 0.05) indicated that the data fit the regression models for the young females (Fig. 8C), where χ 2 = 1.92, df = 1, sig = 0.16 whereas for the nymphs (Fig. 7C) χ 2 = 5.29, df = 1, sig = 0.021 according to Breslow (generalized Wilcoxon).Field trials. At 3 DAT, fewest nymphs were recorded in cactus plants treated with d-limonene at 0.5 g/L, and S. feltiae at 75 IJs cm −2 (F index = 375.0, df = 7; 64, P < 0.0001) (Table 5). The numbers of nymphs in plants treated with d-limonene at 0.5 g/L, S. feltiae at 75 IJs cm −2 , and H. bacteriophora at 75 IJs cm −2 were significantly reduced at 6 DAT (F index = 796.5, df = 7; 64, P < 0.0001). At 12 DAT, nymphs density in control plants increased to 180 individuals but was significantly lower in all other treatments, with fewest scale pests in plants treated with d-limonene at 0.5 g/L, S. feltiae at 75 IJs cm −2 and H. bacteriophora at 75 IJs cm −2 (F index = 3797.6, df = 7; 64, P < 0.0001). In general, d-limonene at 0.5 g/L, and S. feltiae at 75 IJs cm −2 were effective at reducing nymphs numbers, with over 90% reductions at 12 DAT when compared to the control (tap water) (Table 6) (F index = 123.2, df = 6; 56, P < 0.0001).   7). Also, no significant difference was observed between S. feltiae 75 IJs cm −2 and H. bacteriophora 75 IJs cm −2 at 3 DAT.  6).In the current study, the pathogencity of two native EPN isolates collected from Morocco was evaluated against D. opuntiae nymphs and adult females, a major threat to cactus production in Morocco under laboratory and field conditions. In laboratory bioassays, the effectiveness of the application of EPNs in the management of D. opuntiae was evaluated by considering concentrations and time required for the EPN to kill the host. Our results indicated that S. feltiae was the most virulent EPN species against D. opuntiae. This EPN at the maximum dose tested (75 IJs cm −2 ) caused the highest mortality of nymphs and adult females after 8 days of exposure which resulted in an LT 50 value of 5.9 days (nymph) and 6 days (young female), whereas H. bacteriophora had the lowest mortalities. Also, a color change in nematode-invaded insects is generally observed for many insect genera 25 , in this study, the scale pests turn dark brown when infected by the two EPN species tested.These results corroborate those of a previous study by Gorgadze et al. 49 in which it was reported that the pathogenicity and virulence of an introduced species of Steinernema and H. bacteriophora induced mortality rates of 73% in nymphs and 56.5% in adults of brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Steinernema feltiae and H. bacteriophora were also tested together against cabbage weevil, Rhytidoderes plicatus Oliv. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) larvae, and caused 100% mortality in laboratory experiments 50 , being more effective than in the present study. The virulence of the two species of EPN was also evaluated on many other pests including onion thrips Thrips tabaci (Lindeman) and tobacco thrips Frankniella fusca (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) 27,41,42 . Heterorhabditis bacteriophora was the most virulent against sugarcane spittlebugs, Aeneolamia varia (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Cercopidae), causing 76% mortality to the insect 51 . Heterorhabditis bacteriophora is reported to be virulent (40-86% mortality) against adults of sycamore lace bug, Corythucha ciliata (Say) (Hemiptera: Tingidae) 52 . Higher pathogenicity of S. feltiae than H. bacteriophora against the olive fruit fly larva, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae), was reported by Sirjani et al. 53 . The strains S. feltiae-SF-MOR10, S. feltiae-SF-MOR9, and H. bacteriophora-HB-MOR7 showed significantly higher infectivity (77-80% mortality) and penetration rates against mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) under laboratory and glasshouse conditions 48 . Greater virulence of H. bacteriophora (VS strain) and S. feltiae (SN strain) were observed against peach fruit fly Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) and oriental fruit fly B. dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) 45 . Several studies have reported the sensitivity of several scale pest species to EPN. Guide et al. 54 demonstrated the virulence of isolates from the genera Heterorhabditis and Steinernema against the coffee root scale Dysmicoccus spp. (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae). Heterorhabditis zealandica and Steinernema yirgalemense were found to be the most effective candidates for the control of vine mealybug, Planococcus ficus and citrus mealybug, P. citri (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) 38,55 . These differences in nematode pathogenicity may be due to several factors including the specificity of different isolates for different hosts, their efficiency in reaching the host, penetration ability, and its killing efficacy 56 .In this trial, both isolates tested were found to be pathogenic to nymphs and young females of D. opuntiae and their efficacy increased with an increase in concentration. Rahoo et al. 57 reported that the control of any selected pest by EPN is related to the nematode inoculum concentration, as higher concentrations increase the chance of infections and, therefore, mortality rates. However, we observed that at concentrations of 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 mortality was almost similar at 8 DAT in the S. feltiae isolate treatment, suggesting that in this isolate treatment, concentrations above 25 IJs cm −2 may cause intraspecific competition among nematodes. Selvan et al. 58 and Gaugler et al. 59 have pointed out that a minimum density of IJs can circumvent the immune system of the host, to invade and eventually kill it. On the other hand, very high concentrations of EPNs can induce intraspecific competition between nematodes, which reduces their efficiency as biological control agents 60 .The persistence of entomopathogens in the environment is an important attribute of biological control programs, and some studies have demonstrated the high persistence of several EPN species under field conditions 54,61 . In the field experiments, d-limonene applied at 0.5 g/L and S. feltiae applied at 75 IJs cm −2 treatments were effective in reducing the numbers of nymphs and adults of the D. opuntiae. The numbers of D.    Differences in the D. opuntiae mortality rates among the EPN species tested could be attributed to the foraging strategy of IJs, as well as the behavior of D. opuntiae. Heterorhabditis bacteriophora have a cruising strategy 30 while S. feltiae exhibits an intermediate foraging strategy 62 . Also, Bastidas et al. 63 , reported that infection by EPN could be restricted in insects less than 5 mm in length. Studies that used small hemipteran species such as Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) and woolly aphid, Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) reported that the largest stages (1.9-3.0 mm) were more susceptible to EPNs with 38% and 78% mortality, respectively than the smallest stages (0.6-1.2 mm) with 0% and 22% mortality,  respectively 64,65 . But for silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), this trend was not observed 66 . These last authors reported second instar nymph mortality rates ranging from 75 to 90%, being the most sensitive life stage than the adult stage for both Steinernema carpocapsae (Weiser) (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) and S. feltiae despite its small size (0.8 mm). In our study, S. feltiae, at the highest dose, caused 98.8% and 97.5% mortality of nymphs and breeding young females of D. opuntiae, respectively. Therefore, the small size of these nymphs (0.70-2.25 mm) and adult females (1.98-3 mm) is not a significant limiting factor for their susceptibility to S. feltiae. For both, nymphs and adult females of D. opuntiae, no significant difference was observed among S. feltiae at 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 and the botanical insecticide, d-limonene applied at 0.5 g/L which was used as a positive control, due to their known toxicity against different stages of D. opuntiae and which had high mortality for both nymphs and adult females of D. opuntiae 21 , indicating the acceptability of S. feltiae as a potential biological control agent against D. opuntiae. No previous research has yet been conducted on the control of D. opuntiae with EPNs. The compatibility of the use of EPNs and botanical insecticides such as d-limonene in an integrated pest management program against D. opuntiae merits to be investigated. In this sense, three agrochemicals and two biocontrol product formulations were found to be compatible with Heterorhabditis zealandica and tend to be used in citrus IPM programs 67 . Further studies on the use of adjuvants to improve control with EPN should be performed. Van Niekerk and Malan 68 showed that the addition of adjuvants prevents nematode desiccation, as well as promotes application deposits on the leaf surface and that merit further evaluation in protect-andkill strategies in fields that could complement other IPM strategies to improve the management of D. opuntiae. Many other biological factors, only some of which were discussed in this study, may affect the final selection of a nematode species or isolate for control of D. opuntiae under field conditions. In addition, several environmental factors such as temperature may affect the establishment and pathogenic potential of nematodes under field conditions. Therefore, additional studies using other nematode species and isolates under laboratory and field conditions are needed.The cochineal rearing. The D. opuntia was collected from a colony housed at the Entomology Laboratory of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA-Morocco) and used in the trials. Dactylopius opuntia were reared according to Aldama-Aguilera and LlanderalCazares method 69 in cladodes of O. ficus-indica collected from the fields in Zemamra, Morocco (32°37′48″ N, 8°42′0″ W) to obtain enough numbers. Each cladode Table 6. Henderson-Tilton adjusted rates of population reduction of Dactylopius opuntiae at 12 days after treatments under field conditions. a In each column, averaged means followed by the same letters are not significantly different according to Tukey's LSD test at α = 0.05. was staked at the basal end with a wooden stake, left to heal for 48 h under laboratory conditions, and then suspended vertically from metal grids in entomological cages (80 cm 3 ) consisting of a metal frame covered with mesh fabric to allow ventilation. Dactylopius opuntiae gravid females (n = 10) were isolated from infested cladodes and placed in an open wax paper bag (8 cm 2 ). Each bag was then attached to the top of each cladode, the remaining cladodes were placed horizontally to support nymphs that were not initially on the vertical cladodes. Infested cladodes were kept in entomologic`al cages (80 cm 3 ) under controlled conditions at 26 ± 2 °C, 60 ± 10% relative humidity (RH), and a photoperiod of 12:12 h (Light:Dark) regime.Source of Entomopathogenic nematodes. Two EPN species, Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev) (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae) (SF-MOR10 strain) and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Poinar) (Rhabditida: Heterorhabditidae) (HB-MOR8 strain) recently isolated from soil in Morocco (for more information see also Mokrini et al. 48 ) were evaluated against D. opuntia. EPN isolates were reared at 25 °C according to the methodology described by Kaya and Stock 70 , using the last instar larvae of greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Dead larvae of G. mellonella were placed on white traps 71,72 . Harvested infective juveniles (IJs) were maintained in tap water in tissue culture flask at 8 °C and used within 12 days after harvest.Laboratory trials. The pathogenicity of both EPN strains was investigated against D. opuntiae nymphs and adult females under laboratory conditions. The trials were carried out in plastic Petri dishes (14.5 cm diameter) (Globalroll) lined with a circular filter paper disc (smooth Sartorius™ quality 3-HW). Ten D. opuntiae nymphs (Trial 1) and ten adult females (Trial 2) were transferred to each Petri dish. In both trials, one ml of each EPN species was applied via pipette at the rates of 25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 (4126, 8252, and 12,387 dish −1 respectively). Petri dishes were arranged in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 4 replications. The control Petri dishes received tap water only without the addition of EPNs. Limocide (60 g d-limonene per L; applied at 0.5 g/L; Vivagro, Martillac, France) diluted in tap water was used as a positive control. This botanical insecticide was served as a positive control treatment because of its known toxicity against different stages of D. opuntiae 21 . d-limonene (60 g/L), had high mortality against both nymphs and adult females (90.28% and 91.94% mortality, 120 h after treatment respectively) of D. opuntiae under field conditions. In addition, the botanical insecticide dose used in the present study was sublethal, as it did not cause short-term mortality to the potential predator of D. opuntiae, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coccinellidae: Scymninae) 21 . Numbers of alive and dead scale insects were recorded at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 days after application. The dead insects were observed under binocular loupe (SFC-11, MOTIC ® ) for the presence EPNs inside the cadavers. To ensure the reproducibility of results, all experiments were independently repeated twice over time (two full trials with 8 replicates total). All experiments were conducted under similar conditions of 26 ± 2 °C, 60 ± 10% RH, and a photoperiod of 12:12 h (Light:Dark) at room temperature. The mean body weights and sizes of D. opuntiae nymphs and adults used in the studies were 3.8 ± 0.5 mg and 0.7-1.6 mm, respectively (nymphs) and 5.2 ± 0.2 mg and 1.98-2.25 mm, respectively (young adults females). Ministry. The cladodes were planted in normal polarity in completely randomized rows (1 m between rows, with a spacing of 0.5 m between plants), and were grown until they reached the stage of three to five cladodes. The plot had a total of 15 rows and each row had 13 plants. The plants were irrigated as needed. It should be noted that this experiment was installed in an environment of cactus hedges completely infested or even devastated by the cochineal D. opuntiae.The plants were infested with 1-day-old first instar nymphs of D. opuntiae that were allowed to settle in before being adjusted to appropriate densities. To standardize treatments and replicates, only 150 nymphs and 150 young females identified with the help of a hand-held magnifying glass were retained on the plants; additional nymphs and adults were removed using a needle 21 .The same EPN strains tested in the laboratory bioassays at different concentrations were evaluated in the field experiment using the same concentrations (25, 50, and 75 IJs cm −2 ). There were eight treatments (five plants were treated by each treatment). The EPNs and d-limonene solutions were applied using a laboratory sprayer (Burkard Scientific Ltd, Uxbridge, UK) to ensure complete coverage. Nematodes were applied in 500 ml of tap water in a 0.5 m 2 area around the base of each plant. Plants were examined with a hand-held magnifying glass, 1 day before treatment, and 3, 6, and 12 days after treatment (DAT), and the number of alive D. opuntiae was counted. Five plants per treatment were considered as a replicate, and four replicates were conducted for all treatments, arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). This trial was repeated twice over different time.The rate of population reduction at each sampling date was calculated by the Henderson-Tilton formula 73 :where T1 and T2 are respectively the numbers of insects alive on the treated plant before treatment and on a specific sampling date after treatment, while C1 and C2 are the numbers of insects alive in a control plant before treatment and on a specific sampling date after treatment, respectively.Statistical analysis. The mortality percentage data for each treatment in the laboratory bioassays were corrected using the Abbott formula 74 . The corrected mortality percentage data were subjected to ANOVA and means were separated using Tukey's LSD test (α = 0.05). The probit analysis method was established to determine the lethal concentration (LC 50 ) for the different treatments using IBM SPSS 23.0 software. Mortality data were transformed into probits, while concentrations were transformed into Probit log10 (dose). Before analysis, LC 50 values were predicted from the probit lines. The method of Finney 75 was used to determine the lethal time (LT 50 ) of the probit analysis. Calculation of the lethal concentration (LC) and its 95% confidence limits (CL) was performed based on accurate estimation of log (CL) variances 76 . The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis technique was used to describe both, the median lethal time (LT 50 ) (the number of days until 50% of the insects were dead, for each treatment) and the mean survival time (SPSS 23.0).One-way ANOVA test was performed to examine differences between doses and exposure times using the SPSS 23.0 package at the levels of P < 0.05 and P < 0.01. Significant differences between variables were checked using Tukey's LSD test.The numbers of adults and nymphs alive, and rates of population reduction in the different treatments in the field experiment were subjected to ANOVA under RCBD, and means were separated by Tukey's LSD test. All tests were performed using SPSS 23.0 software 77 . In all experiments, treatment was considered a fixed effect, and replicate was considered a random factor.","tokenCount":"5573"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8755345619.json b/data/part_2/8755345619.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c942cd404b3db7e17842757c55ef02cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/17b5e6cc-b047-4f58-b898-18dc3225529e/retrieve","id":"1515557973"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"327fb301-4f25-4ca2-bb55-d3703debd350","pagecount":"3","content":"Landesa, a nongovernmental organization focused on land legislation and programming among poor populations, supports government land allocation and regularization programs in India. This study is based on Nijo Griha, Nijo Bhumi (\"My Home, My Land\" or NGNB), a program by the government of West Bengal, India that aims to reduce poverty by allocating microplots to landless agricultural laborers and assist with homestead development. NGNB works with local communities to purchase and allocate small plots of land, with titles issued jointly under the names of the husband and the wife. In addition, NGNB helps beneficiaries connect with other government agencies responsible for the provision of assistance with housing and basic inputs, capacity building in homestead food production, and investments in infrastructure. This study evaluated the NGNB program and is a result of collaboration between Landesa and the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project (GAAP). The project examined how land ownership and joint titling affect households' tenure security and agricultural invest-ments, as well as women's involvement in food and agricultural decision--making-outcomes that when enhanced are expected to lead to increased household food production and long--term food security.Even after a relatively short period of time, the NGNB program shows very encouraging results regarding tenure security, women's decision making power, and household agricultural investments:• Women perceive their NGNB plots to be more secure than other plots: women are 8 percent less likely to report being con-cerned about having to vacate an NGNB plot than other plots and 18 percent more likely to report that they expect their households to have retained access to and control over an NGNB plot than other plots five years later. Their perceptions of tenure security vary with plot size, with larger plots viewed as more secure. • Including women's names on the land titles significantly contributes to women's involvement in food and agriculture deci-sionmaking. Compared to their non--NGNB peers, women in NGNB households are 12 percent more likely to be involved in de-cisions to take loans from a Self--Help Group or microfinance institution, 12 percent more likely to be involved in decisions on whether to purchase productive assets, and 9 percent more likely to be involved in decisions related to the purchasing and consumption of food. Further, when women's names are included on land documents, the share of their households' land where they are involved in decisions on how to use the land, what to grow on it, and whether to sell produce from increases by 15 percent, 14 percent, and 11 percent, respectively. • The average NGNB household is 12 percent more likely than a non--NGNB household to report having taken out a loan from a formal bank since 2009 and 88 percent more likely to use a loan for agricultural purposes. • During the year before the survey, NGNB households were 11 percent more likely to have used fertilizer or pesticides; 11 per-cent more likely to have used seedlings, seeds, or stems; and 7 percent more likely to have agricultural equipment than eligible households that did not become NGNB beneficiaries. • Despite NGNB's noteworthy impact on outcomes that can contribute to future food security, we are unable to detect statisti-cally significant NGNB effects on households' current food security. On average, NGNB--eligible households are just as likely to be food secure regardless of whether they became program beneficiaries. We suspect that not enough time has passed for households to become food secure. This would be consistent with other experiences, like a resettlement program in Zimba-bwe, where it took 12 years for the positive welfare effects to materialize (Kinsey, Burger and Gunning, 1998). In our case, qualitative work revealed that only 25 percent of the beneficiaries had actually moved to their plots by the time of the endline survey and that some of the plots are of marginal quality.1. What kind of support did you need for undertaking data collection for your case study?• Landesa has a local office in India and although its program team is well established, its research team is fairly nas-cent. The Gender Assets and Agriculture Project (GAAP), with the opportunity to get research support through IFPRI, helped the research team understand how to conduct rigorous field work. While collecting sex--disaggregated was not a new idea for Landesa, we did benefit from direct technical input from the IFPRI team (by Ruth Meinzen--Dick, Agnes Quisumbing, and Amber Peterman) and were able to obtain valuable feedback on our research design, tools and approach.2. What are the unique gender--asset questions and indicators you collected in your survey instrument that were par-ticularly valuable or reflective of methodologies you would like to see replicated in future work and why?• We had good modules on plot disaggregated data-regarding documentation, decision--making, vulnerability, etc. Landesa is trying to standardize the questions asked and has used the same questions in five other settings to date. In general, we see high value in standardizing the questions asked to provide greater comparability between studies and are working towards this goal. We are also in the process of adopting standardized modules on food security that were also asked in this survey.3. What are the unique gender--asset questions/indicators you either collected in your survey instrument that you would have implemented differently or you were not able to collect, but which you would have liked to collect and why?• We did a life history exercise to try to understand if and why land mattered to people. For instance, in recounting their life story, did women mention land in connection to important life events? What we quickly realized is that the women we interviewed were born poor, had stayed poor, and were currently poor; there wasn't a large amount of variation throughout their lives and so this may not be the best approach to explore our question. In addition, given our resources we were only able to interview 8 women and this makes it very hard-if not impossible----to reach con-clusions that are generalizable. However, we would certainly consider repeating a life history exercise with a larger sample, in which case we will definitely incorporate lessons learned from this round.4. Are there any particularities about the region or country of implementation which you think are important to rec-ognize in relation to the gender--asset indicators you collected which are important for other researchers to be aware of? Did any of these context--or country--specific factors influence your survey implementation methodolo-gy, and how?• Our enumerators were hired from two different states in India and we hired two sets of enumerators in each-firms to do the quantitative work and consultants to conduct the qualitative work. While we had no trouble finding good organizations to take on the quantitative work, finding qualified local researchers to do the qualitative work became a considerable challenge. This was further complicated by the fact that we thought it was important to hire a woman.An additional obstacle was dealing with enumerators' and consultants' preconceived ideas of what the \"correct\" an-swers were. We worked hard with them to minimize the potential for biases in their interviews.• There are a number of remaining challenges for researchers. Foremost, it will be important to standardize questions.As a research community we should decide on a standard set of issues/activities that we want to understand regard-ing land, formulate a standard set of questions and then ask them consistently. For instance, there is an internation-ally standardized question module regarding domestic violence. Similar standardization for an asset ownership and decisions--making module would be beneficial. Another issue we came across was that women oftentimes could not answer questions asked about land or asset ownership. As a result, enumerators had to ask her husband or the pri-mary male in the household to obtain the answer. It is not entirely clear to us if these women refused to answer those questions because they did not know the answers or because they were not supposed to talk about those is-sues. We will need to test alternative modules to decide if it would be better to reframe the questions or to rely on answers from someone else in the household. Since we are unlikely to be the only ones experiencing this problem, we could benefit from guidance from the research community on how to effectively address this issue.6. Anything else you would like to share about the GAAP project and your involvement with it?• One issue for our project is that the baseline and endline were done just three years apart when many of the ex-pected benefits of the program may take considerably longer to materialize. Given this, it would be beneficial to con-duct another round of data collection to measure the longer term effects of the program, at say five or more years from the baseline.For more information about the Landesa project please see Santos, F., D. Fletschner, V. Savath, and A. Peterman. 2013 ","tokenCount":"1460"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8787880656.json b/data/part_2/8787880656.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6c82b07717b06784bef28715d3f09f3bc3952280
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ced2d2a4255ae70f873b34ae68574fb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/72db4f80-ecf4-49ef-a340-b1b6089d6a3f/retrieve","id":"-409153348"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"098d0904-91c9-4702-8d86-12572c556b10","pagecount":"3","content":"Farms in Kenya are characterised by a wide variation in size, farming approach, environmental condition and state of mechanisation. There is not the 'typical farm' type. Farm types have developed in the different areas due to population density, traditional heritage including colonial times and local conditions. That applies also to the forage producers. Forage production is a more recent activity, which developed in follow of the development of the dairy sector. With the growing of the dairy sector, the demand for feed increased, especially for the dry season.As feed production while dry season is very low the gap between offer and demand has be bridged by conserved fodder. There are on the one-side crop residues, often of a low nutritional value like dry maize stovers, but the better choice is the planned conservation of forages either as silage or as hay. Both ways of forage conservation is labour intensive and can be eased by technical equipment.Most of the farmers use a panga, their standard tool for cutting the forages. The panga is used for many farming activities, so also for harvesting forages. Even that sickles are locally available and cheap they are not widely spread nor used.Brush cutters are available in the country, but only a few farms are equipped with them. We found brush cutters on some bigger farms, but often equipped with the wrong blades what makes them less efficient.It is astonishing that sickle mowers attached to one-axle tractors are hardly known. They are part of mechanisation project in many countries and could be a useful second step in mechanisation efforts. As they are small and easy to manoeuvre, they could also be interesting for service providers targeting medium sized farms.Forage growing has developed due to growing demand of feed and as an alternative in regions where farmers are faced to increasing challenges in the growing traditional crops as maize. In the Rift Valley and Laikipia 1000s of farmers switched to Rhodes hay production. Normally they do not have own machines and buy in machinery services either from private service providers or from the cooperative which offer harvesting services like mowing, raking and bailing.The high-end farms are fully equipped and use disc mowers.In this chapter we look into forage processing, not forage conservation. Forage processing in the meaning of preparation of fresh feed / forage material for feeding. All the forages, being it Napier, Sweet potato vines, Brachiaria, Panicum and others consist of stems and leaves. It is easy to imagine that leafs are more palatable than stems which contain higher percentages of lignin and are harder. If fed in whole, cows tend to select leafs and leave over the stems which results in a modest feed intake and high losses.How can that be approached? Either forages is harvested very young with a little percentage of stems, or forage is processed before feeding. Normal practice is that forage is cut in pieces of 2-3 cm resulting in a higher intake by the animals and less waste. The feed preparation was generally done by hand in former days, using a panga (machete). This still does apply for many smallholder farming households with 1 -2 cows and is still widely practiced in Western Kenya. This practice is very time consuming, often practiced by women and children and bears a non-neglectable risks of injury.A panga and a hand how are the standard tools used in the small-scale farms. These small-scale farms often still work very traditional with very basic means and the demanding work intensity for feed processing can be looked upon as a limiting factor for further growth of dairy activities.With growing farm size and better income, farmers use 'sharp cutters' or 'choppers' to do the work. Until a couple of years ago, they were hand driven. With the increasing electrification in rural areas, more and more farms change to choppers with electric engines, with a petrol or even diesel engine.While in the more advanced dairy farms in the Meru area, every farm (we are working with) has at least one engine driven chopper , in Western Kenya the farms are often smaller, less business oriented and only about 10% own choppers (C. Weber, ILRI, 2019)Silage making was promoted strongly by KMDP, which ended mid-2019, but also by other projects and is meanwhile an integrated part of feed conservation on many farms in central Kenya. Silage making is only possible with technical equipment. The main forage used is maize, followed by Napier, Sorghum and grasses. The minimum technical equipment is a chopper, which is able to crack the kernels of maize respective Sorghum and produces pieces of maximum 3 cm length as well as a drum roller to compact the material. As the machines are only used 1-2 times per year the investment would not be economical for the individual farmer and very little farms own such equipment. There are service providers (e.g. service provider enterprises) who offer the very silage making activities, but also harvesting of the material and the transport to the silage pits. Some bigger farms in the Eldoret area have invested over the last 3 years in fully mechanized silage production as a commercial activity. These farms own tractors, harvesters, huge silage bunkers and fully automised bailing machines (see publications on 'maize train', SNV, 2018/2019). The bailed maize silage is used for their own purpose as also sold to dairy farmers all over Kenya. As all this equipment is requesting high investments by the farms, they also offer their services to other farms to amortise better the investment.Hay making is the most common conservation method for forages in Kenya. Nearly every farmer can practice it, if he either grows his forage for hay production or is haying excess production for scarcity periods.As mentioned before, the farm types vary as varies the technical equipment of the farms. The bulk of the farms are small-scale and their equipment is very basic what also applies for hay producing farms. However, there is the whole range of farms from the basic small-scale to the large fully technical equipped ones.Small-scale mixed crop-livestock farmers Limited land availability and a low level of mechanisation characterize small-scale farms. The produced forage is in general harvested to cover the daily feed needs of the animal(s). Forage is seldom conserved as hay. The little number of small-scale farms making hay use pangas to cut, sticks to turn / rake and simple boxes if they produce bails and do not store the hay in bulk.Commercial hay farmers of small to medium size seldom are equipped with machines. They buy in machine services from Agricultural Machine Service providers or from the cooperative in which they are often organized (e.g. Laikipia hay growers association, Rift Valley hay growers association.Only the very big commercial farms have their own machines like Tractors, disc mower, rakes and bailers.In Kenya, there is a whole variety of farm with different grades of mechanisation. The mechanisation level of the big amount of the small-scale farms is still very low. When machines are used in the forage conservation and processing, these services are often bought in from service providers.There is a big market for offering machine services. Especially the market for smaller machine services is not covered at all. One-axle tractors equipped with different machines like ploughs, harrows, sickle mowers and rakes could be an interesting investment.As land is a limiting factor and increase of production by more land use will come to its limits, productivity on the available land has to be increased. One important element for increased productivity will be a higher mechanisation level.","tokenCount":"1260"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8792888702.json b/data/part_2/8792888702.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..53c166820828e39f09805092c04ff06b78c4981d
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b65197251f82cdbe6087c069d3edc36c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/94613bc6-eca1-49f7-8aea-6d662bc95871/retrieve","id":"-31565869"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"33a8de96-c1b0-4209-9a0f-3da36dffdbe1","pagecount":"6","content":"activities. WP2 emphasizes farm-and landscape-level interdisciplinary research to identify strategies to increase farmers' profits and nutritional yields, conserve resources, and maintain or enhance ecological services, while also mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farms and agricultural landscapes. Going beyond typical agriculturenutrition programs in South Asia, we explore field-and landscape-scale crop and animal farm diversification options supporting multiple benefits, including potential nutritional yield, across environmental and socio-economic gradients of rice-based farming systems. Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions in the north of Bangladesh have been selected as learning sites based on key information on food and nutrition security gaps, environmental stresses and climate challenges, as well as the prevalence of commodities and farming systems which offer the greatest potential to achieve TAFSSA's outcomes.These on-farm research trials will contribute to the WP2 outputs:  To compare performance and profitability of the various cropping patterns tested, data on a series of parameters are collected across the seasons:• Soil sampling: a composite soil sample from 5 points collected before land preparation from 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm depth; for each smallholder farming household prior to trial establishment • Tillage and phenological information for each crop/plot across each season • Fertilizer information: rates, timing and method of application Responsibility for editing, proofreading, and layout, opinions expressed, and any possible errors lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown, and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by CIMMYT, the CGIAR, our partner institutions, or donors.","tokenCount":"248"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8813020093.json b/data/part_2/8813020093.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d09a86e3a5d96e7fbdb9142ed4a65d7c66bd0ae7
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"76a60fdcbb0e4583c80fda5411390827","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d44f0eaa-dfdf-479c-a5e7-04594006155d/retrieve","id":"1669206568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8a7e6e66-844f-4e79-af49-8d3d113e4753","pagecount":"1","content":"• Knowledge of genetic diversity and population structure of cattle are very essential for the management and sustainable utilization of indigenous genetic resources.• Genotype data consisting of Borena (n = 49) and Sheko (n = 32) cattle breeds and 80,441 SNPs were retained after quality control. • Principal component analysis was performed using PLINK vl.9 program to evaluate genetic relationship between Sheko, Borena and references cattle breeds.• The indigenous cattle breeds in Ethiopia exhibit unique characteristics and adaptation to various environments. • The study focused on Sheko (Pie 1) and Borena (Pie 2) cattle breeds, recognized breeds, have adapted to local environmental conditions and possess traits like, resistance to diseases, drought and heat tolerance. • The objectives of this study were to investigate linkage disequilibrium (LD), effective population size (N e ) and haplotype block structure of Ethiopian Sheko and Borena cattle breeds.• The genotype data were utilized for the LD analysis based on the Pearson's squared correlation coefficient (r 2 ) of SNPs in Plink vl.9. • The historical N e estimated using SNeP software based on the observed pattern of LD across the genome. • The haplotype blocks were detected across autosomes within breeds using expectation maximization method implemented in PLINK vl.9.     • Chromosome 6 and 11 exhibited the most haplotype blocks in Borena and Sheko, respectively.• 35 °/o of haplotype blocks were shared between Sheko and Borena cattle.• Borena showed slightly lower haplotype block coverage compared to Sheko breed. The results showed high levels of LD, likely due to low N e of Sheko and Borena cattle breeds. This has implications for the maintenance ","tokenCount":"267"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/8817857417.json b/data/part_2/8817857417.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21a47d6aef0ac0cd08c5a75b02ad4d97e4327054
--- /dev/null
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3057ca601f6f0a380c8a3e890de21fc8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/12508ee3-79df-47a0-b354-241667f291ef/retrieve","id":"984113021"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"08c57be7-da73-41f9-a7c2-edd6ddf1f343","pagecount":"2","content":"In 1990, the government of Guatemala created the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) in the Petén region, bordering Mexico to the West and to the North and Belize to the East. With an area of 2.1 million hectares the MBR became the largest protected area in the country. Oversight rests with the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP) across the three zones of the Reserve, including a core zone, a buffer zone and a multiple use zone (MUZ). In the latter, 25-year forest concessions have been granted to local communities between 1994 and 2002 on an area of close to 400,000 ha. These zones have taken diverse pathways since their creation, reflected in considerable differences in terms of forest conservation and livelihood benefits accruing to the local population. Deforestation rates over the period 2000-2013, for example, have been high in the buffer and core zones (5.5% and 1.2% per annum, respectively) while they have been low to negligible in the MUZ (0.1% per annum).In addition to the demonstrated conservation effects of the community forest concessions, our study sheds light on the social and economic benefits derived through the community forest enterprises (CFEs) that have been established in each of them. We show that, if well managed, forest income derived from the community concessions can lift people out of poverty while at the same time conserving the forest. These findings are highly relevant as the concessions need to undergo renewal over the next few years, since they provide the government and local stakeholders with evidence of the concessions' performance. This is particularly important as the communities are confronted with conflicting interests of powerful groups who seek to get hold of the MUZ for oil exploration and tourism development. Further pressure is exerted by the advance of the agricultural frontier through cattle ranching and cash crop production in the buffer zone and associated forest fires that also affect the core zone and the fringes of the community concessions.Across the 12 community forest concessions, we assessed business viability at the level of community forest enterprises (N=12) and livelihood benefits among households (n=350) who are members to them. In each CFE, we selected 30 member households at random, safe for one CFE where their total number did not exceed 20. Household and enterprise-level data were complemented with data obtained through context analysis, with a focus on principal forest product value chains, relevant policies, rules and regulations, and interventions by governmental and nongovernmental organizations in the value chains and their enabling environment. Methods included key informant interviews (n=35) for context analysis, focus group discussions with current and past CFE representatives for enterprise assessments (n=12), and structured interviews for the household surveys (n=350). Additional focus group discussions (n=12) aimed at determining the linkages between the building of business assets at enterprise level and that of livelihood assets at household level. They were also instrumental for identifying contextual factors that have shaped asset building.Our results show that, in the more advanced concessions, the forest income that households derive through their membership in CFEs is equivalent to 1.6-2.8 times the poverty line. In less advanced concessions, forest income allows CFE members to pass the line of extreme poverty and, combined with other income, the poverty line. Forest income is reinvested in meeting basic household needs in less advanced concessions and in further assets, such as housing, livestock and higher education in the more advanced concessions. Positive feedback loops in terms of asset building are linked to the economic performance of the CFEs which, in turn, depends on: 1) the availability of mahogany and other precious woods in the concessions, 2) market outlets for lesser-known timber species and nontimber forest products (NTFPs), such as Chamaedorea palm and breadnut, 3) the capacity to add value to both timber and NTFP species, and 4) the governance structure of the enterprise.Overall CFE performance is also shaped by enabling conditions, particularly the existence of an umbrella organization (ACOFOP) which serves as an advocacy group for the forest communities in Petén, the support of the government through CONAP, and the technical, business and financial assistance provided by a number of NGOs and projects. This external support, provided over the past two decades, has been critical to build up technical capacity for forest management and basic business administration skills in the CFEs. This, in turn, has allowed to generate higher added value to timber and non-timber forest products which has been passed on to member households through the generation of employment and in the form of dividends.Our findings provide new evidence on the socio-economic performance of the community concessions which complements existing data on their contribution to avoided deforestation. Combined, these findings make a strong case for the renewal of the community concessions in pursuit of the twin goal of forest conservation and socio-economic development. They also show areas of potential improvements as the results vary widely both across concessions and member households. Issues to be addressed relate to the inclusion or exclusion of CFE members, the distribution of benefits across and within the CFE member households, and the access of women to decision making at enterprise and household level. In addition, many CFEs face the challenge of an aging membership, with the founding members reaching retirement age and the youth searching out livelihood options beyond forest and agricultural activities. We conclude with opportunities for increasing the viability of community stewardship of tropical forests in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America and beyond.","tokenCount":"907"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"58e4f37ecdabf1f978a6e0a6de1423d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8fc448b9-8fad-448d-baf3-88968042976d/retrieve","id":"-909150249"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8fdc7cc1-02d5-4061-a9dd-fd28dae7d6a3","pagecount":"4","content":"How uncertain policy regulations affect germplasm acquisition and distribution?This brief describes the influence of the 1994 In-Trust Agreements (ITAs) on acquisition and distribution of germplasm held by the International Research Rice Institute (IRRI) genebank.The ITAs, signed in 1994, legally affirmed the 'public good' status of the CGIAR collections and placed them 'In Trust' for the benefit of the world community under agreements with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). They were established as a consequence of the legal uncertainty brought about in 1993 by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Article 15, which explicitly recognized the rights of sovereign states over their natural resources. Article 15 stressed that the authority to determine access to genetic resources remained the responsibility of national governments; and acknowledged, explicitly, the role of national legislation in matters related to genetic resources, which could severely restrict the flow of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) or make it much more difficult to exchange. These developments raised questions about the ownership, control and legal status of germplasm collections conserved in Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) genebanks.In the context of emerging issues related to plant genetic resources and the status of the CGIAR collections, Bioversity, acting within its mandate to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for the benefit of humanity, initiated three types of action: 1. Commissioning of research to examine the issue of control and ownership of the CGIAR collections, including a paper, published in 1992, that proposed that the concept of 'trusteeship' be applied to the CGIAR collections. 2. Dissemination of technical papers and sponsorship of seminars to inform interested parties and reduce the sense of uncertainty created by the CBD. 3. Facilitation of dialogue among a range of institutions and partners who otherwise would not have been in contact but whose collaboration is essential to the success of any policy solution. These included CGIAR Centers, governments of countries hosting CGIAR genebanks, FAO and its constituencies, farmers' rights advocacy groups, and other stakeholders.The synergies created by these actions facilitated the negotiation of the ITAs (for a detailed assessment of Bioversity's role in the ITAs negotiation please see Gotor et all 2010,) which initiated a formal system of multilateral access to CGIAR-held genetic resources being conserved ex situ (i.e., outside their original or natural habitat). The expected impact of the ITAs was to maintain flows of germplasm both to and from the CGIAR centres.The outcomes presented here are based on a statistical analysis performed on the movement of IRRI-held germplasm following the 1994 introduction of the ITAs. This analysis tested the assumption that the ITAs brought about improvements in the availability and subsequent use of germplasm that, given the uncertainty caused by the CBD, would otherwise have failed to occur.As pointed out in a study conducted by Gotor et al. ( 2010), the CBD may have resulted in a \"… real possibility of acrimonious international demands for returns of some collections…\", and that \"germplasm exchange would have come to an end [if an agreement had not been reached] because the International Agricultural Research Centers could hardly operate outside international law. The statistical results generated supported the hypothesis that the ITAs and the accompanying more stable political environment had a significant positive effect on germplasm distribution, and thus on international agricultural research-and its ultimate beneficiaries-in general.Conservation of plant genetic resources (PGR) is essential for the preservation of agricultural biodiversity, which is a key element in improving food and livelihood security, ensuring rural development and environmental sustainability, and providing the basis for future technological innovation in agriculture. CGIAR germplasm collections were established with the intention of compiling genetic material of major staple crops in order to conserve agricultural biodiversity as well as make it freely available for breeding. In total, the 11 CGIAR centres that have genebanks hold more than 600,000 accessions (samples of crop varieties or wild relatives collected at specific locations and times), representing approximately 10% of the 6 million accessions stored in over 1,300 genebanks around the world.With the entry into force of the CBD, countries could begin to exercise their national sovereignty by increasing restrictions on access to PGRs. This would have meant that without the ITAs, CGIAR centres would have been compelled to comply with international law and countries that had contributed germplasm to CGIAR collections could have demanded its return or stipulated that centres holding the PGRs must limit their further distribution and use.Furthermore, countries hosting CGIAR genebanks could have considered any germplasm in these genebanks as falling under their sovereign rights because the material was technically located within the borders of that country. Such policy uncertainty with respect to CGIAR genetic resources threatened to impede the free distribution and acquisition of germplasm (including the flows occurring between CGIAR centres), thus stifling agricultural research and development globally.In 1994, however, the introduction of the ITAs initiated a formal system of multilateral access to CGIAR-held genetic resources being conserved ex situ. Under the ITAs, CGIAR centres regard themselves as trustees-not as owners-of these collections, managing them on behalf of their beneficiaries, in particular developing countries. Under this arrangement, the centres are obliged to conserve the material to the highest technical standards, to duplicate it for safety reasons, to make it available without restrictions, and to seek no intellectual property rights over it.This last obligation included a transfer mechanism designed to prevent any other party subsequently making the collections unavailable for research and breeding. Furthermore, recipients of transferred germplasm and its related information were bound by the same conditions as the centres themselves.The International Rice Genebank collection at IRRI comprises the largest collection of rice germplasm held in-trust for the world community. Of 109,055 accessions collected worldwide from 1961 to 2006, the vast majority (94.4%) are in-trust. IRRI maintains records of breeding pedigrees of all modern rice varieties derived from crossing traditional varieties.Trends in acquisitions change significantly over time, with accession contributions fluctuating for various reasons. The extended peak of germplasm acquisition during the 1970s occurred at a time when high levels of core funding were available, leading IRRI to set a goal of establishing a large and diverse collection. The second major peak, which occurred in the late 1990s, correlates with a targeted expansion of the collection. The decline in acquisitions through the 1980s and early 1990s, was associated with the adoption of a more directed and efficient acquisition strategy rather than a lack of funds or political uncertainty. Adding a new Table 1. Germplasm acquired by IRRI from the top 9 contributing countries . The In-Trust Agreements and the accompanying more stable political environment had a significant positive effect on germplasm distribution \"accession to the collection increases operational costs by a fixed amount regardless of the size of the collection, but gives diminishing returns as the size of the collection increases. That is, adding a new accession to a large collection may add little or no value if it duplicates material already conserved. Therefore, as the collection grew, IRRI was increasingly careful to ensure that new accessions added value.Table 1 shows the 9 countries that have contributed the most accessions to IRRI up to 2006, with India, Laos, Indonesia and China accounting for 44% of total accessions.It appears that trends in donations from a number of countries changed around 1994, when the CBD came into force. For example, India was a major donor prior to 1994, contributing an average of 507 samples per year. This number dropped to two per year after 1994, with a similar trend for other key donors. The end result of this is that more of India's rice diversity is likely to be conserved in India than in the IRRI genebank. On the other hand, Laos, thanks also to special collecting mission programmes, increased its donations after 1994, with contributions rising from an average of 61 per year to 1027 per year. IRRI's collection of accessions originating from Laos (of approximately 15,000 accessions) is considered to be very complete and is a large representative of Laos' diversity. The case of India provides an example of how countries moved away from the multilateral system of free exchange of germplasm so as to avoid a perceived loss of proprietary rights to their indigenous germplasm resources. Laos, however, represents a special case.Figure 1 shows the trend of germplasm distributed by IRRI for a range of reasons, including restoration of germplasm to countries of origin, use within the IRRI research program, and a broad category that includes all other purposes. Distribution of germplasm beyond IRRI is vulnerable to political uncertainty-such as that experienced around the introduction of new legal frameworks-since its movement depends on the legal status attached to the accessions. Special attention is given here to the germplasm distributed to its country of origin for restoration purposes. The quantity of germplasm distributed for restoration peaked in the 1990s and again in 2004-06. These peaks are associated with the periods of uncertainty brought about by the CBD in the mid 1990s, and by the introduction of a new Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) that governed procedures for germplasm transfers associated with the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty), which was adopted in late 2001.Results generated by a statistical analysis of data on IRRI germplasm distributed for restoration during the 90s suggest that a significant change emerged immediately following the establishment of the ITAs. Attributing such a change to a single event does not reflect the reality of the situation, in which many issues related to both policy and other factors would affect requests for and actual distribution of germplasm. However, as Gotor et al. (2010) demonstrated throughout a qualitative analysis based on semi-structured interviews with key informants, the analysis supports the possibility that the introduction of the ITAs and the accompanying stable political environment had a significant positive effect on germplasm distribution.Without the stabilizing influence of the ITAs, the CBDcatalyzed increase in demand for germplasm material for restoration, combined with a reduction in acquisitions, would have considerably diminished the size of IRRI genebank. The potential drop in, or even complete cessation of, exchange of PGR would have severely stifled international agricultural research. However, as the policy environment became more stable, the genebank was able to rebuild its holdings to the pre-CBD level-something that may not have occurred if the policy environment had remained uncertain.  1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 YEAR (Source: IRRI genebank database)","tokenCount":"1745"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3c939ead969c0f67a47d9aa93d8a1cc0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a8cb3e49-8e7c-465e-b67b-51b375287744/retrieve","id":"859173703"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d598eb15-18e2-4b02-8f0a-65dc83327eaf","pagecount":"76","content":"By the Chair of the CIAT Board of Trustees All too often, strategic plans go on the shelf within months after they are completed. In contrast, CIAT's strategy for 2014-2020 went on the road over the last year. We shared it widely with donors and partners, and engaged them in planning novel initiatives that flow from the strategy. This audience included many distinguished visitors to CIAT, among them Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and a group of science and industry leaders associated with the Latin America Conservation Council (LACC), which works in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). LACC held its fourth annual meeting at our headquarters in November.One strategic undertaking to which we are giving special attention involves the creation of a new plant genetic resources hub at Center headquarters in Colombia. For nearly four decades, CIAT's genebank has resided at the heart of our efforts to make tropical agriculture more productive and resilient. By creating a new state-of-the-art genebank, we will be able to provide not only valuable seed but also digital genetic information that helps researchers harness the seed's development power. CIAT's host country, Colombia -considered the second most biodiverse country in the world, after Brazil -stands to gain significantly from the new genebank and is actively involved in its planning. The novel facility will conserve biodiversity and play a critical role in making Colombia's agriculture more competitive, sustainable, and climate smart -key aims of our collaboration with the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) and Colombian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Corpoica).The German government recently provided funding for infrastructure that facilitates genebank functions, and this augurs well for our campaign to build further support. We believe the new hub will closely complement the efforts of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, whose executive director, Marie Haga, honored us with a visit this year.Center scientists are pursuing several other avenues opened up by the strategy, including these three forward-looking initiatives: LivestockPlus -Fast-tracking tropical forages for twin-win agricultural systems  Ecosystem Action -Renewing rural landscapes for improved food security and livelihoods  FoodLens -Sharpening the focus of research on sustainable food systemsThe initiatives now have well-defined research agendas and are rapidly gaining buy-in through new partnerships. A widely publicized study on changes in global food supplies over the last 50 years -which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) -stimulated global interest in our perspectives on food systems. Sizable grants have already been approved for LivestockPlus and Ecosystem Action, one of which (from Germany's environmental ministry) supports development of sustainable land-use options for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon.Recent developments on another major front -climate-smart agriculture (CSA) -have cleared the way for rapid progress toward CIAT's strategic objectives. Last October, Center experts presented profiles on CSA for seven countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to a standing-room-only audience at World Bank headquarters. The products prompted support for a similarly ambitious effort with African countries, to be conducted through the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS or CRP7), which CIAT leads.In another climate coup, CIAT scientists were named one of two winners of the Big Data Climate Challenge, which the United Nations awarded at its high-level Climate Summit, held last September in New York City. The award recognized our collaborative work with MADR and Colombia's National Rice Growers Association (Fedearroz) to help blunt the impacts of climate change in rice production through practical applications of big data tools. The other award winner was the Global Forest Watch system of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which has recently adopted CIAT's Terra-i tool for near real-time monitoring of land-use change. We worked with WRI to showcase this joint effort at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) 2014, a major event held in December at Lima, Peru, alongside the 20 th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP20.During GLF, CIAT also joined WRI and other partners in the high-level launch of Initiative 20x20, which aims to get the restoration of 20 million hectares of degraded land on track in Latin America by 2020.Attended by a half dozen agricultural and environmental ministers and an equal number of CEOs from private investment funds, the launch marked an auspicious beginning for this exciting effort. In relation to Initiative 20x20 and other partnerships, CIAT will work to heighten the profile of soil and ecosystem health throughout 2015, which the United Nations General Assembly has declared the International Year of Soils.CIAT also stood on solid ground financially in 2014. Total revenues reached US$133 million, compared to $114 million in 2013. The Center is now fully recovering all indirect as well as research and technical support costs. If additional and unbudgeted projects are executed, recovery is positive and allows further reduction of the indirect cost rate in the following year. Implementation of projects has advanced faster than anticipated, increasing daily expenditures to over $220,000 and thus affecting reserve days negatively, despite a surplus of $3.8 million. CIAT generates $2.2 million through sound financial management. In addition, the Center is making good progress toward full compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards.Chair, CIAT Board of Trustees 16 March 2015The Center's Board of Trustees, primarily through its Audit and Risk Committee (ARC), has responsibility for overseeing the effectiveness of the risk management system that management has put in place to identify, manage, and monitor significant risks to the achievement of CIAT's business objectives, and to ensure alignment with CGIAR principles and guidelines that have been adopted by all CGIAR Centers.These risks are operational, financial and reputational in nature and are inherent to the modus operandi and geographic spread of CIAT's activities -including its duties and responsibilities as Lead Center for CCAFS (the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security) operations.Taken together, the risks are as dynamic as the environment in which CIAT operates. Some of the risks could result in loss. Other risks, if carefully and thoughtfully exploited could be used to CIAT's advantage.Management has therefore drafted a risk management policy (for Board approval shortly) and has already put in place risk mitigation practices that have been communicated to all staff. These include a risk framework by which management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; assigns risk owners; develops risk mitigation strategies (including internal controls) which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on its effectiveness.The ARC routinely receives an update on risk management and progress against agreed targets that will improve its efforts overall.Taken together, the ARC is satisfied with the attention paid by management to risk in CIAT's own activities -as well as those related to CCAFS-CRP7. Thus assured, the ARC communicates to the Board on its views on the effectiveness and efficiency of CIAT's management of risk.With regard to CIAT's 2014 Annual Financial Statements and the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting, the ARC reviewed management's assertions in its 2014 Management Letter of Representation (provided to the external auditors) and Management's Statement of Responsibility for Financial Reporting included as part of the annual Financial Statement and its assertions that internal control is adequate. Management's assertion is complemented by the Internal Audit Unit's (IAU) recent risk management audit that concludes that CIAT's overall risk management system is Satisfactory.J. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)For the years ended as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 (expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars)See accompanying notes to the financial statements. Under an agreement with the Colombian Government, signed on May 5, 1987, and ratified by Law 29 of March 18, 1988, CIAT is recognized as a not-for-profit international organization and is granted certain prerogatives, including exemption from Colombian taxes.Center Financial Statements are prepared in compliance with the CGIAR Financial Guidelines. These policies were established for Centers to fully adopt and comply with all relevant International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), except as established in the Financial Guidelines.Main accounting policies followed by CIAT are summarized below:The Center prepares its financial statements, except for cash flow information, under the accrual basis of accounting.Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)For the years ended as of December 31, 2014 and 2013 (expressed in thousands of U.S. dollars)To reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the ecoefficiency of agriculture.CIAT develops technologies, methods, and knowledge that better enable farmers, mainly smallholders, to enhance ecoefficiency in agriculture. This means we make production more competitive and profitable as well as sustainable and resilient through economically and ecologically sound use of natural resources and purchased inputs.CIAT has global responsibility for the improvement of two staple foods, cassava and common bean, together with tropical forages for livestock. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we also conduct research on rice. Representing diverse food groups and a key component of the world's agricultural biodiversity, those crops are vital for global food and nutrition security.In its work on agrobiodiversity, the Center employs advanced biotechnology to accelerate crop improvement. Progress in our crop research also depends on unique collections of genetic resources -65,000 crop samples in all -which we hold in trust for humanity.Alongside its research on agrobiodiversity, CIAT works in two other areas -soils and decision and policy analysis -which cut across all tropical crops and production environments.Center soil scientists conduct research across scales -from fields and farms to production systems and landscapes -to create new tools and knowledge that help reduce hunger through sustainable intensification of agricultural production, while restoring degraded land and supporting decision making for climate-smart agriculture.CIAT's work on decision and policy analysis harnesses the power of information to influence decisions about issues, such as climate change, linking farmers to markets, research impact assessment, and gender equity.\"Accounts receivable -Donors\" are classified as follows:Property, plant, and equipment acquired through non-monetary grants are recognized at fair value at the date of the grant. Such grants are presented in the Statement of Financial Position as Deferred Revenue and are taken into account as revenue on a systematic and rational basis over the lifespan of the asset.The in-trust contract signed with the Colombian Government for the land on which CIAT has its headquarters was extended until July 2015. The new contract will be renewed for another 5 years, and thereafter it may be extended by mutual consent. If CIAT terminates the contract, CIAT is to return the land with its improvements, buildings, and installations, free of any kind of judicial actions or embargoes and without receiving any compensation. This land is not considered a contribution to \"property, plant, and equipment.\"Unrestricted grants: Receivables from unrestricted grants are recognized in full in the period specified by the donor.Restricted grants: Receivables from restricted grants are recognized in accordance with the terms of the underlying contract. Restricted grants include restricted projects, intercenter activities, Challenge Programs, and CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs).Property, plant, and equipment acquired through the use of restricted grants are recorded as assets and fully (100%) depreciated, and the depreciation expense is charged directly to the appropriate restricted project in the same year of acquisition.Inventories held at the end of the financial period are stated at cost or net realization value, whichever is lower.These are claims held against donors for the future receipt of money, goods, or services. Receivables due from donors can arise from: unrestricted grants that are due as a receivable by the Center and amounts due from restricted grants that have been negotiated between a donor and the Center.As of 2013, acquisitions of property, plant, and equipment with a purchase price of $3 or less are expensed (see Note 2q).CIAT's financial statements are provided in U.S. dollars. Those assets and liabilities (excluding supplies, spare parts, property, and plant and equipment) denominated in other currencies are converted at the exchange rate in effect at the end of each financial period. Grants received in currencies other than U.S. dollars are recorded at market exchange rates in effect at the time the grant is received or, if outstanding as of 31 December, at the market exchange rate in effect at the year end.Incomes and expenses in currencies other than U.S. dollars, as well as those related to properties, spare parts and plants and equipment, are initially recorded at the official exchange rate on the dates of the transactions. Profits and losses arising from exchange rate fluctuations are included in the operational results .Under the accrual basis of accounting, transactions and events are recognized when they occur (and not when cash or its cash equivalent is received or paid) and these are recorded in the accounting books and reported in the financial statements during the periods to which they relate. Expenses are recognized in the Statement of Activities on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earnings of specific items of revenue.Cash comprises cash on hand, petty cash funds, currencies to be deposited, and local or foreign currency deposits in banks, which can be added to or withdrawn without limitation and are immediately available for use in the current operations.Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that are both: i) readily convertible to known amounts of cash; and ii) less than 3 months to their maturity date, hence the risk of changes in value due to changes in interest rates are insignificant.The CIAT Investment Policy is regularly reviewed and approved by the Management Team and the CIAT Board of Trustees. For additional information see Note 4.Sugar cane inventory is valued according to the real cost invested and the average realizable value of each cultivated hectare.Inventories are stated at cost, using the moving average price method. Cost represents the purchase price of supplies, plus freight and handling charges. Materials in transit are stated at invoice cost.  Depreciation of assets owned by the Center is computed by the straight-line method over the estimated lifespan of the asset, except assets acquired with restricted grants. The basis for computing depreciation is the asset acquisition cost, less its estimated salvage value.The following table indicates the lifespan and estimated salvage percentages of the Center fixed assets:Estimated lifespan in years and salvage value for Headquarter vehicles, buses, and trucks are based on the Colombian market conditions. As from 2014, and based on the average market conditions in the regions where CIAT has operations, the salvage value for regional vehicles changed from 0% to 25%.These include: 1) Grants received from donors for which conditions are not yet met and 2) amounts payable to donors of any unexpended funds received in advance for restricted grants.\"Accounts payable -Donors\" are classified as follows:All new facilities provided by host countries to the Center or built for the use of the Center, which will revert to the host country in the event the Center is asked to cease its operation, are recognized as assets.Headquarter vehiclesSubsequent expenditures relating to property, plant and equipment that have already been recognized are added to the carrying amount of the asset, only if the expenditure improves the condition of the asset beyond its originally assessed standard of performance. All other subsequent expenditures are recognized as expenses of the period where incurred.Unrestricted grants: Are those received from the unconditional transfer of cash or other assets to the Center.Restricted grants: Are those received from a transfer of resources to the Center in return for future compliance relating to the operating activities of the Center. Restricted Grants include Intercenter Activities, Challenge Programs, and CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs).The liability is recognized based on the results of the actuarial report prepared by an external entity. Actuarial calculations are based on various assumptions, which in the future may differ from the actual circumstances. Net assets comprise the residual interest in the entity's assets after liabilities are deducted. They are classified as either undesignated or designated and temporary: Undesignated net assets: Their use is not designated by CIAT Management for specific purposes. Designated net assets: Those that have been restricted by CIAT as reserve for replacing property and equipment, retirement of national staff, and other activities or purposes.Temporary net assets -Other comprehensive income: Includes the temporary valuation of the hedging operations accrued, but not realized. It also includes the actuarial gain/(loss) resulting from the valuation of the defined benefit plan for Colombian employees. Institutional costs are recovered based on the Activity Base Costing (ABC) principles and the Financial Guideline No. 5 issued by CGIAR. According to the CIAT policy, direct costs are recovered on the basis of cost drivers and indirect cost or overhead is recovered on the basis of the rate calculated annually or as agreed in the grant agreements. Using the ABC methodology, institutional costs are also charged to unrestricted grants.CIAT may utilize derivative financial instruments in its management of exposures to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates. CIAT does not enter into derivative financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes. For transactions where hedge accounting is applied, CIAT formally documents relationships between hedging instruments and hedged items, as well as its risk management objective and strategy for undertaking various hedge transactions. This process includes linking all derivatives to specific assets and liabilities on the balance sheet or to specific firm commitments or forecasted transactions. CIAT also formally assesses, both at inception and on an ongoing basis, whether the derivatives that are used in hedging transactions are highly effective in offsetting changes in fair values or cash flows of hedged items. Gains and losses on contracts that constitute effective cash flow hedges to the extent of the effective portion are deferred in net assets and recognized in the Statement of Activity when the related transactions occur. The ineffective portion of a hedge is recognized in the Statement of Activities in the period it occurs.Any realized gains or losses are recognized in net income as realized gains or losses on derivative contracts in the period they occur. For transactions where hedge accounting is not applied, CIAT accounts for such instruments using the fair value method by initially recording an asset or liability, and recognizing changes in the fair value of the instruments in the Statement of Activities as unrealized gains or losses on derivative contracts.The Statement of Activities as of December 31, 2013, and relevant notes have been reclassified to conform to the 2014 Consortium reporting requirements. These reclassifications do not have any impact on the result and working capital of the Center.Preparing CIAT´s financial statements requires Management to make judgments, estimates, and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities, and the disclosure of contingent liabilities, at the end of the reporting period. However, uncertainty about these assumptions and estimates could result in outcomes that require a material adjustment to the carrying amount of the asset or liability in future periods.Unrestricted grants in currencies other than U.S. dollars are recorded at exchange rates in effect at the time of receipt or, if outstanding as of December 31, at the exchange rate in effect at the year's end.Restricted grants in currencies other than U.S. dollars, with specific request to be paid in that currency as partner funds, are recorded as income and expenses at the exchange rate in effect at the time of payment.Challenge Programs are the means for the CGIAR system as a whole to take on global challenges in cooperation with a wide range of research partners.Grants are recognized as revenue to the extent of expenses incurred. Funds for research partners of the HarvestPlus Challenge Program (which is now integrated into CRP 4 -Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health) are managed as funds in trust. Starting in 2014 Harvest Plus funds executed by participant partners are also reported as CIAT revenue.According to the Advisory Notes provided by the Consortium, the Lead Center of a CRP is required to recognize all funds as revenues, including funds executed by CGIAR Centers and Collaborators. Under CIAT's policy, all payments to partners are initially recorded as advances, and expensed once funds are legalized, previous submission of the periodical technical and financial reports. Amounts transferred to partners amounting to less than US$25 are expensed once the payments are disbursed.Partner centers are required to include expenses incurred under each CRP, including the corresponding revenue in their Statement of Activity.Restricted grants are those received from a transfer of resources to the Center in return for past or future compliance to the operating activities of the Center.Unrestricted grants are those received from unconditional transfers of cash or other assets to the Center.The grants, whether restricted or unrestricted, are not recognized until there is reasonable assurance that the Center has complied with the conditions attached to the grant.r.Cash and cash equivalents as of 31 December consist of: From January 2014, HarvestPlus Challenge Program operations are reported as CIAT revenue and expenses. Previously, this was accounted for and reported as Funds in Trust. This is a reporting, rather than an accounting policy change and aligns with the accounting treatment by the HarvestPlus co-leader.Cash in banks -Current accounts Short-term investments -Certificates of deposit with maturity less than 3 monthsInvestment guidelines summary: Responsible financial stewardship means making investment decisions that seek preservation of capital ahead of optimizing investment returns. In line with the aforementioned statement, the following shall be observed: a) A diversified investment portfolio shall be maintained. b) No more than 15% of the medium-and long-term portfolio shall be invested in securities of any one issuer or 25% in any entity with the exception of obligations and government-backed securities. Exceptions require Management approval. c) Prenotification to the Audit & Risk Committee Chair for changes in investment that exceed 10% of CIAT reserves as per the previous year's financial statement.Credit ratings provided by independent institutions shall be used in choosing investment vehicles. Minimum credit rating for International Financial Institutions rating \"A\" of Standard and Poor's or Moody's or equivalent ratings provided by other reputable and generally accepted companies and minimum local rating of \"AA\" for Colombian Financial Institutions. Quality of Asset, Liquidity, and historical performance shall be taken into consideration.Funds and reserves shall be allocated as follows: a) Liquid Funds: minimum required to cover one month of operation. b) Short term (investments with a maturity of less than 12 months): minimum 10%. c) Mid term (investments with a maturity of less than 3 years): maximum 70% of CIAT own funds. d) Long term (investments with a maturity of maximum 10 years): maximum 60% of CIAT own funds. e) Combined mid-and long-term: maximum 100% of CIAT funds that do not have contractual obligations with donors.Prohibited investments that include but are not limited to: commercial paper in form of stocks, speculative derivatives, floating-rate notes with any kind of maturity, structured notes, including collateralized mortgage operations, swaps, short selling and uncovered calls and puts, private placements, commodities, illiquid securities, securities of companies that filed for bankruptcy, factoring, property, real state, art, antiques, gems, borrowing, and leverage.Investments are initially recorded at their acquisition cost (including brokerage and other transaction costs) if they were purchased, and at fair value if they were received as a grant. Investments in equity securities with readily determinable fair values and all investments in debt securities shall be measured at fair value as of the date of the Statement of Financial Position. Investments received as grants from donors are to be recorded at their fair market value.Cash on hand -HQ Cash on hand -Regional offices Following the FG-5 recommendations, in February 2014, the Board of Trustees approved two changes in the Fixed Assets Policy. 1) Backdated as of 2013, the minimum costs of a fixed asset are increased from $1 ($0.5 for IT costs) to $3; consequently, all fixed assets with a value equal or below $3 are expensed. The impact of this change is reported in Note 21. 2) To increase the residual value of vehicles located in the regions where CIAT operates from 0% to 25% in line with the average market conditions.CIAT will be transitioning from current Financial Guidelines to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). In 2014, CIAT prepares its financial reports in both reporting standards (as per current Financial Guidelines and IFRS). However, External Auditors opinion for 2014 Financial Statements is based on the current Financial Guidelines. CIAT plans to fully comply with IFRS in 2015 as required by the Colombian government, agreed with the Consortium, and endorsed by the Board. During the year 2013, a comprehensive review of CGIAR Financial Guideline No. 2 was initiated and is pending for approval by the CGIAR Fund.Investments acquired with the purpose of keeping them for more than one year from their acquisition date are to be classified as long-term investments.Interests, dividends, losses, and gains relating to financial instruments are reported in the Statement of Activities as expense or revenue.Investments acquired with the purpose of disposing of them within one year or less after their acquisition date are classified as current investments. Furthermore, investments classified as current, as distinguished from cash equivalents, are those that are acquired with original maturities of more than 3 months but not exceeding one year. Long-term investments with maturities of more than 1 year Given that U.S. dollar is the currency used by the Center in its records, no foreign currency investments different from U.S. dollar or Colombian Peso should generally be made. However, funds that are received in another currency may be invested in that currency as long as expected expenses in that currency justify such an investment. U.S. dollar shall not be converted into foreign currency for investment purposes. Investments in Colombian pesos are permissible to cover short-term operational requirements if the conversion rate and rates of return are favorable and subject to the other investment criteria related to capital preservation. If U.S. dollars are converted into Colombian pesos for investment purposes, a natural hedge between assets and liabilities shall be targeted. Currency forwards shall protect the value in U.S. dollars of the investment in Colombian currency if a natural hedge is not guaranteed. Holding of currencies (local and U.S. dollars) in regional offices accounts (checking or savings accounts) shall be limited to funds for operational purposes and should not exceed estimated 2 months worth of requirements.Short-term investments with maturities of more than 3 months but less than 1 year (2)Starting 2014, the funds to support HarvestPlus partners are reported as CIAT revenue in the Statement of Activities.Corresponding to the estimated costs of repatriating members of the senior staff and their families to their home countries, as specified in their appointment letters. Provision to cover bonuses for retirement corresponds to a defined benefit to be paid to CIAT employees at Headquarters upon the employees retirement from CIAT. According to the CIAT Benefits Policy, the retirement bonus for each employee ranges from 1 to 1.4 months of the base salary for each 3 continuous years of service depending on the type of contract and the time worked at CIAT. This benefit applies only to employees hired before December 31, 2012.As indicated in the Financial Statement 2011, CIAT decided to change its pension provision from a 12-month forwardlooking calculation to an actuarial calculation. As a result, an additional provision in the amount of $2,800 was required over the short-to mid-term. After 3 years of increased partial provisions, CIAT has decided to fully provide for this amount, which resulted in an expense at the end of 2013 in the amount of $684 as mentioned in Note 21. Provisions for performance and other benefits write-offs (1) 25-Nov-14 25-Nov-14(1) Corresponds to performance appraisal and other benefits for CIAT staff accrued in excess in the last 2 years.The amount of US$559 corresponds to the temporary variance resulting from the valuation of the forward operations. This temporary variation is accrued but not realized as of December 31, 2014, and according to the 95% effectiveness of the contracts the result is reported in Net Assets under Other comprehensive income.The forward foreign exchange rate contracts for 2015 valuated at the end of 2014 are detailed as follows:28-Nov-14 28-Nov-14 28-Nov-14 5-Dec-14 23-Dec-14 30-Dec-14Note 24: Contingent assetsBased on the requirement of the Colombian Government, in 2010, CIAT signed a Sponsorship Contract with the CIAT Employee Fund -CRECIAT, authorizing CRECIAT to manage and account for the resources from the CIAT Social Welfare Fund. Under this Sponsorship Contract, CRECIAT assumed the responsibility to manage the resources of the Social Welfare Fund while CIAT continues to manage the social welfare activities, which are supported by surpluses generated from the financial management of these resources. CRECIAT also assumed the responsibility of settlement of any balances due to or from employees with regard to the Sponsorship Contract on termination of employment with CIAT.The funds transferred to CRECIAT include the principal and earned interests of the participants as well as the reserves generated from loan interests to the CIAT employees and other operations, since the inception of the Social Welfare Fund in 1975. According to the Sponsorship Contract, these reserves and any earned interests are to be used for social activities in benefit of CIAT employees. In the event that CRECIAT ceases to exist or in the event that CIAT decides to cancel the Sponsorship Contract and such reserves might be left over at that time, they will be returned to CIAT for distribution as agreed in the constitution of the previous Social Welfare Fund and as reconfirmed in the Sponsorship Contract.The accumulated balance of the reserves as of December 31, 2014 is $2,632 (2013 $3,147). As the probability of CRECIAT ceasing its operation is remote, requiring that leftover reserves would need to be returned to CIAT, no accounting for this contingent asset has been recorded in the financial statements of CIAT. The reduction of the balance is due to the accelerated devaluation of the Colombian Peso occurred during the last quarter of 2014. ","tokenCount":"4948"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f1bc94609966c8f684de982b121632b8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/77b0bb24-a469-4115-8270-d3aab9d03bfe/content","id":"381192585"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"df6c9f45-7aa0-4818-ad65-31c8c91e8413","pagecount":"22","content":"• Identificación cuál es la dinámica natural (forma de producción, comercialización)• Identificar barreras, potencialidades de los grupos de productores y construir con los productores soluciones Mayor vinculación a los mercados presenciales, venta a vecinos, eventos comerciales Factor clave para el desarrollo del futuro teniendo en cuenta la baja participación de las juventud en las actividades rurales.Por venta de productos en los mercados presenciales frente a la venta en finca a intermediarios.• Organización de productores por líneas comerciales y/o mercados • Mejorar las planificaciones de siembra y la oferta continua de alimentos • Sensibilización de la importancia de costos de producción (registros y análisis) • Estrategias en producción para minimizar los daños por cambio climático • Los productores construyan su plan de vida e involucren su familia • Motivar a los jóvenes a participar en los mercados• Estrategias de venta directa a consumidores • Realizar Campañas de consumo de alimentos frescos (aumento de consumidores) • Los Programas de extensión incluyan, respeten, y potencializar los saberes tradicionales y formas de producción de los agricultores, e implementen tecnologías en equilibrio con estos saberes • Incidir en las políticas públicas y apoyos del gobierno (compras publicas, programas, leyes) • Incidir en las entidades comerciales del estado para la exención de impuestos a las actividades comerciales de pueblos indígenas respaldado desde el derecho propio Este evento se realizó como parte de las acciones de la Estrategia Intensificación Sustentable de los Sistemas de Producción de Granos en América Latina por parte de CIMMYT y su extensa red de colaboradores. Se agradece en especial la participación y el apoyo de la SAGARPA en el marco del Programa MasAgro en su componente MasAgro Productor.\"El Programa Modernización Sustentable de la Agricultura Tradicional es un programa público, ajeno a cualquier partido político. Queda prohibido el uso para fines distintos a los establecidos en el Programa\"","tokenCount":"305"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"715ee13adb7e965240f75fb8f23efd69","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7f6d176a-7709-4a56-9e2b-a80b11741a47/retrieve","id":"449732303"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"daedeb82-c112-4652-bfab-48ab89e3ad0e","pagecount":"41","content":"We thank the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and the CGIAR consortium research projects on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (CRP6) and Policies, Institutions, and Markets (CRP2) for providing funds for conducting this study. Special thanks toA comparative review Value chain development (VCD) features prominently in development programming aimed at stimulating economic growth and increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector (Humphrey and Navas-Alemán 2010;Staritz 2012;Stoian et al. 2012). The VCD approach challenges governments and civil society to look beyond individual actors, such as smallholders or cooperatives, when considering how to achieve development goals. By focusing on the value chain and the links between the actors spread along it, development interventions can better identify common problems among actors in the chain and solutions that generate winwin outcomes. Improved chain relations and overall chain performance are expected to yield tangible benefits in terms of economic performance and, in some cases, poverty reduction.The potential to include large-scale businesses as active partners in VCD offers development agencies opportunities for achieving outcomes at greater scale, with potentially increased impact and sustainability. For many development agencies, donors and governments, VCD has become a principal element of their poverty-reduction strategies.Interest in VCD stems, in large part, from an increased awareness among development organisations that success in increasingly complex agrifood markets often requires stronger collaboration among chain actors, including producers, processors and retailers (Hobbs, Conney and Fulton 2000;Humphrey and Memedovic 2006). Growing urban demand for added-value foodstuffs in developing countries, more stringent quality and food safety standards by governments and private firms, the growth of niche markets (for example, organic and fair trade), and concern over the scarcity of agricultural raw materials are important factors that have spurred interest in VCD. In some cases, VCD also responds to a sense of urgency over the need to reinvigorate development processes that led to the formulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which view increased income as a precursor to livelihood security and a decent standard of living. The rapid growth in demand for agrifood products in which smallholders are considered to have a comparative advantage -for example horticulture, and specialty crops like coffee, that require extensive labour inputs -has been considered an opportunity to combine economic growth and poverty-reduction goals (Bacon 2005;Weinberger and Lumpkin 2007).A useful definition of VCD is provided by World Bank (2010,16), which defines it as an \"effort to strengthen mutually beneficial linkages among firms so that they work together to take advantage of market opportunities, that is, to create and build trust among value chain participants.\" Concepts often included in definitions of value chain and VCD include win-win relationships, upgrading 2 , innovation and added value. In some cases, VCD may be promoted with an aim to improve the competitiveness of a given sector or subsector, often through changes in the political-legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks in which value chain actors operate. In other cases, interventions for VCD may target a specific set of actors in a given segment of the chain. When the targeted actors include smallholders and other vulnerable populations, VCD may be described as 'pro-poor'. Pro-poor VCD has been defined as an effort to generate a \"positive or desirable change in a value chain to extend or improve productive operations and generate social benefits: poverty reduction, income and _________ 2 Upgrading refers to the ability of certain actors in a value chain, often smallholders and small and medium enterprises in the upstream segments of such chains, to respond to opportunities and increase their benefits from chain participation by increasing efficiency, expanding into more sophisticated lines of products, or acquiring new functions in the chain (Humphrey and Schmitz 2000).Table 2. Parameters for the review of guides for VCDObjectives and motivations • Direct users/intended beneficiaries • Expected outputs from guide implementation• Stated development objective (the expected result of guide implementation)• Market focus (for example, local versus international)• Conditions or assumptions for meeting development objective (either stated or implied) Guides for value chain development A comparative review these parameters, an initial review of each guide was carried out by one of the authors of this report. This initial review was reviewed by another team member for accuracy and objectivity. The review of each guide was then passed to its corresponding author(s) for feedback on accuracy and objectivity. Authors were asked to identify potential misunderstandings or omissions and to highlight any disagreements. Feedback was received from authors of eight of the guides 3 . Their comments and suggestions were incorporated into the review. Preliminary versions of this document were presented for discussion and review among the authors of the guides and among selected external reviewers.Our methodology has certain limitations. There are likely to be guides that meet the selection criteria but that we failed to identify and include in this review. We appreciate suggestions from readers on guides that should be included in a future version of this paper. Nonetheless, our selection of guides is broad enough to provide a strong indication of the overall stateof-the-art concerning the design of guides for VCD. Our review is based exclusively on the guides themselves: it does not present information from other sources on experiences with the application of the guides and the subsequent results. In general, case studies with critical feedback on tool design and application are scarce._________ 3 One or more authors of the following guides provided feedback on the assessment of their guide: CIP, IIED, CIAT, FAO, GTZ, ILO, UNIDO, USAID.Participatory market chain approach  In other cases, implementation is also expected to result in new or stronger business relationships that emerge from the sustained dialogue among chain actors during the guide implementation process. The design of these guides places considerably more emphasis on the participatory process for implementation. A focus on both strategy formulation and relationship building is clear in the guide by CIP (p. 16), which considers that \"building trust among market chain actors is a prerequisite for successful collaboration.\" The design of guides by CIAT and IIED also relies heavily on sustained engagement with smallholders and other chain actors to understand the value chain and facilitate negotiations and interactions between actors. GTZ and USAID provide guidance for the elaboration of a strategy with chain stakeholders, as well as guidance on how to implement VCD, with modules, for example, on strengthening public-private partnerships, financing value chains and improving the business environment of value chains.As mentioned, the implementation of a given guide provides inputs for the elaboration of a VCD strategy, among other potential outputs. In general, the interventions or changes in business relations that result from a VCD strategy are expected to yield tangible benefits for actors in the chain as well as for the overall business environment. The discussion here focuses on the specific development objectives to be achieved when the VCD strategy is implemented.Seven guides include a development objective that focuses on improved income for marginalised populations. Examples include DFID, which considers that VCD offers an opportunity to \"effectively and sustainably improve the lives of poor people by understanding and influencing markets systems,\" and IIED (p. 11), which argues that \"with the right support, small-scale producers can be efficient and reliable providers of quality produce.\" Other development objectives are also specified. ILO includes an overall improved business environment, as well as increased employment and income as outcomes of VCD. UNIDO considers that guide implementation will result in VCD with a greater likelihood of achieving positive impacts on poverty and gender equity. In general, most guides assume that diligent implementation will provide information for the design of interventions, which will ultimately result in increased income and business performance.Exceptions to the general emphasis on poverty reduction are the guides by FAO and the World Bank, which place emphasis on the economic development aspects of VCD. FAO conceptualises that guide implementation will contribute to the economic growth of a given subsector, with no direct mention of smallholders or small businesses. In a similar way, World Bank (p. 2) notes, \"The value chain aapproach is being used to guide and drive high-impact and sustainable initiatives focused on improving productivity, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and the growth of small and medium enterprises.\" CIP (p. 3) conceptualises the benefits of VCD as creating a self-sustaining \"innovation process…that improves the development environment of rural areas, increasing the competitiveness not only of the market chain, but also of the communities and producers, who benefit from improved access to markets, contacts, and information.\"The context in which farmers and businesses operate has important implications for the design and implementation of strategies for VCD. For example, comprehensive strategies to develop value chains that link smallholders with international markets for specialty products ResultsWe began the analysis by asking, \"Who is the guide for? What outputs are expected from guide implementation? What are the broader development goals to which guide implementation is expected to contribute?\" Table A1 in the annex summarises our responses to these questions and provides information on the overall orientation of the guides. Specifically, the table identifies the direct and indirect users of the guides, the expected outputs from implementation, the stated development objectives, the market focus of the chains considered for guide implementation, and the conditions or assumptions for meeting the development objective (either stated or implied). In the discussion below, we highlight commonalities and differences in the guides, based on the information presented in Table A1.All of the guides intend that their direct users, that is, those who collect and analyse data, will be development practitioners from government agencies, donor-funded projects or NGOs.No guide is elaborated for implementation specifically for the private sector or for farmer groups, although many suggest that representatives of these be invited to participate during specific steps in the implementation process. Without exception, the guides are designed to be implemented by the organisations that sponsored the development of the guide and by other organisations.Intended indirect beneficiaries are farmers and businesses linked to a specific chain or subsector. In some cases, cooperatives and other types of small businesses are targeted, while in other cases, the type of business is not specified.None of the guides restricts implementation to the chain of a specific product or group of products. In most cases, the emphasis is on the collection of individual chains that constitute a given subsector. For example, rather than providing guidance to the analysis of an individual chain that links a group of coffee farmers to an exporter, the guides often look at the aggregate of coffee farmers and their interactions with the aggregate of exporters.At a minimum, implementation is expected to yield a strategy for VCD that includes inputs from chain actors and from organisations that are external to the chain, such as service providers. For example, FAO (p. 2) states that implementation allows for the formulation of a \"general approach toward the definition of chain interventions aiming at performance improvement, with the identification of stakeholder responsibilities for implementation.\" In a similar way, the introduction to DFID (p. 1) states that the guide \"provides value chain practitioners with an easy-to-use set of tools for value chain analysis, with a focus on poverty reduction.\" Similar approaches to conceptualising the outputs of guide implementation are taken by ILO, World Bank and UNIDO.Guides for value chain development A comparative reviewConcepts related to value chains and VCD have been debated in the fields of business management, sociology and development studies. Consensus has yet to emerge on the definitions of these concepts. This review examines the guides to understand how they define chain-related concepts. Table A2 in the annex presents the definitions used in the guides for value chain and VCD.The reviewed guides do not apply similar terms to describe market actors and the arrangements for production and marketing of agricultural products and services. Among the terms used are value chain, supply chain, market system, market chain, and agrifood chain. For the purpose of this review, the term value chain will be used, independent of the particular term used in the guide.There are major differences in the understanding of the value chain concept among the selected guides. Value chain definitions can be divided into three groups:1. Activity based: Various guides base their definition on activities, without any restriction on the type of chain relationships 6 . World Bank (p. 9) provides an illustrative example:\" will likely discuss issues related to certification compliance and the ability of cooperatives and producer associations to meet the demands of their members and of downstream buyers. Alternatively, strategies to develop value chains in local markets likely focus attention on understanding consumer demand and the opportunities for value adding with local processors and intermediaries. Context is also important when considering the ability of smallholders to participate in VCD. In cases where VCD requires relatively large investments by smallholders, understanding their interests and capacities will be important for the design of sustainable interventions. The greater a guide's focus on issues particular to a given context, the greater its potential to provide tailored guidance to its users.To what extent do the guides condition their implementation on key contextual features of the marketing and business environment or the interests and capacities of chain stakeholders? Alternatively, do the guides provide different recommendations for data collection and analysis based on the key contextual issues? Many of the guides recognise the overall importance of the context and provide guidance on how to assess the marketing and business context (for example, CIAT and DFID). However, none of the guides conditions implementation based on a key element of the marketing or business context. At the level of producing households, some guides stipulate that the value chain selected for analysis and development should be relevant to rural livelihoods. However, there is limited discussion on how to measure differences in the interests and capacities by households or on the implication of these differences for achieving the reported goals of VCD.• Guides are written for researchers and experienced NGO and government staff. In most cases, chain actors participate as data providers, validators of information and participants in strategy formulation. The orientation toward NGO and government staff allows for the introduction of relatively complex concepts and research methods but may affect greater take-up by the private sector and smaller NGOs.• Most of the guides ultimately aim to stimulate economic development and contribute to reduced rural poverty, mainly through increased incomes for smallholders. This adds considerable complexity to the guides, which, in part, accounts for their orientation towards researchers and NGO and government staff. Other guides focus exclusively on economic development as the development objective (see FAO and World Bank, for example).• Achievement of the development goals related to VCD is often based on various implicit assumptions on the capacities and interests of chain actors and the overall business context in which VCD takes place. For example, the assumption may be that smallholders and small businesses are willing and able to invest in more intensive participation in value chains. The extent to which these assumptions hold true is an issue that has not received much attention in VCD-related debates.Guides for value chain development A comparative review sider value chains and VCD in the broader sense, that is, they consider all of the actors in the set of chains that make up a given subsector. These guides include FAO, DFID, ILO, M4Pand USAID. The broader focus may be most useful for formulating policies at the national or regional level aimed at improving the competitiveness of a given subsector. Other guides applied the VCD concept in a more narrow sense -that is, focused on a specific set of actors that maintain commercial relations for the production and marketing of a product. These guides include: CIP, CIAT, GTZ, IIED and UNIDO. The narrower focus of these guides facilitates the design of strategies that respond to the needs of a selected group of actors that maintain or could maintain commercial relations.A critical element of this review is an analysis of the conceptual and methodological frameworks that underpin the guides. Table A3 in the annex identifies the key concepts applied in the guides, steps involved in guide implementation, outputs derived from implementation, and participants in the implementation process. The table also highlights the criteria applied in the selection of value chains. The following discussion brings to light the commonalities and differences among the guides in terms of their conceptual and methodological frameworks.• There is no consensus among the guides on terms applied for describing market actors that collaborate to bring a product to market. Terms used in the reviewed guides include:value chain, market system, supply chain, market chain and agrifood chain. Definitions of value chains can be divided into two types: those focused on activities and those focused on actors. The latter type provides more coherence for a conceptual framework of VCD.• In general, clear-cut definitions of VCD are scarce in the guides, despite the developmental nature of all of them. Often VCD is considered to be the logical outcome of value chain analysis. The actors involved and the incentives and mechanisms required for achieving VCD are largely suggested in the text rather than explicitly stated in a definition for VCD.• Two basic types of definitions for VCD are represented in the guides: one focuses on chains and chain actors while the other focuses on the overall environment in which chain actors operate.• The guides can also be classified based on the scale in which they apply value chain analysis. Two basic types are identified: a broader focus application, which considers all the actors in a given subsector, and a narrower focus application, which considers a specific set of actors within a given subsector.in CIAT lends itself to application by a specific set of actors in a given territory (rather than to all the actors in a subsector), and provides a clear orientation for the design of strategies by development organisations and a targeted group of chain actors. Activity-based definitions are compatible with the design of VCD policies at a broad scale, including at the national scale (see FAO and USAID, for example).In general, definitions for VCD are implied rather than explicitly stated. For example, FAO (p. 17) suggests that VCD flows from value chain analysis, whereby the analysis provides a \"set of recommendations for the public and private sectors,\" which, in turn, contributes \"toward the improvement of the economic and financial performance of chain stakeholders.\"Similarly, CIAT (p. 26) writes that value chain analysis \"lay[s] the groundwork for the formation of a value chain.\" In other cases, the guides are explicit in separating out value chain analysis from VCD. For example, ILO (pp. 4-5) suggests that VCD comprises five drivers of change: system efficiency, product quality, product differentiation, social and environmental standards, and an enabling business environment. According to GTZ (p. 17), \"Value chain promotion fosters economic growth…by making sure that the additional income generated actually benefits poverty groups.\" World Bank (p. 16) offers the most clear-cut definition for VCD: \"At the heart of VCD is the effort to strengthen mutually beneficial linkages among firms so that they work together to take advantage of market opportunities, that is, to create and build trust among value chain participants.\"Two general types of definitions for VCD can be drawn from the guides: 1) an actor/chain type that focuses on strengthening certain actors and improving relations between smallholders and other actors in a chain; and 2) a business-environment type that focuses on improving the business environment in which chain actors operate. Seven of the guides include a more actor/network-focused VCD definition. For example, CIAT suggests that VCD aims to increase competitiveness for a subset of chain actors, which results in higher income for smallholders and small businesses. USAID considers that VCD is achieved by establishing win-win relationships among chain actors. World Bank (p. 12) defines VCD as actions that \"upgrade the whole system to the benefit of all value chain participants.\" Other guides with similar definitions for VCD include: CIP, FAO, GTZ and ILO.DFID, IIED and M4P consider improving the environment in which the smallholders and other chain actors produce and market agricultural products as the basis for achieving VCD.The guides facilitate the identification of options to enhance opportunities for smallholder chain participation by influencing the political, legal and business environment and by establishing new linkages between smallholders and promising markets. For example, M4P (p. 4) considers that analysis should focus on gaining an understanding of the context in which producers and/or small traders operate as participants of the value chain. Similarly, IIED considers VCD to centre on understanding the institutional framework in which smallholders and other chain actors operate and identifying options for influencing institutional change in a way that creates smallholder opportunities and benefits. A focus on the business environment reflects the influence of debates on globalising food markets (for example, Reardon et al. 2003), and discussions among practitioners about making markets work for the poor (for example, Ferrand, Gibson, and Scott 2004).The scale of analysis has important implications for data collection and the users of VCD strategies -the typical output of implementation of VCD guides. Many of these guides con-Guides for value chain development A comparative reviewor the supply chain concept-see FAO (2007) for a brief summary of both concepts-may be a more appropriate framework for diagnostics. Second, when does upgrading represent an opportunity for smallholders or other marginalised actors? For some smallholders, the potential benefit from upgrading (for example, improved prices) may be less than the costs (such as increased labour allocation, collective action), especially in the absence of support from development organisations and/or downstream chain actors.None of the guides discusses how guide implementation leads to development outcomes and impacts for smallholders, other actors in the chain, or the chain itself. For example, the guide by CIP, which conceptualises VCD around innovation, says little about the potential returns from innovation or the conditions under which innovation by one actor could lead to innovation and improved outcomes for others in the chain. In a similar fashion, the guide by ILO, which considers VCD in the context of decent work, does not discuss which chain actors are more likely to promote decent work and how such outcomes would contribute to VCD. Guides by CIAT, FAO, GTZ and IIED consider the potential to achieve VCD based on investments by smallholders and other chain actors but do not describe the actor-specific conditions under which these investments are most likely to take place (for instance, investment needs, potential costs and benefits, and the risks related to investment).Despite the importance often given to poverty reduction, the guides provide an incomplete framework for understanding the implications of poverty for VCD and the implications of VCD for the poor. For example, recommendations for value chain analysis often overlook potentially critical constraints on smallholder participation, such as limited options for managing risk, competition among a household's various productive activities for use of scarce resources, high opportunity costs of scarce resources, and market failure in labour and capital markets. VCD needs to incorporate important concepts related to livelihood strategies, such as farming systems, asset endowments, vulnerability, power relations, local ownership and collective action (and other types of horizontal collaboration). These could be incorporated directly into the guides or references could be made to other manuals that deal with them. The limited attention to the complexities of households and small businesses by guides for VCD in general provided the stimulus for elaboration by UNIDO 8 .Value chain selection has important implications for the households and businesses involved, as well as for the external organisations that aim to facilitate the development process. Clearly, a well-selected value chain will link to a growing and profitable market. Investments in VCD will deliver benefits only if the underlying market environment is favourable. When VCD includes poor households and under-resourced enterprises, those selecting a particular chain need to consider the risks and requirements for chain participation and the ability of households and enterprises to effectively respond.Some guides identify steps for chain selection, while others assume that a chain has already been selected (Table 3). Where steps for chain selection are provided, decisions on chain selection rest mainly in the hands of chain stakeholders or with NGOs and others that are external to the chain, often with validation from local stakeholders. In general, steps for chain selection involve the selection of indicators/criteria, an extensive period of data collection and analysis, and one or more workshops to present results and make decisions. Most guides include criteria related to market potential. Those guides aiming to address rural poverty also include criteria on the potential of the value chain to improve rural livelihoods. Few Several guides build their conceptual framework around the concepts of governance 7 and upgrading. These guides include ILO, GTZ, World Bank and USAID. These guides help users to formulate a VCD strategy for building or improving relations between smallholders and other chain actors, taking into account: 1) the existing governance patterns; and 2) the political, legal and market context in which the chain actors operate. The guides assume that a clear governance pattern can be identified and that chain development prospects are present within existing patterns that provide meaningful benefits to smallholders and other actors. Guides by CIAT and IIED do not use the terms governance or upgrading but contain conceptual frameworks that are similar in nature. For example, IIED builds its conceptual framework around the formal and informal institutions that make up 'modern markets' and the potential for smallholders to respond to the demands of these markets.Other guides are constructed around a conceptual framework that pays attention to the political, legal and market context in which chain actors operate. For example, DFID aims to understand the 'market system' (i.e., the actors that make the production of final products possible and the set of rules that they follow), and identify options for addressing 'systemic constraints' (i.e., the underlying reasons for underperformance and possible intervention points). Unlike the value chain concept, the market system concept does not explicitly include an element of vertical coordination. FAO also focuses attention on understanding the political, legal and market environment in which firms operate, as a basis for promoting synergies and increased competitiveness in a chain. Particular areas of focus include the regulatory environment, technologies and inputs available to chain actors, and the degree of competition in the subsector.Improved coordination and collaboration among chain actors lies at the heart of most of the frameworks. The potential for achieving this improved coordination and collaboration will depend on various factors, including product lead times, access to infrastructure, attitudes and capabilities among chain actors, the distances between businesses, and access to different types of services (such as technical and business advisory services and financial services). It follows that the nature of the opportunities for coordination and collaboration will vary according to the mix of these factors present in a given context. Opportunities may be relatively strong in chains characterised by high-value products and short lead times, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. They may be relatively weak in chains with limited product differentiation and long lead times, such as basic grains. Where opportunities for improved coordination and collaboration are weak, development goals may be achieved through means other than VCD (for example, attention to national-level constraints, such as bureaucratic interference, restricted access to credit and lack of infrastructure). Discussions on the context and its implications for successful VCD are missing from most of the guides.Among the guides that focus on governance and upgrading, two important questions remain largely unaddressed in the guides. First, how can an upgrading strategy be defined in cases where no clear or uniform governance pattern is discernible? Clear governance patterns do not always exist, as holds true for undifferentiated crops sold in local markets, for example.In other cases, governance patterns may differ within a given node in the chain as well as between different nodes in a chain. Guides for value chain development A comparative review• DFID and IIED construct a conceptual framework focused on the political, legal and market context in which value chain actors operate. IIED builds its framework around the formal and informal institutions that make up 'modern markets', while CIP develops its framework around innovation by value chain actors and the potential to achieve innovation through the building of human and social capital.• In general, the reviewed guides provide too few insights into how VCD can lead to expected outcomes and impacts. This may reflect little actually being known about the outcomes and impacts of VCD, as well as the challenges involved in linking micro-level interventions with the larger political, legal and market context at national and international levels.• The development of future guides would benefit from increased attention to the context in which VCD is to be carried out, allowing for differentiated conceptual and methodological discussions depending on the key contextual features of the business environment and resources available to value chain actors, particularly women.• Despite the importance of poverty reduction for VCD, the guides provide an incomplete framework for understanding the implications of poverty relative to achieving VCD or the impacts of VCD on poverty.• Some guides provide a brief discussion on how to collect and analyse the data for value chain selection, while others provide no such discussion. This likely reflects an assumption that the value chain will be predetermined within a given project framework. In some cases, selection of a value chain for analysis involves complex data collection and analysis.Where guidance is provided, it is limited to a list of criteria that should be considered in selection. Given the diversified livelihoods of some rural households and the potential for undue trade-offs between different household activities, greater attention should be placed on chain selection, perhaps in the form of a specialised guide on chain selection.• The guides avoid concepts related to the more technical aspects of production, economic viability, standards and regulations, and logistics, as well as the associated analytical approaches and tools. While this simplifies the guides, making them easier to apply, it may also leave some implementers with limited options for addressing critical aspects of chain development. This suggests that specialised tools may be needed to elaborate VCD strategies within a given sector (for example, fresh fruit, cocoa and dairy) for achieving greater precision and depth in strategy development.guidelines deal with how to collect and analyse the data. In some cases, effectively responding to a criterion actually would require complex data collection and analysis, for example, assessing the \"potential of the product/activity for poverty reduction\" (M4P, p. 20) and identifying the \"markets with potential for achieving improved growth and access\" (DFID, p. 24).The guides generally follow a similar sequence of activities for data collection and analysis.Implementation begins with chain mapping, where implementation teams identify and describe the value chain actors and the context in which they operate. This is followed by an assessment of the existing relationships among chain actors; the political, legal and market context; and the potential either for smallholders and small businesses to improve their positioning in the chain or for the chain as a whole to develop. Finally, intervention strategies are formulated with inputs from various chain stakeholders. Within the general value chain framework, each guide tends to present a methodological element that is unique. For example, CIAT and CIP stand out for their focus on a participatory and practitioner-friendly implementation approach. M4P is the only guide to include guidance on addressing potential investment costs and technology issues related to VCD. World Bank and USAID present a broad collection of methods and tools for VCD, while GTZ provides a detailed and well-structured approach to carrying out value chain analysis and strategy formulation.Selection led by external experts Assumption that chain has already been selected• Several guides, including GTZ, ILO, World Bank and USAID, build a conceptual framework mainly around concepts that originate in the value chain literature (for example, governance, upgrading). Attention is placed on understanding existing chain actors, their relations and the resulting upgrading opportunities. There is a general assumption that a clear governance pattern exists and that chain development prospects can be identified within this pattern that can provide meaningful benefits to smallholders.• CIAT and FAO build their frameworks around the concepts of synergy, efficiency and competitiveness. The result is a conceptual framework similar to the guides that apply value chain concepts. There is an underlying assumption that meaningful, positive outcomes for smallholders and other chain actors can be achieved through increased cooperation. Table A4 in the annex summarises the data recommended for collection at different levels of value chain analysis. These levels of analysis include: intra-household, household, business, chain and market, and facilitating organisation. None of the guides recommends data collection at all levels of analysis. Depending on the objectives of the guide and its intended users, some levels of data collection will be more relevant than others. Our review aims to understand the range of options available to potential users of a guide for VCD. The following discussion focuses on the commonalities and differences among the guides in terms of their recommended data collection at the different levels.The guides differ markedly in their attention to data collection at different levels of value chain analysis. Some guides place more emphasis on understanding actors in the chain and their perspectives on opportunities for VCD, while others concentrate data collection on understanding the value chain itself and the overall context in which it operates. Attention placed on issues at the household level varies considerably. Three guides stand out for paying relatively strong attention to household-level production and marketing issues:CIAT, M4P and UNIDO. In addition to basic information on output and income, these guides recommend data collection on livelihood strategies, capacities and asset endowments, and perceptions on benefits and challenges in chain participation. In most cases, however, detailed information on how to collect and analyse these data is not provided (for example, assessment of livelihood strategies), although some references to important articles in grey literature are provided. In general, neither the academic nor grey literatures provide extensive insights into rural livelihoods in the context of value chains and VCD (Stoian et al. 2012).Four guides (FAO, GTZ, ILO and USAID) recommend data collection on basic issues related to producing households (such as income, productivity and farm gate prices), while the remaining four guides do not discuss the role of households in value chains and VCD.Attention placed on businesses 9 and producer groups also varies considerably. Four guides (CIAT, M4P, FAO and CIP) focus considerable attention on these actors. Data collection recommended by these guides focuses on businesses, their capacities and access to resources, and their incentives to invest in upgrading and/or increased collaboration with chain actors.These guides do not distinguish data collection methods or indicators according to the type of business, for example, smallholder-managed cooperatives or privately owned industrial Businesses, including cooperatives and producer groupsGuides for value chain development A comparative reviewThis section spotlights the tools and methods recommended by the guides for data collection and analysis. In assessing tools and methods, we asked: \"How prescriptive are the guides?Are they so prescriptive that they alienate potential tool users? Alternatively, are they too open to interpretation, thus leaving tool users ill-equipped to make effective use of their data?\" In general, our assessment finds that tool users would benefit from more prescriptions, suggestions and insights on how to effectively collect and analyse data. Table A5 in the annex presents the recommended tools and methods for data collection and analysis. The following discussion compares this information across the guides.The guides provide various indicators or research questions for guiding the collection of data for value chain analysis. Recommendations emphasise both qualitative and quantitative data, although there is a strong inclination towards qualitative data. As for the type of methods prescribed, the guides vary little. These methods include: review of existing information, key informant interviews with chain actors and participatory chain mapping, as well as workshops and focus groups with chain actors. In some cases, methods are also provided for carrying out a market assessment, either as an annex to the guide (CIP) or as a separate,• All of the guides place a moderate to high level of attention on data collection at the level of the value chain (including inter-business relations) and the market and business environment. Guides also recommend that users identify the different types of service providers to chain actors.• Few guides recommend intra-household data collection. The exception is UNIDO, which provides an overview of the type of data that would allow for understanding of the constraints faced by women and youth. The guides offer limited help for those interested in understanding the opportunities and limitations of disadvantaged persons to participate in VCD.• Several guides recommend data collection on households. However, where households are included, the guides provide limited guidance on sample design and methods for data collection and analysis. This omission likely leaves tool implementers with limited insights into how best to incorporate household-level data into VCD strategies.• Several guides recommend data collection on businesses in the chain, which often covers existing bottlenecks and business activities (productivity, inputs and costs).In general, the guides are not designed to provide a close up assessment of the viability of businesses. Where businesses are critical for linking smallholders to value chains and where these businesses are underdeveloped, tool users may overlook important options for achieving more sustainable VCD.but linked, guide (CIAT). Three guides (DFID, World Bank and UNIDO) omit information on how to collect or analyse data, perhaps reflecting an orientation towards researchers (with the assumption that a detailed description of methods is not needed), rather than development practitioners.The guides suggest that tool users increase the rigour or depth of data collection and analysis through triangulation and participatory workshops. However, no guide provides in-depth discussions on the optional levels of rigour and depth or on the various practical options for achieving them. Discussions on practical options for sampling (both how to sample and how many units to sample), data management, and questionnaire design are also scarce among the guides. A salient gap in virtually all guides is the issue of variability in costs and returns.There is considerable evidence that accessing markets often involves increased risk and variability in returns and that some chain actors, particularly marginalised ones, are risk averse and unable to cope with shortfalls in income. Yet analyses of costs and returns are nearly always expressed in means; that is: mean returns, mean incomes and mean benefit-cost ratios.The incorporation of practical, yet effective tools for assessing the risk implications of VCD for smallholders and businesses in the chain represents an important future area of work in guide development.Inclusion of a detailed discussion on methodological issues would increase the complexity of any guide and also potentially reduce the willingness of users to apply a given guide in the field. We suggest that guides have yet to strike the optimal balance between methodological prescription (rigour) and user-friendliness. The limited discussion on these issues could lead to drawing mistaken conclusions from the data collected and generating development strategies that do not fit the needs and circumstances of one or more chain actors. References to selected publications on research methods may help some tool users address the most generic issues in research design and implementation. However, more specialised guidance will be appropriate where research design and implementation issues are specific to value chain analysis (for example, triangulating data, addressing missing information, engaging large-scale businesses).All of the guides seek data from chain stakeholders for the design of VCD strategies. The two most commonly recommended methods for analysing data are participatory workshops and key informant interviews. During participatory workshops, tool users report raw and processed data on chains, markets and chain actors to stakeholders for discussion, analysis and decision making. Most guides provide questions and templates for preparation of workshops. Workshops and key informant interviews form the methodological pillar of CIP, CIAT, IIED and ILO. In some cases, guides provide additional support for data analysis as input for participatory workshops, such as value chain mapping (GTZ), participatory rural appraisal tools (CIAT), and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, referred to as SWOT in the annex of this report (CIP, FAO and USAID). Involving stakeholders in the process serves two purposes: participatory analysis for decision making and encouraging buy-in to the strategy formulation process.In general, these guides offer relatively simple analytical tools and methods that allow users to obtain a rough idea of the value chain and the needs and circumstances of its participants.In some cases, the outputs of implementation are likely to be insufficient for the design of development strategies among actors with different interests and varying capacities to invest in Guides for value chain development A comparative review more intensive value chain participation. When VCD does involve resource-poor households and businesses, the case for careful exploration of the needs and capacities of resource-poor chain actors becomes more pressing. An expanded set of tools and methods could improve the outcomes of guide implementation. These might include tools for assessing the return on investments, scoring investment options by households, assessing the viability of small and medium enterprises, and drawing inferences from quantitative data. In some cases, participatory research tools designed for farm and natural resource management may be applicable (for example, Dorward, Shepherd and Galpin 2007). In other cases, new tools specific to the context of VCD may be needed. Discussions are needed among tool designers and tool users about the applicability of different tools under different conditions.Other guides offer a greater selection of methods and tools for designing VCD strategies.M4P, World Bank, UNIDO and USAID provide an extensive set of methods and tools for analysis of value chains, value chain actors and markets. For example, methods and tools in USAID include knowledge assessment, cost and margin analysis, distribution of income analysis, and competitiveness analysis. M4P stands out for its discussion of a range of qualitative tools for understanding value chain relations and the financial implications of investments in value chains. Among the tools presented by UNIDO, a particularly noteworthy one is the tool for incorporating gender issues in the analysis. In general, for each method or tool presented in the guides, authors provide an overview of the method or tool to be applied, aswell as examples of implementation results. In most cases, however, discussion is brief and examples lack detail. The lack of discussion about options for adjusting the methods and tools to different contexts may frustrate implementation by some users given the diversity of contexts in which VCD is carried out and the difficulty of collecting data from households and the private sector.• All of the guides recommend qualitative data collection from chain stakeholders for the design of strategies for VCD. The two most commonly recommended methods for analysing data are participatory workshops and key informant interviews.• Overall attention to rigour in data collection, critical assessment, dealing with data variability, and adaption of methods and tools to different contexts is limited. In some cases, greater detail and more practical examples are needed on how to implement methods recommended in the guides. Discussions are needed among tool designers and tool users about the applicability of different tools under different conditions.• Other guides offer a greater selection of methods and tools for designing VCD strategies.M4P, World Bank, UNIDO and USAID provide an extensive set of methods and tools for analysis of value chains, value chain actors and markets. However, discussion on implementation is brief and few examples are provided.ResultsUnderstanding the various options for VCD often implies a complex set of activities related to research design, data collection, analysis and validation. Authors may reduce complexity in their guides by: 1) applying a relatively simple conceptual and methodical framework;and/or 2) presenting concepts and data collection and analysis in a user-friendly format, employing simple figures and tables and providing insights from field application, for example. In addition, guides may attempt to increase their relevance to development practice by reducing any preconditions for implementation based on the context (for example, focus on international value chains). While this increases adaptability, it assumes that users are able to identify the necessary adjustments according to variations in the context in which they are working.As highlighted previously, the guides reduce complexity by relying on relatively simple conceptual and methodological frameworks. This section examines the more subjective element of user-friendliness -that is, the extent to which the guides effectively employ figures, tables and text to reduce complexity. It also examines the adaptability of the guides to different contexts for VCD. Table A6 in the annex provides information on the balance of text, diagrams and case study examples. It also provides an assessment of the skills required to use the guide and the flexibility of the guide for different contexts and needs. The following discussion compares this information across the guides.Nearly all of the guides use case studies, diagrams and figures to increase user-friendliness.Most guides include diagrams for key concepts and tables for organising results, as well as providing insights into tool implementation with text boxes and, in some cases, extensive case studies. The following gaps and limitations in terms of the case studies, diagrams, and figures were identified during the review:• Missing diagrams and figures: Two important diagrams and figures are those that show the relationships between the different elements of the implementation process and those that show how guide implementation contributes to the proposed development outcomes and impacts. In some cases, neither of these is offered (for example, M4P and FAO). In other cases, a diagram of the tool implementation process is offered, without an accompanying diagram or figure of how implementation contributes to development goals (for example, GTZ and CIAT). Some guides do provide diagrams and figures that cover both the tool implementation process and the relationship between tool implementation and related development goals (for example, CIP and DFID).• Lack of fully developed case studies: Many of the guides incorporate insights gained from implementation in various countries (CIP, CIAT, GTZ, IIED and USAID). However, no guide provides a detailed account of tool implementation from a single site or context. Rather, most guides offer insights or lessons from successful implementation in various locations. While these insights are useful, a single, fully developed case study would provide users with a deeper understanding of how to use the guide and of the type of results that could be obtained. World Bank is notable for providing case studies that show how value chains and VCD evolved over long periods, sometimes decades.• Few reflections on implementation challenges: When experiences in tool implementation are offered in the guides, the experiences are generally positive. Limited mentionGuides for value chain development A comparative review is made of challenges faced when applying the tools. Increased discussion about the possible pitfalls of implementation and the need for greater learning about how best to facilitate tool implementation would offer potential for improved results from tool usage in the future.The resources required to use a given methodology are assessed, taking into account: 1) the prescribed steps for data collection and analysis; and 2) the depth and detail in which the guides explain how to implement the steps. Several guides are considered to require a relatively high level of resources for implementation (GTZ, M4P, ILO, World Bank, UNIDO and USAID). This reflects that the guides often include complex concepts (such as governance, benchmarking and transaction costs), and demanding tasks for data collection and analysis (such as calculating value addition along the chain and collecting data from various actors with different needs, objectives and circumstances). Guides considered to require fewer resources for implementation are CIP, CIAT, FAO and IIED. These guides tend to have reduced requirements for data collection and feature relatively simple conceptual frameworks.Nonetheless, effective implementation of these guides also requires considerable experience in qualitative data collection techniques and implementation of participatory workshops for data collection, validation and strategy formulation.Assessment of the degree of flexibility of the guides considered two criteria: 1) the degree to which users unaffiliated with the organisation that sponsored the guide's development would be able to apply the guide; and 2) the degree to which the guide is applicable and relevant across a wide range of value chains. The assessment found that the guides present a high degree of flexibility. In none would implementation be constrained because of non-affiliation with the organisation that sponsored the guide's development. In general, the guides are based on debates in academic and grey literature rather than on concepts and concerns specific to a single organisation. Without exception, the guides are designed to be applied across a range of value chains. GTZ, for example, provides examples on the use of ValueLinks for assessing a wide variety of value chains, including textiles, leather, handmade paper and coffee. The guides achieve such flexibility, in large part, by avoiding data collection and analysis specific to any one chain or development/market context. To the extent that chain-specific issues (for instance, critical elements of production and processing, and marketing processes specific to a given product/chain), provide important input for strategy formulation, the flexibility may have been achieved at the expense of more tailored, and perhaps more effective, development strategy formulations.While the guides are applicable across a range of chains, they provide limited alternatives for effective implementation in different contexts. Contextual issues related to a chain and the environment in which the chain operates can have important implications for data collection and the formulation of strategies for VCD. For example, important contextual issues in a chain are: the geographical reach of the chain (local versus international markets); pre-existing institutional arrangements for smallholder participation (for example, contract farming, cooperative affiliation); and the extent to which producers and other chain actors operate in extreme poverty or other conditions. Most of the reviewed guides present a single pathway for implementation, regardless of the context in which chain actors operate. One exception is USAID, which provides specific guidance on VCD in the case of conflict zones. This review contends that guides will increase their flexibility in implementation and provide more useful guidance for implementation by providing alternative pathways for users according to the key elements of the context. For example, a pathway for users with limited ability or re-• The guides are designed for implementation by project leaders, the staff of development organisations and researchers. Businesses and industry associations are likely to have limited staff and other necessary resources to effectively carry out implementation. The design of tools for the private sector represents an important future area of tool development.• With few exceptions, the guides make extensive use of case study evidence, diagrams, and figures. Suggestions for future guide development include: incorporation of a conceptual framework diagram, incorporation of at least one fully developed case study, and increased attention to the pitfalls and challenges of tool implementation.• Four of the guides are considered to require a relatively high level of skill and resources for effective implementation. These guides include complex concepts and data collection tasks. The remaining guides have fewer data collection requirements. Nonetheless, effective implementation of these guides also requires considerable experience in conducting and collecting data from participatory workshops, focus groups and key-informant interviews.• Guides achieve flexibility in application but generally avoid specific issues related to a particular chain or context. To the extent that chain and context-specific issues provide an important structure for strategy formulation, flexibility may have been achieved at the expense of a more tailored and perhaps more efficient development strategy.• The guides offer few options for dealing with variations in critical contextual issues that can have important implications for data collection and the formulation of strategies for VCD. Offering alternative implementation pathways, according to the needs, skills and resources of different types of tool users, would also help to improve the flexibility of guidelines for VCD.sources could be included, together with a different pathway for those with more ability and resources who have a need for a more in-depth assessment and who demand greater rigour and deeper insights into the options for VCD.Effective monitoring and evaluation of VCD allows chain stakeholders to understand the outcomes of their efforts relative to various objectives, as well as the opportunity to learn how to design more effective and efficient interventions. given chain, including household producers and small businesses, or how VCD-related interventions shape their ability to participate and benefit from deeper engagement with markets.In general, guidance on how to collect and analyse information for monitoring and evaluation is limited. GTZ stands out for presenting a rigorous approach to monitoring and evaluation, with recommendations for the elaboration of an impact pathway, formulation of impact hypotheses, and use of control groups for attribution. However, given the complexity of the suggested approach, the guide does not provide sufficient help to practitioners in its implementation. The guides do not address the various assessment options that exist or the trade-offs between different approaches in terms of rigour and ease of implementation. In • Monitoring and evaluation are considered here because of their important role in generating insights and knowledge about the conditions under which VCD is most likely to stimulate economic development and contribute to poverty-reduction goals.• Five of the guides include no discussion on monitoring and evaluation (CIP, FAO, IIED, M4P and World Bank). Among the guides that recommend indicators, all include a basic set of indicators for assessing changes at the level of markets and value chains and some include indicators focused on households.• With the exception of UNIDO, the guides are not designed to provide a deep understanding of the needs and circumstances of more vulnerable actors in a given chain, including producers and small businesses, and how VCD-related interventions shape their ability to participate and benefit from deeper engagement with markets.ResultsEach of the guides contributes in a particular way to the discourse on how to design and implement strategies for VCD. Table 5 presents a summary of the contributions of each guide (see Table A8 in the annex for details). Innovation can be observed in the implementation process (CIAT and UNIDO), the concepts for understanding systemic competitiveness (CIP, DFID and ILO), as well as the set of tools for data collection (GTZ, World Bank and USAID).Results of this review also highlight opportunities for future innovation around issues such as: 1) fuller incorporation of producers and businesses in strategy formulation; 2) stronger conceptualisation of the role of VCD in achieving development goals; 3) greater flexibility in implementation; and 4) monitoring and evaluation in the context of VCD, among others. Given its focus on VCD with smallholders and small businesses, could give greater attention to needs and circumstances of poor actors in the chain, including attention to power, risks and assets.  Focuses on innovation as the motivation behind collaboration among value chain actors and facilitating organisations. Also gives attention to the implementation process itself and the strong role contemplated for research centres in facilitating the implementation process. Implementation designed to be highly participatory.CIAT Among the first guides available for helping development practitioners work with smallholders and small businesses in formulating a VCD strategy. Presents a relatively simple and well-integrated conceptual framework. Implementation designed to be highly participatory.Stands out for its ability to discuss and apply value-chain-related concepts in a relatively simple manner and its provision of a structure for organising and assessing data for the elaboration of an intervention strategy. Allows for relatively easy uptake by government agencies and other potential users due to its lean conceptual focus.DFID Includes a strong focus on calculating costs, investment returns and income/employment distributions.Provides extensive treatment of the context in which the poor participate in markets through its market-system development approach and identifies options for more sustainable and pro-poor outcomes.Stands out for the depth in which it covers a range of important issues affecting VCD, including value chain mapping, value chain implementation, assessment of the business environment and facilitating services, and monitoring and evaluation of VCD-related interventions.Unique focus on institutions and the way they promote or hinder the inclusion of smallholders in value chains. Provides rich discussion on the changing demand patterns in food markets and their implications for smallholders. Guides users on how to assess the market and the regulatory environment in which chains operate.Brings together thoughts and experiences on designing a pro-poor VCD strategy from a range of development organisations. Stands out for its extensive treatment of various issues that influence the design of VCD (such as mapping knowledge and information flows, mapping value at different nodes in the chain and analysing costs and margins).Stands out for its focus on identifying options for improved working conditions for the poor. Highlights the potential role of the private sector in bringing about positive changes in working conditions. Also provides unique concepts and useful suggestions for analysis (social dialogue, working conditions) and identification of incentives for upgrading.Focuses on Africa and export-oriented value chains, presenting concepts and ideas related to VCD that have received limited attention in practitioners' debates (for example, capturing value through integration, economies of scale, clustering and benchmarking).UNIDO Aims to address a major gap in the implementation of value chain analysis by development practitioners: limited information on value chain functions and limited focus on intra-household and social issues, including gender equity, poverty, and child labour.USAID Contains an impressive selection of tools for analysis, for example: 1) VCD in conflict areas; 2) vulnerable populations and the value chain approach; 3) food security and the value chain approach; 4) tools for communication; and 5) tools for understanding consumers.The previous section discusses the commonalties and differences of the 11 guides across various parameters. Among these parameters are development objectives associated with implementation, recommended data collection across different levels of the chain, key elements of implementation, and overall ease of implementation. The discussion is based on a careful analysis of each guide, the results of which are presented in the annex. This section first reflects on the 11 guides in terms of what they do and do not offer development organisations and businesses interested in VCD. This is followed by an assessment of the most appropriate guides according to different contexts, methods and objectives. We conclude with recommendations for future work in guide development.This review of the portfolio of guides sheds light on their usefulness for the design and implementation of VCD. The guides offer their users the following:• Section summary• Each of the guides contributes in a particular way to the discussion about how to design VCD strategies. Innovation can be observed in the implementation process (CIAT and UNIDO) as well as the concepts for understanding systemic competitiveness (CIP, DFID and ILO) and the tools for data collection (GTZ, World Bank and USAID).• Strengths of the guides often relate to a focus on a particular element of value chain analysis or the user-friendly nature of the text and layout. Some guides stand out for providing a more developed conceptual framework and relatively simple data collection methods. Based on the results from our analysis of guides, we provide recommendations for tool users according the context in which they are working or plan to work, their objectives in pursuing VCD, and the methods for data collection and analysis that best suit their needs and interests (Table 7).Table 7. Recommendations for guides based on objectives, contexts and methods The review also sheds light on certain gaps and limitations in the guides related to VCD design. We offer the following generalisations:• Attention to the needs and circumstances of poor households: In general, data collection and analysis is focused on understanding business relations, the market context and access to inputs and services. The guides often implicitly assume that rural households are a homogeneous group and have sufficient resources to participate in VCD, do not face substantial trade-offs when using these resources, and are able to assume higher risks when investing their capital and labour. Insights from the literature show that these assumptions often do not reflect the needs and conditions of the poor.The design of strategies for VCD that include poor and vulnerable populations may require additional concepts and tools that take these aspects into account. This will increase the complexity of tool implementation; however, it also offers the opportunity to design more viable and efficient strategies. Debate continues on which concepts and tools are most useful and how to incorporate them into guides without alienating users.• Guidance for dealing with variations in the context: Most guides assume that users will identify critical elements of the context, understand their relevance for VCD, and make the necessary adjustments for data collection and analysis. These contextual differences may relate to scale in shipping and processing (and the related need for smallholder organisation), the pre-existing asset endowments of smallholders and small businesses (and the related need for investments in asset building prior to VCD), and the overall marketing and policy environment (and the related need for advocacy as part of the VCD). If, for example, smallholder organisation is needed for successful participation in value chains, then data collection and analysis should address the various issues specifically critical to the organisation and to the development of enterprises by smallholders.• Support for generating better outputs: While guides often provide examples of positive experiences and results from implementation, few provide either a fully developed case study of guide implementation or discuss the potential challenges in the field.Guides for value chain development A comparative review• Provide greater attention to critical contextual elements that impact the design of VCD: Future guides would benefit from increased attention to critical conceptual issues related to VCD; for example, the need for collective business development, the existing governance pattern along the chain (or lack thereof), and the reach of the chain (international versus national/regional/local). Guides could allow for different implementation pathways based on one or more of these and other contextual issues.Alternative implementation pathways may increase the complexity of the guides themselves but should result in more tailored strategies for VCD.• • Offer greater guidance on dealing with difficult methodological and analytical issues: In general, the guides provide limited advice on sample design and methods for data collection. Greater discussion on how to deal with complex research design and implementation issues, such as variability in returns, may help to improve the overall rigour of assessment and usefulness of the VCD strategies. The incorporation of fully developed case studies (rather than snapshots of good practices from diverse sites), will also help to inform users about potential implementation pitfalls and options for avoiding them.• Give much greater attention to the needs, circumstances and constraints of businesses: The level of attention placed on issues concerning the participation of businesses and producer groups varies across the guides. In general, however, these actors receive limited attention despite their key role in linking smallholders to markets and adding value to raw materials. Recommended data collection focuses on understanding existing bottlenecks and business activities (productivity, inputs and costs).Guides need to distinguish data collection and analysis according to the type of business (cooperative or large-scale, or small and medium sized, privately owned businesses).• Explore options for deeper analysis and increased rigour: Limited attention is generally placed on the reliability and validity of the collected information. Since designing effective strategies for VCD is complex, deeper and more rigorous data collection and analysis may be needed, potentially allowing for more viable and compre- These specialised guides differ in their conceptual and methodological design and their demands on users for data collection and analysis.• Promote learning among tool users for improved design and implementation of VCD guides: Few efforts have been made to promote learning among tool users that could contribute to the development of impact pathways, humanisation of key concepts, and identification of good practices in implementation. While there have been efforts by individual organisations and tool authors to build learning groups around a specific tool, we argue that a wider group of users and tool designers is needed to address the important issues and major dilemmas facing tool design and implementation.the guides Annex: Tables of assessment results of reviewed guides      (2) markets with potential for achieving improved No prescriptions on what data to collect or how to collect it, rather, a framework presented for thinking about market systems; information and studies considered:• VC mapping, analysis of value added for VC products (pp. 85, 99, 115) • Business characteristics for small businesses in the chain (e.g., labour and financial resources, skills, and capacities), included as part of \"specialized chain studies\" (p. 67) Presents, in general terms, how tools may be implemented for focusing on various aspects of VC analysis; no specific collective requirements identified; tools related to businesses:• Identification of business models for replication (tool 5)• Capturing value through forward and backward integration (tool 6)• Horizontal collaboration (tool 7)Presents, in general terms, how tools may be implemented for focusing on various aspects of VC analysis; no specific collective requirements identified; tools related to VC/markets:• Information access for VC strategy formulation (tool 2)• VC product unit financial analysis• VC upgrading/deepening opportunities (tool 4)• Benchmarking/gap assessments (tool 3)• Positioning projects and VC for greater value and competitiveness (tool 8)  Good: The number of diagrams is sufficient for visualisation and explanation of concepts.  The MG is relevant under most circumstances. No requirements or preconditions for implementation are imposed; however, the tool is designed for experienced practitioners in VC and business development. High: MG provides an extensive collection of concepts and tools for understanding the VC approach to development and for designing interventions for VCD. However, detailed descriptions on how to implement the various tools along with insights from implementation in various costs would help to facilitate implementation.MG is applicable under numerous circumstances and in different contexts; no requirements or preconditions for implementation are imposed.Guidelines are provided for conflict-affected, environmental and food-security focused projects, and for projects working with women, the poor and youth.Value chain development for decent work The main steps in M&E for M4P:Step 1: Develop impact logics for each market • Originality: The MG stands out for several reasons. First, it is focussed on the analytical aspects of VC analysis (e.g., 11 steps are included for VC mapping and both qualitative and quantitative tools are suggested for assessing VC relationships and investment options). The strong focus on calculating costs, investment returns, and income/employment distributions is also unique to this MG.• Innovation: The market system development approach is innovative in its providing an extensive treatment of the overall context in which the poor participate in markets and identifying options for more sustainable and pro-poor outcomes. The M4P is characterised by a comprehensive framework that contemplates value chains at its core, having related rules/institutions and supporting services as part of this systemic approach.• Strengths: The MG provides a systematic and comprehensive set of research activities for understanding the context in which the poor operate, the nature of the marketing system under assessment, and the constraints faced by major actors in the system to source more from, or provide better terms to, poor suppliers.The focus on major market players and their problems in sourcing more from the poor (or providing better terms to the poor) gives users a clear market orientation for designing an intervention strategy. The guide has an appendix with good practice notes, which are useful.• Weaknesses: The MG presents various complex con- • Originality: The MG stands out for two reasons: 1) its ability to discuss and apply VC related concepts in a simple manner; and 2) its attempt to provide a structure for organising and assessing data for the elaboration of an intervention strategy.• Innovation: The MG relies on a few basic concepts that are applied in a straightforward manner. The lean conceptual focus allows for easy uptake by government agencies and other potential users. If the design of economic development strategies is the main goal (rather than poverty reduction), then this MG will facilitate thinking on important issues related to competitiveness at the subsector level.• Strengths: The MG brings clarity to chain-related concepts and provides a user-friendly approach to developing an intervention strategy. Examples of how to assess the drivers of chain performance are useful for converting data from the field into strategies for VCD.The guide can be implemented in a relatively short time and with limited resources.• Weaknesses: The MG will appeal to those interested in a relatively easy-to-use tool for identifying options for economic growth within a given VC. The development strategy emerges from simple analysis of available data.Its weakness rests in its linear application and limited options for addressing the weaknesses and threats iden- • Weaknesses: The MG would benefit from increased attention to the needs and circumstances of smallholders and other poor actors in the subsector. This would require more critical analysis and more extensive data collection. The MG would also benefit from more attention to issues of power, distrust, livelihoods strategies, asset endowments and risk tolerance.Annex: Tables of assessment results of reviewed guides • Originality: Original aspects of the MG include its focus on Africa and export-oriented VC (most MG reviewed for this document do not distinguish between implementation in local versus international markets) and the presentation of concepts and ideas related to VCD that have received limited attention in practitioners' debates (e.g., capturing value through integration, economies of scale, clustering, and benchmarking).• Innovation: Innovation rests in the MG's attempt to introduce new concepts and ideas to VCD debates, such as capturing value through integration, economies of scale, clustering and benchmarking.• Strengths: Great is its focus on sound conceptual approaches for building competitiveness of value chains and on providing examples of the steps and tools involved. • Innovation: The MG provides a generic approach that can easily be adapted to suit the specificities of various agriculture-based VCs. It is one of the few guides that combine business considerations with social needs like gender equity, child labour and the interest of the poor and marginalised.• Strengths: The MG is reader-friendly and makes clear its core objectives, concepts and direct and indirect beneficiaries. It is also relatively easy to apply and the prescribed questions are relevant and simple. It provides insights on how to do chain selection and implementation that bring business and social needs together.• Weaknesses: The MG does not guide users in how to conduct a fully-fledged VC project implementation plan.The authors point out, however, that the guide is geared to program designers and project managers who know how to develop project implementation plans but need to know how to make them conform to pro-poor VCD.Using a value chain approach to design a competitiveness strategy (USAID no date)• Originality: The MG contains the largest selection of ideas, tools and concepts for VC analysis of any guide reviewed in this document. Among the original ideas related to VCs are: 1) VCD in conflict areas; 2) vulnerable populations and the VC approach; 3) food security and the VC approach; 4) tools for communication; and 5) tools for understanding consumers. Many of the tools presented are backed up with insights on their use from the field.• Innovation: The MG is innovative in its ability to translate new innovative insights and ideas for VC analysis from academics and learning consultants/consultancy firms into practical actions that could be taken by development practitioners. Examples include: discussions on \"productive communications\" (by C. Argyris of Harvard), \"customers\" (by Boston Consulting Group), and \"end market competitiveness plan\" (author unknown).• Strengths: The MG presents a comprehensive discussion on important issues related to VC analysis and development. Each section presents a snapshot of an output from the implementation of a given tool.Concepts presented are drawn from the literatures of business management, marketing and on VCs, backed with considerable evidence from the field. The mix of information sources and experiences makes it a useful reference tool for thinking about VC analysis and development. The guide provides serious treatment of important issues related to VCD, such as impact assessment and working with vulnerable populations.• Weaknesses: The MG's greatest strength (i.e., its extensive coverage of concepts and tools for understanding • Innovation: The MG provides unique concepts and useful suggestions for analysis (e.g., social dialogue (section 4.3.1), working conditions, (section 4.3.2), and identification of incentives for upgrading (section 5.1.3).• Strengths: The MG is well-written and relatively easy to follow. It includes unique elements, such as the assessment of incentives and the concept of decent work. ","tokenCount":"12009"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"26553c8bd0f72845571ca31c57fe7da9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4f7eb62d-82d1-4dbc-aa60-e0aa593ce0e6/retrieve","id":"1897801454"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b5e800c8-2a7e-46e2-9b1a-ecc26cf8006d","pagecount":"16","content":"Centers/CRPs/CO, donors and the ISPC and IEA to be held from 15.00 to 19.00h (Central European Time) on Thursday 16 June 2016 both in Montpellier and via videolink: http://amphi-tv.cirad.fr/lives/live/ Proposed Agenda (times are approximate): Part I 15.00 -15.45 Powerpoint presentation by Maggie Gill on a summary analysis of the proposals at the portfolio level 15.45 -16.45 Questions of clarification from proponents of the CRPs 16.45 -17.00 Agreement on generic 'next steps' (Questions highlighted in document) 17.00 to 17.30 Refreshment break Part II 17.30 to 19.00 Understanding the complexities of CRPsThe process of commissioning a portfolio of the 2 nd Phase of CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) was 'launched' with the endorsement of the CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework 2016-2030 and the issue of the Guidance for the 2 nd Call for CRPs in June/July 2015. The Call laid out a 2-stage process, involving submission of pre-proposals in mid-August 2015 and full proposals on 31 March 2016. This was a targeted Call for 'A coherent set of interconnected 2017-2022 pre-proposals to address the selected global challenges identified in CGIAR's 2016 -2030 SRF'. The Call initially asked for single bids for eight agri-food system programs and five integrating global programs and competitive Expressions of Interest (EoIs) were invited for four Co-ordinating Platforms.The ISPC reviewed the proposals for each of the thirteen programs and the nine EoIs for the platforms in August and September 2015. An unsolicited proposal for a Genetic Gains platform was not assessed by the ISPC since it was not aligned with the Call. Eight pre-proposals received overall ratings of \"Satisfactory with adjustments needed\" (B), four were considered to have \"Major concerns\" (C) and one was considered not to have met the basic criteria for a CRP and therefore did not receive a rating. It was recommended that this proposal (Genebanks) be submitted at the second stage as a proposal for a Platform.The Call for full proposals was issued in December 2015 asking for the original eight agri-food system programs and four integrating programs, together with calls for three co-ordinating platforms (Genebanks, Genetic Gains and Big Data). The proposals were submitted via an on-line tool by 31 March 2016 and reviewed by the ISPC and ~50 external reviewers commissioned by the ISPC. Commentaries on the individual CRP and Platform submissions are being shared with all parts of the System on 16 June 2016, with responses due to be submitted by 31 July 2016. This commentary starts by providing an overview of the portfolio as a whole, with respect to the aim of achieving a 'coherent set of interconnected 2017-2022 proposals to address the selected global challenges identified in CGIAR's 2016-2030 SRF'. This is structured around the main criteria used by the ISPC to review the CRPs and Platforms, which are included as Annexes A&B. This overview will form the basis of the presentation. A specific question which should be resolved during the meeting relates to the proposal commentaries and whether the approach proposed by the ISPC of the proponents responding via (in the majority of cases) addenda rather than rewriting is the most efficient way of meeting the needs of all parties. After the overview, the commentary presents a highlevel analysis of the budgets to help donors understand how W1 and 2 budgets have been distributed across CRPs and FPs. It then opens a discussion about whether there is now a common understanding of the complexity of the CRPs through considering the opportunities and risks associated with the increasing level of integration across Centers and CRPs.In a little under a year, a group of 15 CRPs have made significant progress in showing how they plan to work collectively to deliver the kind of integrated research outputs which are essential for making progress towards providing the evidence required for delivery of all three System Level Outcomes (SLOs) in the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF). The ISPC would like to congratulate all those involved in the preparation of the full proposals on the progress made in such a short time. We recognize the huge effort involved. Without integration there is a serious risk that progress towards one SLO could have unintended negative consequences on progress towards another SLO, which might not be detected. This principle underpins the SRF. Of course the CGIAR on its own cannot deliver the desired outcomes but recent moves towards more collective interaction with partners involved in delivery also increases the probability that more sustainable production of nutritious and healthy food can be achieved in the target countries, while also reducing poverty and protecting the environment.A key aspect of this progress is the concept of eight Agri-food system (AFS) CRPs working collaboratively with four Integrating (i-) CRPs, supported by three Platforms. All of these proposals taken together are described as a portfolio, but expectations of the portfolio (by both donors and Centers) need to be clearly defined. The ISPC offers the following: Even if fully funded, the research described in the proposals will not provide all the research required to generate the evidence required for delivery of the SLOs.  Targets are specified based on methodologies with varying degrees of robustness and not all are realistic;  The portfolio as presented is not a single 'take it or leave it' option -choices can (and should) be made within the portfolio and given that funding is likely to be less than requested, decisions can also be made around the level of funding for individual Flagships and Modules;  In making choices, however, care needs to be taken since unintended consequences are likely to result if the interconnections between Flagships across the portfolio are ignored.The primary aim of the meeting is for the ISPC Chair to provide face to face feedback to the proponents of the proposals on the findings at the portfolio level. The audience needs to understand, however, that production of the reviews and commentaries was very much a team effort and even though supported by the ISPC Executive Director, the Chair is not in a position to answer questions about the commentaries for individual CRPs. Time will be allowed for questions but it is hoped that these can be kept to the portfolio level.The secondary aim is to try to reach a better understanding across all three communities represented (Implementers, Funders and Advisers) of how funding should be prioritized to maximize progress towards the SLOs. CRPs have been designed to provide integrated evidence in support of effective decision-making that can help the CGIAR contribute to solving the grand societal challenges articulated in the SRF and hence the Sustainable Development Goals. CRPs are therefore, by their nature, complex vehicles which should facilitate integration across disciplines and accelerate the flow of knowledge between institutions along the continuum from research to development. The research outputs will be essential for the effective delivery of complex development outcomes by development organizations, but success will only be achieved if the interface between research and development is perceived as operating for mutual benefit. The complexity of the CRP and Platform mechanisms which is necessary to foster integration makes it difficult for those not directly involved in managing CRPs to understand how funding should be prioritized. The agenda for the meeting has been designed to facilitate a better understanding of how prioritization might be approached, through a better understanding of the reasoning behind current funding allocations between and within CRPs.The review of the fifteen submissions (twelve CRPs and three Platforms) were undertaken by the ISPC and external reviewers commissioned by the ISPC. Some of the reviewers were asked to focus on individual CRPs or Platforms and some were asked to focus on specific criteria (e.g. ToCs or Partnerships) across all CRPs. The ISPC also held four days of discussions in closed session in Lima to moderate the reviews and agree on the main points for the commentaries. After review, ISPC agreed that CRPs fell into three categories: four were considered to be at an advanced stage, and had strong proposals across all criteria;  seven require attention (to differing degrees) in at least one criteria and two of these CRPs have been asked to provide further evidence in support of their very high target outcomes, or to reconsider them;  one was not recommended to start rewriting in its current form and was asked to develop a strategy for how to address a set of concerns with the System Council.At this point in the process CRPs were not ranked within the first or second categories, nor were Flagships rated since these are still proposals in development and there was no clear feedback from the last FC meeting as to exactly what donors were looking for. Strengths and weaknesses of individual Flagships (against a range of criteria including science quality and comparative advantage) are, however, described within the commentaries.Given the amount of time and effort invested in the writing and reviewing of the proposals to date, the ISPC wanted to minimize the amount of time spent on rewriting and re-reviewing, taking into account the short timescales. We recognize, however, that the final proposals will form part of the contracts.The ISPC decided therefore to request (in the majority of cases) that at this stage the responses be prepared in the form of addenda, which could be more easily reviewed in August.The point for discussion is thus:Is this an acceptable way forward for all parties for the responses to be submitted on 31 July (with the option that addenda could be incorporated into the final versions of the proposals) or do the comments need to be addressed by rewriting?With respect to the platform proposals all three were considered to be of high quality, although all were asked to make some revisions. The ISPC considers, however, that the Big Data Platform could make a big difference to the delivery of outcomes, if sufficient funding was made available sooner rather than waiting for an uplift scenario. The commentary therefore asks the proponents to prepare a revised proposal with two budget scenarios.If the CO or donors consider this inappropriate then this should be corrected now.The ISPC has a wealth of analysis from its many reviewers and additional information provided by the Consortium Office. It has not been possible to do it all justice within 15 commentaries and one short portfolio overview. Once this intense period of review is over, the ISPC will take stock to decide on what further analysis to undertake and how to pass on helpful messages to the proponents.Inter-CRP synergies: on a peripheral analysis, there appears to have been considerable progress in developing collaborations between CRPs. The CO has, however, done an in-depth analysis to crosscheck interactions between CRPs. They found that in some cases, when CRPs identified an interaction with another CRP, reference to that interaction was not reciprocated by the second CRP. This analysis could be useful to the System Management Board. The ISPC recognize how much has been expected of CRPs over the last 12 months and consider that CRPs need to prioritize progress in this respect moving forwards.In its analysis of the preproposal portfolio, the ISPC acknowledged that the \"integration concept\" will take time to be developed and it emphasised that it is unrealistic in the short-term for the 'new' integrating programs to link with all eight AFS CRPs from the start. It was also noted that a balance needs to be struck between integration and transaction costs. It suggested that in the full proposals the CRPs might wish to elaborate a phased process for integration with the AFS CRPs. However it seems that in their desire to embrace the \"integration concept\" none of the CRPs have attempted to prioritize the planned collaborations or elaborate a phased process. The potential transaction costs encompassed in the full portfolio integration plans can be huge. They may also reduce the convincing arguments for what is planned. In addition, most CRPs do not distinguish on-going from new collaborative activities, which reduces the ability to gauge progress from Phase I and hence to assess the potential for achievement of the planned integration. A more convincing case could be made through prioritization and clear distinction of what is being enhanced from Phase I to demonstrate that progress has been made.There has certainly been progress with respect to cohesion within CRPs, although the lack of explicit reference to one FP learning from another is disappointing for some CRPs. This is particularly (but not only) the case where prioritization of traits is considered in one FP and breeding in another, for example, and there is insufficient evidence that the prioritization is informing the selection of traits. There are also excellent examples of the knowledge generated in one FP influencing the research agenda in another. Inter-dependence between FPs could lead to negative consequences if donors don't wish W1 and 2 funding to be used for specific FPs, so that needs further analysis before September.Site integration: Presently 14 Site Integration plans, out of the 20 countries identified, can be found at the GCARD website: 5 from the 6 ++ countries and 9 of the 14 + countries. The available plans show that, thus far, for most countries, considerable effort has been deployed: steering committees have been established, and multi-stakeholders consultations and planning meetings have been held. SI plans are also often reflected in the CRPs, although with different emphasis. Most CRPs will work in 5-10 focus countries. Some CRPs in particular demonstrate serious commitment to SI, e.g. WHEAT, Rice, Livestock, Fish, FTA, A4NH and CCAFS. Governmental partners and national donor community have often expressed interest in participating in the process and, in some cases, are members of the Steering Committee. Overall, the review of the available information in plans and CRPs suggests that this process is still in an early phase. Some progress have been made although many challenges remain. Developing cross-CRP collaboration is integral to site integration.Both the ISPC and an external reviewer who reviewed the TOCs in 2012 and again at this full proposal stage, consider that the sophistication of the Theories of Change and Impact Pathways is improving across the portfolio, to quote from the reviewer:\"In most cases the Theory of Change now includes some elements of complexity, acknowledges the role of stakeholders to the process and states many of the assumptions associated with the ToC. Having a ToC for the overall CRP and for each FP is a good step forward\"Of course considerable variability between CRPs still remains and the ISPC has asked for further clarification on ToCs to be provided for a number of CRPs and comments have been made on all ToCs both at CRP and FP level.As presented at the FC meeting in Rome, analysis (Fig. 1) shows that the portfolio is well aligned with the SRF with every sub-IDO in the SRF being addressed. There are large variations in the amounts requested for different sub-IDOs, which is to be expected. The highest requests are aligned with the 2 sub-IDOs which the donors marked as their highest priorities in the survey conducted by the ISPC last year (i.e. sub-IDO 4.2 \"Closed yield gaps through improved agronomic and animal husbandry practice\" and sub-IDO 4.3 \"Enhanced genetic gain\"). The SRF also has quantified targets and the CO has done a detailed analysis of the contribution which each CRP claims it will provide to the targets in the SRF and have taken this as far as an investment plan. On the other hand, the ISPC was asked to consider the validity of the justification for these targets and commissioned external reviews of the performance indicator matrices and the methodologies used by the CRPs to develop them. These experts concluded that while this was an excellent initiative on the part of the Consortium, it had some way to go before the targets could be considered robust at a System-level. Two CRPs in particular (FTA and Livestock for their targets on the number of people likely to be lifted out of poverty and DCL and Livestock for the rate of yield increase). FTA and Livestock have been requested to reconsider the realism of these targets.On gender and youth strategies an external reviewer commented:\"There is wide heterogeneity in the quality of research on gender being conducted across the portfolio of projects. It is apparent that despite the heterogeneity of quality, that each CRP that was reviewed has completed at least the minimum of considering gender and youth in their proposals\"It is interesting to note that all gender teams or their representatives had participated in the GENNOVATE research, and that 'customary', 'traditional' or simply 'gender norms' are widely accepted.Unsurprisingly, the strategies on gender are much better developed than those on youth, while there are some interesting thoughts emerging on youth. PIM has included the cross-CRP gender platform as one of its FPs as suggested by the ISPC and it is hoped that this will contribute to bringing all CRPs up to a high standard in terms of gender strategies.In terms of Capacity Development, the external reviewer also recognized the heterogeneity between CRPS and noted that :\"…the different elements of capacity development are well integrated into most programmes and necessary to achieve programme objectives. It is less clear if sufficient human resources have been allocated to enable the CGIAR as a system to continue to develop and monitor capacity development approaches as a means to achieving the objectives of the programmes and portfolio generally, or to play a significant role in the broader agricultural research for development community.\"The budgets for Capacity Development ranged from US$ 3.0 million per year for FISH to 26.3 million for RTB. PIM was next highest at 17.8 million per year.It could be argued that recognition of the importance of the enabling environment is perhaps even more heterogeneous between CRPs. Concerns that seed systems are not being well addressed have been made with respect to a number of CRPs, although there are also examples of strong linkages with the seed sector. In relation to policy, commentaries for both PIM and A4NH indicate that they have a key role to play in helping FPs in other CRPs understand the issues, but this depends on the opportunity to make connections with colleagues with relevant skills. It is recognized that there are areas of weakness in some disciplines across the System and this may be an issue which should be addressed as a priority once donor priorities for funding are clearer.The ISPC has commented before on the importance of strong and stable CRP leadership in the successful evolution of CRPs. The four CRPs in the 'advanced' category (A4NH, CCAFS, RICE and RTB) all have very strong leadership teams and have had the same CRP Director in charge since the start of Phase 1. Some CRPs still have no CRP Director appointed and this causes concern to the ISPC with respect to providing advice to the SC in September.There are undoubtedly many successful partnerships at various levels throughout the CGIAR. What is still missing, however, is (according to the external reviewer and indeed the ISPC) a Strategic Partnership Framework for the CGIAR, although the five guiding principles in the SRF are welcomed.The ISPC has had a poorly defined role in relation to partnerships in its remit to date, but this may be strengthened under the new governance arrangements. Further development of thinking about partnerships at the System-level should therefore be viewed as a 'work in progress'.The criteria at the Flagship level are similar to those at the CRP level to some extent, but focus more on science quality and comparative advantage. There are examples of excellent science quality in many FPs and the individual commentaries draw attention to examples of both good and bad quality of science at the Flagship level. External reviewers recognized the international standing of a number of Centers and CRPs in their reviews. The ISPC is tasked (as agreed during recent discussions on governance) with leading a cross-System initiative on defining science quality and this process will start on 17 June.With respect to comparative advantage, the ISPC was disappointed in the lack of recognition more or less across the System on the need to be much clearer on how CGIAR comparative advantage is changing as the skills and focus of other organizations change. The System as a whole has a unique position globally in terms of the opportunity to integrate across disciplines and the strengthen the R4D continuum both at national and global levels at a time when this is critical for delivery of the SDGs. Seizing this opportunity, however, starts at FP level with the teams recognizing where they can add most value and prioritizing the research questions they seek to address accordingly.The ISPC had not included a criterion on Impact Assessment in its list of criteria, but the majority of the proposals included a budget for Impact Assessment. There remain significant disparities across CRPs in both the level of effort and the clarity with which impact assessment is embraced, however. Some CRPs are allocating as much as 7 percent of the total budget to IA (e.g. Wheat and Fish in Table 1), while others are allocating far less (DCL, Livestock, CCAFS, and WLE each allocate < US$ 1 million per year). However, it is seldom clear what is being included in IA budgets. For some CRPs, it appears that this is where the salary costs of social scientists have been allocated. In others, impact assessment will be linked to project budgets, and many donors do not fund IA separately. The ISPC notes that the new CGIAR portfolio will need to establish clear baselines in 2016-17 against which progress can be assessed over the subsequent six-year period. The current patchwork arrangement does not provide convincing evidence that the CGIAR is poised to carry out these baselines or to undertake systematic analysis of technology adoption, diffusion, and impact over the next six years. The budgets for the Platforms are much lower than for the CRPs.  Each Platform has a very different funding profile, with Genebanks assigned most W1 and 2 and Big Data least. The Genetic Gain Platform has a very high allocation to management. Against the criteria used to review the Platforms, all were considered to have high strategic relevance within the CGIAR having a recognized strong comparative advantage in Genebanks and a potentially strong comparative advantage in Big Data, which was considered to be currently underplayed. Each had a strong leadership team and good partnerships. Some questions have been asked by the ISPC about governance and other aspects.The nature of CRPs has changed during the first Phase, through to the current proposals for Phase II.All of the research now lies within Flagships, with only Management and Support budgets lying at the CRP level. Given restrictions on a number of W3 and bilateral funders, the majority of the 'management' costs have to be supported by W1 and 2 funds. The Consortium has provided clarity on what activities can be charged to a Management and Support budget and these are itemised in Annex C. Apart from administration costs, much of this funding is paying for the costs of the leadership and advisory team which facilitate integration both within the CRP (i.e. across Flagships) and between CRPs. Without these teams, the ability of the CGIAR to integrate at a System level (and thus contribute the integrated evidence which should be a strong part of its comparative advantage) would be much diminished. These costs are not particularly high.Overall (over 6 years) Management & Support costs (M&S) account for US $180 million of which $13 million is for the 3 Platforms. This is 3.1% of the total CRP and Platform portfolio proposed budget (Flagship + Modules + M&S + SCRG) of $5.817 billion over 6 years. This rate is at the lower end of 3-5% as that resulted from the pre-proposals.Of the CRPs, Livestock shows the highest M&S rate of 6.2% on a proposed budget of 38.5 million in 2017. The lowest rate in the case of CRPs, has RTB with a rate of 1.7% on a budget of $119.6 million in 2017.Percentages can be misleading, however, and to truly understand the heterogeneity of the CRPs it is necessary to consider the variations between W1&2 and W3&bilateral funding. The budgets for W1&2 were agreed at the meeting in Rome in November 2015 and based on history rather than strategic on prioritization. Thus DCL was allocated a relatively low W1&2 level of funding, relative to its success in attracting W3 and bilateral investment. This resulted from decisions taken in 2015 on how the W1 and 2 funding cuts should be distributed across the portfolio which hit the three precursor programs of DCL quite hard. As noted in the Commentary on DCL, this has restricted DCL in terms of its 'freedom' to develop a CRP based on demand-led prioritization. RTB, on the other hand, was allocated roughly twice the DCL W1&2 funding for a similar total budget. DCL illustrates how difficult it is to produce intellectually coherent research plans when 70-80% of the budget is driven by W3 and bilateral project funding. Predictably, this leads to a critique of the CGIAR as lacking intellectual coherence. Such a critique further undermines confidence in the CGIAR. A clear implication is that the intellectual challenges facing the CGIAR must be addressed simultaneously with a conversation about funding mechanisms and how choices are made. In order to understand the consequences of moving donor funding between CRPs, the donors need to understand the funding context of individual CRPs. These are outlined for 2017 in Table 3. In a similar way, if donors propose to select individual Flagships for funding they need to understand the funding context at Flagship level (as well as the inter-linked nature of the Flagships), to anticipate the potential consequences and whether those choices therefore really will help to achieve their objectives.The ISPC noted a difference between CRPs in the allocation of W1 and 2 funding between Flagships. FTA appeared to allocate the same amount to each flagship, while DCL noted in its Budget and PIM (Performance Indicator Matrix) Final submission dated 22 April that it allocated US$ 8.5 million to its five FPs \"primarily using the level of bilateral support to each FP\" at a distinct point in time. FISH appeared to allocate ~ 30% of the total budget as W1 & 2 while A4NH had a high level of variation.The actual W1&2 budgets vs total budgets are shown in Table 4. The two types of CRP -Agri-food Systems and 'Globally integrating'Finally in terms of understanding the complexity, it is instructive to consider the two types of CRP, a concept developed by the DGs and agreed at the meeting in Windsor in May 2015.The concept of Agri-food Systems-CRPs has the potential to recognize the importance of the systems context in which the research outputs will be applied. The three 'systems' programs in Phase I never managed to become well-established, although some elements of Drylands and Humid Tropics are continuing as Flagships in AFS-CRPs in Phase II. Some CRPs have bought into the concept of agri-food systems and are undertaking research beyond just production and recognizing the importance of having a systems focus. Others have some way to go but there are signs that the concept is having a beneficial effect in terms of facilitating inter-connections between CRPs and hence a more coherent portfolio.Two (CCAFS and A4NH) of the four i-CRPs are now at an advanced stage of development, facilitated in part by the clarity of their focus (climate change mitigation and adaptation and human nutrition and health) compared to the more diffuse focus of policies, institutions and markets and water, land and ecosystems. CCAFS has already shown its potential in facilitating recognition of outputs from across the CGIAR System in global policy dialogues on climate change. A4NH is starting to have an impact in global dialogues on agriculture and nutrition and to involve other Centers/CRPs in those initiatives. PIM has also been effective in engaging in policy dialogues but still has some way to go to develop fully as an i-CRP, while WLE is developing a focus on becoming an influencer on behalf of the CGIAR.The ISPC consider there is considerable potential to enhance the global impact of the CGIAR, once all four i-CRPs are operating effectively as integrators of research across the System.1. Overall analysis as an integral part of the CRP portfolio  Strategic relevance: is there a compelling argument or sufficient evidence that the CRP as a whole will make a significant contribution to delivery at the CGIAR system level? Consideration of the 'grand challenges', in particular climate change, in appropriate flagship projects; Evidence of capturing inter-CRP synergies and at the CRP cluster in which the CRP takes part (agri-food system or integrative CRP); In particular, -(For 'agri-food-system' CRPs) Does the CRP adopt an integrated approach to advancing productivity, sustainability and resilience? -(For integrative CRPs) Does the CRP plan to work with the eight agri-food systems CRPs and how does it conceptualise the integration across the whole portfolio? Rigor and credibility of the scientific arguments underpinning the rationale for the proposal;  Individual FPs add up to a CRP that offers more value than the sum of individual FPs. Lessons learned from previous research and earlier external reviews and recommendations (including ISPC comments and recommendations on pre-proposals) have been adequately considered and factored in the full proposal. Site integration: The CRP demonstrates how it intends to work on key site integration plans, i.e., the steps taken and will be taken? (see commentary on portfolio)  The coordinating platforms will be evaluated by ISPC using the selection criteria outlined in the guidance document (section 4.4.). The platforms are envisaged as CGIAR system-level service platforms and will therefore be judged on the appropriateness and efficiency of their services and outputs to users, rather than the outcome focus of the programs -nevertheless a clear relationship should be established in terms of platform goals and illustrated demand from CRPs. Criteria for assessment of platforms will include:1. The extent to which the platform will contribute to key strategic needs of CGIAR (i.e. alignment with SRF and feasible contribution to targets described in the Results Framework) 2. Comparative and competitive advantage of CGIAR and ability to deliver (Evidence -e.g.summary of the state of the art in the area and any lessons learned from previous or related efforts -to explain why CGIAR should lead the proposed platform). 3. Partnerships (including such elements as the underlying strategy and advantages of partner choices, recognition of particular strengths and weaknesses-and how these will be addressed.) 4. Efficiency, coherence and added value of the platform to the CRP portfolio and external users.(The extent to which the organization of the platform can add value to CGIAR programs and the cross-cutting interactions between other platforms and programs) 5. Track record and credibility of the team (e.g. skills, experience, and capacity of the proposed lead as well as partners and collaborators to deliver fully and in a timely manner on the proposed activities). 6. Mechanisms for assuring the quality of data and of science. (e. g. demonstration that effective means for data collection, and for ensuring data curation and its utility for sharing are in place; the adequacy of the plans for engagement with the research community; the adequacy of linkages to other institutes and providers; the quality and efficiency of platform arrangements, outputs and services). 7. Governance and management (are the leadership, management and governance arrangements appropriate to CGIAR responsibilities for stewardship and IPG use, including for partnership management). 8. The business case (whether the proposed business case will ensure sustainability of the CGIAR capability). 9. Appropriateness of budget in relation to the activities proposed (annex 2).As per the Full Proposal Guidance, the following represent the cost elements of the Management and Support Cost: Management fee charged by the Lead Center to handle CRP Finance and Administrative matters (Finance, accounting, reporting, contracts management, legal, HR, IT, communication-if handled by Lead Center)  CRP director including related cost -benefits and on-cost if customary (computer, vehicle lease and office space) based on percentage time allocation  Infrastructure and general and administrative charges if CRP leader is not located at the Lead Center  Flagship leader and regional coordinators only if a significant percentage time (>50%) is dedicated to managerial activities.  Financial and administrative support based on time allocation  CRP Management Committee and related costs  Independent Steering Committee (or Science Committee) and related costs  Communication activity related specifically to CRP communication and webpage (not if handled by Lead Center)  CRP internal audit by the CGIAR Internal Audit Unit, or its future equivalent in the new System governance structure  CRP internal and external reviews (e.g. CCEEs and other evaluations and reviews), as well as impact assessments (if not explicitly budgeted as part of FPs)","tokenCount":"5457"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec4070737fe60531214a983e8a08304e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/056ac309-3b66-4e4a-9062-569d5769d614/retrieve","id":"244289044"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"66123732-6c8a-4640-a204-4e80ae2483a2","pagecount":"5","content":"More than 60 researchers and professionals have benefited from PhD and MSc training organized jointly with national and international academic institutions.Soybean is one of the crops targeted by the government in its strategic plan for agricultural transformation. IITA has been supporting this plan by facilitating the introduction, adaptation, and adoption of several soybean varieties including SB24, which is widely used among farmers. A report from RAB in 2016 has shown that the SB24 variety provides an average yield to farmers of 2700kg/ha. SB24 is suitable for both household consumption and industrial processing, providing farmers with the flexibility to decide whether to keep their harvest for consumption, or to sell to the market or to industry.Beans are among Rwanda's most marketable crops, contributing to better nutrition and incomes in the country. In Rwanda, high-quality climbing beans are planted on more than half of the country's bean-production area.Since 1985, The Alliance through the bean program, Pan Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) in collaboration with RAB, have been working together to improve climbing bean varieties, and provide farmers with many new varieties to expand climbing beans in nontraditional climbing bean zones.New germplasm was introduced from the Alliance germplasm bank in Colombia and tested in Rwanda with the national bean program in the different agro-ecological zones to select germplasm that is adapted to the prevailing conditions of the country.As a result of this partnership, more than twenty climbing bean varieties, the majority of which are from the The Alliance germplasm bank, were released and accepted by farmers. These varieties, which includes G2333 (baptized Umubano meaning good partnership/ relationship) yields 5200kg/ha compared to the 3400kg/ha previously achieved. The G2333 variety is the most preferred by farmers due to its high yield, grain type (medium size), color (shining red), palatable leaves, and earlier maturity compared to other local climbing beans varieties.Prior to 1984, the proportion of climbing beans among all types of beans in Rwanda was only 6 percent, while now, due in part to The Alliance's work, the proportion has increased to 57 percent.The climbers have helped transform beans from a subsistence crop to a cash crop, enabling Rwanda to achieve surplus production that it exports to its neighbors. The bean corridor innovation has been recently introduced to focus intensification in production, distribution and marketing and consumption of bean and its value added products.SB24 variety released, provides an average yield to farmers of -SB24 is suitable for both household consumption and industrial processing  CIP also worked with value chain actors to develop products such as mandazi, cookies and bread made from OFSP to increase demand for these varieties.To improve the access to clean planting material of potato varieties, CIP introduced new technologies in Rwanda such as the aeroponic technique for potato seed production, and diffused light stores for seed potato storage. The practice of positive selection for farm-saved seeds was introduced and promoted, and widely adopted.CIP and IITA are currently testing and scaling a citizen-science approach called Triadic comparisons of technologies (Tricot) to identify the best potato varieties for different agro-ecological conditions in Rwanda. The data are used to develop variety recommendations for different agro-ecologies across the country.The Alliance and ILRI worked with several partners to strengthen the climate information available to Rwanda's farmers using the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) approach. They supported Twigire Muhinzi, the national extension program, to scale it up and directly reach more than 112,000 farmers. Participating farmers increased the value of their crop production at farmgate by an average of 24 percent and their net income from crops by 30 percent, relative to nonparticipating communities.Furthermore, IFPRI is working closely with MINAGRI on the development of the Customized Agricultural Extension System (CAES), which will strengthen Twigire Muhinzi. IFPRI studies will help to better understand the technical and functional capabilities of public and private providers of agricultural extension and advisory service, in order to identify future training needs as the CAES moves Rwanda's extension system towards modernization and digitalization.Over 500,000 households in Rwanda have been reached with improved OFSP varieties since 2009.Supported Twigire Muhinzi, the national extension program, to scale it up and reach more than 112,000 farmers.Xanthomonas Wilt of banana (BXW) is one of the major threats to banana production in the country, causing significant yield loss to farmers. To reduce the spread of the disease, IITA, in partnership with RAB, developed an ICT-based tool, BXW App. The tool enables an early warning system that provides [near] real-time georeferenced data on the incidence of the Xanthomonas Wilt for further visualization and pattern analysis. It helps farmers in the early detection and removal of the affected tree and guides effective policies and/or measures to combat the further spread of the disease.While the tool is being scaled up through public-private partnerships, new features are being integrated to make it a one-stop advisory tool for banana farmers and other value chain actors. More than 5,000 farmers have been assisted in how to use this tool, by 83 trained farmer promoters in 8 districts around the country during the pilot phase. Prior to this, more than 11,000 farmers accessed information on banana production through the BXW App. Currently the project is scaling up to reach farmers in all the 30 districts of the country. The app is found in the Google playstore and can be downloaded by any android smartphone user.CIP and IITA are currently calibrating and testing a digital tool to provide site-specific fertilizer recommendations for potato and cassava through the digital platform AKILIMO. The platform provides tailored fertilizer recommendations to farmers and extension service providers based on digital soil and weather data combined with market and price information, as well as farmer cropping objectives and risk attitude.In addition, The Alliance is testing a digital market place tool in collaboration with Mastercard and Shambapro and private sector off takers for beans and other commodities. IFPRI supports the Government of Rwanda, primarily through its partnership with MINAGRI and other key stakeholders, by providing collaborative policy analysis to prioritize agricultural transformation, increase agricultural productivity, improve nutrition, strengthen food systems and the rural nonfarm economy, and foster broad-based economic growth and development.To date, IFPRI has provided key evidence and inputs to inform the design and implementation of the Fourth Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA 4), modeled the macro-and microlevel impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which were reviewed at various levels of the government, and provided realtime analysis and recommendations to MINAGRI on a variety of topics such as input subsidies, agricultural extension, and public investment prioritization.In order to support Rwanda's forward looking strategy for economic growth and transformation, IFPRI will continue to partner with the Government of Rwanda and other key stakeholders on collaborative policy analysis related to: the prioritization of policies and public investment for agricultural transformation to evaluate the most cost-effective and comprehensive solutions to achieve the country's development goals; the advancement of sustainable agricultural intensification and modernization, focusing on technology-and marketled solutions for resilient smallholder systems; strengthening agriculturenutrition linkages by examining novel approaches to promoting nutrient-rich diets and improving nutritional outcomes; exploring strategies for agricultural export diversification and agri-food system development to create jobs and income; expanding inclusive growth opportunities through the promotion of nonfarm rural employment, small/medium rural enterprises, and rural-urban linkages; and integrating gender and youth as a crosscutting theme.A sustainable agricultural transformation requires trained and skilled human resources in the face of a rapidly changing sector. Therefore, throughout their entire tenure in Rwanda, the CGIAR centers have been supporting the development of individual and organizational capacity. For example, to date, more than 60 researchers and professionals have benefited from PhD and MSc training organized jointly with national and international academic institutions. Additionally, the centers contribute to capacity development of key stakeholders through group and one-on-one trainings on topics related to research methods, value chain development, agricultural production, and more. Many beneficiaries of CGIAR's capacity development efforts are currently business, policy, or science leaders within RAB, MINAGRI, and various other agricultural development organizations.CGIAR is transitioning into One CGIAR with the new 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy in order to operate as a cohesive organization with a single mission, seamlessly leveraging all of our capabilities and assets to deliver real benefits to people and our planet. One CGIAR is the integration of CGIAR's capabilities, knowledge, assets, people, and global presence for a new era of interconnected and partnership-driven research towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).We recognize contributions from our funders and strategic partners for their invaluable support to our mission of improving agriculture sector in Rwanda through impactful innovations, research, and partnerships. ","tokenCount":"1424"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"69f05b46c8ed80d267a497b5dcc92b17","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e674d27f-e7b5-44a5-a614-ddb1a4167724/retrieve","id":"-1343789804"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"93e76fce-57af-46fa-a8f8-5c986157c899","pagecount":"37","content":"Information and communication technologies (ICTs), specifically those that are digital and interactive, present opportunities for enhanced intermediation between actors in Ghana's agricultural extension system. To understand these opportunities, this study investigates the capabilities of ICTs in support of seven forms of intermediation in the context of agricultural extension: disseminating (information), retrieving (information), harvesting (information), matching (actors to services), networking (among actors), coordinating (actors), and co-creating (among actors). The study identifies the types of ICTs currently functioning in Ghana's agricultural system, and applies a Delphi-inspired research design to determine the consensus and dissensus of researchers, scientists, and practitioners about the potential of these ICTs to sup-Munthali et al. The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC)port each of the seven intermediation capabilities. The findings reveal that experts reached consensus that interactive voice response (IVR) technologies currently have the highest potential to support disseminating, retrieving, harvesting, and matching. Meanwhile, social media messaging (SMM) technologies are currently seen as highly capable of supporting coordinating and, to a lesser extent, co-creating, but no consensus is reached on the potential of any of the technologies to support networking.Agricultural productivity growth in Ghana, necessary to bridge the gap between potential and actual production of food and cash crops, is partly hampered by the prevailing approach to agricultural extension service delivery (Abdulai et al., 2020;Bua et al., 2020;McNamara et al., 2014;MOFA, 2007;World Bank, 2017). This approach is typified by extension largely focused on knowledge and technology transfer to farmers, rather than taking on broader roles (e.g., knowledge brokering, facilitating access to credit, and supporting market linkages) and serving a broader stakeholder base (Agyekumhene et al., 2018;Munthali et al., 2018). The narrow focus of this extension approach is problematic because farmers have multi-faceted production needs, and \"improving food production […] is not just a matter of individuals [farmers] receiving messages and adopting the right technologies [from scientists/researchers], but has much more to do with altering interdependencies and coordination between various actors\" (Leeuwis, 2004, p. 18).More specifically, the prevailing extension approach fails to adequately coordinate the set of organisations 2 that support value chain actors 3 in emergent problem-solving (e.g., with respect to climate change impacts), facilitating business linkages between these actors, and facilitating the integration of scientific and other knowledges to produce appropriate knowledge and technology for value chain actors (Abdu-Raheem & Worth, 2016;Asiedu-Darko & Bekoe, 2014;McNamara et al., 2014). These drawbacks in the national extension system hamper production (Msuya & Wambura, 2016;Zwane, 2020).Since 1996, statements of national agricultural policy objectives in Ghana have consistently posited that reorganisation and improved coordination in the sector are key to agricultural development and climate change adaptation (DAES, 2011;Sigman, 2015;Sova et al., 2014;World Bank, 2017). Based on this policy direction, proposed structural changes in the Ghanaian extension service delivery system have included accommodating private extension organisations to meet the high demand for extension services, value chain-focused interventions, and innovation platforms (Adekunle & Fatunbi, 2014;Agyekumhene et al., 2018;McNamara et al., 2014;Van Paassen et al., 2013). Thus, the extension ideology has broadened, since the 1990s, to include calls not only for top-down, one-size-fits-all approaches (i.e., training and visitation) but also for participatory and bottom-up approaches (e.g., farmer field schools) (DAES, 2011;Davis, 2008). The most recent Ghanaian extension framework is anThe African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC) integrated pluralistic extension system (Abdu-Raheem & Worth, 2016;Sigman, 2015). This approach envisages strengthened research-extension linkages, broader service delivery lines, and a larger number of service providers, with the intention of meeting the demand of farmers and other value chain actors for extension services.Ghana's current extension ideology aligns with the agricultural innovation systems (AIS) perspective. With a view to fostering innovation in agriculture, the AIS perspective focuses on influencing relationships between multiple actors and on the conditions (e.g., policies) that affect the actors' (collective) operations (Klerkx & Leeuwis, 2008;Leeuwis, 2004;Swanson & Rajalahti, 2010). According to the AIS perspective, the focus on multiple actors' relationships is necessary because: (1) innovation occurs when interaction between diverse stakeholders is increased and open, resulting in improved knowledge exchange and access to appropriate knowledge and technology; and (2) innovation requires networking through which actors form partnerships that allow them to access business development opportunities and engage in collective action to respond to systemic challenges holistically (Koutsouris, 2012;Swanson & Rajalahti, 2010;World Bank, 2012).Extension approaches based on the AIS perspective involve three broad intermediary roles: demand articulation, matching demand and supply, and innovation process management. Demand articulation involves the engagement of sector stakeholders in activities such as joint needs identification, participatory problem diagnosis and assessment, and making interdependencies explicit (Klerkx & Gildemacher, 2012). Matching demand and supply involves establishing sector contacts and developing mutually beneficial relationships-advice, credit, input, and market linkages (Howells, 2006). Lastly, innovation process management comprises the creation of discussion and negotiation space for actors to coordinate and jointly mitigate constraints, maintain relationships, and engage in knowledge-sharing and integration or co-production for continuous innovation (Leeuwis, 2010;Vitos et al., 2013). Despite Ghana's national agricultural policy direction transitioning to an AIS-based extension approach, barriers still stand in the way of both public and private extension organisations on the path to facilitating this new direction. These factors include financial constraints (e.g., untimely and limited funding), human resource constraints (e.g., freezes in hiring staff, limited staff numbers), and skill set-related constraints (e.g., limited adaptation on the part of educational institutions to develop the facilitation capabilities of extension staff ) (MOFA, 2007;Obeng et al., 2019;Sova et al., 2014).At the same time, Ghana is a key African player in the innovative use of digital information and communication technology (ICT) (GSMA, 2019). Digital ICTs are now central to most spheres of development (Sein et al., 2019;United Nations, 2020), as represented by the ICT for development (ICT4D) discipline, which is focused on \"the application of any entity that processes or communicates digital data in order to deliver some part of the international development agenda in a developing country\" (Heeks, 2017, p. 10). Among the key ICTs and ICT-enabled services harnessed for developmental purposes are interactive voice response (IVR), short message service (SMS), unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), social media (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook), and document and data management systems (e.g., Open Data Kit). Such ICTs and ICT-enabled services present new opportunities for connectivity and information sharing to enhance communication-related service delivery (Bell, 2015;Gershon & Bell, 2013). Therefore, these technologies are being explored by scientists, researchers, and development practitioners to respond to the limitations of classical approaches to extension and interaction in Ghana's agricultural system (Cieslik et al., 2018;Fielke et al., 2020;Gakuru et al., 2009;MEST, n.d.;Qiang et al., 2012).Currently, there is limited literature assessing the capability of different types of ICTs to drive agricultural innovation processes (Fielke et al., 2020;Van Osch & Coursaris, 2013). One such rare study presents an assessment by European experts of the capability of social media and other web-based platforms to act as drivers of agricultural innovation (Hansen et al., 2014). The study finds that a number of the platforms (particularly social media) have high capacity to support the following specific social networking functions that support innovation: discussion (Facebook, NING, ERFALAND, and Yammer); networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, and NING); crowdsourcing (ResearchGate and Crowdsourcing); cooperation (Yammer, ResearchGate, and Wikipedia); and co-production (ResearchGate and Wikipedia). However, the aforementioned European-focused study (Hansen et al., 2014) assesses forms of media that are often not easily accessible in African agricultural contexts, where farmers are typically located in rural settings with limited access to the internet and to mobile devices that support internet services (Aker, 2011;Nyamekye, 2020). Thus, the opportunities for ICTs presented in the Hansen et al. (2014) study cannot be fully leveraged in many African agricultural systems.In this study we seek to address a research gap through the identification of opportunities for ICTs to support intermediation capabilities relevant to AIS-based extension service delivery, in an African setting-specifically Ghana. The study identifies opportunities through a consensus-building exercise that captures the perspectives of scientists and researchers in the fields of communication, innovation, and development informatics; and practitioners of ICT for agriculture (ICT4Ag).In this section we start by discussing bridging mechanisms as an overarching concept that incorporates the core concept of this study, which is intermediation capabilities. We highlight the possibility of ICTs functioning as bridging mechanisms and, in doing so, supporting extension organisations in facilitating AIS-based extension service delivery. We also outline the types of intermediation relevant to this facilitation process, and the intermediation capabilities that the ICTs may support. We conclude the section by stating the research questions.Farmers operate in multi-faceted production environments. Enhancing the performance of the Ghanaian agricultural sector, therefore, requires improved information (knowledge) flows among agricultural stakeholders and improved business linkages. The major stakeholders in the agricultural system are knowledge technology providers and users. Their interaction and knowledge exchange need to be enhanced, along with that of other value chain actors who currently only have loose linkages (Adolwa et al., 2017;Asiedu-Darko, 2013;McNamara et al., 2014). The other main actors in the system are bridging organisations that are involved in facilitating interaction and linkages between stakeholders (Kilelu et al., 2011;World Bank, 2012). Bridging organisations are defined by Berkes et al. (2003) as organisations that provide an arena for knowledge co-production, trust-building, sense-making, learning, vertical and horizontal collaboration, and conflict resolution.From an innovation systems perspective, bridging organisations are regarded as intermediaries, which are \"persons or organisations that, from a relatively impartial third-party position, purposefully catalyse innovation through bringing together actors and facilitating their interaction\" (Klerkx & Gildemacher, 2012, p. 221). For many developing countries, it has been argued that agricultural bridging functions are best suited to, and easily assimilated by, public extension organisations, even Intermediation Capabilities of ICTs in Ghana's Agricultural Extension Delivery though other organisations (e.g., private extension organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), farmer-based organisations, and research institutions) have been involved in the role (Kilelu et al., 2011). In the case of Ghana, for extension organisations to assimilate the bridging role in line with the AIS-based approach (Abdu-Raheem & Worth, 2016;Sigman, 2015), they \"are required to expand their role from that of a one-to-one intermediary between research and farmers\" to that which \"creates many-to-many relationships to facilitate access to knowledge, skills, services, and goods from a wide range of organisations\" (Kilelu et al., 2011, p. 89).However, various other actors in agricultural systems can also take on bridging functions. These include sector-focused networks, trade associations, special government programmes, consultants, input suppliers, and, with direct relevance to this study, ICTs (Kilelu et al., 2011;Klerkx & Gildemacher, 2012). ICTs can serve as bridging mechanisms (Hansen et al., 2014;World Bank, 2012), and can be leveraged by extension organisations and other extension actors in support of functioning better as bridging organisations and engaging in AIS-based extension service delivery. Hansen et al. (2014) assess the ability of social media and other ICT-enabled tools to drive agricultural innovation based on six \"social network functions\": networking, cooperating, co-producing, crowdsourcing, discussing, and engaging. Using this framework, Hansen et al. (2014) engaged innovation systems experts to assess the extent to which different forms of social media and other web-based platforms (e.g., YouTube, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) support particular networking functions that may facilitate collaboration for sharing ideas and for mobilising knowledge and resources circulating in other arenas (Granovetter, 1973;Kaushik et al., 2018).In the African context, ICTs have been found to facilitate aspects of AIS-based extension service delivery by enabling multiple actors to network and engage in joint needs identification, knowledge-sharing, and problem-solving to meet information needs in farming systems (Ajani, 2014;Fabregas et al., 2019;Munthali et al., 2018). Mobile applications have, for example, been recognised for their ability to improve value chain linkages (Ajani, 2014;Zwane, 2020), to build timely monitoring systems (e.g., with geo-referenced data) on environmental issues and production, and to provide timely advice to enable farmers to respond to farming challenges (Gbangou et al., 2020;McCole et al., 2014).That said, it is important to note that, in general, most studies of the role of ICTs in agricultural extension focus on the use of specific ICT tools (typically mobile apps) to provide market, technical, and weather information to farmers, rather than on ICTs' impact, or potential impact, on the provision of AIS-based extension (Aker et al., 2016;Misaki et al., 2018). Furthermore, despite ICTs falling within the typology of intermediaries that can facilitate interaction and linkages between AIS actors to foster innovation, most studies of innovation intermediaries focus on the functioning and influence of other types of intermediaries, e.g., consultants targeting individual farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agri-food sector; consultants targeting farmer collectives and agri-food SMEs; peer network brokers; education brokers; systemic intermediaries; and research councils (Kilelu et al., 2011;Kivimaa et al., 2019;Winch et al., 2007). Therefore, existing literature does not clarify which ICTs among those available in Ghana or other African countries are most capable of supporting the specific types of intermediation required to facilitate AISbased extension service delivery activities in these contexts. Additionally, there has been little consideration of how experts, from the academically oriented to the more location-specific and practice-oriented, look at the potential of various kinds of ICTs to augment extension service delivery.To address these knowledge gaps, our study explored the views of communication and innovation scientists, development informatics researchers, and ICT4Ag practitioners on the current opportunities for ICTs to enhance intermediation functions within agricultural extension service delivery in Ghana.The framework we deployed in the study builds on the aforementioned social network functions framework of Hansen et al. (2014). Our framework modifies the Hansen et al. (2014) networking functions-engagement, discussion, crowdsourcing, networking, co-production and cooperation-by:• merging three overlapping functions (engagement, discussion, cooperation) into two broader functions (coordinating and co-creating); and • including additional functions (harvesting, matching, coordinating) relevant to facilitating AIS-based extension delivery.Overall, we broaden the work of Hansen et al. (2014) to reflect networking as well as communication functions relevant to facilitating AIS-based extension service delivery, and we refer to these functions collectively as  Taking the intermediation capabilities listed in Table 2 as a reference, this study sought to answer the following research questions:• How do experts assess the extent to which different ICTs support specific intermediation capabilities? • What type of consensus or dissensus do experts reach over which ICTs can support which specific intermediation capabilities? • What factors are contributing to consensus and dissensus among experts about which ICTs can support which specific intermediation capabilities?4 Multi-actor engagement in this study refers to virtually connecting and placing more than one actor in a virtual \"room\" and around a virtual \"table\" where they can engage in, or take advantage of, oneto-many and many-to-many communication (i.e., have a back-and-forth exchange/interaction).In this section, we report on the scoping exercise that was conducted to identify the ICTs currently being used in the Ghanaian agricultural system. The outcomes of this scoping study provided the basis for engagement with experts on their views. The section also explains the set-up of the Delphi-inspired study, which was designed to establish experts' consensus and dissensus with respect to the intermediation capabilities of the different types of ICTs that were identified through the scoping exercise.We reviewed ICT4Ag literature on Ghana, and engaged with organisations rolling out ICT initiatives discovered in the literature, in order to identify the ICTs being used in the Ghanaian agricultural system (Aker et al., 2016;Gakuru et al., 2009;Qiang et al., 2012;World Bank, 2014). Through these scoping activities we developed an inventory of ICT4Ag platforms (see Appendix). We then examined the inventory and were able to identify nine different types of ICTs in use (see Table 2). Building on the scoping study, we developed an expert consensus-building method that was inspired by the Delphi study approach. A Delphi study is defined as \"a method for systematic solicitation for judgements on a particular topic through a set of carefully designed sequential questionnaires interspersed with summarised information and feedback of opinions derived from earlier responses\" (Chu & Hwang, 2008, p. 2828). It involves a \"group facilitation technique, which is an iterative multistage process, designed to transform opinion into group consensus\" (Hasson et al., 2000, p. 1) among experts (Benitez-Capistros et al., 2014). Benitez-Capistros et al. ( 2014) define an expert as a person who is competent as an authority on particular facts.The content validity of the Delphi is enhanced by avoidance of data collection in a group setting where more dominant actors' opinions may be captured (Hasson et al., 2000). Furthermore, Delphi data collection involves more than one round of questioning, which increases concurrent validity of the method (Hasson et al., 2000), and because consensus-building is the objective of the Delphi approach, the number of these rounds is undefined and dependent on when consensus emerges or increases among participants (Benitez-Capistros et al., 2014). According to Hasson et al. (2000) and Doria et al. (2009), acceptable majorities in a Delphi-derived consensus can range from a basic majority (50-59%) to a low (60-69%), medium (70-79%) or high (≥ 80%) majority.There are variations in the set-up of Delphi studies (Allen et al., 2019;Chu & Hwang, 2008). Our Delphi-inspired expert consensus-building method involved two rounds, and for each round the expert panel composition varied to fit a particular purpose (see Figure 1).  The aggregated and averaged results of the four internal experts' honeycomb evaluations were then presented to the entire internal panel to facilitate a convergence forum. The convergence forum gave the experts the opportunity to reflect on the aggregated results in relation to their individual responses, discuss areas of divergence, and ultimately reach agreement on the indicative intermediation capabilities of the different ICTs. The forum also enabled the experts to identify the significant results of the honeycomb evaluation from which 16 propositions were developed for the second round of the expert consensus-building method.Second round: Online survey of 11 external experts In the second round, the 16 propositions were packaged into a questionnaire format, using a five-point Likert scale that ranged from \"1\" (strongly disagree) to \"5\" (strongly agree). The questionnaire was presented to a broader expert panel made up of Ghana-focused development informatics researchers and ICT4Ag practitioners.Potential respondents were identified from a list of invitees to a workshop convened in Accra, Ghana by the Environmental Virtual Observatories for Connective Action (EVOCA) research programme in April 2019, which targeted Ghanaian agricultural stakeholders. Additional researchers and practitioners were identified as potential respondents through a search in the SCOPUS abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed research literature. The search was composed of two steps: (1) a search using the function \"(mobile technology or ICT) AND (extension or agriculture) AND (Ghana)\"; and (2) screening the articles captured in the search to establish whether they were on topic and, where applicable, to identify authors who could be invited to participate in the survey.In total, 22 potential respondents-13 researchers and nine ICT4Ag practitionerswere identified and sent an email invitation to engage in the study by completing the online questionnaire, which was administered via the web-based platform Google Forms. Of the invitees, 11 (five researchers and six practitioners-see Table 3) responded to the questionnaire during the two-week period given for responses. For round two, the descriptive statistics analysed for each proposition included the mean (qi), the median (Q2), and the frequency of ranking for each point on the Likert scale. Based on these statistics, we determined whether there was positive consensus (agreement) or negative consensus (disagreement) about a proposition, or whether there was dissensus (varied ranking or polarisation) about a proposition. We considered three criteria to determine whether consensus was reached and to determine the direction of the consensus for each proposition (Table 4). These criteria were (1) the position of the mean on the Likert scale (Chu & Hwang, 2008);(2) the position of the mean in relation to the median in the data distribution (Chu & Hwang, 2008); and (3) the significance of the percentage of participants ranking a proposition on the Likert scale, ranging from low to medium to high to very high (Doria et al., 2009;Hasson et al., 2000). The first round of the expert consensus-building, with the four-person internal panel of experts, collated views on the intermediation capability (high to low) of each ICT identified in the Ghanaian agricultural system (see Figure 3). In terms of the ICTs with a high capability to support intermediation capabilities (ranking > 3), the aggregated results of the honeycomb evaluation show that interactive voice response (IVR) outbound technologies were viewed as having very high capability to support disseminating, and IVR inbound technologies were viewed as having high capability to support retrieving. In addition, short message service (SMS) push technologies were seen as having a high capability to support disseminating, and unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technologies were viewed as having a high capability to support retrieving and matching. Furthermore, the aggregated results showed that social media messaging (SMM) technologies had a high capability to support harvesting and coordinating, and an intermediate capability to support all the other intermediation capabilities, excluding networking.In addition to the expert consensus-building method, a focus group discussion was conducted to establish factors contributing to (positive or negative) consensus and dissensus (varying views or polarisation) over the propositions. The focus group discussion took place during the EVOCA programme's Ghana workshop. The workshop attracted 19 participants and, as part of the workshop proceedings, the participants were selectively split into four working groups that each comprised all the categories of participants present at the event (mainly various kinds of technology users). One of the working groups comprised five workshop participants who took part in the focus group: two public extension staff members, two ICT-based NGO representatives, and a small-scale farmer. We presented the aggregated questionnaire results to the focus group, and they reflected on the results and engaged in an open discussion on whether or not they agreed with them in general, and why. The discussion was recorded to facilitate thematic analysis of the plausible factors contributing to consensus and dissensus on the propositions. With respect to technologies found to have a low capability to support specific intermediation capabilities (ranking < 3), the panel of internal experts reached consensus that spatial (Spa) technologies generally had a low capability to support all the intermediation capabilities. The panel also reached consensus that SMS pull technologies, data management (DaM) technologies, and document management (DoM) technologies also did not rank highly (ranking > 3) in terms of their capability to support any intermediation. The assessment also found that all ICTs had a low capability to support networking.Based on the aggregated results of the first round of consensus-building, the fourperson internal expert panel developed a number of propositions, 16 of which (see Table 5) were used to develop the online survey questionnaire for the second round. The propositions were also developed within a specific context to aid the panel of external experts in assessing which ICTs were likely to be best suited to facilitate certain communication and networking functions in extension activities. The internal panel (more academic-oriented), therefore, required the external panel of respondents (more Ghana-specific and practice-oriented) to envision themselves as district extension staff tasked by the \"Ministry of Agriculture -Headquarters\" to qualify or disqualify the preliminary assessment of the current capability and future potential of specific ICTs to improve extension service delivery involving rural farmers.The results of round two showed that seven of the 16 propositions presented to the external experts were marked by positive consensus (Table 6). Additionally, the ques-Intermediation Capabilities of ICTs in Ghana's Agricultural Extension Delivery tionnaire results showed that there was no negative consensus among the external experts about any of the propositions. As seen in Table 6, there was positive consensus among the experts that:• IVR inbound technologies currently have the highest capability for harvesting information from farmers (P4), for supporting farmers in retrieving information (P7), and for matching farmers with advice and services (P11); • IVR outbound technologies currently have the highest capability for disseminating information to farmers (P1); and • SMM technologies currently have the highest capability to support coordinating between agricultural stakeholders (P14) including farmers, and intermediate-level capability to facilitate co-creating by these stakeholders (P15).The experts did not reach consensus on nine of the 16 propositions (Table 7). This dissensus was determined on the basis that the propositions failed to meet all three of the consensus criteria outlined earlier. Abbreviations: qi: mean; Q2: median; Q3: \"middle\" value in the second half of the rank-ordered dataSpecifically, as seen in Table 7, it was found that experts had varied views on:• whether IVR inbound technologies currently have a higher capability than USSD technologies to facilitate the harvesting of information from rural farmers (P5); • the current capability of USSD technologies to facilitate retrieving of information by rural farmers (P8), or to facilitate matching of farmers with agricultural services (P10); • the current capability of all the technologies identified to support networking between rural farmers and other agricultural stakeholders (P12); • the future potential of SMM technologies to facilitate disseminating, harvesting and retrieving information targeted at or involving farmers (P3, P6, P9); and • the future potential of SMM technologies to support networking and co-creating between agricultural stakeholders (P13, P16).The focus group discussion revealed two factors contributing to the external experts' consensus on the high intermediation capabilities of IVR inbound and outbound technologies at present, as described above. One factor was that IVR technologies operate on basic and feature mobile phones (i.e., non-smart phones) that are accessible to rural Ghanaian farmers. The other factor was that IVR technologies, unlike SMS or USSD technologies, generate audio as opposed to textual content. This makes them more compatible with the generally low literacy levels of the farmers. In the words of one focus group participant:At the moment, IVR is known widely and used because it is programmed in a language that the end user understands. It does not involve text messages and is available on any kind of phone.The focus group also established the reasons behind experts' consensus on certain intermediation capabilities of SMM technologies and dissensus on other SMM capabilities. The consensus on the high capability of SMM technologies to support coordinating between agricultural stakeholders, at present, was found in the focus group to be a result of the view that SMM technologies facilitate, to a greater extent than other ICTs, rapid and easy interaction and feedback. Another reason for the consensus on the high capability of SMM for coordinating, at present, was the assumption that most coordination functions involve service providers (e.g., extension agents) working together with lead farmers, i.e., with lead farmers who, because they have higher literacy levels and greater financial means than the average farmers, are likely to have access to the smartphones necessary for the use of SMM technologies. According to a focus group participant:Social media applications are the medium of swift information exchange and facilitation at the moment.[…] because of the infiltration of cheaper smartphones [...] most lead farmers have this platform [WhatsApp], which makes them easily organise meetings, and solicit for assistance and information from each [agricultural] actor when need be.Meanwhile, the consensus on SMM technologies' current capability to support co-creating was that the capability is only at an intermediate level. On this point, it was found in the focus group that the experts took into consideration that many rural farmers currently lack access to smartphones that support the use of SMM technologies, and also that the generally low levels of literacy of farmers affects their ability to engage intensively with or on SMM technologies. In relation to these challenges with farmers taking advantage of SMM technologies, some experts pointed to alternative communication mechanisms, such as face-to-face meetings, being more appropriate than SMM, at present, for facilitating co-creation involving rural Ghanaian farmers.Moving to the factors contributing to the dissensus regarding the future intermediation capabilities of SMM in disseminating, retrieving, and harvesting information, the variation in views was found in the focus group to be due to different levels of optimism among the focus group participants on rural farmers' future access to smartphones and the farmers' future literacy levels. The more optimistic respondents were confident in farmers' increased access to smartphones and increased literacy over the next 10 years. Representing the optimistic view, one focus group participant argued as follows:[...] but it [the situation] is not static. Maybe in 10 years the youth will become more active farmers and be more inclined to use WhatsApp.However, pessimistic views were also expressed. For example, one focus group respondent stated: Another focus group participant added an additional pessimistic view:I am not even looking at the costs of [mobile data] bundles. Let's look at how old the active rural farmers will be and what their educational level will be. When you talk about the farmers now, most of them are within the range of 30-35 and they will be 40-50 in the next 10 years. In the next 10 years we will be dealing with the same crop of farmers. Therefore, I do not expect to see significant changes in relation to their adoption of such new technology [SMM technologies].The starting point of this study was that ICTs have the capacity to respond to information-and interaction-related needs in Ghana's agricultural extension service delivery. Through the inputs of a total of 15 varied experts in two rounds, we assessed the capability of nine types of ICTs operating in Ghana to support specific communication and networking functions (intermediation capabilities) that are required to facilitate AIS-based extension service delivery. In this section we highlight the results, specifically instances of positive consensus and of dissensus, in experts' views on the intermediation capabilities of the ICTs identified, and discuss these instances with reference to the reasoning provided by the focus group participants and in the context of existing literature. Based on this analysis and discussion we point out opportunities for specific ICTs to support certain communication and networking functions that are required to facilitate AIS-based extension service delivery, as well as alternative scenarios. Finally, this section reflects on the validity of the Delphi-inspired research design and highlights potential areas for future research.Below we discuss and identify opportunities for IVR and SMM technologies to support intermediation.The results show that experts reached positive consensus on the high capability of IVR technologies to support disseminating, retrieving, and harvesting information, at present, and to support matching actors to services targeted at rural farmers, also at present. These findings are congruent with previous research pointing to IVR technology having great potential to reach farmers directly (Dittoh et al., 2013;Mc-Namara et al., 2014). It is clear that many scientists, researchers, and practitioners view IVR technologies as being appropriate for supporting these specific communication functions involving rural communities. This is largely because, as found in our focus group discussion and also as argued in the literature, these technologies are audio-based and thus fit rural farmers' literacy levels, and these technologies are supported by the low-cost basic and feature mobile phones that most rural farmers can readily access (Aker et al., 2016;Dittoh et al., 2013;Schmidt et al., 2010).The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC)We also found that there was positive consensus among experts on the high capabilities of SMM technologies to support coordinating between farmers and other agricultural actors at present. Therefore, in this case, it is also clear that various experts, including Fabregas et al. (2019), see opportunities for SMM technologies to support the coordination of activities involving farmers and other agricultural actors. Furthermore, according to the focus group and other studies, the consensus reported is due to SMM technologies enabling speedy information dissemination and immediate feedback (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012;Munthali et al., 2018;Stevens et al., 2016).However, despite the full spectrum of SMM technologies' features, the study found that these technologies only have the potential to support a certain type of coordinating-not as defined in Table 2. The focus group reported that SMM technologies tended to be used by lead farmers to interact with agricultural stakeholders (other than farmers) on a one-on-one basis. Specifically, focus group participants indicated that lead farmers use SMM technologies for speedy one-to-one communication with these other agricultural stakeholders to support aspects of coordination (e.g., organising meetings)-as Martin and Hall (2011) also report-as opposed to using the technologies to facilitate many-to-many communication to support, for instance, multi-actor (stakeholder) knowledge exchange and joint problem-solving. The SMM technologies were not cited as having the potential to facilitate virtual, multi-actor open and live communication for coordinated action to solve emerging problem. Thus, there are indications that the possibilities of leveraging SMM technologies' ability to facilitate multi-actor discursive spaces are currently limited in Ghana's extension practice.Last, various experts were of the collective view that at present SMM technologies have only intermediate capabilities to support co-creating involving rural farmers and other agricultural stakeholders. Thus, the experts saw SMM technology as currently having neither high nor low capability to support the co-creating function, which requires multi-actor engagement and many-to-many communication. The focus group participants provided insights into factors contributing to this survey outcome. Certain focus group discussants were optimistic about farmers' educational levels and smartphone access increasing in the near future, thus allowing farmers to engage with SMM technologies that have the technical capacity to support engagement and communication for co-creating. Other focus group participants held a pessimistic view on the matter.Experts did not reach positive or negative consensus on a number of propositions. They had a mix of positive, neutral, and negative views on these propositions. We now discuss and identify these instances of dissensus in relation to intermediation via IVR, USSD, and SMM technologies.There was dissensus among the experts in our study on whether IVR inbound technologies have a higher capability than USSD technologies to support harvesting, at present. At the same time, and as already mentioned, there was positive consensus among the experts that IVR inbound technologies have the highest capability, among all the technologies identified (including USSD), to support this communication function. A plausible explanation for these inconsistent findings is that experts judged IVR inbound and USSD technologies, comparatively, as possessing equal technical abilities to support harvesting, but when explicitly asked which technology had the highest potential to retrieve information directly from farmers in the Ghanaian context, they identified IVR inbound technologies. Moreover, the existing literature, the analysis in the previous section on positive consensus, and the focus group inputs all point to a finding that IVR inbound technologies are best suited to support direct harvesting of information from Ghanaian rural farmers as these technologies support audio content and operate on basic mobile phones (Aker et al., 2016).We found that there was no consensus among experts regarding USSD technologies' capability, at present, to support farmers in retrieving information or matching actors (farmers) to services over other ICTs. This dissensus was based on the competing pessimistic and optimistic views of experts on farmers' literacy levels. Meanwhile, the focus group and the literature point to IVR technologies having higher capacity to support these communication functions in comparison to other technologies. For example, Perrier et al. (2015) state that IVR technology is better-suited than USSD to reach literacy-constrained audiences.There was also dissensus among experts on the future potential of SMM technologies to support disseminating, harvesting, and retrieving targeted at rural farmers, or networking and co-creating involving rural farmers and other agricultural stakeholders. This outcome could be attributed to the competing and diverging views of experts, as already mentioned above, on the future dynamics of farmers' access to, and use of, the mobile smartphones that support these technologies.The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC)For the networking function specifically, the findings above related to SMM technologies-and the dissensus found on the propostion that all the technologies identified have low capability to support networking at present-lead to the conclusion that it is unclear which ICTs are best suited to support the func tion.Unlike the aforementioned findings on experts' views on the possibility of leveraging SMM technologies to support networking in the Ghanaian context, the Hansen study (Hansen et al., 2014) found that social media currently has high potential, in the European context, to support networking and co-creating. The difference between the Hansen at al. (2014) findings and those of this study point to two issues that require consideration. The first issue is that the findings of the European-focused study could largely be influenced by the context-a context in which farmers have higher literacy levels and easier access to smartphones than farmers in most African countries (ITU, 2021). The second issue is that at present, as suggested by this study's focus group participants, networking intermediation capabilities are likely to be best-supported, in contexts such as those found in Ghana, by alternative communication mechanisms such as conventional face-to-face meetings, which remain relevant in the functioning of agricultural systems where intensive interaction is required (Leeuwis et al., 2018;Materia et al., 2015). Such communication mechanisms have been cited (Molony, 2006) as trusted social networking methods that, in the African context, are the most appropriate modes of interaction given the prevailing literacy levels and types of mobile phones owned in rural agricultural settings (Dittoh et al., 2013).It is necessary to reflect on the validity of the expert consensus-building method that we applied in this study. In line with Delphi's general principles, our consensus-building method included more than one round of individual responses by experts (Hasson et al., 2000). However, our approach deviated from a typical Delphi in that it did not require that the same experts be involved in each of the two rounds.For our method, each set of experts was engaged for the distinct purpose of one round, so that we fostered concurrent validity by aggregating the views of a small group of experts in the first round and then presenting these views, for affirmation and/or refutation, to a broader expert panel in a following round. We developed this approach so as to allow the views of the internal expert panel (communication and innovation experts) to be subjected to assessment by experts who are more engaged than the internal panel with the Ghanaian context, and so as to be able to establish consensus and dissensus among a wide range of experts. Furthermore, a Delphi study is typically considered valid based on the input of 16 to 60 experts (Hasson et al., 2000). However, lower numbers of experts have been reported in other Delphi studies (Benitez-Capistros et al., 2014). It is our view that the inputs of the 15 experts in this study provide valuable insights because the design of the consensus-building method fostered concurrence validity.Opportunities for future research can be identified from this study. Further research could shed light on ICTs' application and role in supporting broader (AIS-based) extension service delivery. This study is an experts' assessment of the intermediation capabilities of technologies identified in Ghana and provides insights into how experts view specific ICTs' potential to support communication and networking functions relevant to AIS-based extension service delivery. Going forward, empirical research is recommended to establish how the technologies practically support extension activities involved in AIS-based extension service delivery, in a variety of contexts.Based on the findings of this study and related literature, it is probable that certain ICTs can support certain AIS-based extension activities. IVR technologies may support the broadcasting of knowledge and early warning alerts to rural stakeholders as part of coordination efforts in problem-solving, and enable the stakeholders to retrieve knowledge and other information (e.g., on weather, prices) (Aker et al., 2016). IVR technologies could also match farmers with service providers and suppliers, as well as allow for the harvesting of information from farmers and other rural stakeholders (Viamo, 2020)  ","tokenCount":"6543"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21e37e547b842d3ecccce4d7d5726fea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2d529091-3d4b-4ebf-b25e-a09800d53ce7/retrieve","id":"-1849371542"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"42940956-adb3-4634-a53a-4aa9c2915e64","pagecount":"2","content":"Background: CIMMYT granted 23 licenses through Limited Exclusivity Agreements in 2017 to commercialize hybrids in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Each license is granted to one partner institution for one or more hybrid varieties across one or more countries and affords the partner the right to sublicense. The licenses were granted pursuant to a call for applications, open to both public and private sector institutions. The performance data of the hybrids is summarized and released in the public domain. Based on the product allocation applications received from interested institutions, CIMMYT uses a standard product allocation process involving a set of robust criteria 1 . For example, for the licenses reported for 2017, 78% granted commercialization rights to three or four hybrids each. Approximately 17% of the product licenses during the last four years (2014 -2017) were provided to public sector institutions and parastatals, while 73% were private seed companies.Potential benefit to smallholder farmers: The arrangements are designed to ensure that hybrid varieties with superior agronomic performance, especially in stress-prone environments in SSA, are made available to smallholder farmers. The hybrid varieties in these instances include the following agronomic traits which are particularly beneficial to smallholder farmers in SSA: higher yield stability, tolerance to abiotic stresses (eg: drought, heat, and low soil nitrogen), resistance to major diseases (eg: maize lethal necrosis, gray leaf spot, maize streak virus, turcicum leaf blight, ear rots, etc.), nutritional quality (eg: QPM, provitamin A), and other relevant end-user traits that are valued by farmers and consumers.Key rationale for maximizing global accessibility and impact: Exclusive licensing for a limited period and geographic scope is required to incentivize commercial partners to invest the funds required to release, multiply, and commercialize improved hybrids and undertake appropriate quality control. It is beyond the ability of CIMMYT to evaluate the performance of the materials in multiple different sites in many different countries under range of different conditions. This approach creates incentives for range of organizations to undertake the evaluations and share the data back with CIMMYT which is critical for further development of the technologies concerned.By allocating a substantive number of genetically diverse hybrids to different seed producers, every licensee has an incentive to invest in its individual portfolio. The approach particularly helps smaller-and medium-sized seed companies that cannot afford their own breeding programs, thereby enabling a wider range of development partners, especially seed companies, to deploy genetically diverse, elite hybrid varieties to farmers in multiple agroecologies.Dissemination strategy, including global access and communications plans: In most cases, licenses are granted for an initial five-year period and further renewed for an additional five years if CIMMYT considers there to be sufficient evidence or potential to reach target beneficiaries. There are numerous reasons why a seed company may not be able to release or scale-out a certain hybrid, or why a particular hybrid may not succeed in the marketplace. In order to maximize the number of hybrids successfully making their way to farmers' fields, the focus of the product allocation process is on allocating easy-to-produce, elite, stress resilient hybrids to institutions/companies with a proven record of successfully scaling up new hybrids, while also ensuring that each new partner also is given a fair opportunity to demonstrate its abilities. The scheme deliberately focuses on allocating hybrids to a broad range of seed companies even though they may have different scale-up capacities to ensure diversity in the marketplace.CIMMYT hybrid allocation is thus dependent on demand from partners: if a collaborator/partner does not seek allocation of a product, it is not given. Hence, some countries may lose the opportunity if no interested parties request the right to commercialize a CIMMYT hybrid. CIMMYT works with the national agricultural research system and seed companies to strengthen their ability to register new CIMMYTderived varieties and to successfully release and deploy these varieties in target geographies. Licensees enter their allocated hybrids in the National Performance Trials and register them pursuant to the applicable country laws and regulations.Under the commercialization licensing arrangement, the licensees can use their own names and brands for their hybrid(s); however, since 2018, CIMMYT has introduced a varietal identification number (VIN) to each of the licenses maize hybrids. The VIN must be displayed by the licensee on each of the certified seed packets/bags. The company is permitted to give its own brand name to the released hybrid. The VIN adds an extra layer of security to confidential and commercially sensitive pedigree information and enables the seed company that has registered a CIMMYT derived hybrid to trade seed in a group of countries (EG: COMESA, SADC, etc.) after the variety is entered in a regional variety catalogue. It also enables CIMMYT to effectively track the global diffusion, adoption, and impact of CIMMYT derived varieties. Moreover, the VIN system enables the regulators to track the diversity among the varieties released within each country, even when marked by different companies (eg: sublicensees) under different brand names.Following the CGIAR IA Principles, all the parental lines of CIMMYT derived maize hybrids, including those licensed, remain available for unrestricted research, breeding, and capacity development, either in the form of CIMMYT Maize Lines or as Plant Genetic Resources under Development. Research and emergency use exemptions for the hybrids are also built into the licensing agreements. CIMMYT's public communications concerning these arrangements relate to its generic product allocation process explained on its website and hybrid performance data within each product announcement.","tokenCount":"894"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3dff5925cd6bfc8e69d97246c3971cec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/24212bb9-4e20-4daa-b3c8-c4f435e3ba4a/retrieve","id":"1898768865"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f49b592c-0e54-408e-814a-d16d144183af","pagecount":"12","content":"Women's empowerment and food and nutrition security:• Increase maternal and child dietary diversity and nutrition (Bonis-Profumo et al., 2021;Malapit et al., 2015;Sinharoy et al., 2018;Sraboni et al., 2014) • Weak and few significant associations between aggregate empowerment scores and nutritional outcomes (Quisumbing et al., 2021) Women's empowerment and agricultural technology adoption and productivity:• Increase maize productivity (Diiro et al., 2018) • Enhance the positive effects of technology adoption on women's dietary diversity (Kassie et al., 2021) • Limitation of using binary categorization: either female-or male-managed plots (Tufa et al., 2022;Doss, 2017;Tarjem et al., 2021) Limitations of existing literature:• Relationships are complex • Cross-sectional data was used: endogeneity issues and bias? ","tokenCount":"110"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5d625aae577f9f59fd6c01f1535abdeb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8ebdc2b-7518-463b-a81b-4b0d1e5a7932/retrieve","id":"-1439353480"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2d2cd62f-a46f-4fbb-88d7-f5d54eff11c4","pagecount":"14","content":"Über all die Jahre gehörte zu den Hauptzielen, die einzelnen Stationen im Verlaufe der gesamten Kette der Lebensmitteltiere (mit der Haltung und Fleischgewinnung als den zentralen, aber nicht ausschließlichen Phasen) in ihrer gegenseitigen Abhängigkeit an Hand von Beispielen darzustellen und daraus Folgerungen für die Sicherstellung der Ketten in der Tagesarbeit (\"Überwachung\") begründet ableiten zu können. Die seit dem Jahre 2005 vorgelegten Tagungsbände können dies als eine Art \"Sammlung zum Gegenstand der Lebensmittelkette\" klar dokumentieren. Nach dem Eindruck des Verfassers ist diese Umorientierung der Überwachung in der EU an keiner Stelle so kontinuierlich und aus unterschiedlicher Sicht dargestellt worden wie auf dieser Tagung. Dies ist ein ausdrückliches Plädoyer für verfügbare und auffindbare schriftliche Unterlagen zu Tagungsinhalten zu verstehen, auch wenn die Erstellung mühsam ist. Aber was gibt es schon ohne Mühe? Zum Anfang der 2000er war die BSE ein zentrales Anliegen der Tagung, dies war seinerzeit naheliegend, zumal Fortbildungen zu den TSEen in der VO (EG) 999/2001 zwingend vorgeschrieben sind. Alle Vorträge zur Thematik wurden dann in der \"Fleischwirtschaft\" publiziert. Hier gilt Herrn Dr. Josef Kern, seinerzeitigem Chefredakteur der Fleischwirtschaft, noch einmal Dank für kollegiale Zusammenarbeit.Auch die Kommunikation innerhalb der Kollegenschaft war ein wichtiges Anliegen. Hierzu wurde immer genügend Raum gelassen, bei den Diskussionen der Vorträge und auch in den Pausen.Der Verfasser dankt an dieser Stelle den Vortragenden für ihre Beiträge, auch für langjährige Beteiligung. Es war ja schließlich nie mit einem Vortrag getan, die Zulieferung zu den Tagungsbänden erforderte ja immer auch eine weitere Kraftanstrengung. Auch die zahlreichen und lebhaften Diskussionen zu den Vorträgen waren aufschlussreich und sinnvoll. Dass derartige Tagungen einen organisatorischen und personellen Hintergrund erfordern, der von allen Institutsmitgliedern geleistet wurde, sollte klar sein. Vielen Dank auch dafür. Vielen Dank für erfreuliche Tage und Gespräche, für Erinnerungen und Sachdiskussionen an Sie alle. Berlin,3. und   15. Fachtagung Fleisch-und Geflügelfleischhygiene, Berlin, 3. und 4. März 2015 V 15. Fachtagung Fleisch-und Geflügelfleischhygiene, Berlin, 3. und  Population growth, urbanization and increasing consumer demand for products of animal origin could provide poor smallholder farmers with income and help alleviate poverty. By 2050 there will be an additional one billion consumers in Africa alone consuming ever more meat, milk and fish.Today, up to 95% of this food is marketed through traditional or 'informal markets, that largely escape regulation, taxation, licensing and in which traditional products and processing dominate. Even as incomes steadily rise in Africa and Asia, informal markets are predicted to still meet more than half of the consumers' demand for food by 2040. Most of this food is produced locally by smallholder farmers.There are approximately two billion cases of diarrhoea per year of which up to 90% are attributed to contaminated food and water. In most developing countries, foodborne disease remains among the top five causes of sickness and death and unsafe food is an important contributor to this avoidable burden. Foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases kill an estimated 2.2 million people annually, of which the majority are children under five years from Africa and South Asia (WHO).Pathogens in perishable foods such as milk, meat, fish, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruits are the major cause of foodborne diseases in developed countries, and probably in developing countries too. At the same time they are the most nutritious foods and their lack in diets contributes to micro-nutrient deficiency in around 2 billion people annually.One in eight Canadians, one in six US Americans, one in four Chinese and Britons and one in three Greeks fall ill each year from foodborne disease. Data is lacking from most developing countries where the infrastructure is poor; foodborne diseases are likely to be underreported and its burden is likely to be underestimated.The presentation reports key findings from research on food safety in informal markets of sub-Saharan Africa conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners in 25 proof-of-concept studies from eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Makita et al., 2011;Roesel and Grace, 2014).Participatory Epidemiology (PE) is an emerging branch of veterinary epidemiology based on the principles and methods of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). For food safety risk analysis, participatory methods have been incorporated to the Codex Alimentarius Commission framework to generate information on exposure to foodborne diseases. Group discussions with actors in the food chain help understanding the food chain, including production, harvesting, processing, handling and consumption practices. This allows cheap and effective ways of identifying critical points in the food chain where control is most useful. It also offers a structured analysis framework to policy-makers and practitioners to enable the shift to evidence-based food safety management. Participatory methods also help prioritizing the allocation of limited financial resources through interventions based on the most common and most severe foodborne disease in a given community and incorporate risk mitigation strategies that are already in place.More than 80% of most perishable food is sold in informal markets; therefore contributing significantly to food and nutrition security. Moreover, production and marketing involves many actors other than producers and consumers; therefore account for income generation at household level and for up to 39% of gross domestic products.Informal markets are accessible and affordable; they usually sell food at lower prices than formal markets and are closer to consumers. Moreover, they are highly preferred as they have other desired attributes including freshness, taste, local products, trusted vendors or purchase at credit. This trend is to persist for decades to come.Existing food safety regulation is often ineffective and anti-poor because it focuses on the identification of hazards in animal-source foods without estimating the impact of the hazard in terms of human sickness. Our research shows the need to move from conventional, hazardbased approaches that assess the presence of hazards in food to newer, risk-based approaches that assess the likelihood of harm to human health. Our studies identified at least ten hazards but showed that risks vary and may not be as serious as perceived (Table 1).In developing countries where disease diagnosis and reporting in both animals and humans is inadequate, participatory methods have proven successful in closing data gaps, especially for exposure assessment. They are flexible, culture-sensitive, inclusive and capacity-building as they facilitate learning and discussion. Challenges are the quantification and extrapolation of the generated information, and the time and efforts in training trainers for facilitating participatory risk assessment.Food sold in Western-style supermarkets may not be safer than what is found in in informal markets. Studies in East and Southern Africa have found that formal food chains also suffer from a poorly enforced chain of custody from producers and consumers as well as challenges with constant power supply to work refrigerators. Milk and meat in supermarkets may pose a greater health threat to customers as it sits in the shelves for long; whereas informal market vendors usually sell most of their produce by the end of the work day or slaughter on demand. Improper post-harvest handing is one of the biggest challenges for any food handler both formal and informal. For instance, milk is often contaminated with coliforms due to poor milking hygiene or lack of personal hygiene. In market places, hygienic handling of food largely depends on the availability of proper prerequisites such as tap water, public toilets and garbage disposal. On an individual level, food handlers often lack knowledge about the link between personal hygiene and public health. Even milk sold in pouches in formal supermarkets contaminated with heat-resistant Bacillus cereus spores is still a health risk even though milk has been pasteurized, homogenized and packed in sterile pouches.Some risks in both markets are underestimated as they do not cause immediate harm. These include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked fish, aflatoxins in milk or staphylococcal toxins in fermented dairy products.Farmers, traders and retailers are risk managers Food safety in developing countries needs a systems approach just as it does in industrialized countries. As food value chains become longer and more complex, the risk of foodborne disease increases. Poor milking hygiene, bulking of milk, transport over long distances and at the same time lack of cooling facilities during transport and retail increases the numbers of contaminants. Boiling milk, which is commonly practiced in east Africa but is not widely accepted in west Africa, is effective in reducing the risk for most of the milk borne pathogens.For meat, there is a general lack of skilled animal health personnel and laboratory capacity. Animals are often treated erratically or by the farmer him-or herself without any documentation on disease and medication. Animals and meat are often sold at local livestock markets or at the farm gate, usually not accompanied by any documentation on the origin or health status of the animal and regardless of drug withdrawal periods. Meat is mostly consumed well cooked, except for minced beef eaten raw in Ethiopia, though undercooking may occur. The highest risk may derive from cross-contamination with raw meat through the same equipment used for preparation or raw products served with the cooked meat.Eating food is not only for nourishment but also associated with cultural values. There are thousands of different ethnic groups have diverse eating habits that may reduce or increase the risk. They may also have different beliefs about risks associated with food. At the same time, indigenous knowledge often contributes towards food safety -judging milk by its colour or viscosity protects consumers from adulterated raw products or avoiding food from certain animals excludes them from specific diseases. Other practices like fermenting milk, smoking milk collection containers with branches from indigenous trees can kill or inhibit growth of potentially pathogenic microbes.Poor consumers are more prone to foodborne diseases but cannot afford to fall ill. Food producers and handlers need simple but incentive-based interventions such as partial legalization of informal markets, training, skills development and other prerequisites to supply the market with safe food. Nine US-Dollars invested in training a butcher can result in 780 US-Dollars annual savings per butcher from reduced cost of human illness (Grace et al., 2012). Informal and formal markets are often detached but there is potential for synergies as in the example of game antelopes whose meat is destined and inspected for export markets but whose offal are discarded as they are not in demand on the export market.Men or women dominate or are excluded from different segments of the food value chain. This varies by culture and geography and as a result men and women get different benefits and are exposed to different risks. Africa is changing unprecedentedly, with growth in population and lifestyle. As agri-food chains change and evolve, the opportunities and risks also change. Informal food production, processing and marketing are of high importance to women's and the youth's livelihoods.Risks in informal food chains have been under-researched and need attention in a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach. Follow up research by ILRI and partners tries to align participatory food safety risk assessment and management with research on improving high-potential livestock value chains. More economic assessment is needed in terms of losses and gains of food safety risks and current and potential interventions. Emerging food safety risks in developing countries include aflatoxins, antibiotic residues and resistance in food, or other chemical residues.","tokenCount":"1837"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f63c70650384439cda5ed3129449ef5a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5a9eb74a-eea9-45d1-9d95-f910728ed79f/retrieve","id":"1052511388"},"keywords":["Debudding","disease incidence","Musa species","Xanthomonas campestris pv. Musacearum"],"sieverID":"e6ebbc36-66b8-476c-adfe-b506e9c319fc","pagecount":"7","content":"Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) is a devastating bacterial disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum. The disease was simultaneously reported in Cankuzo and Bubanza provinces, Burundi, in November 2010. However, the extent to which the disease has spread to other banana growing regions in the country is unknown. Therefore, to ascertain the distribution and incidence of the disease and farmers' knowledge on measures to control the disease, a survey was conducted in all 16 banana growing provinces of Burundi in August 2011. A total of 208 farms were sampled, selecting six farms per surveyed commune, three affected and three non-affected. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The disease was present in 10 out of 16 provinces constituting all agricultural lands in Burundi. The highest incidence was recorded in Ruyigi province (34%), where the Kayinja system is dominant and the lowest in Muyinga (3%), where the East African Highland bananas (EAHB) dominate. Awareness of BXW symptoms, modes of spread and control measures was generally low, ranging from 8 to 30% of households surveyed. The limited knowledge of the disease among farmers was thought to be largely responsible for driving the epidemic in Burundi.Banana (Musa species) is the first crop in Burundi in terms of production with 1,848,727 tonnes in 2011, followed by sweet potatoes and cassava (FAOSTAT, 2016). Plantains, which are also Musa spp., are not common in Burundi. Banana is used for beer, cooking the and for dessert and therefore contributes significantly to food security and income. The crop protects land against soil erosion especially in Burundi, where the landscape is hilly with steep slopes (Rishirumuhirwa, 1997). However, banana production is threatened by wilt (BXW) caused *Corresponding author. E-mail: privanda2001@yahoo.fr.Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm). BXW is one of the recent threats to banana production in East and Central Africa. The disease was first reported in Ethiopia on Ensete and banana (Yirgou and Bradbury, 1974;Smith et al., 2008). It was first reported in East and Central Africa in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) in 2001 and since then has continued to spread to most countries in the region (Tushemereirwe et al., 2003;Karamura et al., 2008). Other banana production constraints include soil fertility, poor management, inaccessibility to fertilizers, diseases and pests such as banana bunchy top disease, Fusarium wilt and Sigatoka (Tinzaara et al., 2007). BXW is a devastating disease with the potential to drastically reduce banana production and negatively impact farmers' livelihoods. At the vegetative stage, symptoms of BXW are mainly yellowing and wilting of leaves while flowering banana shows withering and rotting of male buds and premature ripening of the fruits (Tushemereirwe et al., 2003;Karamura et al., 2008;Ssekiwoko et al., 2010). The disease is spread by insects, birds, infected planting materials, cutting tools and animals which can browse on healthy banana after feeding on diseased mats (Biruma et al., 2008, Tinzaara et al., 2009). Recommended cultural control measures for the disease include destruction of affected plants, disinfection of farm tools, using clean planting material and early removal of male buds using a forked stick and keeping animals out of the fields (Tinzaara et al., 2016).In Burundi, the disease was first confirmed in November 2010 in the provinces of Cankuzo and Bubanza which are bordering with Tanzania and Rwanda, respectively (Niko et al., 2011). In Cankuzo (East of Burundi), the disease was reported in Gisagara Commune, Gitanga colline, about 25 km from the Tanzania border whereas in Bubanza province (West of Burundi), the hotspot was observed in Musigati commune at Rushiha colline about 60 km from DR Congo border (Niko et al., 2001). A few months later, the disease spread rapidly to other provinces in the country and new pockets were identified in seven provinces. However, little is known on the actual disease distribution, incidence and farmer awareness on the disease in the country. This study, therefore, was aimed at determining BXW distribution, incidence and farmers' knowledge of disease symptoms, mechanisms of spread and control in Burundi.A survey was carried out in August 2011 covering all 16 provinces of Burundi. Two communes per province were surveyed, except in Makamba province where five out of six affected communes were surveyed. The number of communes per province in Burundi varies from 5 to 9 and the country has a total of 117 communes. Six farms per commune were selected randomly (three affected by BXW and three unaffected) from the 35 communes visited out of 117 countrywide.Data from 208 farms were recorded using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to capture information on banana production constraints in general but with more emphasis on BXW. Farmer interviews were conducted and then observations made in banana fields to record data on banana plantation management, disease symptoms, and incidence of the main banana diseases and pests and the affected cultivars.Enumerators were selected based on the working experience on banana management and were trained to distinguish banana diseases, especially those that are present in Burundi. They further were further trained to use the questionnaire theoretically in a meeting as well as practically on farm level by simulating data collection from farmers. The incidence of BXW, which consisted of percentage of diseased plants in a field, was calculated based on observation and counting of 30 plants selected using diagonal walks in the field. Geographical coordinates were also recorded using GPS unit to map the disease distribution. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics (means and percentages) and analyzed using SPSS 11.0, ArcGis 9.3 software.The results of the farmer knowledge about cultural practices that contribute to BXW management are presented in the Figure 1. Banana plantations (57.2%) in Burundi are more than 20 years old while 59.6% are poorly managed. Forty-nine percent of the banana grown in Burundi is used for beer, 28.4% for cooking, 20.9% for dessert types and 0.7% for plantains. Banana plantations are mostly established in a mixed cultivars system in which farmers use at least two cultivars. The most common varieties observed include cooking banana Igisahira gisanzwe-AAA-EA, 19.4%), beer bananas Igitsiri (AAA-EA, 16.3%) and Kayinja (ABB, 13.6%), dessert banana Kamaramasenge (AAB) whereas hybrids FHIA (AAAA), which are currently the most widely promoted in the country, are not yet widespread (0.9%) on farm level.BXW was observed in 10 (Bujumbura, Cibitoke, Bubanza, Makamba, Rutana, Ruyigi, Cankuzo, Karuzi, Muyinga and Ngozi) out of the 16 provinces surveyed (Figure 2). The province of Makamba (South) was the most affected with the disease found in five communes. Cibitoke, Cankuzo, Bubanza and Ruyigi provinces had each two affected communes while in Ngozi, Karuzi and Muyinga, the disease was observed at least in two sites (Figure 2). The incidence recorded varied in the different communes and is indicated in Table 1. The highest incidence was recorded in Ruyigi (34%) while the lowest was registered in Muyinga (3%). The incidence ranged from 17 to 25% in the most affected province (Makamba).Farmers' awareness of symptoms, modes of spread and control measures of BXW was low (Figure 3). A small percentage of farmers ranging from 22.6 to 31.3% recognize BXW symptoms. Premature fruit ripening and wilting and yellowing of leaves were the most widely known symptoms, probably because they are visible by external observations. However, some farmers were still confusing BXW with Fusarium wilt due to the common yellowing and wilting of leaves. Very few of the interviewed farmers (1.9 to 26.4%) had knowledge of the mechanisms of BXW spread. Moreover, the percentage of the interviewed farmers who were aware of and implementing disease control was extremely low (ranging from 1.9 to 14.9% of farmers interviewed). Those who were aware reported that their main sources of information on BXW were radio/TV (22.6%), friends/neighbours (14%), extension (12.8%), research (2.3%), schools/churches (0.8%) and NGOs (0.4%). However, certain control practices were less known to farmers (or farmers did not have sufficient information on the practices). For instance most of farmers were not aware of the removal of male bud when the last hand has formed.Most farmers (98.4%) also used suckers from their own field or neighbours to establish new plantations. The use of tissue culture and macropropagated materials is not yet widespread (Figure 1). Some households exchange suckers of improved varieties between provinces (1.5%) and even from neighbouring countries (0.7%). This was particularly true for the provinces of Muyinga and Ngozi. Farmers are also unaware of agronomic practices that contribute to disease control.BXW has spread rapidly within the Burundi since its outbreak reported in two provinces in November 2010. This study showed that 10 out of the 16 provinces were already affected in less than a year with an incidence ranging from 3 and 34%. The low incidence in the Mabanda and Bubanza commune reflects the recent infection of these areas. Disease transmission was suspected to be driven by insects in Kayinja-based banana systems although tool-infection was locally important in several sites. Kayinja, also known as Pisang Awak, is preferred by farmers for its different uses but it is considered as one of the susceptible cultivars to BXW (Biruma et al., 2007). The only affected field found in Ngozi belongs to a farmer who owns another infected banana plantation in Karuzi. It is believed that the farmer involuntarily contaminated his plantation in Ngozi with non-disinfected tools after his passage in Karuzi. Additionally, some farmers admittedly reported that they were not aware about tools disinfection when they cut down a diseased banana, contributing involuntarily to the spread of the disease. The rapid spread of BXW is also influenced by farmers' limited knowledge and use of management measures such as timely removal of male buds and decontaminating tools. De-budding and decontamination of farm tools are known to be effective means of eliminating existing sources of inoculum and reducing opportunities of further spread of Xanthomonas wilt by insect vectors (Eden-Green, 2004;Tinzaara et al., 2006;Nakakawa et al., 2016). Considering that BXW can spread up to a radius of 75 km per year (Kwach et al., 2013), the lack of awareness and small size of a province in Burundi (from 830.60 to 2465.64 km  The entry of the disease in Burundi is still a puzzle, though disease is suspected to have come on infected planting material or contaminated tools. The provinces of Makamba and Ruyigi which border the Kigoma region of Tanzania were the most affected. The Tanzania border region was reported to be affected by BXW in 2010 (Mgenzi et al., 2010) although there is a quite distance in between occupied by forests. However, it is likely that farmers on either side of the border exchange planting materials and trans-boundary workers can spread the disease using their working tools. The disease probably came to those provinces from Tanzania through either planting material or tools. In Makamba, Bujumbura and Rutana provinces, the most dominant symptoms are the shrivelling of inflorescences and premature ripening of banana fruits. This indicates that the disease was transmitted by insects as Kayinja, dominant in these provinces, is more susceptible to insect-mediated infections (Mbaka et al., 2009;Tinzaara et al., 2006). Farmers' knowledge of the disease symptoms, spread mechanisms and control options is very critical in the management of the disease (Nkuba et al., 2015;Tinzaara et al., 2016). Farmer awareness of the disease was generally low in all provinces of Burundi. Additionally, farmers' management practices are not conducive to eradication of the disease once a field is infected as they prefer to abandon infected fields. This constitutes major threat to farmers who are implementing control measures as abandoned banana fields act as a permanent source of the inoculum. This suggests the need for mobilization and sensitization at community level. The approach of engaging the community to own the problem contributed to the success in BXW management in Uganda (Kubiriba et al., 2012;Tinzaara et al. 2013;Ochola et al., 2015). This would include engaging locals in the bid for zero tolerance of Xanthomonas wilt by eliminating any sources of inoculum through effective implementation of control measures backed-up by community by-laws that most efficiently brings to book errant farmers who hesitate to manage the disease. The farmers need to understand that the disease is extremely devastating but can be controlled. This encourages farmers to aggressively fight the disease.The rapid spread of BXW and its high incidence in affected fields in Burundi poses a serious threat to food security and incomes of rural communities in banana based cropping systems. The limited knowledge of the disease by the farmers and other stakeholders in the country makes it difficult to control. Farmers have limited awareness about the control measures, in particular when to remove the male bud. In the infected areas, farmers who are following control measures such as removing the male buds and disinfecting tools are harvesting bananas. BXW is also spreading by contaminated tools, with workers involuntarily transmitting the disease because they are not aware of tools disinfection. Poor management of banana plantations in Burundi makes control measures very difficult when bananas are infected. To remove mats constituting of up to ten plants makes control labour intensive and farmers are discouraged when they have to uproot poorly managed plantations which are no longer profitable. Farmers' knowledge is particularly low on control measures and the proportion of farmers using control practices is also low. There is therefore a need of improving awareness of farmers on banana cultural practices and how to make banana a profitable crop while controlling BXW and other diseases and pests.","tokenCount":"2246"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1c9feac600aa9e1cdd26ae8f6f704241","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40a28b92-e752-401f-a81f-3c964f7df7cf/retrieve","id":"-694842375"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78a20368-d6d5-4395-9aff-8acd465a3295","pagecount":"13","content":"CIAT's Rural Agroenterprise Development Project has taken a territorial approach to equitable, market-oriented, agriculturally based development in the rural tropics, with the objectives of poverty reduction (through income generation) and environmental sustainability. A four-stage methodology has evolved based on experiences in South America, Africa and, more recently, S.E. Asia. These stages are:1. Formation of working groups at the level of rural communities, comprising stakeholders interested in equitable, market-oriented agro-enterprise development, and building consensus on a vision for the future; 2. Prioritisation of agri-food sub-sectors for further development, based on integration of market demand, production and environmental criteria, and economic profitability and in line with overall working group objectives; 3. Strengthening of the supply (value) chains associated with each prioritised subsector, with active involvement of local community groups, support organisations and supply chain actors from outside the rural area; 4. Development of sustainable services (BDS) to support and further enhance the competitiveness of the supply chains into the future.Examples of this approach from South America and Vietnam -root crop starch subsector -are presented, along with details of a new SDC-funded Small-scale Agroenterprise Development in the Uplands (SADU) project in Vietnam and Laos, which aims to adapt the process to the situation of these two S.E. Asian countries.Globalisation, trade and public sector reforms, urbanisation and technological advances are all contributing to an agricultural sector in rapid change across the developing world. Rural smallholders, who must be reached if the millennium goal of reducing poverty rates by 50% by 2015 is to be met, face declining real prices for their basic commodities. Competitive pressures, often from imported foodstuffs, are driving a process of intensification in the use of natural resources. This has potentially serious consequences for sustainability in the longer term.Markets are penetrating deep into what were formerly rural subsistence economies. To survive, producers now need to operate successfully in a different, market-oriented environment where new skills and knowledge are needed to make different types of decisions. At the same time, the agri-food industry is itself changing, with a rapidly increasing role for managed, coordinated supply chains that are dominated by a few large -often multinational -supermarket retailers. This trend of increasing concentration and vertical coordination in agri-food supply chains tends to marginalize smaller scale producers. In turn, rural producers are seeking options that will provide opportunities for them to improve their livelihoods and incomes. These can include production of higher value crops (rather than basic commodity staples), differentiation and added value through production practices (e.g. organics), product quality, packaging and marketing strategies (e.g. fair trade). Options also include leaving agriculture to seek off-farm income, either in the local rural area or via migration to urban centres. To achieve success with the demand side options, smallholder producers need to participate in supply chains for added value products with growing markets. This means finding ways to participate in the type of managed supply chains that are now developing, in a manner that is both efficient (i.e. competitive), but that is also compatible with environmental and social sustainability. This implies a need to combine a supply chain approach with local development processes in specific communities (a territorial approach). This paper presents an approach by CIAT's Rural Agroenterprise Development Project to meet this challenge.Based in Cali, Colombia, the project started in 1996 as an outgrowth of previous work on post-harvest technology, marketing and enterprise development of cassava. The purpose of the project is to link smallholders with growth markets and motivate the adoption of natural resource conservation practices through the development of techniques and information for the establishment and strengthening of rural agroenterprises and their complementary support services. In particular, the project focuses on strengthening local capacities for rural business development through information, methods and institutional schemes, all in collaboration with local partners.Basic values of the project include: (a) an entrepreneurial, market oriented focus, (b) participatory decision-making with partners, (c) focus on strengthening existing local skills and building new ones, (d) search for consensus among actors, (e) equal access to opportunities for participating groups, and; (f) social, economic and environmental sustainability.The territorial focus has been developed in three specific field sites in Latin America: Pucallpa, Peru; Cauca, Colombia; and Yorito, Honduras. In each of these sites, CIAT has worked with a variety of local partners including producer groups, NGOs, governmental organizations, private sector and others. It is out of this fieldwork and dialogue with partners that the approach has evolved.Prior to explaining the approach in detail, it is important to explain why CIAT has chosen to combine a territorial approach with the development of supply chains for specific, prioritized commodities or products. By focusing on a given geographical area or territory, it is hoped that a local skills base may be built that not only generates positive returns for a specific sub sector or supply chain but also produces spill over effects which contribute to a diverse and dynamic local economy. Market systems will change, so by not limiting work to a specific product, a territorial approach allows flexibility and adaptive learning which the working groups can continue to apply as the market opportunities change. For agricultural products, a focus on the land where they are produced also helps the development of more sustainable and diverse production systems, whereas a single supply chain focus could tend to the opposite. In addition, the selection of a number of options for a given territory makes it possible to target different socioeconomic groups or agro ecological niches, providing for more balanced social and agricultural development. Finally the creation of human capital and the improvement of both bonding and bridging social capital among organizations are embedded in this approach. This last point is important for achieving sustainable gains against poverty in a region.The territorial approach consists of four major areas of work: 1. The identification of a specific working group composed of diverse local organizations with interest in rural business development. 2. Identification of supply chain priorities based on market opportunities available to the region. 3. Participatory supply chain analysis and development, through consensus building with chain actors. 4. Provision of appropriate and sustainable business development services for the region.The entry point for this approach is the identification and consolidation of a local working group in a particular community or territory. The other areas of work are then subsequently developed in collaboration with that group.The formation of a working group around the theme of rural business development is an iterative process that varies depending on the organizations present in the area, previous experiences and the necessities of the local population. In our experience, these groups usually include strong representation from producer organizations and NGOs with somewhat lesser participation by public and private sector actors. Membership in the interest group and the organizational form are decided by the participants, as is the demarcation of the territory in which the interest group seeks to work. To facilitate these decisions, two specific activities are carried out with the interest group at the beginning of the process. First, a profile of the territory including biophysical, social, organizational, institutional, economic and political concerns is developed with secondary data and the use of rapid rural appraisal tools. This information provides a common basis for decision-making among group members.Based on this information, a consensus for action is developed that builds on agreements around a common vision, mission and values, and the organizational structure and rules for working group operation. An initial action plan is then developed. At this stage, topics like market orientation, entrepreneurship, participation and alliances are debated. This process is key since it allows group members to discuss and analyze past experiences and decide on what actions are appropriate in the future.Once the working group exists, one of the first questions is what products and/or areas are most likely to generate positive impact for the region. To avoid past mistakes where increased production of a single or restricted range of crops/products led to saturated markets, low prices and continuance of the poverty cycle, a market orientation is fostered by involving the local actors directly in the identification of market opportunities. This process consists of two types of work: specific market studies and the on-going management of market intelligence. In the first area, CIAT has developed a market opportunities identification manual (Ostertag,1999) which seeks to respond to three main questions:(a) what products show strong market demand in terms of increasing volumes and prices; (b) which of these products can be produced in the region given the biophysical characteristics, infrastructure and access to productive resources; and, (c) of those products identified in (a) and (b), which are of interest to smallholders. This opportunity identification process involves the collection of information from different market outlets, including produce markets, local shops and supermarkets, food processors and traders in order to assess the prospects and potential for developing produce and product supply options. These market outlets can be local to the territory or beyond, in urban centers, or in some cases in neighboring countries. Opportunities for export can also be considered.The end result is a portfolio of options. The size and diversity of this portfolio depends on market conditions, biophysical characteristics and potential of the territory to produce any given alternative, profitability and on farmer interest, but normally includes from ten to thirty possibilities. Sustainable production criteria -soil conservation, biodiversity etccan be included in the evaluation and priorization process.In the area of market intelligence, we seek to build local capacity to generate, manage and disseminate key market information on a permanent basis. This capacity involves not only direct market visits by working group members and/or interested groups of farmers, but also strategic alliances with national market information system programs and the development of information dissemination tools appropriate to the rural context and local culture.The end result of a market opportunity identification study is a basket of possible options for development in the selected region. At this stage, the working group prioritizes these options based on local criteria in a participatory fashion. Local criteria used have included strength of market demand, product profitability, environmental impact, perceived ex ante development impact, organizations interested in the product among others. These criteria vary by region and culture. Using local criteria the market options are ranked and a decision made on which option(s) to pursue first.At this stage the local working group moves into the participatory analysis of the selected product supply chain. CIAT has developed a method that seeks to facilitate the analysis of the market chain by the actors directly involved and, through this process to generate collectively owned information and a consensus for action. The scope of this analysis is somewhat broader than a typical sub sector approach in that includes not only the supply chain as such (production, post-harvest/processing and marketing) but also two important cross-cutting areas: business organization and the provision of business development services (see Figure 1). Business (enterprise) organization and support services present in a supply chain are key to understanding the prospects for improving chain performance through the effective use of existing skills and services, as well as identifying important bottlenecks that constrain such improvements.Once priority supply chains have been agreed, specific market contacts are identified. This is complemented by a broader identification of relevant actors (those involved in production, post-harvest and marketing operations) who can participate in the analysis of the chain. Participatory tools, focus groups and direct interviews with the different actors are used to collect supply chain information (chain mapping). It helps to group actors so that the perceptions of traders, producers etc can emerge independently, for later comparison and analysis in a wider group setting. All actors then review this information to identify and analyze bottlenecks and propose solutions. At the end of the process, facilitated consensus-building workshops are held where all information is shared and discussed with the various actors with the goal of identifying positive synergies among actors, common interests and critical points where strategic investments can achieve high returns. Figure 2 shows the steps used in this analysis After the process of negotiation with actors occurs, an action plan, or Integrated Agroenterprise Project (IAP), is drafted which includes both research and development activities in the short, medium and long term. The goal of this project is to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the chain through the development of a common business development vision among various actors. Once a common vision has been established, specific development or research activities may be disaggregated into discrete projects depending on funding opportunities and donor interest while conserving a clear idea of where everything fits together.The implementation of activities is coordinated by the working group, which sources appropriate funds and technical services based on the demands identified during this process. By learning how to do design and implement an IAP -diagnose, analyze, design, source funds and coordinate implementation activities -the local working group builds important capacities, which are needed for other future projects.A final component in the CIAT approach is the provision of appropriate and sustainable Business Development Services that support the participation of rural communities in these more efficient supply chains. A methodology is now under development at CIAT for assessing the supply and demand for services in local communities, and for ensuring that gaps in the market for services are filled in a sustainable manner. This covers financial, non-financial, formal and informal services and seeks to build functional markets for BDS that link specific demands with suppliers either at the local, regional or national level. This is currently under development in an NZAID-supported project in Honduras and Colombia.These methods have been developed through participation in local and supply chain development projects in Latin America -see Lundy et al (2002) for more information on the results obtained in Peru, Colombia and Central America to date.Between 1998 and 2002, CIAT's Agroenterprise Project has had two areas of activity in Asia, one focused on the root crop starch sub-sector in Vietnam -especially the smallscale processing enterprises around Hanoi -and the other concerned with developing a strategic alliance with SEARCA-AIDP and UPWARD for capacity building in the Agroenterprise Development area. During 2003, a major SDC-funded Agroenterprise development project for Lao PDR and Vietnam has been initiated, representing an opportunity to adapt the methodologies developed in Latin America (and now also being trialed in Africa) to the Asian regional situation.Rural agroenterprise development training courses with SEARCA and UPWARD Two regional courses have been conducted, one in SEARCA-Los Banos, Philippines, in 2001, and a second in PHTI-HCMC, Vietnam in April 2003. The course stressed markets and supply chain development in the context of territorial (micro-regional) processes and priorities. Each course has comprised modules on Asian context -macro policies and trends in rural development and the agri-food sector Local participation Methods for designing and implementing rural agroenterprise projects Learning from experiences Project design, including fieldwork Participants in the first course (13 from 3 countries) were mainly from academic of research institutions, while those in the second course (25 from 4 countries) were principally from rural development agencies in both the NGO and public sectors (provincial level). Course evaluations have proved very positive, and a further SE Asian regional course is planned for 2004, perhaps in Indonesia. PHTI-Vietnam is planning to adapt course materials for a Vietnamese national course, also in 2004. A loose network of course participants exists, and the new CIAT project in Vietnam will serve to strengthen this further, especially in Vietnam and Laos.A national study of small-scale root crop starch industry in 1998 (Goletti et al, 2001) identified the potential of rural industrialisation to generate income and reduce poverty. Since then, and more detailed study has been undertaken of the cluster of root crop processing enterprises in Dong Lieu commune, some 20km from Hanoi. This has since developed into a more development -oriented project to improve the performance of the supply chain (or system of enterprises), supported by Urban Harvest (formerly SIUPA , the Strategic Initiative on Peri-Urban and Urban Agriculture of the CGIAR).The area is traditionally agricultural but has, since the late 1960's, specialized in household-level root crop -cassava and canna -processing, due to its proximity to Hanoi and access to its growing markets. Since then, processing capacity has increased 3-10 times, an average of 600% increase over 15-25 years. The average amount of cassava processed has increased from 0.05 t/hh/day in 1978 to 3 t/hh/day in 2001, while the average amount of canna processed has increased from 0.04 t/hh/day in the 1960's to 9 t/hh/day. Thus, the volume of roots handled by each trader has increased by 200-300% over recent time. Of the 2,193 households in the commune, 1,410 households (64%) are directly involved in root crop processing, while others supply raw materials, trade end products, use processing by-products, or provide a wide range of support services. On average, pig raising using the residue from cassava processing as a major feed ingredient is a common supplemental livelihood activity in root crop processing households (1,409, or 64% of households raise pigs). Only 4% of households obtain a livelihood mainly from crop production. In the 2000/1 processing season (approximately September to April) the commune processed 680 t of cassava roots and 314 t of canna roots daily.As the starch processing developed, a starch-based cluster of enterprises emerged in support or in association with starch processing (Table 1). The ever-increasing enterprises are packed in the small village area with little space to operate and no space to expand. The major constraints facing the starch processors are not the technologies, as they are developed appropriately, but the limited space and the associated constraints to production.Consequently, the women often queue for hours (some claim 3-4 hours) to obtain roots before pushing/pulling the heavy cart load back home, which for some can be a fairly long journey depending on location. Thus, much time and labour is wasted on root procurement. Moreover, due to limited space for drying, many processors push cartloads of starch products to the fields and spread them out to dry in the morning and collect them in the afternoon. Again, depending on the location of the house in relation to the field, this can also be a time-consuming activity. The limited space also contributes to low starch quality, as there is not enough space to set up various settling tanks to produce high quality starch. The starch quality is further adversely affected by drying on the very dusty or muddy roadside. Thus, the limited space has resulted in serious wasted labour and low starch quality.In addition to the adverse effects it has on production, the confined space has caused another serious environmental pollution as starch processing generates a large amount of wastewater and solid matter. Duong Lieu generated almost 1.45 million m 3 of wastewater during the processing season of 1999-2000, and estimated 51,750 t of solid wastes.During a stakeholders' meeting with the commune leaders and processors, limited space, wasted labour, and environmental pollution were clearly recognized by the participants as the major constraints to their enterprise development. During the meeting, no proposals emerged for viable solutions. The constraints were evident, but solutions were elusive.Subsequently, a trip to Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam to visit some mediumsize processors was organized for Duong Lieu to help generate relevant ideas for overcoming the constraints. The visiting team (comprising processors, an equipment maker and a local government representative) was most impressed with the continuous filtering tank system, which accounted for the high quality of the starch, and the way the wastes were processed or disposed. Based on this observation, the commune brainstormed the idea of designing a processing zone in Duong Lieu that creates a space to accommodate the continuous filtering tank system and a better organized processing layout. The solution came from the commune itself when they observed another production system and compared it with the constraints they face. Concrete steps to implementing the solution may be learned in another visit to a processing zone of the similar nature, planned for late 2003.There are continuing high levels of poverty (40-50%) in the upland areas of both Lao PDR and Vietnam. While poverty alleviation is a major aim of rural development programs, market limitations remain a major impediment to success in development. Agroenterprise development can contribute to poverty alleviation through creating more diverse income sources by providing improved access to markets, improving product quality, adding value to raw products through intermediate processing, and in providing service industries. The Small-scale Agroenterprise Development in the Uplands project proposes to develop approaches to agroenterprise development at the district and community levels that are appropriate to the economic, cultural and political setting in Lao PDR and Vietnam. The goal is \"to develop sustainable agroenterprise initiatives with upland rural communities that generate income and employment opportunities through diversifying and adding value to local natural resources\".In Lao PDR the project is initiating work in the poorest districts of the relatively isolated Xieng Khouang province. Contacts with the local provincial government have confirmed that community development should be a major concern of the project, in addition to the development specific supply chains based on identified market opportunities.The province is changing rapidly -new roads to both Vientiane and to the Vietnamese frontier are now open, electricity in urban centers is now much more reliable (power cuts were common) and flights have been increased to bring greater numbers of international tourists to the area.Although the project is still in the initial phase of working group formation, some market opportunities are already appearing, based on the improved market access that recent infrastructure developments have brought. These include potential in local and national markets to obtain higher prices for new varieties of fruit (plums, nectarines) and prospects for higher prices for local asparagus if selection and packaging can be improved. In international markets, the region is already exporting a specialty rice (glutinous rice) to Vietnam, and a local mushroom is being air freighted via Taiwan to Japanese supermarkets. These and other options will be used as a basis for participatory market opportunity identification as the project progresses.Understanding the potential role of private enterprises in the economic development of the country, the Vietnamese government has recently introduced many policies with regard to small enterprises establishment, operations, and tax burdens to favour the development of small and medium enterprises, in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Thus, the current environment is very favourable for the project to introduce, test, and adapt the CIAT's experience and approach in agroenterprise development to Vietnam.The CIAT approach will eventually be tested in the upland districts of three provinces in Vietnam-Tuyen Quang, Thue Thien Hue, and Dak Lak. As in Laos, the project is still in its initial stages. Previous experiences of working in these areas have helped identified some opportunities among the current products and potential projects. In Yen Son District of Tuyen Quang there is opportunity to improve the tea, coffee, various fruit trees, and livestock production such as pig, fish, and meat cattle. The exploited markets for Tuyen Quang include NTFP products, which are yet to be identified, private nurseries, or perhaps organic tea and gourmet coffee. Nam Dong District of Thue Thien Hue currently produces NTFPs (rattan, bamboo) fruit trees, pepper, fish, rubber, but pigs and chickens, vegetables also have potential to contribute income if properly developed. Coffee, NTFP (rattan, bamboo, medicinal plants), timber, maize, rice, pepper in Dak R'Lap District of Dak Lak can be improved to increase their market opportunity while fruit trees and livestock also should not be overlooked as potential enterprises.The complete supply chain of current enterprises will be evaluated from production to market to examine breakdown or bottleneck in the chain that causes low profitability of the enterprise. Once the bottleneck has been identified, strategies can be developed to modify or eliminate it , or to enhance performance so that obstacles can be removed. For example, if product quality is identified as a major constraint, further investigation into all areas of the crop-variety, agronomic practice, field management, harvesting and handling, and storage-will be necessary to understand the root of the problem. Once that is understood, uncomplicated and short-term on-farm or farmer participatory trials can be conducted to seek solutions. If transportation or volume of produce to meet purchaser requirements are identified as a major constraint, investigation into group marketing, various transportation pros and cons, alternative means to transport, and negotiate with buyers on sharing the burden will need to be considered. Each step on the supply chain will have several aspects that can be considered for improving the function of the whole chain. Through this process the working groups will learn to analyse the weaknesses of the supply chain and ways to find solutions overcome them. This skill, once learned, can be applied to analyse the supply chain of each of the income-generating activities.Going beyond the current products to explore uncharted markets involves risk, time, and possible cash investment. For cash-strapped and risk-adverse farmers such an endeavour must proceed with caution and comprehensive understanding of market demand and requirements. Both the supply and demand sides must be considered. For example, in order to consider gourmet coffee or organic tea as potential enterprises for Yen Son District of Tuyen Quang Province, the working group must have the knowledge of markets-where is the market and how to connect to it directly or indirectly, quality requirements, quantity required, frequency of delivery , price stability , as well as production knowledge in order to meet the quality, quantity, and seasonal demand with a profit, while withstanding the occasional risk caused by market fluctuation. Such endeavours take time to develop, but the potential benefits of developing new agroenterprises to meet new market challenge could be enormous and should not be overlooked.The strategy of the project is to focus on the improvement of the supply chain of current enterprises that show strong demand growth for the short run while beginning to assess new market opportunities and assist the working groups in developing the supply chain to meet the market demand in the long run. An important output of the project is that the working group will learn to assess the weaknesses and find solutions for the current supply chains, and assess the potential and find entryways into the potential supply chains. The principles of assessing the supply chains are the same, but the different starting points require different methods in these assessments.The agri-food sector is changing fast in Asia. Managed supply chains are expanding, and will soon take a major share of processed food and fresh produce markets in many countries in the region. Can smallholder producers bridge the gap that currently exists between the traditional and the more coordinated, efficient supply chains? Can they participate equitably in such chains? CIAT believes that opportunities for this do exist, but that success requires a pro-active R&D effort that links supply chain and local development processes, combined with conducive local and national policies that support entrepreneurial endeavors in rural areas. CIAT's Rural Agroenterprise Development Project, with our national and regional partners, is a contribution to this end.","tokenCount":"4500"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"084eabb5052346c9d1666132388fc9d0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1a6ada40-b2ee-475f-8bae-00f219a35dea/retrieve","id":"1283253476"},"keywords":["Orange-fleshed sweetpotato","on-farm demonstration","participatory varietal selection","sweetpotato Forage","storage roots","vine root ratio","genotype","dual purpose sweetpotato","stability","cultivars","CloneSelector","photosynthates","maturity group Curing","dry matter","field-piled","orange-fleshed sweetpotato","wound healing Assessment","sweetpotato","market structure","Gini Coefficient"],"sieverID":"40a6a24b-e440-443c-abc1-f87d908fce58","pagecount":"94","content":"Nairobi: SPHI.The 7th Annual Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) Technical Meeting took place from 7-8 October 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of this year's meeting was 'Celebrating the 2016 World Food Prize'. This theme honored four scientists -Dr. Howarth Bouis of HarvestPlus, and Drs. Jan Low, Maria Andrade and Robert Mwanga of the International Potato Center (CIP), who were awarded the Prize for their combined efforts in using biofortification of crops to improve the nutrition and health of millions of people. Over the years, the SPHI has continued to grow, and this is reflected in the composition of the 94 participants, who came from 17 sub-Saharan African countries, the United Kingdom, USA, Peru and Germany.Welcome remarks and introductions: The meeting was officially opened by Dr. Fentahun Mengistu, Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). Dr. Mengistu emphasized his government's commitment to using modern tools and technologies to transform the agricultural system to benefit the livelihood of the Ethiopian people. Dr. Nelson Ojijo made the opening remarks on behalf of the Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, who is the co-leader of the SPHI. Ojijo led the SPHI meeting attendees in giving a standing ovation to the 2016 World Food Prize laureates and congratulated them for raising the profile of biofortification. He also presented the background and governance structure of the SPHI and current progress towards meeting the 2020 goal of 10 million households.Jumpstarting OFSP in West Africa through diversified markets: Accelerating towards outcomes: Erna Abidin, Souleimane Adekambi and Joseph Nchor provided the background of the project, progress towards outcomes at midline, and the focus interventions for Year 3, which are based on the learning from the first two years of implementation. The three-year project aims to achieve sustainable and inclusive market-driven approaches for orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) to increase incomes, and improve health through consumption of vitamin A rich OFSP, especially in women and children in Ghana, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.Integrating OFSP as part of Enhanced Homestead Food Production: Mette Kinoti of Helen Keller International (HKI) made a presentation about the Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) approach, which seeks to improve the nutritional status of children under five years of age, women of reproductive age, breastfeeding and pregnant women. It is implemented by HKI in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Cote d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal. She also presented the Nurturing Connections intervention that seeks to promote gender equality in decision making.Scaling up biofortified crops through a food basket approach in Nigeria and Tanzania: Hidden hunger is severe in rural poor households in vulnerable populations in Africa and affects most women. Biofortification has been proven to be a cost-effective, sustainable and culturally acceptable approach. There is, therefore, need to catalyze scaling up of proven biofortified innovations. Hilda Munyua presented the Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project, which is being implemented in Tanzania and Nigeria and focuses on iron-rich beans, vitamin A cassava, sweetpotato and maize. SESSION 2 Integrating nutrition in agricultural projects: Experiences from Ethiopia: Wellington Jogo presented the sweetpotato components of four agriculture-nutrition projects implemented in Southern Nations and Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. The goal of these projects is to contribute to improved food and nutrition security among vulnerable households with young children in target regions through increased production and consumption of micronutrient-rich sweetpotato and potato varieties as part of diversified diets. His presentation addressed the factors considered at project planning, the implementation approach and success and challenges.Integrating nutrition in agricultural projects: the influence of different socio-cultural and agroecological conditions in delivery: case of northern Mozambique: Benjamin Rakotoarisoa shared the experience gained in northern Mozambique by the Nutritious Sweetpotato for Niassa and Viable Sweetpotato Technologies in Africa (VISTA) projects, specifically with regard to an intervention exploring attitudes using focus groups and Trials for Improved Practices (TIPS). This intervention was implemented in Chimbunila, Central Lago and Northern Lago in Niassa Province.Nutrition model of VISTA Tanzania project: going to scale with nutrition education: Frederick Grant spoke about the VISTA project, whose goal is to contribute to improved dietary diversity, food security, and incomes in Tanzania. He focused on the factors considered when going to scale and implementation progress of the main nutrition objective, which is to increase access to improved nutritional knowledge and practices and diversified use of OFSP by both female and male caregivers. Under this objective, the project targets to reach 17,500 households by 2017 and to ensure that equal numbers of women and men are included through community groups.Integrating nutrition in different conditions in Kenya: Penina Muoki presented two projects that are being implemented in Kenya using the agriculture-nutrition-market approach for scaling up OFSP: These projects are (i) Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) and (ii) Scaling Up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) project. The presentation focused on the nutrition component of the two projects. SESSION 3 The SeFaMaCo Programme: Worku Tsega of Farm Concern International (FCI) presented a project titled Integrated Value Chain Development and Smallholder Farmer Commercialization of Banana and Sweetpotato for Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia based on a seed-farmer-market-consumer model. The goal of the project, implemented by FCI, is to optimize profitability and productivity by catalyzing market oriented value chain-wide competitiveness and investments in banana and sweetpotato for increased household incomes.Progress in Developing Shelf-Storable Puree and OFSP bread improvement: Tawanda Muzhingi of CIP and Antonio Magnaghi of Euro Ingredients Ltd. explained that the growing demand for innovative healthy foods has generated a new bread market worldwide. Therefore, their work is exploiting the existing potential to store orange-fleshed sweetpotato puree without refrigeration. Their research seeks to determine the effect of different preservative combinations and vacuum packing on quality of OFSP puree and baked products. They presented their findings to date and the next research steps.Scaling Up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN) -Lessons from going to scale: Achieving impact at scale is a key ambition and there is growing demand from countries globally to access OFSP. This panel discussion, moderated by Simon Heck of CIP, sought to address this by exploring the following questions: (i) how to scale up and what exactly; (ii) how to scale up well? (iii) how do we know that we are doing it well? The panel discussion was structured with two rounds of questions: (1) Progress made (approaches used, results, how M&E was used, adjustments made and why; (2) Lessons emerging (key elements of successful scaling up and what we need to improve for overall learning. The panelists were Penina Muoki (Kenya); Kirimi Sindi (Rwanda); Roland Brouwer (Mozambique); Robert Ackatia-Armah (for Malawi); Julius Okello (Impact Assessment, M&E).Postharvest challenges in sweetpotato: NRI partnership with CIP to support SASHA: Andrew Westby explained the role that NRI is playing to improve the utilization pathways for sweetpotato consumption and production to boost the economic viability of sweetpotato value addition and business activities; and to alleviate vitamin A deficiency through intake of processed products containing OFSP. His presentation focused on NRI's inputs into the commercial scale storage, domestic scale storage and analytical support to develop regional capacity and appropriate protocols for analysis of roots and derived products at reasonable cost.Discussion with two 2016 World Food Prize winners: How Mozambique led the way -a sisterhood story: Jan Low and Maria Andrade are two of the four recipients of the 2016 World Food Prize. In this panel discussion, moderated by Margaret McEwan, they shared their experiences introducing and promoting OFSP in Mozambique, their personal journeys and how the SPHI could benefit from the improved policy environment in the region, and from the UN Decade for Action on Nutrition 2016-2026.Lessons learned by HarvestPlus scaling up biofortified crops: HarvestPlus uses an integrated approach with seed systems, agronomy, nutrition and demand creation, marketing and product development. The goal is to reduce micronutrient malnutrition and improve dietary intakes of vitamin A and iron for 315,000 households in 25 districts in Uganda by 2016, a goal already achieved. In her presentation, Anna-Marie Ball from HarvestPlus shared the progress made towards ensuring a clean seed system, improved feeding practices, marketing, product development, advocacy and promotion and training of multipliers and inspectors to use protocols. She also gave examples of how HarvestPlus was using ICT to link farmers to vines and to respond to their information needs.Panel: Technical innovations in pre-basic seed production -Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda: The production of pre-basic seed is expensive and efforts have been made to develop technical innovations to make seed more affordable for farmers. One of the challenges is to ensure sustainable production. This can be done by making it affordable so that it can be taken up by other stakeholders after the end of the SASHA project. Felistus Chipungu of CIP moderated a panel with Benard Yada (Uganda); Some Koussao (Burkina Faso); Jude Njoku (Nigeria); Jean Ndirigwe (Rwanda); and Beyene Demtsu (Ethiopia) to discuss the technical innovations in their countries.Can RTB systems learn from each other? RTB crops have a challenge of accumulation of diseases leading to degeneration and relatively low multiplication rates. There have been many interventions but little systematic learning. This was the genesis of Graham Thiele's presentation. He emphasized the need to come up with instruments that help to compare the dissimilar information from the different crops, and presented a framework that includes: (i) stakeholder framework -seed security (ii) seed degeneration and (iii) Impact Network Analysis.Progress in sweetpotato genomics and strengthening the SpeedBreeders community of practice: This presentation drew the attention of participants to up-stream applications of genomics for breeding. Craig Yencho explained the inception of the Genomic Tools for Sweetpotato (GT4SP) project in 2013, and the vision for marker-assisted breeding that had brought it about. He also described the partnership approach with SASHA concerning the annual technical meeting with breeders in Africa and the progress with regard to development of genomic resources, population development, phenotyping, data management and capacity building.Panel: Institutionalizing business plans and revolving funds for pre-basic seed production: National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) in 11 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are expanding their pre-basic sweetpotato seed production. Ten institutions have started to implement their business plans; of which six institutions earned revenue from the sale of seed, to start their revolving funds to ensure that pre-basic seed production is sustained. Srini Rajendran, CIP's agricultural economist who is working with NARIs to develop their business plans, gave introductory remarks. The panel discussion by George Momanyi and Stella Ennin was moderated by Graham Thiele and covered the following questions: (i) What products are already generating revenue and what strategies have you already implemented? (ii) How is the revenue being managed? (iii) What is the progress in implementing the business plans?The way forward with the evil weevil: In most areas, especially dry ones, weevils are a major problem. In this panel, moderated by Jan Low of CIP, various approaches to address weevil control and resistance were discussed. Jurgen Kroschel, an entomologist, gave an introduction to weevil basics and spoke about pest management and attract-and-kill. Bernard Yada, talked about the conventional breeding approach to increase weevil resistance. Marc Ghislain, a biotechnologist, explained progress using transgenic approaches; Chad Keyser, an insect pathologist at Ag Biome could not make it to the meeting, and his presentation on screening for microbes for biological control was delivered by Marc Ghislain. The goal of the panel discussion was to explore what makes the best sense for small holders in terms of weevil management.Panel: What was our progress in growing as a Community of Practice in Year 2? A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. This definition reflects the fundamentally social nature of human learning. The purpose of the panel discussion was to expose all participants to the progress being made under the non-breeding Communities of Practice (CoP) groups i.e. the Seed Systems and Crop Management CoP; the Marketing, Processing and Utilization CoP; and the Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation CoP. The moderator was Tawanda Muzhingi of CIP, and the panelists were Francis Amagloh (UDS); Jude Njoku (NRCRI); Richard Gibson (NRI); Julius Okello (CIP); Ibrahim Koara (IDE); Lukas Wanjohi (CIP) and Antonio Magnaghi (EIL).The 7 th annual SPHI meeting was officially closed by Dr. Barbara Wells, the Director General of CIP. She explained that biofortification has gained recognition and stated that it has taken a long time for OFSP to achieve the status it has today, where 2.8 million households or about 10 million people had been impacted. She urged participants to celebrate these accomplishments while strategizing to pick up momentum for the future.1 Session one (Friday morning, 7th October)The 7th Annual Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SPHI) took place from 7-8 October 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of this year's meeting was 'Celebrating the 2016 World Food Prize'. This theme honored four scientists -Dr. Howarth Bouis of HarvestPlus, and Drs. Jan Low, Maria Andrade and Robert Mwanga of the International Potato Center (CIP), who were awarded the Prize for their combined efforts in using biofortification of crops to improve the nutrition and health of millions of people. Ojijo also presented the background and governance structure of the SPHI. The SPHI is a multipartner, multi-donor initiative that seeks to reduce child malnutrition and improve smallholder incomes in 10 million African families by 2020 through the effective production and expanded use of sweetpotato. The SASHA project, which serves as the foundation for the broader initiative, is a 10-year project led by the International Potato Center (CIP) and over 26 partners to develop the essential capacities, products and methods to reposition sweetpotato in the food economies of SSA.Over the years, the SPHI has continued to grow, and this is reflected in the composition of the 94 participants, who came from 17 sub-Saharan African countries, the United Kingdom, USA, Peru and Germany. Figure 1 shows the list of countries by proportion of representation.Figure 1: Countries represented at the meeting Participants presented and discussed progress in sweetpotato science and delivery along the entire sweetpotato value chain and showcased innovations and impact case studies in agriculture, nutrition and health innovations. Following the main meeting, the SPHI Steering Committee meeting was held on 9 th October 2016. In addition, the Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA) Project Advisory Committee held their annual meeting the afternoon of 8 th October.The following report documents the presentations and proceedings of all the sessions and side events. The presentations can also be downloaded from the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal at the following link: http://www.sweetpotatoknowledge.org/topics/sweetpotato-for-profit-and-healthinitiative-sphi/ The SPHI meeting preceded the 10 th Triennial African Potato Association (APA) conference, and the 45 th anniversary celebrations of the International Potato Center (CIP), which were held in the same city. To avoid duplication, scientific presentations, that traditionally take place at the SPHI, as well as the exhibition booths and poster presentations, were only presented at the APA conference.   In the first and second year of the project, two elements were required, i.e. linkage of seed system, the breeding programme and elements that contributed to the functioning of the seed system. In the third year (1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017) the project will: Strengthen the seed system (QDPM) implementation (already on going)  Expand and document formal and informal markets for fresh roots and processed products, i.e. bread (Ghana, Nigeria)  Solidify M&E systems  Solidify and expand partnerships to reach more than one million households by 2020  Continue learning from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) intervention (willingness to pay)  School feeding pilot project in GhanaThe MLE officer was replaced and the annual work plan was revised. The project monitoring, learning and evaluation plan was revised to include the people responsible for different elements. Open data toolkits have been deployed for use in the project, and training has already been undertaken. In the third year, data collection of market information will be done. Field visits are organized to validate and verify reported activities and adjust the implementation of project activities as required. Monthly reports using uniform templates are used to share progress.A midline survey was organized in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The respondents were selected from two regions in Ghana and five communities in Burkina Faso targeted by the project. Two categories of farmers were selected: direct beneficiaries (treated) and non-beneficiaries (control). According to the findings, information about OFSP is very high, 94% in Ghana and 95% in Burkina Faso. The main information sources are project partners in the two countries, but more so in Ghana (82%). Gross margin of vine production was investigated to find out if the business could be profitable. In Ghana, the total cost of production per acre was USD 65.83 (USD 162.75/ha), average vine plot size was 0.9 ha and gross margin was USD 243.49/ha. In Burkina Faso, the total cost of production per acre was USD 325.20 (USD 803.96/ha), average vine plot size was 0.52 ha and gross margin was USD 591.16/Ha. By mid-2015, 17 elementary schools in Osun State, with over 8,000 pupils were receiving an OFSP meal once a week, while 1,910 students in 13 schools received OFSP bread once a week. In September 2016, 100 additional schools were included around the state, with the possibility of further increase. Overall, ten tons of OFSP are required to feed 41,216 students weekly.GHS is trying to increase the consumption of OFSP through a well-developed theory of change that will ensure that women and children access roots and vines. In addition to establishing DVMs, training health facility staff on IYCF counseling and OFSP, cooking demos, sensitization and training on utilization and processing, a voucher system helps pregnant and lactating mothers get access vines.As this phase of the project draws to a close, the following activities have been planned:  Conduct endline surveys of producers and DVMs  Assess contribution of GHS to OFSP  Analyse cost-benefits of OFSP incorporation into bread and contribution to OFSP root production  A meeting of core implementation partners will be held in November 2016These are the possible strategies for OFSP expansion and scaling up in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. All partners strongly preferred exit strategy Option two.Option one: Do not exit and seek extension for Jumpstarting Phase 2 or other follow-up project. Determine the successes of the intervention that can be scaled out or scaled in; prepare some concept notes and seek a number of respected donors for funding activities through a project or two.  Partners have their capacities to carry on through their own investment e.g.-In Burkina Faso: Neema Agricole du Faso SA (NAFASO) Seed Company now supplies QDPM to the Ministry of Agriculture and NGOs and the OFSP fresh market value chain now runs on his own. In Nigeria: school feeding continues to expand within Osun State and nationally. In Ghana: OFSP value continues to grow through bakeries, school feeding and GHS  Services investment: value chain actors and partners continue on their own. Dry season production under irrigation (Ghana)By Mette KinotiThe Enhanced Homestead Food Production (EHFP) approach, implemented by Helen Keller International (HKI), seeks to improve the nutritional status of children under five years of age, women of reproductive age, breastfeeding and pregnant women. The project is implemented in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Cote d'Ivoire, Tanzania, Nigeria and Senegal. This presentation highlighted HKI's progress in OFSP delivery in Africa, the next steps, and perspectives and future plans.The approach works through women groups. Education on nutrition is linked to improved production training. The project is set to end in 2016. In Mozambique, there is a new project focused mainly on OFSP and vine multiplication, while in Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Cote D'Ivoire, randomized controlled trials (RCT) are being carried out.The approach has worked well to combine production and consumption. While adoption has increased, the taste of OFSP has been found to be more preferred by children than adults. The same challenges remain, e.g. access to land for female farmers to set up their model farms, late distribution of vines leading to late planting and to low or no yield, and damage by livestock. There is also limited documentation of adoption and spread of orange and white-fleshed sweetpotato varieties. More focus needs to be placed on raising local awareness, irrigated vine production to ensure timely availability of planting material, and improved documentation on adoption, yield, consumption and sale.In 2016, the EHFP project distributed almost 9 million vines, reaching 25,922 direct beneficiaries and 178,555 indirect beneficiaries.The next steps for EHFP are: Finalize the ongoing RCT in Tanzania and Burkina Faso. The first data set receive from Tanzania is good with regard to consumption and production. The one from Burkina Faso is not yet in.  Integrate work within the neglected tropical diseases program, and to use OFSP vine distribution as an incentive for drug distributors.  A new initiative is anticipated to begin in Cote D'Ivoire in 2017, and there is also potential for a new initiative in Tanzania.  OFSP will be integrated in other programs.The decisions that influence consumption patterns are influenced by gender. Four months of weekly interactive sessions around gender issues were done within the three groups: women, husbands/partners, and community leaders, and in the fourth week, they all met. The research question was whether the nutrition communication implementation has an effect on intrahousehold communication, decision making, community communications and support, purchasing authority views and gender equity.The results of the study were as follows: Significantly larger shares of women report discussions within the past four weeks for six of the nine topics from baseline to endline in Nurturing Connections villages  Significant impacts: living in a Nurturing Connections intervention village was associated with a comparative increase in women's roles in decision making and more joint decision making within livestock, childcare, spending, health and domestic work, but excluding agricultural decisions about the partner's and one's own plot Future analysis, based on the available data sets will focus on nutrition and agricultural outcomes, men, mobility and land ownership and rights. There has definitely been progress in terms of communication and sharing of household tasks and decision making. However, the project has found no magic bullet that will address gender issues at the household level.Hidden hunger is severe in rural poor households in vulnerable populations in Africa. Most women of reproductive age, infants and young children suffer from deficiencies in vitamin A, iodine, iron, zinc and folate, leading to high mortality rates, birth defects, anemia, blindness, infertility, increased infections, reduced growth and mental development. The situation in Nigeria and Tanzania, the areas of intervention of the Building Nutritious Food Baskets (BNFB) project, is shown in the table below.  There is need for comprehensive holistic approaches (multiple strategies) to reach different populations. Biofortification has been proven to be a cost-effective, sustainable and culturally acceptable approach. There is therefore need to catalyze scaling up of proven biofortified innovations. BNFB's work in Tanzania and Nigeria focuses on iron-rich beans, vitamin A cassava, orange-fleshed sweetpotato and vitamin A maize.The goal of the BNFB project is to reduce hidden hunger, and the purpose is to demonstrate how scaling up of \"multiple biofortified crops\" can be achieved. Scaling up is dependent on supportive policy environment, strong institutional capacities and proven technologies. Therefore, the project expects to achieve the following outcomes:Improved supportive policy and investment environment for biofortification in the two countries through:  Bringing together partners to ensure a coordinated and joint approach to advocacy:policies, strategies, and plans developed and implemented (situation analysis + advocacy strategies -regional and national)  Identifying and strengthening the capacity of advocates and champions for continued advocacy at regional and national levels The key targets are: USD 10 million raised for biofortified crops programs in Nigeria and Tanzania  Seven country and three regional policies/strategic plans developed and implemented that prioritize support to biofortification  Five technical programs supporting or utilizing biofortification designed and implemented  Twelve varieties of biofortified crops in the pipeline expedited for release  At least 10,000 change agents with the capacity to design and implement gender sensitive projects  Ultimately, 2.175 million households growing biofortified cropsThe project was launched in March 2016 and planning meetings held with key stakeholders. Biofortification was promoted at key regional and national conferences, events, fairs, shows and a number of advocacy engagements were carried out. A situation analysis study was commissioned to inform the advocacy strategies, and a range of advocacy and communication materials were developed.Biofortification has been integrated in the draft Multi-Sectoral Action Plan for Prevention of Micronutrient Deficiencies in Tanzania, with funds being earmarked for investment in nutritious crops.A rapid needs assessment was conducted, and gaps for training and learning materials identified. The capacity of five seed companies, 12 extensionists and 24 farmers was built in Tanzania. National seed agencies in Tanzania were also supported to selforganize and are now multiplying and conducting multi-location testing for large-scale production of seeds of biofortified crops, and special criteria for release of biofortified crops was initiated. BNFB engaged processors in Nigeria and Tanzania on the processing of nutritious foods.A monitoring, learning and evaluation (MLE) plan was developed to facilitate systematic monitoring, data collection, reporting and evaluation. A workshop was held to facilitate internalization and ownership of the MLE plan.Christiane Gebhardt: Was there a significant difference between treatment and control groups in terms of OFSP yields during the Jumpstarting project's midline survey? Souleimane Adekambi: There is an informal sharing of OFSP vines between the groups we are working with and those we are not, and this could be the reason the difference is not large for both variables. OFSP was introduced in 2015, so those in the control group who produced OFSP in that year got vines directly from the DVMs.Olapeju Phorbee: Who is supporting the school feeding program in Ghana? Ted Carey: In Ghana, the school feeding program has had a problem of payment to the vendors, but it is sponsored by Ghana School Feeding Program.Olapeju Phorbee: How does the voucher system work?Joseph Nchor: The voucher system has been piloted to enable pregnant women access vines when they visit the health facilities on clinic days. They are registered and their coupons and vine dissemination forms are filled. They use these coupons to receive vines from DVMs. It is a subsidized intervention so the coupons are collected and sent to NGOs, who then pay the DVMs.Mette Kinoti: The voucher system has different variants. For example, they could be given to community health workers (CHWs) who then give them to households that they provide nutrition and health education to.Roland Brouwer: What do you mean by gross margins and why is the difference between Ghana and Burkina Faso so large? Erna Abidin: The difference lies in pricing. In Burkina Faso, the market is mostly informal, while in Ghana, most OFSP producers are selling to bakeries where the prices for bread are controlled.Francis Amagloh: In Ghana, iron deficiency is very high and OFSP alone is not sufficient. Can the BNFB be scaled up to Ghana and such countries? Hilda Munyua: The project is being implemented in Nigeria and Tanzania, where we are demonstrating how the food basket approach can be scaled up. We aim to also advocate for more investment by governments in biofortification. The goal of four agriculture-nutrition projects implemented in SNNPR and Tigray regions is to contribute to improved food and nutrition security among vulnerable households with young children in target regions through increased production, and consumption of micronutrient-rich sweetpotato and potato varieties as part of diversified diets. These projects are:(i) Scaling out sweetpotato and potato-led interventions to improve nutrition and food security in Tigray and SNNPR, Ethiopia (Irish Aid-funded); Sites (SNNPR and Tigray) (ii) Better Potato for Better Life (USAID-funded); Sites (Tigray, SNNPR, Oromia & Amhara) (iii) SASHA project (BMGF-funded); Sites (SNNPR & Tigray) (iv) Emergency Seed Project (USAID-funded); Sites (SNNPR)When planning, the project considered a number of factors, which are outlined below:  The project does not only address nutrition, but also food security and income, as this was considered a factor of increasing adoption by farmers.  Farming systems and local diets are dominated by cereals, and sweetpotato and potato are not priority crops. Therefore, the project had to integrate OFSP into these cereal-based cropping systems and local diets. Processing had to integrate OFSP into local foods.  Target households are selected in conjunction with bureaus of health and agriculture and NGOs to ensure that the most vulnerable households are included.  Agriculture-nutrition interventions are multi-sectoral and require multi-sectoral coordination and partnership. Government structures have to be linked into for the sake of sustainability.  Gender roles had to be considered, as women play a key role in sweetpotato production and household nutrition. Furthermore, women and children under five are the most vulnerable to malnutrition.  Instead of running a separate school feeding program, it was considered more effective to use opportunities to complement similar initiatives that were implemented by other national and regional stakeholders.A partnership approach was adopted, in which regional research institutes, government departments, universities, NGOs and funding organizations play distinct but complementary roles.OFSP is used as an entry point, but as part of a basket, because micronutrient deficiency cannot be addressed by only one crop. Existing government and community structures are used in nutrition promotion to ensure sustainability. Nutrition promotion is done through complementary behavior change approaches such as, cooking demonstrations, community nutrition sessions, radio, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials, the Ashenda Festival and other programs. Established OFSP school gardens and feeding and nutriton education are used to complement the traditional extension approach.Some technologies that were piloted for ensuring farmers' access to clean planting material include Triple S, on-farm net tunnels and drip irrigation. These have been validated and can now be scaled up.Successes: Farmer linkages to local OFSP root markets were established, and OFSP was successfully integrated into local diets in different forms. Quality Declared Seed (QDS) was ratified and institutionalized at national and regional government levels.There is increased interest in OFSP by other stakeholders, and a recognition of sweetpotato as a food security crop by other organizations e.g. GIZ and Concern International. It has been mainstreamed into the health and agriculture extension education package especially at kebele level in Tigray. Agriculture and health sectors are now collaborating with NGOs through their joint work in the project.Challenges: Farmers in SNNPR were not able to conserve vines on the farm. Furthermore, the OFSP roots market was not well established, while at the same time, farmers, who produce at a small-scale, could not supply the market consistently. This is partly because the targeted farmers by the project are the most vulnerable households. As with other countries, government institutions face a few institutional challenges. The varietal traits of released OFSP varieties are not preferred by farmers because they have low dry matter content and are drought prone, as compared to the white-fleshed varieties. To address this, the project is working with the Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to introduce improved varieties.By Benjamin Rakotoarisoa This presentation shared the experience gained in northern Mozambique by the Nutritious Sweetpotato for Niassa and Viable Sweetpotato Technologies in Africa (VISTA) projects, specifically with regard to an intevention led by the partner Anglican Diocese exploring attitudes using focus groups and Trials for Improved Practices (TIPS). This intervention was implemented in Chimbunila, Central Lago and Northern Lago districts of Niassa.  Attitudes The most desirable attributes in food is health for young women and intelligence for men.Explain to young women that OFSP will help their child's nutritional status, and help the child to be more healthy.Explain to men that OFSP will help their child's nutritional status, and help the child be more intelligent.Food from factories, like fizzy drinks and drink powder are highly nutritious and worth spending scarse money on for the good of the children.Feeding a child too much would make their bellies grow.Promote the value local foods; draw on local belief about God, and explain that God's foods are better than factory foods.Teach about why it is good for a child to eat many times a day.Eating sweetpotato and porridge is not \"sophisticated\"-prefer drinking tea with bread.Explain that sweetpotato and porridge is far more nutritious than bread and tea.Barriers OFSP is only a breakfast food. Teach methods of preparing OFSP in different ways for different meals.A group of 20 persons were involved in a demonstration of making porridge of OFSP with groundnuts, and legumes that people from around the community, including chiefs, sampled and highly appreciated. They promised to commit five minutes at every community meeting to teach about OFSP and nutrition. A nutrition fair was organized to demonstrate how one can eat well using products that are home-grown. During this period (February 2014 -November 2015), 1,610 men and 3,985 women were reached. Lessons from the first investigation and implementaion were used to draw a community nutrition framework for 2016, which involves multiple stakeholders.The pathway for the Niassa Integrating Nutrition in Agriculture intervention is founded on a structure through which the intervention is cascaded from promoters to animators, then to counselors and finally to the end-users, who are households with children under the age of five. While quite similar to the pathway of the VISTA Mozambique, this intervention places a greater focus on partnership. The District Health Department disseminates nutrition messages at health centers during the antenatal checkups, and supports promoters and animators during trainings. The Anglican Diocese of Lichinga and Nampula implements the program in the rural areas of Sanga and Murrupula districts. Lúrio University provides internship opportunities to students. This partnership approach makes it possible to reach 21,800 households in six months.Training covers the following topics:1. Investing in the first 1,000 days, for health, growth and intelligence. 2. Three key food groups and why our body needs each -food diversification. 3. Healthy complementary feeding for young children -cooking demonstrations (recipes of enriched porridge using local food). 4. Taking advantage of OFSP -cooking demonstration (recipes made of OFSP). 5. Appropriate feeding frequency. 6. Evaluation and planning -graduation.Many successes have been achieved, for example, all the farmers are using diversified foods contributing to body building, protection and energy, because of the training implemented in the community. The enriched porridge has proven to be popular among young children.Nutrition must be practiced, not just talked about. None of the participants in the training had ever seen sweetpotato prepared as porridge for children, so during demonstrations, both men and women were involved in the cooking and they loved the enriched porridge.By Frederick GrantThe VISTA project's goal is to contribute to improved dietary diversity, food security, and incomes in Tanzania through four main objectives: (i) increased production and consumption of OFSP varieties through an integrated agriculture-nutrition technology set (ii) access to improved nutritional knowledge and practices and diversified use of OFSP by both female and male caregivers; (iii) improved storage and marketing of fresh OFSP roots and (iv) improved evidence-based and policy support for OFSP production and utilization.The main nutrition objective is to increase access to improved nutritional knowledge and practices and diversified use of OFSP by both female and male caregivers. Under this objective, the project targets to reach 17,500 households by 2017, and to ensure that equal numbers of women and men are included through community groups.A number of factors had to be considered when going to scale. The first was that behavior change takes time, but it is possible to expedite the process if the messages are well crafted and transferred. It was important to ensure that the nutrition interventions rolled out in the districts would have the same content to avoid confusion among the change agents and the beneficiaries. Secondly, quality control was built into the project, e.g. through supervision and surveillance of collected data and indicators. Thirdly, it was important to gather knowledge on the OFSP varieties and other vitamin A sources that exist and are being consumed.The main elements of the work plan were as follows: Formative research: rapid assessment of dietary practices.  Identification of households with children under five and implementing partners, and development of work plans for each location.  Nutrition education and counseling / Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC), including adapting existing IEC materials, training implementing partners and holding regular monitoring.The core components of the project are  Initial nutrition assessments on food consumption, OFSP availability and use at household level and OFSP pricing and procurement sources.  Nutrition education, focussing on key messaging on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF)and the 1,000-day approach.  Nutrition counseling to provide skills and techiques for message transmission.  Training of partners such as CHWs, CSOs, extension workers and local government.  Targeting of direct and indirect beneficiaries.  Project monitoring.  Gender sensitivity.IEC materials and training manuals for implementers were developed and translated into Kiswahili. To increase coverage, VISTA partnered with Mwanzo Bora CSO and district nutrition extension departments.One hundred and fifty-seven CHWs were trained to deliver nutrition counseling in IYCF support groups, and have formed community based groups of 15-20 members. Gender sensitive counselling has been implemented, as well as enhanced demonstrations of infant food preparations. The project activities have been integrated with other nutrition programs in the communities.Monitoring tools were developed as part of the M&E framework. Examples of these tools are group profile form and group meeting attendance form for CHWs and supervision checklist for district nutritionists.VISTA Tanzania has faced a number of challenges, such as low attendance in meetings and inefficient completion of monitoring tools by the CHWs. To address these challenges, the project will improve targeting, take advantage of meetings that men attend in the community and peer groups, and carry out targeted refresher trainings.By Penina Muoki Two projects are being implemented in Kenya using the agriculture-nutritionmarket approach for scaling up OFSP: These projects are: (i) Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) and (ii) Scaling Up Sweetpotato through Agriculture and Nutrition (SUSTAIN). The anticipated outcomes are increased production of nutritious sweetpotato, improved nutrition knowledge and practices and increased availability of sweetpotato roots and farmer incomes.In Western Kenya, the prevalence of VAD is 84% among children under five and 39% among women of reproductive age. Fifty percent of children do not get vitamin A supplementation. Exclusive breastfeeding is at 35.8% and stunting at 40%. Almost 50% of women get married before the age of 18, which calls for the need to focus nutrition messaging to appeal to a young female audience.Nutrition cards used for training in TanzaniaThe focus of the nutrition component is on the first 1000 days, which is the window of opportunity to reverse malnutrition. The interventions contribute to implementation of WHO/UNICEF recommendations for IYCF, and promote affordable balanced diet during pregnancy and adherence to ante and post-natal care.Previously, the SUSTAIN project collaborated with PATH. Currently, activities are implemented in collaboration with the county government through the departments of nutrition and public health. This approach utilizes already existing structures, in which households are clustered into community units, with about 100 households being manned by a CHW.Agriculture and nutrition links have been established through linking vine multipliers to health facilities. Vine beneficiaries are recruited at the health facility during ante-and post-natal consultation. So far, 760 CHWs have been trained and over 27,000 households have been reached with vines and nutrition education. Ninety health workers were trained on agriculture. Social and Behavior Change Communication: A knowledge, attitude and practice survey was carried out to document drivers and barriers to adoption of OFSP, and its inclusion in usual diets including infant feeding. The results are being used to come up with messages to achieve behavior change. A full time staff was hired to drive SBCC activities.Monitoring progress and learning: Baseline survey results are being used to guide implementation. An elaborate monitoring plan was developed. Operational research and an annual survey are included into the project plans.To start the discussion, the moderator, Robert Ackatia-Armah, highlighted the differences between nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific programs, and the importance of understanding the concepts and how they influence each other. He also spoke about the influence of gender on activities, perceptions and household dynamics, which in turn influences nutrition outcomes. Panellists responded to questions from the audience. Wellington Jogo: In Ethiopia, a behavior change strategy was developed and after a few years of implementation, it was evaluated to find out which approaches worked and their cost-effectiveness. We found out that cooking demonstrations worked best. To make them cost-effective, the NGOs that carried out the demonstrations now train women who can carry out smaller communityled demonstrations.Frederick Grant: We chose to use community level activities because they are effective and more likely to be sustained.Penina Muoki: In Kenya, the county governments are interested in publicity and they have access to media outlets, so they are usually keen to use local radio and television. This has the potential to reach many people in a cost-effective way.Robert Ackatia-Armah: These strategies should all be brought together through a platform to ensure that they are sustained and that the health and nutrition sectors work better together.Jan Low: What are your strategies for keeping CHWs motivated?Frederick Grant: CHWs mostly do not want monetary reward, but they like to get trained, it means that they are appreciated. We ensure that the training quality is maintained.Penina Muoki: CHWs are no longer on the government payroll in Kenya. Therefore, just as in Tanzania, training is a motivating factor. Also, when they achieve certain targets, we give them incentives.Jan Low: In Mama SASHA, to get the outcomes, people had to actively participate throughout. You are all monitoring participation at community level. What are you doing to ensure that they fully participated?Penina Muoki: In Kenya, we ensure that mothers or caregivers go through four months of training, after which they graduate. We have integrated many lessons from the Mama SASHA proof-ofconcept.Mette Kinoti: How are the promoters in the project in Mozambique motivated? Benjamin Rakotoarisoa: In Northern Mozambique, we tried to work directly at the community level for six months. First, the animator had to be literate and willing to work as a volunteer. After the animator has shown their commitment, they receive an incentive such as a bicycle to travel to the community. Changing the perception and having people realize that the local foods are more costeffective than purchased ones helped to get people to participate.Olapeju Phorbee: Biofortification has more acceptance at community level than at the policy level, where vitamin A supplementation seems to be more preferred.Wellington Jogo: The situation in Ethiopia is similar. The moment you go past the CHWs to the district level, agriculture-based interventions are considered to be the mandate of the Bureau of Agriculture. This is definitely a problem which needs to be further addressed to find some solutions.Roland Brouwer: The recommendation about integrating OFSP in cereal-based systems has implications, especially as the project would be in drought prone areas as well. How do you address agronomic factors like soil fertility? Wellington Jogo: Soil is an important factor; right now we are getting extremely varied sizes and quality of roots from the same plots, and we have yet to establish the cause of these differences. There is need to research and address this, especially as we target the market which wants consistent root size.Jude Njoku: How did you train DVMs in Mozambique?Benjamin Rakotoarisoa: We are working mainly with government partners, and DVMs are motivated according to the demand. The vines are being taken to other provinces and to the commercial market. OFSP is recognized and promoted by the government of Niassa.Temesgen Bocher: How are you measuring the real impact on the ground i.e. are you monitoring the area under sweetpotato and OFSP?Wellington Jogo: In Ethiopia, we do baseline and midterm surveys and area will be one of the variables in the endline survey.Frederick Grant: This was one of the questions from USAID after submitting our report. We have a two-page form for M&E officers to document progress on specific indicators, including area under cultivation.Sunette Laurie: In Ethiopia, which is cereal-based, if you bring in sweetpotato, are you suggesting that they replace teff or is it an addition? Wouldn't that just mean feeding people on more starch? Wellington Jogo: We are not trying to replace teff with OFSP. Rather, we would like to integrate OFSP into local diets.Ibrahim Koara: How do you determine and ensure availability of the preferred varieties for different stakeholders in Kenya? Penina Muoki: These varieties were released based on suitability for the area of operation, but some varietal preferences in different levels of the value chain are being fed back to the project. This information is shared with the breeders.Wellington Jogo: The government recognizes OFSP in the policy document, but the implementation and investment is not sufficient. We need to do more advocacy to ensure the government is held accountable to its promises.Oscar Ortiz: CIP is a research organization and that should be kept in mind. Comparative analysis is critical in this.Graham Thiele: The four presentations explain four different models, yet they also have common elements such as CHWs. The first part of comparison should be an implementation protocol looking at what you said you would do, and if you did it. The second should look at how it was implemented, i.e. what is exactly the same and what was done differently. This will help to identify some strategies that work across the board.Kirimi Sindi: We have been working on behavior change for a while and also carried out some baselines and evaluations. We should put this information together to identify the lessons we have learned. If we think we know what we are doing, we should influence partners to fund us to implement a common approach.Maria Andrade: We have to integrate agriculture, nutrition, health and climate change.Jude Njoku: Agronomic practices can help us to improve the micronutrient content of crops, for example, whether some of the fertilizers that are used could lead to nutrient retention and depletion.Mette Kinoti: When we have a resource framework for multi-sectoral strategies, there should be indicators for nutrition-sensitive aspects.Session three (Friday afternoon, 7 th October)By Worku TsegaThe Integrated Value Chain Development and Smallholder Farmer Commercialization of Banana and Sweetpotato for Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia is based on a seed-farmer-market-consumer (SeFaMaCo) model. The goal of the project, implemented by Farm Concern International (FCI), is to optimize profitability and productivity by catalyzing market-oriented value chain-wide competitiveness, and investments in banana and sweetpotato for increased household incomes.The SeFaMaCo programme aims to achieve the following outcomes:(i) Enhanced strategic investments in commercial seed enterprises responsive to marketdriven clean and quality sweetpotatoes purchased by Small Holder Farmer (SHF) -Seed Marketing Enterprise Development (SEMaD) Approach. (ii) Commercialized SHF through the Commercial Village Model for increased productivity and yields of market preferred varieties of sweetpotato, strengthened farmer organizations for collective marketing, and inclusion of youth and women as value producers. (iii) Increased market share of sweetpotato through enhanced value chain efficiency, market partnerships and competitiveness in informal traditional markets and schools as demand catalysts for other distribution channels. (iv) Increased utilization of sweetpotato through positive image building, product diversification, nutrition education, and enhanced consumer preference in rural and urban areas. (v) Enhanced learning networks strengthened through strategic alliances and partnerships based on an upgraded SeFaMaCo model.SeFaMaCo focuses on partnership across the value chain nodes, and creates synergy for effectiveness and efficiency. It is currently being adopted for partnership with various stakeholders.Seed multiplication farm in Serere, UgandaThe At the market level, linkages have been established with 254 traditional sweetpotato informal wholesalers, and partnerships have been established with schools and institutions. Sweetpotato achieved cumulative total sales of USD 15 million in the second year of implementation.Kirimi Sindi: How did you measure the coverage and yield in your project?In terms of the sales volume, we are linking SHF in commercial villages to informal markets and retailers in secondary towns and cities. We have trade facilitators working with the commercial villages and they provide regular updates, which are tracked and put in the system. These are real data collected from trade facilitators and entered into the database by the M&E officer.Kirimi Sindi: How do you get enough planting material to get this number of acres and the tons?The material comes from SARI, which is the national centre of excellence for root crops, we are able to get this material through the support of Dr. Fekadu Gurmu. Please note that this data refer to the three countries. All data are captured rigorously and regularly right from the field level, and it is aggregated by the M&E.The local market has a limited capacity to pay for the product, while nearby secondary towns can absorb the product at a much better price. This is what is referred to as high value. It is not about what producers can produce, but what the market needs, and if they can meet those requirements, producers can move along the value chain to the high value market.By Tawanda Muzhingi (CIP) and Antonio Magnaghi (EIL, pictured)The growing demand for innovative, healthy foods has generated a new bread market worldwide. The use of OFSP flour as a substitute for wheat flour is not cost-effective, while the use of OFSP in puree form is economically advantageous. The major bottleneck to expanding use of puree is the inconvenience associated with the preparation and storage.The Gold Standard for puree storage is aseptic processing using continuous flow microwave, Other common practices are canning, cold storage (freezing), using natural preservatives (natamycin and nisin) or chemical preservatives (sorbates and benzoates).There is potential to store puree without refrigeration. On-going research seeks to determine the storage life of this puree, and in particular, the safety of the product as it ages; demonstrate and ensure the nutritional and bread quality attributes of stored OFSP puree; and determine the cost-effectiveness of shelfstorable puree production, transportation and storage.One component of the OFSP puree storage studies seeks to determine the effect of different preservative combinations and vacuum packing on the quality of OFSP puree and baked products.Hurdle technology is employed to ensure that pathogens in food products can be eliminated or controlled. Hurdle technology usually works by combining more than one approach. These approaches can be thought of as \"hurdles\" the pathogen has to overcome if it is to remain active in the food. The right combination of hurdles can ensure all pathogens are eliminated or rendered harmless in the final product. This means the food products will be safe for consumption, and their shelf-life will be extended.OFSP puree samples treated with 0.5% potassium sorbate, 0.5% sodium benzoate and 1% citric acid with vacuum packing were stored at ambient conditions in a fresh root storage room at Organi Ltd, Ringa Kenya, and temperature was monitored and maintained at 15-23 o C. When stored for 12 weeks under these conditions, there was no fermentation (pH <4.2), and no significant change in beta-carotene content and color. The final product was found to be microbially sterile after baking, and with packaging costing USD 0.04 per kilogram, was costeffective.The stored puree was used in bread trials. The following hypotheses were tested: Hypothesis 1: Stored and preservative treated OFSP puree makes bakery products with same quality as fresh OFSP puree. Hypothesis 2: Potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate (chemical preservatives) have no effect on yeast activity and dough development Data were collected on taste, color, texture, odor, bread volume and shelf-life. The findings show that chemical preservatives in shelf-storable puree increased the proofing/fermentation time of the dough for bread from one hour to five hours. Sorbates retard yeast activity and extend fermentation or proofing times of yeast leavened products. Dough conditioners will improve the dough development in the presence of sorbate.Unpeeled sweetpotato, which is high in fiber, is being tested for puree production and bread making. It has been found to increase the yield of OFSP puree production from uncooked roots from 70% to 95%. Unpeeled sweetpotato puree has the added advantage of being more nutritious by addition of fiber, antioxidants and minerals found in the skin. It also saves on labor and time hence reducing production cost, and improves waste management.Bread made with puree from unpeeled OFSP roots was not different from bread made from peeled roots in terms of taste, color, and texture. The baking process of using unpeeled OFSP roots and peeled OFSP roots puree was the same.Research steps that are going on will focus on:  Development of an optimized recipe for OFSP sorbate treated puree for bread applications.  Optimization of the OFSP puree formulations for the volume/size of products.  Shelf-life studies of OFSP bread versus standard white bread.  Characterization of the functional ingredients and nutrition of OFSP puree bread.  Promoting Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).  Providing feedback to research on OFSP varieties with regard to the shape, size and skin color that is preferable for puree production.Jim Lorenzen: The most expensive ingredient in bread is the time it takes for bread to rise.Antonio Magnaghi: One has to consider the product being developed. One can retard production, and we also have some strategies in progress to speed up the process through a combination of ingredients that are currently not on the Kenyan market.Julius Okello: Even if you save time by not peeling, I feel there would be a trade-off. First, it takes longer to wash, and the spots that are left on the peel could influence color. Further, wouldn't you let in some weevil infested roots?Antonio Magnaghi: The tendency is that roots are cleaned before they are sold to processors, so at the processing unit, rinsing and sterilization takes a short time. The equipment in use screens the product before use so that bad batches can be removed. Sweetpotato starch works like the gums sold in the market, so they trap the moisture in the bread, and prevent bacterial growth. Water used is very important in bread preparation. Because sweetpotato traps water, the bread requires less addition of water and prevents bacterial growth. Achieving impact at scale is a key ambition and is in strong demand from countries globally.Technologies have been developed and delivery mechanisms piloted. There is no doubt about the existing commitment going to scale, and the 2016 World Food Prize is a manifestation of that commitment. However, the question is 'how'? Three years ago, the SUSTAIN project was designed to develop and assess such an approach to scale up OFSP seed systems, nutrition integration and commercial processing.This panel discussion sought to address this topic by exploring the following guiding questions: How to scale up and what exactly?  How to scale up well? (effectiveness, efficiency)  How do we know that we are doing it well?The panel discussion was structured with two rounds of questions: (1) Progress made (approaches used, results, how M&E was used, adjustments made and why; (2) Lessons emerging (key elements of successful scaling up and what we need to improve for overall learning).Kirimi Sindi: We start by developing the seed system and ensuring that clean planting material goes to DVMs (usually small-scale and medium-scale farmers), who multiply vines to distribute to farmers. One of the biggest bottlenecks is experienced in the seed systems. At the beginning, DVMs are not willing to give all the material required, so we have also worked with the national program and private sector multipliers to increase capacity. SUSTAIN also got directly involved in multiplication to ensure that sufficient material is available. Our M&E shows that we have moved people from five tons to 12 tons per hectare on average because of the use of disease-free planting material. Last year, in SUSTAIN alone, we had 38 DVMs who made about USD 40,000 from the sale of 4.7 million vines. The beneficiaries sold roots worth around USD 14,000. One of the large-scale processors consistently makes USD 35,000 USD per year. In value addition, we work at the lower levels where we train our farmers.Due to our communications, people know very well about OFSP and the minister has declared that it should be available to every household that needs it. However, we realize that we have yet to achieve exactly what we want as sufficient planting material is still a bottleneck. Many people talk about market development. Our project focused on the most vulnerable and resource poor households, so when people say they cannot see OFSP in the market, we can confidently say that the beneficiaries ate them.Penina Muoki: The components of SUSTAIN are the same across all four countries. In Kenya, we have focused on linking commercial root producers to processors. We find that it is a chicken and egg situation; when the demand is created, the supply cannot meet it, and vice versa. We have to build up processing to ensure that it is commensurate with the production. One challenge we have faced is the exit of a partner in the middle of the project. Experience has taught us that the transition to a new partner could make or break the project.Roland Brouwer: In Mozambique, partnerships are very important. Seed systems is done by CIP, and we have partners to carry out nutrition education. Gender issues have been addressed after it was found that most of the money for DVMs went to female farmers; now 40% goes to male farmers. There is a discrepancy between diet diversity and OFSP production, i.e. those that grow it are not diversifying their diet because too much is being sold. This means our nutrition work will have to be changed. Social media platforms are helping us to share information.Robert Ackatia-Armah: In Malawi, they looked at six varieties that were available for dissemination through the mother-baby trials. They also made OFSP available to go to scale by creating a commercially viable supply system. They worked through the government, commercial partners and NGOs. SUSTAIN had started working in selected areas, and as the Malawi office got more projects, they spread out to cover the whole country. For M&E, common tools were designed to be used across the four countries, but they had to be modified slightly to meet country-specific needs.Most of what is being done expands on the work by the Mama SASHA proof-of-concept project that was implemented in Western Kenya.Julius Okello: SUSTAIN is very much about scaling up the proof-of-concept projects and it was critical to measure some key indicators, among them, the number of people reached. We quickly learned that we needed to measure both direct and indirect beneficiaries in a systematic way, and track them regularly. We came up with operational definitions of direct and indirect beneficiaries, and developed a methodology that can be applied to the scaling up effort.SUSTAIN is implemented in five countries. Mozambique released 15 varieties for adoption at the end of 2015. They added seven more this year and now have 22 varieties. Malawi took it upon themselves to evaluate the six varieties through mother-baby trials. It is critical to evaluate how varieties perform in terms of yield in different countries. The M&E community agreed to use the crop cut method to estimate yield. This method is being piloted in Rwanda.Margaret McEwan: Policy enabling environment, institutional capacity and technologies -how are these being used in the scaling up effort?Julius Okello: Michigan State University (MSU) is using a combination of scaling up strategies. They are treating delivery of good planting material as one of the bigger packages of technologies. It includes agronomy, market linkage and some training elements. These are different arms of a systematic RCT. They already did the baseline survey, but are yet to do the endline. When they do, we will get to know what combination of these strategies is most effective.Robert Ackatia-Armah: At the end of this year, several partners that SUSTAIN was working with will be phased out. These partners have integrated the aspects they got from SUSTAIN into their training. This is definitely an example of sustaining capacities.Penina Muoki: In Kenya, health and agriculture are devolved and we are represented in all nutrition and agriculture forums. Through trainings, we are getting the county governments involved.Kirimi Sindi: It is important to work with institutions that can take the project forward. We ensure that policies are enacted at local and national level. In addition, even as we talk about technology or giving the vines, it comes as a package. If you give the vines alone, you do not get the results you want. At the national level, institutional partners such as CRS and USAID contractors have more resources, so we are acting as coordinators by finding out if they work with OFSP and what their demand is, so that we can work with DVMs to ensure that the materials are available.Roland Brouwer: Towards the political end of capacity building, SUSTAIN is not the only project working in Mozambique, so together with other projects, we are working to contribute to scaling up of sweetpotato.Craig Yencho: I would argue that there is one factor that has not been discussed -postharvest storage of sweetpotato.Penina Muoki: In Kenya, We are lucky to be working in collaboration with the SASHA project on postharvest handling of sweetpotato. The intention is that within the AVCD project, we shall be able to scale up some of the outcomes from the SASHA project and establish at least two storage facilities in two counties. We understand that scaling up will not happen if we cannot have continued availability of sweetpotato, either for home consumption or to sustain the kind of enterprise we are initiating.Kirimi Sindi: At the beginning of SUSTAIN, we started an experiment called 'zero energy storage unit' that we have worked on with Madjaliwa Nzamwita and Jean Ndirigwe from the national program. We have shown that we can store sweetpotato roots with zero energy using water and charcoal. Using clay blocks, we can store the sweetpotato for between four and six months. More work on storage is required.Roland Brouwer: Storage is very important to ensure a constant supply of roots. In partnership with the SASHA project, we are developing a solar-heated storage facility with a South African partner first in one location, and later on we will build another one.Kwame Ogero: In Rwanda, CIP got involved directly so as to meet demand of planting material. How sustainable is this after the project ends?Kirimi Sindi: Sometimes, the pressure to meet donor targets requires that you include some unsustainable strategies, but the DVM structure is also developed so that it can continue at the end of the project. At the beginning of the project, 0.15% of farmers said they were buying materials and now it is 22%. Between June and August, we have participated in three events talking about OFSP including a trade fair and radio. We ensure that we build capacity of partners to deliver on root and vine production and nutrition education.Srini Rajendran: Do you have any protocol for impact assessment? Also, how do we connect products developed in different socio-economic contexts with good productivity?Julius Okello: We have a sound theory of change. MSU developed a very good protocol that was reviewed internally and externally and it seemed to be sound.Julius Okello: In Western Kenya, we did an operational study and came up with a strategy to reach more consumers with information about OFSP. Our findings showed that the most trusted sources of information were medical doctors, extension officers and local vernacular radio. People listened to radio every day, but interacted with doctors and extension officers occasionally.Sind Kirimi: It is easy for us to state that we can work with private sector, but the reality is different. For sustainability, one has to change the mode of engagement often, and be more obliging instead of setting very strict parameters.Robert Ackatia-Armah: In Malawi, Nankwhali farm have slowly started weaning themselves off the project, but they still need support especially for expensive technologies.Penina Muoki: We have to draw a balance between commercialization and research. For example, commercialization of bread is of interest to CIP, but how about private sector, what is of interest to them?Simon Heck: Thank you to the panelists for the very specific observations. My lesson is that scaling takes time, and talking about scaling takes more time than we have this afternoon. We need more opportunity to exchange information, and we should explore other opportunities that are available to us, including the CoP.The BMGF has undergone some reorganization within the agricultural development team that will influence implementation. In this presentation, Jim Lorenzen summarized the new structure.Public goods: Crop research and development and discovery, livestock research and development, and innovation and systems services and partnerships, as well as policy and data, fall in this section.Geographic group: The focus is on SSA and South Asia.In terms of delivery, focusing on trying to go to scale, the priority geographies within SSA have been reduced from seven to three, i.e. Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Within South Asia, Bangladesh fell off the priority list for delivery. That created some confusion with regard to going to scale, but not with regard to developing global public goods, where these restrictions do not apply.In spite of this, one of the changes will be a reduced emphasis on going to scale, which after an internal assessment, it was determined that other institutions would have a comparative advantage. Therefore, BMGF will continue to support the development of innovative ways of going to scale, and pilots showing how it can be done effectively together with private sector and scaling agents but leave the actual scaling up efforts to large partners who have the mandate and resources, such as national governments, major donors, bilateral and multilateral donors.With regard to the downstream efforts, BMGF has increased its structural capacity to ensure that country teams are in place to help drive the agenda for what happens in the priority geographies when going to scale. The country teams will work in collaboration with the technical teams to take advantage of important opportunities.There is great emphasis on public policies because policy can be a major enabler for many of the components that partners are implementing. BMGF will take advantage of the existing goodwill from other interventions, to define and present options and opportunities to policymakers so they can help to improve the policy environment.The impact goals are inclusive agricultural transformation, empowered women and well-nourished families that are transforming the economy. Gender goals have been made more explicit. For example, nutrition continues to be very important.The strategic goals are increased agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers, increased incomes for smallholder households, increased consumption of a nutritious and diverse diet, and increased women empowerment in agriculture.The results framework will define the indicators by which M&E and impact assessment can be done. Because seeds systems is important to this group, there will be more emphasis in seed systems on innovations and delivery models-how to have a market-led focus in accelerating farmer adoption of new varieties. This is really important since that is part of BMGF's genetic gains initiatives. There will be a focus on improving early generation seed production technologies and developing business cases of how to do early generation multiplication. Although the importance of informal community-based seed systems is recognized, BMGF does not have a comparative advantage and therefore this will be de-prioritized.While local seed production for vegetatively propagated crops is vital, BMGF feels this should be connected to formal seed systems. Some of this work, and other downstream work that is consistent with AGRA's new strategy will be relinquished to them.Session 4 (Friday afternoon, 7 th October)A new emphasis was introduced into SASHA: to improve the utilization pathways for sweetpotato consumption and production to boost the economic viability of sweetpotato value addition and business activities; and to alleviate vitamin A deficiency through intake of processed products containing OFSP.CIP envisaged that storage and handling would be important issues and therefore NRI was brought in to join the team. NRI has worked with CIP on postharvest issues of sweetpotato for several decades, e.g. study of simple on-farm storage structures in Uganda, understanding varietal characteristics associated with storability, Triple S system for storing seed, and understanding retention of carotenoid during processing and storage. NRI has also worked on consumer acceptance of OFSP which is central to SASHA. Consumer preference is important in the value chain, but often neglected regarding poor people. Information about preference and markets can increase the success of new more nutritious varieties or safer products. NRI has explored preferences and willingness to pay of biofortified sweetpotato and cassava. For example, new vitamin A OFSP was liked by 82% of consumers in Uganda but 18% did not like it. There are clear differences in preferences between urban and rural consumers. While there is increasing demand to understand preference, the challenge is that the varieties and products vary, and there is lack of knowledge about markets and demand.Commercial scale storage -to develop cost-effective technologies that enable commercially oriented farmer organizations to supply quality sweetpotato roots year-round to specific agroprocessors or urban markets (NRI lead). Domestic scale storage -to assure year-round supply of OFSP in nutritionally at risk households, develop convenient and low-cost methods for fresh root storage (NRI support).Analytical support -to develop the regional capacity and appropriate protocols for analysis of roots and derived products at reasonable cost to ensure that they have adequate nutritional quality and meet safety standards (NRI support).In order to identify opportunities to expand marketing of fresh and processed OFSP, Tanya Stathers and Ilaria Tedesco carried out a value chain analysis and fresh root storage feasibility study in Kenya. The study focused on fresh sweetpotato root production, availability, trading and service provision in main production areas (Homa Bay, Migori, Siaya, Busia, and Kericho); and fresh sweetpotato root trading, retailing and consumption in major urban markets (Nairobi, Nakuru and Kisumu).The study found that sweetpotato is important for urban populations as it is easy to prepare and nutritious, and that production of sweetpotato is increasing relative to other crops. The volumetrics of sweetpotato trading are complex. To exploit the existing opportunity to produce OFSP puree for bakery products in one of Kenya's supermarket chains, there is need to ensure organized scheduling and staggering of OFSP planting and use storage facilities at production sites to be able to store at least one month's supply of OFSP (capacity 20-30 tons).In August 2015, a trial on strategies for sweetpotato handling for short-term storage (up to 14 days) was undertaken. The treatments included in the trial were harvesting method (ox plough, hand), methods of soil removal (wet brush, dry manual, wet manual, no removal), packaging (plastic crate, wooden crate, sack), and variety (Kabode, Vita).The findings were that manual wash, air drying, and sack storage were better than all other treatments. This underlines the importance of curing (maintaining roots at high humidity after harvest to allow healing of wounds). Further handling trials will be conducted once storage conditions have been optimized.To ensure that puree production is not constrained by root supply, there is need for a costeffective storage facility, capable of storing for at least one month. The costs of construction, power supply and consumption, and maintenance should be kept low, preferably by using off-grid solar power. The facility should be capable of maintaining temperatures for curing and storage temperatures of 15-17 o C. The trials should be written up as a case study to inform subsequent ventures, including a set of plans for store construction.Two storage rooms have been constructed within an existing processing facility. An evaporative cooling system has been developed with low installation costs, and low power demand to allow the use of an alternative power supply such as solar power. An initial challenge was shortage of meteorological data, especially lack of information on solar radiation through the year. A light meter with a data logger has been installed, and the number of solar panels increased to provide sufficient power. The cooling system is currently working at 70% efficiency, but work to increase efficiency and improve temperature reduction is still ongoing.Trial 1 indicated that heating was required to achieve the temperatures necessary for optimum curing (28-32 o C). In trial 2 the two varieties, Kabode and Vita, were stored each washed and unwashed. Curing (with heating to achieve 28-32 o C and high humidity achieved for reducing ventilation) was carried out for 4 days, followed by cooling with the evaporative system. Inefficiencies of the evaporative cooling system meant that the storage temperature was above 20 o C (typically 20-25 o C) while 15-17 o C would be optimum. Despite higher than optimum temperatures, after 4 months, more than 80% original weight of good quality roots that provided good quality puree was retained. Washing may increase rots, but this needs to be rechecked. Trial 3 identified some challenges. Mechanical breakdowns underlined the need for user-friendly controls and a problem solving checklist for facility users. These are in the process of being implemented. There was increased weevil infestation of the stores which could be reduced by lower temperature storage. It is recommended that stores are completely emptied at regular intervals and fumigated.NRI also worked with SASHA to construct a store for puree in Kisumu, carry out a value chain analysis, advice on the potential for storage in Mozambique and consult on methods of vitamin A analysis. The Institute has also supported the development of protocols for food safety tests on OFSP products.In year 3, NRI's inputs will be as follows: Final development and testing of two sweetpotato stores at the Organi site in Kisumu  Complete construction of puree store in Kisumu  Final root storage trial within completed/tested storage facilities  Follow up postharvest handling trial in Kenya  Optimize household/small-scale commercial storage facilities in Ghana  Disseminate material for Triple S storage in Kenya  Provide support for development of appropriate training in hygienic practices for processors and microbial challenge tests on OFSP pureeErna Abidin: We talk of static storage, is it possible to move OFSP using containers to a different location?This is about optimizing the storage depending on the market you have. For example, you can cure and heal to prevent moisture loss and fungal deterioration. You can also dehaulm to thicken the skin. It comes down to utilizing key bits of knowledge and the cost of transport system to fit the market you are working in.  Maria explains, \"In Portuguese, the verb 'batata doce' is feminine.\" But it goes deeper than that. The names honor women who have dedicated themselves to agriculture, nutrition and biofortification, and who have actively contributed to the breeding efforts. Some were there from the very beginning, as the idea of using OFSP to combat high levels of malnutrition were discussed on relaxed Saturday afternoons. Others came later, helping to facilitate and manage the ongoing work, or even volunteering to cook OFSP recipes. But among all these female names is only one male name -Tio Joe. It means Uncle Joe. \"This variety is in honor of Joe DeVries, because he was the first one who believed in us and put in some money to start a breeding program in Mozambique, for Mozambique with a spillover in southern Africa,\" Maria explains.Jan's soundtrack is Helen Reddy's 1971 hit, I am woman. It is a song of strength and determination. \"This is a song I chanted to myself as I made my way up Mt. Kenya and did not quit. It is one of those songs that just stays in your head,\" Jan explains.Maria recalls the first time that she and Jan met. It was 1996, and when she heard someone call out the name of the person she had been waiting to meet. She got out of her office and into the corridor to say hallo. She quickly overcame her surprise at the fact that Jan Low was not a man, as the name had led her to believe, and from that day, they have stuck together, through good and bad times.The devastating floods of 2000 are a memorable period, which was a disaster that the two turned into an opportunity. The money for their sweetpotato work was running out, and they submitted a proposal to Oxfam for emergency distribution of sweetpotato vines. \"We convinced them that to make it work, we needed to do a nutrition campaign. At emergency time you cannot do community level nutrition education, but we developed a series of promotional materials like the capulanas and community level theater,\" Jan recalls. The foundation for this intervention had been built long before this, when Jan did her post-doctoral work with CIP in 1995. The study showed that a nutrition education component is needed when introducing OFSP in the young child diet. Jan felt that one of the challenges to do a good controlled trial was to avoid contamination of your sample. \"Central Mozambique is as isolated as you can get and at the time the prevalence rate for vitamin A deficiency for children under 5 was 65%. It was an environment which we could do a food-based study and be able to measure the impact of the work,\" she recalls.What Jan did not count on, was how difficult it would be to get donor support at a time when supplementation was all the rage. \"The health donors would say it was an agricultural project, and the agricultural donors would say it was a health project. I spent my summer vacations during three years going around to 21 donors before we got lucky.\" After 3.5 years of trying, the breakthrough came, when the Micronutrient Initiative acknowledged that this food-based method was likely to work. With USAID and Rockefeller Foundation also coming on board, there was enough funding to do a two and a half year proof-of-concept study in Mozambique, with varieties supplied by Maria, with World Vision and HKI as the implementing partners. That culminated in a seminal paper that was awarded the best scientific article in the CGIAR in 2007.The floods provided an opportunity to promote dissemination of vines and social market strategies. OFSP was first promoted in Mozambique in 2001, and since then, 40% of sweetpotato producers are growing orange-fleshed varieties. Vitamin A deficiency has reduced from 69% in 2002, to 55%, according to the 2013-14 Global Nutrition Report. Despite the progress made in using integrated production, marketing and nutrition strategies in Mozambique, Maria suggests that they can learn from countries such as Kenya and Uganda, where OFSP uptake has been faster. Jan adds that developing adaptive varieties in nine countries is a key investment to go to scale, and that the lessons learned breeding in Africa for Africa should be taken advantage of. According to her, radio is an effective tool for raising awareness at the community level in terms of creating markets.A multi-sectoral approach has been central to the operations in Mozambique. \"You cannot talk of only OFSP, agriculture or nutrition; policy, markets, education and other sectors are also necessary,\" Maria says. The Secretariado Técnico de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (SETSAN) network, which brings together government programs and organizations working on policies related to food security and nutrition, have provided communication and coordination that has had a positive effect. Maria notes that due to the large country and dispersion, SETSAN has set up provincial level networks to convene people at decentralized locations.The UN Decade for Action on Nutrition 2016-2026 is focusing on the double burden of under and over nutrition. The award of the 2016 World Food Prize to four scientists working on OFSP and biofortification is an opportunity to create momentum to work with governments, the UN and other partners to speed up progress towards achieving the SPHI goal, which is to reach 10 million households through improved varieties of sweetpotato and their diversified use by 2020.The laureates are full of ideas about how this goal can be achieved: improving sweetpotato seed systems, integrating nutrition education into school curricula, strengthening private sector involvement in the value chain, social marketing, influencing policies for increased government investment in sweetpotato, and strengthening the sweetpotato community of practice to share lessons and approaches.As the last of their inspirational words fade away, Margaret McEwan queues in their upbeat soundtracks, and they go back to their seats amid resounding applause from the participants, who no doubt, are looking forward to a moment to continue the discussions.Session 5 (Saturday morning, 8 th October)By Anna-Marie BallIn a food basket approach, a household gets more than one crop e.g. ironrich beans and OFSP. Sweetpotato and beans is considered a complete meal in Uganda. HarvestPlus uses an integrated approach with seed systems, agronomy, nutrition and demand creation, marketing and product development. The goal is to reduce micronutrient malnutrition and improve dietary intakes of vitamin A and iron for 315,000 households in 25 districts in Uganda by 2016.Clean seed system: 14 secondary vine multipliers were provided with mini screenhouses and over 30 tertiary vine multipliers were established. There is a network of vine multipliers who selfregulate, they meet once or twice per year and receive technical support to improve. They monitor each other because they understand that poor performance would hurt them all. Building on the work of CIP, inspectors have been trained, including development of protocols and training of district inspectors on their roles.Improved feeding practices: Cadres of women are trained under the 'lead mother initiative' and they then provide support to mothers and caregivers.Increased promotions and advocacy: Drama, exhibitions and field days are popular tools for promotion and advocacy. Demonstration gardens have been established at health centers and more schools are taking up OFSP and requesting for trainings in schools and vines for school gardens.Training multipliers and inspectors on protocol use: Technical guidelines were developed by a consortium of partners and pretested. They are ready for rolling out.ICT for agriculture: In Uganda the challenge has been to link farmers to their closest vine multiplier. Using pre-set phone numbers, advertised on the radio, farmers can call in to get information about vine multipliers based in their area. Mobile phones are also used for polling during radio dramas about OFSP. Answers to questions about consumer and farming preferences can be texted to the radio station at no cost to the respondent. The answers are given in real time and geo-located, which allows radio presenters to respond to listeners within the same program. The data also informs future radio programs Commercial farmers and traders: People eat a lot of sweetpotato in Uganda, and small-scale farmers cannot support the demand. HarvestPlus is working with commercial farmers who are already linked into the market. There is need to get more farmers involved in off season production.Marketing and product development: Increased processing is intended to deal with surplus and small roots. OFSP flour is being made by millers and used by bakeries. There is increased demand for flour but the production is still low. HarvestPlus is working with Makerere University to develop products using OFSP puree. Mothers are counselled on improved feeding practices in UgandaOver 400,000 households have been reached by the project, and through these, 205,006 children. Two new OFSP varieties were released and Triple S technology has been rolled out to ensure access to planting material in areas with long dry periods. New technical guidelines were developed and are ready for roll-out.Research results indicate that there has been a high diffusion of information and planting material. There was increased understanding about the importance of vitamin A and a higher adoption by farmer groups that were directly targeted.Julius Okello: Who mobilized the farmers to work as a group and who helps them to stay together?We started with a small group who met each other and shared ideas and then kept in touch with each other and they have associations in the different regions. These associations are made up of individual groups. In preparation for inspection, they have been trained. Within the association, there are groups which are supposed to inspect the materials before the government inspectors come.Julius Okello: What are the challenges with seed production and how are they addressed?We are operating in areas with long dry seasons, the technologies used are Triple S and irrigation.To maintain the quality of planting material, especially in the central region with high SPVD virus, we have established links with pre-basic seed production lab and some DVMs have net tunnels.Partners have developed protocols to guide the different stages of seed production.Kwame Ogero: How are farmers linked to seed using the mobile app, and what are the costs involved?Farmers do not bear any cost for using the mobile app.Moderator: Felistus Chipungu Panelists: Benard Yada (Uganda); Some Koussao (Burkina Faso); Jude Njoku (Nigeria); Jean Ndirigwe (Rwanda); and Beyene Demtsu (Ethiopia)The production of pre-basic seed is expensive and efforts have been made to develop technical innovations to make seed more affordable for farmers. One of the challenges is to ensure sustainable production. This can be done by making it affordable so that it can be taken up by other stakeholders after the end of the SASHA project.The objectives of the ongoing work are to: Strengthen technical, institutional and financial capacity for increased production of quality planting materials.  Promote awareness on quality sweetpotato planting materials, and strengthen coordination among stakeholders in the seed system.  Ensure quality assurance for the pre-basic seed production process.The production cycle is as follows: First generation/breeder seed is produced in small amounts and taken into the tissue culture lab for virus indexing and production of plantlets. These are acclimatized and then multiplied in the screenhouse as second generation/foundation seed. After this, basic seed is produced in the net tunnels which are conducive for the farmers' environments. Where the virus pressure is high, multiplication is done in isolated fields. The basic seed goes to DVMs who multiply QDS to distribute to commercial root growers. This clean seed is intended to ensure that farmers achieve high yields.The technical innovations are (i) consistent supply of pathogen tested pre-basic cuttings; (ii) strengthened tissue culture lab and screenhouse procedures; and (iii) technologies to increase multiplication rate and reduce cost of seed production.National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) Uganda uses MS stock solutions in place of pre-mixed MS salts, and agar in place of phytagel to solidify the media. Sugar is used as a carbon source in place of research grade sucrose. Wooden boxes are used in place of buckets and organic poultry manure and foliar fertilizer is used to boost growth in the first three weeks of transplanting.Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) Ethiopia recognized that using sweetpotato can successfully be propagated using cuttings as small as two nodes, meaning that several cuttings can be taken from each hardened tissue culture plantlet. Greenhouse multiplication of tissue culture plants is being used to significantly reduce cost. TARI is also using coco peat plugs and rooting hormones to enhance rooting. TARI has found that apex cuttings root faster and better followed by middle cuttings, and that cuttings obtained from the bottom perform poorly as compared to distal cuttings.In Burkina Faso, multiple entries are the cause of white flies in the screenhouse. A sprinkler irrigation technique with control from outside the screenhouse has been devised, with relative humidity inside the screenhouse being monitored by season to better control irrigation interval. The installation is in progress. To manage heat in the screenhouse, a double shade net-roof reduces sunlight and temperature inside the screen house. The sprinkler irrigation system may also help to increase relative humidity and to reduce the temperature.In Nigeria, work started in 2015. Apex vine is preferred compared to middle or basal as it has fast establishment and escapes diseases and pests. Sterilized sawdust mixed with sea sand is used for acclimatization to cut costs. To cope with the high temperatures, leaves are stripped before planting to conserve moisture and ensure good establishment. Planting materials are steeped into systemic insecticides for 15 minutes before planting to control whitefly infestation. It is recommended that vines be planted as soon as they are cut, but if this is not possible, they should be tied in bundles with their base covered with wet soil. However, they should not stay for more than two days. When the site in Kano was selected, an innovation was started, where PVC pipes are used as a frame for net tunnels. This is because the area has high levels of termite infestation and wooden frames get damaged quickly. With this innovation, the frames can be used for 4-5 years instead of one year. In the screen house, the pot mix of 3:2:1 (top soil: poultry manure: sand) is used, and urea (1.5kg/100m 2 ) applied after each cutting (ratoon). Fertilizer use has increased multiplication rates. When planting, either poultry manure is used at 4 tons per hectare, or a mix of 2 tons of poultry manure and 200kg of NPK per hectare are used.In Rwanda, innovations relating to sustaining pre-basic seed production include the selection of preferred high yielding improved OFSP as well as white-fleshed and dual purpose sweetpotato varieties. Actions taken to increase multiplication rates include application of urea to stimulate the growth and vines cut when they are long enough (8 weeks at screenhouse). Some of the actions to reduce costs of production are reduction of the amount of plantlets at tissue culture, increased number of plants in the screenhouse, increased number of ratoons and generations at nursery.Members of the panel (l-r) Jude Njoku, Beyene Demstu, Benard Yada, Some Koussao and Jean NdirigweJude Njoku: Pre-basic seed production started in Nigeria in 2015. We sent released varieties for cleaning up to the CIP facility in Ghana. I work with the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria and I backstop three OFSP projects -Jumpstarting project, pre-basic seed production and the Better Nutrition through Food Baskets (BNFB). Our target was to produce 1,000 first generation seed, 150,000 pre-basic seed for three years and 750,000 basic planting material. We have produced 60% of our first generation target, as well as 5,000 pre-basic seed. We had some challenges when the new government changed policies and introduced the single treasury account, which mopped up all our funds. This adversely affected our operations. We also lacked infrastructure in our tissue culture lab and we had to send material either to Kenya or to Ghana for clean-up, which is a cumbersome and time-consuming exercise. We did not have a functional screenhouse when we started, so we had to expand the net tunnel as a mitigating measure. Electricity failures affect our tissue culture lab operations, and we have discussed with other crops to potentially share the cost of running a generator.Beyene Demtsu: I work for TARI. Last year, the plan was to produce 600,000 pre-basic planting materials. With basic problems of irrigation water and power outage, we managed to produce about 557,000. For the coming season, we plan to produce 600,000. The number is fixed by the capacity of our net tunnels. With the help of the Better Potato for a Better Life (BPBL) and SASHA projects, and the government, we hope that we will solve our irrigation water problems. We plan to plant two varieties of basic seed on two hectares. We have institutional buyers, so we estimate demand by holding a stakeholder meeting with these institutions and multipliers. For example, last year, GIZ promised to buy approximately 4.5 million cuttings. The challenge is that this estimate does not reflect the actual demand of root producers, but reflects the availability of institutional buyers.Benard Yada: I am from NaCRRI Uganda: We are working on pre-basic seed production of three released varieties -Naspot 12 and 13 and Dimbuka Bukulula. We set our limit to between 100 and 200 tissue culture plantlets, and to multiply 2,000 cuttings, each measuring 20 cm. This is because we have a fairly small screenhouse. Our slogan was to start at the lab and end at the screenhouse. We could not break even, so we established one acre of basic seed multiplication, from which we plan to get 80,000 cuttings for sale. We plan to increase the acreage of basic seed multiplication because this is where we feel we could generate money for our revolving fund. To address the challenge of drought, we procured a mini-irrigation facility. All proceeds that come from sales of planting material goes to a common account and we all have ledgers. At the end of the year, the cash reverts to the central bank, and we have to find ways of dealing with this. Demand is not all-encompassing even when you hold a stakeholder meeting, because not everyone can be invited. Some Koussao: I work for L'Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles du Burkina Faso (INERA). We started pre-basic seed production one year ago. We started multiplication in July 2015, but the first semester was slow. We planned to produce 100,000 cuttings from the prebasic seed, but we managed to produce only 11,000. In the next semester, we reduced the target to 35,000, but we produced 28,000. We distribute through two main NGO partners, HKI and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), who multiply basic seed and sell to farmers. The seed company NAFASO produces commercial basic seed using the pre-basic seed we provide. NAFASO used the ratooning system to produce more than one million cuttings. HKI and CRS produced 750,000 cuttings. In the past year INERA did not produce basic seed. We have irrigation facilities around dams, so in the coming season we will produce one hectare of basic seed in the western region and one hectare in the northern region. Estimating demand is difficult because we have formal markets, which are NGOs and NAFASO. They take time to come back for more material. We trained some DVMs but they do not buy enough planting material, so it is difficult to determine the demand. We got material for pre-basic seed production from Ghana.Jean Ndirigwe: We started pre-basic seed production last year. Together with partners, we distributed 2.2 million cuttings at household level. Our target was to reduce the amount of plantlets at tissue culture and increase the amount at screenhouse and nursery stages. With this, we produced 540,000 cuttings. The challenges were many; you need to manage the available space i.e. screen house and net tunnels. One must know the demand outside the project, and the market segmentation. We use assumption rates, but we find estimating seed requirements at different stages difficult.Glato Kodjo: The biggest problem for the farmer is availability of cuttings during the planting season. How can the technologies you have developed address this? Some Koussao: In West Africa we have a long dry season and access to planting material is a problem. There must be a place for seed business. The habit is farmer-to-farmer distribution, so we have pushed people to produce vines. Commercial multipliers target institutions and their prices are therefore too high for farmers.Richard Gibson: All of you are growing the crop out in the field, and no one has mentioned resistance. Is it addressed by the technologies you mentioned? Jude Njoku: We multiply in isolated fields to reduce the chances of virus infection. Some Koussao: When producing basic seed, we find isolated fields where there is no sweetpotato because this prevents virus spread to the field.Jean Ndirigwe: SPVD tolerance varies among varieties but we are trying to introduce varieties adapted to different zones.Richard Gibson: Everything you talked about focuses on public sector. One of the innovations you can make is to link with the private sector. How are you doing this? Jude Njoku: We are trying to link with private sector partners in Abuja, who can produce pre-basic seed. Some Koussao: In Burkina Faso, NAFASO sells planting material to farmers as far away as in Mali. That means that we are making progress.Jean Ndirigwe: We are trying to involve the private sector in Rwanda. One of the enterprises do their own multiplication and sell cuttings to root producers for the factory.Francis Amagloh: In West Africa, how do we control the temperatures during the Harmattan season?Jude Njoku: In Nigeria, especially up north, the temperatures fall within the ideal range for sweetpotato production, especially during the Harmattan. Jean Claude Nshimiyimana: Some varieties have very short internodes, how have you managed to use two-node cuttings? Is there an effect on establishment? Jude Njoku: We conducted an experiment and collected data on two-node cuttings at NRCRI. It increases multiplication rates.Beyene Demtsu: We tested the idea of two-node cuttings. The short cuttings (4 cm maximum) are adapted to our environment. The purpose of this innovation is to reduce the number of tissue culture plantlets. Last year, due to high demand, about 96,000 plantlets were multiplied and sent directly to multipliers, they established, but it took time. The establishment was the same as with the cuttings.By Graham Thiele RTB crops have a challenge of accumulation of diseases leading to degeneration and relatively low multiplication rates. Because they are bulky and perishable, they have to be produced relatively close to the users. Farmer-based seed systems make up over 95% of planting materials. Therefore, there is need to improve quality, access and dissemination of new varieties in a commercially sustainable way. In addition, insufficient attention is usually given to gender issues.There have been many interventions but little systematic learning, which now begs the question: Can RTB seed systems learn from each other? The RTB CRP works in partnership with many CGIAR members and other institutions. To generate knowledge and learning, there is need to come up with instruments that help to compare the dissimilar. The diverse set of seed systems were compared using three rulers: (i) stakeholder framework -seed security (ii) seed degeneration and (iii) Impact Network Analysis.This framework allows one to compare the social roles of various stakeholders within a seed system. The framework has been used to do 13 case studies, from which a book was published in 2013. These case studies were selected to try to provide as much variability as possible, in terms of scale and objective of the intervention (to respond to a crop disease emergency, to improve household nutrition, to meet the new opportunities of developing markets, and others).The theory of change was that small holders specialize in producing clean planting material and commercialization. Few of the case studies even tried to estimate demand, so the basis for the business case was not very clear. Seed systems projects need action-research to formulate explicit assumptions and a plan for collecting information. Seed purchase should be linked to the market, especially if the industry demands a new variety.The key problem in most of the case studies was degeneration. There was a bias in favor of managing degeneration by distributing clean planting material. However, several cases also emphasized host plant resistance or on-farm seed management. There is need for a more integrated approach for managing degeneration, where on-farm management and host resistance are the starting points, especially with resource poor farmers. A risk assessment framework for seed degeneration has been developed for an integrated seed health strategy for vegetatively propagated crops. One paper has a profile of yield loss and different dimensions that interact with it. This was produced using a modeling approach. One can see how different management practices help in managing farmer level seed quality. Generally, positive selection was managing and controlling virus accumulation. A study from Tanzania has yet to go through full modeling, but it shows how yields vary over three generations in seed coming from net tunnels and open field. Generally, the net tunnel seed had higher yield. The detailed papers are available upon request.Impact Network Analysis is a platform for evaluating system management strategies (seed systems or integrated pest and disease management). One can look at the impact of research products, impact on spatial ecological processes and impact through communication and decision making networks, and linked bio-physical networks. It can be used for biological and social processes. In the seed system, there is the bio-physical network and the socio-economic network, and the interaction between these two can be examined.A community of users have to commit to using the rulers. The RTB community is one way to bring the different crops together. This cross-cutting cluster has tools that can be used. The rulers are being applied in ongoing projects to ensure that the knowledge generated is useful during the lifetime of the project. For example, it is being used in a cassava project in Nigeria. The expected outcome is that seed companies sell high quality early generation seed. The project has two seed loops: processor outgrowers and village seed entrepreneurs. The rulers will be used to compare the seed loops and see what the outcomes are. Seed network maps and a gender differentiated network map will be developed.Another knowledge product is the Cassava Seed Tracker, which is an integrated seed resource management software for the seed sector.In response to whether RTB seed systems can learn from each other, the answer is yes. There is strong progress in \"rulers\" for cross crop learning and modeling. In terms of knowledge management, the RTB cross crop dedicated seed cluster is connecting with the sweetpotato seed system CoP. However, limitations exist in that most of the 'soft' information is lost. Some rulers are missing e.g. profitability/willingness to pay and multi-crop seed tracker.Theodore Munyuli: We have experienced cases where farmers reject planting material because they are not adapted for the area.Graham Thiele: We need to understand the local perspectives, and introduce material that will work for that environment. That is part of the learning, and it has to be documented while it is happening. It is also important to understand that to start off, there is need for material to come in from outside.Godfrey Mulongo: How significant are the findings that planting material from the net tunnels has higher yield? Kwame Ogero: This is raw data from three generations. There is higher production from material coming from net tunnels. We looked at root production and how net tunnels contribute to reducing virus infections over generations. You can see an increase in materials in open field, while those in net tunnels were clean for a very long time. This is a significant finding.This presentation drew the attention of participants to up-stream applications of genomics for breeding. The Genomic Tools for Sweetpotato (GT4SP) is a large project that is led by North Carolina State University (NCSU) and implemented along with several partners including CIP, Michigan State University (MSU), Cornell University, Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) and the national programs at NaCRRI and CRI. There are also partners in Australia.The GT4SP project started with a convening at the BMGF back in 2013, to figure out what is needed to facilitate breeding and next generation breeding tools for breeders in SSA. Craig Yencho was given the responsibility to lead the project, which started in 2014 and is fully focused on sweetpotato. There are 20 principal investigators, spread across seven institutions, six countries and 15 time zones; it is an unprecedented level of focus on sweetpotato genomics that has never been heard of before.The GT4SP consists of several platforms. First, is the development of genomic resources. This requires a reference genome, good markers, advanced laboratory sequencing capabilities and good mapping populations. Second is high throughput phenotyping and a database to capture the tremendous amount of data that are being collected.The challenge is to bring these tools, technologies and capabilities to sweetpotato. Phenotyping has been improved and is web based. The project has developed a database and electronic data capture tools to manage resources. It is all predicated on human resources and good capacities, so a major emphasis of the project is to develop those human resources and to develop the capacity to conduct genomics-assisted or marker-assisted breeding of sweetpotato. Lastly, there is need for a common vision and continuity of efforts by the project implementation team.The start-up meeting was held in January 2015 and the first annual meeting was held during the Plant Genome meetings in San Diego in 2016. The group has grown substantially during that time.It is really important to translate the knowledge from the lab to the breeding community in SSA. In 2015 and 2016, the genomics team held a joint annual meeting with the SASHA project for breeders. The meeting consists of all the major breeding groups across the entire continent plus some major players around the globe. During the past year's joint meeting, a two-day workshop was held to begin to introduce applied breeders to the new genomic tools. The program consisted of an overall view of genomics-assisted breeding in sweetpotato, how to analyze diversity and basics of marker-assisted selection in sweetpotato, how to select phenotypes in the field, and practical exercises of extracting high quality DNA.The capacity building leader has visited Ghana and Uganda to train staff and will soon visit Mozambique. Webinars are scheduled and all the information is posted on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal. NARS programs are still not able to do marker-assisted breeding due to lack of genomic infrastructure, but many of them have the basic infrastructure required to interface with the advanced institutions to facilitate marker-assisted breeding in the future. Three people in GT4SP will spend 3-6 months at BecA, working on advanced marker-assisted breeding methodologies and techniques.A reference genome for two wild relatives of sweetpotato is an outcome of the GT4SP efforts, achieved in less than two years. Eighty percent of the genome has been covered, which has paved way for the identification of genes. This will provide information about what these genes do, how they interact and what role they might have as candidate genes for specific breeding characteristics such as resistance to sweetpotato virus disease, dry matter content, beta-carotene production, yield etc.RNAi sequencing has been done to look at gene expressions across the various sweetpotato wild relatives. All this is annotated on the genome and presented in a genome browser. This work is led by Robin Buell at Michigan State, published on the sweetpotato genomic resource online and presented on the genome browser. The information provided will be of use to the genomics team who can help to improve breeding. A genotyping procedure has been developed, which gives low density and high density markers using genotyping-by-sequencing.Populations are being developed by national breeding programs. Currently populations in Peru, USA, Ghana and Uganda are being phenotyped. Major traits of interest include orange-flesh, high dry matter, tolerance to sweetpotato virus disease, weevil resistance, and high beta-carotene.To deal with the large amount of data being generated, some of the partners, notably BTI and CIP have developed a database called SweetpotatoBase. Tools have been developed for breeders to design trials and introduce their data into a three-dimensional relational database. A new data analysis platform called HiDAP has also been developed. This is a highly interactive data analysis platform that can also be used offline. Both of these tools are continually changing and evolving.During the last two years, the following lessons have been learned:  A reference genome is valuable from a sweetpotato breeding perspective. There is need for a sequence-based platform.  Bioinformatics are easy to talk about in the analytical environments, but utilizing them in real life requires a lot of technical support. This is why it is important to train breeders in this area.  The breeding community is highly capable of developing populations and markers, but it may be difficult to do all the phenotyping work required in the field. There is need for more capabilities in terms of mechanising data collection.  Sustainable funding and sustained capacity development, human resources, institutional program support as well as support from farmers and industry players is going to be important for this effort.During the annual breeders' meeting held in June 2016 in Nairobi, participants were asked if genomics-assisted breeding in sweetpotato was hope or hype, and they agreed that it had potential.Every major project starts with a vision. With the support of BMGF, the resources are now available to realize that vision. The ultimate goal for breeders is to use marker-assisted breeding tools to develop new varieties for farmers to use to improve their livelihoods.Julius Okello: Recently, I was in a meeting where a major donor said we cannot think of adoption without mapping cultivars. For sweetpotato, are we close to getting reference genomes for the varieties we have now?Not yet, but we are at the point where we can fingerprint all our varieties using markers and distinguish whether they are very different or very similar.Christiane Gebhardt: Are the two variety sequences diploid homozygous or are they hexaploid heterozygous?They are diploid homozygous: the one for I. triloba is highly homozygous and the one for I. trifida is fairly homozygous -homozygous enough to do a good reference genome. We never expected to use those materials. It was by a stroke of luck and a conversation with Jim Lorenzen that I recognized that we actually had some populations we could use. The message therefore to the breeding community is that one should always be open to opportunity and luck.Sam Namanda: We have a lot of difference in the expression of the orange-flesh color of sweetpotato in different agro-ecologies. I know there is the factor of environment, but what is your comment on this?You have highlighted a great opportunity in the reference genome, and extending that reference genome which is at diploid level to the hexaploid level. We know a lot about beta-carotene production and the pathways for beta-carotene production, not only in sweetpotato but in many other crops that serve as models. We can now begin to ask the question you have posed: why do we see different levels of expressions of beta-carotene according to environment? We can understand those pathways much better now that we can go to the genes that we know and begin to understand how the environment and genetics interact to mediate beta-carotene expression.Another example is that we know as breeders that dry matter content and beta-carotene are negatively linked. Now we have a new set of tools that can help us probe this further and breed better in future.Moderator: Graham Thiele Panelists: Stella Ennin (CRI, Ghana); George Momanyi (KEPHIS); and Srini Rajendran (CIP)National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) in 11 SSA countries are expanding their pre-basic sweetpotato seed production. Ten institutions have started to implement their business plans; of which six institutions earned revenue from the sale of seed, to start their revolving funds. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis was conducted to identify strategies for exploiting opportunities, and for mitigating weaknesses to reduce vulnerability to threats in the business environment. There has been good progress, such as buy-in from senior leadership and the use of functional business tools. Members of this panel explained their experiences developing and implementing the business plans and revolving funds in their institutions.The introductory presentation by Srini Rajendran, CIP's agricultural economist who is working with NARIs to develop their business plans, gave introductory remarks. He explained what a business plan is, why it is needed in sweetpotato early generation seed production, why and how real time cost data collection was being collected, as well as the current status and the way forward.The business model is an objective document that aims to present a thorough analysis of a company's concept, so as to evaluate the idea's viability. The business plan, on the other hand, is a more elaborate document that comprises all the information, calculations, and analyses that demonstrate the business' viability. It should include the steps and the investment required to set up the company -alongside expenses, revenue, and return on investment forecasts. The business plan is important because it is the document that can be given to potential investors. It is a guide when planning a new venture or even expanding an existing one.A cross-country synthesis was prepared, including lessons and challenges in developing business plans. The cross-country synthesis generated the following key messages:1. There is a market for early generation sweetpotato seed, which is currently not met. 2. A business orientation is both necessary and possible for NARIs.3. The business is either one or a combination of two products: pre-basic and basic seed. 4. NARIs should estimate and coordinate seed supply requirements. 5. It is critical to understand actual and potential customers. 6. Pricing strategy required. 7. NARIs should optimize their business environment -they often have a monopoly and comparative advantage in expertise. 8. The future market for pre-basic seed might be competitive as seed laws will be liberalized. 9. To maximize profits, it is necessary to reduce costs and minimize inefficient production practices. Tissue culture production is expensive. 10. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) opportunities should be exploited.The panel discussion covered the following questions: What products are already generating revenue and what strategies have you already implemented?  How is the revenue being managed?  What is the progress in implementing the business plans?Panel discussion participants (l-r) Graham Thiele, George Momanyi, Stella Ennin and Srini Rajendran Ghana: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Until 1994, CSIR existed as a public good institution. In 1997 parliament passed a new law that made commercialization of research a mandate. Research funding from government was restricted to salaries. In response, CSIR developed a strategic plan. Staff are an opportunity that has been exploited to generate funds through proposal writing, short-term training targeted at extension NGOs and private sector, and farmers in the field. Other opportunities being explored are licensing of developed varieties and multiplication of planting materials. Flagship projects include mango, rubber, pepper and lye seedling production. Within the management board, there is a sub-committee for commercialization. The provision that staff bringing in business get a share of the revenue is now being implemented. This is regulated at 10% for the hunters, 30% for the team of workers who do the business, shared according to percentage contribution, and 60% for the Institute.While there is buy-in and support by the board chairperson, infrastructure is also critical, e.g. electricity for the pre-basic work and water sources.The business plan is being implemented. Log sheets are being used to carefully capture the costs at every stage. Lessons from the implementation of their commercial strategy has led CSIR to the realization that some business generated more profit in the outsourcing, which means that certain stages have to be improved within the work flow to increase efficiency and profits.The pre-basic seed production project being implemented with the support of the SASHA project has the establishment of a revolving fund as a requirement. This is possible. The Institute considers a benefit-cost ratio of about 1.5 before engaging in any activity, and getting project funds is an advantage. Kenya: The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) KEPHIS receives government funding, with targets to raise additional revenue. This is done through functions such as inspections, sample analyses and tests at a fee. Training is held at a cost-recovery basis and the projects office has successfully fundraised from USAID and the EU. Through partnership with the SASHA project, KEPHIS has identified opportunities in other crops such as passion fruit and banana. KEPHIS has not been approaching pre-basic seed production as a business. No cost-benefit analysis is done. Instead, revenue is raised as required. Because charges for the services are gazetted, some of them do not make business sense.Through the current efforts to develop a business case, KEPHIS has come up with a plan which has been marketed to the management and is now being institutionalized. There is potential for success. Together with Srini Rajendran, KEPHIS is working to adjust the costing and demand estimates in order to produce for an existing market.Moderator: Jan Low Panelists: Jurgen Kroschel; Marc Ghislain; Benard YadaIn most areas, especially dry ones, weevils are a major problem. In this panel, moderated by Jan Low, various approaches to address weevil control and resistance were discussed. Jurgen Kroschel, an entomologist, gave an introduction to weevil basics and spoke about pest management and attract-and-kill. Bernard Yada, talked about the conventional breeding approach to increase weevil resistance. Marc Ghislain, a biotechnologist, explained progress in the transgenic approaches; Chad Keyser, an insect pathologist at AgBiome could not make it, and his presentation on screening for microbes for biological control was delivered by Marc Ghislain. The goal of the panel discussion was to explore what makes the best sense for small holders in terms of weevil management.The presentation sought to respond to three questions: What can we learn from past successful (Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs in Latin America to control weevils in SSA? Can we make better use of sexual pheromones?  How will climate change affect weevils in Africa?There are three weevil species. The C. formicarius is globally occurring and has been reported in Africa, although there is no clear evidence. C. puncticollis and C. brunneus occur in Africa, with C. puncticollis being more prevalent. In Cuba, CIP Peru helped to develop an IPM program in the 1990s that was taken up with support of the government. There was no use of pesticides and within seven years 37,000 hectares were under IPM. Weevil damage was reduced from 40% to 10% and yield was increased from 3-5 tons to 7 tons per hectare.What can be learned for the management of the African Cylas spp.: The components developed for IPM management considered that the adults feed on the leaves but the larvae damages roots. Therefore, in Cuba, they looked for resistant varieties and provided clean planting material. For external inputs they looked at sex pheromones, and practices such as predatory ants, good hilling, avoidance of soil cracking, harvesting at the right time, and destroying crop residues and volunteer plants, as well as avoidance of planting on old neighboring fields. These cultural practices were not enough, and there was need for stronger inputs. Here, the learning is that the following points should be considered:  Plant Breeding: Selection of varieties with precocity, deep rooting, high latex content  Cultural practices: Is the infestation pattern of the different species similar?  Biological control: Which entomopathogens of sweetpotato weevils occur in East Africa?Are facilities available for mass production? Can low-cost products be produced and made available for farmers?  Use of sexual pheromones: Sexual pheromones have been identified for all the weevils, but the sex pheromones of African Cylas spp. are less effective. In Cuba they were very effective and have been brought to the farmers with the support of the government. Can we improve efficacy? Can other trapping systems be developed and used to achieve better results?The synthetic pheromones were found to be sufficiently attractive for monitoring weevils but not appropriate for mass trapping or mating disruption. Results of work done on sexual pheromone composition in collaboration with the Institute of Chemistry, University of Hohenheim (UoH), Germany, showed that each species produces a distinct bouquet of volatile major sex pheromone components, which act as synergists to the major compound (palmitic acid, methyl linoleate, and cholesterol). The highest biological activity to attract males was by palmitic acid and the combination with the sexual pheromone increased attractiveness of males of C. puncticollis. C. puncticollis sex pheromone has a higher efficacy to attract males than the sex pheromone of C. brunneus. Therefore, lower amounts of pheromones are needed to achieve similar efficacy. There is need for more research for C. brunneus. For practical field applications it is important to know which of the two Cylas spp. is more damaging in the field. UoH developed a highly efficient synthesis of the sex pheromones which could be used for a cost-effective, large-scale production.Attract-and-kill approach has been successfully used for other pests e.g. potato tuber moth control. This is a combination of sexual pheromones, contact insecticide and some other ingredients. It could be a practical approach for Cylas spp. control. It has a special applicator, and once applied, weevils are attracted and killed within 48 hours. The results show that the formulation of Cylas sex pheromones with low-toxic contact insecticides caused a mortality of 70% and 95% of C. brunneus and C. puncticollis males respectively within 48 hours. The next step is to develop and test practical field applications.Through modeling, information about the effect that climate change may have on C. puncticollis has been generated. In 2050, many areas remain the same but the number of generations produced per year will increase in some areas, leading to much more weevil damage. New technologies will be required to combat them.More information can be accessed in a new publication called 'Pest distribution and risk atlas for Africa'. It deals with potato, sweetpotato and maize pests, how they will change their distribution in the next 20 years, and how to adapt for this.By Bernard Yada A grant from McKnight foundation provided the first funds to undertake consistent research on weevil resistance. Through the collaborative work between NCSU, National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and NRI, efforts were made to identify the possible forms of resistance that could be exploited. New Kawogo, a land race that was tested by breeders and released as a variety, had shown high resistance. New Kawogo produced a lot of hydroxycinnamic acid (HCA) esters that are associated with high levels of weevil resistance.The next step was to figure out how to enhance the esters and combine with other resistance factors. Further experiments showed that higher HCA esters led to higher mortality in weevil larvae. A population was developed to segregate for resistance. The trait was found to be heritable. Four SSRs associated with field-based weevil resistance and three SSRs associated with HCA were identified. This work is ongoing through the PEARL project funded by BMGF, and through the GT4SP project.A survey was done in the hotspot districts of Uganda. A number of accessions were collected from farmers' fields in sweetpotato growing areas. The accessions were characterized and phenotyped on incidence and severity. Root samples were collected and a bio-assay was done in the lab. The root samples were infested with both C. brunneus and C. puncticollis, and the data was monitored for six months. The bioassays were done for two seasons, and combined with field data to find the accessions that performed best. This was New Kawogo.Those that performed better than New Kawogo were put in a crossing block, and they will be used to conduct seedling nursery trials for routine population improvement. To succeed in weevil resistance, efforts are being made to integrate breeding, biotechnology, microbiology and crop management technologies.By Marc GhislainThis strategy was started years ago, based on the major success in Bt maize and cotton. It was hoped that it would be a major success in Bt-sweetpotato. Four cry genes that had been selected and found to be most active against the two weevils were used. About 132 transgenic events were screened with a bio-assay, and the screening was completed around July 2016. The control has full weevil emergence. There are results so far in two sets of events. Around six of each set of transgenic events have shown apparent difference from the control. A repetition with a new fresh batch of storage roots is being done and by the end of the year, a confirmation of the events is expected. If confirmed, the bioassays will be done a third time, because bioassays have a lot of variability, and also because it would provide the statistical significance for publication.RNAi has been found to be more effective with some pests. It is not a toxin, but it is an RNA that targets genes of weevils resulting in their death. A series of 24 candidate genes that are vital to the weevil were tested. A few of them were toxic and if they were inhibited artificially, the larvae died. Focus was placed on three essential genes that had repeatedly shown the best result. The work was done in University of Ghent in collaboration with CIP. It was done by ingestion and injection for the C. brunneus and C. puncticollis. These small RNAi are being expressed into the sweetpotato roots and the bio-assay will be done after the roots become available. An alternative is also to use small RNAi as a bio-pesticide in combination with attract-and-kill technology.The aim is to have a product with 100% resistance to weevil to make it worth the investment. Moving forward, these are the plans: They use the following pipeline: First they collect environmental samples from agricultural sources such as soil, plant material and insects. The samples are then processed, bacterial strains are isolated that produce proteins or biochemical pathways known to be active against a particular pest. Hundreds of microbes are screened for activity on a weekly basis against a panel of crop pest insects. Once activity has been established, microbes are formulated and scaled up and field trials are conducted.As part of a BMGF-funded project, AgBiome will use their technology to discover microbes that are active against sweetpotato weevils. This is a multi-phase project with the ultimate goal of developing a biological agent to control sweetpotato weevils in SSA.The first phase of the project is aimed at discovering microbes that are active against the weevils. They predict that microbes with the greatest potential to be active towards the sweetpotato weevil will be those that are associated with sweetpotato crops. For this reason, most soil and plant material will be collected from sweetpotato fields.This project began in July and plant and soil collections have already been made in the USA, and microbes' isolation has begun. For this phase, microbes are being screened against multiple surrogate beetle species to window down the number of actives that will be tested on sweetpotato weevils. Starting in January 2017, active isolates will be screened on C. formicarius at Louisiana State University, which maintains a colony of sweetpotato weevils and is experienced at running bioassays with the weevil.This project is just now getting started; however, Chad and Brooke have already found several isolates with activity against both surrogate beetle species. Once activity has been confirmed on C. formicarius, they will partner with researchers in Africa to test them against C. brunneus and C. puncticollis.Since C. brunneus and C. puncticollis are endemic to Africa, microbes from African soils may be more likely to have greater activity against the African sweetpotato weevil species. They hope to collect samples and isolate microbes from African soils and will work to implement the appropriate legal and regulatory permissions before doing so. AgBiome will focus their efforts on plant colonizers with the hopes of finding active microbes that can associate closely with sweetpotato plants to provide durable season-long control.AgBiome realizes that this will be a technologically challenging project and hopes to partner with experts in the field. Successful control of any pest needs to be based on multiple strategies and microbial control of weevils will need to be part of an IPM program.Ibrahim Koara: When Bt cotton was introduced in Burkina Faso it was found that the fibers were short. Is there any risk with the Bt-sweetpotato?Marc Ghislain: Bt is expressing a protein into the plant that specifically interacts with certain insects and kills these insects. Cry proteins are not known to have any other function or collateral effect. The issue with the short fiber is because the Bt is in a genotype that produces short fiber. It would be interesting to know why Bt has not been introduced in a variety that produces long fiber, but for sweetpotato, there is no unforeseen effect observed from the 132 transgenic events that were looked at.Jan Low: If the Bt-sweetpotato was working in a variety that was not adapted to Burkina Faso, would it be possible to breed it to adapt to that or any other environment?Marc Ghislain: It will take so long to introduce this gene into a suitable variety through breeding.Using biotechnology to transform one that works well in Burkina Faso would be faster.Erna Abidin: A series of research shows that growing a number of plants/crops on the border e.g. maize and onion were effective. Maybe you can encourage such a practice.Bernard Yada: We are looking at a number of resistance factors e.g. hairiness, latex and storage root cortex thickness.Joseph Nchor: There are a lot of health concerns about Bt in Africa, and for local seed systems, about promoting the monopoly of multinationals. How are you addressing these concerns?Marc Ghislain: It is important to diffuse information about the health implications to people, so that they know that sufficient testing has been done and there is proof that it is not harmful.At the end of the session, SPHI meeting participants were asked to vote for the strategy that they felt would be effective. The results are presented in the chart below. Panellists (l-r) Antonio Magnaghi, Francis Amagloh, Jude Njoku, Julius Okello, Ibrahim Koara, Luka Wanjohi and Richard GibsonFrancis Amagloh: The main purpose of MPU CoP is to come up with marketable products that meet end user preferences for consumers and processors. In the second meeting, the MPU CoP decided to champion bread business, and that is now catching on. The main drive for bread is the high level of wheat importation into Africa; which means that substitution will increase incomes for Africans.Jude Njoku: Without quality planting material, sweetpotato production would be low. In the Seed Systems and Crop Management CoP, we try to solve the crucial problems in the sweetpotato seed system so that it translates into increased production of sweetpotato. We share information and members are committed to learn from each other. We have generated a large pool of information from our discussions, which we are using to carry out some concrete activities guided by specific research questions.Julius Okello: The MLE CoP has 38 members that came together to harmonize approaches, learn from each other, and share tools. Majority of the members are from CIP, but other partners are starting to join the CoP. We quickly realized that people were using different yardsticks to measure the specific indicators that show progress towards the SPHI goal. We decided to try to standardize indicators and tools, and a manual consisting of ten modules is almost ready for publication. A lot of the content is from the proof-of-concept work done by Jan Low and Kirimi Sindi during the Mama SASHA project, and from the other projects. While in Rwanda, MLE CoP members tested some of the modules in the field to get feedback from the users.Ibrahim Koara: I joined the MLE CoP in last year's SPHI and attended the first meeting in April 2016, it was very interesting. One member encouraged us to join an online course on impact evaluation where I learned a lot. Together with the CIP team in Burkina Faso, we have tried to improve the way we gather, manage and analyze data. We train research extension staff on using Open Data Kit (ODK) to collect field data, track DVM activity etc. and that is going on well. There are two things I would like to note: it is important to design an M&E system that suits the cropping situation of each country; secondly, comparisons of country data, and how many people they reached should include cost-effectiveness. Recently, we had a discussion about whether to give out planting materials for free. It was a very lively and active discussion that gave an idea of what the general thought in the community was about specific things. I have seen a notable change of opinion over the last two years. We also had a discussion about preservation of planting material, which was very useful for a student of mine. I think it is excellent.Tawanda Muzhingi: The idea of CoPs is to have membership from all kinds of institutions. Antonio will talk about the role of private sector. How has it benefited you?Antonio Magnaghi: I got to notice that there was no information about the benefits of sweetpotato as a functional ingredient that can be used in the market. The CoP is a platform that helps to create awareness. We should work harder to increase awareness like the one organized in Ghana by CSIR with CIP. We should also have a cross-link between different communities.Adiel Mbabu: We are happy that the MLE CoP is agreeing on a minimum set of data and standardization of tools so that we can deal better with impact orientation and management for results. The question is how to link quantitative data with qualitative monitoring data.Anna-Marie Ball: The Uganda team are part of the CoPs, and I am encouraged that they attend meetings. I have seen new ideas coming in because of that. CIP leads the way in many things but you have to take care to bring other partners along that are not as better resourced or do not have the capacity to participate. I am otherwise impressed with the changes.Mette Kinoti: HKI are not active, not because of lack of interest, but because we are very strict about how much we can travel. This hinders participation in face-to-face meetings, but I think we need to find ways to participate virtually. We have done a lot of work on dietary diversity and we should discuss how we can contribute to developing the tools.Andy Westby: Clearly, people are benefiting from the discussions. The deliberations about strategies for scaling up should be applied for this CoP.After the presentation, the audience gave feedback, which is summed up in the points below: We should cross-post summaries of the discussions.  There has been no systematic way to work together as people who are interested in communication and to share discussions.  Ideally, CoPs bring people together who want to engage and have the capacity to do that. I am interested in the MLE CoP because we have to count progress towards the SPHI goal, I wonder about ownership. It is also hard to fill forms on DVMs depending also on the complexity of the tools.  I view the CoPs as a really great think tank to share ideas and knowledge and think freely.I get concerned when you try to quantify too much as it would hinder this free flow of thoughts.  We are funded based on commercial orientation, so I am concerned about dependency syndrome especially in the case of vine distribution.  I am particularly interested in the MPU CoP but would like to know more about moderation.Participants can participate in a CoP by registering on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal, updating their profile and subscribing to the CoP group of interest. This will enable them to engage with the community. They can also support and/or attend annual meetings.The 7 th annual SPHI meeting was officially closed by Dr. Barbara Wells, the Director General of CIP. She explained that biofortification has gained recognition and stated that it has taken a long time for OFSP to achieve the status it has today, where 2.2 million households or about 10 million people had been impacted. She urged participants to celebrate these accomplishments while strategizing to pick up momentum for the future.The evaluation of the meeting was undertaken through a questionnaire survey. It was completed by 82 respondents. A summary of the evaluation report is presented in this section.Over the years, the SPHI has continued to grow, and this is reflected in the composition of the 94 participants, who came from 17 SSA countries, the United Kingdom, USA and Germany (see Figure 1).The minimum and maximum age of the participants was 28 and 69 years respectively. About 62% were within the range of 35-55 years. Only 4% of participants were below the age of 30 and 1% were above 65 years.A quarter of the participants were female. This was the lowest compared to the previous two meetings, i.e. 36% in 2014 and 34% in 2015. This suggests the need for increased affirmative action to encourage female participation in sweetpotato activities in SSA.Promoting public-private partinership is an essential step to further scale up the research findings and bring significant change in the research for development activities. In SPHI 2016, the private sector representation was very low. The chart below shows the type of organizations represented at the meeting. Half of the participants felt that the meeting had completely met their expectations. Participants especially found the panel discussions useful. They also valued the networking opportunities provided by the meeting. When asked which part of the meeting was least useful, 86% did not respond, while 8% said there had been limited time for discussions.Presentations: About 50% of this year's participants were of the opinion that the quality of the presentations was good, 30% replied that the content was very good, 16% indicated that it was alright while 5% indicated that presentation content was poor.Panel discussions: The meeting had five panel discussions. Participants were asked to rate the quality and usefulness of each panel discussion either as poor, alright, good or very good. The chart below compares the panel discussions by the total number of participants that rated each one either as good or very good.National programs 15%Private sector 1% Development partners 16% Academic institutions 6%Figure 7: Percentage of participants who rated the quality and usefulness of the panel discussion as good and very goodIn terms of the organization of the meeting, about 7% the participants rated the organization as poor, 17% alright, and 50% indicated that the organization was good while 26% rated it as very good. Visa problems were encountered by 39% of all participants, with 7% almost not making it to the meeting. The 7 th SPHI meeting was planned to precede the 10 th Triennial APA for effective resources utilization and management. About 87% of the participants indicated that it was a good idea to do this.Forty-five percent of the participants did not suggest areas for improvement in the future. Those that did, made the following suggestions: Inclusion of more critical analysis of the contents of presentation. The way forward with the evil weevil 8 AnnexesThe new TOR for the SPHI Steering Committee is as follows: Strategic Guidance on progress toward target, based on the annual report on Status of Sweetpotato in SSA.  High level advocacy and resource mobilization for SPHI agenda.  Review of and guidance of functioning of CoPs.  Review and guidance on impact of regional technical backstopping.  Support the broadening of SPHI membership.  As illustrated by the members' code outlined below, the SPHI Steering Committee is committed to partnership for collective impact. Each member:  Is committed to the SPHI vision of reaching at least 10 million African households by 2020, with knowledge, improved varieties and diversified use of sweetpotato, for improved incomes and health.  Will demonstrate commitment of human and financial resources to sweetpotato-related activities.  Will regularly share knowledge gained through its activities and interactions on the Sweetpotato Knowledge Portal.  Will share information about SPHI activities with its networks and so contribute to building the network of actors working on sweetpotato in Africa.  Will share progress on the reach and impact of its sweetpotato-related activities on a regular basis.  Will participate actively in annual meetings of the SPHI, covering its own attendance costs.  Will participate in relevant CoPs and contribute to the growth and development of these communities.Co The survey results showed that 70% of DVMs were multiplying vines 9 months after the project finished; 34% were using close spacing in beds; 61% were using conventional plant spacing on ridges for roots and vines; and 5% were using both multiplication beds and ridges. Further, 97% of DVMs irrigated from wells, springs, lake, river, or dam water; 34% used pumps. During the life of the project, 89% of DVMs used fertilizer, and 26% continued to use it after the project finished. The in-depth interviews showed that farmers selected planting material not only on the basis of plant health, but also used cues to plant vigour. The use of own-saved seed involved a complex performance of managing seed and root production across different agro-ecologies according to inter-and intra-season characteristics. As the vine multiplication cycle became a specialised activity, vines were treated differently, depending on whether they were to be used for high root production or high vine production. The resilience and viability of the existing seed systems depended not only on individual knowledge and skills, but also management practices across agro-ecologies and negotiating social settlements at community level. As specialisation of seed production developed, the multiplication and root production cycles were separated and tasks became segregated. New knowledge and skills were formed in different ways; the trained multipliers adapted the new techniques into the existing system of shifting vine conservation and root production between different ecologies. Corresponding author e-mail: G.Makunde@cgiar.orgIn Southern Africa, more pronounced drought episodes are a serious abiotic threat to agriculture, affecting storage root yield and quality of roots and leaves in sweetpotato. Two experiments were conducted at Estacao Agraria de Umbeluzi in February and August 2015. The three objectives were to (1) determine cultivar response to mid-season drought; (2) determine best traits for improvement of storage root yield in the mid-season, water-stressed period corresponding to initiation of storage roots compared with non-stressed environments; and (3) assess the selection criteria for identifying drought tolerance in sweetpotato cultivars that could be recommended for regular use in breeding programmes. The experiments involved two trials with two watering treatments, irrigated and water-stressed. The distance between the experiments was 10 m and furrow irrigation was applied. The irrigated and water-stressed trials received 640 and 400 mm of moisture, respectively, throughout the season. Water stress was imposed from 30 to 70 days after planting. Each trial consisted of 48 genotypes, composed of 24 released varieties, 16 landraces, and 8 introductions from different countries. All the genotypes were cleaned and indexed by the tissue culture laboratory in Mozambique before multiplication for trial establishment. Each treatment had two replications arranged in a randomised complete block design, with dimensions of each plot measuring 3 x 5 m. Data were collected on storage root and vine yield, total biomass, stem and internode length, leaf area index, and derived drought tolerance indices-geometric mean and drought sensitivity index, including harvest index (HI). The data were subjected to analysis of variance in SAS (1996). Cultivar performance varied significantly within and between treatments. MUSGP0646-126 had the highest storage root yield across treatments and over seasons with a high HI. The mid-season drought imposed reduced the magnitude of all traits measured. HI was significantly correlated with storage root yield. HI stability and the geometric mean may be key to identifying cultivars with storage root yield stability and high storage root yield under both treatments. Cultivars with high storage root yield under mid-season drought were associated with high HI, indicating that partitioning of assimilates, rather than whole-plant biomass, was the driving factor to high yield. The released varieties group had higher storage root yield under both treatments than landraces and introductions from other countries. The use of drought indices and HI is encouraged for selecting improved cultivars for varied production environments. Their regular use as part of accelerated breeding schemes is encouraged.Keywords: Storage root initiation, geometric mean, harvest index, stress susceptibility index, yield stability, sweetpotato Corresponding author e-mail: j.low@cgiar.orgResearch conducted in Rwanda demonstrated that orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) purée (steamed, mashed roots) was an economically viable, vitamin A-enhancing ingredient in baked products when it was produced and used at the same bakery. Having a storable, packaged OFSP purée produced in quantity by a firm to supply bakers is an alternative model. Vacuum-packed OFSP purée with preservatives with a shelf life of 4 months at 20ºC was successfully developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) under laboratory conditions in 2015. Turning that product into a commercial reality requires developing a public-private partnership to establish an OFSP purée value chain. The company Organi Ltd was competitively selected from bids solicited by CIP in October 2014. EIL provided technical support on equipment and process flow at the factory and collaborated on purée storage studies. In April 2015, CIP facilitated an agreement between Organi Ltd and Tuskys, the second largest supermarket chain in Kenya, to provide OFSP purée to Tuskys' bakery department. This paper examines the technical, economic, and social aspects along the chain during the first 18 months, using sensitivity analysis to examine drivers of profit. The first OFSP bread began to be marketed in six Tuskys' stores in June 2015, at a premium price (5 Ksh above its regular bread), reaching 18 stores by August 2016. The OFSP bread was well-received by consumers, and the limited stocks sold out by noon. During the first 8 months the factory struggled with supply due to (1) reluctance of farmers to switch from their traditional white-fleshed varieties, for which strong market demand exists, to OFSP varieties until they were certain that the OFSP roots would be purchased; (2) management problems at the factory due to inexperienced staff; and (3) cash flow problems. Daily purée supply rose from 200 kg to 500 kg by January 2016, but then issues of root oversupply and low absorption by Tusky's arose. The transition from the use of OFSP purée requiring freezing to a vacuumed-packed, preserved product was slower than envisaged due to needing excellent food-handling standards, the cost of packaging and preservatives, and the effect of the preservative sorbate on dough development. Switching to machinery that could puree unpeeled, cooked OFSP in lieu of peeled roots led to a profit margin increase of 20%. Consolidated transport of sufficient quantities of purée, fresh root storage capacity at the factory, and a price premium for the bread are requisite for successful commercialisation.Keywords: Orange-fleshed sweetpotato, purée, value chain, storage, viability Corresponding author e-mail: srini.rajendran@cgiar.orgSweetpotato is a major food crop in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). Smallholders have not been able to achieve its potential yield, however, due to lack of access to and use of quality certified seed. Majority of farmers rely on farmer-to-farmer exchange of vines, which without a linkage to a system able to produce and deliver starter seed, regularly and sustainably, often results in seed of unknown quality. This means that national agricultural research institutes (NARIs) must improve their capacity to supply the starter seed into these systems in a sustainable manner. Therefore, since 2014, the International Potato Center (CIP) has been working to strengthen technical and financial capacities for sustainable production of pre-basic sweetpotato seed. In collaboration with the national sweetpotato programmes, CIP has also prepared business plans that reflect the institutional and market context. This study conducted a cross-country synthesis of the business plans to (1) examine the overall business opportunities for public institutions that are involved in pre-basic seed production; (2) identify options for financially sustainable enterprise models by identifying direct and indirect potential benefits from the early generation seed business as well as the potential growth of the business using financial analysis; and(3) draw out potential strategies for implementing sustainable, pre-basic seed production business. The study used primary data collected from various NARIs located in ESA countries. The preliminary results indicate that the cost of tissue culture (TC) is high and that, on the whole, the total cost per unit of output declines along the value chain. The South Agricultural Research Institute in the Southern region of Ethiopia reports that production of the TC plantlets average 5.4 times higher than that of pathogen-tested screenhouse cuttings. (This is if the cost of hardening and cutting of pre-basic seed is included, which in turn is more than 195 times higher than basic seed in net tunnels.) Thus, pre-basic seed programmes need to rationalise how many TC plantlets they truly need to maintain in order to reduce the cost of TC plantlets production. However, overall results conclude that production of pre-basic and basic seed by public institutions is profitable due to relatively high gross margins and viable business in the long-run, given the positive net present values. The paper provides key messages to help public institutions to identify potential partners, including private sector, and can serve as a tool for raising funds for investment in this business.Keywords: Financial analysis, business plans, NPV, IRR, gross margin, SWOT, TOWS Corresponding author e-mail: madjaliwa@yahoo.frThe majority of sweetpotato farmers practice piecemeal harvesting and store harvested roots for many days. Studies show that significant postharvest losses occur because of improper handling and other factors, often because farmers lack appropriate storage technologies. We set up a zeroenergy sweetpotato storage unit and compared the results with farmers' traditional house storage practice. Five sweetpotato varieties-'Gihingumukungu', 'Terimbere', 'Vita', 'Cacearpedo', and 'Magande'-were stored under cool and farmers' storage conditions for 70 days to evaluate the effect of both storage conditions on the shelf life of sweetpotato roots. The cool storage structure has double walls with charcoal in between. When water is added it evaporates, drawing heat out of the room and keeping the room cool. Four plastic basins were placed in the cool storage structure to increase the relative humidity. The percent weight loss for 'Gihingumukungu' stored in the cool storage structure was significantly low (6.1%, p<0.05) compared with when it was stored under the farmers' conditions (12.5%). The appearance was significantly high (better) (4.2, p<0.05; on a scale of 5 = excellent, 1 = worst) for 'Vita' stored in the cool storage structure than when it was stored under the farmers' conditions (3.3). Appearance of the roots for other varieties was also high when stored in the cool storage structure, but the differences were not significant (p<0.05). Both storage methods had nonsignificant impact on the concentration of the soluble substances, primarily the sugars present in the sweetpotato roots. Internal damage for 'Gihingumukungu' and 'Magande' varieties stored in the cool storage structure was significantly low (0.0 and 0.5, p<0.05, respectively; on a scale of 0 = 0% damage, 5 = 76-100% damage) when compared with the same varieties stored under farmers' conditions (0.7 and 2.7, respectively). Internal damage of the roots was characterised by darkening or softening of the root tissues. The temperature in the cool storage structure was significantly lower (20.9°C and 19.2°C, p<0.05) during the day and night compared with the temperature in the farmer's house (21.7°C and 20.7°C, p<0.05) during the day and night, indicating that the former method was cooler. However, the temperature recorded outside was also significantly lower (20.1°C and 18.3°C, p<0.05) during the day and night for both storage conditions. The relative humidity in the cool storage structure was significantly high (81.8% and 84.6%, p<0.05) during the day and night compared with it under farmers' storage conditions (72.3% and 71.8%) during the day and night. These preliminary results show that the technology can be effective when well-calibrated. More calibration is necessary to lower the internal temperature further.Keywords: Evaporative cooling, sweetpotato, shelf life, zero-energy storage, sweetpotato storage 8.6.20 Factors affecting adoption of insect-proof net tunnels for production of quality sweetpotato vines among farmer multipliers in Tanzania Corresponding author e-mail: K.Ogero@cgiar.orgInsect-proof net tunnels have been shown to limit virus attack on sweetpotato planting material, hence reducing potential root yield losses. But net tunnels are a new technology among farmers who produce planting material (farmer-multipliers), and it is not well known what will influence the long-term sustainability of their use. This research sought to determine parameters that affect the technical feasibility of the technology under farmer-multiplier management. The following aspects were investigated: (1) the effect of different closing methods on durability of the nets; (2) plant spacing in the net tunnels; and (3) the skills and capacities required to manage the net tunnels. Experiments comparing different closing methods and plant spacing were conducted in the Lake Zone, Tanzania, and consisted of two net tunnels-one closed with a zipper and the other by tying the two ends using manila strings. One sweetpotato variety ('Kabode') was planted in both net tunnels but with different spacing (15 x 10 cm, and 20 x 10 cm). The experiments were replicated four times. The two different spacing regimes did not show any significant influence on both vine yields and the ability of the leaves to stay green. This might be due to the fact that the difference in plant population was only 60 plants, and that the plants quickly spread to take advantage of additional space. The use of the two alternative closing methods reduced damage caused when binding wires are used to close the net tunnels. Damage was even further reduced when knots were used. To investigate farmer-multipliers' experiences with the technology-in particular, the profile, skills, and capacities needed to manage the net tunnels-a mini-survey was conducted with a sub-sample of farmer-multipliers. From the mini-survey interviews, it was noted that one factor affecting successful multiplication of planting material in net tunnels is water availability. The current techniques for irrigation (use of buckets and watering cans), however, are very cumbersome and time consuming. Other management challenges mentioned by the multipliers included weed and caterpillar infestation after harvesting. This research indicates that the net tunnel technology can be cascaded down to farmer-multipliers successfully if there is proper management. There is a need to test weed and caterpillar management strategies and to continuously train multipliers on the importance of good agricultural practices. This will contribute to more effective management of the net tunnel technology for quality seed production. ","tokenCount":"25427"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"38ad315098d409083e1910bf74f8e951","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/98ad406d-5a36-40bc-b6f5-4e4272894d5d/retrieve","id":"-657458914"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"424c0879-0951-4180-8544-5f31b2e68387","pagecount":"15","content":"In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), rice holds a crucial position as one of the most important food security crops. To enhance domestic rice productivity and production, several SSA countries have implemented substantial measures by promoting the adoption of improved varieties along with good agricultural practices. In Rwanda, rice is one of the priority food crops under the Crop Intensification Program and thus, benefits from the input subsidies (MINAGRI, 2021). It is consumed daily by a significant portion of the population with an average per capita consumption of 11 kg per year, according to FAOSTAT in 2017. It is served with a variety of dishes, including beans, vegetables, and meat. Despite the efforts to increase rice production, Rwanda still relies on imports to meet a significant portion of its domestic rice consumption.Rice is mainly grown in the lowlands in Rwanda, particularly in the Eastern, Western and Southern provinces, where there is ample water supply for irrigation. However, its production faces several challenges as smallholder farmers have gaps of technical knowledge and skills and in addition to that have limited access to finance to invest on quality inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and machineries. Addressing these challenges will require a comprehensive approach that includes access to finance and inputs, technology transfer and capacity building, and supportive policies and regulations to promote the growth and development of the rice sector in Rwanda.The Rwanda Agriculture and animal development Board (RAB) plays a significant role in promoting rice production in Rwanda by providing technical assistance, training, and extension services to farmers on best practices in rice cultivation, post-harvest handling, and marketing. In collaboration with RAB, a survey was conducted among rice farmers in Rwanda as a component of the CGIAR Regional Initiative, Transforming African Food Systems -West and Central Africa (TAFS-WCA). The principal objective of the survey was to assess the standards and performance indicators of Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) among rice farmers. The survey aims to gain a better understanding of the current rice farming practices and production constraints in Rwanda.Established in 2011 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and private sector partners, the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) is a global multi-stakeholder partnership aimed at promoting sustainable rice farming (SRP, 2020b). The platform has developed a set of standards and performance indicators. The Standard evaluates the sustainability of rice cultivation practices adopted by farmers, whereas the performance indicators offer a numerical evaluation of the results achieved at the farm level. This assessment helps to identify the key areas for intervention and determine the most effective strategy.This report represents the methodology and preliminary findings of the SRP survey conducted in Rwanda.This study involved ten staff members from RAB as interviewers who had expertise in agriculture and crop production. Before conducting the field survey, the interviewers received online training on the questionnaire content from the AfricaRice agronomy team in Madagascar. A physical training session was also held to prepare the interviewers for data collection using tablets. The survey was created using the \"Survey Solutions\" platform and had interviewer and supervisor accounts for piloting. Each enumerator had an interviewer account, and the Android application \"Interviewer\" was used for data collection on the tablet. The AfricaRice agronomist research assistant served as the supervisor and verified the quality of submitted data.The questionnaire had two parts that were interdependent and interactive. The first part focused on 41 standards grouped into eight themes related to rice production, including farm management, preplanting, water use management, nutrient management, integrated pest management, harvest and post-harvest management, health and safety of chemical applications, and labor rights. After completing the first part, farmers received a final score on a 0-100 scale, indicating the sustainability level of their rice production. The second part addressed performance indicators, such as rice profitability, productivity, nutrients use efficiency, pesticide use, and youth inclusion. Each standard requirement addressed one or more SRP performance indicators.The survey was conducted from 25 th November to 02 nd December 2022 in three rice-producing regions of Rwanda: Gasabo, Huye, and Gisagara. Agronomists based in each district selected the farmers for the interview. Due to the questionnaire's length, farmers were gathered in a cooperative office to save time and reach the target number of at least 180 participants in Rwanda. Each farmer was interviewed individually.The survey included 183 rice farmers in Southern province (Huye and Gisagara) and Kigali province (Gasabo) who cultivated under irrigated lowland production systems. Of these farmers, 121 were male and 62 were female. Farmers are solely responsible for managing their farms. Majority of them (93%) are smallholder farmers and owning less than 1 hectare of land while the remaining 7% owned more, including areas for crops other than rice. However, the actual rice field size cultivated by individual farmers ranged from 0.04 ha to 2 ha.Rice is grown twice a year in Rwanda: the first season runs from July to December (season A), and the second season runs from January to June (season B) (National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, 2018). Farmers used a double cropping system: 90% of them grew rice in both seasons, while the remaining 10% grew rice in at least one of the seasons. The majority (75%) of rice farmers are members of a farmers' cooperative. The rice varieties cultivated by farmers vary between the two provinces, with the most common rice varieties grown in each surveyed province are listed in the table below. Each of the farmers who were interviewed had a pre-planned crop calendar for each season developed by cooperative managers, which includes the schedule for activities from land preparation to harvesting, as well as the corresponding labor requirements.The majority of the data that farmers record is at a basic level such as field size, rice variety, fertilizer and pesticide applied and amount of paddy harvested. Some farmers (7%) indicated that they keep data at an intermediate level, which is more precise and expressed in international units. This type of data may require the assistance of external partners to collect.Regarding training, 79% of farmers indicated they had received training on rice production in the last five years. Furthermore, the majority of those who received training (94%) were able to apply what they learned through the training to their rice production practices.3) Pre-planting: heavy metal and soil salinity assessment, invasive species, land leveling and seed qualityNo risk assessment has been conducted within the past five years with regard to milled grain rice or soil contamination from heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, and chromium.Approximately 43% of farmers indicated that there is recent documented evidence showing no soil salinity risk in their group or region, or that the level of soil salinity in their group or region is considered acceptable.The farmer or farmer group has not deliberately introduced any invasive species (such as water hyacinth or golden apple snails) since 2009.Most of the land that is being cultivated or flat land or terraces, which have been appropriately leveled.Certified seeds are commonly used by most farmers (97%) to ensure high seed quality. In addition, the average seed rate applied was 39 kg/ha, which has a coefficient of variation of 39%. This rate is comparable to the recommended rate of 30 kg/ha for transplanted rice.Irrigated rice production system applied to majority of cultivated land which are not flood-prone (98%). Most farmers follow appropriate measures to improve water-use efficiency, including:-one dry tillage before flooding if the soil is cracked.-proper leveling and construction of strong bunds.-transplanting following land soaking, effective puddling, and tillage within a one-week period.-alternate wetting and drying.-Use of short or medium-duration varieties that offer similar yield potential as long-duration varieties.-stopping irrigation at least 10-15 days before harvesting.The irrigation system under the command of the farmer or farmer group is generally consistent with the following criteria:-presence of internal canals that ensure sufficient water supply and drainage in the command area. -absence of leaks in dikes.-proper functioning of sluices, if applicable.-involvement of stakeholders in decision-making related to the irrigation system.While majority of the farmers (83%) do not have knowledge about the cleanliness of inbound water in their irrigation systems, some farmers have reported that there is documented evidence that the inbound water is obtained from clean sources.The average frequency of irrigation per season among the sample was 18, with a high degree of variation (82% coefficient of variation). The depth of water per irrigation varied between 5cm to 20cm, with an average depth of 6.4cm.For nutrient management practices, out of the participants surveyed, 69% were able to meet the minimum score required for effective nutrient management. This was achieved by following at least two of the following criteria: applying fertilizer according to plant needs, locally adapted recommendations; applying the appropriate amount of fertilizer based on knowledge of soil fertility and expected yield, locally adapted recommendations; and using systems of soil fertility enhancement such as crop rotation, intercropping and non-invasive cover cropping. However, 5% did not follow any of these recommendations.Fertilizer usage is common among farmers in Rwanda, with only a small proportion (1.6%) reporting not using any type of fertilizer (Figure 1). The majority of farmers (67.8%) use mineral fertilizers exclusively, while 30.6% use a combination of organic and mineral fertilizers. NPK and Urea are the most commonly used inorganic fertilizers, while farmyard manure, compost, and straw incorporation before cultivation are the most dominant organic fertilizer options. None of the interviewed farmers reported using organic fertilizer only. The recommended mineral fertilizer rate for irrigated rice was NPK (17-17-17) at 200 kg/ha and urea (46% N) at 100 kg/ha. According to our results, the majority of farmers' fields had the optimal ranges for NUE (73%), 14% had lower rate and 13% higher rate. However, only 21% had the optimal range for PUE, the remaining had too high level. The frequency distribution of NUE and PUE is represented in the Figure 2. The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach combines both preventive and curative methods for controlling pests. Preventive techniques are employed to manage conditions and prevent pest infestation. Such measures may involve the use of resistant crop varieties, crop rotation, intercropping, sanitation practices, ecological engineering, and other similar methods. In contrast, curative methods focus on treating pests that have already developed and may involve mechanical control such as hand weeding, biological control using natural agents, or chemical control using synthetic pesticides. The SRP standard aims to encourage the adoption of preventive measures to prevent pest outbreaks and to implement curative measures when necessary. The use of pesticides is only considered as a last resort, and actions should be as targeted as possible to avoid unwanted negative effects to the environment (SRP, 2020b).Most farmers employ preventive measures to protect their crops from pests, and their use of curative methods depends on the type of pest. Mechanical weed control, primarily through hand weeding, is the common method of weed control. However, for insect and disease control, pesticides are the preferred choice among most farmers. While 73% of farmers are knowledgeable about snails, only 9% of them use curative methods, and molluscicides are infrequently used. For rodent control, no curative methods are employed. Bird control is typically achieved through non-lethal methods such as birdscaring. Pesticides such as cypermethrin, beam, and tebuconazole are mostly used by interviewed farmers. On average, the farmers apply pesticides three times, with a coefficient of variation of 22%. The timing of harvest for the vast majority (97%) of farmers is determined by the color of the rice grains. When 80-85% of the grains per panicle are straw or yellow-colored, farmers know it's time to harvest their rice. Harvesting is done manually and within 12 hours, farmers transport their rice to a drying area. Most farmers (84%) dry their rice themselves using sun-drying techniques. While almost all farmers (98%) aim to follow sustainable techniques to protect their grains from rain, mycotoxins, and animals, only a small proportion meet the criteria such as maintaining a layer thickness of 2 to 4 cm (24%) and periodically turning the grains (43%) while sun-drying.When it comes to rice storage, only 9% of farmers indicate that they store their rice themselves using safe practices to maintain grain quality. Such practices include preventing contamination with hazardous substances, keeping moisture content below 14%, preventing rewetting, and avoiding pest damage without fumigation.To minimize environmental impacts, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and improve soil quality, farmers manage rice stubble and straw sustainably. They plow with the stubble and straw when the soil is dry, allowing for at least three weeks of aerobic decomposition before wetting. If farmers collect the straw, they use it as livestock feed, mulching the tomato crops or compost and then return it to the field.As majority of farmers hold a small paddy plot, rice farmers in Rwanda primarily relies on manual labor for all rice farming activities from land preparation to harvest and post-harvest activities, with minimal use of machinery. The only exception is irrigation, where a small proportion (13%) of farmers use pumps in case of water scarcity or water does not reach the paddy field. For pest control, backpack sprayer is the equipment used.Regarding safety instruction and first aid, the majority of farmers (76%) have received safety training and know how to contact the nearest health worker or clinic. However, a notable percentage (19%) have not received any safety training. Since most farming activities involve manual labor and require minimal maintenance, farmers only need to ensure that their tools and equipment are in good working condition.While the use of pesticides is common among farmers, only 69% reported receiving training on safe handling and application of pesticides in the last five years, and a smaller percentage (16%) used the recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) during pesticide mixing and application. Pregnant or lactating women, minors, and people with respiratory diseases are not allowed to apply pesticides. Farmers designated specific areas for washing PPE, bathing, and changing clothes for pesticide applicators, which are separate from household laundry. In the field, the recommended re-entry time after pesticide use is not always followed, and only 16% of farmers indicated that the re-entry time was communicated verbally. At home, farmers properly labeled and stored pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, including partially empty containers, in a locked location separate from fuel and food and out of childrens' reach.Minors are not employed on the farm and children of school age attend year-round schooling. Hired laborers are treated with respect and are not subjected to discrimination or disrespectful treatment. Workers are free to establish or join any association of their choosing without interference, and they can participate in collective bargaining regarding working conditions. Farmers guarantee that workers' wages are fully compliant with the law of the country.To measure women's empowerment, the indicator assesses their ability to make decisions that impact their well-being, covering several key topics. These topics include women's control over household agricultural production decisions, their control over their own labor input, and their level of satisfaction with their labor input. Additionally, the assessment considers women's access to information and capacity building, seasonal resources for farm activities, and control over long-term resources for farm activities. Women's decision-making power regarding household and personal income is also evaluated, as is their participation in collective decision-making (SRP, 2020a).Generally, women possess equivalent decision-making power as men in making agricultural production choices such as land use, crop selection, production management practices, input use, rice utilization, and income use. They also have similar control over their labor input allocation, including time management for income-generating activities, household tasks, and leisure, as well as the use of technologies to reduce tedious tasks. Women typically acquire agricultural knowledge from extension agents or researchers (42% of responses) and through family, friends, and neighbors (58% of responses). Regarding access to credit, women can borrow from both formal and informal sources of credit and, with 74% of responses indicating informal borrowing. Furthermore, women have the freedom to participate in markets and move freely in public places without needing permission from others. Women can be elected as leaders of community organizations and play an influential role in group decision-making. Finally, women and men receive equal pay for similar work types.According to the farmers' responses, although young people have access to agricultural knowledge, they mostly acquire it from their relatives and neighbors rather than extension workers or researchers. However, both the public and private sectors provide effective agribusiness training and modern agricultural technologies to the youth. In terms of access to capital, most farmers reported that youth have the most access to informal credit sources (Figure 3). Based on the interview with farmers, the grain yield per hectare ranged from 2.1 to 8.0 t/ha, with an average of 4.4 t/ha. The relative frequency of yield per farmer is represented in Figure 4. Meanwhile, the selling price of paddy at the farm gate varied is fix per each cooperative for each season. The price is set based on the type of variety (short, medium, long-grain, or aromatic) and the yield it produces. For the last season, it ranged from 445 to 454 RWF per kilogram. The production cost, which includes all expenses associated with rice production, from land preparation to post-harvest activities, was notably high due to the high labor cost and high price of agricultural inputs. On average, the cost amounts to 1,140,605 RWF per hectare. As shown in Figure 5, land preparation (17.1%), weeding (19.6%), fertilizer costs (21.1%) and harvesting (10.9%) are the most expensive operations. About 36% of the surveyed farmers rent their plots, with the associated rental cost amounting to 0.8% of the total production cost. Additional costs include the cost of storage bags, production insurance, and the salary of a watchman. The benefit-cost ratio (BCR) can be defined as the ratio of the equivalent value of benefits to the equivalent value of costs. BCR greater than or equal to 1 indicates that the production is economically favorable. The vast majority of farmers, accounting for 73% of them, had a BCR ranging between 0 and 1, indicating that their rice production has only marginal profits. In contrast, the remaining 27% of the interviewed farmers had a BCR higher than 1, indicating that their rice production was economically viable. These findings are illustrated in Figure 6. The SRP Standard score is a measure of the sustainability level of rice production based on SRP standards. It is a relative measure that allows for comparison of a farm's performance with that of other rice-producing farms, as well as tracking of progress over time. The final score per farmer ranges from 52 to 81 out of 100, with an average score of 69 out of 100, as shown in Figure 7. To claim that they are \"Working toward sustainable rice cultivation,\" SRP has set a minimum required score and established mandatory compliance levels for several requirements, including heavy metal, integrated pest management, storage, personal protective equipment, chemical storage, pesticide disposal, child labor, and hazardous work, if applicable. However, none of the interviewed farmers meet the threshold for all of these requirements related to farmer health and food safety, especially on heavy metal assessment and integrated pest management. This report provides an overview of the SRP survey conducted among rice farmers in Rwanda to understand their current rice-growing practices and production constraints. The survey aimed to assess the sustainability of rice production and identify possible solutions to improve productivity and profitability. The results showed that rice farmers in Rwanda face significant challenges in terms of productivity, profitability, and production costs. To address these challenges, several solutions were proposed. Firstly, promoting the use of small-scale mechanization suitable for farmers plot for activities such as land preparation, weeding, and harvesting can significantly increase productivity by reducing labor costs and increase efficiency. Farmers can share the cost of machinery with other farmers or through a service provision model to alleviate the burden of acquiring the machines. Secondly, even fertilizers are subsidized, its cost, including transfer and application costs, remains high and farmers are not using the appropriate amount of organic input due to uncertainties surrounding the availability in sufficient quantity. Thus, improved nutrient management technology can also be proposed. Finally, the access to technical information and training for farmers plays a crucial role in enhancing their understanding of crop management and farming practices, which can be facilitated through farmers' cooperatives.","tokenCount":"3377"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3c7f29aca3406dc0ecf89426978fc523","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fee6854a-f592-4106-be49-bb1ae14a518d/retrieve","id":"1959877505"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6b416802-6427-4d98-8368-2b7107bb5290","pagecount":"69","content":"Based on the success of the series Smart Water Solutions, and the increased interest in appropriate sanitation solutions, this edition shares information on sanitation technologies. It is designed as a source of inspiration, rather than a 'how to' manual. This publication is a collaborative effort by fi ve organisations: NWP, the Netherlands Water Partnership, is an independent organisation formed by government bodies, NGOs, knowledge institutes, and businesses involved in the water sector. The main aim of the NWP is to harmonise initiatives of the Dutch water sector and to promote Dutch water expertise worldwide. www.nwp.nl WASTE advisers on urban environment and development works towards sustainable improvement in the living conditions of the urban poor and in the urban environment. Long-term, multi-country programmes and projects have a focus on bottom-up development in relation to recycling, solid waste management, ecological sanitation, and knowledge sharing. www.waste.nlScepticism about achieving essential development goals and fi ghting poverty is fading away. Since the Millennium Development Summit in 2000, when 189 heads of state declared their full commitment to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world has had an unprecedented opportunity to improve the living conditions of billions of people in rural and urban areas. MDG 7 is particularly relevant to this booklet. Target 10 of that goal is to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation by 2015. The Netherlands is ready to take concrete steps in this fi eld and that is why I pledged in 2005 to contribute towards providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation for at least fi fty million people by 2015.The time for lengthy discussions is over. Now it is time for action. Political will, increased resources, affordable technologies and new partnerships are in place to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation. We must realise, however, that most sanitation facilities used by households or operated by small-scale enterprises were built without external support. This shows there are alternatives to the large centralised conventional systems. More importantly, small-scale solutions have proven to be cost effective. Implemented in large numbers, they can boost health, improve agricultural production and generate local business all at the same time. That is why large-scale dissemination of these technologies is crucial. Smart technologies like this help us to tackle poverty immediately. Capacity building in both software and hardware is equally important to success -not only for users and institutions, but also for small and medium-sized enterprises. This booklet on sanitation, like its counterpart Smart Water Solutions, gives examples of household and community-based sanitation solutions that have proven effective and affordable. It illustrates a range of innovative sanitation technologies that have already helped thousands of poor families to improve their lives. The technologies described are a source of inspiration.Finally, I would like to express my hope that sharing this information will bring \"Sanitation for All\" closer to reality!The need for sanitation The need for sanitation The need for sanitation The need for sanitationIn 2004, the World Health Organization estimated that about 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases (including cholera). About 90% of these deaths are of children under 5 years of age. Sanitation conditions at school heavily infl uence school attendance, especially by girls. Lack of facilities or unhygienic conditions not only prevent children participating in school, they also negatively affect their concentration and ability to learn. For example, in Madagascar alone, 3.5 million schooldays are lost each year due to ill-health, related to poor sanitation. Many adolescent girls drop out of school because of appalling and unsafe toilet conditions.World Health Organization, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Links to Health Facts and fi gures, 2004 • 88% of diarrhoeal disease is attributed to unsafe water supply, inadequate sanitation and hygiene. • Improved water supply reduces diarrhoea by between 6% and 25%.• Improved sanitation reduces diarrhoea by 32%.Sanitation, along with clean water and food security, is a primary driver for improving public health. It reduces people's exposure to disease by providing a clean living environment. It is a crucial element in breaking the cycle of infection-disease-recovery-infection, resulting from unsafe disposal of human waste containing pathogens. Behavioural and technical measures are both required to create a hygienic environment. Critical measures include hand washing before cooking, and boiling or chlorinating drinking water. \"Independent of the type of toilets provided, interventions including the whole water and sanitation system are important to improve the health situation.\" (Schönning, Stenström, 2004. For more information visit the Swedish Institute for Disease Control www.smi.ki.se) \"A review study on the impact of hand washing with soap, concerning the risk of diarrhoeal diseases showed that washing hands with soap could reduce the risk of diarrhoeal diseases by 42 to 47%.\" (Fewtrell & Colford, 2004)(Wall writings in Matathi language in Borban village of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra state in India) (Source: IDS Working Paper 184, Subsidy or Self-Respect? Participatory Total Community Sanitation in Bangladesh, Kamal Kar, 2003) There is a wide range of different diseases and transmission pathways, which means that improvements depend on a large number of people changing a wide range of behaviours and conditions. In practice, people are more motivated by social ambition than by health arguments. Improving the family's status is an important motivation in adopting better hygiene practices and being willing to pay for sanitation. Other incentives are privacy, safety and convenience, and to reduce health care costs.(Kathy Eales and Richard Holden, The Mvula Trust)Potential champions for improving sanitation can be found in every community, as can people with the necessary building and organisational skills. Family members and the local private sector are often the primary designers and providers of sanitation services. These activities contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods in a community. Sanitary offi cials and public heath workers play an important role in facilitating private entrepreneurs and the creating awareness about the importance of proper hygiene and sanitation.Pathogens die off after excretion, as environmental conditions outside the human host are generally not favourable to their survival. Environmental factors that contribute to the die-off of pathogens are listed in the table below. 1Pathogens living in the gut are not always capable of competing with other organisms outside the body for scarce nutrients.Most microorganisms survive at low temperatures (<5 °C) and rapidly die off at high temperatures (>40-50 °C) during composting and/or dehydration. pH Many microorganisms are adapted to a neutral pH (7). Increasing acidic or alkaline conditions through adding ash or lime will have an inactivating effect.Moist conditions favour the survival of microorganism. Dry conditions decrease the number of pathogens.The survival time of pathogens will be shorter when they are exposed to sunlight (when excreta are applied to the soil).Organisms may affect each other by predation, release of substances or competition as happens when waste water is treated in soil fi lters or excreta is applied in agriculture.Microbiological activity is dependent on oxygen. Most pathogens are anaerobic and are likely to be out-competed by other organisms in an aerobic environment. For this reason, application of excreta to soil and exposure to ventilation contributes to die-off.All the above conditions only become relevant in relation to time. In other words, the more time pathogens are exposed to these conditions, the less chance they have of surviving.The challenges of sanitation coverage The challenges of sanitation coverage The challenges of sanitation coverage \"Water and Sanitation is one of the primary drivers of public health. I often refer to it as \"Health 101\", which means that once we can secure access to clean water and to adequate sanitation facilities for all people, irrespective of the difference in their living conditions, a huge battle against all kinds of diseases will be won.\"Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, World Health Organization, 2004.It is a major challenge to \"halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation\" (MDG 7, Target 10). Only through a considerable increase in the construction and improvement of sanitation facilities within the next ten years, can the sanitation target be achieved.Progress in sanitation coverage 1990 -2002 (Unicef and WHO).The main challenges in reaching the MDG sanitation target are:• Senior offi cials and politicians must convince themselves about the importance of sanitation for public health, economic development and the dignity of people; • To improve awareness and knowledge among decision makers about the vital link between sanitation and health, and the relation between sanitation and economic development; • Sanitation improvement has to be based on cultural preferences, and take account of traditional behaviours and practices; • Intelligent use has to be made of (always scarce) fi nancial resources through the involvement of entrepreneurs and other key stakeholders; • Informed demand for improved sanitation must be stimulated, offering people information about appropriate (smart) technologies and services. Sanitation facilities are only sustainable when people make their own choices and own contribution towards obtaining and maintaining them. People have to experience the toilet as an improvement in their daily life. Sanitation systems have to be embedded in the local institutional, fi nancial-economic, social-cultural, legal-political, and environmental context. Besides constituting an effective disease barrier, smart sanitation solutions prevent environmental pollution and optimise the use of resource in terms of nutrients, water, and energy. Sanitation must meet the needs of the user, must be simple to use, to maintain and repair, be possible to replicate and be affordable.A sanitation technology is 'smart' when adapted to local conditions and adaptable to a changing environment. The same technology may be smart in a Mexican city but not be adequate when applied in an Indian slum.To develop a smart sanitation solution in a local context, the following guidelines are crucial:• Involving families and the private sector in design and planning (developing ownership); • Responding to actual needs (demand responsive); • Building on existing practice, experience and infrastructure (don't re-invent the wheel); • Taking account of values, attitudes and behaviour of the users (culturally sensitive); • Making choices based on affordability and willingness to pay; • Considering existing institutional settings (develop institutional support).The elements of sanitation technologies The elements of sanitation technologies \"I prefer to talk about 'sanitation' rather than 'toilets'. A fl ush toilet is basically a machine for mixing human urine, faeces and water. Sanitation, on the other hand, is a system.\" Uno Winblad A sanitation system does not solely refer to toilets. Toilets are only one element in an entire sanitation system. Other elements such as collection, transport, treatment, and use of excreta are all together vital for sustainable sanitation.Dividing the sanitation system into fi ve elements creates considerable room for fl exibility in design and choice in developing an appropriate solution adapted to local conditions. A wide range of practices exists for each element. However, fl exibility of choice is limited because some combinations do not work. For example, a dry toilet can not be combined with a sewer network.A toilet is a primary barrier between people and the pathogens present in faeces, because it contains the collection of excreta in a designated and controlled location. In addition to the toilet itself, the facility should include the means for hand-washing and provide privacy, safety and comfort to the user. These features are all important for the functioning of the entire sanitation system. Toilet options are the main focus of this booklet.A collection facility aims to prevent the uncontrolled dispersal of material containing pathogens. The collection facility, which often needs ventilation, safely contains human excreta awaiting transportation. Some collection facilities include pre-treatment of excreta. In addition, to these important functions, a smart collection facility makes effi cient use of limited space and can function effectively over a long period.A transportation system is crucial when excreta can't be treated, deposited or used onsite. Good organisation and management of transportation systems will determine the sustainability and continuity of the entire sanitation system.Transportation systems can be divided into infrastructure base systems, such as sewer networks, or logistic management using regular transportation means such as trucks, vacuum tankers, carts, and tricycles. Sewer networks require suffi cient water to transport excreta effectively.Whether sewerage (i.e. the drainage system in which sewage is transported) is appropriate heavily depends on soil conditions, the availability of suffi cient amounts of water for fl ushing (now and in the future), and the availability of fi nancial and institutional capacity.Factors that infl uence the design and applicability of the transport system include the amount of waste generated, housing density, street access, haul distance, road conditions, road gradient, traffi c type, and the cost of labour and fuel. A house-tohouse collector may transport material directly to its destination. However, transfer becomes necessary when distances increase and direct transport is no longer economically feasible or when the destination can only be reached with a different means of transport.Treatment aims at reducing the level of pathogens in excreta with a fi nal aim of achieving total die-off, to prevent infection of people and pollution of the environment.A smart designer of a treatment system also considers the recovery of resources, notably nutrients, present in excreta. Appropriate treatment systems are smart when they are designed based on the required characteristics of the end-product (for economic use). This 'reversed sanitation design' approach will also have consequences for the previous elements. For example, keeping excreta separate from grey water and storm water, or keeping urine and faeces separate provides options for more effi cient recovery of resources.Treatment facilities are either located on-site, or off-site, depending on land availability and reuse potential of excreta and grey water. If reuse of treated excreta is appropriate at the household level, on-site treatment is preferred.To avoid health risks, handling of excreta must be limited and controlled. In most circumstances, on-site treatments meet these concerns.Reducing volumes, weight and pathogens in order to facilitate safe storage, transportation and further (secondary) treatment.Controlled treatment to reduce pathogens to acceptable limits.Sanitation not only contributes to public health and environmental protection. Smart sanitation can also contribute to global food security. The 'market' consists mainly of farmers who are therefore major stakeholders in the design of this element.Reuse, recycling, and recovery all refer in some way to the extraction and/or utilisation of materials and energy from excreta or wastewater. The nutrients in excreta have a high fertilising value, and can partly replace the demand for artifi cial fertiliser. Excreta can improve soil conditions and generate biogas. Biogas can be used in households for cooking and heating.If excreta and/or wastewater cannot be used or processed in some way, it needs to be disposed of. Ways must be found to dispose of excreta while taking into account the serious threat to public health and the environment posed by improper handling. Uncontrolled disposal of excreta in soil or water can also overload organic compounds and nutrients in the environment, resulting in the loss of plant and animal life.  (SEPA, 1995 and Wolfgast, 1993)  Nitrogen (N) phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) % N of total excreted amount 70% -88% 12% -30% % P of total excreted amount 25% -67% 33% -75% % K of total excreted amount 71% 29% Relative organic content Low High * l/cap/y -litre per capita per year (the amount excreted in one year, by one personThe volume of faeces and urine varies from region to region and depends on climate, the age of a person, their water consumption, diet, and occupation. Diet infl uences the volume of faeces according to the digestibility of the food. The amount of urine also depends on temperature and humidity.Urine leaving the human body usually contains no pathogens. On the other hand, faeces contain microorganisms, including pathogens among which are bacteria, viruses, parasitic protozoa, and helminths.The nutrient content of excreta varies according to the differences in diet (digestibility of the food). However, in general the nutrient content of urine is much higher than the nutrient content of faeces.Other substances to think of Excreta contains little heavy metal and few other contaminating substances (e.g. pesticide residues). The amount depends on the amounts present in consumed products. Hormones and residuals of medicines (pharmaceuticals) are excreted with urine. These are degraded in the ground by soil microbes and vegetation.This booklet illustrates a selection of smart sanitation technologies, although it does not set out to be comprehensive or to be a manual. However, the booklet does hope to become a source of inspiration for those who are trying to improve sanitation conditions.The techniques described in this booklet, according to the elements making up entire sanitation systems: An all in one system; the An all in one system; the ArborLoo ArborLoo An all in one system; the An all in one system; the ArborLoo ArborLoo ArborLoo systems consist of a dry toilet, placed above a shallow pit about 1 metre deep. The shallow pit is usually dug by hand on which an elevated ring beam and slab are placed. Excreta is deposited into the pit and covered with soil after each use. In the pit, excreta is composted. This process can be improved by adding wood ash and leaves. When the pit is nearly full (about 6-9 months for one family), the toilet and superstructure are removed and the pit is fi lled with additional soil. The toilet and superstructure are transferred to a new pit and the process is repeated. A tree is planted on top of the fi lled pit. Because the system includes all the elements of a sanitation system -a toilet, a collection pit, a composting process, and a composted site to grow a tree -the ArborLoo system can be seen as an all-in-one-system.• ArborLoos can be applied in very scattered communities as well as in urban and peri-urban areas.If space is limited, trees such as pawpaws that provide fruit and shade can be planted. Alternatively, a full pit can be left to compost for a year, and the compost can be dug out. • All toilets should be built on slightly raised ground to avoid surface fl ooding; the pits should be shallow where water tables are high. • The conversion of excreta into humus will not take place if the pit is fl ooded with water. Therefore, good pit drainage is necessary. In case wet anal cleaning is preferred above wiping, a special washing area should be provided. • In areas with an unstable soil, the ring beam elevating the slab is placed a little deeper. In very loose collapsing sandy soil, the pit must be lined. If it is intended to excavate the compost rather than planting a tree, then two pits could be dug, to be used alternately. • Alternatively, since pit compost is easier to dig out than parent soil, this system is often used with two alternate pits to make compost that is dug out after a year.Costs: Toilet slab US$ 2 (Malawi, Zimbabwe). ArborLoo (per 100 units) US$ 5 -15 (Zimbabwe).Disadvantages: Minimal contact with faeces.Only where is suffi cient space. Easy to construct.Toilet cleaning of the toilet must be done with small amounts of water. No handling of fresh excreta.Water used for anal cleaning should be collected separate. Insert: A hole is dug down within the ring beam (photo Aquamor).A dry toilet differs from a fl ush toilet (Water Closet) in that it does not need water. Excreta are collected directly beneath the seat in a shallow pit, container, chamber, etc. The system should not be confused with a latrine, which is constructed on a deep pit. Dry toilets can include a squatting plate or pedestal, with a smooth fi nished surface and a limited area to minimise soiling. Dry toilets can be owner-built, or bought on the market. A dry toilet can be made from ferro-cement, fi bre-enforced materials, or strong and durable plastic, painted wood and ceramic material.• Dry toilets should only be used in rural areas where suffi cient space is available at the household level for storage, treatment and use of excreta. • Dry toilets are suitable in water-scarce, fl ood prone regions, and on solid soils.• The system is preferably used with anal wiping (using paper, leaves, grasses, etc. for anal cleaning).However, it can also be used in combination with a special anal washing facility. Washing water should be collected separately as in the Philippines. (See also the next description on 'dry urine diversion toilets').In almost all circumstances, urine is free from harmful pathogens, whereas faeces contain many pathogens. Mixing even relatively small quantities of faeces with urine, results in larger volumes and potential health hazards, especially if the fl ow is also diluted with water.\"We have realised that the old latrine smells and has lots of fl ies, but the urine diversion system does not have these problems.\"Thomas, son of a chief in the Chihota district in Zimbabwe.The toilet has two compartments, keeping urine and faeces separate. Urine leaves the toilet through a pipe / tube. Faeces are stored directly beneath the toilet. After defecation, dry soil, ash or sawdust is spread over the faeces, controlling odour and absorbing moisture. Men, as well as women, need to sit while urinating to ensure that the urine is diverted into the correct channel.Water used for anal cleaning must be kept separate in order not to dilute faeces or pollute urine with pathogens. This requires a separate facility for anal cleaning. Small amounts of anal cleaning water can be infi ltrated. Larger volumes need to be treated (together with grey water) to prevent ground water pollution. Dry urine diversion toilets can be made out of ceramic, ferro-cement, fi bre-enforced materials, or strong, durable, plastic and painted wood. It is important that the surface is smooth and hardened.• Dry urine diversion toilets are used in regions that are water scarce, fl ood prone, or that have an impermeable and a high ground water table. • They are suitable in rural and suburban areas, where urine and faeces can be used in agriculture.• There needs to be suffi cient public awareness about the risks of handling urine and faeces.Fibre glass pedestal (based on 20 units) US$ 40 (Philippines). Ceramic pedestal (based on 400 units) US$ 14 (Philippines).The public health risks are mainly Special child seats have to be provided to limited to proper handling of faeces.keep their urine and faeces separate. Large scale nutrient recovery is a The toilet's operation requires clear realistic possibilty.instructions and close attention. Can be used indoors.Regular removal of collected urine and faeces Does not require water for fl ushing.is required.Pour fl ush slabs (squatting pans) have a U-shaped facility partly fi lled with water under the slab. This U-trap overcomes problems with fl ies, mosquitoes, and odour by serving as a water seal. After use, excreta is manually fl ushed by pouring water into the pan with a scoop. About 1 to 4 litres of water is required for each fl ush. The amount of water required depends mainly on the design of the toilet and U-trap. Toilets can be made from plastic and ceramic, or from galvanized sheet metal. Note: The principle of pour fl ush slabs can also be applied to the faeces compartment of urine diversion toilets.• Pour fl ush slabs can only be applied in regions where water is available for fl ushing, and the infrastructure is available or can be built to manage wastewater. This may require the construction of a (septic) tank / biogas digester / pit and / or small diameter sewerage. • These slabs are especially appropriate in densely populated areas where dry handling of excreta isn't socio-cultural appropriate. • Pour fl ush slabs are suitable where people use water for anal cleaning and squat to defecate.• No material that should obstruct the U-trap should be thrown in the toilet. Bulky material used for anal cleaning can't be fl ushed through the U-trap. • The U-trap should be checked monthly for blockages.Costs: Ceramic pour fl ush pan US$ 4-8 (Tamil Nadu, India, 1999). 'Easyfl ush' polypropylene pan US$ 2 (Chennai, India).No expenses usually, except for the cost of the water.The U-trap can easily become blocked. user. The design reduces the need to Requires small amounts of water for fl ushing. handle fresh excreta. Can be used indoors.Pathogens are mixed with water and thus spread over a relatively large volume.Information: General www.who.nl www.irc.nl www.wsp.orgLow cost pour fl ush slab, Rajshahi, Bangladesh (photo WaterAid Australia).Waterless urinals, slab or wall-mounted, collect undiluted urine, and so generate relatively low volumes. Traditionally urinals are provided adjacent to a toilet. Urinals can prevent fouling of toilets, especially in schools. Prefabricated urinals are available, but do-it-your-self toilets can also be made. The 'Eco-Lily' from Ethiopia is made out of a common liquid container with a used light bulb acting as a fl oating 'odour-lock' to reduce smells. The 'Eco-Lily' is a device to be used as urinal both by men and women. SUDEA's experiences have showed that men can use it without any explanation while women often need some information on how to use it because of their biological difference.• Waterless urinals are a suitable option in situations without reliable water supply.• Urinals are a low-cost option, especially in public places where people use the toilet more for urinating than for defecation. • Waterless urinals are often used in combination with a urine diversion toilet as the urinal allows men to urinate standing up.Costs: Wall-mounted, manufactured urinal US$ 35 (South Africa). Self constructed urinal Negligible.Disadvantages: Reduce water use. Doesn't deal with defecation. Hygienic and cheap method for Not useful for females. containing urine.The Fossa Alterna is a shallow alternating double pit system, collecting and compos ting excreta from a dry toilet. Two shallow pits are dug next to each other (0.5 -1.5 metre deep). Dry leaves are added to the pit base before use, and thereafter soil (and ash) are added after each defecation. When a pit is 3/4 full, the concrete slab and portable superstructure are placed on the second pit. Excreta is not only collected, but also (pre-) treated by fi lling the original pit with soil and leaving it to compost. By the time the second pit is full, the fi rst pit is emptied after which the slab and superstructure is put back on top of it and the pit is reused. After composting, the content of the fi rst pit can be used as fertiliser. The best compost time is more than 12 months. The material can be excavated earlier at 6 months, but is best transferred at this stage to a pit in which a tree will be planted.Capacity Filling time Small / medium sized About 0.5 -0.75 m 3 6 -12 months 10 users About 1 m 3 6 months• The conversion of excreta into humus will not take place if the pit is fl ooded with water. Therefore, the pit should not be sealed and water used for anal cleaning should not enter the pit. • Not applicable in areas with a high water table, with very loose soil (which could collapse), or very solid soil which would prevent drainage. • In order to prevent water tables penetrating the pits and contaminating the water, pits should be shallow. • Applicable in rural and peri-urban areas, where compost can be taken away and disposed of or, better still, used on agricultural fi elds. • As with many sanitation systems, household members need to understand the key principles for effi cient operation and maintenance and discipline is required for adding soil after each defecation.Urine from urine diversion toilets or urinals can be collected in plastic containers.Oil drums are useful for the collection of faeces. Urine collected in small containers (up to 20 litres) can be easily transported and used as fertiliser in the household's own vegetable garden. Larger containers, fi lled with urine have to be collected by a vehicle and can therefore be transported over longer distances. Oil drums, or half drums, can be placed directly beneath a toilet to collect faeces. Ash or other drying material has to be added regularly to prevent smells. Toilet paper can also be collected in the oil drum.Filling time Container, polyethylene collecting urine 7 users About 20 litre 2 days Oil drum, polyethylene collecting faeces 7 users 20 -100 litre 1 -> 5 weeks• Oil drums and containers can be used in areas with hard sub surface and high ground water tables.• Not suitable for the collection of mixed urine and excreta.• Collection of oil drums and containers at community level has to be made functioning beforehand and measures have to be taken to guarantee hygienic safety. Sizes and weights must be manageable.Excreta from dry toilets and faeces from urine diversion toilets can be collected in vaults and chambers, built above ground, using bricks or stones, and accessible through a door. The fl oor should be made watertight from impermeable material. Excreta is not only collected here, but also (pre-) treated by pre-composting. Most systems use two chambers, in order to avoid handling fresh material; while one vault is fi lling up, excreta in the other vault is processed. These systems are referred to as Double Vault systems. For dehydration processes in these vaults, see Section Treatment -Dehydration, page 41.• Vaults and chambers are suitable in areas with a hard subsurface and high ground water table.• The system can be applied in rural, as well as in urban areas. However, it should be noted that, if composted and dehydrated matter cannot be used on site, the need for transport will increase the operation and maintenance costs. • Processing mixed excreta is only possible in arid climates.• As with other dry sanitation options, the health risks related to handling of (pre-) treated excreta or faeces have to be taken into consideration.Filling time 7 users 0.6 -0.8 m 3 About 6 monthsComplete double vault system, US$ 160 (Mexico, 1998). freestanding unit Complete double vault system, US$ 35 (China, 2002). within the home Operation and maintenance Negligible.Treatment process in the vault needs attention. handle fresh faecal material. On site pre treatment of excreta (Post) treatment of the excreta / faeces is or faeces. required after collection. Relatively large emptying intervals.Tricycles and push carts can be used to transport containers and oil drums containing urine or excreta. Push carts and tricycles (pedal or motorised) can access small streets. Tricycles can speed up the collection operation and increase the radius of the collection in urban areas, transporting the containers to transfer stations or to community treatment facilities. From transfer stations, urine and excreta can be loaded onto trucks or tractors, which can haul a larger volume over a long distance. Tricycles can collect door to door, although urine can also be collected in larger containers serving a number of houses.• Pushcarts and tricycles are especially appropriate in fl at urban areas, with access roads.• Pushcarts and tricycles are not appropriate for collecting large volumes (> 300 litre, > 300 kg) or for longer distances. • Operators require training and regulation.About US$ 300 (India, 2005). Yearly operation and maintenance costs for About US$ 2000(India, 2005). the collection of faeces of 8000 households with motorised tricycles (incl. labour costs).Disadvantages: Not dependent on large, Highly depending on willingness to cost-intensive infrastructure.pay for regular removal of excreta.Only appropriate for small haul distances private entrepreneurs. and small volumes.Transfer facilities often required. collection services.Minimising operation costs may lead to uncontrolled disposal of sludge or urine.Information: General www.waste.nl www.bpdws.org www.sulabhinternational.orgInsert: Vehicle transporting urine in the Philippines (photo WASTE). The Vacutug consist of a 500 litre vacuum tank and a pump run by a small gasoline engine that has the capacity to remove sludge (or urine) at 1,700 litres a minute. MAPET equipment is mounted on a pushcart. The Vacutug is a small vacuum tanker with an engine that also powers the vehicle. Sludge is transported to a neighbourhood collection / disposal point from where vacuum tankers transfer it to city treatment plants.• Vacutug and MAPET technologies can be used to transport excreta in high-density areas with small-unpaved streets. Although designed to empty pits and septic tanks, these devices can also deal with urine. • Operators require training and regulation.• The system depends on a communal approach and economy of scale in order to allow these options to be sustainable. • Wherever mechanised emptying is considered, the designs of the pits or (septic) tanks themselves should also be considered.Costs: Investment MAPET US$ 3000 (1992, Tanzania). Capital costs Vacutug US$ 5000 (1998, Nairobi). Operation costs MAPET US$ 2.50 /200 litre (1992, Tanzania). Operation costs Vacutug US$ 3-5 / 500 litre (1998, Nairobi).Disadvantages: Low operation costs.Solids are often not removed from pits or tanks. Can be constructed, operated MAPET is not suitable if the haul distance and maintained using local exceeds 0.5 km. materials and skills.Minimising operation costs may lead to Capital cost are affordable by uncontrolled disposal of sludge or urine. entrepreneurs who can develop micro-enterprises.Settled sewerage (small diameter) Settled sewerage (small diameter) Settled sewerage (small diameter) Settled sewerage (small diameter) Settled sewerage, also called small diameter or small-bore sewerage is designed to prevent solids in wastewater from entering a communal small bore sewer network. An important condition for the functioning of these sewer networks is that a minimum average of 25 litres per person per day enters the system. First wastewater settles in a small interceptor tank. Later, wastewater is conveyed via small (50 -200 mm) diameter sewers of PVC or other durable material. Pipes are laid at various gradients from 0% to 10%. Inspection manholes are limited to minimise unauthorised opening and disposal into the system. Costs can be reduced if a group of households shares one interceptor tank. Although settled sewerage is mainly used to transport wastewater, small diameter sewers are also appropriate to transport urine.• The system can be appropriate in high-and low-density areas.• In areas where elevation differences do not permit gravity fl ow, pump stations are required.• The system is appropriate for areas where septic tanks already exist, but effl uent is causing public health or environmental risks. • Understanding of the system hydraulics is required.• The system needs to be fl ushed periodically to avoid blockages.Costs: Investment per household US$ 150 -500 (Honduras, 1990).Investment per person US$ 35 -85 (North East Brazil). Investment 20%-50% less than conventional sewerage in rural areas.Where septic tanks already exist, the cost reduction can be 40%-70% (USA).Institutional operation and maintenance involvement.required.Interceptor tanks need to be desludged transported.periodically.Potential risk of blockages due to illegal excreta through the small connections that by-pass the interceptor tank. diameter pipe. Sewers can be laid at fl at gradients.High water consumption for excreta removal. Excreta 'out of sight'.Composting is an aerobic process in which bacteria and other organisms feed on organic material and decompose it. Composting (one material) and co-composting (two or more materials) represent generally accepted procedures to treat excreta. To start the composting process, the blended compostable material is placed in windrows (long or round piles). The 'recipe' combines high-carbon and high-nitrogen materials. Air is added to maintain aerobic conditions, either by turning the windrows or by forcing air through them. To adequately treat excreta together with other organic materials in windrows, the WHO (1989) recommends active windrow co-composting with other organic materials for one month at 55-60°C, followed by two to four months curing to stabilise the compost. This achieves an acceptable level of pathogen kill for targeted health values. Adding excreta, especially urine, to household organics produces compost with a higher nutrient value (N-P-K) than compost produced only from kitchen and garden wastes. Co-composting integrates excreta and solid waste management, optimizing effi ciency.• The type of material, the climate, the amount of space and the equipment and funds available all infl uence the system design, especially windrow type and size, recipe, and level of technology. • Special measures, such as more frequent turning or covering the piles can accommodate extremes of climate or temperature. • Composting is a bio-chemical process, not a bio-mechanical one, and as such requires experience and practical knowledge, together with a high level of management.Planted soil fi lters, also referred to as constructed wetlands or reed bed systems, are natural systems treating solid-free wastewater. This can be pre-treated wastewater from a fl ush toilet or faecal wastewater from a urine diversion toilet, either combined with wastewater from the kitchen and bathroom, or separate from it. A planted soil fi lter, preceded by a settling and watertight storage tank, consists of a sand and gravel matrix (sealed at the bottom) planted with wetland plants like reeds. Solid free wastewater is discharged from the storage tank on top of the fi lter or though an underground inlet-system and fl ows through (vertical) the fi lter. Horizontal-fl ow soil fi lters are commonly found, and easier to construct than vertical fl ow fi lters, but they are less effi cient at eliminating nitrogen. Wastewater is treated through several processes, in which bacteria play an important role. After treatment, the effl uent can be discharged into surface water, used for irrigation or groundwater recharge.• If planted soil fi lters are applied in hot climates with a continuous growing season, wetland biomass can be harvested. • Planted soil fi lters can be implemented at household or community level. Their use in isolated settlements like rural schools is also possible. • Design and construction require a solid understanding of the treatment process.• The amount of technical equipment needed is very small. Costs can vary greatly, and depend, among other factors, on local availability of gravel, the kind of sealing and the cost of land.The need to recover phosphorous from excreta The need to recover phosphorous from excreta The need to recover phosphorous from excreta The need to recover phosphorous from excretaThe use of excreta and wastewater in agriculture is a daily occurrence, although it is rarely planned. Water and nutrients are recycled through crop production, and in this way sanitation contributes to food security and can improve household income and nutrition. There is much to be done to protect the health of farmers and the public from the potentially harmful effects of using human excreta and wastewater in agriculture, but with careful handling the process can be made safe, and there are many benefi ts.Especially urgent is the need to conserve phosphorous. Annually, about 40 million tonnes of mined phosphorous is used to produce artifi cial fertilisers, needed for intensive agricultural practices in order to feed our cities.The largest known sources of phosphorous today are in Western Sahara/Morocco and in China. Estimates of world supplies indicate that, at current rates of consumption, reserves will be exhausted within 150 years or less. Depletion will be faster if demand for phosphorous increases as expected, in which case reserves in many phosphorous exporting countries are likely to be exhausted within 30 years.A complicating factor is that mineral phosphorous contains traces of cadmium. If cadmium levels are too high, it has to be removed, increasing the cost of mined phosphorous.The most important causes of phosphorous depletion are ineffi ciencies in agricultural practices and the dispersal in sewage and solid waste of phosphorous contained in food and phosphate based detergents. Recycling phosphorous from topsoil requires slash-and-burn practices and is not a viable route. Recycling from sanitation and solid waste can be a partial solution. Radical changes in terms of source separation, recycling and containment of this scarce resource will be needed soon. In the light of this level of urgency, the absence of phosphorous from the discussion about sustainable global development is alarming. The need to recover phosphorous from excreta will become crucial for future generations!When asked what she is growing with the urine and wash water, Nandawathi laughs and says, \"Chillies, but we think we will only use them after drying, not fresh!\" Nandawathi, Matale Town, Sri Lanka.Urine is a high quality, low cost alternative to the application of nitrogen-rich mineral fertiliser in plant production. The application of urine should be done as close to the ground as possible, incorporating it into the soil, preventing nitrogen loss. Urine is therefore preferably mixed with soil, or watered into it. The amount applied and the frequency of application depends on the nitrogen need of the plant and its root size. In general, recommendations available for the use of nitrogen fertilisers give a good starting point for how to use urine. The risk of disease transmission through handling and using human urine are related mainly to faecal cross-contamination. For large-scale systems, storage times ranging from 1-6 months is recommended at ambient temperatures, depending on whether crop to be fertilised are eaten raw or cooked. Urine should preferably not be diluted before application to discourage microorganism growth, to improve the die-off rate of pathogens and to discourage mosquitoes from breeding. At household level, urine can be used without storage, for all type of crops that are for the household's own consumption, so long as the crops are not harvested within a month of fertilisation. One reason for more relaxed guidelines for single households is that person-to-person transmission of pathogens outweighs the risk from fertilisation with urine.• Urine should not be applied in areas with high salinity.• Recommendations for storage time and application techniques must be fully understood and followed.Case study 1: Urine diversion in the Philippines Case study 1: Urine diversion in the Philippines Case study 1: Urine diversion in the PhilippinesIn the Philippines, about 30% of people lack access to improved sanitation. This fi gure varies from region to region and in San Fernando City in La Union Province, the proportion without improved sanitation is lower, at about 10%. This still approximates to 2,500 households, mainly in poor coastal barangays (villages) and remote uplands where people defecate in open fi elds, use open pits, or have access to unhealthy communal toilets. Poverty, ignorance about the consequences of poor sanitation and lack of awareness about alternatives, led to sanitation issues being neglected. As a consequence, many wells in the city are contaminated. Until 2004 in San Fernando, the only option for improving sanitation was to install pour fl ush toilets. These comprise squatting slabs connected to a septic tank, usually one per toilet, which needs regular emptying. Because the cost of the emptying service is relatively high, users often don't seal the bottom of the septic tank to allow seepage into the ground and so reduce the frequency of emptying. As a result, effl uents pollute the environment and the shallow groundwater. In three of the coastal barangays, communal toilets facilities could not be properly used, mainly due to the unavailability of water for fl ushing.The city authorities became convinced that public health would only improve if all citizens had access to proper sanitation that did not pollute scarce drinking water resources. When the City Mayor, Mary Jane C. Ortega, read about ecological sanitation in December 2003, she decided to implement this in her city. Ecological sanitation involves recovering and reusing the resources contained in excreta and wastewater, and Mayor Ortega saw this as a way to empower the community, through a process of capacity building and social preparation that involved workshops, training and seminars at city, barangay and household level. Therefore, the Mayor decided to involve communities as agents of change, starting with two of the poorest barangays.The technology: Within a year, two low-income barangays in San Fernando (San Augustin and Nagyubuyuban) had begun to install and use waterless (dry) urine diversion toilets. The toilet is sited 60-100 cm above ground level allowing faeces to fall into a collection container directly underneath. Meanwhile the urine runs off to a small liquid container. The substructure has a single chamber accommodating 25 litre container drums or a 50 litre plastic (HDPE) container, which can be easily transported when full.The City Mayor visits the newly built toilet in San Fernando (photo WASTE).Insert: Sanitation conditions in San Fernando, before the new toilets were built (photo WASTE).Appropriateness: Households collect the excreta themselves, using composted faecal matter and urine as fertiliser on their gardens or few acres of land. Carbonated rice husk, which is locally available, is added to the faecal matter to absorb moisture, improving the composting process and reducing odour to a minimum. A good ventilation pipe connected to the container chamber does the rest. Urine is collected in a 5-gallon plastic container outside the toilet. Water used for anal cleaning is collected separately in a special washing area and directly used to irrigate crops or bananas.Implementation: People who install these toilets in their homes are known as ecological sanitation co-operators. Before construction begun, a series of seminars was organised, teaching co-operators about careful handling of faeces and grey water and prepare them socially and technically to use and maintain their urine diversion toilets. The households joined a fi nancing scheme through which they pay for the urine diversion toilet in instalments before the construction of the facility, while they were being trained. The city provided the substructure of the toilet. The co-operators provide the 'counterpart', in other words the roof and walls. This does not need to be expensive, co-operators use readily available local materials such as nipa or sawali, dried leaves of trees native to the Philippines.The use of ceramic urine diversion toilets and arrangements for collecting urine and anal cleaning water, led to large amounts of urine and other liquid being collected. With the success of the scheme, the amounts became too large for family gardens in the coastal village of San Agustin. Co-operators became alarmed that 'watering' their plants with too much urine would harm the plants rather than make their harvest bountiful. Every barangay or village in the Philippines is required to construct a Materials Recovery Facility or MRF for solid waste. The city had already decided to store partly composted human faeces in the MRF, and process it there to turn it into a useful fertiliser. To deal with the surplus of urine, a urine storage and treatment facility was developed at the San Agustin MRF, under the Philippines' Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. A local university department is investigating the potential for co-composting urine and organic municipal waste for agricultural purposes.The narrow alleys of barangay San Augustin do not allow a door-to-door collection service, so households take their urine surplus each week to a central collection point.From there, a vehicle collects the urine into a large container on a small trailer and takes it to the MRF.An ecological sanitation committee in each village, consisting of the barangay chief and other members, carries out coordination and management of the co-operators and the fi nance schemes. The urine collection service is arranged by the ecological sanitation committee in cooperation with city staff.Tobacco growers and other large agricultural producers have been persuaded to substitute mineral fertilisers for human urine. In the upland rural barangay of Nagyubuyuban, the farmers directly use urine and faecal matter on the fi elds.The availability of land, the low cost of urine collection and familiarity with organic fertilisers, make this a sustainable practice.The costs vary depending on the materials used. For the case of San Fernando, readily available materials like native materials and recyclables (for the roofs and walls) were used to lower the cost of construction for the co-operators. Biomass (organic matter) is by far the mostly commonly used fuel in the South. Biomass energy is derived from plant and animal material, such as wood from forests, residues from agricultural processes, and industrial, human or animal wastes. Biomass can be used directly (e.g. burning wood for cooking) or be converted into a liquid or gaseous fuel (e.g. ethanol from sugar crops or biogas from animal and human waste). Biogas is suitable for cooking, lighting and heating. Other benefi ts are improved sanitation, reduced deforestation, inexpensive fertilisation, reduced water source pollution, clean air and reduced CO 2 emission. Despite the great benefi ts of large-scale use of small-scale biogas technology, it is only widely applied in China (15 million domestic biogas plants 1 ) and India (over 3 million domestic biogas plants 2 ). Seeing these examples, Nepal started the introduction of this Smart-Tech at large-scale.Poor sanitation: According to offi cial sources, about 27% of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities in Nepal, (68% in urban areas but only 20% in rural areas 3 ). Deforestation: Wood, agricultural residues, and animal dung provide more than 80% of the total energy consumption for fuel In rural areas, this is even higher, at more than 95%. Wood is still the main source of fuel, resulting in serious deforestation around villages and increased soil instability on hillsides.Health effects: The smoke from burning biomass waste has caused widespread eye and respiratory diseases with women and children.Livestock: Cattle, water buffalo, poultry and other livestock play an important role in the lives of Nepalese farmers, and can guarantee a continuous source of fuel for biogas systems. Pour fl ush or fl ush toilets can be connected to these systems as additional feeders.One Although the fi rst offi cial biogas programme was launched by His Majesty's Government of Nepal in 1974, the installation rate of biogas plants remained low in the beginning until the early 90s. Then the Nepal Biogas Support Programme (BSP) was started with the main goal to promote the large-scale use of biogas as a substitute for wood, agricultural residues, animal dung and kerosene in rural areas.Although in name the programme achieved national coverage, it mainly reached farmers with above-average incomes who were comparatively accessible and who were accommodating towards the scheme. Many other farmers were not yet able to afford the initial cash payments.The fi xed dome biogas system consists of the digester itself, a gasholder, an inlet, and a slurry outlet. Different sizes are available ranging from 4 to 20m 3 (4, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 20m 3 ). Dung, homogenised with water, is fed into the digester in quantities that depend on the size of the plant and the ambient temperature. At moderate temperatures, as in the hills of Nepal, the daily input amounts to 6kg of dung per m 3 of plant.Depending on the ambient temperature, the slurry will remain in the digester for 50 to 70 days. The gas produced is used for cooking and to a lesser extent for lighting (by 20% of users). At the end of this period, the slurry fl ows into a compost pit, from where it is returned to the fi elds as a fertiliser, to restore its remaining nutrients to the soil.The small fi xed-dome digester currently most in use can easily accommodate the attachment of a toilet, by including an additional inlet pipe, saving the cost of constructing separate sanitation facilities. Initially, strong cultural taboos restricted toilet connections to 10% of installations. Current fi gures indicate that 70% of biogas plants include toilet attachments.If a smallholder has at least two cows or buffalos and lives on own land below an altitude of 2.000 metres, a biogas digester of 4m 3 is already feasible. It is very appropriate because:• The toilet is easy to use and to clean, and requires little or virtually no maintenance.• Allows a toilet to be conveniently placed indoors.• Contributes to a reduction in diseases caused by poor sanitation, to a reduction in respiratory infections and eye illnesses caused by smoke. • Keeps water sources safer as it eliminates groundwater pollution.• Prevents further deforestation and soil erosion, and provides organic fertiliser for crops and trees. • Reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 4.6 tons of CO 2 equivalents per digester of 6m 3 per annum. • The technology can be easily replicated and locally made.• It is, with the help of micro-fi nance and limited subsidies, affordable to many lowincome people.Many benefi ts for families. With a 6m 3 digester a farming household saves about 3 tons of fi rewood and 38 litres of kerosene per year. Each household saves not less than 900 hours a year (2,5 hour per day!) because they have a reduced need to collect fi rewood and because cooking takes less of their time. Each biogas reactor supplies suffi cient smokeless gas to cook the meals for one family.The gains for society are equally great. On the environmental front, the use of biogas reduces deforestation and improves soil conservation. In social terms, it leads to better school attendance, and fewer illnesses. In economic terms, it generates employment and reduces economic losses due to poor health. Local resources, including materials, manpower and fi nance, can be deployed, helping to start a new industry and related businesses. It has been estimated that 11,000 new jobs have been created through BSP.At the start of the programme, only one state owned company was producing biogas systems. Today, more than 50 private companies are producing such systems, meeting strict production standards in order for farmers to qualify for subsidies. Financial support in the form of a loan and subsidy programme targeting small and medium-scale rural farmers, was a critical element in developing the commercial market for biogas plants.The operation and maintenance of a biogas system is the responsibility of the owner.Staff from the construction companies offer groups of new users a one-day-training on operation and management. Nearly 85% of the trained users are female.BSP has successfully commercialised and scaled-up the use of animal and human excreta as a renewable and sustainable energy source. Biogas plants have substantially improved the lives of rural smallholders, and of women and children in particular.Worldwide there are many examples of affordable, innovative and successful sanitation technologies which help to improve people's daily lives. Other people and communities can learn from these successes. This booklet presents you, the reader, an extensive selection of the 'state of the art' of existing affordable and sustainable sanitation options in their basic form. They offer a solution to the millions of households that do not yet have a proper sanitation facility nearby.However, information about 'best practices' has to be accurate, up-to-date and easily accessible. It has to be easy to obtain, easy to understand and objective if it is to be useful to stakeholders.Knowing the 'state of the art' about existing sanitation options is crucial for policymakers, fi nancers, programme implementers, and is equally important for local industry and businesses looking for new products. All of these stakeholders need concise information about sanitation options, in order to make good decisions. The striving for sewered sanitation options has caused decision makers more or less to forget, or at least underestimate, the value of some of the non-sewered options. This booklet tries to fi ll this gap. Some of the options described in this booklet are not new. Other technologies have recently been developed or are still under development. All are however technologies for practical action! In addition to giving examples, this booklet indicates that a great deal of fl exibility is possible in combining different elements into a complete system. The booklet also refers to many other information sources and websites.Organisations like IRC, WEDC, GTZ, EcoSanRes, WASTE, WSP and WHO disseminate information about smart technologies. They, along with other organisations mentioned in this booklet and in the third edition of Smart Water Solutions, will continue to update you about new smart technologies. However, there are probably other options, unknown to the authors, that also deserve a wider audience.If you have experience of one or more such options, we invite you to share them with colleagues around the world. Please contact the NWP -www.nwp.nl","tokenCount":"9198"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"220f6d7efce485716b5aa80cef92cf27","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/dfb49ea5-a0ac-4e62-a8a3-74960fae7d0b/content","id":"320310939"},"keywords":["Agricultural research","Agricultural engineering","Wheats","Plant breeding","Plant biotechnology","Breeding methods","Genotypes","Genetic markers","Laboratory equipment","Laboratory experimentation","Laboratory techniques AGRIS Category Codes: F30 Plant Genetics and Breeding CIMMYT Dewey Decimal Classification: 631.5233 DRE"],"sieverID":"d9e51fd5-832e-4619-8d7e-18c67141f993","pagecount":"154","content":"The authors specially thank the Agri-Food System CRP WHEAT, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Grain Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) for their support to molecular genetics initiatives at CIMMYT.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT ® (www.cimmyt.org), is a not-for-profit research and training organization with partners in over 100 countries. The center works to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems and thus ensure global food security and reduce poverty. The center's outputs and services include improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping systems, the conservation of maize and wheat genetic resources, and capacity building. CIMMYT belongs to and is funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org) and also receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies. CIMMYT is particularly grateful for the generous, unrestricted funding that has kept the center strong and effective over many years.It is generally agreed that in order to meet future challenges in food production, multi-faceted breeding approaches are needed, including the use of current available genomics resources. Since more than three decades, molecular markers have acted as a versatile genomics tool for fast and unambiguous genetic analysis of plant species of both diploid and polyploid origin. With the enormous reductions in sequencing cost, the number of molecular markers, even for a more complex genome like wheat are abundant, economical, protocols are robust and high throughput. E.g. in wheat, fewer than 500 SNP markers were available in 2008, with the number increased to 1536 in 2010, 10,000 in 2011, 90,000 in 2012 and 820,000 in 2014 (Bevan and Uauy 2013). This is currently leading to the development of high-resolution genetic maps and the increased exploitation of genetic linkages between markers and important economic traits in bread, durum wheat and its wild relatives. QTL discovery and candidate gene identification will further be accelerated with the availability of the high quality reference sequence of the wheat genome (Choulet et al. 2014).This manual describes the use of molecular markers in wheat breeding with emphasis on the status of markerassisted selection (MAS) at CIMMYT. Together with decreasing marker assay costs and interconnected genotyping service facilities, the opportunity to apply MAS strategies is becoming accessible to more and more breeding programs. We have not attempted a comprehensive review of the literature related to the future potential of genomics resources in wheat improvement nor on the extensive availability of molecular biology techniques. In the context of wheat production challenges, this manual seeks to provide a practical guide and insights into the current use of molecular markers as a progressing selection tool in the hands of public program wheat breeders.In Part 1 of the manual we describe various experimental protocols used in our laboratory for MAS, ranging from DNA extraction to polymerase chain reaction, gel and fluorescence detection methods, which are presented so as to be readily usable at the laboratory bench. These step-by-step protocols are intended to be concise and easy to follow. Suggestions to successfully apply the procedures are included, along with the recommended materials and suppliers. Some of the protocols described here are new; others are quite old. We have included the latter because, though they may be phased out in the future, they continue to be useful. Successive chapters deal with primer design protocols. The second part of the manual target marker deployment in the CIMMY breeding program. A number of chapters on QTL/gene identification approaches, how to optimize MAS strategies, how MAS is currently used at CIMMYT for major trait categories such as biotic stresses and quality traits are described and we share our experience on recently developed prediction methods using genome-wide markers to archive genetic gain for more complex traits. The chapters for the manual are written by a group of international scientists who are using molecular markers in wheat genome research and breeding at CIMMYT. Final appendices provide list of molecular markers currently used at CIMMYT, and the links to the useful websites and software packages with their characteristic features briefly described. Since the early beginnings of plant domestication, plant breeding has been extremely successful in developing crops and varieties and contributed to the dramatic improvement of yield, nutritional qualities and other traits of value (Harlan, 1992).During the last century the success of plant breeding has mainly relied on the utilization of natural and mutant induced genetic variation and in the efficient selection of favorable genetic combinations by using suitable breeding methods. The evaluation and identification of genetic variants of interest as well as the selection methods used have largely been based on phenotypic evaluation.Human population is rapidly growing and the production of high-quality food must increase with reduced inputs, an accomplishment that will be in particular challenging in the face of globally dynamic environmental changes and biotic threats (FAO, 2013). The wheat demand is predicted to increase by 40 percent by 2050 (Ray et al. 2013). Therefore, intensive investment in wheat research and more than traditional breeding approaches are required.Plant breeding must focus on traits with the greatest potential to increase yield. New strategies must be developed to increase and utilize the available genetic diversity in breeding germplasm and to accelerate breeding results.Genomic tools provide breeders with a new set of opportunities for improving and accelerating genetic gains. While classical genetics (the fundamental association between genotype and phenotype first described by Mendel) revolutionized plant breeding at the beginning of the 20 th century (Shull et al. 1909), plant genomics today has the potential to significantly contribute to crop improvement by the ability to dissect the molecular and genetic basis of traits and the characterization of whole genomes. The field of genomics and its applications are developing very quickly. Extensive knowledge from the analyses of genomes combined with traditional breeding methods can hopefully lead to more rapid and efficient plant breeding.One of the main pillars of current plant genomics is the development of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies also known as next generation sequencing (NGS), which provide i) large collections of SNP markers, ii) high-throughput genotyping technologies, iii) high density genetic maps and iv) transcriptome or whole genome sequences that can be incorporated into modern breeding. First developed for the human genome, SNP markers have been proven universal and are the most abundant forms of genetic variation among individuals within a species (Rafalski 2002). Although SNP markers are less polymorphic than e.g., SSRs markers because of their bi-allelic nature, they easily compensate this drawback by being abundant, ubiquitous and amenable to high and ultra-high-throughput automation. E.g. the latest array-based genotyping option in wheat contains 820K SNP markers (820K Axiom ® Array probe set, http://www.cerealsdb.uk.net/cerealgenomics/CerealsDB/axiom_820K_ search.php) in comparison to approximate 4 to 5000 wheat SSR markers published during the last three decades. Coupled with the genome sequence, NGS technologies open new ways of high-throughput genotyping for more effective genetic mapping and genome analysis (Poland et al. 2012). Genotyping-bysequencing (GBS) increases sequencing throughput and allows sequencing of large numbers of samples using multiplexed sequencing, thus provides dense and unbiased marker coverage, high mapping accuracy and resolution for more comparable genome and genetic maps among mapping populations (Elshire et al. 2011). NGS data derived from targeted regions can also be used for variant detection in large datasets, identification of gene analogs and paralogs or SNP discovery in QTL regions (Clarke et al. 2014, Rife et al. 2015). SNP detection in the transcriptome of non-sequenced species provides an opportunity using NGS to additionally accelerate fine-mapping and cloning of genes having an impact on our ability to understand the fundamental biology of a trait and enabling wheat breeders to directly access the genetic variation in genes (Ramirez-Gonzalez et al. 2015). NGS technologies also supported the building of a first survey sequence in wheat that produced new estimates of the gene content, a better understanding of the phylogenic history of wheat and gene expression divergence among the three sub-genomes (Eversole et al. 2014).An already known breeding and selection strategy that involves using genetic information is markerassisted selection (MAS, Lande and Thompson, 1990). Marker-assisted selection is an indirect process where selection is carried out on the bases of a marker instead of the trait itself. The successful application of MAS especially relies on the tight association between the marker and the major gene or QTL responsible for the trait. The plant genomics enabled accelerated identification of markers tightly linked to target genomic regions will provide the ability to deploy MAS for a larger number of traits.The identification of intragenic marker (functional marker) can additionally reduce limitations due to recombination. The most useful application of MAS is the process of pyramiding genes via forward selection. The accumulation of genes from different sources conferring resistance against the same disease is an example and is one of the most widespread applications of gene pyramiding in wheat.Beside the growing number of tightly linked markers offered, the main benefit of the recent advantages in genomics is the accessibility to new genotyping platforms that allow to screen very large numbers of plants in a gene pyramiding program, which 1) is required to ensure with reasonable likelihood that the genotype combining favorable alleles is present, as the number of loci of interest is increasing, 2) can provide the desired genetic information in a more rapid, logistically easier and economically feasible manner.Marker-assisted backcrossing facilitates the quick recovery of the recurrent parent genome. Foreground selection is being used extensively in wheat breeding making use of genomic resources, e.g., for the introgression of disease resistances genes observed in wild species. The application of efficient background selection strategies for gene introgression has still been somewhat limited by the high costs of marker analysis. Selection strategies combining single marker assays with high-throughput SNP assays have shown potential to greatly increase the efficiency and flexibility of marker-assisted background selection (Herzog et al. 2011). In some cases, the problem of recovering the genetic background of the recurrent parent arises because of linkage drag (the introgression of chromosome regions with deleterious effects tightly linked to the gene of interest). Dense genetic maps used in background selection can be an efficient way to break the genetic linkage drag. In summary, MAS can take benefit from new genomic technologies, speeding up the release of new varieties.Current MAS strategies in the breeding programs fit for traits with high heritability and governed by a few major QTL that explain a large proportion of the phenotypic variability. However, the application of MAS for breeding traits with complex genetics based on the interaction of multiple QTL with minor and environmental effects has been inefficient. Examples of such complex traits are yield, drought tolerance or nitrogen and water use efficiency. Meuwissen et al. (2001) described a new methodology in plant breeding called genomic selection (GS) that is believed to solve problems related to MAS for complex traits. In GS high density marker coverage is needed to potentially have all QTL in linkage disequilibrium with at least one marker. The comprehensive information on all possible loci, haplotypes and marker effects across the entire genome is used to calculate the genomic estimated breeding values of a particular line in a breeding population.The obvious advantages of GS over traditional MAS have been successfully proven in animal breeding (Hayes and Goddard, 2010) and initially in plant breeding including wheat (Crossa et al. 2014). The rapid evolution of NGS technologies are enabling generation and validation of millions of markers giving a cautious optimism for successful application of GS in plant breeding for complex traits.In conclusion, considering current application levels and success in various crops, MAS deployment is getting increasingly attractive for the 21 st century breeding and can be further advanced. Successful efforts of additionally incorporating large scale highthroughput genotyping are currently shifting the MAS theory from the transfer of larger-effect genes to predicting the performance of both phenotyped and unphenotyped individuals. A key challenge is the integration and interpretation of the massive amounts of data that is being generated and that needs to be addressed to reap the full potential of genomics.x Part 1: Laboratory Protocols PART 1 describes various experimental protocols used in our laboratory for MAS. These step-by-step protocols are intended to be concise and easy to follow. Suggestions to successfully apply the procedures are included, along with the recommended materials and suppliers. Some of the protocols described here are new; others are quite old. We have included the latter because, though they may be phased out in the future, they continue to be useful.1. Plant Genomic DNA Isolation Lyophilization 1. Harvest 10-15 dry leaves from the greenhouse or field grown plants. It is preferable to use young leaves without necrotic areas or lesions, although older leaves which are not senescent may be used.2. If the midrib is thick and tough, remove it. Cut or fold leaves into 10-15 cm sections and place in a waxed paper bag along with the tag identifying the sample. Place your paper bags in bigger plastic bags and then in an ice chest or other container with ice to keep samples cool (but do not allow them to freeze). Make sure samples do not get wet.3. Place your plastic bags at -80°C until ready to be lyophilized, but minimum 4 h. 4. Transfer frozen leaf samples in the waxed paper bags to a lyophilizer (e.g., Labconco). Make sure the lyophilizer is down to the recommended temperature (usually the chamber is ≤ -50°C) and is pulling a good vacuum before loading the samples. Do not overload your lyophilizer: make sure the vacuum is always between 0.0 and 0.120 mBar. Samples should get dried during 72 h. Typically, fresh weight ≈ 10X dry weight.5. Dried leaf samples may be stored in sealed plastic bags at room temperature for a few days or, preferably, at -20°C for several years.Note: If samples are not fully dried before grinding, grinding will be inefficient and DNA yield will be poor. Alternatively, leaf samples can be tried with silica or at low temperature in an oven.1. Grind the dried leaf samples to a fine powder with a coffee miller (e.g., Braun KSM-2 Coffee Grinder) into a plastic scintillation vial or any other appropriate plastic container that can be closed airtight. The finer the grind, the greater the yield of DNA from a given amount of material.11. Place the hook with DNA in a 5 ml plastic tube containing 3-4 ml of WASH 1. Leave DNA on the hook in the tube for about 20 min.12. Rinse DNA on the hook briefly in 3-4 ml of WASH 2 and transfer DNA to 2 ml microfuge tube containing 0.3-1.0 ml Tris-HCL (1 mM, pH 8); gently twirl hook until DNA slides off the hook. Cap the tube and rock gently overnight at room temperature to dissolve the DNA. Store samples at 4°C. Note: Prepare glass hook by first sealing the end of a 23 cm glass transfer pipette by heating in a flame for a few seconds. Then gently heat the tip 1 cm while twirling the pipette. When soft, allow the tip to bend into a hook. Cool before use. Used hooks can be cleaned by washing in dH 2 O and EtOH. Note: DNA that is refrozen after being thawed begins to break after each freezing session, so freeze DNA only for long-term storage and preferably after all testing is finished. If DNA will be used for multiple projects with long periods of time between projects, it can be aliquoted into several tubes and frozen, so that each aliquot is thawed only once at the start of each project.1. Harvest small dry leaves parts from greenhouse or field grown plants and place into 2ml tubes (3/4 of the tube).2. Keep tubes of the leaves cool on ice until they can be frozen.3. Place tubes at -80°C for at least 4 h. 4. Transfer the tubes into a lyophilizer (e.g., Labconco) for 24-72 h. Make sure the lyophilizer is down to the recommended temperature (usually the chamber is ≤ -50°C) and is pulling a good vacuum before loading the samples. Do not overload your lyophilizer: make sure the vacuum is always between 0.0 and 0.120 mBar. Samples should get dried during 72 h. Typically, fresh weight ≈ 10X dry weight. Lids of the tubes must be OPEN! Note: If samples are not fully dried before grinding, grinding will be inefficient and DNA yield will be poor. Alternatively leaf samples can be tried with silica or at low temperature in an oven.1. Place 1-2 stainless steel balls (4 mm) into each tube and close securely. Place the tubes in a tissue grinder (e.g., GenoGrinder 2010, Zymo Research) and grind 2-3 min until the leaf tissue is ground to fine powder.To extract DNA from small amounts of lyophilized tissue (50 mg), use 2 ml tubes and proceed as follows:2. Leaf powder can be stored in the closed tubes, or DNA extraction can begin immediately in the same tubes.1. Preheat the CTAB isolation buffer to 65°C. If the samples were in refrigeration or -20°C let them some minutes at RT.2. Add 1 ml of CTAB isolation buffer at 65°C. Mix by gentle swirling to homogenize the tissue with the buffer.3. Incubate at 65°C for 60-90 min with continuous gentle rocking.4. Remove tubes from incubator, let them cool for 15 min.5. Add 800 μl of chloroform:octanol (24:1). Mix for 15 min at RT with continuous rocking.6. Centrifuge for 30 min at 3750 rpm at RT. 7. Remove 600 to 700 μl of the top yellow aqueous layer and place in a new tube with RNase with 10 μl of 10 mg/ml RNase A.8. Mix with gentle inversion and incubate for 30 min at 37°C oven, or 1hour at RT. 9. Add 500 μl of isopropanol . Previously cooled at -20°C and mix by inversion.10. Incubate for 30 min or 1 h at -20°C.Note: DNA extraction can be paused at this point and continued the following day.11. Centrifuge tubes for 30 min at 3750 rpm at 4°C to precipitate DNA. Remove the supernatant.12. Add 1 ml of 70% EtOH.13. Centrifuge tubes for 20 min at 3750 rpm at RT. 14. Remove the EtOH by decantation.15. Repeat steps 12 to 14. 16. Dry the DNA at RT overnight inside a fume hood. 17. pH 8). Store samples at 4°C. Note: DNA that is refrozen after being thawed begins to break after each freezing session, so freeze DNA only for long-term storage and preferably after all testing is finished. If DNA will be used for multiple projects with long periods of time between projects, it can be aliquoted into several tubes and frozen, so that each aliquot is thawed only once at the start of each project.To extract DNA from large amounts of lyophilized tissue (10 mg), use 96-well plates and proceed as follows:1. Small portions of dry leaf tissue are cut from each plant and placed in 8-strip 1.1 ml tubes, up to 12 strips located in 96-well racks. Fill the tubes only half.2. Keep the tubes with the tissue cool until they can be frozen, but freeze as soon as possible. Store in a -80°C freezer for at least 3 h or use liquid nitrogen. Samples must not thaw before lyophilization.3. Place trays with the tubes containing the frozen tissue into a lyophilizer (e.g., Labconco). Lids of the tubes must be OPEN! Be sure that the lyophilizer chamber is at -50°C at all times. Verify that it has reached the proper vacuum level after loading the samples, and that it maintains a vacuum level between 0.0 and 0.120 mBars. Fortunately, the small leaf size in each tube makes it hard to overload the machine. Approximately, 1 to 4 plates require 24 h and 5 to 15 plates require 48 h to dry. 4. Dried tissue may be stored in the tubes (with the lids now CLOSED) at room temperature for a few days, or can be stored for longer periods at -20°C. DNA extraction can be started in the same tubes.Note: If samples are not fully dried before grinding, grinding will be inefficient and DNA yield will be poor.Alternatively leaf samples can be tried with silica or at low temperature in an oven.1. Place 1-2 stainless steel balls (4 mm) into each tube and close securely. Place the entire plate in a tissue grinder (e.g., GenoGrinder 2010, Zymo Research) and grind 2-3 min until the leaf tissue is ground to fine powder.2. Leaf powder can be stored in the closed tubes, or DNA extraction can begin immediately in the same tubes.1. Preheat the CTAB isolation buffer to 65°C.2. Add 400 μl of CTAB isolation buffer. Mix by gentle swirling to homogenize the tissue with the buffer.3. Incubate the samples at 65°C for 90 min with continuous gentle rocking. 4. Remove tubes from the oven and allow them to cool for 10 min. 5. Add 300 μl of chloroform:octanol (24:1). Mix gently with continuous rocking for 15 min at RT.6. Centrifuge at 3750 rpm for 30 min at 4°C to generate a yellow aqueous phase and a green organic phase.7. Remove approximately 300 μl of the yellow aqueous phase and place in a new set of strips containing 15 μl RNAse A.8. Mix with gentle inversion and incubate at 37°C for 30 min. 9. Add 280 μl of 100% isopropanol . Mix very gently to precipitate the nucleic acid. Incubate samples at -20°C for 30 minutes to 1 h.Note: DNA extraction can be paused at this point and continued the following day.10. Centrifuge at 3750 rpm at 4°C for 30 min to form a pellet at the bottom of the tube. Discard the supernatant.11. Add 400 μl of 70% EtOH. Wash the DNA pellet gently.12. Centrifuge at 3750 rpm for 20 min at room temperature.13. Discard EtOH by decantation.14. Repeat steps 11 to 13. 15. Allow pellet to dry under a fume hood until ethanol evaporates completely.Note: Any remaining alcohol smell indicates that the pellet is not completely dry.16. Re-suspend the DNA pellet in 200 μl Tris-HCL (1mM, pH 8). 17.-Store samples at 4°C until use; if DNA will not be used for a long time, store at -20°C.Note: DNA that is refrozen after being thawed begins to break after each freezing session, so freeze DNA only for long-term storage and preferably after all testing is finished. If DNA will be used for multiple projects with long periods of time between projects, it can be aliquoted into several tubes and frozen, so that each aliquot is thawed only once at the start of each project.The screening of large numbers of DNA samples requires a fast and cost effective methods of DNA extraction from plants. In addition, it is preferable for these methods to be automated and reliable for leaf and seed tissue.We have therefore tested several commercial extraction kits, to test their outcome regards satisfactory DNA quality and quantity for multiple molecular biology techniques using leaves tissue and/or seed. We evaluated eight commercial DNA extraction kits: InviMag ® Plant DNA Mini kit (Invitek) Sbeadex ® plant kit (LGC Genomics)   We tested their DNA quality and quantity and their ability to automate DNA extraction on a Biomek FX P Liquid Handling Station. These included kits in a 96well binding plate and magnetic bead formats. The performance characteristics of the two methods are summarized in Table 1.The comparison of the eight commercial kits showed that the ZR-96 Plant/Seed DNA kit TM , InviMag ® Plant DNA Mini kit and Sbeadex ® plant kit in our laboratory revealed similar DNA quality (Table 1, Figure 1); furthermore, the Sbeadex ® plant kit revealed a higher DNA concentration and good purity, making it appropriate for high throughput extraction. Our results and additional reports from different sources showed that the magnetic beadbased method was preferable for avoiding organic extractions, centrifugation, or filtration steps that can result in clogging or cross contamination. Based on the DNA yield and purity, ease of implementation and atomization and cost we have decided to further validate the Sbeadex kit in our laboratory. The Sbeadex magnetic particle protocol uses the cationic detergent CTAB, which builds complexes with proteins and carbohydrates. By centrifugation, cell residues like insoluble cell walls or and CTAB/protein/sugar complexes are spun down and separated from other cell components like DNA, which stays in solution. A novel two step binding mechanism via a patented adapter enables binding of nucleic acids more specifically and final washes with pure water to deliver nucleic acids in high yield, purity and quality.Schematic process for DNA extraction on the Sbeadex LGC kits. The CIMMYT laboratory accounts with a Beckman Biomek FX P Liquid Handling Station for DNA extraction. The Biomek FX P is a multiaxis liquid-handling instrument used in the laboratory, with a variety of operating components (Figure 2).Light CurtainThe work surface of the Biomek FX P instrument.Figure2. Biomek FX p Main components.The linkage of the liquid handling station and the commercial DNA extraction kits allows automating operations and provides cost and labor savings. During testing we also observed more constant and stable DNA quantities across 96-well plates, which is of advantage for MAS and reduce the need to normalize the DNA.Using the liquid handling station combined with the Sbeadex ® plant kit protocol, we extract two 96-well plates in 1.5 h, and the DNA is ready to use for any downstream application.For the automated protocol we use the following materials:a) Sbeadex ® mini plant kit (960 samples), Cat. # 41610, LGC Genomics b) DNA plates: Plates with ground plant materials (fine powder of dried leaf tissue or seed) c) Sigma cell culture ddH 2 O d) Two Qiagen rack plates for holding the final DNA e) AP96 Tips, P250 Nonsterile, Cat.# 727251 f) Reservoirs for all the components: lysis buffer, binding buffer, sbeadex, wash buffers, ddH 2 O, elution buffer; all components are on the kit g) Two deep-well plates 96/1000μl, Cat.# 30504208 h) Two magnetic plates i) Two reservoirs for junk material Instructions 1. Locate the power switch on the right side of the instrument, and flip it to the on position.2. Launch the Biomek Software on the computer (Figure 3). Home All Axes. This automatic process initiates the pod and defines the home position from which all subsequent moves are determined. Go to Instrument menu→Home All Axes→OK.Other editors are available from the Project and Instrument menus.Displays the status of the deck upon completion of the previous step.area.The method is built step by step in this area.Step Palette Displays the steps available for insertion into a method. LGC 2 extraction plates' in the Biomek Software and set up all the components according to the Deck display (Figure 4). 4. Lysis: Press play to start the first step, the addition of 300 uL of lysis buffer. After the buffer is added into the DNA plates, a stop message will appear on the screen: remove the DNA plates from the deck. 5. Incubate the plates 30 min at 65°C on the orbital shaker.6. While the plates are incubating, press → play to prepare the binding plate. During this step the robot will mix the binding buffer and the sbeadex magnetic particles to make the binding solution. A stop window will appear at the end of this step. Return the DNA plates to their original position and continue with the next step.7. Binding DNA: During this step the lysate and the binding solution will be mixed; the DNA will be attached to the magnetic particles by electromagnetic forces. 8. Remove supernatant: During this step, the DNA plate is going to the deck place of the magnetic plate; all the magnetic particles go to the surface of the DNA plate, subsequently the supernatant is discarded. 9. Washing step 1: This step moves the DNA plate to another position, adds 400 µL of washing buffer 1; subsequently the plate is mixed with a shaker on the deck. Step 6 will be repeated. 10. Washing step 2: This step will repeat the previous step, but will add 400 µL of washing buffer 2 and 400 µL of ddH 2 O. 11. Elution: After the washing steps, 100 µL of elution buffer or alternative 100 µL of Tris (pH 8.0) is added to the DNA plate. This process requires an incubation step outside the robot.12. After incubation, 90 µl of eluted DNA is added into a new plate. This DNA is ready to use for downstream applications. [FINAL] 1 R×N 5 R×N 10 R×N 20 R×N 50 R×N 60 R×N 10 ml 50 ml 100 ml 200 ml 500 ml 600 ml dH 2 O 6.5 ml 32.5 ml 65.0 ml 130 ml 325.0 ml 390.0 ml 1 M Tris-7.5 100 mM 1.0 ml 5.0 ml 10.0 ml 20.0 ml 50.0 ml 60.0 ml 5 M NaCl 700 mM 1.4 ml 7.0 ml 14.0 ml 28.0 ml 70.0 ml 84.0 ml 0.5 M EDTA-8.0 50 mM 1.0 ml 5.0 ml 10.0 ml 20.0 ml 50.0 ml 60.0 ml CTAB 2 1 % 0.1 g 0.5 g 1.0 g 2.0 g 5.0 g 6.0 g 14 M BME 3 140 mM 0.1 ml 0.5 ml 1.0 ml 2.0 ml 5.0 ml 6.0 ml  1. After re-suspension of your DNA in Tris (pH 8.0) read your samples at OD260 and OD280 to determine the quantity and the purity of your DNA.2. For reading load first a reference sample of 2 μl Tris (pH 8.0) as blank, then load 2 μl of your sample.Note: We use wipers (Kimwipes ® EX-L, Cat. # 34155, Kimberly-Clark ® ) to clean every sample.Note: (DNA concentration (μg/μl)= OD260 x 50 (dilution factor)x 50 μg/ml)/1000.The ratio OD260/OD280 is determined to assess the purity of the sample. If this ratio is 1.8 -2.0, the absorption is probably due to nucleic acids. A ratio Two types of molecular weight (MW) standards are routinely used. The Lambda/HindIII and PhiX174/ HaeIII MW standards provide a useful reference for calculating molecular weights of large and small DNA fragments, respectively, after electrophoretic of less than 1.8 indicates there may be proteins and/or other UV absorbers in the sample, in which case it is advisable to re-precipitate the DNA. A ratio higher than 2.0 indicates the samples may be contaminated with chloroform or phenol and should be re-precipitated with ethanol.3. After UV quantification, adjust the concentration of each DNA sample to 0.3-0.5 μg/μl or a concentration of your choice with Tris (pH 8.0), and store at 4°C. Sample should be usable for up to six months. For long term storage, freezing temperature is more desirable.Note: When analyzing many samples we usually use a dilution factor of 10 and proceed.separation; the \"internal MW standards\" provide a means for normalizing fragment migration distances within each lane to facilitate comparisons between lanes on the same or different luminographs in fingerprinting studies.2. Quantification, Quality Control and purification of DNA 3. Check that digestion is complete by running about 50 ng on a 0.7% agarose gel. When it is complete, move to step 4 or 5 (Figure 1). Incomplete digestion1. Allow to digest at 37°C for 2-3 h.2. Check that digestion is complete by running about 50 ng on a 0.7% agarose gel. When it is complete, move to step 3 or 4. This step is essential for checking that the isolated DNA is of high molecular weight. Native DNA should migrate as a tight band of molecular weight ≥ 40 Kb. However, degradation of part of the isolated DNA is inevitable, and the protocol below is designed to runthe DNA under optimal conditions for ascertaining the relative amounts of degraded and high molecular weight DNA. The procedure also allows verifying the UV quantification performed above.DNA purification is required for genomics applications ranging from cloning, sequencing and microarray analysis. A number of purification kits are offered that very in DNA treatment and the purification methods. The most popular methods are based on salt-precipitation and silica binding.We have been using Qiagen's nucleic acid-purification kits that rely on the binding of DNA to a silica matrix, which is attached to a column. Inhibitors are washed away, and pure, intact DNA subsequently is eluted from the column at high yields.E.g., we convert SSR/STS markers to SNP markers (KASP assays) for high-throughput genotyping by simple re-sequencing the marker bands from the genotypes having contrasting phenotypes.The DNA should be free of contaminants prior to sequencing to avoid mixed and unspecific sequence data. It is highly recommended to observe any amplification product you would  1a) the use of a PCR purification kit is recommended. If the polymorphic product between the genotypes is accompanied with one or two more unspecific amplification products (Figure 1b), then a purification kit based on gel extraction is required, which allows to cut only the polymorphic band and avoids sequencing of the other irrelevant bands.The Qiagen Gel extraction kit (cat. nos. 28704 and 28706) or PCR Purification kit (cat. nos. 28104 and 28106) can be used to remove all of the unwanted elements like primers, nucleotides, enzymes, mineral oil, salts, and other impurities from DNA samples. The kit instructions are easy to follow.After purification: Purified samples can then be sequenced. We send our samples to Macrogen (http:// dna.macrogen.com/eng/). Samples can be submitted online (choose the option \"custom DNA sequencing/Standard-Seq\" and read more information on how to send the samples). In addition to the purified DNA samples, supply primers at a concentration of 10 pmole/µl = 60 ng/µl in deionized water in volumes greater than 20 µl should be submitted and sent. The sequencing results are provided by Macrogen in a compressed zipped folder for sequence alignment in any program.  Polymerase Chain Reaction is widely held as one of the most important inventions of the 20th century in molecular biology. Small amounts of the genetic material can be amplified to be able to identify polymorphisms in the DNA. PCR involves the following three steps: Denaturation, Annealing and Extension. First, the genetic material is denatured, converting the double stranded DNA molecules to single strands. The primers are then annealed to the complementary regions of the single stranded molecules. In the third step, they are extended by the action of the DNA polymerase. All these steps are temperature sensitive and the common choice of temperatures is 94°C, 60°C and 70°C respectively. Good primer design is essential for successful reactions.Sequence-Tagged Sites (STS) are a relatively short, easily PCR-amplified sequence (200 to 500 bp) which can be specifically amplified by PCR and detected in the presence of all other genomic sequences and whose location in the genome is mapped. STS-based PCR produces a simple and reproducible pattern on agarose or polyacrylamide gel. In most cases STS markers are co-dominant, i.e., allow heterorozygotes to be distinguished from the two homozygotes.Polymorphic loci present in nuclear DNA and organellar DNA that consist of repeating units of 1-10 base pairs, most typically, 2-3 bp in length, also called Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR). SSRs are highly variable and evenly distributed throughout the genome. This type of repeated DNA is common in eukaryotes. These polymorphisms are identified by constructing PCR primers for the DNA flanking the microsatellite region. The flanking regions tend to be conserved within the species, although sometimes they may also be conserved in higher taxonomic levels.Good sources of sequence information for both marker systems can be accessed via the Internet. For wheat, consult GrainGenes at http://wheat.pw.usda. gov.The quality of the template DNA is less critical for STSs or SSRs. We get good results using DNA from large amounts of lyophilized, ground tissue, as well as DNA extracted from a small frozen leaf portion or fast DNA extraction kits.1. Prepare a bulk reaction mix containing all the reaction components listed below except DNA. We recommend assembling all reaction components on ice.Using GoTaq ® Flexi, Promega, USA, Cat.     7. When using colorless buffer for PCR reactions, add 3-4 μl of loading dye \"1X bromophenol blue (BPB)\" to each tube and load on the desired gel system.PCR protocol for STS/SSR markers: Solutions dNTP mix (2.5 mM each of dCTP, dGTP, dATP, and dTTP)We recommend using a deoxynucleoside triphosphate set, PCR grade (e.g.,Roche, Cat #. 1969064). Each set comes with four individual tubes containing dCTP, dGTP, dATP, and dTTP at 100 mM concentration. To mix, place 250 μl of each nucleotide in a 10 ml tube and add 9000 μl of sterile ddH 2 O (Sigma, cat. W3500) to obtain a 2.5 mM concentration of each nucleotide. Make 1 ml aliquots and label each tube with different color dots (red for dTTP, blue for dCTP, black for dATP, and green for dGTP) to indicate contents. Store at -20°C.Note: For individual nucleotide solutions, mix 250 μl of each nucleotide separately with 2,250 μl sterile ddH 2 0. Make 200 μl aliquots and label. Store at -20°C.The choice of the gel electrophoresis system to be used, and of its various components, depends on the expected size of the amplification product(s), on the resolution required to clearly see the difference in size among the amplified products and, to a lesser extent, on the intensity of the amplified products. In our laboratory, we have tried horizontal agarose gels of different concentrations and various ratios of higher quality : normal quality agarose; small polyacrylamide vertical gels with different concentrations and ratios of acrylamide : bisacrylamide, stained with ethidium bromide, silver nitrate or GelRed. Below are the conditions we have been using for both agaroseFactors you should consider when deciding on the type and size of agarose gels to be used:• Agarose concentration, depending on the size of the amplified products and on the type of inheritance of the marker (dominant or codominant); typically we use 1.5% for larger fragments (200-3500 bp) and dominant inherited markers; 4% for smaller fragments or co-dominant markers with smaller differences in product size.• Migration distance is an additional factor involved in the resolution of the differences in amplification product sizes. The larger the distance, the better the resolution (see point below on choice of electrophoresis tanks). We are using SFR agarose AMRESCO ® (Code: J234) for all agarose concentrations.We use 1X TBE buffer (both to prepare the gel and run it) rather than 1X TAE for better resolution. This buffer can be re-used once or twice since the running time is usually short. An alternative to re-using the buffer is to try using 0.5X TBE.We currently use smaller and bigger sizes of ExpressCast TM Horizontal Electrophoresis Systems (Gemini Scientific Inc. DBA Galileo Bioscience).The small system with the dimensions 32 × 37.5 cm (Model 81-2325) hold four 50-tooth combs, which (AGE) and small nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE).Some general rules we follow:• Use AGE if you expect clear difference in amplified products (> 20 bp). • For genetic diversity/fingerprinting purposes, always use PAGE due to the required higher resolution. • For mapping studies, start by screening parental lines for polymorphisms on agarose gels and rerun on polyacrylamide only those markers with small differences or low intensity that could not be clearly seen on agarose gels.allow to electrophorese samples from up to two 96well microtiter plates and to load samples using a multichannel pipette.The large system with the dimensions 32 × 53 cm (Model 81-2340) hold 12 50-tooth combs, which allow to electrophorese samples from up to six 96well microtiter plates and to load samples using a multichannel pipette.1. Add agarose to proper amount of 1X TBE gel buffer (For small gels we use 200ml, for large gels 350 ml of 1X TBE).2. Melt agarose in microwave oven, mixing carefully several times during heating. Make sure all the agarose is dissolved. To adjust evaporation during melting, add extra ddH 2 O to maintain the desired concentration.To eliminate very small bubbles created by much mixing, apply some vacuum to the flask (can be done by placing in a dessicator connected to the vacuum).4. Level your gel tray and electrophoresis system.Pour agarose right away into the gel tray and then insert combs. Allow to solidify for 20-30 min. You may want to cool it at 4°C for 15 min before loading your samples. We also often prepare such gels one day before and keep them covered with Saran Wrap in the cold.  Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is used when higher band resolution is required for co-dominant markers.In the laboratory we are currently only using mainly the system Model MGV-216-33 from CBS Scientific Co. with the dimensions 45 × 19 × 18 cm allow to electrophorese samples of one 96-well microtiter plates and to load samples using a multichannel pipette. We use combs with 63 wells of 1 mm width so that multi-channel pipettes fit to every alternate well. This is very convenient when a large number of samples have to be loaded.1. Clean glass plates before every use with 70% ethanol.2. Assemble glass plates and sealers using clamps.Be sure the sealers are at the appropriate position between the two glass plates to avoid leaking. Two gels can be set in one apparatus.Note: We use wipers (Kimwipes ® EX-L, Cat.# 3425610, Kimberly-Clark ® ) to clean the glass plates.We recommend using 12 to 14% of 29:1 acrylamide: bisacrylamide depending on the fragment size of the amplified marker products. Concentration may be reduced (e.g., to 10%) or increased (e.g., to 16%) for larger or smaller fragments, respectively. We purchase pre-mixed acrylamide/bisacrylamide from Sigma (Cat.# A2792). The stock can be stored at 4°C for a few months.1. Place the plates with gels in the apparatus and add running buffer. One electrophoresis tank requires about 650 ml of 1X TG or 1X TBE.2. Remove the combs and flush out the wells using a syringe. This is a critical step, especially for polymorphic bands that are close to each other.Otherwise, unpolymerized acrylamide solution will be polymerized at the bottom of the wells and will affect the migration of the fragments.Note: TG buffer requires a longer time for running, but results in better band separation. The pH of TBE buffer should be adjusted with acetic acid so that the background of the gels is much reduced after silver staining. The same stock of TBE should be used to prepare both the gel and the running buffer.0.5 M EDTA-8.0Dissolve 186.12 g Na2EDTA•2H20 Disolve 100 μl of 10 mg/ml ethidium bromide in 1000 ml dH 2 O.1 Ethidium Bromide Solution (Sigma SLBB2512V).Dilute 50 μl of GelRed 1 10,000x in 500 ml of distilled water. Gently mix.  2. Remove gels from plates. We cut one or more corners of the gels to identify the direction and number of each gel after silver staining.Trays are gently shaken throughout the steps.Wear gloves at all times and handle the gels gently because pressure and fingerprints produce staining artifacts. It is also important to use clean glassware and deionized distilled water because contaminants greatly reduce the sensitivity of silver staining.1. Transfer each gel in 100 ml fixing solution, shake for 5 min and rinse in dH 2 O.2. Place each gel in 100 ml staining solution and shake for 10 min. The staining solution can be re-used many times. The KASP genotyping system is comprised of two components (see also Figure 1).1. The KASP Assay Mix is specific to the SNP or InDel to be targeted and consists of two competitive, allele-specific forward primers and one common reverse primer. Each forward primer incorporates an additional tail sequence that corresponds with one of two universal FRET (fluorescent resonance energy transfer) cassettes present in the KASP Master mix.2. The KASP Master Mix (supplied at 2X concentration) contains the two universal FRET cassettes (FAM and HEX), ROX™ passive reference dye, Taq polymerase, free nucleotides and MgCl 2 in an optimized buffer solution.DNA samples may be arrayed in any microliter PCR plate; In our laboratory typically 384 well plates are used. We recommend amounts of DNA between 2.5 and 3.5 µl of approximate 50 ng/µl for 384 well plates due to the large wheat genome. Genotyping should be carried out on at least 24 samples to ensure there are sufficient genotypes to develop cluster plots.It is also strongly recommended that at least three samples fluorescent labelled and clustering as FAM, HEX, and heterozygotes (HET) and two water samples (NTCs) are included per 384 well plate as controls.After arraying, the plates should be briefly centrifuged and samples can be dried in an oven for 45 min at 65°C. To dry the DNA of your samples in the plate is useful when performing large scale genotyping, as it allows many plates to be prepared in advance, without the concern of sample evaporation altering the reagent concentrations. The dried DNA samples are also stable at room temperature for at least three months if protected from moisture. Faster drying will occur if the oven is fan-assisted. A quick visual check is all that is required to ensure the samples are dry.In our laboratory we are working with a total volume of 5 µl per reaction for 384 well plates. 5 µl is the smallest volume we can currently run with our standard ABI thermal cyclers. The calculations to prepare the genotyping reaction bulk are carried using the customer KASP reaction volume calculator (Figure 2).Depending of the total volume of the PCR reaction and if wet or dry DNA is used the addition of what needs to be considered (see Table 1 In the first round of PCR, one of the allele-specific primers matches the target SNP and, with the common reverse primer, amplifies the target region.(Reverse primer binds, elongates and makes a complementary copy of the allele-1 tail).Allele-1 tail FAM-labelled oligo sequence Allele-2 tail HEX-labelled oligo sequenceCommon reverse primerTarget SNP Quencher FAM-labelled oligo binds to new complementary tail sequence and is no longer quenched.In further rounds of PCR, levels of allele-specific tail increase. The flour labelled part of the FRET cassette is complementary to new tail sequences and binds, releasing the flour from the quencher to generate a fluorescent signal.Allele-specific forward primers: 3) Complement of allele-specific tail sequence generated -PCR round 2:Flour for incorporate G allele no longer quenched.Flour for non-incorporate T allele remains quenched.A) KASP Master mix C A A 5'[ G/T ] 5' PCR cycling can be performed on any PCR thermal cycler, optimal results are generally obtained using a touchdown cycling program with two temperature steps detailed below. However, cycling conditions can be adapted as required. The plate should be read on a suitable fluorescent plate reader according to its specifications. In our laboratory we are using a BMG Pherastar Plus (Figure 3). Reading temperature should be 25°C or below (preferably ambient). Most FRET-capable plate readers (with the relevant filter sets) can be used in conjunction with KASP. Some plate readers can be set to read at a range of temperatures but Dispensing can be carried out robotically or manually with a suitable pipette, depending on plate type and sample number. Using dry DNA we dispense 5 µl of the final KASP Genotyping Mix to each sample. To seal our plates and avoid reaction losses during PCR, we use a rubber cover lid with a guaranteed, seal that can be reused many times. elevated temperatures (above 40°C), will lead to poor/no data. Whilst using real time PCR machines, plates should be read at ambient temperature after the completion of the PCR run, rather than using the real time data to generate end point curves. KASP uses the fluorophores FAM (Fluorescein) and HEX (CAL Fluor Orange 560) for distinguishing genotypes. The relevant excitation and emission wave lengths are show in Table 2. ROX is also used to allow normalization of variations in signal caused by differences in well-to-well liquid volume by dividing FAM and HEX values by the passive reference value for a particular well (see Table 2). If using a plate reader optimized for use with the dye VIC (e.g. Applied Biosystems), no modification of settings will be necessary as the excitation and emission values for VIC and HEX are extremely close.Once the KASP reactions are complete, and the resulting fluorescence has been measured, the raw data must be interpreted to enable genotypes to be assigned to the DNA samples. The FAM and HEX fluorescence values are typically plotted on the X and Y axes of a Cartesian plot respectively. A sample that is homozygous for the allele reported by FAM will only generate FAM fluorescence during the KASP reaction. This data point will be plotted close to the X axis, representing high FAM signal and no HEX signal (blue data points in Figure 4). A sample that is homozygous for the allele reported by HEX will only generate HEX florescence and the data points will be plotted close to the Y axis (red data points in Figure 4). A sample that is heterozygous will contain both the allele reported by FAM and the allele reported by HEX. This sample will generate half as much FAM fluorescence and half as much HEX fluorescence as the samples that are homozygous for these alleles. This data point will be plotted in the center of the plot, representing half FAM signal and half HEX signal (green data points in Figure 4). To ensure the reliability of the results, a KASP reaction without any template DNA (Water) must be included as a negative control. This is typically referred to as a no template control or NTC. The NTC will not generate any fluorescence and the data point will therefore be plotted at the origin (black data points in Figure 4).   All samples that have the same genotype will have generated similar levels of fluorescence and will therefore all appear close together on the plot. Based on the relative position of these clusters, it is possible to determine then genotype of all the data points.It is important that a sufficient number of individual samples are included in a KASP reaction plate to ensure that there are enough data points on the Cartesian plot to allow cluster analysis.The fluorescence values can be plotted using Excel.A software package is additionally offered as a part of a full workflow management system (Kraken TM ) or a standalone version (KlusterCaller TM ). The inclusion of the passive reference dye (ROX) leads to tighter clustering and, as a result, more accurate calling of data.Calling guidelines -Summary:• Include a minimum of 24 data points on each plot to facilitate cluster analysis• Check the scaling of the X and Y axes and, if required, rescale so that they are comparable. This will ensure that clusters are correctly centered and interpreted.• Where possible, include positive, negative, heterozygotes and NTC controls for each KASP assay as this will facilitate data analysis.• Do not view results for more than one KASP assay on an individual cluster plot -always view results assay by assay. Otherwise you might get confused.• Do not view results from bread and durum wheat on one individual cluster plot, plots might be different for both species.• Always check genotypes that are automatically assigned by the instrument software as they may need to be manually adjusted.• The contamination of tips can be problem if you don't pipette carefully. You can identify any contamination easily when your NTC controls are plotting close to both X and Y axes.• Always keep the same order when adding your controls. This helps in case your plate reader accounts for a technical some problem.A good PCR primer design is essential to reveal successful amplification products of a particular target region. The primer melting temperature is the estimate of the DNA-DNA hybrid stability and critical in determining the annealing temperature in a PCR reaction. Too high T a will produce insufficient primer-template hybridization resulting in low PCR product yield. Too low T a may fail to anneal and extend at all and may possibly lead to non-specific products caused by a high number of base pair mismatches.The GC content (the number of G's and C's in the primer as a percentage of the total bases) of primer should be 40-60%.The presence of G or C bases within the last five bases from the 3' end of primers (GC clamp) helps promote specific binding at the 3' end due to the stronger bonding of G and C bases. More than 3 G's or C's should be avoided in the last 5 bases at the 3' end of the primer.Presence of the primer secondary structures produced by intermolecular or intramolecular interactions can lead to poor or no yield of the product. They adversely affect primer template annealing and thus the amplification. They greatly reduce the availability of primers to the reaction.i) Hairpins: It is formed by intramolecular interaction within the primer and should be avoided. Optimally a 3' end hairpin with a ΔG of -2 kcal/mol and an internal hairpin with a ΔG of -3 kcal/mol is tolerated generally.ii) Self Dimer: A primer self-dimer is formed by intermolecular interactions between the two (same sense) primers, where the primer is homologous to itself. Generally a large amount of primers are used in PCR compared to the amount of target gene. When primers form intermolecular dimers much more readily than hybridizing to target DNA, they reduce the product yield. Optimally a 3' end self dimer with a ΔG of -5 kcal/mol and an internal self dimer with a ΔG of -6 kcal/mol is tolerated generally.iii) Cross Dimer/Primer Dimer: Primer cross dimers are formed by intermolecular interaction between sense and antisense primers, where they are homologous. Optimally a 3' end cross dimer with a ΔG of -5 kcal/ mol and an internal cross dimer with a ΔG of -6 kcal/ mol is tolerated generally.All these primer secondary structures can be checked while designing primers using OligoAnalyzer tool on IDT site (http://www.idtdna.com/analyzer/ Applications/OligoAnalyzer/).6. Primer Design 6. The output file will give you list of CAPS candidates along with expected band sizes and prices of the enzymes.7. The results can be downloaded as a plain text file at the top of the site. Many of the times, you will get both primers far away from the target SNP. In such a case, move one of the primers (depending on whichever is closer to the target SNP) closer to the SNP so that its 3' end overlaps with the SNP. For example, with the above example sequence you will get both primers(Forward primer is purple and Reverse primer is yellow) far away from the target SNP in the first instance. Hence, to go closer to the target first try to delete 10-20 bp of the sequence from left side and go to advanced setting with minimum, optimum and maximum product size settings of 20, 30 and 30, respectively. This way programme will be forced to select primers close to the target SNP. With this strategy you will see that the forward purple primer is just 5 nucleotides away from the target SNP.5. However, the forward primer is still far from the target SNP. Now either move the forward primer 5 nucleotides in the 3' end direction or simply add 5 nucleotides + 1 nucleotide base in the forward primer (as maximum primer size of 26 bases is allowed) originally returned by the programme. Now try these two kind of forward primer options in the programme. Go to advanced settings and again change minimum, optimum and maximum product size settings to 20, 30 and 30, respectively and click Pick primers. Either of these options might work.6. If deleting sequences from left side does not work, try deleting sequence from the right side. This way programme will return reverse primer close to the target SNP. Then using the same methodology as described for forward primers in steps 4 and 5, you can design two reverse primers targeting the SNP.4. The advice is to enter \"1\". This will allow identification of potential dCAPS.5. Click Submit.6. The output will display the available enzymes sites and the possible primer sequences with one mismatch. The colored sequence indicates mismatches.7. The output provides the primer sequence to introduce the restriction site. You need to design a reverse primer that will be used to amplify the region with the dCAPS primer output using Primer3Plus.7. For designing KASP primers for multiple sequences in one easy step, use the PolyMarker tool (http:// polymarker.tgac.ac.uk/). PolyMarker has been specially constructed for designing primers from wheat genome. PolyMarker generates a multiple alignment between the target SNP sequence and the IWGSC chromosome survey sequences for each of the three wheat genomes. It generates KASP assays which are based on a three primer system. Two diagnostic primers incorporate the alternative varietal SNP at the 3' end, but are otherwise similar. The third common primer is preferentially selected to incorporate a genomespecific base at the 3' end, or a semi-specific base in the absence of an adequate genome specific position.8. The input file must be uploaded as a CSV file (can be exported from Excel) with the following columns: a. Gene id: A unique identifier for the assay. It must be unique on each run. b. Target chromosome: In the form 1A, 2D, 7B, etc. c. Sequence: The sequence flanking the SNP.The SNP must be marked in the format [A/T] for a varietal SNP with alternative bases, A or T.9. PolyMarker takes ~1 minute per marker assuming an input sequence of 200 bp (with the varietal SNP in the middle). Longer sequences can be used, but this will slow down the initial BLAST against the wheat survey sequence.Any new laboratory user must be introduced to the lab safety procedures and other guidelines in consultation with his/her supervisor and colleagues.The laboratory area which require special attention to safety procedures e.g., gel staining area should be visited. In that moment also all the personal protective equipment should be delivered (lab coat, googles and gloves). It is mandatory to respect any indication received in this safety general tour.A number of chemicals used in any molecular biology laboratory are hazardous. All manufacturers of hazardous materials are required by law to supply the user with pertinent information on any hazards associated with their chemicals. This information is supplied in the form of Material Safety Data Sheets or MSDS (see also Table 1 and 2). This information contains the chemical name, CAS#, health hazard data, including first aid treatment, physical data, fire and explosion hazard data, reactivity data, spill or leak procedures, and any special precautions needed when handling this chemical. A file containing MSDS information on the hazardous substances should be kept in the laboratory for revision if required. This file should have to be updated annually due to their health hazard could change in consequence its classification. In addition, MSDS information can be accessed in the web. You are strongly urged to make use of this information prior to using a new chemical and certainly in the case of any accidental exposure or spill. The instructor/laboratory manager should be notified immediately in the case of an accident involving any potentially hazardous reagents.The following chemicals are particularly noteworthy (see Table 1):• Acrylamide -potential neurotoxin • Chloroform -carcinogen • Ethidium bromide -carcinogen These chemicals are not harmful if used properly: always wear lab coat, googles, gloves and safety shoes when using potentially hazardous chemicals and never mouth-pipet them. If you accidentally splash any of these chemicals on your skin, immediately rinse the area thoroughly with water and inform the instructor, supervisor or any lab user to get the first aid treatment. Discard the waste in appropriate containers.Exposure to ultraviolet light can cause acute eye irritation. Since the retina cannot detect UV light, you can have serious eye damage and not realize it until 30 min to 24 hours after exposure. Therefore, always wear appropriate eye protection when using UV lamps.The voltages used for some equipment but also electrophoresis are sufficient to cause electrocution. Cover the buffer reservoirs during electrophoresis. Always turn off the power supply and unplug the leads before removing a gel.All common areas should be kept free of clutter and all dirty dishes, electrophoresis equipment, etc. should be dealt with appropriately. Since you have only a limited amount of space to call your own, it is to your advantage to keep your own area clean. Since you will use common facilities, all solutions and everything stored in an incubator, refrigerator, etc. must be labeled. In order to limit confusion, each person should use his initials or other unique designation for labeling plates, etc. Unlabeled material found in the refrigerators, incubators, or freezers may be destroyed. Always mark the backs of the plates with your initials, the date, and relevant experimental data, e.g. strain numbers.7. General Laboratory Procedures, Equipment Use, and Safety Considerations Acrylamide and Silver are also classified as hazardous waste and should be placed into suitable, leak-tight labelled containers.Dirty glassware should be rinsed, all traces of agar or other substance that will not come clean in a dishwasher should be removed, all labels should be removed (if possible), and the glassware should be placed in the dirty dish bin. Bottle caps, stir bars and spatulas should not be placed in the bins but should be washed with hot soapy water, rinsed well with hot water, and rinsed three times with distilled water.Different types of waste should never be mixed.Separate trash and labeled containers should be stored under suitable conditions in a waste room until collected by a specialized company.Most of the experiments you will conduct in the laboratory will depend on your ability to accurately measure volumes of solutions using micropipettes.The accuracy of your pipetting can only be as accurate as your pipettor and several steps should be taken to insure that your pipettes are accurate and are maintained in good working order. If they need to be recalibrated, do so. Do not drop it on the floor. If you suspect that something is wrong with your pipettor, first check the calibration to see if your suspicions were correct. The regions within genomes that contain genes associated with a particular quantitative trait are known as quantitative trait loci (QTL). Breeders and geneticists have developed statistical methods to identify QTL by utilizing molecular markers. These methods have sought to answer basic questions concerning QTL (e.g. number, mode of action and size of action) and to map QTL on the genome to facilitate their manipulation for breeding purposes.In wheat, populations derived from single crosses of inbred lines have predominantly been used in QTL mapping experiments. In this chapter we describe the principles of bi-parental QTL mapping.Several types of populations are currently being used in bi-parental QTL mapping studies. They include F 2:3 families, near-isogenic lines (NIL), doubled haploids (DH) and recombinant inbred lines (RIL). These populations differ in the method by which they are developed and the unique genetic structure they carry. F 2:3 families are also called tentative or temporary populations and their genetic constitution will change with recombination through further selfing or inbreeding (Xu 2010). Thus, F 2:3 families can only be used once for phenotyping and genotyping due to the variable genotypes in the following generation. This type of population is usually used to map the genes, which control qualitative traits such as seedling resistance genes to diseases in wheat. A NIL population consists of lines with nearly identical genetic backgrounds. It can be derived by continuous backcrossing of a hybrid to one of its parental lines so that lines only differ for a specific target trait or locus (Xu 2010). This kind of population is usually used for fine mapping of a targeted genetic locus and to estimates its genetic effect. The DH approach has several advantages that make it useful in genetic analysis in plants (Bal and Abak 2007;Ferrie 2007;Forster et al. 2007). The DH approach can specifically speed up the development of the genetic population and fix the trait of interest. However, this type of population presents more advantages in a diploid crop (such as maize) than in a polyploid crop (such as wheat) as only one recombination occurs during population construction. Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) are therefore more often used in wheat genetic research. They can be produced by various inbreeding procedures such as single seed descent (SSD) and single spike selection methods (Fehr 1987). Several quantitative traits loci have been mapped at CIMMYT using this type of population (Basnet et al. 2013;Lan et al. 2014;Rosewarne et al. 2012). As the RILs are genetically fixed, they can be easily phenotyped for multiple environments and years in replicated trials. Moreover, the RILs provide the better choice for genetic studies as they are developed by several generations of selfing which allows multiple meiotic divisions and more numbers of accumulated recombination events.DNA based molecular marker technologies have come a long way since the development of the first generation markers, such as restriction frangment length polymorphism (RFLPs) in the 1980s. In spite of many developed marker types, major technologies can broadly classified into the following three groups: 1) hybridization-based markers, such as RFLPs (Devos et al. 1992)   Lr10, Lr23, Lr27, Lr31, Lr34 were firstly mapped by this marker system (Nelson et al. 1997). Compared RFLPs, AFLPs markers give higher reproducibility and resolution at the whole genome level; however, the procedure of AFLP analysis is complex and costly (Mueller et al. 1999). The SSR marker system became the preferred system due to its codominance, accuracy, high repeatability, high levels of polymorphism, chromosome specificity, and ease of manipulation (Röder et al. 1998). More recently, high-throughput technologies, DArT, SNP and GBS, have become the major genotyping platforms. DArT was developed as a hybridisation-based system capable of generating whole-genome fingerprints by scoring presence versus absence of DNA fragments in genomic representations generated from samples of genomic DNA. However, all DArT markers are dominant. The chromosome information of this system is not very clear either and markers tend to form location clusters, although some markers have been located on the physical map (Wilkinson et al. 2012; http://www.cerealsdb.uk.net/CerealsDB/ Documents/FORM_DArT_1A. php). DArT markers have often been combined with SSR in mapping QTL for traits such as biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in wheat. SNPs represent the smallest possible DNA polymorphism. Their abundance in any genome makes them ideally suited for the construction of highresolution genetic maps, investigations of population evolutionary history and the discovery of marker-trait associations (Aranzana et al. 2005;Zhao et al. 2007). This capacity also helps in directly interrogating sequence variation and reducing genotyping errors compared to assays based on size discrimination (Li et al. 2014). However, the chromosome information of high-density SNP markers (1537 up to 830K SNP chips) is still somewhat limited in its use in wheat genetic analysis. Due to the accelerated development of sequencing technologies, the GBS approach has recently been applied to the construction of genetic maps of crops (Elshire et al. 2011;Poland et al. 2012). This allows direct analysis of genetic variation and reduction of the effect of ascertainment bias caused by the SNP discovery process. However, the lack of chromosome information has so far limited SNP application in genetic research. Thus, combining several well-established marker systems with a highthroughput method is currently the best option for genetic studies in wheat.Before molecular mapping of genes is carried out, it is important to understand the mode of inheritance of the trait(s) under study. For a monogenic and oligogenic trait such as rust resistance in wheat, gene action and gene quantity can be analyzed by progeny testing and Mendelian population segregation analysis. Singh and Rajaram (1992) demonstrated that the number of genes segregating in a population can be estimated using Mendelian segregation ratios for such quantitative traits as disease severities. The observed frequencies for the three homozygous resistant parental, homozygous susceptible parental and segregating type categories were tested against the expected frequencies for different numbers of additive genes using Chi-square (χ 2 ) analysis. In addition, the minimum number of genes in a RIL population in F 5 could also be estimated by using the quantitative approach described by the formula of Wright (1968):where n = the minimum number of genes, GR (genotypic range) = phenotype range × h (narrowsense heritability, h = σ 2 g / σ 2 g + σ 2 e), σ 2 g = genetic variance of F 5 RILs in the present population and 4.57 a correction factor for inbreeding at F 5 .QTL mapping establishes linkages between marker loci and trait(s). There are two major types of QTL mapping methods based on the classification of individuals: marker-based analysis (MBA) and traitbased analysis (TBA) (Xu 2010). The MBA method locates chromosomal regions or QTL based on their linkage relationships to Mendelian marker loci (Thoday 1961). This method of linkage involves testing for phenotypic differences among marker genotypes (Soller and Beckmann 1990). Several wheat rust loci mapped by this method (Ren et al. 2012;Yang et al. 2013) are schematically demonstrated in Figure 1.The TBA method examines marker allele frequencies in lines originating from a segregating population but selected for specific phenotypes (Stuber et al. 1980(Stuber et al. , 1982)). Although variation in quantitative traits is continuous in a population, phenotype extremes can still be distinguished if the intermediate phenotypes are excluded. By selecting the extremes of a trait phenotype, the difference of related allele frequencies will be maximized (Sun et al. 2010) and are thus considered to have an effect on the trait (Xu 2010). This method is good to be used in fine mapping single genes/QTL (Figure 2).The QTL mapping methods can have significant impact on accuracy and efficiency of QTL discoveries. In the early 1990s, simple interval mapping (SIM) was wildly used in genetic analysis. This method detects the relationship between traits and markers by comparing the significant difference between phenotype means divided by single marker genotypes (Soller and Beckmann, 1990). However, SIM cannot determine the linkage between detected QTL and has low efficiency and easily provides false positive results. Composite interval mapping (CIM) was introduced by Zeng (1993) as improvement over SIM. It combines both multiple linear regression and SIM together to detect the QTL between several markers and different chromosome regions simultaneously. This method improved the sensitivity and accuracy of the QTL result by controlling genetic background effects. This method has been widely used in QTL mapping in particular because of its ability to do multiple traits analysis (Jiang and Zeng, 1995).Map manager/Mapmaker/Joinmap CIM based on mixed model can detect additive, dominance and G×E interaction effects and also can detect QTL in multiple environments simultaneously, which markedly improves the efficiency and accuracy of the mapping result (Zhu et al. 1998). Recently, inclusive composite interval mapping (ICIM) has been reported by Li et al. (2007). The differences between this method and those previously mentioned are 1) it uses a selective analysis based on a stepwise regression model; 2) it adjusts the phenotype based on the selected model and 3) it carries out interval mapping based on a multiple regression equation. In recent years, ICIM has been a popular method in QTL mapping studies because of its very high efficiency in terms of processing time and higher accuracy of results, including less false positive results, better estimates of QTL positions and effects (Basnet et al. 2014, Lan et al. 2014, Rosewarne et al. 2012).With advances in newer computer technologies, genetic-mapping theories and techniques, sophisticated software for genetic mapping and QTL analyses have also evolved rapidly. Some very popular non-commercial, genetic-mapping software includes: Mapmaker/QTL 1.1; Map Manager QTX (Manly et al. 2001); Windows QTL Cartographer (Wang et al. 2012); QTL IciMapping v3.3 (Li et al. 2007).To conduct CIMMYT rust genetic research, we use both QTL Cartographer (CIM) and IciMapping (ICIM) for QTL analysis as well as for cross validation. The results from both methods are compared and confirmed with a logarithm of odds (LOD) threshold based on 1,000 permutations. Based on our QTL mapping experience, especially for disease resistance traits, there are several factors affecting the accuracy of QTL results:• LOD threshold: although the general consensus of LOD 2.0-3.0 is used as a threshold for QTL detection, it is very important to understand the type of phenotypic data and using permutation (≥1,000). For small effect QTL, a higher threshold may reduce the power of QTL detection, resulting in false negatives, whereas lower thresholds can result in many false positives• Mapping population size: bigger population size is required to detect multiple minor-effects QTL.In addition, the genetic population size will also affect the LOD threshold to detect the QTL, for example, the number of detected QTL will be significantly less if higher LOD thresholds are used in smaller genetic populations.• QTL/gene effect: larger QTL or genes, have often been observed to overshadow the effect of smaller QTL in the population, which results in under-detection of true QTL. In this instance, the genetic population can be subdivided by excluding the large-effect QTL/gene in order to allow the small QTL to be detected (Basnet et al. 2013).• Number and distribution of markers in the genome: genome coverage by markers is very important to detect larger numbers of QTL present in the population. The genetic distance between markers will also affect the accuracy of QTL result. A false QTL might be detected if the genetic distance between two markers is very far -for example, more than 30 cM based on our genetic population analysis. This QTL needs to be confirmed by the single marker and SIM analysis.Thus, the accuracy of QTL will be affected by the size of the population, LOD score, genetic distance between markers and QTL mapping method. The results need to be further confirmed by single marker analysis for traits with low heritability and QTL with small effect.The expression of minor genes can be affected by several factors. In the case of wheat rust, the first factor is environment, including temperature, light and moisture. It is very important to evaluate the population in different environments to identify stable QTLs. For example, one leaf rust APR QTL on 3BS had been identified in the RIL population from the cross Avocet-YrA × Francolin#1, it explained 30.4% of phenotype variance at the CIMMYT's Norman E. Borlaug Experimental Station (CENEB) wheat breeding station in Obregon in the 2008-09 season, but it was not identified in Obregon in the 2009-10 season (Lan et al. 2014). The second factor is the inoculation pressure. The method for inoculation and the inoculum amount had certain effects on expression of minor resistance genes. The reaction was significantly different when the inoculums were inoculated directly or indirectly (Zhang et al. 2009). The third factor is genetic background. The effects of the same APR QTL were different in various segregating populations because interaction between a range of genes were present. For example, the leaf rust severity score was 5% when the single adult plant resistance gene Lr34 was introgressed in the Avocet background, whereas it was 20% in the Lal Bahadur background. The final factor effecting the expression of minor genes is pathotypes. Non-race specific genes often confer consistent resistance to most Pt pathotypes, which means that the resistance gene presented broadly spectrum resistance to different pathotypes (McDonald and Linde 2002). Pathotypes have qualitative effects on the gene expression if a major gene is present in the population.The populations to determine resistance against the three rusts. Refer to chapter 5 \"Marker-assisted selection for rust resistance in wheat\" to learn more about how CIMMYT uses these genes in breedingIn order to clone wheat genes, accurate phenotyping and fine mapping is essential. SSR markers have often been used for primary molecular mapping, whereas SNP markers and comparative genomics approaches are used for fine mapping (Zhang et al. 2013). As a final step Fu et al. (2009) used chromosome walking combined with bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library screening to clone the resistance gene Yr36 (Fu et al. 2009). So far, more than 10 wheat disease resistance genes have been cloned by this method, such as Lr1, Lr10, Lr21, Lr34, Yr36, Sr33, Sr35, Pm3, Pm8 and Pm21 (Cao et al. 2011;Cloutier et al. 2007;Feuillet et al. 2003;Fu et al. 2009;Huang et al. 2003;Hurni et al. 2013;Krattinger et al. 2009;Periyannan et al. 2013;Saintenac et al. 2013;Yahiaoui et al. 2004).However, common wheat has a very large genome, and the genomic sequences are not yet assembled as thoroughly as those in rice and maize (Liu et al. 2012, Choulet et al 2014). Therefore, it is very difficult to clone genes by map-based cloning in common wheat. Alternatively, comparative genomics provides an efficient approach for the isolation of wheat genes based on orthologs descended from a common ancestor, which have often conserved functions and are expected to produce similar phenotypes across species (Devos 2005). The genomes of rice, maize and Brachypodium grasses have been sequenced and provide powerful tools for gene discovery in wheat (Matsumoto et al. 2005;Schnable et al. 2009;Vogel et al. 2010). This technology for in silico cloning was widely employed for the identification of interesting genes in wheat (Gill and Sanseau 2000;He et al. 2007He et al. , 2008He et al. , 2009;;Su et al. 2011;Ma et al. 2012). Based on the large expressed sequence tags (EST) database (wheat.pw.usda.gov/wEST/), putative wheat gene sequences were obtained by aligning and jointing the orthologous genes with the same function in the related species. For example, the Psy1 gene (GenBank accession U32636) has been cloned based on the cDNA sequence of maize, all wheat ESTs sharing high similarity with the reference gene were blasted and subjected to contig assembly (He et al. 2008). Recently, selective genotyping was used in fine mapping and cloning of the GCP-B1 gene in wheat (Trick et al. 2012). This cost-efficient method was used to genotype individuals from the extremes of the segregating population instead of the entire population. In the future, sequencing techniques combined with candidate gene association analysis and high-density wheat SNP arrays will be used for fine mapping and cloning genes in wheat.The objective of genetic mapping is to identify simply inherited markers in close proximity to genetic factors affecting quantitative traits (Quantitative trait loci, or QTL). Genetic mapping can be done in two ways: (1) using experimental populations (bi-parental mapping populations), called \"QTLmapping\" or \"gene tagging,\" (see Chapter 1); and(2) using diverse lines from natural populations or germplasm collections, called \"genome-wide association studies,\" \"association mapping (AM)\" or \"linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping\". The traditional QTL mapping approach suffers from a number of limitations. First, allelic variation in each cross is restricted because typically only two parents are used to create a QTL mapping population. Second, since often segregating or double haploid populations are used, the number of recombination events per chromosome is small. Third, a typical QTL identified from a cross consisting of a few hundred offspring can span anywhere between a few to tens of centiMorgan encompassing several megabases. Such large genome regions contain, typically, hundreds if not thousands of genes, making the process of identifying the causal gene in a QTL region a tedious and quite time-consuming task through map-based cloning (Price 2006).Association mapping has emerged as a more efficient way of determining the genetic basis of complex traits where a large population is surveyed to determine marker-trait associations using linkage disequilibrium. This approach has many major advantages over conventional QTL mapping. First, a larger and more representative genepool can be surveyed. Second, it bypasses the expense and time of developing mapping populations and enables the simultaneous mapping of many traits in one set of genotypes. Third, a much finer mapping resolution can be achieved, resulting in small confidence intervals of the detected loci compared to classical mapping, where the identified loci need to be finemapped. Finally, it has the potential not only to identify and map QTLs but also to identify the causal polymorphism within a gene that is responsible for the difference in two alternative phenotypes (Yu et al. 2013). However, AM is prone to the identification of false positives, especially if the experimental design is not rigorously controlled. For example, population structure has long been known to induce many false positives and accounting for population structure has become one of the main issues when implementing AM in plants (Breseghello and Sorrells 2006). Also, with an increasing number of genetic markers used, the problem of separating true from false positive marker associations becomes relevant and highlights the need for independent validation of identified associations. With these caveats in mind, AM nevertheless shows great promise for helping us understand the genetic basis of polygenic traits of agronomic importance.  Various population types can be used for AM; gene bank collections, elite breeding materials and/or specialized populations (e.g., nested association mapping, or NAM, and multiparent advanced generation inter-cross, or MAGIC, populations). In the case of gene bank material, core collections are expected to represent most of the genetic variability with a manageable number of accessions, and thus are suitable for AM studies. In addition, the process of selecting a minimum sample size with maximum variation has a normalizing effect that is expected to reduce population structure and decrease LD thus creating a situation favorable for AM. On the other hand, large numbers of rare alleles might be captured in a core collection whose effects are difficult to identify with AM. Core collections are useful for mapping qualitative traits, such as disease resistance or quality characteristics. Their broad genetic variability makes them often unsuitable for analysis of quantitative traits because accessions are usually unadapted to growing conditions, resulting in poor precision of trait measurement.In plant breeding programs, a large body of phenotypic data is accumulated for elite lines from replicated field experiments over locations and years, thereby saving time on developing a panel. The use of those data for AM requires statistical models accounting for covariances introduced both by experimental design (years, locations, replicates) and polygenic effects. Moreover, those data are often unbalanced because new lines are included in field trials each year, while other lines are discarded. Population structure and higher LD can be prominent in elite material because it is common for closely related lines to be admitted to advanced trials. However, if pedigrees are known, the relationships among the lines can be determined and used to control for polygenic effects.Although AM in elite lines may not offer much improved resolution compared with QTL analysis in bi-parental mapping populations, there are at least two important advantages: a substantially higher level of polymorphism and detection of favorable alleles directly in the target population. At CIMMYT, panels of elite lines that will form international wheat screening nurseries and yield trails are being used for AM for yield and yield components under drought and heat stress, quality traits and resistance to various diseases. Elite lines might be more desirable materials for mapping low heritability traits, as the material is genetically more stable and are well adapted to normal growing conditions.To increase the power and mapping resolution of marker-trait associations, some specialized populations have been constructed utilizing a joint strength of QTL mapping and AM. For example, NAM populations and MAGIC populations have been developed in wheat and other crops (Cavanagh et al 2008;Kover et al. 2009 With further developments in NGS technologies, sequencing today has extended to entire populations, rather than to a few parental individuals, thus enabling the simultaneous genome-wide detection and scoring of hundreds of thousands of markers (Elshire et al. 2011). This new approach, called \"genotyping-by-sequencing\" (GBS), uses data directly from the populations being genotyped, thus removing ascertainment bias towards a particular population. GBS is a highly cost-effective technology producing up to a million SNPs per genotype with a cost as low as 20-40 USD. However, one of the unique features associated with GBS is the generation of highly incomplete datasets (Fu 2014), sometimes with up to 90% missing observations per line (Elshire et al. 2011;Fu and Peterson 2011). Such data either needs to be discarded or imputed before it can be used for any genetic analysis (Fu 2014). Many methods are now available for imputation; regression-based methods such as random forest (RF, Stekhoven and Bühlmann 2011) and principal component analysis (PCA)-based tools (Stacklies et al. 2007). The potential of GBS approach for studying marker-trait associations in wheat for yield and yield components under contrasting water regimes and heat stress is underway at CIMMYT.Candidate gene AM is aimed at linking phenotypic variation with polymorphic sites in candidate genes to identify causative polymorphisms. A candidate gene-based association study is more hypothesisdriven than a genome-wide study. The construction of molecular linkage maps based on genes (for example, expressed sequence tags [ESTs, EST-SSRs]) is one way of identifying the candidate genes underlying QTL, instead of time-consuming fine mapping (Sehgal et al. 2012). Also, the choice of candidate gene(s) can be based on relevant information obtained from genetic, biochemical, physiological or expression studies in both model and non-model plant species (Sehgal and Yadav 2009). Standard neutrality tests applied to DNA sequence variation data can also be used to select candidate genes or amino acid sites that are putatively under selection for AM. This is one of the effective alternative strategies in AM that allows reducing the total amount of marker genotyping in a lower number of individuals and increases the power and precision of the trait-marker correlations. However, it is important to remember that a candidate gene approach is limited by the choice of candidate genes that are identified (and probably explain a small percent of the phenotypic variance) and hence always runs the risk of missing out on identifying causal mutations located in nonidentified genes. In wheat, a candidate gene-based association study identified marker-trait associations for drought tolerance traits (Edae et al. 2013). In this study, known drought stress-induced genes in ABAdependent (ERA1) and ABA-independent (DREB1A, 1-FEH) pathways were used as candidates genes (Edae et al. 2013). In an another candidate genebased AM in wheat, an SNF-1 type serine-threonine protein kinase TaSnRK2.8 showed association with plant height, flag leaf width and water-soluble carbohydrates under drought conditions (Zhang et al. 2013). This gene was selected based on previous evidence (Zhang et al. 2010) of its role in enhancing tolerance to drought, salt and low temperature.One of the main hurdles for using AM to dissect the genetic architecture of complex traits in plants is the risk of incurring false positives due to population structure (Pritchard et al. 2000). The problem of population structure arises because any phenotypic trait that is also correlated with the underlying population structure at neutral loci will show an inflated number of positive associations resulting in Type I errors. Among many methods developed to deal with this problem, the 'genomic control' (GC) method (Devlin and Roeder 1999) estimates association using a large number of putative neutral markers or markers not thought to be involved in controlling the trait of interest. The distribution of the test statistic of interest is then calculated from these associations and a critical value corresponding to the desired Type I error rate is chosen from this distribution. Another method that is commonly used is structured associations (SA) (Pritchard et al. 2000).SA first searches a population for closely related clusters/subdivisions using a Bayesian approach, and then uses the clustering matrices (Q) in AM (by a logistic regression) to correct for false associations.Population structure and shared co-ancestry coefficients between individuals of subdivisions of a population can be effectively estimated with the STRUCTURE program (Pritchard et al. 2000) using several models for linked and unlinked markers.Principal component analysis (PCA) was recently suggested as a fast and effective way to diagnose population structure (Zhu and Yu 2009). The PCA method summarizes variation observed across all markers into a number of underlying component variables and these components, typically the first few, can then be used to replace Q to adjust for population structure. The PCA method makes it computationally feasible to handle a large number of markers (tens of thousands) and correct for subtle population stratification. There are many programs that can be used to calculate PCA such as DARwin (Perrier and Jacquemoud-Collet, 2006) and EIGENSTRAT (Price et al. 2006).However, incorporating only population structure information in the analysis is not good enough itself when highly structured population with some degree of related individuals are used in the AM.A mixed linear model (MLM) that combines both population structure information (Q-matrix or PCA) and level of pairwise relatedness coefficients (kinship-matrix) should be used in the analysis.While the Q-matrix explains the structure between groups in a population, the kinship-matrix accounts additionally for the within group structure. Although computationally intensive, the MLM approach is very effective in removing the confounding effects of the population in AM (Yu et al. 2006).The terms linkage and LD are often confused. Linkage refers to the correlated inheritance of loci through the physical connection on a chromosome, whereas LD refers to the correlation between alleles in a population (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003) but not necessarily on the same chromosome. As a starting point for AM, it is important to gain knowledge of the patterns of LD for genomic regions of the \"target\" organisms and the specificity of the extent of LD among different populations or groups to design and conduct unbiased association mapping. The two most commonly used statistics to measure LD are r 2 (square of the correlation coefficient) and D' (disequilibrium coefficient). The statistics r 2 and D' reflect different aspects of LD and perform differently under various conditions. The r 2 is affected by both mutation and recombination while D' is affected by more mutational histories.There are many freely available softwares such as GOLD (Abecasis and Cookson 2000), TASSEL (www. maizegenetics.net) or Powermarker (Liu and Muse 2005) to depict the structure and pattern of LD. One can estimate an average genome-wide decay of LD by plotting LD values (r 2 values) obtained from a data set covering an entire genome (i.e., with more or less evenly spaced markers across all chromosomes in a genome) against the genetic or physical distance between markers. When such a LD decay plot is generated, the usual practice is to determine the distance where LD values (r 2 ) decrease below 0.1 or half strength of D' (D' = 0.5) based on the curve of the nonlinear logarithmic trend line. This gives a rough estimate of the extent of LD for association studies, but for more accurate estimates, highly significant threshold LD values (r 2 ≥0.2) are also used as a cutoff point. The decrease of the LD within the genetic distance indicates that the portion of LD is conserved with linkage and proportional to recombination (Gupta et al. 2005). The decay of LD over physical/ genetic distance in a population determines the density of marker coverage needed to perform an association analysis. If LD decays rapidly, then a higher marker density is required to capture markers located close enough to functional sites (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003;Gaut and Long, 2003). In wheat, depending on the populations used, LD decay have been reported to vary from 0.5 to 40cM (Chao et al. 2007(Chao et al. , 2010;;Tommasini et al. 2007;Crossa et al. 2007;Somers at al. 2007;Yao et al. 2009;Dreisigacker et al 2012).In general, raw data can be used directly in association analysis provided it is available for all entries and for all replicates in different locations/years. For cases where phenotypes are not evaluated for all individuals and replicates due to large sample size,BLUPs from a mixed model may be substituted as the dependent variable. In such cases, the association analysis using BLUPs can be performed with many fewer observations and require much less time.More recently, researchers have also used residuals instead of raw data. The rationale is that after removing all the effects except the marker, including the polygenic genetic variance captured by the BLUPs, the signal due to marker association is still contained in the residuals. Signals from the markers will be removed only to the extent that it is correlated with the other effects. The residuals approach performs as well as the approach using raw phenotype directly for low heritability traits (Aulchenko et al. 2007). Because the association test using residuals is performed without including the polygenic random effect, tests of individual markers run quickly. The mixed model equations with thousands of individuals only need to be solved once for any particular phenotype. After that, the millions of association tests for individual markers can then be performed using simple t-tests or F-tests of the marker classes.Public, freely available software suitable for association analysis using mixed models in plants include TASSEL and EMMA/R. Both analyze moderately large datasets in a reasonable amount of time but only allow a single effect (samples or taxa) to be fit as a random effect. All other effects are treated as fixed. EMMA relies on the R for data management and visualization whereas TASSEL handles those functions itself. Several commercial software packages available for association studies include ASREML, JMP Genomics, SAS and GenStat.ASREML and JMP Genomics are specifically engineered for genetic analysis and can handle more complex models, whereas general purpose packages such as SAS Proc Mixed and GenStat can perform association analysis but require more expertise and programming on the part of the user.From the user's perspective, clearly freely available software such as TASSEL plays an important role in scientific investigation. Another advantage of using TASSEL is that both GUI (graphical user interface) and CLI (command line interface) versions exist. In the GUI, the plug-ins are invoked by clicking buttons on the interface. With the CLI, the plug-ins are used in a predetermined pipeline that passes the output from one step to the input of another. Hence, scientists can use these versions depending on their expertise and consistent results are achieved independent of the interface. In the latest version of TASSEL (TASSEL 5.0), a compressed MLM method is available for computing large datasets with up to 500,000 markers.A threshold is set to declare significant associations.Either of the two statistical methods -False Discovery Rate (FDR) or Bonferroni correctioncan be used to correct for multiple comparisons.The correction is needed whenever one would like to test multiple hypotheses simultaneously. FDR controls the expected proportion of false positives among significant results by determining a threshold from the observed p-value distribution in the data, whereas Bonferroni corrections control the chance of any false positives (Benjamini and Hochberg 1995).Given the aims of the study, one may consider a high FDR for some projects (e.g. investigating the genetic architecture of a trait) and a low FDR for others (e.g. identifying candidate loci for follow-up studies).Validation of AM results is required before marker information is incorporated in selection decisions, or before larger efforts are invested into identification of causal factors and gene cloning. The most straightforward way is to compare the AM results with previous results published for the trait; for example using bi-parental populations. If markers in close proximity (within 10 cM) to previously reported QTLs/genes are identified, the result will not only be validated but also increase the confidence to pursue the new genomic target identified for the trait. Secondly, results can be validated in different populations. This is more reliable as the probability of observing false positives becomes small if significant associations are confirmed in two or more validation populations. Third, if association studies point to alleles with opposite effects on a trait of interest, one can generate multiple F 2 populations from parents that harbor contrasting alleles and determine whether differences in phenotype co-segregate with the locus in question. Once markers tightly linked to the target trait are validated, they provide several magnitudes of return on investment through increased speed and cost efficiency of breeding programs.Marker-assisted selection allows for the selection of QTL or genes that control traits of interest. In wheat, the number of markers known to be associated with QTL/genes for major economic traits has been growing during the last decade and marker discovery will be further be accelerated with the availability of a high quality reference sequence of the wheat genome (Choulet et al. 2014). Together with decreasing marker assay costs and interconnected genotyping service facilities, the opportunity to apply MAS strategies is becoming accessible to more and more breeding programs.Marker-assisted selection can supplement conventional breeding to increase genetic gain. Efficient MAS strategies can substantially cut down population sizes, allow selection for a maximum number of loci and thus reduce the time and cost needed to recover a desirable genotype. However, several factors need to be considered in choosing the trait and strategy for which MAS is appropriate. Depending on the populations and the trait selected for, empirical comparisons of MAS and phenotypic selection for increasing genetic gain from selection revealed different results. In some studies, MAS is reported to achieve higher selection gains than phenotypic selection (Abalo et al. 2009;Kuchel et al. 2007;Miedaner et al. 2009). Other studies considered the two methods equally effective (Moreau et al. 2004). In a third group of studies phenotypic selection proved to me more efficient than MAS (Davis et al. 2006;Wilde et al. 2007). Most studies conclude that MAS is most appropriate when the target traits 1) have low heritability, 2) are difficult and cost-prohibitive to measure, or 3) require desired pyramiding of genes. Every breeding program has its own set of breeding objectives and its own way to measure a trait; therefore the choice of traits for MAS and to be combined with phenotypic selection is individual for each breeding program and might vary between programs. The careful and efficient integration of marker and phenotypic selection in very individual program is crucial to maximize overall gains.Traits that have been targeted for MAS in wheat include: (1) disease/pest resistance (e.g., rust, Fusarium head blight, wheat nematodes and aphids);(2) quality traits (e.g., grain hardiness, grain color, grain texture and gluten strength); ( 3) traits linked to development and growths (e.g., height, phenology); and (4) abiotic stresses (e.g. drought, heat). In subsequent chapters we will describe in more detail how we use MAS for some of these traits in the CIMMYT Global Wheat Program. This chapter aim to outline principles that should be useful in designing a breeding strategy and critical factors to consider integrating MAS with currently available technology.In every breeding program, modern varieties are combinations of alleles for yield, grain quality and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses that have been assembled over multiple cycles of crossing and selection. A cross made with the aim of producing a variety will have parents with many alleles in common controlling these characters and simple or topcrosses will be made. If parents have a lower coancestry and differ for a greater number of alleles, genetic variation of the progenies will increase, but it will be difficult to produce a line suitable for release as a variety from a simple bi-parental cross (Longin et al. 2014). In these cases, or where one parent contributes only a small number of desirable attributes and the other contribute many more, one or more backcrosses may be necessary to recover a commercially viable line. Effective use of markers can make a large difference to the probability of obtaining a desirable genotype in elite or wide-cross populations or estimate the population size needed to have a reasonable probability of recovering it.In the commonly used breeding methods for selfpollinating crops, selecting desirable plants begins in early generations for traits of higher heritability. For traits of low heritability, selection is often postponed until the lines become more homozygous in later . Selection of superior plants involves visual assessment for agronomic traits or resistance to stresses, as well as laboratory tests for quality or other traits. To improve early generation selection, markers should decrease the number of plants retained due to their early generation performance, and at the same time they should ensure a high probability of retaining superior lines for selection in later generations (Eathington et al. 1997). If markers are cheaper, more heritable, easier or more accurate to select for than the target trait, they should be used in earlier stages of a breeding program to increase the frequency of the alleles favorable for the trait under selection.The principle of F 2 -enrichment introduced by Bonnett et al. 2005 is applied at CIMMYT after parental material is first characterized with markers for known genes to identify those parents with favorable alleles, which are then selectively combined in crosses. The concept of F 2 -enrichment is illustrated in Figure 1. In the F 2 of a bi-parental cross, at every polymorphic locus, three-fourths of F 2 individuals will carry at least one copy of the preferred A allele. Both AA and Aa individuals will produce the preferred AA homozygous progeny and should be retained in the population. Individuals with the aa genotype cannot produce the AA progeny and should be culled from the population. Culling aa and retaining both AA and Aa increases the frequency of the A allele from one in two to two in three, and thus enriches the frequency of the A allele in the population. If no further selection was applied and the population was progressed to homozygosity by inbreeding or production of double haploids (DHs) from selected F 2 s, the frequency of AA genotypes in the final population would be two in three and the frequency of aa only one in three. Alternatively to retaining all carriers of the desirable allele (AA, Aa) only the AA homozygous individuals could be retained in the population. The locus would not further segregate in the progeny; however, as the frequency of the AA individuals is only one in four, one-half less of F 2 individuals would be overall retained.The advantage of F 2 -enrichment becomes even more apparent with greater numbers of polymorphic loci (B, C, D, etc.); the breeding target being to pyramid or combine several genes into a single genotype. The difference in the frequencies and the population sizes needed to recover only homozygotes vs. carriers of all desirable alleles becomes larger (see Table 1). E.g., in a population segregating at two loci, A and B, the frequency of the preferred AABB homozygote is much smaller at just one in 16 than the frequency of A-B-carriers (AABB, AABb, AaBB, AaBb) at nine in 16. With no polymorphic loci, the frequency of homozygotes in F 2 is (one in four) n , the frequency of carriers is (three in four) n . F 2 -enrichment will increase the frequency of desirable homozygotes to (two of three) n in inbred or DH lines produced from the selected F 2 s that carry at least one copy of the target allele at all loci. At CIMMYT A-B-carriers are usually advanced via bulk breeding. In cases when three loci are combined, several bulks are sometimes advanced, e.g., a bulk that includes the A-B-carriers of all three loci but also a bulk that includes the A-Bcarriers of two of the three loci.Frequency of A increased from 1 /2 to 2 /3  In populations with differing frequencies of target alleles at different polymorphic loci, the frequency of an individual with a particular genotype across all loci can be calculated by multiplying the individual frequencies at each locus. For example, in a biparental population in which F 2 -enrichment has been applied for target alleles at 6 loci, the frequency of a genotype homozygous at all loci in the F 4 generation is 0.583 6 = 0.060. In a similar backcross populations in which target alleles at 4 loci coming from the recurrent parent and 2 from the donor with enrichment applied in the BC 1 F 1 for donor alleles and in F 2 for donor and recurrent parent alleles, the frequency of an individual in a DH population developed following F 2enrichment would be 0.67 2 (donor alleles) × 0.857 4  (recurrent parent alleles) in both BC 1 F 1 (increasing frequency at each locus from one in four to one in two) and subsequent enrichment in F 2 increasing the frequency of these donor alleles from one in two to two of three. Enrichment of the recurrent parent alleles in BC 1 F 2 increases their frequency from three in four to seven of eight. In spite of the relatively high frequency of homozygotes for the recurrent parent alleles in a backcross, enrichment still requires smaller Each selected F 2 will need to produce several progeny to make up the required number of lines in subsequent generations. Each selected F 2 should contribute equal numbers of progeny to the subsequent population in order to avoid changes in allele frequencies due to genetic drift. Table 1 shows the population sizes needed to use F 2 enrichment in a bi-parental cross in the F 2 generation and in later generation populations derived from the selected F 2 s. For comparison it also shows the population sizes needed to recover homozygotes in different generations when enrichment has not been applied.In certain cases backcross (BC 1 F 1 ) or top cross (TCF 1 ) populations are made to combine genes of interest. If markers are going to be used in BC 1 F 1 or TCF 1 populations, the desired alleles or allele combinations are of lower frequency. For example, desirable alleles coming from the non-recurrent or donor line will have a frequency of one in four in BC 1 F 1 or TCF 1 populations and one-half of the population will lack the allele. Selection among BC 1 F 1 or TCF 1 populations will increase the frequency of target alleles from donors from one in four to one in two and ensure all selected individuals carry one copy of all target allele. If followed by F 2 -enrichment, the frequency of donor alleles is increased from one in four to two in three. Table 2 shows the frequencies of carriers and homozygotes for target alleles at single calculating population size for any frequency and desired level of confidence of recovery was given by Hanson (1959):where N is the population size, x the specified probability of failure and G the genotypic frequency.A useful rule of thumb is to multiply the inverse of the frequency by 3 to achieve a commonly desired 95% probability of recovery. For example with a frequency of one in 16, the population size needed for 95% probability of recovering the target genotype is 16 × 3 = 48. In other words: Population size = (1/frequency of target genotype) × 3. This formula applies regardless of whether the target genotype is homozygous or heterozygous. Often, the number of important loci contributing variation to important traits in a cross will not be known and partial enrichment is applied by estimating the number of important polymorphic loci or deciding on a certain number of inbred lines to retain for phenotypic selection. E.g., measures can be translated to a partial enrichment strategy where e.g. six loci are taken into account for enrichment plus additional four important polymorphic loci for which markers are not available.population sizes than selection of homozygotes. For more information on application of allele enrichment refer to the publication of Bonnett et al. (2005). On high priority materials, at CIMMYT we apply marker assays additionally at the F 4 or F 5 generation to ensure a high frequency of advanced progeny containing the alleles of interest.In reality, markers or efficient phenotypic screens will rarely be available for alleles at all important loci segregating in a cross and it will not be possible to enrich frequencies of these alleles in early generations. Early generation selection strategies must therefore be designed to retain important allelic variation until later stages of the breeding process to select for more complex traits like yield that require homogeneous lines, large seed quantities and expensive phenotypic screens to achieve acceptable heritability.Estimating the number of important polymorphic loci or deciding on a certain number of inbred lines to be retained for phenotypic selection can be implemented to optimize overall required population sizes. Required population sizes to recover an individual with a target genotype are inversely related to the frequency of those individuals. A formula for After enrichment in F 2 , inbreeding by whatever system will ultimately produce the same frequency of target homozygotes as would be produced through SSD, providing selection for other traits does not affect frequencies of the target alleles through linkage or pleiotropy and population sizes remain large enough to avoid changes in allele frequencies due to drift. Bulk breeding methodologies as used at CIMMYT may be a very efficient means of progressing populations to homozygosity while selecting for other traits and provided this selection does not cause changes in the frequencies of 'target' alleles following the enrichment steps due to linkage, pleiotropy, or genetic drift, the expected frequencies of target genotypes should be similar to those predicted.As outlined above, if parents have a low co-ancestry, genetic variation of the progeny will increase, but it will be difficult to produce a line suitable for release as a variety from a simple bi-parental cross. Various generations of backcrossing are used in some cases to transfer a desired trait from a rather unadapted donor plant into an elite genotype (recurrent parent) until most of the genes stemming from the donor are eliminated (Becker 1993).Markers can be used in the context of MABC to either control the target gene (foreground selection) or to accelerate the reconstruction of the recurrent parent genotype (background selection). According to Tanksley et al. (1989), in traditional backcross breeding the reconstruction of the recurrent parent genotype requires more than six generations, while this may be reduced to only three generations in MABC. Similarly, Hospital et al. (1992) and Ribaut and Hoisington (1998) concluded that employing molecular markers with known map position can speed up the recovery of the recurrent parent genome by about two to three generations. These findings are confirmed by results of Frisch et al. (1999), who showed in a computer simulation that MAS can reconstruct a level of recurrent parent genome in BC which would only be reached in BC 7 without the use of markers. Prigge et al. (2008) compared simulated and experimental data of a MABC program in rice and revealed good agreement.The effectiveness of MABC depends on the availability of closely linked markers/flanking markers for the target loci, the size of the population, the number of backcrosses, and the position and number of markers for background selection. A straight-forward way to accomplish MABC is the two-stage selection strategy.In BC 1 F 1 populations, individual plants heterozygote at the target loci are first identified reducing the population size for further screening (foreground selection). For the background selection step, individuals with the fewest number of background markers from the donor parent are then selected.The upper limit of the number of background markers is defined by the number and length of the chromosomes. In rice and sugar beets, 50 to background markers resulted in efficient selection response (Frisch and Melchinger et al. 2005;Prigge et al. 2008). Markers should be evenly distributed to reflect all proportions of the genome. In subsequent backcross generations, selection is carried out to the same scheme, but only those markers are analyzed which have not been fixed for the recurrent parent in the preceding generation.In BC 1 F 1 populations, MABC would be more efficient for larger populations. Larger population sizes in earlier generations are also of advantage for more quantitative traits. However larger populations also increase the number of marker data points required and hence the cost. In comparison to BC 1 F populations, the number of markers that needs to be analyzed in later backcross generations is lower. In a two stage selection strategy, increasing the population size with the number of backcross generations reduces the number of marker loci and cost with comparable percentages of recovery of the recurrent parent genome (Frisch et al. 1999). Prigge et al. (2009) additionally showed in a computer simulation that the approach of increasing population sizes in advanced backcross generations can be refined by additionally increasing marker densities sequentially across backcross generations.Two additional selection steps can follow the two-stage selection strategy. As a third step, after preselecting the individuals with the target loci, individuals can be analyzed for the two markers flanking the target locus. Individuals with one or two flanking markers fixed for the recurrent parent's allele are retained and then analyzed for the remaining markers. In some publications this three-stage selection strategy is also called \"recombinant selection\". As a fourth step, individuals with the maximum number of markers fixed on the chromosome of the target locus can be selected before analyzing all other remaining markers. These two steps provide an option which significantly reduces the number of data points required in comparison to the two-stage selection strategy.Due to the increased marker availability recent genetic maps are dense; however, markers are mostly not perfectly linked with the target allele, which reflects the accuracy of MAS. For example, if the genetic distance between the marker and the target allele is 5 cM, on average five recombinants occur in a set of 100 progenies. In such cases flanking markers can be very useful to decrease the probably of recombinants between target alleles and markers.If two flanking markers with a genetic distance of 5 cM to the target allele are applied, on average only one recombinant occur in a set of 100 progenies. If imperfect markers are used in F 2 -enrichment, the change in allele frequency will be slightly less than if markers were perfect. In spite of a slight reduction in efficiency, use of imperfect markers still increases allele frequencies and is very worthwhile. For more details on using imperfect markers, refer to Wang et al. (2007).Markers can be dominant or co-dominant, the latter being able to distinguish heterozygote and homozygote carriers of the target allele. Due to improved marker technologies most of the more recent developed SNP markers for relevant genes in wheat are co-dominant. The advantages of codominant markers in F 2 -enrichment are that they allow a more direct assessment of the frequencies of target alleles that they remove the need for progeny testing of selected later generation individuals (e.g., F 5 or F 6 ) to recover homozygotes. When dominant markers are used and progeny testing is not done, some selected individuals will be heterozygous for some of the target alleles. However, because the frequency of heterozygous individuals is halved with each generation of inbreeding, only relatively small numbers of selected F 6 individuals would be heterozygous at any of the target loci. In MABC the advantages of co-dominant markers is more evident. For the background selection step in MABC, loci homozygote for the recurrent parent can be identified.With greater numbers of markers available for selection, it is inevitable at some point that a cross will involve target alleles that are linked. If the alleles are linked in coupling they will behave more like a single gene and required population sizes will be smaller than if they were unlinked. If they are linked in repulsion and a crossover between the loci is necessary to bring the target alleles together on the same chromosome, required population sizes will be considerably larger. If target m alleles are linked in repulsion it will usually be best to first recover a recombinant with the target alleles in coupling and then focus on combining the other alleles (Wang et al. 2007). For example, the wheat stem rust gene Sr2 and the fusarium head blight gene Fhb1 are linked in repulsion on chromosome 3BS (Anderson et al. 2007).Ideally, a marker should be highly polymorphic in breeding materials and discriminate between different genotypes. In some cases, the target polymorphism of a marker is only specific in certain donors and therefore not diagnostic in all genetic backgrounds. These markers cannot be used for the screening of unknown sets of germplasm of a breeding program. They can be used to follow a target allele in segregating populations including the parental line known to carry the target allele and the marker showing polymorphism between the carrier and non-carrier of the allele.In QTL mapping experiments, parents that represent the extreme ends of a trait phenotype are chosen. The effect of the QTL might therefore be less significant when used for introgression into an elite breeding line. In other cases, the effect of a locus may differ in different genetic backgrounds due to the interaction with other loci (epistasis) (Holland et al. 2001).While the effect of a QTL appears to be consistent across environments, the magnitude of the effect may vary. The extent of the QTL × environment interaction is often unknown because the mapping studies have been limited to only a few years or locations (Wang et al. 2007).Markers can be identified and developed using populations where parents do not represent adapted germplasm, such as diploid or tetraploid wheat species. In such cases, the known polymorphism can be of little practical value despite it is transferred to wheat though interspecific hybridization.Many key traits for wheat improvement present in alien segments have been transferred to wheat.The alien segments however are often large and can carry undesired characters in addition to the favorable trait, such as the high grain protein content gene Gpc-B1 transferred from Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides, which is negatively correlated with grain yield (Uauy et al. 2006). Recombination within these alien segments is very low and advanced approaches that reduce the large linkage blocks are needed.Typically breeding programs grow hundreds of populations and many thousands of individual plants. Given the extent and the complexity of selection required in breeding programs one can easily appreciate the usefulness of new tools that may assist breeders in plant selection. The scale of the breeding programs, however, also underlines the challenges of incorporating MAS. A close relationship between breeders and molecular biologists support the level of integration of MAS. For example, it is vital that the robustness and reliability of the markers available for genes or alleles of interest are evaluated before considering their routine application. Lack of confidence in published information is cited as one of the reasons that limit the use of markers in practical plant breeding (Kuchel et al. 2003). Leaf tissue collected in the field has also to be brought to the laboratory in time to provide the marker data to the breeders prior to selection or harvest.Despite the recent shift to SNP based platforms, e.g. KASP in wheat ((http://www.cerealsdb.uk.net/) at least at CIMMYT, the cost of marker assays remains the rate limiting factor for the adoption of MAS.Taking advantage of that present specialized genotype service providers can evade the requirements of large capital investments for the acquisition of equipment and the regular labor expenses, drastic reductions in assay costs are, however, difficult to achieve unless very large numbers of marker assays are deployed.For service providers and genotyping platforms, the cost per marker assay is associated with the sample volume. With its current sample volume CIMMYT is reaching a minimum of 0.2 USD cost per SNP assay, while one-tenth of the cost would be desired. Next generation sequencing is likely to provide future technologies that can currently combine single marker assays with a number of background marker for a broad use in forward and background selection at very low cost that will make MAS further attractive.The biggest challenge for wheat breeders is to enhance concomitantly grain yield, biotic/abiotic stress resistance, and grain quality for diverse end products. New wheat varieties should meet specific grain quality requirements to satisfy the increasing demand for processed conventional and novel wheat-based foods. Grain quality is a variable concept, and its meaning depends on the type of flour to be produced (whole meal flour, refined flour, semolina, etc.), end product to manufacture (bread, biscuit, pasta, etc.), the process used to produce it (handmade, semi-mechanized, mechanized, etc.), and the consumer's preferences. In defining quality for any given end use, processing performance and end-product properties have to be considered.Processing quality and end product properties are determined by a set of complex traits, the most important being the endosperm texture or grain hardness, the content and composition of storage proteins (mainly glutenins), the composition of starch and non-starch polysaccharides, and, for some specific products, the color of the flour/semolina. The high variability in grain quality traits existing in wheat has led to the creation of thousands of varieties possessing many different grain composition combinations, allowing wheat to be used to manufacture many different types of food products.Although the main quality traits are influenced by the environment and cropping practices, their expression is mainly controlled by qualitative genes and their allelic variations. The good association between genotype and phenotype for main grain quality parameters has made the use of these parameters possible to estimate the presence/absence of qualityrelated loci. In addition, this genotypic-phenotypic association has contributed significantly to the development and validation of several functional or allele-specific markers, derived from polymorphic sites within the genes that are directly associated with phenotypic variations. This kind of markers are developed from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) or insertion/deletions (InDels) between different alleles, requiring the gene sequences of functional motifs associated with plant phenotypes. Until now, functional markers for almost all important high-molecular-weight (HMWGs) and low-molecularweight (LMWGs) glutenin subunits associated with the gluten properties are available, as well as for genes related to flour/semolina color (phytoene synthase, lipoxygenase and polyphenol oxidase), grain hardness (puroindolines), protein content, and starch properties (waxy genes) (Liu et al. 2012). Due to the complexity of analyzing some quantitative and qualitative traits using conventional non molecular tools, these molecular markers have received great attention and are being implemented in some breeding programs. Thus, MAS is becoming a reality in breeding for main grain quality traits. MAS is now considered a useful tool, efficiently complementing traditional selection, increasing the understanding of phenotypic characteristics and their genetic control to design better crossing schemes, and therefore breeding strategies. Molecular markers can be used to characterize and select parental genotypes possessing specific genes/alleles to perform crosses conferring desirable quality traits, as well as to select for desirable quality traits in segregating or early advanced stages. This is particularly useful when fixing quality traits under simple genetic control is desirable at early stages of breeding, or to select for traits difficult to measure using phenotypic assays requiring large amount of grain sample.Grain hardness, or endosperm texture, can be considered the most important single factor determining the general end use (bread, biscuit, pasta) of a wheat cultivar (Morris 2002): hard wheat is for bread while soft wheat is for biscuits, and the very hard, vitreous grain of durum wheat, is suitable for pasta. Actually, common (hexaploid) wheat is generally marketed according to grain hardness class, as soft or hard, while durum (tetraploid wheat) isChapter 4:Carlos Guzmán 1 , Susanne Dreisigacker 1 , Juan B. Alvarez 2 , Roberto Javier Peña 1 1 CIMMYT Int., Apdo. Postal 6-641,06600 Mexico, DF, Mexico marketed as a different class compared to common wheat. Grain hardness is important in the flour milling process. Flour of different extraction rates are obtained from common wheat flour milling while semolina (coarse flour particles) is obtained from durum wheat only. The importance of grain hardness resides in its influence on the level of damaged starch resulting during flour milling; the harder the grain, the higher the level of damaged starch in the flour, and the higher the water hydration (water absorption) capacity of the flour (Posner 2000). While a low level of damaged starch (and low flour water absorption) is required for the manufacture of biscuits, the manufacture of different types of flat and leavened breads requires different levels of water absorption capacity.Grain hardness is controlled in common wheat by Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1, two intronless small genes (444 bp of coding region) located at the short arm of chromosome 5D (Morris 2002). These genes codified for two proteins named puroindolines (PINA and PINB), associated with the membrane surrounding starch granules, and that have direct role in the definition of grain hardness (see Morris and Bhave 2008 for a complete review). When wild forms of both proteins are present the grain texture is always soft. However if one of the proteins is missing or has a modified amino acid sequence (the change of just one amino acid is in several cases enough) the texture will be hard or semi-hard. In the case of the tetraploid durum wheat, the texture is very hard due to the lack of both genes/proteins because of the absence of D genome, and the complete deletion of these genes in the A and B genome during the synthesis event of the tetraploid wheat (Chantret et al. 2005).Up to now, four and 14 different alleles leading to hard texture have been identified for Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1, respectively (McIntosh et al. 2014). All these alleles, except Pina-D1b, are characterized by the presence of one SNP in the coding region that either changes the ORF leading to the appearance of a premature stop codon or leading to the change of one amino acid in the protein sequence that modifies the functionality of the protein. Simple STS or CAPS molecular markers have been designed for all these mutations and are of public domain.The most common Pin alleles causing hard texture are Pina-D1b and Pinb-D1b. The first one, predominant in CIMMYT germplasm (Lillemo et al. 2006), is characterized by the almost complete deletion of the Pina-D1 gene. This is easily detectable in a PCR with any kind of primers that are designed to amplify this gene, as the ones presented in Gautier et al. (1994), which show an amplicon of 349 bp when the genotype carry any Pina-D1 allele except Pina-D1b, which does not show any amplification product.It is important to remark that the presence of PCR product using these primers does not mean that the genotype is carrying the wild allele Pina-D1a: it could carry any other Pina-D1 allele as the l, m or n that only have one SNP in their sequence, but that also lead to hard texture. The other common allele, Pinb-D1b, is characterized by one SNP mutation that changes Gly46 g Ser, which apparently is sufficient to disrupt the softening effect of PINB. STS primers have been designed to detect this mutation, with one of the primers annealing in the area of the SNP.Although grain hardness is easily measured in the laboratory (by near infrared spectroscopy, or NIRS; single kernel characterization system, or SKCS; or other more traditional methods such as Particle Size Index) and shows only a small environmental influence, the molecular markers to determine Pin-D1 genes are useful in the breeding process, because the different allele combinations for both genes are associated with different hardness levels (Martin et al. 2001;Takata et al. 2010), which have different effects on end-use quality (Eagles et al. 2006). For example, Pina-D1b is associated with a harder texture than Pinb-D1b and in some cases with higher flour yield. Therefore, knowing the Pin genotype can help the breeder to develop wheat with a specific and desirable texture for a specific end product. Besides, with the use of the markers, the selection of offspring homozygous for Pin alleles can be started at segregation stages, when the available seed is not enough to measure hardness by nonmolecular means.At CIMMYT, common wheat parental lines are analyzed with respect to Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1 with developed SNP markers (Appendix 2). Currently the predominance of Pina-D1b in CIMMYT germplasm is very high (more than 90%); therefore, the markers are being used to identify lines carrying Pinb-D1b and are used to try to enhance variability for both loci.In addition, SNP markers for other less frequently found alleles that could lead to a different texture, such as Pinb-D1c, Pinb-D1d or Pina-D1m, are being developed to screen for them in different wheat collections and introduced in our germplasm. The specific effect of each allele will be tested soon in a study with near-isogenic lines (NILs).When wheat flour is mixed with water to form dough, the storage proteins of the grain are aggregated in gluten, a visco-elastic protein network. Gluten confers the dough its viscoelastic properties (elasticity or strength and extensibility), which are the main functional properties defining the processing and end-use quality of any wheat variety. The processing of most wheat-based products requires gluten strength and extensibility in a greater or lesser extent. Gluten elasticity or strength requirements depend on the processing conditions (higher strength is required in mechanized production than in hand-made production) and the end product to be manufactured (bread-making and noodle-making require medium to strong gluten; pasta-making requires medium to strong and inextensible gluten; while biscuit-making requires a weak gluten type).Gluten is composed of a large number of proteins, mainly glutenins and gliadins. Glutenins contribute more to gluten strength while gliadins contribute to extensibility and viscosity. It is not possible to understand dough/gluten viscoelastic properties studying both kinds of proteins independently but coexisting together in the intricate gluten protein network and in the complex dough system. Among the glutenins there are high-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (HMWGs), codified by the Glu-A1, Glu-B1 and Glu-D1 loci (located at the long arm of chromosomes 1A, 1B and 1D, respectively), and low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits (LMWGs), codified by the Glu-A3, Glu-B3 and Glu-D3 loci (located at the short arms of chromosomes 1A, 1B and 1D, respectively). The HMWGs loci are formed by two linked genes that codified two subunits (x + y), composing a single allele. The alleles are named usually with two numbers, each one identifying one subunit. Different alleles for each of the glutenin genes have been detected and classified mainly by SDS-PAGE protein electrophoresis. This system, when the protein extraction process is done properly and the separation conditions are optimum in the gels, allows the identification of the six loci aforementioned (Glu-A1, Glu-B1, Glu-D1, Glu-A3, Glu-B3 and GluD-3) and classification of the alleles with only two SDS-PAGE gels. Most of these alleles have been associated with high or poor quality; the clearest example is the association of the Glu-D1d allele (subunits 5+10) with higher elasticity and extensibility than that conferred by the allele Glu-D1a (subunits 2+12) (Payne et al. 1987).The six Glu- Those are usually the lines carrying the subunit 7 overexpressed (Bx-7 OE ), which has been shown to increase the concentration of this subunit, which is difficult to detect in an SDS-PAGE gel. Other alleles difficult to identify by SDS-PAGE are Glu-A3f and e, as well as Glu-B3f and g. In those cases, the power resolution of the molecular markers is very useful to have a concluding result.Starch (the major component of the wheat grain) is composed mainly of amylose and amylopectin. The ratio of both macromolecules has a significant impact on the main functional properties of starch (pasting and gelation) and dough characteristics such as viscosity, extensibility and expansion, particularly at the oven stage in bread-making, when hydration of macromolecules change, mainly due to denaturation.In common wheat, the amount of amylose and amylopectin is 25-28% and 75-72%, respectively. Variations in this ratio will lead to positive or negative changes in the water absorption of the dough and in the end product quality (firmness, texture, freshness retention). For noodles, a lower amylose content is desirable to get better volume, firmness and texture while for the bread crumb a high amylose content is preferable to achieve uniform structure and soft texture. In regard to nutrition and health, a high amylose content is related to high resistant starch concentration, which acts as pseudo-fiber in the human intestine during digestion and which is associated with a healthier diet due to its lower glycemic index and because it increases satiation with less ingestion of food.The amylose/amylopectin ratio is controlled by the enzymes responsible for their synthesis (Morell et al. 2001); the environment has little effect on this trait. The amylopectin synthesis is complex and is carried out by different starch synthases (SGP-1, SGP-2 and SGP-3), branching and debranching enzymes of the grain. The case of the amylose is simpler and it is exclusively synthetized by the Granule-Bound Starch Synthase (GBSS) I, commonly named waxy protein.In common wheat, three different waxy proteins are present and controlled by the three Wx loci (Wx-A1, Wx-B1 and Wx-D1) located at chromosomes 7AS, 4AL and 7DS, respectively (Yamamori et al. 1994). These proteins have shown polymorphism, denoting the existence of null alleles (absence of the protein) that lead to the reduction of the amylose content, especially when Wx-B1 protein is lacking because its major proportion in relation to the other waxy proteins (Wx-A1 and Wx-D1). The combination, using classical breeding, in the same wheat of the three null waxy proteins generated is called waxy wheat, which has 0% of amylose content and has properties very different to standard wheat (Nakamura et al. 1995).The three Wx loci have been well characterized at the molecular level (Murai et al. 1999). The coding region of these genes is composed of 11 exons and 10 introns of a total size between 2,781 and 2,862 bp. The sequences of the null alleles known as Wx-A1b, Wx-B1b and Wx-D1b already have been described and different molecular markers have been validated to screen for these mutations (Liu et al. 2005;McLauchlan et al. 2001;Nakamura et al. 2002), especially for the Wx-B1b allele that has greater impact than the others (Saito et al. 2009).All of them are STS markers. At CIMMYT, there is an increasing interest in determining the variation in starch properties of modern germplasm, as well as diverse genetic resources, such as wheat landraces of different origins. Although starch composition is not considered a major factor in defining processing quality, parental lines have been analyzed for the presence of different null alleles, finding significant presence of the Wx-B1b allele (11% of the lines) but not for the others. The use of these markers, especially when breeding, is oriented to improve very specific products like biscuits, flat unleavened breads, or noodles, with very specific quality requirements, is useful because colorimetric assays to determine amylose content or electrophoretic separation or waxy proteins are time consuming processes and interpretation of the results is not always easy.Flour color is an important trait in the assessment of flour quality, especially in noodles and other related products. The enzyme polyphenol-oxidase (PPO) has been found to be involved in undesirable timedependent browning of noodles, flat breads, and steam bread. The PPO activity, although it has been shown to be largely dependent on the environment, is variable among different genotypes. Six loci, two per each genome (Ppo-1 and Ppo-2), have been characterized at a molecular level and alleles associated with high or low PPO activity are already available.Semolina yellow color has become an important quality trait for durum wheat end products. The yellow color is due to the presence of yellow carotenoid pigment. Genetic variation and high heritability has been reported for this trait, although environmental effects and the processing conditions will also influence the final result in the end product.The final yellow pigment concentrations in the end product are affected by the carotenoids synthesis in the grain, catalyzed by phytoene synthase (PSY), but also by carotenoid degradation during grain and semolina storage, and pasta processing. The latter is a consequence of the activity of oxidative enzymes denoting the lypoxygenases family (LOXs). Several alleles and their corresponding molecular markers have been described for the genes controlling PSY in durum wheat, Psy-A1 and Psy-B1, some of them associated with higher yellow pigment concentration (Ficco et al. 2014). On the other hand, three LOX isoforms have been described, each one controlled by a Lpx-1 locus; the LOX-1 is the one with major role in oxidation of carotenoid pigments during pasta processing because of its higher concentration. The c allele of one of the copies of the Lpx-1 located on chromosome 4B (Lpx-B1.1), containing a large central deletion that probably leads to the production of a non-functional enzyme, is associated to low LOX activity and therefore to a small decrease in yellow pigment during processing. PPO activity, as above mentioned in flour from common wheat, sometimes appears in durum wheat, causing an undesirable brown color.At CIMMYT durum wheat recombinant lines carrying the Lr19+Yp genes from Agropyron elongatum have been actively introgressed into various CIMMYT elite durum wheat lines via F 2 enrichment. \"Yp\" is designated by two loci for increased yellow pigment closely mapped distal to Lr19 on the distal region of chromosome arm 7EL (Ceoloni et al. 2000). For MAS the marker published by Zhang et al. (2008) was applied (Appendix 1). While the tight linkage results are unfavorable in common wheat, the single transfer produced beneficial effects for both the leaf rust resistant trait and the yellow color for semolina and pasta products. The validation and implementation of markers for LOX and PPO activity have been initiated and are very interesting because those are physiological-biochemical traits that cannot be easily evaluated based on phenotype. The use of these markers would allow the selection of wheat progenies in the early generations and would greatly improve selection efficiency for color. Two types of rust resistance genes are often defined in wheat. Race-specific resistance genes usually confer protection throughout the growth cycle and therefore resistance conferred by them is also called all-stage resistance Chen 2013. Although many advanced wheat lines/cultivars have been bred by traditional breeding methods, MAS provides opportunities for enhancing the response from selection, due to high precision and low-cost using available molecular markers of rust resistance genes at both seedling and adult plant stages. Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 provide an overview of available markers for seedling resistance genes, APR genes with pleiotropic effect, and APR genes, respectively, present in CIMMYT wheat germplasm. Additional information regarding the most actively used markers can be seen in Table 4. Single gene resistance can usually be selected phenotypically in the greenhouse.For quantitative disease resistance, MAS can be very useful for pyramiding more small effect individual QTL in elite wheat lines. In addition, with more and more newly identified pleotropic resistance genes/QTL, conferring resistance to multiple taxa of pathogens, provides additional perspectives for MAS in wheat rusts.During the last two to three years, CIMMYT has started to routinely evaluate its bread wheat screening nurseries e.g. IWSN with markers associated to rust resistance genes. In addition, early generation MAS is applied on a project basis in the bread and durum wheat programs. the MAS program in Mexico with the main target of pyramiding two to three markers linked to the genes Sr25, Sr1A1R, Sr24, Sr26, and SrCad. Within these 40 lines the percentage of lines with R, R-MR, and MR ratings was highest, and about two-fold larger than the percentage of lines with the same ratings derived from selections in Mexico not using MAS. A higher percentage of lines with R, R-MR and MR ratings was derived from selection in Kenya in comparison to selection in Mexico using conventional selection due to the selection pressure that is obtained in Kenya.In durum wheat the two resistance genes Lr19/ Sr25 and Lr47 were introgressed in different genetic backgrounds via marker assisted backcrossing MABC. Furthermore, Lr19/Sr25 and Sr22, both genes tightly linked on the long arm of chromosome 7A, were combined via the F 2 -enrichment strategy.Recently, the bread wheat improvement program has also started targeted development of rusts-resistant germplasm via early generation MAS or MABC see Chapter 3 and Figure 1. The newly developed elite lines, which will carry multiple resistance genes, can be effectively used as source parents for durable resistance in the future. For gene introgression and pyramiding, there are several candidate race-specific genes, which are effective against the majority of the three rust races including Ug99, already available in CIMMYT germplasm FHB is a major wheat disease globally, with major epidemic regions being North America, Europe, East Asia and the South Cone of South America.Fusarium graminearum (teleom. Gibberella zeae) is the most important causal agent worldwide. Besides yield reduction, FHB produces a set of mycotoxins, particularly deoxynivalenol (DON), which is harmful to both human and livestock. In most developed countries, legally enforceable DON limits in wheat grain and food products have been set, reflecting concerns for food safety.Host resistance is the most important component in the disease management system, although other measures like fungicide and cultural practices should also be considered to achieve a satisfactory control (Gilbert and Haber 2013). There are three major difficulties for breeding FHB resistance varieties: 1) the multigenic control of host resistance and a lack of functional markers; 2) limited resistance sources in adapted elite germplasm; and 3) multiple resistance components. Numerous host resistance mechanisms have been proposed, each having its own evaluation methods. The most famous resistance components are Type I for initial infection and Type II for disease spread in spike tissues (Liu et al. 2009).FHB is a quantitatively inherited disease, making the application of MAS in this disease more difficult than in qualitatively inherited traits. Until now, more than 100 published studies have been performed to identify FHB resistance QTLs, which have been mapped to all the 21 wheat chromosomes, with various phenotypic effects (Buerstmayr et al. 2009;Liu et al. 2009). Until now, five QTLs have been fine mapped and designated (Table 1, Appendix 1), but none has been cloned and therefore no functional marker is available for FHB.Fhb1 identified in Sumai 3 is the most well-studied FHB resistance gene. After its fine mapping, a codominant STS marker, umn10, was developed based on a polymorphic site near the candidate gene region. Recently, two SNP markers, Xsnp3BS-8 and Xsnp3BS-11, were developed to facilitate highthroughput genotyping (Bernardo et al. 2012). It is noteworthy, however, that this gene is usually in repulsive phase with the famous stem rust resistance gene Sr2, compromising its application in breeding practices; this situation is being changed with the availability of lines in which the two genes are in coupling phase (Thapa et al. 2013).In addition to these FHB resistance QTLs, dwarfing genes like Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b and Rht8 have also been proven to be associated with FHB resistance, based on either pleiotropy, tight linkage or disease escape (Buerstmayr et al. 2009). Although all the three aforementioned dwarfing genes reduce Type I resistance, Rht-B1b and Rht8 confer less FHB susceptibility compared with Rht-D1, and there was evidence showing that Rht-B1b is able to confer Type   (Gilbert and Haber 2013). The utilization of MAS in FHB resistance breeding at CIMMYT dates back to 2008, when a collaborative project with USDA-ARS Small Grains Genotyping Center, Fargo, was initiated (Duveiller et al. 2008). And nowadays the 'haplotyping' system at CIMMYT comprises 17 markers for 10 validated QTLs on seven chromosomes (Table 2, Appendix 1), which has facilitated the genotypic characterization of numerous CIMMYT elite lines, including the 13 th and 14 th FHBSN (He et al. 2013a;He et al. 2013b). However, this system is being upgraded to incorporate markers in closer linkage with several of the QTLs, and it is predictable that the SSR and STS markers will be replaced by high throughput SNP markers in the near future.STB is a foliar blight disease that reduces yields up to 60% under conducive environmental conditions, with Europe, North America, South America, Australia and the Central West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region being the major epidemic regions (Raman and Milgate 2012). This disease is caused by the ascomycete fungal agent Zymoseptoria tritici (anamorph: Septoria tritici).The host resistance to STB is reported to be both qualitative and quantitative. Although gene-forgene interactions exist between a certain resistance genes and the corresponding pathogen isolates, the resistance conferred by each gene is weak and cannot provide sufficient protection to wheat as those in rusts and powdery mildew (Goodwin 2012). Like in other diseases, breakdown of STB resistance genes has been observed, e.g. resistance of the wheat cultivar 'Gene' was defeated only five years after its release, implying its resistance nature of 'race-specific' (Cowger et al. 2000). Thus it is recommended to pyramid both qualitative and quantitative resistance genes in breeding materials to achieve durable resistance (Raman and Milgate 2012).The first STB resistance gene, Stb1, was discovered in 1966 and designated in 1985, followed by Stb2 and Stb3 in 1985, and Stb4 in 1994(Goodwin 2012).But it is Stb5 that was first mapped on a genetic map (Arraiano et al. 2001). Soon after this landmark work, 12 more resistance genes were reported during the 2000s as reviewed by Goodwin (2012). In the last few years, Stb16, Stb17 and Stb18 were identified and mapped (Ghaffary et al. 2011;Ghaffary et al. 2012), and the chromosomal localization of Stb2 and Stb3 were adjusted from 3BS to 1BS and 6DS to 7AS, respectively (Liu et al. 2013)  In addition to STB, TS and SNB are two more foliar blight diseases with global importance. TS is caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis (Died.) Drechs.[anamorph Drechslera tritici-repentis (Died.) Shoem.] and the major epidemic regions include North America, the Southern Cone region of South America, Australia, Europe and Central Asia, leading to yield reduction of up to 50% (Singh et al. 2012). SNB is caused by Parastagonospora nodorum (Berk.) Quaedvlieg, Verkley & Crous (anamorph Stagonospora nodorum (Berk.) E. Castell. & Germano), with its major epidemic regions being Australia, Europe and North America (Oliver et al. 2012); this disease usually causes lower yield losses compared to STB and TS, but the values of 31% and even around 40% have been reported (Eyal et al. 1987;Bhathal et al. 2003). Under the field natural infection conditions, TS and SNB showed very similar symptoms to STB, and thus in practice these three diseases are usually scored together as leaf blotch disease complex (Lu and Lillemo 2014).For both TS and SNB, both qualitative and quantitative host resistance have been reported (Singh et al. 2012;Francki 2013). For TS, host genes corresponding to host-specific toxins Ptr ToxA, Ptr ToxB and Ptr ToxC have been located on chromosomes 5BL, 2BS and 1AS, respectively (Singh et al. 2012); for SNB, host genes Snn4, Snn1, Snn2, Snn5, Snn3 and Tsn1 have been respectively located on 1AS, 1BS, 2DS, 4BL, 5BS and 5BL (Lu and Lillemo 2014). In addition, numerous resistance QTLs for both seedling and adult plant resistance have been reported for the two diseases, as reviewed by Singh et al. (2012) for TS and by Francki (2013) for SNB. Despite the identification of molecular markers linked to those genes/QTLs, their application in breeding practices has been limited, with the only exception being Tsn1. This gene was mapped and designated by Faris et al. (1996) and Stock et al. (1996) in their respective genetic studies for wheat resistance to TS. Afterwards, the corresponding fungal effector gene of Tsn1, Ptr ToxA, was found to be transferred from P. nodorum, the causal agent of SNB, accounting for the fact that Tsn1 in wheat is responsible for the sensitivity to both TS and SNB (Friesen et al. 2006). The gene has been cloned (Faris et al. 2010) and a SNP marker wMAS000020 and SSR markers fcp1 and fcp394 are available and used for MAS at CIMMYT (Appendix 1).Micronutrient malnutrition, resulting from diets primarily deficient in zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) has been widely recognized as a major health problem affecting almost two billion people worldwide, especially in countries with a high consumption of cereals (Black et al. 2013). Zinc is an essential trace element for all organisms and its role has been thoroughly reviewed in both plant and human health (Cakmak, 2000;Graham et al. 2012). About 17% of the world's population is at a risk of micronutrient deficiency due to inadequate Zn intake (Wessells & Brown, 2012), and annually more than 100,000 deaths of children under age five are attributed to Zn deficiency (Black et al. 2013).The biofortification approach of improving the nutritional quality of staple food crops through breeding offers a cost-effective and sustainable solution to the global malnutrition problems. Wheat is the second most produced cereal crop after Rice and constitutes about 28% of dietary energy and 20% protein to consumers in many parts of the world (Braun et al. 2010). Improving the nutritional levels of wheat is therefore of paramount importance. The wheat biofortification breeding program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is leading the global partnership to develop and disseminate competitive wheat varieties with high grain Zn and other essential agronomic features to target regions in South Asia and beyond. The emphasis of this breeding program is to introduce novel sources of genetic diversity from wild species and landraces, into the adapted wheat background which resulted in the development of widely adapted, durable rust and foliar disease resistant, high Zn wheat varieties (Velu et al. 2014). The high zinc wheat varieties with 20-40% superior in grain Zn concentration over the baseline commercial cultivars are being adapted by small-holder farmers in target countries (Velu et al. 2015).Identification of molecular markers linked to nutritional traits would be of great interest as nutritional elements are rather difficult and are cost expensive to phenotype. QTL mapping is a highly useful tool for the discovery of markers to use in breeding programs, especially in the post genomics era genotyping costs getting cheaper and cheaper and application of molecular markers in wheat breeding have been increased. One way to implement molecular markers in breeding programs is by the identification of linkage between DNA markers and the loci that control the traits of interest, to make selections in segregating progenies based on those marker-trait associations. The marker-assistant selection (MAS) procedures can greatly facilitate the breeding programs by identifying genomic regions associated with higher grain Zn concentrations. To date, twenty-one QTL for increased grain zinc content (GZnC) have been reported on ten chromosomes in diploid (T. monococcum and T. boeoticum), tetraploid (T. dicoccoides and T. durum), and hexaploid wheat (T. aestivum) (Xu et al. 2011;Velu et al. 2014).We initiated the marker discovery for GZnC in wheat at CIMMYT using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population from the cross between PBW343 and Kenya Swara. Two novel QTL of large effect were stably detected for increasing GZnC on chromosomes 2Bc (centromeric region) and 3AL (long arm). The two QTL individually explained about 10 to 15% of the total phenotypic variation (Hao et al., 2014). The 2Bc QTL from PBW343 has pleiotropic effect and can increase thousand-kernel weight at significant level. The flanking markers associated for these QTLs (Table 2) are being converted into breeder-friendly KASPar (SNP) marker to be able to use in early generation MAS or MABC program.Another QTL mapping study conducted in a cross Seri M82 x Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat revealed two major QTL for GZnC on chromosome 4B and 6B, interestingly the 4B QTL appears to have pleiotropic effects for GFeC (Crespo et al., 2015). The QTL on 4B is fully linked with the marker TP81797 and the QTL on chromosome 6B is also rather close to marker TP29689 (0.9 cM). During the 2014-15 crop season as a proof-ofconcept strategy we started applying markerassisted backcrossing using selected RILs that showed significantly enhanced GZnC than either of the parental lines from PBW 343 x Kenya Swara populations to transfer QTL of interest. Selected RILs high in GZnC and adapted parents were crossed and F 1 's were backcrossed to the adapted parent. Marker assisted selection was begun with BC 1 plants to select plants with favorable GZnC alleles. DNA samples from individual BC 1 plants were genotyped, and PCR based probes for these QTL would be used to identify plants which have the favorable donor alleles before the pollination. The plants which are positive for the donor allele would then be backcrossed again to the recurrent parent. The resultant BC 2 families are being advanced through conventional selection schemes of shuttle breeding between Ciudad Obregon and Toluca valley in Mexico. Agronomically superior plants will be selected which might have the favorable alleles for GZnC. This strategy will serve to move the desirable alleles quickly and more precisely into the adapted background. Grain yield is the most important trait plant breeders are interested in. It is reflecting the culmination of all the processes of vegetative and reproductive growth and development, and their interactions with the edaphic and aerial environments. The global average of grain yield in wheat is ~3.3t/ha (FAO, 2013). However, to meet the predicted global demand, grain yield will need to increase with expected gains of ~2% annually, a cumulative increase of 50% in ~20 years (Lopes et al. 2012).To be able to predict the future land use and food supply, various studies have reported on the genetic gain for grain yield increase during the last decades and across diverse geographical regions, especially in the light of climate change, application of agronomic practices and agricultural policy. The reported studies identified contrasting results. A first group of studies showed a slowing yield growth during the last decades (Finger et al. 2010;Ray et al. 2013), a second group observed a yield plateau (Slafer and Peltonen-Sainio, 2001;Lobell and Field, 2007;Graybosch and Peterson, 2010;Fischer and Edmeades, 2010) with no statistically significant trend over a time period, and a third group of studies revealed a recent genetic gain for yield increase (Peltonen-Sainio et al. 2009;Mackay et al. 2011;Zheng et al. 2011). Genetic gains in yield of CIMMYT spring wheat in favorable environments averaged 0.6% annually between 1995 and 2010, based on data from hundreds of testing sites worldwide mainly through conventional breeding (Sharma et al. 2012). In Mexico, grain yield progress was significantly linear and about 0.7% annually in a set of CIMMYT historical lines representing 30 years of breeding (Lopes et al. 2012). Genetic progress for yield assessed globally in the semi-arid wheat yield trials of CIMMYT increased at approximately 1% annually over a 17-year period expressed as a percentage of the long-term check cultivar Dharwar Dry (Manés et al. 2012).Most of the improvements in grain yield have arisen through incremental genetic advances. For example, wheat varieties with reduced plant height were introduced to the global wheat industry during the \"Green Revolution.\" These varieties substantially improved grain yield through increased harvest index and straw strength (Borlaug 1968). In Australia, the production of early maturing, photoperiod-insensitive varieties allowed a significant expansion away from the fringes of the environmentally favorable eastern coast (Kuchel et al. 2007), leading to increased wheat production. Stably expressed genes leading to higher grain yield are therefore important targets of wheat breeding. In this chapter we summarize published information and our own work related to marker-assisted selection (MAS) for yield and related development traits.Yield is a highly quantitative trait that is influenced by environmental and genetic interactions at all stages of the plant's growth. Yield is usually broken down into three components; number of spikes per area, grain number per spike and thousand grain weight (TGW). These yield components are sequentially fixed during the growth cycle, vary in terms of their heritability, and are not always positively correlated with yield.TGW usually shows stable heritability (Kuchel et al. 2007) and can be further broken down into individual components including physical parameters (grain length, width, thickness) and grain filling characteristics, which are also under independent genetic control. In the past decade, there have been significant advances in the understanding of the genetic control of grain size, shape and grain filling parameters in the diploid crop species, especially in rice (Ikeda et al. 2013). Several genes with relatively large effects have been identified through map-based cloning and support the independent genetic control of grain length, width and grain filling parameters.In wheat, there is still a limited understanding of grain weight genetic control. Many studies have identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) for TGW, grain size and shape (Gross et al. 2003;Kumar et al. 2006;Breseghello and Sorrells 2007;Tsilo et al. 2010;Rustgi et al. 2013;Sun et al. 2009;Zhang et al. 2010); but no gene has yet been cloned. Many of the observed QTL For some of the genes associated with TGW and grain shape cloned in rice, orthologs have been identified in wheat via comparative genetics. These genes play different roles in various stages of grain development and include: 1) sucrose synthase genes (TaSus1 and 2) which are correlated to dry matter accumulation (Hou et al. 2014); 2) cell wall invertase genes (TaCwi-2A, -4A, -4B and -5D) related to sink tissue development and carbon partitioning (Ma et al. 2012;Jiang et al. 2015); 3) TaGW2 (TaGw2-6A, 6B, 6D), a orthologous gene to the rice gene OsGW2 and associated with kernel width and weight by controlling endosperm cell number in both the cell division and late grainfilling phases (Su et al. 2011); 4) a cytokinin oxidase/ dehydrogenase gene (TaCKX6-D1) that plays a principal role in controlling cytokinin levels and affects grain weight in wheat (Zhang et al. 2012); 5) TaSAP1, a member of the stress association protein (SAP) gene family in wheat associated with grain weight, number of grains per spike, spike length, and peduncle length in multiple environments (Chang et al. 2013); and 6) TaGS-D1 and TaGASR7, two genes mainly related to grain length (Zhang et al. 2015;Dong et al. 2014).The exact effect of these genes on TGW, grain size or shape in wheat is still not well understood to date. E.g. several studies have examined the role of TaGW2 on grain size parameters and contradictory results have been reported. Two studies have described a SNP upstream of the putative start codon as significantly associated with wider grains and increased TGW in Chinese germplasm (Su et al. 2011;Zhang et al. 2013). However, each study found the positive association with the opposite SNP, and a negative association between TaGW2 expression levels and grain width. Yang et al. (2012) identified a TaGW2 frame-shift mutation in a large-grain variety, and associated this mutant allele with increased grain width and TGW in a large F 2:3 population. However, down-regulation of TaGW2 through RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in decreased grain size and TGW in wheat, suggesting that TaGW2 is a positive regulator of grain size.At CIMMYT we have utilized molecular markers related to some of the published genes in four different germplasm sets (Table 1).Frequencies of the published favorable alleles varied between the data sets and the most frequent favorable allele was the allele for TaCWi-2A. Initial analyses evaluating the effect of each of the alleles on TGW were inconclusive and only positively consistent for TaCWi-2A over all germplasm sets and in different environments (data not shown).TaGW2-6A gene within the 6A QTL interval of the population Rialto × Spark. This QTL on chromosome 6A has been consistent in different populations and showed significant effects over seasons and environments (Snape et al. 2007) Another strategy to increase wheat yield is by reducing lodging. Lodging is a persistent phenomenon in wheat that reduces harvestable yield by up to 80% as well as reduces grain quality. Lodging is the permanent displacement of cereal stems from the vertical position and results from either plastic failure of the stem base (stem lodging) or failure of the anchorage system (root lodging). Lodging is difficult to measure on a phenotypic basis. Therefore MAS could be an important tool in breeding for lodging resistance. Plant height is strongly correlated with lodging and it is hard to identify other parameters associated. However, reduction in plant height may reduce the capacity of plant photosynthesis, thus reducing yield. So other mechanisms that reduce the lodging resistance -structural carbohydratesneeded to be studied. So far only one gene COMT gene, TaCM in wheat related to lignin strength (lignin is a structural component of cell wall that imparts strength and lodging resistance) has been studied as a source of lodging resistance H4564 (Ma 2009). Verma et al. (2005) observed several traits such as shoot and root traits and various components to yield were important for lodging and identified several QTL for each of the traits measured and indicated that they are controlled by several genes. It is likely that some of the lodging traits, e.g. the spread of the root plate, will not be found within elite germplasm and therefore wide crosses with novel germplasm might be required to achieve the target traits. Keller et al. (1999) also identified more than one QTL in a wheat × spelt (Triticum spelta, an ancient grain) population. Further work should therefore be carried out to better understand the genetic control of the traits and to investigate whether reliable genetic markers can be identified that work across a range of genotypes and environments and have a sufficiently large effect to be useful.The number of tillers established in wheat far exceeds the number that end up being grain-bearing at maturity. Improving the economy in tillering has therefore also been proposed to improve wheat yields. A tiller inhibition mutant (tin) identified in a wheat from Israel is potentially useful for breeding varieties with a greater economy of tillering. However, the mutant has the pleiotropic effect of stunting under long day and low temperatures in some genetic backgrounds which has limited its use (Kebrom et al. 2013). Underlying genetic variation for tillering was also observed by QTL. In spring wheat, QTL with significant effect on tiller number were found to be located on chromosomes 6A, 1D and 3AL (Li et al. 2002;Shah et al. 1999). However, genotypespecific management practices may need to be developed to ensure the changed crop architecture associated with tin results in high yields.More recently there has been an increasing focus on morpho-physiological dissection of grain yield, with the aim of improving grain production, particularly under abiotic stresses such as drought and heat. Dissection traits include e.g. early vigor, canopy temperature, Normalized Differential Vegetative Index or abscissic acid (ABA)-independent and ABAdependent such as Dreb1 or Era1. Research in this area is summarized in Chapter 8.Variation in expression to phenology is the most essential physiological adaptation of wheat to its cropping system. Archiving the appropriate plant phenology permits wheat varieties: 1) to fit into the time frame of the cropping cycle, 2) to avoid extreme weather events (e.g. frost, drought); and 3) to optimize the use of resources to maximize yield. The manipulation of plant phenology is therefore a common target. The genetic determination of plant phenology has demonstrated that it is a complex character which exhibits a continuous variation and is controlled by many genes scattered over the whole genome (Snape et al. 1996). In wheat the genetic bases of flowering time has been well studied and related genes have been classified according to whether they respond to vernalization or to photoperiod or to earliness per se during the pre-anthesis developmental phases. Stelmakh (1998) estimated that the vernalization gene system accounts for about 70-75%, the photoperiod gene system for about 20-25% and the earliness per se for about 5% of the genetic variability in the flowering time of bread wheat. Vernalization is the acquisition or acceleration of a plant's ability to flower by exposure to cold (Chouard, 1960). According to the vernalization requirements wheat is classified as being either winter or spring wheat. Spring wheat is insensitive or partly sensitive to vernalization, but winter wheat has a considerable vernalization requirement. Genetic differences are caused by allelic variation at Vrn-1, Vrn-2, Vrn-3 and Vrn-4 loci (Distelfeld et al. 2009). Spring and facultative wheat is manifested by the presence of one or more dominant alleles at Vrn-1 which confer the insensitivity or partial sensitivity to vernalization.Winter wheat possesses dominant alleles at Vrn-2, a floral repressor which is considered to delay flowering until the plants are vernalized and recessive alleles at the other three loci (Trevaskis et al. 2007). Fu et al. (2005) sequenced the Vrn-1 genes located on the homologues chromosomes 5 from diverse wheat accessions. Several Vrn-1 alleles result from insertion and deletions in the promoter and intron-1 regions of the gene (Yan et al. 2004a, Yan et al. 2004b, Fu et al. 2005, Diaz et al. 2012). The role in altering vernalization response of each allele differs. While some alleles have large effects on the growth habit, others are silent mutations and therefore unlikely to have any direct role in the vernalization response.The Vrn-3 genes mapped on the homologues chromosomes 7 promote the transcription of Vrn-1, thereby accelerating flowering time further. Genetic variation has been observed in Vrn-B3 and Vrn-D3 (Yan et al. 2006, Chen et al. 2010). Rather limited information is available for Vrn-4. So far only one allele have been described which was designated Vrn-D4 and assigned to chromosome 5D (Kato et al. 2003, Yoshida et al. 2010).At CIMMYT molecular markers linked to the Vrn-1 and Vrn-3 genes are utilized to evaluate CIMMYT advanced wheat lines (Table 2, Appendix 1). Summarizing the results of more than 1000 lines, the most common allele in CIMMYT wheat is the dominant spring allele Vrn-D1a (99%), followed by Vrn-B1a (70%). Stelmakh (1993) and Eagles et al. (2011) evaluated the genetic effect of the three Vrn-1 genes and suggested a higher effect on heading date of Vrn-D1 or -A1 compared with Vrn-B1. The Japanese cultivar 'Akakomugi' is thought to be the donor parent of the Vrn-D1a allele (Stelmakh, 1990) which was later transferred into early Green Revolution cultivars like 'Lerma Rojo' and 'Sonora 64.' These two cultivars are thought to be the potential source of the Vrn-D1a allele in South and Southeast Asian wheat (Stelmakh, 1990;Van Beem et al. 2005). Stelmakh (1993) also concluded that the highest yield was predicted for varieties containing Vrn-D1a. Vrn-A1a is almost absent in CIMMYT wheat. Different recessive winter vrn-A1 alleles (V and W) have been identified which are distinguished by a C/T SNP in the fourth exon of the gene and are also associated with copy number variation (Zhu et al. 2014). The 'W' allele is present in 80% of CIMMYT wheat lines.The allele is characterized by a higher copy number variation, a greater vernalization requirement and increased frost tolerance (Zhu et al. 2014). The allele was previously observed in CIMMYT 'Veery' lines and derivatives such as 'Attila' and 'Babax' (Eagles et al. 2011) and might have some adaptive advantage or is linked to another favorable allele. For Vrn-3 genes, no variation was observed for Vrn-B3 in CIMMYT wheat. However, the published allele of Vrn-D3 from the cultivar 'Jagger' is present in 60% of the CIMMYT lines evaluated. The Vrn-D3 allele further promotes development and according to Chen et al. ( 2010) maximize effects at physiological maturity. The effect of Vrn-D3 on heading and maturity date could not be confirmed yet. Overall the most common haplotype at Vrn-1 and Vrn-3 in CIMMYT wheat is vrn-A1W, Vrn-B1a, Vrn-D1a, Vrn-D3. As compared to hexaploid wheat the major elite durum wheat gene pools show no major vernalization requirements (spring wheat) and functionally variant alleles are present at main loci for the photoperiod-sensitive response (Clarke et al. 1998).Photoperiod-sensitive wheat is stimulated to flower only in long days and flowering is delayed under short days provided that any requirement for vernalization is met. In spring wheat, photoperiod-sensitive types cannot be grown as an overwinter crop in tropical or low latitude areas, since the day length requirement would not be satisfied in a short enough time-frame to produce a commercially viable crop (Worland and Snape, 2001). Photoperiod-insensitive wheat flowers independently of day length and can be grown to maturity in long or short day environments. This is of particular advantage in warmer and dry climates as early flowering varieties are able to fill their grains prior to the onset of high temperatures and drought stress occurring late in the season (Worland and Snape, 2001). To date, three such genes have been identified, including Ppd-A1, Ppd-B1 and Ppd-D1 located on chromosomes 2A, 2B and 2D, respectively. The primary influence of the genes is on ear growth and spikelet growth (Scrath et al. 1985). A novel photoperiod response gene designated as Ppd-B2 has been mapped on wheat chromosome 7BS (Khlestkina et al. 2009). This gene accelerates flowering only under long photoperiods in contrast to the Ppd-1 genes that induce earlier flowering irrespective of day length. Ppd-D1 is the photoperiod-insensitive locus with the largest effect followed by Ppd-B1 and Ppd-A1 (Worland, 1996). Photoperiod insensitivity are induced by In/Dels in the 5' upstream region of the gene pseudo-response regulator genes; they do not exist in the photoperiod-sensitive alleles (Beales et al. 2007, Wilhelm et al. 2009, Nishida et al. 2013). Furthermore Diaz et al. (2012) showed that for Ppd-B1, alleles conferring altered flowering time had an increased copy number of the gene and altered gene expression.Ppd-D1a is predominant in CIMMYT wheat germplasm (Table 2). Across the same 1041 recent advanced lines described above, 95% of the lines carry the Ppd-D1a allele. Since its beginning by Norman Borlaug and his colleagues, the CIMMYT wheat program is based in Mexico and shuttles germplasm between two contrasting environments. This shuttle breeding exposes wheat materials to diverse photoperiod and temperatures, to a range of important diseases and led to the selection of photoperiod-insensitive lines.The Ppd-A1a alleles first described in durum wheat is present in 3 to 5% CIMMYT bread wheat germplasm.The allele was transferred from durum wheat via synthetic hexaploid wheat derivative that have been incorporated with increasing number into the bread wheat breeding programs (Dreisigacker et al. 2008). The Ppd-B1 alleles show the largest variation in CIMMYT wheat. Most of the reported alleles were observed, e.g. the four copy number variant initially identified in 'Chinese Spring.' The most frequent allele is the three copy number variant first characterized in the Green Revolution line 'Sonora 64.'In CIMMYT durum wheat segregation functionally variant alleles are present at the main loci Ppd-A1 and Ppd-B1 for the photoperiod-sensitive response.From the two insensitive alleles 'GS105' and 'GS100,' the former has been found to be more frequent. Molecular markers used to evaluate the CIMMYT germplasm for the major photoperiod alleles are described in Appendix 1.Earliness per se (Eps) genes are those that regulate flowering time independently of vernalization and photoperiod, and are important for the fine-tuning of flowering time and for the wide adaptation of wheat to different environments. Among the contributing factors influencing time to flowering, Eps has been least investigated. Eps loci have already been identified in wheat (Hoogendoorn 1985) and meta-QTL analysis of heading time in bread wheat revealed that numerous QTL co-located in chromosomal regions known to carry Eps loci (Hanocq et al. 2007;Griffiths et al. 2009). However, most of these Eps loci remained molecularly undefined, and only the Eps-A m 1 locus in einkorn wheat has been fine mapped and phenotypically characterized (Faricelli et al. 2010). Gawronski and Schnurbusch (2012) recently fine mapped Eps-A m 3, a second gene derived from einkorn wheat.Under combined vernalization and photoperiod treatments we identified an Eps QTL on chromosome 1DL using genome wide association mapping in the WAMI population genotyped with the 90K Wheat Illumina SNP array (Sukumaran personal communication). Subsequent BLAST searches indicated that the QTL region with sequence similarity identity higher than 96% contained the Mot1 and ELF3 genes that were candidates for Eps from earlier studies in einkorn wheat, so they are likely orthologues of Eps-A m 1. A recent study using four independent pairs of NILs derived from a cross between Spark and Rialto winter wheat varieties identified the same region on 1DL for Eps in wheat suggesting that MAS of Eps effects is getting feasible (Zikhali et al. 2014).Plant height is an important agronomic trait in cereal crops. It not only determines plant architecture but also contributes a lot to grain yield. The Rht-B1b (Rht1) and Rht-D1b (Rht2) semi-dwarfing genes were introduced into commercial wheat cultivars from the Japanese variety Norin10 in the 1960s as part of wheat improvement programs in the USA and at CIMMYT and led to the first Green Revolution wheat varieties.A reduction in plant height improved stem strength and thus lodging resistance and Harvest Index, the partitioning of assimilates to the developing grain (Borlaug, 1968). The large increases in yield that followed the introduction of these dwarfing genes led to widespread adoption of the dwarfing genes throughout the world (Gale et al. 1985). Perfect STS markers were developed in wheat for these genes (Ellis et al. 2002). Rht1 and Rht2 encode proteins involved in gibberellin signal transduction, but also have pleiotropic effects on plant growth, causing reductions in coleoptile length and seedling leaf area. These genes reduce the leaf elongation rate and coleoptile length. A number of alternative plant height genes have been observed that might be more suitable final plant height without compromising early plant growth (Ellis et al. 2004). Examples are Rht4, Rht5 or Rht8 that do not reduce the leaf elongation rate, coleoptile length and do not affect early growth. Rht1 is predominant in CIMMYT germplasm due to the introgression of this gene during the Green Revolution. However, efforts are underway to incorporate some of the alternative alleles e.g. Rht4, Rht5 or Rht13 into CIMMYT germplasm. SNP KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR, www.lgcgenomics. com) assays were designed based on the by Ellis et al. (2002) developed markers and are routinely used to evaluated the CIMMYT elite germplasm. For the alternative drawing genes the markers reported in Ellis et al. (2005) are utilized (Appendix 1).Abiotic stresses affect plant development, productivity and grain quality in wheat. Research on plant responses to abiotic stresses and their impact on crop production continue to be a major focus in breeding; especially in the current scenario of climate change, climate-resilient wheat is a necessity. Among the four main abiotic stresses -drought, heat, salinity and metal toxicity -drought is the single largest threat to food security. Genetic studies to combat and adapt wheat to abiotic stresses through genomicbased approaches can reduce the time and cost of varietal development. However, given the complex genetic architecture of abiotic stress traits, their large genotype-by-environment (G × E) interaction, and the difficulty of phenotyping -especially for drought and heat tolerance -gene discovery and their application in MAS has so far been limited. Several initiatives to study these complex traits were attempted. Here, we address some of these studies.Plant responses to drought and heat stress are complex depending on the genotypes, environments and the G × E interaction. In addition, the difficulty to identify QTLs for traits under drought and heat are: (1) the availability of mapping population with controlled height and phenology to avoid confounding effect of major genes; and (2) the phenotyping procedure in a time frame in large populations that will avoid confounding masking effect of major genes on minor genes (Reynolds and Tuberosa, 2008).Drought tolerance phenotyping can be realized indirectly by measurements of morpho-physiological traits, mainly: water use (WU); water use efficiency (WUE); carbon partitioning to grain; carbon isotope discrimination to determine transpiration efficiency; canopy temperature (CT); green leaf area; stay green; water soluble carbohydrates (WSC); above ground biomass; grain yield and root parameters; root biomass; rooting depth; and root development under drought conditions (Foulkes et al. 2007, Rashid et al. 1999). At present, these traits are followed in CIMMYT to perform trait-based crosses to combine the high value alleles. Parents with contrasting desired physiological traits are selected from available evaluated germplasm and crosses are made with recurrent parents or elite lines. The developed lines are then tested under different environmental conditions.At the candidate gene level, among the most common gene networks and pathways related to drought tolerance, Abscissic acid (ABA)-dependent and ABA-independent pathways are the most studied. Abscissic acid is a plant growth regulator and stress hormone, which induces leaf stomata closure to reduce water loss through transpiration and decreases the photosynthetic rate in order to improve the WUE of plants. A major QTL affecting drought-induced ABA accumulation was located on chromosome 5A in wheat and examples of source genotypes are the cultivars 'Ciano 67' and 'SQ1' (Quarrie et al. 1994). Furthermore, many families of transcription factors have been demonstrated to play a role in stress responses in plants. bZIP, DREB, WRKY, bHLH, MYB and NAC transcription factors represent the major groups of regulatory genes of which some members are found to be involved in wheat stress tolerance. A very limited number of markers are developed for these genes. Wei et al. (2009) developed a functional marker for the Dreb-B1 gene involved in abiotic stress tolerance, Chang et al. (2013) identified linked markers to the gene thylakoid bound ascorbate peroxidase TaSAP-A1. Ascorbate peroxidase enzymes play a key role in detoxifying the reactive oxygen species that can cause damage to the cells (Caverzan et al. 2012).Further international efforts to detect QTLs for grain yield under drought stress conditions have been made with some success. Fleury et al. (2010) summarized more than 20 QTL for drought in wheat. To give an example: a QTL on chromosome 3BL was detected under heat, drought, and high yield potential conditions that explained up to 22% of the variance for grain yield and canopy temperature (Bennett et al. 2012). The same QTL on chromosome 3B was also associated with grain yield in the studies (Bonneau et al. 2013, Sukumaran et al. 2015).Heat stress mostly occurs in combination with drought and the combined effect of drought and heat is more severe than any one of the stresses.Higher temperature above 30°C at grain filling period is detrimental to wheat crop yield. For heat tolerance studies, several traits have shown promises viz. light interception traits, rapid ground cover, canopy structure, radiation use efficiency, stay green, photosynthesis and reduced photorespiration, photo protective metabolites, wax, membrane thermostability, spike fertility, water soluble carbohydrate, starch synthesis and plant signaling (Cossani and Reynolds, 2012).While confronting high temperature stress and alleviation from damage of cellular protein structure is essential for survival in stressed conditions, plants trigger a novel class of protein called heat shock proteins (HSPs). These HSPs serve as molecular chaperones to maintain conformational protein functions as well as cellular protein refolding, thereby protecting plants under heat stress conditions (Wang et al. 2014). So far only one attempt has been made to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that differentiate heat-tolerant and heat-susceptible genotypes of wheat analyzing the heat shock protein HSP16.9 as the target gene. DNA fragments covering a partial sequence of wheat HSP16.9, were amplified from the heat-tolerant genotype 'K7903' and heatsusceptible genotype'RAJ4014,' and subsequently analyzed for the presence of SNPs. One SNP was found between these genotypes and the analysis of the corresponding amino acid sequence showed that the base transition (A/G) positioned at 31 amino acid resulted in a missense mutation from aspartic acid to asparagine residue (Garg et al. 2012). Allele-specific primers based on SNP explained 29% and 24% phenotypic variation for grain weight and thousand grain weights, respectively.Despite the importance of heat tolerance only a few studies have focused to identify QTL via genome wide scans. Yang et al (2002) found QTL linked to grain filling duration on the short arms of chromosomes1B and 5A. Vijayalakshmi et al. (2010) reported QTL with significant effects on grain yield, grain weight, grain filling, stay-green and senescence-associated traits on 2A, 3A, 4A, 6A, 6B and 7A under postanthesis high temperature stress in wheat. Heat susceptibility index (HSI) calculated from agronomic traits associated with heat stress tolerance and QTL were mapped on chromosomes 1A, 2A, 2B, and 3B for HSI calculated from the kernel characteristics under stress conditions applied during early grain filling stage that explained up to 31% of the variation in the traits (Mason et al. 2010). QTL were mapped for heat stress using the Fischer susceptibility index on chromosomes 1B, 5B, and 7B that explained up to 44% of the variation in the traits (Mohammadi et al. 2010). QTL mapping for terminal heat stress has identified QTL in chromosome 2B, 7B, and 7D that colocalized for kernel weight, grain filling duration, and canopy temperature difference. During flowering, higher temperature can cause pollen abortion and subsequently low yield. QTLs for heat stress tolerance was identified in a cross on cultivar NW1014 (heattolerant) and HUW468 (heat-susceptible) using HSI of grain weight, grain fill duration, grain yield, and canopy temperature depression on chromosomes 2B, 7B, and 7D. These explained up to 20% of the phenotypic variation for the traits (Paliwal et al. 2012). Mondal et al. (2015) identified QTL for leaf wax content located on chromosomes 1B and 5A with the 5A QTL region showing localization with QTL for leaf and spike temperature depression, indicating a genetic link between these traits. Composite interval mapping by the study of Talukder et al. (2014) identified five QTL regions significantly associated with response to heat stress. Associations were identified for plasma membrane damage on chromosomes 7A, 2B and 1D, SPAD chlorophyll content on 6A, 7A, 1B and 1D and thylakoid membrane damage on 6A, 7A and 1D.The variability explained by these QTL ranged from 11.9 to 30.6% for thylakoid membrane damage, 11.4 to 30.8% for SPAD chlorophyll content, and 10.5 to 33.5% for plasma membrane damage.The plant developmental genes in wheat for vernalization and photoperiod (Vrn and Ppd, respectively) are related to the performance of the lines under drought and heat stress (Bogard, et al. 2014). Therefore, care must be taken to avoid these effects in gene discovery when developing mapping populations. At CIMMYT, to study the genetic basis of drought and heat tolerance and to make strategic crosses for trait integration and line development, mapping populations are available with restricted phenology and plant height (Sukumaran et al. 2013).The Seri × Babax recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was the first of this type of population developed with a phenology range of 10 days. Using this Seri × Babax population QTL were identified for drought and heat tolerance on chromosome 4A that co-localized with grain yield. Common QTLs for drought and heat tolerance were identified on 1B, 2B, 3B, 4A, and 7A using canopy temperature measurements (Pinto et al. 2010). Canopy temperature measurements are surrogates for estimating stomatal conductance (Rebetzke et al. 2013).The Wheat Association Mapping Initiative (WAMI) population was subsequently created and consists of 287 lines selected from a series of CIMMYT international nurseries that has a phenology range of 14 days. The CIMMYT WAMI population was studied through genome-wide association study (GWAS) at the population level and by candidate gene approach (Edae et al. 2014, Edae et al. 2013, Lopes et al. 2015, Sukumaran et al. 2015). Edae et al. (2013) performed a candidate gene study and confirmed the effects of the dehydration responsive element binding 1A (DREB1A) gene on NDVI, heading date, biomass, and spikelet number, the enhanced response to abscissic acid (ERA1-A and ERA1-B) genes on harvest index, flag leaf senescence, and flag leaf width, and the fructan 1-exohydrolase (1-FEH-A and 1-FEH-B) genes associated with grain yield and thousand kernel weight, respectively. A consistent QTL in chromosome 2DS for grain yield and yield components under contrasting moisture conditions in the U.S. and Ethiopia was additionally identified through GWAS (Edae et al. 2014). On chromosomes 5A and 6A, loci for grain yield, thousand kernel weight, grain number, and canopy temperature were detected in the WAMI grown at yield potential conditions in Mexico (Sukumaran et al. 2015).A recently developed RIL population at CIMMYT -Synthetic × Weebil -has a phenology range of three days that was phenotyped under drought and heat conditions. Identifying QTL for heat and drought tolerance in these populations will be more independent of the confounding effects of phenology. This population was phenotyped though 90K Illumina Bead chip array (Wang et al. 2014) and the research is in progress to detect QTL. The´detected QTL in the phenology controlled populations is recent and the validation of the identified QTL is only underway.Based on the current knowledge obtained on the underlying mechanisms and architecture of heat and drought tolerance, the applicability of MAS for both traits has to been questioned to its inability to capture small effect QTL. A promising approach, termed genomic selection, attempts to avoid this deficiency by capturing both large and small-effect QTL with dense genome-wide molecular marker coverage to predict complex trait values (Meuwissen et al. 2001).Among the physiological traits the stay-green phenotype has also shown proven utility to improve yields under abiotic stress. Stay green governs long grain-filling period and higher yields. In wheat, stay green QTL were mapped to 2A, 3A, 3B, 6A, 6B, and 7A for the traits chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence, and green leaf area duration (Vijayalakshmi et al. 2010). The stability of thylakoid membrane proteins and antioxidant competence contribute to the drought stress resistance in a wheat stay green mutant tasg1. Genes TaLhcb4 and TaLhcb6 were higher expressed in the mutant than the wild type plants (Tian et al. 2013). QTL for stay green were identified on chromosomes 1A, 3BS, and 7DS derived from the parent Chirya 3; a synthetic wheat developed by CIMMYT (Kumar et al. 2010).Stay green studies in CIMMYT on the Seri × Babax population focus on measurement of the traits using NDVI and SPAD meter (Lopes and Reynolds, 2012).Breeding for root traits is an order of magnitude more difficult than for most above-ground traits. Root characteristics are important in drought tolerance.A deep and thick root system is associated positively with grain yield under drought conditions. Twenty nine QTLs were identified for the root traits seminal root number, total root length, maximum root length; root area, root surface area, and seminal root angle (Liu et al. 2013). The drought-tolerant variety Seri M82 had a compact root system compared to the susceptible variety Hartog (Manschadi et al. 2006).Coleoptile length is another feature that is important in drought tolerance and QTLs were identified on chromosomes 1B, 3D, 4DS, 4DL, 5AS, and 5B (Yu and Bai, 2010). Spielmeyer et al. (2007) identified a QTL on chromosome 6A in bread wheat associated with longer coleoptiles, greater seeding vigor and final plant height.To breed for abiotic stress, an important source of drought and heat tolerance is the 1B.1R rye translocation in spring wheat. This 1B.1R translocation delayed heading and maturity by 7 and 5 days in a study using Seri 82 genotype (Singh et al. 1998).Positive performance is reported for translocations of chromosome 1 of rye in bread wheat. 1RS translocations in 'Pavon' delayed maturity, reduced plant height, and increased root biomass. It also increased grain yield and grain weight under wellwatered conditions. The 1RS translocations were tolerant to moisture stress (Ehdaie et al. 2003). Even though the rye translocations are associated with high grain yield, stress and disease tolerance they are also associated with poor bread-making quality: sticky dough and weak gluten. Recently, a region within the 1RS.1BL translocation affecting grain yield and canopy water status was mapped that was not associated with low bread-making quality (Howell et al. 2014). 1BL.1RS translocation is widely reported in Indian spring wheat genotypes. The association of the 1B.1R region with high yield is associated with high root biomass. A QTL mapping study identified the terminal 15% of the rye 1RS arm carries genes for greater rooting ability (Sharma et al. 2009). Apart from the studies to find tolerance to drought and heat stress on breeding lines, integrating novel traits from wild wheat could improve drought and heat stress in wheat (Placido et al. 2013).Excess dissolved salts in the soil can inhibit plant growth. This can occur due to natural processes (e.g. drought) or due to human activities (e.g. application of poor irrigation water). Of the 17% irrigated crop land in the world, 8% of the land area is affected by salinity and in arid and semi-arid regions, it is up to 25%, which creates significant consequences to world food production. Salinity effects the seedling germination (Fogle and Munns, 1973), grain yield and quality (Turki et al. 2012) and yield components (Nia et al. 2012). Bread wheat is a moderately salt-tolerant crop whereas durum wheat is less salt-tolerant (Maas andHoffman, 1977, Munns et al. 2006).Main mechanisms of salt tolerance involve Na+ exclusion from the transpiration stream, sequestration of Na+ and Cl− in the vacuoles of root and leaf cells, and other processes that promote fast growth despite the osmotic stress of the salt outside the roots.Bread wheat has a low rate of Na+ accumulation and enhanced K+/Na+ discrimination, a character controlled by a locus (Kna1) on chromosome 4D (Dubcovsky et al. 1996). Two loci, Nax1 and Nax2 on chromosome 2A and 5A, ,respectively, controlling Na+ accumulation has been found in the durum genotype 'Line 149' (Shaw et al. 2012). Both genes are not present in modern durum wheat and appear to originate from a wheat relative, Triticum monococcum (C68-101) that was crossed with a durum wheat to transfer rust resistance genes, and this cross inadvertently transferred the Nax genes into Line 149 as well (James et al. 2006). These genes were therefore named TmHKT7 (TmHKT1;4-A2) and TmHKT8 (TmHKT1;5-A) to recognize their origin in Triticum monococcum. Linked molecular markers have been developed for these two genes, but have not been applied in CIMMYT wheat breeding yet. Salinity-responsive bread wheat gene TaAOC1, which encodes an allene oxide cyclase involved in the α-linolenic acid metabolism pathway, was constitutively expressed in both bread wheat and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) (Zhao et al. 2014). QTL mapping studies have identified 47 QTLs mapping to all wheat chromosomes except 1B, 1D, 4B, 5D and 7D for salinity tolerance (Ma et al. 2006, Xu et al. 2013).Wheat is susceptible to excess amounts of aluminum (Al), boron (B), cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu). Out of these, under low pH, Al is the most prevalent and most toxic to wheat plants (Delhaize andRyan, 1995, Kochian et al. 2005). Al tolerance is polygenic and controlled by at least three genes. TaALMT1 is a dominant gene which encodes a malate transporter on chromosome 4D constitutively expressed on root apices. Raman et al. (2006) developed SSR markers, ALMT1-SSR3a and ALMT1-SSR3b and a CAPS marker from the repetitive InDels and substitution region of the TaALMT1 gene which can be used in MAS, buthas not yet been applied in CIMMYT (Raman et al. 2006, Raman et al. 2005). A minor QTL on 3BL was detected by (Zhou et al. 2007) in recombinant inbred lines (RILs) using 'Atlas 66' as tolerant parent (Ma et al. 2005, Tang et al. 2002). Similarly Al tolerance QTL on chromosome 3BL was also contributed by 'Chinese Spring' (Navakode et al. 2009). QTLs on chromosome 3BL and 2A apart from the major effect gene on chromosome 4D, collectively explained 80% of the phenotypic variation (Cai et al. 2008, Dai et al. 2013).Boron toxicity occurs when plants are grown in alkaline or volcanic soils. Boron has the narrowest range between deficient and toxic soil solution concentration of all plant nutrients. Boron toxicity in wheat can cause poor root growth, low above ground biomass, low seed set and sterility, and low grain yield (Pallotta et al. 2014). TaBot1L (Bo1), and Bo4 are the two major effect QTLs for boron tolerance in wheat.The utilization of Bo1 on the long arm of chromosome 7BL has been a long-term priority for marker-assisted selection in wheat breeding programs in Australia. At CIMMYT the STS marker AWW5L7 (Schnurbusch et al. 2010, Scoles et al. 2008) is used. Sources of resistance were e.g. the Australian line 'Gladius.' Bo4 is located on chromosome 4AL and was recently placed with the marker interval Xabg390-4A-XksuG10-4A (Pallotta et al. 2014).Cadmium is a toxic metal that is naturally present in trace quantities in almost all soils, but is a nonessential plant element. Cadmium in soil is readily absorbed by roots and transported in plants (Grant et al. 1998). Cadmium-contaminated foods are the dominant source of human exposure to environmental Cd (Satarug et al. 2011, Satarug andMoore, 2004), with cereals and vegetables contributing the majority of dietary Cd (McLaughlin and Singh, 1999). Among cereals, some durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) cultivars have the genetic potential to accumulate Cd in grain to levels that exceed the Codex standard (Grant et al. 2008). Marker-assisted selection is preferred for selecting breeding lines expressing low Cd because measuring grain Cd is laborious and expensive relative to PCR-based screening. Genetic studies identified a gene Cdu1 in chromosome 5BL responsible for accumulation of Cd in the grains of durum (Penner et al. 1995). We have tested the marker ScOpc20 and usw47 (Knox et al. 2009, Wiebe et al. 2010) for evaluation of CIMMYT durum wheat germplasm.Copper toxicity can cause yield losses by reduced fertility, by affecting germination and root and shoot elongation. Cu is also reported to inhibit root growth (Fargašová, 2001), damages to chromosome, nuclei, and cell membranes (Jiang et al. 2001), and chlorosis (Eleftheriou andKarataglis, 1989, Ganeva et al. 2003). Genomic regions associated with copper tolerance has been found in chromosomes 1AL, 2DS, 3DS, 4AL, 5AL, 5DL, 5BL, and 7DS (Bálint et al. 2007).Gene for copper tolerance cbf1 may be pleotropically affected by Vrn-1 loci (Bálint et al. 2009). Cu toxicity is sometimes overestimated in acidic soils with the presence of Aluminum and Manganese.Wheat wide crossing utilizes the diversity of wheat wild relatives. Wheat wide crossing can be seen as a special area of wheat breeding where the crossability of wheat with wild relatives, the meiotic chromosome pairing between wheat and the wild relative, and necrosis become important and often problematic. Molecular markers can aid in facilitating some of the wide crossing constraints. There are four important categories of markers used in wheat wide crossing: 1) markers detecting the segments or genes in the wild relatives; 2) crossability-related genes; 3) meiotic chromosomal pairing related genes; and 4) necrosis related genes. The markers used in the CIMMYT wide crosses group are listed in Table 1.The list of resistance genes discovered in wild relatives and already transferred into diverse wheat backgrounds can be found in the \"CATALOGUE OF GENE SYMBOLS FOR WHEAT\" (McIbtosh et al. 2013; http://wheat.pw.usda.gov/GG2/Triticum/ wgc/2013/) that has been updated elsewhere (http://www.shigen.nig.ac.jp/wheat/ komugi/genes/ download.jsp#mg2012). Wild relative-derived genes have been also reviewed in intervals in international journals (e.g., Tyrka and Chekowski, 2004) and many genes identified for diseases resistance such as wheat rust and their linked markers are reported at the web site \"MAS WHEAT\" (http://maswheat.ucdavis.edu/ Index.htm).The CIMMYT wide crossing group is currently working on the transfer of Ug99 stem rust resistance genes, namely Sr26, Sr32, Sr37, Sr39, and Sr40, into CIMMYT elite wheat varieties. For the genes Sr26, Sr32, and Sr39, perfect markers that detect the wild relative segments, including the gene itself, are listed in \"MAS WHEAT\" (Figure 1). For Sr37 and Sr40, only linked markers are available (Wu et al., 2009), keeping in mind that the genes may be lost during breeding.The homeologous genes Kr1 (5BL), Kr2 (5AL), and Kr3 (5DL, Fedak and Jui 1982) are well known to be related to crossability. The dominant genes have shown to inhibit pollen-tube growth in rye, barley or Aegilops, which reduce the ability to successfully produce interspecific hybrids. In wheat, Kr1 has the highest inhibition effect and Kr1 and Kr2 are additive. The inhibition effect therefore varies with different genotypes. Kr1Kr2 is considered to have less than 10% crossability, Kr1kr2 between 10 and 25% crossability, kr1Kr2 between 25 and 50%, and kr1kr2 more than 50% crossability (Lein 1943). More recently, the gene Skr (5BS) has additionally been recognized to prevent the effect of Kr1 in crosses between wheat and rye, therefore, promoting crossability (Lamoureux et al. 2002).Kr1 (5BL): According to Bertin et al. (2009) The upper band of marker cfd341 is associated with a high crossable genotype (Figure 3). Our primary results indicate that most bread and durum wheat varieties used as recurrent parents in the wide crossing group have the upper (high crossable) band, which, however, does not coincide with our phenotypic observation of high variation in their crossability with Aegilops species. It is therefore possible that the SKr gene does not have the same effect in Aegilops than in rye or additional genes are involved in the determination of crossability in CIMMYT varieties. Further research on the crossability effect of SKr for crosses with Aegilops species is therefore necessary. Ph1, Ph2 and two PhI genes from Aegilops speltoides fall in this marker category. While Ph1 and Ph2 inhibit the chromosomal pairing, PhI genes have been considered to inhibit the effect of Ph1 (Dover and Riley 1977). The Ph1 gene is the most effective gene for inhibiting chromosomal pairing, so that mutants of the gene have been routinely used for inducing meiotic pairing between wheat and alien species around the world.ph1b: gwm213 and gwm371 are two SSRs markers in the Ph1 gene region.The Ph1 mutant includes a Mbp deletion in the corresponding gene region (Sears 1977;Gill et al. 1993;Fig. 4a), so that any marker within this deletion can be used for ph1b detection. From our experience, the marker gwm213 is the best marker to screen for the mutant as the marker distinguishes ph1b homozygous plants from PCR false negatives (Figure 4b). Since ph1b is a deletion, the marker is dominant and can only determine the homozygous ph1bph1b genotype but not heterogeneous Ph1ph1b genotype (Figure 4c). It is recommended to use markers outside or flanking the deletion when heterozygote genotype wants to be detected.Many types of necrosis have been recognized in wheat, but the Ne1-Ne2 necrosis is the best known.Necrosis in expressed when both Ne1 and Ne2 dominant alleles genes build the genotype (Figure 5a). This type of necrosis is problematic in wheat wide crossing, particularly when synthetic hexaploid wheat lines are developed (a cross between durum wheat and Aegilops tauschii, Figure 5b), as most durum wheat lines (and especially CIMMYT lines) have the dominant allele of Ne1. This means that almost all synthetic hexaploid wheat lines have Ne1.It has also been reported that about 89% of wheat lines in Central America possess the dominant allele of Ne2 (Pukhalskiy et al. 2000), which is why CIMMYT Ne1: Chu et al. 2009 localized the gene between markers barc216 (8.3 cM distal) and barc074 (2.0 cM proximal).The wide crossing group has been working on transferring the recessive ne1 allele (non-necrotic alley) into CIMMYT elite durum varieties. Since barc074 and barc216 have not shown much polymorphism among CIMMYT elite varieties, other markers in the vicinity such as gwm213 (Fig. 2) can be also employed for selections.Ne2: Chu et al. 2009 was localized this gene between markers gwm148 (6.7 cM distal) and barc055 (3.2 cM proximal).Additionally to ne1, the wide crosses group has made the effort to transfer the recessive allele ne2 (nonnecrotic alley) to a limited number of CIMMYT elite bread wheat varieties as new synthetic hexaploid wheat lines might be developed in the future. Testing the two linked markers to ne2, we have seen that the marker barc055 was more polymorph among CIMMYT varieties, while gwm148 was almost monomorph (Figure 5c).Molecular markers in a breeding program are largely considered as a supplemental tool for variety development. They are primarily used as an indirect selection tool, specifically when traits have low heritability, are difficult and cost-prohibitive to measure or require the desired pyramiding of genes. However, especially for more complex traits, the lack of large-scale validation and refinement of largereffect QTL, the fact that selection can be based only on a subset of markers that most likely capture only a smaller portion of the total genetic variation, the high cost of genotyping individual loci and of overcoming many practical, logistic, and genetic constraints limit the implementation of marker-assisted selection (MAS) methods in plant breeding programs for this traits (Xu and Crouch 2008).With the development of modern genotyping and sequencing methods, MAS theory has recently shifted from the transfer of larger-effect genes to the use of genome-wide markers to predict the performance of both phenotyped and unphenotyped individuals (genomic selection, or GS). Using genome-wide markers, every trait locus is likely to be in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with a minimum of one marker locus in the entire target population. In GS, a training population related to the breeding germplasm is genotyped with genome-wide markers and phenotyped in target environments. These data are used to derive a prediction equation that can then be applied to genotypes of unphenotyped individuals to calculate their genomically estimated breeding values (GEBVs) that can be used to inform selection decisions (Meuwissen et al. 2001;Bernardo and Yu 2007;de los Campos et al. 2009). Genetically estimated breeding values open up several new routes for increasing genetic improvement rates in plant breeding programs. They offer opportunities to: (1) increase the selection efficiency of preliminary and multi-location yi eld trials; and (2) shorten the breeding cycle by repeated early generation selection, thus increasing the genetic gain per unit of time.Several GS studies, many of which were developed or used data generated by CIMMYT's wheat breeding program (see Crossa et al. 2014, for a recent review of the topic), have shown that GS can achieve reasonably high prediction accuracy. This has raised expectations about the prospects of implementing GS in wheat breeding programs. However, implementing GS in breeding problems also presents important challenges. In this chapter, we describe the results and the important lessons learned when testing genomic prediction in CIMMYT's Global Wheat Program, from the initial assessment of the prediction ability of different models using pedigree and marker information to the present day, when methods for implementing GS in practical wheat breeding programs are being studied and investigated.Varying levels of genomic prediction accuracy have been obtained in plants. For inbreeding species, their relatively small effective population size (N e ) is the main advantage for genomic selection. The smaller the N e , the smaller the number of independent chromosome segments in the genome that allow for higher GEBV accuracies (Lin et al. 2014). Most studies report prediction accuracy as the correlation between GEBVs and phenotypes. In CIMMYT wheat data sets, prediction accuracies for grain yield, for example, ranged from 0.3 (Poland et al. 2012) to 0.7 (Perez-Rodriguez et al. 2012); for days to heading, prediction accuracies between 0.4 (Poland et al. 2012) and 0.7 (Wimmer et al. 2013)   the trait, the relationship between the individuals to be predicted and those used to train the models for prediction, sample size, number of markers and marker platform, choice of statistical model, and genotype × environment interaction (GE).Heritability allows comparing the relative importance of genes and environments to the variation of traits within and across populations. Heritability depends on the genetic properties of a trait, the range of typical environments in the studied population, as well as various interactions between genes and environmental factors. For traits with low heritability, genes contribute little to individual phenotypic differences; for highly heritable traits, genes are the main reason for individual differences. Genomic selection performs differently in traits with distinct genetic properties. In Table 1, we compared seven well-established genome-wide selection methods for 16 traits with heritabilities ranging from 0.18 to 0.93. For all methods, the ability to predict phenotypes was linearly correlated with trait heritability. For example, prediction accuracy was high for the quality traits of grain hardiness and flour sedimentation, which have high heritabilities, whereas prediction accuracy was moderate for the agronomic traits of plant height and grain yield, which have low to moderate heritabilities. Correlations ranged between 0.5 and 0.6 (Table 1). This correlation was expected, given that, as described above, traits with lower heritability have phenotypes less reflective of their genetic content, and are consequently less predictable through genomic selection. Genomic selection is mainly seen as a way to achieve more genetic gains in traits with lower heritability; however, phenotyping for some higher heritable traits can be very expensive (e.g., some quality traits) and genomic predictions of unphenotyped individuals can therefore be of great advantage. The heritability of the trait is also crucial because, with greater heritabilities, fewer genotyping and phenotyping records are required. Reduced heritability will lead to a decrease in accuracy of predicting the breeding value but this can be compensated for by using a larger number of observations to estimate the marker effects. Phenotypes with higher heritability can be created by averaging the phenotypic performance of varieties across replicate plots, thereby reducing the environmental variance of average performance. One approach to implementing GS is to select individuals with the highest genetic merit in the early generations of a breeding cycle (e.g., selecting F 2 individuals). The selected individuals can be intercrossed and the resulting progenies can be selected again a number of times before extracting inbred lines, also called rapid cycling GS. In a simulation study, we explored the relative importance of the relatedness between training and selection populations, sample size and marker density for the accuracy of genomic prediction in an early generation selection approach (Hickey et al. 2014).For simulation, several biparental populations, each having 550 F 2 -individuals, were created that were related to each other in different ways: biparental populations that have one parent in common (BP-P); that have one grandparent in common (BP-G); or that are unrelated (BP-U). The accuracy of selection was evaluated on 50 unphenotyped F2-individuals from a single biparental population using the correlation between the GEBVs and the true breeding values. For the phenotypes, a polygenic trait was simulated with 0.5 heritability, and a range of 50 to 10,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers was tested.The phenotypes and genotypes that were used to train the prediction equation were either generated inside the single biparental population or inside the other biparental populations (BP-P, BP-G, or BP-U) that were simulated to have relationships with the given single biparental population. Between 1 to 40 populations and 50 to 500 F 2 -individuals per population were used to train the prediction equations.Figure 1 shows the accuracy of prediction inside a single biparental population. The accuracy of the breeding values increased as the size of the training population increased. Training with up to 50 phenotypes gave accuracies between 0.2 and 0.6, while training with 100 or more phenotypes gave accuracies of 0.8 or higher.The results when differently related populations were used for genomic prediction are displayed in Figure 2. Prediction accuracies decrease with decreasing relatedness to the given single biparental population (BP-P -> BP-U). Using information from unrelated populations generally gave low accuracies unless very large numbers of phenotypes (more populations and more individuals per population) were used. This means there is a tradeoff between relationship and population size that affects prediction accuracy. When using information from close relatives, the marker associations are due to the linkage between markers and QTLs, whereas when using information from distant relatives, marker associations are due to linkage disequilibrium. Closer relatives share longer chromosome segments or haplotypes; therefore, a training population with close relatives will have a smaller number of independent haplotypes and a larger sample size per haplotype, leading to more precise predications. Distant relatives share shorter haplotypes and a training set will have a large number of independent haplotypes with different allele, different allele frequencies, linkage phases and background effects (including epistasis, the interaction between two or more genes controlling a single genotype) leading to less accurate predictions.  We observed the same trend in prediction accuracies in the study by Ornella et al. (2012). Actual stem rust data from five recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations (PBW343/Juchi, PBW343/Pavon76, PBW343/Muu, PBW343/Kingbird and PBW343/K-Nyangumi) were used for genomic prediction. All populations were derived from crosses between resistant parents (Juchi, Pavon76, Muu, Kingbird and K-Nyangumi) and PBW343, a moderately susceptible parent. The populations were evaluated for reaction to stem rust at different locations. Stem rust resistance is known to be affected by major genes, along with several slow-rusting genes with small additive effects (Singh et al. 2011). The sample sizes of the five populations were between 92 and 176 molecularly characterized using Diversity Arrays Technology markers (http://www.diversityarrays. com/). As depicted in Figure 3, there are five clearly distinct but related half-sib populations, except lines in the PBW343/Juchi population, which do not seem to be closely related. Results in Table 2 indicate that prediction of stem rust data in each individual population using stem rust data from the other four populations gave relatively high correlations, except for population PBW343/Juchi, which does not have lines that are closely related among themselves or to lines in other populations. It is expected that population structure could become the main driving force for increasing the prediction accuracy in metapopulations, while prediction between populations significantly decreases. Several recent studies have furthermore illustrated the importance of a close relationship between the training and selection populations (Windhausen et al. 2012;Guo et al. borrowing information between environments, and for environments that are positively correlated; this increases prediction accuracy.The study conducted by Ornella et al. (2012) reached the same conclusion that higher prediction accuracy in correlated environments could be achieved.Actual stem rust data of the five RIL populations in this study were collected during the main and offseason in Njoro, Kenya, while the yellow rust data on the same populations were collected in Njoro, Kenya, and Toluca, Mexico. The positive correlation between environments (for stem rust, the same environment but different seasons) clearly favored prediction accuracy when data from one environment were used as the training population for the other environment (Figure 4).A recent simulation study (Bernardo 2013) found that modeling a large-effect locus as fixed to be advantageous when trait heritability was greater than 0.5 and the proportion of genetic variance explained by the locus was greater than 0.25. Rutkoski et al. (2014) confirmed these results using GS as a potential tool to select for adult-plant stem rust resistance. In a set of CIMMYT advanced lines that were tested for adult-plant stem rust resistance across environments and years, markers linked to the stem rust gene Sr2 were applied and its results included as fixed effects in the prediction model that was more accurate than using genome-wide markers only. Overall, the levels of prediction accuracy found in this study indicate that GS can be effectively applied to improve stem rust APR in this germplasm.Genomic selection has a great number of uses in a breeding program. Similar to MAS strategies, the introduction of GS is flexible and may vary for each breeding program, depending on the target traits and breeding scheme. The greatest potential use of GS is at points in the breeding program where selection using traditional methods is too expensive, timeconsuming or not biologically or logistically possible. Two main applications of GS are being studied in CIMMYT's global wheat breeding program: 1) to predict the genotypic value of individuals for potential release as cultivars; and 2) to predict the breeding value of candidates in rapid-cycle populations.The breeding methodology applied by the CIMMYT wheat breeding program includes modified bulk selection. After population advancement with selection for more heritable traits via shuttle breeding, inbred lines are extracted and tested in preliminary yield trials (PYTs) to identify superior entries which will then be evaluated in the following year in more extensive multi-environment yield trials and/or used as parents to begin another breeding cycle. CIMMYT PYTs usually include up to 10,000 genotypes, of which approximately 1,000 are selected and evaluated in five to six different environments with two to three replications in the subsequent cycle.CIMMYT PYTs are carried out in replicated yield trials in small plots and a single environment. GS could be useful to predict the GEBVs based on a large training population that includes previous breeding germplasm and amend the selection of lines. There is also a tradeoff between the number of genotypes that enter the multi-environment trials and the number of plots per entry. A larger number of plots per entry allow a more accurate estimate of the performance of each genotype across environments, whereas a larger number of entries enhances the germplasm pool from which selections are made. If the number of plots is fixed, a larger number of entries can only be tested if they are divided across environments. Consequently, not all entries would be present in all environments but the average genotypic performance across all environments could be determined using genomic prediction. Initial results testing this approach using diverse models that incorporate pedigree, marker, environment and interaction terms into the prediction equation revealed relatively high prediction accuracies: an average 0.6 when 20% of the entries were present in only one of five environments (unpublished data). These results indicate that not all entries have to be evaluated in all environments and that more entries could be tested. This approach can be optimized further by maximizing the relationship between the training and testing populations and by varying the number of genotypes and environments to be predicted. Several sister lines are usually present in each CIMMYT multi-environment trial. Dividing the sister lines across environments would additionally increase the relatedness between the training and testing populations and allow higher prediction accuracies.The best performing lines in multi-environment trials are selected to form CIMMYT's international screening nurseries and yield trials, which are distributed globally via the International Wheat Improvement Network. Although trait heritabilities are high at this stage of the breeding program, genomic prediction could be useful for boosting the selection of lines to be included in each yield trial specific to a target mega environment and that could potentially be released by national programs.In a rapid cycle GS breeding scheme, segregating populations can be genotyped at the seedling stage, then selected based on GEBVs derived from a related training population. The resulting F 2 -candidates can be used to extract inbred lines or intercrossed.Applying GS rapid cycling in early generations (e.g., F 2 ) is a high risk but high turnover approach. In conventional breeding, early generation intercrossing is not practiced due to highly heterozygous and heterogeneous progenies and the unfeasibility of selecting for complex traits based on a single plant.Although genomic prediction accuracy may not be high, shortening the cycle time or generation interval is expected to increase genetic gains.In a proof-of-concept experiment, CIMMYT has initiated a rapid cycle GS scheme in wheat with grain yield as the target trait. Genomic prediction was applied in 40 F 2 -populations, using historical data as a training population with two cycles of subsequent intercrossing within and between populations. In each generation, inbred lines were extracted based on genomic and conventional selection. Initial results in two seasons replicated trials of lines derived from single plants with a range of GEBvs have shown that higher GEBV individuals produce higher yielding derivative lines (Bonnett et al. unpublished). A yield increase of 7% in derivatives of plants with the highest 13% of GEBVs compared to the lowest 13% of GEBVs was found following just one cycle of GS. This represents a 30% realized gain from selection and is an encouraging initial result. A larger number of derivatives from simple cross F 2 derived bulks and first and second cycle intercrosses compared to conventionally selected cohorts from the same initial crosses are currently being tested to extend the evaluation of rapid cycle GS. These evaluations give the first indications of genetics gains from GS for a highly complex trait in an actual wheat breeding program.In a second experiment, individuals from F 2:4 derived populations will be used as a training population to derive GEBVs within and between populations with close and distinct relationships.A large number of prediction models have been developed or adopted from other fields to handle the high-dimensional marker datasets that are typical of GS. The various types of models respond differently because they vary in their assumptions when treating the variance of complex traits. In GS, the number of predictors (p) is usually far greater than the number of individuals (n CIMMYT and many other breeding institutions have been using pedigree notations for many years, based on what is commonly known as the Purdy method (Purdy et al., 1968). These notations give an explicit description of the crossing of a line. Previously, selection in plant breeding was usually based on estimates of breeding values obtained using pedigree-based mixed models (Crossa et al. 2006). Information from relatives is integrated through the coefficient of parentage (COP) in the form of the additive relationship matrix A, which is twice the COP. However, pedigree-based models cannot account for Mendelian segregation. Molecular markers allow tracing Mendelian segregation across positions in the genome and are therefore expected to increase the accuracy of breeding value estimates and thus of the genetic progress attainable when these predictions are used for selection. Studies by Pérez-Rodriguez et al. (2012) and Burgueño et al. (2012) on prediction ability using two CIMMYT wheat data sets confirmed this assumption and showed that molecular markers increased prediction ability over the pedigree-derived model in all environments of both data sets. Considering markers and pedigree together in the two datasets consistently increased the prediction ability of all models compared with models that used markers or pedigree only. This also can be seen in Table 1, where three different methods (BL: Bayesian Lasso; BRR: Bayesian ridge regression; and RKHS: Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space) with and without pedigree information were used on 16 different traits. For all traits, models using markers and pedigree combined showed higher prediction ability than modes using markers only.There is concrete proof that the agglomeration of multiple gene × gene interactions (epistasis) having small effects and acting in small epistatic networks is important for explaining the heritability of complex traits such as grain yield (McKinney and Pajewski 2012).Evidence from studies on complex traits conducted at CIMMYT shows that models that allow for non-linear components consistently predicted the individuals in the validation set better than linear models (Crossa et al. 2010;Gonzalez-Camacho et al. 2012;Pérez -Rodriguez et al. 2012). Simulated data by Gonzalez-Camacho et al. (2012) indicate that the Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS) regression approach and the Radial Basis Function Neutral Network (RBFNN) model captured epistatic effects; however, adding redundant predictors (e.g., the interaction between markers) can adversely affect the prediction accuracy of the non-linear regression models.Genotype × environment interaction produces environments that are structured into related and unrelated subsets that may increase or decrease prediction accuracy. In plants, prediction accuracy has been estimated by evaluating training and validation populations in single environments or in a subset of similar environments (e.g., within irrigated or drought environments). Burgueño et al. (2012) studied the effect of GE modeling on genomic prediction ability when using pedigree and marker information. They used a multi-environment version of the genomic best linear unbiased predictor (G-BLUP), where GE was modeled using genetic cor-relations between environments, and found that the multi-environment G-BLUP had higher prediction accuracy than the single-trait G-BLUP so benefit from borrowing information from correlated environments and from using pedigree and genetic marker information. Jarquin et al. ( 2013) proposed a model that also allows incorporating main and interaction effects of markers, as well as environmental covariances such as climatic records or soil characteristics.The large scale implementation of GS in breeding programs will shift efforts from evaluating the whole plant to evaluating marker effects. We think that initial GS implementation should not significantly affect the way plant field trials are conducted in each breeding program as there are still many unanswered questions regarding how to achieve the optimal balance between genotyping and phenotyping and the best use of marker effect evaluations to maximize the overall genetic gain for single or multiple target traits in a particular breeding program. Significant challenges also remain with respect to the successful implementation of GS.     phases of their breeding programmes. From straightforward phenotyping to complex genotyping, it provides all the tools needed to conduct modern breeding in one comprehensive package. The IBP also provides training opportunities, responsive technical support and community space for meaningful exchanges with peers and other experts.The important resources available on this page to optimise your plant breeding programme are:• downloadable, comprehensive software tools: the Breeding Management System (BMS) and more tools from our partners; • a network of accessible and reliable breeding service providers; • a resource library with products and information for over 10 crops, including diagnostic markers and trait dictionaries; • training material and activities for an optimal use of our technology as well as for integrating good breeding practises; • support through peer communities and dedicated technical assistance. dbSNP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP/)The Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (dbSNP) is a public-domain archive for a broad collection of simple genetic polymorphisms. This collection of polymorphisms includes single-base nucleotide substitutions (also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs), small-scale multi-base deletions or insertions (also called deletion insertion polymorphisms or DIPs), and retroposable element insertions and microsatellite repeat variations (also called short tandem repeats or STRs). The dbSNP has been designed to support submissions and research into a broad range of biological problems including physical mapping, functional analysis, pharmacogenomics, association studies, and evolutionary studies. It accepts submissions for variations in any species and from any part of a genome.The SNP database can be queried from the dbSNP homepage, by using Entrez SNP, or by using the links to the six basic dbSNP search options as mentioned below.DArT assays, 500 -1000 ng of restriction enzyme grade DNA, resuspended in aqueous solution such as TE at a concentration of 50 -100 ng/microliter should be submitted.LGCGenomics (http://www.lgcgroup.com/services/#.VXXXjVXbKM8) Important services provided by LGC include DNA sequencing, Genotyping services (SNP markers), SNP marker design, whole genome amplification, DNA/RNA extraction and next generation sequencing among others.Bristol Genomics Facility (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/transcriptomics/)The Bristol Genomics Facility offers a range of services for next generation sequencing and library preparation for certain applications. The sequencing service has been operating for more than 3 years using Illumina sequencingby-synthesis and now includes Ion Torrent sequencing on the Life Technologies Ion PGM™ and Ion Proton ™ sequencers. All platforms utilize a massively parallel sequencing approach to generate billions of high quality bases per run and are suitable for a broad range of applications including De novo sequencing, Re-sequencing, Stranded RNA-seq, RNA-seq, small RNA sequencing, Targete re-sequencing, ChIP-seq, Methylation-seq and MeDIP-seq.The facility currently operates an Affymetrix GeneChip ® Array platform consisting of the 4-colour 7G upgrade enabling to process the highest resolution 5µm arrays available from Affymetrix. Soon the new Affymetrix GeneTitan ® system will be offered for both Axiom genotyping and gene expression arrays.The Bristol Genomics Facility also houses an Applied Biosystems 3500 Genetic Analyser, an 8-capillary system for DNA sequencing and fragment analysis applications. Sample submission: • Completed sequencing reactions should be provided dried down following ethanol precipitation.• Completed fragment analysis reactions should be provided pre-diluted (1:10 is usually sufficient) in 8-strip tubes or a 96-well plate.The Bristol Genomics Facility houses a 96-well LightCycler ® LC480 Real-Time PCR system for medium-and high-throughput applications in gene expression and genotyping analysis. They offer a 'ready-to-go' service for internal researchers at Bristol University and external researchers in which the investigator can book time on the instrument to run pre-prepared plates if familiar with the instrument software, or can provide the facility with plates to run and deliver the data via email, typically within 48 hours.The instrument is most commonly used for the following applications: The Illumina Genotyping Service provides a complete service for genomic analysis (whole genome SNP genotyping, focused panel genotyping, or copy number variation analysis) that delivers robust and reproducible results. The service accepts and processes a variety of biological samples and then leverages cutting-edge tools for either pathway-focused or genome-wide analysis yielding superior results for scientists in academic, government, and industrial settings. QIAGEN is an Illumina-certified service provider.","tokenCount":"36972"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c1a4b28b4ddcc2b0649167f5995a70c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e5ef4099-ec33-4f37-a8ae-45751f3eb2c2/retrieve","id":"-994776720"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7c15849a-5f61-4048-bede-4b58fa52c5e7","pagecount":"2","content":"In SSA farmer innovations using water as an entry point can improve food security and resilience. We present two farmer innovation stories that demonstrated how this can be achieved by transporting manure and rehabilitating degraded lands for improved farm productivity.We are presenting two case studies, whereby local innovation in water management at farmer level contributes to increased income and improved food security of poor households in SSA.1. Given high price of chemical fertilizer, farmers commonly apply manure and household refuse to their plots, preferably around homestead fields. But transporting the large volume of organic fertilizers it to far away fields demands more labor. One innovative farmer in the Nile basin, residing on the hills and farming on the valley bottoms used irrigation canals to transport the large volume of manure from the homestead to the valley field by spreading the manure on the irrigation water. By introducing this innovation Ato Hailu G/Micheal from Tigrai (Chelekot), Ethiopia won a regional innovators' prize (about USD 1,100) awarded in a regional assembly in the presence of high government officials. Local people from about 10 villages visited the winner's farm and witnessed the innovation.Silasie is a widow, 67, without additional family labour. She did not previously have land but inherited a plot after her daughter passed away a few years ago. Moreover the land she inherited was not part of the traditional irrigation command area and thus she was not a beneficiary.The construction of the water diversion and lining canal completely destroyed her farm, completely covering it in stone, sand and silt. However, she didn't get any compensation. On the other hand, she was happy that the water canal was crossing her farm. She decided to remove the large amount of debris from her farm and, using buckets of water crossing her farm, she developed it into a fruit and vegetable garden thus replacing the wheat fields. She is currently producing high value vegetables by irrigating the field using buckets and getting a net income of about 12,000 birr per annum. Her field has became a demonstration site for the whole community.These case studies show that given the opportunity, poor rural farmers could develop interventions that would be able to improve agricultural water management. There is a need for policy support for poor farmers to access resources (land and credit) to try and adapt technologies and practices.","tokenCount":"393"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85030f408b3179a0230cc9fe5aee4059","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c3753e7-45f9-4a2c-9be3-ee8bb2a089d2/retrieve","id":"-1914292172"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1e416db9-6ee6-43f4-b590-d9391532ef35","pagecount":"9","content":"With world market sugar prices higher than levels since 2009, the EU sugar market has not operated as expected in the post-reform period.At times world market prices have been higher than EU prices. This, coupled with internal EU sugar market regulation, has led to sugar shortages emerging on the EU market since 2010-11. These 'shortages' have fallen particularly heavily on traditional raw cane sugar refiners. In the post-reform period, EU beet sugar companies have invested in some 1.85 million tonnes of new raw cane sugar refining capacity. These 'co-refiners' currently enjoy significant competitive advantages over traditional cane sugar refiners.The European Commission (EC) has come under intense criticism from indus-trial sugar users and traditional refiners for its management of the current sugar regime, increasing pressure for further reforms. While quota abolition would unequivocally shift EU beet production to the lowest cost production zones, improving overall price competitiveness, some EU governments have been reluctant to abolish quotas earlier than 2020.On the assumption of production quota abolition in 2015, a Commission staff working document estimated that this would lead to: sugar beet and white sugar prices falling \"below the current support prices\"; an increase of 6.9% in EU sugar exports; a reduction of 4.7% in EU sugar imports.The alternative would be an accumulation of sugar stocks in the EU. Such a situation of stock accumulation could be update September 2013 Sugar sector further complicated by any revision of EU biofuel targets which, depending on the specific modifications made to the sustainability criteria under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), could result in increased imports of bioethanol or increased use of sugar beet for ethanol production.This could either complicate or simplify EC efforts to establish a \"framework of modernised market management instruments\" in the sugar sector. Nevertheless, any modernised market management framework is likely to include more effective safety nets for EU sugar beet farmers and an extension of policy measures to strengthen the functioning of supply chains to the sugar sector.On 1 October 2012, all minimum price guarantees for imports of sugar from the ACP were discontinued. However, these minimum price guarantees had become increasingly irrelevant, given the closer links between global and EU sugar market price trends. With the wide variety of diverse factors influencing global sugar prices, the way that specific ACP-EU sugar supply chains function is likely to take on growing significance. In this context, the changing patterns of corporate ownership across the global sugar sector are likely to require close scrutiny.Price volatility on global sugar markets is increasing the importance of diversifying the revenue streams generated from sugar cane production.Price volatility on global sugar markets is increasing the importance of diversifying the revenue streams generated from sugar cane production.From an ACP sugar cane farming perspective, the extent to which farmers are able to benefit from this process of revenue diversification is likely to be of growing importance.The ACP continues to be concerned about the direct and indirect price effects of quota abolition, including the impact of uncertainties on investment mobilisation for sugar sector restructuring. This provides the background for sugar sector developments in ACP regions, which are covered in the Agritrade companion special report, 'Regional developments in ACP sugar sectors 2012/13', 13 September 2013.In August 2012, the International Sugar Organization (ISO) reported a return to global sugar surpluses, with the stocks-to-use ratio rising to 40%.This signalled an end to the period of low stocks that prevailed from 2008-09 to 2011-12. This situation is expected to exert a downward pressure on prices.However, market prices remain vulnerable to production disruptions. For example, there are concerns over the impact that the perilous financial state of a number of Brazilian sugar companies could have on 'ratoon' renewal (sugar cane cultivation practices). In 2011, high beet and sugar content yields led to high levels of EU out-ofquota sugar production (about 5 million tonnes white sugar equivalent), but in 2012 these levels fell by around 9%.In terms of market development, however, the issue is not the overall level of EU sugar beet production as such, but the market management arrangements established by the EC alongside the continuation of EU sugar production quotas.Two stakeholder groups within the EU sugar sector, industrial sugar users and traditional raw cane sugar refiners, have faced particular problems as a result of the way the EU market has been managed since October 2010. While pre-reform sugar prices faced by EU industrial sugar users were high relative to world market prices, prices were stable and supplies guaranteed under annual supply contracts. In addition, industrial users benefited from both tariff protection on products con-taining sugar and non-Annex I export refunds.With partial reform and higher, more volatile, world market prices, the context for securing sugar supplies has been transformed. This has led to either a move away from annual supply contracts negotiated at the beginning of the season or much tougher contract negotiation, greatly complicating the procurement challenges facing industrial sugar users.According to the Committee of European Users of Sugar (CIUS), \"EU sugar users have seen an increase of 40% in sugar prices within the last year [to June 2012], leading to significant financial instability for many food manufacturers across Europe.\"\"The present quota system has resulted in major supply shortages and uncompetitive prices\"In January 2013, it was argued that \"the present quota system has resulted in major supply shortages and uncompetitive prices\", while in February 2013 major sugar-using companies complained of \"significant supply constraints leading to sky-high prices\" (see Agritrade article 'Continued controversy over EC management of EU sugar regime', 7 April 2013).Under current arrangements, while industrial users can procure as much sugar as required on the world market (i.e. from non-preferred supplies), high import duties are levied, raising the costs to industrial users with no access to preferential supplies. This has thrown up awkward competition issues, as some refiners and valueadded processors have been able to secure better access to preferential sugar imports than other refiners and industrial users.The concerns of industrial sugar users also need to be seen against a background of uncertainties over sugar market fundamentals and the recognition that \"bouts of price surges and volatility remain a clear possibility\" (see Agritrade article 'Industrial users set out their views on sugar reform against backdrop of global price volatility', 9 September 2012).For The ACP group has argued that \"the absence of EU sugar quotas would cost ACP/LDC sugar suppliers up to €850 million in lost revenue up to 2020\" and would \"lead to the death of the sugar sector\" in certain ACP countries. Indeed, it is widely believed the ACP will \"lose more than anybody\" under a liberalised EU market with a sugar \"surplus\", which would lead to sugar prices falling \"below the current support prices\". This has led to ACP Ministerial calls for the EU to initiate formal consultations with the ACP on the impact of the CAP reforms and to implement sugar protocol accompanying measures programmes in a more flexible manner.In contrast, in oral submissions made to hearings in the UK House of Lords, the UK Industrial Sugar Users Group (UKISUG) endorsed the CIUS position and supported EC proposals not to extend production quotas beyond 2015. UKISUG went further, calling for \"complete deregulation of the EU sugar market\", with beet production quotas to be abolished at the earliest moment and \"a guarantee of adequate imports of duty-free cane sugar after 2015\". Current arrangements were seen as driving up procurement costs for sugar \"much higher than the €404 a tonne reference price\", with this posing particular problems for smaller manufacturers (see Agritrade article 'ACP joins EU farmers in appeal to maintain sugar production quotas', 6 August 2012).As an indication of the progress of the EU Council debate during 2012, the UK Agriculture Minister acknowledged that there was a majority of EU Ministers in favour of extending sugar production quotas until 2020. This now appears the most likely outcome from the final round of consultations in June 2013.If EU sugar production quotas are extended beyond 2015, then traditional cane refiners are seeking either dedicated import quotas or an automatic correction system to allow imports at zero duty up to the envisaged total of 3.5 million tonnes. This raises the important issue of the market management arrangements to be set in place during the transition to quota abolition. Calls have been made for the adoption of \"timely and transparent\" policy measures that are non-discriminatory vis-à-vis the different sugar sector stakeholders.In the longer term, traditional cane refiners favour unrestricted access to raw cane sugar imports if EU production quotas are abolished.Since 2005, the EU has turned from a net exporter to a net importer of sugar. However, this position is projected to change from 2018 onwards, with the EU projected to \"move even closer to self-sufficiency and indeed from time to time be a net exporter\". This proposal is still under discussion.However, on 12 September 2012, the French government called for \"a pause in the development of biofuels competing with food\", and unilaterally announced a cap on the production of \"crop based biofuels\" at the current level of 7% (see Agritrade article 'Growing calls for review of EU biofuels policy', 18 November 2012). An EC impact assessment accompanying its proposals of 17 October concluded that capping production of crop-based biofuels has the advantage over other options of being simple in its design and implementation.Depending on the options chosen by EU Ministers for revision of the sustainability criteria, the use of sugar beet in bioethanol production could be unaffected, or it could double. Alternatively, imports of sugar-cane-based ethanol from sustainably certified production systems would increase. This would be likely to benefit Brazil rather than ACP sugar producers. However, it would be strongly influenced by the basis used for indirect land-use emission calculations, which could themselves lead to the establishment of production-system-based import tariffs, with lower tariffs only for those bioethanol imports that have less effect on indirect land use.The future of EU biofuel policy gives rise to uncertainties over the future prospects for the EU sugar sector. Farmers' organisations and the biofuel industry have rejected allegations that biofuel policies were responsible for the prevailing high food prices, and are opposed to any changes in EU biofuel policies.Meanwhile, if EU sugar production quotas were extended to 2020, this would defer the date at which the EU moves towards greater self-sufficiency and the date at which a dramatic decline in EU sugar imports takes place.However, overall EC projections suggest that marketing opportunities for ACP sugar are likely to lie increasingly beyond the EU.The complex reality facing ACP sugar producers in exporting to the EU market is further complicated by the changing pattern of EU-ACP corporate linkages. The two biggest corporate level developments, Associated British Food's (ABF's) purchase of a 51% stake in Illovo Sugar, and American Sugar Refiners' (ASR's) purchase of TLS, continue to work their way through the system of ACP-EU trade. These moves highlight the scope for the growth of ACP-based sugar companies, with the expansion of sugar production under way in Eastern and Southern Africa. However, they also highlight the complex network of corporate relationships that exists.There is a particularly complex situation evolving in the case of Mauritius, given the July 2008 agreement between the Mauritian Sugar Syndicate and Südzucker for the export of 400,000 tonnes of direct-consumption sugar per annum to the market and Alteo's with the French sugar company Tereos in Mozambique.The process of EU corporate restructuring thus reaches into ACP sugar sectors and gives rise to increasingly complex networks of temporary supply arrangements and longer-term corporate alliances.Getting to grips with transitional challengesCalls from traditional refiners for either the re-establishment of dedicated import quotas or unrestricted duty-free access for raw sugar up to a ceiling of 3.5 million tonnes, if implemented, would be likely to impact on the commercial position of ACP sugar exporters in contract negotiations with EU importers. This would arise either from a reduction in the number of buyers competing for ACP sugar supplies, or from an increase in the number of potential sellers of duty-free sugar to EU importers. In the coming years, therefore, ACP governments will have to grapple with two related challenges: the effects on ACP producers of the use of current market management tools and the effects of final abolition of EU sugar production quotas.Even if the abolition of EU production quotas is deferred until 2020, the longer-term trend resulting from postreform EU sugar sector adjustments is towards greater EU sugar self-sufficiency and a significant reduction in total EU sugar imports (-59% by 2020 compared to average imports over the 2009-11 period). This will carry profound implications for ACP sugar exporters, given the expansion of EU sugar TRQs that are in progress with competitive sugar exporters, as a result of the EU's growing network of freetrade area agreements. This reinforces the long-term trend in the declining significance of EU sugar sector preferences for ACP sugar exporters.While developments in Jamaica raise the issue of the future regulatory role of industry boards in determining the division of the proceeds, corporate developments in Belize highlight the need for a modernised framework for the management of private-sector-based relationships along specific supply chains, in a context of vast inequalities in power relationships within supply chains and heightened global price volatility.In this context, EU policy initiatives aimed at strengthening the functioning of sugar sector supply chains could hold some important lessons.In particular, the future of the current inter-professional agreements (IPAs) in EU sugar sectors would appear to be of some considerable significance. Currently, in the UK, the IPA allows beet growers to negotiate collectively with monopoly processors, allowing a single selling voice to balance a single buying voice, thus allowing \"an obvious imbalance of power in the supply chain\" to be managed.In ACP countries, similar arrangements would appear to be needed, structured in ways that address the more complex issue of the division of proceeds from multiple revenue streams between farmers and millers. This is a complex issue. Different revenue sharing formulas are in place across ACP countries, in a context where the contribution of independent producers to total sugar production varies greatly. Identifying best practices from a sugar farming perspective would appear to be an important priority for ACP sugar farmers' organisationsStrengthening the functioning of international sugar supply chains \"The specific nature of contractual relationships will be the critical determinant of the wider development benefits of the ACP-EU sugar sector trade\"Increasingly, the specific nature of contractual relationships established between raw sugar milling companies and refined sugar exporters in ACP countries and importers in the EU will be the determinant of the development benefits of the ACP-EU sugar sector trade.Issues related to transparency in price formation -given the increased volatility in individual contract prices negotiated with ACP suppliers -are likely to take on growing significance. This is particularly the case in situations where sister companies from within a single corporate family control different stages of the trading process from mill to market.In ","tokenCount":"2480"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5d85b369ab5b1bcea8bcf57b3269b5fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a2d9466-6a20-4e25-8c48-cef402f567e8/retrieve","id":"-806913549"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bccc5114-82d1-4918-86f2-b03b0691e7a3","pagecount":"13","content":"The urbanization process in the !ast 40 years in Latin America has resu! too in changes in foad censumption habi tSj tradi tional rural starchy staples such as maize, root crops and plantaíns have given way to mer-e convenient urban foads like rice and wheat-based pr-ocessed products such as bread and pasta.Although cassava is ...,.,11 adaptOO to the tropics and a very efficient producer of carbohydrates, the urbanization process has hit its market demand due to its rapid perishability which renders the crop expensive and with quality problems in the urban contexto Cassava is grOlAn mainly by small farmers in Latin America, usually under marginal OOaphoclimatic conditions and in association with other crops such as maíze.Due to inelastic demand in the urban fresh cassava market, the principal market, improvOO production technology will not impact on the small farmer's incom& unless new markets for cassaVa products are identifiOO and developed.Cassava can be procE'ssed into a a partial ot total substitute cost-rOOucOO formulations. highrquality flour to be used 01 other flours and starches as in Linking cassava production to flour substi tution in growth markE'ts would providE' a pricE' floor for cassava and an opportuni ty to expand productien and incomes of small producers.CIAT has developed a me>thodology for designing and implementing Inte>gratOO Cassava Pr-ojects in a country or re>gion, consisting of (a) a Macroplanning stage in which ene or mor-E' cassava products with market potential are identifiOO, followed by (b) a three--phase Product Ilevelopment stagE' for each potential Cassava producto (i) ResE'arch phase, in which pr-oduction and processing technology is developed and market oppor-tuni ties are determinOO (ií) Pilot Project or Test MarkE't phase, in which the product is pr-oducOO and marketoo en a small seale under real market conditions; and(iii) Commer-cialízatio1 phase, wher-e pr-oduct marketing is expandecl.All activíties encompassed ~n this methodology correspond to the Production, Processing and Mar-keting functions.The product development stage for cassava flour began with this project' s Reseal'\"ch phas& or Phase 1, whose main objective was to determine the tecmical and ecancmic candi tians required for the development 01 a rural cassava 110ur industry. Phase 1 included cassava production and market surveys en the Atlantic Coast Regien of Colcmbia, en-farm testing of improved cassava production tecmology, ecencmic studies of the milling and baking industry, the development of a small seale processing plant 101' the productien of high quality CaSsava floor and laboratory and consumer acceptance trials 01 ccmposite 1100r bakery products.The results of this IM)rk indicated that, under the prevailing price and cost structures for cassava and wheat in Colcmbia, it is economically feasible to produce cassava 11001' at a ccmpetitive price ccmpared to wheat flour. 1t was therefore proposed to enter a secend or pilot project phase.The secend phase 01 the project, which will be executed by CIAT, the lhiversidad del Valle (l..NIVPLLE) and the Colcmbian lntegrated Rural Development Fund (DRI), seeks to integrate the production, processing and marketing components 01 the cassava flour system under the real socio-economic canditians 01 a caSSava growing regien. The results will be utilized by DRI, i1 warranted, to promote replicatien 01 rural caSS8va flour processing plants and utilizatien of the product in the Colombian foad industry.The speci1ic objectives are the following: to implement, adjust and evaluate, at a pilot sea1e in a rural centext, the tecm010gy developed 10r production of dried cassava chips and flour to test, on a commercial scale, and demonstrate to farmers, improved km-input production tecmology for caSS8va in associatien with yam and/or maize in the Atlantic Ccast regian whi1e ensuring an adequate root supp1y for the pilot p1ant to identify and research cassava f10ur markets ano promote the use of cassava f1cur in these marl<ets The technology developed 10r the productíon of dried chips and flour wil1 be implemented and evaluated in pilot plant managed by a farmers' cooperative with assistance from CIAT and DRI. The plant site wil1 be using appropriate criteria and the plant itself built by a construction firmo local The operation 01 the pilot plant wil1 provide reliable data en variable and fixed costs of production and sufficient product for promotion among potential consumers. The principal parameter for measuring plant efficiency will be the conversion factor of fresh cassava to dry cassava chip which should be around 2.75,1. Special attentian will be paid to monitoring the microbiological quality of the end producto Modifications to the prcx:ess wi11 be introduced according to the results obtained during the first year of operation.The pilot plant wil1 initially produce dry cassava chips that wi11 subsequently be contract-milled in a commercial wheat mill lcx:ated either in Barranquilla or Medellín. An economic and technical evaluation of twa small-scale milling systems, a hammer mili plus a cylindrical $Creen and a roller mili with a horizontal vibrating screen, .... il1 be undertaken with a view to producing cassava flour at the drying planto The most suítable milling equipment wil1 be transferred to the pilot planto B. Production An agreement wi11 be made with local farmers to supply raw material to the pilot plant using improved low-input technology for cassava production in association with maize and yams.A comparative evaluatiO\"l oi tradi UO\"lal and the improved production systems in terms of yield and production costs will be undertaken to give an indication of farmers' ability to implement the improved production methods. This use of improved technology on G semi-commercial or pre-production seale will aIso provide the opportunity for demonstration to extensionists and farmers.Market research, will be conducted at national, regional and local levE'ls to identi'fy potential users of cassava flour among foad prcx:essors. A set of flour-containing toad categories with potenUal for substitution will be selected a priori and the corresponding foad processors will be surveyed in twa stages. In the first stage, general informatien on the characteristics oi the industries will be Dbtained (types oi products, 'processes used, volumes and prices of raw materials employed) and a sample Di cassava flour will be provided for use in substitutien triaIs. Subsequently, in the second stage, the processors will report en the results obtained, the substitution levels achieved and their buying intention.This research should identify a number of potential clients to whom the production of the pilot plant may ! be sold. Further, Jarg~r scaJe trials may have to be undertaken with these clients.For small-to medium-scale food processors without the infrastructure to carry out product development, UN 1 VALLE wilJ be responsible for laboratory studies en product fonTuJatiens for use in promotional work and for technical assistance to these processors. Initially, studies will cencentrat~ en inclusion of cassava flour in low-c:ost soup pastas, \"rnanjarblancol> (a miJk-based ~t) and \"coJadas\" (beverage ty~ drink).The market study will indica te other product deveJopment priorities.The following criteria were used to select an appropriate site for the pilot plant, land availability, potential for increasing cassava yield, availability of cassava roots, potential for harvesting twic~ per year, service infrastructure, proximity to terminal markets, institutienal presence, socioeconomic importance of cassava and current insti tutional support. Six sites in the Atlantic Coast regíon were originally proposed but two wer~ discarded early in the decisien process.A field questiennaire was designed and implemented to cellect data en the remaining four si tes, Chinú (Córdoba), San Juan de Betulia (Sucre), Palmar de Varela (Atlántico), and Pivijay (Magdalena), in arder to evaluate them according te aboYe criteria.Chinú, which was finally selected as the site for the cassava chip pilot plant, has three' fanner coo~ratives.~GA, selected to operate the cassava chip (human consumption) plant, currently opera tes a cassava chip (animal feed) planto 2. Construction A preliminary draft design of a pilot plant with a capacity of 300 tonnes was made and handed te tre archi tectura 1 f i rm se lected to prepare the • final design, consisting of building, hydraulic and electrical plans and a detailed budget. fue to higher than budgeted building and equipment costs a/llClJnting to US$ 80.000, the plant was scaled dc:>An to 150 tonnes at a cost of US$ 55.000 and provisions were taken for future increases in plant capacity. Price quotations were requested and received from tt1ree local construction firms. A local civil engineering firm with ample ex~rience was selected; censtruction of tre pilot plant in Chinu started in December 1989 and will be finishe>d by the end oi March 1990. Plant equipment will be installed in March 1990 as well. The construction process has been supervised by a CIAT-employed civil engineer and a local project-hired builder. \\t 3. Operaticn Pr•ocessing operations were analyzed and organízed to determine minírrum time and labor requirements. ThE' operaticns ccnsidered included root se1ection, washing, chipping, artificial drying, premilling and packing.It was ccncluded that a mínimum of fOJr workers are requíred per p1ant. Special formats will be designed to gathE'r key financial and operaticna1 data.Twenty three hEctares of cassava in ass=iation with maíze and or yams in 41 farmer-managed preproduction plots with areas ranging from 1,250 m2 to ene hEctare were established during April-May using improved technolcgy. Thirty two percent of thE'se plots are planted in thE' cassava-maiz..--yam ass=iation.I\"bst of thE' cassava production will be ~rchased by thE' pílot plant at market prices. ThE'se plots will be used to determine and demcnstrate actual yield and economic advantages of thE' improved techno1cgy. A smal1er number of hEctares will be planted in September and October to ensure avai1abil i ty of roots during the June-September processing periodo Under this report heading, WE' research, product promotion, will present activities on market and development of marketing report, only market researeh ehanne!s.In this semesterly activities have been executed • • A three-stage market research plan was developed which is to be implemented at three geographic levels in Colombia: locally (Chinu•s area of influence), regionally (Atlantie Coast) , and national1y (main el hes).In thE' first stage, addr\"esses of manufacturers 01 key preselected flour-containing foad categories are obtained.Manufacturers are surveyed in stage 2 and a cassava flOJr sarnple is distributed for use in substi tution trials. In stage 3, results of substitution trials are obtained and a wying intention for cassava flour i5 requested. The main output of this research is a list of foad categories where there is potential of substituting wheat, rice and maize flours with This three-stage plan was first implemented in the Cali area, where fifty-five large, medium and small manufacturers were contacted. The study ended in Septerober. Pre 1 iminary resul ts are eneowraging because 6/)\"1. of the processors that eondueted substitution trials with eassava flour expressed a positive b.Jying intention (definitely 01' probably would b.Jy), given that the eassava flowr wowld be 1(J1. cheaper than the flour currently used. The following food eategories offer potential for partial or total substitution of other flours: processed meats, sweet cook ies , cakes t breadings, porridge mixes, low-cast soup pasta, spices, iee-cream eones and milk-based sweets. In additic:n, the following traditic:nal produets produced en a small seale exhibited potential: ffiEat pies (Empanadas), \"tamales\", eassava bread (pandebono and pandeyuca), and fried maize buns (!::uñuelos), Table 1.The most important markets for cassava flour are considered to be cookies and processed meats.Market researeh started nationally in \"\"-'gust.Surveyed areas inelude Bogotá, Medellin, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Mc:nteria, Santa Marta, Sineelejo, and the four towns in Chinu's area of influence. MorÉ' than 200 food processors have been interviE?Wed and supplied \",ith cassava flour samples and a prarotional pamphlet on cassava flour. The study is expected to end on March 1990.Three wheat milIs were contacted in Barranquilla in order to milI cassava chips produced in the piIot plant at Chinú. Che, Generoso Mancini, expressed interest and successfull y cenducted milling trials with ene tonne of cassava chips in January 1990. Althowgh it obtained only a 701. flour-cenversion factor, the milI engineer e><pects to reach the target 901. cenversion easily with slight equipment modífications. This wheat mili is currentIy interested in purchasing the cassava chips. D. ftSEPR::H 5l.F1\"LR I l. Product deveIopmer>tThe first substitution triaIs conducted were with manjarblanco, a milk-based sweet, in which rice starch was substítuted at different levels (20, 30, 40, 50, 1001.) by cassava fIour.The resulting manjarblanco whiter and less consistent, but was well accepted. Its organoleptic quality was good. Physical, chemical and organoleptic analyses indicate that rice starch can be substituted totally by cassava flour.The experimental plant for producing cassava flour (CIAT Cassava Program Annual Report 1986)     The unit containing the selection machin~ has I::>een modified to security. These changes included of modifications have improve functionability I::>een and table, root washer and chipping improve its reliability and the following:The electrical control s have I::>een placed in a readily accessible and convenient posi tiOl for operators.The area of the selection table has I::>een increased and the method of feeding roots to the washer changed: instead of using a shovel, selected roots are placed ~n sacks that hang from t-ooks and then deposited inside the drum. the cylindrical steel drum's size has I::>een augmented to raise root-holding capacity from BO ta 150 kgs and its weight has I::>een reduced from 108 to 92 kgs. the friction-based poN!'?r transmission to the root washer \\Nas changed ta a positive sprocket and chain transmissiOl which required the installation of a universal joint to absorb axial and radial drum movements. the opening and clO5ing mechanism for the drum' s hatch has I::>een improved. a blocking mechanism has I::>een installed ta protect workers when opening the hatch. the area of the mesh receiving waste material has I::>een increased and its design simplified in arder ta facilitate removal of waste material. the water spray in the mounting axle was modified to improve water dístribution insíde the drum. the si ze of the ti 1 ted hopper was inc reased and i ts form changed tD facílitate and speed up the unloading of washed roots .. CcLopl ing of washing and chipping machines pulleys and be] ts have I::>een loc:ated in well protected areas to avoid accidents~ a drive shaft transmits poN!'?r and the root washer. The 3.6 chipping machíne housing.to both the chipping machine hp motor is located in the a bel t tensor makes i t possible to opera te the chipping machíne índependently from the root washer. In arder for 1 DEMA , the Colombian agricultural marketing agency, to be ab!e to purchase caSSi'lva chips and f!aur in the future, it must be ab!e to determine chip humidity and its maximum storage periodo Ther-efore, r-espcnding to a r-equest of the last lDE~I~ID..LTLRA-IC(]\\jTEC-CIAT meeting, LNIVI\"LLE developed a propasal for a \"storage study of cassava chips and casSi'lva fIaur\" that is circulating aroc:ng staff of the aforementioned institutions. Storage trials are pIanned to begin in February 1990. The main objective of this study is to determine the maximum stor-age period for cassava chips and flaur under different ambient conditions.Since chip moisture content is a basic quality factor, lDEMA has to calibrate its moisture measuring equipment to determine actual chip moisture levels. This calibration requires knc:<-lledge of the coro-elation between moisture measurements at lDEMA and those obtained by the freeze-drying method, the standard proposed by CIAT (CIAT Cassava Program Annual report 1988).Both institutions, in collaboration with LNIV?'t..LE, are conductíng trials with Ohaus, Motomco, and Brabender moisture determinators. Good results have been obtained with the Dhaus balance, using a Iamp height of 1.5 inches ~1d with the rheostat gauged at 5 during 10 minutes.~anide elímination studies Certain cassava varieties are causing unacceptably high levels of J-D,J in the dried produc:t (greater than 100 ppm). Preliminary drying trials using four drying temperatures (80, 60, 50, and 40 Oc and different varietíes, wel\"e conducted to assess the reIation betv~ temperature, moisture and linamarase activity. LinamaraS<? is an enzyme which i5 responsibIe for the hydrolisis of cyanogenic glucosides.Results do not shc:<-l a cIear-cut reIation between drying temperature and product moisture on A lOCldel was developed to estímate the Financial Rate of Return (FRR) of the Cassava chip plant at Chinú.The 1i fe of the project was assumed to be 8 yea ... s and an annual inflation of 251.was used. The lOCldel also assumes that the chips are sald to a wheat mil] located in Barranquilla. ","tokenCount":"2664"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5887f5b228185233cd6f66754bc1b70f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8b0c858-06cd-488c-aa32-d21983f31bbb/retrieve","id":"-973279923"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"af4cf8b7-480d-43d7-af66-f7aa9a502ea6","pagecount":"22","content":"The L&F CRP's objective in India is:\"To sustainably increase the productivity of small holder daily production to increase the supply and affordability of milk and dairy products for poor producers and for poor consumers.\"• However to do this?  Develop articulate pathways to impact with partners,  Identify how interventions will deliver the benefits,  and how actors will have to change to cause the desired outcome, will need to be clearly defined and mapped out. Development Outcomes Impact Research Outputs Research Outcomes• There is an increasing expectation of the CG to demonstrate that it is making a difference in the welfare of beneficiaries • An increasing need for development programs to monitor and adjust progress towards achieving impact • Its important to monitor and learn during program implementation to increase the probability of progress towards impact• Impact Pathways (IPs) are result chains that represent the steps from outputs to impact at scale, through successive outcomes resulting from adoption and use of program outputs by various stakeholders along the paths.• ToCs extend IPs by describing the causal assumptions and risks behind these links • Are time dependent Increased and equitable consumption of ASF will improve nutrition and health.Nested value chain Impact pathway(s)/Tocs Better environment for pro-poor dairy developmentThe DDF lobbies for required policy shift \"Dairy practices for farmers and traders Toc\"An example of a sub-ToC from \"Innovative strategies to increase consumption of dairy products\" impact pathway:","tokenCount":"236"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8b0b2eb89644971d591f7da204315bb1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d8e5f92e-b6f1-40c2-bba6-032808bbbe4d/retrieve","id":"-1237931686"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ed5a4ce1-2187-4ef8-8492-8da91454d9e2","pagecount":"108","content":"District of South Wollo Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia\" ABSTRACT This study was conducted in Tehulederie district, Eastern part of Amhara National Reginal State to characterize the beekeeping system, analyze the potentials and constraints for beekeeping and suggest possible solutions for existing problems, identify major honeybee flora and their flowering periods, and evaluate the major honey quality in different agroecology of the study area . Data were collected from 120 beekeepers having bee colonies and living in three different agro-ecologies. The study had two parts: part one was data collection among beekeepers with a semi-structured questioner by single-visit-multiplesubject formal survey method. All the collected data was analyzed by using  Duncan's and one-way ANOVA method. From the total 120 sample beekeepers 92.5 % of them were male headed households, 95.8 % of them are married, mean age of the respondents was 48.97±11.03 years and they owned 105, 17 and 57 traditional, transitional and frame hived colonies respectively. The study result indicates that based on their level of technological advancement, three distinct types of beekeeping practices were used by the sample beekeepers in the area. These are traditional (local) hive based, transitional (Ethioribrab top bar) hive based and moveable frame (box) hive based beekeeping practices. Most of the beekeepers in the study area kept both traditional, transitional and frame beehives at their eave of the house, only 10.8% feed their colony at dearth, 95.5% of them increases colonies by catching the swarm colonies. The mean honey yield of traditional, transitional and framed type hives was 5. 64, 12.7 and 16.9 kilogram per year, respectively and all of the respondents sell the unstrained honey directly to local market. Drought or rain dependent of the agriculture (76.7%), increased cost of production (75%), pests and predators (47.5%), application of pesticides and herbicides (43.3%) and lack of bee forages 32.5% are the major constraints to tackle the development of beekeeping in Tehulederie district. The second part of the study was the determination of honey quality produced in the study district. Twenty four honey samples were collected from crushed comb (traditional and transitional hive) honey and framed hive honey as two distinct groups from the represented 3 X different agro-ecologies of the district directly from the apiary farm gates with tightly closed half a kilogram of plastic containers analyzed for eight honey quality parameters (moisture content, total reducing sugar, pH, acidity, diastase activity, sucrose content, HMF and mineral content) in the Food Chemistry and Analysis laboratory of School of Chemical and Food Engineering,Bahir Dar University,Ethiopia. The mean moisture content,mineral content,acidity,pH,HMF,diastase activity,sucrose content,and total reducing sugar,are 16.7%,0.07%,22.3 meq. acid/kg,3.85±0.46,37.7 mg/kg,14.4 Goth scale,4.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.6.6. Diastase Activity - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.6.7. Apparent sucrose content - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.6.8. The reducing sugar content - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.6.9 Correlation between the chemical properties of honey - -------------------------------------------------------Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS - ---------------------------------------------5.1. Conclusion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5. 2 Recommendations -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------REFERENCES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------APPENDICES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------XIV  Ethiopia has a huge natural resource base for honey production and other hive products (Admasu Adi et al., 2002). Its topography is also complex and altitude varies from the lowest point 126 m below sea level (Dankil depression) to the highest 4620 meters above sea level (mount Ras Dashen) (Amssalu Bezabeh et al., 2004). Moreover, Ethiopia has variable agro ecological zones which lead to a huge diversification in fauna and flora species. Its forests and woodlands contain diverse plant species that provide high amount of nectar and pollen for foraging bees (Girma Deffar 1998).On the other hand, beekeeping is traditionally a well-established household activity in almost all parts of the country (Hailegebriel Tesfay, 2014). Furthermore, it is one of the ancient agricultural practices in Ethiopia. With this, Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world with a long beekeeping tradition that gave an opportunity to supply honey and bees wax to the international markets (Yetimwork Gebremeskel, 2015). The sub-sector, still, is implemented with a minimum improvement specifically for the purpose of producing honey and some crude wax. However, the benefit from the sub sector to farmers, traders, processors and exporter is not satisfactory (Beyene Tadesse and David, 2007).The country is estimated to have ten million bee colonies, which is the largest in Africa (Tessega Belie, 2009). It is believed that half of the colony numbers (5,885,263) are kept (hived) in three different hive types; traditional, transitional and frame hives. From this, the annual honey production of the country has been estimated to be 48,711,892 kilogram in 1.6 times average harvesting frequency per-hive (CSA, 2014/15). The volume (43,737 metric tons) accounts approximately 2.48% of the world and 21.73% of the African honey production (Girma Deffar, 1998). Even if the production looks large enough, only a small amount of this produce is delivered as an export market item. This is because; the country itself has a huge local market demand for the honey and bees wax produced. Accordingly, among its production, more than 70% is used for making local beer called \"Tej\" and only 10% of the produce is used as table honey (Tessega Belie, 2009). The share of this sub-sector to the national GDP has never been commensurate with the huge honey bee colony number and the country's potential. However, today, many table honey processing plants are flourishing and some has started to produce table honey for local and export markets. Hence, even if production technology is still far behind, hive products (honey and bees wax) are being well commercialized. In line with this, the ten year average annual estimated demand for hive products export in Ethiopia (2013Ethiopia ( -2022) ) is expected to reach 90,357 tons (ERCA, 2011).Generally, it has been believed that households are consuming only less than 10% of their total harvest at home mainly for medicinal, ritual or cultural ceremonies, and the remaining is available for market (Ethiopian honey Bees, 2012). Even if, hive productivity and honey production is not as expected due to various reasons, honey has a long tradition and cultural values (such as an article of trade in old days, as an important ingredient for honey mead (the local beer called \"Tej\"). Beeswax is also used to produce candle for rural farmers' especially in Orthodox churches. Recently, beekeeping activity is becoming a business developed for income generation.Amhara region, as one of the potential regions in the country, has a huge bee colony resource potential. It contains 23% of the bee colonies and 22.8% of the total honey production in the country (CSA, 2014/15). The regional livestock resource development promotion agency is also giving due emphasis to the beekeeping sector based on its importance for watershed management, employment of rural youths as well as enhancing honey and wax production.Due to the fact that promotion of improved hives and introduction of new innovations have been done for the last 15 years, a number of honey bee colonies have been transferred into the transitional and frame hive technologies (Adebabay Kebede et al., 2008). Currently, regardless of the efforts made in improving the beekeeping management and use of improved technologies, the three types of honey bee hives (traditional, transitional and frame) are being used by beekeepers in the region.According to the regional livestock development promotion agency (2014/15) annual report , a total number of 1,162,872 honey bee colonies have been estimated to exist in the region, of which about 87%, 2.36% and 10.65% of the colonies are hived in traditional/local, transitional/Ethio-ribrab and frame hives, respectively, where North-Eastern part of the region is the most potential area. Even if the traditional beekeeping accounts for more than 75% of the honey and nearly all the beeswax produced in the region, the intermediate type of (transitional or the Ethio-ribrab) bee hive has been considered as the most appropriate type of hive for the resource poor beekeepers. Furthermore, the average honey productivity per each of the hives is 8, 17 and 25 kg in traditional, transitional and frame hives respectively (ALRDPA, 2014/15).The study district, Tehulederie one of the Eastern districts of the region, is located in the South Wollo zone. The area is known for better natural vegetation coverage, honey bee colony number and honey production. Beekeeping practice in the district has been believed to have an important contribution to the rural livelihood. Escalated income generation and important role plays to poverty reduction and livelihood improvement, of course, depends on the quality and quantity of hive products. This also relies on appropriate utilization of improved technologies and proper management of the honey bee colonies.Analysis of competitiveness and comparative advantage of a given export commodity is very crucial for a progressive economic growth of a nation. However, with the exception of some case studies, the region at large and the study area in particular has little information about beekeeping production characteristics and quality of hive products in particular. Some specific studies were conducted in the region such as the quality of honey in Libo kemkem district by University of Gondar (Addis Getu & Malede Birhan, 2014); constraints and prospects for apiculture research and development in Amhara region (Kerealem Ejigu et al., 2009); honeybee production and marketing systems, constraints and opportunities in Burie district (Tessega Belie, 2009); and Physico-chemical properties of honey produced in Sekota district (Tewodros Alemu et al., 2013). However, there was limited account illustrating aspects of the production characteristics and honey quality determination based on agro ecology and along different honey production practices in the North Eastern part of the region especially North Wollo and South Wollo zones.The significance of this study was characterization of the beekeeping systems in the study area. The beekeepers' indigenous knowledge on the different beekeeping practices in the study area was identified and summarized. Moreover, the quality of honey produced in the district was evaluate which in turn will facilitate significantly to the marketing of quality honey and increase income of beekeepers in the study area. The study is expected to provide basic information for policy makers and donor agencies in the economic competitiveness of the local honey in the international market. Furthermore, the study is providing first-hand information for private investors, who are engaged in honey processing. Similarly, the study could offer guidance to investment allocation to the resources in the area for its better exploitation and boosting outcomes. This study also helps to decide the recent and future market directions of the produce in order to encourage the use of appropriate market accesses.Generally, without assessing the competitiveness of the honey produced, it is difficult to boost the overall beekeeping production benefits and/or to utilize its potentials in the study area.The general objective of the study is to characterize the beekeeping system and evaluate the quality of honey produced in Tehuledere district of the Amhara region, Ethiopia with the following specific objectives. To assess the potentials and constraints for beekeeping in the study area, and  To evaluate the honey qualities in different agro ecologies of the study area.The research was conducted to answer the following important questions: What are the characteristics of beekeeping system in the study area? What are the production potentials of the study area? Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEWAfrican bees are much more active in collecting nectar than temperate-zone bees (Ayalew Kassaye, 1990). Beekeeping is an appropriate and well-accepted farming practice and it is best suited to extensive range of ecosystems of tropical Africa (Amssalu Bezabeh et al., 2012). Bees produce wax readily to response their need to build new combs frequently in Africa.Based on morphometric analyses, different researches have different and controversial findings about the origin of the honey bee species. The hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt refers to Abyssinia as the source of honey and beeswax. Based on this historical evidence it is assumed that beekeeping may started about 5000 years ago in the Northern Ethiopia along with the early settlement of the people (Ayalew Kasaye, 1990). So it has been a tradition since long before other farming systems practiced.There are five honey bee races that are found in Ethiopia; Apis mellifera jemenitica in eastern lowlands, A.m. monticola in the southern mountains, A.m. litorea in the extreme western low lands, A.m. adansonii in the southern mid-altitude areas and A.m. abyssinica central plateau and southwestern parts of tropical forest (Ayalew Kasaye, 1990). Moreover, Radloff and Hepburn (1997) reported A.m. jemenitica, A.m. bandasii and A.m. sudanensis are the three which exists in Ethiopia as cited by Yetemwork G/meskel (2015).According to Amssalu Bezabeh et al. (2004), morphometric characters of the Ethiopian honey bees revealed that five statistically discrete races of bee populations are existing and occupying in different ecologies of the country: A.m. jemenitica, in the northwest and eastern arid and semiarid lowlands, A.m. scutellata in the west, south and southwest humid midlands, A.m. bandansii, in the central moist highlands, A.m. monticola from the northern mountainous highlands and \"Woyi-gambela\" in south western semiarid to sub humid lowland parts of the country.Research by Marina et al. (2011) brought a controversy idea about the different honey bee sub species of Ethiopia as cited by Yetemwork Gebremeskel (2015). The authors described a new subspecies, Apis mellifera simensis, on the basis of their morphometrical analyses. This indicated that there should be additional efforts need to characterize the different honey bee sub species of Ethiopia and to delineate the geographical distribution of these bee races.Beekeeping is an appropriate and well-accepted farming practice and it is best suited to extensive range of ecosystems of tropical Africa. Ethiopia is a leading honey producer in Africa and one of the ten largest honey producing countries in the world. Beekeeping is an appropriate and well-accepted farming practice and it is best suited to extensive range of ecosystems of tropical Africa (Ayalew Kassaye, 2001).Ethiopia is blessed with adequate water resources and various honeybee floras, which create fertile ground for the development of beekeeping. Honey hunting and beekeeping have been practiced in the country for the exploitation of honey. In places where wild colonies of bees living in hollow trees and caves are found, honey hunting is still a common practice in Ethiopia (Tessega Belie, 2009).Based on the input used and their management, two types of beekeeping practices were mainly used in the district Kilte Awlaelo, Eastern Tigray. These were traditional and frame hive beekeeping (Yetemwork Gebremeskel, 2015). On the other hand, three distinct types of bee keeping practices used by the sample beekeeper farmers in Burie District of Amhara Region (Tessega Belie, 2009). Based on their level of technological advancement, there are three types of beehives used for honey production in Silti district of SNNP region. These are traditional, intermediate and movable frame beehives (Alemayehu Kebede, 2011). Generally speaking currently in Ethiopia beekeeping is practiced in three types of production practices namely; traditional, transitional and frame beehive beekeeping practices across the country except extreme hot areas of Afar and Somali region.  Traditional beekeeping is the old practice widely used, by the people for thousands of years in Ethiopia. Traditional husbandry is practiced with many millions of fixed comb beehives made from locally available materials such as logs, mud, cow dung and ash particularly in the remote areas of the country. For the period until frame beehives are introduced, these fixed comb beehives can yield a modest amount of honey, and also about 8-10% of beeswax (Kerealem Ejigu, 2009). This harvest is achieved with minimal cost and labor, and it is valuable to people living in lower and comparatively modest level of the rural areas.Traditional bee hives have their own advantages. It is cheap and easy to establish with a minimum knowledge and capital. It also produces more propolis than other types of bee hives.Among the disadvantages, it is not convenient for simplified beekeeping practices and honey harvesting activities; limitations during colony feeding at times of food shortage, internal inspection is destructive, less possibility to split colonies especially during artificial colony multiplication, selection for honey yield and behavior is not an easy task, excessive bee killing during honey harvesting even the queen, and judging ripeness of honey is very difficult and leads to excessive brood and store combs' damages.Transitional beekeeping is an intermediate beekeeping system between traditional and frame hive beekeeping practices. Generally, top-bar (Ethio-ribrab) beehive is a single or double story long box with slopping side walls inward the bottom and covered with bars of fixed width; 32 mm for east African honey bees (Sysay Gobessa et al., 2012).Movable top-bar hives, with its relative advantages over traditional and frame hives could be alternative option in beekeeping sustainable development plans. It can be opened easily and quickly, easiness to internal inspection, the bees are guided to build parallel combs through a line of bees wax smeared beneath the top bars. The top bars are easier to construct than frames, honey combs can be removed from the beehive for harvesting without disturbing bees and combs containing broods. Transitional beekeeping has its own disadvantages such as, top bar beehives are relatively expensive than traditional beehives, and combs suspended from the top bars are more advantage to break off than combs which are building within frames.Transitional beekeeping started in Ethiopia since 1976 and the types of beehives used are: Kenya top-bar beehive, Tanzania top-bar beehive and Mud-block beehives but now a day is Ethio-ribrab hive. Among these, Ethio-ribrab is widely known and commonly used in many parts of the country because the top bars are easier to construct than other type of top-bar hives, has also divisions in to chamber to increase or decrease the size according to the colony size.The third type of the beekeeping practice is the frame hive beekeeping practice. The frame hive beekeeping methods aim to obtain the maximum honey crop, without harming bees. It uses different types of frame beehives. Zandar, Langstroth, Dadant, Modified Zandar, and foam beehives was existed in the country (Ayalew kassaye, 2001). Dadant, Modified Zandar, and foam beehives are found rarely. These beehives differ in number of frames and size of the hive. The most commonly used frame beehive type in Ethiopia is Zandar type. Modern movable-frame beehive consists of precisely made rectangular boxes superimposed one above the other. The number of boxes is varied seasonally according to the population size and activities of bees. When the season is active for bees the number of worker bees increases and needs enough space suppering is recommended; otherwise during dearth period reduction of additional box is vital. It has also possibilities to control swarming by suppering the boxes.Improved frame beehive has advantages over other types in that it gives high quality and quantity of honey yield. It is easy to transport the honeybees from place to place for searching honeybee flower and for pollination services.There are disadvantages of frame hive beekeeping practice over other types, the equipment are not affordable to buy by those subsistence farmers because of expensiveness. It requires skilled manpower and the equipment needs very specific precaution to operate them. The average yield of pure honey from movable frame beehive is 15-25 kg/year, and the amount of beeswax produced is 1-2% of the honey yield. However, in potential areas, up to 50-60 kg harvest has been reported (HBRC, 1997).Despite the apparent importance of the apiculture sector to the rural poor, the economy and in food production terms generally, not much effort has been made to develop the sector.Beekeeping is one of the most important income-generating activities among animal productions specially and agriculture practices as a whole in the rural communities. Honey is mainly produced as a cash income. Honey has good domestic market all the year round with price different at market points and different season. Farmers diversify income sources like honey selling. Some farmer beekeepers of the region reported to earn about 20,000 Birr annually from honey selling only which contribute the largest portion of their annual incomes.These facts indicate the high potential of beekeeping as source of income and means of livelihood with diversification of income for the rural communities. Many resource poor farmers sell their honey to the local markets and use income to agricultural inputs, purchase livestock, food crops and other miscellaneous household items. Honeybees can also be sold to meet cash requirements (Tessega Belie, 2009).Beekeeping is an inherited tradition in Ethiopia with an estimated 1 in 10 smallholders keeps bees (Ayalew Kassaye, 2001). Basically beekeeping practices support 300,000 households in Amhara region having an average of 5 house hold members with a total of 1.5 million individuals directly or indirectly supported by its income. There are also 55,000 emerging rural youths with in common interest groups form ten to twenty individual members in group around the water shed on honey and bees wax production since four years ago (ALRDPA, 2013/14). There is also a future bright situation when we see the natural resources with unemployed rural youths to participate in the sector when partners acting together. The role of the sub-sector for generation employment is huge.Thousands of households are engaged in \"Tej-making\" in almost all urban areas. There are also ten cooperatives, one union and five individual processors emerging and some exporters are participated and engaged in the sector directly or indirectly (Kerealem Ejigu, 2005).Beekeeping has been a tradition since long before other farming systems. Beekeeping is a very long-standing and deep-rooted practice in the rural communities of the country and around one million farmers are estimated to keep bees (Tessega Belie, 2009). Beekeeping has been and still plays a significant role in the national economy of the country as well as for the subsistence smallholder farmers. The contribution of bees and hive products is probably one of the most important small-scale income generating activities for hundred thousands of farmer beekeepers. Cumulatively, it has a good contribution for export market income earning from non-compatible but pollen and nectar source products called honey and wax.Bees provide numerous benefits to the natural environment and have a critical role in its sustainability. Beekeeping is a non-destructive activity that could be employed in the conservation of biodiversity in area protection. Households living adjacent these areas can support the conservation efforts of these resources by establishing apiaries within or at the boundary of these protected areas (National Bee keeping training and extension manual, 2012). Farmers realizing that vegetation is a source of forage for bees will guard against the destruction and be encouraged to plant more plants for supplying pollen and nectar. In the process many plants are conserved and protected from destruction (FAO, 2009).The value of honeybees in crop pollination is under estimated in developing countries, it has a significant role in increasing national food production and regeneration of plant species.Honeybees are the primary pollinating agents in the world. Their service in pollination is estimated to be worth over 15 times the value of all hive products together, although it is much more difficult to quantify their benefit (Gichora M., 2003). Hackett (2004) estimated that the value of honeybee pollination in U.S. agriculture to be 14 billion U.S $ annually.Their role is not readily recognized, even though bees are needed for the pollination of many cultivated crops and for maintaining biodiversity in non-cultivated areas (FAO, 2009).Usually a honeybee can visit between 50 to 1000 flowers in one trip, which takes between 30 minutes to 4 hours. In Europe, a bee can make between 7 to 14 trips a day. A colony with 25 000 forager bees, each making 10 trips a day, is able to pollinate 250 million flowers (FAO, 2009).Honeybee is also believed to play a significant role in the economy of Ethiopia through pollination services. Pollination is one of the most important factors that affect seed production in agricultural crops. In Ethiopia, an experiment was conducted to determine the effect of pollination on Niger (Guizotia abyssinica) and the result showed that honeybees increased the seed yield of Niger by about 43% (Admasu Adi and Nuru Adgaba, 2002) and Onion (Allume Cepa) by two fold (Admasu Adi et al, 2008).The word honey indicates for the natural sweet substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or from secretions of living parts of plants or excretions of plant sucking insects on the living parts of plants, which the bees collect, transform by combining with specific substances of their own, deposit, dehydrate, store and leave in the honey comb to ripen and mature (COMESA, 002 2004).Honey is one of the most marketable agricultural products in Ethiopia. The total honey production of Ethiopia is estimated up to 240,000 tons; only a small amount of this is marketed (Honey sector investment opportunity brief, 2013). The large majority of beekeepers in the country are still producing honey using traditional hives. Currently, one of the ten farmers performs the beekeeping activity with other agricultural practice all over the country (Ayalew Kassaye, 2001). The prevailing technological and capacity building problem to reach every beekeeper to produce with the small quantity of bee products available in the hands of the beekeeper remains to be a less effective to traders to be extensively engaged in bee products trading. As the report obtained by Abel Kebede (2012) from EEPD, 2006 that Honey export marketing in Ethiopia was started during the 1980`s. The total estimated honey production during 1976-1983 ranges from 19,400 to 21,000 tons per annum(Honey sector investment opportunity brief, 2013). However, a very small amount of this volume was exported during the specified period. Furthermore, there has been an increased in volume of production of honey from 21.480 tons to 23,700 tons between the period 1984 and 1994. But only 3.05 tons per annum has been exported during the specified period. This production and export level of honey was increasing from time to time. During the year 2011 the annual export of honey amount reaches 729 tone and importing 3 tone at the same time. But the demand of honey is increasing to 1220 tone at the domestic and 90357 tone for export market within this year (Honey sector investment opportunity brief, 2013).The average annual demand for honey products in Ethiopia in ten years (2013-2022) is expected to reach at 90,357 tons. This is as a result of the current high population and future growth trends, a growing number of urban centers and urbanized lifestyles, and finally the economic growth rates registered by the country and visible increased income levels of the population. Basically the honey produced in Ethiopia has not yet captured a significant market share in the export market due to the traditional way of production, which hardly meets the quality standards of exotic markets, as well as the uncompetitive offering price (Honey sector investment opportunity brief, 2013).Honey is a semi liquid product, which contains a complex mixture of carbohydrates, mainly glucose and fructose. Honey contained from honeybees had a complex mixture of components should be consider as parameter; moisture content, apparent sucrose content, pH, acidity, diastase activity, reducing sugar content, HMF and mineral content (ES 1202(ES : 2005)). The quality and properties of honey are also related to honey maturity, the production methods, climatic conditions, processing and storage conditions as well as nectar sources of the honey (Sisay Gobessa et al., 2012). High levels of Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), loss of enzymatic activity, changes in flavor, color change/darkening and microbial growth are also factors for quality reduction of honey (Yetemwork G/meskel, 2015).Moisture content not more than 20% is one of the most commonly monitored parameters as international quality standards for honey (Codex Alimentarius Commission, 2001 andEthiopian Quality Standard Authority, 2005). Those honey samples produced in relatively high humid areas like South and South West part of the country found to be consists high moisture than honey produced from low humid areas of the country. The moisture content of honey in Burie district of Amhara Region had mean of 18.83 (Tessega Belie, 2009). The moisture content of the honey of Libo Kemkem district ranged from 15.60 -21.20% (Addis Getu & Malede Birhan, 2014). Those all results shown that the honey obtained from Amhara Region had in good condition based on the indication of moisture contents. Other parameters also show similar results to the moisture contents.HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfuraldehyde) measurement is used to evaluate the quality of honey;generally not present in fresh honey, its content increases during conditioning and storage such as heat processing both to reduce viscosity, and to prevent crystallization or fermentation in air ventilated chambers, immersion of honey drums in hot water leads to deferent HMF levels in honey (Biochrom, 2013).Diastase is an enzyme that facilitates conversion of starch to maltose and is added by bees during honey production (Addisu Getu and Malede Birhan, 2014). Although natural levels of the diastase presentation in honey are variable in honeys depending on floral sources. The activity of diastase in honey is affected by storage and is sensitive to temperature increase and can thus be used as an indicator of storage time/freshness and controls during processing of the honey. The reduction of diastase activity from a given honey sample is expected as a useful quality indicator.Legislation has set a minimum level for diastase activity; it should not be less than 8 DN units, where 1DN unit hydrolyses 1ml of 1% starch using 1g of honey for 1 hour at 37°C. The reference equation from the International Honey Commission gives a definition of diastase number as: Diastase number, DN = (28.2 x absorbance change at 620nm after 10 minutes) + 2.64.Analyses of different sugars can yield valuable information about source and floral origins of the honey (Alemayehu Kebede, 2011). The apparent sucrose content and the reducing sugar content are measured by the fehling method. The apparent reducing sugar accounts roughly to the sum of the main honey sugars (glucose and fructose) with some minor disaccharides.The free acidity of honey may be explained by taking into account the presence of organic acids in equilibrium with their corresponding lactones, or internal esters, and some inorganic ions, such as phosphate. High acidity can be indicative of fermentation of sugars into organic acids (Yetimwork Gebremeskel,2015). As other livestock sector programs, beekeeping has faced many challenges which, one way or the other, we couldn't tackle them efficiently so far. Absence of rural credit service, high price of improved beekeeping technologies, drought and deforestation of natural vegetation, poor post-harvest management of beehive products, absence or poor marketing chains, indiscriminate application of agrochemicals, no insurance to finance beekeepers, the unpleasant behaviors of bees, honeybee diseases, pests and predators, absence of coordination between research, extension and farmers and shortage of records and up-to-date information are major constraints which need special attentions.The improved hives and working tools to the rural community are beyond the pockets of farmers and not easily available. There is limitation of the credit services for landless youths as well as households. Even if the rural credit service is around they do not easily serve due to limitation of awareness creation (Keralem Ejigu et al., 2009).The improved beekeeping frame hives require different technological imputes like centrifuge honey extractor, hive tool, queen excluder and others are obtained from imported from abroad with foreign currency. The frame hives with its accessories can be produced in the region but their price is continuously increasing time to time and currently reaching to a price of birr 1500. For example, let us assume that someone needs to start beekeeping with 5 frame hives, then he/she needs a to invest the amount of money reaching up to 20,000 birr which is believed to be unaffordable for the resource poor farmer. So the Amhara regional livestock development promotion agency advises those participants to use transitional beehive first then understanding the technology practice, they afford frame hive beekeeping system (ALRDPA, 2013/14). Please rewrite this paragraph!!Deforestation and overgrazing has nearly depleted the bee forage availability, ultimately resulting in low honey and beeswax production, cause colony migration. However, there is still the potential to increase honey production and to improve the livelihood of the beekeepers (Beyene Tadese& David P., 2007).Due to some technical errors like impurities added during harvesting the quality of honey is seriously affected. Died bees, local hive plastering materials like cow dung, bee brood, pollen and even the wax are found mixed with the honey. Smoking beyond the required level was found to have an effect on the flavor of honey which makes unacceptable by the consumer.The species of bees are all Apis mellifera that has a very defensive and attacking behavior.This special defensive nature is a risk full practice both for the beekeepers as well as the extension workers. To this both the beekeepers and extension workers need the protective clothes for safe practices. But the entire protective materials price is more than 1500 birr as high as beyond their pocket. In addition the development agents ask insurance for their risk full beekeeping practices otherwise they can't cop up the mechanism of bees defense.Beekeeping is sensitive business practice that can be risked easily by drought due to either shortage of feed or water supply for the bees. The beekeeper may lose all the colonies within a month. Farmers are susceptible to disaster that can't tolerate the risk even with a minimum loss of their livelihoods. They can't mitigate the problem easily to cop up the risk and it leads to fear of the technology acceptance at all.Ethiopia has chemical utilization and movement of bees and bee products proclamation since 2010. But has no implementation strategy. So it is not applied at the grass root level. The uses of Agrochemicals and pesticides have a huge influence on bee's health specially those areas of highly crop producers the real possibility of damaging the colony, as well as the contamination of hive products. Of the various kinds of chemicals, insecticides and herbicides are now major problems to the beekeepers (Kerealem Ejigu, 2010). Insecticides are the main destructive chemical than other pesticides. What do you mean by saying this???Poisoning of honeybees by agrochemical has been increased from time to time. Some beekeepers lost their colonies totally due to agrochemicals. So, it needs special attention from the government to solve the problems by coordinating and integrating the responsible crop scientists, animal science experts and others bodies.Pests and predators cause devastating damage on honeybee colonies within short period of time and even overnight. Ants, honey badger, bee-eater birds, wax moth, varoa mit, spider and beetles were the most harmful pests and predators in order of decreasing importance (Hailegebriel Tesfay, 2014). Some studies indicate that the region in particular and the country at large appears to be free from various honeybee brood diseases and at the same time at low level of adult bee diseases incidences (Hailegebriel Tesfay, 2014). A major category of diseases which cause economic loss comprises amoeba, nosema and chalk brood (Kerealem Ejigu, 2009).  2011).Considerable changes have been made to improve apiculture production through training.Introduction of new technologies, production and distribution of equipment and institutional capacity building was implemented for the last ten years. Great attention has also been givento training of extension workers and farmers in apiculture so that they could acquire better beekeeping knowledge and develop skills enabling them to improve the traditional and increase the production of honey and beeswax.The reorganization of the livestock extension services to access the grass root level of implementers for well performing of the services. The Amhara Region Bureau of Agriculture redesigned such activity of the beekeeping improvement plan including implementation proceeded for the last five years. The main objective of the development plan was to improve the quantity and quality of honey and beeswax produced in the region. This goal was attained implemented with a set of extension packages, which include, technology supplementation, training of beekeepers, follow up in matters related to honey and wax production and extraction, introducing modern production technologies and facilitating beekeepers to be organized in service cooperatives so that they can collectively have adequate volume of marketable bee products, develop marketing strength and have easy access to inputs required for the production of honey and beeswax. Now a day revision of growth and transformation plan1 was taking place by the higher regional officials and preparation of the plan for the coming five year GTP2 is ongoing.Ethiopia has a Good export market opportunity for bee products like honey and bees wax.There is a high production potential of the country that can be achieved best results when the sector problems are addressed. There are entrants of new chain private organizations at different level to the honey as well as the wax sector. Demands of bee products are enormously increasing from time to time at an alarming rate. The healthy condition of bees and production of organic honey are the basic criteria to attract the market of hone demands.The Amhara National Regional State located at 9˚-13˚45'N Latitude and 36 0 .4; 0  From the total honey produced in the country, the house hold consumption and the saleable amount was found to be 41% and 54%, respectively. Amhara region and the research zone of South Wollo also uses their production for house hold consumption and to sale by 39.7% and 57.44% and 52.3% and 45%, respectively (ELCA, 2011).The study was conducted in Tehulederie district, South wollo zone of the Amhara National Institute (ILRI) targeting to contribute in enhancing livestock production system (including beekeeping) for the development of the country in general and sustainable livelihood to the rural population in particular.Source: Tehuledere woreda office of Agriculture Figure 3: Map of the study areaIn this study, a multistage sampling procedure was used. In this case, the district was classified into three different agro-ecologies (lowland, mid altitude and highland) represented by 5, 11 and 3 kebeles, respectively. Then after, representative kebeles were selected using proportional sampling technique. As a result, a total of 4 kebeles were selected (1 kebele eachTehuledere District from highland and lowland and 2 kebeles were randomly selected from mid altitude agroecologies..The sampling frame in this study was focusing on the households who owned honeybee colonies in different hive types. Hence, the beekeepers were purposively selected from the respective kebeles. A total of 120 respondents beekeepers were selected (30 each from highland and lowland and 60 from mid-altitude) from the list of beekeepers using a simple random sampling technique for the survey. Generally, 5% sampling error was used as a standard.In this study, 24 honey samples (crushed comb honey from traditional and transitional bee hives and extracted honey from frame hives as distinct groups), 8 honey samples (4 crushed and 4 frame hive honeys) from each of the representative agro ecologies, were collected using food graded 500 gm plastic containers from representative apiaries. Then after, honey samples, after clearing from different debris, dead bees and other unwanted materials, were prepared according to the \"COMESA 002 ( 2004) Standard for Honey\" protocol for the quality analysis.Both primary and secondary data sources were used. Prior to data collection, checklist preparation, selected study site observation, questionnaire pre-testing with key informants and understanding the livelihood status and styles of the beekeepers was conducted.Accordingly, primary data were collected from sampled respondents from each of the representative kebeles through a semi-structured questionnaire. Furthermore, honey samples were collected from freshly harvested crushed and extracted honey, as explained above (write the sub title, where the idea is present). On the other hand, secondary data were collected from various sources like, previous research findings, reports of Ministry of Agriculture (MOA),Development Office and other governmental and non-governmental organizations).The study has two parts: part one is a survey work that was conducted among beekeepers with a semi-structured questioner. While part two was the determination of the qualities of honey produced in the area. (This paragraph should come at the beginning of material and methods part)Information was collected using semi-structured questionnaire with trained enumerators under the supervision of the researcher. For the survey work, the method of data collection was through a single-visit-multiple-subject survey (ILCA, 1990). Before the actual survey the questionnaires were pre-tested. The actual data collected during the survey work include:1) Household characteristics: -social: sex, age, family size, education level and economic status: land holding, livestock, honeybee colonies, off-farm activities.2) Honey production systems: these include the past and present number of hives owned, type of hives used and cost of hives, beekeeping equipments, active season and dearth period, amount of honey and crude beeswax harvested, cost of production of honey and crude beeswax, honey marketing situation and market prices.  The cleanness and dryness of the prism of Refractometer were ensured first. After homogenization, the surface of the prism was evenly covered with the sample directly. , .After 2 minutes (Abbe refractometer), the refractive index was read. Each honey was measured twice and the average values were recorded. The corresponding moisture content was read from the table and the prism was carefully cleaned after use. The honey and water contents were calculated from the RI measured by applying the equation of Wedmore (1955):WWed (%) = [−0.2681−log (RI−1)]/0.002243.Ash content was determined after the sample was burnt in an electric muffle furnace (Lenton Thermal Designs, England). First the ash dish was cleaned and heated in the electrical furnace at ashing temperature, subsequently cooled in desiccators to room temperature and weighed to 0.001g (M 2 ). Then, 5g of honey sample was weighed to the nearest 0. 001g (M 0 ) and put in the prepared ash dish and two drops of olive oil was added to prevent frothing. Then, water was removed and commences ashing without loss (by foaming and overflowing) at a low heat rising to 350 -400 o C by using electrical device. Hot plate was used to char the sample before inserting into the furnace. After the preliminary ashing with hot plate, the dish was transfer to the preheated muffle furnace adjusted at a temperature of 550 o C) and heated for 1 hour. The ash dish was cooled in the desiccators and weighted. The ashing procedure was continued until constant weight is reached (M 1 ). Percent ash in g/100g honey was calculated using the formula:Where, M 0 = weight of honey taken, M 1 = weight of dish + ash and, M 2 = weight of dish.Ten gram of the honey samples were dissolved in 75 ml of carbon dioxide-free water (distilled water) in 250 ml beaker and stirred with the magnetic stirrer. Then the pH was measured with pH meter (Inolab, Germany), calibrated at pH 4.0 and 7.0. The solution was further titrated with 0.1M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution to pH 8.30 (a steady reading was obtained within 2 minutes of starting the titration) (Appendix 7.4). For precision the reading to the nearest 0.2 ml using a 10 ml burette was recorded. Free acidity, expressed as milliequivalents or millimoles of acid/kg honey = ml of 0.1M NaOH x 10, and the result expressed to one place of decimal point.Acidity =10V Where, V = the volume of 0.1N NaOH in 10 g honeyThe determination of the hydroxy methyl furfural (HMF) content is based on the determination of UV absorbance of HMF at 284 nm. In order to avoid the interference of other components at this wavelength, the difference between the absorbance of a clear aqueous honey solution and the same solution after addition of bisulphite was determined.The HMF content was calculated after subtraction of the background absorbance at 336 nm.Spectrophotometer operating in a wavelength range including 284 and 336 nm used.Accurately, weigh 5 g of honey in small beaker and transfer with total of 25 ml distilled water to 50 ml volumetric flask. 0.50 Carrez solution I, mix, was added to 0.50 ml Carrez solution II (Appendix 7.4), mix, and diluted to volume with distilled water and drop of alcohol was added to suppress foam. It was filtered through filter paper and the first 10 ml filtrate was discarded. 5 ml filtrate was pipette into each of two 18 X 150 mm test tubes. 5.0 ml distilled water was added to one tube (sample) and 5.0 ml NaHSO 3 solution to other. Mixed well by using Vortex mixer and determined. When absorbance is greater than 0.6, sample solution was diluted with water and reference solution with 0.1% NaHSO 3 solution to correct absorbance for dilution.The absorbance of the sample solution against the reference solution at 284 and 336 nm in 10 mm quartz cells within one hour was determined. When the absorbance at 284 nm exceeds a value of about 0.6, the sample solution diluted with water and the reference solution with sodium bisulphite solution in order to obtain a sample absorbance low enough for accuracy.When dilution is necessary,The At periodic intervals, for the first time after 5 minutes, 0.5 ml aliquots removed and added rapidly to 5 ml of diluted iodine solution. Water (as determined in \"Calibration of the starch solution\"), is added and mixed well and immediately was read. The diastase activity is calculated as diastase number (DN).This method is a modification of the Lane and Eynon (1923) procedure, involving the reduction of Soxhlet's modification of Fehling's solution by titration at boiling point against a solution of reducing sugars in honey using methylene blue as an internal indicator (Appendix 7.4). The difference in concentrations of invert sugar was multiplied by 0.95 to give the apparent sucrose content. This method is based on the original method of Lane and Eynon (1923) and is also used in the Codex Alimentarius standard ( 2001).The amount of water added bring the total volume of the reactants at the completion of the titration to 35 ml was calculated by subtracting the preliminary titration (X ml) from 25 ml.Pipette 5 ml Fehling's solution A was pipette into 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask and approximately 5 ml Fehling's solution B was added (Appendix 7.4). Add (25-X) ml distilled water, a little powdered pumice or other suitable antidumping agent and, from a burette, all but 1.5 ml of the diluted honey solution volume determined in the preliminary titration. The cold mixture was heated to boiling over wire gauze and maintains moderate ebullition for 2 minutes. 1 ml 0.2 % methylene blue solution was added whilst still boiling and the titration was completed within a total boiling time of 3 minutes by repeated small additions of diluted honey solution until the indicator was decolorized.Calculation and expression of result: C=25/W 2 x 1000/Y 2Where C = g invert sugar per 100 g honey W 2 = weight (g) of honey sample Y 2 = volumes (ml) of diluted honey solutionThe honey solution (50 ml) was placed in a graduated flask, together with 25 ml distilled water, heated to 65 o C over a boiling water bath. The flask is then removed from the heated bath and 10 ml of hydrochloric acid was added (Appendix 7.4). The solution was allowed to cool naturally for 15 minutes, and then brought to 20 o C and neutralized with sodium hydroxide (Appendix 7.4), using litmus paper as indicator, cooled again, and the volume adjusted to 100 ml (diluted honey solution). Then the procedure of determining reducing sugar continued.Apparent sucrose content = (invert sugar content after inversion -invert sugar content before inversion) x0.95. The result is expressed as g apparent sucrose per 100 g honey.Figure 5: Laboratory analysis of the honey sampleCollected data from both primary and secondary sources have been documented, organized, analyzed and summarized using MS excel and SPSS version 20 for descriptive statistics. The survey data were coded and tabulated for analysis using SPSS statistical package version 20.As descriptive statistics variability measures the degree to which the scores are spread out or clustered together in a distribution from the sample was mainly applied for analysis of means and frequencies.The physico-chemical honey quality parameters (moisture content, total reducing sugar, pH, acidity, diastase activity, sucrose content, HMF and mineral content) from both crushed comb and extracted honey were analyzed.The statistical analysis was run to determine differences in composition of honey between agro ecology and hive types by using Duncan's t-test and One-way analysis of variance respectively. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in moisture content of honey samples in the district with agro-ecology and hive type when compared based on factors between groups.Data for the survey work were collected from a total of 120 households selected from the three agro ecologies. The households in the three agro ecologies were found to have 105, 17and 57 honeybee colonies in traditional, transitional and frame hives, respectively. This indicated that the development of modern beekeeping system (transitional and frame hive beekeeping) in the study area being lower compared with other districts. This result in the current study was supported by the study conducted in Kilte Awlaelo district, Eastern Tigray during 2015 which showed that among the sampled beekeepers (156), 95.5% had honeybee colonies in frame hives with a mean of 6.39 and a maximum of 100 colonies(Yetemwork G/meskel, 2015).The current study confirmed that 92.5% of total sampled households (120) were male headed households while the rest were female headed (Table 3). This table doesn't contain the percentage of female headed household be keepers) According to the results shown, low numbers of female headed beekeepers doesn't explain that their participation in beekeeping in the study area is minimal. However, as described by Tessega Belie (2009) beekeeping has been considered as an activity carried out by men, we have found that women participation is not significant in the district.With regard to marital status, 95.8% of total interviewed households were married while 0.8%, 1.7% and 1.7% were single, widowed and divorced, respectively (Table 3). Based on this result, we understood that married participants are significantly engaged in beekeeping than others grouped under other marital status. This could explain that beekeeping requires stability and married couples are using different options for asset building. When we come to religion of survey participants, 92.5% of interviewed participants were Muslims while the rest falls into Christianity (Table 4).Our data demonstrated that 4.32+ 1.24 people were an average family size per household with a maximum of 8 and a minimum of 2 people. However, the statistical analysis demonstrated that there was no significant difference among participant beekeepers in family size.Regarding average beekeeping experience, the result showed that sample respondents do have 13.98 years (with a range of 1 to 40 years) of continued involvement (experience) in beekeeping (Table 4). In addition, we have understood that women (wife), young boys and girls of the family are also involved in different beekeeping activities to help the head of the family (household). Interestingly, respondents have explained that those young boys and girls who were acquiring experience in beekeeping with their family have become independent beekeepers through time when they got the chance to have a colony. Mean age of respondents in the study area was 48.97±11.03 years (ranging from 28 to 80 years). This could explain that beekeeping is an activity which can be carried out at different age groups and, in most cases, people at younger and old ages are actively engaged in beekeeping (Table 3).Regarding to level of education, 26.4%, 37.2%, 10% and 7.2% of the respondents have attended basic education, Grade 1-4, Grade 5-8 and Grade 9-12, respectively (Table 4).However, in Amhara Region about 19.2% of the respondents were Illiterate. From the total respondents 51.9% were literate and the remaining was illiterate (Sisay Yehuala et al., 2013).The result of this study indicated beekeeping is being practiced by literate beekeepers who can understand the majority of training packages and different advises which has been described by their colony management skills and productivity of their colonies (Table 4). The average land holding was about 0.6 hectares (with a range from 0 to 1.38 hectares) (Table 5). The data has described that the average land holding in the study area is below the national average (1.5 ha). More specifically, 10% of total respondents had less than 0.25 hectares of land which was mainly used for crop production (Table 5). This shows that beekeeping could be practiced with people who have very small plot of land in their mixed farming system. Respondents' reported that cereals are the most commonly grown crops in the study area.More specifically, Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) followed by Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), Maize (Zea mays L.), Teff (Eragrostis teff) and Wheat (Triiticum) are the most commonly grown crops. With regard to perennial crops, the respondents explained that chat to be the most important cash crop in the study district. They also explained that the dominance of cereal crops in the area is due to the feeding habits of the local community and the production potential of the agro-ecologies in the district. Respondents also indicated that cereal crops are the major sources of pollen and nectar for honey bees during flowering season. Thus, season of crop production is one of the major determinant factors for honey production in the study district.Interviews indicated that the major constraints of crop production in the three different agroecologies are similar. Shortage of farm land and drought (erratic rain fall) are the major problems that faces repeatedly and affects the crop production (Table 6). On top of that, soil fertility loss, disease, shortage of oxen and prevalence of rodents are also challenges to crop production potential of the district (Table : 6). With regard to livestock production constraints respondents reported that shortage of animal feeds (85.8%), diseases (65.8 %) and shortage of improved breeds (59.2), and low productivity of local animals are major constraints which affect the livestock production and productivity (Table 7).Furthermore, 54.2 % of the respondents confirmed that shortage of grazing land is one of the main problems (Table 7). The average (0.13 hectares) of unimproved private grazing land with minimal productivity and communal off farm lands in the district have been explained to be small enough for animal feed production (Table 4). Seasonal variation in feed resources in terms of quantity and quality has been also explained by sampled respondents. Respondents who own animals have showed that they have been feeding their animals with weeds, grasses harvested from farm strips and boundaries, crop aftermath, crop residues and communal grazing lands at different seasons of the year.The data described that lack of drinking water (20%) and shelter (10.8) had also their own negative contribution to livestock production (Table 7). Thus, organized and integrated technical and institutional interventions are very essential to enhance the livestock sector in the study area. The source of colonies under different hive types, the hives source and foundation stock availability are described under this section. Similarly the beekeeping production practices, their distribution and advantages, type of equipment used for honey harvesting, honey production trend and honey harvesting frequency of the district are also discussed.According to the survey result, 48.1% and 34.9% of the respondents reported that the source of their foundation stalks is traditional hive colonies from parents and catching the swarm colonies, respectively. Majority of the respondents (68.8%) reported that the source of their transitional and (48.3%) frame hive colonies are through catching the swarms during the swarming season. It shows that swarming of bees is still a source of foundation stock and the starter for most of the beekeepers especially in modern (transitional and frame hive)beekeeping production system (Table 8). Other source of the foundation colony was buying from neighbors which had colonies before. 17%, 25% and 20.7% of the foundation stock of the respondent's traditional, transitional and frame hive colonies respectively, were obtained by purchasing. The rest of the other colony sources were gift from parents. Please re-write the paragraph, it is not written in a good manner and it is not palatable!!!According to the survey result, 87.6% and 82.4% of the respondents replied that they constructed traditional and transitional beehive, respectively. Majority (63.8%) of the respondents got frame beehive from government with credit (Table 9). Also, non government organizations had little (5.2%) contribution in the distribution of frame beehive with credit in the district. Other 27.6% of the respondents reported that they purchased the framed beehive from the local market sold by other farmers.Respondents determine the mean service year of traditional, transitional and frame hives were 6.3, 7.6 and 12.6 years respectively (Table 10). They have elaborated that the service year of the hives mainly determined by the construction material.The survey result shows that depending on the technological advancement, beekeeping in the study area had taking place in three different production practices. Interviews reported that traditional hive beekeeping practices has advantages because the hive construction material is available locally (100%) and can be constructed simply with traditional beekeepers knowledge (Table 11). The main inputs are local knowledge and local materials, rather than improved technology and advanced knowledge. Fixed comb hives are usually cylindrical in shape, made from bamboo, cow dung and mud. They have been used in the district for generations. Most of the honey is harvested from fixed comb hives. The disadvantages of traditional hive system are more swarming frequency (96.7%) than transitional (58.3%) and frame hives (25.8%) (Table11). It is less durable (100%), produces less quality (100%) and quantity of honey, low temperature maintenance ability (86.7%) for the bees and not suitable for harvesting (97.5%) of honey crop. The result of the study indicates that traditional hive is a fixed comb the hollowed out hives makes difficult for internal hive inspection.The transitional beekeeping practices had also its advantages that it can be constructed with locally available (97.5%) materials, the top bar is movable and suitable for harvesting (100%) of the ripened honey, more honey produce than traditional hives(Table11). Top-bar hives are particularly suitable for beginner beekeepers because it is often easier to learn how to manage As the respondents indicated, the frame hive beekeeping practice advantages are suitability of harvesting the honey (100%), producing quality and high quantity(100%) of honey, good for temperature maintenance (94.2%), less swarming frequency (74.2%) and durable (100%) for long period use (Table11). But it is not convenience to construct (100%) by local beekeepers knowledge and needs special training to construct, construction materials are not available simply and locally (100%). This type of hive is appropriate but is expensive to buy and maintain, machinery is required to extract the honey. Beeswax yield from frame hives are low compared to fixed comb hives. For traditional beekeeping system 14.6%, 9.5%, 100% and 2.9% of beekeepers, for transitional beekeeping 5.6%, 35.3%, 38.9%, 100%, 5.9%, 16.7% of beekeepers and for frame hive beekeeping 5.4%, 33.3%, 22.8%, 100%, 5.4%, 5.3 % of beekeepers used smoker, bee brush, knife and water sprayer, respectively (Table 12). It indicated that most of the beekeepers used knife as a chisel and honey harvesting tool in all of the three beekeeping practices. However, majority of the beekeepers lack protective cloth, smoker, bee brush, honey extracting tools and chisel. Success of beekeeping is determined by the utilization of appropriate hive tools and protective materials. Tessega Belie ( 2009) also agrees that the adoption of improved beekeeping practices also relies on the supply of these basic materials.The moveable frame hives are demanding more additional beekeeping equipment than traditional and transitional hives. Traditional hive beekeeping requires some basic materials to carry out their activities; those materials are protective cloths, smoker, knife, bee brush, water sprayer and honey presser. Top bar hive beekeeping practices also requires chisel additionally than traditional beekeeping tools. The moveable frame hive beekeeping practice requires casting mould, honey extractor and queen excluder in addition to those above tools. And it also requires better knowledge of implementation as compared to other beekeeping practitioners. Interviews reported that the mean honey yield of three different types of hives (traditional, transitional and framed type hives) were 5.64, 12.7 and 16.9 kilogram per year, respectively (Table 13). The amount of honey produced from one bee hive per year varies from places to places. Productivity of the different beekeeping practices were different due to the availability of plenty of pollen and nectar source plants, input applied differences, management of the beekeepers and the environmental situation of the district. The maximum amount of honey harvested from traditional, top bar and frame hive were 11, 20 kg and 30 kg, respectively and the minimum were 3 kg, 7 kg and 6 kg, respectively (Table 13). These results are indicators of the existence of room for increasing performances of these beehives through good management practices to make favorable beekeeping environment. This also notes us that we are still bellow the line of productivity what the beekeeping industry can gain the potential.Although the price of one colony has strong difference between the minimum 200 and maximum 1200 birr value, and the mean price of one colony is 816.53 + 192.35 birr (Table 13). There is no official market in the district to sell the honey bee colony and people sell their colony only for neighbors who know present colony price to determine only by seller and buyer agreement. The main feature of the honey bees was expressed by the respondents based on their local perception. The district honeybees have aggressive (95.8%) behavior, red (58.3%) and somehow black (37.5%) in color, and medium (79.2%) and somehow small (20.8%) sized in nature (Figure 5). The two distinct harvesting seasons in a year are the first major harvesting period during October to December and the second harvesting during April to Jun (Table 14). Based on the respondent's interview results of the study, honey was harvested once or twice due to the chance of availability of the binary rains for bee forages. The portion finds out the indigenous knowledge of beekeepers on placement of their colonies, service years of the colonies, seasonal management practices and colony inspection practice in the district.Most of the beekeepers in the study area kept traditional, transitional and frame beehives at their eave of the house to prevent from rain and extreme sunbeam. Some of the respondents reported that they keep their hives at backyard (Table 15). However, there are youths of common interest groups that place their frame beehive colonies in the rehabilitated water shed  The result obtained from the respondents showed the frequency of internal and external honeybee colonies inspection. Most of beekeepers sometimes inspect externally and rarely inspect their colonies internally (Table 17). Moreover only 5.8% of the respondents frequently inspecting their colonies externally but the rest 79.2% and 15% of them were inspecting sometimes and rarely, respectively. Internal inspection was takes place sometimes by only 18.3% of the respondents and the other 81.7% of them are inspecting rarely. Though, colony and apiary inspection is very crucial to maintain honeybee colonies from different natural risks and enemies such as pests, predators, diseases and chemical poisoning.Experiences show that external colony inspection can be done frequently at any time;however, circumspection should be conducted during internal colony inspection. Efficient and continues training and follow up for beekeepers should be considered necessary. of the colonies are during July to September. The first honey harvesting period, and some super redaction taking place during October to December. Yearly second hive suppering, some supper reduction and swarming is made during January to March (Table 18). When the season has no rain and drought occurrence, the secondary production season will be postponed and colony migration and absconding occurs as mitigation reaction of the bees due to shortage of pollen and nectar. Instead during April to Jun if the season has good rain condition to bloom the bee plants the second hive suppering, second honey harvesting and second supper reduction takes place. Even if the dearth period is so long too hard to cop-up by the bees themselves, colony feeding is practiced only by 9 persons (10.8%) from the total 120 respondents.During the honey flow season honeybees store honey for their own consumption for dearth periods feeding. Bees do not need feeding as other livestock does. However, human beings exploitation of honey leads the bees to feed scarcity and faced them to starvation. Though supplementary or emergency feeding was required during long dry periods, heavy raining periods, and when colonies used for other manipulation like royal jelly production, artificial queen rearing and during pollination services. From the total 120 interviewers 111 of the respondents 92.5% do not feed their colonies at all.According to the interviewers respond only 9 farmers did the bee's supplementary feeding included besso and shiro (locally prepared food items). From the nine respondent 8 persons feed besso and only one person feed shiro. Besso and shiro is made from pulse with some amount of paper and locally used spices. This feeding practice mainly from January to February (11.1%), March to April (55.5%) and May to Jun (33.3%) (Table19). In most cases they feed colonies external of the hive. This approach can be practice when the colony is not much weak to compute with other colonies, other ways weak colonies need to be feed internally of the hive. The supplementary feeds which are available in the locality include besso, shiro, sugar syrup, grinded sugarcane, honey and water mixtures should be supplemented during the dearth period to protect the harsh condition of the colony. The best feed is to leave adequate honey during harvesting or provide sugar syrup or pollen substitute (pea, bean, chick pea, Soya bean flour). In addition to supplementary feeding, planting bee forage is also required to get the intended honey yield. The major determinant factor of the honey yield obtained in a given colony is availability of bee forages. Reproductive swarming is a common phenomenon in honeybee colonies during colony reproduction period. From the total respondents about 43,2 % of them replied that there was practicing swarm control in different techniques. The most frequently ways of controlling reproductive swarm by the respondent beekeeper 65.4% and 34.6% were controlling the swarm by increasing the hive size or suppering and by removing the developed queen cells, respectively. About, 95% of the sample respondents have experience of catching the reproductive swarm and transfer to different hives. They are using different techniques to capture those reproductive swarm; these are 55% of the respondents using dispersing dust onto swarming colony, 27.9% of them using spraying water onto swarming colony and 16.3% using hanging hive on branches of a tree (Table 20).Swarming of bees is accepted by all of the interviewed beekeepers. Because it is a means of simple colony multiplication they know in their local knowledge is capturing of the swarm colony and the price of colony is very expensive as determined from the above section (4.2.1). Splitting the colonyOnly two persons from the total respondents strain their honey before marketing. They strained the honey obtained from traditional and frame hive why they stained honey from frame hive by simple decantation method and sell in the local market with a better price (150birr).From the total respondents about, 45.8%, 22.5%, 13.3% and 18.3% were caused to unstrained the honey due to the amount of honey will be reduced, consumer do not prefer strained honey, lack of knowledge how to strain it and lack of materials to strain the honey, respectively (Table 21). However straining of honey separates the honey from bees wax efficiently and sells separately each the honey as well as the wax had gain better price than unstrained honey.It requires awareness creation and efficient follow up for producers repeatedly to adopt the techniques.All other respondents sell the unstrained honey directly to local market with a minimum of 70 and a maximum of 150 birr per kilogram (Table 22). The mean price of one kilogram honey is 114.62 birr. The price of honey is determined by agreement between suppliers and consumers.Fluctuation of price at different season is common due to seasonality honey production in the district. When market has plenty of honey at harvesting time unless the beekeeper is at critical financial problems, honey is stored for long period to get better price. The respondents kept their honey for different period of time. Some 41.7% of the interview say I don't store, I will sale immediately after harvest or it will be consumed during harvesting, other 46.7 % of them said that they kept for 1-6 months (Table 23).   The pollen and nectar source variability influences the honey flavor and determines its commercial quality (Ofelia A. et al., 2010). Honeys from certain areas are preferred by consumers due to their sensory characteristics. It is mainly related to floral origin of the honey.Availability of more seasonal bee forages results in high honey production provided that other environmental factors are suitable for bees (Ofelia A. et al., 2010). In Tehulederie district, there was limited improvement of bee forages development except with the water shed biological soil and water conservation practices. However, there was an extension structure to producers at grass root level, poor linkage between them results minimum development of the sector. Although the followings are the major bee plants of the tree and shrub species which are available in the study area with flowering periods as respondents indicated. According to the respondents, honeybees collect water from streams (45%), rivers (20.8%), spring (28.3%) and the rest (5.8%) from water harvesting sources (Table 25). If suitable drinking water is not available in the immediate surroundings with in 500 m from the apiary, provision of water is required. In many literatures, water is equally important as bee forage to the honey bees (Tesega Belie, 2009;Alemayehu kebede, 2011).Bees rarely store water in the hive, but bring it in as needed, so it is vital to provide fresh water to them continuously. Bees use water for different purposes like evaporative cooling to control the humidity of the colony, to dilute the crystallized stored honey, to feed the developing larvae, and to digest and metabolize of their food as do most living organisms. The second constraint which was reported by respondents was high cost of production for the purchase of colony for foundation stock as well as the high cost of improved technologies.Beekeepers had no knowhow about the colony multiplication techniques. Similarly the cost of frame hive and its accessories are increasing from time to time that is not affordable to buy by rural poor farmers. Therefore training of the beekeepers about colony multiplication techniques and expansion of the rural credit services with a vital insurance should be considered for future expansion of the sector along with the efficient utilization of the district capacity..Other constraints reported by interviews was the existence of pests and predators like ants and wax moths, application of pesticides and herbicides, and lack of bee forages should be considered in extension services beekeepers must react to tackle for future development of the sector. The respondents agreed that on the most important enemies of bees around the district are Ants (Dorylus fulvus) (47.5%) and wax moth (35.6%) (Table 26). Ants are most wearisome to honey bees and bee keeping sector. Ants were reported to feed on honey, brood, and bees' wax and pollen after all honey and the broods are depleted (Hailegebriel Tesfay, 2014). The indigenous knowledge applied to prevent ants by those respondents are applying ash under the hive stands, clean the underneath of the hives & keep their apiary hygienic, break leaves of eucalyptus and spread beneath the hive stand & plantation of tomatoes around the apiary sight and smearing of burnet motor oil on the hive stand.Wax moth is also one of important honey bee enemies and causing a serious problem especially in frame hives. In the five regional states of Ethiopia including Amhara region wax moths ranked among the disastrous pests of honey bees by bee keepers (Hailegebriel Tesfaye, 2014). Controlling of the hive space that is timely reduction of the additional space during honey flow season, keep apiary sight clean, remove old comb, and strengthen the colony during dearth period are the indicated measures taken Other bee lice (5%), birds (5%), honey badger (4.2%) and spider (3%) are significantly affected honey bees and their productivity as interviewers indicated. The present study is in line with Kerealem Ejigu (2005) who reported ants, honey badger, bee-eater birds, wax-moth and spiders as the major honeybee pests and enemies in Enebse Sar Midir and Amaro districts in Ethiopia. Also the study in conducted in Silti wereda was ranking, ants were number one predators (27.6%) followed by wax moth (20.6%), bee eater birds (18.3%), spider (16%) and wall lizard (12.4%) but honeybadger was the other minor predatory in the area (Alemayehu Kebede 2011).Results obtained from the respondents indicated that Susbania species and Sensel (Justitia schemperina) were toxic to honey bees and causes toxicity for the product honey. Susbania species was reported to be toxic to the bees themselves and those in which the honey produced from its nectar become toxic to humans consumption (Hailegebriel Tesfaye, 2014).Sensel (Justitia schemperina) is also described by the respondents to affect the honey quality by causing diarrhea to consumers. Yet, these call for attentions confirmed by research.The respondent beekeepers indicated also whether their bees have an effect on prevalence of chemical poisoning or not. Vertualy70.8% of them says yes their colonies are victims for different chemicals used in the district. The beekeepers and their neighbors used chemicals without restriction for pest control, for weed control and for malaria control, 56.7%, 50.8% and 46.7% near to the apiary sits, respectively (Table 27). Commonly used agro chemicals such as Thionex 35ec,Fyfanon 50% Ethiozinon60%ec, Endosulfa35%, Decis 2.5%ec, Dicopur 720sc, Agro-thoate 40%ec, Agro 2,4-D amin 720 A, were tested for toxicity effect on honeybees under laboratory condition. The results indicated that all agro chemicals except Agro 2,4-D amin 720A caused significant mortality on honeybees when ingested with food.beekeeping practice is carried out as a sideline activity to other income sources. There are no any market information sources about seasonal price and place of the products to sell.Actually it is very necessary to feed those beekeepers to gain fair price at the correct marketing time. The regional cooperative agency and Bureau of Trade should considered it as soon as possible. Min: minimum, Max: maximum, SD: standard deviation from the meanThe chemical properties of honey play an important role in determining the honey quality and affect international honey business. Unlikely other honey quality studied by different researchers in the country, this study focused only honey that collects directly from the hive.Moisture content is one of the most important parameters to be considered in the quality of honey since it affects storage life and processing characteristics. The moisture content of honey in this study ranges from 14.2 to 19.3 with the mean of 16.7 (Table 29). All of the honey samples in the study had moisture content within the accepted range of both the world as well as the national standard level. The results indicated that honey produced from the highland agro-ecology is comparatively higher moisture content than honey produced from low land areas. Similarly the results of the study conducted at Libokemkem wereda of Amhara Region showed that none of the honey samples exceeding the limit allowed by the Codex and Council of the European Union (EU) of < 21% (Addis Getu and Malede Birhan, 2015). Honey samples produced in relatively high humid areas like South and South West part of the country found to consist high moisture than honey produced from low humid areas of the country. Frame hive honey has higher moisture content than broken comb hive (top-bar hive and local hive) honey. Moreover, there was significant (p <0.05) difference of the moisture content between groups based on the difference both in agro-ecology and hive type.Generally speaking the results revealed that the honey produced agro-ecology of the area and the hive type had an effect on the moisture content of honey, where the moisture content of the sampled honey increased with the altitude increase and modernizing of the hive type.When the altitude of the agro-ecology increases the mineral content of the honey relatively increases. The mineral (ash) content of the samples from the current study ranged from 0.05 to 0.11% with a mean of 0.07%. The ash content of the honey samples obtained from Libokemkem wereda of Amhara region ranged from 0.014-0.31g with a mean value of 0.17 (Addis Getu and Malede Birhan, 2015). The accepted mineral content should be less than 0.6% (Table 27). In this result the mineral content of honey samples is within the Ethiopian accepted national standard quality level (Table 29). The results indicated that honey produced from the highland agro-ecology had moderately higher mineral content than honey produced from low land areas (Yetimwork Gebremeskel, 2015). But there is no reasonable difference of the ash amount in the sample honey based on hive types. Dark honeys, particularly honeydew honeys are the richest in minerals.The other quality criterion of the honey is acidity of the honey. Acidity of the samples honey analyzed for this study ranged from 19.5 to 25.5meq acid/kg with mean of 22.3 meq. acid/kg (Table 29). In this result the acidity of honey samples fulfilled within the World and the Ethiopian accepted national standard quality level (less than 40 meq. acid/kg of honey). The results indicated that honey produced from the highland agro-ecology is slightly higher acidic nature than honey produced from low land areas. There is no reasonable difference of the acidity in the sample honey based on hive types. Though, there is no significant difference between groups of the sample acidity (P>0.05). Variation in free acidity among different honeys can be attributed to floral origin or to variation in the harvest season (Alemayehu Kebede, 2011). Acidity of the honey is one of its merits for its antimicrobial property. When the acidity becomes high, the honey becomes sour.The PH values of honey obtained in this study ranged from 3.1 to 4.7 with mean value of  (1974). The pH of honey should be between 3.2 and 4.5 (Bogdanov s., et al., 1997). In this study 87.5% of the samples fall with the accepted standard quality (Table 29). The honey pH had significantly difference (p<0.05) by hive type groups of the sample honey. This indicates that the honey was fairly acidic and this could be in part responsible for the excellent stability of honey against fermentation and natural flavor (Gebregziabher Gebremedhin et al., 2013).The variations in pH might mainly be resulted due to different acids found in different floral types.Hydroxyl-Methyl-Furfural (HMF) is one of the most important parameters for determination of the honey quality. The HMF values of honey obtained in this study ranged from 21.26 to 66.7 mg/kg with mean value of 37.7 mg/kg (Table 29). The acceptable HMF value of honey is between 40 and 80 mg/kg (Codex almentarius commission, 2001). It is higher in low land agro-ecology and broken comb hive type of the honey samples. However there is no significant difference between groups of the honey sample either the hive types or the agroecologies which is in the international acceptable pH value of honey.Generally the PH value, Diastase activity and reducing sugar contents had also significant differences between groups of hive types. Although the ash content of the honey samples had  2005) and the study resultsDifferent honey quality parameters had different correlation results between each other in the study district (Table 31). The moisture content has positively and significantly correlated with apparent sucrose content (P<0.01), negatively and significantly correlated with diastase activity (P<0.01) and the pH value (P<0.05). However, there was no correlation between moisture content with free acidity, ash, HMF and Reducing sugar content. Moreover, the free acidity and ash content of the honey had no correlation with other pre-determined parameters. The PH value was highly significant (P<0.01) and positively correlated with HMF but no correlation with other pre-determined parameters except with the moisture content. However, diastase activity of honey was negatively correlated (P<0.05) with reducing sugar content but no correlation with other pre-determined parameters except with the moisture content. Apparent sucrose content was no correlation with all other pre-determined parameters except with the moisture content. Moreover, reducing sugar content was no correlation with all other pre-determined parameters except with diastase activity. This section concludes the relevant piece of findings available both from the survey as well as the laboratory analysis of the honey quality situation from the researcher cram.Appropriate possible suggestions are forwarded and indicated, recommendations for different level of actors set to enhance the sector.The The amount of honey produced from one bee hive per year varies from technology to technology and among geographical. The maximum amount of honey harvested was 30 kg recorded from frame hive. The difference was mainly due to the input applied differences, management of the beekeepers and the environmental situation of the district.Even if the honeybee queen rearing center is established around the district, swarming of bees is still a source of foundation stock for most of the beekeepers. It is also concluded that they are using their own traditional knowledge only for queen rearing practices by using beehives constructed from locally available materials.Despite all the challenges currently facing the beekeeping subsector, Tehulederie district has still enormous opportunities and a huge potential for modern beekeeping practice to boost the production and improve the quality of honey products. This can be expressed of crops as bee forage should be considered. Utilization of the available water resources during the drought period for watering of bee forages for supplementation of bees. Intensification of the existing beekeepers, youth groups, cooperatives and establishment of union to strengthen and creating a link between producers and processors to produce products which can fulfill international market standards. Establishment of diversified bee product collection, processing and marketing centers by capacitating the inputs suppliers, the landless rural interested youths, female household heads and other interested individuals. Poisoning of honeybees by the indiscriminate use of agricultural chemicals increased from time to time. As a result, a considerable number of beekeepers totally lost their colonies. Therefore, there is a need for the government to give special attention to solve these problems through coordinating and integrating the concerned bodies like crop scientists, animal science experts and other government organizations to make the already existing proclamation into effective.Appendix Tables Appendix Table7:  Questionnaire on characterizing the beekeeping system and honey quality in Tehuledere district of------------kebele-----------village.1. House hold characteristics 1.1 Name of respondent and responsibility ------------------------1.2 sex-----1.3 age------1.4 Number of years lived in the area ----------------1.5 Educational status: Read and write --------grade (1-4)-----------grade (5-8)---------------grade (9-12)-----------(higher level)-------------1.6 Religion-----------------1.7 Marital status: Married----------Single ---------------widowed------Divorced----1.   e. others (specify)--------------------------------------4.17. When do you use agrochemicals/chemicals (months)? ------------------------------------4.18. What type of agrochemicals/chemicals are you using? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.19. Do agrochemicals/chemicals affect your honey bees?1. Yes 2. No 4.20. What is the estimated honey you lose due to the application of agrochemicals/chemicals? --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Compiler Name ----------------------------------signature-----------------------Date---------------Time------------Duration: Starting time ----------Ending time------------","tokenCount":"13661"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cbf910a81f489857a493cf00b95d017e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/648f2fa7-381c-4250-83c8-61a638e6eebd/retrieve","id":"-1459925937"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e954119-79ca-4f74-b4c6-0eb0854b7462","pagecount":"1","content":"The authors acknowledge the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the CGIAR research program on grain legumes for partial financial support of research on improving genetic adaptation of common beans to drought. Adaptation to drought in common bean is related to two key processes, EUW (through a better developed root system to help the plant to access water to maintain transpiration rates and vegetative growth) and the ability to remobilize photosynthates from vegetative structures to the pods and subsequently to seed production. Several lines were identified as drought adapted such as NCB 280, NCB 226, SEN 56, SCR 2, SCR 16, SMC 141, RCB 593 and BFS 67 and their resistance was associated with superior EUW combined with better photosynthate remobilization to pod and grain production. Traits such as rooting depth, grain CID related with EUW, PPI and PHI should be considered as useful plant traits to be included in bean breeding programs that are aimed at improving drought adaptation.Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) are cultivated by small farmers in Latin America and eastern and southern Africa, where unfavorable climate conditions and minimum use of inputs frequently limit productivity (Beebe et al., 2012(Beebe et al., , 2013)). Drought is responsible for yield losses between 10 and 100%. About 60% of the bean-producing regions have prolonged periods of water shortage and drought is the second most important factor in yield reduction after diseases (Rao, 2014). The development of bean varieties adapted to water stress conditions through breeding is a useful strategy to ensure food security in marginal areas. Studies conducted for the past few years indicated that the superior performance of common bean genotypes under drought stress was associated with their ability to remobilize photosynthates from vegetative structures to developing grain. Pod harvest index was identified as a useful trait to consider in the breeding program in addition to grain yield for identifying bean genotypes that are better adapted to drought stress conditions. We evaluated drought adaptation of 36 genotypes including the elite lines and checks from the on-going breeding program with the main objective of defining the physiological basis for improved drought resistance.Under rainfed conditions, leaf stomatal conductance presented a significant positive correlation with grain yield (GY) (r=0.31***). Grain CID showed a positive and significant correlation with GY under rainfed (r=0.36***). Results from two field trials on stomatal conductance and grain CID showed that many of the higher yielding bean genotypes under drought stress are using more water, maximizing their capture of soil water for transpiration, with better plant growth and biomass partitioning, through effective use of water (EUW) as proposed before (Blum, 2009). The lines NCB 280, SMC 141, SCR 16, SEN 56, BFS 67, NCB 226 and SEA 15 are classified as water spenders that are able to access more water resulting in higher yield (Figure 1). Results also revealed a few genotypes that are combining higher WUE with better GY under rainfed conditions, classified as water savers, such as BFS 29, SER 16, ALB 6, ALB 60 and P. acutifolius (G 40001), useful genotypes for targeting to semiarid to dry environments (Figure 1). The PHI value reflects the ability to mobilize photosynthates from pod wall to seed. A positive and highly significant correlations of PHI with GY under both irrigated and drought conditions were observed (r=0.61*** and 0.48*** respectively). The positive and significant correlations between GY and biomass partitioning indices (PPI and PHI) under drought stress highlight the importance of photosynthate remobilization from plant biomass to pod formation (PPI) and grain production (PHI). The lines BFS 29, SEA 15, BFS 10, NCB 280, SEN 56, SCR 16 and SMC 141 were superior in their ability to partition greater proportion of biomass to pod and grain production (Figure 2). Breeding programs should focus on the selection of best-performing materials that combine greater values of CB as a result of EUW, with greater mobilization of photosynthates to pod development and grain filling.Two field trials were conducted during the dry season (June to September in each year of 2012 and 2013), at the main experimental station of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Palmira. The trial included 36 genotypes: ALB 213, ALB 6, ALB 60, ALB 74, ALB 88, BAT 477,BAT 477 NN,BFS 10,BFS 29,BFS 32,BFS 67,DOR 390,G 40001,INB 827,INB 841,MIB 778,NCB 226,NCB 280,Perola,RCB 273,RCB 593,SCR 16,SCR 2,SCR 9,SEA 15,SEN 56,SER 118,SER 119,SER 125,SER 16,SER 48,SER 78,SMC 141,SMC 43,SXB 412 and Tio Canela 75. A 6 x 6 partially balanced lattice design with 3 replicates was used. Two levels of water supply (irrigated and rainfed) were applied. Stomatal conductance and canopy biomass were measured at mid-pod filling. At the time of harvest, grain yield and yield components were determined. Ground samples of grain at harvest was sent to UC Davis Stable Isotope Facility in USA for 13 C analysis. Carbon isotope discrimination (CID) was calculated according to Farquhar et al. (1989). Isotopic discrimination between 13 C and 12 C (CID) in grain was related to whole plant water use efficiency (WUE) and effective use of water (EUW). Water use efficiency (WUE) is defined as \"more crop per drop\", while effective use of water (EUW) implies maximal soil moisture capture for transpiration. Pod partitioning index (PPI) (dry wt of pods at harvest/dry wt of canopy biomass at midpodfill x 100), pod harvest index (PHI) (dry wt of seed at harvest/dry wt of pod at harvest x 100), were also determined. ","tokenCount":"905"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"aabf93d0c3b11cf58bf8c068c2751fde","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e557c6e3-4562-43c8-8680-1af814715eac/retrieve","id":"-236504294"},"keywords":["OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report Gender","Youth","Capacity Development and Climate Change: Gender relevance: 0 -Not Targeted Youth relevance: 1 -Significant Main achievements with specific Youth relevance: Digital innovation is attractive to Youth CapDev relevance: 0 -Not Targeted Climate Change relevance: 0 -Not Targeted Other cross-cutting dimensions: No Other cross-cutting dimensions description: <Not Defined> Outcome Impact Case Report link: Study #3810"],"sieverID":"18e3bc62-3955-4e54-a9cc-2e78a8ae3109","pagecount":"5","content":"Meghdoot, a joint initiative of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) aims to deliver critical information to farmers through a simple and easy to use mobile application. The app seamlessly aggregates contextualised district and crop wise advisories issued by Agro Met Field Units every Tuesday and Friday with the forecast and historic weather information to farmers in local vernacular. Meghdoot has disseminated >350k advisories with >45k active users.India?s District level Agrometeorological Advisory Service (DAAS) program is one of the largest integrated agrometeorological information programs in the world (Khobragade et al., 2014;Rathore et al., 2011). DAAS provides district level weather information and crop management advisories across the country (https://mausam.imd.gov.in/imd_latest/contents/agromet/advisory/blocalmain.php ) . The aim of DAAS was to provide farmers with tailor made and well processed information by the customizing information to the farmer needs at a district scale. Currently, IMD issues district wise and crop specific agro advisories for approximately 500 districts through 130 AMFUs (Agro-Meteorological Field Units) which are multi-institutional teams. AMFUs prepare agricultural advisories based on the local information and the past and forecast weather data (obtained from IMD, IITM and regional IMD centres) and issues agro-meteorological advisory bulletins for every district which span the 127 agro-climatic zones. These advisories are issued twice a week: Tuesdays and Fridays Though standard operation procedures (SOP) are defined to crafting of advisories by AMFUs twice a week, agro advisories dissemination is not standardized and is done through various modes such as SMS, IMD webpage (http://imdagrimet.gov.in/imdproject/AGDistrictBulletin.php), manually through farmer?s groups, NGO?s and KVK?s. Consequently, the DAAS program?s information chain essentially terminated at the AMFUs. Upstream investments in meteorology (compute infrastructure, manpower, new models) and agriculture didn?t readily spill over into benefits for extension and farmer users. Further, the DAAS program didn?t have the means to collect data/information about uptake, quality or feedback from the farmer users. The Meghdoot mobile application and the backend application were developed exclusively to disseminate the agro-advisories of the DAAS and also overcome the issues listed earlier. Mobile SMS has a limitation on the length of the advisory, a website for advisory has a lot of information but it is quite complicated to access. Even then the advisory reaches only 24% of farming community. So to increase the percentage of dissemination. Meghdoot was designed with simple GUI (Graphic User Interface) which even digitally challenged people can use it with complete confidence.Part II: CGIAR system level reporting • 1186 -Meghdoot App to support the digitalization of agroadvisories in India (https://tinyurl.com/2ljyt4jh)The Meghdoot app, since its launch has been downloaded/installed by more than 172,000+ times (numbers current as of 30th September 2020). Total active users (which are defined as a user accessing the app at least once a week) in android are 45,000+ as of September 2020. The app has also been downloaded by at least one user in 671 districts of India indicating a significant geographical spread. Cumulatively, the Meghdoot app has disseminated about 354,312 advisories since its launch as on 30th Sep 2020. The application has received favourable responses in North, Western and Central parts of India. The app received an average rating of 3.7/5.0 by 696 Meghdoot app users (Table 2) on Android Playstore. The comments provided by users in the Google Play store have been analysed to summarise users? feedback and suggestions. The number of occurrences of words with positive connotation is 143 while that with a negative connotation is 62 (Table 1). A slightly varied analysis which provides percentage split between words with positive connotations versus literal opposite word implying negative connotations is presented in Figure 1. Of note is that in more than 70% of the cases, the application received a positive review while it was negative in 30% of cases. This indicates that the Meghdoot app was helpful to the majority of the users in providing timely advisories. These comments are being used to inform continual improvements. The state wise advisories issued and the numbers of users have been presented in Figure 1.","tokenCount":"669"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"31f0099ee80a6d295158468c63c3b5e9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4fabfaf4-e7e9-4393-9a4f-7a1354e596e0/retrieve","id":"-1308974521"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0da131c8-6596-45a0-8aef-dd883dca0b51","pagecount":"5","content":"Changing climatic conditions in Eastern Africa with extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have resulted in massive losses of cattle and exotic and crossbred sheep breeds kept in pastoral communities. This has led to an increased demand for more resilient breeds, and the use of alternative livestock products previously ignored by the communities. This study presents an adaptation by women in Maasai pastoral communities in response to the changing climatic conditions. Following two years of droughts with huge losses of animals in Kenya, Maasai women in Isinya began to milk their sheep for the upkeep of their households. The emergence of the product resulted in a business enterprise through which the women could generate an income from sale of sheep milk to a processor who produced cheese for export. Interventions to support product handling to ensure quality of the milk were put in place. Fluctuating volumes and seasonality in supply of the product however remain as challenges. There is a demand for improved indigenous sheep as they continue lactating through dry environmental conditions for the upkeep of their offspring. Efforts to develop the capacity of the communities on disease prevention, pasture and water management would greatly improve offtake and increase incomes from indigenous sheep.The paradox of livestock production in developing countries is that livestock contribute to, and are also victims of climate change (FAO, 2009). Unfortunately, climatic conditions are changing, with potentially devastating impacts in East Africa because of drastic changes in the frequency, intensity, and predictability of precipitation (IPCC, 2001). The increased frequency of extreme weather events, notably floods and droughts may overwhelm the resilience of pastoral systems and keep the communities in a perennial state of \"recovery\" from one drought to another. Without more resilient species and breeds, populations of livestock within the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) cannot stabilize, and the condition of animals in herds and flocks will continue to deteriorate.Sheep are an important livestock species reared in the ASAL. Their shorter generation intervals and relatively higher reproductive rates among the ruminant livestock reared make them a key asset to pastoralists. In many countries, sheep fulfill multipurpose roles (i.e. produce wool, meat, milk and mow the landscapes) (Pollott and Gootwine, 2001), however in pastoral systems of Kenya, sheep are mainly kept for meat, manure and skins (Kosgey, 2004). In Maasai pastoral communities, sheep are often the only livestock asset over which women and youth have a greater control. The breeds kept in extensive systems in Kenya include trans-boundary breed groups such as Picture 1. Flock of mainly Red Maasai sheep in Isinya the East African fat tailed sheep of which the Red Maasai are a representative group (Picture 1). Red Maasai sheep inherently resist intestinal worm parasite infestation and infection (Baker et al., 2004), and are tolerant to drought conditions (Kosgey et al., 2008).In Kenya, past sheep improvement programs mainly focused on crossbreeding of indigenous breeds with exotic breed types, especially the Dorper breed. The crossbreeding results in faster growing animals with more evenly distributed fat than what is found in the indigenous breeds. However, studies on the breeds show that the Dorper and some crossbreds are less productive and unable to tolerate the long droughts in the ASAL (Baker et al, 2003;Okeyo and Baker 2005) Efforts were also made to develop and strengthen the capacity of the pastoral communities, specifically in breeding and improvement programs, flock management, and on the markets and opportunities for marketing quality sheep and sheep products. This study illustrates how the women of Maasai pastoral communities in Isinya adopted an alternative product -sheep milk, in response to the changing climatic conditions of the ASAL to sustain their families.Monitoring of animal growth and the factors affecting animal survival in the area revealed that early each morning prior to the sheep being released to graze, the women would milk the ewes with suckling lambs (Picture 3). Milking sheep was not a practice in the Maasai community. However since most of their cows died from drought related causes, the pastoral women opted to milk select ewes which had larger and better developed udders. In keeping with their tradition, the men do not milk the ewes, but readily consumed the milk harvested.Picture 2. Pile of bones of animals that died in a drought from a Pastoral livestock keeper's herdIn 2013, an entrepreneur interested in sheep milk, was introduced to the \"lead\" pastoral livestock keeper in the ILRI-SLU project site of Isinya. The new market for sheep milk provided an opportunity for the women to increase their income and improve their livelihoods. The women came together and supplied sheep milk to the entrepreneur. Initially (in January 2013), 15 litres of sheep milk were collected daily by 3 women and sold. Later that year, more women joined the group and were supplying up to 45 litres a day (Figure 1). In the area, the price of sheep milk was Ksh.60 per litre (USD.0.67 per litre). The price offered to the women group was Ksh.80 per litre (USD.0.89 per litre). The good price offered by the processor led to a progressive increase in supply, notably in the next lambing season (Figure 1). By January 2014, the women were collecting up to 60 litres per day. The milk collected was used by the processor to produce  4). The milk supply was however not consistent as it depended on the lambing seasons in the area, resulting in extended periods of zero milk supply. As the processor was introducing a new cheese in the market, and with the irregular supply of the milk, there was need to re-evaluate the opportunity and determine the best options for investment in the market.The women were to keep and manage the proceeds from the sheep milk. They thus formed an informal cooperative (Chama) where every member contributed Ksh.200 (USD. 2.2) weekly from the sales of their sheep milk. On a rotational basis individuals in the \"Chama\" received the accumulated funds. With this money, they bought household utensils, furnished their living rooms, dressed their children better, bought more food and increased the variety of foods cooked in their houses. Additionally, they were able to support their husbands in paying their children's school fees.To facilitate bulking and transportation of milk to the processor, the processor in partnership with a local development company-ABC bought a freezer for milk storage. The women group members rented a room within Isinya town to serve as their operating hub. The milk produced by each group member would be measured, sieved for impurities and tested to ensure it was not adulterated at the team leader's homestead. Once certified to be of good quality, milk would be packed in a clear polythene bag and labelled with the owners' name, then it would be transported to Isinya town for freezing prior to transfer to the processor once a week. Records on volumes of milk supplied by each member, and sale prices received were meticulously kept by the group.The Maasai communities were able to adapt to the extreme changes in the ASAL environment by turning to an alternative product from their sheep to meet their household food and income needs. The sheep milk was well received by the households within the communities and found to be of good nutritional value.Although the sheep milk production and supply varies greatly within and between the seasons and generally follows the mating cycles of animals, when conditions are very dry, the indigenous breeds of sheep continue lactating albeit to only support their offspring.Having a market for sheep milk greatly boosted the interest of the community in sheep keeping, and raised awareness on the need to select, keep and carefully manage better milking ewes while paying close attention to their reproduction. The introduction of growth performance recording of the animals through the ILRI-SLU project should include selection and mating of ewes to be used for milk production.There is also need to develop capacity within the communities on disease prevention, pasture and water management in order to improve offtake.The market for sheep milk is still rudimentary and the end product was for export. Opportunities need to be explored for developing and expanding a local market for sheep milk. This could provide an incentive for pastoral communities to better manage and control their flock sizes and positively contribute to improved environmental management. ","tokenCount":"1381"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8968d9b0b8f49f49b4d0db3b649b6dff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b36b0767-0a43-4229-aa50-9d09793624c5/retrieve","id":"-260834221"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a746255f-964d-4006-ae37-cae592177654","pagecount":"16","content":"Ouédraogo I, Diouf NS, Gnalenba A, Zougmoré R, Ndiaye O, 2020. Renforcement de capacités des utilisateurs pour une compréhension et utilisation effective des services météorologiques et climatiques. Document de capitalisation des acquis du projet USAID/CINSERE. Programme de Recherche du CGIAR sur le Changement Climatique, l'Agriculture et la Sécurité Alimentaire (CCAFS). Wageningen, Pays Bas, 16 pages.Le SIC est devenu un intrant assez important pour l'agriculture et la pêche au Sénégal. Toutefois, l'information météorologique et climatique à elle seule n'a d'effet sur la performance des activités agricoles que si des décisions précises et adaptées sont prises après sa réception. C'est ainsi que l'USAID/ CINSERE a considéré la formation des acteurs à l'utilisation des diverses SIC reçues comme un instrument fondamental pour une meilleure prise de décision par les producteurs.Pour ce faire, dès le démarrage du projet, des modules de formation ont été conçus par l'ANACIM. Les zones et bénéficiaires cibles ont également été identifiés au fil des années.Quatre modules de formation compilés sous forme de manuels ont été développés pour guider les séances de formation. Il s'agit de modules sur (1) le changement climatique, (2) le pluviomètre à lecture directe, (3) la prévision saisonnière et (4) les produits et services climatiques. Au-delà de ces quatre modules, une sensibilisation sur les bénéfices de l'assurance agricole est aussi donnée lors des séances de formation.Au moins trois équipes composées d'agrométéorologues, de prévisionnistes et de spécialistes en TIC, tous issus de l'ANACIM sont chargées de dérouler les formations chaque année. L'organisation des séances de formation bénéficient de l'appui de l'équipe de l'USAID/ CINSERE qui prend en charge tous les couts liés au voyage des techniciens et des participants et également la production et l'impression des manuels de formation.Chaque année, les séances de formation sont programmées entre mars et mai. Cette période est cruciale dans la mesure où elle précède la période de démarrage de travaux champêtres. Les bénéficiaires de ces formations sont disponibles à cette période et ont du temps pour s'organiser avant la tombée des premières pluies. La planification des formations (choix des sites et des dates) est faite par les techniciens de l'ANACIM en collaboration avec l'équipe de l'USAID/CINSERE et des techniciens des projets Feed the Future. En général, ce sont les leaders des organisations paysannes (les Réseaux de Consolidation par exemple) des zones d'intervention du projet USAID/CINSERE qui choisissent les personnes qui doivent prendre part à une séance donnée. Chaque année, au moins une quarantaine de séances ii.approche de mise en oeuvre de formation a lieu dans une trentaine de départements. Chaque séance rassemble 45 à 50 producteurs, deux techniciens des services déconcentrés de l'État (ANCAR, DRDR, SDDR, Service de l'Hydraulique, Service de l'Elevage, Eaux et Forêts, etc.) et des hommes de médias. A l'entame de chaque formation qui dure une journée entière, les participants sont invités à décrire les manifestations du changement climatique vécues dans leur localité et à présenter les méthodes endogènes utilisées pour y faire face. Cette étape est très importante car elle établit la confiance entre les participants et les formateurs. En général, les mêmes ressentis sont confirmés par la démarche scientifique. Après cette étape, d'autres manifestations concrètes ainsi que les causes du changement climatique sont données par les formateurs. Ensuite, des méthodes d'adaptation sont proposées, parmi lesquelles, les prévisions saisonnières, les alertes météorologiques précoces (pluies, vents, pause sèche, séquence humide, etc.), l'assurance agricole, etc. Enfin, une formation sur l'utilisation de pluviomètre manuel est donnée à des participants cibles à qui des pluviomètres paysans sont remis. Ceux-ci sont plus connus sous le nom de « gérants de pluviomètres ». L'objectif est de permettre à ces gestionnaires de collecter les quantités de pluies tombées dans la localité et de les partager avec les producteurs de toute la communauté. Les quantités de pluies relevées après chaque pluie et le cumul saisonnier issus de ces pluviomètres constituent des informations météorologiques locales qui permettent aux producteurs de prendre d'importantes décisions pour accroitre leur résilience. Le partage des manuels de formation aux participants (4 différents manuels par participant ) clôt la séance. Les bénéficiaires des formations deviennent des ambassadeurs et reçoivent pour mandat de démultiplier la formation en formant d'autres membres de leur communauté. Trois manuels de formation ont été produits pour la formation des acteurs de la pêche. Il s'agit de (1) changement climatique, (2) assistance météo à la pêche artisanale et (3) produits et services climatiques. A cela, s'ajoute un module sur la sécurité en mer conçu et déroulé par un technicien de la Direction de la Protection et de la Surveillance des Pêches (DPSP).Deux équipes composées de météorologues, de prévisionnistes et de spécialistes en TIC, tous issus de l'ANACIM sont chargées de dérouler les formations chaque année. L'organisation des séances de formation bénéficient de l'appui de l'équipe de l'USAID/ CINSERE qui prend en charge tous les coûts liés au voyage des techniciens et des participants et également la production et l'impression des manuels de formation.Etant donné que les activités de la pêche ont lieu toute l'année, il n'y a pas de période fixe pour les formations. Toutefois, les formations se font en général entre octobre et décembre pour prévenir d'éventuels phénomènes extrêmes susceptibles de se dérouler entre janvier et avril. La programmation se fait en fonction de la disponibilité de l'équipe chargée de dérouler les formations. Les formations ont lieu en général dans les villes côtières où il existe des quais de pêches. Ces zones sont sur la grande côte (Saint-Louis, Fass Boy et Kayar ), la petite côte (de la Baie de Hann à Djiffer ) et la Casamance ( la côte de la Casamance ). Les pêcheurs sont regroupés en Conseils Locaux de Pêches Artisanales (CLPA), ce qui facilite l'organisation des formations. Le planning des formations est fait par l'ANACIM en collaboration avec l'équipe de l'USAID/CINSERE et les présidents des CLPA. Les présidents identifient les membres qui doivent bénéficier de la formation tout en veillant à ce qu'un membre ne soit formé qu'une seule fois durant la vie du projet. Chaque séance de formation regroupe 50 à 60 participants, en majorité des pêcheurs, transformatrices et mareyeurs et quelques personnes issues des services de la pêche ou des médias. Comme pour l'agriculture, les techniciens de l'ANACIM commencent la formation en demandant aux participants leur perception du changement climatique surtout dans le secteur de la pêche. En général, il ressort de cette discussion que les vents, la houle et les marées sont devenus plus violents qu'ils ne l'étaient auparavant, que les poissons sont devenus peu abondants, que des espèces nouvelles ont fait leur apparition et que des espèces nobles se raréfient. De manière scientifique, les formateurs leur expliquent l'origine de ces changements : augmentation de la température, fréquence des cyclones, activités anthropiques (utilisation d'engins et de techniques de pêche prohibées), etc. La montée en puissance de ces phénomènes extrêmes est la cause des pertes en vies humaines et matérielles qui sont enregistrées chaque année au Sénégal. Afin de faire face à ces phénomènes, l'ANACIM a produit des IC pour guider la prise de décision des pêcheurs quant à aller ou non en mer : alertes de houle, de marées et de vents violents. A cela, s'ajoute la formation sur la sécurité en mer par la DPSP qui sensibilise les pêcheurs sur la nécessité de porter des gilets de sauvetage avant d'aller en mer. A la fin de la formation, les manuels sont distribués aux participants qui sont appelés à former d'autres pêcheurs qui n'ont pas eu la chance de participer à une des formations.iii. acquisLe nombre de personnes qui ont été directement formées de 2016 à 2020 se présente comme suit : Les producteurs (issus de plus de 200 organisations de producteurs) directement formés ont, à leur tour, formé d'autres producteurs (démultiplication). La démultiplication a permis de toucher près de 350,000 producteurs dont 39% sont des femmes. Environ 45 hommes de médias issus d'une quarantaine de structures médiatiques ont pris part aux différentes séances de formation.Démultiplication dans le domaine de l'agriculture: 211,284 hommes ; 137,834 femmes.Le nombre de personnes qui ont été directement formées dans le domaine de la pêche 2016 à 2020 se présente comme suit:         Durant les quatre années de mise en oeuvre du projet USAID/CINSERE, toutes les formations ont été faites par l'ANACIM en collaboration avec les services techniques de la pêche (DPSP, Chef de poste) et de l'agriculture (DRDR, SDDR, ANCAR). La demande en formation étant très forte, les équipes de formation au sein de l'ANACIM n'arrivent pas à couvrir tous les besoins en temps voulu. En conséquence, la majeure partie des formations ont été réalisées en milieu ou fin de saison pluvieuse. Un des défis, c'est de renforcer les capacités de l'ANACIM (recruter et former des techniciens) pour assurer pleinement et à temps les formations, ou mieux, décentraliser les formations à des structures privées partenaires. Un autre défi majeur est le financement des formations. Les formations coûtent très chères et ont été à 100% assurées par USAID/CINSERE durant les quatre dernières années. Sans une source de financement pérenne, ces formations ne pourront pas être maintenues à long terme.Dans la perspective de pérennisation de l'utilisation des SIMC au Sénégal, il est fortement recommandé que l'ANACIM forme des formateurs, de préférence des structures privées engagées dans les modèles économiques des SIC, pour que ces derniers s'occupent des formations des utilisateurs des IC. L'ANACIM veillera à ce que les formateurs formés dispensent des formations de qualité.Très satisfait","tokenCount":"1558"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2a5ce637f2287ea080ce9751e1cde559","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7e2d81f0-f3d8-44db-83ea-39bf480a1ea4/retrieve","id":"-426155696"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"09e9284a-dafd-42aa-b2b6-ff9a41908b63","pagecount":"94","content":"This report has been commissioned by the CTA to enhance its monitoring of information needs in ACP countries. CTA does not guarantee the accuracy of data included in this report, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of CTA. CTA reserves the right to select projects and recommendations that fall within its mandate.The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), an ACP-EU body since 1983, and operating within the framework of the ACP-EC Cotonou Agreement since 2000, has had a mandate to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA's 2001-2005 \"Strategic Plan and Framework for Action identified strategic issues for CTA regarding the improved targeting of its programmes to ensure wider coverage and activities that are relevant to and reach the poor. This study was further prompted by the request of several of CTA's national and regional partners to update the earlier studies done to allow them to provide more targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.The objectives of the study -Assessment Of Agricultural Information Needs In African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) States -Phase 1: Caribbean -are as follows:• to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services;• to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; • to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services;• to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.The study was conducted in two phases; Phase 1 -a desk study which involved a review of available documents and extensive Internet searches; and Phase 2 -field research conducted through consultations/interviews including one broad-based focus group discussion with producer organizations, supplemented with structured data capture formats developed by the CTA. The nineteen (19) organisations/institutions targeted for the study were selected based on a determined potential to facilitate the CTA's work programme at the local level.Findings from this study are expected to inform the CTA priority themes and work programmes for the Caribbean for the next five years. At the same time interviewees will be made more aware of the products and services that are currently available from CTA for institutions and individuals. The needs of the select organisations/institutions will also be assessed in order to update products and services that can support the activities and work programmes of same.Agricultural information and communications resources in St Kitts and Nevis are largely centred around the conventional media of print and broadcast, with a slow emergence of the more modern media of e-mail, websites, electronic networking, among others.Agricultural information needs were identified for the nineteen (19) stakeholders interviewed for the study, namely, St. Christopher Heritage Society (SCHS), Foundation for National Development (FND) -St Kitts, Foundation for National Development (FND) -Nevis), Most of the institutions operating within the agricultural sector, in both government and private sector agencies, have limited financial resources to develop appropriate information resources, and lack the physical and human resource capacity for information and communications management. Resource availability, physical, financial and human, is viewed as a key, if not the most serious constraint to meeting agricultural information needs of stakeholders. The producer associations appear to be the most severely affected by this lack of resources, primarily the human resource capacity, for information and communications management.When the extent of key problems observed among the institutions visited was compared with those previously identified by each of the three CTA operational departments it was found that the situation had begun to change, albeit marginally, since the last CTA study. With respect to Information Products and Services, the study revealed that there was no shortage of printed publications. However, information products that were relevant and applicable to the specific needs of organisation were still not widely available to support decision making in the sector. This was largely due to constraints in information servicing, particularly with respect to the time taken to access information and the packaging of information in a form that could be applied directly.With regard to Communication Channels and Services, the assessment revealed growing use of new information sources and the application of modern communications media, such as the Internet -e-mail, websites and electronic discussions groups, as well as linked databases, though traditional channels of print and radio and television,are still largely used to disseminate agricultural information. All of the organisations interviewed, has some degree of capability to effectively utilize new and modern communications technologies, such as Dialup or ADSL technology for Internet access. However the human and physical resource constraints of organisations limited the extent of use of these electronic information services.The status of ICM Skills and Systems in the country showed marginal improvement, as limited human resource, coupled with a general lack of expertise for ICM and limited opportunities for training in this regard were highlighted by the study. The nineteen (19) institutions interviewed, including the MACFLH of St. Kitts and the MALHCF of Nevis, cited limited physical, financial and human resource as major constraints to capacity development for ICM required for meeting agricultural information needs. The producer organisations however, appear to be the most severely affected in this regard.Priority information needs of institutions in the agricultural and rural sector in St Kitts and Nevis at present and through to the next 5 years can be summarized under the broad thematic areas of food production, processing, marketing, commercialization; food security; rural development, and natural resources management.Physical, financial and human resource constraints have been identified as the major factors hampering to adequate information management and the use of ICTs in the agricultural and rural sector of St. Kitts and Nevis. There is need therefore, for capacity building efforts to seek to overcome these constraints, which make it difficult for organizations to avail themselves of basic tools and equipment required to access and communicate information now and for the future.Further, there is need to develop more definitive information management policies and strategies at the national/sector level and institutional levels, to facilitate strategic data and information collection and communication required to foster and guide decision-making at all levels in the sector.The existing situation therefore presents considerable opportunity for CTA interventions in the country, in terms of providing access to information, capacity building as well as addressing a key strategic area of partnership and targeting of beneficiaries.Given the extent and diverse needs of the stakeholders in the agricultural and rural sector of St Kitts and Nevis, and current human, physical and financial constraints, the country will need to prioritize those needs within the framework of national goals, agricultural sector policy, needs of stakeholders and available resources, to develop the capabilities for maintaining information and communication services and for tailoring them to the specific needs of stakeholders.1. Improved accessibility to publications and other information by extending the reach of CTA's products and services to the partners and beneficiaries identified in the study. 2. Information packages tailored to be meet the specific needs of the partners and beneficiaries. 3. Public awareness programmes aimed at developing local capacity to engender an information culture and an appreciation for the value of information to be undertaken by public and private sector with support from CTA.4. CTA should provide resources, equipment and/or skills -technical assistance in strengthening local and national distribution infrastructure for the establishment of networks at the local level, as well as on a regional and international level. 5. CTA should assist in sourcing funds for acquiring physical resources to develop the capabilities of stakeholders/actors such as SEDU, CEMACO/FAMDECO to take advantage of existing e-distribution channels.6. CTA to provide support through its existing Caribbean regional agricultural policy network for the participatory development and implementation of information and communication management policies and strategies to promote the use of information products and services for planning and decision-making in the sector. 7. The Government of the St Kitts and Nevis should move quickly to develop and implement a national ICM policy and strategy, to promote and encourage the development and implementation of ICM policies and strategies at the ministerial and all other levels. 8. Institutions at the national level should begin to assign a critical mass of physical and human resources needed for the management of data and information resources. 9. Stakeholders at all levels in the sector should develop mechanisms to access requisite skills training in the area of information and communication management (ICM). CTA could assist in facilitating ICM and related skills training. 10. CTA could assist select public and private sector institutions in the creation of databases utilizing standardized formats for agricultural information management to facilitate information dissemination, and the development of skills for the management of these databases. Short term technical assistance should be provided for the design and building of databases, while counterpart training is pursued for development of local knowledge and expertise for the long term.The These operational departments are supported by a central service known as Planning Corporate Services (P&CS) Unit which is charged with the methodological underpinning of their work and monitoring the ACP environment in order to identify emerging issues and trends and make proposals for their translation into programmes and activities. This current exercise, therefore, falls within the mandate of P&CS.3. The \"Strategic Plan and Framework for Action -2001 -2005\" developed by CTA based on the \"Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan (1997-2000)\" identifies strategic issues for CTA including: improved targeting (including partnerships and beneficiaries), geographical coverage, decentralisation, regionalisation and thematic orientation. Issues related to the extent to which CTA's activities are relevant to and reach the poor, gender awareness and partner identification and selection were also brought to the fore. In addition, various national and regional partners with whom CTA has had a long-standing relationship requested a study which would serve to update the earlier studies done and allow them to provide more targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.4. The objectives of this study are as follows:to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services; to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services; to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities. 8. The agricultural sector and in particular the sugar industry has been a major contributor to economic activity. While, the tourism industry has since become a major source of income and employment, the sector has been somewhat stagnated in recent years due to inadequate access to this destination from major markets. The manufacturing sector which has been expanding over recent years is now faced with intense competition from regional manufacturers which has resulted in reduced demand for goods produced for the domestic and regional markets. The Government of St Kitts and Nevis has identified the offshore sector as a sphere of activity with significant growth potential and is currently undertaking initiatives to realize this potential.9. The sugar industry, has dominated the agricultural sector of St. Kitts, with up to 60 -70% of the estimated 21,550 acres of cultivable lands on the island being planted in sugar cane in the late 1980's. Production operations in the field have been partially mechanized and over the years the sugar industry has relied on the availability of cheap and abundant labour for both the production and manufacturing operations. It has been recognized that the long term success of the national diversification effort in the agricultural sector in St. Kitts is inextricably linked to an agricultural diversification process within the operations and lands in the sugar industry.10. Non-sugar agriculture in St Kitts comprises mainly fruits and vegetables produced in small quantities, largely for domestic consumption. Livestock production and fishing are becoming important activities. Most non-sugar crop farming is carried out by the more than 4,000 farmers who operate on small holdings of an average one hectare. The smallscale farming sector is characterized by three major groups: subsistence farmers; producers for the local market and livestock farmers. There is some commercial farming activity, usually on holdings ranging from 4 to 8 hectares, with approximately 25 commercial scale farmers producing about 75% of the output of food crops. On Nevis, vegetables and root crops are cultivated on a subsistence basis and some cotton is grown for export.11. The small farming sector is involved in diverse agricultural production activities and controls a very small portion of the total land area, water and capital resources. In addition these farmers have limited access to credit and to other critical production inputs and services. Crop production is carried out mainly under rain-fed conditions, so that during the year, supplies vary with the amount of rainfall.12. Livestock production is mainly for subsistence, with the main areas of activity being cattle, sheep, goat and poultry rearing. Most livestock farmers operate on a part-time basis, in a disorganized and inefficient operational frame, resulting in a poor quality and unreliable supply of products and an inability to meet the cost of production.13. There are more than 100 registered fishing boats in St Kitts and Nevis used by more than 300 active fishers. Most of the fishing is done from small, wooden, open boats ranging in length from 5 to 8 metres, and utilizing outboard motors with horsepower ranging from 25hp to 150 hp. Fishing methods are traditional, although some modern techniques have been adopted in recent years.Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry 28. Other regional and international institutions which operate in the sector include CARDI, in the area of research, and the CDB, CIDA, BDD, OAS, USAID, EEC, with respect to funding. have over the last few years developed information management capacity within documentation centres. These institutions serve as a national resource where a wide variety of print, visual and audio information can be found in one location, including some historical data, and preserved government records, reports, and other studies, some related to the agricultural sector.33. Most of the institutions operating within the agricultural sector, in both government and private sector agencies, have limited financial resources to develop appropriate information resources, and as a result lack the physical and human resource capacity for information and communications management. In fact, resource availability is viewed as a key, if not the most serious constraint to meeting the agricultural information needs of stakeholders. The overall budgets of most institutions are usually quite small and, allocations to agricultural information are often times meagre or non-existent. This makes it difficult to acquire the type of equipment to utilize and manage information such as computer hardware and software, reprographic equipment, audio-visual equipment, to make such technologies readily accessible or available. Producers, including, farmers and fisher folk and their collective associations appear to be the most severely affected by these resource constraints, primarily with respect to physical and human resource capacity, for ICM.34. Dedicated agricultural information and communication departments/sections are not a feature of most institutions in the sector, and in most instances information management appears to be a shared responsibility among the usually limited number of technical and administrative staff. Technical staff tends to be highly trained, to Bachelors and Masters Degree level, in their specific areas of technical expertise, which range from Marketing, Extension, Agronomy, Engineering, Veterinary Medicine and Livestock Science to Economics, Management and Accounting. Specialist skills of curator and archivist are also employed in the NHCS. However, while most technical experts and administrative personnel may be highly proficient in the use of some form of ICTs, they have limited or no training in and/or knowledge of the management of information and communications.35. Agricultural information is disseminated/communicated through various means primary of which are radio and television programmes, e.g. Government weekly radio program, \"Agriscope\" and a weekly Television Program -\" Agriculture in Context\", publications such as fact sheets and flyers, training materials -hard copy and A/V, and informal question and answer services. The SCHS engages in various public awareness and education programmes in the form of field trips, lectures, mounting of displays, production of brochures and radio and TV programmes. There is however, an apparent absence of established mechanisms for the flow of technical and other related information to professionals within and among institutions and agencies in the sector. Consequently, available reports and external agency project documents tend to have limited circulation among organisations in the sector.36. Internet access is generally available at the management level, i.e. in the head offices, of most institutions but tends to be quite limited in the case of line staff, particularly those based at community level, a consequence of hardware and software constraints. Communication via Internet is primarily through e-mail. Current use of websites is limited, and there is little or no information exchange through this medium, as the capacity for developing and managing interactive websites is still lacking. There are no established telecentres and the location of Internet Cafés, make it difficult to manage the communication of information to the various producer groups and other vulnerable groups (women, youth). Other Internet services such as electronic discussion groups are utilized by a few persons at the management level of the sector, usually for the exchange of specific information within collaborating institutions, e.g. information exchange between the Department of Fisheries and Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM).37. The MACFLH has a stated policy to strengthen communication to enhance the linkage between the Ministry and its stakeholders and to assist in farmer training and general delivery of agricultural information. The primary means for the communication of information is via programmes utilizing the Government owned radio and television stations.38. Agricultural information services at the national level are largely delivered through public sector entities, such as the departments in the MAFCLH in St Kitts, MALHCF in Nevis, and the Nevis Public Library Services, the former two acknowledged by the many stakeholders as the primary source of agricultural information and services at the national level. The nature of the agricultural information service provided varies among the institutions in the sector.39. Technical advisory services for example is delivered through the extension services of the MAFCLH in St Kitts and the MALHCF in Nevis, often in the form of printed material, reproduced literature, and broadcast services, mainly television and radio programmes. The Nevis Public Library Services and the small library in the Department of Agriculture MACFLH in St Kitts also maintain a collection of varied agricultural related literature, available on request, usually as reproduced material.40. The majority of the institutions interviewed identified their personal collection of documents as an information source which was used frequently. Most of the institutions also indicated that they sourced information from regional and international sources, such as publications and though meetings and informal QAS with counterpart associations and affiliated bodies. Research and other scientific information are generally accessed through membership in associations or affiliated bodies. For example the SSMC obtains most of its technical advice through its membership body, the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC). Similarly the Department of Fisheries sources most information required for executing its programmes through affiliated agencies such as CRFM. Direct contact with universities and research institutions however, tends to be limited, with only two organisations, the SCHS and NPLS, indicating this as a source. The Internet is increasingly becoming a key information source, but due to the limited access to Internet in most organizations, this source is yet to be tapped optimally. Audio-visuals, primarily local radio and television programmes, were also identified as a main source of information, mainly for the producer type organisations such as the NGC.41. Table 1 provides a list of organizations through which information is sourced by the various agencies in the agricultural sector for the execution of their programmes. 42. As in other OECS countries, ongoing realignment of the stakeholder environment in the agricultural and rural sector of St Kitts and Nevis has seen the role of government evolving to that of facilitator and enabler. This has created a new area of responsibility for producers and their collective organizations, as well as other service providers in the private sector, with respect to the formulation and management of agricultural and rural development policies, and the concomitant issues of information and communications management.43. Traditionally the Departments of Agriculture (DOA) through extension services served as the principal source of information to producers and other stakeholders in the agriculture and rural sector. Though still considered a key player in information and communication resources, the role of the DOA is progressively being diminished as producers and other stakeholders begin to seek and expect information directly from institutions who provide them with services in areas such as business development (SEDU), financing (FND), marketing (CEMACO, FAMDECO), producer organisations (e.g. Farmers Cooperative, St. Kitts Floral Arrangers, etc.), input suppliers, among others. These are completely new roles and stakeholders in this grouping are only just coming to terms with the new responsibilities and opportunities. This development therefore, has significant implications for defining stakeholders, information needs and capacity building requirements.44. Further, national policies and strategies to address the current dynamics of this change are inappropriate or non-existent . As a result, there remains a huge gap between the new roles that these stakeholders are required to play and the availability of the necessary skills, resources (financial, human and physical) and information required to integrate these stakeholders into the mainstream of agriculture and rural development.. A principal need therefore, is that of redefining development strategies to emphasize information and communication management. This would engender the development of information and communication policies and strategies aimed at creating the type of mechanisms, including the access to and use of new communications technologies that will enable stakeholders to effectively function in their new and emerging roles and meet new global challenges.45. Information needs of stakeholders in the agricultural and rural sector of St Kitts and Nevis are driven by the primary goals of similar developing nations, which are consistent with the three goals of the new partnership agreement between ACP states and the European Union: poverty reduction, sustainable development and the progressive integration into the global economy More specifically, the information needs of the sector will be guided by the Agriculture and Fisheries Policy developed by the MAFCLH in St Kitts in February 2001, which focuses on the primary areas of: agricultural production and marketing; agricultural supplies and services; promotion of farmers development, SSMC agricultural diversification programme and transition; land allocation and distribution; fisheries management and development; forestry conservation, protection and recreation and bee keeping and honey production.46. In keeping with the national and sector development plans, the analysis of information obtained from the nineteen institutions interviewed (profiles outlined in Annex III of the report) indicates that the main types of information and data required to execute their work programmes are aimed at addressing one or more of the following issues: food production, processing, marketing, nutritional quality and safety for commercialization of the sector to facilitate integration of small producers into the larger regional and global economies; food security; rural development, and the sustainable use and development of the country's natural resources of land and water, including marine resources.47. All of the institutions interviewed indicated critical information needs for execution of their programmes in at least one of the following areas: funding sources for their various programme areas; training opportunities; trade and marketing information, including new trade issues and regulations; and information to assist in identification and sourcing of affordable and appropriate technologies and equipment for production and processing.48. The specific information needs of the key institutions to service their work programmes over the next few years are further outlined in Table 2 : Globalization issues -updates on trade regulations and status of trade negotiations Summaries -trade agreements -key aspects; implications of trade liberalization on sector Programmes executed by agricultural networks (regional and international) Opportunities and sources of funding for training.50. The organisations interviewed highlighted the need for information to be adapted and packaged in a form that directly relates to their programme areas, so as to make it more relevant and appropriate to their needs. Information solutions should also consider literacy, gender and educational factors. For example, while print format is considered the simplest means by which information can be made accessible to most users, the need for more audio visual packaging was strongly advised by the producers, given the low affinity for reading observed in the population. The organisations which tended to serve as repositories for information such as DOA, SSMC, SCHS and NHCS indicated a preference for comprehensive information in the form of actual documents, journals and reports, while the other organisations interviewed seemed to have a preference for abstracts, executive summaries, fact-sheets, bulletins, graphs, charts and trends in which there was some form of conversion of the information.51. The information needs of the service providers in the sample of organisations interviewed e.g. FND, CEMACO, etc, were found to be ultimately focused on providing a level of information services that meet the specific needs of their beneficiaries, e.g. farmers and fishers. Consequently the information needs of these groups will be focused on the identification, documentation, accessing and dissemination of agricultural information in their roles as technical, business and financial advisers to growers/producers.Non-governmental organizations such as the SCHS and NHCS, have over the last few years begun to play a more integral role in the agricultural and rural sector. The programmes of NGOs are usually quite targeted, hence they are better able to identify and source information resources needed for programme implementation and to structure and manage them accordingly.52. Information needed and found difficult to acquire by most institutions, showed little variation from needs indicated in the 1997 Country Agricultural Needs Survey Report.All institutions indicated difficulty in accessing information at the national and regional levels, including: national and regional research reports; domestic and regional production and market statistics; packaging and equipment sourcing and availability; agricultural research programmes; extension programmes and technology networks and programmes particularly of regional organizations; conferences, meetings and trade fairs; government and international regulations. Other economic and general information found difficult to acquire by the organisations interviewed include inter alia heritage development, biodiversity, micro-credit mechanisms, transportation and shipping, organisation operational standards and evaluation methods.53. This section focuses on the specific capacity building needs of the nineteen stakeholders interviewed in the study.54. The study revealed that the emerging stakeholders in the sector, such as SCHS, SEDU, FND and CEMACO/FAMDECO, and even some of the producer organisations (e.g. St Kitts Floral Arrangers/Flora hortica), are beginning to place a greater emphasis on having good information resources and therefore, endeavour to dedicate the services of either paid employees or volunteers for the management of information resources.55. One major drawback however, to effective information and communication management in the aforementioned organisations is the inability to link to institutions, especially government agencies, to achieve synergies in this regard. There is need therefore, for these organisations to better integrate into local and national information networks. This will allow them to improve coordination and monitor information needs of their stakeholders. They also need to acquire the skills necessary to better manage and utilize information and communications resources.56. The following outline of the current use of ICTs by the organisations interviewed, however, illustrates the integral role of ICTs in information management in the institutions interviewed as a basis for determining more specific capacity building needs. 59. An assessment of the current and future use of ICTs by these organisations demonstrates the limited capacities of the organisations, particularly with respect to equipment and technologies required to implement work programmes. The effective implementation of both the current and future programmes of these organizations will require significant resources and the strengthening of institutional capacity to access and manage information. Physical, financial and human resource constraints have been identified as the major factors hampering adequate information management and the use of ICT in this regard, in these key institutions and there is need therefore, for capacity building efforts to seek to overcome these constraints.60. There is need for conventional tools and equipment, as well as specialized equipment to effectively manage information and communication activities for the wide range of programmes currently being undertaken by the institutions, as well as for future programmes.61. Basic computer hardware and software are critical physical resources needed to improve access to information and facilitate easy communication; the management of records and files for easy retrieval, and analysis of information have been recognized as a precursor for decision-making. Audio visual equipment for production of material for the electronic media, including equipment such laptops and LCD projectors for effective delivery of presentations are also required. Specific needs in this regard were expressed by the DOA, SCHS and the Department of Gender affairs. Local Area Networks (LAN) for networking of computers within and across departments and even across institutions (primarily in the public sector) is also a critical need for strengthening institutional capacity to access information. Equipment to facilitate the use of advanced decision-making tools such as GPS and GIS will be required to address future needs, particularly for planning with regard to land use as indicated in the capacity building needs of the SSMC and the DOA.62. All of the institutions interviewed have limited manpower to undertake the full extent of the institutions' work programmes. Furthermore, as it relates to information and communications management, all have few staff available and skilled to undertake this primary function.63. Most institutions will require additional human resources to effectively manage information and communication resources. As indicated in Section 2, most institutions did not have an individual or even a department, dedicated to information management. This task is generally spread among the duties of an already small number of staff with taxing work programmes and schedules, and in most instances ill-equipped with the skills necessary to carry out the increasingly demanding information and communication tasks.  67. In addition, strengthening of the institutional capacity to access information will require the development of traditional information sources such as libraries, documentation facilities and new sources electronic databases, information networks for application in programme implementation of institutions.68. Perhaps one of the most critical capacity building needs identified by the study is in the area of organizational development of producer organisations with respect to the capacity to manage their information needs and resources, as the current organizational structures of these associations are sadly deficient. A lack of access to information, coupled with poor management of these information resources and poor communication systems are major factors that hamper the realization of the strategic development objectives of this group. There is need therefore, to develop information and communication capacity for decision-making within these associations, underpinned by research, a capacity for analysis and synthesis and effective communication with members.69. There is also a general lack of understanding within institutions as to what is required as a minimum, for an effective and credible information and communication service. Most institutions view information and communication services in the context of a library or publications/communication unit with capacity for regular radio and television programmes for dissemination of information.70. There is need therefore, for the promulgation and implementation of information management policies and strategies at both the national and institutional levels, to facilitate strategic data and information collection and communication to foster and guide decision-making at all levels in the sector.Problems' in the Field 71. The extent of key problems observed among the institutions visited is compared below with those previously identified by each of the three CTA operational departments.72. Limited availability of publications that support decision-making in the agricultural sector: While all the institutions interviewed indicated that printed publications were their primary source of information, it was noted that publications with information relevant to their needs were not widely available. All of the nineteen institutions interviewed had difficulty accessing various types of information considered critical to support decisionmaking and implement programmes in the agricultural sector, (i.e. technical, socioeconomic and marketing data, trade regulations and agreements, etc.). Information is not always readily available or takes time to access, and there is limited adaptation or conversion of this information for knowledge transfer. Of particular concern was the limited availability of relevant CTA publications. , 73. Shortage of relevant published information on agriculture and rural development because of weak local publishing infrastructure: The concern of the organisations with respect to the relevance and applicability of available information, points to a general shortage of published information on the local and regional agriculture and rural development. The local structure to enable documenting and publishing of local information and knowledge is still quite weak, with the few publications compiled by local institutions such as SCHS having a secondary link to agriculture and rural issues. Further, there is no culture of publishing among local professionals and experts in the sector, so information and knowledge emanating at the local level tends to remain unpublished and often times unknown. In addition, with the exception of the SCHS, the organisations have few or no links to universities and research agencies, thus limiting the opportunities for integration into a formal publishing network.The assessment of capacity of the various institutions interviewed, highlighted a lack of an organised structure and established mechanisms within and among institutions for distribution of information on agriculture and rural development. The limited use of both conventional (print media, audio visuals) and new communications (electronic media, networking, etc.) technology within these institutions tends to constrain access to both locally and externally published information. All of the institutions indicated having problems with accessing information. The absence of an organized structure for information distribution means that persons and agencies also remain largely unaware of existing local and external sources of information and the types of products and services available, contributing further to their inability to access same.The seeming unavailability of relevant information appeared to be largely related to a limited awareness by institutions of the types and range of products and services available and the information sources. For example only six (6) of the nineteen organisations interviewed, namely, DOA, St. Kitts Floral Arrangers, Department of Fisheries -St Kitts, Nevis Public Library and Nevis Growers Cooperatives and St. Kitts Farmers Cooperative Society, indicated awareness of CTA activities, and of these, only the DOA appeared to have knowledge of the broad range of CTA's products and services, with the knowledge of the others limited to the SPORE magazine, general CTA publications, and CTA seminars and training programmes.76. Limited contacts among stakeholders in the sector and between the latter and experts from other countries and region: All of the institutions interviewed indicated that they utilized information services from both local and external information sources, demonstrating a reasonable level of contact among stakeholders in the local sector as well as between local institutions and external information sources. Collaboration at the local level was generally limited to associations with the DOA; however, there appeared to be a very high degree of collaboration between local institutions, and regional and international organisations, for the implementation of joint programmes and funding. One observed shortcoming however, was the limited interface with experts in universities and research agencies which is likely to limit access to sources for new and updated agricultural research information.77. Weak networking services, such as newsletters, websites, etc.: Despite a heightened awareness of opportunities for networking using a combination of conventional and new channels, e.g. electronic services, networking services at the local, regional and international levels is still largely underdeveloped. This may be largely due to the limited access by most of the institutions to Internet services such as websites and electronic discussion groups, which appears to be the fastest growing service for networking in the OECS at present.The absence of established mechanisms for networking among stakeholders and other external experts, limits the extent of information exchange among the same. Information exchange is thus largely limited to exchanges between technical staff in local institutions and experts in regional institutions operating at the local level. As indicated, only three of the institutions, DOA, SCHS and Nevis Public library service have some form of contacts or links with experts in external institutions such as universities, research institutions, which are primary repositories of agricultural information and knowledge. This suggests that more than 80% of organisations still have limited opportunities for communication and sharing of first-hand experience of pertinent developments in other countries and regions.In addition to the standard use of ICTs such as fax and phone in communication/dialogue, all of the institutions interviewed actively utilized ICTs for some form of networking indicating a growing use of new channels and services such as e-mail, the Web, Internet services, satellite broadcasts for voice, video and data communications, regional databases etc, for networking and dialogue.80. Failure to take full advantage of opportunities for using radio, TV, and other non-print media in communicating agricultural information and knowledge: Most of the organisations interviewed have not ventured far beyond the use of the conventional communication channels and services, of print media (posters, leaflets, etc.) for communicating agricultural information knowledge, and are yet to take full advantage of radio, TV and other non-print media such as satellite broadcasts for voice, video and data communications for communicating agricultural information and transferring knowledge.As indicated in Section 2.2 of the report, all the organisations interviewed have limited capacity and skills to effectively manage information and communication in order to plan and execute their programmes. Most institutions will require additional human resources to effectively manage information and communication resources. In addition, most of the staff with responsibility for ICM in these organisations have low information and communication literacy and are therefore unable to effectively manage information and communication in order to plan and execute their programmes. Further, the staff responsible for ICM in these organisations lack the capacity and skills to design and implement information and communication strategies to acquire the types of information and communication management systems required for critical decisionmaking in the sector.The organisations in the sector, more so the emerging stakeholders such as SCHS, Department of Fisheries and some grower/producer organisations are only now beginning to develop an appreciation of the need for developing ICT and ICM skills. Avenues for skills development are however, still quite limited, hence the requests by several of the institutions for training and information on sources of funding for training, with respect to acquiring those skills.The current situation of severe deficiencies in information and communication resources and capacities for management of these resources is no doubt a result of an absence of, or weak or inappropriate policies and strategies in that regard. Consequently, ICM is not viewed as a priority area in most institutions in the sector and few, if any, resources are allocated to the development of adequate systems and skills.Adequate systems to promote participatory information and communications management are lacking, and there is limited knowledge and expertise at the local level for designing the type of systems that are cost-effective and which take into account the budgetary and financial constraints of institutions in the sector. It is however envisaged that the adoption of participatory ICM systems will pose a challenge, particularly with respect to the conversion of conventional information products and services into electronic form to take advantage of new technologies, as equipment required to do so (e.g. digitizers, scanners, etc.) is not readily available within most institutions.The general lack of appreciation within the organisations of minimum requirements for an effective and credible information and communication service, coupled with a lack of ICM skills, signifies that management techniques required for, identifying, acquiring, analysing and generating agricultural information to directly match information needs are still lacking.No information on the status of science, technology and innovation policies and strategies was gleaned during the interviews, but given the new focus on ICTs within the national development framework, it is deduced that these are either being initiated or are still non-existent.87. In conclusion, priority information needs of institutions in the agricultural and rural sector in St Kitts and Nevis at present and over the next 5 years are based on addressing issues related to the commercialization of production, increased market access and progressive integration of small producers into the global economy. The main types of information and data required by the various institutions to execute the work programmes are technical and socio-economic information. This information will serve to address the issues of food production, processing, marketing, nutritional quality and safety for commercialization of the sector to facilitate integration of small producers into the larger regional and global economies; as they relate to food security; rural development, and the sustainable use and development of the country's natural resources of land and water, including marine resources.88. The critical information needs for the execution of programmes within the institutions interviewed though quite diverse can be summarised under at least one of the following priority thematic areas, namely: potential funding sources; information on training opportunities; trade and marketing -including new trade issues and regulations; and information to assist in the identification and sourcing of affordable information on appropriate technologies and equipment for production and processing. Information must at the least be adapted for local use, in order to make it relevant and appropriate to the needs of the ultimate beneficiaries, the producers. Issues of literacy, gender, educational and cultural factors must also be considered when packaging information. The need for more audio-visual packaging was strongly advised by the producer groups, given the low affinity for reading observed in the population. Most organisations had a preference for information in a summarised format. Organisations such as the DOA, SSMC, SCHS and NHCS, which tend to serve as repositories for information, however, preferred more comprehensive formats such as journals, scientific papers, full reports, etc.89. In response to the information needs identified by the study, all the institutions interviewed will require additional and/or trained human resources and will need to build physical and human resource capacity to effectively manage information and communications resources in the following areas:Information management -application of information technologies; Communication -development and application of appropriate technologies and strategies; Participatory and information-based policy formulation, planning and evaluation; Organizational management; Networking -establishment and management of knowledge-based networks at international, regional and national levels.90. Information and communication solutions for meeting the needs of the primary beneficiaries in the sector, however, may not be too difficult. However, the current institutional framework will need to be strengthened to ensure that existing and emerging stakeholders can directly interface with the producer and ultimate beneficiaries of the agricultural and rural development. This would require that capacities within the organisations of both the existing, but more so the emerging stakeholders comprising NGOs and other private sector service providers, be developed so as to effectively source and disseminate information utilizing the new and existing information sources and tools.91. The capacity building effort must therefore, seek to overcome the physical, financial and human resource constraints, which make it difficult for organizations to avail themselves of the resources (at least the basic tools and equipment) required to access and communicate information.92. As indicated in section 3.1 of the report, producers and other stakeholders in the sector are beginning to seek and expect information directly from institutions that provide them with services, as this supplements the other support services provided by the institutions in areas such as business development (SEDU), financing (FND), marketing (CEMACO/FAMDECO), producer associations (NGC, St Kitts Farmers Cooperative), among others. These institutions can and should play an important role of in the future development of sector, but would need to develop the requisite expertise for managing information and effectively communicating information and knowledge to the primary beneficiaries.93. In keeping therefore, with CTA's objective to diversify and develop partners and based on CTA's criteria 3 for selecting partners, the following organisations are considered the most suitable for pursuing CTA partnering initiatives in St. Kitts and Nevis: CEMACO, SEDU, SCHS and the Department of Fisheries -St Kitts. These four organisations meet all the partnership criteria outlined by CTA; however, CEMACO may need to be further strengthened with regard to capability to provide a parallel contribution to joint ventures. However, new modalities for CTA's targeting of beneficiaries in the agricultural and rural sector of St. Kitts and Nevis must now be centred on those organisations that are becoming more closely aligned to the primary beneficiaries in the sector including the organisations such as FAMDECO, NHCS, FND, Department of Gender Affairs and all the fledgling producer associations -NGC, St. Kitts Farmers Cooperative, Quality Pineapple Growers Association, St. Kitts Floral Arrangers/Flora hortica and the Progressive Pig Farmers Association. These entities are capable of providing a conduit for directly impacting the ultimate beneficiaries of farmers, women and youth. The DOA in the MAFCLH (St Kitts) will need to be targeted beneficiaries for CTA support, as they will continue to be key information sources to the sector.The above arrangement will also allow CTA to address strategic issues of geographical coverage, decentralisation and regionalisation and thematic orientation, the latter being realized largely through the specificity of the organisations' needs and their target beneficiaries.95. The main recommendations emanating from the study, based on the objectives of the study as well as the conclusions outlined in Section 4.1 are outlined in this section. Given the extent and diverse needs of the stakeholders in the agricultural and rural sector of St Kitts and Nevis, It will not be possible, given the current human, physical and financial constraints, to meet all the information needs of stakeholders within any reasonable time frame. Therefore, information services to be provided to the sector must be prioritized within the framework of national goals, agricultural sector policy, needs of stakeholders and available resources. The following recommendations for addressing the information needs, capacity building needs and the selection of potential partners and beneficiaries in St. Kitts and Nevis are however proposed, after due consideration of the objectives of this study and the scope of functions of the operational departments of the CTA:96. CTA should assist the local organisations in improving accessibility to publications and other information by extending the distribution of its products and services to include the partners and beneficiaries identified in the study. One specific area in which this could be achieved is by including the potential partners identified in this study as new QAS users. CTA should reinforce the use of its QAS in existing operational nodes and centres should be encouraged to work closely with NGOs and the other organizations that work closely with farmers/producers such as CEMACO, FAMDECO, NGC, SEDU and the Department of Fisheries in developing special information packages for the producers/fishers.97. Most of the organizations interviewed were not aware of CTA's programmes or familiar with CTA's products and services. Given the strategic objective of the CTA to improve awareness of information services on agricultural and rural development, several interventions will be required aimed at increasing knowledge of and hence access to CTA information services. These will include increasing the number and range of stakeholders participating in the various services such as QAS and other information portals to include new actors such as CEMACO, SEDU and NGC; use of SDI to organisations needing research support such as SSMC, and organisations such as the MAFCLH for onward dissemination to policy makers. CTA should work in conjunction with these key organisations to develop special information packages for farmers and fishers, and to develop an appropriate mix of communications media tools involving the integration of ICTs and conventional media to improve dialogue and exchange for new actors, particularly within and among producer organizations such as St. Kitts Farmers Cooperative, NGC and Floral Arrangers/Flora hortica, etc.98. CTA should lend support for the development of national public awareness programmes to be undertaken by local organisations, aimed at developing the local capacity to engender an information culture and an appreciation for the value of information.99. The key organisations identified by the study, will need to be assisted to develop local and national networks to increase exchanges of experience and other business networking (e-commerce) among the actors and stakeholders. This should take into account the introduction of new communications and networking technologies, particularly the use of non-print media and electronic networking such, web sites, electronic discussion groups, etc. for communicating agricultural information and knowledge. CTA could facilitate the extension of these networks on international and regional scale, preferably on a thematic basis -priority information areas with a commodity focus -for example i.e. networks for production -for agri-products such as pineapple, flowers, pigs, etc; marketing; trade and policy; management -farm, business and organisation; rural development, and assist in the expansion of a network of contacts among stakeholders and between the latter and experts from other countries and regions.CTA should provide resources (equipment and/or skills) to assist in strengthening the local distribution infrastructure -that is for the establishment of networks, LAN, interministerial and wider regional and international networks to improve access to externally published information on agriculture and rural development. The Centre could also assist local organisations in the sourcing funding for acquiring the type of equipment needed to improve access to electronic publications and multi-media.CTA should assist in the creation and management of databases in select public and private sector institutions, such as the MACFLH, CEMACO/FAMDECO and Department of Fisheries-St. Kitts, based on standardized formats for agricultural information management to facilitate the generation of agricultural statistics and encourage information exchange across organisations for enlightened decision-making in the sector. Technical assistance will be required to design and build an agricultural database in a standard format to facilitate dissemination of this information to the various stakeholders in the sector.There is need to initiate the participatory development and implementation of information and communication management policies and strategies to promote the use of information products and services at all levels in the sector. CTA could provide support through its existing Caribbean regional agricultural policy network, which however, may need to be further strengthened.CTA should assist in developing the capabilities of stakeholders/actors such as SEDU and other organizations working directly with farmers, such as CEMACO/FAMDECO, producer organisations, to take advantage of existing e-distribution channels. Capacity development to utilize e-discussion fora is recommended to improve dialogue and allow for the communication of first-hand experience of pertinent developments in other countries and regions to assist in decision-making. Specific support could be extended to the SEDU in its endeavour to establish a national information and documentation centre in support of small enterprise to assist in creating a business information network to enable entrepreneurs to have easy access to needed data and information for effective functioning.The needs identified are concerned with both the increasing use of conventional tools and the adoption of new tools for integrating new media, in particular electronic media. The strengthening of institutional capacity with respect to necessary skills, resources and information is paramount therefore, for opening up the possibilities and the use of both conventional and new information and communications technologies. Stakeholders at all levels in the sector will require skills training in several areas, principal of which is the area of ICM skills. CTA could assist in facilitating training for the acquisition of requisite skills by stakeholders to become effective information managers; areas of focus include skills for undertaking information needs analysis, formulating communication strategies, implementing communication activities including the selection of appropriate communication tools and technologies, moderating and managing networks. Training in management techniques for the implementation of ICM products and services should also be provided.The development of guidelines for the use of communications tools, including an outline of the various tools available and capabilities to assist information and communication managers, is another area in which CTA could provide technical assistance to the local sector. This should also include strengthening of the local publishing structure to facilitate the compilation and/or publication of relevant local information and knowledge. CTA could assist in mobilising resources to provide technical assistance to catalyse a publishing framework, the necessary equipment and materials required for publishing, as well as for the reproduction of published information. Technical assistance may be required to support initial compilation, given the lack of a culture for information 106.Given the ongoing changes in the roles of stakeholders in the agricultural and rural sector of St. Kitts and Nevis, it is imperative that stakeholders recognize and address the need for effective communication. Public and private sector organisations in the agricultural and rural sector should therefore, undertake public awareness programmes aimed at developing the local capacity to engender an information culture and an appreciation for the value of information in achieving strategic goals. CTA could also provide assistance to catalyse such an initiative.The creation of training opportunities for acquiring the relevant ICT and ICM skills must be championed by the emerging stakeholders and actors who at least have a basic appreciation of the value of information services. These stakeholders/actors in the sector should take strategic action to create opportunities for persons to acquire these skills, by seeking to develop mechanisms for accessing training or capacity building opportunities. These could include partnering, co-funding, understudy of consultants sent on local attachments, etc.The Government of the St Kitts and Nevis should move quickly to develop and implement a national ICM policy and strategy, to promote and encourage the development and implementation of ICM policies and strategies at the ministerial and all other levels. The development of a strategic approach is required to address the current lack of a coordinated approach to development among the stakeholders in the sector to increase opportunities for realizing the synergies that could be derived from information networking and collaborative programming. As a result, ICM may begin to be treated as priority area within the institutions in the sector and adequate resources will be allocated to the development of systems and skills. This will further enable information services providers to tailor these services to meet the current and emerging needs of the end users.CTA could provide support for the development of programmes for stakeholders to improve their ability to formulate and implement information and communication policies. Programmes should be aimed at all stakeholders -public and private sector, including policy makers, service providers and producer associations. The primary focus must however be on the emerging stakeholders, in particular the local service providers who play a key supporting role in communicating and channelling information to primary beneficiaries, such as producers, women and youth.Technical assistance (TA) for the design of cost-effective and participatory ICM systems should be provided to select institutions in the short term, while counterpart training is pursued for development of local knowledge and expertise. CTA could provide support in the area of TA for development of ICM structures and centres.Similarly, TA for the application of appropriate management techniques for the implementation of ICM products and services should be provided in the short term, with a medium to long term measure of training for developing local capacity.The following organisations are recommended for CTA partnering initiatives at the national level in St Kitts and Nevis: CEMACO, SEDU, SCHS and the Department of Fisheries -St Kitts as these organisations meet all the partnership criteria outlined by CTA; some strengthening of CEMACO may be required. Further, these organisations undertake information servicing of many of the other organisations interviewed in this study. The remaining organisations assessed during the study, namely, FAMDECO, NHCS, FND, Department of Gender Affairs and all the fledgling producer associations -NGC, St. Kitts Farmers Cooperative, Quality Pineapple Growers Association, St. Kitts Floral Arrangers/Flora hortica and the Progressive Pig Farmers Association, all meet the criteria for potential CTA beneficiaries, as they are capable of providing a conduit for information servicing of the ultimate beneficiaries of farmers, women and youth. The DOA in the MACFLH of St. Kitts is also recommended as a potential beneficiary as it is expected to continue as a prime information resource to the ultimate beneficiaries in the sector. CTA's tasks are to develop and provide services that improve access to information for agricultural and rural development, and to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries to produce, acquire, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA's programmes are organised around three principal activities: providing an increasing range and quantity of information products and services and enhancing awareness of relevant information sources; supporting the integrated use of appropriate communication channels and intensifying contacts and information exchange (particularly intra-ACP); and developing ACP capacity to generate and manage agricultural information and to formulate information and communication management (ICM) strategies, including those relevant to science and technology. These activities take account of methodological developments in cross-cutting issues (gender, youth, information & communication technologies -ICTs, and social capital), findings from impact assessments and evaluations of ongoing programmes as well as priority information themes for ACP agriculture 4 .In January 2002, CTA's Strategic Plan (2001-2005) was implemented and CTA's activities were distributed among three operational programme areas / departments: Information Products and Services Communication Channels and ServicesThese operational departments are supported by Planning Corporate Services (P&CS) which is charged with the methodological underpinning of their work and monitoring the ACP environment in order to identify emerging issues and trends and make proposals for their translation into programmes and activities. This current exercise, therefore, falls within the mandate of P&CS.2. Background A comprehensive regional information needs assessment was undertaken in the Caribbean region, by CTA and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), over the period 1995-1997. This study detailed the information needs, habits and priorities, of eleven sub-groups of users relevant to the agricultural and rural development sector, presented in sixteen national reports and a regional overview. The results of the studies were followed by a series of national consultations, missions and regional meetings, as well as pilot studies in information and communications management all aimed at arriving at or designing a strategy to meet information needs within the sector. The strategy proposed the development of a Caribbean Agricultural Information Service (CAIS) with a two pronged approach to improving access to information within the Caribbean region:Working with institutions at the national level to improve capacity in various aspects of information and communication management (e.g. network development, training, sensitisation). Developing information products and services to meet specific information needs identified.The CAIS strategy has been implemented since 2001. A number of capacity building exercises were executed including workshops and training courses; provision of technical assistance; network development, policies and systems. Since the implementation of this strategy in 2001, there have also been a number of changes within institutions in the region with respect to their awareness and use of information and communications tools and technologies.CTA works primarily through intermediary organisations and partners (non-governmental organisations, farmers' organisations, regional organisations, …) to promote agriculture and rural development. Through partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organisations capable of generating and managing information and developing their own information and communication management strategies. The identification of appropriate partners is therefore of primordial importance.The \"Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan (1997-2000)\" emphasised the need for CTA to develop a more pro-active approach and elaborate criteria for decisionmaking with regard to the choice of partner organisations and beneficiaries. Based on this evaluation, the \"Strategic Plan and Framework for Action -2001 -2005\" identifies strategic issues for CTA being: improved targeting (including partnerships and beneficiaries), geographical coverage, decentralisation, regionalisation and thematic orientation. The Plan also expresses concern about: the extent to which CTA's activities are relevant to and reach the poor, gender awareness and how to identify potential partners especially in the independent sectors.Besides partner identification and selection issues, the observation has also been made that, the Caribbean region could benefit further from CTA's programme and activities. Finally, various national and regional partners with whom CTA has had a long-standing relationship have requested the current study which would serve to update the earlier studies done and allow them to provide more targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.The objectives of the study are as follows:to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services; to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services; to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.The study should assist the three operational departments of the CTA as well as its local representatives to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at potential partners and beneficiaries (including women, youth, private sector and civil society organisations); to have a more informed picture of their needs and aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action. The study should also highlight where there are specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvement in the delivery of the same.The consultant will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative rapid appraisal methods including:the desk review of available literature and information sources including the findings of programme evaluations; the conduct of face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders / concerned parties; the limited use of questionnaires.The rapid appraisal approach will allow a general overview of the key issues and company / organisational profiles on a per country 5 basis and may give rise to more in-depth studies as and when needed in the future.One main report per country not exceeding 20 pages according to the following It is also expected that the results of this study will lead to identification / update of some priority agricultural information themes which will feed into a possible priority-setting exercise in the region in 2004.The country reports will not exceed 20 pages (excluding annexes). The annexes should include a list of acronyms, of persons/institutions interviewed with addresses, phone, fax numbers, e-mail addresses (if any) as well as bibliography.Draft final report is to be submitted within three months after contract signature by CTA Final report due two weeks after receipt of comments from CTA. St. Kitts, with its relatively large fertile tracts of land and amenable climate and a steady rainfall pattern, was an ideal launching point for seventeenth-century British expansion into the Caribbean island which began with development of the colonial sugar estate. More than 300 years later, the Kittitian economy was still very dependent on sugar; but by the 1970s, government and business leaders realized that a move away from sugar was vital for continued economic growth.Nevis, unlike its sister island, lacked the richer soils and larger tracts of land available suitable for cultivation of sugar. It was valued, even in colonial times, for its seclusion and beaches rather than for agriculture, and continues to accommodate the growing international tourist market of the late twentieth century. Agriculturally, Nevis has relied heavily on the cultivation of sea island cotton produced primarily for export. This crop, usually planted without rotation, caused a serious soil erosion problem, and a consequent diminishing of the island's potential for further agricultural production for many years to come.Sugar has been the traditional mainstay of the Saint Kitts economy until the 1970s. Although the crop still dominates the agricultural sector, activities such as tourism, export-oriented manufacturing, and offshore banking have assumed larger roles in the economy. The GDP of SKN is based mostly on services. The biggest contributors to GDP are tourism and manufacturing. These two sectors' contribution to GDP amounted to 10.4 % and 7.9 % respectively in 1999 with tourism becoming the major source of foreign exchange earnings.In Nevis the services sector is a combination of tourism and offshore financial services while in St. Kitts, it is based on the tourism industry. Exports for the most part have been dominated by sugar, exported to the EU via agreement. The information outlined in the agricultural profile for St Kitts and Nevis has been compiled largely from documents prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Cooperatives, Lands and Housing (MAFCLH) over the last five years, and other documents prepared in collaboration with other Government Ministries such as the Ministry of Planning, and agencies such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). Most of the agricultural statistical data was obtained from the most recent census data compiled in the Agricultural Digest (2003). Other relevant data were extracted from the Demography Digest (St Kitts and Nevis, (2001) and other online data on the websites of United Nations organizations and the World Bank. Data was further updated with information obtained in interviews with the departments within the MAFCLH and other agencies.Agriculture has been the mainstay of the economy, based largely on the cultivation of sugar cane on estates for processing into sugar and molasses for export. Despite the changes in fortunes of sugar, the sector's role in the national economy continues to be viewed in the context of the sugar industry or non-sugar agriculture, the latter concerned with food production aimed at achieving import substitution and reduction of the food import bill (EUR 23.03 million in 2003) resulting from imports of over 75% of the country's annual food consumption.The primary thrust of the sector is to obtain increased agricultural production and productivity to contribute significantly to the development of the country's economy in a sustainable way while preserving the environment and conserving the country's natural resources. Thus the sector is primarily concerned with all aspects of food: its production, processing, marketing, nutritional quality, safety and food security. The sector is also concerned with the sustainable use and development of the country's natural resources of land and water, including marine resources. Apart from sugar production, there appears to be no strong tradition of farming, hence the contribution of non-sugar agriculture to the economy, though showing modest developments over the last decade, has remained nominal. As in the other OECS countries there is an inextricable link between agricultural development and rural development, as most agricultural activity tends to be carried out in rural communities.Non-sugar agriculture comprises mainly fruits and vegetables, which together with livestock and small-scale fishing are produced in small quantities for domestic consumption.Commercial farming activity is undertaken by about 25 commercial farmers who produce about 75% of the output of food crops. There is little exportation of non-sugar agricultural goods. The value of domestic exports of food and live animals totaled 484,990.76 EUR (EC$1,522,871.00) for 2002, registering a decline of 17% from the previous year's figures. In the past onions and potatoes were exported from St Kitts, but exports have been virtually curtailed due to pest infestation. Cotton exports from Nevis have also declined in recent times.Opportunities for increasing non-sugar agriculture production in crop and livestock products have since been identified as a means to reduce the current food import bill.The Ministry of Agriculture identifies the following constraints to the sector increasing its contribution to the national economy:Small domestic market Dependence on the exportation of a narrow range of goods Eroding preferences in traditional markets -cessation of preferential arrangements for the exportation of sugar High cost of production.Recent statistics from the World Bank estimate a rural population of 68%. Data on the agricultural population was not available. However, inferences were made from data on the number of persons employed by the sector. Agriculture employs a relatively small proportion, 440 persons, of the total labour force of approximately 17,000. Data from the International Labour Office (ILO) for the Caribbean, are provided for 1991 (ILO, 2004) in table 1. Data on the number or percentage of youth employed in the agricultural sector was not available. These data showed a considerable decline from one-third of the labour force in the 1980's to a mere 2.6% of the labour force in the 1990s. This decline mirrors the decline in the contribution of agriculture to the economy, as indicated in a later section describing its relatively small percentage contribution to GDP (see II.1.4 below). Employment statistics in the mid-1980s, although widely regarded as unreliable, reflected the growing importance of the tourist and manufacturing sectors. By 1982 a reported 26% of the work force was associated with trade, hotels, and other services, whereas 22% was employed by the manufacturing sector. The agricultural sector (primarily sugar) still employed one-third of the total work force, and sugar processing was still an important part of the manufacturing sector. Most of the remaining 19% of the labor force worked for the government, and about 5% were employed in the construction industry.Data from the website CIA World Fact Book on St Kitts and Nevis (2001) indicate 19.44% (34,015 hectares) of the combined island acreage is arable land, with 2.78% covered in permanent crops. The remaining seventy eight percent of land area consist of natural vegetation and other land area in urban use, surface water and exposed rock.  Non-sugar crop production in St Kitts is dominated by small-scale farming with average holdings of less than 1.0 hectare and a few larger farms of holdings that are greater than 5.0 hectares. Vegetables tend to be grown in the higher elevation while peanuts are grown at the lower level. A significant amount of sweet potatoes is grown in fallow sugarcane fields by workers of the SSMC. Vegetable production is mainly rain-fed and this generally results in oversupply during the first two quarters of the year and shortages in the rest of the year. Fruit tree production is not undertaken on a commercial scale. However, a wide range of fruit trees can be found scattered around the island.Livestock production systems for small and large ruminants are also generally at the subsistence level. Cattle production is dominated by part-time farmers who generally raise a few animals on unimproved pastures. There are a few medium sized farms (50 to 100 heads) and one relatively large farm that operates in an open range system. Pigs have been raised in St. Kitts using a range of production systems, from tethering in the backyard to earthen or concrete floor pens.Fishing methods are traditional, although some modern techniques have been adopted in recent years.On Nevis, vegetables and root crops are cultivated on a subsistence basis and some cotton is grown for export. The livestock sector there includes cattle, small ruminants and pigs.The agricultural sector of St. Kitts and Nevis contribution to the GDP has declined steadily from an average 17% in the 1980's to 5.1% in the 1990's with a further decline from 5.24 to 4.85% over the period, 1999 to 2003 (Table 3). This has mainly resulted from the declining contribution of sugarcane cultivation, from 2.09 to 1.65% over the same period. Sugar production is facing its greatest challenge for survival as a result of increasing costs and declining markets. However, the declining trend in non-sugar agriculture contribution to GDP in the 1990's has been reversed, with the contribution of food crops increasing from 0.98 to 1.15% and livestock from 0.54 to 0.58% over the period 1999 to 2003; non-sugar agriculture now contributing to 20% of the agriculture sector GDP. The contribution of the fisheries sub-sector however declined from 1.56 to 1.38% over the period, with the fisheries contribution to agriculture now just under 30%. The livestock contribution is just over 10%, while the forestry contribution is about 1.5% of the agriculture sector GDP. It is important to note that while in general the contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP has declined over that period the contribution of the livestock sub-sector has increased albeit marginally as indicated in Table 7. The contribution of the fisheries sub-sector however showed a decrease from 1.56 to 1.38% over the period.The main agricultural produce and processed products are described in Table 8. The major markets for exports from St Kitts and Nevis are the United States, United Kingdom and Canada with a small trade within CARICOM. Table 9 shows the main commodities exported and the percentage distribution of export trade among the trading partners. The islands are signatory to several trade agreements that impact on agriculture including:Members of GATT were pledged to work together to reduce tariffs and other barriers to international trade and to eliminate discriminatory treatment in international commerce. World Trade Organization (WTO) replacement for GATT: WTO Doha Development Agenda -Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) WTO-Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary (SPS) Agreement Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)The new ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, signed in Cotonou in June 2000, is a comprehensive aid and trade agreement concluded between 77 ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries and the European Union (the community and the 15 Members state of the EU).Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) Eliminates barriers to trade and investment across the 34 nations the Americas, creating both challenges and opportunities for agricultural trade.CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) -liberalizes trade among CARICOM countries resulting in increased competitiveness and strengthening the linkages between the agricultural sector and other sectors of the Single Market and EconomyUnderlying Principles include ---strengthen friendship, solidarity and cooperation; development and expansion of world trade; improvement of existing trade relations and creation of opportunities for further economic development; creation of an expanded and more secure market for the goods produced in and services supplied in or from their territories; and the creation of new employment opportunities, improved working conditions and the quality of life of the peoples of both parties.Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Biosafety Protocol -involves the protection of agricultural biodiversity considered a \"global common\" from biopiracy (privatization through patents and other intellectual property rights) or the spread of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs or Terminator Technologies) and implementation of farmers' rights to a share of the benefits for their contribution to the development of agricultural biodiversity; the two crucial elements in the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity.The UNCCD recognizes the physical, biological and socioeconomic aspects of desertification; the importance of redirecting technology transfer so that it is demand driven; and the involvement of local populations.The United Nations Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in Barbados in 1994 helped these States to better understand their common issues and to sensitise the international community to the particular difficulties faced by small island and low lying coastal developing states. The Barbados Declaration and the SIDS Programme of Action which emerged from the conference provided a positive framework to guide these states in their efforts to develop with a promise of meaningful support from the developed countries.The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -global targets for poverty reduction, social development and environmental regeneration agreed to by world leaders at the Millennium Summit of the UN General Assembly in September 2000.The Agriculture and Fisheries Policy developed by the MAFCLH in St Kitts in February 2001, focused on the primary areas of: agricultural production and marketing; agricultural supplies and services; promotion of farmers development, SSMC agricultural diversification programme and transition; land allocation and distribution; fisheries management and development; forestry conservation, protection and recreation and bee keeping and honey production.The policy proposes placing special emphasis on improved delivery of extension services to farmers through more frequent farm visits and other activities. Attention will be placed on the development of commercial farms so as to meet the market opportunities for crop and livestock products. Development and strengthening of farmer groups will be an area of focus as well as an enhanced working relationship with stakeholder groups. The Marketing Unit will be further developed to respond to market opportunities and the needs of purchasers and producers. Special focus will be placed on the development of creative financing, cost recovery where relevant and prudent financial management of the Department's budgetary allocations. The Department of Agriculture will continue to work closely with the Multi-Purpose Laboratory for analytical support while technical assistance will be sought from local, regional and international agencies.This section provides an overview of the past and current socio-economic condition of the islands.The data used to describe the demographic characteristics were obtained primarily from the St Kitts and Nevis Demography Digest ( 2003), compiled by the Ministry of Planning, 2003. Estimated population data for 2004 was obtained through the CIA -the World Fact Book website.Preliminary data estimates of population for 2004 are presented in Table 10. The sex ratio of total population of 0.98 male/female, is indicative of the shifts in the male population, particularly in the 15-64 yrs and the 65 yrs and over age groups. Population data by parish was obtained for the period 1970-2001 and is provided in Table 11. In addition data on St Kitts and Nevis population size and growth are presented in Table 12. Other demographic data are provided in Table 13. The average annual growth rate of the population between 1991 and 2001 shows an increase of 0.11% and indicates a shift in the trend of a declining population growth. The fastest growth rate over the last twenty years of 1.27 % p.a. was recorded in 2001, with 1980 showing the slowest growth rate, -0.36% p.a. The net migration rate was -7.11 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.).English is the official language. Current literacy levels (% ages 15 and over) have been estimated at 98% (Table 14). Data on adult or youth literacy rates were not available. Compulsory education years are 5-15 years. The data in Table 18 show a progressive increase in the percentage of rural population over the last ten years, with a corresponding decline in urban population for the same period. There has been some level of migration, with workers from other Caribbean islands coming to seek work in the sugar industry or seeking employment within the services. There appears however to be an upsurge in the urban growth in and around the capital town of Basseterre due to a decline in the agricultural sector. Communications in both islands were upgraded in the 1980's and are considered adequate. A main telephone system consisting on average of 569 mainlines per 1,000 people provides excellent international service.A listing of the name of all daily and weekly newspapers, radio stations and television channels and description of the services is provided in Table 19. ","tokenCount":"12944"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d9e74f25ab78fde819033bc4098307cc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/43915d95-35b0-4e1a-8d0d-91dfc1d25540/content","id":"-1195191002"},"keywords":["genomic prediction","adversarial validation","feature selection","leave one family out","within family genomic prediction"],"sieverID":"78b38e98-90c8-4300-8737-b21dba258474","pagecount":"11","content":"Genomic selection is revolutionizing plant breeding. However, its practical implementation is still very challenging, since predicted values do not necessarily have high correspondence to the observed phenotypic values. When the goal is to predict within-family, it is not always possible to obtain reasonable accuracies, which is of paramount importance to improve the selection process. For this reason, in this research, we propose the Adversaria-Boruta (AB) method, which combines the virtues of the adversarial validation (AV) method and the Boruta feature selection method. The AB method operates primarily by minimizing the disparity between training and testing distributions. This is accomplished by reducing the weight assigned to markers that display the most significant differences between the training and testing sets. Therefore, the AB method built a weighted genomic relationship matrix that is implemented with the genomic best linear unbiased predictor (GBLUP) model. The proposed AB method is compared using 12 real data sets with the GBLUP model that uses a nonweighted genomic relationship matrix. Our results show that the proposed AB method outperforms the GBLUP by 8.6, 19.7, and 9.8% in terms of Pearson's correlation, mean square error, and normalized root mean square error, respectively. Our results support that the proposed AB method is a useful tool to improve the prediction accuracy of a complete family, however, we encourage other investigators to evaluate the AB method to increase the empirical evidence of its potential.Addressing the demands of a rapidly growing global population requires a focused effort on bolstering food production. However, achieving a substantial production increase is a complex endeavor, given a host of challenges. These encompass the depletion of natural resources, the scarcity of arable land, and the unpredictable shifts in climate patterns. Consequently, innovative strategies, such as the genomic selection (GS) methodology introduced by Meuwissen et al. (2001), have become indispensable for driving genetic advancements in vital crops such as wheat, rice, and maize. The application of GS holds the potential to fortify yield stability, increase productivity, bolster disease resistance, and enhance the nutritional and quality attributes of these essential crops (Crespo-Herrera et al. 2021).Genomic selection stands as a transformative paradigm within both plant and animal breeding, capitalizing on high-density markers that span the genome's entirety. Its central premise revolves around the idea that genetic markers can (1) be in linkage disequilibrium with quantitative trait locus (QTL) responsible for a specific trait (Meuwissen et al. 2001) and (2) capture relationship patterns (Habier et al. 2010(Habier et al. , 2013)). Genomic selection is redefining breeding practices through an array of innovative mechanisms, encompassing (1) proactive genotype identification, (2) heightened selection precision, (3) resource optimization, (4) accelerated variety development, (5) intensified selection efforts, (6) assessment of complex traits, and (7) enhanced selection accuracy. In sum, genomic-assisted breeding selection represents a paradigm shift in both plant and animal breeding, reshaping the landscape through predictive analysis and precision driven selection; its versatility and merits position GS as a potent instrument propelling progress and ingenuity in agricultural enhancement endeavors.The challenge of achieving accurate genomic predictions stems from the intricate nature of genomic data and the intricate interplay between genes and traits. While GS holds the potential to revolutionize breeding strategies, the precise prediction of complex traits based solely on genetic markers presents a formidable complexity. The polygenic nature of numerous agricultural traits adds to the complexity, as multiple genes with subtle effects collectively contribute to the phenotype. Additionally, the accuracy of predictions is intricately tied to the quality and representativeness of the training population used to construct prediction models. Inadequate or biased data can lead to suboptimal predictions and hinder breeding progress. Genetic interactions and environmental influences further complicate genomic predictions, as these interactions often remain incompletely understood or challenging to incorporate into predictive models. Consequently, ongoing research, advancements in data analysis techniques, improved genotyping technologies, and a deeper understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships are pivotal to address these challenges and fully unlock the potential of genomic prediction within agricultural breeding programs.In the search to enhance the prediction accuracy of the GS methodology, various modeling approaches have been proposed. These ranges from Bayesian frameworks encompassing the Bayesian alphabet (BayesA, BayesB, BayesC, and Bayesian Lasso, etc.) to machine learning methodologies such as random forest, support vector machine, gradient boosting machine, and deep neural networks for genomic prediction. Nonetheless, mixed models remain prevalent in genomic prediction due to their reliable performance in terms of prediction accuracy, computational efficiency, interpretability, and straightforward tuning processes.However, despite the considerable promise held by GS and the diverse modeling approaches explored so far, translating these concepts into practical implementation remains a complex challenge. This complexity arises from the multitude of factors that must be optimized to achieve high prediction accuracies. The simultaneous optimization of these factors introduces intricacy, often yielding unforeseen outcomes. Consequently, the successful integration of GS into real-world scenarios calls for ongoing research, robust methodologies, and a comprehensive understanding of the intricate interactions underlying these contributing factors. Addressing these challenges is imperative to fully realize the potential of GS and facilitate its seamless integration into breeding programs and agricultural practices (Montesinos-López et al. 2022).Precisely predicting family performance is a cornerstone of effective plant breeding, enabling the maximization of genetic gains, efficient allocation of resources, strategic parental selection, and the tailoring of breeding strategies. Furthermore, it enhances disease resistance, adaptability, end-use quality, and consistency in crop varieties. Accurate family prediction empowers breeders to channel their efforts toward superior families, leading to the development of enhanced and resilient crop varieties with desirable traits.When crossing two diploid organisms, each offspring inherits one allele from each parent, and the selection of which specific allele an offspring inherits occurs through a stochastic process. This process creates genetic diversity within a family, a phenomenon referred to as Mendelian segregation variance or within-family variance. In statistical terms, the genetic value of a quantitative trait in an offspring is composed of the four alleles contributed by the two parents, guided by a Mendelian variable from each parent. Wang and Xu (2019) proposed a mixture model that allows for the dissection of the total genetic variance into between-family variance and within-family variance. With no inbreeding, the genetic variance is evenly split between-family variance and withinfamily variance. When inbreeding is present, there is an increase in the overall genetic variance due to an increase between-family variance at the expense of the within-family variance (Foulley and Chevalet 1981).However, predicting family performance within plant breeding is fraught with complexities stemming from factors such as pronounced genetic diversity, intricate trait architectures, limited family sizes, erratic environmental variations, genotype-byenvironment interactions (GE), data quality and quantity challenges, trait trade-offs, and extended breeding cycles. Overcoming these challenges requires advanced methodologies, refined technologies, expansive datasets, and a profound understanding of intricate trait genetics. Despite these challenges, accurate family prediction is pivotal for the development of superior crop varieties and to address global agricultural challenges.The interplay of genetic diversity, recombination, genetic segregation, population-specific variation, incomplete data, environmental elements, and statistical intricacies collectively underscore the challenges associated with genomically predicting full siblings resulting from a single cross. While advancements in genomics and statistical methodologies continue to enhance prediction accuracy, achieving precise predictions of genetic relatedness remains a multifaceted endeavor, particularly when working with limited data from a single cross. Predicting full siblings from a single cross requires the handling of intricate relationships and uncertainties, further intensifying the complexity of the analysis and prediction processes.As such, innovative methodologies to enhance family prediction accuracy are indispensable. In this pursuit, we explore the fusion of the adversarial validation (AV) approach proposed by Montesinos-López, Kismiantini et al. (2023) with the Boruta feature selection method, as examined by Montesinos-López, Crespo-Herrera et al. (2023). Although the AV method adeptly detects training-testing mismatches and optimizes training sets, its efficiency may diminish when dealing with smaller training sets or moderate to high mismatches. Conversely, the Boruta method, a feature selection technique, effectively mitigates prediction errors by selecting a fraction of the most important features, but may not consistently elevate selection accuracy, since when the selected variables are not optimal, decreases prediction accuracy.Thus, in this research, we introduced the AB method, which leverages the strengths of both AV and Boruta. The AB method primarily functions to mitigate disparities between training and testing distributions without reducing the training set and original inputs. This is achieved through the attenuation of weights assigned to markers that manifest the most substantial differences between the training and testing sets. In the AB method, a binary classifier is trained for each family using a combination of original and shuffled markers. Feature importance scores for the original markers are computed, and these weighted markers are employed to construct a genomic relationship matrix (GRM). This weighted GRM is then incorporated into the genomic best linear prediction model (GBLUP), forming the core of the AB method.We hypostatize that the AB method holds the potential to enhance prediction accuracy and mitigate prediction errors, particularly in cases where a substantial disparity exists between the training and testing sets. Conversely, in scenarios where such a discrepancy is inconsequential, the AB will not affect the prediction performance. This assertion is grounded in the contention that the AB method addresses a notable limitation of the AV method (Montesinos-López, Kismiantini et al. 2023). Specifically, the AV method struggles when confronted with small datasets, either failing to identify an optimal training set or, when the dataset is so diminutive, adversely impacting prediction performance. In contrast, the AB method using all original inputs with appropriate weighting, circumvents these issues. By eschewing the selection of a mere sample or fraction of inputs, as seen in variable selection methods (Boruta method), the AB method sidesteps the pitfalls associated with a suboptimal sample of inputs, which can detrimentally affect prediction performance. We assess the AB method against conventional GRMs without weights (GBLUP), utilizing 12 real-world datasets.The model used in this study can be represented aswhere Y ij denotes the response variable in the environment i and genotype j. E i are the fixed effects of environments, g j , j = 1, . . . , J, denotes the random effects of lines, gE ij denotes the random effects of the genotype-by-environment interaction modeled through a compound symmetry structure, and ϵ ij denotes the random error components in the model assumed to be independent normal random variables with mean 0 and variance σ 2 .Furthermore, it is assumed that g = (g 1 , . . . , g J )where Z E is the design matrix of environments of order n × I, ⊙ denotes the Hadamard product, and Z g is the design matrix of genotypes (lines) of order n × J, G is the genomic relationship-matrix computed using markers (VanRaden 2008). Let X denote the matrix of markers and let M, be the matrix of centered and standardized markers. Then G = MM T p (VanRaden 2008), where p is the number of markers. The implementation of this model (1) using the computed G was done in the Bayesian Genomic Linear Regression library of Pérez and de los Campos (2014).The Boruta algorithm was developed to identify covariates that have significant relevance to the response variable, whether strong or weak. Specifically designed for high-dimensional datasets with noisy features, Boruta addresses the challenges of feature selection in such datasets (Kursa and Rudnicki 2010). Its operation involves the creation of a shadow (permuted) feature set, which is a replicated version of the original feature set with values randomly permuted, i.e. shuffled. These shadow features act as controls to assess the statistical significance of the original features. The determination of the relevance of the original features is based on whether their importance scores significantly surpass the importance scores of their corresponding shadow features.In datasets containing numerous noisy features, where conventional feature selection methods may face difficulties, Boruta proves to be an efficient solution. However, it is important to note that it can be computationally intensive and requires careful parameter tuning to achieve optimal results (Kursa and Rudnicki 2010).The Boruta algorithm operates through a series of well-defined steps for effective feature (marker in our application) selection. The process is as follows:Step 1: A shadow feature set is generated by randomly permuting the values of each feature in the original dataset.Step 2: A random forest model is trained using both the original feature set and the shadow feature set. This model serves as the foundation for assessing feature importance.Step 3: The feature importance scores for each original feature are calculated by comparing them to the importance scores of their corresponding shadow features.Step 4: The maximum importance score is determined for each feature based on the results obtained in Step 3.Step 5: The Binomial test is employed to evaluate the statistical significance of each feature. If a feature's importance score is deemed statistically significant, it is marked as \"important\"; otherwise, it is labeled as \"unimportant.\" The Binomial test is a statistical evaluation used in Boruta to compare the observed number of successes (e.g. instances where a feature's importance score exceeds a certain threshold) with the expected number of successes under a null hypothesis. This test determines whether the observed results are statistically significant or merely due to chance. In Boruta, the Binomial test is applied to assess whether the feature importance scores are significantly higher than those of the shadow features, thereby indicating the relevance of the original features (Kursa and Rudnicki 2010).Step 6: The process outlined in Steps 1-5 is repeated for a predetermined number of iterations to ensure robustness and consistency in the feature selection process.Step 7: Finally, the features are ranked based on their importance scores. Within Boruta, features are categorized as \"Confirmed\" if they are considered important, \"Rejected\" if they are deemed unimportant, and \"Tentative\" if further investigation is required or if they are considered less important. This categorization provides valuable insights into the relevance and contribution of each feature to the predictive model.Step 1. We assume that we have a multi-environment or single environment data set in which there are at least 2 families and for each family there are some lines. Since our goal is to predict a complete family, the information of this family constitutes the testing set { X tst , y tst }, and the information of the remaining families is the training set { X trn , y trn }. Then, in the original dataset { X trn , y trn , X tst , y tst }, we remove the original response variable column { y trn , y tst }, and add a fictitious (new) response variable column { y f trn , y f tst } that replaces the source of the data by 0 (that is, y f = 0) for samples (observations) on the training set and by 1 (i.e. y f =1) for the samples in the testing set (Montesinos-López, Kismiantini et al. 2023). In other words, the fictitious response variables with 0 s correspond to the remaining families and the 1 s for the family we want to predict.Step 2. We then implement the Boruta algorithm with inputs { X trn , y f trn , X tst , y f tst } and we extract the variable important scores (IS) for each marker.Step 3. The next step is to compute the inverse of the IS as Inv_IS = 1/IS, then compute the final weights as w = Inv_IS ×p /sum(Inv_IS), where p denotes the number of markers.Step 4. Each row of the standardized matrix of markers ( M) is then multiplied by the vector of weights (w), in matrix notation we build the diagonal matrix of squared weights, as D = Diag( w 2 1 , w 2 2 , . . . , w 2 p ), and finally, with this weighted matrix, a weighted GRM is computed as G * = MDM T p . The implementation of model (1) using the weighted GRM (G * ) is what we call method AB. It is important to point out that the GBLUP and AB methods were implemented in the R statistical software (R Core Team 2023).The AB method works primarily from its capability to minimize the mismatch between the training and testing distributions. This is achieved by diminishing the weight assigned to markers that exhibit the most pronounced differences between the training and testing sets. In simple words, the weights resulting from the AB method originate from a binary classification model and reflect the significance of each variable (marker) in distinguishing between training and testing sets. By assigning a value of one to observations belonging to the testing set and zero to those from the training set, the weights indicate the relative importance of independent variables (markers) in this differentiation process. In essence, higher importance scores associated with certain variables imply a more substantial contribution to the ability to differentiate observations between the training and testing sets. Also, it is important to point out that the proposed AB method is not restricted only to family prediction, since it can be used for any type of prediction where there is a significant mismatch between the training and testing distributions.Details of the 12 data sets are shown in Table A1 (Appendix).The cross-validation approach used in this study involved leaving one family out. In each iteration, the data from a single-family served as the testing set, while the data from all other families constituted the training set (Montesinos-López et al. 2022). The number of iterations was equal to the number of families to ensure that each family was used as the testing set exactly one time. This method was employed to assess the model's ability to predict information from a complete family using data from different and diverse families.To assess the predictive efficacy of the proposed AB method in contrast to the GBLUP model, three metrics were employed. Initially, the mean square error (MSE) was utilized to gauge the model's prediction accuracy by measuring the squared deviation between observed and predicted values on the testing set. Subsequently, the average Pearson's correlation (COR) was calculated to ascertain the strength and direction of the linear relationship between the observed and predicted values on the testing set. Additionally, the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), serving as another metric for prediction error, was computed. To derive this metric, we first calculated the square root of the MSE and then divided this value by the average of the observed values in the testing set. These evaluation metrics provided valuable insights into the performance of the proposed AB method relative to the GBLUP method in predicting information across an entire family.In addition, we computed the relative efficiency (RE), in terms of MSE, NRMSE, and COR of each model with the following expressions:where M GBLUP and M AB denote the models compared, the GBLUP and the AB model. The RE for COR was computed as:Across the three measures of relative efficiency (RE_MSE, RE_NRMSE, and RE_COR), a value greater than one signifies a superior performance of the AB method. Conversely, a value <1 indicate the GBLUP method's superiority. A value equal to 1 suggests equivalent performance between the GBLUP and AB methods.The results are organized into 5 sections. The 4 first sections present the results for Data 1 (GDM), Data 2 (Maize_1), Data 3 (Maize 2), and Data 9 (Soybean_4), while section 5 presents the results across all data sets under study. For each data set, we compared the results between the GBLUP and the proposed AB method in terms of MSE, COR, and NRMSE. The results for Data 1-3 and Data 9 and across data sets are shown in Figs. 1-5 and Tables 1-5, respectively. Supplementary Material contains results for the rest of the data sets, Data 4-8 (Maize_3, Maize_4, Soybean_1, Soybean_2, Soybean_3, respectively) and Data 10-12 (Maize_Bi_2018, Maize_Bi_2019_D, and Maize_Bi_2019_O, respectively), are presented in Supplementary Tables 1-8, respectively, and displayed in Supplementary Figs. 1-8, respectively.Note that for simplicity purposes, Supplementary Materials only show the description of results from Data 4-8 and of Data set 10 (Maize_3, Maize_4, Soybean_1, Soybean_2, Soybean_3, and Maize_Bi_2018, respectively) given in Supplementary Tables 1-6 and Supplementary Figs. 1-6. Although results from data sets Data 11 to 12 (Maize_Bi_2019_D and Maize_Bi_2019_O, respectively) are shown in Supplementary Tables 7-8 and Supplementary Figs. 7-8, respectively, they are not discussed in the text of Supplementary Material.In this section, we compared the GBLUP and AB methods for each family across traits for the \"GDM\" dataset. The comparison was done using three metrics (MSE, COR, and NRMSE) and for each metric, the RE was computed, comparing the GBLUP and AB methods (Fig. 1 and Table 1).In terms of MSE we found that in 11 out of the 13 families the RE > 1, this means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in 11 out of the 13 families. However, across traits and families we got an RE = 1.061, meaning that, on average, the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method by 6.1% in terms of MSE (Table 1 and Fig. 1).Furthermore, in terms of COR, we found that the AB method was better than the GBLUP method in 12 out of 13 families, since in 12 of these families, the RE, in terms of COR, was greater than 1. Meanwhile, across traits and families, the gain of the AB method regarding the GBLUP method was 1.6% since the RE = 1.016 (Fig. 1, Table 1).Finally, in terms of NRMSE values, Fig. 1 and Table 1 show that 12 out of 13 of the RE values are larger than 1, which means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in 12 out of 13 families. Across traits and families, we found an RE = 1.033, which means that the AB method gains the GBLUP method by 3.3% in terms of prediction performance. In sum, across traits, RE > 1 means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, RE < 1 means that the GBLUP method outperformed the AB method and RE = 1 means that both methods performed equally.). Relative efficiency (RE) between the proposed method (AB with Boruta for variable selection) and the GBLUP method for each family and across family (AF) in terms of a) mean square error, MSE; b) average Pearson's correlation, COR; and c) normalized root mean square error, NRMSE. RE > 1 means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, RE < 1 means that the GBLUP method outperformed the AB method and RE = 1 means that both methods performed equally. family and metrics method AB outperforms method GBLUP in this Data 1.In this section, we conducted a comparative analysis of the GBLUP and AB methods across traits for Data 2. The same three metrics (MSE, COR, and NRMSE) were used to measure the performance of both methods. The results are presented in Fig. 2 and Table 2.Regarding MSE, we observed that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in all six families, with RE values >1. This indicates that the AB method displayed superior predictive capability in all instances. Across all traits and families, the overall RE of the AB method was found to be 1.315, representing an average improvement of 31.5% over the GBLUP method in terms of MSE (Table 2 and Fig. 2).Similarly, in terms of COR, the AB method displayed a better performance than the GBLUP method in all six families, as evidenced Fig. 3. Data 3 (Maize_2). Relative efficiency (RE) between the proposed method (AB with Boruta for variable selection) and the GBLUP method for each family and across family (AF) in terms of a) mean square error, MSE; b) average Pearson's correlation, COR; and c) normalized root mean square error, NRMSE. RE > 1 means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, RE < 1 means that the GBLUP method outperformed the AB method and RE = 1 means that both methods performed equally. Relative efficiency (RE) between the proposed method (AB with Boruta for variable selection) and the GBLUP method for each family and across family (AF) in terms of a) mean square error, MSE; b) average Pearson's correlation, COR; and c) normalized root mean square error, NRMSE. RE > 1 means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, RE < 1 means that the GBLUP method outperformed the AB method and RE = 1 means that both methods performed equally. Fig. 5. Across datasets. Relative efficiency (RE) between the proposed method (AB with Boruta for variable selection) and the GBLUP method for each family and across family (AF) in terms of a) mean square error, MSE; b) average Pearson's correlation, COR; and c) normalized root mean square error, NRMSE. RE > 1 means that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, RE < 1 means that the GBLUP method outperformed the AB method and RE = 1 means that both methods performed equally.  by RE values >1 for each family. The overall gain of the AB method relative to the GBLUP method, considering all traits and families, was 20.8%, with an RE value of 1.208 (Fig. 2 and Table 2). Additionally, when considering NRMSE values, we again observed that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in all 6 families, with RE values consistently above 1. The overall RE across traits and families was 1.126, indicating a 12.6% improvement in prediction performance for the AB method compared to the GBLUP method.In this section, we conducted a comprehensive comparison between the GBLUP and AB methods across traits for the Maize_2 dataset with the same metrics. Regarding MSE, our analysis revealed that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in all six families, as evidenced by RE values >1. This indicates a consistent superiority of the AB method over the GBLUP method within each family. When considering all traits and families together, the overall RE value was 1.553, indicating an average improvement of 55.3% in favor of the AB method in terms of MSE (Table 3 and Fig. 3).Furthermore, in terms of COR, the AB method displayed a higher performance compared to the GBLUP method in all 6 families, as indicated by RE values larger than 1 for each family. Across all traits and families, the AB method achieved an RE value of 1.339, representing a 33.9% gain over the GBLUP method (Fig. 3 and Table 3).Similarly, the NRMSE values exhibited a consistent pattern of improvement for the AB method. In all six families, the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method, with RE values surpassing 1. When considering all traits and families collectively, the overall RE value was 1.203, indicating a 20.3% performance gain of the AB method over the GBLUP method.Regarding the MSE metric, our findings indicate that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method in 8 out of the 10 families, Prediction accuracy in terms of mean square error (MSE), average Pearson's correlation (COR), and normalized mean square error (NRMSE). The metrics that end with_GBLUP denote the results under the GBLUP, while those that end with _AB denote the AB method with variable selection using the Boruta algorithm. Relative efficiency (RE) denotes the RE for each metric, RE_MSE and RE_NRMSE were computed dividing the MSE_GBLUP by the MSE_AB, and the NRMSE_GBLUP by the NRMSE_AB, while the RE_COR was computed dividing the COR_AB by the COR_GBLUP. RE values larger than one indicate that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method. Prediction accuracy in terms of mean square error (MSE), average Pearson's correlation (COR), and normalized mean square error (NRMSE). The metrics that end with_GBLUP denotes the results under the GBLUP, while those that end with _AB denotes the AV method with variable selection using the Boruta algorithm. Relative efficiency (RE) denotes the RE for each metric, RE_MSE and RE_NRMSE were computed dividing the MSE_GBLUP by the MSE_AB, and the NRMSE_GBLUP by the NRMSE_AB, while the RE_COR was computed dividing the COR_AB by the COR_GBLUP. RE values larger than one indicate that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method. Prediction accuracy in terms of mean square error (MSE), average Pearson's correlation (COR), and normalized mean square error (NRMSE). The metrics that end with_GBLUP denote the results under the GBLUP, while those that end with _AB denote the AV method with variable selection using the Boruta algorithm. Relative efficiency (RE) denotes the RE for each metric, RE_MSE and RE_NRMSE were computed dividing the MSE_GBLUP by the MSE_AB, and the NRMSE_GBLUP by the NRMSE_AB, while the RE_COR was computed dividing the COR_AB by the COR_GBLUP. RE values larger than one indicate that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method.with an RE value >1. Across all traits and families, the average improvement achieved by the AB method vs the GBLUP method was 39.2% (RE = 1.392, Table 4 and Fig. 4).Similarly, regarding the COR metric, the AB method displayed a higher performance in 9 out of 10 families, as indicated by RE >1. Across all traits and families, the AB method showed a modest gain of 2.7% compared to the GBLUP method (RE = 1.027, Fig. 4, Table 4).Additionally, the NRMSE metric analysis revealed that in 8 out of 10 cases, the RE values exceeded 1, highlighting the advantage of the AB method over the GBLUP method. Overall, across all traits and families, the AB method displayed a 9.0% improvement in prediction performance, as evidenced by an RE value of 1.090.Regarding the MSE metric, our findings across data sets and families indicate that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method by 19.7% (RE = 1.19.7, Table 5 and Fig. 5). Turning our attention to the COR metric, the AB method displayed a higher performance with a gain of 8.6% compared to the GBLUP method (RE = 1.086, Fig. 5, Table 5). Additionally, in terms of NRMSE, the AB method exhibited an improvement of 9.8% over the GBLUP method, as indicated by a RE value of 1.098 (as depicted in Fig. 5 and Table 5).In sum, our findings consistently found AB method superior to the GBLUP method across diverse datasets, traits and family categories. These results indicate that the AB method is indeed effective in predicting untested families when trained on tested ones.Family prediction in breeding programs is of paramount importance, since it is essential to optimize the use of resources, accelerate the breeding cycle, reduce environmental impact, and produce new plant varieties with improved traits. Family prediction allows breeders to identify and select superior genotypes based on their genetic potential. By predicting the performance of entire families rather than individual plants, breeders can make informed decisions about which families are likely to exhibit desirable traits such as higher yield, resistance to diseases, and improved quality.Family prediction is very important since enables breeders to allocate their resources more efficiently by focusing on families with the highest predicted performance. This targeted approach accelerates the breeding process, allowing for the identification of promising plant varieties more quickly. As a result, resources such as time, manpower, and field space are utilized more effectively, leading to the development of improved crop varieties in a timelier manner. This efficiency is crucial in addressing global challenges such as food security, climate change, and evolving pest and disease pressures.Challenging family predictions in plant breeding can arise due to several factors, which can complicate the process and impact the accuracy of predictions. Some of these challenges include (1) genetic variation within families, (2) quantitative traits and polygenicity, (3) epistasis and gene interactions, (4) recombination and linkage disequilibrium, (5) limited sample size, etc. Addressing these challenges requires a combination of advanced statistical methods, cutting-edge genomic technologies, robust experimental designs, careful consideration of environmental factors, and iterative model refinement. Although genomics and statistical modeling continue to improve the accuracy of family predictions in plant breeding, it is likely that these challenges will continue to be important.For this reason, in this research, a novel method was proposed that integrates the strengths of the AV method and Boruta method and it is called the AB method. This method trains binary classifiers for each family with a fictitious response variable. The fictitious response variable is labeled as 1 (testing set) when the input belongs to the family of interest, while the inputs of the remaining families are labeled as 0 (training set). During the training process with the Boruta method, each original marker and its permuted (shuffled) version is used as input. This process helps determine marker importance. Original markers are then weighted using the inverse of their computed scores, and with these weighted markers, the weighted GRM is computed. The GBLUP model is then implemented using this weighted GRM. From our results we speculate that the AB method is simply picking up the SNPs segregating on the test set. In which case, a quality control process on the SNP set could be used to tailor the model to specific families. The proposed AB method was compared to the GBLUP model that uses a GRM without weights on 12 real datasets.We found the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method between 0% (Data 12, Maize_Bi_2019_O) and 55.3% (Data 3, Maize_2) in terms of MSE, between 0% (Data 12, Maize_Bi_2019_O) and 33.9% (Data 3, set Maize_2) in terms of COR and between 1.1% in Data 12, Maize_Bi_2019_O) and 33.9% (Data 3, Maize_2) in terms of NRMSE. On average across data sets, traits and families, we observed that the AB method outperformed the GBLUP method by 8.6, 19.7, and 9.8% in terms of COR, MSE and normalized root MSE. These results are very promising, since they provide empirical evidence that the proposed AB method can help to significantly increase the prediction performance of complete families.The power of the AB method mostly is attributed to the fact that it reduces the mismatch between the training and testing distribution by reducing the weight of those markers that most differentiate the training from the testing set. This adjustment is possible to be carried out due to the hybrid nature of the AB method that uses the AV approach proposed by Montesinos-López, Kismiantini et al. (2023) for the context of plant breeding to quantify the magnitude of the mismatch between the training and testing sets, followed by the Boruta method to identify those markers that are more important in the differentiation between the training and testing set. Then with the inverse of the importance scores a weighted GRM is built that is used coupled with the GBLUP model with the goal of improving the prediction performance. Our results are encouraging since we not only reduced prediction error (with MSE and NRMSE) but also increases predictive ability (as Pearson's correlation between predicted and observed values) which is one of the most popular metrics used in GS, and that guarantees a better selection process of the best (top or bottom) candidate genotypes. Also, it is important to point out that the proposed AB method is not restricted to only hybrid predictions since this method can be applied to any prediction problem in which exist a significant mismatch between the training and testing set, also the size of the training and testing set have not restrictions, that is, the percentages of observations in the training and testing can be quite different.However, even though the results are very promising, in some data sets we did not find a significant improvement in the prediction accuracy of some families, which in part can be attributed to a not significant mismatch between the training and testing sets and in other to difficulties of building robust statistical machine learning methods for complete family predictions since, as mentioned above, many factors that interact in complex ways affect the family performance. Also, it is hard to predict some families because the heritability for a single family within a single environment is very low, unless this family happens to be segregating to a major QTL and in these cases, the test is too noisy to validate the methodology.For example, the number of individuals per family (family size) is key to improving the prediction accuracy of a complete family, since the larger the family size, we will have more information to train the genomic prediction model efficiently. In addition, it is key to have many families in the training set since, in this way, the probability that the family to be predicted has more similar families in the training set increases.Also, the size and structure of the training population affect the accuracy of genomic prediction models (VanRaden et al. 2009;Daetwyler et al. 2010;Habier et al. 2010;de Bem Oliveira et al. 2020). Furthermore, incorporating more than 10 individuals within each family will diminish the sampling variability of both allele frequency and phenotypic mean, ultimately leading to enhanced genomic accuracies (de Bem Oliveira et al. 2020). However, we are aware that not even the family can predict itself well because of factors such as G × E (Alencar 2021).For the situation mentioned above, it is crucial to highlight the significance of genome-wide family prediction in breeding practices, particularly considering that numerous species are cultivated within large full or half-sibling family populations, often serving as commercially viable populations with varying degrees of relatedness, as seen in certain forage species such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) (Annicchiarico et al. 2015;Biazzi et al. 2017) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) (Fè et al. 2016). Within these species, the family unit, whether composed of full or half-siblings, constitutes the fundamental entity for phenotyping, typically performed at the plot level to measure attributes like yield, as opposed to the individual plant level. This approach is required by the allogamous nature of their mating systems (Poehlman 1987). Notably, individual plants hold limited significance, given that commercial varieties are essentially homogeneous populations comprising heterozygous individuals (Poehlman 1987).Significantly, the application of genome-wide family prediction has already been reported in crops that are intentionally bred and cultivated as family pools, particularly in cross-pollinated forage species (Fè et al. 2016;Annicchiarico et al. 2015;Biazzi et al. 2017). For this reason, the proposed AB method is a promising tool that helps to improve the prediction performance of complete families, but still further research is required to be able to improve the modeling process in family predictions in such a way that, it is highly probable that we can guarantee a high prediction accuracy of each family, in any trait and in any data set. The application of the AB method generally improves the prediction accuracy or, in case this does not occur, the genomic prediction accuracy will not be negatively affected by the application of the AB method.Due to the need to improve family prediction accuracy in plant breeding programs, we proposed the AB method that integrates the AV method with the Boruta method. The former detects the presence and magnitude of the mismatch between the training and testing set using a binary classifier using the original features (inputs) and a fictitious response variable, while the Boruta computes feature importance, also using the same fictitious response variable, then with the inverse of the feature importance scores the original features (markers) are weighted, and using them, a weighed GRM is computed. Finally, the GBLUP model is used with the weighted GRM. We found that the proposed AB method outperforms the GBLUP by 8.6, 19.7, and 9.8% in terms of Pearson's correlation, MSE, and normalized root MSE across data sets, traits, and families. The proposed AB method was shown to be efficient in most data sets under study, but for cases in the AB method did not produce any increase in genomic prediction accuracy, the AB method did not produce any decrease in the accuracy of the prediction. Certainly, more empirical evaluations are welcome to support our findings.","tokenCount":"6580"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c4ecb356aa3f85bbb06e104a358fc0b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5eb2f415-813b-4f90-8277-50499f2511b6/retrieve","id":"-1656332510"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"24f32080-0255-4bdf-aa80-acf19581af2a","pagecount":"44","content":"List of APs on Mentoring and Coaching .Maziwa Zaidi II under the project name 'Agri-entrepreneurship, technology uptake and inclusive dairy development in Tanzania; aims to catalyze uptake of four dairy innovation packages namely East Coast fever vaccination, Artificial insemination Brachiaria grass (or other forage options) and manure management. The trainees were encouraged to incorporate AI as part of bundled services that they offer.Out of the 21 trained APs three participants from each region who had shown a higher level of interest and enthusiasm in commercial ECF vaccination were selected for mentoring and coaching. This was a one-on-one approach where Dr. Mbwille carefully guided them into making their first commercial order which culminated into being initiated into doing ECF vaccination commercially, putting into practice the knowledge and skills received during the training. Having completed the assignment it was observed that there is still a need for more APs fill the technology gap in the field and to invest in the ECF business and bundling.Overall, 21 trainees have been certified as ECF vaccinators by Ronheam but the Veterinary Council of Tanzania has issued identification card only to 16 trainees as 2 vaccinators did not attend accredited colleges and 3 vaccinators had not paid up the VCT enrollment/enlistment /retention fees expecting to do so before the end of November, 2021.Maziwa Zaidi partners in association with the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Livestock have identified integrated intervention packages to be tested and delivered as part of a project on 'Agri-entrepreneurship, technology uptake and inclusive dairy development in Tanzania.'The aim of the project is to catalyze enhanced uptake of 'proven' dairy technology packages that improve the livelihoods of smallholders and contribute to environmental sustainability in Tanzania.The hypothesis is that interventions involving empowered and appropriately skilled Agri-entrepreneurs offer a promising avenue for enhanced uptake of profitable dairy technologies and services leading to increased smallholder competitiveness, household income and consumption of safe milk.Market system approaches applied are those in which capacitated agribusinesses enhance uptake of dairy technology packages, facilitating the inclusion of women-and youth-led dairy agribusinesses. More competitive and efficient agribusinesses are expected to emerge after incubation and mentorship leading to more competitive smallholder dairy farmers enterprises through the prioritized dairy technologies. These technology packages that deliver more impacts on productivity, incomes and consumption of safe milk will be scaled up.The prioritized technical products for delivery packages that are to be profitably leveraged by agribusiness targeting small holder producers include East Coast fever (ECF) vaccine, Artificial Insemination (AI) and Brachiaria grass (or other forage options).Agripreneurs with basic requirements in animal health training who expressed interest in follow-up training on technical aspects of ECF immunization were selected. The trainees were encouraged to incorporate AI as part of bundled services that they offer. Pre-selected animal health government extension staff in their localities were invited to the technical training sessions. 3) Carrying out practical ECF immunization as part of the training 4) Get the trainees certified as ECF vaccinators by the Registrar of the Veterinary Council of Tanzania 5) Mentoring of three agripreneurs per region (who were part of the boot camp above) in ECF immunization their initiation into their first commercial ECF immunization (total of six). All the activities 1 to 5 were successfully carried out in consultation with ILRI project staff and supervisor.The Training ProcessThe training took place at Bomang'ombe (Kilimanjaro) and Korogwe (Tanga) from 11 th to 14 th October, 2021 and 16 th to 19 th October, 2021 respectively. The approved \"Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Veterinary of Tanzania Training manual on vaccination against East Coast fever for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Tanzania\" was used to guide us throughout the training. Annex program…The First two days of the bootcamp were used for theoretical ECF Vaccination training. The training was conducted in an interactive and participatory manner, the presenters used thirty percent of their allocated presentation time for Questions, Comments and group discussions Day 1: After registering for Day 1 each of the trainees introduced himself/herself telling the rest in the past five years where he/she was doing with regard to agribusiness or otherwise, what motivated them to do what they are doing and what they expect out of this training? All of them had their different stories to tell but regarding the outcome after the training they expect to use the technology to be obtained and gained at the workshop for furthering and perfecting their businesses, and using different complementary bundling options to increase their profits.The topics covered included: A video on ECF showing the whole vaccination process and benefits of the vaccine to the livestock keeper and the vaccinator, was projected to the class. Also a clip by Dr Henry Kiara narrating the benefits of ECF was also shown to help the trainees grasp any missing points during the workshop. After discussion and evaluation of day two the trainees were allowed to go and contemplate on the practical exercise awaiting them the following day.Frozen Diluent in a cool box Day 3 and Day 4:The theoretical training was followed by a two days practical ECF vaccination exercise whereby each of the four districts (Hai, and Siha in Kilimanjaro and Korogwe and Muheza in Tanga) vaccinated Eighty calves.The practical training began using trainee group/teams created in day2. Each group of eight vaccinated five calves before allowing another group to do the same. Each trainee played a different role in each group. The group rotation ensured that each participant played a different role in each of the different groups thus by the time the 80 calves per day were vaccinated each one of the trainees has done and repeated at least 5 times for each for the eight tasks.Each participant had at least eight chance to hands on skills for the eight deeds required to complete the ECF ITM immunization process for each calf during the practical session (Annex 6 Team formation) Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Veterinary of Tanzania's Training manual on vaccination against east Coast fever for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Tanzania\". The complete booklet of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Veterinary of Tanzania's Training manual on vaccination against East Coast Fever for veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals in Tanzania\" were given to each participant to keep and use.It is important to note that all the participants did perform the tasks diligently and enthusiastically and there was team work and cooperation and a spirit of helping one another throughout the practical vaccination exercise despite walking through steep terrain and narrow corridors to get the next small holder dairy calf to vaccinate.There was an air of satisfaction and wanting to have more animals to vaccinate by the time the 2 straws got finished on time. At this point I commended the APs and declared to them that they were now ready to do ECF vaccination on a commercial basis charging each animal according to calculated expenses adding a margin as taught in the theory class.For livestock keepers complaining that ECF vaccine is expensive; these should be sensitized and taught and assured into understanding the following major benefit of ECF vaccination:Impress the livestock keeper with the following assurance: The benefits of ECF vaccination apart from faster growing calves, once in a lifetime vaccination and reduced use of acaricide thus saving on expenses and also reduced environmental pollution; there is the assurance part on getting the expected income from the animal:During the practical ECF vaccination exercises and while conversing with the APs challenges in each prospective Aps earmarked for M&C were identified and interventions planned for M &C period in order for the Aps to perfect and master the ECF vaccination skills and procedures and be able to successfully embark on their first commercial ECF ITM Immunization exercise.A total of total of six Aps i.e., three agripreneurs in Kilimanjaro and 3 agripreneurs in Tanga regions -who were part of the boot camp above in ECF immunization and initiating them into their first commercial ECF immunization). The main emphasis during mentoring was productive performance; for a long-term endeavor. • Discussion on desired outcomes for the relationship.• Established the basic goals and objectives that we will be working towards, which included following broad goals:• Increasing the speed at which the mentee learns their role and achieves competency in ECF and AI bundling• Reducing stress and preventing burnout• improving the mentee's motivation and business satisfaction• Increasing the chances that the mentee will stay and grow with the plan long-term• Discuss areas as per the Lean Canvas plan which is based on vaccination and treatment. Will link with partners in bundling AI and these services. The 6 APs performed at different levels with Tanga outshining Kilimanjaro in that 120 cattle were vaccinated commercially by the Tanga APs while 40 cattle were vaccinated commercially by Kilimanjaro APs. All the six Aps have benefited from the mentoring and coaching in that they now have targets to reach and facilities to install. They are all motivated to reach the set goals signed between them and the mentor.From the sample agreements, you will note that each AP is to bundle the ECF business with other synergistic income generating activities such as animal health services, AI and inputs supply. For those Aps who are not knowledgeable on AI matters they plan to partner with agripreneurs with AO technical knowledge. They all are keen to increase their knowledge in business administration and financial matters.As this is an ongoing activity, the APs targets for the next one year are shown in the matrix below.Targets given to each according to the agreement signed between the mentor and mentored in their respective geographical locations. Upon checking in their records, the VCT realized that the status of 20 out of 21 participants were in breach of the VCT enlistment/enrolment conditions. 19 APs had repairable breeches which ranged from non-payment of retention fees to not having been enlisted or enrolled after acquiring their animal health certificates; while 2 had irreparable breaches ranging from having only academic transcripts and NO animal health certificate to having animal health certificates from institutions NOT recognized by VTC.After a thorough coordination effort by Ronheam through up and down communication between VCT and the APs finally 16 APs certificates of completion of ECF ITM training were signed and submitted to the Registrar of VCT for countersignature and issuance of the ECF Immunization ID cards.• Financial encumbrances on the part of the APs to pay the veterinary Council fees when due has caused much time to be spent assisting them, liaising and connecting them to VCT to resolve issues. . See attachment on APs status before and after the training. • APs negligence led them to practice without having their legal status (VCT) observed • Some livestock keepers still think the vaccine is expensive.All the three objectives were met:On Preparing trainees in ECF business and bundling with other business activities the six APs is a success as the APs have began bundling implementation; The 4 days training and the mentoring and Coaching achieved its objectives as shown by a good number of the trainees certified successfully ( except for two whose institutions they attended animal health course are currently not recognized by VCT). Talks are ongoing to have them on going between the Folk college and VCT. Mentoring and Coaching has been a success as participants have been successfully initiated into ECF vaccination on commercial basis and mutually agreed targets have been set for short, medium and long term. All participants chose the Extension Marketing model as their preferred sales marketing model. All continuing trainees are processing through official channels the registration of facilities. Participants felt they have achieved more from the training and M&C than what they expected at the beginning of the training -this is a positive sign that we are on track with our plans and objectives have been achieved.• This particular exercise of having APs trained and mentored on the priority dairy technologies should be extended into other dairy farming regions of Tanzania. • The mentoring exercise should be ongoing so as to ensure the short-, medium-and long-term targets successes once achieved are upheld.• There should be regular reporting (feedback from the Aps on bundling of priority services and product/ success and failures.• ECF delivery should be encouraged as it is extremely beneficial; and environmentally friendly-reducing the use of acaricides.• Balancing cost with speed during vaccination, one to two assistants can be used in actual field situations and more than one task can be done by one person. ","tokenCount":"2073"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"64a5bfb984c0c874c653d1e8eafd51b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c6abca9f-7773-4f6b-9183-280976b60234/retrieve","id":"-473733204"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f470cafd-aaaf-4bec-b516-5869e205d259","pagecount":"100","content":"This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent.The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the data included in this work and does not assume responsibility for any errors, omissions, or discrepancies in the information, or liability with respect to the use of or failure to use the information, methods, processes, or conclusions set forth. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.Nothing herein shall constitute or be construed or considered to be a limitation upon or waiver of the privileges and immunities of The World Bank, all of which are specifically reserved.Tables Table E.1 Feasibility assessment of the country's readiness for IBDRFI products targeting pastoralists Table 5.1 Summary of the similarities and differences between the two IBDRFI programmatic scenarios Table 5.2 Cumulative costs for implementing PS1 over 5 years Table 5.3 Costs for PS2 for the whole period (5 years) Table 6.1 Feasibility assessment of the country's readiness for IBDRFI products targeting pastoralists Table A1.1 Differences between micro-and macro-level programs in Kenya and Ethiopia Table A2.1 Satellite data products used in the study Table A3.1 Index-based livestock insurance feasibility classification criteria Table A4.1 List of stakeholders Table A5.1 Summary of the assumptions made in the costing analysis Table A5.2 Yearly and total costs for PS1 implementation over 5 years (in USD) Table A5.3 Yearly and total costs for PS2implementation over 5 years (in USD)Drought risk financing and insurance solutions have emerged as powerful tools to protect the vulnerable communities against drought impacts. The key idea is to link prearranged financing solutions to credible response plans. This has been shown to make funding available faster after disasters, strengthen predictability and improve costeffectiveness compared to ex-post, ad hoc responses. Among the various solutions, index-based drought risk financing and insurance (IBDRFI) approaches are particularly suitable for smallholder farming and extensive pastoral systems. These instruments trigger payouts/financial responses based on an ' objective' index approximating the impact or loss. The majority of IBDRFI instruments targeting extensive rangelands currently operational in Africa are based on drought indices derived from satellite normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) data. Among these, the indexbased livestock insurance (IBLI) and drought index-insurance products have been specifically designed to protect pastoralists in the face of drought and have been shown to improve households' welfare during and after shocks.Recent developments in earth observation (EO) missions, technologies and analytics are opening new opportunities for designing innovative indices for IBDRFI initiatives, including rangelands and extensive pastoral systems. Initiatives such as the World Bank Next Generation Drought Index (NGDI) aim to expand the range of options for designing IBDRFI solutions by developing a practical framework for a set of indices or indicators that will better monitor, anticipate and trigger financial responses to severe drought events.Africa with different modalities such as retail micro-insurance products, macro-level insurance schemes for protection of social livelihoods and scalability mechanisms of social safety net programs. All these initiatives rely on similar EO technologies and indices (i.e. based on NDVI data) and are generally designed following anticipatory response principles, e.g. early drought detection for early action and impact mitigation. Micro-level retail IBLI schemes have been implemented in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia with private insurance companies involved in marketing, promoting and underwriting the scheme on a voluntary basis with individual pastoralists. Macro-level social livelihood protection insurance schemes are currently operational at a national level in Kenya through the Kenyan Livestock Insurance Program (KLIP), eastern Ethiopia and Zambia.Index-contingent scalability mechanisms for safety net programs have also been implemented in Kenya, under the Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP) and in Uganda, under the Third Northern Ugandan Social Action Fund (NUSAF III). These social protection schemes can complement sovereign level products like the ones which the African Risk Capacity (ARC) has been implementing.The initiatives implemented thus far have produced valuable lessons and robust evidence on the benefits and positive welfare impacts of IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists.For pastoralists: Pastoralists receive financial support earlier compared to traditional insurance schemes or humanitarian aid to protect their livestock, thus avoiding catastrophic impacts. They can also effectively plan their herd management as they are less vulnerable to drought shocks.For the private sector: IBDRFI initiatives can crowd-in investments in pastoral areas including complementary services, benefiting from the public/donors' investments in financial literacy and financial infrastructure, which are prerequisites of IBLI implementation.For governments: IBDRFI initiatives can minimise governments' fiscal exposure to drought events through advance disaster planning. This enables early responses and more cost-effective utilisation of funds to mitigate the impacts of drought and reduce humanitarian aid needs.This feasibility study, conducted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the World Bank, aims to inform development and implementation of policies to increase the resilience of pastoralists in Niger and the Sahel against severe drought shocks. It provides the background knowledge required to make informed decisions on whether investing resources in the design and implementation of an IBDRFI program can achieve the desired public policy objectives.The feasibility assessment considers technical (i.e. product design), socio-economic (potential demand and value) and operational (supply chain) factors for the design and implementation of IBDRFI solutions in Niger.The socio-economic feasibility analysis aims to assess the presence of necessary pre-conditions to justify the launch of an IBDRFI scheme (i.e. vulnerability of livestock to drought) and the extent of the demand for the IBDRFI solutions from local institutions, pastoral and agro-pastoral households. It examines the relevance of the livestock sector and the impact of drought on the national economy in addition to the socio-economic environment of pastoralists.The technical feasibility analysis aims to assess whether key conditions for the technical design of an accurate index and trigger mechanism for drought impacts on pastoral areas are met. The feasibility factors considered include, the coverage of rangeland, rangeland vegetation cover/density and the vegetation seasonality, which are critical, not only for the design of NDVI-based indices, but also for alternative EO drought indices. When conditions are not fully met, the assessment provides indications of the type of work needed to design appropriate technical solutions to refine the product design for the specific context.The operational feasibility analysis aims to evaluate the conditions required for supplying IBDRFI solutions and for supporting the development of an enabling environment (institutional, regulatory and social) for its large-scale and sustainable provision. Thus, it seeks to assess the existing financial and insurance infrastructure and services, the policy and regulatory environment, the potential distribution channels and the existing private and public stakeholders (insurers and financial service providers, pastoral associations, intermediaries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) etc.) and their capacity in the financial sector.A scenario analysis finally determines the historical payouts and hypothetical costings of proposed IBDRFI structures. This analysis is purely illustrative and aims to show simple examples of how the technical product customization and the choices made on different programmatic options have fundamental cost-benefit implications. However, it should be noted that the proposed scenarios are not meant to be recommendations for specific options, nor do they cover an exhaustive range of IBDRFI solutions. Thus, detailed analyses of alternative programmatic options and product design customizations need to be planned with local stakeholders at the early implementation stages for future initiatives.The feasibility study is largely built on technical solutions, experiences and programmatic options implemented in east African countries, which are used as benchmarks for the assessment. As such, the IBLI product design 2 is used for the technical assessments, while IBDRFI programmatic options are based on the main ones tested thus far. Therefore, micro-level retail and macro-level social livelihood protection schemes that provide direct payouts/cash transfers to policyholders or beneficiaries are presented in the scenarios.However, the feasibility conditions should be considered as widely applicable to alternative IBDRFI options that can and should be evaluated and tailored for the specific context based on the country policy priorities in drought risk management and social protection. During the program design phase, alternative drought index product design approaches might be considered, given that the Sahel pastoral regions present significant ecological and socioeconomic differences to those in east Africa. More importantly, while alternative programmatic options, such as mesolevel or sovereign-level insurance are not discussed in detail in this report because of lack of direct implementation experiences in pastoral areas. Depending on the country's policy priorities and the local context, these models might need to be considered.The feasibility assessment indicates that with targeted investments and supportive policies, an IBDRFI initiative targeting pastoralists (i.e. livestock owners) could be implemented in the extensive pastoral systems of Niger.The socio-economic assessment (Table E.1, green) emphasizes the overwhelming importance of the livestock sector for the Nigerien economy, as it accounts for approximately 13% of the country's national GDP and more than 87% of the households in the country rear livestock. Most of the livestock-rearing households practice agro-pastoralism, with 66% of livestock being kept in sedentary systems. This would require careful consideration when identifying target communities, as one important assumption of the IBLI design is that livestock nutrition depends upon rangeland resources.A related issue requiring consideration and accurate review is the reported uneven distribution of livestock ownership, with 10% wealthiest households reported to own 90% of all livestock. This has relevant policy implications for IBDRFI implementation modality and targeting.Droughts are one of the biggest causes of vulnerability to food insecurity for pastoralists. Even though there is little data on drought shock costs and the impact of droughts on households and communities, the available evidence shows substantial livestock losses estimated at 10% of the GDP. The natural shocks' impacts have been exacerbated in the last few years by the increase in violence and insecurity, mainly in the areas bordering Mali thus negatively affecting market functioning and accessibility of pastoral resources. Given the many pressures on their livelihoods, many pastoralists are forced to become sedentary and eventually adopt agro-pastoralist lifestyles. While local stakeholders have shown interest in IBDRFI and there is some evidence of potential demand, the very low financial literacy among pastoralist communities might represent a barrier for adoption, indicating the need for significant investments in awareness creation.The technical assessment (Table E.1, yellow and Figure E1, green) indicates that approximately 16% of Niger's land area, hosting 39% of the national livestock herd, can be categorized as feasible (green), or feasible but needing review (orange) for the implementation of an IBDRFI product tailored to extensive pastoral system covers. Areas in the south of the country (Figure E1, red) are not suitable because they are dominated by crops while rangelands in areas coded orange (Figure E1), where mixed arable farming and livestock production co-exist, require further review to evaluate the extent to which NDVI would be a reliable indicator of forage conditions. Finally, in the arid areas of northern Niger coded yellow in Figure E1, forage production is very low, thus the extent of use for grazing by pastoralists should be evaluated.The operational assessment (Table E.1, grey) shows a conducive regulatory environment, low presence of insurance providers, weak financial service infrastructure and a poorly developed agricultural insurance market.Even though an IBDRFI scheme for livestock has recently been introduced in the country with strong support from the ministry of livestock, the lack of agricultural insurance providers is a significant challenge. Nevertheless, there are a few institutions such as the ARC and IBISA that have entered the agriculture insurance space and are working with non-life insurance companies to underwrite index-based products.The launch in 2021 of the CNAAI represents a turning point to facilitate the introduction of agricultural indexinsurance initiatives in Niger. CNAAI has the mandate to evaluate the possibility to create a national company for agricultural insurance, develop a commercial index-based insurance product and develop an implementation plan. Although not directly focusing on livestock, these steps would allow overcoming some of the key barriers for an insurance market to develop Institutional capacity on agro-meteorological data handling is limited. The active presence of regional organizations such as L' Association pour la Redynamisation de L'Elevage au Niger (AREN), Centre Régionale de Formation et d' Application en Agrométéorologie et Hydrologie Opérationnelle (AGRHYMET) and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) can provide an entry point to support the implementation of IBDRFI initiatives.Low financial literacy in pastoral areas would be an adoption barrier and adequate investments in awareness creation are required. The overall institutional and private sector capacity is currently insufficient to support large commercial insurance or social livelihoods protection initiatives.The insecurity situation in some pastoral regions is a material risk factor for the operational implementation of IBDRFI programs and needs to be carefully considered during the planning phases. Several organizations have been working on conflict mitigation in Niger and should be consulted on the design of IBDRFI initiatives to evaluate effective conflict mitigation strategies.Table E.1. summarizes the main critical areas that would require targeted investments for IBDRFI implementation (red dots). These include:The lack of financial literacy and exposure to financial services of pastoral communities would require significant effort to support awareness creation about financial protection mechanisms and insurance. This is a pre-requisite to stimulate informed demand and to support the establishment of a local market for insurance and related services. This goal can be achieved by sensitizations campaigns but also through capacity building of insurance or extension agents operating in pastoral regions.The limited experience of national institutions in handling datasets to support IBDRFI programs need to be addressed through capacity development and targeted investments on national infrastructures to manage large geospatial datasets. The involvement of AGHRYMET and other experienced international institutions would be fundamental to fill this major gap.The lack of a registration system at national level is a barrier toward effective IBDRFI design and beneficiary targeting. More localized initiatives by development organizations should be evaluated in their potential for scaling up and to support the initial design of a registration system based on implementation experiences. Pastoral associations should be also involved in the process as they have a dense network in the pastoral areas.The increasing insecurity and conflicts pose a challenge for investment and attracting private sector actors in some pastoral regions in the north of the country. Early implementation of IBDRFI is recommended in areas with higher security to allow optimal customization of the program for the local context and, subsequently, should be expanded to other areas.The scenario analysis carried out under the study provides illustrative costing scenarios for two alternative 5-year IBDRFI programmatic options aimed at providing a safety net to vulnerable pastoralists during drought periods. Both scenarios have been designed by considering the experiences from Kenya and Ethiopia, where ongoing initiatives have demonstrated positive impacts on pastoralists' welfare and income, private sector development and governmental budgets and contingent liability.The global cost of supporting a micro-level retail scheme with 50% subsidies targeting insurance cover for 25,000 pastoralists (from year 5) is estimated to be 5.1 million United States Dollars (USD), including USD 4.4 million subsidies and USD 0.75 million for program support activities. This option should stimulate demand for the insurance product while simultaneously increasing incentives for insurance providers to enter the market and invest in marketing and support chains, leading to broader access and longer-term sustainability. At the same time, this option can fail to meet its objectives if the private sector does not invest in either the product delivery or complementary activities such as marketing and awareness creation, which are critical to create a sustainable market and meet the target coverage.The global cost of a social protection program that provides insurance for 5 cattle equivalent for 50,000 pastoralists (from year 5) is estimated to be USD 17.3 million, including USD 15.6 million premium subsidies and USD 1.75 million for program support activities. This option ensures that target coverage levels are met but may not stimulate private investment in product marketing or awareness creation. In addition, it may not necessarily create access to insurance for those that do not receive the insurance transfer. The long-term fiscal sustainability is another important risk as this scheme requires considerable medium-term budget allocation commitments by the government.Livestock is of overwhelming importance to the Nigerien economy, contributing around 13% to the national GDP. Approximately 87% of households keep livestock.Drought impacts on pastoral livelihoods have repeatedly been catastrophic, with large parts of the national herd perishing. There is no reliable data on droughtrelated livestock losses and estimates vary, but they can be substantial, surpassing 10% of GDP during the 2009-10 drought.The vulnerability to droughts is highest among poor pastoralists. In addition, the pastoral areas are generally very dependent on functioning markets and grain prices as their diet consists of more grains than animal products.Agro-pastoralism is by far the most practised production system by livestock producers and 66% of livestock is kept in sedentary systems. This would require careful consideration when identifying target clients/beneficiaries as the forage index design assumes that livestock rely largely on rangeland resources. Migrating pastoralists are concentrated mainly in the northern parts of the pastoral belts.Given the many pressures on their livelihoods, many pastoralists are forced to become sedentary and adopt agro-pastoralist lifestyles. Another related issue requiring consideration and accurate review is the reported uneven distribution of livestock ownership, with 10% wealthiest households reported to own 90% of all livestock. This has relevant policy implications for IBDRFI implementation modality and targetingThere is general interest and potential demand for drought insurance products but given the poverty levels and inequality among pastoralists, different approaches and types of products might have to be considered. However, the information gathered in this study is not sufficient to allow accurate evaluation of potential demand.Pastoralist communities have very little understanding of insurance in general (crop, livestock and non-life) and their introduction would require significant investments in awareness creation.Rangelands extensively dominate the central part of the country and are most suitable for the implementation of an IBDFRI program for pastoralists. The level of forage production is the major factor limiting feasibility of an IBDRFI design in the northern regions. Smallholder cropping, or mixed crop/livestock systems are prevalent in southern Niger, making these areas inappropriate for IBDRFI design (Figure E1).Seasonality is well defined and relatively homogenous across the country's pastoral areas. The typical rangeland growing season runs from June to late October/November, thus seasonality is not a limiting factor for an IBDRFI design; except for the northern parts transitioning into the Sahara Desert that are characterised by scarce vegetation.The IBDRFI suitable areas are in the central part of the country and are dominated by pastoralism. They cover about 16% of Niger's land area and carry about 25% of the national herd (Figure E1). About 74% of Niger is made up of areas that are potentially suitable but requiring further review and assessment during the early implementation stages with local stakeholders.There are multiple institutions supporting agro-meteorological and extension services (e.g. the National Meteorological Agency (ANAM) and Direction Nationale de la Météorologie (DMN)), but national-level institutional capacity in handling the data component of index-insurance initiatives seems limited. There is little or no available livestock data or information linking weather data to livestock production. Regional institutions such as AGHRYMET, ACF or ARC could support data management tasks and capacity building at a national level.Niger is a member of the Conférence Interafricaine des Marchés d' Assurances (CIMA), which already has IBDRFI regulations in place. CIMA recently introduced regulations for Sharia-compliant products which might be important for Niger.Niger has a relatively weak insurance market compared to its neighbours like Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. The number of private general insurance companies is limited and there are very few insurance products other than motor vehicle and health insurance. There are no known crop or livestock insurance products. However, there is a private technology company (IBISA) that is exploring the launch of an index-based livestock insurance product with local insurers in collaboration with the livestock and breeders' association for the pastoral regions.The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries has expressed interest in this initiative.The launch of CNAAI in 2021 may be a turning point to facilitate the development of an agricultural insurance market in the countryExcept for SAHAM, no other insurance company has expressed interest. The ARC is also operating in the country and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government to extend their drought insurance cover to rangelands.Insurers are limited or absent in pastoral areas. However, there are a few microfinance institutions (MFIs) working with development organizations providing different credit and savings services. Moreover, the government launched a smart village program, a promising initiative which might offer opportunities to support effective distribution channels if targeted investments are made.Currently there is no registration system in place. So far, most registration processes have been done through international development organizations.Not available (N/A). This study lacks sufficient evidence to assess this factor.The government of Niger expressed general interest in IBDRFI initiatives targeting pastoral systems, however despite a commercial product viability study, a realistic entry point would be through the social safety mechanisms that are in place to respond to emergencies and disasters. In addition, the mandate of the Dispositif National for the prevention and management of food crisis (Dispositif) could be leveraged when introducing IBDFRI products.Increasing insecurity and conflict poses challenges in attracting private sector actors. However, working with local civil society and peace building bodies could be an opportunity to explore possible mechanisms through which IBDRFI solutions could be introduced.= medium; = high. N/A = Not AvailableSource: Authors' own illustrationConsidering the limited scope of a feasibility study, the next steps in implementing an IBDRFI initiative in Niger would require in-depth engagement with country stakeholders and the planning of analytical studies to address knowledge gaps identified in this assessment. The next steps are summarized here with more detail presented in Section 5 of the feasibility report.R1: To create an enabling environment for IBDRFI solutions, a policy forum should be established between the ministry of livestock and other relevant ministries such as economy, finance and infrastructure and communications technology, the Comite des Assureurs du Niger, private insurance companies and technical enterprises (SAHAM and IBISA), ARC and other development actors. The goal should be to establish a national taskforce to discuss the opportunities and modalities of introducing IBDRFI initiatives in pastoral areas. This initiative could be complementary to the ongoing work of CNAAI, which is focusing more broadly on agricultural insurance R2: Considering the contradictory evidence on the vulnerability of pastoral and agro-pastoral communities and the role of livestock, in-depth engagements with pastoral and breeders' associations and development actors operating in the pastoral and agro-pastoral regions should be planned to generate reliable information on livestock ownership and the role of livestock in the livelihoods of these communities. This would enable better targeting and appropriate IBDRFI product designs.There is lack of data on drought-induced losses suffered by the pastoral communities and their impact on livelihoods. This could be rectified by requesting updated information on the impact of drought on the pastoral communities from governmental organizations or by conducting in-depth engagements with various stakeholders.Address specific product design challenges associated with the adaptation of IBLI to the pastoral production systems in central Niger, dominated by agro-pastoralism and limited seasonal mobility. This primarily entails better characterization of pastoral land use and mobility patterns especially in the regions that require rangeland reviews.Conduct stakeholder engagements to gain better understanding of IBLI feasibility over northern rangelands classified as forage review to understand the extent to which these regions are used as wet season grazing areas.Further investigation into premium financing options for both micro-level retail IBDRFI and meso/macro-level covers. The study should also evaluate alternative ways of aligning different drought risk financing insurance mechanisms and programs for pastoralists and include reviews of the product's value proposition alongside other financial services and products in the Niger context.Technical review of the existing distribution channels in the form of MFIs and assessment of alternative distribution models through telecommunication companies.Investigate the scope of the smart village initiative to potentially identify leverage points for distribution models and promote digital financial services (DFS) solutions for coupling with IBDRFI solutions.Identification of mechanisms of conflict mitigation/peacekeeping between farmers and nomadic pastoralists, with possible indemnities for scarce forage production at the end of the wet season (i.e. before migration), with the goal of contributing to social cohesion between farming and pastoral communities. Hence, it would be critical to carry out detailed engagements with stakeholders that have prior working experience and knowledge in these areas to understand the inter and intra-community dynamics to support the design of effective solutions.Conduct strategic studies to address the lack of knowledge in the design and implementation of agricultural insurance by private insurers and public sector stakeholders. The studies should evaluate the time and resources required to build capacity and create awareness among the private sector, insurance companies and public sector actors. In addition, capacity assessment and building would be required for institutions that are mandated to provide agro-meteorological, extension and emergency response services.This report was prepared for the project entitled, 'Strengthening financial resilience to drought: A feasibility study for an index-based drought risk financing solution for pastoralists in the Sahel,' conducted by ILRI and the WBG. 3  The project's aim was to assess the feasibility of implementing financial protection solutions against drought in the pastoral regions of four Sahelian countries (Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal) and to discuss the most effective implementation modalities (as part of wider drought risk management and pastoral development initiatives) with local private and public stakeholders.Among the various DRFI solutions, index-based approaches are particularly suitable for smallholder farming and extensive pastoral systems. Index-based drought risk financing and insurance (IBDRFI) instruments trigger payouts/ financial response based on an objective index approximating the impact/loss. Indices can be based on ground network measurements, e.g. meteorological and crop yield data or EO satellite data, e.g. rainfall estimates, vegetation indices and soil moisture.The study was conducted against the background of ongoing discussion to scale-up regional or national-level IBDRFI initiatives in the Sahel and Horn of Africa (HOA) as part of a comprehensive agenda to increase pastoralists' resilience to climatic shocks. In the last decade, IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists have been implemented and scaled-up in Kenya and Ethiopia using different modalities that included micro-insurance, macro-level social livelihoods protection, scalable safety nets and sovereign level insurance programs. The positive impacts and overall success of these initiatives have resulted in growing demand and interest from African governments and development organizations seeking to explore the possibility of introducing similar approaches across other pastoral regions on the continent. In addition to the countries targeted by this project, feasibility and pilot studies have been conducted or are ongoing in Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia.This report presents the main findings and recommendations of the study into the feasibility of implementing an IBDRFI solution for pastoralists in Niger conducted from March 2020 to February 2021 by a joint team of ILRI and WBG experts. This was accomplished through a combination of literature review, in-country data collection and interviews with key informants, local public and private sector stakeholders (Appendix 4) and dedicated technical analyses using satellite imagery and risk modelling approaches.The feasibility assessment was designed to assess the potential of launching IBDRFI initiatives in the country, providing the government of Niger, private sector stakeholders and development institutions with sustainable solutions that cushion pastoral households against the impacts of severe drought shocks. The study also provides the background knowledge required to make informed decisions on whether investing resources in the design and implementation of an IBDRFI program can achieve the desired public policy objectives.The feasibility study investigated the context, needs, challenges and potential solutions for implementing IBDRFI initiatives targeted at pastoralists in Niger. Therefore, the following three main areas are analysed:1. The socio-economic context and potential demand for IBDRFI products (socio-economic feasibility, Chapter 2). From a national perspective, extensive livestock production systems are an important component of the rural economy, making IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists a worthwhile investment. From a development and demand perspective, livestock assets are important to rural households' livelihoods and welfare, such that their protection is critical for resilience building. These conditions are also critical to understanding the type of IBDRFI solutions that would be more relevant (i.e. commercial micro-insurance, social livelihoods protection coverage and social safety nets etc. (Section 2 ).A simple, robust, low-cost index design resulting in an accurate IBDRFI product is a critical pre-condition for implementation. Satellite-based indices have proven to be reliable indicators of the impact of droughts on forage resources. The assessment, therefore, evaluates the geographic extent of the area where the technical design of an accurate satellite IBDRFI index is possible. The feasibility factors considered included rangeland coverage, rangeland vegetation cover/density and vegetation seasonality, which are critical for the design of EO drought indices.3. The operational conditions for an IBDRFI scheme (operational feasibility, Chapter 4). Designing and implementing an efficient supply chain for IBDRFI solutions in extensive pastoral areas is challenging and often requires substantial initial investments. The assessment of existing infrastructure and networks for financial services delivery, institutional and private sector capacity and interest, existing legal and regulatory frameworks and technical and financial constraints is, therefore, essential to determine the level of investment required to launch the initiatives.In addition, this study provides a simple scenario analysis to illustrate the historical payouts and hypothetical costings of typical IBDRFI structures (scenario analysis, Chapter 5). This analysis aims to provide the Nigerien government, private sector and development institutions with an overview of the costs and benefits of the proposed insurance scheme based on multiple scenarios. This is done for illustrative purposes only, with the aim of showing simple examples of the technical product customization and the choices made on different programmatic options and objectives have fundamental cost/benefit implications. As such, it should be noted that the proposed scenarios are not meant to be recommendations for a specific option, nor do they represent an exhaustive range of IBDRFI solutions. Thus, detailed analysis of alternative programmatic options and product design customizations needs to be planned for with local stakeholders at the early stages of implementation for future initiatives.Findings from the different components of the study are summarized in a set of recommendations for the next stage of implementation (Chapter 6). It should be noted that the scope of this assessment is limited to the determination of whether important requirements for the development and introduction of an IBDRFI initiative for pastoralists are met and to provide recommendations for the subsequent planning and preparatory stages of implementation.The feasibility study is largely built on technical solutions, experiences and programmatic options implemented in east African countries, which were used as benchmarks for the assessment. As such, the IBLI product design4 was used for the technical assessments, while the IBDRFI programmatic options were based on the main components tested so far, thus micro-level retail and macro-level social livelihoods protection schemes that provide direct payouts/cash transfers to policyholders or beneficiaries are presented in the scenarios.However, the feasibility conditions should be considered as widely applicable to alternative IBDRFI options that can and should be evaluated and tailored for each specific context, according to the country's policy priorities in drought risk management and social protection. During the program design phase, alternative drought index design approaches might need to be considered, given that the Sahel pastoral regions present significant ecological and socio-economic differences to those prevailing in east Africa. While alternative programmatic options such as meso or sovereign level insurance are not discussed in detail in this report because of the lack of direct implementation experiences in pastoral areas based on the country's policy priorities and the local context, these models might need to be considered.Drought risk financing and insurance (DRFI) refers to mechanisms that aim to reduce adverse socio-economic impacts of potential crises. This can include early financing to prevent and reduce a risk or preparing for and responding to a shock. Drought risk financing and insurance is becoming an integral part of climate risk management frameworks as a key component of financial protection strategic planning for low and middle-income countries. A sovereign-level drought risk financing solution for rangelands currently offered in east Africa and the Sahel has been piloted by the ARC in collaboration with ILRI in Kenya.Besides the operational options just listed, alternative IBDRFI programmatic implementation schemes might also be promising in the pastoral context considering the lessons learnt from implementation in east Africa and the context-specific policy objectives (ILRI 2021). For example, while meso-level insurance has never been tested in extensive pastoral regions, it may hold the greatest promise. This entails selling policies to risk aggregators such as pastoralist cooperatives, rural finance institutions or livestock services organizations, e.g. veterinary, drugs and feed supplements suppliers. Meso-level distribution also offers the potential of de-risking lending to pastoralists thus boosting investments in pastoral value chain upgrades. Box 1.1 presents an overview of micro, meso and macro-level distribution approaches.Micro-level (direct): Policyholders are individuals, e.g. farmers, market vendors or fishers, who hold policies and receive payouts directly. These policies are often sold at the local level and retailed through a variety of channels, including micro-finance institutions, farmers' cooperatives, banks, NGOs and local insurance companies. Premiums are either paid in full by clients or subsidized (or both).Policyholders are risk aggregators such as associations, cooperatives, mutuals, credit unions or NGOs, whereby a reinsurer makes payments to the risk aggregators that then provide services to individuals.Policies are held by governments or other national agencies, within the international/ regional reinsurance market. Payouts can be used to manage liquidity gaps, maintain governmental services or finance post-disaster programs and relief efforts for pre-defined target groups. Beneficiaries of these programs can be individuals. These schemes can be operationalised through regional risk pools.There are currently several major parallel initiatives in east Africa assessing the feasibility of regional scaling up of IBDRFI solutions for pastoral communities, which should provide useful insights into the design and planning of an IBDRFI program in Niger and the Sahel. In 2020-21, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the government of the United Kingdom funded a study under the Drought Index Insurance for Resilience in the Sahel and Horn of Africa (DIRISHA), to scale up IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists in the eight Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) counties. This study was implemented by an ILRI research team and the findings were published in the second quarter of 2021. In addition, the African Development Bank (AfDB), WBG and the European Union intend to launch a major investment program (estimated at USD 15 billion) in the HOA.The intended investment pillars include: (i) regional infrastructure networks, (ii) trade and economic integration, (iii) building resilience and (iv) strengthening human capital. Pillar 3 includes the development of a regional pastoralist livestock insurance scheme. Insurance would be the entry point to enhance the financial inclusion of pastoralists (through promotion of savings and access to credit) to strengthen their resilience to drought by protecting their livestock assets and invariably their livelihoods. Ultimately, the delivery of insurance with complementary programs designed to improve pastoral production systems would increase productivity and incomes (WBG 2020). These two initiatives should provide useful insights relevant to the design and implementation of IBDRFI products and programs in Burkina Faso and other Sahel countries with large pastoral communities (ILRI 2021).All IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists currently operational in Africa rely on similar EO technologies and general principles. Satellite indicators of forage condition (NDVI, Box 1.2) are defined so that an index of forage production in a given area can be derived and to calculate payouts using a pre-defined payout function and trigger mechanism. The NDVI is a low-cost, accessible and widely used satellite indicator of drought. There is well-documented evidence of a strong relationship between rangeland biomass and NDVI for arid and semi-arid rangelands. Indeed, NDVI has been successfully used to measure the effect of progressive drought conditions on forage and grazing availability over time (Fava and Vrieling 2021).The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a relative indicator of green vegetation cover or vigour obtained by measuring the difference between near infra-red and reflectance. Higher NDVI values indicate denser cover or healthier vegetation and vice versa. In the context of operational NDVI-based IBDRFI products for pastoralists, NDVI is used as a proxy for forage availability, since during a normal wet year/season, vegetation has higher NDVI than during a drought year/season.While alternative satellite indices of drought exist such as satellite rainfall estimates and soil moisture products, NDVI is currently the most widely used operational systems indicator for drought early warning, monitoring and index insurance in African rangelands. This is because of the well-established relationship between NDVI and vegetation condition, which is in turn directly related to forage resources available for livestock.Among those solutions, the IBLI index design used in this study for technical analysis, was developed for anticipatory action and livestock asset protection in times of severe droughts that lead to forage scarcity. 5 The forage deficit estimated by the satellite index was used as an early indicator of drought conditions that negatively impact forage availability, livestock health and ultimately pastoralists' livelihoods (Appendix 2). As the satellite data provide near real-time assessment, payouts are triggered at the end of the rainy period (i.e. the most critical period for pastoralists to plan herd management) in the event of a drought. These payouts can support pastoralists to make informed and financially supported tactical decisions to better protect their livestock assets and thus cope with the shock. Pastoralists can purchase fodder and animal feed supplements on time to keep core breeding animals alive, well before major livestock losses are incurred. Studies in east Africa suggest that an anticipatory response is significantly more cost-effective in protecting assets and livelihoods than humanitarian aid in later stages of the crises (USAID 2018).The IBLI product design is specifically tailored for pastoralists in extensive pastoral systems where mobility is an important herd management practice and livestock depend on rangeland resources. The coverage is offered for relatively large geographical units. For insurance purposes these units are termed unit areas of insurance (UAIs) where the wet season grazing areas are located. This is designed to protect pastoralists in seasons when rains fail leading to inadequate pasture and grazing resources. The UAIs are designed in collaboration with local pastoral communities to reflect typical short-range livestock grazing and mobility patterns during the normal wet season. They are typically based on clusters of neighbouring wards or subdistricts or woredas. The product is currently not designed for transhumance corridors or long-distance dry season grazing areas.Recent developments in EO missions and technologies are opening new opportunities for designing innovative indices for IBDRFI initiatives for rangelands and extensive pastoral systems (Fava and Vrieling 2021). Alternative EO-derived indicators, e.g. rainfall estimates, evapo-transpiration and soil moisture or drought indices provide a wide range of options to design new products (Fava and Vrieling 2021). Initiatives such as the NGDI aim to expand the range of options available for designing IBDRFI solutions by developing a practical framework for a set of indices or indicators that will better monitor, anticipate and trigger financial responses to severe drought events. Others, such as 5. It should be noted that satellite NDVI is sensitive to multiple factors affecting the vegetation, including some perils other than drought, such as floods, fires, pests etc. The IBLI index is, however, designed to specifically target drought effects on vegetation and minimize the impact of other factors, which might affect the NDVI signal. As such, while the NDVI might also be used to design multi-peril insurance coverage, this is not the case for the IBLI design in this study the University of California, Davis/USAID Quality index insurance certification aim to establish effective approaches for IBDRFI product assessment and for defining minimum quality standards. These efforts are expected to permit development of innovative indices tailored to specific needs, co-generated with stakeholders and validated with high quality scientific standards.The IBDRFI initiatives implemented by ILRI in Kenya and Ethiopia thus far have produced valuable implementation lessons and evidence on the positive impacts for governments and pastoral communities. Key impacts are summarized in Figure 1 Investment in infrastructure facilities and crowdsin additional services.More awareness on the product increases the potential for retail sales.Number of IBLI policies increased from 4k to over 20kIntensification: Increased investments in higherreturns production strategies.Strategic livestock sales when prices are high. 1Increased investments in veterinary services. 1Reduced precautionary savings. 1,2Greater income 1,2Less reliance on determental coping strategies during drought.Less \"skipping\" meals during drought.[?]Maintained investments in human capital. Improved post drought economic and welfare outcomes.Early action to manipulate the impact of drought Destroying in aniticipation of price and resource shocks.Early purchase of inputs to sustain remainig herd during the coming drought. The IBDRFI solutions for pastoralists are still evolving in response to lessons learnt and growing demand from new countries. While there are consolidated operational implementation experiences in east Africa, new programs can utilise the vast knowledge capital accumulated over the last 10 years to further improve the existing solutions, tailoring them to the local context and pastoral systems and supporting their harmonization into broader risk management, resilience building and pastoral development policy frameworks.Evidence from multi-year impact evaluation surveys on the retail micro-insurance IBLI programs in Kenya and Ethiopia show that these programs generated considerable social and welfare benefits for pastoralists who insured their livestock (Figure 1.1, block 3 -Protect vulnerable). During good years, insured households respond to their insurance coverage by increasing investments in livestock, veterinary and vaccination services, selling more livestock and reducing their herd size (Jensen et al. 2017;Matsuda et al. 2019). These changes in production strategies result in positive impacts on indicators of well-being such as increased household income per adult equivalent and reduced reliance on costly risk-reducing strategies like distress selling of livestock or skipping meals, even during drought seasons (Janzen and Carter 2018;Jensen et al. 2017;Matsuda et al. 2019).Analyses of the use of payouts from pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia indicate that payouts influenced the decisionmaking of pastoralists on coping strategies. The payouts were used for both livelihood protection and purchase of livestock inputs. Using data from a survey of over 1000 KLIP beneficiaries in Marsabit and Isiolo after the 2016-17 drought, a study examined how beneficiaries changed their coping strategies in anticipation of payments and how they spent those funds once they were received. A large majority (70%) of respondents reported using part of the payout for human food consumption, while others used the payout for forage/fodder, water and veterinary service expenses for their livestock (Taye et al. 2019).The experience of KLIP has provided evidence that the establishment of a public-private partnership (PPP) model for implementing IBDRFI is effective in transferring risk to the private sector while crowding-in private sector capacity and stimulating market expansion. The PPP model was preferred for KLIP because private sector-only implementation proved difficult to scale-up whilst maintaining private sector appetite for micro-level retail coverage due to the high costs of distribution and the relatively low uptake. The PPP helped in developing a new model for implementing IBDRFI solutions. Lessons learned from the implementation of KLIP (Fava et al. 2021) are summarized as follows:Government leadership and direct investment in IBDRFI initiatives are possible and can be effective if associated with a strong partnership with the private sector, with clearly defined roles and incentive structures. A mechanism for long-term public commitment needs to be established to guarantee the stability of the scheme.Premium subsidies for scaling up and consolidating the scheme are important and instrumental, but they also need to be associated with smart targeting mechanisms and private sector incentives for market development and expansion.Financial education, specifically insurance education, awareness creation and capacity strengthening at all levels are fundamental and require sufficient resources for such schemes to achieve sustainability.Impact assessments require investment, planning and preparation. It is, therefore, recommended that a rigorous impact study and cost-benefit analysis of the program be included during the design phase to ensure that lessons learnt are documented and evidence gathered.The introduction of an anticipatory logic in the IBLI and KLIP index design (for early drought detection and livestock-asset protection) has been a fundamental step in improving the value and cost-effectiveness of the scheme.Accurate insurance product design is critical to create trust and achieve desired impact but the data infrastructure for products quality assessment and comparison is weak, if not absent. There is therefore urgent need for establishment of robust, transparent, actionable strategies and methodologies for quality assessment of index insurance products.Establishing effective payout delivery channels to ensure guaranteed and timely payments is essential and requires dedicated strategies and mechanisms. Even though the product can be optimally designed to provide early payouts for asset protection, any operational inefficiencies in the disbursement of payments especially large payouts, might compromise the effectiveness of the insurance cover and damage the product's credibility from the client's perspective.Engaging with local and international stakeholders and tailoring the IBDRFI product to the specific agro-ecological and socio-economic contexts and evolving environmental conditions is necessary not only during the program design phases, but throughout the entire program implementation cycle.Effective implementation is just as important as the technical design. It is important to ensure that any premium collection design includes robust digital payment infrastructure such as the use of Mpesa in Kenya and Bel-Cash in Ethiopia before launching the schemes. Leveraging on existing financial service infrastructure is crucial to ensure that development impact is achieved, trust is built and the scheme is sustainable.Scaling up IBDRFI initiatives requires strong coordination efforts and harmonization of the different drought risk management instruments to optimize their finance mechanisms, targeting approaches and data and management infrastructure.However, lessons learnt so far show that there are still significant challenges to be addressed in implementing IBDRFI in extensive pastoral regions, particularly in terms of financial sustainability and effective product distribution. The micro-level insurance retail schemes still have significant challenges such as low adoption rates and significantly high transactions costs for marketing and distribution. These challenges make the products nounattractive for private insurance companies unless they are significantly subsidized. On the other hand, the macro-level and safety net schemes for social livelihoods protection experience challenges related to the long-term commitment of government budgets and efficiency of the distribution model. The use of mixed approaches and smart subsidies might overcome some of the challenges evidenced so far.A recent study conducted under the DIRISHA program clearly shows that there is need to identify new low-cost distribution channels for IBDRFI in east Africa (ILRI 2021) and that meso-level channels might represent a feasible option. This is likely to apply equally in Niger and other parts of the Sahel. Over the past decade, the micro-level IBLI programs in Kenya and Ethiopia have operated at a financial loss because of the very high administration and operating costs of implementing insurance with individual pastoralists who often reside in very remote areas. The unit costs of promotion, awareness and education, policy issuance and premium collection for individual pastoralists exceeded the premium generated from each micro-level policy sale. For micro-level IBLI programs to operate at a commercial profit, they will require new and more cost-effective ways of marketing and delivering cover to clients (Lung et al. 2021).The experiences of IBLI and KLIP in Kenya and Ethiopia, respectively, also demonstrate the need for parallel investments in resilience building and market development for pastoral communities. Insurance by itself cannot build drought resilience and protect livelihoods. Insurance is only one of many essential elements of a comprehensive risk management framework. On one hand, building resilience requires broader investments in risk information (e.g. probabilistic drought risk assessments), risk reduction (e.g. improved natural resource management practices) and preparedness building (e.g. live animal offtake markets). On the other hand, index-insurance requires certain elements to function well. Not only is there a need for more concerted financial literacy and insurance training for pastoralists, but systems for targeting and registering pastoralists require improvement. Strengthening of public and private sector markets for fodder and feed supplements and provision of veterinary services are also required as without these, pastoralists receiving payouts are unable to use the money to sustain their livestock (ILRI 2021).Overall, evidence from operational insurance programs suggests significant benefits from IBDRFI instruments, both in terms of establishing mutual benefits between the public and private sectors and delivering positive outcomes for the welfare and livelihoods of pastoralists during crisis and non-crisis periods. There is still need for better understanding of the short and long-term impacts of these programs on individual, community and environmental outcomes. Investments in robust learning, monitoring and evaluation, infrastructure and rigorous impact assessment studies are important to assess and increase the product value to ensure the delivery of tailor-made initiatives for resilience-building of pastoral communities.Niger is a large agriculture-based country with an environment that is not conducive for economic development. It is a landlocked country occupying a landmass of 1267 000 km 2 . The country has an estimated population of 23.3 million and an annual growth rate of about 3.9%, the fastest population growth in the world (WBG, 2019). About half of the population is below 15 years old and the total population is expected to triple by 2050. More than 80% of Nigeriens depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and live in rural areas. An estimated 84% of the population lives along the Niger river in the country's southwest region and along the border with Nigeria, where rainfall is higher and the most arable land is located. Through climate change, climatic conditions are expected to worsen (WBG 2017;2019).In addition, Niger is caught in the middle of numerous security crises, ranging from political and religious violence in northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin to the emergence of non-state violent groups in Mali and Burkina Faso and state collapse in southern Libya. These crises have regularly spilled over into Nigerien territory leading to ongoing states of emergency in the south-eastern Diffa region, heavy casualties in the south-western Tillabéri region and large numbers of displaced refugees in recent years (WBG 2019).Niger is an agriculture-based economy and one of the poorest countries in the world (Figure 2.1). Agriculture is the most important sector of the Nigerien economy, contributing up to 40% to the GDP compared to manufacturing, construction and public works and electricity and water generation sectors, which contribute 6, 3 and 1% respectively. More than 80% of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and reside in the country's rural areas. Niger's GDP growth (5.9% per year between 2011-19) has been negatively affected by strong population growth.Poverty is very high, with more than 40% of the population living below the national poverty line (2018 estimate). The GDP per capita was estimated to be only USD 554 in 2019. Of all 189 countries ranked in the human development index (HDI), Niger ranked last in 2020. Poverty levels have declined over the past 15 years, however, progress has been faster in urban areas (poverty headcount declined from 29.6% in 2005 to 8.7% in 2014) compared to rural areas where the poverty headcount declined from 58.3 to 51.4% during the same period. Wealthier households benefited more from economic growth than poor households as inequality increased significantly from 2005 to 2014 (WBG 2017;2019). Chronic food insecurity is high. As shown in Table 2.1, a 2018 analysis of selected economic and agricultural indicators estimated that around one third of all Nigerien households are moderately or severely chronically food insecure (FEWS NET 2019). The livestock sector is one of the most important economic sectors in Niger contributing around 40% to agricultural GDP and 13% to national GDP (Table 2.2). An estimated 87% of households in Niger raise livestock, either as a primary or secondary Source of livelihood (WBG 2019). About 4 million people (≈17% of the total population) are estimated to be pastoralists (UNECA 2017). Livestock contributes approximately 15% to rural households' income and 25% of food requirements at the national level. An estimated 60% of the herd in Niger belongs to the agro-pastoralists living in the south of the country. After mining, livestock contributes the second largest exports from Niger, accounting for 21% of foreign exchange revenue generated (GoN 2013). About 95% of livestock products, valued at an estimated 2% of the Nigerien national GDP, are exported to Nigeria (WBG 2017). According to a World Bank report, the annual productivity rates from sedentary pastoralists, transhumance and the nomadic population are 61, 65 and 69%, respectively (La Banque Mondiale undated). Some authors point out, however, that the majority of export trade goes unrecorded and a large amount of animal products is exported west to Burkina Faso and beyond (USAID 2016). where low rainfall (100-200 mm per year) limits productive use of the land to predominantly pastoral systems. Nomadic pastoral systems, where herders move in a seasonal circuit over great distances, are mainly practiced by Tuareg, Arabic speakers and Toubou people in the northern parts of the country. Some nomadic pastoralists especially in the eastern Diffa region have replaced cattle with camels because the latter require less water.Transhumant pastoral systems, where herders are based in fixed villages but take their animals away to seasonal grazing areas, are mostly practiced by the Fulani. This production system can extend further down south in the livelihood zone.2. Sedentary agro-pastoral systems are characterized by producers who also maintain livestock but have fixed incomes, sedentary homes, cultivate crops and practice transhumance to a lesser extent. This is the livestock production system practiced by most livestock owners in Niger. Agro-pastoralists can be found throughout the country but are particularly concentrated in the agro-pastoral belt (Figure 2.2; FEWS NET livelihood zone NE04), where average rainfall ranges from 300 to 400 mm per year. Sixty per cent of all cattle in Niger are found in this zone (FEWS NET 2017).As a result of the strong population growth and other pressures on pastoralist lifestyles, many Nigerien agropastoralists today are located in close proximity of areas where crops can grow.  7 There were an estimated 50.6 million head of livestock in Niger in 2019, excluding poultry (FAOSTAT 2021). This national herd is largely composed of goats (36%), cattle (30%), sheep (26%) and camels (4%), while horses, donkeys and pigs comprise the remaining 4% of the live animal population. The estimated national ruminant herd size in 2019 was thus equivalent to 20.9 million TLUs. 8 Livestock numbers have shown strong consistent growth over the years, with ruminant TLU growth averaging 4.4% per year over the period 1990 to 2019. Unlike other Sahel countries, the average annual growth of cattle (5.7%) has been stronger than that of goats (3.8%) and sheep (3.1%) (Figure 2.3). As a result, the composition of the national herd has changed over time with a larger share of cattle. Despite cattle making up 21% of the national herd in 1970, this proportion has grown to 30% in 2019. This could be attributed to government programs on cattle feeding, although there is no concrete evidence to support this claim (FEWSNET 2017).  Source: FEWSNET 2017Regions with higher livestock ownership are generally associated with greater wealth, while agricultural regions tend to be poorer. Poverty incidence is highest in the southern regions of Maradi, Zinder and Tillabéri where most agricultural activity occurs. Poverty may also be exacerbated by the continued conflicts in the border areas (Figure 2.5; WBG 2017). While the incidence of overall poverty is lower in pastoral than agricultural areas, inequality is much higher in the former and the poorest people in pastoral areas are among the poorest in the country. Survey data from 2014 shows that in pastoral zones, the poorest quintile of households receives a greater proportion of its cash income from aid transfers than in other zones, which may indicate lack of alternative Sources of income. Meanwhile, the richest quintile in the same pastoral zones receives significantly lower aid transfers than the richest quintile in the agro-pastoral and agricultural zones, demonstrating their relative wealth (WBG 2017, Figure 2.6). Livestock ownership distribution is extremely unequal as more than 70% of poor households in In the agricultural and agro-pastoral zones do not own any cattle. Even in the pastoral zones, 65% of poor households do not own cattle. The national Gini coefficient 9 for livestock ownership is estimated at 0.68, which is double that of consumption expenditure. It is also much higher than for ownership of agricultural land (Figure 2.7A and B). The 10% wealthiest households own a staggering 90% of all livestock (WBG 2017).9. The Gini coefficient measures inequality from frequency distribution values (e.g. levels of income). A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality (e.g. where everyone has the same income). A higher Gini index indicates greater inequality, with high-income individuals receiving much larger percentages of the total population income.Source: WBG 2017 In the pastoral and agro-pastoral zones, poor households own little livestock and depend on other Sources of livelihood. In the pastoral zones, many poor pastoralists work as contract herders for wealthier livestock owners. In the regions of Agadez, Tahoua and Maradi, it is estimated that about 60% of livestock is not owned by those herding them (AGTER 2011). There is also some seasonal rural-urban migration of men seeking work in local towns or in some cases, neighbouring countries. In the agro-pastoral zones, given the large discrepancy of livestock ownership between poor and non-poor households, only relatively wealthy households are true agro-pastoralists, while poorer ones are more 'agro' than 'pastoral' . During drought years, poorer households may be forced to take on additional paid employment or even sell part of their land to wealthier neighbours (FEWS NET 2011).In both pastoral and agro-pastoral zones functioning livestock markets are crucial. For most people in the pastoral zones, cereals form a larger part of their diet than animal products. As cereals do not grow in the pastoral regions except for some wheat grown in the Aïr mountain area and around certain oases, they are imported from the south.Grains are mainly purchased with money from animal sales. Most of the livestock sold are ultimately exported to Nigeria. Animals are sold through intermediary markets within the zone before being transported further south.However, some pastoralists in the north also sell their livestock to Algeria and Libya. To a lesser extent, the agropastoral zones are also net food importers during most years and therefore markets are critical for the people's existence (FEWS NET 2011).Seasonal animal herd migrations over long distances are common in Niger. Similar to the rest of the Sahel, Niger pastoralists migrate with their animals depending on the availability of water and pasture. In Maradi and Zinder, migratory patterns can predominantly be observed along a north-south axis, with many pastoralists crossing into Nigeria. Almost 80% of Nigerien animals that are herded into other countries cross into Nigeria (Touré et al. 2012).Pastoralists stay with their animals in the northern home areas during the rainy season until October. Thereafter, they move south beginning in November/December and then return by the beginning of the rainy season in May/June (FEWS NET 2011). In Tillabéri and Diffa, movements can also be observed along an east-west axis, with crossings into Burkina Faso and Chad.  Livestock tend to be owned by men who are also responsible for the main animal husbandry activities while women and children mostly carry out supportive tasks. Generally, women remain marginalized in the economy. Based on the gender inequality index which approximates gender inequality based on reproductive health, empowerment and economic status, Niger ranked 154th out of 162 countries in 2020 (UNDP 2020). Survey data from 2011 shows that livestock ownership is heavily skewed towards men rather than women (Figure 2.9;WBG et al. 2012). In less than 10% of cases, men and women have equal ownership of assets and handle income, however, in most cases it is men that own assets and handle income.According to the survey there is an imbalance in livestock ownership between male and female-headed households, with the former owning on average twice as many TLUs as the latter (WBG et al. 2012). Tasks that are considered to be important such as those that involve spending money, contacting veterinarians and the administration of medication to animals are done by men. Similarly, taking care of the more valuable cattle is also mainly considered to be a man's task. Meanwhile, caring for small ruminants, purchase of forage materials, animal feeding and providing assistance during parturition are considered tasks that can be done by men, women and children alike (USAID 2016). Like other regions in the Sahel, pastoralists in Niger are confronted with many different challenges, including lack of access to the most basic services and growing land pressures. As the pastoral zones are very remote, pastoralists often lack access to basic social and sanitary services, means of transportation and financial services. Fewer animals tend to be vaccinated by pastoralists than by agro-pastoralists. The 2007 national data showed animal vaccination rates of 31 and 52% in pastoral and agro-pastoral zones, respectively. Only 11% of nomadic pastoralists vaccinated their animals (GoN 2007a;2007b). Low vaccination rates are due to lack of access to veterinary services and reluctance among pastoralists to vaccinate their animals (WBG 2019). Other challenges faced by pastoralists include increasingly scarce communal grazing land due to expanding sedentary crop farming, the frequency and severity of droughts (see next section), strong population growth, continued growth of the livestock population, progressive land degradation, deforestation and local conflicts (WBG 2017;2019).Despite the economic importance of the livestock sector, it receives relatively little public support and pastoralists remain particularly marginalized. From 2001 to 2010, the livestock sector was only allocated about 2% of the total public budget and 15% of the agricultural budget (Figure 2.10; APESS 2014). This is low, considering the sector's much larger contributions both to national and agricultural GDP.There are many longstanding laws in Niger regulating the pastoral sector, for example, the zone in the north is dedicated to pastoralism and the rural code prohibits crop farming in this area, 10 grants grazing rights to pastoralists in agricultural zones between December and January 11 and recognizes equal access by all to natural resources 12 (Davies et al. 2016). However, the existing rules have not often been effectively enforced (Hughes 2014;Zakara and Abarchi 2007). The USAID (2014) cites government officials and development specialists stating that, \"most of the population does not know, ignores or disobeys the rural code.\" Reacting to resulting pressures from pastoralist groups, the government launched a highly inclusive consultation process on a pastoral code between 2000 and 2010, which resulted in Ordinance No. 2010-029 in 2010, a law that further institutionalized pastoral rights. Implementation has been sluggish and by 2017, only a few of the 14 decrees required to fully implement the ordinance had been passed (Leonhardt 2019). As a result of these pressures, many pastoralists abandoned nomadic lifestyles and instead became sedentary, further increasing pressure on the land. Incidences of people moving southwards from the pastoral zone and becoming sedentary were recorded following the catastrophic droughts of the 1970s and 1980s (GoN 2007b; Touré et al. 2012;AGTER 2011). These great Sahelian droughts were transformative for the country, drying up water bodies and drastically reducing vegetation in vast stretches of land. In some areas, such as the department of Keita, forests disappeared completely (USAID 2014). However, as noted above, many other factors contribute to the immense challenges that pastoralists face in Niger. With climate change, the number of challenges is only expected to grow. An increasing number of pastoralists have been forced to move south and become sedentary, thereby further reducing the size of land available for communal grazing. Consequently, violent conflicts between migrating pastoralists and crop farmers have become commonplace (USAID 2014; FEWS NET 2014).Niger is severely exposed to droughts, floods and locust invasions. Data from the emergency events database (EM-DAT) show that Niger experienced 46 major emergency events between 1970 and 2020 ranging from floods to locust infestations and droughts. Floods occurred 31 times while major droughts and locust invasions occurred 11 and 4 times, respectively. The impact of droughts has by far been the greatest, affecting more than 31 million people during that period (Figure 2.11). This is a very high Figure even by Sahel standards. It is more than twice the number of people affected in either Mali (13.7 million) or Burkina Faso (14.3 million) during the same period despite these countries having similar population numbers. Given that EM-DAT often underestimates the impact of droughts, the actual Figure is likely to be even higher. The most severe drought years were 1972-73, 1984-85, 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12. 10. Loi 61-5 from 1961.11. Decree No. 87-077 from 1987.12. Ordinance No. 93-15 from 1993, referred to as the 'rural code' .0 50,00,000 1,00,00,000 1,50,00,000 2,00,00,000 2,50,00,000 3,00,00,000 3,50,00,000 Drought Flood Insect infestationFrom the several analyses conducted by various stakeholders on the frequency and severity of droughts in Niger, the consensus is that large-scale droughts occur on average every 3 to 5 years and over the last few decades, the most severe drought years leading to major food crises occurred in 1973-74, 1997-98, 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12.Below is an overview of the findings from the analyses:World Food Programme (2018): Analysis by the WFP showed that the northern parts of the country, i.e. the desertic areas and those inhabited by nomadic pastoralists are not only the driest but also experience the highest level of rainfall variability. In Figure 2.12, the areas indicated in brown experienced between 11 and 15 drought years during the period 1981 to 2015, 13 which equates to a drought approximately once every 2.3 -3.5 years. In the centre of the country, which includes most of the pastoral and agro-pastoral zones, 7-10 drought years were recorded during the same period, i.e. one every 3.5 -5 years (WFP 2018b). The World Bank conducted an agricultural sector risk assessment in Niger in 2013.Analyses of departmental rainfall data from 1980 to 2009 showed that there was a total of nine years in which 10 or more departments suffered severe or catastrophic drought 14 (once every 4.4 years), with crop failure being recorded in seven of these years (Figure 2.13). The assessment also points out that conditions in the livestock sector are particularly difficult in years when droughts lead to poor animal conditions, low livestock prices and high prices of grain and other basic foodstuff, which researchers estimates can occur once every 10 years (WBG 2013).  2.14 below shows the distribution of RMSI's 'mild' and 'moderate' drought events, which were estimated to occur once every 3-10 and 6-10 years, respectively, throughout the country..14. The researchers analysed monthly precipitation data from 40 weather stations. They defined a 'severe' drought to be at least 0.6 standard deviations below the longterm mean and a ' catastrophic' drought to be at least 0.9 standard deviations below the long-term mean. The assessment stresses that the analysis only looks at total precipitation and thus is subject to important caveats, including that it does not reflect factors such as late onset of rains, early cessation of rains, long dry spells between two rainy seasons or lack of rain during critical growth phases, all important factors for crop yields.15. RMSI computed the standardized precipitation index based on seasonal cumulative rainfall values (June-October). A 'minor' drought was defined as at least 0.5 standard deviations below the long-term precipitation mean, a 'moderate' drought as at least 1.0 standard deviations below the long-term precipitation mean, a 'severe' drought as at least 1.5 standard deviations below the long-term precipitation mean, and an ' extreme' drought as at least 2.0 standard deviations below the long-term precipitation mean. Considering total precipitation only, the RMSI analysis is presumably subject to the same caveats as those of the World Bank as pointed out above.Photo credit: EAP Photo Collection/ World Bank  The frequency and severity of droughts is expected to increase significantly in Niger. Climate change projections for Niger are that mean and maximum temperatures will increase, as will the duration of heat spells. By 2060, the number of days with a minimum temperature greater than 20°C is likely to increase by 55 per year (WBG 2019). Indeed, the effects of climate change are already felt by large parts of the population. During the period 2009-14, households reported that they experienced less rainfall (52%), worse distribution of rainfall in the year (62%), more frequent droughts (59%), shorter rainy seasons (77%) and more delays in the start of rainy seasons (66%). These observations held across both livelihood zones and wealth groups (WBG 2017).General vulnerability to drought is high in Niger but the evidence bases on the pastoralists' specific vulnerability is mixed. Given a nationwide high dependence on rainfed agricultural activities, high levels of poverty and chronic food insecurity, many people in Niger are extremely vulnerable to drought impacts.On the one hand, pastoralists are particularly vulnerable to the effects of drought. As discussed above, inequality among pastoralists is particularly high and some of the poorest and arguably most vulnerable parts of the population are in this population segment. This is also reflected in the historic drought impacts. During the great Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of pastoralists searching for water and forage for their animals, were forced to migrate hundreds of kilometres southward into countries such as Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. A vast number of animals died.On the other hand, some reports suggest that the effects of drought are felt less in terms of food insecurity in pastoral areas than elsewhere in the country. Households that own livestock may buffer some losses while those that do not own livestock may benefit from community-based balancing effects. Analysis from the WFP shows that drought-linked food insecurity seems to be most concentrated in some of the agro-pastoral and agricultural areas. Some pastoral areas in Tahoua and southern Agadez also show strong drought food insecurity linkages, while this can be observed less in pastoral areas in Maradi, Zinder and Diffa (Figure 2 The cost and cumulative impact of drought for the Nigerien livestock sector is very high although data tends to be poorly reported. There is significant dearth of data on drought-related losses in the livestock sector (WBG 2013). No systematic historic analysis of drought-related costs and losses in the livestock sector could thus be identified for the purposes of this study. The available evidence on the impacts of past drought events, however, shows their enormous catastrophic potential with estimated losses of 50-80% between 1972 and 1974 of the national livestock herd and 33-40% animal species losses between 1983 and 1985 (Table 2.4.). 17 16. To determine how exposed a zone is to natural hazard shocks, the frequency of drought and flood recurrence in that zone is determined and divided as per the Jenks' Natural Breaks method. For a detailed description of the methodology see WFP 2018b and WFP 2018a. 17. It should be noted, however that these losses are not reflected in the FAO livestock statistics reported for Niger in Figure 2.3. There is very limited information available on extent of demand for livestock insurance by pastoralists. In one study, agricultural producers were interviewed on their awareness of and interest in crop and livestock insurance in the pastoral and agro-pastoral zones of Tillabéri, Dosso, Tahoua, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa. There was much higher awareness of traditional insurance products by farmers in Maradi (66%) than in other regions. The level of awareness of weather index insurance was generally low everywhere, with Tahoua and Zinder recording 3 and 10%, respectively. Producers in all regions showed more interest in crop than livestock insurance (RMSI 2013). These results could be explained in part by the fact that in the study, producers were interviewed across FEWS NET livelihood zones 3, 4, 5 and 6 and thus respondents were invariably skewed towards crop farmers. The survey did not include the Agadez region. A larger focus on pastoral regions might have yielded stronger interest in livestock insurance.Livestock is of overwhelming importance for the Nigerien economy, contributing around 13% to national GDP. An estimated 87% of households keep livestock. Though livestock ownership is mainly male dominated, some studies show that women mostly own small ruminants. Women's relatively lower participation in leadership roles outside the households is considered a key factor that affects their productivity and resilienceThe two main livestock production systems are pastoralism (nomadic and transhumant) and agropastoralism. Semi-intensive livestock farming also exists but is concentrated in peri-urban areas only and relevant for very few people. Most livestock producers practice agro-pastoralism and 66% of livestock is kept in semi-sedentary systems. Migrating pastoralists are concentrated mainly in the northern parts of the pastoral belts. Both systems can be targeted by IBDRFI schemes for livestock as long as the livestock are primarily dependent on rangeland resources. Given the many pressures on their livelihoods, many pastoralists are forced to become sedentary and adopt agro-pastoralist lifestyles. Further information on the production systems and implications on IBDRFI product introduction in the country is required. A related issue requiring consideration and accurate review is the reported uneven distribution of livestock ownership, with 10% wealthiest households reported to own 90% of all livestock. This has relevant policy implications for IBDRFI implementation modality and targeting.Inequality among pastoralists is extremely high and poor pastoralists belong to the poorest population groups in Niger. They often do not own any livestock but work as salaried herders for richer pastoralists. The vulnerability to droughts is highest among those poorer pastoralists. In addition, the pastoral areas are generally very dependent on functioning markets and vulnerable to grain prices as their diet consists of more grains than animal products which they do not grow.Agro-pastoral areas, being net food importers in most years share this dependency on functional grain markets to a lesser extent.Drought impacts on pastoral livelihoods have repeatedly been catastrophic, with large parts of the national herd perishing. During long and severe droughts, herders migrate south earlier than usual in search of forage and water, often into neighbouring countries, particularly Nigeria. There is no reliable data on drought-related livestock losses and estimates vary, but they can be substantial with economic livestock losses surpassing 10% of national GDP during the drought of 2009-10. It should be noted that the impact of drought is not only on the current production season but also future production seasons. Should IBDRFI products be introduced, there would be need to design programs that consider timely payouts to avoid consequential impacts of drought events in the forthcoming seasons.There has been an increase in violence and insecurity in Niger in recent years. Most incidents are concentrated in the Lake Chad basin and the south-west border region with Mali. The conflict in the Lake Chad region has led to protracted disruptions in the Diffa markets since 2019. Recent stability in the prices of livestock and food products such as cereals has occurred due to the presence of humanitarian organizations. The causes of conflict are attributed to competition for natural resources, limited state interventions and access to public services, amongst others. It should be borne in mind that the increasing insecurity and conflict in some of the target areas of implementation may pose challenges to the launch and implementation of IBDRFI solutions despite the strong presence and networks of NGOs and pastoral associations. However, there are opportunities to partner with civil society organizations and peace building advocacy groups (working with the government) to explore possible mechanisms through which IBDRFI solutions can be introduced and implemented in these areas.This section illustrates the results of the technical feasibility assessment, aimed at evaluating the possibility of designing an IBDRFI product for the extensive pastoral areas of Niger. An IBLI product design has been used for the assessment (Appendix 2). However, the feasibility analysis could also inform the development of alternative drought indices based on NDVI or other EO satellite indicators of drought. The datasets and methodology used are described in Appendix 2.Niger is characterized by a single rainfall season (unimodal) with a strong north to south gradient in temperature (decreasing) and precipitation (increasing). An extremely dry climate is observed in the northern part of the country towards the arid Sahara desert. The climate progressively gets wetter southwards (Figure 3.1a). The dry and wet seasons are well defined, with the wet season running from mid-June to mid-October in the northern region while the dry season runs from late October to late June. The south is wetter and has greater potential for vegetation productivity because the rainy season lasts longer (early June to November) (Figure 3.1).Niger can be broadly classified into three major bioclimatic regions from north to south, namely: the Sahara, Sahel and Sudano-Sahelian regions (Figure 3.1b) (CILSS,2016). These regions show north-south transitions in climate and land use.The Sahara region covers over 65% of the country and has the hottest and driest climatic conditions, receiving < 100 mm of mean annual precipitation (MAP).The Sahel is the second largest bioclimatic region in the country. It is a semi-arid belt running west-east through central Niger, receiving between 200 and 700 mm MAP. There is minimal crop production and low agricultural potential due to the low precipitation levels and frequent droughts. The land cover is mostly steppes or short grass savannas with shrubs and sparsely scattered trees, therefore, this region is mainly used for extensive grazing by pastoralists.The Sudano-Sahelian region is in the southern part of the country and has the highest MAP ranging between 800 and 900 mm. Despite being the smallest region, it has approximately 98% of the country's total arable land.  Pastoralism and agro-pastoralism are the main livelihoods in the Sahelian region, which is dominated by savannah ecosystems (Figure 3.1). The vegetation is broadly characterized as mostly steppes or short grass savannas with shrubs and relatively low woody plants. The southern parts of Niger are dominated by savannahs and form part of the trans-boundary conservation area, the W-Arly-Pendjari complex. This area is found within the southwestern part of the country and extends to the neighbouring countries of Burkina Faso and Benin.Land use/cover change has been a major challenge in Niger leading to loss of natural vegetation within the pastoral areas (Figure 3.3). Since the bulk of the country's land mass falls within the hyper-arid Sahara desert, land available for livestock rearing and arable farming is small. This area is under immense pressure to support the large population, particularly the country's rural population, estimated at 83.6% (The World Bank, 2018). As a result, significant land use changes and degradation of already vulnerable ecosystems have occurred (CILSS,2016). The most dramatic changes in the country were driven by increasing demand for land to produce food and settlements to support the country's large population (Mortimore et al., 2005;Nutini, Boschetti, Brivio, Bocchi, & Antoninetti, 2013), estimated to be 24 million people in 2019 with an annual growth rate of ≈ 4%, one of the highest in the world (UN DESA, 2019). In about four decades, croplands acreage has increased from 12.6 to 24.5% between 1975 and 2013, respectively. Major changes occurred on the productive sandy soils in the Tillabéri region decimating the traditional pastoral lands. Meanwhile the Zinder and Maradi regions, which were already heavily cultivated in the 1970s have been completely transformed into a homogeneous agricultural landscape that is expanding further eastwards into the Sahelian short grass savannas in the Zinder and Diffa regions (CILSS,2016). The biologically diverse and densely vegetated areas, mostly gallery forests along valleys, which have always been relatively small in size, have been reduced by more than 60% in the epoch 1975 to 2013 due to cultivation, while irrigated croplands along the Niger river have increased by ≈ 50% (CILSS,2016). The increase in land use/cover change has led to the loss and fragmentation of rangelands (savannas and woodlands), replacing these major natural ecosystems with cultivated and natural habitat mosaics. These changes have also led to other adverse impacts such as degradation and desertification, exacerbated by frequent droughts and human conflict. However, some positive impacts have been observed, such as the regreening of agricultural lands and agroforestry activities (CILSS,2016).Recurrent droughts in Niger have also contributed to changes in vegetation characteristics and composition. Niger experiences recurrent droughts due to low, erratic and variable rainfall. Over the years, drought events coupled with overgrazing and tree felling for fuelwood have led to land cover modification, land degradation and loss of productive lands (CILSS,2016).Extensive rangelands, where IBLI design is suitable, dominate the central portion of Niger (Figure 3.4). The area where IBLI products are suitable in the south is limited by the increase in croplands and built-up areas, while in the north and northeast the constraint is low vegetation productivity (Figure 3.2). Cropland dominated areas are considered unsuitable, while savannahs with high woody cover need to be reviewed with local stakeholders to confirm if they are effectively used for extensive grazing.    The average vegetation growing season in the suitable units is relatively homogeneous despite a small variation in NDVI values in response to the increase in precipitation from north to south (Figure 3.8). The NDVI increases southwards due to increases in precipitation (Figure 3.5a). The inter-annual variability, however, is quite significant, with tendencies toward significant delays in season onset during drought years.    Based on the typical forage growing season spanning from mid-June to October/November (Figures 3.6 and 3.12) within the suitable areas in Niger, a single risk period can be defined. The risk period for the coverage is typically defined by the length of the vegetation growing season, as the forage index is built to estimate seasonal deficits in forage production due to limited rainfall.Note: MAP = mean annual precipitation 21. Here a drought event is defined using a fixed threshold of the seasonal IBLI index of -0.842, assuming a standard z-score within a normal distribution. This is a subjective threshold and should, therefore, be used cautiously as an indicative estimate.22. The frequency is based on number of IBLI suitable/review departments with index values (NDVI z-score) ≤-0.842.Based on 2010 gridded ruminant distribution data (Robinson et al., 2018), the administrative units considered feasible rangeland areas host about 25% of the national ruminant livestock population, while 39% is located in administrative units that need further review. The departments of Tahoua and Tillabéri have the most suitable land areas and host a significant proportion of the national ruminant herd (Table 3.1). While these data are used to show the geographical distribution of livestock in areas suitable for IBLI implementation, the herd numbers may have changed. However, these areas still remain significant livestock rearing zones (FEWSNET, 2017) as supported by statistics on regional livestock distribution in Niger (Table 2.3, Section 2.2).   Extensive natural rangelands dominate the central part of the country and would be suitable for the implementation of IBDRFI initiatives (IBLI design). The extent of rangelands and low forage production are the major factors limiting the feasibility of an IBLI design in the northern part of Niger. Smallholder cropping or mixed crop-livestock systems are prevalent in southern Niger, making these areas less optimal for IBDRFI design.Rangeland seasonality is well defined and relatively homogenous across the country's pastoral areas. The typical rangeland growing season runs from June to late October/November, thus seasonality is not a limiting factor for IBLI design. In contrast low NDVI values are a major limiting factor for northern parts of Niger, where the country is characterized by scarce vegetation or bare lands transitioning into the Sahara desert, making these areas less optimal for IBLI design.IBLI is feasible/suitable in areas that are located in the central part of the country with pastoralism as the dominant livestock production system. These areas cover about 16% of Niger's total land area and carry about 25% of the national herd. About 74% of Niger includes areas that are potentially suitable but require both forage and rangeland reviews with the aid of local stakeholders during the early stages of implementation. These areas host about 39% of the national herd. In several central and southern areas, a review of rangeland size and pastoral production systems should be considered to evaluate their suitability for coverage, while in northern regions, forage production and extent of use by pastoralists should be determined to assess if these areas have wet season pastures and if they are suitable for IBLI design.Significant land cover changes have been reported in the last 30 years, with conversion of rangelands into croplands. In addition, ongoing rangeland degradation is reported in the pastoral regions. The potential impact of these factors on the index design and risk profiling should be carefully evaluated in the early implementation stages. In addition, further investigations should be conducted on the persistence of poor vegetation conditions for multiple consecutive seasons as this is a potential cause of poor performance of IBLI (i.e. the index is not designed to capture the impact of multiple consecutive seasons with limited forage availability as each season is treated as independent from the previous one).25. Highlighted in green are the departments with high livestock populations where an IBLI product could be considered. The percentages are proportions of total TLUs in each suitability class to the grand total TLUs (7,991,569).Given the lengthy experience with droughts impacting livelihoods of the Nigerien population, there is a wellestablished national disaster response system in place. The Dispositif National de Prévention et de Gestion des Catastrophes et des Crises Alimentaires (Dispositif), located in the prime minister's office, is the key government institution coordinating disaster prevention and response in Niger. Annually, after the harvest in October, food security assessments are conducted by various government agencies and technical partners including the regional Cadre Harmonisé and the national Enquête Conjointe sur la Vulnérabilité à l'Insécurité Alimentaire des Ménages au Niger.Based on these assessments, the Dispositif adopts a Plan de Soutien in the first quarter of the following year, outlining the key food security and drought related response activities to be undertaken over the course of the year as well as generating a budget for the activities. The budget is then funded from various Sources, including donors. The plan of activities is implemented over the course of the year, with modifications as needed (Achirou 2017).Cash transfers: The government and international partners such as the WFP and other NGOs, regularly implement emergency conditional and unconditional cash transfer programs to help populations affected by food insecurity.A frequently used modality for this is cash for work (GoN 2019).In 2011, the government of Niger, with financial support from the WBG, launched the Niger Safety Net Project, which marked the start of a core safety net in the country. The project provides unconditional cash transfers to poor and chronically food insecure households in poor areas across the country and shortterm income support to individuals through a cash for work system in areas experiencing severe but temporary food insecurity (WBG 2018). In 2016, new components were added to the project to promote an adaptive social protection system in Niger, including a shock response mechanism that can rapidly add shock-affected households to the beneficiary roster (scale-out). The safety net has thus scaled out in response to shocks that occurred several times by including additional households to the roster of regular cash transfer beneficiaries. The most recent scaling out was done in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government is working on institutionalizing the scalability of the safety net by establishing a rules-based approach using satellite data (Bowen et al. 2020).To support drought affected livestock owners, the ministry of livestock regularly organizes livestock fodder sales at subsidised prices. Sometimes, fodder is even distributed to affected households for free. For example, after the 2011 drought year, the 2012 Plan de Soutien contained a livestock feed activity, which aimed to provide 20,000 t of livestock feed to drought-affected livestock owners across the country to help them keep their animals alive through the dry conditions (GoN 2012).Emergency destocking: Pastoral households try to cope with the impacts large-scale droughts by selling their animals causing the livestock market price to collapse. To prevent this, the ministry responsible for livestock manages emergency destocking programs where animals are purchased above their market prices to assist drought-affected pastoral households. For example, after the severe 2009 drought, the 2010 Plan de Soutien included a state-led destocking of 5% of the national herd at above market prices. The purchased animals were slaughtered onsite and the meat provided to humanitarian organizations for free distribution to food-insecure households (GoN 2010).Niger relies heavily on humanitarian assistance to fund its response measures to natural disasters, especially drought.The country received a total of USD 3.6 billion between 2005 and 2020, which works out to an average USD 227 million per year in humanitarian assistance. A significant proportion (43% on average over the same period) of the funding is allocated to agriculture and food security, which shows the importance of humanitarian aid to tackle immediate food crises caused by natural disasters.   National food reserves: Like in other Sahelian countries, the government operates two food reserves, (i) the Stock National de Sécurité (SNS), which is managed jointly by the OPVN and international partners, requires all partners' signatures to disburse food aid. It is composed of, (a) an in-kind reserve holding 50,000 t of cereals (millet and sorghum) in the OPVN shops and (b) a financial reserve, the Fonds de Sécurité Alimentaire (FSA). The FSA aims to hold the financial equivalent of 60,000 t of cereals. The SNS is mobilized in cases of severe food security crises at a national or regional scale. In addition to the SNS, the government has founded, (ii) a Stock d'Intervention (SI), which is solely managed by the OPVN. Information on the target stock size of the SI could not be obtained, but in March 2011, it was about 30,000 t (Galtier 2019).26. For the purposes of this study, the proportion of FCD funds made in anticipation of abstract future crises (and are thus to be categorized as ' ex-ante pre-arranged response funding') and those made in response to concrete ongoing or upcoming crises (and are thus to be categorized as 'ad hoc response funding') could not be determined. For the purposes of the indicative funding gap analysis conducted in Section 5.4, all FCD funds were assumed to be provided as ex-ante funding.The insurance sector in Niger operates under the jurisdiction and rules of the regional body, the Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets (CIMA). In 2019, CIMA passed a resolution introducing a framework for shariacompliant insurance products. New CIMA regulations on electronic commerce and insurance that will hopefully boost insurance penetration in the CIMA zones are anticipated. At the local level, there are two bodies responsible for the supervision of insurers in Niger, the Commission Regionale de Controle des Assurances (CRCA), an offshoot of CIMA based in Libreville, Gabon, and the insurance department under the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Niger, called the Direction des Assurances, managed by a director at the national level (AXCO, 2020).The Direction des Assurances makes decisions on data usage and actuarial support related to insurance products.As part of creating a favourable environment for agricultural insurance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock is working with the directorate of insurance control to formulate an inclusive approach to development to address challenges facing Niger's pastoral regions (Fava et al. 2018).Niger has the designated association of insurers known as the Committee of Nigerien Insurers/ Comite des Assureurs du Niger. The objectives of the association are to, (i) maintain good relations between members, (ii) represent members in common dealings with the government or any other national groups as appropriate, (iii) discuss and resolve any questions or disputes that may arise among members and (iv) promote and encourage insurance in general. There are no reinsurance companies based in Niger, however, the regional reinsurer CICA-Re, set up under CIMA and Africa-Re is considered as a local reinsurer (AXCO 2020). In addition, Niger like most countries in the region is a member of the Organization pour l'Harmonisation du Droit des Affaires en Afrique (OHADA), which adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards in January 2019 (AXCO 2020). Insurance companies are present in six of the eight regions but their presence in rural areas is low. Most of the companies have presence in the big cities of Niger, with four of them represented in the main cities of Niamey, Zinder and Maradi. These main cities contribute over 70% to the companies' turnover (IFC; World Bank 2013).Micro-insurance initiatives for some of the non-life (mostly health) insurance products (e.g. hospital cash cover) have included the utilisation of mobile phones for premium collection and payouts. The claim is settled by transferring the fixed benefit to the user's phone account in partnership with Airtel. Compagnie d' Assurances et de Reassurances du Niger, also in collaboration with Airtel, has introduced motor vehicle insurance with premiums renewed or paid through mobile phones. However, such examples are few and going forward, there would be need for improved insurance and connectivity in the country (AXCO 2020). The main distribution channels for the non-life insurance are direct company sales, agents on commission and brokers. Brokers handle the majority of the corporate business while the agents mostly focus on motor business in the provinces. Insurance sales through banks or via telephone are not yet on offer (AXCO 2020). Overriding the non-admitted insurance clause, the ARC offers a sovereign risk drought insurance product for crops that combines early warning and contingency planning with an insurance mechanism, enabling member states to access funding in the immediate aftermath of an extreme weather event (Hess and Hazell 2016). The ARC's insurance pool was launched in Niger and four other countries in 2014. Niger was one of the recipients of payouts together with three other west African countries during the 2015 drought. The Niger government received USD 3.5 million for conditional cash transfer and food distribution to vulnerable households in the drought affected areas, which assisted about 157, 000 people. The government purchased drought risk insurance from the ARC in 2016-17 and in 2019-20 (PWC 2020)).Given the high severity and frequency of droughts, an MoU was signed between the ARC and the government of Niger for a 5-year return period 27 for USD 30 million maximum coverage. Under the agreement the money would be part of the government donor system pooled fund that bankrolls the general government drought response. Therefore, the ARC activities integrate with the overarching relief framework of the country. Some of the primary channels where it is anticipated that the ARC activities would be integrated are, (i) cash and food for work, (ii) unconditional cash transfer, (iii) food coupons, (iv) supplementary and school feeding and (v) livestock relief. Niger is a pilot country for the ARC's newly developed rangeland drought product, which specifically targets the pastoral areas of the country (ARC 2020). Niger is also participating in the AfDB's Africa Disaster Risk Financing (ADRiFi) program and will receive AfDB premium co-financing from 2020 to 2023 (AfDB 2020).Since late 2019, there have been some attempts by international private sector companies to address the lack of insurance schemes in smallscale agriculture and livestock production in Niger. One such start-up company, called IBISA, has designed and launched an insurance product for the Niger pastoral areas in collaboration with Réseau Billital Maroobè (RBM) and AREN.The product is a drought insurance product and is based on the concept of mutual insurance. Vegetation is monitored using EO techniques similar to IBLI and if depletion of vegetation occurs, payouts are triggered at the end of the wet season. The product is targeted at breeders and herders who undertake transhumance during the dry season across the regions. The coverage is based on fodder availability along the routes they use most of the time. The objective of the payout is to enable the nomadic and transhumance pastoralists to purchase fodder during dry seasons.According to IBISA there are 10, 000 interested and already signed up pastoralists, mainly in southern Niger areas who are seemingly willing to pay premiums. There have been no conversations around subsidies, therefore, the assumption is that the premiums might be around 10 -15%. The product is expected to go live as soon as an insurer willing to take up the fronting of this insurance product becomes available. There are talks in progress with SAHAM insurance as the underwriter and SwissRe as the reinsurer. The payout from this product can only be used to procure feed, fodder and crop residues. A pilot launch of this product was done in 2019 in two agro-pastoral locations close to Niamey.Through a risk-sharing platform, IBISA provides digital driven services in underwriting along with onboarding and management of clients (Luxembourg Space Agency 2020). IBISA is working with mobile phone operators to integrate mobile money payments into their platform to automate the payout system. Since most of the management and technical support of the product would be coordinated by the IBISA platform, interested insurance companies would have to pay an agreed fee to use the platform.According to IBISA, the Niger ministry of livestock has been supportive of a livestock insurance initiative as providing such solutions would minimize cross -country movement by the pastoralists and transhumance, thus reducing conflict and border tensions.Besides the formal insurance initiatives, the Fulani community in Niger follow traditional insurance practices known as the Habbanayé, which helps the most vulnerable households increase their assets after drought events if they incur losses. A wealthier household loans some livestock such as a cow, sheep or goats to a poorer household/ individual/ extended family member who keeps the offspring of the borrowed animals as a way to build his/her/their own stock. This practice has now been adapted and institutionalized by several international development organizations such as Lutheran World Relief, Oxfam, CIRÉ, Caritas and CARE International, after a series of droughts and other crises in the pastoral and agro-pastoral regions (Manvell and Abdoularimou 2005;Bevins 2016). Solutions such as IBDRFI compliment such existing mechanisms to effectively deal with systemic shocks such as severe droughts. Below is a summary of the different, though limited, insurance providers and their distribution channels. Niger has a combination of public, development and private sector actors that have been working to provide agrometeorological (agromet) services. Several new initiatives have been launched including a pastoral surveillance tool. However, assessments during both 2017 and 2020 pointed to the need for capacity development especially from an insurance design point of view.A national early warning system (SAP) operates within the Dispositif. The SAP gathers information provided by various Sources and agencies, e.g. ministries of interior, transportation, water resources and agriculture. Overall SAP capacity is relatively low given the infrastructural challenges and lack of human and financial resources. Various international partners such as the World Bank, the African Development A case study was established to, (i) fill the gap in agro-meteorological medium-range forecasting at DMN, (ii) improve the usability of such information by the local communities and (iii) tailor information dissemination at the municipality level. The process of dissemination of information has been done through direct messaging via sms and WhatsApp and initial results show positive feedback from the communities being targeted. In addition, rural radio stations are used for dissemination of content developed jointly by DMN, extension officers and local journalists (Bacci et al. 2020).The National Framework for Climate Services was officially launched in Niamey in 2017 as a way of improving coordination between the users and providers of climate services for effective delivery. Representatives (127 participants) from government institutions, national parliamentarians, cooperation and UN agencies, civil society, the private sector and farmers' organizations, defined the contextual user interface platforms to begin the operational delivery of user tailored climate services in Niger in the form of expanded Groupes de Travail Pluridisciplinaires (GTPs), under five thematic groups (agriculture, disaster risk reduction, water, health and transportation) for each climate sensitive sector in the country (WAMIS undated).The GTP-Niger produces a 10-day agro-hydrometeorological bulletin, which provides summaries on the agrometeorological, hydrological and agricultural (crops, livestock and insects) status. The Niger DMN , which comprises representatives from the office of the prime minister and ministries of transports and tourism, agricultural development, animal resources, hydrology and environment and the Fight Against Desertification, is the lead coordinator of the GTP-Niger (WAMIS undated).Niger receives 70% of its meteorological services financing from non-government Sources. At the regional level, the AGHRYMET regional centre, based at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), has the required infrastructure and capacity for delivering agro-meteorological services. In collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, AGHRYMET has been collecting rangeland biomass data since 1988, linking it with remote-sensing imagery to generate rangeland biomass production maps (Fava et al. 2018). There are also ongoing efforts to use digital platforms to collect data on rangeland conditions. Being part of the Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS), AGRHYMET is mandated to provide regular early warning information to support governments in managing drought situations. This is done by leveraging INRAN's dense network of offices in rural Niger, which provide extension services and support capacity development activities in both crop and livestock sectors.The NGO ACF has established a pastoral surveillance system in the region, which combines satellite data and ground surveys to monitor pasture biomass and surface water resources. The information is integrated to generate early warning and food security bulletins (currently adapted to track the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic). This provides a useful dataset and network to facilitate the design and risk assessment of insurance solutions.There are also some private sector entities that have been involved in improving the climate services delivery in Niger. One such entity has been the Geospatial Analytical Services (GeoSAS), an Ethiopian private consulting company established in 2007 specializing in acquisition, processing, analysis and synthesis of geospatial data for various applications using geographical information systems and remote sensing. It has been working with national, regional, continental and international agencies in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, agriculture and natural resources management, early warning systems and disaster risk management, among others. In Niger, GeoSAS collaborated with the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development Agency (NEPAD) in 2017 to undertake a needs assessment and subsequent development of a program document for climate related services (Usher et al. 2018). A summary of the agro-meteorological services is provided below: Early warning for drought management The decline in investments by the telecommunication companies since 2015 has been attributed to the economic uncertainty and climate. Between 2015 and 2019 there was a 7.5% fall in market revenue. As a result, Orange Niger exited the market in 2019 and transferred its stake to ZamaniCom SAS (Extensia 2019), citing regulatory pressure stemming from socio-economic and political uncertainty.In 2017, Niger recorded a mobile user rate of 41%, with over 8 million people subscribing to different mobile operators (Extensia 2019). Until 2017, there were four telecommunication operators in Niger, with Airtel commanding the largest market share, followed by Orange, MOOV and Niger Telecom. Niger Telecom was formed from the merger of the state owned SoniTel and SahelCom with the aim of harnessing efficiency and greater penetration through shared resources and infrastructure. The telecommunication sector is regulated by the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, which is responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance by telecommunication companies (Extensia 2019). Some initiatives that have been undertaken show that mobile services can be drivers of social inclusion and economic growth in Niger.In 2013, Maroc Telecom partnered with a humanitarian organization to provide aid using mobile money to over 300 refugee households with each household receiving a mobile phone and SIM card. In addition, it partnered with the WFP to distribute cash in the urban areas using mobile money (GSMA and Deloitte 2017).In 2015, Airtel in partnership with both MTN Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, launched a service that facilitated money transfers between Niger, Benin and Côte d'Ivoire accounting for almost 40% of Niger's total annual inward remittances (CGAP 2017;GSMA and Deloitte 2017). In addition, another multi-national organization, in collaboration with development organizations and NGOs for awareness raising and financial education, has plans to introduce digital micro-credit and savings products based on product suites available in other African countries (CGAP 2017).Orange introduced the Labaroun-Kassoua mobile service in 2011 to provide access to market information on agricultural commodities and cattle prices in over 70 markets in Niger via sms. This initiative was launched in collaboration with RECA and SIMB. By 2012, there were over 8 000 subscribers for this service (Orange 2015). Furthermore in 2012, Orange and Altobridge, a social enterprise, deployed mobile services to over 50 remote village communities using solar energy and advanced satellite technology, connecting around 60,000 people (GSMA and Deloitte 2017).Orange also partnered with Viamo, a social enterprise, to provide weather, emergency preparedness and agriculture information services. This was a free, on-demand voice and text based service. Viamo manages the content although it creates it in collaboration with NGOs and relevant government ministries (Usher et al. 2018). As part of increasing their rural footprint, Orange also has an MOU with one of the largest micro-finance entities in Niger, ASUSU S.A., related to the introduction of agricultural insurance in the near future, further strengthening its commitment to provide extension services and rural financial literacy (Fava et al. 2018).Access to traditional banking services in Niger remains a major challenge, with only 1% of the population having access to finance from a formal institution and most of them relying on family and friends for short-term loans. 'Tontine' , 28 the informal funding system, remains popular as almost 43% of households utilise it compared to only 10% that use formal banking systems (Jolicoeur and Kabore 2017). There is only one known bank, the state-owned Banque Agricole du Niger (BAGRI), that is focused on the agricultural sector. Though other banks have some agricultural financial products, they mainly focus on financing large companies, state activities and major traders as previous agricultural interventions did not yield the desired results. As part of attempts to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Bank of Niger, the government and the development finance institutions are working towards a resilient domestic financial sector by committing investments worth USD 10 million in small and medium enterprises and USD 250 million in large enterprises (MFWA 2020).Banque Agricole du Niger is the only public bank that offers agriculture-related loans at 12-13% interest rates. Created in 2011, it finances all sectors of the economy and has an extensive agency network covering the main locations in the pastoral areas, namely Dakoro, Tahoua, Tillabéri, Diffa and Agadez. Besides providing credit, BAGRI, has participated in financial literacy development projects in the abovementioned pastoral areas (Fava et al. 2018). Banque Agricole du Niger has been involved in supporting pastoral field schools and some extension work in Diffa and Agadez. Though they showed interest in IBDRFI products, they did not clarify their possible role. It will be necessary to engage them further to gain clarity on the nature of their possible involvement in IBDRFI products.Besides the formal banks in Niger, there are about 37 registered micro-finance structures, which include cooperatives and several unregistered ones such as the village level savings associations. These unlicensed and unregulated structures were not assessed as part of this analysis. Informal mechanisms are usually small and often function mainly to serve the short-term liquidity needs of clients, which makes them less ideal as potential activity partners given their inability to handle larger amounts of funding and seasonal financing needs (USAID 2018).and malnutrition, such as during the 2010 food crisis. The FAO, through its cooperating partners, carried out cash for work activities and unconditional cash transfers during the pre-lean season and planting period, respectively. Micro-finance institutions were identified through relevant performance criteria and employed to ensure that the beneficiaries received intended cash payments directly, cutting out brokers or traders (Tall 2015).Most of the registered MFIs have about 5,000 clients collectively and are considered operationally weak due to significant defaults. The defaults occur due to repayment difficulties experienced by clients caused by trade limitations.A study by USAID showed defaults of between 5 -30% of the MFIs' portfolio consisted of loans overdue for more than 30 days. In addition, issues of weak management, challenges in client assessment capabilities and lack of operational capabilities are some of the difficulties faced by the MFIs.However, of all the MFIs registered in Niger, ASUSU S.A., which was originally founded by the government-funded Poverty Reduction Project in 2011, is the largest. It has a wide network of branches and small service points and mostly targets rural micro and small enterprises. Its products include savings and smart card services, loans and nonfinancial services. ASUSU is working with a few international development organizations to provide credit schemes to smallholder farmers in Niger (USAID 2018). Some of these loans are credit for restocking livestock, including fattening of large and small ruminants and credit financing for value chains, among others (Wattel and van Asseldonk 2018).Since As part of furthering the agriculture credit portfolio, Mercy Corps in partnership with ASUSU S.A. piloted the warrantage model in the lean season of 2015. Under this model, farmers were allowed to use their harvest as collateral to obtain credit from the MFI, instead of immediately selling it. Loans amounting to over USD 6,300 were approved and dispersed at an interest rate of 1.7%. Against the credit, the farmers could store their produce in the warehouse leased by the MFI. The credit is extended to farmers based on the amount of produce they store. The farmers were encouraged to bundle their harvest to get significant credit at better interest rates for their combined storage. This credit was intended to help farmers invest in other income generating activities, to meet household needs or to store the harvest in warehouses for longer periods of time. The farmers can store their produce in the warehouses for up to a year based on the prices of the commodity in the market, which also enables them to repay the loans to the MFIs (Jolicoeur and Kabore 2017). The warrantage model was also adopted by the USAID funded Espoir pour les Communautés de Ouallam, Tillabéri program, whose main goals are the improvement of food security among the most vulnerable households and increasing the capacities of the agro-pastoralists to respond to recurring droughts (Jolicoeur and Kabore 2017).ASUSU S.A. is planning to partner with Mercy Corps to develop and roll out digital financial services to the already existing traditional village savings group in Niger (CGAP 2017). In addition to providing credit and savings services, ASUSU S.A. also acts as a mobile money agent and has signed a contract with the Ministry of Education to pay salaries of staff members who have MFI accounts with ASUSU S.A. This links members to mobile wallets, which can then be withdrawn through any of the multi-national organizations' mobile money service points (CGAP 2017).Digital financial inclusion is being recognized as an important pillar for Niger's development strategies. With the support of UNCDF and the EU, the government of Niger developed and adopted a National Strategy for Financial Inclusion in 2015. Furthermore in 2017, the government adopted the second Economic and Social Development Plan, which has two objectives, (i) to promote the competitiveness of the economy, unlock its potential and foster job creation and (ii) to promote the development of resilient agriculture for highly sustainable and inclusive growth. This was further supported by the AfDB's 2018-22 framework on achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth (AfDB 2018).Moreover, the finance and information and communication technology (ICT) ministries, in collaboration with the World Bank initiated a project in 2019 called the smart villages for rural growth and digital and financial inclusion. With commitment from the National Agency for the Information Society (ANSI), the project aims to improve people's lives using ICT solutions and applications in areas of health, education, agriculture, commerce and others. It is anticipated that this will be done through increased access to cellphone and broadband services in rural areas and provision of digital financial services to select underserved areas (Eskandar 2019).With a budget of about USD 50 million, it is envisioned that all the 15,000 administrative villages in Niger would be digitally connected, with the government providing access to digital services for the population in these areas. A multi-stakeholder consultation was held in 2019, which included ministries of health, education, agriculture and ICT, telecommunication regulators and UN agencies such as the WHO, FAO, UNESCO, among others, to collaborate and deploy 15 digital services as proof of concept, while leveraging the existing structures on the ground (Eskandar 2019). Table 4.3 below presents an overview of the main digital and financial service providers. Feasible link for possible provision of livestock insuranceNiger hosts several international organizations that have partnered with local associations, MFIs and government bodies with interests in food security and creating resilient livelihoods. Some of the international organizations have a specific focus on pastoral areas. These organizations could either be potential stakeholders in an IBDRFI initiative or allow leveraging of some of their services as part of a comprehensive IBDRFI initiative.The Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS), funded by the World Bank over a six-year term covers Niger, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Senegal. The program aims to, (i) improve pastoral development in the Sahel region by tackling challenges related to drought, animal diseases, climate change, conflicts and dwindling access to land and water resources, (ii) improve access to resources, production services and markets for pastoralists and agropastoralists along the transhumance routes and border areas of the above-mentioned six countries and (iii) improve the countries' emergency response capacity (FAO 2016;World Bank 2020). The Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project is jointly managed and coordinated by CILSS, Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) (De Haan et al 2016;World Bank 2020).As part of achieving its objectives, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is working on the Climate Resilient Communities Project, which aims to increase incomes for smallscale agriculture and livestock dependent families in rural Niger municipalities. Through community driven investments in climate resilient public works, the project intends to improve crop and livestock productivity, sustain natural resources and increase market access to targeted commodities. The project is being implemented in Tillabéri , Dosso, Tahoua and Maradi, in coordination with the World Bank (MCC, 2020). The USAID sponsored Millennium Challenge Fund also supports an expanding network of private veterinary service providers, which the government of Niger commissions from time to time to conduct vaccination drives and provide animal health services to communities. Each of these service providers has a network of 20-30 auxiliaries who are trained to provide vaccinations and treat and report disease outbreaks in the targeted communities (Fava et al. 2018).One of the most significant community represented organizations in pastoral areas is AREN. This association works to improve the lives of farmers and is also known as the voice of the pastoral community regarding land, conflict management and development in the drylands of Niger (Peace Insight undated). It has an active membership of 120,000 pastoralists and has worked with private radio stations as part of its efforts to provide extension services and education to pastoralists. Together with the Réseau National des Chambres d' Agriculture du Niger (RECA), AREN provides information on market prices, water availability and pasture conditions to the pastoral community (Fava et al. 2018).Mercy Corps has been working with AREN to promote local fodder production so that local breeders/herders do not have to procure it from urban areas such as Niamey. The initiative is premised on the fact that fodder producers and procurers often incur high costs transporting it. Through a small pilot of 200 farmers, Mercy Corps is working with AREN to stimulate the sale of fodder produced in local farm lands to nearby breeders. IBISA has also approached Mercy Corps to assess the potential of bundling fodder and feed services as part of the livestock insurance product, given the elevated feed and fodder prices during the dry season or drought periods.With the support of CARE International and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), AREN has been implementing capacity building projects for the pastoralists in three communes in the Tillabéri region. This has involved, (i) training of pastoral populations as part of the regional pastoral education and training program, PREPP-AREN Niger on the transhumant routes running from Benin to Chad, (ii) training on conflict management as part of the Protection and Fair Management of Agropastoral Resources in the Tillabéri region project and (iii) a series of training workshops on land conflict management targeted at peaceful coexistence between pastoralists and farmers by establishing effective mechanisms for sharing the available natural resources in their daily activities (IWGIA 2019).Since 2009, the NGO SNV has been working in Tillia, a large pastoral region, which hosts herds from neighbouring countries of Niger for grazing. SNV has organized several consultations between water users' associations, customary authorities, decentralized management committees and regional state authorities on, (i) reinvestment and rehabilitation of water equipment and (ii) incentives for the population to pay for the services, which can then be used for maintenance of the water points (SNV 2012).Moreover, RBM has been involved in efforts to create an MoU within the border regions of Niger and Mali, e.g. Tillabéri, to agree on a set number of breeders who can take their livestock for residue grazing into the fields as they continue on their transhumance. The MoU process is part of the RBM advocacy to build consensus between farmers and breeders, as the issue of livestock grazing in their fields during transhumance is a Source of conflict (Stakeholder engagement 2020)The Agriculture and Food Security Network utilised a participatory approach in their work with the local communities to develop a land use plan in the Dosso region. This region is an agro-pastoral area, often used during transhumance for herding and grazing. The continuous use and threat of land overuse has led to conflicts. The Rural Code of 1993, which allows for registration of customary land rights across the country (Jamart 2011) was used with the support of the University of Niamey for the land use planning process. The main activities under this project were, (i) the establishment of a numerical register and syntheses of all documents on land and natural resources in the region, (ii) development of comprehensive inventories of all land transactions at municipal level by the different structures of the rural code and (iii) the drafting of land use maps, location of agro-silvopastoral resources and water infrastructure and (iv) recommendations for the establishment of databases facilitating archiving, consultation, document management and a repository of land transaction instruments (Boureuma and Flury 2016).To further build capacities of the rural communities and enable access to services, a multi-stakeholder public-private partnership designed and piloted an interactive voice response platform called E-KOKARI in 2017. The stakeholders were the CIPMEN Incubator, World Bank Niger, the ministry of agriculture, Niger ICT High Commissary, NOVATECH, AgriBusiness Consulting and Sahel Bio. The E-KOKARI platform enables farmers, breeders and buyers to access information, advice, warnings and market prices for crops and livestock in their local languages -(French, Hausa and Zarma). The user dials a short specified number to access the menu, from which he/she gets guidance. This platform can be accessed from many phone models. The information available on this platform is validated by the ministry of agriculture. The pilot was conducted over a 10-month period. The World Bank has shown interest in rolling this out to 60 more villages to reach 8,000 producers (Hamadour 2018). A summary of the main activities by development organization is provided in Table 4.4 below. The country relies heavy on humanitarian aid to fund its response to natural disasters, especially droughts. Food distribution is the main response measure. The government uses different mechanisms to finance its responses, such as the national disaster funds and food reserves. From an IBDRFI perspective, the schemes could be a potential fit for social protection products.The market in general is underdeveloped, with very few non-life insurance providers, mainly in health and motor insurance. The insurance market is overseen by CIMA, while the country level regulation is managed by the Direction des Assurances under the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Due to the geographical spread and dependence of most of the population on agriculture, private insurance companies have found it difficult to create a significant market for themselves due to low penetration rates. So far ARC and a private start-up named IBISA are the only players in the agriculture insurance market, with IBISA being the only entity in the process of designing a product for livestock index insurance targeting the pastoral areas. However, there are attempts to get some of the non-life insurers to underwrite the proposed product. Even though this may seem like an opportunity, unfortunately, the entire process from prelaunch to implementation of IBDRFI solutions might be resource intensive. The establishment of the CNAAI could be a turning point to overcome this challenge. CNAAI is a a national committee with the mandate of evaluating the possibility to introduce a national insurance company, develop a commercial agricultural indexinsurance product and develop an implementation plan.The climate services that include the provision of daily weather information and climate predictions are coordinated by the National Directorate for Meteorology (DMN) in association with other actors such as technical partners from the ministries of agriculture, livestock, water, civil protection, disaster management, health, energy, transport and infrastructure that co-produce content and information. There is a lot of donor support, which has been provided to enhance the capacity of agromet services in Niger. There is capacity available in the meteorological systems, which if tapped and identified could potentially serve as calculating agents should an IBDRFI product be implemented, e.g. DMN in collaboration with INRAN.The penetration of both telecommunication services, e.g. mobile money, and the availability of credit/savings or agricultural financing has been very low. Due to the socio-economic environment, some telecommunication companies such as Orange, which collaborated with NGOs and development organizations in the past have exited the market. Similarly, apart from the financial services provided by a handful of MFIs such as ASUSU S.A and BAGRI, access to formal finance is very limited in Niger. This could, therefore, present distribution and product provision challenges for IBDRFI solution implementation.Organizations such as SNV, Mercy Corps, CARE and WDP are working with multiple stakeholders like the World Bank and local organizations such as AREN and RBM, in the pastoral and agropastoral regions to implement projects that improve livestock productivity, encourage local fodder production, natural resource management and conflict management. These organizations could be considered potential partners through leveraging their networks for distribution of IBDRFI products and linking financial protection with their resilience building interventions.This scenario analysis aims to provide a broad overview of how a product might work and an illustration of indicative costings for two alternative IBDRFI programmatic options, (i) a micro-level retail insurance scheme and (ii) a fully funded macro-level social livelihood protection program. This is not a product or program design study, thus the analysis is simplified and based only on previous implementation experiences in east Africa. It should be noted that the proposed scenarios neither provide option specific recommendations, nor do they pretend to cover an exhaustive range of IBDRFI solutions. Thus, a detailed analysis of alternative programmatic options and product design customizations needs to be planned with local stakeholders in the early implementation stages of future initiatives.The two programmatic alternatives, built upon experience from existing programs in Kenya and Ethiopia (see Sections 1.2 and 1.3) should be seen as two illustrative examples of a broader range of potential IBDRFI programs that could be designed based on Niger's priorities. They could also be seen as complementary (not alternative) approaches in a harmonized IBDRFI framework at country level. Both options rely on the private sector for product distribution and management, provide payouts directly to pastoralists and are based on the same index-based model. The two options fundamentally differ in the targeting approach and the level of participation of public sector actors regarding subsidies and direct support to complementary activities, e.g. registration systems and awareness creation. Table 5.1 summarizes key similarities and differences. Appendix 6 provides an overview of key lessons learned from the operational implementation of both options.The micro-level retail insurance scheme aims to not only protect pastoral households from sliding into poverty during drought periods due to livestock losses, but also to improve access to inputs and credits and stimulate investments in the value chain to improve livestock production and marketing. Clients of the scheme are expected to pay a premium.The level of public sector participation, mainly through partial subsidies needs to be modulated to facilitate uptake and financial viability for the private sector and to create incentives for additional private sector investments.The macro-level social livelihood protection program aims to provide a social safety net to the most vulnerable pastoral households and to complement humanitarian responses in protecting pastoralists' key assets and livelihoods in the early stages of drought crises. The program targets beneficiaries that own a small number of livestock assets but are unable to pay premiums. Targeting and registration, therefore, become critical steps. The level of public sector support required for full or high subsidies and awareness creation is high. In addition to social protection, subsidies could be linked to good practices to improve the resilience of pastoral households, e.g. rangeland management. Protect households from sliding into the poverty trap.Provide a social safety net to the most vulnerable pastoral households and complement humanitarian responses.Herders' interests to protect their livestock assets during extended periods of deficit of forage resources.Public interest in anticipatory response to drought and reduction of humanitarian support needs.Same, e.g. NDVI.Same, e.g. NDVISame, proxy of forage availability Same, proxy of forage availabilitySame but could increase for larger commercial herders.It is based on estimated additional costs of livestock maintenance during seasons with forage deficit.It is based on estimated additional costs of livestock maintenance during seasons with forage deficit.Same underlying pure loss costs, but commercial premium rates may need to be considerably higher to reflect much higher operational costs associated with voluntary sales to individual pastoralists (insured policyholders).Same underlying pure loss costs, but potential to minimise operational loadings as automatic cover for a large number of beneficiaries.Same assuming same sum insured and triggers are adopted (direct to policyholder insured).Same assuming same sum insured and triggers adopted (direct to beneficiary).More affluent small/medium and large pastoralists who can afford to pay either the full commercial premium rate or a partly subsidized premium rate.Vulnerable pastoralists who depend largely on livestock herding for their livelihoods but who cannot afford to pay commercial premium rates.These pastoralists should have a minimum herd size.Voluntary purchase by the individual pastoralist or group.Automatic enrolment of selected pastoralists by government entity/agency. Automatic enrolment of selected pastoralists by government entity/agency. Automatic enrolment of selected pastoralists by government entity/agency.The individual pastoralist is the policyholder and insured as named in the policy certificate.The insured policyholder is the government entity/agency on behalf of the pre-selected pastoralists (beneficiaries) listed in the policy issued to the government entity/agency.Not essential if marketing, promotion and sales functions are correctly performed by the insurer or its appointed agents/ distribution channels.Essential as pastoral communities and their members must be made aware of the scheme and why some pastoralists are being identified as beneficiaries and will be automatically enrolled while others will not be selected.Insurers will be responsible for their own marketing, promotion and sales programs including:Other distributers.The government entity/agency will need to work closely with country level authorities, community and pastoral leaders to identify the selection criteria and beneficiaries of the program in each insured unit (IU)All insured pastoralists must be electronically registered.All beneficiaries must be electronically registered.Variable.It could also change in time depending on the product uptake.Full subsidy (100%) or close to.Options could be considered in kind for pastoralists' contributions, e.g. a token for labour or work. In general, the micro-level commercial retail scheme is more suitable when the country's insurance market is relatively well developed and pastoralists have already been exposed to some form of financial protection mechanisms and expressed demand for insurance. In such a situation, the private sector will be ready to engage in the commercialization and marketing of the drought insurance product. However, slow uptake has been proven for this scheme and in the absence of public support through long term subsidies and incentives, the private sector has encountered difficulties in maintaining the scheme. Conversely, the social livelihood protection scheme is more suitable when there is a large number of vulnerable pastoralists requiring humanitarian assistance during drought shocks and the financial service infrastructure and literacy in pastoral areas are limited. The main drawbacks of this scheme are the availability and continuity of government funding and the difficulty in effectively incentivising the private sector in co-investing in the scheme to complement public sector investments. The two options can be also seen as complementary and not alternative to each other.The scenario analysis takes into consideration an IBLI product type, which has been designed, customized and widely tested in Kenya and Ethiopia (Appendix 2). As already described in Section 1.2, the IBLI product design adopted in existing programs relies on, (i) an index calculated from time series data of NDVI imagery acquired from satellite sensors and (ii) a payout function to convert the index values into payouts for policyholders/beneficiaries. The analysis is limited to the areas that are considered suitable or partially suitable (i.e. forage review) for the IBLI product implementation (Chapter 4, Figure 4.6)It should be noted that the index calculation and the payout function of the IBLI product should be customized during the early implementation stages of any initiative aimed at launching IBDRFI solutions, in close collaboration with local stakeholders. The cost of any IBDRFI product is largely determined by calculating historical payouts (i.e. pure loss rates) according to the chosen set of parameters and customization options of the IBLI product. This allows tailoring the IBDRFI solution to the local context and to the specific goal of the IBDRFI initiative.The scenario analysis is divided in two steps, firstly, a simulation analysis on historical data is conducted to illustrate the product performance (i.e. independently by the implementation modality) and secondly, a financial analysis is conducted to illustrate hypothetical costings of implementing an IBDRFI program in the country. The costings are generated for the two programmatic options illustrated above, a micro-level purely retail insurance program and a macro-level fully subsidized social protection initiative.Three historical payout scenarios are presented to illustrate how an IBLI product would have worked in Niger's pastoral areas over the last two decades. The reference scenario is an IBLI product with a trigger attachment threshold 29 set to one payout in 5 years (S2). The two alternative scenarios are built to illustrate the implications of changing the attachment threshold to increase the frequency of payouts (i.e. one in 2.5 years) (S1) or decrease it (i.e. 1 in 7.5 years) (S3). All the other parameters are constant across the scenarios. All scenarios are built on reasonable parameters assessed through early engagement with local stakeholders or where this is not possible, using ongoing programs in east Africa as a reference. Table A5.1 provides a summary of the parameters and their Sources.  The average payout (pure loss cost rate or pure risk premium rate) would be 16.9, 9.2 and 7.1% for payout scenarios S1, S2 and S3, respectively, illustrating how more frequent payouts would result in significantly higher payouts and, therefore, premium rates for the IBDRFI product. This demonstrates how decisions made during product customization with local stakeholders on their desired frequency of payouts have important implications on the premium cost (of which the pure loss rate is a key component) and that the product can be tailored to suit the objectives of the IBDRFI program and the ability and willingness of pastoralists and/or government to pay the premium.Indicative costings for the two programmatic scenario (PS) options described in Section 5.2 are presented to illustrate the financial implications of implementing an IBDRFI solution in Niger for the government or donors. The two PS costings are built from the implementation experiences in Kenya and Ethiopia (see Sections 5.2 and 5.4 and Appendix 6) and include a micro-level commercial insurance implementation scenario (PS1) and a macro-level social livelihood protection coverage implementation scenario (PS2). Both scenarios are built using an IBLI product and the trigger attachment threshold of 1 in 5 years (S2 in Section 5.2). The scenarios are developed for a 5-year program.The two programmatic scenarios differ fundamentally on the expected contribution from the government or donors, as PS1 assumes a partial 50% premium subsidy to make cover more affordable to individual pastoralists, while the PS2 livelihoods protection for vulnerable pastoralists assumes 100% premium financing by government and/or donors.Another important difference is in the level of contribution of the public sector to complementary investments such as the registration infrastructure, awareness creation and monitoring and evaluation. Finally, the two programmatic scenarios differ in the level of expected uptake, as it is assumed from previous experiences that commercial insurance uptake rates are generally slow. A detailed summary of assumptions is provided in Appendix 5.The assumptions made for this analysis are based on oversimplification of the reality and should be seen as illustrative.They should be refined after a comprehensive exercise evaluating the costs and benefits of alternative programmatic options. The commercial loadings are fixed to indicative medium insurance and reinsurance markets. However, loadings are highly context specific and could also be significantly higher. No economies of scale have been considered even though they might be expected with the scaling of the programs.Indicative costs of complementary activities including registration, awareness creation and monitoring and evaluation are provided to illustrate the importance of including these components at the design stage of any IBDRFI initiative. However, the costs are estimated based on a per insured (beneficiary) flat rate, which is an oversimplification. In a more realistic scenario, these components would require an initial larger investment for setting up the infrastructure.The costs would then increase proportionally commensurate with the level of program expansion until a certain critical level, when increased cost efficiency and economies of scale should, at least in principle, reduce costs.The PS1 micro-level commercial insurance implementation scenario indicates the cost of supporting a relatively large 5-year implementation program for an IBDRFI micro-insurance product with partial subsidies (i.e. 50 % of the premium) in the pastoral areas of Niger. Under commercial implementation, the uptake is expected to be gradual and in 5-years' time the program could target to reach 25,000 pastoral households and approximately 125,000 TLUs. The global fiscal cost of supporting a micro-level insurance program with 50% premium subsidies is estimated to be USD 5.1 million over 5 years of implementation, including USD 4.4 million subsidies and USD 0.75 million for program support activities (Table 5.3). At year 5, the fiscal cost of the program would be USD 1.8 million per year and a decision could be made on a more appropriate modality to support further expansion.The insurance premium to be paid by a pastoral household would be approximately USD 11.8/TLU per year with a maximum payout of USD 150/TLU. However, the lack of information on the willingness to pay in Niger does not permit an assessment of the premium cost per TLU that would be generally accepTable/affordable to a pastoralist with a median-sized herd. In addition, it should be noted that it is possible to customize the policy parameters including the frequency of payouts, the rate of payout with increasing drought intensity and the sum insured per TLU by either reducing or increasing the premium rates, depending on the ability of pastoralists to fund cover and the level of premium subsidy support from the government.In this scenario, there is greater uncertainty on the uptake Figures and level of actual private sector investment in complementary activities. The uptake of agricultural micro-insurance solutions has often been below expectations for a variety of factors that include poor product design, poor investment in marketing and awareness creation and high transaction costs for implementation, leading to unsTable private sector commitment. Partial subsidies are deemed important to support the initial market uptake. Therefore, a smart use of subsidies needs to be planned to incentivize the private sector sufficiently to invest in critical financial and knowledge infrastructures. In this scenario, a fixed 50% premium subsidy in used, but a gradual reduction of subsidy could be also planned over the medium term.The PS2 macro-level social livelihood protection coverage scenario indicates the cost of supporting a relatively large IBDRF social protection coverage implementation program targeting the most vulnerable pastoralists who cannot afford to pay insurance premiums (i.e. 100% of the premium is covered) in the pastoral areas of Niger. Under social protection implementation, the expansion of the program is expected to be more rapid and in 5-years' time, the could target 50,000 pastoral households and approximately 250,000 TLUs per year. The premium cost per TLU to be covered through 100% premium financing would be USD 20.7/TLU. No premium is expected to be paid by the vulnerable pastoral households. However, a token contribution is recommended to support awareness of the product. This is an important lesson learnt from ongoing initiatives in Kenya and Ethiopia.In this scenario, the main Source of uncertainty is associated with the long-term fiscal sustainability of the initiative, as medium-term budget allocation commitments need to be guaranteed. Depending on the social protection goals of the IBDRFI program, a gradual exit strategy should be planned from the beginning. For example, a system incentivizing graduation of pastoral households to partially subsidized commercial coverage could be implemented, allowing for a gradual reduction of fiscal costs over the medium to long term.Experience from operational programs in Kenya and Ethiopia suggest that a hybrid approach could be adopted to address sustainability issues in the two programmatic options illustrated. A macro-level social livelihood protection program could target the most vulnerable up to a certain number of TLUs (e.g. 5) with a highly subsidized product. At the same time, partially subsidized commercial insurance could be sold to those that are not beneficiaries of the social protection program and/or to top-up the coverage with additional TLUs. Subsidies could be modulated over time between the two programs and used as incentives to the private sector and clients to promote uptake and financial sustainability.This could bring multiple potential benefits including:Cost sharing for financial service infrastructure development and complementary activities, as the public sector/ donors could support the initial investments under the social livelihood protection scheme, while the private sector guarantees maintenance and invests mainly in market expansion.The macro-level coverage could be planned to scale up relatively rapidly in the medium term and create confidence in the private sector on the short-term profitability of the scheme.In the meanwhile, subsidies can be used as incentives to the private sector to invest in the commercial scheme and expand the retail market.Bringing the initiative rapidly to scale by adopting a hybrid approach could also promote economies of scales, reducing premium loadings (e.g. the higher the number of policies, the higher the risk mutualization and the lower the loading) and making complementary activities more cost-effective (e.g. reduced per person cost of monitoring and evaluation or registration).The feasibility assessment indicates that Niger has a moderate level of readiness for the implementation of an IBDRFI initiative targeting livestock keepers in extensive pastoral systems in terms of socio-economic, technical and operational conditions. Table 6.1 illustrates the key findings of this study with respect to the feasibility criteria considered.The socio-economic assessment (Table 6.1, green) emphasizes the overwhelming importance of the livestock sector to the Nigerien economy, as it accounts for approximately 13% of the country's national GDP. More than 87% of the households in the country rear livestock, since most of the livestock rearing households practice agro-pastoralism, 66% are kept in sedentary systems, it is critical to carefully review the extent of IBDRFI approaches in protecting those households and their effectiveness compared to alternative approaches. A related issue requiring consideration and accurate review is the reported uneven distribution of livestock ownership, with 10% wealthiest households reported to own 90% of all livestock. Most of the migrating pastoralists are concentrated in the northern parts of the pastoral belt. Droughts are one of the biggest causes of food security vulnerability for pastoralists. Though there is little data available on the impact of droughts on households and the community, it can be assumed to be substantial, with livestock losses estimated at 10% of the agricultural GDP. Brief discussions conducted with the pastoral communities and associations suggest that there is general interest and potential demand for drought insurance products but given the poverty levels and the inequality among pastoralists, social protection systems may be the most feasible option for the most vulnerable.The technical assessment (Table 6.1, yellow) indicates that the areas where IBLI is fully feasible are in the central part of the country, which is dominated by pastoralism. This constitutes 16% of Niger's land area and hosts about 25% of the national herd. Approximately 74% of Niger includes areas that are potentially suitable for IBLI but also require a review during early implementation stages, with the aid of local stakeholders. In the central and southern regions, a review of the pastoral production systems should be considered to evaluate how extensively mobility is practiced and the extent of reliance on natural forage production, as these are essential IBLI prerequisites. In northern regions, rangeland use by pastoralists should be characterized to evaluate the role of pastures in animal nutrition and pastoralists' livelihoods. These assessments will also be critical for the delineation of the unit areas of insurance. This activity would require engagement with relevant stakeholders familiar with the area, including ecological/rangeland experts, NGOs and government institutions responsible for agricultural and livestock extension services and research.The operational assessment (Table 6.1, grey) shows a conducive regulatory environment, juxtaposed against limited presence of non-life insurance companies and absence of any active agriculture insurance market. As much as there is a pilot being designed for a livestock index insurance product with interest and enthusiasm from the ministry of livestock, the lack of insurance providers in the country is a significant challenge. Moreover, the exit of a major telecommunication company like Orange Telecom from the market suggests a weak environment to support large commercial insurance initiatives. In general, the pastoral regions have experienced marginal investments in financial resilience. However, the launch of CNAAI might allow overcoming some of the existing institutional and marketrelated gaps for the establishment of IBDRFI initiatives. The strong interest shown by pastoral associations such as RBM and AREN for livestock index insurance products suggest potential for a group-based commercial insurance product with partial subsidies.There is minimal financial literacy in Niger and this could be a significant barrier to insurance demand, therefore, local institutions such as AREN and affiliated NGOs can be leveraged to conduct capacity development initiatives and financial literacy campaigns. This may require significant investments in time and resources.Finally, the insecurity situation in vast portions of the pastoral region could be another operational constraint factor.To overcome some of these challenges, an IBDRFI intervention for pastoral areas may be linked to the social safety net scalability mechanism, which is one of the biggest disaster response mechanisms in the country. Moreover, working with the local and humanitarian organizations in the conflict areas presents an opportunity to design IBDRFI products that can mitigate the conflict situation. However, this will require in-depth understanding of the nature of the conflict and causes thereof. Drought impacts on pastoral livelihoods have repeatedly been catastrophic, with large parts of the national herd perishing. There are no reliable data on droughtrelated livestock losses and estimates vary but they can be substantial, with economic livestock losses surpassing 10% of GDP during the drought of 2009-10.The vulnerability to droughts is highest among the poorer pastoralists. In addition, the pastoral areas are generally very dependent on functioning markets and grain prices as their diet consists of more grains than animal products.Agro-pastoralism is by far the most practiced production system by livestock producers with 66% of livestock being kept in sedentary systems. This requires careful consideration to correctly identify target clients/beneficiaries, as the forage index design assumes that livestock relies largely on rangeland resources. Migrating pastoralists are concentrated mainly in the northern parts of the pastoral belts. Given the many pressures on their livelihoods, many pastoralists are forced to become sedentary and adopt agro-pastoralist lifestyles. A related issue requiring consideration and accurate review is the reported uneven distribution of livestock ownership, with 10% wealthiest households reported to own 90% of all livestock. This has relevant policy implications for IBDRFI implementation modality and targetingThere is general interest and potential demand for drought insurance products but given the poverty levels and the inequality among pastoralists, different approaches might have to be considered when designing livestock insurance products. However, the information gathered in this study is not sufficient for accurate evaluation of potential demand.Pastoralist communities have very little understanding of the insurance market in general (crop, livestock and non-life) and their introduction would require significant investments in awareness creation.Rangelands extensively dominate the central part of the country and are most suitable for the implementation of IBDFRI programs for pastoralists. The level of forage production is the major factor limiting feasibility of an IBDRFI design in the northern regions. Small-holder cropping or mixed crop-livestock systems are prevalent in southern Niger, making these areas inappropriate for IBDRFI design.Seasonality is well defined and relatively homogenous across the country's pastoral areas. The typical rangeland growing season lasts from June to late October/ November, thus seasonality is not a limiting factor for an IBDRFI design, except for the northern parts transitioning into the Sahara desert that are characterised by scarce vegetation.The IBDRFI suitable areas that are dominated by pastoralism are located in the central part of the country. They cover about 16% of Niger's land area and host 25% of the national herd and.. Approximately 74% of Niger includes areas that are potentially suitable but requiring reviews during early implementation stages, with the aid of local stakeholders.There are multiple institutions supporting agro-meteorological and extension services (e.g. ANAM and DMN), but national-level institutional capacity in handling the data component of index-insurance initiative seems limited. There is little or no livestock data or information for linking weather data in to livestock production.Regional institutions such as AGHRYMET, ACF or ARC could support data management tasks, during capacity building at the national level.Niger is a member of CIMA, which already has regulations in place for IBDRFI. CIMA recently introduced regulations for Sharia-compliant products, which might be important for Niger.Operational FeasibilityNiger has a relatively weak insurance market compared to its neighbours Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. ARC is also operating in the country and has signed an MoU with the government to include drought cover for rangelands.The insurers' presence in pastoral areas is limited or absent. However, there are few MFIs working with development organizations for different credit and savings services. Moreover, the government-launched smart village program is a promising initiative, which might offer the opportunity to support effective distribution channels if targeted investments are made.Currently there is no registration system in place. So far, most of the registration processes have been done through international development organizations.Not available (N/A). This study lacks sufficient evidence to assess this factor.The government of Niger indicated general interest in IBDRFI initiatives targeting pastoral systems, however, despite a commercial product viability assessment underway, a realistic entry point would be through the social safety mechanisms in place to respond to emergencies and disasters. In addition, the mandate of the Dispositif National for the prevention and management of food crisis could be leveraged to introduce IBDFRI products.Increasing insecurity and conflict poses a challenge for investment and attracting private sector actors, however, working with local civil society and peace building bodies could be an opportunity to explore possible mechanisms by which IBDRFI solutions could be introduced.Considering the limited scope of a feasibility study, the next steps towards implementing an IBDRFI initiative in Niger would require in-depth engagement with country stakeholders and planning for analytical studies to address knowledge gaps identified in this assessment. Furthermore, it would be useful to commission a formal IBDRFI demand study, which could include 'willingness to pay' components. Next steps are summarized below while Section 5 of the report provides an expanded description.R1: To create an enabling environment for IBDRFI solutions, it would be important to create a forum coordinated by the ministry of livestock to engage various stakeholders such as other relevant ministries (economy and finance and ICT), the Comite des Assureurs du Niger, private insurance companies and technical enterprises (SAHAM and IBISA), the African Risk Capacity and other development actors. The goal should be to establish a national taskforce to discuss opportunities and modalities of introducing IBDRFI initiatives in pastoral areas. This initiative could be complementary to the ongoing work of CNAAI, which is focusing more broadly on agricultural insurance.R2: Some of the findings suggest that livestock ownership has changed over time and there has been diversification of income. An in-depth understanding of livestock ownership and the role that livestock play in the livelihoods of the pastoral community is important for better targeting and customization of the IBDRFI product design.R3: There is lack of data on drought-induced losses suffered by the pastoral community and their impact on livelihoods. This could be rectified by requesting updated information on the impact of drought on the pastoral community from government organizations or by conducting in-depth engagements with various stakeholders.Address specific product design challenges associated with the adaptation of IBLI to the pastoral production systems in central Niger that are dominated by agro-pastoralism. This primarily entails better characterization of pastoral land use and mobility patterns especially in the regions classified as requiring rangeland review.Conduct stakeholder engagements to get a better understanding of IBLI feasibility over northern rangelands (classified as requiring forage review) to understand the extent to which these regions are used as wet season grazing areas.Further investigation into premium financing options for both micro-level retail IBDRFI and meso/macro-level covers is required. In addition, ways of aligning different drought risk financing insurance mechanisms and programs for pastoralists should be identified. A review of the product's value proposition compared to other financial services and products should be done.Review of the existing MFIs' distribution channels and assessment of alternative distribution models through existing digital platforms of telecommunication companies that have worked with general insurance companies that distribute micro-insurance products in motor and health. The distribution models can also be utilised to maximize social cohesion and inclusiveness.It would be worthwhile to have a better understanding of the scope of the smart village initiative to identify leverage points for distribution models and to promote DFS solutions, which could be coupled with IBDRFI solutions. The actors involved in the smart village initiative could also facilitate the registration process.Furthermore, it is recommended that investigations be done on the warrantage program and the local fodder production pilot in some of the agro-pastoral areas to identify how they can be linked either with premiums or payouts for a livestock index insurance product.Like its neighbouring countries, the insecurity situation in Niger often arises from ethnic conflicts, extremist violence and clashes between farmers and pastoralists over land resources. These conflicts have major implications for IBDFI product implementation. Even though both ethnic and extremist violence present operational challenges, the clashes between the farmers and pastoralists can be potentially mitigated with IBDRFI initiatives such as indemnities for scarce forage production at the end of the wet season (i.e. before migration). This could, therefore, contribute to social cohesion between farming and pastoral communities through a carefully designed indemnity distribution modality. Hence, it would be critical to conduct detailed engagements with stakeholders with working knowledge of these areas to better understand the inter and intra-community dynamics useful in designing effective solutions.Given the limited experience of insurance companies in both crop and livestock insurance, considerable investments would be required to build capacity and create awareness among both the private and public sector. In addition, capacity assessment and building would be required for institutions that are mandated to provide agrometeorological, extension and emergency response services.As levels of financial literacy are very low in the pastoral regions, investments in awareness creation would be required. Since organizations such as RBM and AREN have a strong presence and are already working with development actors in the pastoral areas, they could support awareness creation and financial literacy for micro and meso-level or social protection products.Since there is little capacity to handle data components related to index insurance, institutions such as AGHRYMET, ACF and ARC should be engaged to build local institutions' capacity, especially on collection and management of livestock-related data.It is recommended that a monitoring and evaluation program be designed as part of the broader learning framework to ensure quality assurance and impact evaluation. This will enable a better understanding of relationships between drought and food habits or consumption patterns of households, for example. Information on impact of IBDRFI solutions on households' nutrition status will also be generated. This is because Niger's disaster response is mostly through food distribution. Moreover, it would be essential to setup a framework for effective monitoring mechanisms that ensure, not only the verification of the project implementation, but also the actual engagement with the communities. This allows communities to play an active role in the review of the product by providing feedback and recommendations on its effectiveness. This framework should also consider ways of demonstrating the welfare and/ or other impacts (e.g. on conflict mitigation) for the proposed initiative.Photo credit: EAP Photo Collection/ World BankAppendix 1. Key differences between micro-level retail IBLI and modified macro-level social livelihoods protection programs Same underlying pure loss costs, but commercial premium rates may need to be considerably higher to reflect much higher operational costs associated with sales to individual pastoralists (insured policyholders)Same underlying pure loss costs, but with potential to minimize operational loadings as there is automatic cover for large numbers of beneficiaries and thus providing economies of scale opportunities in operational costsSame, assuming same sum insured, and triggers adopted (direct to policyholder/ insured) Same, assuming same sum insured and triggers adopted (direct to beneficiary)More affluent small/medium and large pastoralists who can afford to pay either the full commercial premium or a partly subsidised premium rateVulnerable pastoralists who depend largely on livestock herding for their livelihoods, but who cannot afford to pay commercial premium rates.These pastoralists should have a minimum herd size of 5 TLUsPurely voluntary decision by the individual pastoralist or group Automatic enrolment of selected pastoralists by project management/government entityThe individual pastoralist is the policyholder and insured as named in the policy certificateThe insured policyholder is the government entity/agency on behalf of the pre-selected pastoralists who will be listed in the schedule (or annexure) attached to the policy issued to the government entity/agencyInsured pastoralist household must:1. Be able to pay their share of premium 2. Have a smartphone to receive sms messages 3. Have a bank account (fixed or mobile money) into which payouts can be directly made Beneficiary pastoralist household must:1. Own a minimum of 5 TLUs and be a livestock herder 2. Have a smart phone to receive sms messages 3. Have a bank account (fixed or mobile money) into which payouts can be directly madeNot essential if marketing, promotion and sales functions are correctly performed by the insurer or its appointed agents/distribution channels Essential as pastoral communities and their members must be made aware of the government livelihoods protection program and why some pastoralists are being identified as beneficiaries and will be automatically enrolled, while others will not be selected.Targeting (and sales) and selection:Insurers will be responsible for their own marketing and promotion and sales programs including:1. Own sales agents 2. Other distributersThe government agency will need to work closely with country level authorities, community and pastoral leaders to identify the selection criteria and beneficiaries of the program in each insured unit (IU)All insured pastoralists must be electronically registered along with their livestock holdings, address, phone number, bank/mobile money account details and name of the insured unit in which their livestock are normally grazed and which they have selected to be their trigger IU IBLI details must also be recorded including number of Insured TLU, sum insured, premium rate for that IU and premium paid by the pastoralist All beneficiaries must be electronically registered along with their livestock holdings, address, phone number, bank/mobile money account details and name of the insured unit in which their livestock are normally grazed and which they have selected to be their trigger IU IBLI details must also be recorded including number of insured TLU, sum insured, premium rate for that IU and premium paid by the governmentOn the payment of their share of premium, each insured policyholder should receive a unique numbered certificate of insurance (local language), policy wording and schedule of cover (as necessary)Beneficiaries do not pay any premium (at least in initial year(s) A single master policy will be issued to the government entity that purchases cover. Each beneficiary must receive a certificate detailing the protection they are receiving (number of TLU, sum insured and maximum payouts per season and IU)Ideally sms will be used to advise each beneficiary during the coverage period whether drought conditions are developing in their IU. At end of the cover period beneficiary will also be advised whether a drought payout has been triggered and the size of the payout due Electronic money transfers should be carefully tracked to each insured's bank or mobile money account Ideally sms will be used to advise each beneficiary during the coverage period whether drought conditions are developing in their IU. At end of the cover period beneficiary will also be advised whether a drought payout has been triggered and the size of payout due The normalization approach is based on the use of standard scores. However, multiple options exist, such as linear scaling between minimum and maximum historic values (i.e. the vegetation condition index), percentile calculation or per cent deviation from average. However, there should be no major implications on the payouts related to the normalization metric used.The formulation of the payout function is a linear function of the index value between an index attachment and an index exit threshold. Payouts range from 0, below the attachment value to a predefined maximum value below the exit. In the standard model, the attachment threshold is calculated at unit level in terms of expected payout frequency (i.e. 1 out of 5 seasons) on the historical dataset. The exit threshold is commonly fixed or set to the minimum historical index value. The maximum payout is calculated as the cost of maintaining the livestock alive during a severe drought shock 34 These parameters are not constant across IBDRFI programs and need to be customized on a case by case basis.The standard payout function is applied to end of season index values (in line with the temporal aggregation step described in the previous section). However, options for multiple seasonal payouts (e.g. one early and one end of season payout) have also been proposed and utilised. The early payout is not a fully independent payout, but an anticipation of the main payout.but not yet applied in operational programs in Africa. For example, an alternative formulation of the payout function is based on the persistency of forage deficit conditions rather than the seasonally aggregated values. In this case, when index values fall below a predefined attachment threshold for a given number of consecutive time periods (e.g. 2 or 3 dekads), payouts are triggered. The payouts increase proportional to the length of the forage deficit period till a maximum payout is reached.33. Available at https://mars.jrc.ec.europa.eu/asap/ 34. In Kenya the monthly sum insured is currently 1,167 Kenyan Shilling (KES) per TLU per month (KES amount = USD 1.00 at date) to cover the costs of purchased fodder and feed supplements. The Kenyan IBLI programs provide payouts to enable pastoralists to purchase supplementary feeds for their animals over the 5-month short dry season (October to February) and for the 7-month long dry season (March to September). Therefore the sum insured to feed 1 TLU over 12 months is KES 14,000 (KES amount = USD 1.00 at date) per TLU.The generated masks for 'valid' and 'non-valid' pixels were finally used at unit level to assess the overall feasibility classes, considering the following conditions:If a unit comprised of ≥ 50% valid pixels, then the unit was classified as suitable;If the non-valid pixels in the unit were > 50%, then the unit was classified as suitable but needing forage review to allow further considerations by users on the extent of forage availability for pastoral use.3. Clear seasonal patterns. The seasonality conditions were assessed by extracting the phenological metrics of NGS, SOS and EOS per commune with further refinement using average precipitation conditions and NDVI profiles. Two seasonality classes were derived, (i) clear: if the season had well defined wet and dry seasons and (ii) undefined: if seasons were not clearly defined.The three conditions of rangeland dominance, sufficient forage production and seasonality were scored and merged to produce four feasibility classes: suitable, rangeland review, forage review and unsuitable, as summarized in  Based on the literature review done for the scoping mission, key stakeholders were identified for further information and fact finding to assess the socio-economic and operational feasibility of a drought risk financing product. The stakeholders were representatives from the insurance markets, private and public sector, regulators, members of government bodies, financial organizations, international development organizations and local pastoral groups. A list of key stakeholders is provided in Table A4.1.  3. Micro-level IBLI programs must explore new low-cost ways of distribution. Any commercially oriented IBLI program targeted at individual pastoralists will need new product distribution channels. Alternative models should be evaluated, especially meso-level approaches, which have the added benefit of reducing basis risk combined with applications of digital financial platforms such as mobile banking for the collection of premiums and settlement of payouts directly to each insured pastoralist.4. Commercial micro-level IBLI must be accompanied by additional investments in capacity and awareness building of pastoralists.The low insurance demand by agricultural producers was confirmed by the low numbers of micro-level IBLI sales.As levels of financial awareness, understanding and inclusion are still very low among pastoralists, the importance of providing appropriate training services to them cannot be overemphasized. This may require continued public sector support.5. Continued public/private/donor premium subsidies will likely be a prerequisite for any micro-level IBLI program to operate and reach scale. Scaled-up agricultural insurance programs anywhere in the world tend to rely heavily on subsidies.Given the particularly severe challenges faced by the micro-level IBLI programs, it is unlikely that achieving significant scale will be feasible without continued public sector (and/or private sector and donor) financial support in the form of premium subsidies and/or subsidies on the administrative and operational costs of these programs. These subsidies should be justified by a value for money analysis as well as the value of asset protection and potential savings in humanitarian aid.1. Macro-level social livelihoods protection programs can help build drought resilience of the most vulnerable.Increasingly, evidence of the positive impacts of KLIP and SIIPE are emerging. These include, amongst others, better protection of pastoralist livelihoods in the face of drought and enhanced management of scarce public resources to respond to drought.2. Macro-level social livelihood protection programs should actively help build an enabling environment for micro-level commercial products. Macro-level programs can facilitate the operationalization of micro-level IBLI programs. For this to happen, however, they need to be planned and operated jointly as one. Strong incentives should be put into place, encouraging underwriters of the modified macro program to also invest in micro-level distribution infrastructure.3. Clear graduation and financial sustainability framework should be agreed in advance. Both KLIP and SIIPE struggle with ensuring longer term sustainability of the full premium financing on their respective programs. While both options harbour the objective of eventual graduation into fully commercial IBLI programs with nil or partial premium subsidies, no definitive decisions have been made in that respect. This is because of the several challenges faced by the micro-level IBLI program. However, reducing premium subsidies to 50% and relying on micro-level IBLI in its current form does not seem like a sustainable option. For future programs, financial contributors should plan for the longer term from the beginning.4. Insurance contracts should be concluded on a multi-year basis to encourage private sector investment. The current one-year government tender and revolving insurance structure of KLIP is too short for insurers to confidently invest in distribution and awareness creation networks, activities that aid micro-level IBLI sales. Future programs should consider providing insurers with longer contracts.5. Whenever possible, beneficiary selection and claims handling should be done using digital tools. Beneficiaries should be registered in electronic databases and receive potential insurance payouts directly into mobile money bank accounts. This would not only facilitate better administration, but it also strengthens accountability, supports financial inclusion and enhances alignment with related initiatives when databases are shared. While many pastoralists still do not have access to mobile money bank accounts, that share without access to mobile money bank accounts is shrinking rapidly. Any potential future initiative could also consider investing in large-scale pastoralist registration and/or providing them with mobile banking access.","tokenCount":"27439"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fc126b2c6feccded6a8297b025f7dd7d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d27a8238-3bce-4a2c-a3b8-a0db1c2892d9/retrieve","id":"-1725812656"},"keywords":["African animal trypanosomosis (AAT)","knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP)","propensity score matching (PSM)"],"sieverID":"62d8730a-5b5c-408f-b216-2309b8b771a7","pagecount":"21","content":"Ex-post evaluation of agricultural research is aimed to empirically provide evidence of past investments' effectiveness. This paper is intended to measure the immediate impact of livestock research activities on cattle farmers' knowledge about trypanosomosis and its curative and preventive control strategies. According to the quasi-experimental design of the intervention, it is shown that its impact will be adequately estimated by propensity score matching (PSM). Based on data collected according to a knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire in the region of Kénédougou that is common to Mali and Burkina Faso, results indicate a significant gain in farmers' know-how due to participation in livestock research activities. Changes in knowledge and practice translate into increases in cattle and farm productivity.In traditional livestock systems in tropical Africa, cattle provide besides meat and milk, transport, draft power and manure for crop production and hence, contribute to a nutritious and diverse diet. Moreover the value of cattle involves the benefit in savings and security (Steinfeld, 1988). African animal trypanosomosis (AAT), one of the most severe cattle diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, imposes a serious constraint on the livelihood of cattlekeeping households (Swallow, 1999;Budd, 1999, Affognon, 2007).Research by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has developed technologies for integrated disease control based on the principle of rational drug use (Grace, 2005). One example is ILRI's research on trypanocide resistance \"Improving the management of trypanocide resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa\", in the region of Kénédougou from June 2003 to May 2004. So far little is known about the impact of these technologies on improving farmers' knowledge and capacities to achieve a better level of disease control. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the effect of this livestock research project on farmers' knowledge and practices in relation to AAT diagnosis, as well as curative and preventive control strategies. As in many natural resource management projects, part of the project design involved delivery of the technology to farmers (Zilberman & Waibel, 2007). Concrete information about correct disease diagnosis and management practices was provided to cattle farmers by researchers, veterinary and para-veterinary services (Affognon, 2007). The central hypothesis of this study is that the research project triggered change in farmers' behaviour, which in turn enhanced their performance in managing the disease.Generally, in order to infer the impact of an intervention on individual outcome, it is necessary in project design to create a suitable comparison group among a large group of non-participants, which is identical to the participating group, except in the category of treatment assignment (Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2005;Raitzer & Kelly, 2008). Given that all farmers in the research villages got access to information, there arises a problem of selective placement. Voluntarily participating farmers might be for example more productive than those who did not attend the activities (Godtland et al, 2004). To overcome the problem of selection bias, this paper applies the propensity score matching (PSM) approach -\"the second best alternative to experimental design\" (Baker, 2000: 5). With this method a meaningful counterfactual can be formulated and causality of potential outcomes, i.e. the difference in knowledge test scores between the treatment group and the control group of the trypanocide resistance research project, can be established (Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2005). This outcome variable is grouped into four different categories to capture the effect of the research activities, on both the change in knowledge and practices:1) Knowledge about trypanosomosis itself, comprising signs, causes, possibility of animal re-infection after being cured and animals' susceptibility to the disease;2) Curative treatment knowledge and actual control actions in case of trypanosomosis occurrence, including the quality and quantity of trypanocides for treatment;3) Preventive treatment knowledge and actual preventive strategies applied, involving also cattle husbandry and medical management comprising trypanocide expiry date, storage and source of medicines.Finally, the total knowledge score sums all points from the three categories above.Following the procedure applied in integrated pest management for crops, knowledge categories are calculated in percentage of the maximum possible score (Godtland et al, 2004).In the following sections, procedures of sample selection and data collection are provided. Thereafter, the methodology of PSM including a sensitivity analysis is described and based on its implementation results are discussed. Finally, conclusions are drawn.In order to measure the impact of the research activity on farmers' knowledge, the project villages in the region of Kénédougou, common to south-eastern Mali and southwestern Burkina Faso, were revisited from October to December 2007. The household head, , who is responsible for livestock production and animal health management, was asked to take a specific knowledge test about trypanosomosis and its control. All cattle-owning households in the respective villages were selected for the survey. The test was originally developed in French. Trained interviewers conducted the survey in the respective local language, i.e.Bambara in Mali and Djoula in Burkina Faso, and in turn filled in the questionnaire in French. Questions were applied in open-ended manner, followed by option lists and the use of picture cards as visual support. In total, data from 508 cattle farmers were collected. To identify project participants, farmers were asked if they attended any research activities by ILRI.Matching on the probability of participation, given all observable treatmentindependent covariates X solves the problem of selection bias. The propensity score of vector X can be defined as:where Z denotes the participation indicator equalling one if the individual participates, and zero otherwise. Given that the propensity score is a balancing score, the probability of participation conditional on X will be balanced such that the distribution of observables X will be the same for both participants and non-participants. Consequently, the differences between the groups are reduced to only the attribute of treatment assignment, and unbiased impact estimates can be produced (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983). The counterfactual group can be identified if potential outcomes, i.e. knowledge test score, Y 1 (Y 0 ) of participants (nonparticipants) are independent of participation, conditional on observables X:(2)This conditional independence assumption indicates that the selection is exclusively based on the vector of observables X that determines the propensity score (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983;Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2005). Additionally, in order to ensure randomized selection the common support condition needs to be applied:1 .(It guarantees individuals with identical observable characteristics a positive probability of belonging both to the participation group and the control group (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983;Heckman et al, 1999). Simultaneous adoption of both assumptions (2) and (3) ensures that participation is strongly ignorable and implies that:As long as outcomes are independent of participation given observables, then they also do not depend on participation given propensity score. Therefore, the multidimensional matching problem is reduced to a one-dimensional problem. The distribution of potential outcomes will be balanced among participants and counterfactuals (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983;Heckman et al, 1997;1998).Building on theses underlying assumptions, unbiased impact estimates can be derived by the following three steps. Firstly, based on the definition of propensity score in equation ( 1), the probability of participation can be derived by binary response models. Following Todd (1995), who finds that various methods to predict propensity score produce similar impact estimates, for computational simplicity a logit model will be applied here. The propensity score can then be defined as: ,(5)where F(⋅) produces response probabilities strictly between zero and one.In accordance with chosen characteristics that capture relevant observable differences between participants and non-participants, Table 1 reports the results from the logit model, while the estimated coefficients are expressed in terms of odds of Z=1. Having tested different model specifications, the summary statistics show that the present model is statistically significant. The goodness of fit test achieves a Pearson Chi-square with a high probability value. Moreover, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve proves a fairly accurate classification performance. Hence, the chosen observables adequately explain the probability of participation. Examining single observables, it is shown that the dependency ratio of the household, cattle herd size, farming experience, perception of drug resistance and the country of origin in particular significantly influence the participation decision. Considering a marginal change in number of cattle, the probability of participation would increase by 0.4% (ceteris paribus). Farming experience yields an even higher marginal effect, because more experience in both crop and livestock production enhances the participation probability by about 14.7%. Likewise, the probability increases by 5.4% when farmers observe their cattle falling sick with AAT. When farmers perceive the treatment to be ineffective, which indicates resistance, the probability of participation is affected even more strongly. Finally, the participation probability is about 37% higher for individuals living in Mali than for Burkinabes. The resulting predicted probability of participation is plotted in Figure 1. While the propensity score is more or less equally distributed for participants, the distribution of nonparticipants is skewed to the right. In other words, there are more non-participants than participants with a probability of participation less than 50%. Therefore, the application of the common support condition (assumption 3) will be essential for impact estimations in the following. The parameter of interest here is the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) (Krasuaythong 2008). Applying the composite assumption (4) the true ATT, based on PSM, can be written as:where E P(X) represents the expectation with respect to the distribution of propensity score in the entire population. The true ATT indicates the mean difference in knowledge test scores between participants and non-participants, who are identical in observable characteristics and adequately weighted by a balanced probability of participation.An adequate match of a participant with his/her counterfactual is achieved, as long as they are identical in their observable characteristics. In order to obtain such matched pairs Caliendo and Kopeinig (2005) report that there are different matching methods, with tradeoffs in terms of bias and efficiency. Therefore, three different matching estimators are described in the following in order to associate the outcome of participating units to the outcome of their controls. In general, the matching estimator of the ATT is given by:where N 1 (N 0 ) is the total number of participants (non-participants), represents the outcome of participant k, is the average outcome of the matched counterfactual l to the participant k weighted by w kl (Heckman et al, 1998). To begin with the most straightforward method, nearest neighbour matching (NNM) involves selection of the non-participant with the propensity score closest to that of the respective participant. A nearest neighbour will be matched only once without replacement. This one-to-one matching will cause no concern as long as the distribution of propensity scores of the two groups is similar. However, if the nearest neighbour is far away, i.e. scores are substantially different, poor matches will be obtained. The average outcome of the matched control will be equally weighted ( 1).Hence, the impact estimator is the average difference in knowledge score between participants and controls (Smith & Todd, 2005). Secondly, radius matching (RM) involves allw neighbours within a maximum propensity score distance (caliper), a priori defined, and thus corresponds to the common support assumption. Additionally, poor matches through toodistant neighbours are avoided (Dehejia & Wahba, 2002;Smith & Todd, 2005). Thirdly, kernel-based matching (KM), a non-parametric matching estimator that includes all individuals of the underlying sample of non-participants and weights more distant observed characteristics among both groups down (Heckman et al, 1997;1998). Hence, kernel-based matching on all control units indicates a lower variance (Caliendo & Kopeinig, 2005). The kernel-based estimator of the ATT is therefore the mean difference in outcomes, while the matched outcome is given by a kernel-weighted average of outcomes of all non-participating units. The weight is based on the distance between participants' (k) and non-participants' (l)where kernel K(⋅) refers to a probability density function and bandwidth h controls the smoothness (Heckman et al, 1997). Here, the choice of kernel is not as important as the choice of the bandwidth. If the smoothing parameter chosen is too high, the underlying features of the distribution will be veiled, while a too-small bandwidth will increase the variance between the true and estimated density function (Silverman, 1986).Finally, in consideration of the quasi-experimental design of the trypanocide resistance study, it might be possible that unobservable factors like farmers' intrinsic motivation and specific abilities, as well as preferences, had affected the participation decision. This problem of hidden bias is circumvented by the following bounding approach.Within the logit model to estimate propensity score (equation 5), the probability of participation F(⋅) needs to be complemented by a vector U containing all unobservable variables and their effects on the probability of participation captured by γ:Rearranging the odds ratio of two individuals (m and n) who are identical in observable characteristics, the resulting relative odds of participation is given by:As long as there is no difference in U between the two individuals, or if the unobserved variables exerted no influence on the probability of participation, the relative odds ratio becomes one, and the selection process is random. Sensitivity analysis now examines how strong the influence of γ on the participation process needs to be, in order to attenuate the impact of participation on potential outcomes (Rosenbaum, 2002). For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the unobservable variable is a binary variable taking values zero or one (Aakvik, 2001). The following bounds on the odds ratio of the participation probability of both individuals are applied:Both individuals have the same probability of participation, provided that they are identical in X, only if . Consequently there will be no selection bias on unobservable covariates. If , one of the matched individuals may be twice as likely to participate as the other agent (Rosenbaum, 2002). If is close to one and changes the inference about the treatment effect, the impact of participation on potential outcomes is said to be sensitive to hidden bias. In contrast, insensitive treatment effects would be obtained if a large value of does not alter the inference about treatment effects (Aakvik, 2001). In this sense, can be interpreted as a measure of the degree of departure from a study that is free of unobservable selection bias (Rosenbaum, 2002). An appropriate control strategy for hidden bias is to examine the sensitivity of significance levels. Therefore, the question arises at which critical impact level of the unobservable variables the inference about the treatment effect on knowledge will be undermined, as indicated by the loss of significance (DiPrete & Gangl, 2004).In sum, unbiased impact estimates of a quasi-experimental study design can be obtained in three steps: (i) chose a binary response model with appropriate observable characteristics to predict the probability of participation; (ii) estimate the performance difference between treatment and control group according to selected matching methods that minimize the difference in observables of both groups; and (iii) analyse the effect of unobservable influences on the inference about impact estimates. Based on the implementation of these steps, the following results were obtained.Based on the predicted propensity score, an appropriate counterfactual group that is as similar as possible to the participating group is identified. Table 2 shows the impact estimators obtained from the three different matching algorithms. Ensuring that observations are ordered randomly and that there are no large disparities in the distribution of propensity score (Figure 1), one-to-one matching yields the highest and most significant average treatment effects on the treated in all four outcome categories. The nearest neighbour estimate of the average total knowledge gain due to participation is about 3.16%. Since this method produces relative poor matches due to the limitation of information, the attention should be focused on the other two matching algorithms. Here, the estimated impacts of participation in research activities on knowledge score are lower. Following the radius matching algorithm, considering only all neighbours within a caliper of 0.01, the difference in total knowledge scores in percentage of maximum score achieved, is about 2.73%. Moreover, the estimated treatment effect in the category of curative control knowledge and action even accounts for 3.9% at a significance level of 1%.Weighting the average outcome of the matched control with a biweight kernel function and a smoothing parameter of 0.06, as recommended by Silverman (1986), produces also the highest impact estimate due to participation in the category of curative know-how and actual executed control strategies. Similarly to the radius matching estimator in the total score category the kernel-based matching algorithm produces a significant average treatment effect on the treated of 2.78% at the 1% level.Consequently, it can be confirmed that livestock research activities generate a significant gain in farmers' knowledge on trypanosomosis and improve both curative and preventive strategies.In order to control for unobservable influences, Table 3 compares the sensitivity of treatment effects on different knowledge scores among the three introduced matching algorithms. Overall, robustness results produced by Rosenbaum's bounds are quite similar.Kernel-based matching produces the most robust treatment effect estimates with respect to hidden bias, especially for preventive knowledge and action, as well as for total knowledge.Matched pairs might differ by up to 100% ( =2) in unobservable characteristics, while the impact of participation on preventive treatment knowledge, as well as on total knowledge, would still be significant at a level of 5% (p-value = 0.023 and p-value = 0.0144, respectively). The same categories of knowledge score are robust to hidden bias up to an influence of =2 at a significance level of 10% following the radius matching approach.   (Rosenbaum, 2002).γ eHaving established that the ILRI research project had a significant effect on farmers' knowledge and practice, the same data were used to look at the impact of knowledge on cattle productivity. The cause-and-effect relationship between knowledge advancements and increase in productivity was investigated in two steps with the help of regression analysis 1 .First, the impact of knowledge on value added-defined as the difference between total recurrent output and the value of all purchased inputs from outside the farm-was assessed.Second, the impact of knowledge on trypanocide expenditures in relation to all other input expenditures was estimated. The results show that knowledge was significantly and positively associated with value added, i.e., keeping the input mix constant, knowledge triggered a direct increment in production. Furthermore, knowledge was significantly and negatively related to the ratio of input expenditures, reflecting that trypanocides are saved with respect to less expensive inputs (Liebenehm, 2008;Liebenehm, Affognon, and Waibel, 2009).Propensity score matching (PSM) allows measuring the short-term impact of a natural resource management project on farmers' knowledge and practice of trypanosomosis control.villages and farmers, PSM is effective to overcome the selection bias on observable characteristics of project participants and non-participants. PSM creates then reliable impact estimates, respectively treatment effects, when the predicted probability of participation given observable treatment-independent covariates is balanced among those who are identical in these observables. Hence, matched participants and non-participants can only be distinguished by their treatment attribute and unbiased performance differences can be obtained.Using three different matching algorithms significant and robust differences between matched participants and non-participants regarding cattle farmers' knowledge were identified. Hence, it can be concluded that the gain in farmers' knowledge is attributable directly to participation in the research intervention. The strongest effect of the research intervention is on the curative knowledge of ATT and subsequent adequate control decisions.Moreover, significant advancements in preventive strategies are also observable. Overall, the research project has been effective to increase farmers' knowledge and practices, and these changes contributed significantly to improved livestock and farm productivity.","tokenCount":"3195"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ca378d708231b19685105436d31f3c4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/606abc00-090e-4853-a259-c190ea5c7e1f/retrieve","id":"255309464"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e1298ef7-f0e8-4a68-91b4-6481444c9223","pagecount":"16","content":"Maíze production ís the maín souree oflívelihood forthe farmers ofthe western hills ofNepaL However, farmers have very límited access to improved varieties nf maize, suítable to theír local reqmr.ments. They cultivat. a number of maize varieties maintained locally tbrough continuous selection forpreferred !raíts. An Írutial survey oftne two project sites in the Gulmi distrlct of westem Nepal suggests that farmers apply a number of criteria to the soleelion of a partícular maize populalíon to suito their productíon environmenl and lO meet Iheir family requirements for difierent uses of maize. However, Ihe survey results show Ihal Ihe differences among farmers in the preference for and seleclion oi a particular maize varjety are no! very s!rong. Tlle repor! discusses the ways these differences have becn analyzed and íncorporated ínto Ihe design of participatory planl breeding for Ihe imprQvement oflocal maíze varieties by lbe farmers.Par.Raw Par.  Ra .. Par.   Opinions of women and men fanners were similar, with significant to highly significant correlations between their rankings for milled rice appearance, cooked rice appearance, texture, color, and taste (table 5). The on1y traite for which their agreement was weaker was stickiness ami, to lower  extent, odor. In terrns of overall acceptability, there was no difference in women and men farmers' opinions on the tested varieties nor in their final choices of the varieties they liked most and leasl.The ranks given by farmers for the various quality traits were compared with the ranks ofthe same varieties for the main chemical properties of raw rice measured in the laboratory: alkali value, volume expansion, amylase content, and eIongation ratio. Elongation ability was negatively correlated with stickiness r -0.55, significant at the 5% leve!) but that was the only significant case. In the samples tested, amylase conten! did not seem to have any link to farmers preferences for texture r = -0.14) or stiekiness r = 0.04).It is unexpected to see so few relationships between consumer preferences and measurable chemical properties, since these are standard parameters used by all chemistry laboratories. However, for the varieties inc1uded in the evaluation, the variability for sorne traits was limited and therefore consumers had difficulty assessing differences.There was little relationship between farmers' field ranking and grain quality for parboiled rice, as shown by the very low coefficients of correlation for rank and a negative one for the ranking based on yieJd (tabIe 6). The relationship was stronger and positive for raw rice. Thete was no particular reason why the rankings should be correlated, but a strong negative correlation would complicate the breeding work. These results confirm tha! participatory varietal selection should not stop afier harvest. Sinee a compromise might be necessary, at least for parboiled rice, the trade-offbetween eritena for agronomic performance and cooking quality applied by farmers has to be assessed.  Grain quality is an important selection criterion (Juliano and Villareal 1993), Sensory evaluation with farmers allows us to assess varietal preferences under conditions of food preparabon very close to that of the final consUmer. F or the set of varieties tested, men and women seemed to share the same opinions. The physico-chemical analysis <lid not indicate much power to predict the results of farmers' rankings, The methodology was satisfactory although quite costly in tenns of organizabon time. It is importan! to define whích of the two modes of preparation (raw rice or parboiling) is mos! prevalent in the target area, since they lead to different varietal cholees. A slmplification of the ranking system by reducing the number of ranked traits is possible,Maize is the firsl mos! important food crop in the hílls ofNepal in terms ofboth area and its eontribution to household food security. It occupies about 0.8 million hectares (about 35% ofthe total cultiva!ed area); 78% ofthis is in terraced hill fanning, which produces over 1.3 million lonnes per annurn (CBS 1999). The productivity of maize, however, is quite low (L 7 lonneslhectare) and, as a result, there lS high incidence offood-deficit households in the hills ofNepa!. One of the major contributing factors lo this low yield is the poor perfonnance of fanner-mamtained maíze varieties. Fanners' access to new seeds and varieties is extremely poor and, al the same time, a majority of farmers tend lO keep their own seed without replacing it for years. It ís estimated that nearly 90% of the total seed requirements for eereals and other food crops in the country is met by the traditional seed-supply system (Cromwell et al. 1993;Joshi 1995). Sinee maíze is an open-pollinated crop, even new varieties rapidly get contaminated with the undesired traits oflocal varieties. On the other hand, most of the new varieties developed so far neither fit well with local environments nor meet farmers' diverse needs. Therefore, it lS increasingly being realized that breeding must be carried out in the target envirournent with the full participation of farmers so that the users' perspective is well reflected in the new varieties developed. -The environments where maíze is produced in the hills ofNepal are very diverse in tenns oftopography, soil types, and use of production resources. There are also differences between fanners and fanning cornmunities in terrns of aecess to resources (Le., wealth) and food culture, whích is govemed largely by ethnicity. These dífferences exist no! only between wider agroecological zones bu! also between fanning famílies in the same víllage. F or these reasons, fanners require a large number of varietal options to fit into diverse production ni ches and to meet the varied consumption Various sources of ínformatíon have been used in lhe reporto These include focus-group discussions (FGDs) conducted during particípatory rural appraisals, particípatory gender analysis, and household baseline surveys undertaken at the Darwar Devísthan and Simichaur research sites at lhe inceptíon of the project. Separate FGD sessíons were held wilh different groups of furmers, categorized by gender, wealth, and ethnicity. Ihere were two categories under gender-male and female; three categories under wealth-rich, average, and poor; and three categories under ethnicíty-BrahminlChhetri/Jogi (BCJ), GurungIMagarlNewar (GMN), and KamiIDamai/Sarki (KDS). The categorízation of farming-household weallh was done by lhe farmers themselves, using their own perceptions and knowledge of wealth of lhese households. The ethnic categorization was done by researchers on the basis of sociocultural similarities.The participatory gender analysis involved lhe analysis of gender roles and decision-making pattems in lhe production and utilization system for maize. A sample of 30 selected households was facilítated in doing lheir own gender anaIysis by using a pictorial set of aman, woman, and child, and maize grains, to indicate their roles. Similarly, a detailed household baseline survey was conducted to colleet detailed and widely representative information, which al50 served as a major source of information for this reporto It involved a questionnaire survey of 100 households (40 at Darwar Devisthan and 60 at Simichaur) selected using a stratified random sampling technique.The perspective of users in maize production and utilization was analyzed u5ing two socioeconomic variables: ethnicity and the weallh categories derived from participatory wealth ranking. The analysis of gender perspectives, on lhe other hand, utilized inforrnation from male-and female-headed sample households lhat were included in lhe household baseline survey. Ofthe total sample households surveyed, 19% were female headed. These are mostly de jacto household heads, Le., women have taken charge of managing the farm while men work off-farm away from home for several months, mostly in India.The characteristics of the heads of maize-growing households are presented in table l. The family members who make major farming deeisions are mature, with an average age of 50 yeara. Their literaey rate is much higher (81 %) compared to the nationalliteracy rate (39.6%). However, a majority ofthem (47%) are either barely literate or have a primary-Ievel school education. The family member making tbe main farming decisions is younger and more iIIiterate in the average and poor wealth eategories, in tbe KDS and GMN ethnie households, and in female-headed households.The charaeteristics of the maize-growing households are presented in table 1. The maize-farming families are relatively larger than nonfarming families, with an average of seven members per faroily. The family size is, however, relatively smaller in the average and poor wea1th categories and in tbe KDS and GMN ethnic households than in other households. Thi, implies that the family labor availabJe to these households is less than in other households. Though farming is the major oceuparion for tbe households of tbe two research sites, fami Iy members of72% ofthe farming households are engaged in off-farm activiries to earn additional cash ¡ncome for the family. The percentage distribution oftbese households across wealth categories and male-and female-headed households is similar. The percentage ofhouseholds with farnily members engaged in off-farm acrivities, however, is slightly higher in the GMN and KDS households than in the BC] households.Maize is the main livelihood crop fo. tbe farmera of the research sites. The maize production in the area is subsistence-oriented and production is largely for self-consumption. The self-produced food, however, is not adequate to mee! household food requirements. About 86% of tbe farming household experiences food deficits from less than one to 1I months of the year, and the average length of food self-sufficiency ís only about seven months. The degree of food deficiency varies among the different household categories. The average time of food self-sufficiency is lower in average and poor households, in BCJ and KDS ethnic households, and in female-headed households.Only a small proportion ofthe households (10.4%) sell maize. The proportion ofhouseholds selling maize is similar across households of different ethnic eategories but is lower in the average and poor households and in male-headed households. A high proportion of the households (61 %) purchase maize to offset theÍf food-grain deficit. The differences in the proportion of households purchasing maize is highJy significant (p < .0001) across'wealth categories but no! significant across ethnic categories and across male-and female-headed households. There is virtually no market influence on farmera' choice ofmaize varieties.In general, farmera are smallholders witb an average maize-growing harí land holding ofO.4 hectare, scattered over an average number of 2.3 parcels (table 1). (Bari represents rainfed upland where amaize-based cropping system is dominant.) The average holding size and tbe number of parcels of barí land decrease with the wealth ofthe farming household. The differences in barí land holdings are highJy significant across wealth categories (p < .0001). Simílarly, the variation in number of parcels of barí land per household is also significant (p < .05) across wealth categories. These differences in harí land holdings and the number of harí parcels per household are not statistically significant across either ethnic categories or male-and female-headed households.  Livestock fonns an important and integral part of the fanning system and, among other things, provides a major source of nutrients (Le., manure) for plants. Buffalo, cattle, goats, and chickens are the main kínds oflivestock in the area, wíth an average lívestock unít of2.8 per household. The average livestock unít ís highest among households in the rich and BeJ categories and lowest in poor and KDS households. This difference is significant across wealth (p < .0001) and ethnic (p < .01) categories. Simílarly, the female•headed households have lower livestock units per household than the male-headed households, but this dífference is not statistícaI1y significant. The resource analysis thus indícates that BeJ households have the most resources, followed by GMN households, while KDS households have the fewest resources. Similarly, female-headed households have comparatívely fewer resources than rnale-headed households.The access farmers have to improved maize varieties suitable to local environments and their own needs ís quite límited (table 1). Only 13% ofthe fanners reported growing improved varieties of maize; however, they know the value of changing theír old seeds. Ahout 39% ofthe households reported exchanging their seeds during last five years with other fanners. The users' and gender analysis showed that access to new maíze seeds is similar across al! wealth categories. However, GMN and KDS households have a complete lack of access to new maíze seeds, and a lower proportion of rnale-headed households reported cultívating improved varieties than díd female-headed households. The proportíon of households changing seeds over the last five years, however, ís greater in the poor wealth category, suggesting that farmers in t1ús category change seed more frequently than do the others. Since these households are also híghly food deficit, they may be consuming the seed and, therefore, bOITowing seeds from other farmers. The proportion ofhouseholds changing maize seeds ¡s, however, similar across ethnic categories and between male and female-headed households.Símilarly, fanners' access to teclurical services and inforrnation on technology is also poor. On1y about 3% of the maize-growing households reported participating in agriculture-related training, and on1y 6% participated in educational tours. Likewise, about 15% of the households reported receiving infonnation on improved technology for rnaize production. This reveals that externa! technica! support to farrners in their attempts to develop better maize varieties is quite limited. The proportion ofhouseholds particípatíng in agricultura! training and tours is lower in the average and poor households than in rich households. A chi-square analysis shows significant dífferences (p < .05) in access to infonnation on ímproved technology for maize production across wealth categories. Similarly, on1y BeJ households reported having participated in agricultural training and tours or receiving ínfonnation on improved maize production. The proportíon of ferna!e-headed households particípating in agricultural training and tours and receiving infonnation on improved maize production is lower than male-headed households.Farmers have been found to grow about eight dífferent types ofmaize varieties, which they broadly categorize into two maize types: one is a large type (Thulo makai) with taU plants, big cobs, large grains and long rnaturity, while the other is a srnall type (Sano makai) with short plants, small cobs and grains, and short maturity. A majority ofthe farmers grow large-type maize, and it covers about 87.7% of lhe total maíze area. Among the large varieties, Thulo pyanlo alone covers about 80% of the area planted to this type, which reflects that, although farmers grow a large numberofvarieties, a large portion ofthe maize-growing area is covered by a relatively small number ofvarietíes.A majority ofthe households grow one to two varieties ofmaize (46.5% to 45.5%, respectively) in a season (table 2). Onlyabout 8% ofthe total maize-growing households grow more than tbree varieties per season. The varietal diversity maintained at household level, therefore, is low (figure 1). The ANOVA result shows that the difference in the number of maize varieties grown at household level is significant (p < .05) across wealth categories but not significant across ethnic categories and between male-and female-headed households. A higher proportion of poor households grows one variety of rnaize, compared to rich and average households. This is contrary to !he currently held view that small farmers maintain significant amounts of crop genetic diversity (Jarvis et al. 1997) and agrees with the fmdings of other studies (Rana and Kadayat 1999). Similarly, though no! significant, a very high proportion ofKDS households (90%) grows only one variety of maize.' \" 100% 'tl 90%\"O 80%.c: ., 70%' \" Farmers who grow more tban one variety mentioned various reasons fur this (table2): to prepare different food items, to harvest at different times, to suit dífferent land types, to use as animal feed, and to meet fodder requirements. However, a majority ofthe farmers (67.9%) grow to suit dífferent types of land, and this is true across all wealfu and ethnic categories and between male-and fernale-headed households. Ihe ANOVA result suggests that fue number ofmaíze varieties grown at household leve! is not signifieantly related to the size of the hari land but is highly signifieantly related to the number ofparcels of bari land the farmer is planting to maize (p < .0001). This indicates tbat with the increase in the number of parcels of bari land, the number of maize varieties grown at household level also increases. This also confirms ¡he PRA finding that farmers in the area grow large-type maize on more fertile land while small-type maize is grown on less fertile soil. The number of bari pareels, therefore, appears to be the strongest determining factor in deciding the number of maíze varieties to be grown per season. It is, however, true tbat farmers use multiple eriteria to select maize varieties for their household production.The gender differences in the use of sorne eriteria to choose maize varieties are striking. A large proportion of fernale-headed households (more than tbree times !he number of male-headed households) mentioned growing more than one variety to meet fodder requirernents for their livestock.Ihis is also confirmed by the PRA findíngs. During the focus-group díscussions, women farmers 5.0 3,1 7,0 0.9 13,3Note; Elhnicity is represented as BCi = BrahminlChhelrilJogi; GMN = Gurung/MagarlNewar; KDS = KamiIDam.i!Sarki.strongly expressed their preference for tall varieties ofmaize Iike their local varieties because taller varielies produce more fodder than short varíeties. Women appear 10 be more concemed with this issue because managing livestock fodder is largely theír responsibility. Similarly, women fanners are very particular aboul Ihe suitability of maize varieties for inlercropping, especíally wíth legumes (cowpeas and beans), because these help them meel the vegetable and pulse requirements of their families. The latter sometimes leads to conflicts with their male counterparts because intercropping with cowpeas and beans makes maize plants vulnerable to lodging and can cause big 105ses in the maize yield.Maize is the staple food for fanning households in the study area. Different preparations of maize are made for household consumption, ofwhich steamed grit (makai ka bhat) i5 the mos! common preparation, reported by 77% oftotal production (table 2). Farmers, therefore, prefer maize varíeties thal have high grit recovery. They perceive that ye!low (colored) maize has higher grit recovery and, therefore, prefer colored varieties over the white ones. The food preparation ofmaize is similar across households of different wealth, elhnic, and gender categories, and a majority ofhouseholds use it in grit formo Users' and genderdifferences in the choice ofvariety, Iherefore, do not appear lo be influenced by differences in the use of maize.The analysis díscussed aboye indicates that fanners' choíces for maíze varíeties are not greatly influenced by theír differences in weallh, ethnicity, and gender, Le., different categories of fanners have preferences for similar types of maize varietíes. F anners across all wealth, ethnic, and gender categories grow only one or two maize varieties per household and, therefore, their varíetal needs are not very diverse. However, farmers use multíple criteria ín selectíng the varietíes they grow.They prefer to have as many traits oftheír preference as possíble ín one lo two maize varietíes. InIhis way, they are able to maintaín and manage the variety of their-preference fora long•duration. Since maize ís an open-pollinated crop, a large number of varieties is difficult lo maintain and manage. Thi5 analysis ís also confirmed by the findings of the PRA conducted al the project research siles. The participatory breeding program, therefore, should focus on developing fewer maize varíelies with multíple traits lhat reflect fanners' preferences. Priority should be given lo the maize varieties Ihat have higher grit recovery, grow welI under different land conditions, produce high biomass for use as fodder, and alIow good intercropping with legumes.The informalÍon on gender roles in maize production and utilization is based on a participatory gender analysis done with 30 maize-growing households selected for lhat purpose. The results show that there are distinct gender roles for men, women, and children in the production and utilizalÍon of maize in lhe hilIs ofNepaL Women supersede men in their involvement in all three major functions ofmaize production and utilization: namely, (1) production, (2) household utilization and marketing, and (3) seed managemen! (table 3). Their involvement is particularly high in the application of compost and farmyard manure lo the maize fie1d; seed processing, treatment, storage, and preparation for sowing in the next season; and intercroppíng of maize with beans, cowpeas, pumpkins, and other crops.The results ofthe gender analysis show lhat women are also the prime decision makers in the family and lheir contribution to decision making in actívities related to maize production and utilization is higher than that their male counterparts in the fumily (table 4). Their contribution to decisions is particularly high in the selection of crops fOT intercropping with maize, deciding on date and time of weeding and earthing-up in the maize fields, and in most ofthe activities relaled lo utilizatíon and marketing and seed management The gender analysis thus suggests that women have important roles and a stake in the varietal-improvement programs designed to develop farmers' preferred varieties. Their particípation in the whole process of variety development should be ensured and properly utilized.Particípatoryplant breeding seeks to use the knowledge and experiences farmers have accwnulated over generations. It al so creates an environment for mutual learning and sharing, which closes the knowledge gap and sets the stage for a working partnership between the farmers and researchers.  Quantity 01 grilslflour lo be milled al a limeWhen lo carry maíze grains lo the mili (tor milling)Food ítems lo be cooked daily 5. Whelher lo sale maize or nol 6. Facilitating and supporting farmers in their plant-hreeding activities then becomes easy and smooth. Based on this understanding, farmers' breeding knowledge was assessed by surveying a sample of 113 households selected randomly. An analysis of the influence of gender, wealth, and ethnicity on the distribution of such knowledge was also done and ís presented in table 5.Ibe majority ofthe households (more than 90%) separate seed and graín in advance, but the seed selection is almost entírely done from the cobs, and generally righ! after the barvest Farmers virtually do no! practice seed selection on standing crops. Ibe majority of the households select big, good-Iooking cobs with big, bold grains for seed. Similarly, almos! all farmers follow tbe practice of discarding grains on the tips ofthe cob when the cobs are shelled for seed. Only about a quarter of the farmers are knowledgeable about the role ofseed replacement in maintaining varietal purity and vigor. Farmers' knowledge on the more technical side ofbreeding, such as identification ofmale","tokenCount":"3634"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4658d155c84cc0dbf983c3b965831c5b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5532991c-dbb6-483d-a12f-3213d4c423dd/retrieve","id":"-1874383828"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c115f7cb-5868-43ea-bc41-23960477bf55","pagecount":"6","content":"Maize and beans are a vital component of human diets and culture in Central America. More than a million smallholder families grow these crops for subsistence, producing 70% of the maize and 100% of the beans consumed locally. Average yields are low, however -1.5 t/ha for maize and 0.7 t/ha for beans -on the approximately 2.5 million hectares of land sown to these crops (40% of the total area harvested) in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In the years to come, a harsher climate together with soil degradation 1 , widespread poverty, and rural people's limited access to services and infrastructure will pose challenging obstacles to production. By 2025, these pressures could result in total annual losses of maize and bean production in the four countries of around 350,000 t -with a gross production value of around US$120 million. To ward off this threat to the food security of some 100,000 households, effective adaptation strategies must be developed in collaboration with stakeholders in the maize and bean value chains. These strategies require strong public support and must draw on both scientific and community knowledge.• Developing comprehensive adaptation strategies requires the use of global climate models downscaled to local resolution and complemented with long-term yield and economic data. • Long-term climate change and variability will significantly impact maize and bean production in Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, while less dramatic effects are expected in Guatemala. • In general, maize yields will be more affected than beans, but the latter will face yield reduction sooner. A recent study conducted by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) analyzed the impact of future climate conditions on maize and bean production in four Central American countries. The study aimed to guide decision makers at the local, national, and regional levels, as they define appropriate actions for particular locations and create an adequate policy framework for successful adaptation strategies in the rural sector. This study considered predicted long-term changes in climate conditions and did not include year-to-year climate variability. This policy brief summarizes the study's main findings.Central America experiences a long dry season (up to 6 months) followed by a bimodal rainy season. In the future, the region's maize and bean farmers will have to cope with a far less favorable climate for agriculture. High temperatures (especially nighttime temperatures above 18 °C) and drought will substantially affect the biomass production and reproductive stages of maize and beans.Maize is highly sensitive to low soil fertility and water scarcity. Across Central America, soil degradation is reducing the capacity of soil to retain water and nutrients. In the face of more severe water stress in the future, improved soil management will be critical for enhancing crop resilience and minimizing yield reductions.In Honduras and El Salvador, maize yields in all current production areas are expected to decline by 2025. In Honduras, the predicted production losses could amount to about 120,000 t annually, valued at about US$40 million. In El Salvador, the annual losses could reach 136,000 t, with a value of nearly $45 million. For Nicaragua, the figures are 34,000 t and close to $10 million in losses (Figure 1). Guatemala, on the contrary, can expect only small changes in average production, because climate change impacts will be softened by highland areas becoming more suitable for maize-bean production, particularly in Western Guatemala. However, maize yields will vary greatly across the study area, as indicated in Table 1, underlining the importance of enhancing soil management to reduce climate change impacts.Beans are very sensitive to drought stresses and high temperatures, especially high night temperatures, which reduce flowering and thus production.Under the predicted future climate scenarios, bean production in Central America could be reduced by more than 20%, with Nicaragua and Honduras, the main bean-producing countries, showing overall yield losses of 14% and 15%, respectively. El Salvador will suffer a reduction of 7%, while Guatemala might even increase its overall production because of the particular situation of highlands.Losses in the gross production value of beans for all four countries are estimated at around US$20 million per year. In Nicaragua, annual bean production losses could amount to about 9,000 t by 2020, with an estimated value of $7 million. The figures are somewhat lower for Honduras and El Salvadorat 6,500 t and 5,200 t, respectively -with a total value of $6.2 million. Guatemala will see almost insignificant annual losses of 736 t, worth $526,000.As in the case of maize, bean yields will vary within each of the study countries, as indicated in Table 2.Climate change effects will translate into significant losses for the smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on maize and bean cultivation. With rural poverty already at high levels -more than 30% of the population in Nicaragua and Honduras, 25% in Guatemala, and 20% in El Salvador 2 -declining income from these crops will significantly affect rural people.The study included a vulnerability analysis conducted in selected areas of El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Its results confirmed the considerable impact of lower maize and bean yields at the household level, especially in terms of access to food and the stability of food supplies. Rural households will have an especially hard time coping with climate change where infrastructure (equipment and roads) is inadequate, access to natural resources (water and land) is limited, financial resources are scarce, and social capital is very weak. Such is the case in El Salvador, where household vulnerability is highest, followed by Honduras and Nicaragua.Study results suggest that low adaptive capacity is shaped by the interplay between various factors. In the areas studied, maize and bean production was among the main household activities, and these crops were found to be the main sources of energy, together with meat products (especially in El Salvador).The analysis also shows that maize and beans are an important income source in the four countries.   Diversification: Another farm-level adaptation strategy involves the diversification of agriculture to multiply food and income sources. Integrated aqua-agro-silvo-pastoral systems can produce a wide range of products for local consumption and the market.Better integration of crops and animals enhances nutrient cycling, resulting in higher crop yields, better soil and water quality, increased biodiversity together with lower greenhouse gas emissions and increased carbon sequestration.Trees and shrubs offer sources of bio-energy, fruits, nuts, horticultural nursery stock, wood fiber, and livestock shelter. Agroforestry systems also provide a means to restore degraded lands, incorporate livestock, and improve microclimates.In agriculture, the word \"expansion\" is synonymous with the occupation of land for agricultural purposes. In the study, we do not use this term to refer to the expanding agricultural frontier, which often leads to widespread deforestation,   These are areas where maize and bean systems can be adapted. They require wellcoordinated strategies for adapting farms and landscapes with multi-stakeholder cooperation.El Salvador: High potential for adaptation strategies in most areas.The major bean-producing departments of the southeast (Jutiapa, Chiquimula, Santa Rosa, and Jalapa), and North (except Petén, which is mainly for Apante production).Honduras: Areas east and west of the dry corridor and in the departments of Copán and Lempira.Nicaragua: Areas along the dry corridor between Madriz and Masaya (departments of Carazo, Diriamba, La Conquista, Granada, Diriomo, Diria, Rivas, Belén, and Potosí).These are areas where adaptation measures are not likely to work because of climatic changes along with low land suitability for maize and bean production. In these regions, yield reductions are expected to be very high, and action must be taken now to reduce the vulnerability of rural families. They will need to transition out of current production systemse.g., from maize-based to sorghum-based systems, livestock, or agroforestry.El Salvador: Cuscatlán, La Unión, San Miguel, and Santa Ana.Guatemala: Baja Verapaz, El Progreso, Zacapa.Honduras: Alauca, Choluteca, El Paraíso, Liure, Morolica, Soledad, Yorito, and Yoro.Nicaragua: Madriz, Masaya, Matagalpa.Some areas are likely to become more suitable for maize and bean cultivation, possibly putting wetlands, forests, or protected areas at risk of uncontrolled agricultural expansion.Judging from past and recent experience in the region, these areas may be lost over the next decade, as a result of climate change impacts and factors such as population increase and land tenure problems.Pressure areas are concentrated in the Atlantic region, close to the El Salvador border, and at higher altitudes in Guatemala.4. In this case, impact refers to the effects of climate change on crop production; adaptive capacity refers to household's ability to manage climate change impacts and is strongly linked with the availability of different types of capital; vulnerability is a combination of impact and adaptive capacity and reflects the extent to which a household is likely to experience harm due to the exposure to external factors (climate change).Tortillas on the Roaster: Central America's Maize-Bean Systems and the Changing Climate","tokenCount":"1453"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"092a01026e332c135dba9d8e5483141f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91754485-b0a3-4e9c-866e-9ff350f1af54/retrieve","id":"-1231503078"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"712da781-ebd7-481d-85a1-0c7b659d81b6","pagecount":"2","content":"P771 -Shaping equitable climate change policies for resilient food systems across Central America and the Caribbean Description: The Salvadorian agricultural sectorial plan 2019-2014 elaborated with the support from CCAFS integrates strategic axes on climate change and gender.Outcome Impact Case Report:• 3188 -CCAFS science backs-up a US$45million IADB loan for the Government of El Salvador to implement the National Policy of Agriculture and increase climate resilience (https://tinyurl.com/28u3gu25)• 3816 -Since 2017, the countries of the Central American Integration System experienced +250 transformations in their political, institutional and financial frameworks toward scaling Climate Smart Agriculture. (https://tinyurl.com/ybdm4x66)• I1692 -Participatory building and analysis of multiple set of scenarios (https://tinyurl.com/2f823oh9)• Country level recommendations for policy alternatives are being developed that identify robust climate smart strategies, while taking priority setting and trade off analyses into account• Country level recommendations feed into a total of 13 national and state level policy processes in selected countries to inform climate smart food and nutrition security policies• 35 -Enabled environment for climate resilience • 41 -Conducive agricultural policy environment • 42 -Conducive environment for managing shocks and vulnerability, as evidenced in rapid response mechanisms","tokenCount":"183"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/9115384261.json b/data/part_2/9115384261.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..31bbe6c44435af833201d0786f4a8450273ea08e
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ca51c77f17c4430ee4656bffc489f4c3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/83dac5d3-48d9-4d80-8045-0f8b3bded92d/retrieve","id":"-784952807"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e6c42c43-623f-42c9-9628-8cd9ef2f93cd","pagecount":"2","content":"Agroecology is a widely supported solution for transforming agriculture and addressing the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. It helps smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and achieve food security while following principles like maintaining healthy ecosystems, boosting biodiversity, and promoting social inclusivity. Agroecology focuses on natural processes to improve resource efficiency, resilience, and social equity, offering both adaptation and mitigation benefits for climate change. It also explores institutional innovations to transform food systems towards sustainability. Practices such as agroforestry, conservation agriculture, and soil maintenance contribute to food security, livelihoods, and ecosystem services. The effectiveness of agroecological practices depends on local contexts and requires collaboration with farmers and stakeholders to find suitable solutions.Collaborative plat forms in agroecology, involving farmers, researchers, policymakers, and others, aim to promote sustainable agricultural practices. Citizen science initiatives actively engage citizens, including farmers, in research, improving data collection and fostering collaboration bet ween non-scientists and researchers. Digital advisory systems use technology to provide real-time guidance, considering various factors like soil t ype, weather, and market trends, enhancing collective intelligence for climate resilience in agriculture.Connecting producers and consumers in an enabling business environment, aligning with agroecological principles. This involves creating business models that make agroecology and other sustainable approaches more accessible and establishing markets for their products.Transforming policies and institutions to support agroecology and sustainable farming. This includes compensating farmers for initial yield reductions during the transition, introducing procurement policies for sustainable foods, regulating market s, and implementing institutional measures.Prioritise the needs and interests of smallholder producers { Enhance investments for implementation of agroecological approaches through repurposing existing agricultural subsidies and through funding from international financial institutions.{ Strengthen existing knowledge networks and cocreate new networks for sharing agroecological and regenerative agricultural innovations at all scales, and for developing indicators and metrics for tracking progress and success in implementation.{ Develop conditions for enhancing market linkages by bringing together private sector actors and research and knowledge organisations to exchange best practices that are known to have been successful in supporting the development of local and regional markets, promoting fair trade practices, creating consumer awareness about the benefits of agroecological products, and harmonising standards.{ Strengthen the policy and institutional frameworks needed for the uptake of agroecological approaches through policy dialogues and documentation of policy and regulatory best practicesIn low-income countries, a lack of knowledge and awareness about integrated farming practices often hinders the adoption of agroecological methods among farmers and policymakers, primarily due to inadequate agricultural extension services, cultural barriers, and limited information.Access to resources Accessing these-resources organic inputs and technical expertise -especially in resource-limited countries, can be challenging for farmers due to constraints like limited credit, market access, and infrastructure.Funding for agroecological research is often limited compared with conventional agricultural research.Market demand and infrastructure Many conventional market s and supply chains are designed for large-scale, s tandardised production and may not readily accommodate diverse, smaller scale agroecological sys tems.The initial costs and financial uncertainties related to transitioning to agroecology can dissuade farmers, especially those with limited resources.Policies often offer support and subsidies to industrial agriculture, making it challenging for agroecology to compete.","tokenCount":"514"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/9129535706.json b/data/part_2/9129535706.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0b9dc406449955c8dac70e73392cc5e4ef18be62
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d99e79575e964ae632b53c792ece7243","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ad25529e-126d-4a84-877a-33b75c733df5/retrieve","id":"-1636899872"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"68f1749c-07cb-4d44-85dc-1c0ed427b463","pagecount":"7","content":"Participatory Seed Exchange (PSE) is a low cost, simple and effective community-basedNiranjan Pudasaini Bharat Bhandari, Rita Gurung, Pitambar Shrestha and Devendra Gauchan mechanism for improving farmers' access to locally adapted seeds and planting materials which promotes farmer led on-farm conservation and utilization of the agrobiodiversity by exchanging available Agricultural Plant Genetic Resource (APGR) within the community (Shrestha et al 2013, Gautam et al 2017, Sthapit et al 2019). In Nepal, PSE was first piloted by the Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) in 2008 (Shrestha et al 2013). PSE is being utilized as a multi-propose tool to identify, exchange and document available APGR along with associated traditional knowledge by mobilizing local community and their networks. Though PSE is a one-day event, it takes an approximately a month-long time period to plan, prepare and practice.Traditionally, informal seed exchange between farmers, neighbor and relatives is a common practice at local level. Whereas, PSE is just a well-organized collective action which widens the exchange boundaries at local level and manage the process in a systematic manner. There is no specific criteria to identify the need of PSE to be practiced but in general; community which are rich in local agro biodiversity and those that greatly rely on local planting materials, geographically diverse and fragmented, have limited opportunities to access and exchange planting material and are willing to conserve and utilize local varieties are some of the ideal conditions to organize an effective PSE. Organizing small scale PSE events targeting different planting season is more effective to achieve its goal. It is found to be more effective on exchanging vegetable seeds and identified rare and unique local crops and varieties. Besides, demonstrating, exchanging and documenting local APGR, it can contribute other cross cutting issues as well. Organizing PSE can motivate farmers to practice similar type of collective actions. Participation and involvement of women farmers, valuing local custodian farmers and their knowledge motivate them to conserve and utilize local crops and landrace. Sensitization of local people and concerned agencies is another crosscutting benefit of PSE which helps to enable a favorable working environment towards valuing local APGR and farmers contribution to conserve them. PSE generated data and information can be further used to plan community-based conservation and promotional activitiesTo increase access and exchange of locally available seed and planting materials To identify and document rare and unique crop landraces with associated knowledge To make farmers aware to share, value and utilize available plant genetic resources and associated knowledge To develop culture of collective actions and expand farmers networkCommunity based organizations, research and development agencies, local government and others. can organize PSE but technical facilitation and guidance from professional and experienced people are vital. Before organizing PSE, organizers should have clear idea why are going to organize PSE in order to justify its relevancy which can helps to gather common understanding and ownership towards the event. Community participation is very crucial on each step which helps to utilize maximum level of local resources in order to make it more cost effective as well as impactful. There are three major steps consisting of preparation, implementation and post event that are followed sequentially to organize an effective PSE as shown in Figure 1. PSE can be complemented with local cultural dance, folk songs and dramas to flow positive massages as well as to make the event more entertaining. Awarding most diversity bringing and highest seed donor team etc. can motivate participants to engage in similar future events.Planning Meeting: Since its a participatory activity, communitys agreement and need realization on organizing PSE is crucial. Preparatory meetings should be organized for community need realization and to develop a common agreement on work plans to practice PSE. The scale of the PSE (individual household level/farmers group level/ community level/seed bank level) needs to be defined which guides further preparation of required logistics. Organizing big scale event with large number of participants might be inconvenient to handle and manage particularly to track down exchange and sharing as well as documentation. PSE should be medium level event so that organizer can monitor and document each and every core step, 10-12 distinct participating groups is ideal. PSE participants should be inclusive i.e. gender wise, ethnicity wise, geography wise etc. Each participants/groups/ethnicity can have their own unique way of utilization and management practice for similar variety so diversity on participation is crucial.Event Preparation: Event date, venue and management team should be identified beforehand, and participating farmers/groups should be oriented about the process and importance of the PSE. Since it is a participatory community-based activity, no legal or prior consent from legal authorities has to be taken but informing concerned agencies at local level and their participation will definitely add value in the process.PSE is primarily an event to display and share available APGR among the community member/participants in a systematic way. Stationeries for meeting minute, crop inventory, participants registration, seed labels, demand and supply record book are primary resources to track and document the PSE. Besides that; display stalls, tables, chair, seed vessels/bags as well as other minor resources to conduct an exhibition like event is needed. Considering economic aspect, PSE is not much expensive activity as it mostly utilizes locally made materials. Volunteers for facilitation and logistic arrangement from farmers side are key strength of PSE but financial resource is needed to fulfill some mandatory necessities like refreshment, award cost, stationaries and transportation. For the event, PSE should be organized in such a place where locals can easily attend and accommodate.Registration and Display: Participating groups/farmers need to register their seed/propagative materials they brought into an inventory, labeled and put it on to display stall. Identification Good Practices for Agrobiodiversity Management of source farmer is crucial from which interested farmers can get seeds event after the PSE event.Diversity Observation and knowledge sharing: Farmers along with the other participants need to walk from stall to stall to observe seeds from display stall and take note what they would like to share. Participants from each stall/group/individual has to describe the varieties they have and share information on cropping practice, unique traits, use value and other properties of the varieties and crops.Demand Collection: Depending up on farmers/visitors interest, seed demand can vary. Demand collection format should be developed to track number of seed demand and its quantity. Each group should maintain these data by discussing with farmers while visiting stalls.Seed Exchange: Based on the demand collected, the available seed materials have to be portioned and shared among interested in free of cost. If seed might not meet the demands, source farmer should be identified and referred with contact detail.Evaluation: Each stall has to be evaluated by considering the criteria of seed diversity, seed quality and quantity and quality of knowledge sharing has to be used to declare the best stall of the event and should be awarded.Data and information collected from PSE has to be maintained in excel sheet for future use. Perception of participating people needs to be documented to understand the effectiveness, use and success of the event.Increase the access of seeds and planting materials and also helps to identify source farmers of particular crops Unique and rare varieties can be explored and shared among participants that help conserve such crop varieties Traditional knowledge associated with local crops and varieties will be shared and documented Helps in revival of lost diversity if conducted after disasters (e.g. earthquake event) Highest diversity conserving nodal and custodian type of farmers particularly women can be identified Creates opportunity to discuss and exchange PGR and knowledge at local level, helps to sensitize local people to realize the importance and use value of available agro diversity.PSE is more efficient on exchanging small sized vegetable and other crop seeds comparing to bigger sized cereals and other crops Sharing large amount free of cost can lead economic loss to poor farmers. Requires good preparation with good rapport building with local communitiesGood Practices for Agrobiodiversity Management Over 98.95% of the seed exchange transactions were for varieties not in the official national notified list of varieties, which demonstrates the valuable complementary role PSE that can play to strengthen informal seed sector (Gautam et al 2017). Smallholder farmers and women were the key beneficiaries of the PSE (Gauchan et al 2018) PSEs were organized in those earthquake hit VDCs, where most of the farmers lost their seed storage due to earthquake. In each VDC, 9 participating groups representing their respective ward participated in the event. In total, 485 farmers brought 2,058 samples of seeds to share and 503 farmers took 1,249 samples of seeds from the exchanges where legumes, vegetables and cereals were most prominent in the exchange (Table 1 and Figure 2).","tokenCount":"1446"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ada584768f7dce8414700bee8b2d637b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e73bd8db-3b33-4804-90b9-edb3686648ce/retrieve","id":"-1364991511"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"882ef4a1-bc53-4a5a-8505-9a500a402b8f","pagecount":"10","content":"Background Objectives Questions to be addressed Study design Exploration & description Findings, implications and lessons learned Study questions Further reading AcknowledgementsRural area poultry accounts for more than 60% of the total national poultry population in most African countries (Sonaiya et al. 1990). Village or indigenous chickens are more widely distributed in rural Africa than other livestock species (Sonaiya et al. 1990). In Swaziland, about 92.5% of the rural households keep poultry and 70% of these households keep indigenous chickens.The number of indigenous chickens in Swaziland is about 1.8 million which accounts for about 14% of the total poultry population. These village chickens, other than being a cheap source of protein to the rural resource poor, also serve as a source of income. However, they tend to have low growth rate and to suffer high mortality from disease (Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) 2006)The high prevalence of diseases in poultry has led to the introduction of a wide range of antibiotics. However, sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in poultry feeds has become undesirable due to possible residuals effects in animal products leading to antibiotic resistance in humans. An alternative to the use of antibiotics is the use of probiotics which have been shown to improve performance in terms of weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and reduced mortality (Lange 2007). Spent yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is one of the probiotics being mostly researched. Probiotics are live microbial feed supplements that beneficially affect the host animal by improving its intestinal balance, leading to resistance to disease and lower mortality rates, especially during the first week of life (Gibson and Fuller 2000).The objective of the study described here was to determine if spent yeast improves weight gain and feed conversion efficiency and reduces mortality of village chickens raised under the rural setting of Swaziland.The specific questions the case study aims to address are: Does spent yeast increase weight gain and feed efficiency and, if so, is there a relationship between increased performance and level of spent yeast? Does spent yeast reduce mortality and, if so, is there a relationship between decreased mortality and level of spent yeast?As will be discovered, there are problems in the way that the study has been designed in order to enable the above questions to be addressed satisfactorily. We shall discuss: why the design is unsuitable for statistical analysis; how we can redesign the experiment to allow statistical analysis to be undertaken; how we can take into account particular features of the housing that might allow reduction of residual random variation.Two hundred day-old village chicks were randomly allocated using random tables into four 'brooding surrounds' which had been prepared for the experiment in the poultry house. Each surround was randomly assigned one of four diets.Surrounds were made of mesonite board. Dry hay straw was used as litter material for the first two weeks and sawdust thereafter. Litter was spread to a depth of 5 cm.Clean drinkers and feed trays were evenly distributed as shown in each of the surrounds.The initial brooding temperature in the house was set to 32 o C, then reduced to 29 o C in week 1, to 26 o C in week 2 and then kept at 25 o C from week 3 until the end of the experiment in week 8. After brooding, which lasted four weeks, chicks were spread out in four 2.24 m 2 compartments in the poultry house so that there were 10 birds per m 2 .Chicks were fed starter crumbles for the first three weeks, then changed to mixed fowl feed in weeks 4 and 5. From week 6 to week 8 chickens were let out to forage on Kikuyu grass (Penisetum clandestinum) while supplemented with mixed fowl feed. All chickens were fed ad libitum using feeding troughs throughout the eight weeks of the experiment. Feeders were topped up to three quarters full at 0600 hours daily.The experimental diets included a control (Diet 1) in which no spent yeast was added. The other experimental diets constituted different rates of spent yeast. These were 0.05 g/kg (Diet 2), 0.10 g/kg (Diet 3) and 0.15 g/kg (Diet 4).Day old chicks were weighed in batches of 10 for the first three weeks and the mean value assigned individually to each chick in a batch. After the third week it was possible to weigh chickens individually. Chicks were individually tagged on a leg at the start of the experiment. Each day the feed left over from the day before was measured and the daily amounts added together to allow weekly feed intake to be calculated. Deaths were recorded daily.Mean weekly weights and feed conversion efficiencies (calculated as weight gained over the previous week divided by the feed consumed) were plotted for each diet against age of chicken in weeks.The line graph depicts the performance of the chickens with respect to weight gain. It can be seen that the observed trends were similar suggesting that inclusion of different rates of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae did not affect weight gain. Indeed between weeks 6 and 8 those chickens receiving the highest level of spent yeast grew on average the least.A line graph for feed efficiency against age similarly indicated that inclusion of Saccharomyces cerevisiae had little effect. Feed conversion efficiency is expected to decline with age as depicted by the trend, although in weeks 6 to 8 it needs to be remembered that the chickens were also foraging. Feed conversion efficiency estimates between weeks 6 and 8 ignore the consumed amounts of Kikuyu grass that is poorly digested by non-ruminants due to its high fibre content. The decline with age tends to be due to the fact that although chickens eat more as they get older their growth rate remains relatively constant. Nutrient requirements for muscle growth decrease with age, thus reducing the proportion of the feed that is converted into weight gain.We have now realised that we do not have sufficient diet replication to allow us to undertake further statistical analysis. We had presumed that it would be possible to use the individual measurements recorded per chicken in an analysis of variance, but we had neglected the fact that there is competition among chickens for feed when they are fed together. The consequence is that we cannot assume individual observations to be independentone of the assumptions in an analysis of variance.Thus, only one single mean value for birds on a group-fed diet can be used for comparison purposes, and we have no means for calculating standard errors. In other words the experimental or observational unit in this study is the surround or compartment.Four of the 50 chickens in the control group died by eight weeks of age. In contrast, no chicken died in the group fed 0.5 g/kg of spent yeast, and just one and two, respectively, in the other two groups. Bird mortality is different from variables such as weight or feed efficiency in that deaths, especially when few, are generally likely to be individual occurrences and unrelated to the group to which the bird belongs. Thus, assuming that mortalities can be treated as independent observations we can combine the three spent yeast treated groups and compare 3/150 deaths against 4/50 deaths for the control group by a Chi 2 test. Using Stats → Statistical Tests → Contingency Tables in GenStat and creating a 2way table with values 3, 147, 4 and 46 we obtain Chi 2 = 4.00 (P = 0.046), seemingly just significant. However, note the warning message in the GenStat output.We need to heed this message. When some values are small we need to adjust the formula for a Chi 2 test by incorporating the value 0.5 as follows:Calculating by hand we find that the Chi 2 value reduces to 2.42; this is well below the significance level. Thus, although there was a trend to suggest that Saccharomyces cerevisiae helped to reduce mortality, the levels of mortality observed in this study were too low to detect statistical significance.Various lessons on study design can be learned from this case study.Firstly, as has already been mentioned, group feeding means that individuals in a group cannot be assumed to be independent in relation to such measurements as weight gain or feed conversion efficiency. It is possible to be a little more relaxed in the case of mortality and assume that deaths occur independently, provided there is no evidence of transmissible infection within the group. For any variable that is to be measured it is important beforehand to understand what will determine the experimental or observational unit for statistical analysis. This study was part of the requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science degree. It has demonstrated how advisable it is, even in the smallest of degree projects, for a student to seek statistical advice before embarking on his or her study. Other case studies in this Teaching Resource focus on different aspects of study design and a student should look at the various case studies to see the examples that may be relevant to his/her project. For this case study a more appropriate experimental design would have been to randomly assign the chicks to a number of smaller surrounds for each feed. Since three levels of spent yeast were to be compared with the control diet and 200 chicks were available, 16 chicks could have been randomly assigned, say to each of 12 surrounds, with four surrounds per diet. This would have used 192 of the chicks and resulted in this skeleton analysis of variance for a completely randomised design. This design could be improved further by taking into account the positions of the different surrounds within the poultry house and grouping them according to different environmental conditions apparent within the house, e.g. proximity to an extractor fan or to an exposed area. Let us suppose that three blocks can be defined to describe three areas within the poultry house, each containing four surrounds, each with one of the diets. This would lead to this randomised block analysis of variance: Should blocking have a positive effect this would reduce the size of the residual variance:Finally there was a reduction in mortality from 8% in the control group to an average of 2% in the spent yeast groups. In view of the comparatively small numbers of chickens this was not statistically significant. Study question 5 illustrates how one can evaluate ahead of time the size of sample that might be needed to achieve statistical significance.1. Imagine a particular shape of a poultry house (maybe the one depicted in this case study) to be used to repeat this experiment. Assuming that 16 smaller surrounds have been made, each to contain 12 chicks. Describe how the experiment is to be laid out within the poultry house and how surrounds are to be allocated to diets. Sketch the analysis of variance. 2. Suppose that you find that the poultry house has room for only eight of the surrounds described in question 1. It is decided that the experiment should be run twice with different batches of chicks on each occasion. Describe how you will design the experiment and sketch the analysis of variance. Why do you think it is considered necessary to replicate this experiment when only eight surrounds are available? 3. The chickens in this study were of mixed sex. Describe how you would take sex into account within the experimental design and sketch the analysis of variance. 4. In poultry experiments it might sometimes be appropriate to take into account initial weight. Give an example from the literature where this has been done and describe how the researcher made use of initial weight, either in the design or in the analysis. 5. Assume that 5% of chickens fed the control diet died and that spent yeast reduced mortality, on average, by half. Assuming equal numbers of chickens per diet determine how many chickens will be needed in the experiment to demonstrate that the average effect of spent yeast on mortality is statistically significant (P<0.05).6. Describe how you could include contrast terms in the analysis of variance (see Case Study 15) to investigate any pattern in the effect of level of spent yeast on weight gain or feed conversion efficiency. 7. Describe how logistic regression (see Case Study 14) might be used to analyse the effect of spent yeast on mortality in this experiment assuming that chickens are allocated to, say, 20 surrounds. 8. When individual chickens die during an experiment discuss what effect, if any, this might have on the performance of the surviving group. When analysing weight gain over particular sub-periods of an experiment discuss whether one should eliminate or retain all measurements for chickens that die during the experiment up to the point that they die. 9. Assessment of the amount of feed consumed can be affected by the design of the feeders, as there can be feed spill when the chickens feed. Describe how you might modify the feeder shown in this study to minimise feed wastage.","tokenCount":"2165"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acced68c9c962e66da601ae96a8bd07e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/03250709-b36a-4469-ae99-be3b26646e95/retrieve","id":"591045479"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8da3ff60-dafa-4c9e-a0a5-661870074ab7","pagecount":"32","content":"• The agricultural sector in Visayas is plagued by a variety of challenges including reliance on rain-fed agriculture, a lack of information dissemination regarding new technologies and best practices, agricultural labour shortages, and limited access to financial capital.• The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change in the world, with climate impacts disproportionately affecting agricultural and rural communities. The country is affected by a range of climate impacts and extreme weather events including droughts, temperature extremes, and typhoons. Super typhoon Haiyan was especially devastating, causing PHP 31 billion (USD 572) in damages in 2013.• Adaptation options included improved postharvest storage infrastructure; crop insurance; improved crop varieties; water harvesting techniques such as farm dams, water impoundment, and rainwater collection; diversified farming systems including integrated crop-livestock systems and alley croppingPhilippines Climate Risk Profiles of coconut trees with bananas and other annual crops; and improved forecasting and dissemination of climate information.• Common barriers to these measures include challenges in communicating the benefits and effectiveness of adaptation strategies to traditional or difficult-to-reach farmers, insufficient financial resources and limited access to credit. In the aftermath of major catastrophes such as typhoon Haiyan, farmers often lack the financial capacity to clear their lands of debris before replanting. The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change [1], with climate impacts disproportionately affecting agricultural and rural communities. Facing challenges such as low productivity, underinvestment, and extreme weather events, farmers are some of the poorest people in the Philippines; the majority manage small farms of less than 1 hectare (ha). The agricultural sector employs some 32% of the Philippines' working population and occupies almost 41% of the country's land area.Comprised of over 7,600 islands-with 11 providing the bulk of the country's landmass-the Philippines faces severe challenges in meeting domestic food demands and relies heavily on imports, especially for wheat and rice.The Philippines is affected by a range of extreme weather events, particularly tropical cyclones (or \"typhoons\") [2]. In this humid, tropical environment, climate change is expected to produce even higher temperatures and increasingly unpredictable rainfall by 2050, negatively affecting yields for most crops. In this same period, it is estimated that climate change impacts of all kinds could cost the Philippines' economy over USD 2.7 billion a year [3]. These climate impacts will be exacerbated by rapid population growth, ongoing conflict, and severe land degradation. Still, the government of the Philippines has taken policy and institutional steps to combat the impacts of climate change and adapt the country's agricultural sector to likely impacts.Given the agricultural sector's importance for poverty reduction and economic growth in the Philippines, it is important to understand the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events across agricultural value chains. To achieve this, three profiles have been created, one for each major island group in the Philippines, namely Mindanao, Luzon, and Visayas, examining the relationship between climate hazards, key commodities, and their value chains. In Visayas, three major value chain commodities (VCC) were selected: coconut (Cocos nucifera), rice (Oryza sativa), and corn (Zea mays).For each of these commodities, we selected a study area through a consultative process supported by relevant literature and expert consultations. TheThe Visayas island group is located at the centre of the Philippine archipelago and is the smallest of the three island groups in terms of land area. (Luzon is the largest, followed by Mindanao.) Visayas is composed of three regions: Western (Region VI), Central (Region VII), and Eastern Visayas (Region VIII).The major islands of Negros Occidental, Guimaras, and Panay comprise Western Visayas; Central Visayas includes Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental, while Eastern Visayas is composed of Samar, Leyte, and Biliran.province of Cebu in Central Visayas was chosen for corn, and Bohol, also in Central Visayas, for rice, both due to their high levels of production and recent losses from droughts and typhoons. For coconut, Leyte province in Eastern Visayas was selected, as it is a major coconut-producing region and has been adversely affected by typhoons in the past.The profile is organized into six sections, each reflecting an essential analytical step in understanding current and potential adaptation options for key local agricultural value chain commodities. This document first offers an overview of the county's key agricultural commodities for food security and livelihoods, as well as major challenges to agricultural sector development in the island group. This is followed by identification of the main climatic hazards based on the analysis of historical climate data and climate projections including typhoons and droughts. The document continues with an analysis of vulnerabilities and risks posed by these hazards on key commodities through crop suitability mapping.Based on these vulnerabilities, current and potential on-farm adaptation options and off-farm services are discussed. This risk profile also provides snapshots of the enabling policy, institutional, and governance context for the adoption of resilience-building strategies. Finally, pathways for strengthening institutional capacity to address climate risks are presented.The Visayas island group in 2017 accounted for 16% of the country's Gross Value Added (GVA) in the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing sector, with Mindanao contributing 33% and Luzon the remaining 51% [4]. The agricultural sector is a major employer in the region, engaging over 2.7 million people, representing 26% of the male population and 11% of the female population.Agricultural work is predominantly carried out by men, who constitute 65-79% of individuals employed in agriculture across the regions [5]. The daily agricultural wage rate was fairly consistent across the regions, ranging from PHP 231/day (USD 4.26) in Central Visayas to PHP 245/day (USD 4.52) in Western Visayas. On average, female farm workers earned less than their male counterparts. Both male and female agricultural incomes in Visayas fall below those of the other island groups, especially compared to Luzon, where farmers earn, on average, 27% more (33% more when adjusted into real terms) [6]. A consequence of low agricultural incomes is that farming households in Visayas earn only 50% of their income from on-farm activities, turning to more lucrative off-farm activities to generate additional income [6].Visayas is home to over 19 million people, representing 19% of the country's total population [7]. Of those 19 million people, 70% reside in rural areas. Agricultural households and the rural population of the Philippines are disproportionately impacted by poverty compared to residents of urban areas, with the incidence of poverty amongst agricultural households at 57% compared to 17% for non-agricultural households in 2009 [8]. Almost a third (28%) of the population in Visayas suffers from absolute poverty [9].Food security is also a challenge, with food poverty impacting 27% of the Visayan population [9]. Consequently, compared with other island groups, Visayas has the largest proportion of underweight (26%) and stunted (40%) children. In Visayas, it is common for children aged ten years old and younger to be underweight, while stunting is prevalent Although Visayas has the smallest land area among the major island groups in the country, an estimated 1.9 million ha are used for agricultural activities, equivalent to 32% of the total land area of Visayas.The main agricultural activities in Visayas are crop production, livestock rearing (hogs), aquaculture, and fishing. Rice, corn, coconuts, and bananas are the top agricultural crops grown on the island group.Aggregately, the Visayan islands contributed 18% of the country's rice production in 2017, equivalent to 729,000 metric tons-consistent with historical averages for the region. Another important crop in this island group is white corn, which is consumed as an alternative to rice. Its annual production in 2017 accounted for 14% (297,000 metric tons) of the total national production, and Visayas has been able to maintain its annual production at this level over the past decade [11].Coconuts are predominantly produced in Eastern Visayas, and aggregately, the Visayan group of islands contributed 1.9 million tons of coconuts in 2017, which represented 14% of the total Philippine production. Unlike rice and corn production, the average production of coconuts has shown a declining trend. Between 2008 and 2017, average coconut production has fallen by three percentage points, from 17% to 14% of the national total. Regardless, Visayas and Eastern Visayas, in particular, remain one of the top coconut-producing regions in the country [11].Economic relevance of farming among youth under 19 years old. Undernourishment remains a challenge in Visayas with a relatively high proportion of household income (44%) spent on food [10].Rendered even more urgent by the importance of agriculture to Visayas, climate variability and hazards may pose a serious threat to the sector. For this analysis, the rice, white corn and coconut value chains were selected for detailed analysis. This selection was informed by these crops' large contributions to total agricultural production as well as their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. These three crops were identified as key to food security and livelihoods by the Philippines' Climate-Resilient Agriculture Profile [12].To examine these VCCs in detail, three provinces were selected where these crops feature centrally in the local economy and where climate change is likely to adversely affect production: Bohol (Region White corn is one of the most important food crops in the Philippines. After rice, it is a staple food for around 20% of the population, primarily in the southern regions of Visayas and Mindanao. In times of economic hardship, white corn is consumed as a substitute for rice partly because of its abundance and low price [13].Farm inputs for corn include seeds, fertilizer-both organic and inorganic, including chicken dung, complete fertilizer urea, and potash-and pesticides when the need arises. Available seeds include traditional varieties, open-pollinated varieties (OPV), and hybrid corn. Cropping systems adopted by farmers include mono-cropping, crop rotation (e.g., corn-mung beans and corn-peanuts), and corn intercropped with mung bean or peanut during the second cropping. Pest and disease management strategies include the use of biological agents like trichogramma cords to control corn borers and chemicals for particular pests like armyworms. Tractor services-along with a fuel subsidy-are offered by the Department of Agriculture (DA) through Municipal Agriculture Offices (MAO). Some corn farmers practice zero-tillage, especially in hilly areas. Farmers typically double crop corn each year, with the first cropping from May to June and the second beginning after the October harvest.The key actors involved in the corn value chain are input suppliers, farmers, hired labourers, farm owners, postharvest processors such as corn dryers and millers, the government, traders, and wholesalers. Farmers are charged with all on-farm activities as well as many postharvest tasks like storing, drying, de-husking, shelling, and delivery to buyers or corn millers. Men are involved in labour-intensive activities, such as preparing land, planting corn, and transporting produce. Women, meanwhile, are involved in marketing and selling the corn.Farmers have access to inputs through government agencies like the DA at the regional, provincial, and municipal levels. It is estimated that 33 million coconut trees covering 300,000 ha were damaged by typhoon Haiyan, jeopardising the livelihoods of more than 1 million farming households [17]. Prior to Haiyan, coconut production in Leyte reached 526,559 metric tons a year planted on 167,974 hectares. In the following year production fell by more than 50% to 194,050 metric tons covering a total farm area of just 94,744 hectares (a 43.6% reduction in area) [5]. By some estimates, it will take 6 to 9 years before the coconut value chain returns to full production, threatening the livelihoods and food security of many families.The key actors involved in the coconut value chain are input suppliers, farmers, hired labour, traders, retailers, and wholesalers. In Leyte, the National Coconut Research Center, Visayas State University, and the Philippine Coconut Authority provide seed nuts or seedlings to farmers along with, historically, salt as fertilizer for the coconut trees. Still, most coconuts used for planting by farmers are from their own harvests.LGUs and the PCIC provide inputs, training, and insurance to farmers.Farmers participate in on-farm activities like clearing, land preparation, planting, and harvesting. Women in coconut farming are mainly involved in less labour-intensive activities, with the exception of separated and widowed women or single mothers who often undertake all tasks. The main coconut product is copra. Copra (dried meat or kernel), however, undergoes several transformations to produce different products like whole nuts, virgin coconut oil, soap, beauty products, and more. These are produced in processing plants requiring proper facilities and a skilled labour force. These various coconut products are then marketed through traders, wholesalers, and retailers. Farmers sell their copra to private entities or cooperatives and these buyers are responsible for selling the consolidated copra to processors such as SC Global. Women are especially involved in canvassing for potential markets and price negotiations both for the end product, whose price is often determined by the buyer, as well as for hauling and transport services. The National Coconut Research Center promotes the commercialization of various products like cocofresh, macapuno ice cream, coconut biscuits, and wine.source: PSA.GOV.PHThe agricultural sector in Visayas faces an array of challenges whose impacts are felt across the value chain. If not addressed, these challenges will continue to constrain the sector, resulting in sub-optimal yields and incomes. For a sector characterised by subsistence agricultural production and small-scale value chain actors, such losses are felt acutely.Income generated by agricultural workers is less than half that of the average worker in the Philippines. Consequently, 66% of Filipinos who are considered working poor are engaged in the agricultural sector [18]. While the wider economy has experienced economic growth and rising incomes, the basic pay rate in the agricultural sector has remained stagnant. Workers seeing greater opportunities in off-farm labour are either moving to urban areas or demanding higher incomes [18]. The introduction of cash assistance programmes for those living below the poverty line, including the Bridging Program for the Filipino Family and the Modified Conditional Cash Transfer Program, has disincentivized farm labourers from engaging in low-paid labour. While such measures are necessary to support vulnerable families, farmers faced with higher costs of production that were not reflected in the market price of their crops saw their real incomes fall. Farmers in Bohol reported that rice harvests were missed due to labour shortages despite unemployment in agriculture remaining high. Labour shortages are partly due to the highly seasonal nature of agricultural labour in the Philippines, with excess supply during the growing season and excess demand during planting and harvesting, so this income source remains unstable.Increased mechanisation would help to ease the demand for labour during land preparation, planting, and harvesting. Gains have been made in recent years to increase the level of mechanisation in the Philippines, reaching 2.31 horsepower (hp) per ha in 2013, up from 2.0 hp/ha in 2012 [18]. This rate, however, still lags behind other countries in the region such as Thailand. Much of the investmentin mechanisation has been directed towards rice and corn production, with the DA through the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization investing heavily in the acquisition of farm machinery that is provided to farmer organisations [19]. There are still very limited mechanisation options for coconut production.Absent or decaying rural infrastructure represents a major challenge for farmers, especially for those in remote areas. Inadequate irrigation infrastructure and poor-quality farm-to-market roads were identified as major constraints. The impacts of poor infrastructure are felt more acutely in times of extreme climatic events such as droughts and typhoons (see section 3). The lack of good quality farm-to-market roads reduces the options available to farmers when selling their goods, leaving them as price takers. An ADB study measuring the impact of rural infrastructure provided through the Agrarian Reform Communities Project (ARCP) found farmto-market roads had the greatest impact on rural communities when compared to other infrastructure projects like communal irrigation and potable water supply. This study also, however, observed that the richer members of the community were the largest beneficiaries from improved market access, increasing existing income inequalities [20] especially when local communities lack the means to capitalise on the increased access [21]. Recognising the need for improved irrigation systems under drought, large investments have been made in Visayas, including the National Irrigation Sector Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (NISRIP) supported by JICA [22].The adoption of new technologies or practices in response to climate change and extreme weather events often represents a cost to value chain actors, particularly farmers [23]. In many instances the upfront costs of adopting new methods preclude uptake, as actors do not have adequate financial capital and cannot access credit. Often, farmers are unable to sufficiently finance on-farm expenses so they purchase only limited inputs and supplies, which results in low yields. Alternatively, farmers might operate under a scheme in which they are loaned inputs by a provider, and income generated by selling the produce is used to pay back the loan. Such loans are often at unfavorable rates, or in some cases leave the farmer splitting the profits 50:50 with the input provider.Gender roles and relations in the Philippines are strongly influenced by cultural, social, and economic factors. Substantial gaps remain between men and women with respect to access to resources, economic opportunities, and influence in decision making [24,25,26]. Many women are marginalized in decision-making power and influence, lacking access to land and other resources, capacity building, training, and income-generating opportunities [27].In both urban and rural areas, women are solely responsible for home-related tasks like child care, food preparation, and meeting the basic needs of the household, whereas men engage primarily in production-related activities such as agricultural labour or non-farm income-generating activities [28].Generally speaking, women customarily manage and allocate all household income and finances provided by their husbands [29]. There are some notable exceptions to these generalized gender norms. In corn systems, in particular, women are actively involved in seed and input provisioning and product marketing. In fact, women in Cebu province are relatively more active across the corn value chain than are women in the rice or coconut value chains in Bohol and Leyte provinces. Separated, widowed, or single mothers often undertake all value chain tasks including more labour-intensive work. In the event of a failed harvest due to drought, women seek off-farm employment such as serving as domestic helpers. Still, women's labour contributions are often overlooked, undervalued, or invisible in both male-and female-headed households [29]. Elderly women, women with children, pregnant women and women with disabilities are the most vulnerable to production and value chain shocks. The Philippines, by the nature of its geographical location and archipelagic formation of over 7,000 islands, is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This vulnerability is the result of its high exposure to multiple hazards, its sensitivity to these hazards in human and economic terms, and its limited adaptive capacity [2]. Globally, The Philippines is ranked 5th in terms of climate-related losses for the period of 1997-2016, with 289 events killing 85,955 people and costing 0.6% of GDP [1]. It is estimated that up to 2.1 million Filipino children remain trapped in child labour, with agriculture responsible for a large proportion (62%). Boys and those living in rural areas are disproportionately impacted, being twice as likely to be involved than their female and urban counterparts. The most prominent form of labour is unpaid family work.Children's engagement in labor activities often hinders their education, with children absent or too tired to actively participate in their schooling [30].Projected change in Precipitation and Temperature BY 2050 [32 ]   Mean temperatures in Visayas are projected to increase by the middle of the century, with the largest increase projected in Leyte (+1.6°C), followed by Bohol (+1.2°C) and Cebu (+1.1°C). It is, however, the projected increases in extremely hot days (>35°C) that will have the greatest impact on crop production [32]. Bohol is projected to see the largest decrease in mean rainfall (-7.8%), but will also see the number of days annually with extreme rainfall (>100mm) increase from 15 to 23. Cebu will see a decline in mean rainfall (-6.1%) and an increase in extreme rainfall events from 12 to 17. Leyte follows the same trend, with decreasing annual rainfall and a small increase in extreme rainfall events [32]. Globally, typhoons are projected to increase in intensity due to progressive climate change in coming decades [33,34]. The Philippines is situated in the Pacific Basin, the source of 57% of global typhoons [35]. This makes the country the second most exposed in the world to typhoons after China [36], receiving at least 15 tropical storms and typhoons a year [37] Of the three island groups, Visayas was the only one to have experienced an increase in the frequency of intense tropical cyclones over the period between 1951 and 2000 [32]. In 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan A further consequence of typhoons is an increase in storm surges and associated flooding in low-lying coastal areas. The storm surge that followed Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 was among the deadliest in the last 50 years with an estimated 7,000 fatalities recorded by the Philippine government organization National Operational Assessment of Hazards. The impact of Typhoon Haiyan on agriculture was estimated to be USD 241 million, of which USD 195 million represented production losses with a further USD 45 million in damage to agricultural infrastructure [38]. Typhoons are identified as the most damaging geophysical hazard to the agricultural sector in the Philippines, with production damage and losses caused by typhoons and storms amounting to USD 3.5 billion, or 95% of all agricultural losses for the 2006 to 2013 period [39].Typhoon hazard map of Visayas [40]   Drought hazard map of Visayas [41]     The increase in mean temperatures and hot days experienced in Visayas, coupled with the reduction in rains bought on by the southwest monsoon, have increased the frequency and intensity of droughts [42]. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that impacts much of the tropics. It can be broken down into two phases: El Niño, the warm phase, and La Niña, the cold phase. The ENSO has a strong modulating effect on rainfall patterns in the Philippines. El Niño is associated with droughts and water stress, while La Niña results in excessive rainfall [43]. Climate type I experiences the largest positive rainfall anomaly during La Niña years, while climate type III experiences the largest negative rainfall anomaly during El Niño years. The 1997 to 1998 El Niño resulted in production losses of 100% during the dry season and of more than 33% during the wet season. This pattern was repeated during the 2004 El Niño but to a lesser extent, causing 18% losses during the dry season and 32% in the wet season [40]. Bohol experienced reduced rainfall as a result of the 2016 El Niño, causing an estimated USD 81 million in losses in Mindanao and Visayas [44].The climate change impacts and hazards outlined in the previous section-increased frequency and intensity of typhoons, higher temperatures, and increased likelihood of prolonged droughts-each acutely impact agricultural systems in Visayas. By combining climate projections, for instance, about temperature and rainfall, with specific parameters regarding a plant's basic physiology, modelling for suitability can provide useful projections as to where favorable growing conditions may exist for certain crops into the future. Suitability mapping for 2050 is provided here for coconuts, corn, and rice in Visayas, as compared with baselines from 1997 to 2000. Suitability ranges from 0 to 100%, with intervals being classified as very high (81-100), high (61-80), moderate (41-60), marginal (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), and very marginal (<20). These measures of future suitability will support agricultural planning and investment in the selected regions, supporting long-term planning and transformation in response to climate change.Today, coconut trees are generally suitable in almost all the major islands of Visayas with a climate suitability ranging from high to very high. The region does not show significant negative suitability effects of climate change on coconuts by 2050. Indeed, some areas in the east side of the island may even become more favorable. These suitability projections, however, do not take into account the impact of extreme events such as droughts and typhoons. When Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in Visayas, it damaged 41,662 ha of coconut production at an estimated cost of USD 28 million [38]. With the frequency and severity of tropical cyclones in Visayas expected to increase, this poses a serious threat to coconut production in Eastern Visayas and Leyte [43].Historically, corn has high to very high climate suitability throughout Visayas. By 2050, however, there is a marked decline in corn suitability across the island group from high to marginal suitability across much of the low-lying areas. This projection also does not account for the impacts of droughts and typhoons, which can severely damage production.Corn is highly vulnerable to the impacts of typhoons, with Typhoon Haiyan damaging 21,699 ha of corn at an estimated cost of USD 5 million [38].Climate suitability of coconuts in Visayas, current and IN 2050 [32, 43]   Climate suitability of corn in Visayas, current and IN 2050 [32, 43]      Climate suitability of rice in Visayas, current and in 2050 [32, 43]   The climate from farmers' perspectivesFarmers in Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte have observed that weather patterns are growing less predictable when compared to historical trends. Months that are typically dry, for example, are experiencing increased rainy days. In times of extreme heat and drought, some farmers observe that even irrigation cannot prevent losses in rice fields because plants still wilt from unsustainably high temperatures. Long dry seasons have adverse effects on coconut farmers because trees produce fewer and/or smaller fruits.Moreover, the extreme heat is often accompanied by pest infestations.Farmers have affirmed that the intensity of typhoons and rainfall have increased over time, damaging plants and reducing yields, sometimes resulting in failed harvests. As the weather grows increasingly unpredictable and forecasts unreliable or unavailable, planning for on-farm activities has become more challenging, especially for fertilizer application that can be washed away by flooding or heavy rains. Farmers added that extreme weather also affects animal production, adversely impacting this alternative source of income as well.Rice is typically suitable in almost all the lowlands of the Visayas islands, particularly in the provinces of Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Cebu, Bohol, Samar, and the northern part of Leyte. By 2050, however, the climate suitability of the crop is expected to decrease in almost all of these areas from very highly to highly suitable. Studies conducted rice in Bohol found that farmers have already observed changes in both temperature and precipitation as a result of climate change [46]. For each 1°C increase in the minimum temperature during the dry season, rice grain yields fell by 10% [47], and for every 1% increase in the share of wet days, yields fell by 36 kg/ ha [48]. In the wake of typhoon Haiyan, 77,719 ha of rice were impacted, with damages estimated at USD 44 million [38].The corn value chain in Cebu is vulnerable to the impacts of both droughts and typhoons. Farmers in the region identified a range of consequences brought on by drought conditions. In times of drought, the quality and quantity of available seeds drops as farmers seek to replace crops lost or damaged through the increased incidence of pest and disease outbreaks and through diminished germination.The consequences of typhoons are felt across the whole value chain, disrupting the transportation of inputs and produce between actors. Low yields and reduced corn due to rotting pest and disease outbreaks reduced the income earned by farmers, with knock-on effects across the value chain as processors and traders do not receive sufficient high-quality products.Corn farmers identified the need for early warning systems as an effective adaptation option for both droughts and typhoons, allowing them to take preventative measures, reduce their losses, and facilitate recovery. The delivery of early warnings should be made through feature phones in SMS format because many farmers still lack access to smartphones or live in areas with limited connectivity. For farmers who are unaware of how to respond effectively, early warnings should come with targeted advisory on the best resilience-building activities.Diversified farming was also identified as an adaptation option with the potential to reduce losses from both droughts and typhoons, safeguarding food and income security for corn farmers in Cebu. Transitioning from a corn monocrop to diversified farming and integrating livestock and other crops will lessen the vulnerability of farmers by providing multiple income sources. Such a system would also have numerous environmental co-benefits, improving soil quality, reducing theAlthough drought-tolerant varieties of rice are being introduced, farmers in Bohol still face serious challenges from droughts. During long dry spells or droughts, infestations of armyworms, blast, and brown spot become more prevalent. Agricultural labour is also affected by extremely hot days, limiting the number of man-hours they can work in the field each day. In these instances, proper management practices or technologies are often not applied. This has downstream effects on consumers whose demand for rice is not met, leading to price increases. While on most occasions Bohol is not directly hit by typhoons, these events can damage irrigation infrastructure. Typhoons and heavy rainfall also affect harvesting, storage, and processing, potentially resulting in higher labour costs and drying expenses from collapsed or water-logged crops.The adoption of agro-forestry and diversified farming systems were considered effective adaptation options at the farm level to both droughts and typhoons. The incorporation of trees into rice monocrop landscapes acts as an effective shield from the elements, reducing the damage caused by heavy rains, high winds, and extreme temperatures. The integration of livestock and high-value multipurpose trees into farming systems brings additional income sources to farmers, improving their financial stability. Planting nitrogen-fixing leguminous crops on the boundaries of their paddies (sometime referred to as \"alley cropping\") was identified as an effective adaptation option with positive impacts on yield.Another promising adaptation strategy is to transition to organic production, reducing input costs and opening up higher-value markets. A good example would be the production of red rice using organicCorn need for synthetic fertilizers, and safeguarding agrobiodiversity. Another proposed adaptation option is a corn-peanut crop rotation, which was found to offer higher yields than conventional production [49].Typhoons were found to have a moderate to major impact on the harvesting, storage, and processing of corn, disrupting transport and resulting in increased postharvest losses. Two proposed adaptation options are the use of moisture meters and improved storage facilities to ensure harvested corn remains in the optimal conditions. Office and the Regional Field Office of the DA.Rice farmers' financial capacity to adopt new practices if often constrained due to limited access to credit needed to cover the upfront costs. Programmes that remove barriers for farmers to access credit would help them to take preventative measures to build their resilience to droughts and typhoons. As all risk cannot be mitigated through the proposed adaptation options, investments must be protected through crop insurance schemes, allowing farmers to transfer their risk.Typhoons are the most damaging climate hazard for coconut production in Leyte, as evidenced by the devastating impacts on the sector from Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. It will take almost a decade for uprooted or truncated coconut trees to re-grow and for farmers to fully recover their livelihoods. Some farmers continue to be impacted by heavy rains and flooding, especially those in open and low-lying areas exposed to strong winds and rains. Droughts can also adversely affect coconut trees, resulting in wilting and drying of leaves and button shedding.For coconut farmers in Leyte, periods of drought are also accompanied by an increased incidence of pest and disease outbreaks. In these circumstances, farmers may choose to adopt integrated pest management strategies, including the use of biocontrols to prevent pest infestations and disease outbreaks. Manual spraying of trees may also serve as an adaptation strategy for some farmers, and in some extreme cases, controlled burning of heavily infested or diseased trees may be required. In extreme drought conditions, seedlings, which are not typically watered, may be irrigated to ensure their survival.Diversified farming systems may also be adopted by farmers facing drought conditions, including integrated crop-livestock systems and alley cropping between coconut trees involving, for instance,bananas and other annual crops. In a recent study, coconut-banana intercropping was found to be an effective crop diversification adaptation option. Intercropping of banana in areas planted with coconut trees was found to significantly increase farm productivity as compared to coconut monocropping. The practice also requires minimal fertilizer and pesticide input [51].In adapting to typhoon conditions, some farmers may choose to adopt improved coconut varieties, especially shorter trees that are less prone to damage from high winds. Early harvesting of coconuts may also be needed in advance of typhoons, a practice dependent on the availability of and access to weather forecasts. Like corn and rice farmers, coconut producers may choose to insure their production through the PCIC.  Biophysical: farms located in remote or hilly areas prone to landslides; Socioeconomic: low crop diversification and few alternative livelihoods; low, unstable incomes; high cost of gasoline; a lack of alternative energy sources; high transportation and operation costs; low access or registration to crop insurance services; Institutional: a lack of participation or membership in any agricultural organization; Infrastructure: blockage of farm-to-market roads due to landslides or damaged roads LGUs also host programs to help farmers secure microfinancing and to provide equipment like tractors for land preparation as well as corn mills for postharvest activities. During trainings, farmers are encouraged to adopt no-tillage practices to minimize soil disruption and erosion. In Bohol province, meanwhile, various off-farm support mechanisms have been established through the DA Agricultural Promotion Center and the Agricultural Training Institute, including rice technical demonstrations on featured rice farms, subsidies for the purchase of hybrid seeds, farmer field schools for rice intensification systems, and the conservation of plant genetic resources. In Leyte, as a response to losses from Typhoon Haiyan, a replanting incentive program has been established where farmers are given cash incentives to replant coconut trees. A coconut fertilization project is also being promoted by the Provincial Coconut Authority (PCA), using agricultural-grade salts and coir-based organic fertilizer, an approach that is acceptable to farmers given its cost effectiveness and environmentallyfriendly nature. The DA also has seed stocks for corn, rice, and coconuts ready for distribution to affected farmers in the case of extreme events or production losses. Weather forecasting services are also provided by LGUs through Agromet Stations, with text updates available to some farmers.Farmers are often prevented from responding effectively to climate change and its associated hazards by a range of barriers, which either directly or indirectly limit their adaptive capacity. These barriers can be categorised as financial, technical, behavioural, informational, and institutional. Figure 8 examines at the impact of each barrier category across the value chains analyzed in this report.Rice farmers were found to lack sufficient information on climate change and its impacts, which, coupled with a lack of technical capacity to respond, leaves them especially vulnerable. Those farmers looking to adopt new techniques or resilient crop varieties often find themselves limited by financial constraints such as a lack of access to credit and by inadequate buffer stocks. In times of drought or following a typhoon, the prices of key inputs rise and the quantity of supplies available decreases. There is also a reluctance amongst farmers to adopt new practices. Institutional barriers include the failure of the government to provide sufficient compensation to farmers who attend their \"agri-schools\"; due to budget constraints, some farmers are unable to afford the time away from the farm.Corn farms located in remote, hilly areas have limited access to information, often relying on traditional methods in the absence of training on improved practices. Suppliers struggle to reach such remote regions and have little incentive to do so, as farmers lack the financial capacity to purchase improved varieties and other inputs. Technical constraints exist for both on-farm production and processing due to a lack of experts to provide training to farmers and processors.In the aftermath of major catastrophes such as Typhoon Haiyan, coconut farmers lacked the financial capacity to clear their lands of debris before replanting. Many farmers participated in cooperative loans to help them re-establish their farms. Limited institutional capacity result in many farmers not receiving information about the spread of pests and diseases or training in improved practices. Farmers are, in some instances, reluctant to adopt new and improved practices, preferring to continue with traditional methods.Visayas The Extension component of the PRDP then establishes strategic and climate-resilient rural infrastructure along these value chains, including farm-to-market roads, communal irrigation systems, potable water supplies, and postharvest and other rural infrastructure.territorial jurisdiction. The Provincial Agriculturist's Office is mandated to promote sustainable agriculture and enhance the growth of fisheries through increased productivity and profitability, coordinating DA projects and programs. This office employs coordinators for every crop grown in the province, reaching specific farmers with specially tailored services.The Finally, as determined by the DC and ACPC, the Survival and Recovery (SURE) assistance program can be mobilized to serve as a fast-response, postdisaster support facility, providing grants and loans to calamity-affected small farmers and fisherfolk and their households. SURE has initial funding of PHP 100 million with a further PHP 1 billion committed by the President.Agriculture plays a major role in the economy and society of Visayas, yet the sector faces considerable threats from the threats from climate change. Climate hazards in the form of droughts and typhoons pose a significant threat to rice, corn, and coconut production in Visayas. The disruption caused by such events is felt across the entire value chain from the provision of seeds and inputs to product marketing.Unpredictable weather in Visayas has produced uncertainty and delays in critical farm activities, including the distribution of seeds and inputs. Onfarm, intense heat forces farmers and labourers to work fewer hours in the fields, affecting production. powerful Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 demonstrated the devastating impact of tropical storms on farmers in Visayas; it destroyed livelihoods and production and postharvest infrastructure.These and other impacts will continue to shape the future of agriculture in Visayas. The high costs of rehabilitation after extreme events are incurred by both private actors and the government, since these institutions are responsible for safeguarding the agricultural sector against such hazards. During harvest periods, droughts, and typhoon can affect the quality of produce, by interrupting processing and drying and by increasing the costs of labour and processing.Various adaptation options were identified by value chain stakeholders in Visayas. In addition to a host of on-farm strategies like integrated crop-livestock systems and diversification, to protect against both typhoons and droughts, farmers across the three value chains under study indicated the need to protect their harvests with crop insurance provided through the PCIC. Improved access to credit for farmers with limited financial capital is another highlevel strategy that many stakeholders suggested, which would allow producers to access improved inputs like crop varieties tolerant to droughts, heat, and floods.The difficulty of communicating the benefits and effectiveness of adaptation strategies to traditional or difficult-to-reach farmers is a significant barrier to adaptation. Limited manpower availability, sometimes due to disincentives created by government safety net programs, also limits the adoption of labour-intensive adaptation measures and negatively impacts harvest periods. A lack of financial resources also plagues farmers and limits adaptation.To overcome these challenges, government and private sector actors can work to ensure that farmers, even in distant places, are able to join organizations that improve access to inputs and credit and facilitate better market rates. These efforts may be combined with ordinances to ensure price premiums for organic production.Given the country's vulnerability to extreme events, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, weather stations, LGUs, and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council are responsible for providing weather advisories. These text advisory services should be expanded to offer early warnings for long periods of drought or rain.Ultimately, a host of actors, from the government to civil society to the private sector, must work together to support value chain actors in Visayas to adapt to the impacts of climate change. These measures will provide generous returns by alleviating poverty and by safeguarding the future of the agricultural sector, which is critical to livelihoods and the regional economy.","tokenCount":"6653"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"022c2e3512dda94b21d3d5792957de3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/df4a3a76-4830-4173-85f8-c5a864c4a813/retrieve","id":"1101075945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"856d4e01-b6b7-4b68-871e-5764a8c0c4e2","pagecount":"7","content":"The flat bed dryer originally developed by IRRI and improved by Nong Lam University of Vietnam targets farmers groups, processors and service providers and scaled by private manufacturers with assistance of public sector extension. Around 10,000 dryers were adopted in Vietnam, 1,000 in the Philippines, 1,700 in Cambodia and 400 in Myanmar.From harvest to market, farmers usually lose 30-50% of their earnings. Conservatively, they are losing around US$30 per ton of rice harvested. Delayed, incomplete, or ineffective drying is the main reason for the deterioration of rice seed and grain. In order to maintain high grain quality, IRRI and its partners have developed mechanical flatbed dryers that can be used by smallholder farmer and farmer groups.The flatbed dryer is one of IRRI's widely adopted technologies. The flat bed dryer was originally developed by IRRI and improved by Nong Lam University of Vietnam targeting farmers groups, processors and service providers scaled by private manufacturers with assistance of public sector extension. Capacity of flatbed dryers can range from 4 to 8 tons, which are permanent structures and have furnaces fueled by rice husk or rice straw for heating the drying air.To ensure proper uptake of dryers, IRRI and its NARES partners spearheaded additional initiatives that will create proper mechanisms on sustained use and maintenance of the dryer. Establishment of the machine was complemented with appropriate capacity building activities, focusing on training on dryer operation including measurement of grain quality after drying. Additionally, it is known that farmers and users also lack understanding on the importance of having high quality grains that translates to higher market price. To address this, training and learning activities were conducted to compare grain quality after milling at different moisture contents to inform farmers and millers of the benefit of using the dryer. This intervention worked well in Myanmar, and was found to improve grain quality and milling recovery. In Myanmar, the flat bed dryers are locally produced (based on a technology transfer from the projects) and can be installed on demand within a month. Learning activities on establishing business models using dryers among farmers groups were also explored.Currently, IRRI and its NARES partners have successfully installed around 10,000 dryers in Vietnam, 1,000 in the Philippines (3), 1,700 in Cambodia, 400 in Myanmar, 200 in Indonesia (1) and more than hundred units in Cambodia (2).• https://youtu.be/sZvB8b6vPro • 536 -Adaptation of flatbed dryer for paddy drying in the Southeast Asian countries (https://tinyurl.com/2kd25jtm) Elaboration of Outcome/Impact Statement: a) Using the flat bed dryer with rice husk furnace for heating the drying air reduces the physical and quality losses that occur in sun drying. The result are: 1.) Reduced postharvest losses leading to higher financial returns; 2.) Improved quality compared to sun drying and elimination of fungal growth and thus minimised mycotoxin contamination, 3.) Elimination of the weather risk associated with sun drying. b) First users are local manufacturers fabricating and installing the dryers. Final users are processors (millers), drying service providers and in some cases groups of farmers. In Myanmar IRRI is supporting Rice Inc. a startup that is setting up drying services for farmers in villages.c) The first version of the flat bed dryer with kerosene was developed and piloted in IRRI programs throughout Southeast Asia in the 1980s. It was not adopted due to high operating cost. In the 1990s it was optimised in Vietnam and a rice husk furnace was added to lower the operating cost. IRRI worked with Nong Lam University to transfer the improved dryer initially to Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao, Indonesia and the Phillippines, and then to Bangladesh, India and by assisting AfricaRice to Senegal. Key interventions were: 1.) Training of local manufacturers on manufacturing, testing and trouble shooting dryers 2.) Training of NARES partners and extension workers on the technology 3.) Developing business models for contract service provision using the dryers 4.) Continued backstopping to local manufacturers and national programs on optimising the dryer and the use of the dryer Based on experiences of users the incorporation of improvements is a continuous process. One example is the development of the reversible air flow flat bed dryer, that had been developed by NLU in Vietnam and is now being transferred to other countries. By reversing the air flow after some time more even drying is achieved, resulting in less broken grains and higher quality while also reducing the floor area of the dryer. This continued support to the various key stakeholders is integral part of FP2 of RICE.","tokenCount":"743"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5dbc549e8d025d429199b21f4ed689ab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5d792843-7e8a-4bd8-b48d-665802207f9c/retrieve","id":"-1632742880"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e88f932f-bcef-4ff2-9688-f3c5f4f991ee","pagecount":"9","content":"ພະລັ ງງານຈາກນໍ້າ ແລະ ຄວາມສາມາດໃນການເຄື່ ອນຍ້ າຍຕະກອນ ແມ່ ນຈະຖື ກກໍານົ ດຈາກການໄຫຼ ແລະ ຄວາມໄວຂອງແມ່ ນໍ້າ. ເມື່ ອແມ່ ນໍ້າໄຫຼຊ້ າ ຄື ຕອນທີ່ ກໍາລັ ງໄຫຼເຂົ້ າສູ ່ ເຂດອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າ, ມັ ນ ໄດ້ ປ່ ອຍໃຫ້ ຕະກອນທີ່ ແຂວນລອຍຢູ ່ ໃນນໍ້າສູ ນເສຍປະສິ ດ ທິ ພາບຂອງມັ ນ ເພື່ ອເຄື່ ອນຍ້ າຍຕະກອນທີ່ ໜັ ກກວ່ າ. ອຸ ປະສັ ກ ທາງດ້ ານຟິ ຊິ ກ ທີ່ ເກີ ດຂຶ້ ນຈາກເຂື່ ອນ ເປັ ນຜົ ນທີ່ ເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ຕະກອນ 'ຄ້ າງ' ຢູ ່ ຫຼັ ງກໍາແພງຂອງເຂື່ ອນ (MRC, 2009;Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al.,2011;Fu et al., 2008).ຕະກອນ ແມ່ ນບັ ນຫາຫຼັ ກທີ່ ຄວນຄໍານຶ ງສະເໝີ ສໍາລັ ບນັ ກວາງແຜນ ແລະ ນັ ກວິ ສະວະກອນສ້ າງເຂື່ ອນເພາະວ່ າມັ ນຈະຫຼຸ ດປະລິ ມານ ຂອງ ພື້ ນທີ່ ອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າ, ຖ້ າຫາກບໍ່ ມີ ການກວດກາເປັ ນປະຈໍາມັ ນ ອາດຈະສ້ າງບັ ນຫາເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ການໄຫຼຂອງນໍ້າເຂົ້ າໃນອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າເກີ ດ ຕິ ດຂັ ດ ແລະ ການສະໜອງນໍ້າບໍ່ ພຽງພໍ ເຊິ່ ງອາດສົ່ ງຜົ ນກະທົ ບຕໍ່ ຜົ ນ ປະໂຫຍດທີ່ ຈະເກີ ດຂຶ້ ນເຊັ່ ນ: ໄຟຟ້ າພະລັ ງງານນໍ້າ, ຊົ ນລະປະທານ, ສະຖານທີ່ ພັ ກຜ່ ອນ ຫຼື ຈຸ ດປະສົ ງອື່ ນໆ. (Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al., 2011;Vörösmartyet al., 1997).ນັ ກກໍ່ ສ້ າງເຂື່ ອນພະຍາຍາມທີ່ ຈະຫາວິ ທີ ທີ່ ຈະມາແກ້ ໄຂບັ ນຫາ ການຕົ ກຄ້ າງຂອງຕະກອນ ເພື່ ອຮັ ບປະກັ ນວ່ າຈະມີ ພື້ ນທີ່ ພຽງພໍ ໃນການດັ ກເກັ ບຕະກອນໃນອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າ ເພື່ ອລະບາຍຕະກອນອອກ ເຊິ່ ງໝາຍຄວາມວ່ າເພື່ ອໃຫ້ ອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າສາມາດຮັ ກສາປະລິ ມານ ນໍ້າໄວ້ ເຕັ ມລະດັ ບທີ່ ໄດ້ ອອກແບບໄວ້ ຕັ້ ງແຕ່ ຕົ້ ນ, ເຖິ ງແມ່ ນວ່ າ ພື້ ນທີ່ ໃນການດັ ກເກັ ບຕະກອນ ຈະມີ ຕະກອນຕົ ກຄ້ າງເພີ່ ມຂຶ້ ນ ເລື້ ອຍໆຕາມໄລຍະເວລາ ແລະ ເຂື່ ອນກໍ ຈະຄ່ ອຍໆຫຼຸ ດປະລິ ມານໃນ ການເກັ ບກັ ກນໍ້າລົ ງຢ່ າງຕໍ່ ເນື່ ອງຈົ ນກວ່ າພື້ ນທີ່ ອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າຈະເຕັ ມ ໄປດ້ ວຍຕະກອນ (Morris and Fan, 1997;Thorne et al., 2011;Fuet al., 2008). Compiled by: Ilse Pukinskis  (Lu and Siew, 2006;Fu and He, 2007;Kummu and Varis, 2007;Adamson, 2009;Wang, et al., 2011  (Thorne et al.,2011;Adamson, 2009).ເຂື່ ອນໄດ້ ປ່ ຽນແປງຄຸ ນນະພາບຂອງແມ່ ນໍ້າໃນການເຄື່ ອນຍ້ າຍຕະກອນ ແລະ ທັ ງຫຼຸ ດຈໍານວນ ຕະກອນທີ່ ມີ ຢູ ່ ລົ ງອີ ກດ້ ວຍ (Kummu and Varis, 2007). ການຫຼຸ ດລົ ງຫຼາຍຂອງຕະກອນ ສາມາດກະຕຸ ້ ນການ ປ່ ຽນແປງຢ່ າງໃຫຍ່ ຫຼວງໃຫ້ ແກ່ ຮູ ບຮ່ າງ, ເສັ້ ນທາງ ແລະ ໂຄງສ້ າງຂອງ ແມ່ ນໍ້າ ເຊິ່ ງຈະກະທົ ບຕໍ່ ທີ່ ຢູ ່ ອາໄສ, ລະບົ ບນິ ເວດວິ ທະຍາ ແລະຜົ ນຜະລິ ດ ດ້ ານກະສິ ກໍາອີ ກດ້ ວຍ (MRC, 2011). ໃນເຂດອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າກ້ ອງເຂື່ ອນ, ຜົ ນກະທົ ບທີ່ ມັ ກເກີ ດຂຶ້ ນແມ່ ນໄດ້ ກວມເອົ າບັ ນຫາການປ່ ຽນແປງ ຂອງລະບົ ບນິ ເວດ, ຄວາມໃສຂອງນໍ້າ, ສົ ມດູ ນຂອງຕະກອນ, ປະລິ ມານສານອາຫານ ແລະ ທິ ດທາງການໄຫຼຂອງນໍ້າ (Morris and Fan, 1997). ການປ່ ຽນແປງຂອງການເຄື່ ອນທີ່ ຂອງຕະກອນ ແລະ ກະແສການໄຫຼຂອງນໍ້າສາມາດສ້ າງຄວາມເສຍຫາຍໄດ້ ໂດຍສະເພາະກໍ່ ແມ່ ນເຂດແຄມນໍ້າ ແລະ ເຂດນອກແຄມນໍ້າ (ICEM, 2010;Fuet al.,2008;MRC, 2011;MRC, 2009).ໄດ້ ມີ ການຄາດຄະເນວ່ າ ປະລິ ມານນໍ້າໃນອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າທີ່ ມີ ໃນໂລກ ໄດ້ ສູ ນເສຍເນື້ ອທີ່ ໃນການຕົ ກຕະກອນເຖິ ງ 1% ໃນແຕ່ ລະປີ . ພື້ ນທີ່ ໃນການກັ ກເກັ ບນໍ້າທີ່ ເສຍໄປນັ້ ນ ໄດ້ ສ້ າງຄວາມເສຍຫາຍໃຫ້ ແກ່ ເຂື່ ອນ ໄຟຟ້ ານໍ້າຕົ ກກໍ່ ຄື ມັ ນເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ປະລິ ມານນໍ້າໃນອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າເພື່ ອ ຜະລິ ດໄຟຟ້ າຫຼຸ ດລົ ງ (Morris and Fan, 1997;Fu et al., 2008)  (Morris and Fan, 1997). ນັ ກອອກແບບເຂື່ ອນພະຍາຍາມທີ່ ຈະ ຫຼຸ ດປະລິ ມານຕະກອນທີ່ ຖື ກກັ ກໄວ້ ເພື່ ອຮັ ບປະກັ ນການດໍາເນີ ນງານ ຂອງເຂື່ ອນໃຫ້ ຍາວນານຂື້ ນຕະຫຼອດເຖິ ງຄວາມປອດໄພຂອງໂຄງ ສ້ າງອີ ກດ້ ວຍ (MRC, 2009;Morris and Fan, 1997).ເຂື່ ອນທີ່ ກັ ກເກັ ບຕະກອນໄວ້ ຈະປ່ ອຍນໍ້າເພື່ ອຫຼຸ ດຜ່ ອນການເຄື່ ອນ ທີ່ ຂອງຕະກອນ, ດັ່ ງນັ້ ນ ຈິ່ ງເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ຕ້ ອງໃຊ້ ອຸ ປະກອນຊ່ ວຍເຂົ້ າໃນ ການເຄື່ ອນຍ້ າຍ (Kondolf, 2008)  Kummu and Varis, 2007;Roberts, 2004;Thorne et al.,2011;WCD, 2000;Morris and Fan, 1997)  (Koponenet al., 2010;Lu and Siew, 2006;Thorne et al., 2011;MRC, 2011;Rosenberg et al., 1997;Nikula, 2005)  (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Morris and Fan, 1997;WCD, 2000). ປາໃນແມ່ ນໍ້າຂອງ ສ່ ວນຫຼາຍແມ່ ນວາງໄຂ່ ຢູ ່ ພື້ ນນໍ້າ, ດັ່ ງນັ້ ນ, ການເພີ່ ມຂຶ້ ນຂອງຕະກອນ ແລະ ຕົ ມອາດຈະຝັ ງຫຼື ທໍາລາຍໄຂ່ ຂອງປານັ້ ນໄດ້ (MRC, 2011;MRC, 2010;ICEM, 2010;Roberts, 2004).ການກັ ກເກັ ບຕະກອນຢູ ່ ເຂດກ້ ອງເຂື່ ອນ, ສາມາດເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ທັ ງຊີ ວະນາໆ ພັ ນ ແລະ ຄວາມອຸ ດົ ມສົ ມບູ ນຂອງຊະນິ ດພັ ນປາ ແລະ ສິ່ ງມີ ຊີ ວິ ດ ໃນນໍ້າເຊື່ ອມໂຊມລົ ງ. ການປັ ບຕົ ວໃຫ້ ແທດເໝາະກັ ບເງື່ ອນໄຂຂອງ ຕະກອນທີ່ ມີ ຫຼາຍເກີ ນໄປໃນລຸ ່ ມແມ່ ນໍ້າຂອງ, ປາ ແລະ ສິ່ ງທີ່ ມີ ຊີ ວິ ດ ໃນນໍ້າອາດຈະບໍ່ ສາມາດປັ ບຕົ ວເຂົ້ າກັ ບການປ່ ຽນແປງດ້ ານສານ ອາຫານ ແລະ ການວາງໄຂ່ ໃນພື້ ນທີ່ ດັ່ ງກ່ າວໄດ້ (Kummu and Varis, 2007;Morris and Fan, 1997;WCD, 2000). ການຫຼຸ ດ ລົ ງຂອງສານອາຫານທີ່ ມີ ຈະສົ່ ງຜົ ນຕໍ່ ກັ ບການຂະຫຍາຍຕົ ວຂອງ ພື ດນໍ້າ ເຊິ່ ງເປັ ນແຫຼ່ ງອາຫານຫຼັ ກຂອງປາໃນແມ່ ນໍ້າຂອງ ແລະ ເປັ ນ ອົ ງປະກອບຫຼັ ກຂອງຕ່ ອງໂສ້ ອາຫານໃນນໍ້າ (MRC, 2011(MRC, , 2010;;ICEM, 2010;Roberts, 2004). ນອກຈາກນີ້ ກໍ ຍັ ງອາດເກີ ດຜົ ນ ເສຍຕໍ່ ກັ ບການປະມົ ງອີ ກດ້ ວຍ (MRC, 2011;Haiet al., 2009)  (Wyatt and Baird, 2007).  (ICEM, 2010;Haiet al., 2009).ການເດີ ນເຮື ອເພື່ ອການຄ້ າ ຫຼື ເພື່ ອການດໍາລົ ງຊີ ວິ ດປະຈໍາວັ ນ ກໍ ຈະ ໄດ້ ຮັ ບຜົ ນກະທົ ບຈາກການສັ່ ງສົ ມໃນພື້ ນທີ່ ປິ ດ, ເຂດສາມຫຼ່ ຽມ, ທ່ າເຮື ອ ແລະ ທາງເດີ ນເຮື ອ ໃນຊ່ ວງໄລຍະທີ່ ມີ ການປ່ ອຍນໍ້າອອກ ຈາກ ເຂື່ ອນ (Morris and Fan, 1997)  (Hori, 2000).  (MRC, 2005;Sarkkulaet al.,2003;Kummuet al., 2008;Nikula 2005;Zalingeet al., 2003;Sarkkulaet al., 2003;Zalingeet al., 2003).ຄວາມເຂັ້ ມຂຸ ້ ນຂອງຕະກອນແຂວນລອຍທີ່ ຫຼຸ ດລົ ງ ເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ເກີ ດມີ ຄວາມ ສ່ ຽງຮ້ າຍແຮງຕໍ່ ກັ ບຄວາມສົ ມດູ ນຂອງສານອາຫານໃນແຫຼ່ ງນໍ້າ ແລະ ສົ່ ງຜົ ນຕໍ່ ຜົ ນຜະລິ ດທີ່ ເກີ ດຈາກລະບົ ບດັ່ ງກ່ າວ (ICEM, 2010;Sarkkulaet al.,2003;Koponenet al., 2010). ຄວາມອຸ ດົ ມສົ ມບູ ນ ທີ່ ຫຼຸ ດລົ ງຂອງປ່ າຊາຍເລນທີ່ ຕອບສະໜອງບ່ ອນຢູ ່ ອາໄສ ແລະ ບ່ ອນ ເພາະພັ ນປາທີ່ ສໍາຄັ ນອາດຈະຫຼຸ ດລົ ງ (Kummuet al., 2008). ຖ້ າຫາກເຂື່ ອນຂະໜາດໃຫຍ່ ແລະ ນ້ ອຍໄດ້ ມີ ການກໍ່ ສ້ າງຂຶ້ ນ, ມີ ການຄາດຄະເນວ່ າຜົ ນຜະລິ ດໃນພື້ ນທີ່ ໃຫຍ່ ຂອງທົ່ ງພຽງນໍ້າຖ້ ວມ ກໍາປູ ເຈຍຈະຫຼຸ ດລົ ງເຄິ່ ງໜຶ່ ງ (Koponenet al., 2010).ບົ ດສຶ ກສາຄົ້ ນຄວ້ າບາງບົ ດໄດ້ ມີ ການຄາດຄະເນວ່ າມີ ຕະກອນປະ ມານ 79 ລ້ ານ ເມຕຼ ິ ກໂຕນໄຫຼເຂົ້ າສູ ່ ເຂດສາມຫຼ່ ຽມແມ່ ນໍ້າຂອງ ຫວຽດນາມໃນແຕ່ ລະປີ ເຊິ່ ງ 9 ຫາ 13 ລ້ ານໂຕນ ແມ່ ນຕົ ກຄ້ າງຢູ ່ ຕາມ ທົ່ ງພຽງນໍ້າຖ້ ວມ ແລະສ່ ວນທີ່ ເຫຼື ອແມ່ ນໄປຊ່ ວຍເສີ ມພື້ ນທີ່ ໃຫ້ ແກ່ ເຂດສາມຫຼ່ ຽມ ແລະ ເພີ່ ມຝຸ ່ ນໃສ່ ເຂດການປະມົ ງຊາຍຝັ່ ງ (Huang and Tamai, 1999;Fox and Sneddon, 2005). ຕະກອນທີ່ ຄ້ າງ ຢູ ່ ຕາມຊາຍຝັ່ ງແຄມນໍ້າຕື້ ນຊ່ ວຍປ້ ອງກັ ນການເຊາະເຈື່ ອນຂອງ ຊາຍຝັ່ ງຈາກຄື້ ນໃນນໍ້າ. ຕະກອນທີ່ ຫຼຸ ດລົ ງຈະເຮັ ດໃຫ້ ຊາຍຝັ່ ງເກີ ດ ການເຊາະເຈື່ ອນ (Wolanskiet al.,1996)  (Thorne et al., 2011). ການເຄື່ ອນຍ້ າຍຫຼື ການກໍາຈັ ດຕະກອນ ທີ່ ສະສົ ມໃນອ່ າງເກັ ບນໍ້າອອກແມ່ ນເປັ ນຂະບວນການທີ່ ມີ ລາຄາແພງ ແລະ ຫຍຸ ້ ງຍາກ (Morris and Fan, 1997)  (Thorne et al., 2011). ຄວາມຊັ ບຊ້ ອນຂອງປະຕິ ສໍາພັ ນລະຫວ່ າງຕະກອນ, ສານອາຫານ, ລະບົ ບນິ ເວດ ແລະ ຕົ ວແປອື່ ນໆອີ ກຫຼາຍຢ່ າງນັ້ ນ, ການທົ ດລອງໃນຕົ ວຈິ ງແມ່ ນຈະຕ້ ອງໄດ້ ມີ ການນກວດສອບຢ່ າງໃກ້ ຊິ ດ.","tokenCount":"1008"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"64b9ed24df5fe17243e0db152a2e8b4a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bbf2dd1b-fea0-4519-bc4a-75e8d36bce0c/retrieve","id":"1873221108"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26b1c7ba-1dd3-4493-a350-89c07715f27f","pagecount":"11","content":"T hroughout history, innovation has driven progress and helped people address the problems of their Age. This progress has not been achieved without pain and controversy. At times, war, famine, and pestilence thwart our best endeavors. Despite setbacks, people the world over continue to strive to understand the natural world, to pursue truth and beauty, and to create a better world for themselves and their children.Science has a role to play in all these pursuits. However, the very power of the new discoveries in the biological sciences raises fears that these discoveries will not be used wisely. Many believe that they will accelerate the destruction of the natural environment, damage human health, concentrate too much power in the hands of a few global companies, and widen the gap between the rich and the poor, within and between nations.The task of the Promethean scholars of today is to analyze where modern science can lead to technical innovations and how these can be used wisely to improve agricultural productivity, conserve natural resources, and create wealth especially for poor people in developing countries.A world of food-secure people is within our reach, if we take the necessary actions.The World Food Summit recognized that eradication of poverty is a critical step in improving access to food. Food security covers both the availability of food at the household level as well as access in terms of purchasing power (FAO 1996). Most people who are undernourished either cannot produce enough food or cannot afford to buy it. Reduction and elimination of poverty is therefore an integral part of the provision of sustainable global food security.Although the annual world agricultural growth rate has decreased from 3 percent in the 1960s to 2 percent in the last decade, projections indicate that, given reasonable initial assumptions , world food supply will continue to outpace world population growth, at least to 2020 (Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant 1999). Worldwide, per capita availability of food is projected to increase around 7 percent between 1995 and 2020, and for developing countries, by 9 percent (Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant 1999).The paradox is that despite the increasing availability of food, there are about 840 million people, or 13 percent of the global population, who are food insecure. These people are among the 4.5 billion inhabitants of the developing countries in Asia (48 percent), Africa (35 percent), and Latin America (17 percent). Of these 840 mil-lion, at least 200 million are malnourished children.It is also paradoxical that food insecurity is so prevalent at a time when global food prices are generally in decline. World cereal production doubled between 1960 and 1990, per capita food production increased 37 percent, calories supplied increased 35 percent, and real food prices fell by almost 50 percent (McCalla 1998).The basic cause of the paradox is the intrinsic linkage between poverty and food security. Simply put, people' s access to food depends on income.Poverty is both a rural and an urban phenomenon. Over 1.3 billion people in developing countries are absolutely poor, with incomes of US$1 per day or less per person, while another 2 billion people are only marginally better off (World Bank 1997). Malnutrition kills 40,000 people each day. Children and women are most vulnerable to dietary deficiencies, with 125 million children affected by vitamin A deficiency. Many of the poor today live in the low-potential rural areas of the world. With increasing urbanization, a higher proportion of poor people will be living in the cities of the developing countries. The rate of increase of the urban population in the developing countries will be approximately six-fold that of rural areas (Figure 1). Ensuring their access to sufficient nutritious food at affordable prices is also an important component of global food security strategies. Agricultural research needs to respond to both of these challenges, so as to improve the livelihood of the rural poor and ensure the increased availability of nutritious food at affordable prices for the urban poor.Food security is a complex issue that involves:• Not just production, but also access • Not just output, but also process • Not just technology, but also policy • Not just global, but also national • Not just national, but also household • Not just rural, but also urban • Not just amount, but also content.Food production is a necessary but not sufficient condition for food security. Focusing on improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers in developing countries is key to environmental protection, poverty reduction, and food security. The need is to produce differently, not to produce less.Humanity has a narrow food base. Twelve crops account for 95 percent of the plant food base. These are banana/plantain, cassava,  There is also an increasing demand for milk and meat in the developing countries, as dietary preferences change, with increasing urbanization. Indeed, some consider that a \"livestock revolution\" is taking place in global agriculture that has profound implications for human health, livelihoods, and the environment. Population growth, urbanization, and income growth in developing countries are fueling a massive increase in demand for food of animal origin. These changes in the diets of billions of people could significantly improve the well-being of many rural and urban poor (Delgado and others 1999). Although some of this increase will be met by local rangeland production, some also requires increased production and/or import of feed grains and more intensive livestock production. FAO has nominated 14 priority species in its global strategy on farm animal genetic resources. The most important of these for food production are cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. Fish are also an increasingly important component of the diet in developing countries (FAO 1999).Yields of maize, wheat, and rice in developing countries increased from 1.15 to 2.76 tons/hectare between 1961 and 1998. In Africa, they increased from 0.81 to 1.22 tons/hectare over the same period. This presents a significant opportunity to raise cereal production in Africa through yield increases. Globally, meat production in-creased from 71 million tons in 1961 to 226 million tons in 1999. For developing countries, it increased from 20 million tons to 122 million tons over the same period (Delgado and others 1999).Demands for food in developing countries are met by both local production and imports. Currently the developing world is a net importer of 88 million tons of cereals/ year at a cost of US$14.5 billion. Since the 1970s the developing countries have become large net importers of milk and meat as demand for livestock products increasingly exceeds supply. Net meat imports by developing countries will increase eightfold between 1995 and 2020.Forecasts of future demands for plant and animal products that will drive the production/import requirements of the various regions of the developing world will need to take into account: (a) changes in dietary composition of both food and livestock products; (b) use of cereals as food and feed; and (c) the balance between production and import of plant and animal commodities.IFPRI projects that global demand for cereals will increase by 40 percent between 1995 and 2020, with most of the increase in demand coming from developing countries. This will include a doubling in demand for feed grains in the developing world. Net cereal imports by developing countries will almost double by 2020 to meet the gap between production and demand (Pinstrup-Andersen, Pandya-Lorch, and Rosegrant 1999) (see Figures 2 and 3).  Source: IFPRI IMPACT simulations, July 1999.The food production increases over the past 40 years have been achieved by increasing productivity of cereals, expanding the area of arable land, and massive increases in fertilizer use.The key element in improving food security during 1960-99 was government policies reflecting a belief that investments in improving agricultural productivity were a prerequisite to initiating the process of economic development. These policies were supported by both the public and private sectors of the international community. The successful implementation of these policies led to the Green Revolution. Attention was given to the following issues: research and development; technology transfer; human resource development; The scientific basis for the green revolution stems from joint national and international research programs, which led to the development and distribution of new, high-yielding varieties, primarily of wheat and rice. These varieties gave improved yields, especially when grown in favorable environments with the addition of fertilizer and pesticides.Plant breeding was carried out with multiple sites worldwide, north and south of the equator. These trials were associated with comprehensive production training programs for scientists and technicians from national agricultural research systems. Informative data on the performance of the genetic materials were provided back to the coordinating center. Local breeding and selection programs were later initiated by the national agricultural research systems, based on the international breeding materials crossed with locally adapted material. This increased the availability of locally adapted varieties for different ecosystems.The international agricultural research centers also undertook the collection and conservation of the germplasm of their mandate crops, established and maintained large ex situ collections of this genetic material, and undertook its partial phenotypic characterization. Some hundreds of thousands of accessions are now held in trust by the CGIAR Centers, under the auspices of the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources.To meet the food security needs of the world' s people in the decades ahead and to create wealth, there is a need to increase agricultural productivity on the presently available land while conserving the natural resource base (Conway 1997). Such a revolution would involve:• Increasing productivity of the major food crops • Reducing chemical inputs of fertilizers and pesticides and replacing these with biologically based products • Integrating soil, water, and nutrient management • Improving the productivity of livestock.The challenge now is how to use new developments in modern science, communications technology, and new ways of managing knowledge to make complex agricultural systems of smallholder farmers more productive in a sustainable way. These issues make for a complex research agenda to improve food security and create wealth. This new research agenda needs to combine traditional wisdom with modern science.There is a double shift in the research paradigm: firstly, the need for greater contextualization of research, to be undertaken in the context of the deeper understanding of the suatainable management of the environment and the socioeconomic and gender issues that affect the livelihoods of poor people in rural and urban areas. This research will need to seek synergies within the farming systems of smallholders, who integrate crop agriculture, livestock, agroforestry, and aquaculture in complex farming systems.The second shift is the need to mobilize the new revolution in genetics and biotechnology to improve the productivity of agroecological systems and the crops, livestock, fish, trees and other species important to poor people and developing countries.Without minimizing in any way the vital importance of the first shift, this monograph is devoted to a discussion of the second shift, the challenge of harnessing of the new findings in biotechnology for the benefit of the poor and the environment.The annual rates of return to investment in agricultural research average 50-80 percent. Thus well directed agricultural research and development programs remain a wise investment of public funds (Alston and others 2000).There have been several forces that have resulted in the restructuring, downsizing, and refinancing of agricultural and natural resources research systems in industrial and developing countries over the past decade. They include increasing privatization and competition amongst research providers. These changes are also having a significant impact on donor perceptions, policies, and financial support for national and international agricultural research.There is a trend toward decreasing public sector investments in research and development. This is partially offset by increasing private sector investments largely aimed at generating new products and processes through biotechnological advances. There is also an increasing use of participatory processes involving farmers, civil society, and other stakeholders in the financing, planning, and conduct of research and technology transfer. These approaches seek to enhance successful delivery of useful products and decisionsupport systems to farmers and consumers.The coming into force of several international treaties and conventions have also increased the pressure on national governments to meet international obligations.New developments in modern biotechnology, information technology, and geographic information systems are revolutionizing global research and development in agriculture and natural resources research. Partnerships between national agencies and international groups may often be the most effective means of developing and delivering new agricultural research technologies of a public goods nature.These programs need to involve various combinations of national agricultural research systems, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, farmer groups, advanced research organizations, and the international agricultural research centers.This challenge requires the CGIAR to work with more partners, in a wider array of environments, with a broader range of commodities, often grown in mixed systems, and with concern for maintaining the physical and genetic resource base.Rapid progress is being made in understanding the genetic basis of living organisms, and the ability to use that understanding to develop new products and processes useful in human and animal health, food and agriculture, and the environment.There is now increasing use of modern molecular genetics for genetic mapping and marker-assisted selection as aids to improve crops, livestock, fish, and tree species. Other biotechnology applications such as tissue culture and new diagnostics and animal vaccines are being widely adopted.Harnessing the full power of the genetic revolution requires going beyond these early applications of modern biotechnology, and recognizing the power of the new revolution in genomics and associated technologies as aids for genetic improvement. The new technologies will enable greatly increased efficiency of selection for valuable genes, based on knowledge of the biology of the organism, the function of specific genes, and their role in regulating particular traits. This will enable more precise selection of improved strains at the molecular as well as the phenotypic level.Biotechnology (see Box 1) offers both promise and perils for the world community. In human health, it offers new ways to understand the genetic basis of diseases, and to develop improved diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines for their treatment. In agriculture and forestry, it promises new ways to harness and improve the biological potential of crops, livestock, fish, and trees, and improved ways to diagnose and control the pests and pathogens that damage them.The perils lie in the profound ethical issues surrounding the control and use of Biotechnology is any technique that uses living organisms or parts thereof to make or modify a product, improve plants or animals, or develop microorganisms for specific uses.All the characteristics of any given organism are encoded within its genetic material, which consists of the collection of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules that exist in each cell of the organism. The complete set of DNA molecules in an organism comprises its genome. The genome is divided into a series of functional units, called genes. . . . . Typical crop plants contain 20,000 to 25,000 such genes.The genome contains two copies of each gene, one having been received from each parent. The collection of traits displayed by any organism (phenotype) depends on which genes are present in its genome (genotype). The appearance of any specific phenotype trait also will depend on many other factors, including whether the genetic information responsible for the trait (or genes) associated with it is turned on (expressed) or off, the specific cells within which the genes are expressed, and how the genes, their expression, and the gene products interact with environmental factors (genotype x environment effects). these powerful new technologies, and the assessment and management of risks to human health and the environment associated with specific applications. These issues have led to rising public concerns in some countries about various applications of biotechnology. The concerns have been stimulated by an activist campaign against the use of genetically improved organisms in food and agriculture and their release into the environment. Modern biotechnology raises profound issues, but it also offers enormous promise for dealing with previously intractable problems.The key policy issues that will affect the application of new developments in modern biotechnology for the public good are ethics, food and environmental safety, economic concentration, and intellectual property management.A wealth of scientific and popular discussion exists about the benefits and risks of genetic engineering and biotechnology. Confusion surrounds the issue of biotechnology' s risks and benefits. What are the social and ethical issues surrounding the use of biotechnology to improve food security and alleviate poverty? Current public debate about the \"gene revolution\" often does not sufficiently differentiate between risks inherent in a technology and those that transcend it. This differentiation is important in any attempt to reason out the social and ethical implications of biotechnology (Leisinger 2000).Since the early 1970s, recombinant DNA technology has enabled scientists to genetically modify plants, animals, and microorganisms and introduce a greater diversity of genes, including genes from distantly related species, into organisms than traditional methods of breeding and selection. Organisms genetically modified in this way are called living modified organisms. Concerns exist about the potential risks posed by living modified organisms. The principles and practices required for assessment of technology-inherent risks are well established and draw on the experience of individual countries and regional and international organizations. From an ethical perspective, risks disallowed in industrial countries should not be exported to developing countries. If genetically engineered organisms and biotechnological procedures are used in developing countries, state-of-the-art quality management that takes local ecological conditions into account must be practiced. Such risk assessments allow governments, communities, and business to make informed decisions about the benefits and risks inherent in using a particular technology to solve specific problems.Technology-transcending risks emanate from the political and social context in which a technology is used. These risks stem from both the course the global economy takes and country-specific political and social issues. The most critical fears have to do with the potential aggravation of the prosperity gap between industrial and developing countries and growing disparities in the distribution of income and wealth within and between developing countries. The gap in prosperity between industrial and developing countries may grow because of the possible substitution of genetically engineered products for tropical agricultural exports and because the industrial world may not adequately compensate the developing world for exploiting its indigenous genetic resources.Widespread fear exists that private enterprises and research institutes could gain unremunerated control of the genes of plants native to the developing world and use them to produce superior varieties that would then be sold back to developing countries at high prices. The successful implementation of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity so that it becomes clear who should compensate whom for what and for how much needs unequivocal regulation. Simple and effective ways need to be found to establish fair compensation.In assessing the potential impact of biotechnology on food security and povertty alleviation, the interpretation of data is subject to the interests and value judgments of a variety of stakeholders. Identical information can lead some to consider agricultural biotechnologies to be amongst the most powerful and economically promising means of ensuring food security, while others perceive them as a threat to development in poor countries. Differing realities and pluralism of opinion exist. Biotechnology involves a number of economic, social, and ecological risks. But these risks are not a consequence of the technology per se. They arise from particular social settings, transcending the nature of the technology employed within those settings. There are also ethical issues involved in not pursuing the use of new technologies that may contribute to improving the productivity and sustainability of agriculture, especially in developing countries (Nuffield Council on Bioethics 1999). All these issues need to be openly debated, and choices made by individuals and nations.An open, transparent, and inclusive food safety policy and regulatory process is re-quired, which takes account of public concerns about genetically improved foods. Many consumers in North America, Europe, and China have been eating genetically improved food over the past several years, without any demonstrated adverse effects on human health. The concept and practice of risk assessment, including consistent approaches to the use of substantial equivalence and the precautionary principle, are valuable tools but need to be kept under review.Food labeling, whether mandatory or voluntary, could be used to provide information about specific products and enable consumers to make informed decisions about their use. The potential long-term impact of genetically improved foods on human health, worker safety, and the environment is unknown, and requires monitoring and research. Methods are available to test allergenicity and toxicity of novel genetically improved foods in humans. Post-market monitoring of such foods may be possible in some markets but impractical in others.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will report in mid 2000 to the G8 Summit on key issues, including:• Factual points of departure where there is agreement and disagreement • Benefits versus risks, which differ for different countries and environments • Management of genetic modification technologies • The role of stakeholders • An international program of activities to inform the public debate and policymaking.When addressing risks posed by the cultivation of plants in the environment, six part1rev.p65 5/2/2000, 2:19 PM 9 safety issues need to be considered (Cook 2000;NRC 2000). These are • gene transfer to wild relatives • weediness • trait effects • genetic and phenotypic variability • expression of genetic material from pathogens • worker safety.Review of these issues is inherent in the regulatory systems in place today (Doyle and Persley 1996).The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was agreed to by 130 governments in Montreal in January 2000. The Biosafety Protocol is intended to specify obligations for international transfer of living modified organisms that may threaten biodiversity. It sets out means of risk assessment, risk management, advance informed agreement, technology transfer, and capacity building.Under the Protocol, governments will signal whether they are willing to accept imports of living modified organisms intended for release into the environment, by communicating their decision via a Biosafety Clearing House. Information on living modified organisms that may be contained in shipments of commodities will also be provided to importing countries.Advanced Informed Agreement procedures will apply to the introduction of seeds, live fish, attenuated vaccines, and other living modified organisms that are to be intentionally introduced into the environment and which may threaten biodiversity. In all these cases, the exporter must provide detailed information to each importing country in advance of the first shipment, and the importer must then au-thorize the shipment within a one-year period. The Protocol also outlines general procedures for risk assessment. The aim is to ensure that recipient countries have both the opportunity and the capacity to assess any risks to biodiversity involving the products of modern biotechnology. Capacity building is also an important component of the agreement. The Protocol and the World Trade Organization are intended to be mutually supportive. The Protocol is not to affect the rights and obligations of governments under any existing international agreements.To ensure the safe use of biotechnology in the environment, there is a need for continuing emphasis on:• Efficient and cost-effective regulatory systems at the institutional and national levels The trend toward intellectual property protection in biosciences has had several important structural consequences. The private sector life sciences industry has become increasingly centralized. About six companies dominate what was once an industry in which many more small compa- New scientific discoveries in biotechnology may be protected by plant variety protection, patents, and/or trade secrets.Countries differ in what forms of intellectual property protection may be applied to specific inventions. The 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights requires all members to provide at least a sui generis system of protection for plant varieties. Industrial country moves toward intellectual property protection of the products of biotechnology have led to developing country moves to protect the genetic sources. This culminated in the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. This agreement made it clear that nations could enact legislation protecting the export of genetic resources, by arrangements to share the benefits should there be financial return from the exported genetic resources.Because the private sector holds many of the advanced biotechnologies, the pub-licly funded agricultural research community must also develop an effective approach to cooperation with the private sector in research and product development. The public sector needs to develop a policy toward intellectual property protection for its own discoveries. In doing so it should set the example in terms of benefit sharing with poor indigenous farmers, and also to consider the possibility for the public sector to obtain intellectual property protection to have bargaining chips to negotiate strategic alliances with multinational companies.For national governments, it would be desirable to design Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights-compliant legislation in a way that is beneficial to their agriculture, maintaining the possibility for a multilateral regime for germplasm acquisition and transfer. Legislation should be supplemented with improved capabilities in the courts, the law firms, and the law schools, so that the law can be used effectively. There is a real possibility that an antitrust code can be negotiated and this is almost certainly beneficial for developing countries.Developing countries could also seek ways to use the intellectual property system to encourage research for their needs by giving incentives, such as market protection, to encourage private-sector research on products of benefit to the developing world, in a manner analogous to the Orphan Drug legislation. All such legislation should be the result of substantive public discussion and be adopted in a transparent fashion.","tokenCount":"4200"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"55c08cb2497fd108b27022db1bd0973c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bf74b25c-00b8-4114-9c27-fbaa1d945a16/retrieve","id":"-1728425366"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5f21618c-6aba-43e9-806b-2cb7c1c69e9b","pagecount":"6","content":"Oats are an annual grass, cultivated in the highlands of Ethiopia primarily under rain-fed conditions for grain, forage and fodder. They provide high yields of palatable, moderate-quality forage, mainly for sheep, dry dairy cows, beef cattle and horses [1]. A key winter fodder, oats are mainly provided as green feed, although the excess can be processed into silage or hay for use during fodder shortages (Figure 1).Oats are the preferred food/feed crop for livestock mainly in the central highlands of Ethiopia due to the production of soft straw, in addition to grain. With low nitrogen needs (60 kg/ha), oats can be grown in environmentally friendly no-till systems [2].Oats are well adapted to grow in cool and moist climates. In comparison to other cereal crops, oats exhibit a broad adaptability to marginal environments, particularly those with low fertility soils and coolwet conditions [3][4][5]. Furthermore, in contrast to most other cereal crops, oats display a remarkable tolerance to waterlogged conditions [6]. They are also known to thrive in a diverse range of soil types, including acidic soils [7]. Most of the global oat production is concentrated between latitudes 35-65º N, and 20-46º S [8]. Less winter hardy than wheat or rye Sensitive to hot and dry weather Susceptible to pests and diseases Field preparation: The field should be well drained and ploughed. Oats grow best in soil that is welldrained and a field that has been appropriately prepared. No-till planting is considered the optimal approach for establishment, although in certain scenarios shallow conventional tillage may be deemed necessary for purposes of nitrogen integration, facilitating weed control, and enhancing contact between the seeds and soil.Establishment: Seeds should be sown at a density of 25-120 kg/ha and a depth of 50-75 mm in rows spaced 18-25 cm apart, in moist soil, in a wellprepared seedbed. In mixtures with legumes, it is advised to sow 15-50 kg/ha of seeds. Forage oats are often sown in a mixture with a legume such as vetch (Vicia spp.), pea (Pisum sativum), or berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) [9][10][11].Time: Optimum sowing times vary for each variety in respective zones. Sowing too late or too early increases the risk of lower forage yield [12].Temperature: The optimum soil temperature for the germination and establishment of oats is 15-25 °C.Fertilizer: An initial application of nitrogen, ranging from 40-80 kg/ha is recommended during planting, but it should be kept separate from the seed, as the fertilizer can damage the seed and reduce its germination. Alternatively, the application of 100 kg/ ha manure is also a viable option that can replace nitrogen fertilizer at a similar rate [13]. An application of nitrogen after grazing (20-40 kg/ha) will increase the speed of plant recovery, reduce tiller death and increase overall forage yield [14].Weeding: Hand weeding and no-till techniques, such as crop rotation and applying herbicides with multiple modes of action (employ different types of herbicides that target different sites of action, to mitigate the development of chemical resistance in weeds) are appropriate [15].Major pests and diseases: Major pests that commonly infest oats are the cereal cyst nematode, stem nematode, thrips, cereal aphids (known for transmitting barley yellow dwarf virus), cutworms, webworms and lucerne flea [16][17][18].The oat diseases that pose a noteworthy global threat to productivity are crown rust, powdery mildew, fusarium head blight, leaf rust, stem rust, Septoria blotch, bacterial blight and barley yellow dwarf virus [8,19,20].Grazing: Begin grazing when plants are 6-8 inches tall, after the roots have had time to develop. For the quickest recovery, graze only to the height of the lowest stem node, which is about 5-6 inches above ground level [21]. Repeat grazing after a month of recovery [22].Harvesting: Oats harvested at the boot stage (when the grain swells in its sheath) will produce high-quality forage, suitable for lactating cows to maximize milk production. At this stage, oats are high in digestible fibre and crude protein [23].In contrast, harvesting during the dough stage results in oat silage with greater dry matter and energy value. However, such silage has lower crude protein content and palatability, making it a more viable option when a greater forage quantity is required [24]. When oats are designated for hay production, harvesting them at the milky dough stage represents an optimal balance between achieving high yield and maintaining high quality [25].Forage and seed production: Under favourable conditions, oats produce a high volume of forage biomass and grain yield. The average yield of forage dry matter ranges from 8.4 to 14.2 tons per hectare, while grain yield ranges from 0.75 to 2.40 tons per hectare [26].The differences observed in the dry matter of forage and seed yield of oats can be ascribed to variations in the genetic composition of different varieties, soil type, diverse rates of fertilizer application, the stage of growth during cutting, and the prevailing environmental conditions [25][26][27][28].Feed quality: Oats are a good source of energy, protein and vitamins. They have a high crude protein content (12-17%) with balanced amino acids and are gluten-free [29]. Crude protein content varies, depending on the stage of development; a high content in the boot stage and lower content in the late dough stage [30]. Contents of magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), phosphorous (P), calcium (Ca), and vitamins E and B1 are also higher in oats compared with other cereals [31]. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) forage genebank contains 122 oats accessions, including multiple improved varieties that have been developed and released for the purpose of fodder and grain production (as seen in Table 1). Moreover, through field experimentation, several promising accessions have been identified for both forage biomass and grain yield [1,26,31]. Consequently, these released varieties and promising accessions represent potential candidates for fodder evaluation and adaptation studies in diverse tropical environments with comparable climatic and edaphic conditions, thus facilitating the rapid development of improved varieties.To assess the suitability and effectiveness of oat varieties, a standardized field assessment is recommended to ensure the acquisition of dependable data for comparative analysis [32].Researchers conduct evaluations on recently released and experimental oat varieties to determine their potential for superior forage performance over a span of two to three years across different ecological conditions.Nutritional quality, yield and other factors are assessed during the experiment to select highperforming oat cultivars. For example, a field evaluation of oats aimed at releasing new varieties is currently being conducted at three locations in Ethiopia, starting from 2022 (a collaborative project between EIAR and ILRI).Figure 2 is an illustration of the field layout, which is a partially incomplete block design with two replications per site. Each accession is planted in two rows, a total of (2*13=26 rows) / per incomplete block / per replication. The distance is set at 1 m between incomplete blocks and 1.5 m between replications.4 As oats are a dual-purpose crop, the traits collected for evaluation include both forage biomass yield and quality, and grain yield.Phenological data: The number of days to 50% heading, full heading, dough stage and grain maturity data are collected from the field.Morphological data: Plant height, number of tillers, number of plants per plot, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area and stem thickness data are collected at the 50% flowering stage.Agronomic data: Fresh and dry biomass yield are recorded immediately after 90% pod maturity from 5-10 tagged plants. Fresh yield data is collected immediately after harvest. For dry biomass yield records, the weight is recorded after samples are dried in an oven at 70 o C for 72 hours.Grain data: The 500-grain weight, total grain weight, grain area, grain width and grain length data are collected from 500 randomly selected seeds.Feed nutrition data: After dry biomass yield is recorded, the oven-dried samples are used for the analysis of feed quality traits such as acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), crude protein (CP), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), metabolizable energy (ME), dry matter (DM), and ash.• Intercropping oats with legumes such as vetch (Vicia spp.), pea (Pisum sativum), or berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) [9][10][11], is effective at reducing diseases, suppressing weeds, capturing a greater share of available resources and improving the nutritive (protein) value of the crop compared to oats alone [33,34]. • The optimal sowing time differs for every variety within their respective zones. Deviating from the recommended sowing schedule poses a potential threat of yield reduction. • Avoid planting on steep slopes where there is an increased risk of losing valuable nutrients, organic matter and topsoil from erosion. • Higher fertilizer rates and seeding rates above 70 kg/ ha are not recommended because the former results in higher lodging of oat plants and the latter reduces seed size and quality [35]. • A nitrogen rate of 63 kg/ha was determined to be the optimal combination for achieving maximum yield in the production of oats [36]. • Harvesting oats early for hay or silage improves the legume establishment process. This is because oats compete with the legumes for moisture and essential nutrients during the year. • The timely harvesting of silage prevents lodging and smothering issues that tend to arise later in the growing season. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is a non-profit institution helping people in low-and middle-income countries to improve their lives, livelihoods and lands through the animals that remain the backbone of small-scale agriculture and enterprise across the developing world. ILRI belongs to CGIAR, a global research-for-development partnership working for a food-secure future. ILRI's funders, through the CGIAR Trust Fund, and its many partners make ILRI's work possible and its mission a reality. Australian animal scientist and Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty serves as ILRI's patron. You are free to use and share this material under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence .better lives through livestock ilri.org","tokenCount":"1618"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"08f716409b09b0215dfe4f6140fe8041","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d4f10a13-8347-4705-ba42-03b28fd6da2d/retrieve","id":"1895940834"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"20c959d2-7baa-4c6b-bcb3-575e7a0c05d3","pagecount":"45","content":"Dans le cadre du projet de détection précoce, de rapportage et de surveillance de l'influenza aviaire en Afrique, financé par l'Agence américaine pour le développement international (USAID), un certain nombre de formations en surveillance participative de la maladie (SPM) concernant l'influenza aviaire hautement pathogène (IAHP) ont été réalisés en Afrique de l'Ouest et de l'Est en 2008 et 2009. L'objet de ce manuel est d'offrir une référence aux vétérinaires et aux agents de santé animale pendant et après une formation en SPM. Le manuel est principalement axé sur la SPM de l'IAHP, mais les méthodes peuvent être facilement adaptées et appliquées à d'autres maladies du bétail.L'épidémiologie est l'étude des différents tableaux de la maladie au sein des populations.L'épidémiologie participative (EP) est l'utilisation d'approches et de méthodes participatives pour améliorer notre compréhension des tableaux des maladies au sein des populations. Ces approches et méthodes sont dérivées de l'évaluation participative.La participation est l'habilitation des populations leur permettant de trouver des solutions à leurs propres problèmes de développement. C'est à la fois une attitude et une philosophie qui encourage l'apprentissage, la découverte et la flexibilité.L'évaluation participative (EP/PA) est une famille d'approches et de méthodes qui permet aux populations de présenter, partager et analyser leur connaissance de la vie et des maladies, de planifier et d'agir. Elle est participative, flexible, de structure légère, adaptable, exploratoire, stimulante et inventive. Les types d'évaluation participative incluent une évaluation rurale rapide, une évaluation rurale participative (ERP), la recherche en systèmes de production et l'étude d'impact participative.Un groupe de praticiens et de formateurs en EP a élaboré les déclarations suivantes permettant de décrire l'EP : L'EP est une approche à l'épidémiologie, incluant notamment la surveillance active, réalisée par des professionnels et elle est sensible et utile à la communauté ;C'est un dialogue interactif conduit au sein de la communauté et combinant des informations scientifiques et traditionnelles à l'aide d'outils de PRA, permettant à l'enquêté et à la communauté de faire des découvertes ;Elle est flexible, semi-structurée et adaptable au changement de situations. Des données provenant de sources multiples sont rapidement analysées, permettant une réaction et une réponse rapides ;Elle est fondée sur un partenariat égal fait de respect et de confiance mutuels et encourage une attitude positive permettant l'autonomisation de la communauté.Comportement et attitude : écouter, apprendre et respecter. Avoir l'esprit ouvert. Etre un facilitateur et non un expert.Apprentissage mutuel : partager les connaissances, l'expérience et l'analyse.Combiner le savoir local et le savoir professionnel en vue d'une action acceptable, efficace. Etre préparé à désapprendre.Compréhension : les gens prennent des décisions rationnelles basées sur les informations qu'ils ont à leur disposition. S'il apparaît que les gens ne se comportent pas de manière rationnelle, c'est probablement parce que nous n'avons pas bien compris certains facteurs clés de la situation.Connaissances existantes : les gens accumulent un ensemble de connaissances sur les sujets qui sont importants pour leur subsistance. Certains individus ont des perspectives uniques et très valables sur les situations.Ignorance optimale : nous n'avons pas besoin de connaître chaque détail éventuel d'un problème pour pouvoir le résoudre.Elle est tournée vers l'action plutôt que basée sur les données.Dans l'épidémiologie, la maladie survient suite à des interactions entre l'hôte (l'animal), l'agent (exemple, les virus ou les bactéries) et l'environnement dans lequel sont présents l'hôte et l'agent (Figure 1). Les facteurs qui influencent la survenue de la maladie sont appelés déterminants (voir le Tableau 1). Le contexte social fait partie de l'environnement dans lequel la maladie survient ; il est déterminé par le comportement des populations. L'EP est une approche utile pour l'étude du contexte social dans lequel survient une maladie ainsi que d'autres aspects de l'interaction entre l'hôte, l'agent et l'environnement. Exemple : Fièvre de la côte orientale Pour l'observation de cas cliniques de la fièvre de la côte orientale (ECF) dans une population bovine, il faut une population bovine (l'hôte) susceptible d'être infectée par le Theileria parva (l'agent), par le vecteur de la tique (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus). La susceptibilité de la population bovine est déterminée par son âge, sa race, une exposition antérieure au T. parva, le statut de vaccination, etc. Pour la présence du T. parva dans la région, l'environnement doit être favorable au maintien du R. appendiculatus, par exemple, une température et une humidité appropriées qui peuvent être déterminées par la végétation, l'altitude et l'existence d'hôtes appropriés. L'exposition du bétail aux tiques est déterminée par les pratiques de gestion comme les méthodes de pâturage et la lutte contre les tiques.Méthodes d'épidémiologie participative L'EP est basée sur la communication et le transfert des connaissances, à partir d'une variété de méthodes. Il existe trois principaux groupes de méthodes :L'entretien informel : des entretiens semi-structurés avec des informateurs clés, des groupes de discussion ou des éleveurs individuels ; Le classement et l'évaluation : un classement simple, un classement par paires, l'empilement proportionnel (« proportional piling »), une matrice de cotation ; La visualisation : la cartographie, les calendriers, les calendriers saisonniers, les marches transversales.Ces méthodes sont complétées par : des sources d'information secondaire : obtenues avant de se rendre dans la zone d'étude et au cours de l'étude ; une observation directe des animaux, des fermes, des villages, etc. en étant dans la zone de l'étude ; des diagnostics de laboratoire : s'ils sont disponibles, des tests de diagnostic sur le terrain sont utilisés, complétés par une collecte et des essais d'échantillons effectués par un laboratoire national ou régional pour confirmation.Les données sont recoupées par des questions d'approfondissement, une triangulation et des diagnostics de laboratoire.L'épidémiologie est l'étude des différents tableaux de la maladie au sein des populations.La surveillance : La collecte d'informations et de renseignements tournés vers l'action dans des délais réalistes (information pour l'action).Un système de surveillance est un ensemble d'activités complémentaires, exemple : la recherche des cas, la déclaration des maladies et la confirmation de laboratoire.Selon une définition modifiée de Thacker et al. (1988), les sept caractéristiques d'un système de surveillance efficace sont les suivants : un taux élevé de détection : le système devrait pouvoir détecter autant d'épisodes de maladies que possible ; un système sensible et spécifique o la sensibilité est le nombre de cas réels qu'un système identifie correctement par rapport au nombre total de sujets réellement malades étudiés. Plus la sensibilité du système est élevée, plus l'on identifie de cas de sujets réellement malades (ce qui donne un nombre plus faible de cas faux négatifs) ; o la spécificité est le nombre d'animaux non malades qu'un système identifie correctement par rapport au nombre total de sujets réellement non malades examinés. Plus la spécificité d'un système est élevée, plus l'on identifie des animaux réellement non malades (ce qui donne un nombre plus faible de cas faux positifs). un système dans les temps : le système doit pouvoir détecter, enquêter, assurer un feedback et permettre l'action sur un épisode de maladie suspect dans des délais correspondant au cycle infectieux de la maladie ; un système représentatif : le système devrait refléter l'apparition réelle et la distribution de l'épisode dans toutes les communautés, les systèmes de production et les couches sociales ; un système flexible : le système devrait pouvoir détecter et prendre en compte les maladies émergentes ; un système simple : si les procédures sont trop difficiles, les paysans et le personnel chargé de la surveillance ne seront probablement pas motivés pour signaler, agir et lutter contre les épisodes de maladie suspects ; l'appropriation : les parties prenantes devraient avoir un sentiment d'appropriation en raison de leur participation à la conception du système et de la pertinence du résultat par rapport à leurs besoins.Dans la pratique, aucun système de surveillance singulier ne présentera ces sept caractéristiques, aussi un système de surveillance doit-il intégrer différentes activités pour répondre aux besoins des parties prenantes et atteindre ses buts et ses objectifs techniques. Une définition de cas clinique liste les principaux signes cliniques de la maladie concernée, sur la base de ce que l'agriculteur ou l'aviculteur est susceptible de savoir et de voir et peut vous dire ou vous montrer. La définition de cas clinique devrait être conçue de façon à cerner la plupart des animaux réellement malades (sensibilité élevée). Si les cas répondent à la définition du cas clinique, des mesures plus approfondies devraient alors être prises telles qu'un test diagnostic sur le terrain pour confirmer ou infirmer le diagnostic clinique.Vous trouverez ci-dessous une vue d'ensemble des différents outils basés sur plusieurs publications de référence clés (Pretty et al., 1995;Mariner et Paskin, 2000 ;Catley, 2005).Exemple : Flambée soudaine de décès dans la définition de cas dans la volaille (Indonésie, IAHP) Mort subite (moins de 4 heures) Avec ou sans Pétéchies ou oedème des pattes, cyanose de la crête, oedème de la tête, pétéchies sur la poitrine et les pattes, écoulement nasal, salivation, tête tombante, chute de ponte, baisse de la consommation alimentaire. N.B. S'applique au foyer et non à une volaille individuelle.Exemple : la définition clinique de la survenue de la stomatite-entérite (Rinderpest) Larmoiement Ecoulement nasal Plus deux ou plusieurs des signes suivants Fièvre, érosions/lésions orales, salivation, opacité cornéenne, diarrhée, mort N.B. S'applique au foyer et non à un animal individuel. L'interview est une technique spécialisée qui s'améliore avec la pratique. Bien que n'importe qui puisse recueillir des informations utiles dans le cadre d'un entretien, le volume et la fiabilité des informations obtenues peuvent grandement s'améliorer avec l'expérience.« Au coeur de toute bonne recherche et élaboration participatives se trouve la technique de l'entretien sensible. Sans cette technique, quelles que soient les autres méthodes que vous pourrez utiliser, la discussion produira des informations insuffisantes et une compréhension limitée. La discussion peut susciter la suspicion, la peur ou même l'hostilité chez les populations locales.L'entretien semi-structuré peut être défini comme suit : une conversation orientée dans laquelle seuls les thèmes sont prédéterminés et dans laquelle de nouvelles questions ou de nouveaux éclairages peuvent apparaître comme résultat de la discussion et des analyses visualisées ». (Pretty et al., 1995) La méthode de l'entretien est informelle mais elle a un objectif défini.  Dans les sociétés pastorales, l'aube et le crépuscule sont souvent les meilleurs moments pour trouver les propriétaires de bétail dans leurs campements, mais pas toujours les meilleurs moments pour les interviewer. Quant aux petits exploitants sédentaires, ils peuvent être occupés à leurs cultures dans la matinée ; il vaut mieux donc réaliser les entretiens dans l'après-midi.Demandez toujours si le moment est favorable et s'il ne l'est pas, quand vous pourriez avoir une rencontre. L'interview devrait être programmée pour environ une heure ; si elle dure plus longtemps, les participants commenceront à y perdre intérêt et la qualité des informations fournies diminuera. Apprenez à repérer les signes de fatigue et d'ennui. Les signes d'agitation et les conversations en aparté montrent, soit que l'interview a besoin d'être ranimée par le passage à un sujet présentant un plus grand intérêt pour les personnes enquêtées, soit qu'il est temps de terminer et de poser les quelques questions clés qui pourraient encore rester.La première étape de tout entretien, ce sont les présentations. Les membres de l'équipe de l'étude devraient se présenter et demander aux participants de se présenter. Votre introduction doit être précise mais ne pas influencer la réponse des participants. Par exemple, si vous mettez l'accent sur un sujet particulier tel que la volaille ou la péripneumonie contagieuse bovine (PPCB) dans votre présentation, les enquêtés mettront souvent un accent excessif sur ces sujets dans leurs réponses. Normalement, les équipes d'études devraient enregistrer les noms et l'affiliation communautaire des enquêtés. A ce stade, les enquêteurs devraient également essayer d'identifier si les enquêtés sont des participants adéquats pour l'évaluation en question. L'équipe d'évaluation doit faire attention de ne pas susciter des attentes chez la communauté concernant des projets ou services futurs. La présentation est une bonne occasion pour diffuser certaines de ces attentes en déclarant que l'évaluation n'est qu'une étude et que les membres de l'équipe d'évaluation ne sont pas les décideurs concernant les futurs programmes. Il est essentiel pour la fiabilité des informations collectées que les questions soient des questions ouvertes plutôt que des questions directives qui restreignent ou dirigent l'enquêté vers une réponse particulière ou un type de réponse particulier. Dans une évaluation concernant la santé animale, il est souvent préférable de commencer par une question comme : « Quels problèmes de santé animale rencontrez-vous ? ».Une bonne question ne fait pas d'hypothèses. Par exemple, si les enquêtés ont décrit un problème de maladie en cours qui correspond à la variole ovine et que vous voulez savoir quand des foyers sont survenus par le passé, vous aurez peut-être envie de demander : « Quand est-ce que cette maladie est apparue la dernière fois ? ». Mais il serait préférable de demander : « Avez-vous déjà vu cette maladie auparavant ? ».La première question présume que la maladie est déjà survenue et communique l'hypothèse aux enquêtés qui peuvent indiquer une année pour se montrer poli ou par crainte de sembler non informés. La deuxième question donne plus de liberté aux enquêtés pour déclarer ce qu'ils savent avec assurance.Les questions devraient être ordonnées de façon à ce que l'entretien progresse des thèmes généraux aux thèmes spécifiques. Autant que possible, les enquêtés devraient déterminer l'orientation de l'entretien. En conséquence, la plupart des questions ne peuvent pas être pré-planifiées. Elles doivent être conçues sur-le-champ à la lumière des informations déjà présentées et les enquêteurs doivent être capables de réfléchir de manière instantanée. Le fait que la plupart des questions ne puissent pas être pré-planifiées ne signifie pas qu'un nombre restreint de questions clés ne peuvent pas être insérées dans l'entretien. Par exemple, l'équipe d'évaluation peut avoir un intérêt particulier à élucider l'épidémiologie locale de la PPCB et souhaiter poser des questions dans chaque entretien sur la dernière apparition de la PPCB. Ceci peut se faire, mais il faut faire très attention au moment où la question sera posée dans le flux de l'entretien pour éviter de diriger la discussion. Si la maladie est endémique, les participants soulèveront probablement le sujet de la PPCB et l'équipe d'évaluation pourra poser sa question standard en toute sécurité. Si les participants n'introduisent pas le sujet de la PPCB, la question de la PPCB pourra être posée à la fin de l'entretien. Néanmoins, l'équipe d'évaluation devra noter que la communauté n'a pas introduit le sujet et que ceci démontre probablement que la PPCB n'est pas une priorité locale.Les questions quantitatives sur des sujets comme les taux de mortalité et la taille des troupeaux ne reçoivent pas de réponses très précises. Il vaut mieux généralement éviter ce type de question. Selon l'expérience des auteurs, les éleveurs savent exactement combien d'animaux ils possèdent ; c'est leur principale source de richesse. Mais, comme dans la plupart des sociétés, s'enquérir directement de la richesse en termes quantitatifs est impoli ou attire la malchance. Si les gens répondent, les paysans pauvres peuvent exagérer et les riches peuvent déprécier leurs possessions. McCauley et al (1983) ont apparemment collecté des données exactes sur la taille des troupeaux pour le calcul des taux de mortalité par la triangulation de trois éléments d'information : les informations des propriétaires ; l'observation directe des troupeaux ; les informations provenant de voisins sur les possessions du sujet en bétail.En EP/PA, le terme « poser des questions d'approfondissement » signifie poser des questions détaillées sur un sujet donné soulevé par les enquêtés. Poser des questions d'approfondissement est à la fois une technique de collecte de données et une technique de contrôle de la qualité des données. Cette méthode peut être utile pour vérifier la cohérence interne des informations ou simplement pour recueillir des informations plus détaillées sur un sujet donné. Dans le cas de l'EP, l'on utilise souvent les questions d'approfondissement pour obtenir une description plus détaillée d'une entité morbide particulière volontairement évoquée par un enquêté. Par exemple, les enquêtés peuvent décrire une maladie qui cause la mort subite dans le bétail sans rigidité cadavérique. L'équipe d'évaluation peut demander si la maladie peut affecter l'homme et, si c'est le cas, comment la maladie se manifeste chez l'homme. Une réponse positive avec une description caractéristique des abcès de l'anthrax confirmera cette description comme étant de l'anthrax.Vérifier la cohérence interne des informations est un moyen important de contrôle de la qualité des données en EP/PA. Poser des questions d'approfondissement permet d'établir le caractère plausible des déclarations faites par les participants en recueillant plus d'informations détaillées et en ayant une meilleure contextualisation de la question. Cela ne signifie pas qu'il faut poser des « questions pièges » ou chercher à amener les participants à se contredire. Le processus d'ERP est fondé sur le respect éclairé des opinions et des observations individuelles. L'on évalue avec respect la qualité et le mérite de toutes les déclarations provenant de tous les individus.Pendant les entretiens, il est très important d'observer et d'écouter. Les enquêtés sont-ils détendus et confiants ? Y a-t-il un contact visuel ? Quels types de langage corporel sont exprimés ? Y a-t-il des questions sensibles ? Est-ce que tout le monde participe ? Qui ne participe pas ? Y a-t-il des personnes qui sont à l'aise et d'autres pas ? Quelles sont les différences d'apparence entre les personnes qui participent et celles qui ne participent pas ? Est-ce le genre, la richesse ou l'âge, le problème (ne posez pas de questions, observez) ? Des entretiens de suivi peuvent être organisés avec des participants « non participants » dans des groupes où ils se sentiront peut-être plus à l'aise.En général, les propriétaires de bétail adorent parler de leur bétail. L'EP consiste à laisser les gens partager leurs connaissances et à apprendre auprès d'eux. Ecoutez. Soyez patients et ouverts.  Le classement par paires ou la comparaison est une méthode de classement légèrement plus complexe où chaque élément est comparé individuellement avec tous les autres éléments, l'un après l'autre. Le classement par paires peut être utilisé pour comprendre l'importance relative des différentes espèces ou maladies et, suite à des questions d'approfondissement, comprendre les avantages de différentes espèces ou l'impact de différentes maladies. Cholera aviaireMaladie de Newcastle Variole aviaire GumboroNombre de fois que la maladie a été choisieDans cet exemple, la ND vient en premier avec un score de 5, la typhose aviaire en second avec 4, la coccidiose en troisième avec 3, la maladie de Gumboro en quatrième avec 2, le choléra aviaire en cinquième avec 1 et la variole aviaire en dernier avec 0.Les questions d'approfondissement durant l'exercice permettent de comprendre le classement : Pourquoi la ND est la plus importante.Pourquoi la variole aviaire est la moins importante. Quels sont les aspects des maladies et de la volaille les plus importants pour la communauté.   Poser des questions d'approfondissement sur les différences et calculer les scores moyens des différents segments de la communauté, revient à analyser les résultats dissociés. Par exemple, les femmes évaluent souvent les maladies de manière très différente des hommes parce que leurs besoins et leurs préoccupations diffèrent de ceux des hommes.   3. Utilisez la liste de maladies courantes déjà donnée pendant l'entretien, écrivez les noms des maladies sur les cartes ou utilisez des images ou des objets pour représenter les maladies. N'utilisez pas plus de quatre ou cinq maladies, en regroupant toutes les autres maladies mentionnées dans une catégorie appelée « autres maladies ». 4. Utilisez les jetons affectés à la volaille ou aux animaux malades, demandez au fermier de diviser les jetons pour indiquer la proportion de la volaille ou des animaux qui ont souffert de l'une des maladies courantes au cours de l'année passée. 5. En prenant une maladie à la fois, demandez au fermier d'utiliser les jetons affectés à chaque maladie pour montrer la proportion de volailles/animaux qui sont morts sur l'ensemble de la volaille ou des animaux qui ont souffert de la maladie et la proportion de volailles/animaux qui ont été guéris. 6. Comptez les jetons à la fin, lorsque le fermier a fini d'évaluer chaque maladie. 7. Résumez et procédez à une vérification croisée des résultats avec le fermier.La morbidité globale du troupeau est c = 27 % La mortalité globale du troupeau est j + k + l + m + o = 19 % La létalité globale est (j + k + l + m + o)/c = 19/27 = 70 % Morbidité due à des maladies individuelles = d, e, f, g, h, i La mortalité de la maladie dans le troupeau spécifique est j/a, k/a, l/a, m/a, n/a, o/a Exemple, la mortalité du troupeau due à la ND est j/a = 13 % La létalité spécifique à la maladie est le nombre de morts par rapport au nombre de malades pour chaque maladie : j/d, k/e, l/f, m/g, n/h, o/i Exemple, la létalité due à la ND est j/d = 13/16 = 81 %   Si possible, laissez les jetons dans les différentes lignes jusqu'à la fin de l'exercice de façon à créer une vraie matrice qui indique les schémas de l'évaluation et afin que les participants puissent avoir une idée des différents signes liés aux différentes maladies. L'utilisation de cet outil requiert du temps, il est donc habituellement utilisé avec des fermiers particulièrement informés qui sont disposés à passer un peu plus de temps à discuter des maladies dans leur moindre détail.Environ cinq jetons sont utilisés par élément en haut de la matrice. L'exemple ci-dessus présente cinq maladies ; 30 jetons ont donc été utilisés. Si nous n'avions que quatre maladies, seuls 20 jetons seraient utilisés. Il est préférable de ne pas avoir plus de six éléments en haut de la matrice, avec un maximum de 10 à 12 indicateurs. Si vous en utilisez davantage, l'exercice devient plus complexe et plus long et les enquêtés y perdront intérêt.  Dans de nombreux pays, il est important d'obtenir tout d'abord le cycle saisonnier des pluies tandis que dans d'autres pays, il peut être pertinent d'obtenir le cycle saisonnier de la température ou de l'humidité. D'autres facteurs saisonniers comme la disponibilité de pâturage, l'accès à l'eau, la présence d'animaux ou d'oiseaux sauvages ou la présence de vecteurs peuvent être importants en fonction du système d'exploitation, des espèces et des maladies concernées. La gestion du bétail et les pratiques de commercialisation peuvent être saisonnières comme les mouvements du bétail, les saisons de mise bas, les abris, l'approvisionnement en stocks ou l'écoulement des stocks. Les activités humaines telles que les fêtes, les congés ou les moments où l'on a besoin d'argent peuvent affecter le nombre de têtes de bétail ainsi que la commercialisation et l'abattage. L'apparition saisonnière des principales maladies concernées et leurs vecteurs (le cas échéant) sont indiqués.Après avoir élaboré le calendrier saisonnier, les résultats sont ensuite discutés et approfondis avec les participants pour savoir pourquoi les choses se passent à certains moments et comment elles peuvent être liées ou non à d'autres facteurs.A partir des informations déjà recueillies plus tôt au cours de l'entretien, vous devriez déjà connaître les pratiques d'exploitation locale, les problèmes courants de maladies et avoir une certaine idée des facteurs qui peuvent affecter l'apparition des maladies. A partir de ces    Pendant l'élaboration du calendrier, les participants mentionneront souvent des facteurs de risque clés comme l'humidité, les populations de vecteurs, les conditions de pâturage, la pénurie d'eau, etc.. Ainsi, non seulement les calendriers fournissent des informations sur le cycle des saisons, mais ce sont également des outils utiles pour l'identification de facteurs prédisposants.La cartographie est l'un des outils les plus utiles de l'épidémiologie participative. Elle fournit des informations spatiales sur la distribution, les mouvements, les interactions, les maladies et les vecteurs de maladies du bétail, qui sont extrêmement utiles en épidémiologie.Certaines informations sont plus faciles à décrire et à analyser de manière visuelle que par écrit. Il est plus facile de dessiner une carte que de décrire une carte avec des mots. La cartographie est utile au début d'une enquête pour définir les frontières spatiales du système étudié. Elle joue également le rôle d'un brise-glace parfait parce qu'un grand nombre de personnes peuvent y participer.Les cartes produites sur le sol en utilisant des matériaux disponibles au niveau local sont faciles à ajuster jusqu'à satisfaction des enquêtés du résultat de la carte.Les cartes n'ont pas besoin de mots écrits ou d'étiquettes ; les personnes non lettrées peuvent donc y participer.Une fois qu'une carte a été dessinée, elle peut être utilisée pour indiquer l'emplacement des foyers de maladies, la propagation de la maladie à travers une région sur une période donnée et les facteurs de risque concernant l'apparition ou la propagation de la maladie.A l'instar des autres activités, il est utile de préparer un guide d'entretien mental ou écrit des éléments à approfondir au cours de l'exercice de cartographie. Il faudrait demander aux enquêtés non seulement d'illustrer les emplacements sur la carte, mais également de donner les raisons qui justifient les mouvements et l'utilisation des ressources.La méthode de cartographie participative 1. Demandez au groupe de dessiner les sites caractéristiques de leur village ou de leur zone sur une carte, par exemple le lieu de la réunion, les routes principales, les fleuves, les lacs, les lieux publics importants, etc.. Selon le lieu de la réunion et le type de participants, la carte peut être dessinée sur le sol et les éléments peuvent être représentés par des objets ou, la carte peut être dessinée sur une feuille de tableau mobile en utilisant des marqueurs de couleur. Il est important que la carte soit assez grande pour que tout le monde puisse la voir et contribuer à son élaboration. 2. Demandez au groupe de dessiner les sites caractéristiques liés au bétail, exemple les zones de pâturage, les points d'eau, les marchés où les animaux sont vendus, les Utilité des chronogrammes dans l'EP : Ils aident à clarifier les détails des épisodes de maladies mentionnés par les enquêtés car ils amènent ceux-ci à se souvenir de choses qui se sont passées avant ou pendant l'épisode de la maladie.  Les transects renvoient au processus permettant d'obtenir une coupe transversale représentative de la zone donnée en traversant en ligne droite (ou aussi droite que possible) la zone. La marche transversale ne devrait pas coïncider avec la route principale mais devrait commencer d'un côté de la zone, traverser la route principale et continuer de l'autre côté.Méthode 1. Trouvez un informateur clé ou un éleveur pour vous accompagner dans la marche le long du transect. 2. Pendant la marche transversale, observez et notez directement les systèmes de production et la vie communautaire, pas uniquement dans la rue principale. 3. Entretenez-vous de manière informelle avec l'informateur clé ou l'éleveur pendant votre marche. Les questions peuvent être suscitées par ce que vous voyez en chemin. 4. Si vous rencontrez des membres de la communauté en chemin, vous pouvez vous arrêter et conduire de petits entretiens informels, selon le cas. 5. A partir des notes relatives à la marche transersale, vous pouvez construire un diagramme de la coupe transversale indiquant l'occupation du sol, le bétail, etc. et procéder à une triangulation avec les cartes déjà préparées. L'influenza aviaire est une maladie courante qui affecte la volaille. Elle est causée par un virus de la famille des orthomyxoviridae et varie en sévérité selon la souche du virus. Ainsi distinguons-nous l'Influenza aviaire faiblement pathogène (IAFP) de l'Influenza aviaire hautement pathogène (IAHP). Chez la volaille, l'IAHP se caractérise par une brusque attaque, une maladie chronique d'une courte durée et une mortalité virtuellement proche de 100% chez les espèces vulnérables. L'IAHP est généralement provoquée par les sous-types H5 et H7 et son apparition devrait être notifiée à l'Office international des épizooties (OIE). Actuellement, la souche de l'IAHP la plus généralement connue est l'influenza aviaire de type A H5N1 qui a contaminé plus de 400 personnes depuis 2003 entraînant la mort de plus de la moitié de celles-ci. L'on pense que la souche H5N1 actuelle peut muter en une souche qui est facilement transmissible d'un humain à un autre et causer un foyer de grippe à l'échelle mondiale, une pandémie de grippe.Pour plus d'informations sur les caractéristiques virales et l'impact potentiel de la souche de l'IAHP sur la santé publique, veuillez consulter des références de l'OIE (http://www.oie.int/eng/ressources/AI-EN-dc.pdf) et de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS).Les souches de l'IAFP provoquent une maladie bénigne, sans mortalité. Les plumes ébouriffées et la chute de ponte comptent au nombre d'autres signes.Les souches de l'IAHP sont extrêmement contagieuses et provoquent une mort rapide (en quelques heures) avec un taux de mortalité avoisinant les 100%. Au nombre des signes et symptômes l'on compte : des signes gastro-intestinaux, respiratoires et/ou nerveux ; le gonflement des yeux et la crête bleuâtre ; la difficulté à respirer, un affaiblissement sévère, le manque d'appétit ; les hémorragies sur les pattes ; l'écoulement nasal ; la chute de ponte et de la prise alimentaire.Certaines maladies présentent des signes cliniques similaires assortis d'une forte mortalité : la ND : c'est le diagnostic différentiel le plus important pour l'IAHP. L'on ne peut distinguer les deux maladies cliniquement, une confirmation du diagnostic par un laboratoire est donc toujours nécessaire ; la bursite infectieuse ou maladie de Gumboro ; l'infection respiratoire chronique ; la bronchite infectieuse ; le choléra aviaire ; la peste du canard; l'intoxication.La période d'incubation d'une maladie est le temps qui s'écoule entre la première infection d'une bête et l'apparition des signes cliniques. Pour la volaille, la période d'incubation de l'IAHP se situe entre un et sept jours.La grippe aviaire peut être transmise par contact direct entre les oiseaux appartenant à une bande ou par contact avec une faune aviaire infectée. On peut identifier l'agent pathogène (le virus) dans les écoulements nasaux, le sang, les matières fécales ou dans le fumier. De surcroît, le virus peut survivre dans la nourriture et l'eau contaminées. La transmission peut également se faire de manière individuelle par des personnes ou des matières par le truchement de chaussures, vêtements ou équipements contaminés (par exemple les véhicules, les cages et les plateaux d'oeufs). Les virus hautement pathogènes peuvent survivre pendant de longues périodes dans la nature, surtout quand les températures sont basses.Chaque pays a ses Procédures opératoires normalisées (SOP) pour la collecte et la soumission des échantillons, qui reposent sur les directives de l'OIE et/ou de la FAO. Nous donnons ci-dessous un bref aperçu des mesures qu'il est suggéré de prendre dès la découverte d'un cas suspect d'IAHP. Toutefois, vous êtes priés de vous assurer que vous utilisez la SOP en vigueur dans votre pays. Pour obtenir des informations sur un échantillonnage plus détaillé pour l'IAHP et sur la façon de gérer les événements suspects cliquez sur ce lien : http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0960e/a0960e00.htm.Assurez-vous que les équipements affectés à la collecte d'échantillons, les milieux de transport et les installations de stockage sont en place avant d'entamer toute activité de prélèvement.L'équipement de protection individuelle (EPI) : Toujours porter un EPI approprié au moment du prélèvement d'échantillons sur un cas présumé d'IAHP. L'EPI minimum suggéré serait composé de : tablier, paire de gants, lunettes de protection, masque et bottes. Ceux-ci peuvent également être soumis à analyse tant qu'ils sont tenus au frais (2-8°C) et acheminés au laboratoire dans un délai de 12 heures.Les échantillons devraient être tenus à 4°C dans le milieu de transport viral et acheminés au laboratoire dès que possible. Si les échantillons sont envoyés au laboratoire dans un délai de deux jours, ils peuvent être maintenus à une température de 4°C dans une glacière ou en les conservant dans des compresses froides.Si l'expédition des échantillons au laboratoire excède deux jours, vous devrez les congeler à une température inférieure ou égale à moins 70°C jusqu'à leur acheminement au laboratoire. Il est important d'éviter la congélation et le dégel répétés puisque cela pourrait tuer tout virus présent dans le prélèvement.Un nettoyage et une désinfection adéquats éviteront la propagation de l'agent pathogène à d'autres animaux ou humains à travers la contamination environnementale. Assurez-vous que vous disposez d'eau, d'un seau, d'une brosse à ongle, de savon, d'essuie-tout et de désinfectant à pulvériser.Il est important de contacter le laboratoire le plus proche pour obtenir des instructions spécifiques sur l'emballage et le transport des échantillons de diagnostic. Ceci permettra de s'assurer que la qualité du spécimen n'est pas compromise par le mauvais état de l'emballage.Evitez la contamination réciproque entre les spécimens ; Evitez la décomposition du spécimen ; Evitez la fuite des liquides ; Préservez l'identité de chaque échantillon ; Etiquetez convenablement l'emballage.  (Thacker et al., 1998). Une bande colorée apparaîtra dans la section gauche de la fenêtre du résultat pour montrer que le test fonctionne correctement ; c'est la bande de contrôle (C). Lorsqu'une autre bande colorée apparaît dans la section droite de la fenêtre de résultat, cette dernière sera la bande du test (T). La présence de deux bandes colorées (T et C) dans la fenêtre de résultat, quelle que soit celle qui s'affiche en premier, indique un résultat positif.Lorsque la bande de contrôle (C) ne s'affiche pas dans la fenêtre de résultat après réalisation du test, le résultat est frappé de nullité. Un résultat frappé de nullité peut découler du non-respect de la procédure adéquate ou de la détérioration du matériel de test. Si l'on obtient un résultat entaché d'erreur, alors l'échantillon devra être encore testé. Depuis l'apparition de la grippe aviaire de type A H5N1 dans différentes parties du monde, les services vétérinaires travaillent sur des plans de prévention et de réponse à la poussée épidémique. Ceux-ci sont souvent couplés à des plans élaborés par le secteur de la santé humaine de sorte que les plans de prévention de l'épidémie de grippe aient une forme intersectorielle face à la menace. La SPM est l'application de l'EP à la surveillance de la maladie. La SPM utilise l'EP pour une surveillance active de l'IAHP, une forme de surveillance clinique active soutenue par des diagnostics de laboratoire.Beaucoup d'informations de valeur peuvent être collectées en un temps court. La SPM peut servir à cibler les populations avicoles qui abriteraient l'IAHP ; La SPM permet une meilleure compréhension des maladies de la volaille dans une zone ; La SPM est une méthode de surveillance très sensible, ce qui signifie qu'elle peut détecter des cas possibles d'IAHP qui peuvent ensuite faire l'objet d'investigations plus poussées pour voir s'ils sont causés par l'IAHP ou non. La SPM a été efficace dans la détection d'autres maladies, exemple l'épidémie de peste bovine au nord du Kenya et les foyers de peste des petits ruminants dans de nouvelles zones du Kenya ; La SPM dispose d'autres avantages potentiels dans le cadre plus large des Services de santé animale parce qu'elle fournit des informations sur les priorités et besoins concernant le cheptel. Elle peut aider à impulser de bonnes relations entre les éleveurs et les agents en charge des services de la santé animale ; La sensibilisation à la prévention et au contrôle de l'IAHP peut être faite dans le cadre de l'exercice.On utilise la SPM pour une surveillance délibérée ou ciblée de l'IAHP dans des lieux que l'on pense être des zones à haut risque de présence de la maladie. Au nombre de celles-ci, l'on compte :Les zones à forte densité de population avicole tels les élevages avicoles domestiques largement répandus, les exploitations avicoles commerciales à petite échelle et/ou les fermes commerciales de plus grande taille ; Les zones abritant des marchés d'oiseaux sur pied, les routes commerciales et les points d'abattage ; Les zones où de grands nombres d'oiseaux migrateurs et résidents convergent et sont en contact avec la volaille domestique exemple les lacs, les marécages et les rizières ;Les zones signalées ou déclarées par la rumeur comme des foyers de l'IAHP ou de maladies semblables à l'IAHP.Lors de la planification de la réalisation d'une SPM, l'on a besoin de prendre des décisions touchant ce qui suit :Les exemples d'objectifs pour la SPM de l'IAHP sont : Détecter la présence de l'IAHP de type H5N1 dans la zone-cible ; Déterminer des antécédents d'événements similaires à l'IAHP dans la zone-cible.  Avant d'entamer véritablement la SPM de l'IAHP, les praticiens de la SPM devraient réunir des informations secondaires ou informations de base concernant le village et sa périphérie. Au nombre de celles-ci l'on pourrait compter une carte de la zone ; des données relatives à la population humaine et animale ; la localisation des fermes avicoles, des couvoirs et des marchés ; des données sur les foyers de maladie de la volaille et les maladies courantes de la volaille et les noms et contacts des informateurs clés.L'administration locale et les responsables des services vétérinaires devraient être informés du travail à réaliser par vous. Ils peuvent contribuer en apportant des informations secondaires et en vous présentant à des informateurs clés tels que le personnel du service vétérinaire local et le conseiller agricole, qui peuvent jouer un rôle important dans la planification et la mise en oeuvre de la SPM. Les informateurs clés sont une source d'informations secondaires et peuvent aider à organiser des rencontres avec d'autres informateurs clés tels que les leaders locaux et les responsables des associations d'éleveurs. Ils peuvent aussi faciliter les rencontres avec les éleveurs commerciaux et les éleveurs du système traditionnel, et organiser les rencontres de groupes avec les aviculteurs. L'intégration des informateurs clés dans la SPM peut aider à renforcer la relation entre les services de production animale et la communauté, ce qui pourrait encourager la déclaration des foyers de maladies et l'amélioration de la prise de mesures pour le contrôle de la maladie.Une fois la zone d'investigation identifiée, vous devez déterminer : le nombre de villages à couvrir de manière à représenter la zone convenablement ; la façon de couvrir efficacement un village en vue de se faire une idée juste de son statut épidémiologique ; o réalisation d'entretiens avec les informateurs clés tels que les agents des services vétérinaires, les agents de vulgarisation agricole, les autorités locales pour obtenir des informations secondaires et planifier la SPM ; o réalisation d'entretiens de groupe avec les ménages et les propriétaires de petites exploitations avicoles commerciales. Le nombre des entretiens de groupe dépendra de la taille du village et de l'organisation des gens. Pour certains villages, un grand entretien de groupe fournira des informations représentatives suffisantes alors que pour d'autres, il vous faudra probablement réaliser trois à quatre entretiens de groupe à différents endroits du village ou avec différents types d'aviculteurs ; o les visites de fermes et les visites aux aviculteurs traditionnels pour une observation directe des problèmes de gestion de la volaille et de ceux liés aux maladies de la volaille. Une fois encore, le nombre de visites dépendra de la taille du village et de l'existence éventuelle là-bas de problèmes importants liés aux maladies de la volaille ; o observation directe : utilisez la marche transversale, les visites des espaces abritant le cheptel tels que les marchés, les points d'abattage, etc. ; s'il convient d'adapter le temps de votre visite pour rencontrer ces aviculteurs ; s'il est possible d'interroger des groupes constitués à la fois d'hommes et de femmes ou s'il est nécessaire d'interroger séparément les hommes et les femmes ; la dernière alternative a des implications en termes de temps.L'interview semi-structurée La SPM repose sur les interviews semi-structurées. D'autres outils d'EP sont utilisés au besoin pendant l'entretien. Les outils simples tels que le classement simple, l'empilement proportionnel et la cartographie peuvent être utilisés dans la plupart des entretiens pendant que des outils plus complexes tels que la matrice de cotation et l'empilement proportionnel liés à la morbidité et à la mortalité sont utilisés avec les groupes et les individus qui affichent une connaissance et un intérêt plus grands et qui sont disposés à accorder plus de temps.Elle peut être utilisée pour obtenir les informations suivantes :La localisation des fermes, des installations, des points d'eau, des zones de services et des zones sociales ; La possible propagation de la maladie dans l'éventualité de l'existence d'un foyer entre les fermes et/ou villages ; Un aperçu des points névralgiques pour la propagation de la maladie ; La cartographie peut aussi aider à la planification des activités ultérieures de SPM telles que celles relatives aux lieux où réaliser d'autres entretiens additionnels, des visites de fermes ou à domicile et des marches transversales.Les variations du temps dans l'apparition des maladies sont un aspect ordinaire de la recherche épidémiologique. Les calendriers saisonniers peuvent être utilisés pour comprendre les perceptions locales des variations saisonnières affectant l'incidence des maladies sur la volaille. En Afrique, certaines maladies telles que les vers apparaissent toute l'année tandis que d'autres telles que la Maladie de Newcastle ont tendance à être saisonnières.Un chronogramme montre les principaux événements épidémiologiques/de santé animale dans une période de temps définie (de plusieurs semaines à 50 ans) dans une zone donnée. Pour la SPM de l'IAHP, un chronogramme allant de un à trois ans peut être utilisé pour montrer la configuration des derniers foyers de maladies de la volaille à forte mortalité.Le classement simple et l'empilement proportionnel peuvent fournir des informations sur les espèces auxquelles appartient le cheptel ou les maladies courantes dans un village.Cet exercice devrait être effectué avec les aviculteurs pris individuellement puisqu'il reflète l'incidence de la maladie et la mortalité au sein de leur troupeau selon leurs propres perceptions.La matrice de cotation est utilisée pour comprendre la caractérisation locale des maladies de la volaille ou les syndromes épidémiologiques et les significations des noms locaux des maladies.Ces dernières années, des cartes de risque de plus en plus sophistiquées ont été mises au point pour identifier les endroits où il y a une plus grande probabilité, soit de l'introduction, soit de la propagation d'une maladie selon un ensemble de facteurs. Dans le projet dénommé Détection précoce, rapportage et surveillance de l'influenza aviaire en Afrique, des ","tokenCount":"6899"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c1c99f35707592ab45dd710347f00fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/09f5c485-15a0-4342-b850-972bee7390fa/retrieve","id":"-226172764"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0fc9c347-40fe-4924-b6b7-61fd7887f920","pagecount":"1","content":"Common bean is the world's most important food legume, with an annual production value of over US$10 billion. It is produced mainly on small-scale farms (80% of dry bean production) in developing countries in Latin America and Africa. About 40% of the beangrowing area is affected by aluminum (Al) toxicity, resulting in decrease of grain yield from 30% to 60%. It needs significant improvement in Al resistance to reduce the dependence of small farmers on lime and fertilizer inputs. Genetic variation exists for acid soil adaptation (Rao et al., 2004) and Al resistance (Rangel et al., 2005) among common bean genotypes. The most frequently measured effect of excess Al is inhibition of root elongation (Rangel et al., 2005). Nutrient solution culture allows evaluation of a large number of genotypes quickly and could be very useful for identification of (i) parental genotypes with contrasting root architecture for bean breeding, (ii) contrasting genotypes for physiological analysis, (iii) QTLs related to Al resistance, and (iv) candidate genes associated with Al resistance in common bean. The main objective of this study was to quantify genotypic differences in Al resistance in common bean.characterize physiological mechanisms of Al resistance, a prerequisite for development of simplified screening procedures and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for Al resistance in common bean. We are following a scheme that combines physiological analysis, QTL mapping for specific traits, and field phenotypic expression of acid soil tolerance, to associate traits with tolerance and to determine the relative importance of different traits (Figures 4 and 5).We implemented a hydroponic screening method and identified 3 Andean genotypes, 8 Mesoamerican genotypes and 4 recombinant inbred lines of common bean with greater level of Al resistance. We also found that four root traits, percent inhibition of root elongation, percent increase of average root diameter, total root length per plant and total number of root tips per plant could serve as screening tools to identify Al resistant common bean genotypes. Screening of 30 germplasm accessions from a sister species, Phaseolus coccineus, resulted in identification of 3 accessions with high level of Al resistance. These accessions could serve as parents to incorporate high level of Al resistance in common bean through genetic enhancement. Increase of average root diam eter (%) ","tokenCount":"373"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/9214707190.json b/data/part_2/9214707190.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2a39d8f4b4f8ca6e4c79a0dce0216e3189d28929
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ec2e4eddc4f82e087821940b49818c3e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://apps.worldagroforestry.org/region/sea/publications/download?dl=/LE00286-21.pdf&pubID=4911&li=9205","id":"-754745224"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dc677927-d983-4e63-818c-17159b0234f7","pagecount":"2","content":"Những đàn từ 4 cầu đông quân trở lên đều có thể chia đàn.• Lấy 1 cầu nhộng và 1 cầu mật cả quân (9-12, 18-21) đưa vào một thùng không đặt ở chổ thoáng đường bay. • Chọn đàn ong đang ra đời có nhiều ong non giũ hết số quân này vào thùng mới (đã có 1 cầu nhộng và một cầu mật). • Đóng cửa để nhốt ong lại.• Khoảng 5 giờ chiều mở cửa cho số quân già bay về và lấy nụ chúa ở ngày tạo chúa thứ 11 (phương pháp di kép) hoặc ngày thứ 10 nếu di đơn (di một cầu). • Cắt rời các nụ này khỏi thang nụ chúa (phải làm nhẹ nhàng và trong thao tác luôn luôn để đầu nụ chúa trúc xuống). • Sau đó gắn vào phần trên của cầu nhộng. Tối đó cứ tiếp tục đóng cửa đến 5 giờ chiều hôm sau mới mở của (chắn cửa nhỏ lại, chỉ để khoảng 2cm cho ong ra vào nhằm chống bị cướp mật).• Chia đàn tự nhiên là bản năng của loài ong nhằm duy trì và bảo toàn nòi giống. • Thời gian chia đàn: Từ tháng 3 -4 và tháng 10 -11, thời điểm này ngoài tự nhiên nguồn phấn hoa dồi dào. • Biện pháp xử lý: cần thay chúa, quay ít mật, rút bớt cầu non, vặt bớt mũ chúa, có các biện pháp chống nóng cho đàn ong.•   ","tokenCount":"247"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/9251503968.json b/data/part_2/9251503968.json
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index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9cbaac2e1127fa745575289319e3faf3d6a61fc8
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@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b410a58fbff61d6cd5839cfa94dcdca1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/fc2ab673-dd8b-4aa4-9490-67bad25179f8/retrieve","id":"-1228825183"},"keywords":["CE, Cerrado","DP, degraded pasture","ECEC, effective ). cation-exchange capacity","HSD, honest significant difference","PP, productive pasture","TOC, total organic C"],"sieverID":"bf29ef6f-1ee3-4f15-b99c-96a510b1b7e5","pagecount":"11","content":"dry matter production of the grass species at locations protected from grazing or as the liveweight gains of In the Brazilian savanna, there is a risk that soil fertility of pastures the cattle. Biomass production of fertilized Brachiaria declines to a level below that of the native savanna because of low fertilizer application. To evaluate biophysical pasture sustainability decumbens Stapf pastures in the Brazilian CE ranges we compared regularly fertilized productive pasture (PP), degraded between 5.5 and 11 Mg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 and liveweight gains pasture fertilized 13 yr previously (DP), and native savanna (Cerrado, between 487 and 771 kg ha Ϫ1 at stocking rates of 2 to CE) in an on-farm experiment. We determined (i) biomass productiv-2.5 animal units ha Ϫ1 (Kornelius et al., 1979; Cadisch et ity of the pastures and (ii) nutrient concentrations in Anionic Acrusal., 1994). The grass biomass productivity of Brachiaria toxes from three plots under each of CE, DP, and PP. From the 0pastures in Brazil is substantially lower than in Australia to 2-m soil layer, we sampled solid phase in January 1998 and soil where it may reach 33 Mg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 (Whiteman et al., solution during two rainy seasons (1997-1998 and 1998-1999). The 1980). Furthermore, if the soils are not regularly fertilmean aboveground biomass production (dry weight) was 2.1 Mg ha Ϫ1ized the productivity declines rapidly after 4 to 10 yr yr Ϫ1 for DP and 4.1 Mg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 for PP. In the solid phase of the (Boddey et al., 1996). 0-to 0.15-m layer, mean total N and S and exchangeable Ca and Mg concentrations increased in the order CE Ͻ DP Ͻ PP, while The effects of forest clearing and subsequent pasture NaHCO 3 -extractable P was not significantly different among CE, DP, use on the fertility of the CE Oxisols has up to now and PP. In the soil solution at 0.15-m depth, pH and concentrations only been studied by a few researchers (Lilienfein et of Ca and Mg also increased in the order CE Ͻ DP Ͻ PP. At thetion of P, S, and Mo among different chemical fractions did not differ between pasture soils and soils under native CE. From the same study area, Neufeldt (1998) B etween 35 and 40 million ha of the savanna region reported a strong increase in soil organic C concentraof Brazil, locally termed \"Cerrado,\" are used as tions in pasture soils compared with the soils under pastures. This area represents 80% of the total agriculnative CE, particularly in the 50-to 2000-m particleturally used area in this region. Most pastures in the size fraction. Spain et al. (1996) found increased N con-Brazilian CE were only established in the last three centrations under pasture than under native CE. The decades although there may have been some earlier temporal course of the matric potentials as a measure grazing activity in the native CE. In general, after clearfor plant-available water and the mean water storage ing of the natural savanna by harvesting the trees includin soil under nonfertilized DP and under PP, which ing their large roots, foreign pasture grass species were received maintenance fertilization were close to those sown and fertilized at low rates (Spain et al., 1996; Lopes of soils under native CE (Lilienfein et al., 1999(Lilienfein et al., ). et al., 1999;;Resck et al., 2000). The CE pastures sup-For the Amazonian region, which has different cliported a cattle herd of more than 52 million head in mate but similar soils, more studies on the effect of 1993 and thus represent an important component of the pasture use on soil properties have been published. Brazilian agricultural production which may only be Cerri et al. (1991) and Feigl et al. (1995) observed demaintained or increased if pasture management is suscreasing C concentrations in surface soil after forest tainable (Resck et al., 2000). To evaluate the biophysical clearing in central Amazonas and Rondo ˆnia, respecsustainability we examined the productivity and soil fertively, which increased again after 1 to 2 yr of pasture tility of different pastures. use, while Eden et al. (1991) did not observe a significant The productivity of pastures may be measured as the change in C concentrations in northern Roraima over time. Some authors reported increased C and N storage believe that they are a sensitive indicator of land-use effects on soil fertility.Our objective was to evaluate the productivity and soil fertility as indicators for biophysical sustainability of the pastures in the CE region near the city of Uberla ˆndia in an on-farm experiment. We chose the two major pasture types of the region: a pure grass PP receiving regular maintenance fertilizing and a so-called DP, which was only fertilized at the date of establishment and is now characterized by partly vegetation-free soil and invasive CE plants. The biophysical sustainability of the pastures was assessed by examining (i) the biomass productivity, (ii) the fertility, that is, the nutrient concentrations in soil solid phase and solution, and (iii) the risk of nutrient losses to the deeper subsoil as indicated by the depth distribution and the temporal course of nutrient concentrations in soil solution at various depths. We assumed that the native savanna ecosystem is sustainable with respect to nutrient cycles and therefore compared the nutrient status and dynamics of the pasture soils with that of soils under native CE.The study was performed southeast of Uberla ˆndia (State ing the rooting depth by replacing the forest with the Within an area of about 100 km 2 , three plots of natural less deeply rooting pastures would reduce the deep soil savanna (CE), DP, and PP were selected (Fig. 1). We tried C storage and alter the soil-water cycle. The effect would to choose independent plots to allow for statistical evaluation be more pronounced for productive pure grass pastures with variance analysis (Lilienfein et al., 1999).than for the so-called DPs containing some woody plants of P, S, Mo, and metals in soil solid phase under naturalThe dominant shrub species were Miconia holosericea DC., Hortia brasiliana Vand. ex DC., Myrcia rostrata DC., Parinari savanna vegetation, Pinus plantation, and pastures were obtusifolia Hook. f., and Campomanesia velutina Blume, conlittle affected by 10 to 20 yr of land use (Lilienfein et tributing 93% to the total shrub biomass. Among the grass al., 2000a, 2000b, 2001a). Metal concentrations in soil species we most frequently found Andropogon Minarum solution under Pinus plantations, however, were signifi-Kunth, Axonopus barbigerus (Kunth) Hitchc., Tristachya cantly increased indicating the beginning of soil acidifichrysothrix Nees, and Echinolaena inflexa (Poir.) Chase of cation (Lilienfein et al., 2000a). Furthermore, dissolved the family Poaceae, which comprised the highest number of N concentrations in soil solution under Pinus were sigspecies; among the herbaceous species, members of the faminificantly higher than under CE because of the accumulies Asteraceae, Rubiaceae, Fabaceae, and Mimosaceae were lation of a deep organic layer with a high N storage most abundant. (Lilienfein et al., 2001a). In the present study we exam-The most important criteria for the selection of the pasture plots were the current visual impression and the likelihood ined soil solution properties under pastures because we that the pasture use followed directly the clearing of the nativeThe pH of the soil solutions was measured in a subsample immediately after sampling with a standard pH electrode vegetation. The DP sites showed the characteristics Lopes et al. (1999) described as typical for degraded pastures of the (U 402-S7, Orion, Boston, MA) in a separate aliquot, which was afterwards discarded. The remaining solutions were fro-CE region: decreased grass cover compared with the PPs, followed by the invasion of CE plants. The PP, in contrast, zen for storage.The following properties were determined in the solid soil was a pure grass pasture of Brachiaria decumbens Stapf with a closed vegetation cover. The history of the pastures was samples: pH with a standard glass electrode in H 2 O and 1 M KCl, soil/solution ratio 1:2.5, total concentrations of C, N, and reconstructed by interviewing the current landowners. Because of changes in land ownership and the lack of written S by dry combustion and gas chromatographic separation with a CNS analyzer (Elementar Vario EL, Elementar Analysen-documentation, this reconstruction was not easy and may not be entirely reliable, although we only selected the pastures systeme GmbH, Hanau, Germany), exchangeable cations by extraction with 1 M ammonium acetate (Sumner and Miller, with the best-known history. However, we do not see how this problem may be overcome when attempting to conduct 1996). The soil water content was estimated from the matric potentials-measured with tensiometers-with the help of the an on-farm study in a rapidly developing tropical country. All pastures under study were established by harvesting the native soil water characteristic curve as described by Lilienfein et al. (1999). CE vegetation including the large roots. They were established around 1985. The most common procedure was to plant uplandIn soil solutions and extracts, we determined the concentrations of Ca, Fe, K, Mg, and Na with flame atomic absorption rice (Oryza sativa L.), which was fertilized with about 40 kg P, 65 kg K, 32 kg N, and 1 Mg of dolomitic limestone ha Ϫ1 . spectrometry (SpectrAA 400, Varian, Mulgrave, Australia). Aluminum, Mn, and Zn concentrations in soil solution were The fertilizer was mixed with seeds of Brachiaria decumbens, an imported grass species from Africa. After the harvest of measured with inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (VG PlasmaQuad PQ2 Turbo Plus, VG Elemental, Winds-the rice, the Brachiaria was already stabilized and grazing began. In 1996-1997, we fertilized all PP replicates with 17 kg ford, UK) and in extracts with flame atomic absorption spectrometry, NH 4 and NO 3 with a rapid flow analyzer (RFA-300, P ha Ϫ1 and 33 kg K ha Ϫ1 . One of the three replicates of PP, PP1 in Fig. 1, was an experimental pasture where the fertilizing Alpkem Corporation, Clackamas, OR), total organic C (TOC) with an automatic TOC analyzer (TOC-5050, Shimadzu Cor-rates are well known. The pasture PP1 received 17 kg P and 33 kg K ha Ϫ1 at 4-yr intervals (i.e., in 1988, 1992, and 1996).poration, Tokyo, Japan), and total S and P with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES, The other PP replicates received maintenance fertilizer applications at similar but unknown rates and application dates.GBC Integra XMP, GBC Scientific Equipment Pty, Ltd., Dandenong, Victoria, Australia). Soils at all sites were very-fine isohyperthermic Anionic Acrustoxes (Soil Survey Staff, 1997) or Latossolos vermelhos escuros and Latossolos vermelhos-amarelos according to theBrazilian soil classification and had similar chemical and physical properties before the beginning of land-use (Lilienfein et The grass biomass production of the pastures was deteral., 1999). All soils were developed from the same geological mined by harvesting the total aboveground biomass of three parent material, fine limnic sediments of the lower Tertiary. replicate 0.5 m 2 large subplots on six dates between 29 Oct. The clay content of the soils ranged between 615 to 885 g 1997 and 12 Apr. 1999 at all pasture plots. On each sampling kg Ϫ1 . Properties, which are typically not influenced by land date subplots were chosen for biomass determination. Biomass use such as soil classification, particle-size distribution, and samples were collected at the beginning of the rainy season the concentrations of dithionite-soluble Fe (Holmgren, 1967) in October or November, in January or February, and at the and oxalate-soluble Al (Schwertmann, 1964) were not signifiend of the rainy season in April. After biomass sampling, all cantly different among the studied soils (Lilienfein et al., 1999).grass inside the fenced area was cut to the same mean height as outside to simulate grazing. The samples were dried to constant weight at 70ЊC and masses were determined gravimet-rically. The productivity was calculated by difference of the aboveground biomass between two dates and addition of the On each of the nine plots, a 10 by 10 m area was fenced and equipped with five replicate tensiometers and suction cups biomass harvested per area of the subplot to simulate grazing. at each of 0.15-, 0.3-, 0.8-, 1.2-, and 2-m soil depths. The major constituents of the porous cups were Al 2 O 3 (70%) and SiO 2(29%) with a mean pore diameter of 1 m. Soil solution samples were collected with permanent under-pressure pro-To evaluate the effect of pasture management on nutrient duced by vacuum pumps. The under-pressure was adjusted availability to plants and nutrient leaching we compared the mean depth distribution and the temporal course of selected weekly according to the current matric potentials measured with the tensiometers. The soil solutions collected with the soil solution properties between CE, DP, and PP. The examined properties include the pH and the concentration of TOC five suction cups of a plot were combined into one sample for each depth. Soil solution was sampled and tensiometers (Ͻ80 m, i.e., in the solution that passed the ceramic cups without further filtration). We consider solution TOC to be were read weekly during two rainy seasons (14 Oct.-28 Apr. 1997-1998and 1998-1999).an index of dissolved and particulate organic matter, which may be important nutrient carriers (Kalbitz et al., 2000), as At all nine plots, one composite soil sample from the 0-to 0.15-, 0.15-to 0.3-, 0.3-to 0.8-, 0.8-to 1.2-, 1.2-to 2-m layers well as a source of nutrients and potentially toxic Al (Savory and Wills, 1991). was taken in January 1998. Within each plot, samples from the 0-to 0.15-m layer were taken from five locations and To enable data evaluation with the help of ANOVA we tested the three following prerequisites of the statistical design combined, while those of the deeper layers were taken from one soil pit on each plot. Soil bulk density was determined of our study. The first prerequisite is that all study sites had homogeneous soil properties before land use, which we gravimetrically using 100-mL soil cores taken in five-fold replication per layer. All samples were dried at 40ЊC and sieved showed above. The second prerequisite is that the study sites are independent. We are sure that this is the case because all to Ͻ2 mm. study sites are separated from each other by areas with other CE, the standing biomass of the green grass layer in land use and because the distance of several 100 m between January, when the biomass had reached its maximum, the plots is larger than geostatistical ranges of the studied soil was 0.9 Mg kg Ϫ1 and that of the herbs was 0.1 Mg kg Ϫ1properties. The third prerequisite is random location within (Lilienfein et al., 2001b). During the period of our study, the homogeneous study area. This prerequisite was most diffiwe observed little grazing activity in the CE and therecult to meet because we had to use existing land-use systems fore did not determine grass productivity. in our on-farm experiment. Although we may not rule out that there were site-specific reasons for the establishment of a given land use, the homogeneity of the soil suggests that Soil Fertility: Soil Solid Phase Properties random ownership was more important than soil quality.Soil pH determines the plant-availability of many nu-Therefore, we concluded that the prerequisites for applying trients. In Oxisols, particularly the P availability is re-ANOVA were met.duced because of strong sorption to oxides at pH Ͻ 5 Mean values of the soil parameters were tested for differences between CE, DP, and PP by using Tukey's honest signifi- (Goedert, 1983;Tiessen and Moir, 1993;Friesen et al., cant difference (HSD) mean separation test (Hartung and 1997). The pH of the study soils is controlled by the Elpelt, 1989). To compare mean nutrient concentrations in buffering of Al oxides, which is typical for Oxisols (Ulthe soil solution between the systems and between the various rich, 1981; Goedert, 1983;Driessen and Dudal, 1989, depths of one system, the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test was Table 1). The mean pH (H 2 O and KCl) in the upper used. Significance was set at P Ͻ 0.05 for Tukey's HSD test 0.3 m was higher under PP than under DP and CE and at P Ͻ 0.01 for the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test because because of the higher application rate of dolomitic limeof the high number of compared values. Correlation analyses stone. However, the differences in mean H activity of between soil water content and nutrient concentrations in the equilibrium soil extracts among the three systems soil solution were performed using the Least Squares method were not significant except for that in the KCl extract (Hartung, 1989). Statistical analyses were performed with STATISTICA for Windows 5.1 (StatSoft, 1995, Loll and Niel-at 0.3-to 0.8-m soil depth between DP and CE. In all sen, Hamburg, Germany). soils, the pH increased with depth, except the pH (H 2 O) under PP, indicating the surface acidification. In the topsoil, the pH (H 2 O) was higher than the pH (KCl)while in the subsoil the reverse was true. The reasonfor this observation is that in the subsoil positive charges dominate because of low organic matter and high oxide The mean aboveground dry grass biomass production concentrations (Driessen and Dudal, 1989). during the two monitored years was 2.1 Ϯ 0.4 Mg ha Ϫ1At 0-to 0.15-m soil depth, mean C concentrations yr Ϫ1 for DP and 4.1 Ϯ 1.6 Mg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 for PP. This were higher under PP than under DP and CE, although was lower than the range of productivities in new but the differences were not significant (Lilienfein et al., unfertilized Brazilian Brachiaria decumbens pastures of 1999). Mean N and S concentrations were higher under 5.5 to 12 Mg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 reported in the literature (Kornelboth pasture systems at all depths than under CE. Howius et al., 1979;Cadisch et al., 1994). Liveweight gains ever, differences in mean N concentrations between CE were only determined for PP1 where 414 kg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1  and DP and between CE and PP were only significant at a stocking rate of 1.0 animal units ha Ϫ1 (one animal at 1.2-to 2-m depth and between CE and PP at 0.3 to unit ϭ 450 kg liveweight, Cadisch et al., 1994) were 0.8 m. Higher N concentrations under pasture than unobserved of which 324 were reached during the rainy der CE in the Brazilian savanna have also been observed season and 90 during the dry season. This was also lower by Spain et al. (1996). The differences in mean S concenthan the range of 487 to 771 kg ha Ϫ1 yr Ϫ1 reported in trations between CE and PP and between CE and DP the literature (Kornelius et al., 1979;Cadisch et al., were significant except at 0.15-to 0.3-m depth. In a 1994) but corresponds well with the lower grass biomass previous study, samples were taken from the same plots production rate. Commonly, a decrease in annual liveat the end of the rainy season in April 1997. We did weight gains by 50% is observed within 3 yr after fertilizanot detect significant differences in mean total S concention (L. Vilela, Embrapa Cerrados, personal communitrations of the 0-to 0.15-m layer between CE, DP, and cation, 1997). Therefore, we estimated that liveweight PP (Lilienfein et al., 2000b). This may be the result of gains in the DP systems were about 50% of those in a large spatial variability or of a temporal variation in the PP systems which was reflected by a mean stocking total S concentrations. In the same previous study, we rate of 0.6 animal units ha Ϫ1 in the DP systems. Although found that mean total P and NaHCO 3 -extractable P the PP systems were more heterogeneous with respect concentrations in surface soil (0-0.15 m depth) were not to their grass biomass productivity as indicated by a significantly different between the three systems (CE: coefficient of variation of 39% between the three repli-388/17.6 mg kg Ϫ1 , DP: 341/16.9, PP: 333/20.9), although cate sites compared with the DP systems (17%), we mean P concentrations under the pastures were lower. consider the productivity of both pasture systems as This indicates P export by grazing if the assumption of sufficiently homogeneous among their replicates to similar native P concentrations in all studied soils is draw generalized conclusions for these two typical pastrue. In all soils of the present study, C, N, and S concenture systems of the savanna region around Uberla ˆndia.trations decreased with increasing depth. The similar biomass productivity among the replicates Similar C concentrations and higher N and S concenof the different pasture systems also indicates similar nutrient inputs into the replicate soils since 1985. In the trations in soils under pasture than under CE result in smaller C/N and C/S ratios under pasture than under CE. Increased N concentrations in the subsoil and narrowing C/N ratios were also found in soils under Pinus caribaea Morelet plantations in the same region when compared with soils under CE (Lilienfein et al., 2001a). However, the subsoil accumulation of N was less pronounced in the pasture soils than under Pinus. The result indicates that under the pastures, like under Pinus, NO Ϫ 3 was leached from the surface soil to greater depth where it was stored, probably because of sorption to positively charged surfaces (Morais et al., 1976). Thus, pasture use results in the formation of a subsoil N reservoir, which still may be recycled to the surface by plants. Similar observations have been made in the Amazonian region by Cahn et al. (1992) for Oxisols under corn and by Schroth et al. (1999) for Oxisols under mixed tree plantations.At the 0-to 0.3-m soil depth, the mean effective cation-exchange capacity (ECEC) increased significantly in the order, CE Ͻ DP Ͻ PP. This was the result of the increasing pH along the same line. In the same depth layer, mean exchangeable Ca and Mg concentrations also followed the trend CE Ͻ DP Ͻ PP reflecting the different fertilization rates. However, at soil depths Ͼ0.3 m, there were no significant differences in mean ECEC and mean exchangeable Ca and Mg concentrations between the three systems. Thus, the fertilizer effect was restricted to the topsoil. Mean exchangeable Al, Fe, K, and Na concentrations did not differ significantly between the three systems at any depth.Our results indicate that 13 yr after fertilization, the fertility of the DP soils was still higher than that of the CE soils. To illustrate this, we calculated the storage of N, S, exchangeable Ca, and exchangeable Mg in the upper 0.3-m layer of the studied systems (Fig. 2). Thus, in contrast to some pastures of the Amazonian region (Eden et al., 1991), the fertility of the DP did not drop to below that of the native system during the monitored period.Nutrients in soil solution are readily plant-available. Therefore, topsoil solution properties may be used as an indication of nutrient availability to plants because most roots are concentrated in the A horizons. Subsoil solution properties, in contrast, are indicative of the risk of nutrient losses to below the rooting zone although it is not possible to infer nutrient fluxes directly from nutrient concentrations because of possible differences in soil water contents.The mean soil solution pH during the two rainy seasons increased with increasing soil depth under CE and PP and only varied little with increasing depth under DP (Fig. 3a). Under PP, the mean soil solution pH was significantly higher at the 0.15-m than at the 0.3-m depth, which was the result of the recent application of dolomitic limestone. Furthermore, the mean soil solution pH was significantly higher under PP than under CE and DP at all depths because of the regular maintenance  fertilization. There were no significant differences in mean soil solution pH between DP and CE except at cates that more TOC is leached to below 2-m depth under DP than under CE and PP. the 2-m depth, where pH was significantly higher under DP. The result indicates that the effect of the initial Under CE, NO 3 concentrations in soil solution were higher in the upper 1 m of the soil than between 1-and application of dolomitic limestone has reached 2 m depth after 13 yr.2-m depths; under PP and DP the converse was true (Fig. 3c). Nitrate concentrations in soil solution were Under CE, mean TOC concentrations were higher at the 0.15-m depth than between the 0.3-and 2-m depths low under all of the studied systems and often below the detection limit of 0.01 mg NO 3 -N L Ϫ1 . Nitrate con-where no further changes with depth were observed (Fig. 3b). Under PP, highest TOC concentrations were centrations in all soils of our study were below the mean of 1 mg NO 3 -N L Ϫ1 that Uhl and Jordan (1984) reported also found in the surface soil solution at 0-to 0.3-m depth. Under DP, in contrast, TOC concentrations were for unfertilized forest soils in the Amazonian basin of Venezuela. Differences between PP and CE and be-lowest at the 0.15-m depth and tended to increase with increasing soil depth. Highest TOC concentrations in tween DP and CE were only significant at the 1.2-and 2-m depth. The result indicates that, under the pastures, the surface soil solution under CE and PP may be the result of the higher rooting density under PP possibly the NO 3 availability in the surface horizon was not changed compared with the CE while NO 3 was leached releasing more organic compounds and the partly developed organic layer in the CE from which TOC may be to greater soil depth. Thus, N losses from the rooting zone may be expected in spite of the increased NO 3 leached into the mineral soil. Low TOC concentrations in the soil solution of all three systems (4.3-6.9 mg) sorption to positively charged surface sites in the subsoil. Ammonium, P, and S concentrations in soil solution when compared with those of temperate soils indicate that TOC is strongly sorbed to the soil matrix because were below the detection limits of 0.01 mg NH ϩ 4 -N L Ϫ1 , 0.2 mg P L Ϫ1 , and 0.3 mg S L Ϫ1 in all samples. of the high concentrations of Fe and Al oxides in Oxisols (Davis, 1982;McKnight et al., 1992;Gu et al., 1994).Under PP, mean K, Ca, and Mg concentrations decreased with increasing soil depth (Fig. 3d-f). Under Currie et al. (1996) for example detected three to five CE and DP, mean Ca concentrations also decreased times higher TOC concentrations in a temperate hardwith increasing soil depth, mean K concentration dewood forest in soil solution collected at the 0.6-m depth creased between the 0.15-and 0.3-m depth and inof a Dystrochrept. The assumption of strong TOC sorpcreased at greater depth, and mean Mg concentration tion to the mineral soil is supported by the finding that varied little with depth. Increased nutrient concentralitter leachate under Pinus caribaea plantations in the tions in surface soil solution may be the result of fertilizsame region contained high TOC concentrations which ing and nutrient cycling by plants. Except for the Ca was to a large extent sorbed to the soil solid phase in concentrations in the topsoil solution of PP, all base the upper 0.15 m of the mineral soil (Lilienfein et al., metal concentrations were at the lower boundary of 2001a). Under DP, the TOC concentrations were higher nutrient concentrations reported for unfertilized tropithan those under CE and PP at all depths between 0.3 cal forests soils of 0.4 to 1.4 mg K L Ϫ1 , 0.4 to 2.5 mg Ca and 2 m. The differences in mean TOC concentrations L Ϫ1 , and 0.1 to 0.2 mg Mg L Ϫ1 (Steinhardt, 1979; Jordan, were significant at the 0.8-to 1.2-m depth and between 1982; Ho ¨lscher, 1995). The concentrations of Ca, K, and DP and CE additionally at the 0.3-m depth. This indi- Mg were higher under PP than under CE and DP at all The depth distribution of mean Mn concentrations in soil solution was similar in all three studied systems soil depths. Potassium concentrations of Replicate 1 of DP (DP1) at the 2-m soil depth were consistently higher (Fig. 3g). Manganese concentrations decreased between 0.15 and 0.3 m soil depth, increased between 0.3 and (on average: 0.6 mg L Ϫ1 ) than those of DP2 (0.23) and DP3 (0.15). Under DP1, K concentrations at the 2-m 1.2 m and did not change between 1.2 and 2 m. Manganese concentrations reported as typical for tropical for-depth were also consistently higher than at the 1.2-m depth (0.12). We cannot explain the increase in K con-est soils of 11 to 77 g L Ϫ1 (Steinhardt, 1979;Jordan, 1982;Ho ¨lscher, 1995) were higher than Mn concentra-centrations between the 1.2-and 2-m soil depth under DP1, but as this was only observed in one of the three tions in our study. Between the 0.8-and 2-m depth, Mn concentrations under DP were significantly higher than plots, the K concentrations at the 2-m soil depth under DP shown in Fig. 3d only represent the mean of the under CE and between the 1.2-and 2-m depths also than under PP. This indicated a higher risk of Mn-leach-values under DP2 and DP3. Increased Ca, K, and Mg concentrations in the surface soil solution under PP and ing losses possibly associated with TOC under DP than under the other systems. increased Ca and K concentrations under DP than under CE illustrate the increased fertility of both pasture types.Mean Zn concentrations tended to increase with depth under CE and DP while, under PP, the highest The differences in base metal concentrations were much smaller at the 2-m depth than in the surface soil solution mean Zn concentration was observed at the 0.15-m soil depth (Fig. 3h). Under PP, Zn concentrations decreased indicating that little leaching occurred. between the 0.15-and 0.3-m depths but did not vary they varied over a wide range during the monitored period (Fig. 4). Consequently, the changes in element much between the 0.3-and 2-m depths. Mean Zn concentrations under PP were significantly lower than un-concentrations of the soil solution during the monitored period may partly have been caused by variations in the der DP at all soil depths and than under CE at the 0.8to 2-m depth. Lower Zn concentrations in soil solution soil water content. To evaluate the importance of the variations in soil water content for element concentra-under PP than under DP and CE were probably caused by the higher solution pH under PP and therefore re-tions we ran correlation analyses between the soil water contents and element concentrations of the soil solution. duced Zn solubility (Bru ¨mmer et al., 1986). Higher Zn concentrations at 2 m depth under DP may, like those Generally, Ͻ40% of the variability in element concentrations of the soil solution may be explained by varia-of Mn, reflect the higher TOC concentrations. Thus, under PP the Zn availability in the topsoil is not different tions in soil water content. However, in 22 of 135 correlations, the correlation coefficients were significant. This than under CE while Zn losses to the deeper subsoil are reduced. Under DP, both Zn availability in the top-was mainly true for the relationship between the soil water content and the concentrations of TOC (nine soil and the risk of Zn losses to the deeper subsoil are increased compared with CE.cases) and between the soil water content and pH (three cases). However, for only three of these significant cor-Mean concentrations of the potentially toxic Al in soil solution were highly variable, which may be partly relations more than 25% of the variability may be explained by concentration/dilution effects: pH (DP, attributable to concentrations close to the detection limit (Fig. 3i). As we set all values below the detection 0.15 m soil depth), TOC (CE and DP, 0.3 m). Thus, variations in water content only explained a small part limit to zero, the presented Al concentrations are an underestimation. Under DP, mean Al concentrations of the variations in element concentrations during the monitored period. This was further confirmed by much were higher than under CE down to the 1.2-m depth and than under PP down to the 0.8-m depth although higher element storages in the soil solution (water content ϫ element concentrations) at the beginning of not all differences were significant. As solution pH under CE and under DP was similar, higher Al concentra-the rainy season than during the high rainy season (data not shown). tions under DP than under CE may only be explained by higher concentrations of TOC under DP and therefore more dissolved organocomplexes of Al (Vance et al., 1996). Thus, even the increased Al concentration would not result in an increased toxicity risk, because organo-The grass biomass productivity of the regularly fertilcomplexes of Al are not toxic (Savory and Wills, 1991).ized PP sites was twofold that of DP sites, which were Lowest Al concentrations of all three systems were obonly fertilized once about 13 yr earlier. This seemed served at the 2-m soil depth. Similar findings were reto be mainly the result of significantly higher plantported for the Pinus plantations in the same region available Ca, K, and Mg concentrations under PP than (Lilienfein et al., 2000a) that can be explained by inunder DP. Thus, maintaining a constant productivity creasing soil solution pH and therefore decreasing Al requires the regular application of Ca, K, and Mg. solubility with increasing soil depth (Jardine and Zel-The effects of pasture use on chemical properties of azny, 1996).the soil solid phase and soil solution are generally small In all systems, the element concentrations in soil soluwhen compared with effects of other permanent cultures tion at the beginning of the rainy season were higher on savanna Oxisols like Pinus plantations reported in at all depths than during the high rainy season. This the literature. The pasture soils show increased fertility effect is shown for selected elements in Fig. 4. Increased compared with the CE because they store more N, S, element concentrations may be explained by dissolution Ca, and Mg and show higher K, Ca, and Mg (only PP) of salts accumulated during the dry season and by minerconcentrations in the topsoil solution. alization of organic matter when the soil was rewetted When the nutrient concentrations in soil solution at that released soluble organic compounds, metal cations, the 2-m depth are used as indication of the risk of nutri-N, P, and S (Birch, 1958;Sørensen, 1974;Matzner and ent losses to below the rooting zone, only K, Mn, and Thoma, 1983). Similar results were reported for the N are lost from both pastures and Zn from DP to a temporal course of nutrient concentrations under Pinus higher extent than under CE. The Zn losses under the plantations (Lilienfein et al., 2000a(Lilienfein et al., , 2001a)). Thus, largest PP are even lower than under CE. However, there may leaching losses have to be expected at the beginning of be a \"first flush\" effect at the beginning of the rainy the rainy season when element concentrations in soil season when all element concentrations are higher than solution are highest but plant uptake is still limited.during the high rainy season and when the pastures have At this time, the soil water content at the 2-m depth a higher water content than the CE. This may result in increased in the order, CE Ͻ PP Ͻ DP (Lilienfein et more pronounced leaching losses of nutrients from the al., 1999). Figure 4 illustrates that the \"first flush\" effect pasture soils with higher nutrient concentrations than was more pronounced for base metals under PP than from the CE soils which is probably particularly true under DP and CE.for base metals under PP. The average soil-water contents at the 0-to 15-cm Our results demonstrate that both pasture systems soil depth during the two rainy seasons for CE, DP, and may be considered as sustainable with respect to soil fertility although in DP grass biomass productivity was PP were 310, 311, and 325 g H 2 O kg Ϫ1 , respectively, but ","tokenCount":"5970"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6fc9d611fca001279b474ba15f6f39a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/458ee994-d7c8-4153-8dee-462f2bb2b41a/retrieve","id":"534335043"},"keywords":["Backcross","doubled-haploid lines","lethal necrosis","markerassisted selection","zea mays"],"sieverID":"419e4582-1aaf-4fab-8f40-595904ea3cf0","pagecount":"21","content":"Contrast between marker-assisted backcross (MABC) and doubled haploid (DH) methods in transferring genes for resistance to maize lethal necrosis (MLN) in maize (Zea mays L.) is not well understood. The MLN is caused by co-infection of maize plant by maize chlorotic mottle virus and sugarcane mosaic virus. Two maize panels consisting of four BC 3 F 2 and six DH populations, separately developed through markerassisted selection from crosses between susceptible CIMMYT lines and MLN-resistant donor parent (KS23-6), were used in the current study. The two populations were of different population structures with unequal sizes. Experiments were conducted under artificial MLN inoculations for two seasons in 2018. Analyses of variance revealed significant variations among genotypes in both panels (p ≤ 0.001). Levene's and Welch's tests found that variances and means of the BC 3 F 2 and DH populations were highly unequal (p ≤ 0.001). The study identified genotypes with reduced MLN infections in both populations; however, lower means for MLN severity and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) values, and higher heritability estimates were obtained in the DH populations than in the BC 3 F 2 populations. Additionally, the DH populations showed higher relative genetic gains for resistance to MLN compared with the BC 3 F 2 populations. The current study detected superiority of DH over MABC populations for breeding for resistance to MLN. Nevertheless, the results observed in the present study warrant further investigations using the same genetic materials with identical population sizes.Maize is a cross-pollinated plant and breeding for improvement of traits of interest has been successful by making crosses between two contrasting (donor and recipient) parents. Main idea is always to transfer a specific portion (quantitative trait locus/loci; QTL) from the donor into the genome of the recipient parent. The task is accomplished by backcross methods, wherein the F 1 hybrid is repeatedly crossed to the recipient parents until a desired characteristic is obtained. Backcross requires 6-8 generations to get recombinant progeny with over 96% resemblance to the recipient parent, except for the introgressed trait (Ye, Ogbannaya, and Giinket 2009;Hospital 2005). However, with the incorporation of molecular marker techniques, selection of progeny for favorable alleles can begin as early as BC1, where introgression of favorable alleles into the background of adapted genotypes can be obtained within 2-3 generations (Hasan et al. 2015;Hospital and Charcosset 1997). The method is widely adopted for improvement of crops for traits of economic importance, such as resistance to diseases, tolerance to low soil fertility and yield performance. Advances in breeding have seen the utilization of the DH populations in improving crops, in which genotype can be fixed for traits of interest in only 1-2 generations (Longin et al. 2007). The DH method is widely used in maize breeding as well as in many other crops (Cegielska-Taras et al. 2015;Prasanna, Chaikam, and Mahuku 2012).Two panels of BC 3 F 2 and DH maize lines were selected using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers linked to major QTL associated with resistance to MLN. The BC 3 F 2 panel was selected for two SNPs separately developed by CIMMYT for resistance to MLN, whereas DH populations were selected for six MLN resistance-associated SNPs developed by LGC Genomics, UK. The two panels were evaluated for two seasons under artificial MLN inoculations in Naivasha, Kenya, in 2018, and the best BC 3 F 2 and DH lines were identified.The choice of breeding tools to be adopted is equally important as identification of the breeding objectives. Use of suitable techniques contributes to reliable breeding results and informative decisions. Both markerassisted backcross (MABC) and DH populations are extensively used in plant breeding. These techniques have huge advantages in time required to generate breeding lines because favorable alleles can be fixed within the susceptible backgrounds in 2-3 generations (Hasan et al. 2015;Hospital and Charcosset 1997). Although MABC and DH techniques are extensively adopted, knowledge of comparative effectiveness of MABC and DH techniques in fixation of genes for resistance to MLN is not well understood in maize. However, superiority of DH method over other techniques for breeding for traits of economic importance has been reported. Dicu and Cristea (2016) compared DH and synthetic populations in maize and reported that DH populations outperformed synthetic populations for all the traits investigated. The authors attributed the performances of the DH lines to complete homozygosity and phenotypic uniformity. Lazaridou et al. (2013) compared DH lines produced from superior F 3 plants and corresponding F 6 lines produced from the same cross in barley. The authors reported that some advanced pedigree lines (F 6 ) yielded significantly higher than the best DH line, which could be attributable to the small number of DH lines evaluated. The authors suggested that the superiority of F 6 over DH lines could be attributable to a lower level of recombination events experienced in DH lines compared to the advanced lines where the number of recombinations was higher because of repeated crossing. Bordes et al. (2006) evaluated doubledhaploid lines versus single-seed descent (SSD) lines and S 1 -family for testcross performance in a maize population. They observed that genetic variance among SSD lines was only 1.5 times higher than the genetic variance of S 1 families. The authors suggested that the lower variance could be attributable to a selection bias in the method of production of SSD lines. Information on the comparative effectiveness of MABC and DH methods in breeding for resistance to MLN is not available. Therefore, the objectives of the current study were to (i) determine the genetic variances and (ii) assess the equality of means of some population that were developed via markerassisted selection and DH populations under MLN infections.Plant materials used in the current study included four BC 3 F 2 and six DH populations developed by CIMMYT through marker-assisted selection from crosses between susceptible elite CIMMYT lines (recipients) and an MLNresistant donor parent (KS23-6) (Table 1). The recipient parents are known for resistance to various diseases and tolerance to drought and low nitrogen and for good agronomic performances. The donor parent was developed by Kasetsart University (Thailand) for resistance to MLN and was obtained from CIMMYT.Four BC 3 F 2 and six DH populations were evaluated under artificial MLN inoculations in a confined MLN facility in Naivasha, Kenya (36°26E; 0°43S; 1896 masl; 677 mm/year rainfall and 9.5-24.9°C mean temperature (Odiyo et al. 2014;Ziyomo and Bernardo 2013) for two seasons in 2018. Trials were planted using an alpha lattice design with two replications. The interrow spacing was 0.75 m and interrow spacing 0.3 m. Two seeds were planted per hill and seedlings were thinned to 1 seedling per hill 3 weeks after germination, making a total of 10 plants per row. Standard agronomic practices were used as described elsewhere (Gowda et al. 2015;Mahuku et al. 2015). The MLN-inoculation procedures and collection of data for MLN incidence were according to Gowda et al. (2015). To maintain moisture requirements for the experimental units, water was supplied to the experiments via drip irrigation whenever rainfall shortage was experienced during the growing season.Analysis of variance was conducted and best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs) were generated for each group of the populations using R software (R Core Team 2016). Populations were considered fixed effects, whereas seasons were regarded as random effects. We used single-stage analysis with weighted means calculated across seasons so that adjusted genotype means representing the BLUEs were obtained assuming fixed effects for genotypes (Piepho et al. 2012). The mixed model was fitted as follows (Damesa et al. 2019):where Y ijhkm = phenotypic observation (yield) for the i th genotype in the j th season, h th site, k th replicates, and m th block; μ i = expected value of the i th genotype and it is regarded as fixed effect; t jh = random effect of the h th site nested within j th season with var(t jh ) = σ 2 t(jh) ; r jhk = random effect of the k th replicate nested within the j th season, h th site with var(r jhk ) = σ 2 r(jhk) ; b jhkm = random effect of the m th block nested within the j th season, h th site and k th replicate with var(b jhkm ) = σ 2 b(jhkm) ; S j = random main effect of the j th season with var(s j ) = σ 2 s ; a h = random main effect of the h th site with var(a h ) = σ 2 a ; gs ij = random interaction effect of the i th genotype and the j th season; ga ih = random interaction effect of the i th genotype and h th site with var(ga ih ) = σ 2 ga ; sa jh = random interaction effect of the j th season and h th site; sag jhi = random interaction effect of the j th season, h th site and i th genotype with var(sag jhi ) = σ 2 sag ; and e ijhkm = residual plot error associated with Y ijhkm var(e ijhkm ) = σ 2 e(jh) . Genotype means were visualized using histogram, boxplot and quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plot with fitted linear regression, as established in SAS 9.4 (SAS institute 2016), as follows:where Y i = dependent variable of the i th genotype; a = y-intercept; b = slope; x i = independent variable of the i th genotype; and ε i = error term.Outputs from the descriptive statistics showed entry means of the two populations computed from their mixed model to have unequal variances. However, similarities were observed between means and medians of the populations, suggesting that the distribution was symmetric. Homogeneity of means of the two populations was not detected using the classical Student's t-test since the two groups compared in the present study had different population sizes. We, therefore, used Levene's test (Levene 1960) to detect the homogeneity of variance of the two populations based on the hypotheses below:where H 0 = null hypothesis, H A = alternative hypothesis, σ 2 1 = variance for population 1, and σ 2 2 = variance for population 2. Levene's test gives the best power for symmetric, moderate tailed distributions. However, such distributions tend to be rather rare in biological data. In the current study, we used the F-statistic for Levene's test modified by Brown and Forsythe (1974) and was computed as follows (Gastwirth, Gel, and Miao 2009):where n i = number of observations in each group, k = number of groups, N = total number of observations, Z ij = absolute deviations either from the median of group i (= mean of all the absolute deviations (Z ij ), and Z i = mean of the absolute deviations (Z ij ) for group i. The modified Levene's t-test is regarded as more robust because instead of conducting ANOVA on absolute deviations from the mean of each group, it is based on the absolute deviations of observations from either the median or the 10% trimmed mean of each population.In a situation where the populations have different variances (σ 2 1 ≠ σ 2 2 ), Student t-test is not appropriate since the null distribution of its statistic depends on the ratio of the unknown variances (σ 2 1 /σ 2 2 ). Similarly, likelihood ratio test is statistically weak when sample sizes are different (n 1 ≠ n 2 ), variance heterogeneity is increased and sample size is small. A simulation study by Ferreira and Ferreira (2009) showed that Welch's t-test controlled Type I error rate for all sample sizes and for all heterogeneity degree of variances. Additionally, the authors found that modified likelihood ratio test was as good as the t-test only when the degrees of freedom were corrected by Welch/Satterthwaite's procedure. Derrick, Toher, and White (2016) observed that Welch's approximate degrees of freedom were more conservative than the degrees of freedom used in the independent samples t-test, particularly when the smaller sample size was associated with the larger variance. After detecting the significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) between the variances of the two populations and the assumption of homogeneity of variances had been violated; and because population sizes were different, we employed Welch's t-test (Welch, 1974) of unequal variances. Welch's t-test or unequal variances t-test is a modification of Student's t-test (Derrick, Toher, and White 2016). The test is typically used when the statistical units underlying the two samples being compared have unequal variances and/ or unequal sample sizes (Welch, 1974;Ruxton 2006;Derrick, Toher, and White 2016). We tested the two population means based on the following assumptions:(1) data follow continuous distribution; (2) data are randomly selected; (3) data are normally distributed (or close enough); (4) population sizes are large; and (5) variances among the groups are equal. These assumptions were tested based on the following two-tailed hypotheses:The Welch's t-test was formulated from estimators of parameters as shown below (Derrick, Toher, and White 2016):and SE 2 ¼ ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi ffiffiwhere SE 2 = estimated standard error (� y 1 À � y 2 ) for unequal variances; s 2 1 and s 2 2 = estimators of variances for populations 1 and 2, respectively; and n 1 and n 2 = sizes of population 1 and population 2, respectively. Since the population sizes were different, the degrees of freedom (df) for unequal variances were approximated and rounded to the nearest integer as follows (Derrick, Toher, and White 2016):where s 2 1 and s 2 2 = estimators of variances for population 1 and population 2, respectively; and n 1 and n 2 = number of individuals in population 1 and population 2, respectively. Estimate of mean difference was calculated as the difference between two population means, as shown below:Lower and upper limits of 95% confidence interval for � y 1 -� y 2 were computed using the following formula:Cullis' broadsense heritability was assumed to account for generalized measure of heritability for the unbalanced data and the genetic effect. The method employs the square of the standard error of the genetic estimates across seasons (Cullis, et al., 2006;Piepho and Möhring,). The formula for computing broadsense heritability is as follows: where H 2 Cullis = Cullis' broadsense heritability, � νΔ BLUP = average standard error of the genotypic BLUPs, and σ 2 g = genetic variance. When data are unbalanced or when genetic effects are correlated or heteroscedastic, the classical equation for calculating response to selection is irrelevant because standard heritability measure will not relate to response to selection (R). This occurs mainly because correlation between phenotype and response to selection differs among genotypes, and thus there is no simple linear relationship between R and selection differential (S), as in the balanced case (Piepho and Möhring, 2006;Cullis, et al., 2006). Therefore, in the current study, we used selection intensity (i), which is the mean of the deviations from the population mean. The selection intensity (i) was measured in units of the phenotypic standard deviation of the population and was calculated as follows:where S = selection differential; σ p = phenotypic standard deviation of the population; y i = i th selected observation; ŷ = population mean; and n = number of selected observations. Expected genetic gain (EGG) for 10% of selected lines for each population was computed from the generalized measure of heritability as follows (Cullis, 2006):ffi ffi ffi ffi ffi h g p where i = selection intensity corresponding to mean of the top 10% of selected lines for each population, σ p = phenotypic standard deviation of the population, and h g = generalized measure of heritability.   Results for analyses of variance and genetic components generated across seasons revealed significant variations (p ≤ 0.001) among genotypes within the BC 3 F 2 and DH populations for resistance to MLN infections (Table 2).The results for genetic components and heritability estimates across two seasons were significant for MLN severity and AUDPC. Broadsense heritability estimates were relatively high for all traits and management options. The high broadsense heritability estimates observed in this study indicated the importance of recurrent selection for improvement of resistance to MLN. The significant variability observed in the current study indicates that the genotypes responded differently under MLN infections, implying the diversity of the genetic backgrounds of the genotypes used. The CIMMYT lines used for developing these BC 3 E 2 and DH populations were of different gene pools, belonging to heterotic groups \"A\" and \"B\". Therefore, the phenotypic variations observed among the genotypes could imply that the lines within each population were genetically different. Materials with diverse genetic backgrounds are useful in breeding to select for various traits, including resistance to MLN. In both BC 3 F 2 and DH populations, some lines showed lower MLN severity and AUDPC values than the population mean, indicating the availability of some tolerant lines within each population for resistance to MLN. All the populations used in the current study were introgression lines with QTL for MLN resistance donated by KS23-6. Therefore, these  133.3, respectively). This could suggest that DH methods could be more efficient than MABC method for introgression breeding for resistance to MLN. The degree of homozygosity of BC 3 F 2 = 93.5%, whereas that of DH lines = 100% (Prasanna, Chaikam, and Mahuku 2012). Therefore, the   superiority of DH lines over BC 3 F 2 performances could be attributable to their homozygosity and uniformity. Literature on comparative study between BC 3 F 2 and DH lines for fixation of genes for resistance to MLN is lacking. Elsewhere, Beyene et al. (2017) used a cross-validation procedure to evaluate the efficiencies of general combining ability (GCA)-based prediction and hybrid performance to select for grain yield and resistance to MLN. The authors observed that GCA-based prediction efficiency for MLN resistance and grain yield accounted for 67% to 90% of the variation in the hybrid performance, suggesting that GCA-based prediction can be proposed for MLN resistance and grain yield prior to field evaluation.Means and standard deviations for all traits under study in the BC 3 F 2 and DH populations were tested for normal distribution. The box plots indicated that means were normally distributed for MLN severity in both populations (Figure 1). The populations exhibited normal distributions of means and variances, as revealed by the positions of the median lines and lengths of the whiskers. This implies that variances and means within populations were normally distributed, making them homogeneous genetic materials for the present study. The DH lines showed more symmetric distributions for both MLN severity and AUDPC values than BC 3 F 2 lines, which exhibited moderate skewness, with median lines and whiskers approaching the lower quartiles (25 th percentiles) for MLN severity and AUDPC values, suggesting that the DH genotypes had means close to one another. Further, Q-Q plots of error terms showed data points for MLN severity and AUDPC values to be on the straight lines, along the diagonals (Figure 2). This indicated that the data used were from normally distributed populations and the error terms were normally distributed. Though the data points congregated along straight lines in both populations, the data showed bending off of the MLN severity and AUDPC values at the extremes. The bend extremes imply kurtosis with heavy tails, which could be attributable to the different values of data, resulting from the nature of the data in which some lines had low MLN infection scores, whereas other scores were extremely high, especially for the susceptible lines. Das and Imon (2016) showed that heavy kurtosis tails had been implicated in number of genotypes falling at the tails (acceptance regions). Therefore, in the current study, superior BC 3 F 2 and DH lines were located within the Table 4 acceptance regions. Simple linear regression, performed to check for the assumptions that the residuals were normally distributed, revealed relatively high R 2 values of 0.89 and 0.92 for MLN severity, and 0.94 and 0.95 for AUDPC in the BC 3 F 2 and DH populations, respectively. The high R 2 values indicate strong linear association between predicted values and the residuals within the populations used. This means that the data met the assumptions of linear regression, implying normality of distribution of error terms within the populations. Generally, the normality test and mean distribution plots indicated that the data met the assumptions of normality and randomness for the t-test. Based on the confidence intervals, we can suggest that the mean MLN resistance for BC 3 F 2 lines (Population 1) was much less than that for the DH lines (Population 2). The DH populations had reduced MLN severity and AUDPC values. This showed that the two groups did not belong to the same maize population; hence, they were genetically different.To check for the equality of means and variances of the two groups, population means and variances of MLN severity and AUDPC values for the BC 3 F 2 and DH populations were compared using a two-sample t-test. The results showed variation between variances and means of the two groups was significant (p ≤ 0.001) (Table 5). Average performances of BC 3 F 2 populations were 6.7 for MLN severity and 153.6 for AUDPC values. Mean performances of DH populations were 5.9 for MLN severity and 107.2 for AUDPC. In addition, the analyses revealed that variation between the means of the two   populations was significant (p ≤ 0.001). Mean differences between the responses of BC 3 F 2 and DH populations was 0.8 for MLN severity, with a standard error difference (SED) of 0.1 and confidence interval (CI) of 0.5 (lower) and 1.0 (upper). The difference for mean AUDPC values between the two populations was 46.4, with an SED of 1.5 and CI of 43.5 (lower) and 49.3 (upper). The significant difference (p ≤ 0.001) observed between means and variances of MLN severity and AUDPC values in both populations strongly suggested that means and variances of the two groups of populations were not equal. Mean difference between the two populations was related to standard deviations of the two populations in detecting population equality. If mean difference between the two populations is greater than the standard deviation (SD) of the population, then the two populations are not considered equal (Ott and Longnecker 2010). In the current study, mean differences for MLN severity and AUDPC values were greater than the SD differences between the two populations. This confirms that the two populations had different mean performances for resistance to MLN infections.Unequal mean performances, observed in this study, between BC 3 F 2 and DH populations for response to MLN infections could be attributable to the efficiency and superiority of DH method in breeding for resistance to MLN in maize. The DH population being homozygous at 100% loci, has enhanced additive genetic variance (2× additive variance). At such a high level of additive variance, the level of success is greater than that via MABC method. The BC 3 F 2 populations were generated using foreground selection for two SNP markers on chromosome 3, whereas DH populations were selected using six SNP markers on chromosome 6. The difference in the number of QTL targeted per population might have caused the variation in MLN response in favor of populations containing many QTL for resistance to MLN. Unlike DH populations, which were 100% homozygous, the BC 3 F 2 population still had donor parent's genetic complement = 6.5%. Therefore, the proportions of donor and recurrent parents were 0.065 and 0.935, respectively. This donor proportion might still contain some undesirable chromosomal segments, which might have resulted in the under performance of the BC 3 F 2 populations for resistance to MLN, as a result of interactions between QTL from different genomic components (epistasis). Therefore, further selfing of the BC 3 F 2 populations to advanced levels (e.g., BC 4 F 7 ) could allow a significant decrease in heterozygosity; hence minimizing epistatic effects (QTL × QTL interactions). In addition, the BC 3 F 2 and DH lines used in the present study were from different genetic backgrounds. These might have contributed to their differential performances under MLN conditions. The population size for the BC 3 F 2 used was comparatively smaller than that for the DH populations; hence the low population size might have affected selection within the BC 3 F 2 populations.For both BC 3 F 2 and DH populations, which were developed using markerassisted selection, response to selection per cycle and expected genetic gains for resistance to MLN are presented in Table 6. The response to selection for marker-assisted BC 3 F 2 populations was 1.6 and 23.2 for MLN severity and AUDPC, respectively. In marker-assisted DH populations, response to selection was 1.7 for MLN severity and 31.1 for AUDPC. Generally, DH populations had an expected genetic gain 2.2% higher for MLN severity and 14.7% higher for AUDPC than for theBC 3 F 2 populations. A total of 14 superior lines were identified for resistance to MLN in BC 3 F 2 populations. Proportionally, 22.58% of the total 62 BC3F2 lines were selected for resistance to MLN under artificial inoculations. Some of the selected BC 3 F 2 lines were BCL2, BCL11, BCL28, and BCL32. Similarly, 1010 DH lines were phenotyped under artificial MLN infection and 334 DH lines, representing 33.07% of the total population, showed resistance to MLN (Table 7). Some of the selected resistant DH lines were DH4, DH90, DH103 and DH121 (data not shown).Overall, relative genetic gains were 2.3% and 14.6% higher for MLN severity and AUDPC values in DH populations, respectively, than in BC 3 F 2 populations. The higher relative genetic gains observed for the DH population could be attributable to the high heritability estimates and reduced genetic variances for the MLN resistance observed in the population. Elsewhere, a comparative study of genetic gains (Rutkoski et al. (2015) from genomic selection and phenotypic selection for resistance to stem rust of wheat showed that genomic selection led to significantly lower genetic variance. Proportionally, many DH lines were selected per population compared to BC 3 F 2 population. The reason for this variability could be that DH technique is more accurate in selection for fixed alleles than BC method. In the current study, many more lines were screened for DH populations than for BC populations and this might have increased the chances of obtaining lines fixed for the resistance alleles for MLN.The DH lines were superior to BC 3 F 2 lines and had minimal average MLN severity and AUDPC values. The DH lines had comparatively higher heritability estimates for resistance to MLN than BC 3 F 2 lines. Additionally, DH lines had higher genetic gain for reduction of MLN severity and AUDPC values compared to BC 3 F 2 . The findings of the present study indicate that the DH method is an appropriate technique for breeding for resistance to MLN.","tokenCount":"4477"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0a34b703610ea035b04a66bbc4674daa","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cacc2af3-910a-42a7-bd4b-19783d593ac2/retrieve","id":"-1566032945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2eff8010-e23b-469d-a262-1151c9ad4e8a","pagecount":"41","content":"This reporting period was beset by limited funding and the Project Management directed support to short-term activities, many of which would be covering loose ends of research that was considered to be near completion, or with critical long-term continuity, or was needed to draft technical documentation/ identification of development partners for taking technologies to scale.Field activities were implemented in Kongwa and Kiteto to meet requirements for completion of final evaluation for release of a new cohort of crop varieties -sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut and drought tolerant maize -specifically targeting drought-prone areas. Over the last seasons, these new materials have exhibited a relatively higher yield advantage over the currently used commercial varieties and landraces in the semi-arid zones of central Tanzania.Improving delivery of seed for such new varieties is being addressed, first by the bulking of breeder seed by Africa RISING research partner institutions (IITA, CRISAT, ARI-Naliendele, ZARI-Msekera); secondly by strategically partnering with seed companies to produce hybrid and foundation seed (e.g., Meru-Agro, Drylands Agricultural Investment Ltd, Good Nature Agro); and thirdly by promoting \"Community Seed Banks\" (CSB) for the production of Quality Declared Seed (QDS). Beneficiary tracking studies are being conducted to provide evidence of the benefits of CSB in Kongwa and Kiteto.A spatially-explicit analysis of long-term rainfall trends (37 years) in seven East and Southern African countries was undertaken to identify changes in agricultural potential resulting from a significant decrease or increase in rainfall over time. Mapping of rainfall trends has the potential to guide spatial targeting of climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies. Preliminary analysis shows that two contiguous zones with significant increase in annual rainfall (3 -15 mm/yr) occurred in Southwest Zambia and in the Northern Lake Victoria Basin between Kenya and Uganda, while significant decreases in annual rainfall ranging between -4 and -10 mm/yr were observed in Southwest Tanzania and Central-South Kenya as well as Central Uganda and Western Rwanda. This analysis complements other land use suitability mapping approaches that are being applied in Africa RISING.Long term in situ water harvesting experiments have continued into Year 3 in Kongwa and Kiteto, to evaluate the effect of residual tied-ridging on cropping and soil and water conservation. The water harvesting treatments are complemented by the application of fertilizers. Similar studies are being conducted in Malawi, but also include legume components such as the groundnut -pigeonpea doubled-up option.In Babati, new cereal/legume intercropping arrangements are being evaluated, especially aiming at increasing performance of intercropped pigeonpea. The arrangements include doubling-up with the common-bean, coppicing maize at physiological maturity to allow more light to the pigeonpea, and a combined maize-bean-pigeonpea intercrop, code named \"Mbili-Mbili intercropping\". Maize crop characteristics in the sole crop were similar to those in the Mbili-Mbili system.In Zambia, studies on cereal/legume cropping systems continued with evaluating (i) the doubled-up legume technologies under CA, (ii) maize-pigeonpea-green manure cover crop systems (iii) pigeonpea ratooning, and (iv) different Gliricidia intercropping strategies. Field trials of these studies were established successfully.Studies are continuing on high-value off-season vegetable growing in screen houses under irrigation, including adjustments in the screen house characteristics to optimize microclimate conditions and determine the consequent economic benefits. The popularity of this technology is also being driven by the reduced use of chemicals to control pests and diseases common on crops grown in the open.A new approach to evaluating nutrient response (starting with nitrogen) and precision experiments is being applied in Malawi. It involves the use of high resolution imagery through drone flights. The special camera generates Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which is used to quantify the photosynthetic capacity of plant canopies. These data are being processed to assess the effect of variable fertilization in the N-response experiments and on fields of farmers that surrounded the experiments. Additionally, moisture probes were installed in the experiments to establish the soil-water-nutrient relations.Livestock research has continued with the improvement of dual-purpose (egg and meat) chicken breeds in Kongwa, with the introduction of new Kroeler chicks for breeding purposes. In Babati, improving poultry productivity is through better housing and improved feeding. Dairy cows are also benefiting from improved feed made from introduced fodders and better stover processing. In Malawi, feeding trials and improved housing trials have been initiated for goats. Integrating livestock in the cropping systems improves their sustainability when the introduced forages are planned to improve soil fertility and soil erosion management, when the manures are recycled on land for the same purpose, and when waste of a feed source is reduced through better processing. Data on these and on the socio-economic implications are being assembled.Nutrition and food safety studies have continued to address formulation of recipes from the Africa RISING (AR) introduced nutrient-dense legumes, cereals, vegetables, and livestock products introduced by AR for the benefit of children. Analysis of different maize varieties showed differences in their nutritional composition. Similarly, the amount of edible matter removed during dehulling maize grain differs with variety. These observations are important in the formulation of recipes.Trade-off analyses can assist in identifying the feasibility of the field-level technology options described above. One such assessment using the Farm Design model explored alternative options for differently resource endowed farms to enhance their farm performances in terms of economic, environmental, and social indicators by combining the current farm resources with the AR interventions. Results show that the windows of opportunities and the preferred innovations depended on available land sizes, current cropping systems, and livestock ownership. The High Resource Endowed farms showed widest ranges of potential improvements in terms of operating profit followed by the Medium Resource Endowed farms while the Low Resource Endowed farms showed modest improvements. Using such models can be an effective tool in exploring windows of opportunity within smallholder farming systems and promotes discussion of future options for farm development between smallholder farmers and extension workers.Malawi have been completed and are being documented. A paper on farmers' motivations for SI-related farming practices in Tanzania and Malawi is under development. Another on constructing typologies with a case study in Zambia related to the SIMLEZA activities has been accepted for publication in the PLOS ONE journal. Further analysis of typologies and possibilities for targeting related to extrapolation domains is being conducted with ARBES dataset from Tanzania and Malawi. Some partnerships with development institutions have already been described above, e.g., those involved in seed systems. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have continued to support the scaling of maize-pigeonpea technologies in Zambia, reaching some 1500 farmers. CRS has further introduced a market aggregation system by village agents which will further aid in the aggregation of grain and sale to the buyers. The consequence is stimulation of wider technology uptake. CRS is also supporting a project in Arumeru District of Tanzania, entitled 'Vegetable Business Hubs for the youth in Arumeru District, Arusha, Tanzania', to assist young adults in accessing profitable and sustainable economic opportunities in vegetable value chains for improved livelihood.The AR team, led by CIAT, organized a 10-development institutions partners' meeting to develop joint strategies for scaling-up sustainable intensified agricultural technologies. Different scalingup approaches are being applied by the development institutions. The meeting identified the need for them to work collaboratively around the common scaling approaches to achieve sustainable intensification. Also, the need and importance of working with extensionists were noted to ensure effective dissemination and the provision of microfinance to farmers so that they can adopt even the sophisticated technologies such as those of irrigation. The need was also noted for collaboration between technology providers and service providers, NGOs, etc. so that technologies can be disseminated to many areas.These \"loose ends\" activities were designed to keep partners engaged during the reporting period when there were limited resources. Another engaging activity was to get from the partners documented evidence of the validated technologies to date. To this effect, a \"Handbook of agricultural sustainable intensification approaches for farmers in East and Southern Africa\" has been planned and preparation is under way. However, contributions to the draft handbook received from partners were in several cases unsatisfactory or completely lacking. Therefore, the timetable to complete the activity could not be adhered to.Similarly, poor performance of some partners can also be exhibited in the technical reports submitted to IITA and which have been used to compile this donor report. They have been often late despite timely reminders and the scientific quality in some cases leaves a lot of room for improvement. The inclusion in the partner sub-agreements of a clause about financial implications of late reporting has not influenced the timeliness of reporting.Figure 1 shows the ESA-wide geo-referenced sites where Africa RISING implemented research or technology dissemination activities during the reporting period. Outcome 1. Productivity, diversity, and income of crop-livestock systems in selected agroecologies enhanced under climate variabilityThe third evaluation of elite material, a requirement for variety release, is ongoing (Table 1). The groundnut candidate lines (ICGV-SMs 03519, 05650, and 02724) have a yield advantage of more than 60% over local checks. To fast track access to seed when these new materials are released breeder seeds are being multiplied. 100 kg of seeds of the three varieties were planted for bulking. Bulking seeds of ICGV-SM 83708 (Mnanje), already released in Tanzania but confined to Southern Tanzania, is also on-going. Africa RISING introduced it to Kongwa and Kiteto. Mnanje has wide adaptation and has been released in six East and Southern African countries.Focus varieties are ICEAPs 00040 (Mali), 00554 (Ilonga 1) and 00557 (Ilonga 2). Mali has already been rolled-out through an informal seed system in which farmers are trained to produce and manage quality seed that are shared in their communities. The performance of Ilonga 1 and 2 is being validated in Kongwa and Kiteto and seeds are being bulked for deployment.Three candidate lines of sorghum (Gambela 1107, IESV 92028, and IESV 23010) and six of pearl millet (SDDV 96053,IP 8774,IP 96053,KAT PM2,IP 9976,and SMDV 94605) have been planted in Kongwa, Kiteto, and Iringa districts.Early, intermediate, and late drought tolerant (DT) new elite maize hybrids have been planted in the districts of Kongwa (two sites), Kiteto (one site), and Iringa (four sites) to evaluate their adaptability under semi-arid conditions. The experiments will enable us understand genotype × environment interactions and the stability and adaptability of test lines in these semi-arid zones, key information required for release. Data collection is ongoing. Piloting informal seed systems (quality declared seed)Seed systems An informal system that operates via CSBs 1 , a mechanism of choice for scaling out seed and allied technologies of under-invested crops, is being applied. The focus crops are released varieties of pigeonpea, sorghum, and pearl millet, all newly introduced to Kongwa and Kiteto via Africa RISING. Seeds of these crops were provided to 1300 farmers in the 2016-2017 cropping season. These farmers have subsequently passed on seeds to secondary beneficiaries. Data collection is underway to establish the number of new farmers.This is a follow-on activity from the 2016-2017 cropping season where Africa RISING partnered with Kongwa District Council to underpin their \"kick hunger out of Kongwa'' initiative. This is part of the community scaling efforts. In the 2016-2017 cropping season the District Council received 25 kg of sorghum seed and produced 500 kg of QDS. That seed was distributed to 165 farmers as first beneficiaries during the current cropping season, and productivity is being assessed.1 Community Seed Banks (CSBs) are village-based institutions managed by smallholder farmers for QDS multiplication and dissemination within their communities. The systems' design is based on lender-borrower arrangement just the way it happens with commercial banking in which loans accessed are paid back with interest. In the case of seeds, a smallholder farmer who receives for instance, 10 kg of seed as start-up, will repay/ return twice the quantity (20 kg).In case of a CSB, seeds returned (i.e., 20 kg) are deposited to a centrally managed storage facility (seed bank) and the farmer (borrower) retains only excess seeds for own future production use. Seeds stored at the CSB are then distributed to new farmers in the next cropping season.Early generation seed of pigeonpea, groundnut, pearl millet, and sorghum are being bulked to underpin establishment of functional seed systems for the central semi-arid zones of Tanzania. Dryland Seed Co., a private entity based in Morogoro, is producing breeder seeds of the pigeonpea varieties ICEAP 00040 (Mali), ICEAP 0554 (Ilonga 14 M1), and ICEAP 0557 (Ilonga 14 M2). Groundnut breeder seed for ICGV-SM 02724 and Mnanje are being multiplied at ICRISAT Malawi owing to the erratic season and will be shipped to Tanzania. 100 kg and 500 kg of each variety respectively, have been planted. Sorghum and pearl millet nuclear seeds of quantities ranging from 15 to 25 kg are being bulked for production of breeder seed.The project is bulking seeds for parents of the AR-released QPM hybrids (CZH132019Q and CZH132003Q) for Tanzania. Bulked parent seed will be used to produce foundation seed. This is being done in collaboration with Meru-Agro Seed Co. that released these varieties together with CIMMYT, an Africa RISING implementer. Meru-Agro Seed Co. will subsequently produce certified seed for scaling out.In Malawi, a total of 6000 kg of groundnut basic seed and 4000 kg of soybean were procured from ICRISAT and IITA, respectively, distributed to skilled farmers and planted. Soybean inoculants were supplied to farmers. The crops are currently in the field (Fig. 2). About 2400 \"baby\" farmers received QDS produced by farmers during the 2017 cropping season. Six graduate student experiments were established in Linthipe and Ntubwi to determine performance of farmer recycled seed (yield gap analysis -improved seed vs >5 generations farmer retained seed). A beneficiary tracking study was conducted in Kiteto and Kongwa districts to assess performance of CSBs following the first 1300 farmers who received seeds (2016-2017 cropping season). Purposive sampling by crop was conducted to ensure crop representativeness. Interviews were conducted with 701 beneficiaries from five villages (201 for pigeonpea, 314 for sorghum, and 186 for groundnut).The survey results show that yield for the three crops is low but still higher than for the local varieties used by farmers. The average grain yield was 634 kg/ha for groundnut, 592 kg/ha for pigeonpea, and 1482 kg/ha for sorghum. Groundnut had the highest gross margin of US$ 286/ha in spite of its low yield. This can be attributed to its relatively competitive price. Sorghum had a gross margin of US$ 230/ha; pigeonpea had the lowest gross margin of US$ 90/ha due to a price drop following a price collapse in the Indian market. The survey also showed that the area under improved varieties was 750 ha for pigeonpea, 122 ha for groundnut, and 772.2 ha for sorghum.During the reporting period, ICRISAT embarked on providing breeder seed of the five released groundnut varieties and one pigeonpea variety to ZARI-Msekera for further bulking, as well to partners for their own seed production. In total, 7.4 ha of breeder seedfor all varieties were planted. The varieties produced were Wamusanga, Wazitatu, Lupande, MGV 6, and MGV 7. For pigeonpea. The 0.6 ha breeder seed field at ZARI-Msekera, which was planted last season, has been ratooned to produce fresh breeder seed.Additionally, IITA planted 1.5 ha of soybean (Kafue) and 0.3 ha of Mwembeshi at its research farm in Ngwerere, Lusaka, and another 1.5 ha of Kafue at Good Nature Agro Farm in Chipata, bringing the total area under breeder seeds to 3.3 ha; this is above the 3.2 ha target as stated in the work plan. As for cowpea breeder seeds IITA planted 2 ha of Namuseba at ZARI-Msekera in Chipata and another 0.5 ha at the IITA research farm in Ngwerere, Lusaka, bringing the total to 2.5 ha against the target of 2 ha.Foundation seed of groundnut and pigeonpea were planned for production through partners. Groundnut and pigeon pea foundation seed directly produced by ICRISAT has been planted at Mthirakuwili Farm in Lundazi, where the area under groundnut is 2.0 ha and the ratooned field for pigeonpea seed is also 2.0 ha. Good Nature bought 1500 kg of Wamusanga and 300 kg of Lupande; Share Africa Zambia was provided 310 kg of MGV 7 and Wamusanga; and Farmer Outgrower Foundation (FOF) was given 300 kg of MGV 7 and Wamusanga. Therefore, in total, at least 2400 kg of breeder seeds across varieties was made available through purchase and project assistance for the production of foundation seeds.Instead of producing foundation seed, IITA had planted all its seed under the Africa RISING project as breeder seed (Class A) since there was enough early generation seed to multiply. Besides, ZARI, through their revolving fund, had given out 500 kg of soybean (Kafue) to trained farmers to produce basic seed.As a seed company is yet to come on board to produce legume certified seed, the project used CSBs for the purpose of producing seed following a proven model of making high quality seed (QDS) available to farmers. About 900 kg of groundnut was taken by 180 farmers (157 women and 53 men) under this approach. This amount of seed could cover an estimated 15 ha. Some 342 kg of pigeonpea seed were taken by 171 farmers (123 women and 48 men), which is estimated to have covered 34.2 ha assuming that all of the seed was planted at the correct seed rate.Breeder seed production is on track as all the varieties targeted for production have been planted. CSBs (Tables 2 and 3) will allow farmers' access to QDS that they are producing right in their communities. Related to the multiplication of soybean breeder seed, IITA planted a total of 3.3 ha, which is above the target of 3.2 ha; it also planted 2.5 ha of cowpea breeder seed against the target of 2.0 ha. A method for assigning new farms to existing typologies has been developed and tested for ARBES datasets of Tanzania and Malawi. Results presented at the ESA review and planning meeting [https://www.slideshare.net/africa-rising/using-typologies-for-technology-targeting] recommend that allocating technologies to farms should be guided by farm features, socioeconomic environment and biophysical conditions. The technologies should transition from being described as \"suitable for farm types\" to \"suitable for farms\". A paper on typology development has been accepted for publication [2] \".A spatially-explicit analysis of long-term rainfall trends (37 years) in seven East and Southern Africa countries was undertaken, aimed at identifying changes in agricultural potential resulting from significant decreases or increases in rainfall. Maps on rainfall trends are intended to guide spatial targeting of CSA that are implemented in the AR program such as DT varieties and soil and water harvesting practices. This information is helpful in quantifying the magnitude of risks posed by climate change and variability but also for guiding prioritization of scarce resources by directing appropriate measures to zones with highest impact. Two contiguous zones with significant increase in annual rainfall (3 -15 mm/yr) occurred in Southwest Zambia and in Northern Lake Victoria Basin between Kenya and Uganda (Fig. 3). The most significant decrease in annual rainfall (-19mm/yr) was recorded at Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Other significant decreases in annual rainfall ranging between -4 and -10mm/yr were observed in Southwest Tanzania and Central-South Kenya as well as Central Uganda and Western Rwanda. Results were presented in European Geosciences Union general assembly in Vienna in April 2018 2 .   Notes: SI mother trials -based on a broad range of technologies that farmers choose from -less prescriptive. Simplified SI trials -these have fewer treatments based on what are considered to be silver bullets. The highlight of these is the groundnut-pigeonpea doubled-up option that seems to be the most promising. WNM -water conservation dimension -is added on SI legume/nutrient management technologies. Half of the plots have tied ridges and half do not have, so tied ridges or no tied ridges become main plots.During the 2017-2018 cropping season, 18 farmers installed Fanyajuu/chini terraces in their fields as part of farmer-led demos on water harvesting technologies. The technology was put to the test by the heavy rains received in January 2018; Figure 5 shows their ability to minimize soil erosion and retain rainwater. Data on crop productivity and other SI indicators are being collected. In Eastern Province of Zambia, all five doubled-up legume trials (both maize and legume phase) were established in time (December) and at a good standard (Fig. 6). They have been visited during the field tours and regularly by the Project Manager from ZARI. Interestingly, the legume phase showed no advantages under CA for pigeonpea and groundnut in this year and we are yet to understand the yield implications at harvest. Field days are planned for April to highlight the benefits of these trials to smallholders in the target community. The planned six on-farm trials were initiated in Sabilo, Ayamango, and Endanoga villages with varying agro-ecological conditions in Babati. The trials, two per village, are testing options for increasing pigeonpea productivity within the maize-pigeonpea systems. The trials have seven treatments each, with farms as replicates, as follows:1. Maize planted at 25 cm by 90 cm. No legume. 2. Maize planted at 25 cm by 90 cm and pigeonpea at 50 cm between maize rows. No coppicing. 3. Maize planted at 25 cm by 90 cm and pigeonpea at 50 cm between maize rows. Maize will be coppiced at physiological maturity. 4. Bean-pigeonpea intercropping (doubled-up legume). 5. Maize planted at 50 cm by 90 cm (two plants per hole) and pigeonpea at 50 cm between maize rows. Maize will be coppiced at physiological maturity. 6. Two rows of maize (planted at 25 cm by 30 cm), one row of beans and one row of pigeonpea (\"Mbili-Mbili intercropping\"). No coppicing. 7. Meru 513 maize planted at 25 cm by 90 cm and pigeonpea at 50 cm between maize rows. No coppicing. Maize variety has vertical leaf architecture.Except for treatment 7, maize planted was Meru 515 variety.An early season drought resulted in the re-establishment of trials in Endanoga, with gap-filling required in other fields. Crops in all sites recovered well following good rains in March.By the end of March, maize is at tasselling and silking stages depending on the agro-ecology (Fig. 7). The general maize conditions are good. Sole maize crop, in the majority of trials, is performing as well as the Mbili-Mbili system, with the two systems displaying the best physiological development compared to the rest of the treatments. Pigeonpea are growing well especially under doubled-up legume treatments and Mbili-Mbili system. This can be attributed to the presence of adequate space within these two systems compared to the common intercropping system. Beans, although initially affected by drought, are podding in all villages except Sabilo where they are already mature because the season began earlier than in other agro-ecological zones. As expected, the trials are performing better than the farmers' fields.Following strong engagements with the extension system in Babati, and anticipating continued engagement for impact, extra trials are being undertaken in additional villages of Orngadida and Tsamatsi, and extension staff has been facilitated to install demos at their village offices to act as farmers' learning sites. In Eastern Province of Zambia, out of 24 on-farm trials, 21 were successfully established; the remaining trials could not be established in time owing to the long dry spell, which affected all crops germinating in early January 2018. The successfully established 21 GMCC trials had some key messages. Pigeonpea were more drought resistant than maize crops and managed to survive the long dry spell more effectively than maize. This led to the suppression of maize in the intercropping systems and beneficial growth of pigeonpea. Although maize yields will be low in some communities, pigeonpea grain yield will compensate.Due to the slow start of pigeonpea, the competition with maize is normally smaller so that farmers will benefit more from this combination than, for example, maize-lablab. In addition, if pigeonpea will be harvested only for grain at harvesting time and the biomass is left standing, there is a good possibility that it can provide additional fodder and cattle and goats will be able to browse some of the green leaves during the dry season. At the onset of the new cropping season, the remaining green leaves of pigeonpea can then be applied to the soil to make use of their high N content and also provide groundcover in CA systems.An on-going maize ratooning trial was established at Msekera Research Station in Eastern Province of Zambia using the treatments and ratooning strategies from 2017 (Fig. 8). This interesting trial will generate information on managing pigeonpea much more effectively in future years. Some of the insights have already been taken up by CRS. Generally, ratooning is a very effective strategy to re-establish pigeonpea. However, it is important to keep competition low between the pigeonpea and maize to avoid overshadowing of maize. Preliminary results suggest that ratooning at pigeonpea harvest and again at maize seeding time and/or ratooning once at maize seeding time will give the greatest return on maize as the fresh maturing leaves have most of the available nitrogen and will directly benefit maize. Uprooting pigeonpea at harvest time in July/August and replanting it will not provide many benefits to the following maize crop except maybe some moisture conservation. Most of the nitrogen will have volatilized by the time of planting maize in November. Maize-lablab systems have been evaluated both on-station at Msekerain, Eastern Province of Zambia, and in 21 successfully established on-farm trials. This year, the lablab systems established much better than last year (Fig. 9), partly owing to slower and stunted maize growth that allowed better lablab development but also because of late rains in March that benefited the late growth of lablab. It is foreseen that intercropping systems planted with lablab will be amongst the most successful maize-legume treatments in the on-farm and on-station GMCC trials this year. However, most of the residual benefits from the last year have disappeared because of freely grazing animals and veld fires which destroyed at least half of the lablab residues. Community-based interventions will be required to reduce the pressure on lablab crop residues, which are critical for improving soil fertility and maize yields. Alternatively, fields need to be fenced with live fences to keep out free roaming livestock and this will be likely to be much more difficult to achieve. One on-station trial was continued at Msekera Research Station in its Year 3. The trial was successfully established and amplified with a full rotational system. The treatments have been changed to a) full maize-groundnut rotation; b) maize/Gliricidia (intensive spacing) -groundnut rotation; c) maize/Gliricidia (dispersed spacing) -doubled-up legume system rotation. There was an initial misunderstanding and all groundnut treatments were converted to the doubledup legume system. However, this was corrected in January to what it should be. The Gliricidia trees are now well established and application of Gliricidia leaves is anticipated to add to the productivity of maize in future years (Fig. 10). Within the Gallapo and Seloto villages of Babati District, Africa RISING successfully rolled out 16 on-farm demos of two vegetable varieties (green pepper and tomato) as planned in a follow-up season (Fig. 11). The trials were planted 2 February and field data collection is currently ongoing on microclimatic variables of relative humidity, wind speed, air temperature, and soil moisture variation using automated sensors both inside and outside the screen house. These data will help in deriving water use efficiency trends and productivity of vegetable varieties both inside and outside screen houses.Cost-Benefit Analysis data for vegetable production with irrigation are being implemented by farmers. The data will subsequently be pulled from farmers' records and analyzed. Included are data on refilling reservoirs (at least twice every week) and on opening/closing of water valves from the reservoir (an average of about 20 times /day) that are being collected to provide information on the costing of labor inputs and provide a more complete story around the economic benefits on water and labor dynamics of out-of-season irrigation options for highvalue vegetable varieties. Eight N response and precision experiments were established along a climate gradient in Golomoti, Ntubwi, Msanama, and Nyambi villages of Malawi, following a protocol below (Table 5). Protocols were re-designed owing to severe drought in January 2018. Moisture probes were installed in these experiments to study soil-water-nutrient relations. Another eight residue and N management trials were established in Machinga and Mangochi districts. Monitoring and data collection are on-going, including use of high resolution imagery (Fig. 12) by means of drone flights. The special camera generates NDVI which is used to quantify the photosynthetic capacity of plant canopies. These data are being processed to assess the effect of variable fertilization in the N-response experiments and on fields of farmers that surrounded the experiments.Table 5. Protocol for N response experiments in Malawi. Continuing degradation of soil fertility and the extinction of communal resources are linked to low crop yields and high poverty rates among the smallholder farmers. Alternative intensification options such as the use of improved seeds, phosphorus-based fertilizers, and manure in maize-pigeonpea intercrop, and tomato as a new crop have been proposed by the Africa RISING project to improve farm productivity. The feasibility of these field-level options needs to be assessed at the farm-scale to give insight into the interactions between crops, soils, animals and the household. The farm-scale model, FarmDESIGN, was used to explore alternative options for differently resource endowed farms to enhance their farm performances in terms of economic, environmental, and social indicators by combining the current farm resources with the AR interventions. Two sample farms of each farm type were selected. Data for the current farms were obtained from a previous study while data for the novel interventions were gathered from literature reviews and ongoing research experiments.Results show that the windows of opportunities and the preferred innovations depended on sizes of available land, current cropping systems, and livestock ownership. The High Resource Endowed farms showed the widest ranges of potential improvements in terms of operating profit followed by the Medium Resource Endowed farms; the Low Resource Endowed farms showed modest improvements. In terms of operating profit and soil organic matter improvements were possible by reducing the area under the currently grown crops and adopting the AR interventions. However, often strong trade-offs with household leisure time were evident due to the high labor demand of these inventions. Cultivation of the high value tomato crop with its characteristic low soil organic matter inputs created strong trade-offs between operating profit and organic matter balance. Adopting the new practices of maizepigeon pea intercrop, maintaining or slightly increasing animal numbers as well as incorporating a portion of the crop residues into the soil played key roles in increasing organic matter balances on all farm types. The interactions with farmers allowed virtual experiential learning to take place and provided evidence that the farmers found the simulation outcomes credible and meaningful. It is concluded that the model is an effective tool in exploring windows of opportunity within smallholder farming systems and promotes the discussion of future options for farm development between smallholder farmers and extension workers. More information on this work may be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/901g0isjizzecen/Thesis_Godlove.pdf?dl=0Deploying integrated community breeding for resilient and more productive poultry in Kongwa and Kiteto districtsThis work builds on the 2016-2017 poultry improvement activities in which 400 SASSO chicks were distributed to eight farmers in Mlali, Kongwa District. We tracked Lead farmers who have used their poultry stock for further breeding (Fig. 13). From that poultry stock in 2017-2018 season we have introduced Kroeler chicken breed (a dual-purpose chicken for meat and eggs) for further improvement of selected hens available with Lead farmers. These Kroeler chicks are being reared for further breeding. When the new Kroeler chicks mature and are ready for mating new data sets will be assembled for the progeny. More details will be included in the next report. Some activities on livestock integration were initiated and are being implemented in Babati during the reporting period, as follows.:1. Initiating the contracting process for developing farmer extension materials to provide information on the growing and use of improved forages, improved use of crop residuebased rations, and improved poultry housing. 2. Initiating a study to evaluate the costs and benefits of using improved forages and crop residue-based rations in livestock feeding. 3. Drafting manuscripts on (i) management of free range local chickens, (ii) sustainability of mechanized forage chopping, and (iii) evaluation of improved Napier grass accessions. 4. Analyzing data from the improved housing and supplementary feeding of free range local chickens.In Malawi, on-station goat feeding trials are being conducted at LUANAR and three demo housing pens were established in Linthipe, Golomoti, and Ntubwi villages. Farmers in Ntubwi have gone beyond learning at the main demo pens; 39 households have constructed their own pens. Data collection is ongoing.  Evaluation of the effects of improved shelling, drying, and hermetic storage of grain on mycotoxin contamination 168 samples were collected, processed, and shipped for analysis to Centre for Analytical Chemistry Department of Agro-biotechnology (IFA-Tulln) University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.Comparative evaluation of the physico-chemical and nutritional properties of improved and traditional (farmer-preferred) maize varieties Six locally adapted and six improved varieties were obtained from farmers in two villages located in different AEZs and analyzed for nutritional and technological properties. Findings show that maize varieties cultivated in the two sites varied in their nutritional composition with respect to contents of protein (7.6 -10.2 g/100 g), fat (3.4 -5.3 g/100 g), fiber (3.0 -4.6 g/100 g) and minerals (0.8 -1.3 g/100 g) (Fig. 15) as well as starch content. It is possible that these differences are due to interaction effects of variety, agronomic practices, and agro-climatic conditions although this interaction is yet to be clearly demonstrated.Maize is usually cultivated for an energy (carbohydrates) source in diets. However, in communities where dietary diversity is low, the contents of key nutrients in the maize are vital in alleviating malnutrition. The daily per capita consumption of maize in Tanzania is estimated at 200 g, which would be equivalent to 15 -20 g of protein, 6.8 -10.6 g fat, 6 -9 g fiber, and 1.6 -2.6 g total minerals based on the present findings. The recommended dietary intake (RDI) of protein is 50 g/day. The varieties with the higher protein contents, e.g., Seedco and 511, could thus supply about 40% of the RDI if promoted in Sabilo. Corn oil in an important source of polyunsaturated fatty acids including Linoleic acid (58 g/100 g) and Linolenic acid (1 g/100 g) whose adequate intakes (AI) are about 12 and 1.4 g/day, respectively. The varieties containing high fat, e.g., Stuka (improved drought resistant variety) would thus be able to make available about 6 g Linoleic acid and 0.1 g Linolenic acid or about 50% and 7.5% of the recommended daily adequate intakes, respectively. Fiber plays an important role in gut health; the recommended dietary allowance (RDI) is 30 g/day; the high fiber varieties, e.g., Akibalu and Mehh (locally adapted varieties in Mlali and Sabilo, respectively) could supply about 30% of the RDI. The total mineral content comprised phosphorus (35.2%), potassium (38.2%), calcium (5.7%), magnesium (12.6%), sodium (7.0), iron (0.6%), copper (0.2%), manganese (0.1%) and zinc (0.5%). The RDI or AI of these elements are phosphorus 800 mg/day, potassium 4.7 g/day, calcium 1.2 g/day, magnesium 350 mg/day, iron 10 mg/day, copper 30 µg/day, manganese 2 mg/day, and zinc (10 mg/day). Based on these values and daily per capita maize consumption of 200 g, the requirements for iron, zinc, copper and manganese would be met. The dietary needs for calcium would be met 7-12%; potassium 57-93%; phosphorus 13-21%; and magnesium 70 -114% depending on the maize variety cultivated. The process of dehulling maize grain before milling removes the hull and part of the germ.Figure 15 shows that the amount of edible matter removed during the process differs with variety (13.6 -28.4 g/100 g). This could be related to differences in grain size, shape, and hardness. The hulls/ germ fraction is not used for human food and somewhat represents food loss.Figure 16. Amount of edible matter removed (weight loss) during dehulling of maize grain.Exploring ICTs for linking farmers to markets (input and output)We noted that it would be a missed opportunity not to use the existent MWANGA Platform to communicate with vegetable farmers in Babati on needed agronomy practices, market prices, and other climate-related services. As a result, for this work, we are taking advantage of the MWANGA Platform as both a link to farmers and a dissemination tool with targeted messages while sharing lessons learnt. At the end, the results from the cost-benefit analysis for vegetable production under irrigation will also be shared through Mwanga to reach higher numbers. In the near future, a pending activity on social participation in groups and key informant interviews will also benefit from the Mwanga Platform as a means of reaching targeted audiences by prior sharing with them specific dates of the meeting and the meeting objectives.Project funds are being used for short code communication and payment of the services to the mobile company for the Mwanga Platform as well as for acquisition of information such as product/input prices/costs and climate services information.The meeting identified the need for development partners to work collaboratively around the common scaling approaches to realize sustainable intensification. Also, the need and importance of working with extensionists were noted to ensure effective dissemination and the provision of microfinance to farmers so that they can adopt even the sophisticated technologies such as those of irrigation. In addition, the need for collaboration between technology providers and service providers, NGOs, etc., was also noted so that technologies can be disseminated to many areas. CRS also guaranteed a buyer for these to farmers which strongly encouraged the planting of pigeonpea. CRS has further introduced a market aggregation system by village agents which will further aid in the aggregation of grain and sale to the buyers. There is widespread human-wildlife conflict throughout the region, especially elephants trampling on fields and causing crop losses but there is little data available on wildlife populations, poaching, or incidence of conflict. These data gaps represent a barrier to developing a finer-scale system dynamics model of agricultural-environmental linkages.The following report from the updated system dynamics model was submitted to USAID: The project team has one draft manuscript in preparation for publication:• Richardson, R.B., L. Schmitt Olabisi, K.B. Waldman, and N. Sakana. 2018. Modeling the landscape-level implications of farm-level sustainable intensification in Zambia. In preparation for submission to Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment.From our July 2017 research activities, it became readily apparent that there are significant conflicts related to human-wildlife interactions in the GMA, including widespread crop losses from elephants trampling through crops as they migrate in and out of South Luangwa National Park, along with occasional human injury and death. Crop losses and revenge killing of elephants continue to occur and increasing population in the GMA is driving more land clearing for agriculture, while poverty in the outlying areas of the GMA (farther from the parks) continues to be severe.There appears to be shared agreement that the problem is getting worse over time, in part due to increasing elephant populations, and increasing human population from in-migration. There is a great deal of blaming and finger-pointing among stakeholder groups, most of whom do not interact with or trust one another and have negative things to say about other groups. These dynamics have the potential to undermine land-use planning and conservation and livelihood strategies that USAID is supporting in the region. We propose the use of Transformative Scenario Planning, a process for conflict resolution involving participatory processes of engagement to address these issues. Such a process is outside the budget constraints of the current project, which is about to come to an end.","tokenCount":"6578"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fec431032995f5702a2dad51e0d4a660","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4bca1403-3bf9-4d98-938a-25cea6b74697/content","id":"-2000051444"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"701e0eb0-b56d-44f2-84f9-c8bfda06a778","pagecount":"6","content":"It is gradually being accepted that worren in Pakistan make a direct contribution in the farming sector. The extent and nature of their contribution, haNever, is not fully knavn to developrrent planners. In the past, very little socio-economic research has been directed tONard the role of rural Pakistani WOlreJl: as a consequence, their participation in agricultural developnent has been ignored. This soort article is an attempt t? enhance understanding of the general role that wanen in the NWFP play in fanning. The data used are taken from the maize economic survey study undertaken in selected parts of NWFP in 1975-76. This study was organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with the NWFP ~part:m:mt of Agriculture. Data were gathered from 21+0 farmers.Several questions were included which permit inferences about wonen's contribution to prOOuction, especially as it relates to the p:roduction of maize. Feaders nay be cautioned that the data were gathered by male agcicultural extension workers through interviews with male fa.:rners. It is, therefore , likely that the waren t s contribution is lIDderestimated, as farners do mt readily volunteer information about waren of their families.Farming activities examined for the role of rural wanen are a coni:>ination of activities performed in the house plus those perforned in the fields. Because of traditional Islamic values the location of a farm job is an i.JnI;a:rtant variable influencing participation of wanen. Acconting to these custons, WOllen are not expected to be seen barefaced outside their hares. Sane ethnic groups such as Syeds, Rajputs and Pakhtuns observe these noms very strictly while other ethnic groups like Jats and Arians observe such taboos less restrictively and let their worren care out of ''Purdah'' to assist in field chores. The parts of NWFP where this study was lIDdertaken include the districts of Mardan and Peshawar and the division of Hazara. The inhabitants of Peshawar and Mardan are mostly Pakhtun but those in Hazara are ethnically mixed and rrore liberal in their behavior.Table 1 includes eight typical farm activities pertaining to crop and livestock enterprises. The first three activities are related to the handling of grains after they are transported from the fields. A typical farner in NWFP grays about 4 grain crops including wheat, rraize, beans and pulses. He then stores the produce in sufficient quantities to meet the year rolIDd needs of the family. Food and seed grains are usually stored together in ontinary clay or wooden bins. The clay bins of 100 to 600 kilos capacity, are constructed by worren.The activities concerned with livestock include feeding and milking dairy animals. Feeding activities usually include: pasturing, harvesting green forage :fran the fields, chaffing, processing feed concentrates and rranger feeding. For purposes of this paper the first three items are not included since they are usually handled by rren. The remaining i terns are usually done inside the family compolIDd. Similarly, milking dairy anirrals is cbne inside the canpound. Sane other daily milk handling activities, which are not included here, but which are always done by WClJIEI1, are PaSteurization, fermenting milk for rehi (yogurt) and processing butter.The remaining three production activities refer to harvesting, shelling and crop cultural practices. Harvesting of maize includes rerroval of ears and husking, which are done in the field; and shelling which is per-fOmEd both in the fields and inside the hane. Larger harvests are usually shelled in the fields through cooperative effort by the neighboring famers. Crop cultural practices like thinning and hoeing are obviously perfo:nred in the fields.Having discussed the nature and location of various farm work activities, the data given in Table 1 nay nOW' be examined. Rural waren are actively involved in all farm-related activities handled inside their hanes. '!his is true for all ethnic groups, as represented by regions, irrespective of differences in tenure, farm size and family size. One exception to this rule is observed for the Jl\\3rl<:eting or disposal of surplus grains. Fanners alone m3ke all decisions pertairring to period of disposal, place of disposal, person to whcm farm prOOuce is sold and prices obtained. The marginal contribution of warren for marketing grains is in determining the surplus quantity available for sale, taking grain out of the containers, and helping to put grain in gtmny sacks if marketing is done in the tGJn market. 'These aspects were, hc:wever, not investigated fornally. While 18 percent of the sanple famers in Hazara, 37 percent in Ma.rclan district, and 20 percent in Peshawar district reported selling grain, no warren in Ma:rdan or Peshawar district were involved as selling parties. In Hazara Division a few families (4 percent) did report that women do the rra:rketing job.In contrast, about two thirds of the fanners rep:>rted that women dry and clean grain. Drying grei.n is a particularly tedious job. Once or twice a year grain is stmdried by manually transporting it to the hOllseyaro or :roof top and back to the storage containers. Waren usually do this job. Families in Hazara usually dry their grain on the :roof top, while in M3rdan and Peshawar the job is done in houseyard to avoid exposing wc:m:m to outsiders.Differences in the contribution of women are not evident from dis-•• trict to district in those activities which are tmdertaken within the family canpound. Wcm:m seem to contribute less to livestock activities and to shelling g:rein in Hazara than in Mardan and Peshawar districts. Pernaps this difference arises because the JIDre labor intensive agricultur>e of these two districts, where virtually all maize land is irrigated, absorbs virtually all of the labor of the I1En, requiring that the wcmen oontribute JIm'e to the livestock activities. '!his is in oontI\"ast with Hazara, whe~the de~of irrigation is far lower.Differences in the oontribution of wanen an! JOOSt notable in ha:rvesting and husking naize and in thinning and weeding activities. 'lbese activities an! carried out in the field, outside of the family carq;x:>tmd. Here, the JOOI'e oonservative behavior of the ethnic groups of ManBn and Peshawar districts is quite evident and virtually no women ~reported to engage in this field work. This is in marked ccntrast to Hazan! Division, where the et:hni.cmixture Bakes for less conservative behavior and where .roughly• cne third of the fa:rners interviewed reported that WOJIEIl an! involved in field wort<.In OCI1clusion, it can be said that rural wooen in NWIP play a selective role in fanning. 'Ih~is a division of labor anong men and wcm:m; men doing the field jd>s and waren contributing to farm jobs which can be dare inside the family cxEpO\\md or which relate to care of livestock and, in sane an!aS only, on jobs involving field work.","tokenCount":"1093"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"21da49bcbaa47f14029f63a5c18c0281","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/88a274a1-1802-4fb9-9073-30cafb336aec/retrieve","id":"1024912372"},"keywords":["Rice","GHG emission","CH 4 , N 2 O","GHG mitigation strategies","AWD","knowledge level","Nigeria"],"sieverID":"113ce701-9de2-4494-80c0-692d5429e215","pagecount":"12","content":"In Nigeria, rice remains a major staple food source for the rapidly growing population of an estimated 210 million people. However, traditional rice production carried out in flooded soil is associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mainly anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in Nigeria. Both CH4 and N2O are harmful GHGs that raise the temperature of the planet by retaining heat in the atmosphere. Reduction of GHG emissions is critical, and understanding farmers' knowledge of GHG emission mitigation strategies would be crucial to reducing emissions from rice fields and producing rice in a cleaner environment. Incidentally, there is a dearth of empirical evidence in the current debate. The absence of this study creates a gap in research and makes it extremely pertinent that the study be systematically undertaken. Our study described the socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers and ascertained their knowledge level on GHG mitigation strategies. We utilized questionnaire and focused group discussion (FGD) as the primary methods of data collection. Descriptive statistics and mean score analysis were used to analyze the data collected. On average, we found that the rice farmers were 45 years old. Most (72%) were male. Only 31% of the farmers had contacted extension agents and were visited twice per calendar year. We found that among various GHG emission mitigation strategies identified in the area, the farmers had significant knowledge of = 45 O m GHG m farmers have started practicing GHG mitigation strategies to reduce emissions from rice in the area. However, among various constraints, our study observed that inadequate technical know-how v m ' p mp m -up GHG emissions mitigation strategies. Therefore, our study recommends that the government should strengthen and pp v m m v m ' m transmit and build farmers capacity in the use of recent GHG emission mitigation strategies and innovations in rice fields.Millions of families throughout the world depend on rice (Oryza spp.), the second-most popular food crop (behind wheat) to meet their dietary calorie needs [1]. To projections, the demand for rice would increase by 56% by the end of 2050 compared to the production level of 25.1 million tons in 2001 as a result of the population growth rate [2]. A large increase in rice production is required to supply this need on a worldwide scale. In Nigeria, rice is a primary staple grain and is consumed in large quantities by all households including the affluent and poor [3].The structural rise in rice consumption over the years, with consumption spreading across all socioeconomic strata, including the poor, appears to have been caused by a confluence of many variables [4]. The rise in demand could be a result of rising income levels and population increase as well as the food's convenience in terms of preparation, storage, and calorie availability. Rice is critical in Nigeria from separate vantage points: first, in terms of the number of calories (2.06kg) it provides per person and day; 24.80 kg of calories per annum [5] and second, based on the value of income it generates through its various local production value chains. Meeting the increased demand for rice consumption in Nigeria requires increased production. Also in Nigeria, the growing demand for rice exceeds supply, resulting in a rice deficit, with smuggled rice filling the expanding gap between domestic production and consumption, with about 2.0 million metric tons smuggled into Nigeria by the end of 2022 [5,6]. The efforts of the most populous nation in Africa to provide food security will be jeopardized by any reduction in rice output brought on by climate change impact and global warming. Therefore, describing how climate change affects rice production, GHG emissions mitigation strategies and farmers' knowledge are the kernels of this study. The Southeast region of Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, produces a significant amount of rice. The majority of the households inthe area rely on rice farming as their main source of nutrition and agricultural revenue to survive [7]. Despite the fact that rice is crucial to the rural economy of Southeast Nigeria, GHG emission from rice fields is endangering its production, health and environment. Currently, due to the present Federal Government of Nigeria Objective on diversification of the economy, reducing food insecurity and import restriction, rice is grown in almost 36 States in Nigeria including Federal Capital Territory (FCT) under diverse production systems and agro-climatic conditions [8,6]. Rice is traditionally produced in soggy paddy soils. Scientific communities have been quite concerned about rice paddies because they create dangerous and persistent GHGs, primarily CH 4 and N 2 O [9]. Rice fields release around 30% and 11% of the world's agricultural emissions of CH 4 and N 2 O, respectively [10]. CH 4 global warming potential (GWP) is 34 while N 2 O is 298 which is more than carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).In addition, anthropogenic N 2 O is thought to be the main cause of acid rain [11]. Understanding farmers' knowledge of GHG emissions and mitigation strategies is among the crucial starting points for deciding what steps should be made to mitigate emissions from rice fields and produce rice in a cleaner environment. Some of the GHG emission mitigation strategies in rice field includes; alternate wetting and drying (AWD); system of rice intensification (SRI); changing tillage operations (CTO); Nitrogen Fertilizer Management (NFM); residue management (RM) and aerobic rice varieties (ARV) [12,13,14]. Substantial empirical evidence [9,11,13] exists on measuring and mitigating GHG emissions in rice fields in developed and developing countries and different researchers have analyzed the likely effects on rice production with various parameters. Reducing GHG emissions and water use in rice fields is critical for combating climate change, and increasing the yield, income and standard of living of the farmers. A key factor in deciding what steps should be made to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on rice productivity and the environment is the amount of awareness that rice farmers have regarding GHG emissions. Studies on the link between GHG emissions in rice fields are increasing. However, there remains a dearth of empirical evidence on the farmers' knowledge of GHG emissions and the different mitigation strategies they practice. Therefore, the absence of this study creates a void in research and makes it increasingly pertinent that the study is systematically undertaken. Hence, the specific objectives of the study were to (i) describe the socio-economic characteristic of the rice farmers in the area and m ' v GHG mitigation strategies.The study was carried out in the Southeast agricultural zone of Nigeria from January through March, 2023. The zone is made up of five States, namely, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. It has an estimated land mass of 32,610 km 2 and a population of 22,583,076 [15] C while the annual rainfall ranges from 720 mm to 1440 mm in the rainforest region [16,17]. The State has good climatic conditions suitable for rice farming and a good proportion of the population are essentially rice farmers. In the selection of respondents who are rice farmers, the study used multistage and purposive random sampling techniques. Selecting farmers who are primarily engaged in rice cultivation in the region was done through purposive sampling. One hundred and fifty-two (150) rice growers made up the samples. The sample proportion and the map of the study were shown in Table 1 and Fig. 1 respectively.In addition, data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and mean score of likert scale type. The study used descriptive statistics to describe the socioeconomic characteristics of rice farmers and mean score of likert scale type to evaluate rice m ' v GHG m strategies in rice fields. The primary instrument used to gather data was a structured questionnaire. The Likert scale type rating method was used to examine the data. The weighted mean (X w ) calculation methodology was given below [18];    The socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers in the area were shown in Table 2. The farmers were 45 years old on average. This suggested that the region's rice farmers were still relatively young and in the prime of their lives, giving them more chances to apply various GHG emission tactics to increase their rice output, as seen in Table 2. Age is particularly important in rice farming since it significantly impacts farmers' access to and acceptance of new ideas their need for energy, and their overall production objectives [7]. Greater proportions 0.72 (72%) of the farmers were males. This implied that both sexes (male and female) are involved in rice farming but males were more in number. Nigeria practices a more paternalistic culture, making it easier for males than for women to obtain and possess agricultural productive inputs including lands, financing facilities, better seedlings, and labour. Additionally, male farmers could be able to withstand the stress and strains involved in rice farmers, and the negative impact of climate change and are able to practice more GHG mitigation strategies than their female counterparts. The average household size in the area was 8 persons, suggesting that the rice producers had quite high households, some of which may have included direct family, relatives, or extended dependents who surely could help with rice production and practice more GHG mitigation strategies in the area. The result was in consonance with the study of Olugbenga et al. [20] who found that household size could be a proxy for labour to increase and enhance their farming activities, expansion of farm income and standard of living. The average length of time spent in school was 12 years, which suggests that the rice farmers in the region had at least a secondary education. Education could be very v p v m ' GHG mitigation strategies in increasing rice yield and reducing emissions in rice fields in the area. The finding was consistent with the result of Esiobu et al. [12] who asserted that higher education m ' m p v , acceptance of innovation, better access and utilization of productive input in reducing GHG emission and climate change impact in rice fields. The extension values of 0.31 (31%) and 2.11 revealed that about 51% of the rice farmers accessed extension services and were visited at least 2 times per year by the extension agents in the area. This is quite poor and could negatively affect rice farmers' adaptation to climate change and mitigation of GHG emission in rice fields in the area. Improved and steady contact of farmers with extension agents is critical in improving farmers' access to input, innovation, high yield and income. The result supported the findings of Esiobu et al. [12] who reported that extension contact improves farmers' access to recent information and expertise of contemporary farming techniques to raise their yield, income and standard of living. The average experience in farming was 16 years. This is a strong indication that rice farmers have reasonable years of experience in rice farming and may have been adapting to climate change and mitigating GHG emission in rice fields in the area. A unit increase in farming experience is anticipated to boost farmers' practical expertise in resolving difficulties specific to rice farming and their ability to handle both internal and external obstacles influencing rice yield particularly related to climate change and GHG emission. The mean farm size of the rice farmers in the area was 1.53 hectares. This is characteristic of rural farmlands, which are frequently dispersed, fragmented, and small in size. This small farm size could also be attributed to the system of land tenure and urbanization predominant in the area.Land is one of the important productive inputs in rice farming and when farmers have limited size of it, increased farm production and mitigating GHG emission may be unattainable. The finding tallies with the studies of Abdulwahab et al. and Tobi & Edgeweblimel [21,22] who found that large farm size increases yield, farmers adaptation to climate change, mitigating GHG emission and income of the farmers. Additionally, research shows that 0.75 (or 75%) of the rice farmers belonged to farmer clubs or associations. This suggests that rice farmers might have access to current research on climate change adaptation and GHG mitigation in rice fields through the association. Cooperative membership is seen to be a helpful tool for members to manage risks, exchange knowledge, labour, and pool their limited resources to boost yield, income and standard of living [23]. Finally, finding from Table 2 indicates that the mean annual farm income from rice production was ₦480,000 ($626.76). This is an indication that farmers have a relatively high annual farm m p v m ' adaptation to climate change and mitigation to GHG emission in the area. Most GHG emission strategies are costly [12] and farmers with sizable and sustainable farm income would be able to adapt and mitigate adequately. T m m ' distribution based on knowledge level of GHG mitigation strategies in the area was shown in Table 3.The various attributes were rated on a 4-point Likert type scale rating questions of Strongly Agreed (4); Agreed (3); Disagreed (2) and Strongly Disagreed (1). The values of standard deviation v responses of the rice farmers on their knowledge level in mitigating GHG emission in rice fields in the area. Reducing GHG emissions from paddy rice production is a critical target for many African countries (of which Nigeria is included) in order to comply with their climate policy commitments [12]. However, understanding farmers' knowledge on GHG mitigation strategies is key to achieving community, regional, and). The incorporation of rice residues contributes toward long-term nutrient cycling but may be due to high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N ratios), causing short-term Nitrogen (N) immobilization and thus affecting N availability for subsequent crops [24]. Meanwhile, aerobic rice varieties (ARV) is a production system in which specially developed \" \" v -drained soils that are neither waterlogged nor puddled [25]. The technique targets yield of at least 4-6 tons per hectare with careful management [26,27,28,29,30]. Rice farmers' high knowledge of these strategies is expected as they may not require so much technical know-how and capital for their overall implementation. Similarly, rice farmers stated that they have moderate kn m mitigating GHG emissions in rice fields in the area. Differentiated emissions are produced as a result of nitrogen fertilizers' major influence on N 2 O emissions [31,32]. Rational nitrogen fertilizer use may both encourage good rice yields and lower greenhouse gas emissions [33]. Therefore, to ensure yield and minimize N 2 O loss due to nitrification and denitrification of excess nitrogen in soil, nitrogen reduction and appropriate application can significantly increase the nitrogen usage efficiency of rice. The timing and kind of fertilization have a significant impact on the amount of CH 4 and N 2 O emissions in paddy fields [34]. Ultimately, finding shows that the rice farmers h v 45 S m S 5 4 m GHG m in rice field in area. The low knowledge of farmers on AWD and SRI GHG emission mitigation strategies could be associated with poor extension contact earlier found in the study. Extension agents are charged with transmitting recent innovation to farmers in their farmland to help increase their yield, income and standard of living. However, when the extension system is not well strengthened, it creates a gap between extension agents and farmers. The finding is in line with the studies of Esiobu et al. [12,26] who reported that extension contact improves farmers' access to recent information and expertise of contemporary farming techniques to raise their yield, income and standard of living. Also the low use of AWD and SRI could also be ' production practices and high import dependent on rice commodity to meet demand deficient. Although the recent Federal Government of Nigeria intervention has banned rice import to boost local production [6], this ban has not yet achieved the desired result. Nigeria is still not yet self-sufficient in rice. Meanwhile, the SRI is a comprehensive strategy for sustainable rice farming. Instead of planting them by the fistful and bunched closely together, it called for planting a single seedling with more space between them [35]. Additionally, it calls for spot irrigation and the tolerance of dry spells as opposed to constant flooding and the use of organic input. The SRI has the potential to reduce energy use, GHG emissions and global warming potential (GWP) in rice-growing areas of Nigeria. The AWD was developed by IRRI in 2002 and it is one of the most significant GHG emission mitigation strategies used by farmers across Southeast Asia [36]. Farmers can use the water-saving technique of AWD to decrease irrigation water usage in rice fields without lowering production. AWD applies irrigation water a few days after the ponded water has disappeared. As a result, the field is periodically inundated and unflooded. For irrigated rice, alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is a management technique that has been developed to minimize water input [28]. AWD incorporates a number of dry spells during the course of the rice growth cycle as opposed to continually flooding the fields while the rice is being grown [37]. However, field water is maintained at a level that allows rice plants to get enough water and avoid experiencing water stress and use of \"safe\" or moderate AWD has no negative effects on grain output [38,39 m m = 9 = 0.64) which is above the discrimin 2.50), it shows that the rice farmers perceived rightly their knowledge level on GHG mitigation strategies and the result was therefore accepted. Finally, there is no doubt that the relative level of knowledge of rice farmers is responsible for low practices of GHG emission mitigation strategies in the area. Addressing these challenges will be critical in improving rice m ' GHG m m strategies, GHG mitigate emission from rice fields and producing rice in a cleaner environment.Rice is critical to Nigeria from separate vantage points: first, in terms of the number of calories it provides per person and day; and second, based on the value of income it generates through its various local production value chains. Sustainable rice production offers promising opportunities for ensuring safe food, high yield, and income. Most of the farmers have limited knowledge of AWD. AWD is one of the major GHG mitigation strategies developed by IRRI in 2002, and has been adequately studied and propagated globally by various scholars and institutions. AWD is a promising technique that involves intermittently flooding and drying rice fields. When compared to continuous flooding, it has the potential to cut CH 4 emissions by an average of 48%. The study also found that rice farmers complained of limited capital. since member of cooperatives, they are encouraged to take advantage of their strength and shared common purpose to collectively project a common demand in obtaining funds and other necessary inputs for the implementation and scaling-up of GHG emission mitigation strategies in the area. From the limitation of the study, only one hundred fifty (150) rice farmers from the study region had to be chosen for the study due to time and resource constraints on the researcher. Therefore, the findings were generally relevant to other parts of the State that were not chosen. Also, the questionnaire and inperson interviews used to acquire the data require the rice farmers to recollect past activities related to farming and GHG emissions. Therefore, the results might be affected by respondents' memory errors.Ultimately, although the GHG emission mitigation techniques farmers utilized varied from one responder to the next, they were all quantified and used to arrive at the study's conclusive findings. Therefore, the results might be inconsistent in different regions where the same situation is present. Further studies should look at the cost-benefit of utilization of each of the rice farmers GHG Emission Mitigation options. It is possible that farmers are utilization these GHG Emission strategies because of the economic gain they receive for using it than the aim of reducing GHG emissions in rice fields.The GHG emissions from rice fields contribute significantly to global warming and climate change. Therefore, mitigating emissions from rice fields is very critical to limit global warming, increasing yield, and income, and ensuring food security and improving the standard of living for farmers and all. Understanding farmers' knowledge of GHG emissions and mitigation strategies is among the crucial starting points for deciding what steps should be made to mitigate emission from rice fields and produce rice in a cleaner environment. Some of the GHG emission mitigation strategies in rice fields identified in the study include alternate wetting and drying (AWD); system of rice intensification (SRI); changing tillage operations (CTO); Nitrogen Fertilizer Management (NFM); residue management (RM) and aerobic rice varieties (ARV). The mean age of the farmers was 45 years. Most were male with an average farm size of 1.53 hectares. The land is one of the essential productive inputs in rice farming and when farmers have a limited size of it, increased farm production and mitigating GHG emission may be unattainable. Most of the rice farmers were visited at least twice per year by the extension agents in the area. This is quite poor and could negatively affect rice farmers' mitigation effort to GHG emission in the area. Extension contact improves farmers' access to recent information, expertise and knowledge on contemporary farming techniques to raise their yield, income and standard of living.The low knowledge of farmers on the use of AWD and SRI GHG emission mitigation strategies could be associated with poor extension contact earlier found in the study. AWD is a promising technique that involves intermittently flooding and drying rice fields. When compared to continuous flooding, it has the potential to cut CH 4 emissions by an average of 48%. Extension agents are charged with transmitting recent innovation to farmers in their m p v m ' p objectives. However, when the extension service system is not well strengthened, it creates a gap between extension agents and farmers. Rice farmers are therefore encouraged to constantly seek information on GHG emission mitigation strategies before embarking on rice production, this will without doubt position them to overcome any adverse effect of global warming. Additionally, the government should assist farmers in implementing climate change and GHG policies to reduce the challenges they face and increase rice production in a clean environment. The study recommends that the government should strengthen and support agricultural extension service systems so as to enable extension personnel to visit farmers farms regularly to transmit recent innovations related to GHG emission mitigation strategies as these would increase yield, income and standard of living of the farmers. Ultimately, since rice farmers are members of cooperatives, they are encouraged to take advantage of their strength and shared a common purpose to collectively project a common demand in obtaining funds and other necessary inputs for the implementation and scaling-up of GHG emission mitigation strategies in the area.We owe a debt of gratitude to the enumerators who volunteered to help us in gathering the necessary data for this study. We really appreciate the rice farmers' generosity and the time they took to provide the useful information that helped to shape our study. We appreciate the efforts of everyone who helped with data entry, cleaning, coding, and analysis. We are really grateful to you all. This research was supported and encouraged by Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and G ' +: L Emissions Food Systems (Mitigate+) programe and the Government of New Zealand. The grant number is CLIFF-GRADS 2022/NSE. Please visit https://globalresearchalliance.org. Finally, many thanks to International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines for hosting and providing a safe, conducive academy, learning and research environment for the CLIFF-GRADS scholar (Nnaemeka Success ESIOBU).Rice is critical to Nigeria from separate vantage points: first, in terms of the quantity of calories it provides per person and per day; and second, based on the value of income it generates through its various local production value chains. However, rice production in Nigeria is vulnerable to climate change and associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mainly anthropogenic methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). Understanding farmers' knowledge on GHG emission mitigation strategies would be crucial in reducing emission from rice fields, producing rice in a cleaner environment. An essential first step in evaluating what steps should be implemented to combat the detrimental impacts of climate change on rice output and the environment is assessing the degree of GHG emission knowledge among rice farmers. Most rice farmers in the region have limited knowledge on AWD. AWD is one of the major GHG mitigation strategies developed by IRRI in 2002, has been adequately studied and propagated globally by various scholars and institutions. AWD is a promising technique that involves intermittently flooding and drying rice fields. When compared to continuous flooding, it has the potential to cut CH 4 emissions by an average of 48%. The study recommends that the government should strengthen and support agricultural extension service systems so as to enable extension personnel to visit farmers farms regularly to transmit recent innovations related to GHG emission mitigation strategies as these would increase yield, income and standard of living of the farmers. The study also found that rice farmers complained of limited capital. Therefore, as members of cooperatives, the rice farmers are encouraged to take advantage of their strength and shared common purpose to collectively pool productive resources together and project a common demand in obtaining funds and other necessary inputs for the implementation and scaling-up of GHG emission mitigation strategies in the area. Finally, further studies should look at cost benefit of utilizing each of m ' GHG m mitigation options. It is possible that rice farmers are utilizing these GHG emission strategies because of the economic gain they receive for using it rather than the aim of reducing GHG emissions in rice fields.","tokenCount":"4296"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c8c46f91fbb052ef4a805ebe78d4f574","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a1a6b388-b651-40a0-a78e-c1391a8ec871/retrieve","id":"-847322479"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b7b1e263-a9cb-4f79-9c35-110e0c5fda2a","pagecount":"8","content":"The purpose of this brief is to provide an overview of the potential forage market segments for East Africa. This work was conducted as part of the OneCGIAR Initative on Market Intelligence, which seeks to expand the social impact of crops in areas such as nutrition, gender equality, and climate change (CGIAR, n.d.). From a global perspective, this responds to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), such as no poverty (SDG-1), zero hunger (SDG-2), and climate action (SDG-13), among others. The segments have been identified within the CGIAR EiB (Excellence in Breeding) and BPAT (Breeding Program Assessment Tool) programs. EiB aims to promote the modernization of crop improvement programs for farmers in low-and middle-income countries (EiB, 2021). For its part, BPAT is a tool that allows a structured review of technical aspects, capacities, and components of crop improvement programs, with the purpose of increasing the rate of genetic gain (McHugh et al., 2021).In East Africa, the cattle sector is strategic in the fight against hunger and poverty. It contributes to the livelihoods of about 70% of the rural population in the dry areas of West and East Africa, which means of about 110 to 120 million people. Cattle farmers in these drylands only have 1-1.2 y East Africa presents some adverse conditions related to cattle farming, in particular desertification of soils and climate change. In this regard, improved forages that adapt to these environments are essential for the productivity and sustainability of the region's cattle sector.y In addition to productivity and quality gains, improved forages generate positive environmental impacts, for example through increasing the nitrogen-use-efficiency or mitigating cattle-related greenhouse gas emissions.y The identification of forage market segments for Africa, especially East Africa, is developed within the CGIAR crop improvement programs. From a global perspective, this responds to several Sustainable Development Goals, such as no poverty (SDG-1), zero hunger (SDG-2), and climate action (SDG-13), among others.y According to pilot tests conducted by these programs, the forages developed for the market segments in East Africa have superior characteristics compared to the existing commercial offer. They have the potential to increase adaptability to the environmental and productive conditions of the region, and to facilitate producer awareness regarding the advantages of technology adoption.TLUs (Tropical Livestock Units) per capita, exposing their livelihoods to vulnerability related to climatic events such as droughts, diseases, or any other type of unforeseen event (de Haan, 2016). For people's livelihoods, the sale of milk is the predominant way of obtaining benefits from cattle farming, since it generates cash flow that covers family expenses, such as for food and medicine. Cattle slaughter is less frequent and thus, cattle are a means of savings for people, which generate income in the short term (milk) and can be used in difficult periods or when important expenses occur (slaughter) (Felis, 2020). Regarding the production system, Gonzalez et al. (2016) highlight that most of the farms in the region have an area smaller than what is necessary to maintain a cow and her calf, making cut-and-carry the predominant practice of animal feeding.Scarcity and low quality of forage are typical in the region, which is accentuated during dry seasons (Ohmstedt et al., 2019). This lack of quality, low production efficiencies, and low levels of sustainability are manifested in poor supply levels of animal protein. This is, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP, 2022), one reason why food security in East Africa has worsened over the last years. Between March and July 2022, in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, the number of children suffering from acute hunger, malnutrition, and thirst grew from 7.25 million to nearly 10 million. The droughts and the price increases in the recent months exacerbate a problem that has historically characterized the region. However, Creemers et al. (2021) show that in countries like Kenya there are efforts to strengthen the commercialization of higher quality forages, for example of Urochloa hybrids (syn. Brachiaria) and Megathyrsus maximus (syn. Panicum maximum) varieties such as Mombasa and Siambaza. They also highlight that the public and private sectors and research make efforts to promote the adoption of these materials among cattle producers.Under this scenario, an important potential market can be observed. The superior characteristics in terms of productivity, environmental adaptability, and nutritional quality of the new improved materials facilitate producer awareness regarding the advantages of technology adoption. The improved forages developed by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) can increase the productivity and quality of the cattle sector, thus improving the incomes and livelihoods of cattle and dairy farmers (Ohmstedt et al., 2019). On the other hand, Paul et al. (2020) highlight that in addition to achieving this primary objective, the adoption of these technologies generates positive environmental externalities. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is only one example. Despite these advantages, the adoption process faces challenges and is affected by factors such as a lack of knowledge, low levels of public investments, and an underdeveloped market for forage seeds, , other productive inputs, and end-products.Potential markets for new hybrid materials of Urochloa and Megathyrsus maximus species are analyzed in this section (Simon & Jacobs, 2003;Soreng et al., 2015). Hybrids are the product of genetic improvements and combine the superior traits of different materials. CIAT started this line of research in 1987 with U. brizantha (CIAT-6294 cv. Marandú), U. decumbens (CIAT-0606, cv. Basilisk) and U. ruziziensis (BR4X-44-2) (Enciso et al., 2020;2022). This research, in joint efforts with the private sector, has led to the formal release of several Urochloa hybrids: Mulato I, Mulato II, Cayman, Camello and Cobra (Papalotla, n.d.;Pizarro et al., 2013). All these Urochloa hybrids are interspecific, which means that different species of the same genus were crossed to obtain improved materials (Wrigley et al., 2004). In East Africa, the commercialization began with Mulato I and Mulato II in 2005; Cayman and Cobra in 2019, and Camello in 2020 (Papalotla 2022, personal communication). There are no hybrids of Megathyrsus maximus on the market yet, but they are under development. Hybrids of U. humidicola are also being developed, however, they are intended for soils with higher levels of moisture (Cook et al., 2020), and are thus not adapted to the East African conditions.The predominant characteristics of the soils, the climate, and the agricultural practices are the key elements for the identification of potential forage markets. The information for the forage materials derives from field measurements conducted in pilot experiments in Colombia. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT's forage breeding program identified areas with similar geographic and environmental characteristics to those present in East Africa and applied Forage hybrid market segmentation in East Africa initial trials accordingly. The large number of trials required made it unfeasible to develop the initial experiments in Africa (Oliphant et al., 2019;V. Castiblanco, personal communication, June 13, 2019). The subsequent methodology section delves into some technical details of this procedure, since it is also part of the technique used to estimate the size of potential forage hybrid markets.The market for Urochloa interspecific hybrids is oriented to sub-humid tropical savannahs with low fertility and acid soils in eastern and southern Africa. An important feature of African soils is desertification, which leads to declining crop yields and undermines the resilience of agriculture and pastoralism, both fundamental foundations of subsistence in Africa (AGNES, 2020). Forage is used for grazing, where the cattle roam freely, and for cut-and-carry, where it remains in stables. Forage characteristics have been grouped mainly into yield, agronomic characteristics, response to pests and diseases, production systems, and seed production/ multiplication. The projected performance of the hybrid materials, based on initial testing of the breeding program, is described below. Regarding seed production, it is expected that under optimal conditions it will be at a production level equal to or above the existing commercial offer on the market (Table 1). This result is also expected for other environmental conditions such as drought, acid soils, waterlogging, and heat. Seed production is of vital importance because higher yields translate into higher efficiency, allowing new products to be competitive when it comes to market prices. Likewise, superior results are expected regarding nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). NUE is essential to optimize productivity levels and contributes to sustainable development of cattle farming by reducing the use of fertilizers. This makes it a key element for areas with low availability of inputs such as Africa (Rosegrant et al., 2014).Regarding forage quality, the trials showed a crude protein (CP) content superior or equal to 10.5% and an in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) superior or equal to 62%. The CP reflects the percentage of protein in feed and its presence in forages is essential for animals that are in the growth and production stage (INIA, 2018). IVDMD is a measure of feed quality (Martínez et al., 2014). Regarding shade tolerance and palatability, measured on a scale of 1 to 9, materials are expected to range between an intermediate to high level. Shade tolerance is important for silvo-pastoral systems (Navas, 2010), however, they are still scarce in the region of interest. On the other hand, Heady (1964) defines palatability as the particularities of a plant that encourage its selection by animals.Disease risk, measured on a scale of 1 to 5, is ranked equal to or less than two for Rhizoctonia leaf blight. Studies such as those by Alvares et al. (2013) indicate that up to 50% of the Urochloa production in tropical areas is affected by this disease.The analysis of resistance to pests, however, is still in the development stage. Existing hybrids show a good response to spittlebug (Hemiptera: Cercopidae), but not so much to Tetranychus urticae, known as red spider mite. This pest has occurred in some areas of Kenya, such as Busia and Bungoma, affecting especially Mulato II and Basilisk (Mwendia et al., 2019).The predominant production system in the region is rainfed agriculture, where only rainwater stored in the soil is used for crop and forage production and artificial irrigation techniques are not implemented (Díaz & Gutiérrez, 2020). Therefore, Urochloa adapts to the characteristics of a large part of the soils in East Africa. Of the set of elements mentioned, the characteristics considered essential are seed yields, forage quality (CP and IVDMD), and resistance to pests.The existing competitors for new interspecific hybrids of Urochloa are (1) Mulato II, which combines the best traits of other hybrids and is suitable for medium and low fertility soils, (2) Cayman, for areas with flooding, (3) Camello, for areas with long-lasting droughts, and (4) Cobra, for cut-andcarry (Papalotla, n.d.). Table 1 lists the main characteristics of these forage hybrids. On the other hand, the potential market for hybrids of Megathyrsus maximus is oriented to the sub-humid tropical savannah of eastern and southern Africa, where fertile soils of high productivity are predominant, and cut-and-carry is the main use. According to the trials carried out in Colombia, the seed yield under optimal conditions is expected to be higher than the commercial offer on the market (Table 2). This is also considering drought, acid soils, waterlogging, heat, and NUE. Regarding forage quality, CP and IVDMD levels are estimated to equal or above 10.5% and 62%, respectively. Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) is estimated to be moderate to high. BNI refers to the compounds that forages generate and that inhibit nitrification in the soil, which reduces or eliminates the use of fertilizers. This generates savings in production costs as well as mitigates greenhouse gas emissions (Nuñez, 2015). The production system is rainfed. On the market, the competing products for potential Megathyrsus maximus hybrids are (1) Megathyrsus maximus cv. Mombasa, which has a good overall performance, (2) Megathyrsus maximus cv. Tanzania, for soils with medium to high fertility, (3) Megathyrsus maximus cv. Massai, with high forage production but drought sensitivity, and (4) Urochloa hybrid cv. Mavuno, which has good drought tolerance and high yields (Agrizon, n.d.;Cook et al., 2020;Leguminutre, n.d.;Peters et al., 2010;Saenzfety, 2020). Table 2 summarizes the main characteristics of these forages.  (Cook et al., 2020). Despite being an Urochloa hybrid, due to its high performance it is considered a potential competitor in the M. maximus market.  Oliphant et al. (2019) developed the TPE for this purpose through geographic information systems and a clustertype multivariate analysis. In this way, they identified areas with similar environmental features in Africa and Colombia (Figure 1). This allowed the pilot trials referenced in the market segments section to be carried out in Colombia.Likewise, the profiling formed four geographical groups with similar environmental characteristics, namely: areas of high livestock density (Ramankutty et al., 2008), qualitative soil data (Hengl et al., 2014), and different precipitation measurements (Funk et al. al., 2015;Ruane et al., 2015).For the purpose of analysis, two of the four identified clusters are relevant. Cluster 2 (good), colored red on the maps, is characterized by higher precipitation and better rainfall distribution throughout the year. It provides the conditions for the adoption of potential hybrids of M. maximus, which have high forage quality and production, but require good environmental conditions. This cluster represents 28% Forage hybrid market segmentation in East Africa of the potential area. Cluster 3 (hostile), colored blue on the maps, has low rainfall and poor distribution of rainfall throughout the year, making it more suitable for new interspecific hybrids of Urochloa, which have medium to high forage production and are very adaptable to difficult environments. This cluster represents 27% of the potential area (V. Castiblanco, personal communication, June 13, 2019). Applying these percentages to the hectares calculated in the first step, the potential markets for the new materials are obtained. This is done for each of the countries of interest.Although some data sources are not recent, the TPE provides valuable geospatial information by incorporating a large number of variables, which allow for segmentation with a good level of certainty.The segmentation of these two potential markets for improved forage hybrids responds to the environmental and production characteristics present in the countries of East Africa. This environment requires materials with agronomic and performance traits that exceed the conditions currently available on the market. The results of the estimation of the potential market for new Urochloa interspecific hybrids can be seen in Figure 2A. The biggest potential markets in East Africa are found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Other representative countries outside the region are Nigeria and Mali in West Africa. In terms of numbers, Ethiopia ranks first with 174,924 hectares, followed by Kenya and Tanzania with 103,679 and 101,926 hectares, respectively. Uganda and Nigeria are in the middle range with 58,316 and 32,589 hectares, respectively, and Mali shows the smallest market potential with 25,879 hectares.Figure 2B shows the results for the potential market for M. maximus hybrids. The most relevant country is Ethiopia with 181,403 hectares, followed by South Sudan with 113,150, Kenya with 107,519, Tanzania with 105,701, and Uganda with 60,476 hectares, respectively. Nigeria is the only country outside East Africa and has a market potential of 33,796 ha.• Consolidate relationships between public entities, private sector, and research to sensitize the rural population about the productivity, cost, and sustainability advantages of new forage technologies. The superior characteristics of these materials must be assertively conveyed to producers to obtain higher adoption rates.• Strengthen the accompaniment of the public and private sectors, research, and development institutions to the producers to guarantee their access to technical, administrative, and commercial training and knowledge, which allows a sustainable adoption of new forage technologies.• Generate a favorable commercial and institutional environment for the adoption of improved forages. This element is key since it will provide the necessary incentives for producers to make the decision to generate a change in their production system.• Promote communication between the various actors to identify the advances and difficulties that arise with the adoption of new technologies. An adequate information system is essential to establish policies and implement timely actions according to each local context.• Support the development of a competitive forage seed market so that promising materials can be registered properly and made accessible to the producers.","tokenCount":"2658"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e2e79531e95a2317a4aba815f46d22fb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1ca716e-2a17-4a18-9c33-e436744fd456/retrieve","id":"594088518"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6924da07-ce12-43e8-bad2-f7e6db322d78","pagecount":"56","content":"IRRN 32.1 MINI REVIEWSushil Pandey, senior scientist, agricultural economics, International Rice Research Institute C limate-related natural disasters (drought, flood, and typhoon) are principal sources of risk and uncertainties in agriculture. These are important constraints affecting the production of rice-the staple crop of Asia. Although the production of rice has increased over time in the wake of the green revolution, major shortfalls caused by climatic aberrations such as drought and flood are frequent. At least 23 million ha of rice area (20% of total rice area) in Asia is estimated to be drought-prone.The economic costs of drought can be enormous. For example, drought has been historically associated with food shortages of varying intensities, including those that have resulted in major famines in different parts of Asia and Africa. In India, major droughts in 1918, 1957-58, and 1965 resulted in famines during the 20th century. The 1987 drought affected almost 60% of the total cropped area and 285 million people across India. Similarly, the average annual drought-affected area in China during 1978-2003 is estimated to have been 14 million ha and the direct economic cost of drought is estimated to have been 0.5-3.3% of the agricultural sector gross domestic product. In Thailand, the drought of 2004 is estimated to have affected 2 million ha of cropped area and over 8 million people.The effect of drought on human societies can be multidimensional. The effect of drought in terms of production losses and consequent human misery is well-publicized during years of crop failure. However, losses to drought of milder intensity, although not so visible, can also be substantial. Production loss, which is often used as a measure of the cost of drought, is only a part of the overall economic cost. Severe droughts can result in starvation and even death of the affected population. However, different types of economic costs arise before such severe consequences occur. Due to market failures, farmers attempt to 'self insure' by making costly adjustments in their production practices and adopting conservative practices to reduce the negative impact during drought years. Although these adjustments reduce the direct production losses, they themselves entail some economic costs in terms of opportunities for income gains lost during good years.In rural areas where agricultural production is a major source of income and employment, a decrease in agricultural production will set off second-round effects through forward and backward linkages of agriculture with other sectors. A decrease in agricultural income will reduce the demand for products of the agro-processing industries that cater to the local markets. This will lead to a reduction in income and employment in this sector. Similarly, the income of rural households engaged in providing agricultural inputs will also decrease. This reduction in household incomes will set off further 'knock-on' effects. By the time these effects have been fully played out, the overall economic loss from drought may turn out to be several times more than what is indicated by the loss in production of agricultural output alone. The loss in household income can result in a loss in consumption of the poor whose consumption levels are already low. Farmers may attempt to cope with the loss by liquidating productive assets, pulling children out of school, migrating to distant places in search of employment, and going deeper into debt. The economic and social costs of all these consequences can indeed be enormous.Much of the current knowledge on drought is based mainly on arid and semiarid regions. Despite reasonably high rainfall, drought occurs frequently in the subhumid regions of Asia. However, the nature and frequency of drought in subhumid regions, its impact on farmer livelihoods, farmers' droughtcoping strategies, and welfare implications of drought have not been adequately studied. Analyses of drought characteristics, drought impacts, and household-coping mechanisms are important for understanding the nature of risk and vulnerability associated with drought and for formulating various interventions for effective drought mitigation.This article provides a synthesis of findings and recommendations based on a recent cross-coun-try comparative study of the impact of drought and farmers' coping mechanisms. The countries included in the study were China, India, and Thailand. These countries vary in climatic conditions, level of economic development, rice yields, and institutional and policy contexts of rice farming. The specific regions selected for the study were southern China, eastern India, and northeast Thailand. In southern China, the provinces included were Hubei, Guangxi, and Zhejiang. Eastern India was represented by the states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa. All provinces of northeast Thailand were included.Conceptually, drought is considered to describe a situation of limited rainfall that is substantially below what has been established to be a \"normal\" value for the area concerned, leading to adverse consequences on human welfare. Although drought is a climatically induced phenomenon, its impact depends on social and economic context as well. Hence, in addition to climate, economic and social parameters should be also taken into account in defining drought. This makes developing a universally applicable definition of drought impractical. Three generally used definitions of drought are based on meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural perspectives.Meteorological drought is defined as a situation in which the actual rainfall is significantly below the long-term average (LTA) for the area. This definition does not take into account factors other than rainfall. Hydrological drought is defined as the situation of depletion in surface and subsurface water resources due to shortfall in precipitation. The effect on depletion of water resources is the main concern in this definition.IRRN 32.1Agricultural drought is said to occur when the soil moisture is insufficient to meet crop water requirements resulting in yield losses. As the effect of rainfall deficiency on crops also depends on soil and crop characteristics, the definition of agricultural drought requires consideration of actual and potential evapotranspiration, soil water deficit, and production losses simultaneously.Risk-coping strategies can be classified into exante and ex-post, depending upon whether they help to reduce risk or reduce the impact of risk after the production shortfall has occurred. Due to lack of efficient market-based mechanisms for diffusing the risk, farmers modify their production practices to provide \"self-insurance\" so that the likely impact of adverse consequences is reduced to an acceptable level. Ex-ante strategies help reduce the fluctuations in income and are also referred to as income-smoothing strategies. These strategies can, however, be costly in terms of forgone opportunities for income gains as farmers select safer but low-return activities.Ex-ante strategies can be grouped into two categories: those that reduce risk by diversification and those that do so by imparting greater flexibility in decisionmaking. Diversification is simply captured in the principle of not putting \"all eggs in one basket.\" The risk of income shortfall is reduced by growing several crops that have negatively or weakly correlated returns. This principle is used in different types of diversification common in rural societies. The examples include spatial diversification of farms, diversification of agricultural enterprises, and diversification from farm to nonfarm activities.Maintaining flexibility is an adaptive strategy that allows farmers to switch between activities as the situation demands. Flexibility in decisionmaking permits farmers not only to reduce the chances of low incomes but also to capture income-increasing opportunities when they do arise. Examples are using split doses of fertilizers, temporally adjusting input use to crop conditions, and adjusting the area allocated to a crop, depending on the climatic conditions. While postponing agricultural decisions until uncertainties are reduced can help lower the potential losses, such a strategy can also be costly in terms of income forgone if operations are delayed beyond the optimal biological window. Other exante coping mechanisms include maintaining stocks of food, fodder, and cash.Ex-post strategies are designed to prevent shortfall in consumption when the income drops below what is necessary for maintaining consumption at its normal level. Ex-post strategies are also referred to as consumption-smoothing strategies as they help reduce the fluctuations in consumption. These include migration, consumption loans, asset liquidation, and charity. Consumption shortfall can occur despite these ex-post strategies if the drop in income is substantial.Farmers who are exposed to risk use these strategies in different combinations. Over a long period of time, some of these strategies are incorporated into the nature of the farming system and are often not easily identifiable as risk-coping mechanisms. Others are deployed only under certain risky situations and are easier to identify as responses to risk.Opportunity costs associated with the deployment of various coping mechanisms can, however, be large. The climatic uncertainties often compel farmers, particularly those who are more riskaverse, to employ conservative risk management strategies that reduce the negative impact in poor years, but often at the expense of reducing the average productivity and profitability. For example, by growing drought-hardy but low-yielding traditional rice varieties, farmers may be able to minimize the drought risk but may end up sacrificing a potentially higher income in normal years. Also, poor farmers in high drought-risk environments may be reluctant to invest on seed-fertilizer technologies that could increase profitability in normal years but lead to a loss of capital investment in poor years. In addition to these opportunity costs, poor households that are compelled to sell their productive assets such as bullocks and farm implements will suffer future productivity losses as it can take them several years to reacquire those assets. A cut in medical expenses and children's education will impact on future income-earning capacity of the household. Such an impact may linger on to the future generation also. The loss of income and assets can convert transient poverty into chronic poverty, making the possibility of escape from poverty more remote.The analysis of monthly rainfall data for the period 1970-2003 indicated that drought is a regular phenomenon in the regions included in the study in all three countries. The probability of drought varied in the range 0.1-0.4, with the probability being higher in eastern India relative to southern China and northeast Thailand (Fig. 1). The probability of late-season drought was found to be higher than that of the early-season drought generally. The late-season drought was also found to be spatially more covariate than the early-season drought. As rice yield is more sensitive to drought during flowering/grainfilling stages (i.e., during late season, according to the definition used here), the late-season drought is thus likely to have a larger aggregate production impact than the early-season drought.The temporal instability in rice production as measured by the de-trended coefficient of variation of rice yield was found to be higher in eastern India relative to the other regions. The corresponding coefficients of variations for southern China and northeast Thailand were much lower, indicating that droughts in these regions are not as covariate spatially as in eastern India, with their effects being limited to some pockets. Given the nature of the temporal variability, the aggregate impact of drought on production is also likely to be higher in eastern India relative to the other two regions.The estimated average loss in rice production during drought years for the three states of eastern India is 5.4 million tons. This is much higher than for northeast Thailand (less than 1 million tons) and southern China (around 1 million tons but not statistically significant). The loss (including any nonrice crops included) during drought years is thus 36% of the average value of production in eastern India. This represents indeed a massive loss during drought years (estimated at $856 million).As droughts do not occur every year, the above estimate of production loss needs to be averaged over a run of drought and nondrought years to get an annual average loss estimate. Again for eastern India, this represents an annual average loss of $162 million (or 6.8% of the average value of output). For northeast Thailand and southern China, the losses were found to be much smaller and averaged at less than $20 million per year (or less than 1.5% of the value of output).The estimates thus indicate that, at the aggregate level, production losses are much higher for eastern India than for the other two regions. Lower probability of drought, smaller magnitude of loss during drought years, and less covariate nature of drought together resulted in a lower production loss at the aggregate level in the other two regions relative to eastern India.The overall economic cost of drought includes the value of production loss, the costs farmers incur in making adjustments in production systems during drought years, opportunities for gains forgone during good years by adopting ex-ante coping strategies that reduce losses during drought years, the generally lower productivity of drought-prone areas due to moisture deficiency, and the costs of government programs aimed at long-term drought mitigation. The public-sector provision of relief also involves large financial costs, but these are mainly transfer payments, and hence, do not involve an economic cost. The average annual cost for the three states of eastern India included in this study is in the neighborhood of $400 million. Overall, the cost of drought is a substantial proportion of the agricultural value added in eastern India.The household-level impact of drought presented here is based mainly on the study in eastern India. Relative to eastern India, impact in northeast Thailand and southern China was found to be quite small and hence, is not discussed here.Drought resulted in an overall income loss in the range of 24-58%. The drop in rice income was the main factor contributing to the total income loss. Earnings from farm labor also dropped substantially due to a reduced labor demand. Farmers attempted to reduce the loss in agricultural income during drought years by seeking additional employment in the nonfarm sector. This mainly included employment as wage labor in the construction sector for which farmers often migrated to distant places. The additional earning from nonfarm employment was, however, clearly inadequate to compensate for the loss in agricultural income.Farmers relied on three main mechanisms to recoup this loss in total income. These were the sale of livestock, sale of other assets, and borrowing. These adjustment mechanisms helped recover only 6-13% of the loss in total income. Compared with the normal years, households still ended up with a substantially lower level of income despite all these adjustments. Thus, all the different coping mechanisms farmers deployed were found to be inadequate to prevent a shortfall in income during the drought years.The incidence of poverty increased substantially during drought years. Almost 13 million additional people \"fell back\" into poverty as a result of drought (Fig. 2). This is a substantial increase in the incidence of poverty and translates into the increase in rural poverty at the national level by 1.8 percentage points. Some of the increase in poverty may be transitory, with households being able to climb out of poverty on their own. However, other households whose income and assets fall below certain threshold levels may end up joining the ranks of the chronically poor. The data collected, however, did not permit the estimation of the proportion of these two categories of households.Overall, farmers do not seem to have much flexibility in making management adjustments in rice cropping in relation to drought. Other than delaying the crop establishment if the rains are late, replanting and resowing when suitable opportunities arise, and some reduction in fertilizer use, farmers mostly follow a standard set of practices irrespective of the occurrence of drought. This could partly be due to the fact that drought mostly occurs during the late season, by which time the opportunities for crop management adjustments to reduce losses are no longer available. The timing of drought (mostly late rather than early) and the lack of suitable technological options probably limited the flexibility in making tactical adjustments in crop management practices to reduce the losses.Since rice is the staple food, a loss in its production can be expected to result in major adjustments in consumption. Such adjustments may range from reduced sale of rice, reduced quantity retained as seeds for the following year, increased amounts purchased, substitution of other crops for rice, supplementation of food deficit by other types of food not normally consumed, and in the worst-case scenario, a reduction in consumption.Farmers made all these types of adjustments to a varying degree. Despite these various adjustments, most farmers were unable to maintain consumption at the pre-drought level. They reduced both the number of meals taken per day as well as the quantity consumed per meal. As a result, the average number of meals taken per day dropped from close to three to close to two, with 10-30% of the households reducing their frequency of food intake to one meal per day. A large proportion (60-70%) of the households also reduced the quantity of food consumed per meal. In addition, households consumed other \"inferior\" food items that were not normally consumed.The interruption and/or discontinuation of children's education is a disinvestment in human capital, which will most definitely reduce their future earning potentials in most cases. An important pathway for escape from poverty may be foreclosed as a result of drought. More than 50% of the farmers reported curtailing children's education.Relative to eastern India, the economic costs in southern China and northeast Thailand were found to be small, both in absolute and relative terms. The production losses at the aggregate level in these two regions were relatively small due to a lower frequency and less covariate nature of drought. In addition, rice accounted for a smaller proportion of the household income due to a more diversified income structure. The differences in the rice production systems, the level of income diversification, and the nature of drought in these two latter regions are hence, the major factors determining the relative magnitudes of economic losses.In the case of eastern India, rice accounts for around 40% of the total household income. The share of rice in the total household income in south- ern China and northeast Thailand is about half that in eastern India. Eastern Indian farmers thus lose proportionately more income during drought years. Due to limited diversification of farm income, which is generated mainly from rice, the household-level consequences of drought in eastern India are thus more severe relative to the other two regions. In both northeast Thailand and southern China, agricultural income is more diversified. In addition, the share of nonfarm income in the total income is much higher. Thus, a more commercialized agriculture and a greater diversification of farm incomes seem to have contributed to a smaller consumption consequence of drought in southern China and northeast Thailand relative to eastern India by weakening income correlations and improving the effectiveness of coping mechanisms. The effect of these factors on household-level impact is stylized in a summary form in Figure 3.Improved rice technologies that help reduce the losses to drought can play an important role in long-term drought mitigation. Important scientific progress is being made in understanding the physiological mechanisms that impart tolerance for drought. Similarly, progress is being made in developing drought-tolerant rice germplasm through conventional breeding and the use of molecular tools. The probability of success in developing rice germplasm that is tolerant of drought is likely to be substantially higher now than what it was 10 years ago. Complementary crop management research to manipulate crop establishment, fertilization, and general crop care for avoiding drought stress, better utilization of available soil moisture, and enhancing the plant's ability to recover rapidly from drought can similarly help reduce the losses. The late-season drought is more frequent and tends to have more serious economic consequences for poor farmers than the early-season drought. In addition to having to deal with consequences of low or no harvest, farmers also lose their investments in seeds, fertilizers, and labor if the crop is lost due to late-season drought. Although early-season drought may prevent planting completely, farmers can switch early to other coping strategies such as wage labor and migration to reduce income losses in such years. Thus, the poverty impact of technology is likely to be higher if research is focused on developing technologies that help plants better tolerate the late-season drought.Crop diversification is an important drought -coping mechanism of farmers. Rice technologies that promote, not constrain, such diversification are, hence, needed. In rainfed areas, shorter duration rice varieties can facilitate planting of a second crop using the residual moisture. Similarly, rice technologies that increase not just the yield but also the labor productivity will facilitate crop and income diversification. Higher labor productivity in rice production will help relax any labor constraint to diversification that may exist. Examples of such technologies are selective mechanization, direct seeding, and chemical weed control.Development of water resources is an important area that is emphasized in all three countries for providing protection against drought. Opportunities of large-scale development of irrigation schemes that were the hallmark of green revolution are limited now due to high costs and increasing environmental concerns. However, there are still substantial opportunities to provide some protection from drought through small and minor irrigation schemes and through land use approaches that generally enhance soil moisture and water retention. Similarly, watershed-based approaches that are implemented in drought-prone areas of India provide opportunities for achieving long-term drought proofing by improving the overall moisture retention within the watersheds. IRRN 32.1In all three countries studied, a major response to drought has been to provide relief to the affected population. India has the most elaborate institutional setup for providing drought relief, which mainly takes the form of employment generation through public works. Affected people are also provided with some inputs and credit. While the provision of relief is essential to reduce the incidence of hunger and starvation, the major problems with the relief programs are slow response, poor targeting of beneficiaries, and limited coverage due to budgetary constraints. A 'fire-fighting' approach that underlies the provision of drought relief cannot provide a long-term drought proofing despite the large amount spent during the drought years. It is important that the provision of relief during drought years is complemented by a long-term strategy of investing in soil and water conservation and utilization, policy support, and infrastructure development to promote crop and income diversification in drought-prone areas.The scientific advances in meteorology and informatics have made it possible now to forecast drought with reasonable degrees of accuracy and reliability. Various indicators such as the Southern Oscillation Index are now routinely used in several countries to make drought forecasts. Suitable refinements and adaptations of these forecasting systems are needed to enhance drought preparedness at the national level as well as to assist farmers in making more efficient decisions regarding the choice of crops and cropping practices.While technological interventions can be critical in some cases, this is not the only option for improving the management of drought. There is a whole gamut of policy interventions that can improve farmers' capacity to manage drought through more effective income-and consumption-smoothing mechanisms. Improvements in rural infrastructures and marketing that allow farmers to diversify their income sources can play an important role in reducing the overall income risk. Investment in rural education can similarly help diversify income. In addition, such investments contribute directly to income growth that will further increase farmers' capacity to cope with various forms of agricultural risks. Widening and deepening of the rural financial markets will also be a critical factor for reducing fluctuations in both income and consumption over time. Although the conventional forms of crop insurance are unlikely to be successful due to problems such as moral hazard and adverse selection, innovative approaches such as rainfall derivatives and international re-insurance of agricultural risks can provide promising opportunities. However, these alternative schemes have not yet been adequately evaluated. There are important challenges in employing weather-risk markets in developing countries. More work is needed for developing and pilot testing new types of insurance products and schemes suited to hundreds of millions of small farmers of Asia who grow rice primarily for subsistence.Even in subhumid rice-growing areas of Asia, drought is clearly an important climatic factor that has large economic costs, both in terms of the actual economic losses during drought years and the losses arising from the opportunities for economic gains forgone. The provision of relief has been the main form of public response to drought. Although important in reducing the hunger and hardship of the affected people, the provision of relief alone is clearly inadequate and may even be an inefficient response for achieving longer term drought mitigation. Given the clear linkage between drought and poverty as demonstrated in this study, it is critically important to include drought mitigation as an integral part of the rural development strategy. Policies that in general increase income growth and encourage income diversification also serve to protect farmers from the adverse consequences of risk, including that of drought.The scientific progress made in understanding the physiology of drought and in the development of biotechnology tools have opened up promising opportunities for making a significant impact on drought mitigation through improved technology. However, agricultural research in general remains grossly underinvested in developing countries of Asia. This is a cause for concern, not only for drought mitigation, but for promoting an overall agricultural development.This is an overview of the book Economic costs of drought and rice farmers' coping mechanisms edited by S. Pandey, H. Bhandari, and B. Hardy. See back cover for details.Time of day of flowering in wild species of the genus Oryza J.E. Sheehy, A.E. Mabilangan, M.J.A. Dionora and P.P. Pablico, IRRI E-mail: aelmido-mabilangan@cgiar.org Potentially, the most consistent and damaging consequences of climate change for rice could come through the yield-depressing effects of high temperature (Sheehy et al 2006). Anthesis is very susceptible to damage in the 35-40 °C temperature range and exposure for a matter of a few hours during flowering can reduce floral reproduction (Satake and Yoshida 1978, Nishiyama and Satake 1981, Baker et al 1992). A simple model (Sheehy et al 2005) was used to validate the hypothesis that flowering close to dawn or at night could make plants much less vulnerable to high temperature-induced sterility (Nishiyama and Blanco 1980). The time of day when flowering commenced (TDF) in the main stems of 91 Oryza sativa and 5 O. glaberrima cultivars was studied by Sheehy et al (2005). O. glaberrima (Marori) had the earliest TDF of 0830. Of the O. sativa cultivars, Chhalangpa had the earliest TDF of 0915.We decided to determine whether wild rice species flowered close to dawn (0500-0600). Consequently, a total of 61 accessions were selected from IRRI germplasm to represent a wide range of countries with hot climates. Each of the wild species of Oryza was included in the study; O. neocaledonica was unavailable. Because wild rice cannot be grown in the field, the accessions were grown in a screenhouse at IRRI following appropriate pro-tocols. The seedlings were transplanted at a spacing of 20 cm × 20 cm into plastic buckets (45.5 cm in diameter and 62.5 cm in height) containing lowland soil. A basal application of 18.2 g per bucket of complete fertilizer (NPK) was applied. Subsequently, 2 g of N were added monthly and the soil was kept saturated throughout the experiment. The main stems of four replicates were observed for TDF on the first and final days of flowering; the difference in the number of days was the time a panicle took to complete (CPF). The time taken for the spikelets to close following flowering (anthesis) was also recorded. To test the consistency of TDF across years, the experiment was conducted in 2002, 2003, and 2004. In 2002, it , it was found that more accessions could have been observed, so the number of accessions to be germinated was increased from 54 to 61 in 2003. However, in both 2003 and 2004, several of the accessions failed to grow.In the 3 years of the experiment, seven of the accessions from six wild rice species consistently had TDFs earlier than 0700 (see table ). Only one species (O. alta) flowered at night. Anthesis lasted for about 2 h; the average for all the accessions in all the years was 114 ± 6 min. A linear regression between TDF on the final day of flowering (y) and TDF on the first day of flowering (x) across all accessions and years (y = 1.019x -0.008; P< 0.001) showed that these TDFs were almost identical. This result suggests that TDF does not vary significantly for a panicle on each of its days of flowering; the panicles took between 3 and 9 d to complete flowering (see table Indrayani-WA source), KJTCMS 4A (IR 68897A RDN-93-1-3-WA source), KJTCMS 6A (UR58025 A Indrayani-WA source), and KJTCMS 7A (IR68886A Indrayani-WA source) in 2004-05. These lines, along with IRRI-bred CMS line IR58025A, were evaluated for their agronomic and floral traits and natural outcrossing potential during 2005 kharif. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications during the 2005 wet season at five locations in Maharashtra State. Plants were transplanted at 20 × 20-cm spacing in a 4-m 2 plot. Five plants from the central row in each replication were observed. To study natural outcrossing potential, the CMS lines were planted adjacent to the corresponding maintainer lines. Good flowering synchrony was achieved. Seed set was attained without resorting to any supplementary pollination technique.New cytoplasmic male sterile lines developed in Maharashtra State, India B.D. Waghmode, S.R. Kadam, and J.H. Dongale, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Karjat 410201, Maharashtra, India Email: hybrid@vsnl.net Data on 10 characters were statistically analyzed (see table ).KJTCMS 1A, an early-duration (115-120 d) CMS line with WA cytoplasm, has these characteristics: short slender grain, dwarf stature, moderate vigor (7-10 tillers plant -1 ), high spikelet number per panicle (210), and good stigma (45.2%) and panicle exsertion (70.40 %). It showed 100% pollen and spikelet sterility with around 25% outcrossing.KJTCMS 2A is an early-duration (115-120 d), long, bold-grain type with WA cytoplasm. This dwarf line has medium vigor (7-10 tillers hill -1 ), high spikelet number per panicle, and high panicle sterility, with 34.2% outcrossing.KJTCMS 3 A, KJTCMS 6A, and KJTCMS 7A are mediumduration CMS lines with WA cytoplasm. They are semidwarf and have good panicle exsertion (64.13-67.5%) and stigma exsertion (43.8-59.1%). All three showed 100% pollen and spikelet sterility, with good outcrossing rate (30-41.8%). KJTCMS 4A is an early-duration dwarf CMS line with medium slender grains. It has WA cytoplasm for male sterility. The plants showed good vigor (10-15 tillers plant -1 ), high spikelet number per panicle (207), and good panicle (68.1%) and stigma exsertion (41.5%). This line recorded 100% pollen and spikelet sterility, with 23% outcrossing.The WA cytoplasm from different donor CMS lines is transferred by conventional backcross breeding into commercially and popularly grown varieties/lines that have good grain quality. These lines could be used in developing new rice hybrid combinations with good grain and cooking quality.Loktantra-a high-yielding, blast-resistant rice variety for Nepal's rainfed lowland areas Rice, the major food crop in Nepal, is grown under diverse environments-from plain tarai (<100 m asl) to high hills (>2000 m). Altitude and rainfall are the major variable factors in Nepal agriculture (Upadhyay et al 1996). The tarai and inner tarai (<500 m) and foothills (500-1,000 m) constitute 80% of the rice area in Nepal. They receive a medium rainfall of 200-500 mm. Suitable rice varieties with drought tolerance and blast resistance are needed for such areas.Masuli (Mahsuri) was the most dominant variety in favorable rainfed areas (<500 m) from the 1980s to the 1990s. Its popularity brought about a definite grade of rice grain in the national market. However, late maturity and blast susceptibility contributed to a decline in Masuli area and production. Its adaptation decreases at altitudes >500 m because of delayed maturity. It also has poor performance in drought-prone rainfed lowland areas, even in places below 500 m.Loktantra was released in May 2006 for the rainfed areas of tarai, inner tarai, and rainfed to partially irrigated areas of the foothills (<800 m). (It was named Loktantra [full democracy] to commemorate the peaceful movement in April 2006 that restored democracy in the country.) It is a uniform line selected and improved over various generations from the F 2 bulk of IR55072 (Mahsuri/IR4547-6-2-2) that was introduced from IRRI in 1986. The pedigree was named NR1487-2-1-2-2-1-1 and was evaluated from 1996 to 2002 for grain yield, various agronomic quality traits, and disease resistance across target locations. Radha 4 (IR8423-156-2-2-1), a popular rainfed lowland variety, was used as a check. Loktantra is a semidwarf, coarsegrained variety and it responds to higher N application. It matures in 125-130 d and yields >3.0 t ha -1 in on-and off-station trials (Table 1) (Khatiwada 2006). It is similar to Radha 4 in grain yield and tillering ability. It is taller and gives a higher straw yield, a trait farmers in the inner tarai and foothills prefer as they need more livestock feed. Grain husk color and cooking and eating qualities were c o m p a r a b l e w i t h t h o s e o f M a s u l i . Loktantra matures 2-3 wk earlier than Masuli, giving sufficient time for growing winter crops. It has superior grain quality (Table 2), more preferable cooking quality, better taste, and a more acceptable appearance of cooked rice than Radha 4. In greenhouse tests, it was found resistant to blast and moderately resistant to moderately susceptible to bacterial blight, and has field tolerance for stem borers (Table 2). The 2000 and 2001 research results showed grain yield comparable with that of Radha (4.0 and 4.4 t ha -1 ) with the application of 60 and 90 kg N ha -1 , respectively. It yielded 5.0 and 4.0 t ha -1 (higher than Radha 4) with transplanting of 35-and 45-d-old seedlings, respectively. This is a much preferred characteristic as transplanting is often delayed in such an environment. Seed demand is increasing every year-the foundation seed sold among farmers increased from 300 kg in 2002 to 2,000 kg in 2005.  and six intraspecific (O. sativa × O. sativa) line, including the check. Seeds were sown directly, three seeds per hill, at a spacing of 0.25 m within and between rows. The Fisher randomized complete block design with three replications was used with 16 rows of 5 m and plot area was 20 m 2 . Plants in the 12 middle rows in each plot were harvested, leaving one border row on each side. The IRRI Standard evaluation system for rice was used to score morphological traits and disease and insect pest damage. Quantitative characters and reaction to biotic and abiotic stresses were noted (Table 2). Participatory varietal selection (PVS) was also carried out.After 4 years of evaluation by INERA and by farmers (through PVS), four of the interspecific progenies that consistently showed good performance were released (Table 1). The characteristics of these four varieties are compared with those of local check FKR 54 (Table 2). They are shorter than the local check and thus are more resistant to lodging. They are not inferior to FKR 54 in terms of days to maturity. The new varieties, FKR 60N and FKR 62N, have longer grains. All four varieties had greater 1,000-grain weight and yield potential than the check (Table 2).Adeyemi P, Vodouhe SR. 1996. Amélioration de la productivité des variétés locales de Oryza glaberrima Steud. par des croisements intra et Therefore, through induced mutagenesis, an attempt was made to recover mutants with slender grains while retaining all other traits of Abhilash intact. One thousand mature seeds (M 0 ) of Abhilash were exposed to γ (gamma) irradiation (25 kr) at Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India. The M 1 seeds were grown in the field at the Agricultural Research Station (zone 9 of Karnataka) during the 2000 wet season (WS) (Jun-Dec). During harvest, care was taken to collect panicles only from the main tiller. The seeds were bulked (Joshua 2000) to grow the M 2 (10,000 plants) during the 2001 WS. Seeds from 74 selected individual plants were advanced to the M 4 generation. Eight mutants were finally selected and grown in 2 × 3-m plots with three replications to evaluate the stability of the mutant phenotype and other agronomic traits in the M5 generation during the 2005 WS. The parent variety (Abhilash) and a variety released for zones 8 and 9 in 1974 with superior grain size (Intan) were used as checks.Preference for grain size and shape varied from one group of consumers to another. (For general consumption, kernel lengthbreadth ratio (L/B) between 2.5 and 3.0 is acceptable as long as kernel length is more than 6 mm [Kaul 1970].) In general, long grains are preferred in the Indian subcontinent. Four mutants (AM31, AM49, AM3, and AM4) with an L/B value significantly more than that of Abhilash were recovered (Table 1). These mutants had kernel length more than 7 mm. Compared with Abhilash, AM3 and AM49 did not show any significant difference in terms of days to 50% flowering and plant height. Interestingly, AM3 had a marginally higher yield than the parent and Intan. Therefore, it looks most promising with its improved kernel shape and size, and marginal yield advantage over the parent. Because AM3 has all the other desirable agronomic characters, it could be highly acceptable to consumers. AM4, with exceptionally slender (L/B of 3.95) and long kernels (8.13 mm), might be prone to breakage during milling. AM3 was tested in five different locations for agronomic and yield traits Fungal sheath rot is caused by Sarocladium oryzae (Sawada) W.Gams & D. Hawksw., a seedborne pathogen present in rice-growing countries worldwide (Mew and Gonzalez 2002). Information on the survival of S. oryzae in rice seeds under various storage conditions is vital, especially when farmers use their own saved seeds. This study was undertaken to determine the survival of S. oryzae in rice seeds stored for various lengths of time.The survival of S. oryzae was studied in seeds of eight popular varieties and two hybrids in Tamil Nadu-ASD16, ASD18, ASD19, Improved white ponni (IWP), ADT36, ADT43, IR50, ADT39, ADTRH1, and CORH2. For each variety, 200 seeds were used per replication; three replications were maintained. The seed samples were assessed for S. oryzae infection initially and stored in white cloth bags under laboratory conditions. The seeds were assessed for the presence of S. oryzae at monthly intervals (up to 7 mo under storage) using the standard blotter method.The survival of S. oryzae in all rice seed samples declined with the increase in storage period (see table ). The fungus survived up to 90 d in all seed samples, even if seed infection level was minimum. However, surviving S. oryzae were detected even after 120 d (in eight samples) and 210 d (in four samples) of storage. It was observed that the fungus sur-vived for a longer period among seed samples with initial 30-40% S. oryzae seed infection. Maiti et al (1991) found S. oryzae surviving for 10 mo in infected rice seeds stored in Bihar, India, while Singh and Raju (1981) stated that the fungus can survive for as long as 4 mo in the seed and 7 mo in leaf sheaths kept at room conditions. It can last as long as 10 mo in leaf sheaths in the field in Pantnagar, India. In Taiwan, it survived for 75 d in rice stubbles (Hsieh et al 1980). The differences in survival time of the fungus as reported by various workers can be attributed to variations in environmental and storage conditions. This study confirms that S. oryzae-infected seeds stored for less than 7 mo, depending on initial seed infection, may give rise to seedling infection that could lead to sheath rot disease in the field.  (Hibino et al 1990). To evaluate the efficacy of variety mixtures in the management of RTD, we examined the occurrence of tungro virus infection in confined settings simulating the mix-planting of RTD-susceptible IR64 and RTD-resistant Matatag 9 (IR73885-1-4-3-2-1-6) (Khush et al 2004).To assess the virus transmission capability of GLH (Nephotettix virescens) for tungro viruses in the setting of a variety mixture, the incidence of tungro virus infection in IR64 and Matatag 9 serially inoculated with viruliferous GLH was examined (see figure). Single six-day-old seedlings of both varieties were infested with one viruliferous GLH for 24 h. The viruliferous GLH were then transferred daily to other seedlings for 3 d in the sequences shown in the figure. The rates of tungro virus infection were evaluated at 21 d after inoculation (DAI) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The con-secutive transmission of RTBV to IR64 by GLH was observed for 4 d, although the infection rate was only about 1% on the fourth day (see figure , A). However, the transmission of RTSV to IR64 was observed for only 2 d. Meanwhile, both viruses were detected only in the first plants of the serial transmission through Matatag 9 (see figure , B). In serial transmissions alternating between IR64 and Matatag 9 (see figure, C and D), the transmission capability of GLH was retained only when they were transferred from Matatag 9 to IR64. These findings suggest that the transmission of tungro viruses by GLH was adversely affected when GLH were fed on Matatag 9.To examine whether the proportion and distribution of Matatag 9 in the mixtures affect RTD occurrence, the rates of virus infection in variety mixtures established by seed mix and interplanting were compared. For the seed mix, seeds of Matatag 9 and IR64 were premixed in ratios specified in the table and sown in a plastic tray (49 cm × 37 cm × 12.5 cm) with 16 columns, 25 seeds per column. For the interplanting, the planting columns consisting of either of the two varieties were arranged in trays according to specified ratios. Ten-day-old seedlings were mass-inoculated with 3 or 10 viruliferous GLH per plant for 4 h. The rates of virus infection were evaluated at 21 DAI and normalized by the corresponding rates in the monoculture of IR64 for proper comparison. The experiment was set up using a split-plot design with three replications.In general, the relative rates of tungro virus infection decreased significantly as the proportions of Matatag 9 in the mixtures increased, regardless of mixing method (see table). For the 75%:25% and the 25%:75% mixtures of IR64 and Matatag 9 inoculated with three viruliferous GLH per plant, the relative rates of infection with either tungro virus in the mixtures by seed mix were significantly lower than those in the corresponding mixtures by interplanting. Significant differences in the relative rate of simultaneous infection with RTBV and RTSV (RTBV+RTSV infection) were also observed between the mixtures by seed mix and the corresponding mixtures by interplanting inoculated with 10 GLH per plant. The relative rates of RTSV infection and those of RTBV+RTSV infection in the mixtures by seed mix inoculated with three GLH per plant were apparently lower than the actual ratios of IR64 in the mixtures, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the seed mix in suppressing RTSV infection. The results presented here collectively indicate that the mixtures of a susceptible and a resistant variety, especially those by seed mix, could be applied to manage RTD in fields under moderate disease pressure. O. minutaMean ± SE of three replications. b Damage rating: 1-3.9 (resistant [R]), 4.0-6.9 (moderately resistant [MR]), and 7.0-9.0 (susceptible [S]).Reaction of introgression lines of rice to a BPH population from India  (Wu et al 1986).The identification and transfer of novel resistance genes from these sources into popular varieties can significantly enhance the yield potential of these cultivars by increasing host-plant resistance to BPH (Brar and Khush 1997).In this study, a set of 27 introgression lines developed at IRRI, using wild species O. officinalis, O. australiensis, O. minuta, and O. rufipogon, was screened against BPH populations from India. The insects were collected from rice fields at the experimental farm of the Barwale Foundation in Hyderabad, India, and reared on susceptible variety Taichung Native 1 (TN1), following the method of Heinrichs et al (1985). The standard seedbox screening test as described by Heinrichs et al (1985) was used to screen the introgression lines. Seeds were presoaked and sown in rows (3cm intervals) in 60 × 45 × 10-cm seed boxes along with standard checks PTB33 (resistant) and TN1 (susceptible). A row of 20 seedlings was maintained per accession. Ten-day-old seedlings were infested with second-and third-instar nymphs (5-8 per seedling). The experiment was conducted at 28-30 ºC and at 70-80% relative humidity in a greenhouse at the experimental farm of the Barwale Foundation. About a week after insect infestation, hopperburn was observed. Using the Standard evaluation system for rice (SES) (IRRI 1986), the plants were scored individually based on a 0-9 scale, when more than 90% of the TN1 plants were killed. The experiment had three replications. Accessions with a mean damage rating of 0-3.9, 4-6.9, and 7-9 were rated as resistant, moderately resistant, and susceptible, respectively.Five introgression lines derived from the wild species exhibited strong resistance to BPH (see table). IR65482-7-216-1-2-B inherited its BPH resistance from O. australiensis; IR71033-62-15-8, IR71033-121-5-B, and IR71033-121-15 got it from O. minuta; and IR73680-4-5-10-2-1-2, from O. rufipogon.A similar study undertaken at IRRI also indicated that IR65482-7-216-1-2 and IR71033-121-15 were resistant and IR65482-18-539-2-2 was susceptible to BPH populations from Korea (IRRI 2002). Jena et al (2006) recently reported that IR65482-7-216-1-2 carries a dominant resistance gene, Bph18(t). Results of this study suggest that it could be a potential donor of resistance to BPH populations in India as well. Further, in contrast to results obtained in Korea, the introgression line IR65482-4-136-2-2 was found susceptible to BPH in India, suggesting the possibility of a differential reaction of BPH populations from India and Korea to different genes from wild sources. The results of the present study can help breeders improve genetic resistance in rice cultivars as well as explore biotypic differences across BPH populations from different countries.Validation of reported molecular markers for fertility restorer genes for WA cytoplasm of rice Hybrid rice, grown in more than 50% of the area in China, is becoming popular in other Asian countries as well, including India. Since rice is a self-pollinated crop, the cytoplasmic male sterility system is used to develop commercial rice hybrids. For this purpose, the use of restorers, which possess nuclear genes (Rf) that restore the fertility of CMS lines, is essential. Not all genotypes can be used as restorers. Conventionally, restorers are identified by test-crossing a large number of genotypes with CMS lines and then evaluating their progeny for pollen and spikelet fertility. This method is laborious, time-consuming, and less accurate. There is therefore a need to identify molecular markers that are tightly linked to Rf genes so that marker-aided selection (MAS) can be routinely done to identify restorers more quickly and more efficiently.We used one F 2 population (IR58025A/KMR3) and one BC 1 F 1 population (IR62829A// IR62829A/IR10198) for this study. To validate the linkage between Rf genes and molecular markers, we analyzed eight randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers (OPK05 800 , OPN13 600 , OPW01 350 , OPU10 1100 , OPAA12 700 , OPY16 550 , OPB07 640 , and OPB18 1000 ), nine simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers (RM258, RM228, RM244, RM171, RM216, RM6100, MRG4456, and pRf 1 and 2, and three cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers (RG140FL/RL, C1361MwoI, and S12564Tsp5091) reportedly linked to Rf genes of different sources of cytoplasm.Of the eight oligomers used in RAPD analysis, none were polymorphic between the parents of both populations studied. The primer OPK05800 did not show any amplification at all. Seven SSR primers-RM6100, RM228, RM216, RM171, MRG4456, and pRf 1 and 2-produced polymorphism in the F 2 population, whereas RM6100 showed polymorphism in both populations. Of the three CAPS markers ana-lyzed, RG140FL/RL produced a polymorphic banding pattern between the parents of the F 2 population after digestion with EcoR1 enzyme, but none produced polymorphism between the parents of the BC 1 F 1 population. Since RM6100 produced polymorphism in both populations studied, we checked the accuracy and efficiency of this marker for MAS using 18 B (maintainer) and 21 R (restorer) lines. The marker could distinguish all restorers from the maintainers, except for IR66 and C-20 R (see figure). It appears that these restorers have restoration genes different from the others. The selection accuracy of RM6100 marker was 94.87%. In view of its greater accuracy, this marker can be used for routine screening of genotypes to identify restorers. Using RM6100, MAS will save a lot of time and labor and also enhance the efficiency of hybrid rice breeding. Jiao Demao, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014; Ling Lili, China College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064; and Zhang Bianjiang, Department of Life Science, Xiaozhuang College, Nanjing 210017, China. Email: jiaodm_123@yahoo.com.cn It has been demonstrated that transgenic rice with the PEPC gene has higher F v /F m and lower content of O 2 and malonyldialdehyde (MDA) (Zhang and Jiao 2002). Simultaneously, photosynthetic rate increased by 50% at 1,200 µmol m -2 s -1 and CO 2 compensation point decreased by 27% compared with those of untransformed rice. But the photosynthetic rate of NADPmalic enzyme (NADP-ME) and pyruvate Pi dikinase (PPDK) transgenic rice did not increase (Jiao et al 2002).On the basis of previous research, a stable PPDK + PEPC + ME transgenic rice was obtained by crossing two transgenic lines with PEPC and PPDK genes and transgenic rice with the NADP-ME gene. The activities of PEPC, PPDK, NADP-ME, and malate dehydrogenase (MDH) in CKM transgenic rice, which were examined by a direct assay of enzyme activity, were 1,139, 83.47, and 102.60, and 98.05 µmol mg -1 chl h -1 , respectively (see table ). Compared with untransformed rice plants, net photosynthetic rate of CKM transgenic rice increased by 46%. Supplying NaHSO 3 , the ATP activator, the photosynthetic rate of CKM transgenic rice was 82% that of maize (see figure). Therefore, ATP is a key factor in developing C4-like rice. In addition, the table showed that MDA and O 2 content of CKM transgenic rice were lower than those of untransformed rice, which may be related to the increase in the photooxidation-tolerant enzymes superoxide dismutase and peroxidase. PEPC (µmol mg -1 ch .h -1 ) 62.10 ± 3.85 1139 ± 65.65 18.4 fold PPDK (µmol mg -1 chl h -1 ) 23.52 ± 1.08 83.48 ± 6.80 3.5 fold ME (µmol mg -1 chl h -1 ) 20.64 ± 1.76 102.60 ± 6.64 5.0 fold MDH(µmol mg -1 chl h -1 ) 93.24 ± 4.91 98.05 ± 3.44 5.1% SOD (units mg -1 protein min At IRRI, three tungro-tolerant BC 3 F 2 -derived lines (IR77298-14-1-2, IR77298-12-7, and IR77298-5-6) were developed by backcrossing Aday Sel to IR64 (Khush et al 2004). The coefficient of parentage of these lines with IR64 is 0.9. We confirmed the tolerance of these lines for tungro virus by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Table 1). By screening these lines under drought conditions, it was observed that they also differed in yield under drought stress (Table 2); IR77298-14-1-2 was the highest yielding, IR77298-12-7 was intermediate, and IR77298-5-6 was the lowest. This difference was not evident under nonstress conditions. These lines have been evaluated for yield under a range of hydrological conditions and drought stress levels in 12 field trials conducted from 2003 to 2006 at IRRI. Results for IR77298-14-1-2 and IR77298-5-6 (extreme lines under drought stress) are presented in Table 2; the advantage of the former over the latter increased with decreasing mean yield resulting from water stress. Yield of IR77298-14-1-2 was 43 and 72% greater than that of IR77298-5-6 under severe lowland and upland stress conditions, respectively, but only 6% and 11% greater under nonstress lowland and upland conditions, respectively.Since the three IR77298 lines are very closely related to each other and to IR64, if we scan the genome of these lines with DNA markers for loci that are polymorphic for the parents Aday Sel To identify the polymorphic loci, the three lines and the parents were genotyped with 157 SSR markers spaced at approximately 10 cM. All three IR77298 lines carried four common introgressions, one each on chromosomes 2 (RM154-RM279), 4 (RM335-RM518), 6 (RM136), and 9 (RM201) (see figure). Of these, the first two were larger introgressions, whereas the last two were smaller. RZ262, an RFLP marker located between RM335 and RM518, was previously reported to be linked to a dominant gene for green leafhopper and tungro virus resistance (Sebastian et al 1996). Testing it remains to be done to see whether there are any interactions of these loci with other loci affecting tungro tolerance.Upon comparing IR77298-14-1-2 with IR77298-5-6, differences in introgression were found at six regions, one each on chromosomes 2 (RM555-RM262), 7 (RM11-RM248), 8 (RM152-RM404), 9 (RM464-RM566), 11 (RM552), and 12 (RM179-RM519). At all these loci, except on chromosome 9, IR77298-14-1-2 had introgressions that IR77298-5-6 lacked. Of all these loci, the region covering RM511 on chromosome 12 is particularly interesting. A large-effect QTL for yield under drought stress has been previously reported (Bernier et al 2007) to be linked to RM511 on chromosome 12. Thus, the region around RM511 seems to carry an important locus (or loci) for yield under drought stress. The same region has also been implicated in breeding for resistance to bacterial leaf blight and blast (Li et al 2006) and tolerance for phosphorus deficiency (Wissuwa et al 1998). Further work using these NILs is ongoing to confirm these results and to test for interactions among all loci introgressed from Aday Sel to determine yield under drought stress. Additional backcrossing to IR64 has been done using these lines and large populations segregating at each of the loci (see figure) have been developed. With the new materials, it should be possible to fine-map and/or clone genes responsible for tungro tolerance and/or drought tolerance.Scientists report declining trends in productivity of the irrigated rice-wheat cropping system and this growth stagnation has been observed not only in India but in most Asian countries as well. Experiments conducted so far have failed to establish a positive correlation between declining ricewheat yield under the irrigated system and properties of available nutrients under long-term fertility experiments in intensive cropping systems. Scientists are therefore looking at another possibility. Plant-available silicon (Si) in the soil could be a possible soil-related cause of declining rice yields due to continuous higher mining by rice (Singh et al 2005). The present study aimed to find out the effect of recycling Si carriers through rice straw compost at different times of Si application on rice productivity in rice-wheat cropping systems.A field experiment was conducted at the IAS Research Farm during the rainy seasons of 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-03. Soil was sandy clay loam (Ustocrepts), slightly alkaline, with a pH of 7.2, with 0.34% organic carbon, 223 kg available N ha -1 (alkaline permaganate method; Subbiah and Asija 1973), 11.3 kg available P ha -1 (0.5 M NaHCO 3 extractable, colorimetric method; Olsen et al 1954), 232.4 kg available K ha -1 (ammonium acetate method; Jackson 1958), and 301.2 kg available Si ha -1 (ace-tic acid method; Barbosa Filho 1996). The trials tested eight Si carriers-control (0%), calcium silicate (100%), basic slag (100%), rice straw compost (100%), rice straw compost (50%) + calcium silicate (50%), rice straw compost (50%) + basic slag (50%), basic slag (50%) + calcium silicate (50%), and rice straw compost (33%) + calcium silicate (33%) + basic slag (33%)-and three time intervals of Si application-every year, alternate years, and every third year. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications with Si carriers as the main plot and times of application as the subplot. Si was applied at 150 kg ha -1 , representing a 100% rate. A common dose of nutrients (120-60-60 kg NPK ha -1 ) was applied through urea, diammonium phosphate, and muriate of potash, respectively. Nitrogen was applied in three splits: half as basal and the remaining half in two equal splits-at tillering and at panicle initiation. Total P and K were applied as basal. Rice variety Swarana (MTU 7029) was used as the test crop.Application of Si carriers significantly increased effective tillers hill -1 , grains panicle -1 , and 1,000-grain weight. The highest effective tiller number hill -1 was recorded with rice straw compost + calcium silicate, followed by rice straw compost + basic slag. Panicle weight also increased and maximum weight was noted with the application of rice straw compost + calcium silicate. This was significantly superior to the control and calcium silicate treatments. In general, the longest panicles were noted with rice straw compost + calcium silicate, although this was statistically on a par with the other Si carrier treatments, except the control. Application of rice straw compost + calcium silicate recorded a higher grain yield than the control but remained on a par with the rest of the Si carrier treatments. Similarly, straw yield was also higher with rice straw compost + calcium silicate, followed by rice straw compost + basic slag. The increase in straw and grain yield with the application of different Si sources could be attributed to the sum of the increases in growth and yield attributes. The favorable effect of rice straw compost + calcium silicate was probably brought about by the stable supply of Si during the rice crop cycle (Rani et al 1997).The different times of Si application failed to show any significant effect on yield and yield attributes. However, the highest grain yield was recorded with the annual application of Si, followed by the alternate-year treatment. This could indicate that yearly application maintained Si availability throughout the growth and development of the rice crop. None of the interactions during the study period were significant. As a result, the rice plant suffers from Fe deficiency and exhibits chlorosis in young leaves (Reddy and Prassad 1986). The correction of Fe chlorosis by soil application is difficult because of conversion into unavailable di-and trivalent Fe-hydrated oxides (Lindsay 1972). Similarly, foliar sprays often give erratic results because of limited penetration of Fe into the leaves. Therefore, there is a need to develop a method for supplying Fe continuously at the early crop growth stages.Polyolefin resin-coated slow-release Fe fertilizer is a potential alternative because the release of Fe from resin-coated materials is controlled by the quality of the resin coating. The greater solubility and stability result from the slow release of nutrients, which is in harmony with crop need. Therefore, our investigation was carried out to study the effect of rate and depth of placement of polyolefin resin-coated controlled-release Fe fertilizer on the yield of transplanted rice.The field experiment was conducted during the rainy seasons of 2003-04 at the Agricultural Research Farm of IAS in Varanasi, India. The experimental soil (Inceptisol) has a pH of 7.2, 0.45% organic carbon, and an EC of 0.33 dS m -1 at 25 °C. The experiment was carried out in a split-plot design with three replications using scented rice variety Pusa Sugandha 3 (IET16313/Pusa 2504-1-31). The four Fe levels-0, 3, 6, and 9 kg ha -1 -were assigned to the main plot and the three placement depths-surface, 5 cm deep, and 10 cm deep-to the subplot. Fertilizers were applied just before transplanting. Half of N (60 kg ha -1 ) and all of P (60 kg ha -1 ) and K (60 kg ha -1 ) were applied as basal. The remaining N (60 kg ha -1 ) was applied in two equal splits at tillering and panicle initiation. Fe was applied basal according to the treatment. (The material was acquired from a Japanese company through Prof. Mori.) NPK was supplied as urea, single superphosphate, and muriate of potash, whereas Fe was supplied as polyolefin resin-coated controlled-release fertilizer. The usual water and crop management practices were followed.The different Fe application rates induced a statistically significant improvement in dry matter accumulation. A maximum dry matter accumulation of 3 kg ha -1 was recorded. Yield attributes such as effective tillers hill -1 , grains panicle -1 , and test weight also increased markedly with 3 kg Fe ha -1 applied (see table ). The values decreased with increas- IRRN 32.1 ing rates. Grain and straw yields depended on yield attributes, which were favorably affected by Fe application. Maximum yields were recorded for the 3 kg Fe ha -1 treatment and decreased slightly thereafter. The different Fe placement depths failed to show any significant effect on yield and yield components, but the 10cm-deep placement recorded the highest grain and straw yields. Interactions were not significant during both years of experimentation.Soil salinity and intrusion of sea water are major problems in the coastal areas of several rice-growing regions in Korea. An example is the southwestern part of the country, where the inland area is usually inundated by sea water every rice cropping season in August.In developing rice ecotypes that could withstand sea water, it is important to determine the growth stage of rice at which damage by sea water is critical. In this study, we identified the critical growth stages in terms of yield, yield components, and grain appearance on a reclaimed coastal saline soil in Korea. The experiment was conducted at the Kyehwa Substation of the Honam Agricultural Research Institute in 2002-03.The experiment involved growing rice at four growth stages (panicle initiation, booting, heading, and milky stage) and a control (no treatment) in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Sea water without dilution (about 2.7%) was applied once at each stage for 5 d. Seoganbyeo, a newly developed japonica rice variety for the reclaimed area, was used.The number of spikelets per panicle decreased in all treatments compared with the control, but there were no significant differences among the growth stages (Table 1). In terms of 1,000-grain weight, no significant difference was observed between the control and the salt treatment. However, the percentage of ripened grain decreased sharply when salt stress was applied at booting stage. Sea water did affect yield, especially when salt stress was applied at panicle initiation and booting stages. Milled rice yield decreased significantly in the treatments in the following order: booting, panicle initiation, heading, and milky stage.Grain appearance of brown rice was affected by sea water (Choi et al 2003). A lower percentage of head rice was observed in the stress treatments at all growth stages compared with the control. The low percentage of head rice is attributed to the high percentage of immature and damaged rice in the stress treatments (Table 2).The results demonstrated that the critical growth stage for flooding by sea water was the booting stage, which affected both grain yield and grain appearance of brown rice. To avoid severe stress by sea water, early-maturing varieties such as Unkwangbyeo should be cultivated in low-lying areas habitually inundated by the August floods.  Rice hull ash as a source of silicon and phosphatic fertilizers: effect on growth and yield of rice in coastal Karnataka, India Although silicon (Si) is not considered essential for growth and development, the addition of this element can enhance growth and increase the yield of rice (Savant et al 1997a, Takahashi 1995). Depletion of plant-available Si in the soil where rice is grown may contribute to declining or stagnating yield (Savant et al 1997a).An adequate supply of Si to the rice crop can decrease disease incidence and inhibit iron, aluminum, and manganese toxicities, besides improving the availability and use of P by the plant (Savant et al 1997b). However, many Indian farmers are not aware of these benefits and Si fertilizers are too expensive for them. An important by-product of rice production is rice hull. A big amount is generated every year in all rice-growing countries. On average, 50% of the rice hull obtained is used as fuel in rice mills, hotels, and brick-making industries in south India. The rice hull ash (RHA) thus obtained has Si as a major constituent. It is already being used in rice nurseries and main fields in different parts of southern India. Application of black to gray RHA at 0.5-1.0 kg m -2 to the seedbed resulted in healthy and strong rice seedlings (Sistani et al 1997). Although it is not possible to replenish all the Si used up by the rice crop, a proper way of recycling plant Si will help solve the problem of soil Si depletion. Hence, there is a need to evaluate the effect of continuous application of RHA on growth and yield of paddy.Though P management is not a problem under submerged conditions, studies on the role of RHA as a source of Si and the effect of RHA application on P availability in rice farming are limited. Our investigation aimed to know the effect of continuous recycling of RHA with and with-out phosphorus (diammonium phosphate [DAP] and rock phosphate [RP]) on growth and yield of paddy.Field experiments were conducted at the agricultural research station (coastal zone) in Mangalore, Karnataka. The experimental soil was sandy loam, with a pH of 5.06 and 12.1 kg Si ha -1 (ammonium acetate extractable). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with nine treatments (T1: recommended N and K without P; T 2 : T 1 + RHA at 2 Mg ha -1 ; T 3 : T 1 + RHA at 4 Mg ha -1 ; T 4 : recommended NPK ( P as DAP); T 5 : T 4 + RHA at 2 Mg ha -1 ; T 6 : T 4 + RHA at 4 Mg ha -1 ; T 7 : recommended NPK (P as RP); T 8 : T 7 + RHA at 2 Mg ha -1 ; and T 9 : T 7 + RHA at 4 Mg ha -1 ) with three replications. Three-week-old seedlings were planted at 20 × 10-cm spacing in a 16.25-m 2 treatment plot. The fertilizers recommended for the coastal zone of Karnataka are 60-30-45 kg NPK ha -1 . The recommended P (DAP) and K (muriate of potash) were applied during planting, whereas RHA and P as RP were applied 1 wk before planting. The recommended N (urea) was given in three splits (50%, basal; 25%, 20 d after transplanting; 25%, 45 d after transplanting). The field experiment had the same layout for four continuous seasons; the bunds were not disturbed and standard management practices were followed.The application of RHA with and without P significantly increased grain and straw yield in both seasons (Tables 1 and 2). Compared with the control, RHA alone at 2 Mg ha -1 without P resulted in higher grain and straw yield of paddy. The results confirmed other findings that silicate materials increase rice yield and other yield components (Talashilkar andChavan 1995, Savant et al 1997b). A field experiment in Sri Lanka showed that application of 740 kg RHA ha -1 gave an additional rice yield of 1.0-1.4 t ha -1 (Amarasiri 1978).Addition of P either as DAP or RP without RHA also increased grain and straw yield (Tables 1 and 2). However, addition of RHA, along with either DAP or RP, further increased grain and straw yields in both 2001-02 seasons. This may be attributed to the Si-supplying power of the RHA. The yield increase was largely brought about by the advantage gained in grain filling and increasing grain weight because of better translocation of photosynthates (Savant et al 1997a, Rai et al 1997).These results have shown that application of Si through RHA, along with P as RP or DAP, increases grain and straw yield, indicating better performance of RP or DAP as a source of P in Mangalore's acid soils. Thus, recycling of plant Si materials such as RHA helps mobilize soil P and achieve sustainable rice yield.  During the green revolution in Asia, a common practice was to recommend a standard package of fertilizer rates for the cultivation of modern rice varieties. Later, it became clear that these blanket recommendations were not efficient because the soil's indigenous nutrient supply capacity varies widely among rice fields (Dobermann andWhite 1999, Olk et al 1999). The current scenario is that farmers apply more N than other nutrients because N fertilizers are relatively cheap and are often sold at subsidized prices (CREMNET 1998a) and farmers can observe impact on plant growth. Overuse and improper timing of fertilizers are common, which is inefficient and sometimes damaging to the crop. Studies show that N recovery by rice is low, ranging from 20% to 40%, because of losses through ammonium volatilization, denitrification, runoff, and leaching (De Datta andBuresh 1989, Win 2003) and that proper timing of N application is critical to minimizing N loss and increasing recovery (Becker at al 1994, Peng et al 1996, Cassman et al 1998). Unbalanced use and excessive use of N fertilizers also lead to overgrowth, making plants succumb to lodging as well as to opportunist pests such as certain diseases and planthoppers. The consequence is increased use of pesticides.The leaf color intensity of rice is directly related to leaf chlorophyll content and leaf N status (CREMNET 1998b). Therefore, use of a chlorophyll meter (SPAD) in determining the timing of N application can minimize excessive use of N fertilizer without sacrificing yield and can increase N-use efficiency (Peng et al 1996, Balasubramanian et al 1999). But the high cost of acquisition restricts the adoption of the SPAD by most Asian rice farmers with tiny landholdings (Win 2003). However, the development and improvement of a cheap leaf color chart (LCC), which costs less than US$1 per unit, removed this barrier and resulted in wide-scale adoption for real-time N management in rice (Balasubramanian et al 2000).IRRI made an effort to validate the effectiveness of the LCC with farmer participatory experiments in India under an IFAD-funded special project. The LCC was first introduced in the boro (dry) rice season of 2002-03 to 10 farmers per village, one village per district, in six districts of West Bengal. From the following prekharif (premonsoon) rice season, the LCC introduction was mainly concentrated in selected villages in Nadia District. In total, the LCC was introduced to 163 farmers in 2003-04, 53 in 2004-05, and 43 in 2005-06. In all cases, farmers were allowed to keep the LCC for use in other plots of their farms as well as for sharing with other farmers.In 2006, a survey was conducted to assess the impact of real-time N fertilizer management with the LCC using a prestructured questionnaire. A random sampling method was used to select samples from villages under the LCC validation experiment (intervention village) and adjoining villages not covered by the project (control village). The survey covered 210 farmers in eight intervention villages and 178 farmers in seven control vil-lages. This note reports the findings of the survey on the impact of real-time N management on the use of N fertilizer and insecticides.In all three rice seasons, LCC adopter farmers used significantly less N fertilizer than nonadopters (Table 1). Reduced N use by LCC adopters did not affect grain yield in any of the seasons (Table 2). Rather, the adopters produced slightly higher yields than did nonadopters-about 19, 43, and 95 kg ha -1 higher in the prekharif, kharif, and boro season, respectively. N fertilizer savings by LCC adopters were on average 25 kg N ha -1 (54 kg urea ha -1 ), a 19% savings over the current practice. The rates of N savings in the different rice seasons were similar-this was highest at 31 kg N ha -1 (67 kg urea ha -1 ) in the boro season, followed by 23 kg N ha -1 (50 kg urea ha -1 ) in the prekharif season, and 20 kg N ha -1 (44 kg urea ha -1 ) during kharif.Adopter farmers also reported low insect pest incidence in fields where N fertilizers were used according to LCC readings. Farmers reduced the number of insecticide sprays from an average of 2.55 per season to 1.28 (n=148) (see figure). The LCC adopters reduced insecticide sprays by 50%, which was significantly lower than what they used to apply before LCC adoption (t value for the difference in means = 30.3). The average number of sprays made by nonadopter farmers was similar to that by adopter farmers before the introduction of the LCC (2.56 sprays per season).The findings show that LCC use contributes to a reduction in the use of N fertilizer and insecticides without any effect on grain yield, thereby increasing farmers' income. Adoption of the LCC for real-time N fertilizer management over a large area will have a positive role in environmental protection. As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, India has agreed to assess GHG emissions from all development sectors, including agriculture. This quantification of GHG emissions from agriculture is needed in the context of ecosystem modification and climate change. There are, however, uncertainties in the estimation of GHG emissions from Indian agriculture because of diverse soil and climatic conditions and limited on-farm measurements. Simulation models can be helpful in minimizing these uncertainties and determining the impact of input use on global warming. Simulation modeling also provides a baseline from which future emission trajectories may be developed to identify and evaluate GHG mitigation strategies. The objective of our study was to simulate GHG emissions from rice fields under different management practices in different regions of India.The InfoCrop model, a generic dynamic crop model used in the study, simulates soil nitrogen and organic carbon dynamics and GHG emissions. It has been validated in a variety of agro environments in India (Aggarwal et al 2006). Upscaling of GHG emissions from rice fields in India was done using the validated model and geographic information system. The required input parameters of the model consisted of daily meteorological data (maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and solar radiation); soil characteristics (sand, pH, and thickness of different soil layers); agronomic management practices (date and method of sowing, N fertilizer, and irrigation); and area under different rice ecosystems (irrigated lowland, rainfed lowland, rainfed upland, and deepwater). These were compiled in a database. Simulations were carried out for the 94 agroecological zones (as drawn by India's Plan-ning Commission) in different states during crop growth to obtain total GHG emissions from the rice-growing areas of the country. Global warming potential (GWP), an index defined as the cumulative radiative forcing between the present and some chosen later time 'horizon' caused by a unit mass of gas emitted now, was calculated using the following equation: izers. Moreover, in northern India, rice is generally grown under intermittent drying conditions and considerable amounts of N 2 O could be emitted. This alternate wetting and drying of rice fields result in the repetition of nitrification and denitrification processes. Some districts of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh showed higher CO 2 emissions because of high soil organic C content and larger rice area. The eastern and southern parts of the country showed higher GWP mainly because of higher CH 4 and CO 2 emissions with larger rice area per district.Several attempts were earlier made to estimate CH 4 emissions from Indian rice fields (Pathak et al 2005). However, only a few studies (Matthews et al 2000, Pathak et al 2005) tried to calculate in detail regional CH 4 emissions using simulation modeling. With the methodology adopted and assumptions made on the importance of different factors affecting CH 4 emissions, the estimates varied greatly (from 1.2 to 37.8 Tg CH 4 y -1 ). The present estimate of 2.07 Tg is much lower than previous estimates but is comparable with those of Pathak et al ( 2005) and Matthews et al (2000), who estimated 1.5 and 2.1 Tg CH 4 emissions, respectively. Studies on regional N 2 O emissions from Indian rice fields are limited. Bhatia et al (2004) estimated emissions of 0.08 Tg N 2 O-N y -1 , while India's Initial National Communication (IINC 2004) estimated them to be 0.15 Tg from a net cultivated area of 149 million ha. Pathak et al ( 2005) calculated total GWP of rice-growing areas to be 130-272 Tg CO 2 equivalent y -1 . The preparation of this spatial inventory will be helpful in removing the uncertainties, identifying hot spots of GHG emissions, and implementing management practices to mitigate emissions.IRRN 32.1Effects of zinc fertilization on physical grain quality of basmati rice Y.S. Shivay, D. Kumar, and R. Prasad, Division of Agronomy, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi 110012, India E-mail:ysshivay@hotmail.com Physical grain quality in aromatic basmati rice has achieved great attention in recent years due to heavy foreign demand and increased exports. During 2003-04, 771,000 t of Basmati rice was exported from India (GOI 2004). No information on the effect of nutrient management on the physical grain quality of basmati rice before and after cooking is currently available. This study aims to bridge that gap. This information is also needed amid the rising demand for organic food (Prasad 2005) and the widespread concern that fertilizers have a harmful effect on food quality.To study the effects of zinc fertilization on some aspects of physical quality, grain samples were obtained from the fields at IARI. The experiment aimed to assess the relative efficiency of zinc oxide-and zinc sulfatecoated (at 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%) urea, uncoated urea, and a no-zinc (only N through urea) control. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with three replications. All plots received 120 kg N ha -1 as urea. Zinc sulfate-and zincoxide-coated urea were obtained from Indo-Gulf Fertilizers Ltd., Jagdishpur, India. Soil in the experimental field was a sandy clay loam with pH 8.2, 0.54% organic C, and medium fertility with respect to P and K. DTPAextractable (Lindsay and Norvell 1978) zinc in soil was 0.68 mg kg -1 weight of soil. Rice quality parameters were studied follow-ing the methods described by Dela Cruz and Khush (2000). The basmati rice variety used in this study was Pusa Sugandh 5 (Pusa 3A/Haryana Basmati), which was recently developed at IARI and has been cultivated in the northwestern rice-wheat cropping system of the country.Pusa Sugandh 5 has extra long and slender grains (Jennings et al 1979). Zinc fertilization with 2.0% zinc oxide-or zinc sulfate-coated urea significantly increased hulling percentage in rice compared with that treated with uncoated urea. Zinc coating of urea had no significant effect on grain length before cooking, but, after cooking, grains treated with 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0% ZnSO4 coating were significantly longer than those ob- The demand for a salt-tolerant rice variety for the salinity-prone areas of Bangladesh during the boro season has long been felt. Three environmental constraints-saline soil, saline irrigation water, and cold temperature-have made this environment very complex. On-station replication of such an environment is thus very difficult. An alternative approach used participatory variety selection (PVS) under a mother-andbaby trial in 200 farmers' fields in salinity-prone areas of Bangladesh. The farmers had chosen four genotypes-PVS-B3, PVS-B8, PVS-B9, and PVS-B1-from 385 BR and IR lines with different degrees of salt tolerance. Salt stress screening of the four PVS-B genotypes was done under controlled conditions. Of these genotypes, PVS-B3, PVS-B9, and PVS-B19 showed a very high degree of seedling-stage tolerance at 12-14 dS m -1 (Fig. 1).It should be noted that popular boro variety BRRI dhan 28 could tolerate salt stress at 4.0 dS m -1 only. The same set of four PVS-B lines was screened for adult plant resistance to salt stress at 6.0 dS m -1 . Salinity was applied at transplanting and was continued throughout the crop growth period. BRRI dhan 28 died 30 d after transplanting; PVS-B8 and PVS-B9 soon followed. PVS-B3 and PVS-B19 survived and flowered at 6.0 dS m -1 (Fig. 2).    Knowing the high-temperature sensitivity of PVS-B19, PVS-B3 was finally chosen for the variety trials conducted at six salt-affected locations-Botiaghata, Kaliganj, Tala, Ashasuni, Satkhira Sadar, and the BRRI farm in Satkhira. The initial soil salinity of these fields (before irrigation) ranged from 8 to 12 dS m -1 . The salinity of the irrigation water ranged from 0.2 to 2.0 dS m -1 . The field evaluation team of the National Seed Board (NSB) compared the performance of PVS-B3 with that of BRRI dhan 28 under these conditions. PVS-B3 had a 1.0 t ha -1 yield advantage (mean) over BRRI dhan 28 (Table 1). The other agronomic and grain characteristics of the two lines are shown in Table 2.PVS-B3 is an IR line with pedigree IR63307-4B-4-3. The NSB has approved the release of PVS-B3 as BRRI dhan 47 for cultivation in salt-affected boro areas of Bangladesh.Transgenic expression of the recombinant phytase in rice (Oryza sativa) Liu Qiao-quan, Li Qian-feng, Jiang Li, Zhang Da-jiang, Wang Hong-mei, Gu Minghong, and Yao Quan-hongIn most cereal crops, phytic acid is the main storage form of phosphorus, which can decrease the bioavailability of phosphate. Transgenic expression of phytase is regarded as an efficient way to release phosphate from phytate in transgenic plants. In this study, a plant expression vector, containing the recombinant phytase gene driven by the maize ubiquitin (Ubi) promoter was constructed and introduced into an elite rice variety via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. During the experiment, a total of 15 independent transgenic rice lines were regenerated. The results of PCR and Southern blot indicated that the target gene was integrated into the genome of transgenic rice plants. Moreover, the RT-PCR analysis of total RNAs extracted from the immature seeds of several transgenic lines showed that the recombinant phytase gene could be normally expressed. The inorganic phosphorus content, both in mature seeds and the leaf, was significantly higher in transgenic plants than in the untransformed wild type.Rice Science. 2006. 13 To investigate the effect of low temperature on germination capacity (LTG), a double haploid rice (DH) population with 198 lines derived from anther culture of F 1 hybrid with indica line Zhenshan 97B and a perennial japonica line AAV002863 was used to construct a linkage map with 140 SSR markers. The germination rate in Zhenshan 97B and AAV002863 was 79.7% and 30.1%, respectively, while it ranged from 0 to 100% in DH population at 15 ºC after 6 d. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling low temperature germinability were identified on chromosomes 3 and 10. The percentage of observed phenotypic variance attributed to qLTG-3 and qLTG-10 was 12.6% and 12.9%, respectively. The allele from Zhenshan 97B increased the LTG at qLTG-3 region, while the allele from AAV002863 increased the LTG at qLTG-10 region. One pair of epistatic interaction was detected between loci on chromosomes 3 and 10. The main-effect of QTL on chromosome 10 was also involved in epistatic interaction.Rice Science. 2006. 13(2): 93-98 Full paper: www.ricesci.cn/pdfile/2006/E060203.PDFChen Gang, Wang Zhong, Liu Qiao-quan, Xiong Fei, Gu Yun-jie, and Gu Guo-junThe development and substance accumulation of rice caryopsis were studied by using transgenic japonica and indica rice with antisense Wx gene. The weight of caryopses in transgenic rice was lower than that in a nontransgenic one, and the reduction in weight was significantly correlated to the reduction in amylose content. In caryopsis of transgenic rice, the number of endosperm cells was smaller than that in the caryopsis of the nontransgenic one, but proliferation speed was considerably higher during the first 6 d after flowering (DAF). During the first 9 DAF, soluble sugar content of transgenic rice caryopsis was less than that of the nontransgenic one, but the situation was reversed after 9 DAF. Moreover, total starch content also declined with the decrease in amylose content of transgenic rice caryopsis, while amylopectin content increased accordingly. Therefore, the composition of starch in caryopsis also changed, but it did not affect protein accumulation in transgenic rice caryopsis. Research was conducted to investigate the variations in concentration and distribution of health-related elements as affected by environmental and genotypic differences in rice grains. The grains of Xieqingzao B (indica rice variety) and Xiushui 110 (japonica rice variety) were divided into hull, bran, and milled rice, based on conventional rice consumption and processing. Xieqingzao B was grown at four different locations; at one location, it was planted in the same field and season as Xiushui 110. In addition, another four indica and four japonica varieties were cultivated in the same field and time to analyze the elements in milled rice. The average concentrations of total P and phytic acid P were highest in the bran, followed by milled rice and hull; Zn, K, Mg, and As concentrations were highest in bran, followed by hull and milled rice; whereas Fe, Ca, and Cu concentrations were highest in the hull, but similar in bran and milled rice. The results indicated that genotype and environment significantly affected the concentrations of all the tested elements, while the distribution of the above elements in grains was not in the same order as concentration. Moreover, all the elements, except 97.7% of Cu and 93.2% of Fe, were deposited in the hull on average, and mostly distributed either in the bran (37.3% and 57.7% for K and phytic acid P) or in milled rice (41.7%, 42.6%, 40.3%, and 49.8% for Zn, Mg, As, and total P, respectively). Three F 1 hybrids derived from sterile rice lines Gang 46A, 776A, and 2480A and improved restorer line Shuhui 881 containing maize phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (pepc) gene were used to analyze the effect of the gene on heterosis and photosynthetic characteristics. The F 1 obtained by crossing Shuhui 881 with the abovementioned sterile lines served as control. The dynamics of photosynthetic characteristics in the leaves of three F 1 with the pepc gene and their control were determined at the initial-tillering, maximum-tillering, elongation, initial-heading, heading, and maturity stages; and at different times after the flag leaf has been fully expanded. The PEPCase activities of the three F 1 with pepc gene increased significantly as compared with control plants during the whole development process. Moreover, the net photosynthesis rate (Pn) also increased to a certain extent. The data showed that PEPCase activity was significantly correlated to Pn (correlation coefficient of 0.6081**). The photosynthetic indexes of the three F 1 with pepc gene were obviously superior to respective controls in apparent quantum efficiency, light compensation point, and carboxylation efficiency, while the CO 2 compensation point was lower than that of the corresponding control. The Pn of the three F 1 with pepc gene at light saturation point and CO 2 saturation point was also higher than that of control plants. In addition, the three F 1 with pepc gene had an average increase of 37.10% in grain yield per plant in comparison with control plants. The results indicated that photosynthetic characteristics of hybrid rice containing the pepc gene had been improved to some extent because of the introduction of this gene.Rice Science. 2006, 13(3): 185-192 Full paper: www.ricesci.cn/pdfile/2006/E060306.pdf Breeding rice restorer lines with high resistance to bacterial blight by using molecular marker-assisted selection Deng Qi-ming, Wang Shi-quan, Zheng Ai-ping, Zhang Hong-yu, and Li Ping Two bacterial blight (BB) resistance genes, Xa21 and Xa4, from IRBB24 were introduced into hybrid rice restorer line Mianhui 725, which is highly susceptible to BB, using hybridization and molecular marker-assisted selection techniques. Four homologous restorer lines were obtained through testing the R target genes with molecular markers and analyzing parental genetic background. Inoculation of the four lines and their hybrids with specific strains of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, P1, P6 and seven representative strains of Chinese pathotype CI-CVII showed that all four lines and their hybrids were highly resistant, presenting broad resistance-spectrum to BB. The hybrids of G46A/R207-2 had good agronomic characters and high yield potential. R207-2 was named Shuhui 207. Dynamic changes in starch, amylose, sucrose contents and the activities of starch synthesis enzymes under shading treatments after flowering were studied using two rice varieties IR72 (indica) and Nipponbare (japonica). Under shading treatments, the starch, amylose, and sucrose contents decreased, while ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (ADPGPPase) activity only changed a little, soluble starch synthase activity and granule bound starch synthase activity decreased, soluble starch branching enzyme (SSBE, Q-enzyme) activity and granule-bound starch-branching enzyme (GBSBE, Q-enzyme) activity increased, and starch debranching enzyme (DBE, Renzyme) activity varied with varieties. Correlation analyses showed that changes in starch content were positively and significantly correlated with changes in sucrose content under weak light. Both ADPGPPase activity and SSBE activity were positively and significantly correlated with starch accumulation rate. It was implied that the decline of starch synthase activities was related to the decrease in starch content and that the increase in the activity of the starch-branching enzyme played an important role in reducing the ratio of amylose to total starch under weak light.Rice Science. 2006, 13(1): 51-58 Full paper: www.ricesci.cn/pdfile/2006/E060108.pdf Relationship between variation in activities of key enzymes related to starch synthesis during grain-filling period and eating and cooking quality in rice Shen Peng, Qian Chun-rong, Jin Zheng-xun, Luo Qiu-xiang, and Jin Xue-yong Four japonica rice varieties with significant differences in eating and cooking quality were used in the experiment. The varieties showed differences in amylose and amylopectin contents at different grain-filling stages, which were attributed to the accumulative speed of starch at these different stages. During the grain-filling period, the varieties did not differ when the activities of ADP glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPP) and soluble starch synthesis (SSS) reached maximum; they had differences when the activity of starch branching enzyme (SBE) reached a maximum-the inferior-quality varieties were earlier than the high-quality ones, and the high-quality varieties maintained high enzyme activities at the late stage of grain filling. The correlation and correlative degree between AGPP, SSS, SBE, amylose content, amylopectin content, taste meter value, and RVA properties varied with the stage of grain filling. The correlation between SSS activity and taste meter value was not significant during the whole grain-filling period, but the activities of AGPP and SBE had significant or highly significant correlation with taste meter value. The data will help improve eating and cooking quality of japonica rice for use as materials with low enzyme activity at the early stage of grain filling or with high enzyme activity at the late stage as parents. Effects of nonflooded cultivation with straw mulching on rice agronomic traits and water use efficiency Qin Jiang-tao, Hu Feng, Li Hui-xin, Wang Yi-ping, Huang Fa-quan, and Huang Huaxiang A field experiment was conducted to study water use efficiency and agronomic traits in rice cultivated in flooded soil and nonflooded soils with and without straw mulching. The total amount of water used by rice under flooded cultivation (FC) was 2.42 and 3.31 times as much as that by rice under nonflooded cultivation with and without straw mulching, respectively. The average water seepage was 13,560 m 3 ha -1 under flooded cultivation, 4,750 m 3 ha -1 under the nonflooded cultivation without straw mulching (ZM), and 4, 680 m 3 ha -1 under nonflooded cultivation with straw mulching (SM). The evapotranspiration in the SM treatment was only 38.2% and 63.6% of the FC treatment and ZM treatment, respectively. Compared with the ZM treatment, straw mulching significantly increased leaf area per plant, main root length, gross root length, and root dry weight per plant of rice. The highest grain yield under the SM treatment (6,747 kg ha -1 ) was close to that of rice cultivated in flooded soil (6,811.5 kg ha -1 ). However, yield with the ZM treatment (4 716 kg ha -1 ) was much lower than those with FS and SM treatments. The order of both water use efficiency and irrigation water use efficiency were as follows: SM> ZM> FC. The study aimed to show that the WOFOST model is good in simulating rice potential growth in Zhejiang and can be used to analyze the process of rice growth and yield potential. The potential yield obtained from the WOFOST model was about 8,100 kg ha -1 for late rice and 9,300 kg ha -1 for single rice. The current average yield in Jinhua is only about 78% (late rice) and 70% (single rice) of their potential yield. The results of the simulation also showed that the current practice of management at the middle and late growth stages of rice should be reexamined and improved to achieve optimal rice growth.Rice Science. 2006, 13(2): 125-130 Full paper: www.ricesci.cn/pdfile/2006/E060208.pdf IRRN welcomes three types of submitted manuscripts: research notes, mini reviews, and \"notes from the field.\" All manuscripts must have international or pan-national relevance to rice science or production, be written in English, and be an original work of the author(s), and must not have been previously published elsewhere. By submitting the manuscript, the author automatically assigns the copyright of the article to IRRI. Routine research. Reports of screening trials of varieties, fertilizer, cropping methods, and other routine observations using standard methodologies to establish local recommendations are not ordinarily accepted.Preliminary research findings. To reach well-supported conclusions, field trials should be repeated across more than one season, in multiple seasons, or in more than one location as appropriate. Preliminary research findings from a single season or location may be accepted for publication in IRRN if the findings are of exceptional interest. Preliminary data published in IRRN may later be published as part of a more extensive study in another peer-reviewed publication, if the original IRRN article is cited. However, a note submitted to IRRN should not consist solely of data that have been extracted from a larger publication that has already been or will soon be published elsewhere.Multiple submissions. Normally, only one report for a single experiment will be accepted. Two or more items about the same work submitted at the same time will be returned for merging. Submitting at different times multiple notes from the same experiment is highly inappropriate. Detection will result in the rejection of all submissions on that research.Manuscript preparation. Arrange the note as a brief statement of research objectives, a short description of project design, and a succinct discussion of results. Relate results to the objectives. Do not include abstracts. Up to five references may be cited. A list of 3-5 key words should INSTRUCTIONS TO CONTRIBUTORS be supplied. Restrain acknowledgments. Limit each note to no more than two pages of double-spaced type-written text (approximately 500 words).Each note may include up to two tables and/or figures (graphs, illustrations, or photos). Refer to all tables and figures in the text. Group tables and figures at the end of the note, each on a separate page. Tables and figures must  The IRRN managing editor will send an acknowledgment card or an email message when a note is received. An IRRI scientist, selected by the editorial board, reviews each note. Depending on the reviewer's report, a note will be accepted for publication, rejected, or returned to the author(s) for revision.Submit the original manuscript and a duplicate, each with a clear copy of all tables and figures, to IRRN. Retain a copy of the note and of all tables and figures. Send manuscripts, correspondence, and comments or suggestions about IRRN by mail or email toThe IRRN Managing Editor IRRI, DAPO Box 7777 Metro Manila, Philippines Fax: +63 (2) 580-5699; 891-1174 E-mail: t.rola@cgiar.org","tokenCount":"15777"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"282248b89ff9cb94756b56486a782148","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bc7a0ba5-fc2b-447f-abfe-fcff00bda886/retrieve","id":"1038308344"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3ae53126-e7f1-4e72-9575-710269ac9079","pagecount":"2","content":" About 128 million septic tanks and latrines in India contribute to 80% of the pollution of its surface waters due to the lack of septage treatment facilities. IWMI has currently identified over 150 RRR success stories and defined more than 20 promising business models for business schools and investors.Humans generate millions of tons of waste every day. This waste is rich in water, nutrients and energy.Yet, waste is not being managed in a way that permits us to derive value from its resources. Meanwhile, millions of smallholders in lowincome countries struggle with depleted soils, lack of water and limited access to energy.Although composting and wastewater reuse are well known processes, most initiatives aiming at resource recovery & reuse (RRR) heavily depend on subsidies and remain small, often not surviving beyond their pilot phase.A new approach is needed to implement viable solutions at scale which support livelihoods, enhance food security, support green economies and contribute to cost recovery in the sanitation chain.Photo: M. Lydecker Photo: cc: Bill ZimmermanHopeful signs of viable approaches to resource recovery and reuse are emerging around the globe, especially in low-income countries. Many of these new commercial pathways are being charted in the informal sector, based on innovative approaches, private capital and business models for cost recovery, social benefits or profit.These enterprises target wastewater reuse; co-composting of different organic wastes, including fecal sludge; and waste-based energy systems. They are building on public-private partnerships, thereby shifting the focus from treatment for disposal to treatment for reuse.To enable promising RRR business models to be replicated at the largest possible scale by learning from existing or emerging success stories; to understand their technical, economic, regulatory, cultural and institutional conditions, and, in particular their business plan.A multi-disciplinary team of entrepreneurs, economists, environmental and social scientists, public health experts and agronomists working together with partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO), investors, social entrepreneurs, business schools and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), on domestic waste, including fecal sludge, wastewater, urine and market waste, as well as agro-industrial and food industry waste.Promising RRR cases are being analyzed and tested for their application potential, scalability and robustness, across Asia, Africa and Latin America, through a series of local feasibility studies that are being conducted within a variety of different settings whilst safeguarding human and environmental health.Investors, (social) entrepreneurs, municipalities, public health entities, business schools, NGOs and specialized research institutions, such as the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries(SANDEC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG). ","tokenCount":"417"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"adbd60f6d5122d70722243b645ef3aa8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c55e666-f814-45e5-8359-dce0f3b83381/retrieve","id":"1337513855"},"keywords":["Cattle buyers","Cattle keepers","Trait preferences","Dano","Ethiopia Choice experiment","cow traits","economic valuation","preference heterogeneity Choice experiment","Heterogeneous preferences","Random parameters logit","Willingness to pay Dano","hedonic analysis","heteroscedasticity","phenotypic characteristics Community based management","Animal genetic resources","Sustainable utilization","Dano"],"sieverID":"fcfeb8be-4d4b-4789-96a9-f78e8d95adce","pagecount":"179","content":"This thesis is part of the final chapter of my academic life as a student which started at the early age of my childhood. I owe a lot of people an enormous gratitude. Mentioning all the people who helped me achieve my objective is virtually impossible. Nonetheless, I can not pass without specifically appreciating some of them. Before all, I would like to thank my parents for sending me to school and following up my progress as meticulously as they could.My academic life would have been hardly successful had it not been for the unremitting interest and support of my father the late Ato Tesfahun Kassie and my mother W/o Kebebush Mamo.My three years effort as a PhD student was successful only because of the high standard technical support I received from my supervisors Prof. Dr. Awudu Abdulai and Prof. Dr.Valuation of the characteristics of indigenous livestock populations serves a number of purposes. These include clear understanding and appreciation of the multi-functionality of the animals, identification of the most preferred traits for conservation and breeding purposes, understanding of the marketing system, and transformation of the livestock production system. The rural communities in developing countries keep livestock for a number of direct (e.g., consumables, traction, prestige, security) and indirect (e.g., complementarities with crop production and natural resources) uses and objectives. Virtually no attention was given for this intricacy in the objectives of traditional livestock keeping while enormous resources were allocated to introduce livestock breeds with very specialized traits developed for high production systems to developing countries.If countries like Ethiopia are to benefit from the livestock wealth they are endowed with, a well-informed livestock and conservation strategy has to be formulated based on comprehensive inventory of the genetic resources and proper valuation of their traits or characteristics which explain the reasons why they are kept for. Only two documented efforts by Zander (2006) and Ouma et al. (2007) were made to elicit preferences and estimate relative values of traits in the pastoral areas of southern Ethiopia. Yet, no attempt has been made to do same in the most dominant crop-livestock mixed production systems of the country.This research aims at filling this gap by focusing on the cattle population in Central Ethiopia. The research has characterized the livestock production system, discussed the theoretical and empirical importance of economic valuation of traits, valued traits of cows and bulls using both stated and revealed preference approaches and suggested a community based management (CBM) framework for conservation and sustainable use of animal genetic resources (AnGR). The logical flow of the components of this research thesis is indicated with the sketch below (Figure 1.1). The boxes with italic fonts represent independent chapters of the thesis. The sketch is followed by summary of each part of the thesis. This paper presents the role economic valuation of preferred traits can play in the transformation of the subsistence oriented livestock production system in Ethiopia. It argues that the demand for functions of cattle is embedded in the preferences for phenotypic characteristics and the most demanded would have higher economic value. The livestock production system would then focus on the production and marketing of the preferred characteristics of the animals in order to transform itself and secure sustainable market share.The conclusion drawn is that economic valuation can contribute significantly in transforming the livestock production systems through efficient allocation of resources for development, utilization and conservation of the valuable animal genetic resources.This study describes the different components of the livestock production system and the cattle trait preferences of farmers in their production and marketing setups. The livestock production system in Dano, Central Ethiopia, can be described as highly subsistence and resource constrained. Through their multiple functions, cattle are playing a very important andEmpirical AnalysesStated PA Revealed PACBM of AnGR increasing role in the rural livelihoods which depend on this traditional and complex agricultural production system. The cattle keeping decisions of farmers depend on the different functions they expect and the different traits of the animals related to the functions.Elicited preferences for traits of cattle manifest the functions animals are kept for and the objectives of cattle production. The preferences for cattle traits show that age, plowing strength, origin of the cattle, and calf vigor are the most important traits of bulls, whereas age, origin, milk yield, calf vigor and fertility are for cows. Such empirical evidence on cattle trait preferences is useful to make better informed decisions in developing interventions to improve the contribution of cattle to livelihoods of their keepers.This research aimed at identifying and estimating the relative weight assigned to the preferred traits of indigenous cow population in the most dominant crop-livestock mixed production system in Ethiopia. The study used data generated through choice experiment conducted with 195 cattle buyers in five rural markets. The results show that fertility, disease resistance and calf vigor traits are equally or more important than milk. The place the cows are brought from is also an important attribute for buyers. Results from the simulation on the influence of changes in attribute levels showed that fertility and disease resistance affect preferences more than other traits. The smallholder community in this part of Ethiopia depends on semi subsistence agriculture and so livestock development interventions should focus on a multitude of reproductive and adaptive traits which stabilize the herd structure than focusing on traits which are only important to commercial purposes. Specifically, the husbandry and breeding strategies should focus on shortening the calving interval, improving the disease resistance and work on factors that improve the strength of the calves.Random parameters logit was employed to estimate the relative importance of preferred traits of indigenous bulls and to analyze taste heterogeneity. Kernel density estimators were also used to examine the distribution of the willingness to pay for the individual traits. Data on the stated preferences of 198 cattle buyers were generated using choice experiments in five rural markets from May -June, 2006. The results indicate that cattle buyers assign high values for good traction potential, big body size, disease resistance, calf vigor, and for places of origin when choosing bulls in the market. The preferences cattle buyers have for these attributes do vary essentially due to differences in occupation, education and age. Careful consideration of preferences for attributes should be made before introducing or reinforcing crossbreeding efforts meant to enhance only a few of the attributes or purposes animals are kept for. In addition to producing breeds that are preferred by cattle buyers, incorporating these preferred attributes in breeding programs would contribute in reducing the erosion of the genetic diversity of the indigenous animal genetic resources.This study identified the factors influencing cattle price and determined their relative weight in five rural markets of Central Ethiopia. Data on 411 cattle transactions were generated through quarterly surveys, from February to November 2006, focusing on the phenotypic traits of the animals traded, places where the animals were brought from, price, and the characteristics of the buyers. The phenotypic characteristics included coat color, age, body size, and class (sex and function) of the animal bought. A hedonic price function was formulated and estimated with heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrices, feasible generalized least squares, and structural heteroscedasticity models. All the estimations show that season, market location, class of cattle, body size and age are very important determinants of cattle price in the rural markets of central Ethiopia. The result shows the significance of the preferences of traits at the grassroots level for decisions related to buying and/or selling cattle. These preferences are crucially important in shaping up the diversity of animals kept at farm level. Therefore, interventions related to cattle genetic resources should duly consider the preferences explained through the prices paid.This paper outlines the essential components and activities needed to be considered to empower the cattle keeping community for effective collective action in the conservation and sustainable use of the indigenous cattle population. There is currently a growing tendency of favoring the conservation of animal genetic resources (AnGR) by maintaining genetic diversity of local breeds within their production systems. Communities manage their livestock using a wide range of indigenous knowledge that emanates from varying socio-economic, cultural and bio-physical environmental conditions. The growing interest in working with communities with due appreciation and use of indigenous knowledge has given rise to the concept of Community Based Management (CBM) of resources. CBM of AnGR is a system of AnGR and ecosystem management in which the AnGR keepers are responsible for the decisions on identification, priority setting and the implementation of activities in conservation and sustainable use of the AnGR (Rege, 2003;Kohler-Rollefson, 2004). The community and the AnGR it owns are the central components of CBM of AnGR; while its main purpose is empowering, motivating, informing and building the capacity of the community for a sustainable management of the AnGR. The initial step in implementing a community based organizations like the CBM of AnGR has to be the full awareness, empowerment, and ownership of the whole process by the community. Assumptions of a favorable political environment, complementarity among the different stakeholders, continuous capacity building, and access to comprehensive market information were made in developing this framework.Chapter 2 BackgroundEthiopia is located in East Africa between 3° and 15° N latitude and between 33° and 48° E longitude. The country shares borders with Eritrea in the North, Djibouti and Somalia in the East, Kenya and Somalia in the South and The Sudan in the West (Figure 2.1). Ethiopia is 1.1 million sq. km wide with an estimated human population of 77.13 million in the year 2006 (CSA, 2006). Ethiopia's landscape tremendously varies in altitude ranging from 110 meters below sea level in the Danakil depression of the East African Great Rift Valley to about 4,620 meters above sea level in the Ras Dashen mountain chains of North Western Ethiopia.Climatic variation is quite prominent in Ethiopia such that the country is divided into 18 major and 49 sub agro-ecologies based on altitude, rainfall, soil type, length of plant growing period, vegetation cover, and dominant crop and livestock species (MoA, 2000).Ethiopia is one of the oldest independent countries in Africa with a recorded history of about 3,000 years. The modern day Ethiopia has experienced three types (including the current) of political governance over the last 80 years. The feudalistic era lasted from 1930-1974 until it was forcefully replaced by a Stalinist junta which remained in power until 1991.In 1991, the military Derg was itself ousted by the ethno-centric rebel fighters who are in power ever since. The contemporary image of famine stricken and poverty ridden Ethiopia is essentially a cumulative result of the inefficiencies, biases, and confusions of the political systems in place since the early 20 th century. Apparently, the natural and manmade calamities have also been tremendously important in the history of Ethiopia's fragile economy. The ensuing famines and deep rooted poverty have made Ethiopia one of the poorest nations on Earth.Figure 2.1: Regional Map of EthiopiaEthiopia is among the poorest states on the globe in any standard. Poverty is pervasive and widespread over the length and breadth of the country. Based on the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Ethiopia has been rankedamong the eight poorest countries of the world since 1998 (Table 2.1). Despite the fact that Ethiopia was a net exporter of food crops until 1947 and a food self sufficient country until 1958 (Kassa, 1994, as cited in Kassa, 2003), it has become one of the major receivers of both cereal and non-cereal food aid. A European Union (EU) document indicates that Ethiopia has received between 600,000 and 800,000 MT of food aid yearly over the last fifteen years (EU, 2002). FAO statistics show that Ethiopia continued to receive nearly 0.9 million metric tones of cereal food crop aid annually in the period 2001-2003(FAOSTAT, 2007)).Some 35-40 percent of the Ethiopian population spends less than required to consume 2,200 calories of food per day (World Bank, 2007). Data on agricultural production, the most important sector in the economy, show that the country is unable to produce enough grains to feed its population even in years of good rainfall (Kassa, 2003). The domestic production is estimated to supply only about 70% of the total food requirement, and each year 4 to 6 million people need food assistance despite the existence of potentially productive resources for food self sufficiency and even surplus production (EEA, 2006). In addition to its geographic and demographic size, one would have also expected that Ethiopia's wealth of human labor, land, and highly diverse biodiversity to be properly harnessed to change the livelihoods of the people. Nonetheless, feudalistic, Stalinist, and ethno-centric ideologies of the country's successive governments' seem to have favored continuous exercising of political power than economic prosperity of the people. As emphasized by the World Bank ( 2007), Ethiopia's long history of autocratic rule, followed by a brief period of a particularly militaristic form of Stalinism, combined with inter-group conflict was inimical to long-term growth.Like all other developing economies, agriculture, manufacturing, other industries and private and public services are crucial components of Ethiopian Economy. Agriculture is the dominant sector contributing the largest share to GDP, employment, foreign earnings, and sustaining lives. Its contribution to the GDP of the country shows a declining trend that it contributed 76%, 56.1%, 49. 3%, 52.3% and 45% in the early 1960s, in 19703%, 52.3% and 45% in the early 1960s, in , 19803%, 52.3% and 45% in the early 1960s, in , 20003%, 52.3% and 45% in the early 1960s, in , and 20033%, 52.3% and 45% in the early 1960s, in /04, respectively (Knipes, 2004;;EEA, 2005). Agriculture accounted for 82.2% of the foreign earnings in 2003/04, lower as compared to 90% in 1999, and still employs about 85%of the working population (EU, 2002;EEA, 2005;World Bank, 2007). This big dependence on agriculture makes the country extremely vulnerable to external shocks like a shortage of rainfall or declining commodity prices (coffee) on the international markets. According to EEA (2005), the Ethiopian industrial sector has been stagnant over the years both in terms of its share in GDP and growth performance. Its share has not changed much from the 10 percent mark as a ratio of GDP over the last four decades and its growth rate only moved within the 3 to 7 percent range during the same period. The services sector exhibited some appreciable changes over the last decade. The distributive services sector has registered a slight increase in terms of its share in GDP during the same period. As a result, EthiopianEconomy will remain to be characterized as agrarian for significant number of years to come.Table 2.1 shows the low and stagnant life expectancy at birth and adult literacy trends, the low and marginally increasing overall school enrolment ratio, the extraordinarily low GDP per capita (in US$ purchasing power parity -US$ PPP), and the abysmally constant HDI rank of the country based on the UNDP's human development reports of years 2000 to 2007. Ethiopian agriculture is characterized as traditional, rainfed, low-input, low-productivity, predominantly subsistence, and yet as the most important sector in the national economy.Despite such paramount importance, due to many natural and man-made factors, the performance of the Ethiopian Agriculture is very low by all measures (EEA, 2005). Reportsshow that Ethiopia is yet to find the right path of economic prosperity. For instance, the World Bank indicates that there is no evidence of an overall economic take-off since the early 1990s and that it is possible to construct gloomy scenarios for peasant agriculture since agricultural output per capita evidences long-run decline (World Bank, 2007).Official reports of domestic authorities (CSA, 2006) are, on the other hand, indicating continuous economic growth over the last four years (2002/03-2006/07). Economic assessments, however, attribute the short-span boost to the favorable rainfall and cite the drought in 2002/03 and the negative 12.6%% growth rate in the same fiscal year to refute the claims of overall economic growth (EEA, 2005). The general trend is, however, that the per capita income in agriculture over the last four decades  declined by over 45% compared to its level in the early 1950s and this simply reflects the structure of the agrarian economy of the country (EEA, 2005).The structural problem with Ethiopian agriculture is its extreme dependence on rainfall.The rainfall pattern is so important that it is becoming the single most important factor explaining the performance of Ethiopian economy from year to year (Devereux, 2000). The challenge lies in the high variability and unpredictability of the rainfall pattern. This variability is an important constraint of agricultural production and productivity at household level as much as it is a predicament for the national economy (Tesfahun et al., 2006).According to UNDP, a single drought event in a 12-year period will lower GDP by 7%-10%and increase poverty by 12%-14% (UNDP, 2006).Ethiopia has a potential of 2.3 -3.7 million hectares for irrigated agriculture.Computations made based on the figures of CSA (2006) and the ceiling (3.7 million hectare) irrigation potential show that only 4% of the potential is cultivated by smallholder farmers in the production year of 2005/06. Given the fact that commercial and state farms are quite limited, the underutilization of the irrigation potential will remain to be a daunting reality.Ethiopia possesses the largest livestock population in Africa with an estimated number of 40. 2.12 million cattle (5.6% of the country's cattle population in 2004), 2.6 million sheep (15.7% of the total), 4.14 million goats (30% of the total), 1.02 million equines (18.4% of the total), and 100% of the camel population (CSA 2004). This wealth of large livestock population, genetic diversity, and production system is attributed to the country's geographical location being close to the historical entry point of many livestock populations from Asia along the Nile Basin, topography of the country, and its climatic conditions (EEA, 2005(EEA, , 2006)).Four major livestock production systems are known to exist in Ethiopia (IBC, 2004;EEA, 2005). These are mixed crop-livestock production, pastoral, agro-pastoral, and the urban and peri-urban systems. The mixed crop-livestock system is found in the high and mid altitude areas. Most of livestock population is kept in this system because of the more favourable climate and relatively moderate disease and pest problems. The pastoral systems include both nomadic and transhumant types found in the vast arid and semi-arid areas of Afar, Somale, Borana (Oromia), and Southern regions. In these systems, livelihoods entirely depend on livestock. The agro-pastoral systems are prevalent in areas where the rainfall is sufficient enough to produce some crops and short enough to force livestock keepers move their animals seasonally for search of feed and water. The urban and peri-urban production system is a newly emerging small component of the livestock sector of Ethiopian agriculture.Generally, the livestock resource of Ethiopia sustains and supports the livelihoods of an estimated 80% of the rural people (FAO, 2004). The livestock sector constitutes 30-40 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP) and 17-20 percent of the overall GDP (Knips, 2004). Despite this high contribution to the economy, the government reportedly allocated only 5% of its recurrent expenditure on agriculture and less than 0.3% on livestock.This clearly indicates that financial flows to the livestock sector do not reflect its contribution to the economy nor the potential wider impact of investment in the sector (FAO, 2004). Due to lack of focus and investment, the livestock sector is a low input, poorly performing component of a rather more inefficient agricultural system.The reasons responsible to the very low performance of the livestock production sector include inadequate feed and nutrition, widespread diseases and poor health, poor breeding practice, inadequate livestock development policies with respect to extension, marketing, and credit, and poor infrastructure (EEA, 2005). It is also argued that the current land tenure policy and the common property nature of grazing land motivate households to keep livestock beyond the carrying capacity of the land, damaging pasture land and contributing to declining livestock productivity (FAO, 2004). Entangled in such policy, institutional, technical, marketing and socio-cultural constraints, livestock production makes marginal contribution towards the improvement of the welfare of the farmers and pastoralists.The Ethiopian policies and strategies of livestock development, in general, and cattle production, in particular, are characteristically uninformed, non-participatory and shortsighted. According to Kassa (2003), lack of well-balanced policies and appropriate accompanying measures are partly due to inadequate understanding of the structure of the target farming systems and factors governing farmers' behavior. The policies and strategies focused on substituting the indigenous 'low' productivity breeds of animals (mainly cattle, small ruminants and poultry) with pure or crossed exotic breeds. This yet seems to be the interest of technicians in the field (e.g., EEA, 2006, pp.121 -177). Indiscriminate artificial insemination (AI), provision of cross and pure exotic breeds, and bull service have been the Cattle play a crucial role in the livelihoods of Ethiopians. They are by far the most important animals rendering different functions for the resource poor communities in the rural areas.The functions of cattle include traction power, consumables (milk, beef, etc.), fuel and soil fertilization (dung), cash generation (selling milk, hides and/or live animals etc.), social prestige, and risk buffering. This importance has probably initiated the series of interventions to develop cattle production and productivity in the country.The interventions focused on increasing milk yield through introduction of exotic dairy breeds either by crossbreeding or using AI. Beef production enhancement has also been an agenda that programs targeting fattening under smallholder production systems have been implemented for over four decades now. While all the effort made focused on milk and beef, the non-commercial, but important, attributes of cattle have not been considered at all. In some cases, some favorable attributes of indigenous cattle breeds (such as plowing strength)were sought after exotic breeds rarely developed for such traits (Zerbini and Gebrewold, 1999;Larsen, 2002).On the other hand, traits of cattle define the long-term genetic and environmental changes the animals evolved through in the given production system. The rich diversity in the adaptive and productive traits of the indigenous cattle is crucially important for the sustainable development of cattle production. Since the demand in the future is largely unknown, agrobiodiversity also provides the reservoir of genes to respond to changes in production  , 1985;Sandford and Yohannes, 2000). The 1995/97 drought in Somali region was reported to take toll of 78% of the cattle population (Sandford and Yohannes, 2000). Devereux (2000) reported 70% drought induced decline in cattle population in Somale and Borana regions in one year period between May 1999 and May 2000. The consequences of drought are paramount and can result in vanishing of a breed as such. A recent study on six cattle breeds of northern Ethiopia showed that the cattle population in the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas is decreasing and most of the breeds have high probability of extinction (Zarabruk et al., 2007).The importance of drought as a cause for genetic erosion is relatively very low in the mid and highland areas of the country where series of livestock development programs have been undertaken. The challenge in these areas is the poor planning and implementation of the main components of the interventions -AI and crossbreeding. Taking introduction of pure or cross exotic breeds as a case in point, a recent survey (EEA, 2006) showed that about 17% of the farmers in Tigray possess pure exotic cattle breeds. This figure was reported to be 10% in Oromia, 10.1% in Amhara, 6% in Dire Dawa, and 3.3% in Southern regions. Regarding crossbreeds, 27% of farmers in Tigray, 20% in Oromia, 14% in Amhara, 8% in Southern Nations, 4.17% in Dire Dawa, and 4% in Harari regions, reported that they or their neighbours have received crossbred dairy cows over the last ten years. Nearly 60% of the sample farmers are unaware of the types (eg., Boran X Jersey, Arsi X Holstein Friesian, etc.) and 78.2% do not know the blood level (e.g., half-cross, 3/4 th cross, etc.), whereas majority of the respondents are unaware of the sources (e.g., research centres, extension institutes, etc.) of the 'improved' cows they received. This lack of knowledge implies, at least, the poor participation of the target communities, the possible mismanagement of the introduced genetic materials, the likelihood of generating unexpected off-springs, and dilution of the indigenous genetic base without knowledge of the extent.Essentially, the weakness of the whole approach emanates from the lack of information about the preferences and subjective values attached to attributes of cattle by the cattle keepers in the mid and highland crop-livestock mixed production systems. The obvious and considerable threat on the genetic diversity wealth of the country therefore entails appropriate elicitation of preferences and valuation of the preferred traits, so that informed policy and strategies can be formulated and enacted. This research illustrates the trait preferences as well as the stated and revealed relative values of traits of cattle in the semi-subsistence croplivestock mixed production systems of Dano district in Central Ethiopia.The The thesis has two essential parts. The first part is about setting the scene of the whole research and summarizing results of the different components of the thesis research. Chapters 1, 2, 9 and 10 (German version of chapter 1) can be categorized in this part. The second part encompasses the six technical papers of the thesis. The essential theoretical underpinnings of the whole study are elaborated in chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents a general overview of the livestock production system and farmers' trait preferences elicited both in their villages and in their market places. Chapters 5 and 6 present empirical stated choice analysis of traits for cows and bulls, respectively, based on data generated using choice experiments. Chapter 7 presents a hedonic cattle price analysis to complement the stated preference analyses reported in chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 8 presents a framework for CBM of AnGR based on the empirical observations within the study area and documented experiences from other areas.Livestock resources contribute on average 35% and up to 80% of agricultural GDP in some Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries (ILRI, 2003). The livestock wealth of communities in Africa is not merely a source of food, or a means of income, or a marginal enterprise. Rather, it is much more important asset buffering livelihood shocks due to failures in inert resources and enterprises, absorbing production risks that happen in more risky farm enterprises, building assets for vulnerable communities, and saving lives under desperate social scenarios.This way, it significantly contributes towards achieving food security at household level.Ethiopia is said to have larger livestock resource than any country in Africa. An estimated 42 million cattle, 15 million sheep, 14 million goats, and 7 million pack animals, among others, exist in private holdings (CSA, 2004). The national animal genetic resource (AnGR) status report by the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation (IBC) shows that there are 25 cattle, 13 sheep, 15 goat, 4 camel, 4 donkey, 2 horse, 2 mule and 5 chicken indigenous breeds identified so far in Ethiopia. There are also 3 dairy cattle, 7 sheep, 7 chicken and 2 goat exotic breeds used for food and agriculture (IBC, 2004).Although Ethiopia has presumably the largest livestock population in Africa, performance in the production of major food commodities of livestock origin has been quite low (Befekadu and Berhanu, 2000). Even at its current undeveloped state, the sector contributes 30-33% of the national agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 15-16% of the national foreign currency earnings (Ayele Solomon et al., 2003;Sileshi Ashine, 2003).The livestock production system of the country at large is predominantly subsistence oriented whereby the livestock products and services are primarily produced for household/on farm consumption. The system is also a low input production process with most of the required inputs supplied by the family. The feeding system is virtually entirely dependent on natural pasture and free grazing. Very few areas in the country practice cut and carry fodder feeding regime or rotating paddock system. Such a system can hardly meet the growing demand for livestock products and services due to the ever increasing human population.Reorientation of livestock production systems towards consumer preferences and demands through timely and comprehensive transformation is currently the main agenda among the stakeholders of livestock improvement. Market orientation of livestock production system requires proper valuation of both traded and non-traded products and services generated from the system. This is why eliciting farmers' preferences of the phenotypic The fitness of local breeds of livestock for the diverse needs and objectives of subsistence and semi-subsistence livelihoods emanates from the various traits they have as a result of immense genotypic and environmental processes. Sustainable development of the livestock sector and concomitantly the improvement in such livelihoods, therefore, depends very much on properly identifying, understanding, valuing, prioritizing, and maintaining the important traits of the livestock.Any strong argument in favor of conservation of animal genetic resources in general and domestic farm animal genetic resources in particular, needs to be substantiated with strong economic logic clearly implying why a society has to conserve given the unfavorable market trend. Roosen et al. (2005) argue that the value of livestock breeds is not captured completely in the market because of the (quasi) public good character of genetic resources. For this reason, methods for valuing livestock biodiversity have to go beyond the market place. With specific reference to developing countries, the difference between the market value of a particular livestock genetic resource and its total economic value to humans is particularly large (Roosen et al., 2005).Some research activities have been carried out in the area of economic valuation of traits of animal genetic resources preferred by producers, who are the primary beneficiaries of improvements in AnGR (Drucker, 2004a(Drucker, , 2004b;;Wollny, 2003). Earlier undertakings are in developed countries of North America and Europe. Ladd and Gibson (1978) conducted a research to estimate the worth of a trait of an animal using the production function approach in the United States. Kulak et al. (2003) also used production function approach to estimate values of sheep traits, taking only two of them, to compare values calculated with and without consideration of risk due to price changes. Sy et al. (1997) did a research in Canada aimed at economic valuation of the traits of cattle preferred by three groups of producers using consumer demand approach. Scarpa et al. (2003a) quantified the economic values of the traits of a creole -local -pig in Yacutan Mexico. Similarly, Scarpa et al. (2003b) have estimated the values for the traits of indigenous cattle in Kenya while comparing methods which depend on stated and revealed preferences of consumers. Both studies used the consumer demand approach instead of the production function approach. Tano et al. (2003) estimated the economic values of traits of indigenous breeds of cattle focusing on trypanotolerance.As a new area of economic investigation, there are still some differences among researchers in methods of trait data collection, preference elicitation, and data analysis.Revealed preference approach of data generation was used by few researchers (e.g., Richard and Jeffrey, 1996;Jabbar and Diedhiou, 2003) while others used stated preference approaches (e.g., Sy et al., 1997;Scarpa et al., 2003aScarpa et al., , 2003b;;Tano et al., 2003).Contingent valuation and conjoint analysis are the two main stated preference methods used to elicit preferences of respondents for cattle traits (e.g. Sy et al., 1997;Tano et al, 2003) But, very recently researches advocating choice modeling (e.g., Scarpa et al., 2003a) are coming up. The other convergence of research in this thematic area is the data analysis part.Discrete choice models are being employed universally in economic valuation studies as they convincingly relate the stated value of the good to the perceived utility of the characteristics of the good. In the case of revealed preference studies the empirical estimation is solely hedonic price function (Roosen et al., 2005).Market orientation is a wide concept which can be defined in different ways depending on the biophysical and socioeconomic patterns of the production system. Different writers have used different terminologies to denote the structural transformation of the production system -in this case the livestock production system -towards the consumer preferences and profit maximization. For example, Pingali and Rosegrant (1995) and Quiroz and Valdés (1995) used the concept of agricultural commercialization, Delgado (1995) and Barghouti et al. (2004) used agricultural diversification whereas Timmer (1988) and Nindi (1993) employed the concept of transformation in agricultural production context. The essential elements in all of the theories are consumer preferences, profit maximization and dynamism. This paper employs the definition given by Pingali (1997) that market orientation is the production of goods and services with the required quantity and quality level as determined by the demand in the market. Market orientation also implies dynamic, developed, demand driven, high quality, profit maximizing, high input, and diversified production system.Economic valuation of phenotypic traits starts from elicitation of the preferences of consumers of the livestock raised or bought from the market. This preference underlies the willingness to pay for the traits. The economic value to be attached for each of the traits therefore estimates the price the consumer/farmers would be willing to pay for the specific trait of the animal. Market orientation, as indicated above, is principally about reorienting the production system to generate products and services demanded by the consumers. The demand of the consumers is embedded in the preference of phenotypic characteristics and the most demanded would have higher economic values. Therefore, the livestock production system would focus on the preferred characteristics of the animals in order to secure sustainable market share and commercialize the whole system.In addition to the change in the collegial relationships which the professional community used to work with (Zohrabian et al., 2003), the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992) has brought about the issue of attaching economic values of species/breed/trait preferences both for crops and animals for sustainable management of genetic resources. Attaching economic values for preferred breeds or traits of animals in a breed is not straightforward. For easily marketable goods and services, markets usually provide important information about intrinsic values (Roosen et al., 2005) through the fact that market prices reflect the relative scarcity of traded goods and preferences for these goods.However, for (quasi) public goods markets are not available to provide such information.While farm animals can be considered as private goods, animal genetic resources embedded in these animals can be considered as quasi-public goods (Scarpa et al., 2003b). Markets generally fail to capture all classes of economic value, especially when a resource has public good properties (non-rival, non-excludable, or non-transparent), as do genetic resources (Drucker, 2004a).The development of the economic values, therefore, makes resource allocation and marketing decisions more rational and welfare maximizing. There would also be a shift in enterprise choice as conventional wisdom or belief might also be changed as found out by Ayalew et al. (2003) that conventional productivity evaluation criteria were inadequate and biased towards crossbred animals with readily marketable products and services while the total welfare gain from indigenous breeds was not less at all. This would increase the efficiency with which resources are used and outputs are mixed so that producers would maximize their profits. This integrity of the production and marketing decisions would result in comprehensive transformation of the production system with due consideration of the intrinsic values of the different components of the system. This is essentially an input from the whole process of economic valuation for sustained market orientation of the (Semi-) subsistence livestock production system. Intermediate results based on a sample of 275 households revealed that households have consistent preferences for the different phenotypic traits of the animals they buy from the market. The preferences are strongly influenced by the purpose of buying and/or selling and by the occupation of the buyer (butcher, farmer, or live animal trader). The report by Kassie (2005) shows that livestock keepers in Dano district and livestock buyers in the markets, wherein cattle from the district are traded, look for specific traits to determine the price of the cattle they want to buy or sell. At the farm-level, important traits of male cattle include origin, age, plowing strength, body size, and calf vigor.In the markets, farmer-buyers focus more on plowing strength, age, origin, calf vigor, and body size, in order, to set the price of the male cattle they want to buy. For female cattle, farmers give priority to fertility (in terms of the number of calves and calving interval), age, calf vigor, origin, milk yield, and body size, in order, when asked in their villages. In the markets, farmer buyers look at origin, milk yield, age, fertility, calf vigor, and body size.These trait preferences are the main elements in determining the willingness to pay of the livestock keepers in Dano district and the relevant markets.This explicit elicitation of the trait preferences of livestock keepers and traders shall help in refining cattle type selection for both production and reproductive purposes. Elicited preferences are apparently the revealed demands expressed through the attributes (phenotypic characteristics) of the good (in this case, cattle). This is a real world example of the Lancasterian utility theory which states that goods are not the direct objects of utility; rather it is the characteristics of the goods from which utility is derived (Lancaster, 1966).Estimating the economic values for these preferred traits would also add value to the decision making process in selecting cattle types with specific and useful characteristics. If research and development efforts make use of the result, then livestock production will be reoriented towards satisfying the needs and wants of the consumers and concomitantly towards maximizing profit. The research results are expected to develop a local level capacity and a middle and upper level awareness in this regard to transform the low production and subsistence production to highly productive and market oriented one.Market orientation of the livestock production system is not an alternative any more, rather an obligatory option that has to be designed and started sooner than later. This orientation requires a number of activities and changes both with in and out of the production system.External factors are crucially important and yet reorientation starts from structural transformation of the system itself in order to make it responsive to the market demands and efficient in allocating resources and choosing enterprises. Economic valuation of the preferred traits of the indigenous cattle population is one of the inputs to increase the dynamism and efficiency of the livestock production system. Consumer preferences would be identified, knowledge about the preferred characteristics of the animals would be generated, and estimation of the marginal economic gains from improvement of a trait will be possible as a result of economic valuation. This should be an While market oriented cattle production systems base market decisions on measured performance and appearance of animals, visual appraisal of the form, size, appearance and in some cases relative performance of animals are used as basis to make animal type choices and marketing decisions in less market oriented farming systems. To the extent that phenotypic characteristics are determined by the genotype of animals, animal choices based on phenotype also influence the resultant genotype of animals chosen for breeding, rearing or direct utilization (sales, slaughter). Therefore eliciting trait preferences also serves to evaluate the choices of implied genotypes. Assessment of the (relative) economic worth of preferred traits can therefore be effectively used to evaluate the relative economic value of associated genotypes. These relationships provide a useful framework to objectively evaluate the relative economic merit and utility of animal genetic resources (AnGR) in subsistence and low input/low output livestock production systems.Design for the sustainable utilization of indigenous AnGR, particularly in developing markets such as Ethiopia, should base on a thorough understanding of owners' reasons for keeping their livestock. However, little documented empirical evidence is available in Ethiopia on the comparative use values of indigenous cattle genetic resources (ESAP, 2004).On the other hand, the genetic resource base of the country is believed to be declining.Different reasons, including uncontrolled crossbreeding with exotic breeds, droughts and consequences of drought associated improvised restocking schemes, interbreeding among the indigenous populations, and political instability and associated civil unrest, were indicated to be responsible for the decline (ESAP, 2004).Poorly managed artificial insemination (AI) using semen of exotic cattle breeds has also been implemented over the last four decades with the aim of 'improving' the indigenous cattle breeds. While AI has, in most cases, been and is still being executed on indigenous breeds that have not been evaluated and/or not characterized, necessary efforts to conserve the gene pool of the indigenous breeds are non-existent. Preferred largely for its virtue of simplicity, indiscriminate crossbreeding through AI is resulting in unforeseen levels of dilution of the indigenous gene pool (ESAP, 2004;IBC, 2004). Also important is the fact that Ethiopia is yet to implement a livestock breeding policy. Therefore, the level of threat to animal genetic diversity in Ethiopia cannot be easily projected. Virtually no studies have been conducted to look into the trait preferences in the production and marketing of indigenous AnGR in the country. Without due recognition of local knowledge on preferences and management of AnGR, it is practically difficult to develop and implement participatory conservation and utilization strategies at national and local levels (Wollny, 2003).The contemporary school of thought advocates the presentation of solid argument to justify investment on indigenous genetic resources while they are hardly rewarding in the specialized formal markets (Mendelsohn, 2003). As a contribution, efforts are being made to include the economic worth of the different productive and non-productive traits in selection for breeding (Kosgey et al., 2004). The development of economic weights for the preferred traits (both productive and non-productive) of animals starts from identifying the preferences of livestock keepers and consumers. This paper briefly describes the basic features of the livestock production system and elicits the cattle trait preferences of farmers in CentralEthiopia. The study specifically aims at understanding what farmers and farmer-buyers' preferences are regarding the characteristics of the cattle they want to buy, keep or sell. where L(P) is the fraction of total TLU that the holders of the lowest P th fraction of livestock units possess. F -1 (t) is the inverse of F(x).The Gini-coefficient (G) is another measure of inequality calculated based on the Lorenz curve. It is equal to the ratio of the area between the equidistribution line and the Lorenz curve to the area below the equidistribution line. If the Lorenz curve function is given as L(x), then G can be computed asThe Gini-coefficient ranges between zero and one, where zero implies perfect equality and one implying perfect inequality.Spearman's non-parametric rank correlation coefficient was also used to analyze the comparability of the preference rankings of traits by the different respondents. Spearman's correlation coefficient is computed as:where d denotes the difference between ranks of corresponding pairs of the two farmers, and n represents the number of observations.The sample for the formal survey had only five female household heads that were single, widowed or divorced. Almost all of the respondents (95.5%) aged between 16 to 30 years, 16.8% between 31 and 55 years and the remaining 3.3% aged above 55 years. This pattern shows, among others, the high fertility rate of the population with significant proportion of the infant generation depending on the active section of the community.Livestock are highly valued assets in this rural part of Ethiopia. Given the fact that farmland shortage is a crucial constraint (72%), and that only 21% of the respondents are generating sufficient income for living, the role livestock play in sustaining the livelihoods in this district cannot be overemphasized. Different benefits were mentioned to be generated from livestock including consumables (93%), cash generation by selling livestock and their products (74%), consumption smoothing in the household (39%), convertibility to liquid asset (44.7%), serving as collateral (2%) and others (42.2%). About 77% of the respondents mentioned 2 to 6 of these benefits. On a separate discussion, livestock ownership was indicated to imply social prestige (85%).Moreover, nearly 79.4% of the sample respondents reported that they rely on selling their livestock to generate cash income while 20.1% of the sample mentioned selling livestock products as well. The perceived trend of the income generated from livestock is quite encouraging as 69.3% of the respondents believed it is increasing. On the other hand, only 55.3% of the households perceive that livestock production and productivity has improved over the years. The most important challenge for higher productivity of livestock was indicated to be feed shortage (93%). Only 49.7% of the households have grazing land and only 28% of these owners responded to have sufficient grazing land. The community has in fact been using communal lands for grazing until very recently when the government distributed most of the communal lands for cropping purposes.Solutions suggested by farmers for the feed shortage include storing feed, appropriate use of crop residue, use of natural vegetation around, buying feed and others, in order of importance. Currently, 93% of the respondents store feed while nearly 37% buy feed for their animals. Only farmers who recently settled from the eastern part of the country in one of the PAs are using their crop-residues for feeding their cattle while the native community admits to have not been using the residues for feed. Feed shortage is a seasonal constraint which becomes severe in the period that stretches between June and September when crop fields are fully covered and hence free grazing restricted.Despite the challenges such as feed shortage, 78% of the sample respondents believe that they have favorable natural environment for cattle production. This belief partially explains why 66.3% of the respondents plan to increase the size of their cattle herds even under the prevailing constraints. The current livestock ownership in terms of tropical livestock unit (TLU 2 ) is on average 6.73 TLU per household (SD = 5.93), or the equivalent of about 7 cows.The ownership ranges from 0.2 to 49.55 units. Both the standard deviation and the range show high variation indicating potential inequality in livestock ownership. Gini-coefficient was computed and Lorenz curve was drawn (  Dissection of the intra-household cattle ownership shows an interesting pattern in that only in 14.1% of the cases the cattle are owned by the whole family whereas in 46.2%, 25.2%, 2.5%, and 2% of the cases the cattle were reported to belong to the husband and wife, husband, wife, and to others, respectively. Decisions related production and marketing of cattle were reported to be made by the whole family (4%), only by husband and wife (52.3%), and only by the husband (41.7%). This ownership and decision making pattern within the household has a very important implication on who should be involved and how in the interventions that need to be made for the sustainable use and conservation of the animal genetic resources.Scientists have been arguing that the concept breed has hardly any meaning in traditional livestock production systems (e.g., Rege, 2003). The survey results verify this in that farmers in Dano do not have any nomenclature related to the technical concept of breed 3 . Majority of the sample respondents (69%) think that the cattle population in their area is homogenous and one type, whereas 29% of the farmers think it is of different types. Among the latter group of farmers, the basic criterion to classify cattle was the place where the animals came from.Effort was made to see which location was preferred. Most of the farmers (73.4%) prefer cattle from within or around the district. This has a lot to do with acquiring an animal of known pedigree, and the major perceived function of the animal (what it is bought for). The general tendency within the community is to have preference for livestock/cattle from the vicinity when decision is to be made of acquiring animals of unknown origin. Asked about their willingness to receive improved (in the general sense of the term, means indigenous X exotic crossbred) cattle, nearly 73% of the farmers responded positively implying the readiness to try crossbred cattle. This interest has to be seen in accordance with the preferred traits valued most by the community than in terms of breed as such.Sample farmers emphasized the importance of providing better and more feed (94.5%) to improve cattle production and productivity. Farmers have also mentioned as potential solutions better housing (41.2%), improved veterinary services (36.7%) and cross breeding (2.5%). Farmers also consider the technical information they acquire from different sources as very important. District Office of Agriculture and Rural Development (DOARD) was mentioned by 56% of the respondents while radio, conferences and other farmers were mentioned as sources by 2%, 2%, and 8% of the respondents, respectively. Most of the farmers (69.3%) mentioned that the support they are getting from DOARD is not sufficient.The topics of the required professional support are mainly related to livestock production and management including housing, fertility management, fattening, feed management, animal health, and market related issues.Markets and marketing are crucially important components of the rural livelihoods in Ethiopia. There are four primary markets in Dano district namely Sayo, Dano Roge, Menz, and Awadi Gulufa (or Harbi Gulufa). Farmers also visit quite often Ijaji market in the neighboring Cheliya district. Less frequently visited markets include Silk Amba, Shanan, Guder, and other markets in neighboring Keffa and East Wellega zones. Figure 4.2 shows the results of market place preferences elicited from sample farmers to buy and to sell their cattle.As expected, most of the farmers prefer markets within the district both for buying and for selling. Ijaji is the second important market for this community. The poor marketing infrastructure and lack of timely, precise and appropriate market information makes the transaction considerably high that most farmers prefer to do their transactions within or close to their district. Farmers conduct few visits in some of the markets, consult farmers who recently went to markets or talk to traders or brokers who are close to them to generate information to get some idea about the price of animals to buy or to sell. The inadequacy of the information generated this way and the high transaction costs usually tend to undermine the bargaining power of the farming community. Despite the fact that most of the farmers transact at the primary markets within the district, 27% and 25.1% of the sample farmers reported pressures when buying and when selling, respectively. In both cases, traders and brokers were mentioned to be the main (>80%) sources of pressure on farmers. This is because brokers and traders are relatively well informed and bear much less transaction costs as compared to the poor farmers.The most important resource in rural Ethiopia, in general, and in crop-livestock mixed production systems, in particular, is land. A household can hardly make a living in the rural areas unless it has access to a plot of agricultural land. Land is not a tradable resource in Ethiopia, as it is owned by the state. Farmers have only usufruct right on the plot of land they own. They can not trade it or formally pass their legal ownership right to any other person in any form. This situation creates a sense of insecurity when it comes to land tenure. More immediate and probably more important is, however, the absolute size of the farmland farmers depend on for their livelihoods. The average land holding per household was found to be 2.54 hectare (SD =1.78 hectare) and ranges from none to 15 hectare. The per capita land holding was on average 0.36 hectare (SD = 0.25) and ranges between zero and two hectare.Farmland ownership is not only insecure but also very small. Gini-coefficient was computed and Lorenz curve was drawn for per capita land holding (Figure 4.3). The curve portrays that the bottom 25% of the sample population owns about 10% of the farmland while the top 25% section owns nearly half of the farmland owned by the sample population. The Ginicoefficient was computed to be 0.33. This implies a moderate inequality even if the absolute landholding per capita is quite small. Farmers' preferences for cattle attributes were elicited using a pair wise comparison technique both in the villages and in the markets. The traits were identified by farmers as attributes considered in cattle transactions. Seven traits were considered for bulls and eight traits were considered for cows. The traits considered for bulls were color, age, origin, body size, horn type, plowing strength, and calf vigor. For cows, color, age, origin, body size, horn type, fertility, milk yield, and calf vigor were the traits of interest. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 show the frequency with which the attribute (column head) received the rank indicated in the first column for cows and bulls, respectively. For example, in Table 4.1, fertility -in terms of short calving interval -was ranked 'first' six times by farmers in their villages (FA) and origin of the cow was ranked 'first' five times by buyers when interviewed in the markets (MA). Horn type was ranked 'last' eleven times by respondents both in the villages and in the markets.Generally, fertility, age and calf vigor were ranked highest when farmers were asked in their villages about cow traits. Origin, age, milk yield and fertility were highest ranked traits of cows by buyers in the market. For farmers, age, origin and plowing strength were highest ranked attributes of bulls, whereas for buyers in markets the highest ranking traits were plowing strength, age, origin and calf vigor (Tables 4.1 and 4.2). Body size was found to be a second rate trait for both farmers and buyers. Color and horn shape were uniformly ranked least by both groups for both cows and bulls.  The correlation matrices computed for the ranks given to each attribute by individual respondents show an expected pattern. The rankings of both cow and bull attributes made by most of the respondents are positively and significantly correlated both in the villages (Tables 4.3 and 4.5) and in the markets (Tables 4.4 and 4.6). The Spearman's non-parametric rank correlation coefficients generally show that co-variations of the rankings are strong and mainly occur along the upward slant. This implies that trait preferences are consistent and vary in the same direction.   Interesting is also the way farmers measure the different traits and set the levels of traits in order to decide on keeping or buying an animal. Mutual trust is the only verifying means of the information exchanged between sellers and buyers, which is the main source of information on most of the traits and characteristics considered. An effort was made to identify the means of measurement of the traits and the common levels of the traits according to the farmers themselves and the detail is given below in Table 4.7. Discussion with the seller and observation of the naval flap and the teats.1-3 liter/day (when lactating)The dual purpose of bull keeping is clearly seen here as farmers highly rank traits related to draft power and calf vigor. Bulls render the services of plowing and serving cows up until they are considered unfit for plowing, by which time they are turned for fattening and(re)selling. Farmers consider coat color and horn type as least important. Coat color is an interesting trait that white and black colors are excluded from the possibilities and farmers seem to be determined not to buy animals with these coat colors. This perhaps explains why not many white and black colored cattle were seen in the market. This implies that such colors are being deliberately excluded from breeding and trading. Such selective handling practices on these and other traits may need to be closely examined for their real and potential influence on current breed phenotypic characteristics. Horn type was also particularly reported by farmers as something related more to communal beliefs than to anything biological or economic.Livestock through their multiple functions play a crucial role in the livelihoods of the growing human population in Dano district. The majority of the farming community believes that the contribution of the livestock sector for their livelihoods has increased over years. Most of the respondents also believe that the natural environment they own is favorable. Diagnosis of the livestock production sector shows, however, a formidable set of constraints including feed shortage, resource limitation, lack of technical support, and limited market outlets with a bearing on the productivity and welfare effects of the sector.A look into the resource ownership and livestock related decision making illustrates that the household heads (both husband and wife) are the main owners of livestock and make virtually all the decisions related to production and marketing. This will have an important The livelihood of rural communities in Africa is heavily dependent on livestock resources.Livestock contribute on average 35% and up to 80% of agricultural GDP in some Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries (Benin et al., 2003). Ethiopia reportedly owns the largest livestock wealth in Africa. The livestock sector contributes 30 -40% of the country's national Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) and 13 -16% of the national foreign currency earnings (Benin et al., 2003;EEA, 2006). However, the performance of the livestock sector has been reported to be very low (Befekadu and Berhanu, 2000). The low performance of the sector is attributed to policy, institutional, technical, marketing and socio-cultural constraints (EEA, 2006).Strategic interventions to enhance the productivity of the livestock sector over the last four decades have focused on increasing milk production through provision of 'improved' incalf crossbreeds, artificial insemination (AI), and exotic bull services (Desta, 2002). Thorough assessments made about the interventions revealed that in urban and peri-urban areas, the efforts have considerable success considering milk production. In the rural areas, however, these interventions not only fell short of their objectives but also resulted in unexpected effects such as unintended and unknown genotype calves (e.g., ESAP, 2004). There is still no any concrete and binding national breeding policy with regard to choice of exotic breed types to be crossed with indigenous animals and the optimal exotic blood level of the crosses (Desta, 2002).The growing demand for milk and milk products has often been used to justify the focus of breeding policy on dairy development. However, in a country where agriculture is predominantly semi-subsistence mixed crop-livestock production, cattle production and marketing decisions are principally influenced by keepers' preferences for a multitude of adaptive and productive traits of the animals. This is so essentially for two basic reasons.First, the livestock products and services are primarily produced for household/ on farm consumption, and secondly, livestock keepers are aware that fitness of their animals for the diverse needs and objectives emanates from the various traits that are the result of immense genotypic and environmental processes the animals passed through.Sustainable management of animal genetic resource diversity entails proper identification, valuation, and maintenance of the different traits of the genetic resource to make it available for future use without compromising current consumption. The main challenge in this regard is that the economic implications of the erosion of the genetic diversity and consequently that of its conservation are not well understood. This is so essentially because the diversity of AnGR has a quasi-public 1 nature (Scarpa et al., 2003a) and this makes the revealed preferences for genetic resources in ordinary markets less appropriate to value the diversity. The remaining part of the paper is organized as follows; next, a description of the study area, choice experiment, and the analytical framework of the research is presented. This is followed by a brief characterization of the sample population, and a presentation and discussion of the empirical results. The final section contains conclusions and implications of the results.This paper reports results of a research done as part of a continental project of the Dano-roge is located at the northern tip of the district some 28 km far from Sayo. Roge sets on Thursdays and, unlike in other markets, cows and calves are the cattle frequently exchanged. Awadi-Gulfa market is located 24 km northeast of Sayo and sets on Wednesdays.The fifth market, which is called Ijaji, is located in neighboring Cheliya district and sets on Saturdays. Ijaji market is the only fenced market of about 30m by 80m area and, comparatively, traders are more frequent in this market than in others. None of the markets has any shade for both human beings and animals or any trough for water and feed. Only Ijaji and Sayo are accessible by car throughout the year, while the others can be accessed only on foot in the rainy season. Animals are trekked to and from the markets throughout the year. All cattle markets are dominated with male buyers and sellers.Choice experiment (CE) is a popular stated preference method which is used to elicit preferences for attributes of attribute differentiated goods based on statistically efficient designs of attributes and attribute levels. CE has theoretical underpinnings on random utility theory (McFadden, 1974) and characteristics theory of value (Lancaster, 1966;Rosen, 1974).CE is a significant improvement over the well known contingent valuation method (Bateman et al., 2003;Hensher et al., 2005) in that it goes beyond willingness to pay/accept for a nonspecific change to determining the relative weight of attributes of a good on its total economic value. CE also differs from conjoint rating and conjoint ranking in that it enables estimation of demand theory consistent marginal values of the attributes of a differentiated good which is practically less appealing in the rating and ranking approaches (Bateman et al., 2003;Hensher et al., 2005). For detailed elaboration, interested readers are referred to Louvier et al. (2000), Bateman et al. (2003), andHensher et al. (2005).CE surveys have already become routine in the fields of, inter alia, environmental (e.g., Rolfe et al., 2000;Campbell, 2007), food and beverage (e.g., Rigby and Burton, 2005;Mtimut and Albisu, 2006), and plant genetic resource (e.g., Windle and Rolfe, 2005;Birol et al., 2006) economics. Application of CE for the valuation of attributes of livestock is very recent and only a few of the abovementioned studies (Scarpa et al., 2003a,b;Ouma et al., 2007;Roessler et al., 2007;and Ruto et al., 2008) employed it to elicit preferences.The most important issues in designing a CE survey are attribute and attribute level determination, generation of statistically efficient and practically manageable experiment design, and management of the field interview. In this study, trait identification and trait level determination were done after a series of informal and focus group discussions both in the villages and in the markets where people of Dano district make a living and undertake cattle transactions. Respondents were asked to mention the attributes they consider to value the animals they keep or buy. Table 5.1 presents the traits of cows and their levels as described by respondents including the ways of assessment. After further discussions with farmers, and based on additional information generated by pair wise ranking during subsequent surveys, traits for the CE were determined to be seven including disease resistance and price after age was fixed to be 3 years. The age was fixed at three years because it was the average of the figures indicated by respondents and literature indicates that the average age of a cow at its first parturition is about 3.2 years in this part of the country (Workneh and Rowlands, 2004). The price levels used in the CE are averages of the minimum, average and maximums of the price distributions generated from respondents in the villages and markets for an 'average' cow -average as perceived by respondents. Table 5.2 presents the traits and trait levels used in the choice experiment. The traits and trait levels were statistically combined in an efficient way to generate profiles based on the attributes and attribute levels. Experimental designs commonly used in resource valuation studies are fractional factorial designs that focus on orthogonality (Rose and Bleimer, 2004). In orthogonal designs, ensuring statistical independence among the attributes is the primary objective. However, maintaining this orthogonality throughout the experiment to the data analysis stage is known to be highly unlikely (Bleimer and Rose, 2005). Hence, the more comprehensive approach suggested by Kuhfeld (1997Kuhfeld ( , 2005) ) to generate statistically efficient design with SAS algorithm was employed in this study. In addition to orthogonality, statistically efficient designs are characterized with balanced distribution of attribute levels, balanced utility across alternatives, and minimum overlap of levels in a choice set (Huber and Zwerina, 1996).The criteria most often used in developing experimental designs for such studies are Aefficiency and D-efficiency. Although the absolute values of the efficiency measures are not that useful, they give an insight of the data generating process. The SAS algorithm resultsshow that the CE design has D-efficiency of 99.6% and A-efficiency of 99.2%. This high efficiency implies that the variance matrix has quite small value with positive implications on the reliability of the estimates to be generated. The design generated 36 profiles classified into 18 choice sets (two profiles in each set) blocked into three so that each respondent could be presented with six choice sets. Attributes and attribute levels were described with pictures and sketches which were carefully selected to clearly show the attributes and the differences in the levels of the attributes. The survey was enumerated by three experienced researchers from the department of livestock improvement at Bako Agricultural research Center (BARC) and an agricultural economist for a consistent and clear explanation of all the attributes and attribute levels considered.As expected, undertaking the CE survey was very much demanding for some peculiar reasons. Most of the markets set for very few hours in the afternoon and the marketers have to travel to and from the markets for hours, sometimes half a day. Administering more than six choice sets would have been very difficult. The remoteness and poor accessibility of some of the markets had also taken its own toll of time. The CE survey was conducted in May-June 2006 in the five markets described above. The survey was done in the markets simply because the markets add up an objectivity dimension to a rather hypothetical choice analysis and respondents would be in the proper context to understand the questions much more easily than otherwise.A total sample of 195 cattle buyers (39 from each market) were selected and presented with six choice sets in random order. The total number of choice sets responded to were 1170 with three alternatives in each set. The third alternative was an opt-out option included for the purposes of avoiding forced choice and of generating theoretically sound taste parameter estimates. The sampling procedure employed can not be considered as purely random, even though no criterion was used to discriminate buyers. In each market, one or two well-known brokers were identified and briefed about the objectives of the study and the equal opportunity sampling procedure to be employed. Then broker(s) identified respondents from the different spots in the markets. Except very few who declined for reasons of time shortage, all approached marketers were willing to participate in the CE survey. This is a relatively isolated community and the five markets are virtually the only markets where cattle in the district are traded. The sample is therefore believed to be representative of the cattle buyers in Dano district.Values of (quasi-) public goods are not typically exclusively derived from private use of resources and, therefore, the revealed preferences in the markets can hardly be used to generate the marginal effects of attributes of an animal, which can be considered as an attribute differentiated good (Drucker et al., 2001;Anderson, 2003;Roosen et al., 2005). In our case, market prices are aggregated payments for animals without any indication as regards the different attributes of the animal. The main advantage of CE over the revealed choice ones, like most stated choice-based methods, is the possibility of varying multiple attributes of the good in order to see the effect of a change in each attribute on the total economic value.This study employed CE to elicit the preferences of cattle buyers. These choices were made in six choice situations and were about selecting the best option among three alternatives (including opting out) in each choice set. A choice of an alternative over the others implies that perceived utility of the chosen alternatives is higher than the rest. For an individual 'n', presented with a choice situation 't', choice of an alternative 'j' can be modeled as, for all j = 1,2,.,l,.. m, j≠l ; n = 1... N, and t=1,.., T.(where Y njt is the choice variable which takes the value '1' if an alternative 'j' is chosen and '0' if not in the choice set 't', and U njt is individual n's perceived utility of alternative 'j' in the 't' choice set.Based on utility formulation approaches of Lancaster (1966) and McFadden (1974), it can be shown that the chosen profiles are not preferred simply because they denote a cow, rather they are preferred because of the attributes characterizing the cow profiles. The attributes included in characterizing the profiles were very carefully identified and their levels determined and yet not all of the attributes were included. In addition, not all the issues cattle buyers consider in choosing a given profile could be considered in analyzing the level of perceived utilities. As explained by McFadden (1980), the unobserved variations in preferences and in the attributes of alternatives and errors of perception and optimization by the respondents are the sources of randomness in the perceived utility.Maximization of utility, therefore, needs to include both the deterministic and random components of the perceived utility. The random utility theory (McFadden, 1974) enables the formulation of utility (U) as additive function of these deterministic and random components.This can be formulated aswhere, X njt is a vector of explanatory variables including attributes of alternatives and interactions of attributes and socioeconomic characteristics, and ε njt is unexplained utility assumed to be independently and identically distributed (iid) across individuals, alternatives and choice sets with extreme value type I distribution. β n is a conformable vector of the unknown weights the respondent assigns to the explanatory variables. Interaction variables of attributes and socioeconomic characteristics are introduced to account for sources of taste heterogeneity among the respondents. Significance of the coefficient of an interaction term indicates that there is heterogeneity of preferences around the mean of the attribute because of the respective socioeconomic variable (Hensher et al., 2005).Given the stochastic component of utility is distributed iid extreme value type I, the probability conditional on β n that the cattle buyer chooses alternative 'j' out of 'm' alternatives in a choice set 't' is a conditional logit (McFadden 1974) given byThis specification, however, assumes homogeneous taste for traits across all respondents and the taste parameters of each individual (β n ) are known and completely explained by their means only.Attribute taste heterogeneity is, however, shown to be a common phenomenon among cattle producers and consumers (e.g., Sy et al., 1997;Scarpa et al., 2003a;Ouma et al., 2007).A random parameters logit model which accounts for heterogeneity of attribute tastes is therefore employed in this study. In random parameters logit (RPL), the β n 's are specified to be random and to follow, most commonly, normal distribution 3 given aswhere β is the mean and Σ β is the covariance of the distribution of β n .The random taste parameters (β n ) are unobserved and so the unconditional probability that a cattle buyer will choose alternative 'j' is estimated by integrating the conditional probabilities over all values of each of the random taste coefficients weighted by its density function. That is ln ln (6) with respect to β and variance Σ β . This maximization can not be solved; because, the integral (equation 5) has no closed form solution as its dimension is given by the number of components of β n that are random, with non-zero variance. Simulated maximum likelihood estimation is, therefore, employed to estimate the unconditional choice probabilities (Train, 2003;Cameron and Trivedi, 2005) According to Cameron and Trivedi (2005), using a direct simulator the integral (equation 5) is replaced by the average of R evaluations of the integrand at random draws of β n from the N[β , Σ β ] distribution. The maximum simulated likelihood estimator then maximizeswhere y njt is 1 if alternative j is chosen and 0 otherwise, and All respondents were males as cattle selling is exclusively men's job in the district. Nearly 90% of the sample respondents are farmers or farmer traders as expected in such primary rural markets of a semi-subsistence livelihood system. Full time traders accounted for 7.7% of the sample whereas the remaining 3.1% of the sample composed of civil servants and small restaurant and bar owners. The mean age of respondents is 36.3 years, while the age range is between 18 and 68 years. About 22% of the sample buyers are illiterate, 9.2% do read and write, 2.6% have attended some religious schools, and about 52% of them have attended elementary school. The remaining 14% have attained secondary and higher education. The socioeconomic variables can not be entered to the regression as they are constant over all the choice sets presented to a respondent. They are entered as interactions to avoid multicollinearity induced rejection by the estimation procedure. The socioeconomic characteristics considered in the econometric estimations are described in Table 5.3. More often, the econometric analysis of discrete choice data starts with conditional logit model estimations. Accordingly we initially estimated a conditional logit model and run a test to check whether the basic assumption of the conditional logit that the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) holds. The Hausman test rejected (P<< 0.001) the IIA assumption implying that the odds ratio of any two alternatives is dependent on the inclusion or exclusion of the other alternative in the choice set (Hausman and McFadden, 1984;Greene, 2003). The rejection of IIA assumption, which follows the assumption of independent and homoscedastic random component of the utility function, implies that the CL model is not appropriate.Hence, a random parameters logit (RPL) model was estimated.Choosing a profile in the choice sets, as opposed to opting out, was found to be highly preferred as indicated by the significant constant term (Table 5.4). Fertility, disease resistance, calf vigor and milk yield were found to be highly significant (P<< 0.001) in influencing the choice of a cow. Body size, price and some locations were found to be statistically insignificant. The signs of all the taste parameters are as expected, except that of medium body size. The model in general is highly statistically significant (P<< 0.001) at 29 degrees of freedom (Table 5.4).The magnitude of the parameter estimates show that fertility -or short calving intervalis much more important than all other attributes considered by cattle buyers. Disease resistance was also found to be more important than calf vigor, milk yield and the area the cow was brought from. Vigor of the calf was also identified to be very important in influencing cow choice. These findings conform to the basic objectives of rural life in this part of Ethiopia in general and with the specific purposes for which animals are kept.The primary goal of majority of the households in this part of rural Ethiopia is producing sufficient food for the annual demand of the family. Secondly, households aim at supplying part of their produces to generate cash to pay for other costs of life including food, as food shortage is not uncommon. The main contribution of livestock in achieving these objectives is through traction power generated from bulls and through selling of live animals. Shorter calving interval implies more animals to sell and higher possibility of getting male calves to replace the aging bulls. Disease resistance is so important not only because it assures the herd stays productive but also saves the scarce cash resources of the rural people. A vigorous calf is described in the area as one that is fast growing, healthy and strong. The high value assigned to larger herd and the medication cost implications show the importance of calf vigor. The importance of these traits is comparable to the corresponding findings of the studies which analyzed preferences for cow traits (Tano et al., 2003;Ouma et al., 2007;Zander and Drucker, 2008) with apparent differences in the relative weights of the attributes.Milk yield is also a highly significant attribute of cows. However, the relative weight assigned to milk potential of cows is lower than those for other traits. In Dano and the neighboring districts, milk is only produced for household consumption and selling milk is a social taboo that people would rather give it free. Some households milk their cows every other day as they do not have the storing facilities, or can not sell it. This result differs from the high importance attached to milk yield by the latent class of crop-livestock farmers in Kenya (Ouma et al., 2007). Given the fact that all the livestock development efforts have focused on dairy cows, the relative weight of milk trait shows the considerable disparity between the government's livestock development agenda and rural livelihood objectives.The area the cows are brought from is another important attribute cattle buyers consider.The concept of breed does not have any recognition within the cattle keeping population in the area or among cattle buyers in the markets. People ask for the origin of the cow to judge its adaptability, in addition to examining some phenotypic characteristics which show considerable difference across locations. The regression results show that cows from the closely neighboring districts are preferred to that of the district. Although it does not seem that there is so much difference among the cattle populations within and around the district, farmers must have some reasons in the details of the characteristics of the cows. Taste coefficients of Wellega and Keffa zones were found to be negative and statistically insignificant. The negative sign implies that cows from these areas, which are very far, are less preferred.Identification of traits (including price) and trait levels was completed four months before the CE survey. In the following four months, the inflation that has been rampant in Ethiopia since May 2005 made the prices of the CE quite low. The respondents apparently considered the price levels small for most of the profiles presented. The three price levels were entered as categorical variables like all other traits with low price (500.00 Birr) fixed as reference level 4 .The coefficients of the two price levels are statistically insignificant showing that the price levels used in the CE did not significantly influence the choices of alternatives 5 . Categorical treatment of price gave good results in isolating sources of taste heterogeneity. A significant drawback of the statistical insignificant price variable is the fact that implicit prices of the traits could not be quantified. The relative importance of the traits, nonetheless, can be observed from the coefficients of the choice model.Choice analysis is all about explaining heterogeneity in preferences (Hensher et al., 2005) and this research gives due emphasis to analysis of taste heterogeneity based on the means and standard deviations of the random parameters and the mean coefficients of the interaction terms. Different distributional assumptions were tried for random parameters, following Hensher et al (2005) and Train (2003), and finally all random taste parameters were assumed to be normal based on the likelihood ratio test and intuition.Taste heterogeneity was evident around the means of fertility and disease resistance. This implies that not all cattle buyers attach equal value to these cow attributes. The estimated means and standard deviations of each of the random taste parameters give information about the share of the population that places positive values or negative values on the respective attributes or attribute levels (Train, 2003). Considering attributes with statistically significant standard deviation estimates, 60% of the respondents prefer the fertility to be good (a calf per year), while 40% of the respondents prefer lower fertility (a calf/ 2 years). Similarly, 72% of the respondents indicated preference for higher disease resistance.The sources of taste heterogeneity were further investigated by introducing interaction of the attributes and socioeconomic characteristics. The taste heterogeneity around the mean of the taste parameter for big body size was essentially due to differences in education level. The positive sign of the coefficient shows that as education level of the cattle buyer increases, his/her sensitivity to the changes in the big body size of the cow decreases. It is not clear as to how this happens but it can be said that the educated group of cattle buyers are the young people who are starting to build up their herds with less interest in the big body size as it always implies old age -a less favorable attribute.Preferences are also heterogeneous around the mean taste parameters of disease resistance particularly due to the less sensitivity of one group of respondents which includes owners of small restaurants and civil servants. This is obvious for the fact that these are buyers who will immediately slaughter the animals for consumption and would be expected to care less about the disease resistance of the cows they buy. This group of buyers is less sensitive about the high price level as well. They are arguably the richest group of respondents and are still expected to be less worried about the 'high' price level, which was in fact not that high at the time of the survey, due to inflation.Cattle buyers who are farmer traders by occupation were found to be very sensitive to the fertility, disease resistance and the high price of cows. These results are quite intuitive that these group of people need to get cows with high fertility, healthy and cheaper price in order to buy cows either for reselling or keeping. Full time traders were found to be very sensitive about milk and high prices. Traders aim at reselling the cows they buy and they take their animals as far as to Addis Ababa to sell. Therefore, milk will be more demanded in areas where it is marketable and accessible to traders. The high sensitivity of traders to the high price level is expected and self explanatory. Heterogeneity of preferences around the mean taste parameter of fertility was also found to emanate from differences in family size. As the family size increases, the sensitivity to the fertility of the cow increases, implying that big families want to have cows with shorter calving intervals. This is due to the obvious interest of having bigger herds that can serve as buffers at times of crisis, to which big families are more vulnerable. Policy implications of changes in attribute levels can be drawn from simulations with The base level of the simulation is the proportion with which each profile (including the opting out) was chosen by the respondents based on the 1170 choice sets. Each choice set has two alternatives numbered profile 1 and profile 2 and an opting out option. At the end of the survey, profile 1 was chosen in 43.19% of the cases, profile 2 was chosen in 55.41% of the cases, and in the remaining 1.4% of the cases respondents opted out (Table 5.5). The first scenario was about fixing the fertility attribute to be good (1 calf/ year) in profile 1 across all the choice sets. The result shows that, ceteris paribus, this could have increased the proportion with which profile 1 of all choice sets was chosen by 20.23%. This is well above the results of the scenarios which fixed milk to be maximum (3 lt/day), calf vigor to be good or disease resistance to be good in profile 1 over all the choice sets. Another simulation with fertility fixed to be good in profile 2 of all the choice sets, resulted in 18.68% increase in the proportion with which this profile would have been chosen, everything else constant. This increase is again very high as compared to similar assumptions about the milk, calf vigor and disease resistance attributes.Comparison of the results in general shows that changes in the levels of the different attributes have different influences on the proportional choice of the cow profiles. The changes in fertility levels are the most influential followed by changes in disease resistance.Changes in milk yield were found to be influencing choices only more than changes in calf vigor. Also consistent is the reduction in the proportion of opting out under all scenarios which fixed the attributes at their most preferred level. This shows that respondents are interested to buy than not if they get the type of animal they are interested in. This research employed choice experiments and random parameters logit to elicit and analyze cow trait preferences of buyers in the semi-subsistence livelihood systems of rural central Ethiopia. The results revealed that in areas where livestock serve multitude of purposes and where the production and marketing system is semi-subsistence, cows have other functions more important than milk production. Fertility, disease resistance and strength of the calves they bear are as much or more important than milk. The breed concept which is very much associated in Ethiopia with the area where the animal is brought from (Workneh and Rowlands 2004), was found to be less important as such and it appears that farmers are interested in obtaining animals from the district or nearby locations. This is essentially because cattle buyers, who are mostly farmers, are more concerned about adaptability and therefore give high value to the fact that they know the pedigree of the cattle they buy.Respondents were found to display heterogeneous preferences for the attributes included in the study. Differences in occupation are very important sources of preference heterogeneity in that respondents who are engaged in farming and trading at the same time are very sensitive to attributes like fertility, disease resistance and high price levels as compared to farmers. Similarly, traders were also found to be more sensitive to the milk yield potential of cows and the high price levels. People who are not engaged in farming or cattle trading were relatively insensitiveErosion of the genetic diversity of indigenous livestock resources is a global challenge of higher intensity in the developing world. Efforts to increase directly consumable outputs of the livestock sector are narrowing the diversity of the genetic base through substitution of existing and well adapted livestock populations. Such substitutions set a large group of livestock populations or breeds mainly in developing countries aside from food producing livestock systems making them vulnerable to extinction (Oldenbroek 2007). Nonetheless, the fitness of the local breeds of livestock for the diverse needs and objectives of subsistence and semi-subsistence livelihoods stems from the various traits they possess because of the enormous natural selection and environmental processes they evolved through. Therefore, the risk to loose unique genes through the widespread and global use of few breeds is an important argument to conserve local breeds.Although the rural population depends very much on these resources, conservation of indigenous livestock resources has seldom been a priority in Ethiopia. With particular emphasis on cattle, introduction of exotic genotypes has been made merely for improving the marketable milk and meat outputs although the results were not encouraging (e.g., Demeke et al. 2004). The rural community keeps cattle for a number of purposes some of which are more important than milk and meat. These include draft power for crop production and transportation, cash generation, asset accumulation, collateral and security functions. focus only on a few market driven traits often utilizing profit functions as objective functions in calculation of economic values to be included in the breeding objective (e.g. Kahi and Nitter 2004). While this may seem prudent for developed countries where the aim of livestock production is mainly profit-oriented, it may not be appropriate if targeted for small-scale and low-input systems of developing countries where production is not necessarily profit-oriented.In such small scale and low-input production systems, cattle perform multiple livelihood functions ranging from income to non-income and social functions that are not always marketable. Thus, it is important to employ non-market valuation approaches that allow the estimation of economic values of the characteristics of livestock, which explain the functions they render, without market values. In essence, the non-market valuation approaches assume utility to be random and the economic agent as a utility maximizing individual. The economic agent in such production systems denotes the livestock keepers whose preferences determine the importance of the traits of the cattle -both as buyers and as sellers -and whose decisions shape the genetic diversity of the indigenous breeds they keep or exchange (Scarpa et al. 2003;Drucker 2004).Few studies have recently employed the random utility framework to examine producers' preferences of cattle traits and the associated taste heterogeneities, as well as willingness to pay (WTP). Random utility theory (RUT) explains that the overall utility composes of explainable and unexplainable components and this explanation provides a sound basis for many forms of preference elicitation procedures, typically those associated with the design of discrete choice experiments (Louviere 2004). Tano et al. (2003) used ordered probit to investigate phenotypic trait preferences of livestock keepers in Burkina Faso elicited through conjoint rating. Their findings suggest that disease resistance, fitness for traction and reproductive performance are traits that are highly preferred compared to milk and meat by cattle keepers across the different production systems in Burkina Faso. However, conjoint rating methods do not generate welfare consistent estimates and ordered probit has limitations in accounting for preference heterogeneity. the analytical framework and data collection. This is followed by a presentation and discussion of the empirical results. The paper ends with conclusions and implications of the results obtained.Choice Experiment (CE) is a systematic approach of eliciting preferences of individuals based on hypothetical combination of different levels of various attributes of a given good or service to sketch preferences for the attributes and the weights attached to them by the decision makers (Louviere et al. 2000;Alpizar et al. 2003;Hensher et al. 2005). The framework arises from the consumer theory developed by Lancaster (1966), which posits that preferences for goods are a function of the traits possessed by the good, rather than the good per se. An implication of this theory is that total utility derived from a good can be decomposed into separate utilities for its individual traits. A good can therefore be described by the characteristics that generate utility or disutility to individuals. Choice experiments can also be used to attach monetary values for attributes if prices or costs are included in the attributes being considered. The elicitation of preferences is made through asking the individual to choose an alternative they prefer most among all alternatives including an opt-out option.Two common discrete choice models used in the empirical analysis of the choice experiment data are conditional logit and random parameters logit models. Both models are based on the random utility theory developed by Marschak (1960) and McFadden (1974). In this framework, utility 'U' is assumed to be latent, with only the choice 'Y' of alternative 'i' by individual 'n' observed. Given a choice set 't' with 'J' alternatives, the utility function can generally be written aswhere U nit is the perceived utility of alterative 'i' in choice set 't' by individual 'n', X nit is vector of observed variables, β n is conformable vector of unknown taste parameters, and ε nit is the unobserved component of perceived utility that is assumed to be identically and independently distributed (iid) extreme value type I.The choice variable 'Y' takes the value '1' if an alternative 'i' is chosen and '0' if not and, hence, the basic choice model of choosing an alternative 'i' over alternative 'j' in a given choice set 't' by an individual 'n' can be written as:, for all i = 1... J, n = 1... N, and t = 1, 2, .., T.(The probability (Pr) of choosing alternative 'i', [Pr (Y nit = 1)], over alternative 'j' in choice set 't' is then given aswhereFor a given value of β n and an assumption of ε nit to be iid, extreme value type I across all respondents, the probability that cattle buyer 'n' would choose profile 'i' in a choice set 't' of 'J'The iid assumption in the conditional logit model corresponds to Luce's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) property, which states that \"the relative odds of one alternative being chosen over a second should be independent of the presence or absence of an unchosen third alternative\" (McFadden, 1974). The implication of this assumption is that the relative probability of two choices is independent of the attribute levels in the third. An additional limitation of the model emanates from the fact that the representation of heterogeneity of preferences over attributes is restricted to those individual attributes that are measured and may be included in the specification. Unobservable heterogeneity cannot be captured within this framework.The underlying iid assumption is also restrictive in that it does not allow for the error components of different alternatives to be correlated (Hensher and Greene 2003). A reformulation of the β n 's in equation ( 4) as random parameters, to allow for variation of preferences across respondents, transforms the conditional logit model into a random parameters logit (RPL) model. The coefficient vector β n , which is unobserved for each 'n', will be assumed to vary in the population with density ) , | (, where β is the mean and Ω β, is the covariance of the vector of parameter estimate β n if it is assumed to follow a multivariate normal distribution. However, the density function of the parameter estimate, f (.), can take different forms including lognormal, uniform, and triangular (Brownstone and Train, 1998). In this study, multivariate normal distribution was assumed for all taste parameters, except that of places where the animals came from as they were fixed to be non-random. Given this distribution of the density function, the RPL model can be used to estimate the unconditional probabilities of choice of an alternative as integral of the conditional probability over all values of the taste parameters weighted by the density function. That is,where L nit (β n ) is as in equation 4.This multidimensional integral has no closed form and cannot be estimated with standard maximum likelihood estimation procedure. Simulated maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the unconditional choice probabilities (Train 2003). For a given value of the parameters of f(.), a value of β n is drawn from its distribution. This draw is, then, used to estimate equation ( 4). This process is repeated for R number of draws and the average of L nit over all R draws will give the simulated choice probability consistently 1 estimating unconditional choice probabilities as given below.where, P ˆis the simulated choice probability and r n β β β β is the value of β n at the r th draw.In determining the number of draws for the simulation, Hensher et al (2005) suggest trying a range of draws starting from as low as 25 and going up to 2000 once well-behaving models are fit. The few applications of CE in livestock resource economics used 100 Halton draws (e.g., Scarpa et al. 2003). We used 1000 Halton draws to show the statistical stability of the results.For an examination of the sources of taste heterogeneities, interactions of attributes and socioeconomic variables are incorporated in the utility model. The specification of the utility (7) where φ is vector of heterogeneity in mean parameters and S is vector of interactions of attribute and socioeconomic variables. Significance of the elements in φ shows that there is heterogeneity in preferences around the mean of the attribute because of the socioeconomic variable. The terminologies standard random parameters logit (S-RPL) and heterogeneity in mean random parameters logit (H-M-RPL) are used in this paper to denote the RPL estimations without and with interaction terms, respectively.The choice experiment for the study was conducted in Dano district of Oromia region in Ethiopia. The district is located 250 km west of the capital Addis Ababa. Livestock, particularly cattle, are indispensable assets of the community. Semi-subsistence crop-livestock mixed farming system is the mainstay of livelihood for the district's population. The experiment was carried out in all four markets within Dano district (namely, Dano Sayo, Dano Roge, Harbi Gulfa, and Menz) and at Ijaji market -the biggest market close to the district and weekly visited by Dano people. The sample size for the experiment was 200 randomly selected buyers in the markets with 40 respondents from each market. The effective sample size was 198, as one incomplete observation was dropped (i.e., dropping responses of two respondents).An unlabeled choice experiment was used with six choice sets presented to each respondent.Each choice set composed of two profiles and an opting out option of no purchase. Each of the profiles was described by a combination of varying levels of six attributes including price.Before developing the survey instruments, a series of surveys were conducted to understand how the livestock production and marketing systems operate. This helped in identifying the characteristics of cattle in which respondents are interested both as producers and marketers.Framers identified age, origin, and traction potential as the three most important characteristics, while color and horn shape were the least preferred traits. Body size and calf vigor were also mentioned by farmers to be middling traits of bulls. Age, traction potential, origin of the animal, and calf vigor were identified to be the most important characteristics of bulls in the markets by cattle-buyers. Color and horn shape were the least significant traits, while body size was found to be of average importance in the markets as well. In developing the experimental design, color and horn shape were dropped and age was fixed at 4 years, as this is the age at which a bull would have ploughed for a year. The summary of attributes and levels used in the CE is given in Table 6.1.Experimental designs commonly used in resource valuation studies are fractional factorial designs that focus on orthogonality (Rose and Bleimer 2004;Kuhfeld 2005;Ferrini and Scarpa 2005). In orthogonal designs, ensuring statistical independence among the attributes is the primary objective. However, maintaining this orthogonality throughout the experiment to the data analysis stage is known to be highly unlikely (Bleimer and Rose 2005). Hence, the more comprehensive approach suggested by Kuhfeld (1997) to generate statistically efficient design with SAS algorithm was employed in the present study. In addition to orthogonality, statistically efficient designs are characterized with balanced distribution of attribute levels, balanced utility across alternatives, and minimum overlap of levels in a choice set (Huber and Zwerina 1996).The criteria most often used in developing experimental designs for such studies are Aefficiency and D-efficiency. Both efficiency measures depend on the number of choices sets, number of attributes, and on the traces of the inverse of the information matrix, (X'X) -1 , where X is the design matrix (Kuhfeld 2005). An efficient design will have small variance matrix and the eigenvalues of the inverse of the information matrix (X'X) -1 will measure the size. If scaled to range from 0 to 100, designs with values close to 100 are considered relatively efficient. D-efficiency is in use more than A-efficiency and other measures mainly because of its relative simplicity for a computer program to optimize and the invariance of the ratio of Defficiencies over different coding types which is not the case for A-efficiency. Although the absolute values of the efficiency measures are not that useful, they give an insight of the data generating process.The results of the SAS algorithm show that the bulls CE design has D-efficiency of 99.7% (A-efficiency was reported to be 99.4%). This high efficiency implies that the variance matrix has quite small value with positive implications on the reliability of the estimates to be generated. The design generated 24 profiles classified into 12 choice sets (two profiles in each set) blocked into two so that each respondent could be presented with six choice sets. This procedure ensures that the attributes of the design are statistically independent (Ferrini and Scarpa 2005). Accordingly, a simple correlation analysis between pairs the attributes generated very few non-zero values all of which were statistically insignificant. The no-purchase option of opting out was included in each choice set to avoid a forced choice and to be able to convert individual preferences into a measure of individual demand (Hensher et al. 2005). The conditional logit (CL) model was estimated and included for comparison with the random parameter logit models. The Hausman test rejected the null hypothesis of Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA) property, implying that the odds ratio of the choice probabilities of two alternatives in the choice set is dependent on the third one in the choice set and, therefore, the results of the CL are less useful. Discussion is therefore restricted to the RPL models.Estimates of the standard random parameters logit (S-RPL) and the heterogeneous in mean random parameters logit (H-M-RPL) models are presented in Tables 6.3 and 6.5, respectively.The S-RPL estimations have, for instance, improved the model significantly at p<0.01 with chisquared distribution at seven degrees of freedom. The model results show that the intercept is significantly different from zero, suggesting that the respondents tend to choose than not to, given the profiles in the choice set. The origin of the bull is included not only because it was what buyers ask about it while purchasing, but also as a proxy for the scientist's concept of breed, which is essentially based on geographical concentration, at least in the Ethiopian context.The RPL models consistently produced negative and statistically significant coefficients for nearby districts and Keffa zone. The negative signs of the coefficients indicate that bulls from both origins are less preferred to those from Dano and will result in less probability of choice for a bull. The differences in absolute magnitudes of the structural parameters of the location variables show that the probability of not selecting an animal will be higher if the origin is Keffa than neighboring districts. This is an exact reflection of the preferences of farmers in Dano, as cattle from Keffa region are considered trypanosomosis infected and less adaptable within the Dano district. This again implies that most of the buyers give high value to the fact that they know the pedigree of the cattle they buy which could only be possible if the animals were raised in their proximity. Given the lack of information and the uncertainties under which farmers make decisions, it is obvious that cattle buyers in this semi-subsistence farming system would prefer cattle from their districts.Body size is also a very important characteristic of cattle in the production system. Negative sign of the medium body size level was unexpected and this might potentially be due to the lack of distinct level description in the survey or the levels were too close to differentiate from respondents' perspective. Big body size was found to be positive and statistically significant, thus positively influencing choice of a bull. The relative magnitudes of the taste parameters are as expected and show that big body size has more weight on preference than medium body size.The mixed crop-livestock production system depends very much on the traction power of bulls for all the activities from first plowing to threshing. Only bulls are used for plowing in this area, making traction power a crucial characteristic of a bull. That is essentially what the model results reflect. Plowing strength has the largest taste coefficient with the expected positive sign and high statistical significance, indicating that good plowing strength is a trait that respondents consider most when purchasing bulls.The rural community has multiple objectives in buying and keeping cattle in such a production system. The bulls are purchased and kept at least for two purposes -traction and reproduction. The reproductive contribution of bulls is very important as there are no communal or village owned bulls selected for this purpose. In particular, farmers normally do not take within-the-herd mating for granted and focus on traction suitability only. They usually inquire about the reproductive characteristics of the bull, which is proxied here with the calf vigor. The attribute's coefficient is highly significant in the estimations. The more vigorous the offspring of a bull is, the higher the probability that it will be chosen and the higher the utility derived. Low frequency of contracting diseases was also found to be positive and statistically significant, indicating preferences for healthy or disease tolerant animals. With limited resources to employ on medication and hygienic costs for their animals, rural livestock keepers are expected to be very interested in healthy animals.The S-RPL model has generated a non-significant mean for the coefficient of the medium (birr 1000.00) level of bull price and a significant mean for the coefficient of the high (birr 1200.00) level of bull price. These results appear realistic, given that the price levels used during the choice experiment were already low (in four months time -due to the lingering inflation) and the low and medium levels of prices were nearly indifferent for the respondents. Even the high level of price was considered quite acceptable for almost all the hypothetical profiles presented in the choice sets. The marginal rate of substitution between the traits and the monetary coefficient provides estimates of the implicit prices for the traits. These implicit prices are also referred to as willingness to pay (WTP) or willingness to accept. The price volatility prevalent in the study area makes the absolute magnitude of the willingness to pay (WTP) values less important. In order to assess prioritization of traits by the buyers, only the relative magnitudes of the WTP weights should be used. The willingness to pay values computed for each attribute (γ) at the highest price (p) level show that changing the traction potential level from poor to good is valued 2.65, 2.42, and 2.39 times more than a comparable change in offspring vigor, disease resistance and big body size, respectively (Table 6.4).  The WTP distributions for big body size and traction potential indicate heterogeneity in preferences of the taste parameters for these traits. The differences in taste for the change from small to big body size are essentially due to the fact that meat is not the primary objective of the majority of the buyers, although there are some who buy bulls for immediate consumption. The preferences for the traction potential attribute are also heterogeneous as there are still some marketers who are not so much interested in the traction potential, although most of the respondents are expected to be otherwise. Notably, the WTP distributions of all, but medium body size level, traits and trait levels lie in the positive quadrant as expected.The results of the H-M-RPL model show that the dispersions of the big body size level and the traction potential attribute are statistically significant. This is an indication of preference heterogeneity within the sample around mean parameter estimates of these features of bulls.Implications can be drawn that not only these two attributes are important but also show variation in terms of the weights the cattle buyers attach to these two preferred traits. The H-M-RPL model was estimated with variables included as interactions of socioeconomic variables and attributes of the profiles to find out the sources of preference heterogeneity (Table 6.5). The H-M-RPL estimation shows that the unobserved heterogeneity in tastes around the mean parameter estimate of medium body size level is partially caused by variations in age. Similarly, being a trader and differences in education level are sources for the taste heterogeneity about the big body size level. The unobserved heterogeneity around the mean of the estimated parameter of the traction potential attribute is explained by factors such as status as a trader, differences in age and differences in education levels. The heterogeneity in tastes for calf vigor, illness and the high price level are all due to differences in occupation.As age increases, the interest in medium body sized bull decreases implying that as age increases the marginal utility from this level of body size tends to be zero. Quite interesting is the observation that traders are insensitive to big body size, as is the case for buyers who are relatively educated. Purchasing cattle for consumption purposes is a luxury for the majority of the rural community, a fact that is reflected in the low interests in body weight. This is further supported by the observed high sensitivity of traders to traction potential of the bull they purchase form the market. The markets covered in this study are all primary markets (except Ijaji to some extent) and the traders could only think of farmers as their ultimate buyers/consumers.The interest in traction potential increases as age increases, implying that the marginal utility of having good bulls for traction is higher for older people. This is probably due to the increasing scarcity of farmland, which results in the younger generation seeking other employment alternatives than farming. In particular, the more educated people become less dependent on land as a source of livelihood, a fact that explains the low sensitivity for traction potential by the educated buyers. Traders also appear to be very sensitive to and highly value the vigor of the offspring of the bull they are purchasing. This is also interesting as reproduction is the second reason why bulls are kept in such a farming system. Farmers engaged in trading were also found to be very sensitive and attaching high value to disease resistance, possibly for two reasons. First, they cannot afford to keep sick animals and, second, they will be able to sell the animal whenever they want to if it is healthy. Finally, cattle buyers with other occupations, such as civil servants or inn owners, were found to be less sensitive to the highest price level used in the study simply showing this group could afford it.This study applied choice experiment to examine the bull trait preferences of cattle buyers and to estimate the relative willingness to pay for the preferred attributes in five markets in Dano district of central Ethiopia. The paper focused on a crop-livestock mixed semi subsistence production system where livestock rearing is practiced for several purposes. This system is the most dominant production system in Ethiopia's agriculture and as such is quite representative of the country's production systems.The results indicate that cattle buyers of central Ethiopia assign high values for good traction potential, big body size, disease resistance, calf vigor, and for places of origin when choosing bulls in the market. The preferences cattle buyers have for these attributes do vary essentially due to differences in occupation, education and age. The primary objective of the rural community to produce sufficient food for the family for each year was manifested through the value assigned to traction potential which is more than twice that of big body size and disease resistance. These results are consistent with the basic reasons why animals are kept in the area, but appear to be incoherent with the government funded interventions of livestock development. An observation which needs to be emphasized is the consistency of the preferences of the cattle buyers in such a system characterized by lack of information in every aspect. Given the importance of livestock, bulls in particular, for the livelihoods of the communities in rural Ethiopia, such consistent valuation of the traits show that the objectives of the agrarian life are quite clear among the community -farmers, farmer traders, traders, and others -that production and marketing decisions are made on broader considerations than just milk and meat production.The findings do have some implications for policy. In particular, the national livestock breeding strategy needs to aim at building the indigenous practices of selecting, improving and conserving animal genetic resources. It is also clear from the empirical results that attributes such as good traction potential, offspring viability, and disease resistance have to be given as much attention as the two focus traits -milk and meat. Thus, careful consideration of preferences for attributes should be made before introducing or reinforcing crossbreeding efforts meant to theoretically enhance a couple of attributes or purposes animals are kept for. In addition to producing breeds that are preferred by cattle buyers, incorporating these attributes in breeding programs would also contribute to a reduction in the erosion of the genetic diversity of the indigenous animal genetic resources. It is, however, significant to mention that additional research in the different production systems would provide additional insights into cattle buyers' preferences and help in the design and implementation of livestock improvement initiatives.Cattle are indispensable components of rural livelihoods in Ethiopia. In arid and semi-arid parts of the country, the pastoral communities depend entirely on their livestock for their livelihoods (Little et al., 2001;Barrett et al., 2003;Ouma et al., 2007). In the more dominant crop-livestock mixed livelihood system, cattle serve in providing traction power, in generating cash, in buffering shocks, as sources of consumables and as sources of prestige, being the main indicator of wealth.Despite their significance to the livelihood of rural households, not much research has been carried out to identify the determinants of prices of cattle or livestock in general. The very few exceptions are Andargachew and Brokken (1993), Fafchamps and Gavian (1997), Jabbar (1998), Barrett et al. (2003) and Jabbar and Diedhiou (2003). Using a weekly sheep price data collected over a year in central Ethiopia, Andargachew and Brokken (1993) reported that animal characteristics; i.e., weight, age, sex, body condition, coat color, and reason of buying are important factors influencing prices of the animals. Fafchamps and Gavian (1997), who employ monthly price data of over 20 years in Niger to examine the determinants of prices, reported that season of selling, rainfall pattern, district location and seasonal holidays influence prices of livestock. Jabbar (1998) analyzed a monthly sheep and goat price data over 14 months in Nigeria and concluded that breed type and seasonal holidays significantly influence prices.Based on a detailed transaction level data on cattle prices collected weekly for four years, Barrett et al. (2003) employ the concepts of structural heteroscedasticity and GARCH-M models to examine the determinants of prices and price variability in Northern Kenya. They conclude that season, rainfall pattern, holidays, market locations, restrictions such as quarantines and animal characteristics -body size and castration -are the main determinants of cattle prices in Kenya. Using data from Nigeria, Jabbar and Diedhiou (2003) observed that body size and body condition are more important determinants of cattle prices than breed type, type of buyer, and trading time.The importance of cattle in the rural livelihoods and the global threat of the erosion of animal genetic resources justify a thorough analysis of the preferred characteristics of the animals to guide conservation and improvement programs. The present study makes a contribution in this direction by using various econometric techniques to examine the various factors that influence cattle prices and to determine their relative weights in the pricing of cattle. Although heteroscedasticity is expected in hedonic price analysis, not so much attention is given to it in relevant scientific reports (e.g., Jabbar and Diedhiou, 2003;Huang and Lin, 2007). We employ regression with heteroscedasticity consistent errors, FGLS, as well as SHM approaches to analyze transaction level data in five rural Ethiopian markets. To the extent that we use these methods on the same data set, we are able to compare the models to show the specification that yields appropriate results with our data set. The results should contribute to the knowledge gap that persists in price discovery in rural livestock markets of Sub-Saharan AfricaThe next section of the paper describes the rural markets and the data source. This is followed by an outline of the analytical framework employed. The section that comes next discusses the results of the econometric analyses. A conclusion of the research findings is presented in the final section.The study was conducted in the Dano district, which is located 250 km west of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The district is about 66,000 hectares wide, with a human population of 83,000. Livestock, particularly cattle, are important assets of the community. In 2005, it was estimated that there are 75,000 cattle, 3,500 equines and 7,500 small ruminants in the district.Semi-subsistence crop-livestock mixed farming system is the mainstay of livelihoods for the district's human population. The most important annual objective of the average household is producing sufficient food for the family.The study covered five markets. Four of the markets, namely, Sayo, Menz, Dano-Roge and Awadi-Gulfa throughout the year, while the others can be accessed only on foot in the rainy season. Animals are trekked to and from the markets throughout the year. All cattle markets are dominated with male buyers and sellers with virtually no women around. All the markets set for half a day mostly in the afternoons.Farmers and farmer-traders are the main marketers, both as sellers and as buyers in these rural livestock markets of central Ethiopia. Brokers and full time traders are increasingly available as the size and proximity of the markets to highways increases. Price discovery in such markets is a long and intricate process normally done through a one to one bargaining between the seller and the buyer with brokers helping in facilitation. The bargaining is essential mainly because farmers, both as sellers and as buyers, have no sufficient market information and they want to make sure that what they receive or pay is not less or more than what the animal is worth.A farmer who wants to sell an animal has to go through a number of market visits and discussions with neighbors who have sold livestock recently, friends who have been in the markets, and if available, traders and brokers who live nearby to come up with a starting price 2 for the animal. One important feature of farmers as sellers in rural markets is that they barely have a clear idea as to how much direct and indirect cost they have incurred on their products.The starting prices for the animals are, therefore, set based on the prevailing market prices, with all the characteristics of the animal and the circumstances of selling considered. Likewise, buyers go through virtually the same process to have some idea about the price they will pay for an animal.The discussions and visits made to fix the price of an animal are influenced by the different characteristics of the animal. The relative importance attached to each of the traits and the bargaining power of the seller tends to influence the price the buyer pays in the end. The prices sellers receive naturally determine the income available to the rural households in that particular period, with clear implications on the sustenance of their livelihoods.Data were generated through surveys in the district and in the five rural markets described above. The first survey aimed at quantifying the important variables related to livestock production and marketing with a deliberate focus on cattle. The sample size for this survey was 200 randomly selected households from 10 randomly selected peasant associations of Dano district. The second survey was a quarterly cattle transaction survey in the five rural markets with a sample of 20 cattle buyers in each season from each market. Given that some of the buyers purchased two animals at a time, the final sample size was 411. This paper employs the second survey with the previous one used only in describing the production and marketing systems.The quarterly transaction survey focused on the phenotypic traits of the animals traded, places where the animals were brought from, price, and the characteristics of the buyers. The phenotypic characteristics were identified in the initial survey and included color, class, age and body size of the animal bought. Age was estimated by the buyers by observing the teeth of the animal.Data collection for each season was carried out over two weeks (two market days) simultaneously in all of the markets. The first season was end of February to beginning of March. This is immediately after the crop harvesting period where crop prices are normally low and livestock prices are high. Most of the cattle keepers want to sell their animals during this period against the challenge of the imminent feed scarcity. This is evident from Figure 7.1. Data collection for the second season was carried out after three months in late May to early June. This is a period when prices of cattle decline, as buyers, predominantly farmers, usually lack funds to purchase cattle. Moreover, since it is the beginning of the rainy season, farmers tend to focus on their cropping activities.The third round of data collection was conducted in late August to early September, a period of serious feed shortage. Prices are normally expected to be low for the animals that are yet to regain weight they lost in the dry season and for those that are subjected to restricted free grazing in the rainy season. As expected, this is the most favored period by buyers and the least preferred by sellers (see Figure 7.1). The last round of data was collected in late November. This is the beginning of the harvesting period for early maturing crop varieties and the declining prices for crops. The animals normally recover from the weight losses of the past seasons and farmers can then postpone their selling decisions if the prices offered are not attractive enough. The feed scarcity declines, whereas farmers become more interested in selling their animals. Theoretically, the prices cattle sellers receive are reflections of the utility anticipated by the buyers and this utility is derived from the attributes of the product as cattle can be considered as quality (attribute) differentiated goods (Lancaster, 1966;Rosen, 1974). This research focuses on the main phenotypic attributes that buyers inspect when buying an animal. The external features farmers look at and attach value to are age, color, body size, sex, and the place where the animals were brought from. As discussed above, experiences with some of these characteristics have shown that they significantly influence market prices of livestock.The different levels of the similar attributes that differentiate cattle are known to both buyers and sellers. The levels considered in this analysis are those perceived by the buyers, despite the possibility of imperfect knowledge and differences in measurement. The buyers and sellers in the markets considered are mainly farmers who raise the cattle. In line with the household modeling literature, where goods are produced, consumed and sold by households, a hedonic model can be employed to value the attributes of the quality differentiated indivisible goods. Therefore, estimation of the relationship between the characteristics of the cattle and their prices can be made through hedonic price analysis.Following Rosen (1974) and Palmquist (2006), let x 0j be the total amount of the j th product characteristic provided to the consumer by consumption of all products, x ij be the quantity of the j th characteristic provided by one unit of product i, and q i be quantity of the i th product consumed.Then, the total consumption of each characteristic can be given as ) ,..., ; ,..., (and the consumer's utility function is expressed as ) ,., , , ,.., , ; ,.. (where n is the number of products and m the number of characteristics.The consumer is assumed to maximize this utility function subject to a budget constraint that can be specified aswhere Y is fixed money income, and p i is fixed price paid for the i th product. The consumer's utility maximizing level quantity of each product can then be estimated by maximizing the Lagrangian:where λ is the Lagrangian multiplier.Assuming an interior solution, the first-order condition of the Lagrangian for q i is given asIt can easily be shown that λ is equal to the marginal utility of income (∂U/∂Y). Substituting ∂U/∂Y for λ and solving for p i , equation ( 5) can be rewritten in order to express the demand for attributes as a function of the marginal utility of the attribute and the marginal utility of income.As income is defined to be equal to expenditure (equation 4), the term in the square bracket is the marginal rate of substitution between expenditure and the j th product characteristics.Under competitive market conditions, implicit prices will normally be related to product attributes alone, without accounting for producer or supplier attributes. However, as widely documented in the literature, rural markets in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are rarely competitive (Barrett and Mutabatsere, 2007). This is essentially due to poor communications and transport infrastructure, limited rule of law, and restricted access to commercial finance, all of which make markets function much less effectively. Several empirical studies have shown that prices are also related to the attributes of buyers, season and market location (e.g., Oczkowski, 1994;Jabbar and Diedhiou, 2003). Hence, season, market location and education level of the buyer were included in the models estimated in this research. As mentioned above, cattle price discovery in the rural markets surveyed is done through a one-toone bargaining with the help of brokers. Brokers are usually invited by buyers, in this case farmers, as they have much less market information about prices and tend to be price takers.Therefore, the bargaining power of the buyer is very important in influencing the price paid. No direct information was gathered on bargaining power, but education level was taken as a proxy to indicate strength in bargaining, under the assumption that higher education increases the bargaining skills of buyers.Another important issue in estimating hedonic functions is the identification of the appropriate functional form and estimation procedure. In general, the functional form of the hedonic price equation is unknown (Haab and McConnel, 2002). Parametric, semi-parametric and non-parametric estimation procedures have all been suggested and used in different applications (e.g., Anglin and Gencay, 1996;Parmeter et al., 2007). As this research focuses on the estimation of the relative weights of cattle attributes (first step hedonic analysis), the technical details of these alternative approaches are not of interest.The estimation strategy adopted in this study starts with simple linear model based on the suggestion by Cropper et al. (1988) as well as Haab and McConnel (2002). Cropper et al. (1988) employed Monte-Carlo simulation analysis to show that the linear and linear-quadratic functions give the smallest mean square error of the true marginal value of attributes. However, when some of the regressors are measured with error or if a proxy variable is used, then the linear function gives the most accurate estimate of the marginal attribute prices. Haab and McConnel (2002) also argue that when choosing a functional form and the set of explanatory variables, the researcher must bear in mind the almost inevitable conflict with collinearity. High collinearity makes the choice of a flexible functional form less attractive, since the interactive terms of a flexible functional form result in greater collinearity. Given these considerations, we begin with a restrictive basic linear model 3 given by ( )where X is the vector of independent variables including the constant term, characteristics of cattle and the socioeconomic variables considered, β is a vector of parameters to be estimated and ε is an independent and identically distributed (iid) error term.The iid assumption for the error term implies that the conditional distribution of the errors White's formula (White, 1980) has generally been used in the empirical literature to obtain heteroscedasticity consistent (HC) standard errors. However, White's estimator (HC 0 ) is believed to be less useful in small samples because the squared OLS residuals tend to underestimate the squares of the true disturbances. Simulation based results indicate that the white estimator is a bit too optimistic and the matrix a bit too small resulting in larger asymptotic t-ratios (Greene, 2003). To obtain more reliable standard errors, MacKinnon and White (1985) and Davidson and MacKinnon (1993) suggest three (HC 1, HC 2 and HC 3 ) alternative ways of corrections. The alternative covariance matrix estimators of the error term, including the OLS and that of White (1980), are specified as:where n is number of observation, k number of parameters estimated, and h ii isThe empirical observations made by MacKinnon and White (1985) and by Chesher and Austin (1991) show that HC 0 performs worse than HC 2 and HC 3 . Davidson and MacKinnon (1993) also advise against HC 0 in favor of HC 2 or HC 3, particularly when the diagonals of the hat matrix (h ii ) are available. We have estimated regressions with all (OLS, HC 0 to HC 3 ) types of standard errors as a first option.The second option to deal with heteroscedasticity employed in this study is the feasible generalized least squares. The general specification of the covariance matrix of the error term can be given as V{ε} = σ 2 ψ, where ψ is a positive definite matrix that might depend on X and which can have known or unknown form. It is apparent that HC standard errors can be obtained either by using OLS estimator and adjusting the standard errors to make them robust (the first option discussed above) or by deriving an alternative estimator that is efficient (Verbeek, 2004).The latter approach begins with the identification of a transformation matrix P such that ψ -1 = P′P. This implies that PψP′ = I. By transforming the regression model with P, we can generate the following equationThe estimator for the slope parameters will hence be given asand this is the basic form of the generalized least square (GLS) estimator. This is estimable only if the form of the heteroscedasticity is detected and so ψ is known. However, if ψ is unknown, the feasible or estimated generalized least squares (FGLS or EGLS) can be employed, first to estimate ψ and then to estimate the parameters. Hence, FGLS model was estimated as an alternative way of dealing with the heteroscedasticity observed in the error terms.The third set of analysis carried out in this study follows the approach used by Barrett et al. (2003) in their study of the determinants of price and price variability in Northern Kenya. They applied the well established concepts of structural heteroscedasticity and GARCH-M models to iteratively estimate price of cattle simultaneously accounting for price variability in the estimation.Two equations are estimated simultaneously. The first equation estimates the conditional mean of the ln(price) on the independent variables discussed above and the standard deviation of the residual for each observation from the original OLS regression given by ε σγ βwhere σ is the conditional standard deviation of the natural log of price and γ is its coefficient.The second model is the regression of σ on selected exogenous variables (Z) in X.where λ is the vector of parameter estimates and υ is an iid error term.The estimation is conducted such that the predicted values of equation ( 16) will be substituted into equation ( 15) in each step until the parameters converge 5 . This simultaneous estimation strategy is suitable for an analysis of price risk and the risk premiums relevant to cattle marketing (Barrett et al., 2003). The rigorous econometric analysis employed in the present study has two advantages. First, it helps in modeling and explaining the highly intricate pricing of cattle in these rural markets. Second, it allows us to check the consistency of the results of the modeled data that has heteroscedastic standard error.The results from the OLS regression and those from the estimations with adjustments following MacKinnon and White -M&W - (1985) and Davidson and MacKinnon -D&M -(1993) are presented in Table 7.1. The estimates of the OLS regression show no omitted variables, but imply heteroscedastic errors. The adjustments made on the standard errors following M&W (1985) and D&M (1993) resulted in standard errors often greater than that of the OLS. As expected, the White standard errors were found to be very low. The White errors resulted in highly inflated t-ratios and hence are not discussed here. The statistical significance of the estimated parameters is uniform for the adjusted M&W and D&M standard errors.Based on the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria, the FGLS appeared to be a significant improvement over the ordinary linear regressions (Table 7.2). The simultaneous equations estimation was also found to be an improvement over the single equation models (Table 7.2). The signs and magnitudes of the parameter estimates show a slight difference across the models. Season dummies have virtually the same significance pattern in all the models. Market locations have similar signs and significance of coefficient estimates in all specifications except that Roge market dummy was not statistically significant in the modified SHM. Cattle class dummies also show a similar pattern of significance across the models, while attributes of cattle reveal a similar pattern of significance across the different models, with the notable exception of medium body size in the modified SHM. Among the places where animals are brought from, Wellega was found to be statistically significant (α = 0.1) in the OLS and SHM estimations while the rest are not significant even at the 10% level in all estimations. Education dummies are the ones which show considerable differences in terms of magnitude across the different models. Higher education (secondary and above secondary) levels are statistically significant in OLS and HC 1 to HC 3 models. Reading and writing was found to be significant in the HC 1 to HC 3 estimations only. Elementary and above secondary levels are significant in the FGLS estimations whereas only secondary school level was significant in the modified SHM.All the econometric estimations consistently show that season, market location, class of cattle, body size and age are very important determinants of cattle prices in the rural markets of central Ethiopia. Cattle prices in seasons one and two were found to be similar across all estimations.However, the prices in season three were consistently significantly lower than those in season one. This is the period when farmers would not have harvested their crops and their liquid assets are also quite low. Season three is therefore the least preferred period to sell cattle by farmers (see Figure 7.1). Price in season four was found to be significantly higher than that of season 1 in all specifications. This is expected because it is the period when farmers can postpone their cattle selling decisions if the prices are not acceptable, since they can easily rely on the recently harvested crop yield.Most of the coefficients of the market dummies were also found to be significantly different from zero, implying price differentials for cattle relative to Dano, the base market. The frequency of each class of animal is also decisive in this particular estimation. It is only at Roge market that the frequency of the bigger animals -oxen and cows -is less than that of Sayo. This clearly undermines the prices in Roge as compared to other markets and hence the negative coefficients.Cattle prices in Menz and Awadi markets are significantly higher than in Sayo. These markets have higher frequency of oxen and cow transactions as compared to others. In addition, Awadi is one of the routes out of the district to trek to secondary markets such as Guder and Ambo.Traders in Menz also trek their cattle to these secondary markets via Awadi. Religious study -0.0827 0.0508 0.0641 0.0662 0.0708 *, †, and ‡ significant at α = 0.01, α = 0.05, and α = 0.05, respectively, using HC 3 standard errors.Farmers' classification of cattle into sex and functional categories was found to be important determinant of prices. Based on the results of the FGLS, for example, oxen have a price premium of about 30% over calves. This is the highest premium followed by that of bull. The heifers were found to have lower prices than the calves. Given the frequency of heifer and calf transactions, the fact that the calves include mainly male young cattle might have inflated the prices for calves over heifers. Coefficient for the cow dummy has the unexpected negative sign in the linear models (Table 7.1) and in the modified SHM (Table 7.2). It has, nonetheless, the expected sign in the FGLS (Table 7.2) model. Though the cow dummy coefficient is not statistically significant, the results generally show that the relative value attached to female cattle is lower, since milk is not tradable in the district.Body size was found to be very important determinant of cattle prices, with big size having a price premium of about 18% over small size. As evident from the results of the FGLS estimation, even medium sized cattle received prices that were about 5% higher than small cattle. This is a clear indication of the interests of cattle keepers/buyers of the area and conforms to previous studies on the topic (Jabbar and Diedhiou, 2003;Barrett et al., 2003;Scarpa et al., 2003). The most consistent variable in determining the price of cattle in these rural markets was age of the animal. The results show a strong quadratic relationship between age and price of cattle that at younger ages an increase in age increases the price of the animal with the maximum effect occurring at 8.96 years (using FGLS results). At older ages, the prices decrease as age increases.The maximum effect is well above the average age (6.23 years) of animals captured in the transaction survey, suggesting that the prices of cattle decline, as they get out of age for the basic household level activities such as plowing.The coat color of cattle is also an attribute buyers normally consider when purchasing an animal. Virtually all econometric estimations consistently reveal that red and white colors have no significantly different influences on prices, as compared to mixed color, which is the base level. However, black coat color, relative to mixed color, has a significant price lowering effect on cattle. The coefficient for black coat color dummy is not only statistically significant but also exhibits the highest value among the colors included in the model. Specifically, black coated cattle will attract a downward premium of about 9% as compared to mixed color coated cattle.The survey results showed that this is essentially due to the fact that black coated animals are considered very susceptible to trypanosomosis that is prevalent in the area. *, †, and ‡ significant at α = 0.01, α = 0.05, and α = 0.05, respectively Among the origin of cattle dummies included, only Wellega appears to be marginally significant in the modified SHM. These results show that cattle from Wellega have a price premium of up to 13% over those within Dano district. This is expected as the field surveys revealed that cattle from Wellega are considered to be big in size, disease free and highly marketable. Although statistically insignificant, the Keffa dummy has the expected negative sign as cattle from this zone are considered to be susceptible to diseases. Literacy variables included as proxies for bargaining power did not reveal any statistical significance of the variable for cattle price.The coefficient of the conditional standard deviation of the natural log of price in the natural log price equation of the modified SHM is negative as expected but statistically insignificant.The negative sign implies the commonly observed phenomenon that as market prices grow more volatile, those who, nonetheless, opt to sell their animals in the markets are somewhat more desperate for cash and so are less able to hold out for a good price from traders (Barrett et al., 2003). The variability of the natural log of price is indicated to be influenced mainly by the age and functional classes of cattle defined by marketers as well as season, market, and origin of the cattle.This study employed a hedonic model to examine the determinants of cattle prices in the primary rural markets of central Ethiopia. Transaction level data of cattle farmers and farmer-traders were used in the analyses. Data collected in rural markets to identify cattle price determinants resulted in estimates with standard errors that are mostly heteroscedastic. We employ heteroscedasticity consistent error regression, feasible generalized least squares and SHM estimations to account for heteroscedastic errors. Based on Akaike, Bayesian and log-likelihood criteria of model selection, we found that the feasible generalized least square and modified SHM formulations are best suited in examining price functions in such rural markets.The empirical estimations consistently showed that market place, seasonal differences, sex and function based classification of cattle, body size, and age were very important factors influencing the market prices cattle sellers receive. The significance of the characteristics of animals in influencing prices paid for the animals reveals the importance of the preferences for traits in the decision-making process related to buying and selling of cattle. These preferences at the farmers and farmer-traders levels are the ones that matter most in shaping up the diversity of animals kept at farm level. This diversity of the cattle genetic resources is essential for generating or identifying best suited breeds of cattle in the context of the livelihood objectives of the target community. Thus, the cattle breeding strategies and activities should duly consider the preferences expressed through the prices paid for animals in such markets, where the cattle keepers are the main sellers and buyers.This study also contributes to the knowledge on how to deal with the rarely available transaction level data in rural markets of developing countries. The markets in such countries are perceived to be highly inefficient as a result of high transaction costs, information asymmetry, difficulties in contract enforcement and volatile prices (Fafchamps and Gavian, 1997;Abdulai, 2000;Barrett et al., 2003). Markets in rural Ethiopia generally lack physical infrastructure, and mostly have no watering facilities and shades both for human beings and animals, resulting in shorter market durations and potentially lower prices for cattle sellers.Markets, especially those far from towns, seem to be quite alien to farmers who are buyers and sellers. In such cases, the influence and margin of brokers increase at the expense of mainly the sellers. Interventions aimed at increasing the bargaining power of cattle sellers could help them realize higher prices to raise their incomes. In particular, improving the physical infrastructure in these rural markets will enhance the marketability of cattle traded in the markets. Provision of information to cattle keepers to help them make appropriate decisions as to when and where to sell their animals would also be an advantage for them in realizing higher prices for their animals.An essential element for the continued contribution of livestock to supporting rural livelihoods in developing countries is the maintenance of genetic diversity in the livestock population. Genetic diversity in domestic animals encompasses the spectrum of measurable genetic differences among species and across all breeds within each species as well as within each breed 1 differences which are of interest for food and agricultural production (Köhler Rollefson, 2004). Variation in 1 Breed is either a homogenous, sub-specific group of domestic livestock with definable and identifiable external characteristics that enable it to be separated by visual appraisal from other similarly defined groups within the same species, or it is a homogenous group for which geographical and/or cultural separation from phenotypically similar groups has led to acceptance of its separate identity (Turton, 1974).the types of animal used enables the production of different combinations of products, product attributes and services that suit local community needs for consumption, savings and disposal.The poor livestock keepers that live in usually low potential and unfavorable agricultural areas depend directly upon genetic, species and ecosystem diversity for their livelihoods (Anderson, 2003). Despite the paramount importance of diversity of animal genetic resources (AnGR) to the livelihoods of rural communities in developing countries, and the uncertainty about the actual magnitude of the loss, Tisdell (2003) argues that the continued loss of this diversity is undoubtedly of considerable significance even based on conservative estimates.According to FAO (2007), one breed becomes extinct every month and so its genetic wealth is irretrievably lost. Livestock genetic resources underlie the productivity and resilience of local agricultural systems. Thus, genetic erosion within livestock and their wild ancestors is of particular concern because of its implications for the sustainability of locally adapted agricultural practices and the consequent impact on food supply and security (Rege and Gibson, 2003).Ethiopia, with an area of 1.12 million km  , 2004). This wealth of genetic resources is reported to be shrinking due to genetic erosion (ESAP, 2004).Major causes threatening diversity of genetic resources in Ethiopia include poorly designed and managed introduction of exotic genetic materials, droughts and consequences of drought associated indiscriminate restocking schemes, political instability and associated civil unrest, and weak development interventions (ESAP, 2004). The effects of the misguided and uncontrolled introduction of exotic genes and that of interbreeding among indigenous breeds might require application of molecular genetics for purposes of precision. In extreme scenarios, however, it could have a drastic effect leading to extinction of a breed within few generations. The application of artificial insemination in indigenous cattle using semen from exotic cattle breeds is, for instance, resulting in unforeseen substitution of indigenous genes by exotic genes (ESAP, 2004;IBC, 2004).More important is the fact that Ethiopia is yet to develop and enact a binding livestock breeding policy. The limitations in skilled manpower and facilities are also paramount bottlenecks for the aspired development in the livestock sector. However, the relative importance and level of threat to maintenance of animal genetic diversity in Ethiopia is not precisely known.Encouraging, but far from sufficient, effort has been made to comprehensively document the AnGR diversity in the country. In addition to their inconclusiveness, previous research and development efforts generally ignored the importance of adapted indigenous farm AnGR due to a general belief that they are not adequately productive and incapable of contributing to increased agricultural production (IBC, 2004). The past and present neglect of local knowledge regarding AnGR and traditional breeding practices causes major difficulties to develop and implement appropriate participatory strategies at national and local level (Wollny, 2003).The irreversibility of extinction of AnGR and continuity of the undesirable reduction of the genetic diversity necessitate holistic and participatory approaches to conservation. FAO defines conservation of AnGR as all human activities, including strategies, (management) plans, policies and actions undertaken to ensure that the diversity of AnGR is maintained to contribute to food and agricultural production and productivity now and in the future (FAO, 2000). There are strong scientific arguments for conservation of AnGR. Apart from their known use values, AnGR are carriers of numerous genes that can serve current as well as future emerging needs. There are several strategic options discussed as regards how to maintain AnGR. In the short term a pragmatic option is the conservation of AnGR by maintaining genetic diversity of local breeds within their production systems (Gandini and Oldenbroek, 1999;Rege, 2003).It is also argued that AnGR conservation aimed at sustaining livelihoods needs to take an approach that recognizes the array of contributions livestock make to livelihoods and the genetic characteristics related to these (Anderson, 2003). There are two broad approaches through which AnGR can be conserved: ex-situ and in-situ (Rege and Gibson, 2003). Ex-situ approaches to conservation include cryopreservation of semen, oocytes and embryos, and keeping of live animals in designated localities, e.g. government farms or ranches. In marked contrast to the situation in plants, cryopreservation is technically feasible for very few livestock species at present. In-situ conservation, also called 'on-farm conservation', can be defined as the continuous maintenance of breeding populations by farmers in the agro-ecosystems where those populations have evolved (Rege, 2003). Thus, in-situ conservation encompasses entire ecosystems, including immediately useful species of crops, forages, agroforestry species, and other plant and animal species that form part of the system.Traditional practices of livestock keeping communities probably involve multiple breeding goals (i.e. multipurpose uses), aesthetic values and behavioral aspects. Likewise, village communities may have different needs, perceptions and preferences by which they make decisions for buying, selling or mating of animals. The bottom line here is that communities manage their livestock using a wide range of indigenous knowledge that emanate from varying socio-economic, cultural and bio-physical environmental conditions (ESAP, 2004). Hammond and Leitch (1996) assert that although no compelling quantitative data is available, about 50% of the total genetic variation in AnGR is between species and the remaining 50% is variation among breeds within species. Yet, the focus on conservation of AnGR is on maintaining intra-specific variation (within species). The genetic variation between breeds is likely to be much more relevant when a global perspective is taken, and when more extreme traits such as adaptation to harsh environments and disease resistance are considered (Rege and Gibson, 2003). Moreover, Wollny (2003) argues that intra-specific genetic diversity in AnGR is a function of natural selection and random or systematic human interventions, hence with more direct links to current human livelihoods of poor livestock keepers.The essence of CBM of AnGR emanates from the meanings of the terms community, community-based, and management. The term community usually refers to a group of people living under similar circumstances with common primary objectives and interests in life. A community-based organization is an entity formed or recognized by a community based on communal interests and objectives and to implement agreed decisions on behalf of the 123 community (Köhler-Rollefson, 2004). Management of AnGR is defined by Rege (2003) as the combined set of actions by which a sample, or the whole, of an animal population is subjected to a process of genetic and/or environmental manipulation with the aim of sustaining, utilizing, restoring, enhancing and characterizing the quality and/or quantity of the AnGR and their products. Thus, CBM of AnGR can be defined as a system of AnGR and ecosystem management in which the AnGR keepers are responsible for the decisions on identification, priority setting and the implementation of activities in conservation and sustainable use of the AnGR (Rege, 2003;Köhler-Rollefson, 2004).Community based initiatives are receiving growing attention as sources of creative and productive activities of individuals or groups in societies (Rege, 2003). Such initiatives stand a better chance of success with positive effect on the sustainable use of the genetic resources under stressful environments. The dominant contemporary arguments about maintaining domestic animal diversity advocate for support and provision of incentives to local communities so as to continue managing their AnGR in their respective ecological contexts, but with the opportunity to develop by responding to or taking advantage of changing marketing and macroeconomic situations (Köhler-Rollefson, 2003). According to Rege (2003), this is so because local communities have a vested interest in all the natural resources (including AnGR) on which their livelihoods depend, and have the most to lose in the event of loss of these resources. The communities are also best placed to conserve them and have a better understanding than any other group of what it takes to manage their traditional resources sustainably.CBM of AnGR responds to the dynamism within the community, AnGR and the eco-system whilst keeping the current and future objectives and interests of the custodian human society.The dynamism in the framework is explained through its sensitivity for the changes in preferences of traits and or the natural or man-made changes that may occur in the AnGR populations, e.g. effects of flooding, disease epidemics, drought or market demand. Changes in trait preferences imply that transformation in the agricultural sector might alter the priorities implied in the current preference analyses (see Chapters 5-7). Mechanization of farms, for instance, would make suitability for plowing a less preferred trait. Establishing a CBM of AnGR is, therefore, a continuous process with its components changing in type and importance in response to decisions of the communities.Most of the livestock wealth in developing countries is owned by smallholder farmers, who are likely to maintain this essential role under prevailing socio-economic and cultural circumstances until substantial economic developments lead to drastic changes in the size and structure of household incomes. Thus, until more viable alternatives to smallholder subsistence livestock keeping come into play so as to transform rural livelihoods, the most reasonable option for sustainable use of AnGR is working with and for these rural communities who maintain them.Smallholder farmers have unique features, particularly as compared to pastoralists, in that they do not rely exclusively on livestock and therefore have to organize the management of AnGR in their possession in different ways (Bayer et al., 2003).Attempts to substitute elements of the smallholder farming system with research generated technologies are associated with risks to smallholders. For instance, the livestock resources have evolved for centuries under the custody of smallholders in response to recurrent challenges of harsh environments where the majority of poor smallholders live in. The massive efforts to replace the indigenous livestock resources with 'improved' types developed for specific traits under ideal conditions were not only ineffective (Rege, 2003) but also resulted in erosion of valuable genetic diversity (FAO, 2000) 2 .The scientific community has very recently realized the flaw in the conventional approach and agreed to start with what the communities can offer and to work with them. This is justifiable as indigenous livestock breeds play an important, even crucial, role for sustainable rural livelihoods and the utilization of marginal ecological areas (Köhler-Rollefson, 2003). In addition, rural communities and their livestock breeding strategies depend not only on natural and socio-economic conditions, but also on the abilities and interests of the livestock keeping families (Bayer et al., 2003). This growing interest in working with communities with due appreciation and use of indigenous knowledge has given rise to the concept of Community Based Management (CBM) of resources. Earlier applications are in the field of forestry and other environmental resources. Application on management of AnGR started very recently. The documented experiences in Africa are the CBM project to manage poultry diversity in Malawi (Gondwe et al., 2003), the one designed to improve and conserve the indigenous Djallonke sheep breed in Ivory Coast (Yapi-Gnaore et al., 2003), and the initial efforts on CBM of local goat genetic resources in Benin (Dossa, 2007). This specific framework is to be the first of its kind in Ethiopia.Empowering, motivating, informing and building the capacity of the community for a sustainable management of the AnGR is the main purpose of a CBM of AnGR. For instance, in Dano district of central Ethiopia, smallholders own the entire cattle population. Thus, community refers in this case to these smallholders. The focus of the CBM framework discussed hereafter is on cattle, basically for two reasons. First, the study focused on cattle as these are by far the most important species of farm animals in the district. Second, this is the first initiative to implement a CBM framework in the country and so would be sensible to start with one priority species.CBM of AnGR starts with careful analysis of the prevailing production system. The livestock production system in Dano district can be described as semi-subsistence, resource-constrained, cattle dominated and risk prone. The most important institutions with strong bearing on the community's management of AnGR are the informal institutions (herding groups, social gatherings, etc.), the formal institutions in the locality (cooperatives, financial or religious institutions, etc.), the market, the administrative (political) entities, the research and extension institutions, and the interactions among the crop, natural resource and livestock sub-systems. The sketch below shows the confluence of these forces (Figure 8.1).Social institutions, both formal and informal, play a significant role in determining the effectiveness of a CBM of AnGR. These institutions can influence farmers' access to, and management of, household and community-level resources affecting their action regarding the farm animal genetic diversity. The way herding groups, religious institutions, and social norms and values operate determines the size and characteristics of livestock a household is willing to keep. For instance, in areas where black or white coated cattle are considered culturally or religiously bad, a selective culling would eventually minimize the numbers of cattle with undesirable coat colors in the herd 3 . The same can be said about hump and horn size and shape.This deliberate exclusion of animals based on a single attribute might eventually influence other characteristics. A two pronged intervention is required in this regard; i.e., first, identifying and analyzing the important traditional norms regarding management of AnGR; second, enhancing the useful traditions to make them quickly rewarding and sensitizing the community against harmful traditions. The emphasis should, however, be on harnessing the social institutions for the sustainable management of the genetic resources by the people.Formal institutions such as cooperatives and rural credit institutions will also have a paramount role in conserving and sustainably using the communally managed AnGR.Voluntarily established cooperatives increase the bargaining power of smallholders and the access to inputs and intermediary outputs. Therefore, smallholders would be able to reduce unfair payments and can opt to postpone selling decisions thereby saving genetic resources from desperate and less rewarding marketing. Valuations of the unique traits, labeling products accordingly, and, if possible, certification of genetic property rights would obviously increase the market margins of smallholders at the same time improving marketability and hence utilization of the genetic resources. Feed Fattening Veterinary Etc.Herding groups Social norms and values Cooperatives Financial entities Etc.Bako ILRI EIAR Etc.Selling and buying calendar Etc.Another crucial component influencing the community -AnGR nexus is the marketing system. The market forces do challenge conservation by smallholders of the genetic resources with no easily tradable uses and no immediate benefits. As a result, identifying sound reasons why society should preserve genetic resources that specialized formal markets have abandoned for some reasons is still an important challenge in conservation of AnGR (Mendelsohn, 2003). Efforts are needed in valuing the different attributes and functions of the AnGR owned by the smallholders as well as in availing timely, adequate, and precise (tap) market information for the community.Proper identification, characterization and valuation of the non-tradable traits of the genetic resources might facilitate the recognition and legal protection of livestock keepers' entitlements for the important characteristics of their genetic resources thereby securing a continuous market. Otherwise, the conservation of AnGR option values through livestock husbandry by the poor is a hitherto unrecognized and unrewarded service to society (Anderson and Centonze, 2006). Hence, all improvements that can be introduced into the production system based on the relative economic values of the traits of the indigenous AnGR might increase the marketability of the indirect and/or long term values of the AnGR.Inter-temporal and spatial patterns of supply and demand need to be analyzed and made available to the community to enable them to decide with full information. Equally important is the development of the market infrastructure to avoid undermined prices as well as forced selling as the transaction costs are often unbearable in such remote rural areas. On the other hand, although Ethiopia is yet to enact a livestock breeding policy, the overall tendency for the last four decades in the area of genetic improvement has been limitedto loose AI services and crossbreeding of some indigenous breeds with supposedly improved exotic breeds to increase milk production with little (if any) consideration to other production and service functions of cattle. Sustainable management of the AnGR requires policy formulation to be based on the objectives of the livestock keepers and their manifestations through trait preferences for bulls and for cows. Suggesting such a major re-orientation of the policy setting procedure in developing countries like Ethiopia is easier said than done in practice. Nonetheless, it would be much less costly to carefully design the policies that help avert the continued loss of genetic diversity in indigenous cattle.In general, the important components of the livestock production system and their interactions have both direct and indirect influences and they need to be manipulated to enable the community own, manage and benefit from the AnGR in a sustainable manner. As the genetic resources are crucially important to the livelihoods of the community in all aspects of the socioeconomic setup, CBM of AnGR appears to be a promising alternative as compared to the traditional approaches which focused less on the immediate and long term objectives of the communities they were supposed to benefit. In fact, capacity building and awareness creation on all aspects of the CBM of AnGR framework are essential for the community in order to boost confidence and transparency. Similarly, modalities for communication and protocols of accountability among the stakeholders need to be clearly stated and made known to all. milk (see Chapter 5). Similarly it was found out that buyers assign high values for good traction potential, big body size, disease resistance, calf vigor and for places of origin when choosing bulls in the market (see Chapter 6). These results need to be used to articulate the improvements to be made on the AnGR owned and/or used by the community.The operational unit for the appropriate interventions needs to be the herding group for the following two basic reasons. First, almost everyone in the group knows which animal belongs to whom and how many animals a household owns. Second, members know when new animals are brought in to the group and when animals are taken away for any reason.Accordingly, leading farmers within the herding group in collaboration with leaders in the cooperatives should be helped to select, develop, and share breed stock of cattle based on the preferred traits identified. Cattle herd formation and composition management needs high emphasis to ensure that the preferred traits of the cattle keepers are maintained with mechanisms in place to reduce the likelihood of inbreeding. The replacement rate and the dynamism in the preferences of the different adaptive and productive traits will have to be carefully investigated to understand the pattern in the genetic resources and the requirements for new trait introductions that might develop over time.The research and extension institutes need to render assistance to the community in issues related to record keeping, developing and using breeding indices -with due consideration of preferred traits, performance evaluation, distribution and marketing management and controlling the use and conservation of AnGR. The record keeping shall be designed in a comprehensive and systematic way so that the not-so-literate community can easily manage it. Establishing a pilot breeding centre managed by leading farmers in particular and the community in general appears to be the best way to start up.Community based organizations principally aim at harnessing resources to achieve the short and long run objectives of the community they stand for. Therefore, the initial step in implementing a community based organizations like the CBM of AnGR has to be the full awareness, empowerment, and ownership of the whole process by the community. The communities, therefore, need to be assisted to develop breeding structures of their target AnGR so that breeding is fully controlled and parents of the next generation of animals can be selected from within the breeding population.ii. The simmering political instability in the region would not interfere with effective implementation of the framework.iii. The research and extension institutions would keep up the collaborative and complementing activities in support of the collective action in CBM of AnGR.iv. The community and other stakeholders will have the required capacity to observe clearly the dynamism within the livestock production system and to deal with the emerging market trends.v. Continuous and comprehensive market information will be available for the community and for the research and extension institutes to gauge the responsiveness of the marketers.Chapter 9Economic valuation of preferred cattle traits serves much more than estimating implicit prices Transforming the livestock production system into a more productive and rewarding type requires continuous assessment and valuation of preferred traits of the animals. As markets in developing economies hardly capture the total economic value of a given animal genetic resource, valuation methods need to go beyond market places and revealed preferences (Scarpa et al., 2003;Drucker, 2004;Roosen et al., 2005). Economic valuation of preferred traits helps in estimating the implicit prices or the willingness to pay for the important traits of livestock, in our case cattle, and these estimates can be used in research and development interventions meant to enhance the dynamism and efficiency of the production system.Specifically, economic values for preferred traits facilitate decision making process in selecting cattle types with specific and useful characteristics. Economic valuation, in general, strongly reinforces the argument for rational resource allocation in the development, utilization and conservation of the valuable animal genetic resources owned by countries like Ethiopia.Comprehensive understanding of the basic components of the cattle production and marketing system is a vital starting point to design interventions designed to enhance efficiency with in the system. It is specifically advised that the current breeding strategies and breeding objectives need to be clearly known before any support is given to any specific type of breeding operation or suggestions are made for improvement (Bayer et al., 2003). This part of the thesis characterizes the production and marketing systems and elicits farmers' preferences for cattle traits both as producers and as buyers. The livestock production system is principally subsistence oriented, multi-purpose, resource constrained and risk prone.Similarly, the marketing system operates with very poor infrastructure and information asymmetry. The trait preferences elicited in the production areas and in markets show the consistent choices of farmers and buyers. For farmers, age, origin and draft power were the most important attributes of bulls, whereas for buyers it was plowing strength, age, origin and calf vigor. Short calving interval, age and calf vigor were ranked highest when buyers were asked in the markets about cow traits. Origin, age, milk yield and fertility were the most important traits of cows for buyers in the market. These observed preferences are useful to make better informed decisions in designing interventions to improve the contribution of cattle to the livelihoods of their keepers.The focus of Ethiopian livestock development initiatives over the last four decades has essentially been increasing milk yield per animal (Desta, 2002). Like all other animals, and particularly as cattle, cows are raised for different functions where milk is one but not the only product. The different functions of cattle and the purposes they are kept for are manifested through the different characteristics of the animals that are preferred by the cattle keepers. The cattle keepers in rural Ethiopia are again the main consumers of the functions and services of the cattle population they own. This intricacy of producer-and-consumer and multiple-function-cattle production necessitated estimation of the relative weights of the different attributes presumed to influence the perceived utility level from a given cow. The econometric estimations and simulation analysis show that the farming community consistently attaches more importance to fertility (short calving interval), disease resistance and calf vigor than to milk. The results also show that farmers prefer animals from their surroundings. These smallholder farmers depend on semi subsistence agriculture and so livestock development interventions should focus on reproductive and adaptive traits that stabilize the herd structure than focusing on traits which are only important to commercial purposes.Of all classes of cattle, the genetic diversity within bulls appears to be highly compromised for the sake of generating high yielding dairy and beef breeds in the developed world. The well founded and funded projects over the last four decades to replace the 'poorly productive' breeds with few and homogenous 'highly productive' breeds in Ethiopia through AI and crossbreeding pose a great deal of risk. With the valid argument that indigenous cattle and specifically bulls have multiple functions, this research quantified the relative economic values of the preferred attributes of indigenous bulls. Results of the random parameters logit (McFadden and Train, 2000;Train, 2003) estimated based on data generated with choice experiments show that good traction potential, big body size, disease resistance, and places where animals are brought from are very important for cattle buyers in the rural markets of central Ethiopia. Although there is heterogeneity in these preferences due to differences in occupation, education and age, majority of the cattle buyers are willing to pay more for traits that imply the functions vital for the livelihoods of the rural community. The macro-level implication of these stated preferences is that national livestock breeding policy and strategies need to aim at building the indigenous practices of selecting, improving, conserving and sharing of animal genetic resources.Merging stated preference and hedonic analyses is a recommendation often made to generate reliable estimates for the relative values of characteristics of attribute (or quality) differentiated goods (Scarpa et al., 2003;Hensher et al., 2005). This paper complemented the stated preference analyses reported in chapters five and six. Hedonic price regression models were estimated under different formulations to deal with the strong heteroscedasticity observed in the error terms of the linear regression model initially estimated. All the formulations identified season, market location, class of cattle, body size, and age as very important factors influencing the level of price paid for cattle. The importance of these traits is manifested through the preferences of buyers in the markets while deciding to pay for an animal, as a bundle of attributes, which presumably maximizes their perceived utility. These preferences are the ones which matter most in shaping up the diversity of animals kept at farm level. The cattle breeding strategies and activities should, therefore, consider the preferences of cattle keepers who are the main buyers and sellers and the rural markets of rural Ethiopia. For formulating transaction level price functions in rural markets, we suggest using feasible generalized least square and structural heteroscedasticity models. Not only statistically, but also the two models appear to be defining the cause and effect relationship between price and the determinant factors in line with the theoretical and contextual expectations.The essential purpose of the economic valuations of cattle attributes reported in this thesis is developing a framework for community based management (CBM) of animal genetic resources (AnGR) in the study area. The essential components and activities needed to be considered to empower the cattle keeping community for an effective collective action in the conservation and sustainable use of the indigenous cattle population are identified and discussed. Effective and long-lasting CBM of AnGR requires that the important components of the livestock production system and their interactions be manipulated to enable the community own, manage and benefit from the AnGR. As cattle are crucially important to the livelihoods of the community in all aspects of the socioeconomic setup, CBM of cattle genetic resources appears to be a promising alternative as compared to the traditional approaches which focused less on the immediate and long term objectives of the communities they were supposed to benefit. Ressourcen verantwortlich sind (Rege, 2003;Kohler-Rollefson, 2004). Die Gemeinden oder ","tokenCount":"28263"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b89934f59b40ccf761cea91841742f12","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3412d81d-60c9-4262-b333-99cb4450480a/retrieve","id":"-543960114"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cdfe5ae0-4ec2-47ee-83c9-0d6b41bcaedc","pagecount":"9","content":"This work is part of the CGIAR Initiative on Sustainable Animal Productivity. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.About SAPLING: CGIAR's Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) is working in seven countries focusing on livestock value chains to package and scale out triedand-tested, as well as new, innovations in livestock health, genetics, feed and market systems. SAPLING aims to demonstrate that improvements in livestock productivity can offer a triple win: generating improved livelihoods and nutritional outcomes; contributing to women's empowerment; and reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Its seven focus countries are Ethiopia,Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana Kunth) is an important stoloniferous leafy perennial grass widely grown in tropics and subtropics (Heuze et al, 2016). It is a persistent, drought tolerant and highly productive species. It has a deep root system and can withstand extended periods of drought (Heuze et al, 2016), and grows in a wide range of ecologies and soil types (Heuze et al, 2016;Cook et al., 2020) with no known economically important biotic stressor (Cook et al., 2020). It can produce an average biomass yield of 10-16 t DM/ha (Heuze et al, 2016). It can used for direct grazing and/or for hay production. It is also used as a cover crop improve soil fertility and reduce soil nematodes (Heuze et al, 2016;Cook et al., 2020).Several cultivars with improved performance, particularly in drought and low temperature prone areas, have been developed and commercialized (Cook et al., 2020). However, in terms of genetic and genomic studies, it is one of understudied tropical forage crops in the world. The ILRI forage genebank holds 104 accessions of Rhodes grass collected from different parts of the world. Genetic diversity using genomewide representative markers showed the rich diversity embedded in the collection (Negawo et al., 2021) that can be exploited for selecting high yielding adaptable genotyping. Recently 70 accessions were also introduced from USDA and APG. The ILRI collection, together with the accessions received from USDA and APG, are being evaluated for biomass yield and feed quality traits. Phenotyping data will be collected from trials for the next 2-3 seasons which will subsequently be used for identification of best performing genotypes, genetic diversity studies, subset development, QTL identification, and genomic prediction for traits of interest.o 174 accessions of Rhodes grass (Table 1) were planted at Bishoftu field genebank sites using a 14 x 14 partially replicated simple lattice design in two replications (blocks, Figure 1).o The commercial variety, Katambora (ILRI 6633) was included as standard check. This variety was also planted as a border plant around the two blocks.  The following data will be collected from the trail for next 2-3 seasons: The trial was established with 174 Rhodes grass accessions (Figure 2). currently the plants are growing well, and standardization cut done in September 2024. Refilling of missing plants were done. Irrigation system will be installed to provide water for the plants during dry season of year. The established trial will be evaluated for the next two seasons during the main raining season as well as off season for yield performance and feed quality. Samples from all accessions and lines were genotyped using the GBS method at SEQART-Africa produced medium-density genome wide DArTseq markers. Table 2 shows the number of markers. In addition, if needed, leaf samples will also be collected from growing plants for DNA extraction and genotyping which will eventually be used for GWAS and QTL identification. The marker data will be used to study the genetic diversity analysis (population structure using the admixture model, PCA, clustering and phylogenetic analysis, etc.) and subsetting/core collection establishment. In the future, together with phenotypic data, it will be used for GWAS to identify QTL and other genetic information to support the improvement of this important grass forage for small holder production system in developing countries.","tokenCount":"670"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c752eab0435cdf558529e261c4e5a845","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c2205742-c1c0-4856-b210-25d11ce6a97b/retrieve","id":"-642385119"},"keywords":["Hordeum vulgare L.","chlorophyll fluorescence","photosystem II photochemistry","quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs)","Mixed linear model (MLM)","Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling","protein kinase","post-transcription modification"],"sieverID":"4072107b-84f6-4150-9fa5-c20232f04360","pagecount":"22","content":"Low-temperature stress (LTS) is among the major abiotic stresses affecting the geographical distribution and productivity of the most important crops. Understanding the genetic basis of photosynthetic variation under cold stress is necessary for developing more climate-resilient barley cultivars. To that end, we investigated the ability of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (F V F M, and F V F 0 ) to respond to changes in the maximum quantum yield of Photosystem II photochemistry as an indicator of photosynthetic energy. A panel of 96 barley spring cultivars from different breeding zones of Canada was evaluated for chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits under cold acclimation and freeze shock stresses at different times. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using a mixed linear model (MLM). We identified three major and putative genomic regions harboring 52 significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) on chromosomes 1H, 3H, and 6H for low-temperature tolerance. Functional annotation indicated several QTNs were either within the known or close to genes that play important roles in the photosynthetic metabolites such as abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, hydrolase activity, protein kinase, and transduction of environmental signal transduction at the posttranslational modification levels. These outcomes revealed that barley plants modified their gene expression profile in response to decreasing temperatures resulting in physiological and biochemical modifications. ColdFrontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org 01Environmental factors, particularly those affecting temperature and availability of water are the main factors of in plant growth and development. The low-temperature polar regions and Oceans cover about 80% of the Globe's land. One-third only of the global lands are free of ice, and 42% of this area is commonly under temperatures below -20°C (Junttila and Robberecht, 1999). In such regions, plants require specific processes to survive exposure to low temperatures. Most plants have developed a degree of cold tolerance, which is usually based on a combination of the length of exposure to cold stress and the minimum temperature experienced (Janska et al., 2010). Therefore, the growth and development of plants are affected by temperature variations in the majority of temperate regions on Earth (Nilsen et al., 1996). The problem is expected to expand due to climatic changes, particularly in Northern Europe and Canada. Cold stress impacts plant growth and crop productivity, causing substantial yield reductions (Junttila and Robberecht, 1999). Plants vary in their responses to freezing (<0°C) and chilling (0-15°C) temperatures (Browse and Xin, 2001). Damage appears when low temperatures overlap with sensitive stages of plant growth.In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), yield and grain quality are the key challenges in maintaining the constant growth of the agriculture industry. Though significant advances have been made in the genetic gains for yield and grain quality in barley, the crop rarely reaches its full yield potential because of seasonal variations including the low temperatures prevailing early and late in the growing season. Barley is mainly classified into three types of growth habits: spring, winter, and facultative. Winter barley is sown in the autumn because it requires a cold period (vernalization) to flower. Facultative types do not require vernalization, some lines possess levels of low-temperature tolerance comparable to winter barley. While, spring barleys are sown in the spring and do not require vernalization, and possess no perceivable level of low-temperature tolerance (Rizza et al., 2011;Zitzewitz et al., 2011). Spring barley is a main crop across the Canadian prairies and is used for food, malting, and general purposes (feed and forage). Spring barley yields about 20% less than winter barley, in areas where it is adapted (Kling et al., 2004). Though, spring barley genotypes are normally not as tolerant to cold as other winter cereals. Cold tolerance in barley has been a challenging phenomenon to develop with conventional breeding approaches. It is best to evaluate and screen breeding material under uniform cold stress in the laboratory as screening for winterhardiness in the field is rarely reliable. In 2021, barleyseeded areas consisted of 50.4% malting barley, 42.3% general purpose barley, and 2.3% food barley in the western Canada (Marta and Tricia, 2020). In poorer countries, barley is an essential food source (Grando and Macpherson, 2005), affording harvestable yields in locations that are harsh and marginal for crop production. Current research has categorized barley as a true functional food in more developed societies. The barley's grain is particularly high in soluble dietary fiber, which significantly declines the risk of serious diseases such as type II diabetes. The USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved cell-wall polysaccharides from barley grain as a human health claim (Collins et al., 2010).Selection for cold tolerance/susceptibility in barley varieties can be associated with reliable screening techniques. Traditional methods, such as measuring survival rates and plant re-growth, are time-consuming and inaccurate in quantifying the level of cold tolerance (Novillo et al., 2004). Some techniques focus on injuries to the plasma membranes that result in the leakage of electrolytes from plant tissues (Steponkus et al., 1990). The electrolyte leakage is easily quantified by conductivity measurements (Rohde et al., 2004). For such investigations, plants are exposed to freeze-thaw cycles with minimum temperatures usually ranging from -1 to -50°C, and electrolyte leakage caused by cooling is then measured. The methods to quantify the cold tolerance of plants should be noninvasive and applicable at a high-throughput screening rate so that the underlying genetic determinations can be effectively quantified and established (Mishra et al., 2011). Evidence suggests that chlorophyll fluorescence emission can be used effectively in highthroughput screening of plants' low-temperature tolerance (Mishra et al., 2011).Photosynthesis is one of the most essential and complex physiological mechanisms in all plants and is influenced in all periods by stresses (Baker, 1996). Because the photosynthesis mechanism regulates multiple cellular processes, including photosystems and photosynthetic pigments, electron transport system, and CO 2 reduction events, any stress-induced damage can completely decrease the photosynthetic capacity of green plants (Lawlor and Cornic, 2002;Ashraf and Harris, 2013). Cold stress influences the photosynthetic apparatus through the suppression of photosystems and pigment modifications, thylakoid membranes, photosynthesis-related enzyme activity, chlorophyll fluorescence, gas exchange, and reduced CO 2 assimilation in addition to the electron transport rate. Photosynthesis converts light energy into redox equivalents (NADPH) and ATP, essential elements for plant growth and development. On the other hand, cold stress prevents thylakoid electron transport via aggregate membrane viscosity. It disorders light energy process trapping by Photosystem I and Photosystem II antenna. The enhancement of energy trapping beyond its regular ability results in a high-energy state, which eventually leads to the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Ashraf and Harris, 2013).Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters have become a common and powerful technique in plant breeding to investigate the impact of stresses on the photosynthetic mechanism (Guidi et al., 2019). It can be used as a representative of plant stress as environmental stresses, such as extremes of temperature, water, and light availability can decrease the capability of a plant to metabolize normally. This can lead to an imbalance between the light energy absorption via chlorophyll and the utilization of energy in photosynthesis (Schreiber, 1986;Schreiber et al., 1986). Chlorophyll fluorescence is an indicator of photosynthetic energy that responds to alterations in Photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry and consequently represents a rapid and efficient tool to assess the capacity of the photosynthetic mechanism at low temperatures (Lichtenthaler and Rinderle, 1988). The function of the photosynthetic machinery can be evaluated by measuring the ratio of chlorophyll variable fluorescence (F V ) over the maximum fluorescence value (F M ), which reveals the efficiency of the excitation capture by open photosystem II reaction centers (Fracheboud et al., 1999;Rizza et al., 2001). An association between the decrease of F V /F M and frost tolerance during hardening and after freezing was found in winter wheat (Clement and Hasselt, 1996), spring and winter barleys, and rye (Smillie and Hetherington, 1983).During cold acclimation, different physiological and biochemical modifications occur, such as the synthesizing of proline, soluble sugars, and cold-resistance proteins to maintain proteins (Hannah et al., 2010). These events play significant roles in the response to cold stress by controlling the ice crystal formation, osmotic potential, reactive oxygen species, and stability of cell walls and membranes (Ding et al., 2019). Some elements, including protein kinases, messenger molecules, phosphatases, and transcription factors (TFs), have been reported for cold-stress signaling pathways (Ding et al., 2019). Understanding the genetic regulation underlying the photosynthesis process under low-temperature stress in barley can facilitate the development of climate-resilient and high-yielding cultivars in a short period of time. Since the first draft reference of the barley genome was released (Schulte et al., 2009;IBGS et al., 2012), high-quality genome sequences have been published (Sato et al., 2016;Mascher et al., 2017;Dai et al., 2018). These tools facilitated barley research and became precious resources for the improvement and comparative genomics studies including genomewide association studies (GWAS) and QTL mapping. In addition, advances in genome mapping and sequencing technologies have made possible the cost-effective assembly and sequencing of hundreds of genotypes with large-genome species, such as barley (5 Gb, haploid genome size) (Monat et al., 2019;Jayakodi et al., 2020). The 9K SNP array is a commonly powerful GWAS tool for identifying specific allele variants (Comadran et al., 2012).Evidence of chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthesis variability in barley has been reported (Kocheva et al., 2004;Guo et al., 2007;Bertholdsson et al., 2015), indicating opportunities for genetic improvement and selection. Several analyses have been reported for quantitative trait loci (QTL) for chlorophyll fluorescence under low oxygen concentration (Bertholdsson et al., 2015), post-flowering under drought (Guo et al., 2007), early shorttime drought tolerance (Wojcik-Jagla et al., 2013). Understanding the mechanisms of low-temperature tolerance and barley productivity is one of the main challenges facing scientists and breeders today. So far, the effect of low temperatures on chlorophyll fluorescence as an indicator of photosynthetic energy conversion in barley plants is still well unknown. Therefore, the aims of the present study were (i) to investigate the response of barley genotypes at three-to four-leaf stages to low-temperature stress including cold acclimation and freezing shock; (ii) to identify genetic loci associated with the chlorophyll fluorescence trait, by using genome-wide association studies; (iii) to identify key genes related to chlorophyll fluorescence before and after the LTS conditions and, (iv) introgression of cold tolerance into spring barley.A panel of 96 spring barley genotypes from eight breeding programs of Western Canadian barley breeding programs was used in this study. All genotypes were evaluated at different times between 1994 and 2006 (Beattie et al., 2010) and selected based on their high seed yield and percentage of winter survival and cold hardiness (ranging from 50 to 100%). The association panel consists of advanced breeding lines, commercial varieties, two-rowed lines used to investigate beta-glucanase and limit dextrinase, and elite germplasm, which has been developed for the Western Two-Row Cooperative Registration. Several diversity array technology (DArT) markers were detected for grain quality using 91 genotypes of this panel and disease ratings for true loose smut and net blotch (Beattie et al., 2010). In our previous study, an important pattern of genetic diversity was detected in the population studied. Our previous study revealed that this panel is differentiated due to the ear-row type and breeding program origins into five subpopulations (Capo-Chichi et al., 2023).Two experiments namely cold acclimation and freezing shock evaluations were conducted to study the impact of the low-temperature stress (LTS) on the 96 spring barley genotypes. In both experiments, ten seeds of each genotype were germinated in 8 cm×8 cm×7 cm pots containing pasteurized field soil (wet soil) in the growth chamber. The seeds in each pot were covered by an equal amount of soil to enhance uniform emergence. Pots were placed in a growth chamber at 20°C/15°C and a photoperiod of 12/12 h light/ dark cycle. The experiments were designed in a completely randomized design (CRD) in three replicates. At the three-leaf seedling stage (on day 14), the germination rate was recorded for all genotypes then, seedlings were thinned to five plants per pot before the treatments.For cold acclimation treatment, seedlings at a three-leaf stage were placed in a programmable cold chamber. The initial temperature in the cold chamber was -1°C. The temperature was raised between 3°C and 5°C, then gradually decreased to -12°C over a duration of four hours (Supplementary Figure 1), to ensure that nucleation occurred evenly. For the freezing-shock treatment; pots were moved during the day from the growth chamber to a programmable cold chamber. The initial temperature was -18°C and the temperature was immediately raised to -6°C. Pots were exposed to temperatures that gradually declined from -6°C to -11°C for 75 min (0.06°C per min) (Supplementary Figure 1). In order to record chlorophyll fluorescence parameters for the same seedlings each time, the measured seedlings were numbered from 1 to 5 in both experiments. After the treatments, all seedlings were returned to the growth chambers (normal condition). A week later, a frost's survival rate in each pot was recorded and the genotypes were characterized according to their ability to tolerate the low temperatures. Frost survival was calculated visually twice; once after the acclimation using a 1-5 symptoms scale, where: 1 (dead plant), 2 (trace of life; low survival potential), 3 (intensive damage; less than half of the coleoptile leaf green), 4 (moderate to minimal damage; limited to leaf edges), 5 (no damage).The fluorescence measurement values were collected from 96 genotypes after cold acclimation treatment, while after the freezingshock treatment 22 genotypes died out completely, and the results were collected from the remaining 74 genotypes. The measurements were assessed in the greenhouse on the second leaf that completely expanded. A grid with a 33 mm hole diameter was clipped on the inner section of the leaf. For a dark-adapted period, the leaf clips were left for 20 min. The measurement probe was trimmed later and the reading values were taken by using a portable chlorometer OS-30P (Opti-Sciences). Plants were allowed to dark-adapt overnight to ensure that all PSII centers are open, and the lights were turned off in the greenhouse until measurements were concluded (between 1 and 3 a.m.). The chlorophyll fluorescence parameter was measured according to the formula; (Ghassemi-Golezani et al., 2008).Where; F 0 ; F M and F V are primary fluorescence parameters while F V /F M and F V /F 0 are fluorescence ratios as the following.F 0 : minimum fluorescence occurs while all antenna sites are supposed to be open (dark-adapted). F M : maximum fluorescence intensity under exposure to the excitation source while all antenna sites are assumed to be closed. F V : variable fluorescence. F V /F M : the maximum yield of primary photochemistry. F V /F 0 : maximum efficiency of PSII. The F V /F M is the ratio of variable fluorescence to maximal fluorescence, which is an indicator of maximum quantum efficiency and gives important information concerning the effect of environmental stress on the plant. The F V /F 0 ratio is a very sensitive indicator of the maximum efficiency of photochemical processes in PSII and/or the potential photosynthetic activity of healthy and stressed plants (Lichtenthaler & Rinderle, 1988). Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements were recorded at three different times for both experiments: before the treatment (BF), two hours after the treatment (AF), and 24 hours after the treatment (DF). Heritability in the broad sense (H b ) was calculated before and after the treatments according to Elakhdar et al. (Elakhdar et al., 2016).Heritability in the broad sense; H 2 b = V 2 G =V 2 P Â 100 , where, V G ; genetic variance and V P ; phenotypic varianceGenomic DNA was isolated from the young leaf of the 3-4 leaf stage using the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). DNA quality was quantified at 230 nm and then qualified at 230/ 260 and 260/280 absorption ratios, respectively. Genotypes were genotyped on an Illumina 9K Barley Infinium iSelect SNP assay (Comadran et al., 2012) at the USDA-ARS genotyping laboratory (Fargo, ND). Physical positions of markers were taken from the barley pseudomolecule assembly by the James Hutton iSelect annotation (https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/50k/) and Barley DB: Barley Bioresources Database (http://earth.nig.ac.jp/~dclust/cgi-bin/ index.cgi?lang=en). SNPs with unknown chromosomal position, monomorphism, and SNPs with missing values greater than 20% were eliminated. For association analysis, markers with genetic and physical positions and with minor allele frequency (MAF) of 0.05 or greater were used. After performing these filters, a total of 5063 high-quality SNP markers remained in the dataset and were used for subsequent GWAS.Using the 5063 informative SNPs marker, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed on 96 barley genotypes to identify genetic regions linked to photosynthesis after the cold. GWAS was performed using a mixed linear model (MLM) (Zhang et al., 2005), using the R package GAPIT (Lipka et al., 2012). The MLM model was selected due to its strength and power for detecting marker/trait associations. This model is based on the genotype data (G), population structure (Q) as fixed effects, and the Kinship-matrix (K) as random effects (Pasam et al., 2012). In our previous study, Genome-wide LD decay was plotted as R 2 of an SNP marker against the corresponding genetic distance using the mixedmodel method (Capo-Chichi et al., 2023). A strong LD with an approximate average value of 0.021 when the distance was 0.391 cM was observed among the 5063 marker pairs in the studied population. The kinship matrix was assessed using the whole set of markers. To identify significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs), the Bonferroni corrected significance threshold was determined, based on the reduced marker set of 5063 SNP and a significant level of p<0.001 with a corresponding threshold of (-log10 p ≥ 3). Manhattan plots mapped the chromosome position on the x-axis against-log 10 (P-value) on the y-axis of each marker. The quantile-quantile (QQ) was plotted between the observed and the expected -log 10 P values.Genes with significant markers associated with the chlorophyll fluorescence, their locations, and corresponding annotations were retrieved from the BARLEYMAP platform (http://floresta.eead. csic.es/barleymap/) (Cantalapiedra et al., 2015) version of the MorexV3 genome (Comadran et al., 2012). The physical positions of markers were revealed from the Barley Physical Map IBSC (IBGS et al., 2012), the POPSEQ map (Mascher et al., 2013), and the Morex Genome Map (Mascher et al., 2017). Gene Ontologies (GO) enrichments were obtained from the Amigo of Gene Ontology platform (http://geneontology.org) (Pomaznoy et al., 2018) and the Gene Ontology and GO annotation platform; QuickGO (https:// www.ebi.ac.uk/QuickGO/). Gene co-expression for the identified genes was revealed from the Global gene co-expression networks (GCNs) database PlantNexus (Zhou et al., 2022).Four two-rowed winter barleys '02Ab671', '02Ab431', '02Ab669' and '2Ab08X05W061-208' were obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The genotypes were selected based on excellent malt extract, high seed yield, and their high percentage of cold hardiness and winter survival (50 to 100% across different locations in the northern United States). Vernalization was performed in growth chambers at 5°C for 8 h of light for seedlings at the two-to-three-leaf stage. After ten weeks of vernalization, seedlings were moved to 20°C with 16/8 h light/dark, and humidity closely monitored. Upon flowering, eighteen crosses were made between spring and winter barleys (Supplemental Table 1).Twenty-nine-day-old plants from 96 spring barley genotypes were used to study the impact of low-temperature stress: cold acclimation and freezing shock. The survival rates were assessed using a visual damage scale. In the cold acclimation and freeze shock experiments, the frequency of the genotypes, and distribution to germination were recorded for all genotypes (Figure 1). The results revealed that the time required for the emergence onset varied from 14 to 19 days for the genotypes studied (Figure 1). At 14 days, the emergence rates ranged from 0 to 38%, while on day 19, the emergence rates varied from 4 to 100%. The time required for 50% emergence ranged from 15 to 22 days, demonstrating that some genotypes have the ability to emerge faster than others. We observed several lines that exhibited adequate performance at 5°C.Under cold acclimation, we observed that survival frequencies ranged from 30 to 100% with the majority grouped between 80 and 90% (Figure 2). Under freezing-shock stress, 22 genotypes were dead while survival rates ranged from 0 to 100% with the majority of the genotypes between 20 and 30% survival (Figure 2). The The emergence percentage (G%) of the first, 50% (T50) and greater than 90% (T>90) emergence of 96 spring barley genotypes. G% was calculated by dividing the number of emerged seedlings by the number of seeds planted for each seed plot and multiplying the product by 100.seedlings stressed under these conditions suffered leaf wilting as the duration of stress was prolonged. These findings suggest that the cold acclimation treatment improved freezing tolerance more than the freezing shock treatment.Five chlorophyll characteristics including parameters of transient fluorescence were collected for cold acclimation and freezing shock treatments. The parameters represent the photochemical efficiency of PSII behavior affected by LTS (Table 1). A high level of phenotypic variation was detected in all traits measured under both low-temperature stress conditions (Table 1). Before the treatments (BF), the highest H b value was observed for F V /F 0 (97.9% and 93.6% for cold acclimation and freezing shock treatments, respectively) (Table 1). Low to high values of heritability (H b ) were observed under LTS treatments. Two hours after treatments (AF), F V /F 0 exhibited also the highest value of heritability H b of 94.4% and 96.5%, cold acclimation and freezing shock, respectively, whereas, after 24 hours of stress (DF), F V /F 0 and F M had the highest values 92.2% and 73.5, respectively) (Table 1). These results suggest adequate variability and different responses to low-temperature stress that exists in the barley material studied. Normal distribution was detected for the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, F V /F 0 and F V /F M , before and after the low-temperature conditions (Figure 3). This indicates that barley's chlorophyll fluorescence traits are quantitatively inherited and controlled by multiple genes. In addition, the genotypes might vary in their photosynthetic mechanisms in response to lowtemperature tolerance, which will impact the yield and ultimately the breeder. Thus, the difference in low-temperature tolerance between the genotypes provides a foundation for studying this phenomenon for GWAS and/or QTL studies.Before the cold acclimation treatment (BF), the ratio of variable fluorescence to maximal fluorescence (F V /F M ) values for lines ranged from 0.746 to 0.775, with a mean value of 0.76 (Table 1). The variable fluorescence to fluorescence occurring while antenna sites are supposed to be open (F V /F 0 ) ranged from 2.943 to 3.453 with an average value of 3.22 (Table 1). After the exposure to lowtemperature stress, the mean values of F V /F M and F V /F 0 decreased significantly in both experiments compared with those before the treatment (Table 1). Two hours after cold acclimation stress (AF)Survival rates distribution for 96 genotypes of spring barley one week old after low-temperature stress conditions. Cold acclimation (left) and freezing shock (right). View for the effect of freezing-shock treatment on the spring barley at the three-leaf stage (lower panel). Twenty-two genotypes died out completely. Low-temperature stress is induced at the three-leaf stage.treatment, the F V /F M values measured ranged from 0.062 to 0.667 with an average of 0.39 across the genotypes. The F V /F 0 values ranged from 0.067 to 2.513, averaging 1.28. While the F V /F M values after 24 hours of cold acclimation treatment (DH) varied from 0.714 to 0.001, averaging 0.38 (Table 1). The F V /F 0 values ranged from 0.001 to 2.62, averaging 1.33 (Table 1). After the freezingshock treatment, 22 genotypes died out completely (Figure 2). F V F M values for genotypes ranged from 0.10 to 0.55 and 0.00 to 0.61 for AF and DH, respectively (Table 1). While the values measured for F V /F 0 varied from 0.12 to 2.00, and from 0.00 to 2.15 for AF and DH, respectively (Table 1). The remaining 74 genotypes were used for the GWAS.The result suggested that freezing-shock treatment caused a large decline in F V /F M and F V /F 0 values in the non-hardy cultivars. During the recovery in the growth chambers, we found that this effect was irreversible and contingent on a threshold. In most cases, the irreversible effect was associated with F V /F M values below 0.220. For more hardy cultivars, the F V /F M values varied between 0.477 and 0.609 after freezing shock treatment, while the F V /F 0 ranged from 1.832 to 2.413. Taken together, these results show that the decreases in the chlorophyll fluorescence indexes might reveal a reduction of PSII efficiency and plant death.The comprehensive Pearson correlation analysis between the chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits; F 0 , F V , F M , F V /F 0, and F V /F M under low-temperature tolerance before (BF), two hours after (AF), and 24 hours after (DH) treatment are presented in histograms (Figure 4). For the AF readings, correlations between the parameters measured ranged from 0.628 between F 0 and F V /F 0 to 0.992 between F V and F M at p = 0.0001. Meanwhile, a higher correlation (p = 0.0001) was observed under the DH stress condition between F V and F M , which ranged from 0.691 between F O and F V /F M to 0.994 between F V and F M at p = 0.0001 (Figure 4A). A correlation analysis was also performed between the traits under freezing shock stress (Figure 4B). The correlations were moderate to high and ranged from 0.458 between F M and F 0 to 0.968 between F M and F V under the AF stress condition (Figure 4 B). Under the DH condition, a positive correlation was detected between F V /F 0 and F V /F M with all studied traits and ranged from 0.755 to 0.967 when p = 0.0001, respectively (Figure 4B).To investigate the genetic factors associated with lowtemperature tolerance in barley, a GWAS analysis was conducted for the chlorophyll fluorescence related-traits from 96 spring barley genotypes with a set of 5063 high-quality SNP markers. The average r 2 value of the genome was 0.02, and the LD decay was found to start at an r 2 value of 0.38 and reached half-decay at 0.2, representing the genome's threshold distance for linkage analysis (Capo-Chichi et al., 2023). In total, 52 significant quantitative trait Maximum fluorescence when all PSII are closed, F V /F M ; the ratio of photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (PSII), F V /F 0 ; the ratio of maximum efficiency of photochemical processes in PSII of healthy and stressed plants.nucleotides (QTNs) were detected. Two significant SNPs (P< 0.001) were associated with chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits before low-temperature treatments, and 50 significant SNPs were observed under cold acclimation stress conditions (Table 2, Figure 5). All significant associations were found on chromosomes 1H, 3H, and 6H. While, under freezing-shock treatment, the remaining 74 cultivars used for the GWAS, the fluorescence data showed no significant associations between SNPs and chlorophyll fluorescence traits. Perhaps, this may be because of genetic drift, in which some versions of a gene have been lost because of random chance in this small population. Additionally, genetic diversity degrades more quickly in small populations than in large populations due to stochastic sampling error (genetic drift).Before the low-temperature stress treatment, one significant MTA was identified for F M and F V , which is located on chromosome 1H (42.035-42.036 cM) (Table 2). The peak marker was SCRI.RS.152795 with likelihood ratio-based R 2 of 1.22 and explained 67.612 and 52.574% of the additive variances for F M and F V , respectively. The Manhattan and Q-Q plot for both F M and F V are shown in Figures 5A, B, respectively .For the AF measurements under stress conditions, 39 significant QTNs were detected, three QTNs for F M , ten QTNs for F V , nine QTNs for F V F M, and twenty for F V F 0 (Table 2). Several QTNs were denoted in multiple chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits under both BF and/or AF conditions (Figure 6). There were reasonable correlations detected between chlorophyll fluorescence-   Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org related traits (Figure 4A) and visual damage showing that some loci contributed to both phenotypes (i.e., cold acclimation damage/ photosynthetic efficiency and tolerance). Among the significantly associated markers, four SNPs were detected for F V , F V F 0, and F V F M (Table 3 and (Figures 5D, E). For example, BOPA1.7728.341, BOPA2.12.31368, BOPA2.12.31368, SCRI.RS.181360, and SCRI.RS.13891 have founded in the interval region on chromosome 3H between 434909031 bp and 446916578 bp (Figure 5D). Further, five QTNs were associated with AFF V , AFF V /F 0. Of them, BOPA1.ABC10084.1.2.363, SCRI.RS.144535, and SCRI.RS.224360 were located between 538658350 bp and 539231657 bp in the interval region on chromosome 3H (Table 3). These results suggested that the QTNs identified in several traits could be considered to be more stable. For the DH readings, eight significant SNPs were detected for the chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits F M, F V , F V /F M , and F V /F 0 (Table 3 and Figures 5G-J). All the abovementioned related traits were associated with two markers SCRI.RS.155758 and SCRI.RS.165588, which were detected on chromosome 1H at the interval regions of 539454103 bp and 539695184 bp (Figure 6). The R 2 values ranged between 0.112 and 0.195 for the 52 SNP markers across different traits, suggesting the presence of major QTNs controlling different chlorophyll fluorescence parameters.The genomic regions close to the associated SNPs detected in the GWAS were annotated using BARLEYMAP, and then the gene ontologies (GO) enrichments were performed by using Amigo (Tables 3 and 4). Of the 52 candidate genes identified by the GWAS dataset, we found that 15 genes were common among the different traits most of them with high confidence and predicted function (HC_G).In the interval detected region between 420355366 bp and 420364697 bp on chromosome 1H, there is one gene (HORVU1Hr1G057600) associated with the F M trait and encoding to PAX-interacting protein 1 (PAXIP1) (Tables 3). The PAXIP1 is involved in transcriptional regulation by histone methyltransferase (HMT) complexes and the DNA damage response. AF genes directly participate in the DNA repair pathway, post-translational modifications, and protein kinase which plays an important role in DNA replication and repair, transcription regulation, and chromosomal stability.In the identified regions on chromosome 1H, between 539695184 bp to 536426484 bp, two common AF and DH genes (HORVU1Hr1G087520) belong to the E3 SUMO-protein ligase   family which is involved in a DNA repair pathway. In addition, one gene has an unknown function. HORVU1Hr1G085880 is another AF gene that encodes a ninja-family protein that plays a role in stress-related and growth-related signaling cascades (Table 3).In the interval detected on chromosome 3H between 431379904 bp and 539228382 bp, there are six AF genes with undescribed protein annotations and ten annotated genes (Table 3). Of the ten genes, two (HORVU3Hr1G057870 and HORVU3Hr1G071210) belong to the same enzyme family Mannan endo-1,4-betamannosidase 7 and Mannan endo-1,4-beta-mannosidase 2 protein, respectively. In addition to an enzyme (V-type proton ATPase subunit E), transcription factor (Bromodomain-containing factor 1), binding protein (Protein DEHYDRATION-INDUCED 19 homolog 3), transporter (ROP guanine nucleotide exchange factor 5) and splicing factor (splicing factor 3A subunit 3) (Table 3). The remaining genes are an Alpha/beta hydrolase domain-containing protein 13 and protein kinase superfamily protein.In the interval region on chromosome 6H between 13139794 bp and 13140854 bp, one gene (HORVU6Hr1G005960) encodes histone H2A 7 protein, a core element of the nucleosome, which plays an important role in transcription regulation, DNA repair and replication and chromosomal stability (Table 3).To provide more insight into the candidate gene products in the pathways related to low-temperature tolerance, three independent categories of gene ontology were categorized: cellular components (CC), biological processes (BP), and molecular functions (MF) were categorized. The discovered candidate genes were annotated, and several GO terms were observed to be mainly relevant to lowtemperature tolerance and chlorophyll fluorescence (Table 4). We identified 16 GO terms using the discovered genes. We found that four unique GO terms, including the zinc ion binding term (GO:0008270), hydrolase activity (GO:0004553), carbohydrate metabolic process (GO:0005975), nuclear-transcribed mRNA catabolic process, no-go mRNA decay (GO:0005634) exhibited an overrepresentation of candidate genes linked with chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits under cold acclimation stress, AF and DH treatments. Interstitially, two GO terms GO:0005515 and GO:0005634 presented no-go mRNA decay as one of the mRNA surveillance pathways. We suggested that most of the identified genes might be directly and/or indirectly involved in the photosynthetic energy conversion in barley plants under lowtemperature stress responses.To develop new low temperature-tolerant varieties/germplasm of spring barley as a part of the current project, F 1 populations were produced from the cross-between winter and spring barleys. A single seed of each of the F 1 populations was planted per pot and growth habits were recorded. The results showed that winter barleys exhibit no flowers while all tillers of spring barleys exhibit fully flowered (Figure 7). We observed the number of tillers is high in F 1 populations in comparison with the spring type of the parental lines. F 2 populations were segregated for growth habits (Figure 7).The genotypes with spring growth habits were selected and evaluated for cold tolerance. We identified some spring F 2 plants earlier to flowering than the parental lines. These genotypes entered advanced generations (RIL 2-5 ) and were validated in field conditions to be used in the breeding programs towards the breeding of high and stable-yielding varieties in the Canadian prairies. We, therefore, suggest additional studies to refine and validate the cold hardiness of these lines such as QTL mapping to identify and characterize the candidate genes underlying this quantitative trait. Together, this study demonstrated that cold hardiness can be introgressed into spring barleys from winter barleys easily without the restriction of genes transferring related to vernalization requirement.Identifying and characterizing key genes underlying lowtemperature tolerance has become the main priority for improving the hardiness of barley. A deeper comprehension of the regulation networking and pathways of these genes and their association with low-temperature stress (LTS) would assist in the illustration of how barley plants adapt to stress. Understanding these pathways might offer opportunities for increasing the levels of cold tolerance. Due to the complexity of injuries and symptoms, it is difficult to measure the cold tolerance of barley at the seedling stage. This study evaluated cold tolerance in barley using visual symptoms and chlorophyll fluorescence as indicators of photosynthetic energy conversion.Under cold acclimation and freezing shock stresses, the F V F M and F V /F 0 declined rapidly as an index of freezing tolerance and subsequent loss of viability (Table 1). We found that the time for full leaf wilting was shorter with the freezing shock treatment compared with the cold acclimation treatment. Evidence suggested that wilting was mainly initiated by reduced water-uptake, and the stomatal response to water stress was not influenced by lowered temperature (Benson, 2008). The reduction in osmotic potential accounted for an enhancement in sugars. Sugars are believed to function principally as cryoprotectants (Benson, 2008). The accumulation of these solutes at low temperatures is essential not only for freezing tolerance but also for the prevention of cell dehydration (Wang M. et al., 2021). Though other photosynthetic parameters might be used as indicators of viability, the F V F M parameter is suggested for some reasons. First, a minor change in the F V F M value is easily visible and indicates clearly that loss of viability is imminent. The consistency of the F V F M parameter also increases the ease with which a threshold level can be defined. More significantly, dissimilar light-dependent parameters, F V F M is obtained from specimens in the dark-adapted state, negating the need for an extended period of illumination before measurement. As a result, because the quantity of F V F M can be performed with a single saturating pulse, a rapid evaluation of a large number of plants can be evaluated quickly in a short time.An association between the decrease of F V /F M and frost tolerance during hardening and after freezing was observed in winter wheat (Clement and Hasselt, 1996). F V /F M values showed a significantly decreased in studied genotypes of oat (Avena sativa L.) during acclimation to low, nonfreezing temperatures. F V /F M measurement was also found to be highly associated with frost damage evaluation under field conditions (Rizza et al., 2001). The decreases in the chlorophyll fluorescence indexes in this study are revealing the reduction in PSII efficiency. This could lead to a decline in photosynthetic activity mainly because of a light-induced decrease in CO 2 assimilation and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which, in turn, prevents protein synthesis (Baker, 1996). Even though the decrease in photo-assimilation could be based on the damage to various elements of the photosynthetic apparatus, the term photoinhibition is commonly used to describe light-induced inhibition of the PSII activity (Murata et al., 2007). The produced ROS are accountable for the damage to PSII reaction centers by inhibiting the protein synthesis, which is required for the PSII repair, resulting in the stimulation of PSII photoinhibition (Murata et al., 2007). PSII is the most prone component to be destroyed in the thylakoid membranes. Hence, the main result of abiotic stress is to make PSII susceptible to photoinhibition. In this study, the association mapping materials were selected based on grain yield and a high percentage of winter survival. We found significant phenotypic variation among cultivars for chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits, including F 0 , F V , F M , F V /F 0, and F V /F M before (BF), two hours (AF), and 24 hours (DH) after lowtemperature treatment. These outcomes suggest that this panel could be used as a genetic source of seedling low-temperature tolerance in Western Canadian barley breeding programs.The chlorophyll fluorescence traits characterized in this study are quantitative traits, thus, several genomic regions with small effects that contribute to the phenotype are expected. We first identified the genes having significant SNPs (Tables 2, 3) and discovered several candidate genes underlying chlorophyll fluorescence trait variation. Gene expression for some identified genes in different tissues of the barley plant was revealed from the Global gene co-expression networks (GCNs) database (Supplementary Figure 2). Among these, 13 genes are associated with the chlorophyll fluorescence trait under cold acclimation stress. Interestingly, we found two SNP markers on chromosome 1H that have been reported to be correlated with environmental stress. On chromosome 1H, a peak SNP was discovered to be associated with AFF M , DHF M , DHF V , DHF V /F M , and DHF V /F 0 that encode E3 SUMO-protein ligase. SUMO is a small ubiquitin-related modifier conjugation that is essential for posttranslational modification controlled by environmental cues (Miura et al., 2007a;Miura and Hasegawa, 2010). SUMO conjugation/ deconjugation was involved in responses to oxidative stress, heat shock, phosphate limitation, hypoxia, flowering, pathogen defense, and ABA signaling (Kurepa et al., 2003;Lois et al., 2003;Murtas et al., 2003;Miura et al., 2005;Yoo et al., 2006;Lee et al., 2007). In Arabidopsis AtSIZ1 SUMO E3 ligase functions are conserved in several environmental responses including cold tolerance responses, salicylic acid in plant defense, basal thermotolerance, flowering time regulation, and freezing tolerance (Miura et al., 2005;Yoo et al., 2006;Lee et al., 2007;Miura et al., 2007b). Overexpression of the rice OsSIZ1 gene improved tolerance to drought, heat and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis (Mishra et al., 2018), and drought and heat tolerance in cotton (Mishra et al., 2017). Furthermore, they produced higher seed yields under different stress conditions and improved the photosynthesis rate of plants exposed to heat stress. The SUMO E3 Ligase SIZ1 is involved in anthocyanin accumulation under high light in Arabidopsis (Zheng et al., 2020), DNA demethylation (Kong et al., 2020), numerous abiotic stresses (Fang et al., 2022), phosphate homeostasis in rice (Pei et al., 2020), and protecting maize plants from paraquat toxicity (Wang H.et al., 2021). The siz1 mutation exhibits freezing sensitivity as a decrease in expression of CBF3/DREB1, a transcription factor for acclimation to cold temperatures (Miura and Hasegawa, 2010). Recently, the HORVU3Hr1G016010 gene encodes a SUMO found to be involved in the cold response in the VIR barley collection (2214 accession) (Sallam et al., 2021). In this investigation, we found that the HORVU1Hr1G087520 on chromosome 1H encodes E3 SUMOprotein ligase associated with the chlorophyll fluorescence trait under low-temperature conditions and could regulate the photosynthesis rate. Photosynthetic proteins are responsible for providing the cells with the energy to assemble the defensive molecules in response to stress (Ashraf and Harris, 2013). Thus, E3 SUMO could be essential for cold acclimation tolerances in barley at the posttranslational modification level.Further, we found a significant SNP associated with AFF V F 0 under cold acclimation stress in a gene HORVU1Hr1G085880 encoding Ninja-family protein. Ninja (NOVEL-INTERACTOR-OF-JAZ) protein regulates growth-related and stress-related signaling (Pauwels et al., 2010). ECAP NINJA is an adaptor protein linking JASMONATE-ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins with the co-repressor, TOPLESS (TPL), to regulate gene Prospects for Growth Habit. Two F 1 populations were derived from a cross between 02Ab431 (♀-winter type) and Bentley (♂-spring type). F 2 population segregated for growth habit (spring versus winter type). The photo was taken 39 days after seeding. suppression in Jasmonate (JA)-dependent the Arabidopsis root growth inhibition. ECAP interacts with JAZ6 and as an adaptor protein to inhibit the JA-responsive anthocyanin accumulation by TPR2 recruitment to the transcriptional complex (Li et al., 2020). Through protein Ninja, Jasmonate JAZ repressor proteins recruit the Groucho/Tup1-type co-repressor TPL and TPL-related proteins (TPRs) (Pauwels et al., 2010). In Arabidopsis thaliana, Ninja binding proteins AFP1 and AFP4 are key regulators of ABA signaling and stress responses in seedlings, as well as a negative regulator of jasmonate responses (Garcia et al., 2008). NINJA, the novel interaction of JAZ encodes a transcriptional repressor that participated in the jasmonic acid pathway in the leaf and root growth and development (Oblessuc et al., 2020). Phytohormones such as JA, ABA, and salicylic acid are essential elements of complex signaling networks of the stress response (Lee et al., 2007) and control gene expression.Based on our results, we have proven that the post-translational modification of protein related to photosynthesis is critical for barley plants, which dynamically modulated their response to environmental changes under LTS conditions. We also reported that SUMO E3 ligase could accelerate the ubiquitin-proteasome system, by conjugation of small ubiquitin-like modifiers to target substrate proteins (cold tolerance-related genes) (Johnson, 2004). Ubiquitin could likewise alter some key TFs that facilitate plant adaptation to cold stress (Callis, 2014). Our results revealed that GWAS identified two SNPs on chromosomes 1H located between 539454103 bp (SCRI.RS.155758) and 536426484 bp (SCRI.RS.137116) linked to the E3 SUMO and Ninja proteins, respectively (Table 3).Interestingly, after two hours of the cold acclimation stress, we discovered SNPs on chromosome 3H, detected at 440011663 bp within the HORVU3Hr1G058390 gene encoding a Bromodomaincontaining factor 1 protein was found to be associated with the F V , F V /F M, and F V /F 0 . Bromodomain-containing transcription factors control gene expression in three ways; (i) transcription activation, (ii) conserving transcription memory, and (ii) anti-silencing of the conserved chromosomal region (Loyola and Almouzni, 2004). The bromodomain proteins proceed with these functions via binding to acetylated histones and anchoring sequence-specific factors on the chromatin of target promoters. Further, bromodomain-containing proteins contain various families of 'epigenetic mark readers', which are basic to epigenetic gene regulation, and necessary for different environmental stress responses and cellular processes (Abiraami et al., 2022). In Arabidopsis, the bromodomain-containing transcription factors, GTE9, and GTE11 convert specific factors as BT2 to control gene expression. BT2 is a BTB domain-containing protein with an essential TAZ-zinc finger domain and calmodulinbinding domain C-terminal that responds to different metabolic and physiological responses (Mandadi et al., 2009). Loss-offunction mutants bt2 exhibited a hypersensitive response to ABAand sugar-mediated suppression of germination, suggesting the role of ABA in sugar signaling in germination and development. BT2 expression was controlled by several abiotic and biotic stresses including cold, ABA, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), and methyl jasmonate (Mandadi et al., 2009). Cold-stress signal perception is the first stage, which is completed by various pathways. Transcriptional regulations are the next factors that control ABA-dependent signaling pathways to prompt the expression of coldregulated genes. Resulting in upregulating of hundreds of metabolite levels, some of which are identified to have protective results against the negative impacts of cold stress including soluble sugars, ROS, and photosynthetic metabolites (Heidarvand and Maali Amiri, 2010).On the other hand, we found SNPs on chromosome 6H located within the HORVU6Hr1G005960 gene that encodes histone H2A 7 protein, which has been associated with multiple traits, including F V , F V /F 0 under the cold acclimation condition. Histone H2A is one of the five key histone proteins engaged in the chromatin structure in eukaryotic cells that are responsible for maintaining the shape and structure of a nucleosome. Histone modification is an epigenetic mechanism involving changes in the chromatin structure of stressed genes via several chemical processes during the transcriptional and post-transcriptional modifications (Kim et al., 2015). These mechanisms play an essential role in plant survival under adverse environmental conditions (Elakhdar et al., 2022;Verma et al., 2022). In addition, epigenetic mechanisms might create stress memory which is convenient for the following generations (Verma et al., 2022), to regulate gene expression to cope with environmental stresses. Histone genes are suppressed by abiotic stresses such as drought (Kang et al., 2011), cold (Steward et al., 2000), and chilling tolerance (Zhang et al., 2012).A n S N P l o c a t e d a t 5 3 8 8 0 5 5 8 9 b p w i t h i n t h e HORVU3Hr1G071240 gene on chromosome 3H associated with F V , F V /F 0 after two hours of the cold acclimation stress falls within protein kinase superfamily protein. Protein kinases belonging to a wide superfamily play an essential role in numerous biological processes of plant growth and stress tolerance. In parallel, several stress-inducible protein kinase families for instance calciumdependent protein kinase (CDPK), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and SNF1-related protein kinase (SnRK) are stimulated by ABA and different stress signals (Wrzaczek and Hirt, 2001;Ludwig et al., 2004). Gain-and loss-of-function findings have shown that signaling pathways resulting in cold, drought, salt, and tolerance are controlled through specific CDPK isoforms (Ludwig et al., 2004). Overexpression of Ca 2+dependent protein kinase enhances the cold and salt/drought tolerance in rice plants (Saijo et al., 2000). HORVU2Hr1G118320 gene encodes phosphatidylinositol kinase protein was previously found to affect cold response in the barley VIR collection (Sallam et al., 2021), maize (Zea mays) and Arabidopsis thaliana (Wang et al., 2018).On chromosome 3H, we found an SNP located within the HORVU3Hr1G064120 gene that encodes the Alpha/beta hydrolase domain-containing protein 13 associated with F V , F V /F 0 . The a/bhydrolase domain (ABHD) proteins are conserved in all organisms and belong to the a/b-hydrolase (ABH) superfamily. ABH family is involved in various processes including cell signaling, energy metabolism, growth, and development (Mindrebo et al., 2016), and in response to salinity stress (Liu et al., 2014). A few of a/bhydrolase fold enzymes, for example, esterase, phospholipase D, and prolyl oligopeptidase (POP5) play a key role in responses to several abiotic stress including drought, salt, and chilling in addition to ABA signaling of plants (Wang, 2002;Hong et al., 2010;Tan et al., 2013;Liu et al., 2014).On chromosome 3H, the detected SNP linked with V F 0 was found within the HORVU3Hr1G059320 gene, which encodes Vtype proton ATPase subunit E. V-ATPases are complexes of membrane-embedded proteins that function as ATP hydrolysisdriven proton pumps. V-ATPase maintains the pH and the regulates acidifying of intracellular compartments. In some cell types, it is aimed at the plasma membrane, where it regulates acidifying the extracellular environment (Vasanthakumar and Rubinstein, 2020). It was found that the survival of the cells was based strongly on adjusting or maintaining the V-ATPase activity under cold stress conditions (Dietz et al., 2001). Yoshida et al., (Yoshida et al., 1999), reported that plant sensitivity to low temperatures leads to an increase in frost and chilling hardiness including three vacuolar events related to V-ATPase activity. (a) Chilling stress leads to the suppression of V-ATPase activity. (b) Correspondingly, the formation of pH gradients is obstructed. (c) Then membranes adjusted their fluidity by improving the membrane content of unsaturated fatty acids. Evidence revealed that the association between stress injury and cytoplasm acidification was inveterate in studies relating V-ATPases from chilling-tolerant species for instance pea and chilling-sensitive species like mung bean (Hotsubo et al., 1998). The expression level of the wheat E subunit of the V-type H + -ATPase gene was increased by cold, drought, salt, and exogenous ABA treatment (Zhang et al., 2014). An in vitro study found that chilling rice plants at 10°C increased the vacuolar-type ATPase activity (Orr et al., 1995). Cold-tolerant Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica napus exhibited an upregulation in both proteins and subunit A mRNA in response to chilling at 2°C (Apse et al., 1999).Another significant SNP was detected on chromosome 3H within the HORVU3Hr1G061690 gene encoding the protein DEHYDRATION-INDUCED 19 associated F V F 0 . The Arabidopsis AtDi19 is a dehydration-induce protein that encodes a Cys2/His2 zinc-finger protein involved in high-salinity stress, ABA-independent dehydration, and light signaling events (Milla et al., 2006). In vitro assay showed that AtDi19-related proteins were phosphorylated through calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs). These findings reveal that the post-translational modification could be significant in controlling the function of the AtDi19 (Milla et al., 2006). The Arabidopsis AtDi19-3 is also a transcriptional activator that participates in plant response to drought, salinity, ABA, and H 2 O 2 events (Qin et al., 2014). In our study, we showed that the barley DEHYDRATION-INDUCED 19 is associated with chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits under low-temperature stress.Another important genomic region F V F 0 is on chromosome 3H, where their SNP is located within the HORVU3Hr1G062030 gene that encodes ROP guanine nucleotide exchange factor 5. Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RopGEFs) are activators of small GTPase proteins named ROPs in plants in turn regulate different cellular processes ranging from control growth to plant responses to environmental stimuli (Berken et al., 2005). The Arabidopsis RopGEF1 function as a negative regulator of signal transduction through the plant hormone ABA (Li et al., 2018). RopGEF1 was phosphorylated by calcium-dependent protein kinases CPK4. CPK4 stimulates RopGEF1 degradation. CPK4 also inhibits RopGEF1 activities in hairy root growth (Li et al., 2018). The RopGEF1 (HORVU3Hr1G085680.4) gene expression is upregulated in salttolerant genotypes, which might be associated with salt stress (Chen et al., 2022). Taken together, our results could provide the basis for an advanced study into the function of barley RopGEF1 in cold acclimation tolerance.Finally, an additional SNP was founded on chromosome 3H, within the HORVU3Hr1G063220 gene that encodes subunit 3 of the splicing factor 3a protein complex (Splicing Factor 3A subunit 3) associated with F V F 0 . The Arabidopsis ROA1/RBM25 gene has been identified as a splicing factor required for the splicing of transcripts from several ABA signal transduction pathway genes (Zhan et al., 2015). The Arabidopsis STA1 gene encodes a cold-induced pre-mRNA splicing factor, and sta1-1 is cold-sensitive and defective in the splicing of the cold-induced COR15A gene. The splicing factor mutant sta1-1 mutant displays that the STA1 protein regulates the splicing pattern and stability of some genes related to abiotic stress (Lee et al., 2006). The sta1-1 and rdm16-1 mutants exhibited hypersensitivity to ABA and salt stress in seed germination (Lee et al., 2006). In response to environmental stresses, mainly cold stress, plants modified their genome-wide alternative splicing profiles (Iida et al., 2004). Some plant hormones and environmental stresses, including cold and salt, dramatically adjust their expression and splicing profile of many important pre-mRNA splicing regulators mechanisms (Palusa et al., 2007).The identified GO terms were related to molecular mechanisms of causal photosynthetic responses and low-temperature tolerance in barley. GO findings showed that hydrolase activity, carbohydrate metabolic process, nuclear-transcribed mRNA catabolic process, nogo mRNA decay, and protein kinase activity were enriched by identified genes linked with photosynthetic traits under cold acclimation conditions. Also, our results indicated that the zinc ion binding, protein phosphorylation, ATP binding, and guanylnucleotide exchange factor activity GO terms (Table 4) were enriched under cold acclimation conditions. These results indicate that barley plants have initiated growth and repaired damaged tissues under cold acclimation conditions. Recently a study of meta-analysis study determined the GO that plays a key role in the mechanism of barley responses to cold stress such as guanyl-nucleotide exchange factor activity, the mRNA surveillance pathway and starch and sucrose metabolism (Alamholo and Tarinejad, 2022).Taken altogether, our functional annotation showed identified loci that were either within the known or close genes that play key roles in the photosynthetic signaling pathways, ABA signaling events, antioxidant biosynthesis, and posttranslational signals transduction. Overall, these outcomes suggest that various biological processes are involved in cold stress responses as well as post-transcriptional modification and epigenetics-mediated changes that may play essential roles in spring seedling responses to cold stress.In this study, 96 spring barley genotypes were evaluated for chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits before and after the cold acclimation conditions. The genotypes were genotyped using the Barley 9K iSelect SNP Array. Our principal conclusions are the following (1) Significant phenotypic variation among genotypes under low-temperature stress. (2) Several genomic regions associated with chlorophyll fluorescence under cold stress. (3) GWAS analysis indicated that a total of two and fifty markers were significantly associated with chlorophyll fluorescence-related traits before and after the cold stress treatment, respectively. Thirtynine significant QTNs and thirteen annotated candidate genes were identified. We first identified the genes having suggestive and significant GWAS SNPs and discovered several potential candidate genes underlying cold acclimation stress and/or chlorophyll fluorescence trait variation. Furthermore, the candidate genes were discovered around the significant SNPs mainly on chromosomes 1H, 3H, and 6H for cold-related-traits. Most of the candidate genes participate in plant response to abiotic stress at the post-transcriptional modification level including, for example, abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, hydrolase activity, protein kinase, and transduction of environmental signal transduction at the posttranslational modification levels. (4) Novel biparental populations (RIL 2 -5 ) developed from a cross between spring x winter type which can be used to identify the new QTL for lowtemperature tolerance in the spring barley in the future. Overall, our results provide fresh insight into potential low-temperature tolerance mechanisms in barley and the possibility of markerassisted selection in the future.","tokenCount":"9061"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8e8be39764b672de47cdb77a16265305","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/148b0cc8-f7c7-4054-b875-d9c752b179ec/retrieve","id":"1061877363"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a08775e2-e043-45ee-9abf-5b31fe907941","pagecount":"8","content":"It is with deep sorrow and profound sadness that we inform the entire plant genetic resources community in sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world of the tragic death of Dr Abdou-Salam Ouedraogo, who was the Regional Director for IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Ouedraogo died in the ill-fated Kenya Airways flight KQ 431 on 30 January while on duty travel to West Africa. He had taken up this position only last October following his move from Rome where since 1993 he had very ably and successfully led IPGRI's programme on forest genetic resources.Dr Ouedraogo, a citizen of Burkina Faso, was well known throughout Africa and the world as a distinguished scientist and a leader in his field. He was awarded his PhD by Wageningen University, and before joining IPGRI he was the founding director of the Forest Tree Seed Centre in Ouagadougou and coordinator of the FAO/CILSS regional forest genetic resources programme. He represented Africa on the FAO Panel of Experts on Forest Genetic Resources, served on the CIRAD-Foret Programme Committee, was deputy leader of the IUFRO Research Group on Biodiversity (for Africa) and chair of the IUCN/SSC African Tree Specialist Group.He was a magnificent man. Loved by everyone in IPGRI, his warm, infectious personality touched all who knew him. In his very brief stewardship of IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa he inspired all in the plant genetic resources community with his focused vision, excellent grasp of the pertinent issues and deliberate actions. IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa will never be the same because Dr Ouedraogo worked here. The onus will be on all those who knew and worked with him to maintain the momentum he helped generate. He leaves behind his wife, Catherine, and two children, Ebenezer (10) and Esther (8).f for sub-Saharan or sub-Saharan Africa AfricaNo.IPGRI, one of 16 centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has the mandate to advance the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for the benefit of present and future generations. IPGRI's commitment to working with national systems in plant genetic resources is embodied in its eight strategic choices: strengthening national systems, working with networks, improving conservation strategies and technologies, increasing the use of plant genetic resources, managing and communicating information, addressing socio-economic and policy issues, conserving and using specific crops, and conserving and using forest genetic resources.We welcome contributions from the entire plant genetic resources community in sub-Saharan Africa. Send articles for our next issue by 30 June 2000, addressed to the Information and Documentation Officer, IPGRI, c/o ICRAF, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, or emailed to i.mukema@cgiar.orgThe late Dr. Abdou-Salam Ouedraogo IPGRI has launched an appeal for funds in honour of the late Dr Abdou-Salam Ouedraogo to be used to provide a travel study award to a young African scientist in forest genetic resources. The award will be offered in association with the Sub-Saharan Africa Forest Genetic Resources Network (SAFORGEN). The exact nature of the award, which IPGRI hopes to be able to make periodically rather than as just a one-off award, will depend on the amount received. However, IPGRI will match all contributions received up to a maximum of $25,000. IPGRI welcomes contributions from all of you. For further details, please contact: This brilliant, enlightening and provocative series is the story of plant genetic resources in their entirety. Last Plant Standing is about more than merely the biology of plants -it is about how best to understand plants and realize their true potential; it is about the options that genetic diversity and variability offer in the quest for food security and poverty alleviation; it is about the promise that technology and new innovations offer to mankind, and the dangers with which these same innovations are replete if they are employed unwisely. It is about the inspirational role and influence of Frank Vavilov, the distinguished and talented Russian plant scientist credited with the first international genebank, the stake of farmers in the whole business of plant genetic resources -and it is about big business. In short, Last Plant Standing is about the very survival of humankind -and it emphasizes the severity of the consequences of the deliberate and inadvertent threats that humankind continues to pose to itself.The videos make a compelling and persuasive case for us to learn to appreciate that diversity in plant genetic resources is fundamentally significant. Plant breeding in the service of people cannot be merely quantitative; it has to deal with total situations and must progress in the direction of quality as well as quantity. Breeding must aim not only to maximize productivity but also to optimize genetic diversity and variability. It is by maintaining a reasonable balance between these objectives, which may seem to compete or even conflict with each other, that we can hope to develop new varieties that will produce more and other varieties that are resistant to drought, pests and diseases.Last Plant Standing talks about all these issues and more.To get copies of these videos, please contact Isaiah Mukema, IPGRI SSA, c/o ICRAF, P.O.Box 30677 Nairobi Kenya, tel: 254-2-524503, fax: 254-2-524501,email i.mukema@cgiar.org.FloraMap is a computer-based spatio-modelling system for predicting the distribution or the areas of possible adaptation for natural organisms when little is known of the detailed physiology of the organism. It is now available for use by scientists, researchers, decision-makers and others involved in plant genetic resources work in sub-Saharan Africa.FloraMap offers both analytical and decisionsupport capabilities. Coupling a comprehensive set of climate data with a modelling functionality, it should add value to plant genetic resources work. It is userfriendly, and especially useful for planning collections, studying taxonomic and genetic diversity, mapping crop pests and their potential predators, siting in situ conservation projects and field genebanks, and aiding other research efforts.FloraMap was developed at the Centro International de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Colombia in direct response to the analytical needs of its scientists. In FloraMap, it is assumed that the climate at the point of collection of a set of individuals is representative of the environmental range of the organism. This climate is then set to compute a climate-probability model.IPGRI is using FloraMap in conjunction with ArcView GIS to determine the ecogeographic distribution and genetic diversity of Cucumis melo and relatives in selected countries in eastern and southern Africa.By Isaiah Mukema (i.mukema@cgiar.org) and Torbjorn Kerje (t.kerje@cgiar.org)For more information about FloraMap contact P.G. Jones (p.jones@cgiar.org) or Isaiah Mukema.In sub-Saharan Africa, in situ conservation institutions are mostly founded on national policy and legal framework, whilst those for ex situ conservation do not enjoy similar instruments. This, among other conclusions, was reached during a recent Roundtable, dubbed \"Roundtable on Plant Genetic Resources and Food Security: Emerging National and International Issues\", held in Nairobi, Kenya, between 20th and 21st December 1999 as a collaborative undertaking between the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). It was also recognized that there is an urgent need to increase awareness among policy makers and politicians in most countries in eastern and southern Africa on the social, economic, ecological and political value of plant genetic resources. These actions, coupled with intra-and interinstitutional collaboration in promoting the conservation and use of plant genetic resources, and the ability to raise funds, will greatly benefit agricultural research, enhance food security and dispel the paradox that sub-Saharan Africa is a region endowed with world-important genetic resources that can nevertheless not be strategically harnessed for food production and security in the region.Coffea spp, sources of one of the most popular non-alcoholic beverages in the world, are endemic to the continent of Africa and the south-west Indian Ocean islands. The main cultivated species are Coffea arabica and C. canephora; other less used species are C. liberica and C. excelsa. Coffee is also the world's most valuable agricultural export commodity, contributing over US$10-11 billion annually to mostly developing countries in the tropics. In Africa, coffee is the most important cash crop for African farmers as a whole, contributing some US$2.5 billion to foreign exchange earnings in the continent-10% of the total. Of the 28 coffeeproducing countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Côte d'Ivoire are the most important.The production of African coffee has remained relatively stable for the past three decades at about 1.25 million tonnes a year, but compared with the rest of the world, Africa has lost its competitive edge. Green coffee production worldwide reached 6.4 million tonnes a year at the turn of this century, having increased from 3.8 million tonnes in 1970 to 6.1 million tonnes in 1990. But Africa's share declined from 30% in the 1970s to 20% in 1990 and has now fallen below that. In contrast, Asia, which in 1970 accounted for a mere 9% of the world's production, increased its share to 14% in 1990 and since 1994 has overtaken Africa, becoming the second largest coffee producer, after Latin America. Though the coffee area in Asia has doubled within the last 20 years, it still is less than half of that cultivated in Africa, which accounts for one-third of the world's coffee acreage. The major reason for this scenario is the widening gap in average yield. In 1970, the average yield in Africa was slightly higher than that of Latin America and about 20% below that of Asia; however, by 1999 it was about half that of Latin America and only a third that of Asia. This is partly because some 40% of African plantations date to the pre-independence era and have not been renewed since. This continued reliance on outdated and often unproductive varieties in the face of widespread prevalence of pests and diseases such as coffee berry disease, coffee rust and more recently Fusarium wilt has seriously undermined production.Africa is rapidly losing out in coffee exports. World coffee exports increased by over 70% between 1970 and 1997, but the volume of Africa's exports has remained relatively unchanged. Africa's share of world exports fell from 30% in 1970 to 15% in 1997. Of particular concern is Africa's share of the robusta market, which dropped from 70% in 1970 to 30% in 1990.Although the problems of African coffee production are complex, the situation is not hopeless. In Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in southern Africa and Sierra Leone in West Africa, average yield is above 1 tonne per hectare. However these countries are minor coffee producers. Among the major producers, Ethiopia and Uganda have in recent years recorded average yields of 0.7-0.8 t/ha, well above the 0.3-0.4-t average for the continent.The decline in coffee production could be reversed if certain fundamental interventions were brought to bear. As smallholder farmers with low average annual incomes grow most coffee, using high-cost inputs is not an option. Rather, the most effective and environmentally sound way to overcome some of the major production constraints may be to develop new improved varieties by using the diversity in coffee germplasm in existing collections and in the wild. genepool becomes significantly eroded.Ex situ conservation strategies have received much attention. The major world coffee collections are conserved in field genebanks in Côte d'Ivoire (with over 8000 accessions), Ethiopia (1806 accessions), Cameroon (1552 accessions) and Madagascar (1282). Other genebanks holding fewer accessions are in Kenya (634) and Tanzania (110). Each collection is unique to its subregion. These collections are expensive to maintain and for a number of reasons are also at risk. Although ex situ protection of Coffea both in the wild and on farm is a potentially important conservation approach, it has long been overlooked. In situ conservation is dynamic. It allows intimate interaction between species and biotic as well as abiotic factors, creating conditions ideal for the evolutionary process for various traits including resistance to pests and disease and general adaptation. Genetic reserves in protected areas and managed reserves offer the best opportunities for coffee conservation in the long term. Such protected areas are to be found in only a few countries in Africa, such as Ethiopia and Madagascar. Recently, however, strategies for more effective in situ conservation have been developed and demonstrated for Mascarene Coffea in Mauritius.Very few examples of on-farm conservation have been documented, except for some efforts being made in Ethiopia.Germplasm thus preserved, in situ or ex situ, provides the only reservoir for plant breeders to use for crop improvement. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of the immense genetic variability existing in the wild is represented in the region's genebanks. Even so, little of the genetic diversity contained in these collections has been exploited in coffee improvement programmes. It is most urgent to secure the wild germplasm, either in genebanks or on -farm, before its variation is lost to humankind. The breeding value of most of these accessions is unknown. Most of these materials within the collections have not been sufficiently characterized or evaluated and documented. They have been insufficiently used due to decline in breeding activities in many institutes. For example, the hybridization programme of Mascarocoffea with C. canephora in Madagascar and the arabusta programme in Côte d'Ivoire, both aimed at developing low-caffeine robusta, have stalled, although work has since resumed on similar lines but using other wild diploid Coffea species.To address these problems, IPGRI and the African Coffee Research Network are currently developing an Africa-wide project to enhance the use of coffee germplasm. The goals of the project are to improve the production and quality of coffee in sub-Saharan Africa as well as to reduce production costs, thus contributing to the welfare of millions of coffee smallholders and improving the economies of many countries in the region that are heavily dependent on coffee. With improved strategies and methods, the project will conserve germplasm present both in the wild and in existing collections in sub-Saharan Africa. It will support the characterization and evaluation of ex situ collections in a coordinated manner and provide the link for information, technology and materials that is consistent with the needs of coffee breeders in the region. For more information contact: Dr. Samwel Bruce-Oliver (sbo@qanet.gm)The way forward for The Gambia IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa is offering a 3-month attachment for a Visiting Research Fellow at the regional office in Nairobi to work on analysing genebank data for improved conservation and use strategies, with special emphasis on analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Applicants will have worked in a national plant genetic resources programme.The successful candidate will use data available from the genebank at the applicant's national programme. The fellow will work closely with IPGRI's documentation and information staff at the regional office in Nairobi to gain hands-on skills and experience in a wide range of data handling and analysis issues including data verification, interpretation and representation, report writing, database management systems, statistical software, and GIS software.The fellow will be expected to write a comprehensive scientific report at the end of the attachment, highlighting the methods used, discussing the results, and summarizing the knowledge gained from the exercise.IPGRI will cover travel expenses and pay a stipend. The successful fellow will be expected to arrange with the national programme for permission to be away from the normal duty station for a continuous 3 months.Apply to the regional director, IPGRI in sub-Saharan Africa. Include your CV and state why you are interested in the programme and how your attachment will benefit your institution. In not more than 2000 words, clearly describe your data, indicating how, where and when the information was collected and by whom. Describe the fields in your data collection, clearly indicating how locational (geographical or spatial) attributes were captured -for example, were longitudes and latitudes used or was proximity to a known point used, such as a town or city, along a known linear feature such as a road or river, or bounded within a known polygon such as an administrative unit or county? Are your data merely passport data, or do they also include characterization and multiplication?The application should reach the IPGRI Regional Director not later than 30 June 2000. For more details, please contact Isaiah Mukema, IPGRI SSA, c/o ICRAF, PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya, tel: +254 2 524503; fax: +254 2 524501; email: i.mukema@cgiar.org.The International Foundation of Sciences (IFS) is announcing grants of up to a maximum value of USD 12,000 for a period of one to three years. The foundation supports young scientists of merit working to conserve, use and manage biological resources. For further information and application forms in English and French, apply to: International Foundation for Sciences, Grev Turegatan 19, S-114 38 Stockholm, Sweden. Fax: +46 8 54581801; Email: info@ifs.se; Website: www.ifs.se.The CFC/ICCO/IPGRI Project on Cocoa Germplasm Utilization and Conservation represents an internationally coordinated effort in the selection, evaluation and breeding of improved cocoa genotypes aiming at sustainable cocoa production. Increase of resistance of cocoa planting materials to black pod and witches' broom is a priority objective. From April 1998, the Project has established an international network of cocoa variety trials (clones and hybrids), reinforced germplasm enhancement and population breeding programmes, as well as the intensified characterization, evaluation and exchange of available germplasm. The Project is promoting links between the international cocoa germplasm collection in Trinidad, intermediate quarantine facilities and breeding programmes in cocoa producing countries. In Cameroon, the pollination campaign was finalized and about 250 fruits were harvested. Observations in the pruning trial continued. The hybrids brought in from Côte d'Ivoire were planted in the on-farm trials conducted by the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in which they were evaluated for their resistance to black pod.In Ghana, about 9 ha of Project trials could be planted in July and August. Twenty-five local clones that have been transplanted to the field are being evaluated for resistance to black pod. Hundred out of the 130 clones selected for the local clone observation trial have been planted in the field, and the other clones are being multiplied. The low-vigour rootstock-scion interaction trial has also been transplanted in the field. Physiological studies on the Crinkle leaf mutant are in progress. Progenies of the first cycle of the reciprocal recurrent selection scheme have been planted in the field, comparing the value of intergroup and intragroup crosses and the recurrent selection for identifying superior clones. They are being evaluated for their resistance to blackpod and CSSV. Field planting of diallel crosses has delayed due to poor pollination results, but the few progenies obtained are being evaluated for CSSV resistance.Work in Nigeria aimed at establishing international clone and local clone observation trials in the field and at establishing hand pollination techniques and preparing the land. Hybrid trial 1 was planted. Dieback of the buddings and a sudden outbreak of insect attack on both buddings and seedlings in the field and seedlings in the nursery killed a lot of the needed plant material.Using tunnels improved the propagation of the Local Clones in Côte d'Ivoire. International clones in a multiplication plot were grafted to obtain 100 plants per clone but budding success was low. More than 150 crosses were successfully obtained in the Recurrent Selection programme. Delays have been experienced in the evaluation of resistance to black pod and to insects due to some organisational factors.For more information contact Dr. Albertus Eskes (b.eskes@cgiar.org)Cocoa: towards improvement Photo: Mikkel Grum","tokenCount":"3189"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bbd3b8235fa03747c847fc86d189b4ec","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af910989-9119-4391-8748-a29caa8a41f8/retrieve","id":"880940433"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"589c5894-0b5d-41df-ae0f-8fe031ac7a35","pagecount":"6","content":"The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in partnership with the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusammenarbeit) have proposed to introduce an interactive online tool to capture the potential outcomes of NREGA works. This would be compatible with the existing Management Information System (MIS) and its constituent inter-connected data sources. The tool comprises of an interface which provides a menu from which the user can select each work, corresponding monitoring indicator and enter the input value or values pertaining to each indicator (eg: dimensions of the asset). This could then be used to derive a measure of the potential outcome of each work or asset under the scheme. The unique identifier component would be the \"Asset ID\" as this is already in use within MGNREGA to link data on each asset across multiple platforms (NREGASoft and MIS, GeoMNREGA and SECURE). Along with ensuring that the tool is incorporated into the online system, the data for each indicator to be inputted into the tool aims at being aligned with the offline MNREGA data collection and verification process. This tool therefore could potentially become a value addition to the existing indicators by: i) Determining a quantitative estimate of the potential impact of NRM works ii) Providing data for comparison of performance of a work/asset over time and across different villages, blocks and districts.  Select relevant works by clicking on the drop-down menu under the \"Works\" tab. The list of works pertaining to all the selected categories in previous steps will be listed out and then user then proceeds to click on the relevant work.Step 4Select second sub-category by clicking on the second drop-down menu under the \"Sub-Categories\". List of sub-categories pertinent to first sub-category will be listed out and then user then proceeds to click on the suitable second sub-category.Step 3 The security warning (Macros, ActiveX or Active content) appears because the MGNREGA tool uses all these features to run which is normally not used in most excel files. Click on Enable content / enable macros to support the full functioning of the MGNREGA tool. Once the macros & activeX components are enabled, the tool is opened and front page of the tool appears as previously shown in Figure 1.Go to \"Dashboard\" sheet in the worksheet to access the tool. Step 2To begin entering data, the user selects the category of work by clicking on drop down menu under \"Master Category\". The user selects one of the four options from the drop-down menu.List of categories under \"Master Category\" tab is listed in Table A2 in the Annex.Step 1 Note 2: For certain \"Works\" from the list of works, the shape of the structure needs to be selected (Rectangular or Circular) by clicking on the drop-down menu (Figure 6). If \"Rectangular\" shape is selected, then text box corresponding to \"Radius\" will be locked out. And vice versa, if \"Circular\" is selected, then text box corresponding to \"Length\" and \"Width\" will be locked out.Note 3: For certain \"Works\", from the list of works, the user needs to enter infiltration rates, seepage factor or specific yield. To view the value ranges of infiltration rates/seepage factor/specific yield pertaining to the selected work, the user can click on Infiltration Values or Seepage Factor or Specific Yield icon displayed in the bottom of the tab (Figure 6). A popup tab showing corresponding value ranges will be displayed and the user can refer the tabs to determine input values.Note 4: To reset the tool, click on Reset Tool icon. Resetting the tool will delete all the inputs entered and indicators calculated by the previous user. A popup window will appear to confirm resetting tool (Figure 7). Click on Yes icon to confirm resetting tool or click to No to cancel resetting tool.  5). The number of inputs to be entered will depend on the selected Works. (The type of inputs entered will also vary; some would be inputs for computing formulas for indicators and others will be to directly enter the indicator value.For example, dimensions of the structure would be need to entered for calculation of volume and the area irrigated indicator would need to be directly entered into the tool).Once the inputs are entered, click on the Save icon to save the data entered. A popup window will appear confirming the data is saved inside the tool.Step 5Figure 8: The main tabs in the toolOnce the input is entered, click on \"Outputsheet\" to view the categories, work selected, inputs entered and calculated indicators. To view the details of categories and works, consolidated indicator details click on any of the relevant excel sheet tabs (Figure 8).Acts as the front-end of the tool. The user selects the categories, works, enter inputs via Indicator tab and reset tool.Consolidated details of all the selected categories/works, entered inputs and output indicators.Details of all the master categories, sub-categories and works inbuilt in the tool Consolidated Indicators List All the output/indicators calculated is consolidated in a single sheet at the village level/watershed level.Example 1: \"Number of beneficiary households\" is an indicator for a large number of NRM works. The \"Consolidated Indicators List\" gives the total number of beneficiaries aggregated for all NRM works within that village.Example 2: For qualitative indicators like \"Additional area brought under irrigation\" (Yes/No responses), the number of works for which \"Yes\" was entered will be summed up. If there are a total of 8 NRM works for which \"Yes\" has been entered for \"Additional area, then 8 will appear in the list.","tokenCount":"910"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7213233d94a07fddb852a93e0ad8ad48","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0b1404a2-5fa9-423d-9e9a-08c3bdf83de3/retrieve","id":"-421431464"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3a9b772b-4eb9-4e2a-a959-2fceb0829bea","pagecount":"56","content":"Tables Table 1: Group work output on declining livestock services and gaps in private service provision            The focus of this workshop was to discuss how the 'CGIAR' Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) initiative can increase private sector participation in delivery of herd health services. The private sector investment, expertise, efficiency and innovation is widely considered indispensable to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SAPLING will build on previous initiatives, especially Maziwa Zaidi and Women in Business projects, which targeted smallholder dairy and chicken businesses along the dairy and chicken value chains, respectively.The consultation enabled sharing of a wide spectrum of views on how integrated herd health approaches could improve access to livestock inputs and services. Key outputs from the consultation include shared experiences and gaps in delivery of animal health and husbandry services. The workshop proposed ways to fill the gaps in herd health management, including the potential role of digital innovations such as smartphone-based tools to overcome limitations in capacity and ease bundling of services. This will inform the co-creation of sustainable herd health delivery plans including context-specific components and optimal delivery pathways (private, public or PPPs) that could be tested by SAPLING in Tanzania to generate evidence on viable alternatives.The presentations are listed below: These presentations guided group work exercises planned to enhance participants' engagement and to generate more ideas. Facilitation methods for the group work included plenary brainstorming, world-café and gallery walks.The presentation on SAPLING reflected on the initiative's Theory of Change (ToC) that was presented to stakeholders during the inception workshop held in March 2022, in which they agreed on the innovation packages for the two priority value chains: Dairy and Chicken. Presentations from government partners highlighted the performance of livestock extension services and their experiences in privatizing veterinary services. This was followed by discussions that gave reasons behind declining livestock services, plus the challenges, gaps, opportunities and incentives for enhancing the role of the private sector in delivery of livestock inputs and services in herd health provision to enhance livestock productivity and production.The digital innovations session was exciting and insightful. It raised awareness on the use of digital solutions and initiated active discussions on what could work in Tanzania, including possible approaches. The two online presentations on best global practices focused on the digital initiative to improve herd health practices. The potential interface(s) with the M-Kilimo App (Ufugaji module) + ADGG platform was explored.The herd health and disease priorities in Tanzania for dairy and chicken value chains were listed and prioritized to obtain the top five priority herd health flagships. The priority diseases listed for dairy cattle were Foot and Mouth diseases, Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia (CBPP), East Coast Fever (ECF), Brucellosis and Anthrax/Black Quarter.The priority herd health flagships in the dairy value chain included nutrition, reproduction and reproductive health, biosecurity measures and environment, disease and pest management, plus record keeping.The chicken diseases listed were Newcastle disease, Coccidiosis, Infectious coryza, Fowl pox and Fowl typhoid. The flock health flagships comprised nutrition, biosecurity, unavailability of day-old chicks (DOCs), drug misuse and poor record keeping. The groups also formulated concrete recommendations to address the identified challenges.The key herd health constraints that should be addressed were defined by site in order of priority, with the first on the list being the most important or entry point, as follows:• Tanga dairy value chain: animal nutrition, fertility/reproductive health management, and record keeping• Kilimanjaro dairy value chain: fertility management and animal nutrition• Kilimanjaro and Lindi chicken value chains: quality breeds of day-old chicks, quality feeds and flock h alth management targeting common diseases like Newcastle disease (most common), Fowl pox, Fowl typhoid, Infectious Coryza and Coccidiosis.These technical elements will be packaged and combined with a set of institutional components that will enable their delivery by agripreneurs. The packaging will depend on context and in consultation with farmers who are willing to pay for the services either directly or through producer groups. SAPLING will support a set of actions to grow the technical and business capacities of agripreneurs to effectively take up and deliver the herd health packages.The Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (in short, \"SAPLING\") is a One CGIAR 2030 research and innovation strategy initiative implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and Alliance Bioversity International (ABC-CIAT). In Tanzania, SAPLING is based on the importance of livestock in the lives and livelihoods of its people and the commitment of public and private sector actors to transform food systems through livestock. Launched in March 2022, the initiative received stakeholder-wide buy-in and is well aligned with the national research and development agenda. SAPLING will enhance partnerships among public and private sector decision-makers in these countries and utilize the initiative-supported innovation packages to inform policies and investments towards an inclusive and sustainable livestock sector, including ensuring progress towards equity and inclusion. Herd health is among the high priority work packages identified during the Tanzania national stakeholder consultation process.The report herein covers the proceedings of the stakeholder consultation workshop conducted on 4-6 October 2022 that brought together researchers, service providers and decision-makers in Tanzania to discuss and co-create optimal approaches for increasing private sector participation in delivery of herd health services. The consultation enabled sharing of a wide spectrum of views on how integrated herd health approaches could improve access to livestock inputs and services. The key outputs were shared experiences and gaps in delivery of animal health and husbandry services. The workshop also proposed ways to fill the gaps, including the potential role of digital innovations, such as smartphone-based tools to overcome limitations in capacity and ease bundling of services. This further informed the co-creation of sustainable herd health delivery plans including context-specific components and optimal delivery pathways (private, public or PPPs) that will be tested by SAPLING in Tanzania to generate evidence on viable alternatives.Planning of the workshop started well in advance through virtual meetings between the organizers and facilitation teams. A prospectus highlighting the background, rationale and issues to be addressed informed the preparations. On the workshop structure, it was agreed that it would be mainly in-person, with two online presentations on application of digital tools. Being a consultation, group exercises were planned to enhance participants' engagement and to generate more ideas. Facilitation methods for the group work included plenary brainstorming, world-café and gallery walks. A pre-workshop activity in the form of a questionnaire was designed to introduce the main concepts to participants and to initiate the ground setting (Appendix 1). Like the Swahili saying, \"Siku njema huonekana asubuhi\", i.e. \"a good day appears in the morning\", responses for the pre-workshop activity were positive. The results of the pre-workshop activity, which gave an indication of gender, stakeholder, value chain representation and participants' earlier engagement in SAPLING activities were instrumental in planning the facilitation process (Figure 1).  After formal introductions (Appendix 2), a challenge statement was used to encourage the participants to relax and step into the main topic of the workshop. The statement read \"Herd health management approaches are adequately factored into the national animal health extension system\". Participants were asked to vote with their feet along the 5 Likert scales, positioning themselves whether they Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree or Strongly Disagree. Subsequent discussions gave an indication of the range of perspectives on various aspects of herd health management.Strongly Agree: Policy framework, extension delivery system, strategies, programs, human resource, and supportive infrastructure, e.g. dips are all in place. Therefore, herd health management approaches are adequately factored in.Agree: Policy framework and enabling environment is in place but there is weak enforcement and therefore more effort is required to ensure implementation.Strongly disagree: There is a huge gap in enforcement and implementation; inadequate resources, leading to limited access and adoption of technologies.Disagree: In addition to inadequate resources, lack of data and low use of ICT technologies is a hindrance to good herd health management.Neutral team: The statement should read: \"Herd health management approaches are NOT adequately factored into the national animal health extension system\".Interestingly, this team decided to re-phrase the statement, thus the beauty of a challenge statement. It was a useful icebreaking exercise, and gave an indication of the range of perspectives on the dimensions of herd health management.The participants' expectations are summarized in Box 1. The detailed list is available in Appendix 4.• Learn more about the role of the private sector in providing herd health services Background to the program was presented by Amos Omore who asserted that based on recent studies, there had been a reversing trend on access to and use of inputs and services by livestock keepers which was reported to have declined from 55% to 9% over the last decade (NBS, 2021). There are policies in place, and extension service providers, both from the public and private sector, but hardly any implementation. The question asked: how can private service providers be engaged and contribute more to service provision to ensure herd health is adequately accessible to farmers?Therefore, the focus of the workshop was to discuss how the SAPLING initiative could increase private sector participation in delivery of herd health services. Private sector investment, expertise, efficiency and innovation is widely considered indispensable to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Research indicates that where farmers are accessing and using extension services there is great impact on production and productivity, hence improved livelihoods. SAPLING is one of the 30 initiatives by One CGIAR that will address issues related to herd health. It will work on the following issues:Figure 2: Amos Omore makes his presentation.i. Animal health priorities: diseases and more are identified using holistic herd health approaches. Reasons for declining access to extension services are addressed.ii. Opportunities for mitigating the decline of access to livestock services are identified: i.e. overcoming barriers to private sector participation and improving public sector role in public-private partnerships (PPPs) as some services are difficult to commercialize.iii. Herd health approaches with tangible proposals of what can and cannot work.iv. Herd health incentives, content, delivery pathways are explored.v.New skills that are required by herd health service providers, e.g. entrepreneurship, communication, ICT, etc. to build capacity of service providers to ensure that they play a more significant role.Omore further informed participants that there would be presentations from government partners on the status of extension services, and challenges as well as opportunities for herd health provision to enhance livestock productivity and production. There were also two online presentations on best global practices focusing on the digital initiative to improve herd health. Appendix 3 presents the workshop program.Omore introduced the Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) initiative that was developed and will be implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in partnership with the public and private sectors under One CGIAR. Key areas of implementation comprise: animal and herd health, feeds and forages, genetics and breeding. The presentation highlighted the vision, impact areas, plus work packages for both dairy and chicken value chains.Outcomes of the SAPLING project: reach 800,000 women and men and increase livestock productivity by 30-50%; and attract private sector investment worth US$ 30 million by influencing policies and investment in targeted countries. In March 2022, ILRI conducted a SAPLING inception workshop and agreed, in partnership with various stakeholders, that the innovation packages for the two priority value chains would be Dairy and Chicken. The group also developed the Theory of Change for each of the innovation packages. More details of the SAPLING initiative can be accessed in the paper by Amos Omore.5.1 Extension services and their delivery in the livestock sector in TanzaniaThe paper on extension and extension service delivery was presented by Angelo Mwilawa, Director of Research Training and Extension in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries. Mwilawa provided an overview of extension services in the country and explicitly defined agricultural extension as a process of working with farmers to improve their mode of production. Further to this, the presentation asserted that the process, ideas and practice of extension embodied four main elements: (i) knowledge and skills, (ii) technical advice and information, (iii) farmers' organization, as well as (iv) motivation and self-confidence. Extension services involve transferring technology from experts to farmers, and exchanging information and experiences between farmers and other stakeholders, with the purpose of improving production and productivity.The paper included statistics on livestock population and the contribution to livestock keepers' livelihoods The ministry was also engaging potential partners to complement and supplement government efforts.The paper expounded on the structure of the national extension delivery systems and methods used in the provision of extension services, as well as recent developments to promote the use of ICT to enhance delivery of extension services, e.g. through establishment of M-Kilimo, the Digital Agricultural Service Portfolio (Ugani Kiganjani) and a call centre.Way Forward: after launching the LSTP the ministry will review its livestock policy and extension service guidelines of 2011 and rationalize the distribution of extension staff based on the actual demand for services. More information available in Angelo Mwilawa's paper.Plenary session: Questions and Answers a. Clarification was sought on whether herd health services provided by private sector providers was part of extension services or was more of a business.• It was noted that herd health is part of extension services and aims to improve production and productivity.When veterinarians provide health services to farmers, they also o er advice and knowledge, and in so doing provide extension services. Input suppliers also provide knowledge to farmers on the benefits of using products sold, e.g. when the Joint Enterprise of Kilimanjaro Development Cooperatives (KDCJE) sell improved feeds to dairy farmers, the cow will give more milk, and the service provider will earn higher income.Most service providers bundle their services to include health and nutrition packages which benefit the farmer through increased productivity; the demand for services will increase, hence more business.b. There is need for an awareness program to address the historical attitude of farmers towards extension services which were offered for free.c. Questioned existence of a national database for private service providers and input suppliers. Answer: Yes, there is a register maintained by the Veterinary Council of Tanzania.d. Private service providers were advised to register with PORALG offices at regional and district level so that they can be recognized by the government.e. Noted that there are refresher courses offered by the ministry, NGOs and private service providers on a needs basis. Specialized skills training, for example, on hides and skins processing is provided in close collaboration with the private sector to ensure the quality of training responds to market demands.f. Put emphasis on the importance of private service providers following regulations and guidelines provided by the government.g. Discussed the current focus on treatment vis-a-vis preventive approaches in animal health and its relation to extension staff requirement. Government focus is on prevention although treatment is also in demand.h. Private sector is also providing opportunities to veterinary graduates to be attached to their agrovet businesses and they are recognized by the local government. The young professionals are able to access on-the-job training while waiting for employment under the supervision of private service providers.The paper, prepared by Hezron Emmanuel Nonga, Director of Veterinary Services (DVS), Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, was presented by Mwilawa. The presentation summarized the history and development of animal health services in Tanzania, reviewed the different reforms implemented since the 1980s and its implication on herd health services in the country. He also highlighted some challenges in service delivery. More details are accessible in the linked Prof. Nonga paper.i.There is limited capacity of private sector veterinary experts and paraprofessionals. In addition, the cost of delivering veterinary services is high. Why can't the MLF train more vets and regulate cost of service delivery since they are the custodians of policies and regulations?ii.Veterinary graduates lack hands-on life and business experience, thus limiting their ability to engage in self-employment.iii. Veterinary experts in DCs are not working as expected, and the result is a decline in herd health management. It was noted that this was due to budgetary constraints.In response:• The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries is designing an internship program and registration of graduates with the Veterinary Council of Tanzania. It also plans to attach fresh graduates to experienced veterinary practitioners to bridge the gap.• Recent development includes registration of fresh graduates at district level. They undergo some basic, practical training like meat inspection.5.3 Group exercise to discuss reasons behind declining livestock services and gaps in private veterinary service delivery The two keynote presentations guided the group assignments. One group discussed reasons behind declining livestock services, while the second group touched on gaps for enhancing the role of the private sector in delivery of livestock inputs and services. The primary group outputs were reviewed and improved by other groups using the world café facilitation method, followed by a gallery walk.     All the data, i.e. farmer identity, animal information and services are stored in a single server. However, the data is well secured and access to the information is based on user permission. The full presentation can be accessed in the linked James Hanks paper.Baltazar Kibola, the Head of Information and Communication Technology Unit, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, presented the paper. He informed participants that the government had developed the M-Kilimo App to help farmers, livestock keepers and fishermen access extension services and market information through their mobile phones. The App is equipped to register extension officers, livestock keepers, fisher folk and crop farmers in a simplified manner, and is available in both Swahili and English.The M-Kilimo services are connected to the government SMS portal, where farmers can consult, sell, buy and ask questions. It also has a registration window for extensionists, plus individual farmers or farmers' groups. Experts can respond to incoming queries, cross-check outgoing queries, create a farmers' phonebook (contacts) and expert field visit register (call sheets). M-Kilimo also has a section for market information for crops and livestock products. According to Neema Kelya, ADGG In-country ICT, Tanzania, the ADGG Platform works in 24 LGAs within six regions, namely: Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Iringa, Njombe and Mbeya. The platform helps to identify the best dairy cattle and animals for breeding. It ensures that farmers are able to access knowledge and services for profitable dairy cattle husbandry and improve services to farmers through LGA officials -Performance Recording Agents (PRAs) by facilitating equipment and capacity building. It also enhances record-keeping and has put in place a feedback mechanism for on-farm records. ADGG also assists farmers and policy-makers to make informed decisions backed up with records.Implementation of the ADGG platform provides functional services that links data capture through ADGG PRA and from dairy farmers. The data is processed at the Data Performance Recording Centres (DPRCs), which in turn provides extension messages and feedback to farmers. Data collection is done using Open Data Kit (ODK), large-scale farm web and USSD web. The detailed presentation can be accessed in the linked Neema J. Kelya paper.After the four presentations, participants formed groups to discuss digital innovations in livestock herd health management and e-extension. The focus of the discussions was to propose what could work (or not) with respect to livestock herd health management and e-extension, and how it could be implemented within the Tanzanian context.i.In promoting current digital innovations, government should determine incentives and best digital platforms that could attract the private sector to use the platforms in providing extension services.ii.Government and other partners could outsource and contract private practitioners to deliver and manage public good services under their supervision. iii. The MLF, in collaboration with PORALG, needs to set up regulations in facilitating the private sector in delivering extension activities and monitoring systems.iv. Digital innovation platform/institutional approach should be commercialized.v.Mapping of supply and demand for digital innovations in the livestock sector.vi. Digitization should include georeferenced herd health information, recommended husbandry practices, markets and market information, to support all stakeholders in the value chain.vii. Awareness and training of farmers, livestock keepers, extension service providers, processors and agrovets on the benefits of using digital platforms is important.viii. Ensure a national registry system for stakeholder and animal registration drawing from ICT advancements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), to promote compliance with international traceability requirements.6.6 Potential interface(s) with M-Kilimo App (Ufugaji module) + ADGG platform Some of the proposed potential interfaces include:i.Review and harmonize the digital platform in order to advise on the most useful, either individually or as part of a comprehensive digital ecosystem.ii.Add commercial components to the current M-Kilimo App.iii. Adopt and promote a performance-based reward system module in the digital innovation platforms (set minimum goal for both practitioners for their existence/performance tracking based on outcomes) i.e. ADGG experience.iv. ICT teams (ADGG, M-Kilimo and AgResults) need to harmonize and link up these systems as a single platform to avoid confusion.• Two-way communication between the farmer and the service provider (low tech).• Scalable digital solutions that make use of a knowledge base that responds to questions in an automated manner.• Digitize milk quality control from collection centres, and link it to the payment system for value chain competitiveness.vi. Interf a cing/integr a tion:• Platforms need to be defin d and a national digital platform ecosystem strategy needs to be laid out (the foundation of the ecosystem).• Profiling of farme s should be done fi st.7. Herd health -Flock health preventive livestock health management presented by Theo Knight-Jones, Principal Scientist, ILRI Prior to Theo Knight-Jones' presentation which dived into herd health management aspects, participants had an interesting discussion on the Kiswahili term for \"herd health\". It appeared that there was no exact name for it in the language. Some of the participants suggested \"afya ya boma\" while others said \"afya ya kundi la mifugo\"!! There wasn't a consensus on this, and Theo reckoned that even in English, there was no single term for it.He began by defining herd health as a way livestock keepers manage a collective group of animals by maintaining efficiency to maximize productivity. Instead of looking at treating individual animals when they get sick, livestock keepers prioritize preventive measures of the whole herd. Poor herd health and high levels of disease leads to economic hardship, resulting in production losses such as deaths, poor growth and reproduction rates, low production of animal products and ultimately loss of wealth, food losses, undernutrition and animal suffering. Other problems involve poor use of medicines leading to Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which links to zoonoses and poor food safety, market failure and shocks where supply cannot meet demand and needs.The losses are preventable, and thus a proposition for a proactive health management plan that could dramatically reduce these problems in a sustainable manner. Theo's paper outlined herd health management practices such as simple routine treatments, nutrition and reproduction, hygiene and biosecurity, plus better use of medicines (reduced cost, reduce Antimicrobial Usage (AMU) and AMR). He emphasized the need for up-to-date information on the herd, hence application of digital solutions. Detailed presentation is accessible in the linked Theo Knight-Jones paper.This exercise was done with three and two groups for dairy and chicken value chains, respectively. The group task required participants to first list all the diseases in the two VCs and herd health aspects that have a significant impact on productivity. The group was asked to agree on the top five disease priorities and top five herd/flock healthrelated aspects in both the dairy and chicken VCs. Prioritization considered impacts and recoverable costs given the current contexts (e.g. institutional capacities, farmer perception of value and willingness to pay). For each disease, vaccines in use were listed and estimated proportion of herds/flocks covered. The five priority diseases agreed in plenary are presented in tables 2 and 3 for the dairy and chicken value chains, respectively. Appendices 4 and 5 present all diseases and herd health aspects identified by the groups.  Maintain cow calendar iii. Develop user-friendly format for individual farmer to fill for herd health management iv. Digitization → user-friendly and easy to conduct analysis v.Training on business skills and keeping of technical data 8.2 Elements of a flock h alth plan in the Tanzanian context for the chicken value chain -Challenges and recommendations LGAs) viii. Avail feed mixer and quality checking kits, i.e. feeds should be analysed for quality ix. Feed inspectors should visit feed suppliers and collect samples for quality control checking frequently The ICT team came up with suggestions as summarized in the linked presentation on Herd Health Digital Ecosystem. This team comprised Robert Makoye, Baltazar Kibola and Neema Kyela.This session started with a brief introduction by Amos Omore, who explained that SAPLING would build on ILRI's recently-completed projects, i.e. Maziwa Zaidi and Women in Business projects implemented in Kilimanjaro, Tanga and Lindi regions. Using the world café setting, primary groups were formed to work on identified bundled elements of herd health, e.g. nutrition and reproduction. Participants were asked to design improved and sustainable herd health plans. Subsequent rounds allowed for additional inputs from the other groups. Final outputs were presented in plenary. Table 6 highlights the identified primary elements and accompanying packages for the two value chains in the target regions. iii.Working with the regional-based groups, participants proposed herd health delivery plans using the five-priority elements and associated packages shown in table 6. The group work outputs for the dairy value chains are presented in tables 7 and 8 for Kilimanjaro and Tanga regions, respectively, whereas table 9 lists outputs generated for the chicken value chains in Kilimanjaro and Lindi regions. For each herd health package, participants were asked to assess and rank them on a scale of High, Medium or Low with respect to feasibility, social acceptability, likelihood of sustainability after the project, potential adoption challenges , gender sensitivity, likelihood of overcoming challenges and impact on animal welfare. Other aspects assessed were optimal delivery pathways (public, private or public-private) and policy implications. e. Gender -majority of dairy co-operative leaders are female because when the first dairy projects were hatched in the region, men and youth were excluded. This has been the situation to date.Reproduction -bundle with nutrition, diseases and record keepingDelivery team: farmer, extension officer, input supplier (feed, drugs) and veterinary service providers Roles 1.Farmer -herd management issues (feeding animals, reporting cases, etc.).2. Extension officer -provide advisory services to farmers regarding herd health.3. Input suppliers -provide feeds, drugs and AI consumables.4. Veterinary service providers -consulted by extension officers to handle issues related to disease and reproductive health management.5. Capacity building -entrepreneurial skills, working tools and equipment for both farmers and extension workers.6. Create awareness among dairy cooperative leaders.• Private sector actors can take advantage of the opportunity for feed business bundled with extension services on environment and biosecurity. They can manufacture feeds, distribute and promote their feed products.• There is an opportunity for agricultural banks to o er loans to the private sector to support the establishment and growth of feed businesses.• The extension services o ered are centred around a conducive cow environment, biosecurity measures and proper storage of feeds and feeding.• Provide training on pasture, forage/silage and hay production plus conservation. This will be bundled with entrepreneurship training.• Private sector and PPP initiatives can share knowledge with farmers on animal nutrition and a balanced diet. The training delivered will cover for calf rearing, heifers, lactating cows, dry cows.• Cost of extension services will be borne by the private sector, and embedded in the services o ered.• Public sector extension services can complement e orts by the private sector through regulation and promotion of technologies. Amos Omore reflected on the main aim of the workshop, which was stakeholder co-creation of herd health plans and mechanisms for delivery in the dairy and chicken value chains. He acknowledged the work done in the two and a half days, remarking that to a large extent, the workshop objectives had been achieved. He then mentioned main follow-up steps:1.Refining the suggested plans, matching them with practical components and using them as entry points.2. Prioritization of suggested plans; out of those suggested, identify two to three key points to work on. The technical elements will be packaged and combined with a set of institutional components that enables their delivery by agripreneurs. The packaging will depend on context and in consultation with farmers willing to pay for the services directly or through producer groups. SAPLING will support a set of actions to grow the technical and business capacities of agripreneurs to effectively take up and deliver the herd health packages.3. Follow up with private sector in the room to strengthen their role in delivery of herd health plans 4. Matching supply and demand by understanding what SAPLING, the government and other partners such as TALIRI can contribute to private sector service providers for effective delivery on the demand side.5. Consultations with the research team and key partners on the ground to design the pilot herd health plans targeting the Maziwa Zaidi and Women in Business project areas, i.e. Kilimanjaro, Tanga and Lindi. The workshop evaluation revealed that participants were highly satisfied with most of the components of the event, based on the rating criteria (Appendix 8) by participants as presented in figure 7. In terms of areas for improvement, participants suggested; assigning more time for group discussions, choice of more accessible venue and participation of more high-level Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries officers such as the Director of Veterinary Services and the Director of Marketing and Production. Appendices Appendix 1: Opportunities for improving access to animal health inputs and services in Tanzania -Pre-workshop activity A consultation is proposed to bring together key researchers, service providers and decision-makers to discuss opportunities for improving access to animal health inputs and services in Tanzania with a focus on dairy and chicken value chains. The consultation will enable sharing of a wide spectrum of views of how integrated herd health approaches could improve access to livestock inputs and services. This will inform the co-creation of a sustainable herd health delivery plan including context-specific components and optimal delivery pathways (private, public or PPPs) that would be tested by the SAPLING project, one of ILRI's initiatives in Tanzania, to generate evidence on viable alternatives. As one of the invited participants you are requested to respond to the questions on this Google form, a pre-workshop activity to initiate the ground setting.Full Name: ","tokenCount":"5032"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6232782e3ffaba5816e71e98886f12fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f478d735-fd6f-40d2-8fdc-677b0e05bf27/retrieve","id":"-701334883"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0b78462f-a5dd-47bf-bcd1-2ba412ce382d","pagecount":"30","content":"that of Thailand has traditionally been ･ ｸ ｰ ｯ ｲ ｴ Ｍ ｯ ｲ ｾ ･ ｮ ｴ ･ ､ ＠ Export growth has relied on the fact that Malaysia has always been a land surplus economy and at several points in its history even had to rely on ｩ ｭ ｭ ｾ ｧ ｲ ｡ ｴ ｩ ｯ ｮ ＠ of both Chinese and Indians to meet ｲ ｩ ｳ ｾ ｮ ｧ ＠ labor demand in ｡ ｧ ｲ ｾ ｣ ｵ ｬ ｴ ｵ ｲ ･ ＠ and mining Export orientation within a land surplus economy put a premium on the development of an effective land ｰ ｯ ｬ ｾ ｣ ｹ ＠In this aspect Malaysia differed from ｔ ｨ ｡ ｾ ｬ ｡ ｮ ､ ＠ in that the focus of land policy was on ｰ ｲ ｯ ｭ ｯ ｴ ｾ ｮ ｧ ＠ large-scale plantation agriculture ｷ ｾ ｴ ｨ ＠ a secondary ･ ｭ ｰ ｨ ｡ ｳ ｾ ｳ ＠ on the development of smallholder agriculture both for the production of rice and export crops A focus onagriculture has remained a primary component of agricultura! policy to the present Cassava was the first of the series of export crops that have spread across ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ｮ ＠ agriculture The establishment of the first tapioca factory in Malacca in the early 1850 s coincided with the rapidly expanding use of commercial steamshipsThe evolution in sea transport together with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 opened European markets to agricultura! commodities other than JUSt high valued spicesThe tapiocaexpanded rapidly and relied on cassava s ｰ ｡ ｲ ｴ ｾ ｣ ｵ ｬ ｡ ｲ ＠ advantages as a frontier cropThe forest was cleared to feed the steam engines of the processing plant while cassava was planted in a shifting ｣ ｵ ｬ ｴ ｩ ｶ ｡ ｴ ｾ ｯ ｮ ＠ system ｣ ｨ ｡ ｲ ｡ ｣ ｴ ･ ｲ ｾ ｳ ｴ ｩ ｣ ＠ of a land-surplus labor-scarce economy This production system which ostensibly took place ｷ ｾ ｴ ｨ ｾ ｮ ＠ a plantation-type land concession but where the land was abandoned to lalang when soil fertility declined to unprofitable levels gave cassava the image of a soil-depleting crop especially compared to the rapidly increasing tree crops Although soil depletion was due more to the shifting cultivation system than to the crop ｾ ｴ ｳ ･ ｬ ｦ ＠ this image has remained upto the present resulting in controls on cassava expansion through ｲ ･ ｳ ｴ ｲ ｩ ｣ ｴ ｾ ｯ ｮ ｳ ＠ on land concessions and leasesThe oscillations in the export market for tapioca and starch land policy and ｣ ｯ ｭ ｰ ･ ｴ ｾ ｴ ｩ ｯ ｮ ＠ with export-oriented tree crops have remained the key factors ｾ ｮ ｦ ｬ ｵ ･ ｮ ｣ ｩ ｮ ｧ ＠ the Malaysian cassava industry to the presentMalaysia has never repeated the boom period of 1860-1890In Malacca cassava area climbed from virtually ｮ ｯ ｴ ｨ ｾ ｮ ｧ ＠ to around a peak of 30 thousand hectares in 1882In the 1870 s cassava area had also began to expand ｾ ｮ ｴ ｯ ＠ neighboring ｎ ･ ｧ ｲ ｾ ＠ Sembilan reaching ｾ ｴ ｳ ＠ peak areas in the 1890 s (Jackson 1968) Area planted to cassava in ｴ ｨ ｾ ｳ ＠ early period probably did not exceed 45 thousand hectaresThe cassava industry fluctuated with the prices on the world market through to the turn of the century but then got caught in a squeeze between the ｲ ｡ ｰ ｾ ､ ｬ ｹ ＠ expanding rubber industry in Malacca and the development of an export oriented cassava ｾ ｮ ､ ｵ ｳ ｴ ｲ ｹ ＠ on Java These trends were remarkably rapid In 1906 there was 15 thousand hectares planted to rubber ｾ ｮ ＠ the Straits Settlement Provinces (Malacca and Province Wellesley and Penang) versus 43 thousand hectares planted to cassavaIn the same year Java exported a little over 19 thousand tons of cassava products By 1913 rubber area had expanded to 64 thousand hectares in the Straits Settlements and Javanese exports had increased to over 90 thousand tons Cassava area in the Straits Settlements declined to only 6 thousand hectares (Greenstreet and Lambourne 1933) After this maJar structural shift cassava area oscillated between 10 and 20 thousand hectares over the next 70 years till the present (Table 5 1) The other major element in this stagnation of the cassava industry was the restrictions on land concessions and actual planting of cassava by many of the states Thus Negri Sembilan prohibited planting of cassava in 1912 Perak restricted plantings in 1909 and Selangor did the same in 1925In Kedah in 1905 cassava was allowed only as a catch crop for tree crop establishment (Greenstreet and Lambourne 1933) Thus in the period between the two world wars the cassava industry shifted to Johore where there were no restrictions on cassava and Kedah where it was grown as a catch cropThe shifting nature of the cassava industry continued since following the Second World War and especially after the 1958 Emergency cassava rapidly shifted to Perak which is the locus of the industry today Nevertheless land policy continued to play a dominate role in the organization of productionIn particular Aw-Yong and Mooi (1973) estimated that in the mid-1960's approximately 75% of the cassava in Perak was planted illegally on unalienated state land or forest railway or mining reservesAs a result shifting cultivation remained the dominant production system for cassava Shifting cultivation systems and the uncertainty of access to land for cassava are possibly reflected in recent trends in production (Table 5 2) In cassava area there is significant variation around a relatively stable trend of 16 thousand hectares Yields also are highly variable ranging from 11 to 37 t/ha with no necessary tendency for ｶ ｡ ｲ ｩ ｡ ｴ ｾ ｯ ｮ ＠ in area to compensate variation in yieldas a result is highly variable However this year-to-year variability is not reflected in the output of cassava products Converting starch and chip production to fresh root equivalent shows a consistent rise in root ｵ ｴ ｩ ｬ ｾ ｺ ｡ ｴ ｩ ｯ ｮ ＠ through the early seventies and a decline from the 1976 peak over the latter part of the decade (Table 5 3)A comparison of the two series suggests much more stability in the utilization series and a consistent underestimation of utilization when using the production series Given the large percentage of illegal plantings the production series probably does not capture all the actual area planted to cassava On balance there is probably much more stability underlying the Malaysian cassava industry than is reflected in production statistics on the other hand over the last half of the decade of the 1970's there has be en a persistent declining trend in cassava production Cassava Production Systems Cassava s principal comparative advantage vis-a-vis other crops is its adaptation to relatively marginal ｡ ｧ ｲ ｯ Ｍ ｣ ｬ ｾ ｭ ｡ ｴ ｩ ｣ ＠ conditions and therefore its exploitation of land with a low opportunity cost Because there is no climatic constraints on crop production in ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ＠ and tree crops are well   Tree crops are by far the most profitable agricultura! activities and in fact cassava is primarily grown in those areas where farmers do not have the option of planting oil palm or rubber Land tenure primarily influences where and the type of product1on system that cassava is grown under in MalaysiaThe more minor area where cassava is cultivated is as a catch crop in the establishment of oil palm or rubber Th1s is done principally by smallholders although some planting of cassava as a catch crop by tree crop estates has also been reported (Lulofs 1970) The cassava is planted for 2 or 3 seasons as a source of income until the tree crop is established However this is not a widespread practice and is limited to those areas which have access to cassava processing plantsThe major portian of the cassava is grown in monoculture This is in part due to the fact that a large portian of the crop is planted on land where the grower has no usufruct rights Aw-Yong and Mooi (197 3) in a study of cassava production in Perak in the mid 1960 s found that over 70% of cassava area was planted illegally !llega! planting of cassava is done on a much more extensive basis than legal cult1vation (Table S 4) Area planted is often done on a large-scale sometimes exceed1ng SO hectares Where v1rgin jungle is cleared all work is done by hand However with the rising costs of labor areas covered with lalang which have the possibility of mechanized land preparation are now cultivated more generally than virgin forest This early study reports that most illegal cultivation is done within a system of sh1fting agriculture where the land is planted two or three times to cassava without application of fertilizer and then a new area is opened up and brought under production Whether the rising labor costs of opening new land has caused even 1llegal planting to shift to a more permanent cultivation system 1s only open to hypothesis but certa1nly the incentives are increasingly to shift to more continuous cropping even within an insecure tenure situation Legal production on the other hand is concentrated 1n the hands of smallholders Area planted in casssava averages less than 2 hectares and cassava is usually only one of severa! crops cultivated Even in this situation cassava is often grown on rented land or on state land with temporary occupational licences That is there is suffic1ent uncertainly in tenure not to plant tree crops Also cassava is often a component in the in1tial cropping system in those areas where farmers have recently been settled but have not yet invested 1n tree crops Thus even for the legal planting cassava is only planted in that land where investment 1n tree crops is risky Nevertheless production systems are much more stable Rotat1onal systems with other annual crops are often practiced along with application of fertilizer or manures Over the last couple decades fertil1zation has apparently sh1fted from farmyard manure and woodash (Aw-Young and Mooi 1973) to reliance on chemical fertilizers (Tunku Mahmud 1979) Moreover with the ris1ng cost of labor farmers have as well moved to the applicat1on V -7 - Rising labor costs and the competition with tree crops for land have put a premium on ach1eving low costs of production per ton Land preparation is often mechanized and in Perak ridiging is widely practiced to control root rot under these high rainfall conditionsMore intensive production methods are now more economic than extensive production methods as the emphasis has shifted to lower labor costs and higher yieldsIn effect shifting production systems have become increasingly uneconomic in Malaysia making cassava s reputation for soil impoverishment more of an historical red herring rather than a point in factThe other major production system for cassava is plantationsIn the early stages of the cassava industry these systems had the1r impetus in the form of land concessions allocated by the state governments However root production operated on a basis of shifting agriculture and it was not till the advent of rubber at the turn of the century that plantations based on permanent production systems were established At this stage production of cassava on a large scale declined However in the post-war period more permanent cassava plantations have been established usually under government sponsorshipThe motivation for plantations is usually to assure regular supplies to relatively large-scale starch factories However the operations of large-scale cassava plantations have not met with much success Of four plantations that have been operat1ng in the last decade only one is still operating High labor and overhead costs make plantation production much more costly than smallholder producuon within an industry that is highly competitive both from other domestic producers and international competition from Thailand Yields Cassava is grown purely as a commercial crop in Malaysia and moreover must compete with tree crops for both land and labor Yields are therefore a primary determinant of cassava' s economic viability in the country's agricultura! economy Not surprisingly average yields in Malaysia are high by world standards or even by comparison to other As1an countr1es National product1on statistics suggest an average yield in the range of 11 to 37 t/ha As has been suggested the reliability of these estimates are open to question Nevertheless the few surveys of cassava producers that have been carried out do support the higher end of th1s range of yield estimates Tunku Mahmud (1979) found an average yield of 28 t/ha in the Manong area of Perak Rahman Binti Adam (1974) found an average yield of 18 t/ha in a survey of farmers in Pahang Chan et al ( 1983) report average yields of 12-20 t/ha in Pera k and 20-35 t/ha in KedahThe point where these survey areas reside within the overall yield distribution for the country cannot be specified Aw-Young and Mooi (1973) suggest in Perak a very bread yield variation of from 7 to over 40 t/ha based on differences in soil and production system where the production system as well reflects principally variation 1n soil fertility (Table 5 S) Chan et al (1983) report that in Perak less efficient farmers achieve yields in the 6-10 t/ha range while the better farmers' plots yield 22 5-37 t/ha occasionally reaching levels as high as 45-60 t/haThe fact that cassava is not grown in continuous production sytems as in other parts of Asia contributed to the high yields obtainable in Malaysia V -9- Other factors are the favorable rainfall and growing season the existence of relatively high yielding varieties and the apparently wide use of fertilizer on cassava However ､ ･ ｦ ｾ ｮ ｩ ｮ ｧ ＠ the gap between average yields and the potential productivity of the crop remains ｵ ｮ ｣ ･ ｲ ｴ ｡ ｾ ｮ ＠ due to lack of sufficient farm-level data --see Tan and Chan (1986) for a very good firstCassava is a highly commercialized crop in MalaysiaThe crop is fully marketed usually for industrialMoreover cash costs form a bigh percentage of total costs because most labor is hired land preparation is mechanized and input use is relatively high Cassava farmers are thus responsive to changes in ｾ ｮ ｰ ｵ ｴ ＠or output prices and likely to adopt technical innovations Production costs and root prices are therefore Any further reductions will require the mechanization of the harvest Labor costs make up just less than half of total production costs for cassava Malaysia provides a counter example to the normal tendency for labor to make up the major portion of total production costs in cassava Moreover weeding is one of the more minor costs items again ｲ ｵ ｮ ｮ ｾ ｮ ｧ ＠ contrary to normal patterns Land preparationcosts and harvesting all are usually larger cost items (Table S 7) The tendency toward labor substitution ｾ ｳ ＠ clear in the cost structure however the scarcity of land forced both by government land ｰ ｯ ｬ ｾ ｣ ｹ ＠ and by highcosts has also put a ｰ ｲ ･ ｭ ｾ ｵ ｭ ＠ on yield per hectare as is reflected in the high costs for fertilizer High yields low labor input and moderate input use which is often subsidized by the farmer cooperatives result in a very low variable cost of production per ton of roots comparable to that of Thailand However farm-level prices of roots are normally higher in Malaysia than in Thailand This is ｰ ｲ ｩ ｮ ｣ ｾ ｰ ｡ ｬ ｬ ｹ ＠ due to the high opportunity cost of land The annual net ｾ ｮ ｣ ｯ ｭ ･ ＠for rubber was M$36S1 (at a rubber price of M$2 40/kg) and for oil palm was M$S030 (at an oil pnce of M$1200/ton) (Tunku Manour and St Clair-George 1979) This compares to an average net income for cassava in Perak of M$979 (at a root price of M$74/tons) (Tunku Mahmud 1979) High supply prices for cassava in Malaysia reflect theof alternative crops which has provided some impetus to the search for higher yields and lower  Theand and high starch content of rootsthe demands made by the starch and chip markets Agronomic research continued the long tradition of focusing on plantof nutritional requirements of cassava grown on peat soils becameThe few diseases of any potential significance were incorporated into the program as secondary screening obJectives (Tan and Chan 1986) Little direct impact of this research is yet visible on cassava yieldson these inputs as to the research that has been carried out Breeding on the other hand is a longer term investment and while some lines have beenvariety Black Twig none of these as yet has been released as a new varietystrategy under Malaysian conditions given the need to achieve higher returns to land A complementary strategy on which there has been some research is to direct technology to low opportunity cost land areasPeat soils have been one area where there has been some researchThe other area is as a catch crop in thebetween these two crops in association and the means toCassava has beenThe crop is grown as a food source by a few of the hill tribes such as the Seroi Semai (Hohnholz 1980) but in general a food market for cassava has not developed in Malaysia Moreover cassava markets have ｨ ｩ ｳ ｴ ｯ ｲ ｾ ｣ ｡ ｬ ｬ ｹ ＠ been export oriented as ｾ ｮ ｴ ･ ｲ ｮ ｡ ｬ ＠ demand did not provide a significant base on which to build a cassava industry However with ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ＠ s recent industrial growth and rising perand to a certain extent sugar Nevertheless such a focus on domestic markets must still ｲ ･ ｣ ｯ ｧ ｮ ｾ ｺ ･ ＠ the dominance of the export tree sector on factor ｰ ｲ ｾ ｣ ･ ｳ ＠ in the ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ｮ ＠ agricultural sectorV -14 -The Domestic and Export Market for StarchStarch has always dominated the cassava economy of Malaysia Moreover starch production has traditionally been ｯ ｲ ｾ ･ ｮ ｴ ･ ､ ＠ toward export in line with most of the rest of the agricultura! economy Finally the history of the starch industry in ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ＠ has been one of constant movement in search of areas where cassava roots could be produced most cheaply i e where competition with tree crops was least or where illegal land use was not rigidly enforcedIn the post-war period the starchPerak and the following analysis will focus on starch production in that state Only two starch factories existed in Perak prior to 194S By 1968 19 plants were operating in the state with most of the growth coming ｾ ｮ ＠ the 1950's when 10 factories were set up (Table S 8) At this point starch production depended primarily on the sedimentation method as only two plants were using centrifuges Production from these latter plants was higher than for the sedimentation plants (Table S 9) even though the centrifugal plants were only operating at 30% capacity Also the centrifugal plants obtained an extraction rate of between 20 to 23% while the sedimentation plants averaged between 13 to 18% (Onn and Yet 1971) With continuing problems with root supply and increasing competition from Thailand it is not surprizing that a shake-out of the industry would occur in so competitive an environment Thus by 1982 only eight starch factories were operating in Perak (Table S 10) What is clear however is that this shake-out did not occur until the late 1970 sPrior to that --and contrary to the root production statistics --the starch industry showed steady growth ｾ ｮ ＠ the post-war period Starch exports increased steadily through the 19SO' s and 1960 s and peaked in 1976 (Table S 11) The shorter series on starch production complementa these export trends and suggests that total starch production also peaked in 1976 at 68 thousand tonsdeclined from that level and has been stable at about SO thousand tons through the 1980's Exports however declined much more dramatically and Malaysia became a net importer of starch in 1981 (Table 5 12) Two factors were responsible for this reversal rapidly      Sugar imports of 561 thousand tons in 1984 and a protected domestic sugar market offer scope for the development of a high fructuose sweetner industry based on cassava starch Moreover development of this industry requires relatively moderate investment since present starch processing factories can form the basis for an integrated starch-sweetner operation However domestic starch production is thefactor in the development of this industryThe other factor influencing recent production and export trends is increasing price competition from Thailand This price competition is amply portrayed in Figure 5  Thus after two decades of growth the Malaysia starch industry stagnated caught between the high supply price for roots and the prices of imported Thai starch For Malaysia to remain competitive in starch would require further cost reductions in the production of cassava rootsThe Domestic Animal Feed MarketThe development of the Malaysian livestock industry is typical of that of Japan Taiwan and South Korea in that to meet rising meat demand Malaysia has developed an intensive pork and poultry industry based on balanced feed rations these feed componente in turn are essentially imported In Malaysia's case the reason for import dependence rests with the export orientation of its agricultura! sector and its comparative advantage in tree cropsThe agricultura! economy continues to respond princ1pally to international rather than domestic markets and coarse grains are virtually not produced Thus Malaysia has met its growing demand for feed components through rapidly rising imports of maize Malaysia's animal industry never relied on a large production capacity at the village level essent1ally because there were limited grains or grain by-products available to sustain a large village-level animal population Swine production for example was usually associated with larger scale units linked to the by products of processing plants such as cassava starch plantaThe swine industry was thus the first to develop dependent only on the domestic Chinese marketThe principal growth occurred dur1ng the 1960 s as the industry switched to low-fat imported breeds and there was a sign1ficant increase of scale in production units (Hertrampf 1985) The majar growth in the poultry industry on the other hand occurred in the 1970's with the rise of intens1ve large-scale production systemsAlthough the domestication of the chicken occurred in Malaysia not until the 1970 s did poultry start to become an important component in the dietThe development of the livestock-feed sector over the last decade and a half (Table 5 13 .¡.,... F t --.:::..,( 1 ..,( :::r .., . . . . . . ｾ Ｇ ｅ Ｂ Ｇ Ｍ Ｎ ﾭ • ¡...¡.. ;:.V -22market for poultry in Malaysia since pork consumption is restricted exclusively to the Chinese populationThe other factor however is the largerpossible with poultry especially for the principal cost component feed These efficiency gains are further reflected in the location of the poultry and feed ration industryThe poultry industry is are imported These two coincide in Kuala Lumpur Malacca and Penang where both the feed and poultry industries are concentrated Transport assembly and distribution costs are kept to a minimumThe growth in production of balanced feeds over the ｰ ･ ｲ ｾ ｯ ､ ＠ 1970-83 has been at a rate of 7 9% per annuam which is somewhat below the 10 4/ growth rate in feedgrain imports In fact feedgrain imports are larger than industrial feed production due to the growth in feed mixing by the animal production units More than half of feed production is ｾ ｮ ＠ independently mixed in swine and poultry units Malaysia is already the largestimporter in tropical Southeast Asia and with trends in livestock production likely to continue through the end of the decade feedgrain import levels will continue to increase relying on maize imports from Thailand Cassava has been used in the animal feed industry since the ｭ ｾ ､ Ｍ Ｑ Ｙ Ｖ Ｐ ＠ s but its role has always been minorUse of cassava chips in animal feeds reached a peak of 23 thousand tons in the mid-1970 s but has since declined from that point (Table S 14) Although the market for feedstufs has witnessed tremendous growth the cassava chip industry has failed to respondThe reason for this was the price squeeze between the price of roots which was determined principally by the starch market and the output price determined by the price of maize As shown in Figure S 2 the price of chips varied significantly in relation to the maize price from as low as 43% of the maize price in 1972 to as high as 86% in 1984 As implied by these statistics cassava chips because less and less competitive in feed rations over this period Cassava enters into least cost broiler rations --the most exigent for cassava --at about 68% of the maize price Through most of the 1970's cassava was competitive with maize in poultry rations Cassava use in animal feeds made two ｢ ｾ ｧ ＠ jumps in 1972 and 197 S at periods when the cassava-maize price ratio was low Cassava sold at significant discounts to the maize price in these two periods in order to motivate ｾ ｮ ｾ ｴ ｩ ｡ ｬ ＠ use -some adjustments in equipment are usually necessary to effectively utilize cassava in feed plants Cassava feed use stabilized from 1976 through 1979 as the cassava price remained at about 6S% of the maize priceThe year 1980 witnessed the sharp rise in starch prices and a resultant rise in root prices Even though cassava chip prices remained more or less in line with maize prices due to increases as well in the maize price chip production fell due to a lack of cassava roots and ｣ ｯ ｭ ｰ ･ ｴ ｾ ｴ ｾ ｯ ｮ ＠ with the starch industryIn 1983 the maize remained constant chip prices increased and the soybean meal price rose due to the initiation of ｴ ｡ ｲ ｾ ｦ ｦ ＠ and import licensing to protect a nascent soybean crushing industry (U S D A 1986) Cassava chip prices became uncompetitive and production levels reverted to pre-1972 levelsThe cassava chip industry much like the starch industry was caught between a relatively high supply price for roots and ｾ ｮ ｣ ｲ ･ ｡ ｳ ｩ ｮ ｧ ＠ price competition from imports as the internacional maize price fell in the mid-1980 s V -23 - The Malaysian agricultural economy is driven by internat1onal commod1ty markets and the small cassava sector is no different Over the post-war per1od the Tha1 export pr1ce for starch has been the dominant influence on domes tic cassava prices (F1gure 5 1) since starch was the concentrated around the maJor population centers and the feed industry around the principal ports since the maJor portien of the feed components principal market and upto 1980 Malaysia was a net starch exporter What is of interest here is the influence of this market structure on formation of root and chip pr1cesThe hypothesis is that starch prices --set in the internacional market upto 1980 and in domestic markets after that point --set with1n a compet1tive market environment w1ll together with processing costs and conversion rates determine root prices Thus regressing starch pr1ces 1n Perak on root prices in Perak yields the equationThe intercept term (in Malaysian Dollars per 100 kg) should measure the normal profits and processing costs and in this spec1f1cation should be negat1ve (see Chapter VII)The pr1ce transmission equation thus reflects low convers1on rates (6 9 to 1) and resultant operating losses This conversion rate is well below the 17 -18 estimate for sed1mentation plants and 20 -23 for centrifugal plants given by industry sources This difference in conversion rates would compensate for the losses in the operating margin Thus the price transm1ssion equation captures the nature of the price formation process but does not exactly distinguish the real values of the parameters 1n the profit equation Pr1ce formation 1n the chip market however is much better def1ned The hypothesis in this case in that the chip industry must take the root price as givenIn this case the est1mated equat1on 1s as follows Chips = 4 28 + 2 34 Roots The equation reflects a techn1cally very efficient conversion rate -in line with the high dry matter content of Black Twig --and a competitive operating marg1n (US$17 per ton of chips)Chip producers thus face a highly compet1tive market situation caught as they are between the starch market and the maize market It is not surpr1zing then that chip production has not expanded g1ven both the low average profitab1lity and the uncerta1nty in the size of the operat1ng marginIn fact many chip plants are an extension of a starch operation where the starch operators w1ll move into chip production when margins are adequate The issue currently fac1ng the Malaysian cassava industry 1s the impact of the shift to the domest1c market as the pr1ncipal determinate of cassava prices However this shift does not represent a break with the international market but a widening of the band with Thai export prices as Malays1a shifts to being a net importer Thus in 1984 Malays1a imported 10 S thousand tons of starch from Thailand and in 198S S 1 thousand tons (Thai Tap1.oca Trade Assoe1ation 198S) In the 1980's it wl.ll be the starch import price that will be the principal determinant of price formation in the Malaysian cassava sector V -27 -Malaysia much like ThaLland has based its post-war agrLcultural economy on exports and yet in the 1980 s finds domestic markets for agricultural products reaching significant size due to rising incomes industrialization and urbanization Three export crops palm oil rubber and coconut make up 85% of cultivated area moreover Malaysia is by far the largest exporter of both rubber and palm oil and thus has a significant impact on world price levels An interesting policy question for Malaysia is the extent to which growth in the agricultural sector will continue to be based on a few export corps in which the country has a compatative advantage or whether attention should be turned to meeting rising domestic demand for a diversity of agricultural products Malaysia has much more flexibility in its agricultural policy than other Asian countries Export markets are well developed The population pressure on land does not exist since only 25% of the country's land area is cultivated Moreover transport infrastructure is relatively well developed Therefore it is somewhat ironical that in an agricultural economy where labor is the limiting constraint that an estimated 46% (in 1980) of the agricultural population falls below the official absolute poverty line Most of these agricultural households exist in the smallholder rubber and rice sectors Policy has been directed to resolving this poverty problem --the incidence of poverty fell from 68% in 1970 to 46% in 1980 --through two principal avenues through resettlement schemes in large land development proj ects and through production subsidies -fertilizer credit agricultural chemLcals --through farmer cooperatives Both avenues however focus on increased production of export crops --and in certain cases rice --as the means of generating Lncreased incomes Although Malaysia has been very successful with its export strategy this success now brLngs certain uncertainties because of its dominant market share Malaysia accounts for 44% of the world s rubber exports and two-thirds of palm oil exports Palm oil is quite substitutable with other vegetable oils but palm oil is now the major oil that moves in world trade and Malaysian palm oil makes up over 20k of the world vegetable oil market Future expansiona in production and exports must thus consider the impact of world prices and demandIn this Malaysia has adopted a two prong strategy diversLfication and increased productivity in existing crops DiversificatLon has continued to focus on tree crops particularly cocoa and to a certain extent bananas and coconut However all of these are crops where there are a large number of competing exportersNatLonal Agricultural Policy Through the Year 2000 focuses on enchancLng its comparative advantage in tree crop exports through increased productivity with a particular focus on mechanization Malaysia's strategy is thus to capture a larger market share in principal exports Malaysia is aided in this by its proximity to the growing markets of AsiaFor example Malaysia has a transport advantage to the two largest vegetable oil Lmporters India and Pakistan Thus expansion Ln production area will be based on export crops but with an emphasLs on labor and land productivity Land allocation policy WLll continue to play a dominant role Ln the rate of expansion in production and as in the past will provide the government wLth some control over regulating future growth in export supplLes V -28-The mark of ｴ ｨ ｾ ｳ ＠ policy committment to export crops is the dropping of the long-held goal of self-sufficiency ｾ ｮ ＠ rice ｾ ｮ ＠ the National Agricultura! Plan Moreover planting crops for animal feed are discouraged in the plan Malaysia will thus rely on imports to service growing domestic markets lt is symptomatic of cassava' s future in ｍ ｡ ｬ ｡ ｹ ｳ ｾ ｡ ＠ that it has turned from an export crop to supplying only domestic markets and in ､ ｯ ｾ ｮ ｧ ＠ so has lost its ability to compete in international cassava markets Given Malaysia's agricultura! policy this fact would seem to seal the fate of cassava in the future of the country's agricultura! sector However the mere fact that a profitable cassava industry has operated in Malaysia throughout this century is some testimony to cassava's ｾ ｮ ｨ ･ ｲ ･ ｮ ｴ ＠ productivity since cassava had to compete not with grain crops but ｷ ｾ ｴ ｨ ＠ much more productive tree crops Cassava was disadvantaged by the production structure which favored centrally processed tree crops Cassava production is not well suited to plantation systems and yet smallholder cassava systems could not compete with smallholder tree crop production Cassava could have potentially competed within a semi-mechanized medium-scale (20 hectares) production system along the lines of that existing in Thailand This type of production scale seems to dominate in the illegal plantings in Perak Cassava was thus relegated to a particular niche in this land surplus agricultura! economy formed by pockets of smallholders with constraints on access to landThe growing urban sector --two-thirds of the growth of the rural labor force in the 1970 s was absorbed in the urban sector --and the continued expansion of land development projects should continue in the future to reduce this niche In the end the future of cassava in Malaysia will depend on the international market for palm oil and rubber and in this Malaysia's agricultura! policies insure that the country will be a dominant player in these markets to the end of the century","tokenCount":"5921"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4c677e5eb6223e951ae2681cb8d36fb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9d83cc2c-a4de-4fb9-b23e-ac926462abcf/retrieve","id":"1583838012"},"keywords":["Photo: Malaysian dipterocarp forest","Credit: Bioversity International/ R","Jalonen"],"sieverID":"eab98b22-c19b-4d09-8dfe-feb94cd2cc6b","pagecount":"2","content":"Sustainable timber production in approximately 400 million hectares of production forests in the tropics would be enhanced by incorporating genetic conservation measures in their management. This would also enhance the conservation value of these forests while contributing to maintaining carbon sequestration and provision of other ecosystem services in a changing environment. Natural forests in the humid and subhumid tropics are commonly managed under selection logging regimes, applying minimum diameter cutting limits. The larger trees which exceed these minimum diameter limits and can, therefore, be harvested, generally produce more pollen and seed than smaller trees because their crowns are larger. They can also attract more pollinators than smaller trees which reduces the risk of self-pollination.When there are fewer remaining reproductive trees per species per hectare, inbreeding can increase. Smaller populations are also at a higher risk of loss of genetic diversity.Inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity can have severe negative effects on timber tree populations, for instance, reducing growth, reproductive output, ability to resist pests and diseases and the capacity to adapt to climate change. Over time these can reduce quantity and quality of timber yields.Since trees have a life span of a century or more, it is evident that today's seedlings will grow to mature trees under very different environmental conditions than those they experienced during seedling establishment, which underlines the importance of maintaining adaptive capacity.Most of the logging activities in natural forests of Southeast Asia occur in mixed dipterocarp forests, which are among the most diverse and, in terms of timber production, most valuable tropical forests. These forests commonly harbour 150-250 tree species per hectare, with correspondingly low densities of individual species. The canopy is dominated by hardwood species of the family Dipterocarpaceae, which are long-lived and can grow to exceptional sizes. Important commercial timbers include chengal (Neobalanocarpus spp.), giam (Hopea spp.), kapur (Dryobalanops spp.), keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.), meranti (Shorea spp.), mersawa (Anisoptera spp.), resak (Cotylelobium spp.) and white seraya (Parashorea spp.). Biological characteristics and ecological requirements vary among dipterocarp species. However, they have many characteristics which suggest that they are particularly vulnerable to logging and habitat fragmentation. Typically, they:• Are slow in reaching reproductive maturity • Flower and produce seeds at irregular intervals during synchronized general flowering events occurring every few years (also known as mast fruiting)• Are pollinated by insects, many of which are small, which limits the distance of pollen flow r.jalonen@cgiar.org• Lack a soil seedbank of dormant seed• Require an increase in light for satisfactory establishment and growth of seedlings• Trees tend to be closely related to their neighbors, which increases the risk of inbreeding.How do logging and fragmentation affect the genetic diversity of tropical Asian trees?Bioversity International and the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) reviewed genetic research on the impacts of logging and fragmentation on tropical Asian timber species and found that when the density of trees per species was reduced by logging or was naturally low compared to adjacent stands, trees produced more inbred seed and seedlings.Inbreeding in these studies was associated with reduced fruit set, smaller seed and slower growth of seedlings. Some studies also reported that overall genetic diversity (typically measured as allelic richness i.e. the number of genetic variants per locus in the population) was lost, although this was less common than increased inbreeding.When a tree population is exposed to disturbance, changes are often first seen in mating patterns, for instance, as increased self-pollination. Effects on genetic diversity may be delayed because many of the alleles that were present before harvest are also present in residual trees, although in reduced numbers. In small populations, alleles can then be lost by chance when the trees harbouring those alleles fail to produce surviving offspring, for example as a result of inbreeding.Our review showed that loss of genetic diversity was more common in fragmented than selectively logged populations. This was probably because in most cases the effect of habitat fragmentation had lasted at least 100 years, whereas logging had started less than 50 years ago and most of the forests had been logged only once. This suggests that negative genetic impacts of logging can become more severe during subsequent cutting cycles.At the same time, in several of the studies in logged forests the loss of genetic diversity was still evident decades after a single logging event. This suggests that in species in which pollen or seed dispersal or both are limited, genetic diversity may not be easily restored through geneflow from surrounding forests, contrary to what is commonly assumed.Fragmentation reduced pollen flow distances and it may increase the negative genetic impacts of logging. These results underline the importance of integrating genetic conservation measures in logging guidelines.International criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, such as those developed by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) already require that forest managers take measures to conserve genetic diversity in production forests. However, there has been lack of guidance for policy makers and forest managers on what kind of measures are required.What can policymakers do to reduce the risk of genetic erosion of timber tree species in production forests?• Support the development and use of harvesting guidelines that are specific to species or species groups What can forest managers do to maintain productivity and resilience of timber tree populations?• Avoid systematic removal of all trees that exceed the diameter cutting limits• For species with clumped distributions, remove trees randomly rather than in clumps to reduce the risk of inbreeding ","tokenCount":"918"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3789d63a615d57f23cd1b693048c438b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/45324def-7846-458c-9a73-ab49427c3efe/content","id":"-1090240840"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"beb8800d-c2ae-4fa5-8502-0cf35cb471c8","pagecount":"13","content":"Smallholder agriculture is an important source of livelihoods in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions the highest concentrations of nutritionally vulnerable populations are found. Agricultural development needs to be nutrition-sensitive, and contribute simultaneously to improving household nutrition, farm productivity and environmental performance. We explored the windows of opportunities for farm development and the potential of crop diversification options for meeting household dietary requirements, whilst concurrently improving household economic performance in contrasting smallholder farm systems in Kenya and Vietnam. Farm and household features and farmer perspectives and priorities were integrated into a farm-household model that allowed quantification of a diverse set of nutritional, labour and productive indicators. Using a multiobjective optimization algorithm, we generated 'solution spaces' comprising crop compositions and management configurations that would satisfy household dietary needs and allowed income gains. Results indicated sitespecific synergies between income and nutritional system yield for vitamin A. Diversification with novel vegetables could cover vitamin A requirements of 10 to 31 extra people per hectare and lead to greater income (25 to 185% increase) for some households, but reduced leisure time. Although the Vietnamese sites exhibited greater nutrient system yields than those in Kenya, the household diets in Kenya had greater nutrient adequacy due to the fact that the Vietnamese farmers sold greater proportions of their on-farm produced foods. We conclude that nutrition-sensitive, multi-method approaches have potential to identify solutions to simultaneously improve household income, nutrition and resource management in vulnerable smallholder farming systems.heavily on agriculture for their food and income (Ahmed et al., 2007;Gillespie et al., 2015). Agricultural intensification has been promoted by many as the main pathway towards improved livelihoods of impoverished smallholder households (Tarawali et al., 2011;Carsan et al., 2014). In the last 50 years, this intensification has largely taken theSub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia are two regions in the world where undernutrition is highly prevalent (Ahmed et al., 2007;Gillespie et al., 2015). In these regions the majority of the population depends form of increased use of external inputs such as improved seeds and/or livestock, agrochemicals and irrigation with recorded successes, such as yield increases, observed mostly in Asia, but with trade-offs that negatively impact environmental and human health (UNCTAD, 2014;FAO, 2017).In South-East Asia the Green Revolution with its excessive reliance on external inputs contributed to decreased environmental health leading to reduced and more variable farm productivity and income as well as poorer nutrition (Ramankutty et al., 2018). In contrast, the limited access to external inputs in Sub-Saharan Africa was also associated with adverse, undesirable consequences such as stagnating crop yields and decreased agricultural land expansion into native ecosystems (Carsan et al., 2014;Mutoko et al., 2014). Limited access to external inputs also constrains the maintenance, or increase in the productivity, of newly acquired lands. Use of marginal lands in combination with low external inputs, further exacerbates low farm productivity and contributes consequently to food insecurity and undernourishment among smallholder households. Additionally, to meet human energy requirements, agricultural policies have focused on improving the productivity of staple grains, particularly maize, wheat and rice, whilst neglecting fruit, vegetable, pulse and nut crops essential to address malnutrition in all its forms (under-and over-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies) (DeFries et al., 2015). This is particularly relevant for global public health, as poor diet quality and in particular, the lack of consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables and legumes is one of the primary risk factors for the global burden of disease (GBD 2016Risk Factors Collaborators, 2017).As a consequence of this focus on high-yielding staple crops (DeFries et al., 2015), less supply and higher prices for nutritious foods make them inaccessible to households that need them most (Pingali, 2015;Sibhatu et al., 2015). In Kenya, Masayi and Netondo (2012) show that the production area allocated to traditional staple crops of millet and sorghum as well as indigenous African vegetables has declined and subsequently also their consumption. In Vietnam, increased urbanization and incomes have led to changes in diets whereby traditional foods such as green vegetables, sesame, peanuts and tofu have become less important with increased consumption of animal proteins and heavily refined carbohydrates (Khan and Hoan, 2008;Lachat et al., 2009).The global trend to promote high-yielding staple foods in development projects and the resultant cereal-centric diets have not only contributed to micronutrient deficiencies and poor health but have also negatively impacted agrobiodiversity, reducing the number of different species and varieties produced. The diversity of species consumed is an important contributor to diet quality (Lachat et al., 2017;DeClerck et al., 2006). Powell et al. (2013) show the emergence of a 'hidden hunger' when insufficient food group diversity is consumed leading to micronutrient deficiencies. These deficiencies in vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) can cause severe and lifelong health issues (GBD 2016Risk Factors Collaborators, 2017) and also contribute to the burden of malnutrition. Nutritious, indigenous foods, especially those that fall into the dark green leafy vegetable food group, are rich in calcium and folate as well as vitamins A, C and E, contributing to balanced diets (Yang and Keding, 2009). There is therefore a need for nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions that diversify and increase productivity for both enhanced food and nutrition security. Stephens et al. (2018) summarize four key dimensions when assessing food security; food availability, food access, food utilization and finally the stability of the first three dimensions have over time. The dimensions of food availability, food access and food utilization are addressed in this study. Because our methodological approach aims to develop, visualize and discuss windows of opportunities and snapshots of possible future scenarios (Groot and Rossing, 2011), we do not explicitly address the stability dimension. We use a multi-method approach to integrate farm and household characteristics and farmer objectives to determine how crop diversification could contribute to meeting dietary and income requirements in Kenyan and Vietnamese farming systems.We use a farm-household model that first provides a baseline assessment of a farming system expressed in a broad set of productive, nutritional, socio-economic and environmental performance indicators. Then, through optimization of multiple, selected indicators the model enables systematic exploration of farm design and innovation options to meet farm production and household livelihood objectives. Rather than identifying scenarios (Fig. 1a-b) or applying single or weighted or constrained optimization (Fig. 1c-e), we explore whole spaces of possible options available to farmers (Fig. 1f) (cf., Groot et al., 2009). Such 'solution spaces' show a larger and broader set of alternative farm configurations that differ in performance of selected outcome indicators, i.e. the window of opportunities, and thereby allow the user to evaluate trade-offs and synergies between different farm management decisions and outcomes.The objective of our research was to (i) explore solution spaces defined by contrasting objectives, constraints and decision variables at the farm-household scale, (ii) examine the effects of nutrition-sensitive crop diversification interventions on the economic and human wellbeing indicators and (iii) compare crop diversification options and constraints between contrasting smallholder farming systems of Western Kenya and Northwest Vietnam.We chose to study sites in the humid tropics in Kenya and Vietnam since both have highly prevalent undernutrition including deficiencies of vitamin A. In Kenya, approximately 84% of preschool children are vitamin A deficient, while in Vietnam approximately 12% suffer for vitamin A deficiency (WHO, 2009b). Both study sites also have distinct population and natural resource pressures, agricultural input use and market orientations. Within each country, two contrasting sites were selected differing in their structural and functional farm characteristics as well as their market orientation. The Kenyan sites have much higher population densities, lower use of agricultural inputs and, as they sell less of their own food produced, have less market orientation than the Vietnamese sites. Fig. 2 locates the case study sites and Table 1 compares their characteristics.Farm and household specific data were collected using the survey tool IMPACTlite (Rufino et al., 2013), in a semi-structured interview format in October and November 2014. For farm mapping and calculation of field areas, GPS readings were taken of field boundaries. To complement food consumption data collected using IMPACTlite, on two occasions per site, qualitative 24-h food intake recalls were applied with women of reproductive age responsible for the household cooking of foods from ten pre-defined food groups (Kennedy et al., 2010). The IMPACTlite survey tool differentiated foods obtained from on and off farm (e.g. market) production. Structured surveys were performed in both countries, with the same respondents as the 24-h food intake recalls, to determine the frequency at which food items (Tables S1 and  S2) were consumed by the household over the course of a year. We created one farm model per site to compare and contrast the differences in the modelled solution spaces across the four sites and between the two countries.Using the multi-objective optimization model FarmDESIGN (Groot et al., 2012), the potential of new land-use and diet composition configurations was explored vis-à-vis their capacity to complete the household dietary composition needs. Nutrition-related indicators on dietary adequacy, diversity and food patterns (Estrada Carmona et al., 2019) and household members as entities in the model and associated household level labour and income indicators (Ditzler et al., 2019) were added to this bio-economic farm-household model. The nutrition-related indicators can now be analysed in relation to the socio-economic indicators such as profitability, household budgets and labour requirements, and environmental indicators such as land-use diversity, nutrient losses and soil organic matter accumulation (Table 2).FarmDESIGN was used within the framework of the DEED cycle (Describe, Explain, Explore and Design) (Giller et al., 2008). As a starting point, the farm household system is described through parameters covering household composition (members, on-and off-farm activities), farm environment (e.g. climate and soils), economics (e.g. farm expenses and labour prices), crops and animals with their related products (e.g. yields, labour required and destinations), manures, fertilizers, buildings and machinery. In the second step, the system is explained through economic, social, environmental and nutritional indicators. In the third exploration step, some of the parameters used to describe the system can be set as decision variables (i.e. with upper and lower limits on, for instance, crop areas), and some of the indicators used to explain the system can be set as constraints (i.e. upper and lower limits on animal's energy and protein requirements) or as outcome objectives to maximise or minimise. The model runs a Paretobased Differential Evolution algorithm (Storn and Price, 1997) to generate numerous possible configurations and display them within a solution space. This algorithm is explained in Section 2.2.3. Finally, in the fourth step, a suitable solution can be chosen as a (re)design option for the farm.Farm household systems in FarmDESIGN are explained by a wide range of indicators of which a selection is presented in Table 2. Various indicators can be compared before and after optimization enabling an overview of the effects of the optimization. Indicators describe the productivity of the farm, the socio-economic aspects of the household, the nutritional contribution to household requirements as well as the environmental performance of the farm.For (detailed) explanations of how productivity, socio-economic and environmental indicators are calculated in FarmDESIGN, we refer to Groot et al. (2012). Nutritional indicators as well as the changes to the household labour and economics calculations are described in more detail by Groot et al. (2017), Ditzler et al. (2019) andEstrada Carmona et al. (2019).Here we choose four indicators as objectives: household free budget (B H ), leisure time (T L ), nutritional system yield for vitamin A (NSY vita ) and intake adequacy for vitamin A (A vita ) (Table 2). The maximization of the four objectives in the multiple-optimization facilitates assessing the synergies and trade-offs between improving household income while reducing labour load and vitamin A deficiencies that are present in the study areas (Ngare et al., 2000;WHO, 2009b;NIN, 2010;Laillou et al., 2012).The objective household free budget, B H (US$ year −1 ) is calculated as farm net income, I F (US$ year −1 ) plus off-farm income, I O (US$ year −1 ) less the sum of the cost of food, C F (US$ year −1 ) and all other household expenses, C E (US$ year −1 ). The objective leisure time, T L (hours year −1 ) is calculated as the annual sum of available time for onor off-farm activities for all members of the household, T tot (hours year −1 ) less the hours spent on off-farm labour, L OF (hours year −1 ) and the labour hours required for farm management activities, L FA (hours year −1 ). L FA (hours year −1 ) is calculated as the sum of all labour hours required for crop cultivation, L C (hours year −1 ), plus the sum of all labour hours required for livestock keeping, L A (hours year −1 ), plus the sum of all labour hours required for general farm activities, L G (hours year −1 ) i.e. hours required for farm labour that is not directly attributable to a crop or animal enterprise and less the sum of the hours supplied by hired labour, L H (hours year −1 ).The objective nutritional system yield for nutrient r, NSY r (capita  # Proportion of total food crop production that is consumed by the household.ha −1 year −1 ) is calculated as follows:where r is a nutrient (e.g. vitamin A), F i is the fresh weight produced (kg year −1 ) of crop product i and P r,i is the content of nutrient r in crop product i (g kg −1 ), F j is the fresh weight (kg year −1 ) of animal product j and P r,j is the content of nutrient r in animal product j (g kg −1 ), R r is the dietary reference intake (DRI) for nutrient r for a person per year (g capita −1 year −1 ) and S is the farm surface area (ha). The number of crop and animal products is indicated by n and m. This metric shows the number of people that can be supported per hectare by the current farm configuration in terms of nutrient r (adapted from DeFries et al., 2015). Food composition tables (FCT) were compiled specifically for this study (Tables S1 and S2). For Kenya, this was based on the national FCT of Tanzania (Lukmanji et al., 2008) supplemented with data from other FCTs (Holtz et al., 2012, SMILING D.5-a, 2013, Stadlmayr et al., 2012, USDA and ARS, 2014and West et al., 1988). For Vietnam this was based on the Vietnamese FCT, SMILING D.5-a (2013), supplemented with data from other FCTs (Lukmanji et al., 2008;USDA and ARS, 2014). The total energy and nutrient demand per household were calculated as the sum of the energy and nutrient needs per household member with the use of the household composition data (age and gender) together with the individual Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI, level of intake that meets the needs for 97.5% of the population). To mimic the estimated average requirement (EAR, reflecting the level of intake that meets the needs of 50% of the population) we used the dietary reference intake of 70% RNI (Otten et al., 2006) (cf. Table S5) comparable to other studies evaluating the nutrient adequacy of modelled diets. (Kujinga et al., 2018;de Jager et al., 2019;Samuel et al., 2019). For the nutrients iron and zinc, the EAR (WHO, 2005) values were used, and adjusted to account for low bioavailability of these nutrients in the diets of these communities. These adjustments were also made following the methodology of Kujinga et al. (2018), de Jager et al. ( 2019) and Samuel et al. (2019). The total energy and nutrient intake per household were calculated based on the total food intake and the compiled FCTs.The intake adequacy for a nutrient r, A r (%) is calculated as follows:where H I,r is the household intake of a nutrient r (kg year −1 ) and H D , r is the household required demand for nutrient r (kg year −1 ).In the optimization, to reflect the limited availability of arable land, the minimum household vitamin A requirement and a balanced feed ration for livestock, constraints were placed on total farm area, vitamin A adequacy and ruminant intake of dry matter, energy and protein (Tables S3 and S4).In order to generate farm configurations that differ in economic productivity, labour demands, nutritional system yield of, and household intake adequacy for vitamin A, the areas of the currently grown crops and of new intervention crops, and the destination of crop products were defined as decision variables (Tables S3 and S4).Focus group discussions (FGDs) held in the study sites guided the selection of nutritious crops as part of the project's nutrition-sensitive interventions. Crops were selected for their market potential and their ability to close nutrient gaps, particularly vitamin A, through consumption. Selected crops, hereafter called 'intervention crops', included grains, pulses, dark green leafy vegetables and orange fleshed fruits and vegetables as these have a high vitamin A content. In Kenya, farmerchosen crops included African nightshade (Solanum americanum L.), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), crotalaria (Crotalaria brevidens Benth.), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L.), kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala L.), pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima Duch.), purple amaranth (Amaranthus blitum L.), soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) and spiderplant (Cleome gynandra L.). In Mambai, there were fewer intervention crops chosen in the FGDs than in Masana. Some intervention crops were also modelled as intercrops with maize (Zea mays L.). The modelled intervention crops can be seen in Table S3.In Vietnam, 15 intervention crops were chosen by the farmers during the FGDs. Nonetheless, due to limited production data availability, we only used four in this modelling exercise: mustard greens (Brassica juncea (L.) Czern.), orange-fleshed (OF) sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas, Lam.), water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forsk.) and French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The same four intervention crops were used for both sites (Table S4).Expected crop yields, labour requirements and cultivation costs were determined through combinations of survey data, expert opinion and literature review (Table 3). We set the area allocated to each intervention crop as a decision variable, ranging from zero area in the current situation up to the maximum farm area. The only exception being water spinach area for the farm Na Phuong where this intervention crop was restricted to the area currently used for irrigated rice (Table S3 and S4).The multi-objective optimization uses a Pareto-based Differential Evolution algorithm (Storn and Price, 1997;Radhika and Chaparala, 2018). The complete mathematical explanation with the corresponding formulae, used in FarmDESIGN is described by Groot et al. (2012), however we briefly summarize the optimization process in this section. In the first iteration of the model the following steps occur. Two sets of new configurations are created, assigning random values within the ranges of the modelled decision variables to 80% of the configurations. The remaining 20% retain their original values. The solution space created by these two sets is extremely diverse. The variety in the decision variables (genotypes) creates diversity in farm performance that is measured by the indicators (phenotypes). New configurations from both populations are assigned a Pareto rank and a value indicating how crowded they are with respect to other solutions within the solution space. The configurations that outperform all other configurations in more than one of the set objectives have a rank of one. Removing these configurations, the ranking continues with the remaining configurations that outperform at least one objective, assigning them rank two, continuing until all configurations are ranked. Low ranking configurations are analogous to the fittest individuals in a population in evolutionary terms. The configurations from both populations are compared using a pairwise comparison and the fittest solutions are used as the 'parents' for the next iteration. If the compared solutions have the same Pareto rank then the least crowded configurations in the solution space have preference, ensuring that new spaces are explored rather than concentrating in one spot. In all following iterations only a new set of 'competitor' configurations are generated by uniform cross-over (i.e. allele by allele). The probability of cross-over and the amplitude of mutation are adjustable exploration parameters. The competitor configurations are compared with the parents by their Pareto rank and crowding and again the best phenotypes selected. Each iteration of the model can be seen as a new generation of farming household systems in a population that is progressing towards optimality. We used 4000 iterations per run to reveal a Pareto frontier that forms with optimized solutions in a stable solution space.Both farms made positive net incomes, yet at the household level, with the costs for the food consumed and other expenditures deducted, both had a negative household free budget (Table 4). In both farms, gross margins 1 for crop products were greater than gross margins 2 for animal products. Tea in Mambai and bananas in Masana provided the greatest absolute returns (US$ 165 and US$ 158, respectively) and traditional vegetables the greatest returns per hectare (US$ 7956 ha −1 and US$ 3418 ha −1 respectively). The areas dedicated to grow traditional vegetables were small, however the returns for these crops are high.Nutritionally, both farms do not produce sufficient food on farm to supply household subsistence needs, in particular for dietary energy (kcal), calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin B12 (Fig. 3a & c) and purchased foods are needed to supplement their diets (Fig. 3b & d). Mambai and Masana households consumed 85% and 66% of their produced crop products, respectively. Households were able to sell some crop and animal produce (Table 4) to purchase food (mainly maize) to meet their energy need, however some micronutrients such as 1 Gross margin for crop products is calculated as returns (yield (kg ha −1 ) * area (ha) * price (US$ kg −1 )) less cultivation costs (US$ ha −1 * area).2 Gross margin for animal products is calculated as returns (production (kg day −1 ) * 365 days * price (US$ kg −1 ) less annual costs (feeds + bedding + interest + general (US$)).calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin A remained in deficit at the household level (Fig. 3).Both farms had positive household free budgets largely supported by the sale of maize and French beans. Doan Ket had the highest net farm income (Table 4) with the greatest contribution stemming from animal production (annual gross margin US$ 3892). The high annual returns were from the pig fattening enterprise they ran (US$ 6689), which combined with their successful horticultural crop production (gross margin from cropping of US$ 2231), resulted in Doan Ket having the highest household free budget.Nutritionally, both modelled farms appeared to produce enough calories and micronutrients (with the exception of calcium and vitamin B12) to meet household demand (Figs. 3e & g). However, the modelled Doan Ket household's diet appeared deficient in magnesium, calcium, iron, riboflavin, folate and vitamins A and C (Fig. 3f); the farm sold much of its produce (98% of crop production), and their food purchases failed to meet the household nutrient demands. On the other hand, Na Phuong household consumed 11% of their crop produce, but still only achieved a similar level of household nutrient adequacy to Doan Ket, shown by the inadequate supply of magnesium, calcium, iron, riboflavin, folate and vitamins A and B12 (Fig. 3h).For the Mambai farm there was a synergy between household free budget and NSY vita (Fig. 4a), i.e. the household free budget increases with an increase in production of vitamin A. In contrast, the solution spaces of the other three farms indicated a trade-off between these two objectives. The synergy in the solution space of the Mambai farm was also visible in the similarity of the crop allocation trend noticeable as the household free budget and the NSY vita increased in Fig. 5a and e, respectively. As household free budget and NSY vita increased, area allocated to banana decreased and area allocated to the intercrop of maize, bean and kale increased.For all farms there was a trade-off between household free budget and leisure time (Fig. 4b). The more labour invested, with the corresponding reduction in leisure time, the more financial rewards there were to be gained. However, for the farms Doan Ket and to some degree Masana, there were portions within the solution space in which there was some synergy, allowing simultaneous increases in leisure time and free budget. For Doan Ket, this synergy was the result of configurations with an increasing area of crops with a high value crop product such as maize (sold for animal feed) combined with a decreasing area of fruit trees with their low labour requirement. In Masana, traditional vegetables that require more labour but have a higher vitamin A content were out-competed by the valuable cash crop lettuce. The trade-offs between household free budget and leisure time were also visible as mirrored patterns noticeable in the Fig. 5a and i, b and j,  c and k and d and l.The exploration yielded configurations where originally grown crops were replaced by the new intervention crops for only small percentages of the total farm area (Fig. 5). Most intervention crops were allocated to less than 5% of total farm area with a few exceptions. For Mambai and Masana, some additional area was allocated to kale (2-13%), and to pumpkin (0-6%). In Doan Ket, OF sweet potato (0-6%) and in Na Phuong, OF sweet potato (0-8%) and water spinach (0-2%) were introduced. The increased kale area in Mambai (both monocropped and intercropped with maize and bean) (Fig. 5a & e) would allow for higher NSY vita without increasing farm size (Fig. 5a & c). The increases in the NSY vita were achieved through allocation of even very small portions of land to the intervention crops kale, pumpkin, OF sweet potato and water spinach given their high vitamin A content.We compared and contrasted the farming systems of the Kenyan and Vietnamese smallholder farmers showing how their diets and production patterns differed according to their resources and market orientation. We explored solution spaces and identified trade-offs and synergies at the farm scale between contrasting objectives and decision variables, and examined the effects of nutrition sensitive interventions on economic, social and nutritional indicators. The model generated crop compositions and space-time configurations that satisfied household nutritional requirements. Yet the intervention crops were not 1 US$ = 101.81 Kenyan Shillings and 1 US$ = 22,665.46 Vietnamese Dong as at 30/11/2016. TLU: Cow = 1.25, Heifer = 0.85, Calf = 0.55, Pig = 0.25, Goat = 0.2, Chicken = 0.01 and Fish = 0.005. * Proportion of food costs in total expenditure (food costs + other expenditure). # Proportion of total crop production that is dedicated to household own consumption.Fig. 3. Nutrient System Yield (NSY r ) and household nutrient adequacy for 13 nutrients for the four case study farms in Kenya (Mambai and Masana) and Vietnam (Doan Ket and Na Phuong). In graphs a, c, e and g the black vertical lines indicate the household member density (D) (household members divided by farm area and measured in capita ha −1 ), orange and blue indicate nutrients for which there is respectively, sufficient and insufficient produced on farm for home consumption. In graphs b, d, f, and h the black vertical lines indicate diets where 100% adequacy is reached, i.e. that the household's dietary requirement for that nutrient is fulfilled, the colours represent the source of the nutrients. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) selected to replace currently grown crops to any large scale. However, we have demonstrated the use of an integrated model to explore these trade-offs and synergies at the farm-household scale.The findings of this study show that, although the modelled Vietnamese farms produced ample nutrients to meet the nutritional requirements of the household, their actual consumed food (mostly purchased off-farm with most on-farm produce sold) reflected a diet deficient in several nutrients. Nationally, Vietnam has made drastic improvements in nutrition during the last two decades, however the last national nutrition survey indicated that vitamin C and iron deficiencies remain a problem (NIN, 2010). More recent regional studies find similar diet quality results and suggest that vitamin A, zinc, folate and vitamin B12 deficiencies are also present, with vitamin A, B12 and zinc deficiencies specifically identified as public health concerns (Laillou et al., 2012). Furthermore, Nguyen et al. (2014) show that micronutrient intakes among poor populations in Northern Vietnam are suboptimal. The Northwest region is predominately populated with minority ethnic groups, and the data used in this study were specifically from the Thai ethnic minority group. In the Northwest, minority ethnic groups suffer higher rates of economic and nutritional poverty compared to the national average. No studies have been published on diets within the Thai minority groups, however two studies looking at an aggregated population of minority groups in Vietnam show that micronutrient deficiencies and insufficient dietary intakes are still prevalent in these populations, particular in the remote rural areas of Vietnam (NIN, 2010;Huong et al., 2013;Nguyen et al., 2014).The two Kenyan farms on the other hand, did not produce sufficient nutrients on farm as measured by the NSY r (Fig. 3a and c), but supplemented their diet through the purchase of food off-farm, resulting in adequacy in the majority of the modelled nutrients Fig. 3b and d). A diagnostic survey carried out in a season of plenty (September to October 2014) and in a lean season (April 2015) in Vihiga, showed that more than 50% of children had intakes below the Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) for calcium, iron and zinc in both seasons and for also for vitamin A and folate in the lean season (Oduor et al., 2018). Another survey carried out in Vihiga in November to December 2015, showed that more than 50% of women had intakes below the EAR for iron, calcium and vitamin B12 (Bioversity unpublished data). That the Kenyan models did not produce sufficient nutrients on farm to satisfy the household requirements, should also be seen in the light of the fact that the population density in Vihiga is more than ten-fold of that in Mai Son (Table 1). The larger area of the Vietnamese farms, with similar numbers of household members to the Kenyan farms, means household densities (in capita ha −1 ) are far higher in Kenya (see household density 'D' in Fig. 3). So, even though the shortage of land in Vihiga is a major constraint to the smallholder farmers in that region, the results from this study show that the modelled Kenyan household's diets matched their requirements more adequately than the Vietnamese households.Vietnamese household income was higher than Kenyan households, even though the relative proportions of food costs to other expenditure were similar (Table 4). Thus, the Vietnamese households had greater household free budgets. Furthermore, the agricultural policies in Northwest Vietnam support smallholder farmers with an adequate supply of agricultural inputs and markets for their produce (FFTC-AP, 2014;World Bank, 2016). In Kenya, these enabling policies and governmental support are, since the devolution of power to the counties in 2012, less effectively implemented in Western Kenya (Simiyu, 2015). Yet, despite being larger, more market oriented, and thus having a greater operating profit, the households in Vietnam were not adequately nourished (cf. Table 4 and Fig. 3).Regarding the solution spaces generated, crop choices by FarmDESIGN suggested crop space-time compositions that offered a synergy between NSY vita and household income for the Kenyan farm models. Increasing areas grown to kale as a monocrop, or intercropped with maize, showed a trend of increasing income and supply of vitamin A for the modelled farm in Mambai. In Masana, closer to the urban centre of Kisumu, increasing the area of the cash crop lettuce, improved household income, but traditional vegetables improved NSY vita to a greater extent in the model. This study however, did not examine the market potential of lettuce, a crop not widely grown in Vihiga County, yet the Masana farmer spoke favourably about this crop. The modelled farm in Doan Ket showed a trend of improved household income and NSY vita replacing maize and onion bulbs with fruit trees. However, with the addition of more maize and French bean a trade-off between profit and labour emerged. In the Na Phuong farm, maize (with its easily saleable crop product that is not consumed by the household) was not out-competed by the intervention crops. Maize, a recent cash crop, appeared to provide great scope to increase household income, although the boom in its production has undesirable negative social and environmental consequences like increased erosion (Hauswirth et al., 2015;Castella et al., 2016) and is not consumed by households as it is sold for processing into animal feed.The solution spaces shown in Figs. 4 and 5 provide supporting material for farmer discussions. The suitability of different configurations in the solution spaces and the desirability of these novel configurations by the farmers has not been ascertained. That, theoretically the intervention crops have potential to improve household nutrition, does not imply that they will be adopted or utilised in the expected/modelled way for sale or consumption. However, the approach provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions a priori which can guide farmers towards taking objective decisions.The size and shape of the solution spaces depend on internal factors, as parameterized in FarmDESIGN, and external drivers like prices and policies, and these can reflect changes to private, public and social benefit as described by Groot and Rossing (2011). Further, solution spaces allow for the identification of efficient policy instruments (Parra-López et al., 2009) and assessment of resilience and vulnerability of farm-household systems (Groot et al., 2016).The novel approach taken in this study to add nutritional and household level indicators to the farm level bio-economic model FarmDESIGN provided a more integrated view of the effects of proposing changes to smallholder farming systems. We showed that FarmDESIGN is equally capable of analysing and exploring new options for farming systems along many gradients such as population densities, structural and institutional support, market integration and market orientation. The analysis and exploration took a wide range of multidisciplinary indicators into account: productivity, socio-economic, nutritional and environmental. Considering the wide range of indicators that can be included, FarmDESIGN is well positioned to analyse and optimise multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as adopted by the United Nations (2015). This makes FarmDESIGN a comprehensive, multi-facetted tool for informing discussions between policy-makers, researchers, extension officers and farmers (or other stakeholders) on the effects of (sustainable) intensification and nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions, or in highlighting the trade-offs and synergies between various SDGs in differing locations and circumstances.This study had some limitations. The recording of household foods purchased off-farm was prone to error. The accuracy of the respondent's estimates of food quantities and consumption frequency over the past 12 months from memory could have been over-or underestimated. A \"fixed\" ratio was used to determine the weights bought from market and the weights home-consumed. However, it remains difficult to record all the diversity of food sourced off-farm, with sources from many locations; wild harvested, gifts from relatives, food eaten at markets, in restaurants, etc. (Hebert et al., 1998;Deaton and Grosh, 2000;Kolodziejczyk et al., 2012). Water used for drinking was not recorded, and as water is potentially a good source of calcium (WHO, 2009a), when the recommended 1.5 l per day are consumed, this might explain the low values for calcium seen in Fig. 3. Assumptions were also made on an equal distribution of food within the household which is often not the case (Alderman et al., 1995;Haddad et al., 1996). Heads of households usually receive the largest portions with the choicest foods, while women and children, who are the most nutritionally vulnerable, often have difficulty accessing more nutrient-dense foods (e.g. meat, milk or eggs) (Udry et al., 1995;Hyder et al., 2005). Recording accurate labour data is also challenging (Arthi et al., 2018), and considering that leisure time was used as an optimization objective, possible imbalances between the estimated labour requirements for the novel intervention crops and the recorded labour for current crops could have resulted in intervention crops not being allocated to any large scale in the generated configurations presented in this study. The risks involved in making these changes were not included in this analysis.The difference in household member density between the smallholder farms in Vietnam versus those in Kenya, (values for D, Fig. 3) made an equal comparison difficult, however this was particularly useful in demonstrating the gradient of resource constraint, and how it increased with increasing population pressure while the proportion of on farm produced nutrients consumed increased. The Kenyan households had diets composed of greater proportions of on farm produced foods (more subsistence oriented) and had a more adequate diet that satisfied more nutrients requirement as opposed to the Vietnamese households that had a more market oriented dietary supply and a poorer dietary quality.The presence or absence of a link between agrobiodiversity and dietary diversity has been widely researched and documented (Termote et al., 2012;Keding and Cogill, 2013;Jones et al., 2014;Sibhatu et al., 2015;Ng'endo et al., 2016;Jones, 2017;Lachat et al., 2017;Rajendran et al., 2017;Mellisse et al., 2018;Sibhatu and Qaim, 2018). Although potentially a question that could be answered using the FarmDESIGN model, in this study we have not attempted to determine whether this direct link exists. What is certain from the current literature, is that the relationship is complex, can follow multiple pathways (Baudron et al., 2017) and can be confounded by many factors. Further research directions could focus on the participatory processes of dissemination and discussion of the results to, and with, the farmers.We have presented a whole farm multi-objective modelling exercise in four contrasting farm-household systems. The proposed multimethod approach and the model used, facilitates assessing and designing multifunctional agricultural landscapes for improved diet quality and incomes. This approach aims to jointly improve food and nutrition security, sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation, both for human and environmental health. We have analysed and compared four case study villages in two countries, to examine the scope for and effect of different nutrition sensitive interventions on economic, environmental and nutritional indicators in contrasting contexts. We explored windows of opportunities for sustainable redesign and innovation in farming systems using the solution spaces generated by the whole farm model FarmDESIGN to reveal trade-offs and synergies between contrasting objectives and decision variables. The relevant objectives analysed were household free budget, household leisure time and system-level yield of vitamin A. This integrated study allowed us to conclude that:• Despite the modelled Vietnamese sites exhibiting greater nutrient system yields (NSY r ) than those in Kenya, the modelled household diets in Kenya had greater nutrient adequacy due to the fact that the Vietnamese farmers sell greater proportions of their on-farm produced foods;• According to our multi-objective model explorations, substitution of only small areas of the currently grown crops by 'intervention' crops would be sufficient to improve various nutritional and livelihood indicators, in both Kenya and Vietnam;• Farmers in all locations faced the classic trade-off between income and labour, more income required more labour. Three of the four case study farms also showed a trade-off between household free budget and nutrient system yield for vitamin A (NSY vita ), while the case study farm in Mambai (Kenya) exhibited synergy between these two objectives.Options exist for farmers to improve on the objectives analysed here. We were able to quantify possible improvements in these objectives, however further research and participation of farmers is required to ascertain the desirability and feasibility of these promising options, to be able to include risk assessments of new configurations, and to determine their perceptions on such diversification options.","tokenCount":"6581"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0dc46b04645c1fe49b4fac3ebab7bdd6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/224d1814-c52d-4260-aaba-efa0c0119c70/retrieve","id":"-570595088"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"eb8fd0a3-7296-4c8c-8b92-80fe0f6fb6ce","pagecount":"15","content":"Mobile elementsPresence on bottom leavesYoung leaves and buds▪ Generalized yellowing of the leaf and progressive yellowing of the plant. • There is a slow growth of the plant. • Severe cases, dwarf, and stunted plants.Phosphorus Deficiency • Reduced plant growth.• Purple marks on the lower leaves.• Curling at the edges and apices of the leaves. • In severe cases, yellowing of the leaf margins and subsequent necrosis occurs.Photos by: Sandra Salazar y/o Camilo Vargas• Small and deformed superior foliar laminae. • Reduced root growth.• Uniform chlorosis of the superior foliar laminae and petioles. • In severe conditions; there is reduced plant growth and young leaves are small but without deformation.• Marked interveinal chlorosis in the lower foliar laminae and middle part of the plant.• May cause a reduction in plant height.Manganese Deficiency • Yellow or white interveinal spots on young leaf laminae. • In severe conditions reduced plant growth. • It is similar to the damage caused by the attack of Trips.• Necrotic spots on older leaves, especially along leaf margins.","tokenCount":"171"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6b4f8098acde0fcc5c9c54ebba246585","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/02ee76e8-db21-4a08-bdde-53ba7f46d553/retrieve","id":"-672809255"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6a2b0ecd-6dba-4f42-a8bc-b3256219c58c","pagecount":"8","content":"This paper is the first in a series of three interrelated papers and focuses on planning and implementation modalities of Rainwater Management (RWM) Strategies. It is part of the NBDC project 'On integrated RWM strategies-technologies, institutions and policies'. The project is underpinned by the recognition that integrated RWM needs to combine technologies, policies and institutions and be developed through multi-stakeholder engagement to foster innovation. Three woredas were selected for the research-Jeldu and Diga in Oromia Region and Fogera in Amhara Region. The research on planning and implementation of RWS is guided by the hypothesis that there is a gap between available policy and guidelines and specific planning and implementation procedures. Research findings conclude that RWM planning and implementation is still rather top-down and technology-oriented instead of people-centred. Local processes are not in place to take account of different livelihood strategies and constraints, cultural, social or institutional dynamics as well as power relations and gender issues. The research concludes with six recommendations, largely aimed at Ethiopian policymakers and implementing agencies, suggesting an alternative approach to RWM planning and implementation processes which would help improve the impact, sustainability and local ownership of interventions. The paper outlines RWM strategies which are developed with true participation of farmers and other stakeholders; are based on evidence of what works and why; take into account specific socioeconomic and ecological niches; work across relevant sectors; and support local opportunities for innovation.Smallholder rainfed farming is the backbone of the Ethiopian agriculture sector, the dominant contributor to national GDP and at the heart of the country's current national economic growth strategy. Considerable potential exists for enhancing food production and rural livelihoods through better rainwater management (RWM)-interventions which enable smallholder farmers to increase agricultural production by making better use of available rainwater while sustaining the natural resource base in rainfed farming systems.5. This paper is a summary of a longer research report authored by the same authors and published in the CPWF Research for Development Series, No. 5.Ethiopia has invested extensively in RWM interventions, in particular soil and water conservation and afforestation, over the last 40 years, but often with disappointing impact for multiple reasons. Given this limited success in natural resource conservation, a new approach is clearly needed, but what should it be? This question is at the centre of the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) program, part of the larger 'Challenge Programme on Water and Food'. The two key elements of the NBDC approach are (1) viewing RWM as a landscape-scale issue, whereby watersheds are conceived as socio-agro-ecological systems with social, economic and institutional networks that may cross-cut hydrological boundaries; and (2) recognizing that improving RWM successfully and on a sustainable basis, requires a focus on institutions as well as technologies and a new approach to planning, implementation and monitoring of interventions.The NBDC program is implemented through five related projects. The Nile 2 project (N2), 'On integrated RWM strategies-technologies, institutions and policies', is centred on field research in three pilot learning sites. The starting point for research in N2 is that integrated RWM strategies need to combine technologies/practices, policies and institutions and need to be developed through innovative approaches that bring together different stakeholders. Because policies and institutions can foster or discourage the adoption of productivity-increasing, resource-conserving strategies by farmers, the project also examines the extent to which policy change and institutional strengthening and reform could be combined with new technologies to spur widespread innovation.A central mechanism for stimulating innovation within the NBDC is the use of 'innovation platforms' at district and national levels. The diagnosis of RWM planning and implementation modalities was in part designed to inform the development of innovation platforms (see also Paper by Aklilu Amsalu et al. and by Beth Cullen et al.) by providing a baseline understanding of existing RWM strategies and institutional arrangements at local level. There are various elements to this. First, we were interested in how RWM interventions are planned and implemented at local level and how different actors are involved in this process. Second, we were interested in what government's role in planning and implementing RWM means for local 'innovation capacity'. Finally we wanted to understand the diversity of local livelihood strategies and how these might intersect with formal and informal approaches to RWM in our study sites.Three woredas (districts) in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia were selected for intensive study as part of the larger project. These are Jeldu and Diga in Oromia Regional State and Fogera in Amhara Regional State.Jeldu (West Shewa Zone, Oromia Region) is characterized by a mixed crop-livestock system. Potato and barley are dominant crops especially in the highland part of the woreda. Some of the current drivers of change in Jeldu include land degradation (soil erosion), seasonal migration of youth to towns and market constraints.Diga (East Wollega Zone, Oromia Region) is characterized by a mixed crop-livestock farming system with a lowlanddominated agro-ecology including maize, sorghum, coffee, vegetables, mango and sesame. In comparison with the other research sites, natural vegetation is still comparatively widespread, although deforestation is increasing. In-migration and movement from the highlands to the lowlands in order to access fertile farmland are important driving forces. Fogera (South Gondar Zone, Amhara Region) is characterized by a mixed crop-livestock farming system. Rice production is an important strategy for market integration in Fogera, accounting for more than 20% of the arable land. Expansion of rice production, enhanced markets and conflict over grazing land are some of the many drivers of change in the woreda.Data collection, analysis and write-up of site reports were carried out between November 2010 and December 2011. The final analysis and writing has been done during 2012 and has been influenced and informed by subsequent research in the three sites.In each of the three study woredas, five kebeles were identified for in-depth primary data collection. Kebeles were sampled purposively to capture a range of agro-ecologies (highland/midland/lowland), presence/absence of RWM interventions and high/low levels of natural resource degradation.A broad suite of methods and tools for data collection was used, including:• Community resource mapping and participatory timelines;• Focus group discussions (male and female groups separately for livelihoods analysis and a mixed group focusing on innovation capacity; each group captured a range of ages and wealth status);• Key informant interviews with a broad range of stakeholders; and• Secondary data collection from kebele and woreda offices.At each site, a team consisting of researchers from a nearby Agricultural Research Centre and a regional University (Adet Research Centre and Bahir Dar University for Fogera, Bako Research Centre and Wellega University for Diga and Holetta Research Centre and Ambo University for Jeldu) were responsible for carrying out data collection, analysis and write-up of site reports. The research teams were supported by researchers from ILRI, IWMI, ODI and Addis Ababa University, who also developed question guides and tools for data collection and analysis, provided feedback on site reports and wrote the synthesis report (Ludi et al. 2013).Land degradation in Ethiopia presents a major challenge in terms of agricultural productivity, food security and rural livelihoods. Various land and water management programs have been implemented on farms and community lands over the past four decades, undertaken by government agencies in collaboration with national and international organizations. However, success to date has been limited. Reasons identified include: top-down planning and implementation; standardized intervention packages based on inadequate scientific and technical knowledge; use of quota systems; lack of an integrated or systematic watershed approach; limited consideration of variations in agro-ecological conditions; and coerced participation with little regard for the views of the people (Merrey and Gebreselassie 2011: 54). These programs were therefore widely perceived as government-imposed activities (Keeley and Scoones 2000: 103). Although participating farmers received food rations in return for their work, the structures created often served no positive purpose and at the end of the Derg government, a large proportion of these were either deliberately destroyed or abandoned (Merrey and Gebreselassie 2011: 54).When EPRDF came to power in 1991, the new government committed itself to a decentralized political system and a new Constitution. Since then there has been a gradual shift towards more participatory community-driven approaches, increased emphasis on 'awareness raising', consultation and building projects from the 'bottom-up' (Keeley and Scoones 2000: 107). Added to this was growing talk of 'sustainability', 'integrated natural resource management' and a commitment to involve farmers in agricultural development activities, including an appreciation of their knowledge (ibid. 108). Current RWM programs are now taking a more systematic approach with an emphasis on consultation and planning on a watershed basis. Soil and water conservation or sustainable land management programs also focus more on enhancing farmers' incomes and food security. As Merrey and Gebreselassie (2011: 55) assert, 'Improved water and land management should be a means to improving peoples' lives, not an end in itself'. However, 'top-down blueprint approaches remain pervasive with agricultural extension largely focused on technology transfer' (ibid., 41). Programs remain quota driven and focused on the promotion of 'best practice' packages. There is also considerable evidence that many of the soil and water conservation structures promoted to date have low or negative returns and are often not perceived positively by farmers (Merrey and Gebreselassie 2011).The rationale for focusing on planning and implementation of RWM was based on the recognition that a number of national and regional policies and strategies in relation to RWM exist. These include very detailed guidelines, for example for participatory community watershed management (e.g. Desta et al. 2005). However, planners, in particular at lower administrative levels, do often not have sufficient tools and skills available to engage at a landscape level for effective integrated and multi-sectoral planning and implementation of RWM. In sum, a major hypothesis guiding this research was that there is a gap between available policy and guidelines and specific implementation. The baseline study also assessed the effectiveness of RWM planning in terms of its being evidence-based, tailored to social and ecological niches, cross-sectoral and participatory.The research concluded that there are five issues with the current planning process that need to be addressed if improving RWM is to become an integral part of sustainable agricultural development:1The discrepancy between policy and practice. While participation is a central plank of policy and land users are considered to be the main driver of planning and implementation of RWM at local level; in reality plans are too often guided by quotas supplied by higher-level administrative units.Notions of participation. There is a very different understanding of the word 'participation' among different actors. Often, participation in the context of RWM planning and implementation tends to mean mobilizing farmers to implement something, rather than providing incentives to engage in voluntary collective action and involving them in decision-making (Harrison 2002). Although at kebele level, planning processes attempt to be participatory and land users are involved in discussing problems and identifying priority RWM interventions, these plans do not necessarily get picked up sufficiently in planning of activities at higher administrative levels.Incentives for DAs. Although at local level, DAs try to reconcile as much as possible plans developed at local level with those plans received from the woreda to take account of local realities, in the end woreda plans with set quotas tend to be approved for implementation because quotas are used for performance monitoring. If DAs do not meet their quotas there are repercussions for their performance rating and their prospects of promotion. In general, DAs could play a more effective role in local planning if they were better connected with higher levels of government in terms of support and two-way communication.Failure to anticipate conflicts. Because plans are developed without sufficient recognition of local realities, conflicts at local level can arise. Most prominent are examples related to small-scale irrigation where downstream water use was insufficiently recognized, but also conflicts within watersheds when, for example, areas previously used for grazing livestock were closed off for rehabilitation, increasing pressure on existing grazing land.Missed opportunities for sustainability. Developing plans without sufficient local participation misses opportunities to tap into local cultural practices and institutions which would make it easier to implement RWM and could enhance the sustainability and ownership of interventions.Overall, the research has identified a key dilemma: national plan, output targets and a generally top-down planning focus vs. devolution, decentralization and participation in planning and co-development of innovations at the lowest possible level. This needs to be resolved if RWM interventions are to be owned by farmers, be sustainable and make a meaningful contribution to improved environmental management and better livelihoods. These features of the planning process have direct implications for the way in which RWM is implemented and the effectiveness of interventions on the ground. This is clearly evident in the discussion of findings on implementation which follows below.Despite several decades of intensive investments in RWM and natural resource management across Ethiopia, the impact on livelihoods and natural resources quality and quantity in many areas is rather disappointing. This should not distract, however, from the numerous sites across the Ethiopian Highlands where RWM and NRM has been more successful and is reported to have led to increasing household wellbeing, increasing community resilience and improved availability of a variety of natural resources. Many land and water management technologies and approaches are not achieving their full impact, mainly because of low levels of ownership and sustainability, but also because where degradation of natural resources is less advanced, the benefits of natural resource conservation are more difficult to detect. Approaches to NRM and RWM have historically been technology-oriented and top-down in approach with insufficient regard for the needs, aspirations, constraints and livelihood realities faced by farming communities. In addition, many RWM investments were seen as an end in themselves rather than a means to achieve improved household wellbeing and increased community resilience-as has been recognized by some programs such as 'MERET'. It is of critical importance that RWM strategies adopt a people-centred approach which takes into account local livelihood strategies and constraints, cultural, social and institutional dynamics as well as power relations and gender issues. It is essential to gain an understanding of these aspects because they feed into development planning for sustainable land use and livelihoods.The research found that there is a long tradition of RWM interventions in the study sites, particularly those implemented by farmers on their own land. Other interventions which are more labour and cost-intensive and need coordination across several farms or a watershed are much less likely to be sustainable. There are at least six reasons for the poor sustainability of these interventions:• Lack of relevance to local priorities. As discussed, plans are not necessarily congruent with local needs assessment.• Weaknesses in technical design. In some cases, DAs lack the required technical skills, or do not have access to information about the range of possible technologies or practices.• Lack of voluntary collective action. Compulsory campaigns to implement RWM do not inspire ownership and maintenance after construction.• Lack of clear governance arrangements for interventions on communal land. Although farmers would not necessarily be motivated to sustain interventions on their own land unless they perceived them to have clear value (both direct financial and non-financial), the weak enforcement of rules for management of communal resources (and low penalties for violations) creates a disincentive for individuals to invest in managing these better.• Poor follow up and monitoring. There is very little follow up by DAs and woreda experts as performance monitoring is based on outputs, i.e. quota achievement and not on outcomes or sustainability/longevity of interventions.• Focus on isolated technical interventions. There is typically a narrow focus on isolated technical interventions, such as bunds or ponds and very little attention to supporting needed interventions such as changing patterns of water use or land management.This research did not assess in detail the performance of particular interventions and practices and their contribution to enhanced crop productivity, water productivity or livelihoods, nor issues around land management and how this could be integrated with the application of specific RWM technologies. These are key issues which need to be better researched and understood in order to develop more effective RWM strategies and implementation approaches.Strengthening monitoring and evidence collection functions of kebele and woreda officials on the impact and effectiveness of RWM interventions would make a huge contribution.Our research has highlighted many specific livelihood issues and several underlying institutional processes which need to be considered if RWM activities are to be successful. Key among these is active involvement of community members in the process of RWM activities right from the start. Development agenda and interventions introduced by outsiders may conflict with local knowledge and priorities which address specific needs and circumstances. Community perspectives should therefore be integrated with plans of action for longterm sustainability. Better understanding of current knowledge and practices, coping mechanisms, capacity for innovation and mechanisms for community mobilization, as well as understanding the reasons for resistance to certain interventions, could lead to a much better understanding of how, where and what to promote when it comes to RWM.There are potentially exciting opportunities for co-development of plans and interventions which incorporate local perspectives as well as develop farmers' capacity to innovate. Care must be taken not to idealize indigenous knowledge, but multi-stakeholder participatory processes involving external agents and community members can be used to assist local communities to organize and assess their own knowledge and resources whilst also identifying and integrating appropriate outsider knowledge and technologies. Further, it is 'not narrow disciplinary research that is necessary for addressing land degradation and its impacts, but interdisciplinary communication and transdisciplinary collaboration (Ludi 2004: 387). This includes multi-disciplinary research, research partnerships between researchers and research organizations from Ethiopia and from abroad and genuine collaboration of researchers and the concerned society. Not focusing on either participatory approaches or scientific methods alone, but combining the two knowledge systems equitably will be the key to finding options for sustainable land management and sustainable livelihoods.However, it is also important to bear in mind that not everyone may want to share their knowledge. People may have good reasons for not wanting to make their perspectives and knowledge known or widely available. People in rural areas work long and exhausting hours and have little time to carry out project tasks, particularly if they cannot see tangible benefits. If farmers already have to do compulsory work on resource conservation activities such as watershed protection or tree planting, as well as being required to attend political meetings, 'sensitization' sessions and trainings, they may not be willing to participate in additional planning events. This is particularly relevant if their experiences of 'participation' are already negative. Therefore, it will be important to develop mechanisms for collaboration between various stakeholders which enable different knowledge and perspectives to be exchanged, shared and translated into action. As Teshale et al. (2001) highlight, 'While devolving the responsibility for resource planning and management to local communities may be a necessary condition for meeting the objective of sustainable development, it is important-particularly in the case of developing countries-that this is complemented with capacity building initiatives at local and national levels in an integrated framework ' (2001: 34).The study concludes with six recommendations, which are largely for Ethiopian policymakers and implementing agencies. They are also currently being tested and demonstrated through an action research process in the three research sites under the NBDC program and the results are being shared through various consultative platforms at local, regional and national levels. Together they represent an approach to improving the RWM planning and implementation processes in rural Ethiopia such that impact, sustainability and local ownership of interventions are prioritized and strategies are based upon meaningful participation of farmers and other stakeholders, a growing base of evidence about what works and why and increasing opportunity for true innovation at all levels. Although such processes are not always straightforward and this does represent a major shift away from current practice, some of the foundations of this approach are in fact already present in existing policies and implementation guidelines.The six main recommendations are:• Shift the focus of targets from outputs to outcomes;• Enhance monitoring and evidence collection on RWM with a focus on impact and sustainability;• Revitalize and capitalize on the DA system;• Strengthen local institutions' roles in RWM;• Move towards more meaningful participation;• Open lines of communication to foster innovation capacity.By the completion of the NBDC, we hope to have provided evidence that adoption of these recommendations can contribute significantly to achieving the long-term goals of sustainable productive agriculture and natural resource conservation in the Ethiopian Highlands; they can be implemented at a large scale; and their implementation will result in positive benefits at landscape and watershed as well as community and farm levels.","tokenCount":"3424"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cce6dfddf6e9cb9bbfb8024475d40b53","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/72f5fb57-84cd-4bb6-89e5-0282877b3769/retrieve","id":"-526945770"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f5518227-bd6a-46a4-8e74-a9d4798fc8da","pagecount":"15","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.As part of the Research and Innovation Strategy 2030, the CGIAR is developing a series of initiatives designed to achieve a world with sustainable and resilient food, land and water systems that provide more diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient and affordable diets and guarantee improved livelihoods and greater social equality, within global and regional environmental limits.The Sustainable Animal Productivity for Livelihoods, Nutrition and Gender inclusion (SAPLING) initiative aims to enable small ruminant, dairy and poultry producers, especially women and young people, to engage in inclusive value chains and achieve sustainable productivity gains of up to 30-50% by improving livelihoods.In Mali, SAPLING aims to bridge small ruminant productivity gaps through a wide-scale dissemination of proven livestock technologies and best practices in target regions.On 28 and 29 March 2022, project stakeholders met to codevelop the priority objectives, outcomes and innovation package for the next three years, including priority sites; prioritize innovations, develop the Theory of Change (ToC) and agree on partners' roles and responsibilities and a schedule of key activities.The overall objective of this workshop is to review the ToC, including innovations, reframe objectives and activities and agree on the steps to be taken to achieve the project's objectives.After the presentation and adoption of the draft agenda and the introduction of the participants, two speeches marked this ceremony.The first address came from Isabelle Baltenweck, SAPLING project leader, who spoke to participants from Nairobi, Kenya, via Teams. She began by congratulating the entire SAPLING/Mali team on their excellent organization of the workshop. She thanked all participants for their interest in SAPLING's activities in Mali. She recalled the importance of the ToC, which makes it possible to identify the different stages in adopting innovations and to measure the changes brought about by these innovations among the different stakeholders in the value chain.The second speech was given by the Deputy Director General of the Institut de l'Economie Rurale (IER). In his speech, he recalled the objectives of the SAPLING project and renewed the commitments of local partners such as IER and Laboratoire Central Veterinaire (LCV) to support ILRI in achieving these objectives. He praised the participatory approach that ILRI has always adopted in implementing the various stages of the project since its inception. The present workshop is perfectly in line with this cocreation approach and therefore aims to revise the ToC initially developed by the same actors present today. He was delighted by the effective presence of the various partners invited and wished the workshop a good success. With these words, he declared the workshop proceedings open. Two presentations were made.a) The first presentation was given on the SAPLING project by Mourad Rekik of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)-Tunisia, SAPLING project deputy leader.The presentation highlighted the importance of livestock in improving food security, nutrition and the wellbeing of populations. SAPLING is an initiative that aims to improve livestock productivity and the competitiveness of livestock based value chains in seven countries in Africa and Asia. SAPLING's strategy is to combine innovations in several areas, including health, genetics, nutrition, habitat and herd management. This strategy enables the collaboration of actors from various technical background, researchers and field workers in the livestock sector. He pointed out that the project's interventions are organized in 5 Work Packages (WP):• Technologies and practices for sustainable livestock productivity: developing, adapting and testing new and existing productivity-and resilience enhancing, low emission, scalable technologies and practices across the three main pillars of livestock productivity: improved feeds, animal health products and genetics (WP 1). • Innovations and practices for safe consumption of livestock derived foods as part of diverse diets: cocreating innovative models and approaches for social and behaviour change communication and testing and evaluating approaches for incentivizing market actors to enhance the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable livestock derived foods (WP 2). • Sustainable livestock productivity for gender equity and social inclusion: understanding constraints and opportunities, identifying best bet entry points, addressing constraints and developing tools to measure progress (WP 3). • Competitive and inclusive livestock value chains: generating evidence on institutional arrangements and technical interventions to transition towards more profitable, inclusive and sustainable livestock value chains (WP 4). • Evidence, decisions and scaling: generating and consolidating evidence, models and tools to support public and private decision-making for a sustainable (WP 5).Following the presentation, participants mentioned the weak link to aspects of capacity building of local partners and value chain actors in the WPs. A contribution was also made to encourage cross country, cross species learning and sharing experiences between the seven SAPLING countries.a) The second presentation was given by Michel Dione of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Mali Country Coordinator for SAPLING. He focused on the elements of the ToC as previously codeveloped with stakeholders.The presentation covered: i) the identified problem, ii) the project vision, iii) an overview of innovation packages, iv) intermediate results leading to short-term results, v) short-term results and finally vi) long-term results.The presenter gave clear and detailed explanations of each component and stage of ToC and the evolutionary process that characterizes it.During group work, participants will review the relevance of the project's vision, the identified problem and the various intermediate, short-term and long-term results planned.After the presentation, discussions focused on clarifying certain acronyms contained in the documents distributed. A question was also raised about the inclusion of forage ligneous plants in the forages to be promoted by the project.a) The third and final presentation was given by Rein Van Der Hoek of Alliance Biodiversity and CIAT-Senegal (online).This presentation shared the results of a trade-off analysis study. This is a trade-off analysis that assesses the potential impacts of an innovation along different dimensions such as productivity, profitability, the environment, the human condition and social impacts. It is carried out before the innovation is implemented, to identify possible negative impacts on certain dimensions, for certain players or on different time scales.A total of 82 people were interviewed during the survey, with only 13 people having responded, translating into a response rate of 16%. Respondents came from research institutions including NGOs, public sector, producers' organizations and consultants in livestock. They belong to various fields of expertise such as animal genetics, animal health, animal feed and forage crops, livestock and environment, beef value chain, dairy value chain, gender and inclusion. Profitability and productivity received the highest scores, while the environment had the lowest. Following this survey, the Innovation Packages (IPs) were revised, necessitating a re-evaluation of the results based on the updated IPs. This re-evaluation shows that IP 7 had the highest score, while IP 4 had the lowest. IP 3, which is brand new, did not receive a score in this re-evaluation.A few clarifying questions were asked after this presentation. The presenter provided some answers to these concerns.Participants were divided into five groups according to their specialties and tasks were allocated according to IPs (see Annex 1). The aim of the group work was to review IPs and add comments if applicable to guide their improvements.Group work was coordinated by facilitators from the SAPLING project team (see Annex 2).Actors in the small ruminant value chain in Mali: Sites = Ségou, SikassoThe low productivity of small ruminants and the suboptimal performance of small ruminant value chains are due to poor management of health, genetic resources and feed (high incidence of disease, deficiencies in feed quantity and quality), limited institutional capacity among stakeholders (especially women), limited processing of animal products and inadequate input and service delivery systems• Add 'low breed productivity' in the parenthesis   shortly. However, it should be noted that there is a real enthusiasm among farmers for growing Brachiaria at the start of each season and the study will surely confirm this observation.Discussions also focused on the progress made in bringing the thermotolerant vaccine to market and the consumption of stock already produced by the LCV.• To LCV: Use the 120,000 doses of thermotolerant vaccine in SAPLING sites.• To ILRI: Continue to support LCV in the process of registering the PPR thermotolerant vaccine in the region. • To IER: Share previous forage crop adoption study reports from past projects with the SAPLING team to get an idea of which forage species are available.• Update the ToC document considering the workshop's amendments.• Distribute the new document to project partners.The ceremony featured two speeches.The coordinator of the SAPLING project in Mali, Michel Dione, congratulated all participants for their diligence and constant involvement during the workshop. The new document resulting from this workshop will henceforth be the breviary of the project's activities. It describes where we have come from, where we are going and the expected impact on people's daily lives. All the project's actors and stakeholders will have to take ownership of it and master its content.In his closing speech, Doubangolo Coulibaly, representing IER's Deputy Director General, thanked all participants for the quality of their contributions. The workshop was a success. There have already been many changes thanks to the SAPLING project, which follows on from other ILRI projects. He thanked ILRI and the CGIAR for their ongoing institutional support of national livestock institutions. With these words, he declared the SAPLING ToC Review Workshop in Mali closed.","tokenCount":"1562"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a316fe2ae022d636a99699601b380868","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/953ab6bd-110a-4ec7-a421-3b442699f975/retrieve","id":"-1454289223"},"keywords":["Agroecological intensification","banana","coffee agroforestry","complex systems","participatory experimentation"],"sieverID":"601540e4-7c50-4e1a-ab08-f083525a6202","pagecount":"2","content":"system. Fourth, stakeholder participatory processes should be enriched with results of formal studies, conceptual and quantitative model building and visioning exercises. Finally, complexity should be addressed through scenario building under variable and uncertain futures resulting from different combinations of climate change, prices for commodities, energy and inputs and investments in social capital, governance and innovation.Banana intercropped in multi-strata coffee agroforestry, a technology developed by farmers, offers multiple livelihood benefits -a monthly income, a shade component easy to establish and manage, and food security. More than a million smallholder households associate bananas in their coffee fields, in spite of countervailing technical recommendations. Between 2009-2013, with financing from GIZ, scientists and groups of farmer experimenters in seven zones of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Peru collaborated to develop approaches to improve the productivity and value of banana as part of the agroecological intensification of their shaded coffee. Growers and scientists diagnosed the structure and function of the tree-bananas-coffee association, providing the basis for a work agenda which was implemented over three experimentation cycles. Five agroecosystem-based decision tools to intensification resulted -optimisation of light resource partitioning among trees, banana and coffee; macronutrient input-output analysis, including nitrogen contribution of leguminous trees; banana bunch, stem and mat management; landscape, farm and plot management of Fusarium wilt to reduce impact on Gros Michel, the preferred market banana; and strategies for increased banana prices and margins. The process of prototype development bringing together seven grower groups, advanced institute and local banana and coffee scientists and German and Latin American students was analysed to identify lessons for the contribution of science to farm household management of the complex field and farm coffee agroforestry-based agroecosystem. First, iterative, adaptive learning approaches should focus on first-generation prototypes which guide improved decision making while also building capacity for the ongoing generation of more dynamic, improved prototypes. Second, complementary frameworks drawn from agroecosystems, gender-and generational-based livelihoods, and small business should be integrated into the experimentation process. Third, analysis should be grounded in linkages between farm decisionmaking and neighbouring farms, the local territory and the institutional and innovation","tokenCount":"344"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7b43d0fb152ded677b6d798ff02eac68","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/d9b78d75-8656-49c1-8123-3e05496d7b72/content","id":"615726559"},"keywords":["Price co-integration","food crop market","error correction model"],"sieverID":"7593e3ac-36c1-4421-a781-0434a43bd6a5","pagecount":"10","content":"This paper examines the role of market price information dissemination on the co-integration of grain market prices in Northern Ethiopia. Results are based on bi-monthly retail price data on wheat and teff commodities collected from six markets in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia. The data has 55 observations for each of the two crops in each of the six markets ranging over a period from May, 2006 to October, 2008. Johansen's co-integration test reveals that most markets are co-integrated in wheat and teff retail prices. However, there is an indication that retail prices at Abi-Adi, a town located relatively farther away from the main asphalt road is less integrated to other markets. This implies that, in addition to market price information dissemination, other infrastructural developments like road networks are crucial for spatial market integration through the physical transfer of goods from one market to another.Markets play important roles in facilitating the exchange of goods and services and can be welfare enhancing for actors engaged in the exchanges. Markets also provide signals about the true cost of resources and guide allocation to their best use. In addition to signals about the value of resources, integrated markets could help in equalizing the value of a resource across space after accounting for transfer costs between markets (Baulch, 1997). In most cases, agricultural markets in developing countries are not well integrated due to lack of well developed infrastructure and market institutions that facilitate the easy flow of goods and information between markets (Minten, 1999). Majority of the rural agricultural markets in Ethiopia share this feature. Under such circumstances, rural markets may not be able to make quick adjustments to price shocks occurring in neighboring market. Recently *Corresponding author: E-mail: m.jaleta@cgiar.org. Tel: +251 11 617 2309. Fax: +251 11 6172001.the Tigray Agricultural Marketing Promotion Agency (TAMPA) introduced a market price information dissemination process using local public media in the Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia. TAMPA collected agricultural market prices from 10 markets on 15 agricultural commodities including wheat and teff. The price information was analyzed at TAMPA head quarter in Mekelle and transmitted to the public via local radio regularly. It is believed that such initiatives contribute towards creating the 'Rule-of-one-Prices' through a better co-ordinated and integrated markets. So far, studies on grain market integration in Ethiopia are mainly focusing on how the regional market prices are co-integrated to the central grain market prices in Addis Ababa (Negassa, 1998;Dercon, 1995;Getnet et al., 2005). Such studies are relevant since the Addis Ababa grain market is the core in grain price determination. However, fewer attempts are made in trying to examine how local markets are cointegrated and adjusting to price shocks in their neighboring markets or to their immediate regional market. Such analysis is helpful in identifying the level of integration of local markets with each other and identifying factors that re-quire attention in order to improve integration at regional level. This paper is, therefore, aimed at analyzing the extent of food crop market integration in the Northern Ethiopia region of Tigray using retail prices.The remaining part of this paper is organized as follows. First, the empirical framework used in the analysis is presented and followed by description of the study area and data used. Then, empirical results are presented and discussed. Finally, it concludes and gives implications.If two markets are said to be spatially integrated, prices in a given market adjust to the price shocks in the other market. This price adjustment between markets may take place through the flow of goods from surplus to deficit areas. Such transfer usually occurs when the observed shocks are able to cover the transfer cost of goods from one market to the other. Even if prices in the two markets are co-integrated, sometimes one may not know prior the direction of price adjustments taking place between these markets. Granger causality test could show how the lagged prices in one market could affect prices in the other market (Granger, 1969;Engel and Granger, 1987). However, this test does not give how long the effect of a given price shock in one market might take till the price in the other affected market adjusts to equilibrium. In such a case, it is advisable to use Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) since it estimates the adjustment parameters to the long-run equilibrium (Meyer, 2004). These well known methodologies are briefly discussed subsequently.As indicated earlier, Granger causality test could give a clue on the existence of potential causality and direction of causality between prices in different markets. Granger causality between prices of two markets A and B is specified as:   ,  ,  and  are parameters to be estimated. k is the maximum number of lagged prices included in the model.The null hypotheses to be tested in Granger causality is 0 ...for a situation where price in market B is expected to Granger cause price in market A, and 0 ...when price in market A is expected to Granger cause price in market B.If commodity prices at all markets follow an integrated process of order 1, that is, I(1), vector error correction model that accounts for trends and a constant term is specified as:where t p  a vector of m × 1 first difference is prices from m markets and  is a coefficient matrix and point of interest to test for co-integration and adjustments between markets. If  has a reduced rank of r < m, then there exist n × r matrices of  and  each with rank r, such that, where  is a vector of adjustment coefficients, and  is a vector of the co-integration equation parameters. ) in all markets.  is a parameter of trend and  is a constant term. Here, one should note that since the VECM equation specified earlier is based on first differences, the constant implies a linear time trend in the differences, and the time trend ( t  ) implies a quadratic time trend in the levels of the data (StataCorp, 2007: 364). t  is a vector of m × 1 disturbance term assumed to be identically and independently distributed.L refers to the number of lags determined from the vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis.A three stage procedure could be followed to test for a price co-integration between or among markets and estimate the adjustment parameters using VECM. In the first step, using the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test (Dickey and Fuller, 1979), the series of commodity prices in different markets are tested for stationarity. ADF test for a stationarity with a linear time trend (t) is specified as:where  ,  ,  and  are parameters to be estimated using OLS method. The null hypothesis to be tested for unit root is 0 : 0   H . For a data with T observations, the maximum number of lags ( max k ) to be included in the ADF specification could be set using Schwert (1989) method, which is specified as:Once the stationarity is confirmed, the number of maximum lags to be included in the co-integration test or the co-integrating VECM estimation is identified. Though, there are a number of criteria that could be used in selecting the lag orders, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) is the most common one.Using the selected lag orders, the method of Johansen (1988Johansen ( , 1991) ) was applied to test the existence of cointegration between or among a series of market prices. The Johansen's co-integration method rejects the null hypothesis of no co-integration (r = 0) when the loglikelihood of the unconstrained model that includes the co-integrating equations is significantly different from the log-likelihood of the constrained model that does not include the co-integrating equations. If the commodity prices in all markets are integrated process of order 1 I(1), but not co-integrated, then the coefficient matrix  becomes a zero matrix and thus, has rank zero. Johansen's co-integration test gives the number of ranks (that is, the available co-integration equation vectors). If there is a vector of co-integration equations identified from this test, the existence of co-integration between/among the markets is confirmed and estimates of the co-integration equations are also obtained. After the co-integration test, the VECM is estimated to obtain the adjustment parameters to the long-run equilibrium. 1 However, inferences on the adjustment coefficient estimates ( ˆ) are dependent crucially on the stationarity of the co-integrating equations. Thus, the model specification should be checked for stationarity. Finally, an impulse-response graph can be plotted for selected market prices to examine virtually whether a price shock in one market has either a permanent or transitory effect on the prices in other markets.Grain market price data used in this study was collected by the 1 Recent studies criticize conducting market integration analyses without accounting for transaction costs (Barrett, 2001;Barrett and Li, 2002;Meyer, 2004, among other). Meyer (2004) argued that Threshold Vector Error Correction Models (TVECM) can account for the effects of transaction costs in price transmission analysis. However, due to the limited number of price observations we have, we could not use the TVECM, though, more appropriate. Therefore, we are cautious in interpreting the adjustment parameter estimates in this study. We focus more on the direction than the magnitude of adjustments between markets.Tigray Agricultural Marketing Promotion Agency (TAMPA) on bimonthly basis from selected ten market towns in Tigray Regional State of Northern Ethiopia. Based on the completeness of price data over the study period, retail prices of wheat and teff crops in six market towns (Abi-Adi, Alamata, Axum, Hawzen, Maichew and Mekelle) were considered in this analysis. Geographical locations of these selected market towns and road networks connecting them with each other are presented in Figure 1.There are a total of 55 retail prices for each commodity in each It is difficult to judge on the kind of relationship between commodity retail prices in different markets based on Figures 2 and 3. There is no clear indication that a given market may always have higher or lower prices. The way these markets respond to shocks in a given market is also difficult to analyze visually.Since wheat and teff retail prices in all market towns experienced a visible difference in trend for the two periods, it might be possible that the price data in these two periods may follow a different stationarity process. Baum (2001) argued that the conventional augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test for stationarity may lead to a wrong conclusion especially, if there is structural break in the data. For this reason, the ADF unit root test is applied to the two successive periods and the whole data set. At 5% critical level, results in Table 1 shows that the ADF unit root test could not reject the null hypothesis that the price series are unit root for the two commodities, at all market towns, and across the two specified periods.The Engle-Granger causality test could give some indications for the existence of cause and effect relationships between retail prices in different markets. Accordingly, except for wheat prices in Hawzen, there are weaker Granger-causalities from the aggregate market town retail prices. Relatively stronger causality was seen on wheat retail prices in Axum from all market towns except Hawzen. Two weeks earlier, retail prices in Mekelle market Granger caused wheat retail prices in Maichew, Alamata and Axum markets. Similar effects from Mekelle market was seen on teff retail prices in Abi-Adi, Hawzen and Axum markets. However, only Hawzen market Granger caused both wheat and teff retail prices in Mekelle market. Details are presented in Table 2 where only the significant Chi-square values are reported.First, we tested whether the bivariate co-integration between pair of markets is different for the two distinct price movements in periods 1 and 2. There is consistent    test with 2 degrees of freedom (df) for the specific market towns and 10 df for all markets; ***, **, and * significant at 1, 5 and 10% levels, respectively. , Trace statistic for a maximum rank (r) of zero; b , Trace statistic for a maximum rank (r) of one; *, Accept H0 at 5% significance level. The 5% critical values for the hypothesis H0: r = 0, H1: r  1 and H0: r = 1, H1: r  2 are 18.17 and 3.74, respectively.Thus, trace statistic greater than 18.17 are indicating that there is at least one co-integration equation.integration between Alamata and Axum could be due to the relatively longer distance between the two markets. But, that of Abi-Adi and Maichew could be due to the fact that Abi-Adi is located farther away from the main asphalt road passing through most of the market towns (Figure 1). At 5% significance level, three pairs of markets were not significantly co-integrated in teff retail prices. These pairs are: Abi-Adi-Maichew, Abi-Adi-Mekelle and Hawzen-Maichew. Teff retail prices at Abi-Adi market happened to be not significantly co-integrated in two of the three failed pairs (Table 4). As indicated earlier, this might be due to its geographical location and relatively poor road condition connecting this market town to Mekelle, Axum and other markets. Though not as far as Abi-Adi, Hawzen is also located away from the main asphalt road (Figure 1). The Johansen's co-integration test results in Tables 3  and 4 show the long term co-integration relationship. However, they fail to tell the direction of causalities and Jaleta and Gebremedhin. 3649 The 5% critical values for the hypothesis H0: r = 0, H1: r  1 and H0: r = 1, H1: r  2 are 18.17 and 3.74, respectively. Thus, trace statistic greater than 18.17 are indicating that there is a co-integration of at least with one rank.the adjustments made between markets when there are price shocks. To capture the direction of causalities and adjustments, obtaining the VECM estimation results with the estimates of the adjustment parameters is important. Accordingly, Tables 5 and 6 presents estimates of the adjustment parameter ( ˆ) in the VECM specification.These estimates for the paired markets show how one market adjusts to the long-run equilibrium when the changes in the retail price of its own market or of other markets are too high. For instance, positive and significant values show how retail prices in the adjusting markets are quickly adjusting to the higher price shocks in the other market. On the other hand, negative values show how the higher retail prices in adjusting markets quickly fall back towards the retail prices of the other market (StataCorp, 2007: 369). Estimated adjustment coefficients closer to the study of Babiker and Abdalla (2009) indicate that the retail price adjustment in a given market is so quick (Rapsomanikis et al., 2003;Babiker and Abdalla, 2009). Accordingly, results in Table 5 show that wheat retail prices in Axum market adjust quickly to the higher retail prices observed in all other markets. However, higher retail prices in Axum market is not significantly adjusted back to the lower retail prices in any of these markets. This shows that the wheat retail price adjustment in Axum market is asymmetric. Similar to adjustments in wheat retail prices, except to Abi-Adi market, teff retail prices in Axum adjusted to higher prices in other markets (Table 6). However, higher retail price shocks in Abi-Adi and Maichew quickly adjusts back to Axum's level. Teff retail prices in all markets adjusted to Mekelle and Alamata markets whereas Mekelle adjusts only to Alamata market.Finally, using the whole set of selected markets and the number of lags obtained from the VAR analysis by Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the Johansen's test for cointegration is implemented. The test shows that there are 3 and 2 co-integrating equations identified for wheat and teff prices, respectively (Tables 7 and 8). Apart from the bivariate co-integration analyses discussed earlier, this shows that out of the six markets, there are at least three and two markets that are co-integrated at a time in wheat and teff retail prices, respectively.Mekelle is a central and economically important town in the region. Taking this into account, whether unexpected retail price shocks happening in Mekelle market may have either a permanent or transitory effect in the remaining markets is analyzed using an impulseresponse graph (Supplementary Figure A1 and A2). Accordingly, unexpected wheat retail price shock that is local to Mekelle market has a permanent effect in Alamata and Maichew markets. The effect is transitory in the remaining three markets. However, unexpected shock on teff retail prices in Mekelle market has a permanent effect in all markets.Due to poor infrastructural and institutional facilities, agricultural commodity markets in developing countries are commonly not well integrated. Based on the market price information transmission efforts TAMPA is making, this study is aimed at testing agricultural commodity markets integration in Northern Ethiopia. Analyses results using Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) showed that most of the markets considered under this study are ","tokenCount":"2801"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f13a5ef5c41cf31a0e5bad031819983a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4427cc8f-861c-4771-b989-8f58e6a7ce23/retrieve","id":"-1844274468"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e65bcdff-a86c-4331-96ba-da76316c274c","pagecount":"9","content":"La peste des petits ruminants (PPR) est une contrainte major aux moyens de subsistance et a la sécurité alimentaire des petits producteurs/éleveurs. L'épidémiologie et la biologie du virus de la PPR a beaucoup de choses en commun avec le virus de la peste bovine (PB), qui a été globalement éradiqué. Ce document présente une stratégie pour le contrôle progressif de la PPR en s'appuyant sur les enseignements tirés de l'éradication de la peste bovine. Le contrôle progressif de la PPR repose sur une approche modulaire consistant en une série de phases autonomes, chacune des phases ayant son propre ensemble de résultats. Les principaux résultats intermédiaires seront des modèles avérées applicables pour la fourniture de services durables pour le contrôle de la PPR et le renforcement des capacités des institutions de santé animale afin de cibler les services de contrôle pour certains points critiques. Le projet favorisera une méthode de gestion adaptée qui intègre des approches d'apprentissage qui stimuleront l'innovation institutionnelle de la santé animale. Une orientation coordonnée vers des objectifs à long terme en santé animale ajoute de la valeur aux investissements en cours dans la lutte contre les maladies infectieuses.Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), or small ruminant plague, is a viral disease primarily affecting goats and sheep that causes significant economic impact in Africa and Asia. The virus is also known to cause fatal disease in camels and asymptomatic infection of cattle and wildlife. PPR was originally recognized in West Africa in 1942 and for many years was seen as a seasonally epidemic disease in Sahelian regions. The disease was subsequently recognized in Central and Eastern Africa, the Middle East, South Asia in 1970s, 80s 90s respectively (Figure 1). Thereafter it appeared in Central Asia and most recently it entered Tibet and now threatens China.As a disease of small ruminants, PPR is noted for its impact on the livelihoods and food security of the poor and marginalized segments of society. In recent years, PPR has caused major outbreaks in East Africa and has spread to Morocco. The rest of North Africa, Southern Europe, and Southern Africa are now considered at risk of infection unless coordinated action is taken. The socio-economic losses associated with PPR mainly result from the high case mortality rates that is characteristic of the disease. This negatively affects income from production and valueaddition in marketing chains. PPR is a constraint to trade, although this impact is mitigated in local and regional markets due to its wide geographic distribution at present. Small ruminants are recognized as ready sources of food and cash and women and disadvantaged households often rely on small ruminants. Small ruminants are an important means to rebuild herds after environmental and political shocks. Thus, they are an important component of pastoral coping mechanism. The main benefits of sustained PPR control will be enhanced food security, coping mechanisms and poverty reduction.The etiologic agent is a member of the Morbillivirus genus and a close relative of rinderpest virus, a disease of cattle that has recently been globally eradicated. The eradication of RP was aided by features of the disease and available control tools that contributed to successful control. There was only one sero type and live attenuated RP vaccines gave life-long protection against all strains of the virus. There was no carrier state: infection was short lived and resulted in either death or life-long immunity. The virus did not survive for long outside the animal host: it was readily destroyed by heat, sunlight, chemicals and disinfectants. Thus, the virus needed a continuous source of new susceptible animals to survive. Proven diagnostic tests were available. PPR shares all these characteristics. At the level of animal health institutions, the eradication of RP has created an increased awareness and capacity for coordinated control interventions based upon sound epidemiological approaches that are driven by socio-economic incentives. In addition, considerable progress was made to enhance surveillance capacity, regulatory environments as well as private sector and community participation.There is now significant demand for a coherent, long-term strategy for the progressive control of PPR. This document presents a strategy for the progressive control of PPR. The initial objective is to establish sustainable control systems that benefit poor livestock keepers and national economies. The strategy is consistent with a long-term objective of eradication, but does not require a commitment to eradication at the outset. Each phase of the strategy is self-sufficient in that it will provide economically justified, durable outputs with the resources provided. Further, the strategy consists of a set of regional programs anchored in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and integrated in a continental framework. The principles guiding the PPR progressive control strategy depend largely on experiences to date in the animal health sector. Some salient principles are:$Q DGDSWLYH PDQDJHPHQW DSSURDFK will be taken. The progressive control program will be structured to maximize uptake of lessons learnt during the implementation of the program. The technical and institutional strategy will be updated regularly to ensure maximum relevance to current knowledge and experience.6XUYHLOODQFH DQG FRQWURO LQWHUYHQWLRQV will be risk-based and epidemiologically targeted to maximize impact and economic efficiency. Specific epidemiological research will be carried out to identify critical points for control interventions.7KH SURJUDP ZLOO FRQWLQXH WKH tradition of being innovative in surveillance and control through the incorporation of action research within on-going field activities.3DUWQHUVKLS WR PRELOL]H WKH EURDG resources of animal health institutions at national, regional and international levels 5HJLRQDO VWUDWHJLHV ZLOO EH WDLORUHG WR local small ruminant health priorities. PPR control will be combined with other activities such as vaccination against contagious caprine pleuropneumoia and/ or sheep and goat pox, provision of therapeutic services for the control of ecto and endo-parasites and other endemic diseases impacting on small ruminant production and productivity etc. to increase efficiency, broaden impact and encourage fuller participation.7KH 3DQ $IULFDQ SURJUDP ZLOO EH implemented in the context of global PPR progressive control programs and OIE principles.It is a recognised principle that the probability of disease transmission is not uniform across national populations. There are often a number of risk factors that contribute to the overall risk of disease transmission in a particular community, production system or value chain. These risk factors are often quite simple attributes of the sub-population such as the amount of movement, exchange of animals, distance from services and inter-species contact or interaction with wildlife.When the nature and distribution of risk factors for transmission and maintenance of an agent are known, it becomes possible to target surveillance and control measures to high risk settings. This maximizes impact and minimizes cost. Effective targeting of high risk communities through participatory disease surveillance was one of the factors in the success of rinderpest eradication, but can also make control programs more efficient where the goal is sustained suppression of disease and disease impact rather than eradication.The risk factors for transmission and maintenance of PPR are partially understood, but more information on the interaction of wildlife and livestock as well as on the role of specific production systems/activities would contribute to effective targeting. delivery systems that include payment for services. Thus, a range of proven service delivery models are needed as well as guidance on the conditions under which different models may be appropriate to conditions and objectives.The Pan-African PPR Strategy advocates for a period of experimentation where a series of service delivery options are evaluated under different conditions. This will build an evidence base for making informed policy decisions. The issues to be explored are:&RVW In line with the adaptive management approach, a number of learning and research activities will be undertaken to enhance the institutional capacity, technical tools and ability to target interventions. Underpinning this is the need for a clear and up-to-date understanding of the socio-economic context in which PPR progressive control is being undertaken so that interventions are delivered in a manner that allows socio-economic forces to effectively drive the program to a successful, sustainable outcome.(FRQRPLF DQDO\\VLV RI WKH LPSDFWV EHQHILW cost of progressive control, cost-effectiveness of control options, and incentives for economic contribution and participation (SLGHPLRORJLF UHVHDUFK WR EHWWHU understand transmission dynamics, the different roles of wildlife and livestock species, production systems, ecosystems and viral lineages with the goal of identifying critical points and optimal methods of intervention at critical control points.$FWLRQ UHVHDUFK DQG SROLF\\ GLDORJXH RQ public-private-community partnerships to deliver control and surveillance services. 4XHVWLRQV LQFOXGH WKH EHVW XVH RI FRPPXQLW\\ animal health workers, gender issues, and the role of producers' associations, non-JRYHUQPHQWDO RUJDQL]DWLRQV RU RWKHU FLYLO society actors in service delivery. The goal is to develop and test new business models for the VXVWDLQHG FRPPHUFLDOL]HG GHOLYHU\\ RI GLVHDVH control services *RRG GLDJQRVWLF WRROV H[LVW +RZHYHU refinement and elaboration of diagnostics will add value to the range of existing tools. Work to define minimal performance characteristics of diagnostic assays and establish bench marking procedures for diagnostic networks is QHHGHG 6WDQGDUGL]DWLRQ RI WRROV VKRXOG LQFOXGH tests for confirming outbreaks, tracking molecular epidemiology, supporting diagnostics for the field (pen-side tests) and sero-monitoring of vaccinated flocks.&XUUHQWO\\ UHFRJQL]HG YDFFLQHV EDVHG RQ the Nigeria 75/1 strain of attenuated PPR virus have been found to be safe and effective in both research trials and during widespread field use. This technology is more than sufficient for the initiation of progressive control activities. +RZHYHU LPSURYHPHQWV LQ YDFFLQH thermostability and the ability to distinguish between animals immune through vaccination $+0(' (/6$:$/+< -())5(< & 0$5,1(5 ',&.(16 &+,%(8 +(15< :$0:$<, 6$08(/ :$.+86$0$ :,//,$0 2/$+208.$1, $1' 3+,//,3 72<(The Pan African PPR Strategy will be anchored in the regional economic communities in order to ensure strong ownership and local relevance. Control interventions that address local small ruminant health priorities will be bundled to ensure maximum impact at the household level and strong producer participation. and those that are immune due to recovery from natural infection would be advantageous. 1. Several approaches to thermostable vaccines have been described to the level of proof of concept. More work is needed to compare alternative approaches and to develop a full database on thermostability as an evidence base to support the confident roll out of a thermostable vaccine on a broad scale. 2. Research to develop a marked vaccine and complementary serological tests as part of a differentiating infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA) strategy for vaccines based on the Nigeria 75/1 strain will be supported.The Pan PPR strategy will support research as an integral part of the coordination activity. As was the experience with RP eradication, optimal impact of research resulted from research embedded in the action program. Independent research will also be encouraged. Key research stakeholders in PPR and morbillivirus research are the reference laboratories recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Joint Division of FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), National Diagnostic Laboratories and National Agricultural Research Services (NARS) and academic institutions where appropriate. As in the past, the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as a source of innovation and a valuable partner for action research and field validation of new approaches will continue.One of the lessons learnt from the global eradication of rinderpest was that effective coordination adds value to animal health investment by channelling otherwise divergent activities towards a coherent and sustainable objective. A sense of ownership among stakeholders contributes to the success of coordinated programs.The role of coordination is to convene inclusive dialogue to define and refine strategies, to harmonize approaches across regions and the continent, to assist in the process of governance including the development of policy, regulations and legislation. Coordination means knowledge management and information exchange. Guidance on monitoring and evaluation activities is considered an important coordination task. Coordination includes strong action to advocate for program support in technical, political and financial terms at all levels.AU-IBAR is best placed to coordinate the Pan African PPR Strategy due to the recognition of their:Continental mandate as the organization of African states for the coordination of the utilization of animal resources Proven leadership in RP eradication African ownership and strong commitment Convening authority in Africa It is the policy of the African Union that programs are implemented through the regional economic communities (RECs) (Figure 2). Following this policy, the Pan African PPR Strategy can develop locally appropriate strategies that address regional small ruminant health problems thus assuring greater participation and impact. Working through the RECs, will also enhance ownership.At the national level, veterinary services will lead program activities. It is anticipated that veterinary services will act in a manner consistent with the principles of good governance and seek to facilitate and manage activities by creating an enabling environment for broad stakeholder participation. It is anticipated that national services will work with private practitioners, veterinary associations, community-based organizations/programs, producers and producer associations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well as value chain stakeholders and trading partners to implement PPR progressive control.Key partners for research and diagnostics service networks are the OIE and FAO Morbillivirus Reference Centers, ILRI, national diagnostic laboratories, IAEA and NARS. In terms of vaccine, AU-PANVAC and vaccine producers are key partners. The program will undertake to facilitate the production of high quality vaccine as an essential input.International organizations such as the OIE and FAO are essential partners. It is anticipated that the Pan African Strategy will be implemented in the context of a global program facilitated by the international organizations. The OIE's leadership in terms of establishing standards for participation in trade and achievable pathways to national freedom from disease will play a key role in shaping the strategy.One of the lessons from rinderpest was that the NGOs played several key roles in facilitating eradication. In fact, eradication would not have been accomplished without them. They often stepped forward to create service delivery systems in some of the most daunting and dangerous environments. The NGOs also took the lead in the animal health institutional enhancements that were conditions for the success of rinderpest eradication as well as being positive outcomes in their own right. Finally, the NGOs have been key partners in the validation of new approaches and the empowerment of stakeholders to advocate for animal health institutional change.Effective knowledge management will be an important component of the coordination strategy. AU-IBAR will act as the host organization in terms of collating information on the disease situation and disease impact. National reporting through the ARIS-2 system will be strengthened with appropriate attention to digital reporting technologies for field use. In this manner, progressive control of PPR will have knock-on benefits in terms of better information exchange. Every effort will be made to harmonize disease reporting systems across the region and globally.AU-IBAR will host forums for sharing of knowledge on epidemiology, vaccines and diagnostics, and animal health institutions that bring together diverse professionals specialized in action, learning and discovery. The knowledge management unit will seek to develop new applications for information exchange that take advantage of the revolution in social networking technologies. The goal will be to maximize adaptive learning and to promote progressive evolution in practices and policies. To this end, the knowledge management unit will maintain up to date guidance documents on strategy, technical tools, and policy on the web.The foundation of the adaptive management approach is a complete study of the lessons from RP eradication. To this end, the initial stages of the Pan African PPR Strategy call for objective assessments of the interventions implemented as part of RP eradication. These studies should look at institutional, economic, environmental and epidemiological impact of the global eradication.One salient lesson from RP eradication was that not enough was done to measure impact. The Pan African PPR Strategy proposes that action should be taken to maximize learning in order to institutionalize adaptive management from the outset. To accomplish this, the program will gather baseline information and establish sets of process and performance indicators, impact indicators and desired outcomes. Animal health institutional change and capacity development is critical to the success of progressive control. In order to maximize learning in this area, a more systematic approach to understanding animal health institutions and institutional change will be undertaken. This will include: Institutional mapping Documenting service delivery systems and their performance Documenting surveillance systems and their performance Analysis of incentives and drivers for participation as they relate to the abovePPR is an important constraint to food security and the livelihoods of poor farmers. Existing knowledge, experience and technology provide a solid platform for embarking on program of progressive control of PPR across Africa. The progressive control program will take an adaptive approach that seeks to learn from program experiences to continuously enhance impact and efficiency. The coordination of efforts to control PPR will add value to current investments to mitigate epidemics or activities seeking to promote food security. Responsible coordination and programming of inputs that reflect economic and epidemiological realities of PPR are needed.","tokenCount":"2790"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"34775a64a2cd1c152472749cfb4c483c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1ebcf14f-a68a-47c5-b111-51af063f7302/retrieve","id":"945492877"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3bfd3150-ceb7-435b-8920-1e29a528bc88","pagecount":"64","content":"-see centerfold -I. Ratio RGB image of Landsat TM bands: TM4rrM7 (red), TM4rrM3 (green), TM4rrM2 (blue)   distinguishing the inland valley bottoms from fringes and uplands for a subarea of Landsat path: 192, row:54 in Save, Republic of Benin 2. Inland valley bottoms delineated and diS(11ayed as a false color composite of TM bands: TM4(red), TM3 (green), and TM5 (blue). Color key: red (densest vegetation), shades of green and blue (very little and/or dry vegetation. The NDVI values were less than 0.10 for these areas) 3. Inland valley fringes for the same subarea as shown in plates I and 2 displaying the false color image of TM4 (red), TM3 (green), TM 5 (blue). Color key: red (densest vegetation), shades of green (lowest density and vigor of vegetation), and shades of blue and gray (intermediate vegetation) 4. Inland valley bottoms and their land use delineated and mapped for the entire study area of Landsat TM path: 192, row:54 (Save, Republic of Benin). The total valley bottom area was 9% (0.28 million ha) of the total area (see the legend for color key) 5. Land-use classes mapped for the different components of the toposequence (valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands) for the entire study area of 3.12 million ha covered by Landsat TM path: 192, row:54 in Save, Republic of Benin (see the legend for color key) 6. Land-use classes in a subarea near Gouka, Republic of Benin. Note the relatively high density of cultivation across the toposequence in areas adjoining roads and settlements (see legend for color key) 7. Cultivation intensities in inland valleys (valley bottoms plus valley fringes) relative to their distance from roads and settlements. Note the decreasing intensities of cultivation in inland valleys with increasing distances from roads and settlements 8. Location of potential benchmark research sites for technology development research activities in the study area of Landsat TM path: 192, row:54 (Save, Republic of Benin) determined through integration of Landsat TM, GPS, ground-truth, and expert opinion data in a GIS framework 9. Land-use classes of valley bottoms in a subarea (near Bassila, Republic of Benin) of Landsat TM path: 192, row:54. The encircled areas indicate the location of potential benchmark sites 10. Spatial distribution of areas of significant upland cultivation (see white color) in the entire study area. Areas encircled by the polygons I, 2, 3, and 4 indicate insignificant cultivation II. Spatial distribution of areas of significant cultivation (see white color) in inland valleys (valley bottoms plus valley fringes) in the entire study area. Areas encircled by the polygons I, 2, 3, and 4 indicate insigniticant cultivation v '~ 7 _:::7~ .,.The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture is currently conducting a characterization of inland valley agroecosystems in West and Central Africa (Izac et at. 1991). A macro-(subcontinentaJ) scale stratification (level I) of West and Central Africa led to a map of 18 agroecological and soil zones. Eacb of tbese zones represents an area of more tban to million ha (figure I and table I). Overall, about 36 million ha spread across II countries of West and Central Africa are targeted for level II characterization. This will be mesoscaled (regional, semidetailed). For tbis purpose, II Landsat Thematic Mapper (fM) and 5 Le systeme pour [,observation de La terre (SPOT) high resolution visible (HRV) data bases were acquired in sample areas of level I (figure I). Each satellite scene over a particular area will be referred to as a study area. Each study area covers one or more of IITA's level I agroecological and soil zones (figure I and table I).The objectives of level II (regional) characterization include inventorying and mapping inland valley bottoms; determining land use and land cover of inland valleys and tbeir uplands; determining tbe cultivation intensities relative to settlements and the road network; mapping tbe spatial distribution of inland valley systems; testing hypotheses, such as relationships between upland/inland valley cultivation patterns, and cultivation patterns within and across agroecological zones; and determining tbe location of potential benchmark research sites for technology development activities.The level II characteristics are reported witb respect to subcontinental (level I) agroecological and soil zones and also witb respect to tbe land regions of tbe wetland utilization research project in West Africa (Windmeijer and Andriesse 1993). The location of satellite images on tbe WURP map is shown in figure 2 (see also table 2). Results will be reported for two compartments of tbe toposequence of inland valleys (bottom and fringe) as defined in tbis study (see tigure 3) as well as for surrounding uplands.Readers of tbis inland valley agroecosystem report are referred to Thenkabail and Nolte (1995) for tbe background, definitions, rationale, objectives, approach, and methodology of level II characterization which remain consistent across the study areas. A brief overview of tbis metbodology is described below: I.The valley bottoms were delineated using image enhancement, display, and digitizing techniques.The valley fringes were mapped by delineating tbe areas immediately adjoining valley bottoms, by using a search radius on eitber side of valley bottoms equivalent to tbe mean fringe widtb measured during tbe ground-trutbing.Land-use/land-cover studies were carried out separately for valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands using unsupervised classitication of multiband data. 4.Several otber characteristics, such as tbe percentage area of inland valleys cultivated at varying distances from roads and settlements, have been extracted tbrough spatial data manipulation (e.g., boolean logic interpolation and contiguity analysis) of GIS datalayers. 5.A metbodology for key site/key watershed selection was developed, based on expert knowledge and GIS modeling of various spatial datalayers. 6.Ground-trutb data, GPS data, and otber data sources were incorporated into digital image analysis.Analyses were conducted using Earth Resources Digital Analysis System (ERDAS 1991). LGP: length of growing period c.Names refer to the soil classification scheme of FAO/ UNESCO (1974) d.The area figures are for West and Central Africa and were determined using the AREA procedure of IORISI (Eastman 1992    This report is for the area covered by Landsat-5 TM data of path: 192, row:54 of Landsat's world reference system. The study area is located in south-central Republic of Benin and covers 3.12 million ha of land. Major settlements in the study area are Save, Bante, Bassila, Parakou, and Tchaourou. Portions of the scene also fall into Togo and Nigeria. See tigure 4 for the location of the study area and the ground-truth sites.The study area covers two level I agroecological and soil zones (AEZ) (figure 5 and figure I): AEZ 2 (southern Guinea savanna with Luvisols) and AEZ 7 (derived savanna with Luvisols). Characteristics of these zones are given in table I. AEZ 2 occupies 49 % and AEZ 7 46% of the study area (table 3). The two agroecological and soil zones differ only in terms of their length of growing period, which is 181-210 days for AEZ 2 and 211-270 days for AEZ 7. The major soil grouping throughout the study area is Luvisols according to the old FAO soil c1assitication system (FAO/UNESCO 1974). The level II characteristics are reported with respect to these level I agroecological and soil zones of IITA and land regions of the WURP map. The entire study area falls within the WURP land region 2.1. Hence, the results of the entire study area can be taken as results for WURP land region 2.1. The characteristics of land region 2.1 are described in table 2.According to the United Nations Environmental Program Global Resources Information Database (UNEP/GRID) all three agroecological zones have equal population densities (mean of 23 inhabitants/km'). However, the estimates of population densities in the wetland utilization research project (WURP) report (Hekstra et a1.1983; see tigure 6) ditfer considerably from those of UNEP/GRID. Due to such variations in regional population estimates, it was considered more appropriate in this study to use settlement sizes mapped directly using high-resolution satellite imagery as a substitute for population data.Geology. The study area is part of the Interior Plains region (figure 2 and table 2) which covers 61.7 million ha of land in West Africa (Hekstra et al. 1983). Uniform parent material underlaying the entire area is the Basement Complex with undulating relief. Raunet (1977) describes the summits of the uplands in this area as largely convex which are connected with inland valleys through long (convex) fringes with slopes varying between 2 and 5%. The ditference in altitude between crests and valley bottoms is in the order of 20-40 m. Duhroeucq (1977) studied soils in the Benin territory between the 8th and 9th parallel (the region in which the major portion of this study area falls; see figure 2) at a scale of I :200,000, and distinguishes three entities of particular relief: I. A high peneplain which occurs northwest of the Bassila region, with exception of the river Oueme trough; average altitude is 320 m; slopes are convex with ditl•erences in altitude of about 40 m; the hydrographic network is loose with orthogonal pattern; 2. A low peneplain which occurs southeast of the Save region; average altitude is 180 m; the relief is flat with almost unnoticeable short slopes; the hydrographic network is very dense and of dendritic pattern; 3, A peneplain which occurs southwest and northeast around the Bante and Tchaourou regions; average altitude is 250 m; the relief is dissected, the peneplain changes into more and more flat depressions constituting the principal drainage ways of the rivers Zou, Otio, Beffa, Agbado; the hydrographic network is very hierarchical and of herringbone pattern.The Basement Complex of Precambrian age in the study area consists of three principal rocks according to BRGM (1960): granites, migmatites, and gneisses of which granites and migmatites are most widespread (figure 7). Soils developed on these rocks are generally coarse textured with a relatively high content of gravels.Soils. According to \"TA's level I map, the soils on the uplands in the study area belong to the major FAO soil grouping of Luvisols (table I). Figure 8 illustrates that 10 different map units according to FAO/ UNESCO (1977) occur in the study area. Map units 1,5,6. and 7 dominate. Table 4 gives the distribution of soil units in each map unit according to the composition rules developed by FAO (1978). They allocate ;\" 20% of a map unit area to associated soils and:;:; 20% to soil inclusions. Thereby, the distribution of soil units in the study area, based on area measurements per map unit (tigure 8), would he as follows:Luvisols Nitosols Lithosols = 77%, of which 65% are Ferric Luvisols and 26% are Plinthic Luvisols 8% = 10% Others (Cambisols, Vertisols, and Planosols) = 5% Luvisols are equal to sols ferrugineux tropicaux lessiVi!s in the French classification system (Landon 1991). Dubroeucq (1977) gives data for different soil types in the Benin territory between the 8th and 9th parallel, the major part of the study area: Farming systems. With respect to ground-truth observations outlined in section 3, it is of interest to give a broad overview of farming systems occurring in the study area. The following remarks are results of the study of Manyong et aI. (in preparation). Four cropping systems, differing in terms of major crops grown, prevail on the uplands of the study area (figure 9): a. yam/maize-based system in the northwestern part; b. yam/sorghum-based system in the northeastern part; c. maize/yam-based system in the southern part; and d. maize/cassava-based system towards the southeast which has previously heen intensively cropped with cotton.These systems are currently undergoing rapid modifications because of changing driving factors, such as population density, infrastructure, and market conditions. Manyong et al. (in preparation) classified the agricultural systems in the study area as being population-driven (tigure 10) because of poor infrastructure and acce~s to markets. Agricultural systems in the major part of the study area are in the \"population-driven expansion phase\". One characteristic of this phase is the cultivation of new land, while a long fallow period on cultivated land is still practiced (Manyong et al. in preparation). For example, in the region with agricultural systems in the population-driven expansion phase (figure 10), where the maize/yam-based cropping system dominates (numher 6 in figure 9), the mean cultivation period per piece of land was 3 years with an 8-year fallow period.   ,,.•.. _---+-/1/1, 1,1 , 1 \" \" ,',',11 1 /,1',1 ~'7;;t-------,.I /,/,1 I BASSIL ... ',1 If<~.;-<'Lf'l!-~:t ,'I,' \"\"'/ , •..•....---------If:.:.::.:.~,. 1::Geological formations in the study area 0\" so't ,OO ,Ukllf .Figure 8 Soils distribution in the study area (for explanation of the map units see table 4)South of Tchaourou, in the center-east of the study area, the agricultural system is moving towards a \"population-driven intensification phase (early stage)\" (figure 10). The mean cultivation period in the maize/cassava-based cropping system to be found here (figure 9) was 3 years with 4 years of fallow.Rainfall and hydrology. Water dynamic is the major driving force in inland valleys. Any characterization of inland valleys, therefore, has to account for that factor. Although it is not of principal importance in the framework of this study, whenever data on water dynamic are available they will be summarized in these inland valley agroecosystem reports.This section aims to give basic information about rainfall and the hydrologic regimes of rivers in the study area that is depicted by the quadrate in figure 11. The quality of information depends on the quality of available data and their analysis. This is especially true for rainfall and hydrologic data in West Africa because of factors such as very large variations in space and time, lack of quality control in data recording, no standardization of data collection, and wide variations in analyses and reporting.Long-term raw data of the two parameters are available from the MinisteIVI de I'Energie, des Mineraux et de / 'Hydr%gie -Departement de I'Hydr%gie (MEMH) of the Republic of Benin for 13 rain-gauge stations and 8 discharge stations that fall within the study area or are located very close to it (see figure 11). Data of these stations as well as data of all stations across the rest of Benin have recently been analyzed and published by Le Barbe et aI. (1993). Their major results are reportedhere. An important characteristic of that study is the extensive and comprehensive statistical analysis of rainfall and discharge data which enabled the authors to extrapolate point data to create homogeneous regions.The density of the rain-gauge network in Benin is about 1000-2000 km' per station. The rainfall in the study area varies on average between 975 mm and 1336 mm per year as analyzed by Le Barbe et al. (1993) for a reference period of 60 years . Based on a hierarchical clustering of the mean monthly rainfall profiles of each station, the country was divided into five rainfall wnes as illustrated in figure 11. Most of the study area falls into zone 3 with a mean yearly rainfall of 1125 mm and shows a monomodal pattern. A minor portion in the northern part is included in wne 4, with a mean yearly rainfall of 1213 mm (table 6). In both zones, most rain falls from May through September with a sharp decline by the end of October. In zone 3, \"productive rains\" start earlier (in April) and last longer (October). The mean annual rainfall profile in zone 3 is flatter than in zone 4, as illustrated in figure 11. From May through September, the amount of rainfall is almost the same in zone 3 (with a slight ditference in August and September). In zones 3 and 4, rainfall steadily increases from May through September in an average year.Major watersheds in the study area are those of the rivers Oueme, Okpara, and Zou. Discharge of subwatersheds has been measured at the outlets of rivers Wewe, Agbado, Omini, and Klou (figure 12). The size of watersheds at the different stations ranged from 88 to 23,600 Ian'. Data of these discharge stations have been calculated by Le Barbe et aI. (1993) for a reference period of 45 years . Discharge data are characterized by their high variation. Therefore, only percentiles are able to illustrate the situation. They are depicted in table 7. In lout of 2 years, between 85 mm and 178 mm are discharged. That amount drops in dry years to 34-86 mm and rises in wet years to 155-302 mm, in both cases with a statistical5-year recurrence period. Le Barbe et aI. (1993) were able through a regionalization method to draw discharge isohyets which are shown in figure 11. They are valid for watersheds above 100 km'. The major part of the study area covers the isohyets between 100 and 180 mm discharge per year. These are mean yearly data in mm and their coefficient of variation has been determined with 60% and 90%. ,._L __ .~~L-~~-'-~~~L-~_+,,\":<'0 .... :.:-.' , , ' . , ' : . : : . : < .:::: ::'~' .. ..   Based on tbe rainfall and discharge data of table 7, it is possible to calculate a rough runoff coefficient tbat illustrates tbe relationship between rainfall and discharge for a watershed. It ranges between 8% and 15% in lout of 2 years, drops in dry years (lout of 5) down to 3-7%, and rises in wet years (lout of 5) to 14-25%. There is no relationship between tbe size of the watershed and its runoff coefficient. Le Barbe et al. (1993) determined at an experimental watershed of 45 km' size at Lhoto (see for its location figure 11), representative for the Zou watershed upstream of Atcherigbe, in 2 years annual runoff coefficients of 8% (1228 mm rainfall) and 16% (1200 mm rainfall). At Tero (size of tbe watershed 32 km'), representative for tbe Djougou region, tbe annual runoff coefficient was 26% in a dry year witb 1158 mm rainfall (5-year recurrence) and 32% in an exceptionally wet year witb 1804 mm rainfall (50-year recurrence). If one compares tbe regional values (figure 11) of rainfall and discharge, 15-25% of rainfall is discharged in the nortbwestern part and 9% in tbe rest of tbe study area. That difference is a result of geology arid geomorphology prevailing in tbese regions. Le Barbe et al. (1993) distinguished six units in Benin which are mainly characterized by their parent material and their geomorphology. The nortbwestern part of tbe study area belongs to unit II, encompassing the mountains of Djougou and tbe Atakora range (tigure II), whereas the rest of tbe country belongs to unit IV and V, the plain Basement Complex.The time pattern of start and end of discharge as well as tbe duration of dry periods is also of interest in tbe scope of this report. These factors have also been analyzed by Le Barbe et al. (1993). Figure 12 illustrates tbe discharge distribution over a mean year for four high-order rivers with> 6000 km' watershed and 3 low-order rivers with ,s; 300 km' watershed. These figures have been drawn using data from Le Barbe et.al. (1993). The watert10w starts in lout of 2 years at Atcherigbe and Logozohe between end of March and mid-April, at Beterou, Save, a1I1d Kaboua in tbe tirst two weeks of May, at Wewe at tbe end of May, and at Pira at the end of July. In dry years (3-year recurrence) tbe discharge starts about two weeks later at Atcherigbe, Beterou, Pira, Wewe, and Save, and 4-5 weeks later at Kaboua and Logozohe. In wet years (3-year recurrence) discharge starts about two weeks earlier at Atcherigbe, Beterou and Logozohe, and 3-4 weeks earlier at Pira, Save, Wewe, and Kaboua. All seven rivers dry out in the dry season, a phenomenon tbat has occurred at Save only since 1968 (Le Barbe et al.(1993). see figure 3 h. statistical recurrence in yearsThe authors analyzed a clear relationship between size afthe watershed on one site, and the end-date of discharge, or the number of days without discharge, on the other site. The smaller the watershed, the earlier dry streams up and the longer they stay dry in the dry season.Discharge ends in lout of 2 years at the end of November at Pira, in the first three weeks in January at Logozohe, Wewe, and Atcherigbe, and from mid-February to the end of March at Beterou, Kaboua, and Save. The drying up of streams is a result of two processes which are the impounding of water contained in the soil and subsoil and the cessation of groundwater supply to the rivers (Le Barbe et al. 1993). The impounding is dominating, irrespective of the parent material in the watershed and lasts 9-12 days in the study area. The second process is very fast in areas with basement complex as parent material. In the study area, Le Barbe et al. (1993) analyzed a period of 1-2 days for higher-order streams and 7 days at river Wewe, a low-order stream. The high-order streams with watersheds above 6,000 km' stay dry for 2-3 months, whereas 10w-order streams (:S: 300 km') are dry for far 4 months, the first-order stream Omini even for 9 months (Le Barbe et a1.  Rainfall distribution (0,,\" of onnuol tolol) j and  -:: :: -, Plate 6 Land-use classes in a sub-area near Gouka, Republic of Benin. Note the relatively high density of cultivation across the toposequence in areas adjoining roads and settlements (see legend for color key) -:-1 ' J• -, \\. ... ..) ';1')l\" 1 ~ ~'-/\"'~'I \" ..... .> . • ,..'t --, . . ~.;:. ... ..y-,,,j• , \"  It would be of interest to know the relationship between the water dynamic of first-or second-order streams, where inland valleys are mainly to be found, and higher-order streams. Le Barbe et a1.(1993) restrict their findings to watersheds above 100 kni'. There are no data available for smaller watersheds, but Raunet (1977) gave an interesting view of the water dynamic of inland valleys in central Benin which should be quoted in this context (translation by authors of this report):A unique feature of the tropical peneplain Basement Complex is its enormous alteration layer (often tens of meters) above the bedrock. It acts like a sponge in absorbing precipitation. The fluctuating groundwater is embedded in this alteration layer. Under natural vegetation almost no « 1 %) surface flow will occur until the subsurface is saturated. Only late in the rainy season (end of August) water starts to run off above the surface. On the uplands the watertable is at 6-10 m below ground and mounts up to 2 m in the second half of the rainy season (August/September). However, only a minor part is free-flowing groundwater. Seventy five percent of the soil pores or 43 % of the soil volume is constantly saturated with water. An amount of 550-600 mm of rainfall is required to saturate the great pores conducive for free-flowing groundwater. This is normally the case between end of July and beginning of August. Then inland valleys are tilled with water through lateral flow at the lower slopes and by an emerging watertable in the valley bottom. Flash floods may occur after heavy rains at the end of the rainy season (September), when the alteration mantle of the uplands and upper fringes is completely water saturated. At the lateral parts of the valley bottom (with slopes of 1-2 %) the groundwater table is heavily fluctuating but never goes beneath 2 m even in the dry season.Ground-Truth DataGround-truth data were collected from 62 valley bottoms, 61 valley fringes, and 25 uplands during the dry season, 21 through 29 March 1993. These data were expected to depict the dry-season characteristics of the satellite overpass date of 29 December 1991. Ideally, ground-truth data should be collected on or about the same date as the satellite data acquisition date. However, real-or nearreal-time satellite data were not available. The implications of data collection at a later stage as well as the data-collection strategy, parameters measured or observed, and the methods and procedures used to collect and analyze these parameters have been discussed in detail in the monograph by Thenkabail and Nolte (1995).The location of each ground-truth site was determined using a global positioning system (GPS) Garmin 100-SRVY• (see figure 4 for precise location ofthe ground-truth sites). Locations noted were geographic co-ordinates (latitude/longitude) in degree, minutes and seconds, and universal transverse mercator (UTM) co-ordinates (x,y) in meters. The accuracy of these GPS readings was within ± 30 m. The GPS was also used to collect ground-control points to georeference the satellite image. A total of 19 ground-control points was recorded in prominent locations, such as a road crossing a river (over the center of the bridge) and railway lines crossing a road. These ground-control points were well spread across different portions of the image.Land-use measurements were made in a 90 m by 90 m plot of the valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands. Its location was determined from the center with the GPS. The leaf area index of trees, shrubs, and grasses was measured in the same plot. Each land-use class has varying degrees of land cover types (table 8). A total of 10 land-cover types was recorded at each ground-truth site: water, trees, shrubs, grasses, cultivated farms, barren farms, barren lands, built-up areas or settlements, roads, aoel others (table 9). Different combinations of these land-cover types constitute specific landuse categories (table 10).The measurements (in meters) of valley-bottom and valley-fringe width were taken at a transect covering the 90 m by 90 m plot for land-use measurements. Other characteristics recorded at each inland valley sample site included valley bottom width (in meters), valley fringe width, transversal slope (degree), stream order (number), and qualitative observations of the soil moisture status as well as the level of water management system prevailing in valley-bottom fields. savanna with scattered cultivation at valley fringes; trees (26%), shrubs (24%), grasses (30%), cultivated fanns (13%), barren fanns (2%), and barren lands (5 %) low cultivation at valley fringes; trees (32 %). shrubs (32 %), grasses (28%), cultivated farms (4%), barren farms (3%), and barren land (1 %)Region with significant cultivation in valley bottoms. Trees (15%), shrubs (25%), grasses (16%), cultivated fanns (24%). barren faons (15%), and barren land (4 %) savanna with scattered cultivation in valley bottoms; trees (18%), shrubs (16%) grasses (48%), cultivated farms (2%), barren faons (9%), and barren land (4%) low or no cultivation; trees (28%), shrubs (40%), grasses (30%), fanns (0.5 %) and barren land (1.  For the description of the 16 land-use classes refer to table 8 and for the 10 land-cover types refer to table 9The bottoms and fringes of inland valleys were mapped for the entire study area using the methodology outlined in Thenkabail and Nolte (1995). The technique of mapping valley bottoms for a sample area is illustrated in plates 1 and 2. Plate 1 demonstrates:1. An enhanced image using the ratio red-green-blue (RGB) image of TM bands TM4rrM7, TM4rrM3, and TM4rrM2. Valley bottoms show up in a white or cream network of streams which can be very easily distinguished from the neighboring fringes and uplands. 2. A magnified image displayed with a magnification factor of 2 so as to highlight inland valleys and to distinguish them from other neighboring features. This permits easy and exact digitizing of valley-bottom boundaries. 3. A digitized valley-bottom network (see the digitized polygons separating valley bottoms from fringes and uplands).The valley bottoms enhanced, highlighted, and digitized as illustrated for a sample area in plate 1, were separated from the other components of the toposequence to obtain only the valley bottoms (see plate 2). Valley fringes adjoin valley bottoms and were mapped by a combination of image processing and GIS techniques (Thenkabail and Nolte 1995). The mean widths of the valley fringes, measured during the ground-truthing, were used to del ineate valley fringes through digitizing on either side of the valley bottoms. The image area other than valley fringes was subsequently masked using the MASK procedure of ERDAS. The outcome is illustrated for a sample area in plate 3 (note that these are the fringes adjoining the bottoms shown in plate 2). In plate 3, both the valley bottoms and the uplands have been masked to highlight only the valley fringes. The same technique was adopted to map the valley fringes of the entire study area. The procedure explained above, adopted to delineate valley bottoms as in plate 2, is extrapolated for delineating the valley bottoms of the entire study area as depicted in plate 4.The differences between UNEP/GRID data and data of the WURP report on population densities (table 11) reveal that consistent data were very difficult to obtain. As a result, Landsat TM data was used to interpret settlement areas with the presumption that there is a strong correlation between the size of a settlement and its population. Also, the absence of recent road networks on topographic maps (all of them from the 1960s) makes it more appropriate to extract this information from TM data. The following parameters were determined using the TM data for each agroecological zone (table 11):1. presence or absence of major settlements; 2. number of major settlements; 3. area of settlements and percentage of settlement area to total area of study; 4. presence or absence of a major road network; and 5. density of the road network (km/km').  Hekstra et al. (1983) The number of settlements and the density of road networks were higher in AEZ 7 compared to AEZ 2. AEZ 2. however, has Parakou, a township of significant size with an area of about 3000 ha (representing about 9<l% of the area of all settlements in the AEZ 7 zone) and a population of nearly 90,000. AEZ 7 has several moderate-sized settlements including Save (390 hal, Bassila (160 hal, and Bante (80 ha). Apart from Parakou, the maximum size of any settlement in AEZ 2 was about 70 ha.Land-use characteristics were mapped separately for valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands using the CLUSTR unsupervised classification algorithm of ERDAS. The classification process used six nonthermal bands of TM. The GPS data and the land-uselland-cover data were used along with the spectral vegetation indices to identify the spectral classes of unsupervised classification. The initial 70 spectral classes of unsupervised classification were reduced to the final 16 land-use classes mapped in this study (table 8). Each of these classes has a varying percentage of 10 land-cover types (table 9). Table 10 shows in a matrix format how the 10 land-cover types are related to the 16 land-use classes. These land-use classes consist of (see table 8): a. 6 classes of uplands (classes I, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6); b. 3 classes of valley fringes (classes 7, 8, and 9); c. 3 classes of valley bottoms (class 10, II, and 12); and d. 4 classes of others (class 13, 14, 15, and 16).Pure land-use classes (having a single land-cover type that occupies 100% of its area) are water, settlements, roads, and barren/desert areas. Three land-use classes are synonymous for each component of the tapa sequence (see table 8): a. significant farmlands (classes 1, 7, and 10); farmlands (cultivated farms + barren farms) constitute> 30 % of the total land area of this class; b. scattered farmlands (classes 2, 8, and II); farmlands constitute> 10 % but ~ 30 % of the total land area of this class; and c. insignificant farmlands (classes 3,9, and 12); farmlands constitute ~ 10 % of the total land area of this class.The areas of each of the 16 classes in the 2 agroecological and soil zones and in the entire study area are given in table 12. These land use classes are designed on the lines of Anderson et at. (1976).Each land-use class contains a varying degree of land-cover types (table 10). Exact cultivated areas, for example, should be derived from table 12, based on the distribution pattern of land cover provided in table 10. The results for cultivated areas are presented in table 13. For example; the calculation procedure for cultivated valley bottoms in AEZ 2 is as follows:1. read the areas of valley-bottom classes in AEZ 2 (table 12): class 10 (valley bottoms with signiticant farmlands) = 2012 ha class 11 (valley bottoms with scattered farmlands) = 78,174 ha class 12 (valley bottoms with insignificant farmlands) = 41,813 ha 2. add these areas up; total valley-bottom area = 121,999 ha 3. note: cultivated area = cultivated farms (land-cover type 5) + barren farms (land-cover type 6) 4. read the percentage of land-cover types 5 and 6 in each valley-bottom land-use class (table 10): class 10 = 24% + 15%; class 11 = 2% + 9%; class 12 = 0% + 0.5% 5. calculate cultivated area = l: (total area x percentage of cultivated area):(2012 x 0.39) + (78,174 x 0.11) + (41,813 x 0.005) = 9593 ha 6. calculate cultivated valley-bottom area (9593 hal as a percentage of total valley-bottom area (121,999 hal = 7.86% (rounded offta 7.9%).Table 13 provides the exact cultivated areas for different components of the toposequence.   Valley bottoms make up 10.2% of the geographical area of AEZ 7 (with a length of growing period of 211-270 days) compared with 7.9% of AEZ 2 (with length of growing period of 181-210 days (table 13). This proves one of the hypotheses that the percentage valley-bottom area is significantly higher in the wetter agroecological zones compared to the drier zones. The same was true for valley fringes which occupy 21.8% of the geographical area of AEZ 7 compared to 18.3% for AEZ 2. In the entire study area of 3128377 ha (path: 192, row:54 of Landsat TM) valley bottoms were 9% (see plate 4). This plate provides the spatial distribution of inland valley bottoms and depicts their land-use characteristics. The poor density of inland valleys in the center of the image was caused by the presence of the major river Oueme flowing north to south.The intensity of valley-bottom cultivation increased slightly as the length of growing period decreased (table 13). Thereby, the hypotheses that the cultivation intensities decrease signiticantly in the valley bottoms of the drier zones in comparison with wetter zones was not correct. There was significantly higher cultivation intensity at valley fringes and uplands in AEZ 7 compared to AEZ 2 (table 13) which may be explained by a denser network of major roads and a greater number of major settlements for this zone (table 1 I). The higher intensity of valley-fringe and upland cultivation may also be a result of a wetter zone 7 (length of growing period 211-270 days). It should be noted that valley-fringe areas have signiticantly higher cultivation (15-I7 %) than uplands (1 I -I 4 %).The 16 land-use classes mapped for uplands, valley fringes, valley bottoms, and others (water body, settlements, roads, and desert lands) have been depicted in plate 5. Land-use intensities such as cultivation intensities described in previous paragraph can then be derived using land cover types as presented in section 4.3. The spatial view of the variability of land-use classes has been depicted in plate 5.Class 12 of this study (valley bottoms with insignificant farmlands) is considered to be similar to USGS class 61 (forested wetland) since these are valley bottoms with dense natural vegetation. For a full comparison of both classification systems, see Thenkabail and Nolte (1995). The percentage of valley-bottom area with dense natural vegetation (class 12) was highest in AEZ 7 with 4.1 % of the total geographic area or 40.2 % of total valley-bottom area (classes 10, 11, and 12 comprise total valley bottoms) (table 12). Of this area 28% was covered by trees, 40% by shrubs, and 30% by grasses (see land-cover types 2, 3, and 4 for class 12 in table 10). The corresponding tigures for class 12 in the AEZ 2 was 2. I % of the total geographic area or 34.2 % of the total valley-bottom area (table 12). In addition, the scattered farmland class for valley bottoms (class 1 I) was mostly uncultivated (see table 10) in AEZ 7 and AEZ 2. This low cultivation in valley bottoms was a result of a road network with low density and also low population densities (with a concentration of settlements mainly along major roads (table 5). Valley bottoms with insignificant farmlands were concentrated mostly along the BeninlTogo border, along the banks of River Okpara (Nigeria/Benin border), and south of Beterou along the banks of River Oueme (see plate 4 and figure 4). This was mainly due to a poor road network, poor market access, and low population densities.In general, the results in table 13 indicate a relatively low percentage of land utilization as farmland across the toposequence and agroecological and soil zones in terms of geographical area. No data could be obtained of the exact extent of the arable area in the region.A very detailed map has been produced for a subarea around Gouka (plate 6). More farmlands occur around settlements (e.g., see around Gouka) and road networks than away from them. Valley-fringe cultivation in valleys around Gouka was very pronounced compared to areas elsewhere. The redorange color around the road network depicts mainly cashew plantations (mapped as very dense forest). MSVII = midinfrared simple vegetation index 1; calculated by TM4ITM5.The mean spectral characteristics of each of tbe 16 land-use classes (table 14 and figure 13; were determined based on spectral characteristics of sample areas, each witb an area of 200 pixel by 200 pixel, randomly selected in tbe image. This was achieved by masking tbe image area (using tbe MASK routine of ERDAS) outside tbe class of interest and tben generating tbe multispectral digital value statistics for tbe class of interest (using tbe BSTATS routine of ERDAS). Vegetation indices were subsequently derived using tbe digital values. Alternatively, cluster statistics generated by tbe unsupervised classification output can also be used to derive vegetation indices. Several inferences could be drawn from tbe results of tbe spectral signatures presented for tbe 16 classes in table 14. These were:I. The ratio vegetation index (RVI = TM4/TM3) value of 1.35 for class 12 (insignificant farmlands) was significantly higher (at 0.05 level) when compared witb tbe RVI value of tbe other 15 classes. This was attributed to denser naturlJ vegetation and greater plant vigor at valley bottoms because more moisture was available for plants during the dry season (period date of satellite overpass used in this study) when compared with the vegetation of fringes and uplands. During ground-truthing, the tree, shrub, and grass vegetation of valley bottoms was observed to be relatively more moist and green (qualitative estimates). This result suggests that valley bottoms are best delineated using remotely sensed data of dry seasons when the contrast between the wetter valley bottoms, and the drier uplands is known to peak (Turner 1985).2. The densest vegetation at valley fringes (class 9 with a RVI value of 1.28) had spectral characteristics similar to the densest vegetation at uplands (class 6 with RVI value of 1.28). Also, RVI values for the classes with significant farming across the toposequence were of: 1.15 for valley bottoms (class 10), 1.14 for valley fringes (class 7), and 1.13 for uplands (class I). These results clearly indicate the infeasability of separating these classes across the toposequence purely through spectral characteristics and the use of the approach outlined in section 4.1. Cultivation intensities of valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands were calculated relative to their distance from settlements and the road network through manipulation of relevant GIS spatial datalayers. Techniques such as boolean logic interpolation and contiguity analysis were used. Plate 7 illustrates land-use categories of valley bottoms, and valley fringes for a sample area at various distances from settlements and road networks. Four distance limits (0-2 krn, 2-4 krn, 4-5 krn, and > 5 krn) were considered since 5 krn was thought to be the greatest distance for farmers to commute to their farms.The cultivation intensities relative to roads and settlements for the two agroecological and soil zones (AEZ 2 and AEZ 7), and the entire study areas have been summarized in table 15. The results in this table indicate the following trends in AEZ 2, AEZ 7, and in the entire study area: (a) decreasing cultivation intensities across the toposequence with increasing distances from settlements and roads; (b) slightly greater percentage of cultivation across the toposequence relative to distance from settlements than from the road network; fc) about 3 to 4% higher cultivation in valley fringes compared to uplands and valley bottoms. Cultivation in AEZ 7 was generally higher at valley fringes (16.1% to 20.5%) and on uplands (13.7 to 18.3%) compared with valley-fringe (14.6% to 20.4%) and upland cultivation (10.5% to 16.9%) in AEZ 2. Cultivation of valley bottoms did not exceed 11.5% irrespective of the distance from settlements or road networks. Overall, the cultivation across the toposequence was modest with a maximum cultivation at the valley fringes (20.5% in the 0-2 krn distance zone from settlements). The spatial distribution of significantly cultivated areas is illustrated for the uplands and valley fringes plus valley bottoms in plate~ 10 and 11, respectively, for the entire study area. It is clear from these plates that there is a high correlation between the cultivation pattern of uplands, valley fringes, and valley bottoms. This proves one of the hypotheses of Izac et aI. (1991) that the degree of upland cultivation has a strong influence on the degree of lowland cultivation (valley bottoms and valley fringes). Also, settlements and roads influence these cultivation patterns. For example, the polygons 1, 2, 3, and 4, shown in plates 10 and II have insigniticant cultivation as a result of lack of settlements and road networks in these regions.Qualitative and quantitative data from 62 valley bottoms and 61 valley fringes were gathered at different stream orders. Nearly 50% of these inland valleys were first-order (table 16). When fewer than 3 inland valleys for a given stream order have been investigated, data were not used in the statistical analysis presented in table 16, resulting in the absence of any stream order higher than 2 for AEZ 2 and any stream order higher than 3 for AEZ 7. The results have been presented within and across agroecological zones. Within AEZ 2, the characteristics of inland valleys, such as bottom width, transversal slope, fringe width, and shape ratio, remained similar between two stream orders (table 16). Within AEZ 7, the mean bottom widths significantly increased for second-order'valleys compared to the first-order Valleys. But the valleys tended to have smaller bottom widths at thirdorder compared to second-order valleys. The third-order valleys had a lower shape ratio (table 16). AEz 2 occupies 49 % and AEZ 7 46 % of the entire study area. The remaining 5 % are located outside the level I zones. Within agroecological zones:Across agroecological zones:In the entire study area:Except valley bottom widths between ftrst-and second-order valleys, and second-and third-order streamflow valleys, DOne of the other parameters were significantly different between first-and second-order streamflow valleys of AEZ 2 and first-. second-, and third-order streamflow valleys of AEZ 7. Significant differences are given at 0.05 level.The first-order streamflow valleys were significantly (at 0.051evel) different between AEZ 2 and AEZ 7 for fringe widths and shape ratio. The second-order streamflow valleys were significantly different between AEZ 2 and AEZ 7 for fringe widths. only fringe widths were significantly different between different orders of streamflow valleys.Between the two agroecological and soil zones, fringe widths and shape ratios provided distinctive differences: there were significantly higher mean fringe widths for AEZ 7 over AEZ 2 for valleys along stream orders 1 and 2 and significantly lower shape ratios for the first-order valleys in AEZ 7 versus AEZ 2. This was not confirmed for the second-order valleys. In the entire study area (also for land region 2.1), fringe widths were significantly higher at third-ordet valleys versus the first-and second-order valleys. Good physical characteristics for the development of valleys were indicated by bottom widths (generally over 50 m) for the first-, second-, and third-order streams where inland valleys mostly occur. The mean widths of valley bottoms along first-to third-order streams were relatively small in the study area (40 to 81 m). Up to 90% of the inland valleys were U-shaped, meaning that the bottom had a substantial width (> 10-20 m) compared to the fringe. Only 17% of the investigated inland valleys had some improved water management features such as field leveling and bund ing.4.9 Establishing morphometric characteristics from ground-truth and TM dataCharacteristics of watersheds, such as stream density (length of streams in a watershed to the area of watershed in km/km'), stream frequency (number of streams to the area of watershed in streams/km'), and the area of watersheds were computed from TM as well as from topographic map data (1 :50,000 and 1 :200,000), and are presented in table 17. In most cases, TM data slightly underestimated stream densities and stream frequencies compared to topographic maps. The stream densities were much higher for AEZ 7 (1.07 to 1.20 km/km'), compared to AEZ 2 (0.9 to 1.0 km/km'). The same was true for stream frequencies with AEZ 7 having 0.95-1.10 streamflow valleys/km' compared to 0.74 to 0.79 streamflow valleys/km' in AEZ 2. These results indicated higher density and frequency of streamflow valleys in the wetter zone (AEZ 7 with length of growing period of 211-270 days in a year) compared to relatively drier zones (AEZ 2) with length of growing period of 181-210 days in a year. With respect to the classification system of Hekstra et aI. (1983), the drainage densities in this study area were medium (0.6-1.2 km/km') and stream frequencies were coarse (0.5-1.0 streams/km') .4.10 Determining the cropping pattern of inland valleys from ground-truth dataThe spatial distribution of crops on farmland could not be determined by means of TM data because of their historical nature (date of overpass: 29 December 1991). However, the number of groundtruth observations at valley bottoms (n=62), valley fringes (n=61), and uplands (n=25) spread over the study area of 3.12 million ha offered a limited opportunity to interpret cropping patterns observed on farm fields.The following remarks are exclusively based on the analysis of ground-truth data. The inland valleys chosen as ground-truth sites were randomly selected, limited only by accessibility. The upland readings were stratified according to striking features such as plantations, very dense canopy cover, or open areas. During ground-truthing, no specific distinction was made between uncultivated land and fallow land, (both having a canopy cover of trees, shrubS, and grasses) because such information could not be used with the historical TM data. Completely untouched land is most unlikely to exist in the study area, except in forest reserves. Therefore, trees and shrubs to be found on uncultivated land are secondary vegetation. However, there is land covered with long-term regrowth and land included in the rotational scheme of farmers covered with short-term (3-6 years) regrowth of trees and shrubs. Land with short-term regrowth fallow has fewer trees and shrubs. Drainage densities (km/km') as: very low (0-0.3); low (0.3-0.6); medium (0.6-1.2); high (1.2-2.4); and very high > 2.4; and 2. Stream frequencies (number/km') as: very coarse (0-0.5); coarse (0.5-1.0); medium (1-2); fine(2-3); and very fine (> 3).a.AEZ 2 represents the southern Guinea savanna with Luvisols and AEZ 7 the Derived savanna with Luvisols. AEZ 2 occupies 49 % and AEZ 7 46 % of the entire study area. The remaining 5 % are located outside the level I zones. h.Determined using chartometer and counts on topographic maps c.Determined using a planimeter on topographic mapsThe relative distribution of species on uncultivated and fallow land in fringe position in inland valleys was 32% trees, 30% shrubs, and 38% grasses (table 18). On the upland, more trees (38%) and shrubs (34 %) were observed. Two explanations are possible: a. At the fringes of inland valleys, more land is covered with short-term fallow; b. Given the exposure of soil on sloping terrain, regrowth of woody species may be slowed or inhibited by soil erosion occurring on the fringes of inland Valleys. The percentage of total farmland, cultivated and barren, determined on the fringes of inland valleys (18.3%) and on uplands (16.5%) showed no statistical difference. In the bottoms of inland valleys, grasses dominated strikingly with 53% of the canopy cover on uncultivated and fallow land (table 18). This is due to the seasonally waterlogged soil conditions, impeding the growth of most woody species (Menaut 1983). Land use as farmland was significantly lower in the bottoms of inland valleys (9.6%) compared to the fringes and uplands. Cultivation of farms differed according to the topographic position. Therefore, 35 % of the farms in the bottoms of inland valleys were cropped, compared to 74% on the fringes, and 30 % on the uplands. Between 6 and 8% of the land was classified as barren land and others (rock outcrops, waterbodies, riverbeds, wastelands, abandoned areas of former settlements, roads or footpaths). Table 19 illustrates the cropping pattern on farms. About one-third of the 62 valley bottoms visited (38 %) and 25 uplands (28 %) were farmed, compared to two-thirds of the 61 valley fringes (67%). Most of the farms were barren, regardless of the topographic position (65% for valley bottoms, 59% for valley fringes, and 86% for uplands). This was caused by the dry condition of soils. Out of the 62 valley bottom soils investigated, 59 were dry. Only two had an accessible groundwater table within I m or 50-75 cm below the ground surface. Cassava and in some cases yam were the major crops to be found in the bottoms and at the fringes of inland Valleys. Vegetables such as melon, pepper, and okra, were observed on 29% of the valley fringes but in hardly any valley bottoms.  vThe output spatial datalayers of level II study obtained from TM data (e.g., land use of valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands, road networks and settlements) were used in GIS modeling to select key sites for level III technology development research. The data obtained from ground truthing were incorporated in the above datalayers, also the location data of each ground-truth site.Expert opinion was sought to rate each of the above spatial datal ayers on a scale of I to 5 (5 being the best). This was done by weighing each factor of each datalayer according to its impact on inland valley cultivation according to the expert concerned. For a detailed discussion, see Thenkabail and Nolte (1995).The modal value of expert opinion was taken for each variable pertaining to each spatial datalayer and incorporated into GIS modeling, using the GISMO routine of ERDAS. The expert opinion indicated the following: I. Intensely cultivated uplands stimulate cultivation of nearby inland valleys (valley bottoms and valley fringes). Thereby, inland valley utilization should be focused in areas where there is already upland cultivation; 2. The farmers are more likely to exploit partially cultivated inland valleys more fully than embark on hitherto un exploited valleys;3. The proximity of settlements to inland valleys stimulates their utilization for agricultural purposes; 4. The proximity of roads to inland valleys stimulates their utilization for agricultural purposes; 5. The greater the population density, the greater is the possibility of inland valley utilization; and 6. The shorter the growing period (th3t is, the drier the agroecological zones), the greater is the likelihood of inland valleys being used for cultivation.The expert knowledge was used to weigh or rank data values in various spatial datalayers. Then, through GIS manipulation of these spatial datalayers, areas with high a potential for becoming benchmark research sites were indicated (see plate 8). Plate 8 highlights those inland valleys that have been rated best (rank I in a scale of I to 5). They represent the greatest potential for development and should be candidates for key sites or key watersheds. The tinal key-site selection would be based on a rapid appraisal of some of these inland valleys and their cultivation pattern. Detailed maps of the potential benchmark locations to be visited with roads, settlements, and valleys are important during tield visits (see plate 9, for example). Plate 9 also provides information on the valley-bottom characteristics such as their spatial distribution, valley-bottom density, and land use.In addition, valley-bottom systems are well depicted.A team of researchers representing varied expertise, such as agronomists, breeders, soil scientists, hydrologists, and remote sensing/GIS specialists will then visit the potential benchmark site locations for a rapid appraisal. The parameters assessed are moisture status of the valleys, issues of natural resource protection (flora and fauna inventory), accessibility to markets, socioeconomic and health issues, and cost and labor of clear-cutting. In addition, interest of national agricultural research systems (NARS) in thpse sites and interviews with farmers will be important. A final selection of a benchmark site or watershed is done only after the above appraisal of one or more of the potential benchmark sites.The mapping ofland-use classes across the land elements (valley bottoms, valley fringes, and uplands) of the toposequence involved determining their extent of cultivation. The cultivation intensity differed only marginally between the AEZs (table 13). A total of 7.9% of the valley bottoms in the entire study area was cultivated with 7.9% in AEZ 2 and 7.7% in AEZ 7. A total of 15.9% of the valley fringes was cultivated in the entire study area with 15.1 % in AEZ 2 and 16.6% in AEZ 7. Compared to the valley fringes, less of the upland area was used as farmland, 13.2% across the entire study area, 11.2% in AEZ 2, and 14.3% in AEZ 7. These results indicated a low percentage of cultivation across the toposequence. This was attributed to: (a) a low density of the road network and (b) a low number of settlements, hence lQw population densities. In addition, socio-economical issues such as the traditional preference of farmers in cultivating uplands, debilitating diseases in lowlands, lack of appropriate technologies (e.g., low-cost water management techniques), lack of knowledge about lowland agriculture, lack of market access, and lack of governmental support for farmers imply less than optimal utilization of inland valleys for agriculture.Vegetation of uncultivated and fallow land was dominated by grasses (53 %) in valley bottoms and showed an almost equal proportion of grasses, shrubs, and trees at valley fringes and on uplands (table 18). At the time of ground-truthing (21 through 29 March 1993) the majority of farmlands in valley bottoms (65%) and on uplands (70%) were barren. Only 26% of farms at valley fringes were uncultivated. The dominating crop on cultivated farms was cassava in valley bottoms (50%) at valley fringes (68%) (table 19). Besides, maize was observed in 17% of the farms at valley fringes and cassava/yam (14%) or maize (14%) on upland fields.There was a high spatial correlation in the cultivation pattern of valley bottoms and valley fringes (plate 11) when compared with the cultivation pattern of uplands (plate 10). Significantly cultivated areas as shown in plates 10 and 11 are mainly concentrated along major road networks and near settlements. The degree of cultivation decreased significantly as the distance from settlements or the road network increased (see\" for example, plate 7). The results of cultivation intensities indicated the following trends in AEZ 2, AEZ 7, and in the entire study area: (a) a decreasing trend in the cultivation intensities across the toposequence with increasing distances from settlements and roads; (b) across the toposequence a slightly greater percentage of cultivation near settlements than in the vicinity of road networks; (c) about 3 to 4% higher cultivation at valley fringes compared to uplands and valley bottoms. The cultivation int~nsity at valley fringes (16.1 % to 20.5%) and on uplands (13.7 to 18.3%) was generally higher in AEZ 7 than in AEZ 2, where cultivation intensities were 14.6% to 20.4% at valley fringes and 10.5% to 16.9% on uplands. Not more than 11.5% of the valley bottoms were cultivated in any distance zone from settlements or the road network. Overall, the cultivation intensity across the toposequence was modest with a maximum at fringes (20.5%) in the 0-2 km distance zone from settlements. However, this is in terms of the geographical area. No data could be obtained on the exact extent of the arable area in the region.Stream drainage densities (km/km') were denser in the wetter zone (AEZ 7: 1.07 to 1.20 km/km') compared to the drier zone (AEZ 2: 0.9 to 1.0 km/k:m 2 ). The same was true for inland valley stream frequencies (number of streams per km'): 0.95 to 1.10 streams/km' in AEZ 7; and 0.74 to 0.79 streams/km' in AEZ 2 (table 17). These figures differ from the estimates for the Guinea savanna given in the WURP report where drainage densities were classified as low to medium (0.3-0.6 kmlkm') and stream frequencies as very coarse (0-0.5 streams/km') (Windmeijer and Andriesse 1993).About 90% of the inland valleys were classified as U-shaped. Only about 17% of those surveyed during ground-truthing had some improved water management schemes, such as field leveling and bunding. The valley bottom widths of first-to third-<>rder valleys in AEZ 2 and AEZ 7 varied between 40 m and 81 m and hence provided considerable valley-bottom areas (7.7% to 9.0% of the geographic area). The valley bottoms are flat to near-flat. Most valley bottoms are characterized by grassy vegetation that could be easily cleared for cultivation.Soil conditions in valley bottoms were not investigated in this study and the data presented in figure 8 and table 4 indicate only soil conditions on uplands and at nonhydromorphic valley fringes. The 1:5,000,000 scale of data in the FAO soil map of Africa (FAOIUNESCO 1977) is too small to capture inland valley locations. However, soils in valley bottoms do reflect the characteristics of soils of surrounding locations so that data of figure 8 and tabl e 4 can be used for a first assessment. To characterize soil conditions in valley bottoms would require a detailed survey which was done by Kyuma et a1. (1986) at 71 locations in West Africa.Valley fringe widths of first-and second-order streams were significantly higher (at 0.05 level) in AEZ 7 (with 157 m and 176 m, respectively, see table 16) compared with 327 m and 323 m for firstand second-order streams, respectively, in AEZ 2. Hence, this provided the single distinctive physical parameter differentiating the valleys of AEZ 7 from those of AEZ 2.This study integrated high-resolution remotely-sensed data with global positioning, ground-truth, expert knowledge and secondary data. GIS manipulation of these various spatial datalayers led to a selection of potential benchmark sites for technology development research activities (see plates 8 and 9). A final selection of a benchmark site or watershed can be done after a rapid appraisal of factors, such as moisture status of the valleys, issues of natural resource protection (flora and fauna inventory), accessibility to markets, socioeconomic and health issues, and cost and labor of clearcutting. In addition, interest of national agricultural research systems (NARS) in these sites and interviews with farmers will be important. In this process one or more of the potential benchmark sites should be visited. The visiting team of researchers should comprise varies experts, such as agronomists, breeders, soil scientists, hydrologists, remote sensing/GIS specialists and should include NARS collaborators and farmers.","tokenCount":"9798"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"516faf34946798222f12098115c3e1a7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7e7b2e28-b263-4238-b0e1-ab76e4e9196e/retrieve","id":"1316109847"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4222dbc7-a121-4a05-9cd8-193c292935e4","pagecount":"1","content":"We thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.Providing solutions to livestockdependent communities to enhance their resilience to the climate crisis while reducing greenhouse gas emissions• Livestock carry a double burden: they are vulnerable to climate change and are a contributor of greenhouse gas emissions (14% of global GHGs are from enteric methane and deforestation).• Livestock are a climate solution: in low-and middleincome countries they are a source of income, nutrition security and climate resilience.Our gender-inclusive portfolio of activities focus on:• Improving local capacities and inclusion in sustainable livestock production  ","tokenCount":"98"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e130414ac020d4518a6bbb706f5cc8c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0ef3d90-1d35-4220-a9dc-5775343fab31/retrieve","id":"905774534"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"da88d97b-2099-4fbe-9b67-0479de6c1586","pagecount":"13","content":"The following document provides an overview of current progress on proposed improvements to Livestock Master Plans (LMPs). It first reviews current protocols and rationales for conducting LMPs to guide sector investment strategies, including past applications in different settings. It also provides details on the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) platform that has historically been the backbone of the LMP process and some of the limitations found in its use. The document provides details of upcoming enhancements to the next generation of LMPs, in part conceived through a consortium approach to the development of LMPs with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), facilitated by funding for new modelling platforms through the POLICIES project.2. Overview: why conduct a Livestock Master Plan?The purpose of producing an investment roadmap or Livestock Master Plan is to attract more substantial and better targeted livestock sector investment from finance ministries, development partners and private sector investors. Chronic underinvestment in the livestock sector is a major constraint for the livestock sector, which often contributes more than crop agriculture to national development goals. In addition, agriculture or livestock ministers lack solid evidence such as returns on investment to obtain financial resources for livestock development from ministries of finance. There is also a need for stronger human capacity for quantitative livestock sector planning to inform decision-making. Effective livestock development requires sector analysis to understand current situations and predictive analysis to set long-term strategies and design action plans. Finally, governments need realistic action plans to meet targets in five-year national economic development plans.The LMP process enables livestock ministries to accomplish this by identifying needed investments and policies to develop the livestock sector and carrying out foresight or ex ante investment analysis to document and demonstrate the potential returns on investment (ROI) of combined livestock technologies and policies that increase the livestock sector's contribution to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation of climate change and poverty eradication. At the request of the national governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and the state of Bihar in India, the LMP team at ILRI helped carry out fact-based, realistic financial planning together with livestock ministries in the respective countries to produce an LMP. These comprise of a Livestock Sector Analysis (LSAs) of current situations and trends, a long-term (15-year) forecast on the impact of proposed livestock sector strategies (LSS), and a mediumterm (5-year) investment plan or roadmap (Michael et al. 2018;Shapiro et al. 2015;Shapiro et al. 2018).Previous LMPs have proved successful in helping generate greater investments in livestock research and development.In Ethiopia, the government, donors and development partners (e.g. the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the European Union (EU), the Netherlands, New Zealand, USAID and the World Bank) are investing in the implementation of the LMP and preparing programs or projects to help fund future investment in the sector. For instance, the Ethiopian government is investing its own budget and other resources to improve primary livestock production through improved animal genetics and vaccination programs to lower ruminant morbidity and mortality. It is also supporting efforts to add value to processed livestock products by setting up four agroindustrial parks with the support of the EU and FAO. Furthermore, private investment of more than USD250 million in the processing sector has taken place, including an investment of USD145 million in two abattoirs by two meat export companies with large feedlots. The Government of Ethiopia and the World Bank have also just launched a USD170 million livestock sector program based on the LMP.In Tanzania, planning for the implementation of the LMP as part of the national Agricultural Sector Development Plan II (ASDP II) is still ongoing by a newly created Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MLF). In both Tanzania and Ethiopia, BMGF is currently funding more than USD50 million in genetics research and development programs for the poultry and dairy subsectors, with ILRI implementing the research program.In Rwanda, the government is now planning its next national economic development plan using insights from its LMP, while in Uzbekistan, the government and the World Bank have developed a USD150 million sector investment plan informed by the Livestock Sector Analysis conducted for the country.Developing an LMP includes the following sets of activities.1. Initial assessment and identification of coalition for change at country level.Analysis of livestock systems and household level analysis (including typology; modelling for technical, economic and financial analysis of livestock systems; identification, typology and socioeconomic analysis at household levels (gender, labour distribution, resilience to shocks, etc.) and analysis of identified specific livestock sector themes at production/household levels.Assessment of livestock value chains (typically qualitative) and national level impacts (economic, poverty, food safety and nutrition).Consolidation of the analyses and assessments done into a Livestock Sector Analysis (LSA) addressing the current situation, past and present trends and identification of key factors that affect the evolution of the sector.Development of a livestock sector strategy with ways forward; scenarios; policy options; and analysis of impacts, benefits, costs and tradeoffs associated with jointly defined objectives in order to identify future orientations for livestock development.Development of a 5-year Livestock Master Plan with commodity value chain \"roadmaps\".Promotion and advocacy of the LSA and LMP, as well as fundraising and helping to organize the implementation of the LMP.Traditionally, the Livestock Sector Investment and Policy Toolkit (LSIPT) has been used to develop the LMP comprising the Livestock Sector Analysis, a long-term livestock sector strategy and a five-year investment roadmap or LMP. LSIPT was developed under the direction of ALive, the partnership for Africa Livestock Development, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Growth in Africa (www.Alive-online.org). ALive, housed in the African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), spearheaded the development of LSIPT with technical support from CIRAD, the World Bank and FAO.LSIPT is a suite of tools for quantitative methods that can be used to build livestock herd dynamics models and a bioeconomic livestock sector model (LSM), which in turn enables in-depth and systematic quantitative analysis of major constraints facing the livestock sector. The result of this analysis can then be used for carrying out scenario analysis of the ex ante impacts of proposed interventions (technologies and policies) on economic growth, poverty alleviation and other development objectives (employment, equity, etc.). LSIPT can also be used to test technology interventions for improving primary productivity on farm, to carry out quantitative diagnostic value chain assessments to identify the most economically and socially attractive post-harvest investment options to add value to livestock sector products, or to test the ex ante impacts of changes in policies and institutions.While the direct economic functions of livestock are generally understood, accounting for the contribution of livestock production to households and the national economy is not an easy undertaking. The ALive toolkit helps circumvent these difficulties through a rigorous characterization of production systems and livestock-based phenomena. It starts with a situation analysis of the livestock sector and links households, livestock production systems and regional and/or national livestock activities. It further offers the possibility to analyze a baseline scenario at each of these levels and conduct scenario analysis or evaluate the impact of an intervention, disease shocks, technological uptakes, etc. (Dutilly et al. 2011;Alary et al. 2014).LSIPT integrates micro, meso and macro analysis for quantitative and qualitative assessment of household vulnerability; the role of livestock in forming poverty reduction strategies; and the contribution of livestock to the overall economy.It accounts for the multiple functions of livestock, including their cultural importance, contribution to food security and nutrition and supply of draught power and manure for soil fertility.LSIPT provides a systematic framework for organizing accessible quantitative data (mostly from secondary sources) and includes tools to carry out analyses which help to understand the production potential of the sector and its contribution to agricultural and overall economic growth (GDP), as well as reduction in rural poverty and food insecurity. Furthermore, LSIPT enables the visualization of alternative technology and policy scenarios to gauge the supply response of potential government investments in research and extension (such as technologies that impact on feed availability, animal health, etc.), as well as private sector investments of over 5 to 15-year projection periods. The scenario analysis is transparent and easy to understand, and thus useful policymakers and development investors. Moreover, analysis of potential impact from changes in key aspects of policy, such as the enactment of food quality standards and regulations required to compete in formal markets (including export markets), can also be evaluated with the ALive toolkit.The core elements of LSIPT are modules 3, 4 and 5 as shown in figure 1. Module 3 assesses the productivity at household, value chain and production system levels. These micro and mesa data figures are then consolidated and extrapolated to the national level in module 4. Once this database is established, the participatory tools of module 5 can be used to identify-together with all stakeholders-the priority sectors, target groups and the most effective technology and policy interventions to ensure optimal use of scarce human and financial resources. Once the interventions are identified, financial, economic and social impacts can be rapidly assessed using the database established in modules 3 and 4. Finally, using the tools, mutually agreed implementation arrangements can be established. Key data needed for module 3 and 4 include:1. a typology of the main production systems in the country with respective number of livestock keeping households 2. livestock performance data for each production system, with a breakdown by age group and sex, reproductive performance, mortality by age group and sex, average milk production, and live weight and carcass weight 3. a breakdown of costs and margins in the value chains for the different commodities 4. household survey data on consumption patterns of livestock source foods, livestock ownership and income from other activities (crops, off farms activities, etc.). (Income data from livestock related activities are not essential because they are generated by LSIPT, but they are useful for validation of findings) 5. dry matter yields of grass and crop lands (for crop residues) of the main agroecological zones Available data and parameters required for the herd models would be collected from secondary sourcespublished papers, consultancy reports, as well as other \"grey\" literature. Any remaining gaps would be filled through consultations with national experts. Available survey data collected by the Central Statistics Bureaus and research organizations in the respective countries will be used as input for the household survey data. However, this data needs to be assessed to determine how representative it is, and any gaps needing to be filled in.Since September 2018, the preparation and delivery of new LMPs has been conducted through the engagement of a consortium of institutions comprising ILRI, FAO and CIRAD. This consortium plays upon the collective strengths and experiences of each institution in the use of LSIPT, as well as expertise in areas of economic modelling, sector analysis, capacity building and advocacy. ILRI, FAO and CIRAD have partnered within a consortium to continue the promotion and development of LSIPT and are working together to further enhance their application in different settings.So far, this consortium model has been applied in the development of LMP concept notes for Nepal and Kenya, with the former likely to begin in early 2020. The consortium approach to the LMP process expands the remit of previous LMPs to include the following activities:1. assessment of livestock value chains using quantitative value chain tools developed by ILRI;2. assessment of climate change at household, value chain and national levels using FAO's GLEAM model;3. analysis of identified specific sector themes seeking to (a) provide specific details about the current status quo; (b) identify constraints and areas of technical and/or policy intervention in consultation with stakeholders; (c) develop a set of potential best practices on these thematic areas. Each thematic area will be presented in a technical note of three to five pages describing the current situation and trends and proposing policy options and recommendations for the future; and 4. use of multisector modelling that pay particular attention to issues of gender and household distributional issues in the context of developing the LSA.The enhancements proposed in consortium LMPs address some of the shortcomings associated with the LSIPT toolkit that are detailed in the next section. They also provide additional information that is missing from past LMPs, particularly in the context of climate change and gender.A weakness of the LSIPT framework used in current LMPs is its limitations in modelling changes in and evolution of markets, trade and value chains as a result of proposed investment options, particularly in the design of livestock sector strategies that compute returns to a range of scenarios over a projected 15-year period. Gender and climate change are also not given sufficient emphasis due to the limited flexibility inherent in the LSIPT platform, nor are considerations of digital readiness and financial inclusion that can mediate uptake. The addition of new and complementary models to the suite of LMP tools would add more robust, fit for purpose modelling platforms that generate a wider range of scenarios and analyses to guide investments and improve uptake. Moreover, given the implementation of LMPs is often made at national rather than regional levels, models that are sensitive to regional phenomena and variations are of critical importance.At the value chain level also, there is a need to assess more rigorously targeted investment options within LMPs. The current suite of value chain tools within LSIPT operate at a fairly high level of aggregation considering only national level value chains, when in fact there may be multiple value chains operating at different temporal or spatial levels. Within past LMPs, value chain analyses have typically been qualitative in orientation, which reduces the ability to quantify short-and long-term returns from specific interventions.ILRI has pioneered the use of system dynamics models in a variety of livestock settings in Asia, Africa and Latin America to build scenarios that assess the dynamic ex ante returns associated with various technological, policy and market-led interventions in the livestock sector. These models are built at a finer level of resolution (regional or local) than sector-based models and can integrate value chain processes alongside their contextual drivers (e.g. markets, environment, animal health, institutions and gender). As they are dynamic, they further consider feedback between the value chain and its contextual drivers, revealing important insights that might differ in the short run vs long run, which might influence uptake of specific interventions for different value chain actors. As ex ante decision support tools, they can guide the choice of interventions to be implemented and monitor their effectiveness over time. ILRI has also pioneered the use of participatory platforms to create models with value chain stakeholders to identify and co-design locally grounded intervention options, bringing science closer to client groups. ILRI's work in the pig value chain in Myanmar, where such models are informing the choice of intervention strategies to be facilitated through producer organizations and value chain finance, is an exciting application of this approach. Nonetheless, there is a critical need for the development of rapidly deployable and standardized templates that can be utilized across a number of different value chain contexts.With the support of BMGF, ILRI recently received funding to enhance its suite of economic impact assessment and investment modelling tools for LMPs in support of generating more robust analyses of livestock investment scenarios that take into account both economic impacts (GDP growth, return on investment, sectoral income and employment) and noneconomic ones (specifically, gender and social equity). The development of this proposal was supported in part through supplemental funds allocated from the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock.The proposal states that the goal of the activity entitled Policy Options for Livestock Investment, Capacity Improvement and Equitable Solutions (POLICIES) is to identify and support sustainable investment that drive equitable livestock growth and development in target countries. Through the development of a suite of readily deployable models which are web-hosted, focus on sector and value chain levels, have indicators and monitoring tools, and incorporate strategies for their institutionalization at country and regional levels, POLICIES will provide the necessary infrastructure to support local, national and regional livestock decision-making in policy spheres, particularly for LMPs.Parallelly, it will contribute to the design of suitable technological and policy packages across commodity platform research at ILRI.In the first phase of the project (November 2019-April 2021), POLICIES will develop two sets of generic ex ante impact assessment models at sector and value chain levels. Figure 2 below highlights how these two types of models work together in the context of LMPs and ex ante impact assessment models of technologies. LMPs have traditionally followed the collection of baseline data using the LSIPT toolkit to parameterize models of herd dynamics and farm and household models. At present, this data is used in an ad hoc manner to develop livestock sector strategies, projecting over different scenarios based on strong assumptions (fixed prices, lack of market adjustments, etc.). The approach proposed here considers two sets of models-a multimarket model that generates sector-level evidence (i.e. at the level of a national production system) on how prices, trade and livestock/feed markets adjust to different investment options 1 and a value chain model that looks at specific value chains of interest to consider how different technological interventions influence marketing and behavior of different value chain actors, and the path of success (as well as constraints) to their adoption. The combination of both types of information will generate more comprehensive LMP roadmaps to guide sector strategy and specific value chain investments. An important innovation in POLICIES will be to add modules of gender, social equity, finance, employment and business models to each of these sets of modules to consider both economic and noneconomic factors associated with impact. The sector-level model will comprise a spatial multimarket model of the national livestock sector that is disaggregated across different regions that would integrate gender (in production, consumption and labor), use of feed and employment as additional modules to the analysis. The initial template for such a model would be the livestock sector model developed by Rich and Winter-Nelson (2007) to analyze the dynamic effects of foot and mouth disease across different regions in South America. As a linkage to LMPs, the sector-level model would use baseline LSIPT data as input while tailoring livestock sector strategies (LSS) to use these new tools to run scenarios of alternative investment options. In this way, the new sector-level model would replace the current ad hoc approach to LSS development with a more rigorous platform that encompasses economic and noneconomic dimensions of impact. A further innovation within this modelling is to couple herd dynamics with economic behavior, allowing herd growth to be influenced by sector investment rather than deterministically assumed. The 2020 activities of the CGIAR research program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) will go parallelly with POLICIES linking herd models (as found, for instance in LSIPT) to other analytical approaches, including partial equilibrium and economywide models.The second set of models to be developed is a set of standardized value chain models which can be used in LMPs to augment the qualitative approach to value chains in LSIPT at both national and regional levels. Templates for such a model include Dizyee et al. (2019) of the dairy sector in Tanzania, the model of Dizyee et al. (2017) of the beef sector in Botswana and Ouma et al. (2018) of the pig sector in Uganda. In this exercise, standardized modules of herd growth, value chain marketing and stakeholder profitability will be developed based on a review of previous modelling exercises which can be applied across different livestock sector contexts. In addition, specific modules that can be added as needed and which are associated with disease spread, institutional models (e.g. the use of different business models such as producer groups and cooperatives), gender (particularly in terms of control of assets and allocation of labor), and finance will be created and linked to core value chain modules. Participatory processes will be used to support module development and help parameterize data for pilot testing.The two sets of models provide complementary information at different levels of resolution, with the multimarket model highlighting inter-sectoral effects across production systems and regions and the value chain models showing specific details at a stakeholder level in a given commodity chain. Both models are derived from the herd model used in LSIPT, allowing for common data collection for information in the supply side. From the standpoint of delivering advice on investment strategies, the two models provide alternative and complementary perspectives, with the multimarket model at macro level focused on national/regional level investment across the livestock sector as a whole and the value chain models going in greater detail focused on more targeted investment on a particular species.The sectoral model will be initially parameterized to previous LMP/LSIPT data to test its robustness. We further anticipate that additional LMPs will be requested, including in Nepal, Kenya, Guinea and Gambia. As such, we will use the opportunities presented by these LMPs to apply these models (in part or in whole) readily available to deploy at the time of LMP implementation to those LMPs to inform the development of LSS and policy roadmaps. As the LMP requests for Guinea and Gambia will likely provide less resources than standard LMPs, we will also explore the possibilities of using the new tools in a type of \"LMP-lite\" that links more targeted data collection to our multimarket and value chain models independent of the data intensive LSIPT framework given the team's past experience in constructing robust multimarket/value chain models in more data constrained environments.POLICIES will also outline a prioritization process in identifying countries for LMP-type investments and a post-LMP engagement and implementation process which aims at mentoring and enabling countries prioritized for LMP investment to develop and implement plans to successfully achieve LMP goals. This activity will thus define objective modalities that highlight which donors can best invest in LMPs; establish a comprehensive and fit for purpose post-LMP engagement process to support implementation plans of LMP investments based on government needs and priorities, including brokering relationships with relevant national and international organizations to provide support, advocacy, and training based on comparative advantage; develop capacity in policy modelling and foresight analysis; design programs and policy and institutional reform; assist with resource mobilization; and link relevant research and development activities of ILRI conducted under other components as relevant.A critical part of this activity will be cultivating potential partnerships across research and technical institutions that can provide post-LMP support and finding mechanisms to enhance the strength of the consortium between ILRI, FAO and CIRAD. ","tokenCount":"3746"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4e128f0f955dcaba9d10427b2c13c0c8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5877e775-174d-4032-a72d-0048c7a84bfa/retrieve","id":"-130037161"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"12256bee-f3ac-4717-abf0-14679df47d28","pagecount":"10","content":"Global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices have risen rapidly in recent months, driven in large part by the fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia. Other factors, such as export bans, have also contributed to rising prices. Palm oil and wheat prices increased by 56 and 100 percent in real terms, respectively, between June 2021 and April 2022, with most of the increase occurring since February (Figure 1). Wide variation exists across products, with real maize prices increasing by only 11 percent and rice prices declining by 13 percent. The price of crude oil and natural gas has also risen substantially, while the weighted average price of fertilizer has doubled. With these changes in global prices, many developing countries and their development partners are concerned about the implications for economic stability, food security, and poverty.Source: Authors' calculations using data from World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet, https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/commodity-markets).Note: Nominal prices in US dollars from World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet) are converted to real prices, which account for the overall increase in world prices over this period, deflated by the US consumer price index, which rose by 7.2 percent between June 2021 and April 2022.A comparison of import prices at Nigeria's border with market prices in Lagos, its largest commercial city, suggests that world price changes may not have had a major direct influence on domestic prices of food, in part because many of the major food products produced and consumed in Nigeria (including sorghum, millet, cassava, yams, and plantains) are not widely traded in international markets. The nominal price of maize (to some degree a substitute in consumption for wheat products, sorghum, and millet) rose by 27 percent between April 2021 and April 2022, compared to a 43 percent increase in the cost and freight import price of maize in the same period and an 86 percent increase for wheat (Figure 2). Note also that substantial volumes of foreign trade take place at parallel market exchange rates (which in April 2022 were about 35 percent above the official naira/US dollar exchange rate). 2 However, fertilizer prices have been rising rapidly since the war began in Ukraine and rose by 46 percent in just one month between March and April 2022, demonstrating a big risk to crop production for Nigerian farmers.Source: Authors' calculations using data from FEWSNET, IGC, and World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet). Fertilizer prices are obtained from the Nigeria Fertilizer Dashboard produced by the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program.Note: Import prices include cost, insurance, and freight (CIF). Fertilizer prices are for NPK 15-15-15.We use an economywide model of Nigeria to estimate the impacts of the global price shocks on all sectors, workers, and households. 3 The model allows us to capture a range of considerations that determine the overall impact of the crisis on the country. Nigeria exports large volumes of crude oil but imports most of its supply of oil products: diesel, petrol, and other petroleum products. Nigeria also produces 80 percent of the fertilizer used by its farmers. The impacts of higher world fuel and fertilizer prices on Nigeria's economy are thus more complicated than on an economy without oil exports or a large domestic fertilizer supply. Moreover, recent investments in domestic production of urea may further dampen the impacts from higher import prices for fertilizer (Balana et al. 2020).The effects of higher world food prices depend on the importance of the affected products in the total supply of each commodity and whether local producers and consumers can readily substitute away from higher-priced imports. Less than 1 percent of Nigeria's maize supply comes from imports, while imports account for 97 percent of its total wheat supply (Panel A in Figure 3). The 2 To the extent the premium in the parallel market remains approximately constant, domestic prices of tradable goods such as coffee, cocoa, and rice will move together with world prices, consistent with the specification in our modeling work.3 Information on the Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) data and modeling system can be found here. effects of international wheat price movements on domestic wheat prices are thus expected to be much larger than the effects of international maize price movements on domestic maize prices. Import shares of supply are also relatively low for edible oils including oilseeds, and domestically produced edible oils are close substitutes for products traded in international markets.The impact of higher fuel prices on households cannot be directly assessed by looking only at the share of petroleum products in households' consumption baskets. This is because fuel is mainly used as an input into the production of other goods and services. More than four-fifths of total domestic demand for oil products in Nigeria is for input use, mainly by the transport sector. Moreover, exports of crude oil account for 64 percent of total oil and oil products (Panel B in Figure 3). Impacts on households also depend on the importance of commodities in their consumption baskets. Cereals and edible oils account for a small share of the total value of household consumption (7 percent) in Nigeria (Figure 4), which is about 15 percent of total food expenditures. 4 IFPRI's model tracks income and expenditures for different population groups and is linked to a surveybased micro-simulation tool that tracks the consumption patterns of individual households. Unpacking populations is crucial, because the shares of cereals and edible oils in expenditures are much larger for poorer households in Nigeria than for other groups.Source: Authors' calculations using social accounting matrix (SAM) data from IFPRI's Nigeria RIAPA model. 4 These figures include the imputed value of home consumption, which is also tracked within the RIAPA model. Rising fertilizer prices may cause some farmers to reduce their use of this input, leading to lower agricultural production and higher prices for many locally grown crops. The magnitude of this decline depends on: (1) the responsiveness of fertilizer demand to changes in prices;(2) the amount of fertilizer currently used to grow crops; and (3) the expected productivity losses for farmers who reduce their use of fertilizers. Fertilizer adoption in Nigeria varies significantly by crop, with 64 percent of rice land cultivated using fertilizers, compared to only 16 percent for cassava. Variation also arises in the amount of fertilizer used on different crops. For our initial impact analysis, we adopt a conservative set of assumptions regarding farmers' responses to rising fertilizer prices. We assume an own-price elasticity of fertilizer demand of −0.15, implying that a 100 percent increase in real fertilizer prices leads to a 15 percent decline in fertilizer use. Drawing on recent survey analysis, we assume that farmers who do not use chemical fertilizers are about 20 percent less productive than farmers who do. 5Source: Authors' calculations using International Fertilizer Development Center's (IFDC) Fertilizer Use by Crop (FUCP) estimates and further adjusted based on information from the country's experts.In northern Nigeria, planting for the main season (long rains) crops takes place from mid-February to May, with harvests late in the year. In the south, planting of most crops takes place in April and May, with the main harvest starting in September. The surge in fertilizer prices in March can be expected to have a significant adverse effect on fertilizer use for the 2022 crops in much of the country.We simulate the effects of both higher world prices (recall Figure 1) and the potential productivity losses from reduced fertilizer use in the current growing season. Simulation results should be interpreted as \"medium-term\" impacts; that is, after the immediate spillover effects across sectors and households have occurred but before the government and private sector make significant changes to their policies in response to the crisis (see Section 5 for next steps). The effects of the world price and fertilizer demand shocks on GDP and employment are negative but are not large compared to the size of the overall economy. As a large oil-exporting country, the windfall revenues from higher crude oil export prices went mainly to the government, while the country imports petroleum, and hence, the economy is negatively affected by the higher import petrol prices. The total GDP losses are small, at −0.5 percent, while the employment impact is relatively large at −1.9 percent (Figure 6). The impact on the agrifood system is larger than on the total economy. Agricultural GDP falls by 1.0 percent, while employment falls much more in the offfarm agrifood system (by 3.0 percent) because higher food and fuel prices raise costs of food processing and food-related services, including trade and transport. The GDP impact in the rest of the economy outside the agrifood system is small, while the employment impact is large, reflecting differential impacts within nonagricultural sectors.Source: Simulation results from IFPRI's Nigeria RIAPA model.The negative effects on national GDP come mainly from fuel shocks. Petroleum is mainly used as intermediate inputs in different economic sectors, and thus, the higher import petrol prices are the dominant factor in the decline in total GDP. However, agricultural GDP is more negatively affected by the fertilizer shocks, which directly affect primary agricultural production and result in reduced output of downstream agrifood sectors (Figure 7). On the other hand, off-farm agrifood GDP is more negatively affected by food price shocks, as rising food prices increase costs for food processing sectors and lower their production. Food-related services, particularly restaurants and hotels, are also negatively affected by higher food prices that increase their operational costs. The whole agrifood system is less affected by the fuel price shock, which leads to GDP losses outside of the agrifood system. Note: About 40 percent of the effect on agricultural GDP under \"fertilizer prices and response\" is directly from rising fertilizer prices, while the remaining 60 percent is from the productivity shock caused by lower fertilizer use.Household consumption falls, with larger losses for poorer and rural households. With windfall revenues accruing to the government, households do not benefit directly from rising oil prices. In fact, national real consumption, including home consumption, falls by 1.7 percent (Figure 8). The percentage decline in consumption is larger than that of GDP because households are hit twice, by rising prices and falling incomes. Moreover, food accounts for a much larger share of household consumption than of GDP. While most of the decline in consumption is driven by the fuel price shocks, the impact of the food price shock on household consumption is larger than on total GDP. Differences in consumption outcomes across population groups are driven mainly by the differential impact of the fertilizer shocks, which mainly affect rural and poor households. Rural households earn more of their income from farming, and thus, they are more adversely affected by the decline in agricultural production following the increase in fertilizer prices. And since most of the poor live in rural areas, as a group they are also more adversely affected by fertilizer shocks. On the other hand, urban households benefit slightly from higher fertilizer prices. Nigeria produces fertilizer, which covers about 80 percent of domestic use. Facing higher fertilizer import prices, domestic fertilizer manufacturers expand production to substitute for imported fertilizer, which benefits some urban households on the income side.-  9), causing inequality to increase. Conversely, the negative impact of higher world food prices is slightly larger for richer households, because they consume more imported food products than poorer households or processed food products that rely more on imported products as inputs. The effect of fuel shocks is felt similarly across all household groups. Overall, the combined effect of the world price shocks is a decline in consumption for all households, but larger declines for households toward the lower end of the income distribution. The result of the global crises is therefore an increase in inequality within Nigeria.Source: Simulation results from IFPRI's Nigeria RIAPA model.- Falling household consumption leads to greater poverty, particularly in urban areas. According to the most recent household survey in Nigeria, more than 50 percent of the country's population has an adult equivalent consumption level that falls below the US$1.90 international poverty line. The increase in world prices reduces real expenditures of lower-income households, increasing the national poverty headcount rate by 0.9 percentage points (Panel A in Figure 10). This is equivalent to an additional 1.8 million people falling below the poverty line (Panel B). The impact on the urban poverty rate is larger, and near one million of the increased poor population live in urban areas. The cost of a healthy diet increases for Nigerian households. The model tracks changes in the cost of a \"healthy\" reference diet (CoRD) with six food groups as defined by the EAT-Lancet Commission. 6 The combined food, fuel, and fertilizer shocks increase the CoRD by 1.0 percent in real terms (the first bar in Panel A in Figure 11). 7 This is mainly driven by the rising costs of edible oils within the \"added fats\" food group and wheat within the \"staples\" food group, whose domestic prices are influenced by rising import prices (the second bar in Panel A in Figure 11). The \"staples\" food group includes cereals and root crops, which are affected by higher wheat import prices. However, wheat is only a small portion of consumption baskets in Nigeria. Maize also is only a small share of consumption, and the increased maize price is modest. Moreover, achieving the diversity of the healthy reference diet requires a decline in the large share of cereals in the average household diet.As such, the increase in wheat and maize prices has only a modest contribution to the changing cost of a healthy diet. On the other hand, consumption levels of vegetables and dairy products are far below the required level for a healthy diet among many households in Nigeria. The rising costs of these food groups cause further deterioration in households' access to these foods. Diet quality worsens for many households. The survey-based micro-simulation tool also measures the increases in number of people with deteriorated diet quality. People are considered deprived in a food group if they obtain fewer calories from that food group than recommended by the healthy reference diet. Prior to the crises, few Nigerian households had the consumption levels and diversity needed for a healthy diet. Rising food prices become much more important for worsening diet quality than impacts on income and poverty, and it is a leading factor for 16.8 million people to become deprived in at least one additional food group. The rural population accounts for more people (9.7 million) with a deterioration in their diet quality, while the number of urban people is also alarmingly large (7.1 million) (Panel B in Figure 11).Global food, fuel, and fertilizer prices have risen rapidly in recent months, raising concerns about how this will affect economic stability, food security, and poverty in developing countries. We used IFPRI's economywide model -known as RIAPA -to simulate the impacts of the global crises on Nigeria's economy and population. The model allows us to track the direct and indirect effects of rising world prices, taking account of key considerations that will determine the overall impact. These include, for example: the share of imports in total product supply; the importance of different sectors and products for household employment, income, and consumption levels; and farmers' responses to rising fertilizer prices and the knock-on effect this could have on next season's agricultural production.Our analysis indicates that for Nigeria, a crude oil-exporting and petrol importing country, the global crises cause a modest contraction in the country's GDP and a slightly larger negative impact on total employment. The losses in agricultural GDP and the decline in off-farm agrifood employment are larger than those for the total economy. Most of agricultural GDP losses are driven by rising fertilizer prices, rather than higher food prices. This is because, although import prices of wheat and edible oils are rising, these products are not typically large items within household consumption baskets in Nigeria. To some extent, rural farmers also benefit from higher prices for agricultural products, although the net effect on their welfare is negative once we account for the effects of higher fertilizer prices, reduced fertilizer use, and lower agricultural productivity.Overall, with the windfall oil revenue accruing to the government and little going to consumers, household consumption falls. Impacts are larger on poorer and rural households, leading to increased inequality in Nigeria. Because of the already high poverty rate among rural households, falling household consumption leads to rising poverty among urban households more than rural households, while rural poor people are likely to become more impoverished (that is, the depth of poverty increases). Finally, the cost of a healthy diet increases for Nigerian households, and the gap between household consumption levels and what is required to achieve a healthy diet widens. While the global crises will not greatly affect Nigeria's economic growth, its adverse impacts on poor people and food insecurity are likely to be more pronounced.This study is part of a series of case studies that IFPRI is undertaking using economywide models to capture current world market shocks on developing countries. The analysis presented above is an initial impact assessment designed to gauge the vulnerability of countries and key population groups. Subsequent analyses will simulate the mitigating effects of different policy and investment options, including the potential roles of cash transfers, food aid, and subsidies for food, fuel, and fertilizers. Particular attention will be paid to possible synergies and trade-offs between these policy responses, including their implications for government budgets and longer-term development goals.","tokenCount":"2920"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2154878d43249346b41e0439e702902e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf33a7a8-6298-45a7-a4e2-4e1d893f9f62/retrieve","id":"1392891730"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fbd54044-4293-45bf-83c9-1285ea427870","pagecount":"2","content":"The mission is to safeguard public health by ensuring that only the right quality food, drugs and other regulated products are manufactured, imported, exported, distributed, advertised, sold and used in Nigeria. Our core values are to:• Ensure availability of efficacious, safe and good quality NAFDAC regulated products. • Maintain reference laboratories of international standard.• Promote an effective and efficient well motivated and disciplined workforce.In line with the mandate and vision of the Agency, the management obtained approval to restructure the Agency into Thirteen (13) from the previous Nine (9) Directorates to improve efficiency which brought about the establishment of Veterinary Medicine and Allied Product Directorate.In carrying out our mandate, the Agency shall have the following functions amongst others: 1. Conduct appropriate test and ensure compliance with standard specification.2. Compile standard specifications and guidelines for production, importation, exportation, distribution and sale of regulated products. 3. Undertake appropriate investigation into the production premises and raw materials for regulated products. 4. Pronounce on the quality and safety of Regulated Products after appropriate analysis. 5. Control exportation and issue quality certification of Regulated Products intended for export purposes. 6. Undertake registration of regulated products. The essence of regulation and control is to ensure that only quality regulated products that are safe, efficacious and wholesome reach the market and ultimately the consuming public. This is achieved through various processes of the Agency including product registration, inspection of production facilities, laboratory evaluation, post marketing surveillance and enforcement activities.Source: A retailer in an agrochemical outlet in the Northern Region of NigeriaIn 2012, AATF invited NAFDAC along with representatives from other Regulatory authority in Africa to a Biopesticide registration guidance document draft review Workshop and in line with international practice, a committee was set up to review the pesticide registration regulation.Recommendation of the said committee was to review the current pesticide regulation to capture Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer.In 2012, facilitation came from COMPRO II Project on the establishment and institutionalization of Regulatory framework on Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer in NAFDAC.A fallout of which brought about thedevelopment of the under listed draft regulations:- • Grassroots sensitization and advocacy visits to decision makers and opinion leaders as well as organize consultative meetings and workshops with different stakeholders across Nigeria.• Develop and review documents on Quality control for Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer.• Development and Verification of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Quality Control of (Rhizobium, Trichoderma, Arbuscular Mycorrhyzal, Pseudomonas, Azotobacter, Baccillus spp and Azospirilium) Biofertilizer.• Development of draft regulations for Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer for Registration, Labeling and Advertisement.• Development and implementation of registration guidelines for indigenous andforeign Bio-pesticide and Biofertilizer.• Training of inspectors and technicians from NAFDAC and IAR on Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer inspection and sampling.• Identify independent laboratories collaboration in other geopolitical zones of the country.• Conduct awareness campaigns for stakeholders and dealers of Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer on the new regulations and guidelines to ensure only registered, quality and safe products are in the market• Sustain awareness campaign for the general public on the safe handling, storage and the implication of buying unregistered Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer across the six geo-political zones of the country.• Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer Regulations final gazette by the ministry of Justice.• Sustain capacity building for inspectors and technicians on the handling and sampling of Bio-pesticide and Biofertilizer.• Establishment of a designated laboratory for quality control of Bio-pesticide and Bio-fertilizer in NAFDAC.","tokenCount":"552"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b394129693df9788401f7a88520d4267","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/91af83e8-9b24-445f-8fbd-a98d9cb0b1ba/retrieve","id":"-205517932"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e090fb47-15a2-4d45-bfc2-a7922845e79b","pagecount":"2","content":"The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) brings together four CGIAR centers -Bioversity International, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Potato Center (CIP) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) -and CIRAD (also representing the French organizations IRD, INRA, and Vitropic) with more than 350 partners for research on banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yam, and minor roots and tubers. The program has two dedicated clusters of activity on sweetpotato, led by CIP scientists, that will interact with, learn from, and add critical mass to RTB's other work.More than 300 million people below the poverty line in developing countries depend on root, tuber and banana crops for food and income. RTB is working globally to harness the untapped potential of those crops in order to improve food security, nutrition, income and climate change resilience of smallholders, especially women and youth.RTB crops, including sweetpotato, present common challenges. They are propagated clonally rather than with seeds, which allows yield-reducing pathogens to build up over time. This calls for a strong design of private-public seed systems. The crops' bulk and perishability put pressure on postharvest innovation, and high genetic complexity of each crop means breeding is especially difficult. RTB is changing the way the research centers work and collaborate, creating a more cohesive and multidisciplinary approach to tackle these common challenges. RTB aims to promote greater cooperation among an array of national and international institutions, NGOs and stakeholders' groups while strengthening their capacities as key players. Because the full impact of RTB research depends on how well next-and end-users adopt research options, these are developed together with stakeholders and are informed by their needs and preferences. ©Aminah Jasho, KHCP Tapping into underutilized RTB genetic diversity, FP1 collaborates with advanced research institutes (ARIs), universities, national agricultural research systems (NARS), and other CRPs. FP2 supports gender-responsive breeding pipelines to obtain high-yielding and nutrientrich varieties in line with consumer demand and adapted to future climates and resistant to biotic and abiotic threats. FP2 collaborates closely with national breeding, genetics, and phenotyping programs, ARIs, and universities. It is informed by FP3-FP5 as regards the needs of next users of varieties and particular constraints such as disease resistance. FP2 includes a crosscutting component on seed and approaches for demand creation. Scaling occurs with national seed agencies, private companies, service providers, and development partners.FP3 develops an array of products for pest and disease characterization and management and improved agronomic practices for more resilient cropping systems. Pest/disease risks models related to climate change and pest risks analyses are developed with strategic research partners and the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Results are used to devise policy and technical advice for national plant protection organizations and regional and subregional organizations. Optimized land, crop, and water management techniques are developed in collaboration with NARS and universities and promoted through welltrained extension services and other service providers.FP4 promotes collaborations among public partners (e.g., national research institutes) and private partners (e.g. machinery manufacturers and fabricators, small and medium processors). The objective is to develop and disseminate improved and more efficient processing and post-harvest technologies and protocols for RTB-based food products that help to reduce waste and losses and make healthy and nutritious food available. Moreover, FP4 provides technical evidence and policy advice to national authorities, development partners, and donors for designing and implementing agriculture for nutrition initiatives and education/communication programs. Particular attention is paid to identify value chain opportunities that generate more equitable employment and income opportunities for women and youth.FP5 has a dual role as a space for systems research and for providing capacity development and backstopping in support of innovation and scaling in FP1-FP4. It provides a livelihood systems-related guiding framework for all FPs to steer them toward promising scaling of innovations, opportunities for advancing gender and intergenerational equity, expected and proven areas of greatest return, and scientific evidence on impactful partnership and scaling models.RTB's research on sweetpotato falls in to two dedicated clusters of activity (clusters): (1) SW2.6 -User preferred sweetpotato varieties and seed technologies and (2) SW4.4 -Nutritious sweetpotato for expanding markets and improving nutrition.This cluster is housed under FP2, which consists of interrelated clusters that together achieve the objectives and targets of the flagship. SW2.6 aims to investigate, develop, and disseminate better sweetpotato varieties and ensure that they meet farmer and consumer preferences. This will improve the availability of sweetpotato varieties that are rich in beta-carotene and high in anti-oxidants, to meet diverse user preferences and needs with gender-responsive seed systems. Hence this cluster has strong linkages to the second cluster on sweetpotato, SW4.4.SW4.4, which is under FP4, aims to improve nutrition and diets and provide income opportunities through more diversified and intensified utilization of nutritious sweetpotato. The cluster is focused on expanding and diversifying the use of vitamin A-rich OFSP while also exploring the use of other nutritious sweetpotato varieties through similar technologies and processes. Research will generate improved tools and approaches for enhancing diet quality through sweetpotato; more efficient post-harvest and processing technologies, guidelines, and capacities for nutrition-sensitive value chain development; and better investment and policy frameworks for scaling up the benefits from nutritious sweetpotato. OFSP has accumulated rich insights into scaling and a linked evidence base which through RTB can support learning for similar approaches in our other crops.","tokenCount":"882"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7f7a7659dc713f39a836350fabb94f8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/11ebf205-6688-4905-9304-afec4805e551/retrieve","id":"906556877"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"08a72f49-dbb1-4152-a247-6bdcd0d68dd0","pagecount":"10","content":"Food systems in South Asia exert considerable pressure on climate systems, water systems, and biodiversity. Quantifying these impacts and is crucial for steering food system transitions. However, approaches and assessments for environmental footprints of food systems remain largely fragmented in South Asia, especially for low-income and data-scarce regions. We address this knowledge gap with a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed literature to identify existing methods and datasets applicable for assessing the environmental footprints and planetary boundaries of food systems in South Asia. We find that such assessments have started to become more common, although many remain narrowly focused or reliant on Tier 1 type of approaches. Others are singular case studies or describe experiments. For example, most studies look either at carbon and/or water footprints of national dietary or production patterns and their relationship to ecosystem functioning. We also find a concentration of studies on specific crops or food products in select locations, indicative of heterogeneity in data availability. Only a few consider locally relevant ecological boundaries. We consequent suggest two avenues for future research: First, consolidating a meso-scale overview of environmental impacts of food systems through existing data and basic footprint functions to support participatory priority setting exercises and strategy development. Second, research is needed to generate sub-regional diagnostic datasets. These could be helpful in developing context-specific, data-driven, and socially desirable solutions to address the most actionable environmental impacts of food systems in South Asia.Food systems are putting substantial and increasing pressure on core earth system functions (Gerten et al., 2020;Rockström et al., 2020;Springmann et al., 2018;Willett et al., 2019). Understanding the extent of these pressures and, ideally, transforming food systems so that they can maintain or augment earth system functions, rather than deprecate them, is a critical aspect of food system transitions. To steer thinking and action, both environmental footprint and planetary boundary assessments have gained prominence over the last decades as concepts that seek to elucidate the environmental impact of human activity and defining a safe operating space (Figure 1; Rockstrom et al., 2009).However, a understanding of the environmental impacts and the safe operating space of food systems in lowincome regions remains fragmented at best and is often elusive. To start addressing this knowledge gap, the One CGIAR Initiative on Transforming Agri-Food Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA), has conducted a systematic scoping review to map key approaches and methods for assessing the sustainability of food systems in South Asia (Tricco et al., 2018).We focused on general frameworks, datasets and methods that are particularly relevant for South Asia (see Methods section for more details).The preliminary findings reported here suggest that substantial progress on multiple dimensions is required to adequately develop datasets, research, and actions towards more sustainable food systems in South Asia. Our search within the Web of Science Core Collection database returned a total of 728 articles, out of which 140 articles within the scope of this study (Figure 2). Out of these, all 140 articles to some extent studied environmental footprints, while only 32 also looked at ecological boundaries.Figure 3 shows the top seven journal names where most studies inside the database were published with the remainder grouped under 'Other' . Most of the publications appeared in mid to high impact factor journals (Q1) within environmental sciences and food sciences. Importantly, all of these journals specifically state an interest in interdisciplinary science and cover both natural as well as social science domains.   Our preliminary analysis suggests that environmental assessments of food systems can be roughly grouped into three types that correspond to different scales.First, large-scale assessments at the crosssectoral level have been deployed in much of the developed world (and China) to coherently track food systems impacts on the environment throughout the economy. These assessments require harmonized and detailed data available across all sectors of the economy. In addition, sophisticated footprint accounting data across all sectors is required for such a complete assessment. Data scarcitymakes the application of this approach to South Asia's food systems difficult, likely owing to the relatively low number of regional-our countrt-level datasets used (50) compared to global ones (122) and the relative novelty of the field as represented in recent surge in publication numbers (Figure 4). Although some of this rise may be attributable to COVID-19 related rise in publication.Second, assessments of the environmental footprint of diets or food production have been increasing. These assessments are either based on representative -often at the national level -dietary surveys or using FAO Food Balance sheets or similar datasets (Kelly et al., 1991). These datasets and indicators are generally available for most countries. The footprints of these diets have often been compared to the footprints of an EAT-Lancet diet or the footprints of other diets recommended by national health institutes (Willett et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the locally specific footprint functions are often not available for all food products and thus often rely on Tier 1 type of approaches that risk masking large international differences in footprint functions as well as sub-national heterogeneity. Systematic reviews of Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) have conversely been used to overcome this bottleneck but require a solid foundation of LCA studies that may not be available in lowincome contexts. Third, local assessments of the environmental footprint of specific food products based on LCA for food products, often focused on agronomic trials, have increased significantly over the last decade. These are very useful to map the footprints and impacts of major crops that are produced, but do not yet cover all crops or most processed food products. At the same time, since they are based on experimental trials often reflecting good management practices -these assessments do not reflect the heterogeneity in prevailing management practices, nor can they be described as true 'food systems' studies. Similarly, our results suggest that the environmental impact of unhealthy foods, such as instant noodles that are increasing in consumption, in South Asia's food systems has not yet been assessed systematically due to a lack in dietary data as well as relative information on footprint functions.Similarly, the complexity and heterogeneity of South Asia's geography, agricultural and food consumption contexts -which also differ considerably across and within cultures, genders, agre groups and even castes, can lead to high uncertainty of outputs when using global coefficients and extrapolating from small-scale experiments.Our results also show that the scope of most footprint assessments is largely limited to greenhouse gases (GHGs; 129 articles) and water use (109 articles). With land (64 articles) and nitrogen footprints (37 articles) being substantially less often included (see Figure 5). This trend is also visible when ranking the word stems contained in the abstracts by their frequency, showing that water, emissions, and global rank amongst the highest (Figure 5). This trend can likely be attributed to the readily available global footprint functions provided by the IPCC, the Water Footprint Network (Hoekstra & Mekonnen, 2012;IPCC, 2022), or other organizations. Land use has most often been calculated based on food and fodder crop yields from national statistics or FAOSTAT, but is nonetheless less often considered. Similarly, nitrogen footprints have not received much attention but are mostly considered as part of GHG calculations and assesments. The major limitation of the literature on food systems and their environmental impact is that change is normally positioned on the left side of the equation in Figure 1 (i.e. in diets or production)while assuming largely stable footprint coefficients that are often averaged at the country level. This reflects a longstanding criticism of footprint assessments, that they are not context-specific enough to encourage policy action, and that they may provide little diagnostic help as they do not consider variation in resource availability, input use intensity and efficiency (in the case of production systems) and other factors related to heterogeneity in resource endowments and agricultural practices prevalent in low-income contexts (Chenoweth et al., 2014;Fereres et al., 2017;Hoekstra, 2016).Similarly, very few studies reflect on contextually-relevant ecological boundaries. This also relates to a poor understanding of local ecological boundaries that appears to be common in our sample of papers. For GHG emissions, this may be defensible as the boundary is of global nature. But for water and land systems, a footprint's implication for the region or sub-region depends on local conditions, and larger footprints may be acceptable in more water-abundant places than, for instance, more arid regions. In fact, water-intensive food production practices might be favorable in water-abundant regions as they are also more adapted to the excess moisture that might harm crops that are more suited to arid regions. Admittedly, some of these limitations have been addressed through approaches like the water scarcity weighted water footprint, but nevertheless, do not allow for contextspecific diagnostics but are more adept for priority setting.We largely followed the PRISMA guidelines for systematic scoping reviews (Tricco et al., 2018). Accordingly, based on an initial scan of the literature we, a team of identified six scientists from several food system related disciplines (four of which are South Asian nationals and two of which hold substantial experience in South Asia) developed five inclusion criteria and eight categories for coding.Final research design, data collection. coding, and analysis was done by the first four authors, while the last two authors assisted in envisioning the research, guiding research methods, providing analytical supervisory support and guidance. The articles were equally divided into four sections for each reviewer for this preliminary analysis, with a second pass by another reviewer to be conducted to verify the coding in the future. The main goal of this scoping review, inclusion criteria, and coding criteria were defined as follows:Research Main Goal: \"Mapping the existing approaches, methods, and datasets used to assess the environmental footprints and ecological boundaries of food system in South Asia.\"Study Inclusion Criteria: IC0: Fits within the conceptual framework of the scoping review IC1: Considers environmental footprint or Ecological boundaries of the food system IC2: Considers water, GHG emissions, land, or nitrogen footprint or boundary IC3: Uses global datasets or datasets for South Asia IC4: Specifically treats crops/foods that are commonly grown or consumed in South AsiaCoding Criteria: Q0: Name or brief descriptor of approach or methodology used? Q1: Which datasets were used for diets? Q2: Which datasets were used for food processing? Q3: Which dataset were used for agricultural production? Q4: Which datasets were used for calculating the footprint? Q5: Which datasets were used for calculating the boundary? Q6: What are the major advantages for the method used in this study? Q7: What are the major limitations for the method used in this study? For the literature search, we focused on peer-reviewed articles of journals included in the Web of Science Core Collection to gain a 'birds-eye' view of the published and refereed corpus. Since the main goal of this scoping review was to map methods and datasets, rather than conduct meta-analysis, we did not identify any variables or record any effect sizes during this scoping review. We did, however, record the datasets and approaches, a concrete mapping of which still requires additional study. The search terms where iteratively developed to ensure they cover key topics with a reasonable number of search results.In conclusion, comprehensively mapping and understanding the environmental footprint of food systems in South Asia requires further progress, especially in the development of foundational datasets.Nevertheless, rudimentary datasets at Tier 1 type of equation exist and can be used to map and compare the environmental impact of different food system configurations. However, time is short and pressure high to reverse the negative trends in food security and malnutrition. At the same time, new large scale and digital data collection approaches allow to develop rapid and novel insights. For science to support rapid food system transition that bolster earth system functions -the most effective way forward is likely to use the available Tier 1 data with emerging data on food production and diets to prioritize novel data collection and diagnostic efforts to identify hotspots of environmental degradation caused by the food system and identifying solutions that score multi-dimensional wins for diets, climate, biodiversity that are also economically attractive to smallholder farmers and other food system actors.TAFSSA is a CGIAR regional integrated initiative to support actions that improve equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, improve farmers' livelihoods and resilience, and conserve land, air, and water resources in South Asia.CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future. Visit https://www.cgiar.org/research/ cgiar-portfolio to learn more about the initiatives in the CGIAR research portfolioResponsibility for editing, proofreading, and layout, opinions expressed, and any possible errors lies with the authors and not the institutions involved. The boundaries and names shown, and the designations used on maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by CIMMYT, the CGIAR, our partner institutions, or donors.","tokenCount":"2108"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e9935231c16947f2b534f36495f29981","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/62a83082-1169-4d89-baca-915ab061ad43/content","id":"77858315"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a8e6b95f-19fe-49ef-97dd-1d9d29198448","pagecount":"12","content":"The hybrids and open-pollinated varieties listed in this brochure were rated based on collaborative trials conducted annually by National Agricultural Research Programs, non-governmental organizations, private seed companies and CIMMYT across southern and eastern Africa between 2007 and 2015. Results are based on a minimum of two years' data. The information in this publication is based on results available at the time of publication. This does not exclude that the varieties may perform differently if grown at other sites, or under different conditions, or that certain varieties are also produced by other seed producers. © International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) 2017. CIMMYT -the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (www.cimmyt.org) -is the global leader on publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. This brochure is made possible with the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of CIMMYT and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.• Greater yield stability -yields between 20-30% more under moderate drought conditions than other commercial varieties. • High yield potential (no yield loss in optimal years).• Resistance to major diseases (e.g., maize streak virus (MSV), Turcicum leaf blight (TLB), and grey leaf spot (GLS) and superior milling or cooking quality. • Very uniform.• Seed must be purchased every season.• Three-way hybrid, released in 2013.• Yield potential: 8-11 t/ha. • Maturity: intermediate to late, 130-140 days to maturity.• Adaptation: mid altitude and low altitude areas of Malawi.• Drought tolerant hybrid.• Tolerant to GLS, MSV and leaf blights.• Texture: semi-flint; color: white. • Average plant height: 235 cm; ear height: 120 cm.• Three-way hybrid, released in 2013.• Yield potential: 8-11 t/ha.       • Three-way cross, released in 2016.• Yield potential: 5-7 t/ha.• Maturity: early to intermediate, 130 days to maturity.• Drought tolerance.• Tolerant to GLS, MSV, rust, moderate tolerance to TLB.• Texture: flint; color: orange.• Average plant height: 174 cm, ear height: 76 cm.• Provitamin A content of 12.0 µg/g.• Carotene color intensity score of 2.6.• Good popping characteristics.• Three-way cross, released in 2016.• Yield potential: 5-6 t/ha.• Maturity: early to intermediate, 120 days to maturity.• Drought tolerance.• Tolerant to MSV, GLS, rust, moderate tolerance to TLB.• Texture: flint; color: orange.• Average plant height: 174 cm, ear height: 80 cm.• Provitamin A content of 9.970 µg/g.• Carotene color intensity score of 1.8.• Three-way cross, released in 2016.• Yield potential: 5-7.5 t/ha.• Maturity: early to intermediate, 120 days to maturity.• Drought tolerance.• Tolerance to MSV, GLS, rust, moderate tolerance to TLB.• Texture: flint; color: white.• Average plant height: 168 cm, ear height: 78 cm.• Provitamin A content of 9.3 µg/g.• Carotene color intensity score of 2.7.• High popping characteristics and suitable for roasting (higher popping among the 4 listed in this section). • Produces twin cobs.• Three-way cross, released in 2016.• Yield potential: 5-6 t/ha. • Maturity: early to intermediate, 120 days to maturity.• Tolerance to MSV, GLS, rust, moderate tolerance to TLB. • Texture: flint; color: orange.• Average plant height: 168 cm, ear height: 78 cm.• Provitamin A content of 14.9 µg/g (highest vitamin A levels among the 4 listed in this section, and selected purposefully by the NARS based on vitamin A levels). • Carotene color intensity score of 2.7.• Yield 20-30% under drought, compared to other OPVs.• Can be recycled for 2-3 seasons without significant yield loss. • Less uniform than hybrids.• Cheaper seeds compared to hybrids.• Yield potential: 6 t/ha. • Maturity: early, 120-130 days to maturity.• Adaptation: mid altitudes and lowlands of Malawi.• Drought and low nitrogen tolerance.• Tolerance to MSV, GLS, common rust, northern leaf blight.• Texture: semi-flint/semi-dent; color: white. • This variety is comparable to ZM521, but has a higher yield potential, slightly better rust (P. sorghi) and ear rot resistance, and less lodging.• OPV, released in 2009.• Yield potential: 5 t/ha.• Maturity: very early, 110-120 days to maturity in mid altitudes, 90-110 in hot lowlands. • Adaptation: lowlands. • Drought and low nitrogen tolerance.• Tolerance to MSV, GLS and common rust.• Texture: semi-flint; color: white.• High in two essential amino acids: lysine and tryptophan. • Nutritive value in milk protein is 90%, while the average maize variety has only about 40% protein value.Chitedze 2-Quality protein maize (QPM)• OPV, released in 2009.• Yield potential: 3-5 t/ha.• Maturity: early to intermediate, 110-120 days to maturity.• Adaptation: mid altitude.• Drought tolerance.• Tolerance to MSV, GLS and common rust.• Texture: semi-flint; color: white.• High level of tryptophan and lysine. ","tokenCount":"819"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ba86eaa991b3616887a7e21978dcc11f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7e35a3f6-7bcf-4473-bb6c-61a844b8228d/retrieve","id":"1028483640"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d5936a34-329a-4373-97a7-150112b57bad","pagecount":"24","content":"Strategy 2023-2030 vi The Asia-Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme (APFORGEN) is a regional programme and network that brings knowledge and use of Asia' s forest biodiversity to a new level -from a traditional focus on ecosystems and species to include genetic diversity that underlies ecosystem functioning, productivity, and adaptive capacity in a changing environment. APFORGEN brings relevant genetic knowledge from laboratories and specialists to forest managers, conservationists, restoration practitioners and policy-makers in an easily understandable form, helping them to manage the region' s tree diversity for environmental and socio-economic benefits.Through its network of geneticists, forestry professionals and funding partners in 15 Asian countries, APFORGEN shares knowledge and good practices, implements multi-country research and development projects, operates a Regional Training Centre and serves as a one-stop-centre on forest genetic resources (FGR) information and initiatives in the Asia-Pacific.1. Mobilize political and financial support for integrated management of forest genetic resources in land use, biodiversity and climate policies, strategies and programmes 2. Make information about the region' s forest and tree genetic resources available and accessible to support their sustainable management and research 3. Develop conservation and sustainable use strategies for regionally important and threatened tree   The broadening understanding of the fundamental role of genetic diversity is significant for the conservation and sustainable use of the tens of thousands of tree species found in Asia and the Pacific. More than a thousand tree species are reported to be used in the region for diverse purposes, including timber, food, fodder, medicine, energy, and other ecosystem services 3 . Yet, the region also has more threatened tree species than any other part of the world, numbering more than 1700. 3 The high prevalence of endemism in Asia and the Pacific makes native tree species extremely vulnerable to habitat degradation and climate-related risks. This, in turn, undermines their ability to provide food, other goods, and ecosystem services for the region' s 4.5 billion people and rapidly growing economies.Techniques for analyzing and using genetic diversity The Asia Pacific Forest Genetic Resources Programme   Unfortunately, even this basic knowledge of species is lacking for the majority of Asian tree species. For example, the proportion of data-deficient species and species for which conservation status has not been assessed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is 31% of all known species of the region 9 , the highest in the world. Since 2018, APFORGEN has developed upto-date distribution and threat maps for tens of socioeconomically species, but in the region of an estimated 19,000 tree and shrub species and high diversity between countries, the work has only started.Accumulating experiences from APFORGEN' s work underline the fundamental importance of data quality, comparability and information management, as well as the need to strengthen in-country capacities for data management, modeling and analysis to enable scaling of the work. The distribution ranges of many socio-economically important tree species span several countries, and collaboration on information management allows countries to benefit from synergies and good data management practices.This objective has the following targets:• Protocols and tools for documenting species' distributions, genetic diversity, and functional traits, including local and traditional knowledge• Distribution and threat maps for 100 priority tree species native to the Asia-Pacific region• Adoption of regional guidelines for establishing genetic conservation units and quality seed sources in member countries• Up-to-date regional information system on species distributions and genetic conservation units Species selection will focus on socio-economically important and threatened species and species with cross-border distributions which will particularly benefit from regional collaboration. The resulting guidelines and resources will help improve conservation, restoration and management strategies for species at risk (APFORGEN' s objectives 3 and 4).Countries will be able to adopt guidelines and protocols for species of their own interest, including locally important and endemic species. • Advocate for and support the integration of conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of forest and tree genetic resources into relevant processes and programmes, from local to national and regional levels.  policy dialogue will also be invaluable to enable continued regional collaboration on forest genetic resources, ensure its relevance to national and regional stakeholders, and grow its impacts.• Regularly monitor the progress in implementing this strategy regionally and within member countries and report about its progress to the Asia-PacificResources for Food and Agriculture, and other relevant international, regional and national bodies.APFORGEN cordially invites countries and institutions in the region, the private sector, and the international community to collaborate with the network and invest Population survey of remnant rosewood trees on farms, Lao PDR. Credit: FRC, NAFRI.","tokenCount":"748"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bddd511ca3e4cf2ba2f3147cd91dbf98","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77653cc8-9c16-4aed-a071-1fb89f8bae5a/retrieve","id":"-1614277675"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d93b763e-4b6f-4847-9792-a104d80fdfe2","pagecount":"1","content":"Outcomes § PRM regenerates rangelands and improves livestock productivity by strengthening the governance and management of communal rangelands. § PRM improves relationships between pastoralists, other land users and local government by enhancing the visibility of pastoralist land use, reducing conflicts and incentivizing investments into restoration. § The PRM process ensures women are included in community decision-making and granted equitable access to and control over rangeland resources. § Rangeland management plans encourage pro-active community action such as planned grazing, resting, and intensive restoration of degraded rangelands.Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM):• Builds capacities of communities to improve rangeland management, good governance and the technical and planning capacities of government to support them.• Guides communities to coordinate and implement management practices they already use.• Encourages communities to reflect on and improve management practices and make decision processes more equitable and gender inclusive.Our innovative approach• PRM was first piloted and then scaled over 1 million hectares in Ethiopia from 2014 onward. • Piloting of PRM in Tanzania (2017) and Kenya (2019) has now scaled over 1.7 million hectares. • Impact assessments found that PRM:• Improved local planning and governance;• Increased the roles of women in governance;• Helped communities improve rangeland condition (though greater investment in cost-effective restoration is needed).• We plan to scale PRM by adapting it in West Africa, initially in Mali and Senegal, and throughout the IGAD region in partnership with ICPALD.• We integrate PRM with livestock breeding, One Health, land use planning, and land rights registration. • Pastoralist areas often suffer from weak land tenure security, and growing pressures make it difficult to govern and manage these lands, at times leading to degradation.• Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) aims to reverse these trends, by facilitating strengthening of local governance and institutions, development of management plans, and government agreements where needed.• Over 2.7 million hectares in East Africa have had PRM implemented since 2010, and scalability appears strong.","tokenCount":"314"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd1948104842b0930cadca57afbcf103","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f5b7b4b1-56b8-42f1-8586-20055057c920/retrieve","id":"-773952945"},"keywords":["Padulosi","S. (Stefano)","editor. | King","E. D. I. Oliver (E. D. Israel Oliver)","editor. | Hunter","Danny","editor. | Swaminathan","M. S. (Monkombu Sambasivan)","editor Germplasm resources conservation. | Millets-Breeding-Case studies. | Agrobiodiversity. | Agrobiodiversity conservation. | Plant species diversity. | Plant diversity conservation. | Food security. | Sustainable agriculture. Classification: LCC SB175 .O77 2021 (print) | LCC SB175 (ebook) | CAB International. Ulian","T.","Diazgranados","M.","Pironon","S.","Padulosi","S.","Liu","U.","Davies","L.","Howes","M.-J.R.","Borrell","J.","Ondo","I.","Pérez-Escobar","O.A.","Sharrock","S.","Ryan","P.","Hunter","D.","Lee","M.A.","Barstow","C.","Łuczaj","Ł.","Pieroni","A.","Cámara-Leret","R.","Noorani","A.","Mba","C.","Womdim","R.N.","Muminjanov","H.","Antonelli","A.","Pritchard","H.W. and Mattana","E NUS for nutrition-sensitive agriculture 57 Cambridge University Press","Cambridge. Ulian","T.","Diazgranados","M.","Pironon","S.","Padulosi","S.","Liu","U.","Davies","L.","Howes","M.-J.R.","Borrell","J.","Ondo","I.","Pérez-Escobar","O.A.","Sharrock","S.","Ryan","P.","Hunter","D.","Lee","M.A.","Barstow","C.","Łuczaj","Ł.","Pieroni","A.","Cámara-Leret","R.","Noorani","A.","Mba","C.","Womdim","R.N.","Muminjanov","H.","Antonelli","A.","Pritchard","H.W. and M attana","E Willett","W.","Rockström","J.","Loken","B.","Springmann","M.","Lang","T.","Vermeulen","S.","Garnett","T.","Tilman","D.","DeClerck","F.","Wood","A.","et al"],"sieverID":"6e56c16e-32a7-4e95-869d-e306754fafee","pagecount":"471","content":"Orphan Crops for Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security discusses the issues, challenges, needs and opportunities related to the promotion of orphan crops, known also as neglected and underutilized species (NUS).The book is structured into six parts, covering the following themes: introduction to NUS, approaches, methods and tools for the use enhancement of NUS, integrated conservation and use of minor millets, nutritional and food security roles of minor millets, stakeholders and global champions, and, building an enabling environment. Presenting a number of case studies at the regional and country levels, the chapters cover different but highly interlinked aspects along the value chains, from acquisition and characterization of genetic diversity, cultivation and harvesting to value addition, marketing, consumption and policy for mainstreaming. Cross-cutting issues like gender, capacity building and empowerment of vulnerable groups are also addressed by authors. Representatives from communities, research for development agencies and the private sector also share their reflections on the needs for the use enhancement of NUS from their own perspectives. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food security, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and health and development, as well as practitioners and policymakers involved in building more resilient food and production systems.For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Issuesin-Agricultural-Biodiversity/book-series/ECIAB This series of books is published by Earthscan in association with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. The aim of the series is to review the current state of knowledge in topical issues associated with agricultural biodiversity, to identify gaps in our knowledge base, to synthesize lessons learned and to propose future research and development actions. The overall objective is to increase the sustainable use of biodiversity in improving people's well-being and food and nutrition security. The series' scope is all aspects of agricultural biodiversity, ranging from conservation biology of genetic resources through social sciences to policy and legal aspects. It also covers the fields of research, education, communication and coordination, information management and knowledge sharing.Today we are confronted with two major paradoxes globally -the persistence of hunger in the midst of an impressive technological capacity to grow more food; and the narrowing of crop diversity within global food systems in the face of a fast-growing world population. Both conditions call for urgent actions to ensure a world without hunger.Agriculture is the mother of nutrition security. It is believed that agriculture or settled cultivation began over 12,000 years ago with women growing crops of importance to life on earth. Yet, over time, the importance of genetic variability was not given adequate recognition, leading to an over-reliance on a few crops such as rice, wheat and maize. Not only has this resulted in a large number of plants becoming extinct, but it has also put the food and nutrition security of the poor and marginalized, dependent on a range of crop species, at risk. With a focus on the standardization of production systems, not only are species lost, but so are markets -national and international -as is research interest in improving the productivity of these crops. This is why planned initiatives for the conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce of genetic resources are important.Maintaining the genetic diversity of crops is even more critical in today's context of climate change. It is, in fact, the dynamic maintenance of agrobiodiversity operated by farmers in situ/on farm that could help make our food systems more resilient. Whereas the world can feel relatively comforted by the 1,450 gene banks that have been built to safeguard crop diversity -including the Svalbard Vault in Norway -much more needs to be done to map, collect, characterize, document and evaluate the thousands of orphan and underutilized crops, today just marginally conserved in gene banks, but whose survival is thanks to the laborious work of millions of farming communities around the world, a service done for the public good -but at their own personal cost! In that regard, the work pursued by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and other NGOsxxiv Preface and acknowledgments in building capacities of farmers in conserving local crop needs should be encouraged and supported.Given the scarcity of land, we must recognize that ensuring food security cannot be addressed by expanding land available for agricultural activities. We need to embrace a different paradigm that, while using less land, can provide more food from crops that are better adapted to climate change. At the same time, we need to do more to safeguard biodiversity so as to kee foodscapes healthy and productive; reduce the depletion of finite resources like water and soil; promote equitable, gender-inclusive food systems and foster greater synergy between scientific and indigenous knowledge. The role of women in feeding the planet needs to be better recognized and supported.One of the great achievements of science was the development of our ability to describe the genomic structure of major crop species and their wild relatives, which has provided a wealth of information useful for increasing both crop production and productivity. However, what we are witnessing now is that yields of major crops are reaching a plateau that may not be easy to overcome. More innovative solutions are needed to address the yield bottleneck. Leveraging agrobiodiversity to grow more and diverse nutritious food in difficult areas with poor soil and challenging climatic conditions should receive greater attention. This is not new to us, since risk-aversion practices have always guided generations of farmers who have been growing different crop and varietal mixes to buffer against shocks. Farming families have often been motivated by a desire to minimize risks, not just maximize profits; hence, the wisdom underlying the decisions to balance subsistence and market motivations needs to be recovered.In fact, significant progress in agronomic research and the adoption of systems approaches have shown the many benefits that biodiversity-based practices can bring about in challenging conditions, not just to the environment, but equally to ensuring the food and nutrition security of local communities. Crops considered 'orphan, underutilized and neglected' are all extremely valuable as not only are they often more nutritious than the major cereals, but also tend to need less water and are more tolerant of high temperatures and grow better in difficult climatic conditions.I have stressed, on various occasions, the disparities in access to technology that we are witnessing today. Despite the many exciting developments -be it in digital and precision agriculture, biotechnologies or ecotechnologies -we still register what I describe as a 'technological apartheid', which is contributing to 'orphan crops remaining orphans' in relation to the choice of research areas for their use enhancement. A good example is the case of technology for processing minor millets, which until recently was hardly accessible for rural households, discouraging the consumption of these nutritious foods where they are most needed.Back in 1968, I warned that if all locally adapted crop varieties were replaced with one or two high-yielding strains, it could lead to serious damage from pests, pathogens and weeds, contributing to the making of major agriculturalAgricultural biodiversity represents a strategic resource in ensuring food and nutrition security for humankind (Thrupp, 2000;Frison et al., 2006;Bioversity International, 2017). It keeps us healthy, as diets with poor biodiversity often lack crucial vitamins and micronutrients and are associated with diet-related non-communicable diseases (diabetes, heart attacks, overweight, obesity and cancer), which are a leading cause of death at the global level (Branca et al., 2019). Diversity on our plate is of paramount importance to everybody, and making sure this diversity is safeguarded and promoted should receive the utmost attention of decision makers, both at the national and the international level.The period of intense agricultural growth from the early 1960s to mid-1980s, known as the Green Revolution, 1 was characterized by an u nprecedented expansion in the production of staple crops through the development of high-yielding varieties (HYV). The Green Revolution contributed to a r eduction of poverty. An increase of approximately 15% in per capita GDP as a result of a 10% use increase of the HYV in the period 1960-2000 was observed, with an associated reduction of food insecurity for billions of people, and an estimated 18-27 million hectares of natural ecosystems safeguarded from being converted to agricultural land (Hazell, 2003;FAO, 2011;Pingali, 2012;Stevenson et al., 2013;Gollin et al., 2018). Among the key players of the Green Revolution were the international agricultural research centers of the CGIAR Consortium, responsible for the development of HYVs of major staples-mostly cereals-whose production more than doubled in developing nations between the years 1961and 1985(Tribe, 1994;;Conway, 1998). Unfortunately, this success came with a heavy cost to the environment (e.g., in the loss of wild and cultivated biodiversity, water scarcity, increased crop vulnerability to pests and diseases and loss of soil fertility), and caused a deterioration in human nutrition 1 NUS What they are and why we need them more than ever Stefano Padulosi, Gennifer Meldrum, E.D. Israel Oliver King and Danny Hunter (e.g., with essential amino acid deficiencies and a general lack of balanced essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals from cereal-dominated diets), as well as increased health hazards from the widespread use of pesticides. This period also brought about socio-political instabilities (e.g., rural-urban migration of farmers unable to afford introduced technologies, as well as social conflicts and marginalization) (Jennings, 1988;Fowler and Mooney, 1990;Pingali, 2012).The greater availability of calories resulting from the Green Revolution's efforts has not represented an escape from hunger for millions of people, as HYV have been scarcely adopted in Africa, for instance, and the narrow crop diversity has led to food systems simplification, reducing options for healthy diets (Mooney and Fowler, 1990;Vanhaute, 2011;Willett et al., 2019). Nearly one in three people globally are still afflicted by malnutrition-a situation predicted to worsen in coming years based on current trends (FAO et al., 2018;UNSCN, 2018).The diversity reductionist approach followed by the Green Revolution has influenced the way agricultural development strategies and programs have been developed in every country for decades. This approach continues to have an influence today at different levels; however, it is increasingly questioned and less accepted, with urgent calls for a global transformation of the food system growing (Schutter and Vanloueren, 2011).As we tackle the ambitious Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) of achieving 'zero hunger' by 2030, we are faced with the disturbing paradox that is hindering our efforts: of the 5,000 food crops estimated to exist worldwide, global food systems are dominated by just three (rice, wheat and maize), which provide half the world's plant-derived calories (FAO, 2015;Willis, 2017). An incredible wealth of nutritious crops, and other wild edible food plants, is largely overlooked in our battle to produce food and tackle malnutrition, and this is happening now when the need for diversification of production and food systems has never been greater. Crop uniformity and standardization of agricultural fields are causing food systems to be enormously vulnerable to climate change, reducing farmers' capacity to absorb shocks and leaving consumers with fewer choices for nutritious and healthy diets (Padulosi et al., 2019). Those thousands of nutritious plant species left behind by the Green Revolution, which we call 'neglected and underutilized species' (NUS), represent a unique treasure for humanity that must be recovered from their state of neglect and must be mobilized to fuel a truly evergreen agricultural revolution (Swaminathan, 1996(Swaminathan, , 2020)).Neglected and underutilized species have become a popular topic lately, both in public debates and scientific papers. Different terminologies (orphan, forgotten, lost, alternative, minor, novel, local, traditional, etc.) are interchangeably used to refer to these species, creating confusion among researchers and development practitioners. It is one of the aims of this book to dispel this confusion. NUS is a terminology subject to different interpretations, reflecting people's own cultural background and sensitivity, and we hope to put everybody on the same level of understanding through the following observations.In simple words, NUS are plant species that-although appreciated at local level-are forgotten, abandoned or rarely explored by researchers and other agriculture and food systems R&D actors, for various reasons (e.g., low economic competitiveness; lack of improved seed, adequate cultivation practices, or processing technologies and reduced consumer appeal). They include wild, semi or fully domesticated plants from different food plant groups (including cereals, vegetables, legumes, roots and tubers, fruits, nuts, spices, etc.), diverse growth forms (herbs, shrubs, vines, trees, etc.) and life cycles (annual, biennial, perennial) (Padulosi et al., 2018). Although this book focuses solely on food plants, we should point out that NUS as a concept may well refer to other species too (plants or animals), as exemplified by the growing interest in the use of insects as a source of sustainable and cheap proteins for food and feed (van Huis et al., 2013;Dickie et al., 2019).The reduced use of NUS over time has led to the loss of both their genetic diversity and a wealth of traditional practices and associated knowledge that was developed by generations of traditional farmers for managing sustainable harvests (if occurring wild), cultivation, processing and preparation. Also contributing to this marginalization is the widespread perception, registered particularly among younger consumers, that NUS are the legacy of backwardness and hardship of traditional rural societies, the food of the poor, and should therefore be abandoned (Durst and Nomindelger, 2014;Padulosi et al., 2019).The term 'neglected and underutilized species' was first conceived by IP-GRI (the predecessor of Bioversity) in the late 1990s (Eyzaguirre et al., 1999). The reason why this term was chosen relates to its usefulness in conveying two key messages upfront: firstly, the status of neglect by research and development efforts of these traditional resources; and secondly, the status of underuse in relation to the multiple benefits they can bring to improving nutrition and health, livelihoods, the environment and biodiversity conservation, if better harnessed by society. Furthermore, the use of the word 'species' instead of 'crops', was also preferred in reminding people that NUS do encompass both naturally occurring species that are harvested in the wild and domesticated species. Lastly, the word 'neglected' is useful for evoking in our narratives those millions of 'neglected' people (vulnerable groups, marginalized members of society), who rely on NUS for their livelihood and for whom the improvement of these resources, to which they are culturally connected, represents an opportunity of economic growth, empowerment and reaffirmation of identity.The term 'orphan crops', present also in the title of this book, is often used interchangeably with NUS, though the latter is broader in scope as it includes both wild and cultivated species that may not immediately convey the messages with the same intensity described in Box 1.1. For more reflections on the semantics of the term NUS, the reader can refer to Padulosi et al. (2004Padulosi et al. ( , 2008)).Description SourceNeglected \"Neglected crops are those grown primarily in their centres IPGRI, crops of origin by traditional farmers, where they are still 2002 important for the subsistence of local communities. Some species may be widely distributed around the world but tend to occupy special niches in the local ecology and in local production and consumption systems. While these crops continue to be maintained by sociocultural preferences and the ways they are used, they remain inadequately documented and neglected by formal research and conservation\". NUS \"Acronym standing for Neglected and Underutilized Padulosi et Species and applied to useful plant species which are al., 2013 marginalized, if not entirely ignored, by researchers, breeders and policy makers; they belong to a large, biodiverse group of thousands of domesticated, semidomesticated or wild species; they may be locally adapted minor crops as well as non-timber forest species. The 'NUS' term is a fluid one, as when a crop is simultaneously a well-established major crop in one country and a neglected minor crop in another. NUS tend to be managed with traditional systems, use informal seed sources and involve a strong gender element\". In a wider sense, the term NUS also could be used to refer to animal species. Orphan crops \"Orphan crops are defined as crops that have either Mabhaudhi originated in a geographic location or those that have et al., become 'indigenized' over many years (> 10 decades) 2019. of cultivation as well as natural and farmer selection (Dawson et al., 2007). The term 'orphan' has often been used to refer to crops that may have originated elsewhere, but have undergone extensive domestication locally, thus giving rise to local variations, i.e., 'naturalized/indigenized crops' (Mabhaudhi et al., 2017)\". Underutilized \"Underutilized crops were once grown more widely or IPGRI, crops intensively but are falling into disuse for a variety of 2002 agronomic, genetic, economic and cultural reasons. Farmers and consumers are using these crops less because they are in some way not competitive with other species in the same agricultural environment. The decline of these crops may erode the genetic base and prevent distinctive and valuable traits being used in crop adaptation and improvement\".Beyond the terminology used, the best way to describe NUS is to refer to their key characteristics, which can be helpful in identifying the common limitations behind their marginalization as well as the multiple useful traits that can be leveraged for their promotion. Box 1.2 provides a list of these recurrent features that we have been documenting around the world, during our work focusing on the use enhancement of NUS. In fact, such a list of features could be well considered a 'terms of reference' for a shared comprehension of NUS by workers.Referring to these key features of NUS is useful in making a clear distinction between NUS and landraces of major crops (e.g., local varieties of wheat, rice or beans), whose status of neglect and underuse is also recorded in many countries. Our position is that these varieties should not be considered NUS, because their status can be improved by leveraging the vast network of research focusing on major crops that already exists in most countries. The growing interest on NUS by the research community and development practitioners (and hopefully accompanied by much needed funding!) should, therefore, strategically be used to tackle the promotion of NUS 'sensu stricto' instead of being used for underutilized v arieties of major crops for which the R&D infrastructure already exists.• Low competitiveness: little R&D investment has left NUS behind in terms of advances in their conservation, cultivation, harvest, postharvest, marketability, nutritional profiles, gender, policies and legal frameworks.Relevant only to local consumption and production systems: being intimately linked to local food cultures, NUS are used in traditional food preparations and are associated with social and religious ceremonies and rituals.Adapted to agroecological niches and marginal areas: NUS often demonstrate comparative advantages over commercial crops due to natural selection or selection carried out by local growers against biotic and abiotic stresses, which makes them perform comparatively better under low input and biological agriculture techniques.Resilient to climate change: compared with commodity crops, NUS are perceived by local growers as highly adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses related to climate change, something that is being increasingly confirmed by scientific research.Represented by ecotypes or landraces: owing to the poor attention received from breeders, they are often represented by germplasm material that is not performing so well, requiring some degree of genetic i mprovement-a fact that hinders their competitiveness in production systems.With regard to how many NUS exist at the global level, we can safely say that taking into account both wild and cultivated species, the number is in the order of thousands (Padulosi et al., 2018). In fact, most of the estimated 5,000 cultivated food crops recently recorded as existing (RBG Kew, 2016;Ulian et al., 2020) are in some state of marginalization. For instance, in the case of cultivated vegetables, within the family Leguminosae, there are an estimated 23,000 species (Plant List, 2020), of which some 653 have been cultivated (Khoshbakht and Hammer, 2008). Taking as an example the 127 species of cultivated vegetables belonging to this family, the majority have been found to be neglected, based on three key indicators viz. (a) number of records in Google Scholar as indicator of research effort devoted to the species, (b) number of accessions maintained in ex situ germplasm collections worldwide and (c) production data from the FAO's FAOSTAT, an indicator of knowledge on species distribution and production levels (Meldrum et al., 2018). Similarly, in the family Compositae the numbers are as follows: of its 27,000 species, 284 are cultivated plants, of which 85 vegetables are also largely neglected.Further complications in a shared understanding of NUS may arise also from the fact that some species that are clearly underutilized in one country are, on the • Rich in traditional knowledge: in view of the ongoing cultural erosion affecting traditional societies, associated knowledge on NUS is being rapidly lost, which, in turn, leads to the loss of genetic diversity and continued opportunities for appreciation by consumers, especially the younger generation.Poorly represented in ex situ gene banks: their genetic diversity is maintained largely in situ and on-farm and (possibly) in private seed collections (e.g., the one maintained by the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Company 2 ) or community seed banks (such as those maintained by MSSRF in south India 3 ).Characterized by poorly developed or non-existent seed supply systems: inferior quality of seed that has a negative impact on their performance in cultivation.Highly relevant in Indigenous Peoples' societies: for Indigenous communities, NUS are the result of sophisticated trials and accumulation of experience over many centuries and generations: they are a manifestation of a systematic process that involved intricate ways of learning and accumulating experience (Padulosi et al., 2019).Multi-functionality and multiple benefits: they are often able to provide people with not just nutritious food, but also valuable non-food products and ecosystem services. Excellent examples of such multi -functionality can be found in Bambara groundnut, chaya or minor millets that are presented in the chapters in this book.NUS: what they are and why we need them 9 contrary, very popular in another. This is the case for the cereal tef, (Eragrostis tef ), a staple food in Ethiopia, that is hardly consumed outside the country, except in small amounts primarily by the Ethiopian diaspora. The opposite case is that of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), which was an underutilized crop until a few years ago, when it started to spread from the Andean region across all continents to become a global commodity (Bazile et al., 2016). The spicy rocket (collective name for Eruca sativa and Diplotaxis spp. originating from the Mediterranean/Central Asia) was another typical underutilized vegetable until the early 1990s (Padulosi et al., 2008); yet, today it is being cultivated on all continents, with 400,000 tons/ year produced in a small area near Salerno (\"Piana del Sele\") in south Italy alone, representing 73% of the entire Italian production (Pignataro, 2019).The status of NUS nowadays changes rapidly (for better or for worse) and it becomes hard to keep track of these changes in a consistent manner. What we see today, is very often a 'mosaic' situation, with a crop being popular in one country (or region) and highly marginalized in others. Such a scenario poses great challenges to workers engaged in setting priorities for choosing the 'best' NUS to support agricultural development programs. In our opinion, more than a silver bullet, what the world really needs today are portfolios of 'silver baskets' of NUS diversity to meet the various needs of consumers from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds across regions and countries. The reader may find more on priority-setting approaches for NUS in Chapters 2, 9, 13 of this volume, and in the wider scientific literature (Padulosi, 1999a,b;Hunter et al., 2019Hunter et al., , 2020;;Ulian et al., 2020, and references therein).The chapters in Part I provide several examples of benefits associated with the use enhancement of emblematic NUS from India and other regions of the world. An overview of livelihood benefits arising from the use enhancement of NUS can be also found in the works of Ravi et al. (2010), Padulosi et al. (2011Padulosi et al. ( , 2013)), Massawe et al. (2015), Mabhaudhi et al. (2019) and Raneri et al. (2019).In Table 1.1, we have summarized the wide range of the benefits associated with NUS and compare these to similar ones that can be obtained from commodity crops. As can be appreciated, benefits from the wider cultivation and use of NUS far outweigh those associated with commodity crops. Research investment is urgently needed to translate these potential benefits into concrete realities by providing high-quality seed, refined cultivation practices, more efficient processing technologies, marketing that is more efficient, etc. It is worth stressing-as mentioned by Professor Swaminathan in his foreword to this book-that our societies are well equipped to address the bottlenecks hindering the use of NUS; what is most needed is the political will to leverage the enormous technology and expertise accumulated from working on commodity crops, to benefit of the NUS cause (see also Chapters 3, 13 and 17 for more on mainstreaming needs and opportunities). Consistent with this long list of benefits is that NUS can be powerful levers in support of important activities framed in the context of International Treaties and Agreements, such as those of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (for example SDGs 2, 7, 12, 13, 15 and 17, the Aichi Biodiversity Target 13, 5 Activity 11 [and others as well] of the FAO Second Global Plan of Action on PGRFA, 6 the IFAD Action Plans on Mainstreaming Nutrition 7 2019-2025, the IFAD R ural Youth Action Plan 2019-2021 8 and IFAD Strategy and Action Plan on Environment and Climate Change 2019-2025 9 ). Interesting to note is that in 2014, at the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), member states acknowledged the key role played by diversified and sustainable diets, including traditional foods such as NUS, in reducing malnutrition 10 (see the UNSCN's commentary provided in Chapter 31).With regard to climate change, one of the most interesting examples of the drought-escaping capacity of NUS in stress-avoiding strategies comes from minor millets and in particular from barnyard millet (Echinochloa colona), whose grains can reach maturity just 45 days after sowing (Hulse et al., 1980), and hence represent ideal crops in areas with very short rainy seasons. Minor millets can produce a reasonable harvest with only about 10% of the water required to grow rice, which makes them an ideal (and cheap) alternative source of carbohydrates and other important micronutrients for areas like South Asia, which are suffering from climate change and where the cultivation of rice is increasingly challenged (Padulosi et al., 2009). Similarly, the highly nutritious tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius)-which completes its reproductive cycle rapidly and thus avoids subsequent drought (Nabhan, 1990)-is able to produce mature beans in just 60 days (Wolf, 2018). This legume is a precious source of protein, especially in Central America, where the crop used to be popular in the past and where it could help counteract the decline in common bean production as a result of recurrent droughts (Bioversity International, 2018). Cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule), a close relative of quinoa, is a very nutritious and hardy crop but its fate has been very different from that of the popularity of quinoa. In fact, cañahua is capable of withstanding cold stresses, a trait not present in quinoa and one that makes it much desired by local farmers who are experiencing more frequent morning frosts around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. Unfortunately, the abandonment of this crop by farmers, who replaced it with the more remunerative quinoa, has led to the disappearance of its germplasm, making its re-introduction to farming communities hard to realize (Bioversity International, 2017).Supporting evidence also exists in the literature for the risk-avoidance practices adopted by small-scale farmers in areas where the crop diversity of NUS is particularly high (Altieri, 1987;Holt-Gimenez, 2006). An example of mixed production systems in which farmers can harness the multiple and complementary benefits (agronomic, economic, social) from NUS to mitigate harvest failures due to climate change (Mijatovic et al., 2019) is that of the 'baranaja' mixed cropping system. This farming practice, used in the Garhwal region of the state of Uttarakhand in India, involves sowing 12 or more crops on the same plot, including various types of beans, grains and millets, and harvesting them at different times (Ghosh and Dhyani, 2004). Several of these crops are NUS and such practices help farmers make the best use of limited land, save on the cost of chemical fertilizers through the N-fixing capacity of some species and make use of enhancing soil capacities and different maturity times of crops to help secure a regular and nutritious supply of foods to households.Other NUS that are often mentioned in the literature for their drought tolerance/adaptation include the baobab (Adansonia digitata), pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan), jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius), chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius), fonio (Digitaria exilis), moringa (Moringa oleifera), tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), jujube (Ziziphus mauritania), strawberry tree (Arbutus spp.), marula (Sclerocarya birrea), amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) (Padulosi et al., 2011).From a nutritional point of view, it is very important to highlight that NUS have similar or sometimes remarkably higher nutritional profiles than those found in commodity crops (Hunter et al., 2019). Considering that the 51 essential nutrients needed for sustaining human life (Graham et al., 2007) cannot be found easily in the few staple crops feeding the world today, we can make a strong case for the theory that the vast NUS portfolio that fortunately still exists at local level is a strategic source of vital nutrients in the fight against malnutrition (Raneri et al., 2019). The diversity of NUS can be a source of essential nutrients year round and, at the same time, can make peoples' meals more delicious, tastier and more enjoyable. More NUS diversity on the plate helps people of different age groups better meet their own nutritional needs, and can allow the fulfillment of individual health requirements and food preferences. Interestingly, 10 of the 17 essential micronutrients and 13 (out of 13) vitamins can be found in fruits and vegetables, a category of crops represented by thousands of species that are today largely underutilized.Furthermore, whereas affluent people nowadays have the privilege of accessing food originating from all parts of the world on supermarket shelves at any time of the year, for the majority of the world's population such a privilege is largely denied. It is a fact that for most people living in vulnerable areas of sub-Saharan Africa or Asia, food security is largely dependent on crops grown locally. Due to the shrinking of the food basket that these areas are seeing, local populations are more vulnerable to the so-called lean season, the period preceding the harvest of main staples during which households have often exhausted their household food reserves. In this regard, our research in Mali, India and Guatemala has discovered that several local NUS (wild and cultivated) that are currently scarcely used due to low awareness of their nutritional values, lack of seed or other constraints can be revitalized and become helpful allies in fighting food insecurity during the lean season (Lochetti et al., 2020). More on the seasonal calendars developed to guide local populations in managing this untapped diversity is provided in Chapter 14, whereas a more extensive articulation of NUS and nutrition-sensitive agriculture is provided in Chapter 3.As stressed previously, the promotion of NUS can be leveraged to support the empowerment of local communities, because it is in those areas-inhabited especially by Indigenous Peoples-that a great diversity of NUS is found. Agricultural systems in Indigenous Peoples' territories have not been subjected to intensive cultivation practices and local communities living there have been safeguarding a great amount of diversity compared to other societies (IFAD, 2019;Singh and Rana, 2020). The intimate link between NUS and local communities, whose own identity is quite dependent on these foods, offers an opportunity for the revitalization of the gastronomic culture through, for instance, agritourism approaches as practiced in depressed areas of Lake Titicaca by Bioversity and its partners in the mid-2000s (Taranto and Padulosi, 2009).As noted in previous publications (Eyzaguirre et al., 1999;Padulosi et al., 2013;Hunter et al., 2019;Borelli et al., 2020;Hunter et al., 2020), NUS are often called 'minor' crops in view of the fact that their production volume is much lower compared to that of 'major' crops (commodities or staples). In terms of their multiple livelihood and other benefits, NUS are not minor at all and, hence, call for more robust and consistent actions by decision makers for their recognition and promotion.Tapping the portfolio of an estimated 653 leguminous NUS (Khoshbakht and Hammer, 2008) to provide proteins to a hungry world in ways that are more sustainable to the environment, using less water and fewer chemical fertilizers as compared to livestock farms, is, for example, an important contribution to safeguarding our planet and is consistent with the objective of the so-called 'sustainable intensification' of agriculture that is advocated by many (Cassman and Grassini, 2020).Dramatic climate change scenarios predicted in the not-too-distant future warn that a rise in the sea level is expected to submerge many coastal areas around the world, and most affected would be the small islands of the Pacific and other such low-lying regions (Nurse et al., 2014). The NUS basket can certainly be of great help to those areas, for providing plants adapted to cope with increasing levels of salinity and water logging associated with such changes; thus, this approach deserves the urgent attention of governments, researchers and other stakeholders.The intense urbanization all over the world is also leading to greater demand for more nutritious food, which-by encouraging the practice of growing locally and leveraging the diversity of well-adapted (smart') NUS-could help mitigate the impact that increased food production would have on the environment. The potential of tapping this diversity to provide fresh, healthy, safe and tasty food to millions of people living in large cities through vertical farming is also another opportunity worth seizing.The dramatic COVID-19 pandemic that the world has been experiencing lately is also reminding us of the need to strengthen localized sourcing of food in order to help communities cope with shocks of this nature. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-3Looking back at the last 50 years, we can comfortably say that both public and private institutions have been slow in recognizing, appreciating, and supporting research on neglected and underutilized species (NUS). Many are the reasons behind such a tepid position regarding the promotion of these species, but above all stands the strong influence exerted by the Green Revolution's legacy in setting research priorities in agriculture at both the national and international levels. The focus on a few staple crops to feed the world has been inhibiting the development of research for non-commodity/non-staple crops around the world. Notoriously, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the largest organization engaged in agricultural research spends almost its entire budget on a few strategic staple crops, viz. lentils, cowpeas, groundnuts, m illets, wheat, coconuts, maize, pigeon peas, potatoes, rice, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and yams. 1 Most of these crops have been receiving dedicated funding since the early 1960s, whereas very limited resources have been directed towards developing NUS. Low attention to NUS is also registered among National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) as reported in national country reports dedicated to the conservation and use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) (FAO, 1996(FAO, , 2011)). Although a number of global institutions and NARS have been playing over the years a commendable role in support of NUS in terms of implementing supportive policies, programs and projects for their sustainable conservation and use, we would like to emphasize that it is I ndigenous Peoples and other ethnic groups who have been so far the true custodians of these local resources and the promoters of their continued traditional use (Padulosi et al., 2019).Stefano Padulosi andDanny Hunter 20 Stefano Padulosi andDanny Hunter Period: 1970-1980 This period is characterized by a predominant R&D focus on major commodities (staple crops and industrial crops). Though the work of agricultural research institutes (including the CGIAR) have yielded important impacts in terms of hunger and poverty reduction, it is also causing the marginalization of hundreds of nutritious crops (especially minor cereals, pulses, vegetables, and fruits) that are no longer competitive with the high yielding varieties massively promoted by governments. Deployment of a broader basket of species to mitigate the impact of crop failures and, hence, to fight periodic food insecurity is far from becoming a key issue of this decade. A milestone in the advocacy for opening the door to research on NUS is the USA National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) document drawing attention to underutilized species (NAS 1975); the paper was the outcome of a NAS-commissioned \"extensive survey of underexploited tropical plants\" as possible crops for the future. Among the 36 species addressed by this report, the winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) was particularly recommended to the research community for further attention due to its \"exceptional merits\".This is when attention on NUS starts building up. This is due to increased recognition of the importance that crops' wild relatives gained within the CGIAR as well as within FAO (Hunter and Heywood, 2011). An example of this is the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), which started a programme supported by the Italian government in 1990 to survey and collect wild Vigna species (Padulosi et al., 1991). A similar programme supported by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation GTZ (today GIZ) was also launched at IITA to survey, collect and study Bambara groundnuts (Vigna subterranea) in Africa (Begemann, 1988). In 1987, the International Conference on \"New Crops for Food and Industry\" was held at the University of Southampton and as a result of one of its recommendations, the International Center for Underutilized Crops (ICUC) was established the following year. In 1988, the University of Purdue (USA) organized the first of a series of International Symposia on New Crops, mainly looking for alternatives to major crops, targeting US farmers ( Janick and Simon, 1990).Also relevant is the CSC/ICAR Delhi International Workshop, held in 1987, on the maintenance and evaluation of life-support species in Asia and the Pa cific region (Paroda, 1988). The publication in 1989 of Lost Crops of the Incas (NRC, 1989) was the first of several books from a highly prestigious source that focuses on NUS in Latin America (subsequent volumes of the book would be dedicated to NUS in Africa, viz. NRC, 1996, 2006, 2008). India recognized the importance of underutilized species as a means to attain sustainable agricultural production, improve the nutritional value of food for large sections of the population and reduce the country's dependence on food imports. Thus, in 1982, the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Underutilized Plants was launched, focusing on a list of priority species (Tyagi et al., 2017). International collaboration on underutilized species was also promoted through newly funded biodiversity projects such as that of the Department for International Development (DFID), meant to support ICUC research (focusing on underutilized tropical fruit trees 2 ). Another important publication is New Crops for Food and Industry (Wickens et al., 1989).The drawbacks of the Green Revolution were beginning to be acknowledged in literature at this time as well (Smale, 1997). The concept of sustainable agriculture made its first appearance in scientific papers (Dimitri and Richman, 2000), as did innovative approaches based on the deployment of greater diversity in farmers' fields using species thus far considered underutilized (see f.e. the case of alley-cropping introduced in sub-Saharan Africa by IITA, revolving around the use of leguminous crops such as Leucaena spp. to maintain or restore fertility in farmers' fields [FAO, 1995]).In 1992, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) stressed the concept of sustainability, 3 rooted in agricultural and cultural diversity supportive of nutritional needs, incomes and greater protection from biotic and abiotic stresses. It also drew attention to the significant contribution of Indigenous Peoples to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity (Article 8J). It is important also to recall the establishment of the Work on Agricultural Biodiversity proposed by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which decided to establish a multiyear programme of work on agricultural biological diversity (Decision III/11), 4 aimed -inter alia -aimed at \"promoting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of actual and potential value for food and agriculture\" (Box 2.1).The CBD had a tremendous impact in raising the awareness in people at the highest levels of the value of biodiversity, including underutilized species: it helped introduce new values such as the environmental services provided by biodiversity, which would have a profound impact in the years to come in influencing countries' strategies in agricultural activities, to make them more conducive than in the past to safeguarding less commercialized crops and species.In 1992, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVR DC -The World Vegetable Center), launched a number of projects focusing specifically on traditional African vegetables (Dinssa et al., 2016). The CGIAR revised its mission statement, limiting it no more to food security, but broadened it by including poverty reduction and protection of the environment; opportunities to work on species not necessarily used in food production were highlighted. An IDRC (International Development Research Centre)-supported study recommended IPGRI's greater involvement in medicinal plants in view of the fact that many of these species were underutilized and neglected by R&D despite their high-income generation potential (Leaman et al., 1999).The decade was marked by a remarkable increase in support from Overseas Development Agencies (ODA) for NUS. Italy, the IDRC, the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission, the Netherlands and other donors joined Germany and the UK in financing ad hoc projects and networks dealing with NUS (e.g., MEDUSA [\"Network on the Identification, Conservation and Use of Wild Plants in the Mediterranean Region\"],BAMNET [International Bambara Groundnut Network], UTFANET [Underutilized Tropical Fruit in Asia Network], SEANUC [Southern and East Africa Network on Underutilized Crops], PROSEA) [Plant Resources of South East Asia] ( Williams and Haq, 2000).In 1994, IPGRI launched \"The Underutilized Mediterranean Species\"(UMS) project, which established four NUS-focused networks, guided by the outcome of a Mediterranean-wide survey of 400 researchers and aimed at advancing knowledge on challenges, needs and opportunities in the promotion of NUS as well as promoting close cooperation for NUS use enhancement across regional research institutions (Padulosi et al., 1994;Padulosi, 1998).Nevertheless, funding still remained limited against the background of large R&D gaps to fill. Therefore, international cooperation was advocated in several meetings as the only way to achieve a visible impact in this domain.The four key elements of the CBD programme of work on agricultural biodiversity:1 Assessments: to provide an overview of the status and trends of the world's agricultural biodiversity, their underlying causes and knowledge of management practices 2 Adaptive Management: to identify adaptive management practices, technologies and policies that promote the positive effects and mitigate the negative impacts of agriculture on biodiversity, and enhance productivity and the capacity to sustain livelihoods, by expanding knowledge, understanding and awareness of the multiple goods and services provided by the different levels and functions of agricultural biodiversity 3 Capacity Building: to strengthen the capacities of farmers, Indigenous and local communities, and their organizations and other stakeholders, to manage agricultural biodiversity sustainably so as to increase their benefits, and to promote awareness and responsible action 4 Mainstreaming: to support the development of national plans and strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity and to promote their mainstreaming and integration in both sectoral and cross-sectoral plans and programmes.Other Symposia on New Crops were organized by the University of Purdue ( Janick and Simon, 1993;Janick 1996;Janick, 1999;Janick and Whipkey, 2002); such meetings provided an important platform to the scientific community for sharing experiences and lessons directly related to NUS and their development of new crops.The FAO process of the International Conference and Program for Plant Genetic Resources, leading to the 1996 Leipzig FAO IV Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA), raised the visibility of NUS at the UN level. Preparatory national and regional meetings to the conference (especially the European meeting held in Nitra, Slovakia on 15 October 1995) contributed through country-driven, bottom-up approaches to the development of the Global Plan of Action (GPA) for PGRFA (FAO, 1996). The GPA, listing 20 activities across an array of themes from conservation to the sustainable use of PGRFA, provided unprecedented visibility to NUS, while an activity specifically dedicated to them (Activity 12: cfr. \"Promoting development and commercialization of underutilized crops and species\" 5 ) was also included.In 1994, IPGRI launched a series of projects focusing on African leafy vegetables that would end in 2004; these efforts were an important contribution to improving the methodological approach in NUS promotion especially in Kenya, contributing to changing \"the food of the poor\" stigma so often associated with these crops and helping draw policymakers' attention to their use enhancement (Gotor and Irungu, 2010).The 1996, the FAO State of the World Report outlined a worrying situation with regard to the conservation of NUS: less than 22% of the estimated six million germplasm samples held in gene banks around the world were noncommodity crops, and of this portfolio (inclusive of NUS), species were scarcely represented in terms of intra-specific diversity. More than 80% of these, on average, were made up of less than ten accessions (Padulosi et al., 2002).In 1998, in the framework of Italy's campaign in support of the development of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, a panel of experts gathered in Florence, Italy to discuss the development of an alternative list of species to Annex I of the International Treaty. At this meeting, specific discussions were held on the possibility of including NUS in the treaty (Padulosi, 2000). It is interesting to note that Annex I of the approved treaty contains today a total of 80 genera, of which only 15 include some underutilized species. The discussion on the inclusion of NUS in Annex I was re-opened in 2013, but the debate is still ongoing today.Also, an important endorsement of the value of NUS (particularly fruit trees, vegetables and medicinal and aromatic plants) was recorded at the World Conference on Horticultural Research held in Rome in 1998 (Morico et al., 1999).In 1999, the IFAD-supported workshop organized in Chennai, India, by the CGIAR PGR Policy Committee, chaired by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, covered NUS specifically (GRPC, 1999). The meeting yielded large support from attending CGIAR centres and donor representatives. It is interesting to note that this meeting represented the first time ever that the CGIAR discussed NUS in a formal way. Important publications focusing in large part on Asia and the Pacific were also published (Bhag Mal 1994;de Groot and Haq, 1995;Smartt and Haq, 1997).How underutilized species also play an important role in enriching the landscape and local cultures was covered at an international workshop focusing on the Mediterranean region, organized by the Italian National Research Council in Naples, Italy in 1997 (Padulosi, 1997).The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) discussed NUS at a meeting in Dresden, Germany (GFAR, 2001). As a follow-up to that meeting, a small group comprising IPGRI, ICUC, IFAD and the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) recommended the establishment of a Global Facilitating Unit (GFU), to pursue the goal of drawing attention to the potential contribution hitherto underutilized species could make to food security and livelihood of marginalized and poor communities so that an increasing number of research institutions, extension services, policy makers and donors include the development of underutilized species in their programmes and plans. 6   The unit was established in 2002 and was housed at IPGRI in Rome. The GFU was a major effort that aimed at increasing the contribution of underutilized species to food security and poverty alleviation of the rural and urban poor through facilitating access to information on underutilized species, performing policy analysis and providing advice to policymakers on how to create an enabling policy environment for underutilized species and enhancing public awareness on these species. 7  In addition, Germany also funded a GTZ multi-regional project \"People and Biodiversity in Rural Areas\" that supported national partners in improving existing value-chains of underutilized crops and breeds, and that analyzed the economic potential of other underutilized species and breeds in selected regions. Several publications on the topic were published and workshops organized, such as the excellent publication by GTZ on Promising and underutilized crops and breeds (Thies, 2000).In 2003, the PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) Network was launched to provide access to information on 7,000 tropical African plants, most of them little known or underutilized (Schmelzer and Omino, 2003).AVRDC launched its strategy for 2001-2010, one objective of which was to increase the diversity of indigenous and underutilized vegetables for better nutrition, health and income (AVRDC, 2001).The first global project on NUS (Grant 533) was also implemented from 2001 to 2005 by IPGRI, thanks to the support of IFAD (focusing on Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Yemen, Egypt, Nepal and India). This project would provide a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis that NUS are strategic crops in supporting poverty reduction and the empowerment of the poor. The results of the first phase of the project showed extremely encouraging results in the areas of income generation and empowerment of local communities, particularly in India and Latin America (Padulosi et al., 2003). Follow-up phases of this first UN-funded programme on NUS would be implemented until 2020. 8  IPGRI published its strategy on NUS (Eyzaguirre et al., 1999), recommending interventions in eight main strategic areas, namely, (1) gathering and sharing information, (2) priority setting, (3) promoting production and use, (4) maintaining diversity, (5) marketing, (6) strengthening partnerships and capacities, (7) developing effective policies and (8) improving public awareness, which would then be translated into five languages (IPGRI, 2002). Interesting to point out that this is the first time the acronym \"NUS\" was used to refer to neglected and underutilized species (wild and cultivated) (see also Chapter 1). A joint ICUC-IPGRI analysis of the status of underutilized species was also published in 2002 (Williams and Haq, 2000).A BMZ-funded workshop on underutilized species was organized by GFU, GTZ and InWEnt in Leipzig, Germany (Gundel et al., 2003) during which the need for mainstreaming NUS in the R&D agenda was stressed as necessary action to successfully exploit the potential of these species.An issue of the LEISA magazine entirely dedicated to underutilized species was published in 2004 (LEISA, 2004), earning a largely positive consensus among stakeholders (see Padulosi and Hoeschle-Zeledon, 2004).At the 7th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in 2004, a relevant pro-NUS recommendation of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) was endorsed. This recommendation suggested activities that contributed to improved food security and human nutrition through the enhanced use of crop and livestock diversity, and the conservation and sustainable use of NUS. The SBSTTA underlined that the identification of constraints and success factors in marketing underutilized species is a key aspect for their promotion and that capacity building at different levels was highly needed.For the first time, in 2004, a major donor (EU) made a specific call within its 6 th Framework for \" [r]esearch to increase the sustainable use and productivity of annual and perennial under-utilized tropical and sub-tropical crops and species important for the livelihoods of local populations\". The EU recognized that these crops have potential for wider use and could significantly contribute to food security, agricultural diversification and income generation.In 2005, the International Horticultural Assessment commissioned by US-AID was published. This work (which engaged 750 participants, 60 countries and three regional workshops, and which involved a major survey) was a strong endorsement of the value of underutilized crops to revitalizing an agricultural sector in crisis. More than a third of promising horticultural species were underutilized according to the report: of the 226 listed fruits, vegetable crops, herbs, spices and ornamentals, 79 belonged to the NUS category. Excerpts of the report related to horticulture in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America were also supportive of underutilized species. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, the report stressed that despite diverse biophysical constraints such as droughts and low soil fertility, the region called for expanded cultivations of its underutilized and indigenous crops adapted to harsh conditions (such as the leafy vegetables Cleome gynandra, Solanum aethiopicum, Solanum macrocarpon, Moringa oleifera and Hibiscus sabdariffa and fruits like Ziziphus mauritania). In Latin America and the Caribbean, underutilized fruit trees represented opportunities to generate new markets. One recommendation suggested compiling regional knowledge about the cultivation and traditional uses of these species at a regional and national level.In 2005, at the end of a broadly participative process, the CGIAR published its research priorities for the period 2005-2015. 9 In this document, NUS were given high visibility under System Priorities 1b (\"Promotion, conservation and characterization of underutilized plant genetic resources to increase the income of the poor\") and 3a (\"Increasing income from fruit and vegetables\" in consideration that many of the latter are considered underutilized species). In addition, underutilized species were also considered indirectly through Priorities 3d (\"Sustainable income generation from forests and trees\") and 4d (\"Sustainable agro-ecological intensification in low-and high-potential environments\"). The emergence of niche and high-value markets for underutilized crops in developed countries provides a potential pathway out of poverty for farmers in developing countries, hence, underutilized plant genetic resources (UPGR) were relevant also to Priority 5b (\"Making international and domestic and domestic markets work for the poor\").In April 2005, 100 R&D experts and policy makers with varied backgrounds from 25 countries took part in a consultation at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, India. This meeting represented a major milestone in support of agricultural biodiversity, including NUS. The consultation, jointly organized by IPGRI, GFU and The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), was called to discuss how biodiversity could help the world achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals -in particular, the goal of freedom from hunger and poverty. The \"Chennai Platform for Action\" that resulted from this consultation, in its ten recommendations, emphasized the importance of underutilized species and called upon policymakers to promote specific interventions in support of these species. 10  During this period, increased visibility on underutilized species was provided by dedicated websites developed by both international and national agencies.In 2006, a ICUC-IPGRI-GFU electronic consultation to design a strategic framework for R&D on underutilized species was carried out; this was followed by two regional strategy workshops held in Colombo, Sri Lanka , and Nairobi,   ( Jaenicke and Höschle-Zeledon, 2006).An International Conference on Indigenous Vegetables was held in Hyderabad, India, on December 2006 (Chadha andLumpkin 2007). The International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) launched a Working Group on Underutilized Species within its Commission on Plant Genetic Resources, which was jointly chaired by GFU and ICUC. In 2004, the ACP-EU project on NUS value-chains for Africa was launched (Rudebjer, 2014).In 2009, a new organization, Crops For the Future (CFF) was established through the merger of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops (ICUC) in Sri Lanka and the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU) in Rome (Gregory et al., 2019). Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the m ission of this new agency consisted of four major objectives, viz. (1) increase the knowledge-base for neglected crops, (2) advocate policies that do not discriminate against crop diversity; (3) increase awareness of the relevance of neglected crops for rural livelihoods and (4) strengthen capacities in relevant sectors. In 2001, the CFF Research Centre was created in Malaysia to provide research support to the global CFF organization. 11  In 2010, the FAO Second State of the World Report on PGRFA (FAO 2010) reported on still poor conservation statuses for NUS, calling for urgent actions to be taken to safeguard these resources, important allies in the fight against food insecurity around the world. In 2011, the second ISHS International Symposium on \"Underutilized Plants: Crops for the Future, Beyond Food Security\" was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ( Jaenicke, 2013).On December 2012, an international conference on the \"Lost Crops of XXI Century\" was held in Cordoba, Spain (Padulosi et al., 2013). The conference, attended by the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, the Director General of FAO, the Director General of Bioversity and the Chairman of the Slow Food Movement, was held to debate how to fight hunger and rural poverty through the greater deployment of NUS (called here \"promising crops\"). 12 The conference also celebrated the launch of the 2013 UN International Year of Quinoa. An important collective document, the Cordoba Declaration 13 was released by the participants, and called for a number of important actions in support of the use enhancement of NUS, viz:• Raising awareness of these crops and their strategic roles • Conserving genetic and cultural diversity • Promoting their use in small-scale family farming to improve rural livelihoods • Developing value-chains from production-to-consumption and to gastronomy • Changing incorrect perceptions and developing an evidence base • Enhancing research and capacities for promotion • Building inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration • Creating a conducive policy environment • Establishing an ombudsman to represent the rights of future generations in national and international decision-making Among these, the last was a particularly innovative idea, and helped underscore the fact that the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and other relevant natural resources are relevant both to present and future generations. A highly strategic policy recommendation also proposed in the document was the launching of a new international dialogue on PGRFA to explore ways in which the International Treaty on PGRFA (IT-PGRFA) could further support the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of NUS.The following year, a major pan-African conference on NUS was organized by Bioversity in Accra, Ghana, through the support of the European Union (ACP-EU project) and the IFAD-NUS Project. The \"Accra Statement for a food-secure Africa\" that emerged from the conference set out nine action points to promote greater use of NUS (Bioversity International 2014), viz:1 Include NUS in national and international strategies and frameworks that address global issues 2 Establish a list of priority NUS on which to focus R&D 3 Support research on NUS and their agronomic, environmental, nutritional and socioeconomic contributions to resilient production systems 4 Support the development of value-chains and small agri-businesses for NUS 5 Strengthen collaboration and information-sharing between researchers, extension specialists, the private sector, farmers and their organizations 6 Promote the cultivation of NUS through campaigns to raise awareness of the commercial opportunities they offer and their agronomic and nutritional benefits 7 Increase support for conservation of NUS in situ, on-farm and ex situ, and strengthen seed systems 8 Empower custodian farmers and support farmers' rights to share the benefits from NUS 9 Strengthen the capacity of individuals and organizations in R&D and education of NUS.An important paper on agrobiodiversity highlighting the role of NUS in strengthening food security, health and income generation appeared in Agronomy for Sustainable Development (Kahane et al., 2013). Bioversity's revised strategy for NUS was published in 2013 (Padulosi et al., 2013) offering an analysis of the NUS status of conservation and use, based on country reports produced for the FAO 2010 SWR on PGRFA. This document stressed eight key areas of action to realize the effective promotion of NUS (Box 2.2).India approved, in 2013, its Food Security Bill, which included \"coarse grains\" (millets, sorghum and maize) in the Public Distribution System (PDS). This move, which represented an unprecedented recognition of NUS, never made by any previous government, was done in appreciation of the following aspects: (1) the importance of finger millets and others coarse cereals of high nutritional value for the diversification of the food basket;(2) the inclusion of millets would expand the quantum of food that can be procured at the same time and (3) promote climate resilient farming, which would more appropriately cater to the food habits of different regions (Padulosi et al., 2015). 14 Notably, these crops were set to be used also to reinforce several nutrition-related schemes and activities, including the Integrated Child Development Services, mid-day meals and community canteens. The Second International Conference on Nutrition Framework for Action called, in its recommendation (no. 10), for the \"the diversification of crops including underutilized traditional crops\". Two seminal papers on the holistic value-chain approach developed by IFAD-NUS were published (Padulosi et al., 2014(Padulosi et al., , 2015) ) along with a strategic document from Bioversity on the way forward for the promotion of NUS (Padulosi et al., 2013).In 2016, the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) at Kew developed its internal strategy on useful plants, which focuses on NUS, while use enhancement along the lines of Bioversity's work on holistic value-chains is being developed (Ulian et al., 2015).Sustainable markets for NUS need to be developed and and upgrade strengthened at the local, national and international levels market chains while ensuring that benefits are shared fairly. Support to develop effective value-chains for NUS (through enhanced vertical and horizontal integration) is also needed. Domestic demand for NUS and value-added NUS products needs to be expanded and trade barriers for NUS products in developed countries need to be removed. The links between farmers, researchers and consumers need to be strengthened, and programmes need to highlight the growing importance of NUS in gastronomy.Legal frameworks are needed to protect NUS (wild or supportive cultivated). National governments also need to put in policy place policies to effectively conserve and use NUS. environment There need to be incentives for managing NUS on-farm. Policies, guided by principles of equity and fairness, need to safeguard germplasm for crop improvement and sharing, and provide better access to international markets. 8 Increase NUS are local and traditional, but are globally significant cooperation and thus require scientific and political attention beyond the local and national levels. More needs to be done to strengthen cooperation among stakeholder groups and create national, regional and international synergies.In July 2016, the FAO International Treaty for PGRFA organized a meeting at Volterra, Italy, to address the development of a \"toolbox\" for the use enhancement of agricultural biodiversity, including NUS.In November 2016, Bioversity and its partners from Africa, organized in Benin an expert meeting on NUS value-chains in sub-Saharan Africa for strengthening agricultural diversification, the UN Agenda 2030 and climate-change responses; among the recommendations that emerged from this meeting the following needs were seen as the most critical to advancing the NUS agenda in the region: (1) strengthening capacities of young scientists working on NUS;(2) mainstreaming NUS in school and university curricula; (3) greater PPP to boost local NUS entrepreneurs; (4) continued advocacy and lobbying with decision-makers at national and international levels for developing supportive policies for NUS and (5) facilitating access to NUS knowledge and material among workers.Over the course of 2015 and 2016, three expert meetings were organized under the leadership of CFF in Paris, Kuala Lumpur and Rome, to discuss the implementation of a newly developed Global Action Plan for Agricultural Diversification (GAPAD), designed to meet the needs of a heating world. The alliance formed around GAPAD aimed at promoting agricultural diversification and NUS crops, in particular, which were recognized as a strategic means to contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), with special reference to SDGs 2, 7, 12, 13, 15 and 17. In 2016, an international consultation was jointly organized by FAO and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under FAO RAP's Regional Initiative on Zero Hunger Challenge (RI-ZHC), in Bangkok, Thailand. Its purpose was to identify promising NUS crops that are nutritionally dense, climate resilient, economically viable and locally available or adaptable, and to provide strategic advice to decision-makers. These promising NUS were to be referred to as \"Future Smart Food\" (FSF). The consultation, attended by representatives from eight countries and several international agencies, aimed at four specific objectives: (i) validating the preliminary scoping report on crop-related NUS in the selected countries; (ii) ranking and prioritizing highpotential NUS based on established priority criteria, (iii) identifying five to six crop-related NUS per country and (iv) strategizing to enhance production and the utilization of selected crops in local diets (Li et al., 2018). The meeting identified ten recommendations for policymakers (Box 2.3) A similar meeting was also organized in Bangkok in 2017 by APAARI and was attended by representatives of 16 countries from the Asia-Pacific region (Tyagi et al., 2018a,b).Two more projects worth mentioning have also sprung up over the last few years, viz. the GFAR's Collective Action on \"Harnessing forgotten foods for improved livelihoods\" (GFAR, 2017) and the campaign of the USA-based Lexicon on \"Rediscovered Food\", which includes inter alia some well-packaged introduction on 25 forgotten nutritious NUS and success stories of farmers, scientists and chefs from 14 countries. 15  In September 2020, a major publication by the RBG (Ulian et al., 2020) was released in conjunction with the State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2020 report published by the same organization (Antonelli et al., 2020). Drawing on the results of the report, the paper reiterates that narrow reliance of humankind on a small handful of food crops, in spite of 7,039 documented edible species. In fact, the majority of these edible plants belong to NUS and should be better promoted in recognition of their role in improving the quality, resilience and self-sufficiency of food production. In order to unleash such potential, the authors call for renovated efforts especially with regard to: (1) filling knowledge gaps on the biology and ecology of NUS; (2) gaining a better understanding on the impacts of climate change on NUS to allow their better deployment in future climate-change coping strategies; (3) promoting the better integration of methods and tools developed by farmers and researchers for the cultivation of major crops, with the traditional knowledge of uses and practices regarding NUS; (4) providing further aid to strengthen research programs focusing on NUS, including supporting information exchange; (5) promoting participatory decision-making processes in NUS enhancement and ( 6) fostering the development and implementation of legal and policy frameworks accompanied by economic incentives and subsidies in support of NUS.Box 2.3 Recommendations to policymakers emerging from the FAO regional meeting for Asia and the Pacific on smart food foods/NUS held in Bangkok in 2016 existing coordination mechanisms, and build partnerships at national and regional levels, including academia, civil society and the private sector, to enhance research and consumption and to attract the private sector to boost production, processing, value addition, product development and marketing of FSF. 10 Establish a regionally coordinated network on FSF to facilitate the exchange of information, policy, technologies and genetic resources, as well as FSF promotion, in target countries.Although we have come a long way from those isolated pro-NUS activities of the early 1980s, all the way to the international conferences and projects dedicated to NUS that have been launched lately, we are still far from having reached the \"graduation\" of NUS (with the exception of a few crops like quinoa, which has become truly a commodity crop). While we can affirm that methodologies for the use enhancement of NUS have been successfully developed, what is needed these days, rather, is to scale the many successful approaches recorded around the world in order to have a wider impact. Mainstreaming NUS into government actions is today the key pursuit for workers engaged in the movement and, to achieve that, enabling policies covering a range of priority areas (from conservation to resilient food systems, sustainable cultivations, equitable marketing and nutrition security) are urgently needed (the inclusion of minor millets into the PDS system in India is, to that regard, a most illuminating example). These policies will require lobbying from all stakeholders who should be working closely together to achieve the shared vision. One of the propositions that has been  2000000-978 (2016-2020, focusing on Guatemala, Mali and India) and co-funded also by the EU. 9 ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/nonfao/ah893e/ah893e00.pdf 10 http://www.underutilized-species.org/documents/PUBLICATIONS/chennai_ declaration_en.pdf 11 https://www.nottingham.edu.my/CFFRC/index.aspx 12 https://tkbulletin.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/this-week-in-review-cordobaseminar-hears-from-fao-director-general-on-value-of-underutilized-cropssustainable-diets/ 13 http://www.nuscommunity.org/fileadmin/templates/nuscommunity.org/upload/ documents/Publications/2012_Cordoba-Declaration-on-Promising-Crops-for-the-XXI-Century.pdf 14 http://bit.ly/2wKepWM 15 https://www.thelexicon.org/ 16 https://www.bioversityinternational.org/news/detail/spotlight-on-forgottencrops/#:~:text=Annual%20Report%20stor y.,This%20year%20neglected%20 and%20underutilized%20species%20found%20the%20spotlight:%202013,the%20 world's%20%E2%80%9Cforgotten%20crops%E2%80%9D.(cited in text plus selected papers published over the 50 years deemed particularly relevant for NUS; entries marked with * include priority setting and/or lists of priority species). Anonymous (2012) Cordoba Declaration on Promising Crops for the XXI Century. Retrieved on 10 May 2020. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/food_ composition/documents/Cordoba_NUS_Declaration_2012_FINAL.pdf Anthony, K., Meadley, J. and Röbbelen, G. (1993a) New Crops for Temperate Regions.Chapman & Hall, London. Anthony, K., de Groot, P. and Haq, N. eds. (1993b) Underutilized Fruits and Nuts in Asia.CSC, London.DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-4Neglected and underutilized species (NUS) can be strategic allies in developing nutrition-sensitive agricultural food systems and value chains. This statement is supported by the numerous benefits linked to these resources, as highlighted in Chapter 1 (Fanzo et al., 2013;Baldermann et al., 2016;Bioversity International, 2017;Fanzo, 2019;Hunter et al., 2020). The central message reiterated throughout this book is that the diversification of food and production systems is urgently needed to adapt to climate change and fight malnutrition in all its forms, and to that regard, NUS offer a tremendous opportunity for impact. How to translate this vision into reality is not an easy task as many barriers need to be addressed, including the lack of or very poor germplasm conserved in ex situ gene banks, lack of improved varieties, poor seed systems, low competitiveness in production systems and markets and little awareness from consumers of their livelihood benefits. Tools to assist practitioners, and more generally all actors, involved in the use-enhancement and promotion of NUS are needed. As an answer to this call, in 2019, Bioversity and IFAD published an operational framework to assist experts of IFAD and other agencies at the national and international levels, in promoting the wider use of biodiversity, especially NUS, to improve the lives of people, particularly the more vulnerable members of society (Padulosi et al., 2019). This document complements other valuable strategic papers recently published (e.g., Hunter et al., 2015;Kennedy et al., 2017;Romanelli et al., 2020), briefly presented later in the chapter. The scope of this chapter is to present this framework and enrich it with reflections prompted by the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic, for which we believe NUS can prove to be a valuable instrument to strengthen the resilience of local communities, their weakened economies and food systems. Key messages we would like to convey through this chapter include:• The deployment of local crops in food and production systems is a valid contribution in addressing malnutrition and making food systems more resilient and adapted to changes such as those brought about by the current pandemic. • NUS are highly adapted to agro-ecological niches and marginal areas and are able to withstand climatic stresses. These traits are of great value to feed the world's growing population and, as such, should be better recognized and leveraged in support of agricultural strategies and development plans. • The enhanced use of NUS offers important opportunities for income generation and empowerment of both rural and urban communities, benefiting also vulnerable members of society. • Bringing NUS out of their condition of marginalization requires a viable market that creates incentives for local value-chain actors, to secure their continued cultivation, processing and marketing. Upgrading NUS value-chains must, therefore, be a central element of their overall promotion strategy. • A holistic value-chain approach is needed for the promotion of NUS. 'Siloed' formulas focusing on specific aspects (e.g., only on the conservation, cultivation or marketing), as typically practiced for commodity crops, cannot work for NUS. These resources have been for too long at the margins of research and development, and multiple technological gaps need to be filled.The holistic approach we are advocating for NUS should be interdisciplinary, multi-sectorial, highly participatory and gender sensitive. According to FAO, nutrition-sensitive agriculture is \"a food-based approach to agricultural development that puts nutritionally rich foods, dietary diversity, and food fortification at the heart of overcoming malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies\" and nutrition-sensitive value chains are those that leverage opportunities to enhance supply and/or demand for nutritious food, as well as opportunities to add nutritional value (and/or minimize food and nutrient loss) at each step of the chain, thereby improving the availability, affordability, quality and acceptability of nutritious food. For lasting impacts on nutrition, this approach must be placed in a sustainability context as well. (FAO, 2014a,b) Numerous publications have addressed issues and the strategies needed to make agriculture and value chains more nutrition sensitive (e.g., Jaenicke and Virchow, 2013;Gelli et al., 2015;FAO, 2017;De la Peña and Garrett, 2018). Among these, worth mentioning is the outcome of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), which specifically calls upon governments to \"[P]romote the diversification of crops including underutilized traditional crops, more production of fruits and vegetables, and appropriate production of animal-source products as needed, applying sustainable food production and natural resource management practices\" 1 (FAO and WHO, 2014). While referring to basic concepts contained therein, through this chapter we will focus exclusively on interventions to leverage the value of NUS for better attaining these goals.In the NUS operational framework published by Bioversity and IFAD, we indicate five basic steps for making a project focusing on NUS more nutrition-sensitive, viz:• Step 1. Explicitly incorporate improved nutrition into the project's outcomes and integrate nutrition-relevant indicators into the project logical framework • Step 2. Include a situation analysis on the nutrition context, addressing nutrient gaps of the targeted beneficiaries • Step 3. Include nutrient-dense NUS in agricultural development interventions to complement the nutritional role played by staple crops, guided by a diversity-based sustainable diet approach • Step 4. Trace the impact pathway -i.e., the steps from breeding and production to seed systems and consumption needed for the interventionto improve nutrition along the NUS value chain. Design and i mplement project actions that will affect that pathway in a systematic way. For example, determine if a change in dietary habits is needed to encourage the consumption of some wild edibles and, if so, implement actions to promote such changes. Allocate dedicated financial resources to implementing nutrition-sensitive activities • Step 5. Through policy engagement and partnerships, address opportunities and constraints that affect the pathway and the effectiveness of the intervention, such as the institutional environment, gender and/or environmental sustainability, and define implementing arrangements for the delivery of nutrition-sensitive activities.The central element of efforts needed to mobilize NUS in support of nutrition-sensitive agriculture is the holistic value-chain, as represented in Figure 3.1. This approach consists of highly interlinked interventions in each of the segments of a typical value chain for agricultural products, namely input supply, production, harvest, processing, marketing and final consumption. For those products realized by farmers exclusively for home consumption, marketing interventions would not be necessary. The holistic value-chain approach has been designed to tackle simultaneously three key challenges: climate change, nutrition and the economic insecurity of local communities. As shown in Figure 3.1, the synergistic interaction among the outcomes resulting from these multiple interventions is expected to ultimately strengthen the resilience of livelihoods as a whole, which should be the ultimate goal of our efforts. A description of the key entry points along the value chains in order to realize such an impact with regard to NUS is provided in the following section.This is the first entry point that is often overlooked by agricultural development projects, interested more in the income-generation dimension with little or no attention paid to the inter-and intra-specific diversity needed to strengthen nutrition. Our experience is that too many rural development projects focus minimally (or not at all) on plant genetic resources. Most often, attention is dedicated to only a handful of commodity crops (and few varieties therein) with the intent of boosting agricultural food production and fighting poor nutrition, neglecting the wealth of wild and cultivated species that can be mobilized for climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. In such a segment of the value chain, the following interventions are, thus, highly recommended:• Include NUS in the design of projects (especially species that might identify key nutrient gaps that cause local malnutrition problems) and ensure that their diversity is well represented at both inter-and intra-specific level. Provision of germplasm should be accompanied also by enhanced cultivating practices, where both scientific and traditional knowledge should be leveraged. This is very relevant for NUS, whose knowledge is highly vulnerable due to the abandonment of cultivation. The selection of species to focus upon should be carried out in a highly participatory fashion, involving all stakeholders and giving ample space to women, who are the strategic nexus between biodiversity and nutrition in households (King and Padulosi, 2017). • An assessment of the nutrition needs and seasonal dynamics of hunger in target communities should be also carried out in conjunction with the previous activity so as to develop an inventory of local food species (wild and cultivated) to allow all players to gain a good understanding of spectrum of species that can be potentially targeted by the project. The result of these surveys will be then used to develop seasonal calendars that can guide local populations in making best use of existing overlooked nutritious food species and to strengthen their capacity in fighting nutrition insecurity, especially during the 'hungry season' (see also Chapter 14). • Support an ex situ/in situ integrated conservation of the genetic resources of NUS and their associated traditional knowledge. This is a fundamental intervention that must be factored into projects if we are to secure continued access to the genetic diversity of NUS by user communities and safeguard, at the same time, associated relevant practices (agronomic, value addition, food preparation, ceremonies, rituals, etc.) that allow the cultivation, use and appreciation of these traditional resources across generations (Padulosi et al., 2012). • Encourage visibility of NUS in local and regional media such as newspapers, radio and TV programs, as well as social media. Great opportunities exist in this regard by involving renowned chefs who can help remove the 'food of the poor' stigma associated with many NUS (Amaya et al., 2019). • Promote the use of NUS in schools and universities through curriculum development -describing the multiple values of NUS -and associated activities such diverse school gardens (for more in this regard, see Rudebjer and Padulosi, 2018;Hunter et al., 2020). The agronomists of the future need to be informed on the value of crop diversification for supporting nutrition security and, at the same time, as future consumers, need to be aware of the multiple values of NUS, too often disregarded by younger generations as the food of the poor. Campaigns on the importance of NUS should be done in an enticing fashion, that is, by linking NUS to nutrition and health benefits as well as to other important benefits, such as the sustainability of our planet, keeping options for the future, building resilient food systems in difficult times (including those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic) and maintaining cultural and territorial identity. Lastly, consumers should all be made aware that by bringing NUS back to the table, there will be more options for tastier, more exciting, more attractive and more enjoyable foods!• By nature of their definition, NUS are largely undervalued by the scientific community and, as such, there is often limited data available on their potential, such as micronutrient content or climate-change resilience. In cases where micronutrient content is unknown, it can be estimated with a similar food or categorized according to the common nutritional traits of its food group characteristics (e.g., dark green leafy vegetables can contain iron and vitamin A). Local and scientific knowledge associated with prioritized species is essential, as some may have toxic or anti-nutrient properties, and must be consumed in small amounts or be processed in special ways to reduce toxin content.Once NUS species have been selected, the second entry point for nutrition along the value chain is related to production activities, such as selecting better varieties, developing better practices and improving seed. In order to support these activities, decentralized seed-selection and production systems should be pursued (de Boef et al., 2013;Vernooy et al., 2015). Increased use of NUS should be promoted to help farmers take maximum advantage of the hardiness of these species, especially in vulnerable, drought-prone areas where such crops are able to exploit residual soil moisture and scarce rainfall regimes. NUS should be included by projects and research managers in crop selection programs/participatory variety selection, and national and international players should cooperate to build up a knowledge base on the performance of these species, which is currently lacking. More studies should be carried out on their agronomic performance, including climate-change adaptation, which will allow for comparisons with staple crops. Such a process should involve all value-chain actors and encourage the active participation of women, Indigenous Peoples and youth. Evaluation activities should go hand-in-hand with the characterization of germplasm for nutritional content to support the selection of resilient, nutritious and economically interesting species (Shanthakumar et al., 2010).More efforts should be deployed in improving cultivation practices for NUS, aiming at the elimination of drudgery in the field and the introduction of innovative cultivation approaches based on the blending of traditional knowledge and scientific findings (Padulosi et al., 2015).Improved harvesting methods and storage are extremely relevant for NUS, especially for perishable, nutritious-dense fruits and vegetables. In view of the great progress achieved in these disciplines for commodity crops, there is ample scope for leveraging such knowledge for the benefit of NUS. Our experience has often demonstrated that modest investments in support of innovation to improve harvest operations can be highly valuable, as in the case of amaranth, where a simple modification in the sieve of the harvesting machine used by farmers in Peru has resulted in a significant reduction of grain loss during harvest operations (Padulosi et al., 2014).Improved processing can play a key role in making nutritious NUS foods more convenient, increasing their shelf life and facilitating transportation and storage. However, processing enhancement of NUS should be done in ways that respect their nutritional value and do not prioritize convenience or aesthetic values only. For instance, in the case of fonio and minor millets, polishing operations have been observed to eliminate important micro-nutrients. Grains will look more appealing to consumers, but will be of reduced nutritional value. Improved processing can be achieved by building on Indigenous technology and local wisdom and/or by blending it with scientific findings. Our work on minor millets in India has also taught us that simple, inexpensive processing technology mobilized by local communities has played a strategic role in boosting local consumption of these crops at the household level, while also supporting women-led cottage industries and local entrepreneurship, and has contributed to building greater self-esteem and empowerment among vulnerable women groups (King and Padulosi, 2017).Marketing aspects for NUS are crucial to bringing about sustainability in their use enhancement. Nutritious local crops should be effectively marketed if we are to strengthen nutrition-sensitive agriculture and value-chains. A highly strategic component of this domain of action (but equally relevant also for the other areas) has to do with making food more diverse and healthier and, at the same time, delicious and appealing to the consumer, but doing so in ways that involve and incentivize all actors in the food systems, taking into account multiple agendas and values (Béné et al., 2020). Some of the actions related to marketing NUS more effectively include:• Supporting the identification and promotion of nutrition-friendly packaging solutions, including approaches accessible by local vendors and small markets. Strengthen collectives (e.g., cooperatives, farmer-producer companies, confederations of producers/MSMEs) that are required to build reliable distribution systems for NUS that are typically produced locally and by farmers not well-linked to other value-chain actors. • Dissemination of nutrition information as well as any other information on useful traits present in NUS (including resilience) for promoting greater adoption of these species by value-chain actors.This is the last segment of the value chain and the one most strategic in influencing the wider utilization of NUS purchased in markets or self-produced/bartered and consumed in farmers' households. Key actions at this stage include:• Building greater awareness among consumers on the importance of NUS for crafting more nutritious and healthy diets. • Developing products, and marketing healthy and sustainable options, as appealing and delicious, rather than focusing on messages of health, sustainability or abstemiousness (Sunstein, 2015;Vermeulen et al., 2020). • Supporting the development of more attractive food recipes and food products that have NUS as ingredients, by organizing cooking sessions with community members and forming alliances between growers, value-chain actors, chefs and food movements to promote local foods that are also culturally appealing; and challenging niche-identity associations of these products through marketing and branding. • Raising awareness of decision-makers to get their buy-in regarding NUS in government actions and seeking their commitment to developing enabling policies that mainstream NUS into agricultural development programs.Policy-makers should be engaged from the start of NUS projects in order to solicit a sense of ownership in the promotion of NUS. Among the policy interventions for NUS, the most strategic are those favoring their inclusion in procurement programs (e.g., targeting school feeding programs) (Hunter et al., 2019), or those regarding the inclusion of NUS in school/university curricula, which can have important multiplier effects (Rudebjer and Padulosi, 2018;Amaya et al., 2019;Hunter et al., 2020). • Making healthy and sustainable options highly visible and increasing the quantity of them available in menus, supermarkets, at catered events, schools, canteens or other public places (Vermuelen et al., 2020). • Supporting food festivals and using these occasions to recognize the invaluable work done by custodian farmers, Indigenous Peoples, women and youth organizations for safeguarding the wealth of NUS and traditional knowledge, and, at the same time, support a better understanding of the Indigenous approach to marketing. • Introducing marketing intelligence systems that allow the sharing of information on offer and demanding estimates via mobile phones across value-chain actors, as successfully practiced in Kenya and other African countries. Such an approach should be complemented by the development of mobile apps for local communities that can provide information about where to find NUS in the community, how to use them and how to buy and sell them. These apps could be particularly helpful in situations when people's movements are limited, such as conditions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.Promoting local foods through convenient mobile apps can the winning card for bringing NUS to the masses; to that end, it could be useful to replicate (or join) currently available systems that link consumers with farmers markets (see f.e. apps like Farmstand and Locavore). 2In addition to the entry points mentioned above, there are interventions that can be considered that cut across the entire value chain. The NUS operational framework (Padulosi et al., 2019) stresses, in particular, those related to capacity building and empowering vulnerable groups.Scaling up best practices to more effectively use NUS will need a robust investment in capacity building that benefits different stakeholders and covers highly interlinked themes, including adaptation to climate change of agricultural production, food and nutrition security, value chains and marketing issues, raising public awareness and policy advocacy. Strengthening the governance and technical capacity of farmer associations, especially Indigenous food community associations, will need to be pursued as part of a broader public-private partnership initiative and investment goal in the agricultural marketing of NUS. Dealing with NUS calls for a broad interdisciplinary understanding of their roles, which is too often not registered among R&D experts and rural advisory services in most NARS (Raneri et al., 2019). During project design we should, thus, create opportunities for an interdisciplinary dialogue among stakeholders where knowledge about NUS is provided and shared. These interactions will allow all stakeholders to become acquainted with the roles of NUS, especially regarding their resilience, nutritional values and income-generation opportunities and understand the importance of building synergy across such disciplines for sustained impact (Ulian et al., 2020). These participatory reviews can be supported through ex ante analysis to capture existing values of NUS in the socioeconomic context of the target areas through available data and food system modelling.Strengthening the capacities of community members, including women, youth and Indigenous Peoples, is needed in order toto boost production efficiency, improve post-production, technologies, business and entrepreneurship skills as well as enhance markets and market information, sustainable investments in physical infrastructure and access to produce.With regard to access to markets, the networks of local, weekly markets present in most countries can be leveraged to sell NUS. This will be sustainable only if NUS marketing bottlenecks are effectively addressed, such as the possible isolation of production areas from marketplaces and the existence of poor infrastructure for storage, processing and packaging. Specialized technical assistance for NUS products and market development, along with agri-business capacity-building and mentoring of producer groups, should be also pursued. Innovative technologies for NUS processing and their commercial viability need to be tested in a commercial context to promote scalability.The promotion of wild species should be done with caution so as to avoid overharvesting; domestication can be an effective intervention to mitigate that risk (Padulosi et al., 2002). In view of the considerable efforts needed in the domestication process (long-term field and laboratory experiments, marketing research, etc.), it should receive the support of government research institutions, universities and the private sector and could also benefit from being included in agricultural and rural development projects (Heywood, 1999).Locally available biodiversity may not be able to address all the issues related to poor diet quality and malnutrition. A combination of that, along with other approaches, including the introduction of nutritious species from elsewhere, may be required to fill possible gaps.Cross-collaboration between agricultural extension and rural health services can be effective for promoting resilient and nutritious NUS in diets and production systems. Training extension agents on the agronomy, marketing and nutrition aspects of NUS is a strategic way to leverage their role for the promotion of NUS (Raneri et al., 2019). Strengthening their familiarity with the wild and semi-domesticated plants in the local environment will support their role in assisting communities in the identification of priority species. Understanding local diets and nutrition issues in target populations supports the prioritization process. Sensitization on local consumption preferences and perceptions, and how to engage with farmers to collect this type of information, is also important for understanding demand-side issues. Building the capacity to recognize important actors in the value-chain and establishing a proactive attitude to reach out and engage these actors to overcome bottlenecks will help advance the use-enhancement of these nutritious species.The dearth of data on crop adaptation can be addressed through the use of participatory varietal selection done in farmers' fields. Crowdsourcing can be a highly effective way to select the best varieties whose performance is assessed in the context of where the need is, and not at the research stations (van Etten et al., 2017).The use-enhancement of NUS can be a cost-effective and culturally appropriate way to improve the resilience of local food systems, as well as farming household incomes and nutrition. NUS can be integrated into existing extension programs that focus on commodity species. For example, NUS of fruits and vegetables should be considered in any project working to increase the availability and marketing of major staples (Padulosi et al., 2018).The use-enhancement of NUS is a robust way to empower women, Indigenous Peoples, rural youth and other vulnerable groups who depend on these species for their livelihoods. Economic empowerment should be at the core of these actions. This includes designing interventions targeted at strengthening community institutions and farmer groups as a tool for empowering marginalized communities. Groups should be supported in the areas of adaptive extension, leveraging local agrobiodiversity, market access, agro-processing and value addition, paying particular attention to business skills development and market orientation. These actions should be designed through a culturally sensitive lens. Use-enhancement of NUS along the value chain should be driven by equity considerations and the inclusion of vulnerable groups (Rosado-May et al., 2018).While Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been nurturing and using NUS for many generations, it is only in the more recent post-Green R evolution period that NUS have become a focus of global policy in general (see Chapter 1) and, only even more recently, that they have been considered a portfolio of foods that can substantially contribute to more sustainable solutions to global malnutrition. The operational framework supporting nutrition-sensitive a griculture through the greater use of NUS described in this chapter is an additional resource to the growing basket of tools that aims to mainstream NUS into more projects, programs and investments for improved nutrition, and which are important instruments for strengthening collaboration between the agriculture, nutrition and health and environmental sectors.A major milestone in the recognition of the important role NUS, and biodiversity more broadly, can play in improving nutrition and human health was the establishment of the Framework for a Cross-Cutting Initiative on B iodiversity for Food and Nutrition in 2006, within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In 2004, the CBD's Conference of the Parties (COP) formally recognized the linkages between biodiversity, food and nutrition, and the need to enhance sustainable use of biodiversity to combat hunger and malnutrition. The COP requested the CBD's Executive Secretary, in collaboration with FAO and the former International Plant Genetic Resources Institute -now Bioversity International -to undertake a cross-cutting initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition, which was adopted by the COP in 2006 (WHO/CBD, 2015). The recently completed GEF-funded Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project has been a major vehicle for the implementation of this cross-cutting initiative and has demonstrated, at a country level, how to prioritize NUS for mainstreaming into relevant policies, programs and markets so as to improve nutrition. It has also developed a range of methods, tools and other resources to support mainstreaming (Hunter et al., 2020;see Chapter 13).Around the same time, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) also requested that FAO evaluate the relationship between biodiversity and nutrition. In 2005, via the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, eight high-priority actions and six lower-priority actions were identified. Subsequently, the CGRFA, at its 14th session in 2013, formally recognized nutrients and diets, as well as food, as ecosystem services, in order to further increase the awareness of human nutrition as a concern for the environmental sector, and the awareness among human nutritionists of the importance of biodiversity. It also requested the preparation of guidelines for mainstreaming biodiversity into all aspects of nutrition, including education, interventions, policies and programs (WHO/CBD, 2015). The Voluntary Guidelines for Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Policies, Programmes and National and Regional Plans of Action on Nutrition (FAO, 2015) was adopted at the 15th Session of the CGRFA in 2015 and provides a framework to mobilize NUS for improving nutrition.The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), jointly c onvened by the FAO and the WHO in 2014, focused on policies aimed at eradicating malnutrition in all its forms and transforming food systems to make nutritious diets available to all. Participants at ICN2 endorsed the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action, with Recommendation 10 being particularly for the NUS community (ibid. p. 45). \"[P]romote the diversification of crops including underutilized traditional crops, more production of fruits and vegetables, and appropriate production of animal source products as needed, applying sustainable food production and natural resource management practices\".In 2015, the WHO and CBD jointly published a \"state of knowledge\" review, Connecting Global Priorities: Biodiversity and Human Health (WHO/CBD, 2015), which contained a chapter dedicated to NUS, biodiversity and nutrition (Hunter et al., 2015). This was followed, in 2017, by the publication by Bioversity International of the Mainstreaming Agrobiodiversity in Sustainable Food Systems report (Bioversity International, 2017), which included a chapter on the importance of NUS and food biodiversity for healthy, diverse diets (Kennedy et al., 2017). Both publications highlight approaches and opportunities to better mainstream NUS in order to improve nutrition and diets. Most recently, the WHO has published further Guidance on Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Nutrition and Health, which focuses on the importance of NUS and their value chains (Romanelli et al., 2020).Collectively, this presents an ever-improving, enabling policy environment for the promotion of NUS, especially in the context of addressing malnutrition challenges. However, as Chapter 1 and other chapters of this book highlight, there are still many constraints and barriers on both the supply and demand side that need to be addressed. One such need that is urgent is better collaboration across the NUS community, not just in the agriculture sector but with others who champion NUS in sectors such as health, environment and education. Greater coherence between global and national policies is also needed to ensure that the NUS community collaborates more effectively in developing and implementing projects and investments, to ensure the most efficient use of limited resources.The importance of promoting NUS for making agriculture and value chains more effective in supporting nutrition has been particularly appreciated over the last decade, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic has made even more apparent the resilience role that NUS can play in buffering communities against both supply and demand shocks. The world needs NUS and we need societies to steer food systems in the right direction, a pathway that is sustainable for our own lives and for the planet.1 Recommendation 10 of ICN2 2014/3 Corr.1 2 More example at https://foodtank.com/news/2015/01/harvesting-the-best-10-appsfor-healthy-organic-shopping/ DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-5Agrobiodiversity provides diverse options for people's strategies in cultivating, collecting and processing a diversity of plants for their food, nutrition, livelihood security and resilience. Only in the last two decades has the attention of agricultural research started to slowly broadening from staple crops and vegetables to \"neglected and underutilized species\" (NUS) or \"orphan crops\". This chapter is largely based on three baseline studies in Myanmar, Peru and Zimbabwe. The objective is to understand people's perspectives of NUS in relation to their concept of nutrition and their food security strategies. Particular attention is paid to women's access and use of NUS and the biodiversity source of household diets. A combination of methods were used:• Household surveys of socio-demographics and agricultural crops, and a modified version of Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) (FAO, 2010). • A gender-disaggregated community resource flow map (Manicad, 2002(Manicad, , 2004)), which consisted of area mapping farms and the landscape, and the collection and use of plants. A focus group discussion identified people's folk taxonomy, uses, locations, seasonality, collection and propagation of NUS (Oxfam Novib, 2018). • Participatory Rural Appraisal, including a seasonal calendar developed to identify the NUS availability and locations for the entire year (ANDES, 2016).The methods were applied twice, once each during the plenty and lean seasons of food availability. The studies involved Indigenous and local peoples, who are mostly engaged in subsistence farming and employ largely rain-fed agricultural practices. The three countries represented diverse crop systems in distinct agro-ecologies, from the delta in Myanmar to the high altitudes of Peru and the semi-arid regions of Zimbabwe (see Table 4.1).One of the most widely accepted characteristic of NUS is the neglect of science and markets. During the surveys, the term \"neglect\" and \"underutilisation\" consistently created confusion amongst local people. In Peru, NUS have \"strong sacred value as they are conceived as fruits of the Pachamama (Mother Earth), and are crops sent by the Apus (natural divinities), or are blood of the Apus and species used to purify the body\" (ibid.). However, while NUS may be sacred to some, they also carry the stigma of being \"poor people's food\". In Zimbabwe, Tsine (or \"Black Jack\") is perceived as a food consumed by those suffering from hunger and as curative item for people who are HIV positive (CTDT, 2015).A key defining feature of NUS is that these are highly localised plants involving specialised local knowledge of mostly women, who are often marginalised and impoverished. Through lessons learnt, the confusion over NUS terminology was better managed through a combination of the following techniques: (i) prior to the survey, we harmonised the community custodians' local concepts of NUS with a set of working definitions of it. (ii) We properly sequenced the material resource-flow map to first enumerate all the plants collected. This was followed by key informant interviews to classify which of the collected plants were NUS; and then we characterised each NUS according to the local knowledge of folk taxonomy, ethnobotany, seasonal availability, locations, harvesting, propagation and processing methods. This was followed by (iii) the collection of specimens, (iv) verification with the wider community and (v) discussions with research organisations about, for instance, the NUS' scientific names and its nutritional composition.A \"lean\" or \"hunger\" period refers to recurrent food shortages amongst the poorest households. Reflecting the seasonality of agricultural production, the lean period often occurs just before the upcoming harvest when food supply is at its lowest and when it coincides with the low demand for agricultural labour.In the coastal Irrawaddy region of Myanmar, the lean period also coincides with the cyclone season. Hence, the lean season often combines the stresses of lack of food, lack of wages to buy food and, in some cases, environmental calamities. The lean period is a predictable, seasonal \"sink or swim\" time when households either survive from one season to the next, or they lose assets, accumulate debt and sink further into poverty.The survey on the lean period, referred to as \"hunger\" or \"scarcity\" periods, proved highly sensitive. In Peru for example, \"scarcity\" (\"escasez\" in Spanish) does not have an equivalent in Quechua and is often associated with poverty. Asking someone about their food scarcity or hunger were considered taboo in all three countries. These sensitivities were managed by keeping the survey private within households, and ensuring that trusted local people were part of the study team. Table 4.1 shows that a substantial percentage of the sample populations confirmed that they regularly experienced hunger. However, the percentages for each country cannot be compared due to the difficulties in covering the topic and the likely different interpretations across cultures of the hunger period.Most respondents referred to the lean period as the time when they had low access to food supply and as a period of physical stress and mental anxieties. In Myanmar, respondents associated hunger with a shortage of rice. This could be attributed to the importance of rice in their culture, diet and income. It is also likely that the lack of carbohydrates directly manifest in the sensation of hunger.The three countries have common some coping strategies. This includes consumption of food preserved or stored during the season of plenty; aspects of reciprocity, such as borrowing or receiving food from relatives and friends; and buying food on credit or shifting to cheaper and lower quality and taste. More vulnerable households turn to harmful strategies such as reducing their portion sizes or skipping meals. In some households, adults may reduce or skip meals in favour of children; in other households, working members are prioritised. In more desperate circumstances, some households in Myanmar and Zimbabwe resort to eating premature crops. This is an example of households losing assets during lean periods, such as their next harvest and seeds for the subsequent growing season. For example, the over-harvesting of perennial crops such as taro is likely to reduce yields, and the consumption of cereal seeds is a major threat to seed security. In Zimbabwe, many respondents also rely on food aid.All respondents referred to the collection and consumption of NUS as an important part of their coping strategies. Most households collect semi-wild and wild plants to supplement their diets and for market sales. NUS are cultivated and collected from home gardens, on farms and roadsides and in forests, wetlands and pasture areas. They also referred to the traditional knowledge of the elderly for understanding the availability of different NUS during specific times and at specific locations. The responsibilities for executing the coping strategies, including the collection of NUS, are shared within the household, with women having a prominent role.In all three countries, the local people stated that they have limited knowledge of nutrition since they lack access to their governments' nutrition education programme. In Myanmar, the respondents said that they are less aware of the nutritional impacts of their food choices. The communities showed a very limited understanding of micronutrients such as vitamins. However, in all three countries, there were good indications that local people traditionally have a functional knowledge of the association between dietary diversity and well-being.NUS are particularly important for the people's sense of well-being and are appreciated for both the eating satisfaction, as well as their health and healing values. These knew cures for gastroenteritis, anaemia, colds and flu, prostrate and liver inflammation, muscle cramps and various pains. A number of NUS consumed as food were also valued for their contraceptive uses, or for easing menstruations (ANDES, 2016). In Myanmar, NUS were consumed because of their associated good health benefits. The uses of NUS as medicines are most helpful during hunger periods when money is tight. In general, however, people increasingly prefer to purchase medicines from pharmacies (Metta and Searice, 2015). In Zimbabwe, the most important NUS were believed to have curative properties against malaria, dehydration, pain and HIV/AIDS (CTDT, 2015). These findings concur with that of other studies (e.g. Pieroni and Price, 2006) on the lack of distinction between food and medicine in traditional food systems. The surveys indicated that inter-generational transfer of knowledge might need to be better understood and further enhanced.In the Lares Valley, the equivalent concept of well-being is \"Sumaq kausay\", which means \"good living\". They refer to Sumaq kausay as the balance and reciprocal relation between the individual and collective, and nature and ecosystem services. Aspects of cultural identity, leisure, celebrations and knowledge heritage are also integrated in their concept of well-being (ANDES, 2016).In all three countries, most of the respondents' sense of well-being was connected to healthy ecosystems with diverse land use, including farming and gardening. People derived their dietary diversity from the biodiversity on farms and within landscapes. This was articulated in the NUS flow maps in Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Peru, which illustrated where people gather domesticated, semi-and non-domesticated plants. Many were NUS, which vary across time and space. In Peru, a high dietary diversity resulted from a combination of more intensive food production, gathering of plants within diverse ecologies and the purchase and barter of a wider variety of food. In the Lares Valley, women's networks operate five traditional barter markets involving farms within the three levels of agro-ecologies from the top, middle and lower zones of the region (see Table 4.1). This enables the exchange of a variety of vegetables, fruits, spices, condiments and beverages. The barter markets enhance local resilience based on diverse land use combined with the traditional social relationships of reciprocity and redistribution (ANDES, 2016).Similar links between dietary diversity and agrobiodiversity were established in a study involving Indigenous and local peoples in the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania (Powell et al., 2017). In this study, local farmers indicated that maintaining multiple land uses increases crop diversity, which helps ensure their food security and dietary diversity. In another study in Mount Malindang in the Philippines, the Subanens also displayed a diverse collection of biodiversity on farms and in the wild from diverse ecologies within their landscape (Manicad, 2004). Similar to Peru, the study further alluded to the people's integrated landscapes perspectives with the management of biodiversity on farms and in the wild. In both the Subanens in the Philippines and the Quechua in Peru, traditional beliefs and social relations also help regulate the sustainable and equitable harvesting and distribution of biodiversity in the wild (ibid and ANDES, 2016).The studies in Myanmar, Peru and Zimbabwe indicated that land degradation, farming, environmental pollution, extensive mining and deforestation threaten their well-being and food sources. In Peru and Zimbabwe, malnutrition was associated with the lack of consumption of local wild foods and the occurrence of diseases in cultivars. In Myanmar, the respondents directly linked the inaccessibility of diverse diets as a main cause of malnutrition in their communities.The respondents in the three countries also referred to changing climates as a threat to the diversity of their food sources. They pointed to increased pest and disease infestations, and the worsening scarcity of wild plants. In Zimbabwe, they pointed to climate change and the total drying up of wetlands in Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe (UMP), which in turn resulted in the disappearance of indigenous vegetables that used to grow there during the lean seasons (CTDT, 2015). This indicates that not only does climate change threaten livelihoods and food security, it also threatens people's coping strategies.Social Relations  The baseline studies in Myanmar, Peru and Zimbabwe contribute to the understanding of NUS as integrated in local peoples' land use and agrobiodiversity management. Local people associate agrobiodiversity, including NUS, with dietary diversity, which they closely link with their sense of well-being. These baseline studies indicate that NUS are part of people's strategies for food and nutrition security during both the lean and the plenty seasons. For the further enhancement of NUS for people's well-being, a few courses of action are suggested:1 Research and development interventions on NUS need to be guided by the principle of equity. For effective interventions on NUS, it is important to understand and address the underlying gender and social relations within households and between generations, including the youth. 2 Considering the rich cultural context and the sensitivities within which NUS are managed, training and engaging local communities and researchers can contribute to a more robust and user-oriented results. This also creates capacities to implement and follow through on plans for intervention.Joint planning and periodic reviews of methods, measurements and analysis can mitigate the trade-off between diverse local research and global comparisons. 3 This chapter concurs with a study in Tanzania (Powell et al., 2017) ). There are varieties especially in little millet and proso millet, which mature in 60-70 days, yet provide reasonable and assured harvests even under most adverse conditions. India, being the primary or secondary centre of origin and domestication of small millets, is a storehouse of highly valuable genetic variability. Asia and Africa are the major producers of these species at the global level, and India is possibly the largest producer of millets, with an estimated production of around 16 million tonnes annually. Exports and imports of millets are negligible, indicating low demand and/or unreliable availability of marketable surpluses in local/world markets. Urbanites by-and-large have forgotten the amazing foods and dishes made out of millets. Being eco-friendly crops, they are suitable for fragile and vulnerable environments and for sustainable and green agriculture. The promotion of these crops can lead to more efficient natural resource management and a holistic approach to sustaining precious agrobiodiversity.Millet grains are very nutritious as they contain good quality protein and are rich in minerals, dietary fibre, phytochemicals and vitamins. A cursory look at the proximate composition of various food grains (Table 5.1) would reveal the distinct nutritional superiority of millets over major food grains such as wheat and rice. This needs to be exploited in terms of its health and nutritional benefits for alleviating nutritional deficiency, the result of changed food habits and a shrunken food basket. Millet, with its unique grain properties, exhibit considerable opportunities for diversification of its food use through processing and value addition.Securing the existing cultivation area for millets is a matter of concern. As shown in Table 5.2, in the past six decades, the area used for growing millets has gone down by 62.57%, dropping from 36.34 million ha (1955)(1956) to around 13.84 million ha (2017)(2018)). Yet, the production targets of all millet crops were maintained as a result of an increase in productivity per hectare -over four times in pearl millet and more than two times in sorghum, finger millet and small millet crops -over the decades.Even though small millets are cultivated in almost every Indian state, the distribution of individual millets is not uniform. The major finger millet growing states are Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Karnataka has the largest area under finger millet, accounting for nearly 60% of the total area. Kodo, little millet and foxtail millet are grown widely in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. In Madhya Pradesh, both kodo and little millet are predominant, whereas foxtail millet is important in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. Barnyard millet and proso millet are grown largely in hills of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, the north-eastern regions and plains of north Bihar and western Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.The bulk of millets produced in the country are consumed at the farm level and very little finds its way to organised markets. Millets provide much-needed food and feed security, especially to vulnerable groups. However, it is important to note that food security at the national level will only be effective when regionally important crops are allowed to play their due role in meeting the food and fodder needs of the region. Such a vulnerable situation calls for an urgent intervention from policy makers; an ideal correction would be to produce the required food within the state/region itself, by promoting and developing locally and/or regionally important rainfed crops. The promotion of millets can lead to much more efficient natural resource management and, ultimately, to a more holistic approach in sustaining precious agrobiodiversity.  1955-1956 1965-1966 1975-1976 1985-1986 1995-1996 2005-2006 2017  (Seetharam, 2015). In view of this, India is recognised as a secondary centre of diversity for this crop. The highly variability found in finger millet is divided into five cultivated races viz. coracana, vulgaris, elongata, plana and compacta; they are distinct essentially on the basis of inflorescence morphology. Foxtail millet, Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv., and its closest wild relative, Setaria italica subsp. viridis (L.) Thell., originated in the highlands of China some 5,000 thousand years ago and later spread to India as a cereal crop (Prasad Rao et al., 1987). Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is native to Manchuria (China) and moved to Europe some 3,000 years ago. Little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth) is native to India and is widely cultivated across the country in many states. Indian barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea Link), domesticated and cultivated in India, is highly variable. Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.), domesticated in India some 3,000 years ago, is widely distributed in wet damp habitats, grown in several states from Tamil Nadu in the south to Uttar Pradesh in the north. By and large, small millets in India are important to hill and tribal agriculture.In the past, small millets breeders had limited access to germplasm and worked with very limited accessions that lacked diversity, which blunted opportunities for yield improvement. This situation was, to some extent, rectified in the 1960s, when first attempts were made by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to pool the collections under the \"PL 480 Project\". Conservation activities gained further momentum with the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in New Delhi, which has been playing a key role in augmenting the initial small millets collection. Recognising the importance of conservation and greater access to germplasm, the All-India Coordinated Millets Improvement Project (AICMIP) established a germplasm unit in Bangalore in 1979 to cater to these species. This unit, since then, has been making efforts to collect pool germplasm from various sources and make it available to breeders. The unit is also recognised as one of the NBPGR's National Active Germplasm Sites (NAGS) and has the mandate for the collection, conservation, evaluation and documentation of small millets germplasm within the country. Presently, the Bangalore unit maintains one of the largest collections, with more than 15, 000 accessions of six small millet species, incl. 7,122 accessions of finger millet, 2,821 of foxtail millet, 1,537 of kodo millet, 939 of proso millet, 1,657 of little millet and 988 of barnyard millet (AICSMIP, 2012).Full utilisation of germplasm depends on two factors: (a) evaluation and characterisation and (b) identification of useful gene sources. These two areas have received attention during the last 25 years and the majority of millet accessions have been screened for desirable agronomic and grain quality traits. A good data base is available for most accessions conserved.In order to improve the efficiency of germplasm use, core subsets of the collection have been formed and made available to breeders. The identification of several sources of stable resistance to blast disease in finger millet and their deployment in breeding research has been highly rewarding with regard to the development of high-yielding blast-resistant varieties of finger millet ( Ravikumar et al., 1990( Ravikumar et al., , 1991;;Byre Gowda et al., 1999). The secondary gene pool of subsp. africana has been of interest from the breeding point of view as a source of useful genes for improving tillering abilities, fodder yield and quality, drought tolerance, finger number and length. Pre-breeding is required for the introgression of characters from E. africana to E. coracana, so as to derive lines useful in breeding programs.Exotic collections of finger millet, especially from Africa, have been used in recombination breeding, resulting in the release of many superior, high-yielding varieties (HYVs) in many states. The African germplasm has thick stem, dark leaves, robust growth, large ears and high grain density and is a source of resistance to blast disease (Naik et al., 1993). Hybridisation between African and Indian elite varieties has been highly rewarding and has resulted in the release of many HYVs.Several useful genetic stocks have also been identified in the germplasm of small millets with regard to higher protein content, desirable agronomic attributes with high carbon dioxide fixation and low leaf area, suitable for rain fed situations and germination under conditions of limited moisture and a hard soil crust (Sashidhar et al., 1983;Seetharam et al., 1984). Accessions capable of producing higher biomass, dual purpose types with superior stover quality are available for improving the grain and stover yield of cultivars (Schiere et al., 2004). There are finger millet accessions that have significantly higher grain calcium and protein content. In foxtail millet, new sources of dwarfing genes controlled by oligo genes have been also identified. These accessions are useful in breeding dwarf foxtail millet. The variability available for protein content (7.176-15.73 g) and seed fat content (4.0-7.1 g) in foxtail millet is enormous and can be exploited in breeding (Seetharam, 2015). Optimising the use of germplasm in small millets is a priority for crop improvement, in order to make these species competitive vis-à-vis other crops.Small millets improvement efforts have been in progress since the beginning of the twentieth century (Seetharam, 2015). The launching of coordinated crop improvement programs during the late 1950s has contributed significantly to the development of new superior varieties and enhanced production and protection technologies in small millets. The release of improved varieties and production packages has contributed to a threefold increase in grain productivity in the country. Small millets have been the last crops prioritised in the agriculture developmental agenda in the country, with finger millet receiving a little more attention than other species. An attempt has been made here to trace the progress in crop improvement of small millets over the last nine decades.In the 1950s and 1960s, crop improvement for small millets was confined to a few states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The emphasis was on varietal improvement through selecting better types from local varieties. In Tamil Nadu, a Millet Research Station was established in 1923 at Coimbatore, under the erstwhile Madras Presidency. Finger millet work in Karnataka dates back to 1900, initiated in Bangalore especially with finger millet, and in Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur and Gorakhpur in 1944.The first finger millet variety released in the country was H22, as early as 1918 in Karnataka. Other finger millet varieties released were Co6 (1935); R0870, ES13, K1 and ES11 (1939);Hagari1 (1941);Co1, Co2, Co3 and Co4 (1942);VZM1 andVZM2 (1958) andT36 B (1949). Finger millet improvement received a boost in Karnataka during the 1950-1960 period, and several new varieties such as Aruna, Udaya, K1, Purna, ROH 2 and Cauvery were released. Similarly, many varieties were released for other small millets in other states as well (Seetharam, 2015), including little millet variety Co 1 (1954); foxtail millet varieties Co1, Co2, Co3 (1943), H1, H2 (1948), T 4 (1949); kodo millet varieties PLR 1 (1942( ), T2 (1949( ), Co1 (1953)); proso millet variety Co1 (1954) and barnyard millet varieties T25 and T46 (1949).During the 1950s, with food production remaining stagnant and with population growing, the importance of millet crops in Indian agriculture, as important resources for dry land agriculture, started gaining recognition. A project for the intensification of research on cotton, oil seeds and millets was launched during this period, with several centres working on millets alone. The importance of genetic resources as primary raw material for crop improvement was recognised prior to initiation of coordinated project. The first attempt to collect the germplasm of millets in the country was made in 1961 under the PL 480 Project \"Storage, Maintenance and Distribution of Millets Germplasm\", which resulted in the collection of nearly 3,000 genetic stocks of various species including 718 samples of finger millet, 584 of kodo millet, 431of little millet, 615 of foxtail millet, 250 of proso millet and 399 of barnyard millet.Millets, in general, started receiving attention with the launch of the AICMIP in 1969. Small millets also started receiving some attention in a few selected centres. Crop improvement received a major boost during 1978-1979 through an International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-funded project of five crop-specific lead research centres in the country (viz. Almora in Uttarakhand [barnyard millet], Dholi in Bihar [proso millet], Dindori in Madhya Pradesh [kodo millet], Semiliguda in Orissa [little millet] and Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh [foxtail millet]). The project continued until 1985 and was replaced subsequently by the \"All-India Coordinated Small Millets Improvement Project\" (AICSMIP) in 1986. The centres that were operating under the IDRC project became part of AICSMIP. Small millets research has focused all along on the development of varieties and agro-production and protection technologies suitable for different regions. Currently, there are 14 centres functioning under the AICSMIP, spread across the country. Their work is multidisciplinary and applied in nature.Crop improvement is aimed at developing HYVs with resistance to blast disease quality fodder, early and medium maturity and white seed in finger millet, resistance to head smut in kodo millet and resistance to shoot fly in both proso and little millets. So far, a total of 293 varieties for the six small millet species have been released in the country from 1918 to 2020. Out of this, 86 were released before 1986 (pre coordinated-era) and 207 during 1986-2020 (post coordinated-project era) (Table 5.3).Modern finger millet varieties have the genetic potential of producing five to six tonne/ha under optimum cultivation conditions. Recombination breeding has resulted in the release of many superior varieties in foxtail, proso and barnyard millets as well. Large-scale variety testing on farmers' fields in participatory mode (Gowda et al., 2000) and frontline demonstrations have helped in spreading HYVs among farmers. Seed production and distribution, which is key to the successful adoption of HYVs is weak in many states. This has deprived farmers of many benefits arising from the cultivation of improved millets, in most parts of the country. Harnessing the yield advantages from these improved varieties is the need of the hour in order to make the cultivation of small millets truly competitive and economically viable.Packages of information about best practices such as the optimal time for sowing/planting, choice of varieties, time and method of application of fertilisers, etc. have been developed for different regions of the country. Management practices for aberrant weather conditions, for mitigating early, mid-and late season drought have been worked out. Remunerative cropping systems involving different pulse crops in millet for different regions have been created. Technology transfers attempted through frontline demonstrations on farmers' fields and large-scale station demonstrations have also helped narrow down the yield gap that exists between farmers' fields, demonstration plots and research station trials (Seetharam, 2015;Prabhakar, 2017). Plant protection measures to control economically important diseases and pests have been enhanced for small millets (Seetharam, 2015). Several blastresistant lines have been identified from the germplasm available at NAGS, and better crop protection practices for these diseases have been recommended.After years of neglect, millets are finding a place in agricultural research and agendas of large private companies, and from there are reaching supermarkets everywhere. They are increasingly being recommended by doctors and nutritionists as important foods for health and wellness, and as being helpful in preventing many diseases related to modern lifestyles, including obesity and diabetes. Numerous elite food chains have begun selling millets and millet-based products as health foods. As it stand, today, the productivity of small millets can be increased by more than 50% by adopting improved production practices, allowing more people to take advantage of these nutritious and healthy crops. In recent years, milling technology has been considerably improved to enhance grain quality. Millet mills are available for cottage-level and large-scale processing. Millets can be further processed for making various food items such as flakes, quick food cereals, ready to eat snacks, supplementary foods, extrusion cooking items, malt-based products, weaning foods and, more importantly, health foods.Farmers who had shifted from millets to other crops are keen now to go back to millets in view of the stable harvests ensured, the easy crop production, its drought resistance and eco-friendly production perspectives. The higher prices being offered in many parts of the country -especially for small millets, duly recognising their unique nutritional features -is making millets production a remunerative proposition vis-à-vis other crop options available in each region. The R&D efforts made in the area of grain processing and value addition through the development of novel diversified foods especially in sorghum, finger millet and other millets are opening new avenues for expanding the consumer base and enhanced the absorption of production for food use.The immediate needs for supporting millet promotion are:I Sustain and increase production of nutritionally rich millets and expand opportunities for value addition as incentives. II Conserve the genetic resource base and provide superior germplasm possessing the required attributes for food, feed and other diversified use-needs. III Overcome production constraints by providing technological inputs appropriate to each region. IV Raise awareness among the general public, policy makers, traders, farming communities, consumers, entrepreneurs and donors on the role of nutrientdense millets, thereby increasing demand and use.Keeping all the above in view, research activities are to be restructured and should reflect closely the location-specific needs in each region. Millet R&D should not be viewed from crop and productivity angles only, but also should be more holistic, reflecting other benefits such as acquiring greater ecological balance and climate change adaptation of production systems, as well as strengthening the food, nutrition and health security of people at large.After years of neglect, small millets suitably designated as climatic-resilient or climate-smart crops, or as nutri-cereals, are now receiving more attention in India's agricultural R&D agenda. Their rich crop diversity has made these plants well suited to contingency crop planning and also to address issues related to climate change. Highly versatile millets like foxtail, barnyard, proso and little millet would fit into any situation of climatic change and could save farmers from total crop failures. Future research priorities for small millets include the utilisation of trait-specific germplasm, basic and strategic research for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, varietal diversification, developing viable crop production and protection technologies and value addition. Small millets are viewed as important crops for the health and wellness of people and can help in preventing many kinds of diseases related to modern lifestyles, including obesity and diabetes. Lately, plenty of elite food chains have begun selling millets and millets-based products as health food. Increased popularity of small millets as nutri-cereals paves away for further strengthening nutritional security in India. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-7Africa's dominant food systems heavily rely on exotic species (National Research Council, 2008). Some of the main staples across the continent, such as maize (Zea mays) and cassava (Manihot esculenta), as well as a number of widely grown fruits and vegetables such as papaya (Carica papaya) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), were introduced from the 'New World'. Other species widely present on the continent such as mango (Mangifera indica) and irrigated rice (Oryza sativa) were imported from Asia.Nonetheless, a number of species originating from the African continent have made it into global value-chains, including coffee (arabica [Coffea arabica] and robusta [Coffea canephora]), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), and a cotton species (Gossypium spp.) (Van Damme and Termote, 2008). Africa is also a center of diversity for a number of commodities of importance, that are as yet underresearched and under-invested in. Staples such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), yams (Dioscorea spp.), finger millet (Eleusine coracana), fonio (Digitaria exilis) and teff (Eragrostis teff ); legumes such as cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) or lablab (Lablab purpureus); vegetables such as African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) or okra (Abelmoschus esculentus); and fruits such as tamarind (Tamarindus indica) or baobab (Adansonia digitata) have entered national or regional value-chains, but are yet to be used to their full potential (Van Damme and Termote, 2008). At the same time, the continent harbors an enormous amount of locally important species -such as fumbwa (Gnetum africanum), spider plant (Cleome gynandra), weda (Saba senegalensis), safou (Dacryodes edulis) and African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) to name but a few -that have potential to be further developed and to contribute to the livelihoods and nutrition security of smallholder family farmers.Céline Termote, Stepha McMullin, Hendre Prasad However, scientists and policy makers often remain unaware of the great nutritional, socio-cultural, economic and environmental potential of these resources to African food systems (Akinola et al., 2020). Therefore, this chapter presents a number of examples on how to increase interest in these species through research, domestication, production, marketing, consumption and promotion of these valuable species.Ethnobotany is the science that documents human-plant interactions, or, in other words, how humans use the plant biodiversity surrounding them for food, feed, arts, medicines, etc., allowing new crops to be discovered (Van Damme and Termote, 2008).Ethnobotanical surveys have been and are still being carried out all over the continent in order to document the rich knowledge on edible species held by the inhabitants of specific villages, tribes or regions (e.g., Termote et al., 2011 on wild edible plants in Tshopo District, DR Congo or Ojelel et al., 2019 for wild edible plants in Teso-karamoja, Uganda). Most of the studies only cover specific regions or tribes and it is much harder to find national overviews, such as the book by Maundu et al. (1999) Traditional Food Plants of Kenya. Other authors only deal with a specific food group such as fruits (e.g., Gueye et al., 2014, wild fruits from the Malinke in Senegal) or vegetables (e.g., Achigan-Dako et al., 2010, Traditional Vegetables in Benin).While there is plenty of information available on African edible plants that merits inclusion in accessible national and regional databases, there are still many gaps in terms of coverage of ethnic groups, agro-ecological zones and/or regions, in order to unravel the continent's rich botanical heritage before it's lost (Akinola et al., 2020). In that regard, the open access PROTA book series, 1 presenting plant resources for tropical Africa in different volumes, is an interesting resource to start with.A number of these species have the potential to be further developed and promoted for niche markets (Van Damme and Termote, 2008). Such markets allow for price setting by the farmers and offer many more opportunities for smallscale, resource-poor farmers to earn decent livelihoods compared to global commodity markets for items such as coffee, tea or cocoa, where prices are set by international players at the expense of the farmer. As the resources for further morphological, genetic, nutritional, economic or socio-cultural characterizations as well as domestication trials and market development are limited, a prioritization of species for further development is required, a process that should include beneficiary communities.For example, in northern Benin, Bioversity International (BI) worked with local stakeholders to prioritize 11 multi-purpose species (Table 6.1), which are currently undergoing full characterization (nutritional composition, sociocultural and economic value, and agronomic potential). Combined with studies on threats, conservation status and domestication potential, species knowledge products are in development and will support ongoing interventions using local biodiversity to improve diet quality and nutrition of vulnerable populations in northern Benin.In Northern Kenya (Turkana county), BI researchers documented local knowledge on 64 wild edible plant species (WEPs) (unpublished data); however, almost none of these species were found in the diets of 240 mothers and small children surveyed in pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in Loima sub-county (Aluso, 2018). Nonetheless a number of them have the potential to improve dietary quality of women and small children in the area. Six of these wild foods (some naturalized) were selected based on availability of nutrient content data and their potential contribution to closing nutrient gaps (Sterculia africana [African-star chestnut], Berchemia discolor [wild almond], Grewia tenax [white crossberry], Amaranthus hybridus [amaranth], Solanum americanum [American nightshade] and Celosia argentea [celosia]), to model the lowest-cost, most-nutritious diets with and without these wild foods using the Cost of Diet linear programming tool developed by Save the Children, UK. 2 Results showed that the addition of the three wild vegetables resulted in cost reductions of 30%-71% compared to the models without wild foods, as well as making up for iron and zinc gaps in the models without wild foods (Sarfo et al., 2020). Many NUS have higher nutrient values than their cultivated counterparts (Akinola et al., 2020); however, they do not always contribute as much as they could to closing nutrient gaps or improving livelihoods. In a study around the Lama Forest in southern Benin, 91% of households mentioned they sometimes collect WEPs, but only 8 of the 61 WEPs documented in the area were found in 37% of the 240 24h-dietary intake recalls carried out during the lean season. Fermented Parkia biglobosa kernels were consumed the most (Boedecker et al., 2014). Similar results were found in a study on WEP consumption in Tshopo District, DR Congo by Termote et al. (2012) with only 11 out of 77 known WEPs reported in 30% of the recalls carried out in Yaoseko village. Both studies found that people who consumed WEPs the previous day, compared to those that did not, had higher dietary diversity scores and/or higher nutrient intakes for that day. Other studies, such as Dovie et al. (2007) in South Africa, found much higher contributions of WEPs to micronutrient intakes.Increasing knowledge on the nutritional and livelihood benefits of NUS through nutrition education or counseling -whether or not in combination with trainings on how to grow, prepare, conserve and market them -has been successful in several projects throughout the continent. One of the earliest examples (Box 6.1), is the African Leafy Vegetables (ALV) project carried out in Kenya by BI and partners from 1996 to 2003, wherein the multifaceted approach of prioritizing, characterizing, improving production and simultaneously creating demand through nutrition education and media campaigns led to better livelihoods for hundreds of ALV farmers (Gotor and Irungu, 2010). Building on this early work, an integrated community-based approach for farm, market and diet diversity was developed in Vihiga county, Kenya. 3 A diagnostic survey documented dietary intake patterns and agricultural biodiversity. Subsequently, community groups were taken through a series of workshops wherein (a) the importance of nutrition and balanced diets was explained, (b) the diagnostic survey results were discussed and (c) community action plans (CAP) were drafted. All groups decided to grow ALVs and legumes in kitchen gardens and some even added poultry activities. During CAP implementation, the groups were guided through agricultural trainings and nutrition counseling. An end-line survey after one year showed that dietary diversity scores had significantly increased for women as well as for small children in the whole community. The percentage of children meeting minimum dietary diversity (consuming foods from a minimum of four out of seven food groups) also increased significantly (Boedecker et al., 2019). The approach is currently being further piloted in two new contexts in Kenya (in Turkana and Busia counties).Other interesting models currently being pilot-tested in Kenya to promote production and consumption of NUS are f.e. (1) direct food procurement for school feeding programs, linking ALV farmers with schools in Busia county with the double goal of improving school meal quality, nutrition and performance of pupils as well as improving farmer incomes and livelihoods (Borelli et al., in press); and (2) multi-stakeholder platforms to connect ALV farmers with markets, facilitate business plan development and attract investments in Nakuru (SASS project 4 led by the European Centre for Development Policy Management) and Kisumu (Healthy Food Africa project 5 led by BI), with the aim to build inclusive value-chains that support food system resilience and diet quality.To support this work, a range of tools to raise awareness on the nutritional and livelihood benefits of NUS have been developed; for example, in southern Benin, BI researchers developed a picture-based recipe book integrating NUS into traditional recipes to improve their nutritional quality (Bodjrènou et al., 2018). Another tool developed and refined within several BI projects is the seasonal food availability calendar to assist extension workers and consumers with yearround selection of foods from different food groups to meet minimum dietaryRealizing that nutritious traditional leafy vegetables were rapidly disappearing from plates and fields, BI and its partners started implementing a project on ALV in the mid-1990s. Through ethnobotanical surveys, 210 different ALVs were documented, of which few were found to be regularly consumed by those surveyed. Germplasm was collected for conservation in the national gene-bank and characterized. Eight species, including Amaranthus (Amaranth spp.), spider plant (Cleome gynandra) and cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata), were prioritized for further research. Their nutritional composition was determined and the effects of storage and processing on their nutrient composition was studied.Subsequently, the project worked with farmers and consumers to optimize agronomic protocols and increase knowledge on the nutritional benefits of ALVs. Four hundred and fifty farmers benefited from seed starter packages and training on growing ALVs. Farmers were linked with market outlets and public awareness strategies such as cooking contests; recipe booklets and radio station coverage were organized. As a result, ALVs started appearing in supermarkets in Nairobi (EIARD, 2013). Three years after the project ended, an impact study revealed that the production of ALVs in peri-urban Nairobi had increased more than ten-fold since 1997. Almost 23% more farmers grew a minimum of one ALV, and the average number of ALVs grown increased from 1.5 to 2.3 (Gotor and Irungu, 2010). Women played a key role in the production, marketing and consumption of ALVs, and incomes increased in regions where farmers were linked to markets. Increased awareness of the nutritional value of ALVs was identified as a key driver for the increased demand.diversity standards and, thus, increase chances of covering all individual nutrient needs (Lochetti et al., 2020).The World Agroforestry (ICRAF) developed the food tree and crop portfolio approach to enhance the seasonal availability of nutritious foods in local food systems (McMullin et al., 2019). These nutritious food portfolios are location-specific recommendations for cultivating a greater diversity of indigenous and exotic food trees (those that provide fruits, leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and oils) with complementary vegetable, pulse and staple crops that could address food harvest and micronutrient gaps in local households' diets. Additionally, the tool shows the nutritional value (vitamin A, vitamin C, iron and folate) of selected species using a scoring system to simplify nutrient content information, which is very useful in supporting decision-making for species selection. Indigenous and underutilized species are included in the portfolios as they are socio-culturally relevant in local food systems, and are adapted to individual landscapes, with a diversity of species enhancing resilience to more variable environmental conditions (Dawson et al., 2019). Tree-foods are often available when other crops fail, and also during the \"lean\" season. They complement and diversify the predominantly staple-based diets of rural households through the year (Kehlenbeck et al., 2013).Another tool to support mainstreaming micronutrient rich tree-foods in local food systems is ICRAF's Priority Food Tree and Crop Food Composition Database, 6 which presents nutrient data of over 90 food-tree and crop species. The database presents the backbone of the portfolios but can also be used for dietary assessments, developing training materials, and selecting nutrient-rich species for domestication and breeding programs. However, for a range of indigenous species, nutrient content data is still missing due to a lack of research and private sector interest and investment in these species (Dawson et al., 2018).One of the biggest challenges to growing a diversity of food-tree species, and NUS in general, is the lack of availability and access to quality planting material. Attention to delivery systems for planting material has been identified as an important success factor for mainstreaming orphan crops (McMullin et al., 2021). To effectively reach large numbers of smallholder farmers, well-functioning, decentralized systems for delivering seeds, seedlings and associated management information are required (Dawson et al., 2012).ICRAF has been working on domesticating and improving its mandate trees, many of which fall into the category of NUS. The Genetic Resources Unit of ICRAF maintains more than 120 tree species either as seeds or in-situ collections. Most trees have a very long lifespan, are propagated using vegetative means and are difficult to breed using traditional methods. Traditionally, trees have been bred using simple methods like selecting good performing ones, known as \"(plus)+\" trees, which are then supplied as clonal improved material; but further steps are needed for major increments in phenotypic traits and better performance. To enhance tree-breeding efforts, the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC 7 ) is developing genomics resources for 101 crop species, around half of which are trees while the remaining are annual species. The AOCC aims to improve the nutritional value, productivity and climate adaptability of these traditional food crops and to increase their use in African diets (Hendre et al., 2019;Jamnadass et al., 2020). A number of AOCC species have been considered by ICRAF for developing advanced breeding programs using modern genomics tools (Table 6.2). Africa is home to a lot of promising species with the potential to improve diets and livelihoods. Only a few African species have made it into global value-chains, but a large number of them have regional, national or local importance, albeit with their full potential still yet to be discovered. While knowledge gaps remain on the nutritional, economic, socio-cultural and ecological importance of these species, ongoing research into context-adapted models promoting NUS production and consumption are generating evidence on how these have the potential to enhance diet quality, nutrition and incomes. Given that NUS are also well adapted to their local environments and support farm resilience, they could play an important role in the transition towards healthy, sustainable and inclusive African food systems. Latin America is home to an extraordinary diversity of nutritionally important fruit-tree species (Kermath et al., 2014) and, for millennia, local people have selected and domesticated useful species in their landscape (Levis et al., 2018). Despite the high diversity of nutritionally rich fruit trees, the homogenization and Westernization of consumption patterns in the region have driven the spread of poor diets, particularly in rural areas. Diets, especially of Indigenous communities are increasingly based on staples and processed food with lower nutritional values (Coimbra et al., 2013). Farming in Latin America is increasingly based on unsustainable and environmentally damaging practices, which drive tropical forest degradation and deforestation (Dobrovolski et al., 2011). Over 80% of Latin American farms are managed by smallholders (Leporati et al., 2014), who are incentivized by policy initiatives to prioritize fruit cash-crops at the expense of on-farm diversity (Sthapit et al., 2016). Although crops such as palm oil Elaeis guineensis), cacao (Theobroma cacao) and banana (Musa sp.) can play an important economic role in the region, monocultures make farmers increasingly vulnerable to socioeconomic and environmental shocks (Maas et al., 2020).The advantages of adopting a greater diversity of fruit-tree species clearly extend beyond economic resilience. One premise of this chapter is that ecological benefits, including restoration of landscapes and delivery of ecosystem services -carbon sequestration, pollination, soil protection, and fauna habitat connectivity -will be generated through increasing the role of underutilized fruit species in local, national and international markets. This will also contribute to the conservation of important genetic resources (vanHove and VanDamme, 2013;Thomas et al., 2018;van Zonneveld et al., 2020). In the Americas alone, there are several thousand fruit-bearing tree species with the potential to generateRobin Van Loon, Elisabeth Lagneaux, Gabriela Wiederkehr Guerra, Fidel Chiriboga-Arroyo, Evert Thomas, Bruno Gamarra, Maarten van Zonneveld, Chris Kettle income and improve diets (Bioversity, 2004). Despite considerable evidence supporting their ecological, cultural, nutritional, and livelihood-related benefits (Santos, 2005;Jansen et al., 2020), many of these native fruit species remain neglected or underutilized (NUS). While it is clear that not all fruit species have the potential to become global market sensations, significant opportunities exist to increase the range of promising species at regional or national levels, improving community food security and local economies.We reviewed a representative sample of 150 NUS across 27 families from various Latin American ecoregions. From this species list, we identify 25 highpotential species, considered to have the greatest scope expanding their commercial horizons (Table 7.1). We identify and discuss a range of barriers to adoption of native fruit-tree species, across farmer-facing obstacles, gaps in the value-chain and barriers in consumer demand (Table 7.2). We describe examples of how these specific barriers have been lifted in the past. Finally, we make suggestions on how these solutions can be extended to other contexts in the future, unlocking the potential of a broader range of Latin American biodiversity -thus meeting growing consumer demand for supply-chain transparency and benefiting farmers throughout the continent.Multiple factors can inhibit the uptake of native fruit-tree species in diversified farmer production systems and consumers' diets (see Table 7.2). The barriers are compiled into three main categories: (i) farmer-facing constraints at the production stage; (ii) value-chain related obstacles and (iii) challenges related to consumer demand and marketability.On-farm challenges in fruit production can prevent farmers from adopting certain crops, thereby limiting the diversification of agroforestry systems. These challenges are often related to a lack of knowledge or capacity. In a study on native Amazonian fruit species selected for their high economic, social and ecological benefits, the identified barriers to adoption, whether for home consumption or as cash crops, were primarily socio-technical rather than market or profit oriented (Lagneaux et al., 2021). The most common limitations were, in order of frequency: lack of knowledge about the species, skepticism about productive potential given soil conditions, challenges related to harvests (e.g., in the case of tall palm species) and limited access to seeds and seedlings. This suggests that the factors keeping farmers from integrating more NUS fruit species are diverse and not exclusively economic.For greater uptake of NUS it is helpful to understand which species are compatible with important commercial crops. Coffee in Central America is often Selection of 25 high-potential Latin American fruit-tree NUS along with their possible uses, current geographical distribution and recommended scale of market interplanted with fruit species that are complementary in terms of size and ecology, such as guava (Psidium guajava) and hog plum (Spondias mombin) (de Sousa et al., 2019). However, in many cases, in-field compatibility among fruit species may be limited; therefore, optimizing the designs of farm parcels is crucial to achieve successful outcomes. The lack of agronomic knowledge is also a significant barrier to the adoption and success of NUS -albeit one that can be overcome with training and horizontal knowledge sharing among farmers, such as in farmer field schools (see section 3). Decision-making on which species to plant is sometimes influenced by the time it takes for a species to become productive. The Amazonian Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) for example is a hyper-dominant species, delivering multiple ecosystem services (Thomas et al., 2018). However, the trees only become profitable after 15-20 years or more and concerns in the region about its future market viability are increasing despite some enrichment planting (Bronzini, 2019). The investment required to bring this species to productive age may discourage its use when other species can deliver returns quicker. This serves to illustrate how a species' ecology -and the level of knowledge thereof -can act as barriers to adoption, in this case by smallholders in the Amazon.Two of the most significant challenges faced by smallholders in rural areas are post-harvest storage and the transport of fresh fruit to market. Given the perishability of many tropical fruits, processing them into value-added products with longer shelf-life is crucial for producers to fully benefit from the economic potential of these species. Farmers often face basic infrastructural limitations such as lack of electricity or potable water, restricting fruit processing options (Smith et al., 2007). Many fruits are never folded into even local market supply-chains due to the simple lack of transportation access to those markets, despite the fruits being delicious and highly nutritious. Fruits are typically moved at the farmer's expense by boat, motorcycle or truck to intermediate buyers, leading to less profitable transactions and an increased risk of damage to the product, resulting from a lack of operational cold chains. Consequently, market opportunities for fresh fruits are often extremely limited, and improvements to on-farm processing are needed for the development of viable fruit value-chains. Fresh copoazú (Theobroma grandiflorum), a relative of cacao, has a rather short shelf-life, perishing only four days after fruit-drop if it is not cold stored or processed. Other fruits are even faster to lose their color or flavor after harvest. For such species, the constant monitoring of trees, quick harvests and rapid transport to the closest local market are required in the absence of on-farm infrastructure.Another Amazonian fruit, camu camu (Myrciaria dubia), prized for its outstanding nutritional value (Rodrigues et al., 2001), requires careful handling for optimum quality. If harvested semi-ripe, the fruit contains high amounts of vitamin C -the highest of any fruit -but its color and flavor are less attractive.Harvested ripe, it possesses an impressive color and flavor, but the vitamin C content is less stable. Promoting fruits such as camu camu requires research and investment in more sophisticated fruit processing capacity, which, in this example, would enable the stabilization of vitamin C while also preserving organoleptic qualities.Many native fruits are unknown to urban consumers, hampering their inclusion in national diets. In big cities, fruit consumption is often limited to conventional, familiar fruits. Even though copoazú and Brazil-nuts are major income generators in the Peruvian Amazon, they are almost unknown in the capital Lima, where their consumption is surpassed by strawberries and almonds. This was also historically the case for camu camu -until 2019 when the Aje Group, Peru's largest soft-drink company, carried out a national publicity campaign and established the fruit as the main ingredient in a beverage on the market. This example demonstrates the impact that effective awareness-raising and marketing can have on increasing the visibility of NUS fruits. Public institutions can also play an important role in educating the masses on the benefits of a variety of locally produced fruits -for example, municipalities organizing cultural and gastronomic events.On the other hand, consumer preference for local fruits in the Global North can amount to an obstacle to the promotion of underutilized Latin American fruits in international markets. This is mainly because of concerns about sustainability, the carbon footprint of airfreight and the lack of transparency of supply chains in remote countries. Novel tropical-fruit products can benefit from expanding conscientious markets ( Jansen et al., 2020); consumers are increasingly demanding ethically sourced products that demonstrate traceability and provide guarantees of ecological sustainability and social fairness. Value-chains in which brands and retailers are committed to tracing fruits back to farmers can provide powerful incentives to continue growing native fruit species. A new product is mainly successful when it offers great taste, high quality and competitive pricing, but marketing can also break through by focusing on nutritional, social or environmental benefits.For any particular NUS, multiple barriers to adoption are often present. The removal of one significant barrier can sometimes be sufficient to unlock the potential of a species. We do not necessarily need to confront all barriers to adoption to effectively address crucial bottlenecks.Farm-facing solutions: In general, the removal of on-farm barriers requires engagement, working closely with farmers at each stage in the production process. This is especially the case when scaling-up diverse farming systems, where longterm species are intercropped with short-and medium-term income-generating species -successional agroforestry. Government and other programs can help reduce the risk of traditional cultivars being replaced with monocultures by promoting diverse agroforestry systems with multiple perennial species, such as in the case of cacao cultivation in Central America (de Sousa et al., 2019). Diversity fortifies resilience, both on the farm and in the market, yet does require effective decentralized platforms for delivery of technical support, capacity building and knowledge transfer on species selection, planting design, management and harvesting strategies. Agronomic knowledge on the compatibility and complementarity of different native fruit species in agroforestry systems also needs to be more widely available and horizontally shared.Finally, gaps in infrastructure and know-how for propagation (nurseries) and distribution in rural, remote areas with limited accessibility must be addressed if promising species are to be widely adopted. In the example of cherimoya, access to selected cultivars in combination with improved management (e.g., introduction of new pruning approaches) has resulted in increased incomes for Andean farmers in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia (Vanhove and Van Dammel, 2013).Another example is ramón (Brosimum alicastrum), a hyper-dominant forest species that is now embraced by local communities in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Community-and farmer-facing outreach focused on the economic and nutritional benefits of new fruits is fundamental to the success of such non-profit programs. At the same time, the organization of fruit harvesters in associations -in this case with the collaboration of associations such as Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén and NGOs like Rainforest Alliance (Izabela et al., 2019) -can be key to hitting export volumes and for successful co-investing in necessary infrastructure.Value-chain development: A critical aspect of fomenting the adoption of native fruit species is the provision of economic incentives to farmers through reliable and equitable value-chains. In parallel, ensuring a consistent product through processing is critical to resilient value-chains. In Latin America, numerous examples of successful fruit processing exist, including pulp, dried fruit, flour, jams and freeze-or spray-dried powders (e.g., Moraes et al., 1994). All these added-value mechanisms help remove fruit transport barriers, though each has its own disadvantages. For example, the production of freeze-dried powder requires expensive equipment and fruit pulps need strict cold chains; meanwhile, jams are niche products with low overall consumption and demand. Opportunities exist for private and public sector actors to innovate. One alternative for overcoming fruit durability and transport barriers while preserving most of the fruit's natural features is the production of purees, a pasteurized form of fruit pulp that is highly versatile and can be used as an ingredient in a variety of final products. Puree is simple and cost-efficient to process and it can be stored and transported without a strict cold-chain. This is a solution that can be managed at the farm-level, keeping the added value of fruit processing in the hands of farmers.Many of Latin America's most economically significant trees provide other commodities such as seed oil for cosmetic or edible use. Brazil-nut, murumuru (Astrocaryum murumuru), and andiroba (Carapa guianensis) are just a few of the many native seed oils that have been successfully commercialized in Brazil (Plowden, 2004;Campos et al., 2015;Smith, 2015). Basic equipment -in this case oil presses -is all that is needed to enable small producers or cooperatives to offer value-added products to national markets. When this barrier -lack of access to capital or know-how for value-added equipment -is removed, fruits that previously were left to decompose on the forest floor can incentivize sustainable management of natural forest resources and the augmentation of wild production via agroforestry planting. In the example of Brazil, accessible financing terms are offered to farmers for investment in equipment and infrastructure (Machado de Moraes, 2014). Economic policies that promote the establishment of village-level infrastructure and development of local market-facing supply chains play a key role in successfully lifting a species from NUS status. The establishment of robust cooperatives or producer associations can help secure financing for equipment and strengthen producers' negotiating power with buyers and is, therefore, a vital component of fair trade certification standards -ensuring consumer satisfaction while also making a compelling argument for the consumption of unique fruits from distant regions.Up-scaling NUS access to consumers: The Amazon is home to a rich diversity of palms that are extremely abundant producers of nutritious and culturally significant fruits. The pulp of açaí (Euterpe oleracea) is now a globally consumed, antioxidant-rich \"superfood\" that was traditionally prominent in the forest economy and food security of the lower Amazon basin (Muñiz-Miret et al., 1996). This product became known beyond Brazil's borders thanks both to well-positioned flagship brands in foreign markets (such as Sambazon in the US) and to a range of policies that support farm-and village-level producers (OECD, 2011).In addition to açaí, acerola (Malpighia glabra), burití (Mauritia flexuosa) and copoazú have reached markets beyond the Amazon basin, but the lesson learned from Brazil suggests that establishing domestic as well as international markets is important for the creation of resilient value-chains. Brazil boasts a tremendous diversity of effectively domestically marketed products from the Amazon bioregion that remain underutilized in neighboring Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia, presumably due to a lack of similar national economic policies. Species that remain underutilized throughout their native range but which have been developed in Brazil include peach palm (Bactris gasipaes), pama (Pseudolmedia macrophylla), pitanga (Eugenia uniflora), patauá (Oenocarpus bataua) and charichuelo (Garcinia madruno).Governmental organizations, NGOs and Brazilian agricultural research institutes have promoted the consumption of native fruit species, resulting in the publication of a national ordinance that officially recognizes the nutritional value of more than 60 native food plants (Beltrame et al., 2016). With this policy support, federal and local governments have been able to achieve the inclusion of several fruits in subnational and local school lunch programs. Farmers who supply these programs are able to diversify their farms with nutritious food plants because the officially mediated procurement market incentivizes them to do so (Wittman and Blesh, 2017). Significant secondary benefits are achieved by introducing NUS in such school lunch programs, enhancing cultural acceptance and leading the way to the development of more robust local economies for these fruits.The promotion of new fruit products in national or international markets requires investment. For successful adoption, knowledge about the fruit diversity of a region must be shared among producers, practitioners and distributors and with food businesses, including restaurants and end-consumers. Food fairs such as Lima's massive Mistura Food Festival, academic presentations and social events are just some of the many platforms that can be used to promote new tastes and raise awareness of the nutritional, social and ecological values of fruits.A key component is the involvement of adequate first-market adopters including tastemakers and celebrity chefs such as Virgilio Martinez and Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, two of Latin America's most important voices currently at the intersection of gastronomy and biodiversity. Successfully promoting new and exotic tastes involves customers that are curious and open, for example, to exotic and innovative cuisine, as found in some of Latin America's top-ranked restaurants. To reach these customers and further broaden these fruits' clientele, creative cultural solutions are needed -a challenge that is multifaceted yet of great importance if broader acceptance of unfamiliar fruits is to be achieved.The barriers to adoption for underutilized fruit species in Latin America are as complex and diverse as the fruits themselves. The challenges in mainstreaming these fruits in food systems span from on-farm barriers, such as a lack of infrastructure or knowledge, to gaps in the value-chain, such as inability to process, stock or transport raw material, to lack of consumer demand because some products are not affordable or accepted. Heterogeneous and unfamiliar products struggle to scale up market access and consumer awareness. There are burgeoning examples of native fruit species that were, until recently, underutilized, but that now provide much-needed sustainable livelihood options for rural communities across the region. As demonstrated in this chapter, innovative processing systems, social institutions, ethical consumption and awareness-raising all play a role in lifting barriers (Table 7.2), to establish more resilient agroecological systems using the extraordinary genetic diversity of Latin American fruit-tree species. To synergistically contribute to income generation, diet diversification and resilient landscapes, poly-cultural food production using a greater diversity of fruit trees generates benefits from the local to the global scale. Simultaneously, better social outcomes are achieved, such as the creation of diverse diets with increased fruit consumption and associated public health improvement, development of more resilient farming systems, enriched livelihoods and the strengthening of local food security in cases of catastrophes. The diversity of fruits in Latin America is considerable and, while often overlooked, has the potential to help farmers overcome many of the biggest challenges they face. In order to unlock this transformative potential, practitioners from all sectors -governments, academia, businesses and NGOs -must collaborate on generating and sharing the practical knowledge of successes and failures that represents our most viable strategy for diversifying the food system.Buckwheat is an annual crop native to China. There are two main cultivated types, namely, common buckwheat and tartary buckwheat. The former is also called sweet buckwheat, while the latter is also called bitter buckwheat. Buckwheat is used for multiple purposes. The flour from the seed can be used to make a variety of foods. The straw and leaves can be used as fodder and medical raw material. Buckwheat grain is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, plant cellulose and other nutrients, and contains flavonoids, especially rutin, which has pharmacological effects for reducing blood fat and cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular diseases (Lin, 2013). Buckwheat is very adaptable to poor soil and cool weather conditions. The growth period of buckwheat is short -it generally takes about 60-90 days to mature. The annual planting area for the crop in China is 0.6-0.8 million hectares, and the total output is 0.5-0.6 million tons (Zhang and Wu, 2010). Buckwheat is a minor crop in China, as its cultivation area is small compared to staple crops such as rice, wheat and corn. However, buckwheat is considered an advanced food due to its high nutritional and medical values. The market demand for it at home and abroad is constantly expanding, which brings opportunities for strengthening buckwheat research and development (R&D) in China. This chapter aims to systematically review the current status of buckwheat biodiversity and its R&D in China, as well as identify research gaps and needs, and put forward action plans for improving the sustainable development of the buckwheat industry.Buckwheat is a pseudo-cereal crop belonging to the genus Fagopyrum, Family Polygonaceae. Fagopyrum species are widely distributed in Eurasia, with theirprimary diversity center being China. Before 1998, there were nine species and two varieties of Fagopyrum recorded in China (Li, 1998). Over the past 20 years, however, both Chinese and foreign scholars have discovered and reported more than 20 new wild species of Fagopyrum (Xia et al., 2007;Fan et al., 2019), particularly the ancestor species of buckwheat, namely, F.esculentum ssp. ancestrale (Ohnishi, 1998a) and F. tataricum ssp. potanini (Ohnishi, 1998b), were identified in the southwest of China. There are two main cultivated species, namely, F. esculentum Moench and F. tataricum (L.) Gaertn in China. Due to its medicinal use, F. cymosum (Trev.) Meisn. is being domesticated and some cultivated forms have been developed in China (Yuan et al., 2019).During the long history of its cultivation and domestication in China, two major types of buckwheat formed, namely, the cross-pollinated common buckwheat with high genetic diversity within its population, and the self-pollinated tartary buckwheat with high genetic diversity between populations. With years of effort, China has collected 3,085 accessions of buckwheat germplasm, including 2869 landraces (Zhang and Wu, 2010), accounting for 93% of the total. Landraces of tartary buckwheat were mainly from southwest regions, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Tibet, while those of common buckwheat were from north, northeast and northwest, including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Jilin.The ex situ conservation of buckwheat biodiversity is managed by the National Crop Genebank (NCG) at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). Buckwheat accessions were identified, multiplied, catalogued and stored for the long term in a temperature of -18°C. At the same time, samples of these accessions were also stored under mid-term conditions. Researchers from national organizations can access the accessions stored in NCG for research purposes (Zhang and Wu, 2010).As F. cymosum (Trev.) Meisn. has very important medicinal value, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs established in situ conservation sites in the Hubei and Hunan provinces to prevent important populations of F. cymosum (Trev.) Meisn. by using the way of physical isolation (Zheng et al., 2019). For onfarm management, Bioversity International and a partner of the Chinese Academy of Sciences initiated a study on in situ conservation of buckwheat in Liangshan, Sichuan province. The investigation showed that tartary buckwheat is a staple food crop of the Yi ethnic group that is native to Lianshan. A variety of landraces of tartary buckwheat were managed by local farmers. The living customs in the Promoting buckwheat in China 111Yi ethnic group and the ecological conditions in Liangshan were all conducive to the on-farm management of buckwheat biodiversity (Zhao et al., 1998).The characterization of agronomic traits of buckwheat biodiversity is mainly carried out by the relevant national research organizations coordinated by NCG at CAAS. Traits of plants, flowers and grains were measured; the growth period, lodging property and seed-shattering were accounted; and the contents of protein, fat, amino acids, vitamins and trace elements were analyzed. The analysis showed that buckwheat accessions had a rich diversity of agronomic traits, which was not only reflected in the traits themselves, but also showed great variation among materials from different regions. For example, the plant height ranged from 34 cm-205 cm, averaging 98.7 cm. The 1,000-grain weight of common buckwheat (26.68g) was significantly higher than that of tartary buckwheat (19.30g) (Zhang and Wu, 2010).With the rapid development of biotechnology, DNA molecular marker technology has been widely used in the study of the genetic diversity of buckwheat. Bioversity International, in cooperation with the CAAS and other relevant partners in China, analyzed the genetic diversity of buckwheat by using ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeat) markers. The results showed that there were significant genetic differences among local buckwheat cultivars in Yunnan, and there were significant genetic differences among local cultivars in Guizhou, Hubei and Yunnan (Zhao et al., 2006). A genetic linkage map of buckwheat was constructed by combining morphological and molecular markers, laying a foundation for gene mining in buckwheat (Du et al., 2013). Recently, Bioversity and CAAS carried out the transcriptome analysis with a focus on rutin accumulation at filling stage seeds among three buckwheat species (Gao et al., 2017) China attaches great importance to the improvement of buckwheat varieties. With the support of relevant national and local projects, many research institutions and universities have participated in breeding new buckwheat varieties, aiming to improve the yield per unit area, lodging resistance and quality, so as to meet the farmers' needs for more income generation by growing buckwheat. Breeding technology was mainly based on systematic selection. With the mechanism of cross-pollination of common buckwheat, natural hybridization was the source of variants for selection. With mutagenesis technology to enhance the germplasm, a batch of new buckwheat varieties were bred (Ma et al., 2015). Marker-assisted selection technique is used in buckwheat breeding, by identifying useful diversity, constructing genetic linkage map, and developing molecular indicators such as SSR (simple sequence repeat) markers for identifying the heterozygotes of interspecific hybridization (Yang et al., 2019).In the 1950s, the annual planting area of buckwheat in China crossed two million hectares. Later, it was squeezed by high-yielding crops, and the annual sown area has been 0.6-0.8 million hectares in current years. At present, buckwheat is grown in more than 20 provinces and regions, in which tartary buckwheat is mainly present in the southwest and common buckwheat in the north, northeast and northwest. According to buckwheat distribution, the production area can be divided into four ecological regions:1 Northern spring buckwheat region: This area includes the plateau and mountainous areas along the Great Wall and to the north, including parts of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, northern Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. This area is also the main producing area of common buckwheat. 2 Northern summer buckwheat region: This area is centered on the Yellow River Basin, bounded to the south by Qinling mountain and Huaihe River, west by the Loess Plateau and east by the Yellow Sea, where is also a traditional winter wheat region. Buckwheat is planted as a second crop, generally seeded in June-July. 3 Southern autumn and winter buckwheat region: This region includes the south of Huaihe River, the middle and low reaches of, and the south of the Yangtze River. This region has a wide area, warm climate, long frost-free period and abundant rainfall. It is dominated by rice with buckwheat used to fill vacant fields, and is sowed in September-November. 4 Southwest high land spring and autumn buckwheat region: This region includes Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the hills of Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou. It has a high altitude, as well as complicated ecological and geographical environments, with more clouds, less sunshine and large temperature differences between day and night. Tartary buckwheat is mainly planted in this region.The processing of buckwheat products is an important part of the value-chain.Early enterprises engaged in buckwheat processing were very small and were mainly based in the areas of buckwheat production. The processing products were mostly primary products, such as flour and noodles from common buckwheat, and flour and tea from tartary buckwheat. In recent years, buckwheatprocessing technologies have developed rapidly, and the product-market chain has extended dramatically. New products include kernels, roasted buckwheat rice, instant noodles, biscuits, beer, liquor, flavonoids, shell pillows, leaf powder, etc. Some traditional buckwheat food such as nest head, vinegar and powderedPromoting buckwheat in China 113 jelly also have been revitalized and popularized for driving the consumption of buckwheat, and achieving good economic and social benefits from the crop. Buckwheat is largely consumed by farmers themselves. However, considerable quantities are also made available to local and international markets. Bioversity and the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences worked on buckwheat value-chains with farmers, processors, traders and consumers to promote its production, processing and marketing, and contribute to income generation for farmers by adding the value to buckwheat produce and linking farmers to markets. However, great changes are have been taking place in buckwheat markets in China in recent years. With the increase of domestic consumption demand driven by its health value, China, an exporter of buckwheat, began to import buckwheat in large quantities -for example, 270,000 tons were imported in 2018 and 365,000 tons in 2019.China attaches importance to the R&D of buckwheat. In 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) integrated buckwheat into the modern agriculture technology system by establishing the national buckwheat R&D center, including laboratories and experimental stations tasked with the roles of organizing and coordinating the efforts in buckwheat R&D in the country, involving germplasm and breeding, cultivation, pest and disease control and processing. In 2017, the MARA, together with other relevant ministries and commissions, formulated the Outline of Action Plan on Advancing Special Agricultural Products, including buckwheat. Some local governments in buckwheat-producing provinces also issued relevant policies related to buckwheat R&D. In 2014, the government of Liangshan Prefecture of Sichuan Province promulgated the \"Suggestions to Promote the Development of Tartary Buckwheat Industry;\" In Guizhou Province, buckwheat was regarded as a green agricultural product in its \"Green Agricultural Products Project Work Plan (2017Plan ( -2020)).\" In 2019, the government of Shanxi Province formulated the \"Suggestions on Accelerating the Development of the Whole Industrial Chain of Miscellaneous Cereals\" including buckwheat as one of the eight miscellaneous crops prioritized.Due to the extension of high-yield crops such as corn and potato, the acreage of buckwheat is unstable, and many local varieties are at risk of being lost. In addition, the identification and evaluation of buckwheat germplasm resources are not sufficient, and many social, ecological and economic values of buckwheat remain unrevealed and underutilized.Buckwheat yield-per-hectare is low, and generally is below than one ton per hectare. There is a significant gap in productivity, specifically, a lower benefit from growing buckwheat than that from other crops such as potato. Therefore, the benefit of planting buckwheat has become the main concern of farmers and local governments, and is also a key problem that needs to be solved through research on improving yield and market value.The annual consumption of buckwheat in China is about 0.4 million tons, less than a half kilogram per capita. As buckwheat is recognized as a nutritional and healthy food, a diet centering on it has entered the public's cookbooks. Therefore, there is a huge potential for expanding the consumption of buckwheat in nutritional and healthy diets in China.Although the central and local governments have issued some support policies for buckwheat R&D, there is still a big gap compared to those for staple crops, including insufficient funds for research, weak in personnel capacity, lack of seed subsidies and fewer opportunities to secure loans from state-owned banks. Therefore, the sustainable development of buckwheat needs more favorable policies at the local and national levels.Efforts should be made to effectively evaluate and use buckwheat biodiversity for food, nutrition and income generation. More landraces and improved varieties should be made available for responding to consumer demand for nutritional and healthy foods and managing climate risks under changing environments. To achieve this objective, the following research activities should be undertaken:• Strengthening integrated conservation of buckwheat biodiversity through linking ex situ collections in genebank to in situ conservation in the wild and field.• Evaluating and identifying buckwheat biodiversity for useful traits with integrated morphological and molecular approaches. • Using local buckwheat biodiversity to improve yield and nutrition quality for new varieties and meet the needs of farmers, processers and consumers through integrated modern and participatory breeding methods.Planting mode and farming practices are critical for productivity and quality in buckwheat production. Strengthening the research on cultivation technology of buckwheat will contribute to increasing the yield potential, highlighting its nutritional characteristics and improving benefits from planting buckwheat. To achieve this, the following research activities should be strengthened:• Promoting green production of buckwheat with low inputs to maintain the nutritional and health value. • Promoting multiple cropping with buckwheat, by filling seasonal gaps to increase the efficiency of land use as well as farmers' incomes. • Advancing the mechanization for planting and harvesting to address labor shortage issues.Processing and marketing is an important part of the buckwheat value-chain and an effective way to realize the nutritional value of the crop. Only by making buckwheat popular with the masses, will consumers realize its nutritional and health value. To achieve this, the following research activities should be strengthened:• Promoting the value-chain of buckwheat by linking farmers to processors, traders and consumers. • Understanding and being aware of the nutritional and health value of buckwheat diets. • Promoting communication to change consumer behavior for dietary diversity.The external environment of buckwheat R&D includes relevant supporting policies and research programmes. Through strengthening the partnership with research institutions, enterprises and farmers to understand their need for support the relevant policy suggestions should be put forward to relevant government departments. To achieve this objective, the following policies must be promoted:• Subsidizing buckwheat seed production and distribution.• Financial support to support buckwheat activities, including funds for research, loans for businesses and small loans for farmers. • Enhancing national action in mainstreaming buckwheat for nutritious and healthy diets.Buckwheat is an underutilized crop, mainly used for food, feed and medical raw materials. Buckwheat biodiversity is the material basis for its improvement and options for farmers to improve their livelihoods. With the support of relevant national programmes and international collaboration, great progress has been made in buckwheat research on biodiversity conservation, variety improvement, production practice and food processing and marketing. The gaps and opportunities for further development of buckwheat have been identified in this chapter, and key action plans were put forward to promote the conservation of biodiversity for variety improvement, farming practices for high productivity, the value-chain for income generation and relevant policies for the revival and sustainable development of the buckwheat industry. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-10Mexico is a megadiverse country, harbouring at least 23,314 species of vascular plants, around half of which are endemic (Villaseñor, 2016) and distributed in ecosystems ranging from arid to wet and tropical to temperate types (Sarukhán et al., 2009). This high biodiversity is complemented by considerable cultural richness, encompassing 62 ethnic groups speaking 290 languages and over 360 linguistic variants (Eberhard, 2020), making Mexico among the top-ten countries for linguistic diversity and cultural richness (Sarukhán et al., 2009;Casas et al., 2016a) and home to one of the most important biocultural legacies of the world (Sarukhán et al., 2009). Such tremendous biocultural diversity has resulted in more than 9,000 plants with known uses (Casas et al., 2016a), including 2,168 documented as edible (Mapes and Basurto, 2016). From prehistoric times, southern Mexico together with Central America has been a centre of origin of plant domestication ( Harlan, 1971;MacNeish, 1992;Vavilov et al., 1992), including for many current main crops, such as maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, P. coccineus, P. acutifolius), pumpkins (Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. pepo), and chilies (Capsicum annuum). These crops contributed to shaping the agricultural system known as 'milpa' -meaning cultivated field in Nahuatl -which gave origin to and sustained Mesoamerican cultures (Moreno-Calles et al., 2010).In Mexico, there are nearly 200 native species of plants bearing clear signs of domestication. Moreover, nearly 1,200 species are under some form of management, such as let standing and planting enhancement, or special care dedicated to desirable plants. Such interventions may affect vegetation composition and promote particular 'types' (phenotypes of some species with favourable traits) and incipient domestication processes (Casas et al., 2007(Casas et al., , 2016b)).Status and priorities for their conservation and sustainable use Tiziana Ulian, Hugh W. Pritchard, Alejandro Casas, Efisio Mattana, Udayangani Liu, Elena Castillo-Lorenzo, Michael Way, Patricia Dávila Aranda, and Rafael Lira Within the edible plants basket, plentiful are the neglected and underutilized species (NUS) relatively unknown outside Mesoamerica. These are of importance locally for both food security and people's livelihoods. Being highly adapted to marginal environments, they contribute significantly to agroecosystem resilience and are crucial in our efforts to fight food and nutritional insecurity and help communities cope with pervasive climate change (Padulosi et al.. 2011;Ulian et al., 2020). This chapter reviews NUS in Mexico, in relation to the urgent need to secure their conservation and promote their sustainable use.From the great diversity of edible plants occurring in Mexico, it is possible to cluster species in three main groups:1 Traditional vegetables, such as the quelites (plural for 'quilitl' in Nahuatl, meaning 'greens'). These are herbs from several plant families, mainly used as food, but also include some species of trees and shrubs with edible flowers (Bye and Linares, 2016). Examples include Anoda cristata (alache), Crotalaria pumila (chipil or chipilin), Amaranthus hybridus, A. hypochondriacus, A. cruentus (quelites or amarantos), Dysphania ambrosioides (epazote), Chenopodium berlandieri (huauzontle), and Porophyllum ruderale subsp. macrocephalum (pápalo or pápaloquelite) whose young leaves -and in some cases inflorescences or seeds -are used as food (leaves from this taxon and D. ambrosioides are used as condiment as well as in anthelmintic treatments [Frei et al., 1998]). Young leaves and flowers from trees, such as Leucaena spp. (in náhuatl 'guaxquilitl' meaning quelite de guaje) are eaten as vegetables (Bye and Linares, 2016). It is very common that quelites are gathered in the wild for family consumption, grown in marginal cultivations, or sold in traditional and regional markets (Bretting, 1982;Casas et al., 2007;Blanckaert et al., 2012;Casas et al., 2016a,b;Mapes and Basurto, 2016;Vibrans, 2016). 2 Edible flowers and/or fruits of agave and cacti. Since prehistoric times, the leaves, flowers, and shortened stem (corm) of numerous Agave species have been used for fibres, food, and beverages. Alcoholic drinks such as pulque are at least 3,000 years old, while distilled beverages (mescal, bacanora, sotol, and tequila) are more recent innovations. Some species have been used also for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Incipient or advanced domestication has been documented only in few species (i.e., A. fourcroydes, A. salmiana, A. americana, A. mapisaga, A. tequilana, A. angustifolia, A. hookeri) (Figueredo-Urbina et al., 2017;Álvarez-Ríos et al., 2020). Demographic and genetic studies indicate that around 20 species (including A. marmorata, A. potatorum, A. kerchovei, A. tequilana blue variety, A. inaequidens) are at a high risk of extinction due to the degradation of their habitat, low genetic variation and/or overexploitation (Colunga García- Marín et al., 1996;Figueredo-Urbina et al., 2017;Aguirre-Planter et al., 2020).120 Tiziana Ulian et al.Among the cacti, the Opuntia species have been used since prehistory. This group of around 80 species and 200 local varieties native to Mexico (Reyes-Aguero et al., 2005) are used as living fences, to enhance soil conservation and/or combat desertification. Its cladodes (modified stems called nopales or nopalitos in Spanish) and fruits (grouped into two types, tunassweet -and xoconostles -sour) of about 10 species, are appreciated as sources of food, forage, medicinal remedies, additives for cosmetics, and used for feeding cochineal insects from which a carmin pigment is obtained (widely used as colourant in the food and cosmetic industries). Artificial selection (e.g., spineless cladodes), traditional management (Opuntia streptacantha), or partial domestication (O. hyptiacantha) or full domestication (O. ficus-indica) are known. Several food products, juices, and alcoholic beverages are commercially produced from cladodes and fruits. For example, 'colonche' (also referred to as coloche and nochoctli) is fermented from fruits of different cactus species, including columnar cacti (Ojeda-Linares et al, 2020). More recently, there has been an improvement of quality and safety, reduction of production costs, and development of marketing strategies for products of Opuntia (Illoldi-Rangel et al., 2012;López-Palacios et al., 2012).Several species of columnar cacti are used as food (e.g., Escontria chiotillaStenocereus stellatus [pitaya de agosto] and S. pruinosus [pitaya de mayo]) (Casas and Barbera, 2002;Casas et al., 2007Casas et al., , 2016b). These have great economic and cultural importance in several regions of Mexico (including in the Tehuacán Valley and the Balsas River Basin in the south-central region). The fruits of wild-cultivated Cephalocereus tetetzo (tetecho) and Pachycereus weberi (cardón) are highly appreciated by local people and are commonly left standing in agroforestry systems. 3 Fruits of trees and shrubs. Mexico has at least 2,885 native tree species (Tellez et al., 2020), many of which produce fruits that have been consumed by native populations since pre-Hispanic times (González and De-lAmo, 2012). Four species of well-documented management practices and domestication processes are Brosimum alicastrum (ramón), Leucaena esculenta (guaje), Sideroxylon palmeri (tempesquistle), and Ceiba aesculifolia ssp. brevifolia (pochote) (Casas and Caballero, 1996;González-Soberanis and Casas, 2004;Avendaño et al., 2006). Brosimum alicastrum is one dominant tree species that grows in perennial and sub-deciduous tropical forests along both coasts of Mexico. The fresh pulp of the fruit and the seeds are edible, while the leaves provide good fodder for animals. Its seeds, roasted and ground, are used as a coffee substitute and for preparing dark-coloured dough used for making bread and tortillas. They are rich in carbohydrates and protein (12% in dry weight), tryptophan (an amino acid poorly represented in maize), and also contain calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins A, B, and C. The abundance of this tree in Mayan archaeological sites is an indication of its management and cultivation by this ethnic group (Mapes and Basurto 2016).Leucaena esculenta [guaje] is mainly used as food by the Mixtec, Nahua, and Tlapanec peoples in the state of Guerrero, as well as by the Popoloca people in the Tehuacán Valley, Central Mexico. Its leaf buds, flowers, seeds, and young pods are eaten, and local gatherers have ensured morphological divergence between managed and unmanaged wild populations (Casas and Caballero, 1996;Casas et al., 2007;Blancas et al., 2010). Sideroxylon palmeri fruits are consumed in the Tehuacán Valley, where the species is widely commercialised (González-Soberanis and Casas, 2004). Flowers, roots, and seeds of C. aesculifolia subsp. parvifolia are consumed by local people, while stems and branches are used as firewood. Occasionally, the bark is used as a medicinal remedy to cure kidney disorders and skin infections, as well as to decrease blood sugar levels. In addition, locals protect individual trees and can favour varieties with purple-reddish fruits (Avendaño et al., 2006).In Mesoamerica, the Sapotaceae is among the most important fruit tree families (González and DelAmo, 2012). Manilkara zapota (zapote or chicozapote) grows in tropical forests in southern Mexico, where its fruits are consumed raw, used for making preserves or preparing sherbets and ice cream. At the global level, this species is better known for its latex, which is used in the production of the chewing gum. Pouteria campechiana (zapote amarillo, canistel), whose fruits are consumed raw, also thrives in the tropical forests of Mexico and is also commonly found in home gardens. Similarly, P. sapota (mamey), also occurring in tropical forests, is much appreciated for its fruits, which are consumed raw, or used in the preparation of sherbets, ice cream, and refreshing beverages. Mix cropping of these trees with other species is known, e.g citrus, ornamentals, and timber species, and they can be found in cocoa and coffee plantations to provide shade. Chrysophyllum cainito (caimito or cayumito) is a common tree of tropical forests with two variants of its fruit (purple and yellow/green) which are edible (Mapes and Basurto, 2016). Finally, about 13 species of Pinus (pinos piñoneros) are valued for their edible nuts (the most important being Pinus cembroides, P. nelsonii, P. maximartinezii and P. culminicola). These are distributed mainly in northern Mexico, and their seeds, rich in lipids and proteins, are collected from the wild and are used in desserts and snacks, and marketed all over the country (Mapes and Basurto, 2016).Traditional forms of plant management in Mexico range from the cultivation and selection of plant varieties to different types of management in situ, and to the gathering of plant products directly from the wild (Blancas et al., 2010). The degree of artificial selection and divergence between managed and wild populations is guided by farmers' needs (Casas et al., 2007;Blancas et al., 2010) and multiple approaches might be applied in the same field (Blancas et al., 2010; 122 Tiziana Ulian et al. -Calles and Casas, 2010). When plants are cultivated, they are sown by seeds or planted in agriculture fields or home gardens (Blanckaert et al., 2004). Some useful plants (wild or weedy forms) that already grow there may be spared by farmers and may be protected in various ways against herbivores, competitors, cold spells, intense solar radiation, and drought (Blancas et al., 2010). Their presence can be also increased through the dispersal of sexual or vegetative propagules. Among those plants maintained through seed dispersal, there are many quelites, such as A. hybridus, C. pumila, and A. cristata (Mapes and Basurto 2016).In contrast, many species of columnar cacti, several Opuntia species, agaves, and trees (e.g., L. esculenta and S. palmeri) are multiplied through vegetative propagation (Blancas et al., 2010). Nonetheless, many plant products are still extracted directly from the wild, based on sound ecological understanding and following sustainable practices, as recorded in the Guerrero Mountains, the Tehuacán Valley (Casas et al., 2007;Blancas et al., 2010), and the Sierra Tarahumara of the Chihuahua State (LaRochelle and Berkes, 2003). Since February 2002, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew), and the Facultad de Estudios Superiores, Iztacala of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Fes-I UNAM) have been banking seeds of wild plant species, including crop wild relatives from the arid and semiarid areas of Mexico (León-Lobos et al., 2012). Seeds have been collected and deposited at Fes-I UNAM, with duplicates stored at RBG Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), under an Access and Benefit Sharing Agreement. This has been achieved in the framework of the Millennium Seed Bank Project (now Partnership), which acts globally to safeguard plant diversity, focusing in particular on plants most at risk and most useful for the future of humankind (Liu et al., 2018). The partnership in Mexico served as a catalyst also for two further projects, viz. 'The MGU -Useful Plant Project' and the 'Science-based conservation of tree species in Mexico'. Overall, 2,598 wild plant species (more than 10 % of the Mexican flora) have so far been conserved ex situ as seeds in Mexico, with duplicates stored in the MSB. However, only 62 seed samples of 21 species from the most important groups of NUS mentioned here have been safeguarded through seed banking, and it is hoped that such a significant gap in the long-term conservation of NUS in Mexico can be filled in the near future.In situ and on-farm conservation realised by local communities in Mexico is an important facet of integrated plant conservation (Blanckaert et al., 2004(Blanckaert et al., , 2007;;Rodríguez-Arévalo et al., 2017). Traditional management systems have been recognised, in fact, to have higher capacity for conserving biodiversity and ensuring the resilience of socioecological systems than industrial systems (Berkes et al., 2000;Blancas et al., 2010;Chappell and LaValle, 2011).Many NUS in Mexico do occur in a wide range of traditional agroecosystems, such as milpa (corn-bean-squash field), chilar (chili pepper field), frijolar (bean field), and cafetal (coffee groves) (Mapes and Basurto, 2016), or are grown as crops in forests and agroforestry systems (Moreno-Calles et al., 2013). These are crucial places for the conservation of biodiversity and represent important reservoirs of plant genetic diversity (Blanckaert et al., 2004;Larios et al., 2013).Seed banking is highly complementary to these traditional management systems. However, seed conservation needs to be better targeted to adequately capture the great genetic diversity of NUS present in Mexico. More research on seed germination requirements and dormancy is also needed to support large-scale species propagation. Moreover, seed conservation is still highly challenging for numerous species with recalcitrant, desiccation-sensitive seeds, therefore alternative conservation measures (e.g., cryopreservation of embryos and embryonic axes) should also be deployed (Li and Pritchard, 2009;Wyse et al., 2018). In addition, there is a need to promote the 'cross pollination' of ideas between agriculturalists focusing on major crops and farmers working on traditional forms of management (Turner et al., 2011), if we are to really strengthen the development of sustainable agriculture practices.Although NUS are mainly collected for family consumption, some species are exchanged among households (Arellanes et al., 2013;Blancas et al., 2013) or are traded in markets (tianquiste), including those in big cities (Arellanes et al., 2013;Farfán-Heredia et al., 2018). Local and regional media, schools, NGOs, social organisations, and some governmental institutions promote the conservation and sustainable use of native plant resources and their associated traditional knowledge. However, greater mainstreaming and inclusion of NUS in policy and legal frameworks is much needed, as noted in 'The National Report on the Status of The Phyto-genetic Resources for Agriculture and Food Supply' (Molina-Moreno and Córdova-Téllez, 2006). In this regard, the Mexican Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), serves as an important bridge between academia, governmental agencies, and other sectors of society, by compiling and sharing knowledge on biological diversity, and promoting its conservation and sustainable use. 1 CONABIO now leads the project 'Securing the Future of Global Agriculture in the Face of Climate Change by Conserving the Genetic Diversity of the Traditional Agro-ecosystems of Mexico,' that seeks to support agrobiodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and resilience, 2 in line with the Nagoya Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www. cbd.int/abs/). However, strong participatory-driven decision-making (Padulosi et al., 2011;Noorani et al., 2015;FAO, 2019), economic incentives, and subsidies (Padulosi et al., 2019) are needed for such a process to be truly successful.Like other elements of nature such as minerals and fossil fuels, plant genetic resources are not dispersed evenly around the globe, being found in greater abundance in certain regions, especially in tropical countries (Shulman, 1986). The process of evolution, adaptation and migration of human beings across the planet and the exchange of germplasm was and continues to be decisive for the great variety of grains, fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers available, even if the majority of this diversity is still neglected and underutilized (NUS). During the period of the world's great navigations, between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, there was a substantial exchange of species (Hue, 2008) and some acclimatized on different continents, which became the basis of the world economy, resulting in strong global interdependence. Another important contingent of species, native to each region, was slowly being replaced by exotic species that were being introduced and, over time, these species stopped being used and fell into relative obscurity, though pockets of this biodiversity have been maintained by many different communities. Thus, thousands of native species have not received their due attention or support from research, despite the fact that their economic value and nutritional advantages have already been demonstrated in many instances (Coradin et al., 2018). With the greatest biodiversity on the planet, Brazil seeks, on the one hand, to increase the production of exotic commercial species that form the basis of most mainstream agriculture and food production in the country. On the other hand, also seeks to draw increasing attention to the wealth of NUS, native or naturalized, which can become new cultivation options, diversifying the agricultural and food portfolio, and bringing economic and socio-environmental advantages while also addressing many of the increasing malnutrition, health and environmental concerns of the country.Nuno Rodrigo Madeira, Valdely Ferreira Kinupp and Lidio Coradin Many initiatives from different sectors of the federal and state governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector have emerged to expand knowledge of NUS in the country. By valuing these species, which are more resilient and adaptable to adverse soil and climate conditions, thus requiring fewer external inputs, people's perception of their potential is increased and there is now greater awareness of the opportunities and possibilities of using such a vast diversity.Brazil presents a great variety of biomes and climates. Its geographical, environmental, climatic and cultural diversity is reflected in its food diversity, one of the greatest on the planet, as shown by the several sources of carbohydrates (rice, beans, corn, wheat, cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams) and meats (cattle, poultry, pigs, fish, goats and sheep) consumed.When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, in the year 1500, most Indigenous Peoples (around 300 ethnic groups at the time, 180 nowadays) had a diet based on cassava, sweet potatoes and corn, complemented by hunting and fishing. However, as hunters and gathers, there is also evidence of the use of many other species (Lopes, 2017).During the colonization process, intense cultural miscegenation took place, with the introduction of exotic ingredients that joined those already present in Brazilian territory. Cascudo (1983) concluded that Europeans introduced technique and sophistication in taste to existing Indigenous and African elements. Madeira et al. (2008) mention the exchange of vegetables by the Portuguese, directly and intentionally but also indirectly, through the enslavement of Africans.After the 1960s, with intense urbanization and globalization, there was a loss of the reference of the home gardens production and a strong influence of market power in food choices and in the strengthening of large supermarket chains, driving dietary simplification and prioritizing species with structured production chains, resulting in the reduced use of local species with subsequent social, economic and environmental impacts (Brazil, 2013).However, some NUS with significant cultural importance in certain regions of Brazil continued to be used, mainly by local people (Brasil, 2015). Table 10.1 presents examples of these NUS, including assaí, cupuaçu, peach palm, Brazilian nut, jambu and waterleaf in the north; buriti, babassu, uricuri, umbu, hibiscus and yam in the northeast; Brazilian grape, pereskia, taro, arracacha, taioba and Malabar spinach in the southeast; feijoa, pindo, horseradish, Brazilian pine and mate in the south; and pequi, baru, Brazilian copal, cagaita and guariroba in the mid-west (Coradin et al., 2018). Other species that were once part of daily life are now largely forgotten, including arrowroot, mangarito, yam bean and sweetcorn root (Table 10.1), in a process termed \"food extinction\" by Madeira and Botrel (2019).In Brazil, there is some confusion regarding the use of the term \"NUS\" and which species call under this terminology proposed by IPGRI (2002). Other terminologies also used in Brazil are \"traditional vegetables\" (Madeira et al., 2013), \"unconventional vegetables\" (Cardoso et al., 1998) and PANC -\"nonconventional edible plants\" in Portuguese (Kinupp and Lorenzi, 2014), the last of which is nowadays the most accepted term in Portuguese for NUS. Kinupp and Lorenzi (2014) defined PANC as \"unconventional and nonordinary plants that have one or more parts that can be used as food, or even unconventional parts of conventional plants, as banana navel or papaya tree marrow.\" Madeira and Kinupp (2016) add that PANC don't have a structured production chain. This term being very expressive and euphonic in Brazil (PANC in Portuguese sounds exactly like \"punk,\" giving it a curious double meaning) seeks to promote and disseminate the use of these plants that are still considered unusual by the vast majority of the Brazilian population.In Brazil, a considerable number of studies on individual species can be found, but academic studies on the broader themes of NUS or PANC are rare or few in number. The lack of studies regarding the cultivation and promotion of NUS use is a real concern and requires special attention being given to further research, as well as development that might stimulate their greater conservation, production and consumption. In this context, a series of initiatives related to the promotion of NUS use in Brazil have been developed and continue to be encouraged. One classic work is the Dictionary of Useful Plants of Brazil and Cultivated Exotic Plants, written by Pio Corrêa and published by the Ministry of Agriculture between 1926 and 1978 in six volumes, with the collaboration of Penna for volumes 3-6, and reissued in 1984. With the objective of promoting regional food culture, Cardoso (1997) released the book Non-conventional vegetables from the Amazon, emphasizing their full adaptability to high temperatures and humidity and low soil fertility.The sustainable use of the Brazilian genetic resources is limited to areas of natural occurrence and involves complex activities, from bioprospecting and research to the transformation, production and creation of new markets and commercialization.To tackle this issue, the Ministry of the Environment has developed, since the 2000s, the \"Plants for the Future\" initiative, which aims to identify native species that can be used for crop diversification to expand opportunities for investment by the private and public sectors and to reduce the vulnerability of the agri-food system.As biodiversity is used and valued, its conservation is enhanced and the number of species used is expanded, together with its contribution to climate change adaptation. Through partnerships with governmental and non-governmental institutions, the academic and business sectors and civil society, the initiative has been building strategies that also contribute to the rescue and valorization of knowledge and flavors of traditional and regional Brazilian cuisine (Santiago and Coradin, 2018).More than 800 species have been prioritized in the five geopolitical regions of Brazil. In each of these regions, the species were organized into different groups of use: food, aromatic, medicinal, oilseed and ornamental, among others. A richly illustrated and technically comprehensive book has been published for each region (Figure 10.1). In 2011, the first book, Native species of Brazilian flora with actual or potential economic value: Plants for the Future -South Region, was published. In 2017, the book for the mid-west region was released; in 2018, the one for the northeast region; and the books for the north and southeast regions are set to be launched in 2021, concluding this series, which has involved the contributions of hundreds of experts.These books collectively and for the first time present to the wider Brazilian society quality information about the value o f native biodiversity for health, food security, wellbeing, employment opportunities and income generation -all of which are key objectives of the Plants for the Future initiative. It's the first effort of this kind carried out in a megadiverse country. It also represents an important step for the implementation, in Brazil, of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), as well as of the Targets of the Global  Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and will no doubt be an important platform for the country to enhance the conservation and use of NUS in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) post-2020 global biodiversity framework.Furthermore, the partnership between Plants for the Future and the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project 1 has enabled greater collaborations with different sectors of society, in addition to creating new opportunities for mainstreaming biodiversity into already existing federal initiatives related to food and nutrition (Figure 10.2) (Hunter et al., 2020). This facilitated the capacity building of many technicians and students and the publication of recipe book -Brazilian Biodiversity: tastes and flavours. With 335 classic and contemporary recipes, the book has revived traditional flavors and techniques, presenting new tastes and textures (Santiago & Coradin, 2018). This partnership also facilitated the organization of a list of native Brazilian socio-biodiversity species of nutritional value (Ordinance MMA/MDS nº 284/2018) to guide governmental actions, while also creating incentives for family farmers who produce and commercialize these species (Coradin et al., 2018).In 2007, Kinupp defended his doctoral thesis on native plants known as bushes and weeds in the urban area of Porto Alegre, Brazil, whose economic potential was then little-known (Kinupp, 2007). He estimated the local floristic wealth of 1,500 species, out of which 311 (21%) could be used for food, proving the NUS in Brazil 133 undeniable potential of NUS for enriching the human diet. As of 2020, this document had been accessed online more than 54,000 times. Later, Kinupp and Lorenzi (2014) released the book Non-conventional Edible Plants (PANC) in Brazil: identification guide, nutritional aspects and illustrated recipes, which is a significant reference volume in Brazil about NUS. The book is richly illustrated (with 2,510 photos) and presents data on 351 species (205 of which are native), including a brief botanical characterization, agronomic recommendations and three culinary recipes for each species, totaling 1,053 recipes. This book and the associated research that has arisen from it has led to considerable advances in the promotion of NUS in Brazil. Through interaction with traditional and social media, this work has given fresh impetus to the topic and has helped shine a light on some of the uses of NUS in daily life of Brazilian society, especially for those in search of healthy diets. Embrapa Vegetables, located in the Federal District, maintains an important collection of traditional vegetables (Figure 10.3), with about 400 accessions and 80 NUS. It is responsible for research focusing on the rescue of traditional vegetables, of which many are native while others are considered \"naturalized\" thanks to their full climatic adaptation. More recently, some NUS new to Brazil that have traditionally been used in other countries, such as moringa and chaya (Table 10.1), have been incorporated into the Embrapa collection due to their resilience and adaptability. This work began officially in 2006 and has been responsible for building partnerships with different institutions working on traditional vegetables, and for encouraging activities in different regions of the country. These vegetables were once maintained by farmers, which is why the term \"traditional vegetables\" is used to refer to them. Besides the maintenance of the collection and conservation of the species, the studies encourage the cultivation and consumption of these vegetables, improving production systems, diversifying production and increasing the income of family farmers (Madeira et al., 2013). Source: Lidio Coradin (used with permission).In a partnership between Embrapa, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, and the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Agency of Minas Gerais State, including family farmers' organizations, the cultivation and consumption of traditional vegetables was encouraged in Minas Gerais through the establishment of community seed-banks, the organization of events (technical lectures, field days, culinary and agronomic workshops, etc.) and the publication of booklets and books (Brasil, 2013;Pedrosa, 2013), benefiting more than 50 municipalities and 5,000 family farmers. Other important partners of this work are the Agricultural Research Company of Minas Gerais, Viçosa Federal University and Lavras Federal University, all of which have established collections of traditional vegetables and have carried out important research on the topic. These actions were also expanded to the states of São Paulo and Santa Catarina, through partnerships with research and rural extension state agencies (Castro and Devide, 2013;Calegari and Matos Filho, 2017), also influencing the states of Goiás, Paraná and Bahia.Many NUS have recognized functional effects as nutraceuticals. Important nutritional studies were carried out by the VP Functional Nutrition Center, analyzing the nutritional value of several NUS, showing that they contained high levels of proteins, minerals and functional compounds (Paschoal et al., 2017).The Ministry of Health, in partnership with several institutions, released Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population (Brasil, 2014) with ten steps for establishing an adequate and healthy diet. They also published the book Brazilian Regional Foods (Brasil, 2015) with 191 foods (123 NUS) emphasizing that healthy eating involves, besides the choice of suitable foods, biodiversity conservation and the recognition of cultural heritage.The Slow Food organization has described 186 food communities in Brazil, out of which 110 are food plant species and 98 are NUS (Slow Food Brasil, 2020).Another important aspect of the promotion of NUS in Brazil is the organization of technical and scientific events in the country. In 2007, in Porto Seguro, Bahia, the 47 th Brazilian Horticulture Congress prioritized the theme \"Rescuing and Valuing Underutilized Vegetables.\" In 2018, Brazilian biomes and their NUS were the themes of the 14 th International Congress of Functional Nutrition in São Paulo.In 2017, Embrapa Vegetables and its partners organized, in Brasília, the 1 st HortPANC -National Meeting for Non-conventional Vegetables, focused on agriculture (Figure 10.4), but also promoting dialogue about nutrition and cooking and linking producers with cooks and chefs. The second HortPANC was held in São Paulo in 2018; the third in Curitiba, Paraná State, in 2019; and the fourth was postponed to 2021 in Salvador, Bahia State, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to highlight the growing number of researchers, and related initiatives, in Brazil that are developing studies with NUS. Today more than 1,000 researchers, professors and students use the acronym PANC in their curriculums, as registered in the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) platform.Finally, it's noteworthy that the interest of the population and the use of NUS are growing in Brazil, which can be verified by the large number of social media communities that are using the acronym PANC on platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. And, as a response to that, there is a growing number of farmers and entrepreneurs investing in the production of NUS.Actions to promote the valorization, production and the consumption of NUS, which are part of Brazil's socio-cultural heritage, are very important not only for food security but also for food and nutritional sovereignty, since they contribute to increasing diversity and richness in diets, in addition to promoting good eating habits that encompass cultural, economic and social aspects. Such actions also bring to light more resilient species with a high capacity to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.Current European agriculture results from half a century of dramatic transformation, mostly driven by the Common Agricultural Policy, which, after being launched in 1962, pursued food security and self-sufficiency through increased productivity and farm restructuring at the expense of crop diversity. Despite policy shifts from a productivist to what Ward et al. (2008) call a post-productivist paradigm in the 1970s and 1980s (mostly aiming at managing produce surplus, and balancing agricultural production with environmental protection and rural development), the picture of European cropland is today far from being biodiverse. The development of European agriculture has been characterised by high concentration and specialisation, which led to a remarkable hegemony of a small number of crops, both in cultivated areas and in breeding efforts. In fact, Europe is no exception to the dominance of the \"big three\" crops in food systems -rice, maize and wheat -that cover 40% of worldwide arable land and provide 55% of humankind's total caloric intake (Stamp et al. 2012).Looking at the EU's combinable crops area -the sector where biodiversity loss is most severe (Stamp et al., 2012), and which this chapter mostly focuses onthere is a striking dominance of cereal crops (82%), followed by a 16% of oilseed crops and just 2% of protein crops. As of 2020, 64% of the total combinable area is covered by just three species: common wheat, grain maize and barley. The European common catalogue of plant varieties shows a similar picture: only two species (common wheat and maize) have more than 2,000 registered varieties, and three (barley, oilseed rape and sunflower) have more than 1,000, whereas all protein grain crops comprise 633 varieties, of which 411 for just one species (Pisum sativum). Both the area partitioning and the number of registered varieties show the remarkable dominance of major cereal (common wheat, maize) and oilseed (sunflower, oilseed rape) crops, and the alarming trend of disappearing grain legumes (Zander et al., 2016) in the agricultural as well as in the research and development landscape. It is against this extremely hegemonic landscape that the diversification of the seed and crops basket should be framed, as part of an overall transition towards more sustainable agricultural system (Chable et al., 2020).With awareness that long-term stable and sustainable development through locally adapted agricultural systems will depend on increasing crop biodiversity, the EU H2020 Framework Programme (2014-2020) targeted, under the Societal Challenges 2 \"Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry\", the rediscovery and valorisation of underutilized genetic resources for food and agriculture.As part of this effort, the project \"Embedding crop diversity and networking for local high-quality food systems -DIVERSIFOOD (2014-2019)\" has explored a wide range of species, both major and those actually neglected and underutilized, and the potential of diversification in the context of communities of users. This project aimed to go beyond mere conservation of diversity, emphasising innovation and appreciating these genetic resources as a key asset to restore agricultural diversity. In a continuous debate over the meaning of \"orphan\", \"neglected\", \"underutilized\" and \"alternative\" crops, the DIVERSIFOOD project formulated a working definition according to which an underutilized crop is classified as \"a plant genetic resource with limited current use and potential to improve and diversify cropping systems and supply chains in a given context\". According to this conceptualisation, underutilized crops are not to be looked at in isolation.On the contrary, the focus needs to shift from the plants to the processes of their (re)introduction as related to agricultural diversification in specific contexts. In the European context, at least three interconnected processes are worth exploring to purse this goal: (i) shifting cultivation areas; (ii) reintroducing \"minor\" species and (iii) diversifying the genetic structure of major and minor species.Shifts in cultivation areas of cultivated plant are a process that has characterised human history for millennia. As demonstrated by Vavilov (1935), cultivated plants were domesticated in relatively small foci, the \"centres of origin\", from which their cultivation expanded into larger areas. In several instances, species have crossed geographical barriers, like the acquisition of a huge variety of species in Europe following the colonisation of the Americas, sometimes generating further diversification centres far from the centre of origin, like for maize in Europe (Thenaillot and Charcosset, 2011). Shifting cultivation areas is a continuous process and is still ongoing (Khoury et al., 2016).A first notable trend is that some species start to be cultivated commercially in a region whose climate is not too dissimilar from their home region, as e.g., for quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Wild.). This annual species, a staple food for Andean Amerindian people going back millennia, is currently cultivated in 95 countries worldwide, notably in Europe, as a result of significant research efforts in the 1990s (Bazile et al., 2016). Quinoa is possibly a \"model species\" of underutilized crop, for its success as well as for the problematic implications of such a success. The renaissance of its demand and production was due to the discovery of its interesting nutritional properties (Repo-Carrasco et al., 2003) as well as to its high level of genetic diversity, which facilitates its adaptation (Ruiz et al., 2014). However, the sudden explosion in interest in this species has also roused non-negligible and still unsolved concerns of equity and fairness regarding the exploitation of the value added to its genetics by generations of Andean farmers (Chevarria-Lazo et al., 2015).A second trend is plants following human migrations: \"exotic\" crops introduced on a non-commercial basis, grown for family consumption as part of growers' cultural heritage, and that are rarely surveyed or subjected to formal documentation and conservation. A notable example is the \"Sowing New Seeds\" work conducted in the early 2010s on the plants cultivated by overseas immigrants in their allotments in the English Midlands, which highlighted the potential of non-professional cultivation and selection of exotic species for more general resilience and the diversification of agriculture (Kell et al., 2013).A third trend is expanding cultivation areas following, or anticipating, changes in climate. A remarkable example is the northwards expansion of field crops in northern Europe, due to milder winters and potentially longer growing seasons, and the subsequent opportunities (Peltonen-Sainio et al., 2009) as well as challenges of pests and diseases expansion (Hakala et al., 2011).During the process of the modernisation and standardisation of European agriculture, which led to massive concentration on a few species, a large number of species has been abandoned. This is true both in dominant and currently shrinking sectors, like cereals and protein crops, respectively. In cereals, among the most widespread and most intensively bred crops in Europe is wheat, mostly common wheat (Triticum aestivum) with a small fraction of durum wheat (Triticum durum) in Mediterranean regions. However, the genus Triticum comprises many species that were once more widely cultivated but that are now relegated to the status of \"minor cereals\" and cultivated in limited amounts, often in marginal areas. The hulled wheats are typical examples of this: the hexaploid spelt (Triticum spelta), the tetraploid emmer (Triticum dicoccon) and the diploid einkorn (Triticum monococcum), in order of decreasing acreage, have seen increasing market interest due to their nutritional properties as well as to their rusticity and adaptation to stressful environments (Cubadda and Marconi, 2002;Zaharieva et al., 2010;Zaharieva and Monneveux, 2014).Amongst Triticum species, of particular interest is Triticum turgidum L., known as \"Rivet wheat\" in the British Isles or \"Poulard wheat\" in France. It is a close relative of durum wheat, particularly common in mountainous areas and Atlantic climates, the object of some breeding efforts in England during the 1930s (Zeven et al., 1990), but then abandoned and nowadays virtually non-existent. The European Search Catalogue for Plant Genetic Resources (EURISCO) database 3 records more than 14,000 accessions of T. turgidum conserved in European genebanks, 38% of which are in Italy. A large representation of these accessions was tested during the DIVERSIFOOD project, highlighting a great variability in physical properties of the grain, which makes it a good candidate for both bread-and pasta-making, also in regions (like north-western France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) that are not suitable for durum wheat (Chable, 2018;Costanzo et al., 2019).The shrinking number of species is only part of the loss of diversity resulting in modern European agriculture. In fact, for many crops -notably the most widespread and those with the largest number of registered varieties -crop phenotypic diversity is drastically reduced to extremely homogeneous crop types, such as pure line varieties (e.g., wheat and barley) and F1-bybrids (e.g., maize), to the detriment of historic varieties, landraces and genetically diverse populations. Increasing genetic and phenotypic diversity within species is, however, a key process to enhance sustainability and resilience through functional diversity (Newton et al., 2009) and a key priority in \"neglected\" as well as mainstream species. For instance, whilst testing einkorn entries in view of exploring their potential for UK organic farming, a striking yield advantage of landraces over a modern, dwarf commercial einkorn variety (Costanzo et al., 2019) was a reminder that the reintroduction of forgotten species cannot be separated from a rethinking of the relationships between breeding and target cropping systems. In fact, marginal environments, with low input use and high exposure to climatic extremes, need, and can be added value by, more resilient/rustic phenotypes for both minor (like einkorn) and major crops (like wheat and barley). However, diversification of the genetic structure of crops goes well beyond the \"rediscovery of the old\", towards the development of decentralised, evolutionary (Phillips and Wolfe, 2005) and participatory breeding methods, that have extensively been applied in wheat (Van Frank et al., 2020), showing clear advantages in terms of performance, robustness and stability (Goldringer et al., 2020).It is important to point out that, whilst the rediscovery of forgotten species mainly faces practical and economic constraints, genetic diversification within species encounters further obstacles in the legislative structure developed by and for mainstream agriculture, such as the UPOV (International Union for the Protection Of New Varieties of Plants) convention and national and international seed legislation (European catalogue and seed certification for seed marketing). In fact, the official conditions for cereal seed certification, namely the \"sufficient identity and varietal purity\" (Art. 1, 66/402/EEC of 1966), effectively ruled out any marketing of cereal seed that was not distinct, uniform and stable in appearance, until a \"temporary experiment\", under the Commission Implementing Decision 2014/150/EU, allowed the marketing of \"populations\" of wheat, oats, barley and maize, under quantitative restrictions. The legality of genetically heterogeneous seeds and of genetic structures not covered by the above \"temporary experiment\" is currently under discussion in the context of the Revised Organic Regulation that will come into force in 2021 (Costanzo and Bickler, 2019).In the DIVERSIFOOD project, nine species have been tested with hundreds of accessions in 33 different trials across Europe. Seeds have been sourced from a variety of both informal and formal, ex situ and in situ collections, and evaluated in participatory experiments with multi-actor communities of researchers, farmers and potential users. Four main outcomes have been noted:• Certain traits that during modern breeding had been lost have reappeared, including undesirable traits that might have played a role in the abandonment of certain species or phenotypes, like the brittle rachis in einkorn that can generate huge grain losses, or the extreme straw height of certain winter cereals like rivet wheat, which creates problems of lodging. Moreover, many genetic resources show considerable within-crop phenotypic heterogeneity, either linked to their genetic structure, them being landraces or resulting from intentional or even accidental mixtures occurred during in situ informal conservation. • Agroecosystem performance of the same genetic resource can vary greatly depending on where it is grown and must, therefore, be looked at on a very local scale. As obvious as it might seem, this reinforces the importance of deploying and testing genetic resources in multiple farms rather than on research stations, to identify the potential for local adaptation. • The yield of \"underutilized genetic resources\" can be a serious limiting factor, as the tested material can be either low-yielding or difficult to harvest, but, in many cases, can be a relief for marginal conditions. Species such as einkorn, emmer or rivet wheat can thrive where their commonly grown closest relatives (e.g., durum or bread wheat) are not a viable option. This is one of the key benefits expected from underutilized crops: they can be a valuable resource for more marginal land. • A diversity of crops triggers a diversity of products that, in turn, need adaptation in both processing and the methods and concepts used to assess their quality. Grains from minor cereals are not necessarily suited to industrial milling but provide an opportunity for artisanal millers and bakers, whose processing methods are more flexible and adaptable to the raw material, to add value to highly nutritious grains.A series of booklets covering practical aspects of research, farming, marketing and policy around increasing crops diversity on the farm and in the supply chain has been produced by the DIVERSIFOOD project, including a guide to participatory experiments on underutilized genetic resources (Costanzo and Serpolay, 2019) and case studies of the marketing of products from newly bred lines and underutilized crops (Padel et al., 2018).European agriculture faces the urgent need to diversify its crop basket, to overcome the dominance of a very limited number of crops and the related socio-technical lock-ins that prevent easy diversification (Meynard et al., 2018).Neglected and underutilized crops have a huge strategic importance in the transition towards more sustainable agricultural systems. However, diversification is a complex process, not limited to the (re)introduction of a few species, but encompassing all aspects of cropping systems' design, connection between genetic resource conservation and use, more inclusive breeding systems and stronger connections between producers and consumers.Oceania represents a considerable array of agro-ecosystems comprising an equal diversity of wild and cultivated plant species that, at one time or another, have been used for food and other purposes. This diversity of crops and trees has played an important role in the lives and development of populations throughout the islands that comprise Oceania. However, today only a small fraction of this diversity is regularly used or found in markets and value-chains. Bringing back these foods to the tables of consumers will play a strategic role in supporting local production systems in adapting to pervasive climate change, and will also help re-establish healthy food habits to tackle a growing public-health nutrition problem and safeguard cultural identity. For the purpose of this chapter, we define Oceania broadly as to include the islands of the Pacific, including Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, as well as New Zealand and Australia. Communities in Oceania have historically created an enduring relationship with the landscape and its compliment of flora and fauna. With 60,000 years of settlement, Indigenous Australians have developed an intimate relationship with and knowledge of a diverse range of ecosystems (Mulvaney and Golson, 1971;Clarke, 2003a). Today, this reliance on traditional foods is still evident in some communities, such as those in Arnhem Land, Cape York and the Torres Strait, where hunting, gathering and fishing supplement significantly modern store-bought diets. But in most instances these communities have been disconnected from their traditional foods and food systems. Around 30,000 years ago, people started to move into the western part of the Pacific, including Papua New Guinea (PNG), the Solomon Islands and northern Australia, taking with them their traditional foods such as taro, yams, banana, coconut, breadfruit pandanus, sago and arrowroot, before moving further east into the more scattered islands of the Pacific Ocean  (Denham, 2008;Denham et al., 2009aDenham et al., , 2009b;;Haden, 2009). Pacific Islanders have developed farming and food systems that have exploited a unique range of ecosystems in high and low islands throughout the region and which employ a diversity of plant and animal species. Many of these crops, such as taro, have adapted to range of agro-ecologies, resulting in hundreds of unique cultivars (Iosefa et al., 2013). Significant and unique genetic diversity exists in many other traditional Pacific Island crops, and this is true also for nutritional diversity (Englberger et al., 2009). A thousand years ago, the indigenous Māori, on settling Aotearoa-New Zealand from the more tropical Pacific Islands, had to adapt their horticultural practices to a new environment of unpredictable and limiting climate with extremes from sub-tropical features in the north to sub-Antarctic in the south, thereby shaping a lifestyle that was based on a subsistence approach, including both cultivated and uncultivated plants and the seasonal harvesting of birds and fish. While this chapter can only provide a very general and brief survey of NUS from Oceania, it also looks at those factors that have undermined traditional food systems and diversity, particularly colonisation and globalisation, and the impacts this has had on food systems, diets and nutrition. The chapter highlights recent efforts to promote and reinvigorate traditional food systems and NUS, and highlights the challenges and opportunities for their promotion.The nutrition transition -the process by which development, globalisation, urbanisation, poverty and subsequent changes in lifestyle have led to excessive calorific intake, poor-quality diets and low physical activity -is particularly prevalent among communities of Indigenous People in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. This has been exacerbated by inappropriate development, health, food and trade policies that support imports of less healthy foods, as in the case of the Pacific, or the availability of culturally inappropriate and nutritionally poor foods in remote stores, as in Australia (Lee et al., 2009;Brimblecombe et al., 2013). Urbanisation and lifestyle changes, including in eating habits, also seriously threaten the very existence of many traditional food crops. An alarming dietary shift from traditional foods and healthy diets towards the consumption of poor-quality processed foods and diets has taken place, which has led to the dramatic emergence of obesity and associated chronic diseases, especially among Indigenous compared to non-Indigenous groups. In addition to over-nutrition and obesity, there are problems of deficiency of vital micronutrients (hidden hunger) among communities of Indigenous People in Oceania, which can -in extreme situations -contribute to early death or to impaired physical and intellectual development, especially of children. For example, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), recently ranked among the most obese countries in the world, is also a country where pockets of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) are among the highest in the world (Englberger et al., 2003(Englberger et al., , 2011)). Studies of Indigenous peoples' diets in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific consistently report low intake of fruit and vegetables; high intake of soft drinks, refined cereals and sugars; excessive sodium intake and limited availability of several key micronutrients. This is contributing to a rapidly growing health burden, including both physical and psychological illnesses, as countries try to deal with the associated healthcare costs, reduced productivity and shorter lifespans.The great irony is that few of these health problems existed prior to European contact, colonisation or development. Indigenous foodways contained a diversity of animals, plants and trees that were nutritionally rich and that provided ample levels of both macro-and micronutrients for a healthy diet. Englberger et al. (2003Englberger et al. ( , 2011) ) highlight reports from early visitors that suggest that island communities consumed a diversity of foods and appeared healthy. There was little evidence of malnutrition, diabetes or hypertension before the 1940s, with VAD not documented until 1998. Many of the traditional foods of these Indigenous foodways have now been marginalised or forgotten, and the traditional ecological knowledge associated with them lost or threatened. Furthermore, inappropriate policy and regulatory frameworks have, especially in the Pacific, increased dependency on food imports through the promotion of culturally unsuitable foods, which have resulted in changes in the pattern of agricultural production towards cash-and export-oriented cropping, ignoring the potential of nutritionally rich local foods (Englberger et al., 2003).Indigenous foodways of Māori and Aboriginal Australia have also fared poorly, been marginalised and been forgotten (Haden, 2009). Davy (2016) reports that the much higher rate of illness and disease among Aboriginal populations in Australia compared to non-Indigenous ones is directly related to food insecurity and poor diet, including through poorer access to nutritious foods. Bussey (2013) highlights that, prior to European contact, levels of diet-related illness among Indigenous Australians were non-existent. National health surveys in New Zealand consistently reveal the high prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases (i.e., cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes) among the Māori -the indigenous people of Aotearoa-New Zealand. These trends have been mostly attributed to sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices, as the Māori move to urban areas and away from their lands and highly adapted food production systems. With the shift to urban settings, much of the traditional knowledge surrounding the production, processing and storing of local foods is being lost and agricultural/cultural systems are reportedly being further threatened by biosecurity risks and corporate ownership (Roskruge, BFN website 1 ).Increasingly there are calls to revitalise these Indigenous foodways and the nutrient-rich foods they contain (Kuhnlein et al., 2009;FAO, 2021). The access, availability and use of traditional foods have the potential to recover, improve and safeguard food security, especially among remote Indigenous communities, now and in the future, and, thus, demands further research (Bussey, 2013).A short chapter of this nature, dealing as it does with such a large geographic area, prevents a comprehensive inventory or description of the neglected and underutilized species (NUS) present in Oceania. Rather, what we aim for here is a brief introduction highlighting some of the key NUS with most potential for development and utilisation. For those interested in exploring the NUS of Oceania in more detail we provide some important references.Although the land area of the Pacific is small, it is recognised as a centre of diversity and/or origin of a small number of crops, for example, taro (Colocasia esculenta), which comprises thousands of distinct cultivars grown and eaten throughout the region (Rao et al., 2010). In 2009, participants from 15 countries representing the three sub-regions of the Pacific (Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia) came together for the first time to develop a regional priority list of NUS/species groups, including a strategy for their conservation and sustainable use, addressing: generation and collection of knowledge/research; communication and dissemination; policy advocacy, market development and partnerships; capacity building and institutional strengthening (Taylor et al., 2009). Regional priorities were clearly breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), bananas (Musa spp.) of the Fe'i group and/or Pacific plantain, Polynesian chestnut (Inocarpus fagifer), and tava (Pometia pinnata). Other priority species included bele/aibika (Abelmoschus manihot), pandanus (Pandanus tectoris), noni (Morinda citrifolia), football fruit (Pangium edule), pitpit/duruka (Sacchurum edule), arrowroot (Tacca leontopetaloides), saijan/ drumstick (Moringa oleifera), Spondias dulcis, Diplazium esculentum, fig tree (Ficus tinctoria), sago (Metroxylon sagu), aupa (Amaranthus spp.), fern (Diplazium spp.), Malay apple (Syzygium malaccense) and mangrove (Bruguiera spp.). Some locally important underutilized nut species were also identified, including Galip nut (Canarium indicum) and nuts from Terminalia catappa, Barringtonia edulis and B. procera. Some of the tree species mentioned here, and others with edible parts, have also been prioritised and described in detail more recently by Thomson et al. (2018). Much of this diversity remains under threat in the Pacific, as a result of urbanisation and lifestyle changes, including changes in eating habits as well as pests and diseases (Box 12.1).Highlands pitpit (Setaria palmifoliai) has been a crop of significant value in terms of food, medicine, bride price ceremonies and other traditional uses since ancestral days, matched with a diversity of varieties and traditional names found across the Highlands region (Figure 12.1). For instance, the Imbbonggu people of the Southern Highlands call it moi in the local Imbbonggu language, while it is known as wotani in the Gahuku language of the Eastern Highlands. The different varieties of highlands pitpit are characterised by colour, leaf shape and other morphology. The local people believe that the geographical location of the crop contributes to its attributes. For example, the Imbbonggu District of the Southern Highlands Province has four main varieties: Moi kapatumbe (sacred colourful variety); Moi arimoka (white stem variety); Moi gene (green variety) and Moi leruku (purple stem variety). There is also considerable nutritional diversity among the many varieties (Semese, 2018). Highlands pitpit is only eaten within Melanesian society, especially in PNG. The inner thickened soft base of the plant is the main edible portion and is cooked as a green vegetable or in a mixed meal with meat and other vegetables. Cooking recipes differ per region and tribe. The most common approach to cooking is the traditional mumu, a hermetic form of underground cooking. In addition, highlands pitpit is used as stock-feed across the region, especially for pigs, which have currency value in PNG. Many believe the fibrous nature of the plant helps grind the pigs' teeth and keeps them healthy. It is also a good supplement food for pigs in times when other food crops are limited in supply or during natural disasters such as drought due to its potential to withstand drought periods. Today, introduced crops, urbanisation and climate change all contribute to the declining production and use of highlands pitpit. A number of horticultural plants have featured in traditional M ori society in Aotearoa-New Zealand and most are underutilized today. They provide the basis for a body of knowledge or mātauranga aligned with traditional horticulture; however, not all plants used by the Māori were cultivated (Best, 1976). There was also the availability of food stores from 'uncultivated' plants such as aruhe (fernroot, Pteridium spp.) a range of seaweeds including kārengo (pārengo or sea lettuce, Porphyra columbina) and berries or fruit of tree crops such as the hīnau (Elaeocarpus dentatus) and miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea), which were often located near settlements and harvested in much the same way as cultivated plants were. While these crops were considered uncultivated, they were no less managed to ensure maximum production of the harvested plant parts, e.g., the timing of harvest or minimising competition between plants for the best quality produce. The primary cultivated crops included kūmara (sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas), taro (Colocasis esculenta), the uwhi or yam (Dioscorea alata), various species of pūhā or rauriki (Sonchus spp., see Box 12.2), varieties of tii kouka (Cordyline australis and related species) (Fankhauser, 1990) and kōkihi (NZ spinach, Tetragonia tetragonioides). Since colonisation, a number of other crops have been introduced in traditional gardens and are now considered traditional Māori foods. These include kamokamo, a local selection of Cucurbita pepo, taewa or Māori potatoes and kānga or Indian corn. Roskruge (2014Roskruge ( , 2015) ) has worked with the national Māori āPūhā (also known as pūwhā, rauriki, kautara, tiotio or pororua) is a generic term for the introduced leafy green plant commonly called sow-thistle (various plants of the Sonchus spp.) in other countries, which is now a favourite utility plant for both the food and health needs of the Māori (Figure 12.2).Traditionally not a cultivated crop by early Māori but harvested from the wild, pūhā has previously been described as a culturally important plant to the Māori (Taylor and Smith, 1997;Roskruge, 2013Roskruge, , 2015)). The traditional whakatauaki or proverb in the subheading above is recognition in itself of the value of pūhā to Māori, which is now considered an uncultivated Indigenous vegetable or food by most New Zealanders. The reliability of pūhā as an available green vegetable plant throughout most of the year has perpetuated its usefulness in the New Zealand diet. Coincidentally, the resurgent interest in traditional crops such as pūhā has enhanced its potential to contribute to the cultural and economic future of the Māori, including as a processed product, similar to new and innovative spinach products that are frozen, canned and/or mixed with other base products. Looking at the diversity of vegetable-based products on supermarkets shelves, the opportunities seem endless: a good example is pre-packaged liquid soups sold in a ready-to-heat pouch. Source: Nick Roskruge (used with permission).Historically, pūhā was only ever used as a fresh green vegetable, especially in the spring and early summer, and was provided a relish for meals, primarily fish. For the Māori, there are several ways in which pūhā is utilised in the diet. Primarily, it is a basis for a meal that includes pūhā, meat, potatoes and, sometimes, further relishes such as plain dumplings (colloquially termed dough-buoys). Often substitute green vegetables such as kouka (Cordyline spp.), kōkihi (Tetragonia tetragonioides), tohetaka (native dandelion, Taraxacum magellanicum), watercress (Nasturtium spp.), silverbeet (Beta vulgaris) or cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) are used to replace the pūhā when it is out of season or is in limited supply. A further use for pūhā is as a base for toroī or bottled/preserved pūhā and mussels (Dixon, 2007). In this case, the older, more stringent or bitter plants are often preferred. Penupenu is a mash of vegetables generally prepared for infants or invalids. In this meal, the pūhā forms the basis of a mix of vegetables usually including taewa (Māori potatoes) and kamokamo (Cucurbit spp.).154 Danny Hunter et al. horticultural collective Tahuri Whenua to highlight the diversity of the traditional Māori diet and this has contributed to a resurgence in the cultivation of these foods.With 60,000 years of continuous settlement of the land and an ongoing intimate relationship with and knowledge of many different ecosystems and the possible array of plants and animals available therein, it is almost impossible to comprehend the extent to which these would have been used for food. A comprehensive database of Australian Aboriginal food-plants (currently containing about 1,400 -and rising -plant/fungi species, including 100 insect-based foods) has been constructed in a project at the University of Adelaide, funded by the Orana Foundation. 2 This inventory is based primarily on historical sources but, by extension, the true number of edible plants used by Aboriginal foragers likely would have been greater when accounting for the many species of Acacia etc. that were also probably utilised as food. A few writers and researchers have written generally about some of the more common or key plant-food species that have been used, including Tim Low in his two books Wild Food Plants of Australia (1988) and Bush Tucker: Australia's Wild Food Harvest (1989) or, more recently, John Newton's The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods with Recipes (2016). Other researchers such as Peter Latz have written in considerable detail about Indigenous plant use in a specific geographical region, such as Bushfires and Bushtucker: Aboriginal Plant Use in Central Australia (1995). There is a considerable literature on this topic and the reader is guided to key publications by Clarke (2003aClarke ( ,b, 2007Clarke ( , 2018;;Jones and Clarke, 2018) for more information. The list of plant species used for food alone runs in the thousands and covers environments ranging from temperate to arid and tropic. Indigenous food sources include native fruits like wild fig (Ficus platypoda), desert quandong (Santalum acuminatum), native gooseberry (Cucumis melo), native plum (Santalum lanceolatum), bush banana (Leichhardtia australia), finger lime (Citrus australasica), Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana), bush tomato (Solanum centrale), pandanus (Pandanus tectorius, Figure 12.3). They also comprise greens (various pigweeds [Portulaca spp.], wood sorrels [Oxalis spp.]); wild seeds (including grasses, beans and nuts) such as various Acacia spp., native millet (Panicum decompositum); woolybutt (Eragrostis eriopoda), Oryza spp., wild sorghums, cycads (Cycas media), desert kurrajong (Brachychiton gregorii), bunya nut (Araucaria bidwillii); roots and tubers (bush potato (Ipomoea costata), nalgoo (Cyperus spp.) and murnong (Microseris lanceolata) to highlight relatively few. It should also be mentioned, that many of these heavily relied-on food sources are highly toxic and labour intensive to prepare, which is a challenge when attempting to reintroduce them into contemporary food pathways.There are a number of past and ongoing initiatives to promote NUS in Oceania such as bringing back traditional, forgotten foods through links to gastronomic initiatives and chef alliances, food tourism, community-based initiatives to promote improved food security through healthier diets based on local foods and efforts targeting schools and the youth.Ongoing initiatives in New Zealand aimed at reviving traditional crops and traditional food systems as well as exploring production systems, markets, Indigenous branding, education and research include those led by the National Māori Horticultural Collective known as Tahuri Whenua, 3 which has projects aligned with food crops/plants including:• 'Ahi kōuka i te ata, he ai i te po -the value of kōuka from a Māori lens' 4 a project looking at the traditional knowledge and use of the Tii Kouka/cabbage tree (Nga Pae o Maramatanga funded). • E moe tonu ana te tohetaka, kaore ano i kohera -a project to identify and document heritage food-plants (primarily introduced during colonisation); Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (New Zealand) (MBIE) (Government) funded.• Kaore te kumara e korero mo tona ake reka -a project to establish protocols for a germplasm collection of traditional Māori foods; MBIE funded (Tahuri Whenua/Massey University collaboration).The Tahuri Whenua has also been active in reconnecting young Māori with their traditional food heritage through school gardens (māra) and other schoolbased activities (Roskruge, 2020).In the Pacific, probably the most high-profile initiative to promote healthier diets and better nutrition based on local NUS has been the 'Let's go Local' approach (see Box 12.3), implemented in the FSM (Englberger, 2011;Englberger and Johnson, 2013). A more recent similar example to leverage neglected and underutilized food crops for improved nutrition in the Pacific is the Community Food and Health project. Other efforts to promote the utilisation of neglected and underutilized crops in the Pacific include initiatives to link local foods to tourism, gastronomy and chef alliances, e.g., the Pacific Island Food Revolution, 5 and other market opportunities (CTA, 2017;Berno, 2020), as well as through schools and school garden activities (Redfeather and Cole, 2020; Ming Wei and Bikajle, 2020)The FSM has recently witnessed significant dietary shifts and increasing dependence on imported, often unhealthy, foods. Traditionally, these islands have relied on sustainable agriculture practices producing nutritious staples such as roots and tubers, breadfruit and banana for food security and nutrition. Since the middle of the twentieth century onwards, however, less nutritious, cheaper imported foods have dominated the food supply and have contributed to the poor health of the population. VAD levels in this community are among the highest in the world, as are levels of obesity and being overweight, and non-communicable diseases like diabetes.These problems occur despite a remarkable biodiversity of underutilized nutritious foods available in the country. Pohnpei state alone has 133 varieties of breadfruit, 55 bananas, 171 yams, 24 giant swamp taros, nine tapiocas and many pandanus varieties documented. To address these health-and foodsystem problems, efforts were started in 1998 to identify local plant foods that could be promoted to alleviate the VAD problem. Local biodiversity experts highlighted the rare Karat and other yellow-fleshed banana varieties as potential options. Subsequent nutrient compositional analyses demonstrated that Karat, a variety traditionally given to infants as a weaning food, was rich in beta-carotene, the most important of the provitamin A carotenoids, with amounts much higher than those found in common white-fleshed bananas.A number of the earlier mentioned publications have raised awareness of the importance of traditional foods in Australia, which have largely been neglected and unexplored despite the multiple benefits they might bring. Bussey (2013) stresses that the gaps in literature on the access, availability and use of traditional foods should be examined further, as they have the potential to recover, improve and safeguard food security in remote Aboriginal communities. While there is increasing attention being paid to the importance of traditional foods and Indigenous food systems in Australia -through school-based education (Dawe et al., 2020), improving food security and nutrition in a more sustainable manner, links to sustainable gastronomy initiatives (such as The Orana Foundation 6 and Black Olive Catering 7 ) and other niche markets for native foods, as well as other livelihood and income-generating opportunities -there is still some way to go in developing a suitable environment that enables and ensures that the benefits arising from the sustainable use of traditional foods are accessible for Indigenous communities, the long-time custodians of these genetic resources.2019 will be remembered as a landmark year for food and nutrition reports, which have laid bare the nutritional and environmental disruptions our global food system is causing (FAO, 2019;IPBES, 2019;IPCC, 2019;Willett et al., 2019). In many of these and in preceding reports, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity for food and agriculture features as one critical pathway to diversify diets, improve livelihoods and contribute to environmental outcomes (Mouillé et al., 2010;FAO, 2015;Bioversity International, 2017;FAO, 2019). Meanwhile, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has exposed the limitations of our food systems and has highlighted the importance of localising food production and consumption as well as the need to re-evaluate local foods including neglected and underutilized species (NUS) (HLPE, 2020).Despite the existence of guiding principles to support countries in increasing the use of biodiversity in the agriculture, climate change, food security and nutrition and other relevant sectors (FAO, 2016), their implementation constitutes a challenge for many countries (FAO, 2017). Partly to blame are the limited examples of effective cross-sectoral collaboration and multi-disciplinary platforms to make the case for investing in biodiversity for better food and nutrition (Hunter et al., 2016). It is with these challenges in mind that, in 2018, the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) 1 project sought to fill the existing information gaps by putting together the Biodiversity Mainstreaming for Healthy & Sustainable Food Systems Toolkit -a compendium of experiences and lessons learned, gained by Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey during project implementation (Figure 13.1). The BFN toolkit provides concrete examples that can help implement these guidelines and provides a framework to support countries in transitioning toward healthier, more sustainable diets as indicated by the recent WHO Guidance on Mainstreaming Biodiversity (WHO, 2020). Underpinning the BFN project is a comprehensive three-pillar approach for mainstreaming biodiversity for better food and nutrition into policies and practices by: 1) Providing Evidence, 2) Influencing Policy and 3) Raising Awareness ( Figure 13.2). Originally conceptualised by the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia research consortium in its effort to improve understanding of how agriculture and food systems could be better designed to enhance nutrition in the region (Hunter et al., 2016), the approach had never been tested on the ground. With limited examples and literature to guide the countries at the onset of the project, Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey put the theory into practice and took stock of the experiences gained (and challenges faced) during project implementation to assist fellow practitioners wishing to replicate the approach. In the final stages of the project, implementers from each country came together during a writing workshop to lay the groundwork for the toolkit.The toolkit lays out the fundamentals of biodiversity mainstreaming, including NUS, into sectoral policies and practices, including how to facilitate and align activities to support achieving national targets linked to biodiversity conservation i supply factual evidence that justifies NUS mainstreaming for the specific purpose of improving food and nutrition ii identify suitable entry points for effective implementation iii establish a positive enabling environment and gain financial and institutional support iv increase market interest and capacity to produce NUS v develop awareness-raising campaigns vi set up a monitoring and evaluation framework.The approaches used to implement activities across the three pillars are not prescriptive and are likely to vary depending on country context and the different social, cultural or economic backgrounds. In implementing the BFN project, for example, it was found that efforts to increase the appreciation of local NUS wasStrengthen scientific evidence of the importance of local food diversity, e.g. food composition data, traditional knowledge and the benefits of using local plant and animal species to improve diversity and nutrition.Integrate locally important biodiversity for food and agriculture into nutritionrelated policies, programmes and action plans and increase their availability in production systems and markets.Communicate the multiple benefits of biodiversity for food and nutrition to different audiences (e.g. producers and consumers). easier in some countries and less so in others. Efforts to step up production and consumption of the target species proved easier in Turkey and Sri Lanka than in Kenya, a country where, under colonial rule, traditional crops were displaced by European staples and which were, until recently, associated with backwardness, poverty and/or famine (Raschke and Cheema, 2008).To reverse these perceptions, scientific evidence of the nutritional quality of NUS is critical. The toolkit dwells on the methodologies that facilitate the generation of nutrition information to gain support for increasing the production and consumption of NUS. Of chief importance is establishing effective research partnerships, determining what information already exists and the country's capacity to fill any research gaps, and identifying which species to prioritise for further research and marketing. In Kenya, selecting the species for food composition analysis was undertaken following a market survey and ensuing ranking exercise carried out by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization in close collaboration with local communities (Figure 13.3). Similarly, in Brazil, partnerships established with federal universities and research institutes helped build the nutritional profile of 64 native species (mostly fruit and nuts) identified by the project (Figure 13.4) (Gee et al., 2020).Solanum spp.Amaranthus spp. FIGURE 13.3 Indigenous neglected and underutilized species that were targeted by the BFN project in Kenya for food composition analysis. (Credit: BFN Kenya.) Used with permission.The BFN Mainstreaming Toolkit 167Once data is available, time and resources should be made available to identify and engage the most strategic and like-minded allies to achieve the intended mainstreaming aims as well as to understand the policy landscape in which these partners operate. Pre-existing multi-stakeholder policy platforms that deal with food and nutrition security are an ideal starting point to garner policy support for the greater use of NUS (Gee et al., 2020). However, platforms will often need to be built from scratch. Considerable time can be spent in creating the enabling environment needed for durable mainstreaming to occur and this should carefully be accounted for during the planning process (Gee et al., 2020). An entire section in the toolkit outlines several fruitful strategies for targeting receptive policies, such as the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs), as well as agricultural and nutrition policies. It also highlights ideal partners to engage. These can range from sectoral ministries to universities and research organisations, as well as civil society actors such as community groups, nongovernmental organisations, Indigenous groups and professional associations that have an interest in promoting NUS. However, non-conventional partners such as schools and chefs can also help promote the use of these unfamiliar ingredients. Long-term behavioural change and the acceptance of NUS in food systems and diets requires coordinated action on both the supply and demand side of the food value-chain as well as the public and private institutions working together to develop and implement policies and strategies that support more sustainable and diversified food systems centred on NUS. These actions include:• Building the capacity of producers to incorporate NUS in their production systems • Improving or creating market infrastructure for biodiversity • Raising consumer awareness to increase demand for food biodiversity.In the toolkit, one example from Kenya illustrates how business training and technical assistance provided to small-scale farmers helped establish market linkages with schools and how this increased the sustainable production of African indigenous vegetables and forgotten pulses such as bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea). Additional examples are provided in Module 2 of the BFN e-learning course and in Hunter et al. (2019), Borelli et al. (2020) and Gee et al. (2020). Naturally, where the aim is increased production of species that are collected or managed in the wild, domestication programmes and/or sustainable collection or management guidelines will need to be considered to avoid overexploitation (Gee et al., 2020).The BFN Mainstreaming Toolkit 169The toolkit also demonstrates how to select NUS that are more suited for marketing. Most likely biological, environmental, cultural, economic and nutritional considerations, such as the presence of limiting nutrients, will come into play. An interesting example is offered by the ad hoc sustainability index developed by Turkey to reduce an initial sample size of 43 species, mostly wild edibles, to three target species -foxtail lily (Eremurus spectabilis), golden thistle (Scolymus hispanicus) and einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum) -which have since been the object of domestication research as well as post-harvest handling and value-chain analysis (Table 13.1).Once the target species have been identified, new marketing options can be explored that make it profitable for actors along the food value-chain -from producers to consumers -to engage. Such is the case for the 28 NUS identified by Sri Lanka. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), water lily (Nymphaea pubescens), traditional cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), black gram (Vigna mungo) and horse gram (Macrotyloma uniflorum) varieties, as well as traditional rice varieties, are among the NUS currently on offer at Helabojun, 18 BFN-supported food outlets that source their ingredients directly from local communities and which sell freshly prepared local foods. The outlets also employ and empower rural women who receive nutrition, food and business training from the Women Farmers Extension Program of the Department of Agriculture and can earn a reasonable wage by working at the stores.In terms of awareness-raising, the toolkit illustrates how practitioners can make the most of ongoing activities in the country that revolve around gastronomy and ecotourism, such as the Alaçatı herb festival in Turkey, and national and regional campaigns on healthy eating, to get the messaging across (Figure 13.5). It also discusses the benefits of engaging the health sector to target the development and revision of national dietary guidelines or the advantages of engaging the education sector to include the teaching of biodiversity for food and nutrition in health and nutrition education in schools and vocational training programmes. The BFN Mainstreaming Toolkit 171Careful monitoring of increased use of NUS can help garner additional support for their inclusion in food and nutrition security strategies. For this reason, desired mainstreaming outcomes should be established early in the planning phase and be SMART, 2 tailored to the specific country context as well as the resources that are available (Hunter et al., 2018). SMART objectives can range from community-to policy-level improvements, and enough time should be devoted to establishing a baseline against which the suggested monitoring indicators can be measured. These include, but are not limited to:• Level of funding/resource mobilisation to support NUS for improving diets/nutrition in research and interventions. • Extent of NUS mainstreaming for healthy diets and nutrition in relevant national instruments including in national dietary guidelines, NBSAPs or multi-sectoral nutrition action plans and strategies. • Level of diversification in public food procurement and school feeding programmes.• Increase in scientific literature focusing on the composition or consumption of NUS.In conclusion, the BFN Mainstreaming Toolkit provides practitioners with a foundation and much-needed guidance on how to achieve wider appreciation of biodiversity, including NUS, in health, nutrition, agriculture and food security programmes, as envisaged by the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Policies, Programmes and National and Regional Plans of Action on Nutrition and the Committee on World Food Security (CFS)Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems for Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). However, in implementing the BFN approach, it has become apparent that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenge of using biodiversity and NUS to transform our current food systems. Without a doubt, there are countless possibilities waiting to be explored. We encourage workers to identify the most suitable and culturally appropriate solutions for their individual countries that can help transition the BFN approach into actionable policies that matter for people and the planet. Seasonality is a concept that can often be overlooked, particularly in Western countries where people are accustomed to having constant access to fresh plant foods even out of season. Economic development and consequent urbanisation have produced a shift in food systems, which have become more global and standardised worldwide, particularly in urban areas. It is, in fact, not uncommon to find food products out of season in markets and supermarkets, which have been transported from the other side of the world at a high cost to the environment.While this might go unnoticed by the inattentive consumer, seasonal patterns and food availability are still very much at the core of the food systems and their efficient functioning, and are important for the sustainable management and use of agrobiodiversity, as well as understanding market fluctuations and the consequent availability of and access to food. Particularly in low-and middleincome countries, food production is dependent on the passing of seasons, and understanding how seasonal patterns influence the availability, diversity and abundance of food is key to implementing strategies to eradicate malnutrition and to improve food security and diets globally.Recent statistics (FAO et al., 2019) show how malnutrition is still widespread, with 821 million people undernourished and 10% of the world population still severely food insecure, meaning that they lack sufficient accessibility, availability, stability or utilisation of food. The relationship between seasonality and food and nutrition security is no longer an obscure one, as highlighted by a considerable body of literature (Leonard, 1991;Dercon and Krishnan, 2000;Savy et al., 2006). Furthermore, changes in diet quality, both in terms of energy and nutrient intake, as well as dietary diversity, are often due to seasonal variation in foodSeasonal calendars for sustainable diets in Guatemala, Mali and India 175 availability (Ferguson et al., 1993;Hirvonen et al., 2016;Stelmach-Mardas et al., 2016;Broaddus-Shea et al., 2018;Oduor et al., 2019).Understanding the role of food availability and its patterns, characteristics and seasonal variation can be an entry point to achieving more diverse, healthy and nutritious diets, and to ultimately improving food security. Suboptimal diets are a major health risk that contributes to the global burden of disease (Hall et al., 2009;Afshin et al., 2019). Furthermore, global diets are becoming less diverse, in a process that has been defined as 'nutrition transition' (Drewnowski and Popkin, 2009), and are also becoming more and more reliant on a handful of economically important animal and plant species. The agricultural intensification required for these changes has had detrimental effects on environmental health and agrobiodiversity, critical for both food system sustainability and climate change resilience (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005;Mijatović et al., 2013). Despite the estimation that over 5,000 food crops exist worldwide (RGB Kew, 2016), 51% of energy intake relies on rice, wheat and maize (FAOSTAT, 2018). Poor and monotonous diets, characterised by a low consumption of fruits, vegetables and other nutrient-dense food increases the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other non-communicable diseases (He et al., 2006). This biodiversity loss in diets is of severe concern, considering that diet diversity has been associated with nutritional adequacy, health outcomes, food self-sufficiency and food security (Arimond and Ruel, 2004;Kennedy et al., 2007;Sibhatu et al., 2015;KC et al., 2016;Lachat et al., 2018).Improving dietary diversity and quality is, therefore, a key strategy for alleviating the global burden of malnutrition. Healthy and diverse diets provide a vast and diverse array of macro and micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and bioactive compounds, which are fundamental for human health. As a result, understanding seasonal food availability patterns is crucial.While there are numerous ways to assess local available agrobiodiversity and its fluctuations throughout the year, the best method can be decided based on the scope and purpose of a specific research project. Production and market surveys can enable a more concrete and factual understanding of seasonal availability, but can also be both time and resource intensive, and can often overlook important sources of nutrients in the landscape, such as those stemming from wild resources, or those exchanged within communities. Participatory research approaches, on the other hand, have a strong focus on local perspectives and can capture more efficiently the availability of wild, cultivated and exchanged species, which may be of particular relevance in the local context. Furthermore, participatory ap proaches enable the creation of a space for mutual learning, where communities can discuss and identify locally tailored action plans (PAR, 2018;Mijatović et al., 2019).The assessment of seasonal food availability through participatory approaches entails organising focus group discussions (FGDs). Seasonal food availability FGDs are a very versatile and straightforward participatory data collection method that allows the collection of information on local food species availability and their sourcing, as well as different types of other information (PAR, 2018). A detailed methodology guide on how to collect seasonality data through this participatory approach has been recently published and can be found online (Lochetti et al., 2020).These FGDs normally last up to a day, depending on the available agrobiodiversity, the scope of the research and the interests of participants. The data collected using this participatory methodology corresponds to perceived seasonal availability, and the quality of the results is dependent on participants' knowledge and interest in the foods being discussed. Selecting participants who are familiar with the seasonal dynamics of the foods of interest, such as experienced farmers and merchants, is advisable, in order to gather data of the highest quality. Data collected with this method enables the mapping of seasonal periods of food shortages and gaps in food availability. At the same time, it is also possible to identify periods of high availability of nutrient-dense foods, which are vital entry points to improving year-round availability of healthy and diverse foods.FGDs can provide key insights to the obstacles and barriers to the production and the consumption of locally available species, and participants should be encouraged and challenged to develop locally relevant solutions to these bottlenecks, with the aim of ultimately leading to the improvement of food and nutrition security, diet diversity and the resilience of smallholder farmers.Within the IFAD-EC NUS project 'Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk', implemented from 2015 to 2020, 1 several FGDs on seasonal availability were organised in the three countries targeted by the project, namely, Guatemala, India and Mali. The project aimed to revitalise the use of local agrobiodiversity, which typically includes a large assortment of nutritious species well adapted to local conditions, but which are underutilized for a variety of reasons, including a lack of awareness and promotion. Overall, 12 villages across the target countries took part in the data collection and contributed significantly to the assessment of local available agrobiodiversity and its seasonal patterns.The relevance of locally available agrobiodiversity for the livelihoods of the villages involved in the project was immediately apparent. In particular, these FGDs, compared to the production surveys carried out during the baseline assessment, were able to capture the presence of numerous wild-sourced species, which, in the study areas, make important contributions to household diets.One fundamental legacy of this project was the creation of location-specific seasonal food availability calendars, created from the data collected in the FGDs. In total, four different calendars were created for the three countries, and in each country translations into local languages were also arranged.The resulting calendars (Figure 14.1) are colourful and graphically pleasing products, easily comprehendible to children and people with a low level of literacy. Furthermore, by drawing on baseline results and closely working with local partners, calendars were enriched with nutritional education and awarenessraising materials in booklets that were distributed back to participating communities (Bioversity International and IER, 2018). These booklets relied on simple graphics and text in the national or local language to present basic nutrition information derived from national guidelines, when available, and included a section with an overview of the state of food and nutrition security specific to each locality, and of local diet quality and consumption levels of fruits and vegetables. A section with easy tips on how to improve diet diversity and year-round consumption of nutritious foods was also included. When available, national food-based dietary guidelines were provided as a starting point to present information on how to achieve a more diversified and healthy diet. Cooperation with national ministries for public health or national institutes of nutrition should be sought to update or improve existing nutrition education material or to develop new guidelines if national ones are not currently available in the country. At the time of the IFAD-EC NUS project, national food-based dietary guidelines were not available in Mali, leading to close cooperation with local nutritionists and the Ministry of Public Health to develop dietary guidelines that were relevant to the local context. Source: Bioversity International and IER (2018).Building from local experience and knowledge, calendars can thus guide diversification both in terms of food consumption and in terms of production and landscape management. Diversified agroecosystems, leveraging ecosystem services and the interactions between different species are key strategies for strengthening resilience to climate change and other external shocks (Oliver et al., 2015;Rioux et al., 2016). They can optimise yields, provide additional sources of income and contribute to food and nutrition security (Powell et al., 2013(Powell et al., , 2015;;Boedecker, et al., 2014;Isbell et al., 2017;Mijatović et al., 2019). This is particularly pressing when considering accelerating climate change and widespread ecosystem degradation. The seasonal food availability calendars, and the discussions they build upon, can be very helpful tools for raising awareness of the presence of local food species that may be neglected and underutilized, and can then be promoted through follow-up actions and projects. Finally, the participatory nature of this tool can play a fundamental role in the documentation and preservation of whole sets of traditional knowledge related to local agrobiodiversity, including local names, traditional cultivation practices and uses related to these species.Seasonal food availability calendars can be used to explore and understand seasonal variations and changes in the availability, abundance and diversity of foods present in both wild and cultivated environments. They can be relevant both at the urban and the rural levels, as consuming a diverse array of foods that are available across different seasons will ultimately lead to positive health gains, a reduced burden of disease and lower impacts on the environment, thereby also eventually improving the overall sustainability of food systems. The understanding of seasonal food availability patterns contributes to the analysis of the local food system and can be fundamental in fostering knowledge and raising awareness of local underutilized species and their potential role in both food and nutrition security, and income generation. When the calendar builds on participatory approaches, it can be used to inform and create awareness of local constraints and barriers to the production and consumption of diverse food, allowing the development of tailored and relevant nutrition education materials. This tool is an example of a bottom-up strategy that can help improve food and nutrition security and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers as well as people's food sovereignty. A greater knowledge and understanding of locally available food biodiversity can enhance peoples' right to define their own food and agriculture systems, reducing the reliance on external imports and inputs. In fact, this year, the Covid-19 crisis has underscored the world's overdependence on long food supply-chains, and has highlighted the need to diversify locally available options that can ensure communities' food security. These calendars, therefore, represent a valuable tool in increasing food knowledge and access, especially for vulnerable groups. Increasing the awareness in the final consumers of the role of and opportunities in consuming seasonal food, whether they live in rural Guatemala or a major European city, has the potential to lead to positive health outcomes and significantly more sustainable approaches to food production and consumption.Many African grains including pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet and some legumes are declining in importance. Crops such as maize, rice and wheat, which enjoy big market shares and attention from researchers, the private sector and government agencies, are replacing these minor crops. Rural women producers of these minor grains are being disenfranchised as their market shrinks. Over the last few decades, agricultural production has received a boost thanks to enhanced cultivation methods, but the majority of agricultural food products in Africa are still sold in local markets as fresh produce or in raw forms. The main challenge experienced by farmers is the lack of appropriate technologies for harvest operations and post-harvest processing before consumption. In particular, research in processing technologies for minor cereals is needed in order to develop novel ways of consuming local grains other than the conventional preparation methods of porridge or \"ugali\", which are considered highly monotonous foods, especially among younger consumers.In order to promote the use of local food resources and to enhance the appreciation of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) by people, scientists from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, in partnership with a multi-disciplinary group, pioneered a community-led intervention that added value to local cereals and legumes through the production and marketing of \"pressure popped\" snacks (Figure 15.1). Pressure-popping is a technology that uses high temperature and pressure to puff cereals and legumes such as sorghum, finger millet, green gram and a variety of other seemingly \"unfashionable\" grains (Figure 15.2).Partnerships in a success story of a pop cereal business in KenyaThe machine is user friendly and cheap to maintain as it is manually operated and requires little wood fuel to be operated, making it easily accessible in rural areas.Since 2016, through the financial and technical support from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Japan Association for International Collaboration of Agriculture and Forestry ( JAICAF), a prototype machine was tested and fabricated by a Kenyan private company, DK engineering Co. Ltd, using locally available materials with technical support from Japanese engineers. The same financial support enabled IEDA Confectionary Limited, a Japanese private company, to work with three local communities in the Kitui, Embu and Migori counties to initiate the experimental production of popped grain and value addition. The popping properties of a number of local grains were explored and the training of community members on value addition carried out. The groups embarked on marketing the new products, providing cheap, natural and healthy snacks for both rural and urban people, targeting especially children.The intervention motivated local individual entrepreneurs to purchase the machine using their own funds and start local business focused on popping grains. This technology has proved to be a novel way of adding economic value to local food resources through their use as snack, thus providing income and several business opportunities to local groups and individual entrepreneurs.These efforts have demonstrated great potential to contribute to food security and enhanced livelihoods in Kenya, particularly with regard to:• The increased use of local food resources (in our case, local grains) and boosting their appreciation as new sources of nutrition and income by local consumers • Creating new business opportunities, especially for youth and women interested in growing, selling and adding value to local crops • Enhancing partnerships between farmers and private companies, promoting entrepreneurships and local value chains • Conserving local agrobiodiversity, production landscapes and the culture associated with local foods.Because cereal popping is still relatively new to most Kenyans, in order to raise consumers' interest in popped cereal snacks, the project team carried out practical demonstrations in the three target counties and elsewhere in the country about the popping technique and the marketing of its products.Overall, 25 of these events were held between May 2017 and February 2018. The events, which included agricultural shows, seminars and workshops, were able to be organised also in neighbouring countries. These public demonstrations generated great interest, as evidenced through the high level of public participation and the many enquiries received. People following the events were keen to know more on how to start a business and how to access local manufacturers, besides requesting more information on technical aspects concerning the popping machine and its operation. Over the course of these events, the project team received 37 public awards from 14 agriculture shows attended. The activities were also widely covered by public media (12 events were covered in Kenya and 15 in Japan between March 2019 and January 2020). Annex I lists some relevant media releases covering the events in Kenya.Worth mentioning as well is that the popping activity helped strengthen the cohesion in communities, bringing success to some groups, while failing to do the same in others (apparently due to some financial mismanagement and disgruntlement among some members, caused by lack of clear role allocation and experience in business activities). Another lesson learnt is related to the case wherein the popping machine was donated to the community by some supporters: here we registered some problems when the machine needed servicing; the repair, instead of being dealt with by the group as a whole, fell upon just a single individual who was not particularly happy with that situation, As a result, the project started to encourage self-financing for the purchase of the machine as a way to assign greater responsibility among all members of the group, including when it came to servicing work.The following factors were key to the success of this initiative:1 The economic benefits arising from the initiative were among the strongest factors that led to a shift in the attitude of farmers, traders and consumers towards minor grains, which were no longer seen as crops of the poor with no future. 2 The pop cereal machine could be fully fabricated locally. DK Engineering played a key role in providing the technical backstopping for the machines' servicing, spare parts, training in operating procedures and maintenance. A business relying solely on imported machines tends to progress less due to the high costs of machines and spare parts, the extra time spent obtaining the spare parts and the lack of management information and human resources to offer necessary repairs and follow-ups. 3 Multi-disciplinary partnerships including community groups, entrepreneurs, private companies, development agents, local governments and scientists played a strategic role in providing action-oriented solutions. These partnerships also created opportunities for individual consultations, providing information and practical trainings to those who were interested in starting the business. They supported, furthermore, the development of unique community products, promoting the use of different varieties of local cereals and seasoning and flavouring through natural products. 4 Steady demonstration sales during public events and business fairs, supported by well-crafted communications messages spread through public and social media. This created opportunities to demonstrate local innovations in their products, i.e., presentations in labelling, packaging and marketing strategies.Following are two case studies that share the experiences of two private companies who ventured into the popping business. The first case is from Kieru Foods Ltd., owned by Gichangi Mahinda, a new company based in Embu that manufactures popped cereals from local grains such as pearl millet and sorghum.The second is from DK Engineering Co. Ltd. in Nairobi, whose sales manager, Daniel Kirori, offers his perspective on playing a key role in promoting the wider use of NUS.Case 1: Kieru Foods Ltd., Embu, KenyaIn the year 2008, together with my wife, Lilian Gichangi, I opened a cereal retail shop in the Embu market (Gichangi Cereals & Spices). After earning a living for many years as cereals farmers and traders, we decided to explore new opportunities of value adding technology for our produce. We initially roasted groundnuts and soybean, selling these products in our shop in the Embu market, together with other grains.In the year 2016, at a farmers' field day organised by Bioversity International, I saw a novel technology for making popped local grains such as pearl millet and sorghum. I was much impressed by this innovation and decided to order a popping machine fabricated locally by DK Engineering and received the necessary training for its operation from Bioversity International and JAICAF. In 2017, JAICAF facilitated my further training at the IEDA Confectionary Ltd. Company in Japan, where I gained additional knowledge on popping techniques and product development. The training in Japan was a real eye-opener for me, as the company I was exposed to was capable of dealing successfully with large volumes of raw material processed and readily sold. Back home in Kenya, I established Kieru Foods Company and spent about 300,000 Ksh (around US$3,000) as initial capital to purchase a popping machine, drying chambers, packaging materials and other items needed for our new business.Compared with other local businesses, such as the processing of juices from local fruits, popping has several advantages, including easy and low cost operations and management, from production to sales; therefore, starters have a high chance of success.The work at Kieru Ltd. focused initially on pearl millet, which is often mixed with roasted groundnuts and flavoured with soya flour, baobab, hibiscus, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon powder; sesame oil and honey are also added to churn out a nutritious delicacy. As indicated in Tables 15.1 and 15.2, we found that by implementing this production and sales schedule four times a month, the expenses of the machine would be repaid after 13 weeks, or a little over three months. The company is able to pop about 40 kg of cereals daily, which we package and sell to retailers. One kg of pearl millet, which we buy from farmers at a rate of 70 Ksh, yields more than 144 small-sized bars of snacks called \"kashata\" (Figure 15.3), which we sell at 10 Ksh each, gaining a total of 1,440 Ksh. I regard this income an exponential monetary value appreciation! Commercialisation I can say that whatever the reasons are for maintaining these local crops, we have to ensure that these products are able to satisfy the three major needs faced by rural farmers, viz. income generation, food sufficiency and good health. Food processing technologies are important to strengthen the resilience of local farming communities against social and environmental transformations, and, at the same time, to provide opportunities for diversifying diets and generating additional income. Credit: Y. Morimoto Kieru Foods Ltd. offers a variety of popped cereal products from local grains that are already familiar to consumers. It should be noted that the diversity of crops used in the snacks is not the only factor behind customers' appreciation. Added flavours (obtained from local fruits, vegetables and aromatic plants) are also very important. To that regard, the company has been investing in innovative ways of flavouring and seasoning popped cereals, as in the case of flour from roasted soybeans and Bambara groundnuts, by-products of popping, that are good for making porridge also. The company is currently marketing its products through bulk selling to retailers and supporting commercialisation with advertisements and public awareness campaigns in crowded places like bus parks (Figure 15.4).The increased marketing of traditional foods in urban areas will create more demand for the raw materials and, hence, will boost the cultivation of these local crops. At the same time, the traditional knowledge associated with the use of these crops, as well as the genetic diversity of these resources, will be preserved. I also believe that the establishment of local industries revolving around the use of such crops will help tackle the problem of rural-urban migration so common among younger ones. More awareness on the health benefits of these foods will also help popularise their use, which is in great decline due to changing preferences and modernisation of local food cultures. Most of our products in the  Profit rate (%) (6)/(5)Source: Y. Kanda et al. (2017, p.38).market have basic nutritional information printed on the packages. However, a more complete nutrient profile is also needed.Popping cereals represent a new snack to Kenyan people and their promotion is, thus, very important. When we started this business, we had to give free samples of snacks to potential customers in order to popularise the products. According to one of our regular customers, the snack bar is handy food for children, easy to pack and consume at school, and this is certainly helped spread this product among younger kids.I have been providing training on popped cereal techniques to individuals wanting to start their own popping businesses (Figure 15.5). The trainees also learn tips on how to avoid failures in their business: f.e. we advise trainees on ways to modify product packaging in accordance with the new policy of the Kenyan government, which bans the use of single-use plastic shopping bags.More needs to be done, however, to support the promotion of popping products in Kenya, and I advocate for greater research support to foster the development of new ideas to help the wider popularisation of these healthy foods.In collaboration with some of our trainees, we are creating a formal association of Kenyan poppers. This group will act on behalf of its members, presenting their grievances and requests to relevant authorities and facilitating the acquisition of the Quality Mark from the Kenya Bureau of Standards, which costs entrepreneurs time and money. The association would be tasked with bringing members together for information sharing and training. The network will provide many innovative ideas for developing new products, as well as approaches for optimising prices, boosting sale volumes, increasing public demand and raising business expectations.Our venture has now picked up quite well and the good returns so far give us hope for widening our marketing and expanding our business within and beyond Embu, to other towns in Kenya. We envision having a processing factory able to offer a good market for neglected crops, which will be very helpful for struggling smallholder farmers, and we trust that we shall contribute to making better foods of high nutritional value, while also opening up job opportunities to the youth and women.Our income has decreased as the number of people in markets decreased, as a result of COVID-19 policies, including a ban on demonstration sales in the open market. Many sectors, such as restaurants and tourism, have been affected by the disruptions caused by the pandemic and many people have lost their jobs. Sectors related to basic food, production and sales, however, tended to be less affected. Many people are eating at home and, as children are staying at home due to restrictions, people are becoming also more conscious of the importance of healthy diets. To that regard, we have registered an increase in consumers' interest in locally made, healthy, traditional foods. In line with the need for greater hygienic and sanitary procedures, our company has also introduced in our factory a new packaging machine to wrap products individually (Figure 15.6).The development of novel marketing strategies is always a continuous need for every entrepreneur. In that regard, we continue to interact with scientists to explore together alternative snack-making machines that cheaper and easier to carry around. For instance, some of the latest technologies developed -the handgrill and puff-cracker machines -each costs less than a quarter of the price of a popping machine; furthermore, in addition to being affordable, they are easy to maintain since they require little technical expertise and are operated by just one person (Figure 15.7). Whereas the popping machine converts grains to snacks, the cracker utilises flours of sifted cereals like cassava, wheat, rice, pearl millet, maize, amaranth, sorghum and finger millet -among others -to come up with the snacks (Figure 15.8). I strongly believe that these types of innovations can help tackle many challenges facing our society; they can create employment for younger ones and help curb food insecurity, wastage and malnutrition.  Case 2: DK Engineering Co. Ltd., Nairobi, Kenya DK Engineering Co. Ltd. was established in 1986 in order to provide engineering technology solutions in food processing and related service support. The company has been a key player in providing machines to industries within and across regions, focusing on bakeries, fruit juices, peanut butter, honey, wet and dry vegetables and institutional/restaurant kitchen equipment.After inspecting the prototype popping machine brought from Japan, DK Engineering expressed interest in fabricating a facsimile using locally available materials. It studied the design of the Japanese model, investigated the materials used and identified areas requiring redesigns using local materials.The major challenges experienced during the development process included the following:• Developing a cylinder vessel that would hold the required high pressure without leakage. • Moulding the lid guide and locking the peg that would fit tight on the lid.• Designing the entire machine with the same precision of the original made in Japan. • In addition, the pressure tight adjustment screw bolt was often bent due to accumulation of pressure, and the locking peg was broken upon hammering to open the lid. The selection and appropriate heat-resistant material was not precise, so we had to engage in trial-and-error methods repeatedly, which consumed time and resources.To solve all these problems, a request for engineering guidance was made to JAICAF and also to Mr. Yoshimura of Pop Cereal Machine Sales Ltd., Japan, who was the original designer of the popping machine (Figure 15.9). Based on their guidance, we applied a super-alloy containing a large content of sulphur constituent (\"En9\") to increase the strength and also contracted a steel foundry to cast the lid guide and locking peg.In terms of challenges encountered in selling the machine, customers expressed some concerns over the loud noise of the machine; others found that although the machine requires the use of relatively little wood fuel, this could be still a limiting factor if the equipment is to be used in urban settings.Our knowledge regarding the fabrication of the popping machine has been greatly improved, thanks not only to interactions with the project team, but also Further improvements to the popping machine are in the making, including replacing the wood stove with a gas stove, adding an insulated panel for reducing the noise and developing mobile equipment that would allow users to reach strategic points of sale.So far, we have sold about 30 machines in our region; our customers include local farmers groups, individual entrepreneurs, companies, NGOs, local governments and a UN agency interested in promoting the use of local cereals through this technology.The Lake Titicaca basin is the center of origin for numerous domesticated crops. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), potato (Solanum tuberosa), oca (Oxalis tuberosa), isaño (Tropaeolum tuberosum) and cañahua (Chenopodium pallidicaule) are some of the crops domesticated in the region, that have, in some cases, been credited with permitting the development of complex civilizations throughout the Andes (Erickson, 1988;Mann, 2011). Crops such as potatoes serve as globally important staple foods that today are the primary source of nutrition for hundreds of societies (Pearsall, 2008;Bradshaw and Ramsey, 2009).Over millennia, Indigenous farmers in the Andes not only domesticated single crops from wild plants but, in many cases, developed hundreds and even thousands of varieties of each (Pearsall, 2008). In Bolivia, it is estimated that farmers have developed as many as 2,963 varieties of quinoa and up to 1,944 varieties of potato (INIAF, n.d.). Such high levels of diversity have arisen in part due to the highly variable topography, soil and climate regimes in the region, leading to farmers continually having to select the varieties that are best adapted to local conditions, dietary requirements and constantly shifting cultural practices and preferences (National Academies Press, 1989;FAO, 2009).Despite its importance for traditional diets and cuisines, alleviating and combating food insecurity and adaptation to climate change, the loss of agrobiodiversity is widespread in the Andes (Padulosi et al., 2011;Zimmerer, 2013). In recent decades, large-scale and rapid migration from rural to urban areas, shifting weather patterns and the globalization of food systems have led to a decline in agrobiodiversity in Bolivia and elsewhere around the world (Padulosi et al., 2011). Furthermore, as rural populations age and older farmers die or cease to farm, knowledge and techniques for maintaining crop diversity areStephen R. Taranto, Eliseo Mamani Alvarez and Wilfredo Rojas lost, contributing to the extinction of many varieties (Thrupp, 2000;Zimmerer, 2014).In response to this genetic erosion, in recent decades Indigenous Aymara and campesino farmers and farming communities in Bolivia and Peru, and their allies from the public and private sectors, have been identifying and experimenting with a variety of practices aimed at halting the loss of agrobiodiversity. This includes in situ and ex situ conservation of germplasm, disease control, soil management, market development and commercialization of products and agritourism (Gandarillas, 2001;Coca, 2010cited by Rea, 1995;Córdoba, 2017). This chapter shares the results of an ongoing community-based agrobiodiversity conservation project and assesses the potential of agritourism to contribute to the in situ conservation of Andean crops in a traditional farming community on Lake Titicaca.Between 2008 and 2014, Bioversity International and the PROINPA Foundation of Bolivia collaborated on the conservation and commercialization of native Andean crops on the Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) project, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In Latin America, the NUS project was implemented in Bolivia and Ecuador (Rojas et al., 2010(Rojas et al., , 2014) ) and worked with Indigenous farming communities, agronomists, government agencies, tour operators, restaurants and other stakeholders to identify and implement sustainable interventions to prevent further loss of Andean agrobiodiversity.NUS interventions in Bolivia included the design and implementation of a community agritourism pilot project. Community-based tourism (CBT) is an increasingly popular approach to tourism that seeks the greater participation of local communities in tourism activities and services. CBT initiatives are designed to extend a greater share of the benefits of tourism to local communities by reducing the outsourcing of certain services to external actors, such as private tour operators, restaurant owners and transportation providers (Dangi and Jamal, 2016). Since the mid-1990s, dozens of CBT initiatives have been developed in Bolivia and elsewhere, with highly variable results. Challenging to implement and difficult to sustain, CBT projects are often located in remote rural communities associated with high-biodiversity protected areas and under intense pressure from migration (Baldinelli, 2013), climate change (Meave and Lugo-Morín, 2014) and illegal timber extraction and mining, and where food systems tend to decline in diversity (Blundo-Canto et al., 2020).To identify a pilot site for a CBT agritourism project and assess the feasibility of its sustainable implementation, PROINPA worked with Sendas Altas, a private tour operator in La Paz experienced in supporting and promoting CBT initiatives and familiar with its challenges. As a component of its corporate social responsibility program, Sendas Altas was actively working with several CBT initiatives in protected areas (T. Sivila, personal communication, 20 April 2018).For the NUS agritourism pilot project -and based on PROINPA's recommendations -four communities, Cariquina Grande, Cachilaya, Coromata Media, Santiago de Okola and Titijoni, were evaluated as potential pilot project sites under four criteria: agrobiodiversity levels; project acceptance by the community; accessibility of the community and the presence of tourist attractions beyond agrobiodiversity.Approximately 1.5 hours by ferry from the Island on the Sun in Lake Titicaca, the most important non-urban tourist destination in Bolivia, and four hours from the city of La Paz, the village of Santiago de Okola on Titicaca was selected for the project. Community members expressed interest in developing a tourism project and, in fact, the village had been receiving tourists informally for several years (T. Laruta Hilari, personal comm, 28 February 2008). In addition to the high levels of agrobiodiversity inventoried by PROINPA ( 2008) and Torresin, who identified 136 useful plant species in the village (2015), the community possesses numerous landscapes, sites and activities of interest, in particular the Sleeping Dragon bluff, an important archaeological site on the shores of the lake (Calla et al., 2013) that until today is used for traditional Aymara rituals (Gil, 2017).Together with community members and PROINPA, Sendas Altas f acilitated the participatory design of the CBT project based on the interests and abilities of participating community members, the identification of complementary attractions and activities, the generation of income and the use of agrobiodiversity. Through group discussions, skill-building workshops, field trips and other participatory methods, tourism skills and services such as interpretation, hygiene practices, food preparation and accommodation were developed. Agrobiodiversity was integrated into the project in various ways, including its inclusion in meals, the design of a cookbook highlighting agrobiodiversity, interpretive walks that include information on agrobiodiversity and traditional production systems and the creation of a community museum highlighting agrobiodiversity.Since the start of the project in 2008, an estimated 3,500 tourists have visited Santiago de Okola, many crossing Lake Titicaca from the Island of the Sun and others coming by land from La Paz. Furthermore, in parallel with the NUS project and to this day, a sustained series of additional, externally funded projects have been implemented in the community, including the d evelopm ent of a low-impact trail system on the Sleeping Dragon bluff, the organizational strengthening of the Integrated Tourism Association of Santiago de Okola (ASITURSO) -the formal community organization that emerged from the project -and the construction of a community center. Recently, the project has received support from the Italian Cooperation with a particular focus on the remnants of Qhapaq Ñan, the Great Inca Trail that passes directly through the town, which is being developed as a long-distance regional trekking route from Ecuador to Chile (see Figure 16.1).The objectives of this study are: a) to evaluate whether the last 12 years of agritourism in Santiago de Okola have contributed to the conservation of the Andean crop varieties inventoried at the beginning of the project; and b) assess the impacts and potential of agritourism to contribute to the in situ conservation of Andean agrobiodiversity. At the beginning of the NUS project in 2008, 12 families from Santiago de Okola agreed to participate in the agritourism pilot project and were surveyed in Aymara and Spanish by PROINPA and Sendas Altas to assess established perceptions about tourism and to inventory household agrobiodiversity (Mamani et al., 2008). Researchers visited each family independently after the 2008 harvest and asked respondents to display and name each variety. Once all the families were surveyed, a database of crops and crop varieties was generated and recorded as present (1) or not present (0) in each household. The same method was used for the 2020 surveys and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, with the household as the unit of analysis.To evaluate changes in household agrobiodiversity levels, we compared levels reported in 2008 to those reported in 2020. The 2020 surveys were conducted with the same families and with the same questionnaire. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only seven families (58%) were surveyed; however, the remaining families will be surveyed when safe access to the region is secured and the data presented here will be updated.Today, the agricultural systems of the Lake Titicaca basin reflect five centuries of crop exchange with food systems from around the world and the diets of both rural and urban consumers reflects deep integration with introduced crops such as broad beans, wheat and barley. Farmers in Santiago de Okola cultivate a broad array of native and introduced crops; however, for the purposes of this study, results are presented only for the seven native Andean crops inventoried during both the 2008 and the 2020 surveys. Four tubers (potato, oca, isaño and papalisa) and three grains (quinoa, cañahua and maize) were inventoried, while introduced crops such as barley and wheat were excluded, in order to evaluate the impact of the project on native Andean crops rather than all crops present in the systems. Figures 16.3 and 16.4 summarize the change in the number of varieties of each crop that each household cultivated in 2008 and in 2020. Increases in the number of varieties grown by each household were reported for the seven crops in six of the seven households: oca increased from an average of four to eight varieties, isaño from one to four varieties, papalisa from one to four varieties, maize from three to nine varieties and quinoa from one to six varieties per household. While in 2008 cañahua was not cultivated by any participants, in 2020 one family reported cultivating four varieties of it. The greatest change was registered for potatoes, with an increase in the average number of varieties from 12 to 32 (Figure 16.4). The change in number of varieties of potato is presented separately because while potatoes were not a focus crop of the NUS project, they are central to food security in rural communities and their diversity is crucial to monitor and conserve.The results also served to evaluate changes in the overall composition of crops and their varieties at the intra-family level between 2008 and 2020 (Figure 16.5). Traditional Andean farming systems are characterized as poly-culture systems and Figure 16.5 summarizes changes in crop variety composition with Families 2 and 3 increasing the total number of crop varieties by 131% and 71% respectively; Families 5, 6 and 7 increasing the number of varieties by more than 200% each and Family 4 increasing the number of varieties by more than 500%. Family 1 did not ultimately participate in the project and reported a 50% reduction in number of varieties.The results of this initial analysis show promise for community-based agritourism projects to contribute to the in situ conservation of Andean agrobiodiversity. While five households remain to be interviewed, the consistent and sustained increases both in the number of varieties of each crop cultivated by participating families and in the overall diversity and complexity of household farming  systems suggest that varieties at risk of loss are, in fact, being conserved among participating households. While there is little evidence, with the exception of cañahua, of new varieties being introduced from outside the community, the results clearly show that participating families are actively exchanging varieties amongst themselves and, as such, are establishing multiple, highly diverse in situ conservation plots within the village.There are a number of factors that may have contributed to these outcomes. First, it is important to mention that from the early stages of the project there was a steady flow of tourists visiting the community and paying to experience its agrobiodiversity. Santiago de Okola's agricultural landscape was highlighted in promotional materials used by local tour operators to attract visitors, with offers of homestays and traditional meals with families, an agrobiodiversity and medicinal plant walk, cooking workshops and visits to the community museum with exhibits on the food and farming systems of the village and region.At the same time, project technicians from PROINPA and Sendas Altas were supporting community members by providing skill-building and organizational strengthening, helping participants respond to the needs of visitors, fundraising for new projects and managing the marketing efforts required to sustain the flow of tourists. Together, the internal and external efforts made by project partners and the consistent focus on agrobiodiversity combined to motivate participants to internalize the importance of agrobiodiversity not only for local food security requirements but also as a source of income linked to being the stewards of such a valuable resource.Qualitative data collected during the 2020 inventories support the notion that the combination of receiving income during and beyond the early stages of the project while also simultaneously developing services and skills associated with tourism focused on agrobiodiversity caused the revaluing of crop varieties by both tourists and community members. During the 2008 inventories, for example, many respondents could not remember the names and uses of the varieties surveyed, while in 2020 farmers demonstrated much greater knowledge of varieties and much more interest in conserving them. Further, cultivating a greater number of varieties has become a source of pride and positive competition among project participants as they report the desire to demonstrate their commitment to stewarding cultural patrimony not only for tourists but also for neighbors and nearby communities, ostensibly elevating the village's status among its peers.Finally, positive developments achieved in Santiago de Okola took place in the context of broader national and international efforts to revalue traditional food and farming systems (M. Taha, personal communication, 12 August 2020). The rise of Indigenous leadership at a national level in Bolivia, for example, greatly influenced increasing pride in traditional cultural practices, including native cuisine. The year 2013, for example, was declared as a Year of Quinoa by the Food and Agricultural Organization. These are just two examples of larger trends that have elevated appreciation for and consumption of native crop varieties and that have influenced tourist interests in the same.At the time of writing, and most unfortunately, the 2020 global coronavirus pandemic has brought tourism in Santiago de Okola to a halt and throws into doubt the long term sustainability of agritourism to contribute to agrobiodiversity conservation in the community. The virus' impact on elderly populations is severe, placing Santiago de Okola's aging farmers at risk and, with them, the cultural and agroecological practices associated with the agrobiodiversity they conserve.Diets low in consumption of fruits, vegetables, and other nutrient-dense foods and high in energy, fats, free sugars, and salt are a leading cause of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), underpinning millions of premature deaths (Afshin et al., 2019). The World Health Organization recommends the consumption of 400 grams or five portions a day of fruits and vegetables for good health. However, healthy diets that include fresh vegetables are unaffordable for more than half the households in SSA (Harris et al., 2019;Hirvonen et al., 2020).Traditional African vegetables (TAVs) are diverse in taste, flavors, and nutrient content. They present one way to improve people's diets in SSA countries at low cost with food plants suited to local taste and flavors, and which are connected to people's cultural history and adapted to local agro-ecological environments. Yet these vegetables are often neglected and underutilized for multiple reasons, including (i) shifts in food habits and preferences; (ii) agricultural and food policies promoting only a handful of energy-dense staple crops and exotic vegetables; (iii) poor planting materials available to smallholders; and (iv) poor crop management practices and postharvest handling due to inadequate extension and infrastructure.This chapter gives a brief overview of the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) and its partners' efforts to promote TAV production and consumption in SSA and safeguard TAV biodiversity before it is lost. The lessons learned from these efforts will contribute to an African vegetable revolution to improve diets in the continent.TAVs are vegetables native to SSA or vegetables that have been introduced to SSA and adopted by farmers in their traditional production systems. ThreeSognigbe N'Danikou, Maarten van Zonneveld, Fekadu Fufa Dinssa, Roland Schafleitner, Jody Harris, Pepijn Schreinemachers and Srinivasan Ramasamy primary regions of crop diversity of TAVs have been identified: (i) Dahomey gap in western lowland tropical Africa; (ii) the Ethiopian highlands; and (iii) South Cameroon (van Zonneveld et al., 2021). Tanzania and Eswatini are two regions of TAV diversity of predominantly wild vegetables; Angola, DR Congo, and South Sudan are areas of potential diversity that require further investigation because of the currently low number of observations (van Zonneveld et al., 2021). Madagascar is another fascinating region of vegetable crop diversity as a historic meeting point of people originating from SSA, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, who each introduced their own crops and varieties. More than 400 species are reported to be used as traditional vegetables in Africa, with over 60% being leafy vegetables (van Zonneveld et al., 2021). A more detailed study among 126 TAVs indicates that about one-third are domesticated, another third are semi-domesticated, and the rest are predominantly harvested in the wild (van Zonneveld et al., 2021).Many local varieties of domesticated and semi-domesticated species are lost due to underutilization. For wild species, habitat loss and overexploitation are major conservation concerns. WorldVeg maintains a global key collection of TAVs in the public domain in its genebank in Tanzania, which includes germplasm of amaranth, African nightshade, okra, roselle, and jute mallow, among other crops. This collection comprises about 2,400 accessions of TAV landraces and their wild relatives, collected from 38 African countries. The early collecting missions date back to the 1990s through different grant projects. In partnership with National Plant Genetic Resources Centers in SSA, WorldVeg is implementing a plan to rescue African vegetable biodiversity and support ex situ conservation of TAV biodiversity and breeding in Africa. Thanks to these partnerships, new collecting missions have started in western, eastern and southern Africa to fill geographical gaps in the conservation of TAVs.The TAV collection at WorldVeg is held in trust for humanity. It can be accessed for breeding and research in accordance with the guidelines of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.In addition to distributing germplasm for research, education, and breeding, WorldVeg distributes vegetable seed kits to international and local NGOs, farmer groups, and local governments, which share the kits with households for the direct cultivation of these crops. Most seed kits aim to improve nutrition through home consumption and to diversify incomes by selling TAVs in local markets. WorldVeg also distributes seed kits to organizations for disaster relief to support smallholders affected by crises such as displacement due to civil unrest or crop failure because of extreme weather events. For example, from 2013 to 2020, the WorldVeg genebank distributed nearly 47,000 seed kits containing about 211,000 seed samples of improved lines and purified promising accessions to smallholder farmers in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Madagascar through development projects and programs. Bulk seed distribution in Tanzania, Benin, and Mali was part of the Center's effort to support communities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These large numbers reflect increasing recognition among government and development organizations of the relevance of TAVs for income and nutrition.The lines distributed are open-pollinated, allowing growers to produce and save their own seeds for future seasons. These lines of promising genebank accessions, selections, and WorldVeg improved lines have been tested under local conditions for yield, disease resistance, and consumer preference. Seed kits are distributed along with training in vegetable production and seed saving. Each kit contains a booklet with planting instructions that follow good agricultural practices and information on each crop's nutritional values. Seed kit distributions are intended to be one-time only to avoid dependency or crowding-out local seed enterprises. The provision of healthy seed kits to households coupled with behavior change communication has been shown to raise consumers' nutritional awareness of TAVs (Afari-Sefa et al., 2016). Such actions have resulted in significant improvements in households' dietary diversity, particularly for children under five and women of reproductive age (Ochieng et al., 2018).In areas where formal and informal seed sectors of TAVs are underdeveloped, vegetable seed kits help introduce good quality seed in local seed systems. Seed kits are also a promising tool for participatory variety evaluation with farmer organizations and local seed enterprises, which, in turn, inform seed enterprises and seed companies about farmer preferences to tailor their supply to local demand. As seed companies and public institutions expand their portfolio with traditional vegetables, the role of the WorldVeg genebank shifts from seed kit distribution to supplying germplasm resources for variety development by seed companies and public institutions. Thus, the WorldVeg genebank optimizes the distribution of vegetable diversity by working with partners in both formal and local seed systems and aims to contribute to integrated seed system development.Farmers in several SSA countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali are already adopting varieties developed from WorldVeg genebank materials supplied to seed companies in Africa. For instance, 51% of amaranth areas planted in Kenya and 70% in Tanzania were from WorldVeg improved lines that were released in these countries (Ochieng et al., 2019). Also, 2.9 tons (59%) of amaranth seeds sold by companies in 2016 used WorldVeg-based germplasm. WorldVeg's amaranth lines have reached about 231,000 households in Kenya and Tanzania alone (Ochieng et al., 2019).The germplasm improvement of TAVs at WorldVeg started in 1992 with a handful of the most popular TAVs, namely amaranth, African eggplant, and Ethiopian mustard. Through repeated selection, purification, and farmers' participatory variety selection, plant breeders quickly identified promising lines for release as improved cultivars of amaranth and African eggplant in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Cameroon (Figure 17.1).A WorldVeg breeding program for amaranth and African eggplant started in 2015 to develop advanced lines with enhanced yield, nutrients, product color, shape, size, taste, and late and early maturation. These lines have been distributed to national agricultural research systems, private seed companies, and other partners in Africa (Dinssa et al., 2016). They have been adopted at large scales by farmers in several countries such as Tanzania and Kenya (Ochieng et al., 2019). As a result, improved cultivars of amaranth and African eggplant have been released in several countries in the continent. Most seed companies directly use the released varieties and multiply the seed for commercialization. A few advanced companies have started using WorldVeg improved lines in their breeding programs. The increasing commercialization of seed suggests commensurate increasing consumer demand for these vegetables and, consequently, more interest from farmers to invest in amaranth production. Further research will help provide further insights into these dynamics and how to further scale vegetable seed supply in SSA.To further advance variety release and supply quality vegetable seed, the Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium (AVBC) was established in 2018. The AVBC is a joint initiative of WorldVeg and the African Seed Trade Association to develop a strong vegetable seed sector in Africa. All WorldVeg improved lines are publicly available and can be requested. AVBC members have limited exclusivity claims to some WorldVeg-developed lines before they become a global public good.WorldVeg improved lines include African eggplant accessions resistant to shoot borer Leucinodes orbonalis, and sources of resistance in amaranth have been identified for foliar pests and stem weevils (AVRDC, 2003;Othim et al., 2018). In combination with appropriate pest and disease management practices, farmers can boost TAV supply to meet growing demand. These practices include removing and destroying infested crop debris, crop rotations with non-host crop species, eradicating weeds, good drainage, and growing healthy seedlings. Grafting African eggplant on suitable resistant rootstocks is an important control measure to overcome bacterial wilt and Verticillium wilt diseases. Soil fumigation and soil solarization are important means to control pathogens and root-knot nematodes. Damping-off diseases can be controlled by treating seed with fungicides (including bio-fungicides such as Trichoderma) or hot water. Using disease-free seedlings, removing and destroying diseased plants, and protecting fields and nurseries from insect vectors are further recommendations to help manage virus diseases. Yellow sticky traps (for whitefly, leafminer, leaf hopper, and aphids) and/or blue sticky traps (for thrips) should be erected on the windward side of fields and nurseries to help trap these pests, some of which also act as vectors of virus diseases. Application of predatory mites and insects and entomopathogenic fungi such as Neozygites floridana, Beauveria bassiana, and Metarhizium anisopliae help reduce infestations of pests such as spider mites. The application of bio-pesticides, including neem formulations, reduces insect pests and also conserves natural enemies such as predatory ladybird beetles and syrphid flies, as well as parasitoids. Extension and training in improved production and postharvest practices support farmers in boosting the TAV supply in SSA, as would adequate infrastructure to get vegetables to appropriate markets.Vegetable consumption is generally low in SSA. Only 7% of countries in Africa reach a mean consumption of 240 g/day, as recommended by WHO/ FAO guidelines (Kalmpourtzidou et al., 2020), though there is wide variation between regions and countries in SSA (Afshin et al., 2019). Data specifically on TAV intake at individual or population level is not readily available, because national data-collection systems focus predominantly on economically important vegetables (Herforth et al., 2019). Further research is needed to understand the intake of TAVs at household and individual levels in many SSA countries.Behavior change communication programs have been tested in several countries to promote fruit and vegetable consumption, including some TAVs. Among these approaches are school garden programs used to stimulate interest of children at a young age (Schreinemachers et al., 2019); and integrated home garden programs-coupling garden-based training with nutrition behavior change-to increase the household-level availability of vegetables while simultaneously stimulating demand (Olney et al., 2015). Other approaches include media campaigns, cooking demonstrations and competitions, promoting local food ambassadors/champions, and holding food and seed fairs (Ochieng et al., 2019). Over the last three decades, tens of thousands of households in western (Mali, Burkina Faso), central (Cameroon), eastern (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar) and southern Africa (Malawi, Zambia) have been trained on the nutritional benefits of TAVs and how to prepare them by different organizations including WorldVeg, Bioversity International, and their national partners.Thanks to a series of interventions on both the demand and supply sides, TAVs are successfully being mainstreamed in Kenya and Uganda, especially in the capital cities like Nairobi and Kampala, through a revival of traditional eating patterns among the middle classes. This has been possible because of policy support to create an enabling environment for vegetables in food systems. The recognition of quality declared seeds (QDS) boosted TAV supply to meet increasing urban consumption in these cities (Mabaya et al., 2019). QDS provides farmers with access to quality (though not nationally registered) seeds of less highly bred crops such as TAVs. The QDS process involves local seed enterprises, boosting livelihoods and making diverse vegetables available for healthy diets.However, in most cases, interventions are fragmented because they address only part of the value chain. There is a need for systems-based actions that encompass the whole value chain and that are enforced by enabling policies to support sustainable production and consumption. Many food and seed policies do not explicitly consider vegetables or desired dietary outcomes for national populations. Therefore, more work is needed to understand how these system-level interventions can connect the production and consumption of nutrient-rich vegetable foods.Despite increased interest from the scientific community in the ongoing work on TAVs, there are still important steps left to achieve an African vegetable revolution to improve diets in the continent. We here identify three significant areas that need a clear commitment from high-level institutions in Africa and worldwide.a Enabling policies to mainstream African traditional vegetables into food systems. Policies to shape the food system to nourish people, not just feed them, must look across the food system from inputs to production and food environments. Multidisciplinary research is key to reveal gaps and opportunities for increasing TAVs in food systems, starting with the desired outcomes-including healthy diets, fair livelihoods, and sustainable environments (McMullin et al., 2021). A critical component of this research is the investigation of seed policies and how to make them more inclusive by (i) recognizing farmer-saved seeds; (ii) supporting the development of nutritious vegetable varieties; and (iii) making these vegetable seeds available to and affordable for farmers. Policies that support farmers in risk management will encourage them to grow TAVs. These include providing subsidies for nutritious foods and insurance programs for TAVs, and connecting growers with consistent institutional markets such as school feeding programs while demand increases. b Promotion and outreach to boost consumption of TAVs. There is increasing evidence of the impact of promotion campaigns on public awareness of the nutritional value of TAVs and their role in dietary diversity at the household level (Afari-Sefa et al., 2016;Ochieng et al., 2018). Specialized government agencies (e.g., Food and Nutrition Councils and their equivalents) can be tasked with such campaigns. c Strengthen regional R&D programs and initiatives to enhance the use of African vegetable germplasm. This will require governments and funders to invest and stakeholders to organize efforts to rescue the biodiversity of TAVs and strengthen vegetable breeding programs in Africa. An example of such an initiative is the AVBC, which brings WorldVeg and seed companies together to build capacities and exchange knowledge on new breeding techniques. A regional action plan with public, societal, and private actors will be essential to rescue and make efficient use of TAV biodiversity in Africa.While notable efforts are ongoing to mainstream TAVs in production and food systems in SSA for healthier diets, improved livelihoods, and the protection of genetic diversity, several bottlenecks remain: policies to create an enabling environment are needed to integrate these vegetables into people's diets; awareness campaigns to encourage consumption will enhance the adoption and acceptability of TAVs; consistent investment to safeguard TAV biodiversity is essential for resilient production and supply to meet consumer demand; and supply of high-quality seeds to farmers in combination with extension will help build capacity among farmers for safe and sustainable production practices. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-20Slow Food (SF) is a global grassroots organization and movement founded in 1989 to counter the acceleration of frenetic consumerism by renewing interest in food and the pleasure of eating, protecting local food cultures, and ensuring that everyone has access to food that is good (healthy and delicious), clean (produced and consumed with respect for the environment), and fair (contributing to social justice) (Petrini, 2005). Since its inception, SF has articulated a multifaceted concept of gastronomy that understands food as a web of relationships linking pleasure and wellbeing, people and landscapes, producers and consumers, cultures and ecosystems (Schneider, 2008). SF's activities and initiatives focus on education, traditional knowledge, agroecology, empowerment of women and Indigenous Peoples, participatory management of foodscapes, policy and advocacy, and the creation of short, equitable supply chains. A commitment to defending the biological and cultural diversity on which the resilience of human communities and the global food system depend underpins all of this work. This is in keeping with the growing political, popular, and scientific interest in the role that traditional food systems can play in combatting and potentially reversing the erosion of biocultural diversity (Maffi, 2001) that has accelerated in recent decades. Particular attention is now paid to neglected and underutilized species (NUS) (Padulosi et al., 2013), which may hold solutions to challenges facing socioecological systems and human health and nutrition. Not just governments, research institutions, and private sector organizations, but also local and international food movements have made important contributions to recovering NUS (Goodman et al., 2012;Counihan and Siniscalchi, 2014). Several grassroots initiatives identify, document, and promote neglected and marginalized products and their associated biocultural and gastronomic value (Nabhan et al., Charles Barstow, Edie Mukiibi and Dauro Mattia Zocchi 2010). In this chapter we discuss aspects of SF's approach to what it calls 'endangered food products'. While this term overlaps in its meaning with NUS, it refers to a broader domain than the latter, as we will illustrate. Our focus is on the systems-based approach and the underlying values of SF's global biodiversity projects.The Ark of Taste, coordinated by the SF Foundation for Biodiversity, is an online catalogue of endangered varieties, breeds, and processed products from cultures and territories around the world (for more information on the Foundation, see www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/). The criteria that products must satisfy for inclusion on the Ark help define the \"ecogastronomic unit of concern\" (Nabhan et al., 2010).First, items must be food products, including domesticated plant varieties and animal breeds, populations, wild species, and processed products. Second, Ark products must be of distinctive organoleptic quality. This criterion points to one of SF's distinguishing features, its concern with pleasure and 'good taste', which implies affording as much importance to what 'tastes good' as to what is healthy. 'Quality' is defined within the relevant local context; understanding the factors that contribute to perceptions of quality requires intercultural dialogue, and pleasure is often what brings people into the conversation. Third, Ark products must be linked to a specific territory and the memory, identity, and traditional knowledge of a particular community. This underscores the importance of landscapes and 'foodscapes', the human-natural systems in which the cultural and ecological values of the ecogastronomic unit (the product) take shape and acquire meaning, and where traditional knowledge and management practices are created, maintained, and transmitted (Stepp et al., 2003;Barthel et al., 2013).Finally, Ark of Taste products must be produced in limited quantities and at risk or endangered due to various social, economic, and ecological factors. These factors include habitat degradation and land use conversion, forced or voluntary migration, sedentarization of mobile populations, lack of intergenerational knowledge transfer, barriers to market entry, one-size-fits-all hygiene regulations, climate change, environmental and genetic pollution, incentives to adopt improved or foreign varieties and breeds, changing sentiments due to education and the media, and the general mechanization, industrialization, and standardization of the food system.Looking at these criteria, there are key similarities and differences between SF's concept of endangered food products and the various working definitions of NUS (as elaborated, e.g., in Delêtre et al., 2013). Among the important differences are that, for SF, the local is privileged over the global, the 'what' (i.e., the unit of concern) is more broadly defined, and the 'why' is motivated primarily by questions of culture and identity rather than unrealized market potential. These differences have a number of important implications, as elaborated on below.SF relies on the wisdom of the crowd-its global network of farmers, fishers, herders, artisans, cooks, educators, academics, activists, Indigenous Peoples, and consumers-to identify endangered products. Ark of Taste products most often result from nominations submitted by people across the globe who may or may not be formally associated with the SF network. If a nominated product meets the criteria described above, it is boarded on the Ark to raise awareness and increase its visibility; individuals and communities can then take action, in their own way or through the implementation of other SF projects. In other cases, Ark products arise from biodiversity mapping undertaken by members of the network with technical support from SF and local experts, or by SF staff during field visits. Mapping is one of the methodologies that appear in the literature on NUS (e.g., Will, 2008), though the order of the steps involved, the elements to be mapped, and the justifications for selecting certain products differ slightly in the SF approach.Critically, SF does not select products in advance; it works to support and facilitate the efforts of communities in its network, not set an agenda for them. Likewise, SF does not undertake field research or projects in a territory without being invited. This approach seeks to put technical support, networking capacity, and scientific knowledge at the service of local communities, not merely supplement research and development with those communities' traditional knowledge and solicit their input and involvement. In addition to products themselves, SF maps stakeholders within the foodscape. These could be farmers, processors, civil society institutions, tourism and hospitality organizations, and markets. Without understanding this constellation of stakeholders, and particularly how it links rural and urban areas, identifying and promoting endangered products is rarely fruitful. Likewise, it is impossible to promote products according to SF's values without interest and commitment from local communities.While 'protecting' and 'promoting' serve and create opportunities for each other, there is potential for opportunities to become threats (Will, 2008), such as when resource use and market attention become too intense in relation to one product at the expense of other endangered products and the environment. Therefore, economic potential alone is insufficient to warrant SF's attention, and when it comes to such potential, emphasis is primarily on local economies and food sovereignty rather than the global market and food security. SF challenges the assertion that global food production must increase 50%-100% by 2050 (Foley et al., 2011;FAO, 2019). Calls to drastically increase production are used to justify a progressist narrative of growth, liberal trade, and technological fixes, the disastrous consequences of which are evident (Ghosh, 2010;Tomlinson, 2013;Hunter et al., 2017). Feeding everybody while protecting biocultural diversity and maintaining production potential in the long term requires multiple local Slow Food and NUS 219 strategies tailored to local complexities (Cunningham et al., 2013). Moreover, though small-scale production alone is insufficient, it is absolutely necessary for achieving these goals-such production already feeds a huge proportion of humanity while simultaneously supporting ecosystem services and high levels of biodiversity (Ricciardi et al., 2018).With these issues in mind, the SF Foundation for Biodiversity has developed several projects to promote traditional and endangered products-such as those on the Ark of Taste-and their associated biocultural contexts within a broad view of promotion as a means for protection. For example, the Gardens in Africa project is a continent-wide network of school and community gardens designed to protect traditional varieties of plants and promote nutrition and knowledge transfer using gardens as productive and educational spaces. Subsistence is rarely 'mere subsistence'. The importance of subsistence agriculture for biodiversity conservation, nutrition and dietary diversity, and food sovereignty based on access to wild and cultivated traditional foods-particularly among poor and Indigenous communities-is well documented (Kuhnlein and Receveur, 1996;Roche et al., 2008;Galluzzi et al., 2010;Jones et al., 2014;Powell et al., 2015).The SF Presidium project, a more market-oriented initiative, supports groups of producers committed to reviving or revitalizing endangered products. The SF Foundation provides training and technical assistance and works with producers to create production protocols similar to those for products with Protected Designation of Origin or other geographical indications, but designed to foster flexibility, innovation, and subtle differences between producers, all in the spirit of subverting standardization (Friedman and McNair, 2008). Presidia raise the visibility of these products on the market and producers may legally use SF's registered snail logo, which has become a highly regarded seal of approval for good, clean, and fair foods. Furthermore, Presidia use narrative labels to highlight each product's connection to a particular territory and the knowledge of producers, replacing the 'fast' reading of traditional certifications and label texts with the 'slow' reading of biocultural contexts.One distinguishing feature of SF Presidia is their increasing focus on systems of production rather than single products. An example of this is the recently launched Presidium for the Chiapas Milpa System, which uses agroecology to grow several Ark of Taste products, supports the reproduction and sharing of traditional seeds and knowledge, and empowers women involved in producing and marketing traditional corn products. Another example is the Presidium for dried nettles (Urtica massaica) from Kenya's Mau Forest. The Gikuyu and other local Indigenous communities use nettles as food and medicine for themselves and their livestock. Because deforestation has reduced the availability of wild nettles, Gikuyu women have brought them into cultivation in disturbed areas around dwellings and the fertile soils of formerly grazed land. The Presidium assists with production and promotes both fresh and dried powdered nettles in restaurants and in local and regional markets.As some NUS literature points out, value addition can be key for bringing marginalized foods to wider markets (Will, 2008;Padulosi et al., 2013). SF takes this a step further, considering processed products like cheeses, honey, and cured meats. The importance of traditional knowledge, techniques, and technologies associated with these products is clear. What may be less apparent is the biodiversity and cultural value of non-food species behind these products, including Source: Oliver Migliore, SF Archive (used with permission).Slow Food and NUS 221 bees, forage plants, and microorganisms responsible for fermentation. Promoting such products can contribute to the protection of these species, their habitats, and their associated ecosystem services. Two examples help clarify this. Honey is vitally important to the gastronomy of the Ogiek, another Indigenous community of the Mau Forest. Many of the melliferous species upon which local bees rely, while inedible to humans, provide materials for tools and beekeeping equipment.One is Dombeya torrida, known locally as silibwet, a sacred tree that yields the Ogiek's most valued honey (Zocchi et al., 2020). The Ogiek Honey Presidium helps protect this tree and the Mau Forest ecosystem generally.Another example is the relationship between forage plants and the qualities of dairy products. Sahrawi nomads in Western Sahara know exactly how the plants that camels eat affect the sensory and nutritional qualities of their milk, and believe that this milk retains the medicinal properties of the plants ingested (Volpato and Puri, 2014). Similar observations have been made by Raika camel herders in Rajasthan (Köhler-Rollefson et al., 2013), whose milk is an Ark of Taste product. In Europe, the astonishing diversity of mountain cheeses results directly from biophysical variation across mountain pastures. Promoting these cheeses and their value chains could help reduce agricultural abandonment, which threatens landscape diversity and traditional cultures (MacDonald et al., 2000). SF has recently promoted natural cheeses (those produced with raw milk and natural fermentation) across Europe. Such cheeses have increased organoleptic complexity that reflects the specific communities of microorganisms in the pastures and dairy facilities where they're produced, and their producers are not beholden to companies that make and distribute selected fermentation cultures. These examples refer to landscapes that produce little or no plant-based food for humans, but whose biocultural diversity and contributions to ecological structure and function are worthy of attention. Food can be an effective entry point and rallying cry in this regard.Over the last three decades, parallel to concerns about the sustainability and equitability of the global food system and its effects on biodiversity, SF has developed a grassroots approach that identifies food systems as both cause and victim of the current ecological crisis, as well as a potential solution. Recognizing that protecting and promoting endangered food products and NUS is insufficient on its own, SF addresses the wider sociocultural and ecological systems of which these products are a part. Social movements, institutional initiatives, and policies must emphasize and rigorously defend the inherent value of these systems. This means using the market in service of these values, not the other way around, and it requires leaving decision-making power in the hands of local communities so that they don't become dependent on market channels over which they have no influence. While global logistics and communications make it increasingly easy to promote and market NUS, endangered foods, dietary diversity, and local, seasonal  produce in cities and the Global North-which is desirable-such promotion must never come at the cost of failing to protect these things where they already exist in rural areas and the Global South. Furthermore, financial and other benefits must be returned to and shared with communities. The task, then, is to create a new gastronomy that incorporates biodiversity, cultural diversity, and traditional knowledge into agricultural systems and foodscapes, both rural and urban, and that generates markets and networks of solidarity that incentivize and derive pleasure from these diversities, while recognizing their full value.Underutilized crop genetic resources are imperative for sustainable agriculture and small millets belong to this important group of crops (Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2019). Plant genetic resources play a significant role in enhancing the adaptation and resilience of agricultural production systems. With the global population expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, there is an urgent need to enhance food production by 60%-70% from the current level. The Green Revolution signified an immense transformation in agriculture in the form of a broad spectrum of species, including locally adapted cultivars and landraces, which are needed to harness livelihood potential to cope with extreme climatic conditions, marginal lands and other biotic and abiotic stresses along with nutritional security (Fita et al., 2015). The Indian subcontinent is bestowed with an immense wealth of agrobiodiversity, which can be utilized to take up this challenge. One such group of vastly promising crops is that of small millets. This group is represented by six species viz. finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertner), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.), foxtail millet (Setaria italica L. Pal), little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth ex Roemer and Schultes), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) and barnyard millet (Echinochloa crusgalli and E. colona L. Link) that have climate-smart features (Saxena et al., 2018). The cultivation of small millets in India has progressively deteriorated over the last few decades due to their lower economic worth compared to major cereals and, lately, to horticultural crops. This has resulted from a variety of factors including the lack of high-yielding varieties, good quality seed, better cultivation practices, proper food processing technologies and poor value-chains (Upadhyaya and Vetriventhan, 2017). Overcoming these major bottlenecks can allow economically viable opportunities for farmers in areas where theKuldeep Singh, Nikhil Malhotra, Mohar Singh production of major cereals like rice, wheat and maize may be steadily declining due to climate change. In such scenarios, small millets offer a better alternative, as these are known to possess tremendous nutritional benefits. Overall, time demands immediate thrust for directing more research and development towards these crops.Globally, the largest ex situ germplasm collections of small millets are maintained by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research at the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, for long-term conservation. The ICRISAT gene bank conserves more than 12,000 accessions of six small millets (finger millet, barnyard millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, little millet, kodo millet and proso millet). The majority of these accessions belong to finger millet (5,947 accessions) followed by foxtail millet (1,542 accessions) (http://genebank.icrisat.org/IND/Core?Crop=-Finger%20millet). Other than the ICRISAT gene bank, small millets germplasm is also conserved in national gene banks across the world. Three gene banks viz. the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, India, and the national active germplasm site at the All-India Coordinated Small Millet Improvement Project (AICSMIP), Bengaluru; the national gene bank of the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China; and the gene bank of the United State Department of Agriculture maintain more than 15,000, 22,000 and 4,000 small millets accessions, respectively. Most of these collections are dominated by accessions belonging to finger millet and foxtail millet (Saha et al., 2016). A survey of these collections indicates that although the hot spots of small millets are well represented, gaps exist for wild and weedy relatives belonging to secondary and tertiary gene pools; for example, wild and weedy species constitute less than 10% of finger millet and foxtail millet global germplasm collections (Upadhyaya and Vetriventhan, 2017). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate these gaps and augment these collections with wild and weedy relatives harboring genes for biotic and abiotic tolerance along with agronomic and nutritional traits.Small millets germplasm contains significant variations for agro-morphological, quality and stress tolerance traits, and promising germplasm sources have been reported amongst them. A large-scale phenotypic characterization across the globe has revealed extensive genetic variations for traits of economic importance in germplasm collections. More successful utilization of these collections relies on their wide evaluation for agronomic traits in multiple locations exhibiting high genotype x environment interactions. However, multi-location evaluation of large collections is resource consuming and a constraint to obtain reliable phenotypic data for economic traits to identify trait specific accessions. In addition, for adequate assessment of grain quality and stress tolerance of a wide array of genetically diverse material, it is necessary to reduce the potential number of accessions requiring evaluation. Their use can be enhanced by developing a 'core collection' of reduced sample size, which represents the complete genetic spectrum of the base collection. By virtue of its reduced size, the core collection can be precisely evaluated for economic traits in replications under multiple locations for identification of trait-specific accessions. Germplasm diversity representative subsets (core and mini-core collections) have been developed and evaluated in small millets for agronomic and nutritional traits.Small millets germplasm conserved globally exhibit a wide range of variations in yield and other important agronomic traits. Extensive genetic variations have been reported in core and mini-core collections of small millets developed at ICRISAT. The multi-location evaluation of finger millet core and foxtail millet mini-core collections in India led to the identification of diverse accessions with earlier maturity, higher tillering, larger grain size and higher grain yields than existing control cultivars (Upadhyaya et al., 2011a, b). Likewise, an evaluation of the barnyard millet core collection in the Himalayan region identified promising trait donors for earliness, basal tillering, smut resistance and grain yield (Sood et al., 2015). In proso millet and little millet, a wide variation for morphological traits and trait-specific sources for productivity have been observed (Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2016Upadhyaya, , 2018)).Core and mini-core collections of small millets have been characterized for grain micronutrients and protein contents. The finger millet mini-core collection has large variations for grain iron (1.71-65.23mg/kg), zinc (16.58-25.33 mg/kg), calcium (1.84-4.89 g/kg) and protein (6.00-11.09%) contents (Upadhyaya et al., 2011b). Likewise, substantial genetic variations for grain calcium (90.3-288.7 mg/ kg), iron (24.1-68.2 mg/kg) and zinc (33.6-74.2 mg/kg) have been reported in the mini-core collection of foxtail millet (Upadhyaya et al., 2011a). Wide genetic variations for iron (41-73 mg/kg), zinc (26-47 mg/kg) and calcium (91-241 mg/ kg) have been reported and trait-specific donors have been identified in global proso millet germplasm collections (Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2016).Among various biotic stresses, blast in finger millet and foxtail millet, grain smut and sheath blight in little millet and barnyard millet, and sheath blight and bacterial spot in proso millet are important diseases affecting their production worldwide. These diseases are economically very destructive and are reported to cause over 50% yield losses (Esele and Odelle, 1995). The identification of trait-specific robust resistant sources is the most economic disease-management strategy to overcome such constraints. Mini-core collections have proven to be excellent reservoirs of resistant sources against many of these diseases. In finger millet, a screening of mini-core collection in both field and glasshouse conditions identified 66 accessions with combined resistance to leaf, neck and finger blast (Babu et al., 2013). Similarly, 21 accessions exhibiting resistance to neck and head blast under field evaluation and 11 accessions exhibiting seedling leaf-blast resistance in controlled conditions were identified in the core collection of foxtail millet (Sharma et al., 2014). In barnyard millet, accessions of Japanese E. esculenta germplasm were reported to have a strong immune response to grain smut, while a multi-location screening of Indian E. frumentacea germplasm did not yield favorable results (Gupta et al., 2010a). However, some landraces of E. frumentacea from Karnataka and Bihar are reported to have low grain-smut resistance (Gupta et al., 2010b).Small millets are suggested crops for drought-hit, marginal and fragile ecosystems. Substantial genetic variations for drought (Krishnamurthy et al., 2016a, b) and salt tolerance (Krishnamurthy et al., 2014a, b) have been reported and traitspecific sources have been identified in mini-core collections of finger millet and foxtail millet. Finger millet accessions (IE5201, IE2871, IE7320, IE2034 and IE 3391) belonging to mini-core collections are reported to exhibit higher root and shoot growth at the seedling stage under low phosphorus stress (Ramakrishnan et al., 2017).The ex situ germplasm collections across the world have a huge impact in terms of genetic improvement for yield enhancement and tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the six subtypes, proso millet is the most important species where germplasm augmentation has a major impact on enhancing productivity through cultivar development in the USA (Habiyaremye et al., 2017). Out of the 15 proso millet cultivars, nine were direct selections from the adapted landraces preserved in the USDA gene bank (Rajput and Santra, 2016). Similarly, in Africa, where systematic breeding efforts are limited, elite landraces of finger millet have been released as cultivars in Tanzania (Upadhyaya and Vetriventhan, 2017). Likewise, in India, the active germplasm collection of AICRP-small millets, Bengaluru, has a major impact on promising cultivar development for different agro-climatic zones of the country. So far, a total of 272 varieties in the six small millets have been released in the country and a majority of them are the pure line selections from promising germplasm lines of indigenous and exotic origins. Apart from pure line selection, the utilization of promising germplasm lines in recombination breeding has resulted in many high-yielding cultivars and new plant types in small millets. In a report by Upadhyaya and Vetriventhan (2017), hybridization between trait-specific donors followed by pedigree selection has remained the main breeding method for foxtail improvement in China since 1970s, which has resulted in the development of more than 870 cultivars.Towards the development of new plant types, isolation of awnless semi-dwarf genotypes of Japanese barnyard millet (E. esculenta) is a promising endeavor from the Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan (VPKAS) in Almora, India. These awnless derivatives with reduced plant height and great fodder potential are affirmative initiatives for improvement of barnyard millet (Sood et al., 2015).Yield and yield-contributing parameters are the most targeted traits in the improvement of small millets. Germplasm collections exhibiting substantial variation for various traits, including maturity duration can be subjugated to breed tailored cultivars as per eco-geographical conditions (Upadhyaya et al., 2014;Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2018;Vetriventhan and Upadhyaya, 2019). Hybridization to generate variability followed by assortment in segregating population has been a major breeding method in small millets especially in finger millet, foxtail millet and proso millet. In finger millet, 45% of the cultivars released in India were obtained from hybridization and selection breeding methods, followed by 22% in foxtail millet and 29% in proso millet (AICSMIP, 2014). Emasculation and crossing methods have also been reported in small millets (Gupta et al., 2011). However, the exploitation of hybrid vigor is limited in small millets due to difficulties in hybridization. Thus, developing male sterile lines would be a feasible alternative to use heterosis, which is being effectively implemented in major crops for commercial hybrid seed production.Trait-specific germplasm characterization is a primary requirement to identify genotypes contrasting for desirable traits, and genomic resources such as DNA markers, linkage maps and genome sequence are essential for gene tagging, gene mapping and marker-assistant selection for rapid crop-improvement. In small millets, genomes of foxtail millet, finger millet, proso millet, little and barnyard millet have been sequenced till date (Table 19.1). Foxtail millet has the smallest genome size (423 Mb) while finger millet has the largest one (1.5 Gb), followed by barnyard millet (1.27 Gb). However, the draft sequence information is adequately informative for large-scale genotyping applications and gene mining. In a study, the Solexa sequencing technology and the Genome Analyzer II were employed to re-sequence the genome of a foxtail millet landrace 'Shi-Li-Xiang' and to analyze its genetic structures (Bai et al., 2013). The results provided a rich tag library for future genetic studies and molecular breeding of foxtail millet and its related species. In barnyard millet, Wallace et al. (2015) genotyped the core collection using the genotyping-by-sequencing approach to investigate the patterns of population structure and phylogenetic relationships among the accessions. Further, most agronomically important traits are determined by several genes, which is called quantitative trait loci (QTLs). With the rapid development in sequencing technology, marker-assisted crop breeding has resulted in the acceleration of genetic improvement of small millets. Gimode et al. (2016) have identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in finger millet by next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, using both Roche 454 and Illumina platforms. Wang et al. (2017) reported a high-density genetic map and QTL analysis of agronomic traits in foxtail millet using RAD-seq and identified 11 major QTLs for eight agronomic traits along with the development of five co-dominant DNA markers. A finger millet genotype ML-365 was also sequenced using Illumina and SOLiD sequencing technologies (Hittalmani et al., 2017). Later, Kumar et al. (2018) reported high iron and zinc content QTLs using diversity array technology (DArT) and SSRs markers to generate a genetic linkage map using a population of 317 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) in pearl millet. Many other studies have focused on drought tolerance and fungal diseases in pearl millet using marker-assisted selection approaches.Although genetics and genomics have allowed for noteworthy progress in studying millets, transcriptome-based gene expression profiling has also contributed significantly. In this regard, Rahman et al. (2014) analyzed the salinity receptive leaf transcriptome of distinct finger millet genotypes and identified numerous differentially expressed genes in the tolerant genotype. Similarly, Parvathi et al. (2019) analyzed transcriptome dynamics in leaf samples of finger millet exposed to drought stress conditions. The foxtail millet transcriptome was the first to be released, where Zhang et al. (2012) sequenced the total RNA of root, stem, leaf and spike 'Zhang gu' strain. Recently, Li et al. (2020) sequenced the transcriptome of foxtail millet during Sclerospora graminicola infection, and identified many candidate genes for advanced functional characterization. Further, comprehensive protocols for callus regeneration and transgenics have been reported for all small millet species except little millet (Plaza-Wüthrich and Tadele, 2012). The Agrobacterium-mediated system has been predominantly used in small millets transformation as reported in studies by Bayer et al. (2014) and Li et al. (2017). In addition, the availability of standardized protocols for genetic transformation has resulted in the application of a transgene-based approach in a few small millets. The use of clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas mutagenesis was reported in foxtail millet (Lin et al., 2018), where a mutation of the foxtail millet PDS gene by CRISPR/Cas9 system has been achieved through protoplast transfection.Small millets have the potential to serve as an alternate to major crops because of their diverse adaptation to adverse conditions and their great nutritional qualities. They fit very well into multiple cropping systems both under irrigated and rainfed conditions. The major bottleneck, however, is inadequate information on their genetic diversity, which limits their effective utilization in crop improvement programs. Therefore, effective germplasm collection is the effective solution to categorize trait-specific resources, which can be utilized in small millets breeding programs. The yield barrier in small millets can be surpassed by a male sterility system and by employing hybrid vigor and genomics-assisted crop improvement. Further, NGS techniques can facilitate the molecular characterization of small millets germplasm along with RNA interference and genome editing tools like CRISPR/Cas, which reduce antinutrients of small millets to make them more useful to feed growing population. Moreover, a coordinated multidisciplinary approach involving farmers and public-private partnerships is needed to speed up research and development programs in small millets. With the ever-changing climate scenario and prevailing conditions of hidden hunger, greater research and developmental focus on small millets is the key to achieving future nutrition security. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-23Globally, there is a re-emphasis on the revival and conservation of neglected and underutilized species (NUS), including small millets. Such crops are seen as alternatives to rice and wheat, especially for the poor in the peripheral areas of the Global South (Muthamilarasan and Prasad, 2020). Millets require much less water than rice and wheat and are ideally suited for upland rainfed regions.Can a species, including small millets, be sustainably conserved without preserving the ecosystem in which it is cultivated? This chapter argues that it is important to consider both the natural and social ecosystems in which these NUS are cultivated as well as the interaction between social and natural systems. It draws on and supplements the findings of an earlier work (Mitra and Rao, 2019) in Koraput district of Odisha.Koraput had a tribal population of 50.6% in the 2011 census. It is a district where the 'Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas of Odisha,' also called the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM) has been implemented since 2017 (NCDS, 2019). Small millets are typically cultivated in the rainfed uplands of ecologically sensitive areas of the district. The agrarian landscape, along water flows, is rather complex, but millet cultivation using natural fertilisers like dung and crop residue mulch has been critical to the growing of indigenous rice varieties in the lowlands. These practices were evolved over centuries by tribal women and men, with women playing a critical role in the maintenance and reproduction of these systems. Women decided the species, the area to be planted, household consumption and sale specifics but did not plough or sow. Crop diversity, including mixed cropping on the same plot, was practiced. Despite the existence of the concept of private property in land, the ecosystem 20was collectively owned. The overall productivity of the ecosystem, instead of individual crops, was focused on.Relations between men and women were of asymmetric mutuality. While hierarchies have always existed, today some of these hierarchies have grown and are perhaps behind the near breakdown of the social systems that nurtured NUS.This chapter argues that with the rapid usurpation of the uplands in the Koraput district for corporate eucalyptus plantations, the ecosystem (natural and social) has transformed drastically. The landraces of paddy and small millets reduced sharply between the 1950s and the 2000s. Only eight small millet landraces were extant in 2000 (Mishra, 2009). The soil quality in the area has deteriorated (Bannerjee, 2015). Long-term field observations reveal a drop in the cattle population.Small millets are essentially a woman's crop. Eucalyptus, in the domain of men, has skewed gender relations in these areas. The uplands in which small millets were cultivated are now under eucalyptus plantations (Mitra and Rao, 2019). Community relations are giving way to individualisation and increasing wage labour. These transformations are to the detriment of both the NUS and the people belonging to a range of tribes. With rising inequalities, distress migration is the order of the day (Mitra and Rao, 2019).India has the third largest area under small millets cultivation in the world. Cultivated small millets comprise six species -finger millet (Eleusine coracana), little millet (Panicum sumatrense), Italian or foxtail millet (Setaria italica), barnyard millet (Echinochloa crus-galli), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum). Taken together, they are grown over approximately two million hectares, mostly in semi-arid, hilly and mountainous regions. Finger millets predominate, comprising 60% of the area and 70% of the production (Bala Ravi et al., 2010). These are hardy crops and are quite resilient to agroclimatic shocks like diminished rainfall and falling soil fertility. They are important in local food cultures, being an important source of food and beverages. The straw is valuable fodder. Nutritionally, they are rich in micronutrients, especially calcium and iron, and are high in dietary fibre. Their grain protein is richer in sulphur and other essential amino acids than all other major cereals (Bala Ravi et al., 2010).Hills and forests interspersed with numerous streams and rivers are a part of the landscape of the Koraput district, Odisha. Over centuries, local tribes have transformed the landscape into productive systems, both private and public, to meet their food and housing needs. A unique cropping pattern, the Myda system, which involves mixing the seeds of long-and short-duration paddy varieties in the same plot, and nurturing them through carefully monitoring the levels of water and vegetative growth, evolved (Mishra, 2009). Land-use patterns developed along water flows, enabling optimal and sustainable use of the environment.The present day Koraput district was a part of the Jeypore princely state until 1947. Disruptions in local indigenous land-use patterns began in the midnineteenth century with the exploitation of forests by the colonial state's forest department. The British extended the Madras Forest Act to Jeypore state in 1891, reservation began in 1900, and protected forests were demarcated in 1916. By 1940, reserved area quantity rose five times, leading to a substantial increase in state revenues (Bell, 1945: 101). Critically, a lot of the village commons and even the uplands were usurped as protected forests and were planted with teak. This impacted adversely the cultivation of NUS and reduced the availability of uncultivated crops (Mitra and Rao, 2019).Post-Independence, the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, further changed land-use patterns by halting shifting cultivation, and also enhanced usurpation of village commons.The local people, however, classify forests into two types: bon and jangal. Bon corresponds to the protected forests and jangal to the reserved. Most subsistence needs like fuel, roots, tubers and leaf litter come from the bon. Cattle also graze there. The bon are the commons upslope of the habitat. Above the bon lies the jangal, often consecrated in the name of a deity. There are strict rules about the use of usufructs of these sacred groves but the trees cannot be cut, a norm often violated by the Forest Department for commercial plantations, including of eucalyptus (Mitra and Pal, 1994).The forest department fells trees from the bon too, clearing the land for eucalyptus plantations and changing traditional land-use patterns (Mitra and Rao, 2019). The undulating lands between and along the forests and the settlement has been shaped into four types of croplands: uplands ([dongar] on the hill slopes), midlands (bhettabeda), lowlands (khalbeda), and terraces ( jholas, that start from the dongar and go down to the stream below) (Mishra, 2009). This complex land-use pattern has been developed over centuries through humannature interactions. It is driven by household consumption needs, maintenance of soil fertility, sustainable water use and safeguarding against the vagaries of nature. Local communities nurture and conserve water by harvesting rainwater, diverting river flows into farm ponds during the monsoons, cultivating varietiesespecially of paddy -suited to water availability and not using chemical fertilisers in the dongar, to avoid polluting the ground water aquifers (Mitra and Rao, 2019) The leaf litter from the bon above the dongar fertilises the crops grown there. This underscores the need to consider crop lands and forest lands as parts of an integrated ecosystem essential for the conservation of NUS.In 2006, the Government of India enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act that acknowledged that 'traditional forest dwellers' are integral to the very survival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem. By recognising their customary rights, this Act sought to ensure livelihoods and food security, while empowering the people to sustainably use and manage forest biodiversity (Deb et al., 2014). In districts like Koraput, managing forest biodiversity is essential to sustainably managing agrobiodiversity, including that of NUS. At the end of a decade, while close to 78% of individual claims to forestland were met in Koraput district, with about 27,628 households receiving an acre of land each, only 9% of community land claims had been granted. Gaining legal legitimacy for using what they have seen as their land -and, indeed, life -has not been easy (CFR-LA, 2016). The central government's recent enactment of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 appears to be diluting the very intent of the 2006 legislation. Apart from bypassing locally elected bodies and community forest-management groups, and being dominated by the forest bureaucracy, civil society actors fear it will both displace forest dwellers and promote large-scale commercial eucalyptus plantations with little benefit to the local people (Ibid). This reflects a further marginalisation of collective responsibility for social reproduction and care of the environment, and a focus on capital accumulation and individual profits.While the regulations, as well as state interventions to improve agriculture, did not consider the interconnections and distinctions between different types of land and their contributions to food and consumption needs, cultivation practices and the crops grown remain sensitive to the local landscape. Thus, the dongar lands are used to grow a mix of millets, pigeon pea, cowpea, niger, turmeric, sesame and arums, high in nutrient content and not water-intensive, primarily for domestic consumption. The duration of these crops differ. Some are shallow rooted while others are deep rooted. Each crop has an attached ritual. Thus, traditional land-use patterns meet cultural, spiritual, consumption and ecological needs, instead of emphasising the productivity of a single crop (Niyogi, 2020). In the field, it is observed that the nature of the soil and the slope, and whether the plot is on the windward or the leeward side are important determinants of the crop mix and even the landraces of a particular crop. However, not much research has been done in this area.Men support the processes of land preparation and transportation of the harvest, but the cultivation is mainly managed by women. In fact, dongar lands are often considered women's plots, wherein they control decisions around crop choices and use, including income from sales, if any (Mitra and Rao, 2019).Paddy is cultivated in the bhettabeda and khalbeda and if water is available, so is a second winter crop of pulses or vegetables. They are considered household plots but fall under male control. Both men and women have to contribute labour to the cultivation of the basic 'household' staple in one season, but can cultivate their own 'individual' crops in the second season to fulfil their shared and separate responsibilities towards household provisioning (Ibid).Eucalyptus plantations started in Koraput in the 1960s. In 1990, the Jeypore-based JK Paper Mills launched a farm forestry programme under which it added 7,000 hectares annually by distributing over 40 million saplings to farmers (https://jkplantation.wordpress.com/about-jk-paper-ltd/jaykay-paper-mills-ltdrayagada/). In 2003, the paper industry, through a front NGO under a corporate social responsibility scheme, secured consent from the tribals to plant eucalyptus on their uplands with assured buyback and lump sum payments upon each successive harvest (in the fourth, eighth and twelfth year after planting). Farmers do not have to invest initially as the advances by the company are deducted from the first payment. A study of 2,004 households who planted eucalyptus on 3,360 acres of land showed gross earnings per acre to be Rs 86,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs 82,500 (at the rate of Rs 4,500/metric tonne) for the three successive harvests (Mahana, 2014).The rapid conversion of land, especially dongar, to eucalyptus plantations, has led to a loss of food, especially protein and micronutrients (from millets and vegetables). Soil humus and fertility is likely to decline, as are the water flows, given the displacement of traditional systems of fuel, fodder and water management (NABARD, n.d.; Stanturf et al., 2013). Planting eucalyptus on dongar lands impacts fields downstream as the high synthetic fertiliser inputs affect the organic cultivation of aromatic landraces of paddy, including the kalazeera rice for which the district is famous.Apart from education and house construction, a major reason for growing eucalyptus is the desire for large amounts of ready cash. Cropping patterns earlier adhered to community decisions; however, now each household situates the decision to cultivate eucalyptus within the dynamics of their own household structure and its needs, reflecting a transition to a society based on individualism rather than reciprocity.Yet, some women and men are resisting the commoditisation of their land and labour. While hired wage labour is now widespread in the area, the Parojas and Gadabas still continue the Palli (exchange) system. Men have succumbed more easily to both the commodification of their land, seen in the rapid shift to eucalyptus planting, and labour, pushed by the growing need for cash in an increasingly neoliberal, market-driven economy. Migration, still rare amongst the Gadabas, is now rising amongst most tribes, especially in the lean, summer season, prior to the start of paddy cultivation. However, migrant work is effort-intensive, with little rest and restricted diets. The men often return home unwell and are unable to contribute much to household activities. Their absence and subsequent return only enhances the burdens on women (Mitra and Rao, 2019).Corporate plantations have led to the individualisation of the ecosystem. These plantations on the uplands have consequences for the entire cropping pattern, as well as for social relations. This has been accompanied by the introduction of mono-cropping in contrast to the old mixed-cropping practices led by women. To promote millet cultivation, contemporary state-and NGO-led efforts seek to promote the mono-cropping of finger millets, which has led to a decline of, for instance, vegetable cultivation by women. Thus, in Kadaguda village (name changed) even five years ago, the women grew vegetables and various greens in small plots behind their homestead. Now finger millets are grown in these plots, forcing households to cut down on their vegetable consumption. This is happening in many villages in the area.Although rice was the major staple consumed by the people, there were many varieties. Millets were a major food supplement. With the distribution of highly subsidised rice and wheat by the state, the consumption of millets is being significantly reduced (Bala Ravi et al., 2010).There has been a recent spike in urban demand across the country for small millets as health foods (Kulkarni, 2018). It is important to ask whether and to what extent the thrust on conserving and reviving the cultivation of small millets, especially in the mission mode, benefits small and marginal tribal farmers of districts like Koraput. The OMM baseline survey of the Koraput district, in 2017, found that millets were being cultivated in 1,311.9 ha land by 2,605 millet-cultivating households of the seven blocks surveyed. Finger millets comprised 87.5% of this area and 12.5% was under small millets. Interestingly, 95% of these households consumed millets in summer, 90.7% in winter and 80.9% during the monsoons. The dip in consumption during the monsoons is probably due to a decline in household stocks (NCDS, 2019).The survey does not mention the crop mixes nor the kind of land in which a particular type of millet is cultivated and by whom. No doubt a lot of the millets will be sold in markets by the men, impacting the villagers' already poor dietary diversity (Mitra and Rao, 2017). The OMM's practices are essentially mono-cropping of finger millets with much higher external inputs, without considering the social and natural ecosystem (Sood and Jishnu, 2015;Niyogi, 2020) This is already furthering inequalities, including of gender, and will lead to the loss of agrobiodiversity and Indigenous knowledge.Small millet cultivation by tribals in districts like Koraput formed an integral part of the Indigenous natural resource management system, involving forests, uplands, midlands, low lands and water flows. Based on exchange labour systems grounded in reciprocity and mutuality between women and men, small millet cultivation involved an element of individual choice that did not adversely affect the welfare of others.The first blow to this equilibrium came with the introduction of corporate eucalyptus plantations in the uplands. Market penetration individualising the economy and breaking down both the social and natural ecosystems has had deleterious consequences for NUS.Under these circumstances, efforts to increase the production of small millets and other NUS through a 'kit' approach, of governments giving beneficiary farmers free kits that include fertilisers, bio-fertilisers, micronutrients, seed treatments and plant protection chemicals (Sood and Jishnu, 2015), will have tremendous social and ecological costs. From the policy point of view, it might be more productive to adopt an interdisciplinary, research-based approach that seeks to conserve the ecosystem and the cultures of which these crops are an essential part.Though humans have utilized a vast number of plant species for food (Ulian et al., 2020), today, food security is confined to very few major crops, such as maize, wheat and rice and a few other commodity crops. This has led to the marginalization of many nutritious crops, including 'neglected and underutilized species' (NUS) (see Chapter 1), among which the millet species belonging to the genera Eleusine, Panicum, Setaria and Paspalum, continue to be cultivated and consumed by smallholder families inhabiting marginal environments.Landraces of millets are preferred by farm families, but not solely for their nutritional qualities. They are appreciated also because of their inherent resilience to withstand the vagaries of weather as well as pest and disease attacks (Bala Ravi, 2004;Nagarajan and Smale, 2007). These crops are well suited to smallholder agro-ecology and are an important part of local food cultures. Conventional millet farming practices include mixed cropping and crop rotation, and are commonly subsistence oriented. In the past, the selection, preservation and exchange of seeds were popular practices encountered across farming communities. For instance, labour exchange practices within kinship units and communities were conventionally used to minimize cultivation costs, for traditional crops like millets also. The role of custodian families has also been strategic for the conservation and management of landraces and traditional knowledge associated with NUS crops.In India, small millets are known for their adaptability to marginal and drought-prone areas. Compared to rice, these species contain higher levels of minerals, fibre, vitamins and many essential amino acids (Hulse et al., 1980;Malleshi and Desikachar, 1986) interventions, inadequate processing technologies and market forces have resulted in the decline of on-farm agro biodiversity, aggravating the already fragile conditions of local communities (Gruere et al., 2009). Other constraints include low productivity, lack of good quality seeds and disorganized value chains. Nevertheless, about two million farm households across India still depend primarily on these species for their livelihoods. Furthermore, climate change scenarios and the global food price crisis have brought to the forefront the strategic role that these crops can play in strengthening resilience in agricultural production systems and mitigating the shocks caused by shortages in major cereals that may occur due to various reasons.The case studies in this chapter highlight some key research and development (R&D) interventions carried out (Plate 21.1.1-21.1.6) in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, since 2000, thanks to the support of various national and international agencies.In the last three decades, Kolli Hills in the Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu has witnessed land-use changes due to introduction of cash crops like cassava, coffee and pepper. This fact, accompanied by the expansion of roads and food subsidies, has greatly affected the cultivation and use of millets. Furthermore, the low profitability of millets vis-à-vis cassava, the weakening of traditional seed systems, the drudgery in millet processing and their poor market opportunities have also contributed to relegating these highly nutritious and resilient crops to smaller areas.Since the early 1990s, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been collaborating with poor smallholder farmers to prevent the erosion of millet diversity by creating an enabling environment for their continued use, thanks to highly participatory R&D efforts. MSSRF has nurtured family farmer groups to conserve and enhance the use of millets and has facilitated the establishment of 'Kolli Hills Agrobiodiversity Conservers Federation' (KHABCoFED, now evolved into the 'Kolli Hills Agro-Bioresource Producer Company Limited' KHABPCOL), to revitalize millet cultivation. Major activities included the scouting of local growers; assessment of traditional knowledge; collection, characterization and evaluation of landraces; multiplication of high-quality seeds; revitalization of seed storage and exchange systems through community seed banks and dissemination of best cultivation practices (including intercropping millets with cassava). Additional measures undertaken included the provisioning of low-cost processing machines accessible to communities, value-addition skill-enhancement, development of novel products, branding, strengthening of community-based institutions and linking local production to peri-urban and local markets.Challenges and best practices of nutri-millets in India 247Land-use changes have resulted in the erosion of on-farm millet diversity (Bhag Mal et al., 2010). Since 2001, KHABCoFED has been promoting collection, multiplication and distribution of 21 landraces belonging to five millet species and associated crops, through a network of 15 village seed banks functioning across seven Panchayats (village councils), spread across 45 settlements. The KHABCoFED has developed mechanisms to manage and share germplasm through Community Seed Banks and Seed Exchange Networks, whereby farmers are able to choose varieties apt for changing weather conditions and evolving markets. Custodian farmers are empowered for carrying out effectively their strategic role as conservers of seeds and managers of seed networks.Over the years, the 15 local seed networks have evolved into Village Agrobioresource Centres, where community members are able to access quality seeds and relevant information regarding millet landraces, conservation, cultivation practices, value-addition and marketing. It also provides training on agricultural best practices, leading to better yields, higher income, more diversified food baskets and, ultimately, strengthened livelihood resilience.Improved agronomic practices like the usage of farmyard manure, highquality seeds, line sowing, intercropping with cassava and agroforestry, which reinforce the sustainability of natural resource management, have resulted in an average increase of 24.36% productivity and 37.23% net income. A blend of traditional and modern agro practices are disseminated through capacity-building interventions.The enhancement of cultivation practices and value-adding technologies has led to 75% to 85% reduction in drudgery and time spent on processing These included the introduction of row seeding (one-meter length with six blades and 20 cm gap between blades), cono-weeder, improved spades for intercultural operations (six inches width and six inches length) and the use of pulverizers (mechanical flourmill pulverizers and de-husking machines -see next section).Drudgery in processing is a major limitation, as all seeds but finger millet have several layers of hard coats, requiring high abrasive force to break through. Traditional decortication processes using mortar and pestle are physically tedious and are almost exclusively performed by women. The above-discussed interventions facilitated the establishment of improved technology for de-hullers and pulverizers, adaptable to different types of millet species and catering to many households. This has helped the community, especially women, who now are capable of carrying out the processing of millets without suffering fatigue, benefiting them in terms of health and time saved.The established KHABCoFED greatly facilitates the skill development of women (members of self-help groups) to reap the market potential of millets and other NUS products through training on value-addition, quality standards, packaging, labelling and marketing. Trained women are now able to produce with success -inter alia -products like malt, rava (semolina), and millets flour mixes, all contributing to raising their income. \"Kolli Hills Natural Foods\" has become a popular brand, successfully marketing 11 products across Tamil Nadu. This is a fully self-sustainable value-chain of local natural products, consisting of seed conservers, farmers and other actors engaged in procurement, valueaddition and marketing.Encouraged by such successes, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of Tamil Nadu provided financial support for establishing small-scale mills along with providing guidance on legal matters to local communities. Individuals and organizations committed to organic farming and natural health foods have also supported the momentum by purchasing and promoting the products of the KHABCoFED. Participation in exhibitions and fairs (melas) has provided an additional opportunity to further expand the KHABPCOL, including additional networks, research institutions and Community Based Organisation, and developing new market linkages.The KHABCoFED has grown steadily, and as of 2020 includes 109 associations consisting of 985 men and 526 women members; its assets include machineries, value-addition units and a procurement centre worth more than US$53,000. Over the years, cultivation, procurement, value-addition, diversification and sales have generated a gross income of approximately US$98,708.Notably, the KHABCoFED has contributed to strengthening the conservation of millet diversity, making agriculture-based livelihood systems resilient to climate change, improving access to nutritious foods and contributing to an effective interplay of natural, social, economic and infrastructure capitals for the fulfilment of livelihood, empowerment and self-esteem needs of local communities.In the tribal areas of the state of Odisha, like in the Koraput district, millets have traditionally occupied a central place in people's diets and in local cropping systems. Most farmers inhabiting these areas are resource-poor and are largely dependent on monsoons. Growing crops in uncertain agro-climatic conditions is challenging because of frequent dryland stresses and limited access to quality inputs, especially seeds and suitable technologies. The seed replacement rate in millets is very low, i.e., 1.62 t in Odisha, which implies that agriculture mostly relies on traditional practices, and seed is either self-saved or acquired through local networks. Saving and exchanging seeds among farmers is certainly a key part     of maintaining local diversity, but too often such practices are not being integrated with the introduction of good quality seed. In order to address the diffuse shortage of quality seeds among farmers, an alternate seed system model (Figure 21.2) was tested out. Components of this model included the dissemination to farmers of a package of best practices, as well as reconnaissance surveys to assess seed demand, seed systems and associated constraints faced by local farmers.The model encompassed a plan for improving seed availability and accessibility to improved varieties seeds for resource-poor farmers and capacity building at the community level to enhance productivity. This model involved the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) the \"Kolab Farmers Producer Company Limited\" (KFPCL), in order to ensure the timely and sustainable supply of good quality seed at affordable prices and the creation of self-sustainable seed enterprise.Participatory selection of varieties, demonstrations of best practices in farmers' fields, involvement of self-help groups, village-based seed committees; capacity building for seed production, processing, packaging, storage and distribution, business planning and administration were key actions of these interventions.MSSRF built the capacity of the KFPCL for quality seed production. Improved varieties of seeds were obtained from research institutions and were demonstrated in farmers' fields through participatory variety selection and evaluation trials. The best performing and preferred varieties were selected for large-scale seed production. The KFPCL followed the norms and standards of the Odisha State Seed and Organic Products Certification Agency for seed A processing unit comprising of an aspirator and grader cum de-stoner was established at Machhra village, Umuri Gram Panchayat to improve seed quality. The KFPCL has an arrangement with the Odisha State Seed Corporation Ltd. to directly procure seed materials at the rates fixed by government. In the very first year, KFPCL was able to sell 132 quintals of certified seeds of finger millet to the Odisha State Seed Corporation Ltd. and around 35 quintals to other farmers, institutions and NGOs. Besides the quality millet seed business, members of the KFPCL are also involved in the preparation of value-added millet products including ragi powder, ragi malt, laddus, chakli and processed grains of little millet, foxtail millet and barnyard millet.Tamil Nadu is one of the few states in India where almost all small millets are cultivated across different agro-ecological zones. However, from 1980 to 2011, the area under small millets fell drastically, with a 49.4% reduction in finger millet areas and 84.8% in other small millets areas. A 2012 study by the DHAN Foundation on the value chains of small millets in the state highlighted, as the reason for the decline, poorly organized supply chains characterized by seasonal uncertain production restricted to few pockets of land, erosion of varietal and crop diversity and lack of assured farm gate prices, leading to uncertainty in supply, quality and prices of raw materials to the small millet processors and food enterprises. Other critical factors included:• Lack of local processing infrastructure, with few large-scale processors in south Tamil Nadu primarily serving as semi-processors for Maharashtrabased processing units. • Existence of few millet food enterprises and largely of limited capacities.• Poor consumer demand due to low awareness of millets, lower culinary skills and low availability, coupled with high prices. • Inadequate policy support for the production, processing, market development and, moreover, consumption of small millets.Realizing the importance for the nutritional security and ecological wellbeing, since 2001, the DHAN Foundation has undertaken a set of interrelated interventions, targeting regional value chains in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Canadian research institutions and several value-chain actors. These efforts resulted in the establishment of the Small Millet Foundation, an exclusive organization dedicated to scaling-up proven interventions across India, which included:i Streamlining supply chains through (a) capacity building of Farmers Organizations (FOs) in millet clusters (four in Tamil Nadu and two in Odisha) (b) productivity enhancement and (c) collective marketing ii Promoting decentralized processing through (a) the development and commercialization of improved small-scale millet processing equipment;(b) facilitating their adoption across India and (c) building capacities of eight small-scale equipment manufacturers iii Developing 56 appealing, small-millet-based food products and their commercialization through training 662 persons and providing onsite incubation support to 66 food enterprises iv Building capacity of 152 pushcart millet-porridge vendors v Promoting household consumption through dissemination of promotional materials, organizing promotional events and media campaigns, and building capacity of 85 women and FOs located in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha vi Linking FOs, millet processors and food enterprises with consumer organizations for shortening the value chain vii Synthesizing and sharing policy lessons emerging from these efforts with provincial and national governments.The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK, on reviewing the initiatives in 2017 (Keats and Jeyaranjan 2018) and 2019, identified the following positive outcomes:• Farmers are able to access new varieties and increase cultivation, sell their produce collectively, reduce drudgery and time by using processing equipment and increase consumption (cf. during 2018-2019, 87  • Millet-based food entrepreneurs have increased production and sales, developed new millet-based products and improved marketing techniques (cf. 66 existing enterprises improved their millet food business and 69 entrepreneurs and NGOs ventured into the small-scale millet food business. One hundred and fifty two pushcart millet-porridge vendors improved food hygiene and registered with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). TNAU has integrated small millet huller and food products developed as part of its ongoing incubation program, thereby sustaining their commercialization). • Low-income consumers enrolled in the women's and farmers' organizations have improved their awareness of the health benefits of millets, haveChallenges and best practices of nutri-millets in India 255 enhanced their skills in cooking healthy recipes and are able to access millets at lower than the market price (cf. FOs and Kalanjiam Thozhilagam Limited [KTL], an associated enterprise of DHAN Foundation, have supplied 300 tons of small millet rice between 2016 and 2018). • With new knowledge and access to millets, women were able to improve their family's diet. Women farmers saved time and energy using processing equipment and women entrepreneurs increased their income and improved their status (cf. knowledge of 725 women extension staff to promote millet consumption, the skills of 12,993 women on the inclusion of small millets in diets and the entrepreneurial skills of 39 women in millet food businesses were enhanced).Such interlinked efforts were key to transforming the value chain of small millets in Tamil Nadu, which was the result of the cooperation of many stakeholders, including the government and media. Large processors in southern Tamil Nadu started focusing on regional consumption and the market network has widened, leading to an increase in the availability of less polished small millets rice and value-added products, even in small towns. The share of the product moving out of Tamil Nadu has decreased with increased inflow from other states. The transformation of small-millets-based food products from the 'elite food' category towards the 'mass food' category has been accomplished to an extent. channels and difficult processing have contributed to their decline as convenient and profitable crops with better market access and wage labour opportunities have developed. The production of small millets on isolated sloping and rocky lands where other crops are difficult to produce remains important among tribal farmers, yet low yields and poor marketability limit the benefits to these vulnerable groups.To secure greater benefits from small millets for producers and to encourage their wider use, a holistic approach addressing bottlenecks in their supply and demand was followed in the project \"Linking agrobiodiversity value chains, climate adaptation, and nutrition: Empowering the poor to manage risk\". Activities sought to connect producers to markets and to enhance and multiply impacts for food security, conservation, profitability and women's empowerment. The stakeholder consultations carried out from 2015 to 2019 guided the pro-poor and gender-sensitive interventions. Farmer producer companies, along with local women shareholders, were a major focal point of interventions to raise productivity and enhance commercial potential (King et al., 2018;Meldrum et al., 2020).Of the 104 million Indigenous People inhabiting India, 12% of them, with over 200 tribes and sub-tribes, with their own unique languages, cultures and p olitical structures, reside in the North Eastern region of the country (Xaxa et al., 2014). Meghalaya, a state in this region, is largely inhabited by Indigenous communities (86.1%) like Khasi (includes Khynriam, Bhoi, War, Pnar and Lyngngam sub-groups) in the east and Garo in the west. Women play a pivotal role in maintaining and preserving the rich biodiversity in the area, as they are closer to nature (Ellena and Nongkynrih, 2017).North East Slow Food and Agro biodiversity Society (NESFAS), a grassroots organization, works towards the promotion of traditional food for food security and nutrition in the North East. In 2011, it initiated work towards promoting millets in Nongtraw village, on the southern slopes of Meghalaya, in the Khatarshnong Laitkroh Block, in collaboration with the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty. In close collaboration with custodian farmers, mostly women, it campaigned the slogan \"No Woman, No Krai\"millet is known as Krai among the Khasis.For Indigenous communities, millets are not only staple food but also play a central cultural role. Documentary evidence reveals that the Khasis cultivated millets as far back as the late nineteenth century and there are wild species/ relatives as well as the edible forms of millets (Singh and Arora, 1972). Millet is usually grown in the jhum or shifting cultivation fields, wherein seeds, usually traditional and preserved by custodian farmers, are used (Nongtraw Village, 2011). Commonly cultivated millets are finger millets (Eleusine coracana) known as kraitruh (in Khasi) and Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), locally known as adlay.Post-harvest processes include sun-drying the grains and storing them in cloth or gunny bags. De-husking is done when needed using a mortar (Thlong) and iron or wooden pestle (Synrei), and finally winnowed using an open mat-type container (Prah) (Singh and Arora, 1972). This process is quite labour intensive, and both men and women are involved. The Nongtraw community celebrate a harvest festival for millet called \"Bom Krai\", where millet sheaves are laid on a bamboo platform and smoked from underneath with a particular wood to enhance the flavour of the grain. The seeds that escape through the gaps are used for planting the next season. The elders know just when to end the process. Next, the millet is threshed with sticks (pduh krai) by men and women, followed by further separation of the seeds by stamping on the millets accompanied by singing, which is most enjoyed by the children (Nongtraw Village, 2011;NESFAS, 2016).Traditionally, millet is cooked and consumed as much as rice or, more often, one part millet is mixed with two parts rice. Previously, a kind of bread was prepared out of millet flour; though it is still made, nowadays it is chiefly consumed as porridge (Singh and Arora, 1972). In the East Khasi hill areas like War Pynursla, millet is used for brewing local liquor (Caritas India, 2018). In winter, millet also provides fodder for cattle. The straw is dumped on cow dung or in pigsties, where pigs trample it and this mixture is then utilized as compost. It has strong roots and acts as a soil binder, reducing soil erosion (Singh and Arora, 1972).However, the cultivation and consumption of millet reduced after the introduction of the public distribution system, specifically after 1997, with its focus on providing subsidized rice to below-poverty-level families . With rice being more easily available, cultivation of millet became secondary. In addition, rice was easier to cook, while millet required lot of work; thus, given the easy alternative, people reduced the production and consumption of millet. As a result, the market for millet by the late 1990s and early 2000s was very low.Custodian farmers from Nongtraw shared that by 2010, only two out of the 37 households cultivated millets and, of the four available varieties, only one variety of finger millet was still cultivated. However, with the work of NESFAS and custodian farmers, by 2014, 13 of the 46 villages in Khatarshnong area were cultivating millet, and this revival is spreading also to other areas, including the Mawkynrew Block of East Khasi Hills, Lyngngam area in the West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills. NESFAS has also facilitated the farmers from Nongtraw getting an organic certificate through the Participatory Guarantee Scheme (PGS). In 2019, 12 farmers in two groups received the PGS organic certificate. This has benefitted and boosted marketing, as consumers prefer certified organic products. Around the same period, opportunities opened up with a dealer from Gujarat in west India requiring 200 kgs of organic millet every season.Traditionally, \"millet rice\", or even millet mixed with rice, was a staple food, but the youth and younger children do not seem to like it. To encourage their consumption, millet flour is now used to make products like porridge, pancakes, cakes, bread, biscuits, doughnuts, etc. Since 2018, NESFAS has conducted cooking demonstrations monthly to encourage the consumption of millets in different forms at the Meiramew Farmers' Markets. Other steps include sharing the recipe of a simple millet pancake while selling millet flour, and encouraging local bakers to sell millet-based bakery products in the farmers' markets, along Enhanced consciousness and motivation among farmers and consumers (used with permission).Challenges and best practices of nutri-millets in India 259 with traditional snacks called pusla. Farmers' markets are a platform where millet flour is sold, though sales are not limited here, as NESFAS facilitates sales on the basis of orders also, since locally grown millet is not available in the local market.NESFAS also publishes the nutritional value of millet in its packaging materials and engages with the public through local newspapers. This way, the Meiramew Farmers' Market has been able to enhance consciousness regarding millet being a staple of the Indigenous communities, to educate consumers on the ways to consume millet and its nutritional benefits and to improve access to millet. This has improved the sale of millet; on average, NESFAS sells at least 10-15 kgs of millet flour in every farmers market each time.There are of course challenges in the value-chain development. Generally, farmers in Meghalaya are marginal farmers, with small landholdings (55.34% own less than one hectare and 27.23% own one to two hectares) (Department of Agriculture, Government of Meghalaya, n.d.). Millet-producing communities also grow other crops and, therefore, the share of millet production is low. Thus, farmers cannot always meet the demand for millet. However, understanding the demand, NESFAS has encouraged other communities who were not growing millet earlier to cultivate it. In early 2020, NESFAS was able to facilitate an exchange of millet seeds through a millet network among four new villages in the East Khasi Hills and Ri Bhoi district.Exchange visits and learnings among farmers were facilitated locally, to states within North East India such as Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh and across the region. Such experiences have instilled confidence among farmers and have motivated them to cultivate millet.Another challenge is in the pounding of millet grains into flour, which is labour intensive. NESFAS has promoted mechanical grinding with a millet machine in Nongtraw, which helped farmers a great deal. This also motivated other farmers to expand their millet production. However, this growth was sustained only for about two years (2015)(2016)(2017), as the farmers were unable to keep up with expenses of the electricity bill and equipment maintenance, making it unviable for the community. This experience helped NESFAS understand the importance of conducting feasibility studies before installing machinery in a village.The low participation and interest of youth in promoting millet -and in agriculture, in general -is the greatest challenge. To address this, NESFAS promoted a youth group in Nongtraw and trained them on millet processing, including the packaging, labelling, and costing of millets while following hygienic standards. Throughout the process, they served as a marketing platform for millets and other traditional foods. The group was registered as Nongtraw Multipurpose and Marketing Cooperative Society in 2017.At present, Farmer Groups that are certified by the PGS are taking forward the work of marketing millets.With increased consciousness about the nutritional benefits of millet, coupled with the knowledge that it used to be the staple food of our Indigenous communities, there is an interest among farmers and consumers alike in the production and consumption of locally grown millet.Drought and low soil-moisture conditions are likely to increase in the future, and will affect crop production and further impact negatively farmers inhabiting hilly, rainfed, semi-arid and dry areas, who are most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change. Millet farming is a climate-resilient system consisting of hardy crops suited to low and erratic rainfall and varied soil nutrient conditions.Based on the diverse interventions carried out in various Indian states, we would like to recommend that the following pathways and critical issues be taken into consideration for moving the NUS agenda forward:• The holistic '4C' approach that concurrently addresses conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce has proven to be an effective pathway for retaining and using millet farming systems in a changing socioeconomic context. • Village seed banks for revitalizing and promoting farmer-to-farmer seed exchanges, improved agronomic practices, additional income derived through millet-based livelihoods in the supply chain, enhancing on-farm millet conservation, reinforcing seed exchange networks in target communities and creating better linkages with value-chain actors and private companies. • Collective initiatives harnessed the adaptive capacity of local communities to deal with climate change by leveraging the potential of resilient crops and production systems. • The availability, consumption and access to diversified diets of micronutrientrich foods like millets can contribute to better health, enhanced incomes, sustainable agriculture and a more resilient production system. • Small millets can be a valid instrument of economic and social empowerment for women and vulnerable and marginalized groups. The facilitation of an effective interface between scientific institutions and value-chain actors for participatory research and commercialization of research outputs can aid in value-chain development. • State-funded medium-term support measures for value-chain actors, including medium and small enterprises (MSEs), are necessary to develop value chains and millet foods, along with identifying and supporting pro-poor stakeholders like vendors, women self-help group federations and farmers' organizations in reaching everyone. • The active participation of women in Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) needs special attention, because although their membership is high, cultural values and local norms do not encourage their active engagement. • More research to validate nutrition and health claims supported by Indigenous knowledge is needed.• Consistent sensitization of local governments in order to develop supportive policies and projects towards millet production and the use of NUS can contribute at a grassroots level. • Despite tremendous efforts, still more needs to be done to address the e rosion of landraces, lack of improved varieties, knowledge on cultivation practices, post-harvest technologies, skills and processing facilities, disorganized markets, the limited participation of the private sector and poor credit support for value-chain development.Millets are C4 crops with high nutrition and climate-resilience qualities and are native to the rainfed areas of India (NAAS, 2013). Among them, finger millet and other small millets were largely grown, historically, and were part of the diet of the tribal communities of Odisha. Among small millets, little millets are grown in the districts of Bolangir, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh and Rayagada (DMD, GoI [2014]). In the case of finger millets (Eleusine coracana), the area of cultivation declined from 0.25 million hectares in 1990-1991 to 0.11 million hectares in 2017-2018 and the yield per hectare in the same period declined from 10.23 quintals per hectare to 8.80 quintals per hectare in 2017-2018 (Status of Agriculture in Odisha). The decline is further escalating due to a lack of support for cultivation, lack of appropriate processing technology and poor market development (Bhag Mal, et al., 2010). However, since 2010 onwards, there has been a growing interest in promotion of millets both by the Union and state governments. The Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion, Rainfed Area Development Programme and Integrated Cereals Development Programmes in Coarse Cereals-based Cropping Systems Areas (ICDP-CC) under the Macro Management of Agriculture are some of the initiatives that were launched by the Union government. But these have not been successful in bringing about changes in the millet landscape (RESMISA, 2012).It is in this context of the decline of millets that the Planning & Convergence Department, Government of Odisha (GoO) and Nabakrushna ChoudhuryDinesh Balam, Saurabh Garg, Srijit, Bhagyalaxmi, Mallo Indra, Jayshree Kiyawat The key objectives of the OMM were to increase household consumption of millets by about 25% to enhance household nutrition security and to create demand for millets with a focus on women and children; promote milletprocessing enterprises at the Gram Panchayat (GP) and block levels to ease processing in households and for value-added markets; improve productivity of millets crop systems and make them profitable; develop millet enterprises and establish market linkages to rural/urban markets, with a focus on women entrepreneurs, and include millets in state nutrition programmes and the public distribution system. Taking millets to the millions 265The Block was chosen as a unit of the implementation and the OMM targets were extended from 1,000 to 2,500 acres within a Block in five years. The OMM started in 30 blocks across seven districts and later extended to 76 blocks covering 14 districts in a phased manner. The SS consists of a programme secretariat (PS) and a research secretariat (RS). The Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN) was selected as PS. NCDS was chosen as the research secretariat in addition to SS.The annual reports of OMM (Garg and Muthukumar 2017, 2018, 2019) elaborates on the design and initiation of the project, progress and achievements.Awareness on millets were built up on a massive scale through food festivals, cooking competitions, awareness campaigns, district-level melas and millet recipe training events with active participation from different district-line departments.To reduce drudgery during the post-harvest and processing of millets, the OMM aimed to set up post-harvest and processing machinery at the GP and block le vels. It was proposed that about 10 post-harvest/processing units (threshers, d estoners, graders, dehullers and pulverisors) be set up in each block through WSHGs/FPOs. The technical specifications of the machines are finalised through a state-level committee on processing consisting of different experts. WSHGs/FPOs are selected through a expression of Interest process at the district level through another committee consisting of members from ATMA, District Social Welfare Officer, Odisha Livelihood Mission and FAs. Against the target of 444 threshers, 299 are placed in the district.Encouraging farmers through the provision of incentives for a period of three years for adoption of improved agronomic practices such as System of Millet Intensification, line transplanting, line sowing and intercropping. Incentives to farmers are designed to be gradually reduced over a period of three years. No chemical inputs are supplied to farmers under the OMM, with the farmers encouraged to adopt agro-ecological practice (Table 22.1).Farmer-preferred and locally appropriate seeds were promoted under the OMM. This was done through participatory varietal trials with varieties released by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), and the government. The best-performing varieties are then selected and multiplied through seed farmers. A working group has been formed for developing alternate seed system for indigenous landraces under the OMM. For the first time, four finger millet landraces -namely, Bati Mandia, Kalia Mandia, Bhadi Mandia and Mami Mandia -are being considered for release by DA&FE and the GoO (Table 22.2).Locally appropriate implements are supplied on a for-hire basis through c ustom hiring centres to reduce drudgery in various intercultural operations. Eight sub-centres within block-level Custom hiring centres are anchored by SHGs/ FPOs/CBOs per block under the OMM.  The comprehensive revival of millets in a Block requires service delivery. The community/farmer-level institutional base varies from Block to Block. FPOs will be formed at the block level. These FPOs will also anchor the different enterprises by linking with SHGs and other smaller collectives (Table 22.3).The GoO approved the initiation of ragi procurement in 2018. Accordingly, a three-year proposal for US$42.78 million was also approved. The Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation Odisha Limited was selected as the nodal procurement agency. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment issued the finger millet procurement guidelines, with the concurrence of the Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare Department, to the concerned district administration. The District-Level Procurement Committee, under the chairpersonship of the Collector and District Magistrate, finalise the timelines for farmer registration, the points and dates for procurement, procurement infrastructure and effective awareness campaigns in their respective districts.In KMS 2018-2019, the first year of the procurement programme, unforeseen challenges restricted procurement to 17,986 quintals against the target of 75,000 quintals. Finger millet was distributed at the rate of 1 kg per ration card through the PDS scheme in six districts. In Malkangiri District, it was distributed at the rate of 2 kg per ration card. Millet procured in Sundergarh District was provisioned for inclusion in ICDS in Keonjhar District.The learnings from KMS 2018-2019 were used to lay the groundwork for KMS 2019-2020. A procurement target of 100,000 quintals was approved for 2019-2020. The Government of India declared the Minimum support price for the KMS 2019-2020 as US$43.04 per quintal. By making changes based on past experiences, the procurement increased more than five times, totalling 94,745 quintals in KMS 2019-2020 (Table 22.4). In the KMS 2020-2021, a procurement target of 1,65,000 quintals has been finalised by DA&FE and GoO. For the first time, the procurement of finger millet shall also be done by 16 FPOs in different blocks. Finger millet procured by these FPOs is proposed to be utilised in the ICDS and PDS.Following the successful procurement witnessed in year 2, finger-millet-based entitlements were included in the PDS and ICDS schemes. Finger millet laddu was piloted in the anganwadi menu in Keonjhar District on July 2, 2020 and in Sundergarh District on August 15, 2020. Distribution of finger millet in PDS is planned in the 14 procurement districts in lieu of rice. The High Powered Committee of the OMM has approved the inclusion of millets in ICDS and MDM through DMF.The NCDS baseline report has shown that among the beneficiaries of the OMM, yield has doubled and income has tripled. Based on the successful outcomes, the Government of India has asked all states to adopt the OMM model for the promotion of millets, pulses and oilseeds. Niti Aayog has chosen Odisha and Karnataka as two progressive models and is willing to facilitate learnings for the same. The Governor of Maharashtra has requested the GoO to extend support to initiate a similar project on millets in the state of Maharashtra. The Government of India has set up a task force to understand the framework of the OMM and include the learnings of the OMM into new guidelines of national sub-mission on nutri-cereals.Keeping in view the crop failures, farmer indebtedness and poor nutrition profiles, the District Administration of Vikarabad, Government of Telangana, initiated a pilot project to include sorghum in ICDS with the support of WASSAN. A series of three millet food festivals were organised to build consensus around the inclusion of millets in ICDS. Children and mothers were given millet-based foods at the festivals. To understand the public perception on including millets in diets, feedback was taken from the community, mothers, people's representatives, anganwadi teachers, helpers and children. Resolutions passed in the mothers' committees were also taken to understand the view on these millet-based efforts. Through such participatory approaches, diverse menu options were selected, which also included inputs from the community and from scientists at the National Institute of Nutrition. Such innovative, nutritious and appealing preparations included a preliminary menu of foxtail millet kitchidi and sorghum upma, which were given to the children in 45 Anganwadi Centres (AWCs). The initiative was launched on April 14, 2017. The cost of one normal rice-based meal per child per day is US$0.08. As millets were not subsidised under PDS, cost of the korra (foxtail millet) kitchdi and jonna (sorghum) upma is about US$0.11 and US$0.14 respectively. Additional funds were provided from the District Collector through the Flexi-Funds Scheme. For the pilot of three months, covering 45 AWCs and 1,000 children, an additional expenditure of Rs. 1.73 lakhs was incurred. The Civil Supplies (CS) Department procured millets through farmer cooperatives as per approved specifications.Based on the success of the Vikarabad initiative, the Women Development & Child Welfare Department, Government of Telangana, is now planning to champion the inclusion of millets in ICDS on a large scale. A proposal for decentralised pilots for three aspirational districts was also submitted to Niti Aayog. The proposal was approved in the 13 th Empowered Committee meeting of Niti Aayog on July 10, 2020. In addition, the state of Telangana has also received an outlay of 355 Metric Tonnes of jowar and 607 MT of bajra under ICDS for piloting millets in ICDS (Deverajan, D. [2020] \"Note on inclusion of millets in Telangana\").Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVM), Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Maharashtra, encouraged WSHGs to take up the value addition and marketing of millet products. As a result, 404 WSHG members started cultivating finger millets in 78 acres of land and harvested 300 quintals of the crop; of this, 200 quintals were kept aside for household consumption, while the rest was purchased by the Community Managed Resource Centre (CMRC) for the preparation of different finger-millet-based products such as malt, biscuits, laddoo, etc. CMRC also opted for FSSAI certification and proper branding and packaging was tackled.The revenue generated from this was US$19,677.51, against a total cost of US$14,129.54. The CMRC with the support of MAVIM tied up with Dr. Balasaheb Konkan Agriculture University, Dapoli for technical support. CMRC also linked with Shri Vivekanand Research and Training Institute, at Lote, and the corporate social responsibility wing of Excel Industries Pvt. Ltd to purchase small machinery.The MAVM initiative is a good example of how proper micro-planning combined with strong grassroot institutions and convergence can make a substantial difference in the lives of millet-growing farmers.The Mahila Vitt Evam Vikas Nigam (MVEVN), Government of Madhya Pradesh, through the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), supported the Tejaswini Project, which initiated the promotion of kodo (kodo millet) and kutki (little millet) in the Mehandwani area in Dindori District in 41 tribal villages in 2013. Initially, 1,497 women farmers from SHG Federations were trained on improved agricultural practices to take up millet cultivation in at least 0.5 acres of land. By 2017, the area under millet cultivation had increased from 748.5 to 3,750 acres, with an associated growth in total production from 2,245.5 quintals to 15,000 quintals. The total income increased from US$122,738.45 to US$819,896.15, with a net profit increase from US$53,416.23 to US$562,995.35. Apart from the increase in area, productivity, income and profit, the number of women farmers who took on the goal of millet cultivation rose to over 7,500 farmers. Inspired by this success, Taking millets to the millions 271All these interventions show that a multi-stakeholder approach involving different departments, civil society and farmers'/women's collectives and that focuses on the value chain within and outside government programmes leads to success. Transforming food systems for meeting the emerging needs of climate change and malnutrition will need a multi-stakeholder approach.farmers from other nearby blocks like Sambalpura and Shahpura are also adopting these processes and are reaping benefits through millet cultivation.Further, with support of MVEVN, the SHG Federations shouldered the responsibility for processing, marketing, FSSAI certification and branding. For a wider reach, marketing and promotion was undertaken in various avenues like women's clubs, exhibitions, melas etc., covering cities like Nagpur, Nasik, Jabalpur and Bhopal. A pilot on the inclusion of Kodo-Kutki Bar in 226 Aanganwadi Centres for about 5,000 children was taken up. The efforts of Tejaswini in spreading the use of millets in everyday diets has been recognised at multiple forums and has also won the Sitaram Rao Livelihood India Case Study Award and SKOCH Order of Merit Award.According to the FAO, an increasing number of people are going to bed hungry, and more than a billion people are known to be nutritionally poor (Swaminathan 2010). Agroecology-based intercropping -growing more than one crop at the same time on a given piece of land -is now regarded as a promising approach for addressing food security in an environmentally and socially sustainable way (Brooker et al. 2015;Duchene et al. 2017). Many studies have shown that intercropping provides greater resource use-efficiency, reduced soil erosion and nutrient losses, and improved soil moisture (Maitra 2020;Triveni et al. 2017). Water is arguably the single most important factor that limits crop production in agriculture, particularly in rainfed or dryland ecosystems, and a consideration of plant hydraulic lift of soil water may help in designing a sustainable intercropping system (Liste and White 2008).Soil microbes such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plantgrowth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) may be beneficial as well, particularly the former with their capability to form a common mycorrhizal network (CMN) that extends beyond plant root systems, facilitating long-distance nutrient mobilization and water transfer (Aroca and Ruiz-Lozano 2009). Sustainable intensification through intercropping may be achieved with many different crops but requires the integration of various sciences such as agronomy, soil, microbial and social sciences (Brooker et al. 2015). This chapter deals with millet-based intercropping systems as an example. Specifically, we show results from our recent studies, revealing the contribution of CMN in mediating \"bioirrigation\", a process where the hydraulically lifted water by a deep-rooted legume such asNatarajan Mathimaran,Devesh Singh,Rengalakshmi Raj,Thimmegowda Matadadoddi Nanjundegowda,Prabavathy Vaiyapuri Ramalingam,Jegan Sekar,Yuvaraj Periyasamy,E. D. Israel Oliver King,Bagyaraj Davis Joseph,Thomas Boller,Ansgar Kahmen and Paul Mäder 274 Natarajan Mathimaran et al. pigeon pea provides water to the neighboring shallow-root cereal finger millet (Singh et al. 2020).Millets can be intercropped with many crop species, particularly with oil seeds such as sesame, or with legumes such as black gram, cowpea and pigeon pea. The choice of companion crop with the millets is usually decided by the farmers based on the economic value/benefit-cost ratio, land equivalent ratio (LER) and social factors like labour availability. However, legumes are particularly interesting because of their potential to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiosis with rhizobia and thereby to increase soil fertility, as shown, for example, in grain legume-pearl millet intercropping systems (McDonagh and Hillyer 2003).In addition, studies have shown facilitation in intercropping systems, where one species promotes the growth of the other (Callaway 2007;Li et al. 2009). Studies by Li et al. (2016) clearly show that in a maize and faba bean intercropping system, the root exudates of maize increase nodulation and enhance nitrogen fixation of faba bean. A trial conducted by Dass and Sudhishri (2010) with a combination of finger millet with pulses revealed enhanced productivity and increased resource conservation by a significant reduction of soil runoff. Several studies have reported the yield of millet to increase under legume intercropping systems, particularly in low fertile soils and low-input systems (Runkulatile et al. 2015;Triveni et al. 2017;Bitew et al. 2020). Significantly increased LER, more efficient water and better nutrient utilization were observed in intercropping systems than in monocropping (Yu et al. 2016;Daryanto et al. 2020). Among different legume-millet intercropping systems, the pigeon pea-finger millet system is a widely adapted practice by the farmers, particularly in the rainfed regions of south India. We discuss this example in more detail below.Many herbs, grasses, shrubs and trees are known to lift water via roots from subsoil and redistribute it to topsoil in a process known as hydraulic redistribution. The lifting of water by roots is passive and driven by leaf transpiration and stomatal closure. The redistributed water into topsoil might provide su fficient moisture for shallow-rooted plants growing adjacent to a deep-rooted plant (Caldwell et al. 1998). Using a stable isotope deuterium tracer, Sekiya and Yano (2004) found that pigeon pea could redistribute hydraulically lifted water to neighboring maize plants. Furthermore, the hydraulically redistributed w ater into dry topsoil is known to trigger microbial activities, which, in turn, could initiate v arious biogeochemical cycles, eventually leading to plant nutrient availability. This important ecophysiological process is an inherent part of many intercropping Millet-based intercropping systems in the tropics 275 systems, particularly where a deep-rooted legume such as pigeon pea is grown with shallow-rooted cereals such as finger millet.Numerous studies have shown that below-ground niche complementarity and resource sharing, combined with improved plant water relations, forms the basis for the overall productivity of the system. Measurements using various techniques, including stable isotope tools, have shown improved plant water relations, particularly under drought conditions (Zegada-Lizarazu et al. 2006). A classic work by Querejeta et al. (2012) showed the facilitative role of mycorrhizal hyphae in redistributing the water hydraulically lifted by oak. Catabolic response profiling of the microbial community obtained from the native shrubs grown in drylands at Sahel showed greater microbial diversity and a more active microbial community in the rhizosphere compared with a monocropping system (Diakhaté et al. 2016). Microbiome analysis in millet rhizosphere showed that an intercropping system can harbor potentially huge number of beneficial microbes (Debenport et al. 2015). Although there is ample information about rhizosphere microbial diversity, only limited knowledge is available with regard to ecophysiological and/or functional ecology of microbes involved in complex below-ground interaction. In particular, our current knowledge on the role of microbes in the facilitation of nutrients and water (Duchene et al. 2017) is limited.Despite some studies showing role of beneficial microbes in facilitating hydraulic lifts, mostly in tree species, currently there are only few studies showing the role of CMN in combination with PGPR in facilitating \"bioirrigation\" in crop species, particularly in cereals and legumes. In this regard, we conducted a series of research, first starting to unravel facilitative role of CMN in combination with PGPR in pigeon pea-finger millet intercropping systems (Figure 23.1).In one of our earliest studies in this context, we tested whether finger millet, a shallow-rooted cereal, can profit from neighboring pigeon pea, a deep-rooted legume, in the presence of \"biofertilization\" with AMF and PGPR, under drought conditions. Our results showed that \"biofertilization\" with AMF alleviates the negative effects of drought conditions on finger millet, indicating that CMN connecting pigeon pea and finger millet exert clearly a positive influence in this simulated intercropping system (Saharan et al. 2018). In our latest work in this regard (Singh et al. 2020), we used stable isotope and classical physiological measurements such as stomatal conductance to better understand the ecophysiology of bioirrigation. We found that pigeon pea can indeed promote the water relations of finger millet during a drought event. The observed facilitative e ffects of pigeon pea on finger millet were partially enhanced by the presence of a CMN. In contrast to the facilitative effects under drought, pigeon pea exerted strong competitive effects on finger millet before the onset of drought. This hindered the growth and biomass production of finger millet when intercropped with pigeon pea, an effect that was even enhanced in the presence of a CMN. The results from our study, thus, indicate that in intercropping, deep-rooted plants may act as \"bioirrigators\" for shallow-rooted crops, and that a CMN can promote these facilitative effects. In more general terms, our study shows that the extent to which the antagonistic effects of facilitation and competition are expressed in an intercropping system strongly depends on the availability of resources (Singh et al. 2020).Furthermore, we conducted field trials over three consecutive seasons at two sites in India, an intercropping and biofertilization scheme to boost their yields under low-input conditions. Our major findings are (i) the effects of the biofertilizers were particularly pronounced at the site of low fertility; (ii) the dual inoculation of AMF+PGPR to finger millet and pigeon pea crops showed increased grain yields more effectively than single inoculation; (iii) the combined grain yields of finger millet and pigeon pea in intercropping increased up to 128% due to the biofertilizer application and (iv) compared to direct sowing, the transplanting system of pigeon pea increased their average grain yield up to 267% across site, and the yield gains due to biofertilization and the transplanting system were additive (Mathimaran et al. 2020).Finally, as millets are considered neglected crops, at least in the recent past, the diversity of millets is yet to be brought back the mainstream farming for nutritional security. King et al. (2009) have reviewed the importance of agrobiodiversity and conservation of millets for tribal populations in south India. The adoption of millets-legume intercropping systems by smallholders are governed by several socioeconomic factors. In one of our studies in south India we found that access to market, the choice of companion intercrops and the cost of cultivation are major influencing factors for adopting a legume-millet intercropping system by smallholder farmers. Similar scenarios have been seen in several African countries, corroborating our study in south India. For example, a study by Ortega et al. (2016) in Malawi found that labour constraints and market access are the key factors governing farmers' adoption of maize-legume intercropping practices despite their ecological benefits. Another important variable that is considered in the decision-making process is the availability of family labour while adopting intercropping systems in Uganda (Ekepu and Tirivanhu 2016). Last, but not least, the value-chain models for the intercropping system have yet to be developed for different combinations of crops and biological inputs, including the biofertilizers, so as to make millet-based a model for sustainable farming, both in socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. A study by Magrini et al. (2016) has pointed out the need for combined actions both in the research and development of catalytic technologies, institutional innovations and market support to upscale the adoption of millet-legume intercropping systems. Similarly, access to quality seeds and markets, as well as policy support, were highlighted as key factors essential to upscaling millet and legume intercropping systems in sub-Saharan Africa (Mugendi et al. 2011).Agroecological farming methods, such as intercropping, have been in use by farmers for centuries. However, practicing intercropping on a larger scale has been always a challenge for various reasons that include limited understanding of complex interactions, particularly below-ground microbial interactions at the rhizosphere, involving various biotic and abiotic factors. Thanks to recent advancements in molecular and ecophysiological tools, there has been an increasing amount of research on the role of microbes in the intercropping system, eventually allowing us to explore possibilities for adapting microbial-facilitated 278 Natarajan Mathimaran et al.intercropping to a larger scale. Yet mainstreaming intercropping requires further basic and applied research to optimize productivity and economic sustainability, as shown by our studies of the millet-based intercropping systems.Minor-grained cereal grasses are collectively described as 'millets' and are one of the oldest cultivated foods known to humans. The major group of millets includes crops like sorghum and pearl millet, while minor millets consist of finger millet, foxtail, kodo, barnyard, proso and little millet. Millets are a traditional staple food of the dryland regions of the world. In India, they are grown in about 15 million ha with an annual production of 16 million tonnes and contribute slightly less than 10% to the country's food-grain basket. Nutri-cereals are known to have high nutrient content, including protein, essential fatty acids, dietary fiber, B-vitamins, and minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and magnesium. Although millets are nutritionally rich like other fine cereals, their consumption has significantly declined over the last three decades. The decline is mainly due to the rather laborious and time-consuming process involved in the preparation of millet and government policy to supply fine cereals at subsidized prices. Therefore, it has become necessary to reorient efforts on millets to generate demand through value addition of processed foods. Value addition in food processing has a high degree of interdependence with forwarding and backward linkages, which can play an essential role in accelerating economic development. Through value addition, the shelf life and storage quality of food can be improved.• Lack of appropriate processing technologies that yield stable shelf products constitutes a significant limitation in the utilization of millet grain to d evelop value-added products.An overview • Consumer-level preferences include food that is convenient, tasty and attractive, with good texture, which may not always be the case with millet products. • The size of grain is minor so processing is a challenge.• The outer seed coat of most minor millets has about 1-7 layers, making it further difficult to process with available means. • Polishing minor millets as done for major food cereals may lead to nutrition losses, defeating the purpose of consuming it. • Lack of proper mechanism to separate unhulled grains from de-hulled grains.• No serious processing interventions are attempted because of lack of demand for these millets. • The market is limited as primarily poor farmers from tribal regions and typical dryland regions produce and consume millets. • Absence of grades and standards.• Lack of awareness with regard to grain and product quality standards.• Regular supply of grains is inadequate for demand from large-scale manufacturing lines. • Non-availability of local millet processing units.• Lack of grain storage options.Processing grains enhances its consumer acceptability and adds to its convenience. Though millet is known for its nutritional qualities, its consumption has declined due to the unavailability of ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-cook (RTC) millet products. It is also regarded in many countries as an inferior food. A decrease in millet consumption is found to be proportional to an increase in expenditure. Besides, increased income is accompanied by increased consumption of wheat and rice, as products from these fine cereals are easy to prepare and have better 'keeping' quality. At the same time, people now tend to eat a greater variety of foods. Technological change could perhaps shift the status of millets, improving its production and utilization. Processing also improves the food value in terms of increasing the variety of products and improving carbohydrate and protein digestibility.The primary processing of millets revolves around the grading of millets (which depends on the size of the grain), de-stoning (removal of stones and other impurities), de-hulling (removal of outer indigestible husk layer), and p olishing. Its essential aim is the removal of waste, stones, and glumes from the grain, which are necessary for proper storage and consumer acceptance. The majority of primary processing is still performed with inefficient machinery and demands skilled operators, making it uneconomical for farmers and minor-scale entrepreneurs. The primary processing of millets is a vital step to converting the grain into an edible form and thereby enhancing its quality. Although processing millets without husk (naked grains) -i.e., sorghum, pearl, and finger millets -are easy, processing millets that do have husk -i.e., little, proso, kodo, barnyard, and foxtail millets -are more complicated, as they have an inedible husk that needs to be removed through primary processing (Figures 24.1,24.2).Constraints identified in the existing primary processing machinery 1 As of now, no machinery is available that can effectively perform the process of cleaning, grading, de-hulling, and separation. The development of FIGURE 24.2 Different de-hullers available for primary processing of millets. such machinery will prove to be a helping aid for various entrepreneurs and minor-scale industries. 2 The de-hulling efficiency of millets is influenced by impeller speed, hence a provision to control the working speed of machines should be incorporated. 3 Separation of de-hulled and raw grains from the de-huller output is due to the slight difference in specific gravity. Hence, because of improper sieve sizes and the design of reciprocating sieves, nearly 1.0-1.5 kg of material falls through the sieve holes and accumulates deep inside the machine, leading to wastage. 4 The collection of husk is burdensome, and causes spillages all over the working station, sometimes getting mixed with de-hulled output. 5 After the de-hulling activity, the next stage is to separate the de-hulled grains and raw grains. The separation stage is imperative and dramatically affects overall grain recovery; nearly 1 kg of de-hulled grains (for every cycle of separation) is prone to wastage due to inefficient separation methodology.Not all minor millets can be de-hulled by one machine due to the different size and shape of each millet. Specific and suitable machine is required for proper recovery.A study was conducted on minor millets by using different existing de-hulling machines, and the recovery was observed (Table 24.1). The study indicated that the minor de-huller was best suited for barnyard, foxtail, and kodo millet, while the single-stage de-huller best fit proso and the double-stage was suitable for little millet.Secondary processing involves using the primary processed raw material for different RTE and RTC millet products such as flour, millets-based multigrain flour, semolina (fine and medium), millet cookies, vermicelli, pasta, etc., which minimize the cooking time needed and make them convenient foods. It also increases the shelf life of products. Busy lifestyles and the lack of inspiration to cook make convenient nutritious RTC and RTE products more appealing and accessible (Alavi et al., 2019). These products have a multi-billion dollar market worldwide. ICAR-IIMR has developed and standardized millet-based products such as atta, semolina (fine and medium), flakes, cookies, cold extruded products (pasta and vermicelli), RTE snacks, etc. using different processing technologies.Flaking is the process where moistened and roasted grain is pressed into flattened flakes and dried. It can be applied to any millet grain, irrespective of variety, size, and shape. However, the pericarp color of the grain impacts the color of the flakes.The machines used for different flaking technology are:1 Edge runner -produces thick flakes like rice flakes 2 Roller flaker -produces thin flakes like corn flakesThis technology comprises many sub-processes like soaking the grains in excess water to hydrate their equilibrium moisture content. After soaking, the grains are washed appropriately by changing the water thrice; otherwise, the grain's sliminess will affect the storage life of the flakes. This soaking method is similar for both edge-runner and roller-flakes processing (Figures 24.3,24.7,24.8).Cold extruded products such as vermicelli, pasta, and noodles are generally made from durum wheat or refined wheat flour. These products can also be manufactured with millets by the same machine, called a \"cold extruder.\" In millet-based cold extruded products, the raw material should be fine-sized millet semolina (355 µ); otherwise, the binding nature will be very low, which would increase the cooking losses. Currently, every millet-based product is blended with wheat semolina/suji (500 µ), as the millet grains are devoid of gluten, and so lack the binding properties and strength of the texture. Extruded millet products are mixed in a blender with different ingredients and desired moisture levels to make a wet homogenous mass. Subsequently, it is forced through an opening in a perforated plate or dies with a design specific (it varies for vermicelli, pasta, and noodles), and is cut to a specified size by blades. Now this moist product goes through the drying process (Figures 24.4,24.9).The popular and world-famous snack popcorn is commonly made from maize. Likewise, expanded rice or murmura is also a very popular and simple traditional snack. However, similar products from other cereals are rare. \"Gun popping\" is another traditional method of cereal popping, widely used in East Asian countries, but not popular in India. Recent R&D has shown that millet-expanded snacks can also be processed using the gun popping method. Mainly this technology requires decorticated and polished grains to deliver puffs/pops with high functional and highly acceptable sensory qualities. The puffing occurs due to the quick transmission of heat from the barrel to the grain and converts its moisture levels into steam form. It gelatinizes the starch and produces high pressure in the core part of the grain, resulting in the expansion of the grain, forming its puffy nature. These products are milky white and have a pleasant aroma, with an attractive appearance and soggy texture. The roasting process can be applied to improve its crispiness (Figures 24.5,24.10).Baked goods are RTE and the most popular snack foods across the world. They include cookies, biscuits, bread, buns, rusks, doughnuts, etc., with cookies being the most consumed by the population. Currently, the ICAR-IIMR has developed 100% pure millet-based cookies and cakes with improved textures by applying different emulsifiers, which are closely comparable to famous wheatbased cookies in the market. The machine used for cookie and cake processing are the cookie/biscuit-cutting machine, rotary rack oven, cake-filling machine, planetary mixer, etc. In the cookie process, the millet in the form of fine flour (150 µ and 180µ particle size) is used. Millet cookies are manufactured by the creaming process (vegetable fat/vegetable oil and sugar) and the addition of leavening agents, flavors, and millet flour, along with desired moisture levels, and making it into soft dough, cutting and baking at 180 °C for 18-20 minutes. Its attractiveness can be improved by incorporating different ingredients like cashew nuts, almonds, chocolate chips, etc. These products lack the sponginess of wheat bread and pizzas because they do not contain gluten protein (Collar et al., 2019) (Figures 24.6, 24.11).       The government programs spearheaded by the Ministry of Agriculture were primarily focused on improving the supply of millets. Minor millets are na turally nutrient-dense cereals (Malleshi et al., 1982), and so making them available through public-funded schemes can help deal with the problem of micronutrient deficiency or hidden hunger among the less-privileged sections of the population. Within the Indian context, as a healthy food, minor millets have great potential to address this challenge due to their nutritional qualities ( Durairaj et al., 2019). The effective delivery of millets under public-funded schemes could have far-reaching implications for tackling the problem of malnutrition. Most public food programs do not include millets, except for the inclusion of finger millet in Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in a few states of the country. There are no exclusive government schemes/projects/programs for minor millets. However, many Indian states are gradually starting to support the consumption of millets through government-sponsored schemes; for instance, Karnataka was the first state to distribute millets through the PDS; Odisha has started the Millets Mission; Andhra Pradesh supplies finger millets and jowar through PDS, and Tamil Nadu has included millets in its MGR Nutritious Meal Programme 2011-12 and in ICDS. It is necessary to include millets in public-funded schemes in all states to minimize malnutrition and mortality rates throughout India.There are limited policies and schemes that explicitly include millets, with not many exclusive government schemes/projects/programs for minor millets. Of the extant schemes, the most important ones are Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion as part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY); Rainfed Area Development Programme as part of Rashtriya Kristi Visas Yolanda (RKVY); and Integrated Cereals Development Programmed in Coarse Cereals-based Cropping Systems Areas (ICDP-CC) under the Macro Management of Agriculture. There is a lot of variation across the states on how they utilize these opportunities for promoting millets.The processing of minor millets has come a long way; however, one grey area is the lack of availability of efficient de-hullers and separators in primary processing that have a greater than 80% efficiency. This is an important determinant for secondary processing, as quality raw material will lead to greater scope of diversified millet products through secondary processing. Secondary processing technologies like flaking, puffing, milling, and baking are standardized, but current raw material costs do not favor viable products except as niche markets. The greater the efficiency in primary processing, the higher the share of farmer producers in the consumer's rupee. Further bioavailability studies of millet-based products need to be conducted to develop standards and grades, to identify suitable minor millet cultivars for specific end-products for large-scale production, and to strengthen the use of minor millets, which are storehouses of nutrition. There should be an in-depth policy shift from the government towards accommodating the inclusion of minor millets in public-funded schemes to address malnutrition and lifestyle diseases.Small millets are well adapted to poor quality soils and rainfed, low moisture conditions, while also producing grains that have superior nutrient values compared to paddy and wheat (Saleh et al. 2013;Behera 2017, Figure 25.1). For these reasons, small millets are recognized as key assets for ensuring food security under climate change (Padulosi et al. 2015;Davis et al. 2019). To inform strategies to leverage their role in climate change adaptation, the precise mechanisms by which small millets support food security should be clarified in consideration of the many parameters and constraints of farm and livelihood systems.Millets may contribute to climate change adaptation through several mechanisms. Because of their drought tolerance, including millets in a diversified farm portfolio can support harvest security in drought years (e.g., Prieto et al. 2015;Renard and Tilman 2019). If drought stress becomes very severe, minor millets could replace more drought-sensitive staples (e.g., Kurukulasuriya and Mendelsohn 2008). Because of their capacity to produce a harvest on marginal soils, minor millets could enable more areas in the landscape to be brought into production, which can help mitigate the effect of yield losses resulting from climate change. The ability of millets to be stored for long periods can also provide a fallback source of nutrition and income under variable weather conditions. The contribution of millets to climate change adaptation may derive from one or a combination of these mechanisms, among other possibilities.To sharpen understanding of the mechanisms by which minor millets support food security under climate change, a scenario modelling exercise was carried out. The study focused on the Mandla and Dindori districts of eastern Madhya Pradesh, India, where kodo (Paspalum scrobiculatum) and kutki (Panicum sumatrense) millets are cultivated by tribal farmers in marginal lands. Kodo and kutki are grown especially on rocky and sloping lands, whereas flatter richer soils tend to be used for paddy cultivation. Millets have received limited attention from the research and development perspective in India. Agricultural schemes in Madhya Pradesh have even pushed to replace these \"low-value crops\" with higher-value ones like oil seeds and pulses in recent decades (Gupta 2003;Catalyst Management Services Ltd. 2009). Improved rice varieties have been promoted in the region, while improved varieties of millet have only been promoted more recently and their adoption is still limited (Bioversity International and ASA 2016).A simple model for household production and consumption was devised as summarized in Figure 25.2. The model considered household production of rice and minor millets, storage of rice and millet, and consumption of millets and rice in fulfilling household energy requirements. The production levels of millet and rice varied depending on whether or not drought was faced in a given year. Once family requirements were met, surplus grain from the current year's production would be placed in storage. The model assumed that the household would preferentially consume rice over millet and fresh grains over stored grain.The model was built as a series of linked equations as presented in Table 25.1 using the R statistical programing language (R Core Team 2018). The parameters for the model are summarized in Table 25.2. A single iteration of the model provided data for an individual household over a 20-year span. For a given set of parameters, the model was applied over the full range of drought risk values (0-1) and repeated for 1,000 iterations. The initial amount of rice in storage was set as half of the household's annual energy requirement, as was done for the initial store of millets. Three distinct investigations were completed with the model in which the yield values or the area planted with rice and millet were varied, while the remaining parameters were left constant. The questions explored in these investigations were as follows:• Investigation 1: How do different values for crop yield in drought and good years affect household food security under increasing levels of drought risk? • Investigation 2: How does the area planted with small millets and rice affect household food security under increasing levels of drought risk? • Investigation 3: How would increasing yield values for small millets affect household food security under increasing levels of drought risk?The first investigation explored the effect of different yield values in drought and non-drought years. The values for millet and rice yields under drought and non-drought conditions were defined with reference to the government's yield and weather data for a 35-year period (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014). General linear models of millet and paddy yields obtained for total rainfall by district were developed and the predicted values were used in defining the parameters for the scenario model. For drought years, we used two alternative yield values, which were the predicted yields under the minimum level of precipitation experienced over the previous 20 years (Min) and the predicted yields for below-average precipitation levels (Q1). For non-drought years, we used four alternative yield values, which were the predicted yields for mean precipitation levels (Avg); the predicted yields for above average precipitation (Q3); the predicted yields under the maximum level of precipitation (Max); and the absolute highest yields for rice and millet in the dataset (AbsMax). The combinations of yield values that were simulated are shown in Table 25 A1.The area planted with millet and rice was held constant in the first investigation. The area values were defined based on a household survey in the focal area with 297 households across 30 villages (Bioversity International and ASA 2016). The survey results showed that the mean area households assigned to paddy was 0.6 Ha and 0.6 Ha to small millets. These values were used as the parameters for crop area in the first investigation. Local consultations suggested that farmers use their best quality soil with black color for rice and their rocky red soils not suitable for paddy to grow millet. These discussions suggested that farmers could grow millet in areas where rice is currently grown but that rice may not be easily cultivated in areas where farmers currently grow millet. The second investigation explored this nuance, in considering that intensifying drought conditions may mean that planting millet on black soils -effectively replacing some area of rice cultivation -could bring greater harvest and food security. The combinations of areas planted to rice and millet are shown in Table 25A2, which assumes millets could be grown on land currently used by rice but not vice versa. The simulations in the second investigation used the most optimistic yield values (Q1 in drought years, AbsMax in good years).The third investigation assessed the role of improved millet varieties in supporting climate change adaptation. Starting with more optimistic yield values • The energy content of rice (RiceE) was set to 3,533,200 kcal/ton (Longvah et al., 2017;Saleh et al., 2013;Shobana et al., 2013) • The energy content of millet (MilE) was defined as 3,278,500, which is the mean value for kodo and kutki (combined: 327.85 kcal/100g; kodo: 320 kcal/100g; kutki: 335.69 kcal/100g; Longvah et al., 2017;Saleh et al., 2013;Shobana et al., 2013) • Yield values for drought years (RiceYLow, MilYLow, value greater than 0) and non-drought years (RiceYHigh, MilYHigh, value greater than 0) were defined with reference to government yield data (see Tables 25A1 and 25A2)• The drought probability (Drought Prob) was set to a value ranging from 0 to 1 • The initial quantity of rice and millet in storage (RiceEStore0 and MilEStore0) was set to half the energy requirement of the household in the first year and as the amount remaining from the previous year for subsequent iterations (RiceEStore1: defined inStep 7; MilEStore1: defined in Step 11).2 Drought=sample(c(0:100),size=1,replace=T) Whether a drought occurs in given year (Drought, TRUE/FALSE) depends on the <(DroughtProb*100) probability of drought (DroughtProb: defined in Step 1).11The amount of millet energy in storage at the end of a given year (MilEStore1, kcal) is MilESurProd calculated as the amount remaining in storage from the previous year (MilEStore0: defined in Step 1) minus the amount consumed (MilEConSto: defined in Step 10) or plus the amount added from surplus production (MilESurProd: defined in Step 9).12 MilECons=if((ProdRiceE+RiceEStore0)> If production (ProdRiceE: defined in Step 4) and storage (RiceEStore0: defined in Step 1) =Ereq) 0 else availability of rice meet the family's needs, then no millet will be consumed (MilECons, if ((ProdMilE + MilEStore0)>= (Ereq -kcal). Otherwise, the family will attempt to make up their energy requirements with (ProdRiceE + RiceEStore0))) (Ereq -millets, consuming (MilECons, kcal) just enough to fill the gap if quantities are (ProdRiceE + RiceEStore0)) else available, or consuming the full amount in storage (MilEStore0: defined in Step 1) ifthere is a shortfall.13 Econs=RiceECons + MilECons The total energy (Econs, kcal) consumed by the family in a given year is assumed to be the total of rice consumed (RiceECons: defined in Step 8) and millet consumed (MilECons: defined in Step 12) 14 FoodSecure=(Econs>=Ereq) A family is food secure in a given year (FoodSecure, TRUE/FALSE) if their consumption (Econs: defined in Step 13) is greater or equal to their energy requirements (Ereq: defined in Step 1).in a normal year and a drought year (Q1:AbsMax), the effect of progressive yield increases from 125% to 350% over the base values were modelled, assuming equal percent yield increases in drought and normal years.Yields of paddy recorded in the region ranged from 0.364 to 2.640 ton/ha with a mean of 0.947 ton/ha. The yields of small millets (kodo-kutki) ranged from 0.089 to 0.903 ton/ha with a mean of 0.266 ton/ha. Precipitation ranged from 480.2 mm to 1595.0 mm with a mean of 1090.0 mm. Above average precipitation (Q3) was 1163.0 mm and below-average precipitation (Q1) was 965.9 mm. The regression analysis showed a significantly increasing trend for yields of both paddy (slope 0.00104±0.00045, t=2.330, p=0.0267) and small millets (slope 0.00038±0.00014, t=2.634, p=0.0132) with higher monsoon precipitation. The slope was steeper for paddy, meaning its yields were more impacted by poor rainfall than the yields of millets, but the yields of small millets were always considerably lower than those for paddy (Figure 25.2). The scenario modelling revealed that households only achieved their annual energy requirements under the most favourable climate conditions (Figure 25.3 top-left panel). The role of millets for food security was most significant when yields were high in good years, which allowed households to store millets for use in drought years.Optimal food security was achieved under the current 'average' situation, with rice grown to the maximal area available with adequate soil quality. The worst outcomes for household food security were seen under the scenario where millet replaced or nearly replaced rice. This was because rice is higher yielding than millets, so producing it on the largest area possible maximized the harvest and the household energy consumption. Millets showed an important food security role when surpluses could be stored in good years. The scenario models investigating the effect of yield-enhancements revealed that yield increases of millet as low 150% notably increased food security when drought risk was high (0.5 to 0.8).This modelling exercise provided useful insights into the mechanisms by which millets may contribute to climate change resilience and adaptation. A key result was that the low yields of millet limit their role in food security in the face of increasing drought risk. Modest yield increases resulted in food security benefits in our modelling, and the values would be realistic to achieve with existing varieties. For instance, yields as low as 0.350 tonne/ha in drought years and 1.355 tonne/ha in good years showed notable food security benefits in the model results. Kodo variety DPS 9-1 has a yield ranging from 2.7 to 3.0 tonnes/ha, while the kutki variety DHL M36-3 has a range of 1.4-1.6 tonnes/ha (ICAR nd). The yields of these varieties obtained in farmer fields may be lower than these values achieved under more controlled experimental conditions, but the numbers reveal good potential for these improved varieties (and others that are already available in the region) to contribute to improved food security outcomes. The major role of millets for household food and climate security was seen in terms of their storability. Millets provide a source of food from marginal soils with little effort that provides a fallback for food security. Discussions with farmers in the project area have highlighted the storability of millets as a cherished quality and our results point to this characteristic as one that deserves more attention in discourses and research regarding the role of millets in climate change adaptation.It is acknowledged that the model oversimplifies the farm and livelihood system, such as by excluding any links to the market and the diversity of other crops and livestock, as well as wild harvesting, which is quite prevalent. We note that this simplicity was a conscious choice to focus on the tradeoffs in cultivating and consuming the most important cereal crops of the region. The fact that the households generally did not achieve their energy requirements in our models may reveal that there is an important role for other crops, the market, or the public distribution system in supplementing food security, which is not captured by the model. Otherwise, this result may reflect upon the extent of the poor n utrition that exists in Madhya Pradesh, where 60% of children under five years of age are underweight as compared to 43% at the national level (IIPS and Macro International 2007, p 269 and p 273). Scheduled Castes and Tribes, which are the predominant population in the focal area, are disproportionately affected by malnutrition (WFP and IHD 2008;Das and Bose 2015;Jain et al. 2015;Kapoor and Dhall 2016).It is noted that this was a quick exercise and that the model could benefit from further validation and verification. More sophisticated modelling approaches for cropping systems and household nutrition exist and could provide more reliable results. This simple approach was nevertheless useful because it was possible to devise using open source software. It has clarified expectations and understanding within a short project timeline. The model can easily be modified to consider other nutrients aside from energy and to vary additional parameters that have not been explored in this paper. E.D.I. Oliver King, and Stefano Padulosi were fundamental in conceptualizing the model. Thank you for sharing your insights on the role of millets in improving the livelihoods of farming communities in the focal area and in other regions of India.   The main challenges of the 21st century are population growth, climate change, water scarcity and soaring food prices, all of which could trigger a great threat to agriculture and food security worldwide (Kulkarni et al., 2018). Globally, the burden of malnutrition, in all its forms, remains a challenge. Nearly 8.9% (~690 million) of the world population is undernourished according to 2019 estimates; and 21.3% of children under five years of age are stunted, 6.9% wasted and 5.6% overweight (FAO et al., 2020). Nutrition insecurity is a major threat to the world's population, which is highly reliant on cereal-based diets (seen in both developing and under-developed countries), particularly refined cereals that are deficient in micronutrients. Today the bigger threat comes from the triple burden of malnutrition -under-nutrition co-existing with micronutrient deficiencies and over-nutrition. Economic losses equal to 5%-6% of Gross National Product (GNP) were estimated due to deficiencies of iron, zinc and vitamin A in South Asia, leading to illness and poor performance (Shivran, 2016). Both micronutrient deficiencies and economic loss could be averted with improvements in nutritional status through enhanced quality, agriculture productivity (De Benoist et al., 2004) and cereal staples consumption. Agricultural research needs to engage in novel t echnologies and strike a balance between boosted food production with better crop genotypes and improved nutritional quality of food crops (Saha et al., 2016). The process of biofortification is one means to improve the micronutrient content (vitamins and minerals) of food grains is improved, through plant breeding and agronomic practices. Staple crops, when biofortified and consumed routinely, could have a greater positive impact on the nutritional status of vulnerable populations.Millets are a highly promising alternative option to strengthening rice-and wheat-based diets, as they can survive in arid conditions, leave a smaller carbon footprint and still offer higher nutritional value (Bergamini et al., 2013). These ancient grains have been used as cereal staples by millions of people in arid zones across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and for fodder, feed and industrial purposes in developed economies (Pasha et al., 2018). Despite India being among the largest producers of small millets (SM), consumption of these crops is currently low (Kulkarni et al., 2018), as they have been replaced largely by rice and wheat since the Green Revolution. One of the factors hindering the wider use of SM is their cumbersome traditional processing; but today, this can be effectively replaced with novel techniques capable of creating more value-added and readily acceptable products. Such innovations represent, indeed, a robust strategy to increase the consumption of these (Kulkarni et al., 2018).SM are a group of small-seeded cereals of the grass family Poaceae. They include finger millet (FM) (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.), kodo millet (KM) (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.), little millet (LM) (Panicum sumatrense Roth), foxtail millet (FXM) (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.), barnyard millet (BM) (Echinochloa spp.), proso millet (PM) (Panicum miliaceum L.) and brown top millet (BTM) (Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf ) (Figure 26.1). FM, FXM and PM are important crops cultivated globally, while the other millets are region or country specific. For example, KM, LM and BTM are cultivated as cereals in India (Vetriventhan et al., 2020).The climate-resilient and nutrient-dense characteristics of SM make them highly relevant crops for food and feed, even in agriculturally marginalized areas FIGURE 26.1 Small millet grains.Unleashing the nutrition potential of small millets 311 that are characterized by scarce water and poor soil. SM are excellent sources of carbohydrates, micronutrients and phytochemicals with nutraceutical properties. They are also excellent sources of B-group vitamins. Although their proteins are poor in lysine and tryptophan, their consumption can be easily complemented with lysine-rich (leguminous) vegetables and animal proteins. Because of their high nutritional value, millets have been recently renamed 'nutri-cereals' by the Government of India through a Gazette Notification (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, 2018).In recent times, there has been noticeable progress in the development of millet processing machinery, enabling a more effective preparation of value-added products from SM. Each subtype of SM has unique physical, nutritional and processing qualities. Varietal selection within each SM with desired nutritional and processing traits is a prerequisite for making value-added products or novel food items and recipes. Today, there are many new varieties of SM, including biofortified ones, which could be utilized to boost nutritional security.Germplasm characterization is the process allowing a detailed description of accessions at phenotypic, biochemical and molecular levels. Owing to their unique genetic diversity, combined with great nutritional properties, SM offer a tremendous opportunity for diet diversification, which should be better capitalized on. Over 133,000 germplasm of SM have been conserved globally (Vetriventhan et al., 2020). The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) conserves over 12,000 accessions of six SM, and germplasm diversity sub-sets evaluated for grain nutrients composition have revealed significant variability; numerous trait-specific germplasm have been identified so far in support of crop improvement (Table 26.1). Some of the millets, in general, contain lower amylose compared to wheat and rice, which may be a factor that results in high glycaemic index. There is, thus, a need to identify varieties of SM with higher amylose for slower sugar assimilation that would, thus, be better suited for diabetics.SM are neither ready-to-eat (RTE) nor ready-to-cook (RTC) grains and need to be processed (Saleh et al., 2013;Jaybhaye et al., 2014). Commonly followed, conventional, contemporary and novel processing techniques to exploit the nutritional and value-addition potential of SM (Figure 26.2) are discussed below.The term 'milling' in the context of SM refers to de-husking and de-branning operations, similar to those done in rice, and to size reduction and gradation as done in wheat. In the case of SM except FM, the grains can be de-husked in a centrifugal sheller, rubber roll sheller or even in the traditional disc mills and then de-branned to a desirable degree of polish. Decorticated as well as de-branned millets can be cooked as rice or may be flaked or used to prepare expanded grains or pulverized and size-graded to prepare flour or semolina for conventional food preparations. Hardening the endosperm through hydrothermal treatment improves dehulling efficiency. Milled millets have improved bioavailability of   nutrients and higher consumer acceptability. The bran fraction from SM has higher oil and nutraceutical content whereas FM seed coat, rich in phenolics, may serve as functional food additive (Devi et al., 2014). L arge-scale SM milling systems involve high capital investments. However, today, small-scale, low-cost millet dehullers and integrated millet mills equipped with pre-cleaner, destoner, dehuller and gravity separator are also available.Grain popping is a popular dry-heat (high temperature short time-HTST) treatment, which is simple and least energy-intensive processing method followed to prepare RTE products. Wholegrain SM are used to prepare popped/ puffed grains. Normally, the expansion volume of popped SM ranges from 7 to 12 ml/g (the highest being for PM and the lowest for BM). A few good popping varieties of SM have been identified (Malleshi, 1989;Delost-Lewis et al., 1992, Mirza et al., 2015). During popping, due to the heat, the lipases get denatured and this enhances the shelf life of the product. Now-a-days, expanded SM are also emerging, which are prepared using dehulled/debranned grains following gun-popping process or processingparboiled millets similar to rice (murmura). Expanded millets have high potential for confectioneries, low-fat breakfast cereals, cereal bars and also as a thickener in soup mixes.Parboiling or hydrothermal treatment hardens SM and improves their decortication or milling, as well as cooking, characteristics. The process also facilitates resistant starch formation, minimizes the loss of vitamins and minerals during milling and improves the storage qualities of millets (Shobana and Malleshi, 2007). Normally, SM with denser endosperm and high amylose content yield better quality parboiled millets. Parboiling is not practiced extensively but it has very high potential for extended uses of SM.Flakes from millets are prepared by traditional edge runner, roller flaker and extrusion cooking methods. RTE flakes result from the process of starch gelatinization; they are used for a wide range of snacks, roasted flakes find applications in granola bars, breakfast cereals and muesli formulations. Generally, bold grains with well-filled starchy endosperm yield better quality flakes.FM has unique potential for malting and its malt is a storehouse of active hydrolytic enzymes, andtermed as\"Amylase Rich Food\". Thus, it finds a place in the preparation of infant, weaning and enteral food formulations. Germination lowers anti-nutrients and enhances mineral bioavailability. Varietal variations of malting characteristics in FM have been observed and varieties 'Indaf ' 1, 3 and 9, and Annapurna have been identified as good malting strains (Malleshi and Desikachar, 1979). Further screening of germplasm for identifying or breeding malt-millet accessions deserve attention.Popular fermented FM-based alcoholic beverages in India are 'Kodo ko jaanr', 'Koozh' and 'Chhang', while lactic fermented beer is popular in sub-Saharan Africa. Fermented products have higher protein and starch digestibility and lower antinutrients. Ambali, a mild, auto-fermented thin porridge, is a popular product made from FM. Currently idli, dosa and other traditional Indian f ermented products are prepared from all types of SM.Various food products from SM are produced by adapting both cold and hot extrusion technologies. SM are non-glutinous cereals and, hence, need special pre-treatments for the preparation of cold extruded products such as vermicelli and pasta (Malleshi, 2007;Ushakumar and Malleshi, 2007). Shobana et al. (2018) successfully prepared medium GI gluten-free vermicelli from SM by cold extrusion. RTE snacks, breakfast cereals and specialty foods such as 'Smoothix' are produced from SM (Ushakumari et al., 2004). Normally, millets with higher amylose content are more suitable for preparing cold extruded products with a firm and chewy texture, whereas hot extruded products are generally not varietal specific. Information on the suitability of SM varieties for such products would be valuable so as to enhance the production of these high-value products for both the national and international markets.Due to an absence of gluten, SM are a challenging ingredient to use for bakery and confectionary products similar to those obtained from wheat. However, composite flours consisting of wheat and SM flours (up to 30%) can be used for the preparation of pizza, cookies, cakes, muffins, flatbread, etc. FM varieties GPHCPB-149 and VL 324 are more suitable for biscuits (Kaur et al., 2020). According to Desai et al. (2010), 50% of malted FM flour can be utilized in cake formulations. Based on these findings, there is a need for greater screening of SM germplasm in order to identify varieties suitable for each of these products.There is ample scope for the preparation of SM-based RTE and RTC products such as papad, sandige, murukku, chakkuli and ready-to-warm rotis (similar to Mexican tortillas) on industrial scale, as such products are in great demand.Papads from FM are very popular whereas multi-millet baked as well as deepfried snacks are also gaining popularity. The use of SM for making ice cream, halwa, idli, dosa and traditional sweet and savoury products is now possible thanks to the latest findings in food technology.SM are starchy grains and can be used for the industrial-level production of starches and starch derivatives such as resistant malto-dextrins (soluble fibre with less viscosity) and glucose. However, lower level of starch content in SM hinders their use in Industrial level production of starch and allied products including ethanol. Suitable SM germplasm with desirable carbohydrate characteristics need to be identified for this purpose.All these are contemporary technologies being applied to SM for the development of healthy, wellness, weaning and supplementary foods; milk-based beverages can be also prepared.Another area that can be explored is the application of nanotechnology to prepare millet flours with characteristic physical and rheological properties for diverse food applications with enhanced bioavailability of nutrients and phytochemicals. Milk and millet-malt-based fermented probiotics indicate a possible use for millets in synbiotic foods (Chaudhary and Sreeja, 2020).The glycaemic properties of SM preparations range from low to high ( Shobana et al., 2013); however, the information on varietal variations is still lacking. Identifying suitable germplasm for high amylose and soluble dietary fibre contents and complex-rigid protein and starch architecture may help in identifying low glycaemic index (GI) millet products.Identifying suitable germplasm for specific foods, developing value chains for consistent supply of such varieties to processing industries and creating public awareness about the health benefits of SM need to be better addressed.SM are important alternative cereal grains to help mitigate malnutrition, of both the under and over kind. Millet varieties with higher protein, dietary fibre and micronutrient content, and better bioavailability of nutrients would be suitable for preparing holistic SM-based products, while high-amylose varieties could beAgriculture and allied activities are a major source of livelihood for almost 60% of the Indian population. Nearly 85% are small and marginal farmers with less than five acres of land (GoI, 2011). Within this scenario, leveraging agriculture for nutrition is a strategic pathway to impact that should be decisively promoted. There are six main pathways linking agriculture to nutrition. Three are related to the nutritional impacts of farm production, farm incomes, and food prices. The other three are related to agricultural linkages with gender, i.e., how agriculture can influence women's empowerment, childcare and feeding, and women's and children's nutritional outcomes (Kadiyala et al., 2014). In spite of a major share of population dependent on agriculture, and agriculture's potential to improve nutritional outcomes, the nutritional indicators of India's population tell a different tale. In 2015-2016, 38.4% of India's children below the age of five were stunted, 35.7% were underweight, and more than 50% of women and children were anaemic (IIPS and ICF, 2017).Millets promoted as a part of leveraging agriculture for nutrition through nutrition-sensitive agriculture policies and programmes have the potential to improve nutrition outcomes. Farming System for Nutrition (FSN) is an example of nutrition-sensitive agriculture policy, defined by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan as \"the introduction of location-specific agricultural remedies for nutritional maladies by mainstreaming nutritional criteria in the selection of farming system components involving crops, animals and wherever feasible fish\" (Nagarajan et al., 2014). Nutrition awareness is an integral component of the FSN approach. The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) undertook a study between 2013 and 2018 to demonstrate the feasibility of an FSN approach to addressing undernutrition under the research programme \"Leveraging Agriculture forNutrition in South Asia\". The study was undertaken in a core set of seven villages (658 households, 2,845 people) in the Koraput district, Odisha, and five villages (556 households, 2,254 people) in the Wardha district, Maharashtra, both areas of millet cultivation and consumption (Bhaskar et al., 2017).The promotion of nutrient-dense millets (sorghum in Wardha and finger millet in Koraput) represented a key crop intervention under the approach. The National Food Security Act (NFSA), enacted in 2013, provides for the inclusion of millets in government food distribution programmes like the public distribution system (PDS) and supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Karnataka was the first state in the country to introduce the procurement of millets for supply under the PDS. 1 This chapter examines the acceptability and viability of millets as a component of the FSN approach and in the PDS.Finger millet and sorghum are hardy, nutrient-dense, largely rainfed crops that have been a part of the traditional diet of Indigenous communities in many parts of the world. In India, different millet species are cultivated in different regions of the country. Overall, their cultivation and consumption has been on steady decline (Raju et al., 2018).Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is among the major crops cultivated in the Koraput district, Odisha. It is grown in the kharif season ( June-September), on marginal lands in the upland and hilly regions, with few external inputs, either as a pure crop or under mixed-cropping systems. 2 It is sold directly as a grain or is brewed into local beer for sale in local markets. However, the area under finger millet cultivation in the district declined by 55%, from 144,480 ha in 1980 to 65,160 ha in 2013, leading to reduced consumption (GoO, 2015). Due to traditional cultivation practices, the grain yield is as low as 4 q/ha under the broadcasting method; even with traditional transplanting methods, the yield is only 9 q/ha (Adhikari, 2014). The primary reasons for low production are poor crop management (use of low-quality seeds, broadcasting method of sowing leading to low plant population, lack of nutrient and/or weed management practices, etc.) and the replacement of existing millet fields with commercial plantations of eucalyptus, leading to reduced consumption of this food by local communities (Pradhan et al., 2017). One possible way to improve the food and nutrition security of the population is to improve the yield of this native crop that is highly adaptive to the local climate, has a high nutrient value, and can efficiently withstand biotic and/or abiotic stresses. Therefore, under the FSN study, one intervention was to focus on increasing the productivity and profitability of finger millet, alongside nutrition awareness initiatives (Pradhan et al., 2019).The traditional practice of cultivation included broadcasting local landraces of finger millet at a high seed rate (25 kg/ha), carried out by farmers as a safeguard measure against poor seed quality and uncertain soil moisture; this practice results in a very dense crop, causing crowded plant populations and high competition for water and the scarce nutrients present in the soil. Inadequate fertilization coupled with poor crop management practices results in low yields. Seeds saved from these fields also turn out to be of inferior quality, with considerable physical mixing, which further adversely affects the yield potential. The FSN study included on-field demonstrations (OFD) in the fields of seven farmers over 0.52 ha in kharif (2015)(2016), in order to select the most suitable variety and appropriate agronomic practices for higher productivity. GPU-67, a high-yielding finger millet variety selected under a participatory varietal selection programme conducted earlier, was taken along with farmers' varieties for comparison (Mishra et al., 2014).GPU-67 is a semi-dwarf (non-lodging) medium-duration variety (114-118 days) with desirable traits like good panicle shape, no grain shattering, and a yield potential of 30-35 q/ha. Improved agronomic practices adopted in the intervention included: (a) nursery raising with seed rate of 5 kg/ha -1 ; (b) line transplanting of three to five week old seedlings; (c) population density at 20 cm × 10 cm; (d) application of recommended doses of fertilizer in the order of 40:20:20 kg nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) per ha; and (e) timely weeding and need-based plant protection measures. Each farmer's field in the OFD was considered as a replicate, and the allotted area under each farmer was split into four treatments for yield comparison. The details of the treatments with farmers' variety and improved variety are provided in Table 27.1. GPU-67 under improved agronomic practices (T1) produced the highest grain yield of 2,067 kg/ha, 31% higher than that with farmers' variety and with traditional practices, providing a larger quantity of nutrient-rich food to farmers' households. It was, thus, chosen for promotion and upscaling. The farmers' adaptability to the recommended practice was so good that by kharif 2017-2018, it was being cultivated by 167 farmers across 23.5 ha in the seven core study villages, and by 87 farmers in 11 ha in 18 other neighbouring villages. For sustainability, triple-layered bags were distributed among the farmers for the safe storage of seeds. A village-level seed bank was also established for timely availability of quality seeds and to help farmers in distress. Small-scale, village-level millet processing mills were installed to encourage farmers to process and consume their produce. Furthermore, several nutrition awareness initiatives were conducted about the nutrient content of the crop, its consumption benefits, and recipe demonstration, in addition to exposure visits to finger millet fields and trainings on improved agronomic practices. The end-line food consumption survey revealed an increase of 13% in the average intake of finger millet over the baseline (70 g/person/day). In addition, the number of households consuming finger millet daily increased from 172 during the baseline to 187, with 68% sourcing it from their own production versus 47% during the baseline.Akin to finger millet, the area under sorghum has been also falling in Wardha (Rukmani and Manjula, 2009). A similar approach was followed to promote the cultivation of that crop and its consumption. The experience in the five core study villages was analogous to that of finger millet in Koraput, with 26% of households cultivating and consuming sorghum at end-line as compared to 6% during baseline; there was also an increase of 64% in average sorghum intake over the baseline (150 g/person/day).Given that millets are naturally nutrient-dense cereals, making them available through the PDS can help address the problem of micronutrient deficiency among poorer households (Raju et al., 2018). After the enactment of the NFSA in 2013, the Karnataka government began to procure millets for distribution through the PDS -finger millet in south Karnataka and sorghum in north Karnataka as traditionally the cultivation and consumption of these two millets happens in these respective geographical areas. The scheme, titled \"Anna Bhagya Yojana,\" had the double objectives of buying millets from farmers, which supported income generation for rural farm households, and allowing households with PDS cards to gain access to nutritious food grains at low prices (KAPRICOM, 2014).As part of the study by MSSRF, primary surveys were carried out in four districts of the state. Districts with the highest numbers of procurement and distribution of finger millet through the PDS (Mandya and Tumkur in south Karnataka) and of sorghum (Gadag and Dharwad in north Karnataka) were selected for the primary survey. Two hundred farmers (50 in each district) were interviewed to collect information on issues related to production, pricing, and procurement. A consumer survey was conducted across 50 rural and 50 urban households in each district, after ensuring that they were either BPL (below poverty line) or Antyodaya Anna Yojana cardholders and eligible to receive grains under the PDS (Rajshekar and Raju, 2017).The state government had offered attractive procurement prices, including a bonus over and above the Minimum Support Price (MSP) announced by the Central Government (Rs 2,250 per quintal for finger millet and Rs 2,300 per quintal for sorghum), to encourage farmers to grow millets and ensure sufficient quantities for procurement. Interviews with farmers showed that the MSP did cover the actual cost of production (A1) and imputed cost of family labour, making it attractive for them to cultivate millets. However, the time taken for payment after the government's procurement ranged from about three to four weeks, as against payment received in one to two days in the case of open market sales in all the surveyed districts. This time-lag offset the benefit of the higher price offered by the government. If announced on time and sustained, and if the procurement window is increased, this price should encourage farmers to switch to millets from cotton and maize.On the consumption side, 87% of households in Karnataka reported consuming finger millet or sorghum. For 48% of the population of rural and urban Karnataka, millets accounted for 20%-40% of total cereal consumption. The average per capita monthly consumption of finger millet by rural households fell from 1.8 kg in 2004-2005 to 1.2 kg in 2011-2012, and from 1 kg to 0.8 kg for urban households. Similarly, the per capita monthly consumption of sorghum for rural households declined from 2.3 kg in 2004-2005 to 1.4 kg in 2011-2012, and from 1.2 kg to 0.7 kg for urban households in the same period. Wheat and finger millet or sorghum were consumed in equal quantities in urban areas, while in rural areas, millet consumption was higher than that of wheat. The majority of the respondents, when asked about desired changes in the PDS, did not want an increase in the quantity of millets supplied if it came at the cost of a lower quantity of rice. The main reasons given were that the quantity of rice supplied was already insufficient and that farmers could grow finger millet and sorghum if required, but could not grow rice as easily. Reasons given for the strong preference for rice were its taste, ease of preparation, and popularity with children. Finger millet and sorghum were preferred for their nutritive value and by those engaged in physical labour. Consumer preferences for different kinds of millet in different parts of the state call for a decentralized procurement and distribution mechanism. Consumer preferences and cultural factors need to be taken into account, and awareness needs to be created regarding the benefits of consuming millets (Raju et al., 2018).The Green Revolution dominated by rice and wheat was backed by public policy and price support. Similar support is required for millets. The NFSA ( 2013) is a major step in this direction. The FSN study by MSSRF showed the potential for increasing the consumption of millets by increasing their production and processing, and promoting awareness on their nutritive value. The study on introduction of millets in PDS highlighted the need for streamlining the government procurement and payment mechanisms and for decentralized processing. Millet farmers in a block or district could be linked with the PDS and institutional feeding programmes, providing them an incentive to cultivate and supply their crops for a ready market. Across India, in many states, different millets are grown in small pockets of lands. Such pockets can be identified and mapped for local procurement in the distribution system to improve food and nutrition security, while also increasing the procurement window and reducing the time between procurement and payment.Millets are generally regarded as women's crops and do not receive the attention given to rice and wheat. This has to change. Agriculture department officials and extension staff need to be sensitized on how to guide farmers to follow improved cultivation practices and use improved varieties of seeds. Millets should be promoted as climate-resilient crops and more R&D should be done by agricultural universities and research institutes to produce high-yielding varieties that are profitable for farmers. A few initiatives are underway and need to become more widespread. The government of Odisha launched the Odisha Millet Mission in 2017, in partnership with NGOs and research institutes, to increase production and consumption of millets. 3 Decentralized cluster-level millet processing units managed by self-help groups or farmers' groups in villages can reduce the drudgery in millet processing faced by women and also boost consumption by producer households.Awareness-raising has to happen at two levels: first of all, at the level of production and production techniques (e.g., line sowing, timely weeding, and proper application of fertilizers); secondly, nutrition awareness under the Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition, also called the POS-HAN Abhiyan 4 of the National Nutrition Mission should actively highlight nutritive value of millets and promote their consumption. Nutrition awareness workshops should also be conducted at the local level by the ICDS centre workers and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) in villages at regular intervals, highlighting the nutritive value of millets and providing recipe demonstrations. They can be trained and incentivized to conduct such workshops at least once a month, which would increase awareness about the nutritive value of various food groups and the combinations of food to be eaten for better nutrient absorption. Sharing recipes can also be promoted along with the organization of cooking competitions; millets can be cooked in ways that would be more attractive to children (such as snacks) and this can raise their interest in this food instead of viewing it as something they are forced to eat and don't enjoy.The Covid-19 pandemic has turned the spotlight onto the already vulnerable and is expected to further worsen their nutrition status. The closure of schools and ICDS centres has, for instance, put a halt to the noon-meal served to children attending them. At this time, the government issued directives for distribution of Take Home Rations (THR) in lieu of the meal (Bhavani and Rampal, 2020). Millets procured can be a nutritive and integral component of this THR. In fact, millets can also be used for free distribution along with other grains and pulses in food distribution programmes during the pandemic and also during other disasters in future. This would provide income to the farmers while also providing additional nutrition to vulnerable populations. Notes DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-32Food system solutions incorporating a Smart Food Triple Bottom Line approach 'Food security' was the key focus in developing countries while mass starvation was a real threat. Alleviating hunger was a driving force for the Green Revolution (Behera, 2017). Awareness of hidden hunger then surfaced, and 'nutrition security' was added to the rhetoric. More recently, the UN and other organizations have underlined the imperative for 'sustainable diets', defined as \"diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security\", and the urgency to set targets to strive towards this.The next critical step is to cater to all these needs and go one step further with solutions that are not only good for you and the planet, but also for the farmer. The Smart Food Triple Bottom Line advocates for solutions that approach all these three areas in unison. This is recommended as a framework for food system solutions. It will also help break down both discipline and sector silos.Applying these solutions with crops that are 'smart foods', that is, foods that are inherently good for you, the planet and farmer, will strengthen our ability to achieve the 'Smart Food Triple Bottom Line'. Many NUS may fit the criteria of being a smart food. They may be good for the farmer and environment because they bring diversity to the farm, are more suitable crops for varying agroecologies, are crops that need fewer inputs and are resilient to the vagaries of climate change. However, without well-developed value chains that are sensitive to consumer awareness and demand, it is challenging to make them financially viable for the farmer.It is paramount that having less-developed value chains do not become the excuse for continuing to support the same few major crops. It is regularly expressed that we need to transform the food system. A purposeful and consistent strategyThe importance of the triple bottom line and diversifying staples Joanna Kane-Potaka, Nigel Poole, Agathe Diama, Parkavi Kumar, Seetha Anitha and Oseyemi Akinbamijo for the said transformation becomes imperative and the 'Business as usual' will not achieve this. Changing where we invest resources and supporting policies are needed, and strengthening value chains of smart foods so as to mainstream them is an opportunity for us to contribute to many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in unison.A project in Kenya applied the 'Smart Food Triple Bottom Line' approach with NUS, tackling diversity in diets, diversity on farms and diversity in incomes, with the aim of crops being commercially viable as well as being consumed by the local community to improve diet diversity and nutrition. Six smart foods including millets, sorghum and legumes were selected and focused on. Families of over 60,000 children below the age of five were reached through volunteer Smart Food Ambassadors, who spread nutrition messages and conducted fun activities like cook-offs. The integration of education, health, nutrition and a fun approach in conveying the same message imparted strong knowledge of millets, sorghum and legumes.In just one year, the behavior patterns of the women and children changed significantly towards adopting a more micronutrient-rich diet, indicated by an increase of 15% in dietary diversity score for women and of almost 80% in the children's dietary diversity score. Similarly, consumers showed a considerable change in buying patterns. Rich in iron and fiber, both cowpea and pearl millet sales at the farm level more than doubled. Production also increased for all the smart food crops except finger millet. Consumption of four of the smart food crops increased. Households became more commercially oriented and sales of four of the crops increased.(ICRISAT, 2018)To complement this approach of all food solutions having a Smart Food Triple Bottom Line, there is also a specific objective under the Smart Food initiative to diversify staples. Big impacts can be achieved by focusing on diversifying staples, given that across Africa and Asia staples can typically constitute as much as 70% of what is on the plate, and are often refined and low-nutrient carbohydrates, with approximately 60% of calories in developing countries coming from cerealsa number that can even be more than 80% in the poorest countries (Awika, 2011;Anitha et al., 2019a). The diversification of staples with foods that fit the smart food criteria of being good for you, good for the planet and good for the farmer will require dissolving the boundaries of the 'Food System Divide', where the largest investments have for decades gone into the Big 3 staples -rice, wheat and maize -including government support, private industry investment, R&D, product development and even development aid.NUS can regain their popularity and enter the mainstream through concerted multi-pronged efforts across the whole value chain. Lessons can also be learnt from the successes of the Big 3, but approaches must be applied in an appropriate, sustainable and healthy way.Some steps key to diversifying staples being pursued as part of the Smart Food initiative are:1 Dedicated effort on just a couple of smart foods: Breaking the food system divide will take a focused approach and significant investments to develop value chains. Hence, an approach focused on just a couple of foods at a time is required. This complements initiatives that work broadly on popularizing NUS to bring diversity to farms and diets, and also builds niche markets that can be the springboard for larger markets in the future. 2 Selecting millets and sorghum first: Millets and sorghum were selected as the first foods to focus on and mainstream as they fit the profile of a smart food. Moreover, they were already the staples across many countries in Africa and Asia, with different millets originating from many countries and continents and growing from the Sahel to the Himalayas. They also fit into many global health food trends -being a super food, an ancient grain, gluten free with a low glycemic index (GI), high in fiber, good for managing weight, and good with strong health management.In particular, millets and sorghum are highly nutritious and fulfil some of the biggest health needs. For example, a few millets are very high in iron and zinc, which are among the top three micronutrient deficiencies globally. Taking bioavailability into account, the right varieties can provide as much iron as white or red meat. Finger millet has three times the amount of calcium found in milk. Most millets have a low GI, which is extremely beneficial within the context of community/public health due to the growing incidence of non-communicable metabolic disorders like diabetes; they are also a good alternative to other food sources high in complex carbohydrates like white refined rice (Anitha et al., 2021). They also have high fiber, reasonable levels of protein and, when combined with legumes, create a complete diet of protein with good levels of all the essential amino acids (Longvah et al., 2017;Anitha et al., 2019b).From a sustainable resource management point of view, millets and sorghum have a low carbon footprint. They are typically grown and thrive with minimal inputs like pesticides and fertilizers. They tolerate high temperatures and survive with very little water. They are often the last crop standing in times of drought, are climate smart and are a good risk-management strategy for farmers. They have multiple uses, from food, feed and fodder, to brewing and biofuels (Tonapi et al., 2015;Davis et al., 2019).3 Create global commodities: While the goal is to contribute to the SDGs and especially help poor and malnourished communities across Africa and Asia, in order to mainstream smart foods as staples, they need to be widely adopted commodities globally. Focusing on portraying millets and sorghum as staples is also a key part of the plan for them to be affordable. 4 The consumer comes first: Most efforts and investments to date in millets and sorghum have been at the farm-production end. There is an urgent need to drive demand, by investing at the consumer end, changing perceptions, building awareness and creating a 'buzz' and desire around these smart foods. This is being achieved by working with food processors, governments and other key influencers. Some key approaches that the Smart Food initiative has used to drive consumer demand include:• Working with the hidden middle: Social entrepreneurs who genuinely want to change the food system for the better, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) who are typically the pioneers in creating new consumer preferences, struggle as much as farmers do. Until MSMEs are equally supported, smart foods and NUS won't be available, affordable and, hence, accessible and demanded by consumers. They are often called 'the hidden middle' and need to be recognized as change-makers rather than only as operators in the value chain. Policy support is required to create a better enabling environment for MSMEs to thrive. The Smart Food initiative has launched a 'millet finder' that maps products around the globe to bring attention to the wide availability and silent revolution of millet and sorghum products being made available by MSMEs (smartfood.org, a). • Make it delicious, convenient and easy -the image and the reality:For smart foods to be popularized, they have to be sought by the consumer. Although different foods are consumed for different purposes, to be popular in the mainstream and to reach the largest number of people, in general, food needs to be tasty, convenient and easy to make. • Promotion through chefs: The catering sector is a conduit to taking new foods to the consumer as well as the way to change the food's image. The Smart Food initiative has engaged ambassador chefs, organized cooking master classes in West Africa, including with the President's chefs and a Smart Food Culinary Challenge for student chefs pan-India, and in Tanzania, chefs were introduced to street venders, who were trained on using millet and sorghum flour (smartfood.org, b). • Ambassadors and champions: Influencers are important when perceptions and behavior need to be changed or significant awareness needs to be built. The Smart Food initiative has engaged VIPs to achieve this (smartfood.org, c), e.g., the First Lady of Niger, Dr. Malika Issoufou, became a Smart Ambassador, leading the way to a greater mobilization and commitment by the government for the cause of smart foods. She initiated an international millet festival (FESTIMIL), which captured a lot of attention among consumers, value-chain actors, farmers, processors and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and served as a platform for a science and policy dialog on better developing value chains. This ledThe smart food approach 331to Senegal announcing its interest in following suit to create an annual millet festival. • Media and social media outreach: Outreach has been key in building awareness and reaching wider audiences (Diama et al., 2020). One example is the smart food reality show on Kenyan national television that reached 800,000 viewers (Vital, 2018). • International platforms: Influencing researchers, governments, donors and industry are important and can be achieved through high-level panel discussions and international symposia (Diama et al., 2020).5 Scientific backing on nutritional benefits: As far less R&D has been invested in NUS compared to the major staples, the field requires additional investment. The Smart Food initiative is currently collating and analyzing all existing nutrition studies on millets and sorghum, and is identifying research gaps. Some nutrition and consumer acceptance studies undertaken by the Smart Food initiative include:• India school feeding study: A millet-based meal introduced for three months with 1,500 adolescent children had significantly higher nutritional levels compared to the control group of iron fortified rice-based meals, see Figure 28.1, and led to:-growth in terms of BMI and height, 50% more in the intervention group relative to the control group; and -high acceptance scoring ≥ 4.5 out of 5 for taste (Anitha et al., 2019a).Key lessons learnt on how to introduce millets to maximize nutritional benefits and acceptance, along with policy recommendations were identified and are shown in Figure 28.2.• Tanzania school feeding study: Over 2,800 students in four boarding schools were introduced to finger millet and pigeon pea in their menu cycle in a participatory approach, taking into account cultural sensitivities. Fifteen months later, the schools were revisited and surveys identified that: • 80% of the students changed their negative perception of finger millet; • >95% of the students wanted to eat the finger millet dishes at school (Wangari et al., 2020). • Myanmar malnutrition and acceptance study: This had a positive impact on the extent of wasting and underweight children between 2 and 14 months of age. Also sensory evaluations showed an average score of four out of five for all recipes and products (Anitha et al., 2019c).Guiding the development of smart foods to keep or maximize their nutritional benefits is critical; this includes:• Popularize whole grain: As most small millets have to be de-hulled, there is a risk they will also be polished to make them whiter and quicker to cook. It is important that consumers are exposed to the unrefined taste and convenient products made with the whole grain. Building awareness about the nutritional value of whole grain is essential. • Not ultra-processed or excessive added ingredients: Efforts to diversify and popularize orphan crops will be to no avail if they are then over-processed and lose their nutritive value or if unhealthy ingredients like sugar, salt, saturated and trans fats and artificial additives are incorporated in high levels.• Selection of biofortified varieties: Nutrition levels vary significantly by variety of the millets, so value chains from seed to consumer need to be The smart food approach 333 developed and branded to recognize biofortified varieties in order to maximize the nutrition levels.The Smart Food vision is a world where food is healthy, environmentally sustainable and contributes positively to the welfare of those who produce it, especially smallholder farmers. Studies have shown the positive nutritional benefits of millets and sorghum and high consumer acceptance for them. With 2023 declared by the UN as the International Year of Millets, this will be the turning point for millets to be globally recognized and popularized. Asia and Africa need value chains developed to be able to leverage the impending millet revolution. This can be the opportunity for millets and sorghum to return to their status as staples across many countries and be globally recognized, heralding their reach as a major staple, showing the potential for smart foods and NUS to gain popularity and acceptance and move into the mainstream.Farming communities have played a crucial role in the conservation and management of agrobiodiversity, including the rich diversity of nutritive crops that their ecosystem supports. Communities and farmers are the key stakeholders in the conservation of NUS, which plays a crucial role in their livelihoods and wellbeing. This chapter records the perspectives of custodian farmers, and the community-based and non-governmental organizations that support them, across the Indian landscape. Frequently identified bottlenecks in the cultivation and consumption of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) include lack of awareness, inadequate skills, drudgery (including limited access to available technology), inadequate support price mechanisms and procurement arrangements by the state, and limited marketing arrangements.To address these issues, key interventions included working on all aspects of millet cultivation. The formation of core groups of millet farmers and selfhelp groups, and participatory assessments of traditional knowledge related to millets were important initial steps to ensure continuity. The technical aspect included the nutritive value assessment, seed collection from farming communities, quality seed production, distribution to farmers, revival of seed storage systems along with exchanges through community seed banks, demonstration of modified methods of cultivation including line sowing, intercropping to increase yield and additional income, and the provision of machinery to reduce drudgery in de-husking millets. The commercial aspect included training on value-addedThe custodians of neglected and underutilized species products preparation, the creation of suitable rural infrastructure, facilitating enterprise units, and identifying and linking producers with potential markets.Smt. Sunadei Pitia and Shri Loichan Sukia of Machhara Village, Smt. Tukuna Burudi, Khiloput and Shri Sunamani Muduli of Janiguda Village of Koraput District Facilitator: Prashant Kumar Parida, MSSRF Millet has a long history of cultivation in the high lands of this region, so much so that Koraput is called the island of mandia (finger millet). Millets, especially mandia, are the staple food of the tribal people of Koraput. They begin their days, especially in the summer, with the consumption of mandiapejo (ragi gruel).Though millets are still part of subsistence agriculture in Koraput, the industrialization of the recent past has had a major impact on their cultivation. The area under millets has reduced drastically as farmers have shifted to commercial crops, with eucalyptus tree plantations and maize replacing large areas previously occupied under millets cultivation.Most NUS crops like finger millet, little millet, foxtail millet, pearl millet, niger, horse gram, red gram, dolichos lablab, wild vegetables, etc. were mainly part of shifting cultivation practices (Podu Chaso). Now, the Forest Department or community forest groups like the Vana Surakshya Samiti (VSSP) prohibit such practices. Moreover, people are not so interested in cultivating NUS crops in their meagre land, replacing other crops that may fetch better returns. These NUS crops are mostly suited for cultivation on the uplands rather than other land categories. Other factors for the decline included the lack of marketing opportunities for NUS crops with remunerative prices. Since no processing facilities for NUS are available in rural areas, there are very low-level value-addition opportunities, leading to distress sales of surplus grains. Modernization has also influenced the present generation a lot, especially children who are not so interested in consuming millet in their daily diet, with the supply of rice in Public Distribution System (PDS) by the state government having changed the dietary preference of most tribal people.Interventions to be pursued for their effective promotion:• Institutions should create opportunities for processing at the Village/Gram Panchayat level, along with value addition, marketing, and remunerative prices, which will encourage farmers to cultivate more NUS crops. • Researchers have to revisit the crop species available in the region and fo cus on seed purification and quality seed production of traditional varieties,The custodians of NUS 339 blending with improved varieties, and must make available quality seeds at reasonable rates at the right time. • There is a need to shift from monocropping systems to traditional cropping systems such as mixed cropping, intercropping, multiple cropping, and crop rotation practices, with the introduction of modern technologies and sustainable agricultural practices and a focus on capacity building of farmers.Mr. Loknath Naure, Kearandiguda, Bisamacataka, Rayagada, Odisha Facilitator: Mr. Biswa Sankar Das, WASSAN.NUS such as millets, pulses, and oilseeds are very important. They are very healthy for humans and for soil. This also reduces pest incidence and provides different foods for consumption.Previously, people used to grow different crops for meeting their food security needs. But after PDS has come in, people have slowly stopped growing different crops. In addition, the younger generations are more used to the taste of rice, and prefer not to consume millets and coarse cereals. Without the need for consumption, there will be reduction in production.The government should create awareness and build prestige around these crops. They should also be included in schools and hostels so the youth does not lose interest. Some incentives should be given to promote them.Ramkali Bai, Meera Bai, Magartagar Village, Dindori District Phool Bai, Bhilai Village, Indra Bai, Dhiravan Village, Dindori District Facilitator: Mr. Sharad Mishra, Action for social Advancement, BhopalViews with regard to NUS?Kodo and kutki millets are well known in Madhya Pradesh and many farmers maintain their seeds. These crops are the lifeline of the tribal communities, and they are eager to learn of improved practices for their cultivation and use. The availability of improved varieties of millets, better linkages of farmers with markets, and improved processing units to reduce the drudgery of women are key interventions in our view.Farmers in the Kachchh District are conserving diverse traditional seeds, which they use to cope with climate variability. For example, if there is an early monsoon, they grow bajra (pearl millet), but if the rains are delayed by a month, they opt for sorghum. Similarly, they choose white sesame in the case of early rain, and prefer brown sesame for mid-late rains or brown type for late rain. This is to say that the more crops and varieties we keep in the communities, the more options we have to adapt to climate variability and satisfy other livelihood needs.Today, only few farmers still maintain traditional seeds, with low genetic purity. This is because traditional crops have been widely replaced by modern ones, promoted aggressively by the government and private seed companies. Extension agents denigrate NUS as being inefficient crops and this is not helpful.• All NUS should be documented for their traits like drought tolerance or disease resistance, and their germplasm should be protected against bio-piracy. • The government should change their attitude and promote NUS for their special features such as nutritional value, drought tolerance, etc. • Incentives should be provided to farmers for the conservation and cultivation of NUS.Mrs. Nanchiyamma & Manikandan, Kallakkara Village & Rami and Maruthi, Marrappalam Village, Sholayur Panchayath, Attappadi Block; Maruthan Ganeshan, Nakkupathi Village, Agali Panchayat Facilitator: Mr. Girigan Gopi, MSSRF Attappadi is valley in the Western Ghats inhabited mostly by tribal communities. People here appreciate traditional crops like NUS for its adaptation to harsh climates and difficult environments and for being an important source of food. The area under NUS has shown drastic reduction since the 1980s for various reasons, including the abandonment of agriculture by youth, changes in traditional diets, high competition from subsidized rice, laborious processing of NUS, and preference towards modern foods.Millets and other NUS would be very helpful to fight the growing malnutrition recorded in Attappadi; however, farmers feel that it will be very difficult to bring NUS back into cultivation. We believe, however, that some interventions from the government can help towards that goal, e.g., the promotion of collective ownership of land, more credit opportunities to farmers, dissemination of improved know-how, more irrigation, and protection from wild animals. As for younger farmers, we believe that if the cultivation of NUS were shown to be profitable, they would be happy to remain in their farms without migrating. In this regard, the creation of local markets for NUS will help realize fair prices for these products and improve their commercialization. Many varieties of NUS have been lost and we need support to better safeguard their seeds; we also need improved varieties, more irrigation for our fields, promotion of collective actions, improved processing (especially for millets), and application of the PDS also for these local crops.Ms. Ridian Syiem, Khweng, Ms. Bibiana Ranee, Nongtraw Facilitator: Dr. Melari Shisha Nongrum, North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), MeghalayaWe belong to Indigenous communities that altogether form a numerically small minority of India's population. The state of Meghalaya is inhabited largely by the Khasi people (including Khynriam, Bhoi, War, Pnar, and Lyngngam sub-groups) and Garo Indigenous communities. Our forests are rich in biodiversity and agrobiodiversity, with many wild edibles (green leafy vegetables, fruits, tubers, shoots, nuts and seeds, and mushrooms) used in traditional food preparations. Wild edibles are important to us as Indigenous communities and they are an integral part of our ancient food culture. These edibles are safe foods as compared to most market foods, which contain a lot of toxins due to the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They can be found both in the wild and in home gardens, and are precious foods to supplement our diets, especially during lean seasons. Even during the lockdown period due to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, many of these plants (wild and cultivated) helped households with a secure source of food.Though wild edibles are integral to the traditional foods of the Indigenous People, we are seeing a change in their availability and consumption. Due to growing populations in the Villages, there is increased pressure on land and forest resources. There is exploitation of forests for various purposes, either for fuel wood, the heavy collection of non-timber forest products, wood collection for making charcoal, stone quarrying, mining of coal, or limestone mining, which destroys both land and forests. Also agricultural activities such as cash crop cultivation can be deleterious for wild edibles, due to massive land clearing associated with them. Because of these facts, we need now to walk increasingly longer distances to gather wild edibles, which is affecting regular access to and consumption of these plants. Also, these days, much of the youth and many young mothers regard wild edibles as a not-so-nutritious food. Major crops dominate markets and the difficulties in accessing these for wild edible sellers are also important limiting factors for their popularization.Despite these challenges, the translation of research evidence of the high nutritive values of wild edibles into local and simple languages by organizations like the NESFAS has really helped the youth and people at large regain confidence in wild edibles. More of such awareness-raising is required for school children and youth so that they understand the importance of wild edibles in enriching their diets.Knowledge sharing among farmers is key to sustaining and continuing the existence of this knowledge. This sharing can be done across different platforms such as Agroecological Learning Circles, a platform of farmers that NESFAS has facilitated in many communities; the Indigenous Food Communities Alliance among the youth; and also in the school gardens where children can grow and learn about the wild edibles. From our experiences, this sharing of knowledge has led to sharing seeds. \"If we lose our seeds, we have lost our food,\" said one custodian farmer. Preserving and promoting the cultivation of underutilized crops is very important. Thus, it is important to preserve traditional seeds as individual farmers or in community seed banks.We can also allow wild edible plants to grow in kitchen gardens and cultivated fields. This will enhance access to these edibles as we frequent the fields regularly. This will enhance the access and consumption of wild edible greens.The participation of the private sector is widely considered critical in order to achieve a truly sustainable conservation and use of agrobiodiversity. The role of the private sector is particularly relevant for the use enhancement of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) (Padulosi et al., 2013(Padulosi et al., , 2019) ) whose promotion requires knowledge of the proper functioning of value chains -from farm to fork -that is rarely available to communities, community-based organizations (CBOs) or even government organizations. Experiences and competences from the private sector are highly complementary to those of other stakeholders; thus, canvassing the cooperation among all actors should be central to all projects and programmes focusing on NUS. This is not a minor task though. Different are too often the sensitivities of private firms with regard to the methods, approaches and tools for the sustainable use of NUS, in terms of type of biodiversity to deploy in production systems (e.g., landraces vs. uniform, high-yielding varieties), participation of vulnerable groups, interest in safeguarding traditional knowledge, fair and transparent sharing of benefits among value-chain actors, capacity building of local actors, especially youth, women or Indigenous People, to just mention a few. The 11 contributions included in this chapter (from Guatemala, Brazil, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Kenya) are brief testimonials of private companies engaged at various levels in business activities dealing with NUS. The most common messages across all contributions include calls for the greater involvement of private companies in NUS projects, greater support from governments for upgrading the processing technologies of private firms engagedAna Luiza Vergueiro, Daniel Kirori, Jacqueline Damon, Jose Alfredo Lopez, Leon Kenya, Mahesh Sharma, Ram Bahadur Rana, Margaret Komen, Meghana Narayan, Michael Ngugi, Rohan Karawita, Sergio Vergueiro, Serkan Eser, Shauravi Malik, Simon Nderitu, Sohini Dey, Sridhar Murthy Iriventi, Vikram Sankaranarayanan in the promotion of NUS, greater support from governments in raising peoples' awareness of the many livelihood benefits associated with NUS, greater sharing of research findings with the private sector, capacity building where the private sector can be both a recipient and giver of knowledge, and enabling policies in support of entrepreneurship for the cultivation, processing and marketing NUS. General perspectives about NUS are provided along with some examples on specific issues related to the cultivation, processing and marketing of minor millets or other emblematic NUS.Dr. Rohan Karawita, National Food Promotion Board, Ministry of Agriculture, Colombo, Sri LankaThe main task of Sri Lanka's National Food Promotion Board (NFPB) is to promote local and indigenous foods (there are many NUS among these) as our citizens have become increasingly dependent upon poorly nutritious starchy foods and junk foods rich in fats, and have become used to consuming their meals in short eats. These food habits are not healthy as they cause the spread of non-communicable diseases among the population. As a way to counter these negative trends, the NFPB has been carrying out several programs and projects aimed at increasing peoples' awareness about Sri Lanka's valuable, rich biodiversity and promoting its greater use. Thanks to the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (BFN), 1 NFPB was able to strengthen these efforts and successfully develop three underutilized fruit drinks, sold in 80 ml ready-to-serve (RTS) bottles (namely 'Ceylon olive', 'Sour soup' and 'Ceylon mango'), all very natural and free from artificial additives and preservatives. These drinks are now being commercialized by the Peradeniya Agriculture Department's Food Research Unit in Gannoruwa.Though NFPB has manufactured RTS drinks in the past, the demand for such products has always exceeded our capacities. Due to a number of factorsincluding the lack of novel technology, insufficient labor force, high unit costs and limited fruit pulp preservation capacity -we were, in fact, unable to manufacture RTS products regularly throughout the year. Not helpful either have been NFPB's efforts in disseminating relevant technologies to local communities in the hope that they would pick them up through cottage-based productions.What is much needed to broaden the use of NUS in Sri Lanka is the strengthening of their commercialization through the close involvement of the private s ector.Although at NFPB we already sell RTS products made out of NUS through the company 'Thriposha Limited' and our two outlets in Narahenpita and Dehiwala, we do recognize the need to invest more in marketing efforts. To that regard, NFPB has now taken all the steps necessary to transfer RTS technology to a fruit-processing factory, the 'V and J Industries', 2 located in Pallekele (Kandy).All is ready for the new arrangements to take off and as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic eases up the pressure on our work, we are ready to start this new joint venture. The legal agreement between this company and NFPB will allow the mobilization of the company's know-how and physical capacities to support the wider promotion of NUS products across the country. This is expected to create greater demand of NUS raw products for farmers and, in so doing, boost local incomes, open up job opportunities and ultimately contribute to empowering smallholder farmers as per our vision.Margaret Komen, MACE FOODS Ltd., Eldoret, KenyaThe increasing awareness of the pro-health properties of non-nutrient, bioactive compounds found in fruits and vegetables has directed immense attention towards vegetables as vital components of our daily diets. For Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa in general, such an attention is very significant, as leafy vegetables have long been indispensable ingredients in the traditional sauces that accompany carbohydrate-rich staple foods. As a result, demand for traditional vegetables such a black nightshade, spider plant, common amaranth and cowpea leaves have been on the rise in local, urban and regional markets across Kenya. These vegetables have been typically growing in the wild, or in disturbed areas such as wheat farms, disused cow sheds and other farm areas.In 2009, Mace Foods Ltd. (MFL) embarked on an ambitious project to produce, process and market five varieties of African leafy vegetables (ALV) for the East African diaspora and medium-income markets in urban areas. Mace Foods Ltd aimed at bridging the demand and supply gap between rainy and dry seasons as well as delivering high-quality, hygienic and nutritious food options to busy working-class women, who have little time to spare for selecting, plucking, cooking and serving these vegetables on a regular basis.Since its inception, MFL has mobilized, recruited and trained many farmers in the production of ALV. So far the enterprise has piloted black nightshade (managu), common amaranth (dodo), spider plant (saga), cowpea leaves (kunde) and kales (sukuma wiki 3 ).• More information be provided to consumers about the health benefits associated with the consumption of NUS. Both governmental and nongovernmental organizations should provide platforms to educate the publi c on this matter, for example through media, road shows, trade fairs, schools and organized visits to research institutions • Major institutions like ministries of agriculture, should lobby for policy bills in support of the wide dissemination of food processors like flour mills and snack processors that can help people make better use of local crops, to produce foods like 'ugali' from composite flour (i.e., maize plus millets flour, rather than only maize flour) or snack bars and breakfast cereals from NUS One of the main technical challenge encountered in processing NUS had to do with the popping machine. Through numerous trials using modified parts of the machine, we were able, in the end, to address successfully such a problem and our company is now able to use the right pressure for the popping any type of cereals, including NUS.Ing. Jose Alfredo Lopez L., EUROTROPIC, S.A., Guatemala Central AmericaEurotropics S.A. is a Guatemala-based import-export company established in 2003, dealing with exporting food and ornamental plants. In 2011, we were contracted by the National Council of Science and Technology, the University of San Carlos, the University Del Valle de Guatemala and the University Mariano Galvez, to characterize endemic species of high nutritional and medicinal value. After five years of research, planting, germinating, cultivating, pruning, harvesting and analyzing roots, seeds, stems, leaves and flowers of numerous species, grown from 14 m a.s.l. to 3,240 m a.s.l. in the high mountains of Los Cuchutamanes, we discovered plant species with amazing properties for pregnant women, kids, young, adults and elderly people! We decided, thus, to rescue those amazing plants to help Guatemala strengthen food security and the health of its people. This country has a shameful 49% level of malnutrition among children under five years old! Almost half the population has low corporal weight, and low neuronal development. This is no longer acceptable and we wanted to help change that.First of all there is a lack of education related to Mesoamerican plants that are much underutilized in our current food systems. About 25,000 years ago, these plants grew wild in this marvelous, biodiversity-rich region, and we have documents indicating that such plants were already being widely used by the Mayan civilization some 4,000 years ago. Though still used today by some Mayan tribes, they are rarely known by the young people. Very sadly, knowledge about these plants is fast disappearing among common citizens. Universities do not teach ancestral knowledge regarding these plants, and schools do not educate students on their importance. Governments and policy makers do not pay attention to them at all.The Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture, Environment and Development are not spending enough efforts to leverage NUS knowledge to improve peoples' livelihood. There is a need to establish national programs to educate students about NUS, starting from kindergartens to the doctoral degree level. Chefs, cooks, farmers, industry managers and food manufacturers have to be all involved in such programs too; they should be mobilized to help create a 'Certificate of Origin of Mayan Superfood in Mesoamerica' for all kinds of NUS foods, such as drinks like atole, 4 crackers, powders, cookies or tortillas, and people ought to learn about those amazing nutritional and medicinal properties that are helpful in strengthening our health. The importance of these traditional species is even more relevant today, as we are frantically struggling against the COVID-19 pandemic. It is realistic to say, in fact, that these neglected medicinal plants from the NUS basket may well harbor important biochemical compounds that could boost our immune system for better fighting this disease as well; hence, more research is needed on them! Unfortunately, humankind spends more efforts in building hospitals rather than preventing diseases through the education, promotion and cultivation regarding nutritious local plants as well as in processing them into high-quality products that are cheap and available to national, regional and international markets. I strongly believe that greater focus on NUS would reduce malnutrition, especially among pregnant women and children, and it would create new jobs, reduce youth migration and protect weak national currencies from depreciation. Guatemala is the eighth richest megadiverse center of biodiversity on Earth and such natural wealth is not sufficiently put to work! I hope my plea for a better future will be heard!Ms. Meghana Narayan, Shauravi Malik & Sohini Dey Slurrp Farm, New DelhiFood is a fundamental need in our lives. But food isn't merely a substance for staying alive, but rather a means to enhance the quality of life by assuring the required nourishment for our body. The lack of dietary diversity is well known 350 Ana Luiza Vergueiro et al.to be a major cause for malnutrition, not just in India but across the globe. With the long-standing popularity of rice and wheat as the main foods in peoples' diets, experts are calling for urgent changes in our meals: more diverse crops are needed to fill the nutritional void left by the overconsumption of just few grains in our diet.At Slurrp Farm we believe that millets are indeed among those underutilized species that need to be better promoted, and through our work, we hope to play a role in bringing them back to the plate. We believe that millets, with their inherent high nutritional benefits, can be part of the solution in tackling food and nutrition insecurity in India. Lately, we have seen a rapid rise in the use of oats and quinoa, a South American staple that has truly become a world commodity in just few years, and minor millets could well follow the same trend.Millets are rich sources of fiber, vitamin B-complex and minerals, as well as polyphenols, lignans, phytosterols, phytoestrogens and phytocyanins, which act as antioxidants, detoxifying agents and immunity modulators. Additionally, millets are gluten-free grains, an advantage in the midst of increasing cases of celiac disease and gluten intolerances that restrict or entirely prohibit the consumption of wheat for lots of people. The nutritional benefits of various millets are elucidated in other chapters of this book and here we just want to stress that the value of these grains is based not only on their nutritional merits, but also on the important contribution that they can make to supporting sustainable agricultural practices and resilience in times of a continuously changing climate. Millets are highly resistant to adversities of cold, drought and salinity, and are, thus, highly suitable for cultivation in dry and arid lands (Padulosi et al., 2009).In India, farmers are struggling with the effects of drought on their cultivations, and this is raising great concerns over the sustainable provisioning of the food necessary to feed 1.2 billion people. To that regard, the capacity of millets (including small millets) to thrive in harsh climatic conditions offers an immense potential to rescue agricultural communities ridden by drought and poverty. The revival of underutilized and neglected crops such as millets can exert significant influence on the cultural traditions and diversity and contribute to the self-identity, self-esteem and visibility of local communities.Limited awareness and nascent consumers' demand are the major challenges. For customers used to decades of diets based only on rice and wheat, transitioning to millets will be a challenge. Low awareness accompanied by a lack of interest in taste can be a deterrent for consumers, who may be unable to understand the value of these nutritious food in their dietPost-cultivation drudgery remains one of the greatest challenges for millet farmers and a major obstacle in the popularization of these and other NUS. Apart from finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum, all small millets must be threshed and de-hulled before they are ready for consumption (more details on millet processing technologies are provided in Chapter 26 of this)As emphasis has always been placed on improving a few grains for large-scale commercial use, the consumption of millets has declined steadily as a result, which has impacted negatively their production and potential for growthWe live in times of ever-changing food trends and rapidly mingling culinary cultures. Globally, chefs are continuously pushing the bar for innovation, combining far-flung ingredients, reinventing traditional recipes and presenting food not simply as a means of subsistence but also as a multi-sensorial experience. This new trend is very helpful for the revitalization of NUS and the time has come for millets to be put back on the global food map. To that end, we believe the following are three most robust solutions currently needed:A Develop innovative millet products that are tasty, convenient and affordable Using millets to develop products that are tasty, affordable and in a convenient easy-to-use format is most critical. Finger millet (ragi), which was among the lesser-known crops until a few years ago, is now making its way back into mainstream markets as an ingredient in a variety of products, from pre-packaged dosa and pancake mixes to chips. Similar product development will also increase the popularity of other small millets. B Launch a nationwide awareness campaign Millets are often called forgotten foods because the communities that once consumed them regularly are now out of touch with their benefits and associated food cultures. A national advertising campaign similar to the 'Egg Campaign' or the 'Operation Flood Milk Campaign' are the need of the hour if we are to push the agenda for nutritious millets, good for our health and the planet. Bollywood stars like Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli have all shown ways in which they include millets in their diets and it would be great to also include top nutritionists, sports stars and movie celebrities in such campaigns too.Millets have remained out of the R&D sphere for decades, with only a handful of institutes investing time and resources into studying and promoting them. Having turned to mainstream crops in recent years, many farmers are unaware of the many advantages of growing millets. Giving farmers access to information on best practices and facilitating small-scale testing can help them assess the conditions that are best suited for each millet species and variety. Leading research into the nutritional content of millets is imperative in order to better understand the numerous health benefits of these crops. Making scientific information accessible to millet-based product manufacturers, as well as consumers, can also have a positive impact. With a number of independent companies around the country working on millet-based products, instead of conventional food grains, active support from research organizations can aid product development and enhancement.Simon Nderitu, Leon Kenya and Jacqueline Damon African Forest, Nairobi, KenyaAfrican Forest is a holistic agro-forestry social enterprise established in 2006 and located on the edge of the Soysambu Conservancy in Kenya, a 22,000 ha ranch surrounding Lake Elmenteita, in the Rift Valley. African Forest has an indigenous organic plant nursery, seed center and trial plantations. We produce and promote, in conjunction with local communities, a wide range of non-timber forest products. These include medicinal plants, vegetables and other food crops, skincare products, bee products, fibers, oils, tannins and dyes. African Forest also offers services such as plantation establishment and management, reforestation, gardening and sustainable development planning and implementation, as well as assistance in raising 'green' finance.Our 'Planet Positive Forestry' program involves planting a mixture of indigenous climax and pioneer tree/shrubs, to create a bio-diverse forest. These are intercropped with foods, fruits and herbs.The livelihoods of the world's population depend on food systems and food value-chains. There is a dire need to make our food systems more sustainable, especially in view of climate change, cultural changes and the many adversities affecting production systems. We strongly believe that food systems that are socially inclusive should be promoted, as opposed to the current ones that are controlled by corporations. Currently, it is estimated that 50% of the world's population cannot meet its food needs. Research also estimates that to meet the population's food requirements in 2050, measures need to be implemented to facilitate a 70% increase in current production. And these measures have to be inclusive of women, youth and Indigenous People.Out of the 1.4 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty, 70% live in rural areas and are the most affected by drought and famine. Climate change has created unpredictable weather conditions, presenting challenges for Indigenous producers who depend on natural conditions for farming.With the emphasis on Western lifestyles, critical Indigenous knowledge has been lost and is no longer being transmitted from one generation to the next. This is depriving our societies of knowledge on vital foods, while at the same time new lifestyles are compromising people's health.We have, nevertheless, registered lately an increased awareness of the prohealth properties n indigenous vegetables, rich in micronutrients and bio-active compounds. Vegetables should be, therefore, core components of peoples' daily diets. Scientific findings are also confirming that local species and varieties are rich in compounds that have antioxidant properties, such as β-carotene, as well as in iron, calcium and zinc.More demonstrations of the production, processing, cooking, marketing, distribution and consumption methods of NUS should be carried out in communities, in order to leverage Indigenous People's knowledge about these species and help promote their wider use. Critical publications of research findings on these species have been made, but these are not readily accessible to the Indigenous People. More should be done to disseminate relevant findings to strengthen farmers' knowledge of sustainable production and the use of these species.The main obstacles for the enhanced use of indigenous vegetables includes access to production means, including quality seeds, land tenure, soil additives, water, etc. Indigenous farmers barely get access to knowledge on best practices. The perishability of many NUS vegetables and fruits, caused by their short shelf-life, is also a great challenge in their effective storage and marketing.• Train traditional farmer communities on the sustainable production and use of NUS to empower them. Training packages should cover inter alia small-scale, diversified farming and the use of environmentally sustainable technology • Implement participatory guaranteed systems, giving greater role to women, youth and farmer groups, building on trust, social knowledge and networks • Provide support and outreach programs including extension, helping farmers establish their own community structures. Interventions could start with one ward in a county (e.g., Mbaruk ward in Nakuru County, Kenya) and 1-2 villages for demo production sites (e.g., the Kasambara and Echaririe villages of the Mbaruk ward, Kenya) • Provide farmers with quality seed for the focus NUS and demonstrate potential for including other species in value chains We believe traditional crops, especially nutritionally dense cereals and vegetables, are going to be one of the strategic sources of food for the ever-increasing number of urban consumers around the world. In Nepal, NUS are playing an instrumental role in meeting the food and nutrition security needs of households, particularly those residing in hilly and mountainous areas, where farming systems, to a large extent, rely on traditional crops and varieties. Needless to say, growing the use of NUS contributes to a healthier environment, as these plants require less chemicals and pesticides. Some NUS are also known to be climate resilient, meaning they perform reasonably well even in harsh growing conditions (they are cold and drought tolerant, need low external input environment, etc.), thus contributing to household food security in rainfed farming systems.Popularizing NUS among health-conscious urban consumers may spur demand for these traditional crops, which in turn would contribute to improving smallholder farmers' livelihood.Anamol Biu was established 10 years ago and, since its inception, has been working closely with rural farmers in the seed supply chain, where community seed banks (CSBs) have played pivotal role in preserving and promoting NUS crops. We source our vegetable and cereal seeds primarily from CSBs under a buy-back guarantee system. With technical support provided through LI-BIRD, Anamol Biu has diversified its seed portfolio with the inclusion of several NUS into its activities. Amaranth, coriander, faba bean, fenugreek, broad leaf mustard, local beans, cucumber and many other vegetables are included in our 'Vegetable Seed Composite Kit', a family-nutrition-targeted product, that has become highly popular among development efforts such as the SUAAHARA Project 5 and the Home Garden Project, 6 both implemented in Nepal. In recent years, this tool has become a standard approach for distributing seasonal vegetable seeds to farmers by development organizations and government agencies alike, thereby increasing the potential for mainstreaming NUS in seed supply systems. In order to capitalize on the increasing demand for selected NUS products (including minor millets, amaranth, mountain beans, sticky rice, etc.), Anamol Biu, with the support of several agencies, is investing in the establishment of a 'Packaging House', planned to come into operation in early 2021. The Packaging House is expected to aggregate, clean, grade and package NUS products in a particular brand before marketing them in domestic and international markets. We will be starting a line of composite vegetable packets comprising NUS vegetables for rooftop urban gardens in the near future, as we have received an increasing number of requests during agricultural fairs/melas. Unfortunately, the mainstreaming of NUS varieties into formal seed systems, securing a niche for themselves in the current seed market is still rather low. Many factors are responsible for such slow progress, including unfavorable government policies and programs, limited research and development support, lack of awareness on the part of consumers and lack of best practices knowledge among the growers. It is, therefore, highly imperative that responsible actors increase their investments in the R&D of NUS, if we are to really help these crops emerge from their marginalization.Although the promotion of NUS features in strategic policy papers of the Nepalese government, in reality this area has garnered the least priority in research investments, resulting in negligible progress towards the identification of promising species and their varietal enhancement. On the other hand, the private sector in Nepal is rather weak, in financial and technical terms, to be able to invest in R&D and is interested in acting only at the stage of popularization where heritage crops are concerned. As a matter of fact, a market system for NUS crops including access to quality seeds is yet to be developed in the country. So even if a NUS variety is registered, there remains a serious problem in the supply chain. When the market demands a significant amount of a particular NUS crop, the reality is that producers cannot actually be located to meet such a demand. This is the case for instance of the local amaranth variety 'Ramechhap Hariyo Latte', which was successfully registered at the national level by the Seed Quality Control Centre in 2018, upon which Anamol Biu was able to purchase 17 kg of the seeds from a farmers-managed CSB in Jugu, Dolakha district; the following year, however, we required at least 10 kg of that seed but the CSB in Dolakha was not able to provide such amount. We met the farmer representatives and the program staff from LI-BIRD, and learned about problems that the producers were experiencing, which related mostly to price and financial issues. Anamol Biu agreed to meet the farmers' price expectations, and LI-BIRD helped as well in multiplying the seeds in the Sindhupalchok and Lamjung districts.The irony is that when producers have something to sell, they complain about market availability and accessibility issues, which is a reflection of dysfunctional market for NUS crops. The government is not very helpful because it has failed to come up with any longer-term monetary and non-monetary schemes to promote NUS.Two factors hindering the promotion of NUS are the limited number of food recipes available for their popularization among consumers and the persistence of incorrect socio-cultural beliefs regarding NUS, often termed 'crops of the poor' or 'famine foods'.As mentioned already, R&D throughout the value chain, from production to consumption, is one critical area policymakers should think seriously of investing in, so as to promote NUS effectively. This will pave the way towards solving production limitations and marketing challenges.On a positive note, we should say that in Nepal, the government has made the registration of local crop varieties in the formal seed system a much easier task, something that is expected to benefit the popularization and commercialization of these neglected crops. But more essential interventions are still needed from the government, such as access to soft loans, support in machinery and tools for production and post-harvesting operations, and financing crop insurance to lure producers and make the cultivation of NUS crops more competitive and profitable for farmers. Furthermore, policymakers need also to help promote NUS through the national education system: NUS education for healthy diets and improved nutrition should be promoted in schools, college cafeterias and even office canteens.Public-private partnerships (PPP) often prove to be a fruitful and sustainable venture for promoting the value chains of products such as NUS, where women and youth can be targeted at large through attractive schemes.Lastly, we foresee a potential alternative of promoting NUS as organic crops, targeting upper economic classes and regions. Such an approach could prove very helpful: once the supply chain is firmly established it can then gradually cater to the needs also of middle-to low-income classes and thereby contribute to the wider popularization of these nutritious crops.Simlaw Seeds, Nairobi, KenyaThe importance of these neglected species of plants cannot be over-emphasized.Here in Kenya, NUS have been used as source of food for generations by many communities. Sadly, government research bodies have given them little attention insofar, focusing instead only on main food crops such as maize, wheat and beans.We at Simlaws do appreciate the importance of NUS in food security and, most importantly, in nutrition. These species can grow well with minimum use of inputs. They have stable yields in local environments where they are highly adapted and able to thrive where exotic crop species are challenged, such as in marginal lands where rainfall is scarce and irrigation is not affordable.Most communities would normally go to pick NUS vegetables in the wild, because these species are not easily found under cultivation due to the lack of seed systems dedicated to them. Consequently, there has been erratic supply of these food crops in the market. This despite their inherent superiority in terms of resilience, disease and pest tolerance. Unfortunately, private seed companies have not been availing NUS seed in the formal market either.For the successful promotion of NUS there should be a concerted effort in funding projects involving both national governments and the international community. This will ensure that these species are collected, safeguarded, characterized, selected, improved and massively produced for wider use. Training should be undertaken especially in the fields of breeding, conservation, seed production, agronomy, nutrition and value addition. The private sector should be also involved in training, so as to leverage its knowledge, which is helpful in promoting NUS at affordable prices more widely. Moreover, communities will need also to be educated through demonstrations on how to grow and use these nutritious crops more efficiently.Serkan Eser, Bilgi Sistem Yönetimi -İthalat & İhracat, Serik Antalya -TurkeyWe are located in the Mediterranean region and we have good knowledge about the biodiversity there, including those species occurring in the wild that have not been properly researched yet. We support several research projects involving scientists, who are directing the attention to all the promising leafy greens NUS growing in this region.NUS need to be better considered by both household users as well as people involved in the so-called 'horeca' sector (hotel/restaurant/café) who should devote continuous attention towards their use enhancement. Unfortunately, today this is not happening, and such a situation is limiting the wider use of NUS by chefs, which, in turn, is hindering their wider promotion. With regard to home users, these traditional crops need to be suitable for kitchen use and food cultures. The many good qualities of NUS should be highlighted and leveraged through novel, versatile and easy recipes in order to promote their popularization as home foods; to that end, more research on cooking aptitudes and methods is needed.A We need to do more for the promotion of NUS, especially among chefs B We believe that geographical indications would play a highly strategic role in the marketing of NUS C It would be extremely helpful to create an ad hoc brand, as has been done for other products. For instance, in the case of coffee: the majority of Turkish people refer to standard American coffee as 'Nescafe' so as to distinguish it from the classic Turkish coffee; so this commercial brand is applied widely to refer in fact to many types of coffee. When thinking about that, I realize that advertising is extremely powerful and could be, indeed, leveraged for the promotion of these nutritious but little-known foods.GoBhaarati Agro Industries and Services Pvt. Ltd., IndiaMr. Sridhar Murthy Iriventi, GoBhaarati Agro Industries and Services Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, TelanganaConsumers' food behavior is mostly cultural. Throughout human history we see cultural evolution has been a function of local contexts, including the policy framework implemented in that place. Like lifestyles, food styles have their own comfort zones ingrained into the unconscious pattern of choices of items on people's plates.For the last ten years or so, our company, made up of first generation of entrepreneurs, has been at the forefront of food innovation and of introducing 10 varieties of millets, including sorghum, in three states of India. Over the years we have observed a significant rise in people's awareness with regard to NUS, especially millets, and this has been very helpful in promoting the consumption of these foods. We see NUS as the food of the future -good for the consumer, for the planet, for the farmer and for the economy too. Over the last decade, we have interacted with more than 50,000 customers, in hundreds of road shows, conferences, cooking competitions and other events, and the lessons we learned during these interactions can be summarized as follows:• Consumers wouldn't mind using NUS in traditional recipes. For example, a traditional Indian recipe like idli, can well be made with little millet too, and this innovative food will be as palatable as that prepared with conventional ingredients like rice • Entrepreneurs/private sector cannot carry out NUS promotion alone. Ideally, the private sector should focus on marketing NUS products while research institutions and governments should focus instead on studying the health or nutrition benefits associated with NUS; thus, the outcome of such work can inform the private sector for their campaigns. I think this would be an ideal partnership for the promotion of NUS • NUS, especially minor millets, contain many important nutrients that can be strategic in achieving a balanced diet, but more needs to be done to highlight this fact in promotional campaigns • During interactions with our customers, we register comments ranging from, \"We don't know millets\", to \"We are Millet Ambassadors\". While we are happy to inform customers on the value of millets and contributing, thus, to filling the gap in awareness, there are a number of obstacles in doing that, viz.:• Food is first and foremost a cultural experience that goes back to what we ate in our childhood when our mothers fed us with love. Most of the current adult generation has been fed by mothers who had access to basic food grains through the Public Distribution System (PDS), which focused (until very recently) only on rice and wheat. • The millet basket is made of many species and, owing to the poor knowledge that people have about these crops, it is normal to register some kind of hesitation in consumers when they need to make a decision on which type of millet to buy. • NUS products change continuously and do not last on the shelf for more than a year or so. This is not good for their popularization, as clients fall back into the 'comfort zone', i.e., purchasing the usual foods made out of wheat or rice. • 2018 was declared by the Indian government as 'The Year of Millets'. This was a good move, but unfortunately the awareness campaigns on millets that followed did not do it justice in presenting in a convincing manner the many potentials of these crops. Much more and better needs to be done to promote NUS! • Policies in favor of millets need to be better implemented to bring change! What we observe, unfortunately, is that most work for the promotion of NUS is led by scientists and bureaucrats who don't appreciate entrepreneurial efforts. For instance, our company has made a breakthrough in packaging, which has increased the shelf-life of de-hulled millets by 300%! Yes, we have been appreciated for this outcome, but were not supported beyond that in scaling-up such novel processes.A Instead of encouraging Farmer Producer Organizations to do everything from farm to fork, governments should encourage instead centers of excellence to take care of specific activities along the value chain B Develop a 45-day off-season business education program for farmers on how NUS can improve their standard of living and the quality of their jobs. Such capacity building sessions can be steered by business professionals with inputs from both academicians and administrators. We believe that this business education can be very helpful in promoting the establishment of effective 'micro business models' at the farm-gate level C Reduce bureaucracy and let government and research institutions invest more in NUS promotion through well-crafted public awareness campaigns, while entrepreneurs focus more on marketing aspects. NUS products must be included in government canteens, PDS and other programs, with entrepreneurs participating through healthy competition and not bidding/auction models.Ana Luiza Vergueiro and Sergio Vergueiro ECONUT Comércio de Produtos Naturais Ltda., BrazilBrazil has abundant natural resources and, among those, is the majestic Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl.), notable for its size and its edible seeds (the Brazil nut), which are the greatest natural source of selenium known. Even though it is a traditional product in the Brazilian export line, the Brazil nut is one of the main NUS. The tree grows along the entire Amazon rainforest, but it is mainly found along the Brazilian share of the region. Considering the vast area covered by these long-living trees, there is no precise data regarding its production, and our hypothesis is that 90% of the natural nut production is not harvested, left abandoned on the forest floor. Even though Brazil nut exploitation is a traditional activity in the country, the main obstacle to its improvement is organizing a value chain. The process starts with the harvesters that live in the forest, who should receive a better salary for their hard work. At the end of the chain are the consumers that demand -rightly so -that quality and safety requirements are followed during processing operations. To that end, there is a need for clearer quality and food-safety regulations for the processing of Brazil nuts, along with appropriate packaging of the final product for proper preservation during its shelf-life.In light of the above, and in order to achieve the effective promotion of the Brazil nuts, we propose three main measures tackling environmental, socioeconomic and commercial viability as follows:• Environmental viability: the development of species cultivation, recovering deforested areas in the Amazon rainforest and considering viable logistics to exportation control points • Socioeconomic viability: support for harvests taking place in the forests, with minimum regional prices along with the establishment of classification, drying and packaging stations in the producing regions, in addition to tax exemption for the entire production chain • Commercial viability: promotion and marketing of the product and its qualities (regarding production and nutrition) to national and international consumer regions, as well as the simplification of bureaucracy for exports.SanLak Agro-Industries Pvt. Ltd., IndiaVikram Sankaranarayanan, Director, SanLak Agro-Industries Pvt. Ltd. Coimbatore,Given the current debates surrounding food and nutrition security under the threat of climate change, stakeholders engaged in food value-chains, both public and private, are exploring new sources of food from resilient and nutritious crops, so as to complement what is already available in the market. Another push in that direction is also coming from the increasing interest of consumers, which is shifting from food-fortification approaches to a more effective deployment of biodiversity, in order to achieve a more sustainable diet. These trends are contributing to the growing interest in NUS.From an entrepreneurial perspective, NUS, under the aforementioned context, offer myriad market opportunities to tap at a time when consumers are also keen to explore wellness and nutrition through alternative plant-based diets. Our company, through the guidance and mentorship of Ms. Santha Sheela Nair, began working on minor millets, crops that have been long forgotten due to overdominance of rice and wheat, promoted under the Green Revolution.Following are some examples of our work on NUS, focusing on millets and amaranth, which are central to our public awareness campaigns and which are needed to inform consumers about the multiple nutrition and health benefits of these species, so much marginalized also for the pejorative labeling of them as 'low-status' foods. Fortunately, perceptions are changing gradually but steadily, with even the nomenclature being rightly changed from 'coarse grains' to 'nutri-cereals'. Millet consumption is gradually gaining momentum in our food systems also in reaction to the rise of non-communicable diseases and the need to make healthier food choices for our own wellness.Minor millets are a group of cereal crops that are climate change resilient and low resource-intensive. They require one-sixth of the amount of water necessary for rice (some 3,000-4,000 liters on average, depending on the rice variety). They are capable of growing well in degraded soils, under drought conditions and can withstand temperatures up to 48 o C. They are gluten-free grains and offer a range of micronutrients naturally produced, vital in combatting the rise in non-communicable diseases as well as malnutrition, present in numerous areas of India, especially among women and children, and afflicting poor and vulnerable members of society.There is certainly a great opportunity to be seized in millets, in terms of widening their consumption by all citizens. Such an outcome is, however, contingent on proper institutional intervention, needed to ensure that millet valuechains receive the same attention that has been directed for decades at other commodities.Numerous factors have diminished and constrained momentum in the growth of millets use, from farm to fork. These factors, grouped under institutional, market and consumer behavior, are summarized as follows:Although the Government of India, in its official ordinance in favor of millets (called 'nutricereals' therein) has requested the Indian states to include these crops in their respective PDS, such a request has not been implemented by most states. The failure to do so seems most likely to have been caused by the lack of proper coordinated efforts, and sadly, it did not help the fact that millets are being acknowledged as vital crops for our food and nutrition security. Furthermore, given that minor millets do not fall under the category of cash crops and are not given a 'minimum support price' (MSP), the lack of guaranteed pricing has discouraged farmers, traders and processors from entering this space. Double-digit variation in pricing has been observed between harvests, which has rendered minor millets difficult commodities to trade. Some states such as Karnataka have taken the lead in value-chain development for minor millets and establishing farm-to-market businessto-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) linkages. Under the previous Hon'ble Minister for Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka, Mr. Krishna Byre Gowda, minor millets gathered momentum with wide market reach and demand pull, catalyzing a subsequent product push from the farm-gate. Such strong political support is very much needed, as it strategically addressed the politics of food. In Tamil Nadu, the Ex-Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission, Ms. Santha Sheela Nair, undertook similar initiatives, which resulted in a number of successful state schemes, such as the 'Mission on Sustainable Dryland Agriculture'. Indeed, a continuous thrust from the political establishment and administration is much needed in order to circumvent macro-barriers for the introduction of NUS.In India, one of the main bottlenecks in millets value-chains is the lack of availability of evenly distributed processing infrastructures. Processing machinery developed so far for these crops has, in fact, not been successful at all, lacking proper food-grade standards and processing efficiency. In view of this prominent gap in technology, our company has invested a lot in R&D, and these efforts have led us to developing 'Borne SMART' (Small Millet Aleurone Retention Technology), which allow the effective processing of millet grains. This technology includes machinery for carrying out several processing steps at the same time: pre-cleaning, de-gluming (to remove the glume layeron barnyard, kodo and browntop millet [Brachiaria ramosa]) as well as de-hulling, fine separation and gravity separation. Borne SMART machines are available in different dimensions, with processing capacities of 100 kg/hr, 250 kg/hr, 500 kg/hr, 1 ton/hr or 2 ton/hr. Though these machine could help process many NUS, they are being requested by our clients especially for millets.Market-based factors are to be addressed from a value-chain perspective, in a holistic manner. Starting at the farm-gate, cluster formations of millet growers are imperative if we are to gain economies of scale. Such an approach was developed through the 'Raitha Siri' program in Karnataka, wherein dry-land clusters were selected, and a sum per acre was distributed to farmers within these clusters, with each cluster focusing on the cultivation of a specific variety of minor millet. It was a successful initiative at the farmlevel but, unfortunately, it was not effective in ensuring that millets reached the market effectively, as the forward integration of traders, processors and companies were not developed. Understanding and proper coordination of value chains are vital in ensuring that these crops reach the targeted consumers effectively. Such a major bottleneck is prevalent in various parts of the country, and needs to be addressed on war footing.A key link between producers and the market is processing and, although machinery is now available for all the end-to-end processing steps needed for minor millets, this technology is yet to reach stakeholders at a mass level. Previous initiatives undertaken between 2009 and 2012, whereby machinery was distributed, failed miserably due to the low quality of machinery processing output, lack of food-grade standards and breakdowns encountered. Although improvements in processing technology and protocols have been established, such as those of the Borne SMART line mentioned earlier, their uptake is slow, due to lack of investor confidence and previous bad experiences faced by clients. D Consumers' behavioral factors Though the private sector has acknowledged the scope for growth in minor millet consumption, there is still limited awareness among consumers, regarding the nutritional virtues of the range of minor millets. Robust public awareness campaigns are much needed in order to catalyze attention and promote wider consumption of these NUS.1 See Chapter 13 for more about this project 2 ISO certified company; for more see http://www.vandjindustries.com/ 3 Var. acephala of cabbage (Brassica oleracea), characterized by the lack of the close-knit core of leaves (a \"head\") like other cabbages 4 Corn-based traditional hot drink 5 https://www.usaid.gov/nepal/fact-sheets/suaahara-project-good-nutrition 6 http://www.b4fn.org/case-studies/case-studies/home-gardens-in-nepal/#:~:text=-This%20project%20has%20worked%20to,increase%20income%20in%20poor%20 households.Research for Development (R4D) agencies have historically played an important role in promoting the conservation and sustainable use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) around the world by providing investments and assistance to vulnerable communities that has helped build research partnerships and capacity, which has enabled them to benefit from sustainable livelihoods, improved diets and nutrition, food security and enhanced resilience and adaptation to pest and diseases, water scarcity and changing climate. The historical development of the NUS movement, the key agencies and actors involved as well as landmark events and publications are highlighted in Chapter 2 of this volume. Furthermore, many R4D agencies are profiled in Chapter 33, and it is largely through the efforts of these agencies that financial and other needed resources have been, and continue to be, directed towards fundamental research partnerships on NUS, though the gap in research budget allocated to the top few staple crops alone and the wider NUS portfolio remains huge. IFAD promotes a holistic and pluralistic approach to inclusive rural transformation and agricultural food systems as a part of its lending programme, which currently exceeds USD 1.5 billion, annually. NUS are viewed by IFAD as an intrinsic part of its arsenal of nature-positive, biodiversity-friendly approaches. They are increasingly promoted by IFAD for their promise in contributing to an economically remunerative and environmentally sustainable future -for rural communities and their habitats -depending on the socioeconomic, cultural, institutional and biophysical context. IFAD pursues people-centred approaches and, in the context of the NUS-sustainable livelihoods nexus, we believe that the theory of change is really about positioning rural communities (including Indigenous Peoples as the key custodians of NUS) to make the most out of the promising nature of rich, nutrition-sensitive markets and the values chains they are linked to.IFAD investments in the NUS-based food systems of rural (Indigenous) communities (and their local knowledge embedded in those) are strongly associated with multiple positive relationships with incomes, nutrition and health of humans and their habitats. They drive financially attractive investment projects with outcomes that are poverty reducing, nutrient rich, diet-diverse, environmentally friendly and climate smart. It would be hard to find a better win-win strategy in any inclusive rural transformation agenda pursued by the international development community.Over the past two decades, IFAD has developed experience in supporting NUS and has used key lessons learned to develop guidance on how, when, and why to incorporate considerations of NUS into nutrition-sensitive agricultural projects, with due attention paid to the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and the enhancement of their livelihoods and wellbeing. The focus has been on a multitude of truly participatory rural development and transformation approaches incorporating the importance of NUS and their contribution to biodiversity conservation, improving nutrition (in the context of dietary diversity), quality traditional diets and Indigenous Peoples' food systems and their knowledge on these.The advent of the very recognition of so-called NUS in formal sciences and by international agricultural research for development systems started with IFAD's pioneering grant support back in the late 1990s. The Fund's first grant was to establish a strategic, global, multi-stakeholder partnership led by the erstwhile International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (now the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)).This initiative benefitted immensely from the passionate, scientific leadership of a few individuals, and IFAD's investment scaled-up the so-called NUS agenda and placed it in the global research and development spotlight -pursuing the multiple objectives of \"conservation-through-utilisation\" and, later, a more composite goal of \"sustainable utilisation\".With the strong conviction that NUS were neglected and underutilized for counter-intuitive reasons, a global constituency became established in the early part of this century. This community of practise views NUS as the \"crops of and for the future\" and as multi-dimensional \"weapons of poverty alleviation\" (ironically) in the hands of the world's most marginalised communities -who are the true custodians of NUS and most of the world's biodiversity.In early IFAD-sponsored international conferences, we conceived a new, global multi-stakeholder initiative. For instance, in 1999, the IFAD-supported workshop organised in Chennai, India, by the CGIAR Plant Genetic Resources Policy Committee, focused specifically on NUS. This landmark meeting drew broad-ranging support from participating CGIAR centres and donors. It is interesting to note that this meeting represents the first time ever that the CGIAR discussed NUS in a formal way.This milestone conference received the intellectual guidance of Professor MS Swaminathan, who cautioned us early partners and practitioners against the use of negative nomenclatures connoting the neglect and underutilisation of such a promising set of crops and commodities.Indeed, on the other hand, these have been often regarded as strategic assets of rural poor communities (especially Indigenous communities) -resources that have helped these otherwise marginalised communities build resilience and cope with the challenges of food and nutrition insecurity, health calamities and pandemics, climate change and in their struggle against economic and social disempowerment.Since the early 2000s, IFAD has actively helped build new alliances with global initiatives such as the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation's (GFAR) Collective Action on Forgotten Foods. Given the multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary nature of GFAR and the power of the IFAD-investment portfolio in supporting community-based, participatory workshops aimed at enriching beneficiary knowledge on resilient cultivation practices, financing rural infrastructure and small and micro-enterprises for improving processing and consumption options has helped improve small-scale producer links to NUSdriven value chains and niche markets.Incorporating NUS into food systems affords a more dynamic, in situ \"peoplecentred\" approach to addressing the biophysical challenges of modern agriculture. The above meetings provided a deeper understanding of the incentive structure of farming communities in managing risks and how strategic production choices (e.g., of cultivating NUS) can strengthen resilience, especially of resource-poor farming systems.Informed by these important scientific exchanges, IFAD-grants financed multi-locational research programmes in all the developing regions of the globe and have generated a series of evidence-based innovations, which have been incorporated into multi-million dollar loan project designs.The innovative deployment of nature-positive and environmentally sensitive components in agricultural development projects, is bringing to light the immense value of the orphan crops of the past -from relative obscurity into prominence. They exhibit attractive transformational characteristics and elite traits -a metaphorical reference to the tale of \"Cinderella\" (hence the label).Neglected no more, the increasing production and trade of erstwhile NUS (quinoa, amaranth, finger millets and other [mislabelled] \"coarse\" grains like sorghum, maize and kiwi fruit to name a few) represent a vast spectrum of hidden gems.They have demonstrated improved and multiple beneficial outcomes while simultaneously including robust local adaptability, better incomes, improved livelihoods and nutrition and ecosystem benefits -all of which are designed to improve the resilience of smallholders to biophysical and socioeconomic adversities and shocks. The range of the potential of NUS is so extensive that it is now becoming an increasingly inherent part of conventional food production systemsmaking them valuable in so many respects, well beyond the local context and the niche markets that they were associated with in the past -now, they are a part of the economic mainstream.The multipurpose species of the future NUS are increasingly better known as the promising multipurpose species for the future, resurrected from their general underutilisation and even disuse (as indigenous knowledge systems on their utility had eroded over the generations). A more development-outcome-led formal research system has brought to light cuttingedge knowledge on the multiple benefits and high value embedded in NUS. The agrobiodiversity associated with NUS \"production\" systems is also a direct contributor to the diverse range of micronutrients that NUS have made available to the diets of Indigenous and other rural communities. Such dietary diversity is known for addressing their micronutrient deficiency and under-nutrition, and also spontaneously targeting some of the root causes of stunting and wasting among children while improving the resilience of adults to health shocks.The extensive use of NUS will, thus, ultimately contribute not just to SDG2, which is associated with zero hunger; reduction of all forms of malnutrition and sustainable agriculture, they will also help reach several targets under SDGs 7, 12, 13, 15 and 17, as well as relevant targets within the context of the CBD post-2020 global biodiversity framework. IFAD's Strategic Objective 1 (increase poor rural people's productive capacities), which focuses heavily on improving nutritional knowledge and behavioural change communication on healthy diets for all, has NUS elements. IFAD's Action Plan on Mainstreaming Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture has a predominant NUS focus and the recently published Bioversity-IFAD operational framework in support of nutrition-sensitive agriculture through NUS will certainly help promote the adoption of NUS for sustainable food systems.Yet, much more is needed to help countries mainstream NUS through participatory, pro-poor, gender-sensitive, multi-sector, multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary approaches. Further development and testing of NUS to promote replicability and transferability to other contexts; an advocacy role for policy change at the global level and the engagement of development practitioners (through participation in training and capacity building) are key. Innovative policy sensitisation is required to provide an enabling institutional environment so that the rural poor can achieve the twin objectives of income generation along with the positive nutrition potential currently locked inside their local NUSbased farming systems.We will continue to need new investments in innovations systems, including by bringing leading-edge science to build on local and Indigenous knowledge systems -for instance, developing appropriate food technologies to maximise the nutritional benefits from local crops. The international community needs to better appreciate the power of the crops of the future and unleash their potential in addressing the challenges of faltering food systems. We need to trigger a paradigm shift towards the adoption of more (bio-)diverse agricultural systems -and a departure from current food systems, which are precariously focused on an ever-shrinking portfolio of crops and commodities -ironically, where there are a large variety of robust but overlooked Cinderella species-in-waiting.Paul Wagstaff, Senior Agriculture Advisor, Self Help Africa and Isabella Rae, Head of Policy, Research and EvaluationNUS in Africa are a complex topic and one where limited generalisations can be made. Traditional fruit, vegetable and grain species have been neglected due to declines in demand, a decline in access to wild plant foods, low yields and poor adaptation to the livelihoods and workloads of farmers, particularly women. It is important to distinguish between NUS that are preferred \"luxury\" foods, and those that are only eaten in desperation during times of famine. Though not traded internationally, NUS are uniquely adapted to their local environments and play a vital role in supporting diverse diets in sub-Saharan Africa.Self Help Africa (SHA) focuses on improving family nutrition and household economy through diversifying incomes and linking farmers to markets, both of which have to take into account climatic factors and women's access to and control over resources. SHA, therefore, looks at the nutritional, crop diversity and market potential of NUS, including the possible impact on women's workloads related to the collection or cultivation of NUS.One of the biggest drivers of the marginalisation of NUS has been the radical changes in diet, especially in East and Southern Africa, where \"chicken and chips\" have become the \"aspirational\" foods that have driven traditional foods out of local restaurants, with local foods being seen as a \"poor person's food\" (less so in West Africa and Ethiopia). In complete contrast, some neglected crops are enjoying a renaissance and are being considered \"status foods\" for the urban middle classes, and \"comfort food\" for the diaspora.Several NUS with significant potential as resilient food crops are not more widely used due to the presence of toxic, anti-nutritive, excessively bitter or allergenic compounds, which must be taken into account when promoting NUS for home gardens. Some of the best-known examples include:• Grass pea, a highly drought-tolerant legume that can cause lathyrism when eaten in significant qualities; • Solanaceous crops that have not been exposed to generations of selection for low solanine levels can pose a health risk; • Water lily roots, Nymphaea, an important famine food in the wetlands of South Sudan and Uganda, contain a toxic alkaloid, and young ferns, a delicacy in Sierra Leone, can be carcinogenic; • Members of the Cruciferae can be goitrogenic in areas of low natural iodine while species high in tannins, oxalic acid and phytic acid can inhibit the uptake of iron, a disadvantage in countries with high levels of anaemia.By definition, the term NUS implies little research interest. While this is true when compared to the level of research conducted on the main staple crops, a significant amount of research on NUS does take place but is often confined to MSc and PhD thesis and project reports, which receive little attention. The promotion of NUS can be politically sensitive, and NUS research and market development initiatives are sometimes treated with suspicion by some sectors of civil society.A lack of investment and research into these crops has led to farmers planting them less and less, reduced access to high-quality seed and loss of traditional knowledge.Creating demand: Researching niche markets and creating demand for NUS as \"aspirational\" foods, starting with the urban middle classes. Chia seeds are a well-known example, with affluent health-conscious consumers in Europe creating demand for chia seeds grown by farmers supported by SHA in Uganda.Addressing NUS seed and germplasm shortages: This requires a vibrant, diverse seed sector, that supports farmer-to-farmer seed exchanges and SME-and farmer-owned seed enterprises as well as large-scale commercial seed production of a wide range of crops and varieties. Diversifying crops and varieties will require the adoption of newer techniques, such as \"Crop Innovation's Genetic Finger Printing\" for registering new varieties and recognising the intrinsic value of genetic diversity in landraces. Small-and medium-scale NUS seed production requires a reliable source of EGS. SHA's Edget Cooperative Union model in Ethiopia has proved that a union of seed producer cooperatives can produce EGS for its member co-ops, an approach also used by co-ops in the USA and Canada. Other EGS models that show promise include contracting out EGS production to specialist EGS companies (Brazil) and Agriculture Universities (USA and India), and setting up commercial spin-off EGS companies from National Agricultural Research Organizations (Nigeria, Uganda).Plant breeding to improve the nutritional value and commercial viability of NUS: Using conventional plant breeding, plant breeders in India have produced varieties of grass pea with very low toxicity and there is considerable potential to use gene editing to disable genes for toxins and anti-nutritive compounds. The domestication of wild NUS is important to address the reduction in access to wild foods and can also reduce the time taken to reach maturity, especially for wild tree crops. Conversely, farmer-managed natural regeneration of degraded lands can increase the availability of wild fruits through the selective protection of wild fruit-trees with desirable traits. Agriculture, food security and nutrition are consolidated priority areas of intervention for Italian development cooperation, centred on family agriculture and small-scale farmers and contributing to the achievement of SDG2 and other related SDGs. In this context, the Italian Development Cooperation Agency (AICS) approach entails: the promotion of sustainable agro-ecological practices that protect the environment and preserve biodiversity; strengthening networks that improve access to resources and local markets and increasing resilience to shocks and climate change by addressing the economic, social and environmental causes that underlie poverty, conflict and migration.Moreover, AICS aims at strengthening and developing sustainable production chains, with particular emphasis on the enhancement of local/typical products with the objective to increase productivity and improve quality while also promoting good agricultural practices, aimed at the conservation of production areas. In this framework, AICS shares fully the growing interest around NUS and is highly aware of the strategic role that NUS can play in improving food and nutrition security, resilience to climate change, income generation and the empowerment of vulnerable people and communities.In recent years, the yearly average disbursement of AICS for initiatives concerning agriculture and food security, rural development, including biodiversity conservation and protection of the environment, have amounted to around €150 million. AICS believes that in advancing the agenda of NUS at the global level, there are some aspects that should receive greater attention, with particular reference to the conservation of wild and cultivated diversity of such species, through ex situ and in situ methods, in order to allow countries to safeguard precious resource assets that are now under threat of being lost. Another relevant aspect is the enhancement of capacities of National Agricultural Research Systems in carrying out strategic research needed to tap effectively the potential of NUS for tackling the key challenges highlighted above. Lastly, the importance of strengthening appropriate information sharing tools to harness the wealth of knowledge currently scattered for the improved conservation and sustainable use of NUS needs to be understood.The interventions promoted by the Italian Cooperation in this domain are aimed at enhancing the use of climate-resilient varieties, encouraging the production and consumption of high-quality and nutritious food and promoting healthy diets, identifying markets and raising awareness of communities. In this regard, AICS has supported several projects targeting biodiversity conservation and valorisation, both bilaterally and multilaterally through the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP), Bioversity International, UNIDO and CIHEAM-Bari. The involvement of Italian research institutions and academia is also promoted.Among the principal areas of intervention by AICS has been: the enhancement of Tunisian plant genetic resources (cereals, olives, fruit trees, food legumes) either through in situ or ex situ conservation actions, by strengthening the National Gene Bank of Tunisia through providing capacity building for Tunisian technical and institutional staff; value-chain development of local crops with high nutritional value in Ethiopia and the diversification of local communities diets in Oromia region; ongoing support to the FAO Mountain Partnership to better utilise NUS and support to the production, productivity and value chains of moringa (M. stenopetala and M. oleifera) in Ethiopia. Finally, AICS recognises the pivotal role of women in NUS conservation and use through initiatives aimed at supporting women and youth to grow, process, market and cook healthy food. Founded in 1962, International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) is an intergovernmental organisation focused on the sustainable development of agriculture, from food security to food quality and nutrition in rural and coastal areas, including the sustainability of local natural resources, agro ecosystems and fisheries in the Mediterranean. Its member countries are Albania, Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey, and operations are carried out through its four institutes based in Bari (Italy, CIHEAM-Bari), Chania (Greece), Montpellier (France) and Zaragoza (Spain) and the headquarters in Paris. The CIHEAM Strategic Agenda 2025 provides an innovative development framework that revolves around four pillars (viz. protecting the planet, food security and nutrition, inclusive development and crises and resilience) divided into 15 thematic priorities, the fifth one being \"enhancing agrobiodiversity conservation and agro-ecological practices\".The Mediterranean Basin is one of the world's 25 hotspots of global biodiversity, presenting a high level of diversity of different food species, forages, aromatic and medicinal species. CIHEAM-Bari provides education and knowledge building on agrobiodiversity conservation and agro-ecology in its M.Sc. course on Mediterranean Organic Agriculture. It also works on the conservation of Mediterranean biodiversity through projects on the protection of endangered species (e.g., MEDISLANDPLANT -ensuring the survival of endangered plants in the Mediterranean) and/or the conservation of local and ancient species (e.g., Crop Wild Relatives) and local crop varieties (e.g., Tunisian Phytogenetic Resources Better Conserved and Enhanced). Furthermore, it carries out institutional capacity-building and promotes networking among national plant conservation centres through programs such as GENMEDA (Network of Mediterranean Plant Conservation Centres). CIHEAM-Bari also carries out analyses of agriculture and natural systems sustainability, cropping systems management, soil quality and participatory approaches in the management of natural resources. Particular attention is also paid to biodiversity's role in safeguarding and promoting the Mediterranean diet.CIHEAM-Bari believes that NUS can help in addressing several challenges such as climate change, food and nutrition insecurity, livelihoods vulnerability and poverty, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. However, NUS development requires research and innovation investments. However, many constraints hinder the wider adoption of NUS, most of them relating to seed production and seed systems, agronomic practices, genetics and eco-physiology, use and markets. Furthermore, different factors hamper the promotion of NUS, among them: lack of sound data on their nutritional properties; low awareness by farmers, researchers and extension workers; poor economic competitiveness; inefficiencies in value chains (production, storage and processing) and limited availability of germplasm.Research and innovation (R&I) are important for NUS to play an essential role in building a resilient and economically vibrant agricultural sector, able to sustain food and nutrition security needs and sustainable rural livelihoods under climate change. In this respect, cross-country collaboration is of paramount importance to set up an R&I strategy to bridge existing gaps and overcome the issues highlighted above. The strategy should address all relevant scientific disciplines, from natural and agronomical sciences (e.g., agronomic research on adaptation of NUS to changing climate, poor soils and dry environments) to social sciences and economics. Investigating the connection between NUS and food security, nutrition and livelihoods of rural communities could raise the awareness of all actors, both in the academic and policy arenas, on the benefits of mainstreaming NUS in farming systems and local diets. Attention should be also paid to adopting adequate policies and institutional/governance arrangements to enhance NUS in relation to agriculture, the environment, health and gender. In particular, concrete political support is needed to include NUS in national strategies for climate change adaptation and sustainable food systems, with the view of fighting environmental degradation and natural resource depletion that constrain the productivity of NUS in the context of agroecosystems, especially in remote rural communities.CIHEAM-Bari pursues strengthening research on NUS within the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems by developing a long-term international agenda for research, innovation and development through concerted efforts involving relevant stakeholders from researchers to policy makers, farmers and consumers at different levels (from local to regional). An example of common engagement and shared efforts by different actors is given by the EU-funded project SUSTLIVES (Box 1). This project will play an important role in unlocking NUS potential in Burkina Faso, Niger and beyond (e.g., West Africa, Sahel), while also addressing the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement. In conclusion, it appears essential to build and support multi-actor partnerships that engage in raising joint funds for R&I on NUS, especially in the countries of the Global South.376 Claudio Bogliotti et al.The UNSCN does not have a formal view regarding NUS. However, it does have a clear understanding that unhealthy diets these days are the major contributors to disease. Therefore, the promotion of healthy diets is an importantThe project SUSTLIVES (SUSTaining and improving local crop patrimony in Burkina Faso and Niger for better LIVes and EcoSystems) falls under the thematic priority \"Vegetables, legumes, roots and tubers\" of the DeSIRA initiative (Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture). It is under the direct management of AICS and brings together partners including CIHEAM-Bari, Bioversity International, Italian National Research Council (CNR), University Roma Tre, the Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE), the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and the University of Niamey (Niger). It has a budget of €6 million and a duration of four years. SUSTLIVES aims to improve food and nutrition security and livelihoods of rural communities in Burkina Faso and Niger through agrobiodiversity. Agrobiodiversity, and particularly the valorisation of NUS, constitutes the driving force behind our ability better meet nutritional needs of rural communities, to create income-generating opportunities for youth, farmers and women and to support national and local institutions to cope with climate change and its effects on agriculture. SUSTLIVES consists of three expected results: (i) identifying and assessing stress-tolerant crops, target areas, local stakeholders and their needs, and achieving a higher resilience of agroecosystems; (ii) raising awareness of communities and consumers about stress-tolerant NUS, and empowering local actors, especially youth and women, in inclusive NUS value-chains and (iii) ensuring policy-making and sustainable planning on agrobiodiversity, supported and in coordination with EU planning and priorities. The main direct beneficiaries are value-chain actors (farmers -especially smallholders -processors, etc.) and their organisations, women and young people, local administrations, research institutions and extension services and local seed producers and companies. Indirect beneficiaries include rural communities as well as consumers.part of the solution. A major characteristic of healthy diets is diversity. Diets are an outcome of food systems and the current dominant food systems do not deliver healthy diets. In addition, food systems are also major contributors to biodiversity loss (and to the pollution of water, soil and air, as well as to climate change). Our current food system utilises and promotes a very limited number of crops and species. During the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), in 2014, member states acknowledged the key role played by diversified and sustainable diets, including traditional ones, in reducing malnutrition. At the same time, the ICN2 acknowledged the importance of cultural identity in relation to diets. This resulted in formal commitments to, among other things, enhancing sustainable food systems and promoting safe and diversified healthy diets. It also recommended strengthening local food production and promoting diversification of crops, including underutilized traditional crops. Many studies have shown that NUS can play an important role in improving nutrition. Their nutritional value is often higher than corresponding exotic or imported foods. In addition, they are locally adapted and are often part of cultural heritages. In summary, they can play an important role as part of sustainable healthy diets, to confront the challenges described above.A major obstacle for the enhanced sustainable use of NUS are some of the very same positive characteristics listed above. They are so locally adapted and context specific that it is often difficult to bring them to the forefront in one solid overarching definition. One could say they are so contextualised that they are difficult to (sustainably) promote beyond their immediate context or locality. There is no common understanding of what NUS are -thus, the beauty of NUS is also its weakness. In addition to this, and possibly linked to it, is the lack of knowledge about the nutritional value of many species and varieties. The lack of a common understanding of what exactly NUS are has also contributed to their \"neglect\" or insufficient protection in (international) law. At the level of individual crops, additional issues can pop up, such as: consumers have lost the habit of preparing them or don't appreciate the taste, smell or colour (anymore), and producers don't see their potential (anymore) because they have become used to more dominant crops that have been promoted at liberty by companies, government services and policies. However, obstacles to the uptake of individual crops (as opposed to NUS in general) can be overcome more easily (relatively speaking) -see below, under Question 3. More worrisome are the obstacles that extend to the promotion of NUS overall. There is a lack of:• recognition of NUS' potential roles; • awareness on NUS potential among governments; • adequate research (especially in the nutrition field);• coherence and adequate protection in local and international legal frameworks; • interest from the private sector to invest in NUS; • funds and advocacy to local communities to implement all the above. Solving these gaps requires political solutions as well as the collaboration of various sectors and stakeholders.Solutions can be distinguished for individual crops and NUS in general. For individual crops, chefs or other champions (farmers, caterers, etc.) in various settings such as in school gardens (e.g., biodiversity project Brazil) or in the tourism sector (tourism in Uganda) can handle promotion. Whenever NUS are promoted in their endemic areas, it is important to take care not to over exploit a specific crop, for example, by establishing value chains abroad. The local population must continue to have access to it and benefit. To promote the uptake of more NUS in general, it is paramount to do more research and make an inventory of NUS and their nutrient content. NUS can also be promoted by advising people to include them in their diets. A very helpful tool for this is the national food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG), especially those that have sustainability criteria. FBDG take into account the actual consumption of the population, as well as cultural acceptability and preferences. FBDG also consider what is locally available and accessible. As such, FBDG can prove to be a very good tool to promote locally produced crops and species, including NUS!The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (International Treaty) 1 was negotiated by FAO and adopted in 2001 to create a global system that provides farmers, plant breeders and scientists access to plant genetic materials. It aims at:• protecting and promoting Farmers' Rights, recognising the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world; • promoting the exploration, conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic diversity in an integrated manner and • establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials, while ensuring that recipients also share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials.NUS are local crop varieties -also known as landraces or farmers' varietiesproviding basic daily food nutrition and livelihoods, but also socio-cultural and environmental values that are fundamental for sustainable agriculture and local economic development. Economically, they have enormous potential for fighting poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Around the world, smallholders and peasant farming communities, particularly those in remote rural and marginal areas, rely on a wide range of NUS for their food, nutritional and health security, and livelihoods. NUS not only provide diversified healthy food and nutrition, but most of them, with ancient origins, have been conserved and sustainably managed until today because of their unique social and cultural values, as well as environmental importance.To date, the International Treaty is the only legally binding international agreement that recognises the enormous contributions that farmers from all regions of the world have made, and will continue to make, for the conservation and development of plant genetic resources as the basis of food and agricultural production. Article 9 of the International Treaty lists some measures that recognise and promote Farmers' Rights, 2 or the rights of farmers to crop genetic resources for food and agriculture. These measures are closely linked to one of the core objectives of the International Treaty -the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources. Promoting the expanded use of local and locally adapted crops, varieties and underutilized species is specifically suggested by the International Treaty as a means of sustainably using plant genetic resources. The implementation can be realised through a list of measures at national levels that could be taken to protect, promote and realise these rights. 3 Farmers' Rights are critical to ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) and, consequently, for food securitytoday and in the future. Now, 15 years since the International Treaty came into operation, the need to realise Farmers' Rights is more relevant than ever. With an estimated 1.2 billion of the poorest people living in rural areas and depending largely on traditional agriculture and their own local crop varieties, promoting their rights to crop genetic diversity can be a valuable channel for the eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Many of these local crops are nutritionally dense, and, therefore, their erosion can have immediate consequences for the nutritional status and food security of the poor, while their sustainable use can bring about better nutrition and success in fighting hidden hunger. For most of these rural farmers, access to commercial varieties and the required production inputs, such as fertilisers and pesticides, are unaffordable. Thus, they depend on the diversity of their local traditional crops. Crop diversification can provide insurance against crop failure due to pests and diseases, or adverse climatic conditions, such as drought or floods, while the produce may be central to traditional local cuisine and specific dietary requirements. Furthermore, diverse crop genetic resources are an important source of locally adapted genes for the improvement of other crops, to build climate-change-resilient agricultural production systems. Therefore, enabling farmers to maintain and develop this crop diversity, and recognising and rewarding them for their contribution to the global gene pool are basic prerequisites for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG1: no poverty; SDG2: zero hunger; SDG15: life on land).To date, the enormous potential of NUS for food security and nutrition, hunger and local economic development have not been fully explored or utilised. This is despite increasing awareness and discussions at various fora highlighting the nutritional, economic, social, cultural and ecological values of NUS. The enabling environments, such as strategies for promotion and institutional mechanisms to support NUS, were always missing or were not mainstreamed in existing food and nutrition security policies, programmes and agendas. NUS are still not a priority for many governments, and investments in researching and improving the productivity, adaptability and utilisation are not yet in place. The lack of investments in local crops has meant that their potential benefits remain undervalued and untapped. If there are no enabling environments and supporting polices, and if there is no value and demand for NUS, farmers will ultimately give up the cultivation of these crops. In addition to this, the lack of institutional mechanisms to support NUS farmers, e.g., market incentives, marketing support for producers, access to financial and technical services, etc., is making it difficult for them to continue conserving and sustainably using NUS. The widespread adoption of high yielding uniform varieties has contributed to the diminishing exploitation of many NUS and other diverse local varieties, along with the knowledge systems associated with their cultivation and use. Therefore, appropriate infrastructures need to be in place to support NUS farmers to continue the cultivation of local traditional crop varieties -varieties that are genetically diverse due to repeated cycles of selection, seed-saving and re-planting, which has resulted in their adaptation to local environmental conditions. The promotion of local crop varieties, increasing knowledge and raising awareness are important elements in efforts to sustain their cultivation.It all starts with the seed. Farming begins with seeds. Without seed, there can be no crops and no food production. Farmers and other crop maintainers depend on access to sufficient quantities of good quality seeds of their varieties of choice, and for these seeds to be available in time for planting when they need them. Seed systems -from production, through processing, storage and distribution -are, therefore, central in efforts to sustain local crop diversity. The top three solutions are:1 Mainstream NUS into national and local policies and programmes to create an enabling environment and to support farmers by providing technical support and access to financial services 2 Create institutional mechanisms to support rural livelihood strategies and household income diversification, such as access to market and market facilities, develop market value-chains -markets for local products, linkage to tourism and other potential income-generation support for NUS farmers 3 Strengthen local seed systems and increase the number and quality of local seed banks to promote sharing and exchange of seeds among farmers.These solutions might help address the challenges that confront smallholder farmers and Indigenous local communities in conserving and sustainably using local crops and NUS. No difference should be made in terms of \"formal\" and \"informal\" seed systems at the local level to facilitate access to plant genetic resources. A supportive legal and policy framework for the cultivation and marketing of local crop varieties is lacking in many countries. There are activities that can help enhance their unique value and support the creation of new in situ diversity. This may, in turn, serve to inform and influence the development of a more appropriate, supportive policy environment. This is particularly critical in the many developing countries where as much as 80-90 percent of seed requirements of smallholder farmers are sourced through local exchange networks, as well as from markets and household stocks.A further tangible way to safeguard local crop varieties and to secure the seed supply for local communities are Community Seed Banks (CSBs). CSBs serve as repositories of local crop diversity that is often adapted to prevailing climate conditions, including biotic stresses, such as pests and other infestations, and facilitate farmers' access to seeds in time for planting. This is particularly necessary during periods of calamities, natural disasters or emergencies/crises. Many experiences, including through the Benefit Sharing Fund 4 of the International Treaty, operating in more than 60 countries around the world, highlights the importance of local seed banks for local food security and the empowerment of local communities, as well as for maintaining traditional knowledge and raising awareness of the value of local crop diversity. Therefore, supporting farmers and local communities in developing and maintaining these seed systems is important to sustaining diversity and ensuring local food and nutrition security.Creating stable value chains for crop produce is one option that is widely considered to be central to efforts promoting the sustainable use of local crop varieties. Effective commercialisation and innovative marketing systems can promote NUS and maximise their economic value. This can involve a range of stakeholders, including farmers and farmers' cooperatives, local promotional associations and businesses, research and development organisations, food processing companies and local government agencies. To enhance marketing options, value-adding measures should include the development of new products from raw sources, the use of high-quality processing methods and packaging and registration through schemes such as Geographic Indications (GI) and traditional knowledge. Products may be sold in local markets, grocery shops and supermarkets, and via internet-based outlets, 5 as well as to restaurants.Lastly, knowledge management and information dissemination is crucial to the conservation of local crop diversity. The International Treaty promotes knowledge sharing and information dissemination through a Toolbox for Sustainable Use of PGRFA. 6 The toolbox is aimed at assisting countries in designing and implementing measures to promote sustainable use. It caters to those seeking information or guidance on policies, strategies and activities that can promote and enhance the sustainable use of PGRFA, particularly at the national and local levels. Intended users may come from a wide range of stakeholder groups, including those working in or associated with public research institutions and gene banks; government agencies; farmers' associations; agro-NGOs; local and Indigenous community enterprises; seed networks; educational establishments; international bodies; networks and services; private plant-breeding companies and the commercial seed and plant production industries, as well as independent plant breeders, farmers and seed producers.To demonstrate the top three solutions to safeguard local crop diversity, below are some of the living examples extracted from the national measures and practices on the implementation of Farmers' Rights under the International Treaty. 7  These examples support the conservation of local crop diversity while enhancing food and nutrition and the livelihoods of farmers and rural communities.In 2017, the Ecuadorian government adopted a Law for Agrobiodiversity, Seeds and Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture. One of the important components of the law is the conservation of native seeds. The main objectives of the law are to protect, revitalise and promote the dynamic conservation of agricultural biodiversity; ensuring production and free and permanent access to quality seeds, including by strengthening scientific research and promoting sustainable agricultural production models. It also respects the diverse identities, knowledge and traditions that guarantee the availability of healthy, diverse, nutritious and culturally appropriate foods to achieve food sovereignty and contribute to \"Good Living\" (\"Sumak Kawsay\"). It guarantees the free use and exchange of peasant seeds, and establishes rules for the production, certification and commercialisation of certified seeds. The law is a normative instrument that would allow the conservation of diverse agricultural biodiversity species of nutritional and economic importance, as well as with industrial potentials.The Heirloom Rice Project, started in 2014, is supported by the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines and the International Rice Research Institute. It aims to enhance the productivity and enrich the legacy of heirloom and traditional rice varieties by empowering communities in rice-based ecosystems in the Philippines. Heirloom rice varieties, grown and handed down for generations by small landholders, have exceptional cooking quality, flavour, aroma, texture, colour and nutritional value. There is high demand for these varieties, and they command higher prices in both domestic and international markets. However, there are also challenges hindering farmers from seizing these opportunities, and some varieties are at risk of extinction. The Heirloom Rice Project takes a market and product development approach, from characterising the existing heirloom or traditional varieties alongside modern climate-resilient varieties to capacity development and enterprise building in farming communities, and identifying opportunities for value addition and market linkages. The project resulted not only in an almost 80% increase in the production of heirloom rice varieties in six years but also, more importantly, in providing opportunities for farmers to increase their income-generating capacity.During the 2013-2014 period, Agenzia Lucana di Sviluppo ed Innovazione in Agricoltura (ALSIA), an agency of the regional government of the Basilicata region in Italy supporting agricultural development and innovation, carried out a survey among farmers of the region to identify rye growers. Four farmers cultivating a total area of two hectares with an old variety called \"Lermana\" or \"Germana\" were identified. In 2018, ALSIA succeeded in registering the local \"Lermana\" rye variety in the Italian National Seed Catalogue in the \"Conservation Varieties\" section. This was followed by activities for value-chain development, which increased the area cultivated with \"Lermana\" rye from 2 hectares to 15 hectares, and also increased the number of farmers cultivating the variety from 4 to 30. This success demonstrates the importance of the \"conservation through use\" approach for the conservation of local PGRFA, and also the role that local authorities can play in supporting local development through on-farm conservation of traditional varieties.CSBs have been established in many countries to safeguard local crop varieties and to secure seed supply for local communities. CSBs are commonly established and managed by farming communities but may also involve collaboration with NGOs or research institutes. The CSB in Ejere, Ethiopia, attracts many visitors each year, from Ethiopia as well as abroad, who wish to learn about their achievements and success. Through conservation and the participatory improvement of local crop diversity and related activities, the CSB has significantly improved seed and food security, nutrition and livelihoods in the whole area. Initiated in 1990 by USC Canada 8 in collaboration with the erstwhile Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Ethiopia, the work was later taken over by the Ethio-Organic Seed Action, with support from the Development Fund of Norway. The initiative promotes sustainable climate-change-adaptation practices among farmer communities through enhanced capacity to sustainably manage, develop and utilise local agrobiodiversity as an adaptive mechanism. To bolster local crop diversity conservation, it supports implementation of practical actions on the ground, such as a reintroduction of traditional crops; participatory varietal selection to adapt promising crops to changing environmental conditions and improve desired properties; quality seed production and distribution; seed fairs and training in advanced organic production methods and income-generating activities. The global resurgence of interest in neglected and underutilized species (NUS) like millets, including viewing them as a panacea for fighting food and nutrition insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is welcome. These crops are being considered as alternatives to rice and wheat, especially for the poor in the peripheral areas of the Global South (Muthamilarasan and Prasad, 2020). However, the focus on millets will be counter-productive if social equity, including gender concerns, are not taken into account in their promotion, as happened in the case of major staples, especially during the Green Revolution.Debates on male versus female farming systems, especially in the African continent (Boserup, 1970), have highlighted the social and technical reasons as to why particular crops are considered as men's or women's. Instead of sophisticated machinery, women often used hoes to cultivate; due to lower access to resources and assets they used fewer inputs than men; and, importantly, given their role in ensuring household food security, their cropping patterns often prioritized food and subsistence crops over cash crops. Therefore, highlighted the importance of recognizing women's roles and contributions to farming in national accounts and supporting them through better access to and provision of resources, inputs, services, and markets.Women are often portrayed as risk-averse subsistence farmers, perhaps due to the choices they make or the constraints they confront. Policies, hence, ignore their crops (Devkota et al., 2014), as does research (Donatti et al., 2019). Despite their low social standing, these crops are crucial to household food and nutrition security, and the optimum and sustainable use of the ecosystem including soil management. Using counter-examples from Zambia and Zimbabwe, Jackson (2007) demonstrates how risk behaviours of women in farming are strongly related to the nature of marriage,Nitya Rao, Amit Mitra and Raj Rengalakshmi conjugality, and gendered notions of insurance and dependence. Further, most crop production systems involve both men's and women's labour, making it important to understand relational dimensions, including gendered contributions, in order to ensure gender equality and household food and livelihood security, alongside sustainable resource use (Rao, 2017;Doss et al., 2018).Small millets and other NUS, like roots and tubers or wild fruits have been integral to farming systems, especially in the hills and mountains or their adjoining forests in rural India and elsewhere across the world. These traditionally included multiple crops, meant for both consumption and sale. Crop rotation, mixed/inter-cropping including of non-cultivated edible greens or fodder for livestock, and practices such as bund crops to reduce soil erosion on slopes, growing pulses, or mulching crop residues helped maintain soil fertility. Overall biomass productivity was enhanced by effectively sharing resources (water, sunlight, nutrients), ensuring regulation of pests and attacks from wild animals, and collective action to maintain a uniform sowing time, sharing seed resources, and maintaining informal seed networks and crop watching at harvest time. All these actions, directed at maintaining the ecosystem, also strengthened resilience to climate variability (cf. Voelcker, 1893). This strategy diversified sources of income and food and contributed to ensuring diverse diets and nutrition security. Additionally, the system helped generate and stabilize employment by extending the cropping season throughout the year.Importantly, such diversified farming systems were premised on principles of social equity, including gender equity, involving elements of mutuality, albeit asymmetric, in production, processing, and consumption (Mitra and Rao, 2019). With changes in land tenures and agricultural modernization as well as the emphasis on agricultural production as a source of income, there has been a shift to mono-cropping of high-value crops. Single varieties are subject to higher risks from price fluctuations and climate change. They conform to more individualized forms of production, with little attention given to the collective management and maintenance of the larger ecosystem. Using the example of millets, we draw insights the broader dimensions of inequalities and the mechanisms of their production and reproduction over time. We focus particularly on the evolution of three dimensions of inequalities: access and control over resources including knowledge and skills; labour relations; and decision-making processes in the production, processing, sale, and consumption of millets. These dimensions impact gender and the wider relations between people, collective action, and the natural environment. The reflections in this paper come from the long-term engagement of the authors with communities in the Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu and Koraput in Odisha. Tribals, historically seen as 'marginalized' and 'backward' communities in the Indian context, predominate in both sites.What do we mean by social equity? There are multiple levels of inequity prevalent in any society, based on many social and economic markers including class, landownership, caste, ethnicity, age, educational status, and gender. While our emphasis here is on gender, we understand gender identity as embedded in other social relations of caste, class and ethnicity. We adopt an intersectional perspective on gender, exploring the experiences of women -not as a category, but, rather, seeing women and men, as heterogenous groups, and how their experiences are shaped by their particular social position (Rao, 2017).Gender analysis unpacks the power relations involved in resource access, especially land, a critical resource for agriculture, but equally reflected in both labour contributions and control over income and decision-making processes. We find variations in women's labour and time burdens depending on the quantity, quality, and the location of land in the ecosystem, and crop choices. Most tribal communities in the study areas manage cultivation with household labour. Hired labour is uncommon, though harvesting, threshing, and cleaning draw, at times, on reciprocal community labour (Mitra and Rao, 2019).Women's knowledge of cultivation, especially in seed management and forming seed exchange networks, was valued and recognized in scenarios where millets were cultivated regularly. Additionally, women were free to choose the crop mixes in particular types of lands, especially the uplands. Plantation crops, like eucalyptus, in which agreements are mostly made by men and lumpsum payments received in cash, are now replacing millets in the uplands (Mitra and Rao, 2019). With market-driven cropping systems, including of millets, gaining ground, women have lost their say in crop choices, but equally in the kind of crops to be sold as well as the quantities. Their knowledge, needs, and preferences, including for domestic consumption and assuring basic nutrition, are no longer given due consideration.The final issue relates to decision-making control or the exercise of agency. Priorities clearly are negotiated within the household (Sen, 1990). Changes in the types of land and the types of cultivation practiced, upland versus lowland, are accompanied by shifts in decision-making control. This is because uplands are often associated with women and their crops, used for subsistence, while lowlands are seen as better-quality lands, for paddy cultivation, which lies in men's domain (Rao, 2008). This normative distinction is linked to gender roles, with men considered 'providers', responsible for the staple crop, and women 'home-makers', responsible for the food accompaniments rich in micronutrients (Carney and Watts, 1990). With the growing need for cash incomes to meet needs beyond food, which is considered to lie in the public (male) domain, there has been a shift towards greater male control decision-making over land use and household expenditures. In the process, women's central role as farmers is forgotten.In India, social position matters in shaping both access to agricultural land, and the nature of cultivation practiced. In Koraput, the experiences of the landed and slightly better-off Bhumiya tribe differ from the near-landless Parojas or the landless Scheduled Caste Doms. While for the Bhumiyas, their crop choices are increasingly based on the exchange value of particular species in the markets, the driving factor for the Parojas is still the use-value of different varieties for a range of purposes like food, liquor, fuel, and social rituals. Among the small millets, finger millets constitute the bulk of the production, as they can be fermented easily, and the straw used for fodder and housing material. Little millets are still offered to the gods. The Doms, dependent entirely on wage labour, are not necessarily aware of the intricate drivers of crop choices. While both the Bhumiyas and Parojas cultivate millets, the former are shifting to mono-cropping finger millet (ragi) in their lowlands due to growing market demand. The Parojas, mostly upland cultivators, continue to grow multiple millet varieties mixed with pulses and vegetables (Mitra and Rao, 2019). This suggests a growing gap between those with access to resources, particularly lowlands, and those without. Yet this gap in landownership does not necessarily translate into dietary diversity in household food consumption. In fact, higher incomes through sales of surplus production are invested in expenditure on education, capital assets, and at times health, rather than better food.A second, related trend in land management is a shift from diversified cropping systems suited to particular land types towards cash crops, be it a shift from millets to tapioca/cassava in the midlands in the Kolli Hills, or to eucalyptus plantations in the uplands of Koraput, both crops that are contracted to industry. In the Kolli Hills, the local Malayali people regularly practiced mixed cropping, crop rotation, and inter-cropping (Vedavalli and Rengalakshmi, 2019). The poramboke lands (uncultivated commons), often interspersed with the rocky steep slopes (kolla kadu), provided fuel, fodder, uncultivated foods, and leaf mulch for millet cultivation in the uplands or paddy in the wetlands. Diverse farming systems also contribute to soil health, maintaining water resources and managing ecosystem services. While the new cash crops do bring in assured cash to the individual household, this is at the cost of environmental health and regeneration. Here too, the negative effects on household nutrition are visible, as is the shift in decision-making and control from women to men.In terms of formal land tenures, the notion of private property was introduced by issuing pattas (recorded land titles) in men's names in the first half of the twentieth century in Koraput, a princely state until 1947. In the Kolli Hills, annexed by the British in 1792, the ryotwari system of revenue collection (where the state collected revenue directly from the cultivators) was introduced in 1797-1798 (Saravanan, 2010). While in Koraput many non-tribal outsiders, clerks, and moneylenders occupied tribal lands (Behuria, 1966) -similar to experiences in the tribal parts of colonial British India (Rao, 2008) -in the Kolli Hills, major land-use changes began with the introduction of commercial tapioca in the early 1970s (Vedavalli and Rengalakshmi, 2019).Despite the changes in the local economy due to the land settlements and commercial crops, the de-facto situation did not change much for a long time on the ground as women continued to cultivate upland plots. While individual ownership was recognized over individual plots, the ownership and management of the ecosystem remained a collective responsibility. A farmer could not make changes or cultivate crops that would adversely impact plots downstream (Mitra and Rao, 2019). In both sites, contrary to the images of life being on the margins of subsistence, there was food self-sufficiency, considerable trade in forest products, and various arts and handicrafts. Surpluses might not have been large, but there was a balance and reciprocity with the natural environment (Mitra and Rao, 2019).Each crop has a different set of timings for different activities from planting to weeding, irrigating, and harvesting. These are gendered, with men normally performing land clearing and ploughing activities, while women are involved in sowing and weeding. In Koraput, where households now cultivate both lowland and upland crops -the former usually for sale in the market and controlled by men -women's labour is diverted to this crop, with little time available for weeding or attending to their traditional varieties, often millets and pulses, grown on the uplands. This results in a decline in the production and consumption of NUS (Rao and Raju, 2019), with negative effects also on soil productivity.An analysis of gendered time use across seasons in Koraput highlighted that it was major crops like paddy that were most time intensive for women, both during planting and harvesting. In fact, during these seasons, women had much less time available for domestic work, or household care, including self-care. Rest and leisure are not just critical for ensuring women's own health, but also the squeezing of time for domestic work directly impacts time spent on cooking and feeding, with potentially negative outcomes for children and, indeed, the entire family. Interestingly, women from the Gadaba community, who continued to practice a more diversified cropping and livelihood system, did not confront the severe time shortfalls or seasonal bodyweight losses during the peak cultivation seasons as did the Bhumiya women (Rao and Raju, 2019).There is renewed interest in diversified farming systems on grounds of food and nutrition concerns. It needs to be highlighted that these systems also valued women's time and labour, alongside ensuring they had control over the crop and its use. In India, more research that accounts for women's labour in the calculation of costs and prices of different agricultural commodities is needed. As women are counted only as 'unpaid household helpers', their labour tends to remain undervalued, with negative effects on their decision-making control, nutrition, and indeed health.A key decision area relates to the choice of crops across different types of landlowland, midlands, and uplands. Each of these land types and crop choices have different contours, water resources, and labour needs. The available market opportunities also shape household decision-making processes. This is evident in the case of Kadaguda (name changed), a village in Koraput district. Women from Paroja households used to cultivate a variety of crops, including small millets, niger, and pulses on the uplands, like all other villages in the area. Almost every household had one or two vegetable plots owned and managed by the women. Changes began about 15 years ago with the introduction of eucalyptus plantations on the uplands, and sweet potatoes on their vegetable plots. The cash income, however, officially accrues to the men, though it involves the labour of both men and women. It is not spent on the purchase of food, so dietary diversity has declined. The villagers now rely on cheap cereals from the Public Distribution System. Kadaguda was famous in the area for the quality of its fermented millet beer. This has now been replaced by cheap country liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor. Women used to drink the nutritious millet beer but now are discouraged from consuming alcohol. Their labour is appropriated, but they receive neither cash nor nutrition in return. Further, not only is crop diversity lost, but so too is women's knowledge in adapting to the microenvironment nullified. This is not to say that diversified farming systems in these communities were gender equitable. Men have always held leadership positions in the community and the household, with women excluded from participation in village or community-level decisions (Rao, 2008). Yet, similar to the case of the New Guinea Highlands, despite their exclusion from the ritual, political sphere, women's participation in production, and the social acknowledgement of that, ensured that they had a voice both in the household and in the community (Strathern, 1988). Their voice, though negotiated, could not be ignored. If this happened, women found everyday forms of protest, including through withdrawing their labour from the men's crops (Carney and Watts, 1990;Rao, 2008).The situation began to change with the introduction of the notion of private property and the issuing of pattas (Land Title) in men's names, seen as the 'heads of households'. As social relations, especially vis-à-vis the state, became more male-centric, this tendency moved down to the community level too. Bride price was gradually replaced by dowry, as women were seen as a burden, to be looked after, rather than as productive members of the household. Women's rights in terms of the choice of marriage partner, the right to divorce and remarry, and control over their bodies more generally started being restricted.While women's freedoms were curtailed, their work burdens were not. They continue to hold the primary responsibility for land management, production, and processing, yet their ability to make decisions on how to do so is constrained. While some women do resist their marginalization, new forces of development, including education, organized religion, and a cash economy based on enhancing the productivity of single crops, have limited their opportunities for resistance. As many women noted across sites, they now have fewer children and aspire to educate their children. This means that they lack household labour to manage a diversified farming system, ultimately giving in to men's pleas to shift to cash crops or contract farming (Rao and Raju, 2019). Despite a weakening in their material basis in this process, they nevertheless hope that their hard work for the household will ensure a degree of jointness in both production and consumption.The above analysis has several implications for gender-sensitive policy. While clearly recognizing women as farmers is key, and ensuring their basic entitlements to assured credit, insurance, remunerative prices, value-addition technologies, and so on, this is not sufficient. Specific constraints confronting the cultivation of NUS and maintaining diversified farming systems need to be acknowledged and addressed.An important emergent need in rural communities is that of enhancing cash earnings. This has led to the devaluation of NUS, largely seen as subsistence crops. To enhance the status and value of NUS, urgent research is needed to improve the productivity of local, resilient varieties, but equally to value addition of the entire plant biomass, including straw and husk and not just the grain. This has been attempted in case of paddy, and some plantation crops such as coconut and banana, but continues to remain neglected for millets. A second strategy to ensure minimum incomes from the cultivation of NUS is through public procurement at assured prices, provision of insurance, including at the warehouse level, and credit provision to women farmers. While minimum support prices are announced, very little of the produce is actually procured at these prices or, indeed, made available for mass consumption. In fact, due to the nutritional quality of millets, the elite, rather than the poor, are now consuming them.From a social equity and gender perspective, it is important to recognize women's contributions, both in terms of their knowledge of seeds, soils, and water management, and their time and labour spent on the cultivation and processing of these crops. Women in the Kolli Hills told the first author that they did not like to cook millets at home, not just because their children did not have a taste for it, but also because it required hand pounding and was too labour and time intensive to prepare. Research and policy need to focus on the development of labour-saving technologies that value and support women's labour in relation to NUS.Finally, promoting the cultivation of millets by adopting a cluster approach would help to enhance ecosystem services along with the collective management of pests that damage the crops. This is in the interest of all farmers, and will ultimately benefit not just women, but the entire community. DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-39Through this updated list of key players and initiatives focusing on neglected and underutilized species (NUS) around the world, we hope to facilitate possible synergies, collaborations and partnerships among organizations interested in advancing the conservation and sustainable use of these resources. Far from aiming to be exhaustive, our analysis results from consulting various sources of information obtained from published literature, unpublished reports, the internet and LinkedIn profiles. The list includes research institutions (national and international), NGOs, universities, networks, consortia, major NUS conferences, private sector companies and donors who have been supporting/are supporting NUS activities. This chapter also complements Chapter 2, which highlights some of the historical landmark events related to NUS.A number of centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) are engaged in research and development of a crops, landraces, and other plant and tree species that can be considered NUS. Here we only highlight some of the key centres.The recently launched Alliance is bringing together expertise of two centres, Bioversity International (formerly IBPGR, IPGRI) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), both with an active engagement in the promotion of NUS. With regard to Bioversity, its work on NUS dates back to its very establishment, at a time when the organization developed regional conservation strategies and priorities that included NUS (IBPGR, 1981). Currently Bioversity has just ended the fifth phase of an IFAD-EU supported programme on NUS, which was implemented from 2015 to 2020 in Guatemala, Mali and India (Padulosi et al., 2019), and a GEF-UNEP Project ended in 2019 and implemented in Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey (Hunter et al., 2019) specifically addressing the nutritional value of a large portfolio of NUS. A three-year research project funded by GIZ on NUS has been also recently launched in Ethiopia and Kenya to help communities develop their own action plans to improve nutrition and diet diversity, harnessing local agrobiodiversity (Nowicki, 2019). CIAT maintains in its germplasm collection numerous species of NUS legumes and forages of tropical origin and involved in their use enhancement.This CGIAR centre is active in promoting NUS, mostly tree species, such as moringa (Moringa oleifera), the safou plum (Dacryodes edulis) and the medicinal African plum (Prunus africana). The centre is a major partner in the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC -see later) Website: http://worldagroforestry.org/ICRISAT as a centre actively involved in the promotion of millets, for which it holds a large ex situ germplasm collection. Currently engaged in a global initiativethe \"Smart Food Initiative\", described in Chapter 28 -which covers several NUS cereals and pulses (Smart Food Executive Council, 2019). Website: www.icrisat.orgCrops for the Future (CFF) Crops for the Future was established in 2009 out of the merger of the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU) and the International Centre for Underutilized Crops. In 2011, it launched the CFF Research Centre in Malaysia, which comprises laboratories, offices and a field research centre (Gregory et al., 2019), which is currently being relocated to another country. CFF and CFF-RC became one entity in 2014. Website: http://www.cropsforthefuture.org/ Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Kew, UK In 2007, Royal Botanic Gardens-Kew launched Project MGU known as \"The Useful Plants Project\", which aims at enhancing the ex situ conservation of native useful plants for human wellbeing across Africa and Mexico by building the capacity of local communities to successfully conserve and use these species sustainably. Since its establishment, the project has been working with partners in Botswana, Kenya, Mali, Mexico and South Africa to conserve and sustainably use indigenous plants that are important to local communities (Ulian et al., 2016). More information on the project is provided in Chapter 9. Website: https:// www.kew.org/science/our-science/projects/project-mgu-useful-plants-project. Worth mentioning here is also RBG Kew's latest publication by Ulian et al. (2020), released in conjunction with the RBG's State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2020 report (Antonelli et al., 2020), in which authors stress the urgency for the better promotion and recognition of NUS' role in improving the quality, resilience and self-sufficiency of food production.The FAO has been actively involved in the promotion of NUS for some time. As a matter of fact, IPBGR (the first predecessor to Bioversity International) was established in 1974 within the FAO and from there it operated until its separation from the UN system in 1993. Through the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the FAO is active in promoting, inter alia, the genetic resources of underused species. The FAO's second Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of PGRFA is another important not legally binding multilateral framework that promotes NUS as well through its activities. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (International Treaty) considers NUS one of its priorities (Article 6e) and efforts are deployed to promote their sustainable use through its Access and Benefit-Sharing Funding Mechanism (see Chapter 31). The FAO is also active in the use-enhancement of NUS through its efforts to safeguard Indigenous Peoples' food systems. 1 Within the FAO, the Global Forum for Agricultural Research Key Focus Area 1 contains a specific collective action (1C) dedicated to \"Rediscovering Forgotten Foods and Ensuring Benefits to Smallholder Farmers Foods\". Worth mentioning is the initiative implemented by the FAO's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific on \" Future Smart Foods\", defined as NUS, carried out in the context of its efforts to achieve zero hunger. Its programme on non-wood forest products also covers many NUS in forest areas. With regard to nutrition, it is important to mention the work of its INFOODS programme, which includes information on the nutritional profile of several NUS crops and species. Website: https://www. fao.orgThe GCDT launched, in 2017, the Food Forever Initiative, a global partnership to raise awareness of the importance and urgency of conserving and using agricultural biodiversity to achieve SDG Target 2.5. This initiative is very active in promoting the wider use of crop diversity for improved nutrition, including NUS. Website: https://www.food4ever.orgThe Lexicon, USA This media company (\"The Lexicon for Sustainability\") was founded in 2009 to accelerate the adoption of practices that build more resilient food systems and help combat climate change; it is currently implementing -with the support of several organizations (including Bioversity) -the \"Rediscovered Food Initiative\", which focuses on 25 NUS from around the world. Website: https://www. thelexicon.org/rediscovered/This research centre has many activities dealing with NUS, including the maintenance of a germplasm collection of fruits, vegetables and palms (Ebert et al., 2007). Website: https://www.catie.ac.crThe World Vegetable Centre (AVRDC) This international nonprofit research and development institute, is committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables, many of which fall into the NUS category, such as traditional African leafy vegetables (see Chapter 17). In support of such a mission it maintains the world's largest public vegetable germplasm collection with more than 61,000 accessions from 155 countries, including about 12,000 accessions of indigenous vegetables, many of which are NUS. Website: https://avrdc.org/our-work/ managing-germplasm/This French agricultural research and international cooperation organization works for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions. In its key area dedicated to biodiversity, it works with partners to study the conditions in which conserving, restoring, mobilizing and exploiting biodiversity, including NUS, could help alleviate poverty and boost food security and safety. Website: https://www.cirad.fr/enWith 50 years of service at the global level, the German Agency for International Cooperation works in the field of sustainable development and international education; it engages in a variety of areas, including the sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in which it funds numerous projects, including the recently launched \"Improving Dietary Quality and Livelihoods using Farm and Wild Biodiversity through an Integrated Community-Based Approach in Ethiopia and Kenya\", which will target several highly nutritious indigenous NUS (see also Chapter 6). Website: https://www.giz.de/en/html/index.html OXFAM This international NGO is very active in the promotion of NUS to tackle food insecurity, poverty and the marginalization of vulnerable peoples. Particularly relevant is its \"Sowing Diversity=Harvesting Security\" programme, which aims to improve access and use of crop diversity (including NUS) to change the current unsustainable and unequal food production systems. Website: https://www. sdhsprogram.org/ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Among its efforts, UNESCO has numerous initiatives focusing on the safeguarding of wild and cultivated genetic food species, including NUS. The work of UNESCO for the documentation and valorization of traditional food cultures entrenched with NUS is particularly relevant; see, for example, some of the activities carried out in the context of \"The Man and the Biosphere Programme\". Website: https://en.unesco.org/This USA-based advocacy NGO works to build a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. It spotlights and supports environmentally, socially and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity and poverty and creates networks of people, organizations and content to push for food system change. Many of its initiatives focus on NUS and their sustainable promotion in today's food systems. Website: https://foodtank.com/Slow Food is a global grassroots organization founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast food and combat people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how our food choices affect the world around us. Through its Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, it works to defend local food traditions, protect food communities, preserve food biodiversity and promote quality artisanal products, with an increasing focus on the global south. Many of its projects focus on A network established in 2001 to promote the conservation and use of the genetic resources of crops of local importance in order to ensure long-term conservation and access to these genetic resources by Pacific Island populations, which in turn will contribute to sustainable development, food security and income generation. Some of the NUS that have been the focus of PAPGREN and CePaCT (below) are highlighted in Chapter 12. Website: https://lrd.spc.int/ the-pacific-plant-genetic-resources-network-papgrenThe Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) An internationally recognized gene bank established in Fiji to assist Pacific Island countries and territories in conserving the region's unique genetic resources and providing access to the diversity they need. It is a propagation material vault operated by the Pacific Community's (SPC) Land Resources Division. It conserves the region's major crops with over 2,000 accessions, including the world's largest taro collection (over 1,100 accessions). Website: https://www. spc.int/about-us For further information on other organizations working directly or indirectly on NUS such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Botanic Gardens Conservation International, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other crop-specific collaborations and thematic networks, including relevant civil society and Indigenous Peoples' networks, the reader is directed to Chapter 2 of Maxted et al. (2020).An online platform for sharing research results, development news and policy advice regarding the use and conservation of NUS. It aims to support research and promote the use of NUS to strengthen food security; build more resilient, climate-smart agriculture and empower people through income generation and revitalized local food culture. It also provides access to information and lessons from projects that Bioversity International implements jointly with research and development partners around the globe. In addition, it serves as an information hub in support of human capacity development and synergy building among practitioners engaged in this field. Website: http://www. nuscommunity.orgMajor NUS actors and ongoing efforts 401Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition (BFN) initiative (formally known as Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use for Improved Nutrition and Well-Being) commenced in 2012 and was led by Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey, coordinated and executed by Bioversity International with implementation support from the UNEP and the FAO of the United Nations. The project prioritized nutrient-rich NUS in participating countries, demonstrating and providing evidence for their nutritional value by supporting significant research on food composition. Using this expanded knowledge-base, the project undertook the challenge of strengthening the enabling environment to better promote and mainstream NUS for improved diets and nutrition, including through the development of policy incentives, markets, public food procurement, school feeding programmes and food-based dietary guidelines. The initiative also undertook considerable awareness raising, working closely with chefs and gastronomy movements, school garden networks and consumer groups. Website: http://www.b4fn.org/countries/ Crops for the Future Its website provides useful online resources on NUS, including relevant publications, portals, online libraries, weblinks and publications. More resources can also be found at the website (still accessible) of the CFF predecessor, GFU, at http://www.underutilized-species.org/MasksSearch/SearchInstitutionDetail_ id_55.html Website: http://www.cropsforthefuture.org/FutureCrop-@-LandingArticle. aspx#Other_Online_ResourcesA journal that is sensitive to NUS and has been covering them in various articles. It has also published a number of special issues on various NUS. Website: http:// www.new-ag.info/en/focus/on.php?a=423A useful site developed and maintained by Green Deane on wild greens and their foraging. It contains an online database with more than 1,000 wild edibles. Website: http://www.eattheweeds.com/An international foundation that networks with a large number of R&D organizations, within and outside tropical Africa to facilitate access to the Similar to PROTA, this international cooperative programme has the main goal of documenting information on plant resources in South East Asia, and making it widely available for use by the education, extension, research and industry sectors, as well as for the end-users, for the betterment of the livelihoods of regional communities. Website: http://proseanet.org/prosea/A collaborative space for the exchange of information on useful plants (including NUS) and their uses. It is not intended to duplicate existing encyclopedias (such as Wikipedia), but to offer additional features such as online resources, thematic literature, species lists, etc. Website: https://uses.plantnet-project.org/ en/Introduction_to_useful_plants Food Plant Solutions, Australia A project of the Rotary Action Group designed to address malnutrition through the use of readily available and local food sources. It creates educational publications that help people understand the connection between plant selection and nutrition, and empowers them to grow a range of highly nutritious plants with differing seasonal requirements and maturities. It focuses on NUS, defined as plants that are growing in and adapted to their environment, which are high in the most beneficial nutrients. Website: https://foodplantsolutions. org/about-us/ This is a free information-exchange platform devoted to the promotion of moringa and other NUS with a strong potential to improve the quality of life in developing countries. It offers consultancy services to help create and implement research, development and communication projects for NGOs and businesses. Moringa News offers through its website its knowledge, know-how and experience, as well as its still-evolving professional network of international partners. Moringa News implements research, development and communication projects (publications and seminars) with or without the partnership of other associations, businesses, farmer groups, research centres and universities. Website: http:// www.moringanews.org/gb/ The Mediterranean Germplasm Database, Italy A rich database used as reference for the germplasm collection of food crops of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources of Research Council (CNR), Bari, Italy. The collection contains some 56,000 accessions belonging to more than 100 genera and over 700 species and it devotes particular attention to landraces of major crops and NUS, including plants potentially useful for the extraction of bioactive or technological compounds. Website: https://ibbr.cnr.it/mgd/ National governmental research institutions Kenya: Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) KALRO focuses on a broad range of crops, including many considered to be NUS and supports research to generate and promote crop knowledge, information and technologies that respond to farmer needs and opportunities. KALRO also hosts the Genetic Resources Research Centre, which contains a number of NUS accessions. Most recently, through the earlier mentioned BFN project, KALRO has been active in the promotion and mainstreaming of African leafy vegetables (ALVs) in school feeding programmes and in organizing and linking local growers of ALVs to school markets.One of the largest ex situ genebanks, it maintains genetic resources of many wild and cultivated NUS and it hosts a NUS-dedicated programme (All-India Coordinated Research Network on Potential Crops) focusing on the use-enhancement of 17 of them (see later on in this chapter). Website: http://www.nbpgr.ernet.in/IER is involved in collecting, conserving and characterizing NUS, as well as in carrying out research on agroecological adaptation, propagation, food technology, marketing and promotion. Currently, it is implementing a project on NUS in partnership with Bioversity focusing on fonio and Bambara groundnut (Mbosso et al., 2020). Website: http://www.ier.gouv. Action for Social Advancement (ASA), India One of the leading NGOs in the sector of farm-based livelihoods for the poor and for natural resource management. It is engaged in the field implementation of NRM projects with active community participation, supporting communities in financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, establishing farmer producer companies, capacity building and institutional development. ASA is involved in the cultivation, promotion and marketing of minor millets, partnering also with Bioversity in the implementation of the IFAD-EU Global Programme on NUS. Website: https://asaindia.orgAn Italian non-profit foundation, located in the Umbria region of Italy and focusing on the conservation, study and promotion of local fruit-tree diversity (some 150 ecotypes rescued so far, belonging to both popular species and NUS, like quince and sorb tree). Germplasm is maintained in a field collection near Perugia. Website: http://www.archeologiaarborea.orgCABI's mission is to improve people's lives worldwide by providing information and applying expertise to solving problems in agriculture and the environment. Several of its knowledge management resources are relevant for NUS, including books, e-books and multimedia tools, the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition Action and the mobile advisory services such as m-Kisan and m-Nutrition. Website: https://www.cabi.org/ Crops of the Future Collaborative (COTF), USA Crops of the Future is a public-private collaborative established by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research to enhance US and global agriculture by developing the crops needed to feed a growing population. COTF aims to expand knowledge of the genes and traits that give rise to the characteristics crops need to adapt to a changing future. Website: https://foundationfar.org/ cotf-crops-of-the-future-collaborative/ ECHO Community, USA An international NGO engaged in promoting sustainable agricultural practices and providing assistance to local communities through training activities and other interventions. Involved in the promotion of NUS and advocating their greater use for improving the resilience, nutrition and incomes of local communities. Website: https://www.echocommunity.orgThe PROINPA Foundation promotes technical innovation to improve the competitiveness of Andean crops (including NUS), food security and the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources, for the benefit of farmers and Bolivian society as a whole. Website: http://www.proinpa.org/web/A Nepal-based organization that carries out numerous projects focusing on NUS, committed to capitalizing on local resources, innovations, and institutions for sustainable management of natural resources for improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Long-standing partner of Bioversity and other international R4D organizations. Website: http://www.libird.orgThe MSSRF was established in 1988 as a not-for-profit trust. MSSRF was envisioned and founded by Professor M.S. Swaminathan with proceeds from the First World Food Prize that he received in 1987. The Foundation aims to accelerate use of modern science and technology for agricultural and rural development to improve the lives and livelihoods of communities. MSSRF follows a pro-poor, pro-women and pro-nature approach and applies appropriate science and technology options to addressing practical problems faced by rural populations in agriculture, food and nutrition. It is involved in numerous projects focusing on NUS (see also Chapter 21). Website: https://www.mssrf.org/This Indian, Odisha-based NGO has worked with 20,000 tribal and farmer households on sustainable, biodiversity-based farming, community resilience and climate justice, land and forest rights, natural resource conservation and management and nutrition for the last two decades. It gives special emphasis to community-led processes for the conservation of agrobiodiversity and has extensively campaigned for mainstreaming millets since 2011. Website: https://www.nirmanodisha.org/ 408 Stefano Padulosi et al.The Italian Farmers' Seeds Network was established in 2007 and, as of 2014, consisted of more than 30 associations conserving and promoting local agrobiodiversity, including NUS. RSR supports farmers, politically and scientifically, in the creation and dissemination of self-and truly sustainable organic farming processes. Its objective is to rebuild sustainable agricultural systems starting from the re-localization of agriculture, territorial re-contextualization of agricultural research and the technical, political and cultural centrality of farmers and rural areas. Actively engaged in the PGR advocacy policy arena. Website: https:// www.semirurali.it/ Native Seeds/SEARCH, USA A seed conservation organization based in Tucson, Arizona, whose mission is to safeguard and promote the arid-adapted crop diversity of the southwest USA in support of sustainable farming and food security. In its gene bank, it maintains about 2,000 varieties of crops adapted to arid landscapes, including many NUS and their wild relatives. The collection represents the cultural heritage and farming knowledge of over 50 Indigenous communities and recent immigrants. Website: https://www.nativeseeds.orgIt is involved in the conservation of plant varieties and breeds. SAVE is also engaged in the documentation and promotion of the genetic diversity of NUS, including fruits and berries in Europe. Website: http://www.save-foundation. net/en/ Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI), India SRISTI is a developmental organization aiming to strengthen the creativity of grassroots communities, including individual innovators. It supports eco-friendly solutions to local problems. It also nurtures ecopreneurs engaged in conserving biodiversity, including NUS, common property resources, cultural diversity and educational innovators. Website: http://www.sristi.org/A company based in Bharatpur, Chitwan, its work is driven by a \"triple bottom line\" approach of pursuing economic, social and environmental objectives.It provides good quality seeds to farmers, for both popular varieties as well NUS, such as broadleaf mustard and amaranth. Website: https://www.anamolbiu.com/ Oroverde, Switzerland It operates, with selected tropical fruits (many of which are NUS), a trading business from the farmer to the industrial partner, encourages production models of ecological cultures, initiates the bio-certification of fruit culture regions and processing plants in Amazonia as well as of products in the consumer countries, implements quality promotion and quality assurance, develops new innovative products with and for customers and is characterized by its proximity to the producers, co-operatives and communities. Website: http://www.oroverde-fruits. com/EN/fruits.htmlThis is an online magazine for Zimbabweans and everyone else with a passion for our natural foods, natural health and our natural environment. It showcases news, stories, opinions, recipes, interviews, trends and profiles of companies to entertain and educate readers on local foods, many of which are NUS. Website: https://naturallyzimbabwean.com/2015/07/01/welcome-to-the-1st-edition/ Tulimara Specialty Foods, Zimbabwe This company focuses on processing and commercializing NUS such as indigenous beans, wild fruits and herbal tea. Website: https://www.organic-bio.com/ en/company/5173-TULIMARA-SPECIALITY-FOODS UNILEVER Its brand Knorr has teamed up with WWF-UK, plus leading scientists, nutritionists and agricultural experts, to compile the Future 50 Foods report, aiming at promoting the wider consumption of highly nutritious NUS from around the world. Website: http://www.knorr.com/uk/future50reportACIAR is Australia's specialist international agricultural R4D agency, whose purpose is to broker and fund research partnerships between Australian scientists and their counterparts in developing countries. It supports numerous efforts to research and promote NUS in the Pacific, Asia and Africa, including the promotion of traditional vegetables in Papua New Guinea, sustainable taro production in Samoa and other Pacific countries and the promotion and consumption of ALVs in schools and communities in Kenya. Website: https://www.aciar.gov.au/The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funds research in developing countries to promote growth, reduce poverty and drive large-scale positive change. The agency works with numerous development partners and brings innovations to people around the world. Many of its supported projects focus on agrobiodiversity and NUS in particular, and aim at enhancing their sustainable conservation and use. They are based in Canada with five regional offices spread across South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Website: https://www.idrc.ca/enIFAD is an international financial institution and food and agriculture hub of the United Nations. It has been championing financial support for the useenhancement of NUS since 2001, funding numerous projects (the most important being the Bioversity-led IFAD-NUS Programme). In 2019, it published jointly with Bioversity an operational framework for the promotion of NUS in its loans programme and through other R4D projects (Padulosi et al., 2019). Website: https://www.ifad.org/en/The EU has supported, over decades, numerous projects focusing on NUS. Particularly worth mentioning is the DESIRA Programme (Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture) and the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020. Both cover NUS through numerous international efforts focusing on Europe and other regions of the world. Website: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_enThe GEF is the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and provides financial support to countries for the implementation of projects to help meet their commitments within the framework of the CBD. Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and sustainable use into production landscapes is recognized as a key strategy to secure the objectives of the CBD, and as a major objective for projects supported by GEF. Over the last few decades, the GEF has provided much support for projects that actively promote the conservation and sustainable use of NUS (Hunter et al., 2019). For example, many of the projects undertaken by the UNEP as a GEF-implementing agency over the past 20 years, many with the execution support of Bioversity International, have provided a rich body of experience for ensuring the effective conservation and use of NUS. Fourteen projects in 36 countries have been implemented in diverse agricultural landscapes by a wide range of national and international partners, supported by civil society and in collaboration with local communities who continue to maintain and use globally important agricultural biodiversity (Mijatovic et al., 2018). These projects have made a substantial contribution to achieving GEF's mainstreaming strategy as well as contributing to the CBD's Aichi Biodiversity Target 13 (maintenance of genetic diversity of crops, animals and other socio-economically important species).The goal of its Collaborative Crop Research Programme is to improve access to local, sustainable, nutritious food using collaborative research and knowledgesharing with smallholder farmers, research institutions and development organizations, working to ensure a world where all have access to nutritious food that is sustainably produced by local people. Website http://www.ccrp.org/ Accessed 5 March 2020The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany GIZ is Germany's development agency that provides services in the field of international development cooperation. It funds and/or supports several projects focusing on NUS to strengthen food and nutrition security, income generation and the empowerment of vulnerable groups. https://www.giz.de/en/html/ about_giz.htmlThe Foundation supports projects dealing with agrobiodiversity, including NUS, and aims at the conservation of plant genetic resources, and the enhanced use of NUS for improved nutrition and income generation (see A4NH-led Project in Nigeria and Vietnam, the African Orphan Crops Consortium and the Crop Trust). Website: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ USAID Actively engaged in fighting hunger at the global level, through its programme \"Feed the Future\", it covers also the use-enhancement of NUS. One of its projects being implemented in Kenya (FOODSCAP) addressed the shortage of improved crop varieties and plant protection options for orphan crops or open-pollinated varieties. Website: https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/ agriculture-and-food-security/increasing-food-security-through-feed-future 412 Stefano Padulosi et al.Committed to empowering the disadvantaged, this organization works on providing solutions to some of the world's most complex social, agricultural and environmental challenges, partnering with communities to develop and implement strategies that boost food production and that are resilient in the face of a changing climate, including NUS as well in these interventions. Website: https://www.winrock.org/about/ Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA)It provides financial and technical support to a number of projects focusing on NUS. Website: https://www.ipixel.ch/images/Syngenta_Review_2018.pdfThe consortium was established in 2011 to facilitate the genetic improvement of NUS, through the genomic characterization of 101 traditional African local food crops. Its core founding members are the World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Mars Inc., AUDA-NEPAD, the University of California -Davis (USA) and WWF. Website: http://africanorphancrops.org/Operating under NBPGR (ICAR), New Delhi, this collaborative network has as its main objective the generation of improved technologies in selected crops of minor economic importance for food, fodder and industrial use. It coordinates and conducts research on 17 crops of food, fodder and industrial value through various centres across agro-climatic zones of India. Website: http://www.nbpgr. ernet.in/AICRN_on_PC.aspxISHS is actively engaged in promoting knowledge sharing on horticultural crops, including NUS, through conferences and symposia. It has a Work Group on Underutilized Plant Genetic Resources that meets usually during the Symposia on Underutilized Plant Species (see below). Website: https://www.ishs.org/This was established in 2007 to promote community action for the revival of millet-based farming and food systems, placing control of food, seeds, markets and natural resources in the hands of the poor, especially women. Today, it is a large alliance of over 120 members representing over 50 farmer organizations, scientists, nutritionists, civil society groups, media persons and women. They represent over 15 rainfed states of India. Website: https://milletindia.org/ The Forgotten Foods Network, Malaysia A global initiative launched by CFF that collects and shares information on foods, recipes and traditions in danger of being lost. The objective is to promote the rediscovery of foods that can transform the way people eat and that could better nourish future populations. Website: http://www.forgottenfoodsnetwork.org/The Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) APAARI was established by the FAO in 1990, it is a membership-based, apolitical, multi-stakeholder and inter-governmental regional organization working to bridge gaps between national, regional and global stakeholders to bring about collective change in the agri-food systems of Asia-Pacific. They are involved in numerous initiatives for the promotion of NUS, including dedicated NUS conferences (see Tyagi et al., 2017). Website: https://www.apaari.org/This is a network of more than 250 members of civil society organizations/NGOs working with small-scale farmers in East, Central and Southern Africa engaged in promoting participatory ecological land use and management practices including promoting indigenous foods/NUS. Website: https://www. pelum.net/This is a Southeast Asian initiative focusing on the conservation and useenhancement of plant and animal genetic resources, including NUS (focus on local vegetables). Website: https://field-indonesia.or.id/en/participatoryenhancement-of-diversity-of-genetic-resources/The many initiatives listed above are a genuine indication of the fact that concrete interest in NUS has become a reality at both the national and international levels. While this is an excellent development, more should be done to connect isolated efforts to avoid duplications, allow better use of limited funding and build a robust collaborative network at the regional and international levels to bring impact to scale. In particular, more resources should be directed in support DOI: 10.4324/9781003044802-40In what could be considered a modern food paradox, current human diets have narrowed to a very small number of food items worldwide, even though globalization and people's mobility should increase the availability and integration of foods from almost anywhere into more diversified diets everywhere. Many factors have led us to this condition. Well before the onset of agriculture, the diet of early humans consisted of a wide variety of fruits, grains, leaves, seeds, nuts, tubers, mushrooms, lichens, flowers and even plant saps, collected over vast territories by communities of hunter gatherers. From the roughly 375,000 plant species known in the world today (Christenhusz and Byng, 2018), it is estimated that between 6,000 and 7,000 are edible for humans (FAO, 2019). Many of them may have been part of the diets of human population around the world. Sedentarization, made possible by the invention of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, brought more predictable and available food sources and accelerated human population growth. But it also had some unintended consequences. It triggered a gradual process of erosion of the number of plant species and food sources that provide the necessary nutrients for human survival. From the vast number of viable food sources, only around 200 plant species were subsequently cultivated, and the continued race for higher yields and selected plant characteristics further reduced that number to about 30 major crops that constitute today the large majority of our plant-based foods. Three of them -maize, rice and wheat -alone account for around 60% of our global energy intake (Seck et al., 2012).Modern agriculture has undeniably improved food available but it has not yet succeeded in providing sufficient calories and adequate nutrients to everyone on the planet. Despite significant progress over recent decades, the number of undernourished people is growing again, rising from 784 million in 2015 to 820A well-nourished world and NUS on the table 417 million in 2018 (FAO et al., 2019). Insufficient food consumption is only part of the challenge; today, more than two billion people, many of them children, do not consume sufficient micronutrients. There is also a realization that the success in increasing agricultural productivity has come at a cost: the progressive reduction in nutrient content for most cultivated species, particularly the major staple foods (Willett et al., 2019). This constant impoverishment of food diversity is masked by the industrialization of food processing, which transforms a small number of plants and ingredients into a multitude of products and presentations, giving the false impression of a great abundance and diversity of food sources. Processed foods are typically high in energy and poor in nutrients. As our consumption of industrialized foods increases, the impact becomes apparent and difficult to ignore. More than two billion people in both developed and developing countries have become overweight or obese. This is now recognized as one of the major challenges to global health that societies have to address (WHO, 2018).If we want to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, business as usual is not an option, and our food systems need a drastic and rapid transformation. Several changes are necessary, and part of the solution is at handbringing back more diversity to our diet and reintroducing or revalorizing some of the numerous crops that used be part of our ancestral diets (Mayes et al., 2012). We must use our knowledge on best agronomic practices to increase the production of these crops without losing their nutrient value, and must take advantage of existing and novel food technologies to add value and create new products based on those crop species. In the next sections, we would like to illustrate how this can be achieved.A growing body of scientific evidence (Ebert, 2014;Nyadanu and Lowor, 2015) shows that traditional but undervalued and underutilized food sources, frequently have a higher nutrient content and are particularly rich in minerals, vitamins and dietary fibre, which are the missing component in many \"modern aliments\". Recognizing the potential of traditional food, the Agriculture and Food Security Program 1 of the International Development Research Centre in Canada 2 launched, a decade ago, an ambitious research initiative to generate scientific evidence on the potential of underutilized crops for our food systems. The effort targeted communities that still consumed undervalued traditional foods and looked at ways to reintroduce or increase the production and consumption of plant species with high nutrient content from various regions of the world. Two large programs supported this work: the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, 3 jointly funded by Global Affairs Canada, and the Cultivating Africa's Future program, 4 a joint initiative with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. Results from these programs clearly showed the potential for underutilized crops and the willingness of local populations to produce and consume them, but also demonstrated that they could represent an attractive and viable business model for new agri-entrepreneurs, particularly for the youth and women. Scientific methods documented the potential of indigenous species to contribute to daily diets (as components of new foods or through new presentations of traditional foods), and as new sources of compounds for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry.The following examples illustrate this potential.Ancient crops, new terrains: In the narrow terraces of Nepal, the availability of arable land and crops species that can thrive on terraces present major constraints. The \"Nepal Terrace Farming and Sustainable Agriculture Kits\" 5 project tested an innovative public -private model to scale up low-cost and regionally relevant sustainable agriculture kits to address these limitations, reduce drudgery for farmers -the vast majority of whom are women -and increase farmers' income and food security. Implemented as a collaboration between LI-BIRD 6 in Nepal and the University of Guelph in Canada, researchers developed a set of options to make use of the terrace's vertical walls. The toolkit included species of local value such as climbing beans, and also introduced others such as chayote (Sechium edule -originally from Central America), and yams (Dioscorea spp. from Southeast Asia). Yams were planted in sacks at the base of the walls, which simplified the harvesting of the tubers and provided an important source of income for farmers, while chayote found a niche in local cuisines and as food for small livestock and poultry.The toolkits included inputs and seeds for growing high-protein legumes and micronutrient-rich vegetables, as well as small technologies such as manual corn shellers and kneepads from which farmers could select based on their preferences, needs and opportunities. The project also took advantage of established local retailers to sell products that farmers identified as needed and for which they were willing to pay. Overall, the project reached more than 60,000 smallholderfarming households in nine districts in Central Nepal, impacting more than 173,000 people. Adoption of the toolkit earned families up to US$200 a season and reduced female drudgery (Chapagain and Raizada, 2017) while at the same time allowing households to significantly increase their dietary diversity. The project proved that when technologies are affordable enough and are properly explained using tools such as picture books (Raizada and Smith, 2019) designed for illiterate farmers, they can be quickly and widely adopted.Greens to the plate: In Nigeria and Benin, the project \"Microveg\", 7 run by a consortium of universities from Benin, Nigeria and Canada, reintroduced and promoted several species of indigenous vegetables particularly rich in micronutrients, iron and zinc that were locally produced and consumed but not on a commercial scale. The project identified the best-yielding varieties with high micronutrient content, established seed multiplication systems by farmer cooperatives and trained farmers on the best agronomic practices. Four species of indigenous vegetables were particularly appreciated and were adopted by farmers in the two countries: fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis), African eggplant A well-nourished world and NUS on the table 419 (Solanum macrocarpon), amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) and African basil (Ocimum gratissimum).The project trained more than 250,000 farmers who increased, by ten-fold, the area cultivated with indigenous vegetables (from 8,090 to 82,000 ha in three years) (Kanyinsola et al., 2018). It increased the demand for indigenous vegetables, developed new products based on these crops such as syrups and bottled beverages, breads and cookies and expanded markets through promotional campaigns. Over 20,000 women were involved in the marketing of indigenous vegetable products. New business, mostly operated by young entrepreneurs from the community were initiated and have continued operating successfully. Novel research identified a variety of polyphenol compounds extracted from these indigenous vegetables, with potential applications in the nutraceutical industry (Moussa et al., 2019), and suggest that they can reduce blood pressure and control diabetes (Olarewaju et al., 2018). The potential of these products is immense and will hopefully spearhead research on other underutilized crops in Africa and beyond (Odunlade et al., 2019). The project organized the first International Conference on indigenous vegetables in Cotonou, Benin in 2017, which led to the publication of a special issue on African vegetables in the Acta Horticulturae Journal in 2019.Pulses once again on the menu: Legume seeds (or pulses) are particularly rich in proteins, iron, zinc and micronutrients and have been an important part of traditional diets. They are not only good for human nutrition and health, but also play a role in improving soil quality, thanks to their symbiotic association with soil microorganisms (Rhizobia) that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, making it available to plants. Legumes have dispersed from their sites of origin to reach almost every place where agriculture is practiced. Common beans from Mesoamerica are now cultivated globally, and lentils, faba beans, and chickpeas from the Middle East have become staple foods in South Asia and are widely consumed worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Despite this apparent success, the true potential of pulses for global food systems is far from being realized.In Ethiopia, despite recent progress on food security, malnutrition remains a challenge. The levels of stunting ranks among the highest in the world and anaemia affects nearly 37% of children under the age of five. The project \"Pulse Innovations: Food and Nutrition Security in Southern Ethiopia\" 8 tested and adapted technologies to allow farmers to increase their incomes by planting pulses on land that was often left idle after the cereal harvest. The establishment of women's micro-franchises increased employment for women and their participation in production and marketing, improved household nutrition, and popularized pulse products. Consumers in 15 districts were introduced to ready-to-eat, pulse-rich products and more than 23,000 female-led farm households in 52 villages benefited from recipe demonstrations, complementary food preparation training, improved children feeding practices, and nutrition education (Kabata et al., 2017) and demonstrated that the dietary diversity of children and lactating mothers improved with pulse consumption. A unique partnership between male and female farmers, processors, consumers, universities, and the government transformed subsistence agriculture into a dynamic and market-oriented enterprise. There has been especial interest in expanding the use of the Hawassa Dume seed variety, which produced higher yields, is preferred by consumers, and has proven to be highly resilient to heavy rainfalls and flooding.Another project on \"Scaling Legume Technologies in Tanzania\" 9 aimed to introduce soybeans and locally desirable common bean varieties in Tanzania where demand is growing and legumes are fetching good market value. Over a period of two years, an estimated 656,000 farming family members were provided consistent information on improved legume technologies through multimedia campaigns. Six radio series were created and broadcasted nationally, and interactive radio campaigns were launched to target large audiences. Community radio listening groups, with space for listeners to question and discuss information, proved particularly effective at reaching women and youth. A dedicated series of a comic book called Shujaaz, developed and distributed nationwide to reach young people in bean-farming families in target areas, reached more than 23% of Tanzanian youth. These multimedia campaigns, complemented by farmer-to-farmer exchanges and demonstration schools, resulted in an estimated 128,589 farming family members adopting at least one of the improved legume technology practices such as improved seeds, row spacing, fertilizing, weeding, and storage (Kansiime et al., 2018). The adoption of soya bean, introduced by the project, led to the rapid increase of production to feed small livestock and poultry and is being progressively integrated into local diets. The international market is booming, and the government is facilitating an increase in national production for export. Soybean is a good example of legumes that can and should play a role in local food systems. The project successfully influenced key policies in Tanzania to speed-up seed varieties registration, cut input costs, and expand communitybased seed systems for the adoption of new varieties. The Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) significantly altered its business model by stocking seeds for both soybean and common bean varieties, and private-sector seed producers are following suit. ASA developed a network that trained 75 agro-dealers on input business management.The declaration of 2016 as the \"international year of pulses\" by the FAO brought to the forefront the potential of underutilized species, contributed to their dissemination, and opened new opportunities for farmers in many regions. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and its partners worked with a high-level group of public-and private-sector experts to develop an internationally coordinated pulse crop productivity and sustainability research strategy for the following ten years. 10Finger millets, from obscurity to supermarkets: Finger millet was domesticated more than 5,000 years ago in the highlands of Ethiopia. It spread within Africa and rapidly reached northern India, where it has been part of traditional dishes for centuries. The manual processing of small millets is tedious and labour intensive, which contributed to a rapid decline in their consumption. Lower yields compared to other cereals, weak supply chains, poor consumer awareness, inadequate or inefficient processing facilities, and policy neglect led to the quasi disappearance of finger millet from markets. Implemented by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, the DHEA Foundation in India, and the University of Toronto, the project \"Scaling up small millet production and consumption in India\", 11 developed and reintroduced improved higher-yield varieties into a large number of farms in northern India. It also developed more efficient and user-friendly equipment for de-hulling and processing small millets, which increased production and reduced women's drudgery. Increasing equipment manufacturers' capacity to produce and sell more de-hulling machines supported the development of decentralized small millet processing infrastructures in eastern and central India. Over the course of the project, 72,490 people, mostly women, farmers, and schoolchildren, were trained on the health benefits of small millets (Adekunle et al., 2018) and more than 200,000 people learned about the values of small millets through programs aired on community radio and local TV, and through text and audio messages.A wide range of small millet food products such as cookies, flour, chips and noodles were developed collaboratively with women farmers; the project worked with 66 food enterprises, 152 pushcart millet-porridge vendors, four Farmer Producer Organizations, and 15 non-governmental organizations to expand the market for ready-to-eat small millet products. Private-sector involvement was instrumental in the marketing of these new products and close coordination with local governments facilitated seed production and distribution systems, making it possible for finger millets to be sold, once again, in most markets and supermarkets in northern India. Small millets are being introduced through public food programs in India and there are opportunities to scale up the experience in other countries in South Asia and Africa, where the demand for drought-resistant varieties is growing and where millet is slowly being reintroduced into local diets and avant-garde cuisines in urban centres.A new time for traditional cereals: Sorghum is a staple food consumed by more than 60 million people in Ethiopia. The crop is also a major source of animal feed, fuel, and building material. However, sorghum production is risky and the increased frequency and severity of droughts compound the challenges faced by Ethiopian farmers, exposing them to food shortages and livestock losses due to a lack of feed. Currently, 70% of sorghum grain is consumed domestically, with women providing most of the labour and trading for the crop. The project \"Climate-smart interventions for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia\" 12 is trying to revalorize the production and consumption of sorghum through the development and promotion of improved and drought-tolerant sorghum varieties and post-harvest management technologies, and the development of new value chains. The project will improve productivity and climate resilience for 240,000 smallholder sorghum farmers, reduce post-harvest loss through farm-scale grain storage options, and increase economic opportunities for women through value-added products, small-scale threshers, and improved storage facilities. It is implemented by the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute.An ancestral taste from the Andes going global: Even though quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is increasingly marketed in Western countries as a \"superfood\", it has been, for millennia, the main staple food of the Indigenous Peoples of the highland Andes in Bolivia and Peru. It is a robust plant that can grow at high elevations, tolerate extreme temperature fluctuations, and adapt to dry zones and even saline soils. Appetite for this gluten-free cereal with a high nutritional value is growing rapidly among the affluent consumers in Europe, North America, and Asia. Limited research investments to improve varieties and agronomic practices has led to the tripling of yields and quinoa has made rapid strides to become a commercially significant crop in a relatively short time. Quinoa production increased globally ten-fold in one decade and the cereal is now grown in more than 70 countries. Given its remarkable qualities, it constitutes a viable alternative for many regions of the world (Bastidas et al., 2016), especially where water is in short supply and where soils are depleted. The project \"Scaling up Quinoa Value Chain to Improve Food and Nutritional Security in rural Morocco\", implemented by the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture, brought experts in quinoa production from the Andes to select and introduce best varieties and agronomic practices in Morocco. Although the project is still ongoing, it has generated strong interest from farmer cooperatives and local governments, which are promoting its integration into local diets and developing the value chains necessary to supply a growing external market.Following efforts from the Government of Bolivia, supported by IDRC, 2013 was declared by the UN as the \"International Year of Quinoa\". That helped to bring together different sectors and stakeholders, farmers, governments, scientists, and the private sector and contributed to advancing the crop internationally. The example of quinoa illustrates how underutilized species can evolve from being forgotten and underutilized to becoming important staple crops beyond their homelands.There is a renewed interest worldwide in expanding and diversifying food sources. The body of scientific literature on underutilized and undervalued food crop species is slowly growing and receiving international attention, as illustrated by publications on quinoa, which have multiplied ten-fold in the last five years (Inglese et al., 2017;FAO, 2018). Attention to underutilized species is growing in many countries. Quinoa and lentils have been prioritized in the National Food Security Plans of the Government of Bhutan, and taro and moringa by several countries in South and Southeast Asia (Li and Siddique, 2018).The hype about \"superfoods\" and a new generation of food-conscious consumers represent an opportunity to bring back some of the great diversity of colours, shapes, and flavours that humanity once consumed. To move forward, we urgently need to preserve germplasms and select high-yield and high-nutrientcontent varieties that can adapt to diverse conditions and locations. We must also change the common misperception that these species are \"poor people's crops\". Local knowledge is rapidly eroding and urgent efforts are required to recover and document traditional knowledge and practices regarding underutilized species. Production and post-harvest practices need to be modernized, value chains for added value products developed, and resources made available to enhance the capacity of researchers, policymakers, extension agents, farmers and farming cooperatives, and especially the private sector to realize the full potential of underutilized crops.The resilience of food systems and their capacity to provide sufficient healthy food to a growing population require the inclusion of a greater diversity of crops, many of which are currently undervalued. Many cultures around the world have successfully preserved the culinary knowledge, cultural value, and cultivation and processing techniques for underutilized crops over time; it is now time for science to support their efforts and contribute to the improvement of desired traits and the enhancement of productivity and income-generation opportunities. Underutilized crop species have allowed ancient civilizations to flourish and can, once again, regularly feature in our diets and lead to the development of new food preparations and even new medicines. The IDRC is committed to continuing its efforts to rescue and revitalize underutilized crops and alternative food practices as a key contribution to the development of equitable and resilient food systems. ","tokenCount":"108025"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7784de31b3d9f139ae2717a91247a141","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9472f407-2b5c-4f26-9c9d-83462c352fb8/retrieve","id":"1915434999"},"keywords":["Laos","Myanmar","Vietnam","China","Fusarium wilt","single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)","phytogeography","The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)"],"sieverID":"703277f9-620f-474c-a12d-39e8aa6f222c","pagecount":"9","content":"Banana is the most popular and most exported fruit and also a major food crop for millions of people around the world. Despite its importance and the presence of serious disease threats, research into this crop is limited. One of those is Panama disease or Fusarium wilt. In the previous century Fusarium wilt wiped out the \"Gros Michel\" based banana industry in Central America. The epidemic was eventually quenched by planting \"Cavendish\" bananas. However, 50 years ago the disease recurred, but now on \"Cavendish\" bananas. Since then the disease has spread across South-East Asia, to the Middle-East and the Indian subcontinent and leaped into Africa. Here, we report the presence of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4) in \"Cavendish\" plantations in Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. A combination of classical morphology, DNA sequencing, and phenotyping assays revealed a very close relationship between the Foc TR4 strains in the entire Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), which is increasingly prone to intensive banana production. Analyses of single-nucleotide polymorphisms enabled us to initiate a phylogeography of Foc TR4 across three geographical areas-GMS, Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East revealing three distinct Foc TR4 sub-lineages. Collectively, our data place these new incursions in a broader agroecological context and underscore the need for awareness campaigns and the implementation of validated quarantine measures to prevent further international dissemination of Foc TR4.Panama disease or Fusarium wilt is caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc), and was first described in Australia in 1874 (Bancroft, 1876). The fungus penetrates the roots and from there colonizes the vascular system of the banana plant. Together with the plant responses, this results in occlusion of the xylem vessels which causes wilting and eventually death of infected plants (Guo et al., 2014). The decimation of susceptible \"Gros Michel\" bananas that were grown in large-scale monoculture plantations in Central America during the 1900s earned Fusarium wilt its reputation as a pathogen of global significance. Losses of \"Gros Michel\" were first recognized in Central America (Costa Rica and Panama) in 1890, and were soon reported in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America (Ploetz, 2015). The Fusarium wilt epidemic was caused by a set of Foc strains that are collectively called Race 1 and decimated the large-scale monocultures of \"Gros Michel\" on which the banana industry in America relied. No effective control methods were found other than replacing \"Gros Michel\" with resistant \"Cavendish\" bananas in Central America during the 1960s. This replacement has been highly successful to quench the Fusarium wilt epidemic that was caused by Foc Race 1 strains. Since then, \"Cavendish\" production expanded into large global monocultures, which are evidently prone to disease threats, including black Sigatoka and Panama disease (Ordoñez et al., 2015b;Arango Isaza et al., 2016;Diaz-Trujillo et al., 2018). However, this has not resulted in global research efforts to neutralize these problems. Therefore, another genetic lineage of Foc [vegetative compatibility group (VCG) 01213], colloquially called Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4), which originates from Indonesia and affects many banana varieties, including those belonging to the \"Cavendish\" group, has now developed into a global threat (Ordoñez et al., 2015b). It has spread to five Asian \"Cavendish\"-producing countries and Australia, and was recently also discovered in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Africa (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a;Ploetz et al., 2015;Promusa, 2016). Therefore, the global banana industry is under serious threat by this soil-borne fungal disease (Ploetz and Churchill, 2011;Pocasangre et al., 2011;Shabani et al., 2014;Ordoñez et al., 2015b), and its recent rapid spread has raised international concerns with regard to future food security in the tropics and sustainability of the international banana trade that is nearly exclusively based on \"Cavendish\" clones (D'hont et al., 2012;FAO, 2014). Currently, \"Cavendish\" clones comprise 15% of the global banana production but they are increasingly gaining importance for domestic markets. Presently, they occupy ∼40% (Ploetz et al., 2015) of the total global area. Clearly, this comes with a huge risk for a pandemic as these clones are susceptible to Foc TR4. The vegetative propagation of planting material and a lack of diversification efforts over the last century have increased the genetic vulnerability of the crop to unacceptable levels, which threatens food security. This urges for international, regional, and local measures aimed at prevention and management of this destructive disease (Ploetz, 2015).The biological complexity of soil-borne diseases-with surviving propagules that remain viable for decades-and taking into account the historical track-record of Foc (Li et al., 2013), demonstrates that disease management has proven to be difficult (Ploetz, 2015). Hence, prevention is currently the major strategy to avoid new Foc TR4 incursions. In 1967, Foc TR4 surfaced in Taiwan, supposedly after introduction of infected plants from Sumatera, Indonesia (Su et al., 1977;Hwang and Ko, 2004). From there, it has disseminated likely into the Chinese province of Fujian, and then gradually to Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and finally in 2009 to Yunnan (Sun et al., 1978;Su et al., 1986;Hwang and Ko, 2004;Qi et al., 2008;Buddenhagen, 2009;Li et al., 2013). The expansion of Foc TR4 was facilitated by new large scale \"Cavendish\" production practices across this area along with limited awareness and lacking quarantine measures. The cultivation of \"Cavendish\" now shifts to Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion because of limited suitable land for banana production to meet the increasing market demand. During a survey in Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar in March and May 2016 we observed the presence of Fusarium wilt in \"Cavendish\" plantations. Here, we provide details on the regional and international expansion of Foc TR4, which is worrisome as it threatens both food security and the international trade (Ordonez et al., 2015a;Ploetz et al., 2015;Mostert et al., 2017).To investigate the presence of Foc TR4 we sampled commercial \"Cavendish\" plantations in Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Yunnan during March and May 2016 (Table 1, Figure 1). Samples from Guangxi and Guangdong were collected during 2011-2014. Banana plants affected by Fusarium wilt which showed yellowing older leaves or a skirt of dead leaves around the pseudostem were internally sampled. Discolored vascular strands were collected from five plants at each location. Samples were wrapped in paper bags and maintained in a cool box until arrival in the laboratory.The collected samples were processed for Foc isolation and characterization as described earlier (Dita et al., 2010;García-Bastidas et al., 2014). Half of the dried vascular strands were placed on Komada medium (Leslie and Summerell, 2006) and the remaining part was used for DNA extraction to verify the presence of Foc TR4 (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a). Once purified single spore cultures were obtained, total DNA was isolated with the Wizard R Magnetic DNA Purification System for Food kit (Promega, Madison, USA)-following the manufacturer's instructions-for multiplex PCR analyses using diagnostic primers for Foc TR4 as well as for elongation factor-1α internal controls (Dita et al., 2010). Amplicons were visualized on agarose gels (1.2%, Roche, Mannheim, Germany) using an UV illuminator (Herolab, Wiesloch, Germany). Subsequently,  one positive Foc TR4 strain for each country was phenotyped under greenhouse conditions (Unifarm, Wageningen, The Netherlands) following earlier reported protocols (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a). For each strain we used six highly susceptible \"Grand Naine\" plants (biological replicates) that were placed randomly in the greenhouse, along with the appropriate controls (negative: water and Foc Race 1 from Cruz das Almas, Brazil, positive: Foc TR4 reference isolate II5/VCG01213). The inoculated plants and the controls were monitored weekly and final external and internal scoring was conducted seven weeks after inoculation by a team of three experimentators according to previously reported protocols (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a). Corm tissue of each plant was collected and plated on Komada medium for fungal isolation and subsequent PCR confirmation of Foc TR4 as causal agent.To determine the identity of the strains and their relationship with other strains, one Foc TR4 strain from each country was arbitrarily selected for whole-genome sequencing at the Beijing Genome Institute (Hong Kong, China), using Illumina technology, yielding ∼20 million cleaned reads (150 nt). To establish the phylogenetic relationship between the publically available F. oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici isolate Fol 4287 (Ma et al., 2010) and a range of Foc isolates (Table 2) we utilized the reference sequence alignment-based phylogeny builder (REALPHY; v. 1.11) (Bertels et al., 2014). As previously described (Woudenberg et al., 2015) for Alternaria genomes, Illumina generated short reads and sequence fragments (100 nt) derived from the previously assembled genomes (Fol4286 and Foc TR4 II5) were mapped against the Foc TR4 II5 reference genome using Bowtie2, followed by the extraction of high quality (default settings) polymorphic and non-polymorphic sites conserved in all analyzed isolates. The final pseudo-molecule was used to infer a maximumlikelihood phylogeny using PhyML with the generalized time reversible (GTR) nucleotide substitution model, and the robustness of the phylogeny was assessed using 500 bootstrap replicates.  Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified using GATK v3.3.0 (DePristo et al., 2011) by mapping short reads against the Foc TR4 II5 reference using BWA-mem, and duplicate reads were marked using Picard tools. Genomic variants were identified using GATK HaploTypeCaller, and a joint variant call set was generated using GATK GenotypeGVCFs. Subsequently, SNP variants were selected and filtered to retain high quality SNPs. These were used to determine the relationship between Foc TR4 isolates using a principle component analyses (PCA; R, adegenet package) and hierarchical clustering (UPGMA; R).In Laos and Myanmar, the predominant banana variety encountered in the plantations was the \"Cavendish\" variety \"Brazilian, \" while in the northern part of Vietnam \"Cavendish\" selection \"Guijiao No. 6\" was grown. Samples from Yunnan were collected in the Honghe and Xishuangbana prefectures in 2016 from the \"Cavendish\" varieties \"Nantianhuang, \" \"Brazilian\" or \"Guijiao No. 6.\" Fusarium wilt was observed in all plantations (Figure 1). In total 19 samples were collected; five samples from variety \"Brazilian\" in Laos and Myanmar, four samples from variety \"Guijiao No 6\" in Vietnam and five samples from variety \"Nantianhuang\" in Yunnan (Table 1, Figure 1). Analyses of the samples resulted in 16 isolates of which 13 were identified as Foc TR4 by diagnostic (463 bp) PCR reactions. The negative samples were positive for elongation factor-1α PCR (648 bp) and hence the DNA was present and of adequate quality. Positive controls yielded the diagnostic 463 bp PCR product and the negative controls did not show any DNA amplification (Figure 2).We selected one Foc TR4 isolate from Vietnam, Yunnan, Myanmar, and Laos for confirmatory phenotyping assays. Except the control plants inoculated with Foc Race 1 or untreated controls (water), all inoculated \"Grand Naine\" plants showed typical external symptoms of Fusarium wilt starting from the fourth week after inoculation. The disease progressed steadily FIGURE 2 | Identification of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense from samples derived from Yunnan, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam as Tropical Race 4 (Foc TR4) by PCR. Specific DNA bands for Foc TR4 (463 bp) and elongation factor-1α (648 bp) are indicated on the left. TR4-II5 was taken as positive control \"Foc TR4*\"; The Foc Race 1 strain was used as negative control (-control) (Dita et al., 2010).during incubation until plants were externally and internally scored for disease severity at seven weeks after inoculation. At that stage, all plants inoculated with Foc TR4 diagnosed strains were completely decayed. The Foc Race 1 inoculated plants, however, were healthy and unaffected by Foc, similar as the water controls (Figure 3).All inoculated plants and controls were sampled for another round of verification. In contrast to the controls (water and Race 1), all rhizomes from diseased plants enabled re-isolation of Foc. The resulting cultures showed typical Foc morphologies on Komada media (Figure 4) and subsequent Foc TR4 diagnostic PCR tests were positive for all reisolated strains (not shown).We used whole-genome sequencing of each representative Foc TR4 strain for each GMS country and comparisons with the previously sequenced Foc TR4 strains from recently reported incursions were performed to study their genetic relatedness. The maximum-likelihood phylogeny of the genome sequences clearly confirmed that these strains belong to the Foc TR4 genetic lineage (Ordoñez et al., 2015b). Subsequent comparative analyses among the GMS Foc TR4 strains and those from recent incursions in Jordan, Lebanon, and Pakistan as well as a Philippine Foc TR4 strain revealed a total of 251 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were distributed across the genome (Supplemental Table 1, Supplemental Figure 1). Subsequent principal component analyses (PCA; Figure 5) and hierarchical clustering revealed three geographically distinct groups of Foc TR4 isolates, despite the overall limited amount of SNPs indicative of the clonality of Foc TR4 strains. One group represents the GMS Foc TR4 strains including the strain from Yunnan, China. A second group links the recent Pakistan incursion (Ordonez et al., 2015a) with the Philippine Foc TR4 strain. The third group shows a strong similarity between the recent incursion of Foc TR4 in Lebanon and Jordan (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a). Some of the analyzed SNPs were indicative of inconsistencies based on the FocII5 reference genome. Therefore, we further filtered the SNPs more stringently, yielding a subset of 161 SNPs (Supplemental Table 1). Overall, the resulting PCA and the hierarchical cluster (Supplemental Figures 2, 3) were nearly indistinguishable from the initial plots, thereby supporting the occurrence of three geographically distinct groups.This study provides the earliest collected records of Foc TR4 in Vietnam and Laos and its first report in Myanmar. Recently, Mostert et al. (2017) denied the presence of Foc TR4 in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand based on samples that were collected a decade ago, but (Chittarath et al., 2017;Hung et al., 2017) confirmed it in Vietnam and Laos. Our genome analyses revealed a set of SNPs that we used to further analyze the genetic diversity of Foc TR4 strains. Isolates from Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar are genetically closely related and resemble the Foc TR4 strain from Yunnan. Furthermore, we demonstrate genetic association between the Foc TR4 strains from Pakistan and the Philippines as well as between the strains from Lebanon and Jordan. Although Foc TR4 is an asexually reproducing fungus which therefore shows a very strong linkage disequilibrium, clonal evolution does occur as evidenced by genetic clustering which enabled our biogeographical analysis (Tibayrenc and Ayala, 2012).Recently, we demonstrated that the globally disseminating Foc TR4 strain represents essentially a single clone (Ordoñez et al., 2015b). Hence, it was difficult to unveil the origin of new incursions. However, we identified 251 high value SNPs that also after filtering elucidate basic associations between the here identified Foc TR4 strains. Such analyses were recently also used to reveal the dissemination of the quarantine pathogen Xylella fastidiosa in olive trees (Loconsole et al., 2014). Here, such a phylogeography approach provides initial evidence that Foc TR4 in Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar was likely introduced from China. This supports the circumstantial evidence of ongoing Foc TR4 epidemics on \"Cavendish\" plantations in these countries and adjacent Chinese provinces, which were developed by Chinese banana entrepreneurs. The SNP analyses also revealed that the Foc TR4 strains from the Philippines and from Pakistan are closely related. Since Foc TR4 was diagnosed in the Philippines in 2005 (Molina et al., 2009) and is currently omnipresent in Mindanao, the recent incursion in Pakistan (Ordonez et al., 2015a) seems to originate from the Philippines. Similarly, the phylogeography data set indicates that the Foc TR4 incursions in Lebanon and Jordan are associated (García-Bastidas et al., 2014).The introduction of large scale \"Cavendish\" monocultures in the GMS resulted in displacement of local peoples, disputes on landownership and also resulted in a rapid decrease in forest area, which challenges ecological stability (Rerkasem et al., 2009;Yoshida et al., 2010;Friis and Nielsen, 2016). We demonstrate that it also facilitated yet another expansion of Foc TR4. The dissemination of Foc TR4 in China upon the initial introduction from Taiwan is not well documented. Evidently, low awareness among banana growers and industry stakeholders has resulted in an almost unlimited movement of banana suckers, contaminated nursery soils, and farming equipment as well as the use of contaminated surface irrigation water. Our phylogeography approach indicates that these practices and the mobility of banana stakeholders may have contributed to the expansion of Foc TR4 (Drenth and Guest, 2016).Similar to the previous Panama disease epidemic in \"Gros Michel\" caused by Foc Race 1 the lag phase of the current epidemic is substantial as the first occurrence of Foc TR4 was observed 50 years ago in Taiwan (Su et al., 1977(Su et al., , 1986;;Hwang and Ko, 2004). However, the track-record of Fusarium wilt epidemics in banana is unparalleled in botanical epidemiology (Ploetz, 2015), and hence we should not underestimate the impact of the current Foc TR4 pandemic on food and fruit production. Despite numerous efforts to alert and mobilize the banana sector for enhanced quarantine practices, we observe a continuous dissemination of Foc TR4 (García-Bastidas et al., 2014;Ordonez et al., 2015a;Ploetz et al., 2015;Promusa, 2016;Chittarath et al., 2017;Hung et al., 2017). High resolution phylogeography may increase overall awareness and responsibility among banana stakeholders to prevent the further dissemination of Foc TR4.","tokenCount":"2826"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73ec01827ac23eed550af92f259b333c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/bd58cc86-e83b-472e-b941-9d03d297c36a/retrieve","id":"-1417706777"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"220c239a-9e60-4791-8f16-e514e512c626","pagecount":"1","content":"Community forest governance, ranging from national policies, rule and regulations to local management and business arrangements, is a key factor for the viability of collective forest management and enterprise development. Based on a comparative analysis of enabling and disabling conditions in Petén, Guatemala and the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (NCCAR), Nicaragua, we reconstruct the evolution of community forest governance in two contrasting settings. In the Petén, usufruct rights have been granted since the late 1990s to local communities in the Multiple Use Zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) through 25-year community concessions. Over the next few years the latter's environmental and socio-economic performance will be assessed by the state authority in charge of the MBR (CONAP), as part of the concession renewal process. In the NCCAR, 16 indigenous territories have been established over the past two decades in recognition of the native communities' ancestral and customary rights to land.Our comparative analysis of conditions enabling or disabling community forestry in the two regions took into account 16 factors outside of the reach of the communities and six factors directly controlled by them. We show that, overall, conditions for community forestry are more enabling in Petén, particularly as regards sense of ownership among the communities, availability of commercially valuable species (mahogany), market access, degree of community organization, and capacity for forest management and wood processing. In NCCAR, de jure land rights are stronger but de facto security is compromised by massive encroachment and failure of the government to effectively protect indigenous land rights, paired with the communities' low organizational and technical capacities for managing the forest and running forest enterprises.Given that the conditions at the onset of the concession process in the MBR were similar to those in the NCCAR today, we argue that the case of Petén provides valuable insight into how largely disabling conditions for community forestry can be converted into an enabling environment that ensures both forest conservation and livelihood benefits through community stewardship of forests. We conclude with policy implications for scaling the Petén experiences in Nicaragua and elsewhere in Latin America and beyond.","tokenCount":"348"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a1d5ea3b13784f2407412dc300b62220","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/550782c7-907a-4ef7-8ef7-bfcafa3fa995/retrieve","id":"-2019382845"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"78e1ba1f-dc94-4ea6-a149-12f062e9bc63","pagecount":"4","content":"L'objectif global de cette formation est de doter les agents de vulgarisation de connaissances et de compétences pertinentes en alimentation animale afin d'accroître l'adoption dans les communautés d'intervention.De façon spécifique, il s'agira:• D'identifier les agents à former ;• De préparer les modules de formation ;• D'assurer la logistique ;• De conduire la formation ;• De produire le rapport de la formation.Pour un apprentissage et une compréhension efficaces, la formation sera effectuée en une journée et organisée dans un cluster, du 22 au 23 juin 2023. A la fin de la formation, un rapport détaillé sera produit et partagé avec tous les partenaires du projet.Il sera formé les agents de vulgarisation des quatre clusters sur les techniques de conduite alimentaires des exploitations d'élevage et la formulation des rations. L'atelier s'effectuera à travers une approche participative, pluridisciplinaire et multisectorielle. Il sera animé par les experts de l'ISRA en alimentation animale et se tiendra sur deux (02) jours. Il se déroulera en deux parties :Partie 1 (jour 1) : Rappel sur la physiologie de la digestion chez les ruminants, la composition physico-chimique des aliments (fourrages, concentrés, etc.), les techniques de rationnement ;Partie 2 (jour 2) : Apprentissage pratique","tokenCount":"195"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bd3478297b7123ae78c5e7987710584d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/BBaral2022-Bioenergy-13.pdf","id":"-2100499584"},"keywords":["Indonesia","pongamia","renewable energy","land restoration"],"sieverID":"3cf58a76-805c-4bd9-90ac-6095092a0072","pagecount":"24","content":"Indonesia has 14 million ha of degraded and marginal land, which provides very few benefits for human well-being or biodiversity. This degraded land may require restoration. The leguminous tree Pongamia pinnata syn. Milettia pinnata (pongamia) has potential for producing biofuel while simultaneously restoring degraded land. However, there is limited information on this potential for consideration. This paper aims to address the scientific knowledge gap on pongamia by exploring its potential as a biofuel and for restoring degraded land in Indonesia. We applied a literature review to collect relevant information on pongamia, which we analysed through narrative qualitative and narrative comparative methods with careful compilation and scientific interpretation of retrieved information. The review revealed that pongamia occurs naturally across Indonesia; in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku. It can grow to a height of 15-20 m and thrives in a range of harsh environmental conditions. Its seeds can generate up to 40% crude pongamia oil by weight. It is a nitrogenfixing tree that can help restore degraded land and improve soil properties. Pongamia also provides wood, fodder, medicine, fertilizer and biogas. As a multipurpose species, pongamia holds great potential for combating Indonesia's energy demand and restoring much of the country's degraded land. However, the potential competition for land and for raw materials with other biomass uses must be carefully managed.An ever-growing demand for energy has increased the importance of new and renewable sources of energy (Hidayat 2005;Kotarumalos 2009). Petroleum fuel is the primary source of energy used by communities in Indonesia to run their vehicles, generators and other machinery powered by combustion engines (Hidayat 2005). In recent years, Indonesia has switched from being a petroleum-exporting to a petroleum-importing country, and its own natural reserves are expected to provide alternative energy sources. As biofuel is considered an important alternative source of energy (Kotarumalos 2009), the Government of Indonesia's national energy policy supports new and renewable energy, which could provide up to 23% of national energy needs by 2025 and 31% by 2050 (Republic of Indonesia 2014).Globally, most biofuels are currently produced from oil palm, coconut, cassava, corn, sorghum and other edible food crops, and are known as first generation biofuels (Hassan et al. 2013). Second generation biofuels use non-food crops as feedstocks and involve more advanced technologies in their production (Antizar-Ladislao et al. 2008;Pena et al. 2016). Some non-food crops, e.g., jatropha (Jatropha curcas), have biofuel potential but require fertile land to achieve high yields, and the resulting competition with subsistence and cash crops limits their overall production prospects (Pena et al. 2016). Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify suitable plant species that can be used as energy sources and can grow on abandoned lands, i.e., marginal or degraded lands. Pongamia (Pongamia pinnata syn. Milettia pinnata) is one such species. Its seeds are valued for their biofuel properties, and it can grow on marginal and degraded land (Kesari et al. 2010). As biofuels are produced from renewable feedstocks via photosynthesis using atmospheric CO2, their combustion is less harmful to the atmosphere (IPCC 2012;IEA 2021). Biofuels have received much attention because, with the exception of a few unhealthy compounds found in oil cakes, they are non-toxic, renewable and more biodegradable in nature than petroleumderived fuels [Pandey et al. 2011;Leksono et al. 2014Leksono et al. , 2017)). Toxic pollutants, such as carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (UHC), and particulate matter (PM) are also significantly lower when biofuels rather than petroleum fuels are burned in compression ignition (CI) engines (Ogunkule et al. 2021). Further, an important consideration for biofuelproducing crops is their ability to grow on degraded land, as they can present a sustainable solution to the bioenergy land-use perplexity (Lewis et al. 2014).Indonesia has around 14 million ha of degraded and marginal lands, which is of limited benefit for food production and environmental services (Ministry of Environment and Forestry 2019). The Government of Indonesia has committed to restoring 12 million ha of this degraded land in an effort to achieve climate resilience in the food, water and energy sectors (Ministry of Environment andForestry 2016, 2018). In relation to energy production, a scientific study has revealed that 3 million ha of severely and critically degraded land is suitable for biofuel and biomass plantations (Jaung et al. 2018). Several government agencies have land restoration targets. These include the Peatland Restoration Agency or Badan Restorasi Gambut, which aims to restore more than 2 million ha of degraded peatlands in Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Papua provinces (Lamb et al. 2010) (see Figure 1). As a potential bioenergy species, pongamia could provide an opportunity to restore degraded lands while enhancing ecosystem services (Baral and Lee 2016) and supporting local economies (Casillas and Kammen 2010;Malla 2013;Lynd et al. 2015). (The restoration of degraded areas covered with Imperata cylindrica (alang-alang) grass in Indonesia may also requires crops like pongamia that can shade out such areas and enhance ecosystem services and financial benefits.Pongamia is a leguminous species native to Bangladesh, India, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Fiji and Australia, and has been introduced to the United States, Puerto Rico and many African countries, including Egypt (Orwa et al. 2009). The species occurs naturally in humid and sub-tropical regions and grows well in a wide range of agro-climatic conditions (Hidayat 2005). Common names for the species include Indian beech, karum tree (English); pongam (Gujarati); dalkaramch (Tamil); karanj, karanja, kanji (Hindi); kanuga oil tree (Telugu); honge (Kannada); shuihuang pi (Chinese); day mau (Vietnamese); kranji, malapari (Indonesian); and mempari (Malay) (Bobade et al. 2012;Aminah 2017). Pongamia has been utilized traditionally as a pharmaceutical plant (Orwa et al. 2009). It is a preferred species for controlling soil erosion and binding sand dunes because of its dense network of lateral roots. It can also be productive on degraded land (Sangwan et al. 2010).This chapter compiles information on pongamia, including its natural distribution, growth, yields, biofuel potential and land restoration capacity, to corroborate scientific understanding. It may provide a valuable resource for practitioners in planning bioenergy and restoration projects. This study is based on a literature review of both peer-reviewed and grey literature. The review mainly focused on four scientific areas of interest, i.e., distribution and growth, potential yield, potential biofuel, and landscape restoration capacity of pongamia. A preliminary scoping study was conducted based on a Google Scholar search targeted at finalizing key words and search phrases, and contributing to the framing of the manuscript. After finalizing key words and phrases, as well as inclusion criteria (Table 1), relevant literature was gathered using scientific research search sites, i.e., Google Scholar, Mendeley, Scopus and Web of Science. In our literature search, we only considered published scientific papers available online. At the outset of the study, we conducted a quick review of the abstracts and contents of the retrieved literature to evaluate their relevance for inclusion in further extensive reviews. After removing any duplicates, and considering the timeframe for this study, we selected 84 of the 770 pieces of literature for thorough review by considering their relevance. A basic checklist of quality criteria (i.e., clear aim and replicable methodology, accurately and reliably measured outcomes, and consistently reported findings with methodologies and empirical data provided) was used to select these 84 pieces of literature. A total of nine months from January 2018 to September 2019 (and again from June to September 2021 for revision) was required for four reviewers (one full-time and three part-time) to extract relevant data. Further supporting data was gathered from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and is presented in Annex 1 of this paper. Relevant information was carefully compiled point-by-point, and scientific interpretations were made by using narrative qualitative and narrative comparative analysis methods, including tables and figures (Riessman 1993;Smith 2000;Samsudin et al. 2020). (Narrative analysis methods are characterized by perspective and context, which deal with points of view regarding what has happened, and describing what may be significant in the near future (Gee 2021). They simply provide meaning and coherence to, and perspective on, experience and knowledge (Bruner 2020). The analysis process was designed to scrutinize relevant concepts in a transparent and subjective way, following the objective of this paper and the inclusion criteria (Table 1), i.e., the growth, distribution, yield and biofuel production potential, and landscape restoration capacity of pongamia. Careful attention was paid to a more discursive interpretation and to representing a view of reality through a process of decontextualization and recontextualization with appropriate scientific order as presented in Section 3 below. It is also important to mention that some terms in this manuscript are stated in general without having precise quantification (e.g., pongamia growth rates), which reflects the original literature source  Sidiyasa et al. 2012;Aminah et al. 2017;Jayusman 2017). Pongamia has many local names in Indonesia, including malapari (Simeulue), mabai (Bangka), kipahanglaut (East Java), bangkongan and kepik (Java), kranji (Madura), marauwen (Minahasa, Sulawesi), hate hira (Ternate) and butis and sikam (Timor) (Djam'an 2009).Pongamia grows well naturally in lowland forests on calcareous soils, in rocky coastal areas, along the edges of mangrove forests, and along streams and estuaries. It is a hardy woody plant and can survive temperatures ranging 5 to 50°C and elevations up to 1,200 m (Sidiyasa et al. 2012;Ramachandran and Radhapriya 2016). It grows well in both full sunlight and partial shade and can grow in most soil types from stony through sandy to clay. Although it is salinity tolerant, it does not survive well in dry sands (Csurhes et al. 2016). Studies have found pongamia to have potential for growing as a restoration species in highly degraded forest areas (Ramachandran and Radhapriya 2016) and on land which  Pongamia is a semi-deciduous tree, the seeds of which contain non-edible oil, which can be processed into biodiesel. However, recent technological advances have allowed the seeds to be processed as food. It is a forest tree, demands only low levels of moisture and is therefore drought resistant, and needs only minimum input and management to grow well (Bobade and Khyade 2012;Dwivedi and Sharma 2014) . It can reach heights of 15-20 m and has a large and wide crown (Bobade and Khyade 2012). It grows very rapidly and reaches its full height and maturity within 4-5 years (Duke 1983). Pongamia can be propagated by generative or vegetative means. It can be propagated vegetatively from cuttings and root suckers (with new plants growing from lateral roots of the parent tree) (Orwa et al. 2009).Pongamia is also propagated from seeds in nursery beds or polybags and via in-situ sowing of seeds in plantations (Scott 2008;Kesari and Rangan 2010). It has also been reported that seeds stored for three months or more result in lower germination and plant vigour (Scott 2008). Seeds take approximately one week to germinate and around 85% of seeds do so with appropriate nursery management. Study findings have also indicated a direct relationship between seed size and germination efficiency, but only for fresh seeds (Kesari and Rangan 2010). The long-term viability of pongamia trees also depends on appropriate pruning practices. Information on pongamia growth rates from four trial sites is presented in Annex 1.Pongamia produces large quantities of seeds. However, yields vary according to soil and climatic conditions, as well as management practices (Dwivedi et al. 2011;Chandrashekar et al. 2012;Murphy et al. 2012;Bobade and Khyade 2012;Csurhes and Hankamer 2016;Garg et al. 2017). There is limited information on pongamia seed yields in Indonesia, with most literature coming from India and Australia [Dwivedi et al. 2011;Murphy et al. 2012;Abadi et al. 2016;Garg et al. 2017). This is because pongamia grows naturally or in plantations in a wide range of regions in India, while pongamia is cultivated extensively in Queensland, Australia (Kesari and Rangan 2010;Murphy et al. 2012).Pongamia can produce 9 to 90 kg of seeds annually per adult tree in India, equivalent to a potential yield of between 900 kg and 9,000 kg per hectare (Dwivedi et al. 2011;Bobade and Khyade 2012). This differs slightly from yields of between 20 kg and 80 kg per tree reported in Australia (Abadi et al. 2016). Another report noted average annual seed production of 20 kg per tree in Australia (Murphy et al. 2012). Another study (Arpiwi et al. 2014) reported seed yield of pongamia trees improving significantly in the northern part of Western Australia after the introduction of Apis mellifera beehives (up to 4.9 kg per oneyear-old tree), as bees are effective pollinators for pongamia. Incorporating Apis mellifera bees into pongamia plantations could be a win-win solution for successful pongamia pollination and honey production.In Bangladesh, young pongamia (15 years old or younger) produced more than 25 kg of seeds per tree annually. However, yields increased as trees grew older, i.e., annual yields of more than 100 kg for 20-year-old trees (Rahman et al. 2014). A trial plot in Parung Panjang, West Java, Indonesia showed that pongamia trees as young as eight years old cultivated in an agroforestry system can provide 3.80 kg of seeds per year (Figure 4, Appendix A).Pongamia trees can live for up to 100 years, can produce seeds every year, and require minimal maintenance once they reach 30 years old (Rahman et al. 2014).The most useful product from pongamia is biodiesel. Biodiesel is produced by the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats using alcohol (methanol or ethanol) and a catalyst (e.g., potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) (Rahman et al. 2014). The biodiesel produced is a clean burning fuel that has no sulphur emissions and is non-corrosive (Chincholkar et al. 2005). At low pressures and temperatures, transesterification produces 80% methyl ester, and 20% glycerin as by-products (Bobade and Khyade 2012). The major fatty acids in crude pongamia oil are oleic (51%), linoleic (19%), palmitic (11%), stearic (6%), linolenic (4.5%) and behenic (4.5%) (Arpiwi et al. 2013).Pongamia oil extracts exhibit good chemical properties and could be used as good biodiesel feedstock (Bobade and Khyade 2012). Fatty acid methyl ester from pongamia and other potential biodiesel plants such as Azadirachta indica, Calophyllum inophyllum and Jatropha curcas meet the major specifications of biodiesel standards required by American and European standards organizations (Azam 2005) During the past few decades, pongamia oil has attracted considerable attention as a potential renewable, biodegradable, eco-friendly, non-toxic fuel (Bobade and Khyade 2012) and as being economically viable (Abadi et al. 2016). Studies have determined oil yield and properties with 1,000 kg of pongamia seeds yielding 270-300 kg of crude pongamia oil ( Chandrashekar et al. 2012). In other studies, oil yield was reported to reach up to 35% by weight (Ahmad et al. 2009;Bobade and Khyade 2012), with some reports showing yields of up to 40% (Nabi et al. 2009;Murphy et al. 2012). Crude pongamia oil needs further processing (transesterification) to give methyl esters. Around 85-90 L of biodiesel and 15-16 L of glycerin (considered a by-product) can be obtained from 100 L of crude pongamia oil by transesterification (Chandrashekar et al. 2012).Meanwhile, other studies have found approximately 4 kg of pongamia seeds being required to produce one litre of crude pongamia oil, which in turn could yield 0.896 L of biodiesel (Patil et al. 2015). The major cost of biodiesel production from pongamia is the feed stock, which can account for 60% of total production costs, followed by chemical costs for transesterification at 17%, and operating costs at 10% (Doddabasawa 2009). Therefore, high seed yield is the key to successful pongamia biodiesel production. A study on the economic viability of pongamia biodiesel production in Fiji (Prasad and Singh 2020) showed the levelized cost of biodiesel to be USD 1.44 per litre and the benefit-cost ratio to be 1:06. Tables 2-4 below detail properties of crude pongamia oil. It is worth noting that pongamia can yield a considerable volume of biodiesel in comparison with other biofuel-producing species (see Figure 5). However, the oil content of pongamia may vary depending on seed source, processing methods (i.e., hydraulic press, mechanical press or solvent extraction) and equipment used (Table 5).   One potential product from pongamia is bio-jet fuel. Most aircraft are fuelled by conventional jet fuel, which is non-renewable, costly and emits large amounts (80%) of carbon, e.g., one ton of conventional jet fuel emits 0.8 tons of carbon when burned (Hendricks et al. 2011). Therefore, the aviation industry is looking for renewable jet fuels (Hendricks et al. 2011). However, compared to other industries, aviation has a limited range of alternative renewable fuel options that can replace fossil fuels. Bio-derived jet fuel could be a viable alternative for aviation industries (Graham et al. 2011). Camelina sativa, Jatropha spp., Elaeis guineensis and algae have already been used to produce fuel for several test flights. Pongamia oil has yet to be tested, but has significant potential (Murphy et al. 2012), as it can abate 43% of greenhouse gases on a lifecycle basis (Cox et al. 2014). Degraded land is land that has lost its productivity (Lamb 2010). Such land often has low soil nutrient content, low productivity, suffers from erosion, and is unsuitable for growing crops. There are two main ways of restoring degraded land: (i) physical, technical or engineering restoration; or (ii) biological restoration (Ahirwal et al. 2016).Pongamia trees have several benefits for restoring degraded land. Studies have shown five-year-old pongamia plantations having carbon sequestration potential of around 13.43 tons per ha (Bohre et al. 2014;Edrisi and Abhilash 2016). Pongamia is capable of withstanding drought stress, can grow on saline soils, and needs little topsoil as it has a dense network of lateral roots and long thick taproots. Pongamia plantations can help alleviate compaction and crusting (Lal 2010). It is a sturdy plant with no special nutritional requirements and can grow in extreme environmental conditions. It is tolerant to soil sodicity, pH imbalances, high temperatures, heavy metal contamination, drought and poorly drained soils. Consequently, pongamia can achieve phytostabilization, i.e., the long-term stabilization and containment of pollutants (Juwarkar and Singh 2010;Singh 2013). Iron, chromium, copper, manganese and magnesium in fly ash dykes have been phytostabilized by establishing pongamia plantations on the dykes (Singh 2013). Therefore, establishing pongamia biofuel plantations on degraded land can be a win-win solution for energy production and land restoration, especially compared to Elaeis guineensis (oil palm), where links to deforestation are a worldwide concern (Balooni and Singh 2001;Juwarkar and Singh 2010;Lal 2010;Ahirwal 2016).Chemical nitrogen fertilizer is widely used for growing crops. However, it is costly, and its production causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions (Kesari et al. 2013).The restoration of degraded land also requires the stabilization of its nitrogen content.Pongamia is a leguminous tree that fixes nitrogen, while also producing raw material for biofuel (Chaukiyal et al. 2000;Samuel et al. 2013). In contrast, other common biofuel crops, such as canola, sugarcane, sweet sorghum, maize and woody trees (e.g., eucalyptus and willow), deprive soils of nitrogen rather than increasing nitrogen content (Samuel et al. 2013). Pongamia fixes nitrogen throughout its life (Samuel et al. 2013). A study of the phenotypic characteristics of rhizobia isolates from pongamia showed isolates growing well at temperatures ranging 29 to 39°C, within pH levels 7 to 9, and tolerating less than 1% salinity. It also showed isolates from Rhizobium and Bradyrhyzobium genera being effective microsymbionts under controlled conditions (Arpiwi et al. 2013). Relative effectiveness of the symbiosis between pongamia as a host and rhizobia is determined by dividing shoot dry weight of plants inoculated with rhizobia isolate by shoot dry weight of plants treated with nitrogen fertilizer expressed as a percentage of weight (Fterich et al. 2014). By using this method, the highest relative effectiveness of rhizobia isolates was 85.9% (Arpiwi et al. 2013).Another study showed that nodules of pongamia formed on seed-derived seedlings within four weeks with visible nodulation and established symbioses by eight weeks at 28°C. The nodules produced by these strains were uniformly filled with bacteroid zones (Biswas and Gresshoff 2014). Pongamia nodules can actively fix nitrogen as demonstrated by quantification by gas chromatography of ethylene in acetylene reduction assays, where C 2 H 2 (acetylene) serves as a substrate for bacterially encoded nitrogenase (Balooni and Singh 2001). Therefore, cultivating pongamia together with agricultural crops has the potential to produce favourable agricultural yields.Restoring degraded land using pongamia could also provide a range of services to benefit local communities and nature by enhancing ecosystem functions (see Table 6). Such services could be enhanced with appropriate pongamia plantation design by counting costs and benefits as well as trade-offs and synergies associated with different options in specific locations, e.g., various understory crop combinations considering local economic, cultural and environmental values (Figure 3).As stakeholders, local communities can be directly affected by fuel shortages, and their potential contributions (Rahman et al. 2017) should be taken into account during pongamia cultivation processes. Such contributions could be overseen through local technical and administrative capacity building (Ostrom 1990;Watts and Colfer 2011) to strengthen pongamia cultivation at the landscape level. Community involvement could also enhance local incomes, innovative spirit, technical proficiency and enthusiasm through the distribution of degraded land in areas surrounding settlements to communities for pongamia cultivation, or by villagers using their own degraded land for the same purpose (Nawir and Murniati 2007;Rahman et al. 2017). It may also increase transparency and accountability for all parties (local communities, government and investors), foster a sense of responsibility and encourage support and mutual interest for land restoration efforts (Basria and Nabihab 2014).Table 6. Pongamia tree products and their various usesWood Pongamia logs serve as the raw material for wood flour as lignocellulosic filler that can be further processed to produce wood-plastic composites.Pongamia wood is useful for making tool handles, combs, cabinets, cartwheels, posts, agricultural implements and paper pulp Orwa et al. 2009, Dwivedi et al. 2011 Pongamia wood is used as fuelwood Dwivedi et al. 2011 Medicine Almost all parts of pongamia trees are used in folk medicine:Juice from the roots blended with coconut milk is used to treat gonorrhea.Stem bark extract has sedative and antipyretic qualities and reduces enlarged spleens.Juice from the leaves is used to treat diarrhea, colds and coughs, and to relieve rheumatism. The fruits are used to treat abdominal tumors. The seed is used to treat keloid tumors, skin ailments and hypertension, and as an expectorant for bronchitis and whooping cough.The flowers are used to treat certain diabetic conditions. The oil is used to treat leprosy, chronic fever, skin diseases and rheumatism Orwa et al. 2009, Sangwan et al. 2010 A crude decoction of pongamia leaves is used as an antidiarrheal with efficacy against cholera Brijesh et al. 2006 The leaves are commonly used for cattle feed and, less so, for goat feed, and are a valuable source of fodder in arid regions. Seed residue, presscake and seedcake contain much protein and are used for poultry feed; but should not exceed 75% of feed as they contain several toxic compounds Duke 1983, Orwa et al. 2009, Dwivedi et al. 2011 The seedcake and leaves are used as fertilizer. To restore forestland, it has to be a biodiversity-rich, self-regenerating system, consisting of a microclimate and a wide variety of plants and animals in mutual coexistence (Rojas 2012). Monoculture plantations may not provide as high levels of biodiversity as forest, and require ongoing human intervention including the use of herbicides and pesticides during land preparation (Scott et al. 2008;Nagarjun and Suryanarayana 2014;Usharan et al. 2019;Kumari et al. 2020). Profitable pongamia plantations might also become a new driver of land clearing and an indirect cause of deforestation, especially where land tenure is not clear, as witnessed in various countries (Angelsen and Kaimowitz 2004;Rojas 2012). Secure land tenure is crucial for the successful implementation of tree-planting activities (Tomich et al. 2002;Rahman et al. 2014). If local communities have insecure rights to use land and to harvest produce from trees, they are less likely to tend trees. When farmers lack secure land titles, they are deprived of access to the credit essential as initial capital for investing in tree planting (Ahman et al. 2012). Therefore, policy support to provide secure land titles to local people will be essential to enable pongamia adoption.Development of the Government of Indonesia's policy on biofuel-based energy is carried out using a SWOT analysis approach to analyse existing conditions, formulate problem-solving strategies, and develop policies for sustainable biofuel (Bappenas 2015). The General National Energy Plan (RUEN) has a number of long-and short-term programmes to support the National Energy Policy (Government Regulation No. 79/2014). RUEN targets to produce 15.6 and 54.2 million kilolitres of biofuel by 2025 and 2050, respectively (Traction Energy Asia 2020). To support government policy, sustainable energy plantations of adaptive and productive species could play a crucial role, especially when implemented on ex-mining and degraded land. Besides growing biofuel, such species can also fertilize soils and provide other benefits, e.g., income generation, improved biodiversity, and provision of multiple ecosystem services (Maimunah et al. 2018;Rahman et al. 2019).Considering the diversity of biofuel production (and system components) across locations, there may be a shortage of specific evidence about variation in contributions to the delivery of various ecosystem services. Improving this knowledge base (e.g., through modelling) can be facilitated by research that produces a more sophisticated approach to incorporate the economic, social and environmental characteristics of biofuel.Further, through strengthening and socializing biofuels as a strategic industry, increasing productivity and diversification of biofuel-producing plants, providing incentives for investment in biofuel facilities, encouraging market links, and increasing research budgets for the development of biofuel commodities and products can strengthen sustainable biofuel production.Pongamia trees are well suited to growing in adverse environmental conditions. The species can grow in most soil types, in partial shade or full sunlight, and at various temperatures.Pongamia is a multipurpose tree that fixes atmospheric nitrogen, improves soil health and can produce large amounts of oil for biodiesel. It can produce bioenergy on degraded land unsuitable for food production. As Indonesia's large areas of degraded land deliver limited benefits to people and nature, restoring such land through pongamia cultivation could provide an opportunity to enhance ecosystem services and reverse biodiversity loss.Although several other species produce biofuel (e.g., oil palm, coconut or jatropha), with its multiple benefits (see Table 6), pongamia is a prime candidate for planting as a bioenergy feedstock on degraded land.The Government of Indonesia's initiation of a national policy on new and renewable energy use, which includes biofuel making up 5% of the energy mix by 2025 (Kharina 2016), has significantly increased the importance of domestic biofuel production (Rahman et al. 2019).As palm oil production is widely questioned, pongamia could be a potential new alternative for cultivation on degraded land. However, it will necessitate long-term monitoring to prevent forest being cleared for biodiesel crop production (Rahman et al. 2019).It was apparent from our literature review that scientific knowledge gaps remain, i.e., upto-date pongamia production technology, long-term plantation management, community involvement, various added-value options (e.g., understory crop association), identifying potential biofuel producers and consumers, developing effective business models for various biofuel stakeholders, and the feasibility of building stable biofuel markets. Therefore, new studies on pongamia focusing on these issues could help to fill knowledge gaps and benefit scientific communities, managers and other stakeholders.","tokenCount":"4499"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6d7b26ecab937922ec1346e24cf26048","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.cimmyt.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:11529/10548862/2","id":"300691743"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"56fc1df9-4a9f-47eb-994e-b6b0456dbb95","pagecount":"48","content":"-Adaptation strategies = Coping strategies after the shock has occurred (ex-post) -Mitigation strategies = Coping strategies before the risk occurs (ex-ante) \"Coping strategies\" refer to specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that you/your household employ to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize stressful events.Understanding past shocks and expected risks will help us finding effective adaptation and mitigation strategies including technology options to support your livelihoods.2)3)3) 1)2)3) 1)2)3) 1)2)3) 1)2)3) 1)2)3) 2) 2)3) 3) YearYear The following is a combination of 2 separate games to find out the risk attitude of the household head and spouse respondents. If either household head or spouse is not available, the next in-line household member shall play the games in their places. It is important that 1 male and 1 female household members play the games.For each respondent, the interviewer shall start at this point with GAME 1 and follow with GAME 2 at the end of the survey interview.- Interviewer -Step 3: Decide on the amount based on the gamble choice selected above.Interviewer -Step 4: Once the respondent completely understands the game, give the respondent 50 KSH endowment and show all 5 choice cards to the respondent in any random order. Ask the respondent for his/her most preferred choice lottery and mark the selection (X) in given box below and ask for reason. Interviewer -Step 7: Decide on the amount to be paid or deducted based on the gamble choice selected above.End of GAME 1 -Household head (Male) The following is a combination of 2 separate games to find out the risk attitude of the household head and spouse respondents. If either household head or spouse is not available, the next in-line household member shall play the games in their places. It is important that 1 male and 1 female household members play the games.For each respondent, the interviewer shall start at this point with GAME 1 and follow with GAME 2 at the end of the survey interview.- Interviewer -Step 3: Decide on the amount based on the gamble choice selected above.Interviewer -Step 4: Once the respondent completely understands the game, give the respondent 50 KSH endowment and show all 5 choice cards to the respondent in any random order. Ask the respondent for his/her most preferred choice lottery and mark the selection (X) in given box below and ask for reason. Interviewer -Step 7: Decide on the amount to be paid or deducted based on the gamble choice selected above. Interviewer -Step 1: Before starting the actual game, ask the respondent to try a test-game using candy. In this test-game, the respondent receives 5 candies as a start-up endowment. Out of these 5 candies, he/she needs to say how many he/she is willing to give up (pay) in order to play a lottery. The lottery amount offers either 5 candies (Event A) or 0 candy (Event B). Each event has a 50% chance of occurring depending on which coloured stone he/she draws from a bag.Show to the respondent the lottery and, one by one, compares it with increasing willingness to pay starting from 0 candy. Once the respondent reaches his/her maximum willingness to pay to play the lottery -stop the game. Interviewer -Step 2: After the maximum willingness to pay is identified, let the respondent randomly draw the lottery price (number 0-5) from the box. If the number he/she draws (lottery price) is higher than the maximum willingness to pay then he/she will not play the lottery but keep the 5 candies endowment.If drawn number (lottery price) is equal to or less than the maximum willingness to pay, then he/she will pay that price and play the lottery by drawing a coloured stone. If the stone is blue (Event A) he/she receives 5 candies. If the stone is yellow (Event B) he/she receives nothing (0 candy). Interviewer -Step 1: Before starting the actual game, ask the respondent to try a test-game using candy. In this test-game, the respondent receives 5 candies as a start-up endowment. Out of these 5 candies, he/she needs to say how many he/she is willing to give up (pay) in order to play a lottery. The lottery amount offers either 5 candies (Event A) or 0 candy (Event B). Each event has a 50% chance of occurring depending on which coloured stone he/she draws from a bag.Show to the respondent the lottery and, one by one, compares it with increasing willingness to pay starting from 0 candy. Once the respondent reaches his/her maximum willingness to pay to play the lottery -stop the game. Interviewer -Step 2: After the maximum willingness to pay is identified, let the respondent randomly draw the lottery price (number 0-5) from the box. If the number he/she draws (lottery price) is higher than the maximum willingness to pay then he/she will not play the lottery but keep the 5 candies endowment.If drawn number (lottery price) is equal to or less than the maximum willingness to pay, then he/she will pay that price and play the lottery by drawing a coloured stone. If the stone is blue (Event A) he/she receives 5 candies. If the stone is yellow (Event B) he/she receives nothing (0 candy). ","tokenCount":"859"}
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diff --git a/data/part_2/9804018702.json b/data/part_2/9804018702.json
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e3b14db61df9afa9212b0cb14e5a1f5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c3616ed-4923-4c68-9393-10a2ddad1061/retrieve","id":"-1109564794"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9230d701-cce7-4820-af25-218fd8951ba0","pagecount":"4","content":"Rehabilitation or improvement of livelihoods comprises an important component of hydropower-related resettlement and relocation strategies in Lao PDR and other developing countries. Yet too often such strategies are designed without adequate consideration for the nuanced nature of 'joint' household decision-making. A recent study at an ethnic minority village in Bolikhamxay Province, Lao PDR, relocated as part of the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project, revealed some of the underlying gender values, norms and practices that influence the decision making patterns of community members. The insights may help to explain why, despite the implementation of a multifaceted livelihood package based on consultations with affected villagers, adoption by households remains a challenge. The example highlights a number of lessons and considerations when planning and executing future livelihood strategies for damaffected communities.Different perceptions of decision-making between men and women add a layer of complexity to the design of resettlement, compensation and livelihood packages provided by hydropower companies, which tend to target a household as a unitary entity. Attention needs to be paid to decisions that are perceived differently by women and men, especially those that are thought to be made solely by husbands or wives, rather than jointly. In general, women tended to perceive more decisions as jointly made than men, who differentiated a larger proportion of decisions as made by wives or husbands.Where decision-making is joint, or where women have an important part in decision-making, it is imperative to sustain gender equity in decisions relating to these livelihood activities or ensure gender equity in decisions relating to the replacement of these livelihood activities. Where males dominate decisions, livelihood interventions need to look at ways in which the decisionmaking opportunities for women can be enhanced.Ethnicity also factors into household decision-making in general, and the extent of male and female influence in particular. Different ethnic groups may show a preference for different livelihood activities, and vary in the degree to which household decisions are made jointly. In the case of the study site in Lao PDR (see feature box), joint ownership of the house and land can be linked to joint decision-making. However, other factors that impact asset ownership and capabilities, including underlying gender values, norms and practices, should be given adequate consideration in assessment and planning.The social and subjective significance placed by villagers on upland rice and food security also influences household decision-making. Thus, upland rice might not be considered merely a livelihood activity that can be replaced by another activity, but also as a tradition and identity.If weaving and fishing are supported while the space for upland rice, riverbank gardens, livestock and non-timber forest product collection is restricted, this changes previous household decision-making patterns, based on a larger portfolio of livelihood activities, with implications for gender relations and equity.Understanding the subjective differences in attitudes, feelings and aspirations that impinge on decisions is very important. For example, attitudes of dependency on the company for rice can temporarily change gendered decision making in the household, restricting women to weaving and men to fishing, or both to fishing. Conversely, maintaining independence from the company by cultivating former upland rice plots and/or river gardens, retains joint decision making but increases the work burden of women, as they now have to travel further to their former plots or can change joint decision making as only men travel to, and work on, former plots. Social networks constituted by peers and kin tend to influence men's livelihood decisions, whereas buyers of agricultural and craft products tend to influence women's decisions. Overall both women and men did not perceive a large role for hydropower companies or government agencies in their household decisionmaking processes, indicated by weak links between communities and these external actors, despite the latter's pivotal role in the resettlement process. This needs to be understood within the historical context of development in Lao PDR. It may reflect the specific nature of consultation and limited options provided by external actors for decision-making and/or the perceived irrelevance of options in negotiating livelihood packages with project-affected women and men. It might also be due to the general distrust of rural people in interventions by external development actors. In addition, the changes that rural people are looking for might not always be congruent with those of the state or hydropower companies.Insight #4: When evaluating the impact of new, proposed livelihood schemes, it is necessary to disaggregate the costs and benefits to women and men, as well as ethnic groups, separately.These costs and benefits need to be assessed not only in material, but in relational and subjective terms as well. Such an analysis would provide a clearer understanding of why some household members accept and others reject livelihood options offered by hydropower development, and what changes need to be made. The Case of Kham 1 Village Kham Village was established in mid-2011 to house 181 households resettled from four 'traditional' villages along the Nam Gnouang River. The village's main ethnic groups are the Tai Maen (55%) and Tai Yor (37%), with a small number of Tai Meuy and mixed ethnic households. Within the village, four 'divisions' representing the original villages are maintained, with their ethnic characteristics intact. Two divisions are predominantly inhabited by Tai Maen while the other two have a majority population of Tai Yor. Livelihoods in Kham are primarily based on subsistence agriculture, with some cash from upland rice and other crops, gardens, fishing, weaving and offfarm labor.Focus group discussions and qualitative semi-structured interviews, based on a livelihood trajectory tool and social network mapping, were conducted in Kham Village in order to better understand the complexities of decision-making in resettled households. Both male and female respondents agreed on the joint nature of household decision-making for most livelihood activities. However, some discrepancies did exist; of a total of 55 livelihood-related decisions, women perceived 78% as being made jointly while men cited 58% as joint.Men considered decisions relating to the purchase of seed, feed and fertilizer, where and when to sell products, payment for services (electricity, water) and childcare as solely made by wives, while women considered these to be made jointly. Further analysis revealed that decisions relating to upland rice (including harvest rituals), fishing, cattle, hunting and education are more influenced or made by men. Decisions relating to riverbank gardens, vegetable gardens, NTFP collection, weaving, microenterprise, childcare and cooking were more influenced or made by women.Many livelihood activities where decisionmaking was considered joint have been constrained by limited access to land under the new land use regime introduced by the government and the hydropower company. The biggest impacts appear to be the loss of upland rice, where men appeared to have more influence on decision making, and consequently benefits, and riverbank gardens, where women appeared to have more influence on decision making, as well as benefits. The two livelihood activities that have become important since resettlement are weaving, in which decisions are mostly made by Tai Maen women, and reservoir fishing, in which decision making is dominated by men of both ethnic groups. Thus, an important part of household decision making currently is negotiating for time between these two livelihoods by wives and husbands.Tai Yor villagers were more focused on fishing and/or upland rice, whereas the Tai Maen were oriented towards multiple livelihoods. Tai Maen household decisionmaking was relatively more 'joint', with both men and women contributing. In contrast, men appeared to have more influence in decision-making among the Tai Yor. Thus, underlying social norms and values related to ethnicity were also important factors in household decision-making.","tokenCount":"1242"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6078f289c3c370bc9458cbf300880f32","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/75805208-5ff5-4992-92c8-d8f80df0ef06/retrieve","id":"-527140823"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fac511d1-5139-46c1-b8b6-262836038ab2","pagecount":"9","content":"Livestock contribute significantly to livelihoods of rural and urban poor in developing countries, and the forecasted increase in demand for livestock products will further strengthen the roles of livestock in contributing to pathways out of poverty [1,2]. However, fodder shortages already present serious constraints to benefits from livestock, and shrinking common property resources and the increasing scarcity of arable land and water will put further restrictions on fodder production. Crop residues provide critical fodder resources, particularly in the dry season [3], and their importance is increasing for afore stated reasons. Consequently farmers demand crops that provide good fodder value besides grain yield, i.e. food-feed crops. Crop improvement programs are therefore increasingly targeting the fodder value of crop residues in addition to primary traits such as grain and pod yield. Such interdisciplinary and multidimensional crop improvement programs have produced promising results in sorghum, pearl milletand cowpea from scientific standpoints and uptake by farmers [4,5]. In summary, nutritionally significant genotypic variation in crop residue fodder value were observed without detriment to primary traits, and with heritability of crop residue fodder value probably high enough to allow even further genetic improvement [6,7,8,9,10]. Rice cultivation is the major activity and source of income for more than 100 million of households in Asia and Africa, and 80% of those are small-scale farmers in low-income countries [11]. It is estimated that rice straw accounts for 40 to 50% of the dry matter intake of cattle and buffaloes in the developing world. Considering the importance of rice in mixed crop-livestock system the proposed research will assess opportunities for improving the fodder value of rice straw without detrimentally affecting primary traits.Recent results indicate that this adding-of-value is feasible [12,13,14].a) The purpose of this proposed work is to assess: 1) demand domains for food-feed rice genotypes 2) opportunities for exploiting the variation in fodder value of rice straw in current landraces, varieties and hybrids and to inform testing and releasing agents and the seed industry accordingly and 3) opportunities for further rice improvement with rice straw fodder value as an additional breeding and selection criterion, and to develop a funding frame work for supporting it. b) SLP is the appropriate funding mechanism for several reasons. The overall goal of the proposed work is to provide pathways out of poverty for small mixed crop livestock farmers and is therefore in concordance with the overall goal of the CGIAR. The SLP mandate relates to feed resource development and utilization in sustainable mixed crop livestock systems, and food-feed crops play here a key-role. c) Synergies can be anticipated since lessons learned from recent intercenter/disciplinary collaboration on sorghum, pearl millet and cowpea would be applied to rice. Lessons learned were about degree of mutual understanding/language required across disciplines, apprehensions of trade-off effects in multidimensional crop improvement programs and right technological approaches required for combining crop and animal science aspects smoothly. Ex-ante impact analyses for sorghum and pearl millet predicted high economic returns for genotypes with better stover fodder quality, suggesting that a 1% increase in digestibility in stover will result in increases in milk, meat and draught output of 6 to 8% with expected benefit: cost ratios of at least 15:1 [15]. These calculations assume targeted crop improvement towards higher crop residue value rather than exploiting already existing variability as envisaged in output 2. Cost-benefit ratios from output 2 can expected to be higher than suggested [15]. Considering that rice cultivation is the principal activity and source of income for more than 100 million of households in Asia and Africa and that rice straw can account for up to 50 % of the dry matter intake in cattle and buffalo, the potential impact of rice varieties and hybrids with higher fodder value in the straw on livelihoods is clearly immense.Output 1: Demand domains for food-feed rice genotypes will be assessed through a desk-top study using data collected in area and domain-specific rice improvement and dissemination work by IRRI, DOR and WARDA. Reasons for uptake respectively rejection of new genotypes by farmer in context to their farming system and farmers perception towards new genotypes will be analyzed. Thus, in India, for example, rice breeders supplying mixed-crop livestock systems are increasingly confronted with concerns about acceptance of straw of new genotypes to livestock.Output 2: Rice straws from key landraces, varieties and hybrids from multi-location trials of IRRI in South East Asia, DOR in South Asia and WARDA in West Africa will be collected, dried, ground and sent to ILRI's India laboratory for NIRS-based analysis. Laboratory fodder quality traits will be chosen from lab-analytical rice straw specific literature reports and from experiences in recent multidisciplinary research on fodder quality of cereal straws other than from rice. Analyzed will be chemical (nitrogen, fiber, lignin, silica, pH), morphological/structural (botanical fractions, plant height, grinding energy requirements) and in vitro (in vitro organic matter true digestibility, rate and extent of in vitro gas production) characteristics. Laboratory fodder quality traits will be compared with primary traits such as grain yield.Output 3: Data from output 2 will be analyzed to enable projection about possible progress to be made in the trait \"straw fodder quality\" by targeted crop improvement without detriment to primary traits. Better quality rice straw will benefit the mixed crop-livestock farmer who uses rice straw for feeding his animals. Farmers without animals can trade better quality rice straw on the fodder market while landless livestock keepers can buy this rice straw as fodder.Improved rice straw properties will also increase the likelihood of adoption of new varieties and hybrids that convey better grain yields. 80 million resource-poor households with ruminant livestock in Asia and Africa are potential adopters. Rice improvement programs will develop a better understanding of the characteristics of genotypes required for specific farming systems. This project will also have a broader impact of providing a genetic diversity framework to help guide future efforts to breed superior rice varieties with better quality of straw adapted to specific environments such as Africa.The proposed work adds value to ongoing rice improvement programs which have a) well established delivery pathways for improved varieties and hybrids and b) methods of up-scaling. The anticipated recommendation domains are the mixed crop-livestock farming systems with major rice growing activities in West Africa and South and South East Asia. Additionally the proposed work can contribute to planned global rice straw work by providing information about genotypic variations in rice straw quality in a very wide range of genotypes and environments.To deliver all outputs three assumptions need to hold true:Experience from multidimensional sorghum and pearl millet improvement has shown that these kind of studies contribute to definition of demand domainsThere is supporting evidence from other crops and limited evidence from rice to support this assumption.There is supporting evidence from other crops in support of this assumptionBreakdown costs for the following line items: Employment 7 000 US $ Indicate which major donor is being targeted by the seed money period and the amount of funds sought. Explain why the Concept Note has a good chance of success in being turned into a major project proposal. Indicate in a timeframe the plan and milestones that will be achieved in order to submit a concept note and/or a full proposal to the identified donor.An international rice straw symposium will be held in Chicago, US from 22. -25 th of April 2004 fully sponsored by Kemin private industry to bring together public and private crop and animal scientist from US, Europe and Asia interested in global utilization of rice straw (see Annex). At this meeting proposal and donor strategies will be discussed and developed. It seems certain that private industry will play a major role in funding of a comprehensive rice straw proposal with funding expected by 2005. We will target complementary funding from USAID, JICAR, Rockefeller and Syngenta for 2005. It is worthwhile pointing out that the proposed work on rice straw can benefit from the tremendous amount of work done on the rice genome. Syngenta for example has already expressed interest in funding additional work that could increase spin-off effects. Two collaborators in this proposed work -Drs Hash (ICRISAT) and Ndjiondjop (WARDA) -are specialized in cereal genomics with experience in using molecular markers in straw quality work, and they will integrate this aspect into the rice improvement work. The SLP seed money will: 1) strengthen the case for rice straw straw improvement in small mixed crop-livestock systems in Asia and Africa and to increase the funding success from public donors and 2) to assure that the CG work on rice straw is well integrated part of global work.The core team proposing this work comprises internationally well reputed experts in the field of rice crop improvement, cereal molecular breeding and ruminant nutrition with a proven record in interdisciplinary and multidimensional crop improvement exactly of the kind proposed here. The work proposed now to SLP has been discussed between the principal investigators for the past year and all participants are convinced of the need for this work. In addition, some practical measurements conducive to the success of the work have already been implemented in that the crop improvement institutions have harvested and store straws from multi location landraces, varieties and hybrid trials to be investigated for output 2 and 3.Michael Blümmel, (MSc, Dr. Sc. agr., Habil) Food-Feed-Crop and Forage Project Leader of ILRI, ruminant nutritionist, 15 years experience in research, teaching and extension in Europe, US, Africa and Asia. Close collaboration with national and international crop improvement institutions on food-feed-crop work in barley, sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, pigeonpea and rice.Parminder Virk, (BSc., MSc., PhD.) Team Leader of IRRI's irrigated rice breeding program helps, plant breeder and quantitative geneticist, senior research fellow, Punjab Agricultural University, India (1984-85); visiting fellow, University of Birmingham, UK (1985-86); and research fellow, University of Birmingham, UK (1987-99), Crop Improvement Society of India Award (1993).C Tom Hash, (BSc., PhD.), Molecular Breeder for sorghum and pearl millet in ICRISAT's biotechnology research team, serving as the global interface between the bench and field for use of molecular markers in genetic diversity analysis, QTL mapping, and marker-assisted selection of ICRISAT cereals since returning in 2000 from study leave at Cornell University (Frosty Hill International Research Fellowship); prior to this lead ICRISAT's pearl millet research team at Patancheru (1991-1999), served ICRISAT as sorghum breeder in regional program for Central America (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991), and as junior pearl millet breeder at Patancheru (1986)(1987)(1988).Marie Noelle Ndjiondjop, (BSc., MSc., PhD), Molecular Biologist, in charge of biotechnology activities at WARDA. Applying anther culture and molecular marker to rice breeding, with key responsibility on genetic diversity, gene/QTL mapping and markerassisted selection of indigenous rice germplasm since 1999. Lead the skill transfer on biotechnology throught seminars, discussion groups, interaction and practical training of NARS in Africa. From 1995 to 1999 PhD research fellow at IRD (Institut de recherche pour le development), France, visiting fellow in 2000 and 2001 at Cornell University-Ithaca New-York, USA, and NIAS (National Institute for Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba-Ibaraki, JAPAN)","tokenCount":"1820"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6c2b4853d4aa73677d4c336a728a96b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5e0fce5f-025f-47e3-bd29-9d29eaa2ddb9/retrieve","id":"-914914277"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7c6230d6-f1bc-48d7-9994-a29b746c88fd","pagecount":"19","content":"Inequalities related to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) persist, due in part to gendered norms that disadvantage women and girls, such as expectations regarding fetching water, caregiving, and maintaining household and personal hygiene (Caruso et al. 2015). A growing body of evidence examines menstrual hygiene management (MHM) and gender-based violence (GBV) in WASH, which begins to address gender inequalities in WASH (Fisher et al. 2017). As evidenced by this review, an increasing share of research on water supply, sanitation, and vocational trainings is also looking at gender inequalities. However, many knowledge gaps remain, including a lack of consensus on how to measure empowerment in WASH (MacArthur et al. 2020).Determining how best to measure empowerment in WASH will be critical to reducing gender inequalities overall and tracking progress toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 6 on gender equality and clean water and sanitation, and ultimately reducing such gender inequalities (Dery et al. 2020). In this brief, we assess the extent to which existing gender-sensitive WASH indicators measure women's empowerment (WE) and identify areas where efforts to develop new WE-WASH indicators should focus.The Reach-Benefit-Empower (RBE) and Resources-Agency-Achievements (RAA) frameworks offer guidance to classify existing gender-sensitive WASH indicators (Johnson et al. 2018;Kabeer 1999). Under the RBE framework, \"Reach\" indicators are those that measure women's and men's inclusion in program activities or policies (Johnson et al. 2018).Those that measure improvements to one's circumstances are \"Benefit\" indicators; for instance, measuring an increase in income is a \"Benefit\" indicator. \"Empower\" indicators measure one's ability to make strategic life choices and to put them into action.The RAA framework stems from the three components of empowerment (Kabeer 1999): \"Resources\" are the human, social, and economic resources that enhance a person's ability to make choices. \"Agency\" is the ability to set one's own goals and act upon them. \"Achievements\" include well-being outcomes, such as a higher income; of note, \"Achievements\" may overlap with \"Resources\" in instances where \"Achievements\" become \"Resources\" that continue the empowerment process. Examining gender-sensitive indicators using both the RBE and RAA frameworks helps us uncover gaps in approaches to measuring empowerment in WASH.To compile a comprehensive list of WASH-gender indicators, we reviewed peer-reviewed and gray literature, including toolkits from major organizations operating in the WASH space.Search terms included, but were not limited to: intervention,• Given the lack of consensus around how to measure empowerment in WASH, mapping existing indicators to two frameworks frequently used in the empowerment literature illustrates knowledge gaps.• We identified 290 gender-sensitive indicators across nine WASH themes that were mapped to the Reach-Benefit-Empower and Resources-Agency-Achievements frameworks.• Most indicators measure \"Benefit\" and/or \"Resources.\"• Existing gender-sensitive indicators capturing empowerment and agency in WASH are lacking; only 10.3% of indicators capture \"Empower\" and 24.8% of indicators capture \"Agency.\" impact, project, program, evaluation. As such, our findings primarily reflect indicators designed to detect project impact. Also, we limited our review to quantitative or mixed-methods WASH studies and toolkits published after 2010 that collect sex-disaggregated data or data from women (or girls) only. We reviewed the works cited in these papers to find additional papers that discuss indicators not captured in the literature published after 2010; as a result, we included an additional 4 studies published before 2011. We identified 290 gender-sensitive WASH indicators, drawn from 48 studies.The indicators identified vary in quality. For instance, some indicators had been developed, piloted, analyzed, and validated (e.g., Caruso et al. 2017), while other indicators were merely suggested as useful information to collect in future WASH projects (e.g., House et al. 2014). Another limitation is that not all indicators are constructed the same way; some are scales of several survey items, while other indicators use only one survey item to measure an indicator. Likewise, indicators are not collected on the same level; for instance, some indicators ask individuals for information and others rely on observing infrastructure at the household, school, or community level. 1 Finally, it is often unclear in which geographic contexts specific indicators have been used, making country and regional coverage difficult to ascertain.First, we categorized all indicators into one of nine themes, as defined below. These themes were identified as areas of interest by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or arose inductively during the mapping phase. Each indicator was mapped to only one theme, even when there were potential overlaps, to avoid double counting. 2 Though such overlaps were infrequent, we classified indicators by which theme was emphasized first. For instance, we classified \"water for handwashing at school venues\" as water supply because the presence of water (i.e., is water supplied to the school) was mentioned first (Alexander et al. 2014(Alexander et al. , 2018)). The themes are:• Water supply: Measures of access to water and maintenance of water sources• Sanitation: Measures of access to improved toilets and latrines 1 The indicators' levels of data collection are included in parentheses in Appendix 1 as needed.2 For instance, we categorized \"functioning water and soap drum present in schools for girls and boys\" under hygiene instead of water supply, since the presence of a soap drum indicates the use of the water supply for hygiene purposes. see Appendix 2 for all indicators' citations). Interestingly, not all \"Empower\" indicators were also classified as \"Agency\" indicators; only 7.2% of all indicators were classified as \"Empower\" and \"Agency.\" While agency is an essential component of the empowerment process, per Kabeer (1999), it is not the only component, which is reflected in how \"Empower\" indicators were found to correspond with \"Resources\" and \"Achievements\" indicators as well. The analysis presented here discusses how indicators within each theme map to the RBE and RAA frameworks. We also highlight key findings as appropriate.Water supply indicators primarily provide sex-disaggregated data on accessibility and quality of water, including but not limited to time taken to access a water source, types of water sources, and whether schools or households are connected to a piped water supply. 3 Of the 89 water supply indicators, 53.9% measure \"Benefit\"; 30.3% measure \"Reach\"; 14.6% measure \"Empower\"; and 1.1% do not map to any component of the RBE framework (i.e., \"None\"). Thirteen water supply indicators measure \"Empower,\" making it the largest cluster of empowerment indicators across the nine themes.Eleven water supply \"Empower\" indicators are from a single source: UNESCO WWAP Toolkit on Sex-Disaggregated Water Data; the other two are from Dickin et al. (Dickin et al. 2021;Miletto et al. 2019). Regarding the RAA framework, 69.7% of indicators measure \"Resources\"; 22.5% measure \"Agency\"; 5.6% measure \"Achievements\"; and 2.2% fell under \"None.\"The sanitation theme includes indicators that measure access to and/or quality of sanitation facilities, such as whether there is a sanitation facility present in a particular location, the number of toilets available, or other characteristics of sanitation facilities. Of the 51 indicators for this theme, 49% measure \"Reach\"; 49% measure \"Benefit\"; and 2% measure \"Empower.\" The single \"Empower\" indicator in the sanitation theme measures \"women's involvement in decision making around stages of latrine building\" (Routray et al. 2017). Considering RAA, 84.3% of indicators measure \"Resources\" and 16.7% measure \"Agency.\" Of the \"Resource\" indicators in the sanitation theme, 91% of \"Resources\" indicators measure the existence of a sanitation facility.3 Sex-disaggregated indicators were constructed from administering the same survey questions to women and men.Of note, one paper presented an indicator the authors call the \"sanitation insecurity factor score,\" a unidimensional measure calculated based on 50 individual items spread across seven factors ( Caruso et al. 2017). Given all the items are used to generate a single score, we treated the \"sanitation insecurity factor score\" as a singular indicator, mapped to \"Benefit\" and \"Agency.\"We identified 15 hygiene indicators, which mainly collect sex-disaggregated data about personal hygiene practices and awareness of best hygiene practices. Of the 15 indicators, 20% are \"Reach\" and 80% are \"Benefit.\" There are no hygiene indicators that account for \"Empower.\" Considering the RAA framework, 80% of the indicators measure \"Resources\" and 20% account for \"Agency.\"MHM indicators cover a wide range of topics, including the availability of menstrual materials, private places to manage one's period, and perceptions of menstruation. We identified 87 MHM indicators, second only to water supply indicators (89 total). Looking to the RBE framework, 70.1% measure \"Benefit\"; 24.1% measure \"Reach\"; and 5.7% measure \"Empower.\" The five indicators that measure \"Empower\" all come from the Guidance for Monitoring Menstrual Health and Hygiene toolkit from UNICEF (2020). In the RAA framework, 70.1% of indicators account for \"Resources\"; 27.6% measure \"Agency\"; and 2.3% account for \"Achievements.\"Comparing the nine themes, MHM indicators have the highest number of indicators that account for agency.There are 19 indicators classified as vocational training, which largely examine women's and men's inclusion in trainings regarding employment opportunities or being employed in the WASH sector. Considering the RBE framework, 57.9% measure \"Reach\"; 36.8% measure \"Benefit\"; and 5.3% measure \"Empower.\" The single \"Empower\" indicator comes from the UNESCO WWAP Toolkit on Sex-Disaggregated Water Data, which measures the \"number of female and male alumni of formal and informal education/ training institutions teaching water-related subjects, with topics and level of experience in formal and informal education/training institutions\" (Miletto et al. 2019). For the RAA framework, 94.7% account for \"Resources\" and 5.3% account for \"Achievements.\" None examine \"Agency.\"There are 16 group and community activities indicators, which examine women's, men's, girls', and boys' participation in informal or formal community groups, committees, and/or local boards that oversee the building, maintenance, and/or operation of WASH infrastructure. Under the RBE framework, 50% of indicators account for \"Empower\"; 43.8% account for \"Reach\"; and 6.2% account for \"Benefit.\"Regarding RAA, 81.3% percent measure \"Agency\" and 18.8% measure \"Resources.\"There are seven health and GBV indicators, which account for waterborne disease and violence people experience while carrying out their WASH responsibilities, such as when collecting water. Of these seven indicators, 85.7% measure \"Benefit\" and 14.3% measure \"Reach.\" None measure \"Empower.\" Looking at the RAA framework, 57.1% account for \"Achievements\"; 28.6% account for \"Agency\"; and 14.3% account for \"Resources.\"There are three knowledge indicators, which aim to measure women's, men's, girls', and boys' access to, retention of, and sharing of WASH information. Of these indicators, two (66.7%) account for \"Reach\" and one (33.3%) accounts for \"Benefit\"; no knowledge indicators account for \"Empower.\" Under the RAA framework, all three indicators account for \"Resources.\"Three indicators simply do not fit within any of the other eight themes. Of these three indicators, one accounts for changes in attitudes toward gendered WASH responsibilities; one examines changes in how a household shares its WASH workload between genders; and one examines input into decisions about household WASH activities. According to the RBE, two of these indicators (66.7%) measure \"Empower\" and one (33.3%) measures \"Benefit.\" In the RAA framework, two (66.7%) measure \"Agency\" and one (33.3%) measures \"Resources.\"A main takeaway from this review is that existing gender-sensitive indicators capturing empowerment and agency in WASH are lacking -across all nine themes, only 10.3% of indicators capture \"Empower\" from the RBE framework and 24.8% of indicators account for \"Agency\" under the RAA framework. Many indicators included in our review rely on sex-disaggregated WASH data on \"Reach\" and \"Benefit\" outcomes, as such outcomes are often easier to measure. While sex-disaggregated measures may reveal gendered disparities in WASH, empowerment cannot be captured through sex-disaggregated data alone unless it aims to account for changes in the three kinds of agency that reflect the generative power needed to increase empowerment: intrinsic (power within), instrumental (power to), and collective (power with) (Rowlands 1997).While various indicators across six of the nine themes accounted for \"Empower,\" only one paper included in our review explicitly aimed to measure empowerment in WASH: the Empowerment in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Index (EWI) from Dickin et al. (2021). The EWI is an index designed to measure agency, participation, and empowerment in water and sanitation. It is adapted from the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and uses the Alkire-Foster method of measuring multidimensional poverty (Alkire et al. 2013;Dickin et al. 2021). Most of the EWI indicators emphasize WASH though some do not exclusively capture WASH information. For instance, the work balance EWI indicator captures all paid and unpaid activities, regardless of whether those activities fall within the WASH sector (Dickin et al. 2021).Given this review found that there are few existing indicators that cover \"Empower\" and \"Agency,\" we suggest  28-76  1-27   75,  85-88  24-27, 67-74, 77-84  1-23, 28 water scarcity (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 10 Reach, Resources: Number of households collecting/fetching water for drinking/domestic use from protected/unprotected sources of water (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 11 Reach, Resources: Number of households not connected to piped water supply (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 12 Reach, Resources: Number of households purchasing water for drinking/domestic use from water vendors on a regular basis (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 13 Reach, Resources: Number of households with sex and age of head of the household that access irrigation water free of charge from freshwater sources, such as rivers, lakes and aquifers; type of irrigation system (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 14 Reach, Resources: Numbers and percentages of rural women and men within 1.5 km of an improved water source (Kodama et al., 2016) 15 Reach, Resources: Numbers and percentages of urban women and men within 1 km of an improved water source (Kodama et al., 2016) 16 Reach, Resources: Percentage of female beneficiaries for either a particular project component or for the project as a whole, or both (Kodama et al., 2016) 17 Reach, Resources: Primary source of bathing water (Individual) (Padhi et al., 2015) 18 Reach, Resources: School \"always\" supplies handwashing water (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 19 Reach, Resources: Sex and age of the household member who collects water from a common or shared water source (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 20 Reach, Resources: Type of water source used for drinking (Country) (S. Winter et al., 2018) 21 Reach, Resources: Type of water source used for drinking (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021;Mukherjee et al., 2020) 22 Reach, Resources: Washing water at girls' latrine (School) (Alexander et al., 2014(Alexander et al., , 2018) ) 23 Reach, Resources: Water for handwashing (School) (Alexander et al., 2014(Alexander et al., , 2018) ) 24 Reach, Agency: Numbers of female/male members of the community accessing their customary rights to land and water for different uses (Miletto et al., 2019) 25 Reach, Agency: Numbers of men and women trained in the construction, operation, and management of new infrastructure or a water supply system (Kodama et al., 2016) Reach, Agency: Perception of female/male household members regarding positive/negative implication of subscribing to piped water supply (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) Reach, Agency: Female/male membership (with position) and responsibility in local or community, formal or informal institutions for managing irrigation, for managing water supply (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Resources: Affordability of water tariffs for female/male consumers; proportion of income spent water access (Household) (Hunter, 2006;Kodama et al., 2016;Seager, 2015) Benefit, Resources: Distance to common or shared water source (e.g., common tap, common well or handpump) from the house (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Resources: Female/male access to extension support, including incentives, for adopting sustainable water and soil management practices, and reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.(Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Resources: Female/male access to sources of formal and informal credit (banks, cooperatives, selfhelp groups, social networks, moneylenders, etc.) for improving irrigation, including rainwater harvesting measures (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Resources: Female/male paid/unpaid labor with wages and tasks in the construction and management of local/community level irrigation systems (traditional or recent) (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 38 Benefit, Resources: Female/male perceived changes in irrigation water quantity and quality, if any, with causes, such as climate variability, climate change, increased withdrawal, pollution (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 39 Benefit, Resources: Female/male perception regarding the importance and relevance of local knowledge, local innovation and conservation practices in agriculture and water-related livelihoods in the context of climate change and variability (Miletto et al., 2019) 40 Benefit, Resources: Female/male traditional/indigenous knowledge, practices, experiences and skills related to water resources management, sharing of water and water allocation priorities between individuals and communities (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 41 Benefit, Resources: Female/male wage labor, by crop and season, in irrigated and non-irrigated or rainfed agriculture with respective tasks and wages (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 42 Benefit, Resources: Improvement of security and equity of water supply for poor farmers and for women and disadvantaged groups (Kodama et al., 2016) 43 Benefit, Resources: Intra-household female/male division of unpaid labor by crop and season in irrigated and non-irrigated or rainfed agriculture (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 44 Benefit, Resources: Length of time taken to collect water (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 45 Benefit, Resources: Level of availability, accessibility and affordability of/to water source for female/male who are differently abled, in migrant and displaced populations, refugee camps and shelters, IndigenousPeoples, ethnic minorities, by location/neighborhood/community/displacement or refugee settings (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 46 Benefit, Resources: Level of satisfaction of female/ male consumers regarding quantity and quality of water available from piped water supply to the household, disaggregated by geographical location within the study area. (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 47 Benefit, Resources: Mean Household Water Insecurity Access Scale (HWIAS) score among women (Individual) (Tsai et al., 2016) 48 Benefit, Resources: Median (inter-quartile range)reported minutes per week spent fetching water by all household members (Individual) (J. C. Winter et al., 2021) irrigation water rights in formal surface and groundwater irrigation schemes; informal, community/group irrigation schemes; and/or permits for private groundwater withdrawal for irrigation (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 50 Benefit, Resources: Number of people fetching per water source (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 51 61 Benefit, Resources: Reasons for insufficiency of water (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 62 Benefit, Resources: Reports of discrimination by sex and cultural, or any other identity (physical, social or economic), in access to water supply and sanitation by location/neighborhood/community. (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 63 Benefit, Resources: Shared costs between men and women for safe domestic water (Individual) (Kodama et al., 2016) 64 Benefit, Resources: Social, physical and economic impact on household members disaggregated by sex and age when the quantity of water is not sufficient for drinking/domestic use (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 65 Benefit, Resources: The water needs of people of all genders are being met (Vonk, 2021) 66 Benefit, Resources: Unpaid time spent on collecting/ fetching or acquiring/purchasing, transporting, storing, and making water safe for drinking/domestic use (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 67 Benefit, Agency: Changes over time in access and recognition of female/male water rights with reasons (Miletto et al., 2019) 68 Benefit, Agency: Female/male participation in decision-making processes in traditional, community-based management systems (Miletto et al., 2019) 69 Benefit, Agency: Female/male perception of acceptance/non-acceptance/acknowledgement of traditional/indigenous knowledge, experience and skills related to water management within and outside the community; recognition by government authorities;and inclusion/non-inclusion in water policy frameworks (Miletto et al., 2019) 70 Benefit, Agency: Female/male perception of the safety for women irrigators (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 71 Benefit, Agency: Female/male traditional roles, intra-household and in the community, for managing water resources and female/male perceptions regarding any changes in roles (Miletto et al., 2019) 72 Benefit, Agency: General feelings of safety when collecting water/going to the toilet or performing other WASH activities. (Individual) (House et al., 2014) 73 Benefit, Agency: Perception of female/male household members regarding type of constraints in fetching water (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 74 Benefit, Agency: Perception of female/male household members regarding personal willingness/ unwillingness to connect to piped water supply.(Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 75 Benefit, Achievements: Impact on health of household members disaggregated by sex and age, due to poor water quality, sanitation, and wastewater disposal by geographical location of the house (Household) (Miletto et al., 2019) 76 Benefit, None: Division of responsibility for collecting/ fetching or acquiring/purchasing, transporting, storing, and making water safe for drinking/domestic use (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 77 Empower, Agency: Female/male participation in intra-household decision-making in the prioritization and use of water for different uses on the farm, such as for crops, livestock, aquaculture, and participation in the value chain (value addition to crops such as processing of produce) (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 78 Empower, Agency: Input into decisions about WASH expenditures (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 79 Empower, Agency: Participation by female/male members (with position) in decision-making meetings in local or community, formal and informal institutions, for managing irrigation and water supply; reasons for participation/non-participation (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 80 Empower, Agency: Participation by female/male members in intra-household decision-making regarding allocation of financial resources for improving irrigation (with type of irrigation) (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 81 Empower, Agency: Perception of female/male members of the household regarding changes in gendered tasks, roles and responsibilities within the household, when some members of the household migrate seasonally or permanently, or are voluntary/ involuntary displaced and others remain (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 82 Empower, Agency: Perceptions and opinions of household members regarding intra-household decision-making (including resolution of disagreements) about allocation of water for different uses, water use efficiency, and re-use, if any, in the household.(Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 83 Empower, Agency: Proportion of female/male participation in decision-making meetings in local or community, formal and informal institutions, for managing irrigation and water supply (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 84 Empower, Agency: Sex and intra-household position of the household member who pays for the water, disaggregated by geographical location of the house (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 85 Empower, Achievements: Intra-household acceptance and recognition of female/male customary land and water rights (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 86 Empower, Achievements: Number of gender-specific decisions adopted resulting from contributions made by female/male members (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 87 Empower, Achievements: Number of irrigated and non-irrigated farms, with size and type of female/male land ownership rights and tenure, in the survey area or region. (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 88 Empower, Achievements: Ownership and control over household assets (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 89 None, None: Primary water fetcher/collector (Household) (Hunter, 2006;Seager, 2015) Menstrual hygiene management  (Alexander et al., 2014) 111 Reach, Resources: School has a place to change menstrual materials (School) (Alam et al., 2017) 112 Reach, Resources: Source of absorbent materials (Individual) (Budhathoki et al., 2018) 113 Benefit, Resources: All four menstrual hygiene myth questions correct (Individual) (Habtegiorgis et al., 2021;Kansiime et al., 2020) 114 Benefit, Resources: All three menstrual cycle questions correct (Individual) (Habtegiorgis et al., 2021;Kansiime et al., 2020) 115 Benefit, Resources: Clean clothes with soap and water (Individual) (Dongre et al., 2007;Upashe et al., 2015;Wilson et al., 2014) 116 Benefit, Resources: Clean external genitalia during menstruation (Individual) ) (Upashe et al., 2015) 117 Benefit, Resources: Cleans external genitalia with water and soap during menstruation (Individual) (Upashe et al., 2015) 118 Benefit, Resources: Disposes used sanitary pads in dustbin (Individual) ) (Budhathoki et al., 2018;Upashe et al., 2015) 119 Benefit, Resources: Dry cloths in sunlight (Individual) (Dongre et al., 2007;Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018;Upashe et al., 2015) 120 Benefit, Resources: Frequency of changing sanitary pad (Individual) (Budhathoki et al., 2018;Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018;Upashe et al., 2015) 121 Benefit, Resources: Knew / heard about menstruation before menarche (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017;Dongre et al., 2007;WHO & UNICEF, 2021) 122 Benefit, Resources: Knew >4 effective pain management methods (Individual) (Kansiime et al., 2020) 123 Benefit, Resources: Knowledge of puberty and menstruation (Individual) (Habtegiorgis et al., 2021;Kansiime et al., 2020;Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018;Tegegne & Sisay, 2014;Upashe et al., 2015) 124 Benefit, Resources: Materials used during menstruation (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017;Budhathoki et al., 2018;Krenz & Strulik, 2019) 125 Benefit, Resources: Mean grade level for which menstrual hygiene education sessions were provided at school (School) (Alam et al., 2017) 126 Benefit, Resources: Mean no of days per menstrual cycle that adolescent schoolgirls reported missing school (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017) 127 Benefit, Resources: Mean number of female students per improved and unlocked toilet for girls (School) (Alam et al., 2017) 128 Benefit, Resources: Mean number of menstrual cloth changes per day (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017) 129 Benefit, Resources: Menstrual hygiene management score (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 130 Benefit, Resources: Percentage of women having trouble managing their menstrual hygiene needs (Individual) (Chaudhuri, 2017) 131 141 Benefit, Resources: Reported missing school during menstruation (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017;Wilson et al., 2014) 142 Benefit, Resources: Takes bath daily with soap during menstruation (Individual) ) (Upashe et al., 2015) 143 Benefit, Resources: The mean incidence of work absenteeism of women who had / didn't have access to advanced MHM materials (Individual) (Krenz & Strulik, 2019) 144 Benefit, Resources: Uses absorbent materials during menstruation (Individual) (Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018;Upashe et al., 2015) 145 Benefit, Resources: Uses commercially made sanitary pad as absorbent material during menstruation (Individual) (Upashe et al., 2015) 146 Benefit, Resources: Uses paper to dispose the pads by wrapping (Individual) ) (Upashe et al., 2015) 147 Benefit, Resources: Using locally prepared napkins or sanitary napkins (Individual) (Chattopadhyay et al., 2019) 148 Benefit, Resources: Washed cloth with soap and improved source of water and dried in sunlight for repeated use (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017) 149 Benefit, Resources: Washed cloth with soap and improved water source for repeated use (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017;Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018) 150 Benefits, Resources: Perceived that school facilities were inappropriate for managing menstrual hygiene (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017) 151 Benefit, Agency: Believe menstrual problems interfere with school performance (Individual) (Alam et al., 2017) 152 washing facilities for boys and girls and female/male staff, including safe disposal of used menstrual materials (School) (Miletto et al., 2019) 186 Reach, Resources: Number of schools with at least one acceptable latrine (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 187 Reach, Resources: Number of schools with at least one hygienic latrine (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 188 Reach, Resources: Number of schools with at least one lockable latrine (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 189 Reach, Resources: Number of schools with girls/latrine ratio > 75:1 (School) (Freeman et al., 2013) 190 Reach, Resources: Numbers and percentages of men and women with access to improved sanitation near houses (Individual) (Kodama et al., 2016) Reach, Resources: Privacy wall at girls' latrine (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) Reach, Resources: Private place to change or wash (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) Reach, Resources: Proportion of schools with improved toilets which are usable and single-sex (School) (WHO & UNICEF, 2018)Reach, Resources: Ratios of toilets and hand-washing facilities for women and men per household (Household) (Kodama et al., 2016) Reach, Resources: Schools with girl: latrine ratio ≤ 25:1 (School) (Alexander et al., 2014) Reach, Resources: Schools with separate improved and unlocked toilet for girls (School) (Alam et al., 2017; WHO & UNICEF, 2018)Reach, Resources: Schools with separate improved toilet for girls (School) (Alam et al., 2017;Kodama et al., 2016) Reach, Resources: There is adequate space for women to be able to clean, dry and dispose of sanitary materials with privacy and dignity (CARE Australia, 2014) Reach, Resources: Toilet ratios for girls and for boys in a primary and/or elementary school (School) (Kodama et al., 2016) Reach, Resources: Type of sanitation facility (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021;Padhi et al., 2015) Reach, Resources: Type of sanitation use (Country) (S. Winter et al., 2018) Benefit, Resources: Absence of toilets stop respondents from relieving themselves when they need to (Individual) (Chaudhuri, 2017) Benefit, Resources: Drink less to avoid going to the toilet (Individual) (Chaudhuri, 2017) Benefit, Resources: Female/male access to formal/ informal credit or government/non-government subsidies for: building and maintaining a sanitation facility including a handwashing facility with soap and water;and building and maintaining a sewage disposal system (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Resources: High levels of community support for the facilities due to equitable percentage of paid and unpaid roles filled by beneficiary men/ women/adolescent girls/adolescent boys (CARE Australia, 2014) 206 Benefit, Resources: Intra-household female/male usage and perception of usefulness, accessibility, and quality of the existing sanitation and hygiene facility and washing area (Individual) (Miletto et al., 2019) 207 wastewater disposal (Miletto et al., 2019) 213 Benefit, Resources: Self-reported latrine use (Individual) (Padhi et al., 2015) 214 Benefit, Resources: The sanitation needs of people of all genders are being met (Individual) (Vonk, 2021) 215 Benefit, Resources: There is a mechanism for individuals or groups to raise concerns about the water and sanitation facilities (CARE Australia, 2014) 216 Benefit, Resources: Use a good latrine at home (Individual) (Cairncross et al., 2005) 217 Benefit, Resources: WASH score (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 218 Benefit, Resources: Water and sanitation facilities are designed so that they can be used by all including women, children, elderly and people with disabilities (CARE Australia, 2014) 219 Benefit, Agency: Female/male perceptions and concerns about availability, accessibility, quality and safety of sanitation facilities (School) (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Agency: Female/male perceptions and concerns about the availability, accessibility, quality, and safety for female/male adults/children/elderly/differently abled, of water, sanitation and hygiene services (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Agency: Female/male perceptions and concerns regarding the availability, accessibility, quality, and safety for female/male adults/children/elderly/differently abled, of shared or communal sanitation and hygiene facilities, by geographical location (Miletto et al., 2019) Benefit, Agency: Observed visits by girls and women Group and/or community activities 247 Reach, Resources: Numbers/percentages of women recruited as motivators for good governance in local water development programs (Kodama et al., 2016) 248 Reach, Resources: Percentages of men and women engaged in initiating, siting, implementing, and using O&M of water and sanitation services (Kodama et al., 2016) 249 Reach, Agency: Gender inclusive WASH groups (Individual) (Vonk, 2021) 250 Reach, Agency: Have adolescent girls, and younger girls and boys, been involved in the design, siting and management of facilities (where appropriate)? (House et al., 2014) 251 Reach, Agency: Level of participation in WASH activities in the community (Leong et al., 2018) 252 Reach, Agency: Numbers/percentages of representation of women, including in leadership roles, on community-based water development boards or water user associations (Kodama et al., 2016) 253 Reach, Agency: Women, the elderly, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities are represented on any water and/or sanitation committees (CARE Australia, 2014) 254 Benefit, Agency: Continuing levels of women's participation in local organizations. (CARE Australia, 2014) 255 Empower, Resources: Group membership (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 256 Empower, Agency: Attitudes about women's leadership in community-level WASH decisions (Individual) (Vonk, 2021) 257 Empower, Agency: Increases in engagement of women in WASH committees (House et al., 2014) 258 Empower, Agency: Input into decisions about involvement in community WASH activities (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 259 Empower, Agency: Leadership in WASH accountability (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 260 Empower, Agency: Leadership in WASH implementation (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 261 Empower, Agency: Level of women's leadership in the community around WASH (Carrard et al., 2013;Leong et al., 2018) 262 Empower, Agency: Ratio between contributions by men and contributions by women (for example, time allowed to speak) in decision-making meetings (Kodama et al., 2016) Hygiene 263 Reach, Resources: Functioning water and soap drum present (School) (Kansiime et al., 2020) 264 Reach, Resources: School \"always\" supplies soap (School) (Alexander et al., 2018) 265 Reach, Resources: Soap for handwashing (School) (Alexander et al., 2018;Chaudhuri, 2017) 266 Benefit, Resources: Cleaning of genitals (Individual) (Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018) 267 Benefit, Resources: Material used for cleaning genitals (Individual) (Santhanakrishnan & Athipathy, 2018) 268 Benefit, Resources: Numbers of men and women involved in hygiene promotion activities (Kodama et al., 2016) 269 Benefit, Agency: Do you always wash both hands with soap? (Individual) (Cairncross et al., 2005) Benefit, Agency: Hygiene practice (Individual) (Odonkor et al., 2019) Health and gender-based violence (GBV)Reach, Resources: Do women know where to go for help if they are subject to violence, and do they know where and how to make a complaint? (House et al., 2014) Benefit, Agency: Number of complaints of violence including GBV-related issues identified through the feedback/complaints mechanism and how many of these complaints have been responded to (House et al., 2014) Benefit, Agency: Number of reported incidents of violence including GBV related to WASH (House et al., 2014) 281 Benefit, Achievements: Improved health of community members, by sex and age. (CARE Australia, 2014) 282 Benefit, Achievements: Reductions in male and female cases of waterborne diseases by age (Kodama et al., 2016) 283 Benefit, Achievements: Reductions in male and female deaths from waterborne diseases by age (Kodama et al., 2016) 284 Benefit, Achievements: Time spent caring for children and adults with waterborne diseases (Individual) (Kodama et al., 2016) Knowledge 285 Reach, Resources: Access to and sharing of WASH practice information (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 286 Reach, Resources: Access to and sharing of information on WASH rights and responsibilities (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021) 287  (House et al., 2014;Leong et al., 2018) 289 Empower, Agency: Intrinsic attitudes about WASH roles and responsibilities (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021;House et al., 2014) 290 Empower, Agency: Level of shared decision making in the household (Individual) (Dickin et al., 2021;Leong et al., 2018) ","tokenCount":"5462"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8cf21ecadc2eccc914c3d1881b5a0728","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7c00b36f-5c34-49f9-88ec-fe0759617646/retrieve","id":"-415650143"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3aea287c-3391-4985-a2bb-f5d1768fae71","pagecount":"4","content":"In 2017, P4S, with CCAFS-WA, informed the CSA Program of the African Development Bank, intended to create a portfolio of $2 billion investment. We provided inputs into the Concept Note (2017), that increased the breadth. The program was launched at the GACSA in 2017. In 2018, P4S participated in the development of Central Africa and Sahel investments (1.3 billion) under the CSA program. These investments use AfDB pipeline investments to leverage GCF/GEF co-funding and will begin in 2019.The African Development Bank (AfDB) embarked on an effort to develop the Africa CSA Program as one of the flagships of the AfDB's Feed Africa Strategy 2016-2025. The overall vision of Feed Africa is to transform African agriculture into a competitive and inclusive agribusiness sector that creates wealth, improves lives and secures the environment. Through repeated engagements with African Development Bank, the Partnership for Scaling (P4S) CSA project and the CCAFS West Africa, have become a go-to source for quality and robust information about CSA for the development and planned of the AfDB CSA Programme. This relationship has positioned P4S and CCAFS to be involved in investment planning with in-country and regional teams.The P4S and CCAFS team contributed strongly to the development of Africa CSA Programme Concept Note, and are key partners for implementation. Specifically, the team is identified in contributing to: (i) development and dissemination of CSA specific approaches and models; (ii) development of public-private partnerships for CSA technologies dissemination; (iii) development of Sectoral CSA National Action Plans or roadmaps developed; (iv) Development of conceptual notes developed for CSA projects and programs; (v) preparation and implementation of CSA projects and programs on Agroforestry and landscape management; (vi) development and dissemination of CSA specific approaches and models; (vii) Capacity building of project stakeholders on CSA and on its ground implementation tools and scaling up approaches.As a first step toward implementation, CIAT and ICRAF from the P4S team contributed to program design missions in the Congo Basin and the Sahel (US$ 1.3 Billion investment). In each of these, the team contributed to the design of specific projects. For example in the Sahel, Sekou Traore from CIAT led the team in developing a major $500 Million project \"fiches\" on agricultural resilience in the Sahel. The team also contributed to other project fiches on climate information services, among others.These programs designs will be used to seek large funding for CSA from GCF, GEF and others. Ultimately it is expected that funding be secured for various parts of the overall Congo and Sahel CSA Programs and that the P4S team (CIAT and ICRAF), CCAFS-ICRISAT and other partners will then begin work to support the on-the-ground implementation. • National The P4S project has created an innovative way of engagement over the previous four years of working. This engagement centered around showing up and providing high quality, timely and relevant information specific related to next users needs has provide countless opportunities for outcomes with a range of stakeholders from NGOs to policy makers.• 299 -Climate Smart Agriculture investment plans (https://tinyurl.com/2lo5ul54)Staring in 2015, the African Development Bank (AfDB) have been exploring integrating climate-smart agriculture (CSA) into programming. In that year, CCAFS, specifically ICRAF (T. Rosenstock), the Regional Program (R. Zougemore), Flagship on Risk (J. Hansen) and the FAO were invited to provide background on climate-smart agriculture to AfBD and modes of implementation to AfDB during a one-day workshop. More recently, the AfDB had decided to make CSA one of the five pillars under its Feed Africa program. In 2017, AfDB reached out to P4S (though T. Rosenstock at ICRAF and E. Girvetz at CIAT) and the Regional Program (R. Zougemore) to provide expert review on the concept note and results framework for the new CSA program the AfDB were developing. Though a couple rounds of iteration, we provided key inputs into the scope and mode of implementation. This widen the specter of what is CSA to align it with an CSA approach. The AfDB launched this program during a special session at the Global Alliance of Climate Smart Agriculture Annual Forum in Rome, Italy last December (ref #1). The investment aims for a total budget of 2 billion USD (ref #2).In 2018, P4S deepened its engagement with AfDB. P4S through ICRAF participated in investment planning workshops in Yaounde, Cameroon focused on a regional Central Africa investment. That investment will at its core be the 2nd phase of an existing pipeline investment for AfDB, PaCEBCo, and is estimated to include 50m of AfDB funds. P4S through CIAT participated in similar investment planning workshops for a US$ 1.3 Billion investment in the Sahel. In both cases, complementary funds will be sought through GEF and GCF mechanisms. The P4S team is written in to the project concepts with these investments to support the on-the-ground implementation once funds are secured.","tokenCount":"796"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6d55a5684fa7c10a761153c033cb856e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9cd7a608-e57c-48f3-a5e8-7fa9caf7c8d4/retrieve","id":"-1695948580"},"keywords":["Scaling ambition","scaling ingredients","scaling scan"],"sieverID":"196544e0-9ddd-4ead-90ec-78f9f3e8b5aa","pagecount":"28","content":"This research was conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 Research Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners across the globe. www.cgiar.org ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. We also acknowledge support from IDRC's Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund.This Scaling Scan Report analyses the 'Transforming the vaccine delivery system in Ghana: identifying approaches that benefit women' project, also known as the Women Rear project in Ghana, part of the Livestock Vaccine Innovation Fund (LVIF) Project Program of International Development Research Centre (IDRC) using the International Livestock Research Institute's (ILRI) Scaling Scan Approach and Tools 1 .The scaling scan assessment involved the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) International in Ghana, Cowtribe Technology in Ghana, ILRI, and the Ghanaian government's District department of Agriculture. The scaling scan was conducted via a series of synchronous and asynchronous virtual sessions involving the project staff and other stakeholders.The goal of this scaling scan is to help the project assess and monitor the scalability of transforming the vaccine delivery system under Women Rear project. This report highlights how the scaling scan process and its outcomes of helping the project team and stakeholders: ILRI's scaling approach is summarized in the 'scaling better, together', which is a modular approach with three possible \"tracks\": a light, a standard, and an extended track. The light track employs an adapted version of the scaling scan tool developed by the PPPLAB and CIMMYT. The steps here are twofold: (1) preliminary interactions with the project team to introduce the work; the main output is a scaling study plan;(2) facilitated workshops that include introducing the approach, tools, and a visioning exercise; the main outputs are a scaling ambition, and scaling scan report. The standard track is an evidence-based deep-dive study employing the Scaling Readiness 2 characterized by a series of interviews with key project experts combined with a systematic evidence review of peer-reviewed resources such as journal articles, books, book chapters and rigorous technical reports of the project that yields a Complete Scaling Readiness Study. The extended track introduces and implements support to scaling guidelines and includes project management support and related activities such as data analysis and dashboards for advanced monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of innovation and scaling activities. This report is limited to the light track process of the ILRI Impact at Scale framework.This Women Rear scaling scan, one in a series of 10 similar scans being done in the year 2021 across ILRI and the Livestock CRP portfolio, is organized into several sections, starting with a section that highlights the scaling approach adopted for the analysis. The second section gives an overview of the project under study, followed by the actual scaling scan process section that details the whole process, including the results of the various sub-sections, being scaling ambition, scaling ingredient survey, critical analysis of the scaling ingredients, potential opportunities, and bottlenecks. Finally, the report concludes with a summary and recommendations derived from the process.Appreciate the multiple dimensions of scaling Develop a realistic scaling ambition for the project to contrinuously monitor Understand the role non-technical factors play in scaling through their interaction with the scaling ingredients A facilitated participatory process involving the core project team, key public and private partners, and relevant government agencies was followed to develop a consolidated scaling ambition for the project. This scaling ambition was further reviewed using a set of 10 scaling ingredients and the ensuing results used to discuss potential opportunities and bottlenecks to achieving the scaling ambition, as well as the necessary actions.A clear scaling ambition is the foundation for the work. After deliberations, the project agreed on the following scaling ambition:The ambition, in summary, seeks to reach more targets by numbers and regions, impacting on relevant policy spheres (animal health delivery and women's participation and involvement) and working towards a norm change in vaccine delivery as observed from the project's objectives linked to the scaling ambition.Through the scaling ingredients survey, we find knowledge and skills, technology and practice, and leadership and management to be the three scaling scan 'ingredients' that were highly scored by the group and are therefore the strongest of the ingredients that the project will look to exploit to enhance the chances of realizing the project's scaling ambition. Awareness and demand, collaboration, and business cases were the lowest-scored ingredients and therefore potential bottlenecks to reaching the scaling ambition. It is suggested that the group identifies these three as areas that require some intervention to enhance the chances of realizing the scaling ambition. Assessing demand for GTA is a question that has more than meets the eye; this is because \" gender inequality is mostly rooted in lack of awareness of gender-based disadvantage\" and therefore means it is not entirely unexpected when stakeholders think there is no demand for a gender -responsive intervention . However, the variance amongst categories was very small, which could be an indicator that because participants were not sure about the questions, they reverted to the average. For this reason, critical analysis went further to include highlighted sub-ingredients with abnormal scores. • The project's availability of communication materials can facilitate the transfer of innovation knowledge• Innovation in ICT-enabled vaccine value chain systems is relevant for women farmers and animal health workers.• There's adequate leadership and management within the actors to drive the necessary efforts to reach the scaling ambition. However, the roles and responsibilities of individual stakeholders are unclear and may negatively impact accountability.• Innovation provides viable business cases for relevant actors, which is a key incentive for women to participate and benefit. However, there is a lack of information to sharpen these business case which could negatively impact women's engagement in the value chain.• The actors currently involved are relevant to reaching the stated scaling ambition. However, there is a missing link that facilitates the development of a joint strategic direction.• Repurpose existing learning resources to better target different actors• Establish and communicate the commercial viability of the role, women are encouraged to undertake.• Optimize the delivery of this gendered vaccine system• Align the expectations of all actors• Create impactful collaboration through an actor platform.• The approach is driven primarily by expert opinion.• The ingredient scaling survey noted by all stakeholders assumes a similar level of awareness on all the innovation components by all participants.• This scan is limited to the light track of the ILRI scaling framework.Scaling in projects can be defined in numerous ways, considering the different dimensions of scaling 3 , focusing on more significant numbers (scaling out), transforming institutional conditions (scaling up), and/or cultural norms (scaling deep). The scaling out dimension refers to reaching more beneficiaries of a project's innovation through activities, including training and awareness. Scaling up refers to the institutionalization of sustainable scaling up through policy changes, strategy improvements and development. The scaling deep dimension refers to the integration of norm change into the innovation being scaled for sustainability through, for example, capacity development and awareness-raising.ILRI's scaling work has adopted a working definition where scaling includes increasing the number of individual users of an innovation (novel products, services, technologies), the organizations for whom the users are working, the disciplines to which the users belong to, the changes to which the innovation contributes, the locations where the innovations are used and any other areas or fields in which the innovations are used. ILRI considers scaling achieved when the increase is no longer dependent on direct inputs by projects.To make scaling concepts and tools more accessible to ILRI researchers and their partners, ILRI's Impact at Scale program (I@S) reviewed the landscape of scaling to summarize relevant approaches and tools from which livestock projects could benefit and provided those projects with a detailed process on how they could scale more effectively. The resulting ILRI framework provides an overview of the steps, together with short summaries and assessments of nine tools related to the scalability assessment. Figure 1 below shows the various scaling tracks (light, standard and extended) available to a project, depending on the different project circumstances and preferences. The light track (the focus of this report) utilizes the scaling scan tool developed by the PPPLAB and CIMMYT , centered around working with the project team to develop a scaling ambition and using the tool to determine strengths and weaknesses to achieve the scaling ambition. The tool is a 10-part survey comprising 40 questions usually scored by the project team, including stakeholders and other involved partners, to determine possible strengths and weaknesses in achieving the stated scaling ambition. The outputs from this track are a scaling plan, a realistic project scaling ambition and scaling ingredients' reports.Launched in March 2019, the Women Rear project is led by CARE International, Ghana, with ILRI and Cowtribe Technology, Ghana, as the main partners.The consortium seeks to transform vaccine delivery systems for chickens and goats in Ghana so that it can serve also the needs of women livestock keepers. The Women Rear project aims to increase the use of vaccines by women smallholder livestock farmers and enhance their ability to benefit from healthier livestock, improved livelihoods and increased empowerment . To achieve this goal, the project engages with both Gender Accommodative Approaches (GAA) and Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs) and compares their performance in terms of making the vaccine delivery system gender-responsive.The objectives as listed in the project proposal are:To identify, test, and monitor two approachesone gender accommodative and one gender transformative-to developing the vaccine delivery system for Newcastle disease in chickens (ND) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR)/Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in goats in selected districts of Ghana;To identify, test, and monitor two approachesone gender accommodative and one gender transformative-to developing the vaccine delivery system for Newcastle disease in chickens (ND) and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR)/Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in goats in selected districts of Ghana; To create knowledge on institutional requirements for a vaccine delivery system that is responsive to the needs of both women animal health service providers and women farmers;To create knowledge on institutional requirements for a vaccine delivery system that is responsive to the needs of both women animal health service providers and women farmers; At the core of the Women Rear project is the fact that approximately 63% of the extremely poor people in Ghana depend on agriculture, with women accounting for the majority. The project focuses on backyard poultry and goat production systems as they play a very significant role in women farmers' livelihoods and are owned mainly by women. Significant causes of death are ND in chickens, and PPR and CCPP in goats. According to the Women Rear project proposal, PPR vaccination is driven by the government. While vaccines are available, they often exclude women farmers as the vaccine campaigns and programs are not centered on the unique women's needs, preferences and capabilities necessary for access. Women, in fact, are generally unable to reach the vaccine and animal health support system of Ghana with adverse consequences on the health of the livestock kept by women, and on the livelihood and nutrition of these women and their households.While working to make vaccines more accessible to women farmers, the project further aims to identify, test and monitor the effectiveness of two gender approaches towards developing the vaccine delivery system for ND (poultry) and PPR/CCPP (goats) in specific districts. The two approaches are the gender accommodative approach (GAA -which works with the current social arrangements) and the gender transformative approach (GTA -which aims to engage with gender norms to address the root causes of gender-based disadvantage). An effective vaccine delivery system for women farmers would improve livelihoods and food security, and enhance women's empowerment in Ghana.The Scaling Scan study kicked off on 9th December 2020 with the first virtual workshop to introduce ILRI's scaling approach and tools to a group of 13 project participants drawn from CARE International, ILRI, Cowtribe and the Ghanaian government district agricultural department staff.To better assess the scaling ingredients of the Women Rear project, it was decided to first map out the landscape of the participants' familiarity with the concept of scaling as applied in research and development work. An anonymous \"Mentimeter\" quiz (an app used to create presentations with realtime feedback) was undertaken. Responses from the participants (see Figure 2) revealed that scaling was mostly understood as an increase in 'numbers reached' and/or reaching 'new or bigger regions' with an innovation proven to work. This showed an understanding bias of scaling to mean or refer to the 'scaling out' dimension. It underlined the importance of this scaling assessment and the scaling team in introducing the other two scaling dimensions (deep, up) that allow changes in policy, strategies and institutional norms for sustainable scaling of innovations. For the Women Rear project, scaling out through increasing the use of vaccines by women smallholder livestock farmers will be complemented by system improvement and changes to facilitate a better vaccine approach favorable to women livestock farmers (scale up) and norm changes in vaccine system delivery to include women animal health workers and farmers (scale deep). This scaling scan ensures the project does not stop at scaling out and that the other two necessary dimensions are considered in the scaling vision.The Scaling Scan study kicked off on 9th December 2020 with the first virtual workshop to introduce ILRI's scaling approach and tools to a group of 13 project participants drawn from CARE International, ILRI, Cowtribe and the Ghanaian government district agricultural department staff.To better assess the scaling ingredients of the Women Rear project, it was decided to first map out the landscape of the participants' familiarity with the concept of scaling as applied in research and development work. An anonymous \"Mentimeter\" quiz (an app used to create presentations with realtime feedback) was undertaken. Responses from the participants (see Figure 2) revealed that scaling was mostly understood as an increase in 'numbers reached' and/or reaching 'new or bigger regions' with an innovation proven to work. This showed an understanding bias of scaling to mean or refer to the 'scaling out' dimension. It underlined the importance of this scaling assessment and the scaling team in introducing the other two scaling dimensions (deep, up) that allow changes in policy, strategies and institutional norms for sustainable scaling of innovations. For the Women Rear project, scaling out through increasing the use of vaccines by women smallholder livestock farmers will be complemented by system improvement and changes to facilitate a better vaccine approach favorable to women livestock farmers (scale up) and norm changes in vaccine system delivery to include women animal health workers and farmers (scale deep). This scaling scan ensures the project does not stop at scaling out and that the other two necessary dimensions are considered in the scaling vision.  The group had relatively little prior experience with scaling concepts, with most self-reporting to be beginners (6 out of 10), some self-reporting as beginners with some field experience (3 out of 10) and only one person identifying as 'having many years of experience' with scaling concepts and practice.While most participants seemed to have little experience or familiarity with scaling in their work, the majority (8 out of 10) agreed that scaling was one of the most critical aspects of their work.Of the primary reasons to consider scaling, the main reason was to increase impact and benefits from the project's innovation, with additional reasons being to learn, to change current norms that negatively impact women farmers and to enhance sustainability.The workshop proceeded with the scaling facilitation team taking the participants through sessions that included an overview of scaling concepts and the ILRI I@S scaling approach, as well as covering scaling tools and a 'how to' session on developing a realistic scaling ambition as the first step of the scaling scan tool applied in the light track. A realistic scaling ambition should clearly define what is being scaled, who is doing what, where the innovation is being scaled and what elements in the system need changing to accommodate the scaling ambition. The latter includes a 'responsibility check' on the possible negative impact on society or the environment that the innovation might introduce, which needs to be addressed before implementing scaling activities.The development of the scaling ambition began with the core project team preparing a first working draft and presenting it to the stakeholders in the workshop, followed by a quick debriefing session for participants to react to the draft. More time was then allocated for the stakeholders to provide their input in groups after the workshop via asynchronous group meetings. Afterward, the inputs were consolidated to inform the final version of the Women Rear scaling ambition. The whole process of scaling ambition ensured that the project and stakeholders take part in developing the scaling ambition to foster a sense of ownership and accountability, which is vital since the project's goal can only be achieved with contributions from all the relevant actors.To From the final scaling ambition, we see a vision to double the reach in terms of communities previously reached, from 20 to an additional 20. The ambition aims to confront systematic pain points by improving animal health delivery policies to better accommodate women farmers and animal healthcare workers. Scaling out to increase numbers and regions is being pursued through the application of Cowtribe Technology's mobile-enabled vaccine management system that provides a unique ability to reach vaccine actors in hard-to-reach areas that are not currently adequately covered. To facilitate scaling up, CARE and ILRI have documented opportunities and constraints in the current vaccine delivery, including identifying the best ways of targeting women with these vaccines and seeking to test for the most appropriate gender-responsive approach to facilitate this desired change through implementing and assessing both GAA and GTA. These two approaches are an attempt to improve strategy and constitute scaling up through policy change or improvement. From the project's theory of change, there is a desire for vaccine actors to begin seeing women as valued customers and to ensure that women animal health service providers are supported. This change in norm constitutes scaling deep.The scaling ambition addresses sustainability by planning from the outset to include and eventually hand over the work to the government's Department of Agriculture and Cowtribe Technology, Ghana, a major private player in the vaccine context under study. From the scaling scan workshops, there was government involvement in the process. To achieve this sustainability ambition, both community and country-level government bodies need to be involved in the project, which was not clear from the participation in the scaling workshops. In the short remaining project period, there needs to be more active participation of both levels of government in working towards the scaling ambition. Cowtribe has been involved in the scaling process from the start and is a key actor in the project. Consistency is critical in the remaining period to enhance the posibility of sustaining the project period alongside relevant government actors.After the asynchronous work on the scaling ambition by the project team and stakeholders, a second virtual workshop was held on 15th January 2021. In this workshop, the I@S team guided the participants through a 'visioning process' meant to ensure that the various stakeholders were working towards converging visions about the project's goal of increasing the use of vaccines for smallholder women livestock farmers in the selected districts in Ghana.The participants included relevant technical staff from Plan International Ghana, ILRI, Cowtribe and the government. The visioning session included asking participants what they considered as their vision of success concerning the Women Rear project and what actors they considered critical to this vision. The group's vision of success revolved around i) increasing access to critical vaccines by smallholder women livestock farmers, ii) enhancing the capacity of women animal health workers to distribute vaccines, iii) increasing the productivity of smallholder women livestock farmers, and iv) improving the current vaccine delivery system into a gender transformative one that includes female veterinary staff and women farmers.Key actors identified as critical to the success of the vision of strengthening the opportunity for women's roles in vaccine delivery and use include:Women farmers, communities with women farmers, men in the same households with women farmers, men farmers, community leaders.The Ghanaian government -Department of Agriculture, veterinary services directorate, district veterinary officers.Private veterinary service providers, women veterinarians.Livestock farmers.Private companies in the vaccine value chain.Figure 7: Who are the key actors that need to play a role for us to succeed? The focus of the second workshop was to introduce participants to the second step of the scaling scan tool.Step 2 of the scaling scan tool involves scoring the scaling Ingredients survey, which focuses on 10 ingredients that have proven useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses that might significantly impact the chances of the project realizing its scaling ambition. Evidence and Learning 6. Scaling Scan CIMMYT/PPPLabParticipants were given an overview of the survey followed by a brief session to practice using the survey tool. It took less than an hour to complete scoring the scaling ingredients survey, which comprised Likert scale questions with a provision for open-ended text responses to rationalize the selected Likert score.The scaling ingredients survey evaluated the project against these 10 areas to achieve the stated scaling ambition (see Figure 8 above). Each of the 10 ingredients had 4 questions, cumulatively contributing to the specific ingredient overall score.The Likert scale rankings used were:After the workshop, the participants in groups of about four people set out to score the survey based on the information they had on the project and their understanding of the context of the innovation. After the asynchronous group discussions and scoring, the results were automatically consolidated to form the project's scaling ingredients results. All 10 ingredients scored above average from the consolidated results. The lowest scoring ingredients were Business Cases, Collaboration, and Awareness and Demand. Although all ingredients scored above average, it is important to note that the survey was not evidence-based but instead based on self-assessment scoring by the group after deliberations. Therefore, while scoring above average suggests the group's general opinion was that most ingredients were on course to delivering the scaling ambition (3.5 and above), the three lowest-scored ingredients were indicative of ingredient sub-questions that received low scores, meaning that the group had some doubts or was unsure at the minimum as per the Likert scale used. This makes the ingredient and, most importantly, the underlying element/question in the ingredient with a 1, 2, 3 score, a potential bottleneck in the project's objective of achieving the stated ambition.Photo credits: Memunatu Salifu Evidence and LearningIn Table 1 above, the group agreed that there are viable business cases for the actors within the value chain (score: 4.3). However, on the question of whether the project had sufficient information to develop and sharpen business cases for the vaccine system envisioned, the group scored 2.8, which vacillates between having severe doubts and some doubts on the existence of such information. Without documented business cases, the women-focused vaccine delivery system risks being unsustainable beyond the project timeline.To mitigate this possibility, the group suggested:• Start interaction with business people/entities from the beginning, leverage current partnership with Cowtribe to bring other relevant businesses on board.• Ensure effective documentation of evidence from pilot to communicate the business case.• Have Cowtribe lead in communicating the business cases for the innovation.This ingredient was also amongst the three lowest-scored ingredients. Although the key stakeholders identified that an innovation (vaccine technology and gendered delivery) was necessary (score:4.0), from the sub-questions, the group was unsure that demand for innovation was real and growing as anticipated. This might suggest the demand was not as expected and/or that the growth was developing at an unacceptable (slow) pace. The group was also pessimistic of the possibility to segment the target group for effective marketing of the gendered vaccine system, which could be a significant bottleneck in adoption and therefore, scaling.To mitigate awareness and demand becoming a significant bottleneck, the group suggested:• Consistent engagement with target groups.• Documentation and sharing of lessons with local leaders.• Avail access to information on GAA and GTA to the communities and all relevant partners.• Identify people who can be trained as gender champions to disseminate information about GTA and GAA.• Ensure project visibility at all levels (communities, district to national).• Develop a strategy that enables the team to use appropriate channels to communicate with different actors and interest groups.• Ensure awareness about the innovation beyond the leadership of the Department of Agriculture, ensure that other field officers are well informed and participate in communicating the innovation/approach.• Leverage on opportunities at the Department of Agriculture, e.g., the free airtime they have at local FM stations can be used for awareness creation.• Segment and effectively target the information that the team will disseminate.This scaling ingredient is another ingredient that scored relatively low. While the group felt the relevant actors in scaling the innovation had been engaged (score: 4.3), they were less confident that effective networks or sector platforms for joint strategic direction-setting, advocacy and creating buy-in on the desired vision of the scaling ambition, were present (score:2.8). Related to this, the group was also unsure of any existing parallel initiatives or policy processes that could serve to achieve the scaling ambition(score:2.9).To shore up collaboration, the group suggested:• The involvement of the community and local stakeholders is critical for the sustainability of the project.• All involved partners to suggest sustainability plans of their roles in the innovation after the project has ended.• Organization of periodic review sessions for feedback and action plans for improvement.• Assigning clear roles and responsibilities, where necessary, among partners who play similar roles.• Ensure participatory roles at all levels among key actors.• Strengthen the relationship between Cowtribe Technology and the Department of Agriculture.• Leverage on other platforms such as GALVmed-supported initiatives led by Cowtribe Technology and Public-Private Partnership engagements facilitated by the project to strengthen relationships with other institutions.The group felt there was effective use of modern data and IT tools to support the innovation (score: 4.0) through Cowtribe's technology and its application of data in demand planning to prevent stockouts. However, on the question of availability of useful and credible data on the impact and other parameters that could help in understanding the scaling process, the group scored 2.5, meaning they were doubtful.The group scored the government efforts in supporting training high (score: 4.1), which provides for a conducive environment to introduce additional training on the innovation at hand (gender and vaccine technology). However, on the question of whether relevant government financing mechanisms (such as subsidies or tariffs) were smart and whether they could be applied to benefit scaling the innovation, theThe strengths and weaknesses identified and discussed in the critical ingredients section above differ by small margins (between 3.3 and 3.7). While there are no significant bottlenecks at the ingredient level, none of the ingredients scored higher than 4.0 (quite confident). Therefore, we focus on the sub-elements for the ingredients that scored less than 3.0 as they are potential bottlenecks that can hinder achieving the scaling ambition.Under the knowledge and skills ingredient, one of the identified strengths was the availability of training material to facilitate knowledge transfer about the innovation. In contrast, pertaining to the awareness and demand ingredient, the project was uncertain that the demand for innovation was real and growing as expected. This was not entirely unexpected when dealing with an excluded group as is the case with women and vaccines in the target areas; demand is not always observable without years of related advocacy work on the same intervention. This is better captured by this food for thought by one of the project experts.Under the technology ingredient, the innovation of an ICT-accelerated vaccine value chain system was found to be relevant to women farmers and women animal health workers.Leadership and management towards achieving the scaling ambition were found to be adequately established, recognized, and connected to the relevant actors. This positive assessment included support to internal and external change management processes. Unclear roles and responsibilities could affect accountability and become a bottleneck to achieving the scaling ambition by negatively affecting the achievement of key important roles in the value chain.Lack of demand (perceived or real) may be a potential bottleneck and needs to be addressed. Optimizing delivery of a gendered vaccine systemAccording to the project partners and stakeholders, the innovation has viable business cases for actors involved in the value chain. However, the group thinks there is insufficient information to develop and sharpen the business cases. Lack of documentation on the viability of business cases on the innovation weakens the project's ability to recruit women animal health workers into the value chain, which is one of the key objectives of the project.On the collaboration ingredient, the group agreed that the actors who have been engaged were relevant to achieving the scaling ambition. However, they feel that effective networks or sector platforms for joint strategic direction-setting are missing.The project should adapt existing training materials into IEC resources for use in raising awareness and demand of the innovation amongst the various actors including women animal healthcare workers and farmers.The project needs to see how these training materials can be repurposed to deal with some of the bottlenecks identified in the scan that include perceived lack of demand for the innovation.These can be in the form of simple flyers and posters employing simple imagery and created in local languages to ensure the non-literate are also included. These materials can then be distributed through specific platforms identified by the project and partners as ideal in reaching key target groups necessary to raise demand. These platforms will include those preferred or used by women.It is recommended that the project should collect commercial viability information from existing businesses in the vaccine value chain, including Cowtribe Technology and those working with private companies, to develop business cases.To do this, profiles should be created of the women being targeted, which could include some demographic elements, asset base information and education levels, and use these to model business cases for women.Well communicated and targeted business cases, using validated information from existing and recognized businesses would help motivate women to enter the vaccine delivery system as entrepreneurRepurposing learning resourcesFor women (farmers and animal health workers), the project already has adequate materials, which this scan suggests should be adapted into Information and Communication Materials (IEC) materials to optimize the reach. Similarly, actions to enhance dissemination of the innovation (including the gender aspect) should be taken to reach men and encourage their support of the technology. This will help avoid potential 'backlash' from men and instead, ensure their support and participation in optimizing its delivery in Ghana.The project should develop specific messaging for the different actors (including men) in the value chain and use the most relevant platforms (e.g., VSLA for women) to target these different actors with information on the importance, benefits of the innovation for women and society at large. This messaging should include specific information to address any real or perceived disadvantages for any actor that may arise from the innovation.The project should introduce memoranda of understanding agreements targeting key actors in the value chain who are not part of the consortium agreement, to communicate roles and responsibilities in the innovation.It is recommended that roles and responsibilities be clarified, which will help align expectations from all partners and stakeholders and enhance the chance of achieving the scaling ambition.• To ensure representation beyond the project team, the scaling scan solicited participation from external stakeholders working in the value chain, ensuring that both public and private actors are part of the process and contribute to the key sessions of the process as experts. This approach, therefore, relies heavily on the expert opinions twhich are susceptible to information gaps and strategic behavior of the participants.• The second step of the scaling scan process is scoring a scaling ingredient survey by all of the project team and external stakeholders involved in the process. One limitation of this is that the survey applies similar weightings to all participants, which is not always a reflection of the actual knowledge and experience of the participating stakeholders.• The scaling ingredient survey is a lengthy survey of 40 questions structured into 10 fields that the participants and group must complete. The survey assumes the individual completing the survey is knowledgeable on the 10 ingredient fields, which is not always the case. Depending in what node of the value chain the individual operates, one might have better insight into some fields and less into others, which is not well considered in the tool.• ILRI's scaling framework includes a light track, standard track, and extended track. This report is limited in that it only accounts for the light track. Usually, this light track is followed by a standard track using the Scaling Readiness. Scaling Readiness is an evidence-based study that provides a deep dive into the readiness of the innovation for scaling, using a scientific hierarchy of ranking evidence on the different components of the innovation Scaling Readiness addresses the identified shortcomings of the scaling scan approach.","tokenCount":"5522"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9f40cfc92cd75b0d3fc199d4831027ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40103f9b-4d29-45df-babb-d443f32c9253/retrieve","id":"-192201321"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f1e2e0d4-cf6f-49a9-bde8-b25e286a29cf","pagecount":"1","content":"Primer borrador del informe sobre el uso de herramientas de simulación para optimizar las estrategias de mejoramiento en el programa de mejoramiento de híbridos interespecíficos de Urochloa sp. en el CIAT. b.h Guinea grass, Megathyrsus maximus (Jacq.) B.K. Simon & S.W.L. Jacobs (syn. Panicum maximum Jacq.; Simon & S.W.L. Jacobs, 2003), has high productive potential due to its high nutritional value, foliage, height (reaching up to 1.5 m at maturity), and basal diameter (up to 40 cm), compared to other forage grasses c . h Selection based on Specific Combining Ability (RS-SCA), a breeding scheme used in other apomictic species, is expected to provide greater short-term genetic gains b . h The North Carolina II mating design is frequently employed to identify superior parental lines and optimal crosses a .h Identify the best apomictic tester(s) to be used as male parent based on their general combining ability and select the best hybrids for cultivar development.  In the biometric design, broad-sense heritability ranged from 0.3 to 0.8, with over 60% of evaluations showing broad sense heritability greater than 0.5, indicating that much of the phenotypic variation was due to genetic variability. Factor analysis revealed two distinct clusters of environments: Quilichao and Palmira in","tokenCount":"202"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f02ba03d7897a6f888698037b4f98abf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6fb81ea1-4647-4bce-bcb2-893777fd4496/retrieve","id":"-209423621"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1929b273-dc57-4c2e-90d7-a4b9afac98ce","pagecount":"18","content":"Sweet-potato remains a very important calorific and economic value chain commodity for the majority of Malawian farmers.While there have been efforts to improve productivity through the introduction of improved varieties, a big gap exists in knowledge of the value chain characteristics and linkages.In Malawi, CIP is supporting:  Input Suppliers e.g. agro-dealers and multipliers• Access to credit facilities for bulk purchases which would eventually reduce the price paid by farmers.• Access to clean SP/OFSP vines.• Access to guaranteed market or market information.• Lack of collective marketing among famers as such local traders take advantage and dictate low farm gate prices. • Seasonality and perishability of the crop.• Lack of good storage technology for SP/OFSP.Local Traders /stockistsi.e. Aggregators• Lack of access to credit facility to purchase large quantities. • Lack of access to good transportation.• Low or no supplies from farmers in lean months of September, October, November, January which pushes up prices to consumers.Same as local traders, plus:• Lack of storage facilities to enhance regular supply to processors.• Lack of promotion for OFSP to improve production to ensure adequate and sustainable supply of sweet potato throughout the year.Value Chain Actors Challenges• Lack of capital to buy in bulk.• Lack of good product handling techniques.Local Processors e.g. cooking/boiling /roasting at local and urban markets.• Lack of or poor quality product packaging.• Poor capacity to develop new forms of acceptable OFSP products.• Inadequate knowledge of the diverse products they can make from OFSP rootsProducers yields and gross margins • 74% to informal fresh root markets (homesteads, community markets, roadside). • Less than 1% to commercial or industrial processors (Universal Industries Ltd and CN&F Ltd) • Main road side markets and urban outlets provide premium prices for fresh roots for middle traders, retailers and hawkers. • Sweet potato is usually bought and sold on the basis of volume, rather than weights.Selling of cooked sweet potato is usually done by women who sell in markets, by the road side and in schools. Selling of roasted sweet potato is usually done by men especially in markets. ","tokenCount":"340"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b1fdad893167d0fb3bf437c678f8a72e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/868ce883-0d6b-4d7d-b94f-290f7646ec6f/content","id":"-1024512264"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ae3de581-38ba-4d8c-83c3-ca0f7c2c8d4e","pagecount":"48","content":"Beginning in 1960 a series of Inter-American yield trials were conducted to test the main varieties of the hemisphere throughout the principal spring wheat regions of the Americas. The results of these nurseries ( 1, 2, 3, 8) indicated that certain varieties showed very wide adaptation while others -particularly the North American ones -were very poorly adapted outside their areas of origin. A parallel series of yield nurseries were run in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization throughout the Near East. The results ( 4, 5, 7) were quite similar to those from the Inter-American series, and many of the same varieties, such as Pitic 62, were high yielding in both sets. It was therefore <iecided to combine these into a single International Spring Wheat Yield Nursery in order to study adaptation wherever spring wheat is grown. This report-covers the first of these combined nurseries.Adaptation is perhaps the most elusive concept in plant breeding. Not only is there surprisingly little information concerning the performance of varieties over a broad range of environments in even the major crop plants, hut there is considerable confusion among plant breeders as to whether broad adaptation is desirable or not. Even in wheat, the most extensively seeded crop in the world, there is remarkably little systematic data concerning the adaptation of the major varietal types in different areas of the world.Adaptation in wheat can be considered from many points of view. It may be measured by e. g. flowering date, maturity date, resistance to important diseases or pests, winter survival and yield. Grain yield is the most comprehensive gauge of adaptation, but it is cumbersome to measure and influenced by many inter-related factors. Yield, however, is the most meaningful measure of adaptation in terms of world food needs.The United States Department of Agriculture's International Spring Wheat Rust Nursery has obtained a lot of very valuable information concerning resistance to pathogens throughout the world's important wheat regions. Disease losses can lower yields markedly, and if yield is to be used as the measure of adaptation, disease resistance plays a very important role. Disease is, however, only one of the factors affecting yield. 1 The distribution and management of the nursery in the Near East is handled cooperatively with the Near and Middle East Wheat and Barley Improvement Project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.•Respectively: Resident Coordinator, CIMMYT Wheat Program; Head, CIMMYT Wheat Program; Head of Biometry Department, lnstituto Nacional de lnvestigaciones Agrkolas ( INIA), Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganaderia, Mexico; and Head, INIA Cereals Program. A special acknowledgement is given to the 1964 FAO trainees who helped in the preparation of seed for the nursery. These include: .Mohamed Ahmed Khalifa, Salah'el-Dine A. Attia, Mohammad Dadain, Shamoon Issa Bekou, Thul Kife Shihada Ghousha, Cemali Ozer and Mohamed Zeini Juwanah. Also acknowledgement is made to Reyes Vega and Miguel Martinez for their help in preparing the nurseries, to Mrs. Guillermina Hardy in preparation of the tables and to Miss Judith Franco for typing the tables and manuscript.nurseries, but some new ones were included in an attempt to keep the nursery as current and meaningful as possible. The varieties included were:1. Selkirk-a Canadian-developed variety that is still the most extensively grown variety in the moist parts of the northern hard spring wheat areas.2. Thatcher-a Minnesota variety that was widely grown for many years in the northern United States and Canada and that is still widely grown in the drier areas of this region. It has been used as a standard for spring wheat quality and for that reason has been widely used in the parentage of many of the newer United States and Canadian lines.3. Justin-one of the newer, commercial spring wheat varieties of the United States. It was developed in North Dakota.4. Crim-a new Minnesota variety that is now in commercial production. It was included in the nursery before the variety was named and was carried by its experimental designation of Minn. II-53-404.5. CT244-a promising new line from Canada that was never released because of quality considerations.1. Gabotcr-one of the most important soft varieties m the northern part of the Argentine wheat belt.2. Magni£ 41-a promising semi-commercial soft variety.3. Klein Rendidor-the most widely cultivated hard wheat variety in Argentina. It is representative of the long cycle or facultative winter types that are widely grown in Argentina.1. Nainari 60-an important tall commercial variety in Mexico from 1960 through 1962 and still widely used in crosses. It has also shown good adaptation in several Near Eastern countries as well as in the Near Eastern and Inter-American international yield nurseries.2. Lerma Rojo 64A-a semi-dwarf version of the original Lerma Rojo, derived through backcrossing. It has shown good adaptation in the Near East as well as Mexico.3. Pitic 62-the first semi-dwarf variety released in Mexico. It has yielded well in the Inter-American nurseries and was the highest yielder in all three Near East-American nurseries but is currently grown on only a limited commercial average in Mexico because of low test weight and its susceptibility to new races of stem rust. 4. Penjamo 62-one of the first semi-dwarf varieties released in Mexico. It has occupied over half of the Mexican wheat area for the past several years.5. Sonora 64-the shortest strawed variety that has been commercially released in Mexico to date. It is currently recommended only for areas where leaf rust is not a serious problem. 6. Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 (white grain)-a dwarf Mexican line of very high yield capacity, that was originally entered as (Frontana X Kenya 58-Newthatch) Norin 10-Brevor X Gabo 55. Although it has not been widely grown in Mexico because of partial rust susceptibility, it and its red seeded sister (both with the pt:<ligree of II-8156-1M-2R-4M) have been widely grown under various names including Siete Cerros, Super X, Kalyan, S-227, PV-18, Indus 66 and Mexipak 65.Colombian varieties:1. Narifio 59-the most important commercial variety in Colombia from 1960 through 1962 when a new race of stripe rust ended its usefulness in southern Colombia. It is still widely used in the departments ( i. e. states) of Cundinamarca and Boyaci and was the highest_ yielding variety in the first Inter-American Spring Wheat Yield Nursery. . 2. Bonza 55-an. important commercial variety. It has maintained an effective level of field resistance to stripe rust for over 10 years which is almost unique with the explosive race situation of Colombia.3. Napo 63-presently an important variety in both Colombia and Ecuador. It has very good stripe rust resistance to the extremely virulent races of those two countries.l. Gabo-a variety of very wide adaptation both in Australia and many other countries. It is susceptible to stripe rust.2. Triple Dirk-a short strawed variety; susceptible to stripe rust.Egyptian varieties: l. Giza 144-a widely adapted variety representative of the present commercial varieties used in Egypt.2. Giza 150-a new representative of the Egyptian wheats.Brazilian varieties:1. Carazinho-an important commercial variety reported to be able to produce relatively good yield on acid soils. It has good stripe rust resistance under most conditions.1. C-518-an old, pre-partition Indian white seeded wheat still grown on a substantial acreage.2. C-271-a tall, awnleted, pubescent white seeded variety grown on a considerable acreage in West Pakistan.3. C-273-a tall, awned, pubescent white seeded variety grown commercially in the Punjab areas of India and Pakistan.As far as possible, data were converted to metric units or percentages for presentation in this report. Every effort was made to assure the correctness of such conversions as well as the accuracy of translations of terms from other languages and the interpretation of supplementary information. The authors, however, take full responsibility for any errors that might have been made. Data are not presented in the tables nor were analyses run for traits where no differential varietal effect was observed.Yield data were requested from the central row of each three-row plot. All three rows were harvested by some cooperators in order to have sufficient grain for test weight and 1000 grain weight. Yields were converted from the units reported by the cooperator to kilograms per hectare. For readers more accustomed to yield in bushels per acre, 1000 kilograms of wheat per hectare is equivalent to approximately 15 bushels per acre.Both test weight and 1000 grain weight data were requested as a measure of grain quality because some cooperators do not have test weight equipment. In some cases the cooperator had to combine seed from the four replications to have enough seed to take a test weight determination. Test weight is reported in kilograms per hectoliter, and 1000 grain weights are reported in grams. For readers more accustomed to test weight expressed in pounds per bushel, one kilogram per hectoliter = 0.8018 pounds• per bushel, i. e. 75 kilograms per hectoliter is approximately 60 pounds per bushel.For statistical analysis the rust notes were converted to a coefficient of infection as used by Dr. W. Q. Loegering in the United States Department of Agriculture's International Rust Nurseries. This coefficient is calculated by multiplying the percentage of infection by a \"response value\" for each infection type. Thus, the coefficient combines both the amount of infection and the reaction type. The response values are as follows: 0 = O; VR (very resistant) and R (resistant) = 0.2; MR (moderately resistant) = 0.4; M (intermediate) = 0.6; MS (moderately susceptible) = 0.8; and S (susceptible) and VS (very susceptible) = 1.0. The coefficients can be analyzed statistically as well as correlated with yield and other traits to estimate the degree of association between rust attack and other traits. To avoid handling of fractional values, coefficients less than 1.0 and more than 0 were rounded to 1.0, and all other values were rounded to the nearest whole number.In the case of cooperators who reported only percentage of rust, this was used directly as the coefficient, and for the occasional case where only the infection type was reported, the response value was used as the coefficient. Due to the fact that 0 values were common and that the coefficients do not usually fit a normal distribution, the coefficients were routinely transformed as y' coefficient + 1, i. e. v'X + 1, for analysis. While other transformations may have been more appropriate in specific cases, the V X + 1 transformation considerably improved the normality of the distributions. The v'X + 1 values were the ones used for all statistical analysis and are the ones presented in the tables of results for locations in which data for the trait were reported in more than one replication. Where the rust note was taken in only a single replication, the actual notes are presented in tables, but the coefficients transformed to v'X + 1 were used for correlations.Throughout this report, the terms stripe rust, stem rust and leaf rust are used instead of yellow rust, black rust and brown rust such as are used in the Near East and instead of the scientific names of the causal organisms. Stripe rust readings are normally taken on the leaves, but under severe conditions an additional note can be taken on the attack in the head or spike. This is usually taken as the average percentage of infected spikelets in the plot. Two locations reported this type of data in addition to the usual leaf note, and these data were also transformed to V % + 1.Lodging was recorded as percentage of lodged plants, and shattering was recorded as average percentage of shattered spikelets or percentage of yield lost due to shattering. Both lodging and shattering data were transformed into V % + 1 to normalize their distribution. Some data were reported as a score, and these were not converted to percentages nor used in averages with data from other locations. The cooperators were urged to include data for any other factor for which differential data could be recorded, and such additional factors were often the most important ones in influencing yield at that site. These were analyzed and presented wherever available.At any given location, an analysis of variance was performed for all traits on which data were reported from more than one replication. Pertinent information from these analyses of variance are presented for each trait as well as the mean for each variety for each trait in Tables 1, 3,  5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48,50,52,54,56,58,60,61, 63 and 65.The information from these analyses includes the mean of the trait, statistical level of significance, coefficient of variation, standard error and the least significant difference at the 5% level.The statistical level of significance includes from 0.5% to 25% ( 10) rather than just the usual 5% and 1 % levels. \"NS\" indicates non-significance at even the 25 % level. The standard error is the standard error of a plot i.e. v'EMS (6).The least significant difference (LSD) for the 5% level is also presented ( 10). The disadvantages of this test as compared, for example to the Duncan or other tests as well as the mis-uses that are frequently made of the LSD are fully appreciated. Nevertheless, LSD values are presented because: it remains the best understood statistical test in many countries, it still serves as a reasonably reliable basis of comparison, and it lends itself to more concise presentation in the tables than the various sequential range tests. Readers wishing to use the Duncan multiple range test, for example, may compute the appropriate standard error from the standard error presented in the tables.Considerable understanding as to which factors are influencing yield and the interactions between these factors may be gained by studying the correlations presented in Tables 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,35,37,39,41,43,45,47,49,51,53,55,57,59, 62, 64 and 66. The correlations are between the means of all traits for which data were reported. Correlations were calculated between the means rather than using the raw data first because this appeared to be somewhat more meaningful genetically and second because some types of data were frequently reported for only one replication.The means of each character for each variety were also used to compute a multiple regression for yield considering all other variables for which differential data were reported as \"independent\" variables. It is realized that many of these variables are not 'truly independent from etiher a statistical or a biological viewpoint. The multiple regression analyses for each location are presented in the same tables as the correlation values, and both partial regression coefficients and \\'t\" values are presented for each variable. In computing multiple regressions it is often customary to begin with the variable explaining the largest amount of variance of the dependent variable (in this case, yield) and continue adding variables that account for the next most amount of variance until the \"t\" values for additional variables are no longer significant. When this point is reached, no more additional variables are included. It will be noted, however, that coefficients and \"t\" values are included for all \"independent\" variables. This was done partially because the magnitude of the \"t\" value (sign ignored) may be a measure of the relative importance of a variable in determining yield. Such interpretations should be made with some care, however, particularly when there are two variables that are not truly independent or that may measure much the same thing ( e. g. heading date and maturity date).For readers who have not had much experience with multiple regression, the R 2 value is the amount of the variance for yield that can be accounted for by the regression equation. This regression equation consists of a constant term plus coefficients to be multiplied by the values for each of the independent variables. The equation can be used to calculate an expected yield for each variety based on the values for each of the independent traits that were measured. That is, we may compute an expected yield for a variety on the basis of its maturity, rust reaction, straw strength, etc. For example, the expected yield of variety 16 at Beirut, Lebanon can be calculated as (see data in Table 42 and coefficients and constant term in For the reader's convenience, expected ( i. e. calculated) yields using the multiple regression equations are presented in Table 69 for all locations reporting more than one independent variable. The differences between observed and calculated yields are presented in Table 70. In attempting to verify any of the figures in these two tables, it should be remembered that variations may be due to difference in the procedure for rounding off.Incidentally, as Ostle ( 9, p223) suggests, R (i. e. VR:2) may be thought of as a linear correlation between the expected and observed yields. While many workers will find the multiple regression analyses interesting and useful, a full understanding is not essential to the interpretation of the yield data or the factors influencing yield.The overall summary of the data reported for all varieties is presented in Table 67. These are the means for all traits averaged over all locations from which differential data were reported. As will be noted, the number of locations differs between traits. No combined analysis of variance over all locations was attempted due to some disparity in data recording, heterogeneity of variances and to the fact that the data were incomplete at some locations particularly for varieties that are sensitive to short day lengths.The correlation values in Table 68 were calculated from the means of the traits averaged over all locations where both traits were measured. These are perhaps the best estimates of the relationship between traits.Because of the unique nature of the data reported being. representative of a diverse group of varieties tested over a sizable part of the world's 'spring wheat area, the philosophy of the authors has been to try to provide the reader with a maximum amount of usable information. No attempt has been made to \"digest\" the data and explore all of its ramifications, but it is hoped that students and scientists alike will continue to find applications and interpretations that cannot be visualized today.As can be seen from Table 67  These are to a remarkable degree the same varieties that have perfomed well in the previous Inter-American and Near Eastern yield trials (1,2,3,4,5,7,8). Pitic 62, for example, previously had the highest average yield in all three Near Eastern trials and the highest in two of the three Inter-American nurseries in which it was entered.The mean yield averaged over such a wide range of environmental conditions might not be too meaningful if the same varieties do not also tend to yield the best at individual sites. Pitic 62, however, was among the five highest yielding varieties in 23 of the 34 locations reported in this bulletin. Its poor yield in several locations can be accounted for by inadequate disease resistance indicating that its yield potential is indeed impressive. This has also been the tendency in previous nurseries. Nainari 60 and Penjamo 62 were also among the five highest yielding varieties in over half of the locations. Pitic 62, Nainari 60, Penjamo 62, the Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 selection or Lerma Rojo 64A were among the five highest varieties in 33 of the 34 reporting locations. Thatcher, Justin and Selkirk are just as consistent in their low yield. Thatcher was among the lowest five yielding varieties in 25 out of the 34 locations•, and Justin and Selkirk, respectively, were among the five poorest yielding varieties in 20 and 22 locations. This same trend has been noted in previous nurseries (8, p 12).As in two previous yield ttial publications ( 7,8), multiple regression analyses were carried out for each location and the resultant equations were used to calculate a predicted or calculated yield for each variety at each location. These predicted yields are reported in Table 69, and the differences qetween actual and predicted yields are presented in Table 70. The predicted yields may be thought of as what a variety might be expected to yield on the basis of its ~ata for the various independent variables that are known to affect yield under certain conditions. For example, disease resistance is very closely related to yield under severe epiphytotic conditions such as for stripe rust in Ecuador. (see Tables 11 and 12). Flowering and maturity are usually inversely related to yield at locations with short daylengths because a number of daylength sensitive varieties are included in the test. Height and lodging are also usually inversely related to yield at locations where fertilization and rainfall are adequate.The highest yielding varieties in the nursery tended, as would be expected, to have the highest predicted yields. That is, you would expect them to yield well because their maturity, disease resistance, straw strength, height, etc., were adequate at most locations. Thatcher, the lowest yielding variety in the trial, also had the lowest predicted yield due to its heigth, susceptibility to lodging and extreme lateness at locations with short day lengths.As was suggested previously ( 7, p13), the difference between actual and predicted yields might be useful in identifying varieties that possess \"yield genes\" apart from those that can be explained by disease resistance, straw strength, etc. A variety might have a high yield but actually yield very poorly due to e. g. poor straw strength. If, however,. such a variety consistently yielded more than its predicted yield, it might suggest that the variety actually had a high yield potential and might be useful as a parent. Lerma Rojo was given as an example of just such a variety. This point has, however, not been discussed further until more data could be accumulated and it could be seen if given varieties tend to outyield their predicted yields from one year to the next and over a wide range of environments. A multiple regression analysis with so many independent variables would have uncertain value if only taken from a few locations but becomes more meaningful from a large number of locations.With the data reported herein plus those from previous nurseries ( 7,8), multiple regression analyses have been carried out for 65 locations reprec senting the major areas of spring wheat production around the world. In general varieties have behaved consistently in relation to their predicted yield in the three nurseries.Varieties that had a positive value in Table 70 for the average over 34 locations in this test and that have appeared in at least one of the two other trials ( 7,8 )  As will be noted, the varieties that yielded more than their calculated yield in the trial reported in this bulletin had all yielded better than their calculated yields in previous trials. This would seem to indicate that these varieties have a high yield potential apart from what can be explained by resistance, maturity and straw strength. They have in fact all been very useful in crosses in the Mexican-CIMMYT wheat program.It should be remembered, however, that while the ability to out-yield the calculated or predicted yield implies a good yield potential apart from what can be explained by the independent variables, it does not indicate how easily this yielding ability can be recovered in crosses. Both Pirie 62 and the Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 selection are short, strong strawed varieties that out-yield their calculated yield by a large amount. In hundreds of crosses in the Mexican program, however, the yield potential has been found to be much easier to recover in crosses with Pitic 62 than with the Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 selection. This is apparently due to the fact that the inheritance of the yield potential of the Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 line is controlled by multiple recessives while that of Pitic 62 is more simply inherited. Even the disease resistance of Pitic 62 appears to be more simply inherited thereby allowing the selection of a larger number of desirable types in F2 populations.Of the independent variables rust plays a very important role in determining yield. Within recent years there has been considerable interest in tolerance and other non-specific types of rust resistance. Material with this type of rust resistance yields well despite having a high rust note. This type of resistance is effective against a broad spectrum of rust races and tends to remain effective over a greater number of years than the hyper-sensitive genes commonly employed. Unfortunately the trait is difficult to. identify and evaluate. The multiple regression technique might be useful in identifying lines with rust tolerance as they would tend to yield better than you would expect on the basis of their rust notes. Such a technique would not be practical in identifying the trait in segregating populations but would be of interest in identifying fixed lines that carry tolerance. Indeed, several of the above lines that consistently out-yielded their predicted yields have been found to carry such genes.To make this nursery as useful as possible, suggestions are welcomed concerning improvements in the design and management of the nurseries, number of varieties, plot type, presentation of results, analyses, etc. So that the nursery can be kept as current as possible and thereby of more immediate usefulness, breeders are urged to submit their best new commercial varieties and/ or most promising experimental lines for including in the nursery. Seed of such material should arrive in Mexico by September 15 for planting in the seed plots in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora. It is requested that 400-500 grams of seed be sent although less can be used if necessary. Obviously, the total number of entries that can be included in such a test is limited, but it is hoped that the best representative of each of the major spring wheat regions of the world, can be included.Twenty five wheat varieties representing the major types grown throughout the spring wheat regions of the world were entered into a replicated international yield trial. Results were obtained from 34 locations in 23 countries from Argentina and Chile to the United States and from South Africa through the Near and Middle East to Australia. These included both irrigated and rainfed conditions from 226 meters below sea level in the Jordan valley to 3,058 meters above sea lever in Ecuador and from approximately 35°S latitude to 45°N.In addition to yield, wherever possible data were obtained on disease reaction, height, flowering and maturity date, lodging, shattering, 1000 grain weight and test weight. The data from all traits were analyzed statistically when data were reported on more than one replication, and correlations were calculated between the means of all traits measured at each location. A multiple regression analysis of yield on the other variables was also calculated for each location.The varieties having the highest average yield over 34 locations were Pirie 62, Nainari 60, Penjamo 62, a Penjamo sib X Gabo 55 selection (grown under several names in the Near East and Mexico) and Lerma Rojo 64A. All five are of Mexican origin and are all dwarf or semi-dwarf in growth habit with the exception of Nainari 60 which is also fairly strong strawed. As have previews international yield nurseries both in the Americas and through the Near East, the results show that is possible to breed varieties that have a much wider range of adaptation than is usually believed possible. There was a marked tendency for varieties to maintain their relative rankings at all locations whether they were fertilized or not fertilized, irrigated or rainfed and over a wide range of environments.strong strawed. As have previous international yield nurseries both in the Americas and through the Near East, the results show that is possible to breed varieties that have a much wider range of adaptation than is usually believed possible. There was a marked tendency for varieties to maintain their relative rankings at all locations whether they were fertilized or not fertilized, irrigated or rainfed and over a wide range of environments.  -m      Spring Wheat Yield Nursery\" grown at Pergamino, ARGENTINA, 1964.     . .     o. 5'/o 0.5'/o 0,5'/o 0,5'/o 0.5'/o 0.       ","tokenCount":"4627"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ce6321bc53512325da232a148156315a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/33c6c3dd-2d90-4d31-a48a-5158239921b2/retrieve","id":"1025584964"},"keywords":["Empowerment","Intersectionality","Emic development","Gender and social inclusion"],"sieverID":"7467fc76-edb7-4b9c-8aa3-ed35eb8ec594","pagecount":"17","content":"This mixed-methods study examines how men and women of different ages engaged in agriculture in Kilifi and Kiambu counties in Kenya define empowerment and describe empowerment pathways, and how empowered people are perceived by their families and communities. It also examines how emic understandings of empowerment-definitions which originate from within a given cultural context-compare to quantitative empowerment measures based on externally defined indicators from the Project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI). The study design used mixed methods, with qualitative data collected through focus group discussions, life histories, and community profiles, and quantitative data collected through the pro-WEAI survey tool. Although Pro-WEAI results indicated that women and men in the study communities have achieved gender parity and experience a similar level of empowerment, qualitative findings suggest that experiences of empowerment don't necessarily fit with Index scores. Rather, conceptualizations of empowerment by people of different ages and genders are highly diverse. Participants of all genders suggested that women's empowerment is more limited than men's, as women who are not. Subordinate to men risk being rejected or stigmatized by their communities. Qualitative findings suggest that empowered men are seen as \"desirable\" by their communities, whereas empowered women are \"openly admired\" and \"treated as a threat/feared\" in equal turn. Furthermore, results revealed that the under-involvement of men in empowerment initiatives has contributed to feelings of resentment and neglect. These findings suggest that capturing and accounting for multiple and diverse emic definitions of empowerment for different social groups, which lies beyond the scope of standardized quantitative measures, is essential to measuring and supporting empowerment in ways that are valuable and recognizable to the target group(s) of a given development initiative. Finally, results show that to support the effective empowerment of women and men, there is a need to include men, integrate safeguards for backlash against empowered women, and transform norms that hinder the acceptance of empowered women by their families and communities.Efforts to define, measure and operationalize women's empowerment have received increasing attention from developmental researchers and practitioners in recent years. This includes an ongoing effort to develop standardized measures of women's empowerment to evaluate and track the global progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 5-'Gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls' . However, developing a single Page 2 of 17 Zaremba et al. CABI Agriculture and Bioscience (2024) 5:33 standard to define and measure (women's) empowerment in the incredible diversity of contexts and cultures around the world presents a major challenge. Thus, the operationalization of such standardized understandings of empowerment has been met with notable criticism. For the purposes of this paper, we focus on two key critiques:(1) empowerment is not conceptualized or realized in the same ways for everyone everywhere, and therefore imposing a one-size-fits-all, top-down definition or metric of empowerment is antithetical to empowerment itself; and (2) a narrow focus on empowerment for just one group (i.e., women) can overlook or overshadow the (dis)empowerment of other marginalized groups.The work presented here aims to contribute to building more textured, nuanced, and context-specific empowerment approaches by and for diverse age and gender groups. To do so, this paper presents empirical evidence and 'emic' perspectives from men and women of two different age groups (18-35 years old and 35 +) from four communities in two counties in Kenya. An 'emic' understanding of empowerment is defined according to the internal values, understandings, and worldview of the culture or community being studied. Using Kabeer's (1999) resources-agency-achievements framework for a \"useful definition of empowerment that takes into account the nexus of the different conceptualizations of the concept which may be applicable across contexts\" (p. 62), this study aims to answer the following questions:• How do local communities define empowerment? How do these definitions vary by age and gender within each case study? • How do the communities conceptualize pathways to this locally defined empowerment? • How does the lived experience of empowerment processes compare and contrast to local conceptualizations? • How are women and men who are considered empowered viewed and treated by their families, spouses, and communities?While a lively discourse about the operational definition of empowerment is ongoing, this paper adopts Kabeer's foundational (1999, p. 435) definition: \"the process by which those who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability\". We adopt this definition for its flexible approach which allows for significant contextual variation. Kabeer's understanding of empowerment is based on three overarching and interrelated dimensions which can be adjusted and triangulated to fit diverse empowerment contexts: resources (pre-conditions), agency (process), and achievements (outcomes):Resources: Material, human and social resources which enable one to make choices.The ability to define one's goals and act upon them.Achievements: Well-being outcomes.These three dimensions are indivisible; if an indicator of empowerment does not speak to an increase in all three, it is an invalid measure (Kabeer 1999). While Kabeer's text specifically refers to women's empowerment, her definition is both encompassing and flexible enough in scope to be used for men as well. Therefore, we use her definition not only to frame women's empowerment, but also empowerment of marginalized men.Leading universal benchmarks for empowerment, such as the gender empowerment measure (GEM) developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have been criticized for their Western and especially Eurocentric bias, which \"does not do justice to the context specificity of empowerment, especially with regards to the means or process available and the specific local barriers one may face\" (Adjei 2015;Völker and Doneys 2021, p. 126). For example, a woman may score high on GEM empowerment indicators such as participation in professional economic activities and decision-making, but may nevertheless remain disempowered if her sociocultural context does not allow her to exercise strategic life choices (Adjei 2015). The imposition of externally defined indicators of empowerment may lead to empowerment outcomes that look like empowerment to the implementing agency, but may not feel like empowerment to the participants.Different studies have pointed to a problematic mismatch between 'increases' in empowerment and participants' desired empowerment outcomes (Adjei 2015;O'Hara and Clement 2018). For example, a program focused on economic empowerment may 'successfully' increase women's incomes, but also increase her labor burdens in a culture which values leisure time over money, making the venture a failure from an emic perspective (Völker and Doneys 2021). To achieve meaningful empowerment outcomes, a marginalized community member does not just need to be seen as empowered, they need to feel empowered in order to have the confidence to deviate from disempowering norms and act upon their own strategic life choices (Kabeer 1999;conceptualized as 'power within' in Rowlands 1997). This requires understanding and working within local value systems (Kinati et al. 2022). For example, a Western conceptualization of individualistic empowerment may not be desirable to women in a cultural context where family togetherness is highly valued (Kabeer 1999;Galiè and Farnworth 2019).Understanding and addressing context-specific barriers and entry points to empowerment is therefore key to the success of empowerment-related interventions. Moreover, initiatives which fail to adequately capture, account for, and ameliorate unjust social structures and systems not only risk impotence to move the needle on empowerment, but may actually exacerbate or perpetuate existing systems of inequality (Slegh et al. 2013;O'Hara and Clement 2018;Meinzen-Dick et al. 2019;Völker and Doneys 2021). For example, an increase in women's income (especially if it means a woman earns more than her male relatives) can lead to severe backlash, including gender-based violence and ostracism. On the other hand, such disruptions to traditional social systems and hierarchies \"can be both necessary and positive\" (Völker and Doneys 2021, p. 126). As such, empowerment interventions may call for complementary, emic approaches to ensure that the benefits of the intervention outweigh the drawbacks, thus making empowerment a worthwhile and desirable pursuit for the marginalized members of a community.Despite their critical role in developing appropriate and effective empowerment strategies, emic understandings of empowerment remain underexplored. A 2014 review of empirical evaluations of women's and girls' economic empowerment (Pereznieto and Taylor 2014) found that less than 25% of studies included a strong gender analysis, suggesting that the local context was poorly understood. This led to methodology based on misinterpretations and misconceptions which did little to serve those who were supposed to have been empowered. Furthermore, the review found that there are especially few empirical evaluations of women's and girls' economic empowerment that gather information on emic definitions from more than one region or community. This indicates a lack of robust data to inform regional, national, or international empowerment benchmarks that are sensitive to diverse empowerment experiences. The findings presented in this paper aims to contribute to filling this gap.Historically, conversations around empowerment have been focused on women, and for good reason; on a global level, systems of (dis)empowerment are characterized by a prevalence of patriarchal hierarchies in which women are subordinated. However, in recent years, there has been a pushback against this simplistic understanding of gender and empowerment. A binary view of empowerment tends to gloss over the intersectional nuances of power structures in which gender is just one axis of identity that can determine one's social status among many others (e.g., age, race, class, caste, religion, ethnicity, ability, rurality) (Corrêa 2010;Gill and Pires 2019;Leder and Sachs 2019;Trivelli and Morel 2021). In some contexts, gender may not be among the most important factors of (dis)empowerment. In these cases, a top-down imposition of a 'gender agenda' by development agencies may mask more nuanced realities while perpetuating colonial attitudes which clumsily prescribe assumed meaning to local power structures (Frewer 2017;Gill and Pires 2019). Furthermore, the binary conceptualization of women as disempowered and men as empowered forms a biased narrative in which women are victims, men are oppressors, and development agencies are saviors (Corrêa 2010). In reality, gendered experiences of (dis)empowerment are often complex, multiple, and even contradictory in nature; in some contexts, for example, men may observe disempowerment while women perceive the opposite (Petesch et al. 2018a).In practical terms, failing to include both women and men in empowerment initiatives risks that resulting empowerment mechanisms will be insufficiently inclusive and ineffective. Not only may disempowered men be insufficiently targeted (e.g., Tesfaye et al. 2022), a failure to engage men can also impede advances in women's empowerment, as men's involvement is seen as critical to the acceptance and support of empowerment initiatives (Pereznieto and Taylor 2014). However, Cornwall and Rivas (2015) warn that an uneven focus on \"empowering women and girls\" and \"engaging men and boys\" is also a poor and overly binary strategy for ending gender-based discrimination. Moreover, it is impossible to understand the full context for points of entry as well as barriers to empowerment without understanding both women's and men's roles, priorities, and perceptions in the given social setting. Yet, Pereznieto and Taylor's (2014) review of empirical evaluations of women's and girls' economic empowerment found that many studies do not directly include men at all. This represents a major gap in the literature.This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by including emic explorations of empowerment for women as well as men, but also for different age groups. Age can play a major role in experiences and conceptualizations of (dis) empowerment which may be critical for effective and inclusive positive change, and which are intersectional with gender considerations. For example, in a study of emic definitions of women's empowerment in Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, Völker and Doneys (2021) found that middle-aged women had much broader understandings of empowerment than older and younger generations, as understandings of gender have changed over time. Considerations of youth empowerment have received increasing attention from development spaces in recent years (Elias et al. 2018;Rietveld et al. 2020;Petesch et al. 2022). However, empirical evidence of empowerment disaggregated by age is uncommon. A review of 254 empirical evaluations of women's and girls' economic empowerment found that just 21% explored empowerment for adolescent girls, and most lacked age disaggregated data overall (Pereznieto and Taylor 2014).According to the UNDP's Gender Inequality Index (GII), Kenya has a relatively high level of gender inequality compared to other countries around the world, ranked 128 out of 191 countries (UNDP 2022). This low rating is based on Kenya's relatively high maternal mortality ratio (342 deaths per 100,000 live births) and adolescent birth rate (64.2 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19), and relatively low representation of women in parliament (23.2% of seats held by women). In addition to the gaps highlighted by the GII, gender gaps also persist in terms of literacy (Akala 2019), income, and access to credit (World Economic Forum 2015;Kivuva and Kinuthia 2021).While inequality persists, Kenya has made some important political inroads toward gender equality over the last three decades. These include gender-mainstreaming in the Constitution of Kenya and other pieces of legislation, policies and programs, including the establishment of the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC). However, customary traditions and cultural beliefs continue to pose barriers to achieving gender parity in key human development indicators (Kivuva and Kinuthia 2021).Gender is a key factor of marginalization in Kenya, but it is far from the only factor. Other key factors include age (including high stunting and wasting rates for children) and region/rurality (World Bank 2018). For those living in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), development challenges are particularly severe due to poverty and vulnerability factors stemming from intense and prolonged drought associated with climate change (ibid.).This study took place in Kenya's Kilifi and Kiambu counties, both of which are ASAL regions, as shown in Fig. 1. In Kiambu, data was collected in Thika and Limuru administrative units, while in Kilifi data was collected in Magarini administrative unit. To uphold participant confidentiality, village names have been omitted.Kilifi County, located on Kenya's east coast, has high rates of poverty (71.7%) and food insecurity (67%). Rainfed agriculture is the primary livelihood source, contributing 52.7% of household income and employing over half the female population, putting the local population at heightened risk from climate change (GoK 2013). Key commodities are cassava, chili, local poultry, and dairy cattle. Despite the Country's commitment to eliminate violence against children and gender discrimination through legislation and institutions, experience on the ground indicates that girls in Kilifi face double discrimination due to their gender and age (County Government of Kilifi 2018). In Magarini, the sub-county where data was collected, census data indicates that 25.64% of the total population of Magarini are between 18 and 35 years old (the defined age range for the younger group of participants in this study). The majority of the population belongs to the Giriama ethnic group, the dominant ethnic group in Kilifi County.Kiambu County is located in the Central Highlands of Kenya, close to the capital city Nairobi. Kiambu's population density is much higher than that of Kilifi (952 versus 116 people per square feet, respectively) (GoK 2019). Most of the population in Kiambu County is ethnically Kikuyu, a majority ethnic group. Kiambu also has a much larger economy than Kilifi, ranking in the top three Kenyan counties in terms of gross country product (GCP) in 2017 as well as GCP growth from 2013 to 2017 (KNBS 2019). However, key informant interviews (KIIs) suggest that the economy in Kiambu has been negatively impacted by prolonged drought and the Covid-19 pandemic, which have simultaneously affected income generating activities and contributed to the rising cost of agricultural inputs, making it increasingly difficult for locals to pursue agricultural livelihoods.The two administrative units chosen as study sites in Kiambu County are characterized by dissimilar economic conditions, as Thika Town is a peri-urban area economically tied to nearby Nairobi (Muiruri and Odera 2018), while Limuru is a comparatively rural and agricultural area. Thika's ecology is not well-suited for agriculture, as the soils are low-fertility sand and clay, which are furthermore dissected and easily eroded (County Government of Kiambu in Collaboration with Ministry of Land Housing and Urban Development 2015). In contrast, Limuru is an agricultural unit with major tea estates and a vibrant horticultural sector (County Government of Kiambu 2018).Focus group discussion participants were selected from existing farmer groups in Kilifi and Kiambu. Most of these groups were mixed gender, but had more women members than men, as most of the groups were originally for women only. In each focus group discussion, participants were introduced to a leveled empowerment typology (Sect. \"Pathways to empowerment\") and asked to express their own level of empowerment using a secret ballot. Based on these anonymous self-assessments (as well as willingness to participate), 16 out of 55 total focus group discussants were selected for life history interviews. The participants that assessed themselves the highest and the lowest in terms of empowerment were selected for the life histories, and thus represented the empowered and disempowered from that specific focus group.The study was designed as a mixed methods study and both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The results presented here are primarily based on the The qualitative tools used for the study were adapted and amended based on tools from GENNOVATE (Petesch et al. 2018b) and the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project, phase 2 (GAAP2) 1 and consist of three parts:1. Community profile: through key informant interviews with men and women community leaders, this module provides an overview of the communities. Three community profiles were conducted (Table 1). This data was used to provide background information and context to situate the findings from the other quantitative and qualitative tools described below. 2. Focus group discussions (FGDs): FGDs were used to capture local definitions of empowerment, conceptualizations of empowerment pathways, and attitudes toward empowered men and women. A total of eight FGDs were conducted, disaggregated by age and sex (2 younger men, 2 younger women, 2 older men, 2 older women). On average, seven people participated in each FGD. Broken down by gender and age group, there was an average of 6 participants for younger men's FGDs, 7 for younger women, 8 for older men, and 8 for older women. These participants were asked to anonymously self-identify their own level of empowerment based on the steps in the Ladder of Power and Freedom Tool. 3. Life histories (LHs): This semi-structured interview format provides insight into the circumstances in empowered and disempowered individuals' lives that have impacted their empowerment pathways over time and which influence their views on empowerment. A total of 16 LH interviews (8 men and 8 women) were conducted, with participants selected to represent varied levels of empowerment. This sampling was based on participants' self-identified level of empowerment as privately expressed in focus group discussions.The quantitative data were collected through a structured questionnaire 2 composed of two parts: a household survey which gathered basic information about the households and their members (e.g. age, education, employment, assets), and an individual questionnaire based on the Project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) (Malapit et al. 2019) with some indicators from the market inclusion extension of the index (IFPRI 2020). This paper uses information from the pro-WEAI module. The pro-WEAI was administered separately to the main female and male decision-makers of each household; in households without a male adult, only the female adult was interviewed. The quantitative survey was collected in March 2022.The pro-WEAI focuses on agency (as per Kabeer's (1999) framework) and uses 12 indicators to measure agency in three domains: intrinsic, instrumental and collective. Intrinsic agency is measured through the following indicators: autonomy in income, self-efficacy, attitudes about intimate partner violence against women, and respect among household members (the last indicator is calculated only for households with two respondents). The instrumental agency indicators include mainly decision-making questions: input in productive decisions, ownership of land and other assets, access to and decisions on financial services; control over use of income, work balance, and visiting important locations. Finally, collective agency is approximated with an indicator for group membership and an indicator for membership in influential groups. The survey was administered to 712 households, but some were excluded because of incomplete information; the final sample consisted of 700 households. Of these 700 households, 343 were in the communities where qualitative data were collected. Given the focus on emic and context-based approaches, the analysis for this study only uses information from these 343 households so that the quantitative data could be more accurately mapped onto the qualitative results from the same communities.During qualitative data collection, typed notes and recordings were produced, which were then translated into English and systematically reviewed by the field team leaders. The findings presented here are the result of content analysis of all data for each case. A hand-coding exercise was conducted to capture recurring themes and, following the framework laid out by Kabeer (1999), to understand linkages between agency, resources, and achievements that local people expressed to be empowering in their context.The pro-WEAI is calculated as the weighted mean of two sub-indices: a sub-index that captures adequacy in the three agency domains (3DE), and a gender parity index which compares the empowerment scores of the male and female respondent in the same household. A comprehensive description of the index is available in Malapit et al. (2019).Challenges were faced during the preparation, implementation and analysis stages of the study. Delays in the preparatory phase related in part to complications from the Covid-19 pandemic led to a reduced window of time to prepare and mobilize respondents and to transcribe the data collected. Issues inherent to translation in addition to imprecise and informal language resulting from the conversational format of KIIs, FGDs, and LHs leave many data points open to varying interpretations (e.g., the difference between being \"valued\" by the community and \"respected\" by the community, as explored in FGDs).The responses that arose from the FGDs and LHs provided rich depictions of local values and emic understandings of empowerment, their dynamic natures, and their nuanced differences and similarities between different social groups. In this section, we structure these findings around Kabeer's (1999) definition of empowerment indicators based on resources, agency, and achievement.Land, livestock, and money surfaced as key resources for women and men alike in FGDs and LHs. However, participants suggested access to these resources is gendered-though this is changing for younger generations. According to community profiles in both Kilifi and Kiambu, although women and men have equal rights to buy and inherit land under the law, most land is still customarily inherited and owned by men. As a result, women largely access land through their husbands or male relatives. In terms of livestock, FGD participants reported that women are increasingly recognized as coowners of animals. However, this 'ownership' often does not translate to decision-making power over the asset or the income it generates, due to deep-seated gender norms that give men greater influence in intra-household decision-making. Additionally, women and men alike reported in FGDs that while most women and men have their own streams of income, women's incomes tend to be lower and more allocated to necessities for the family, while men were able to spend on 'pleasures. 'LHs showed a more nuanced view of men's and women's financial assets. Women respondents commonly reported that they receive financial support from their adult children or other male family members. In contrast, men largely reported receiving some contributions to their household finances from their wives but said that the bulk of their income is self-generated. There was an exception to this trend: one older Kilifi man said he is too old to work very much, so his wife is looking for work abroad.Education also surfaced as one of the most highly valued resources for empowerment, but there were notable demographic differences in its valuation. Education was most valued by younger men, and least valued by older men. Younger women valued education nearly as much as men in their age group, but argued that it needs to be paired with other resources to be effective. As a young, empowered Kiambu woman said in her LH,Women and men in FGDs and LHs reported that women have relatively limited decision-making power at the household level. An older Kiambu woman explained in FGDs that even in situations of 'joint' decision-making, the women's input is subordinate to the man's:\"She gives the husband proposals, saying, 'if we do this or we do that we would benefit, ' and then her husband weighs her suggestion and then decides. You see, she is not making a decision, but she is pro- Zaremba et al. CABI Agriculture and Bioscience (2024) 5:33 posing.\"Women in this FGD also suggested that if a woman does not accept her husband's decision, she may be hit.Participants across qualitative groups suggested that being a landowner and/or a homeowner grants you decision-making power regarding those assets, but that such control is not guaranteed for women. Kiambu FGDs suggested that men have final decision-making power over income generated from selling agricultural produce, for example, even when it comes to vegetables that are perceived as women's crops. According to some LHs, married women may be able to make decisions regarding co-owned livestock on their own, but they must consult or defer to their husbands when it comes to decisions on income generated by these assets. However, a man is not held to the same standard:\"The man will take her assets and sell them without question, but if the woman dares to sell his assets then she can even be thrown out of the household and sent packing to her parents. \"In LHs, older women who receive money from their male family members reported not having decision-making power over that money. Younger women's answers were more variable according to context. Where one young woman was injured and therefore less physically able to participate in household decision making, another is a single accountant and retains complete decisionmaking power over her life. The remaining two struggle heavily with finances and make decisions with their adult child and older brother, respectively.In FGDs, there was a notable difference in intrahousehold decision-making patterns as described by older men and younger men. Younger men reported higher levels of joint-decision-making in their households, and generally described this as neutral or positive. In contrast, older men tended to describe a more patriarchal household structure. Several of these older men expressed resentment over cultural changes in recent years that have given their wives more confidence to assert their opinions or give pushback to men's authority.When asked to describe empowered men and women in their communities, FGD participants most often described someone who can support themselves, and therefore support their family. The emic relevance of selfsufficiency as an empowerment indicator was echoed in LHs, particularly by older women. As one older, disempowered Kiambu woman described: \"I had never kept chickens of my own in my life. Being able to eat my own chicken and even eggs makes me feel empowered. \"Notably, for older women in LHs, self-sufficiency and independence was not viewed as individualistic but as relational; these women tended to attribute their perceived positions on the Ladder of Power and Freedom (Sect. \"Pathways to empowerment\") to their relative ability to support themselves as well as their families.The ability to lift one's family out of poverty is seen as a key achievement and empowerment outcome. Owning a business and/or being self-employed was regarded as a desired empowerment outcome by and for women and men alike. Participants frequently suggested that factors of resources and agency which do not lead to this achievement-poverty alleviation-were useless for empowerment. For example, older Kiambu men were dismissive of education as a resource for empowerment, as they saw it as disconnected from achievements in their lived experience:\"Education is nothing. [...] We have people with education, but their families are living in poverty. [What matters is] is hard work, effort, and knowledge. But education is not important. \"Financial empowerment was valued by women and men alike but conceptualized differently by and for women and men. Financial empowerment traits were more often ascribed to men, but were more frequently mentioned by women. Furthermore, men tended to emphasize financial stability while women focused on individual resources such as land and livestock, which they believe will grant them greater self-sufficiency.In addition to economic achievements, some of the most prevalent descriptors of empowered people were focused on the person's role as a model member of the community. When describing empowerment, women and men alike valued being of value to and valued by their communities.In addition to a heavy focus on communal aspects of empowerment, participants also emphasized personal character traits such as being hardworking, dependable, mentally strong, having a positive outlook, and (in the case of men describing empowered women) even being physically attractive. Women, especially, were described with these character-based empowerment traits more often than men. \"Having self esteem/believing in self \" and \"having goals/being ambitious\" were especially heavily skewed toward women. Men also placed great emphasis on such traits, although to a lesser degree. As one older Kilifi man explained in his LH: \"It is not just education, it is your determination, wisdom, hard work that can make you be somebody in life. You can have your education but not do anything. You can have your money but not do anything because of lack of knowledge and plan on how to spend it. \"While participants expressed that character traits like determination, wisdom, and hard work are essential to empowerment, they also felt that these traits could be misapplied. For example, a man with determination and self-confidence was described as empowered, while a wife with the same characteristics was disrespectful. In this way, community acceptance or rejection of one's personal empowerment and empowerment-related character traits can make or break one's empowerment on a community level. Across FGDs, participants suggest that community acceptance is key to not being disempowered, and having influence and being able to better the community is essential to being empowered.When designing their Ladders of Power and Freedom, all focus groups described a process of economic empowerment. In their descriptions, the lowest rung on the ladder represents someone who is impoverished and 'hustling' , and the top rung of the latter represents someone who has accrued wealth, whether it be through agriculture or a business (such as hospitality in peri-urban Kiambu and sand-harvesting in coastal Kilifi). For many groups, the most empowered step included owning their own business (and, in some cases, their own land). Many groups' ladders also emphasized the importance of relational and communal elements. People at less empowered steps were described as a drain or burden to their families and communities, whereas those at more empowered steps were described as respected and supportive of their communities. As an illustrative example, the ladder below provides a summary of the ladder steps described in the Kilifi Women's FGD (Fig. 2):Most of the 'mobility factors' that emerged from this activity were related to resources, including: access to capacity-building seminars and trainings; access to agricultural extension; table banking (a communal savings scheme); the ability to plant a greater diversity of crops and higher value crops; access to credit; access to land; education (and separately, knowledge/wisdom, which many saw as being separate and even antithetical to education); access to technologies and machinery such asStep 5: Owns own business and/or land and takes on a supervisory role, respected in community, has influence among community, able to financially support their families and/or communities, families with 'good values', educated women and children, farm suppliers, household harmony.Step 4: Can supply loans (i.e., is a creditor), can hire farm workers (i.e., is an employer).Step 3: Big business (e.g., selling poultry and its products), improved production, can help others, can apply for loans.Step 2: Small business (e.g., selling chips or coconuts), can hire a tractor, belongs to savings group or the Merry Go Round, demonstrates trustworthiness, can purchase improved seeds, pesticides and fertilizer.Step 1: Hustling/taking odd or casual jobs to get by (e.g., doing laundry, collecting firewood), financial uncertainty, small-scale farming with no inputs or implements. a tractor; job opportunities; government support; and having savings. A lesser number of factors were agencyrelated, such as having voice and autonomy. Others were of a personal and/or communal nature, such as being reliable/being seen as reliable, having a good upbringing, and a strong family relationship.There were some notable differences between empowerment pathways by different age groups. Three of the most-mentioned mobility factors-good upbringing/ good family, has voice/autonomy, and education-were only mentioned in FGDs of younger men and women, with no mentions from groups composed of older men and women. While most older groups did not mention education as a mobility factor at all, one group of older men in Kilifi actively argued against it as a reliable pathway to empowerment.FGDs also revealed differences in mobility pathways across gender groups. Participants in three out of four men's focus groups expressed that one must lift himself out of poverty through self-motivation, hard work, and being less \"lazy. \" (Young men in Kiambu were an exception: as a group they argued that it is the government's responsibility to empower the youth in their community through lower taxes, government subsidies, and building local capacity for business and smart farming.) Participants in three out of four women's groups, on the other hand, took a more collective view of empowerment pathways, mentioning mutual support strategies such as table banking, women's groups, and peer-to-peer mentorships.FGD participants expressed that even if a woman has all the same indicators of empowerment and mobility factors as a man, her ultimate level of empowerment will nonetheless be limited due to underlying power structures which serve to benefit men. In other words, the maximum level of empowerment for women is lower than for men. LHs corroborated this finding, even though the sampling was conducted according to self-identified levels of empowerment and included empowered and disempowered people of all genders and ages. Men positioned themselves higher on the 5-step ladder than women, and older age groups positioned themselves higher than younger, with older men positioning themselves the highest of all four study groups, and younger women the lowest (Fig. 3).FGDs and LHs showed that empowerment is contextspecific -shifting and being negotiated depending on the social space that an 'empowered' person is navigating. As one Kiambu older man explained in FGDs, women's empowerment is limited within the familial/ household hierarchy, regardless of her empowerment in other (e.g., professional) domains: \"I am the one feeding her, and she is under my authority, so I am the one controlling her when she comes to my house. Even if she is a president at her workplace, when she enters my compound, she is a wife who has a husband, and she is following the rules that we wrote. When she leaves the gate [of the family compound], that is when she can resume her seniority. But when she enters the homestead, she is under my authority. Her husband is what she follows. Even if she has more salary, that is not a problem to me. \" LHs also show the ways that empowerment can wax and wane over the course of one's life. An older unempowered Kiambu woman who placed herself on the second ladder rung (one step away from total disempowerment) explained: \"Although I have been able to buy myself land and build my house, that was before. Right now, if I was educating my children I wouldn't manage, because at the moment I find that I am straining even to feed myself. \" Some men, especially older men, viewed that their overall empowerment has decreased due to women's increasing empowerment in recent years. Even when empowerment was not viewed as a zero-sum game, some men still reported feeling insufficiently targeted and supported in terms of their own empowerment: \"There is just improvement for women, and matters of the youth are being looked at, but the man has been neglected. \" (FGD, Kiambu, older man) \"I can say that women are favored because, when we look at the government projects, they just target women. There are no projects for men. In youth employment initiatives, for instance, you find more girls get the jobs than boys. \" (LH, Kiambu, older man)FGD participants in both Kiambu and Kilifi expressed that their communities have ambivalent attitudes toward empowered women, describing them as openly admired and treated as a threat/feared in equal turn. By contrast, the most common perception of empowered men is that they're desired, while empowered women received zero mentions of being desired. Younger women were slightly more likely to be viewed as a threat than older women. Of the different responses of how powerful women are perceived, a slight majority was negative, whereas the majority of different responses for the overall perception of empowered men were positive.These responses also differed by the gender of the participant; empowered women were much more likely to be admired by other women than by men. On the other hand, they were also likely to be regarded with jealousy by other women. A young woman in Kiambu reflected on the conflicted local attitudes toward empowered younger women, saying:\"This [empowered] young woman is perceived as a social deviant, but she's secretly admired [for the fact] that she's broken out of the norm, which is to stay at home, have many babies and languish in poverty. \"Older men in Kiambu strongly felt that women's empowerment is a threat to the social fabric. Some saw gender equality as a dangerous intervention from outside influences that poses an inappropriate affront to their culture, as illustrated by the following FGD quotes: \"Women should stay the way God created them. It is not that they will be oppressed, [but] there is always that order of levels. And now they want to lawfully take from us the authority that God gave us. Please, they should move slowly to prevent the world from falling apart, because I can see they will make the world fall apart. \" \"A woman is a woman, and she is supposed to remain a woman.While some participants saw women's increased autonomy and decreased reliance on men as a threat to the social fabric, others saw this as a beneficial outcome which allows women to have more autonomy and time to dedicate to more valuable pursuits than taking care of a husband. Younger men were overall more supportive of women's empowerment than older men, often expressing that empowering women can have community-level benefits.Negative feelings toward empowerment were not limited to empowered women. Empowered men were also described with suspicion or mixed feelings, albeit to a lesser degree. Some FGDs expressed that empowered men had forgotten about their communities or had left them behind. Young men in Kilifi expressed that women use their empowerment differently than men, in a way that is more uplifting for the community: \"In our area, if a girl is empowered well, she remembers home. But most of the time, the male youth, if he is empowered well… if he goes, he is gone. He does not go back home. \"For women and men alike, empowerment traits do not always translate to being admired or accepted in the local community. In FGDs, descriptions of \"empowered\" people and descriptions of \"admired\" people in their communities often diverged significantly. For example, having financial stability and/or a stable job was relevant for an empowered woman, but not for an admired woman, whereas having and/or valuing education was relevant for empowered men but not admired men. Caring for the family was severely skewed toward admiration for women (and fairly evenly spread for men). Being well behaved/disciplined was also highly skewed toward admired women, and no mentions of behavior/discipline were applied to older men at all (whereas it was mentioned in relation to younger men and women of all ages).The way that empowerment is \"used\" was described as key to whether empowered men and women are also admired and/or accepted. Older women in a Kilifi FGD expressed that they see two kinds of empowered women in their community: those who use their empowerment to help others and uplift the community as a whole, and those who are prideful and aloof. Young men in Kiambu also expressed that young men's attitudes toward an empowered young woman depend on her behavior and her obedience. One older Kiambu man expressed in his LH:\"This issue of empowerment will break homes. But in my opinion, just empower women so that we can know those who are good and those who are bad in character. You can perceive someone to be a good person but it's because she doesn't have money -that's why she behaves differently. When she gets money, you will know her real character. \"The Project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) used externally defined and standardized indicators to quantitatively evaluate women's and men's levels of empowerment in the study communities. The results from the pro-WEAI are included in Tables 2  and 3. The pro-WEAI score in the surveyed communities is 0.89. The 3DE score, which is the average score over the three dimensions of agency (intrinsic, instrumental, and collective), is 0.88 for women and 0.86 for men suggesting comparable levels of empowerment between men and women. At the time of the survey, 64% of women in the surveyed communities and 63% of men were classified as empowered. Moreover, 75% of dual-headed households had achieved gender parity based on the gender parity sub-index. The Pro-WEAI score is derived from the weighted average of two sub-indices: the Three Domains of Empowerment Index (3DE), with a weight of 0.90, and the Gender Parity Index (GPI), with a weight of 0.10. Both the Pro-WEAI score and the values of the two sub-indices are highlighted in bold. Additional illustrative statistics pertaining to the sub-indices are also providedNumber  Table 3 shows the share of disempowered men and women according to each indicator (regardless of whether they are classified as disempowered based on the entire index) and the relative contribution of each indicator to total disempowerment. A gender gap in intrinsic agency in favor of men is visible. The gap is mainly driven by the indicator on attitudes about intimate partner violence. Over 30% of women are disempowered in this indicator compared with 18% of men. Based on the pro-WEAI, a similar share of men and women lack intrinsic agency in terms of autonomy over income and self-efficacy.In addition to having lower overall intrinsic agency than men, female heads of household are also more disempowered than men in terms of instrumental agency according to pro-WEAI measures. The instrumental agency domain includes several indicators focused on decision-making (over productive activities, credit and financial assets, and income). In contrast, a smaller share of women than men are disempowered in terms of decisions over productive activities. This could be linked to women's greater role in agricultural production relative to men, who are more likely than women to have off-farm wage jobs. Only about 8% of women and 10% of men report that they lack control over the use of income.Gender differences in work balance contribute most notably to the gender gap in instrumental agency. More than half of women report inadequate levels of work balance compared with 36% of men.Male household heads are more disempowered than their female counterparts in terms of collective agency, mainly because men are less likely to participate in groups than women. Only eight percent of women compared with 28% of men are disempowered in group membership; similarly, 22% of women compared with 37% of men are disempowered in terms of membership in influential groups.Intersections of empowerment and identity Kabeer (1999) argues that resources, agency, and achievement are intimately linked, and the necessary triangulation of these factors for empowerment was reflected by participants in FGDs and LHs. Resources (most notably money, land, livestock, and education) were seen by women and men of both age groups as essential for empowerment, but useless without agency to control those resources or channel them into achievements (most notably poverty alleviation and the ability to support one's family). Those abilities were shown to be highly gendered and mediated by life stage and generation.While women's access to money and ownership of land and livestock is increasing in younger generations, for example, norms and customs result in men's greater access to and control over these key resources. This finding is in line with the broader literature on women's land rights, which demonstrates that, at a global level, \"despite women's complex relationship with productive resources, they tend to remain outside the associated decision-making processes, for cultural or other reasons\" (Budlender and Alma 2011, p. 11). Participants suggested that being a landowner or a homeowner grants you decision-making power regarding those assets, however these assets are almost entirely owned and controlled by men. As such, women's agency is more limited than men's, and their ability to achieve key aims such as self-sufficiency and supporting their families is also limited. However, such opportunities and abilities can change over time according to women's life stage, showing that while gender is a major condition for resources, agency, and achievements, gender groups are ultimately heterogeneous, and individuals' experiences are often divergent. These findings corroborate recent trends in development discourse that emphasize the importance of intersectional nuance for more inclusive and effective development initiatives (Corrêa 2010;Gill and Pires 2019;Leder and Sachs 2019;Trivelli and Morel 2021).Conceptualizations of empowerment also proved to be highly gendered. More of the attributes ascribed to men than to women concern wealth and assets, whereas the top traits for women were largely personal character traits. Furthermore, the top attribute for women which does concern wealth and assets (makes money/contributes) as discussed in FGDs had more to do with contributing money to household needs than with a woman's ownership/control of assets for her own decision-making and personal empowerment. However, while economic descriptors skewed toward men, these comments were mostly made by women, suggesting that this characteristic is more valued overall by women than men as an indicator of empowerment for the men in their community. This finding is aligned with social norms that prescribe men's role as the financial provider of the household despite shifting roles and practices (Johnson 2004; Wamue-Ngare and Njoroge 2011). In addition, when men and women talked about economic factors of empowerment, men tended to emphasize wealth more generally while women focused on specific resources. This may be because men already own these assets and are striving for higher-level achievements of wealth, whereas women are still striving to gain access to and control over basic resources such as land (Po and Hickey 2018) and livestock (Njuki et al. 2013).LHs echoed the finding that men's empowerment is more closely aligned with economic empowerment pathways, and showed that young women place a high value on non-economic resources. Several young women pointed to information, community groups, and training as integral to their pathways; in contrast, three of four younger men listed having work and funds in their pathways to having more influence in their communities. LHs show that decision-making dynamics around money in female-headed households are influenced by a greater variety of factors, while male headed households reported clearer trends. In other words, a number of factors must align for women to exercise agency, whereas for men the barriers are fewer and more easily identified. In part, this is because the presence (or absence) of men in a woman's life can greatly change her access to money and decision-making over income and assets. Women's LHs showed that even in female-headed households, men often have higher agency and decision-making power over financial resources. On the other hand, a man's control over money is less likely to be impacted by the presence (or lack thereof ) of a woman.Age proved to be an important factor in empowerment, but in divergent ways. Data indicated that 'age' can be broken down into two different influential factors that deserve a closer look: generation and life stage. Attitudes and perceptions about empowerment factors, empowered people, and gender equality varied significantly between generations, while people's own lived experience of empowerment was highly mediated by their current life stage. For example, three of the most-mentioned mobility factors-good upbringing/good family, voice/autonomy, and education-were only mentioned in FGDs of younger men and women. Interestingly, none of these are economic mobility factors, possibly suggesting that the younger generation's perception of empowerment pathways goes beyond economic factors. What's more, younger participants (both women and men) were generally more accepting of women's empowerment and more hopeful about changing gender roles. In contrast, older generations tended to view women's empowerment as destabilizing and/or as limited in its extent due to patriarchal structures which were described as natural and/or functionally permanent. Within each generation, however, there was significant variation in individuals' empowerment pathways related to life stage (e.g., being single, being married with young children, being married with older children, being married/unmarried with grown children, and being widowed). Women's ability to access and exploit resources, agency, and achievement was largely mediated by their relationships with men in their current stage of life. In this way, empowerment is a continual and dynamic process rather than a static achievement.One of the standout findings from the qualitative data was that participants placed a high value on personal character traits as essential to empowered people and as important factors in empowerment pathways. These traits were not important on their own or on an individual level, however, but in how they were used in a communal context. The finding that both highly personal and highly communal aspects of empowerment are deeply interconnected, and that together they are essential to Kenyan emic definitions, agrees with a 2019 study byGaliè and Farnworth. They found that Kenyan men and women dairy farmer participants \"argued that an individual's empowerment is mediated through intrinsic (inborn) characteristics, with particular importance given to how these characteristics promote the ability to relate to others\" (p. 15). This study's findings also correspond with the 2019 study's findings that Kenyans feel that empowerment characteristics can be 'misused' by certain individuals. For example, a man with determination and self-confidence was described as empowered, while a wife with the same characteristics was disrespectful, and therefore \"not acknowledged as empowered by the rest of the community. \" (p. 15). Galiè and Farnworth conceptualize this form of (dis)empowerment through communal perception and acceptance as \"relational\" empowerment. In this study, participants in both counties placed a high value on relational empowerment, both as a potential process of disempowerment and as an essential component of effective emic empowerment.Furthermore, this study echoes Galiè and Farnworth's (2019) findings that the politics of relational empowerment is deeply gendered. In cases where the same empowerment characteristics are praised in men and discouraged in women, they argue that \"an involuntary form of empowerment emerges: a complex interplay between a woman holding innate characteristics of empowerment and the compatibility of these characteristics with locally sanctioned gender roles. \" In this way, women's need to 'negotiate' their own relational empowerment may be higher or more difficult than that of their male counterparts. Furthermore, women's empowerment was more often associated with these 'personal' or 'inborn' empowerment traits which are monitored and adjudicated by the community, while men's empowerment is more often associated with more straightforward (and thereby more difficult to negate) economic indicators. Indeed, our findings show that while relational aspects of empowerment were key for all genders and ages in Kenya, men seemed to be primarily concerned with relational empowerment in the positive sense (a pathway to becoming more empowered), while for women it was more often seen in a negative sense (a barrier to becoming empowered or a means of being disempowered).Findings from FGDs and LHs showed that women's empowerment is viewed as acceptable insofar as it does not upset traditional societal roles and values. This effectively places a ceiling on women's empowerment. As FGDs indicated, even if an empowered man and woman have exactly the same characteristics of empowerment, they are not seen as equals due to the deep-seated power structures wherein the man leads and the woman supports. Women who are trying to challenge these roles are looked down upon and seen as unhelpful or even destructive to the community, and may, as Kabeer (1999) describes, \"pay a high price for their autonomy\" (p. 457). However, norms are constantly being challenged, adapted, and negotiated as evidenced by the younger generation displaying more hope and less fear than their older community members with regard to gender equality.Comparing the quantitative results from the pro-WEAI (which represent externally defined empowerment indicators) with the qualitative data (which sought to provide an emic understanding of empowerment in the given context) yielded contradictions in terms of overall empowerment levels of women and men. Pro-WEAI findings that women and men in the study are empowered at a similar level, and that 75% of households have gender parity, are somewhat challenged by insights from the qualitative data.Quantitative and qualitative results agreed in terms of some individual empowerment indicators and disagreed for others. For intrinsic agency, findings were in agreement, with both quantitative and qualitative results surfacing the fact that intimate partner violence poses a threat to women's empowerment. There was less agreement in terms of instrumental agency. The pro-WEAI suggested that women are more empowered than men in terms of decision-making over productive activities, but the qualitative findings paint a more nuanced picture. While women may engage in production decisions, they may not be in control of the income derived from this production, a finding that comes out clearly in the qualitative data but not in the quantitative data. Unlike the qualitative data, the survey questions do not ask respondents to state who in the household has the final say in instances of disagreement between spouses. For collective agency, the pro-WEAI found that men have lower overall levels than women. This was also reflected in the qualitative data; women's groups tended to view collective organizing such as table banking, women's groups, and peer-to-peer mentoring as integral to empowerment pathways, whereas men focused on more individual approaches such as \"hard work\" and being \"less lazy. \" The importance of collective agency was further underscored by the high value placed on \"power through\", and being valued by and of value to the community.Furthermore, the qualitative data revealed the importance of relational empowerment in the Kenyan culture context, which is not accounted for in the pro-WEAI. If these locally important factors were included in the instrument, the findings likely would have been quite different, and more reflective of women's and men's ground realities in Kenya. The pro-WEAI does include a qualitative component to surface exactly these kinds of nuances and contradictions and is one of the most adaptable and context-conscious tools of its kind. However, the qualitative component serves as a complement to the externally defined index rather than a core component.In FGDs and LHs, women and men alike reported that women and youth are more often targeted for trainings and empowerment schemes than men. As a result, the latter perceived that their own levels of empowerment have decreased, exacerbating feelings of resentment and/or distrust toward women's empowerment (which are deeply rooted in cultural and religious ideology, making them particularly sticky). It can also disincentivize empowerment for women, who have much to lose in terms of desirability, respectability, and acceptance in the eyes of their husbands, families, and communities. These findings are in line with a previous study about shifting gender norms in Kiambu county (Wamue-Ngare and Njoroge 2011), which found that changing gender roles and women's increased empowerment at the local level have resulted in a scenario in which men feel \"unable to live up to the unwritten cultural norms and values of behaviour. \" As such, \"most men in Kiambu have succumbed to feelings of inferiority, uncertainty and frustrations, all with dire consequences on the family\" (p. 11). Men's feelings of neglect also signal that there may be men struggling with dimensions of disempowerment (e.g., poverty, rurality, disability) who have been insufficiently targeted by empowerment initiatives and may need improved supports for their own empowerment. Thus, a unilateral focus on women's empowerment may be insufficient as an approach for gender equality as well as empowerment for all marginalized community members.Viable empowerment pathways for men and women remain gendered in Kenya, with notable differences for different age groups. These differences often reflect or serve to reinforce patriarchal norms (e.g., economic empowerment is predominantly associated with men, while relational empowerment is more heavily associated with women). Furthermore, empowered men were mostly perceived positively by their communities, whereas attitudes toward empowered women were ambivalent. This acceptance or lack thereof has a considerable impact on empowerment pathways in Kenya, where relational empowerment is as important of a factor in empowerment as resources, agency, and achievements. The results of this community judgment can also be used to reflect or perpetuate patriarchal norms.Negative attitudes toward women's empowerment are related to perceived threats toward underlying power structures which shape these societies, as well as with men's feelings of neglect and the idea that if women are empowered men will be disempowered. These feelings indicate that risk of backlash may be high for some women, and that men's engagement in empowerment initiatives is paramount to their own empowerment and wellbeing, as well as that of the women in their communities.An intersectional approach that takes into account the diverse needs of men and women of different social groups is paramount to the safe, effective, and lasting empowerment of marginalized community members. We contend that this should include a more nuanced understanding of age which takes into account the importance of and differences between 'life stage' and 'generation' , the distinction between which is usually lost under the simplified label of 'age. 'The diversity of emic understandings of empowerment surfaced in this study and the ways that they impact and are impacted by intersectional identities underscores the need for nuanced approaches to empowerment. These approaches must center local communities as the protagonists of their own development, and empower them to define their own goals and pathways. In this way, communities may be more incentivized to pursue empowerment that is relevant and valuable to them, and feel safe in doing so. Efforts to support women's empowerment, in particular, need to be conducted with the larger social context in mind in order to mitigate risk of backlash and to create an enabling environment that encourages women to pursue their own empowerment without fear of disproportionate tradeoffs such as social alienation. This could include employing gender-transformative approaches that target changing deep-rooted social norms in addition to empowerment outcomes, as well as forging greater engagement with men and especially including disempowered men in empowerment interventions.","tokenCount":"9716"}
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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"eb1027738aa6e46c01e8e6e391d2fa59","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6a1a8cad-c3a0-4891-bbdf-13765add96df/retrieve","id":"169137359"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e0c3e8f6-487d-4a9e-ac14-899fd2acdb36","pagecount":"25","content":"Within this short period (as of Oct 2016), the program delivered 85 new varieties and 34 new hybrids of barley, millets and sorghum in its target countries, supported the production and distribution of 14,386 tons of seed of its small-seeded crops, demonstrated 34 management practices, produced a total of 217 publications including 102 in ISI journals, hosted close to 70,000 farmers at farmer field days, trained 11,448 trainees in short-duration training programs, trained 28 Masters students and 24 Ph D students. At the end of program period, a total of 8,701,562 ha of area was under improved varieties. Improved streamlining and coordinated reporting makes 2016 the best year yet for the program, and hence it is a big disappointment that the program has not moved into its second phase. This being the last year of the program in its current form, and due to the excellent results across the entire program, we have tried to include as many of our success stories in this report, and hence have gone a little beyond the prescribed page limit.During the short period of its existence, the program suffered the turbulence of the massive reform process that attempted to change 40+ years of ingrained culture, continuously adjusted to enormous transaction costs of time for the multiple and simultaneous demands for reporting and evaluations, endured consistently unpredictable budgets, suffered excessive budget cuts, and invested massive amounts of time to prepare two proposals for program continuity, one for the 'extension phase' for CGIAR program synchronization, and the other for the second phase. The transaction cost of time should be especially noted for a program such as the Dryland Cereals which is implemented by the smallest team of researchers, and a small three-member program management unit shared between two programs, because multiple demands of time for reporting and evaluation assessments from already stretched research personnel and program management staff, especially within such a short operational period, can do nothing but undermine execution of planned research. Despite such colossal pressures, Dryland Cereals managed to deliver on its core business of crop improvement satisfactorily, and sometimes beyond expectations, as indicated by the numbers above.During its existence, Dryland Cereals supported a sub-set of the world's population that is dependent on the program's target crops in dryland areas, for which there are few other suppliers of research. Crop improvement in these geographies are addressed by CGIAR-NARS partnerships, working under constrained R&D environments that are very different from those in developed nations. During 2016, the program worked with much better streamlining than at any time since its inception. Although the Plan of Work and Budget prepared for the year had taken into account a restrictive budget, the program had to further reduce a few activities due to difficulties in stretching the available budget. Our focus centered on ensuring that the necessary continuity of breeding activities and breeding cycles, the essence of CGIAR competency in the developing world, remained intact and uninterrupted to the extent possible. Consequently, activities in Flagship 2, Improved Varieties and Hybrids, were the most supported, while efforts in the other flagships were supported based on immediate necessity. This is reflected in Table 1.the barley program, from four separate crosses. Another significant achievement is the validation of the drought phenotyping pipeline for pearl millet at ICRISAT through the establishment of correlations between pot-based physiological measures and field-based grain and stover yields. The concept of hybrid sorghum and pearl millet for Africa has moved significantly past the proof-of-concept stage, especially for sorghum as reported in previous years. Most recently, the heterosis or hybrid vigor demonstrated by pearl millet is being tapped for the development of hybrids for both WCA and ESA, either with material developed locally, or material introduced from India and tested for adaptation in Africa and proven to be successful. Yet another achievement was the development and release of an open access database for dryland cereals and grain legumes, the DCL eATLAS, and the accompanied publication providing a synthesis of data supporting prioritization decisions for research investment. Finally, prior research at ICRISAT on sweet sorghum for biofuel led to a partnership in India to support the government's goal of ethanol blending in gasoline, and increasing the ethanol % from 5 to 20% within the next five years.In addition, the year saw the release of a good number of varieties/hybrids based on CGIAR germplasm: 18 sorghum varieties (2 in Nigeria, 8 in Mali, 6 in Kenya and 2 in Kazhakstan); six sorghum hybrids (1 in Mali, 5 in Kenya); 14 pearl millet varieties (7 in Niger, 2 in Nigeria and 5 in Mali); four pearl millet hybrids (1 in Mali and 3 in India); four finger millet varieties (all in Ethiopia) and five barley varieties (3 in Ethiopia and 2 in Morocco), and the entry of several advanced lines of all four crops into National Performance Trials and Participatory Variety Selection.Overall financial summary: Cumulative Financial Summary (Report L101)The IDOs for the current extension phase are intrinsically related to the IDOs and sub-IDOs of the second phase, which in turn are related to the Sustainable Development Goas of the United Nations. As identified in the Extension Proposal for Dryland Cereals, the program has been working towards the following IDOs: (1) Improved productivity of dryland cereals in smallholder farming systems in Africa and Asia; (2) Increased and stable access to dryland cereal food, feed and fodder by the poor, especially rural women and children; (3) Increased consumption of nutritious dryland cereals by the poor, especially among nutritionally vulnerable women and children; (4) Increased and more equitable income from marketing dryland cereal grain, fodder and products by low income value chain actors, especially smallholder women farmers; and (5) Increased capacity to adapt to environmental variability and longer term changes in low income communities in Africa and Asia. The extension phase structure that included five Flagships facilitated fundamental research, breeding and crop improvement, support of scaling of seed delivery, and output markets that together contributed to the outputs, outcomes and impacts described below.For the first time since the inception of the program 4.5 years ago, we have a fully operational Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Platform which captures and tracks activity-based reporting. Detailed reports of individual projects can also be accessed here.Development of Adoption Tracking Models is in progress for sorghum and millets in ESA (Ethiopia, Tanzania) and WCA, supported by the bilateral project, HOPE II (Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of sorghum and millets, Phase II). The first of the two components involved, namely, production quantities and seed inventory of major seed producers, was completed for Ethiopia. As part of a detailed analyses of gender-differentiated demand for specific traits and trait combinations driving sorghum adoption in the Sudan Savannah, over 400 research articles since 2002 relating to gender and participatory plant breeding were compiled.Baseline reports were updated for studies conducted earlier in Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso that involved a total of 2872 households across 319 villages, and newer analysis revealed that: (1) respectively 25%, 21% and 33% of the total area under sorghum was under improved varieties in Mali, Northern Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, (2) respectively 43%, 3%, 25% and 31% of area under pearl millet areas was under improved varieties in Mali, Niger, Northern Nigeria and Burkina Faso, and (3) reasons for non-adoption of improved varieties are lack of seed, lack of resistance to insects and drought, lack of preferred end quality, late maturity, and requirement of fertilizers.An evaluation of 25 open-pollinated sorghum varieties for tolerance to drought in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe identified five superior varieties in each of the first five countries, and seven in Zimbabwe; these will be evaluated in on-farm trials in dry low-land agro-ecologies for farmerparticipatory selection in 2017. A total of 2432 successful new sorghum crosses for tolerance to drought, Striga, leaf diseases and midge, and for high Fe, Zn and lysine were generated at the Kiboko field station in Kenya, and a total of 1245 F1, 304 F2, 612 F3 and 474 F4 were advanced. In Ethiopia, a total of 416 A and B pairs of sorghum were selected from 525 A/B pairs developed for drought and Striga tolerance in Melkasa. The Guinea Naine Diversified Population (GNDP), containing 112 S3 sorghum progenies from farmers' selections, were phenotyped under both low and high phosphorous fields in WCA, and selections were advanced. While commercially viable guinea race sorghum hybrids exist now for WCA, there are no hybrids available for the drier zones in the north of Nigeria, the largest sorghum producing area of the region which grow mostly the caudatum or durra type. Several hybrids were tested for combining ability to establish solid heterotic groups for the breeding material in WCA. In 2016, 27 A/B pairs for hybrid sorghum production in Northern Nigeria were selected for further studies from an evaluation of 54 A/B pairs of caudatum/durra sorghum sourced from ICRISAT Nairobi. In Mali, 16 drought-tolerant populations including over 1700 BC1F3 progenies were developed. Descriptive statistics for NIR calibration were established for sorghum stem quality traits for a dataset from Mali in a collaborative study with CIRAD, France. A competitive grant to IER led to the conclusion that selected sorghum hybrids from a BCNAM population responded better to fertilizer application at higher plant densities than the selected line for grain and biomass yields, while the line was more stable than the hybrids at all plant densities, an observation similar to that which led to 100% adoption of hybrid maize in the Americas over the last several decades. Drought-tolerant BCNAM sorghum populations were developed with CSM63E, grown predominantly across the sub-Sahelian zone, as recurrent parent, along with seven drought-specific donor parents. Drought-adaptation studies in WCA identified sorghum germplasm with superior transpiration efficiency (Maldandi), but similar water extraction capacity, under water stress in lysimetric studies in a comparison involving selected parents from a BCNAM population based on Lata from Mali and other germplasm. Classification and quantification of environmental constraints to refine breeding targets for sorghum in WCA, as part of crop modeling to identify climate-smart sorghum plant types, led to reliable parameterization of photoperiod sensitivity, and to the development of a strategy for waterstress scenario analysis. Further, functions were developed to reflect tillering dynamics of sorghum and pearl millet and incorporated in the APSIM code, while GxExM modeling for the stay-green trait in rabi sorghum in India is in progress. Eight pearl millet breeding lines with seed set of 70 to 80% under high-temperature stress (>42oC) during flowering time were identified from a screen of 235 breeding lines at five locations across three heat-prone target ecologies in India; seed set in the susceptible checks ranged from 30 to 40%. Nine A-lines of pearl millet in six diverse genetic backgrounds and with résistance to at least two Downy Mildew (DM) pathotypes were developed and designated (ICMA 16111 to ICMA 16666). Also, nine genetically diverse pollinator lines with resistance to at least two DM pathotypes were designated (ICMR 16111 to ICMR 16999) as restorer parents. A total of 250 B lines of pearl millet were selected and advanced for conversion to different cytoplasmic male sterility systems, while 138 new pollinators were advanced in the restorer conversion program. An additional 47 pollinator lines, parents of promising high-Fe hybrids, were also advanced for restorer conversion. Four advanced backcross populations were generated to develop pearl millet with improved biomass, using four interspecific crosses involving Pennisetum glaucum and P violaceum. Transgenic tobacco plants constitutively expressing the pearl millet aquaporin gene, PgPIP2;6, were generated, and T1 events with better performance under drought stress, relative to wild-type plants, were identified based on physiological characterization. T1 events were also generated to evaluate stress inducibility of ten promoters, using the GUS reporter gene. In a routine screen to ensure resistance of advanced breeding material to changing virulence spectra, 156 B-lines of pearl millet were tested against six pathotypes of S graminicola, the downy mildew pathogen, and 42 lines were identified with resistance to all six pathotypes, another 42 lines to any five pathotypes, 24 to four and 23 to any three pathotypes. In a parallel study, none of the tested 100 lines exhibited resistance to the Pg 138 and 186 pathotypes of the blast pathogen. Evaluation of virulence diversity among 7 isolates of Sclerospora graminicola (Downy Mildew / DM) and 65 isolates of Magnaporthe grisea (blast) facilitated the identification of one highly virulent isolate of S graminicola (Sg613) and five isolates of M grisea (Pg138, Pg186, Pg204, Pg232 and Pg118 representing geographic and pathogenic diversity) towards greenhouse screening of pearl millet breeding material for resistance to DM and blast, respectively.Evaluation of the effect of different sources of livestock manure and fertilizer on yield of sorghum and millets at two locations in the Sudan savannah of Nigeria revealed that yield advantages in the range of 37 to 55% were obtained in one location, BUK, with poultry manure, poultry + NPK and cow manure + poultry manure, while the same resulted in yield advantages from 47% to 107% at the second location, Minjibir. In pearl millet, the magnitude of yield increase was doubled, with poultry manure + NPK, cow manure + poultry manure, and NPK 60:45:45 recording grain-yield increases between 140% and 220% over untreated control. Sorghum yields obtained from Integrated Striga Management trials in Mali were 60% higher than those obtained with existing farmer practices, and marketable surplus is estimated at 412 kg ha -1 . Effect of phosphorus on growth, nitrogen uptake, yield and quality of finger millet was investigated at Kiboko, Alupe and Kakamega in Kenya. P significantly reduced the period to flowering and maturity of all the varieties. Grain yield increased with increasing phosphate levels, with the highest yield of 4.4 t ha -1 attained at 25 kg/ha P. Protein content was positively influenced by P application. Increase of P rate increased N uptake, with grains accumulating the highest N content, and improved varieties partitioning higher N.Attempting to build efficiencies across the supply chain from input supply to marketing, a coordinated effort between Dryland Systems, Dryland Cereals and Grain Legumes organized a first of its kind 'Agricultural Inputs Fair' in Kano, Nigeria. The aim was to provide farmers with good quality inputs (improved seed varieties, agro chemicals and equipment), at affordable prices from genuine sources, and link them to agricultural extension services. At the fair, nearly 70% (4,500 kg) of assorted improved varieties of seeds brought to the fair by different seed companies were sold to farmers, amounting to NGN 903,600 (US$3,204). The three-day program was attended by around 1,800 farmers of which 484 were women. A Sorghum Innovation Platform meeting under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Program Phase 1 (ATASP-1) brought together sorghum farmers in Nigeria and other stakeholders who benefitted from seed distributed by the Honeywell Group. The system allows the supply of quality seeds to farmers, and the farmers have an assured buyer for the grain in the Honeywell Group. This facilitates a ready market and supports the transition of farmers from subsistence to market-oriented farming. In 2016, the sorghum varieties, CSR-01 and SK-5912, were planted in Ningi over 1,500 hectares under this system. In Mali, 38 farmer seed cooperatives were trained in seed-production techniques, and the local rural radio staff were trained in better communication on new variety and hybrid characteristics to enable increased seed dissemination.A state-of-the-art malting-quality laboratory for barley was established at Rabat, Morocco, with the decentralization budget to ICARDA through Dryland Cereals. Thus, malting analysis can now be done in-house from sample sizes ranging from 100 g (micro malting) to 12 Kg (pilot scale) providing support to breeding programs for selections based on malting quality. The lab is equipped with instruments including the NIR grain analyzer, San++ for malt diastatic power, wort viscosity, FAN content, malt friability mr, Sortimat, Granomat etc., and can also analyze beta glucan content. Private sugar mills and public sector research institutes are collaborating with ICRISAT to identify and test sweet sorghum varieties suitable for ethanol production to help the government of India achieve the national ethanol blending targets of 20% by 2017. Under the framework of CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Cereals, a total of seven sugar mills are associated with ICRISAT in this 3-year project, eleven sorghum varieties from ICRISAT and IIMR are in testing, and a big mill test conducted at Madhucon Sugars, Telangana, showed a primary brix value of 15 o which is close to that of sugarcane.An important outcome during 2016 was the delivery of an open access dataset and information resource that provides the basis for future analysis of the geographic dimensions of dryland cereals and legumes, the DCL eATLAS. It is an information resource for the community of stakeholders interested in dryland cereals and legumes. The DCL Atlas includes maps of (1) crop distribution and suitability, (2) abiotic and biotic constraints to crop production, (3) biodiversity of the crop and hotspots for collection of wild relatives of DCL crops, (4) socioeconomic maps related to populations that may produce or consume DCL crop commodities and ( 5) reference maps on these crops and the farming systems they are found in. A second important outcome was a prioritization exercise for the crops and target countries for dryland cereals and grain legumes was completed by Dr Tom Walker, consulting for the Dryland Cereals and Grain Legumes program, and using value of production as a base and information from 34 separate socioeconomic studies on these crops (reported earlier). As part of this grant, three experimental sites, one each in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, well distributed in the West Africa weather gradient and positioned in specifics isohyets (500, 700 and 1000 mm) were characterized for hydro-pedology, soil characteristics (texture, pH, N, P, K content), soil compaction profile and crop agronomic response. Variogram analysis identified heterogeneities that will guide future experimental design for improved precision. In Burkina Faso, a competitive grant to INERA led to the identification of 12 sorghum landraces with tolerance to Striga hermonthica. The study launched off with a survey of 337 farmers, 59 processors and 109 traders in 4 provinces in Burkina, followed by selection and evaluation of 24 landraces for tolerance to Striga, low nitrogen and phosphorous, water stress, nutritional and processing quality, and for the manufacture of sorghumbased semolina, couscous, pizza and dough. An associated study exploring high-throughput screening options for sorghum established the use of a lysimetric system to screen for yield under low P and drought stress, and identified better performers for grain and biomass yield from 28 evaluated varieties.Consistent resistance to the pearl millet head miner has been observed over the last three years in the varieties PE08043 An additional pearl millet hybrid with 12% improved biomass yield than the current best check was identified from a screen of 75 three-way hybrids in Telangana, India.In biological control of the pearl millet head miner in the Sahel, the production and release of parasitoid wasps, Bracon hebetor, is being optimized. Greatest mass production of parasitoids was found to be achieved when B. hebetor are given the later larval stage of the rice moth Corcyra cephalonica to parasitize, and that a honey and sugar solution is the best medium to support longest parasitoid lifespan. Economic analysis indicated that individual bags must be sold at a price between $1.29 and $3.08 to cover production costs, and first-year profits of $50.95 -$1,996.47 are expected from sale of parasitoids bags to 13-36 villages. Pilot testing of parasitoid multiplication by communitybased units is under way. Crop production demonstrations for sorghum in WCA across 190 locations in the Sudano-Sahelian agro-ecological zone involving 5 fertility type/source (synthetic fertilizer NPK, NPK 60:30:30, NPK + Urea, poultry manure and the combination of all) and 9 sorghum varieties ( 7OPVs and 2 hybrids), showed that the combination of NPK, Urea and farmyard manure produced the highest grain and stover yield, closely followed by NPK 60:30:30. In 2016, there was an increased attention to capacity building on gender integration of biological scientists and social scientists members in the CRP and the bilateral projects mapped to the CRP. The first results of on-farm experimentation on labor savings due to gender responsive tools were recorded in the sorghum systems. First results from GENNOVATE studies were shared and a postdoctoral fellowship on gender integration in sorghum systems was commissioned.1. Dryland Cereals successfully undertook the GENNOVATE global qualitative study that investigated the links between gender norms and capacities to adopt innovations in agriculture. Nineteen case studies were implemented in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger (for Dryland Cereals) and Tanzania, Ethiopia and India (for Grain Legumes). The year 2016 progressed with data analysis and reporting. Preliminary results were disseminated at the Dryland Cereals and Grain Legumes annual review meeting at ICRISAT headquarters in Patancheru, India, in Oct 2016. Four posters were produced and presented at the annual review meeting: i. Aspirations of the youth: Implications for GLDC AFS; ii. What unleashes innovations in the GLDC AFS: A gendered perspective; iii. Impacts of social norms on women innovation pathways in cereals and legumes systems in Africa; iv. How do agricultural innovations influence socio-economic hierarchies in rural agricultural communities? Findings from Research in rural Rajasthan, India. Abstracts for these posters were published in the book of abstracts. Continued analysis and reporting of the results of the GENNOVATE is lined up for 2017, including publication of four Special Issues.Moving away from a gender neutral and blind approach, steps have been taken towards a gender responsive research with an increasing collection and analysis of data disaggregated by gender in the flagships projects. For instance, in CoA1-Sorghum for WCA: Evaluation of Some Selected Planters for Improved Productivity of Sorghum Farmers in the Sudan Savannah of Kano State Nigeria. This research was undertaken to identify and promote technologies for use by women and youth to reduce drudgery via small and medium scale sorghum production and processing mechanization. The research objective was to evaluate the selected planters for drudgery reduction, time required for sorghum sowing and its effect on yields. Using a field experiment method with some selected planters, drudgery reduction and its effect on yield parameters was evaluated. The results revealed that the effect of tillage methods was significant on both the grain and stalk yields with highest grain yield (1241 kg/ha) and stalk yield (8204 kg/ha) recorded from flat plain tillage method. Also, there was significant drudgery reduction by 77% for IHP and 63% for LAD over manual sowing (Control). Due to efficiency of planters, the results indicate grain yield was increased by 66% for IHPgreen & IHPred and 44% for locally fabricated animal drawn planters (LADgreen & LADred) over manual sowing with three labours (Control).Furthermore, gender responsive program/project activity design and planning is being achieved in the bilateral project, HOPE II. The gender units of DC and GL organized CRP Drylands Cereals Gender Integration Workshop held in Nairobi, 3-5 August 2016. The workshop brought together and trained scientists and national partners involved in HOPE II, SOMNI and FTF projects. At the end of the workshop, the Theory of Change, Impact Pathways and Outcome Logic Models for each Project (CRP, HOPEII, SOMNI, FTF) were reviewed. Participants developed a clear understanding of gender research and how to focus gender research in Dryland Cereals research. Gender research questions and well-defined work plans including target areas/persons, finances, and timeframes for gender research in each project were formulated. Participants developed work plans for implementation of gender research in dryland cereals projects under the CRP.The achievements recorded in 2016 boosted the team's energy and increased excitement for greater milestones and accomplishments in 2017. However, news of the Phase II proposal not being approved has brought feelings of anxiety and apprehension among the gender team.A new partnership, the Cambridge-India Network for Translational Research in Nitrogen (CINTRIN), led by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), UK and ICRISAT, was formed as one of four new Virtual Joint Centers in Agricultural Nitrogen, supported by the Newton Bhabha Fund of UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) of UK, and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India. The objective of this partnership is to develop new cereal crop varieties that use nitrogen efficiently, which in turn, will support sustainable agriculture by minimizing the negative impacts of excessive use of fertilizers. The partnership will explore natural variations of cereals and conduct basic research in model plants to deliver new cereal varieties with enhanced nitrogen use efficiency.The advantages of newly developed high biomass sorghum and pearl millet developed in India by ICRISAT and Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) is supporting a new partnership that aims to use these material as feedstock in second generation or lignocellulosic biofuel production. India is a signatory to the UN Climate Change Paris Agreement (COP21) and biofuel production is one of the thrust areas identified to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government's current goal is to blend 5% of ethanol in gasoline across the country and increase the blending percentage to 10% in the short run and up to 20% in the next five years. ICRISAT's work in partnership with IIMR and distilleries over the years on developing sweet sorghum value chain for first generation ethanol production is factored into plans for second generation ethanol production in this partnership that involves organizations such as ICRISAT, IIMR, Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute (CSMCRI), and Reliance Industries. An important capacity development effort launched in 2015, and continued in 2016, was the Dryland Cereals Scholarship Program jointly administered by the CRP, in partnership with APAARI for Asia, RUFORUM for East and Southern Africa, and WACCI for West Africa. Supported students from 2015 are continuing their programs, while following calls for newer students could not be continued in 2016 due to budget shortage. The program currently supports 1 Masters' student (partial), 14 Ph D students (fully or partially), 2 post-docs and 2 interns after their Master's degrees. The focus of study is any one of the Dryland Cereals crops. Of the total 19 supported, 7 are women.ICARDA and partners organized a total of six Training of Trainers courses (ToT) where 205 participants (29 women) from NARS and Office of Agriculture attended. Moreover, 10 partner ARCs trained about 3265 participants. Among these are 2699 farmers (410 women farmers, 15%) and 566 technical staff (121 women, 21%) from partners and stakeholders which include development agents, district extension experts, and heads of cooperatives union. Two double cabin pickup cars to facilitate project activities and 1000 Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) for chemical free seed storage were purchased and delivered to NARS. In the case of finger millet, 14,514 people (9,104 women) participated in short-term training courses that addressed emasculation techniques, data collection and seed production; good agronomic practices, agribusiness, post-harvest handling and product quality assurance; nutrition; use of weather and climate information for agriculture. Further, 4,189 farmers attended farmer field days, of which 2,489 were women. With regard to pearl millet in India, 440 farmers (110 women) attended farmer field days, and for pearl millet in WCA, a total of 968 people (663 women) underwent short-term training courses, while 5162 farmers participated in farmer field days. For sorghum in ESA, 25,698 people (16,290 women) attended short-term training courses in agronomy, seed production and post-harvest handling, and 10,247 farmers (3805 women) participated in farmer field days. For sorghum in India, 4235 farmers (1147 women) participated in farmer field days. Over 3,800 farmers from 38 farmers seed organizations were trained in seed production, good agronomic practices, seed storage, and cooperative organizational aspects for sorghum in WCA.Dryland Cereals follows the CGIAR Open Access Policy as indicated in the Intellectual Assets Report submitted by the Lead Centre, ICRISAT, for 2016.The risks cited in previous years remain, especially in terms of fluctuating/reducing budgets and instabilities in one or more target countries. The primary management measure for budget fluctuations has been consistent efforts for resource mobilization through bilateral funding. As reported for 2015: Budget fluctuations posed significant hazards to program implementation at all levels. Cyclical breeding activities, other research operations and collaborative implementation with partners are all affected one way or the other. The Dryland Cereals Scholarship Program also was scaled back in early 2016 after its launch just one year earlier. In order to lower transaction costs of program implementation under the existing budget constraints, the CRP Office became very lean with one CRP Director, one Administrative Officer and one Program Manager, supporting two CRPs since Sept 2015, Dryland Cereals and Grain Legumes. This placed excessive load on this office during 2016 with the additional demands for preparing Phase II proposals, revisions and responses to reviewer comments. As reported earlier, sub-optimal staffing in the participating CG centres in the target countries is a risk, and can prolong the time to impact or dilute the intensity of potential impact. Further, and again as indicated in previous reports, the social and political instability in the regions of operation of the program pose risks in both project implementation and staff retention.The confidence level this year has improved significantly from last year, primarily due to reporting through the new Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning platform. This year, the indicators 33 and 34 represent more than approximations, and are based on seed production and distribution supported by the CRP during the reporting year. Farm household numbers have been calculated in some instances based on average farm size and seed volumes, but not for all. We are not yet at the point of tracking disaggregation of farm households by gender, with regard to indicators 33 and 34.Uniformity in activities across the five Flagships has suffered due to the focus on Flagship 2 forced by budget reductions.Research in 2016 primarily focused on crop improvement, for which the best expertise in the world for the target crops in the target countries reside within the program. As such, almost all research avenues addressed have been successful bar instances of crop failure due to weather reasons beyond our control.Aside from points raised in previous years since program inception, the following are critical points of learning. System-level understanding of the following is crucial for the success of a program such as Dryland Cereals: (1) Commodity programs are essentially life science programs for which program timelines are determined by crop life cycles, and outcomes take three years and more. Imposing evaluations before the program even establishes itself achieves nothing more than eating away staff time to cater to multiple, simultaneous calls for reports and evaluations from multiple evaluation entities. Note that the current success of the Dryland Cereals owes quite a bit to continuing preprogram research supported by strong bilateral funding. (2) The approval of the original CRP proposals involved extensive time and effort in preparation of proposals, review, responses to reviews and revisions. The current practice of proposal preparation in similar mode every two years would require a separate unit with 10 to 15 full-time staffers if researcher time is to be protected and program results are to continue unimpeded. (3) Lessons from the industry can be of tremendous benefit to the CGIAR: Proposals are prepared in 5 to 10 pages for investments at all levels; once approved (which means plainly that sufficient thought went into such approval), the effort is usually given a minimum of five years in the plant science industry to prove itself; approval also takes into consideration whether the effort is positioned for success, which basically means whether it is staffed sufficently and whether it is supported by the right infrastructure. (4) It is preposterous to rank CGIAR programs ignoring the ease or difficulty to function efficiently based on whether the program is led out of a developed nation or a developing nation. This beats the basic reason for which the CGIAR came into existence. These are based on seed production and distribution supported by the CRP during the current reporting year. Though the numbers of men and women farmers are not disaggregated yet, the primary growers of dryland cereal crops are women farmers and as such the number of women farmers is considered to be more than 50%. ","tokenCount":"5326"}
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